Egonaut – Sweden’s self-professed inventors of their own genre, called ‘Bastard Rock’ – return for another journey into stoner rock’s gauzy netherworld.
Where 2013’s Mount Egonaut snarled with coarse riffage and hyper-aggressive tempos, Deluminati is a quieter, more measured trek.
Layering crunchy riffs across driving, uncluttered tempos, the material starts strong, but fails to tap into any visceral sense of relief. Pariah simmers with tritonal menace – a slow-burning groover that takes off into a moody, atmospheric jam, only to sidestep its much-needed, lighter-raising climax.
Nonetheless, Deluminati has no shortage of interesting ideas, not least The Beholder with its doomy, Maiden-esque narrative that will play in your head long after hearing it. But if Mount Egonaut celebrated wild, punchy abandon, Deluminati serves up a double helping of moody, mid-tempo introspection that never quite pinpoints its compositional endpoint. Credit is due for such an ambitious course correction, but absent of the urgency of their last record, it can’t help but feel like a step back.
