This is my first ever review on Rise Above Records release. No, I was the snob type editor who just wants to review only the album he likes. But it seems my relation to Doom and Stoner bands is just superficial and I doubt if in the future will get any deeper. So, why am I writing this review? Well, I was enticed by the vintage-looking cover artwork that seemed to me quite challenging.
So, LITMUS is a new band from the UK that managed to create a fuss around its name with the first demos released back in the early 00s. Their musical direction is described as Spacerock and in their bio sheet bands like MOTORHEAD and HAWKWIND are mentioned as their influences. Aurora is LITMUS's third attempt that to my delight is also released on vinyl.
Beyond The Sun enters with an almost Stoner guitar riff and then explodes into something strange with all these electronic sounds that flirt with the term psychedelic. The interesting thing here is that those electronic does not stay in the background but occasionally take the leading role and dominate in LITMUS' music. The guitar solo 'smells' like it was created somewhere in the mid 70s and in some extent explain the existence of the name HAWKWIND in the influences list. The Spacerock term comes alive as the solo progress while a hearty bass guitar sound makes a glorious appearance taking his share from the solo time. This strange mix actually sounds very good and after a while makes you close your eyes and enjoy all the different colors created by this music. I cannot find the proper labels to tag this music since I do not believe there are any and because such an attempt would definitely give the wrong idea. For some minutes the song continues without vocals while the producer plays with the volume knob and the different channel and manages to slip for his pocket the strange instrumental found in the first BLACK SABBATH albums. This space 'sounding' atmosphere brought to my mind several pictures of the black large crystalline monolith from Stanley Kubrick's epos based on Arthur C. Clarke's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey . In The Burning Light comes like the logical continuation to the opening track following pretty much the same pattern if this sentence is logical with LITMUS. In this one the Stoner foundations make a discreet appearance mainly in the repetitive riff structure that exists in the entire song. The only thing that I did not manage to swallow was the 'happiness' that is spread all around the album in the hippy way despite the band's saying: there's no tie-dye wearing, patchouli-scented, stripey-trousered, dreadlocked hippy thing going down here.
As you have probably understood this album has a lot to discover and many more to digest. You have to keep your mind to this kind of music and stay clean from the die-hard Metal attitude that does not allow too many experimentation. I know that this is a 'difficult' album so, take my advice and visit the band's MySpace page  to get a first taste before laying your hands on a copy of Aurora.