I was so happy, reviewing some albums, and then, a Stoner/Sludge Metal band appears. And everyone that knows Big Daddy here very well have in their minds that I respect the style, but I'm not a fan of the style. No, I'm not a fan of it for sure, but of course I can be a professional and write about it, taking aside my musical taste, so I can review in a easy way works as "Angakok", from Belgian band ANGAKOK, their first album.

As I told above, it's a band of Stoner/Sludge Metal being heavy and nasty, with very distorted instrumental (if you hear the album will feel that this distorted part that I speak about is due a bass guitar using a distortion effect), with some agonizing and really nasty vocals, slow and bitter tempos, even more than BLACK SABBATH used on their earlier works. But the sensation that "I heard it once in another album" appears often. Yes, it's not that they aren't a good band, but not as good as many that appeared before.

The sound quality is abrasive and dirty, but remember that in the style that ANGAKOK is playing, it's not really a problem, but it makes part of the whole musical conception of the band. But it's not dirty that we can't understand what they are doing, obviously. We can say that Gérald Jans (who did the recording and mixing), had done a good job.

Musically, the fans of the style will not have many complains, but the band really needs to improve in their musical work. It's not bad, but isn't different from many bands. Of course they have some good moments, as we can hear on songs as "Sacrifice" (some riffs really reminds a lot Tony Iommi playing style), "Samsara" with its good use of drums and bass guitar, and "Trust My Scorn", but the sensation that we heard it somewhere before is too strong.

They can do better than that.<