Sludge, Doom and psychedelics.

Sweet lord, those are three of my favourite things!  What do you mean there is a band out there that have combined this holy trinity of mind warping wonder!?

Enter COLLAPSIAN, a four piece from Arizona that have embarked on the delicate task of producing music with an ambiance so dense that it feels like walking through an oppressive field of hallucinogenic custard.  There are countless musician that have combined the mystical world of psychotropics with their art and, for the most part they are all fantastic.  I'm not whether this means that there is an intrinsic link between psychedelics and music or just that people that have popped into the spirit world for the occasional cup of Tetley just make damn fine music.  Either way, COLLAPSIAN certainly manage this task with ease.

Their Debut album "At The Left Hand Of The Sun" plays like a journey through the different layers of the deep consciousness.  It is easy to forget that they are just four strong as you listen to this odyssey into obscurity as the sound builds up to become nothing but a sonic wall in front of you, denying any further passage.  This wall never last long though and a small opening always seems to appear in a brief reprieve from the onslaught, providing passage for just long enough to make it through to the next chamber of sound.  The album starts off with a distinctly Industrial feel and I honestly thought this was all going to sound like a slightly rougher version of FEAR FCTORY.  This turned out to be completely wrong however, and by the fourth song, I realised that I had become embroiled in an alternate musical reality where PINK FOYD had discovered Mephistopheles, distortion and had decided to completely give up on being nice.

The walls of reality started to fall away when the third song, "Apocryphungal", began to play and I recognised Terrence McKenna's voice smoothly speaking to my inner primate about the symbiotic relationship between people and mushrooms.  After he had finished manipulating my neuroreceptors came the nail in the coffin, song number four; "Psychoderek".

This is where the alternate reality became solid.  The wide-open mental space that the guitars create is driven forth by doom-laden drums, some would call this Sludge, but I just call it beautiful. The use of samples behind the music adds to the encroaching feelings of madness and the song drones at you for a few minutes before the psychotic break kicks you in the hypothalamus and the harsh, untamed vocals enter the fray.  This is perhaps the only part of the album that I will not get too excited about, whilst I understand what they are trying to achieve with the vocals being so raw, it feels like it detracts from the atmosphere somewhat.  Maybe I'm just a stickler for instrumental music but I honestly feel like the album would have had a more cohesive flow with less vocal work and more ominous dread imposed by the downbeat guitars, bass and drums.

Regardless of personal opinion, this is a fantastic album and any fans of Sludge, Doom or just hallucinogenic materials will probably appreciate it as much as I have.  If you don't like any of the above, maybe it's time to try, you never know, you might like it!<