NIBIRU is a Psychedelic Sludge/Drone/Doom Metal from Italy. They have been pretty prolific with album releases since they first released in 2013. This is the band's seventh full-length, and it has one very long song (a 55 minute running time). Someone is breathing in the opening sequence...more like snoring. A slow build happens from there...Drone indeed. It isn't until the 10-minute mark before anything resembling a song is announced. Odd, eerie tones occupy the background, with harrowing elements all around you. The sound begins to pick up with more and more elements. A satanic voice enters the room, whispering his incantations. You can feel a crescendo coming, and it comes around the 26 minute mark, with harsh vocals screams.

From there, the sound waxes and wanes through the 40 minute mark, with sounds of torture and death wedged between periods of calm. The voices get scarier and more intermingled, to the point where you don't know where they are coming from, and you begin to question what is real and what isn't. There is no way to really tell. The layers depart as we close in on the 50 minute mark, and are left with an ambient drone, along with heavy simulated hammer thuds. It builds to mesmerizing tones, with more evil voices in the background, and you are slowly being driven insane without even knowing it. It ends rather abruptly, with the snoring voice that we first heard. Was this all a dream?

Overall, this was an excellent release. Through the 55 minute journey, the band kept my attention with harrowing elements, one after another. It made me picture a madman in a padded cell, and what kinds of things must be going through his mind. It can be difficult to conceptualize this as "music," but if you expand the boundaries and definition, it's much easier.Purchase Link:

https://nibiru667.bandcamp.com/