Psychedelic/Stoner/Doom Metal quartet formed in Richmond, Virginia, USA, in 2013. To date the band release two demos, and now their second full-length in two years titled "Emperor of Dreams," which contains seven tracks. Three of the tracks are under two minutes, with two of those clocking in at just over one minute. The other three are four, four and eight minutes in length. Let's dive in!

"Tharsis Command" is the short opening instrumental. It's more of a mood setting trip of sorts, with small snippets of varied sounds that have a sinister connotation. Leading into the title track, "Emperor of Dreams," is wooly bass guitar notes and a muted sound overall. Guitar notes echo above the baseline and wretched, low vocals reverberate in the mix. Sounding something like THE DOORS on a night when members were particularly blitzed, it is a psychedelic and depressing affair. "The Gift and the Quest" is the second short instrumental, once again with trippy cymbal crashes and effects in the background that you might hear in an altered consciousness. "Astral Procession" follows. The gloomy haze that looms over your head is like a fog that you can't escape, or a bad dream that you never wake from. It has a bit of a free flowing sound that borders on improvisational at times.

Back to the next instrumental, "Ascension to Venus" features fat synth notes that crash against eerie background effects. I feel like I was teleported to Area 51 and am seeing things that were never meant to be seen. "Divine" is a hulking eight-minute song. As the main riff lumbers in, sirens ring out in the background. Like a sleeping giant slowly coming out of hibernation, it really takes every nerve coming alive to get it to its feet. Time seems to draw out like a blade and you could lose everything you know about your current dimension if you don't keep your wits about you. "The Will Revealed" closes the album with its final short instrumental. This one is a little more linear in the sense that you can follow a chord pattern fairly easily.

Overall I found the combination of these trippy instrumentals and super gloomy tracks with vocals to be a sort of glue for one another that keeps the album from drowning in complete despair. Sometimes the name of a band and/or given album title can be very fitting to the music, and in this case when you consider the meaning of such words as "sinister," "haze," and "dreams," you will hear these elements permeating the album for sure.