We're all doomed! Maybe...
One album, two tracks! Pombagira's 5th album Maleficia Lamia sees them cover familiar ground and at the same time take the first steps on a slightly different path to their traditional stoner/doom rock.
Title track Maleficia Lamia is nearly nineteen minutes long and has a distinct krautrock feel to it. Heavy stoner rock riffs dominate and they do have a mesmerising quality, so that despite its length, you'll find several minutes passing by as you're drawn in by the hypnotic groove. It's not easy on the ear as it centres around a harsh, repetitive, driving riff. Five minutes in it fades out into a stripped down clean guitar section which gradually picks up when the drums kick in and continues to layer up for the next three minutes before fading out again. The music is good here but the faded out transitions aren't handled too well, which prevents the song from flowing as well as it should. By the time it goes back into the main riff however you do feel slightly mesmerised by it
Second track Grave Cardinal begins with a mellow intro reminiscent of early 70s prog but quickly moves into down tuned sludge riffs. At over twenty minutes in length however there is plenty of room to play around and they drop back into a nice instrumental groove that creates a real atmosphere. They push it on further with some nicely structure lilting chords but again the transitions seem too abrupt. It's a minor niggle but a noticeable one and at the end the track just fades out and it feels like something of an anti climax.
What I find frustrating about this album is the production; the guitars are way too loud and the vocals way too quiet. The guitars in particular are completely overbearing in the main riffs almost to the point of irritation. Even the quiet guitar parts have too much reverb on, which makes it hard to pick out the definition and lessens the effect of the contrast. What you can hear of the vocals sounds accomplished and fits the music well but it's so low down in the mix you really have to work at hearing what's going on. If they cleaned up the production and made the overall feel a bit brighter this could be a pretty epic album but in its current form it just feels like it's held back and isn't allowed to become the all consuming behemoth that it could be. Finding that balance between remaining true to the bands original sound and pushing the boundaries in a way that keeps both band and fans happy is no easy task.
With Maleficia Lamia Pombagira have given strong hints about what they are capable of and it's certainly a grower, I like it more each time I play it but I still come away feeling a bit frustrated.