High Priest of Saturn - S/t demo (2012)

This is what people on Saturn listen to 

High Priest of Saturn - does that sound to you like a fucking heavy stoner/doom that is out of this world? If not, it should. I was randomly browsing through youtube in a quest for new stoner/doom bands that I've missed and I just stumbled upon these guys from Norway. Norway is not famous for stoner doom, but this doesn't matter, because this extraordinary band has created a real masterpiece of magic in their first EP.

The first effort of this band, and let's not use the word ''effort", because this music really sounds eerie and unstrained, consists of two songs, both around 10 minutes. At first glance someone might think that 10 minutes is too much for a single song but just like some of my other favourite bands (Sleep, Reverend Bizarre) High Priest of Saturn have managed to create something absolutely amazing and the 10 minutes pass like 1.

"The Protean Towers" , the opener track, totally deserves the name. The guitar riff starts very slowly accompanied by the very gentle drum cymbals and builds in for some time while you feel like climbing a really high mountain somewhere in the Middle East. The clouds draw back to make way for majestic sights. What I like most about this track is that it is fucking atmospheric and absolutely trippy. The riffs are pretty slow, but never too slow so the song never gets boring. Lead singer Merethe sounds like a magical priestess from another world. Her vocals really remind me of another favourite singer - Al Cisneros. The words come slowly, unforced and in perfect harmony with the other instruments. Around minute 4 the most Sleep-like solo breaks in - having to be honest, I must confess that this is what really fascinated me about these guys - I've never heard someone who does the fucking solos exactly like Sleep. The best solo in the world, which is on side C in Sleep's holy grail Dopesmoker starts in exactly the same way. Some people hate bands that "copy" but I have nothing against that as long as the music sounds genuine and awesome.

The second track, "Crawling King Snake" doesn't differ very much from "The Protean Towers" and that makes me really glad. There are no big variations in the speed and the second track builds in in the same way as the opener. One more thing that I like about the high priests is that they use organ in their songs - this adds more awesomeness to the already magical music. In the solo of this song I can find both cosmic rays and Sahara dust, it's so out-of-this-place that one's imagination flies to many different places. The way Marethe repeates:

"And we are nothing, and we are nothing
And no one knows my name"

in a unison with another killer solo just makes me wonder how mesmarizing could this EP become?!

I rarely become so excited about a stoner/doom band even though this is my favourite genre in the world and this must speak for itself. I'm totally buying these guys's self titled debut, which will be released in March 2013 and I advice you to do the same.

 

Note: This version of the song is from the s/t, not the demo.