Saturday, August 17, 2013

Stone Magnum "From Time to Eternity"





Apparently the reason time is perceived as going faster as a person gets older is due to chemical changes in the brain.  It seems like yesterday that The Small Takeover received and reviewed Stone Magnum's debutand it truly wasn't that long ago. The work ethic of this band is the inverse of their musical content of slow plodding tempo of doom.  It's just a shame that a lot of blogs would have shuffled their release towards the back of the review queue due to the drooling over that highly anticipated Sabbath album coming out around the same time.


Once again, Stone Magnum aren't exactly treading a new path but thank your choice of deity that they're not yet another Cookie (Monster) Cutter death metal band.  The band are still largely ignoring recent musical trends and taking the road less travelled with their heavy brooding doom.  This time around though the singer's voice brings Messiah period Candlemass to mind more than that messed up reality TV star guy, who once sung for some  band.  This release is heavier than its predecessor and with this being doom, the Sabbath influence is still present but these guys clearly aren't boot-wearing fairies.  It's no all giants trapped in quicksand though as "In Tongues They Whisper" has a segment with a fast head-shaking, almost but not quite neck-snapping tempo.  Lyrically there's no denying these guys are top students of their craft with  downbeat lyrics fitting like a hand in a masked medieval torturer's glove.  

The true test of a sound-alike band is whether you want to listen to their influences after or while you finish listening to them.  Stone Magnum don't cause a rush to grab either Candlemass or Black Sabbath albums because there is a crunchy addictiveness contained within their tunes.  Maybe as a reference to one of their song titles that should really be "Uncontained".    If this is the soundtrack from here to eternity, it's clearly well mapped out and lacking diversity but if it's an option, we'll happily walk on into the next world with it playing.


4/5

The album is available for US$5 from the band's bandcamp site.  Do yourself a favour and check it out at least.




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