Mekanik “Der Mekanik Grooves” (2008)

[disclaimer: there should be kobaiahn umlauts on the album title & band-name.]

1. MEKANIK is a bucket. A nice bucket, but a bucket.

2. A side-project from members of LYDIA LASKA, DISMAL EUPHONY, GEHENNA, and some BLACK SABBATH tribute band. Founded in 1999, recorded these 20 minutes of music, evaporated into oblivion, and was just recently released.

3. The names mentioned give away that something strange is afoot, and a strange beast it is! I still don’t know yet if I even like this release or not. Anyway. The publicity sheet refers to MEKANIK as something similar to “a Black Metal band [taking] acid with 70s proggers like Van Der Graaf Generator and then had had sex with Black Sabbath”. Can’t go wrong there, can they? The psych/prog/general 1970’s feel is there from the start. The intro “Voodoo” (again, the MAGMA umlauts are missing) moves through inner/outer space; sweeping whooshes, pusling bass, gentle rhoads fiddling, staccato Mellotron play (and it’s a real Mellotron, too! Authenticity points there). TANGERINE DREAM would approve. Buddhist throat song lead into The Devil’s Mass – groovy as hell riffing, vocals a clean shout (the guys is from the Black Sabbath cover band mentioned, which is obvious when you hear him). Travelling into outer space with outstretched solos and eerie Mellotron strings. Turns to Black Metal grind and a guitar solo kicking so much ass I don’t know where to begin. The light is dead, long live the light! Mix early EMPEROR with “Symptom of the Universe”, perhaps. Awesome. The near ten minutes end with a long war march into deep space clouds – the famous ostinato from Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War” (made metal by DIAMOND HEAD/METALLICA & NILE); an obvious reference to KING CRIMSON’s “The Devil’s Triangle”. A time travel back to 1971 if you ever needed one. SWEET.

Next stop. “Predators”‘ main riff sounds just like The Phantom Of The Opera, subsequently falling into what DIMMU BORGIR could’ve done in 1998 with only a Rhoads piano at hand. Atmospheric, theatrical and weird, but still with enough broad-legged rock & roll attitude to kick your ass all the way to the sixth millennium and back! It kind of reminds me of Swedish NOTRE DAME – all the riffs sound a bit copied, like you’ve heard it before, but coagulated to efficiently into a new whole that you just sit back and enjoy something unique and at least almost great. That is, a pretty bucket into which you throw any kind of idea that pops up in your head.

Another disclaimer though: the last song is awful. I can’t listen to it. It falls more under some early 1990’s grunge-like style, and it’s just boring. The pretty lady vocals are, well, pretty, but far from redeeming. But then it’s just a third of the length of “The Devil’s Mass”, so I’m not complaining. A nice bucket.

-aVoid

VITALS:

Release:  June 2008
Label:  Duplicate Records
Avantgenre:  Zeuhl Theatre Metallik
Duration:  20:17
Origin:  Norway
Official site:  http://www.myspace.com/dermekanik
Review online since:  29.06.2009 / 16:54:12

TRACKLIST:

1. Voodoo
2. The Devil’s Mass
3. Predators
4. Mirror Mania

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