Info
- Band(s): Hallucinate
- Label(s): Caligari Records
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, Cassette, CD
- Release Year: 2023
- Review Date: September 26, 2023
- Author(s): Ben Schultz
Auditory cues storm forth, causing mind fucking hallucinations that transport you to horrific, yet mesmerizing, subterranean depths beneath the soil. These transmissions, set forth through speaker cones, pour all over you in oozing waves of delectable disgust until you are eventually stuck there, mouth agape, eyes glazed and mind lost in terrifying wonderment. The sites you will see, the emotions you happen to feel and the sounds you can actually hear are all well beyond the true, real comprehension of the human mind, but you truly love it ever so, so much. So you just continue to hit play over and over and over again as your mind wanders to what’s below and the drool begins to pool beneath you.
But I will try to stop the loop here, let the horror show of morphing, melting faces, soul disturbing shapes, horrific Elder Gods and mind fucking colors actually end. So basically I’m saying that I’ll sober up a bit here and try and actually write a somewhat cohesive review for this album. I owe it to you to try but my skin keeps melting off my fingers and I have to put it back before I go one. One second.
Ok. Hallucinate here are a newer Death Metal band from around the area of Oldenburg, Lower Saxonyn in Germany. The three members of the fabulous band Graveyard Ghoul picked up another guitar player where then they only started their young career with this moniker in the year 2021 and quickly put out the stellar ‘Demo 22’ in, duh, the next year of 2022. Now this year, August 4th in the year of 2023 to be exact, we were honored by being graced with their outstanding debut full-length album ‘From The Bowels Of The Earth’, released on all forms through the always amazing Caligari Records. I better keep going because if I don’t that giant fly might stop reading the newspaper and actually see me. And who reads the paper anymore?
To say what ‘From The Bowels Of The Earth’ sounds like I would honestly have to say that there is no real easy comparisons that I can come up with for this band. Yet, for your sake as the reader I will focus and truly try. Holy fuck, that rabbit is big. If I were to say what Hallucinate’s sound is on this debut album of their’s, I would say that it is a mix of many of the greats ran through the members own, fucked up, brains and spewed forth in a cohesive, mesmerizing and fucked up way that is equally brutal and beautiful. But to take it back to comparisons, I would have to say that this album sounds like a mix of early era Sepultura, Autopsy, a touch of Gorguts, a little Blood Incantation and some seventies psychedelic ooze covering it all. An odd sounding mix but that’s just Hallucinate. Like seriously, that rabbit is fucking huge, I hope it doesn’t look this way.
The overall sound and feel to this album is downright absolutely amazing. With a traditional ‘Wall Of Sound’ style production of early Psychedelic mixed with the torrential torment of cavernous Death Metal aligning in a way that you would have never thought possible. With the dense, murk of Death Metal mixed with the thick wooshy touches (in a production sense) of the Psychedelic we all love so much. Yet through all that you are able to hear each and every note shine through. A true wonder. Oh shit. I think the fly and the rabbit both see my finger flesh flailing and are interested. I better hide.
So from behind my chair and from under my blanket I actually feel safe enough to tell you how I truly feel about this album without any further distractions, although I know they are out there. Hallucinate’s ‘From The Bowels Of The Earth’ is a mind boggling, soul melting, out-fucking-standing masterpiece of an album. Yeah, I said it, a masterpiece and I fucking mean it. This is the next evolution of Death Metal. This isn’t Old School Death Metal, hell, this isn’t even New School Death Metal. No, this is Hallucinate Death Metal. Come on, take a scary trip with us.
Caligari Records
- Country: USA
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Other
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
