Warthur Coming out a while after Current 93's Black Ships Ate the Sky - an album which saw David Tibet take on a wider range of genres than the strange mix of dark industrial and weird folk he's usually known for - Inerrant Rays of Infallible Sun is a solid split EP with Om, an aptly chosen group of collaborators since the Current 93 piece on here feels like a momentary experiment with avant-doom metal - paving the way, in some respects, for the project's left turn into full-on psychedelic rock on Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain.

The Om cut, meanwhile, seems a bit faster and bouncier than their usual sombre, sacred fare - in fact, it feels a bit like an off-cut from their Sleep days. Which is no bad thing if you like yourself a bit of Sleep - and if you don't like experimentally-inclined stoner doom, you're probably not going to give this split a second look anyway.

Phonebook Eater 6/10

Feverish Visions.

Om’s third album, “Pilgrimage”, is a noticeable improvement to their usual overly-repetitive formula: throughout the album instead of being monotone in every sense of the word, they bring in the mix much more distinct and perfected quiet-loud swings, that their previous album, “Conference Of The Birds”, had, but used a bit too predictably. These swings sound more harmonious in “Pilgrimage”. Furthermore, the songs themselves are much catchier and well written, especially the title track, which is completely clean. The heavy follow-up, “Unitive Knowledge of The Godhead”, is the opposite, with a perfect Stoner Metal essence. “Bhima’s Theme” however is where the album falls a bit quality-wise: way too long and flat than what it could have been, it has the same faults of the tracks that permeated the band’s previous albums. The album redeems itself with the reprise of the main themes from the title track, to give a certain circularity to the listen. The lyrics are also to mention: in their extreme abstractness, they’re incredibly well written, as they offer strong, poetic imagery of strong biblical, spiritual, and apocalyptic themes.

Phonebook Eater 5/10

Exaggerated Repetition Compressed A Little More On This Second Album.

Om is a American Stoner Metal band, formed by members Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, both of the them belonging to the former Stoner Metal outfit Sleep. Om’s debut album had an interesting formula going for it, but the result were not at all deserving of much praise, being the entire fortyfive minutes of it extremely flat and monotone, in so many ways. With the second album, “Conference Of The Birds”, there is a bit more variation as a whole, since the first track is almost all clean, while the second one is all distorted. Another improvement to be noted is the managing of the running time of the LP, which has been shortened to a half hour long, a more reasonable amount of time to spend on for this kind of music. But the overused repetition, the instrumental flatness and the ridiculously generic songwriting are all still there. “Conference” also feels very incomplete when listened to as a whole, not to mention the fact that it doesn’t leave to the listener anything memorable within him/her.

Phonebook Eater 4/10

Intelligent and Spiritual, But Way Too Flat and Empty.

Om is an American Stoner Metal duo from San Francisco, and “Variations on a Theme” is their debut album, released in 2005. The two musicians, Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius, were the rhythm section of cult Stoner Metal band Sleep. Later on Hakius left the band, and was replaced by Emil Amos, drummer of the band Grails. But this earlier period of the band was for sure more primitive, repetitive, and tribal sounding, while the latter works tended to be more varied in terms of song structure, with more clearly diverse musical passages.

“Variations on a Theme” certainly is the album that, in a sense, better reflects this duo’s art. First of all, the only instruments that are audible in these 45 minutes are a heavily distorted bass guitar, drums, and vocals. With such a minimalistic set, you can’t expect much richness in the music: the songs are extremely long, extremely stretched out, and with as little variation as possible. For all three of these tracks, there is one, main riff that is played for each song, and the variations that are being applied to that are ever so slight, perhaps a faster or slower tempo, or a tiny variation in the melody. Even the lyrics are the same and the vocals sound the same every time the section in which they sing on reappears during the track, once again. Because of the very slim instrumentation, the sound and production can’t really do anything much, and the music as a result is incredibly monotone; between the beginning and the end of the album, there isn’t really any sonic difference.

Now, this formula was for some people successful, and Om actually turned out to be a very beloved band among the Stoner Metal community, for their unique and extreme approach to the genre. And it certainly is a unique idea, the one to reproduce the structure of old, Byzantine chants and reinterpret them for hypnotic purposes. And “Variations On a Theme” could have certainly worked, since the concept of such an album is very original. But these 45 minutes end up being extremely forced, boring, and unproductive. All three riffs that are being played are very generic sounding, reminiscent of the typical, or rather stereotypical sounds of the Doom Metal genre. There really is nothing to really like in this album except for the concept and idealization of it, but the actual execution is very scarce and disappointing, to say the least.

Om managed to keep the same formula with their following albums, and fortunately, with greater success. But this first experiment was a miss, however, a miss necessary for hitting it right in the future.

kogaionon A few months ago, I heard about OM for the first time from a friend of mine. With this occasion, I heard about Sleep too, but the latter band didn't have such an impact on me like OM’s superb style had. From “Variations on a Theme” to “Advaitic Songs”, OM kept on developing more groove and a more ascetic feeling with every album they recorded…and they did an awesome job with “Advaitic Songs”!

This masterpiece begins with “Addis”, a song on which the smooth bass, the violin and a charming Indian-like female voice calms you down and prepares you for the trip. “State of No-Return” follows in a more doom metal manner, the distorted electric guitar coming into scene. “Gethsemane” and ‘’Sinai” follow the same style from the “Pilgrimage” and “God Is Good” albums. Al Cisneros’ dark and slow bass lines are accompanied by skilful dynamic drumming of Emil Amos, while the violin fits perfectly with the whole new album. The piano parts also give a more deep feeling to the already-complex OM sound. What startles me is how these guys manage to create such an interesting atmosphere with what some-would-say dull bass and some drums that go with it. On the lyrical part, I find “Sinai” to have the most beautiful verses from this album:

“Walk Melchizidek shrine descender

At Lebanon - priest ascending / And back toward Lebanon priest ascending

Menyelek now proceeds / Through the Red Sea

Reabsorbed on the peak of mountain / And reabsorb on the peak of mountain.”

…and the album ends with “Haqq al-Yaqin”, a flawless piece of music driven by percussion and violin. Adding a touch of soothing acoustic guitar, this song is the perfect ending for a wonderful trip that is “Advaitic Songs”.

A 5/5 star album that proved me once again that OM is clearly one of the most beautiful stoner groups, if not the best there is.