One of the biggest surprises for me of 2023 was that stoner metal giants Acid King released a new album – Beyond Vision. Shame on me for taking so long to get to it, because it’s a fine piece of work (and their first since 2015, no less).
The opening drone of “One Light Second Away” is perfect for the album’s cover image of some kind of heavenly cosmic tunnel / path leading to either an all-seeing eye or another reality we can’t yet comprehend. The instruments are subtle, even as they build in power, not overwhelming you right out of the gate. They’re still guiding you along this swirling tunnel of nebulae, planets, monoliths, stars, and lightning.
We’re floating in the astral plane by the time we drift into “Mind’s Eye.” It hits hard in all the ways you want a stoner metal track to hit – crashing drums, deep Earth-heavy bass, wasp’s nest-buzz-menace guitar, and ghost-like vocals. “Transmissions from the sky, from someone left behind. Was it just a sign?” guitarist Lori S. sings on “90 Seconds,” a song of cosmic messages that sounds as ominous as its warnings.
“Electro Magnetic” starts like a giant robot powering up from sleep mode, shaking off cobwebs and dust, and arming its missiles and electro-magnetic power sword for battle in some kind of desolate wasteland. The short “Destination Psych” merges / melts right into the title track, which has Bil Bowman‘s drums landing like mortar shells and Rafa Martinez‘s bass chugging like hydraulic fluid through that giant robot’s metallic veins. The closer, “Color Trails,” is the sound of the giant monster rumbling across the land as the giant robot comes to meet it, missiles streaking across the sky, trees uprooted with each step from both, roars louder than thunder, robed monks watching a prophecy come true from a safe distance.
I love that most of Beyond Vision is instrumental. You can tune in and drop in rather than out. This album drops you into something beyond your current space.
Keep your mind open.
[Make the subscription box your next destination.]