Album of the day: OM – God Is Good

Lovingly pinched from Stonerrock.com: It’s irrational, I know, but when a band I like loses half of its original members, I tend to get a little worried. It’s not as if there’s a proven mathematical formula that separates creative from uncreative, good from bad, but after a certain point, I can’t help but think the core ideal of the group gets compromised.

Especially when the members are so intertwined, as was the case with Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius. When news broke that after three full-lengths, one live album, and a slew of splits, Hakius was leaving the two-piece, my reaction was, “Well, so much for that.” New drummer Emil Amos had an impressive enough resume – Grails came close to stealing the show when they opened for OM in Boston – but in my mind, OM was the sum of Cisneros and Hakius. Early clips of OMv2 had the pair coming off as disjointed, with Cisneros’ rumbling, hypnotic bass lines working against Amos’ busier playing. That only reinforced my assumption.

Turns out it was just growing pains. With God Is Good, OM finds itself not only sure-footed but marching forward in a new direction. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still unmistakably OM, right down to Cisneros’ mystic spirituality gobbedly-gook lyrics (I guess I don’t read the same books as him), but as the album progresses, it’s obvious that the change in drummers has created a new sense of purpose.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – OM – God Is Good.

Tags: al cisneros, album of the day, Drag City, Emil Amos, God Is Good, john pegoraro, om, stonerrock.com

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