Album of the day: Pharaoh Overlord – Out Of Darkness (LP)

Praise for Pharaoh Overlord‘s Out Of Darkness from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Now on LP, this great PO album. Here’s what we said about the CD version when it came out a few months back, concurrently with Steel Mammoth’s Radiation Funeral.

It’s “NWOFHM” in overdrive overload this week, with not one but two new albums from key exemplars of that Circle side project “scene” up there in Finland. The new vinyl-only offering from Steel Mammoth, and then this, Out Of Darkness, the new album from Pharaoh Overlord. With fists in the air (and tongues possibly not in cheek?) these two releases have really upped the ante regarding the METAL part of the NWOFHM equation.

Quick recap for those out of the loop: Finnish space prog neo-Kraut band (and massive AQ faves) Circle like to dabble in the metal realms, on their own albums and also by means of various side projects, enough of which exist to populate a self-proclaimed, quasi-parodic New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal movement, NWOFHM for short. These bands usually use metal “signifiers” for their own twisted purposes, making music that’s as much experimental and pop and prog as it is metal, but done up in leather and spikes basically for fun.

Circle offshoot Pharaoh Overlord was originally more of a stoner rock take on Circle’s motorik mesmerism, dark and psychedelic and heavy. But not “metal”. Then they did the album entitled #4, which was NWOFHM almost to the point of being “actual” metal (though still totally repetitive and hypnotic a la Circle of course). But #4‘s follow up, their previous disc to this, Siluurikaudella, was, while we liked it quite a bit, a definite departure, more of a freakout / improv thing, definitely not remotely metal (or NWOFHM).

So for anyone a bit confused by Siluurikaudella, you’ll be happy to hear that Out Of Darkness returns PO to headbanging territory, and then some!! Definitely a metal album, and a rockin’ one. Well, it starts off with a lovely acoustic guitar intro, ‘Eyes Of The Pharaoh’, but starts rockin’ about 43 seconds later, when the title track erupts, total classic metal riffage with Danzig meets Hetfield vocals courtesy of the singer from US stoner metal band Night Horse, who also appears on the disc’s killer final track ‘I Am The Light’.

He’s not the only guest, as Circle’s big hero Bruce “Jesters Of Destiny” Duff and his bandmate Frank Meyer from LA sleaze rockers Angus Khan have cameos too, providing some guest vocals and lead guitar on a few of the cuts here as well.

The nearly ten minute ‘Devastator’ demonstrates that Pharaoh Overlord haven’t abandoned the “Circular” style of minimalist repetition, that track devastates indeed with its seeming endlessness (which is awesome).

Somewhat poppier is the next track, the chugging ‘Doomsday Mourning’, that’s got some psychedelic Uriah Heepishness to it, laden with synths, psych soloing, and dramatic vocals. And that’s more the norm, this album being really pretty darn catchy throughout, Pharaoh Overlord mixing their ’80s metal obsessions with some Teutonic ’70s proginess, and whatthefuckever else they desire.

Our heads aren’t just banging, they’re spinning. Turns out they weren’t kidding with the song title ‘We Came To Rock’! Ok, it gets a bit goofy on the two Bruce Duff sung tracks (especially ‘No Speed Limit’) but that’s entertaining too, however for the most part this is a REAL metal / hard rock album, or at least sounds that way, being strange rather than silly when it’s not full on metal.

For fans of Circle, Queen, krautrock, Thor, La Otracina, Blue Oyster Cult, Accept, Judas Priest, Metallica, Steel Mammoth, Destruction, Anvil, Alice Cooper, Lucifer’s Friend, White Boy And The Average Rat Band, uh, and everything else that’s awesome.

Oh, if this wasn’t cool enough already, love the outer space neon lazer tiger cover artwork!!! Purrfect for the tight ripping soundz within.

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

Tags: Album of the day, Aquarius Records, NWOFHM, Out Of Darkness, Pharaoh Overlord, Svart records

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 5:43 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.