LP Review: Lemanis by Spaceslug

Heavy space stoner sludge doom this way comes! Having only been a band for less than a year, Poland’s Spaceslug have released a cosmic trip of a record, slowly creeping you towards the black hole of oblivion with its monstrous riffs, claustrophobic muffled singing, and drumming louder than the big bang: Lemanis is something pretty special.

As ‘Proton Lander’ slowly awakens to a new dawn of layered trudging riffs inviting you on to a different astral plain, the track’s pace begins to quicken before the gut-slicing guitar lines come in to devastating effect. The bass lines build, the drums, largely dominated with cymbals, are huge and almost completely dominate, and the vocals never breach above a carefree muttered discussion, blending into the sea of musical notes as another instrument. As you’re listening acutely to the vocals to decipher them, that’s when the true power of the drums and guitars really kick in and take you off guard; it’s a powerful tactic and works with aplomb.

‘Proton Lander’ seems almost timid once the power of ‘Hypermountain’ is unleashed with its razor sharp riffs from the get go, each additional guitar line and drum smash fighting over the next to be the loudest, most grandiose in destructive power. It’s a song which is all face melting and head banging in all the right places, showing the bands destructive side that isn’t floating away on a cloud of cosmic acid, that’s shown on ‘Supermassive’, right before it too completely rearranges your face with its heavy distorted riffs and frankly so on point drumming that it could be a solo record of just the percussion and we’d be happy.

It’s perhaps not surprising to learn that two members of Palm Desert (Kamil Ziółkowski on drums and Jan Rutka on bass) feature in Spaceslug (along with Bartosz Janik on guitar – all three members sing) as the band is so well rounded with an underlying stoner sound that echoes along the pine of these soon to be Polish giants. Lemanis is a heavy, trippy, destructive, hypnotising, just stunning record (I’ve already purchased the CD awaiting a vinyl release) that will probably improve your life! Go. Get. Now!

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