ninehertz

Earth Tongue have been honing their sound for a while now, gaining followers as is only right for bands that aim for a slice of something unique amongst the morasses. They achieve this through blending the seemingly disparate strains of quirky garage psychedelia and occult doom, building a momentum across recent albums that has seen them play festivals across Europe, especially since they relocated from their native New Zealand to Berlin.

Dungeon Vision is a step further along, a band comfortable and thriving in their own world. There are a whopping twelve tracks, beginning with a title track that sets the template – overflowing with fuzz, the occult trend of their last couple of albums faintly present, doom as if played by King Gizzard through big fuzz riffs and great vocals.

At its best, it is unavoidably head-nodding and undeniably fun. The contrasts between the dirty guitar sounds and happy brightness is illuminating. It does suffer a little in its middle, the vocal delivery style of rising and flowing with the guitars, the similar approaches become to feel a little samey, sadly.

Yet there are moments of welcome divergence – the closing Ritual would be a pop/folk number were it not for the overcast doom tone, making it sound like nothing else. There’s a Lanegan-era QOTSA feel to Harvester and some cool instrumental space synth on Symmetry Dripper.

It is a tad overlong and as such slightly flawed, but it is a minor quibble. Where else are you going to hear doom pop folk garage psych these days? Dungeon Vision not only delivers but enlivens this unlikely blend to a point it is hard to resist.