ninehertz

Time for some Indonesian meditative doom. Following in the footsteps of Om and Dhyana – and recalling both at times in the record, but never overly so – Hadhramaut’s premise is enticing.

You are greeted by traditional instrumentation which is delicate and peaceful – at odds with the stated themes of environmental collapse, famine and destruction. Then the vocals arrive and that downbeat inspiration makes more sense, bringing a desolate harshness that sits strangely within such chilled music. There’s an aggressiveness to their delivery that you think would jar against the meditative state, and while it does on occasion, often miraculously works extremely well.

Ritus Petaka is one such example, setting off on a Om-styled doom-drone journey through its magical deeply rich tone, the vocals arrive yet don’t dislodge you from the headspace which is by now locked into the repeating grooves. I like to imagine a battle between the two core elements of doom and drone, an experiment in contrast and compliment. On other tracks, the vocal style is akin to a quasi-religious chant into the void.

Later in the album, there are tracks where the tripped-out trance-states are discarded for purer doom that edge into scorching sludge – losing that mystical wonder but would stand up confidently on their own. There’s some stonerised fuzzed out riff repetition elsewhere too as they branch out the longer the album plays.

This premise can go one of two ways usually – a doom band bringing the odd inflection of something mystical, or a band deeply locked into meditative drones but with an occasional heaviness that points to doom. Hadhramaut attempt both, occasionally distracting from a pure experience, but still with plenty of intrigue and wonder to explore within.