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GRAVE SPEAKER “Rays Of The Emerald Sun”
GRAVE SPEAKER “Rays Of The Emerald Sun”
By Dr. Abner Mality
This has got to be one of the worst production jobs I’ve heard in a dog’s age. It really sounds like an old cassette demo from the early 70’s. Mixing, mastering...everything’s muffled on it. It sounds like it comes from the days when computers were the size of a city block.
And yet, I find myself listening to it all the way through and even nodding my head along despite the abysmal production. This has to be what GRAVE SPEAKER originally intended. I don’t know how many people will “get it”, but if you do, this can be a strangely compelling trip into the dimmest recesses of heavy psych/doom metal history. GRAVE SPEAKER is just one guy...John Steele...and he does literally everything here, from vocals to drums to guitars to organ. The level of musicianship is not that great, either….but for simple doom, it doesn’t really have to be.
Through the thick fog and crackle that clings to “Rays of the Emerald Sun” you can hear the heaving heaviness of classic ELECTRIC WIZARD and SLEEP. Cuts like “Chosen One”, the title track and “Bone And Steel” throb and pulse with that kind of doom. But there’s something much older at work here, especially in the longer tracks like “End Of Time” and “Tower”. You can hear the ghost of the late 60’s and early 70’s in how the songs are laid out. John Steele has a “normal” tone of voice more akin to a mainstream rock singer and there’s an almost gospel type sway to the vocal lines in “Sword Of Life”, “Rays of the Emerald Sun” and “Tower”. Think of a heavier IRON BUTTERFLY or VANILLA FUDGE. On “Tower”, the woozy sounds of Hammond organ can be heard, almost DEEP PURPLE in their tone. Guitar solos are nothing spectacular, yet they add to the “acid rock” lysergic quality of the music.
The songs aren’t really brilliant, the production is unspeakably bad, yet this record works for me. It’s like finding a lost band from 1971 that was ahead of their time and only made a 100 cassettes before turning into an AOR band. If you can relate to what I’ve said here, then GRAVE SPEAKER might just be for you. But be prepared!
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