ALTARS OF THE MOON “Brahmastra”

By Dr. Abner Mality

One. Freakin’. 28 minute. Song. That’s what “Brahmastra” is, emerging from the mind of UADA’s Nate Verschoor and CHROME WAVES’ Jeff Wilson. Given that the vast majority of tunes of this length bore the pants right off me and that UADA’s output is extremely variable, I was looking forward to this with a fair degree of trepidation. It’s either going to be massive...or massively dull.

Surprisingly, the answer is in the middle. There are definitely some deep and heavy moments within this opus, but also some dull and typical ones. As always when dealing with super long tracks, your mood when you hear it will have a huge affect on how you feel. Most of the track is a slow, undulating crawl with grinding heavy guitars in the background while mysterious synth and crooning clean vocals weave a dreamy soundscape on the top. The Eastern influences are very obvious and make perfect sense when you realize the song is about the Hindu gods going to war. Names like BLUT AUS NORD and OM come to mind as this unfolds.

Unfortunately, there are also some pretty boilerplate post-metal tones as well. From about 18 minutes to 23 minutes, this sounds like every post-metal track EVER. And some of the milder, mellower moments work. And some don’t. But overall, it’s a heavy song that is hypnotizing when it’s at its best.

So I give a qualified thumbs up to ALTARS OF THE MOON. If you dig long, soundtrack like songs, add more points. One thing that kept popping into my mind, though, was an image of a Hindu deity with a backwards ball cap and chin beard. They call him “Bruhmasta”…

DISORDER RECORDINGS

ALTARS OF THE MOON