Acid King
Middle Of Nowhere, Center Of Everywhere
Svart Records
Release Date: 17 April 2015
Review by Vincent von Fuhkk
Hailing from San Francisco, CA, sludge metal doomsters Acid King have been crafting their cosmic doom riffs since 1993. Having been very silent for the past decade, the three piece are embarking on releasing ‘Middle Of Nowhere, Center Of Everywhere’, their fourth studio album which was recorded at both Sharkbite and Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, mixed at Different Fur Studios and produced by Acid King and Billy Anderson (Fantomas , EyeHateGod, High on Fire & countless of other bands of similar ilk).
Starting off with an intro the album takes you on a journey immediately. It takes you on to a plateau of a space like cosmic trip. Very atmospheric without losing any of its heaviness with the guitar riffs along with the low thundering bass lines that careen off the drums. Loris S’ voice during the intro is quite mesmerizing too. The intro runs in to the next song or journey should I say ‘Silent Pictures’ with its haunting ghost like guitar tone, which really sets you in to a trance like state. Epic. ‘Coming Down From Space’ and ‘Laser Headlights’ have a more straight forward doom heavy riff element to the songs and showcases bassist Mark Lamb and drummer Joey Osbourne pattern that interlocks together so well throughout the album.
The highlight of the album for me comes around the halfway point of this journey with ‘Red River’ with its plodding drone guitar riffs that leaps in to your chest and through the body as the song moves along with its jam like pace which really takes you off in to the cosmos. ‘Center of Everywhere’ lifts you even further in to this space like journey with Loris S’ voice transcending you along the way. Her voice, while not overly loud, is very powerful and is more a part of the music than being a focal point throughout the album.
The outro envelops the album and rounds it off nicely, though in all honesty this album could keep going for another hour. It really does set you off in to a trance like journey. A very mesmerizing album that still keeps the heaviness intact.
