Slomatics – Future Echo Returns album review

Cranium-crushing transmissions from Slomatics' new album

Slomatics, 'Future Echo Returns' album cover

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Described as the final instalment of a trilogy that began with 2012’s speaker-shaking A Hocht, the new record from this bruising Belfast three-piece is a suitably climactic listening experience.

A fiendish fusion of primal riffs and Ed Wood-esque space age sounds performed by a band as rock solid as King Kong’s couch, the material is often unfathomably heavy despite infamously lacking a bassist.

Best digested as one hulking piece of music rather than seven separate tracks, slow-burning instrumental opener Estronomicon could score an old Jack Kirby comic during his cosmic phase and sets the scene nicely before they blast off to parts unknown on the groovy yet also pummelling Electric Breath. Vocal hooks and organs punctuate proceedings during one of their finest moments yet, which is only bettered by closing track Into The Eternal. Starting with synths reminiscent of Sisters Of Mercy, Slomatics progress to more familiar territory during the mammoth 10-minute epic, which is as melodic as it is menacing and it finishes their trilogy in considerable style.