Japanese female Stoner / Doom Metal duo BLACKLAB, has released its third album, “In A Bizarre Dream”, via New Heavy Sounds. The combined talents of Jun Morino on production and Wayne Adams (BIG LAD, GREEN LUNG, PET BRICK, JOHN, COLD IN BERLIN) on the mix have conspired to produce a towering beast of a record. A real step forward for the band.
The drums have a humungous “Fugazi” like welly, and the guitars are a boiling maelstrom of fuzz dense riffola and warped psychedelics, with added synth. Yuko’s throat shredding snarls are as mean as a pissed off Satan, and melodious, often within the same song. This is Doom meets hardcore punk, hooky melodies, and killer riffs, all cranked up to the max. Plus there’s a real surprise in there with Lætitia Sadier of STEREOLAB contributing lead vocals on the “Crows, Sparrows And Cats”.
Japan has always had a special take on “noise” and “heavy” and with “In A Bizarre Dream” BLACKLAB add their own spin to that tradition.
BLACKLAB – their name (as they’ve pointed out) is a mix of BLACK SABBATH and STEREOLAB, two of their favourite bands – discribes themselves as “the Dark Witch Duo from Osaka, Japan”. However when it comes to witches, they are more the spectral Sadako from “The Ring” than camby “Countess Dracula”. Chilling cool with built in overdrive. Yuko and Chia are undoubtedly immersed in the Japanese Stoner Doom scene and provide a full frontal assault of distorded riffs, howls and ghostly vocals, as well as bags of riot girrl attidute and lo-fi bravado. In fact listening to them, brings back that frisson of excitement you got (those who may be old enough to remember) when you heard MUDHONEY’s “Superfuzz Bigmuff” for the first time. But grunge they are not, ane neither are they “occult rock”. Their sound is always crushing and heavily fuzz laden, sometimes pscych and sometimes hardcore punk, but always ear catching. And with vocals that veer from ethereal to throat ripping, they not only make a mighty sound for a two piece, but are a unique proposition in their own right.
“In A Bizarre Dream” track listing:
- Cold Rain
- Abyss Woods
- Dark Clouds
- Evil I
- Evil II
- Crows, Sparrows And Cats (feat. Lætitia Sadier)
- Lost
- In A Bizarre Dream
- Monochrome Rainbow
- Collapse
In order to get a glimpse of the new album, you can watch the official video for “Abyss Woods” below:
