This is the first release from the Atlanta based trio Celephais, who I had never heard before but who piqued my interest when I read a blurb about them

somewhere that referenced Metallica, H.P. Lovecraft, and 90's indie rock in the same breath. That comment had me searching for more info on Celephais, and

once I checked out some of their stuff online, I totally flipped out over 'em. I Am Kuranes is the band's first release, and it's an impressive

debut, and indeed does combine the aforementioned elements into a really rad math-metal assault that I've been listening to nonstop since this came in to C-

Blast. First off, fans of H.P. Lovecraft's classic weird horror lit may well recognize the band's name and the album title as a reference to a Lovecraft

short story that describes an otherworldly city only accessible through dream-travel, populated by strange entities and architectural visions that are barely

comprehensible to the human mind. That story is filled with the richly descriptive prose that makes Lovecraft one of my favorite authors, and it seems that

this band were grooving on the story even more, as the arty, crushing math metal of I Am Kuranes feels like Celephais has constructed a sprawling

prog-metal soundtrack to a journey through the titular city, the tracks filled with jagged riffs that move at hard angles and pummeling, off-kilter drumming,

the songs shifting into subdued dronescapes and collages of skittery electronica and cut-up voices, and bursting into some awesome, guitar-heavy metallic

indie rock like "Fingers In Your Mouth" and "Trevor Towers". There are huge riffs layered with acoustic guitar strum and lush cosmic keyboards, equally

ominous and anthemic, and it when the full-on rock kicks in, it sounds like Celephais took the heavy, noisy rock and hazy vocals of 90's bands like Chavez

and Swervedriver and strapped it to crushing, angular thrash metal riffage and experimental soundscapes. This is a killer disc, proggy and psychedelic and

pretty damn heavy but with that awesome '90s indie-guitar hookage that I love so much. Highly recommended. Comes in a striking digipack case.