Two tracks of monolithic sludge metal that fill up almost an hour here, so you know that there's gonna be some commitment required here, possibly assisted by some hard psychotropic drugs. Seems like this disc has had a bit of anticipation behind it, since it's the first official appearance of the duo Aquilonian which features two of the members of Bongzilla playing spacey long form drug-doom, but the other half from their buds in Sollubi is just as punishing, the Ohio/PA outfit serving up another big black slab of nihilistic space-sludge/hypno-doom (featuring members of Fistula and power electronics maniacs Rape-X)...

Aquilonian's "Symphonica De Levita" is first up, the drums/guitar duo initially laying down some hushed spacey psychdrone with a skeletal drumbeat beneath soft flanged guitar, a druggy Electric Wizard/Sleep style intro that finally bursts into a fuzz-soaked garage doom crawl, going from plodding narcotized dirge to more upbeat Sabbath groove, the riffs locking in on extended circular workouts, their raw doom getting pretty tranced out as they pound away at the subtly shifting riffage. After awhile, they head back into that spacious minimal drift that they started the song with, spreading out the effects-heavy guitar and soft minimal drumming for more than six minutes before lurching back into yet another stoned riff workout. The vocals don't even show up until fifteen minutes in, and when they do, it's soaring clean harmonies, almost like Torche, and disappears almost as suddenly as they appear. It's drawn-out and totally wasted trance-dirge that kind of lulls you into a stupor after a while, and I'm betting that's the whole point.

The vibe turns palpably darker with the next track, Sollubi's "The Struggle". These guys immediately set into a mega-crushing down tuned doom metal riff, but then it heads off into a surprisingly melodic stretch, an almost gothic dirge with spectral guitar melody drifting over the tectonic crush, the vocals spiteful and snarled, this grim doom metal plod stretching out for eons. The second half of their track is where Sollubi's trademark toxic synths come in, unleashing buzzing filth and rumbling spaced-out drones over the plodding ultra-dirge, twangy guitar sliding around in the background, crazed Hawkwind-like effects zipping around, the dirge getting wilder and more frenzied even as the riffs get slower and slower, until everything finally begins to disintegrate, the riff getting stretched out, guitars collapsing into massive rumbling drones, drums becoming a wash of cymbal hiss until there's nothing but roaring low-end synth and looped down tuned guitar throb, the sound dissolving until its just a barren stretch of bleeps, amplifier noise, and buzz.