Apparitions : Volcanic Reality
Intrepid noise-making titans such as Earth, Melvins, Sunn O))) and SUMAC have each singularly deconstructed the metal genre through an intensely out and sonically heavy prism. The outward-looking experi-metal the aforementioned outfits explore is one of constant reinvention that uses metal’s underpinnings as a springboard into ear-splittingly loud drone, noise, prog and electronics and improvised music investigations.
You can add Apparitions into that top-flight fold of sound adventurers crushing the boundaries of metal-centric fury with freethinking abandon. And what a massively blown-out cacophony this power trio spew out on its second long-player, Volcanic Reality. Their ecstatic din is truly on par with a volcano eruption.
It’s easy to box in the bass-less Apparitions—guitarist Andrew Dugas, Igor Imbu on modular synthesizers and drummer Grant Martin—with the droning metal blasts that Sunn O))) is notorious for or the explorative “free metal” of SUMAC. The dots can easily be connected. Despite those obligatory comparisons, Apparitions separate themselves from the pack by mining their own unique terrain with a hypnotic and Herculean mind-meld of free-form stoner drone that is akin to a fire-breathing jazz/metal fusion. Those in the know of Interstellar Space Revisited, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Gregg Bendian’s interpretation of John Coltrane’s 1967 experimental touchstone Interstellar Space, will get the drift. Apparitions navigate a similarly-minded cosmic plane on Volcanic Reality.
Chalk up Apparitions’ sonic heaviosity to the wallop of Martin’s drum salvos. Over the course of Volcanic Reality’s thirty-eight brutal and beautiful minutes, Martin metes out a barrage of the meditative, slow-burning and stadium-sized variety, serving as the omnipresent guiding light to the album’s expansive part-composed, part-improvised pieces. His punishing style approaches Dale Crover and Bill Ward-esque levels of bionic strength, his whacks and fills strategically placed front and center in the mix for maximum bludgeon effect. The drum clinic Martin puts on, beginning with the eight-minute-and-change “Convulsing Earth,” is a lesson in sweat-dripping physicality. Martin and his bandmates are only getting revved up from there.
Unlike Eyes Like Predatory Wealth, Apparitions’ 2022 debut which was pieced together remotely, Volcanic Reality finds Dugas, Imbu and Martin all in the same room together. The fact that the threesome, its members spread out across the States in New York, Chicago and Houston, convened in person yields fruit in the form of the deep-seated rapport that is manifest throughout. One can even envision wading through the weed smoke clouds engulfing the studio as Apparitions recorded Volcanic Reality.
Stoners or not, the record’s five jammy tracks, ranging from a marathon-length eighteen-plus minutes (“As The Last Lights Depart”) to one interlude just under two minutes (“Résiduel”), are mind-bendingly trippy, thanks to the guitar and synth heroics of Dugas and Imbu, respectively. The two join forces for a thunderously dissonant, perennial rumble that proves the sublime complement to Martin’s monster pummel. Sure, the peel-painting maelstrom is cut from the Sunn O))) cloth but Dugas and Imbu’s collision of jet engine-whooshing roars somehow achieve heady groove-intensive levels that will long linger in your brain. Apparitions’ Volcanic Reality is spiritual dronescapes of the heaviest order.
Label: Deathbomb Arc
Year: 2025
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