Black Bombaim/Titans

Been meaning to get to this one for a while, but this is one monolith of a record packing a wallop upside the cortex that takes more than a few spins to consume fully. Titans hits hard right out the gate…relentlessly. Portugal’s Black Bombaim suck the air out of the room with 4 whopping cuts that are equal parts widescreen and wind shear. Hands down in every way, this mountain of heavy psych not only earns the title Titans, but owns it. Black Bombaim take off from, and take aim at, titans that came before—Blue Cheer, Sabbath, Hawkwind…—and scale their own pinnacles that lovingly rival them in every way. Wonderfully, and deftly, sidestepping a punch of nothing but a wall of sound, Titans is also surprisingly nimble. Side A: Noel V. Harmonson, Adolfo Luxúria Canibal, Jorge Coelho, Shela puts its boot in your teeth from the get go, but by the end oozes into its own brand of leisurely amble; think Leviathan tiptoeing…. B Side: Tiago Jónatas, Guilherme Canhão is a slow-burning space-rock crusade that cuts through the vacuum leaving a spinning, whirling vapor trail that challenges everyone to follow. It could be the soundtrack to a universe expiring or a cosmic lullaby to the Old Ones’ newborn. Probably both. C Side – Steve Mackay, Isaiah Mitchell with, yep…Steve Mackay…does much the same, but with a loose and unhinged vortex that sucks everything in, while Mackay blows your brains out. Mackay isn’t the only added weaponry on Titans. Joined by local guests, along with Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless and Comet on Fire’s Noel V. Harmonson, they compliment and wrench Black Bombaim’s assault into a twisted mass that is both bone-crushing, exhilarating and liberating. If they didn’t have a firm grasp of where to steer this massive ship, the whole thing would end in a disappointingly deflated , and exhausting, wreck. But they do, and D Side: Ghuna X, HHY, Tiago Pereira brings Titans to a rousing finale. Wispy fog banks coalesce into thundering storm clouds around the peaks, pushing them further up by sheer force of will; pure psychedelic plate tectonics. The whole record is. Black Bombaim need copious amounts of room to maneuver in, and what isn’t available on this planet, they create…hewing endless caverns to exist in and command. Titans is a daunting record, not easily digestible in a handful of sittings, but the returns and rewards are bottomless and boundless. If ever a record lived up to the promise of its name, this is the one.

B Side: Tiago Jónatas, Guilherme Canhão :: Black Bombaim :: Titans (2012, Lovers & Lollypops)

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