UMBRA
Gévaudan & Kadabra
UMBRA! He exclaimed with great relish! If you are one of the few that knows about Stoner HiVe and even read some of it from time to time. (Thank you from every fiber in my being, if you do!) You know we love the weird and that we sometimes do weird stuff. Weird little side posts or weird screeds in write-ups. Well, we’ve got something different, and perhaps, a bit weird this time. This here, what you are about to read is a write up about two albums called Umbra! And even though both bands reside in the Heavy Underground and both have an album coming out in October called Umbra, they have very little in common! We’re talking about progressive doom outfit Gévaudan, from the UK and seventies inspired psychedelic rock trio Kadabra, from Spokane, Washington, USA. But we just could not resist, c’mon, two albums called Umbra released only a few days after one another… And after listening, you probably can’t resist either!
Gévauden – Umbra
Meuse Music Records – 2023
Doom, Atmospheric
Rated: ***
Gévaudan hits you with a one-track album almost forty-five minutes long, strolling through the earthy doom landscape yet always having a graceful touch. Often diving into the ancient totemic and sometimes medieval sounding territories, it speaks to something deep inside, something old and primal. Something you probably never even realized was there. But it is and it will soon be bursting free while listening to Umbra. Opening grandiose, almost operatic, almost like a doomed Vangelis, this one-track long Umbra seems to aim in making the traditional dark and ominous doom designed for cathedrals more cathartic as they let the composition slowing erupt with rays of light. For even though the subject matter is depression, and depression as seen through an eldritch horror point of view, you cannot help but feel that illumination, those rays of light, simply cannot be contained. Which means there is hope after all and after their earlier album Iter, this means we hope we are heading into an upward spiral after all. It still carries the same weight and progressive atmospheres but feels less oppressive and less satiated with despair. Gévaudan steps out of the shadow and shows us all they are climbing towards the top of the mountain…
Kadabra – Umbra
Heavy Psych Sounds – 2023
Rock, Seventies, Proto, Occult, Psych
Rated: ***
Kadabra gives us eight tracks of heavy rock! Proto touched, glancing backwards psychedelic rock with myriad of doom influences and that little occult touch that makes this kind of rock so delicious. We were there when Ultra was released in 2021 and it was our preferred album for getting a lot of work done in a very hectic period. And we must conclude that the new Umbra has been on heavy rotation once again to get through a similar period. This Umbra is easy to work to and to have on repeat, the reverb, the fuzz, the overall tones are highly similar throughout the record and make it comfortable to use as that sidebar album that can get you into a majestic and wholesome groove. But by this we do not mean Umbra becomes or is background, elevator music. Hell no, for when you truly listen, when you let the compositions seep into your soul, you will hear more and yes, feel more. All that majestic organ work, warming your blood, those guitar flourishes and effect details painting wonderous sceneries. But it is the smooth transition of every track, without hesitation, that makes Umbra this total listening experience. One that, yes, does become one gigantic haze or bubbling cauldron fog…
And looking at the album title Umbra that both bands chose. It sort of immediately explains the difference in sound and how they interpreted it. For Kadabra seems to have gone for the opaque version of Umbra, the shadow and the haze and how it obscures details and perhaps even the ghost annotation that seems to stick to the word. Gévaudan, took that ghost connection as well, when they took the side of the eldritch horror, but also took Umbra into the dark, darkened and murky depts of the human condition. Shadows are cast here by all the sections the story goes through but are dispelled by those rays of musical illumination. Nothing is obscured and the horror is there for everyone to inhale and exhume. Both albums are perfect for Halloween, one for a soundtrack to the trick-or-treating night, going door to door and getting all that dubious candy. The other one for sitting beside the carved candlelight pumpkin and staring at the moon slowly waxing into this malevolent grin. You decide which goes with which for you…
(Written by JK)
Gévaudan Bandcamp
Gévaudan Instagram
Gévaudan Facebook
Meuse Music Records
Kadabra Bandcamp
Kadabra Instagram
Kadabra Linktree
Heavy Psych Sounds