Megalith Levitation Alters Our Perspective on 2nd LP, ‘Void Psalms’

Known as the “mystics from Ural mountains,” MEGALITH LEVITATION return following their mesmerizing 2019 debut, Acid Doom Rites, to bring us the harrowing follow-up full-length, ‘Void Psalms’ (2021). 53-minutes in length, it is a magnum opus indeed for the dank trio from Russia.

Irradiated feedback joins the damning strains of the opening chords that introduce the album opener, “Phantasmagoric Journey.” The rhythm pulls us into a slow-churning dirge that inspires a deeply felt bodily response, one in which I found myself almost involuntarily (it’s hard to tell) closing my eyes and swaying in harmony, as brick upon brick of its mysterious sonic masonry was laid down before me. It’s as though I’m listening to OM trip on some bad acid, trancing out as nightmarish forms shift shapes all around them. To call it haunting would be something of an understatement.

The band describes the aura this way:

A journey to uncharted corners of consciousness. Cognition of the macrocosm through the microcosm. Near-death experience giving an understanding of the infinity of being and the universe.

Next, we encounter the diad “Datura Revelations/Lysergic Phantoms” and the tempo quickens (in doom measurements of time, of course) so that we’re swept away by an undertow of murky psychedelic textures, dark bass tones, and esoteric atmosphere. It gets a lot stranger once that lysergic stuff kicks in, but by now I’m absolutely grooving with this bizarre, but oddly comforting vibe.

Again, we turn to Megalith Levitation for insight:

The energy of the ancient fire that gave life to everything on Earth. The all-destructive power of the same fire, which will turn even the stars to dust. All of this is here, in the chains of your DNA. Guides will show you the way and you will see everything for yourself.

“Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation” is another juxtaposition of two songs in one. It made me think of the sluggish tone that Electric Wizard greeted us with on that last album, which some hated but absolutely struck a chord with me. You have to go through some shit to gel with certain kinds of metal, yes even certain stripes of doom. This isn’t going for a grab-you-by-the-nutsack-and-squeeze kind of effect – a loop that so much of heavy music has been stuck in for the last 20-some years.

For those whose souls who wasted away under pandemic lockdowns and lost jobs, during which institutions failed us, heroes disappointed us, and the future evaded us, there’s something truly consoling in hearing sounds that get that precise emotion-to-music translation of “alone/lost” right. In fact, I do believe Megalith Levitation would encourage you to embrace it and grab a new reality for yourself:

Everything that surrounds you is just an illusion. Evil, good, black and white. Everything is just the figment of the imagination. And you are caught in this hustle and bustle forever. There is only one place where you can find peace. But can you find your way to the temple of silence?

By far the biggest slowburner of the lot, the second-half calms our spirits and brings us into a meditative state of radical acceptance and imagination of endless possibilities. In the last two minutes, the pot is indeed boiling and our heartbeats quicken realizing that we may be in some way entangled in this Matrix but maybe, just maybe, we can tinker with things so the sun shines a little more in our private world.

“Last Vision” is the final number of the set, and the shortest. After that last slab of granite, it feels like a coda. I’m glad it’s here, too. It reinvigorates the animal senses that keep us alive, fused with a new mindset that accepts the inevitability of fate. Again, the band says its best:

The collapse of everything. End of the world. How many times will humanity experience this? In the darkness within our hearts, we are blind and cruel. This circle is endless.

It’s a rhetorical question that demands our collective concentrated thought, priority, and energy – though I am tempted to glibly suggest that we just turn the whole shebang over by cats and dogs to rule the planet a century from now (unless they decide to take it from us before then).

Today, Doomed & Stoned is pleased to give you an advance listen to the entire new album, which releases on CD, cassette, and digital formats on October 1st (pre-order here). Autumn may have started last week, but I think we can officially welcome the gloomy, rainy days of fall with the release of Megalith Levitation’s Void Psalms. For fans of Electric Wizard, Saturnalia Temple, Zaum, and Serpentine Path.

Give ear…