The debut full-length, Cosmic Mountain, from Danish fuzz rock doomsters Lucid Grave requires a little patience. This six-song crusher is a slow-builder and the Copenhagen quintet—Malene (vocals), Jon (drums), Alex, (bass), Casper (guitar/synth), Kriller (guitar/synth)—made the strategic move to place the grinding, 11-minute title track front and center. It may require you go a few minutes deep for the Sabbathy payoff, but it delivers plenty of punch, with Malene wailing like she’s conjuring all manner of malevolent spirits. The track encapsulates the many retro aspects of the band—from psych rock to classic gloom.
Cosmic Mountain may start with a plod, but things pick up considerably through the shifting, kaleidoscopic sonic landscape. The band’s sound is definitely of an another era, but it’s also not stuck permanently in the past. It’s dark, haunting and trippy, with plenty of distortion and punch. The album was produced by Patrick Fragtrup at Wolf Rider Sound Productions, Sweet Silence Studios, and mastered by Shane Trimble. It’s set for release via Electric Valley Records on July 15 and you can place your preorder at the link in the bandcamp stream below.
Here’s what the band had to say about its debut:
“On Cosmic Mountain the eclectic inspirations of Lucid Grave come together in a new way. This is the first time we have released a long project, and the six songs on the album make for a coherent listen despite changes in style and tempo. From dusty desert blues to slow, heavy doom over straight-up space rock, this album takes many detours but lands safely because of the consistent production and the overarching lyrical themes. The lyrics on the album deal with the spiritual struggles of finding yourself and your place in this world. Sometimes these struggles are seen from the outside, sometimes they are described as demons, but most often, they are seen through the lens of drug use. Here you return to the picture of the Cosmic Mountain as the explorational grounds of the intronaut on her journey of self-discovery.”
