High Priest of Saturn
Self-Titled
Svart Records
Street: 03.22
High Priest of Saturn = The Wounded Kings – Electric Wizard
A classic case of stoner doom by numbers, High Priest of Saturn imitate all the basic components of their chosen genre, but fail to add anything substantial or unique to the mix. Highly hailed with comparisons to Black Sabbath and Electric Wizard, the band’s self-titled debut only resembles these bands by the most generous comparison. Where Black Sabbath’s blues riffing added a raw, groovy element to their sound, HPOS’s drones on with mimetic stoner melodies. Electric Wizard cultivated a dark, gritty atmosphere of abrasive noise and monumentally heavy riffs, but this album’s mediocre sludge riffs sound weak and overproduced, and seem to adhere to the false doctrine of “slower = heavier.” Content to go through the motions in their perpetually uninspired ritual, HPOS hovers around a forgettable standard of “meets expectations,” and barely elicits a yawn in response. –Henry Glasheen