Like a towering dust storm blotting out the sun, Zong’s self-titled record is a murky and monstrous force that will leave you feeling very small and defenseless.
Joining the ranks of fellow Australian acid rockers like Mt. Mountain, Hotel Wrecking City Traders and Smoke, Zong pushes the limits of fuzz guitar with a totally overdriven sonic assault. Towards the end of practically every track here, it’s easy to imagine that the band’s amps are beginning to smoke and edging closer and closer to a fiery death.
Across the entire record, the band constantly locks into a tight, trance-like groove and launches off into space from there. With primeval drumming, white-hot shredding and meaty riffs, Zong plays like some sort of possessed hybrid of Sir Lord Baltimore and Earthless (and who doesn’t want to hear that?)
The group sets the tone for the rest of the record in the first few minutes of the opening track, “Cosmic Embryo,” which sounds like a drug-fueled midnight pagan ritual in the middle of a desert. The lengthy piece starts off with creeping, scuzzy drones and grumbling bass lines that zigzag around crashing cymbals that then give way to primal drums and malicious guitars which kick the track into brutal acid-doom territory. From this ominous point forward, you know to expect only the heaviest and darkest of psychedelic rawk.
The dazzlingly trippy cover artwork (provided by drummer, Henry Bennett) is the perfect visualization of the album’s music, as they are both intensely hallucinogenic with a strong, cosmic mysticism vibe. If you are looking to have your mind blown today, then you need to pick up Zong.
-KH
Record Crates United 