Review & Full Album Premiere: Kabbalah, The Omen
[Click play above to stream Kabbalah’s The Omen in its entirety. Album is out Jan. 15 on Rebel Waves Records.]
Though they’ve been brewing potent etherealities in the Kingdom of Navarre for the better part of a decade, it was not until 2017 that Spanish trio Kabbalah made their full-length debut with Spectral Ascent. That album, released through Twin Earth Records, solidified the first-name-only — Alba on vocals and guitar, Marga on bass, Carmen on drums — three-piece’s approach around classic proto-heavy and cult rock, not quite bent as closely to pop as Ghost, but ready and able with a waiting supply of hooks for those willing to be indoctrinated. The Omen is the follow-up. Its eight tracks arrive through Ripple imprint Rebel Waves Records without pretense — which is no small feat considering the inherent theatricality of the witchy, be-robbed aesthetic — and run a tight-knit 29 minutes, showcasing growth in melody and construction generally while digging further into a classic-minded near-doom style of heavy rock, most typified by the ’70s tapes of Pentagram but by no means exclusive to that or strictly vintage in sound.
Unlike the first LP, there is no intro on The Omen, which begins with the creeper riff of your fuzzy Halloween daydreams, set to an immediately accessible pace that tells you plenty but still only a piece of what you need to know about the record that ensues. At 3:57, lead cut “Stigmatized” is second in length only to closer “Liturgy,” which is the only song here over four minutes long. Kabbalah are traditionalists in structure, and though their cultish take draws on the heavy ’70s as it almost invariably would, their tones are not purely vintage and particularly the manner in which vocal melodies/harmonies are layered is a giveaway of their modernity. Not that they’re trying to hide it. Rather, these melodies, beginning in “Stigmatized” but perhaps even more so in the catchier second track “Ceibas,” become a crucial aspect of the band’s approach. I don’t know if it’s only Alba singing or if Marga or Carmen add their voices, but as The Omen begins to unfold, the vocals help set the atmosphere no less than any of the other instruments being played, even the church organ that takes hold as the first track fades out ahead of the grungy-strummed start of the second.
So if the first song establishes the mood and the second reaffirms the trio’s penchant for hookmaking, its chanting final chorus likewise peppered with organ lines and vocal bounce, then the subsequent “Night Comes Near” brings a greater sense of complexity in progression and arrangement, vocal parts woven over each other in a pace that’s deceptive only for how unhurried it actually is while sounding more intense and busier than the previous two songs. As side A finishes with “The Ritual,” the fuzz thickens, the bell ride tolls your march, and the flow resimplifies without giving up the impression of a proggy undertone. The guitar solo is short but effective and sets a bed for the vocals to rejoin the apex of the song in a chorus return, bringing to light the sheer efficiency of Kabbalah‘s work here. It’s not that they’re restrained in some way, just that they’ve come to a place of knowing what they want these songs to do — or sounding that way, anyhow — and making them do that. Lessons understood from prior experience; this is why it can take a band five years to put out a debut album and several more for a follow-up. Because there’s genuine growth taking place.
“Lamentations” begins side B with the bulk of its first minute dedicated to a gradually unfolding riff, but when the drums kick in, they’re double-timed on the hi-hat to bring some feeling of urgency, even if the following first verse oozes out smoothly in dynamic, harmonized fashion. A play on structure, “Lamentations” doesn’t have a chorus as such, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do in leading off the second half of the record with a purpose that mirrors that of “Stigmatized” at the outset. It’s not quite Kabbalah looking to knock their listener off balance — which they never really do — but hinting that the whole story of The Omen hasn’t yet been told. Distant echoes in the verses “Labyrinth” and a more forward chorus would seem to confirm this, making the track a highlight in the process as it willfully marches into highlight bass tone at its pulled-apart finish. Feedback. Darker atmospherics. Still, Kabbalah aren’t offering any drama that feels unearned by the music itself, and in traditional LP form, the penultimate “Duna” returns the album to ground ahead of the aforementioned finale in “Liturgy.”
In another context one might call “Duna” a kind of heavy post-rock, but after its first minute, a weightier riff serves as a kind of instrumental chorus and offsets the garage doom of the verse before they make the interesting turn of finishing the track without a final return to that same verse. It’s too short to really be a jam, but Alba‘s guitar is tasked with leading the outward movement of “Duna,” which it does ably, bringing the song to a close ahead of the actual march rhythm that begins “Liturgy” and the guitar, bass and drums soon join. More spacious in the guitar and vocals initially, “Liturgy” does have a kind of chanting verse, but it never quite gives up that beginning rhythm, which of course doubles as an ending for the record after the closing solo finishes. Even there, Kabbalah‘s melodic intent holds firm and is the essential component.
It’s not, however, the only one to which due attention has been paid, and the recording — the production style — of The Omen helps too in bringing a vitality that underscores the songwriting shown throughout. Kabbalah emerge somewhat out of place and out of time, but no more than they would seem to want to be, and there is no point at which their devotionalism overwhelms their craft. A burgeoning individuality holds further promise for growth, but one would be remiss not to note the confidence and righteous poise with which this material is — still organically — delivered.
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