Review & Full Album Premiere: Somnus Throne, Nemesis Lately
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
[Click play above to stream the premiere of Somnus Throne’s second album, Nemesis Lately. It’s out Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds.]
Beginning with a sampled call for a return of readily-available quaaludes by Mike Caracciolo, aka “The Kid From Brooklyn” — who makes a convincing case — Nemesis Lately is the second full-length from Los Angeles trio Somnus Throne. The song is “Snake Eyes” and it’s one of six on the outing, which is the band’s first for Heavy Psych Sounds after issuing their self-titled debut (review here) in 2020 through Burning World Records. Honestly, that opening sample is over so quick you’d have to listen to it multiple times just to figure out what Caracciolo is saying, but it’s worth it for a bit of perspective on the riffery that ensues.
For a first impression on their second record, or at least a first-point-five, Somnus Throne — first-name-only guitarist/vocalist Evan, bassist Ansel Bretz and drummer Matt Davis — unload a fuzz that careens like Kyuss in its overarching groove but is played with High on Fire chop. Given the production by Matt Lynch of Snail, it’s classic stoner rock all the more when Evan‘s effects-treated vocals join in, and the swinging drums carry through a chorus about the devil and there’s a shoegazy solo, another sample, and a shift into a slower march that’s more purely Electric Wizard, the vocals going raw to match the riff, a swirling lead helping along the way. Eventually they jam back to a mid-paced nodder riff and a last verse that’s again as much Kyuss and Sleep and, golly, it’s been quite a seven minutes.
The sample is notable in part because they drop sampling after setting up the expectation for it to be in every song, since second cut “Lacquer Bones” starts with a clip from a Purdue Pharma promotional video for OxyContin. Yes, drugs. But near as I can tell that’s the last one. Perhaps more important is what’s happening behind it, as Somnus Throne are setting up what becomes the key sonic theme for the rest of the LP, as acoustic guitar plucks out notes that soon become a fuzzed-out progression that specifically draws from Colour Haze, Evan going so far as to add far-back vocals to the atmosphere.
They make that riff their own almost immediately by putting it to a march, and the buzzing lead that ensues is a joy cutting into the first verse, duly bright like slowed down Torche, with the low end under the solos is warm enough to match. In true this-generation-learned-its-lessons-well form, “Lacquer Bones” also brings back the verse to finish out, but does so by slowing down the central riff, for which it may be one’s destiny to be an eternal sucker. It grooves. Hard. Not quiet as hard as the opening hits of “Dice and Scarecrow,” however, which shifts the vibe toward the aurally massive in Man’s Ruin-ifying a Monolordian roll with vocals that remind of Alice in Chains circa their self-titled. The Colour Hazed serenity has evaporated with the band’s pivot to a darker mood, finishing a side A that goes three for three in surprises and still has room for a highlight ripper solo.
Such malleability was an asset on their self-titled as well, and I don’t imagine Evan is sitting down with Bretz and Davis and saying, “and then this Colour Haze thing goes into this Monolord thing,” like they’re mapping out parts by band references, but all of these are brought into the context of Somnus Throne‘s emerging sonic personality, and it’s the overarching arrogance to take these different ideas and smash them together and have it work that is in no small part how their sound should be defined at this point. Nemesis Lately flows for the entirety of its 41 minutes, and does so greatly aided by the conversation between the different elements Somnus Throne are using to build their songs. This sounds like I’m saying they’re ripping people off. I don’t think they are, and that’s what I want to make clear. They’re working with influences in what sounds like an organic manner to create something of their own. Another listener may hear something differently in terms of references. That’s part of the fun. If I put band names here it’s to ground the ideas I’m trying to convey to somebody reading.
Here’s the thing: there’s a line in Somnus Throne‘s bio that goes like this, “Various music critics who each can’t seem to understand their origins at least agree that Somnus Throne is a 3-piece band that plays…” and I guess I took that to heart and tried to dig pretty deep into Nemesis Lately. It’s been an easy joy to do so, but that line still has me feeling insecure about my point of view on where the band’s coming from. So maybe I’m fucking wrong about everything I’m telling you. Maybe you’ll be like “Kyuss nothing, you lazy asshole,” and never come back to the site. Sorry, I guess, if that’s the case. They pay me the same nothing either way, but I took that sentence which goes on to list a slew of styles and bands as a challenge to really try to hear where Somnus Throne are coming from. I took friggin’ notes on this record last night. I’m doing my best.
“L-Dopatryptamine” presents another turn, beginning side B with a decidedly mellowed fuzz, the melody of Evan‘s vocals drifting as no less part of the trip than any of the tones surrounding, and they make their way into a chorus with even more churn behind it, obscure to a point of barely there as they journey through to cycle again before going faster — the use of wah brilliant and biting all the while — then slower and letting the song disintegrate into light before, in the last half-minute, the guitar very quickly hints back toward that Colour Haze-style rhythm, and sets up the essential piece that ties together side B in communion with “Lacquer Bones” earlier. The subsequent “Rubber Tramp” begins with a She Said-era sense of triumph in its warmly fuzzed solo, delivered in languid fashion on either side of a verse that’s harmonized like “Dice and Scarecrow” but dreamy like Jane’s Addiction, at least until after the four-minute mark when Evan starts referencing Baroness vocally with flashes of The Sword behind.
As a unit, they march into the fade nobly, with another flourish of lead guitar, and eight-minute closer “Calm is the Devil” begins with a returned acoustic guitar, quickly settled into a piece that evokes Colour Haze‘s “Grace” specifically even unto how it teases its heavier kick-in, but is under way soon, the first verse beginning at around two minutes in. There’s some Sabbath in the midsection, but they’re finishing more progressive, the vocal melody again calling to mind Steve Brooks or maybe even Rob Crow, but they cut at 4:25 and fade back into the acoustic guitar, setting up the final build, adding hand percussion and drums to lead smoothly back to a more weighted but still moderate roll, not quite gentle but not quite not, as it enters the final minute with a last highlight bassline on course for its fadeout.
So hey, maybe I missed it, right? Maybe I’m all wrong about Somnus Throne, but what I hear in the hypnotic finish of “Calm is the Devil” is a band realizing their sound, setting themselves up for their next step forward, having already changed their approach, shortened their songs from their first record and adopted tighter structures, creating the bookend of the longer “Snake Eyes” and “Calm is the Devil” around the others. They offer clues as to where they might be headed in terms of style, but no grounds for a prediction I’d be willing to put into words. What ultimately matters more is the fluidity with which the band execute the reaches of Nemesis Lately and that they’re bold enough as songwriters to think of them in the first place. These guys might be the real deal. Their next record or two will tell the tale, but for an act who haven’t had a shit-ton of hype around them as yet, they just made an absolute monster of an album. Let that be my take on it.
