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The Druids, Totem: Effigy and Elogy

Posted in Reviews on April 1st, 2019 by JJ Koczan

the druids totem

Riding a silver machine in search of elusive truth, Maryland’s The Druids make an encouraging full-length debut with Totem, which follows behind a few likewise-digital odds and ends, including an untitled 2016 EP and a couple singles here and there. They’ve used pseudonyms all along, but would seem to be transitioning out of that, as guitarist/vocalists Eli “Stone Druid” Watson and Danny “Spacehawk” Alger and bassist Jeremy “Weed Warlock” Dinges introduce drummer Gary “Iceman” Isom to the lineup. Isom, of course, has a pedigree in Maryland heavy that includes drum stints in Pentagram and Iron Man, King Valley and Nitroseed, as well as Shine/Spirit Caravan and, currently, playing guitar in Weed is Weed and fronting Electropathic. As Spirit Caravan are a primary influence for The Druids, he’s an excellent fit here on songs like opener “Cruising Astral Skies” and the wah-swirling “Sorcerers,” as the band push earthy visions of heavy into cosmic reaches — or, at least, they begin the process of doing so.

There’s a jammy undercurrent not just to the nine-minute “Hawkwind,” or the later “Turtles Dream,” but that serves as the foundation to even the more structured material like the duly Southern-tinged “Moonshine Witch” and the it’s-called-“lead-guitar”-because-you-follow-it “Atlantean,” which departs its early verses for solo-laced oblivion past the halfway point. There’s a cross-generational element at play, between Isom and WatsonAlger and Dinges, but that does nothing to interrupt the overall fluidity of Totem or bring any sense of incongruity to the band’s style. If anything, the inclusion of Isom seems to have tightened The Druids‘ songwriting approach, as heard in “Turtles Dream,” which takes elements from “Turtles” and “Dreams” from the EP and combined them into one progression. “Hawkwind” is an exception and clearly intended as such, but most of the material on Totem is shorter and more structurally sound, so that even as The Druids decide to take off on the occasional interstellar trip, they have solid ground from which to launch. That provides balance for the listener making their unsuspecting way through, and sees moments like the drift in the concluding “Sky Submarine” all the more effective.

Interestingly, Totem seems to be rawer in its production than was the EP. Listening to the sample from The Wild Angels that lets “Sorcerers” open what would be side B on a vinyl release before giving way to the trippier “Turtles Dream,” “High Society” and “Sky Submarine,” there’s an almost garage-psych sensibility to what The Druids conjure here, with a grit cast on some of the shimmer in the guitars their last time out. Could be a circumstance of recording live as they did, or could be a purposeful aesthetic choice on their part — I don’t think we can know until their next time out, but it enhances the ride that is “Cruising Astral Skies” and makes the nodding “Atlantean” all the more of a wash of dirty fuzz, classically doomed in the Maryland tradition, but not necessarily beholden to Maryland doom in terms of its psychedelic vibe and general stoned fuckall.

the druids

The leadoff and “Moonshine Witch” might be as straightforward as The Druids get, but even the second of those makes its way out on a solo, leaving behind the expectation that they might return to the verse or chorus and instead just jamming its way to wherever it might end up — the start of “Sorcerers,” as it happens. With Totem being the band’s first long-player, it’s hard to guess how that will ultimately develop in their sound — but that only makes the album more exciting to hear, since the four-piece have already essentially carved an identity for themselves that spans subgenres from psych to heavy rock to classic-style garage bikerism and more. Further, they vary that departure from core structure, so that “Atlantean” might not make its way back, but the would-be anthem “High Society” does, at least instrumentally, and even though they’re long-since gone by the time they get there, the sample at the end of “Hawkwind” works to tie that song together with “Atlantean” as well, so that side A ends up with an overarching symmetry one way or the other as “Cruising Astral Skies” and “Moonshine Witch” bookend the two jammier pieces.

Mark it a win, move on, wait for the next one? Okay, sure, but I think if you do, you’re missing out on a bit of the nuance The Druids have to offer. Not so much in terms of the technicality of what they do — though the solos are impressive and their tones are intricate — but stylistically overall. It’s easy, particularly for the converted, to listen to Totem and get where The Druids are coming from. And for some, that’s enough, but to take that approach misses perhaps the bigger picture of what’s at play throughout these songs in terms of bringing a generational freshness to these ideas and aesthetic elements. The Druids‘ raw fuzz is informed of course by the heavy rock that’s gone before it, but the homage they pay comes with a youthful vigor and an unfaded luster.

This, quite simply, is how rock and roll has survived despite being cast as dead — and maybe being dead — as a commercial enterprise. It has been handed from one group to the next. I won’t deign to predict where The Druids will go from their debut in terms of style or substance, but already in these songs they show a genuine affinity for heavy modes of expression and they work to make them their own with a quality of craft and a variety of moods. There isn’t much more one could reasonably ask of a young band putting out their first record. So yeah, one could dig into Totem and think “that’s cool,” grab a download or whatever and be done, or one could perhaps realize that even the name of the album speaks to a sense of monument-building and that essentially that’s what the band are doing in entering this conversation with their influences. The potential that gives them for moving forward and continuing to make those influences theirs is writ large throughout this material, and to miss that is missing the larger picture of what they accomplish here.

The Druids, Totem (2019)

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The Druids on Bandcamp

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