Hippie Death Cult – Helichrysum
Hippie Death Cult – Helichrysum
Heavy Psych Sounds
Release Date: 20/10/23
Running Time: 39:13
Review by Dark Juan
Score: 234,897,743/10
Dark Juan is my name and I write about many things when I should in fact by writing about music. I do this for no other reason for amusing the fuck out of myself and wondering just how much of my ranting I can get away with before I am heavily edited and the word count of every article or review I write drops to the tune of three hundred words plus. Anyway, your least-favourite psychopomp to toffs and gentry, your Hellpriest, current plague-vector, your wannabe Cenobite and general spreader of good humour and bonhomie has returned, to once more charm and beguile you with tortured metaphors, entire passages ripped off from Edgar Allen Poe novels and quotes from that most august wise woman, Mrs Dark Juan, creator of nightmares in fabric. There is currently a felt sculpture, life-sized upon the mantel of Crow Cottage, of a witch hare, mid-transformation, staring balefully at your faithful correspondent with its dead, red hare eyes and the eyes of its witch face. At the same time. It is proving difficult to concentrate because it KNOWS… All my peccadilloes, my darkest secrets are out in the open of its unblinking gaze. It stares into the black pit of my soul and rips out all the perverse stuff that is buried within it…
An example of the wisdom (?) of Mrs Dark Juan – she complained that she never gets flowers. I tell her I buy her baked goods instead of blooms because she is an appalling flower Nazi. Her response?
“Just buy me flowers that look like they will kill me.”
Another gem of her wit – “Ian Hislop is a tiny politics hamster.” This was when she was watching a UK-based current affairs panel show called Have I Got News For You? The worst thing is that the description is entirely accurate.
However, I have a counter to her wisdom from The League Of Gentlemen, being a famously unsettling British comedy series. There is a character on there that uses euphemisms to describe wanking, because he is obsessed with finding said nephew “hunched double on the sofa bed, in a state of indiscretion” and Mrs Dark Juan doesn’t like it when I say something like, “Shaking my hot white coconuts from the veiny love tree”. It upsets her.
This obviously means I do it more because I am a fucking colossal child.
Such is life at Crow Cottage. Let us leave these whimsies behind us and instead turn our attention to the mightily whirring Platter Of Splatter™, which is valiantly spinning the latest release from US Psychedelic Stoner Rockers Hippie Death Cult. This band has passed before the somewhat dubious attention of Dark Juan before, https://www.ever-metal.com/2021/07/26/hippie-death-cult-circle-of-days/ being the link you might wish to click to have a quick peruse of my thoughts of their last release. The main change in this Oregonian band is that bassist Laura Phillips has taken over vocal duties for the band and the sound of Hippie Death Cult has evolved into a rather more Psychedelic offering than the previous heavy as fuck Doom that the band purveyed, which had druggy, draggy interludes in between the crushing Metal.
The psychedelics take centre stage on “Helichrysum” (being the everlasting flower, fact fans!) and merge seamlessly with a thick, oily, juicy sound that sounds like it has been played on valve-driven vintage equipment with the treble turned way down to zero. It is a warming, cosseting sound that is like a welcoming bear hug or staggering into a warm house from a blizzard outside. It just sounds… friendly. Friendly Psychedelic Stoner Doom. Like walking into a room with an overhanging fug of perfumed hash, floweriness combined with the dry tang of beer and the sharp scent of bourbon. Hippie Death Cult sound like your acquaintance that you know is a terrible person, but you just can’t help but hang out with them because they are so much fucking FUN.
Opening cut on the record is ‘Arise’ and it is a decent opener, all swaggering riffing, exploratory in nature and featuring an unusual alto vocal delivery from Laura Phillips, not unlike a Stoner Cristina Scabbia, but slightly lower pitched and rather more… emotionally tinged than the Italian Goth goddess. Laura can compress some serious feeling into her vocal delivery. It is obvious during the (admittedly fucking brilliant) soloing from Eddie Brnabic that the band are a three-piece, as there is just rumbling bass underneath the fleet-fingered shredding. It is a very decent opening shot across the bows, especially at the end of the song when Phillips opens her throat in a most atavistic fashion.
‘Shadows’ starts off with a decidedly more “relaxed” (read “stoned out of our fucking gourds”) tone, gentle Bluesy Rock guitar warping and wafting beneath a sweeter, more ethereal vocal from Laura, until about one minute and twenty seconds passes, and the distortion is cranked up again, until there is a devastatingly effective loud-quiet-loud dynamic happening. In short, Hippie Death Cult effortlessly combine the sounds and expansiveness of Progressive music, the whacked right out of your skull whooshiness of Psychedelia, the grittiness of Classic Rock sensibilities and the fuzz overdrive of Doom and Stoner. The result is rather extraordinary, being fuzzy and slow enough to please the Doomsters, yet offering some absolutely incredible riffing and pounding Heavy Metal to entertain the mainstream crowd, and also having a lovely touch of exploratory madness to lift the music from the mundane or the repetitive.
The drugs have got the better of Hippie Death Cult on ‘Better Days’, the flanger pedal getting a right proper workout, although the vocals are fucking superb throughout the song and are arguably Laura’s strongest performance, reminding Dark Juan very strongly of ex-Purson frontwoman Rosalie Cunningham. In fact, the whole album reminds me of a Stoner version of Purson. There are the Classic Rock guitar sounds, the whimsy of Psychedelia and the dark joys of the occult bubbling under the surface of the music which oozes Proto-Metal aggression as well as LSD infused bonhomie, at the same time…
‘Red Giant’ is a different kettle of fish again, a speedily-paced, uncompromising slab of granite heavy Stoner Metal dropping squarely on the spine of the poor listener and leaving them pinned and helpless while Brnabic lets rip with some rather jaw-dropping shredding and the bass thunders around, the vibrations causing further discomfort to the trapped person as it vibrates the already uncomfortable slab upon the pine of the poor listener. ‘Toxic Annihilator’ follows in a similar vein but with not a little added Thrash Metal. It is a predatory song, pure and simple, all palm-muted savagery and acid-dripping attitude and it is one of the standout songs on the record because it is so different to the angry, but too stoned to do anything about it vibe of the rest of the album, where ‘Toxic Annihilator’ grabs you by the throat and keeps on squeezing.
‘Nefelibata’ changes the gears with an intro that sounds like you have gone to the carnival under the influence of a fuckton of acid and the calliope is speaking to you and reaching out tendrils of sound that infiltrate your ears and wrap themselves lovingly around your brainstem. The song itself is a Stoner anthem about not fitting into society and sounds like it belongs on a Kyuss record, having been recorded in a desert somewhere in Nevada.
Let’s some this motherfucker up them. Hippie Death Cult have given us another fucking peach of an album that Dark Juan can’t pick any holes in and believe me, Dark Juan has tried. The production and mix is perfect. The performances are all worryingly good. Laura Phillips is a perfect singer for this music. The snare drum doesn’t sound like someone is twatting Tupperware with a dead, limp cod fish. The lyrics are smart and frequently wryly amusing, and the whole thing is a joy from start to finish, and I really want one of the black and orange trucker caps they have for sale, but they are sold out and Dark Juan is disappointed indeed…
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is broken again because Hippie Death Cult have scored 234,897,743/10 for a really remarkably challenging record that is that rarest of things, being easy to listen to and Dark Juan has a new heroine in Laura Philips because he loves her voice so much. “Helichrysum” is SO MUCH MORE than Psychedelic Stoner Rock and Dark Juan instructs thee to buy it and explore realms previously unwalked.
Happy Intelligent People Pursuing Infinite Enlightenment through sound and vibration. Indeed.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Arise
02. Shadows
03. Better Days
04. Red Giant
05. Toxic Annihilator
06. Nefelibata
07. Tomorrow’s Sky
LINE-UP:
Laura Phillips – Bass, vocals
Eddie Brnabic – Guitar
Harry Silvers – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
