Pombagira - Iconoclast Dream

Way back in ’96, San Jose stoners Sleep recorded an album by the name of Dopesmoker and, while they weren’t too pleased with the label run-around they were given, when it was eventually released tokers and beard-strokers rejoiced. Finally there was an album that captured the monolithic sounds doom was capable of, and the single-track album because a rite of passage for all lovers of the ol’ slow’n’heavy. Pombagira haven’t topped Sleep’s crowning achievement just yet, but they’re getting there.

Lumbering into view with steamrolling riffs and drums like cannonballs punching through ramparts, it certainly makes a destructive first impression, made all the more damaging by Pete Hamilton-Giles’ hearty roar. Just when things look like the repetition is getting stretched that bit too far, it grinds to a halt in a fog of funereal drone and never looks back. Hawkwind-esque foot-stompers, celestial post-rock...it takes all of these disparate threads and tethers them to a single crushing feat of ambition that relentlessly strides towards greatness.