"Walk Towards What Blinds You (Blood Bong)": Obey Amammoth, Obtain Sun-Dazed Delirium (Early Track Stream)
The riff and the spliff: two concepts long ago wed to each other as vital pieces of the stoner doom puzzle. While, perhaps counter-intuitively, quality stoner doom can be written without mentioning or consuming marijauana, there’s a certain slice of the genre that not only revels in doing both, but becomes all the better for it. These bands’ sinister ceremonies of amplification uncover bacchanal revelations and insane concepts that could only exist within chambers full of hazy smoke and pointlessly overpowered amplifiers. We’re presenting one such notion to you today from Australian stoner lords Amammoth‘s upcoming album The Fire Above: hit “Walk Towards What Blinds You (Blood Bong)” now and don’t forget to wear sunglasses.
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While I’m rather curious how and if a blood bong would function, the song is also partially devoted to the sun—the overpowering lifegiver, a theme that recurs throughout the album and gives it its name. The band describes the track as “a tribute to the sun, outlining how it’s more powerful and mightier than any god.” That’s the higher concept here—although, the blood bong is the “higher” concept, I suppose. What those themes translate to is more of a riff-driven odyssey than nuanced lyrical content: it’s a classic dual-tempo stoner stomp powered by fuzz and roaring, reiterated vocals. A lumbering riff opens up the song, setting a toke-friendly pace and creating a launchpad for the faster bit to blast off from, wherein the words “blood bong” are screamed repeatedly as it speeds up—then it returns to the solar focus as it slows down again. And if you were wondering, no, screaming “blood bong” along to the song does not get old.
This is one of those cases where simplicity is key: “Walk Towards What Blinds You (Blood Bong)” relies on the unfiltered power of a loud-as-hell riff to sell the charmingly over-the-top song lyrics. As the album closer, the unwavering devotion to this strategy cements the execution and clinches the record.
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The Fire Above releases March 19th, 2021 via Electric Valley Records.
