Album Review: Ecstatic Vision – For The Masses (Heavy Psych Sounds)

After bursting onto the scene with their 2015 tribal psychedelic LP Sonic Praise, touring the USA with Yob and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, crushing Roadburn, then quickly releasing a noisy, psychedelic garage record to weed out the weak (Raw Rock Fury), Ecstatic Vision have pulled themselves out of the muck to deliver ‘For the Masses’. Out on September 27th 2019 via Heavy Psych Sounds.

A psychedelic rip-storm, Ecstatic Vision’s For the Masses is a mind-bending album. One that sees the band’s experimentation reach new levels all while sounding like they’re playing out of a dingy and smoky basement club.

It’s hypnotising music, Shut Up and Drive shining through the haziness of the ethereal fog like a lighthouse on a wintry night. Yuppie Sacrifice is just as trippy but with energy that almost seems out of place while Like a Freak is punk-rock at its fastest and most chaotic without being unlistenable.

It certainly shows some confidence to then follow that with an even shorter track, a track that is just chaos and noise. There is no order or sense to the title track, instead coming across like a recording of a musical carnival or parade.

It’s as messy as it sounds and while the rhythmic beat and groove of The Magic Touch does go some way to repairing the damage caused, it’s not quite enough.

Happily though Grasping the Void ends the psychedelic oddity that is this album on a high. Even the often misplaced flute fits much better here and with it, hooks in, it really hooks in. By the end it’s very hard to not be swept up by the high tempo guitar riffing.

Ecstatic Vision – For the Masses Full Track Listing:

1. Sage Wisdom
2. Shut up and Drive
3. Yuppie Sacrifice
4. Like a Freak
5. For the Masses
6. The Magic Touch
7. Grasping the Void

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | Heavy Psych Sounds