A2aThoT is a solo project, with the artist trying to bring together elements of psychedelic and experimental Doom Metal. He lists a whole host of bands that have inspired him in this work, including Anathema, Sunn O))), Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Radiohead, Jane's Addiction, System Of A Down, Neurosis, Ufomammut, Cathedral, Isis, Russian Circles, Queens Of The Stone Age, Pentagram and Opeth among others. Even the press release states that the result is a “weird combination” of different genres, and that is something that I definitely agree with. Doom is the basis of everything he is doing, with some experimentation over the top so that at times it comes across as Hawkwind and at others just something very strange indeed. The one thing I can’t really make my up my mind over though, is whether or not it is any good.
He recommends that the listener pay close attention to the music by playing it through headphones without any distractions, but I found that I was soon getting bored and wondered when the experience would be over. Whenever I start looking for the end of an album I know that it’s a bad sign and I found that I was having to force myself to keep playing this to be able to try and get into it enough to be able to provide a fair review. But, at the end of the day there isn’t enough going on to keep me interested with the experimentation often not working with the rest of the music. I’m not frightened by strange sounds and musical combinations, I happily listen to Can and Art Zoyd when I’m in the mood, but there needs to be more to it than this. Just three songs, at a little more than 24 minutes long, I can’t see me returning to this very often.
www.a2athot.com
