Entrenched in path-altering psychedelic crisis, our protagonist experiences profound eschatological terror at the cusp of cycling through unintentional ego death by way of too-potent psilocybin strain. With fingerprints dripping out of hand and self-actualization across the page a vision of the collective soul of all souls in perpetuity comes alight in mind per spiritual guideposts in emergence. The fabric of the material universe and the forces which stretch far beyond human comprehension come to characterize the journey beyond the first strike of “the fear” and the jagged trip in descent on this debut full-length album from Oldenburg, Germany-based psychedelic death metal trio Hallucinate. Tapping into a familiar vein of worming rhythmic lushness with their own post-death warmth these fellowes perpetuate an atmosphere rich, heavy rock imbued form of abstraction on this ‘ready mature and blissful debut. ‘From the Bowels of the Earth‘ is singular in its morbid shade of psych’d stride yet relatable in its progressive rock pathos, a jaw-ripping stretch into the void which intoxicates and challenges the ear ’til its revelation is all but crystalline to the keen enough listener.

Hallucinate formed circa 2021 as an offshoot of Graveyard Ghoul after they’d had a shake-up in their line-up ~2019 and began collaborating with new folks. From what I’ve gathered their old band (active since 2011) is simply on hiatus and this configuration is a separate thing with a different second guitarist. The original quartet recorded a live-in-studio demo in late 2021 and this soon gave way to ‘Demo ’22‘ (2022) which’d essentially included the first two songs from ‘From the Bowels of the Earth‘ in complete form yet it’d be another full year before they’d record this LP. Their style had been partially unveiled at that point as ‘old school’ conscious death metal, somewhat related to the surrealistic Autopsy inspired creeping of their other band but clearly inspired by what ‘A Saunter Through the Shroud‘-era Morbus Chron had brought to the table a decade ago with abstracted heavy rock beats, darker psychedelic turns and ‘old school’ prog-death metal finesse applied. It is a sound which we could directly relate to transformative records from Chapel of Disease, Tribulation and a scant few others back in the first half of the 2010’s before that sound was more-or-less picked up by way of Cadaveric Fumes more recently. We could also point to Sweven (maestro Robert Andersson guests on “Aion”) and Bedsore of course, though these acts extend the conversation into the cinematic, the post-music consciousness and the progressive as a point of evolution.

They meditate to create planets and bear no physical attributes. — Vocalist/guitarist A. Persecutor conceived of ‘From the Bowels of the Earth‘ after a pre-pandemic magick mushroom trip gone bad, likely for the sake of riding solo or simply having pressing existential issues emerge while particularly immersed. We in the business of space flight call this a forced error, a pilot freak-out, or just “feeling the fear” to the point of tipping over the edge. It is the sort of experience which can leave folks with post-traumatic stress after losing sight of what is real. The trip wasn’t for the sake of writing the album but rather the album was written for the sake of reconstituting the ‘self’ after the spiritual awakening and ego death that it intimates. References to deities of cyclic eternity, unknowable realms of non-existence, and visualizations of the shape of the material universe all contribute to the fellow’s recount of events, the trip taken and its challenges. Because of this lyrical focus we can verifiably consider this record psychedelia and certainly make the argument for it being psychedelic death metal proper both in its stylistically abstract canon and in practical examination of subject matter/inspiration.

So far we’ve only just categorized Hallucinate at point of clearest intent and/or influence but I don’t want to suggest that they don’t have their own verve to apply here. While they are still rooted in the buzz and grind of classicist death metal as we cut into the first three pieces on their debut with a swinging, almost doom-adjacent sense of movement on the bounding “Blackened Gills” and the space-rocking basslines of opener “A Universe Obscure” this is only just the beginning, a strong point of engagement which communicates what this album will be all about. These pieces had already roped me in when they’d presented on the demo and their initial Morbus Chron-esque promise is upheld here even as “Black Smokers” throws in a particularly ripping death n’ roll feeling intro, this is arguably the breakthrough piece on the record in terms of communicating where ‘From the Bowels of the Earth‘ begins to most heartily state its greater designs on progressive death metal from a classicist perspective. There is a steam-powered organische grit to the rhythm section and that piece in particular highlights the low hum of the clean bass guitar tone in accentuation of the rhythm guitar’s dual-voiced framing. yet this is merely an introduction, a passageway much like we’d found on ‘Echoing Chambers of Soul‘, which leads us seamlessly through an instrumental piece toward the major centerpiece of the album.

Where exactly do we arrive with “Paracletus”? To start the first quarter of the song drifts into a twisted dark psychedelic high, a plateau braced with ethereal (stoney?) clean vocals and ringing dissonance ropes of rhythmic bleed. These are perhaps readable as bits of psychedelic rock’s sleepier glazed-over aesthetics, jammed upswings and progressive heavy rock’s similar fixative atmospheric plane yet these are so rarely guided into direct fusion with death metal aesthetics, at least not with any such sensical combination resultant. If Hallucinate hadn’t spent about six minutes building up to this piece and its effective apex toward the ~5 minute mark it’d have felt wildly out of place. Pilling this off, vibraphone and all, is perhaps the great accomplishment of ‘From the Bowels of the Earth‘ if we are chiefly concerned with hearing something new by way of inspired heavy rock abstraction of death metal’s moodiness. From that point “Tachycardia” reminds us that this is a death metal record, that these folks are well beyond their 10+ year chip in terms of mind bending riffcraft which relates a sense of still adventurous mastery.

From that point the assumption is that the narrative and its greater realization will naturally coincide with more laid back pieces, feature a sense of resolve into enlightenment or showcase some sort of wisdom gained and I would say that “Aion”, a piece which features additional vocals from Robert Andersson of Sweven/ex-Morbus Chron, suits this thought perfectly but only just begins the thread which continues on through the end of the full listen. The more aggressively knotted, kinda swinging push of “Crimson Rain” offers another hint of death n’ roll sized riffs and pyrotechnics alongside a staggering bassline which walks across the second half of the piece. I guess the CD version doesn’t have the final piece (“Dying Consciously”) and that’d be a bummer because it ends up being the one to tie the second half of the album together, bite off a few more big riffs and line things up for a relisten.

At that point the album has delivered upon the promise of its bigger swinging riffs early on, gone fully into its prog-death and psychedelic rock textural reap and come out of it feeling like a substantial experience. Even more important for my own taste is that the touch of traditional death metal still feels like an important basal factor for the album’s greater expression, even if they’ve deviated wildly throughout the full listen a few key moments still hammer it home that the darkest, most aggressive extreme of Hallucinate‘s sound is yet rooted in rocking death noise. The only minor downside to the hole experience is a somewhat humble cover art choice (recalls Nuclear Death‘s ‘The Planet Cachexial‘ visually) which is memorable yet not as visually exciting as one would expect per the style and substance of the record. Otherwise, a lasting piece of psychedelic prog-death music which should thoroughly entertain folks seeking this “know it when you hear it” type niche. A high recommendation.

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