Torn apart by ecstatic wrenching upon the wheel, the leaden ambition of a defeated mind blinks into scene sinking-fast in descent as the girders of their erratic soul are lightened down to brittle skeletal wings. Left in the throes of the incessant dictation of an incorporeal whisperer echoing through the chambers of the physical heart, an unbelievable possession takes place as Austin, Texas-based psychedelic doom metal act Aiwass documents one’s reach into the shadowed, unheard-of corners of their own singularity in divining this sophomore full-length album. As a second, far more serious undertaking beyond their first stumble into view ‘The Falling‘ reads as a glowing Leslie speaker warped peer into the afterlife and one which which leads to better actualization of the self-apart. A rare stoner-readied doom outlier in growling cathedralesque burst, consider this work entirely unique as an amplifier set upon the process of tearing apart the fiction of the self and carrying away only what is real.

Aiwass formed by way of musician Blake Carrera circa pandemic year MMXX, inspired by confinement while living in Phoenix, Arizona at the time alongside a repeated reading of Aleister Crowley’s Liber al vel Legis he’d picked up a guitar again after several years of pause — None could blame thee possessed for being compelled to make heavy metal. In his case it was blues rock inspired heavy/doom metal in the general stoner realm something comparable to the effects garbled Sabbath grooves of Electric Wizard were set in mind and thus the first year of the project involved numerous demoed songs, singles, and eventually their first EP release (‘His Name Was Aiwass‘, 2021) where he’d used vocal effects to mask what was clearly a formative attempt to sing. The vocal abilities picked up a bit more confidence on the inevitable self-financed debut LP (‘Wayward Gods‘, 2021) though the rotating speaker effect (emulation of the Leslie speaker effect used on “Planet Caravan”) was used to give color and a psychedelic allowance to a still very green artist who’d likewise shown some interest in sludge-adjacent sensibilities and an explosive yet muddy sound which featured ritualistic pump, spaced out grooves that’d spoken a certain era of early pre-‘post-metal’ atmospheric sludge where Amebix-sized groaning riffs worked up to their own cliffs beyond doom metal. There is still some merit to that first full-length but in hindsight and with ‘The Fallen‘ in hand the debut LP was merely a walk to the cusp of capability, a dry run to make sure they knew the process.

The first note I took as “Prometheus” lit up the equalizer with its chorale of tormented angels was “Planet Caravan in an inverted state, afterlife, a choir and a drowned narrator” and this should suggest the vocal effects are still a prominent part of Aiwass‘ voice but here we find the opening piece revealing the artist is capable of melodicism, cadence with an eerie sense of mood articulated clearly to start but with the ‘clean’ guitar tone cranked through a shuddering auto-vibrato. As the album progresses the vocals do eventually take on a deeper effects-warped station depending on the song, often accompanied by wobbling Hammond-esque organs and heavier riffing. To start we get a taste of the surreal, a hall-sized space echoing its ten person choirs and a glowing central presence from Carrera upwards. The endurance of the moment is funereal in the way that prime Neurosis might’ve been in the mid-2000’s with a whirring second guitar voicing providing an insectoid hum while a huge doom metal riff grinds into the end. So much is piled upon “Prometheus” that it cannot help but provide sensorial overwhelm, a mood so thick that it bears a different fact with each replay, and at the very least a compelling push into their sermon.

“Gnosis” builds on this sludged affect with its first minute of sullen guitar work before the second guitar hits what sounds like a fuzz pedal and a Boss HM-2 stomped at once for a simple growling doom metal riff back into a simmering first verse to kick off another extended ~9 minute funereal hymn to round out Side A. This was where the album touched upon something more tangible, no less extreme but certainly a morbid doom metal groove with a haunting application of Aiwass‘ unique voice that made sense beyond the mush of echoic, slippery effects. Of course vocal harmonies which develop in verse are above and beyond what many are doing with such morose moodiness today, certainly nothing with such a foundation of sludge beyond 2010’s Yob offers this level of immersion and tunefulness while still reaching for longform pieces. At this point I have to relent in my doubts, the suspicious that a low-calorie “pandemic project” might impress to start yet carry no real substantive value is assuaged by this second piece. Though to be fair Side B has the challenge of following up the miserable weight of the first half, much less outshining it.

At a glance I would say “The Light of Evil” carries with it some of the better traditional doom metal adjacent riffs on the album, or, an even more impressive showcase for the two-toned grind of the rhythm guitar layers amidst one of the more memorable, easier to read pieces on the full listen. The caveat is that the watery lead vocals might not be for everyone, the harmonies which arise within the chorus and the ‘Dopethrone‘-ass riffs that creep in mid-piece all continue to rake my senses with scintillation personally but, I’d understand if the more standard stoner-doom metal centric voice of the record will have been unburied for the otherwise mystified ear at this point in the full listen. The bluesy lead at ~4:20 minutes into the piece warms its back half and the chorus of the song is big enough that the song could more-or-less drone on forever. For my own taste this is the unofficial peak of the experience, where every step was still fresh enough that I was sold on this whole gig even if “Be Not a Man” needed more time to cook off its overindulged vocal effects and simple structure as it was time to shake it up rather than burn one of similar shape and value. Even so, not a stinker as the leads and the use of the Hammond organ equivalent reminded me of ‘Endtime‘-era Cathedral in a very indirect way and the piece continues to make good use of its infinite capacity for layers.

The dial hasn’t been pushed ’til broken off, yet. — If touring a bit off the first album allowed a practical sense of self in space, characterization and songcraft per ‘The Falling‘ then the next logical step has already been taken in terms of expanding into an actual line-up as the one general note to improve upon here is that the style, the depth of experience, and the auteur are all alight but what is missing here most is the mastery of rhythmic detail, the riffs. I’m not expecting ‘The Skull‘ or ‘Nightfall‘ part two but, a certain stylized knack that goes deeper into doom/sludge metal shapes without fiddling away the captivating mood Aiwass have summoned herein is the missing iota per my own sensibilities. That’s not to say that we’ve not gotten a deeper personalized rhythmic repertoire here, as closer “Crossing the Veil” suggests some devotional twang on the way out and earlier pieces are essentially (but not entirely) extreme metal toned at their most intense. There is a ways to go with this idea, more potential to be realized but the major accomplishment to be found on album number two comes by way of its vocal arrangements/songcraft in general.

Thrilling in its depth upon induction, haunting upon revisit, and staining in mind for what it ultimately pulls from the artist ‘The Falling‘ is uniquely mesmerizing in terms of its entertainment value and just personal enough in its indulgences to feel substantial, even after countless passes-through. Despite finding most of the heat centered around the first three songs the listening experience rings as a complete thought in mind and one which shows some immense growth for an artist who now delivers upon their promising beginnings in a surprising way. Top this accomplishment off with a fittingly expressive cover piece from surreal artist Justyna Koziczak and you’ve got one of the more notable psychedelic doom metal fixations of this year per my own measurements. A high recommendation.

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