Having healed soured-over psychic wounds with tincture and tonics squeezed from a golden flower the holistic vision of Portland, Oregon-based psychedelic doom/heavy rock trio Hippie Death Cult on this sea-change sporting third full-length album posits the survival instinct imbued, the durance of the psyche, and the transformative qualities of community. As a result of adversity and continued search for the attuned self ‘Helichrysum‘ presses on as a venture willing to stretch out toward new extremes, be it a roar or revelation, confident enough in the process that it’ll all come snapping back into order. Steeped in doom but not defeat, oiled-over with psychedelic tones but never intoxicated by escapism the product of this impressive adaptation of the entity is a memorable, often ear-catching search which fans of classic heavy rock and stoner metal will gladly join in on.

Borne from a place of heavy psychedelic blues, 70’s hard rock, stoner rock revivalism and steeped in the aura of traditional doom metal circa 2017 by way of producer, engineer, and guitarist Eddie Brnabic the original line-up of Hippie Death Cult was a quartet formation including folks who’d featured in various lesser known acts in the Portland and Los Angeles sludge and stoner music scenery. They were onto something soulful and righteously jammed-out by the time their well-received debut LP (‘111‘, 2019) landed. Praised for the soulful vocals of Ben Jackson (Sioux) and the wayback machined blues-riddled swagger, chunk and wail motion of their songcraft it was an inspired debut album and no doubt it has held up. Today that sound feels like an entirely different headspace for the band in some respects, same core inspiration behind their work but most rooted in the best of Witchcraft with a bit of a Green Lung-esque charisma. A different aura had huffed into their sophomore LP (‘Circle of Days‘, 2021) a soulful heavy rock record which’d been undersold by its plain cover art and change of tone which’d gone for faster, chunked at pieces here and there but largely focused on the psychedelic and lighter-handed shades of their sound. That was it for Jackson up front, whatever the circumstances were the quartet were soon a trio and bassist Laura Phillips stepped up as the lead vocalist beyond 2021.

While I’d felt the original vocalist had something special going on Hippie Death Cult‘s debut it was clear from the first listen of ‘Helichrysum‘ that what the band’d become with Phillips up front was even more to my own taste. Not only does her voice take an initially dire tone, and touches upon a severe occult/blues rock cadence much of the time, but the music bends into heavy psych motivated, gloomin’ doom metal on its most key tracks while keeping the bustle and groove of the past part of the main conversation (see: “Shadows”, “Tomorrows Sky”.) So, you’d be better off pointing toward a band like Castle (California) rather than Blood Ceremony this time around thanks to a heavier, more immediately guitar driven push up front, a Sabbath grooved psychedelic/stoner doom at the very least as we step into stamping intensity of opener “Arise“. Beyond the growl into view the running order plays with both celebratory, glowering, and dramatic tonality in keeping each piece varietal before the darker, vengeful pieces hit at the mid-point in the album. The full experience hasn’t been hinted at even as we hit upon the chilled ooze of ‘Circle of Days‘ as “Better Days” reaches its spiritual high around the mid-point of the piece. This’ll test the patience of the riff-obsessed class of listener but some bigger, bolder ideas are up next.

“Red Giant” b/w “Toxic Annihilator” offer a buzzing stoner metal riff-driven roll which simultaneously feels like a 70’s heavy metal bumbling jam down a dark path and a bit of tirade for this bigger, stronger, and well-surviving point of proof Hippie Death Cult bring to this third album. There is such character to these pieces and their transition from Side A to Side B, pulling apart the main riff on “Toxic Annihilator”, that I’d found myself giving this album far more repeat listens than expected. Getting hooked on ‘111‘ was maybe a cool thing I’d discovered by chance on Bandcamp but ‘Helichrysum‘ insists on making the argument, putting on a show and doing something a bit different. Here’s hoping they can snake a bit more of this stoner-thrashing buzz into their sound in the future as it’d well-and-hooked me in for those seven minutes. From that point the remaining sermons are well set up with the earlier Blood Ceremony-esque trip of “Nefelibata” serving as the dramatic peak of the experience from my perspective and the closer leaving things on a lighter, enlightened and positive outlook.

Ease of approach is a big deal for a band in the style of Hippie Death Cult especially if you often feel like you’ve heard it all, but perhaps enjoy when you’ve heard a band that can do it all in terms of broad and effective variety. Sure this one is edgier, heavier and has some of their biggest riffs but the stoney, bluesy traipse of ‘Helichrysum‘ is just as important in creating its hills-and-valleys approach to the full album dynamic. I think I’d hit about five or so full runs through their gig here before it’d hit that point of above-average in my mind and it came thanks to both variety and approachable (still soulful) songs but I’d say moreso for the handful of bigger swings taken throughout, these begin to amount to a personality in bloom and I see great potential in the most resilient and defiant moments on this album. A high recommendation.

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