Megaritual - Dreamfeeder (2017)

Born of both sky and soul, "Dreamfeeder" is the latest release from Australian one-man band Megaritual and it manages to feel simultaneously worldly and cosmic over the course of its 25 minute musical odyssey. It's a beautiful mix of genres that you can almost think of as an audio mosaic - you can zoom in and analyze one component, but when you do, you're missing the bigger picture. Here, that big picture is a swirling, trippy journey that starts in your head and ends sprawled out among the stars. The album starts with the title track, which leaves acoustic trails echoing through the void before blossoming into a booming doom metal and then evolving beyond that. The doom is strong here at the beginning, but over the course of the album it shifts, evaporates, and simply leaves behind its dark flavor to enhance everything that follows. Conversely, you'll hear a hint of Eastern musical influence trickling through the music at first, but when the second track hits, it's like the dam breaks and you feel it rushing forth like a raging torrent. Exotic Indian tunes (raga) weave through a mesh of psychedelic, stoner, doom, and rippling cosmic sounds. It's the kind of stuff you should burn incense to, but even if you don't you'll probably get a whiff anyway because the music practically gives off its own fumes. This is unique piece of work for sure, sort of outside the realm of what I'd normally dig into, but I'm really glad I did. -Brandon