Lucifer’s Dream is essentially the opposite of what you expect to hear from a metal album in this era. Clean sounds, stentorian or aggressive voices, percussion thrown at crazy speeds and assorted virtuosity: here, of all this in the first full length branded Mindkult you will not find the slightest trace. The solo project of the musician from Virginia who calls himself Fowst is a kind of space-time bubble, which is a bit like walking in a city of the future overlooked by skyscrapers and, turning the corner, find yourself in front of a hill topped by a medieval castle and its village: in Lucifer’s Dream is offered a psychedelic stoner that seems to drag like a lazy snake, while a pleasantly off-key voice like that of a J Mascis just barely reinvigorated tells us his horrific visions. A dirty sound, but damn authentic, and an approach that more naive than this could not bring us back in its most psychedelic parts to certain eighties anti-heroes such as Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond) always keeping in mind, however, that Mindkult are a stoner doom project, and then we talk about something that at the time had not yet been codified. All this is useful to give a general idea, because, despite my descriptions may seem that in this album there is nothing wrong, in fact it is exactly the opposite: just its sluggish pace, almost indolent, divorced from any idea of formal perfection, wraps and stuns forcing the listener to a kind of spell for which he finds himself to love a record that, instinctively, he would have used maybe as a frisbee. Between stoner doom, shoegaze, a lot of psychedelia and a pinch of blues out of tune, Lucifer’s Dream could turn into a nightmare for those who search in music all the characteristics that I listed in the opening lines. On the contrary, tracks like Drink My Blood, Infernals and the title track will creep into the head continuing to echo dangerously long. In the notes accompanying the album are mentioned names such as Black Sabbath, The Cure, Hooded Menace, Altar Of Betergeuze, Windhand, Uncle Acid and Ghost: those who know all these bands, after listening to Lucifer’s Dream can have fun playing the game of true or false, the fact remains that Fowst has found a stylistic and expressive way that, beyond the inevitable references, appears in its own way very personal.

2017 – Throne Records