(Doom Metal) Spancer - Greater Than The Sun - 2011, (tracks+.cue), lossless

#777German sludge destructors, Spancer, the unusual, dual-bass guitar toting quintet are back with their third masterpiece of crippling riff crucifixion entitled, Greater Than The Sun! FINALLY. With Spancer though, I’m used to waiting. And the wait is never excruciating, because like all good elephants of the doom scene, “they take their time, and knowingly enjoy their days.” That’s the Spancer way, and it always leads to some of the best earthen heft ever cut to disc, as far as crusty 70s riffs and slit throat screaming vocals are concerned. There’s never been a rush since their immaculate (and still so) debut, Countdown to Victory hit the scene, there wasn’t one on the path to their second release, Slowly, We Rock and there’s no reason for one now.
Spancer dwell in a strange sludge world. A world where samurai’s slice a swath straight to Nippon and back, tangling with evil shoguns who won’t relinquish the holy green seeds, as they quest and endlessly row the galley on a mission to kick that piece of shit sword out of Christ’s hole-y hands (name the Spancer songs in this sentence and win a prize!). Outside of resident screamer Markus Munz’s philosophical rants, bent by the usual filth smirched content of classic sludge (I really like his mixture of the two, lyrically speaking…who smudged shit and spunk on my Philosophy textbooks, c’mon, whodunit?), the band’s instrumental temple, built upon the peaceful ground occupied by the snoozing corpses of the elder monks is impenetrable…even those with the advanced chakras to enter such Bardos will be ripped apart by the tumultuous 70s licks, and the soul sucking, phase vacuum of twin low-end bullies, Ingo Wedemann and Lars Kappe.
Spancer are masters of creating tension, and release. They know which songs need the atmospheric build-ups and which ones should teleport straight to the riff mantra. The band senses the needs of a grief stricken sludge monger, and chooses their path with great care, yielding untold riches that are far and away from just a bunch riffs stitched together without a greater purpose.
“The Great Saint Equaling Heaven” as with every Spancer album opener, chooses the road that portents a lengthy, symbolic channeling of energy. Guitars squeal incessantly, raping the ears with divine feedback manna, one bassist sinking into a barely tangible riff, the other veiling his instrument with ambient FX, whilst the careening, foot up a Buddha’s ass pummeling of drummer, Jan Weihie drives the band forever onward. Not content to blow their collective load and put all the cards on the table just yet, the instruments pull back to a lone bass groove and steady percussive wallop that encases the fossilized vocal remains; screeching expulsions that literally sound like someone is slowly beating a pterodactyl to death with a cricket bat (Markus’ screams are definitely a bit higher in range this time around…and I heartily enjoy his maniacal whispers that cryptically foretell the madness to come). Riffs start picking up with each passing inch of sound, guitarist York Wiese patiently plying feedback and effect to the dirge-y bass lick bartering, waiting for his own pivotal moment to step triumphantly into the eye of the hurricane. Everything’s deliberately played and meticulously paced until a midpoint ruckus marked by staggering snare fills changes the tides immensely; a bass-y duel taking place on the ramparts of the temple’s grand Iommian gardens, teeming with bearded outgrowth that spawns the flower of sultry 70s leads which will send this song off on a cosmic course, like the first NASA expedition to be manned by highly intoxicated astronauts. And just when you think you got ‘em figured out, they swerve the Milky Way, and flip the void…rambling in the nether with their pounding toms, heathen vocal damning, and explorative psychedelia that hits one of those grand bluesy moments that I haven’t heard Electric Wizard nail in a small eon. Then the pressure crushes you, the complex and agile fills signify the loss of all oxygen and life as we know it, and we ride the boogie comet all the way to the outer reaches of Church of Misery’s wah-drenched guitar solos, and iron riffed groove…only this is a much heavier trip than COM, rendered ably so by the unapproachable low-end double header. Bass, the final frontier!
And the momentum never wavers from track to track, delivering only fatal blows of sludge encrusted maliciousness. “Those Once Lost-Godhead” is a fat, slimy Santa’s stocking with a sludge surprise inside. Monstrous bluesy bass riffs (both distorted and clean), complimented by wah-guitar leads, groove like nobody’s business, sandwiching in a curdled layer of wretched, sloth doom with two pieces of swinging Sabbath wheat. Markus’ lungs sound like they could jump out of his throat and flop around on the floor at any given moment, and there’re some nice little change-ups to the main riff’s chord progressions in the finale that damages and bruises this thing up with even more busted bone, hook-laden headbanging; heavier than Eyehategod any day of the week, and twice on Tuesdays. It’s quite the opposite of “Agent Sirius,” with its lingering opening bass line that hints at a slower, festering plod with dingy Grief-esque sludge adopting a Sabbath slant that toys occasionally with leads both, uplifting and depressing, splitting the difference somewhere between the loins of Winter and the almighty Sab. Meaty clean breaks from one of the 2-bassists provides a nice break before the band plummets into ambient desolation desecration midway through, tipping off a series of thunderfuck riffs and extensively plotted, surgical solos that congeal back into the aforementioned licks and the first ever, Spancer double vocal track, that actually features a few clean background harmonies with the screams! “(I am) Phoenix” draws the curtain with the subtle nuance of a falling guillotine, and a soon to be severed neck; equal doses of blues, hate-doom, and red blood cells liberally spritzing in massive tidal waves upon shivering onlookers.
Spancer does no wrong to sludge fans on Greater Than The Sun. All 3 of their records are essential sludge releases, and the double bass axe tactic, while possibly gimmicky on paper, leads to a relentless, unimaginably thick take on the whole sludge game in actuality. Pound for pound, it’s already one of the best releases in its genre in 2011, standing tall beside Morbid Wizard’s Lord of the Rats. The Spancer boys may not win any races in terms of the time it takes to whip up another 3 or 4 songs worth of lengthy new material, but they never fail, never falter, and always deliver a fistful of groovy sewage straight to the audio hog trough that occupies a rabid sludge fan’s brain; essential if this is your thing!

Ingo Wedemann - Bass
Lars Kappe - Bass
Jan Weihie - Drums
York Wiese - Guitars
Markus Münz - Vocals