Midryasi"Corridors"LP

Hailing from the Lombard provinces in Northern Italy, Midryasi is a sonic trio playing highly acid heavy-psych with doom metal and space (even kraut!) rock influences. The group was formed in 2002 and made their debut in 2005 with a very interesting self-titled album. After taking a break from the studio, during which they intensively played live and shared the stage with the likes of Witchcraft, The Heads, Doomraiser, Zippo, and Wall of Sleep, the guys are now ready to spread their unholy gospel enclosed in the 6 tracks of their lately released sophomore effort. Corridors indeed marks a notable quantum leap forward, in that it encapsulates and conveys all of the band’s lysergic and spaced-out attitude in a very well-developed, focused, and distinctive way. The title track opens up the CD with its 8 minutes of galloping and ever-changing rhythms, blending heavy, psychedelic, and space rock soundscapes that are both dark and melodically evocative. The most obvious references here are Hawkwind and old Monster Magnet, yet Midryasi shows they’re perfectly capable of doing their thing. On this very song, the guitar solo is very impressive, and so are the vocals handled by singer Convulsion (quite some nickname!); he sounds psychotic and hallucinated on the one hand, clean and original on the other and, to some extent, reminiscent of Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling. “Woman of Doom” follows, entering the realm of Sabbath-oriented sounds mixed with a remarkable psychedelic and bluesy rock taste (check out those vintage Hammond organ inserts!). Raw and hypnotic, “Steal My Breath” can be compared to an acid and dreadful trip into horror rock territory à la Goblin and early Death SS. “The Cave” is a mocking psych-doom lullaby which draws some inspiration from Cathedral, Pentagram, and Sleep, and features a haunting, ritual-like crescendo and corrosive guitar improvisations, then comes that little gem entitled “Lize,” an acid-psych ballad where, inspiration-wise, Hawkwind collides with Atomic Rooster and Monster Magnet. This is the grooviest and catchiest track in the lot and might well appeal to a broader, even non-metal, audience. Closer “Another Hell Within (Space Suite Version)” is a 14-minute long marathon: Try to figure out a visionary jam session between Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Hawkwind, High Tide, and Blood Ceremony, and you’ll get an idea of what this monster, almost entirely instrumental, song is all about. This is ritualistic music for free minds and most likely to cause the listener mydriasis, that is, the excessive dilation of the pupil, a pathology which serves as inspiration for the band’s moniker. It can be due to disease, trauma, or the use of drugs. Or rather, I would add, to a massive dose of the music played by this amazing power trio, which, along with acts like OJM, Zippo, Doomraiser, and L’Ira del Baccano among others, firmly puts Italy’s name on the international heavy-psych map. Hats off!