Review: The Myrrors - Arena Negra

The Myrrors 2013 LP 'Burning Circles in The Sky' came as a bolt from the blue (for us, not them...it was actually recorded some 5 years earlier) - their arid, sun-baked take on psychedelia adding something new and most welcome to the scene. The LP was followed by the 'Solar Collector' EP (which, much to my chagrin, I managed to miss acquiring - doh!) which only added to their burgeoning reputation.

The new LP, 'Arena Negra' continues is the same vein, kicking off with the drones and muted chanting of the title track and rises and falls for over eleven minutes. The guitars chime and resonate providing an atmospheric opener for the rest of the album. 'Juanito Laguna Duerma Con Los Grillos' is carried along by a simple bassline over soft, contemplative vocal work and segues nicely into 'Dome House Music' - an instrumental which sounds as though the guys have utilised every instrument at their disposal - the sounds of sax and clarinet add an oddly cacaphonous quality which could have sounded at odds with the rest of the LP, but they have skilfully intertwined the sounds to make a wonderful whole.

'The Forward Path' is a twenty minute opus that starts with some great drones before some sparse and muted vocals kick in. The first half of the track has an almost post-rock feel to it; every cymbal crash can be heard clearly through some wonderul 'western' sounding guitars and the emphasis is definitely on atmosphere and building tension. At about the halfway mark the track drops again to a single drone, bassline and a flute fluttering in the distance and then it builds again - the tempo increasing and more ingrediants added to the mix - and it builds and it builds....the skronking sax reappears and some indecipherable chanting/vocals and a touch of feedback here and there. The denouement, when it arrives, is not the blood and thunder that I, for one, was waiting for but leaves you wanting more...and that is surely the sign of musicians at the top of their game; they don't have to throw everything at it to make a point, they can take a more measured, intelligent approach to leave the listener salivating and unable not to play the album again from the beginning!

This really is a fantastic piece of work - at times you can almost see the eagles soaring over the Sierra Nevadas, such is the atmosphere it can evoke, but it never strays far from it's psychedelic roots. Unfortunately gotta wait until March to get the vinyl...ho hum.

It is released March 25th by Beyond Beyond Is Beyond and distro in the UK by Cardinal Fuzz.