review: Vokonis

Vokonis

Grasping Time

The Sign Records

6 September 2019

These hippies draw from that good time basket of psychedelic and stoner rock, from the spirit of 1970s heavy rock, and the contemporary conglomeration of stoner, doom and sludge, and out of all those intertwining threads they knit their own fabric of heaviness. The band goes beyond doing repetitive, simplistic riffs for the sake of heaviness. The riffs are there but they are secondary to the melodies. The guitar is big on the slow melodies. What are they doing with the melodies? Perhaps they love the slow melodies of Pink Floyd or maybe the guitar player is a big fanatic of the blues. It could be from psychedelic rock; or all of the above. Regardless, these bluesy hooks and melodies is one of the key components in the music.

There is a melodic singing voice that shows up in certain places. That’s the best part out of the vocal styles on display. The singing comes across as melodic and pleasant; it’s not high, nor oversung nor forced/strained. A good example of this style of singing is the first part of the second song. The other side is the main doom vocals, which sound like a dude kind of yelling-singing, kind of hollering-singing; sounds like a self-taught person making do with what they have. The first song is a good illustration of this style of vocals. The singing is much, much more attractive than the hollering-punk-shouting if the listener is looking for some singing. As for the hollering vocals, it has worked for stoner and doom for decades, so that’s that.

As long as the customer is not demanding outstanding singing from a doom product, then this album should be of interest. Doom fans always on the hunt for new products now have a new Vokonis work for consumption. vokonis.bandcamp.com/album/grasping-time