Spanish doom? Southern Lord's Orthodox might want to rethink their name - honestly. Sure, the black robes are spooky and all, but it's a lot easier to wear them all the time if you're Sunn0))). Los Angeles is warm, I know, but fucking Spain? It's got to be sweaty inside those things. I suppose if the prime directive is to make some of the heaviest, sludgiest, slowest music tolerable to the human ear then regulating ones body temperature becomes less of a concern. In fact, the onset of dizziness due to heat stroke might actually give some musical inspiration. Kind of like when Hendrix took acid when he played, only crazier. So how do these Spaniards add up?
This question is quite difficult to answer because how does one define good drone anyway? Is it sludgy? Not really, there are some dirty parts to the album, but it also has a relatively clean sound too. There's nothing evil about that. Is it slow? Well yeah, that's a given, but these songs sound like the band simply forgot they were playing - probably due to the heat stroke from those hot fucking cloaks - and were simply trying to come back in on the beat. As a fan of doom I feel I should be, at all times, barraged by a wall of sound that will suck the life out of me so by the time I'm finished listening to the album I feel weaker than when I started. With Gran Poder I do, but it's more out of boredom. Instead of the wall of noise there are several instances where there are large gaps of silence or the simple hum of an amplifier, which brings me to the next and most important question. Is it heavy? Not really; sure there's distortion and the guitars are obviously tuned down but to really get anything out this album I had to turn my speakers up to the point they almost blow. With a good drone bands, this should happen with no effort from the listener.
Gran Poder translates to "Great Power," which means from the get go they are promising to blow your ass away with the low end. And Orthodox tires, so we'll give 'em that. The problem is I don't think they are really sure where they want to take this band. Half the songs are their best attempt at a doom/drone style and the others are their take at death metal. And the Venom cover, yes, there is a Venom cover, what's the point? I personally think it is kickass, but pointless. Gran Poder is more of a display of what they can do, not what they set out to do.
