Bandcamp Os Solair call themselves a psychedelic rock band, and on paper Lever / Capra is a modest thing: two tracks, self-recorded as near-one-takes in a Darmstadt rehearsal room by a four-piece with a certain DIY humility about them. Press play, though, and the psychedelia turns out to be the calm before a blackened storm. This is atmospheric black metal and blackgaze as much as it is psych, all reverb-drenched guitar haze and harsh screams rising out of long, patient builds, and the self-made origins are a feature rather than a limit.
Both tracks are studies in the same move, the slow climb from filigree to detonation. “Lever” is the more post-rock of the pair, a wide, spacious wash of delayed guitars over a warm, un-clicked kick and airy cymbals, its screams pushed deep and heavily reverbed until the voice reads as another texture rather than a message. “Capra” pulls harder toward symphonic, progressive death, orchestral and synth layers thickening the climaxes into something cinematic before the guitars punch back through. The mastering is refreshingly un-squashed on both, letting the quiet-to-huge dynamic actually breathe, which is exactly what music like this needs.
The limits are a rhythm section that hangs back too far and a little congestion up top. The bass mostly fills sub duty without any growl or midrange character of its own, so the low end feels more like a pad than a player, and in the densest tutti passages the low mids stack up and blur the guitar detail. At two tracks it is a taster more than a statement, and the buried vocals mean the songs work on mood rather than words. Small prices for something this atmospheric and this clearly self-made.
Lever / Capra is a promising, genuinely dynamic slab of blackgaze-leaning psych from a band who recorded it themselves and let it breathe, and for anyone who likes their black metal hazy, melodic and built around the drop it is a strong short listen. Come for the builds and the scenery, not for the low end. Two tracks, and they both go somewhere.
A self-recorded Darmstadt four-piece whose psychedelic rock erupts into atmospheric black metal and blackgaze, harsh screams rising out of long patient builds. Both tracks study the same climb from filigree to detonation: “Lever” is the more post-rock, a wide spacious wash of delayed guitars over a warm un-clicked kick with the screams pushed deep and heavily reverbed until the voice reads as texture; “Capra” pulls toward symphonic progressive death, orchestral and synth layers thickening the climaxes into something cinematic. The mastering is refreshingly un-squashed, letting the quiet-to-huge dynamic breathe. The reservations are a bass that hangs back as pure sub-fill without growl or mid character, and low-mid stacking that blurs guitar detail in the densest tutti passages, plus vocals buried enough that the songs work on mood over words.
Standout tracks: Lever, Capra
