DistortedSound.com just ran a review of the latest from Aiwass, an occult-oriented act helmed by Blke Carrera. The review sez:
Hailing from the eccentric and diverse city of Austin, Texas, and created by multi-instrumentalist Blake Carrera, AIWASS is a one man, occult-inspired psychedelic doom project influenced by the works of and named after the controversial yet acclaimed English occultist Aleister Crowley. Bursting onto the scene throughout 2021 with a series of singles and eventually his debut album Wayward Gods, AIWASS began to establish himself in the underground. Now he returns with his sophomore album The Falling, which marks a step into the unknown for AIWASS as Carrera expands his horizons beyond doom.
Aleister Crowley is a polarising but fascinating figure in the history of occultism; he published a number of works during his lifetime and declared himself a prophet in his own religion of Thelema, and his fundamental ideology was to guide humanity into the light of the Æon of Horus. While Thelema has been at the core of Carrera’s work since the beginning, The Falling is a significantly more experimental and expansive album than its predecessor. While his lyrics are intertwined with Thelema, he also expresses a more personal side as he explores his personal struggles and thoughts around mental illness, philosophy and psychology.
The album channels the enigmatic esotericism that Crowley was known for in a far more succinct way. The Falling also incorporates influences from across the musical spectrum including classical music, black metal, country and more. For Carrera, the creation of The Falling was a high risk, high reward endeavour and the results speak for themselves, as it is a wonderfully intoxicating and enchanting set of songs. This multi-influence songwriting and exploration of eerier atmospheres began to emerge on The Eastern Scrolls – a split EP by AIWASS and AAWKS which was released earlier this year.
Notably, The Falling is significantly spacious with a new level of intensity and depth. The album was shaped partly by Grant Husselman (a long time collaborator with KING BUFFALO), and with his production input AIWASS has reinvented itself as an intriguing and zealous new entity. Ominous and evocative, The Falling shows AIWASS in a haunting new light as Carrera departs from the fuzz-saturated modus operandi of doom.
Visit the site: https://distortedsoundmag.com/album-review-the-falling-aiwass/.
