Hypnotic Nausea, Anal Veritas // Six D.O.G.S. , Athens, Greece // 29.11.2015
The final day of this underground little festival had come, and with it came the chance to see HYPNOTIC NAUSEA presenting live their first album, “Hypnosis”.
Before that would happen though, we had the opportunity to watch ANAL VERITAS, a band that has been lurking in the underground for a long time and recently released their debut album “Project: T.V. Junkies”. First of all, their sound was perhaps the clearest sound I’ve ever heard from a Greek band in that venue, and definitely one of the loudest! That being the case, their own personal brew of “southern groove meets grunge with sludge explosions scattered all over the place” was done great justice on stage and almost every song had me nodding my head or tapping my foot following the rhythm.
They seemed very well rehearsed, with a very compact sound and some very interesting Mastodon-esque twists and turns here and there, plus, their singer was awesome. He was able to switch from clean, melodic southern singing to “scream your lungs out” hoarse brutality and back again, without a single misstep or a drop in quality. All in all, a very professional appearance by ANAL VERITAS and if you are looking for some dudes that work well on the southern thing, minus the tackiness, look no further.
HYPNOTIC NAUSEA rushed on stage, wasting no time and, man, weren’t they a colorful bunch! Besides the feathers and other weird tribal stuff hanging from the bass guitar of the bassist, they had a space on the right of the stage for a DJ with a laptop and a sampler (and as it proved this musician was crucial as well, and not onstage just for show). Those of you accustomed with the mighty TUBER will probably love these guys, as they portray a rather similar concept of fuzzy stoner rock, mixed with post rock melodies and outbursts, albeit Hypnotic Nausea roll a bit more on the experimental side, with a clear taste for psychedelic chords and looser song structures, bringing Colour Haze in my mind a bit.
What also captured my attention was the –as mentioned before-prominent use of samples, loops, synths and beats integrated perfectly into the mix created by the guitar, bass and drums, serving as a very refreshing and unexpected touch with meaningful purpose in the band’s set (even stealing the show at one time or two). Although I found their songs to be a bit less memorable than I expected, their skills, the genre they chose to serve and their stance towards psychedelic/post rock, all were elements that made me want to spend more time with Hypnotic Nausea’s music. So, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and listen to their debut album “Hypnosis” one more time! It was another good night for the Greek underground.
P.S. The bands were on time, the ticket price was cheap and the show ended way before the last train and bus routes, so one could not help but feel somewhat sad seeing that only 40-50 people turned up…”The Chosen Few” as the Wizard once said, I guess.