The Seattle quintet Scriptures return with an amazing LP of cinematic psych on their newest offering Incantations out now on Portland’s SELF Group label. The band was born from the ashes of the Montana-based post-rock outfit This Is A Process Of A Still Life, and it includes drummer Baine Craft, guitarist David Totten, and keyboardist/guitarist Jeff Forrest from that previous effort. The core trio is joined by bassist John Herman, as well as the guitarist Casey Alexander, and together the quintet has released their 2012, self-titled long-player and 2013 EP The Hunters.
On Incantations, the band expands instrumental psych into wide-screen, Western panoramas built around their pyrotechnic guitar work and primal, searing rhythms. “231 Gates” is a great example of the varied terrain this group is capable of covering, as well as their ability to get obliteratingly heavy. Initially atmospheric and open-air, a tribal beat simmers while guitar-lines interweave and chime skyward on the track. Soon, though, a sense of foreboding resonates from the mix as complex polyrhythms initiate black smoking passages of dense metal. By the track’s end, all 231 gates have been blasted wide apart, and just for good measure, Scriptures have jammed them open with a giant, flaming ax.
