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Album Details

• Album: Harmonic Tremors
• Label: Hydra Head
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: christopherdrew on 2007-03-13

Every autumn, freaks and longhairs and no-goodniks gather in New Mexico for Fiesta de Santa Fe, a celebration/re-enactment of de Vargas’ Entrada (look it up; this ain’t no history lesson), wherein said undesirables raise a 50-foot effigy known as Zozobra (“Old Man Gloom”) and then burn the fucker down, while, I imagine, dancing around wearing only body-paint and sandals, tripping out on cortical extract from newborn babies. Think a more latino-centric Burning Man, or The Wicker Man without Michael Caine or Nicolas Cage getting roasted alive.
Gatherings like this do little for me other than highlight the need for more selective breeding programs in our society; but that’s just me. Caleb Scofield (Cave-In, Old Man Gloom) seems to draw inspiration from the festivities, though, which brings us to Zozobra’s Harmonic Tremors, the latest gloom-metal project from Boston’s Hydra Head label (motto: “WE HAVE YET TO SUCK AT ANYTHING”).
Holy CRAP, Batman.
I should’ve known what I was getting into, judging from Scofield’s earlier work, as Zozobra draws heavily from those groups, especially OMG’s penchant for loud experimentalism. Harmonic Tremors opens with ‘The Blessing’, a volcano of dirge-like guitars and stuttering rhythms that kicks the listener in the head solidly and repeatedly; the song is both announcement and warning, as none of the nine remaining tracks ease off, instead maintaining a firm foundation of caterwauling guitars and mountain-man bellowing. The closest one gets to a respite is the last track, “A Distant Star Fades”, that begins as a massive wash of sound evocative of My Bloody Valentine, before resume its persistent pace to cap off this bonfire of an album.
Zozobra is also Scofield’s first outing as prime songwriter/motivator, and he handles the task quite well, enlisting only fellow OMG alumni Carlos Montano to help out; certainly, there are comparisons to be made to his previous bands, but with Zozobra he manages to find a comfortable niche between the two, pushing the boundaries of Cave-In’s more conventional sound while reigning in some of Old Man Gloom’s rambling dissonance. Harmonic Tremors is a fantastic debut, and no doubt sets Scofield up as an artist to watch out for in the future (as long as he leaves the festival hippies at home).

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