Another post-Reverend Bizarre project from Albert Witchfinder, this time seemingly aiming for the very notion of tedium. The glut of ideas leftover from RB is impressive but the need to indulge them is perhaps not so impressive as this record inhabits the realm of the lackadaisical better than any i've heard in a long, long time.Very little happens here across an epic expanse of 76 minutes. It's heavy, yes-you expected that-and at times there's a sort of majestic quality that other bands strive for, but for the most part this is bloated and incredibly self-indulgent doom metal expanse, the end result of the idea that hammering away slowly on power chords will inevitably yield credibility. Here's a hint-it doesn't. This is a massive slab of post rock bullshit, with arpeggiated chords and glistening clean guitar lines looking to fill up a vast infinity of space that only serves to nod the listener off into a bitter realm of unengagedness, a sort of tired resignation to an endless barrage of distortion and brutality. The sheer sonic onslaught is admirable, it's just a lack of ideas that brings the Opium Warlords down.
Albert Witchfinder is a superlative writer and a musical visionary. Those facts are beyond argument. In the wake of Reverend Bizarre it's only natural he would spread out a bit and look to find a new genre to nestle into and utterly domintae. This sort of plodding Sunn 0))) like excess does not suit the man and only serves to hinder the advancing of a true doom metal juggernaut. I can only hope that "Live at Colonia Dignidad" (which obviously isn't live, by the way) is a momentary stop on the path to true transcendence, and that no other monolithic time wasters such as this will surface. Even if he chooses to keep the Opium Warlords moniker the music has to improve, else an ocean of banality taint the legacy of one of doom metal's truest, most fervent practitioners.
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