Los Angeles'
Ancestors have the moves of stoner rock and metal down cold -- thick tones, bluesy riffs, organ-drenched psychedelia. Their debut,
Neptune with Fire, also has luscious artwork and a recording that preserves analog warmth with modern heft. While the sound is there, the songs aren't. Not that three-minute singles are at stake -- stoner rock/metal has always been about the jams. But these two long tracks, totaling almost 39 minutes, don't feel like organic wholes. Instead, they seem pieced together and meanderingly drawn out. "Orcus' Avarice" opens like the second coming of
Kyuss, with big, blustering riffs. It drops into a blacklit, mellow passage with directionless (albeit fluid) noodling, then forces its way up to an unconvincing climax. "Neptune with Fire" starts out with similar grit, then goes through the same mellow-back-to-loud formula. Despite the structural weakness of this record, it has killer moments. In particular, the title track has lovely, ghostly tones and an eerie melody that's either a theremin or a disembodied female voice.
Ancestors just need to connect such sonic highlights coherently.