The Darkening Plain [Vinyl]

Transmaniacon take the blueprint and soundworld laid down by Bloodrock, Mountain, Steppen-wolf, Blue Oyster Cult and Alice Cooper, and add a hefty slab of dark doom, hard riffs, punk atti-tude and stoner metal to ramp it up for the 21st century. The vibe is steeped in 70’s rock, but the sound is definitely ‘NOW’ From the Sabbathian sludge of ‘City Of Chaos’ to the Dead Kennedy-esque ‘An Eye For An Eye’ and the stoner moves of ‘Chasing The Insane’ the album is shot through with twists and chock full of riffs. This is hard rock at its hardest and heaviest set against an expansive post apocalyptic backdrop. Nothing encapsulates the cinematic darkness more than the album opener, which grafts a progressive approach to hard rock and doom. ‘Quintessence of Dust’ is a 24 minute monolithic mindfuck of epic proportions, the now completed score to the still-born science fiction horror story possibly. An intense listen that features the spoken word talents of punk poet Lydia Lunch. ‘Quintessence Of Dust’ is a grim eco warning, a tale of alien invasion and payback time for a future Earth’s corpulent consumer-ism, rampant waste and self centred greed. A hideous flesh and metal robot army, hybrid humans inadvertently created by man himself, invade, take over and consume the Earth Sleeve is by one of the real legends of horror, sci-fi and fantasy illustration, Ian Miller.