Blowing in from Ontario, Canada, on the cusp of an a cursed miasma; the indecorous psycho-doom sounds of Schmoog Lebowski, prompt such stunned responses as, “Jesus fucking Christ!!”, or, “What the Fuck?!!”.
Under the cryptic talisman moniker Swords of Texas – perhaps an allusion to some fabled southern Masonic lodges, or sub Bilderburg passage of rites – the former 13 Bags of Dick protagonist produces music to burn the “decadent” west to.
Stumbling like a raging goaded bull through the space-rock oscillation frenzy of both Hawkwind and the Acid Mothers Temple; the noisy guttural Nordic Krautrock of the Rain Kings; and the pulsation industrial techno of Throbbing Gristle.
With vocals so abstruse, gloomy and indecipherable, it’s the track titles that prove illuminating. Picking a fight with historical reverential icons, Lebowski drags the symbolic corpse of Catholic Spain’s 11th century saviour, El Cid – the Castilian nobleman depicted so earnestly by Charlton Heston in Hollywood, fought with and alongside the Moors in his pursuit of both creating his own fiefdom, and of securing Valencia – through a LSD-seeped mire of dirge and drone paranoia, over a two-act maelstrom.
‘A Trip With El Cid’ pours liquid hallucinations down our throats and rambles growling utterances to a psycho-metal caked soundtrack, before slipping into the motoring, death drive, and Jess Franco schlock-horror ‘El Cid Zombie Chase’ – a track that sounds like a flick-knife rumble between Magma and the Dead Meadow, in a syringe strewn squat.
The malodorous vapour of glum continues as Satan, or one of his demonic servants, ominously casts a shadow over the final judgement, on the dreadcore of ‘The Majestic Purple Bastard’, whilst ‘Valkyrie Hymn’ is more black magic incantation then Teutonic eulogy to Wagner.
Lebowski’s style of chain-rattling doom and stoner-rock fortunately avoids falling into the usual clichés of the dark arts; pushing away from drawn-out one-note boring opuses for a heavier cacophonic atmosphere. ‘Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die’ is a stellar trip into an unholy cosmos; a real gas!
[…] doom under both his alter ego Schmoog Lebowski and the Charlemagne whipping alter boy occultist Swords of Texas. But it is his phallic swung swaggering collaborative effort 13 Bags Of Dick that rears it’s […]
Monolith Cocktail Blog 
[…] doom under both his alter ego Schmoog Lebowski and the Charlemagne whipping alter boy occultist Swords of Texas. But it is his phallic swung swaggering collaborative effort 13 Bags Of Dick that rears it’s […]