At live shows, Portland shoegaze-doom trio Megaton Leviathan hits like a sonic avalanche, with singer/guitarist Andrew James Costa beautifully navigating a tricky conduit between My Bloody Valentine and Black Sabbath, where waves of guitar miasma ride atop pummeling heavy-metal rhythms. Throw in creepy projections and a candlelit altar littered with animal bones that the band carefully sets in the foreground of every gig, and you have the makings of an unforgettable evening, which is why you'd better check out their show at Dry River.
While not quite as compelling as the flesh-and-blood experience, the band's debut album, Water, Wealth, Hell on Earth, on the Spanish label Féretro, is a great introduction to one of the more interesting doom acts around today. For instance, the sprawling two-part title track is a massive, droning Spaceman 3 tribute, with a few reverberating power chords gradually building in cosmic intensity until you experience a sensation akin to being eaten by the sun. "Guns and LSD" is so nirvanic that you can visualize an army of Indian yogis performing salutations.
But it's the huge—HUGE—33-minute "A Slow Death in D Minor," a haunting evocation of military satellites crashing into an asteroid belt, that melds the ambientscapes of Brian Eno and the armor-piercing riffs of High on Fire.
Get this if you long for transport.
