“Miau Miau” is a debut release by Opium Masala, a powerful Austrian duo that will rock your world if you’re into cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed underground music. Consisting of four excellent tracks, “Miau Miau” offers something for everyone. Perhaps stoner rock comes to mind at first, but you’ll undoubtedly notice how some other subgenres found their way into this sonic equation. Opium Masala incorporates subtle touches of southern rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, garage rock, rock ‘n’ roll, and sludge, making this material more than just an enjoyable rock ‘n’ roll ride. Of course, these folks use all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, and other details to uplift their music to new heights while they simultaneously remain loyal to the primary sonic direction. Therefore, these experimentations with many different but complementary music genres resulted in a powerful display of their skills, talents, and abilities. It’s unquestionably one of those magnificent debut extended plays worth repeating over and over again.
The best part about this release is that Opium Maslala sounds fresh, unique, innovative, and unpredictable. Their music spans so many sonic universes, so every moment spent with these songs is a pleasant listening experience. From the initial notes and beats, you’ll realize these folks are not joking around with their music. They thoroughly planned everything, so you’ll hear how every track arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with many intricate segments and impressive instrumentations. The guitars play a significant role in this sonic equation as they shape that raw, abrasive, fuzzy, heavily distorted ambiance. Still, they also have a dosage of clarity, so you’ll hear every maneuver with such ease. The catchy, memorable, engaging riffs resonate with such precision and finesse while occasional leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic acrobatics uplift the ambiance on an entirely new level while adding a touch of complexity. These instrumentations serve as a perfect backdrop for all the vocal articulations to shine upon.
The outstanding vocal performance adds another touch of melody, harmony, and complexity while maintaining that subtle dosage of rawness and aggression. You’ll also notice how these vocal maneuvers command attention and guide your listening apparatus from scratch to finish while perfectly balancing low, mid, and high notes. It’s also good to mention that the vocals pair guitars flawlessly from scratch to finish, so an enjoyable listening experience is more than guaranteed. There’s also a thick layer of equally intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding low-ends rumbling beneath the guitars, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding all the orchestrations with the drums. The experienced drummer keeps everything in line while dictating groove and tempo with expertly arranged, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other rhythmic acrobatics. Every instrumentation plays a crucial role in this magnificent sonic voyage, making “Miau Miau” one of the best stoner recordings released during 2023. Opium Masala poured heart and soul into this fine piece of sonic artistry, and their collective experience, knowledge, skills, and talent are vividly hearable from beginning to end. “Miau Miau” arrived as a 10″ record, adorned with an eye-peeling, psych-rock-inspired artwork carrying two tigers. Head to Grazil Records and grab this gem. You won’t be disappointed!
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