Australian stoner doom exponents Pod People have been cranking out the good stuff for over thirty years now and, in real terms, have nothing left to prove to anyone. They move at their own pace, releasing only the best material they can come up with, and only when they feel the time is propitious to release it. Consequently it’s been a momentous sixteen years since their lat ‘proper’ album came out, which in Pod People terms is half a lifetime plus; But now, it’s here – and my word we should all give thanks for that.

After stretching their limbs musically on fragile instrumental opener The Gates, the real fun n’games cranks up with next track God Help You, an elephantine slice of  doom mashed up with some nice trad metal touches that cause brief thoughts of Orange Goblin to flicker across the cerebral cortex; However the Pods, as I like to call ’em, never really sound like anybody else on Oblivion. Sure, 11800 might make you think of The Obsessed, and Faceless might substitute Wino for Lee Dorrian as a point of reference, but this is doom we’re talking about, and to a certain extent these tropes are unavoidable. And, when they are executed as well as they are here, then the whole thing becomes a celebration of the music and Pod People’s place within it.

The title track is a massive construction, nine minutes of icy majesty that mesmerises the ears with it’s clever little twists and turns flitting across the tectonic riffage like doomy mice rustling through Alpine crevices. Every time you return to the track you find something else to latch on to, and the lead guitar that appears mid track is particularly effective, paving the way for one of the album’s heaviest passages in classic doom-death fashion.

Final track Choke ramps the desperation up to the sort of levels currently only usually experienced by fans of Everton Football Club, it’s gallumphing rifferama smashing up against the ears relentlessly for nearly nine and a half minutes of what can only really be described as total doom nirvana. And that word really is the key – if you like doom in any of it’s flavours, your’e going to love Oblivion.


Oblivion is out now.