LP Review: Varego - I, Prophetic (2019)

For their ten years anniversary Genovesan band Varego has provided a beautiful present for their fans. This February the heavy sludgy quartet released their fourth full-length album "I, Prophetic" via Italian Stoner, Doom, and Sludge label Argonauta Records. I am very happy to present those beatifully dragging, heavy, and sludgy eight tracks to you.

Varego's "I, Prophetic" opens with calm but thrilling piano intro directly leading into the first track "The Abstract Corpse" through a machine gun-like drum fill. From that moment on Varego are wading through a thick swamp of slow Heavy Metal riffs, stomping Hardcore attitude, gloomy atmosphere, and gorgeous chorals. The soundscape Varego create on "I, Prophetic" is a sombre sphere between dusk and dawn with cold winds blowing over a pre-apocalyptic scenery.
Disharmonic crunchy create a raw layer dancing across the warm but massive bass lines while the battery brachially marches through the lines of the record with both strong stability and light-footed playfulness. The lead guitar meanwhile swaps between clean licks wriggling through every layer of the sound and highly distorted thrilling themes grinding on top of Varego's sound, instantly giving you goosebumps of pure joy. And then there's that choral-like voice swinging with the rhythms, mesmerizing, bewitching, and carrying you away with every tone.

"I, Prophetic" is a gorgeous piece of sludgy, dark art. The way Varego merge Doom Metal, Hardcore, and Psychedelic elements in their Sludge sound is sheerly amazing. You can get hypnotized, bang your head, stomp into a mohpit, or just mince to the sound of this album. For around 37 minutes Varego invite you on a trip through time and space. "I, Prophetic" is a holistic adventure of dark, doomy, and brachially heavy experience for mind, body, and beyond.