CD REVIEW: The Sontaran Experiment – s/t – Undergroove

Experiment: a test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or of testing a principle, supposition, etc.: a chemical experiment; a teaching experiment; an experiment in living.

A Sontaran: An ugly potato-headed alien from Doctor Who; heavy-set, thugish and with an obsession for conflict and total domination of the universe.

After just one listen of this brutal outpouring, it’s not hard to see why these guys chose their name!

This, their debut album, is an epic and adventurous work of three ‘acts’ each lasting anywhere from 15 – 25 minutes. Yes! I know what you’re thinking: “Urgh! I hate it when bands do this”, but stick with me here.

 The album opens with layers of strange electronic ambiance, which are brutally interrupted by an explosion of bowel-emptying doom. The tone and tempo of the record shift around like a disturbed and violent rockweiler, one minute you are nodding along (wishing you had a big doom-fan beard) and the next you are thrown into an almost Napalm Death blast-beat-ridden hellfest. The album takes some seriously cool little sidesteps when you least expect it;  Act II, for example, goes down a, dare I say, almost jazzy avenue at one point!

So, I told you to bare with me and here’s why: Yes, this is a long record, but no it’s not at all pretentious or overally self indulgent. The Sontaran Experiment succeed where so many fail when it comes to this type of release, they keep it interesting and varied, not flying off too far into the ‘experiment’, by keeping it in check with the ‘Sontaran’…OK, that made sense to me at least!

4.5/5

Ken Eakins

Check the Sontaran Experiment on Myspace here