Epic and decidedly magnificent sludge / doom metal with psychedelic overtones delivered in a two huge slabs, the titular “Maleficia Lamiah” and “Grave Cardinals”. It works very well with all the individual components being compressed into one track but there are many different parts. Black Sabbath influenced doom descends into a garage-psych rock freefall which in turn gives way to birdsong and some pretty / folk-y clean sounding guitar. There are definitely some prog influences floating about in here too but while it might be difficult to define exactly where Pombagira are coming from, I predict that you’ll be singing along in your best falsetto to the rousing finale.
“Grave Cardinals” as well as being a fantastic song title, is another epic journey through the same mixed bag of ingredients, skillfully baked into a delicious sonic cake. Epic is a massively overused adjective, particularly in the excitable world of music reviews, but when “Grave Cardinals” finally settles into its loping stride there isn’t really any other suitable word to describe a riff that, while being decidedly new, sounds like it was hewn from the very foundations of the Earth. There are even a few brief moments where they let the spirit of Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse” posssess them and while the many gear shifts and interludes are confusing, it is this scale and ambition that puts Pombagira firmly into the awesome category.
Kim Monaghan
