UMUR
"Abominable" is the debut full-length studio album by stoner/doom metal act Telekinetic Yeti. The album was independently released in March 2017. The band formed in 2015 and it´s a duo project featuring Anthony Dreyer (drums) and Alex Baumann (guitars, vocals). As a bit of an oddity in music as heavy as this there is no bass on the album. The guitarist uses a downtuned 7-string guitar though, so it´s still incredibly bottom heavy music.
Stylistically it´s quite energetic (especially the drumming, which I could listen to all day) stoner doom, which is about 50% instrumental. So the shouted vocals are relatively sparse. They aren´t the most interesting feature on the album either though, so it´s not a huge loss (although they aren´t awful or anything like that. Just pretty standard for the genre). Brick heavy groove laden riffs (heavily influenced by 70s Black Sabbath) and the above mentioned energy packed and quite creative drumming are the greatest assets of the band´s music, and also the sometimes atmospheric/psychadelic moments and transitions between songs. Those parts work really well for Telekinetic Yeti. They also strike a good balance between structured parts and what sounds more like jamming organic sections. It´s no easy feat to provide an organic touch to structured music, but this is something Telekinetic Yeti excel in.
I´m quite impressed by how well sounding the album is considering that this is an independent release. The guitar tone is heavy and fuzzy like you´d expect on a stoner doom album, and the drums have a great organic tone to them.
The material are pretty varied for the genre too, and every track on the album is worth a listen. Upon conclusion "Abominable" is a great debut album from Telekinetic Yeti, and although this lineup split-up in 2019, without releasing anything further, Baumann has opted to continue the band with a new lineup, so maybe a sophomore studio album will appear some day. Dreyer went on to form Twin Wizard, which is highly recommendable too. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.