JEX THOTH — Jex Thoth (review)

Album · 2008 · Doom Metal

4/5 · 2020-06-16
siLLy puPPy

Psychedelic rock and metal hybrids have become quite the thing in the last couple decades with the doom metal section of the headbanger’s supermarket leading the way. While some bands haver completely slipped over the line into stoner metal and weed rock, some bands such as the Madison, Wisconsin based JEX THOTH have firmly situated themselves into a retro doom metal sound in vein of classic Black Sabbath riffing and Iommi frenetic solo styles while adding the early 70s experimental sounds of psychedelic freakery from some of the bigwigs of Krautrock, most notably Amon Duul II and other psychedelically fueled acts.

This band began in Slab City, California before relocating to Wisconsin and released a self-titled EP under the moniker Totem before re-evaluating where they were going and opted to rebrand by naming the band after the charismatic Jessica Bowen who adopted the stage name of JEX THOTH. The project began as a collaboration between her and her ex-hubby James Jackson Toth, who was the main songwriter and leader of the psychedelic indie folk band Wodden Wand. In 2008 the band released a second eponymously titled full-album only this time under the new name with the distinct red and white cover.

Much like similarly minded bands of late such as Canada’s Blood Ceremony, Chicago’s Mount Salem and the Dutch band The Devil’s Blood, JEX THOTH has an affinity zeitgeist for the classic retro sounds of the early 70s and what could have been if only someone had thought of it at the time. While the metal seems a bit tamped down to be considered a true headbanger’s album, JEX THOTH excels in the psychedelic acid rock realms with thick distorted guitar riffs courtesy of Silas Paine who always dishes out some Tullish flute runs and even a bouzouki appearance or two. Grim Jim delivers groovilisicous bass runs that fit right in with the early doom metal influences of classic Black Sabbath and Zodiac serves as the keyboard player who takes the best of late 60s and early 70s psychedelic trippiness to satisfying levels of floatiness.

The least dynamic player in this lineup is the drummer Johnny Dee who suffers the fate of many doom metal percussionists whose job is merely to keep a beat and rarely are offered the opportunity to bust out a frenetic solo or two. The star of the show is clearly the lead lady charm of JEX THOTH who narrates tales of mythology, Paganism and spiritual topics that are divided into 12 tracks that hit the 51 minute mark. While the tracks are all fairly similar in delivery, the highlights included the opening “Nothing Left To Die” which confidently time travels to the not so distant past and mines the possibilities of a more promising hybridization between psychedelic rock and early metal. The four part “Equinox Suite” also exhibits a mature overarching concept that could easily have been taken into extreme progressive rock territory.

While JEX THOTH falls more on the psychedelic rock side of the equation there are energetic moments of metal with heavy riffs, sizzling solos and an opportunity for the lazy nonchalant rhythm section to explode into pyrotechnic exuberance for a few moments but overall this is a trippy album more in line with albums such as “Yeti” from Amon Duul II with a few Sabbathy doom metal moments to cement its inclusion on metal databases. Whether this formula works for one person or the next is a matter of preference but personally i think this album works quite well by skating the psychedelic rock side of the fence over the metal moments as if it would have included too much bombast it probably would have given it a lopsided feeling. Moments such as the short “Invocation, Pt 1” completely leave rock altogether with a trippy organ driven ambience that pretty much sums up the mood of the album. Pretty cool stuff here.