REVIEW
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships - CONSENSUS TRANCE | Review
September 26, 2022
The Obelisk / JJ Koczan
Lincoln, Nebraska, trio Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships are right there. Right on the edge. You can hear it in the way “Beg Your Pardon” unfolds its lumbering tonality, riff-riding vocals and fervency of groove at the outset of their second album, Consensus Trance. They’re figuring it out. And they’re working quickly. Their first record, 2021’s TTBS, and the subsequent Rosalee EP (review here) were strong signals of intention on the part of guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warner, bassist Karlin Warner and drummer Justin Kamal, and there is realization to be had throughout Consensus Trance in the noisy lead of “Mystical Consumer,” the quiet instrumental “Distalgia for Infinity” and the mostly-huge-chugged 11-minute highlight “Weeping Beast” to which it leads. But they’re also still developing their craft, as opener “Beg Your Pardon” demonstrates amid one of the record’s most vibrant hooks, and exploring spaciousness like that in the back half of the penultimate “Silo,” and the sense that emerges from that kind of reach and the YOB-ish ending of capper “I.H.” is that there’s more story to be told as to what Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships have to offer in style and substance. So much the better since Consensus Trance has such superlative heft at its foundation.
REVIEW
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships - CONSENSUS TRANCE | Review
September 26, 2022
La Planete du Stoner / Julien Deglise
Lincoln, Nebraska. In this green corner of America, several feelings must intersect. There is first of all that of being far from the firestorms that are ravaging California, but also from the madness of the big American cities, even if Kansas City is not so far away. With its two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, Lincoln is a small town on an American scale. It is in the heart of the forests and not far from the Indian reservations of Rosebud and Yankton. The pleasure of being so close to nature intersects with that of being in the middle of nothing, far from everything, and in particular from what is at the heart of a country's cultural activity.
We can imagine that Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships (TTBS), with its doom-metal, did not choose to be the new Led Zeppelin. However, we can easily imagine their desire to make a living from their music and to be able to perform in beautiful venues. After all, Sleep started small, and became a musical institution in the United States without denying any of its soul. This terrible boredom is also what must intrinsically feed the dark music of TTBS. And then, other groups were able to emerge from vast wooded and lost areas. Let us mention in particular the Swiss of Celtic Frost.
The Lincoln trio did not really feel the COVID crisis, so to speak, having thrown their first album in the middle of a pandemic, in 2021. The disc, reviewed in these pages, had made a very good impression, despite its artisanal recording . The compositions and the faith injected transcended the few technical flaws. A giant step had been taken with the publication of the EP " Rosalee ". The sound was incredibly better. The compositions had also asserted themselves, deviating from this slightly acid side of the beginnings for a more compact doom-metal, rallying Candlemass, Witchfinder General and Sleep. Bassist Justin Kamal and drummer Karlin Warner were well showcased, imposing their heavy, dark and incantatory rhythm section. As for guitarist Jeremy Warner, he could develop his black riffs with formidable precision.
New sounds were already escaping from this smoking EP, starting with the feeling of abyss that emanated from the compositions. The poison of boredom and oblivion was breathed through compositions like 'Destroyer Heart'. The spirit of Lincoln, it was undoubtedly that, now injected into the music of the trio, still barely perceptible on the album " TTBS ". Justin Kamal's poisonous bass was now reminiscent of Albert Witchfinder's from Reverend Bizarre. Warner's riffs were reptilian. Something was afoot. And then, TTBS wonderfully developed its science of the long track with the fantastic 'Rosalee' and its hypnotizing sixteen minutes. A formidable Matt Pike riff resonates. Kamal sticks to the Basques with the bass. As for Karlin Warner, he strikes a flexible rhythm, filled with black groove, modulating just on the hi-hat. Jeremy Warner's chorus rises like a whiff of madness, slowly clearing up in a most obscure, lyrical, sticky horizon. Who is this Rosalee? A girlfriend gone? A lost friend? The cancerous mood seems to indicate that his destiny is in any case disastrous. TTBS has in any case succeeded in recreating the impression of climbing an impossible mountain created by Sleep with 'Dopesmoker'. The theme turns, imperturbable, and we refuse to stop, obsessed by the riff and the relentless rhythm. This is a precious gift, which TTBS had to exploit with talent.
2022. TTBS has not been idle, offering its second album a year after the first, and only a few months after the EP “ Rosalee ”. Visibly overflowing with creativity, not forgetting the concerts as soon as the health situation allowed them. " Consensus Trance " arrives, steeped in the spirit of the previous EP: compact riffs, relentless rhythm.
Jeremy Warner's voice has also progressed a lot, more expressive, evolving between incantation and clear singing. A little novelty on this album, the man tries out some black-metal vociferations on 'Consensus Trance', no doubt inspired by the terrifying Norwegian black-doomsters Darkthrone. But this remains a small anecdote on the whole disc. However, this denotes a desire to look everywhere for the heavy sound that will fuel their music. Overall, " Consensus Trance " is a dense record, fueled by Sleep, Candlemass, Count Raven and The Obsessed. A little touch of Black Sabbath is also not to be excluded. The masters remain the masters. But TTBS has already delved into the depths of the music of Evil.
'Beg Your Pardon' sounds like an aperitif following, much more brutal and implacable. It sounds almost like a vaguely seductive doom-boogie before the avalanche of decibels to come. 'Mystical Consumer' and 'Consensus Trance' put things in order, with radical brutality. The riffs are assassins, leaning on a carpet of boxes and bass of an oil black. 'Distalgia For Infinity' is a skeleton-sounding short instrumental, carried by Justin Kamal's haunting bass. It announces the terrifying long track called 'Weeping Beast'.
Introduced by an almost medieval rhythm inspired by Black Sabbath, and played by Kamal, it explodes in heavy and cataclysmic riffs. Jeremy Warner preaches like a mad monk in this avalanche of merciless riffs. The Beast cries, seeing the Hell that man has created himself. Trussing the holy nuns is not even a taboo anymore. The fires of Hell crackle everywhere. The Beast could not have unleashed such an infernal surge. So she sobs, seeing her very lair, deep in the forests of Nebraska, now threatened. Tears are streaming down the cheeks of the Beast, and it's Justin Kamal who embodies them with his four-string plectrum playing. TTBS has pushed the ongoing environmental catastrophe to a relevant and sensible stage. 'Weeping Beast' is a true literary saga, taking the art of TTBS to another level.
'IH' closes the record with prominent Sabbathian riffs. St. Vitus and Pentagram aren't far either. Jeremy Warner's voice seems to slowly die out in disenchantment. Still on the tightrope, the man implores. The riffs thunder. Anger simmers. As the western world rots, heads will roll. The group has succeeded in its bet: to give an even more terrifying successor to its first album. This is done, with skill.
REVIEW
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships - CONSENSUS TRANCE | Review
July 31, 2022
DOOMCHARTS / Joop Konraad
21. TRILLION TON BERYLLIUM SHIPS – CONSENSUS TRANCE / NEW!
1628 Points
Metal, Doom, Sludge, Stoner
(Lincoln, Nebraska, USA)
(Self-released)
Gritty stoner and grainy doom that gets more swampy, sludgy and savage as the albums goes on. Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships delivers a trillion-ton heavy album called Consensus Trance. Low, slow, dark and twisted metal from somewhere, out there, in the darkness..
~ Joop Konraad
REVIEW
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships - ROSALEE | Review
November 15, 2021
Desert Psychlist / Frazer Jones
Lincoln, Nebraska's Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships first came to Desert Psychlist's attention earlier this year via their debut album "TTBS" a devilishly delicious collection of low slow and heavy grooves decorated in (surprisingly for this genre) clean clear vocals. Not a band to sit about twiddling their thumbs when, in their words, there is some "existential pondering" still to be done the band, Jeremy Warner (guitar, vocals); Justin Kamal (drums) and Karlin Warner (bass) soon set about writing and recording new songs. Those songs are now finished and have had all the rough edges sanded off, and some added, and appear on the bands latest EP "Rosalee, we think you'll like it.
TTBS's new EP begins with "Core Fragment" a song that unusually jumps, after a very brief flurry of thunderous percussion, immediately into the vocals, now we think Jeremy Warner will be the first to admit that his vocal delivery is not exactly what you would call rock god powerful but his clean low key vocal approach and melodic tones are very effective and work as a nice counterbalance to the sedately paced heavy rhythms and refrains that accompany them and at times even threaten to drown them out. "Destroyer Hearts" follows, a song steeped in dank dark doominosity that routinely builds towards a crescendo only to then dissipate into a swampy murky meander, rising and falling in this fashion throughout its duration driven by some thunderously impressive drumming from Kamal while "URTH Anachoic" takes low slow and heavy to a whole new level of ponderous and boasts a slightly weird but totally effective vocal meter. Title track "Rosalee" sees the band sign out with a deliciously dank sixteen minute plus instrumental anchored to the earth by Karlin Warner's deep thrumming bass it is also strangely the first and only song on the EP that guitarist Jeremy Warner gets to cut free and unleash the full potential of his guitar playing chops, his searing lead work in the songs last quarter taking the songs dynamic out of the realms of stoner doom and into more lysergic territory.
"Exploring the claustrophobic void of space" is how Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships describe their music making process and there is very much a claustrophobic element to much of what goes down on their latest EP "Rosalee". The trio create a groove and sound that feels more like an implosion than it is does an explosion, the bands low slung riffs and rhythms collide and crash into one another like matter falling into a gaping black hole, their grooves slowly gathering in mass until collapsing in on themselves under the immensity of their own weight, Jeremy Warner's clean melodic vocals the last pinpoint of light in the all consuming darkness, or to put it another way... some damn heavy shit!
Check it out ....
REVIEW
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships - TTBS | Review
June 19, 2021
Julien Deléglise
TTBS, the resurrection of psychedelic doom
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Lincoln is a town of almost 290,000 people located between the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, America's most miserable place, and the town of Des Moines, Iowa, in the middle of this terrifying Midwest. Chicago, Minneapolis and Kansas City are not so far away, but already too far to have an influence on this quintessentially American nightmare city: wide straight streets as far as the eye can see, and soulless architecture. The whole is quick to get bored. Bruce Springsteen had already reckoned without qualms about Nebraska on the album of the same name in 1983, a harsh, acoustic record made of vast, quasi-lunar landscapes in which an abandoned population lives. Lincoln benefits at least from the nature and lush greenery of the surrounding mountains and forests.
The period of forced soul-searching of 2020 prompted the three members of Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships to rehearse and finalize their debut album. TTBS consists of Jeremy Warner on guitar and vocals, Karlin Warner on bass, and Justin Kamal on drums. The trio practice a doom-metal with particularly hypnotic stoner scents, inviting both Electric Wizard and Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats, with some hints of Sleep at times.
What should we take away from it?
Because the nerve pays, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships sends the instrumental track "TTBS" as an inauguration: twelve minutes and thirty seconds of pure doom fury, imbued with the "Sonic Titan" of Sleep. But TTBS is not an ersatz. He masters his music perfectly, and injects it with a seventies groove, changing climates, using the same haunting riff to the point of madness. One of their early fans called it pure tone’n’riff porn. An expression that is difficult to translate into French, it nevertheless sums up the incredible power of TTBS: there is nothing, at first glance, that seems original. But the assembly of several elements from classic doom-metal, and their reconstruction generate a staggering title of hypnotic efficiency.
The sound of the guitar and the bass is distorted at will, this first wild cavalcade is very clear. The riff spins over and over again, and obviously one can't help but think of Sleep's "Dopesmoker". Yet the mantra breaks. Karlin Warner growls his bass full of fuzz, and Jeremy Warner tumbles with a manic riff, supported by the impeccable rhythm of Justin Kamal. Or how to build a thrilling sonic odyssey with little and a lot of inspiration.
“Two Weeks Of Air” disappoints a bit behind such a mountain of sound. Jeremy Warner's voice isn't fully in place. Oh, in doom-metal, you're not demanding, as long as the vocalist has personality and sticks to his music. Jeremy Warner does, but he doesn't seem totally comfortable on this second track. The riff turns a little empty, Karlin Warner seems lost with his bass, stretching long rhythmic lines aimlessly.
"Ditchgrass" ends all debate and concern. After a proto-jazz-rock introduction, the incantatory voice is in place. The demonic riff and the rhythm of steel fall into place. TTBS is now making a big mark on the listener, signing five shorter but crisp tracks. We can even say that it is a new ascent in the form of an apotheosis. "Ditchgrass" growls relentlessly.
‘Angulimala’ is filled with heavy swing, Justin Kamal's drums creating the breath behind the sound barrier created by Jeremy and Karlin Warner. Jeremy Warner draws decidedly haunting themes with his guitar. "Warranty" is a sudden swerve of heavy-doom that scrapes the floor. There is nothing complicated, just three particularly determined and sharp people. Playing doom-metal seems easy, giving it a soul is a lot more complex, and the many contestants have broken their teeth. Being the worthy heir to Tony Iommi and Bobby Liebling comes at a price.
After the two virulent punches that were ‘Angulimala’ and Warranty ’, TTBS immerses itself in two particularly haunted pieces of music. "Empty Boat" opens with a menacing riff set to an unrelenting rhythm. The piece is deformed little by little under the psychedelic influences. Some passages are heroic, like the strange journey of this empty boat.
Cutting ’Torch’ is a hellish doom procession. Obsessive to the core, the slow, heavy riff floats on a carpet of boiling tar. The central part is a curious minimalist wandering. We see the lunar star, the thick forests that overwhelm with the vertiginous size of the trees. The riff booms again, ending the sonic journey in a way that is as lyrical as it is sinister.
“TTBS”, Trillion Ton's debut album Beryllium Ships is quite a master stroke. Despite the harshness of its recording, the power of the music and its interpretation is immediately obvious. Captured live, the album has an inner rage for true rock'n'roll designed to explode on stage.
TTBS is only in its infancy, but deserves warm support, especially from all lovers of quality vintage doom sounds: Pentagram, Sleep, Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats, Electric Wizard. TTBS has this strange groove in addition, and already, a science of riffing that hits the mark.
https://www.laplanetedustoner.net/2021/06/trillion-ton-beryllium-ships-ttbs-review.html