Right now more than ever the world needs a miracle, a psychic healing and a physical cleanse to be rid of a virulent fiend gallivanting across the globe and having a merry ol’ time in the process. It has stolen our good times and smacked us all in the face with misery, upheaval, and unbridled dread like some maniacal killjoy, the kind that makes Rev. Shaw Moore look positively personable. But we are a resilient bunch, us humans, and in the face of adversity we stand (relatively) united, riding a furious wave of scientific ingenuity and creative marvels as the fight for our groove rages on. Though the live circuit sadly lies on life support for the foreseeable future there is no shortage of killer music leading the vanguard against this most menacing inconvenience. Charging out from one of Europe’s hardest hit nations Cosmic Ritual Supertrip, the new record from psychedelic rock-and-or-rollers Black Rainbows, might just be the perfect kick-in-the-balls against the invisible foe, turning our morbid lockdown into one helluva rockdown!
At this point in the game Black Rainbows needs no real introduction, having carved the shape of fuzz-induced euphoria deep into the European bedrock over the span of their 15 year existence across seven glorious albums; every one a sun-scorched kiss to the brain sending even the most stubborn of naysayers into ecstatic frenzy, pushing mind, body and spirit into seismic overdrive. Eighth record’s title Cosmic Ritual Supertrip is not only a wickedly cool moniker but is beyond apt when describing the trio’s brand of mind-melting amp-destruction, the kind of pummeling stoner mayhem that demands being turned all the way up to 11 for the ultimate psychotropic experience.
After their dalliance of pushing the cosmic hemispheres to their limits with 2016’s Stellar Prophecy and its 2018 follow-up Pandaemonium, this latest slab of heaviness warps itself back to when 2011’s incendiary Supermothafuzzalicious and 2015’s equally raucous Hawkdope addled brains the world over with resin-laced riffs that zipped through the air tuned to the blistering beats desert punks know all too well. Lighting these grooves up once again unleashes a powderkeg of technicolour gunpowder as rollicking numbers ‘At Midnight You Cry’ and ‘Master Rocket Power Blast’ prove only too well, with the former igniting this searing chain of events of in motion and the latter literally stomping its way on that most infectious motif past the midway point – it is an utterly bombastic highlight on an album chock full of goodies. Just how full is it, you ask? ‘Radio 666’ for starters is set to become a set staple when live shows are allowed to commence, sending an anthemic cruiser of a song down a long stretch of highway with little consideration of the speed limit; both ‘Isolation’ and ‘Snowball’ run rampant on a ’70s-drenched high; and ‘Hypnotized By The Solenoid’ is just as hypnotic as it sounds!
Ending on a glorious note with the utter madness of ‘Sacred Graal’ (unless your edition comes with furious bombardment of ‘Fire Breather’), Cosmic Ritual Supertrip more than delivers on its namesake. It’s one of the group’s most straightforward records for some time but it is far from being any less of an interdimensional entity than its predecessors: it barrels towards an acid-tinged sunset with relentless energy as every riff sends shockwaves through your body, leaving you utterly transfixed and in a state of perpetual ecstasy. At times more akin to the likes of Fu Manchu and The Atomic Bitchwax, this is still a most grin-inducing record from the get-go, a dose of frenetic fuzz which is just what the doctor ordered to cure these Covid blues. And even long after any shred of normality returns to the fold, this will still be long heralded as a much beloved record to lift up those spirits and kick the bad times into submission.
8.5/10
The Motorfuzzin' Ibex 
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