La Otracina‘s brand of psychedelic metal gets plenty of play these days, as retro fetishes and the rediscovery of mescaline give rise to enough acid-washed lavaflow to split the seams of a volcano. In that sense, the Brooklyn trio is doing nothing Hawkwind hasn’t already done. But the band has two brands of rocket fuel powering its engines. One: it plays this timeless mix of early 70s metal, prog and drone rock as it invented it – there’s not a whiff of nostalgia. Two: they’re simply really fornicating good at it. Powerhouses like “We Ride On” and “Raze the Sky” rock as hard as epics like “Mass Meteoric Mind” and “Crystal Wizards of the Cosmic Weird” blast through space. The 20-minute improvised title track sacrifices propulsion for whimsy, but after the nearly overwhelming supernovas that surround it, it comes off as a palette cleanser. La Otracina is hardly the only alien on the block brandishing this weaponry, but it’s responsible for more that its fair share of kosmik kicks.
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