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http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/43c70cd2c7c9653afad02a0927d884ebb2e79e93.jpg Phosphene Dream

The Black Angels

Phosphene Dream

Blue Horizon
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
October 18, 2010

The third album from this Austin quintet is a pysch-rock salvo that evokes a variety of freaky images: gnarly opium dens, paisley-clad go-go dancers, the acid-trip scene from Easy Rider. Phosphene Dream kicks off with a storm of tremolo guitars and zombie-croon vocals called "Bad Vibrations" and moves on to doomy cuts like the Velvet Underground-style drone "True Believers." It's not all zonked heaviness: There are smartly layered riffs and echo-slathered melodies, and the Angels brighten up on tracks like "Telephone," a 119-second nugget that would have fit in on an early Kinks album.

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