Om returns with the mighty ?Conference of the Birds,? their second LP for Holy Mountain. What that means for you, dear listener, is essentially more of the same (a very good thing) and maybe something a little different too. Bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius have an understanding of the transcendent properties of heavy metal thunder through repetition, and if rock ?n? roll really is the savior, then ?Conference of the Birds? could be the sacred tones resounding from The Holy Mountain (eesh). There are two side-long tracks here, two more reasons to shut down the mind and surrender to the infinite throb.

Without question, the awesome achievement here is ?At Giza.? Taking up all of side 1 and stretching out longer than 15 minutes, it?s a groove based trek through various reverberating low-end frequencies with Al reciting evocative phrases describing ?electron seas? and ?seraphic streams? (among other things) as expansive, tantric meditations that draw upon all manner of cultural/religious lore for inspiration. Every stanza is delivered in a slightly different rhythm, with vocals alternately engulfed in fuzz or nakedly pristine and out front. Combined with the masterful restraint of the shifting low-end rhythms (touching on everyone from The Doors to 13th Floor Elevators and Slint), the results play like the best parts of a slow-burning early 70s acid rock epic, minus all the pomp and excess. I can?t really describe the effect aside from to say this is very much what one would expect from Om, and by the time the fuzz box does kick in, the climax is almost an afterthought, a signpost that the journey truly is the reward, but I still wish it was a little longer anyway.

?Flight of the Eagle? is almost a letdown after the gorgeous hypno-bass rumbles and trills of ?At Giza?almost. It?s definitely closer to what we?ve come to expect, a relentless trudge of stabbing minimal bass bursts and earth-quaking percussion that walks the line between metallic bombast and pure head kissing repetition. Hakius? methodical drum patterns are relentless and constant, and Cisneros has LOTS to get out vocally, but it?s the brute force and trance-rock-as-lurching-fuzz that proves inescapable here.

All one has to do with Om is surrender. Surrender to the throb and marvel at the crumbling wall of mountain high sludge. Spacemen 3 did something similar to this in the late ?80s by recasting the garage psych of The Stooges and The Red Crayola as epic transcendental voyages into the self. Om finds that place where we all need to go sometimes, where freedom can be something more than just a word. ?Conference of the Birds? is a bridge to a paradise that may be closer than we think. And I?m walking to the other side. 9/10 -- Lee Jackson (24 July, 2006)