Jess and the Ancient Ones - Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes (2015)

As one of the most anticipated releases of 2015, Jess and the Ancient Ones return with their sophomore release “Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes”. Moving away from their Doom influences and fully embracing the psychedelic/progressive side of their sound, the band delivers nine enigmatic tracks that will intoxicate all fans of the band and the genre. Greatly improving over their first effort, this is one release that nobody will want to miss.

Opening with the creepy playfulness of “Samhain”, the band set a very enigmatic mood with funky samples and a truly psychedelic vibe. There are some parallels to bands like Purson, but with the signature JATO style. Jess’s mesmerizing vocals do a great job in setting a very mellow and dark mood on tracks like trippy “The Flying Man” and super catchy psychedelic anthem “In Levitating Secret Dreams”. The band truly travels in time with a very organic and natural sounding recording, allowing all the sounds captured to be truly authentic sounding.

Hard rocking songs like “The Equinox Death Trip” sometimes remind us of the late The Devil’s Blood, but with a slight bigger focus on the progressive side of things. Things move into mellower and somewhat more mystical territories with “Wolves Inside my Head” and the hypnotic “Crossroad Lighting” thanks to the mysterious guitars and lush atmospheric elements. The last several few minutes of this last track are truly memorable, reminiscing of those epic rock songs from the 60’s.

Warming up the listener for the closing opus, “The Lovers” and “Goetia of Love” are filled with psychedelic brilliance and energetic vocals by Jess. As the masterpiece of this release, the 22-minute epic “Goodbye to Virgin Grounds Forever” is a truly emotional rollercoaster of a song. In the same vein of “Sulfur Giants”, this emotional piece slowly builds up around the mystical voice of Jess and heartfelt guitar leads. The percussions and atmospheric elements make this song quite magical and a very dramatic ride with some very raw emotions transmitted through the vocals. We get goose bumps every time we hear this amazing song.

Overall, Jess and the Ancient Ones have managed to deliver a great release that greatly improves over their first one and considerably develops their unique style. Getting leaner with one less band member, the band is very well calibrated to produce top notch and authentic sounding Psychedelic music that stands unrivaled in this scene. If you love bands like The Devil’s Blood, Purson, and similar artists, you will definitely love this release. For fans of the band, this album is the perfect continuation to JATO’s musical saga and cannot be missed.

Label: Svart Records

Release: December 4th, 2015

Genre: Psychedelic/Occult Rock

Country: Finland