One Listen Review
1st Listen 9 Jun 26
Reviewed 15 June26
King Potenaz – Arcane Desert Rituals Vol 2
Majestic Mountain Records
Released 12 Jun 26
Italian stoner/doom trio, King Potenaz have returned with Arcane Desert Rituals Vol 2, the follow-up to last year’s, erm, ‘Arcane Desert Rituals Vol 1’.
At 36 ½ minutes long, this 4 track album is a combination of multiple bands in the genre, but never sounds like a copy of any of them. If you think Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Sleep, and Kyuss having a party, you’re nearly half-way there. Unfortunately, however, in spite of this solid release, they are nowhere near the quality of those bands listed.
Opening song, ‘Sumerian Nights’ brings almost 11 minutes of a chugging, insistent riff, with a deliberately fuzzy bass to your ears. A gentle 3 minute long intro builds to the riff, which is both placid and pleasant to the listener. With a touch of psychedelia in places, the song has brief moments of glory and with a good mix of clean and growled vocals, it is good, solid intro to the album.
‘Lord of the Rust’, however, is where King Potenaz excel on …Vol 2. The track is more immediate, the vocals more urgent and the excellently ponderous riff has a robust sprinkling of
fuzz throughout. Reminiscent of Fu Manchu, it serves as hint to what the band could achieve if they put their mind to it.
Alas, it appears that they didn’t.
‘The Nothingness’ is aptly named. The intro is more mundane than the previous song and the track flutters away with seeming to achieve much. Unable to grab the attention the same way as ‘Lord of the Rust’, it just sort of bubbles away for 7 minutes, before it is replaced by the longest song (just) on …Vol 2.
When you have an album that is bookended with 2 epics, it is important to get them both right. The opening track is good. It welcomes you, teasing you before the album highlight. ‘A Crack in the Void (The Empty Hand pt 2)’ is a thundering disappointment. I was hoping for ideas to fizz in my head, for the song to explore stoner/doom/sludge boundaries. Instead it faded into the background, stubbornly refusing to grab my attention. Disappointing is not strong enough a word.
King Potenaz have oodles of potential. They just seem to be unable to deliver it in Arcane Desert Rituals Vol 2. This is not something that immediately demands subsequent listens.
File under ‘nearly’.
The DevilsHorns 
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