Litania Self-Titled Review
One of the things I’ve always admired about Heavy Psych Records is their uncanny ability to uncover bands who carve out their own distinct space within the heavy underground. In a genre landscape often crowded with fuzzed-out repetition, the label seems to have a sixth sense for artists who aren’t just playing Doom or Stoner music, they’re reshaping it, transcending it. And with their latest signing, they may have unearthed their most singular act yet.
Litania, a transcontinental force hailing from Italy and Serbia, whose upcoming self-titled debut is less of an album and more of a ritual, a sonic invocation that folds together the raw weight of Doom riffage with the spectral beauty of ancient Hindustani music. Yes, you read that right: sitars and dilrubas mingle with distorted guitars, harmoniums swell beneath ethereal female vocals, and the whole experience feels like wandering into a desert shrine long buried by time, the wind carrying sacred songs you don’t understand, but deeply feel.
Out this October on vinyl and CD, this debut will likely divide listeners, but for those of us with ears tuned to the otherworldly, and hearts open to sound as spirit, Litania offers a passage into something primal, tribal, and beautifully transcendent.
Don’t worry about the lyrics not being in English. If you're already a fan of Death Metal, you're no stranger to deciphering the indecipherable. And anyway, the meaning here is carried in vibration, not vocabulary. This is music that bypasses logic and speaks directly to the bone, to the blood, to the breath. The way the traditional instruments weave with modern Doom’s gravitational pull feels like a forbidden alchemy that shouldn't work… yet somehow does, brilliantly.
Press play and you’re no longer in your room, your car, or wherever you think you are, you’re somewhere else entirely. A temple scorched by sun and incense smoke. A dreamscape carved from forgotten myths. A place where rhythm is language, and melody is memory.
If I still indulged in psychedelics, I imagine this record would be downright cosmic, but the truth is, imagination alone is more than enough. The colors this music conjures, the textures it paints across the mind’s canvas, they’re vivid, tangible and alive. You need only to surrender to the sound.
Are you seeking escape? Revelation? Resonance?
Are you ready to walk a sonic path few have tread?
Then follow the call of Litania.
Standout tracks: “Jaminiya,” “Bound,” and “Shankara.”