Czech based psychedelic cult known as White Hat had presented us with their album, Psychedelic Ascension Order, back in 2023. This is a hard hitting mix of raw psychedelic metal, vitriolic vocals and an old school groove. There’s layers of sound and details that any psychonaut might find distinctly familiar, and those who have not consumed a piece of the White Hat will soon experience the reality altering state that this album takes you.
One must prepare before the initiation ceremony begins. Consuming a piece of the White Hat will commence the ceremony, with swirling and twisted sounds of screeching guitars and heady instruments. Mischievous laughter and dark whispers from the machine elves penetrate your skull as the Hat takes full control. Groovy guitars and drumming greet you as the ceremony begins. This isn’t your dad’s psychedelic rock band, though. It’s dripping with raw production, as the groovy riffs are heavily distorted and tuned low, growing their doomy atmosphere. The vocals vary from familiar classic rock vocals, to harsher, almost black metal style screeches.
Over the years there have been plenty who walked that line between modern extreme metal and classic psychedelic doom. From Electric Wizard, to Dead Meadow, Sleep and more, they have all their own take on this fusion, leaning more into the dark heaviness rather than the manic psych flow. I feel as though White Hat took a page out of the old Syd Barrett book. His writing for early Pink Floyd I feel like captures that same dark, somewhat twisted essence of the psychedelic experience, while still managing to stay colorful and lighthearted. White Hat captures that same atmosphere and feeling, except that dark twist is the heaviness that doom metal had granted to them.
All in all this is a very solid album. While I am a sucker for classic psychedelic rock, White Hat I believe nails the genre fusion and encapsulates the reality altering experience of such esoteric initiation ceremonies. This is an album that I think is only enhanced on a higher form of consciousness, but can be enjoyed in many ways.