Pond - Man It Feels Like Space Again (2015)

Formed in 1990, Sweden's Marduk are not only one of the most long running and respected black metal acts out there, but also one of the most productive, never ever delivering a weak album, never wavering from their chosen path of utter blasphemy and misanthropic contempt. After the much acclaimed, diabolical opus "Serpent Sermon" in 2012, the band now strikes back with its 13th album which picks up on the war-theme known from their 1999 classic "Panzer Division Marduk". Titled "Frontschwein", a colloquial German phrase for an ordinary soldier, MARDUK present a merciless, raw yet diverse sonic barrage promising to become an early 2015 highlight in extreme music. Even if you're from the most insular, incestuous musical scene in the most isolated city on the planet, people will still stand up and take notice if the music you make is as good as Pond's. Over a couple of months Nick, Joe, Jay, Jamie, Lukas, Cam and a parade of friends and well-wishers cobbled together a mountain of tape that was stitched up to become Pond's sixth studio album. "It had already been worked out," Nick Allbrook explains, "but in the spirit of impulsiveness and lunacy it got shattered and scattered and pissed on and blow-dried in a small studio in Collingwood, Melbourne." Man It Feels Like Space Again lives up to the inherent wonder in its title, a sweeping collection of warm, warped psychedelic gems. It brings to mind the work of The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, mid-'70s Lennon, MGMT, Todd Rundgren, Supergrass and any number of other genre-hopping sonic/space-explorers. The album covers an extraordinary amount of ground in its 45 minutes. From opener 'Waiting Around For Grace' sounds like an FM pop hit beamed in from a nearby planet, all wonky propulsion and giddy hooks - the perfect opening blast, to 'Elvis's Flaming Star' stomps like a '70s glam band coached by Bowie, before collapsing into and out of a mid-tune daydream.