Hydraheaded Pelican have always been pointed by cynics as state of art Isis without vocals. Steeped in the esoterica of doom, these sickos can convert almost every sound in a feeling. Plus they deny even the idea of having vocals in their…um, songs. It’s not that you’ve never heard anything like this before, but all these droning lavish instrumental passages are undisputedly fascinating. The sheer beauty of this year’s “City of Echoes” allows the listener little room to breathing. Be it the sonic devilry of the band or the epic 70’s prog pieces, Pelican know well how to create parallel dreamlike worlds. On one hand, they are pretty psychedelic in their approach, but on the other we get riifs that are so heavy one can risk a hernia picking up the fucking CD. No kidding here. The only problem to me is that besides being mighty and terrible, Pelican should drop all Isis influences off. Then and only then people will recognize them as leaders - something that has escaped them since the very beginning. Pelican are considered part of so-called post-hardcore or thinking man’s metal or art metal or post-rock or whatever… The main thing here is that they didn’t just go, like many others did in recent years. They just do what they do. Without lyrics. Without singing. If this is OK with you, feel free to join the trip. If not - your parking lot is somewhere else.