Yob ATMA

Oregon's trance-doom astronauts YOB approached their fifth studio album, 2011's Atma, with something of a back to basics attitude, intentionally wrapping their trademark, slowly developing epic grinds -- inspired by everyone from Sabbath to Vitus to Sleep to Dark Castle -- inside a hazy production fog. And, as a result, some power (and, one would imagine, some fans) is lost right along with the discarded layers of double- or triple-tracked guitars (God only knows how many), yet the songs themselves are still unmistakably YOB. In fact, the opening psych-punctuated bombast of "Prepare the Ground" could very well pass for an outtake from 2004's The Illusion of Motion, and just when the loosely jammed title track (a Hindu term for "self") teeters on the verge of collapse, a repetitive staccato riff clenches its second half like an iron gauntlet and brings it on home with authority. Yes, attention spans are bound to wander during "Before We Dreamed of Two"'s 16-minute meander, and even the