Six Organs of Admittance

One assumes that SOOA lynchpin Ben Chasny is often asked when/if there will be a new Comets on Fire album. Chasny's sky scraping psychedelic project with Ethan Miller (of Howlin Rain) and friends has been dormant since 2006, but as Ascent begins its climb, something fuzzy and arch seems to be stirring. The explanation is simple: Comets alumni join Chasny to make this (13th!) SOOA album a volatile mash-up of the best both projects have to offer. "Waswasa" and "Close to the Sky" kick things off with dynamic scree and riffage aimed at the stoned heart of the sun. Appropriately enough "Solar Ascent" is then a blissed-out sun salutation a la Sabbath's "Planet Caravan." Those missing Chasny's delicate and ghostly folk touches are treated to occasional quiet passages between melting rockslides and on "Your Ghost," an interlude that leads to the album's blistering closers. Everything works and there's really nothing more a fan of either Organs or Comets could ask for.