A Significant Point in the Band’s Continuing Mythos and Ever-Expanding Universe - AAWKS Release Second LP


I’m a sucker for expansive, riff-centric music that is even remotely influenced by the occult. So it’s no surprise that I was an instant fan of AAWKS from the offset. 

Releasing their first EP during the early onset of the pandemic, AAWKS offered some much needed relief from the anxiety of reality. From the humble origins of their 2-track EP (the third track has been indefinitely locked away in the vaults), their sound, arrangements, and content have broken free of any confinement. 


AAWKS is not a boastful outfit, but offer their concoction of psychedelic stoner rock and a down-tuned doomy chaser with an otherworldly swagger and ease. Psychedelia as a genre has an uncanny ability to blend with any other genre it is mixed with, and makes for a mind-expanding experience when blended by musicians with the skill and acumen to get the mixture just right. And AAWKS gets it right every time. 


A full-length album, an EP, and a split EP later, AAWKS returns with their second full-length album that deals in the heavy - both in sound and in content. Releasing on May 2, On Through The Sky Maze is an exploration about beginnings, endings, the journey between them, and the paradoxes that appear along the way. The album is unpredictable and cohesively chaotic that flows with tempo changes that carry the listener across unknown spaces both outwardly and inwardly.


From the opening of ‘Celestial Magic’, the album begins its grand, mythical adventure towards no fixed point, and propels the listener by way of an intoxicatingly robust elixir of tones and riffs. AAWKS conjures imagery of mysterious, imposing figures and sprawling space-scapes that play out like a paperback sci-fi wet dream. 


To compare the band to other acts would be like using a slingshot to fire an arrow at a moving target…but the slingshot is made of plasma, the arrow is a living snake, the moving target jumps between planes of existence, and you’re on mescaline. 


In lieu of saying that On Through The Sky Maze marks a significant departure, I would prefer to say that the new album stands as a significant point in the band’s continuing mythos and ever-expanding universe. The addition of well-placed shouting and screaming add an element of aggression that first appeared on their split EP The Eastern Scrolls. 


In a new move by AAWKS, more than half of the album’s 9-tracks have been released as singles. Preceded by ‘Celestial Magick’, ‘Death Trip (Naglfar)’, ‘Lost Dwellers’, ‘Cursed Soul’, and ‘The Figure’, On Through The Sky Maze offers stand-alone trips with each track, or an all-encompassing traverse across the deepest recesses of your mind and realms on the edge of eternity.  


To sum up the vastness of the influences and substances that AAWKS have skillfully woven into their second album, here it is: On Through The Sky Maze is fuzz-laden escapism that is grimey, sweaty, and untethered. 


To pre-order On Through The Sky Maze, or support AAWKS via bandcamp, click HERE.


To stream AAWKS via Spotify, click HERE.

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