Things have taken a surprisingly heavy turn in the Quality of Mercury camp. ‘The Voyager’ – the first single and title track from the band’s second album opens with a riff that, unexpectedly, blends the density of classic shoegaze with the dark edge of doom metal. This, as you would expect, sets about crushing the audience in a very direct manner.

Slipping into the verse, things revert to something much closer to what fans will be expecting, when a wall of guitar sounds weave a dark, psychedelic tone into a shoegaze influenced backdrop. This sounds especially cool when married with a vocal that’s been drenched in spacey effects that are a perfect fit with some of the lighter guitar tones.

Re-visiting the monolithic sound to fill the track’s chorus, the number constantly pulls back and forth between a great heaviness and the deeply trippy, but the heavier side of things sounds great when contrasted with a slightly detached vocal that really sells The Quality of Mercury’s otherworldly qualities. As great as that is, however, it’s not as strong as the track’s middle eight, which goes for a full on psych vibe, allowing for a really out there mood and for the vocal to take centre stage.

Those elements would be enough to form a great number, but this epic arrangement takes an extra detour when an instrumental break introduces some hugely melodic lead guitar work, adding a slightly bluesy texture to the piece, before the coda reaches for some full blown space rock where The Quality of Mercury manage to blend the influences from the melodic parts of the Hawkwind catalogue with Spacemen 3 and a 1967 era Beatles to create something that manages to sound very much their own.

Despite a tougher sound in places, ‘The Voyager’ has all the makings of the best recording The Quality of Mercury has shared to date.

Take a listen below.