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Two of the LA doom metal scene's heaviest slug (and sludge) it out on this split release, with two songs each, of course played slow enough to make this a full-length! Goatsnake (featuring ex-members of The Obsessed and Engine Kid) even do a cover "Burial At Sea" by LA's godfathers of doom, the late great Saint Vitus. Sabbarific!!!
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
Wally Gonzalez, guitarist from the Phillippines' proto stoner rock combo the Juan De La Cruz band, stepped out in the late '70s with these two newly cd-ified solo records, 1977's Tunog Pinoy and 1978's On The Road. They're not that heavy but do feature lotsa wailing Wally guitar action -- and wild/cheesy keyboard synth sizzlin' too. Wally fronts 'em both on guitar and vocals and although each was recorded with a different backing band, the two discs are pretty similar. Slow-burning mellow psych pop ballads are mixed with strutting boogie numbers. What titles there are in English are along the lines of "Rock & Roll Mama", "Wally's Blues", "Rockin' Roller" and, uh, "Screw". Neither album is as raw and gritty as the best of Juan De La Cruz, but this is still good fun hard rock and folky balladry, Filipino style, with a polyester '70s sheen that will either kitschly add to your enjoyment or perhaps ruin it totally.
Last time when we stocked up on UFOmammut's Godlike Snake on the Beard Of Stars label, we also brought in a few copies of this second (new to us, released in 2004) album from English retro-rock stompers Gorilla. Consisting of two guys, including one who looks a heck of a lot like Ron Wood, and one girl who thankfully doesn't, this power trio remains unabashedly dedicated to good-time rock n' roll excess in the amped-up, fuzzed-out, cowbell-knockin' tradition of fellow '70s revivalists Fu Manchu, Nebula and Monster Magnet. Lyrics like "whoah-yeah" will be heard. SF locals Drunk Horse and Parchman Farm might also serve as comparisions. Of course, if you ask Gorilla I'm sure they'll say that what they're into is Blue Cheer, Grand Funk, Sabbath, Humble Pie, Free, Frijid Pink and other staples of the late '60s/early '70s stoner rock pantheon.
Channelling their heroes with enthusiasm, Gorilla pretty much veer between whoopin' it up on the fast songs, and grinding it out with plentiful psych leads on the slower, heavier tunes, or some combination thereof. There's a couple of longer cuts that also dabble in melodic, moody progness (even bringing in Mellotron and flute) but after each spacey interlude they generally start crankin' it again pretty quick -- which is good 'cause, well, we can't say that melodic vocals are their strong suit, unfortunately. But when they stick to the distorted, dunderheaded riff-dealin' on tracks like "Rok Orl Night" and "I'm Dirty", Gorilla live up to their burly name. If that's your thing, and/or if you liked their self-titled debut we reviewed in 2002, then Gimme Some... should prove to be an apt title.
Gorilla, as befits their name, are a heavy power trio from the UK. The band photo in the cd booklet recalls the Melvins (the photo from their "Ozma" album, complete with female bass player and drummer in horizontally striped shirt, but minus the cat), but a better clue to this band's brand of heaviness is the back cover, which appears to be a homage to the back cover of Budge's "Squawk" (a high-contrast photo of the band sitting on a piece of heavy machinery). Yes, they really delve into the Seventies thing, to the point of having extensive liner notes detailing all their authentic, vintage equipment ("a '68 Gibson SG special with P-90 pickups run through an early '60s Vox AC-30" -- that sort of thing) which wouldn't mean much if they hadn't truly managed to capture that early '70s hard rock sound and vibe, which they did. And they can play. Their fuzz-laden heavy riff rock might not be original but of course it's not supposed to be. It's about kicking out the jams, brothers and sisters! The ten tracks here all pretty much live up to the title of track one, the self-descriptive "Good Time Rockin'" -- we also especially dig "She's Got A Car" with its sped up Blue Cheer riff and MC5/The Who '60s beat energy, along with the plodding, Sabbath-riffed "Acorn Brain", and the crushing, spaced-out "Iron Ball", among others. Fans of the likes of Monster Magnet, Nebula, and even maybe the White Stripes should consider adding these throwbacks' disc to your daily listening dosage.
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Second album of stoner metal from these modern-day Vikings. The singer's also in Spiritual Beggars.
Wow! We were never too taken with this Swedish stoner rock band before, really. Their first two albums were decent stoner rock, definitely heavy, but kinda generic and not that inspiring or inspired. Their 2nd album merited only a 2-sentence review from us. But this, album number three, we have to rhapsodize on about... We always recognized that they had potential. And now it's been realized. Oddly enough, by means of shedding their "stoner rock" identity somewhat and being reborn as a full on, leather-and-spikes *heavy metal* band! Actually, when we first got this, we thought they'd just jumped on the retro-metal bandwagon. And maybe they have. But it turns out that they maybe belong in the driver's seat of that bandwagon. Combining the epic doom of Candlemass with even more vicious headbanging fare, this is damn good -- nice n' heavy, and with some frickin' great *songs*. Guitarist/vocalist JB (also in the Spiritual Beggars) kicks ass on here, showing more personality than before. Is that what happens when you stop smoking pot? Well we don't know what came over these guys, actually, but whatever it is, we approve. Wolf's Return? If they weren't wolves before, now they sure are.
Imagine that this split release is a see-saw, with Graves At Sea on one side and Asunder on the other. They're both so heavy that the teeter-totter wouldn't totter, but simply snap in the middle, leaving both bands sitting there, glaring at one another, having no fun at all. But no fun sounds good, if you like doom like we do. And both of these bands do the doom quite well, ultra low and slow -- so slow that just to make it through a song they need at least ten minutes (the two Graves At Sea tracks clock in at 10:45 and 11:16 while Asunder's contribution lasts 18:59) and you'll need a dose of anti-depressants. I mean, is this a split release or a suicide pact?
Graves At Sea (who had a cd-r release a while ago, but as yet no full-length cd) are from LA and basically are along the lines of Khanate, Burning Witch, or Corrupted -- nasty, feedbacking, hateful sludgecore, with a dreadlocked vocalist (known as the "bloody guy" around here) who spits out a screech like Edgy from BW or Khanate's Alan Dubin. And they're not to be confused with Buried At Sea, by the way, although both bands play music dug from the same charnel pit!
Graves At Sea make a perfect pairing with Asunder, who are the Bay Area's contribution to the "funereal doom" subgenre, aligning with the likes of Skepticism, Evoken, and Disembowelment. Majestic and morose metal played at a glacial pace, with both the use of cellos and the presence of ex-Weakling guitarist/vocalist John Gossard giving 'em extra dismal atmosphere. Their track here is definitely in the vein of their epick A Clarion Call album from last year.
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Finally!!! The first two Green Machine records, originally released on Man's Ruin, re-released with three bonus tracks each! And not a moment too soon considering how much we've all been freaking out for their most recent full length The Archives Of Rotten Blues. Unlike the monstrous sludge of that one, these two records are slightly more stoner rock, and a bit more melodic, but somehow harder: thrashy, noisy and chaotic, with lots of leads, almost like classic hard rock / proto metal but WAY heavier and more aggressive, very reminiscent of midwest aggro sludge like Helmet, Unsane and all that growly Amrep stuff. But all run through that Japanese bizzaro filter we love!
Plus song titles like Cunt Maniac, Burdens Of Karma, Barbarian Of Dope, Hempty God Returns To The Sky, Machinists Smoke and Holy Grinder tell you anything else you need to know.
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2nd Man's Ruin effort from these Japanese sludge rockers--actually not so sludgy as before, this has more of a "stoner groove" thing happening, although the vocals are still in the harsh Eyehategod-style screaming realm. Song titles that may clinch the deal: "Barbarian of Dope", "Slug", "Hempty God, Returns To Sky"...
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Finally, the return of Japanese sludgemetalmeisters Green Machine! Not sure about you, but we LOVED those Green Machine records on Man's Ruin way back when (also back in print, though not listed yet, see the 'instock not reviewed' section!) and after that they seemed to just drop off the map. Which was really too bad as they were a massive monstrous sludge / groove metal behemoth few could touch. Well, we're happy to say that Green Machine are indeed back, and more sludgy, groovy and monstrously heavy than ever. Can't hurt that Atsuo from BORIS produced the record! But it's not just the production. This band is tight and heavy and huge. And so are the songs. Bulldozing riffs, pounding drums and throat shredding vocals. Like classic stoner rock, supercharged and run through a special Japanese 'sludge' pedal. Think High On Fire, Motorhead, Venom, Eyehategod, Cavity and of course Boris' Heavy Rocks. And don't let the counter on your cd player display confuse you. Track seven is split into about sixty individual five second tracks to throw you off before the final track, number 69, "Hammer And Burner", a lighting fast, hammering barn burner, like Motorhead on 45. Fans of all the above bands and Boris and Boris-related obessives will want this for sure!
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Finally!!! The first two Green Machine records, originally released on Man's Ruin, re-released with three bonus tracks each! And not a moment too soon considering how much we've all been freaking out for their most recent full length The Archives Of Rotten Blues. Unlike the monstrous sludge of that one, these two records are slightly more stoner rock, and a bit more melodic, but somehow harder: thrashy, noisy and chaotic, with lots of leads, almost like classic hard rock / proto metal but WAY heavier and more aggressive, very reminiscent of midwest aggro sludge like Helmet, Unsane and all that growly Amrep stuff. But all run through that Japanese bizzaro filter we love!
Plus song titles like Cunt Maniac, Burdens Of Karma, Barbarian Of Dope, Hempty God Returns To The Sky, Machinists Smoke and Holy Grinder tell you anything else you need to know.
Along with the sudden miraculous appearance of their nigh-impossible to find 1998 album "Amplifier Worship" in our racks (see elsewhere on this list) we've also managed to acquire a few copies of some other hard-to-find Boris titles, including this
RealAudio clip: "The Decision of a Dream Which Will Never Be Completely Red" [/audio/hainoborisdecision.rm]
Last list we slobbered all over an album called Under Sided by UK psych rock rulers The Heads, and in the course of the review we mentioned we also had an even newer disc by them, the live-in-rehearsal album At Last. We quickly ran out of Under Sided (hopefully we'll be getting more of 'em back in soon) but At Last is still here, and it's a great freaking freakout record too. With a band like The Heads, ALL their albums might as well be live, it's just that with the actual live album you get versions of classics culled from earlier albums, plus new material n' improvisations never heard before (or again). To quickly recap, The Heads are an unsung uber-awesome heavy duty psychedelic garage rock band that takes their inspiration from '70s masters like Hawkwind, The Stooges, and the Pink Fairies. We're also reminded a bit of Lubricated Goat and some other Aussie acts. So if you're into any of that, and/or current acid-rock acts like Monster Magnet, High Rise, Comets On Fire, and suchlike, you ought to like The Heads. Apparently they recorded this while getting ready to open up for Mudhoney, who, good as they are, must have been blown off the stage. As good as Under Sided (a few tunes from which get the live treatment here) and equally as recommended!
This band kicks out raw, spacey, psychedelic acid jams that any psych rock freak who likes it hard and heavy (you! c'mon, stand up!) will spazz over. We've been fans of England's The Heads for years. They put out a few records on the now-defunct Man's Ruin label a while back, and they sure stood out from the general run of the usual stoner rock and punk on that label's roster. But its been much more recently -- in the last year, really, after being exposed to their harder-to-find, post-Man's Ruin output -- that we've realized just how great a band The Heads really are. Really f**kin' great! Carrying the swirling smoke spewing torch of fuzz wah wah fx freak rock handed down from The Stooges and Hawkwind, adding a post-punk edge, The Heads here serve up a sonic maelstrom that makes their Japanese contemporaries like Mainliner and Acid Mothers Temple sound like wimps and poseurs. No US bands come close either, really, but if you dig Comets On Fire and Monster Magnet's garage groove and stoner trance, you'll dig The Head's Under Sided, from three minute riffers like "Dissonaut" to the 29+ minute album closer "Heavy Sea". At long last we've got some import (but inexpensive!) copies of this, their most recent studio album, released last year, recorded in '01. Supply is limited, so act fast or be patient... And we've also got some copies of their brand new live disc, At Last, that we'll review on our next list. The Heads are right on. Super freakin' recommended!
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Throbbing, fuzz-distorted, metallic, rhythmic HEAVINESS. Loud too, of course. That's the modus operandi of London, England's oddly named Hey Colossus. Bludgeoning, repetitive riffing, with lotsa wonderful noisiness and modicum of hidden post-rock prettiness, that can definitely put you into a dazed and confused, headbanging trance, the same way our Finnish faves Circle/Pharaoh Overlord can and so often do, right? Described somewhere by somebody as a mix of "Fudge Tunnel and Can" (yes, the grungy UK dirge metallers meet the classic krautrock masters), Hey Colossus themselves would probably admit to sounding more like the former, but legitimately reference such bands as Can and Neu! as influences, along with '80s hardcore and psychedelic stoner rock and more... So while it might be hard to hear beneath the THREE bulldozer guitars, and droning feedback, and cathartic, raw-throat screaming, but a krautrock-inspired 'pulse' is kicking your ass too!
If you don't remember Fudge Tunnel (a good band despite their dodgy name, rather like Hey Colossus) we'd also cite the likes of Zeni Geva, Melvins, Isis, godheadSilo, Shellac, Figure Of Merit, and the aforementioned Pharaoh Overlord as diverse batch of comparisons towards the primarily sludgey aspect of HC's sound.
The much-loved Wino, grizzled underground doom-metal guitarist and vocalist extraordinaire, who first gained fame with the legendary bands The Obsessed and Saint Vitus and more recently fronted the popular Spirit Caravan (R.I.P.), is back, riding high in the saddle again in not one but two new bands.
OK, Place of Skulls isn't actually new (more on them in a sec) but The Hidden Hand is. Basically they're the continuation of Spirit Caravan by other means it seems. Wino recruited a new rhythm section -- one without overt substance abuse problems -- that really allows him to fire up his trademark heavy stoner rock into punkier, more aggro realms than before. They really kick ass with some complex instrumental stuff goin' on. Definitely further out on a limb musically than the Caravan. Lyrically, Wino indulges in a lot of ridiculous conspiracy-theory -- he's really gone off the deep end with post 9/11 paranoia. But his heart's in the right place, politically revolted with the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft coup. It's redneck radical rock for X-files fans. Heavy riffs, heavy concepts, there's even a reading list.
Meanwhile, Wino also joined up with Place of Skulls, the band of ex-Pentagram guitarist Victor Griffin (whoo-hoo! supergroup!). Their first album Nailed came out last year on Southern Lord and we gave it a bit of mixed review, criticizing the vocals particularily. But they had potential, and now with Wino in the band they're much much better. It's a funny thing, actually, 'cause they already sounded a lot like Spirit Caravan or The Obsessed, but I guess they needed the talents of the man himself to really shine. His vocals help a lot. Victor still sings, too, but he's somehow better now thanks to Wino's example I guess! Dunno if they're still a Christian band, I'm not sure how Jesus fits into Wino's conspiracy theories... but he's certainly a 'spiritual' dude, so it works. Anyway, both Place Of Skulls and The Hidden Hand worthy successors to Wino's previous projects, with Place Of Skulls more straight-up doom metal for doom heads and The Hidden Hand harking back in ways to The Obsessed's DC punk roots, Bad Brains jazz fusion lurking in the grooves, though neither band would exist if not for Black Sabbath of course. And the Place Of Skulls album cover wouldn't exist if it weren't for Steppenwolf's "7"...
Mother Teacher Destroyer is the second album of spiritually and politically radical heavy rock music to be revealed by The Hidden Hand, a trio lead by veteran guitarist/vocalist Scott "Wino" Weinrich (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place Of Skulls, Probot). Wino's past tends to define him, but with The Hidden Hand there's been a bit of a fresh start. He's no longer treading water, in the moat of the doom castle. The Hidden Hand harks back to Wino's harDCore roots, the band's energetic, complex nature shaking off any residual doom/stoner stupor. Not that this isn't still psychedelic and doomy too (some of it sounds like early The Obsessed meets Pink Floyd), it's just got an aggro edge to it. Wino and crew are angry about the state of our nation, that's for sure -- "The Deprogramming Of Tom Delay" is an actual song title here! And while some of his ideas might be a little far out, his instincts are right-on.
Stoner/doom heads, alert! The Man's Ruin-released cd of this album is now out of print (although, we stocked up right before the label went under, and still have a few copies). Now, however, there's vinyl! It comes complete with new (better) cover art courtesy of the Roger Dean of the stoner rock scene, Arik Moonhawk Roper, and a bonus 7" with two new tracks, including a cover of
The Bay Area's slowest, heaviest, potsmokin'est doom metal combo Sleep (RIP) lives on in the form of ex-Sleep guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike's new band High On Fire. Sleep's last album, the infamous "Jerusalem", consisted of but one, super-long super-slow track. High On Fire speeds things up a bit (only a bit) but maintains the heaviness and the trademark Sleep sound. Right on.
Flap flap flap. More like flwwaapp flwwaapp flwwaapphhgh. Blessed Black Wings cast a shadow across the land, blotting out the sun in their demonic leathern flight. It's the third album from the Bay Area's louder-than-thou High On Fire, the first to feature new bassist Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins, ex-Earth) and it's not going to disappoint any fans of their previous discs, that's for sure. On this Steve Albini recorded effort, the sheer volume and pummel is cranked to full force, ex-Sleep guitarist Matt Pike's Lemmy-vs-Cronos styled vox doing damage atop a fast-marching mountain of riffery. It really sounds like these guys are beating the bejesus out of their instruments, and not just the drums. It's like an angry, aggro version of Sleep, really. And more than ever, this is somehow sludgily reminiscent of the underground metal thrash of a decade or 15 years ago...I'm hearing Nuclear Assault, Laaz Rockit, Exodus, and oh yeah, Slayer!! Includes (while supplies last, we assume) a bonus dvd disc with five live tracks. So, "Cometh Down Hessian" (that's one of the song titles) and buy this!
Eight new weighty sonic slabs from San Francisco's premier stoner metal outfit, High On Fire (fronted by Matt Pike, formerly of Bay Area doom legends Sleep). Yes, this is HoF's brand new second album, following hard on the heels of the Tee Pee reissue of their debut "The Art of Self Defense". We know that anticipation has been running high for this new disc -- and to our ears, it's no disappointment, full of bludgeoning guitar riffery, ragged vox and relentless drum-pound as per our expectations. As heavy as Matt's old band, but not so slow -- their black as pitch, tar pit dirges are cranked up faster into violent headbanging territory. Sludgey rock n' roll that's perfect bloody battle music for the axe-wielding barbaric warrior depicted on the album's front cover. Fed on juicy steaks of Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Melvins, and Eyehategod beef, "Surrounded By Thieves" is a ravening brute that means to trample you underfoot, but if you're a fan of all things heavy instead of running away, you'll let it give you a big senses-numbing, trance-inducing bear hug.
The demise of Man's Ruin was a big blow to the stoner rock scene, weeding (ha) out some crappy bands, to be sure, but also rendering some worthy albums out of print. Thankfully, in the case of San Francsico's favorite potsmoking doomsters High On Fire,
The Bay Area's slowest, heaviest, potsmokin'est doom metal combo Sleep (RIP) lives on in the form of ex-Sleep guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike's new band High On Fire. Sleep's last album, the infamous "Jerusalem", consisted of but one, super-long super-slow track. High On Fire speeds things up a bit (only a bit) but maintains the heaviness and the trademark Sleep sound. Right on.
Yay! So many good things combined here with this release, it's like a crazy cosmic convergence of cool. First off, it's a Skin Graft comic book single. That's right, this colored-vinyl 7" record comes with a full-color comic book by the guys at Skin Graft, getting back to their roots as a combo of weird-music label and underground comix publisher. They haven't released anything in this format for ages, but we have fond memories of similar releases from way back by UFO or Die, Zeni Geva, Dazzling Killmen, Space Streakings, Mount Shasta, Brise-Glace... The comic doesn't have much to do with the music, but it's pretty cool.
And yeah, then there's the music. Side A: High On Fire. You know 'em you love 'em (or you should). Motorhead on Sabbath on Slayer on 11. They contribute a song from their latest, probably greatest release Blessed Black Wings, called "Brother In The Wind". And on Side B: Ruins. You know 'em you love 'em (or you should). Magma meets Lightning Bolt. Their track is a previously unreleased number entitled "Gwodhunqa" that encompasses everything that's great about Ruins: nimble, bass-heavy grooves and crazed yet catchy complexity. Parts of this sound like it's on 45, even though it already is on 45, if you know what I mean.
Never thought High On Fire and Ruins would share a split, but why not? Whoever thunk this up, give 'em a raise.
For those of you who miss the big ol' fuzzed out desert rock of the mighty Kyuss, or can't get enough of the throbbing blown out RAWK of Fu Manchu and Nebula, this here SF band will almost definitely hit the spot. High Tone Son Of A Bitch mix the above bands sounds with some Thin Lizzy melody, some Eyehategod sludge, and some quirky complex arrangements to come up with some first rate stoner/sludge/doom rock. This 4 song ep also features appearances from Dave Edwardson of Neurosis playing Moogs... and our very own Andee behind the drum kit (but just for this ep)!
MPEG Download: "Fortune's Crown" [/audio/highfortunes.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Fortune's Crown" [/audio/highfortunes.m3u]
An obscure early '70s American power trio that we'd never heard of until a bootleg cd recently crossed our path. Intrigued by the cover photo of three long-haired stoner dudes, we checked it out (hoping for something akin to Sabbath or Budgie but perfectly aware that we were more likely to discover something more like unsuccessful ... wannabes). Lo! Highway Robbery turned out to be bonafide heavy-hitters, playing proto-metal in the Led Zep vein, with moments recalling Sabbath and the Who. Huzzah! Double huzzah, 'cause we then discovered that this, their only album (originally released by Capitol in 1973) had serendipitously just been reissued by Collectables, and we could share our discovery with the lucky patrons of Aquarius. It's almost all super heavy and rockin, despite the obligatory misguided pop efforts made by all not-metal-yet hard rockers of the era, it's got a singing drummer, they've got the look, what more do you want! Fans of current or vintage "stoner rock" should jump on this. Wow, it's always nice to find that there's stuff out there remaining to surprise us.
Er...we think that's the title. Anyway this appears to be a collaboration between Jojo Hiroshige (boss of the Alchemy label and guitarist for legendary Japanese noise band Hijokaidan) and one-half of the all-girl psych-rock duo Doodles (who you'll also hear on the first Night Gallery comp of "21st Century Psychedelic Underground" music, also on Alchemy), plus a couple other friends. And it's great. Press start and you're immediately confronted with some totally heavy, thudding noise rock, dense and rhythmic. With the ripped-from-the-throat vocals of Jojo (screams of anguish as much as they are singing), this reminds us of KK Null's Zeni Geva. Track two follows, a lumbering, stoner rock, slow-mo stomp. These gals and guy are a noise band, a psych band, a tripped out doom band. What's not to like? And it's not quite ALL distortion-infused bludgeoning, dundering, damaged Blue Cheer riffage. There's some spacier, haunted sound-worlds to wander lost and lonely in on here as well, melodic minor key melancholia that soon enough is joined by crashing waves of heavy guitar and drums. We wonder, has Jojo borrowed Keiji Haino's shades and black clothes? Certainly Jojo and the Doodles girl's mutual love of heavy psych and krautrock freakiness bear massive, ripe, deformed fruit here. Goes well with the Up-Tight album, also new on Alchemy, reviewed this list too!
Here's great disc that we got clued into thanks to heavy druid dude Julian Cope's Head Heritage website (and label, that put this out). The UK's Holy McGrail (perhaps a silly name, but the guy behind this project is named Chris McGrail) is definitely one for any AQ customer who digs heaviness, droneiness, and krautrockiness. That's a lot of you, eh? Well then, how 'bout three looong tracks ("Lady Holle" running to 23:45, "'Quake Appeal" at 28:51, and "Ur-cow" just 19:59) of pagan drone rock, one with buried-by-bass Amon Duul meets th' Stooges drumming and the rest totally beat-less cosmic guitar and synth-scapes, guest-starring the likes of Doggen (Brain Donor), Julian Cope himself and SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley?? From the freaking lovely purple cracked earth mountain cover art to the dense drones within, this is utterly right-on. Turn it up and let it rumble. Damn beautiful. If you like SUNNO))), Growing, Earth, etc. you should check this out. Now we're looking forward to Holy McGrail's upcoming plunderphonic tribute to Iggy & the Stooges, something called the Raw Power Suite! And soon (next list) we'll be reviewing a cd-r entitled "The Creep" by Slowmo, an aptly named Earth-like duo also featuring McGrail.
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Ultra limited live document of Aaron Turner's (Isis, Old Man Gloom, Hydra Head) minimal ambient outfit House Of Low Culture. This one sided lp is 20+ minutes of lowercase rumble and barely there thrum, interrupted only by a brief track of staticky buzz, sounding a bit like droning electronic bagpipes. Subtley gorgeous. And as always, superbly packaged, this time on blue vinyl with flowers and spiders silkscreened in blue over in a gold sleeve. Wow! Be warned, this is very limited so we're not sure how long we will have this or if we can get more. Also be warned that as with a lot of picture discs of late (Table Of The Elements?), these 12"s are housed in those brittle hard plastic sleeves that more often than not, split or crack.
Bombastic '70s progressive rock proto-metal from Italy! I Teoremi were a quartet who really kicked out the jams hard, specializing in muscular, complex stuff that, amazingly enough, at its most extreme reminds us of the prog-punk of much more recent bands like Stinking Lizaveta, Breadwinner, and Ruins! Seriously. For 1971 (when this, their only album, was released), they're one of the heaviest and most spazz-tastic we've heard. Sure, you have to enjoy some grandiose vocals in the typical dramatic Italian prog style, but mostly this is about their instrumental ass-kicking. With its herky-jerky riffing and spiralling guitar patterns, "Il Dialogo d'un Pazzo" could be a song off of one of the first two albums by Greg Ginn's Gone for gosh shakes! Now, we should mention that there's actually a somewhat more recent reissue of this on Arkarma, in one of their mini-lp style digipaks, that's got a bonus track...but we won't be getting any of those 'til we get rid of the two copies of this older jewel case version we happen to have. So we're selling 'em cheap, come n' get 'em! Everyone (well, two people) into early '70s hard prog and metal need to hear this.
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Rarely does someone just come in off the street and drop off a record that kicks our ass as much as this record by Chicago doomsters Indian. Two tracks of fuzzed out, stoner doom, with big crunchy distorted riffs, chaotic drumming, and weird (especially for a band like this) shrieked, almost black metal vocals. Really cool. Think Melvins, Kyuss, Eyehategod, Electric Wizard and you'll definitely have a good idea of where these guys are coming from. The A side has a strange sampled voice that sounds like an agitated foreigner yelling outside your car window -- turns out it's sampled from a Tarkovsky film! Cool. We look forward to their full-length scheduled for next spring...
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We read about this recently on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website -- he picked it as his Album of the Month for July 2005. We had to hear it. And having heard it, we liked it enough to order a few of 'em in! The punningly titled Jamnation isn't quite like anything we've come across before. It's, um, stoner rock spoken word. Huh?
We've never been all that big on the "spoken word" thing here at AQ, not really. Stand up comedy, maybe -- of course we like our David Cross records. And Bill Hicks. Even there, the good stuff is a rarity. But spoken word? You say spoken word, we start thinking poetry slam. Not good. Though we'll concede that there's been some worthwhile practitioners of the form. Steven Jesse Bernstein was interesting. And Rollins we have to say has had his moments. And we'll listen to This American Life all day -- we guess that stuff counts as spoken word, right?
But get this. Jamnation is a spoken word album, the voice and words of one Dan McGuire. But it's also a killer stoner/psych rock compilation of sorts. That's 'cause McGuire has gotten it into his head to speak his spoken words not over some tired Beat-style bongo jam or loungey jazz backing, but over searing electric guitar ramalamajama, epic-length tracks he's chosen out by some far-out and obscure heavy rock bands who happen to be faves of his, old and new (American '70s psych monsters the JPT Scare Band and Josefus, modern day stoner space rockers Gas Giant and ILD HU from Holland, and Japan's retro doom hippies Eternal Elysium). Which goes a long way to explaining just how McGuire's Jamnation wound up being so honored by Julian Cope. We certainly can't improve on what Cope wrote -- fella's got a way with words, y'know -- so we suggest you go read it yrself. 'Specially since you should be checking out his site anyway, a recommendation we've made before to all AQ-list readers who are into the psych/heavy side of things. Visit it at www.headheritage.co.uk.
Having picked these tracks out of his record collection (much easier than actually working with actual live musicans, claims McGuire, and we're sure he's right) he then finds the space in each song for his verbal embellishments. It's the same idea really the old Jamiacan DJ's had when they first started "toasting". This really works 'cause McGuire's verbiage is equally billed with the music. Actually it takes a back seat to the music a lot of the time, really. It's not all about him, its about the jams. Sometimes it seems whole minutes will pass while McGuire lets the guitars take center stage. Wow -- a spoken word dude that shuts up when necessary. Cool. And when he is talking, he weaves his words perfectly into the rhythms of the music. His voice is husky and laidback, a little bit like John Wayne / Henry Rollins hybrid, spinning visions of gritty reality and far out freak scenes. What he says is sometimes amusing, often cryptic, and never laughably embarrassing at any rate. It's sorta druggy rambling ranting stuff that fits perfectly with this tunage! Truly, we need to let what he's saying sink in more to give a good account of it...the thing is, McGuire's speech goes so well with the wailing guitars and chugging riffs that we're not always paying the closest attention to what he's on about, we're just digging the totality of the listening experience.
So, in sum Jamnation is a pretty excellent heavy jams comp with a guy talking over it at times, in a pretty cool, Lizard King way that fits in with the music anyway.
Juan De La Cruz (a band, not a man, so it's filed under "J") was a hard-rock powerhouse powertrio from the Phillippines who flourished in the nineteen seventies. If you're hip to other obscurites from the era, imagine a cross between Buffalo and Los Dug
We'll soon have another Juan de la Cruz reissue, a 1970 recording called "Up In Arms" that Shadoks is putting out real soon. Apparently it's got a ton of unreleased live stuff on it, can't wait!
Jucifer made me woozy. Not a bad thing! When it started with delicate female vocals over shoegazer psychedelia, I thought "one part My Bloody Valentine, one part Lush, one part Veruca Salt", but that didn't last too long. Add "five parts Melvins". The breathy female vox soon meet ballsy thick fuzz guitars. Pretty damn rockin'... and it all gets progressively more so. By the fourth song ("Queen B"), the heavy duty nutbusters have been unleashed, although they pretty things up again later, always keeping you guessing as to when the crushing riffs will come in. If you've been paying attention (unlike me) you'd have been expecting this from our review of Jucifer's previous effort, "The Lambs EP". To recap: Jucifer are a massively-amped two-piece from Georgia or someplace, with a frenzied, hard-hitting male drummer and a heavier-than-thou female guitarist, who also handles the singing, a blend of beastly and beautiful that is this duo's forte. "Death Pop" they call it. The 15 tracks here vary the predominant drums/guitar brutality with some hypnotic keyboard atmospheres and effects. Boris meets the Breeders?
Kaptain Sun are from Sweden and obviously owe quite a bit to their fellow countrymen Entombed. They mix in a bit of Cathedral, make it a bit more melodic, a little more straight ahead and mid tempo and add some heavy stoner groove. Pretty cool. On UK label Rage of Achilles.
A new Khanate! 'Nuff said perhaps, as all you AQ doom customers surely know what that means! Ultra-depressive dirge metal from some of the best in the biz. Capture & Release, a two-song, 43 minute "ep" (maxi-ep? mini-lp? heck, it's a full-length, really!) is the third cd release from this NYC-based band, featuring Stephen O'Malley from SUNNO))) on guitar and graphics, bassist James Plotkin of OLD, singer Alan Dubin (also from OLD), and drummer Tim Wyskida. By now, Khanate have really established a distinct style of extreme, slow, scary, art-metal. To the point that we're always citing them as a comparison when describing other bands. They're the standard by which anyone indulging in feedback-filled heaviness, anguished/evil vocalizations, creepy atmosphere, double digit song-lengths, and rumbling sub-sonics is judged -- like when we say Bunkur or Graves At Sea (reviewed on this list) are bands in the style of Khanate. So if would be easy to review Capture & Release if it were by *another* band -- we'd say it was a lot like Khanate and that'd be enough to recommend it to many of you! Of course, Khanate themselves can be compared to predecessors Corrupted and especially Eyehategod, godfathers of feedback sludge brutality. But Khanate's compositions are way more extended, dramatically ambitious, and clinically produced than EHG, and utilize "experimental" sonic textures and loud/soft dynamics in the manner of a post-rock band as well. This new disc really exemplified this approach, with the second, 25-minute track "Release" featuring lots of really quiet parts that make us think a hypothetical Khanate / Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore tour would be PERFECT. (We can dream, can't we?) Vocalist Alan Dubin makes the most of these "vulnerabilities" in the band's otherwise crushing sound barrage, with dark, cryptic, and psychologically suggestive rather than explicit lyrics wherein he seems to be inhabiting the role of the deviant antagonist from a Thomas Harris novel...but poetically enough that perhaps we can all relate, and indeed find release in their music.
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DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Khanate return with a two song teaser from our pals at Load to hold us all over until their upcoming Southern Lord full length. Khanate, for those who don't already know, are sloooooow and looooooow and heavy as fuck. Featuring two members of the late great O.L.D. (Alan Dubin, and James Plotkin), Stephen O'Malley from Sunn 0))) and Burning Witch and the drummer from Blind Idiot God, you get just what you'd expect with a pedigree like that. "Dead" is a black hole of crushing, oppressive doom metal. Trudging along at a glacial pace, decimating everything in their path, taking THE RIFF and slowing it way down, stretching it way out, laying a thick, rotting blanket of dismal sound over out heads, filling our ears with filth and muck, and slowly suffocating us. But it's soooo good. "No Joy" is a track from Khanate's first record, and here gets the remix treatment from James Plotkin. Still doomy, but way more spacious and spare, the guitar becomes less of an unstoppable force, and more of a tattered curtain, casting sinister shadows over the proceedings while the stripped down skeleton of the song is supported by a slow motion drum and bass cadence and tortured, demonic howls. Definitely the most evil thing on Load yet!
Extreme doom here folks. I mean, these four tracks (two of 'em approaching twenty minutes each) are slower and lower and uglier even than the tunes on Khanate's immense self-titled debut from two years ago! We're not saying this tops the debut (that would be difficult) but Things Viral takes the Khanate sound into a seldom-explored realm where signs of life and hope are few and far between. This is some sparse, slow, intensely creepy metal for sure. The plod of a drum, some glitchy amplifier feedback, a crushing guitar riff, bass drone...all the perfect accompaniment to the anguished rasp of vocalist Alan Dubin, who turns this record into his own personal let-it-all-out psycho-drama session. As soon as the first track "Commuted" starts, you can imagine the band, broken, bleeding, crawling across the floor of the studio, scrabbling at their instruments, Dubin clutching the microphone like it's his last link to a world of human emotion. It's harrowing, simply put. The ravings of a disturbed man put to music by Earth would be a decent description. Downer metal was never so down, and the clarity with which this was recorded belies the term sludge. Only for the brave -- leave the lights on when you listen to this, and make sure you have the suicide hotline number handy. Includes the track "Dead" previously released on vinyl only as the b-side to the "No Joy [remix]" 12".
Huh? Aside from the fact that both artists have numbers in their names, this seems like quite the strange bedfellows sort of team up. The electronic mish mash mayhem of Kid 606 on one side of the 12" colored (pink or blue) vinyl, the bludgeoning stoner rock instrumentals of the Boston duo known as 5ive (or, to use their new, full name, 5ive's Continuum Research Project). Weird, eh? And that's just the idea. Of course, if you've heard the 2XH vs. HHR Vol. 1 compilation, which featured a bunch of grind/doom bands as well as drone and electronic acts (including the ubiquitous Kid 606) you know that the Hydra Head/Tortuga guys have an affinity for the Kid's brand of electronic fuckery in addition to sheer metallic heaviness. Hey, just like us! So, maybe it all makes sense. The two tracks from 5ive are in their usual awesomely sludgey bass and drums style, excellent. Then on the flip, there's three from Kid 606, the first of which features processed, distorted solo guitar and loops, almost as if he's making an effort to fit in with 5ive. Very cool actually. His next track is some Casio-beat goofiness, but that's then followed by a third track again with guitar, but spacier and more psychedelic. All in all, the Kid's tracks here are a lot more subdued and 'musical' than we expected.
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Includes the songs from their Man's Ruin 10" (that featured a cover of Sabbath's "Into The Void"), as well as recordings by guitarist John Homme's post-Kyuss outfit Gamma Ray (now called Queens Of The Stone Age because of the other Gamma Ray that all you Helloween fans are of course familiar with).
Along with the likes of Captain Beyond, Bang, Dust, and Sir Lord Baltimore, the UK's Leaf Hound are one of the obscure '70s proto-metal acts often cited in the annals of stoner rock history. Heck they're called Leaf Hound and their (only) album is titled Growers Of Mushroom! Can't get much more stoner rock than that. Originally released in (you guessed it) 1971, Leaf Hound's album was a showcase for the powerful pipes of vocalist Pete French (who later spent stints at the mic for both Atomic Rooster and Cactus) and the heavy-duty hard rock riffage of guitarist Mick Halls (who, along with French, previously was a member of the Brunning Sunflower Blues Band and Black Cat Bones). And really Growers Of Mushroom is worth it to all '70s metal fans for the fierce "Freelance Fiend" that leads off the album. That track's a screamin' classic. If the whole album rocked as hard it'd be hard to beat as the heaviest thing from '71. But, while some other cuts on here approach a "Freelance Fiend" level of metal mania, such as "Stagnant Pool" (which sounds like anything but), there's some mellower material to be found as well, wherein French shows off his soulful side. But Led Zeppelin fans won't mind such bluesy workouts as "Drowned My Life In Fear", either. And Zep fans were probably just who Leaf Hound were hoping to hook when they recorded this record way back when. Too bad this was pretty much it for Leaf Hound (more on that in a sec), but their legacy lives on. A lot of AQ customers probably know that there's even a doom/stoner rock label in Japan named after this band! So, we're happy to have this swank 2005 Repertoire cd reish, remastered and complete with lyrics and liner notes in a nice digipack. And it's got three bonus tracks. Two non-album cuts (one wimpy, one pretty good) from back in the day, and a brand NEW track as well. Yep, that's right. Pete French has hooked up with some young 'uns to form a new, revitalized Leaf Hound, who've been gigging anew -- they even played a show with spiritual descendents Witchcraft! Normally we'd cringe at the thought of sullying the reissue of a cult album from 30+ years ago with a "bonus" track recorded recently, but the new Leaf Hound's "Too Many Rock 'n Roll Times" ain't that bad. The guy can still sing and it sounds like Leaf Hound, so why not?
From the album cover -- an oddly staged photo featuring four long haired dudes with peculiar, only-in the-seventies fashion sense (high top Converse sneakers or bare feet, tube socks, floral print shirt and white vest and pants, bathrobe, shorts, little red hat...) relaxing at a cafe table -- you wouldn't necessarily guess that this is as heavy as it is. But it is. Though this first (and best) album by Spanish hard rockers Leno dates from 1979, it definitely sounds a few years older than that. Total early '70s heavy proto-metal in sound (which means that if you come into the store looking for it, you'll find it in our new "heavy '70s proto metal" section that lives in our "vintage psych rock" rack) for fans of all that stuff like Dust, Toad, Bang, Buffalo, Budgie, Blues Creation, Socrates Drank The Conium, etc. Wild, riffy stuff with tough, rough wailing (Spanish-language) vocals and lots and lots of *killer* guitar that gets almost Sabbathy in spots. Man, we love finding obscure stuff like this that sounds so classic the second you put it on. Pretty darn kick ass.
Most of you have yet to hear the mighty Solar Anus, Japan's masters of stumbling psychedelic doom (although thanks to tUMULt's forthcoming double cd collection of the first three SA albums, you soon will -- beware!), but in the mean time, Solar Anus mainman
