Timed almost perfectly with the release of the third Thrones cd Day Late, Dollar Short (one of our Records of the Week last week, for those with short memories), we also just got a few copies of Thrones' 1996 debut disc Alraune back in stock. Sheer luck, 'cause it's out of print -- but one of our distributors managed to find a box of 'em lurking in the depths of their warehouse, so we grabbed 'em all while the grabbing was good. As you too should do, if you don't have this already and are a fan of all that is heavy! A quick background briefing: Thrones is Joe Preston, who has done time in both seminal dirge-masters Earth and the Melvins (he's also played in The Whip and SUNNO))) and is current the bassist for High On Fire). You probably know all that already, and this too: back when Joe was in the Melvins, each member put out a solo album (inspired by the same stunt KISS pulled way back when). Joe's was perhaps the best. Carrying on from that, he "formed" Thrones and set out to prove to the world that a one-man-band could be as heavy as any "normal" band (not that the Melvins are all that normal, ahem). Not only did he offer that proof with this Thrones debut, but also took it to the stage. A drum machine, double necked guitar bass, vocal effects and samples were (and still are) put to shudderingly heavy use by Joe in kicking out his weirdly prog and sometimes oddly pop Thrones drone anthems. The tracks on Alarune range from aggro Melvinsy metal to underwater drone to drifting New Age synth melody...a sinister combustion of sound that bridges Earth with Goblin! So, we're happy to have these again (for however long they last), allowing us to review it for the very first time (back in '96 we just weren't as on the ball as we are now I guess)! So, if you've still got an empty space on your cd shelf next to Sperm Whale and Day Late, Dollar Short now's the time to fill it.
We're big ol' Thrones fans here, and so the arrival of a third Thrones opus the other day was pretty darn exciting! It's been five years since the magnificent Sperm Whale, after all! And we're happy to report that Day Late, Dollar Short, despite its title, does not disappoint in any way (though, it's not exactly an entirely new album, more on that in a sec). Now, you know that the double necked guitart/bass wielding Joe Preston -- for he is Thrones and Thrones is he -- has quite the heaviness pedigree. He's played in the unholy heavy trinity of Earth, the Melvins, and SUNNO))), and he's currently the bassist for stoner metal lords High On Fire. Thus, from his one-man-band project Thrones you'd expect nothing less than H-E-A-V-Y, and you'd be right. But it's more than merely heavy. Thrones ain't just rubbery, head-caving bass, lotsa feedback nastiness, machine beats, and throat-rasped vox. Thrones is also really, really weird. As you'd expect from Joe, who used to be in the Melvins after all. There's certainly plenty of Melvins style fuckery going on here!
I mean, after the sheer noxious pummel (we like!) of track one, "The Suckling", you'll wonder what's going on with track two, "Young Savage". Punky and uptempo, with a gang-vocal chorus, it threw us for a bit of a loop until we figured out it was an Ultravox cover. That's then followed by the disarmingly gentle (but disturbingly child-voiced) "Algol". What's going on? Whatever the heck Joe wants, basically. And that's okay 'cause what he wants is to unleash a torrent of creativity that encompasses such things as utter sludge drone dirge, Buttholes Surfers-ish mania, indie rock pop (with some non-effected, clean singing even), drum machines kickin' old school hip hop beats, crazy prog structures, all-out rawk, thrashy riffs, electronic filtering, etc... almost all of which you'll hear in, say, track fifteen, "Obolus", which starts off doing the Melvinsy doom thing but with Bruce Haack/Electric Lucifer robot singing before segueing into a soundscape of bird twitters, bells and chimes, and waves of white noise (this from the "soundtrack" to La Foresta Della Norte). Then there's all the crazy covers that Joe tries his hand at: along with the Ultravox, this includes a Residents cover, a Blue Oyster Cult cover, and yes, unreleased track "A Quick One" is indeed a cover of a portion of the Who's "A Quick One While He's Away". Wow. Not afraid of a challenge, this guy.
And we do mean "unleash a torrent" -- there's 19 tracks here, almost 80 minutes of Thrones insanity, much of it compiled from rare, out-of-print singles, cassettes and comps, with some previously unreleased tracks as well, spanning the years 1994-2001. The lovely, bunny-adorned packaging (Mr. Stephen O'Malley, take a bow) also features personal notes on each track by Joe hizzelf. Here's hoping that he'll find time away from his regular gig in High On Fire to do a real *brand new* Thrones album... but in the meantime we're happy to have this "incomplete collection of smaller projects" all on one handy cd.
Yet more Scandinavian stoners getting high and rocking out. Groovy, fuzzy stoner rock, complete with wailing harmonica (!) and a vocalist that sounds quite a bit like Phil Lynott. The guitar sound is all Kyuss, warm and HUGE, with Queen style harmony guitars and Grand Funk vocals. And then there's that harmonica...
Fans of Thin Lizzy, Zen Guerilla, Kyuss and the like will eat this up!
Originally recorded in 1991 and never actually released, Thy Grief Eternal is the band that would later become Eternal and then of course later still, the mighty stoner sludge behemoth Electric Wizard. But back in '91, Jus Osborn and his merry band of metalheads soundee completely different, as it was 1991, and in the UK, Thy Grief Eternal sounds like they would have been right at home on Earache, alongside Carcass, Napalm Death, Godflesh and the like. Pounding industrial sludge doom, with grunted gutteral death metal style vocals, pounding relentless drumming and BIG RIFFS, very sludgy and crusty, much more akin to the ultra slow, monochromatic dirge of funeral doom, as they had yet to discover the groove that would play such a crucial part in their later sound.
Two lengthy tracks. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
Why does anyone bother with the current crop of "stoner rock" when there's so much better stuff made back in the original stoner age (the '70s) now being reissued?? If you're into the Man's Ruin roster, and prone to buying albums by the latest Swedish Kyuss
Reissue of a rare 1976 album by this legendary (among collectors anyway) trio of hard-rockin' Midwesterners. Truth & Janey were heavy and energetic and had some great songs but disco apparently killed 'em off. We're left with this album and the the bonus
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Man's Ruin has dug up yet another band of young Kyuss emulators. As usual, pretty good for that crowded stoner rock genre. These guys are from Ohio or somewhere, but you can find these bands from Finland to the Philipines I'm pretty sure. Bongs away!
Yet another Kyuss-clone band, complete with high, John Garcia-style vocals.
Having your head dipped in some sort of molten hallucinogenic liquid...or steamrollered by a flying saucer.... or headbanging with Lovecraftian gods somewhere far out in the ocean of space... that's our meagre attempt to colorfully describe the experience of enjoying this slab of psychedelic stoner doom rock, the 1999 debut disc from Italy's UFOmammut! Chances are, though, that you have some idea already about this might sound like, 'cause UFOmammut's other album, the mighty Snailking, was immediately crowned as an Aquarius Record of the Week when it came out last year, and is still a steady seller hereabouts. Hopefully you already got one of those. This too, we've had before, but it's been out of print for quite a long time and only just got reissued. We figured that since folks liked Snailking so much, and Godlike Snake was just as good, and could easily have been missed out upon the first time around, we shouldn't pass up the opportunity to relist this and make it a Record of the Week as well now that it's back in print. After all, the whole reason we were so instantly amped on Snailking when it came out was in part 'cause we'd been waiting for it for, literally, years, after being blown away by the band's first album, this one. Our review of Godlike Snake ran something like this: "...this stoner rock band is a good 'un, taking a way spacier route to the Dopethrone than most. Wonderfully heavy and mesmerizing, with loads of effects, Moog, and (pardon the expression) "fat" churning drone-grind-groove... A new fave for us in the stoner/doom realm... Especially recommended for those that miss the old Monster Magnet sound, or relish the idea of a heavier Hawkwind." Listening to it now (which a bunch of us have been doing *every day* in the store), we're if anything EVEN MORE into it. Something we hadn't noticed before was how some tracks come across like Godflesh or early Killing Joke melded to Hawkwind. Crushing and enveloping and sooooooo good. It's like Electric Wizard gone spacerock, or an industrialized Dead Meadow.
As with its original incarnation, this includes a trippy video track for the song "Where?" for those with computers. It's now packaged in a standard jewelbox, instead of a cardboard digipack, but the artwork remains pretty much the same. If you like heaviness like we do, don't miss it this time!! Definitely to be considered an AQ doom/sludge/psych ESSENTIAL.
As you may know, Italy's UFOmammut are one of our absolute favorite psychedelic/doom/drone/dirge bands, up there with Electric Wizard and Yob and Boris. Both of their previous albums, Godlike Snake and Snailking, were Aquarius Records Of The Week in their day. This new album, Lucifer Songs, could quite possibly be a Record Of The Week too when we get the cd version -- well actually, we *did* get a cd version, but it was super fancy, screen printed and limited and we only were able to get a handful and they're all gone, sold out now, sorry. BUT don't worry, a regular cd edition is supposed to be pressed in February, and we'll definitely get a lot of those! And in the meantime, we DID get enough of this vinyl version to list... but act fast! Like the limited cd, it comes with a bonus DVD that won't be a part of the regular cd package.
Lucifer Songs (no beating about the bush with that title) is another multi-ton brick in the cosmic-heights reaching pyramidical temple these guys are building with each album, each heavy riff shifting the load like tens of thousands of the pharoah's slaves sweating and heaving in unison to get the job done. And sometimes they really push those slaves hard, the stoned riffery shifting into a higher gear. Though it often sounds more like the slaves couldn't handle the weight and the bricks are crashing down, massive and crushing... with some stretches of relatively calm drone ("Hypnotized", "Astdronaut") to let the dust settle. These five tracks of space-sludge nirvana are perhaps marred only by the over-use of sound samples, something in metal of which we've always been critics... remember our review of the first Mastodon album? If you're not Necroticism by Carcass, leave the samples alone...
And like we said, this handsome vinyl release comes with a DVD, featuring low-budget videos for three of the album's tracks as well as what they term "soundscape" abstract psychedelic visuals for all of 'em (including "Lucifer Song", which takes up all of side two of the LP but doesn't appear on the cd version, though of course it's here on the DVD and you can download it too) which is cool to have, though considering that UFOmammut is the sonic arm of the Malleus art collective (known for many a trippy album cover and rock show poster) we weren't quite as blown away by all of it as we thought we would be.
However, the DVD is well worth it not only for the many visuals that ARE cool but also for the music that plays when you're just looking at the menu (a snippet of "Lucifer Song"). If you have a DVD player that's hooked up to your stereo, put it in and just listen to it! We did... accidentally. You see, our store cd player is also a DVD player (though we have no TV monitor hooked up to it) and so when we got the cd in, we put in what we thought was the audio disc and spent about a half an hour listening to what we later realized was the DVD menu music! We were really in to how this creepy synth drone with plodding percussion just looped and faded out and back in again, like the UFOmammut guys were all stoned and just turning the volume knob up and down in the studio. Allan even came out from the back of the store to see what was playing. We kept waiting for it to fade out and then surprise us by launching into a brutal riff a la Corrupted or Boris but then Irwin figured out that we were just listening to the DVD menu music! Pretty cool though, we'll do it again...
We've been waiting for, like, five years for this! The Italian stoner-prog band Ufomammut's debut Godlike Snake sure was a 'heaviness' hit here at AQ a few years back. A real SLEEP-er. Sadly, it's been out of print for quite a while now, and we've been waiting even longer for 'em to release their long-rumored follow-up, Snailking. But at loooong last, it's finally here! And it lives up to the promise of its predecessor while being sufficently different from it as well to really have made this worth the wait. For starters, though, here's the easiest description of Ufomammut, simply put: Electric Wizard meets Hawkwind. Space rock really doesn't get any heavier (though Tarantula Hawk is up there too). And this new one sure is heavy too. But it's also weirder, darker. Eerie. Sinister. Lots of tripped out frightmare quietude, spacious expanses of fx and ominous drum thwap for your drug-addled imagination to fill with visions cosmic. There's a free jazzish electronics freakout in track five ("God") worthy of Comets on Fire. It's doomed out, bad-trip psychedelia with mumbling, repetitious voice-in-your head samples. You know they must like Sabbath, but their favorite songs may have been perhaps "Planet Caravan" and "Solitude" and "Fx"... Not that they neglect the RIFF, the kind that goes beyond headbanging, that makes you just want to throw yourself against the wall or onto the floor and then curl up in a ball, eyes closed, rocking back and forth. So heavy it's almost mellow. And does manage to be melodic, even when the singer sounds like he's coming down a mountain glowing green...what's he seen? One song seems to be about an atomic blast, with sampled test-site announcements. And whatever the final 28-minute track "Demontain" is about, it *could* be about the aftermath...a spacey dire droning dirge for the nuclear winter, with riffing returning as the rise of the mutants begins, building into a full-on gamma world...? If you've been into any recent AQ 'heaviness' recommendations (Boris, Buried At Sea, Yob...) you NEED this. 'Nuff said.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Now on vinyl, and a beautiful gatefold to boot!!
Great title, that. Try saying it ten times fast. Anyway, this debut from New York's Unearthly Trance is something that we've been waitin' for ever since we witnessed their solid set opening for Electric Wizard and Sons of Otis a year or so ago. Dirgey and ugly doom metal, y'know, the kind of thing that makes our hair hard. They were good then and so is this album, lovingly co-produced and mixed (and graphically designed) by like minded lost soul Stephen O'Malley of SUNN0))), Khanate, and Burning Witch infamy. And yes, this sounds A LOT like O'Malley's Khanate in particular -- the "vokills", the feedback, the mammoth tarpit mogadon [insert additional heavy n' slow metaphor here] riffage. Which means it also sounds a lot like those grandads of the sludgecore scene, Eyehategod. Definitely music of the bat-bitten, wrist-slittin', hard drugs not-quittin' variety. No shittin'. Compared to Khanate, though, UT are a bit more "rock n' roll" at times, and also specialize it what we can only call the "march of doom"! Oh, and for additional chills (and thoughtful life advice) they cop some lyrics from ol' Mr. Crowley...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Since the demise of Kyuss, we've been waiting for John Garcia, or any Kyuss alumni for that matter, to live up to the high standard their band set for desert/stoner/grunge rock. And this is about as close as anyone's come (excepting the 3 song Slo-burn ep of a few years back). Huge riffs, stretched out and sun baked, wailing low-mixed vocals, and some pretty catchy song writing. Definitely a step in the right direction, and a godsend for disenchanted Kyuss fans.
As "tribute" comps go, this is a really good one. Usually a tribute succeeds only if the cover versions are really different from the originals (for instance, the pop-punk bands doing metal covers on the "I Heart Metal" tribute). At the very least there can be
Blue Cheer of course is the granddaddy of all metal/stoner bands, with their first two and a half classic albums still being heavier in their own way than most stuff released today. And Black Widow have put together a pretty excellent international line-up of their progeny to pay tribute. Pentagram (who are on here twice, and may as well BE Blue Cheer 'cause they do it so well!), Internal Void, Thumlock, Natas, Fireball Ministry, Ufomammut are a who's who of some of today's best doom/stoner acts. Plus there's some more obscure names from the space/prog axis as well. The only puzzle about this comp is that several bands chose to cover songs from Blue Cheer's not-so-heavy early '70s albums, which turn out well, but I can't figure out why they did that, except to be different and demonstrate what big fans they are. Still, quite a bit of 1968's "Vincebus Eruptum" and '69s "Outsideinside" is represented. Right on!
The second compilation of the Mego affiliated online audio/visual community Fals.ch. Compiled by Fals.ch heads Florian Hecker and Oswald Berthold, FB50 collects audio works by artists featured in the last 24 online "releases": Koji Asano, COH, cd_slopper, poire_z, Atau Tanaka, Ulf Bilting & Zbigniew Karkowski, *0, Pain Jerk, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Martin Ng & Jim Denley, Frank Metzger and more! Also exclusive tracks by Mego artists General Magic, gcttcatt, Evol, J.O.K.E. and i.d. There are also a few multimedia goodies included in addition to MP3s: a Merzbow A/V loop, an excerpt of a Francisco Lopez performance and a cryptic file courtesy those Gescom pranksters. In fact, the Gescom file is an incredibly hilarious standalone application that makes your computer seem like it's being hijacked by glitch terrorists! Trick your friends and coworkers into believing your hard disk is being trashed right before your eyes! Fun as shit!
Anyone, ANYONE, who likes their psych all spaced-out and sludgy, with guitars and (especially) effects in full, uh, effect will definitely want to wash their earholes with this excellent new space-rock comp. Compiler Mason Jones (whom you might know as the ex-guitarist of SubArachnoid Space, currently in project called Numinous) knows his stuff and has pulled together tracks from a stellar international cast of rockers who like to freak-out, drone-on, and/or toke-up. Here's who's here: Kinski, Circle, Gravitar, Overhang Party, Tarantula Hawk, Up-Tight, Vocokesh, DMBQ, Bardo Pond, Acid Mothers Temple, Yeti, ST-37, Escapade, Rubble, Abunai!, SubArachnoid Space, Numinous, Farflung, Primordial Undermind, Fuzzhead, Speaker/Cranker, and Transpacific! Whew. As you can see, with Mason in charge, of course the Japanese contingent is well-represented.
The tracks on here are mostly live recordings, and, as far as we can tell, all otherwise unreleased (with the exception of the Tarantula Hawk one, which is an edit from their now-out-of-print Live At KFJC cd-r). Pretty much a killer comp, ranging as it does from the groove of Circle to the grind of Gravitar, with some bands doin' stuff closer to stoner rawk, others more on the bliss-drone side of things. Now, I might have tried to put the more rockin' cuts towards the front end of the discs, to avoid disturbing the slumber of those of us who like to doze off listening to the more blissful stuff (or maybe left off one or two cuts) but that's just me. Overall, Hall Of Mirrors is fully droned, stoned, and ET-phoned. Recommended.
This disc's compilers have enlisted five suitable bands to make sure this doom-core comp lives up to its subtitle: "74 Minutes Of Extreme Pain." Negative Reaction, Grief, Subsanity, Bongzilla, and Sour Vein all provide some lovely metallic downer dirge.
The long-awaited "stoner rock/doom metal" soundtrack to the perhaps equally long-awaited psychedelic splatter/gore flick "I Am Vengeance" by low-budget underground director Richard R. Anasky, who, inspired in his filmmaking by both '80s slasher movies *and* '80s doom metal like Witchfinder General, hooked up with Meteor City to put together this soundtrack, featuring the likes of Sheavy, Count Raven, Eternal Elysium, The Quill, Bloodfarmers, Space Probe Taurus, Naevus, Lowrider, Las Cruces, and others. I thought that doom legends Pentagram were supposed to be doing the theme song (it's on their last album), but here it's done by Doomsday Gouvernment (ex-members of Count Raven, who appear all over this comp). Anasky's liner notes seem to indicate that the Pentagram track will appear on a *second* volume of songs from the film to be released by doom label Game Two, but I haven't heard about a release date for that. Anyway, this is a fine comp of mostly-new (or hard-to-find) material by some excellent, if obscure, bands -- almost all of whom seem to have singers vying for the "Sounds Most Like Ozzy Osbourne" award!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
17 tracks from South American stoner rock bands, including Buffalo and Los Natas.
Double cd covers comp in tribute to Andee's favorite rock band of all time, the mighty Aerosmith! The participating bands mostly hail from the realm of "stoner rock", such as Natas, Alabama Thunderpussy (who do a great "Sweet Emotion"), Atomic Bitchwax, Fireball Ministry, Drunk Horse, The Want, Core, Raging Slab, Altamont, and 18 more! As these tribute things go, a pretty good one. Furthermore, Andee sez: If this sounds even remotely appealing, you oughta order the Aerosmith cd "Draw The Line" too, which we also carry. It's probably one of the best 'rock' records ever. Aerosmith may suck now, but their first 5 records were '70s hard rock at its best; heavy and groovy and amazingly catchy. Their "Greatest Hits" were not their greatest hits. Trust me.
Real nice, these new Van Der Graaf Generator reissues are. We're glad they they've now got US distribution, though we'd have happily paid $30 for the import versions (Andee and Allan both did for some of 'em, actually, oops). All the prog fans here are stoked, 'specially since VDGG are one of our top prog faves. We've already listed the reissues of Pawn Hearts and H To He Who Am The Only One, and we'll try to get to them all, one by one... so here's VDGG's second album, from 1969 (following their debut Aerosol Grey Machine, not a part of this reissue series though there is a cd we do stock), maybe the first that really displayed their signature sound in a fully formed fashion. That sound: bombastic, epic, emotional, complex, slightly jazzy, eccentric. And probably an acquired taste. Partly because VDGG's instrumentation isn't the standard guitar/bass/drums -- they've got saxophone and keyboards, mainly, alongside the drums. Plus their most distinctive sonic feature, Peter Hammill's exceedingly dramatic, dominating vocals! Love 'em or hate 'em vocals, we'd venture to guess. His voice is perfect, though, for the sweeping grandeur of VDGG's music, which can be quite gentle (as on this album's most pop hit, speaking loosely, "Refugees"), and at other times so much darker, heavier, and more hectic (as on "White Hammer" wherein Hammill sings about the Inquisition). All this power and passion is reflected in Hammill's intelligent, questioning, quasi-mystical lyrics, and is furthermore augmented by the suggestion of church and worship brought in by the use of the electric organ.
Yes indeed, VDGG is very weird and very much it's own thing... there's definite connections to the likes of King Crimson and Genesis, and '60s psychedelia, but ultimately nothing else sounds quite like these guys. The Least We Can Do, which features a surreal depiction of an actual Van Der Graaf generator on its cover, is a fine starting point and/or an essential part of their discography for fans building a VDGG collection. This reissue, in addition to being digitally remastered and boasting extensive liner notes in the cd booklet, also features two bonus tracks, the single version of "Refugees" and its non-album B-side, "Boat Of Millions Of Years". Recently we came across an old print advertisement for this single, the tag line of which was: "Some of today's violence is innocence defending itself... some of today's music is Van Der Graaf Generator."
More Spanish stoner metal for ya! After the fucked up weirdness of Dirty Lust and the flowers and beads spaciness of Fooz, Viaje A 800's straight-forward blend of doom and groove is kinda refreshing. Super heavy, rockin' tunes with Spanish-language vocals.
More Sabbath-inspired doom metal from the pycheDOOMelic label. Germany's Voodoo Shock (strange name, that) rose from ashes of former Rise Above act Naevus. Even if you've never heard Naevus, though, they'll sound familar, with Ozzy-ish vox singing songs full of wonderful doom/stoner cliches like "electric mind" and "rainbow sky". Slow to mid tempo, melodic but ultra heavy, this is in the style of Terra Firma, Sheavy, Trouble, Spirit Caravan, y'know the sort of thing. The riffs are weighty, but Voodoo Shock's perculiarity might be their penchant for spacey mellow parts. Also they cover "Nights In White Satin"!
All right, psycheDOOMelic is the new doom metal label run by Hegedus Mark, the Hungarian doom/psych freak responsible for the excellent doom-oriented Psychedelic fanzine. Wall Of Sleep's debut ep (four songs, 22 minutes) is one of the label's first releases. WOS feature two ex-members of Hungarian Sabbath-worshippers Mood, and pretty much sound just like what you'd expect! Nothing less, nothing more. Chugging massive doom riffage and Ozzy-possessed vocals (albeit with a wee bit of a Hungarian accent that might take some getting used to -- this becomes particularily noticable on their cover of Sabbath's "The Wizard", the last track here, complete with harmonica!). Did you know that "The Wizard" is the song that converted Allan into a raving Black Sabbath/metal fan back in his college days? So he has to give this the thumbs up, and recommends Wall Of Sleep to all hungry (and/or Hungarian) Sabbath/Sleep/Vitus/Obsessed obsessives out there...
MPEG Download: "Overlook The All" [/audio/wallofsleepoverlook.mp3]
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Following up their 4-song cd ep debut from last year, Hungarian doomanoids Wall Of Sleep return with a full-length. You get straight up Sabbath-worshipping old school heavy doom metal here, from ex-members of Mood (doom spelled backwards, y'know) who were Hungary's leading proponents of the Sab sound themselves, previous to Wall of Sleep's formation. So you know what you're getting here. The vocalist does his best Ozzy -- which, we have to say, isn't much like Ozzy's best Ozzy (you can tell that English ain't his first language, indeed his accent will require some getting used to). There's some nice usage of acoustic guitars and/or keyboards amid the monster riff-outs, as these guys are definitely of the song-writing, not just pure sludge, school of doom metal craftsmanship.
From a label known for supreme downer doom dirge comes this surprise debut by a group of happy, heavy, hot-rockin' throwbacks called The Want, from Jersey. Playing it in the store had amazed customers asking if this was an obscure '70s hard rock reissue. It's not just the tunage that's retro, but the production is authentic '70s sounding too. Amazing. Channelled directly from the likes of Zep, Budgie, Captain Beyond, Free... Great stuff, recommended (despite their violation of two of Allan's many pet peeves: an album title like "Greatest Hits vol. 5", and the unnecessary use of the Greek alphabet on the packaging).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Super doomy psych-sludge metal from underground heroes WarHorse, in the stoned vein of Saint Vitus and High On Fire. Side One is the title track, which d/evolves into a jam. Side Two tackles an old Wargasm tune. Handsome sleeve as well.
Record number two from Australian doom dirge juggernaut Whitehorse. And whaddaya know? It's another live record! But so what!?!? If they sound this heavy and this brutal live, why even bother going in the studio? In fact, we're sort of afraid of what might happen if these guys actually did make it into a studio. Not sure we could handle it! This is intense stuff. Massively heavy, so slow and plodding it's almost ambient, with huge stretches of near silence, while the crumbling remnants of the last riff drift earthward before the next riff comes crashing down. Shrieked inhuman screams, and plodding drum beats set at least a mile apart, moans and drifting guitars and cymbal sizzle drift like tendrils of black smoke between each Teutonic crush. Hell they even have a guy in the band credited with just "Rumblings." Fuck yeah! Think Khanate, Bunkur, Corrupted, Eyehategod. So so so good! Packaged in a beautifully printed oversized cardboard sleeve. And as always SUPER LIMITED!!!!
Falling somewhere between the ultra doom of Khanate, the metallic post rock pummel of Isis, and the shrieking feedback / bowel-loosening dirge of Earth / Sunn O))), Whitehorse kick up a serious racket. Rumbling ambient drones slip into screaming feedback which in turn become huge unstoppable walls of noise, occasionally interrupted by beautiful mellowed out melodic interludes. Crashing drums all over the place, high end guitar melodies shriek like sirens, and of course the howled hyper intense vocals add another layer of sonic skree to the mix. Recorded live, with a totally blown out, super distorted mix, that while losing a lot of the finer details, definitely makes the whole thing sound that much more aggro and chaotic and on the verge of total collapse. Seriously noisy and fierce as fuck. Can't wait to hear a studio record from these guys. But for now, this white hot blast of live fury will do just nicely. Packaged in a beautifully printed oversized cardboard sleeve, with some deranged apocalyptic liner note ramblings from artist Seldon Hunt.
In the review of the last Whitehorse cd, we went on a bit about their propensity for releasing eps, and live eps at that. And only a few days later we got a sheepish email from the band, seeing if we wanted copies of their new record, a live ep?!?! Arghhhh. Well, the band has promised us that next stop will be the studio for a proper studio recorded full length, but what the hell, another 30 plus minutes of soul crushing sludge can never be a bad thing, and in the case of Whitehorse it's a very very good thing indeed. This time, the live show in question took place in Japan, but the sound is not that far removed from the first two eps. A massive slow moving lumbering sludge metal behemoth, trudging through graveyards, and ruined villages, the depths of hell and everywhere in between. This two track set is actually a wee bit speedier than their other recordings, which is a lot like saying a turtle is a wee bit faster than a tortoise, as this is still slow motion tarpit doom, but the pace is not so funereal, instead the vibe is much more Eyehategod than Khanate this time around, still harsh and abrasive and brutally heavy, but there's almost a groove going on. Which definitely lends the proceedings a sort of stonery doom vibe. As always really fucking great! Fans of Corrupted, Khanate, Eyehategod, Bunkur, Moss and all that is slow and heavy will not be disappointed.
Packaged in a beautifully printed oversized cardboard sleeve. And of course, SUPER LIMITED!!!!
We've always wanted to list this, it's been one of our favorite records for years, always on the iPod, and never far from the stereos of those of us into the DOOOOM. This reissue first came out way back in 1999, but it hasn't been easy to get lately, so when we found a distro that had a bunch we jumped on 'em. And it's especially timely now considering the renewed interest in all things doomy and sludgy. We bet there's even some folks out there who don't realize there was any doom pre- Corrupted / Boris / Earth / SUNNO))). Well let's go all the way back to the very early nineties, head out to Long Island and re-discover the pummelling majesty of the mighty Winter. There's not a doom band worth its stripes who wouldn't cite Winter as an influence, and one listen proves why. Crusty, downtuned sludge metal, but unlike the current crop of ultra doomsters, Winter's roots were in much more traditional thrash and doom metal as well as crusty punk. Often described as a slowed down Celtic Frost, due in no small part to the vocal delivery, Winter managed to mix elements of Black Sabbath (obviously, what doom band doesn't), Hellhammer, diSEMBOWELMENT and UK political crust band Doom into a slithery, creeping, suffocatingly dense blast of chugging guitar, pounding drums and creepy growled vocals. On closser listening their are also strange bits of organ and found sounds and bizarre vocal snippets scattered throughout and buried here and there. There are even guitar solos!! But no normal solos, no these are all spikey and twisted and serpentine, chaotic squalls of prickly squealing freakout that fit perfectly into Winter's desolate doomscapes. And speaking of guitar, this reissue also contains Winter's Eternal Frost ep, which features the bizarre (and prescient, considering the current state of ambient drone doom metal) bonus track "Manifestations 1", an extended psychedelic soundscape constructed wholly from guitar and manipulated effects. So cool. The other thing worth mentioning is the lyrics, which at the time got them a lot of attention / flak, quite cryptic for sure, but they seem to focus on saving the environment, anti-pollution, anti-technology, ecological awareness (Exit-13 anyone?) displaying their crusty roots there for sure! Fans of the new crop of doom and ultra doom would do well to take a peek at a band who truly was ahead of their time, a band who helped lay the groundwork for the sonic pummelling provided to you on a daily basis by bands like Skepticism, Esoteric, Rigor Sardonicous, Moss, Bunkur, and even Electric Wizard and Sleep, who might not even exist were it not for Winter.
This is one of those classic rock '70s bands that I (Allan) had always heard of (their claim to fame was pioneering the twin guitar harmony thing, inspiring Thin Lizzy and later Iron Maiden) but had never heard... Nobody was like, "Dude! Wishbone Ash! You
We've all been loving the soft lilting new weird free hippy folk of the Feathers, who for us were a recent discovery. And we've always been big fans of J Mascis, the distorted psychedelic indie fuzz of Dinosaur Jr, but even in his stints with sludgy punk rock outift Deep Wound and behind the kit for weirdo metallers Upside Down Cross. But never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the twain would meet. But what do you know? It's either a seriously small world, or there is some not so secret bond joining the disparate music arcs of these long haired fellows. Witch is not necessarily what you might imagine a meeting of Dinosaur Jr. and the Feathers would sound like, although the frilly jackets and bell bottoms and long hair should give you a clue. This is total seventies proto metal meets sludgy groovy stoner rock. Big BIG riffs, groovy and sun baked, blown out and HEAVY. Seriously. We hear Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Trouble, even some Kyuss and more modern stoner/doom outfits, like Witchcraft and Dead Meadow. The vocals are drenched in reverb and are sort of soaring and whining, some definite Ozzy influence there, also at times verging on a reedy Marc Bolan/Comus folky warble. And the guitar sound, OOF! You'd be forgiven for thinking that was Mascis on lead guitar, but he's manning the drum kit here, no the guitars are fuzzy seventies metallic groove, with a guitar sound definitely reminiscent of Sub Pop drone guitar gods Rein Sanction, like Hendrix filtered through Iommi, laced with LSD, dipped in goat's blood, set in the sun to bake and of course slathered in warm distorted fuzz. But with a band like this it's all about the riffs. Everyone knows Sabbath took all the best riffs, that's why so many heavy bands have based entire careers on stealing 'em, but Witch prove that there are still some killer riffs left out there. Heavy and fuzzy enough to bear a passing resemblance to the Sabs, but weird and wooly and unique enough that they can unabashedly claim them as their own. This is definitely another one of those bands like Elope or the Want, that if you didn't know better, and were forced to guess, you could be forgive for thinking Witch were straight out of the seventies (though with maybe 'cause of J, a whif of '80s SST hardcore punk somewhere in there too). Sonically, production wise, the whole package. And while the whole record is heavy and sludgy and groovy, it's worth the price of admission alone for track 5, "Rip Van Winkle" with a riff that is one of THOSE riffs. The whole track is a stone cold classic, from THAT riff, to the crazy blown out psychedelic leads, to the bombastic drumming, the weird arrangement, the wailing vocals, it's hugely heavy, head noddingly hypnotic, head bangingly massive, but groovy and catchy, minor key melodies beneath thick waves of warm guitar fuzz, totally emotional and amazing, it's like the best Sabbath song that never was. Then there's the track right before it, "Changing", that ALSO has one of THOSE riffs, and sounds like some sort of incredible, exotic Saint Vitus/Flower Travellin' Band hybrid. Wow. And all the other songs are pretty amazing too.
We just wish that they could have come up with a name a little more original than Witch. If they were indeed dead set on some sort of Witch name, you can't go wrong adding some appropriately evil or mysterious second word to your band name, I mean, c'mon, we would have gladly taken Featherwitch or even better DINOSAUR WITCH!
Doom metal from Portland, Oregon. Formerly known as Iommi Stubs (a better name!) so you know they're Sabbath freaks. Unfortunately, this is one for doom die-hards only, as the vocals (except the one song with Lost Goat's Erica Stoltz guesting) are not so good, and the music is pretty average too. Maybe next time. But, they deserve praise for one clever, Judas Priest
From Portland Oregon via the UK (courtesy of Rage Of Achilles) comes Witch Mountain. A noisy sloppy but pretty heavy mix of seventies stoner groove and groovy doom somewhere between Sabbath and St. Vitus.
Could it be that Sweden's Witchcraft, who seem like some long-lost '70s outfit who stumbled into our era by mistake, are for real? And not some drug-induced figment of a bell-bottomed stoner/doom fantatic's imagination? Yea and verily. Firewood proves that the first Witchcraft record was no crazy fluke. That album was so good (recall, we opened our review of it by saying: "PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER" in all-caps just like that!) that for their eagerly-awaited follow-up to be even half as good would be impressive. I mean, they'd set the bar pretty high. We are therefore ecstatic to report that Firewood definitely lives up to the standard established by the debut! Can't say yet if it's just almost as good, or if it's even better -- but clearly it's up there with their first disc. I don't think they've yet topped their signature song "No Angel Or Demon" (which appeared on the self-titled disc but also preceeded it on the band's first release, a 7" single) but there's plenty of great songs (and riffs) on Firewood nonetheless, to compare well with the debut. Firewood storms out of the gate with "Chylde of Fire", wanders through the morose "Wooden Cross (I Can't Wake The Dead)", bludgeons with the doomful "Queen of Bees"...and seven more, all killer.
Firewood's also got the same fat '70s vintage production (a little brighter now mayhaps) as before. And certainly their undeniable Pentagram influence (what countrymen Dungen are to Pugh Rogefeldt, Witchcraft are to early Pentagram) is still there, in spades, including a hidden bonus track Pentagram cover, which goes hand in hand with a BIG first-couple-of-Ozzy-era-Sabbath-albums influence as well. And then there's the proggier/folkier elements too, some reminders of Jethro Tull and King Crimson if not quite Comus. Though there is something pagan and ancient here that makes it clear that modern metal and stoner rock has left these guys untouched. That's the beauty of Witchcraft's nostaglic creation. It's hard to think of any current stoner rock or doom band (except for them) who would seriously throw such a disco strut into a song like the way they open "Mr. Haze". Led Zeppelin would be proud. From such unexpected songwriting moves to the folky trill in guitarist/singer/mastermind Magnus Pellander's ever-stronger, emotive voice, they've got such FEEL. That's where they excel. It's an X-factor difficult to describe but central to their success. And it must stem from two things: sheer talent, and their absolute, honest love for (and learning from) the bands that once sounded a bit (or a lot) like them. Put that together and you've got this heavy, sparkling witchy riff-rock retro genius!! If you loved the first Witchcraft, don't hesitate. And if you haven't heard 'em yet, but if you like Pentagram and Sabbath and Witchfinder General and all things heavy and '70s, you'd better lend an ear right NOW. You'll be happy you did.
PERHAPS THEE BEST '70s-INSPIRED DOOM ALBUM EVER. Can't put it any plainer. This is sooo authentically old sounding, and sooo good. Sweden's Witchcraft have delved into the past through seemingly mystical means and come up with a masterpiece that sounds like it was recorded by some genius yet unknown downer-rock contemporary of Black Sabbath or Pentagram back in 1972. In a blindfold test, anyone into '70s heavy rock would be fooled for sure. Doomy retro-proto-metal full of heart-wrenching atmosphere, killer riffs, and melodic hooks galore. The mastermind behind Witchcraft, guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pellander, is obviously HUGELY into heavy '70s psych/prog rock. Doubtless he's got an extensive record collection with well-worn albums by Sabbath and a host of more obscure bands like Dust, Captain Beyond, November, Toad, Jerusalem, etc... But unlike so many other record collectors, instead of spending his time making want lists and grading LPs, Magnus *listened* to 'em, then went into the studio and wrote songs as good or BETTER than pretty much anything on those collector's platters. Literally, inspired stuff. As modern-day but '70s sounding records go, maybe only that Elope record we reviewed recently could compare in convincing us it was recorded thirty years ago -- imagine that album with heavier, fuzzier guitars and more melancholic vibrations. (Another one would be The Want album Southern Lord released a few years ago).
So we were super thrilled to hear that this band was putting out a full-length. And apparently other folks were too, 'cuz we've already sold a bunch of these in the store before even reviewing it! Kinda weird, since their only previous release, a 7" single paying tribute to two of Witchcraft main man Magnus Pelander's big heroes, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators and Pentagram's Bobby Liebling, was a hard to find, import-only release (both tracks from which are included here, along with an obscure Pentagram cover making Witchcraft's love of Liebling even more obvious). On the strength of that single, though (and the few singles and compilation tracks recorded by Magnus's previous band, Norrsken), our anticipation for Witchcraft's debut album ran high. Well, as you've already gathered, we're even more thrilled to say that it more than lives up to our expectations! We have a handful of copies of the import vinyl as well, which includes a bonus track (another Pentagram cover).
This one is for fans only. You know you're a fan if you saw the words Witchfinder General above and your heart sort of skipped a beat at the thought of a Witchfinder General record you didn't know about. Witchfinder General were pretty much the only NWOBHM band to base their entire sound on Black Sabbath, thus making them pioneers prior to pretty much all doom to follow: Candlemass, Cathedral, through to Witchcraft today. This disc, recorded live in 1983, is an awesome testament to just how kick ass the 'General were. The recording quality however is not. Thus, the for-fans-only disclaimer. The band sounded great, and the songs of course are totally killer, but as with most live records recorded from the sound board, the vocals dominate, the guitars are not as loud as they should be, and the drums sometimes get lost, but like the recent Bedemon release reviewed elsewhere this list it sort of just adds to the underground vibe (though Bedemon is recorded better than this, for sure). And who gives a shit about sound quality, this is mother fucking Witchfinder General!! Live!!! In 1983!!! It sounds a little bit like actually being at the show, but maybe hearing them from the dirty bathroom beside the stage. The way all real metal was meant to be heard! Regardless, this is an amazing (re)discovery, and along with the Bedemon disc we have been in blown out lo-fi stoner fuzz doom heaven!
ULTRA LIMITED! We only have about 20 copies and this is supposedly already out of print, so act fast!
Wrench are full on stoner/sludge rock, complete with space sound effects and downtuned key-of-C riff jams. They are akin to Monster Magnet & Kyuss with a healthy dose of psychedelia.
Second album from former Ozzy guitar demigod Zakk Wylde's solo Southern stoner-metal project Black Label Society. The first one was quite a surprise, revealing that not only is Zakk a man of fleet fingers on the fretboard, but that he possesses a talent for creating extremely heavy and melodic post-grunge stoner rock with whiskey-soaked vocals that blows the likes of late-model Corrosion of Conformity out of the (swamp) water. This new album is another testament to that. Definitely for fans of Acid Bath and Down! Now here's a message from the man himself, culled from an internet '80s-metal mailing list: This is a message from Zakk Wylde. To all you Society Dwelling Mother Fuckers, Wanted to let you know that Black Label Society's new disc, "Stronger Than Death" hits the street today. Go check it out! Its heavy as fuck, I'm doing this film right now with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston called "Metal Gods" for Warner Bros. Its a metal movie from 1975-85 and it is going to kick ass. I'm doing all the guitars on the soundtrack. Nick Catanese is in the movie as well. The first single from Stronger Than Death is Counterfeit God and Mark Wahlberg plays bass in the video. Its fucking hesterical! Request the tune at radio and video at MTV. I need your support to make this
happen! Trying to get on the road with Motley, Megadeath and Anthrax. Going out with Pantera in the fall when they are done with Ozzfest. Also, Ozzy asked me to write his next disc which I can promise you will make Ozzmosis look like a BackStreet Boys cd. Send this e-mail to everyone on your list and BLEED BLACK LABEL. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY FUCK YEAH! All the best, Zakk Wylde
Ok, we've got one here for anyone into the sludgy, stoner sounds of the likes of Electric Wizard and Sleep!! Yob is perhaps your new favorite band. From Portland, Oregon, these psychedelic doom lords take their chosen genre's obligatory Black Sabbath worship to the extent of incorporating the swingin' jazzy/jammy aspects of the Sabbath sound that most doomsters tend to disregard. Nor do they skimp on the the meaner, rigidly metallic side of the Sabs, or on the mountains of the moon sized riffage doom fans require. Yob is slow motion, sweat leaf'd sludge to the max. Most notably, while their vocalist does dip into a demonic growl at times, mainly he soars like an insane, heavily effected hybrid of Ozzy and Geddy Lee. The result is a remarkably unique sound for a band that unquestionably wears their influences on their collective sleeve. The closest comparision would be to a spaced-out combination of Sleep and Dead Meadow. The three long tracks (18, 7, and 23 minutes) showcase a stoned style that even fuses funk with full-on dirge doom. There's a couple other fine doom metal releases on this weeks' list (Solitude Aeturnus, Well Of Souls). But while those bands' style is to build big castles, these guys tunnel through the earth, out the other side, and into outer space. Recommended.
Yay Yob! Ever since our doom-lovin' hearts here at AQ first went pitter-pat for the heavy sounds of Portland Oregon's Yob, we've been wanting to sell you this here record, their debut from 2002. But, until now, we were never able to get any. By the time we reviewed and raved about their second album of super-doomy space sludge, 2003's Catharsis, Elaborations Of Carbon had already gone out of print. They've done two more awesome albums since Catharsis (and we'd witnessed some great shows too), so we're bigger fans that ever and it's nice to finally be able to stock the entire Yob discog, now that this is back in print. So if you've been loving their latest, The Unreal Never Lived, as well as The Illusion Of Motion and Catharsis, and you don't have this one, here you go! Thank you 12th Records for finally getting off the couch and putting away the bong long enough to get this repressed.
This debut is definitely the Yob we know and love -- the Sabbathy riffery, the psychedelic drones, the unique, weirdly soaring vocal style, it's all here. If we were reviewing Yob for the first time, we'd probably say something about how this sorta sounds like stoner legends Sleep, but with even more creepy atmospheres and a unique vocal approach that sounds like Geddy Lee doing an Ozzy impersonation through a ton of effects (that's a good thing, really!). And being the band's first record, you know it's gonna have some of their best riffs on it. Compared to their subsequent releases, this one also is notable for having more, shorter songs in its 70 minutes... though there's still only six and most of 'em exceed ten minutes, with two over 15 each. Now they write, like, half-hour songs, but it's not like the head-nodding doom on this disc seems cramped for space. Recommended to Yob fans of course and anyone who hasn't yet checked them out but likes Ufomammut, Corrupted, Electric Wizard, Sleep, and the rest of the doom brigade of which Yob became definite members in good standing as soon as this album was originally released.
DOOoooooooOOOOM! We're not gonna stint on the O's in doom 'cuz this here's the third* album from the mighty Yob, who are Portland, Oregon's masters of massive doom-sludge. Think an unholy melding of Electric Wizard, Corrupted, Dead Meadow, and Ufomammut. Slow and low uber-heavy guitar and bass riffage, psychedelic space-out song structures, pummelling drums of doom, all perfectly topped by vocals that take to the skies like a heavily effected** hybrid of Ozzy and Geddy Lee, with the occasional descent into hellish death metal gutteralisms. Their previous album Catharsis was progtastically, trance-inducingly awesome, but The Illusion of Motion (their debut for unlikely new label Metal Blade!) may even be better. More dynamics, shifts of mood and tempo than before, and no slack on the heavosity scale. Yessir, they've become one of our favorite doom ensembles. And they're really nice guys too, as we discovered when we met them after the trio played in SF recently. Yes, we were lucky enough to witness Yob live for the first time at the 3 Days Of Darkness festival here in San Francisco last month. Despite some initial technical difficulties, once they got going they were unstoppable. And even the tech problems proved them to be true doom masters. Anyone with any doom/stoner rock cred knows about Orange amplification and how cool it is. And also the even rarer Green amps. But Yob not only was using Orange AND Green amps, but also Black. And when gremlims took out the Black amp, Yob then brought out... a White amp! Wow. But due to time constraints brought on by the aforementioned amp-switcheroo, they didn't get to play the new 26 minute epic that closes out this lengthy-but-only-four-song album (that's just one more than on Catharsis), so I hope they come back soon!
*if you're wondering, Yob's first album is out of print but soon due for a repress, we'll get 'em in when that happens of course.
**they don't sound anything like Jane's Addiction of course, but those vocals seem to use the Perry Farrell effect if you know what I mean.
Sure, there's doom/sludge albums we *don't* like. But this ain't one of 'em! We've loved Portland's Yob from day one, and with this fourth album The Unreal Never Lived, they only exceed our expectations yet again. Four new tracks that don't just bring the doom but also demonstrate Yob's weirdly progressive songwriting craft, with dynamics and surprises throughout -- along with, of course, a bludgeoningly blissful overdose of utter heaviness. This disc is another amazing Yob outing, with all the lopingly massive riffage, lengthy song structures, psychedelic space-outs, and uniquely effected/distorted soaring and sometimes growling vocals that have become their trademarks. Compared to their previous (excellent) album The Illusion Of Motion this isn't that different, just at least as good or better in all respects. Heck it's again got got four songs, the longest being the last, going past the 20 minute mark, just like Illusion. Disembowelment, UFOmammut, Electric Wizard, Corrupted, Boris, Pelican...along with the likes of those heavies we've got to herald Yob!
Our friends in Hammers Of Misfortune did a US tour this summer, and when they got back, they said that of all the bands they played with, there was one they felt was definitely better than they were. (Only one you ask? Maybe that sounds arrogant on their part, but they're not arrogant, just self-confident... playing over-the-top operatic metal like they do, you've gotta be self-confident, eh?). They'd played with a lot of good bands they liked, but only one really blew 'em away: Minnesota's Zebulon Pike. That was enough for me -- I had to hear these guys! A trip to their website and some mp3 downloads later, off went my email to 'em, ordering cds. And now here they are, and they look quite nice too. But how they sound is what's important -- and the most concise, comparative description I can come up with for Zebulon Pike is something like Pelican meets The Fucking Champs. They're a heavy instrumental stoner/math rock band, with two guitarists who are all about the insane harmonies. The drummer and bassist get a workout too, what with the complex, dynamic song structures this band navigates. From ultra-sludgy riff attacks to mellow and pretty (even a bit jazzy) breakdowns, the melodic doom calculus of Zebulon Pike proceeds at a generally slow pace (nine or twelve minute long songs are the norm), interspersed with bursts of note-manic playing. You'll definitely hear the band's '70s influences of Wishbone Ash and Black Sabbath, translated into a modern instrumental post-rock realm. The band also goes beyond metal and prog to cite classical composers like Bela Bartok and Avro Part as inspirations to their "slow motion apocalypse". Mighty, mythic instrumental metal indeed. FYI Zebulon Pike takes their name from an early American explorer, the same guy for whom Pike's Peak is named.
