MOONSTONE ~ 1904 ...... review

Desert Psychlist has discussed in detail on these pages of the high regard we have for the music coming, in what seems a constant flow, from bands that populate the Polish heavy scene, well here's another one to add to your list.

Moonstone are Wiktor Kozak (bass); Kacper Kubień (drums); Jan Maniewski (guitars/vocals) and Volodymyr Lyashenko (guitars), the band first came to Desert Psychlist's attention via their excellent 2019 self-titled debut "Moonstone", a collection of five songs residing very much within the canon of stoner doom, unfortunately a lot has gone down in the world since then and its been almost two years since we have had anything physical from the band to wrap our ears around but earlier this month that wait came to an end with the release of "1904", a release consisting of two lengthy tomes that'll blow your mind.

First track out of the bag "Magma" opens with a delicious and dirty bass motif over which sampled narrative and piercing guitar feedback screams before the drums come in and take us into the songs first strident riff, however this being doom of the stoner variety its not long before the songs initial riff is replaced by something slower. lower and heavier. This sudden change in dynamic also heralds in the songs vocals which are delivered in clean monastic tones and give this section of the song an almost ritualistic/religious feel. The track then goes back into a variation of its initial riff before once again slowing down for the vocals to come in again. To be totally honest Desert Psychlist would have been quite satisfied if the song had ended there but there is more to this band than just a few riffs and a monotonic vocal and so suddenly we are presented with a period of laid back and languid post-rock ambience where glistening arpeggios and sharded chords rub shoulders with liquid bass lines and restrained percussion, this section of the song slowly building in momentum before exploding into an almost thrash-like groove, enhanced by swirling guitar textures, to take it to a close. Second track, "Spores",  plays its cards a little differently to its companion by beginning its journey in ambient post-rock territory and only then progressing towards a heavier dynamic, when the track does finally explode it does so accompanied by a much more forceful and less monastic vocal. But hold on we are not quite finished yet as the track then takes another turn and this time we find ourselves hurtling towards the Sun on a spaced out groove that owes as much to Hawkwind as it does to Black Sabbath, Sleep or Electric Wizard, with growling bass and thunderous drumming the engines driving the groove from which scorching guitar solos fire off in all directions like  "C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser gate" (quote from Blade Runner)

"1904" marks somewhat of  an evolution in Moonstone's sonic development, the heavy reverberating riffs, thunderous rhythms and monotonic vocals of their debut are all still very much in place but the band have also added to their musical palette elements drawn from post-rock and psych and in doing so have given their grooves a much more expansive and at the same time immersive feel.

Check 'em out .....

© 2021 Frazer Jones

DEMONIO ~ ELECTRIC VOODOO ...... review

There seems to be a new sub-genre in town and it is one that appears to be predominantly Italian and the name of this sub-genre emanates not from the bands playing the music but from those listening to it. The word many are using to describe this music is "scuzzy" a word fans are using to describe a sound that is drenched in filthy fuzz and distortion, tinted with lysergic elements and sporting vocals that often sound like they've been phoned in rather than laid down in a studio. First of these bands to attract Desert Psychlist's attention were the spaced out Sonic Demon then trailing not far behind came the doomic Black Spell and now, as if to complete some sort of "scuzzy" triumvirate, Demonio, the subject of this review,  have arrived with their scuzzy garage rock meets heavy psych meets fuzzed out doom opus "Electric Voodoo".

We at Desert Psychlist have a sneaking suspicion that Demonio, Sonic Demon and Black Spell may all be the work of the same small band of musicians, all three bands are Italian, all three utilise a mixture of filthy fuzzed out doom, gnarly stoner/hard rock and trippy heavy psych to fill out their grooves and all three grace their respective social media pages with poster artwork borrowed from 60/70's horror and porn movies, of course we cannot prove a connection but these similarities have definitely got our spider senses tingling. Demonio are probably the more "garage" sounding of the three bands with the grooves the band explore on their album "Electric Voodoo" having a slightly more raw and feral dynamic. Throughout the albums eight songs, which include such doomic titles as "Lust for the Dark", "Mistress of Death" and "Satan's Eyes", heavily distorted bass and guitar tones constantly teeter on the edge of breaking up into just noise but are tempered by occasional left turns into more lysergic waters where crunching fuzz laden power-chords make way for liquid sounding arpeggios and thunderous drumming is replaced by shimmering percussion. Vocals on each song are delivered clean yet gritty and are placed deep in the mix, a trick that gives them a distant almost remote feel yet at the same time adds a sinister edge to the bands grooves and  ramps up their "scuzziness" to an altogether other level.

The dictionary's definition of "scuzzy" is something that is filthy or dirty and given the fuzzy filthiness and distorted dirtiness of Demonio's raw and uncompromising sonic attack on "Electric Voodoo" we think a better description would be hard to find, All hail the SCUZZ!

Check 'em out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

DESERT PSYCHLIST'S BEST OF 2021

Another year of misery and mayhem goes by with the human race still arguing between themselves over race, sexism, politics and global warming while all the time trying to avoid the ever mutating viral cloud that continues  to hover menacingly over and around us, Music, in all its forms, has proved to be our saviour through these sad/bad times and has, for many of us, been our safe houses, our comforters and our own personal vaccines during this period of uncertainty and fear. Here is a list of thirty albums and EP's released in 2021 that have saved Desert Psychlist from losing the plot and running screaming to the hills, we could have easily chosen more but unfortunately time and space dictates that we keep things to a minimum., your list of choices will probably be radically different but that's OK, as John Lennon so rightly sang "Whatever gets you through your life, It's alright, it's alright"

30;  Afghan Haze ~ Nihilistic Stoner Hymns

Visceral and brutal are words often used to describe music of the nature Afghan Haze present us with on "Nihilistic Stoner Hymns" and often music described as such tends to lose a little of its musicality due to its harshness and ferality. Although there are moments when those two words could well be brought in to play when describing Afghan Haze's sonic attack the truth is those moments are few and far between and instead we are presented with a music that is certainty loud, certainly gritty but at the same time, and despite its blackened approach, is at all times musical.

,

29;  Dreadnought In The Pond ~ 0=1

WOW! WTF! and Jeezus H Christ, this is an off the scale collection of eclectic and diverse heaviness. The best way to describe DITP's sound is to say it is a constructed noise, a complex noise, a sometimes unsettling noise, an often confused noise but for all that .. a beautiful noise

28;  The Holy Corrupt ~ The Holy Corrupt

"The Holy Corrupt" is everything doom, as a music, should be, it is a dark dank atmospheric opus that lumbers and lurches along at tempos just short of crawling, it is an album tinted in psychedelic colours and textures but an album not overpowered by them, it is, as the band have already stated, an album to get stoned to. 

27;  Borracho ~ Pound Of Flesh

"Pound of Flesh" is not a radical departure for the band nor is it a carbon copy of what has gone before, Borracho's new album is what we all want it to be and that is a stonkin' collection of raucous rock'n'roll songs played loud proud and fuzzy! 

26;  The Age of Truth ~ Resolute

This band bring to the table not only the crunching refrains and thunderous rhythms of the underground rock scene, in all its various guises, but also the sort of dynamics that many might consider to be of a "classic rock" flavour, combining these elements behind a vocal that in its upper register has a howling rock god type timbre and at its lower end has a touching weary soulfulness.

25;  Godhead Lizard ~ V838

Intelligent cryptic lyrics delivered by a vocalist of rare quality over grooves of powerful loud hard rock are what Godhead Lizard deliver with their latest album and although the band warn us, via the albums theme, that all our chasing of dreams will eventually see us getting closer to the bottom than nearer to the top, the band seem to have climbed somewhat nearer to their peak with "V838".

24;  1782 ~ From The Graveyard

Sedately paced occult/doom with a cloying claustrophobic atmospheric, 1782 make music to be buried alive to.

23;  Blind Tendril ~ α

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE!!!!
Greek musicians residing in the UK make stunning album of heavy music with an international flavour

 

 22;  Taxi Caveman ~ Taxi Caveman

Taxi Caveman are not a doom band, a sludge band or a punk band but at the same time they are all those things, they are a rock band who can turn their hands to all of rocks various forms and styles and do so while still managing to sound fresh and original. Taxi Caveman have great musical chops and on this their debut album they display those chops to great effect across a wide spectrum of styles, where these guys take their music next is going to be very interesting indeed.

 

21;  Paralyzed ~ Paralyzed

Forget those Led Zeppelin wannabees Greta Van Fleet, and any of those other pale imitations that have routinely popped up over the years because Paralyzed are the real deal, an authentic sounding heavy blues outfit with genuine belief in what they do.

20;  Kabbalah ~ The Omen

Heavy psych with the psych part of that equation leaning towards the sixties while the heavy part has its roots in the here and now.

19;  DVNE ~ Etemen Ænka

Expectations were high for this band after the release of the excellent "Asheran" but with "Etemen Ænka" DVNE have gone way beyond excellent and pushed their music into territories of heavy music that we haven't even invented words for yet.

18;  Heavy Temple ~ Lupi Amoris

Absolutely banging return from Philadelphia's Heavy Temple, everything good about today's doom/stoner scene condensed into five essential cuts

17;  Maw ~ maw

If your a fan of the type of psychedelic tinted stoner/desert rock that gave us the likes of Yawning Man, My Brother The Wind, Naxatras and Sungrazer and you like those grooves with a similar low key vocal dynamic to that of Colour Haze then you cannot fail to enjoy what Maw bring to the table with their self titled debut "maw"

16;  Smoke Rites ~ The Rite of the Smoke

An enthralling blend of blackened doom, sludge and occult rock decorated in an intriguing mixture of vocal tones.

15;  The Crow's Eye ~ The Crow's Eye

Twisted off kilter doom that has a touch of pleasing sleaziness about it.

14;  Dr. Colossus ~ I'm A Stupid Moron With An Ugly Face And A Big Butt And My Butt Smells And I Like To Kiss My Own Butt

Now if you are not familiar with Dr. Colossus you could be fooled into thinking that, given it's humorous title and it's Simpson themed artwork (which pastiches the Weedians of Sleep's "Dopesmoker" album), "I'm A Stupid Moron....." might be some sort of comedic venture but you would be very wrong as this is some serious hard rocking shit that'll have you jumping out of your seat throwing devil's horns at all and sundry.

13;  Plaindrifter ~ Echo Therapy

Stunning album from start to finish,  Plaindrifter have gone above and beyond with this release and have raised the bar to a level they may struggle to ever reach again.

12;  Low Orbit ~ Crater Creator

You want grooves, Low Orbit have GROOVES, you want riffs Low Orbit have RIFFS! This is killer from start to finish.

11;  Scarecrow ~ II

If you loved Scarecrow's debut then prepare yourself for more of the same only heavier crunchier and more groovesome!

10;  Cripta Blue ~ Cripta Blue

Old school, and proud of it, heavy rock with riffs to spare and laid back (but effective) vocals.

09;  Dopelord ~ Reality Dagger

Dopelord delivering delightfully doomic devastation but then again haven't they always!

08;  Cavern Deep ~ Cavern Deep

A sinister tale of exploration delivered via the medium of DOOM.
Excellent!

07;  Thunder Horse ~ Chosen One

Sludgy doomic southern stoner psych metal with its roots in the blues.

06;  Maragda ~ Maragda

There are touches of early YES and Rush about some of the grooves on this excellent release as well as elements of Howling Giant and Elder so expect to be blown away!

05;  Confusion Master ~ Haunted

We often hear the phrase "beyond good" when describing something that reaches far above our expectations and if ever there was a better example of something that meets that criteria then we have yet to hear it. Fantastic release!!!!!

04; Spelljammer ~ Abyssal Trip

Spelljammer are back, for how long nobody knows, it is quite possible that it could be another five years before they descend from whatever dimension/planet/universe they hide themselves away in and present us with another album as essential and genre defining as "Abyssal Trip", but just knowing they are out there somewhere composing their titanic grooves is enough to keep our hopes alive for the future of intelligent heavy music.

03;  Restless Spirit ~ Blood of the Old Gods

Restless Spirit have been compared with Mastodon in some quarters but we have to disagree, Restless Spirit have their own thing going on and its a thing you need to hear!

02;  Hippie Death Cult ~ Circle of Days

On "Circle of Days" Hippie Death Cult retain the exuberance they demonstrated on their first album but this time around they combine it with a more mature approach to the music, this is not an album that needs to grab your attention with one full on attack after another as they had already achieved that with "111", with "Circle of Days" the band want to show you what else they've have in the locker, and that locker is full to brimming over with deliciousness.

01; Green Lung ~ Black Harvest

If you are a fan of the organ heavy classic rock of bands like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, have a hankering for the folk-tinted doom of Pagan Altar but also get off on the 00's occult rock of Blood Ceremony and The Devil's Blood then Green Lung's "Black Harvest" is an album sure to tick all your relevant boxes and will also explain why one of Britain's major newspapers, The Guardian, called Green Lung "'Britain’s finest folk horror-indebted heavy metallers'

                                    

Well that it folks for another year, hope you dug our little end of year compilation of what rocked our collective boats in 2021, there will probably be the usual gnashing of teeth and irate shaking of fists for not including this or that album but that just comes with the territory, either way we hope that 2022 brings you all that you want and need in your lives, stay safe stay healthy.

Desert Psychlist would like to thank the following for all their help and support over this challenging year ..... 

Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun), Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect), Reek of STOOM (Howls From the Hollows), Joop Konrad (Stoner Hive) and all the many other contributors at The Doom Charts, everyone involved with Retro Rockets and Hard Rock Revolution, all the PR and record company's for their endless promo's and news shots, The High Priestess Alice Mudgarden/Trey for putting us on the path we now follow, and lastly but most importantly Michele, Billy. Vikki, Sian, Ethan, Austin, Amber and Rowan for just being them.

© 2021 Frazer Jones

PLASTIC WOODS ~ DRAGONFRUIT .... review

 

Music that is a little off-kilter, quirky and off the wall is something that has always interested Desert Psychlist, we like grooves that tend to go a little off-piste and wander into unexpected territories so imagine our delight when we were presented with  an album from Plastic Woods, a Spanish trio, whose new album "Dragonfruit" (Discos Macarras) ticks all those boxes and many, many more. 

Plastic Woods are Javier Rubio Arrabal ( drums,/percussion); Antonio Pérez Muriel (bass guitar/multiple arrangements) and Jesús de la Torre Sánchez (guitars/vocals/transverse flute), these three are the core musicians and brains behind Plastic Woods but music this left of field, complex and convoluted needs a little help to achieve its full potential and so for "Dragonfruit" the band recruited in Antonio Campos del Pino (Flamenco guitar, palmas, jaleos); Irene Veredas (violin); Miguel Ángel Robles Urquiza (trumpet); Carlos Mesa García (sax) and Isaac Pascual Godoy (piano, synth), the contributions of these musicians adding textures and colours to the bands songs that take them out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

Title track "Dragonfruit" opens up proceedings and is a song so angular and sharp you could probably cut yourself on it, the songs proggish attack reminded Desert Psychlist of "Relayer" period Yes in places but with a much heavier overall dynamic, a dynamic that on its journey encompasses elements of not only prog but also fusions of  jazz, psych and hard rock all blended together beneath a vocal that on occasions strays into System of a Down territories. "The Calling" eases things down a notch or two and finds the band blending the traditional music of their Spanish homeland with grooves that have filtered across from more western sources, this fusion of eastern and western dynamics delivered beneath a beautifully executed and pitch perfect vocal. The eclectic "Dreamland" follows and has the feel of something that might have not quite made the cut of  a big budget musical while "Storm" takes its lead from Americana and British folk music, its luscious violins and gently picked acoustic guitars giving it a soothing feeling of gentleness and melancholy. For their next song "Close to the Void" Plastic Woods go in  completely the opposite direction by mixing up punkish aggression with a little quirky QOTSA type desert rock with the vocalist adopting an equally aggressive vocal meter to add an extra element of bite to the proceedings. For final song, "Sulayr", Plastic Woods throw all their respective eggs in one basket, the prog-like complexities of  title track "Dragonfruit", the traditional Moorish elements of  "The Calling", and the Broadway show vibe of "Dreamland"  are all combined in a diverse and delightful amalgamation of musical styles that creates a groove very, very different from what we may be used to hearing in this scene and one that quite frankly tears up the rule book. 

Some might read terms like Americana, Moorish, Broadway and folk and run screaming to the safety of their doom, sludge and stoner collections but if those same people dug a little deeper they would, on "Dragonfruit", find all the heaviness they could possibly hope to hear but garnished and blended with elements drawn from a much wider musical spectrum than they might ordinarily be used to,

Check it out...... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

RESTLESS SPIRIT ~ BLOOD OF THE OLD GODS ...... review

Restless Spirit hail from New York and consist of Paul Aloisio (guitar/vocals); Jon Gusman (drums) and Marc Morello (bass), the trio have gone through a number of personnel changes as well as a couple of name changes (Witchtripper and Death Metal Pope) before arriving at their current line up and present band name. The band have just released their second full length album "Blood of the Old Gods" (Lifesblood Records) under the moniker of Restless Spirit and its a game changer on every level.

First things first let's give a big shout out to Evan Perino at Shellshock Audio for the recording and Azimuth for the mastering of this release, the production is immense and the clarity is off the scale good. No production values, however, are going to save your ass if the grooves you are presenting with that production are lacking that same level of quality, thankfully the quality of the production on "Blood of the Old Gods" is matched by the quality of the music it showcases. 

"Blood of the Old Gods" is a "concept" album themed around the non-acceptance of the status quo and the pitfalls and consequences of having to follow the "safe path", whether this works lyrically and musically in this albums overall context we will leave for you to decide but for the purposes of this review we will concentrate on the songs as separate entities.

"The Betrayer" opens proceedings with clean acoustic guitars gently picked over a backdrop of slowly increasing grainy FX which then gradually fades to make way for the explosion of groove that is the albums next track "Judgement and Exile" finds Restless Spirit blending into their usual forceful mix of sludge doom and prog elements of old school hard rock and heavy metal, ear catching guitar hooks and motifs abound here and give the song a pleasing catchiness not often associated with music of this genre, especially when that catchiness is combined with a vocal that is as clean, powerful and as melodic as this one is. "Crooked Timber of Humanity" , is a metallic tour-de-force packed to the rafters with full on vocals, crunching guitar refrains, growling bass lines and thunderous drumming yet despite all of its bombastic bluster there is an underlying proggishness to be found in its arrangements, beneath those bruising riffs and rhythms there are subtle complexities at play that may not be immediately evident on a first listen but soon make their presence felt after a couple of spins. After the sonic onslaught of the two previous tracks you might need a moment to catch your breath and "The Reclaimer" provides that with a very brief but interesting foray into experimental territory. The hammer goes down again with "Cascade Immolator" a song that kind of reminded Desert Psychlist of early era The Sword but with a little more complexity, a little less Sabbath worship and a lot stronger vocal. Title track "Blood of the Old Gods" is a piece of pure ass-kicking heavy stoner metal heaven that boasts a superbly catchy vocal melody as well as virtuoso performances from each and every member of the band before, quite unexpectedly, throwing an acoustic curveball into the mix to take things to the close. The band round things off with "Haunted" an enthralling finale that finds the band fully embracing the more proggier aspects of their sound while at the same time still maintaining their grip on the heavy, squealing pinched harmonics, ringing arpeggios, brutal fuzz drenched bass riffs and a mix of pounding and intricate rhythms, as well as the occasional lapses into ambience all feature here and thus bring to a close what we guess, despite its mid-December release, will be a shoe in for many peoples 2021 "best of" lists.

With "Blood of the Old Gods" Restless Spirit have found their sound, gone are the rougher growlier vocals that graced sections of their previous work, the sludgier aspects of their music are still in place but have been tempered with with a little more restraint and finesse and there seems to be a much bigger emphasis on melody, something that works well both for the band and the listener alike.

Check it out ....

© 2021 Frazer Jones

NETHERVAULT ~ NETHERVAULT ..... review

Nethervault  are a stoner doom trio formed in Madrid, Spain, the trio have next to no social media presence and what we have been able to find out about them has had to be gleaned from their Bandcamp page, but no matter we are here for the music and the music is good! 

Nethervault are a band who like to keep things simple, their modus operandi is to deliver low slow heavy reverberating riffs and swirling guitar solo's over sparse but solid rhythms that are then coated in clean, ever so slightly mournful, vocals. There are only three tracks to be heard on "Nethervault" they are all lengthy tomes and each has its own unique charm and beauty. First of those tracks is "The Green Chamber" a song built around a ponderous and filthy bass/guitar riff enhanced by an uncomplicated but totally effective drum pattern with the vocal that accompanies this groove delivered in clean, mellow and melodic tones. Fans of stoner doom will of course revel in the the songs heaviness and its lowness and slowness but for Desert Psychlist the song really comes into its own in those brief moments when the guitar cuts through the gloom and is allowed to soar, those moments are few and far between but they are well worth waiting for. "Midas' Fever" follows and is an instrumental that highlights the trios more lysergic leanings, the song is again underpinned by low slow heavy riffage but where on "The Green Chamber" the guitar solos seemed almost like an afterthought here they have the starring role, swirling and swaying with exotic promise over the songs deep throbbing bass lines and pummelling steady percussion, the guitar tones an enthralling mixture of  clean and pristine and distorted and dirty. The band brings things to a close with "The Spiral" a dark chugging riff fest with Sabbath-esque undertones drenched in fuzz and distortion that is once again graced with a mellow, melodic vocal around which the songs crunching refrains swell and wane, those refrains taken to another level by the insertion of some scorching blues flavoured lead work.

If you analyse each element that goes into Nethervault's sound separately you will find not much to set them apart from many others ploughing the same desolate fields of stoner doom, the pummelling percussion, the monolithic riffs and low growling bottom end are all very much in place and the songs all have that low, slow and heavy dynamic much loved by fans of the genre. It is however when all those elements are weaved together and decorated with those mellow clean vocals and swirling lysergic laced guitar solos that the real magic begins to happen and you start to realise that "Nethervault" is actually not stoner doom played by the numbers but is in fact something quite special and unique.
Check it out ....

 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

LUCIFUNGUS ~ CLONES ...... review

 

Riffs or to give them their proper name "refrains" are probably the most important element of any rock song worth its weight in salt, a band can have all the complex arrangements and twiddly guitar solos it is possible to have but it is almost always the "riff" that grabs your attention. Australian metallists Lucifungus, DD ( guitar/bass/vocals) and B-Rad (drums/vocals), understand the importance of a good crunching riff and the bands latest release "CLONES", much like their previous albums, is jam packed full of 'em!

There is a touch of tongue in cheek humour to much of what Lucifungus bring to the table and this is no more evident than on this albums opener "Greetings" the band saying a brief throaty hello in a series of different languages to a backdrop of chugging stoner metal. Having made their presence felt the band then move into "Night of the Living Derek", a huge sounding riff heavy opus dedicated to those creatures you rarely see but know are always somewhere around, the songs gruff staccato paced vocals telling of "the tribe that lives under your house" who leave "footprints in the flour", of course they could be describing mice, spiders or roaches but they could also be referring to something much more sinister. "Sloth" follows, its massive reverberating guitar riffs and thunderous drum patterns are decorated in gritty vocal harmonies that celebrate doing the bare minimum to the maximum effect. "Worldshaker" boasts a growlier, grittier vocal to those that  have passed on this albums previous songs and is backed by a groove that has a slightly skewered and blackened dynamic. Next track "The Dawn Patrol" goes for a more straight ahead stoner metal groove over which cleaner dual harmonies are executed. "Call of the Cracticus" begins its life with with gentle ringing arpeggios then explodes into a gnarly assed instrumental that sadly is a touch repetitive and screams out for a searing guitar solo to take it into the stratosphere while "99% Wolf" finds Lucifungus playing to their strengths by reintroducing those staccato paced harmonies they played with on "Night of the Living Derek" and combining them with an equally juddering musical dynamic that also features intermittent squealing guitar motifs. "S.F.M." is a stoner metal riff fest served up behind a vocal that resembles something you might expect to hear coming from one of those Viking metal bands like Manowar or Amon Amarth only lyrically this isn't an ode to Norse gods instead it is more an instruction sheet for the correct use of a bong! Final song "Respect Your Elders" closes proceedings with 46 seconds of riff 'n' groove over which the songs only lyric, "Choke on this", is roared in gruff sludgy tones. 

Heavy, but not brutal, stoner metal/doom with a wry sense of humour running through its lyrical content is what Lucifungus deliver with "CLONES", a highly enjoyable romp that ticks all the right boxes musically and will leave you feeling just that little bit better about yourself and the world you live in.

Check it out ..... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

LOW ORBIT ~ CRATER CREATOR ..... review

Angelo Catenaro  (guitars/vocals); Joe Grgic (bass/synth) and Emilio Mammone (drums) are Low Orbit a trio from Toronto, Canada who make a huge noise, and when we say huge what we really mean is MASSIVE! The band came to the attention of the wider world via their stunning self-titled debut "Low Orbit", a mix of spaced out stoner rock and heavy psych that prompted one Bandcamp listener to describe it, on the bands BC page, as "essential". The band followed this up three years later with "Spacecake" an album that found the band thickening their sound up by adding a little doom into the equation which in turn gave their music a danker, darker dynamic. Not a band to rush things the band have returned,, almost four years later, with a new album and if you thought their last two releases were "essential" wait until you hear "Crater Creator"!

Title track "Crater Creator" opens the proceedings and is an assault on the senses from its first note to its last, the songs crunching, chugging guitar refrains, swirling gnarly toned solos, low thrumming bass lines and tight pummelling percussion are accompanied by a perfectly pitched vocal that is both clean and powerful and possess a crystal clear clarity not usually associated with music of this genre. "Tardis" follows and opens with a short narrative on the origin of God and the Universe before exploding into an angular doomic groove underpinned by some incredible drumming and decorated in a slightly more aggressive vocal. "Sea of See" finds Low Orbit mixing things up with swampy sludginess, dank doomic bluster and heavy metal thunder all getting a starring role in this full on sonic maelstrom of groove while "Empty Space" sees the band revisiting the more spaced out stoner rock of their previous releases only with a bigger, thicker and more in your face dynamic. Next up is "Monocle" and if you ever wondered what American late 60's/early 70's heavy rock legends Mountain might have sounded like if they had been brought up on a diet of sci-fi novels and  Kyuss albums then this is it, "more cowbell please". "Wormhole" goes for the jugular with Sabbathian flavoured proto-doomic refrains pushed to the fore over which an ear-catching vocal melody holds sway but then briefly deviates into lysergic territory before just as quickly returning to its initial groove. Final song "Timelord" puts all Low Orbit's eggs in one basket, condensing all that has gone before into one face-melting explosion of groove that'll blow your mind at the same time as it blows your speakers.

How Low Orbit will top this incredible album is a question only time and the band will have the answers to but for now just bathe in the gloriously gnarly spaced-out doomic splendour of "Crater Creator" and pray to the gods  that the bands next release is as "essential" as this one is.

Check it out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

MORGANTHUS ~ CELLS ..... review

There is no getting away from the fact that Warren, Pennsylvania's Morganthus sound owes much to the proto-doomic blueprint first drawn up by the UK's Black Sabbath, however release by release the band have slowly been unravelling themselves from the umbilical cord tying them to the Birmingham Four and have steadily been developing their own signature sound, a sound still very much in the canon of proto-doom but one that is much more identifiable as their own. With their latest release "Cells" the band may not have fully thrown off their Sabbathian cloaks but they most certainly have redesigned them

.Unusually "Cells" opens with a song that is not performed by Morganthus, "Prel'oud" is a lovely solo piece written and performed by friend of the band Jim Schreiber, it is a classical sounding composition with exotic leanings played on an oud, a fretless African stringed instrument not too dissimilar to the European lute. Morganthus finally make their entrance with "Rats, Whores and Corpses" a thinly veiled poke at organised religion that finds the vocalist snarling in menacing nasal tones "Take your pulpit share the woe, beg for tears for every soul, Martyrs to your phony pleas, a rat leads rats unto disease" against a backdrop of thrumming doomic refrains and thunderous percussion. Morganthus take us to the foot of the sacrificial altar with their next song "Injecticide" a brooding low, slow and heavy tome that finds the guitarist and the bassist crunching out dark reverberating bass and guitar riffs beneath a powerful and ponderous percussive tattoo over which the songs lyrics are narrated in a voice racked with a mixture of remorse and pain. "Witch Tits" follows and begins with a sample lifted from some obscure horror movie then explodes into a dank distortion drenched groove that features one of those recurring guitar motifs that once it has you hooked refuses let you go. Lyrically the song draws inspiration from Hammer House of Horror movies and the writings of Poe, Lovecraft and Dennis Wheatley, the vocalist telling of  "flesh writhing in sin" and "summoning ecstasy" against a musical backdrop so dank and cloying you can almost feel it touching you. Finally we arrive at "Dead and Perfect" a sprawling atmospheric finale that proves that doom is at it best when it carries an air of menace in its makeup, the track also boasts a killer solo that cuts through the gloom like a sacrificial knife through flesh, a solo delivered short and sweet but that is nonetheless scorching.

Morganthus have had a few issues to contend with prior to the release of this EP, we won't go into those issues here, but they say that the best art comes out of adversity and Morganthus have certainly had there fair share of adversity during the making and and up to the release of "Cells". The band describe "Cells" as a recording "brought to you by a year of frustration, turmoil, and perseverance", so was it worth all that effort? We think so.

Check it out ..... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

TRILLION TON BERYLLIUM SHIPS ~ ROSALEE EP ..... review

Lincoln, Nebraska's Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships first came to Desert Psychlist's attention earlier this year via their debut album "TTBS" a devilishly delicious collection of low slow and heavy grooves decorated in (surprisingly for this genre) clean clear vocals. Not a band to sit about twiddling their thumbs when, in their words, there is some "existential pondering" still to be done the band, Jeremy Warner (guitar, vocals); Justin Kamal (drums) and Karlin Warner (bass) soon set about writing and recording new songs. Those songs are now finished and have had all the rough edges sanded off, and some added, and appear on the bands latest EP "Rosalee, we think you'll like it.

TTBS's new EP begins with "Core Fragment" a song that unusually jumps, after a very brief flurry of  thunderous percussion, immediately into the vocals, now we think Jeremy Warner will be the first to admit that his vocal delivery is not exactly what you would call rock god powerful but his clean low key vocal approach and melodic tones are very effective and work as a nice counterbalance to the sedately paced heavy rhythms and refrains that accompany them and at times even threaten to drown them out. "Destroyer Hearts" follows, a song steeped in dank dark doominosity that routinely builds towards a crescendo only to then dissipate into a swampy murky meander, rising and falling in this fashion throughout its duration driven by some thunderously impressive drumming from Kamal while "URTH Anachoic" takes low slow and heavy to a whole new level of ponderous and boasts a slightly weird but totally effective vocal meter. Title track "Rosalee" sees the band sign out with a deliciously dank sixteen minute plus instrumental anchored to the earth by Karlin Warner's deep thrumming bass it is also strangely the first and only song on the EP that guitarist Jeremy Warner gets to cut free and unleash the full potential of his guitar playing chops, his searing lead work in the songs last quarter taking the songs dynamic out of the realms of stoner doom and into more lysergic territory.

"Exploring the claustrophobic void of space" is how Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships describe their music making process and there is very much a claustrophobic element to much of what goes down on  their latest EP "Rosalee". The trio create a groove and sound that feels  more like an implosion than it is does an explosion, the bands low slung riffs and rhythms collide and crash into one another like matter falling into a gaping black hole, their grooves slowly gathering in mass until collapsing in on themselves under the immensity of their own weight, Jeremy Warner's clean melodic vocals the last pinpoint of light in the all consuming darkness, or to put it another way... some damn heavy shit!

Check it out .... 

© 2021 Frazer Jones

BLACK SOLSTICE ~ EMBER .... review

 

Black Solstice guitarist Anders Martinsgård is an awful tease, long before Black Solstice were officially "a band" Anders would drop little video snippets on social media sites of what he was working on with (what was then) an unnamed band, wickedly whetting our appetites with promises of grooves yet to come. This was not a new phenomenon for Anders as he would often do the same when he was with his previous band Ponamero Sundown, sending to Hard Rock Revolution, an online forum Desert Psychlist was a part of, teasers for upcoming releases by the band. The best thing about Mr Martinsgård's little game was that whatever he promised he always delivered on and nothing has changed in that respect, That unnamed band we saw working on songs has now become a fully fledged unit with Anders holding down guitar duties joined by his old Ponamero Sundown bandmate Peter Eklund on drums, Lelle B Falheim on bass and Magnus Lindmark on guitar and vocals, and those riffs and licks that the band were trying to flesh out have become songs in their own right and now grace the bands debut album "Ember" ( Cd; Ozium Records, Vinyl; Majestic Mountain Records)

"Ember" opens with "Intervention" a brief instrumental that begins life on a wave of screaming feedback segues into a circular groove driven by tribal -like percussion and then finishes the way it started, its a strange introduction but it does set the scene for "Firespawn" a song that boasts a similar circular refrain.as its fall-back, we say fall back because that refrain is the only constant in a groove that never stays still with Martinsgård and Lindmark riffing and soloing sometimes in unison, sometimes in competition while drummer Ekland and  bassist Falheim test them with a diverse array of rhythmic meters and tempos. Lindmark also handles vocal duties his voice possessing an unusual clean weary tone that although not powerful, in a rock god sense, nonetheless sits comfortably on the ears. Title track "Ember" is a next and has a groove that sits somewhere between old school heavy metal and the type of hard rock that was the territory of bands like Thin Lizzy and UFO. "Calls From The Deamons" follows and although boasting doomic flavoured lyrical content the song rolls nicely along on a strident heavy rock groove, something that is continued on "Signs of Wisdom" only here the band stagger the pace with some nice shifts in tempo while, despite its reference to  a Flying V, also throwing in the occasional Iommi type guitar lick and while we are talking Iommi it has to be said that the following hazy trippy instrumental "Celestial Convoy" is not too far removed from Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" in both name and feel. "Part Of Me" and ""Sweet Misery" both follow a hard 'n' heavy rock blueprint and both are full of crunching riffs and hard riven rhythms with the latter standing out just that bit prouder than the former due to the flow and lilt of its vocal melody. Penultimate track  "Burned By The Sun" is a superb mid tempo rocker that unashamedly borrows, plunders and steals from every 70's and 80's rock band you have ever laid your riff beaten ears on, as well as a few you may not have, yet still manages to sound fresh and original. "If We Fall" closes the album and begins life with a crescendo of thunderous riffery then melts into a laid back doomic lament that has the feel of something Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus might have attempted back in the day, however that only tells half the story as around the mid-song mark the band ascend into a chugging, almost proto-metal refrain with the vocals following a similar path before a searing guitar solo signals the grooves descent back into mellower waters.

If you were forced to stick a label on what Black Solstice bring to the table with "Ember" it would have to be "hard rock", the dynamics that the band employ throughout the the ten songs that make up this debut are far closer to hard or heavy rock than they are the stoner rock they will undoubtedly and wrongly get tagged with, maybe not so much the early 70's model of hard rock but most certainly its later 70's/80's model, and that can never be a bad thing in our book.

Check it out .....

© 2021 Frazer Jones