Saturday, 29 June 2024
BLACK ON HIGH ~ ECHOES THROUGH TIME .... review
Thursday, 27 June 2024
MELTEM ~ MARE NOSTRUM .... review
SILENT CIRCLE ~ BOTTOMLESS CREEK .... review
Arguments rage over what is considered doom and what is considered occult rock and you will not find any answers to that question here, what we can say though is that if the music Silent Circle present to us with "Bottomless Creek" is what you would consider "occult rock" then it is damn fine occult rock, if on the other hand you want to place what Silent Circle do musically in the "doom" box then it is also damn fine doom.
Wednesday, 26 June 2024
BLACK SPELL ~ INTO DARKNESS .... review
Thursday, 20 June 2024
EL JEFAZO ~ COLISIÓN BRUTAL ..... review
Everyone's favourite Peruvian combo El Jefazo have been melting our faces with their instrumental grooves from as far back as 2014, admittedly the bands early releases, "Ensayo" and "El Jefazo" were a bit raw and a touch underproduced but you could hear the potential these guys had despite those short fallings. Then along came "Simbiosis" a far better produced album that showcased a mix of remixed/remastered songs from the previous albums plus a couple of new tunes, at last you could really hear these guys fly. After releasing a couple of one off tracks the band then put out "Tormenta Mental" a live album that showed that what these guys could now do in the studio they could also transfer to a stage environment. What we really wanted though was for these guys to hunker down and come up with a new album of fresh material.. and what we wanted they have delivered with "Colisión Brutal", it's face melting time again folks!
"Colisión Brutal" opens with "Metal y Melancolía" a seat belts on hard rocking jam that when its not pinning you to the wall with its scorching guitar work, whooshing synth textures and its full on and thunderous rhythms unashamedly utilizes elements of Deep Purple's "Black Night" in its main riff. "Zarpazo" is up next, a galloping behemoth driven hard by drummer Adrián Hinojosa and bassist Carlos French and decorated in broad and colourful guitar work courtesy of Bruno Sánchez. Title track "Colisión Brutal" begins with various synth generated whoops and whistles underscored by furious drumming over which a quirky off centred guitar motif holds sway, however things take an unexpected turn at the halfway mark when French's grainy bass line signals a shift into a passage of psychedelic doom followed by a period of lysergic weirdness. "Perro Seco" is up next its doomic groove boasting an almost prancing gait into which Sánchez inserts deeply off kilter guitar textures and colours, well that is until we once again reach that magical halfway mark and things take on a more swaggering and bluesy hard rock dynamic. "Delta Acuárida" boasts a more four to the floor feel than its predecessors but much like those predecessors is not averse to going off-piste in places, especially in its Floydian flavoured middle section. Final track "El Veneno es la Cura" begins life tranquil and calm with gentle acoustic guitar trading off against its electric counterpart over lightly brushed and shimmering percussion, as the song progresses so does its dynamics with things getting slightly heavier but not dramatically so, in fact half the beauty of this song is in the anticipation of a heaviness that never quite arrives.
Thursday, 13 June 2024
DUNERIDER ~ LONG TRIP .... review
Those who follow these pages will know that when informing
our readers of a bands line-up we usually write a musician’s name followed by
the instrument/instruments he/she plays contained in brackets, well if we were
to do that for today’s release we would have to write; Fred Dupré (everything)
and that is because Fred Dupré IS Dunerider
and Dunerider IS Fred Dupré. If you are a fan of music drenched
in swathes of filthy fuzz and distortion then you are probably already familiar
with Mr Dupré
and his love of a fuzz pedal thanks to his previous Dunerider releases "RUIN" and
"ASCEND TO THE VOID" but if you are not then new album "Long Trip" would be an excellent starting
point to work your way back from.
Nasty guitar tones and thunderous punchy rhythms supporting
clean slightly buried vocal tones is what to expect when hitting play on this
ridiculously raucous collection of tunes, and hitting play on "Long Trip" is something you will want to do
again and again and again
Tuesday, 11 June 2024
WYNDRIDER ~ REVIVAL ..... review
For many of us the emergence of WyndRider as a musical force came as a bit of a surprise, one minute the band’s debut album "WyndRider" was just another new release in a list of hundreds of new releases on Bandcamp and the next it was being lauded across the underground scene's media outlets as some sort of new coming. The reason "WyndRider" garnered the attention it did was not due to some clever marketing or PR campaign it was because the sound the band made on that album resonated with all those who took a chance and pushed play. For us at Desert Psychlist its appeal stemmed from the fact that it took us back to a time in our scene’s history when bands like Witch Mountain, Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth and The Devil's Blood were releasing one great album after another while also attempting to shatter the outdated notion that the female voice had no place in rock music (sadly a notion still not completely eradicated). Having released such a well-received debut the pressure was now on WyndRider to show the world that the recent praise heaped upon them was justified praise and that they were not just a one album wonder destined to soon disappear back into obscurity and the best way to do that was head straight back into the studio and make another album. That album is now out and if you bought into the bluesy proto-doom of “WyndRider" you are going to love "Revival" (Electric Valley Records).
WyndRider kick off their latest collection of occult themed musical imagery with "Forked Tongue Revival" a song that sits firmly in the canon of doom but also carries in its gait a very pleasing element of laid back bluesiness, a bluesiness that not only comes from singer Chloe Gould's powerful and slightly smoky vocal tones but also from the triumvirate of Robbie Willis (guitar), Joshuwah Herald (bass) and Josh Brock (drums) who when not laying down crunching proto flavoured riffs and rhythms are not too shabby at getting a little down-home and rootsy. If ever a song was destined to become a fan favourite then it has got to be "Motorcycle Witches" its 70's flavoured heavy rock refrains, driving rhythms and swinging vocal melodies are manna from heaven for anyone (like us) brought up on a diet of Black Sabbath, Budgie, May Blitz and others of that ilk. Third track "Judas" finds WyndRider successfully mixing low slow and heavy stoner with proto metal and more traditional doom to create a groove that feels like it is in constant flux yet in truth is fairly one dimensional, a feeling enhanced by Gould's vocal delivery which is pitched ever so slightly monotonic. The vocal bluesiness that tinted the albums opening track returns for "Devil's Den" and is twinned this time with blustering heavy'n'hard rock while the appropriately titled "Remember the Sabbath" ensures that we do by jamming a sedate and atmospheric groove that has Iommi, Butler and Ward written large all over it and sees Gould channelling a smoky and seductive version of Ozzy in her vocal. There is a touch of off-centred psych brought to bear on next track "Under the Influence" with Brock and Herald laying down a solid bedrock of thunderous rhythms for Willis to decorate with crunching riffs and searing solos, Gould ably filling the spaces in-between with a strong and distinctive vocal performance. Final song "The Wheel" retains the elements of psych utilized in the previous track but this time sets them in a more sedate and lumbering setting and adds into the mix a slurred vocal delivery and spoken prose to ramp up the atmospherics to the legendary eleven mark, well that is until the final third when out of the blue things take a strident turn and the band set off on a race to the finish line on a wave of chugging proto-doom.
Sunday, 9 June 2024
HUNTSMEN ~ THE DRY LAND ..... review
Furious drumming and slightly blackened post-metal
flavoured riffage introduces first track "This,
Our Gospel" which is then replaced by a slightly less
aggressive and sedate prog(ish) groove over which clean harmonies hold
sway, the dominance of those harmonies being shared evenly between the three
participants except in the songs slightly hazy and psychedelic mid-section
where Bueno's fey and lilting tones
become the main focus. "Cruelly Dawns"
follows its ringing guitar motifs heralding in vocal trade-offs reminiscent of
early British folk music
before things start to move in a more prog -like direction and things
get intricate and complex with jig and reel like guitar motifs vying for space
with convoluted chord progressions and driving, almost mechanical, rhythms. The
acoustic guitars come out for "Lean Times"
the song boasting a 90's Americana meets 70's West Coast feel in
its initial stages but then moving towards a more torch-like dynamic in its
final moments. Gnarly thrumming sludge -like guitar tones growling bass and
thunderous drums are the dynamics used to interrupt passages of swooning folk
tinted prog on next track "In Time, All
Things" while "Rain"
sees Huntsmen becoming bluesmen, albeit
bluesmen with a penchant for mixing sweeping clean vocal leads and harmonies
with throat tearing harshness. Finally, we arrive at "Herbsight" a stunning opus that ties together
all the various musical threads that makes up Huntsmen's
sound and weaves them into one song, complex prog, textured post-metal,
shades of Americana and folk all sharing the same space with
elements sitting at the more extreme ends of the metal spectrum, an astounding
finale to an outstanding album.
Friday, 7 June 2024
WEEDEVIL ~ PROFANE SMOKE RITUAL ..... review
Opening song "Serpent's Gaze" begins life metallic and crunchy but then subsides into a throbbing proto-doom groove when Poison's soaring slightly smoky vocals join the fray, her voice punching through the miasma of heaviness surrounding it like a sunbeam through a dungeon window, the moments between her impassioned tones filled by Olden and Bittencourt laying down a mixture of thrumming dank guitar riffage and soaring solo's ably supported by Cavichioli's solid tight drumming and Funari's growling bass lines. The sound of chirping insects and bird calls introduces next track "Chronic Abyss of Bane" followed by a sedate doom groove accompanied by a male voice narrating a speech referencing Lucifer and Satan before Poison enters stage right with a lilting, but not quite ethereal, vocal telling us of a place where "mushrooms unfurl" and "illusions persist" her voice only really going up a gear in the songs psych tinted and proto flavoured middle section. Title track "Profane Smoke Ritual" begins with Cavichioli beating out a solid drum tattoo accompanied by an effect heavy Funari bass motif, the pair are then joined by Bittencourt and Olden's guitars in a thrusting and swaggering metallic groove that boasts a blending of crunching chord progressions and palm- muted refrains, Poison's soaring swooping vocal the icing on the cake. "Veil of Enchanted Shadows" sees Olden and Bittercourt trading chords over doomic rhythms with Poison channelling a little Candlemass type dramatics in her vocal performance while "Necrotic Elegy" finds the band mixing Iron Maiden like gallop with Sabbath-esque chug to frame what is probably Desert Psychlist's favourite vocal on the album, a mixture of stoner smokiness and heavy metal holler. Lastly comes "Serenade of Baphomet" a song that shifts from off-kilter and bluesy to strident and face melting before returning to bluesy again and then signing out on a wave of droning noise.
Thursday, 6 June 2024
CATAPULT THE SUN ~ DARK SUN FESTIVITIES .... review
Some music is created to entertain its listeners while some music is created to challenge its listeners, the album we are reviewing today kind of falls into the cracks between the two, a dark somewhat dank feeling collection of songs that sport a droning almost funereal dynamic. The band behind this release go by the name Catapult the Sun and hail from Athens, Greece and have, over a fairly short period of time, built a reputation for delivering thrumming grooves of a sedate and heavy nature. The release we speak of today goes by the title "Dark Sun Festivities" an opus much in the same slow low and heavy vein as its predecessors "Human Empire Falls" and "CATHODE", but this time with a darker cinematic quality.
"Dark Sun Festivities"
begins with "Queen of Solstice"
the songs intro, a hotch-potch of sparse percussion, droning guitar noise and
feedback, leads us to the sound of sampled laughter slowly turning to screams
which then serves as a signal for the band to dive deep into the achingly slow
low doomic groove that holds sway throughout the songs duration. This is
a piece of music that is bleak dank and repetitive, its intentional monotony
only lifted by its swirling guitar textures, but for all its repetition and
monotony it also possesses a hypnotic quality that sucks you in as a listener
and refuses to let go until its last note fades into the ether. We spoke of
this album having a cinematic quality and that is no more evident than on next
tome "Dystopiate Haze" its dark
droning textures. thundering percussion and ringing guitar motifs giving the
songs extended intro and almost space-like dynamic that would not sound
out of place as the soundtrack to some sort of "Event Horizon" or "Pandorum"
type sci-fi horror movie. The song does eventually morph into a thrumming
slowed down Sabbathian groove in its
later stages but by then the damage is done and you will have already switched
on all the lights around your listening station just to make sure there are no
stitched together psychopaths lurking in the shadows. The worryingly titled "Our Pigs Will Drink Your King's Blood" is up
next an off-centred jam built around a heavily slurred guitar refrain that in
places sounds like the riff from Alice In Chains "Check My
Brain" being played at half speed, again the song is heavily
repetitive but again, thanks in parts to its soaring dark guitar textures,
proves totally mesmerising. "A Shrine of Salt"
follows, a pulsating tome that sees Catapult the Sun bringing just a tad more diversity to their attack,
albeit more in its subtle use of loud/quiet/loud dynamics, dynamics which see
the songs groove routinely swelling and dissipating. Final song " Slowly We Drone" is less a title and more a
statement of the bands intent for what they wanted to bring to the table with
this song, the band utilising deep reverberating bass lines and slow deliberate
drumming to form a dank dark bedrock for sustained guitar notes that hang in
the air until they slowly fall away to be replaced by others.
MARY THE ELEPHANT ~ MARY THE ELEPHANT ..... review
Was a time when you just could not check out a stoner,
doom or heavy psych fans Bandcamp
collection or Spotify playlist
without there being at least six or seven Swedish
bands/artistes featured, things have slowed down a bit since those days but
seeing the word "Sweden"
associated with a release in those genres still carries a lot of weight when
checking out new albums and EP's. To be honest seeing an album entitled "Mary The Elephant" by a band of the same name
while perusing a list of new releases did not really fill us here at Desert Psychlist with
the same sense of excitement we might have had if the band had sported a more doomic
or stoner like name, however hidden away in the corner of the bands Bandcamp page we saw the word "Sweden" so we thought let’s give it a
shot. What we found when hitting play was an EP that not only upheld Sweden's reputation for churning out great
bands but was also an EP that was so much more than just a collection of
raucous rhythms and ripping riffs.
Things kick off in proto-doomic style with opener
"My King" the songs main riff
sporting an Iommi-esque quality,
however any thoughts that you may have stumbled on another one of those bands
worshipping at the altar of Black Sabbath are soon shattered when vocalist Hami Malek enters
front and centre with a world wearied vocal that is as bluesy as it is soulful.
For next song "The Haze"
guitarist Isaac Ingelsbo, bassist Johan Fogelberg and drummer Doe step away from the Sabbathian flavoured sound of the opening song
and instead combine on a groove that is fuzzy hybrid of classic and southern
rock, a groove that is the perfect fit for Malek's
gritty lived in vocal. So far Mary the Elephant have given us proto doomic bluster and classic/southern
rock swagger but for third track "A Dying
Sun" the band opt for hazy moodiness and languid ambient
atmospherics, the song a beautiful laid back instrumental piece with an almost
caressing quality. Its back to the rock for penultimate song "In the Dark" a mixture of stoner and classic
rock decorated with another great vocal performance and shot through with
an endearing bluesiness. Things come to a close with "The Crows Will Fall" the band returning to
their Sabbathesque ways but this time
taking their inspiration from Sabbath's
psychedelic curveball "Planet
Caravan", Inglebo's phase
heavy guitar tones, Fogelberg's low fuzzy bass lines and Doe's laid-back rhythms creating a hazy
framework for Malek to hang a
suitably slurred vocal over, a truly tune in turn on and drop out moment.