MOUTH OF CRONUS ~ COMMUNION OF ASHES ... review

Dallas, Texas trio Mouth of Cronus, Clay Davis on vocals and guitar, Dave Slaughter on drums, and David Long on bass, describe themselves as "the brain-damaged love child of The Melvins and Mastodon." Whether their new three-song EP, "Communion of Ashes," supports that claim is up for debate. To us, Mouth of Cronus' sound leans more toward Mastodon than it does The Melvins, which, given Desert Psychlist's preference for the former, can only be counted as a win. In the end, though, it's all a matter of opinion ....so what's yours?

The EP opens with "Crown of Crows", the song begins dark and ominous with droning effects and feedback supported by solid tight drumming and low rumbling bass but how a song begins is not always the best indicator of how a song might proceed and after the appearance of a dark and reverberating chord voicing this song proceeds to get forceful and heavy. Vocals here are just as forceful as the music surrounding them, clean powerful gritty tones that often threaten to spill over into harshness but never quite do. Musically these guys are totally on the ball with fiery riffs and intricate solos firing off in all directions over a backdrop of finger blistering bass and furious drumming. Following track "Food for the Moon" is a whole different ball game, for this opus Mouth of Cronus don their technicolour dream coats and mix into their amalgamations of prog and stoner metal elements that border on psychedelic and doomic with the emphasis heavily in favour of the former. We are of course not speaking wishy washy tip-toe through the tulips type of psych here, no this is a blustering metallic take on psych that would cause any sun loving tulips to shrink back down to their roots. Final number "Hail Phaeton" is a rip roaring metallic romp that boasts more twist and turns than a Formula One racetrack, the vocals here are superb as is the musicianship surrounding them, boy these guys can really PLAY! 

Mouth of Cronus' "Communion of Ashes" contains just three songs but they pack so much into those three songs that you come away feeling like you've just sat through a full album. The musicianship is incredible, the vocals top-notch and the arrangements and lyrical content masterful, a really titan of an EP from its start to its finish.
Check it out ....

© 2025 Frazer Jones

ARBITER ~ TOWARDS THE BURNING MOON ... review

Desert Psychlist described Arbiter's debut full length release "Ambrosia", in a blurb on the albums Bandcamp page, as a "mind blowing mix of prog-metal, heavy psych and space that occasionally wanders into left of field and quirky territories", a description we stand by still and one that could just as easily be applied to the bands latest album "Towards the Burning Moon" only this time preceded by the words "an even more...". Arbiter, Caleb Blackwell (guitar/vocals); Robert John Garcia (bass/synthesizer), and Jonah Gonzalez (drums), are a band with sound like no-one else, a band who play music that always seem to teeter on the edge of chaos but never quite tips over, something you'll discover for yourselves when giving "Towards the Burning Moon" a spin.

Things begin with "Light The Torches!," a brief instrumental filled with droning feedback and sampled narrative, the piece setting the stage for the first track proper, "Black Lotus" a shape-shifting tome made up of grooves that merge heavy psych with proggish doom and elements of Middle Eastern exoticism, the results of which are decorated in "weedian" flavoured vocalisation. The next track, "The Deep Heavy" opens with a seductive bass motif, sparse yet effective guitar textures, and delicate drumming, only to explode into a throbbing mix of prog and stoner metal featuring vocals that transition from clean and phased to throaty and harsh beneath which an undercurrent of synthesized madness and refrain-driven mayhem holds sway.. For "Atop the Anthill," Arbiter incorporate quirky rhythms and off kilter riffs, reminiscent of Belgium's Gnome, to create an offbeat groove complemented by a swaying, playful vocal melody. "Form" introduces a new wave/punk vibe, while "Oh Spirit! Oh Mother!" showcases Arbiter's knack for pulling victory from the jaws of chaos with a song that constantly leaps between folkish prog languidity and metallic core-like cacophony. "Faustian Hymn" dials things back with lilting nursery rhyme-like melodies delivered over a backdrop of lightly picked guitar arpeggios and synth generated brass effects, Desert Psychlist will be surprised if we are not the only ones getting a "Wicker Man/ Midsommar" vibe from this number. Title track "Towards the Burning Moon" is probably the albums most accessible and straight forward song, its lilting clean vocal melodies are underscored by tight solid drumming and booming bass over which crunching power chords, searing lead and swirling keyboard textures combine to create a groove not too far removed from something you might find gracing a Green Lung album. For the albums final number, "Venus in Dido", Arbiter take that same straight down the line rock approach they opted for on the previous  track but this time mix things up by splicing that straight-forwardness with elements of both metallic and neo prog as well as some of those off-piste and quirky essences explored elsewhere on this wonderfully schizophrenic album.

Arbiter's "Towards the Burning Moon" is an album that defies all conventional norms, an album packed with music that ranges from the exuberant and extravagant to the chaotic and angular. Listening to "Towards the Burning Moon" is like being taken to the top of a tall building and asked to admire a familiar view, only to suddenly find yourself being dangled out of said same window and asked to look at that same view from an entirely new perspective... a crazy, scary yet at the same time exhilarating experience.

Check it out .... 

© 2025 Frazer Jones

PIECE ~ RAMBLER'S AXE .... review

If you can feel a deep rumbling through your walls and floors it could be an earthquake but just as easily it could be that someone in your immediate vicinity is spinning "Rambler's Axe" (This Charming Man Records), the new release from German sludge/doom/stoner metal titans PIECE. If its the former find yourself a sturdy and safe place to shelter, if it's the latter do exactly the same thing..... both are powerful forces of nature.

Desert Psychlist may not know who wrote the liner notes describing PIECE's latest opus as "thick like lava, black like ebony, angular and rough like the chin of Conan the Barbarian," but they certainly are deserving of a hefty bonus. In just one sentence, the writer of those words has perfectly captured what it is listeners should expect when "Rambler's Axe" erupts from their speakers and proceeds to turn their brains to mush. From the opening track "Heria," with its sampled narrative and ominous, throbbing blackened grooves overlaid with low guttural vocals, to the closing song "Serpentfolk Tyel", PIECE rarely give their audience a moment to catch their breath with listeners being bombarded with an unrelenting assault of gravelly vocalizations, thunderous riffage, and war drum-like rhythms. Tracks like "Demigod," "Bastard Sword", "Spheres" title song "Rambler's Axe" and "Owl Eyes" all groan and creak beneath the weight of their own intensity, yet, these songs are far from ponderous or heavy-handed; there is musicality here, and if you listen closely, also melody. As an album PIECE's "Rambler's Axe" is both heavy and intense but offsets that heaviness and intensity with unexpected "where did that come from" moments, those moments not so much beacons of light in waves of oppressing darkness but more serving as a subtle greying at the edges of that darkness.

If you like your metal to conjure up images of hordes of animal skin clad warriors brandishing medieval weaponry while charging across fields already littered with the remnants of the dead and dying then PIECE's "Rambler's Axe" is going to meet all your needs, if on the other hand you simply want to hear metal that is loud, heavy and intense then "Rambler's Axe" also delivers in that department.

Check it out .....    

© 2025 Frazer Jones