GYPSY SUN REVIVAL ~ JOURNEY OUTSIDE OF TIME ... review

Texas, USA is a damn big place and has a reputation for turning out bands and artists with a damn big sound, Desert Psychlist is thinking ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan here but that sonic largeness can also be heard coming from the many underground bands currently making their presence felt outside of  their Lone Star State home. Gypsy Sun Revival are no exception, these Texans have a sound that leans more towards the more polished psychedelic end of classic rock than it does the riff orientated stoner/hard rock usually associated with the underground rock scene, the band utilising keyboards, synths and even a theremin to fill out there sound, giving their grooves a more expansive classical rock sound. The band demonstrate this sound to great effect on their new album "Journey Outside of Time" (Nasoni Records)

Whooshing noise interrupted by fractured guitar chords introduces "Cadillac to Mexico" a song that mixes bluesy swagger with hues of a psychedelic nature, fronted by the clean yet grainy tones of vocalist, and occasional hand drummer, Mario Rodriguez. Rodriguez' strong, but not overly powerful, tones are the perfect fit for Gypsy Sun Revival's brand of acid laced rock his slightly cracked delivery giving this song, and that of the other six songs on"Journey Outside of Time", an authentic gritty edge. Rodriguez is ably supported by Will Weise whose bluesy guitar licks and solo's are an integral part of GSR's overall sound especially when they are combined with Tyler Gene Davis' swirling swathes of keyboard colouring, as on the excellent "Growing Shadows" a lysergic bluesy ballad that explodes into a heavy psych wig out in its final quarter. A band like a car/automobile  is only as strong as the engine that drives it and in Lee Ryan (bass) and Ben Harwood (drums and synth) Gypsy Sun Revival have a V8 beneath their hood, Ryan's liquid bass lines and grizzled low end riffs are big boneshaking affairs that with Harwood's deft mix of delicate and pounding percussion create the perfect platforms for Weise and Davis to launch their swirling sonic assaults from and for Rodriguez to wrap his distinctive vocals around. The album also benefits from a crisp organic production something not overly suprising as the band drafted in ex Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain for mastering duties and Wo Fat's Kent Stump to oversee engineering and mixing.

Not exceptionally heavy but with a nice balance of swaggering Texas blues and acid drenched psych "Journey Outside Of Time" is an album that should appeal to both the classic rock aficionados and those that like their grooves heady and trippy alike.
Check it out .....

© 2017 Frazer Jones

THE AGE OF TRUTH ~ THRESHOLD ... review

In an age of sex scandals, fake news and games of political smoke and mirrors its nice to come across music that still has an element of honesty and integrity about it. Ironic then, given these days when we can no longer rely on the media for those elements, the music in question comes from a band going by the name of The Age of Truth.
The Age of Truth, hail from Philadelphia, PA and are a band who, in their own words, "blend fuzz and diesel fuel with elements of heavy blues, stoner rock and psychedelia" a blend that can be head on their new album "Threshold". (soon to be released on vinyl on Kozmik Artifactz)

Growlers, groaners and those of a more demonic vocal persuasion all rightfully deserve their place in the vast  array of genres and sub-genres of the underground music scene but music with even a hint of the blues at its core demands strong powerful and relatively clean vocals to maximise its effect and The Age of Truth have ,with Kevin McNamara, found the perfect vocal vehicle for their grooves. McNamara's strong, gritty tones are a revelation throughout "Threshold" hitting Cornell-ish heights in the upper register, getting raw and gravelly in the middle and crooning bluesy and mellow at the lower end, his ability to go from one to the other in the blink of an eye giving songs like "Holding Hands Like Thieves" and the superb "Caroline" an especially pleasing dynamic. The other members of the band are no slouches either with stand in drummer Eric Fisher ( Scott Frassetto has since taken the drum stool) and bassist William Miller creating a plethora of differing rhythmic platforms on which the songs of  "Threshold" are constructed. Miller lays down some boneshaking  bottom end, locking in tight with the drums to drive the grooves from beneath with a mixture of raw power and intricate tenderness while guitarist Mike DiDonato layers over these diverse grooves crunching riffs, gently swept arpeggios and scorching bluesy licks and solo's filling the spaces the rhythmic pairing leave with swathes of colourful guitar texturing, perfectly framing McNamara's vocals while at the same time complimenting those exemplary rhythms.

"Threshold" is a massive album packed with gnarly hard rock/stoner riffage, moments of laid back bluesy swagger and touches of lysergic colouring delivered by a band who are truly on top of their game, forget the past welcome to The Age of Truth!



#Big thanks to Leanne Ridgeway at Mettle Media PR for promo and info

© 2018 Frazer Jones

THE MOTHERCRAFT ~ PILLARS ..... review

Canada's The Mothercraft, Geoff Keller (drums), Grizz Penner (bass/vocals) and Jordan LeMoine (guitar/vocals), have been playing cat and mouse with us for what seems like ages, teasing us with a track here, a video there, all the time promising us the release of something a little more tangible, something a little more full-bodied. With jobs and families to worry about it is not always easy, either financially or time wise, for a band to drop everything and go into a studio and record but thankfully The Mothercraft have managed get their shit together long enough to deliver on those promises with the release of their long awaited debut EP "Pillars".

So we've been patient , was it worth the wait? The answer is a resounding yes! Ok what The Mothercraft bring to the table is not a game changer or a re-invention of the wheel but those are not promises these guys ever made, what you do get is four tracks of rollicking good metallic rock'n'roll jam packed with unbridled spirit and freshness and delivered with gusto and passion. First track "Cosmic Nod" is a perfect example of a band enjoying what they do and it coming through in their music, you can almost feel the bands collective smile beaming out of the speakers as they hit into a pacey stoner/hard rock groove replete with neo classical shredding, fuzz laden bass riffage and pulverising percussion fronted by strangely feminine sounding, but totally effective, vocals. By the time you've passed through "Moonrider", with it's superb vocal melody and sludge-lite chorus, "It Follows" with it's call and reponse vocal interplay and addictive groove, and you arrive at the superbly delivered and executed "Sorceress in Blue" that smile you felt you heard coming through your speakers/headphones has transplanted itself on your own face, magical! (Oh and if you let "Sorceress In Blue" run into silence for a while after finishing you are confronted by a weird phone message from someone trying to book the band for a gig and mixing them up with a well known online game and calling them "The World of Mothercraft", hilarious!)

If your on the search for something intense,deep and thought provoking then my friend you have taken the wrong fork in the road. The Mothercraft pretend to be nothing more than a damn good rock band with a penchant for writing damn good, highly enjoyable rock songs and that is also something to be damn proud of
Check 'em out .....

© 2018 Frazer Jones

WIZARD UNION ~ CEREMONIAL SMOKE .... review

Wizard Union, Samir (guitar/vocals), Aaron (bass/backing vocals) and Larry (drums), started off as a three piece band in 2012 then with the idea of working with similar minded local musicians added  "collective" to their name. This proved a little confusing to those outside of the bands immediate circle and so "collective" was dropped from their name and the band returned to being a trio, self releasing/promoting their own albums as well as those of their numerous side projects. The band are currently promoting their latest EP "Ceremonial Smoke" a four song opus  of doom laden sludge and punk.

If the heavily distorted guitar refrain that introduces "Swords Out For Crom" does not raise those little hairs on the back of your neck then Desert Psychlist suggests you quickly contact your doctor as you may be suffering from some form of sensory deprivation. Sounding like an angle grinder cutting through concrete and supported by big booming bass and solid, punchy percussion this is a riff that grabs you by the throat from note one and refuses to let go. If this is not enough to have you drooling and salivating like a zombie with a severed limb dangling before him then when the vocals kick in you soon will be. Low pitched, with an almost breathy delivery the asthmatic demon-like tones are perfectly in sync with the grinding raucousness of the groove and take the song to an altogether other level. "Spitting Venom" follows and once again the listener is plunged into Wizard Union's world of demonic rasp'n'roll with the band laying down a groove that although touching on the Sabbath-esque, with its shifts in signature and tempo, has a harder much more abrasive, blackened edge. Just as your starting to get really comfortable and digging deep into Wizard Union's take on doomic heavy sludge the band throw in a meteor sized curveball in the shape of "Give Me That Amulet You Witch" a startling but brief experiment in dissonance and angular groove that sees the vocals take on a punkier but nonetheless demonic edge. If you can imagine, late period Captain Beefheart, writing a song for a heavy sludge band then  this is what you might come up with. "Wizard Union - Ceremonial Smoke" finds Wizard Union returning to more traditional climes with a song that boasts a deliciously addictive chugging guitar riff pushed hard by grizzled bass and pounding drums and ends with what sounds, to Desert Psychlist, like a kazoo solo!

Bored rigid with stoner rock mediocrity, tired of those same old rock'n'roll clichés, want your metal to be more METAL?  Then don't delay join the Wizard Union today....
Check 'em out ....

© 2018 Frazer Jones

FLY AGARIC ~ AMANITA MUSCARIA ... review

Most of you reading the pages of Desert Psychlist will be ardent worshippers at the temple of the riff and let's face it who in our community of metalheads, stoners and psychonauts doesn't get off on a big fat crunching powerchord reverberating with fuzz and distortion. Melody, in a vocal sense, however is an oft overlooked commodity within our scene, many of us becoming so accustomed to the raucous growlers, groaners and shouters that front a lot of the bands we listen to today that it is almost strange to hear clean harmonies and melodies at the forefront of those riffs we love so much.
Australia's Fly Agaric, Ralph Kynoch (guitar/vocals), Tom Learmouth (bass/vocals), Ned Cain (drums) and Jamox Frazier (guitar), are one band trying to redress that balance between the melodic and the demonic by fronting their raucous riffage with clean lead vocals and crystal clear harmonies, something that can be witnessed on their debut release "Amanita Muscaria"  an album which was released back in May 2017 but was only recently brought to Desert Psychlist's attention.

Fly Agaric borrow their dynamics from two separate musical worlds, the rockier end of grunge and the more raucous edges of the desert scene, intertwining them together to create a sound that is familiar but at the same time quite original. The band kick things off with "Meteora" a song that starts off laid back and bluesy then morphs into a chugging desert groove overlaid with cool clean vocals that tell a tale of approaching Armageddon. Over and around this story of destruction and impending doom and against a backdrop of grumbling bass and powerful percussion the two guitarists trade off a series of scorching solo's and licks eventually taking things to a close on a wave of scintillating guitar pyrotechnics. "What Is Said Is Done" follows and fully utilises Kynoch and Learmouth's harmonies, pitching them against a backdrop of gnarly desert riffage and punchy percussion. "The Mirror Doesn't Lie" and "Spare Me" follow a more heavy stoner-ish path with guitar fuzz pedals dialled to eleven and a mixture of lead and vocal harmonies laid over them, the former an out and out rocker the latter a more catchy, almost commercial affair, with a delightfully addictive vocal melody." We Will Be One" has a an alt/grunge feel while "What Goes Around" boasts a groove that straddles that grey area where 70's punk crossed over with the mainstream, a sound once referred to as "new wave". Finally "Black Clouds" brings "Amanita Muscaria" to a close with a song that draws all those threads, visited elsewhere on the album, and weaves them into one big tapestry of swirling lysergic groove.

Melodic but with a sting in it's tail "Amanita Muscaria" is an album that delivers on all levels, whether your a shorts wearing stoner, a leather clad metalhead or a classic rock loving weekend warrior there is something here for you all.
Check it out .....

© 2018 Frazer Jones

BLACK MAMMOTH ~ OVERLORD OF THE PLEASUREDOME ... review

"Sabbath" and "worship" are two words banded around quite a lot within the stoner/doom community, often as a criticism levelled at bands/artists whose grooves lean heavily towards those proto-doom refrains first foisted on us from those godfathers of all that is heavy Tony, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill. What do you do though when your grooves are not especially sabbathian but your vocalist has an undeniable Ozzy-ish hue to his vocal delivery that will undoubtedly draw those Sabbath comparisons? Well Norway's Black Mammoth's answer is simple.. deliver an album that stands proudly on its own merits and is so damn good that those tired comparisons become redundant, something the band have strived to achieve with their debut album "Overlord of the Pleasuredome"

An album's artwork can often be the best indicator for the music it is designed to decorate and the warm glowing valve adorning the cover of "Overlord of the Pleasuredome" is the perfect advert for the warm "organic" grooves to be found within. The word "organic" suggests a certain earthiness to the music on offer and that is exactly what Black Mammoth deliver, earthy grooves of proto-ish metal coated in clean, perfectly pitched vocals. From the deeply distorted guitar intro of "Artificial Goliath" to the groovilicious fade out of title track "Overlord of the Pleasuredome" listeners are treated to a delicious and diverse array of proto tinted doomic metal fronted by the distinctive Ozzy-ish tones and swirling solos and riffs of guitarist Glenn Thomas Solberg. Solberg's voice and guitar, a force in themselves, are superbly backed up by the powerhouse rhythms of drummer Ronny Kristiansen and the grumbling, growling bass lines of Tor Erik Hagen, the pair locking in together to create a variety of rhythmic platforms for Solberg to decorate with powerful guitar work and Lovecraftian lyrics. Black Mammoth know a thing or two about how to pace an album also, balancing out their heavier onslaughts with songs of a more considered, less abrasive dynamic, such as "Here I Am" and "Cauldron of Lies", songs that show this trio can kill and chill in equal measure and are so much more than just worshippers at the sabbathian altar.

Black Mammoth freely admit the role Black Sabbath have played in influencing their grooves but they also cite Kyuss, Thin Lizzy and The Stooges as influences in shaping their sound. To dismiss these guys as another in a long line of  Sabbath sound-a-likes just because their vocalist sounds a little like a certain Mr Osbourne would not only be doing the band a disservice but also a disservice to yourselves, Do yourself a big favour before you decide on which side of the fence you stand regarding Black Mammoth and give "Overlord of the Pleasuredome " a spin, you might find there is more to these guys than first meets your ear.
Check 'em out ....


© 2017 Frazer Jones

STONED THERAPISTS ~ STONED THERAPISTS ..... review

Desert Psychlist recently read a post on one of the web's social media pages bemoaning the state of today's underground music scene and the lack of innovative bands coming through, whether by coincidence or divine intervention after finishing reading said post Desert Psychlist then received an email from a Rouen based French band, Stoned Therapists, pointing us in the direction of their very innovative self-titled debut album "Stoned Therapists".

Vincent "Jeed" Eloy (guitar/vocals), Hadrianne Morisse (vocals), Quentin Delisle (drums) and Simon Debeerst (bass) are Stoned Therapists a band who describe their particular brand of riff'n'roll as "stoner art rock" a quirky blend of raucous riffage and left of centre grooves overlaid with a mix of distinctive clean lead vocals and off kilter harmonies. That word "off-kilter" is the perfect description for the grooves Stoned Therapists bring to the table as there is something wonderfully "wonky" about the eight songs that make up "Stoned Therapists", a "wonkiness" that permeates every note, drumbeat, vocal inflection and riff of the albums songs. For some unfathomable reason it is this "wonkiness", and the bands willingness not to rely on tired rock clichés, that makes songs with titles like "Inside A Victim's Head", "Sweet Maggie Pie" and "A World of Alternatives" work and make this album such a joy to listen to from start to finish.

It could be argued that off centre quirkiness mixed with a swathes of fuzzed out riffage is not something especially innovative or even new and that Josh Homme has built a career around this very concept with both QOTSA and his Desert Sessions, and that would be a very valid point. However where Homme and his cohorts, over the course of an albums length,  may fire off arrows that hit their targets  only occasionally Stoned Therapists on the other hand,,with "Stoned Therapists", manage to hit the bulls eye again and again and again!
Check it out ....

© 2017 Frazer Jones