ASTRAL WITCH ~ ASTRAL WITCH ..... review

Canada's Astral Witch describe themselves as "a 3-piece doom rock band from Hamilton,  inspired by crystal magic and fuelled by beer" and if that statement does not peak your interest then maybe the fact that the trio are influenced by Sabbath and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will. The band, Alyssa Axeworthy (guitar/vox), Jon Tiberious (bass/vox) and Jen Brewer (drums/vox), have just released their debut album " Astral Witch".

Tiberious' deep booming bass motif introduces first track "Rune" and is then joined by Axeworthy's guitar and Brewer's drums in a heavily fuzzed and distorted doomic groove that sits just a couple of notches above low and slow. Vocals for this track, and for that matter much of the album, are a shared affair with Axeworthy and Tiberious trading off lead duties as well as combining on harmonies, the pairs strong slightly cracked and gritty tones are sometimes at odds but yet compliment each other and in doing so bring a whole set of different dynamics to the table. Lyrically Astral Witch tell us the usual tales of devils, angels  and death but also of anger and love and the conflict between the two, Axeworthy telling us on "Embodied" that she'll "wipe your tears away", on "Love" that "they’ll tell you what you want, to get between your thighs", emotional statements and tirades told against a superb backdrop of growling bass, dark crunching chords and thunderous percussion.

Astral Witch come at you from a slightly different angle from many of todays occult and doom bands, they make all the right doomic noises but there is an undercurrent of garage attitude running through their grooves that sets them apart from the following herd and that alone is reason enough to check 'em out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

TEMPELHEKS ~ MIDNIGHT MIRROR ...... review

So what is the difference between the music some describe as "occult" and that which we know as "doom"? Well that is a question that has played on Desert Psychlist's mind for a while now and to be honest we have no definitive answer for you, both are tied up in one way or another with mystic lyrisicm, dark atmospherics and growling low end but why one is one and the other is the other is still somewhat of a mystery. Maybe Oslo's Tempelheks can clear up this riddle, the Norwegian quartet, Martin Horn Sørlie (vocal & guitar), Sindre Øhman (guitar),Magnus Bjørnstad (bass & backing vocals) and Håkon Bergh (drums & percussion), bill themselves as a psychedelic and occult heavy rock experience so maybe their latest release "Midnight Mirror" (released on Cursed Tongue Records 03/08/2018) will shed some light on the matter.

Well the question of what is doom and what is occult gets even more convoluted and confused as the opening notes of first track "Gates of Python" assails the ears, here we have a song that has a dark crunching doomic core yet throws into that core bluesy guitar colouring and elements of epic metal grandiosity then totally throws a spanner in the works with a vocal that would not sound out of place coming from the stage of a 60's folk club. Maybe things will become a little clearer on next track "Bury Your Children" but that thought is stopped in its tracks by a 70's hard rock groove accompanied by a vocal that brings with it visions of bearded men, wearing Aran sweaters, fingers placed in ears, singing salty sea shanties. And so it goes on right through all ten tracks, of Tempelheks "Midnight Mirror", the band mixing up delicious and delightful cocktails of doomic dankness and hard rock bluster sprinkled with superbly effective folk-rock vocal colourings that, on first listen, may seem a little quaint and slightly odd but if persevered with soon reveal their true rural occult beauty and majestic doomic power.

Ok the question posed at the start of this review of what is doom and what is occult, has not really been answered here but who cares, just enjoy "Midnight Mirror" for what it is, damn good music that is a little off the beaten track and all the better for it.
Check it out ….
© 2018 Frazer Jones

JERKY DIRT ~ THE TALE OF TIMPSON SQUIRE ..... review

Jerky Dirt are a band from Nottingham, UK and have just released their debut album "The Tale of Timpson Squire",other than that Desert Psychlist has no other information to impart to you dear reader except to tell you that this a band with an album that, in our opinion, needs to be investigated.

"Quirky" is word often associated with Queens of the Stone Age, and other Josh Homme side projects, mainly due to their use of off kilter rhythms and diverse themes and motifs, quirky in Jerky Dirt's case however is a whole different ball game. There is a certain Englishness to what these Nottingham psychonauts do that although has a similar desert footing to Homme's work also has touch of the whimsical and the eccentric to its sonic attack, a sound that has more in common with UK psych/folk proggers Wolf People than it has with QOTSA. Jerky Dirt combine early Floydian psych with its modern underground stonerized equivalent then salt the resulting mix with elements of lysergic folk and experimental pop tinted shoegaze to create a sound that has a totally unique and highly enjoyable groove. Songs like "New Wave", "Magic Roundabout" and "Kill The Idols" pop and fizz with distortion and fuzz and are overlaid with cool clean, clipped and very English sounding harmonies and lead vocals but it is the way the band offset their more stonier endeavours with those of a more organic earthier feel that really impresses. to quote the lyrics from "Eternal Youth" these guys really "kick that old guitar into overdrive"
Check it out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

FORMING THE VOID ~ RIFT ...... review

It only seems like five minutes since Forming The Void's guitarist/vocalist, James Marshall got in touch with Desert Psychlist to point us in the direction of his bands debut release "Skywards", that was in 2015 and since that time the band have released a second album, "Relic", plus a split with Houston outfit Pyreship, all of which has culminated in positive reviews from publications as influential as Classic Rock, Metal Sucks and CVLT Nation. After wowing audiences across the USA with their brand of huge sounding prog tinted sludgy doom and stoner metal the band returned to the studio this year with a new drummer and a pocketful full of new ideas to record their third album "Rift" on Kozmic Artifactz (due to be released on August 17 2018).

Losing a member of your band can sometimes result in a complete and utter change of dynamic in said bands sound and style so when Forming The Void parted ways with their drummer, Jelly Boyd, prior to recording their new album, it was with a modicum of trepidation that Desert Psychlist approached their latest release "Rift". Thankfully we needn't have worried ,the addition of White Light Cemetery's Thomas Colley as a replacement drummer may have brought differences to Forming The Void's sound but those differences are subtle and totally in keeping with the musical vision original members, James Marshall (guitar/vocals), Shadi Omar Al-Khansa (guitar),and Luke Baker (bass), explored on previous releases. If you have followed Forming The Void's career since their inception you will know to expect huge swathes of growling stonerized prog and sludge metal offset by moments of lysergic tranquillity and swirling ambience, "Rift" does not disappoint in any of those departments, in fact it would not be wrong to say that there is probably far more growl and far more tranquillity going on here than they have ever delivered before. Marshall's trademark monotone bellow, always a highlight of any Forming The Void release, on "Rift", sounds bigger, rounder and a little more cultured on this latest outing, Marshall croons, growls and bellows over the huge walls of crunching riffage, scorching complex solo's and glistening motifs that he and fellow axe-slinger Al-Khansa bring to the table, his voice competing ,and just about winning, against an onslaught of pulverising fretboard wizardry that is at times breathtaking. Beneath this whirlwind of low slung guitar pyrotechnics and monolithic vocal gymnastics Colley and Baker provide the heartbeat that drives each of "Rift's" seven songs, the pairing steering Forming The Void's grooves through a myriad of differing dynamics and tempos, creating an array of complex and diverse rhythmic platforms for Marshall and Al-Khansa to build upon with a plethora of six-string texturing and colour.

Massive sounding doomic grooves shaded in psychedelic hues and coated in a sheen of metallic prog intricacy make "Rift" not only one of the most anticipated albums of the year but also one of the most enjoyable.
Check it out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

MILK WHITE THROAT ~ HOUSE OF FIRE .... review

Brighton, UK holds a special place in Desert Psychlist's heart as it was the scene of one of the Psychlist's most drunken and debauched weekends on this planet, but that aside it is also the home of an exciting band going by the name Milk White Throat, a trio consisting of Guillaume Croizon (drums), Tom Humphrey (guitars, vocals) and Brian Thomas (vocals, bass) who are just about to release, onto an unsuspecting public, their latest EP "House of Fire".(3/8/2018).

Skill and quality are not commodities you can easily fake and Milk White Throat demonstrate, over the course of the three songs that make up "House on Fire", that they have both in abundance. As the first, chiming and heavily effected opening notes of "Future History" ring out the listener is left in no doubt of which direction this band are coming from, the songs complex but articulate guitar work, played over a background of liquid deep bass and intricate percussion and coated in clean impassioned vocals, marks this out,if not straightforwardly so, as prog metal or at the very least prog(ish) metal. Now there will be some who will, seeing the word "prog", immediately stop reading and go looking for something a touch more primal, well those that are maybe thinking along those lines should hold their horses for a second or two and delve a little deeper into Milk White Throat's sonic palette. Yes there are a huge prog(ish) elements to be found here, when you have three musicians of this calibre those elements are bound to float to the top, however there is also enough metal to overload a magnet and enough stoner grit to lay a path with. This mix of complexity and metallic growl is perfectly showcased on the EP's second track "House of Fire" a sprawling and undulating sonic journey that gently lifts you up into tranquil blue skies one minute then plummets you into the pits of a metallic hell the next. "Nearly Alive" follows and closes the EP with a hell for leather prog/sludge/heavy metal romp that is as complex as it is brutal, the band ramping up their metallic side to overload and taking off on all sorts of weird and wonderful musical tangents before slowly fading things into silence.

Desert Psychlist's tale, eluded to in this pieces intro, comes under the heading "what happens in Brighton stays in Brighton" Milk White Throat's story on the other hand, and if there is any justice in this world, says "Today Brighton, tomorrow the World"
Check 'em out ….

© 2018 Frazer Jones

BLACK ELEPHANT ~ COSMIC BLUES .... review

"The Blues" gets a little maligned outside of its own genre, many believing it is a style of music that has seen its best days and should retire to the Sunnyside Home for Old Music (that doesn't actually exist by the way). Wrong, wrong. WRONG, the blues has never been more alive, more vital and more exciting than it is today with bands like All Them Witches, Youngblood Supercult and Blues Pills, among many others, taking the form twisting it and turning it to suit their own purposes and then presenting it as something fresh and new.
Add to this list Black Elephant, Alessio Caravalli (guitar/vocals), Max Giacosa (guitar), Simone Brunzu (drums) and Marcello De Stefanis (bass), a quartet from Savona, Italy in whose hands the blues have found a safe and loving home and who have just released their latest collection of songs "Cosmic Blues" (Small Stone Records).

The blues, in a rock context, just doesn't seem to work without a fiery guitarist left of stage throwing shapes and scorching the air with fret burning solos,licks and riffs and Black Elephant are no exception, only this band have two of them! On songs like "Cosmic Soul", "Walking Dead" and "Baby Eroina" this pairing of almost opposing guitar tones pays huge dividends with Caravelli and Giacosa not so much trading off or syncing their tones as weaving them in and around each other. Of course this would not be possible without a red hot rhythm section creating the grooves for them to decorate and in Brunzu and De Stefanis Black Elephant have a rhythm section able to switch from subtle and complimentary to full on and driving in a heartbeat, the bassist and drummer the glue holding everything together. As well as holding down guitar duties Caravelli also handles the vocals on five of "Cosmic Blues" seven songs ( "Chase Me" and the excellent "Cosmic Blues for Solitary Moose" both being instrumentals), his gruff, clean voice booms with raw power above the gritty stonerized delta grooves beneath them and although are far from what one would call traditional nevertheless bring an air of bluesy authenticity to everything they touch.

Black Elephant's "Cosmic Blues" is a stunningly superb album, delivered by a band totally at the top of their game and is one that reinvigorates a genre that has had some bad press of late. And so it's time we retracted those obituaries and refilled the grave hole with earth because the blues 'aint dead, or smelling funny, its alive and well and on holiday in Italy.
Check it out …..

© 2018 Frazer Jones

LàGOON ~ L'AFFAIRE DES POISONS ...review

Back in the day, when this writer still had a full head of hair and aches only lasted a day, duos only came in the form of acoustic folk artists and bluesmen, then along came The White Stripes with their electric guitar and drums combination and suddenly amplified electric duos were everywhere. Nowadays it is almost as common to find a two man,/two women,/mixed sex duo strutting their stuff  on the rock scene as it is the more traditional quartets and trio's. The underground doom/stoner scene, never a place to fall behind a trend, has had its fair share of duos in recent years with Iowa's Telekinetic Yeti and Seattle's Year of the Cobra leading the way, both bands creating huge walls of sound with minimum instrumentation.
One of the latest pairings to take up the duo torch and run with it are the Portland, Oregon twosome Anthony Gaglia (guitar/vocals) and Brady Maurer (drums) who have just released their second full release "L'affaire de Poisons" under the collective name of LàGoon.

For just two people LàGoon create a hell of a lot of noise, Gaglia's thick and sticky guitar refrains thrum and growl like an overloaded power cable on the verge of tearing apart while Maurer hits everything in sight with a ferocity that is almost primal. The bands sound falls somewhere between doomic low and slow and punkish aggression, the duo jamming grooves that although are heavy do not fall into the trap of being overly brutal and are balanced out by Gaglia's sneering and snotty vocals, the guitarists tones reminiscent of those found fronting many of NewYork's aspiring new wave /punk bands in the early to mid 70's. LàGoon demonstrate with "L'affaire des Poisons" that not only do they have the necessary musical chops to please the riff lovers and groove guru's out there but also that they have the songs into which they can insert those chops. Songs with titles like "Street Freaks", "Kill The Messenger" and "Distant Enemy" fizz and pop with a punkish energy yet are underscored with a dark doomic undercurrent that makes each song swing as much as it disturbs. Imagine, if you can the Stooges stripped down to a two piece jamming Kyuss songs and you might just get a grasp of what LàGoon are all about.

LàGoon's blustering fuzz drenched rock, with its doomic underbelly and garage rock attitude, is both highly enjoyable and strangely addictive and given that this is just two men with a guitar and a drum kit it is also deceptively and suprisingly loud and heavy.
Check 'em out …..

© 2018 Frazer Jones

#Vinyl format through Norwegian Blue Records is planned for release in October 2018