BONZAI ~ SEEDS TO ROOTS .... review

Formed in 2015 Thessaloniki, Greece natives Bonzai have shared stages with such noted bands as Planet of Zeus, Sasquatch and Kalamata turning many a head with their raucous take on heavy stonerized hard rock.. The band, Giannis Omp (guitars/vocals), Dmitri Parisis (guitars), Matthew Οmp (bass) and Nicko Ridi (drums) ,have just released their first album, "Seeds To Roots", and it's one well worth investigating.

The Greek rock scene, unlike its economic environment, has been growing in strength over the past few years with what seems like a new band popping up every other week. As with any scene, there are those bands that have that undefinable magical element that sets them apart from the pack and there are those that see a winning formula and try to imitate it, Bonzai are a band who fall into the former category. From the, straight out of the starting blocks, fuzz soaked desert riffage of "Hopeseeker" through the grunge like aesthetics of "Original Sin", the Floydian tinted instrumental "Sunshot" to the slow burning title track "Seeds To Roots" Bonzai do not waste anytime meandering about trying to be overly technical or complex, the band keeping things relatively simple and on point but with just the right levels of intensity, drive and lyrical content to keep things interesting. Scorching WAH pedal guitar solo's, heavily distorted riffs growling liquid bass lines and tight, solid percussion are the bedrock around which cool,clean vocals tell their tales in strong but not overly powerful tones. the musical components all coming together in one gloriously addictive raucous and rocking whole.

Although not as hardcore as Planet of Zeus or as post-rock as Tuber Bonzai nevertheless have carved themselves, with "Seeds To Roots", a comfortable niche within the Greek underground rock scene, a place where grungy psychedelics blend with swaggering bluesy hues and sandblasted desert textures to create one big melting pot of wonderfully colourful groove. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DESERT HYPE ~ SAMUFIRE .... review

Dr, Suess the man that brought us "The Cat In The Hat", "The Lorax" and "Green Eggs and Ham", was once quoted as saying "We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” Well it seems this may well have been the case when Italians Andrea Demurtas (bass/vocals), Mirko Deiana (guitar) and Daniele Moi (drums) came together to form Desert Hype, however that love was not so much for each other but for a mutual love of making off the wall grooves of a weird and quirky nature such as can be found on their debut album "Samufire"(Blacktooth Music).

There is no point in talking conventional regarding Desert Hype's approach to their art, pressing play on "Samufire" is like opening a portal into a world where everything is a little left of where it should be, a place where all rhythms are jerky and disjointed and everyone sings and talks in twitchy, spasmodic meters. It is this slightly wrong, slightly angular, but at the same time oh so right, approach that makes "Samufire" such an interesting, and for that matter exhilarating, listen, you just do not know what to expect from one minute to the next, every song from opener "Nightwalker" through to closer "Daycrawler" packed with unexpected twists and turns that have you checking the albums track listing to see if you are actually listening to the same song you thought you'd pushed play on. Desert Psychlist supposes if we were forced to compare Desert Hype's sound with that of another similar sounding band then it would have to be USA's Queens of the Stone Age but even Josh Homme would struggle to out-quirk these guys.

Italy, much like its European cousin Norway, is fast building a reputation for producing bands that do not quite conform to the norm but the levels of joyous, quirky weirdness Desert Hype lay before the altar with "Samufire" are off the scale even by Italian standards.

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

HEAVY CROSS OF FLOWERS ~ HEAVY CROSS OF FLOWERS ...... review

Portugual's Heavy Cross of Flowers describe their sonic output as "Heavy stoner played by good guys (and a girl)" and "A mix of a tasty Stoner Rock/Metal, Sludge and Doom" a statement hard to argue with when listening to their self-titled debut release "Heavy Cross of Flowers" The band, Beatriz Cruz (drums), Telmo Cruz (guitar/vocals), Paulo Ferreira (bass) and Mário Fonseca (guitar) have been in existence since 2016 and have been gaining converts ever since and are now, with their debut, hoping to reach a wider global audience

Now the albums stark, quite unsettling artwork may not seem the best choice for pulling in potential customers but when you delve into the grooves it contains beneath all thoughts of why and what the fuck are replaced by joyous fist pumps and breathless gasps of "Wow". From the moment the western themed guitar intro of, first track, "Social Dyslexia" is joined by the rest of the band in an explosion of crunching doomic desert groove the albums artwork soon becomes a secondary concern and you just find yourself glorying in the sheer force of the bands musical attack and in the diversity of that attack.. HCoF are not a band to sit on one riff and let it carry them through, this is a band unafraid to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the mix with the listener just as likely to hear elements of Kyuss/QOTSA like desert/stoner grooviness, ("In Memory Of"), as they are crushing stoner doom, ("Dead On Drugs"),, or hardcore punk rock, ("Get Your Shit Together"). The fact that they do this without losing a sense of their own signature sound is not only impressive its also mind blowing!

Wanting something psychedelic, doomic, hardcore, stonerized or acidic then look no further than "Heavy Cross of Flowers" an album that has it all, an album that's all things to all men (and women)
Check it out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

ISLA FORTUNA ~ VERITY ..... review

Cyprus may not be in the same league as Sweden, Poland and Greece in the European underground rock stakes but the tiny East Mediterranean island is nonetheless attempting to divert ears their way. The first band to raise awareness of Cyprus's small but burgeoning underground rock scene to a wider more international audience were Limassol psychonauts Arcadian Child, now following closely in their stead comes another lysergic laced combo, from Larnaca,  a trio going by the name Isla Fortuna who have just recently released their debut album "Verity"

Desert Psychlist supposes some would describe Isla Fortuna as a progressive band with stoner psych tendencies but then that would still not get a handle on their sound, they could just as well be called a stoner/psych band with progressive leanings. The truth is they are both these things and more, a band who can as easily take off on a complex and intricate tangent as they can hammer down a raucous riff or head off on a heavily lysergic jam. Isla Fortuna are that rarity in rock music a band that is as loose as it is tight and as tight as it is loose,  a band unafraid to experiment yet disciplined enough to keep things compact and focused when the groove calls for it. Those grooves are expertly driven by the drums  of Stefanos Eliopoulos, his solid yet fluid percussion shifts from intricate and precise to thunderous and pounding in an instant, the drummer combing with Nicolas Fournaris' big booming bass to lay the foundations upon which guitarist Lykourgos Xenophontos decorates with a mix of simple crunching riffage, complex chord progressions and swirling solos. Bassist Fournaris also supplies the vocals his voice, a unique blend of gothic indie and traditional doomic, adds an extra layer of left of field quirkiness to proceedings and takes the albums, already pretty high level impact, to another plane altogether.

Cyprus might not yet have stamped its mark on the underground rock map, in the same way as some of it's European cousins, but while there are Cypriot musicians of the calibre of Isla Fortuna who are making albums as mind blowingly good as "Verity" then it won't be too long before Cyprus becomes another go to destination for those looking for quality grooves.
Check 'em out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

THE LUNAR EFFECT ~ CALM BEFORE THE CALM ..... review

There has been a lot of debate lately regarding desert/stoner rock and its reliance on 70's hard and classic rock as a main influence with many complaining that its just recycling the same old riffs for a new generation.  Desert Psychlist's take on this is that if something rocks it rocks and it doesn't really matter if its roots are sucking up nutrients from the past or its sending out probes into the future, music is all about enjoyment, if your not enjoying something just turn the damn thing off.
Desert Psychlist guesses those complainers will have a field day with London ,UK quartet The Lunar Effect and their latest release "Calm Before The Calm" (Kozmik Artifactz) as the band, Josh Gosling (vocals), Jon Jefford (guitar), Brett Halsey (bass) and Dan Jefford (drums), make no bones about their 70's influences wearing them as a badge of honour for all to see, sprinkling their hard rock refrains and desert grooves with a little bluesy psychedelic faery dust and grungy/alt.rock aesthetics to give them added interest.

Things begin well for "Calm Before The Calm" with The Lunar Effect kicking things off with "Woman", a lysergic laced slow bluesy torch song that boasts a truly stunning vocal, the frontman's tones sitting somewhere between those of Rival Sons Jay Buchanan and The Parlor Mob's Mark Melicia, a powerful soulful bluesy holler with a touch of grungy swagger that sits perfectly atop the scintilating psychedelic blues grooves beneath it. Now beginning a review with the words "things begin well" might lead you to thinking events are now going to take a rapid downward curve, far from it, by the time you have travelled through the Wolfmother-ish "Stare At The Sun", marvelled at the Doors meets Zeppelin vibes of "Daughter of Mara" and "Deep Blue Sky" and finally arrived breathless at the alternative moody blues of title track "Calm Before The Calm" you soon come to the realisation that this is not only a band who can talk the talk, in regards to hard rock authenticity, they can walk the walk just as convincingly.

The Lunar Effect should not be dismissed as some sort of backward looking, retro chasing groovsters but as a band who, although wearing their classic/hard rock influences on their sleeves, are pushing blues orientated rock music into new and uncharted waters.
Check 'em out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

SEEDIUM ~ AWAKE ..... review

Relentlessness in musical terms can be seen as somewhat of a negative, however if handled correctly relentlessness can pay huge dividends but only if those relentless grooves are combined with swelling dynamics and subtle shifts in volume and tempo. Poland's Seedium, Regular John (guitar), Elvin Mazu (bass) and Paweł Zychowicz (drums), are a band who know how to use relentlessness to their advantage the trio filling their instrumental grooves with slow, low and dense refrains sprinkled with post-rock and psychedelic textures that hypnotise and mesmerise in equal measure and make their debut release "Awake" an exhilarating and very enthralling listen indeed.

Seedium dismiss the need for vocals in their music by saying "The lack of vocals has its purpose, as we think that words could bring unnecessary narration to the music. We want to encourage our listeners to create their own worlds and stories within" and it is hard to disagree with this statement as the three instrumentals that make up "Awake" create the perfect blank canvas for those with fertile imaginations to paint their own visual and lyrical interpretations upon. Recorded live in the studio so as to capture a truly organic feel "Awake" is a massive tome, not just in it's twenty seven plus minute duration but also in its depth and density, yes there are moments when the band sit a little too long on one groove but those moments are cleverly counterbalanced by the bands use of subtle shifting dynamics and the addition of those post-rock and psychedelic textures, mentioned in this reviews intro, that weave they way in and around the bands massive refrains and give proceedings a heavy lysergic dimension.

Atmospheric, serene and at times brutal "Awake" is a release that defies categorisation but then again how can you categorise something that doesn't fit into any of our convenient boxes.
Check it out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

INNER ALTAR ~ VOL.III ... review

Describing what Missouri's Inner Altar are about musically is not an easy ask, ok they are most definitely a band whose groove is of the doomic variety but calling them just a doom band would be  somewhat of a disservice as there is so much more going on here. If trying to fathom out a description for their sonic output is not made difficult enough for the humble reviewer the band muddy the waters further by opting for exotic pseudonyms rather than their actual birth names. So here is an album called "Vol. III" that is slightly genre confused and is brought to you by Lord Rewcifer, Long Feather, Tunks, Seasnake and Strong Smoke....enjoy!

"Prelude", a serene and tranquil acoustic lullaby with baroque/medieval leanings, opens "Vol. III", it is brief yet beautiful but really doesn't really tell you much about the grooves that are about to explode out of your speakers for the duration of this albums next eight tracks. So what is it that Inner Altar bring to the altar that is radically different from what other bands are doing in the doom scene? Well the answer is that Inner Altar's musical outpourings owe as much to the traditional doom of the 80's as they do the post-punk, gothic rock of the same period, the band treading a wafer thin line between the epic doom of Candlemass and the dark art-school meanderings of the UK's Bauhaus. There has always been a tenuous link between "goth" and its heavier cousin "traditional doom", both explore the darker sonic edges of the musical spectrum and both toy with baroque themes and dark romanticism for their inspiration. Inner Altar  explore that link with "Vol. III" borrowing, on songs with titles like "Undine's Kiss" and "Mother Eternity", a little from one to mix with the other and creating a groove that embodies the dankness and depth of doom as much as it does the cold, stark darkness of goth, the band blending the two dynamics to create a sound that is wholly original and totally their own yet at the same time still vaguely familiar.

Inner Altar have ,with "Vol, III", taken traditional doom into territories it may not have previously visited, this is not a bad thing, genre's need to be challenged so as to evolve and Inner Altar are a band evolving at an alarming rate.
Check 'em out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones