THE RED WIDOWS ~ FUZZIFIXION ..... review

Desert Psychlist has seen a lot of vlogs, videos and social media posts lately, from some of the leading lights in the underground industry, telling aspiring bands how to best promote their wares to potential labels and publications but not many have mentioned artwork. If an artist/band wants to really get their grooves noticed, among the many albums and EP's that are constantly being released, then artwork is an essential tool in promoting those grooves. Now there are usually two ways to go about how to use artwork, you can go the aesthetic route whereby you choose something stunning and beautiful to the eye or you can choose to go the shock route and use something that will grab a browsers attention due to its controversial nature. There are of course degrees to be found in both approaches, you don't want to alienate your potential fanbase by using something so sickly twee that it makes them want to vomit neither do you want to portray something so gross that it freaks them out or causes offence, a balance needs to be found. London trio The Red Widows have achieved that balance with the artwork for their latest release "Fuzzifixion" (Cover artwork by David Johnson from Obscure Media), a slightly overexposed photo of a female model (Valerie Wierzbicki), dressed in blood soaked white robes, posing in a Christ like stance, a photo that catches the eye due to its ambiguous religious iconography but also, when combined with the albums title, gives the casual browser a fair idea of what to expect beneath the imagery, and what is beneath that imagery makes all the work put into that cover totally justified.

Alex Corvino (vocals/bass), Rev. MojoFuzz (guitars/backing vocals) are The Red Widows a London based collective who first came to Desert Psychlist's attention with their debut EP "Rising" a stunning three song EP that highlighted a band with one foot in the proto-metal camp and the other sinking into the dark mire of doom. Since the release of their debut EP The Red Widows have parted ways with their original drummer, the mysteriously named John Doe, and so for "Fuzzifixion" recruited sound engineer Marco Alejandro Papiz in for drumming duties. Whether due to the change in line up or because of some other unknown factor "Fuzzifixion" marks a huge evolution in both The Red Widows overall sound and direction. The first thing that comes to the listeners notice, as first track "Pendulum" assails the ear canals, is the different approach Corvino uses in her vocals, where the bassist/vocalist utilised an almost classic rock tone on "Rising" here we find her employing an almost monastic vocal style, still as powerful and dynamic as on the bands previous work but this time around there is a spiritual/religious feel to to her tones, especially when harmonised with the Rev.Mojofuzz's backing vocals. The good Reverend also has made some significant changes to his sound, his guitar tones on "Fuzzifixion" sound thicker, darker and more distorted especially on the excellent brooding "Lucifer's Maiden" where his guitar combines with Corvino's growling deep bass to create a sound that is more a rumble than a riff. Papiz may only be filling in a vacant seat at the moment but if Corvino and the Rev. have any sense they should sign him up as a full time member pretty sharpish as his contribution to "Fuzzifixion" is immense, solid tight and economical he drives each song with a powerhouse display of percussion that at times defies belief . "There Is No God", "Cursed Forever" and "His Name Is Death" proceed the two songs already mentioned and follow much the same blueprint, dark, dank low slung riffage and hazy dark guitar solos driven by pummelling percussion all decorated with those superbly executed vocal tones, a tsunami of dank heaviness and dark spiritual groove that come at you wave after glorious wave.

The Red Widows have with "Fuzzifixion" dropped the proto aspects of their "Rising" EP and embraced their doom side full on. Imagine if you can the sound of a High Priestess of some ancient religious order chanting majestically above the sound of two tectonic plates grinding against each other deep beneath the Earth's surface and you might, just might get a handle on what the Red Widows are all about.

Check 'em out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

* Vinyl soon to be available on  DHU Records

TOOTHLESS CAGE ~ MARS ..... review

Portugal's Toothless Cage are asking you to take a once in a lifetime trip, a trip that will take you from the lapping blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea to the dusty red and lifeless bowl of the Del La Rue Ocean, in other words the Pombal trio are taking us to "Mars"

"The grass is always greener on the other side" is an old adage used to counteract those times when your situation looks on the bleak side and you start wondering if another location may serve you better. Portugal's Toothless Cage however have looked a little further than over the crest of the hill and have set their sights on a place with not even a vestige of grass and is in fact quite red. The band tell us, in the lyrics of the EP's opening title track, of their stress at "living in conspiracies, that makes us feel alive", and address this dilemma by telling us they are "going to Mars", the band delivering these lyrics in clear. clean vocal tones atop grooves of molten hard rock spliced with a healthy dose of warm grainy guitar fuzz that is driven by throbbing  deep bass and tight, solid percussion.. "Breathing" follows and here we find the band hitting a groove that mixes old school desert rock with that of a more proto-metal flavour, the band throwing a cheeky little snippet of Sabbath's riff for "Children of the Grave" in to the mix to keep things interesting. "River of God's" stays in proto territory but drops the metal for a more doomic dynamic while "END" goes for a more atmospheric grungy  approach and tells of  a world  with "Buffalos grazing on the street, Mirrors broken everywhere". "Oneironaut" closes out the EP with a huge sounding tome that pulls together all the different aspects of Toothless Cage's sound into one massive throbbing groove that is  made even bigger sounding by it clever use of dynamics and pace.

So if your life feels a little frantic and out of control and that grass on the other side of that hill looks just a tad like the grass your already standing on... then why not hop aboard the good ship Toothless Cage and give "Mars" a spin, the air may not be breathable, the weather might be a touch on the extreme side but maaaaaan the grooves are KICKING!
Check 'em out ……

© 2019 Frazer Jones

FREE RIDE ~ FREE RIDE ..... review

Have you been looking for something that will rekindle those memories of the 90's when every other week there was a party in the desert, a time before terms like stoner rock and desert rock were coined and the music being played was an untagged hybrid of punk and hard rock with a little psychedelic colouring thrown in for good measure? Well look no further for those memories will come flooding back in waves when you hear the self titled debut album from Spanish trio Free Ride.

Carlos Bedmar (drums), Victor Bedmar (bass) and Borja Fresno (guitar/vocals) are Free Ride a band who like their heroes took their grooves out into the wilderness to reach their audience the only difference being their wilderness was not an American desert but a plateau situated on the outskirts of their home city Madrid. Free Ride's sound owes a huge debt to those early generator driven American desert grooves especially those of L.A's Fu Manchu and Nebula, Free Ride taking the punky stoner rock of the former and blending it with the more spacier psychedelic forays of the latter. OK Free Ride are not reinventing the wheel with their debut release but with songs like the lysergic laced "Sativa" and the street smart "Libido Rising" who would want them to. The band do step outside of their punky desert rock comfort zone on occasions first with the excellent "Crazy Woman", a song that sees them tripping through bluesy pastures (and when we say tripping we do mean tripping), secondly with "Caravan", a hazy semi acoustic outing with low key hushed vocals and then finally with "Opium" a lysergic instrumental foray that touches on doom, heavy stoner and even a little psychedelic funk on its travels.

If your looking for music that pushes the boundaries and dips its toes into more experimental areas then "Free Ride" maybe not the album your looking for, however if your looking for grooves that take you back to the desert scenes formative years and does so without sounding contrived then this is your lucky day.
Check it out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DEAD SACRAMENTS ~ CELESTIAL THRONE ..... review

We, the unwashed, bleary eyed writers of blogs and reviews who are often found semi-slumped over our keyboards trying to find a new word for the sound of drums, often use the term "huge" when we are describing music, but what does that word really mean when applied to a groove, a riff or a sound?  At Desert Psychlist we tend to use "huge" not as a description of a certain piece of music's volume or the duration of it's length but more in the context of its intensity and depth in which case Dead Sacraments "Celestial Throne" is not just "huge" it's absolutely humongous!

Dead Sacraments preface their grooves with the legend "Riffs + Dungeon Crawling", Desert Psychlist is not 100% sure what the "dungeon crawling" part actually alludes to but we are more than certain where they are coming from with the "riffs" part of that statement. "Celestial Throne" is an album with riffs to spare, the band utilising thick low slung guitar refrains, twinned with deep reverberating growling bass lines pushed by powerful thundering percussion to create a sound that is intense, dank and somewhat claustrophobic (that "dungeon crawling" is starting to make sense now). Not content with creating grooves that have a cloying, subterranean atmospheric the band then ramp up the denseness of their grooves by coating those same grooves with clean monotonic vocal harmonies that have an almost monastic/Gregorian feel and  tell of "bloodstained rites in profaned glades" ("Void Summoning") and "labs and dungeons: flooded, drowned in the blood of our dead " ("Cracking The Celestial Throne"). Lyrically and musically "Celestial Throne" is no stroll beneath sun streaked blue skies yet having said that there are times when the light penetrates through the gloom and pierces the dismal darkness with rare glimpses of sunshine, these glimpses of brightness present themselves in the albums soaring guitar solo's that swoop and swirl above the morose and monolithic refrains beneath them and in doing so take things to an altogether higher plane of aural enjoyment.

Dense, dark and utterly intense "Celestial Throne" is not an album that's going to lift your spirits and put you in the mood for dancing, it is however an album of songs that sonically mirrors that conflict of light and shade that lies somewhere deep inside each and every one of us.
Check it out. …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DOOMSTRESS ~ SLEEP AMONG THE DEAD ....review

Desert Psychlist first came across the band Doomstress via bassist and vocalist Alexis Hollada's (aka Doomstress Alexis) other musical outlet Project Armageddon, a dark doomy outfit with a penchant for salting their doom with elements of old school metal. Not long after hearing Project Armageddon's excellent  album "Cosmic Oblivion" Hollada contacted us at Stonerking Towers asking if we would be interested in reviewing a release from her other band Doomstress entitled "Supernatural Kvlt Sounds: The Second Rite", of course we jumped at the chance and found, to our surprise, a band coming from the opposite direction to Project Armageddon …. an old school heavy metal band salting their grooves with elements of doom. A lot has happened since that release with Hollada filling in on bass duties with proto legends Josefus as well as Doomstress getting signed by the prestigious Ripple Music label, the label on which the band have just released their latest opus "Sleep Among The Dead".

Bassist/vocalist Hollada is joined, in Doomstress, by Tomasz Scull (drums), Matt Taylor (guitar) and Brandon Johnson (guitar) the four musicians creating a sound that references elements from the full gamut of classic metal but then sprinkles those elements with fine dusting of doomic faery dust and occult rock nuance. Desert Psychlist described Hollada's vocals on Project Armageddon's "Cosmic Oblivion" as coming across as a little unique and quirky however on "Sleep Among The Dead" her vocals are strong, clean and in places possess an almost ethereal quality, now whether this is because "the Doomstress" has been visiting a vocal coach or it's that she now has more confidence in her vocal abilities ,Desert Psychlist doesn't know, but her vocals, throughout the albums seven tracks, are nothing short of superb. "Sleep Among The Dead" is that rarest of animals.. a complete album, from "Bitter Plea" through to title track "Sleep Among The Dead" there is not a weak track to be found, but if the push came to the shove and we were forced to pick a favourite then it would have to be "Dreaming Spider", it's achingly beautiful extended intro suddenly exploding into a throbbing proto-doomic groove with Hollada telling us, in melodic tones, of "collecting dew reflecting strings of jewels", the songs crunching main riff offset by shards of subtle guitar colouring beneath which the bass and drums keep things solid, tight and on point.

We denizens of the underground rock scene tend to balk of the thought of our heroes taking that next step up to wider audience acceptance but if there ever was a band that could take that step, and deserved to take that step, then our money would be on Doomstress and "Sleep Among The Dead" may just be the album to make that happen.
Check it out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

STONERROR ~ WIDOW IN BLACK .... review

Poland is a country with a strong reputation for producing bands that lean towards the darker end of the underground rock spectrum however the Eastern European country, that has given us monstrous grooves from the likes of Dopelord, Sunnata and Weird Tales, is not unknown for occasionally turning out bands of a more considered but no less intense nature. One such band is Stonerror, a four piece from Krakow, who have just released their second full length album "Widow In Black"

Stonerror. Jarosław Daniel (guitar), Jacek Malczewski (bass, vocals), Łukasz Mazur (guitar, lead vocals) and Maciej Ołownia (drums), call what they do " sexy psychedelic stonerpunk" which roughly translates to a sort of mish mash of QOTSA/Kyuss type desert quirkiness and 1000 Mods styled psychedelic grooviness that is balanced out by strong melodies and that thing the old jazzers used to call "swing". Stonerror's grooves are accessible and easy on the ear, a statement that may have you reaching for the off button expecting some sort of mainstream rock extravaganza but "Widow In Black" is far from being a radio friendly album, there is enough crunch,swirl and bite in these nine tracks to placate even the most hardened of stoners, doomers and psychonauts. "Fuzz drenched" is an often overused cliché when reviewing music of a stoner/desert bias but it is one hard to avoid when discussing Stonerror's musical attack as the grainy shades and warm tones these guys get out of their various pedals, both bass and guitars, is at times breathtaking and astounding especially when combined with the albums clean, clear vocal melodies and astonishingly insistent and effective percussion. From crunching opening track "Ships On Fire" right through to the mellow indie flavoured closer "Revelation" Stonerror make up for what they might lack in brutality with lashings of raucous addictive groove and an ear for a good melody.

Whether you buy into Stonerror's description of what they do, on "Widow In Black", as "stonerpunk" or whether you just think that what they are doing  is nothing more than a raunchier. punkier take on stoner/desert rock it is nonetheless hard to deny (or resist) the quality of the grooves they have on offer.

Check 'em out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

VALLEY OF THE SUN ~ OLD GODS ..... review

We have all seen those statements on the rock orientated pages of "All Hail The Riff", "Praise The Riff" and the one we use on these very pages "Oh The Power Of The Riff", so what is it about the riff/refrain ,basically a repeated notes or chords strung together, that can be the difference between something meh or awesome? The best answer Desert Psychlist could find comes not from a hardened rock'n'roller but from country musician Dwight Yoakam who says "To me, the hook of the riff is what makes a great guitar recording. It's the backbone of the whole song. When you have a strong riff, it's the rocket fuel for the track."

Cincinnati's Valley of the Sun must be, given Yoakam's description, splitting their time between playing music and working part time for NASA as their latest album "Old Gods" (Fuzzorama Records) has enough of that riff related rocket fuel to circumnavigate not only the Earth but the whole damn Solar System!

Ok we have already established that Valley of the Sun have the riffs but a band needs more than a few chunky refrains if its going to make its mark in a world where chunky refrains can almost be plucked from the air. Thankfully there is more to Valley of the Sun than just the gravity of their riffage, these guys have real songs with clever structures, strong melodies and an undeniable level of groove.

Title track "Old Gods" begins with an ambient guitar motif accompanied by a pounding drum beat that slowly builds in volume and power until the rest of the band come in and the track explodes into a monstrous growling groove driven by drummer Aaron Boyer's solid incessant percussion and Chris Sweeney's growling bass lines the pair laying down a humongous strutting groove that is then taken to an altogether other level by Ryan Ferrier's and Josh Pilot's thick, dense guitar tones. Ferrier also supplies Valley of the Sun's vocals and he is a vocalist of rare quality, his mix of dulcet grunginess and rock god roar bringing an almost classic rock feel to the song. Although blessed with a deliciously heavy groove the title track does not define what the rest of the album sounds like and what resonates most while listening to "Old Gods" is its diversity, Valley of the Sun are not a band content to live off the power of their riffs no matter how thick and addictive those riffs are, they have many more irons in their fire than that.  Among those songs that are driven by crunching guitars and thrumming rhythms, such as  "Firewalker", "Dim Vision" and "Means The Same", are scattered  three brief instrumental gems, "Gaia Creates", "Shiva Destroys" and "Buddha Transcends", three tunes that have an eastern devotional feel and are the perfect foil for VotS's more hard rocking and abrasive elements. Along with these forays into more experimental and lysergic areas the band also dangle their feet into other rock styles and grooves, throwing in some desert flavoured swagger into the Fu Manchu(ish) "All We Are" and getting down and grungy with the excellent "Dreams of Sand" a song that closes "Old Gods" in a wave of Seattle flavoured groove that finds the band mixing Nirvana like quiet/loud/quiet dynamics with the blustering attack of their fellow grunge/alt.rock acolytes Soundgarden. 

Valley of the Sun have taken a huge gamble with "Old Gods", the band could have easily made another "The Sayings of the Sage" and it would of still turned heads and had jaws gaping, but they didn't and their brave gamble of expanding their sound into other sonic areas has paid off in spades.

Check it out ….. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones