IRON CROWN ~ BEFORE THE VOID ..... review

California, once the playground of many of the sixties and seventies beautiful people, is not a place you would regularly associate with "doom" but nevertheless it does exist there, sheltering in dark recesses beneath the sun streaked skies and occasionally popping its head out to say hi and scare the beejeeus out of the old hippies roaming around still balancing their chakras and looking for enlightenment. One such band to play their doomic grooves under the warm Californian sun are San Francisco trio Iron Crown, Dave Brunicardi (guitar/vocals), Don Braun (drums) and Didier Hahn (bass), a band influenced by the likes Sabbath, High On Fire and Blue Oyster Cult et al. but not beholden to them the trio having their own unique take on doom, something that will become evident as soon as you wrap your ears around their debut release "Before The Void".

Iron Crown's approach to doom is a little different from that of many of their contemporaries in that they come at the whole doom thing from a completely different angle, this is not to say that all the usual doomic nuances and textures are missing (they are not) just that these guys, in Desert Psychlist's humble opinion, bring something a little less abrasive and menacing to the table. It's hard to nail, in words, exactly why Iron Crown's sound is so at odds with what others are doing within the doom genre, especially as songs like "Watcher of the Realm", "Dune Rider", "The Outsider" and "Straight On Till Morning" are chock-a-block full of heavily fuzzed low slung doomic refrains and pounding rhythms. Maybe its Brunicardi's vocals that are the difference, his clean tones have an alt-rock/indie-ish tint to them while his harsh tones are more a deep rumble than a demonic growl, maybe its Braun and Hahn's rhythmic grooves that tip the balance, the pair laying down an enthralling mixture of chugging old school heavy metal and throbbing proto-ic groove for Bruncardi to decorate with his crunching chords and dark swirling solo's, or could it be the brevity of their grooves, short sharp jabs of tempered doom with only one song going over the five minute mark.

 We honestly can't put our finger on what sets "Before The Void "apart from other albums in this genre, but what we can say is that whatever it is it works, and works well.
Check it out …..

© 219 Frazer Jones

OLD HORN TOOTH ~ FROM THE GHOST GREY DEPTHS .....review

Along with all the usual instrumentation London trio Old Horn Tooth also mention that each member brings something a little extra to the party, guitarist/vocalist Chris Jones along with supplying crunching low slung riffage, screaming solo's and strong clean vocal tones also dabbles in a little "hypnosis", bassist Ollie Issac, not content with laying down deep, heavily distorted low end, also brings "vibration" and "filth" to the table while drummer Mark Davidson adds "attitude" to his pummelling array of percussive skills while at the same time apparently carrying his troubles around with him in something called a "greifcase".
Confused? Well things may become a little clearer when you delve into the bands debut release "From The Ghost Grey Depths".

As first track "She Is Risen" washes in on a wave of white noise and droning effects, interrupted only by a thundering bass drum beat, you begin to get an inkling of where that "hypnosis" element of the bands sound is derived from, by the time the thrumming low bass and heavily distorted guitar kick in and we are treated to the songs incessant wall of deep, dank riffage pushed by a mix of restrained and thunderous percussion  that inkling has become a certainty. Jones adds to the songs slumberous and mesmeric quality with a vocal that is powerful and clean and has just the right amount of highs and lows in its dynamic to stop it slipping into the realms of monotonic. "Follow the Demon" brings the "filth" and "vibration" elements to the table courtesy of Issac's low, bone crumbling bass which, when combined with Jones' mix of  crushing dark powerchords and Davidson's pummelling and thunderous percussion, creates a groove that could persuade even the most timid amongst us to join the aforementioned demon's parade. "Old Horn Tooth" follows ,a song that the band share their name with and the one that best demonstrates their Anglo-Saxon take on stonerized doom. Huge relentless and dank the song begins with a monolithic bass and guitar refrain, enhanced by monotonic vocal tones and is driven into the ground by immense display of piledriving percussion, the band sitting on this groove for most of the songs duration until, when in the songs final third, they shift into proto-doomic mode to take things to a close. You have not mentioned the "greifcase" we hear you cry, well that comes in the shape of what can only be described as an experiment in mood and sound, an appropriately entitled piece called "Greif" that is a weirdly compelling smorgasbord of drones, sound effects and random percussion. "Greif" it is not exactly what you might be expecting to close an EP that up until now has been a full on doomic assault on the senses but it does have a strange charm and goes to show that there is more to this band than which first hits the ear.

For a long while Britain was lagging behind the USA and the rest of Europe in the underground rock music stakes but over the last four or five years Desert Psychlist has noticed more and more bands hitting a groove of a more stonerized doomic nature, let's hope that trend continues and we see more bands of Old Horn Tooth's quality emerging in the near future
Check 'em out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

SPACE GOD RITUAL ~ THE UNKNOWN WANTS YOU DEAD ..... review

In doomic circles it is generally accepted that when it comes to capturing, in music, the vibe of those old horror B movies and tv shows like "The Twilight Zone" we all grew up watching then it is the Italians who are the masters. One band who might disagree with that statement however is Portland, Oregon's Space God Ritual, three crazy dudes who have built their career around transposing Lovecraftian themes into heavy musical soundtracks. The band, The Owl, Yohan Sebastian Glamour and Alexander Olaff (we did say crazy dudes), return this year with more tales of space and magic, horror and terror with a new opus entitled "The Unknown Wants You Dead"

We spoke earlier of horror movies and TV shows and Space God Ritual's latest opus begins with "Miskatonic 1927" an introduction piece that the legendary master of ceremonies Rod Serling, who used to present the excellent late night horror show "The Night Gallery" would have been proud of, an introduction that invites us, in convincing clipped British tones, "to take an Eldritch ride through horrors dark and obscene" against a backdrop of heavily orchestrated eeriness. Introductions over we then move straight into title track "The Unknown Wants You Dead" and here we find Space God Ritual hitting their stride with a song that although jamming a groove that is proto-doomic in nature possesses an almost vaudeville/British music hall feel with its villainous laughter, whispered undertones and operatic harmonies a theme that runs right through all eleven of the albums songs. Whether Space God Ritual approached this album with the intention of creating a doom version of a Victorian penny dreadful (cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century) is unknown but that is exactly what they have created with this album, eleven songs, stories, vignettes that almost impel the listener to boo and hiss as each character makes their appearance, you can almost see moustaches being villainously twirled and capes being furled and unfurled as the band tell their lurid tales of the macabre beneath swathes of cleverly arranged heavy traditional and proto-ic doom.

Desert Psychlist does not expect everyone to buy into what Space God Ritual are striving to achieve with "The Unknown Wants You Dead", there is a Britishness to what these Americans are doing here that might not sit comfortably with those not familiar with the history of Victorian music hall, but for those of you who do get Space God Ritual's take on vaudevillian story telling you are in for a rare and quite unique treat.

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

STONEFIELD ~ BENT ..... review

Bands containing siblings tend to have a hard time of it, not only do they have to deal with all the usual issues of ego's, personality clashes and the like but they also have to contend with rivalries that may have begun as far back as the nursery. The Kinks, The Black Crowes, Oasis and Kings of Leon have all, to some degree, suffered from the effects of sibling rivalry with those effects resulting in at least three of those bands calling it a day and going their separate ways at some point. Imagine then that all your band are related by birth and having to tour thousands of miles from your native home and then forced to share buses and hotels, those sibling pressures must become tenfold!
Australia's Stonefield are a band made up of four sisters, Amy Findlay (lead vocals/drums), Hannah Findlay (guitar/backing vocals), Sarah Findlay (keys/backing vocals) and Holly Findlay (bass/backing vocals), Desert Psychlist doesn't know what coping methods the band use to combat their inevitable rivalries (all families suffer them not just musical ones) but what ever those methods are they must be working as since their inception the band have released three well received albums, supported Fleetwood Mac on a world tour and even graced the John Peel Stage at the iconic Glastonbury Festival.
Stonefield have just recently released their fourth album "Bent" (Flightless Records).

"Bent" was recorded over a five day period in a Melbourne studio, recorded almost 100% live with the help of fellow Aussies Joe Walker and Stu Mackenzie from King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The band wrote most of the material while trekking around the USA on tour and the songs have an introspective feel, something that is borne out by drummer/vocalist Amy Findlay's statement that "Bent" "is a culmination of experiences, emotions, and stories collected over time", "a growth of honest, raw, energy that has been burning within us and waiting for its moment" All well and good you might say but what does all this inward looking amount to soundwise? Well the answer to that question is that Stonefield have, with "Bent", made their best album to date. From the opening salvo of grainy riffage that announces "Sleep" to the abrupt full stop that concludes final track "Woman" listeners are faced with an album that delivers on every level, an album that soothes and placates as much as it growls and antagonises. Amy Findlay's smooth vocal tones, backed by her sisters cool clean harmonies, waft waif-like over grooves that have an almost prog-like undercurrent thanks to Sarah Findlay's excellent keyboard flourishes and Hannah Findlay's mix of heavy and intricate guitar textures, Sarah and Hannah's wilder musical excursions only just kept in check by sister Holly's thundering on point bass lines and vocalist Amy's powerfully solid percussion. It would be hard to box Stonefield's sound in a neat little box  as there are elements to be found on "Bent" that, it could be argued, lean towards shoegaze-ish and indie and others where they sound like a hard stoner rock band with prog-ish tendencies, it is this diversity that is probably the bands biggest asset and why they are garnering such high levels of respect from both the critics and the record buying/listening public alike.

They say that the family that plays together, stays together, let's hope that is the case with Stonefield, losing a band this good, this vital because of some petty sibling quarrel would be a travesty, stay strong and stay true to each other sisters, we need you and we need your beautiful music.

Check 'em out

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DENDRITES ~ GROW ..... review

Greece, the country that never stops giving, has just delivered yet another band for us to slaver and drool over, the band in question goes by the name of Dendrites and deal in a heady mix of southern swagger and good old balls to the floor hard/stoner rock. The band, Thanasis Timplalexis (vocals, guitar), Giorgos Alexiou (guitar ), Alekos Papathanasiou (bass) and Dimitris Amvrazis (drums),have shared stages with the likes of Planet of Zeus, 1000 Mods and Nightstalker and have just released their first full length album "Grow"

Beginning your debut album with a song entitled "Get The Fuck" is going to get peoples attention but Dendrites are not the sort of band to court controversy just for the sake of novelty, this is a song that is making a statement and that statement is this is what we do if you don't like it then "get the fuck out of my way" "Get The Fuck" also namechecks a certain Mr. Dimebag Darrell in its lyrics which is quite apt considering Dendrites plough a similar southern metal furrow to that of the late guitarists band Pantera. Greece seems to have embraced the whole "southern metal" thing tighter and harder than any other country outside of the sub genres USA home base and Dendrites are no exception, there is an authenticity to the bands metallic rebel yell that if you didn't know better could have you believing you are listening to a band birthed from the swamps of Alabama or New Orleans rather than from Vólos, Greece. Southern rock/metal needs to have a certain amount of swagger to its grooves and there is plenty of swagger to be found on "Grow" as well as a fair share of bluster and crunch., Timplalexis and Alexiou's two guitar assault combining with the enormous grooves, provided by Amvrazis' drums and Papathanasiou's bass to build the perfect hook for Timplalexis to hang his gritty clean vocals on. The band also know a thing or two about how best to pace an album, balancing their more raucous attack on songs like "Throwing Rocks" and "River" with a more considered, but no less heavy, approach on songs like "Dreamhouse Pts 1 & 2" and "Snake Oil Merchant" with the latter possessing an almost grungy dynamic.

If you want to hear an album of authentic sounding swaggering southern tinted metal that wasn't birthed from below the Mason-Dixon Line and doesn't sound contrived or fake then you can't go far wrong than wrapping your ears around Dendrites debut album "Grow", if you don't then.... GET THE FUCK OUT OF THEIR WAY!

Check it out …. 

©2019 Frazer Jones

DEVIL FLOWER MANTIS ~ DEVIL FLOWER MANTIS ..... review

Socrates once said "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think". Here at Desert Psychlist we have adopted a similar mantra.... "We cannot make you listen to anything, we can just point you in the right direction and hope you do". Today we are pointing you towards, Socrates homeland, Greece and an Athenian collective going by the name of Devil Flower Mantis, a quintet consisting of Nikolas Kalogirou (vocals), Dimitris Karakatsanis (drums),Verbal Kid (bass), Nikos Zairis (guitar) and Vaggelis Keramidas (guitar) who have just released their self titled debut EP "Devil Flower Mantis".

Raunch and groove are two things that define the sound of the Greek underground rock scene and Devil Flower Mantis have both commodities in abundance, as well as more than a fair amount of lysergic texturing and metallic bluster. First track "Beyond Borders" demonstrates these qualities perfectly, its crunching guitars, growling bass and punchy solid percussion are offset by the songs occasional forays into eastern tinted territories the quintet utilising subtle middle eastern themes and Arabian scales to take things to the next level. Add to this heady mix of swagger and mysticism clean, clear vocals that tell sci-fi inspired tales of "beams that rush inside my blood like streams" and having "stardust in my core " and you might understand why we at Desert Psychlist are so keen on you checking out what these guys do. One track does not make an EP however and so its good to know that the following tracks in no way drop beneath the high level set by their predecessor. "The Voidwalker" has a heavy prog-metallish vibe and tells a tale of a "half human, half android" forced to explore "solar storms and black holes" while "Back On The Hunt" hits a more heavy stoner groove with thunderous drums and growling bass the foundation on which raucous riffs and screaming solo's are traded, the vocalist telling us amid this musical mayhem that there is "NO TIME FOR GAMES". "Devil Flower Mantis" closes with "Black Fever" a raunch drenched opus decorated in grainy clean vocals that revisits the eastern themes and motifs touched on in the EP's opening track, this time however the band using those motifs and themes to drive and inform the songs groove rather than just decorate it.

"Devil Flower Mantis" is exactly what you would expect from a band plying its trade within the Greek underground rock scene, a delightfully addictive EP chock-a-block full of raucous refrains, groovalicious rhythms and ear catching melodies, an EP full of songs that manage to hit the inner ears sweet spot with unerring accuracy time after time. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

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