ACID FUZZ FACTORY ~ THE SHADOW ....review

Do you ever get those days when soaring solos, vocal pyrotechnics and undulating melodies are just not what you are wanting to hear, days when your whole being is calling out for something a little  more brutal and relentless, something that is not overtly feral and sits just on the right side of extreme?
Well if that description fits your current mood Desert Psychlist has something to meet your needs, that something is an enthralling mix of low, slow stoner doomic dankness and sinister swampy sludginess flying under the title of "The Shadow" (CLOU) by a band of sonic architects, from Bar-Le-Duc, Northern France, calling themselves Acid Fuzz Factory.

It would be foolish not to point out the similarities between the relentless dank riffage and pummeling percussion Acid Fuzz Factory use to decorate their debut album "The Shadow" to those employed by their more well known contemporaries Monolord and Electric Wizard, however there is an undefinable something about AFF's approach that sets them apart. Maybe it is the rawness of tone that Théo Guillaume (vocals/bass), Alex Meurville (guitar) and Étienne Socha (drums) bring to songs like "Mecurian Smoke","Black Eclipse Cult" and "Druid" that gives them an edge or maybe it is that Guillaume's vocals are a little more accessible and easier on the ear, despite their raw throaty execution, it's hard to say. What can be said however is that despite the utter relentlessness of its riffage and the unapologetic nature of its plodding rhythms there are little flashes of dazzling brilliance to be found among the five tracks of "The Shadow" that every now and then lift the music out of its mire of mundane darkness into the realms of sunlight, those moments, it has to be said, are rare but when they do appear they take your breath away.

Intense, repetitive, uncompromising and darkly brilliant "The Shadow" is not an album for the faint of heart but neither is it one for the extremophiles of the death/black metal brigade, it is what it is and what it is is an unrelenting wave of hypnotic stoner doom with occasional glimpses of sunlight at its furthest reaches..

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

CRAZY BONES ~ SLIME FLUX ...... review

Someone asked Desert Psychlist recently what the difference was between "psychedelic rock" and that which we call "heavy psych", the best we could come up with was that whereas "psychedelic rock" may conjure up musical visions of tranquil multi-coloured landscapes under day-glo skies "heavy psych" will conjure up those same images but with skies a little darker and broken up by spectacular flashes of lightening accompanied by the low rumbling sound of thunder

Canada's Crazy Bones, a Toronto based heavy psych trio consisting of Cam Alford (bass/vocals), Peter Turik (guitar/vocals) and Simon Kou (drums) , do not only bring that lightning and thunder to the table, with their heavy lysergic grooves, they also throw into the mix a little swampy sludginess and spacey cosmic stardust, something that makes their latest EP "Slime Flux" not only an interesting listen but also a mesmerising one

Crazy Bones get the "Slime Flux" ball rolling with "Fruiting Bodies" a song that opens with a fat booming bass line accompanied by shimmering percussion around which a kaleidoscope of lysergic guitar colouring swells an pulsates. The rhythm section then steps it up a notch and clean indie-ish, slightly sneered, vocals enter the fray chanting mantra- like harmonies over a backdrop of swirling swooping guitar solos' and thundering, ever shifting rhythmic groove. "Ring Worm" follows and finds the band mixing their lysergic experimentations with elements of good old fashioned low slow doom and heavy swampy sludge. The band bring proceedings to a close with "Laughing", a song that begins like something from a slightly off kilter 50's teen movie then increases in both dynamics and volume until exploding into a spacey strident groove fest decorated in a heady mix of bluesy psychedelic guitar licks and speed of light shredding.

Weirdly wonderful and wonderfully weird "Slime Flux" is one of those releases that is slightly off-center, slightly skewered a tad twisted but that is its beauty, "Slime Flux" doesn't conform to the norm it is flawed ,it is jagged, it is uncompromising and it is .....frankly quite brilliant because of those things

© 2019 Frazer Jones

WIZENED TREE ~ ROCK'N'ROLL FROM TOCANTINS ..... reviews

It seems that Desert Psychlist's forays into the sonically rich territories of the South American underground rock scene are becoming a regular feature on these pages and it will be no surprise to regular readers that our musical travels bring us back to, that largest of the continents countries, Brazil.
Wizened Tree, Artur Pery (vocal/guitar), Davi Pery (drums), Douglas Vilela (guitar) and Felipe Marinho (bass), hail from Palmas, the largest city in the Brazilian state of Tocantins and jam grooves of an alt-rock/grunge flavour blended with elements of 70's hard/classic rock, an intriguing mix that informs every note and beat of their latest release "Rock'n'Roll From Tocantins".

One thing that will grab Desert Psychlist's attention above all else is melody, yes we love intense dark dank refrains and thundering rhythms and we can also appreciate a certain amount of growl and grizzle in our vocals but give us well sung clean melodies aligned with a modicum of swagger and groove and we will be like putty in your hands. Wizened Tree deliver swagger and groove in spades, a swagger and groove that is decorated in clear, clean vocal tones imbued with just the right amount of grit and gravel to stop them falling into the realms of saccharine. First track "Give The Rain" sets the stall out for the rest the EP, the band jamming a groove that is heavy but not crushing or brutal, a groove that is heavy in the old 70's musical sense of the word. Wizened Tree cite their influences as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and The Beatles and that all makes sense as the band storm through five tunes that undulate between raucous and restrained, the quartet using melody and might as the tools with which they construct their songs while at the same time blending a smattering of grungy loud /quiet dynamics into the mix to keep things interesting.

Balance is an important factor when it comes to mixing melody with music of a more raucous nature, too far one way and the music can sound twee and lightweight too far the other way and the melody tends to get swamped under the weight of the heaviness surrounding it. Wizened Tree, with "Rock'n'Roll From Tocantins" have found the perfect balance.
Check it out ….

SPIRAL GURU ~ VOID ...... review

Quality underground rock music seems to be flowing out of Brazil like the waters of its infamous Amazon River flow into the sea with Pesta, Son Of A Witch and Gods & Punks just some of the bands making their presences felt around the world. One band at the forefront of this Brazilian invasion are Piracicaba quartet Spiral Guru, the band have been drip feeding their brand of spacey occult-ish psych rock on to the international market since 2014 via a series of enthralling sci-fi themed EP's and now the quartet have released their first full length album "Void"

So what do you get when you place the needle, laser, or whatever it is that drives a digital playback onto Spiral Guru's latest release? Well the answer to that is you get three exceptional musicians, Samuel Pedrosa (guitars), José Ribeiro Jr. (bass and backing vocals) and Alexandre Garcia (drums), laying down dark ,but not foreboding, prog tinted proto-doomic grooves around the slightly folkish and ethereal tones of an equally exceptional vocalist, Andrea Ruocco. Now you could say that this has all been done before, and we would have to say yes it has, but never in quite the same way. There is a stark and startling contrast between Ruocco's sweet folk tones and the grooves that surround them, a contrast that on paper shouldn't work but sonically ultimately does, and it is this contrast of light and dark that is both the albums biggest selling point and its greatest asset. Ruocco's vocals are crisp, clean and clear her haunting sweet  tones channel the spirits of such folk rock greats as Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) and Annie Haslam (Renaissance) as well as those of her fellow countrywoman Flora Plurim (jazz chartreuse who worked with jazz giants Chick Corea and Stan Getz), her voice floating and soaring above the cacophonies of dark groove laid beneath her like a delicate butterfly flitting majestically over thorny bushes. This juxtaposition of heaviness and delicacy informs most of "Void" but is most prevalent on songs like "The Curfew At Dusk" and "Time Traveller", Pedrosa, Ribeiro Jr. and Garcia tearing up the ground with thundering percussion, grumbling bass, crunching riffs and swirling solo's while Ruocco wails waif like overhead, it is however when band and vocalist pull things back a little that things get really magical as on the beautiful "Mindfulness" and the exquisite "Showcase of Dreams", the band fusing opposing dynamics together to make one awe-inspiring whole.

"Fusion", in musical terms, was/is a word oft associated with  jazz music blended with other musical styles but given one of the words definitions, "the merging of different elements into a union" , why then can't we apply that word to what Spiral Guru do? Elements of space, doom, metal and psych merged with folk like lead vocal tones and duel harmonies sounds like a "fusion" to these ears, in which case "Void" is the damn best "fusion" album we have heard in a long time!

© 2019 Frazer Jones

WOLF PRAYER ~ ECHOES OF THE SECOND SUN ...... review

Germany's Wolf Prayer cordially invite us to "join a trip with the band through atmospheric soundscapes, hard riffs and hypnotic melodies" How could we refuse an offer like that especially as the soundtrack to that trip is one that blends the musical elements of big hitters like Kyuss, All Them Witches and Dead Meadows into one big smorgasbord of desert flavoured groove called "Echoes of the Second Sun" (Barhill Records)

 Things begin quite loud and noisy with first track "Average Man" a song that boasts humongous fat fuzz drenched riffage, pulsing percussion and deep booming low end embellished with a generous helping of synthesised keyboard flourishes and effects. After its initial burst of energy the song settles down into a sort of quasi-stoner grunge groove with guitarist/synthesiser maestro Jan Sprengard vocalising in grainy, slightly accented, tones over a loud/quiet/loud dynamic perfectly executed by bassist Tim Hansen and drummer Matthias Schorr. The song then takes a left turn as it winds to an end finally concluding its life in waves of synthesised tranquility. "According To The Rule" jams a more raucous stoner groove that although still retains the grunge like dynamics of its predecessor has a much more harder, grittier edge to it while "Desert" has a touch of "Sixteen Stone" era British post grungers Bush in it's sonic make up. "Shapeshifter" follows and does exactly what its title suggests, the song shifting from a raucous heavily fuzzed and thunderous intro a serene and tranquil groove enhanced by emotive vocals ,ringing arpeggios and restrained percussion before then shifting once again and taking off into a lysergic heavy psych jam. "New Morning" throws away the rule book and mixes heavy stoner riffage with jazzy fusion swing, Sprengard showcasing his keyboard chops, in the songs mid-section, over a laid back bass and drum groove expertly supplied by Hansen and Schorr. "Like A Fool" and "Strings Like A Puppet" finds the band returning to those Nirvana-esque dynamics that have served them so well with the latter boasting a nice line in Colour Haze-ish texturing. "Feed My Brain" closes the album and brings all the elements visited elsewhere together in one big melting pot of lysergic laced stonerized groove.

Chilled and laid back yet at the same time heavy and intense "Echoes of the Second Sun" is an album that blends the best elements of the 90's alternative rock scene with the best parts of the stoner/desert movement from the same era and brings it up to date by adding a few ideas of their own. There is no convenient box or tag for what Wolf  Prayer bring to the table sonically but if you had to label them  something then the best we can come up with is "alt/desert".
Check 'em out ...

© 2019 Frazer Jones

SON OF A WITCH ~ COMMANDED BY COSMIC FORCES ..... review

Gila Monster (guitar), King Lizzard, (vocals), Psychedelic Monk (guitar), Old Goat (bass) and Asteroid Mammoth (drums) are back, ok that might not mean much to the ordinary man/woman in the street but to those of us with our fingers on the pulse of the Brazilian underground rock scene it marks the return of one of the best doomic bands the South American continent has to offer. The band we are talking about here is Son of a Witch a foursome who first came to Desert Psychlist's attention via their 2012 Ep "Son of a Witch" then grabbed that attention fully with their 2016 debut album "Thrones In The Sky", an enthralling mix of riff heavy proto-doom and crunching hard rock. Last year (2018) the band entered Black Hole Studios in Natal to record new songs for their second album, that album, "Commanded By Cosmic Forces" has just been released (Kozmik Artfactz {vinyl} and Burning London/Deathtime {CD}).

"Commanded By Cosmic Forces" begins life with a customary soundbyte intro, probably lifted from some obscure occult movie, then forges straight into first track proper "Black Clouds of Lies", a track that the band released as a teaser for this album in June of this year. "Black Clouds of Lies" is a song that deals lyrically with the absence of truth and the convictions of our beliefs and is played out against a backdrop of heavy doomic groove that borders between proto and traditional. King Lizzard sings of "defending our truth" and wishing "long life to the sincere of soul and heart" in a voice thick with emotional gravitas, his vocal strong, powerful and just the right side of throaty is pushed hard by the Goat, the Monk, the Monster and the Mammoth, the four oddly named musicians laying down an exceptional array of dark but not overly dank doomic refrains and rhythms."Breathe Dust" follows and finds the band jamming a slightly slower, heavier groove that leans more towards the stoner end of the doom spectrum, the song is solidly anchored down by big booming bass and slow ponderous percussion allowing the two guitarist to express themselves with a mixture of crunching riffage and swirling solos. The song is taken to another level by the slightly off-kilter nature of its vocal melody, the Lizzard man imparting cryptic wisdom in tones that are as warm as they are powerful. Next up is "Idol of Marbles (Commanded By Cosmic Forces)" a song that finds the band stepping out of their doom comfort zone and pushing into more experimental areas, a militaristic drum pattern forming the platform from which the band launch into a hazy lysergic groove over which acoustic and electric guitars vie for supremacy bolstered by a bass line that would not of sounded out of place on an album by British art-rockers Japan. "Dry Leaves" finds the band back in more familiar doomic territory with strong throaty vocals extolling the virtues of wind over a backdrop of thunderous doomic refrains both proto-ic and traditional. "Melting Ocean" brings "Commanded By Cosmic Forces" to a close with a huge throbbing slab of intense psychedelic tinted doom, its heavy crunching grooves decorated with green tinted lyrics that tell of a world slipping into chaos, Lizzard telling us in a mixture of anger and sadness that "we built our houses all out of straw, now the wolf is coming to take us all", it's a song with a thinly veiled political message but one that sadly will probably carry on being ignored nonetheless.

Intelligent, thought provoking doom makes a nice change from the satanic musings usually associated with the genre and much like their fellow Brazilian counterparts, Pesta, Son of a Witch are band unafraid to address themes and issues others might feel are a little too contentious.... and that, combined with their incredibly addictive grooves, is something they should be loudly applauded for.
Check 'em out ...

© 2019 Frazer Jones

STONEKIND ~ STONEKIND (EP) ...... review

If your a band that hails from a place with "Salem" in its title then its possible your going to garner some interest from within the doom metal community, unfortunately the "Salem" in question is not the one associated with the infamous "witch trials" and the band we are talking about is not really what you would consider a "doom" band. Stonekind, Davis Templeton (guitars), Jacob Shelton (bass) and Jeff Ayers Jr (drums,/vocals), hail from the North Carolina city of Winston-Salem and jam grooves that, although reside very much within the stoner spectrum, lean more towards the bluesy rather than the doomic.
The band have just released their debut EP "Stonekind" on Bandcamp and whether your a stoner, doomer or just a general music fan, this is gonna blow your socks off!

"Ember" gets the ball rolling and starts with a high pitched drone effect that then makes way for some charming and deft acoustic picking before segueing almost straight into "Talk To Fire" an excellent heavy blues-ish outing that swaggers and struts with stoner attitude and if your boat is not already floating by now then it's gonna be ocean bound when you hear Ayers Jr's warm creamy vocal tones enter the fray. The drummer/vocalist possesses one of those voices that cradles you with warmth and texture, Ayers Jr doesn't try to dazzle you with rock god vocal pyrotechnics preferring instead to deliver his lyrics in a voice that is soulful and world weary, the fact that he is also laying down some mean, on point, percussion at the same time just adds to his legend. Ayers Jr is surrounded by two musicians of equal stature and skill, Shelton's bass growls and rumbles in sync with Ayers  Jr's drums and comes into it's own on the hazy psychedelic "Black Molasses" the bassist anchoring the songs more lysergic moments with boneshaking liquid low end. Guitarist Templeton meanwhile is a guitar legend in the making, he coats the grooves Ayers Jr and Shelton lay beneath him with a startling array of colours and textures, his solo's soar and swoop, his riffs crunch and crush, the six-stringer filling every space available to him with a masterclass in guitar dynamics, something that is especially evident on the superb "It's Alive" where his playing is nothing short of jaw dropping.

As debuts go this up there with the best of 'em, the only downside to "Stonekind" being that it only contains four songs and after hearing this brief but brilliant introduction to the band you will undoubtedly want more, in fact you will DEMAND more!

Check it out .... 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

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

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