BAD FRANKENHAUSEN ~ ZWE: DIE RACHE ...... review

"A progressive concept album that tells a tale of treacherous magic, vengeance and interdimensional insanity through a heady blend of doom, stoner rock, classic rock and even a little surf rock". is how London, UK trio Bad Frankenhausen describe their second album "Zwei: Die Rache" (English translation; Two: Revenge). The band, Rob Hollinshead (drums, vocals and piano), Paul Commerford (bass and vocals) and Tom Goldman (vocals and guitar) tell tales populated by characters such as The Baron and the Countess Roundabout, characters that dwell in settings very much inspired by such giants of popular fiction as Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker. 

Bad Frankenhausen are at heart an old school heavy metal band but one with its toes dipped in a pool blended from the waters of doom, stoner, classic and hard rock, pick any one song from the ten on offer and in that song you will find elements of all those genres mentioned plus quite a few that were not. Despite the dark themes running through songs like "Whoresradish", and "Shambleman" there is an underlying feeling of playfulness and mischief to what Bad Frankenhausen bring to the table, the albums concept and lyrical subject matter having a comic book feel much like the Penny Dreadful books that become popular during the Victorian era. This feeling is further enhanced by Goldman's unique lead vocal stylings, the guitarist/vocalist giving each song an extra level of macabre gravitas by telling the albums stories of revenge and treachery in lived in tones that are at the hoarser end of husky. The album is bookended by two instrumentals "Serf's Sup" a reverberating slice of surf rock/metal with a Dick Dale meets The Shadows vibe and "Scherben" a haunting  melancholic piano piece, both songs going a long way in proving that there is a far more to this band than just a few crunching riffs and thunderous rhythms.

Bad Frankenhausen are not your run of the mill stoner/metal/hard rock band, there are touches of British music hall/American vaudeville about what they do, there were times during "Zwei: Die Rache" when Desert Psychlist were reminded of the theatrical garage rock musings of early Alice Cooper and in our book that is no bad thing, no bad thing at all.

Check it out .... 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

MORENO ~ NÓMADES ... review

Formed in 2008 Argentina's Moreno, Juan Martín Sosa (drums), Nacho Telleria (bass) and Mariano Morero (vocals/guitar), have been consistently delivering quality stoner/desert rock to the masses via their live gigs and a series of well received albums and EP's (most of which are available as free downloads on their Bandcamp pages). The band return this year with "Nómades" an album, it could be argued, is their best release to date, a mesmerising blend of grainy hard rock and stoner grit decorated in clean punk(ish) vocal textures (Spanish).

An insistent drum pattern, accompanied by a busy, busy bass line introduces first track "Buscar la muerte" and is then joined by a circular six-string motif before then falling into heavy stoner groove over which are delivered strong, slightly untamed but hugely effective vocals punctuated by equally effective guitar fills and solo's, the trio telling you, in just one song, everything you need to know about the rest of the album. Moreno are not a band trying to pretend to be anything else other than what they are and what they are is a kick-ass rock'n'roll band with a penchant for Sabbathesque flavoured riffage played with Motorhead like ferocity. Vocals throughout "Nómades" are sang in Spanish but even if you have no understanding of the language just the feel they convey on songs like "Todos los vientos terminan en el médano","Jabalinas" and "Auroch"  should be enough to have you reaching to press repeat again and again.

Great artwork, great grooves "Nómades" is the complete package, an album that delivers on all levels and one that hopefully may cause those who refuse to listen to anything not sang in English to seriously think again.

Check it out .....

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DREAD FATHER ~ DREAD FATHER ....... review

Dread Father want to make you an offer you cant refuse, four tracks of desolate low, slow doomic splendour for the one time only price of your mortal soul., well a few dollars actually but "your mortal soul" sounded a little more "doom"
Dread Father, a trio from Charlotte, North Carolina, are, despite a (present) lack of social media presence, starting to cause a few  ripples of interest to spread around the underground rock scene thanks in main to the unannounced arrival of their self titled debut album "Dead Father" on the hallowed pages of ye old Bandcamp, If those ripples have not quite reached your end of the pool yet then please read on.....

Dread Father deliver with their debut album four tracks of desolate and distorted doom served up achingly slow and devastatingly low, songs decorated in slightly monotonic but mainly clean vocals with just a hint of a demonic growl thrown in to keep things interesting. Now there are plenty of bands out there (we are not mentioning names) doing the same sort of thing so why should you give these guys a listen we hear you ask, well the answer to that is that many of those bands have been around for a number of years and in that time have lost a little of their raw edge and with access to better studios and well respected producers/engineers their sound has tended to become a little polished, with Dread Father however those edges are still as raw as an open wound. On songs with occult(ish) titles such as  "The Ritual", "The Arrival", "The Revival" and "The Divination" guitar tones are dialled to desolation and thrum menacingly like overloaded power cables while underneath drums crash and pound in slow steady unison. Its not all dank dismal devastation however, there are rare occasions when the band pull back the dark curtains and allow a little sunshine into the room, these moments come in the form of lysergic textures and psychedelic colourings and although brief they do give some welcome respite amidst all the rumbling monolithic mayhem.

Raw, a little naïve in places, but wholly entertaining "Dread Father" is a fine, if not a perfect, debut from a band who if they play their cards right could well find themselves being mentioned alongside those bands we didn't mention earlier
Check 'em out ….

© 2019 Frazer Jones

MOTHRASHIP ~ SMOTHER EARTH ..... review

To describe Mothraship's sonic assault we need to paraphrase Star trek's Bones and say "this is prog Jim but not as we know it", Mothraship are Beau Callies (vocals/guitars); Michael Gonzales (drums), Matt Bugielski (guitars/vocals) and Sam 'Rahldg' Wizer (bass) from Denver Colorado and bring to the table grooves that are complex and intricate yet at the same time are unashamedly feral and wild, a sound that is hard to describe but easy to fall in love with. Take a listen to their latest release "Smother Earth" to see/hear what we mean by that last statement.

A shuddering drone effect followed by ringing arpeggios introduces "My Own Kind (Intro to My Dead Horse)", the song, an introduction in itself for its following track, is filled with little twists and turns, the band shifting up and down through the gears on a song made especially memorable thanks to its hazy vocal melody and recurring guitar motif. As promised "My Dead Horse" follows and expands on the musical themes of its predecessor while at the same time throwing a little grungy vocal dynamics into the mix resulting in, to Desert Psychlist's riff worn ears, an intriguing blend of Tool like angular intensity and Alice In Chains like emotional gravitas. "Cannonball" rolls in next and here we find Mothraship exploring more jazzier territories with slurred vocals expertly crooned over a backdrop of sharded guitar chords, accompanied by deep rumbling bass and sympathetic percussion."Lycabthrope" follows and boasts a chugging garage rock groove matched with sneering almost new wave/punk like vocals, Mothraship however are not a band to stay put in one place for too long and as the song approaches its final quarter things start to get a little bluesy and doomic the band heading off on enthralling musical tangents before bringing things full circle to take the song to its close. A Celtic tinted circular guitar refrain announces " Walmartyr" around which swirling swooping solos are majestically wended and weaved driven by an exceptional tour de force of percussive might and grumbling, thunderous bassitude. The song slowly builds in both volume and intensity, with the vocals reverting from the garage like sneer of the previous track back to the slightly grungy vocal dynamics of the albums first three songs, before suddenly exploding into a wonderous instrumental finale that blends elements of proggish metal with those of cosmic, out there heavy psych, the song taking off  in a hundred directions all at once yet somehow managing to still sound totally focused and on point at all times, breathtaking!

Mothraship made a lot of friends with their debut self titled release "Mothraship" but even those already familiar with the Denver quartets previous work will be surprised and amazed when they hear "Smother Earth", a superb release that deserves to be mentioned on everyone's end of year "best of" lists, it'll definitely be on ours.

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

SLOWNER ~ SLOWNER .... review

Before regular readers of Desert Psychlist start thinking that we have some sort of monetary deal to feature as many Brazilian bands as possible, we can reassure you that we do not! It's just that there is so much great music coming out of that South American country it would be remiss of us to ignore it.

Slowner, Lucas (guitar/vocals; Issac (guitar); Renata (bass); and Gabriel (drums), hail from Recife, PE and came together to jam grooves inspired by their love of 90's era stoner/desert rock and 70's hard rock and proto-metal/doom, grooves you can hear for yourselves via their self-titled debut "Slowner"

Beneath the rather bleak artwork of abandoned automobiles, rusting and decaying under the shadow of a large mountain range, lies an album of raw and untamed doomic beauty, an album that may not reveal its full charms straight away but with subsequent listens will grow to be a firm favourite. Slowner's grooves dwell somewhere between old school proto and new school stoner doom and when Desert Psychlist says between we really do mean between. Each of the five songs that make up this Brazilian combo's debut mixes and blends aspects from both doomic dynamics, with songs, like "Any Street","Split", Insomnia", "Nightcrawler" and "Witch", switching from Sabbathesque proto doomic gallops to more stonerized lower, slower heavy plods in the blink of a demon's eye and are just as quickly liable to switch back again. These songs come coated in clean vocals, with the occasional growl thrown in for good measure, that although are not overly powerful are nonetheless highly effective and sit nicely against the dank low slung refrains and doomic rhythmic pulses the band frame them with. 

Although not quite the finished article Slowner are a band moving in the right direction, yes there are moments on "Slowner" where things get a little generic and cliched but there are also glimpses of huge potential here too, potential that could make their next release a very interesting prospect indeed.
Check 'em out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

COMACOZER ~ MYDRIASIS ..... review

Mydriasis (medical definition); Mydriasis is the dilation of the pupil, usually having a non-physiological cause, or sometimes a physiological pupillary reaction. Non-physiological causes of mydriasis include disease, trauma, or the use of drugs.
Mydriasis (musical definition); "Mydriasis" is the new album by Australian quartet Comacozer, a scintillating collection of instrumental jams drenched in lysergic colours and textures that could cause, even in minor cases, not only dilation of the pupils but also the mind.

Since Comacozer's last full length musical outing "Kalos Eidos Skopeo" there has been a subtle change in personnel with James Heyligers filling, full time, the space temporarily held by, Mother Mars/Frozen Planet 1969's, Frank Attard on synth and effects. Comacozer's spacey instrumental grooves were already pretty cosmic, thanks to Rick Burke's swirling guitar textures, Rich Elliot's mix of grumbling and liquid low end and Andrew Panagopoulos' percussive blend of restraint and power, but Heyligers inclusion seems to have honed things to a fine edge. Where Comacozer's music previously saw them touching at the edges of the known universe with Heyligers, twisting the dials and pushing the keys, the band seem to have pushed out past the Kuyper Belt into infinity and beyond. There is a darker edge to the three songs that make up "Mydriasis", an edge that has always been there but this time around has been pushed further to the front  The bands jams have always been a little like travelling through space while dropping acid but previously the onus has been on the awe and wonder of witnessing a universe wrapped in a kaleidoscope of colours but on the tracks "Mydriasis","Tryptamine" and "Kykeon Journey" those colours get a little darker, a little more intense and a little bit scarier, still a heady vivid trip but one vignetted with shades of a more monochrome hue.

Comacozer have often used eastern themes to enhance their instrumental experimentations and this has often resulted in the bands music having a spiritual almost meditative feel, on "Mydriasis" however the band seem to be approaching that spirituality from a slightly different angle, an intriguing and exciting angle that Desert Psychlist hopes the band explore more on future releases.
Check it out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

HIGH MOUNTAIN ~ HIGH MOUNTAIN (EP) ..... review

Atmosphere is an ingredient often not spoken of when talking about music but atmosphere is probably one of the most important factors of any piece of music, be it bright breezy pop or crushing dank metal. Atmosphere is not so much something you can hear as something you feel when listening to music, in pop music it often manifests itself as a brightness, in metal a darker more cloying vibe is often the norm. Psych/desert groovsters High Mountain, a quartet from Metz, France consisting of Frederic Macieri (guitar/vocals), Jeremy Depenoux (drums), Georges Leibfried (keys) and David Omhover (bass), jam grooves that are drenched in atmosphere, grooves that are edged in a bluesy melancholic haziness and rueful moodiness, a vibe and feel that permeates each and every one of the four songs that make up their self-tiled debut EP "High Mountain".

Leibfried's parping keyboards and Omhover's deep rumbling bass introduce "The Dream" then are joined by Depenoux's drums and Macieri's  guitar in a fuzz drenched bluesy desert groove that is dark, dank yet not dismal. Macieri also provides the songs vocals his gruff, slightly accented throaty tones taking the songs sonic attack, which is already quite elevated, to a whole new level.  "Masterpiece" follows and finds the band balancing out their fuzz drenched bluesy swagger with elements of quiet contemplation, Macieri's vocal here is, in places, almost spoken narrative in others a gruff hoarse roar. "Roach" begins with tribalistic percussion crashing and pounding over a deep rumbling bass line around which Leibfried and Marcieri weave textured threads of keyboard and guitar colouring,  the song gradually building in intensity until suddenly exploding into a heavy stonerized blues groove full of screaming guitar solo's and crunching riffs. "Hunt On Payday" brings things to a close and finds the band giving free rein to the more lysergic elements of their sound while still maintaining their heavy rock credentials, shimmering cymbals, liquid bass, textured keys and ringing arpeggios sit side by side with pounding drums, grizzled low end, swirling organ and screaming guitar solos, both dynamics coated in those distinctive gruff, throaty vocal tones.

"High Mountain" is a collection of songs drenched in warm fuzzy guitar tones and driven by a mixture of throbbing and laid back rhythms, songs further enhanced by their clever use of keyboard textures and their warm yet powerful vocals. Atmospheric and moody yet at the same time heavy and rocking "High Mountain" is, to coin the title of one of their songs, a masterpiece

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones