ORC ~ ORC ..... review

Bassists and drummers have, in the past, often got overlooked within a band dynamic, these masters of rhythm and groove have tended to take a back seat and allow the more flamboyant guitarists and vocalist's to hug the spotlight, often becoming bridesmaids rather than brides. This was, with a few exceptions, the case for many years but over the last decade and a half a shift towards a more pared down group dynamic started to gather momentum and suddenly the "heavy rock duo" began to become a thing. First of all it was mainly drum and guitar combo's but then drum and bass duo's started to pop up everywhere with bassists employing their instruments not just as a tool to enhance a groove but also as a lead instrument in its own right.
Lancing, Michigan's ORC, Andy Jeglic (bass/vocals) and Connor Peil (drums), are one such band who, after attending a Primus/Mastodon gig together, decided to take the duo route. The two musicians wanted to blend the progressive elements they were hearing that night with the hard rock/metal elements they grew up with but wanted to achieve this within the confines of a two piece. The duo also wanted their sound to be BIG which meant some innovative drum micing and the employment of something Jeglic calls a "dual-output bass rig", something that allowed him to push his bass sound to unprecedented levels and thicken its sonic impact, an impact that can be witnessed first hand on the bands debut "ORC".

Fuzz plays a huge part in ORC's sound, warm, growling fuzz, fuzz crackling at the extremes of its signal and fuzz so thick it's almost tangible are all employed to great effect throughout the nine tracks that make up "ORC". Jeglic's bass spits, snarls and splutters with the stuff his distorted riffs, sounding more like a conventional six-string at times, would be in danger of dominating proceedings if it were not for Peil's thunderous drumming, the percussionist defying the limitations of his kit with breathtaking steam hammer displays of percussive might. There are times when, if you hadn't read this pieces intro, that you could easily be convinced that this is not just two people but a quartet, or something even bigger, such is the density of sound that Peil and Jeglic create between them. If the sound you are hearing on songs with titles like "Living For The Fight", "Sneaky Snake" and "The Villain" are not already big enough for your sonic needs then Jeglic's powerful, rock god like vocal pyrotechnics will seal the deal. Jeglic boasts a voice that could peel paint off a ships hull a voice that channels the spirit of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell's upper register with the distinctive howl of Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale, a unique and powerful instrument in it's own right it takes ORC's already impressive sonic impact to whole other level.

ORC have laid down a marker for other "rock duo's" to follow with their debut, a huge sounding tome created with the minimum of instrumentation but the maximum of dedication and commitment, an album that that ticks all the right boxes in all the right order by a duo who sound so much bigger.
Check it out ….

© 2020 Frazer Jones

THAL ~ THE HARVESTING .... review

"Two become one" sang The Spice Girls but in the case of THAL (The Heathens Are Loose) that lyric could well be reversed as THAL was originally a one man project conceived by multi-instrumentalist John "Vince Green" Walker, however when Walker realised that in order to achieve his musical vision he needed a like minded musician to bounce ideas off ,write with and perform with out went a call to fellow multi-instrumentalist and friend Kevin Hartnell, and so "one became two"
This collaboration paid huge dividends when in 2018 THAL released "Reach For The Dragon's Eye" an album that deservedly crept into many of the underground scenes "best of " lists and raised the bands profile to heights they could only of once dreamt of. With any level of success comes expectation, and that can be a burden in itself, but just before 2019's Christmas break the band released "The Harvesting" an album that more than delivers on all its expected promise.

The best albums can conjure up visions in the mind's eye, visions that play out as stories of your own making, this is the case with "The Harvesting". While listening to the nine songs that make up the albums content Desert Psychlist was transported to a world of hardship, conflict and misery in an undefined era that could just as well be medieval Europe as it could be modern day USA. This is the beauty of THAL's music, and especially this album, Walker and Hartnell paint sonic portraits with both their lyrics and their grooves that can take a listener outside of themselves, able to escape the mundane realities of real life and just for a short while mentally escape to places that are dark,dangerous yet exciting. So ok they can tell stories and invoke mental imagery but what do they actually sound like? THAL are heavy but not in a brutal way, the bands grooves sway between doomic and grungy with elements of old school hard rock and metal scattered liberally around to great effect while vocals throughout the album are a mix of clean throaty roars and smooth warm, almost Lynott-esque, croons, both dynamics executed to perfection. It is a sound with the ability to cross genres, a sound just as likely to appeal to the hardened metal extremist as it is to those whose tastes may lean nearer to the mainstream.

Desert Psychlist started this review with a Spice Girl's lyric so it only seems right to finish with one. "The Harvesting" is a superb follow up to "Reach For The Dragon's Eye" that justifies all the expectation that surrounded its release and  if that don't make you want to "slam your body down and wind it all around" then we don't known what will.

© 2020 Frazer Jones

DESERT COLOSSUS ~ EYES AND TONGUES

Still get spinal shivers from listening to Kyuss, does hearing Fu Manchu still cause involuntary head bobbing and foot tapping? If the answer to those questions is a resounding yes then its odds on that Holland's Desert Colossus are going to tick all your boxes and push all your relevant buttons. Desert Colossus hit a groove that recalls the early days of the desert rock scene, a time when bands would head out into the sandy wilderness and set up impromptu gigs using old generators as a power source, gigs that would see bands melding everything from punk to prog in one big melting pot of sonic mayhem. Desert Colossus do not so much try to replicate the sound of those first desert pioneers but more try to recreate the "vibe" of that period, to bring that desert sound to whole new audience while at the same time putting their own unique twist on things. The bands last album "Omnibeul" went a long way in achieving that goal and so this year (2020), with the bit between their teeth, the band return with "Eyes and Tongues", a whole new collection of psych tinted desert inspired grooviness for your listening pleasure.

"Eyes and Tongues" contains no crushing disappointments or dismal disasters, from the opening note of the Monster Magnet(ish) "Tear Me Down" to the hollow ringing effect that brings last track "The Final Signs of the End" to a close "Eyes and Tongues" is one triumphant, fist pumping, riff fuelled groove monster. Gloriously raucous and grittily gnarly from start to finish "Eyes and Tongues" is not an album for navel gazers or deep thinkers seeking introspection, this is a joyous, if sometimes shaded, album that needs to be approached not with a heavy heart but with a love of life and a lust for enjoyment, Ok with titles like "Predicament", "Collect Call To Reality", and "Null" you might expect things to be a little negative,downbeat and dank but if there is any dourness in lyrical content it is countered by the upbeat and forceful nature of the grooves that surround them with only the aforementioned "The Final Signs of the End" really dropping into the realms of doomic, it's almost as if the band are saying yes we know we are all going to hell in a handcart but let's at least have some fun on the way.

2017's "Omnibeul" saw Desert Colossus edging their foot in the door of international recognition, "Eyes and Tongues" should see them not only walking through that door but smashing the damn thing off its hinges.
Check it out …..

© 2020 Frazer Jones

KRÖWNN ~ BLÜEDEEP .... review

Having only released one EP and two full albums since their formation in 2012 it is pretty safe to say that Italy's Kröwnn cannot be called the most prolific of bands, however quantity doesn't always mean quality and Kröwnn's output, though sparse, has always been of the very highest calibre. The bands third release "Bluedeep" may have been a long time in the making (its been 5 years since the band released "Magmafrost") but the wait has been well worth the while. as hopefully you will soon discover for yourselves..

Michele el Lello Carnielli (vocals, guitar) Nicola el Borda Bordignon (guitar) Silvia Selvaggia Rossato (bass) and Elena Fiorenzano (drums) are Kröwnn and together they make a noise that, although initially inspired by the likes of Black Sabbath, Sleep and Electric Wizard, has evolved over time into something much, much  more. Kröwnn, unlike those bands mentioned, take their lyrical inspirations and themes not from war, weed and wizardry but from literature, video games, TV and film, the bands lyrics just as likely to reference George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones as they are Lovecraft or Wheatley. Musically Kröwnn jam grooves that are dark, atmospheric and heavy however when Desert Psychlist says "heavy" we don't mean a continuous onslaught of bludgeoning distortion and fuzz (although there is plenty of that to enjoy) what we mean is in the levels of intensity and density that the band bring to the altar table. Amidst the powerful clean vocals, huge rhythms and crunching refrains,that permeate every pore of songs such as "Drowning", Draquaariis" and "Shore Hag" can also be found underlying elements of subtlety and finesse, these elements, although not glaringly obvious, work as a counter-balance to all the intense heaviness Kröwnn bring to the fore and result in "Bluedeep"  being a much more rounded and richly rewarding listening experience, albeit still a very heavy and intense one. 

We may have had to wait five years for Kröwnn to finally deliver something new to our ears but Desert Psychlist would happily wait another five years if the bands next album is anywhere near as sonically mind blowing and jaw-droppingly magnificent as "Bluedeep" is.

Check it out …. 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

BUZZURD ~ JOIN THE WAKE ..... review

From the Lone Star State comes a sound almost as big as region it was birthed, a sound  that is doomic dank and dark and deals lyrically with issues we sometimes might not want to face up to, issues of the mind, both mental and physical. The orchestrators of this sound are a four piece combo,
Richard Loew (vocals); Daniel Anderson (guitar); Ryan James (bass) and Colin Drake (drums), who call themselves Buzzurd, three of whom are Texans and one an Englishman born in Bow, East London. The quartet jam a groove that blends elements of stoner rock's heavy fuzziness with elements of traditional doom's bleak dank atmospherics and in doing so create a sound that is as raucous as it is expansive, a sound that can be experienced first hand by spinning their latest EP "Join The Wake"

Desert Psychlist has had some experience dealing with the subject of  Buzzurd's first track on "Join The Wake", "Dementia" so the lyrics, seemingly taken from the perspective of a sufferer, somewhat resonate with us. "Within myself imprisoned" sings Loew in rich clean tones over a backdrop dominated by James thundering bass and anchored by Drake's drums, the percussionists clever use of cymbals giving the song an underlying shimmer not usually associated with music of a more doomic nature. Anderson's guitar initially takes somewhat of a backseat on this track, the guitarist mostly content to support the bass with crunching chordal work but on the rare occasions he does step into the spotlight, letting rip with a searing solo or a swirling motif, he takes things to a whole new level of doomic delight. "Eyes of Madness" follows and deals with that more visceral, violent side of mental instability, here we find  Anderson's guitar taking a much more prominent role, the guitarist breaking through James and Drake's huge wall of rhythmic groove to compliment Loew's impassioned vocal with searing lead breaks and tasteful chordal colouring. "The Hunt" turns up the heat a notch or two and finds Loew adding a little gnarly grittiness to his tone while Drake, James and Anderson counter this by laying down a groove that alternates between heavy old school doom and classic heavy metal albeit with an element of alt/metal twitchiness thrown in for good measure. "Babylon River" closes proceedings and finds the band hitting into a groove that if it wasn't for brief episodes of doomic dankness could easily be confused as being pure stoner rock.

Buzzurd are a band treading fine lines, a fine line between traditional doom and old school metal, a fine line between stoner rock and its metallic stonerized cousin and a fine line between being bright and raucous and being dark and atmospheric. It is this dichotomy of dynamics that actually works in Buzzurd's favour, they are not one thing or the other but all of those things together, an amalgamation of metallic old school swagger and new school gnarliness all fused together in one gloriously schitzophrenic but totally enjoyable whole.
Check 'em out …..

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DESERT PSYCHLIST'S BEST OF 2019

Well here we are again another year over and once again the underground rock scene has outdone itself, a seemingly endless array of old favourites and sparkling new kids on the block have been releasing albums and EP's over the last year, so many so that at times its been hard to keep up and that's despite the efforts of the scenes movers and shakers, PR's firms, record labels and the bands themselves doing their best to inform of us of anything worthy of note. With the end of another year also comes the expectation of those end of year lists we all love to peruse and pour over, now last year (2018) Desert Psychlist was pilloried for including a couple of releases that landed late from the previous year (2017), albums that narrowly missed our cut off point, we will not be making that mistake again and this years list of 25 albums will be picked solely from those released in 2019!
These picks are Desert Psychlist's favourites from 2019, they may not be your favourites but hey that's the name of the game, anyway here we go....

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



24. Skunk ~ Strange Vibration

Proto-metallic grooves with a underlying air of funkiness, vocals might be an acquired taste for some, John McKelvy's voice has a unique helium toking quality, but once you get acclimatised to them they actually work rather well.

23. Kook ~ III
Kook take the best from all your favourite genres throw it all in the air and use what lands to make one unholy delightful noise!

22. Sabba ~ Pentacle
Superb atmospheric dark dank doomic/occult grooves overlaid with ethereal vocal tones

21. Noise Factor ~ The Raven EP
Imagine Pagan Altar jamming with USA cult melodic 70's rockers Ashbury and you might just get a handle on what Noise Factor are all about.

20. Crypt Trip ~ Haze County
Crypt Trip have with "Haze County" finally shook off the stoner/hard rock tag, that had many mentioning them in the same breaths as Sweden's Graveyard and Witchcraft , and have embraced the roots of their own countries musical history

19. The Red Widows ~ Fuzzifixion

The Red Widows evolution from a damn good proto-metal/doom band to an ass kicking dank,dark stoner doom outfit is complete, here is the proof.

 
18. Lord Vicar ~ The Black Powder
If ever you should feel the mantle of doom is being snatched from the grasp of the scenes elders by the genres growlers and screamers then put this doomic diamond on and know that real doom still exists and is doing very nicely 

17. Book of Wyrms ~ Remythologizer
Elements of heavy metal, psych, doom and stoner rock weaved together in a spellbinding tapestry of sci-fi/fantasy themed genre-defying majesty.



16. Planet of Zeus ~ Faith In Physics
PoZ's last album "Loyal To The Pack" was somewhat of a transitional affair in that it was seemingly tailored to meet the needs of a more mainstream audience, this time around PoZ put a little more of their legendary bite back into the mix and sound all the better for it!



15. Paralyzed ~ Hidden Sun

Excellent collection of proto flavoured heavy blues grooves packed to the gills with soaring guitar solo's and crunching rhythms, think Buffalo meets JPT Scare Band

14. Saturna ~ Atlantis
Classic rock given a whole new lease of life by an utterly superb Spanish quartet. This is so good it'll give your goosebumps goosebumps!

13. The Black Furs ~ Stereophonic Freak Out Vol. 1

Heavy stonerized doom grooves drenched in distortion, fuzz and feedback fronted by superb clean sneery vocals that give everything an urban inner city feel 

12. Planet of the 8's ~ Tourist Season

Seriously impressive desert flavoured release from an equally impressive Australian collective. #

11. Spiral Guru ~ Void

This is fantastic! Imagine a hybrid birthed from the coupling of Howling Giant and Holy Grove fronted by a vocalist with the folk-rock chops of a Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) or a Annie Haslam (Renaissence).

 10. Gévaudan ~ Iter

"Iter" is an album that will appeal to both the traditional doom crowd and those that like their doom a little on the blacker side, an album that leans towards prog in places yet at the same time stays true to the basics of its doomic roots, an album that's not quite a masterpiece but comes damn close.

09. Troll ~ Legend Master

"Legend Master" is that doom album you always wanted to hear but never expected to be made, an album that is intelligent as it is groovesome, an album that marries the old with the new without the need to go into extreme territories, an album you have to hear.

08. Scarecrow ~ Scarecrow

Proto flavoured metal/doom that will knock you off your feet and stamp your brains into mush, in a good way of course

 07. Clouds Taste Satanic ~ Second Sight

CTS deliver the goods yet again, this is instrumental heaviness of the highest order, WOW just doesn't cover it!

06. Hippie Death Cult ~ 111

Swaggering mix of 70's hard rock and modern stoner rock that ticks every box you could ever wish to be ticked

 05. Howling Giant ~ The Space Between Worlds

Howling Giant smash it out of the park with this their first full length album, might and melody never went together so well.

 04. Elder ~ The Gold & Silver Sessions
 Majestic mellow and mesmerising grooves from the scenes brightest hopes



03. Ordos ~The End

If the bands last effort "House of the Dead" didn't satisfy your need for quality blackened stoner doom then "The End" most certainly will.

02. Merlin ~ The Mortal

Merlin return with more boundary pushing musical wizardry, This band are a one off, a unique sounding collective with a groove like no other band on this planet. Celebrate their contrariness, wonder at their weirdness and be mesmerised by their magical music.

01. Green Lung ~ Woodland Rites

The term "occult rock" is one that causes a bit of confusion, at Desert Psychlist we tend to think of something tagged as "occult rock" as being grooves that although "doomic" are not what you could call full on "doom", grooves that share many of doom's characteristics but lean towards the more melodic and accessible end of the spectrum. Now you may not agree with our definition but whether you do or not does not take away the fact that "Woodland Rites" is a superb album that is both melodic AND accessible.

                                       

Desert Psychlist would like to thank … all the PR agencies, record labels, bands and artists who have sent promo's, both digital and physical, the Doom Charts and all its contributors for giving the underground scene a visual point of reference and Steve Howe at Outlaws of the Sun for all his help and encouragement. Special thanks to Michele Jones for her love, patience and understanding and Billy Jones, Vikki Jones and Sian Jones for grandchildren, guitars, gigs and love. Desert Psychlist would also like to thank everyone who has perused these hallowed pages over the last year , whether you came here by intention or by accident your support is appreciated 

© 2019 Frazer Jones

DIRTY GRAVE ~ SIN AFTER DEATH .... review

Brazil's Dirty Grave claim that their latest album, the band's second, is a celebration of "Satan and Old Metal" and although Desert Psychlist does not profess to know too much about Satan we do know a little about "old metal" and we can vouch for the fact that the bands new release, "Sin After Death", is drenched in the stuff.

Dirty Grave plough a well trodden musical trough through the fetid soils of what is known as proto-doom, the Orlândia quartet borrow, and in some cases steal, elements from such bastions of the proto-doom genre as Black Sabbath and Pentagram yet somehow manage to a create sound and groove that is totally unique and utterly their own. This uniqueness owes much to the distinctive vocal stylings of bassist/vocalist Mark Rainbow, Rainbow sneers, growls, screams, groans and croons his way through the eight songs that make up "Sin After Death", his varied vocal inflections bringing an air of malice and sinisterness to the table that both Ozzy (Osborne) and Bobby (Liebling) would find hard to compete with. Rainbow also plays a mean bass and his growling bottom end, combined with Henrique Lima's tight powerhouse percussion, lays the perfect foundation for guitarists Pedro Barros and Victor Berg to showcase their prowess with a stunning array of raunchy doomic refrains and scorching metallic solos, the two six-stringers playing over, around and off each other in a masterclass of how to combine schooled technical ability with raw natural feel.
A band can be accomplished musicians but if that band does not have the songs to best frame those abilities... well its game over. Thankfully Dirty Grave do not only have the musical chops they also have the songs, dark proto flavoured rockers like "In This Night" and "Turn Off All My Fears", theatrical laced doomic tomes with schizophrenic vocal melodies like "Slaughter (Human Race Is Dead)" and "Satan's Wings II (I Saw The Devil)" and blues tinted stoner metal such as "Slow Journey", in fact there is not one single song on "Sin After Death" that falls into the realms of mediocre or banal, each track an essential part of the whole.

Imagine a heady musical stew of Sabbathesque and Pentagram(ish) riffery blended with a touch of  heavy bluesy colouring, a sprinkling of old school metal swagger and a smidgeon of psychedelic texturing, then with this in mind add into this proto-doomic gumbo an onslaught of highly distinctive and at times maniacal vocal dynamics and you might, just might, arrive somewhere close to getting a handle on what Dirty Grave have achieved with "Sin After Death", we say close mind because nothing can prepare you for the reality.

© 2019 Frazer Jones