"Master of None" confirms that all is still well in the world of Desert Storm, the song boasting ear-catching twin guitar motifs and crunching riffs driven by a superb rhythm section over which singer Ryan delivers a superbly pitched vocal that oozes husky gravitas. The song seems to lean towards an almost Viking Metal dynamic in places, whether this is intentional or not Desert Psychlist does not know but it works. "Cheyne Stoking" is next, a song inspired by graffiti seen sprayed on a wall in Shane Meadow's excellent British revenge movie "Dead Man's Shoes", much like the movie the song is a blend of simpering menace and extreme violence which in the songs case takes the form of pastoral folkish prog progressing into chord crunching, drum skin pounding heaviness with its vocals following a similar progression. There is a touch of, fellow Oxfordites, Radiohead's "Street Spirit" about next track "Bad Trip" in its arpeggiated intro but that comparison soon gets dispelled when a third of the way in Desert Storm erupt into a heavy stoner/sludge groove that would make Thom York's damaged eyelid flutter like a butterfly. For "Melatone" Desert Storm take a leaf out of Green Lung's book by mixing their sludge and stoner grooves with touches of retro flavoured occult rock to create a sound that is at times achingly beautiful at others blustering and brutal. Gently picked acoustic guitar introduces "Salt of the Earth" accompanied by a mournful thick and gravelled vocal, the songs occasional eruptions into gnarled heaviness tempered by bluesy solo's, languid acoustic noodling and flourishes of lysergic keyboard textures. The next three songs "Druid's Heath", "Insomniac" and " Self Depreciation" finds Desert Storm sandwiching proggish textures and psychedelic colours between various degrees of heavy metallic stoner grittiness while final track "New Dawn" sees the band bringing things to a close with an uncharacteristic but quite delightful bright and airy instrumental.
Wednesday, 29 March 2023
DESERT STORM ~ DEATH RATTLE ...... review
Monday, 27 March 2023
ACID KING ~ BEYOND VISION ..... review
Friday, 24 March 2023
THE RHUBARB ~ SYMPTOM OF FAILURE .... review
If a band cites among its influences such luminaries as Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Sleep and High on Fire then you are probably expecting said band to have a somewhat similar sound, well you might unless that band hails from Scotland and goes by the surprisingly un-doom-like name of The Rhubarb. The Rhubarb, Hannah White (vocals/bass); Seán Maguire (vocals); Michael McConville (guitar) and Jack Donnelly (drums), may share some of the qualities of those bands they cite as influences but sounding like them is not one of them, this is a band who approach their doom from a whole different angle as you may come to realise when giving their latest release "Symptom of Failure" a listen.
Thursday, 23 March 2023
WIZDOOM ~ TROLLDOOM .... review
Majestica, Therion-live. ex-Captain Crimson bassist/guitarist/vocalist Chris David had a sound in his head, a sound that merged the doom of his fellow Swedes Candlemass and Witchcraft with the polished electric blues of the USA's workaholic guitarist Joe Bonamassa. To bring this vision to life David needed to recruit musicians who shared his vision and so in came Richard Eriksson on drums, Mattias Linusson on Hammond organ and Andreas Eriksson on guitar to record an EP of songs under the collective name of Wizdoom. Now whether this line up is set in stone or has been put together by David just for this project Desert Psychlist does not know but given the strength of the songs on the bands debut "Trolldoom"(Moving Air Music) and the way these guys bring those songs to life, we hope its the former rather than the latter.
Check it out ...
© 2023 Frazer Jones
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
GREEN YETI ~ NECROPOLITAN .... review
Pick a colour then pick a mythical creature to pair it with seems to be the thinking behind many of the names bands choose to call themselves, why this is Desert Psychlist could not say but run your finger down a list of albums owned by any discerning stoner, doom or psych fan and you would be hard pushed not to find a black this or a red that. Today's review concerns one such band who have used this colour/creature combination, a Greek doom/stoner psych trio called Green Yeti, consisting of Dani Avramidis (bass); Michael Andresakis (guitar/vocals) and Giannis Koutroumpis (drums), who have just released their latest album "Necropolitan"
Green Yeti kick off their new album with instrumental "Syracuse" a stunning heavy psych jam packed full of interesting little twists and turns that slides effortlessly into following track "Witch Dive" a song that is an unashamed declaration of love/lust for a woman sporting "witch eyes" and "blond hair" played out to a backdrop of old school flavoured stoner/desert groove enhanced by some seriously impressive lead guitar. With not a second to catch our breaths we are then propelled into the albums second instrumental "Jupiter 362" a stunning blend of spaced out rock and lysergic laced experimentation that seems to be going a million places all at once yet somehow never losing its way. The groove that sees the previous track leave us is also the groove that introduces us to next song "Golgotha" the band ramping up the grooves intensity until it can go no further and instead erupts into a discordant heavy stoner groove over which Andresakis roars unintelligible vocals like he was having some sort of mental breakdown, which is exactly what this track feels like musically. "Dirty Lung" finds the band getting their doom groove on with Andresakis guitar and Avramidis' bass dialled to dank and Koutroumpis' drums set to thunder mode, the songs mix of gravelled and clean vocal tones adding an extra air of doomic gravitas to a song with an already considerable doomic impact. Penultimate track "Kerosene" is a song that sits halfway between an anguished lament and an impassioned rant with a soundtrack very much in keeping with those two emotions, raucous chord progressions vying for dominance with soaring emotionally charged vocals over a platform of tight solid drumming and thick growling bottom end. The excellent "One More Bite" rounds things off its crunchy dank riffs framing another anguished and angry vocal from Andresakis, the guitarist/vocalist perfectly summing up the songs thrumming heavy dynamic with the line "feral riffs, reverse your mind".
© 2023 Frazer Jones