A complaint often aimed at tribute/homage albums is that the artists involved do not stray too far from the original songs they are invited to cover and so why shouldn't prospective listeners just swerve the covers and just crank up the originals instead. It's a fair argument and one we at Desert Psychlist have voiced ourselves on occasions. So then why are we recommending an album of covers that sticks pretty close to the feel of the original songs, The reason is because this is Budgie, a band that may be known by the few but not by the many. When Pale Wizard first tested the waters by allowing listeners to stream Alunah's version of "Breadfan" and Sergeant Thunderhoof's take on "Parents" posts soon started to appear on social media sites from people previously unaware of Budgie who liked what they were hearing and were promising to go back and check out the originals, if just two songs can invoke that sort of reaction then imagine what the full album will do. "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend: 50 Years Later" is not just a an album for wizened old Budgie fans its also a gateway for those unaware of the bands existence to discover a band who though never quite made it to the top of the mountain put out some damn fine music while they were climbing.
Friday 30 June 2023
VARIOUS ARTISTS ~ NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A FRIEND: 50 YEARS LATER ...... review
A complaint often aimed at tribute/homage albums is that the artists involved do not stray too far from the original songs they are invited to cover and so why shouldn't prospective listeners just swerve the covers and just crank up the originals instead. It's a fair argument and one we at Desert Psychlist have voiced ourselves on occasions. So then why are we recommending an album of covers that sticks pretty close to the feel of the original songs, The reason is because this is Budgie, a band that may be known by the few but not by the many. When Pale Wizard first tested the waters by allowing listeners to stream Alunah's version of "Breadfan" and Sergeant Thunderhoof's take on "Parents" posts soon started to appear on social media sites from people previously unaware of Budgie who liked what they were hearing and were promising to go back and check out the originals, if just two songs can invoke that sort of reaction then imagine what the full album will do. "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend: 50 Years Later" is not just a an album for wizened old Budgie fans its also a gateway for those unaware of the bands existence to discover a band who though never quite made it to the top of the mountain put out some damn fine music while they were climbing.
Wednesday 28 June 2023
DEMONIO ~ REACHING FOR THE LIGHT .... review
Friday 23 June 2023
SWAMP DUKES ~ LIVING NIGHTMARES .... review
Strange the things that come to mind when sitting down to write a review. Today we tasked ourselves with penning a few words on an intriguing release we had just discovered from a Serbian trio going by the name Swamp Dukes. The band, Bora Jovanovic (guitars); Stevan Fujto (bass) and Ilija Stefanovic (vocals and harmonica), had just released their debut EP "Living Nightmares" on Bandcamp but the first thought that entered our minds, as we sat down to start our piece, was not how are we going to describe those guitar tones and those distinctive vocals, no the question that plagued us was.. are there any actual swamps in Serbia? Thankfully a quick Google searched revealed that Serbia does indeed have swamps (apparently quite a few of them), which explains not only the bands name but also why the bands sound has such a deliciously swampy dynamic.
Opening number "Southern Cross" begins with the sound of a tolling bell and footsteps treading through water and is followed by some suitably southern flavoured guitar picking and a wonderfully drawled and swampy vocal. This is a song with its roots in the blues but that also resides in the same territories as the modern southern tinted stoner rock of bands like Mississippi Bones, Clutch and Planet of Zeus but do not be surprised however if you also detect a little Creedence Clearwater Revival twang knocking around in there too. Next tune up is "Death House Rescue" an enthralling up-tempo stoner romp boasting rhythms tighter than a gastric band and searing bluesy guitar solos that fire off in all directions beneath a devilishly delicious drawling vocal. Fujto's bass and an expertly programmed drum track (the band currently have no drummer in residence) combine in a wonderfully rhythmic intro for next song "Dig Deeper" then are joined by Jovanovic's guitar in as swaggering, strutting bluesy hard rock groove that reaches another level of swagger when Stefanovic's distinctive grainy baritone joins the fray. "The Devil in the Details" is up next and jams a slightly off-kilter stoner blues groove not unlike something QOTSA's Josh Homme might have toyed with on one of his "Desert Sessions" projects while final song "The Voice of Void" rounds things of nicely with crunchy southern fried blues riffs and equally bluesy guitar solos delivered beneath a superb ear catching vocal melody, the songs gradual fade out bringing to an end an EP that has been an absolute joyful listening experience from start to finish.
Wednesday 21 June 2023
TERRA BLACK ~ ALL DESCEND .... review
Monday 19 June 2023
WITCHTRIBE ~ FUZZROPOLIS .... review
Seems we might be going through one of those periods when a certain country suddenly has a surge in creativity and starts to put out one great release after another, we have seen it happen with Sweden, we've seen it happen with Greece and we've also seen it happen with some of the South American countries and now we are seeing it happen with Finland, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. Already this year we have had great albums from bands like Takezo, I, Captain and Smoulder and now we have one from a combo going by the name of WitchTribe. At the time of writing this review Desert Psychlist was unable to find any information regarding the band and a quick Google search directed us to numerous social media pages for budding witch coven's but no Finnish metal bands. What we can tell you however is that the band describe themselves as "Devil seeking men on a path to enlightment" and their grooves are a unholy alliance of stonerized doom, swampy sludge metal and fuzz drenched heavy rock infused with an air of off-centredness and twistedness that seems a common characteristic of so many of the heavier Nordic and Scandinavian bands, but don't just take our word for it go give their debur "Fuzzropolis" a listen and find out for yourselves.
WitchTribe kick off their debut with "Fuzzropolis", the song that gave their album its title, the track begins life slow low and suitably heavy with crunching dank riffs reverberating loudly over sparse pounding percussion and for the most part the stays that way for its duration. Vocals for this song tell of a "city of demons" and a "place of power and might" and are delivered in clean monotonic tones that often edge toward guttural but never quite get there. Low slow musical dynamics combined with monotone vocal tones are of course nothing new in the world of doom but there is something about the way WitchTribe put the two together here that feels different, it's hard to say why it feels different it just simply does. If you were expecting an album with songs all bearing a similar dynamic then next track "Dreamwalker" will shatter those expectations, here we have a song that begins life raucous and rowdy with throaty vocal melodies bellowed out over a chugging proto-doomic groove decorated in Iommi-like guitar colouring but then at around the halfway mark transforms in to this weird but wonderful blend of heavy psych and post-rock, the song only reprising its initial raucousness and rowdiness as it dashes towards its finale. "Meditation of Witchfinder" utilizes all the usual cliches associated with modern doom, i.e sampled narrative, mournful vocals and chunky reverberating circular refrains, but avoids sounding generic thanks to it possessing a weird off-centred vibe that is again hard to describe but is nevertheless still there. Next track, "Apophis" is a song of two halves with its first half a deep dive into weedian territory and its second a full on in your face sludge metal romp boasting some delicious and delightful screaming lead guitar while its follow up, " Amare Diaboli", sees WitchTribe throwing all your favourite genres of doom into one big pot and vigorously mixing them all together. You may need to grab a partner for next song "Charming Rites of Rock'n'Roll", whoever it was who said you can't dance to doom might seriously have to rethink that statement after hearing this dank little nugget. After the brief intake of fresh air the previous track afforded us the band take us back into the murky mire with the not so cheery "Everyone is Dead", a monolithic tome spread out over eleven minutes that for its most part boasts a lumbering low slow and heavy stoner doom dynamic and is decorated in suitably monotone vocal tones, the song does shift up a couple of gears in its last quarter but not by too much, this is tune for those who like to close their eyes and sagely nod along rather than those who like to slam-dance and mosh. Final number "Hell is Everywhere" stays relatively in the same ballpark as its predecessor but with a touch more variation and colour in its groove, a groove closer to proto and traditional doom than it is to stoner doom despite the fact that its vocals remain very much in the canon of the latter.
Thursday 15 June 2023
MASSASAUGA ~ THE ONLY GOOD WIZARD IS A DEAD WIZARD ...... review
Coventry, UK has given us Lady Godiva, Daimler cars and British ska outfit The Specials the city has also given us, in Cathedral, one of Britain's best doom bands not named Black Sabbath. Cathedral aside Coventry is a city not renowned for its doom scene but that might change with the arrival of Massasauga, Conrad Lummus (guitars/vocals) and Adam Stewart (drums), a duo with a penchant for thunderous rhythms and fuzzed out refrains who describe what they do as "conjuring riffs from beyond the grave, blasting drums from another dimension" then add to that legend by telling us that they also write "lyrics that put a spell on you". The duo have been quite prolific since their coming together in 2020 and have been steadily releasing demo's, singles and EP's via their Bandcamp page and Spotify ever since, including impressive covers of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and Edwyn Collins "A Girl Like You". Today though we are here to discuss their latest EP "The Only Good Wizard is a Dead Wizard", a conceptual piece that in the bands words "tells a story of mass hysteria, ritual sacrifice and ancient magic" and might just be the bands best release to date.
© 2023 Frazer Jones
Wednesday 14 June 2023
MISTY GREY ~ VISIONS AFTER VOID ....... review
Spain's Misty Grey have not had the best of luck with their vocalist's, the band first vocalist Malicia sported unique and sneery tones that kind of split listeners right down the middle with some really digging the band's proto doomic grooves but not warming to the distinctive vocal tones that fronted those grooves. Next came Bea, her tones were much easier on the ear and were better suited to the bands Pentagram inspired sound but lacked a little power at the top end. The Covid pandemic then saw the band forced to take some time out and during that time Bea parted ways with the band. It was three years before Misty Grey returned to the studio and their return saw the introduction of yet another new vocalist in the shape of Angel Flores who has, along with his keyboard skills, brought a more classic/traditional doom element to the bands sound, and it is with Flores at the mic that Misty Grey now release their latest and third full album "Visions After Void"..
© 2023 Frazer Jones
Sunday 11 June 2023
SNAKEMOTHER ~ SNAKEMOTHER ....... review
Snakemother are four talented female musicians from Oakland, California who make a noise we are sure regular readers of Desert Psychlist , and those coming here anew, will wholeheartedly approve of. The band, Bianca Salinas (vocals / guitar); Colie Sutter (bass / vocals); Julia Arria (drums) and Sammie Dee Wallinga (lead guitar), jam a groove that is an intriguing blend stoner doom, proto-doom and occult/pagan rock tinted with splashes of exotic eastern promise and lysergic laced heavy psych over which strong lead and harmonised vocals waft with a fey ethereal elegance. The bands self-titled opus "Snakemother" is the bands very first release, we sure hope it's not their last.
Opening song "Ritual" begins with exotic drones over which a powerful vocal, sung in the style of a traditional Bulgarian folk song, is delivered, crunching guitars and growling bass then enter the fray but then just as quickly fade away to allow an almost folkish metal air to prevail, both musically and vocally Those crunching riffs are never too far way though and as the song progresses they soon shift from being bit part players to leading cast members, only relinquishing their dominance when the the music shifts into brief period of lysergic ambience but soon returning to take the song to its close. Unlike the opening song "Sacrum" does not bother with trying to gradually ease the listener in but instead goes straight for the throat with thundering drumming and grinding guitar refrains right from the offset. Eventually things do subside and those eastern tinted vocals that opened "Ritual" are reprised over a groove that slowly shifts, via another passage of ambience, towards a more traditional doom gait with the vocals taking on an almost nursery rhyme meter. Next song "Circles" is an intriguing blend of seductive alt-rock eeriness and swaggering doomic bluster that should appeal to fans of both Spain's Rosy Finch and France's Grandma's Ashes, it being a song that possess the sludgy bite of the former and the grungy elegance of the latter. "Gold Shields" follows and has a stuttering, almost stop/start, groove and is the first song, up to this point, not to go off on unexpected tangents into lysergic and ambient territories while the emotionally charged torch song "Mu Rise" dips it toes into both those territories as well as boasting a superbly delivered folkish vocal melody. Final song, "Little Lady", sees Snakemother mixing galloping proto-doom refrains with low slow stoner doom dynamics then topping off the resulting outcome with Iommi-like lead breaks and powerful ethereal vocals, a stunning and face melting finale to what is a truly impressive debut.
© 2023 Frazer Jones
Tuesday 6 June 2023
HEMPLIFIER ~ THE STONER SIDE OF THE DOOM .... review
Malta, a small island country situated in the Mediterranean Sea, is not a place renowned for its underground rock scene, mainly due to its lack of venues willing to host rock shows, but that does not mean one does not exist. Malta does not lack bands who want to play heavy music the lack is with the limited resources at hand for these bands to promote that music. Thankfully the rise of music hosting sites, like Bandcamp, and small specialist record labels, like Ripple Records and Electric Valley Records, there are many more opportunities available to bands and artists from all over the world to get their wares out to wider audiences. It is in fact thanks to Electric Valley Records that today we get the chance to introduce you to Hemplifier, a stoner doom trio from Santa Venera, Malta consisting of Emanuel Portelli (guitar/vocals), Bażaż (bass) and Dino Mifsud Lepre (drums & samples). Hemplifier's groove is one we know will go down well with regular readers of Desert Psychlist, a heavy blend of low slung riffage and pounding percussion played at a sedate tempos and then sparingly decorated in an eclectic mixture of vocal tones, all of which are now available to hear on the bands debut "The Stoner Side of The Doom".
With a title like "The Stoner Side of The Doom" it is a pretty sure bet that Hemplifier are not going to be pinning anyone's ears back with grooves of thrash like furiosity or mid tempo Sabbathesque proto doom, as the album title suggests this is an album residing at the stoner end of the doom spectrum. Slow, low and heavy is the order of the day here with the band jamming dark insidious grooves that boast a lumbering rather than a galloping gait. First song out of the traps "Headless Chicken (intro)" begins with drummer Lepre beating out a simple but effective tattoo which is then joined by a low slung bass refrain from Bażaż, the songs increasingly sinister dynamic then becomes even more sinister thanks to guitarist Portelli layering raked strings and behind the nut picking just beneath the groove, the overall effect coming across like the soundtrack to a John Carpenter movie. The final drum beat of "Headless Chicken (intro)" is almost immediately followed by the piercing feedback and dank, reverberating riffage of next song "Brujo", a song built around one single riff but with the tempo of that riff constantly shifting back and forth between really slow and extremely slow, its accompanying vocal wordless and guttural. Next up is "Invocation" a song that sees the band mixing their cellar crawling stoner doom dynamics with elements of funereal doom and drone and then layering the resulting outcome with an unsettling but strangely intriguing blend of vocal stylings. Hemplifier offer us up an instrumental next, "Gort" is similar in style to its predecessor in that it possess many of the same elements of funereal doom and drone but differs slightly by adding an element of psych to the mix, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and start thinking along the lines of Elder or REZN here because Hemplifier's take on psych is completely different being that it is much darker, much more dense and much, much slower. For "Weedcraft" Hemplifier almost, but not quite, go down the proto-doom route, the songs groove is more strident and livelier than much of what has passed up until this point and its harsher vocals are definitely more in keeping with what we have come to expect from a modern doom album. Final song "Snooze (outro)" somewhat expands on the ideas explored on the opening intro in that it jams a groove that could easily serve as a movie soundtrack only instead of John Carpenter think something more along the lines of an Italian B movie themed around satanic horror and the occult.
Monday 5 June 2023
THE GRAY GOO ~ CIRCUS NIGHTMARE .... review
We think people may be able to tell by reading through the various reviews posted on Desert Psychlist that music leaning towards the heavier end of the rock spectrum is something we care about deeply but we also hope that our love of music that is a little quirky and sits a little left of centre is something that has not gone unnoticed either. Heavy music is of course Desert Psychlist's bread and butter but you cannot live on bread alone and so we vary our musical diet by listening to a diverse array of different music, someone passing by Stonerking Towers is as likely to hear the lilting British folk of Fairport Convention, the staccato chords of Steel Pulse or the modal jazz of John Coltrane blaring from the towers uppermost windows as they are the crunching fuzz of Kyuss or the reverberating riffs of YOB or Sleep, it 's how we roll. One of The Psychlist's greatest pleasures is finding a band who manage to cram all of our musical needs into one package, its a rare occurrence but one that Montana outfit The Gray Goo, Max Gargasz (guitar/ vox/ synthesizer); Matt Carper (bass/ vox/ keyboards) and Zach Ronish (drums/ vox/ percussion), have managed to pull off twice, first with their debut "1943" and now again with their latest release "Circus Nightmare"
When Desert Psychlist reviewed The Gray Goo's debut "1943" we described the bands mix of the straightforward with the unconventional as Zappa-esque and "Circus Nightmare" is an album very much in that same vein. The Gray Goo's music on "Circus Nightmare", like Zappa's, does not follow straight lines or rules, there is a air of organised chaos and manic playfulness to songs like "Alligator Bundee", "BEP", "Wizards of the Mountain" and "Out of Sight (Out of Mind)" that on a first listen may invoke a "what the fuck" reaction but will, with subsequent listens, soon turn to admiration and respect. Every style and genre of music ever committed to tape (and even some that have not) can be found on "Circus Nightmare", reggae, funk, doom, stoner/hard rock, jazz, musical theatre and folk all raise their heads here, sometimes separately and sometimes all together in one song, these different styles generally topped of with a mix of vocals that range from sneered and punky all the way through to harsh and guttural. Lyrically things are just as schizophrenic, even Zappa might have raised an eyebrow at lyrics like "and there was a producer named Ron Zachary, he recorded and mixed Bundy‘s EP, snare sounded like shit Bundy was pissed so he went into the booth and chomped off his DICK" ("Alligator Bundee") or "holy shit this shits the shit, I'm The Wizard and I'm ripped" ("Pipe Hitter"). Musically these guys are totally on the ball, to be able to play so many different styles and then be able to seamlessly weave those styles in and around each other over a whole album calls for a special kind of musician and these guys can play the shit out of anything they set their minds to... and on this album regularly do so.