THE MIFFS ~ THE MIFFS ..... review

We at Desert Psychlist have to admit to being a little bemused when seeing the word "surf" included in any bands musical description, we suppose this bemusement comes from our inability to disconnect in our minds the term from the sing-a-long harmonies and wholesome catchy melodies of the Beach Boys, a band and style of music we just never ever gelled with. Thankfully, for us anyway, Australian trio The Miffs book-end the word "surf" in their self-description with two words we CAN get on board with (no pun intended), those words being "psych" and "grunge". The band, Erin Grace Donnarumma (guitar,/vocals/synth/sitar); Hannah Mawson (bass) and Sinead Brassil (drums), have just released their debut album "The Miffs" a release that does possess some subtle surf like guitar textures scattered around here and there but is on the whole a gritty blending of heady psych and melodic grunge/alternative rock.

Proceedings get underway with "Somnium Sonos" an instrumental built around a series of recurring guitar motifs supported by low bouncy bass and industrious drumming, a great introductory number. "Forever Is A Very Long Time" finds The Miffs blending their psych, surf and grunge with a touch of indie-rock like twang beneath a vocal melody that sways between ethereal and folky and tells us that "life ain't easy" and "it ain't no use to cry". Mawson's bass and Brassil's drums introduce next song "High On Spite" and are, after a few bars, joined by Donnarumma's distinctive guitar tones in a groove that is heavily psychedelic but also quite jazzy, that jazziness also finding its way into Donnarumma's superbly delivered vocal. Donnarumma swaps her guitar for a sitar on the delicious eastern flavoured "Forbearance" while also waxing lyrical on aspects of the human condition, Mawson and Brassil however are a little less subtle with their contributions, Mawson's distorted to the max bass and Brassil's busy drums bringing a nice element of grungy dirtiness to the table. "Do Right By The Ones You Love" boasts an early Colour Haze feel, albeit if Colour Haze were fronted by a vocalist whose voice is a cross between legendary Brazilian jazz singer Flora Purim and Eva Hägen of French alternative rockers Grandma's Ashes. The previous songs Colour Haze vibe is also mirrored on the excellent "No Stairway" only here with the vocals taking on a more lilting folk-like dynamic. Things get a little more alternative and grungy for the albums final two songs , "50 Years" and "State Of My Blood" the former telling a slightly cryptical lyrical tale far too many women will be sadly too familiar with, the latter a rant against being forced to take sides by those with a vested interest in the choices you make, both sets of lyrics set against musical backdrops that are hard driven and thunderous without being over the top heavy.

A seriously impressive debut album from a seriously good band, "The Miffs" is not an overly hefty album musically but it is a considerably weighty album lyrically, a collection of songs that tackle important issues both head on and cryptically against musical backdrops that range from gentle to crunchy and all the various stops in-between.

Check it out ...

© 2025 Frazer Jones

ZARGENZEIN ~ GOT ELECTRICITY? ..... review

Ask many musicians, working in the fields of stoner/desert rock, sludge and doom, which band has influenced them the most to do what they are doing musically and Black Sabbath is very likely to be the very first name dropping from their lips, however, there are some parts of Europe where if that same question were asked the answer would just as likely be Electric Wizard. Four musicians likely to answer that question with the words Electric and Wizard are Dande Kemppainen (guitar/vocals); Tuukka Niemi (vocals/guitar); Thalia Nivala (bass) and Aapi Pietilä (drums), a quartet from Tampere, Finland working under the collective name Zargenzein. Zargenzein have just dropped their debut EP "Got Electricity?" on Bandcamp, a delicious mix of sludgy distortion drenched doom, sludge and heavy metal that takes its cues not only from Electric Wizard but also the bands #2 inspiration Iron Maiden.

"Inhaling Amazon" kicks off proceedings, this is a song boasting heavy throbbing doomic grooves accompanied by off kilter, slightly dissonant, guitar textures and sampled narrative. The songs dynamics are somewhat reminiscent, in places, of those emanating from the Italian scuzz/acid doom scene with heavily filtered sneery vocals delivered over a backdrop of deliciously thrumming heaviness, however,  the main difference between what Zargenzein deliver and that which you might find gracing an album by Demonio or Witchsnake is that where those two Italian bands will often drench everything in distortion and fuzz Zargenzein are a a touch more restrained with their use of effects pedals, the band tending to bring a little more clarity to the table. Next up is "Pinnacler" here we find the quartet serving up ear-catching riffs and motifs over a thunderously swinging groove that is probably slightly more heavy rock than it is doom, the song also features some nicely traded off guitar soloing as well as another of those sneery heavily filtered vocal performances. You might expect a song titled "Attic Demon" to be heavily doomic and maybe a touch brutal, which in parts it is, but it also turns out to be quite bluesy and proto-metallic too, although you could hardly describe its accompanying vocals as sitting in either of those camps. For their final track Zargenzein ditch the sneered manic vocalising for a more traditional doomic delivery and twin that delivery with grooves that also sit in the traditional doom pocket, albeit regularly diverting into stoner and proto territories. It would be interesting to see if this more "traditional" direction will be something the band will to explore further on future recordings, they certainly have a gift for it. 

Zargenzein deliver, with "Got Electricity?", all the filth and nastiness you could ask for in the medium of heavy music but manages to do so without becoming an unlistenable mess or just a wall of untamed noise, that's not to say that things don't get noisy, they do, but its a controlled noisiness, a structured noisiness, a beautifully thunderous and totally addictive noisiness.

Check it out ...... 

© 2025 Frazer Jones

SWAMPLORD ~ WITCHLAND ..... review

Not a lot gets past us here at Desert Psychlist but Swamplord's latest release "Witchland" nearly did, which is especially galling as we covered the bands previous release "Tombstone" on these very pages. Thankfully our fellow Doom Charts contributor Doomcakes (Screaming From The Heavy Underground) saved our blushes by alerting us to its release via the Doom Charts contributors private Facebook page which in turn prompted this review. For those not familiar with Swamplord the band are a Russian trio hailing from Murom consisting of Ilya Mitin (vocals); Konstantin Igonin (bass) and Sergey Chizhov (guitar), as with their previous releases Swamplord make no mention of a drummer in their album notes so we can only assume some clever programming is involved in the recording process or their drummer wishes to remain anonymous due being a wanted criminal or involved in covert operations, either way there are drums involved and they are pretty damn solid. That cleared up lets talk about the new album.

Opening number "D,T.W.S.M" does away with any niceties and gets down and dirty right from the off, guitar nerds will adore the fuzzy tones of the guitar and bass decorating this stoner-doomic tome while vocal buffs will surely pick up on the grunge-like dynamics of its chorus, there is also a pretty nifty soaring guitar solo to contend with here too that cuts through the fuzz and distortion surrounding it like a hot knife through butter. A short burst of feedback announces the arrival of next track "Initiation", followed by a deeply distorted stoner meets proto-doom groove supported by solid heavy percussion, this is an instrumental number but its lack of vocals becomes hardly noticeable thanks to its searing lead work. Third track "At The Altar Of Pan" features a gritty swinging vocal melody adorning a groove that sways between brutal and lysergic while title track "Witchland", another instrumental, begins funky and loose and then somewhere down the line morphs into this tight and gnarly doomic behemoth and even more surprisingly makes that transition almost seamlessly. "Heretics" sees Swamplord flexing their Sabbathian muscles musically while also dipping their toes into alternative metal waters vocally, it is followed by "Alchemy" a track that sees the band repeating much the same process but adding some psychedelic texturing into the mix. Little touches of heavy bluesiness ease their way into both "Shadows From The Hills" and its follow up "We Sow The Darkness" with both songs boasting a more subtle and  refined vocal delivery. Swamplord close "Witchland" with "Fuzzcraft", an instrumental we at Desert Psychlist are interpreting as  an ode to the art of distortion delivered via the medium of doom, a discipline these guys are black belts in.

On first glance the artwork for Swamplord's "Witchland" looks fairly quaint and pastoral but look closer and you will start to notice that things are not quite as as quaint as they might first seem, a second glance at the image revealing that the comely looking maiden in the foreground is being sized up by a malevolent looking ram while in the background a hag-like figure looms menacingly. The painting/drawing is pretty much a visual summing up of what to expect when dropping a needle or pushing play on "Witchland",i.e. brief moments of serenity surrounded on all sides by encroaching wickedness. 

Check it out ....

© 2025 Frazer Jones

ORDOS ~ FIRE .... review

Back in the good old days when there were still weekly British music papers, like The New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Sounds we Brits would more or less get to know months, sometimes even years, in advance that one of our favourite bands or artists were in the studio working on a new release, these days though things are a bit different and unless you are on a bands (or their PR's) mailing list or are constantly perusing their socials then prior knowledge of a release for the ordinary fan is almost non-existent, well at least until a few days before said release drops. Why are we telling you this you may ask... well in July of last year (2024), on a whim. Desert Psychlist decided to check out the Facebook page of Swedish sludge/stoner/doom combo Ordos, the reason we did this was because having not heard much from the band since the release of their third album "The End" we were truly worried that they might have called it a day, something that would have been quite devastating for us at the Psychlist as we have been championing this band since stumbling across their self titled debut back in 2013. What we found on their FB page was firstly that the band were still active and secondly, much to our pleasure, the news that they were working on a fourth album, facts that we would not have known had we not delved into their socials. That album, "Fire", has now dropped and it is all and a whole lot more of everything we have come to expect from these Uppsala natives.

Opening number "There is More" starts restrained and atmospheric with Magnus Stenqvist's eerie toned guitar textures accompanying a fairly lilting Emil Johansson vocal asking questions like "is this all" and "is this everything you've been searching for" with that last line the signal for bassist Martin Hagnell and drummer Max Sundberg to join the fray and take things into heavier climes, it is also the signal for Johansson to mix up those clean lilting tones with some of that distinctive throaty harshness that has become his trademark. Prog-metal and heavy psych fans should also also keep an ear out for the textures. tones and colours guitarist Stenqvist brings into play here, even injecting what sounds like a little jazz fusion into proceedings at one point. "Ferment" follows and sees Ordos hitting into one of those insidious and gnarly sludge/doom grooves we have all come to love them for, Johansson adding to the glorious mayhem with a vocal that mostly borders on feral but on occasions drops into a delicious deep croon. Maybe it is Sweden's Viking history, or its maybe its the stark and moody artwork gracing this album that is causing Desert Psychlist to constantly have images from writer director Robert Eggers "The Northman" movie running around in our heads while we listen to Ordos' "Fire". The most vivid of those images coming to our minds eye tend to be generated by the albums next song "Hell Has Come" a song with a thrumming stoner doomic dynamic that slowly increases in volume, intensity and depth as it progresses, a dynamic that is mirrored in its vocals which shift from clean and monastic to grainy, gritty and growly. If you have not seen "The Northman" do yourself a favour and go and see it and when you do make sure you have this song in your head when viewing the movie's iconic last fight scene. "IV" follows next and is a masterclass in how to blend dank atmospheric doom with elements of prog and sludge metal, the song throbs with malevolence and menace mainly due to Johansson's vocals which lean towards manic at times but also thanks to the thunderous and ever-shifting grooves Hagnell and Sundberg lay down beneath his vocals and the crunching riffage and textured motifs and solos Stenqvist weaves around them. Last song "Eyes of Fire" sits somewhere between a ballad and a lament in its initial stages, gentle arpeggios ringing out over shimmering percussion, but this is Ordos we are talking about so its not long before things start to get gnarly, both vocally and musically, and no one does gnarly better than Ordos as they prove when the crunching riffs and  thunderous drumming come in to support Johansson's throatier warblings, to be fair the song does return to the arpeggios and restrained percussion in its final moments but by then the listeners ears have already been fried to a crisp. 

Ordos are not the type of band to drop an album every other year and that is why when a new Ordos album lands it feels somewhat like an event, something to be celebrated and savoured until the band decide to grace our ears with something new. Hopefully that something new will not take the six years we have had to wait for "Fire" but if it does, and it is as powerful and thunderously brilliant as "Fire" has turned out to be, then you won't find many complaining.
Check it out ...

© 2025 Frazer Jones

BLACK FIRE PY ~ PRIMAL ..... review

Desert Psychlist has reviewed many albums from Brazilian, Argentinian, Peruvian and Chilean bands/artistes but to date we have only reviewed two albums released by Paraguayan bands, those being from Fuzzkrank and Lucifer's Children. Today we add a third to that list in the shape of Asunción sextet Black Fire Py, Ana Pereira.(lead/backing vocals); Mabe Bongiovi (lead/backing vocals); Maggie Storm (keyboards); Juanjo Villasboa (bass); Robert Irrazábal (drums/backing vocals) and Gabo Murphy (guitar/backing vocals), a band who blend elements of late 60's psych and 70's hard rock with current period stoner, space and occult rock to create a sound that is gritty enough for those already heavily invested in the underground rock scene but that is also accessible enough for those just visiting. The band have just released their debut release "Primal" and if you are a fan of bands like Coven, Jex Thoth and bands of that ilk then you'll want in on this.

First song "Primal Intro" opens proceedings and is probably more a tone poem than it is an actual song as it incorporates just one line of narrative accompanied by droning effects, tolling bells, minimal percussion and samples. Things get underway properly with "Desert" an infectious little ditty boasting a nicely executed blend of lead voice and backing harmonies interspersed with earworm motifs and hooks, a great little rock song made even better thanks to a searing guitar solo. "Mental Noise" is up next and as with the previous song makes great use of the vocal interplay between Pereira's lead vocal and Bongiovi, Irrazábal and Murphy's harmonious backing, Villasboa's bass and Irrazábal's drums serving as the glue holding everything together. Despite its fairly stoner/hard rock groove there is a touch of post-punkishness about next song "Golden Supernova", especially in the songs shouty chorus, the song also serves as a great showcase for Storm's keyboard skills, her off piste flourishes bringing, at times, an almost Hawkwind-like feel to the proceedings. Things take a somewhat mainstream turn with the very radio-friendly "Full Moon Light", which sees Bongiovi handling the lead vocals, this is a song that sits out a bit like a sore thumb against the all the hard rock surrounding it, a pleasant enough diversion granted but maybe not quite the right fit for this particular release. Things return to a more rocking state with the excellent "Salvation", this is a fantastic shape shifting heavy psych/heavy space tome that gives everyone in the band a chance to shine with  Villasboa and  Irrazábal laying down a monstrous groove for Murphy and Storm to decorate with scorching lead work and whooshing keyboards, Murphy also lending his voice, with Bongiovi, to the songs wordless wailing backing vocals Pereira placing the cherry on this musical cake with a strong and powerful lead vocal that in places soars towards operatic. Last but one track "Into The Death Game" is probably this releases heaviest and most spacious tome, Pereira sings of a "virtual world" where "nothing is real" accompanied by a mix of swooning backing harmonies and whispered asides over a backdrop of thickly fuzzed psychedelic tinted groove that is taken to another level by Storm's keyboards and Murphy's guitar. Final number "Primal Outro" brings us full circle by somewhat mirroring "Primal Intro" bur adding into the mix some eastern flavoured, yet bluesy, guitar.

Black Fire Py's "Primal"  is not as heavy as some releases you will find being put out under the banner of underground rock music but nor could it be considered lightweight either, there is plenty of screaming guitar and thundering riffage to be found here but there are also elements that lean towards the more commercial end of the rock spectrum. If you like your rock music delivered catchy, accessible and with more hooks than a fisherman's bait box then "Primal" is most definitely going to be your jam. 

Check it out ....   

  © 2025 Frazer Jones

TOWER ~ LET THERE BE DARK .... review

To be totally honest we at Desert Psychlist have never been fans of metal played at breakneck speeds, we much prefer our metal low, slow and lurching, it is probably why we never got off on the whole thrash thing and basically tried to convince ourselves power metal was a figment of our combined imaginations. Basically we have actively avoided anything with more BPM's than an oars masters drum, well up until today that is. Today we pressed play on NYC metallurgists Tower's new release "Let There Be Dark" and discovered that full on, no holds barred galloping metal can actually be something to be savoured, especially when its fronted by a vocalist in possession of incredible depth, clarity and power.

Opening song "Under The Chapel" begins with a rapid paced circular guitar motif that is then joined by drumming of a similar rapid dynamic that is in turn then joined by the rest of the band in a galloping metal groove so strident that at times it threatens to break the sound barrier. Along with that pace though comes accuracy,  guitarists James Danzo and Zak Penley never fluff their lines every crunching chord, every squealing note hits its target while bassist Philippe Arman and drummer Keith Mikus lay down a rapid backdrop of groove so precise yet so swinging it makes you start to wonder if they are actually of this world. Tower are however not an instrumental band, they write songs with lyrics and of course a lyric needs a singer and Tower have one of the best with Sarabeth Linden. Linden brings her A game not only to this song but also those that follow, it seems wrong to describe a female voice as Dio-esque but we at Desert Psychlist cannot think of a current female vocalist to compare her talents to, she has it all depth, power, clarity and tone, she can easily go from a whisper to a wail without breaking sweat.  

We've concentrated here on the opening number "Under The Chapel" but there is not a song on this album that falls into the realms of makeweight, songs like "Holy Water", "Book of the Hidden", "Iron Clad",  and "The Hammer" are all masterclasses how to make metal music still sound vibrant, powerful  and fresh. Despite us bigging up Tower's stridency and pace "Let There Be Dark" is not however an album of back to back furiosity, the classical tinted "The Well of Souls" and the eastern tinged "Legio X Fretensis" do serve as brief windows for listeners to catch their breaths, as does the torch-like "Don't You Say", but overall this is an album of foot to the floor heavy metal delivered with a truckload of panache, style and class.  

Tower's "Let There Be Dark" is fast intense and powerful, it utilizes elements of thrash metal, power metal and NWOBHM, it is a metal played by extremely talented musicians and fronted by an unbelievably gifted singer. If you were of the opinion that heavy metal of this style and quality was starting to become somewhat of a rarity within our scene then "Let There Be Dark" is proof that if you are prepared to dig a little there's still gold to be found in them there hills. 

Check it out ..... 

© 2025 Frazer Jones

DAEVAR ~ SUB ROSA ... review

"Difficult third album syndrome" is a real thing and it is something more than a few bands and artists have struggled with over the years, the "syndrome" usually manifests itself after a band/artiste has released an impressive debut then follow up said debut with a killer second album that takes many of the ideas explored on the debut up to a whole other level. This is where problems start because now the band/artiste is expected to either better that killer second album or at least deliver something of a similar level of quality while at he same time trying to show the world that they are evolving as musicians and songwriters. Of course their are just as many bands and artists who never suffer difficult third album syndrome, bands and artistes who just seem to be able to follow one great album up with another of equal magnitude, one after another, and this seems to be the case with Cologne's Daevar.

Daevar, Moritz Ermen Bausch (drums); Caspar Orfgen (guitars) and Pardis Latifi (bass/vocals) burst onto the scene in January 2023 with their debut "Delirious Rites" and in the same month grabbed a #16 spot on the Doom Charts, this was followed by the excellent "Amber Eyes" (March 2024) which bettered its predecessor by hitting #9 on the Doom Charts as well as #11 on our own Desert Psychlist best of list for that year. The band have just released their third album "Sub Rosa" (The Lasting Dose Records) and although the trio do not make music with the sole intention of featuring in lists or charts Desert Psychlist fully expects that this swooning and majestic grungy doom opus will be appearing in many.

Daevar tend to throw around terms like "doomy grunge" and "cloudy lo-fi" when describing their music and as descriptions go those terms pretty much nail what the band bring to the table sonically. Muscular refrains and rumbling rhythms twinned with soaring, swaying vocal melodies are what Daevar are all about and the  J.D. Salinger inspired opening number "Catcher In The Rye" is the perfect example of this approach. Here we find Orfgen and Latifi laying down dank dark six and four string riffage supported by Bausch's thunderous Bonham-esque drumming, Latifi doubling up on her bass duties with a vocal that sits somewhere between lilting and haunting, her fey tones flowing over the songs backdrop of moody heaviness like honey over razorblades. There is a Nirvana-esque feel to the guitar tone Orfgen chooses to introduce next song "Siren Song" but any comparisons that can be made with Kurt Cobain's less than merry men soon go out of the window when Daevar launch into a groove that is far more occult rock than it is Seattle grunge accompanied by lilting vocal that carries a similar mystical flavour. "Wishing Well" follows and sees Latifi's low bass tones, Bausch's drums and Orfgen's crunchy guitar textures create a thunderous proto-metallic noise for Latifi's to then decorate with a smooth undulating vocal, no screaming lead guitar work to be found here this is a song that lives and dies on its melody. Next song "Wishing Well" finds Latifi voicing an  ethereal vocal melody over grooves of dank doom tinted with elements of alternative metal, the songs main guitar motif possessing a very Cobain-like feel but one that sounds like it is is being driven through a wall of amps belonging to either Conan or Monolord. "Mirrors" follows and starts of with Bausch beating out a rather upbeat drum tattoo but any thoughts that Daevar were about to launch into anything remotely rock'n'roll are dashed when he is joined by Latifi and Orfgen in a groove that although slightly more strident than what has passed previously most definitely does sit in that "cloudy lo-fi" pocket they have made their own, though having said that Latifi's vocals do possess an extra element of swing here. Fans of Windhand, The Devil's Blood and bands of that ilk will find much to enjoy about the following "The Forgotten Tale", Latifi's vocals are here delivered lower and a touch more monotonic and this adds a slightly more haunting quality to the proceeding, however there is nothing monotonic about Orfgen's sizzling solo that features in the songs final quarter, it is piercing, soaring and awash with colour. Finally we arrive at closing number "FDSMD" this features everything there is to love about this band in one song, booming low end, thunderous drumming, searing lead work and swooning swaying vocals all wrapped up in their distinctive low-fi cloudiness.

Whether Daevar found their third full length release a "difficult" album to make we will probably never know but it is certainly not a difficult album to listen to, in fact it is an absolutely delightful listening experience from start to finish. Thinking about it "Sub Rosa", could well be the best "cloudy lo-fi doomy grunge" album of the year, albeit in a field of one.

Check it out ... 

  

© 2025 Frazer Jones

ESPERMATICIDIO ~ KALKUTUN .... review

Some of you out there may be familiar with the name David Véliz, some may not, those who are familiar with that name will most likely have come across his name associated with the bands Demonauta and Familia del Desierto and through his solo projects released under the name Deiv Id Fuzz. Today though we are going to be discussing another band he is involved with, Espermaticidio, a power trio formed with fellow musicians Gonzalo Garcia (bass/vocals) and Rodrigo Villalobos (drums). Espermaticidio are one of the oldest musical projects Véliz has been involved with but is at the same time probably his least known outside of his Chilean homeland but that could well change with the release of "Kalkutun" the bands latest and, in our humble opinion, best release yet.

Things kick off in fine style with opening track "Darkness Wheel", this is a song that blends Sabbathian proto-doom with stonerized heavy rock and brings the resulting mix to the boil with soaring acidic lead work, and if that hasn't whetted your appetite enough the band then top things off with a swaying vocal melody (in English) so addictive it should carry a health warning, A rolling grainy bass motif introduces next track "Droga y R&R" followed by the rest of the trio joining in on a furious desert punk groove over which angsty vocals (Spanish) are delivered in shouty, almost rap-like, tones. If this song continued on to its last note in this style we at Desert Psychlist would suspect there would not be too many complaining but slap bang in the centre of all this furiosity Espermaticidio decide to treat us to an extended passage of soaring and bluesy heavy psych accompanied by appropriately lilting vocals before then returning to the songs punk(ish) roots to close things the way they started them . All the usual dooms, traditional; proto and stoner, get a place to call their own on the excellent "El Camino", along with some dark and dank psychedelic textures while title track "Kalkutun" mixes those same dooms with textures and colours borrowed from 70's heavy rock and 80's metal. Having got doom, psych and heavy rock down pat Espermaticidio turn their hand to grungy alt-metal for the deliciously moody "Downer", the vocal (English) here delivered sublimely downbeat and weary. For their final number, "Blanqueador", Espermaticidio blend alt-metal quiet/loud/quiet dynamics with elements of doom, desert rock and psych to create a groove that is both undulating and jagged, the band topping off said groove with an excellent swaying vocal melody (Spanish) that is Nirvana-esque in its dynamics if not in its tones.

If you are one of those looking to dip your toes into Chile's vibrant and diverse underground scene for the very first time then you could not find a better album to start your journey with than Espermaticidio's "Kalkutun", this is an album that delivers all the crunch, all the bite and all the musicality you could possibly want from an album deemed as "underground". If, on the other hand, you are a listener already fully immersed in the musical delights Chile has to offer then this is yet another superb album of Chilean grooviness that needs to be gracing your music collection..
Check it out ...

© 2025 Frazer Jones

FUZZ EVIL ~ SMEAR MERCHANTS ....review

"A chug heavy four piece" is how Sierra Vista, Arizona's Fuzz Evil refer to themselves and there is no denying that there is a certain level of "chug" to be found in their fuzz drenched musical attack but there is also so much more. Admittedly the bands early releases, "Fuzz Evil" (2016) and "High On You" (2018), did carry a "let's have a party" old school stoner/desert rock vibe but then along came 2023's "New Blood" and all of a sudden we were hearing elements of off-centred quirkiness filtering into their sound along with an element of dark edginess, it was clear to all hearing the album that these guys were evolving as both songwriters and musicians. Evolution is a force that once it starts is impossible to stop and so those experiments with quirkiness and edginess, that saw "New Blood" grabbing a respectable #30 on the September edition of 2023's Doom Charts, can also be found making their presence felt on Fuzz Evil's latest release "Smear Merchants" (Desert Records) along with some textures and colours that border on the edges of both ambient and blackened.

Opening track "Fraile Mourning of Eternity" is gentle homely and quaint so make the most of it because apart from the ambient and atmospheric "Whispers from the Abyss", that closes the album, its foot to the floor raucous heaviness all the way. The heaviness begins with second track "Wanderers Wake". the guitars of Wayne Rudell and Preston Jennings (baritone) combining with Joseph Rudell's exquisite booming bass and  Kenneth "Cajun" Adam's busy and industrious drumming to create a groove dirtier and darker than anything that has graced the bands output up until now.. Vocals here are for the most part clean and melodic with W Rudell handling the majority of the lead work in his customary gritty croon with his bass playing brother Joseph helping out on backing vocals and harmonies, as we have said earlier there is blackened edginess to be found within the bands sound on this album day and much of that edginess is down to drummer Adams pitching in with vocals of a harsher, growlier nature. The heavy darker feel the band bring to that second number is more or less the vibe running through the majority of the album, songs like "Progression of the Black Sun", "How To Vibe Alone" and "Under The Starlit Grave" find the band hitting grooves that sound like they should belong in the canon of doom but if this is doom then its a doom stitched together with so many other elements that it almost becomes something else entirely, and let us just say that it is a something you'll really not want to miss out on. Even when the band do slip back to their old desert punk roots, like on "Sermons of the Defiant", and to some extent, title track "Smear Merchants", its as if they have discovered a darker more twisted version of their old selves. For us at Desert Psychlist though it is the song sitting at #3 on the albums track listing that really brings to the fore Fuzz Evil's evolution as a band, "Doomsayers Lament" may be an instrumental and may only be just over two minutes long but this is a song that takes the rule book and tears it to shreds, its like musical form and experimentation decided to sit down and write a tune together, which gets Desert Psychlist wondering if it was this schizophrenic jam that was the catalyst for the bands decision to approach their music from a whole new angle this time out.

"Smear Merchants" is Fuzz Evil at not only their fuzziest but also their most evil, the songs contained beneath the albums impressive artwork (courtesy of Joseph Rudell) are darker, more complex and better thought out than anything the band have attempted to date. Of course the desert/punk rock elements of the bands sound, which has served them so well up to this point, still surface from time to time but here they are blended with darker, heavier essences drawn from some of metals furthest extremities. It is these essences along with the bands willingness to push boundaries and experiment that make "Smear Merchants" one of the essential listening experiences of 2025.

Check it out ...

© 2025 Frazer Jones

RIFFT ~ DEATH PEACE ..... review

Go to many bands albums/EP pages on Bandcamp and beneath all the various format pricings and track listings but above the line-up info and the production credits you will often find a blurb, sometimes this blurb will have been written by a member of the band, sometimes by the bands label , sometimes by a PR agent and on some occasions by a friendly journalist. This blurb usually gives you a little bit of history about the band, a few words about the recording process and if its an album with a concept a few lines explaining the theme. Go to that section of RIFFT's latest release "Death Peace" however and you are met with just one line, "Death Peace: A heavy metal album by RIFFT", eight words that say a lot but don't quite manage to cover the whole story... which is where we come in.

Calling "Death Peace" a heavy metal album is, Desert Psychlist suspects, a bit of a tongue in cheek statement and we say that because this is an album packed to its rafters with elements and essences drawn from a wide range of genres and styles, for example opening instrumental "Feed Your Fear" with its ambient droning atmospherics and weird clicks and whirls is probably about as far removed from heavy metal as it is possible to get. Things do get a little more metallic on next track "An Unforgiving Sky" but that's more due to heftiness of its guitar and bass tones and the occasional swings of its vocals into grittier realms than anything else because the songs overall feel is mostly post metallic and proggish, albeit with a plethora of doomic textures thrown in for good measure. It's back to the weirdness for the strangely unsettling "Dewdrops" where we are faced with droning dark noise, effect generated whoops and whistles and remote sounding drums framing passages of spoken word, off-kilter and slightly sinister it sets the scene nicely for the following "The Necromancer's Door" a thrusting, at times  jerky, tome that for its most part features crunching heavy riffage and thunderous rhythms but on occasions wanders into prog-like territories where it is accompanied by clean somewhat lilting vocal melodies and harmonies.. Continuing their path of delivering moody experimental pieces next to more traditional heaviness RIFFT serve up "Love and Error" next, this piece mixing elements of Americana with a raft of electronic effects  over what sounds like sampled narrative from a movie. "Don't Be A Stranger" follows, here we find RIFFT going up and down the gears with sections of blustering heaviness trading off with dynamics of a more tender and languid quality while title track "Death Peace" is a meandering, roaming opus that pulls together threads from right across the musical spectrum, elements of Americana, country, blues, psych, doom and even a little hardcore can be found on this sprawling epic along with one of the albums best vocal performances. RIFFT make up for the lack of an off piste slice of weirdness between the last two tracks by putting one at the end of the album, "The Insects Made Sentience in the Wolf’s Carcass", this one an ambient woodwind serenade that uses the sound of nature as its backdrop

.There are certainly metallic elements to the music RIFFT make together and there is no getting away from the fact that at times those elements DO lean towards the heavier end of the rock spectrum but for them to describe what they deliver on "Death Peace" as "heavy metal" is somewhat of an over-simplification, if they really have to use the term "heavy metal" would it not be better if they prefix the term with the words bold, boundary pushing and brilliant. 

Check 'em out ..... 

© 2025 Frazer Jones

NIGHTSTALKER ~ RETURN FROM THE POINT OF NO RETURN ..... review

 

Do we really need to have to go into a long winded introduction explaining who Nightstalker are and detailing the impact this band have had not only on music from their own country Greece but also rock music worldwide. These guys have been doing their thing from way back in the early nineties and in that time have, in our opinion, never released anything that could be considered "duff" or "a turkey".Some would argue that without Nightstalker there would be no Greek underground rock scene and that's because many believe these guys laid the path all other Greek underground rock outfits have since been following. Like most bands there have been some comings and goings over the years (not that many to be fair) but the bands commitment to delivering vital, passionate rock music has never waned and you will find no lack of that same commitment running through the grooves of their latest release "Return From The Point Of No Return" (Heavy Psych Sounds Records).

Nightstalker are notoriously uncomfortable with being labelled as stoner, desert or any of the other tags  placed upon them  musically and this throws up a number of problems for any humble writer trying to review their output. The band do not make things any easier either by kicking off their new album with a song called "Dust" a number that has that same hard driven, fuzz drenched rolling gait we have over the years come to associate with music of a desert/stoner flavour. Whether you deem this tune desert/stoner rock or just plain old rock this well delivered lyrical lament, set against a surprisingly upbeat groove, is  everything you could possibly hope to expect from this iconic Athenian combo. Up next comes "Heavy Trippin'" a song that starts life languid and lysergic then morphs into a throbbing heavy rock groove routinely interrupted by passages of liquid-like guitar texturing over which vocalist Argy explains to us that " you don't need someone to follow when you don't need someone to lead" in those slightly wearied tones that have become his trademark. Rightly or wrongly Desert Psychlist's riff-battered ears detects traits belonging to the likes of Monster Magnet, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and even a little Truckfighters knocking around in the galloping rocker "Uncut" with Andreas Lagios' bass and Dinos Roulos' drums laying down a platform of rolling grainy groove for Tolis Motsios to decorate with crunching guitar riffs and soaring lead work, Argy holding up his end with a superbly delivered vocal. Title track "Return From The Point Of No Return" has a pulsing, throbbing dynamic that gives it a space like feel, a feel enhanced by Argy occasionally running his vocals through a filter and also the thrumming, almost fizzy, tones of the bass and guitar. Nightstalker dial down the ferocity a tad for the swooning, but still damn weighty, "Shipwrecked Powder Monkey" a song that begins with Argy lamenting the vagaries of wasted time against a backdrop of gentle arpeggiated guitar, his voice emotive and full of gravitas. The wistful mood is however soon shattered when Lagios and Roulos join the fray and the song takes on a more torch-like dynamic, the song slowly building, layer by layer, to a peak, a peak that finds Argy repeating the line "but tomorrow became yesterday" surrounded by Tolis Motsios' swirling, screaming guitar. "Shallow Grave" follows much a similar dynamic path to its predecessor only this time around taking a little longer to climb towards its inevitable peak, the end result however just as intense and powerful. Penultimate number "Falling Inside" boasts a bouncy swaying dynamic, had this been put out as a single back in the day when we still had plenty of rock radio stations this would be a possible contender for a playlist spot. Nightstalker bring proceedings to a close with "Flying Mode" a song that finds Argy running a wizened eye over life and its choices against a backdrop of groove that along its journey shifts from lysergic doominosity to strutting psych heavy funkiness, Argy urging us to "move on, just move on" totally ignorant of  the fact that when the music is this good moving on is the last thing we want to do. 

Mention Nightstalker  to anyone outside of Greece with a knowledge of the underground rock scene and you will undoubtedly be met with replies of "great band", however ask those same people to name ten bands that have had a major impact on the international underground scene and Nightstalker will hardly get a mention. Why Nightstalker are not cited in the same breaths as the Kyuss', the Fu Manchu's and the Clutch's of this world is a mystery, especially given that before their arrival very few people looked outside of the USA and the UK for their rock music fixes, but that's just the way it is. Whether Nightstalker will be loose any sleep over this state of affairs we can't tell you but our guess is they will just carry on putting out albums of the quality of  "Return To The Point Of No Return" until it becomes physically impossible for them to do so... regardless of  mass recognition, musical trends or fashions. 

Check 'em out .... 

© 2025 Frazer Jones

FAT GRASS ~ FAT GRASS .... review

Let us introduce you to Fat Grass, Fabrizio Ferreira (bass): Marcos Sosa (drums) and Hernán Alco Torres (guitar/vocals), a stoner doom/sludge trio, from Cordoba, Argentina, who some may remember from their 2010 release "Deep Trip" or its excellent follow up "Shadows" (2022). This month sees Fat Grass release their third album the self-titled "Fat Grass" a release we predict will be embraced by all those who still love their grooves slow pondering and heavy.

Opening track "Scum" starts nice and nasty and remains in that mode throughout its eight minute plus tenure. Dark reverberating riffage and steady pounding rhythms are the bands weapons of choice and they wield those weapons here with aplomb. The songs tempo is for the most part achingly ponderous and heavy and its vocals have monotonic Gregorian quality, the songs only moments of relief being the appearance of  what sounds like keyboards, but could well be a guitar effect, around the songs three quarter mark, we did promise you grooves of a slow lurching quality and that is exactly what Fat Grass deliver. If you thought "Scum" was like listening to Black Sabbath played at the wrong speed well then next track "Lost Faith" finds Fat Grass making Sunn O)) sound like a thrash outfit, this is a song where the intervals between each power chord seems to take about an hour and the drummer sounds like he's hitting his skins with war hammers, factor in its monastic flavoured vocals and what you have here is a sound that even the words dirge-like would struggle to cover, and we mean that as a compliment. Third song "Rayo Blanco" begins moody and sinister with just a bass line and drums then is joined by guitar n groove that ramps up the atmosphere but not the tempo, the monastic flavoured vocals, that have decorated the two previous songs, are here jettisoned for somewhat grittier tones and it is something that works to the songs advantage especially in the songs last quarter when the band throw caution to the wind and shift into something approaching proto-metallic speeds. Next we get the appropriately titled "Interlude" a brief but fairly interesting instrumental piece that doesn't really say much about the band other than that even they need a break from all the brooding the intensity every now and then. "El Brujo y el Tiempo" is a stomping, throbbing slice of sludgy doom buoyed by a surprisingly swinging vocal , the contrasting attack of those monstrous grooves against that bouncy swaying vocal melody really works here and is something Desert Psychlist hopes the band will be explore further on the future endeavours. Finally we arrive at "Sickness" a song that, like its title suggests, lays you low from its first reverberating note to its last, a song that like a disease or a virus attacks you at your very core, there is not much variation to be found on this thrumming insidious instrumental but that is also its beauty, a mercilessly onslaught of dank groove that keeps coming at you wave upon glorious wave until there is nothing left to do but run up the white flag and surrender to its relentless dark majesty..

There seems to be a lack of doom lately that has that lumbering, crawling quality, a quality that was once omni-present in our scene, why that is who can say but it does seem that a lot of those bands who built their reputations churning out grooves of a sedate and lumbering nature have either fallen by the wayside or have altered their musical attack to incorporate more varied tempo's. textures, colours and dynamics in their music. Now there is nothing at all wrong with bands doing that, artists evolve and are always looking to improve on what they do, however there are those among us who miss hearing music with a meandering and menacing gait and its music of that nature that Fat Grass deliver with their self-titled third album "Fat Grass", music that brings to the minds eye visions of slow moving decrepit creatures inching their way across rain sodden ground with arms outstretched and a blood lust in their eyes.

Check 'em out ..... .

© 2025 Frazer Jones