We at Desert Psychlist have never visited Texas and, given our meagre finances, are never likely to but we are nevertheless head over heels in love with the place, the reason we have such a fondness for the state is solely down to Texas supplying us with so many of the albums we regularly listen to here at Stonerking Towers, albums not only from giants like ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan but also from lesser known outfits like Arc Angels and Stray Dog as well as music from more recent combos like Crypt Trip, Wo Fat and Thunder Horse. Just recently our radar picked up on a new (to us) band from the Lone Star State, a band going by the name Mind Funeral who have a sound almost as big as the state they hail from, a sound that is a raunchy mix of proto-doom, heavy stoner rock and psych that they like to call "doom'n'roll". The band have just released their debut album "The Spiral" and if you like your grooves big, bold and brash... this your jam!
After all our talk of boldness and brashness Mind Funeral kick things off quite laid back and minimal with opening track "Lament In Automation", the song opens with gentle acoustic guitar noodling and at first seems in no real hurry to get to where its going but then in comes some thunderous bass and drums backed by swirling guitar, backed up with what sounds like a synth, and all of a sudden we are afloat on the good ship instrumental doom. The song does return to its initial acoustic gentleness in its final moments but by then your eardrums will have already run up the white flag. There is probably a much deeper message to be found in the lyrics of next song "Closer To God" however there will be a few wives/girlfriends out there dealing with males in the throws of "man-flu" who may recognise the "oh lord please take me" sentiments of its lyrical content, that aside this is a barnburner of a tune with a rolling proto-doom groove and vocals that are a mix of wearied cleanliness and throaty harshness. We all love songs about witches in this scene and Mind Funeral serve us up a beauty with the ripping and raucous "Cyberwitch", the song boasting an ear-catching vocal melody sang over a backdrop of infectious rolling stoner-like groove. "Hivemind" finds Mind Funeral flexing their psych doom muscles with the band jamming a groove that initially sits just a few bpm's above low'n'slow but then shifts up the gears into something slightly more proto-metallic leaning. Next song "Clockwise" comes straight out of the gate snarling with the band hitting into a thunderous groove decorated with a Sabbathian flavoured vocal melody, a song made to feel even more thunderous thanks to the furiosity of its drumming and the sludgy tones of its guitar and bass refrains while final number "System Failure", an instrumental, follows a similar blueprint to opening song "Lament In Automation" in that it moves from gentle acoustic picking to a full on doomic riff fest.
© 2025 Frazer Jones
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