Austria's SAVANAH release debut album DEEP SHADES

In February of this year Austrian trio Savanah released  "Deep Shade" the first track from their debut album of the same name.. It was a gem of a track full heavy stoner riffs and psychedelic atmospherics and resulted in them getting some considerable airplay via local Austrian radio stations. Today the band  released the full album and it's been well worth waiting for.

"Deep Shade", in my opinion, is one of those albums that has the potential to make many of those end of year best of lists so beloved of the stoner community's blogs and websites, containing as it does all the elements that us denizens of the "underground" music scene look for in our music. If you want riffs "Deep Shade" has got them, thick fuzzy and catchy as hell, if your looking for fiery guitar solos, strong vocals then look no further, majestic bass lines and furious drum work, its here, Colour Haze type heavy psych?..... yeah these guys can do that to. The level of musicianship and tight interplay throughout these five tracks is truly stunning and the fact that Savanah only formed in 2014 makes it even more astounding.

Do yourself a favour and check these guys out and if you don't come away dazzled and bewildered  by the awesome sonic attack that these three Austrians deliver....
well then you better check your pulse...there's a good chance your dead.

Finnish psych rockers JUPITER release "Interstellar Chronodrive"

Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun and also a Finnish stoner/heavy psych band. What do they have in common I hear you ask? Well nothing really but I was struggling with an intro to this review and that's the best I could come up with........At least i'm being honest!

"Interstellar Chronodrive" is a sprawling album of heavy psych bombast incorporating elements of hard rock/stoner fuzziness and cosmic space rock trippy weirdness. With songs  titles such as "Dispersed Matter/Astral Portal", "In Flux" and "Spirit of the Leech" you can sort of guess these are not going to be tunes about women, trucks and beer unless of course if those women are trucking across the cosmos with a couple of six packs, (idea for a song there guys),  no these boys are aiming a little higher. Fronted by the melodic voice of Tuukka, who also plays a mean guitar, and supported by the dynamic rhythms of Mikel (bass) and  Liehis on drums ( last names are soooooo
yesterday) Jupiter at times wander in to the heady realms of progressive rock  with angular time changes, jazzy progressions and complex arrangements but they manage to balance this all with enough gritty fuzzed out riffage and foot to the floor rock'n'roll attitude to please even the most discerning stoners and doomers out there.
Sterling stuff!

Looking back I may well have nailed it with that review intro, Jupiter, band and planet are both heavy and both OUT THERE

SOUTHERN FRIED GENOCIDE ~ prepare for "ELECTRIC MAYHEM"

The words "southern", "fried" and "genocide" are three words that are bound to catch the eye of any stoner, doomer or hard rock fan who spends long hours perusing the internet for interesting new sounds, and when those three words are then joined by another two like "electric" and "mayhem"...... well you got to check it out

.First off  lets get something out of the way.... Southern Fried Genocide are a band that are bound to draw comparisons with Maryland's famous sons Clutch, owing to vocalist Steve O's similar preacher in the pulpit delivery, but whereas Neil Fallon and the boys tend to lean heavier on their hardcore roots "SFG" have a more organic southern rock vibe going on
.

So what do you get for your money?
Well ."Electric Mayhem" is a butt-kicking album of joyous rock'n'roll energy married to stonerized metal riffage, blues infused solos and thick swampy rhythms. From opening track "Blood On My Hands" to the epic instrumental closer "Jimini Cricket"(every southern band has to have its own "Freebird") not a note is wasted, a drum fill out of place, everyone playing out of their skins, working for the song.

All in all "SFG's" "Electric Mayhem" is an album of extremes, extremely well played, extremely infectious and extremely good and if Clutch float your musical boat then your gonna love these guys.

The Doctor will see you now... France's DOCTOR DOOM release debut

The type of bluesy, doom infused stoner grooves that bands such as Graveyard, Witchcraft, Horisont and Lonely Kamel have made so popular over the last few years has mostly, with a few exceptions come from Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway etc. Well now France's Doctor Doom want a piece of the action and have just  released their debut " This Seed We Have Sown"

Doctor Doom, from Pamiers, France and consisting of Jean-Laurent Pasquet : vocal / guitars, Jérémie Delattre : Guitars / backing vocals, Sébastien Boutin Blomfield : Bass, Keys and Michel Marcq : Drums,  have taken that Scandinavian menu of gritty stoner riffs, bluesy hard driving rhythms and doomy 60's psychedelics and slapped a little French dressing and Gallic flavour to the mix  and served it all up in one killer album.

The first thing that hits you about " This Seed We Have Sown" is the vocals, laid back and darkly melodic with a cool late 60's vibe. It is these vocals, solo and harmonised, combined with the high level of  musicianship shown throughout, that sets this album apart from others of its ilk.
Musically the band beg, borrow and steal from every genre and era, blending jazzy chord progressions to bluesy licks and  psychedelic noodlings , and peppering it all with some stoner fuzz and occult/retro rock grooviness. This is not one of those albums that gets in your face and demands your attention, no this is subtle in its approach, growing on you track by track until finally your powerless to resist its sonic charms. and are forced to press that re-play button for another hit

A cynic might argue that we have enough bands ploughing this particular furrow and do we really need another Graveyard or Kamchatka? Well to some point I would agree, the stoner market does seem to be getting a little saturated with similar sounding bands but I feel Doctor Doom have that little extra quality that elevates from also-rans to contenders.
Check 'em out see what you think.....

OCCULT WISDOM ~ Heavy psych trio release debut album

When Dzjenghis Khan guitarist Spencer Grau and Chief Nowhere drummer Andy Campanella got together with David Calder Ure (bass) there was never any doubt in their mind in which direction they wanted to take Occult Wisdom. Having been schooled in the sounds of bands as diverse as British 60/70's underground heroes Hawkwind  and The Pink Fairies through to current stoners Dead Meadows and QOTSA, Occult Wisdom were always going to play it psychedelic and slightly left of centre

NOTE: David Calder Ure although playing on "Occult Wisdom" has now departed and has been replaced by Donovan Jesus Hernandez

 "Occult Wisdom" is a sprawling monster of an album that takes in all those elements from the bands mentioned earlier but mixes them all together in a unique blend of yesterday and today.
Songs like "Reflections On Elephants" and  "Canned Man" show that this band are not ones to be stuck in the rut of verse/chorus/verse, no these guys like to mix it up a bit by adding moods and colours with subtle, and sometimes, brutal changes of pace and time signatures, going off in tangents of glorious psychedelic madness, bringing it all back to the song just as you start to think they've  lost their way . Add to this the mixture of lone and harmonised vocals combined with scintillating guitar solos and tight rhythms and what you have is an album that although references the past is wholly original in its delivery and content.

If you are a fan of intelligent, articulate music that likes to push the boundaries a little but you also like your grooves to be a little down and dirty and fuzzed around the edges then you won't do better than  Occult Wisdom.

CYBERNETIC WITCH CULT ~ Retro grooves from the UK

Retro is sometimes viewed as a dirty word in music, bands taking a sound and style that has been used successfully in the past and recycling it for today's market. Some bands though can take those past influences twist them round, turn them over and come up with something new and exciting, retaining the grooves of the past but injecting something of themselves into those grooves. Cybernetic Witch Cult are one of those bands and on their debut " Morlock Rock" they show that "retro" can be a good thing ...in the right hands.

There is no doubt that "Morlock Rock" has its roots set firmly in the 70's, both musically and lyrically, its lyrics mirroring a love of sci-fi and horror b-movies and its music nodding its head towards Sabbath and Pentagram and their ilk. Cybernetic Witch Cult are no clones though and manage to avoid the trap of trying to sound like their heroes by injecting a feeling of fun and a sense of humour throughout the eight songs that make up this album. Songs like "Tyrannosaurus Hex" and "Cybernetic Witch" rock out with a dark doomy edge, infectious, well played and full of hooks but you can't help but feel that the band had their tongues firmly stuck in their cheeks while writing them.

 Lead vocals and guitar are handled by Alex Wylde his vocal tone clean and slightly nwobhm in style and his guitar tone dirty and distorted, ripping out wah drenched solos and fills as well as thrashing out monster riffs. Kale Dean (bass,vocals) and Liam Stocks (drums) work like shire horses filling out the sound with their respective instruments, plugging the gaps with booming bass lines and thunderous percussive work. Together these three musicians are a force to be reckoned with and in "Morlock Rock" have produced an album that although blatantly "retro" in flavour has enough of "today" in its grooves to placate any of those naysayers.

MOTHER MOOCH ~ Occult grooves from the Emerald Isle

 Hailing from Dublin, Ireland and consisting of five members, Mother Mooch are one of those bands that once you hear them you will never forget them,
In March this year, after a few years of changing line-ups and gigging the circuits, the band finally found a sound that worked for them and decided to release their first EP "Preludes"

"Preludes" consists of three tracks of superb occult-ish desert rock, fronted by the sultry and warm tones of Chloë Ní Dhúada and backed up with some superb musicianship and super tight grooves from the rest of the band, Sid Daly - Guitar and vocals, Farl - Guitar, Barry Hayden - Bass and Danni Nolan - Drums.

Opening track "L.H.O.O.Q" kicks off proceedings with a pure desert rock groove, fast paced and with one of those chugging riffs that us stoners find irresistible. Short sharp and to the point and  containing enough hooks to fill a fishermans basket this ROCKS!
"Into The Water" begins with a single picked guitar arpeggio over which the second guitar lays  beautiful psychedelic tinged colours. Ms Ni Dhúada's vocal, haunting and seductive, floats above and around the music, smooth and with no histrionics she compliments the arrangements never overpowering them. This is my favourite track on the EP
"Sinners" sees the band get a little up -tempo bluesy with a riff  Led Zep's Jimmy Page would be proud of. Ni Dhúada is no Robert Plant so instead she employs a little more swing to her vocalising and in doing so brings a Celtic vibe to the bluesy groove that takes the song from  the southern swamps of the USA  to the muddy bogs of Ireland with startling effect.

The blurb at the bottom of Mother Mooch's Bandcamp page states this EP is a sampler for a forthcoming album so fingers crossed there will be more coming from this band very soon!