SIDEWINDER ~ TALONS .... review

Those who bought New Zealand outfit Sidewinder's excellent debut release "Vines" might not recognise the Sidewinder they are hearing on the bands latest album "Talons", and its not just because original vocalist Jason Curtis has been replaced by the singularly named Jem. It would seem that Ben Sargent (guitars); Thomas Rousell (guitars); Sean Fitzpatrick (bass) and Grant Lister (drums) have been inspired by their new vocalist's powerful throaty holler to move somewhat away from the grungy dynamics that permeated their debut and head in a more bluesy hard rock/stoner/heavy psych direction with the emphasis placed strongly on the bluesy part of that equation.

"Guardians" is the first track up, it's palm muted guitar intro is accompanied by skiffle like percussion and a seductive smoky vocal, well that is until the second guitar and bass join the fray and the song suddenly erupts into a heavy assed bluesy barnburner that sees vocalist Jem utilizing the full spectrum of her incredible vocal range, a spectrum that ranges from a full on bluesy holler to a husky whisper, her voice almost, but not quite, outcompeted by the swirling guitar work that screams and soars around it. Next track "Wasted Space" rocks back and forth between a boogie and a torch song the latter part of that equation pitching lysergic flavoured lead work against heavily phased riffage over a thunderous bass and drum groove decorated with another superbly delivered vocal. Third track "Prisoner" finds Sidewinder taking a little of the grunginess they explored on their debut "Vines" and blending it with a healthy slice of hard and heavy rock. Speaking of "Vines" we get to re-visit a song that also appeared on that debut with the Zeppelin-esque "Depths - Redux", the song was somewhat of a stand-out track on the first album and is no less impressive here, Jem's vocal differing from the original only in that it adds a slightly more airy and soaring dynamic to the proceedings.. Follow up "Disarm The King" is a paint peeling heavy blues rocker that gives no quarter while "Desert Song" sees the band flexing their stoner rock/heavy psych muscles. Penultimate number "Northern Lights" finds the band adding an element of classic rock  to their edgy psychedelic bluesiness and brings us around to final track "Yggdrasil" where we find Sidewinder donning their capes and cowls for a headlong dive into doom territory with Sargent and Rousell trading off proto flavoured riffs over a weighty backdrop of grizzled bass and pounding percussion, expertly applied by Fitzpatrick and Lister, Jem's slightly mournful yet powerful vocal performance the catalyst that takes this song from just a bangin' tune to a whole other level of face-melting.

With the grungy elements of their sound dialled slightly back and the heavy blues elements ramped up to a respectable eleven Sidewinder have, with "Talons", made an album that is a true reflection of its title, a gripping tome with the ability to lift you up to unprecedented heights of enjoyment. 

Check it out ....

© 2024 Frazer Jones

DARK SHAMAN ~ ROAD TO HELL ...review

Dark Shaman,  Seby (vocals/guitar); Dario (bass) and Alberto (drums) hail from Sicily, Italy and jam grooves that are acidic, doomic and fuzzy, however don't make the mistake of lumping in what Dark Shaman bring to the table with the Electric Wizard inspired acid doom/scuzz served up by the likes of fellow Italian bands like Sonic Demon and Witchsnake as the music these guys make together leans towards the more melodic proto grooves of Black Sabbath than it does the fuzzed and sludged attack of Electric Wizard. To be fair the bands first release "Live From the Grave", a collection of original songs and covers recorded live, did trade heavily on the heavily distorted guitars, thundering rhythms and partly buried vocals so beloved of fans of the Italian acid doom scene but then along came the bands official debut EP "Evil Ceremony" and although there were still vestiges of scuzziness to be found in its four song duration you could hear that these guys were starting to separate themselves from what others were doing in their scene and were attempting to find their own niche. This year sees the band release their first full length album "Road to Hell" (Forbidden Place Records) a much more mature and considered collection of tunes with less reliance on distortion and fuzz and more onus on song structure.  

Let's not try to pretend that scuzzy guitar tones, rumbling rhythms and partly buried vocals are still not a major factor in Dark Shaman's sound as those dynamics are still an integral part of the bands DNA, its just that the band have learnt to utilise those dynamics to much better effect here. Opening song "LSD (Lies Satan Doom)" may boast heavily fuzzed and distorted guitar refrains, Geezer Butler flavoured bass motifs and punchy pummelling drumming but there is also melody and swing to be found here as well as a modicum of old school bluesiness, the band also not averse to stealing a few lyrical lines and bars from Sabbaths "Fairies Wear Boots" on their race to the finish line. Next song "Electric Death" is a short sharp jab of darkened rock'n'roll that speeds along at a pace more akin to Motorhead than it  any of the recognised doom outfits, something that gives the song a proto-metallic feel while "Lord of War" is what Sabbath's "War Pigs" might have sounded like had it been recorded under the influence of  red wine and weed rather than brown ale and cocaine. "Flesh and Bones" follows with circular bass and guitar refrains revolving around tight drum patterns over which Seby promises to reach and kill you in tones clean, echoey and slightly hazy. "Jack the Cannibal" boasts a riff and groove that is reminiscent of cult 70's rockers Montrose and is followed by "Exorcism" a song so Sabbathian in flavour it is almost shocking not to hear Mr Ozzy Osbourne's Birmingham accent decorating it. For next track "She's In Love with the Devil" Dark Shaman mix their Sabbath with a little playful garage rock and post-punk to create a groove that is as bouncy as it is heavy. Dark Shaman close out the album with a cover of Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" a version not to far removed from the original except for its vocals which come slightly echoed and drawled.

Dark Shaman are not trying to re-invent the wheel with "Road to Hell" they are just playing the music they love and offering you the chance to enjoy it with them, there are of course those who will want a shiny new fangled wheel but there are also those people, like Desert Psychlist, who will gladly roll along on an old wheel while they still have the option and it is those in the latter camp that "Road to Hell" will resonate with the most.

Check it out .... 

© 2024 Frazer Jones

DEMON & ELEVEN CHILDREN ~ DEMONIC FASCINATION ..... review

Those of you out there with a love of obscure 70's heavy rock and psych might remember an album, from a Japanese band going by the name of Blues Creation, called "Demon & Eleven Children". it is probably unlikely that many will remember the album as in truth the term "obscure" often translates to "heard by very few". However we at Desert Psychlist were/are familiar with the release and so when in May of last year (2023) we saw a demo released on Bandcamp by a Chinese band bearing that albums name, our interest was peaked. The demo, simply titled "Demon Demo", contained three songs of heavy'n'slow proto flavoured doom drenched in acidic guitar and fronted by female vocals that had an endearing remote ethereal quality. Being a demo EP the quality of the release was not exactly the best but despite its short fallings what we heard was a band full of untapped potential. Skip a year and while once again perusing the new releases on Bandcamp we noticed that Demon & Eleven Children had released a full album on the SloomWoop Productions label, and it is this album, "Demonic Fascination", why we are here today.

Opening number "The Shiver of the Vampires (Hail Jean Rollin)" begins with all the usual doomic cliches, tolling bells and creepy noises, then kicks into a throbbing dank groove that sways between mid tempo and low'n'slow, pretty standard doom fare we hear you say and it would be if it were not for the songs underlining rawness and its uniquely pitched but effective female vocals. For next song "Vertigo" those vocals take on a more nursery rhyme-ish quality and are backed by a much more intense wall of doom type dynamic, thundering drums and basement level bass lines framing lyrics that tell of "being born to suffer" and having "nowhere to hide" while the guitarist lays down riffs that thrums like an overdriven electricity cable. Title track "Demonic Fascination" follows and sees the band adding a little lysergic trippiness to their repertoire, the song boasting a Sabbathian mid-section sandwiched between two slices of swirling and atmospheric acidic doom, those two slices enhanced by scorching guitar work and vocals that boast a lilting ethereal quality. A little Italian style scuzziness creeps into next song "Stabbed By Illusion", the vocals slipping so far down in the mix that they become almost inaudible and everything else getting turned up to eleven it does however boast a peach of a guitar solo that cuts through the down tuned miasma like a hot knife through butter. We get a curved ball thrown our way next with the brief down home and bluesy "Pot Girl Blues" but are soon back on track with the proto-doomic "Don't Bury My Coffin Until You High" a proto flavoured doom/occult rocker anchored by busy drums and grizzled bass over which another lilting and ethereal vocal is delivered supported by a searing array of doomic and bluesy solos. Last tune "Drown In Hell" sees the band putting all their doom eggs in one basket for a song that on its journey touches base with every form of doom, bar the genres extremities, a  raw uncompromising and gloriously noisy finale to an unexpectedly impressive album.

Demon & Eleven Children may have "borrowed" their name from a cult 70's Japanese album and they may have taken some of their inspiration from the band that made that album but what they have delivered with "Demonic Fascination" is all them, a raw edged take on doom that may not be wholly original but is nevertheless highly enjoyable.

Check 'em out ....

© 2024 Frazer Jones

THE PATH ~ SHADOW HELIX .... review

Desert Psychlist has to admit to nor being familiar with Tampa, Florida's The Path before they were brought to our attention by one of our fellow Doom Charts contributors but we can assure you we will be keeping an eye on them from here on in. The band, Joe Kiser (vocals/guitar); Joey Kiser (guitar/vocals); Gregg Moore (bass) and Phil Stanwick (drums), make a noise together that is a little bit doomy, a little bit progressive and a little bit sludgy post metallic but is at all times wholly impressive. The Path are of course a heavy band but not heavy in a brutalising way, creeping and atmospheric would be a better way of trying to explain The Path's sound, a sound that doesn't so much batter you as slowly envelope you in a miasma of insidious dankness. The band, unbeknown to us, already had one release under their belts with the three song self-titled EP "The Path"(2019) but it is their latest full length album "Shadow Helix" that we are here to talk about today and talk about it we will.

The opening/title track "Shadow Helix" is an insidious blend of  swampish haziness and dank bluesiness anchored to the ground by grizzled bass and driven by powerful busy drumming around which the guitars weave a highly impressive tapestry of thrumming refrains and fractured chord voicings. Things get even more insidious and creepy with the arrival of the vocals which sees husky crooning trading off with throaty guttural harshness and imparting knowledge of "altered states" and "distant realms". "Breathless" follows and sees The Path serving up a doomic version of grunge's quiet/loud/quiet dynamics, the songs quieter moments possessing a hazy ebb and flow its louder moments thunderous and crunchy. Third track "Endless Wells" is a sublime slice of  progressive doom underscored with elements of post-metal and heavy psych decorated in a delicious blend of vocal tones, whispers and roars, that add an extra layer of atmosphere to a song already not lacking in that particular commodity. Penultimate track "The Flow" flits between gnarled sludge/stoner metal and hazy acidic doom, a real barnburner of a tune that is tight and crushing when it needs to be and languid and loose when it doesn't. The Path close their account with "The Axis (Of Past and Present)" a throbbing monster of a song that twins circular post metal guitar textures with chugging doomic riffage over a thunderous bass and drum backdrop decorated in an array of differing vocal harshness.

Despite what some may think heavy metallic music does not always have to be crushing and impenetrable, heavy music is often at its best when it incorporates layers of colour and texture in its grooves and has a propensity for veering off on tangents into unexpected territories If you find yourself sagely nodding along in agreement to that previous sentence and have been searching for an album that ticks all those relevant boxes then The Path's "Shadow Helix" might be just the album you've been looking for. 

Check it out ...

© 2024 Frazer Jones

TOTEM ~ SOLITUDE ..... review

TOTEM, Andi Holm (drums); Peter Østergaard Christensen (bass/vocals) and Iain Strachan Strachan (guitar), are a Danish combo based in Odense. the band first came to Desert Psychlist's attention via their debut EP "E. Xtended P. Lay" a three song riffcentric opus boasting grooves that regularly crossed back and forth between heavy desert rock and low'n'slow stoner doom. The bands next release "In Session" saw a change in the bands line-up with original bassist/vocalist Daniel Kethelz making way for  Østergaard Christensen the result of which saw the bands music moving in a much more raw sludgy and off-kilter direction. This year (2024) the band return to with another three song EP "Solitude", a release that sees the band striking a balance between the differing dynamics of the first two EP's while also filtering in elements of space and heavy psych, thanks in part to the synth and keyboard contributions of mixing and mastering wizard Michael Hansen Buur

 

First out of the box comes "Mirror" Strachan Strachan's circular guitar riff soon joined by Østergaard Christensen' slow grizzled bass and Holm's tight but surprisingly non-thunderous percussion in a groove that is doomic yet not typical of the genre. Vocals then join the fray with Østergaard Christensen's tones, a distinctive mix of goth rock croon and punkish sneer, adding an unexpected element of off centred quirkiness to the proceedings especially with Hansan Burr's synths and keyboards swirling away in the background. Second song "Strange" is what it says it is, a weird but wonderful mix of doom, desert and psych blessed with a vocal that warbles and wavers in a key only Østergaard Christensen could possibly tell you he's singing in. It would be easy to chalk this song of as chaotic but there is structure to be found here, albeit a schizophrenic, untamed and severely warped version of structure. Final song "Solitude" reigns in some of that schizophrenia, the band almost succeeding in sounding like a four to the floor rock band in places, but it is not long before the chaotic nature of the band music finds itself a foothold and things progress to the fade angular and off-piste.

There will be those who will find TOTEM's "Solitude" a bridge too far, put off by the untamed nature of its grooves and the unique and unusual vocal tones that accompany those grooves. However for every five people who dismiss what the band here do as too angular or too disorderly there will be one who gets it, we at Desert Psychlist number ourselves among those who get it, what about you?

Check 'em out .... 

© 2024 Frazer Jones

FREE RIDE ~ ACIDO Y PUTO ....review

If you like your rhythms a mixture of tight and loose, love your guitars to be a blend of wacka-wacka funkiness and searing Hendrixian acidity and you like your low end to be both grizzled and bouncy then Desert Psychlist has found an album that could well meet all your needs. The album in question is titled "Acido y Puto" (Small Stone Records) and the band behind the album go by the name Free Ride, a Spanish power trio hailing from Madrid consisting of Borja Fresno Benítez (vocals/guitars/synth//sitar); Víctor Bedmar Lam (bass) and Carlos Bedmar Lam (drums). 

 First track "Space Nomad" boasts a mixture of musical styles gleaned from right across the rock spectrum, a song that sees lysergic haziness vying for space with heavy rock riffage and Wah pedal fuelled funkiness that is then topped of with searing bluesy lead work and a vocal that sits somewhere between Nebula's Eddie Glass and The Stone Roses Ian Brown, as opening tunes go this is up there with the best of 'em. Its full on old school stoner for next track "Outsider" an absolute peach of a song featuring a great vocal beneath which the groove is driven not so much by its drumming but by its low heavily distorted bass lines. Next track "Kosmic Swell", an instrumental,  revives the wacka-wacka funkiness of the opening song and twins it with elements of acid bluesiness and hard rock swagger. "Vice" has the feel of a coming together of Fu Manchu and the UK's The Charlatans a sort of stoner/indie hybrid sound enhanced by searing lead guitar and whooshing synth textures while "Nazeré", if it wasn't for its brief vocal injections, could easily be mistaken for one of those extended late 60's jams so beloved of bands like The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service. "Steamroller" ,"Joy" and "Blackout" follow in quick succession, all three punkish stoner/desert rockers so deliciously "old school" they should be wearing uniforms and carrying satchels. Final number "Living For Today" follows much the same punk/desert/stoner route as its predecessors but this time is tied to groove that is a little less "Green Machine" (Kyuss) and a little more "Song 2" (Blur)

Free Ride cut their teeth playing generator parties on the open plateau's outside of their Madrid home  so it will come as no surprise that the sound the band bring to the table with "Acido y Puto" is one not too far removed from that which once echoed across the open deserts of California when bands like Kyuss, Nebula and Fu Manchu were first finding their feet in this world. Basically if you like your stoner "old school" and served up with with a little lysergic haziness and a pinch of Mediterranean spiciness then "Acido y Puto" is the album you will want to be spinning.

Check it out .... 

© 2024 Frazer Jones

VALLEY OF THE SUN ~ QUINTESSENCE .... review

 The last time we heard from Ohio's Valley of the Sun was with the release of the 2022 album "The Chariot" an album that saw the band working with Ripple Music, for that album the band recorded as a quartet  but for their latest album, "Quintessence", the band have trimmed down to a trio with guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier and bassist/keyboardist/guitarist Chris Sweeney remaining from the "The Chariot"" line up but this time being joined by Johnny Kathman on drums and additional guitar. 

Opener "Terra Luna Sol" exemplifies how much the new trio format suits Valley of the Sun, the band sound tighter, sharper and more engaged with each other here, maybe its because as a trio they have to work that much harder, we don't know, but the band sound harder, grittier and rockier, something that also rolls over into the vocals which sound a little more angsty and angry. Next track "Graviton" finds the band hitting into a groove that has a grungy doomic feel, the band blending quiet/loud/quiet dynamics with thrumming dank riffage to create a groove that hits hard backs off and then comes back to hit even harder, Ferrier adding the cherry on the cake with a vocal that possesses a soulful edginess. "Where's This Place?" eases things down just a notch, the song boasting a weird off-kilter slurred groove made even more weird and off-kilter thanks to its drawled out, almost Appalachian, vocal tones, the song also features some very nice guitar contributions from guest Pete Koretzky. Up next is "The Late Heavy Bombardment" a swaggering, chugging hard/stoner rock workout in possession of more hooks than a fisherman's bait-box, a guaranteed live favourite in the making. "Red Shift", a serene and quite beautiful instrumental, is a song made for moments of quiet reflection or gazing into the eyes of someone you really care for while "Palus Somni" in contrast is raucous and ripping one minute, laid back and languid the next, a mood swing set to music. Palm-muted refrains and vocal crooning vie with impassioned howls militaristic drum tattoo's and grizzled bass motifs on the excellent "Theia" whereas "I'll See Them Burn" is a vitriolic rant set to a backdrop of punkish fury that sees producer John Naclerio throwing his weight in on second guitar. We get a moment to catch our breaths with the loose and languid "Aurora" before the hammer goes down and we are thrust into the maelstrom of groove that is final track "Quintessence" a mix of stoner fuzziness, doomic dankness and grunge like undulation driven by thunderous drumming and decorated with powerful clean vocals.

In a recent interview (here) the band spoke about not fully understanding the alt-metal/grunge references that were being regularly thrown their way in early reviews but admitting they have since come to understand why those references were made. Listening to "Quintessence" it is hard NOT to hear shades of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains in Valley of the Sun's music but it is also not hard to hear essences from right across the rock music spectrum with proto-doom, stoner/desert rock, post-metal and even a little quirky folkishness all getting a look in on this peach of an album.

Check it out ..... 

© 2024 Frazer Jones