SURTIDORA DE RATAS ~ PLEGARIAS PARA EMBRIAGAR LAS ANIMAS DE LAS RATAS .... review

This is the first time Desert Psychlist has reviewed an album from Colombia and hopefully it will not be the last, unfortunately there is not much information to be found concerning the "underground" rock scene in Colombia so we are flying a little blind in regards to reporting on how healthy the scene is over there. We can however point you in the direction of the one Colombian band we do know of, a trio from Bogotá going by the name Surtidora de Ratas. whose instrumental jams are infused with elements of doom, punk and stoner/hard rock but could probably be better summed up as heavy psych. The band have been busy lately releasing two albums, "Siniestros, orgias y gozos en el año de la rata" and "Plegarias para embriagar las ánimas de las ratas", within days of each other, both albums are worthy of attention but for purposes of space and time we will concentrate on the latter.

Of all the instrumental bands out there it could be said that Surtidora de Ratas' sonic attack is probably closer in sound to that of Clouds Taste Satanic, than it is to say a band like Iglesia Atomica or Comacozer, in that it has a harder more darker doomic dynamic. This is not to say that the Colombian band do not take off on similar tangents into the cosmos just that when they do they tend to avoid the tourist traps and instead explore the danker murkier backstreets. Take first track "Útero lisérgico" for instance, you get a barrage of heavily distorted guitar, driven by thrumming bass and superbly delivered percussion, going around in what seems like endless circles but whereas another band might layer this all with endless screeching guitar solo's Surtidora de Ratas keep things low key and dark, those solo's are there but they are pushed a little further back in the mix so that instead of overpowering the songs groove they add texture to it. This darker dynamic runs through all ten of the tracks of "Plegarias para embriagar las ánimas de las ratas" with songs like "El valle de las prostitutas", "Reencarnación en año bisiesto" and "El fuego camina conmigo" all sharing a modicum of gritty gravitas, but  Surtidora de Ratas are not a band who are content just to wade in dark waters they are also just as able to get reflective and bluesy ("Acid devil invocation party") as they are to get a little punky and lysergic ("Reencarnación en año bisiesto") both of which they do very well indeed.

The concept behind "Plegarias para embriagar las ánimas de las ratas", and for that matter its sister album "Siniestros, orgias y gozos en el año de la rata", is that of a musical interpretation of the darker side of urban life, a series of sonic snapshots of those parts of a city we know exist but try not to acknowledge or just simply ignore and as concepts go we think it works pretty well.

Check it out .... 

© 2020 Frazer Jones

THAMMUZ ~ INTO THE GREAT UNKNOWN ....review

The Dutch always seem to bring that something extra to the party in regards to rock music, back in the day it was Focus and Golden Earring turning up with yodels and killer bass lines, later on it was The Devil's Blood sweeping the tables clear of food and drink to indulge in their Satanic rituals. This year the party crashers with that extra added something are Thammuz, a collective hailing from Gelderland, a province close to the Dutch border with Germany. Thammuz are the coming together of musicians from two Dutch bands, Dreckneck and Fuzzboar, their aim is to merge their love of all things psychedelic with their love of a heavy groove, to see if they have achieved that aim Desert Psychlist took their debut full length "Into The Great Unknown" for a spin..

The aptly titled "Intro" kicks things off with 35 seconds of sonic mayhem that then segues into "Speed Machine" a song that comes across like a stonerized desert version of Deep Purple's "Highway Star" but without the references to engines and wheels, its vocal boasting, in graveled tones, of letting "demon's tell me where to go" and "going fast like you never seen" against a backdrop of infectious gnarly assed desert groove. Title track " Into The Great Unknown" raises both the heat and tempo by bursting from the speakers in a explosion of heavily fuzzed guitar and bass refrains driven by punishing strident percussion, the songs full on punkish vocal delivery the perfect match for the songs aggressive attack. "Memoirs" follows and here we find the band stepping off the gas and displaying their psychedelic chops with gentle guitar arpeggios ringing over liquid bass lines and restrained percussion while voices tells us, in detached tones, of dark memories probably best forgotten. Next track "Slow" has a bluesy almost classic rock feel, its vocals, delivered in a weary baritone over a relaxed mid tempo groove, have a warm seductive feel only really taking off into harsher territories when the song breaks into its repeated chorus. "Good Behavior" defies its title by erupting into an in your face fest of raucous fuzzed out guitar riffage and thundering rhythms decorated in aggressive vocals while next track "Thammuz" finds the band plunging into a lysergic laced doomic instrumental replete with scorching off kilter guitar solos swooping and swirling over and around a backdrop of growling bass and pummeling percussion. "Absolution". although boasting a very doomic title, finds Thammuz heading once again back into desert rock territory, the song reviving the classic rock stance they took on "Slow" but this time swapping those bluesy elements for a more hard rock dynamic. Penultimate track "Fake It" mixes its punk with its stoner to create a cocktail of punkish swagger and hard rock bluster that wouldn't have sounded out of place if it had been accidently included on a compilation of grooves documenting an early 90's Palm Desert generator party. Thammuz finally bring things to a close with "Wizard Sleeve" an instrumental that weaves all the threads of Thammuz's styles, influences and musical preferences together in a stunning musical tapestry of deliciously eclectic groove.

As we said in our opening piece to this review Dutch bands always bring something a little extra to the party and in Thammuz's case that something extra can be found in the diversity of the bands musical attack. Thammuz are a band who can take you by the hand and dance you down long dusty desert highways, they can evoke nightmares with their dank doomic dirges, they can take you on psychedelic journey's into the cosmos and they can rip your face off with their aggressive punk-like ferocity, the fact that they can do all this while still retaining their own signature sound is not only impressive ...it's damn mind-blowing!
Check 'em out ...

© 2020 Frazer Jones

DRUG BEARD ~ DRUG BEARD ..... review

Desert Psychlist has to confess to being a little late wrapping our ears around Drug Beard's self titled debut "Drug Beard" as it got a little buried beneath what was a virtual avalanche of quality new releases that hit our desk in the month of October. When "Drug Beard" did raise its gnarly head from that pile however we soon came to the realization that this was an album of equal quality to those it had been languishing under and there was no way we could allow this album to pass us by without penning a few well chosen words on its many merits, so here goes..... 

Drug Beard are Jeff Gallagher (guitar,/bass/vocals); Johnny Busher (lead vocals/percussion) and Todd Molinaro (guitar/vocals), a trio from Pennsylvania whose take on doom is one with a heavy leaning towards the trippier end of the genre's spectrum and who are a band with a strong penchant for tongue in cheek song titles. Although there is a certain amount of humour attached to songs with titles like "Hang Gliding With Hawks", "Wall To Wall Satan" and "Hessian Gynecology" the actual songs themselves are played with a stony (or should that read stoned) straight faced seriousness in a style that suggests that the "drug" part of the bands name was not chosen at random. Drug Beard are a band who utilize a low, slow and heavy dynamic with which to frame their songs and they decorate those dynamics in hazy slightly wasted vocal tones, however unlike many of their contemporaries (Sleep for instance), who often toy with aspects of drug culture in their music and image but equally often sound like they are playing it straight in the studio, Drug Beard have a sound that intimates pharmaceuticals may well have played their part in the bands musical processes. 

Those that remember simpler times when drugs were often referred to as either "uppers or downers", will recall that music of a heavier nature was often described as "downer rock" well Drug Beard could well be considered as the poster boys for a new wave  of "downer rock" We mentioned low, slow and heavy in describing Drug Beard's sonic attack but maybe a better description would be low, slow, heavy and totally off its tits!

Check 'em out .... 

© 2020 Frazer Jones

EL ROJO ~ EL DIABLO ROJO ....... review

Evo Borruso (vocals); Fabrizio Miceli (guitar); Fabrizio Vuerre (guitar); Pasquale Carapella (bass) and Antonio Rimolo (drums) are El Rojo, a five piece stoner/desert collective from Morano Calabro, Italy with groove in their hearts and fuzz flowing through their veins. The band have just released "El Diablo Rojo", the follow up to their well received debut "16 Inches Radial", and if you like your grooves raucous, rockin' and righteous then you are in for a treat!

 If you were a fan of that first wave of desert rock bands ,who were birthed from those generator parties that gave us the likes of  Kyuss, Dozer and Yawning Man, then El Rojo's raucous refrains and strident grooves are going to go down very well with you. Not many realize that it was punk rock and not the hard rock of the 70's that was the major influence on those early desert bands and that those hard rock edges only started to really creep into the scene much later on down the line. El Rojo are a band who's music mirrors that transition from a rawer punk sound to a more harder rock dynamic, their raucous buzzsaw guitar riffs have the aggressive edge you would expect from grooves that border on punkish but are tempered by the type of catchy hooks and swirling guitar solos you would more likely encounter from bands who take their influences from the 70's. Of course the appeal of an album packed with songs that are just a relentless assault of raucous fuzzed out riffs and full on rhythms is going to wear thin after a while and so El Rojo vary things up by throwing in to some of their songs a variety of curveball elements, like on the excellent "Colors" where the band get to flex their doomic muscles or like on "Ascension" where the band mix that doomic muscle with a touch of lysergic texturing. El Rojo are not adverse to bringing things down to a more retrospective level either as they prove on the reflective "Cactus Bloom" a song that begins laid back and chilled but then gradually grows in intensity until exploding into a bluesy torch song that lyrically tells a metaphoric tale of hope growing out of adversity. The band brings things to a close with "Dragonfly" and much like its predecessor it starts tranquil and relaxed with acoustic guitars strummed and liquid bass lines booming with its vocal delivered in restrained tones but then suddenly erupts into one of those heavy desert grooves, that are the bands signature throughout most of "El Diablo Rojo", with amps turned up to eleven and rhythms rolling like thunder beneath swirling guitar solos and grizzled clean vocal tones.

When rocking on a heavy groove El Rojo attack like a phalanx of Roman Infantry, their raucous riffs and rhythms coming at you in waves of overwhelmingly punkish ferocity, however when they momentarily step off the gas and allow their Jekyll to overide their Hyde you find they are also a band who can surprise you with their subtlety and lightness of touch. 

Check 'em out .... 

© 2020 Frazer Jones

LORD DRUNKALOT ~ HEADS & SPIRITS ...... review

Desert Psychlist has to admit that we approached Croatian trio Lord Drunkalot's debut "Heads & Spirits" with a certain amount of trepidation, expecting something that might be a little tongue in cheek and maybe a little generic. Given the bands name and the fact that the members go by names like Party Barbarian (Brotha Alkobuddha) on drums Ratimir Nebozemlja (Stipe) on bass and Ganjalf The Green (Leo Narkobuddha) on guitars/vocals, you couldn't really blame us for having a few doubts but as it turns out, and although there are elements of Lord Drunkalot's sound that do wander into those areas, this is an album of well played doom tinted metallic grooves that if not exactly album of the year material will undoubtedly put a smile on your face and lift your spirits, and we all need that right now!

Lord Drunkalot employ all the usual doomic clichés in their music, they unashamedly fill their songs with references to witches, warlocks, devils and dragons, as well as many of the other usual suspects, but they do so in the full knowledge that these are clichés, it is almost as if they are playing with the doom genre, seeing how far they can go with it all before it all just becomes pastiche. This is where Lord Drunkalot are clever though, they know when to pull back from that edge, these guys can play and they can write a good tune and despite their cliched lyrical content the songs on "Heads & Spirits" work because they ROCK! Songs like "2+2=3", title track "Heads & Spirits", the truly excellent "Blåkulla", with its bluesy outro and the superbly atmospheric "Witchfucker" are crammed full of everything you could possibly want from a doom album but are presented to the listener with knowing wink and a glint in the eye.

Old school metal played with new school attitude and vigour Lord Drunkalot's "Heads & Spirits" might not be an album pushing its way to the top of anyone's end of year lists but it is an album that more than deserves its place in everyone's music collection.

© 2020 Frazer Jones

SAUTRUS ~ M.A.P. ...... review

If there was ever a band that deserved more love than Poland's SautruS then Desert Psychlist is yet to meet them, the four piece combo have consistently released albums that push the boundaries of conventional rock to its edges but have not yet quite made that leap into that upper echelon of bands whose albums are met with rabid anticipation long before they are actually released. However, this state of affairs could all change with the release of the bands latest opus "M.A.P.", an eclectic mix of downtuned psych, complex prog, doom and stoner metal all wrapped up in a conceptual tale of a war between a Pope and a Holy Roman Emperor.

"M.A.P." opens its account with "Exkomvna" a short but strident song that sets the scene for the albums concept by depicting, in its music and lyrics, the excommunication of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Gregory IX for his refusal to carry out the church's wishes for a sixth crusade into the Holy Lands. "Baquar" then follows and finds SautruS hitting a groove that is part prog rock, part hard rock and boasts an impressive vocal that soars, much like the falcons in the songs lyrics, over and around the complex and intricate grooves that growl and crunch beneath it. "Rose" raises its head next, a song that alternates between serene balladry and crunching heavy doomic bluster. That bluster gets the upper-hand on next track "Borderlove" and finds SautruS hitting a chugging stoner groove over which they pour cryptic lyrics telling of love but with the subject of that love left to the listeners imagination. Acoustic guitars announce the arrival of "Falling" a song sang in monastic tones over a laid back and languid musical backdrop that, within the context of the albums concept, could be construed as telling a tale of a fall from grace but Desert Psychlist may be way wide of the mark with that theory. "Lady In Green" enters next its circular fuzz drenched guitar motifs underscored by some impressive understated drumming are then joined by a superbly pitched vocal that tells of a mystical savior in a green dress, as the song progresses so does the intensity of its performance the band ramping up the songs dynamics bar by bar until finally we find ourselves entrenched in a heavy doomic groove decorated with vocals of similarly darker tone. If there was ever a more schizophrenic song than "Present Times" then Desert Psychlist would like to hear it for here the listener is faced with a song that shifts and changes at such a rate that there are times you are unsure if you are still listening to the same song you just dropped the needle on. Next up is "Twitchy Witchy Girl" a quirky blend of stuttering alternative rock and brutal stoner metal that in its quieter quirkier moments boasts a vocal not unlike that employed by Robert Plant on Led Zep's "Houses of the Holy". "Deceiver" comes out of the traps strutting a crunching stoner metal groove around which wailing wordless vocals soar and swoop but then suddenly morphs into thundering heavy prog workout  decorated in clean vocal harmonies before then shifting once again and taking off into heavy psych territory."1239" closes "M.A.P." with acoustic guitars strummed and picked beneath soaring monastic harmonies while a part sang, part spoken narrative (in Polish) is recited.

"M.A.P," is not an easy listen by any stretch of the imagination but it is a worthwhile one, it is also a brave and unusual album, brave in that it has a concept based on a religious historical event,  religion being one of the great taboo's of this or any other century, and unusual because it is almost impossible to pin a label on the music SautruS present us with here.

Check it out ....

   © 2020 Frazer Jones

DIXIE GOAT ~ THERE'S NO LIGHT WITHOUT DARKNESS .... review

The South American continent is fast becoming a main hub for good "underground" rock music, so much so that it is becoming increasingly hard to keep up with the almost constant influx of recommendations, review requests and promo's from South American bands that hit Desert Psychlist's desk on what seems to be (now) a daily basis. Chile is one of those countries at the forefront of this new wave of South American metal and rock and today we bring you an album from a band, who it could be argued, are one of Chile's finest

Dixie Goat, Nikk (vocals/guitars); KF (bass) and Seb (drums), are a trio from Santiago who have, through a mixture of sheer hard work, determination and killer grooves, managed to break through that glass ceiling, separating the Latin American scene from that of the Rest of the World, to gain respect not only from listeners on their own continent but also internationally. If your not familiar with Dixie Goat and are wondering why you should be bothering listening to music from a band situated at the ass end of the Southern Hemisphere well then wrapping your ears around the bands new album "There's No Light Without Darkness" will explain all!

Fellow Doom Charts contributor, Bandcamp surfer and self confessed music junkie Bucky Brown made a comment, on Dixie Goat's Bandcamp page, that the bands latest opus reminded him very much of Pepper Keenan era Corrosion of Conformity, that is a comparison not too wide of its mark. There is a depth of sound and intensity to the songs to be found on "There's No Light Without Darkness" that mirrors COC's thrumming sonic assault, thick low slung guitar riffs and swirling solos, thunderous growling bass lines and industrious percussion all topped of with clean but gritty vocal tones. What separates Dixie Goat from their North Carolina counterparts however is the bands penchant for dipping their toes in waters of a more doomier nature. Opening title track "There's No Light Without Darkness" is the perfect example of Dixie Goat's tendency for wading in pools of darkness, its glutinous circular riff underscored by grizzled bass and a steady but punishing drumming has an ominous vibe that is probably closer to the grooves Pepper Keenan's other band Down were exploring on their last series of EP releases. "Dancing On Your Grave" is up next and here we find the band getting a little more up-tempo and strident with just the occasional lapses into a more doomic dynamic with the vocals following a similar pattern. "Two Faces" and its following track "Widow's Tear" see the band playing two sides of the doomic coin with the former finding the band taking a more proto-metal approach to the genre and the latter adding a little bluesy swagger into the doomic mix. "Green Karma" follows and here the band don their stoner/hard rock caps to kick out the jams on a blustering four to the floor rocker. Next track "Zuma" stays within the stoner canon but this time levels up by adding a little extra metallic bite. Penultimate track "Supershit" seems a little like a throw away track, fun but not essential while closer "From One Hell To Another" is everything you could hope for in a doomic tome, it is atmospheric, intense and Sabbathesque, its swathes of dark reverberating bass and guitar riffage, driven by powerful drumming, frame a superbly delivered low-key vocal that then makes way for a  "Children of the Grave" like refrain before KF signs the song off with a brief bass solo.

It wasn't until Desert Psychlist  had listened to Dixie Goat's "There's No Light Without Darkness" a few times that we noticed that legendary producer Jack Endino had overseen the mastering on this album, now if that doesn't tell you something about the quality of the music to be found here nothing will, Jack knows his shit!

Check it out ..... 

© 2020 Frazer Jones