It is quite a bizarre feat to see the sprawling works of Om confined to the time restraints of a 7" record. Nevertheless, the duo manage to pull it off without it having any negative impact on proceedings. I seem to keep forgetting (I know, right?) that Om are one of my favourite bands, and this obscure 7" does not disappoint in any way shape or form. However, if you are new to Om, I would suggest starting where their music has a bit more room to breathe.
This is however, my first dabble with Six Organs Of Admittance; "Assyrian Blood" showcases intense atmospherics, with hopeless drones verging almost into harsh noise. This is musical meditation pushed up to 11. The material on this split in particular reminds of the group Barn Owl, if not a bit more introspective.
Fantastic heavy stoner rock from Italy. Think Samsara Blues Experiment but heading off in a more straight-forward, Kyuss-themed direction, rather than becoming lost in endless songs. The psych here is well controlled and reigned in, but do not fret - there is plenty of "woah!", "man!," and "duuuude!" moments here to keep perpetuating the frrrreakah enough to space these bluesy numbers out into the stoner territory. Hey, there's even a Peter Frampton-style wah part towards the end. What more do you need? Also, as a strange off-note, sometimes the vocalist gets really into these heavy redneck American stylings, it almost sounds like ex-Mushroomhead frontman Waylon Reavis.
Honestly though, it's all a bit typical of this kind of thing and brings absolutely nothing new to the table. That isn't to say that this isn't an enjoyable listen, just don't expect Gorilla Pulp to re-invent the wheel. All the tropes are in place; the beautiful crunching guitars, the (probably) hand-painted 60s tits on the record sleeve, and the song titles such as "Magic Mushroom", "Witch Boogie" and "Electric Woman".
It's time to shake the dust off those bell bottoms and scrap all the crap out of your bong.
Gets Worse's latest EP literally gets worse (I'm so sorry). Nah, I'm kidding - every single time I hear something from these guys they raise the bar. The sound here is absolutely fucking spot on; so crunchy and heavy but with clarity and definition. And the music? Well, it's Gets Worse, but a little bit more grown up and defined. The fast bits are there; the powerviolence vocals, the cheesegrinder bass, and that interesting snare sound, but there's also an interesting experimental edge - the slower songs seem that extra bit slower, and there is a fucking saxophone solo at one point. And let's not forget the Alan Partridge sampling.
This shit is literally the bomb. I cannot, no matter how hard I try (despite my will), find any fault whatsoever with this recording. If you are into heavy music in any way shape or form, I fail to see how you can pick any faults in it. I will crawl outta the band's arse just a little though, by complaining about the eight minute run time, but hey - this is a fucking EP, not a space opera.
This is a short, limited edition EP that Jesu released towards the arse end of 2012 on some rediculously limited quantity (I can't remember what number it was exactly but it sold out and I missed out on a copy, but to be honest, I probably wasn't paying enough attention and let it slide). It contains an unreleased Jesu track in the form of "Veiled" and a beautiful cover of The Stranglers' "Duchess", redesigned in the usual more-sombre-than-sombre Jesu approach.
I've linked the cover below because it's simply amazing, but the B side is just as good. I believe this came out not so long after the Ascension album, which was a bit of a miss in my opinion, so it was nice to find that Jesu hadn't completely lost it's way (future releases also completely cemented this fact). Doomy, gloomy, and as a YouTube commenter so rightfully pointed out - very Killing Joke-y. Excellent!
There is just something magical about the guitars on this thing, and I've poured my heart out about Jesu synths to you all before....
Agoraphobic Nosebleed return faster than ever, this time managing to squeeze 27 songs into only 3 minutes.... Wait a second, there's only 3 songs and one of them is 12 minutes long? It's a sludge album? What the hell is going on?
Shit talking aside there is a very good reason for this drastic change in direction; instead of just making another album, Agoraphobic Nosebleed decided to make 4 because... why not? Each one is being written by a different member of the band, and the first of these - Arc - is Katherine Katz's one. However how does it hold up? Agoraphobic Nosebleed may have dabbled with slow in the past but they are predominantly a fast-as-absolute-fuck band.
It's amazing, of course it's amazing. Agoraphobic Nosebleed could make a power metal album and it would still kick the shit out of every other power metal album (that's not a challenge by the way). Kat's vocals, which if I'm being honest I thought were a bit off on Agorapocalypse, are perfect here. The slower pace gives them a bit more room to breathe and they sound better for it. There are massive riffs flying about everywhere, and the programmed drums sound meaty and must have some sludge drummers worried about their jobs. It might not be Agoraphobic Nosebleed as we know it, but when the music is this good who cares? (I still want more weird ultra fast grind, though.)
So today ("today" being a month or so before you all see this post) I was casually browsing through The Graveyard (what I call iTunes on my PC since Spotify came along) and I stumbled across this forgotten relic; it had completely slipped my mind that Sleep had done a $neaky little EP for Adult Swim, and top it off, I find out this shit came out in 2014! 2014!!?? Holy fuck...
Anyways, on with the review! At first The Clarity strikes me as a bit of a self-parody with lyrics like "the dealer is my refuge" and "back patch / Iommic life complete", and that doesn't do much to add the reek of cashing in that this one-track EP gives off (go peep the price of the vinyl for this shit, and also the prices for those ridiculous Sleep action figures and pillows. What is this, fucking Kiss or something? I'm just surprised it wasn't released on green wax and limited to 420 copies).
That being said however, Sleep are rather well known for spacey riffs and silly lyrics about smoking weed, so really, I shouldn't complain. Musically, this release treads the middle ground, and somehow ends up sounding like an inoffensive mashup between Om and High On Fire, rather than like a genuine Sleep song. That might sound rediculous, but have a genuine think about that statement for a second.
It just seems to me that everybody involved with Sleep is now so far removed from it musically, that revisiting it with the hope of reviving it for future releases seems like a bad idea. It is incredibly sad that Sleep's legacy only truly began posthumously, but with Om and High On Fire being fantastic bands in their own right, I can't help but think that Sleep should be left where it belongs: sleeping.
Bloodlung were a sludge band from South Wales who called it a day a year or so ago. As a result, free copies of their Roach album filtered out and
I got given one at band practice when Judas Cradle used to rehearse at One Louder studios in Newport. I don’t usually listen to metal
stuff in the car on the way home because a.) I’m usually sick of hearing
guitars by that point and b.) I’m deaf as fuck too, half the time. I’m glad I
threw this on the car stereo though, although it did make me feel a bit awful
that I’d been so ignorant to this band existing in the first place.
Doom is literally everywhere now but there’s no-one really
repping sludge in South Wales except Hogslayer (not to my knowledge – but
then again, I am an idiot) so Bloodlung are a welcome change. It's gutting that these guys broke up as this album is pretty fucking ace and it's a shame to see talent disappear but what can you do? At least they dropped this before they fucked off ;)
It's a word that gets thrown around a lot these days but fuck, Cult Of Occult are heavy. From the crushing guitar to the viscous vocals and the pounding drums it's almost too much at times but it never stops being amazing albeit in a thoroughly unpleasant way.
Five Degrees Of Insanity (as can you see from the album cover) is about a man slowly losing his mind - which is a pretty good description of the music. The album starts off with a slow feedback build up for about a minute - lulling you into a false sense of security - then kicks in and you are almost instantly drowning in a river of pain, anguish and misery that pretty music doesn't let up for 70 minutes. "Misanthropic" offers a brief respite from the constant misery with an almost black metal-like intro and a slow, psych-outro, but still has a solid 10 minutes of good old horrible sludgy misery.
If you are in any into sludge or generally unpleasant music this is well worth a listen.
Acoustic Wizard is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an acoustic tribute band to Electric Wizard. I could never in a million years have expected this to work, but fuck, it totally does. If anything this project proves that there is real weight to the riffs that Electric Wizard have pioneered, rather than them being yet another crap band playing really slowly and smothered in distortion.
I guess this is one of those things where I really can't say that much and you just have to listen to it to believe that it actually exists. If you're not a fan of Electric Wizard though, I would definitely give this a miss. There used to be a Bandcamp full of this shit, but perhaps Jus'n'Co (or maybe Rise Above) got to them before us and shut 'em down...Who knows? There's always Youtube.
Coven are one of those bands that time forgot. They are pretty much entirely responsible for creating the occult rock genre (along with Black Widow) and had they been around today they would probably be huge, but since their debut came out in 1969 there was a lot of negativity around their lyrical themes. Instead, they were dropped from their record label and had their debut album taken out of circulation.
The main question with albums like this is are they actually worth listening to or are you just trying to be more elitist than the people around you? Luckily enough, the music more than holds up to the band's reputation. Powered by Jinx Dawson's excellent vocals, Coven cover all the topics that occult rock is still using today - namely witches, satan, demons, satan and witches. The opener "Black Sabbath" creeps and crawls along with a sermon-like quality, "Wicked Woman" gallops along with psychy guitar flourishes and "Pact With Lucifer" shows just how impressive a vocalist Coven have but every song on the album stands out for different reasons.
However, one thing which I think dates the album is the last track. "Satanic Mass" is a 13 minute recording of an actual satanic mass and while I can appreciate that 46 years ago people might have found it scary it just sounds cheesy listening to it today and there is no need for it to be 13 minutes long. But still, since it's just a recording and at the end of the album I don't feel it detracts from the overall quality of the album. Just skip it and enjoy one of the finest rock albums around.
I'm getting the most incredible Om-meets-Earth vibe off these guys. If that fact alone doesn't make you want to check 'em out, then let me tell you a little bit more about Queen Elephantine. Interestingly, the band are from Hong Kong but are now located in New York City and Scarab is their 4th record.
Crawling around behind the abstract sleeve art is a minimalistic yet lush soundscape consisting mainly of vast instrumentation - be it conventional or otherwise - led by a rumbling bass and twinkling sitar. These landscapes of aural annihilation are dotted with sparse, achingly melodic vocal passages. From the 8 minutes of "Veil" to the 18 minutes of "Crone" and the two other epics alongside them, Queen Elephantine put on an extremely impressive show into the experimental side of the doom / stoner genres (although it almost feels criminal to restrict the band to such titles).
(Words by Richard Lewis, our new in-house Doomfinder General)
Lazarus Blackstar are a sludge band from England, formed in 2004 out of the ashes of the not-so-slow Khang. Now, being from the UK, you don't get the feeling that at any point the music is going to fall to shit and band members are going to die like you get from American sludge bands but Lazarus Blackstar even that out with consistent misery and slowness, which can only be a good thing.
The album kicks off with "Revelation I: Day Of Reckoning", which sets the tone for everything that is to follow; a quiet drum bit and sample gives way to one of the best bass sounds you'll ever hear (the bass duties are performed by the guitarist for crust punk legends Doom, surprisingly enough). The guitars are sludgy as fuck and then the vocals kick in... such wonderful vocals. Paul Catten probably pulls off tortured screams better than anyone else around and he's at his best here.
The next 40 or so minutes are just a barrage of sludgy, dirgy goodness which never even comes close to wearing out its welcome. It's even got a Saint Vitus cover at the end. What more could you ask for?
I dunno the last time I listened to a Gwar record all the way through. In fact, I dunno the last time I even attempted to listen to a Gwar record in the first place! Ever since Oderus' untimely death last year I've been meaning to check out more Gwar stuff - simply because they are one of my favourite live bands ever, and I feel like I haven't given them a proper chance. Dave Brockie's death was a sullen remind of that, and so eventually I actually started my listening of Gwar records.
I started with Bloody Pit Of Horror because I remember reading an hilarious interview with Oderus where he mentioned in passing that Bloody Pit is by far the heaviest Gwar album. And he was totally right, because this doesn't sound like Gwar at all. They've been heavier in their later days than at any point in the past, but the band seemed to perfect it's own crazy brand of story-telling thrash metal, which is present here on the Bloody Pit, but this album incorporates a lot of influences from heavier metal subgenres such as death metal and doom. I never thought I'd hear Gwar do anything that could ever even be remotely interpreted as doom metal, but there you go.
The album begins with the title track(s) - a four part epic split into different segments. It's a bit much, but hey - this is Gwar motherfuckers; if you can't accept shit is going to get ridiculous, then stop listening. After that though, the album sails by at a quickening pace. "Tick Tits" reminds you of what band you are actually listening to, and then the rest of the album is over and done with before I know it, surprisingly leaving me with the urge to listen to more Gwar albums. Well, fuck.
Weedeater's Sixteen Tons is a beer and whiskey soaked southern-tinged romp in sludgey doom metal. The guitar tone is literally the audible equivalent of a Louisiana swamp; a thick bog of rumbling riffs and plodding rhythms. I first got into Weedeater when I saw them at Hellfest nearly five years ago (bloody heck) and they were so heavy that I fell asleep. Granted, it was probably the monumental amount of people within the tent who were blazing up on that sunny afternoon that helped push me into festival lethargy, but Weedeater were one hell of a band to be lulling me into sleep.
And I've been a fan ever since. I've always preferred the later stuff (God Luck & Good Speed, Jason...The Dragon) but you can't fault this earlier album either. The one before it isn't so heavy but the thick sludgey tunes really come into their own on Sixteen Tons. I suspect that if Electric Wizard came from New Orleans it wouldn't sound much different to this. Another lovely little thing about Weedeater is when they throw in the odd instrumental that isn't as heavy or sludgey as the other songs (album closer "Kira May" as an example), which really helps break up the endless mud.
I believe that all Weedeater recordings are now classics of the doom and sludge genres. It doesn't get much better than this.
What part of this release constitutes as ‘rock’ I’m not entirely sure, but Bong have got the ‘stoner’ part of the title 100% correct. Well, with a name like Bong would more would you expect? Such a simple yet fathomless name can only lend itself to a simple (in theory) yet fathomless (in practice) sound. Bong is music for those who aren’t afraid to sit tight and experience the long haul; the great build up, the magic of the meandering drone into a stoned culmination of noise and bliss. Yes. It certainly made the inane task of steaming spilt coffee / beer / questionable substances off my beige sofa a much more enjoyable task. For when you want your mundane housework to become a mystical journey into the arcane, I recommend Bong. Don’t be fooled by the 2 track running time, these are enormous stoned monuments of fuzz.
The Killing Jar is quite possible one of the crappiest names for an album I've ever come across, but let's not let that tarnish things here. Black Moth are a dirty rock and/or roll band with stoner and doom metal influences. They've been around for a few years now but I hadn't heard of them until they were announced for Temples Festival this year. I was too smashed to watch them (story of my life) on the day but they did make my "check out everyone playing Temples" list on Spotify, from where I then migrated to checking out their entire album.
The Killing Jar is a brilliant record, combining raunchy swagger with heavy guitar riffs and a rocking pace. The vocals provided by Harriet Bevan are equal parts teasing, powerful and even cheeky. It's like somebody put the sounds of Kyuss and Blues Pills into a blender, along with some essence of garage rock. Opening track "The Articulate Dead" is a corker, and was even a single release for the band (on 7" too), but my favourite tracks are the hat-trick of "Chicken Shit", "Blind Faith" and "Plastic Blaze", which are towards the end of the album.
This record was put out on both CD and vinyl by the New Heavy Sounds label, whose small roster includes fellow stoner/doom influenced rockers, Throne. But yeah, check out Black Moth, they rule.
The recent (edit: a year and a half ago! Fuuuuuck) Bongripper and Conan UK tour lived up to all my expectations in total sonic annihilation, and this tie-in Split 12" is a great little reminder of the cacophony the duo made together. On the 12" we get more of the same from Bongripper, which isn't a bad thing I assure you. I simply cannot think of anything more to say other than it really is awesome as hell, if only a little short for my liking, even when spinning at 33rpm. Bongripper are slowly growing to become one of my favourite doom metal bands of all time, and they are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Conan on the other hand throw a little variation into their usual sound here. It is still downtuned and massive; horrendous room shaking bass tones are laced with echoic yelps like every other Conan release, but there seems to be a grandiose, building feeling beneath the usual textures, as if Conan have all of a sudden become epic as fuck. It is like giant-monolithic-power-doom-drone-metal. Yes, that'll do. Ha ha. Out on Holy Roar Records.
I’ve never encountered No Thought before,
but I really enjoyed their mix of styles. Many bands do the whole
doom-into-grind thing, but No Thought seem to pull it off rather seamlessly
here, which is fuckin’ great. The production is thick and crunchy (mmmmm yummy)
and based more in the low-end of the spectrum, and reminds me rather poetically
of Rotten Sound mixed with early Brutal Truth. Well worth a listen, I’d wager,
if you’re into both the fast and slow aspects of heavy music.
Archagathus seem to have a bigger line up
here than usual? The over-all sound is much more polished as well, which is a
first for me. I need to check the dates on these 7”s that I have; perhaps most
of the Archagathus stuff I’ve heard is the older material, as this sounds
fairly different to what I’ve gotten used to. Things are most definitely much
tighter around the edges, and the production is not as harsh. The super-growly
vokills are still evident, as is the group’s punky playing style, but
everything seems to have been tidied up a bit. Still sounds fuckin’ cool
though!
According
to the ever-reliable source for information that is the internet, Top
40 Hits is considered a bit of a disappointment in the worldwide
circles of AxCx fans (or at least it was upon it’s initial release
date back in 1996). But, you know me, I don’t give a fuck about
what the internet says (lawls, hardcore) because for me, Top 40 Hits
shows AxCx at their messiest, blurriest best. Granted, this record is
missing the offensive content that the band would become so
well-known for (well, if you discount the fact that the band is
called Anal Cunt, that is), but this is still a stone cold noisecore
classic.
The first
few times I heard this in my teens I wasn’t too sure what to make
of the whole thing. Seth had it up for free download (possibly
against Earache’s permission?) off his old website, back before
AxCx reformed for a final time and Seth replaced his personal webpage
with that of Wicked Sick Records. The first few songs are mixed so low that the first thing the record
will have you doing is reaching for the volume control with a
confused expression on your face. I have come to learn that these
tracks were mixed this way in order to rumble the living fuck out of
speaker cones, and maybe even damage them in the process. Cheers,
Anal Cunt!
Despite the
mushy, low-fi blur tracks that carried over from the previous LP
(only on a much lower frequency, ha ha), we see the first budding
AxCx jokey tracks. Tracks such as “Art Fag” and “Shut Up Mike”
are a nod to what type of stuff was to dominate on future AxCx
records. The best thing about Top 40 Hits however, is the full and
amazing production that the band finally dedicated to their small
selection of sludgey, doom-metal paced tracks. Some of the best Anal
Cunt tracks are their slow, Eyehategod-esque sludge epics. Seth
Putnam is a fantastic vocalist, and to confine listening of his
talents to just Anal Cunt is definitely a waste; the guy was an
absolute legend, there is no doubt.
So all in
all, Top 40 Hits does seem like a bit of a jumbled up mix of styles
that don’t really go together; it doesn’t help that it seems that
the sludge songs, jokey songs and blurry, old school noisecore songs
all seem to have come from different recording sessions, which
totally annihilates any chance this album had at attaining a flow. I
think maybe that this is what put a lot of people off when it first
come out; that AxCx had literally just thrown out a whole bunch of
shit on one CD and called it a new album. But once you get over the
flow issues, you can appreciate each parts for what they really are;
fucking amazing! Ha ha! This was released on Earache back in 1996.
I dunno why this vid has the old artwork for the Fuckin' A album attached to it - perhaps the uploader is a cretinous swine ;)
I first experienced Ishmael many moons ago at Rainfest 2010 (AKA Bloodstock 2010) on the unsigned stage. I can't remember how we ended up watching them, perhaps it was because a large chunk of the crap on the mainstage was....well....crap. Anyhow, I was blown away by the sheer heaviness of this band; I did not expect such a sludgy and droney doom band to be playing Bloodstock, and I was proper chuffed to have caught them on a fluke. My mate Gumpy bought a CDr demo off them at the time, which I can't remember the name of, but I still have in the format of mp3. I recall the high-lariously titled song "Clit Snipper", which sounds just as nasty as it reads.
Roll on a few years then, and I'm now following Ishmael on Facebook. One day, I see they have released a tape, entitled Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here, and I finally decide that it's high-time I actually bought something that this band have put out. And boy am I impressed! What a fuckin' sludgy tape! The production is shit hot, and the physical product as well has been professionally put together. That might not seem like much in itself but I'm normally used to getting DIY shit, so this tape looks extra impressive and shiny to me.
There are only three songs here, but they are fairly lengthy and make up a good total time between them. They are all, perhaps unsurprisingly, slower than an old man in slippers, and heavier than a wooden cart full of plague victims. Vocalist Dani Hawkins is particularly impressive; she is a veritable snarling beast, dispensing demonic-grade snarls, growls and roars alongside the brain-shaking doom metal.
If you like slow, sludgy, evil doom you need to get a load of this band! It's an absolute shame that they are now broken up but you can still listen to their stuff online. This tape was made by Breathe Plastic, and limited to 50 copies. I have number 6.
