The finest in stoner rock, doom metal and beyond……………..
DREAM DEATH: Back From The Dead CD
Describing themselves as "Pittsburgh sludge metal" and with thirteen tracks over seventy eight minutes, this is actually a CD of their three demos from the mid-late '80's and it's pretty sludgy, that's for sure - and that's pretty all encompassing too. What it isn't is pretty - this is big, black ugly music - the Medusa of Doom Metal. Some tracks are slow, some tracks are faster, most sound like the vocalist's singing in a cave while the guitarist has luckily managed to escape, riffing his way to freedom. The rhythm section is well……errrr…….sludgy…. and the songs are fairly bleak it has to be said. If ever you're in the mood to listen to this, then stay away from me!!
NEGATIVE REACTION: Everything You Need For Galactic Battle Adventures CD
Giant-sounding stoner-rock with a vocalist who sounds like he's being squeezed in some pretty painful places, although not as bad as that description implies, in other words, he's higher up on the tonal scale but still rages and shouts with the best of them, fitting the music like a glove. Then the music itself - wickedly slow slices of stoner doom, that suddenly erupt into life with a hail of guitars reigning down, before settling back into the monstrous-sounding, guitars-heavy, monumentally slow rhythm mayhem of its truly sludge-laden, doomy approach. Fantastic stuff.
NEGATIVE REACTION: Endofyorerror CD
Not a brand new studio album but a revamped remaster of this album from 1996, together with bonus material from the following year, and it's a wild ride through some crushingly heavy riffs, guitars, bass and drums, with some of THE most wicked electric guitar riffing going on, sounding low down and dirty to perfection. The vocalist charges in the distance giving it all he's got as he hollers out in the distance while the band cruise effortlessly through sludge city and slo-riff nirvana, occasionally erupting and going even further into their musical dwarf star. - Stunning stuff and a guaranteed winner for all stoner rockl fans.
ORODRUIN: Epicurean Mass CD
Slow and steady stoner-influenced rock with more than a touch of the early Black Sabbath to it all as the slowly trailing, dark vocal weaves a path over menacing waves of decelerated guitar riffs running like a river of activate sludge, before gathering pace and doing the whole early Sabbath makeover to perfection. In its own way, it's positively refreshing to hear this way of doing things, especially as you also get some sizzling lead guitar solos in there too. With acres of space for the guitar work, a clutch of classic seventies-influenced songs, a dirty but superbly produced sounds, huge disembowelling electric bass and those churning guitars, all propelled and anchored by some solid drum work, this is one of the best examples of the genre.
ORODRUIN: Claw Tower CD
Well, out of all of the current crop of doom bands, this lost are the ones least like Black Sabbath, in that they play the right moves without conforming to the obvious riffs yet still manage to come out pretty intense for all that. Across a sea of original new material and high quality demos, this is a band on fire, but not over-the-top, with an altogether more "melodic" brand of doom, although the opening two 7 minute tracks bear all the hallmarks of the crushing density that is the hallmark of these style bands. Overall, though, and unsually for me, I felt there was something missing - normally, I'd be the first to say "the more original the better", but here, I'm just not sure. Maybe another play is required - watch this space.
PALE DIVINE: Thunder Perfect Mind CD
In the realms of the so-called stoner rock circles that seems to have doom metal at one end and psychedelia at the other, eventually a band has to come along who simply rise above all of that and reveal themselves to be what is termed" the classic heavy rock trio" and this band are exactly that. Much of the album has the feel of stoner rock, but the way they play it, the sheer energy and enthusiasm that they inject into the music and the fact that the guitar work in particular, and the band as a whole, would easily rival anything put out by the likes of Cream, Robin Trower, Mountain & Mahogany Rush, is simply illustrating that this is one surefire winner of an album. With vocals that are a mix of sung and hollered, a sort of stoner-rock/blues version of Lemmy, the 12 songs and over seventy three minutes of music on this album are nothing short of blistering, but it's not about speed or bombast - no, this is all about quality. Sure, it's as heavy as a wrecking ball with riffs that will take the fillings out of your teeth and rhythms that hit you right in the gut, but the arrangements and composition are the stuff of stoned dreams while the star turn throughout is the guitar work which just sizzles, shines, soars and steams its way through track after thunderous track, the solos taking the roof off from start to finish. All told, including two bonus live tracks, this is the perfect seventies styled mix of stoner rock and blues rock for the new millennium and as hot an album of its kind you'd be hard pushed to find.
PENANCE: The Road Revisited CD
1992 debut album revived from the actual master tapes and a completely different recording from the one that actually saw the light of day originally. Shelved until now, this is one steaming gem of an album, full of monster riffs in the stoner traditions, most tracks taken at a pace that could be called "lumbering" and the heady, unmistakable whiff of early Black Sabbath penetrating most of what is played. Many of the tracks are taken at tempo befitting first two albums era Sabbath, while a couple of three of the longer tracks, start slowly and build to quite a furnace-heat finale. The dual lead guitars dominate the sound as the rhythm section backs it all up with strong and solid playing, the production once again, absolutely spot on and bringing out the best in the compositions. With more instrumental space than the average such album, it's slow molten metal that sounds every bit as good now as it did thirteen years ago.
RAMESSES/NEGATIVE REACTION: Split CD-EP CDEP
It's twenty seven minutes of the most blistering, slowly churning stoner rock that I've heard and is absolutely glorious stuff. The first two tracks belong to Negative Reaction with some of the finest, best produced stoner doom I've heard in ages, the sound of the sludge guitars, riffs and rhythms, actually produced to perfection, just takes hold, the guitars spewing over everything in sight as the percussion and bass hammer out the rhythms. Slow, dirty and downright heavy, this is what this style is all about. However, Ramesses, ex-members of Electric Wuizard, go one further, with a huge huge arena of fuzz guitars, modern Metallica-sounding drums (only slower), grungy riffs, thunderous bass and intense songs delivered with strength as the barely heard lyrics are part of a vocal that rises to be heard above the monstrous guitar-soaked doom metal heaven. Overall, a killer and well worth your attention.
REVEREND BIZARRE: Slice Of Doom CD
75 minutes of demos, previously unreleased tracks, the ubiquitous St Vitus cover and an album that lives up to its name - bizarre! The opening instrumental actually has them playing the theme to "Dr Who", stoner-doom style, so you know already that this is going to be an interesting experience to say the least. The 10 minute 'In The Rectory Of The Bizarre Reverend' is classic grade-A early Sabbath in all but the pitch of the vocalist, but then there's only ever going to be one Ozzy. Anyway, you won't be surprised to find that the spirit and sound of very early seventies Sabbath is what pervades this album and takes hold pretty well throughout, on tracks long and short, with some scorching guitar riffs, searing solos and slow to driving rhythms. More varied than you'd think from the beginning, it's a really strong album, and if this is the sound of their demos, because the quality is excellent throughout, then the real thing is going to be a total killer - can't wait!!
V/A: Dreams Of What Life Could Have Been CD
You have to chuckle when you see the label saying - as a promotion to get you to buy this album - that it is "thee ultimate sludge-doom compilation - evil doom at its bleakest. Ultra heavy, crushing, dark, grimm and doom". Sounds pretty frightening to me. Anyway, it's ten tracks by mostly bands I didn't know and, somewhat interestingly, the label's got it pretty well spot on - a musical joy-ride, this most certainly isn't. It really is intense stuff as these molten, black, dripping guitar riffs ooze like steaming pus out of the ether, while this sickeningly heavy bass and crashing drums provide the backdrop to your nightmares, as assorted vocalists just add to the whole blackening doom. You'll probably be a basket case or on the wrong end of a rope by the time this has finished - but what a way to go!!!!
VOODOO SHOCK: Voodoo Shock CD
From the opening disembowelling electric bass and purposeful sludge-riffing, driven by crunching drums and seventies inspired vocals, you just know you're in for a treat as what sounds like one steamingly classy, Sabbath-inspired stoner band immediately take charge and take you into their own world of stoner doom. 'Fountain Of Freedom' is as fine an opening track as you'll find, neatly mid-paced but so alive and vital, with the necessary muddiness mixed and produced to perfection, if you get what I mean. The instrumental scenery is to die for, as the bass, guitar and drums just scythe a path through your skull, the passage of great beauty on 'Rainbow Sky' where it all drops down to reveal the vocal entering, showing that the band has a great dynamic sense, and when it all starts to power up and build once more, the effect is awesome. 'Tomorrow's Bloom' increases the pace a little and sounds for all the world like some lost early seventies Sabbath track complete with Ozzy-esque vocals and the trio on fire, that guitar and bass sounding awesome. Five further tracks continue this level of enjoyment as yuo are completely hooked into what has to be one of the finest stoner rock album on the planet of recent times. Then we get to track nine - a stoner rendition of the old Moody Blues classic 'Nights In White Satin', a song I've never been able to stomach, but here give the necessary slo-mo stoner treatment and actuallly coming out sounding more natural than at anytime in its history, and you gett he feeling it was always meant to be this way. Ending with the eleven minute slow-doom epic that is 'We Cry', brings the album to a stunning close and the only thing that feels right after this, is to play the whole thing again all the way through. It's awesome, and more - a truly amazing album.
VOODOO SHOCK: Voodoom CDEP
While we're waiting for the next album, the label has decided to let us have a treat in the form of a CD issue of their promo CD, with additional bonus tracks, so you'll hear 34 minutes of melodic, guitar-driven, doom-rock. Things starts slow and dense with 'Showtime', pick up a pace or two with 'Amazing Fire', including a most sensitive and satisfying electric guitar solo in there too, return to a mix of the two on 'Living In Paradise' only to become almost stationary on their cover of St Vitus' 'Patra'. With all the right ingredients of stoner riffs, rhythms and atmosphere present, this is a welcome release in anticipation of a stunning second album.
WALL OF SLEEP: Overlook The All CDEP
Decidedly heavy and pretty Sabbath-y sludgy stoner, with all the usual ingredients that you'd expect from that description, only it moves at a more urgent pace and has a seriously vast depth of sound where the pounding bass and drums, seriously stoned riffs and excellent lead and overdubbed guitars light up the proceedings in a rather excellent manner. Good songs, good vocals, nothing overly cliched, and a refreshing addition to the roster.
WALL OF SLEEP: Slow But Not Dead CD
Following a rather fine first EP, now comes the debut album and it's every bit as strong as you'd dared to hope. With the ghost of early Black Sabbath present by the shovel-load, both in terms of riffs, melodies, compositions and construction, this is going to be one of the most satisfying "doom-rock" albums you're likely to hear, in the sense that it's both original and familiar at the same time, with all the right ingredients, but so easily accessible. The tracks have been written and arranged with passion and nothing is allowed to be over-indulgent, nothing too long-drawn-out, with playing and production to match. Throughout the albums you'll be hooked to some of the finest riffs this side of early seventies Iommi, while the rhythm section sound stronger and more attacking than ever the early Sabs could have dreamt, and on top of all this a strong but not shouting or howling vocal, just fits the picture perfectly. With sizzling guitar solos along the way, mighty riffs and muscular, crunchy rhythms, this is a totally quality album that puts this band right up there among the current great examples of rock in any genre - a fine and awesome album.
WALL OF SLEEP: Sun Faced Apostles CD
Arguably the kings of modern stoner rock, this is the third offering from this band and they just get better and better with every release, better in every aspect of their work. Produced to perfection, this captures the whole essence of what makes grungy, slowly riffing but thunderous stoner rock such a force to be reckoned with in the right hands. Every one of the tracks on here is fuelled with molten guitars and bass oozing and pouring out of every crevice as this massive slice of metal marches on relentlessly as you sit there simply amazed at the sheer quality of what you're hearing. Largely taken at slow paced, the tracks seem to have that timeless spark to them and at no stage does anything resembling boredom creep in - just the opposite in fact - as you are hooked to the whole thing from start to finish. The vocals are strong and well placed in the mix, while the whole grungy, guitar-fuelled, riffing and rhythmically red hot sound of the band allied to seriously strong compositions, will be the sort of album that you'll have at your finger tips fro a long time to come. Stunning and then some, this is the acceptable face of stoner rock at its most enjoyable.
WORLD BELOW: Maelstrom CD
A stoner rock/doom metal quartet who take the genre by the scruff of the neck and make it into something of quality and distinction. For a start, two of the guitarists also play synth, and that alone makes the compositions more full-sounding, a welcome addition to the surging sea of electric guitars, bass and drums that most albumsof this ilk would have on their own. With 7 tracks over forty-seven minutes, the band get a chance to shine as the guitar work rages out, but each track is perfectly produced to bring out the whole anthemic nature of what in most hands would just be a wall of sludge. But don't worry - the riffs are big and beefy, the bass work pounds and throbs and melts while the drums take on a seriously heavy dimension, and above all of this the lead and harmony (yes, harmony!!) vocals, sing the songs to perfection, the whole thing coming off as an AOR version of stoner/doom rock, probably the most palatable such album of its kind that I've yet to hear and anyone into good solid, strong and streaming metal, just has to hear this album. The dynamics of the tracks and their arrangements ensure that your attention is more than held throughout, and at no time do you get bored or want to skip anything. This is rock solid, classic Sabbath-influenced heavy metal taken into a wholly new dimension, and one of the best of its kind around - essential listening and no mistake.
