Number 10

 

 

Number 10

Another almost sixty points takes us from Acid Mammoth on Number 11 into the Top 10. Legendary bands releasing new albums this year all seem to have made one of their best in their career according to the votes that came in. And the one we find on Number 10 can be added to that majestic list. Renewed fire and all! Coming straight at you from the center of the earth. The vocalist has quit the drink and gotten healthy, can that be the thing that makes this new album so bizarrely good? Perhaps so, cause now, on their new, tenth album he is in extremely great shape, both lyrically and vocally, and perhaps better then he has ever been before. And then there’s a new bass player as well. Another spark of new energy to fire up the beast. Rumbling bass, thundering drums, rampaging riffs and wild solo work, and that’s just the opening track. Classic metal, motoring energy, a few more psychedelic tracks and a whole lot of fire! The band sounds even more inspired and worthy of the legendary status we always knew they deserved. As if they’ve always been that dormant volcano and now decided to erupt in a most glorious pyroclastic flow. I for one feel the fire in my belly! And I can’t wait to see them live again!

According to all of your votes, on Number 10 we find: 

Orange Goblin - Science, Not Fiction

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Homepage

Peaceville Records

Full review on Stoner HiVe

Number 11

 

 

Number 11

We jump exactly sixty points to reach Number 11 today. A  band that does something special for you crazies that follow the HiVe. For it has been making the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with almost every album they’ve released. Reaching Number 18 back in 2020 and Number 7 in 2021. This is their fourth album and relentlessly stomps on the terra, like a mega beast on a doom trek across an ancient landscape. That’s right, gigantic and lurching monsters stuck in the black treacle tarpits of Pleistocene earth, ceaselessly producing those doom riffs and anthemic rhythms. There is something so reassuring and comforting about this warm woolly beast. You know how this animal will stomp. You know how the tusks will sway. Toned to a certain level of perfection they deliver that heady doom once again, that massive groove that will always and forever leave a mark upon your soul. Are you ready to get trampled by all the shaggy heaviness once more?

According to all of your votes, on Number 11 we find: 

Acid Mammoth - Supersonic Megafauna Collision

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Homepage

Heavy Psych Sounds Records

Number 12

 

 

Number 12

Another twenty four points takes us from Magmakammer on Number 13 to todays Number 12. A band that reached the eighteenth position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022 with their debut album. This is their second record. And the proto, the metal, the doom and its progressive urges, it is all there to touch the hardrock, the stonerrock and the psychedelic rock they deliver. It is also there to make sure you turn the volume up as high as you possibly can. And it will transport you to a different universe altogether, thanks to the wider atmospheric reach and a strengthening of their otherworldly realm. An album rife with many layers and dynamics, turning more and more into the album you love so dearly with every spinning session. A tale is spun, not just by the lyrics, but also with the chosen instrumentation and how that slide guitar and synth helps you travel the galactic expanse… No need for spice, just listen to this album to journey through the fold…  

According to all of your votes, on Number 12 we find: 

Sons of Arrakis - Volume II

Bandcamp

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Homepage

Black Throne Productions

Number 13

 

 

Number 13

Are you ready for some proto touched doom jive? We leave Fu Manchu on Number 14 and jump 36 points to reach Number 13. Where we find the sophomore album by this Norwegian trio. That vintage, obscure, garage and steamy sound, that hazy and dirty atmosphere, it is all so highly addictive and drags you along a mind trip of gigantic proportions. And it will feel like one psychoactive and occult touched merry go round. Round and round it goes! Gigantic is also a word one can use for the hooks, the riffs and the efficiency in which it is all delivered. The bass that seems to bop from basement walls like the relentless dripping of a leak. And a touch of sinister gives it that ominous feeling, punctuated by the drums that stomp like those evil footsteps in a dark cul de sac in the middle of the night. We might meet the devil there… But before I burn, I need to listen to this album just one more time…

According to all of your votes, on Number 13 we find: 

Magmakammer - Before I Burn

 

Bandcamp

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Kozmik Artifactz

Evil Noise Recordings

Number 14

 

 

Number 14

 

Another minor jump in points today. Only eight points takes us from High On Fire on Number 15 to these cool cats on Number 14. Talking about legendary… They’ve perfected their hang loose, laidback version of stonerrock many years ago. Always carrying a skater or surf vibe with their releases and turning ever more into the perfect fuzzy rocking and mellow grooving hybrid. And for this album they do it in double style. For it is a double album that sharpens their fuzz skills on one side and show off how freaking smooth they can be once the other side has started. Perhaps with more glances towards the sixties and seventies this time around, but as always, with these sundried riffs and this electrifying and sunny atmosphere. As if the universe opens up for you and gives you these rapturous glances at a bright blue sky waiting for you tomorrow…

According to all of your votes, on Number 14 we find:

Fu Manchu - The Return Of Tomorrow

Bandcamp

Homepage

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At The Dojo Records

Number 15

 

 

Number 15

We climb only six points from Mr. Bison on Number 16 to reach Number 15 today. Which is album number nine for this band. The man behind the band has enlisted a new drummer and the new incarnation of the trio seems determined to bring that massive rumble that heralds the coming of a huge storm. Their sludge metal means business, and interspersed with a few Eastern melodies, instrumentation and coloring, turns the whirling riffs and thundering drums into something entirely windswept and scorching. Heat emanates from every string pulled and every riff delivered, and that intensity is constant and becomes louder with every listening session. Yes, the constant, the cadence, hammering its searing noise home. Whether the tracks and this album become as memorable as all those other eight that came before remains to be seen. But one surely must conclude that with a bonafide legend at the helm, an album will always be legendary… Like a hundred-year-storm…

According to all of your votes, on Number 15 we find: 

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

Bandcamp

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MNRK Heavy

Number 16

 

 

Number 16

I have forgotten to mention the jump in amount of points with every spot, but we’ve now jumped a mere four points from Blood Incantation on Number 17 to reach the album on Number 16. Where we find another heavy progressive entry. But this time they stay in that lane of musicianship. Imploring a bit of psychedelia, touching on the blues roots of yore and winking at all that lovely kraut movement and space rock, the seven tracks on this album shine with harmonic brilliance. The way they weave their progressive threads throughout the record is impressive and shows their every growing knowledge of the grand universal energies of rock. Sophisticated compositions like velvet to your ears spin their tales like the myths this story is based on. These echoes have been ringing throughout the universe since existence and the Italian four have managed to capture them all and present them to you all bottled up and shooting around like a multitude of high voltage electric charges…

According to all of your votes, on Number 16 we find:

Mr. Bison - Echoes From The Universe

 

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds

 

Number 17

 

 

Number 17

After those two albums we found on Number 18 yesterday, we’re moving on to Number 17 today where we find one album. An album that might start as a very mid-seventies prog rock affair, but very quickly becomes this all crushing, all leveling blackened and death like metal album. Brutal and sludgy, the combination of those styles continues on throughout the album. Moments of atmospheric and ambient sounds coloring the crimson horror with a touch of psychedelia. Two sides, made up out of three tracks each, give you six tracks in total. Six exotic compositions that tumble over each other as they strive to wow you with their virtuosity and absolute shock and awe principles. All sorts of minor details and different instrumentation gives this entire album an otherworldly atmosphere. Turning it into an album you can't stop listening to. And you long for home and your headphones quickly, whenever you think about it... But when a band starts using the flute on their death metal, you know you will not only be listenening to it at home... Hell, you will need to listen to this absolutely everywhere…

According to all of your votes, on Number 17 we find:



Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

 

Bandcamp

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Century Media Records

Number 18

 

 

Number 18

 

After Anciients on Number 19, we now move over to Number 18. And on this little spot on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024 we find two albums with the exact same amount of points. But completely different in musical output. One of them delivers an electrifying and dizzying maelstrom of seventies rock and psychedelic prog. It’s their third album and with it they manage to retrieve that sound of yore in perfect almost sacred form. Rooted in blues, the songs are both complex, yet also so easy to stomp along with. Absolute persistent in delivering those vintage motoring riffs, the organ providing extra fuel and power to reach every destination possible. And you will be there with them, with a heart full of glee. That other album brings the cosmic doom, the machinal sludge, and the boom that makes your house quake. Shit, it makes the entire neighborhood vibrate, for the delivery is seismic and crushing! And even then they manage to turn all that heaviness into something extremely hallucinogenic, trippy, atmospheric and droning. An album fated to bring their brilliance out into the open for the entire world…

According to all of your votes, on Number 18 we find two albums:

Sacri Monti – Retrieval    

&

Ufomammut – Hidden    

 

Sacri Monti Bandcamp

Sacri Monti Facebook

Sacri Monti Instagram

Tee Pee Records 

 

 

Ufomammut Bandcamp

Ufomammut Facebook

Ufomammut Instagram

Ufomammut Homepage

Neurot Recordings

Number 19

 

 

Number 19

The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024 started with Number 20 yesterday and we rocked out with EMU on that spot according to all of your votes. Today we continue with Number 19, where we find an album that was featured on many of the lists and even high on most of the lists that entered our inbox during the first days. Giving it an early lead and perhaps it should have stayed there for their progressive metal riffing is otherworldly. Imploring sludge tones and death touches the new album is a return to the front of everyone’s attention after having stepped out of it for some eight years. Personal issues and a line-up change stopped the band for period in time, but that period full of trial and tribulations might also have made this albums so good once again. Opening up the horizon for more, more reach, more scope and a much opener and grander sound. Although there is still some of that earlier complex and dense structuring to be found as well, along with growling grunts and blast beat drums. Offset by highly emotive vocal lines and wonderful slow paced or seventies inspired prog meandering, the album shines like a dark and twisted sun. Cause yes, the pulsating, technical crushing sludge is never that far away…

According to all of your votes, on Number 19 we find:

Anciients – Beyond the Reach of the Sun

Bandcamp

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Season of Mist

Number 20

 

Number 20

The final few hours gave this self-titled album enough points to stay the course. Fifteen points above Number 21. Hailing from Australia this trio delivers the good rock ‘n roll of yore! The proto metal, the seventies inspired blues rock, the psychedelic power riffing! There’s magic happening on these six tracks. A desperate swagger like a vagabond on too much hooch and a groove that wants to let you know that it’s all happening once again. Grow them bangs out and get your bellbottoms on. Sure, a New Age is coming, but it sounds like the golden age of rock ‘n roll and then as pure and as glistening as it comes. That guitar work, so powerful, soaring leads, riffs that feel like pure hardrock pummeling and wild solo’s! Wild, as the vocals often are as well, like a drifter wildman howling about the end of the world. Bass work that opts for a boogie line one minute, follows the melody the next or stomps along with the drums. That ever changing approach works like voodoo, casts a spell on you and makes you feverish. And those drums show you that resistance is futile, there’s too much energy, too much intensity and rapid fire movement not to get completely hooked…

According to all of your votes, on Number 20 we find:

Emu – Emu




Bandcamp

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The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024

 

 

The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024

And so it begins…

We have passed the 12:00 CET deadline on December the 14th of 2024. We tallied all the votes and the results are in! No less than 218 lists came in through the email, phone, instagram and messenger, which is only a few less than last year. It was great seeing a couple of albums constantly switch places. And seeing a Number One run away with the votes. A Number Two carry away a lot of votes. Same goes for the Number Three. And the Four, Five and Six duking it out. And a few more spots switching it up or jump minor points to get to the Number 20. Some 728 albums received votes and they all deserve that vote for sure…

So, my thanks goes out, like every year, to all those amazing bands and artists who provided us with so much incredible music, so much musical mojo, that we all love so dearly. Personally, I reckon music comes closest to that thing people call magic! We also thank the labels that release those albums, the PR people that promote them and you all: the listeners and the voters! Thank you all! So, the deadline for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024 has passed! It’s time for Number 20! According to all of your votes, a grand total of 218 lists received!

A massive thanks to everyone for sending your list. The ones that sent their Top 5’s, their Top 10’s, Top 20’s or detailing 30 or even a few more great and favorite albums. Thanks! Thanks and thanks a million! We love it! We love you! And now, we go on to reveal the Number 20 of 2024! The Number 20 according to all you crazies out there who decided to vote for the Countdown this year!

So… without further ado… (drumroll!)

We give you, according to all of your votes,

Number 20!

The Final 24 Hours!

 

 

The Final 24 Hours!

This is not a dramatic episode about the final day of one of your heroes. Nope, this is a final call for your End Of Year lists! You have 24 Hours as of now to send your list of (however many) favorite albums of 2024 to our email! For on Saturday we start the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024 with Number 20! Twenty Four Hours! Cause, yes, we've moved the deadline to 12:00 CET tomorrow!

We’ve already received an amazing amount of lists! On the verge of reaching the amount of yesteryear. So, a massive thanks to everyone who already sent one. But there is still time if you haven’t!

Send your list of favorite albums, it does not matter how many or how few, to:

stonerhive@hotmail.com

We started doing this back in 2009 and have always hoped to receive more lists with every year that passes… Thank you all for participating… Number 20 according to all YOUR votes that come in will be published on Saturday 14th December, after 12:00 CET. (Depending on how many lists you all keep sending and how much work there will be left to do after that time...) 

ps. Want to read up on past editions?

Visit the blog and see posts like:

The Countdown So Far...

Or the Number One Posts...