Stoner HiVe

Crush Grove Records

donderdag 9 augustus 2018

La Chinga - Beyond The Sky

La Chinga – Beyond The Sky

Small Stone – 2018

Rock, Hard, Seventies, Blues, Boogie

Rated: ****

We’ve been loving their Zeppelin sound since we first heard their self-titled debut record La Chinga back in 2013. And the Freewheelin’ album that followed three years later made our head explode and became a soundtrack to many a car ride towards the endless horizon. And now the Canadian trio is back with more and it is more of that sweet seventies lovin goodness! Beyond The Sky is what the new La Chinga album is called, and it continues down that majestic road they started on already quite a few years ago. This time however their seventies hardrock sound seems to slow down a notch. They make the groove go down, down and laidback and the underlying blues current flowing slower. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still rockin and knockin and straight up boogie. But the dances won’t be that wild, but more sensual and lovin. This one is meant for those sweaty and steamy summer nights, the ones you never want to end. Just like this mad hot summer we’ve been having and this crackin new album called Beyond The Sky…

(Written by JK)

dinsdag 7 augustus 2018

Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit

Radicalis / MVKA – 2018

Metal, Rock, Roots, Avant-Garde, Black

Rated: ****

In the end we never wrote about those first two releases of the Swiss avant-garde metal project Zeal & Ardor lead by Manuel Gagneux. Simply, because we couldn’t completely grasp it. It jumped a bit too much around to really get hooked by it. There was something there, something between that ADHD hop, skip and a jump movement through blues, roots, soul and black metal. But it also overwhelmed you with something that felt like too much, much too much. But then came Graspop Festival. And they played to a completely and chuck full Metal Dome (to their own surprise) and the show was so incredibly good, it overwhelmed you (this time the good way) and left you in awe and full of love for the band. So, Stranger Fruit had to be bought. And on it, we still hear that somewhat weird combination of genres… that now work magnificently. With more of a thread through the songs, we can now enjoy a much stronger set of material and be awed by the melancholy and the pain or be chilled by the haunting voice and atmosphere. This is how the first two records were meant to be. And this comes close to Zeal & Ardor live. For that was and is, a true shock and awe experience…

(Written by JK)

maandag 6 augustus 2018

Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

There will be a few mentions posted soon. You know, us raving about an album we love. Going overboard with the accolades and trying to convey the feeling we get from listening to that record. We still don’t do the technical reviews and we do not try and dissect something we love. We just boast about that feeling and the images it conjures! And when we do this little thingy, telling you about the Five Artists we listened to the most last week. We just quickly want to get out there what music we have been enjoying the most. Sometimes it’s a new record and sometimes we grab back to older ones we adore! Like Sir Bowie for instance, we can listen to the Thin White Duke all day every day. And sometimes the lust for his music grows so big, we cannot shove it aside any longer. We already mentioned the second album Volume II: The Divide by Hyperwülff last week. An amazing follow-up to Volume I: Erion Speaks and everyone should check this duo out. It will grab you somewhere and rattle your bones! La Chinga’s new album Beyond The Sky will come out shortly, just like the mention we are posting tomorrow or soon. Out on Small Stone it’s another damn fine hard rocking, seventies loving, scoot boogying record; and everyone will dig it! When it ranks on the Number 1 spot of the newest Doom Chart you’d better get yer hands on that record and put it on repeat. Brimstone Coven’s latest is called What Was And What Shall Be. Put out by Brimstone Coven themselves, it has all the power and groove one can wish for. And last but certainly not least, we have been doing our crazy dancing to the Ape Machine’s This House Is Condemned after moving on to War To Head and then on to Mangled By The Machine cause there is a new Ape Machine on the horizon and we cannot wait to hear! We love these cats! And you know the deal, you need to check’m out! Check’m all out!

donderdag 2 augustus 2018

Hyperwülff – Volume II: The Divide

Shove/Deathcrush/Dischi Bervisti/Teschio Dischi/Roughness Noise – 2018

Metal, Core, Black, Sludge, Doom

Rated: ***

Volume I: Erion Speaks was released in 2015 and felt like a blackened metal and sludge core translation of the Divine Comedy. And now, Hyperwülff is back with Volume II: The Divide to show us all there are even more layers beyond those seven that Dante told us about. That’s how it feels. But in truth there is a different backstory to this charcoal release. The Italians begin their story on the battlefield where the last fight against Robogoat takes place. It ends in the demise of the great Wulf and the Goat both. After which Hyperwülff is forced to roam the universe devoid of physical form in search of way to regain a body before being swept away through the dark layers of the Universe. Yes. Much weirder indeed. But in truth, the backstory isn’t all that necessary, one can imagine even darker adventures when listening to the album. The growls, the howls, it all sounds intensely twisted and evil. And the musical tones, ominous throughout! At least, that’s how it starts. And then with the Last Ride track (which also has an official video) the veil is lifted and instead of standing their ground, they’re on the move in a very big way! And even though the thunder does return, the sky clears and green light does appear. Big time. And that’s exactly what this Italian duo has produced with the new album, something big. Something big, bold and beautiful, in all its dark and twisted glory!

(Written by JK)

Yob – Our Raw Heart

Relapse Records – 2018

Doom, Rock, Metal, Sludge

Rated: ****

The record that came before, Clearing The Path To Ascend, was so freakin beautiful it became an instant doom metal classic. It reached the Number 2 position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of that year and everyone longed for more of Mike Scheidt and his Yob buddies. But life happens… A severe intestinal illness had Sir Scheidt dancing on a tightrope, which could have ended on the wrong end of the wire. But luckily a hugely fat grey cat came to him as spirit animal and helped him survive. All that angst, feat and worry is now translated into what became Our Raw Heart. It is perhaps not another instant classic, but with Beauty In Falling Leaves, they do have another majestic track on their hands. It will be choking you with emotion and harrowing visions. It will be pummeling you raw with pounding riffs and grate your soul with a bone chilling voice. And that is how Our Raw Heart grabs you and sits you down, it will speak to you and philosophize about it all. And that resounds in their music. Oppressive and suffocating on one hand and expansive and progressive on the other end. And with that Yob continues along a their very own Path…

(Written by JK)

The Doom Chart For July 2018

woensdag 1 augustus 2018

The Doom Chart For July 2018

Doom Chart

“I’m going off the rails on a crazy train...” – Ozzy Osbourne

The sun has vaporized the water and set fire to the forests. This summer has been one of the hottest for 250 years in Scandinavia and in many others parts around this world, a world that has gone mad in so many ways. But the echoes of the riffs from the heavy underground remains, despite the heatwaves, and can be heard all over the globe. The Doom Charts stands right there in the intense ray of light that we call rock’n’roll. They say the summer is a slow season for new music. It might be so but it’s also a time to discover the stuff that has been out there for awhile. And suddenly you discover something brand new you never heard before that shines brighter than a thousand suns and you feel that euphoria that only great music can give you again. The heavy underground is sometimes a crazy world in itself but it is st least our own madness.

~Magnus Tannergren

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album reviewers from the doom-stoner-heavy underground around the globe. Each month, our critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge metal, stoner-psychedelic and heavy rock albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart below. This is a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world…

Stoner HiVe's Top 10 artists listened to last month...

Stoner HiVe's

Top 10 artists listened to last month...

Komatsu

The Legendary Tiger Man

Svvamp

Red Sun Rising

Tranquilo

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

maandag 30 juli 2018

Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 5 artists listened to last week…

The Legendary Tigerman
Electric Citizen
Bud Spencer Blues Explosion
Crazy Bull
Komatsu

No time. Really. We mean it this time! So, here’s just the fast list of the Top 5 of most listened artists this week. Well, and a quick note to tell you what the albums are called. Misfit, out on Dirty Water Records, by The Legendary Tigerman, which we absolutely adore, read about it below. Electric Citizen’s new album Helltown! Amazing, out soon on Riding Easy Records. The new Bud Spencer Blues Explosion. It’s called Vivi Muori Blues Ripeti, out on La Tempesta Dischi, it continues on where the former record halted. Crazy Bull, I was ordered to do so by Sir Bucky Brown. And I’m glad I listened. The Past Is Today, out on Totem Cat I believe, is filled with hardrock, seventies love and something sweet that could have come from Sweden. Lovin it! Argonauta Records releases the new Komatsu, and New Horizon keeps on spinnin! The boys delivered solid gold! So, check’m out! Check’m all out!

maandag 23 juli 2018

The Legendary Tigeman – Misfit

Dirty Water Records – 2018

Rock, Garage, Punk, Blues, Stoner

Rated: *****

Recorded in Rancho De La Luna with the help from grandmaster Catching, the Misfit album tells the story of a man who wants to lose himself in the desert. It’s the new record released by Portugal’s very own The Legendary Tigerman. It’s got groove, it’s got soul, it’s got swagger and it has that magical magnetic ability to keep you captivated from the first tones of that danceable catchy opener Motorcycle Boy to the last farewell song To All My (Few) Brothers. On the vinyl edition, we are treated to four more ballads, which add even more spice to the already damn well amazing record. It’s a trek through the desert, a trek through musical history, through rock, blues, punk and dipping your toes into the stoner pool and drying yourself off with some gritty romp and stomp that would sound perfect everywhere but especially in some ramshackle drinking hole filled with forlorn and dusty characters. With dogs howling at the moon and knives next to the blood speckled playing cards spread out across the tables. It’s beautiful and it will make you shiver with desire or fear or that weird oxygen deprived feeling the desert heat can give you. Or striving to be your own man, your true self, that outsider that lurks beneath the surface. Misfit. The soundtrack for your destiny!

(Written by JK)

Saola – Saola

Self released – 2018

Rock, Metal, Stoner, Doom, Sludge

Rated: ****

As we stated a few days ago, we’ve been spinning the new Saola EP a lot! Those four tracks wormed their way into our heart and into our mind and we cannot seem to let go. Just listen to opening firecracker track Red Witch. It’s so damn good, you simply sit, stand or lay there, mouth wide, gazing at whatever trinket you were looking at before the track started, slowly banging your head and slowly losing all track of space and time. Those four fella’s from Portland, Oregon really outdid themselves there. But that’s not all there is. We’ve got three more amazing sludge metal adventures waiting just around the corner. They must have been influenced by Sleep, Pallbearer, Sabbath, Monolord and even some Melvins. And will jamming around, they must have thought about everything they produced, we must sound like Saola, whatever we do. And reading up on their websites we can safely state that this is the case. Four young dudes ready to take their brand of metal to the doomed masses. And everyone needs to stand in attention to this! So, check out Saola!

(Written by JK)

Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Komatsu

Red Sun Rising

The Legendary Tigerman

Tranquilo

1968

We’ve got three weeks of incredibly heavy lifting coming at us. Three weeks of work that will definitely impair our HiVe actions. And that while a heatwave hits this little crazy country. It’s gonna get intense. But we’ll manage… Somehow… And we hope to listen to some good stuff here and there when we find the time. And I’m sure we will! The past week we got treated to so many kick ass records, it almost feels a crime to only mention the five we listened to the most. We’ve been listening to 1968 for a while, loving their new record Ballads Of The Godless. And when the news came the label is dicking them around we immediately grabbed it again and kept finding new stuff to dig. The psychedelic blues roots shine through with a righteous glimmer and bounces heavy rock and stoner layers. Absolute gold! Head on over to Outlaws Of The Sun and read what Steve Howe had to say about this one. Tidal Waves by Tranquilo washed over us with a strange sensation of heavy psychedelics with a punky and metal approach. Very grimy and very DIY! The Legendary Tigerman from Portugal, recorded his latest album in the legendary Rancho De La Luna studio. Dirty Water Records puts it out and the gritty blues roots and punk adagio that covers the record titled Misfit add to the magical story of a man that wants to lose himself in the desert. Groovy here, danceable there, heavy like a freight train or thirst quenching like the desert rain! Amazing from the first to the last track! Red Sun Rising’s new album Thread came out through New Razor & Tie and we mentioned it a week ago. There’s something about this record, it repels and attracts! Like a jukebox magnet! And the past few days we’ve listened to almost nothing else but the new Komatsu record! New Horizon, out on Argonauta Records, will be hitting the globe in a big month, and the four Komatsu super massive mothersludgers will take it by storm! So check’m out! Check’m all out!

donderdag 19 juli 2018

Mr. Overdrive – A Fox, A Rabbit

Puree Productions – 2018

Rock, Alternative, Electronic

Rated: ***

Well, this is different! Very different. Different, but tasty! Mr. Overdrive, a three-piece alternative rock band from the Netherlands that does not shy away from danceable rhythms and electronic grooves just released their debut EP called A Fox, A Rabbit. It’s a hop, skip and a jump, smash and dance, head bang and bounce kind of a deal! This might be due to the fact that the bass functions as guitar and the synth as bass! Five tracks that move all over the place but still retain that one infallible goal: to move your body and groove your soul! They name, among others, De Staat and Soulwax as influences for their sound. And rightfully so, Mr. Overdrive, headstrong and ready to go! Go check out A Fox, A Rabbit and hear what Mr. Overdrive is all about!

(Written by JK)