The Doom Charts For March 2026

 

DOOM CHARTS

MARCH 2026

 

“And then one day you find
The Doom Charts have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun…”

~ misheard Pink Floyd lyrics…

The Doom Charts is made up of a passionate collection of underground journalists, bloggers, podcasters and other devoted heavy music fiends! This ever-evolving cabal shifts and transforms from month to month and at the bottom of each edition, you can see exactly who cast their votes that month. For of course, life has a way of interrupting even the most dedicated listening rituals. As the voting deadline creeps closer, we often find ourselves wondering where the time has gone. Though the date is never a mystery, it still manages to catch us off guard every single month. Is time moving faster than it used to? Or are there simply more incredible bands releasing outstanding albums at an unstoppable pace? Deep down, we all know the answer. Below, you’ll find the top forty albums, selected from a staggering pool of 197 releases that received votes. Each one is exceptional… Each one deserving of your time and attention. Now let’s hope the month will last a bit longer this time…

Ready for another wild ride through the Heavy Underground universe? And not just together with Kal-El's amazing Astral Voyager Vol.2... But with 39 other stunning Heavy Underground releases! 

 

Why yes! It's the March 2026 Doom Charts! 

 

Forty damn fine albums, and of those that made the list I voted for:

Kal-El, Red Sun Atacama, Desert Collider, Desert Colossus, New Dawn Fades, Neurosis, Devil Electric, Yeast Machine, Cowboys & Aliens, BLACK LUNG, Gnarwhal, Misty Route, Fuzzing Nation, Mammon's Throne, Clouds Taste Satanic, Mister Earthbound, Radian, Astral Wizard - Band , The Crooked Skulls , Spider Goat Canyon and Corrosion Of Conformity...

But as usual, I could have voted for all of them and more! Starting the rundown with perhaps the weirdest entry? Sturgill Simpson's Johnny Blue Skies project together with The Dark Clouds called Mutiny After Midnight...

 

Already featured on Stoner HiVe: 

Spider Goat Canyon - Walking With Geordie

Red Sun Atacama – Summerchild

Desert Colossus – Apparatus

Yeast Machine – Bad Milk

Video and Single Premiere - Lord Of Confusion - Wander (Live)

 Cowboys & Aliens - Finis Temporum

Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.2

Prophets of Thwaites - Vulnerant Omnes Ultima Necat 

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and reviewers from the 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…

  The Doom Charts for March 2026

Single Premiere - Beneath The Skin - Fade Away

 

Single Premiere 

Beneath The Skin - Fade Away

 

That gutter spawn guitar tone. That chainsaw bass thump. The drums count down and as the vocalist enters, it just all rolls on! Like an unstoppable wave or riffs, groove and weight! This is some damn gritty stuff and we are absolutely honored to present it to you all right here right now as we PREMIERE the Fade Away single by Kansas City fourpiece Beneath The Skin!

You might know these fellas from their wild five track EP from last year called Pay Up and they are about to follow that up with something even more wicked as they are set to roll out their self-titled full-sized debut on April 18th! A full review of this amazing release will follow shortly. But holy hell, this Fade Away single alone... You ready for the PREMIERE?
 
A dense, riff heavy sound, rooted in doom and sludge, elevated by a strong sense of groove and attitude and the ability to turn all of that into a goddamn tsunami. The guitars hit with crushing weight, balancing slow, punishing passages with head-nodding rhythms that give the music a gritty momentum. Vocals shift between rough-edged growls, expressive, faster phrasing, adding depth and personality to the heaviness. Raw, lived through, lived-in, hard earned. Fade Away, is filled with equal parts tar pit and barroom brawl, ready to pounce, ready to bruise… But you will be proud of the scars! I know I am… 

   Press play on Beneath The Skin's Fade Away single now and get ready for the full album to drop on April 18th! 

 

PR Wire:

 Beneath The Skin

Doom & sludge with soul from Kansas City

Self-titled debut album out April 18th

Lead single “Fade Away” out April 3rd

Genres: Doom, sludge, stoner

FFO: Crowbar, Down, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, Acid Bath, Melvins, CoC

Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, Beneath The Skin is a doom and sludge metal four-piece poised to unleash their crushing debut self-titled album this April, with lead single “Fade Away” dropping April 3rd.

Following 2025's “Pay Up” EP, an uncompromising chronicle of drug addiction and recovery, the band are back with more hard-hitting groove and gritty soul. Hailing from the Crowbar and Corrosion of Conformity school of heavy, the riffs and swagger are front and center. Frontman Mike Riley’s grizzled, wildman vocals growl and croon, oozing charisma atop a wave of punishing grooves.

        

IN THE BAND'S OWN WORDS:

"We worked on this album for around 2 years. We had a pretty aggressive show season in 2024 and 2025 on top of recording our debut EP "Pay Up" in early 2025, but “Pay Up” represented the band’s early days. Joshua joined in spring of 24 and “Pay Up” was already written. With this one, we wrote it all together in rehearsals during a challenging show schedule so it was more of a complete project for us. We have intentionally kind of explored the whole spectrum of the genre. This thing moves around while still having a cohesive sound.”

Beneath The Skin’s self-titled full-length is slated for April 18th, and “Fade Away” leads the charge.

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Spider Goat Canyon - Walking With Geordie

 

 

Spider Goat Canyon - Walking With Geordie
Self-released - 2026 
Psychedelic, Noise, Doom, Improv 
Rated: ***** 

About twenty years ago I got to review the first two studio albums by Australia's Spider Goat Canyon (with the members now residing in Melbourne and Wellington (New Zealand)) for the now long defunct Up Magazine, both garnering a whopping 9 out of 10 from yours truly. Afterwards they went off my radar at some point, so I was very happy to accidentally stumble across their latest release, titled 'Walking With Geordie', the second one derived from a late 2023 live and improvised studio jam session in Melbourne (the first one being 2025's Vozvrat Kirpicha where they were jamming together with their founding guitarist Steve Brick as a second axe slinger), with more to come according to the footnotes on their Bandcamp Page. 

Good news all over and it doesn't stop there. The music on 'Walking With Geordie' is truly stunning and exists of title tracks Part I and II, together forming one big, improvised jam session that feels like a meticulously composed instrumental masterpiece. Every riff, ever rumbling bass line, every drum fill - it all feels likes it should be exactly where it is, laying down a meditative and hypnotizing soundscape of heavy rock goodness, with you as a listener being glued to a chair for every second of the way, jaw dropped, drool dripping in your lap. It says everything about the sheer craftsmanship and chemistry on display here. 

Part I starts with some minimalist guitar notes that very slowly build towards greater things by starting a conversation with the toms while the bass is listening from the sideline, mumbling in itself, eager to join but doesn't quite seem to know how yet. Layers are being added, the pounding rises, the pace picks up ever so subtle and a melody slowly unfolds itself before the first real groove kicks in. A drowsy one, taking you on a journey to the subconscious part of your brain, and yet to be discovered parts of your core elements, slowly engulfing you with an abstract, transcendent and entrancing landscape before lifting you up, higher and higher, gears shifting while your misled feelings say otherwise. And it goes on and on for over 26 minutes like living in a realistic dream with clouds of fish floating above the ocean and a puppet master pulling the strings even after they've being cut, not only detaching the clouds from the sky, but also you from your body as if the clouds want to say "come, join us, let's watch this spectacle together". As you don't have the physical ability anymore to say "no", you go along and become one with the fish, forming a trance-like bond; a big, invisible audience submitting to what happens in that one studio miles below. 

And that's only Part I. The trickery doesn't end there. 

Part II doesn't even try to amend things in a big way, it seamlessly takes over the crescendo that ended part one to drown you in a pool of nasty feedback, droning bass and drums desperately searching for a hidden exit in the walls of the recording room. Hitting, cutting, carving, it's all being pulled out of the creative bag to ensure that one truly desirable thing is being reached: total freedom (which was already there, but you probably get the point - or not, as the latter is probably one of the side effects of the total freedom that was already there in the first place) and near the three minute mark it appears they find a weak spot in the wall when the drums become more frantic - as if the added tempo will be beneficial, but you and the fish see from up above that the walls don't break as the brick seems to be made of highly flexible material that might be impossible to destroy. For the next give or take six minutes it's a constant battle of push and pull, keeping a faster pace at first with snarling, high-pitched guitar notes that are merely there to cheer the rhythm section on, pushing with all its might, but eventually settling down, accepting fate by showcasing doom and gloom that's being translated to what's coming out of the speakers - a slow, lowdown groove that comes suspiciously close to drone territory, but retains just enough punch and an infectious bass line to keep them from drowning all together. Fatigued, but steadfast and determined layers of conviction are being added, eventually waking you up with an all-out freak fest of hard-hitting drums, psychedelic guitar patterns and free-flowing bass, the walls crumbling down, the clouds dissolving, you carried by a mattress made of imaginary flower-shaped hands before softly landing back on earth, staring in the eyes of three guys who just handed you the trip of a lifetime, wondering who is gonna build the studio back up again. Or is that mountain of debris just another hallucination; another attempt to try to grasp everything that happened in the past 42 minutes?

(Written by Ronny Dijksterhuis)

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Elder - Through Zero

 

Elder – Through Zero

Even though, we do not yet know… What the rest of the album will sound like… The first single promises a lot… “Through Zero” unfolds like a journey across an unseen threshold, where the narrator drifts between life and death, searching for meaning in the space between. Guided by echoes of the past and a growing sense of acceptance, they begin to see endings not as final, but as passageways into something unknown. Around them, sound mirrors the transformation, dreamlike textures swirl with heavy, grounding riffs, while hypnotic rhythms pull them forward. Moments of tension give way to clarity, fear softens into understanding. By the end, the journey doesn’t resolve but continues… Suggesting that crossing “zero” is not an end, but a beginning in disguise. And thus, the logical first single for the brand new Elder album dropping May 29th on Stickman Records for Europe, Blues Funeral Recordings in North America and Bird’s Robe in Australia… 

Listen to Through Zero right here… And be ready for the rest of the album on May 29th! 



PR Wire:

Elder

Unveil Title Track Of Upcoming Studio Album “Through Zero”

Out May 29, Pre-Orders Start Today!

Progressive psych rock heavyweights Elder have released a first single, the title track of their forthcoming studio album “Through Zero”. The record is set for release on May 29 in Europe via Stickman Records, in North America through Blues Funeral Recordings and Bird’s Robe in Australia. Album pre-orders start today.

"In a diverse album, the title track of our new album sits on the middle of the spectrum and is a perfect first impression of what’s to come," says guitarist and singer Nick DiSalvo. "Dreamy, heavy, raw, electronic, there’s a bit of everything that makes this album special to us. Through Zero is about impermanence, coming to terms with mortality and the long struggle to not only make peace but to find a sort of solidarity with the dead. The more time passes, the more this theme returns to me, and always in a new light - much as our music always returns in a slightly changed state reflecting who we are becoming."

Two decades into their existence, Elder remain an anomaly in the heavy underground - a rare band with the ability to absorb and shed influences from a myriad of genres without falling into pastiche or losing their own identity. Through Zero stands as a strong reaffirmation of their commitment to pushing boundaries in the world of heavy rock and cements the group’s status as leaders of the pack in heavy psychedelic rock.

Over the past twenty years, Elder have mastered crushing riffs, melodic jaunts, progressive patterns, hypnotic grooves and ethereal atmosphere. On Through Zero, the band channel these years of experience into what may be their most immediate and engaging record to date, while allowing seeds from outside the sphere of rock music to take root and bloom within their progressive framework. Listeners will find familiar elements of new textures, sequences, and sounds alongside Elder’s iconic take on heavy rock. As always, every spin reveals new details. 

Recorded at Big Snuff Studios in Berlin across several months between tours in 2025, Through Zero marks the first album the band not only produced themselves, but also co-mixed together with longtime collaborator Richard Behrens. Mastered by Carl Saff, the result is a record that feels more like a full extension of the band’s creative intentions than ever before.

“Through Zero” is a term borrowed from engineering and the world of music," DiSalvo reveals. "It describes the property of a frequency being able to pass through the zero point and continue into the negative. While it isn’t a concept rooted in philosophy, it resonates with me on a conceptual level: the zero point is not an end, but a midpoint along a partially unseen path. Interpretation is open: the journey is the destination, beginnings and endings may be arbitrary, or perhaps reality is simply less linear than we tend to assume.

The songs on the album explore related themes that reflect my own observations and personal philosophy. Life and death, frustration and fear, helplessness and hope - all of these exist along the same “signal path.”

 
Through Zero Track listing:
1. Sigil To Ruin
2. Capture/Release
3. Through Zero
4. Strata
5. Sight Unseen
6. Blighted Age

Elder is:
Nick DiSalvo - Guitar/Vocals
Jack Donovan - Bass
Mike Risberg - Guitar/Keyboards
Georg Edert - Drums

Elder Live Dates 2026:
13.06. Derby, UK - Download Festival
14.06. Colchester, UK - Colchester Arts Centre w/ Blood Incantation
15.06. Southampton, UK - The 1865 w/ Blood Incantation
16.06. Brighton, UK - Concorde 2 w/ Blood Incantation
18.06. Clisson, FR - Hellfest
19.06. Dessel, BE - Graspop Metal Meeting
20.06. Dortmund, DE - Junkyard Open Air w/ Kadavar
21.06. Frankfurt, DE - Das Bett
23.06. Winterthur, CH - Gaswerk
24.06. Karlsruhe, DE - P8 w/ REZN
26.06. Oslo, NO - Tons of Rock
27.06. Thyrnau, DE - Blackdoor Festival
30.06. Sofia, BG - Mixtape 5
01.07. Thessaloniki, GR - Eightball Club
02.07. Athens, GR - Arch Club
07.07. Slunj, HR - Bearstone Festival
10.07. Pleszew, PL - Red Smoke Festival
23.07. Reutlingen, DE - Hafensounds Festival w/ Kadavar
24.07. Budapest, HU - Monolit Festival
25.07. Tolmin, SI - Tolminator Festival
26.07. Milan, IT - Circolo Magnolia Summer
28.07. Rockstadt, RO - Rockstadt Extreme Fest
30.07. Breitenbach am Herzberg, DE - Burg Herzberg Festival
31.07. Michelau, DE - Rock Im Wald
04.08. Rostock, DE - MAU Club
05.08. Josefov-Jaromer, CZ - Brutal Assault Festial
08.08. Âncora, PT - Sonic Blast Festival
14.08. Valais, CH - PALP Festival

More tour dates announced soon

 
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Elder – Innate Passage

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Number 18 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2020

Elder – The Gold & Silver Sessions EP

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2017

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2015

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2011

 

 

Red Sun Atacama – Summerchild

 

 

Red Sun Atacama – Summerchild
Mrs Red Sound – 2026
Rock, Garage, Stoner, Punk, Desert, Psych
Rated: *****

Blasting out of the gate! With opening track Passenger, the Red Sun Atacama three present you with the perfect battering ram to disclose all the secrets that their new album Summerchild contains! Wild and unpredictable you run along with the Passenger wickedness until you crash into a field of daffodils, and just lay there, letting a sun-washed and laid-back jazz moment take control. But that doesn’t last, and the break down pulls you up and tears you asunder! Wowzah! Following track Conveyor even ups the ante when it comes to forcefully taking the listener along the ride with them. Try and sit still, impossible! And so it will be for the rest of the crowd at whatever venue or festival you will see them live… 

Red Sun Atacama, three Bordeaux-based crazies that have been releasing music into the world for more than ten years and absolutely blew everyone away with their Darwin album from 2022. Well, Summerchild is another step in their evolution, taking even more daring chances with dynamics and control. Cause where Passenger detonates and has that snarling desert-drenched punk charge, third track Weightless lures you in slow, turning your attention into a haze before dropping the hammer. Then there’s Ragdoll that sprawls and spirals and becomes this wild-eyed trip that captures the band at their most unhinged and hypnotic. Or Graze The Sun that combines both of those worlds and spices it all with heavenly and very riotous guitar work.

So yes, one moment your are hurtling down a sun scorched highway with no brakes and speakers blown. And the next you collapse on the side of the road, watching the sun set, as the band eases off and become this dreamy exhale like the track Sundown. And that moment of respite feels entirely earned, as you’ve travelled with all eight tracks, you’ve watched them swell, recede and surge. You’ve whirled around on whatever sand dune you happened to find yourself on and you will always remember the trip. Red Sun Atacama delivered something magical. A truly vivid, immersive ride that rewards anyone daring to dance with the Summerchild...

(Written by JK)

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Red Sun Atacama – Darwin

Number 18 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 
Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

Desert Colossus
Corrosion of Conformity
Dikke Dennis
Black Lung
Neurosis
Sweatmaster
Ritual Arcana
Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell
Bismut
Sound of Smoke

Good morning! It’s been a heavy week trying to come to grips with the fact I’m becoming an old man. A freaking bout with the flu is taking me many days to recuperate from. It’s been over a week now and I’m still not a 100%. And because of all the lying around on couches and bed has wrecked my lower back. Pfff… Luckily we have all this amazing music to lift our spirit and heal our soul! The road to recovery might be longer nowadays, but its paved with great riffs and awesome grooves! Don’t believe me? Check out that wild and amazing Quick Fire Friday segment Ronny Dijksterhuis delivered for Stoner HiVe! Featuring ten amazing outfits! Or get ready for the KrashKarma live tour by revisiting the last album, like we did. And two full reviews appeared, about that brilliant Yeast Machine and earth shattering Desert Colossus! Can’t stop spinning both of them! Or many of the albums that are on the Most Listened to list above, check’m out. Check’m all out! 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

We've arrived on yet another final Friday of the month and we are treated once again to a Quick Fire Friday all done in famous Ronny Dijksterhuis style! Which means, this will get hot and heavy from here on in! You ready? 

For old time's sake I'm listening to AC/DC's 'The Razor's Edge' for the first time in years. Cool riffage, memorable tunes, just the right amount of grit and best listened to when the volume is turned up to 11, decibel meters living in the red constantly, the risk of sound distortion and blown-up speakers lurking around the corner. Exactly what we aim for with Quick Fire Friday: destroying your sound system, your ears and your reputation as the perfect neighbour in one go, smashing your thirst (or what's left of it) for doing everything within the confinements of society's strive for political correctness to smithereens. Yes, this is another one of those moments to start the weekend the right way with a bunch of new, (un)known songs and forgotten gems. So, to speak with that AC/DC classic that's about to start right now while writing these very words: "Are you ready for a good time?". A rhetorical question of course, because I bet you are and I know you'll be as blown away as us by the goodies listed below.

 

Trance Bill - Violent Impulsive Primitive

Trance Bill (Rodolphe of Mud Spencer) unleashed a surprising debut album last year and is already back with a follow up. The EP, titled 'Violent Impulsive Primitive' is exactly that and brings his stonerized, surfed-up psych rock garage punk to another level, drenched in some of the nastiest fuzz you've ever heard. Another great release rising from the Indonesian soil.

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 Freedom Run - Soul Eater

Also from Indonesia comes another solo project called Freedom Run, a name more likely than not taken from the Kyuss song with the same name. Some shoes to fill, but Ghifari Hakim delivers ear-shattering, groove-driven stoner metal with a doom undercurrent that hands out punch after punch without giving you any room to breathe for the entire running time of the four track debut EP 'Soul Eater'. Great stuff and maybe there's a possibility to see Freedom Run live at some point, given the fact there are two full band rehearsal video's on Hakim's YouTube page. As the slogan goes: to be continued...

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Mauled - When Your Eyes Are Shut

We get into even heavier territory with Mauled's low-tuned blackened sludge that leapfrogs the act of throwing punches and aims straight for your throat with a spiked belt, choking you to submission while violently belting in your face, spit drooling from the mouth of death. Even though what's being said gets drowned in an overdose of indecipherable screams and growls, you will exactly know what to do: drop to your knees and bow to the lords of aggression before you get mauled even more.

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Okay You Win – Smoke

'Smoke' is the lead single from 'End of Days', the upcoming debut album by London rockers Okay You Win. It's an organic blend of British metal from the eighties, nineties grunge and dusty desert rock, but above all a great song played to perfection as it flows smoothly from section to section, from head-nodding up-tempo grooves to moments of restraint and back again with a singer who can deliver the goods in every way. A stunning preview for what promises to be an incredible album if the other songs can match the quality of 'Smoke'.

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High Fade – Swamp

High Fade isn't a band that makes a lot of music fit for Stoner HiVe and on their new single 'Swamp' they start out as the funky rockband they are. But during the guitar solo it veers into heavy psych territory before ending with a damp, sweaty stoner groove. And all of that in less than three and a half minutes. I personally love this song and expect you might too.

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Pussy Miel - Don't Know

On their Bandcamp page these French ladies proclaim that Pussy Miel stands for the brute energy of punk, the heavy drowsiness of stoner and the sweet taste of honey. That more or less fits the bill, although the only real stoner song on their new ep 'Bee Raged' is the opening track titled 'Don't Know' - a very good song that shows they're at their best when laying down those catchy stoner grooves with a bit of female flair. Hopefully there'll be more of that in the future. But, to be fair and give them the credit they deserve, the other five songs aren't bad either (pretty good actually). If you like punk noise with a ragged edge from time to time, we highly recommend checking out the entire ep.

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Creek Devil - Boot Scootin' in Blood

Fuck, how could we at Stoner HiVe have missed out on Creek Devil's 'Boot Scootin' in Blood' EP way back in October 2025? Because this is some heavy southern stoner metal in the vein of Borgo Pass, Down and Corrosion of Conformity, coming at you like a supercharged bulldozer flattening the Appalachian Mountains in their home state of Tennessee while wielding bottles of illegal liquor and shooting at the hats of innocent bystanders with a Colt .45. Oh yeah, their take on ZZ Top's 'Tush' is damn fine too.

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BLKE – Heat

Last year Berlin-based British band BLKE surprised us with their debut EP 'Living Without Expectations' consisting of five noise and psych rock songs skirting the borders of kraut. It's no  surprise they got picked up by the famed Tonzonen Records where you can find the best of the best in the German music scene. 'Heat' is a repetitive, hypnotic, mind-bending psychedelic krautrock masterpiece and the second single from their upcoming full length album, simply titled BLKE, set for release in May 2026.

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The Heavy Eyes - Troublesome Priest

The Heavy Eyes from Memphis, Tennessee have always been kind of an up and down affair. Sometimes playing heavy, fuzzed-out bluesy stoner that bursts with energy, but ever so often missing the mark when the spark isn't quite there. Therefore we were over the moon hearing their brand new single 'Troublesome Priest'. One of their grittiest tunes where the blues growls, the desert fuzz stings and the muddy swamp sucks you in. A burning hot appetiser for their new album 'Focus' (street date: June 12th 2026).

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Phantom Logic – Glyphwave

And to round things off, here's something you've all been waiting for without knowing it. Just a few days ago Glory or Death Records announced the debut album from Phantom Logic by releasing the single 'Glyphwave'. Heavy psychedelic rock with a hint of stoner and a freedom that brings to mind the greatest jam bands in the history of mankind. Not strange considering Isaiah Mitchel from Earthless is one of the band members. And to arguably give an even more accurate description of what's on offer here, let's cite the promo poster for the album: this is "beauty and chaos, held together by guitars". We couldn't have said it any better.

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KrashKarma on tour!

 

 

KrashKarma on tour! 

Later this year, the KrashKarma two will return to Europe for a wild two month tour through France, Austria, Spain and hitting almost every city in Germany! But at the end of April and begin of May they will do a mini tour through Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. And yes, my hometown is among the dates! On the 3rd of May they will be crashing into The Jack in Eindhoven! 

And wild is an understatement! Two people, somehow sounding like five, hurling drums, riffs and vocal chaos straight into your face, Niki Skistimas soaring one moment, Ralf Dietel growling from the basement the next! It’s a volatile cocktail of modern metal swagger, that combines their powerful drums and energetic guitar with that striking vocal contrast to something that becomes larger than life. Just go back to their last Falling To Pieces album from 2023 and hear the proof that a duo can sound incredibly massive and keep listeners curious for more and for how they sound live on stage. Unbelievably loud, dynamic, unpredictable, explosive and weirdly addictive! Yes, very curious how they deliver it all on stage! May 3rd, The Jack, Eindhoven! 

KRASHKARMA On Tour:

30.04. St.Wendel - Irish Pub (GER)
01.05. Diest - Hell On Air (BE)
02.05. Essen - Don’t Panic (GER)
03.05. Eindhoven - Cafe the Jack (NL)
02.10. Romans-Sur-Isère - La Cordonnerie (FR)
03.10. Saint-Just - Just’n’Fest (FR)
08.10. Kortrijk - DVG Club (BE)
10.10. Savigny-Le-Temple - L’Empreinte (FR)
14.10. Grenoble - L'Ampérage (FR)
16.10. Montpellier - The Oliver Pub (FR)
20.10. Barberaz - Brin de Zinc (FR)
27.10. Wiesbaden - Kesselhaus (GER)
28.10. Würzburg - Keller Z87 (GER)
29.10. Lindau - Club Vaudeville (GER)
30.10. Balingen - Sonnenkeller (GER)
31.10. Emmendingen - JuZe (GER)
03.11. Nürnberg - Z-Bau (GER)
06.11. Wien - Arena (AT)
07.11. Schongau - Reaktor (GER)
10.11. Marburg - KFZ (GER)
11.11. Oberhausen -Druckluft (GER)
12.11. Hamburg - Stage 15 (GER)
13.11. Hannover - Mephisto (GER)
14.11. Eisenhüttenstadt - Schleichers (GER)
17.11. Leipzig - Hellraiser (GER)
18.11. Kassel - Subterrain (GER)
20.11. Schwerte - Rattenloch (GER)
21.11. Berlin - Wild at Heart (GER)
23.11. München - Backstage (GER)
26.11. Zweibrücken- Gasthaus Sutter (GER)
27.11. Stuttgart - Goldmarks (GER)
28.11. Ulm - Beteigeuze (GER)
05.12. Gran Canaria (SP)

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Desert Colossus – Apparatus

 

Desert Colossus – Apparatus
Self-released – 2026
Stoner, Rock, Metal, Sludge
Rated: *****

We fell in love with Desert Colossus the moment we heard their Golfshoes track for the very first time. I guess that was some ten years ago. And since then we’ve been lucky to see them live a couple of times and always felt justified in our love for these cats. Cause they’ve always done it all in their own singular way and with a dose of energy, fun and humor that is hard to come by. And now there’s proof once again that they do everything however they want and however they feel like. For they just unceremoniously dropped a bombshell of a record called Apparatus on March 1st without sending out promos beforehand or calling out to a record label for aid with this stunning album. That’s how they roll and have been rolling ever since they put on them Golfshoes… 

But this time around it’s serious business, they’ve realized they have their own style, are highly accomplished in what they do and should dispel with trying to make light of it. There’s still fun and humor, textually, musically, but it’s all served with such fervor and zeal, that you can’t help but be entirely swept off your feet from first opening track Hermit till final song Come Forth…

Most of the songs have this stand out vocal part that is bound to drag every listener along, hook, line and sinker. This is the ear worm kind that will surely get the crowd a grooving or the listener at home to scream that sentence out loud. Whether it’s the swing in Sweet Cherries Hang Low, the with Komatsu in mind line “My shit smells savage” during Feel Me Up or the absolute brilliant ending to the chorus of Black Out, “I knew her name and now it’s gone…” And those are just a few of the lyrical, vocalized gems found on Apparatus. Which you know will be there from that very first opening line: “You should see me now, nothing’s in my way” in Hermit. But it has so much more… 

For they have upped their game in every aspect, turning the Desert Colossus sound into something leviathan would quiver and quake for! You can almost feel the veil lift, the curtain rise, as Hermit starts with a slow-burning desert vision, which just rolls on towards the horizon on towering waves of fuzz. The riffs stretch wide and heavy, pulsing with hypnotic and powerful intent. The grooves man, they swing big and have you lusting for that swaggering motion and that more ritualistic desert churn. Or take that thick distortion and off center rhythmic approach, during Hermit, the different sections, giving it all that restless spirit edge. In synch with all that opening song wants to be. 

Most of it was recorded during the pandemic and afterwards mastered by Karl Daniel Liden, giving the highly dynamic and versatile album that extra push, stomp and cohesive ability. That open aired beginning of Three Eyed Fox, slowly edging through the hallway, before coming to the punch in the face and the carpet pull. And as you fall backwards through the second slow and spacious melody part, you feel a smile creeping through every fiber of your being, because you fall in love with all the creativity displayed. A bit of grunge here or punk there, or a mirror image of Red Fang for an instant. 

But on other tracks they let the melody take flight, first drifting through some thick distortion, turning misty as rhythms shift shape and then, as the passages open into spacious elevations, they fly away… Before snapping back with a bite! Entirely immersive, balancing raw grit with so much fun and awe inspiring hooks, this is a Desert Colossus on the absolute top of their game. I cannot wait to see them live again and shout along. Cause over here, next to the record player, with the album on repeat, every run again, another mile deeper into a vast, echoing landscape, that never lets me go, I am starting to feel like that Hermit… But… “I’m not crazy, I will never be alone again…”

(Written by JK)

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Desert Colossus – Eyes And Tongues

Desert Colossus – Desert Colossus