Planet 9 – Planet 9

Planet 9 – Planet 9
Jamsync – 2011
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Metal, Southern
Waardering: ****

It has taken the American Planet 9 more then ten years to record their debut album. For the guys started tuning their infectious American version of the Aussie pubrock back in 1999. Let’s hope it won’t take them another decade to record the follow-up for their self-titled debut is filled with incredible no-nonsense-rock. Perfect translations of the disgruntled and angry working man who wants to shake its fists in the air. With son Geoff on the drums, bassplayer and second vocalist Rich Wilson form a tight family rhythm section. The guitars provide a great amount of massive riffs and a solo here and there at the right moment, though never to excess. Think Circus of Power, Black Label Society, Skid Row, Airbourne, Four Horsemen and American Dog. A typical band for the dark dusty tavern, racetrack and motorclub circuit. Grit yer teeth and rock on!

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DC4 – Electric Ministry

DC4 – Electric Ministry
MetalBlade/RoughTrade – 2011
Metal, Hard
Waardering: ***

The Los Angeles outfit DC4 is a full on metal family affair. The band consists of the three brothers Duncan who already played with bands like Odin and Armored Saint and Rowan Robertson who we known from his work with Dio. Besides that the new album Electric Ministry also features some guests of which Dizzy Reed of Guns ’N Roses will probably be the best known. With that in the back of our head we can safely say that the album is exactly what one should expect from this gang of experienced musicians. It’s typical American metal with virtuoso passages that are interchanged with brutal parts. Electric Ministry is an obvious statement in favor of the guitar and with its traditional metal and hardrock disposition it’s simply pure enjoyment.

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Desert Storm – Desert Storm

Desert Storm – Desert Storm
Self released – 2008
Rock, Stoner, Metal, Blues, Southern
Waardering: ****

After only one year of jamming together the British outfit Desert Storm started recording their first self-titled album. A few of those songs got spiced up for their 2010 record Forked Tongues. For the most part however this 2008 album sounds like groove metal for the biker community. It’s high fire testosterone and a liquor spiced full throttle groove. It’s psychedelic gutter blues with just the right amount of madness to make your head pop and bop. It has that eerie quality of making sense without being vocal about it. And the singer is even more roaring like a speeding bike or on the rare calm moments of weirdness like a crazy demon who lost his tail… Aah yes, this might even be outlandish ‘o natural, personified…

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Desert Storm – Forked Tongues

Desert Storm – Forked Tongues
Self released – 2010
Rock, Stoner, Metal, Blues, Southern
Waardering: ***

There are many bands and outfits operating under this name but in this case we are referring to the British stoner formation called Desert Storm. The five freaks formed up around 2007 and rock out like a bastard son of Down and Clutch, taking queues from Kyuss and some southern and blues influences from the likes of Black Crowes on their full-sized album Forked Tongues. But for the most part you are served a tasty dish of groove metal spiced up with some serious stoner. With hefty vocals and ditto massive riffs we truck along through dirty swampy territory. We got some precious subtle moments and a lot of bad ass metal ruckus, in part due to the guttural vocals. The only small hindrance, are the drums which are a bit thin on the production side of things on several occasions. But with great tracks, which boasts all kinds of different vocal styles by the same singer, like The Jackal you can never go wrong…

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Mal De Testa - Quien Lleva Las Armas

Mal De Testa - Quien Lleva Las Armas
Self released – 2011
Rock,Speed,Stoner,Metal
Waardering: *****

Mal De Testa is a four-piece Chilean stoner metal band that started conquering their South-American country in 2004 and released a few EP’s soon after. Seven years later it is finally time for a full-sized album. Quien Lleva Las Armes is a real throat-grabber, a true battering ram. The opening title track of the record flies off like a mad bull and breaks through every obstacle put in its way and only falls down dead after the very last and final tone. With an excellent, guttural Spanish voice and ditto energy they blast out one aggressive master riff after another and drummer Nico does not just provide a solid bass and tight tempo; he also excels in fills, pounding and creating space for the bass player, cause he also knows how to make everything sound exactly right. Ten songs on end these guys fill your ears with incredible ruckus without letting up, boring you or repeating themselves for one second. What a record!

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Admiral Browning – Battle Stations

Admiral Browning – Battle Stations
Self released – 2011
Rock, Stoner, Metal, Instrumental
Waardering: ****

The good Doktor420 asked for some instrumental ruckus recently; and so we comply. Hailing from Maryland in the US the instrumental threesome Admiral Browning has just released their fourth album. Battle Stations is a logical continuation of their earlier three records and takes the listener on yet another wondrous adventure across an incredible amount of intelligent and progressive soundscape arrangements. Without breaking a sweat they seamlessly weave a huge collection of styles to make one complex whole. Moments of sludge, stoner and punk are woven into space, doom and metal to become one huge seventies trip. As a sort of hungover wildebeest version of Rush and King Crimson. These are growling, guttural, jumpy journeys filled with sublime experience and not without danger. As if behind every rock or tree a hyena with razor-sharp teeth is waiting to sink its teeth in. Tasty treat!

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Dirty Tuesday – Fresh Pot

Dirty Tuesday – Fresh Pot
Self released – 2011
Rock, Stoner, Alternative
Waardering: ****

Will the surrounding area of Utrecht and Amersfoort be conquering the Dutch rock-flag that used to be owned by Eindhoven and then Nijmegen in the near future? When listening to the Fresh Pot EP by the rock formation Dirty Tuesday hailing from that region it has already happened! The guys continue where bands like De Staat and Automatic Sam stopped; onwards and upwards into the stoner-depth. Without losing touch with dirty and classic rock elements. Founded out of regional bands like Stillwater, Impact and Anemic Cinema the group changed course and name in the year 2009. A year later they become victorious at a band competition and the recording for an album begins. The result is one to be proud off; four driving, propelling and pushing songs that are all equal in quality and thanks to marvelous production work sound tight and slick without losing that rough and raw edge. A hefty dose of Foo Fighters; (which also provided the title?) a dash of Queens of The Stone Age and that retro feel captured anew by a band like The Answer. I could use some more of that Fresh Pot!

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Screaming Trees – Last Words: The Final Recordings

Screaming Trees – Last Words: The Final Recordings
Sunyata – 2011
Rock, Grunge
Waardering: ***

Last Words: The Final Recordings is a collection of previous unreleased material through proper channels of alternative rock formation Screaming Trees. Most of this was ofcourse already in the possession of fans via the Old Growth album from 1999 and other b-sides collections floating around the Internet. The added value of this release is ofcourse the wonderful sound produced by Jack Endino and Barrett Martin. Most of the songs were recorded in Stone Gossard’s studio in the years of 98/99 and therefor also carry the guitarsound of Josh Homme and Peter Buck on certain songs. Though not very expressive, striking or convincing; like most of the songs on the album. They meander slowly and seem to be the perfect all telling epitaph for a band whose creative juices had just stopped flowing. Ofcourse we hear once again a brilliant Lanegan and on occasion smashing sounds; but to put three different ‘Dying Days’ on one record seems a bit much and redundant. Lovely record; but in the end the band leaves us once again without a fitting blast off. And we all know they were so much better than this…

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Maligno – The Funeral Domine

Maligno – The Funeral Domine
Self released – 2011
Metal, Stoner, Doom, Rock
Waardering: ****

The third album by the Mexican doomrockers Maligno appeared online in April of this year and has since found it’s way to a multitude of followers across the globe. After two already massive albums which reminded of Sabbath; in most part because of the vocals. Their third record The Funeral Domine is a huge step forward. More own sound; once again hugely thanks to singer Luis Barjou who sounds less like Ozzy and much more furious and powerful now. Without losing a bit of their original groove they continue along a metal avenue with a hefty dose of doom elements and a grain of stoner salt like only the best can. And they receive some unexpected aid from folkduo Rodrigo Y Gabriella who play along on the song Coffin of Dreams; but instead of taking the duo on a Maligno tour; the band takes a trip down the acoustic Mexican folk lane. (They ofcourse know each other through trashmetalband Terra Acida.) And Testament’s Alex Skolnick also plays along, almost inaudible, on the track Solstice. But all this is just a little gravy to an already tasty dish; cause The Funeral Domine is hefty metal with a bag full of matching solo’s and a suitcase full of heavy riffs. This Maligno is some tasty stuff!

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Poseidotica - Cronicas del Futuro

Poseidotica - Cronicas del Futuro
Aquatalan Records – 2011
Rock, Space, Pyschedelic, Stoner
Waardering: ***

The instrumental quartet Poseidotica hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina and was formed in the pivotal year of 2001. Their goal: to create new musical landscapes in the hard rock genre where every single ingredient is part of a larger concept where different climates and dark atmospheres take the listener out on a psychedelic adventure filled with contrasts; from pure moments of bliss and relaxation to excerpts of total inevitable fury. That’s quite a big mouthful. But the amigo’s had no difficulty filling those words on their two earlier albums. Though on their new record Cronicas Del Futuro they seemed to have exchanged their elaborate tales for short twitter poetry. Clear and intensely precise; but a little less adventurous. But then again; it does work wonders for their futuristic concept about the digital future…

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Milkmaids – Up In Smoke

Milkmaids – Up In Smoke
Self released – 2011
Stoner
Waardering: ****

Hailing from the lovely city of Sydney these Australian Milkmaids are comprised out of four gentlemen who carry out their love for Palm Desert stoner with excellence. Those earthy dark and low tones from the desert are the ones that rein and follow the groove from the old masters. And the focus lies entirely with their music and not as much on the vocals; cause even though the singer reminds you on some moments of a young Garcia and the begin days of Kyuss, the are mostly just not completely there, in the moment and mostly sober and austere. Musically speaking though everything stands true and we are treated to nasty solo’s, incredible riffing, heavy basswork and animalistic drums; especially there were they explode like crazy or follow old rock ’n roll patterns. Milkmaids; for you daily dose of stonercalcium!

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The Quill – Full Circle

The Quill – Full Circle
Metalville/Roughtrade – 2011
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Seventies
Waardering: ****

‘It’s all happening’ is the prevailing feeling when listening to The Quill’s new album Full Circle. It seems the sound of the Swedish band has actually really come full circle. Founded in 1990 the band released their self-titled debut album in 1995 after which 4 albums followed culminating in their last effort In Triumph from 2006. It might have turned out to be their last one because vocalist Magnus Enkwall with his typical sound decided to leave the band. Luckily one Mr. Magz Arnar dared to try and fill his shoes and turns out to do just that. On their new album the sound seems to shit a bit more towards the modern sounds of Monster Magnet and Black Label Society while still paying a lot of homage to Soundgarden, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and The Cult. Even so; the seventies are never far away and every song is ripe with that feeling. Streamlined and stripped from a lot of nonsense the band runs with the sound of thunder in a can, majestic riffs and Arnar sounds raw and psychedelic at the same time. The Quill, back from never gone!

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Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel – Soundtrack from The Motion Picture

Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel – Soundtrack from The Motion Picture
Deadlight Entertainment – 2011
Rock, Hard, Stoner, Southern
Waardering: ****

Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel comes from Strasbourg, France and consists of five gentlemen who have been playing music for the entire lives. But only started playing together as the Maverick brothers and under the Sucio Motel name in 2006; at which point they also switched from metal, punk and extremo to their great mixture or stoner, hardrock and southern. Their first full-sized album Soundtrack From The Motion Picture winks at Kyuss, takes Queens of The Stone Age by the arm and dances with Dozer into the night and leaves you to wake up besides Jesse Everett Hughes and a can of blondes with drowsy languid eyes and without any recollection of what happened that night. With heavy and dragging rhythms and a weird Hammond organ they deliver a swinging soundtrack to the perfect hazy night. Multiple mostly screaming vocals add to an infectious diversity and intriguing painting of that possibly violent night. Their liveshows must surely be one gigantic kickhell party!

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