Mojo Waves – Lo and Behold!

Mojo Waves – Lo and Behold!

Self released – 2013

Rock, Seventies, Psych, Garage, Stoner

Rated: *****

Mojo Waves are still the three same guys from Finland and they still produce that free-range psychedelic garage rock that we have come to love when they put out their first two EP’s. So what’s new? Well; apparently the guys met the devil somewhere and decided to sell their souls. The level of commitment and growth displayed on their new record Lo and Behold! is gigantic. Still as manic as ever but with a proficiency that borders on insanity we weave through eight garagedelic tracks that blow you away on every turn taken. A power trio that knows exactly where their strengths lie and explore every facet available while appearing to almost loose control. Those high-pitched vocals drag you along on a runaway roller coaster ride through the ages made up out of towering and speedy drums as well as a soaring bass that sometimes delivers the funk and sometimes the groove. Lo and Behold! is a regular musical delirium and one you should experience on a regular basis!

(Written by JK)

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Workhorse – Fire Before All

Workhorse – Fire Before All

CMF Records – 2012

Metal, Death, Thrash, Speed, Punk, Progressive, Sludge

Rated: ***

With unrelenting aggression and furious rage the Californian thrash death metal formation Workhorse plows their way ever forward towards a burning future. And on their debut album from 2012 called Fire Before All they set the world ablaze. With a definite homage to the classic thrasher the guys from Workhorse implore progressive structuring and devouring sludge to stomp into their very own future. With heavy hitting violent staccato, intense breaks and growling vocals the songs function as a firestorm and it’s only when the guitar aims for a bit of melodic soloing that one is able to catch a bit of fresh but blistering hot air. For Workhorse’s inferno sucks the oxygen not only from the air around you; but also right out of your throat and lungs together with guttural screams of exultation.

(Written by JK)

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Nixa – Nixa

Nixa – Nixa

Self released – 2013

Rock, Metal, Sludge, Stoner, Doom

Rated: *****

Sometimes, life gets in the way. Usually it’s not that big of deal. You just get to do things a bit later then everyone else. But on a few of those rare occasions you go apeshit and mental and scream at every object in sight for not having been able to do something when the chance arose. And sometimes this involves music. A certain album that passed by as you ran from one dumb assignment to the next. Nixa is one of those bands. A regular supergroup so to speak. For it is comprised out of vocalist Valentin Maelstrom from the Swedish band Deathwolf. Drummer Mike Rodriguez who also plays for hardcore extravaganza Secret Arms and guitarist Anthony Mendolia and bassplayer Andrew Herrero have a long track record of groups in the Miami region. And why did I start tearing and clawing at the walls; because Nixa is damn freakin awesome! Raw and vicious, aggressive and tight. Dark and steaming sludge metal that could bring down the night. Their first self-titled EP holds but two tracks; two enormous beasts that will leave you breathless and wanting, no howling for more. Heavy drums that come down like an endless monsoon washing everything away with thunderous fills and malignant rolls. The riffs and basswork are what legends are made of. One can only dream of hearing something blackened shine like a diamond. And both tracks are filled with superior howls, screams and raw voices… MORE! MORE!

(Written by JK)

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Spirit Of A Slain Eagle - Spirit Of A Slain Eagle

Spirit Of A Slain Eagle - Spirit Of A Slain Eagle

Self released – 2013

Rock, Punk, Hardcore, Noise, Sludge, Metal

Rated: ***

Spirit Of A Slain Eagle is a Brooklyn, NY based duo whose genres would include stoner/sludge metal, post-hardcore, and noise rock. Long-time friends and veterans of the San Antonio, TX underground scene, Christine Herbeck (bass, vocals) and Mike Flores (drums, vocals) have been together as SOASE for two years now releasing their second EP this year. With a definite dark and depraved atmosphere they affirm their hard edge and sharp fangs. Thunderous drums shake your core and the bass makes everything around your tremble, which gives the illusion of complete stillness and safety. But with every breath of air and every proclamation that deception shatters and crashes to the floor like a thousand mirrors.

(Written by JK)

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Vernon Wayne – Jazzes

Vernon Wayne – Jazzes

Self released – 2013

Rock, Metal, Alternative, Post

Rated: ***

Spiraling somewhere around educated indie metal and alternative rock Minneapolis formation Vernon Wayne surrounds us with whirling rhythms and flexing beats. Jazzes is their second release and features five tracks that seem to wrestle with postrock influences and mathematical craziness without ever fully taking them to the mat. It’s that constant grapple and tangle that keeps you on the edge of your seat. And with a name taken from David Koresh and that whole Waco debacle you can surely guess how crazy these cats can be. But they do this in such a subdued way that it not only convinces but also makes you believe. It drags you along on their very own trip. And with small tickles from something southern and perhaps hardcorish they keep giving you those punches that keep you restrained. Are you ready to surrender?

(Written by JK)

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Dirty Sound Magnet – What Lies Beneath

Dirty Sound Magnet – What Lies Beneath

Phénix records / Domino Media – 2012

Rock. Seventies, Classic, Hard, Blues, Stoner

Rated: ***

Influenced by the finest artists of years long passed four-piece Swiss rock entity Dirty Sound Magnet manages to integrate the freshness and power of the music of today. The creativity of DSM calls them to shirk the notion of a ‘label’ or a ‘genre’ for what they do is more than rock; it is from the first note to that very last guitar wail ‘music’. On their 2012 album What Lies Beneath the foursome explores the classic rock scenes that brush up against everything from that seventies genre and the hardrock that was born there but then with a definite modern feel. Solid and melodic rock that can be compared to everything Zeppelin and their latter-day Black Crowes brethren. Hard driving blues-rock with some funky intermissions. A true odyssey of rock that gets better with every song that passes and every riff that flows. And together with a mastered vocalist it definitely pulls you in and keeps you close…

(Written by JK)

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Skandal – First Step To Nowhere

Skandal – First Step To Nowhere

Torn Flesh Records – 2013

Rock, Metal, NWOBHW, Death, Stoner

Rated: ***

Four guys from the mean streets of Leeds that play fast paced chugging metal that opens up into something completely different when you least expect it. Skandal was formed in Greece as a studio project that quickly took a life of its own after which the man behind it moved to England and recruited new members. On their first release, the two track EP First Step To Nowhere the guys turn something vicious and aggressive into something technical and progressive and hint at something spacey and stoner related. They show definite prowess with slaying guitars and riffs straight from the metal underworld. Accompanied by towering drums that are simply scandalously good. Skandal is heavy, fast and rude and might just be that dirty line of speed everyone needs on occasion!

(Written by JK)

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Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser - Self-titled

Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser – Self-titled

Fuzzmatazz records – 2013

Rock, Stoner

Rated: *****

Sometimes I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; or I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. But just as often: I need to dance! To be in a room filled with drunken folk all jumping around like crazy boll weevil getting drunk on whatever’s dripping from the ceiling. And I think Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser might just be the perfect band for such nights! Formed in 2011 after a wild and roaring accidental nightly encounter in Upsala, Sweden the two German guys decided to start a band. A year later and three members added saw the release of their first EP: Dance! Or! Die!. And now we can go bonkers on their self-titled full-sized debut. With some tiny punk, postpunk, country and disco influences the band is most of all a highly danceable and sexy stoner formation that is sure to turn every place completely upside down. It’s simple amigos. Just listen and get hooked!

(Written by JK)

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Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser - Tour 2013

Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser - Tour 2013

Impressions form their 2013 tour that took them all across Europe to conquer the hearts, minds and sweatglands of everyone they met... And it's We Need More Disko! playing in the background...

Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser - Dance! Or! Die!

Jimmy Glitschy Der Einarmige Karussellbremser - Dance! Or! Die

Carnaval - War Whore

Carnaval - War Whore

A new song by the almighty Carnaval! 

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Masters Of Reality - Corpus Scorpios Electrified 

 How's that for a weekend starter?

Smoke Mohawk – Viva El Heavy Man

Smoke Mohawk – Viva El Heavy Man

Noisolution / Oh Yeah! – 2012

Rock, Seventies, Sixties, Psychedelica, Garage

Rated: ****

The debut album The Dogs Are Turning Red by Norwegian supergroup Smoke Mohawk released in 2010 did not really impress and was a bit of a disappointment. But that might also have been due to the high expectations on my part. For, ever since I learned Smoke Mohawk was releasing an album; I turned all giddy inside. How can anyone not be aroused hearing that members from Gluecifer and My Midnight Creeps are teaming up. Quickly after the release, news arrived that a new one was in the works and that the boys weren’t completely happy with the TDATR result. Hope, lust and anticipation battled for weeks until it slowly faded. And now; after so many months not having a clue we stumble upon their sophomore release and learn it was already out since October 2012. Full of humor the boys give us that righteous throwback magic and easily succeed where the former record failed. Yes, Viva El Heavy Man celebrates all that goodness from the sixties and seventies without becoming sappy about it. They dive deep and headfirst into the very essence of rock and give you their colorful take on heaviness… Light as a feather but weighing a ton!

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Smoke Mohawk - Crazy Horses

Smoke Mohawk - Crazy Horses

Crazy Horses is taken from their second  album Viva El Heavy Man. This is a cover of the 1972 hitsong as perfomed by The Osmonds. For everybody who digs Turbonegro, WE, Smut Peddlers, Gluecifer, Bela B, The Lust-O-Rama, Astroburger, The Highrollers, Stone-O-Saurus, Asbury Park, My Midnight Creeps, Vidar Vang and LoveOctopus... Yes; the guys also played in those magnificent bands!

Smoke Mohawk - Inspector Holmes

Smoke Mohawk - Inspector Holmes 

The first single Inspecter Holmes taken from their second album Viva El Heavy Man! For everybody who digs Turbonegro, WE, Smut Peddlers, Gluecifer, Bela B, The Lust-O-Rama, Astroburger, The Highrollers, Stone-O-Saurus, Asbury Park, My Midnight Creeps, Vidar Vang and LoveOctopus... Yes; the guys also played in those magnificent bands!

Back from the mountainous wild…

Back from the mountainous wild…

After a month in the mountains, the flat surface of my home country feels like a muddy pancake. It might take a while to adjust to living in this corrupt corporate little thing we call society once again. Life was so much better, up there, where the eagles soared and the windswept plateaus harbored nothing but good folk and weird creatures. It was high living in every true sense of the word and there were only dangerous avalanches that could get you down. But soon things will be back to normal and luckily there is all this good music to help us get through it all… 

So… Soon we will be able to handle and come to grips and continue on with what we do in the HiVe…

 

O’ and should any of you be wondering. Lucas, Matt and myself can still use help reviewing all that great music that pours into our mail and hearts… Just email us if you want to lend an ear and a hand: Stoner HiVe 

And we never thought this day would come… But… There’s also a tiny Facebook page to help out the blog… Find us at: Stoner HiVe!

May all of you have good beer to drink and good people to drink it with!

Hiram – See The Thing Within The Thing

Hiram – See The Thing Within The Thing

Self Released – 2013

Doom, Progressive, Sludge

Rated: ****

If there’s one thing you should know about England’s Hiram, it’s that you need a full spin through on any of their full-lengths before you can get a feel for what kinds of sounds the group dabble in. Now that could be said of any band that takes on the risky genre tag of “Progressive Sludge”; In some cases that’s code for a lot of extra instrumentation, meandering song structures (usually with some cliché type of crescendo built-in), and generally nothing new.  In Hiram, and their tongue-twister of an album title: See The Thing Within The Thing’s case, it means expertly navigating down the Doom/Sludge/Prog continuum over the course of an album. From the opening instrumental doom fountain of “See The Thing”, to the Zozobra-esque “Winner Dies Last (Aspiration)”, we feel firmly entrenched in a slightly proggy sludge puddle. However the remainder of the album is where the band’s true Prog tendencies start to reveal themselves.  “Conspiration” and “Respiration” give us a glimpse into this with their increasing use of softer moments and the final 17-minute “It Can’t Come Quick Enough” hammers home the prog/psychedelic side so much that the listener forgets where this journey started. Do not fear any of the pretentious, Progressive Sludge bad connotations! Hiram does it right.

(Written by Matthew McGarity)

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Brain Pyramid – Magic Carpet Ride

Brain Pyramid – Magic Carpet Ride     

Self Released – 2013

Stoner, Psych, Blues, Hard, Rock

Rated: ***

Newcomers to the heavy psych scene, Brain Pyramid unload a mind-melting 35 minute EP on unsuspecting stoner rock enthusiasts entitled “Magic Carpet Ride”. While the tunes aren’t much of a pointer to early Steppenwolf, they do firmly plant their bell-bottoms in all that is 70’s wah-driven guitar freak-outs. Vocals are far and few between and when they do appear, it’s more in a distorted, spoken word blues format as evidenced in “Stone Women Blues”. In short, this is a jam session and retro stoners who crave the similar exploits of Earthless, Tia Carrera and the like should enjoy what Brain Pyramid have to offer. The only break in this Hendrixnado is the brief “Mary Jane Blues”, which sounds like a lost outtake from the Led Zeppelin III sessions. Closer “Electric Spell” convincingly launches back into the Milky Way and extends the blast radius just a bit further. The Rhythm section is loose but fun and keeps things (somewhat) intact. The real highlight is acid-drenched guitar leads and if you haven’t figured that out by now…you’re just not on the same astral plane as Brain Pyramid.

(Written by Matthew McGarity)

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Lion Farm – Bells of The Fallen

Lion Farm – Bells of The Fallen

Self released – 2013

Rock, Garage, Psychedelic, Stoner, Metal, Doom, Punk

Rated: *****

Back in 2012 the Canadian foursome Lion Farm brought us a highly entertaining first self-titled EP. And now they’re back with a follow-up called Bells Of The Fallen. And they have retained that menacing, blood dripping from your claws and sweat marinating on your back atmosphere and have managed to make it even more brooding. The sound is pregnant with depraved danger and antique evil and surges through your veins like an involuntary heroin shot. With a lo-fi adagio perfectly captured by producer Murray Lightburn (The Dears) the six songs are exquisite lullabies for the doomed and the desperate. It will wire your brain to the water pump and your ears to the generator; it will make you howl for cool drink and remember those first moments when a foreign city suddenly loomed in front of you. You always immediately think it is a vision and you are in fact somewhere ripped to tits on crank and listening to powerful music like Bells Of The Fallen…

(Written by JK)

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Fever Dog – The Great Tree

Fever Dog – The Great Tree

Self released – 2013

Rock, Desert, Psychedelic, Seventies

Rated: ***

Only about a month ago we mentioned Fever Dog and their Lady Snowblood single and now they’ve already found it fit to send a new little ditty into the big wide world: The Great Tree. On which they continue their natural and primal power-trio strength and stay right there smack dab in the middle of that great musical era. That gigantic musical time period when it was all happening. With a little more acceleration on some moments and more spacey elements on others they play to the night sky and pay homage to nature’s greatness. And then there is the second track Nobody which is an alternate take on the version found on their debut album Volume One and it is indeed electric kool and kandy-kolored. Follow the white rabbit and drink the hatters tea; but don't try to confuse me by bringing water to the sea. The Owl says oohoo, while The Moon hardly shines. And up come The Slaves, from the diamond mines… Sorry, flashback there…

(Written by JK)

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Purple Dino – Demosaurus

Purple Dino – Demosaurus

Self released – 2013

Rock, Stoner, Desert

Rated: ***

Stomping through the Jurassic age holding his breath Jimmy counted and counted and counted until he turned purple. None of his friends told him to stop counting cause they had all gone extinct. At that justifiable point Jimmy sadly dropped his shoulders and thought to him self that he was a damn lonely Tyrannosaurus Rex. Errr… We’re not hear to tell long boring and very elaborate stories about lonely dinosaurs but to tell tall tales of an exciting foursome called Purple Dino hailing from the beautiful country of Greece. On their first three-track demo they produce heavy desert rock that isn’t heard all that much anymore. It has a steady rhythm that slows to a trucking speed and a bluesy dry heat feel that makes the sound shimmer and glisten. Recorded at home with very basic equipment they apparently have a wizard among them that can polish anything for it sounds damn good, hot and steamy. Apart from the occasional little hiccup; but that just adds to the charm. Powerful, cumbersome and groovy!

(Written by JK)

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Vista Chino - Peace

Vista Chino - Peace

Napalm Records 2013
Stoner, Desert
Rated: ****

Kyuss fans have been through quite a gauntlet of excitement, suspicion, doubt, confusion, and hope while awaiting the resurrection of the legendary stoner rock icons. After numerous setbacks we finally have what will most likely be the closest we ever get to a Kyuss reunion in Vista Chino and their debut album: Peace. Vista Chino consist of Kyuss alums John Garcia, Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri, and includes Bruno Fevery filling the gaping hole once occupied by Josh Homme. On Peace, VC conservatively attempt to recreate the Kyuss sound and the results are mostly successful. Dargona Dragona is the band’s first single as well as the most clear Kyuss throwback jam. The rest of the album lacks some the of thunderous guitar riffs and psychedelic musings of, for example “Welcome to Sky Valley” and instead focuses on more laid-back, stoner rock slow-burners akin to what Bjork and Garcia were doing before forming Vista Chino. The obvious highlight of this reunion of stoner immortals is Garcia, who brings his trademark howl front and center and can turn what would be dull affairs such as “As You Wish” or “Adara” into perfect lazy Saturday stoner tunes. The Album’s closer “Acidize –The Gambling Moose” –despite the strange title- gives us the best track off the album andh runs the full Kyuss spectrum of crushing riffage through psych rock mellowness in one, glorious 13 minute epic. If you’re a Kyuss fan especially because of John Garcia’s vocals then Peace is a no brainer, otherwise Peace is a rock-solid stoner metal showcase by a group that knows the sound better than anyone who has done it, ever.

(Written by Matthew McGarity)

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Mannheim – Super-Empowered

Mannheim – Super-Empowered

Self released – 2013

Rock, Instrumental, Metal, Noise, Jazz, Doom

Rated: ****

The debut album by Dutch foursome Mannheim reminds in some weird way of the jazzy rock stuff Cato Salsa Thomassen did with his Cato Salsa Experience cooperation with The Thing With Joe McPhee. I’m ofcourse referring to their Two Bands And A Legend releases. And then there is that flow and noise that makes you think of blackjazz freaksters Shining. But those are just markers on an otherwise righteous adventure through a highly industrial landscape filled with dirty sax and jazzy noise. Made up from members stemming from the Dead Neanderthals and Do Not Run We Are Your Friends the quartet moves artfully through the math and noisy landscape without ever become too artsy. Their record is called Super-Empowered and it comes across as gaseous chemicals and molten copper hissing their way through the pipes. It is highly volatile and may leave a mark or two when it touches. But we all know; those scars only add character…

(Written by JK)

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