Stoner HiVe: april 2017

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Royal Thunder – Wick

Spinefarm – 2017

Rock, Hard, Stoner, Psych

Rated: ****

Wick, the new Royal Thunder has been spinning regularly for a while now. And our love for the band that started with CVI, went through a small dip with Crooked Doors, is now blossoming once again. For on Crooked Doors they looked back and searched the remnants of a romance wrecked for anything artistically usable. There have been a lot of breakup albums over the course of musical history, but Crooked Doors never quite got there. On Wick, they make their ambitions known and look to a future, which is undoubtedly filled with fast paced stoner concrete as well as slow heartfelt little miracles. And it’s during those moments when the true beauty of Royal Thunder shows itself best. A Mlny Parsonz that not just howls like the best, powerful, raw and voluminous. But also clean as whistle and deeply evocative. And whether they opt to go mysterious and psychedelic or fill your head with vertiginous riffs and wild colors, guitar player Josh Weaver shows itself master of every facet and shows himself to be one of the great ones. Versatile and Wicked! This is Royal Thunder, exactly the way we love them!

(Written by JK)

dinsdag 25 april 2017

Thermate – Black Desert Highway

Self released – 2017

Rock, Hard, Stoner, Seventies

Rated: *****

We’ve been hooked on whatever the Finnish quintet Thermate bring forth since they came out swinging with their November EP released in 2014. The mini-album Off To Hades, came out in 2016, and was a gigantic leap forward. And we welcomed a holiday together with the guys in purgatory. High powered diesel blues, with enough proto revelations and stoner incantations to have you jumping on the back of their truck towards Hades without ever looking back. So there you are, on the Black Desert Highway speeding towards something wicked and thunderous. Cause the cats have outdone themselves again. A fine intro and outro serve as two devious bookends to a tall tale filled with gritty riffs, stoner grooves and hefty nods towards everything proto. Hypnotizing in its trucking rhythms and enchanting with its solos and guitar colors. The vocals stand tall, powerful, clean and evocative, they produce the right amount of enchantment on this devilish trip. Yes, Thermate have delivered a righteous album and one that will serve as the perfect soundtrack for a road trip on the Black Desert Highway…

(Written by JK)

The Black Angels – Death Song

Partisan – 2017

Rock, Psych

Rated: ****

With their 2010 album Phosphene Dream they made the 13th position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of said year. The Black Angels now on to their fifth full-sized album called Death Song. Another hint towards where they got their bandname from and now their album title. And anyone who loves The Velvet Underground is alright in my book and can call me an idiot any day. On their new album they once again serve us high octane psychedelic rock with a definite garage edge. And always with so much heftiness that the psychedelic nature of the band only can barely keep up with the heavy side of things. This time they also scour through some of the eighties and new wave influences. But rest assured, the sixties are there and in raw form. And that is how we like our Angels. Raw, naked and black as death!

(Written by JK)

maandag 24 april 2017

Stoner HiVe's Top 5 Artists listened to last week

Stoner HiVe's

Top 5 Artists listened to last week:

Let’s not address the smoldering elephant in the room or state the obvious and just list the amazing bands we have been listening to the past days. Like the new Millionaire. In preparation for the interview with Timmy ‘Tipover’ Vanhamel the new album Sciencing has been on repeat like crazy. Also, because it is once again a damn fine album! Hey, and when Madman Tony Maim claims that the Machinations album by Hark is our salvation. Then we listen and keep on returning to its magnificent tunes. The new album Witchbanger by the heavy psychedelic rockers called Duel is once again filled with intense riffs and a dark and twisted take on everything proto. Released in November 2016 this Into The Storm album grabbed my attention thank to the title: Where The Merfalo Roam. Anyone referencing Oscar Zeta Acosta is alright in my book and can get a beer from my anytime. Especially when it is this fine piece of sludge metal and noisy doom. Ever since the amazing Doublestone we have been peaked again for anything Danish. And our wish is granted immediately with the amazing psychedelic trio named The Sonic Dawn. Into The Long Night, their fourth release, is everything you want from free freak styled acid rock and sixties garage. Wild, boisterous, swirling and intoxicating...

Don’t take the green acid though… That’s for the bassplayer!

donderdag 20 april 2017

Hark – Machinations

Season Of Mist – 2017

Hard Rock, Sludge, Stoner

Rated: *****

There is an elephant in the room and I will address it straight away. Hark reviews seem to always have the phrase “owing much to Baroness and Mastodon”. Well, yeah. Prog-sludge and riffage certainly did get a kick up the arse when these two bands got going and a lot of people found a direction into which their creative ideas could solidify into a heavy mess of power… but… I thought the last two Baroness albums felt weak. Mastodon appear to be on auto-pilot. (Please do not send in comments telling me how wrong I am. One of the luxuries of freelancing means that Joop has to be the reasonable face of his blog. I, on the other hand, care not one jot about upsetting sensitive readers!) Hark are going their own way and are all the better for it. Taking the best of the 70’s – Iommi & Page – and incorporating it with the aggression and single vision of today, their sound is a furious steamroller of power and riffs that rocks like a bastard on fire. When people not soiled by contact with the swampy underground that we all dwell in ask what it is that I could possibly listen to that gets me so excited, I will play them this, screaming “Listen you weak puny fools, blindly consuming music that has been spoon-fed into your lives by the media – This is real music, played by real people – what you hear as noise and aggression is the sound in my head being realized into fuzzed waves of sounds that set me alive for some brief moments of clarity before the crushing reality of life brings me down again.” Or in other words, this album fucking slays!

(Written by Tony Maim)

Back from travelling and freakin on mountains once again

Back from travelling and freakin on mountains once again...

So, we shall try to carry on with the HiVe show...

Luckily we have Madman Tony Maim to help us out now and again...

woensdag 12 april 2017

Cloud Catcher – Trails Of Kozmic Dust

Totem Cat Records – 2017

Heavy Rock, Proto Metal

Rated: *****

Every now and then I wake up from my self-imposed exile to the swampy, gloomy hinterlands of Doom and just wanna rock. Cloud Catcher are a power trio from Denver who do just that. It is heavy and hard and by god, it makes me bang my head big style. I am an old bastard and when I see tags that say “retro” or “seventies” my heart sometimes sinks. I lived through those times and there was a lot of dross that bands are copying now – it was shit then and shit now. But worry not my faithful download monkeys, only the very best has seeped through to these guys. Cream, the early Led Zepp albums, Blue Cheer – raw blues, fuzzed acid rock and stone cold grooves make this album stand high above any other offerings I have heard this year. Frantic guitar solos are sprayed over an inventive and tight rhythm section that never stop attacking or providing a backdrop for the clear, urgent vocals. The fantastic production on Trails of Kozmic Dust brings all the instruments to the fore but the attitude is all raw and impassioned. Psychedelic jams jump aboard to ensure that this Kozmic train keeps a’ rolling all night long.

(Written by Tony Maim)

dinsdag 11 april 2017

Floating Widget – The Sounds of Earth

Self released – 2017

Rock, Hard, Stoner, Desert, Fuzz

Rated: ***

Releasing a new album after thirteen years will definitely raise questions about what the hell you were doing during all that time. We might need to find out about that gap from the Floating Widget boys themselves. But with their new EP The Sounds of Earth we can safely state they definitely delivered a fine follow-up to that mountainous record, Praises To The Riff Monolith, that paid homage to the almighty riff in a thunderous way. Hence the title ofcourse. Final track Spiderzilla of the new EP features Denis "Snake" Bélanger from Voivod and is perhaps the weird closer to the four, riff heavy, stoner trucking tracks that came before. But, it begs for more. Not to dismiss the vocal abilities of Vincent Peake, but Snake’s voice works magic on that one, much too short, track. And not to dismiss those other four damn fine hard rocking tracks that bring forth the fuzz in good form and fine riff idolatry! Let’s hope we do not have to wait another freakin thirteen years!

(Written by JK)

maandag 10 april 2017

Stoner HiVe's Top 5 Artists listened to last week

Stoner HiVe's

Top 5 Artists listened to last week:

It’s been a magnificent week once again, with so many great releases to listen to. It makes a man want to cry, tears of happiness, of joy and of some weird form of weariness. How in hell are we going to continue on like this? Great record upon great record coming out and so much history and back catalogue to listen to? Shit man, feeling overwhelmed again. Which is only logical when listening to the new Doublestone album. We had been eagerly awaiting new stuff since their amazing Wingmakers album from 2013. And it is finally here! Double U, O, double you! They doubled up on everything on Devil's Own and won big. The Danish deliver once again on everything we love from seventies inspired psychedelic rock, doom and hardrock with a stoner twist here and there and the blues roots growing wild. Another one we had been giddy about, was the new Royal Thunder. Cause we loved Crooked Doors and CVI even more! So, Wick has been running circles in our head; and made it so We Never Fall Sleep. Even more ambitious than what came before the album marries so much assorted styles and it is so different, we cannot do anything else but fall head over heels with it. Will this infatuation last? We shall see! Stonerpunk, stonercore, post-stoner. All new and all crazy labels for a band called Bokassa! They all fit like a glove for their new album Divide & Conquer. It’s aggressive and energetic as well as chaotic. But it does have a softer, more imaginative side. And it is once again this paradox that makes these Norwegians so great to listen to! A completely different animal is Ha Ha Tonka, their southern tinged roots rock meets folk and Americana turns only a few psychedelic corners on occasion on their new Heart-Shaped Mountain album. And we have Doom Chart buddy Bucky to blame for turning us into Tonka toting freaks. Woodhawk came to us from all angles. Which is only logical, for their Beyond The Sun release is simply a feast of awesome riffs and fine grooves. A no brainer, absolute love fest for all the fuzz junkies, desert users and stoner addicts out there. We are good people and we listen to good music! All day, every day. All the time!

donderdag 6 april 2017

Spidergawd – IV

Crispin Glover – 2017

Rock, Hard, Stoner, Psych

Rated: *****

Yes, it has been about a year now. Time for a new Spidergawd album. And there it is. Right on time. And aptly titled IV. Which is the fourth album in a row. All spaced apart by a year. When number III rolled around last year, we reckoned it was their best yet and wondered if they could continue that steady climb into perfection on their new album which we assumed would be there in 2017. Well, the sound is there, the songs are and the Spidergawd soul. Across every aspect of the album. Do we miss Motorpsycho bassist Bent Saether, who quietly left the band? Not really, their heavy rock sound inspired by the seventies rock gods is still there. And it is still there in awesome form. Still executed to an almost flawless degree with an inspired saxophone giving the tracks the depth and soul they deserve and a vocalist that howls and breaths fire. The overall sound does move more towards a stoner approach this time and sounds a bit heavier or more metal here and there. Some easy on the ear truckin in tracks like Stranglehold and more seventies inspired punk in LouCille. Shit, we dig it. It is, after all, Spidergawd in all its glory! And they cannot possibly be even better in 2018 with V, or can they?!

(Written by JK)

woensdag 5 april 2017

Horisont – About Time

Century – 2017

Rock, Hard, Blues, Seventies, Stoner

Rated: ****

We have been enjoying the Swedish crazies named Horisont since their Två Sidor Av Horisonten release from 2009. The year we started doing this HiVe thing. So when their fifth album rolled around and we noticed it opening with the Jimmy Webb cover The HiVe we were thrilled to get some love back from the five Scandinavians. On their new About Time record they still excel in groovy, blues-based seventies hardrock. With its thin, delirious and haunting vocals the songs are all exploding with catchiness and expertly dosed playing. There were moments in time, especially on their Second Assault record, when one could suspect them of looking a bit too much for the retro nostalgic love. But not anymore, they have found their own sound. Sure, we can still hear their influences, which go back to Sabbath, Lizzy, Quo and Blue Oyster Cult. But there is so much more, it is a well executed dive into all that goodness from the golden era of rock, delivered in grandiose style, which we have come to expect from all the Swedish bands. Horisont is here to let y’all know they are a true contender for the prize for this year’s tastiest rendition of everything classic!

(Written by JK)

Millionaire - I'm Not Who You Think You are

Millionaire - I'm Not Who You Think You are

So... On 19 May Timmy 'Tipover' Vanhamel, part of the second incarnation of Eagles Of Death Metal, part of The Hickey Underworld, Evil Superstars, Creature With The Atom Brain, dEUS, Eat Lions and many many more, will return with a new Millionaire album! Here's the first single I'm Not Who You Think You Are of the upcoming album Sciencing!

maandag 3 april 2017

Automatic Sam – Arcs

V2/Goomah – 2017

Rock, Psych, Desert, Garage

Rated: *****

We’ve been smitten with the Automatic Sam sound since their first release Hot Foot Oil back in 2009. Follow up Texino and their last album Sonic Whip were even more amazing. And when the boys joined Gary Arce and Mario Lalli on the new Ten East album Skyline Pressure we were absolutely overjoyed. And when we finally heard that spaceous desert record even more. And now they are back. Back from the desert and back from the dead. Once again with a new drummer and once again with a new take on their old sound. Full of paradoxes, Arcs as it is called, moves into a sixties pop direction in some form, sounding lighter and more open, all the while turning darker on their next outing and tuning the overall heavy garage sound down, while tuning the rest of their heaviness up. Did we mention paradoxes? Did we mention there is definitely an Automatic Sam sound? Filled with stunning riffs, sublime solo’s and righteous compositions. Both lengthy and short. They try out every bit of arc and tension. Whether they sound straight from the desert or have a more krautish approach, they always seem to want to do it their own freaking way. Telling their very own story and their tall tales. They always did, but do it even more on this album. And that is what it is, more Automatic Sam on every level!

(Written by JK)