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

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 5 Artists listened to last week…

Grande Royal
Addicthead
The Brunswick
Honeymoon Disease
El Camino

Just a quick update of the most listened to artists last week. Grande Royal is high energy rock ’n roll from Sweden; and we all know, if it’s from Sweden, it is good! Some psychedelic spacey goodness from Switserland in the form of Addicthead. And The Brunswick we ofcourse already tipped last Friday in the Quick Fire Friday of that day. More Sweden in the form of Honeymoon Disease, a female fronted hardrock oriented band with a definite love for everything late sixties, early seventies. O’ and should we state the obvious, of course (this) El Camino also hails from that chosen country. Sweden, the place to be for all us heavy rock lovers. Their new album Cursed Congregation is doom metal to a very sinister degree. Another good week filled with awesome music! Check’m out! Check’m all out!

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

As we are slowly recovering from yet another wild festival which ended in a trip to the hospital all bloody and bashed, but still living it up in the limo ride there. We noticed the amount of updates on the HiVe have dwindled to a small trickle. This in comparison to the staggering amount of new entries in the inbox have lead to sense of dread and weariness. It is without any doubt too much. Too much. And so, in a futile attempt to gain a little ground among the gigantic heap of new singles, ep’s and albums that have been lying in wait, we bring forth a slightly larger Quick Fire Friday round. We know, we know, the albums and bands deserve more. But we just simple cannot ever do it all justice. But hey, it’s the Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday. And its burns hot like molten lava!

JenHodges and Spurge – Four More Songs

We start off with some experimental and aggressive rock that fuses elements of postrock, metal, progressive, punk and all kind of worldly influences into some free form jazz and art compositions. We are referring to JenHodges And Spurge from Atlanta, Georgia and their new Four More Songs EP. Which features, yes, four songs.  This is definitely a different kind of animal, weird on some moments, crazy at others and absolutely beautiful most of the time. Usually during the calmer pieces. Perhaps we should qualify this as the new age classical music. Loving the David Bowie piece.

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The Brunswick – Cathartes Aura

The Brunswick is a three-piece hailing from Nashville, Tennessee. The first song of the eight tracks on their debut album Cathartes Aura takes their fuzzy, desert and stoner rock towards a definite hardrock past. A sort of nod towards where it all came from and probably towards a love the three of them all share. Afterwards the rest take a more lazy day approach to everything we all love from those warm and sandy tones. Heavy on the side of pop sensibilities and damn catchy! Damn good songs, all of ‘em!

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Menin – Lord of Pain

In a few weeks time Menin will unleash their new effort called Lord of Pain upon the world. And boy, are we all in line for a world of hurt! Unrelenting, stampeding heaviness powered by two drummers and a seriously insane bassist. This is combination with the low strung guitar, the screams, growls and howls from the vocalist leaves the listener in awe of everything that Menin is. They are lords themselves and we should all worship them!

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Doom Stew Records

Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree – Medicine

Medicine is the first full length release by German psychedelic doom band Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree. Released through Pink Tank Records the album is available on standard black vinyl and luscious lemonade on ice splatter wax. Get them while they’re still available! Cause the five compositions on this release shows you a hallucinogenic world filled with wonderful vistas. Displaying a true knack for bringing doom out of the dark and into something colorful and sweet. The perfect soundtrack for a setting sun and bottle of something… Somewhere… With some woman… Somewhere…

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Pink Tank Records

Cegvera – Creations

The five track Creations release by British/Mexican outfit Cegvera is simply amazing.  Powered by Gerardo Arias, the Vinnum Sabbathi drummer, Cegvera is more about painting vistas and blending heaviness with more laidback soundscapes. Which are often distorted by hefty dystopian outbursts. It is an amazing amalgam of doom, fuzz, postrock and ambient adventures. And we love it! 

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Poste942 – Long Play

Poste942 – Long Play

Self released – 2017

Rock, Hard, Blues, Grunge

Rated: ****

The picture on the cover reminds me of the time we spent in the little cabin Felix build for his guests in the Restonica valley, high in the mountains of Corsica. That was back in 2004. Drinking wine and dubious quality spirits until it was pitch black outside and getting up only a few hours later to join him as he went searching for his goats. We’ve been longing to go back there as much as we’ve been wanting to travel to the south of France again. There is a same kind of spirit lurking there. We’ve been keeping an eye on the Poste942 guys ever getting to know them back in 2014, when they released their Extended Play EP. For they definitely possess that righteous, no nonsense spirit. Two years later they released follow-up EP Extended Play 2. Which showed quite some progression, a road that lead them away from a lot of the gritty punk prevalent on that first release and to something more hardrock and blues oriented. That trek through musical history continues, on the Long Play release, released somewhere in the beginning of July. They sure still grit their teeth but with more feeling and more soul. The album features a handful of tracks released on the earlier EP’s and a truckload of new stuff. All of them are rowdy, spirited, teeth bared rockers that fill the soul with something honest and pure. Like self-produced hooch and self-shot meat. Bluesy, southern and still wild enough to qualify tracks as grungy or alternative. A definite soundtrack for defiance and a revolution waiting to happen…

(Written by JK)

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

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 5 Artists listened to last week…

Madrugada

My Midnight Creeps

Universal Hippies

Orotoro

Temple of Lies

It has been a hectic week. Due to the weeks away from the screen and thus getting behind on the rent-paying-work as well everything HiVe worthy, it has been feeling like playing ketchup to every rock ‘n roll tomato out there. And with the staggering amount of missed albums that have entered the HiVe inbox, it is simply impossible. There is too much music out there and most of it deserves way more attention than I can give. Unfortunately. And then there was the remembrance date. It has already been 10 years since guitar magician Robert S Buras passed away. He is still missed every day. A genuine original and one note God. So, of course we listened a lot to Madrugada and his own project My Midnight Creeps during the week. But we also had time for some new stuff. Bluesy, soulful rock from the Universal Hippies which definitely sooths the spirit with their instrumental grooves. The combination release of EP 1 and 2 by French quartet Orotoro definitely demands attention. Progressive metal, stoner grooves, robotic trucking and a grungy feel. Orotoro has it all! Temple of Lies has more aggression in it and bring their grungy rock with some swamp and sludge influences. Heavy, heavy and heavy… And damn fine!

Robert S Buras

It has been exactly ten years to the day that the news came that one of the best quitarplayers that ever walked the earth passed away...

Today we only spin My Midnight Creeps & Madrugada albums in honor of the great Robert S Buras....

A true original...

We once wrote a little ode about him on the Black Insect Laughter blog owned by Madman Tony Maim. . .

The Doom Chart For June 2017

Doom Chart

“Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Empires of Charlemagne and the Turk: Ground to dust and plowed with salt. Spain, France, Britain, America—burned into the oblivion of the centuries. And again and again and again. Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing? This time, it will swing us clean to oblivion.”

    – Walter M. Miller, Jr. (A Canticle for Leibowitz, 1959)

Welcome to the soundtrack to the apocalypse.  This is Doom Charts, a collaboration of bloggers and broadcasters who have their ears to the ground listening for the latest and the best in heavy music from the cursed earth.   While it is indeed July as I pen these words, this is a good time to remind you that The Doom Chart always looks back to the previous month of listening activity, giving you a window into the vibrant world of doom metal and stoner rock, with every imaginable variation.

Overall, we had a robust array of submissions from our panel of critics for the June chart — over 200 unique albums chosen among the lot of us.  Following is the consensus list of the critics’ picks, over half of which are making their Doom Charts debut.  At the same time, we say goodbye to long-time chart dominators Goya and The Obsessed.  Will Elder, Geezer, and Telekinetic Yeti hold their positions as tenaciously in the months ahead?   We shall see.

It is worth noting that for this go-round, we have our first “tie” since the Doom Charts inception, with Pyreship and Medusa1975 vying for the 25th spot to begin the countdown.  Also, we welcome the return of Demon Head after taking a month off from the charts.  Now, grab a good spot to watch the world burn, as we bring you the June edition of Doom Charts!

The Doom Chart For June 2017

This month tallied by Bucky and edited by Billy...

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

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 5 Artists listened to last week…

Puta Volcano

Voodoo Trees

Rollerball

Clear Light

Supersonic Fuzz

As we slowly return to the fold, we can’t get enough of that majestic album with those luscious grooves by the Greek quartet Puta Volcano. Stoner infused swamp rock straight out of the Mississippi Delta, that’s Voodoo Trees for ya. And the old and good Rollerball always needs a few more spins around the block. Not sure if these Aussies quit back around 2009 or are still active? And the self titled Clear Light album from 1967 is one of those albums from that magical year could always use some extra attention, cause it usually gets overlooked when they have to compete with Disraeli Gears, Surrealistic Pillow, The Who Sell Out, Sgt Peppers, Easter Everywhere, Bold As Love, Absolutely Free, Piper at the Gates, Velvet Underground and so many more amazing albums from that one amazing year in musical history. A psychedelic folk rock album with two drummers and filled with a few true gems that should definitely be heard by everyone. As should Supersonic Fuzz, their 2017 album …Without is and absolute smash ‘n grab kind of album! Not too much to be found about these crazy Italians. But they rock. Rock hard! Check it out! 

Check’m all out!

Puta Volcano – Harmony of Spheres

Puta Volcano – Harmony of Spheres

Self released – 2017

Rock, Alternative, Stoner, Grunge, Desert, Prog

Rated: ****

Greek quartet Puta Volcano has recently put out their third release Harmony of Spheres. It follows up the fine Represent Victory Below Eye from 2011 and the damn fine The Sun from 2015. And it starts out with the amazing track Dune. That mid temp groove trek across some sandy and shimmering landscape, bopping your head and screaming at the sky for nourishment. I can’t get enough of the way the drums together with the guitar paint those slow-moving hills so freaking expertly. And then there are the female vocals sailing on top of that all. Simply wonderful. And that is just the start my lovely freaks out there. There are seven more tracks waiting to be devoured. And on it they bring the perfect mixture of desert and stoner; all leveled up with more progressive influences and everything highly melodic. Sure, there are the heavy explosions and the intense riffs, but the real power and beauty of Puta Volcano lays in the immense space they are able to create with their music. Such an awesome record, and one everyone should spin whenever they feel crowded, overloaded or riddled with angst. Cause this will rattle yer bones and shake yer soul; and will set yet aim for gigantic things which lie just behind that wide horizon! Follow the smoke of Puta Volcano!

(Written by JK)

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Weirds – Swarmculture

Weirds – Swarmculture

Alcopop Records – 2017

Rock, Post, Stoner, Psych, Alternative, Indie

Rated: ***

The debut album Swarmculture by the Leeds, UK Quartet Weirds has been rattling the cages of their home country for some time now. Which is only logical after hearing opener Things That Crawl, an intense mixture of postpunk, stoner and psychedelic rock. We hear distant memories of Joy Division mixed with overdriven guitar explosions and wild riffage. As we continue down the tracklist some more eighties, almost new wave, influences shine through as well as garage rock, grunge and even some space moments. Old World Blues, starts off as something which could have turned into everyones favorite. They do go a different route after the vocals start in, but even then it remains one king hell of a track. The best thing about Weirds is without a doubt their fuck all attitude towards musical conventions and the way they seem to want to mix everything up like a gigantic swarm of locust eating all that lays before them...

(Written by JK)

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Amplifier – Trippin’ with Dr. Faustus

Amplifier – Trippin’ with Dr. Faustus

Suburban/Rockosmos – 2017

Rock, Alternative, Groove, Stoner

Rated: ***

Paradoxically enough, the new Amplifier record Trippin’ with Dr. Faustus, feels less trippy than their previous records. Ever since the former Oceansize guitar player joined the ranks the course of the Amplifier ship has been altered from exotic islands filled with almost psychotic outbursts towards a sea storming with heavy grooves and swirling yet submerged riffs. Recorded analog, the new album sounds wonderfully immense and intensely saturated. Every song is a new adventure onto itself and it’s hard to pick favorites. Sure, the immediate love goes out to all those tracks filled with a massive array of fuzz, loop and distortion pedals but we can also profess our love for the acoustic campfire track Anubis, which perhaps feels a bit like painting a rainbow across the sky, but which definitely gives the album some balance. Ending the record is masterpiece Old Blue Eyes, six minutes of perfect bass work and a finger licking groove. And that is after already immediately been hit in the heart by the lovely opener Rainbow Machine. Yes, Amplifier knows how to start things off properly and end it all on an even higher note!

(Written by JK)

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