War Cloud – War Cloud

War Cloud – War Cloud

Ripple Music – 2017

Rock, Classic, Hard, Metal, Seventies, Speed, Doom, Stoner

Rated: ****

If you ever feel like you were born in the wrong age. If the music of that golden era of rock tickles your fancy way more than everything brought out today. If you still bang your head to early eighties hardrock and metal. Well, War Cloud is here for you. On their debut full-sized self-titled release, the quartet sounds so classic you almost immediately recognize some of their dual guitar as Thin Lizzy love and the vocal mannerism as Hetfield hankering. But they definitely do not cop out in copying the bands or sounding like a rip-off; this is musical affection and an idolization of all that goodness of yesteryear. And they manage to do all that classic stuff, and infuse some speedrock, doom and stoner. But above all War Cloud expertly navigates through the dirty waters of heavy rock and early metal. Never colliding with either one and staying their very own course the entire length of the way. And it makes you want to join their merry band of pirates. Cause every one of those eight tracks on the record is killer! Killer to a default!

(Written by JK)

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Motorpsycho – The Tower

Motorpsycho – The Tower 

Stickman – 2017 

Rock, Prog, Stoner 

Rated: **** 

I must confess. The past few years the Motorpsycho albums have unfortunately been passing me by. Not because I did not dig them at all, but because there were perhaps too many and not all of them lived up to the massive quality they had before. And I must confess that if the Norwegian fiends had not travelled to the American desert to record in the magical Rancho De La Luna studio, with help from Alain Johannes, I might have not paid that much attention again. This time however they had me rooting for them before the needle touched the record. We all know drummer Kenneth Kapstad left to found Spidergawd. Which might have been a blessing in disguise. Cause with Tomas Järmyr on the drum stool we can now enjoy a Motorpsycho that demands your attention. No more halfhearted listening sessions or a simple ‘it’s good’. No, this time around the build The Tower and it will stand forever! It spills over in creativity and on many occasion it seems to top everything they ever did before. The way the let Järmyr dictate the rhythm, with much more space and room is a breath of fresh air. Progressive in nature most of the record is heavier than the albums of late and bursting with impressive tension arcs. It is safe to say the Great Magnet and the direct line Rancho De La Luna has with it has struck again… 

(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…

Ernst Jansz

Radio Moscow

Chelsea Wolfe

Necromandus

Greenbeard

As mentioned before, we returned from a wedding in Salisbury and a month-long trek through Britain just last week. So, there has been a lot of catching up to do, but also a lot of different stuff to listen to in preparation for a few interviews. Hence, the most listened to artist was Ernst Jansz. A Dutch musical legend and co-founder of CCC Inc and Doe Maar for instance. But even though the man is a bad-ass, the music has little to do with all the heaviness we rock out on over here. Like Radio Moscow’s new album New Beginnings. We’ve been following these cats since first meeting them back around 2009 when they played a dusty little wateringhole in Utrecht. And they still soar high on Cream, Zeppelin and Blue Cheer waves. We love their psychedelic rock and we reckon this one is their best effort yet! New Beginnings is out on Century Media Records and deserves everyone’s full attention! Necromandus, the story of Necromandus. Well, we will need more room for that. So we will mention them later on as well. But I would like to make sure that everyone gives this album released via Mandus Music a spin. Fans of seventies hardrock and CCR, Rush and Black Sabbath in special will immediately dig the hell out of it! I’m sure everyone knows about my obsession with Rancho De La Luna and all the people who ever set foot in there. So, when Troy van Leeuwen contributes to the new Chelsea Wolfe album Hiss Spun (out on Sargent House), you’ve got my attention. Aggressive, passionate and heavy! O’ and it also features Aaron Turner of Isis. Extremely addictive stuff! And we are still riding that majestic dragon called Lödarödböl by Texas trio Greenbeard. Such an amazing record! Blistering stoner riffage with bluesy psychedelia, precision vocal tones and a radiant progression of song craft. Let’s keep an eye on Sailor Records cause they’ve been releasing amazing stuff! 

A first week of great stuff and there is so much more! So much more!