Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

The last Friday of the month and it is the final day of the month. What better time to fire off another Quick Fire Friday round! Soon a new Doom Charts will appear, featuring those 25 albums that got us all fired up the past month. But there are so many more great releases. If you follow any of the Doom Chart Contributors personal pages you will definitely be digging through more piles of heavy gold! And over here on the HiVe we always know there is more and we should do more but you know how it is… Too much great stuff, too little time… And that’s where the Quick Fire Friday round jumps in and helps out! Like Reek of STOOM, who once again gracefully delivered a few lines for the bands featured today… And yes, we know, we know, the albums and bands deserve more. More attention and more of our time! But there is so much out there and we just simply cannot ever do it all justice. So here it is. The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday. And its burns hot like molten lava!

Nothing Is Real – Give Me Your Energy

LA Progressive Doomsters Nothing Is Real offer up a tour-de-force of Prog, Metal, Doom and Sludge which is inventive and uses samples to superb effect... Give Me Your Energy! Definitely worth a punt. NYP on Bandcamp!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

WhetheR – 2019 EP

More crushing Doom from the City of Angels, this time presented by WhetheR, from Shreveport. '2019 EP' is brash, nasty, heavy and uncompromising... And also NYP!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Black Solstice – First Rays of Loneliness

Former Ponamero Sundown guitarist makes a welcome comeback with Black Solstice from Stockholm, Sweden. They have released "First Rays of Loneliness", a 2-track EP of serious, groovy Stoner Rock with swagger and an authentic seventies inspired sound... Another NYP!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Malsten – Torsion

More Swedes! Listen to these ‘four grumpy old men’, as they state themselves in an email to the HiVe. That’s Malsten from Malmö!. After playing together for six months they’ve delivered a first heavy single called Torsion! Doom! Heavy and fully engaging doom! A slow march that keeps you on the edge of the seat! Yikes, this is promising something for the future!

Bandcamp

Facebook

Egonaut – Omens

We’ve been neglecting to mention Egonaut’s fine releases. Only Mount Egonaut from 2013 made it’s way onto the HiVe. We should be flogged naked in the streets for that neglect! But now the new single Omens is out! Out on Bastard Sounds Records and Omens is some righteous stuff! And is one hell of an omen for the new album out at the end of the year called: The Omega! All hail Egonaut!

Homepage

Facebook

Youtube

Forrest – Final Frontier

I’m a sucker for everything that comes out of Kentucky… Especially the Lexington area. So, when Forrest contacted the HiVe about their EP Kickball With Russians and the soon to be released Final Frontier EP we got naked quick and dived in head first without looking how deep the water might be! Focusing on Kickball With Russians first, we get highly diverse yet always progressive instrumental doom, sludge with spacey elements. A wild ride! And Final Frontier is better on all fronts! Yikes! Get ready! Everyone, get ready!

Bandcamp

Facebook

Irata – Tower

Irata – Tower

Small Stone Records – 2019

Stoner, Doom, Metal, Heavy Psych

Rated: ****

Greensboro, NC veteran outfit Irata pull out all the stops on their latest release, Tower. A thundering, twisted mass of quirk, invention and power which shows the maturity of the song-crafting and musicianship on display. Opener 'Tower' fizzles with heavy bass boom and tribal percussion, guitar screaming acerbic tonal fury before the proggy, time-stuttered riff of 'Waking Eye' flows in on endless waves of frenetic energy. 'Weightless' has that Baroness-style heavy groove and chug... 'Leviathan' squirms with tempo-changing fuzz cannons whilst 'Crawl to Corners' is heralded by mournful trumpet and quiet picking, evolving into a doom-slavered riff onslaught. Irata capture genres with mercurial skill then blend, morph and transform them to create an album of intense and intelligent delight that lingers long in the memory.

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Homepage

Facebook

Small Stone

Philiac – Oil Wars

Philiac – Oil Wars

Can Abyss Records – 2019

Rock, Prog, Psych, Stoner

Rated: ****

Remember that weird band we mentioned back in 2015? Well, that might be a bit too generic to state here, since the HiVe mentions a lot of weird, crazy, insane and off-kilter bands. We’re talking about Philiac, that collection of artists from an island in the Mediterranean that went of an recorded their first release This Appalling Ocean in the fabled Rancho De La Luna. Well, they went back and re-imagined that release into a new piece of art called Oil Wars. Released through Can Abyss Records on cassette it is meant as a one way, almost forty minute long trip, with no returning point and no point of reference. This is immersive. ‘A headphone ride into a dream’ the accompanying letter stated. Which is very true, a dream, a reverie, hallucinations and sometimes a nightmare. For it isn’t all light and air here, there is darkness. Sticky oily darkness lurking and it definitely turns the ocean into a muddy pool of something twisted here and there. But there is also always that green light that does shine and gives us a bit of hope. Can we state that Oil Wars is a better version of what we know Philiac is about? I am not sure. I think it’s just different. A different trip and a different experience… And just before finishing this piece about Oil Wars the band’s representative sent another email stating: ‘Philiac made a name for the sub-genre: ‘peyote rock’. I can definitely live with that!

(Written by JK)

Myspace

Youtube

Can Abyss Records

Sunn 0))) – Life Metal

Sunn 0))) – Life Metal

Southern Lord – 2019

Metal, Drone

Rated: ***

Sunn 0))) has been relentlessly droning on ever since their inception around 1998. Life Metal is there eight full-sized album and a ninth is set to be released later this year. And even since their first release the drone has been the same, intense entrail shaking chords that seem to reverberate on and on and on. Loose teeth and churning stomach contents, the savage translation of how pre-earth might have sound, how tectonic plates roared and crashed into each other. That backdrop has never really changed. Dark and ominous, twisted and creepy. But we are talking about Sunn 0))) here and the devastating waves of sound we are referring to you might only truly experience live. On record there is, among the instrumental mass of deep, low and powerful guitar violence, a bit of room for shading and gradation. Guest spots by Hildur Guðnadóttir, Tos Nieuwenhuizen, Tim Midgett and Anthony Pateras are responsible for most of that small amount of color. Intense once again and devastatingly heavy!

(Written by JK)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Southern Lord

Black Seal – Sati

Black Seal – Sati

Self released – 2019

Rock, Punk, Garage, Psych, Fuzz, Stoner

Rated: ***

It’s been out for a week or two. The three-song EP Sati by Black Seal. A Florida outfit that puts out a feverous desert punk energy with their intense psychedelic garage rock. Indeed, it combines four worlds into one. Durango Night Ride is like being shot out of a cannon, a DMT explosion into a garage and punk scene full of twisted stoner and desert crust. Fernwood Pacific is this atmospheric vista full of desert feelings and wide gestures. Mutiny is wild and wicked, intense and a bit scary; as if there truly is a mob around the corner ready to start the evolution… This is the kind of music that keeps the spirit of rock ‘n roll alive for me. Combining all sorts of avenues into one wonderful piece or music. Taking risks and daring to take the road less travelled. This might mean that one could fall below the low limit of quality, but not Black Seal and not on Sati. A wild and yet also cozy mess that puts a smile on my face…

(Written by JK)

Bandcamp

Facebook

7 Miles To Pittsburgh – Revolution On Hold

7 Miles To Pittsburgh – Revolution On Hold

Suburban/Bertus/ A67 Records – 2019

Rock, Hard, Seventies, Prog, Metal

Rated: ***

Greta Von Fleet. If there ever was a band that has gotten a lot of flak over their Led Zeppelin sound, Greta Von Fleet are a sure competitor for the top spot. I wonder if 7 Miles To Pittsburg from The Netherlands might suffer the same fate. It would be highly unfair, even if the vocalist, is a part of a Led Zeppelin cover band. On their sophomore release Revolution On Hold we definitely hear riffs that could have belonged to Jimmy Page, but that’s about where it ends. Cause there is so much prog here, one could wonder what their true starting point was? Joris Lindner, responsible for damn fine guitarwork, played drums for Komatsu for a year or two, which means we know where his heaviness stems from. But besides the two cats we mentioned, the rest is largely unknown to us. We would imagine there is some eighties-LA love there and an adoration for stuff like Rush or Flower Kings. Which it turns out to be correct, since Martin Helmantel and Dirk Bruinenberg, both played in prog-rock effort Elegy. Hardrock, metal, seventies and prog, a combination that can lead to something absolutely beautiful. And in this case it has! It’s all done with a lot of style and highly soulful. Let the Revolution begin!

(Written by JK)

Homepage

Facebook

Back from my travels…

Back from my travels…

We’ve been away for a bit… Travelling… Visiting weird little rivers and battling crazy animals that suddenly lunged for my throat. Drinking loads of ale’s and getting kicked out of even more pubs. Not sure why actually? The beasts tried to eat my food; only natural we get into a fight about territory… Ooh well… We’ll deal with them soon enough… For now, it’s enough to know that we made it back in one piece and can’t wait to get on with the HiVe show! It’s good to be back!

The Astral Void – Mandragora

The Astral Void – Mandragora

Self-released – 2019

Doom, Stoner, Ambient, Psych

Rated: ****

The ever-expanding list of quality Artists from Virginia has just been joined by Richmond 5-piece The Astral Void. Mandragora takes us through a cornucopia of Doom, Stoner, Electronica and general Far-Outness that will leave you in utter despair... But craving it! Side A wields 3 spine-melting pools of  festering, nefarious Doom delivered with vigour and intent, whilst vocalist Gabrielle's laments sprinkle liberal doses of mandrake over the flesh. However, these are separate entities and effectively prepare you for the B Side: A cold, crippled capsule nine clicks from the nearest jump-gate.....alone in the ink of the life - sparse void. Engines dead, bulkheads creaking, LifeSup runs out in an hour...you contemplate the utter hopeless Truth: There is NO rescue… And the Darkness yaws with the ultimate Horror of knowing you'll never return... An impeccable EP that puts The Astral Void firmly in the firmament of New-Born Stars.

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Stone Machine Electric – Darkness Dimensions Disillusion

Stone Machine Electric – Darkness Dimensions Disillusion

Sludgelord Records – 2019

Rock, Metal, Doom, Psych, Stoner, Jazz, Space

Rated: ****

It never stops to amaze me how freaking good a duo can sound. And the two of Stone Machine Electric and their very own style of Doom Jazz deliver the goods every time again. On their new release Darkness Dimensions Disillusion they bring forth their Doom Jazz in a highly funky way. It’s brings light and air to the spacious darkness and depth to their metallic rock sound. It also keeps you on the edge of your seat and biting your nails; scared that their weird approach to doom will turn into some freak out craziness that will only serve the experimenters themselves. But it never does, it just becomes this audio orgasm on the verge of blowing its load. But stamina and control brings out the effortless delay until that very final track. For it is in Purgatory that we find release; aided by extra guitar work of Wo Fat’s Kent Stump the track begins with slow control and a lovely keyboard ditty and then seems set on delivering the goods fast and easy; after which it turns into a majestic maelstrom of weirdness before really and actually going berserk and exploding… Leaving us once again with a highly atmospheric keyboard jangle as a soft smoking cigarette… Aaaah, satisfaction guaranteed…

(Written by JK)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Sludgelord Records

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday 

 It’s another Friday! So, it’s time for another Quick Fire Friday round! But then, bears appear on the road, twisting your arm, getting you to join them in an all day drinking bout… Or it’s just a dubious way of stating that there was no time to actually do the Quick Fire work… Luckily, we’ve got the amazing Reek of STOOM writing for the HiVE! And he immediately jump at the opportunity to deliver a few bands and grace them with a few lines… And yes, we know, we know, the albums and bands deserve more. More attention and more of our time! But there is so much out there and we just simply cannot ever do it all justice. So here it is. The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday. And its burns hot like molten lava! 

Greenstone – Triglaw

We start this Quick Fire Friday off with a proper bang! An instrumental stoner trio from Arnhem, Netherlands. Greenstone! Delivering three massively groovy stoner metal and heavy psychedelic truckers. This is just the way a weekend should start! Triglaw on repeat! Rock on!

Facebook

 Bandcamp

 Youtube

Wither Without You – Nameless

Holy hell! Hellish hole! Nameless is a new single by Wither Without You a doom quintet from Alabama. We feature Nameless cause this was sent to Reek Of STOOM a few weeks ago. But they have quite a few more singles up on Youtube.  (Besides an amazing array of crazy Merch!) It’s doom alright. Black metal doom. Down tempo doomcore mixed with some intense metal. And all that sounds rough and evil; but then there are those atmospheric and post-metal moments as well. Giving a bit of light to all their deathly music. Death grunts and growls are a given with this kind of music… Grrrr!

Soundcloud

Facebook

Youtube

Capiroto Records

Electric B.C. – Demo 2019

Finland's ELECTRIC B.C. offer up a 5 track demo of sledgehammer Sludge Doom that rocks like a trawler in a tsunami! Snarling vocals and de-tuned riffs... What's not to like? It's also NYP on Bandcamp!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Phet – Burial

Our first mention here of Indian solo artist PHET who has released two singles, "Ascension" and "Burial", both of which are scorching, fuzz-laden Stoner corkers with a healthy dollop of Doom for added textures! Also NYP on Bandcamp!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Stonerboner – Daydrinker

We started this Quick Fire Friday with a Dutch outfit and now Reek of STOOM finishes it with another one… Netherlands' two - man outfit STONERBONER have released a teaser track, "Daydrinker"; A crunching, munching riffed-up ripper that blows minds and socks off! NYP at Bandcamp!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Tumanduumband – Tumanduumband

Tumanduumband – Tumanduumband

Self released – 2019

Doom, Sludge

Rated: ***

Debuts are notoriously difficult to navigate and chart - they represent a band's talent, the direction in which they wish to travel and provide a snapshot of where the band is at that time. Stourbridge Doomsters Tumanduumband have offered up a four-track slab of Crepuscular Drone Doom that both delivers and promises much for the Future. The music works… Heavy, pulverizing and unforgiving, especially the closer "Deathless"  but you're suddenly on track four wondering where the time went. Therein lies the issue... separating the fout tracks in terms of solid identity is tricky and having no real voice to create focal points will be a big challenge for them in future. But the UP side is that Tumanduumband are solid, professional and engaging with a super stage presence and a great sense of Theatre... Once they can tie all those elements together, they'll Fly! Black Country Doom - as we say round here, it's "Bostin' Fittle'!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

Bandcamp

Facebook

The Madman’s Monthly Ruckus Round-up

The Madman’s Monthly Ruckus Round-up

As we’ve been mentioning the past few months and we hope you crazies out there remembered, Madman Tony Maim has fired up his Black Insect Laughter blog again. Well, fired up might be a big word perhaps, but you will get fired up after checking out those post. Once a month the Madman will put forth his choices of Punk and Hardcore releases that made him go: ‘fuck yeah!’. And that’s the most important reason we want to hear about new releases! So, head on over to Black Insect Laughter and read up on all that insanity from the past months before April kicks you square in the nuts! Cause those are fine picks once again! Triple Deke for instance and their skatepunk extravaganza called Five Minute Major! Or Tongues Of Fire; Sublime reminiscent post and pop punk. Check out their Everyone Hates Us release. “Foxgrave play stupidly uplifting punk. Clean vocals sit on top of punk'roll songs to fantastic effect.” Indeed! Foxgrave! And their album is called Dichotomy! You see… The Madman laughs, because he knows!

Hey… And while you’re there! Check out the Madman’s very own project 3 Chord Propaganda! He just released his DEad Poet TapesVol.1 and it’s filled with punk poetry and gritty grunge! 

Redhead Match – Birthing Of The Fuzzman

Redhead Match – Birthing Of The Fuzzman

Self released – 2019

Rock, Stoner, Metal, Doom

Rated: ****

Costa Rica! I would love to go there one day. Great rum. And after hearing Redhead Match, we know there’s great music too! Their new release Birthing Of The Fuzzman gives us doom infused stoner metal full of crunchy riffs and fuzzy tones. Sometimes muddy and blistering hot and at other times like a tempest about to hit the coast. It’s got anger in it, but nature’s anger; which always feels right and justified. As are the notes, riffs and rhythms. They definitely look in different directions to compliment their music. Borrowing southern effects, sludge properties or almost machinal trucking. Damn wicked vocals across the album and wild guitar. Especially on Paranoid Man. After which comes an amazing duet Grifasaurus; a duet with another Costa Rican band! It's Age Of The Wolf. (Who just released their own record Ouroboric Trances.) Another amazing track! Memories of Red Fang arrive; accompanied with neck pain and a terrible lust for more rum! What an excellent record! Redhead Match to the rescue!

(Written by JK)

Bandcamp

Facebook

Age Of The Wolf