Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Delco Detention
Mr. Bungle
The Devils
Stone Cadaver
Achachak
Onironaut
A Pale Horse Named Death
Green Lung
Stone Deaf
Terminus

Funeral Noise - Unholy Visions

 

 

Funeral Noise - Unholy Visions
Self released - August 2021
Sludge, doom, stoner
Rated: ****

Michigan sludgers Funeral Noise burst onto the scene with their filthy 2019 debut "Electric Funeral", which has been a mainstay in my rotation ever since. Lo and behold, the best kind of surprise happened when the Michiganders' sophomore Unholy Visions dropped out of nowhere just days ago, as blisteringly heavy and pummeling as could be hoped for. Longform opener "Under Heavy Hands / Unholy Visions" busts down the doors with an unrelenting assault of molasses-thick sludge, laying down churning, ten ton riffs that answer the question of what would happen if early High On Fire slowed it way down (and added death vocals). The doom is strong as well, especially in the latter half as the crushing drums emphasize the almost trad doom licks, with haunting clean singing to boot. Follow-up "A Poisoned Path" amps up the fury even further, with menacing kitwork serving as the backbone to lumbering riffs that stomp with a visceral impact. Funeral Noise is no one-trick pony, however, and a subdued acoustic break creates a contrast that makes the swift return to bone crushing pummel all the more flooring. A stretched out acoustic track takes the stage next in "Cradled By Sorrow", almost droning in its minimalism and fuzzy static as it takes a different sonic route to achieve more harrowing heaviness. Closer "The Liquid Throne" then cracks the whip again and dials up the nasty, laying down a painfully slow and particularly evil riff over clean, doomed out vocals to create an epic of a track that closes out with an appropriately hair-raising solo. Unholy Visions is another lethal home run for Funeral Noise, and is a release that should cement them as heavy hitters in the scene not to be trifled with.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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Stone Cadaver – Memento Mori, Motherfucker

 

Stone Cadaver – Memento Mori, Motherfucker
Gateway Music / Yog-Sothoth Records – 2021
Rock, Stoner, Doom, Metal, Proto, Sludge
Rated: *****

We’re so glad we missed the premiere of lead single Realm Of Darkness from the new album Memento Mori, Motherfucker by Danish trio Stone Cadaver. Why you ask? Cause the video accompanying that awesome track is pretty fucking cool, no, really fucking cool! But, I’ve always been of the mind that you should never put out the opening track of an album as a single. It can spoil some of the surprise, awe and astonishment. And you best be sure that you will be astonished and amazed once Stone Cadaver starts rolling on Memento Mori, Motherfucker. The ten ton heavy intro tones from opening The Reckoning sets the theme and gets you all riled up for the momentous chugging that leads you into the Realm Of Darkness. With those echoed lyrics, dragging you ever further and that pounding drum preparing to turn the stoner and proto doom into something even more twisted by the time the next track Doom Christ arrives. Imploring sludge and seventies metal, to build a cathedral of sound, an icy atmosphere permeates the track and this continues on into Whip The Sinners. We said it before, a church bell opening, can only herald evil and dangerous tidings; and so is the case with the faster paced Whip The Sinners. Instrumental Paean gives you a small moment of respite, a wonderful moment of natural contemplation ensues and when you almost arrive at a state of bliss Diseased Deceased starts it’s gritty slow groove; before galloping towards a brilliant (guitar solo) light at the end of the tunnel. Another instant of reprieve and redemption is offered with Fare The Well before nine minute long battleship closing track Murder Mountain begins its stormy reign of doom, unholy doom, doom of dread and proto metal! Memento Mori, Motherfucker is sheer perfection, with so much to discover, it’s a rich and almost unfathomable universe of heavy rock!

(Written by JK)

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Stone Cadaver – Realm Of Darkness

 

 

Stone Cadaver – Realm Of Darkness

No, don’t check this video out just yet! Go read the mention we did about the new Stone Cadaver album Memento Mori, Motherfucker first! Read it? Good! Got the album? It will be released on September 3 by Gateway Music and Yog-Sothoth Records. Are you sure you want to listen to the amazing Realm Of Darkness track before acquiring the album? Okay… Go ahead and click play!

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Stone Cadaver
A Pale Horse Named Death
Green Lung
Stone Deaf
Terminus
Malossi
Vlad
The Waterfall King
Stonekind
Acid Magus

Czechoslovakia - A'more

 

 

Czechoslovakia - A'more
KOTY Records - June 2021
Grunge, indie, noise, alternative
Rated: ****

And now for something a little different. A bit outside the HiVe's usual definition of "stoner rock", but certainly in keeping with the good vibes, is Poland's cheekily named trio Czechoslovakia. On their fourth album A'more, following 2019's excellent "Hvst", the band give themselves over fully to laidback summer feels with easy-going, melancholic drift. The bright, warm guitar tones are spiced up with Dinosaur Jr style squealing distortion, thrumming bass, and cushy yet insistent drumming. Opening cut "Jazda" lays out the game plan immediately, offering up jangly strums and squirrelly guitar leads over a feel-good beat and punky group vocals. The contrast between Czechoslovakia's lackadaisical undercurrent and their bursts of raw energy is a winning formula, keeping the listener tightly engaged while never losing hold of their heartwarming drift. "Wszystko" is another album highlight, wrangling a convincingly hairy start into an energetic drive of screeching fuzz and piercing leads, resulting in an exuberant and endlessly catchy chorus. A short but powerful drum-driven break sees the trio bare their inner punks, before launching a mile-high solo to do J. Mascis proud. The group's able to take their feet off the gas when needed as well, easing into the gentle chimes and eastern plucking of the beautiful "Lato", complete with some well-placed woodwind. If you're in the market for more hazy than harsh 90s vibes with a love of gnarly distortion, lay back and look no further than A'more.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Stone Deaf
Terminus
Tremonti
Green Lung
Outram
Procez
The Ugly Kings
EarthOmen
Bastards of God’s Grace
Duck Paw

We’re still completely sucked into the rent paying side of things. Leaving us with little time to HiVe or do much fun stuff. And it looks like this will continue till end of September. But luckily we’ve got Shasta Beast and Reek of STOOM and perhaps even Doktor420 to come to rescue! Grin… And luckily we can still listen to all that good stuff being released daily! Like the new Stone Deaf record Killers, which is, err, killer! Or the Terminus album The Silent Bell Toll, one of my absolute favorites of the year! The new Tremonti album Marching In Time, Tremonti always delivers that laser precision guitar metal! And spinning since the record came in: Black Harvest by Green Lung. Man! This will once again do well with everyone, even though it’s damn different in regards to Woodland Rites, it is also damn freaking good! And there are so many more, be sure to check’m out! Check’m all out!

Terminus – The Silent Bell Toll

 

 

Terminus – The Silent Bell Toll
Self released – 2021
Rock, Metal, Prog, Sludge, Stoner, Doom
Rated: *****

We’ve already been blessed this year with a truckload of amazing album. So many wonderful heavy, hard and delicious records, it boggles the mind. From that truckload there are a few crates that have managed to ‘wow’ me even more. And to that amount we add another one. For, The Silent Bell Toll by the Fayetteville, Arkansas four (or three?) Terminus is definitely an album of the year contender. Their former release, Fortune Looming from 2018, already had something special to it, but never completely seemed to blossom. On the new record The Silent Bell Toll everything seems to work together like clockwork. The way they weave their progressive metal together with influences from doom, stoner and sludge and make it all so intensely captivating, accessible and pop orientated is insane. Your ears will be astonished by how catchy their version of this heavy rock we all love so dearly, truly is. It is an unmatched effort in this area of heavy rock that will probably stay unmatched for the rest of the year. They immediately jump into the big league with this album and where their first three releases from 2012, 2013 and 2016 are free to download on Bandcamp this one deserves you entire monthly paycheck. The way that majestic two minute intro The Failure of Grief goes into the (for this period in human history, on many levels, aptly titled) Dying To Breathe with the (for this period in human history, on many levels, perfect) opening lyrics: ‘I’ve Seen This Sickness Once Before.’ And then turns a different corner, lyrically perhaps, vocally surely and musically they go from that heavy chugging riff to a grandiose cathedral sound. And that rise in vocals, where that second voice comes in, man, I can have it on repeat for the entire day. That entire track simply achieves perfection in the four minutes that it takes to finish. And the same can be said about the the rest of the album and the forty minutes it takes to finish. And it’s impossible to choose a favorite, cause follow-up Black Swan, with its vocal lines, guitar color and drum work once again on such an amazing quality you cannot fathom them continuing this line throughout, but they do. The Lion’s Den, The Falcon, closing battleship Oh Madrigal. It’s all simply fantastic! Emotive, compelling and truly stunning! How is this band not signed?

(Written by JK)

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Dead Dirty Dinosaurs – Delirious

 

 

Dead Dirty Dinosaurs – Delirious

Dead Dirty Dinosaurs released their latest EP Too Many Questions: The Abbey Road Masters (Remastered) back in March through Riot Records part of the Golden Robot Records family. Now, the band is back and armed with some new Jurassic material. The triple D's are back and sounding happy - ‘Delirious’ in fact! The Brisbane trio have returned with their new single ‘Delirious’ - a fast-paced chunk of indie guitar pop that tells a story of undying love and the joys that come along with keeping those flames burning. And that at the moment NASA brings us the story of a new asteroid object which might hit earth around 2135 or 2182 or 2300. Dead Dirty Dinosaurs all went through that years ago and they’re still around and ‘Delirious’!

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Melted Messiah – Melted Messiah

 

 

Melted Messiah – Melted Messiah
Self released – August 14th
Doom, Stoner, Sludge Metal
Rated:

Two years on from their debut demo, Dunfermaline Doomsters Melted Messiah return with a full 6-track self-titled album. Expect filth-clad riffage, scowling vocal slurs and manic percussion throughout, opening with "Louise": A fast-paced growler that sets the tone for the rest of the platter. A heavy Blues riff kickstarts "You Can't", developing into a Sabbathian sound but bearing Mark Golder's signature grizzling vox borne on a tidal wave of increasing Sludge. "Lawsuit" squeals in on feedback, then the drums propel the pace into a full-on thrasher, delivered with bile and style. "Excavator" slows the cadence down to a crawling, spittle-drooling monster looming ever-forward with menace and venom. "Sympathy" again drops the throttle to Slo-Mo mode, beefy, angry riffs punching over a backdrop of harsh percussion and timbre before cranking the speed up to mid-paced Rocker. Closer "Trimensional" again finding the Sabs/Iron Claw style and slings barbed vocals over the nihilistic noise. Melted Messiah has a deliciously malevolent sound which is distinct, engaging and powerful. They will be covering themselves in woad and pillaging a live venue near you very soon.

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

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Venom Assembly – The Conquering Machine

 

 

Venom Assembly – The Conquering Machine
The Bent Tree – 2021
Rock, Punk, Metal
Rated: **

It’s a great hodgepodge of all sorts of styles. Indeed, we hear influences from Hardcore, Hardrock, Punk, Eighties metal, glam and even some symphonic or theatrical rock. Shit, all sorts of metal! It comes across as a teenage adventure through all your favorite styles of music! And indeed, there is that age old saying which might go something like this: rock ‘n roll is for the young! At least that’s what we hear from time to time, and well, in that case, The Conquering Machine by Venom Assembly comes across at as damn pubescent. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, not even for old farts like me. Cause a youthful attitude might just be that kick in the guts you need, and then again, that youthful attitude, is perhaps in this case mostly due to the vocals and lyrical content. But even so, one can still hear the high amount of inspiration, humor and insights in the diversity and one can only hope to hear more from Venom Assembly in the future. Way too long sentences and way too much words of caution used, can only mean one thing, I’m not completely feeling the album. Cause even though there is a lot to The Conquering Machine, musically diverse, interesting and inspired, vocal melodies that make you shiver with fear for what they might accomplish. There is a lot of room left to grow. The colors of the vocals, the lyrical content and the production value... In short, the Machine unfortunately hasn’t completely been able to capture me…

(Written by JK)

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Wolves In The Throne Room – Primal Chasm (Gift of Fire)

 

 

Wolves In The Throne Room – Primal Chasm (Gift of Fire)

The video was released last week and if there ever was a band that can ‘wow’ with their version of Black Metal, it is and shall forever be Wolves In The Throne Room. The new album Primordial Arcana will be released through Century Media Records on August 20th, but the new single Primal Chasm (Gift Of Fire) has arrived to keep us all warm and inflict a burn or two.

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Terminus
Gods & Punks
Age of Outrage
Battle Jacket
Wasteland Coven
Nothing is Real
Suncraft
Oddplay
King Mountain
Etherstone

Nothing Is Real / Wasteland Coven – Turmoil

 

 

Nothing Is Real / Wasteland Coven – Turmoil
Cursed Monk Records / Transylvanian Recordings – 2021
Metal, Doom
Rated: ***

We’ve mentioned Nothing Is Real before on the HiVe and  Reek of STOOM was intensely captivated by their 2019 Pain Is Joy release. And we hear a lot of that good and great stuff in the three parts of Dark Night Of The Soul that are featured on the Turmoil split record with Wasteland Coven. Three parts splitting twenty five minutes of dark and twisted psychedelic doom into digestible pieces of sinister and ominous progressive ruin. Especially part two, which starts, with different vocals and an open guitar sound will speak to the mind and soul and set you up properly for the heaviness to come. But it’s the three tracks of Wasteland Coven, who we never had the chance to mention on the HiVe, even though we thoroughly enjoyed their Ruined release from 2020, that really drag you down with them. With their more traditional doom metal approach, riff heavy, female vocals, it’s hard to not fall in love with the Turmoil split record. I Arise opens it all up and turns into this epic approach to the doom we all love very quickly, followed by two tracks that grow slowly and opt for even bigger gestures. Turmoil is one hell of a doom metal split release!

(Written by JK)

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Wonderlove – When The Vultures Die

 

Wonderlove – When The Vultures Die

An old band that disbanded and in part thanks to the pandemic got back together to work on a a new album. It is Wonderlove! Featuring members of Rival Sons and Perfect Beings the album will come out around October. When The Vultures Die is the lead single and video to their upcoming album All Of The Nightmares. Check it out!

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Oddplay – Bluff

 

 

Oddplay – Bluff
Self released – 2021
Rock, Instrumental, Psych, Stoner, Grunge
Rated: ***

We’ve been listening to the new Oddplay record every since it came out at the end of February. But we never got around to writing a few words about Bluff. But, now, prompted by a lovely and earnest email by guitarist Alexander, we dove back into the instrumental heavy rock of Bluff. The duo hails from Varna, Bulgaria and keep delivering album after album, with Bluff becoming the fourth in a space of year. Heavier, grungier and fuzzier than the albums that came before the new one will have you all tied up by the time the third track Spoon Bender hits. It might be the way it then goes into the fourth track Hitchhiker, but those six minutes of heaviness are such a bliss for the ear, you cannot help but give the universal nod and fall in love with that guitar tone and the way the bass rumbles and growls. Not dismissing the tracks that came before or all that comes after, cause the more spacious beginning of Eyes Of Horus will turn you on just as much as the trippy The Path. And we haven’t even mentioned the guitar players own favorite or in his words stand out tracks: “are ‘Sunseeker’, ‘Spoon Bender’, ‘Depths’ and the darker ‘Decrepit’ (or at least I think so, I will let you be the judge on this one too).” In short, there’s a whole lot to dive into!

(Written by JK)

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Wall - Vol. 2

 

 

Wall - Vol. 2
APF Records - July 2021
Stoner, sludge, doom, prog, southern, thrash
Rated: ****

The Cole twins have done it again, bringing their pandemic-born project Wall to further riff-fueled fruition on their Vol. 2 EP. Continuing their airtight instrumental stoner rock, Wall's sophomore release sees an expansion of sound in moving slightly away from sludge pummel towards brighter, southern-tinged stoner, with still a bit of thrash to boot. Opener "Avalanche" starts the steady stream of primo riffs with a winding, rolling stoner lick that does the song title justice as it transitions into a crushing chug. The wiry leads bring to mind Karma to Burn in their piercing tone, an influence paid further homage to in the later cover of "Nineteen". Nimble and crashing cymbal work pushes the sonic weight forward, and eventually the track slows to a haunting stomp in the aftermath. Follow-up "Tusk" continues the penchant for neck-snapping guitar and hairpin turns, spiraling into dissonance and chug before climbing out again a la early Mastodon. The rolling drums keep the wild fretwork locked in and unrelenting, a credit to the twins' musical bond. All pretense is pushed to the side on "Speed Freak", however, ditching the proggy sludge for straight up old school Metallica thrash, a hard-partying fist-pumping jam with a surprisingly warm earworm lead. Before closing out with the dusty, Western melancholy of acoustic outro "Falling From the Edge of Nowhere", the Coles pay tribute to recently lost friend and legend Will Mecum of Karma to Burn. Nailing a rendition of "Nineteen" in both tone and vibe, the cover carries their appreciation for the man and his music through loud and clear. With Vol. 2, Wall is planting their flag as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to pro-shop instrumental stoner that revels in exploring the genre and its nooks and crannies.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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Gods & Punks – The Sounds Of The Universe

 

 

Gods & Punks – The Sounds Of The Universe
Self released / Forbidden Place Records – 2021
Rock, Prog, Stoner, Psych, Space, Doom
Rated: *****

The July Doom Charts are out! And on the eight spot we find the new release by Gods & Punks! And we got to write the little blurb for it. The Sounds Of The Universe is the final release, but first chapter, of the four-part adventure that the Brazil rockers called their ‘Voyage Series’. And on it the five Gods & Punks turn up the space rock, the psychedelic touches but still retain that proggy and doomy feeling. Do you need to be familiar with the stuff that came before? Hell no, cause it’s the first chapter and it will stand on its own no matter what. Will it entice you to go back (or forth) towards those other releases? Hell yes, cause it is one damn majestic journey into all of the farthest reaches of the heavy stuff we all love so dearly! And even though they were always in tune with their psych and prog side of the heavy stuff, this one feels even more like a prog rock magnus opus than the records that came before. It surfs across tension arcs and wide expanses like quicksilver, it gives you some king hell seductive melodies and never forgets to pack a punch and continues to deal out riffs galore. An album to take with you wherever you may go through the universe…  

(Written by JK)

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The Doom Chart for July 2021

 

Doom Charts

“Everything we’ve done, we’ve done together. We got here together, and we’re still here. Things have happened, but it’s always worked out for us, ’cause it’s always been all of us. That’s how I know. ‘Cause as long as it’s all of us, we can do anything.”  ~ Rick Grimes

The Walking Dead…. sort of symbolic of our mainstream vs the underground. The mainstream being the zombies of course. We’ve all been together sorting through the bullshit for several years, and some of us our entire lives. Despite our political differences, we are all a part of the same team and each month bringing more power to our arsenal in the form of hard hitting jams. July brings another 23 brand new entries to the table with the top slot being pretty much a runaway. Congratulations to all the bands who made the list out of 223 different albums getting votes.

I was surprised to only see five of my choices make the final list. But as Bucky already said, no less than 223 albums got voted for. And that’s an awesome amount of heavy albums that were released last month or are about to be released. And guess what, that amount or even more get’s released every month! We’re all living in an insane and weird period of that thing we call our time on earth, but the amount of incredibly music released every month, makes it awe-inspiring, humbling and tremendous as well!  Personal votes went out to King Buffalo, Cassius King, Gods & Punks, Planet Of The Dead and The Age Of Truth…  I’m gonna be diving head first into that lovely Doom Charts pool as soon as I can! Starting with that Professor Electric release Emerging Forth Into The Light!

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album reviewers from the heavy underground around the globe.  Each month, our critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge metal, stoner-psychedelic and heavy rock albums.  The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart below.  This is a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world…

The Doom Chart for July 2021

Battle Jacket - Ghostcat

 

 

Battle Jacket - Ghostcat
Self-released - July 2021
Stoner, southern, desert, doom
Rated: ****

Idaho's stoner rockers Battle Jacket graced us earlier this year with killer debut "Cowboy Killers", and they've wasted no time following up with three song EP Ghostcat. Still maintaining the drawling, southern vibes from the first album, Battle Jacket have both cranked up the heavy and introduced new elements to their sound to create three new tracks of rip-roaring rock 'n roll.  Opener "Lemme Out" serves as a wryly winking anthem to surviving the pandemic in isolation, and following some initial Van Halen-style guitar fireworks, a driving stoner groove kicks in to put the bluesy pedal to the metal. Mastermind Kyle DeHart's vocals and lyrics were already a strong point on "Cowboy Killers", but he's stepped it up a notch or five on Ghostcat. Clever and playful without crossing the line into straight up "funny" songwriting, turns of phrase like "no tears just beers" and nods to watching too much British Bake Off are both catchy as hell and all too relatable. Turns out track one was merely the warm-up, however, for the subsequent title track and album highlight. Bursting out the gates with a canned roar (points for the album cover's Thundercats homage, by the way), rolling and hard-hitting scuzzy riffs blaze a sonic trail made for burning rubber. The pounding drums never let up in their thrust, and between the catchy vocal hooks, a curve ball of surf guitar acrobatics is thrown in the mix. The Dick Dale sound ends up fitting like a glove, bright and twanging as the licks wind their way between crunching heavier riffage. Finally, closer "Hang 'Em High" leans all the way into the southern rock influences and busts out beautiful slide guitar over half speed stomping fuzz. Partway through, the song shifts to grittier chug and rough gang vocals, creating an absolutely killer contrast. Battle Jacket are rapidly setting themselves up as a unique and all-out entertaining voice in stoner rock, and the sky looks to be the limit for DeHart and crew as they meld genres and melt faces with style.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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Cassius King – Cleopatra’s Needle

 

 

Cassius King – Cleopatra’s Needle

Been enjoying the hell out of the new Cassius King album Field Trip. Released about a week ago on Nomad Eel Records it moves into classic doom and proto metal territories just as easy as into ageless heavy metal. It is one king hell of an impressive album! And when Zach of Metal Devastation Radio pointed us into the direction of the video for Cleopatra’s Needle we just had spread the good word about it! Go see, go listen, get hooked!  

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Month…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 

Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Month…

DeWolff
Electric Valley
Stonekind
Van Groover
Gods & Punks
Kvasir
The Blind Pilots
Seum
ZZ Top
Solar Haze

We don’t normally do those monthly lists anymore. Only the weekly ones… But this one, felt right to share, for some reason, only a day or so before the new Doom Charts will appear. And also because we have been swamped with work and have had little time to do some proper HiVe stuff and because we were keen to see how many of those will link up with the July Doom Charts…