Stoner HiVe: Number 18

maandag 19 december 2022

Number 18

Those final lists that came in showed without any doubt that there are so many albums that are loved so much and so close together in the amount of love. Cause we found two bands on Number 20, three bands on Number 19 and well… There are FOUR bands with their FOUR albums on Number 18!!! And all of them, without any doubt, deserve to be there or even higher. Naturally… Well, we jump 23 points from Conan, Somali Yacht Club and Samavayo to reach the four on Number 18. Three of which we mentioned on the HiVe and one of them I managed to see live this year. On Krach Am Bach festival in Germany the blew me and my might hangover clear away. They slowly drifted away from the grunge they always seemed to implore to more influences from stoner, hardrock and blues. With an even warmer and steamier sound and those riffs and grooves, oh my lord! Just like that amazing new drummer! Of the two other albums we already mentioned, one was mentioned only a few weeks ago and the other all the way back in May. That new one, is from a new formation that came with a surprise and an avant-garde approach to doom and metal. The five opt for gigantic gestures, a massive amount of layers and the fierce ability to turn it all down to a mere trickle of sounds. And then they let the roar swell, with enough gravitas to bring the world around you to a halt. The other album delivers some true desert punk, stoner and garage and with such feverous energy the desert sand will melt away under your feet and into a shimmering mirror of glass. It is explosive, wild, stunning, and extremely addictive! That fourth album we unfortunately never got around to mentioning, but the Doom Charts did that for us. They came in 1^st back in July and our very own Crypt Guard wrote back then: “Many music outfits have taken on aspects of Herbert’s epos and processed them through their music and one would lie if he didn’t admit the spice-laced sands have inspired heavy riffers and reefers around the globe, be it Sandrider, Sleep or Dvne. On their new album the four-piece goes through the themes of the first couple of books with a riff-heavy yet playful demeanor, successfully painting their own vision of Herbert’s mysteriously archaic sci-fi monument with a fitting desert rock aesthetic.” Four bands on Number 18!