The Sound Of Origin - Man In The Arena Self-released - 2023 Stoner, Doom Rated: ***
Yorkshire Stoner pokes its evil head over the parapets again, this time in the ungodly guise of The Sound Of Origin: Re-vamped and re-recruited, the Shudders of Hudders bring a new, invigorated interpretation of crushing Stoner Doom on their new release "Man In The Arena". From the opening riffs of "It Ain't Free" you can hear the palpable Intent of the band - to overpower and nullify you with the meaty and weighty delivery of prime Stoner Metal! "Frail Ol' Bones" is the first of two songs featuring Kyle Thomas (Alabama Thunderpussy) and is a sleazy, Southern Groover with great hooks and crunch! The second comes in the form of title track "Man In The Arena" - a slow-burning fizzler aiming straight for the TNT boom at the source! Overall, The Sound Of Origin have delivered a sophomore platter that has rejuvinated both the band and their sound - MUST HAVE!!
And another week gone. Had to travel myself so had limited time to HiVe, but soon thing will pick up again! You bet your ass! But still, we listened to some awesome stuff and we can’t wait to start work again on the all-new October edition of the Doom Charts! Only a few days away! What was your favorite October release?
Another week in the books. One filled with hectic scrambling to get certain articles done in time. And one filled with a sadness in our bones that we couldn’t attend DesertFest Antwerp this year. But luckily we had so much great music to listen to again! To get us through it all… And hey, Helldorado festival is just around the corner! Plus, whenever Kyle, Reek and even Doktor420 deliver something for the HiVe we always love that week! Did you listen to Bigstrut yet? Or Phe? Or Tumanduumband’s Throne of Grief release? And Doktor420 wrote about his experiences listening to Visite du Temple Inné by Crabe. And since Doktor420 writes something once every two years, this must be something you need to listen to as well! Enjoy the new week! And all that new and heavy music!
Phe - Nothing Else Is Real Self-released - October 2023 Stoner rock, blues, grunge Rated: ****
The Netherlands' well-kept secret that is Phe should be well-kept no longer, if their newest album "Nothing Else Is Real" has anything to say about it. This is an immaculate, patient record, one that unfolds with dark grooves and spacious soundscapes that gently reel the listener in, and before you know it you're immersed til the end. Opener and hook-heavy track "Mirror The Ghost" kicks things off with crunching, deliciously desert-rock riffs, driving forward beneath the band's iconic, full-throated vocal delivery. Following cut "Saviour" brings in some stoner stomp with a touch of boogie, but in hindsight these first two tracks are almost red herrings, the epic centerpiece that is "The Age Of The Misunderstood" hits. Over the course of 12 minutes, Phe craft a beautiful, longform stoner opus. Each note is given its due time, perfectly placed to build into a slight chug under soaring licks, while the drums are tight as can be, laying down a steady bedrock as the tune expands outwards and upwards into increasingly psychedelic territory. It'd be easy enough to write a whole review of just those 12 minutes, but Phe continue to deliver the goods with moody, muscular numbers "Broken Thoughts" and "We Are" to close out the album with added heft. "Nothing Else Is Real" is an accomplished, nuanced record that's made with a painstaking attention to detail, delivering a dark and magnificent vision of stoner rock. Bravo, Phe.
We’re only a month away from finally departing on that crazy train once again! Final stop: Helldorado! Even though last years perfect line-up would be hard to top, this year’s fest brings out a lot of big guns as well! Only a handful of tickets left… A handful of train tickets that will let you see: Prong, Sacred Reich, Death Angel, Psychonaut, Blood Command, Brutus, Peter Pan Speedrock, Gluecifer, An Evening With Knives, Iron Jinn and many many more! In fact, look at the time table below, and see when you need to make sure you’re at the station… Cause it’s one hell of a ride!!
All those lucky bastards that were able to attend Desert Fest Antwerp this year were lucky for some forty-five different reasons! One of them, was being present for the kick-off show that started the Iron Jinn European tour! Those that already heard the self-titled album were in for a stunning surprise! For the delusion inducing trance that is Iron Jinn turns even more muggy, sweltering and feverish on stage. You will start hallucinating, you will feel the jungle heat descend upon you, you will hear and feel the slow-motion fan above you, the hotel room lit up one moment by green neon lighting from outside and red the following, you will curse yourself for having eaten that Fugu pufferfish from that roadside stall and all those sweaty illusions will not give you one moment of relief… Not for hours and hours and hours after the show… And after finally coming to your senses you can’t wait to have another kick off that Iron Jinn fever!
Iron Jinn on tour!
~ psychedelic stampede over Europe ~
Iron Jinn kicks of their first European tour at Desertfest Antwerp tomorrow!
Iron Jinn are Oeds Beydals (The Devil’s Blood/Molassess/Death Alley), Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed/De Niemanders), Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy/Molassess) and Gerben Bielderman (Pauw) and their debut full length on Stickman Records (21st of April 2023) is a frantic album that follows the logic of a dream; none. The album release party was held at Roadburn Festival 2023 in a packed 013 Green Room, a week later the band played Desertfest London and Sonic Whip festival followed by own club shows and a package tour w/ Alain Johannes (Them Crooked Vultures/QOTSA). The first Iron Jinn album reviews are in and Lust For Life Magazine, Rockhard Magazine, Visions Magazine, Aardschok magazine and others unanimously praise the ambitious debut and Distorted Sound dubbed them as ‘masters of strange and ethereal psychedelia’.
Catch Iron Jinn live in Europe on their first European tour with Blackwater Holylight on the following dates:
Oct 21 ~ Desertfest ~Antwerp, Belgium Oct 23 ~ Supersonic ~ Paris, France* Oct 24 ~ Merleyn, Nijmegen, Netherlands * Oct 25 ~ Stroomhuis, Eindhoven, Netherlands * Oct 26 ~ Die Trompete, Bochum, Germany * Oct 27 ~ Heavy Psych Sounds Fest @ Chemiefabrik, Dresden, Germany * Oct 28 ~ Heavy Psych Sounds Fest @ Urban Spree, Berlin, Germany * Oct 29 ~ Plan B, Malmö, Sweden * Oct 30 ~ Skeppet GBG, Gothenburg, Sweden * Oct 31 ~ Bar Brooklyn, Stockholm, Sweden * Nov 2 ~ Kuudes Linja, Helsinki, Finland * Nov 3 ~ Hungr, Talinn, Estonia * Nov 4 ~ Vagonu Hall, Riga, Latvia * Nov 5 ~ Narauti, Vilnius, Lithuania * Nov 6 ~ Chmury, Warsaw, Poland * Nov 7 ~ Zascianek, Krakow, Poland * Nov 8 ~ Modra Vopice, Prague, Czech Republic * Nov 9 ~ Arena, Vienna, Austria * Nov 10 ~ Instant, Budapest, Hungary * Nov 11 ~ Menza Pri Koritu, Ljubljana, Slovenia * Nov 13 ~ Feierwerk, Munich, Germany * Nov 14 ~ Klub Komplex, Zürich, Switzerland * Nov 15 ~ Nachtleben, Frankfurt, Germany * Nov 16 ~ La Bulle Café, Lille, France * Nov 18 ~ Helldorado, Eindhoven, Netherlands (*w/ Blackwater Holylight)
Crabe – Visite du Temple Inné Self-released – 2023 Noise, Punk, Folk, Avant-garde Rated: Doktor420 does not rate
One of my DJ friends posted something what made me curious:
“...defies all genre boundaries - and all expectations. Freaky breaks and changes in style confuse the brain and ears, and in the middle of it all, a real pop song.”
Well, I knew that listening wouldn't be an easy task... While I spun it, I felt the need to reply to his post. Thanks for this experience, I said. And continued: in any case, the first half entertained me very well. The pop song "Je ne peux pas te dire je t’aime" has something. As if a French song had crept into the movie "Once" (2007, directed by John Carney, starring Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová). I like a touch of Folk in (Heavy) Rock Music. In the middle part it gets a little "tough"! The parts that break out of the normal song structure are ... "difficult" I'd say: crap, musically but probably they have something to tell - just my French ... well ... Crabe please you with a song and BAAAM! After 1,5 minutes they "destroy" it, adding unpleasant sounds, only to come back to the good stuff, right before the song ends. It's still interesting and not annoying enough to scare me away. Uff - Tracks 6 to 10 are exhausting. In the "not quite bad" final "Personne proximité ft. Hubert Lenoir" you hear that it is nearly over and I am also looking forward to it. It's weird, it's different, it's fun - not sure if it's really good or if I like it in its entirety, but it was pretty entertaining. You might dig it.
Bismut – Ausdauer Lay Bare Recordings / Spinda Records – 2023 Instrumental, Rock, Stoner, Psych, Prog, Metal Rated: ****
In the past we only jotted down some words about their first full-sized album Schwerpunkt. But their second record Retrocausality received as much spin time over as that first one and their newest, about to be released, on Lay Bare Recordings and Spinda Records will surely do that as well. And well, it might just double down on that amount, for Bismut have delivered one hell of a new album called Ausdauer. Shortest track on the album, only six minutes, is the second one and it has a Japanese name, but we guess that translates to Fuan. And after that opening guitar work, they dive into a wild, wonderful, purgatory, almost heathen kind of riff. Indeed, it will surely give you all kinds of Karma To Burn flashbacks, but then again, there are more hints towards that heavier, relentless and riff-circling massiveness that K2B used to produce throughout the new Ausdauer album. Making the prog and certainly the space elements they used to showcase their prowess before, take a bit more of a backseat. But they’re still there as well, as they should be, cause Ausdauer was once again partially improvised on the spot, which means the three will always produce albums with a jam-like affinity. In fact, opening track Mendalir might be the most jam, jazz, prog and spacey one on the album, perhaps served up as a transition from Retrocausality to Ausdauer. Perhaps not. But that powerful riff throughout Mendalir serves as a stepping stone to build and let glide their progressive and psychedelic metal composition. Often taking so much of the center stage attention, it is not hard to also fall in love with that bass work underneath or even when it is walking beside that soaring lead. And as they steam through that second part, with those extremely explosive drums leading up to what must surely be an explosive finish, you are surprised they do not go the way of the dynamite samurai, but they duck back towards a more doom blues approach of all instruments involved. But that’s as much doom as you will get; for the rest of the album follows more the swing and groove of Fuan interspersed with the jazz meandering we know from Bismut. It takes their already dynamic approach to new heights and sounds like much of what you hear was found throughout many nights jamming together and many concert experiences where they noticed what seemed to work best. Those experiences seem to be translated and extrapolated tenfold on Ausdauer, they’re punching their weight, persisting in their approach and showing endurance when locking into a certain groove. Bismut shows determination and the right kind of spirit, and I would have been okay with the ending of Euphoria lasting another ten minutes…
Rival Sons – Lightbringer Atlantic / Warner – 2023 Rock, Hard, Seventies, Blues Rated: ****
We all knew this one was coming, because they said so when they released their other album Darkfighter, the other side of this coin, back around June. Which meant a glorious return for Rival Sons. And this new, six songs strong, release called Lightbringer will only cement that return. Over thirty minutes of more tough and ballsy Rival Sons hardrock. The release starts paradoxically enough with the track called Darkfighter, which is heavenly and blissful all almost nine minutes long. A roller coaster that takes of slowly, goes through all these maddening curves, before coming to that explosive end section. Emotional and heartfelt vocals, unsteady and honest, take you towards some of the best singing you might hear this year. And you already heard those amazing eight tracks from that earlier album sporting the amazing talent of vocalist Jay Buchanan. This takes all that up a notch. The entire composition of that one track rivals all you heard from Rival Sons before. The acoustic and electric, with the seemingly chaotic dance, flamenco and seventies blues duking it out, the transition into something more sixties oriented, the Hammond punctuating that special evolution, that change is gonna come sentiment, and the absolute intense conclusion. One of the best songs to be released this year. It is also the song that sheds light on why Rival Sons decided to release two albums, for this one shines in a different way, immediately. It casts off the shadow and doubt prevalent on that other album, it dares to state that the positive surge that you could feel underneath the tracks on the Darkfighter album, will be here from now on. And that is true for the rest of the album. If you are not convinced, just listen to that final track Mosaic, unapologetic in what they aim to achieve with this song, you can just feel the surge of energy that is behind it all. That green light slowly drawing nearer, hopes and dreams alive and fulfillment within grasp. It is all encompassing and all that Lightbringer conveys… And all we can possibly need...
We are ashamed to say we never actually reviewed an Ufomammut album or EP on Stoner HiVe. But they often made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of whatever year they released an album anyways. Or at least a couple of times. Opus Alter made Number 18 of the 2012 list, Opus Primum made it to the Number 15 spot of that same 2012 edition. Their 8release came in at Number 3 back in 2017. We heard Crookhead and can’t think of any reason why anyone would not vote this release, so I expect another Ufomammut entry for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2023. Just check out that their new video and single Vibrhate! Crookhead comes out on their own damn cool Supernatural Cat Records, on Halloween, that’s October 31st.
UFOMAMMUT Tour Dates:
29.10.2023 Samhain festival – Maastricht (NL) 30.10.2023 Feierwerk – Munich (DE) 04.11.2023 Sonic Rites – Helsinki (FI) 15.11.2023 Mostovna – Nova Gorica (SLO) 16.11.2023 Arena – Wien (AT) 17.11.2023 Turbina – Budapest (HU) 18.11.2023 Stadtwerkstatt – Linz (AT) 19.11.2023 Kamienna – Krakow (PL) 20.11.2023 Hydrozagadka – Warsaw (PL) 21.11.2023 Kabinet Muz – Brno (CZ) 22.11.2023 Club 007 Strahov – Prague (CZ) 23.11.2023 Cassiopeia – Berlin (DE) 24.11.2023 Hafenklang – Hamburg (DE) 25.11.2023 4AD – Diksmuide (BE) 26.11.2023 GeBAude 9 – Koln (DE) 27.11.2023 P8 – Karlsruhe (DE) 29.11.2023 Effenaar – Eindhoven (NL) 30.11.2023 Le Bulle – Lille (FR) 01.12.2023 Petit Bain – Paris (FR) 02.12.2023 La Poudriere – Belfort (FR) 03.12.2023 Old Capitol-Langenthal (CH)
From the depraved metal minds of Nick Turner and Jared Moran, both of too many bands to count, comes an exercise in a different form of aural filth. Bigstrut is caustic. Bigstrut is foul. Bigstrut is noise rock of the most abrasive kind, sharing the DNA of its creators' various black and death metal projects but wholly its own monster. The duo lurch and lay waste through eight seething tracks, Turner's guitars squealing and crunching while Moran's careening drums and demonic vocals drive the onslaught home. Opener "Resolution" creeps forth with heaps of tension, exploding into a cacophony of sound and angular riffs that alternate between razor wire buildups and thunderous grooves. Highlight cut "House Clear" dives further into Jesus Lizard territory with abrupt, stop-start bursts and screeching licks overtop the crash of the drums. Apparent in "House Clear" and the rest of the album, Bigstrut's greatest trick is maintaining head-moving rhythms despite all the abrasive elements at play. One second Turner is torturing his guitar strings, and the next the band is chugging through a passage that would have a live audience bobbing and stomping along. No less moving, another album highlight is "Glutton", taking its time emerging at a doomier pace before pulsing riffs and clattering drums overtake the listener. Bigstrut is built of vile, raging emotions, and Turner and Moran capably twist that madness into a noise rock behemoth.
G’morn! We used to do this little tom-tom write up at the bottom of the weekly list. And we shall try to start that up again. A sort of glance back on the week that has passed. So, as we are still recovering from the Phe album release party from Saturday, that was a good party! We’ll try to keep it short and sweet… September had a gazillion great releases; and October is shaping up to be the same. And we hope to write a few words about a handful of them. Last week we mentioned those two Umbra albums, by Gévaudan and Kadabra. We wrote something about Spider Kitten, The Silver Linings and Morag Tong. And we were extremely happy to see Reek of STOOM write something cool about Tumanduumband and Kyle SB about 10% Reptile. If you haven’t had the chance yet, scroll down or visit the blog to read up on those. Later on today, we’ll have another one by Kyle SB going live! But for now, we’re gonna try and get a bit of sunlight and see if we can get that head straight after that wild Phe party!
Tonight at Nirwana, Lierop, Netherlands… The album release party for the new Phe album! You probably been spinning it all week since Nothing Else Is Real came out on bandcamp, or perhaps even since Outlaws Of The Sun premiered it a few days earlier? Well, tonight you can see these cats live! ‘Get that urge again, and feel your good eye get shot…’
Doors open at 20.00, two pre-shows by Sons of Dew and Humans Screaming Like Goats.
10% Reptile - Holographic Fuzz Playgroundz Records - 2023 Stoner, Grunge, Punk Rated: ****
New York's own 10% Reptile follow up their genre-melding debut with "Holographic Fuzz", and succeed in crafting another set of unique anthems, this time leaning more to the grunge and punk ends of the spectrum than stoner. The sound's a bit more stripped down and jangly, creating an affecting atmosphere somewhere between grunge and heavy folk, with nods to Alice in Chains in the vocals but with an upbeat stomp in the rhythm. Highlight cut "Unfamiliar Hazard" showcases that stomp beautifully, a barn-burner of a track with cutting, howled lyrics and a physical urgency to the hard-hitting beat. Things are dialed back on "Don't Let a Good Thing Go to Waste", with southern gothic vibes joining bluesy licks and bright guitar that would've absolutely killed on 90's MTV Unplugged. Final track "Nothing's What It Seems to Be" brings some stoner fuzz and winding, chugging riffs to close the album out with extra oomph, and the quartet once again prove they're of a space and sound in the heavy underground that belongs only to 10% Reptile.
UMBRA! He exclaimed with great relish! If you are one of the few that knows about Stoner HiVe and even read some of it from time to time. (Thank you from every fiber in my being, if you do!) You know we love the weird and that we sometimes do weird stuff. Weird little side posts or weird screeds in write-ups. Well, we’ve got something different, and perhaps, a bit weird this time. This here, what you are about to read is a write up about two albums called Umbra! And even though both bands reside in the Heavy Underground and both have an album coming out in October called Umbra, they have very little in common! We’re talking about progressive doom outfit Gévaudan, from the UK and seventies inspired psychedelic rock trio Kadabra, from Spokane, Washington, USA. But we just could not resist, c’mon, two albums called Umbra released only a few days after one another… And after listening, you probably can’t resist either!
Gévauden – Umbra
Meuse Music Records – 2023
Doom, Atmospheric
Rated: ***
Gévaudan hits you with a one-track album almost forty-five minutes long, strolling through the earthy doom landscape yet always having a graceful touch. Often diving into the ancient totemic and sometimes medieval sounding territories, it speaks to something deep inside, something old and primal. Something you probably never even realized was there. But it is and it will soon be bursting free while listening to Umbra. Opening grandiose, almost operatic, almost like a doomed Vangelis, this one-track long Umbra seems to aim in making the traditional dark and ominous doom designed for cathedrals more cathartic as they let the composition slowing erupt with rays of light. For even though the subject matter is depression, and depression as seen through an eldritch horror point of view, you cannot help but feel that illumination, those rays of light, simply cannot be contained. Which means there is hope after all and after their earlier album Iter, this means we hope we are heading into an upward spiral after all. It still carries the same weight and progressive atmospheres but feels less oppressive and less satiated with despair. Gévaudan steps out of the shadow and shows us all they are climbing towards the top of the mountain…
Kadabra – Umbra Heavy Psych Sounds – 2023 Rock, Seventies, Proto, Occult, Psych Rated: ***
Kadabra gives us eight tracks of heavy rock! Proto touched, glancing backwards psychedelic rock with myriad of doom influences and that little occult touch that makes this kind of rock so delicious. We were there when Ultra was released in 2021 and it was our preferred album for getting a lot of work done in a very hectic period. And we must conclude that the new Umbra has been on heavy rotation once again to get through a similar period. This Umbra is easy to work to and to have on repeat, the reverb, the fuzz, the overall tones are highly similar throughout the record and make it comfortable to use as that sidebar album that can get you into a majestic and wholesome groove. But by this we do not mean Umbra becomes or is background, elevator music. Hell no, for when you truly listen, when you let the compositions seep into your soul, you will hear more and yes, feel more. All that majestic organ work, warming your blood, those guitar flourishes and effect details painting wonderous sceneries. But it is the smooth transition of every track, without hesitation, that makes Umbra this total listening experience. One that, yes, does become one gigantic haze or bubbling cauldron fog…
And looking at the album title Umbra that both bands chose. It sort of immediately explains the difference in sound and how they interpreted it. For Kadabra seems to have gone for the opaque version of Umbra, the shadow and the haze and how it obscures details and perhaps even the ghost annotation that seems to stick to the word. Gévaudan, took that ghost connection as well, when they took the side of the eldritch horror, but also took Umbra into the dark, darkened and murky depts of the human condition. Shadows are cast here by all the sections the story goes through but are dispelled by those rays of musical illumination. Nothing is obscured and the horror is there for everyone to inhale and exhume. Both albums are perfect for Halloween, one for a soundtrack to the trick-or-treating night, going door to door and getting all that dubious candy. The other one for sitting beside the carved candlelight pumpkin and staring at the moon slowly waxing into this malevolent grin. You decide which goes with which for you…
Spider Kitten – A Pound For The Peacebringer APF Records – 2023 Rock, Doom, Sludge, Americana Rated: ****
We’ve always followed the cool cats named Spider Kitten. But we only really mentioned their Major Label Debut record from 2021. Well, their new one is of an entirely different level; yet still is typically Spider Kitten. Bigger in scope, slower in tempo than their grungier Major Label Debut album, A Pound For The Peacebringer is here to stomp and pound its story gradually, but severely into your heart. Filling it with a lavish amount of doom and sludge tones. But there is more, for Spider Kitten has always been about scouring through all genres for inspiration, and second track Safe To Drown for instance is a folk inspired, Americana and country ditty here to bookend the hefty tracks. And with those birds chirping away in the distance it turns into this delicate and almost lighthearted picnic scene. Fourth track God’s Song serves a similar purpose but instead of sunlight, we get a darker touch… Darker, just like the overall story of A Pound For The Peacebringer …
The Silver Linings – Pink Fish Spinda Records – 2023 Rock, Psych, Seventies, Sixties, Space, Kraut Rated: ****
We were honored to be one of the outlets chosen by the band and Spinda Records to premiere their single Cosmic Excursions only two weeks ago. Taken from their album Pink Fish which is officially out since… TODAY! Yes, let’s celebrate release day together with the five Spanish cronies that are The Silver Linings. Let’s dive head first into the sonically rich waters and float around in the warm bath that is their music. Or as our fellow Doom Charts Contributor Ioannis Valiakos started his blurb on the Spinda Recordsbandcamp page for this album: “Mind blowing at times, and calming at others…” So very very true. There are so many wonderful moments where you just seem to drift along the psychedelic and space current, after which a more garage and kraut approach to that amazing heady music takes over. But both aspects all have this stress reducing effect. Relaxation one moment and the perfect amount of stimuli the next to get the good and positive energy flowing. This is music for a sensory overload tank, for enhancing every sensation and positive emotion you can possibly feel. Wild compositions exchanging the spotlight with impeccable instrumentation, it’s all there and then some. Get your bathing suit on, dive head first in these cool and refreshing waters and swim around with Pink Fish!
Tumanduumband - Throne of Grief Cursed Monk Records – 2023 Doom, Illbient Rated: Reek does not rate!
Black Country-based duo TUMANDUUMBAND offer up their latest monolith to Misery, "Throne of Grief". Absolute Crushing Doom that smears the vast landscapes of SunnO))) and Dos Brujos with their own festering blend of decay and morbidity. They're benefitting from their signing to Cursed Monk Records. And the production shows: this is a sonically expanding album - the best mixes I've ever heard from them! It's unlocked The Sound they've always wanted to make - expansive, atmospheric and devastatingly low! They are rapidly rising stars in the Underground Scene and I strongly suggest you catch them live! Hail The Rifftual!
I played the very first Elder Scrolls computer game, called Arena. Which was amazing and a leap forward when it came to RPG games back then. I had a few moments with the follow-up Daggerfall. I know I have Skyrim somewhere, but never got around to spending time with it. This is me leading up to stating that I should be forgiven for not knowing the Morag Tong name before starting a run through of their new Grieve album out on Majestic Mountain Records. It also leading up to me kneeling to beg some more because this is their third release and we should have googled their name before. Cause we did spend some time with Through Clouded Time from 2016 and even more with Last Knell of Om from 2018. But we never knew Morag Tong was taken from the Elder Scrolls lore and more specifically the Morrowind game. And on some levels, that doesn’t matter one bit. Especially when you get swooped away by the emotive doom and atmospheric sludge that is Grieve. Progressive and psychedelic touches, three tracks that last almost as long as that final fourth track, totaling almost forty-two minutes. It’s heavy, cumbersome and large but at the same time moving towards meditative and pensive. The washing tide of sounds that starts off that final track No Sun, No Moon perhaps the penultimate example of this meditative side of them. For what better location might there be than seaside, shoreside, and waves slowly rolling in. The steady building of sound, tension and intensity. Guided by a gentle wailing guitar, before the guttural lamentation joins in that brings on a vocal dirge before switching to a calm, attractive and melodic section. Progressive, subtle and spacious, but you know that segment will of course move into a heavier, explosive in slow motion, fragment that reintroduces the howling and agonizing vocals. And then letting it all dissolve into silence, the nothingness we all Grieve about. It’s impressive, the amount of expansiveness, variety and creative energy displayed in that one twenty-minute-long final song. But you already went through those three earlier tracks, so it’s been a wonderful journey, we had a good run, no, amazing run and knowing that means you don’t have to Grieve for too long…
Ripple Music will be releasing Burn on the Bayou: A Heavy Underground Tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival on December 3rd. And Kabbalah’s version of Sailor’s Lament is the second single of that tribute album. The Kabbalah three turn Sailor's Lament into a much darker and occulter lamentation. Slowing it all down, adding a haunting touch and an eerie feeling. Wonderfully scary!
Press release:
Californian label Ripple Music shares the preorders and second single for their upcoming “Burn on the Bayou: A Heavy Underground Tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival” album to be released this December 3rd. Watch Kabbalah's deliver their occult take on "Sailor's Lament" now!
Set for a December 3rd release, "Burn on the Bayou: A Heavy Underground Tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival" will be released in 3xLP format, 2xCD and digital for a total of 32 reimagined Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, featuring Ripple Music bands War Cloud, KIND, Great Electric Quest, High Priestess, Kabbalah, Stonebirds, Thunder Horse, Void Vator, JPT Scare Band, Cities of Mars, as well as Kyle Shutt of The Sword and many more.
About their participation, Kabbalah comment: "When we saw the opportunity of taking part in this Ripple tribute to CCR along with some killer bands from the label, we jumped into it. We thought that ’Sailor’s Lament’ could work nicely with a dark approach, so we tried to do that. It had many possibilities to work with the voices as well, and the process to take the song to our field was enriching and very satisfying."
"Burn on the Bayou: A Heavy Underground Tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival" was compiled and produced by Todd Severin. Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound, Dallas, Texas. The artwork was illustrated by Cody Kuehl, with layout by Mack Aceves and gatefold art by Joe Mruk at Red Buffalo Illustration. ► Stream the debut single with Bone Church's cover of "Fortunate Son"!
VARIOUS ARTISTS "Burn on the Bayou: A Heavy Underground Tribute to Creedence Clearwater Revival" Out December 3rd on Ripple Music - Preorder now
FULL TRACKLIST: 1. Run Through the Jungle - JPT Scare Band 2. Fortunate Son - Bone Church 3. Suzy Q - Cities of Mars with Suzy Bravo 4. Gloomy - Cortez 5. Effigy - Curse the Son 6. Put a Spell On You - Devil to Pay 7. Pagan Baby - Doublestone 8. Ramble Tamble - End of Age 9. Cotton Fields (Doom Version) - Great Electric Quest 10. Heard It Through The Grapevine - KIND 11. Bad Moon Rising - High Priestess 12. Hideaway - Horseburner 13. Born on the Bayou - Hot Spring Water 14. Lodi - Jakethehawk 15. Porterville - Gypsy Chief Goliath 16. Sailor's Lament - Kabbalah 17. Down on the Corner - Fuzz Evil 18. Sweet Hitchhiker - La Chinga 19. Proud Mary - Lightning Born 20. Hey Tonight - Red Mesa 21. Sinister Purpose - Roadsaw 22. Walk on Water - Salem's Bend 23. Who'll Stop the Rain - Stonebirds 24. Green River - Stubb 25. Graveyard Train - Thunder Horse 26. Commotion - Void Vator 27. Working Man - War Cloud 28. Nighttime Is The Right Time - The Hazytones 29. Run Through the Jungle - Master Nasty 30. Sinister Purpose (bonus) - Kyle Shutt 31. Fortunate Son (bonus) - Ozone Mama 32. Cotton Fields (Bonus Version) - Great Electric Quest
About the compilation, Ripple Music label founder Todd Severin says: "I chose Creedence Clearwater Revival for our first compilation because I wanted to do something different. I didn't want to do Sabbath, Lizzy or such because bands have such reverence for them that they would turn in their best take on Sabbath or Lizzy. I wanted a band with amazing songs, that the bands could make their own, and boy did they. Plus Creedence Clearwater Revival is rooted in the sludge of the swamp, an aesthetic that plays well to stoner/doom bands. And to really bring out the swamp in the songs, the whole project was mastered by Kent Stump of the legendary swamp rockers Wo Fat."
Founded in 2010 by Todd Severin and John Rancik, Ripple Music is the passion-driven imprint that leading metal magazine Decibel Magazine declared "has made a splash in heavy rock and metal,” and Alternative Control labeled "powerhouse tastemaker". Metal Injection went so far as to predict, “they may very well be the future of rock and roll”. Known and revered worldwide for unearthing the finest bands in 70s heavy, stoner, doom, heavy rock, the Bay Area-based label is now home to Scott "Wino" Weinrich, Tony Reed, Poobah, Wo Fat, Mothership, Freedom Hawk and many more. Since 2017, Ripple Music has been hosting its own festival events known as RippleFest in California, Sweden, Germany, England and France.
