The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025

 

 

The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025

Freakin hell! You had a whole goddamn year to prepare yourself for this, get a polling system in place, to make things easier for yourself. But nooooo… So, yet again, even though the amount of work is becoming impossible, we do this thing the old fashioned way! 

You ready? 

This is it! The very first official announcement that the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 is just around the corner. We’ve been doing this since 2009 and above is the image featuring all the Number One albums according to all the votes that came in so during those years. Your votes! It’s your call! And this is a call to arms, voting arms… Get ready to make that list and send it to us. 

We will commence with the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 on Monday the 15th of December and you will have till Sunday December 14th, 20.00 CET to send your list.  As mentioned, we still don’t have a fancy poll system in place, so we continue to do it the old fashioned, manual labor and lots of sweat. Please send your list via email to stonerhive@hotmail.com. 

The rules, like every year, are very simple. Send a list of your albums from 2025, or late December 2024, to our email: stonerhive@hotmail.com . It can contain as many as you want. But be advised, it’s a weighed count and all entries below your Number 20, will get the same amount of points as your Number 20. 

Almost every year the amount of lists we receive keeps growing and we are thankful for each and every one of them. Whether you are able to list five favorite albums or fifty, it’s all good! You can send your list to our email and we will do all the computing and tallying… And then when the day is there, we shall start the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025! Ending, as always, with this year’s Number One on January 1st…

Gonna listen to last year’s Number One album according to all of you that voted right now! Which was Slift and their Ilion album. I’m curious to see what you all vote for this year and what album will reach the Number One spot this year… Please help me out by sending your votes!

Send your list of favorite albums of 2025: HERE!

Deadline Sunday December 14th, 20.00 CET...
 

Want to read up on past editions? 

Visit the blog and see posts like: The Countdown So Far... 

Or the Number One Posts...

 

Ambra – Remnant

 

 

Ambra – Remnant
Self-released – 2025
Metal, Stoner, Rock, Prog, Alternative
Rated: ****

The few that follow the HiVe might know that I love Slovenia and Ljubljana and that I always keep my ear to the ground for bands from that region. And yes, the great Jan Kozel from the amazing Jegulja and earlier magical Carnaval is detrimental to that love, me discovering those bands and him using up every drummer available in Ljubljana for his projects. Down the street from him lives Robi Rep from alternative metal band Ambra and so far he has resisted the nightly howls from Kozel to join one of his projects. And we are glad he did, cause the new Ambra album Remnant is a stunning piece of heavy rock! Metal, alternative, progressive with stoner touches. “Influenced by Mastodon, Tool, Deftones, Gojira, Clutch and Chelsea Wolfe…” And those influences are definitely audible in some way or other… But rest assured, they make it completely their own!

Formed in 2015, they released their first full-sized album Cor in 2019. A great debut, but for the new Remnant, they’ve enlisted mixing help from Ben McLeod from All Them Witches, who also adds a wonderful guitar solo on the third track Void. And then there’s that trumpet on fourth track Timeless, that drifts along like ghost notes across a long lost battlefield… Those trenches situated in a once quiet street somewhere in Ljubljana, where, for the past ten years, five musicians gathered like craftsmen in a workshop, shaping something heavy, intricate and wickedly beautiful…

And then they burst forth out of that workshop as the Ambra five they are now. No longer the instrumental project that began its journey, the songs have matured, became more daring and one can safely state that the sketches they started with have become beautiful sculptures, destined to stand the test of time. They’ve chiseled their sound into an ageless form and much of it feels hard to explain. As if you are trying to describe this wonderful dream the morning after…

But as we try to remember all the weight, the kaleidoscopic colors, the shifting shapes, we immediately get lost again in the wonderful world they created. Their music veers between prog, alternative, stoner textures, and wisps of psychedelia. Take Arcadia 404, slowly awakening, before bursting open completely. Vocals trembling with emotion, guitars heaving forward in thick waves and a rhythm section that pounds like a heartbeat that’s almost unable to control itself. It sounds tense and coiled, almost moving forward on the silences between the notes more than the rhythm itself. And this is something they continue to do throughout the album.

Shaping songs like an M C Escher drawing, tilting and twisting the structures, and always with absolute precision. And at the center of this ever shifting landscape, stands vocalist Jakob Rejec, whose voice cuts through the density like a blade of glass, a scalpel, opening up the composition and showing its spine. Remnant lasts for an hour, and every minute begs to be heard over and over. And you will keep discovering more and more. Ambra have definitely out done themselves, they have forged something powerful and unpredictable. Something where you can lose every part of yourself in… Over and over, until there's nothing left... 

(Written by JK)

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One Dimensional Creatures – Tolerance Paradox

 

One Dimensional Creatures – Tolerance Paradox
Self-released – 2025
Rock, Punk, Grunge
Rated: ****

It arrived by snail mail, this wonderful package straight out of Manchester and as the Tolerance Paradox vinyl started its first spin, I imagined stepping off a curb in that wild city and straight into oncoming traffic. A roar of engines, sirens and grinding gears of a city that hasn’t slept since the factories first coughed coal into the sky, eventually producing a fierce and tightly wound collision of alt-punk urgency, post-punk tension, and grungy distortion. This is One Dimensional Creatures and they are here to rip open the rusted ribcage of capitalism and scream directly into its exposed circuitry. Funny at moments, smart and brainy at others, but always loud, a bit smelly and with the sound of punk philosophy getting mugged in an alley by grunge’s addiction to seemingly slacker attitudes… 
 

Opener Media Mass bulldozes its way through your frontal lobe, guitars whine and screech like malfunctioning machinery and with vocals that slice through the grime with the urgency of a man reporting on the death of a salesman. But before you can come to grips with the tones and the punk adagio, Favourite Saprophyte and the deliriously titled So Long, It’s a Shame About the Fish are already dragging you kicking and screaming through backstreets lit by slow flickering arc lamps, where every riff feels like a factory press stamping out protest slogans… 

A Grudge Against The Few comes slithering up out of the drains, hitting you with five minutes of slow dripping paranoia, gothic punk, new wave and a groove that feels like you are lying underneath a pipe that’s leaking chemicals from an abandoned industrial site. Slowly unspooling itself into a rant that seems aimed at the oligarchic puppet masters. It almost feels like the albums stops being music and starts becoming a call for an uprising… 

And with the precision of brick through window politics, Old Tommy, Not Me and Peter Pan hit you in short bursts. Quick, sharp and disruptive like timed explosions planted before the needle even hit the vinyl. After which the albums starts to swing from melody to mayhem, like a factory whistle blowing during a riot. And then The Dark, March in Line, and Bathed in Blood seem more to sound like anthems for all the workers that finally snapped and decided to occupy the factory… 

My Noose pretends to soften and soften it does by way of master volume, but just as you think you are going to meet up with a friendly foreman, it reverts to full speed revolt. And the directory knows it’s done as Your Chair Is Not a Throne ends everything with all the subtlety of a collapsing smokestack. And you’ve got to love the venom in the lyrics, which are no longer sung, but spit in this beautiful, accented rabble talk. In the end you stand among the ruins, and realize that Tolerance Paradox was the initial spark, the first Molotov cocktail lobbed into the machinery of capitalism. It’s a distorted working man’s manifesto soaked in sweat, noise and fury. Righteous and honest, One Dimensional Creatures seem to want to unionize our headbanging souls! Get ready for action! 

(Written by JK)

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Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum XX

 

 

Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum XX
Beggars Arkive – 2024 
Rock, Alternative
Rated: *****

It was a landmark album. Still is. And when the twentieth anniversary of Bubblegum rolled around in 2024, the box set that followed in August felt like a long-lost telegram from a former life. Every bit as arresting as the first time I heard it back in 2004, maybe even sharper, like a blade that’s grown hungrier with time. But listening to it that summer was hard. The world had shifted underfoot. As the date crept closer marking three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that other ghost-date rose behind it… 

So let me start by saying: I’m sorry, Mr. Lanegan, for not putting these words down sooner, for letting years drift by before honoring this beautiful resurrection, the demos, the b-sides, the unreleased fragments that gathered themselves into Bubblegum XX. I had the privilege of speaking with Lanegan a couple of times, and with many of the conspirators who helped build this strange and majestic cathedral of an album. Those conversations remain small, burning lanterns in my memory....

I remember asking him, back in 2013, why “Josephine” never made it beyond the mythic, cigarette-stained Methamphetamine Blues Sessions that leaked around the original release. It was one of my favorite orphaned songs. His answer was brief but chivalrous: “Josh wrote it. It wasn’t one of mine.” And yet, there it stands now, rightfully reclaimed on the twentieth-anniversary edition. The sixth solo album, the one that somehow manages to be his most personal and his most successful, his rawest and most heavy since the Screaming Trees days. An album that bleeds openly, like a man holding out his wrists for the world to read...

Even the short, spectral duet “Bombed” recorded in a single take with Wendy Rae Fowler as their marriage was collapsing into dust, feels like a confession left smoldering on the floorboards. And “Wedding Dress” sounds, in hindsight, like a farewell note to anyone who ever hoped he might stay home, even for love, the traveler’s curse he carried deep in his bones...

But beyond the exposed nerves and scorched-heart honesty, there’s the constant presence of comrades, great musicians stepping out of the shadows like saints and outlaws offering their hands and wrists in a same way. We could name them all, of course, but we stick to the vocal parts: the purgatory-lit duets with PJ Harvey on “Hit The City” and “Come To Me,” songs that leave burn marks on the ears; Chris Goss, lifting “One Hundred Days” into a kind of storm-lit prayer; Alain Johannes, whose soft, sorrow-stitched backing on “Morning Glory Wine” feels like a hand resting gently on the shoulder. You can almost hear the electricity crackle through those sessions, streetlights popping, dry storms rolling over the horizon, lightning looking for a place to strike...

The box set gives us the remastered fifteen tracks, but it also opens the door to the motel rooms and dim corners where Lanegan recorded sketches with Troy Van Leeuwen, captures from nights thick with smoke and wandering thoughts. We get the full Methamphetamine Blues Sessions, the Here Comes That Weird Chill EP, and demos abandoned only because Lanegan heard some other ghost-part calling to him. Like the fully realized “Union Tombstone,” with Beck drifting in on vocals, harmonica, and guitar, turning it into a desert crossroad hymn that feels like a mirage finally made real...

An album like this doesn’t age. It ferments, darkens, deepens. Tonight, we spin it again, front to back, the way it deserves, thinking of Lanegan, of the roads he walked and the shadows he made beautiful. He left us so much, the words, the music, the voice that sounded like it had already lived nine lifetimes. These are the kind of gifts that never fade. They just cut deeper...

(Written by JK)

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

 

 

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

Wolf Alice
Yawning Man
Lacertilia
-II-
Ambra
Abanamat
Homegrown
Ritual Arcana
Black Magic Tree
An Abstract Illusion

Yes, we’re on another Monday trip! Busy as hell, still recovering from minor injuries after being hit by a car last week and also trying to come down from a wonderful Wolf Alice gig last night. Does the week before us look good? Well, as long as we won’t get hit by another car, it will be grand and we’ll try to post as much as we did last week. Cause we managed to do a Quick Fire Friday and we’re honored to have provided the FULL ALBUM PREMIERE for the amazing Dune Aurora record for you all! But besides those we jotted down some words about Dead Otter, A Gram Trip and Abanamat! Oh and a full review for Dune Aurora as well! And last but not least our awol brother from Howl From The Hollows, Stevie Reek wrote some words about that amazing Silver Orbs release! Man, that opening track Manganagas, wowzah! Did you hear it yet? Better check’m out! Check’m all out! 

Dead Otter – The Sentinel

 

 

Dead Otter – The Sentinel
Riot Season / Echodelick – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Space, Psych, Instrumental
Rated: ****

Realizing we slept on their No Sleep Till Kozfest release and weirded out too much over Bridge of Weird and thus actually only ever mentioned their first step on the road to glory called Pathfinder. Indeed, we only mentioned Dead Otter’s first release from 2016 on the HiVe. And as usual, we should be dragged through the streets, full of tar and feathers. Luckily, there’s a new album out called The Sentinel and we can make up for the lack of attention given to this wild and wonderful outfit…

An outfit that left us wanting for more studio material for some seven years. But now that Dead Otter has crashed back into our dimension, we can dispel all those rumors about them being disbanded, abducted or living off-grid, off-planet in some astral trailer park. But now they’re here, materialized, shooting star fire lasers out of guitars and stomping out energy through a warp drive rhythm section! 

The Otternaut! Our cosmic, probably intoxicated explorer, has crashed onto a desert world, beneath the looming gaze of… The Sentinel! A colossal planetoid entity that could erase civilizations with a mere blink of its eyes. And that story is told with wormholes full of fuzz, swirling smoke, and planet shifting distortion. Just listen as Space Shadows opens the transmission as it was captured by a derelict space station. Eleven minutes of shimmering cosmic mirage, slowly drifting, meditative and with a definite touch of sixties psychedelics. Your consciousness will slip its moorings, time will warp and as a numbers station crackles into existence like some weird prank call, you cannot help but ask yourself: did Dead Otter find a way to hack reality with music? 

They continue kicking the door into deep space. Dual guitars duel like cosmic gladiators high on some weird kind of de fermented moon cactus, while that rhythm section gallops loudly across dunes of irradiated sand. There are a lot of floating moments and sections where you could imagine yourself stuck, submerged in vat of liquid waiting for freezing or cloning. That’s when the shoegazing, atmospheric haze drifts in. And that’s when you just bubble along and hold on to hear what kind of release might be coming. Like the organ solo in Ibises for instance, which sounds like a cathedral exploding on a distant moon, ending with shattered petals of stained glass flying off into vacuum. 

The eventual climax, the final confrontation, happens on the final and title track The Sentinel. A desert-psych showdown with the planet god! It’s like they’ve hit the cosmic nerve, with twin guitars blazing through a sandstorm, and rumbles deep beneath the riffs like tectonic anxiety. Sonic howling and wailing, as The Sentinel stands before them. This is it, the time to push their space rock powers to the absolute brink… And to shove them and the gigantic Sentinel, over the edge… Dead Otter knows where it is, they’ve been there and might actually be one of the very few to have come back… With stories to tell.. 

(Written by JK)

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Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

 

 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday 

You ready for the Doom Charts Peroration for October? It will be hitting the airwaves soon enough! But right here, right now, you can already get into some quick action! Some Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday action! A quick blurb with the hope it will entice you to listen to the single or the entire discography! So here it is… Another Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday ! And it burns hot like molten lava!

Ronin Veins – Rabbit Fat

“‘Rabbit Fat’ was recorded across The Hive Rooms and RYP Recordings - and mastered at the legendary AIR Studios…” Wait… The HiVe rooms you say?! That surely peaked our interest in the new single by Londen quartet Ronin Veins. Damn fine bandname! As for Rabbit Fat, the mix of alternative rock with a bit of grunge, a bit of stoner, and a bit of AOR metal definitely has a ring to it! And with them building a community, launching Rust Fest and connecting with all sorts of underground bands, Ronin Veins are on the road to become an important entity! 

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Ghost Pipe – Spirit Speaks

Another single comes at us from Ghost Pipe, a five-piece from Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Spirit Speaks” is a sonic rite, a plunge into the soul’s underworld, where old hurts, guides, and ancestral spirits gather. Pulsing riffs and a raw, ritual cry ignite a cleansing release, turning sorrow into power. A journey for those who walk with spirits and reclaim their hidden fire...

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Black Weedow – Is She? 

Hailing from Lublin, Poland is Black Weedow! And on their first single Is She? they expertly mix alternative rock, grunge with Sabbathian metal. Later joined by a Voice of Poland winner, Is She? introduces Black Weedow’s debut with a brooding blend of doom and grunge, driven by towering riffs and Jarek Żarnowski’s heavy bass foundation. Juan Carlos Cano’s commanding vocals elevate the band’s massive, atmospheric sound, creating a haunting, immersive journey through dark, emotional sonic terrain…

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Betty’s Nuklear – Beach Blood

Love the title, love the band name! It’s Betty’s Nuklear from South Africa and their new single Beach Blood! Powerful hardrock riffage and a pumping energy! Indeed, it unleashes their raw hard-rock power, blending fierce vocals, nostalgic shredding, and a pounding rhythm section. Self-produced in their Garden Route studio, the track hits with emotional weight and unfiltered intensity, delivering a bold, honest sound that channels the band’s signature energy and uncompromising spirit. Love the track! 

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Vulture Neck – Höst

Vulture Neck hails from Stockholm, Sweden and delivers its classic tinged metal, with overtones of doom, sludge and some wicked energy. This stand-alone single is only ten seconds shy of the three minute mark, but luckily you can hit repeat on Höst! It has something, the shouted vocals crawling across the riffs, crawl across you skin immediately. Addictive stuff! 

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Zana Billionara - Hollow

Another reason I need to visit Wales soon! It’s three piece Zana Billionara and their new single Hollow! Or actually their first official one! Psychedelic and wild, with a definite earthy touch, the track crafts a fierce blend of atmospheric calm and explosive intensity. Gentle, ghostly melodies erupt into chaotic, mind-bending distortion, creating a heady form of hard rock. Rooted in classic influences yet undeniably modern, the sound is nostalgic, visceral, and deeply immersive.

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Rolls The River – Love Of Driving

Another sprawling psychedelic ditty hits straight out of New Jersey and is the debut for two-piece Rolls The River and infuses electronics with krautrock, hypnotic pulses, mutant synth clouds, and textures that slither beyond genre. Sure, it’s krautrock, krautrock by way of a midnight highway, psych-rock wired on intuition. The music drifts, mutates, alive, restless, morphing and gloriously unclassifiable.

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Black Fuse – White Wolf

As we inch closer to the end of 2025 and the start of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown, we are already starting to glance back at all we missed, forgot or never got around to mention. Like this very early in the year released single (or perhaps even earlier) in honor of the metal bar in Groningen called De Witte Wolf. This is five piece Black Fuse and their thrashy stoner metal ode White Wolf. Dig it! And you might want to check out the rest of their Cosmic Psycho album as well! 

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A Gram Trip – Bud Ends and Glass Bottoms

 

 

A Gram Trip – Bud Ends and Glass Bottoms
Self-released – 2025
Metal, Doom, Black, Sludge 
Rated: ***

We stumble through a smoke choked basement where gravity has declared mutiny, as the sound hits in slow, heaving waves, thick, distorted and incredibly mean. Vocals tear through the haze like a doomsday prophet preaching high above a cracked amplifier. Or is he actually below the thing? Everything, everything, everything is down tuned to the point where the air itself vibrates with fear and dread… 

We’re listening to the new Bud Ends and Glass Bottoms album by Croatian quartet A Gram Trip and as it slowly starts to suffocate, the record drifts into strange psychedelic detours, like the walls are suddenly shifting and those vague lights you see flickering all around you begin melting. It isn’t the lack of oxygen, it’s the way this band rides their warped currents with reckless abandon, before slamming back into their mire of blackened, sludge-laced heaviness. And then there are those instances where the music suddenly seems to move faster, as if some cosmic force showed itself to be grander than gravity, kicked reality out underneath you and sent everything tumbling into chaos. 

It's at those moments when the instrumental ruckus spirals into star dusted delirium that you start to question your sanity. Should you be listening to a band this gnarly? And as they drop you back into another pit of grimy riffs and bleak moods, that sense of bewilderment only grows. By the end, you’re left dazed and crazed, ears ringing, barely able to breath, dragged though a beastly, nightmarish blackened, sludge, doom, stoner metal fever dream you will never be able to shake… Shit, you might still be in it… 

(Written by JK)

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FULL ALBUM PREMIERE - Dune Aurora – Ice Age Desert

 

 

FULL ALBUM PREMIERE 

Dune Aurora – Ice Age Desert 

You stumbled into the right party tonight! It’s the FULL ALBUM PREMIERE by Italian’s very own Dune Aurora! The album is called Ice Age Desert and will be out through Argonauta Records this Friday, the 21st of November. But you can hear it here first and right now! 

Want to read the full REVIEW, scroll down or click HERE. Either way, click on Play below and get ready for a revelation! Their stoner-rock mystique has bloomed into a richer, heavier and daring sound. Riffs that stride with cool confidence, vocals that glide like silk over steel, and melodies shimmering with desert haze and vintage allure. From blues-tinged openers to regal, doom-kissed moments, the album unfolds like a frozen dreamscape warmed by hidden embers. Cohesive, atmospheric and boldly assured, Ice Age Desert invites you into a secret glittering sonic world… 

PR WIRE:

DUNE AURORA – “ICE AGE DESERT”

Out November 21, 2025 via Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records
Formats: CD & Digital
FFO: Jess and the Ancient Ones, Acid King, Ruby the Hatchet, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats

BIO / OVERVIEW

Italian heavy rock trio DUNE AURORA rise from the Turin underground with their debut full-length “Ice Age Desert”, a hypnotic and powerful journey through dark fuzz, grunge undertones and desert psychedelia.
Curently formed by Ginny Wagon (vocals, guitar), Roberta Finiguerra (bass, backing vocals) and Serena Bodratto (drums, backing vocals), the band crafts an immersive sound where heavy, monolithic riffs meet haunting atmospheres and melodic intensity.
Following the success of their 2022 debut EP Lonely Town and a string of acclaimed singles (Solar Reward, Sail, Fire), DUNE AURORA now unveil their most ambitious work to date. “Ice Age Desert” delivers nine tracks of dynamic heaviness, mastered by the legendary James Plotkin (Isis, Pelican, Earth), confirming the band’s place among the most exciting acts in the new wave of European fuzz rock.

ABOUT THE ALBUM

Ice Age Desert explores the duality between power and introspection. Each song flows into the next, building a cinematic soundscape that bridges stoner rock heaviness, grunge sensibility and psychedelic textures. With its mix of vintage warmth and modern edge, the album stands as a must-listen for fans of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Acid King, and Ruby the Hatchet.

TRACKLIST
1.    Gateway
2.    Tundra
3.    Burning Waters
4.    Crocodile
5.    Trapdoor
6.    Sunless Queen
7.    Dune Chameleon
8.    Fire (Extended Version 2025)
9.    Se Ponga El Sol

SINGLES & VIDEOS
🎥 Sunless Queen – Official Video

🎥 Crocodile – Official Video

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Silver Orbs - Silver Orb

Silver Orbs - Silver Orbs
Self-released - 2025
Stoner, Hard, Kraut, Psych
Rated: 

Oz keeps the vibe going constantly! New bruces on the block SILVER ORBS deliver an emphatic, No-holds-barred blend of High-Octane Stoner Rock that is compelling and rewarding in equal measure! Opener "Manganangas" sets the table with a robust and grungy riff-fest. Track two, "Gannets" brings the Psychedelics into play: Delayed guitars feeding a monster bass riff that develops into a hard-rocking, Kyuss-esque bleacher. The finale, "Kanto Katso" rolls like the proverbial stone - a mixture of total groove and Stadium Rock vibes that will have your heads nodding like a dashboard dog! Every second of this is unwasted - time to drop it and get WASTED!

(Written by Stevie Reek) 

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Dune Aurora – Ice Age Desert

 

 

Dune Aurora – Ice Age Desert
Argonauta Records – 2025
Stoner, Rock, Desert, Doom 
Rated: ****

The album comes out on Argonauta Records this Friday, the 21st of November! But if you, by any chance, stumble around Stoner HiVe this evening… Well now… You might just be treated to the FULL ALBUM PREMIERE of this wonderful new album called Ice Age Desert by Italian trio Dune Aurora! 

And on one such evening, not too long ago, drifting through the ether, I was introduced to Dune Aurora as well. A formidable trio from Turin, who are mysterious, indulgent and feel like a stoner rock band straight out of the romantic age. It felt like I was discovering a new and half-forgotten speakeasy glowing beneath the desert moon, which borrowed its atmosphere from the grand soirées of yore. And after later inspection, their EP Lonely Town already hinted at this promise. Raw but glimmering like the first spark of a champagne toast.

And now, three years later, with the clutter pared down and their vision sharpened, they arrive glowingly at their debut full length release Ice Age Desert, which announces itself like a cold wind sweeping across a ballroom left open to the night. A sound that has grown heavier, richer and perhaps more daring. Riffs rolling in a steady deliberate force. Confidently strutting about the place and leaving the flashy solos for others. With vocals, floating clean and cool above the grit, like silk brushing softly against steel. 

A brisk, blues-tinged flourish opens the album, ushering the listeners into a frozen dreamscape. Followed by a track filled with groove and raw swagger. And then comes Dune Chameleon, which slips in a sly familiar riff, echoing youthful rebellion beneath all the frost. Momentary flashes of doom might pop up here and there but are often swept to the side by something sharper. And then there’s Sunless Queen, which broods with a patient and regal menace. 

But what dazzles most perhaps, is the cohesion.  Their kaleidoscopic sounds of desert haze, garage rumble and ethereal melody are woven together with such deliberation, that the tapestry they create feels complete and beautiful. A pure and bold statement, as though Dune Aurora has stepped confidently onto a vast glittering stage and claimed it as their own… 

(Written by JK)

Check out the first two singles right now and come back for the FULL ALBUM PREMIERE tonight! 



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Abanamat – Abominat

 

 

Abanamat – Abominat
Interstellar Smoke Records – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Prog
Rated: ****

They surfaced with their second release exactly one month ago. Abominat is Berlin based foursome Abanamat’s next dive for Interstellar Smoke Records, the successor to their well received 2023 debut. And the psych-prog quartet open the record by sinking the listener straight into deep waters. Longest track Dream Of The Fisherman’s wife unfurls like a slow current, its guitars drifting in gentle arcs while the band quickly establishes a fully immersive, largely instrumental ecosystem. Vocals, appear only as brief flashes of bioluminescence throughout the album, present for a moment and then gone, just gently guiding the flow and never anchoring anything down. 

Descending down the track list, we continue with Blue Yonder and the opener’s tidal sway before breaking into a proggy quick-moving eddy. Vocals shooting like a ripple across the surface, vanishing as the song returns to a shimmering calm. A thicker tonal pressure and equally wider meditative drift spurs Carpet Denim on, with a solo that delivers the grandiose white water splash before plunging back into heavier reefs, hinting at a surge that my burst through at any moment. 

And that lure, that siren’s call, is always there. The idea that something dangerous and wild might be lurking underneath it all. Murky waters, with bubbling percussion or brightening waves that progress until a lively swell built on muscular groove and far reaching guitar patterns takes shape. Instrumental depths that shine with color or a forceful churning that builds until a last crash awaits before a grand finale…

And grand it is, the closing track, with Earthless’ Isaiah  Mitchell on guitar, and a solo that spirals like a majestic whirlpool at album’s end. Like the fabled world’s end, pushing the boundaries of what came before and of the album’s final plunge. For it feels like that one final push, shove and jump from the towering cliffs. It’s exhilarating! And after expanding their sonic ocean, exploring new trenches, new colors and pressure zones this Abominat record is the treasure of legend they delved. And only extremely wild currents or desperate earthquakes, can shake the foundation that Abanamat has built, with only two albums. Amazing!

(Written by JK)

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

 

 

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

Lacertilia
Jan Akkerman
The Waterboys
Yawning Man
Temple Fang
Modder
The Re-Stoned
Abanamat
Remaining Daze
Kadavar

The new week has started and the week past was filled with three interviews, a concert (actually on one day) and a festival. So, yeah, little time to HiVe, but a lot of time spent with music! And we still managed to mention a few releases… Like the amazing new Yawning Man album and that devastating Modder release! Who showed their maximalist prowess on Helldorado Festival in Eindhoven, Netherlands. What a wicked show once again! And we had to pay attention to our very own in house poet Ronny Dijksterhuis! He’s doing a poetry challenge this month and is a true sculptor with words. Will there be more time for Stoner HiVe this week, we can only hope! If not, you can always use the way back machine and check out any of the older posts. Who knows, you might have missed something somewhere… Grin! 

Modder - Destroying Ourselves For A Place In The Sun

 

 

Modder - Destroying Ourselves For A Place In The Sun
Consouling Sounds / Lay Bare recordings – 2025
Metal, Industrial, Sludge, Electronic, Instrumental, Doom
Rated: ****

This year was my first time at Down The Hill Festival in Belgium, and it will surely not be my last. What a wonderful festival! Amazing location and setup and a stunning line-up! I will refrain from listing them all, but trust me, it was full of legends or yore and bands on their way to becoming legendary. And it wasn’t my first encounter with Belgian five-piece Modder, but it was the show that made me a mudhead. And I will get to see them again this Saturday at Helldorado Festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Modder, the revolution will not be televised, but the evolution of Modder will be all over this globe… 

Destroying Ourselves For A Place In The Sun is the next step in their remarkable progression. An album that fuses metal, sludge, doom, electronica, and industrial textures into a sound both primal and futuristic. I popped the record on and before opening track Stone Eternal had finished I had realized two things… One, my speakers might never recover. And two, Modder are absolute maniacs! And trust me, I mean this in the best possible way. The full-frontal assault on your auditory senses becomes this sensory overload that keeps punching you repeatedly. 

It starts out sneakily deceptive. Stone Eternal lulls you into a false sense of serenity, a peace you last knew drifting around in the amniotic fluid. Then, one minute in, the band detonates like a furious ancient god striking down on creation. Riffs hit like jackhammers on steroids, drums rattle your chest and electronics swirl around like radioactive goo. Aah tsunami! Let’s attack, let’s go! It’s a tidal wave of sound that somehow manages to install feelings of terror and hypnotize at the same time… 

And they just keep coming at you, with angular riffs, glitchy electrics, grind infused grooves. It’s as if Modder decided to play a game of chicken on you and among themselves. And none of the members is stopping, resulting in constant collisions of chaos and precision. And by the time you are headbanging so hard you can’t remember your name, you find yourself back in the amniotic state, as Type 27 opens with its ambient side to offer respite and a moment to catch your breath. A floating, post rock, droning start, which stands like a sentinel in the eye of a sonic hurricane. The Modder typhoon continues after a hot minute, and there goes your oxygen.

They never let up and from primal grooves and heavy metal seances, to drum and bass insanity and sludge devastation, it never seems a stretch for Modder. Ending with In The Sun, a closer that will leave you stunned, elated and somewhat fearing for your life. Some might fear it’s too fragmented, but that’s the point, it’s a goddamn sensory Rorschach test! Modder goes for the maximum, the maximalist and the extreme, relentlessly, and occasionally in a beautiful, post-apocalyptic, radioactive dead end alley kind of way. You can’t win. But Modder isn’t here to conquer, they are here to obliterate. And when it’s all over… You will press play again, against better judgment, because you want more… Another addict born. Another mudhead…  

(Written by JK)

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Helldorado Festival

  

 

Helldorado Festival

Two more days till we get to travel to fabled Helldorado! The festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands where anything can happend and everything will. But you will never be quite sure you were even there... A lost festival of rock 'n roll! Lost in a haze and lost in time... Are you ready to get lost? 

Still a handful of tickets left... 

A wild line-up with Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats, Stoned Jesus and Mantar! And Modder who played that amazing set over on Down The Hill only a little while ago! And then there is the mighty SACRED REICH (USA), SILLY GOOSE (USA), MY DILIGENCE (BE) and SAVAGE BEAT (NL)! And lets not forget about Turbonegro, Hatebreed, Life of Agony and of course Peter Pan Speedrock! And that’s just to name a few… Check out  the full line-up below and get them tickets… 

​Turbonegro - Peter Pan Speedrock - Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
Hatebreed (perseverance / the rise of brutality + hits) - Life of Agony (30 YEARS OF UGLY)
Sacred Reich - Asphyx - Mantar - Ramones Alive - Stoned Jesus
The Turbo A.C.’s - Dikke Dennis & de Rockers - DJ Fleddy Melculy
Tarmac - Silly Goose - My Diligence - Modder
Reach - Bug - Bildtstar - Savage Beat 

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Only 2 days to go till lift-off! 

  

Yawning Man – Pavement Ends

 

Yawning Man – Pavement Ends
Heavy Psych Sounds Records – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Desert, Psych
Rated: *****

Back when I fell in love with everything that originated from their desert, there were only some dubious quality demo’s and loose songs to be found about this legendary band. And then, almost ten years later, there it was… The first studio album by Yawning Man called Rock Formations. And then another ten years later they toured Europe with the Fatso Jetson & Yawning Man line-ups combined. And for the Deventer show, they had something special, cause earlier that year they had recorded a new Ten East album called Skyline Pressure with Erik Harbers & Pieter Holkenborg from the now defunct Automatic Sam on guitar and bass. A legendary night and something I could never have imagined happening as I listened to those early demo’s and actually thinking back then that I was born in the wrong place and time… 

And as we skip another ten years we have now arrived at their seventh studio release, Yawning Man’s Pavement Ends. And even though the pavement might end, and the asphalt might melt into dust and with the right kind of ears you can hear the ghost of those generator parties still hum in the sand, this could surely not be the end for Yawning Man. The sound has aged, matured, slowed down on some levels, but it is still the kind of music that will continue to play when your phone signal dies, and the sun burns your eyes and the mirage winks at you. This is Yawning Man, this is Pavement Ends, music coming through from the far edge of consciousness…

Older, dustier and perhaps not as punky as before, they are still doing their very own thing. The thing that became a scene before anyone ever knew that it could become a scene. Gary Arce and Mario Lalli are the ones that actually played on those sand dunes with those generators and cheap beer, summoning sound out of heat, making those starlight nights truly come alive and shadows become their own entity. They’ve never lost that touch…

Just listen to opening track Burrito Power. You will swear the horizon starts to tilt, guitars moaning across rusted hoods, a bass that crawls forward like a mirage that refuses to stay still. Deliberately slow, heavy and o’ so beautiful. But beautiful in a way that feels like it might just become dangerous, with the wrong choice made. And as you watch the sunset it will be up to you, chuck the half empty bottle to the ground, or guzzle it up and ride those bad intentions… 

Gestapo Pop rides the dip in light, the sunset drip, and in fact it just drifts deeper into the haze. Shimmering guitar work depicting Van Gogh like stars becoming a halo of light, looping and bending until you completely lose track of time. And by the time third track Bomba Negra hits, I’ve forgotten what planet I’m  on. No longer listening to a simple rock album, but a cinematic and aural adventure drawn by tones eroding themselves into soundscapes. 

And as you feel enveloped in the warm embrace of all those constantly degrading tones, you feel its comfort and know the masters of groove are also experts in dream sequences extraordinaire. To bring some of that groove back there’s Dust Suppression, leisurely moving around with cosmic swagger, this shortest track still feels like grand architecture. Gradual and precise, yet o’ so flowing and fluid. 

Nine minute title track will take you to the limits and beyond. Desert hypnosis personified, endless in its feel and atmosphere, like a drive towards nowhere, and with a reverb that stretches out like a memory of something that might never actually have happened. And if Pavement Ends does not shut you up, makes you lie down to listen to the desert, than surely closing track Bad Time To Be Alive will. There’s no way to not feel saddened by what this song says with just the title and the forlorn attitude. This is not a protest, but an acknowledgement of everything we collectively have let happen to humanity and the planet. Lie down. Listen. And repeat, it might help. It surely did for me. 

And that restorative energy, is part of what makes Pavement Ends so damn good. It never tries to hard, there’s no showmanship, but pure craft. No trickery, just three musicians locked tightly into each other’s pulse that they might as well use the same heart. Maybe they already do. And if you long for the sun and know that everything starts with that golden orb and that as long as the sun rises there can still be hope, this album will certainly strike a chord with you. Exhale, let the horizon do the talking, just like Yawning Man. You can leave your despair and expectations on the road behind your, exactly… There, where the Pavement Ends… 

(Written by JK)

Pavement Ends comes out November 14th, but you can listen to Yawning Man’s first single Bomba Negra right now over on the Heavy Psych Sounds bandcamp page… 



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