Single Premiere – LáGoon – You Tried You Failed

 

 

Single Premiere

LáGoon – You Tried (You Failed)

The wait is over! And we are thrilled to have the honor to PREMIERE for you all the brand new LáGoon single You Tried (You Failed)! Following the majestic album from 2022 Bury Me Where I Drop, You Tried (You Failed) will officially be out next Wednesday, November 12th. A languid stoner punk and garage burner, slowly seeping into your veins, spicing up your blood and giving you Skullactic Visions. You know the deal, press play and turn into a LáGoon head! 

LáGoon · YOU TRIED (YOU FAILED)

Thank you LáGoon and Good Boy PR for the opportunity to premiere this wild new single! 

I hope I did good... Or well... I tried...  

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LáGoon - YOU TRIED (YOU FAILED) single

Scuzz n’ fuzz garage doom from Portland Single “YOU TRIED (YOU FAILED)” out November 12th
Genres: Garage rock, doom, metal, punk, stoner rock

LáGoon is a heavy riffing trio currently lingering in Portland Oregon that blends elements of punk, garage rock, doom, and stoner rock. They’ve released six albums to date, a live album, and after a short rest are back to the grind.

Following 2022's acclaimed “Bury Me Where I Drop”, the boys are back with new single “YOU TRIED (YOU FAILED)”.

“Over the past year we took a hiatus from LáGoon to work on other projects, and it ended up making us a tighter band. Coming back to LàGoon after a year off has felt really refreshing. The new music we’re making has elements of our other projects, and we think is the best we’ve ever sounded.

We’ve picked up right where weleft off. We’ll be releasing our next full length offering soon, and plan to play as many shows as possible in 2026. “

LáGoon - YOU TRIED (YOU FAILED) single

Out November 12th, 2025 (Digital)
Self-released
Portland, Oregon
FFO: Thee Oh Sees, FUZZ, Zero Boys, Kylesa, Rudimentary Peni

LáGoon is:
Anthony Gaglia - Guitar, vocals
Kenny Coombs - Bass
Brady Maurer - Drums

 

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Stoner HiVe reviews Ash Eater – Breathe The Smoke

Stoner HiVe reviews Oopsy Dazey - Oopsy Dazey

Stoner HiVe reviews LáGoon - Bury Me Where I Drop

Interview with Anthony Gaglia - LáGoon – Instinctive, fast and not so serious…

Anthony Gaglia responds on the review through a short lived segment called: 

Feedback Loop – LáGoon

Stoner HiVe reviews LáGoon – Skullactic Visions

Stoner HiVe reviews LáGoon - Father of Death

 

 

The Doom Charts For October 2025

 

DOOM CHARTS

OCTOBER 2025

“The power of DOOM compels you! The power of DOOM compels you! The power of DOOM compels you!”

~ possibly misheard quote from The Exorcist

 

Welcome to the October Doom Charts, a fitting season for our spooky scene and all the dark, devilish doom it conjures, and this year’s Samhain came through in spades! 40 new albums atop the charts and each one a different masterful work of heavy music. The underground has risen, and it’s alive and well!

The honorable Kyle SB from Good Boy PR did a wonderful job getting the October 2025 Doom Charts up and running. And what a grand list it is! I ended up voting for...  25 out of the 40! Hotdamn, that's gotta be some kind of record! Shit, now where did I leave my slinky... 

Those 25 are: Howling Giant, Bone Church, Khan, Brimstone Coven, The Lunar Effect, Giöbia, Birds of Nazca, Bentrees, Lacertilia, Psychonaut, Blue Heron, Honeybadger,  M.E.L.T., Solar Sons, Elepharmers, Daytripper, Pesta, Abanamat, Moundrag, Malkasian, War, Black Charger, Ambra, The Bateleurs & Dead Otter! 

Already featured on Stoner HiVe: 

Lacertilia – Transcend

Frayle - Heretics & Lullabies

Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin

Honeybadger – Let There Be Light

Daytripper – The Alchemist

The Bateleurs – A Light In The Darkness 

Moundrag – Deux

War – Venividiwar

Bentrees – Silver Veins

Khan - That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust

Birds of Nazca – Pangaea 

 

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and 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 Charts for October 2025

 

 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday

 

Stoner Hive’s Quick Fire Friday 

We defy all them goddamn rules! Don’t do a Quick Fire Friday on the day the new Doom Charts edition goes online… It’s not like that rule is written in stone! But it is written on Stoner HiVe that we want to pay attention to so much great music, but there is too little time to do it all. So we came up with a way to shoot out a quick blurb and 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!

Mientras Las Abejas Duermen - El Camino Silencioso

It’s the first single for the debut album by the new out from Cádiz, Spain called As The Bees Sleep or in Spanish: Mientras Las Abejas Duermen. Which means there's another reason they fit perfectly on Stoner HiVe. Grin! Especially since the very earthy eight minute long single El Camino Silencioso will have you on the edge of the seat for its truly wonderful and accomplished sound. Shifting from slow, atmospheric passages to heavier moments, this one single promises so much. Let’s all keep an eye out for 2026, when these sleeping bees will buzz fully awake, with vinyl on Kozmik Artifactz. 

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Hidden Since the Foundation of the World – Bad Winter

Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is a new four-piece from Amsterdamn, that combines doom with drone, atmospheric with rock noir, psych with metal and gaze with heaviness. And the result is something entirely unpredictable and apocalyptic. They’ve released more tracks, but the icy soundscape whine that is Bad Winter will not leave you cold. Cinematic and gripping, that one track might even make you long for an incredibly Bad Winter… Just so you can play this track over and over... 

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Doublestone - De Falske Kongers Tid

You know they’re back right? And have been since September! The Danish trio Doublestone! One single so far, The False King, De Falske Kongers Tid. We can only hope this is the start of a new chapter, a new roll of the dice and a new hand of cards. For even though we only ever mentioned their Wingmakers album on Stoner HiVe, we have always loved all they’ve put out. All of it!

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Bear, Man Dangerous – When We Cease To Understand The World

We’re already there, sweet Bear, Man Dangerous. Aren’t we? I sure as hell can't make heads of tails out of most of everything anymore... But still, their new track When We Cease To Understand The World expertly twists genres into knots and lights them on fire. Shoegaze bleeds into sludge; psychedelia melts into doom. It’s beautiful, ugly, and utterly consuming, almost chokingly so! 

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Minot - Walls//People Pleaser

Lo-fi garage punk. Indeed, that’s Minot for ya! But upbeat! A three piece from Missoula, Montana that goes all the way back to the sixties and hits you with a Sonics kind of attitude. A jittery fuzz tale, where one track rattles like fluorescent cubicle blues and frustrated howls into the void. Flipside People Pleaser drifts in sugary decay, ghostly pop haunts the hop. Sparse drums, raw pulse, garage grit. Heartbeat breakdown, smokey honesty and a rhythm you can’t shake! I like Minot!

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Tempted? – For You Only

Artizans PR are always spreading the good word about some great new rock bands! Usually from the Mediterranean. And new fourpiece Tempted? hails from Greece! For You Only is the first single for an album that will probably see the light somewhere in 2026. Nineties vibing and grunge toned, the songs sings about a ‘deep romantic disappointment’ . Which ofcourse fits snugly with the grunge influences. I’m tempted to announce that Tempted? might just be one of the great bands to emerge out of Greece next year! 

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Wickermän – Dagsländan

"Dagsländan" or "The Mayfly" as it would translate to in English is a short poem written by the Linnéa Wetterbrandt, a close friend to the band. The text is a short reflection on how life would have been if we only got to live, just like a mayfly, for one day. It’s their second single but our first foray into the world of formed in this year, Wickermän and we certainly hope not our last. This isn’t one day fly material, but honest hard rock, seventies touches, stonerized moments and prog oriented. A new Swedish band to watch out for!

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There Is No Spoon - The Sound Of Doom To Come [Part 1]

There Is No Spoon is a four piece instrumental band from Berlin, Germany that obviously wants to marry the existentialism and metaphysical to their atmospheric doom metal and art rock. A bit of drone and a bit of noise and promise that the three track The Sound Of Doom To Come [Part 1] is the first of four parts that chronicle a world collapsing under the weight of its own noise… Let’s keep an ear out for that! 

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Lacertilia – Transcend

 

 

Lacertilia – Transcend
Majestic Mountain Records – 2025 
Stoner, Metal, Psych, Punk, Doom
Rated: ****

Some of you know that there’s a point in every trip, where reality starts to break up and melt. The universe starts to vibrate at a different level and glimpses of what the edge might be can occur. Well, Transcend, the new album by Welsh cosmic marauders Lacertilia hits that exact frequency! These freaks from the Cardiff heavy underground have already spent much of the decade past dragging their stoner-psych gospel from dark and dusty basements to venues across the UK. And with Transcend they should be set to take it to stages across the globe. Especially with Majestic Mountain Records now backing their crusade. 

On Transcend they sound like they’ve broken through the haze and the clouds and found that the gods of volume were waiting on the other side with golden chalices full of riffs. The woozy and folky incantation Archaic Oscillations opens the album and feels like a warm sunrise after a three day peyote ritual in the desert. After that we go boom, and following We Go Here truly detonates, riffs erupt, drums quake and we hear a manic preacher screaming around like a sweat-drenched prophet in a ruined chapel. There’s no singing here, this is commanding and demanding and zealously sermonizing his stories. The chapel almost collapsing entirely from the grinding bass and quaking drum grooves. 

By the time cathedral like, ten and a half minute long middle track, Nothing’s Sacred rolls in, you will start to believe. Believe Lacertilia have found the main nerve. Echoes spiraling and throbbing, everything drenched in reverb, washing over you like gigantic waves of bliss, lifting you up and making you feel like you are floating high above all the ruins of civilization, watching the earth itself breathe in slow motion. Final apocalyptic event The Sun Is The Key, blows it all wide open, starting earthy and languid, building gradually, and then turning into a blazing cosmic exorcism that obliterates everything and leaves nothing but feedback and blinding white light. 

The DNA of legendary bands like Orange Goblin, Monster Magnet and even The Doors might be coursing through their veins but Transcend is a hundred percent Lacertilia. Welsh fuzz punks turned cosmic prophets. And with their new revelation that is Transcend, they might reach the furthest parts of the stoner psyche, colliding it all with a messy and magnificent mixture of doom, punk, stoner and mysticism. They have seen the other side, they have dipped their toes over the edge. And with Transcend you might get a momentary glimpse as well. Turn it up loud and hold on, cause reality will not be around once side B hits… 

(Written by JK)

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 Review for Lacertilia – Calling The Quarters

 

Frayle - Heretics & Lullabies

 

Frayle - Heretics & Lullabies
Napalm Records – 2025
Metal, Doom, Gothic, Pop
Rated: ***

The sighing girl of the doom metal scene is back with a new album called Heretics & Lullabies. And on it Frayle seems able to make an even grander connection between their gothic touched doom metal and all sort of pop influences. This will bring their dark and hypnotic sound to an even wider audience. Released through Napalm Records, this is the third full-length album by vocalist Gwyn Strang and guitarist Sean Bilovecky. And on it, they sound even tighter and more confident then before, comfortably embracing those pop sensibilities and atmospheric melody. 

They have always thrived on contrast, massive, sludgy riffs rubbing shoulders with Strang’s ethereal sighing voice. And on Heretics & Lullabies it is the very definition of the album. Compact songs, with melodic arcs and surprisingly accessible compositions that still seem to be able to hold on to the band’s dark essence. Walking Wounded opens the ball and is definitely heavy but seems to linger more on hauntingly beautiful. The cover version of Lana Del Ray’s Summertime Sadness seems entirely logical for this album and illustrates perfectly how Frayle blends all that pop melancholy with the weight of doom. 

The minor moments of interplay between Strang’s delicate vocals and the male growls, delivered by Jason Popson (ex-Mushroomhead and many more) adds a welcome touch of variety and power. And when gothic romanticism comes into play, songs like Glass Blown Heart and Souvenirs of Your Betrayal come closer to a haunted dream sequence than a traditional metal record. Frayle definitely proves that doom metal does not have to be oppressive, it can also move with grace and melodicism. And somewhere on the tightrope of heavy and beauty, Frayle is destined to craft a sound that is both inviting and unsettling. Frayle proves that doom metal doesn’t have to be oppressive. For Frayle’s  Heretics & Lullabies is graceful, melodic, and even pop infused. And even though we keep repeating ourselves, the band does not, they strike a rare balance between heaviness and beauty, crafting a sound that is both inviting and unsettling. Let’s hope they can keep crossing those wires for a long time to come… 

(Written by JK)

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Sunbreather – Sunbreather

 

 

Sunbreather – Sunbreather
Self-released – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Metal, Prog
Rated: ***

The album art has this weird pull on me. It draws me in and makes me want to be creative. And that’s just the start of what’s about to happen.. For then there’s the music… Sunbreather. They hail from Leeds in the UK and this is their debut full-sized album. Sunbreather. And even though there are other bands with the same name, this one should become the definitive one. For there’s a certain absolute quality about their sound. And it fits the name: Sunbreather.

Immersive and beautifully crafted,  the album will serve as a smash and grab introduction to a band that immediately knows how to blend atmosphere with heaviness, and emotional charge with a real sense of intention. It feels entirely and deeply personal, and through that becomes universal, grand and vast. Moving seamlessly between moments of towering weight and mirroring reflection. 

Two minute long opening instrumental Foreglow, preheats your imagination and sets a dreamlike tone, so that following track Apricity can take you on a sweeping journey of textured sound and layered rhythm. What emerges is a highly detailed structuring that seems to reveal ever more on ever smaller scales. The vocals glide through waves of fractal distortion and wave like melody, while the rhythmic foundation shifts effortlessly between hypnotic groove and thunderous drive. 

As the story continues each track becomes its own chapter, pulsing with spiritual energy one moment or a more raw and edgy approach the next. Often those chapters explode on certain stanzas with chaotic fuzz and a hardcore or slow grunge attitude. Showing off their subtlety and introspective side, they have Reverie slowing the pace even more and touching upon the dreamstate again. And so is later Sleep, that even hints at incursions into more drone like territories. Dark, but strangely soothing. 

Final, morning song, Aubade, hints at a green light on the horizon, a sun slowly rising, with a sweeping, cinematic sense of finality, and a sudden burst of energy, it all slowly fades into a quiet sense or release. And perhaps relief. This is the kind of debut that offers up so much and shows a band that is on the brink of reaching their full solar potential. I would love to hear what a maestro like Esben Willems or Steven Wilson would do with the masters for this album. And in a decade or two, three, when Sunbreather has released another ten albums, and their debut is much sought after, who knows, one of them might just be asked to remaster this beauty. It’s already emotive and bold, endlessly engaging and with the right kind of ears, you can hear this suspiring supernova…

(Written by JK)

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Maha Sohona – A Dark Place

 

Maha Sohona – A Dark Place
Bonebag Records – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Psych
Rated: ****

We never got around to mentioning their 2021 album Endless Searcher on Stoner HiVe. But luckily, enough followers voted for the album for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021. So it ended up on Number 17 that year. But perhaps that Maha Sohona album should have been higher up. And perhaps their new one A Dark Place will?! 

For there’s a storm brewing in the underground, a hum that rattles your ribcage, and somewhere through all that haze, Maha Sohona is steering their mighty ship straight and with intent through the cosmic fog. Turning their new album A Dark Place into a gravitational event. Darker, heavier, more introspective and with even more teeth than their earlier albums, A Dark Place bites and claws its way out of the void. Your pulse with synch with the heartbeat rhythm and you will slowly dissolve into its atmospheric sound. 

And even if the production and mix sound like they could have added a tiny extra bit of oomph, the Swedish trio still sound like the masters they are when it comes to binding chaos and darkness with beauty and weight. Riffs that lurch forward, breathe their otherworldly odor down your neck and topple like tectonically wrecked mountains. Courtesy of those drums that are marking time in a way that sounds earthy and ancient. And whenever A Dark Place lifts, and pulls towards the shimmering infinite in the distance, you will feel that is the tension between falling and flight, smoke and starfire, that the Swedish three have been aiming for. 

Once second track and single Visions hits, you will feel the air around you start to bend, you will swear you can taste the electricity and will be convinced that for a moment, for just a fraction of a second, you’ve met your own reflection on the other side of that sound. With A Dark Place, Maha Sohona have created a threshold, a way to push the books from the bookshelf, it often feels like there’s a message in there from somewhere else. And even though we are uncertain if the three even know it’s there, we are certain that their compositions, all wrapped in starlight and dread, will stand tall for all eternity. And will be waiting, with lantern in hand, to see who is still wandering around in A Dark Place… 

(Written by JK)

You can listen to the sounds from the other side through the first single Visions right now... 

And be ready for the entire alternate Maha Sohona universe when it drops on November 21st! 

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

 

 

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

Florist
Queens of The Stone Age
Deadpeach
Elepharmers
Maha Sohona
Marmalade Knives
Sweatmaster
Pale Horse Ritual
Papir
Dead Otter

I think we do not need to mention once again that the week flew by. We all know it. We all experience it. Time is moving ever faster. And the amount of great releases keeps on growing. October has been insane in that respect and that will surely be reflected in the Doom Charts going live this Friday. But until then, we hope to do a few reviews, or at least as much as last week! Cause we did manage to mention that amazing Florist album, the stunning Howling Giant, the great Pink Fuzz and that wild Zhaat record. But we could have and should have mentioned way more. Man, there’s a lot of great music out there! Hope you crazies out there follow other sites as well, cause Stoner HiVe alone can only serve you with a small drip of heaviness on that ever larger burning plate of great releases… Go check out all we mentioned and perhaps you will find yourself your new favorite album! Have a great week! 

Florist – Adrift

 

 

Florist – Adrift
Threat Collection Records – 2025
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Doom, Prog, Psych
Rated: *****

When the honorable Rich Piva from Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip, Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour and of course the Doom Charts keeps raving about the new Florist album, you know you are going to need to revisit that album and come to grips with the fact that you might have missed something elemental there! And after having Adrift on repeat for the better part of the past week we can safely state we get where Rich is coming from! And where the Florist four are coming from! 

The first thing that hits me is the low-end rumble, the universal hum, the 432Hz, the frequency of cosmic truth. The Tampa four open Adrift by tuning the room, my brain and maybe the solar system itself. And just like that, I’m gone! Blasting through the stratosphere on riffs thick enough to bend gravity itself, a rhythm section pounding like war drums in zero-G and a madman behind a synth and theremin rig flicking switches like he’s trying to signal for contact on a distant planet! 

Man, this is serious! They know exactly what they are doing. Pushing familiar doom, psych, stoner, space rocking tropes through a wormhole and pulling out something so alive, so incredibly fun, it feels a little dangerous! Another Moon hits like a second track should, firing on all cylinders and making my neurons shift gear and lose grip on reality! The sound of four lunatics in perfect synch, bashing their way through a black hole with nothing but their smiles to keep them from losing their collective minds. 

Adrift is only six songs and only a half hour long, but who cares about numbers and who cares about time, when the walls seem to be melting all around you? We’re nearly in the fourth dimension. And feel like a brightly burning ball of light! Cause the entire release, despite the crazy grins, the incredible amount of enjoyment, moves with surprising grace. Final track Adrift (Part B) floats into orbit, with a majestic groove, shimmering, weightless, free. Like colliding galaxies the different layers wrap around each other, as the bassline’s gravitational field pulls it all together. Impacted by the meteor drums. Only a swallowing sun could become large enough to engulf these tracks and return them to the stardust form whence they came… 

Made from stardust, this star chasing space ship has every note soaked to the maximum with some  yet to be invented kind of rocket fuel. High, space rocking, psych trucking energy that benefits from volume levels that might cause another big bang somewhere beyond our own existence. In the end, the sheer exuberance and euphoria felt while listening to Adrift is the only way to know for sure that I wasn’t hallucinating. Florist have cracked open the frequency of cosmic truth and found some golden interstellar vein of groove. I’m hooked. 

(Written by JK)

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Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin

 

 

Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin
Magnetic Eye Records – 2025
Rock, Prog, Metal
Rated: *****

Somewhere… At the very edge of creation, a novice god shapes a new world. Fragile, glowing, pulsing, imperfect. Below, a civilization rises from the dust that slowly settles, searching for meaning under the celestial skies. And far beyond the reach of this puny civilization, chaos stirs, twisting their fate in unseen ways. Further outwards, in the deepness of the void, a cosmic archivist watches with pen in hand, chronicling it all… Every triumph… Every fall… 

And even though Stoner HiVe has been jotting down words about Howling Giant ever since that first EP back in 2015, I am not that archivist. No, he or she is part of the universe created by the Howling Giant four on their brand new concept album, Crucible & Ruin. And it turns that cosmic myth into molten rock, burning riffs and flowing melody. The Nashville quartet, cause they are four now, since guitarist and synth player Adrian Lee Zambrano joined, have turned another corner in widening their scope. This time they’ve created an entire universe and lore to accompany it… 

It's been ten years since that first EP and they’ve kept delivering those beautiful tunes ever since. With The Space Between Worlds from 2019 and Glass Future from 2023 being absolutely stunning. That last one even coming as close to perfection as you can possibly want as a rock outfit. And now, only two years later, they’re back with Crucible & Ruin! Out this Friday, the 31st of October through Magnetic Eye Records. 

It all begins with Canyons, a storm of riffs and whirling melody. Born as the different members where demoing new material, the song instantly became a favorite among them. And it’s easy to see why. The guitars roar like tectonic plates shifting under divine hands, triple vocal harmonies soar and take the composition skywards. Canyons feels like the sound of creation itself, vibrant but so volatile, dangerous and so alive. 

The opener has a dizzying effect and plunges the listener into the turbulent heart of its universe. Following Hunter’s Mark and Archon up the ante with more aggression, channeling the chaos of gods at war, thunderous riffs, sharpened by all the clashes. A riff foundation from which the civilization might once again be built, dynamic and o’ so heavy, rumbling like ancient engines of creation. And then as we pass into the eye of the storm, moments of glistening beauty surface. Lesser Gods drifts like starlight through the debris, a melancholic instrumental, that shows the band’s softer side, offering a different story telling arc. The perfectly named Archivist, feels like a cosmic journal entry, a slow building of melody and texture that eventually erupts into a wild revelation. 

The cosmic puppet master is felt even more during the two finales that are Beholder I: Downfall and Beholder II: Labyrinth. It pulls the threads together in an epic display of scale and scope. The classic riffs giving way to spiraling guitar lines, winding and gliding, the narrative reaching its apocalyptic crescendo as gods and mortals meet their fates. Without any doubt, the addition of Adrian Lee Zambrano has been a master move, it reshapes their sonic DNA and offer even more layers and textures. Offering more interplay between the guitars, lush synth backdrops and the precise delivery of every riff. The sound of a band expanding ever outwards and inwards. Knowing their forte and exploring boundaries by dipping their toes over the edge… 

And where their former Glass Future album might have felt like a voyage through nebulae, Crucible & Ruin is there at the moment of creation, inside a star being born. Production that glows with clarity and composition that burn with severe purpose. Their newly created lore is a myth made through heaviness, that balances grandeur and harmony with aggression. And the result is heavy enough to shake the heavens and intelligent to stir every soul. Crucible & Ruin is a cosmic parable told with a shake and a rumble. And somewhere, in the deepness of the void, that celestial archivist must be smiling… As he or she listens to this symphony for the gods… 

(Written by JK)

Listen to the first three Crucible & Ruin singles right now... 

And come back for more Howling Giant this Friday, October 31st! 

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Magnetic Eye Records

 

Howling Giant – Howling Giant EP Review 

 

Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds Review

 

Number 13 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2019

 

Number 5 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2023 

 

Pink Fuzz – Resolution

 

 

Pink Fuzz – Resolution
Permanent Teeth Records / Self-released – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Desert
Rated: ***

I’ve been following everything Alain Johannes touches for quite a few years now and have had the absolute honor of meeting up with him a couple of times. And whenever another project he’s involved with comes by, I sit up straight and get my Alain ears on. It’s the kind of ears that always  seem to open the heart, cause whatever Mr. Johannes touches, there is always this very honest and heartfelt quality to it all. 

And that can once again be said by the stoner pop three that go by the name of Pink Fuzz! A Denver sister/brother led trio that sweats heavy stoner rock, marries this to a bit of shoegaze, garage and implores that Palm Desert vibe to make it all gleam with pop sensible sparkles. That’s Resolution for ya, the new Pink Fuzz album and it’s resolute in showering you with stoner rocking fun.

There’s this dust-kicked, late night energy running through the album. The long-awaited second full-sized album by siblings LuLu and John Demitro with Forrest Raup on drums. They seem to channel the kind of desert born chemistry that feels equal parts instinct and atmosphere and seems to constantly nod at a certain era in the desert. It’s a record that hums like the old tube amps under the Mojave stars.

Their first album in some seven years, and Resolution comfortably picks up where their Vitals EP left off. But the sound is wider, richer and a tad more sunbaked. The ghost of certain influences might be fleeting, but the shadow of Queens Of The Stone Age looms big over quite a few tracks and riffs. Yet, Pink Fuzz turns those influences inside out and folds them inwards with a bit of shoegaze shimmer, doom weight and fuzz drips. 

The ten tracks offer loads of fun and even the most urgent ones never lose their looseness. Trigger,  Long Gone and Coming For Me move with that low slung desert strut, confident, unhurried and heavy in all the right places. Am I Happy? might start as that lonely voce in the canyon but then erupts into a sun-flare of guitars. And No Sympathy and Worst Enemy both bring sharp melody and raw nerve into the mix. 

Talking about the mix, this was done by Alain Johannes. Although we get the distinct impression he could not hold off on adding a few minor links and touches here and there. But we might be wrong about that. Even so, the album, produced by Kevin McKeown, captures a live-room warmth and ever snare hit, and fuzz pedal crackle feels tangible, like the band set up in the middle of nowhere and let the desert itself breathe through the mics. Like the old guard used to do. Like de Rancho De La Luna crew still does… 

And that spirit seems present, even though it wasn’t recorded there, but in 5th Street Studios in Austin, Texas, the album still feels so rough-edged, soulful and gloriously human. The three sound unfiltered, alive and have managed to turn fuzz into feeling and melody into motion. A record that will put a smile on your face, and an extra kick on your gas pedal as you drive off into the endless horizon…

(Written by JK)

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Zhaat – Other Prophets

 

Zhaat – Other Prophets
Noisolution – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Kraut
Rated: ***

From the shadowed alleyways of Leipzig’s underground rises Zhaat. A band that breaths their sound in a ritualistic summoning. You've just put on their debut album Other Prophets and you feel the atmosphere that their wild hybrid of stoner rock, doom, post hardcore and middle eastern psychedelia conjures, a sound that hums with danger, mysticism and explosive catharsis. 

It all starts with Ramses, a song that drifts like a desert wind, slow, shimmering and scented with ancient smoke. Soon the ground cracks, the tempo swells and the vocals tear through the calm, shifting from whispered incantations into blood and fire screaming. They claim their stake on tension immediately, and they don’t build with it, they wield it, like a scimitar… 

And that splicing, that whirling, turns into a showcase of their art of contrast. With tracks like The Seer and Tikal being even grander examples of that art, flowing between hypnotic grooves and explosive breakdowns. Feeling that eerie melodic drone underneath, something that will forever resemble those Sufi ceremonies that went rogue. The pulsing heartbeat is delivered by the rhythm section and those shimmering mirages are brought to you by the guitars distortion and delicacy. 

Even at its heaviest, there is still that, the trance like pull drawing you into the sound of Zhaat. The chaos of Kante, the ritual frenzy of Divine Command deliver that heaviness as well as those parching visions. Vocals, sparse and often textural, echoing those ancient voices that fell from the walls of caves and are still the ghosts among the ruins. Often, you will feel like you are listening to the sounds of an ancient and forgotten rite. Played from found sonic glyph carvings on cracked clay tablets. For all of you that crave the spiritual side of heaviness, the ritual by riffs, Zhaat is the prophet you should follow…

(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…

Honeybadger
The Bateleurs
Shedfromthebody
Zhaat
Daytripper
Dërro
Motorpsycho
Moundrag
Dreams of Maya
Danakil Heat

For a moment there I had hoped last week would have had more time for HiVe stuff, but in the end we managed to do just a little bit. Same goes for upcoming week we fear. But we did a few cool write-ups and a rad Premiere. Did you check out that Full Album Premiere by Daytripper? We hope so, cause it’s damn great. And we also wrote a few words about their The Alchemist release of course. And besides that we mentioned Honeybadger, The Bateleurs and Moundrag. And then we had to head off into the storm. We’re back now, in one piece, and hope to send you into the right direction of some cool albums this week. But if you just go ahead and check out all of the ones listed above, we are pretty sure you won’t be disappointed! We love’m all!