Number 4

 

 

Number 4

To reach Number 4 we jump almost, hold on to something, two thousand points! That’s right, we land on the spot that holds my personal favorite album of the year. Released back in April on Stickman Records this is the album that inhabits that ‘free rock’ spirit and can clearly be viewed as rock for the ‘free spirit’. We had to add a few words ourselves when they landed the Number 1 spot on the April Doom Charts: “A live experience by this band is always a singular event. Adventurous, emotional and spiritual. It heals the soul and mends the heart. That is probably why they’ve already released quite a few of their concerts on vinyl. On their new studio album, with a new drummer in their midst they’ve managed to capture more of their live energy and serve it up as the perfect example of how to catch lightning in a bottle. Or perhaps more like fireflies, circling inside the jar before being released into the cosmos to perform that wonderful free rock dance. For that is what the band is about, release and freedom. And their psychedelic free rock searches its own way and knows, without any resistance, to find its way into your heart. With a magical feeling for subtleties and control, they manage to keep you enthralled for an hour and fifteen minutes long. Letting themselves be guided even more by the whims of the great magnet and lettings their egos disappear with every note. Just listen to that beautiful Josephine, that slow meandering start, the lyrics uttered by one of the three vocalists until the moment that his love is being sucked away by a storm. The way the whirling guitar lines ascend, not dark, but almost heavenly. You feel the pain, but also a form of serene understanding, which radiates and sounds so beautiful. Calmness and tranquility descends, like a faint summer breeze as you stroll through a flowery meadow, somewhere high in the mountains…”

On Number 4 we find: 

 

TEMPLE FANG - LIFTED FROM THE WIND

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Temple Fang – Lifted From The Wind 

Temple Fang – The Radiant

Temple Fang – The River

 

Number 4

 

 

Number 4

Psychlona at Number 6, Sundrifter at Number 5, they are all extremely close in points with today’s Number 4. For today we only move another ten points to reach Number 4. Where we find two bands! No, not two albums though. It’s a split album. One of the two splits you might have assumed would make the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024. As the votes rolled in though, there were a few lists that had the remark written beside it: “I actually vote mostly because of one of the sides of this split album.” And one even stated that one side was the sole reason he voted for the split record. But both bands have been releasing magical albums for quite some time now. Both side feature amazing compositions and yes, that one side might be easier to come to grips with and the might be spilling over in emotional gravity because of the story behind it all. But yes, both sides are stunning, even though we must conclude, for us personally, that the song they collaborate together on is perhaps the key track on this record. Euphoria inducing, languid early morning grooves, with guitar tones delivered by the one band and the vocals by the other. It takes on this entirely hazy and almost dreamy attitude, with colors that shift like the sands of time. A night sky filled with falling stars and a moon that winks. And as it winks out, you feel the wish burning in your heart… Why couldn’t it last forever…

According to all of your votes, on Number 4 we find:

Elephant Tree / Lowrider - The Long Forever

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Blues Funeral Recordings

Number 4

 

 

Number 4

Almost fifty points. Before we enter the Top 3, we have a Number 4 to contend with! And it sits there, all seasoned and spicy after that almost fifty-point jump from Howling Giant on Number 5. We must confess, even though we immediately loved a track or two, three on this album, it has not been clicking with us as hard as their earlier releases. But that doesn’t mean it’s not good, cause those earlier albums clicked hard and apparently it clicked just as hard with all you lovely voters out there, cause it ended up on Number 4! They made the Top 20 Countdown before, all the way to Number 2 back in 2019 and their newest album ranked high on the October Doom Charts. A new drummer, a change in vocalists and almost no keywork changes the sounds; but not for the worse. It becomes more fluid and eclectic, grandiose without overstating it, subdued but never easy-going or laidback. The new drummer has a bit of a Ginger Baker kind of style going on and that guitar work seems to have blossomed by all the changes, more slow-burning riffs and smoldering guitar lines. And with the female vocals it sounds as if they’ve arisen like a phoenix, cast off shadows and that better days are ahead… Yes, and we all shall join their cult, cause just listening to the album while typing these words, its starting to click more and more, so I will be rocking this one until tomorrow’s sky…

 

On Number 4 we find…

Hippie Death Cult – Helichrysum


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Heavy Psych Sounds

Number 4

 

 

Number 4

 

Number 4 & 3 are very close together once again, but we get there by jumping almost three hundred points from Messa at Number 5. So, before we get to the Top 3, we got that album that missed the Bronze medal by a mere twelve points according to all you crazy voters. Indeed, we’re here on the Number 4 spot to pay homage to an album we did mention on the HiVe this year back when it was released in June 2022. There’s a lot of metal and it’s all used in such a way that it marries the psych, prog and stoner influences so it becomes this incredible immersive experience. And there will be moments when the heavy rock, heavy metal high, will induce euphoria and might bring you to tears. Or it might just be me… The opener, for instance, goes the way of gigantism; with its wide arcs and the vocals, which by the way have become even better on this album than on all those that came before. It grabs you entirely, pulls you closer to the abyss, has you dangling over and just whispers in your ear to enjoy the view. Which you will; even if there is unbelievable peril in your heart, it will also fluster with glee for all you see and hear... The second track, is catchy and you feel the energy build, and build, and upon the final return you can see the crowd go berserk. Third track has the same kind of wide vista, giant vocal lines and an emotional charge that will give you shivers and run a current of electricity up your spine. And after that six more amazing tracks roll out. All glowing and impassioned melodies; with as much melancholy as assertiveness... See… This here album does not conceal at all what it is destined to do… It’s hear to elevate the Sergeant to Royalty… On Number 4 we find!

 

 

Sergeant Thunderhoof – This Sceptered Veil

 

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Out on Pale Wizard Records

On to Number 3!

Number 4

 

Number 4

We jump almost two hundred points today to reach Number 4. Leaving that wild Green Lung album Black Harvest back on Number 5. It’s been amazing seeing all those lists and votes come in before it all started and it quickly became a Top 7 that sort of left the others behind. But on the final days it became clear that there would be a Top 4. And judging from the amount of points and the difference between each album in the Top 4, every one of those albums is now situated in their rightful spot. On Number 4 we find an album, released very early in the year, that immediately grabbed everyone’s attention. Starting off with that almost minute long fade in of rumbling distortion the opening track immediately shows what color this deep and vast album is made off. Sludge and swamp, thundering doom, the crushing weight of heaviness. It’s one almost forty five minutes long trip into the incomprehensible depths of existence. Where every tone inhabits this perpetual dark and harrowing bottomless space… On Number 4 we find:

 

Spelljammer - Abyssal Trip

 

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Number 4

 

 

Number 4

Can’t get enough of Kryptograf! Can you? That Number 5 album is such a wild ride! But we move on to Number 4 today and we do that with a jump of over a hundred and seventy points! Those jumps just keep getting bigger thanks to all the voters who loved the albums! Well, their 2018 album reached the fifth position of that years Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown and this years is once again an album that jumped to Number One of the March Doom Charts. It is doomy, it is metal, it is psychedelic, it is sludge and most of all it dares to fare into different territories, turning experimental into this precious adventure that one and all enjoys and wants to experience over and over again... It’s a trip, addictive by nature and always leaving the listener wanting more; a tapestry of intricate textures and of a multitude of colors, ever building and masters in delaying the inevitable, they are the kings, the captains that know exactly how much elongation is required to get you to the exact point of climax and then leaving you there for just a few minutes longer… Just think of the sex you could have with this album and you will know… Number 4 is:  

King Buffalo – Dead Star

 

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