Robot God – Onto The Afterlife

 

Robot God – Onto The Afterlife
Kozmik Artifactz / Black Throne Productions – 2026
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Metal 
Rated: ****

I often feel like we’re not doing enough on Stoner HiVe. But I fear we never can, cause there is so much and so much great stuff. I mean, we mentioned the 2022 Worlds Collide album and the Portal Within record from 2024. But before those there were two others and after those two more before this very new Robot God album was released. It’s called Onto The Afterlife and might just be their best to date… Yes… Robot God delivered again! And will do so again and again and even later this year with another album called Curse Of The Driven… 

On Onto The Afterlife, Robot God pushes their desert bound cosmic sound into darker and perhaps more emotionally volatile territory. The Sydney three still build their music around sprawling heavy psychedelic journeys, towering groove-laden riffs and vast space rock adjacent atmospheres. But the new album carries with is a dirtier and more confrontational edge. Beneath the hypnotic flow, lies a strain of grime-coated heaviness that feels drawn from doom, sludge, grunge and diesel blues. It gives the record an extra intense edge, a raw physical weight without sacrificing any of its sense of scale. 

It’s their ability to balance meditative drift with crushing momentum, moving from slow burning low end hypnosis to explosive climaxes filled with scorched guitar leads, layered effects and trance like repetition that keeps pulling you further in Onto The Afterlife. Say that three times fast. Vocals weave through the haze, they can feel haunted, sometimes introspective, sometimes urgent and always adding emotional gravity to the album’s expansive sound. 

Ambient textures and shadowy instrumental passages all broaden the experience further. And it all leads to the conclusion that these five tracks, these forty-one minutes aren’t just a collection of songs, but part of one long single immersive descent. Onto The Afterlife is an album that wants to define the Robot God sound. A sound that went out to explore what lies beyond, and came back carrying fragments of something vast, wild and beautiful. And there is more… More to explore and more to share… For that is… The Curse Of The Driven… 

(Written by JK)

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Robot God – Portal Within

Robot God – Worlds Collide

 

 

 

Devil Electric – Tahlia

 

 

Devil Electric – Tahlia 
Kozmik Artifactz / Black Throne Productions – 2026 
Rock, Doom, Psych, Stoner
Rated: ****

Their self-titled 2017 album was still spinning when the amazing Godless record was released in 2021. That occult edge, wired though that vintage sound and all smoothly delivered by heavy riffs and a seductive voice sent sparks up and down my spine. Which seems logical once you know the band is called Devil Electric. And now they’re back, with a new slab of heavy rock worship called Tahlia, out on Kozmik Artifactz and Black Throne Productions and igniting all over the globe… 

It’s been five long years, but Devil Electric detonates with Tahlia, a sultry, sexy storm of bluesy stoner-doom. Smoke curls from thick, hypnotic riffs, while Pierina O’Brien’s voice drifts from earthy growl to soaring, spine-tingling heights. Songs strut with playful menace, while others and especially the nine-minute epic “This Hereafter” twist through psychedelic, seductive depths. Each track pulses like a heartbeat… Teasing, swelling, and exploding in an intoxicating journey of desire and doom. Devil Electric sends sparks everywhere as Tahlia whirls around you, it ensnares, seduces, and lingers, leaving you craving the next smoky, thunderous lightning bolt… Tahlia is here, fresh and tastes like all that unholy sweat you can't stop licking… 

(Written by JK)

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AAWKS – On Through The Sky Maze

 

 

AAWKS – On Through The Sky Maze
Black Throne Productions – 2025
Rock, Metal, Doom, Stoner, Psych, Black
Rated: ****

(Heavy On The Cosmic) still spins regularly and so does that split with Aiwass, but it took me some time to come to grips with the new AAWKS album On Through The Sky Maze. It’s the vocals. The death grunts, the blackened howls. They’ve always had their own singular approach to the vocals, but this is another step in an entirely different direction. It’s been out now for some three weeks and I reckon most of you lovely freaks out there have been getting lost in On Through The Sky Maze for all the days since you heard the ominous church bell tolling. Entirely gritty and proto, the doom comes in mucilage form. Turning every riff and rhythm into a sticky extrapolation of a bad trip or demon possession. Opener Celestial Magick sets the tone and offers up no apology for the manner in which they disrupt your energy flow, switching up the groove many times over and distorting it with the guttural disintegrating rumbles. Following Death Trip continues on in the same vein but offers a bit more of cosmic energy to surf on, seventies, acid colored and sporting lovely bass work. Lost Dwellers goes into that territory even more, turning the electric kool-aid into a haunting affair, setting it up with a scary snippet, a ready to rumble rhythm, before breaking it up again and shifting gears. The dynamics, arrangement and breaks reeks of brilliance and the confidence to infuse it all with some stoner swagger is truly magnificent. And you’re not even half  way through…  If the maze was present and swirling on (Heavy On The Cosmic), it’s has definitely taken on M C Escher proportions for the new album. A psychedelic doom labyrinth that keeps on changing and shifting, only ever alluding to a center or an exit, but getting lost and dwelling forever inside is all you will ever want anyway… AAWKS is back with a different spin on its very own and twisted reality and it will take possession of your entire being…

(Written by JK)

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Review of (Heavy On The Cosmic)

Review of Aawks / Aiwass – The Eastern Scrolls 

AAWKS – The Figure

AAWKS – Celestial Magick

Number 12

 

 

Number 12

Another twenty four points takes us from Magmakammer on Number 13 to todays Number 12. A band that reached the eighteenth position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022 with their debut album. This is their second record. And the proto, the metal, the doom and its progressive urges, it is all there to touch the hardrock, the stonerrock and the psychedelic rock they deliver. It is also there to make sure you turn the volume up as high as you possibly can. And it will transport you to a different universe altogether, thanks to the wider atmospheric reach and a strengthening of their otherworldly realm. An album rife with many layers and dynamics, turning more and more into the album you love so dearly with every spinning session. A tale is spun, not just by the lyrics, but also with the chosen instrumentation and how that slide guitar and synth helps you travel the galactic expanse… No need for spice, just listen to this album to journey through the fold…  

According to all of your votes, on Number 12 we find: 

Sons of Arrakis - Volume II

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AAWKS – Celestial Magick

 

 

AAWKS – Celestial Magick

AAWKS! You know we love AAWKS! And so do you, right? Well, they’re about to release a new album called On Through The Sky Maze through Black Throne Productions. Well, the release date is still some moons in the future, somewhere in March 2025. But to appease us until then, we can now enjoy a first single and video called Celestial Magick! It’s the AAWKS doom magick! Way more dark, gritty and raw, this one track hold so much promise we feel we need to dive into a bubbling black cauldron somewhere with the hopes of waking up in March 2025. Wow! This is something else! And we need more!

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Review of Aawks / Aiwass – The Eastern Scrolls 

AAWKS – The Figure 

 

Occult Witches - Sorrow's Pyre

 

 

Occult Witches - Sorrow's Pyre
Black Throne Productions - 2024
Classic Rock, Blues, Stoner
Rated: ****1/2

After a short, crackling intro, Canadian powerhouse Occult Witches hands us the first proper track: 'Malice'. It starts as a beautiful, acoustic pop tune that could be high up in the charts all around the world and immediately shows the vocal prowess of singer Vanessa San Martin. She's got exactly the right combination of technique, soul and power and you know instantly she's gonna nail everything that gets thrown her way. And the confirmation soon reveals itself, because it doesn't take long before that first song shows its gnarling teeth when the musicians settle into a groove and melody that propels you straight back to Thin Lizzy's heyday - with Phil Lynott looking down in awe from his own private cloud in heaven. The tone is set for an album that weaves a pulverising pattern of musical influences to create a uniqueness all its own.

The Sabbath meets Uriah Heep belter called 'Tumbling through the Dark' is short and ferocious with the rhythm section of bass player Danick Cournoyer and drummer Eliot Sirois taking centre stage and even settling into a jazzy groove for a few seconds, something they also do in the next track 'Faustian Bargain', one of the highlights and part seventies blues oriented classic rock ballad, part heavy hitting rock with subtle elements of folk and jazz thrown in for good measure.

And just when you think you've heard it all, they catch you off guard with a laidback instrumental - a beautiful acoustic guitar composition called 'Interlude in E-Flat Minor' that leans heavily on Nordic and Celtic traditional music. It more or less divides the album in two sections, because what follows is the menacing 'Flesh and Bones', ready to hand some high fives to Iron Maiden, besides the obvious seventies influences of the bands mentioned before. 'The Fool' is another one of those heavier tunes with a distinct blues swagger that gains power and pace on numerous occasions. Second to last song 'Sorrow' maybe isn't the most appealing of the bunch (as in: it isn't the most accessible), but it still packs a lot of punch and grows over time. Closer 'Bluesman/Sunrise Cocaine' is exactly what it wants to be - a blues rock number that starts off slow, but gets all kinds of adrenaline shots throughout. The guitar playing at the end even gives me some Jethro Tull and Focus flute melody vibes.

Okay now you might start to think: why hasn't that bastard mentioned guitarist Alec Sundara Marceau earlier? Well, because I didn't know when. In every song he delivers stunning, ear-splicing guitar solos that just can't be separated. It's an all-out freak fest within the room the songs provide. And then there's the chemistry of the band as a whole that needs to be addressed. The tight as fuck rhythm section that seems to be melting together with the guitars and Vanessa who has got one of the most powerful and soulful voices in the heavy underground scene and can easily keep up with the guys - maybe even challenges them to take the whole thing to another level. No mean feat if you ask me. Add to that the dark, haunting, mystical overall feel caused by that chemistry and the addition of little twists and turns, like for example the references to folk and jazz, as well as some doom-like passages and a slightly spooky bridge in 'Flesh and Bones', and you kind of feel like a voyeur; like you're secretly watching an angelic ritual take place inside a hidden stone circle somewhere in the nether regions of the underworld. And it feels great.

(Written by Ronny Dijksterhuis)

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Occult Witches - The Fool

 

Occult Witches - The Fool

Sorrows Pyre was released July 12th through Black Throne Productions and is the wild new album by Occult Witches! And the new video for single The Fool catches the band in all its seventies rocking glory! Highly infectious and a righteous firestarter!   

From the PR wire: 

"The video portrays a young woman experiencing a profound personal crisis, venturing towards the abyss, while three individuals, depicted as demons, emerge to pursue her," the band elaborates. "We’d like to give a big thanks to Marius Mongeau for filming a second music video with us, was a blast!"

OCCULT WITCHES has quickly risen through the ranks, defining a unique space within the rock genre with their captivating blend of music and storytelling. Their songs, rich in narrative and emotion, draw on elements of darkness, witchcraft, and existential struggle, resonating with a wide range of listeners.

The band's journey from Rimouski, QC, to Hamilton, ON, on their first tour last summer has only solidified their presence in the music scene. With plans for mini-tours this summer, OCCULT WITCHES is poised to reach new heights and captivate more audiences with their powerful performances and profound lyrical themes.

OCCULT WITCHES invites listeners to embark on this dark yet enlightening journey through their music. Stay tuned for more from OCCULT WITCHES as they continue to explore the depths of the human condition and the eternal dance between light and darkness.

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 Check out the full album right HERE! 

The Hazytones – Wild Fever

 

 

The Hazytones – Wild Fever
Black Throne Productions – 2024
Rock, Stoner, Psych, Doom, Metal, Seventies
Rated: *****

It will arrive on May 10th, through that cool Black Throne Productions label and we have been spinning it for quite some time now. We’re talking about that wild new feverish The Hazytones album Wild Fever. Yes, we used the words from the album title immediately there, cause that’s how we roll over here and simply because the album title fits every part of this release so perfectly. Cause even when you listen to the slower, doom touched fourth track Night Is Young, you will still feel those drops accumulate on your hairy back side. You will be breaking out in a sweat because of the fervor you hear throughout that track. The oppressive and humid atmosphere that pushes upon you and keeps pushing until it opens up in that middle part with space to breathe, a guitar solo to make you fall in love with and a keyboard flourish to make you gush over, eighties metal reminiscent vocals howling and screeching and reveling around in an empty moonshine jar, because yes, the Night Is Young. The now four from Montreal, have become more than the sum of their parts on their third full-sized album, showing growth and the lust to explore different avenues. With only founding member Mick Martel still present, it’s not weird that the bluesy psych, (that southern bayou touch on the Down track, so lovely and clammy!) and the seventies grooviness from their first album is still there, but infused with so much more metal it turns the overall listening experience from good to something epic. And yes, that proto and more psychedelic doom stuff from their second album is still there as well but offered up as an under current for certain songs or as a minor influence in others, which also leaves the perfect room for the songs to find their own identity. Mixed by the great Esben Willems and mastered by awesome Kent Stump, this albums sounds like you’ve always wanted The Hazytones to sound. Hazy, wild and with a wealth of musical decorum, kaleidoscopic in all its misty melodies and feverish in delivery. The Hazytones are here to infect your brain and make your temperature rise!

(Written by JK)

Album out May 10th...
But you can listen to the first single Disease here...



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Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

 

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Is that the first Quick Fire Friday of 2024? It seems so! We haven’t done one since December before the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2023 started. That’s like, three months ago! Yikes! Well, we’re here now. And ready to spread the good word on a truckload of heavy releases! We usually mention singles and EP’s, but sometimes an older album as well! And you know why we do this. Because there is so unbelievable much of great music out there and we can not mention everything. The small thing we can do of course, is another Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday round! A small amount of words to get the good word out! The good word about something heavy and something cool! Check it out below… And we know… There is so much out there, so much good and heavy stuff, and we just simply cannot ever do it all justice. But here it is… Another Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday! And it burns hot like molten lava!

Stash - The Rojo Tapes

Fourpiece Stash delivered their first album called Through Rose Coloured Glasses in September 2022 and re-released five of those tracks almost exactly a year later with an EP called The Rojo Tapes. Not completely sure why they did that, cause the versions are exactly the same. But, they’re damn fine and could use the extra attention! Five gritty and burly stoner metal and sludge metal tracks. A touch of southern, a load of metal and an almighty groove! Dig in to that Stash!

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Sons of Arrakis – Scattering

Back in 2022 they released their Volume I album and it ended up on Number 18 of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022 according to all your votes. We’re talking about Sons Of Arrakis and they are about to release a new album called Volume II on that fine label called Black Throne Productions. Now, I know, the single has been out for a few weeks. But we find it irresistible and reckon everyone should have Scattering on repeat. Please let me know if you feel the same! And if you think they might get more views now thanks to all the attention for the Dune movies? Let's hope so, cause they deserve to be heard by one and all...

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MaidaVale – Faces (Where is life)

Another single that was released a week or two ago, Faces (Where is life) by Swedish quartet MaidaVale. Switching from The Sign Records to Silver Dagger Records for their new, third album Sun Dog the sound took on an even sunnier, world music and afrobeat vibe. Especially on this first single. And on May 3rd you will get to hear the rest of Sun Dog, and their still entirely groovy take on psychedelia, krautrock and that seventies vibe! It’s all happening!

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Hollow Leg – Poison Bite

This single slash video was released, Yesterday! We’re referring to Poison Bite by the Florida four called Hollow Leg. It’s the lead single for their new release coming up May 3rd called Dust. And we can be sure it will be filled with more gnarly doom and brutish sludge. That doom groove, that massif tone and that unending nod. Get bit!

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Hydra – Into The Night

It’s been out a week! The new three song EP by the Polish four called Hydra. Doom metal, stonerrock, sludge and roll and with such a majestic groove that you will be headbanging as that very first break commences and that groove starts and after that, you are hooked and won’t stop banging along! And then the vocals kick in, immediately taking it into proto and classic heavy metal territory. Out on Piranha Music, the three tracks on Into The Night are pure glittering metal gold!

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Cannabus – Desert Trip

Out… TODAY! The new Desert Trip single by the stoner rock band from Welland, Ontario, Canada called Cannabus! It’s the lead single for their new EP called Other Side arriving April 19th and it’s a scorcher! Once again on that crazy Black Throne Productions label, the new single sports all that seventies guitar work, laced with stonerrock and rolled up into a blues groove. Majestic is an understatement! And did we mention we love all their artwork?

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Iron Jinn – Truth Is Your Dagger (Live At Roadburn)

We already mentioned the first single from the soon to be released Iron Jinn live album. Lick It Or Kick It kicked the door open for that Live At Roadburn album that will arrive through Lay Bare Recordings on April 5th. And to show you more, they released Truth Is Your Dagger a week or two ago as well. It was the first time they jammed it in this particular version… “…way and it just clicked. Special guest on keys Jarno Van Es (since this show a full band member) adds a big scoop of 'Bitches Brew' and he and Oeds dive into some minimal territories evoking a somewhat heavier Steve Reich, since then we dubbed it 'Reich & Roll.' It's moments like these why we believe this record needs to be out there.” As Wout Kemkens stated…

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Redstone – Immortal

And we end this Quick Fire Friday segment with a serious stoner metal kick in the nuts! Out since March 8th, the second EP by French quintet Redstone! Immortal is metal, stoner metal, sludge tones and a few of these more atmospheric passages and more metal, and even a bit of progressive meandering. Immortal sports five tracks and all five have this fierce and feral attitude. Savage, and yes, a whole lot of attitude!  

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AAWKS – The Figure

 

 

AAWKS – The Figure

We have this only slightly concealed major crush on AAWKS. Perhaps its not even concealed, and it actually shouldn't, cause we dig’m. A lot! As you might have read when we wrote about their split album The Eastern Scrolls with Aiwass or when we ranted away about their earlier album Heavy On The Cosmic. Well, they’re about to release on December 8th throught Black Throne Productions, a four track EP called Luna, and only yesterday, they hurled out into the world, the lead single The Figure… And if I had not already been totally smitten with AAWKS, I would have been after hearing The Figure… (And the rest of Luna solidifies that infatuation!) Aaaaaawww… 

 

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The band elaborates on the single: "The Figure picks up where we left off with Heavy on the Cosmic. Still heavily inspired by themes of the otherworldly, allegorical, fantastical, psychedelic and occult imagery of our first album but this time with a bit of a darker, more surrealistic twist. Heavy on the Cosmic used a Technicolor palette throughout most of our songs where the second album will play more in the darker corners of the room, in the shadows, where the candles flicker. This time we’re focused a bit more on the flights of the amygdala than distortions of the pineal. We’ve still travelled through portals to far off lands but this time will be set more in the wee hours, alone in a forest, near a swamp. This time will be more going to battle with our demons than picking mushrooms in the grove…"

And, of the album, the band shares:

"LUNA - the goddess of the moon (Roman mythology)

Cultures have been obsessed with the mysterious, magnetic wonders of the moon since the dawn of time. We’ve also been fascinated by 'the unexplained' and tried to make meaning of the messages in dreams or weird lights in the night sky. This collection of songs entitled LUNA each represent the aforementioned subjects in some way or another. We may not have the answers but we did our best to paint the feeling and thoughts one may have while walking down a path, alone in the woods at night or maybe waking up from an odd dream that left you questioning 'what did that mean?'