Abrams – Loon

  

Abrams – Loon 
Blues Funeral Recordings – 2026
Rock, Grunge, Alternative, Hardcore, Metal 
Rated: *****

Out since yesterday, the brand new Abrams album Loon! An outfit we always admired, but we only mentioned their 2022 In The Dark release. Shame on us! And shit, they might even sound a bit angry about it. Nah, they’re angry about the state of the world I reckon… And has turned their sound ever more intense! A sharp electrifying evolution for the sound the Denver four has sent out into the world, morphing ever more into something volatile and confrontational. There is no backing down from this, it’s in your face, and stays there from opening track Glass House till the final Sirens. It’s transmutation of their very own blend of melody, shoegaze haze and hook driven riffs into kamikaze like machine metal. Shot through with an intense sense of anger, urgency and attention seizing power. Surging with abrasive energy, the seemingly chaotic and noisy wild outs  still retain all of the emotional pull that has always defined the band… 

The already mentioned opener Glass House and following White Walls lunge at you, foaming at the mouth. Riffs slash and convulse, drums hammer with feral intent and the whole thing feels only moments away from total collapse or mind shattering explosion. And yet, through all that splintered noise, you can feel the vocals rise, ragged, frayed, human and almost warm, like someone is trying to confess or implore, over the roar of a city burning wild with flames. It’s an approach they perfect on Loon. Sometimes, pulling back long enough to let dizziness set in, teasing with respite and melody before plunging back into the fray. A high wire act above all the chaos, where every note might be the one to make it snap. Exhilarating and dangerous! Do you feel lucky?   

(Written by JK)

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Elder - Through Zero

 

Elder – Through Zero

Even though, we do not yet know… What the rest of the album will sound like… The first single promises a lot… “Through Zero” unfolds like a journey across an unseen threshold, where the narrator drifts between life and death, searching for meaning in the space between. Guided by echoes of the past and a growing sense of acceptance, they begin to see endings not as final, but as passageways into something unknown. Around them, sound mirrors the transformation, dreamlike textures swirl with heavy, grounding riffs, while hypnotic rhythms pull them forward. Moments of tension give way to clarity, fear softens into understanding. By the end, the journey doesn’t resolve but continues… Suggesting that crossing “zero” is not an end, but a beginning in disguise. And thus, the logical first single for the brand new Elder album dropping May 29th on Stickman Records for Europe, Blues Funeral Recordings in North America and Bird’s Robe in Australia… 

Listen to Through Zero right here… And be ready for the rest of the album on May 29th! 



PR Wire:

Elder

Unveil Title Track Of Upcoming Studio Album “Through Zero”

Out May 29, Pre-Orders Start Today!

Progressive psych rock heavyweights Elder have released a first single, the title track of their forthcoming studio album “Through Zero”. The record is set for release on May 29 in Europe via Stickman Records, in North America through Blues Funeral Recordings and Bird’s Robe in Australia. Album pre-orders start today.

"In a diverse album, the title track of our new album sits on the middle of the spectrum and is a perfect first impression of what’s to come," says guitarist and singer Nick DiSalvo. "Dreamy, heavy, raw, electronic, there’s a bit of everything that makes this album special to us. Through Zero is about impermanence, coming to terms with mortality and the long struggle to not only make peace but to find a sort of solidarity with the dead. The more time passes, the more this theme returns to me, and always in a new light - much as our music always returns in a slightly changed state reflecting who we are becoming."

Two decades into their existence, Elder remain an anomaly in the heavy underground - a rare band with the ability to absorb and shed influences from a myriad of genres without falling into pastiche or losing their own identity. Through Zero stands as a strong reaffirmation of their commitment to pushing boundaries in the world of heavy rock and cements the group’s status as leaders of the pack in heavy psychedelic rock.

Over the past twenty years, Elder have mastered crushing riffs, melodic jaunts, progressive patterns, hypnotic grooves and ethereal atmosphere. On Through Zero, the band channel these years of experience into what may be their most immediate and engaging record to date, while allowing seeds from outside the sphere of rock music to take root and bloom within their progressive framework. Listeners will find familiar elements of new textures, sequences, and sounds alongside Elder’s iconic take on heavy rock. As always, every spin reveals new details. 

Recorded at Big Snuff Studios in Berlin across several months between tours in 2025, Through Zero marks the first album the band not only produced themselves, but also co-mixed together with longtime collaborator Richard Behrens. Mastered by Carl Saff, the result is a record that feels more like a full extension of the band’s creative intentions than ever before.

“Through Zero” is a term borrowed from engineering and the world of music," DiSalvo reveals. "It describes the property of a frequency being able to pass through the zero point and continue into the negative. While it isn’t a concept rooted in philosophy, it resonates with me on a conceptual level: the zero point is not an end, but a midpoint along a partially unseen path. Interpretation is open: the journey is the destination, beginnings and endings may be arbitrary, or perhaps reality is simply less linear than we tend to assume.

The songs on the album explore related themes that reflect my own observations and personal philosophy. Life and death, frustration and fear, helplessness and hope - all of these exist along the same “signal path.”

 
Through Zero Track listing:
1. Sigil To Ruin
2. Capture/Release
3. Through Zero
4. Strata
5. Sight Unseen
6. Blighted Age

Elder is:
Nick DiSalvo - Guitar/Vocals
Jack Donovan - Bass
Mike Risberg - Guitar/Keyboards
Georg Edert - Drums

Elder Live Dates 2026:
13.06. Derby, UK - Download Festival
14.06. Colchester, UK - Colchester Arts Centre w/ Blood Incantation
15.06. Southampton, UK - The 1865 w/ Blood Incantation
16.06. Brighton, UK - Concorde 2 w/ Blood Incantation
18.06. Clisson, FR - Hellfest
19.06. Dessel, BE - Graspop Metal Meeting
20.06. Dortmund, DE - Junkyard Open Air w/ Kadavar
21.06. Frankfurt, DE - Das Bett
23.06. Winterthur, CH - Gaswerk
24.06. Karlsruhe, DE - P8 w/ REZN
26.06. Oslo, NO - Tons of Rock
27.06. Thyrnau, DE - Blackdoor Festival
30.06. Sofia, BG - Mixtape 5
01.07. Thessaloniki, GR - Eightball Club
02.07. Athens, GR - Arch Club
07.07. Slunj, HR - Bearstone Festival
10.07. Pleszew, PL - Red Smoke Festival
23.07. Reutlingen, DE - Hafensounds Festival w/ Kadavar
24.07. Budapest, HU - Monolit Festival
25.07. Tolmin, SI - Tolminator Festival
26.07. Milan, IT - Circolo Magnolia Summer
28.07. Rockstadt, RO - Rockstadt Extreme Fest
30.07. Breitenbach am Herzberg, DE - Burg Herzberg Festival
31.07. Michelau, DE - Rock Im Wald
04.08. Rostock, DE - MAU Club
05.08. Josefov-Jaromer, CZ - Brutal Assault Festial
08.08. Âncora, PT - Sonic Blast Festival
14.08. Valais, CH - PALP Festival

More tour dates announced soon

 
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Elder – Innate Passage

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Number 18 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2020

Elder – The Gold & Silver Sessions EP

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2017

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2015

Number 1 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2011

 

 

Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.2

 

 

Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.2
Majestic Mountain Records / Blues Funeral Recordings – 2026
Metal, Space, Stoner, Rock, Doom, Prog
Rated: ****

Kal-El’s Astral Voyager Vol.2 must be one of the most anticipated albums for 2026 right? With raving reviews for Astral Voyager Vol.1 across the globe in 2025. Landing on the Number 2 spot of the  Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 and on the Number 1 position of the Doom Charts Top 100 for 2025. Everyone is giddy with the expected euphoria. And some of that anticipation was quenched with the first two singles already released: Juno and Juggernaut. The rest of the new Kal-El universe will open up on March 20th… 

And after Juno has opened the new forty-two minute long album, you will be treated to the longest track on the record called The Nine. Which moves a bit in the direction of Sergeant Thunderhoof without losing any of the typical ice cold Scandi-stoner, tundra rock, freezing space sound they have become known for. For yes, if Astral Voyager Vol.1launched Kal-El into the cosmos, Astral Voyager Vol.2 pushes the throttle even further. The second half of this cosmic diptych continues the band’s multi-dimensional trip with the confidence of a group fully locked into their orbit. The story of interstellar bounty hunter Mica unfolds further as she evades the mysterious Nine across time and space, but the real propulsion here is, unsurprisingly, riff power…

Kal-El once again blend stoner metal with touches of doom and swirling space rock, wrapped in that thick, fuzzy tone we’ve come to expect. Massive riffs crash down like meteor showers while soaring desert-, errr, tundra-rock hooks keep things infectious and addictive. There’s also that unmistakable Kal-El shimmer we already mentioned in earlier reviews: a cold spark running through the record that gives the whole thing a slightly icy, cosmic glow. They obviously wanted Vol.2 to only move into more progressive territory here and there, with tiny movements, keeping the overall feeling that these two Volumes belong together intact. 

Ståle Rodvelt’s vocals cut through the haze with clarity, lifting the big choruses and giving the songs that extra lift-off moment when the riffs finally explode. Add those few progressive touches and the result is an album that keeps evolving without losing its groove. Kal-El have been delivering quality ever since Ecosphere, was released in 2015. But the Astral Voyager saga might be their most complete statement yet. It ends with Asteroid, eight minutes of ever evolving largesse, in both riffs, rhythm and vocal lines. They start out huge, build and grow, become gigantic with vocals that soar through the universe and which bring you towards the end of the known galaxy. Where it all crashes down. So… You’d better strap in… This time the ride goes far beyond the event horizon…

(Written by JK)

Check out Juno and Juggernaut right now and get psyched for Astral Voyager Vol.2, dropping March 20th! 



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Kal-El - Astral Voyager Vol.1 - Number 2 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024 

 Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1

Kal-El - Dark Majesty - Number 11 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021 

 

Number 2

 

 

Number 2

Almost fifteen hundred points! Another huge jump to reach the Number 2 album of 2025 according to all of your votes. It switched places with the one on Number 1 constantly and was on so many lists, it is surely a favorite album for everyone across the globe. Released in May through Blues Funeral Recordings and Majestic Mountain Records, it sky-rocketed to the Number 1 spot on that months’ Doom Charts. And with the promise of a Volume 2 following this album, (March 20th to be exact!) the anticipation for this band’s abilities has only grown to immense proportions. Stoner metal mixed with minor doom touches and space elements. Incredibly fuzzy and even opting for some more progressive touches here and there. It’s the quintet doing their own brilliant thing! They have a certain ring to their sound, a cold spark and an icy glimmer. It’s always been there, but this time around, it’s what makes the entire album hum and sing. The energy seems to vibrate at a perfect pitch. And it gives their metallic edge that extra bit of shine. Delivering constantly in big riffs and soaring payoffs. The vocals are pristine and add that extra bit of shiver. The band has delivered many great albums in the span of their career, starting ten years ago with Ecosphere and Dark Majesty from 2021 making it to the Number 11 position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021 according to all of your votes. But this new one, is on a different level. Topping up on everything you have come to love about the band. The record takes you on a celestial drive and beyond the event horizon, eternity awaits…

On Number 2 we find: 

KAL-EL - ASTRAL VOYAGER VOL. 1

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Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1

Number 11 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021

Number 9

 

Number 9

On this first of the single digits and almost fifty points above Godzillionaire on Number 10, we arrive at an album that was released in September. Another album released by Blues Funeral Recordings, but this time in conjunction with King Volume Records and one that is able to create its entire own universe. A fantastic realm that implores medieval, mythical and operatic influences to shape their compendium of heavy metal. Barely a turning of the Earth after we were invited into the realms, the banners are raised once more. From their Brooklyn keep, the four return, bearing a weighty tome of steel and sorcery. Enter, and you’ll find not mere pageantry of cloaks and unicorn sigils, but true craft: riffs forged like broadswords, drums that thunder as siege engines, and a voice, by turns angelic and infernal, issuing proclamations fit for any great hall. The shock of discovery has passed, yet the magic endures. This chapter leans more toward galloping heavy metal than creeping doom, its songs roaming far and wide through mythic lands. But there are epic ballads of wonder and passages which flirt with operatic grandeur, as if monks and metalheads alike were chanting the same prophecy. What seems at first a playful masquerade reveals itself as living legend. No longer cosplaying actors, they are becoming real heroes… Fast… 

On Number 9 we find: 

 

CASTLE RAT - THE BESTIARY

 

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Stoner HiVe on Castle Rat – The Bestiary

 

Number 17

 

 

Number 17

And now we climb just over 20 points from Naxatras at Number 18 to reach this wild doom album. We had personally wanted to write a few words about this record at the end of October. For obvious reasons. Even though it was released in June. But due to situations beyond my control that never materialized. You all voting for this record gives me the opportunity to remedy that a little bit. An album that definitely hit hard emotionally upon first listening and then slowly opened up to show how meticulous and wonderful the music was crafted after having it on repeat. A wild and monolithic slab of doom forged from crushing riffs, fuzz-soaked guitars, and haunting psychedelic atmospheres. Six sprawling, low-tuned epics that ooze despair while remaining hypnotically accessible. Recorded in Seattle with legendary producer Jack Endino, the album’s colossal tones and immersive production amplify its graveyard grooves and bleak meditations on mortality. Heavy, melodic, and relentlessly punishing, the album released in June on Blues Funeral Recordings marks the band’s towering resurgence. Heavy on all fronts, this is music for staring into the void... And realize that once this album hits, the void will be staring back at you and wink at ya... 

On Number 17 we find:

GOYA - IN THE DAWN OF NOVEMBER

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Number 19

 

 

Number 19

 

Just like every year, during the first few days we do two days where we do two spots per day, so we can end the Countdown on January 1st... Yesterday, late afternoon we learned that Conan and Kaiser occupied the Number 20 position of this years Top 20 Countdown. This morning we jump almost two hundred points to reach Number 19. Indeed, quite a big jump in points, after which the jumps get smaller for quite a few spots. It’s with much admiration that we present to you this record, released in September on Blues Funeral Recordings. An album full of honor, mourning and devotion… The album drifts between worlds. Swirling, weighty guitars and incantatory vocals conjure meditative metal, shoegaze, doom, and psych entwined. A vessel for spirit and loss, hypnotic, worldly, unignorable. Enter this heavy rock mantra and let the ritual unfold within… 

On Number 19 we find: 

INSOMNIAC - OM MOKSHA RITAM

 

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Castle Rat – The Bestiary

Castle Rat – The Bestiary
Blues Funeral Recordings / King Volume Records – 2025
Rock, Metal, Doom, 
Rated: ****

Grabbing hold of their destiny and their momentum with all hands, Castle Rat follow up their debut album Into The Realm from April 2024 with a new fantastical metal compendium named The Bestiary. The Earth has barely made a full circle around the sun, but the four piece led by the Rat Queen are back with another monster of an album. Always on tour it seems, it’s crazy to think where they find the time to write all that new Medieval Fantasy metal material. But they do, and together with The Count, The Plague Doctor, and The Druid, they keep expanding their mythical universe. The Bestiary is filled with almost fifty minutes of metal, doom-rock, proto touches and with overtones of the theatrical. Which is of course also part of the stage personas and the overall image of all they do. But underneath all that cosplay, in its heart, they’ve got the tones, the riffs and the songs. Right? Well, The Bestiary bests Into The Realm on every aspect and with all the touring they do, this momentum will surely snowball into a beast all of its own. Quickly turning Castle Rat into a legendary monster, which you can boast about seeing in a run down bar in your home town before they blew up entirely. There is definitely that chance…  

As fifth track Unicorn commences the atmosphere already properly set by the Phoenix I intro track, beautiful single Wolf I, logical single Wizard and seductive Siren, you realize Castle Rat doesn’t need all the dress up theatrics, cause the songs have grown in to beasts themselves. On the other hand, perhaps, it is because of the universe they’ve created that it all works even better and everything comes together like clockwork. The ramble and steady tower building in Wizard, the wilding with thrash influences during Siren. It takes on a brighter hue if you’ve stepped through the closet door and into their fictional realm. But it’s mythical Unicorn that displays Castle Rat at their best. There is a slow weaving opening, where the guitar walks across the fabulous landscape and the Rat Queen displays all of her angelic vocal qualities, and as it builds, towards the break, you feel every hair start to stand on end, and you know this will turn into a truly enchanting track of epic proportions. The rondo turning into a tilt a whirl, nodding towards medieval times, while the overture ending becomes one of those of gigantic gestures. It’s dramatics put to music, the over the top take of what they do sharpened and perfected. And it sounds so delicious. And with the later Crystal Cave going full opera, it takes even that earlier feeling to a whole other level. Castle Rat is almost turning a symphonic corner there. And then when you realize the compendium works with magical chapters, there are bookmarks that help you revisit those most enchanting parts, and seeing them interact with different fragments, slowly turns the entire record into a prophesizing multi-quatrain. An oracle that seems to speak in cryptic verses as it talks about monsters and creatures and legends but hints it has seen more. That Castle Rat has stared into the sun for so long that the brightness burned universal truths and recurring themes into their soul…  And perhaps, this little screed seems over the top or appears to make only a little bit of sense. But just maybe, if you step into the realm Castle Rat has created in only three years’ time, well, just maybe… Everything will start to make sense… 

(Written by JK)

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Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1

 

Kal-El – Astral Voyager Vol.1
Majestic Mountain Records / Blues Funeral Recordings
Rock, Stoner, Space, Doom, Metal
Rated: *****

Did these two powerhouse labels compete to get to release the new Kal-El album? Or did Majestic Mountain Records and Blues Funeral Recordings immediately decide to release Astral Voyager Vol.1 together? Was it because they equally loved the new Kal-El? Or is it just a way to keep shipping costs down? Either way, we are glad they did! For the new six track release is one for the ages, for eternity probably. And to think it will be followed up by a Vol.2 and probably this year? Wow! Another diptych of stoner bliss! Stoner metal mixed with minor doom touches and space elements. Incredibly fuzzy and even opting for some more progressive touches here and there. It’s Kal-El doing their own brilliant thing! They have a certain ring to their sound, a cold spark and an icy glimmer. It’s always been there, but this time around, it’s what makes the entire album hum and sing. The energy seems to vibrate at the perfect pitch. And it gives their metallic edge that extra bit of shine. Delivering constantly in big riffs and soaring payoffs. The vocals are pristine and add that extra bit of shiver. Kal-El has delivered many great albums in the span of their career, starting ten years ago with Ecosphere and Dark Majesty from 2021 making it to the Number 11 position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021 according to all of your votes. But Astral Voyager Vol.1 is on a different level. Topping up on everything you have come to love about Kal-El. Astral Voyager takes you on a celestial drive and beyond the event horizon, eternity awaits…

(Written by JK)

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NEWS: Dozer - Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides

 

Dozer - Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides

Even though many of the Dozer fans will be in possession of these B-Sides and Singles, it is still a record too look forward to. For these will all be remastered to a new standard, showing off once again what kind of band Dozer already was. And continues to be. And as a first taster, they release the single Rings Of Saturn. It's the vinyl only bonus track for the Madre de Dios album from 2001 released through Molten Universe, which was limited to a 1000 issues... And now... It will be available for all Dozer fans! Thanks to Blues Funeral Recordings... Dozer rules. All Dozer, all the time...

 

 

PR Wire:

Stoner rock legends DOZER to release "Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides" double album on Blues Funeral Recordings; US summer tour announced

In celebration of their 30th anniversary, Sweden's godfathers of stoner rock DOZER announce the special release of the "Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides" double album on August 1st via Blues Funeral Recordings and share a first excerpt with "Rings of Saturn". Don't miss them on their upcoming European and US shows!

🪐 Listen to Dozer's volcanic new track "Rings Of Saturn" 🪐
 

Formed in 1995 in the town of Borlänge, Sweden, DOZER led the earliest wave of stoner/desert rock, a fusion of proto-metal, riff-rock and punk that blasted forth from Scandinavia and Europe in response to the tectonic heft and sun-baked fuzz of American bands Kyuss and Fu Manchu.
 
30 years on, DOZER are heralded as undisputed forerunners of a movement and champions of volcanic energy.  Their status was affirmed in 2023 with the release of the landmark Drifting in the Endless Void, an amp-splitting return that dominated best-of lists and turntables, which Distorted Sound called, "a perfectly executed stoner album and then some" and was dubbed "an outstanding comeback" by Hellfire and "a magnetic fireball of propulsive hooks and cosmic majesty" by Decibel.  This renewed dominance led to DOZER’s first US tour in 20 years and set the stage for their three-decade milestone in 2025.
 
DOZER have always been prolific. Driven by take-no-prisoners energy, they'd hit the studio often, laying down songs in rapid-fire batches with little concern for schedules and album planning, and their early days saw the band self-release a multitude of small-run 7-inch singles that tapped into their DIY leanings and allowed forward momentum at maximum velocity.  More songs surfaced on compilations and as limited-release b-sides, while others went into the proverbial vault.
 
In celebration of their 30th anniversary, DOZER enthusiastically present Rewind to Return, a double album of singles, rare tracks and b-sides from across their prolific history. Neither a chronological document nor a comprehensive collection of every non-album track, this is a carefully considered selection of the band's favorites, chosen for their meaning and impact, brilliantly remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén and assembled to create the best possible record to commemorate DOZER’s vast catalog and untouchable legacy.
 

DOZER "Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides"
Out August 1st on Blues Funeral Recordings (2xLP/CD/digital)
Preorder on BFR website, Bandcamp and European store


TRACKLIST:
1. Tanglefoot
2. Hail The Dude
3. Centerline
4. Southern Star
5. The Electrocuter
6. Universe 75
7. Serpent’s Head
8. Rings Of Saturn
9. She
10. Mammoth Mountain
11. Silverball
12. Star By Star
13. Season of Giants
14 Vinegar Fly
15. 2 Ton Butterfly

 
DOZER further underscore three decades at the forefront of the scene with a handful of European dates in 2025, along with a live return to the US this summer, embarking on a West Coast tour with spectacular up-and-comers ABRAMS and MOON DESTROYS supporting the monumental run.
 
European festival dates
May 3 - Izegem, Belgium @ Headbanger's Balls Fest
May 23 - Berlin, Germany @ DesertFest Berlin
October 17 - Thessaloniki, Greece @ Eightball Club
October 18 - Athens, Greece @ Arch Club
Nov 14-15 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Fuzz Festival
 
Return to the Endless Void US Tour 2025 (with Abrams and Moon Destroys)
August 7 - Las Vegas NV @ The Swan Dive
August 8 - Los Angeles CA @ Lodge Room
August 9 - San Diego CA @ Brick By Brick
August 10 - Palmdale CA @ Transplants Brewing
August 12 - San Francisco CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
August 13 - Eureka CA @ Savage Henry Comedy Club
August 14 - Eugene OR @ John Henry's
August 15 - Portland OR @ Dante's
August 16 - Vancouver BC @ Rickshaw
August 17 - Seattle WA @ Substation

DOZER is
Fredrik Nordin - Guitar & Vocals
Tommi Holappa - Guitar
Johan Rockner - Bass
Sebastian Olsson - Drums

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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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Blue Heron – Everything Fades

 

Blue Heron – Everything Fades
Blues Funeral Recordings – 2024
Rock, Stoner, Desert, Metal
Rated: *****

As we inch closer to the deadline for YOUR lists for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024. Namely, before Saturday December 14th, 8.00 CET. We decided to deep dive into that folder full of albums we desperately had wanted to mention this year. We wrote about something like 250 albums and EP’s this year. But in that folder, there are still some 400 more that we had wanted to bring into your peripheral vision. And we are saddened that we will never get to that… But well, besides trying to keep up with all the new ones coming out, we’re now trying to bring into the spotlight one from every month passed that we unfortunately did not mention during the month they were released.

As you crazies that follow the HiVe know, we tend to mention the small bands, the ones just starting out and the first EP’s. This means we don’t mention a lot of the big albums, the bands that are already on everyone’s turntables, the ones everyone know are amazing. And possibly, due to the fact a lot of people mostly read reviews to confirm what they already know, that confirmation bias thingy, we might have gotten a view or two more if we had written more about those albums. But we don’t really do this for the views, we do it for the love of heavy rock and discovery of the unknown. But well, here comes a big one! For Blue Heron released their Everything Fades album in September, and since the promo arrived in July, we had been swept off our feet by it for quite some time. It’s one big album, an album that needs to be heard from start to finish. The way it builds, trekking up the mountain, and then on top, spreading your arms wide, having the sweet release of fifth stoner and desert rocking anthem Dinosaur before rolling down the mount again. The vocals change color whenever a track or even a section calls for it. And that minute moment, when he sings that line about ‘unswerving and united’ during the title track Everything Fades and for a small second sounds exactly like Lanegan. Simply wonderful. There’s tautness throughout the nine tracks, it pulls you along and only after you finish final one minute seventeen long Flight Of The Heron stoner metal ditty do you realize the journey you have been on. It is a piece in constant motion, and it cultivates your radical attention. Perhaps it does not leave you breathless, for the tonal perfection, the pristine production and the space every instrument is allowed to occupy provides you with oxygen. But it will leave you in awe of its towering soundscape…

(Written by JK)

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Lowrider / Elephant Tree - The Long Forever

 

 

Lowrider / Elephant Tree - The Long Forever
Stonerrock, Progressive, Doom
Blues Funeral Recordings
Rated: *****

Let us suck honey from the flowers, from the clusters in our hands… I am not necessarily a big fan of split albums, but there are always a few that defy expectations and are so perfect they become this holy grail of demonstration. Of showing off the most beautiful sides of the bands involved. Both Lowrider and Elephant Tree have done this on The Long Forever. Sprouting into different territories, wildly blossoming and turning it into one of the most gorgeous releases both bands have ever done. And that’s saying something when you realize the magical albums already released by both bands. There are seven songs on The Long Forever. Elephant Tree delivers three songs and has Lowrider add magic on final, title track, The Long Forever. Lowrider delivers four songs and has Elephant Tree pitch in on their fourth track, which sits there, in the middle of the split, as the perfect collaborative piece. It’s called Through The Rift, the Lowrider guitar tones, euphoria inducing, languid early morning grooves and vocals delivered by Elephant Tree. 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…

(Written by JK)

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Mammoth Volume – Lisa

 

Mammoth Volume – Lisa

Out… Today! The new Mammoth Volume album Raised Up By Witches. Released through Blues Funeral Recordings, the album sports nine progressive rock songs, that harken back to the sixties and seventies and all of it stoner and heavy toned. Well, except for Sången Om Ymer perhaps and Lisa… And guess what, they’ve just released a video for the most off center track on the album, Lisa. Crazy Lisa…

PR Wire:

Sweden's jazzy and progressive stoner torchbearers MAMMOTH VOLUME release their new album "Raised Up By Witches" on Blues Funeral Recordings and present a new video for the song "Lisa" today.

Mammoth Volume return with a new album that harnesses their absolute fluency with the somehow compatible genres of 70s progressive rock and modern stoner riffage. The result is an absorbing trek through head-nodding grooves, wispy instrumentation and quirky brilliance that's riveting. Mammoth Volume has made it their brand to go unexpected places and take constant delightful turns pretty much every time we think we've got them pegged, and "Raised Up By Witches" is a seamless and exhilarating new trip where they're basically the only vehicle on the road.

About the "Lisa" visualizer, the band says: "Truth be told, the music for ”Lisa” was written instrumentally. If memory serves, the working title was something like ”¾ swing” – descriptive but not very poetic or narrative. When it came time to record the song we obviously had to come up with some lyrics. About three-quarters of the lyrics was prepared, but we still had to fill out the rest as we were recording the vocals in the studio. That’s when we (spoiler warning!) thought to rhyme ”way” with ”gay”. We double-checked to make sure the lyrics couldn’t be conceived as homophobic, then we celebrated: an actually decent song lyric, with a twist at the end! Then (and only then) it occurred to us that there is a 60’s film called ”David and Lisa” that deals with some of the themes in the song: mental illness, tragic romance, and most notably a girl named LISA! Lucky for us that movie was in the public domain. In an inspired rush of creativity, a screenplay was written to match scenes in the movie with the lyrics of the song. BOOM! One of our better moments is born. They matched up pretty well if we may say so ourselves. Shit happens."

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Horseburner - Hidden Bridges

 

 

Horseburner - Hidden Bridges

Out June 21st on Blues Funeral Recordings, the new Horseburner album Voice Of Storms. And Hidden Bridges is the new single and video for that wonderful new album! Check it out and be as excited for what these progressive sludge metal motherfuzzers have come up with as I am.

Horseburner's new album "Voice Of Storms" is an allegorical commentary on the mistreatment of women across history. It’s the story of a girl being sold into child marriage who is imbued with the spirit of ancient Greek hunt goddess Diana, unleashed and wreaking havoc on a society that regards females as objects or currency. Drummer Adam Nohe reflects on their new single "Hidden Bridges": “It turned into a song that everyone in the band loves, I think it’s a universal favorite. Story-wise, we’re looking at our protagonist being led through an interdimensional crossroads where she can see all universes and timelines happening simultaneously. Here she learns of how she came to exist and it sets her on her mission through the rest of the story.”

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Number 1

 

 

Number 1

The jump in points is staggering. No less than 1332 points above Green Lung on Number 2 we find the Number 1 album according to all the votes that came in. Indeed, it was at the very top of many a list and actually on some spot somewhere on almost every list that came in. Crazy! Which results in this majestic lead. Which does fit a majestic band and their majestic comeback album. On many levels a landmark album and on many levels a dangerous release. Cause what does this mean for the other band half of the members are in? Cause the past years we could enjoy that signature circling, stomping and grooving guitar sound that the main axe slinger produces while he rocked out with a different quartet. And after eight records with that band, you could easily have forgotten that the band once started as a side-project. Because the guitarist wanted to explore more seventies rock touches and because the other band did not want to tour as much anymore. Some of them wanted to finish their education or something weird like that. So, after that final 2008 album, this went quiet around the band. A gig here or there, a few more a few years later. And then, back in April, it was there, suddenly, coming in out of the void. Filled with more of that sultry and sliding stoner rock, that you might have gotten accustomed to from that other band, but now, a bit rougher, edgier and wrapped in barbed wire. Biggest difference of course is the vocalist, who is able to touch that raw and intense nerve in a different way. Although, he does manage to do a bit of that drawling sound you know so well from the other vocalist on a few moments as well. Which makes the new album a complementary and vortex like whirlpool of influences and memories… One that can drown you just as easily as set you adrift…

The Number 1 album of 2023 according to all you who voted for the Stoner HiVe top 20 Countdown is…

Dozer – Drifting In The Endless Void

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Number 6

 

 

Number 6

It takes almost 60 points to jump from Margarita Witch Cult on Number 7 to reach Number 6! Where we find an album about which we wrote a lengthy piece about when it was released. And a band that made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before, back in 2015. And who certainly would have made it more times had we started sooner, since they only released one album since the HiVe started back in 2009. A band that has been putting out music since 1994 and was founded a year before that. And is still fronted by the same Queen. A band that delivered amazing stoner, metal and doom albums, that all meandered through the psychedelic landscape. High dependable and always delivering the good stuff. But with this new album, they go beyond all that. All those boundary markers from before are ripped out of the soil and not just moved but thrown into the endless void.
It’s a sonic trip that tries to make you envision interplanetary existence as well as the fact that linear life does not exist. Your path will swerve every which way but straight. And that is exactly how the music comes across, as an extremely dense, yet meandering path through the wasteland of existence. The moments of release, when inhibitions are elegantly stripped away and euphoria is on the brink of exploding, feels as much as those tab induced experiences, where you were an intrepid inner space wanderer, as music can possibly attain. But as we mentioned, there is light and vision, but also darker recesses that are more dangerous, thanks to that dense and doom approach. And then when it all ends, that final track, if there’s ever been a song in the stoner doom genre that represents that green light, that sense of hope and belief, that there can be a better future, that the journey to the unknown destination, might be fruitful, this is it. Heavily inspired by many space exploration movies and ideas, and the fact that the band makes it sound as big as the universe and thought provoking about human inner workings, is beyond… Many albums have felt like a small and logical step for the King, but this is a giant leap for the Queen…

On Number 6 we find...

Acid King – Beyond Vision


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Number 10

 

 

Number 10

We enter the Top 10 by jumping 12 points from Number 11, where we found Fire Down Below. For this one we get back on that evil and ominous sounding streak, we go and sing praise to Shaitan! But even if this is some wicked an unholy doom, there is always something compelling and enthralling about this band. Especially live. And on this album, they seem to have captured that aspect of them better than ever. Touching on something stranger, some eighties things and often imploring a melody, a rise in tone that reminds you of something, hidden, somewhere deep in your brain. Earworms a plenty! And then there’s that one track, that does that same thing once again, but that for me personally at least, harshly rips you away from that doom trance state you were in, due to them vocals. But since music is always in the ear of the beholder, just like these worms, it might work out totally differently for you. Yes, in short, I’m not a fan of worms. But I am a fan of owls and crows, and they eat worms, when they’re hungry enough. So, just start over and have those birds in the intro set the scene…

On Number 10 we find…

Dopelord – Songs For Satan


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