Tidal Wave – Volume Tree Ripple Music – 2026 Stoner, Doom Rated: *****
The Lord Knows I’ve been spinning the shit out of all the Tidal Wave‘s releases ever since that wild Blueberry Muffin ended up on my plate. So, as I slouched at the bar, watching the empty stage, of a dubious watering hole, I sat up straight when Black Sabbath, Dio, a mountain of amplifier stacks and an industrial strength fuzz pedal all walked into the bar. The start of a joke perhaps? Or the start of a wild and wonderful show? That’s right, that show, ended up sounding a lot like the new Tidal Wave album Volume Tree. They have taken the phrase “turn it up” as a personal challenge, serving up forty minutes of gloriously weighty riffs, thunderous grooves, and enough Dio-esque vocal heroics from Alexander “Sunkan” Sundqvist to make you involuntarily throw the horns. It may not reinvent the wheel, it may not even be a wheel… Either way… It’s thunderous, humorous and it will definitely flatten everything under several tonnes of glorious distortion!
Surprise! And not just for you crazies following the HiVe! But also for me, cause I had not expected the honorable Ronny Dijksterhuis to deliver another Quick Fire Friday round this fast! But it was suddenly there, slaved over during the night and sent before the sun rose. And you know what that means... Things will get hot and heavy from here on in!
What do you do when you want to promote as many great music as humanly possible? Well, you absorb anything that scratches your auditive senses, train yourself in the art of selective puking and spit out the things that might stick not only in your own brain, but also in the grey lump residing in the skull of all you innocent heavy underground lovers that happen to stumble across our little old blog or one of its social media pages. So, let's skilfully throw up another eight stains of semi-digested sounds at your feet and call it a new episode of Quick Fire Friday. Enjoy!
Miracle Blood - Blazing Entrails
Miracle Blood's 2024 album 'Hello Hell' got rave reviews all over the globe and their new single 'Blazing Entrails' is another slab of bludgeoning madness, combining noise, speedrock, stoner rock and punk with a singer that more that once makes Jello Biafra pop up in your mind.
Progressive alternative noise metal. That's probably the best way to describe Pharm's new single 'Crackhead Arachnid'. A highly technical wave of swirling glory that sticks a knife in you well-trained ear and then gives it an extra twist to let you know they mean business. But however complex and jumpy it gets, the song remains the focal point and the vocals are excellent. Arguably the best song released so far this year.
In the comments under the March Doom Charts post on Facebook someone suggested to check out Seasick Gladiator as they haven't made the Doom Charts yet. As I never heard of the band before, I gave their latest EP Unhinged (released in January this year) a go. And I'm a bit ashamed not having discovered them earlier, because this is some tasty stoner doom with an interesting twist with the lead instrument being an atmospheric violin played in a manner that's quite similar to the one on My Dying Bride's standout album 'The Angel and the Dark River'. Add that to the powerful, traditional stoner setting of drums, bass and guitars, and you end up with a damn fine release that's different from anything else in the genre.
When heavy blues has got that slow, dragging swagger with a stripped-down stoner rock undercurrent, it means it's good. The Fixed Trio's second single of their upcoming sophomore album 'Our Guilty Pleasure' has all that and more. A steady beat, a nicely rolling bass line and a great guitar solo make this a perfect tune for this time of year where nature comes alive again and the sun is making its way back from a long winter's sleep.
Two Russian refugees, living in Bordeaux, France with one obvious mission: deliver some filthy and nasty sludge noise. Their first ever release is the single 'Worse'; a big ball of anger, bouncing off the cliffs of desperation. Wonderful indeed.
By now you might ask yourself: what about some good, old-fashioned Scandinavian stoner rock? Well, we're happy to oblige and present you Tidal Wave's new single 'Sideburns'. It's so goddamn catchy and full of energy, you probably don't want to hear you'll have to wait until June 5th for the arrival of their new album 'Volume Three', which will be released through Ripple Music.
Coming from Santa Cruz, CA, Stump Grinder delivers a furious mix of stoner, sludge and hardcore that will knock your teeth out. No other words needed to give you an impression of their music. But one advise could come in handy: be sure to make an appointment with the dentist before listening to this shit, because you might regret it if you don't.
During the 12 day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025, while having to hide in a bomb shelter, Israeli drummer Lior Izhaki turned one of them into a live creative space. He recorded ten different jam tracks with ten different guitar players. No vocals, no bass and no rehearsals. The results are being presented one by one, showcasing the raw intensity that situations like this are obviously bound to summon not only in the hearts of creative people, but to everybody who is involved in that kind of drama one way or another. The creative people are merely able to give those feelings a voice, or in this case a pure heartfelt explosion of drums and guitars. Oh yeah, 'Dabur' is number 8 in the line of 10 and the heaviest and most aggressive one of them all.
That final push of lists that came in during the past 24 hours shook up the spots near the top and on the bottom. Shifting positions and pushing a few out. This album had been higher up and not on the list at all during the past weeks. And we're extremely glad it remained hooked on the end result, which is only logical when this sophmore album is filled with so many hooks! It was an early top album during 2023 in the stonerrock genre. A classic, atavistic stonerrock record that crashed upon the shores and all your sound systems at the very beginning of the year. An early calling card for what the stupendous quality year of 2023 would bring. Out on Ripple Music, the four Swedes took the Number 1 spot of the January Doom Charts and stayed on heavy rotation throughout the heavy underground. Killer riffs, high quality vocal power and enough fuzz to ride this thing all the way through the year… Which many of you did and therefor, on Number 20 we find!
