Back… From the mountains…

Back… From the mountains…

We’re back! And once again, not in one piece! Tore my minor back muscles riding powder in a sort of natural half pipe. Took a bad fall head first, back snapped… And the rest is as we say, enormous painful! It’s unclear at the moment how long it will take before I’m healed again. But before it happened we had a massive time! Thanks to heavy snowfall and a wild storm system! Now, we shall be getting back into HiVe mode shortly! We just need to go through about 400 emails…

Ouch!

Off to ride an avalanche…

Off to ride an avalanche…

Due to a massive snow dump in a part of the Alps, it could not be helped! We’re off to ride an avalanche or two… It’s addictive that white powder; and we’re not talking about that stuff you spread out over a mirror or cd case or whatever flat surface you can find. No no no, we need the steep surfaces! The ones that will not only fake you into going fast, but actually will make you go boom! Not sure about the soundtrack for the road though? Or the inevitable ride or two with headphones… Vessel’s new Vagabond Blues album for sure. The Fuzzriders EP definitely. Major Kong’s Off The Scale album for sure! Elden, Desert Colossus, Yuri Gagarin, She Love Pablo and Serpent Cobra. Shit, we are pretty sure about the soundtrack! 

Boom! Seeya’ll in a week!

OZO - Saturn

OZO - Saturn

Riot Season Records - February 2020

Psych, Jazz, Noise

Rated: ****

Blazing in from some hallucinatory other dimension comes the free jazz/psych-rock trip that is OZO's debut album, Saturn. Comprised of members from UK noisemakers BONG and Drunk In Hell, OZO is a freakout from left field that combines dizzying alto sax, whirlwind drums, and an always grooving, thrumming bass to mindblowing effect. Across five tracks of experimental noise, the instrumental trio moves between rushing, crazed flurries of sound to spaced out lulls that never overstay their welcome. Following the trippy, adrenaline pumping drive of the bassy "Lifeship", title and longest track "Saturn" is a frantic onslaught of fluttering sax and relentless drumming, pinned together by a thick bass even as the sax builds into layers of shrieks and hairpurn turns. Follow-up "Nuclear Fuel", second longest track at over 11 minutes, is a hypnotic epic of nod and rolling, meandering groove. In the first of a series of movements, the active sax shares the spotlight with rock-steady bass, before the track moves into waves of building and crashing drums, ending with the warped bass taking charge and approaching subsonic depth. Final cuts "Slide Way" and "Centuries" continue the chaotic and engrossing journey, culminating with a showstopping series of drum fills and one final guitar/sax eruption. OZO's debut is a strange and daunting adventure, and well worth the dive once you're locked into the freaky flow of the weird and wonderful Saturn.

(Written by Kyle / Shastabeast)

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Vessel – Vagabond Blues

Vessel – Vagabond Blues

Majestic Mountain Records – 2020

Rock, Stoner, Desert, Psych, Fuzz, Doom

Rated: *****

Last week we had the honor to premiere the second single The Void Tempest of the new Vessel album Vagabond Blues. The album goes forth and out into the world, today. The Australian project has shifted into overdrive since their first release Nostalgia in 2016 and has now enveloped so many of the heavy genres we all adore. Which can leave you with an album that is highly diverse but also schizophrenic. Luckily this is not the case with Vagabond Blues, thanks to the expert mix, production and overall color scheme. The album not only covers all those different genres, it also wraps the listener in a warm blanket, one a bluesy hobo needs when barreling down the tracks, in the back of the train cart lying on a cardboard box. There’s blues here, cosmic blues and fuzzy desert blues. You can hear it in those easy to fall in love with stoner trucking tracks like Twenty Twenty and Red Witch; but it’s also present in instrumental spacey adventures like Atacama. It’s not difficult to imagine yourself there, in the desert, under the immense night sky, tracking meteors and feeling the earth speed through the universe towards the inevitable. And the entire album feels quite like that, an inevitable strike against the boundaries of creation, a ringing singular beautiful strike, a hammer of the gods, that will sound on for eternity…

(Written by JK)

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The Hypnagogics - Endless Nights

The Hypnagogics - Endless Nights

Majestic Mountain Records - March 2020

Heavy Psych, Dark, Seventies, Blues

Rated: ****

The upcoming debut album from heavy psych Swedish rockers The Hypnagogics, Endless Nights is a fully realized effort full of mood and groove. Mixing fiery 70s metal riffs with standout deep, haunting vocals, The Hypnagogics deliver an impressive slab of eerie and infectious psych. Opener "Darkest Night" is simultaneously upbeat and melancholy, the tight rhythm section and full vocals leading into spacey guitar freakouts that inject a hectic energy into the steady roll. Vintage 70s hard rock then rears its head in "Run" with chunky riffs and fiery licks, while "Eyes Without A Face" brings goth vibes into the mix with spine-tingling distortion and lyrics straight from a horror movie. Through all the genre twists and turns, a constant and unique thread of sound and mood is recognizable as The Hypnagogics' own, and culminates in standout cut "No Sleep". The penultimate track is built around a riff that can only be described as graveyard boogie, which winds between beautiful belted vocals and dives into a bluesy solo halfway through. With Endless Nights The Hypnagogics have immediately established a signature sound that's both creepy and irrestible, a dangerous combination that makes for a gripping debut start to finish.

(Written by Kyle / Shastabeast)

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Elden – Nostromo

Elden – Nostromo

Fuzzorama Records – 2020

Rock, Metal, Stoner, Proto

Rated: *****

Another album that made the Doom Charts of January 2020 we had the honor to write quick blurb for is Nostromo by the four Swedes from Elden. Sometimes a band needs a new name and sometimes, that, and the first track of their new album is all it takes to become completely and totally over the moon with them. Atlas changed into Elden and Nostromo is the new album. Relapse is the first track, an intro into what comes next, Sail & Savour... and that's the one we’re talking about here. It’s heavy metal, it’s proto metal, it’s stoner metal and it’s so much more! ‘Propulsive drumming, turbo-charged Sabbath riffs and vocals that are pure, 21st century Ozzy’ we wrote about the first demo Atlas produced. Well, these cats went out and perfected that given into something that is awe-inspiring and intimidating. Holy hell! Nostromo really is the smash ‘n grab article of the year! (ps. I like the name Elden way more than Atlas, how about you?)

(Written by JK)

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Gawthrop - Gawthrop

Gawthrop - Gawthrop

Cursed Monk Records – 2020 (January)

Sludge, Doom

Rated: ****

South Korean spleen-beaters Gawthrop foist a nauseous, poisoned and bullish Bulgogi onto your platter with their debut for Cursed Monk Records out of Ireland. A four - track festival of fester, opener 'Exhaust' spews vapours of narcoleptic bass from it's gaping mouth, voiced with cancerous suffocation. "Guru" bleeds with twisted, echoed howls and fathoming fuzz, dragging it's carcass through morbid sludge. A mournful piano lament ushers in the dread-evoking flesh creep of 'Blowtorch', the Z-tuned ponderous loom of something vile and immense. 'Irene' rounds off the rancour with amphetamine-charged anger, speeding and staggering through a labyrinth of crushing Doom. Harder than a Hapkido Master, filthy as a sewer. To put it bluntly: Gawthrop = Jawdrop!!!

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

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Gravel Road - Crooked Nation

Gravel Road - Crooked Nation

Knick Knack Records - 2020

Blues, Rock n Roll, Southern, Psych

Rated: ****

The blues are alive and well in fuzzed out fashion on Seattle outfit Gravel Road's eighth studio album, Crooked Nation. Touting a mix of Northern Mississippi blues and heavy rock and roll as their M.O., Gravel Road delivers a diverse and rollicking album of twangy licks, a combination of blown out and slide guitar, and tight drum shuffle. The album kicks off with heaps of boogie on the aptly titled opener "Got Me Movin'", nimble drums driving along gritty guitar fuzz and squealing slide. The pounding rhythms continue in highlight title cut "Crooked Nation Blues" with Neil Fallon-esque vocals to boot, but Gravel Road then take a hard left and dives into the country blues with "Got You On My Mind". Drums and vocals bounce along while guitars and harmonica make a groovy racket over top. The rest of the album similarly swings between extremes of rock and southern blues, creating a captivating dynamic whose inspiring genres and styles are flawlessly executed. Of particular note is the slow, nodding roll of "Cosmic Flowers" that slowly gives way to psychedelic guitar wah that fits like a glove. Gravel Road's Crooked Nation makes for a feel good, boot-stomping listen that shows a veteran band at the top of their impressive bluesy game.

(Written by Kyle / Shastabeast)

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Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon

Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon

Heavy Psych Sounds – 2020

Rock, Stoner, Desert, Punk

Rated: ****

It just entered the Top 10 of the January Doom Charts of 2020 and we were honored to write those few dubious lines about Vision Beyond Horizon, the new Big Scenic Nowhere record. We know the project and we know what kind of music we can get ready for. The only think to know is what kind of guests are involved and how good on the scale of great, to awesome, to legendary, to universe shattering it will be… “Oh yes! A new record by the Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) duo and their ever revolving array of helping hands. Mario Lalli,. Nick Oliveri, Per Wiberg, Tony Reed, Bill Stinson, Alain Johannes and a few heroes more. Perhaps a little less drawn out, jammy or wide in comparison to their earlier release but still very desert and very stoner. Which is logical when you think of all that great stuff Arce and Balch have been a part of. Indeed, killer riffs and desert psychedelics a plenty! Oh, and yes, one weird fast punk track?!”  Only a few quick lines indeed, enough to entice and not give away too much. Perhaps a fitting description for that Vision Beyond Horizon…

(Written by JK)

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Heavy Psych Sounds

The Three of Tuesday

The Three of Tuesday

Yes. I know. We depicted a tree for this Three of Tuesday post. But Stoner HiVe likes to rustle the feathers and mix things up. And for the Three of Tuesday we will try and something different on occasion. We unfortunately did it only once; but now Shastabeast has gone and stirred up the pot! In a big way, cause he highlighted four instead of three releases… That dirty beast! Check out what he has to say about the awesome [addicted label] from Russia and a few of their releases! Heeeere's Shasta!

And now for something a little different. In the burgeoning underground scene of Russian Federation, [addicted label] has been a one stop shop for all things heavy since 2011, dealing in experimental noise, acid psych jams, sludge, and everything in between. Highlighted below are just a few choice parts of the well curated catalog, with plenty more to dig into.

Juice Oh Yeah - Sila Vselennoy

Juice Oh Yeah! This is eerie, mystical garage doom with psyched out Sabbath roots, drawing you into some dangerous yet groovy ritual. A different and attention grabbing take on bluesy doom.

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Pressor - Weird Things

Brutal weighted sludge with a weird, spacey edge to it. Pressor's wall of sound is mercilessly crushing.

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The Grand Astoria - Punkadelia Supreme

A frenetic, unpredictable, and totally unique melting pot of stoner rock, psych, folk, southern rock, and more. The Grand Astoria's endless creativity is akin to the likes of Caustic Casanova and King Gizzard.

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Pressor/Diazepam/Soom - Split

A perfectly filthy split of doomed sludge. Pressor flattens all in its path with ten ton riffs, Diazepam brings utter madness with sickly distortion and paint peeling vocals, and Soom's plodding tone is so low it's subterranean.

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And do you remember, chalk hearts melting on the playground wall.. Errr.. Sorry, we meant, do you remember Megalith Levitation or Disen Gage ?! Both addictive and [addicted] as well!

The Doom Chart for January 2020

   

Doom Charts

"Why don’t the Grammys matter? Because it feels rigged and cheap – like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided." ~ Trent Reznor

We probably all heard the news that Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard got snubbed at the annual Grammy Awards. Whoever is in charge of that poor excuse for an awards show needs to get their head in the gutter and start digging through the sludge filled swamps of the underground. I mean, there was no mention of Monolord not a peep about EyeHateGod, and Matt Pike was not even on the red carpet. I’ve had enough of this. All joking aside, there was much discussion behind the scenes about the rock music presence (or lack thereof) at the awards show and how the old time saying, “Rock is Dead” could in fact be true. We here at the Doom Charts are pleased to affirm, its certainly not dead, it’s where you choose to immerse yourself. Doom is not Dead, Sludge is not dead, and heavy psych and stoner are certainly not dead. The January Doom Charts gives us hope that we are going to be in for another stellar year of music in the heavy underground. Check it out below.

Also notice how close the scoring came in with the top 5 picks this month. It’s a traditional doom weak month, but hey those guys just don’t seem to get the material in front of us as well. We’ve also added a monthly playlist up on Spotify with songs from the monthly chart.

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album 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 Chart for January 2020

Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Elden

Vessel

An Evening With Knives

She Loves Pablo

Big Scenic Nowhere

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

Is it still Friday somewhere? We hope so, cause we forgot to push the publish button yesterday… As you know we’ve been looking back at 2019 for the better part of January. But we’ve set off with a boom towards 2020 with reviews by Reek of Stoom, Shastabeast & Madman Tony Maim on Ritual King, Dopes to Ethereal, Desert Colossus, Hubris and the premier of the new Vessel single The Void Tempest! And I guess there is already way too much 2020 stuff to keep looking back. But today, on this Quick Fire Friday round, we will do it anyway! All of the releases featured here are from 2019 and all of them should have been mentioned sooner and with more words. Cause we know, we know, the albums and bands deserve more. More attention and more of our time! But there is so much out there and we just simply cannot ever do it all justice. So here it is. The Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday. And its burns hot like molten lava!

Mutautu - Somewhere Over The Death Trip

We’ve mentioned the Finnish crazies Mutautu before. Back in 2017 when they released their Basement Tapes. And well, they’ve released a major step forward back in July, Somewhere Over The Death Trip! Still the fuzz powered blues outfit of yore but way more doom and way more stoner. These crazies should get way more attention! So, here it is, your daily chore, rock out with Mutautu!

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Mosara – Demo

Mosara! It features Nikos Mixas, guitarist for Mosara and contributing writer for Metalunderground, The Sludgelord and PureGrainAudio; which should have gotten our attention right? But the demo two track release got buried among all those other releases when the press release was sent in November 2019. Growling doom metal and sludge. Starting off with a doom crawl through the sludge; a beautiful guitar color and snappy drums. Followed by a doom march towards an awesome, awe inspiring cliff edge. Shall we go over?

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Third Island – Unspeakable

Released in November 2019, Unspeakable, the second full length and fifth release by Third Island, is themed around a selection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, with each song lyrically following a different story. Alternative metal, post metal, sludge and doom. We mentioned them before and we shall continue to do so, for the Irish quartet take ques from every genre we dig. And although we must confess that we struggle with some of the vocal parts, Unspeakable is heavy by default, and hey, sometimes we need to just enjoy the struggle, just like Sisyphus did. Right?

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Black Capricorn – Solstice

Also released in November is Solstice by Black Capricorn… Frazer Jones of Desert Psychlist wrote: “Excellent, dank dark and moody grooves of atmospheric stoner doom textured with a hint of occult.” Capturing without question the sound we are treated to on the four slow moving doom tracks. Solstice. Ominous. Mysterious. … and dark!

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Seven Serpents – Cursed To Be

Four-piece Seven Serpents from West Palm Beach, Florida released their Cursed To Be single in November. Stoner and sludge metal that has this alternative edge to it, a scream take and a multitude of -core influences. Yes indeed, brutal hardcore and grinding metal core are also there with a fierce, violent and destructive attitude. This is what we mean with freakin good metal!

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