Keyboard warriors, warmongering politicians and wicked women, Scott “Wino” Weinrich has got a bone to pick with all of you. He’s also got a truck-load of doom-soaked, monolithic, heavy-metal riffs to unleash. On Gilded Sorrow (Ripple Music), the latest album by metal road-warriors The Obsessed, Weinrich is taking names and kicking ass and he’s got the band and the studio sounds to inflict some sonic damage. Continue reading
Wizard Tattoo are ostensibly a solo outfit from Indianapolis led by multi-instrumentalist Bram the Bard who released a four-track self-titled EP last year which has now been followed up with the Fables of the Damned (Self-Released) full-length debut which I currently have in my possession and am about to review.
Beyond Vision (Blues Funeral Recordings) marks Acid King‘s fifth full-length album to date and its thirtieth anniversary as a band since their formation. It’s also the follow-up to 2015’s overlooked Middle of Nowhere, Centre of Everything album which Lori referred to in a recent interview on Conan Neutron‘s Protonic Reversal show with a hope of reissuing it at some point. Fingers crossed.
Thunderous. Anticipatory. Windswept. A Bugatti Veyron driving at top speed through the Uyuni Salt Flats. Batman. Witch Ripper’s The Flight After the Fall (Magnetic Eye Records) is all of this and more.
Grinding away in the sludge metal fringes for over thirty years, Los Angeles, California’s -16– are one of those “how have I missed them?” bands that seem to fly below the radar for many, but once detected are unlikely to be forgotten. On Into Dust (Relapse Records) the band drop their ninth album, the follow up to 2020’s Dream Squasher, sounding as amped-up, powerful and determined as ever to charge head-first through the nearest wall.
Italian stoner rockers Oreyeon release their third album Equations For The Useless (Heavy Psych Sounds), a potent mix of stoner, grunge, heavy rock, and lengthier progressive compositions. This album notably draws on the influences of years gone by not only in style but was also recorded live, an approach to a recording I’m very much a fan of.
It is a time of change for the Baltimore based psych-doom three piece Black Lung, who following the release of their third album Ancients in 2019, parted ways with founding guitarist Adam Bufano, replacing him with Deaf Scene’s Dave Fullerton. Four months later and their subsequent tour of the album was cancelled as the pandemic struck, so the band decided to regroup and start working on fresh material with their new guitar player straight away. Continue reading
Crystal Spiders – Morieris
With the second Crystal Spiders album, Morieris (Ripple Music), coming out just a year after Molt, it’s fair to say that it picks up where its predecessor left off. The guitar has a more noticeable presence courtesy of producer Mike Dean playing a more hands on role in the proceedings, but the songs remain primarily driven by Brenna Leath’s thumping bass and attitude-filled howls along with Tradd Yancey’s muscular drumming.
Today on the block we have Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes by Australian Stoner Doom band Fumarole, out now from the excellent Interstellar Smoke Records. I’ve heard a couple of their singles and dug what I heard, so I was definitely stoked to get the album in hand. Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes starts off pedal down and never really lets up. Loaded with hooky as hell riffage, driving rhythms, and killer spots where the bass and drums lay down the groove while the guitar has its fun. The solos are tasty, they have a rock feel sprinkled with some blues that truly add to the overall vibe.