Category: Desert rock

Review: MOTSUS – Atlas

Belgian stoner metal trio MOTSUS have returned from the galaxy next door with a new record, Atlas, that continues their exploration of heavy riffs and cosmic themes. “Atlas” can refer to the character of Greek myth who held the world upon his back, never succumbing to its heavy weight, or the comet discovered by the Atlas telescope in Chile in July 2025. The album’s cover seems to be a drawing of a futuristic science research outpost / doomsday shelter, possibly built from storage containers, and, knowing MOTSUS’ prior output, is probably on another planet or even floating in space.

“Driver” is suitable for playing while in orbit or for terraforming a distant planet with its rumbling drums and chugging guitars. “Duna” downshifts into trippy, melty psych-rock and lets you drift for over eight minutes along some gravity well that is either holding up or pulling down the planet, depending on your perspective.

The heavy sounds of “Exploder, Pt. II” are great. You’ll find yourself slowly head-banging as it rolls around your head and the room and the air around you. It fills every space for almost ten minutes until “Short Notice” gives you a two-minute rest before “Turboslak” shows up to pull you into an asteroid field in deep space, and you’re not sure if you’ll come out of it with one hundred percent hull integrity. The guitars and drums hammer like rocks of various sizes bouncing off the ship while you start landing procedures on one that looks like a good place to build the structure on the album’s cover.

Atlas is another good one from MOTSUS. Put it on, fire the ignition, and take off with it.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Tom of MOTSUS.]

Review: Gran Moreno – El Sol

I described Gran Moreno’s new album, El Sol, to a nephew as “Latino garage-psych.” That’s about the closest I can get to how they sound. Mix their hometown Austin, Texas love of heavy psych grooves with some blues influences, border rock, and metal riffs, then bake it in the desert sun, and you get the idea.

“Las Montañas” starts off the “sun” (“El Sol”) side of the album with enough heavy riffs to start a landslide or give you the power to scale literal and figurative mountains. The last minute of this song is like a match thrown on a trail of gasoline. It doesn’t so much flow into “Aztlan” as it roars into it like a flash flood through a desert wash.

“Huracán” is almost an arena-rock track with big, Brian May-like guitar riffs mixed with soulful, mellow chords. It’s another song of many on the album that reflect the elements: “Las Montañas” (“The Mountains”) are earth, “Huracán” (“Hurricane”) could be air and / or water. After it comes “Temple of Fire” with its marching beats and tales of a long road ahead to something grand on the horizon.

“La Mentira” (“The Lie”) brings in more heavy, fuzzy, bluesy swagger and grows into a scorcher by the end. “Oaxaca / Please Don’t Cry” has a great inclusion of saxophone and trumpet on it to elevate the song, somehow, even higher. The album (and the “La Luna” side) ends with “Hikuri” — a track that blends catchy guitar riffs with hammering power chords and drums that catch you off-guard every time.

It’s a strong record, and one I’d love to hear live. It must flatten you.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Rewind Review: Earthless – From the West (2018)

Recorded in San Francisco on March 01, 2018 just before releasing their Black Heaven album, Earthless celebrated that occasion with this stunning show that, thankfully, was recorded for all of us.

From the West is a blistering set that starts with the Black Heaven title track that unloads so much power that you wonder if they’ll have anything left for the rest of the set (Hint: They somehow always do.). “Electric Flame” is a rare Earthless track with vocals by guitarist Isaiah Mitchell and it reminds me of something by Blue Cheer with its driving force and thick grooves from Mike Eginton‘s bass.

“Gifted By the Wind” always makes me think of Robin Trower and his influence on Mitchell’s playing. Its transition into the always transcendent “Uluru Rock” is great. Mario Rubalcaba‘s snare hits on “Volt Rush” sound like he’s going through drumsticks like faster than his drum tech can bring them. Their cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Communication Breakdown” has become a fan-favorite and they somehow make it even fuzzier.

The album / set concludes with the hypnotic “Acid Crusher,” which highlights the band’s often-forgotten (or flat-out ignored) love of krautrock. Eginton and Rubalcaba combine to create a mesmerizing groove while Mitchell makes you think you might’ve accidentally inhaled crushed LSD with his phenomenal playing.

A live Earthless performance is always something special and difficult to describe. From the West is a close proximity to the experience, leaving you stunned that three people can produce that much power.

Keep your mind open.


[Blast on over to the subscription box!]

Mojave Experience 2026 announces its full lineup.

The Mojave Experience festival today announces the full lineup for the first annual event, which takes place from March 20th-21st, 2026 in Joshua Tree, California. The festival is the brainchild of organizer and High Desert native Patrick Brink, frontman of VOLUME and former lead singer of desert rock legends Fu Manchu. Tickets are on sale now for individual days. Tickets are available HERE.


Co-headliners Earthless and Dead Meadow top the bill, totaling 16 bands confirmed to perform over two nights. The lineup includes legends in explorative and countercultural music, as well as future ones now making waves.

The full lineup is: Earthless, Dead Meadow, John Garcia (ex-Kyuss), Acid King, Nick Oliveri’s Death Acoustic, Yawning Man, Hippie Death Cult, Rubber Snake Charmers feat. Sean Wheeler, Ecstatic Vision, Howling Giant, Early Moods, The Freeks, Arthur Seay and the Riff Killers, Borracho, Insomniac, Soft Sun

The Mojave Experience takes place in Joshua Tree, California at the Joshua Tree Lake & Campground. Attendees are encouraged to make use of the camping, hiking and rock climbing in the area while taking in the vast beauty and mystery of the region that birthed the Desert Rock movement.


The Mojave isn’t just a backdrop — it’s the raw, unfiltered stage where music, art, and chaos collide. Out here, under endless stars and brutal sun, the desert strips away the fake and leaves only what’s real.


The Mojave Experience was born from that spirit. It’s not another sanitized festival in a city park, it’s a gathering for the wild ones, the wanderers, the true believers who know the desert doesn’t hand out comfort, only freedom.


This is where local desert legends share the stage with national heavyweights, weaving new stories into the myth of the Mojave. No velvet ropes. No corporate gloss. Just artists, misfits, and seekers coming together for a weekend that won’t be forgotten.


We bring the sound. You bring the fire. Together we’ll carve something into the desert that echoes long after the amps shut down. This is more than a festival — it’s a ritual. A pilgrimage into the heat, dust, and sound that will rattle your bones and rewire your soul.


Come ready. Come raw. The Mojave Experience isn’t here to entertain you — it’s here to change you.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go!]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Bronco Forte roll a nat-20 for their new single – “Lightning Scar.”

Los Angeles quartet Bronco Forte share a beautifully crafted D&D themed video for the lead single from their forthcoming full length debut LP Lightning Scars today. The video is produced by Zograscope Studios and features actor John Ennis (Better Call Saul, Mr. Show) in a very creative production design. An early preview launched via Metal Injection HERE. The “Lightning Scar” video is now also available to watch & share on YouTube HERE.

The single is available on all DSPs HERE.

After so many iterations of heavy, desert-inspired doom rock over past decades, it seems the essence of purely driving riffs, earworm harmonies and strong songwriting that defined a genre has been forsaken. Bronco Forte are a return to the stark blast that made bands like Kyuss, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden legends. 

After years of creative toil and preparation, Los Angeles quartet Bronco Forte is stepping into the spotlight as a fully-formed heavy rock phenomenon, with roots in the classic heavy music of the 1970s, seasoned with a deeply modern sensibility and sonic approach. The songs on their debut full-length album, Lightning Scars, chronicle the uncertain lives of ordinary people in the cities and wildernesses of California and beyond, as the characters they depict strive to maintain their integrity in the face of a rapidly-changing world.

The band’s lyrics balance literary style and kitchen-sink realism. Their riffs are deep and dirty, conjuring up the kinds of swinging grooves that cause involuntary head-nodding. The song structures are clever without being cluttered, and the band’s judicious use of vocal harmonies brings a powerful pop sweetness that cuts like a ray of light through the deep swampy stomp of their songs. It all adds up to a fresh yet familiar take on hard rock for a new era, as they draw inspiration and energy from their musical ancestors while casting aside the weary genre cliches of the past. 

On Lightning Scars, guitarist and vocalist Chris Klepac’s focused songwriting and poignant lyrics meld seamlessly with guitarist Sako Injaian’s (All Hail the Yeti) energetic riffs to create a sonic tapestry that is somehow as catchy as it is heavy. Together, bassist Jen Glomboski (White Forest) and drummer Geoff Summers (Batillus, A Storm of Light) lay down a rhythmic foundation that is as solid and unwavering as the endless expanses of concrete and asphalt that blanket the band’s home of southern California.

Lightning Scars was tracked and mixed by engineer Kevin McCombs (Linkin Park, Story of the Year) at legendary North Hollywood studio The Steakhouse – the same studio where Queens of the Stone Age recorded Era Vulgaris. From there, the band took the audio to heavy rock mastering wizard Nick Townsend (Alice in Chains, Frankie and the Witch Fingers), who cut the resulting album to lacquer on his own personal lathe. Album art from Kevin “fetusK” Bernier (Prosthetic Records, Intronaut) completes the package.

Lightning Scars will be available on LP, CD and download on April 3rd, 2026. Pre-orders are available HERE.

Keep your mind open.

[Save vs. paralysis. If save made, subscribe now. If save failed, subscribe twice.]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Gran Moreno release third single from upcoming album due January 16, 2026.

Austin duo Gran Moreno share the final single, “Aztlan” from their forthcoming debut studio album El Sol today on all platforms. The song launched earlier via New Noise Magazine HERE. Hear and share “Aztlan” + 3 previous singles on all DSPs HERE. 

The duo play a special hometown album release party in Austin on January 18th at The 13th Floor. Tickets are available HERE. 

Gran Moreno emerges as one of the most captivating voices in the new wave of psychedelic rock. With a sound rooted in analog warmth and expansive textures, the Austin-based band crafts songs that feel like sonic mirages — equal parts groove, grit, and atmosphere. Their music lives at the intersection of distortion and introspection, where hypnotic riffs, heavy rhythms, and emotionally charged melodies build immersive landscapes that demand to be felt as much as heard.

At the core of Gran Moreno is a deep commitment to storytelling through sound. Their upcoming album is a conceptual two-part release: Side A: El Sol and Side B: La Luna. Each side represents a different emotional plane — El Sol radiates urgency, energy, and clarity, while La Luna leans into shadow, mystery, and reflection. The first release, El Sol, captures the band at full intensity, delivering a vivid, unfiltered introduction to their evolving identity.

On stage, Gran Moreno transforms their sound into a full-body experience. Their live shows blend sonic power with visual depth, pulling audiences into a shared trance that feels both personal and communal. As they continue to shape their universe with bold creativity and a fierce independent spirit, Gran Moreno isn’t just making music — they’re building a world of their own.

El Sol will be available on LP and download on January 16th, 2026. Pre-orders are available HERE. 

GRAN MORENO – LIVE 2026

01/18 Austin, TX – The 13th Floor – album release party

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Top 25 albums of 2025: #’s 20 – 16

It’s time for the top twenty of the 40+ albums I reviewed last year. Who’s in the top half?

#20: The Quality of Mercury – The Voyager

This one came out of nowhere and landed much like the alien craft on the cover. It’s a sharp mix of electro, prog-rock, and shoegaze…all done by one guy riffing on the idea of lonely spade travel.

#19: Fugue State – In the Lurch

Wild garage punk that will leave your stereo system feeling like the wreckage on the album cover. This is another band who came out of nowhere for me that I was glad to find.

#18: Dog Lips – Danger Forward

Loud, brash, and energetic post-punk here that stresses the punk more than the post. This was another band that came out of nowhere. Good stuff lies ahead for them, and for you if you snag this record.

#17: Birds of Nazca – Pangaea

Two Frenchmen making cosmic rock that sounds like it was made by at least a quartet because it’s so damn heavy and loud. It’s all instrumentals, too, which I love.

#16: Anika – Abyss

It’s always good to hear Anika, who returned in 2025 with another sultry and spooky record. Anika has a voice that can instantly hypnotize you, and her dark electro music is always alluring. I still need to catch her live one of these days.

Who’s in the top fifteen? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to learn that.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Review: Désordre – L’Échappée Belle

Hailing from Lyon, France, Désordre (Disorder) bring their three-song instrumental EP, L’Échappée Belle (The Great / Beautiful Escape – depending on how you choose to translate it) that’s indeed an escape from whatever reality you’re in now.

“Chèvre Bleue” (“Blue Goat”) is a cool track that builds from desert rock mellow riffs to heavy space rock lift-offs, and then back to desert rock, but this time you’re racing across the desert on horseback and instead of taking a slow ride on a camel.

“Ordalie” (“Ordeal”) stomps the gas pedal and cranks the volume, giving you the energy to power through whatever trial or tribulation you might be experiencing. It will make you feel like you’re in an action film at times, and like you’re meditating on a mountain at others.

“Débordé” (“Overwhelmed”) does this balancing act just as well, deftly moving back and forth between stoner rock power and psych-rock mind trips. It can indeed feel overwhelming at times, but Désordre know when to pull back and let you get a breath before they toss you into orbit again.

It’s a solid EP that bodes well for a future full-length LP from them. It feels like a pre-launch sequence to an interstellar mission.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Merci á Désordre!]

Review: The Quality of Mercury – The Voyager

Check out that album cover. That pretty much sums up how The Quality of Mercury‘s new album, The Voyager, is going to sound.

Jeremiah Rouse, otherwise known as The Quality of Mercury, has come back from a nine-year journey to release his new record, and my guess is that was how long he was cruising around in that spaceship on the album’s cover because The Voyager is full of cosmic riffs and epic sounds that seem to drift around distant planets or alongside speeding comets.

“Moonrise” starts off the journey with Rouse proclaiming, “Sleeping giant rise. It’s time to breathe the stars.” The sleeping giant could be us, the moon, the Earth, a celestial being, or just the sound of the entire album. “Radiate” blasts you with Hum-like intensity and an intense tale of an astronaut fleeing a burning, crumbling ship in one last ditch effort to leap from his craft to a space station and hope his oxygen doesn’t run out before he can reach it. “Ganymede” is a story of how the future, or even distant moons, aren’t far enough to escape heartbreak (“Thirteen was the number of the airlock where you left me…Now I’m broken and still frozen on this ice moon where you left me.”).

“Heaven’s Gate” is indeed about the doomed cult of the same name, but not about its ideals. It’s about how those people wanted to find something in the stars that they were missing on Earth…even though it was around them the entire time. The thick bass line Rouse plays on it is a good touch. “Desperate Measures” has two lovers on opposite sides of space taking great risks to reunite. This theme of longing for connection is prevalent on the whole record, and Rouse has said how “…relationships, both human and spiritual, are at the center of everything.”

“Receiving Hertz” has Rouse (Who, by the way, plays everything on this record.) singing about wishing for a human connection across vast distances as he gets “signals from a distant light. Receiving hertz, but still out of sight.” Rouse’s guitar work on “Selenite” has so many layers to it that it feels like he’s terraforming a landscape with it. The title track, which ends the album, has Rouse leaving on his journey into the stars to search “…for purpose and meaning, but the space goes on and on. Tranquil horizons deceiving.” He thinks he’ll be alone, and he might be right, but he also knows he has to make the launch.

We all do at some point, be it into adulthood, parenthood, a new job, a new relationship, a move across the country or the cosmos. We’re all seeking connection here on Earth and even across our galaxy. It’s the eternal quest, and The Quality of Mercury invites us to take it.

Keep your mind open.

[Be sure to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Shauna at Shamless Promotion PR!]

Review: Birds of Nazca – Pangaea

I don’t know how two people – Guillaume – guitar and Romauld – drums of Birds of Nazca can make so much sound, but they do it on their new album Pangaea…which is somehow heavier than their last (Héliolite).

As you can guess by the album’s cover, it blends desert and cosmic rock and has gravity-defying and / or crushing riffs throughout it. The theme of the album is that each track refers to and is inspired by a different place, landscape, or (I suspect) energy vortex of the Earth.

Beginning with “Batagaïka” (the name of the infamous melting permafrost crater in Siberia), BON explore a place on Earth and in our minds that is withering away to expose things we’ve long buried or have been hidden. Guillaume’s multi-layered guitar chords are like a giant stretching after a long slumber while Romauld harness the sound of cracking firmament.

“Gang Rinpoché,” also known as Mount Kailash” in China, is one of the tallest mountains in the world and perhaps the one with the most spiritual significance to at least three different religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The mountain is believed to be the connection between heaven and earth and no one has ever reached its summit. Climbing it is strictly forbidden by the Chinese government and anyone who has tried has failed. That doesn’t stop BON from creating a mountain-heavy track dedicated to it and its mystery, however.

“Racetrack Playa” is in Death Valley, California. It’s a dry lake bed where rocks can move during the winter (thanks to ice and wind) for several, if not dozens, of meters and leave “racetracks” in the land. Appropriately, BON stomps the gas pedal and takes off across the salty flats while it sounds like they’re being chased by a post-apocalyptic biker gang armed with chainsaws.

We next travel to Russia and near the Ural Mountains to see “Man Pupu Nyor” (“Little Mountain of the Gods”) – the weird and somewhat spooky rock formations that might be warriors frozen in time. BON makes it feel like those huge warriors are breaking free of their rocky tombs and knocking the rust off their axes in preparation for battle.

The birds fly over to South America and the Andes Mountains for a visit to “Incahuasi” – a mountain that borders Argentina and Chile. I don’t recommend playing this if you’re ascending it. You might cause an avalanche because Romauld’s drums alone sometimes sound like tons of ice roaring toward you.

The album ends with the title track (which itself ends in birdsong) – a reference to the “supercontinent” that existed over 200 million years ago and consisted of most of the land masses we know today. It’s mind-blowing to consider how (relatively) close all the places BON have named on this album used to be to each other until great cataclysms divided them.

It’s the same with people, and I think that’s the underlying message of the album. We all used to be neighbors. We all had sacred connections to spaces and knew Mother Nature could crush us in an instant, so we had to take care of her. We still do. We still can. Put on this album and get to work.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

[Merci á Birds of Nazca!]