Category: Stoner rock

Review: Bantha Rider – Binary Sunset Massacre

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Star Wars-themed stoner / cosmic metal is a thing. I don’t know how much of a thing it is, but apparently it’s a thing in Warsaw, Poland – home of Bantha Rider. The name lets you know that the members envision themselves as Tusken Raiders on the desolate desert wastes of Tattooine. Their newest album, Binary Sunset Massacre, is as fierce as the album’s cover and subjects appear.

The title track is a brief instrumental introduction (the album is entirely instrumentals) that unleashes the power of “De Wanna Wanga” (a phrase known to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi fans) like a horde of charging Sand People attacking a surprised Storm Trooper outpost near the Sarlac pit. The bass alone on “The Gammorean” (the horned “boar-men” of Star Wars) hits as heavy as an axe sharpened on the bones of its enemies.

The guitar solo on “Boonta Eve” is positively cosmic, and the song starts with what sounds like spacecraft revving up for travel. “Sagittarius” is also pure cosmic rock. “Rancor’s Delight” starts with sounds of the massive beast’s footfalls and roar before it erupts into heavy, heavy riffs that channel the sense of dread Luke Skywalker felt upon being dropped into a pit containing the monster.

I love the way the bass and drums seem to stumble around a bit at the beginning of “March of the Banthas.” Banthas are huge, horned, furry beasts who take their time across the desert, and the song takes its time with chugging riffs and hefty beats. The album ends with “Pazuzu” – a psychedelic trip enshrouded in dark mystery (it is named after the Mesopotamian king of demons, after all) that lasts over thirteen head-trippy minutes.

It’s a wild ride, and enjoyable for Star Wars and stoner metal fans. It’s a win-win if you like both.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Slift – Ummon

There are times when YouTube’s algorithms make a good call. Ummon, the latest album from Slift, is a good example for me. I kept seeing this record and live performances by the Toulouse, France cosmic rockers in lists of suggested videos. I finally gave Ummon a listen several months after it was released and was about knocked over by how damn heavy it is. The cover image of a naked man dragging a massive sword across what looks like a hot asteroid sums up the heft of this album pretty well.

The title track opens the record with guitars and drums sounding like ancient warriors taking armor off racks and strapping it on before charging over a drawbridge to repel invading ogres…on Titan. The lyrics about an army emerging from the Earth’s core (“Set the controls for the Earth’s surface. From the night we have waited. Bring the fire to your sleeping brothers.”). How much more metal can you get? “It’s Coming…” is a bright, shining epic tale of a white city in heavens that rushes to greet us. Is it a song about death? Probably, but it’s lets us know that death is a cosmic journey we will all find fascinating…and loud and crazy if the song’s end is any indication.

“Thousand Helmets of Gold” has Slift leaving the Earth for better times in space (“We’ve left this world of violence. Stars aren’t that far at all.”), propelled there by the power of rock riffs. What lies there in space? Well, according to “Citadel on a Satellite,” it’s a “calm and serene vista of wonders” where “time signifies nothing.” I can’t argue with that, or with the psychedelic guitar solo that weaves throughout the song. The way it softly drifts out and then slaps you awake with “Hyperion” is stunning. The song is about either an ancient warrior or an elder god – or both – and epic enough for either.

“Altitude Lake” is a psychedelic tale of a warrior seeking a mystic sword in a forsaken land of mist and mystery. The track moves back and forth between hypnotic jams and epic shredding. “Sonar” is a cool instrumental suitable for your next video game session or late night drag race with a UFO. “Dark Was Space, Cold Were the Stars” is a tale of death told by a groovy bass line, spacey synths, lock-tight drumming, and booster rocket guitars. “Aurore aux Confins” (“Dawn at the Edge”) is another wild, trippy instrumental that sounds like a laser refracted through a lava lamp.

“Son Dông’s Cavern” is a short, trippy affair that leads into the Oh Sees-like “Lions, Tigers and Bears,” which clocks in at thirteen minutes and eighteen seconds – and it’s worth every moment of that running time with its massive riffs, guttural vocals, and wild drums as they sing about a cosmic race of lion-pulled chariots across the cosmos to usher in a glorious age throughout the universe.

Ummon is an impressive piece of work, and one of those albums that makes you say, “How are three people putting out this much sound?” I don’t know the answer. My guess is that they tapped into some sort of cosmic energy well while meditating in a cave full of ancient crystals placed there by aliens. You’ll understand this when you hear it.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Cavaran – Bulldozer

My wife and I recently hired a young woman to tutor us in French via Zoom. She asked us what we hope to do with the language. We mentioned being able to travel easier in Europe and other parts of the world, of course, but I also thought, “I’d like to be able to chat with all these stoner and doom metal bands coming out of France and Belgium right now.”

Cavaran, hailing from Belgium, is one such band, and their five-song EP, Bulldozer, is another fine example of the European stoner metal scene putting out some of the best examples of the genre right now. Opening track “Walter” is led by Patrick Van Der Haegen‘s groovy and heavy bass groove while Lieven Tronckoe‘s guitar soars like a peregrine falcon one moment and burns through the cosmos like a Moebius-designed spaceship the next.

Not to be outdone, drummer Gert D’hondt gets “Dino” off to a roaring start with hits as hard as a stampeding brontosaurus. Tronckoe and Van Der Haegen are just as aggressive, sounding like gunships flying over a raging wildfire. “Holy Grail” is another furious rocker, sounding like something Foo Fighters could’ve made if they’d kept a harder edge and didn’t worry about their next big single.

“Wörner” has a wicked groove to it that gets your head banging, but not so hard you’ll have whiplash by the end. Van Der Haegen’s bass again leads the charge and it sounds like D’hondt’s drum kit has a dozen cymbals attached to it at some points. The closer, “Bigfoot,” is as heavy and mythical as its namesake with Tronckoe shredding like a chainsaw in a Pacific Northwest forest, D’hondt using fallen trees to beat his kit, and Van Der Haegen stalking you the whole time like some kind of beast.

Bulldozer packs a lot of power into just five songs, the longest of which is just over six minutes. You can either jump onto the scoop shovel and race into battle with it or let it crush you. It’s your choice.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Polder Records.]

Review: Here Lies Man – Ritual Divination

Ritual Divination, the new album by Afrobeat / metal / funk / psych / who gives a damn band Here Lies Man, is the first one they’ve recorded as a full four-piece (Marcos Garcia – guitar / vocals, Geoff Mann – drums, J.P. Maramba – bass, and Doug Organ – keyboards) and the power and chops of their heavy groove live shows comes through on each track.

The opening guitars in “In These Dreams” is straight-up classic metal with keyboard stabs to shove you into the first scene of the “movie” that is Ritual Divination. In case you didn’t know, each HLM album (and live show) is essentially written and performed like a soundtrack to a film that’s different for everyone hearing it. With “In These Dreams,” you’re already thinking, “Well, this is a bad-ass movie and we’re still in the opening credits.”

The next track deals with one of HLM’s favorite subjects – mortality. “I Told You (You Shall Die)” starts out with a slow, trudging rhythm and then transforms into an epic space rock jam with the band both reminding us of our impending departure from this reality, but also telling us to not fear something we cannot truly comprehend. “Underland” is the shortest track on the album, clocking in at just under two-and-a-half minutes, but it packs a lot of guitar power into that short (compared to the other tracks) time frame.

The riffs on “What You See” immediately make your whole body sway forward and back with them. It’s a certain groove that HLM do so well and gets your attention at the outset. As good as it is, somehow the groove on “Can’t Kill It” is even better – possibly because it ups the funk and stirs it up with killer bass and keyboard work. “Run Away Children” is almost hypnotic with its trance-like vocals.

“I Wander” is a standout, with Maramba’s bass hitting hard, Mann’s jazz background being on full display, and Organ and Garcia working so well together it’s difficult to tell where one of them ends and the other begins. HLM let us know that you can cut and strut all you want, but “night comes all the same” on “Night Comes” – another reminder of our mortality and to embrace impermanence. “Come Inside” chugs along like a train powered by onyx instead of coal.

“Collector of Vanities” could be a song for most of us. How much junk do all of us have? How many selfies do we take? How many do we filter, polish, and recolor in order to project an illusion to the world? HLM encourage us, through the power of fiery rock, to de-clutter our collection and focus within instead of on the surface. The title of “Disappointed” is repeated almost like a mantra through the track. As for what HLM is disappointed in…well, they did record the album in 2020 so it’s anybody’s guess.

“You Would Not See from Heaven” gives a strong nod toward their Black Sabbath influences – in both the sweaty, heavy groove and its somewhat doomy title – although I suspect the song is more about how, in heaven, you would not see your desires, vanities, and illusions because you are free from them. “I want to run, I want the night…” Garcia sings on “The Fates Have Won.” They always do. You might not think they will, but they have infinite patience. “Out Goes the Night” is a song that is both heavy as stone and yet uplifting as the sunrise at the same time (“In comes the light, out goes the night.”). The closer, “Cutting through the Tether,” puts down a slick drum groove (with extra hand percussion to boot) as Organ’s keys, Garcia’s guitar, and Maramba’s bass slither in the background like asps waiting to strike.

It’s another solid record from Here Lies Man, who continue to put out work that is hard to define, but once you hear it you want all of it you can get.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: Yardsss – Cultus

I’m not sure what is most impressive about Yardsss‘ new album, Cultus. Is it the epic riffs? The space / stoner jams influenced by early Pink Floyd? The way invites you to get lost in it like a hedge maze?

It might be that the entire album was improvised. Yes, Krist Kreuger, Robin Levy, and Paul Schaefer made up this entire record as they went along – completely trusting each other and letting the journey take them to unknown places.

It’s only three tracks (“Cultus I,” “Cultus II,” and, you guessed it, “Cultus III”), but the first two are over seven minutes each and the third is almost twenty-two minutes in length. All three are stunning pieces. “Cultus I” builds to a spacewalk playlist jam with swollen riffs, rolling drums, and rocket fuel synths. “Cultus II” dives straight into the deep end of the hard rock pool with furious riffs and then swims to the shallow end for a shot of tequila for a bit.

“Cultus III” could be a transmission from V-ger in the first Star Trek movie for all I know. It’s weird, wild, and cosmic. It rolls along like a war machine across a Jack Kirby-drawn landscape in a Kamandi comic.

It’s a stunning piece of work, and proceeds from its sale go to charities that focus on homelessness and prisoners. You can’t miss.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Fuzz – III

Just in time to shake you out of your COVID-19 self-isolation funk, Fuzz (Charles Moothart, Ty Segall, and Chad Ubovich) are back with III – an album to make you look inward and shake you out of the trappings of everything outward.

“There is no greater sum than one,” Segall sings on opener “Returning” amid wild drum fills and enough, yes, guitar and bass fuzz to fill up an arena. A running theme throughout III is how unity often produces things greater than the individual can produce. Not that individual effort is worthless. Far from it. Sometimes individuals joined in a common cause (rock, in Fuzz‘s case) combine their powers for the greater good.

The funky and skronky “Nothing People” calls out rich elitists (“Nothing People have enough to eat, but they ain’t worth a dollar.”) with garage-metal swing. “Spit” has a bit of a Queens of the Stone Age feel to it with its strip club rhythm and gritty guitar. “Time Collapse” rolls along at a smoky pace and then drops doom metal riffs and lyrics (“Claim your throne in the black.”/ “You are forgotten by the one. After the light is gone, you are always alone. Your blood the only sun.”) on you.

“Mirror” calls out squares (“Freaks are breeding love in the gutter with another, burn the ceiling of house you live in with your mother.”) and slaps them with hyper-speed guitars and heavy drum fills. “Close Your Eyes” encourages us to let go of our illusions of there always being something better just over the next hill when we often have paradise in front of us. Segall sings, “You might think I’m crazy, and I don’t blame you, living like I don’t care. I just want you to come with me and see there’s nothing out there.” as the song drops into a sweet groove near the end.

“Blind to the Vines” starts off with space-rock guitars and then switches gears to almost southern-fried rock with its riffs. “End Returning” takes us down a rabbit hole that bores through psych and doom rock for almost eight minutes. It’s a trippy way to end a heavy record, but good psych and doom makes you do that (and the song doesn’t skimp on some punk madness either).

III is another solid record from Fuzz that shows three men operating at the height of their powers for one cause – to shred your speakers and awaken us out of our funks.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Pitch Perfect PR.]

Here Lies Man unveil first single, “I Told You (You Shall Die),” from new album due January 22, 2021.

Los Angles, CA quartet Here Lies Man announce their forthcoming fourth album Ritual Divination today and share the lead single “I Told You (You Shall Die)” via YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify. Please see track listings for vinyl and digital variants below.


Four albums in, the convenient and generalized catchphrase for Here Lies Man’s erudite sound — if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat — might seem a little played out. But Ritual Divination is perhaps the best rendering of the idea so far. Particularly on the Sabbath side of the equation: The guitars are heavier and more blues based than before, but the ancient rhythmic formula of the clave remains a constant. 
“Musically it’s an opening up more to traditional rock elements,” says vocalist/guitarist/cofounder Marcos Garcia, who also plays guitar in Antibalas. “It’s always been our intention to explore. And, as we travelled deeper into this musical landscape, new features revealed themselves.” 

The L.A. based band comprised of Antibalas members have toured relentlessly following their breakout 2017 self-titled debut. Their second album, You Will Know Nothing and an EP, Animal Noises, both followed in 2018. Third album No Ground To Walk Upon emerged in August 2019. All of them were crafted by Garcia and cofounder/drummer Geoff Mann (former Antibalas drummer and son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) in their L.A. studio between tours. Ritual Divination is their first album recorded as the full 4-piece band, including bassist JP Maramba and keyboardist Doug Organ.


Ritual Divination continues with an ongoing concept of HLM playing the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, with each song being a scene. “It’s an inward psychedelic journey, the album is the trip,” Garcia says. “The intention and purpose of the music is to create a sonic ritual to lift the veil of inner space and divine the true nature of reality.” 

Likewise, musically and sonically, the album is self-reflexive. “On this album the feel changes within a song,” Garcia says. “Whereas before each song was meant to induce a trancelike state, now more of the songs have their own arc built in.” Similarly, the guitar sounds themselves herein eschew the fuzz pedals of previous recordings, going for the directness of pure amp overdrive and distortion using an interconnected rig of 4 amplifiers. And, here, the well-versed live band is able to record as a unit, giving it much more of a live and dynamic feel.

Rough Trade named the band’s self-titled debut in their prestigious Top 10 Albums of 2017. BBC 6 & Classic Rock Magazine deemed it among the year’s best, as well as countless other press outlets singing its praises. Each subsequent album furthered the band’s reputation for genre-smashing rhythmic experimentation, topping many year-end lists as well as earning features from countless metal and indie rock outlets, plus cover stories in weekly papers. 

“We’re very conscious of how the rhythms service the riffs,” Garcia explains. “Tony Iommi’s (Black Sabbath) innovation was to make the riff the organizing principle of a song. We are taking that same approach but employing a different organizing principle: For Iommi it was the blues, for us it comes directly from Africa.”

Ritual Divination will be available on LP, CD and download on January 22nd, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. 

Digital & CD: 01. In These Dreams 02. I Told You (You Shall Die) 03. Underland 04. What You See 05. Can’t Kill It 06. Run Away Children 07. I Wander 08. Night Comes 09. Come Inside 10. Collector of Vanities 11. Disappointed 12. You Would Not See From Heaven 13. The Fates Have Won 14. Out Goes The Night 15. Cutting Through The Tether
Vinyl: Side A: 01. In These Dreams 02. I Told You (You Shall Die) 03. Underland 04. What You See 05. Night Comes
Side B: 01. Come Inside 02. Collector of Vanities 03. Disappointed 04. The Fates Have Won 05. Out Goes The Night
Bonus 7″ (UK pressing & direct from RidingEasy) Side A: Run Away Children Side B: I Wander

On The Web:

ridingeasyrecords.com

hereliesman.com

facebook.com/hereliesman

hereliesman.bandcamp.com

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: The Death Wheelers – Divine Filth

What do you get when you combine Mötorhead, The Cramps, Misfits, surf rock, grindhouse movies, hallucinogens, guitar, bass, and drums? You get The Death Wheelers and their new album, Divine Filth.

The album is pretty much the soundtrack to a lost post-apocalyptic movie involving bikers fighting the living dead, or a Satanic cult, or an evil corporation, or all three. The Death Wheelers are known for creating albums like this, and their records make you wish you had some sort of teleportation device that could take you to the alternate dimension where these films exist.

“Welcome to Spurcity” opens the album with deep synth-wave bass that brings to mind 1980’s slasher films (and the power tool guitars certainly help), and then the guitars, bass, and drums kick in with stoner-doom power to set you back on your heels. It ends with the sound of the bands’ motorcycles racing off into a zombie wasteland. “Ditchfinder General,” a nice play on the Vincent Price film Witchfinder General, is brilliant thrash metal that transitions into spaghetti western rock. It works, believe me.

“DTA (Sucicycle Tendencies)” begins with instructions on how to smoke a joint before thudding bass, agile guitar shredding, and military march drums come in to cause a miniature riot. The title track comes at you like machine gun fire after we hear a group of men declare war on another gang who’s been picking them off one by one. It’s non-stop after this little bit of dialogue. You can hardly catch your breath for four minutes.

“Lobotomobile,” believe it or not, brings in surf rock elements. “Born mean. Savage servants of the devil!” is the opening line to the raucous “Corps Mortis” – which seems to up the bass and swap the metal guitar riffs with 1960s garage rock grooves. The drumming on it, by the way, is batshit crazy.

The opening lines of “Murder Machines – Biker Mortis” are, “It is the biker’s drug. / How dangerous is it? / It’s very dangerous.” That pretty much sums up the whole album, not just the song. Everything on Divine Filth has a rusty saw blade edge to it (but look and listen carefully and you’ll see the rest of that blade is highly polished by expert craftsmen). “Motörgasm – Carnal Pleasures Pt. 1” is a wild, sexy, psychedelic, and, yes, funky jam that must’ve been just as fun for them to play as it is for us to hear.

“Chopped Back to Life” sounds like a bar fight that leads to a foot chase that then leads to a motorcycle chase that ends up in a junkyard next to a cemetery where the people in the fight end up having to team up to fight zombies from next door – but still end up finishing their fight once the zombies are dead (again). “Road Rite” starts with a quote from, if I’m not mistaken, Pink Flamingos, so The Death Wheelers’ love of trash and exploitation cinema crosses multiple boundaries – which only makes me appreciate them more. The album’s closer, “Nitrus,” would make Dick Dale proud – as it sizzles with his style of playing and frantic surf drums that send the record off on a roaring note.

I should mention that this wild, face-shredding instrumental album was recorded in two days. This hardly seems possibly when you hear it. A live Death Wheelers performance must be like standing in front of an open blast furnace if they can make an album this powerful in 48 hours or less.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave as US / THEM Group.]

Review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals

Any album by the Newcastle quintet Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs should come with a roll of duct tape to secure your face to your head due to the constant threat of band’s booming, fuzzed-out riffs blasting it to smithereens. Their newest record, Viscerals, is no exception.

Beginning with mosh-pit inducing drums by Christopher Morley, “Reducer” takes off like an experimental rocket car across desolate salt flats. It shifts momentarily into bass-heavy sludge from John-Michael Hedley and echoing vocals by Matt Baty telling us that “Ego kills everything.” He’s right, of course, and that statement is woefully apparent in the 2020 political climate. The swirling guitars of Ian Sykes and Sam Grant on “Rubbernecker” produce a pulsing effect that creeps up your spine and settles somewhere in your amygdala.

“I’m dancing with the devil with his two left feet,” Baty sings on the creepy, jarring “New Body,” which is over seven minutes of controlled chaos as Baty yells, “I don’t feel a thing!” to a red-tinged harvest moon while standing in a thaumaturgic circle. Or at least the ceiling in the recording studio while standing in comfy sneakers. I’m not sure. The short “Blood and Butter” is a haunting spoken word track that melts into the thrash metal-like “World Crust,” which sounds heavy enough to crack its namesake.

“Death is in bloom!” Baty shouts on the doom-psych killer cut “Crazy in Blood.” It’s a standout track on a standout record and the type of song that makes everyone stop and listen. “Halloween Bolson” is bubbles like a witch’s cauldron and then builds to a rapid boil of space rock guitars and enough fuzzy bass to awaken a hibernating grizzly. The song crunches for nine straight minutes and, just when it lets you catch your breath, it cracks you in the head again with another massive riff. The closer “Hell’s Teeth” is a great shout-and-response track (“Let’s rock! In peace!”) that is both radio friendly and potentially speaker-damaging.

Viscerals is true to its name, as every song is either savage or seething, often both. It’s a powerful record for bizarre times that brings things into focus through fuzz.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Mars Red Sky – self-titled (2012)

Any album that is (apart from two songs) recorded in a Spanish national park is bound to be interesting. Any album recorded in a Spanish national park that is also as heavy as Mars Red Sky‘s self-titled debut album is stunning.

I mean, good heavens, the first lines of the first track, “Strong Reflection,” are “Dead stars are burning in the sky, their light reflecting in your eyes, and here the ravens don’t show. Where I’ve been, you don’t want to know.” That alone is metal AF, so the heavy bass that moves like a mastodon, the drums that hammer like its heart, and the guitar that wails like its trumpet blast is heavy enough to knock down your garage. “Curse” is a throwback to 1970’s stoner rock with its echoing lyrics, fuzzed-out guitars, and lyrics about acid rain and how “The greatest fun, it’s not fun at all.”

“Falls” is a wild instrumental blending guitar psychedelia with thunderstorm-like drumming and bass so gritty that you could probably sand lumber with it. “Way to Rome” is a tale of gladiators (or slaves, or both since they were often one and the same) preparing for death. You can’t go wrong with lyrics like “Ride the dark horse through the fire, through the storm, as we’re set to die in the heart of the sun.” Again, metal AF, and the song shifts like sand dunes back and forth between psychedelic rock, stoner metal, and even a bit of krautrock.

“Saddle Point” is another cool instrumental, and “Marble Sky” is a harrowing tale of burning entrails, crushed mountains, and beings emerging from holes in the sky. The vocals are covered in reverb through this track, bringing to mind Black Sabbath tracks. The guitar also takes on a bit of a blues flavor as well, which is a great touch. The closer, “Up the Stairs,” is a fuzz-heavy track about climbing what seems to be an endless stairwell into space and away from the “evil sound” of Earth. That was eight years ago. Where is this stairwell in 2020? I’d like to take a walk.

This was an auspicious debut in 2012. MRS are working on a new full-length album. Let’s hope it comes soon. The world needs heavy stuff like this to shake it awake.

Keep your mind open.

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