Category: Stoner rock

Rewind Review: Mephistofeles – Whore (2016)

Hailing from Argentina, Mephistofeles emerged onto the doom metal scene in 2016 with Whore – an album that feels and sounds as heavy as a war hammer being dragged through a blood-soaked battlefield by a lone warrior approaching a wounded lich. Oh yes, and a lot of it is inspired by lead singer and guitarist Gabriel Ravera‘s ex-girlfriend – a drug addict who made him miserable.

“Black Sunday,” the opening track, alone has enough heavy doom riffs for two albums. The band’s love of Black Sabbath, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Salem’s Pot, and Electric Wizard is evident from the first chords and vocals. Ismael Dimenza‘s bass is as thick as molasses, and Iván Sacharczuk‘s cymbal crashes become hissing, whispering spirits after while. The title track cranks up the fuzz and increases the tempo to an undead army’s marching beat.

“Your life is nothing,” Ravera sings on the cheerfully titled “Kill Yourself,” which feels and sounds like another homage to doom giants Electric Wizard. I like how it turns into a bit of a psychedelic trip for a little while with Dimenza taking his time on the bass,. “Cursed to Death” has a sweet (leaf) groove to it. Ravera’s guitar takes on a bit of an early ZZ Top (or, perhaps, Moving Sidewalks) sound, and Dimenza and Sacharczuk are locked-in on their groove.

“Drug Addict” brings back the heavy stoner rock riffs (How could it not with a title like that?), as Ravera’s vocals take on sounds of desperation, near-panic, and then anger. Meanwhile he and his bandmates pound out some of the heaviest riffs on the album. “Evil Beauty” saunters around the room like a deadly panther that’s actually a transformed sorceress from a hidden temple in an Argentinian jungle who seeks human hearts to complete the ritual that will restore her to human form. “Wizard of Meth” closes the record, complete with weird samples about being torn to shreds and scattered across the universe and sludge riffs that seem to crush you with their mass.

It’s an impressive record, and there’s a punk undertone to it with its attitude and sheer shock value. I can’t help but think some of it is played with a wink, which is cool Doom metal is a serious genre, but it does need to be able to chuckle now and then.

Keep your mind open.

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French post-metal legends Year of No Light announce 20th anniversary box set.

Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year of No Light announce their forthcoming fifth studio album Consolamentum today, sharing the first single “Réalgar” via all DSPs. Hear and share “Réalgar” via Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube.

Consolamentum is the band’s first album on Pelagic Records. To celebrate joining the label and Year of No Lights‘s 20th anniversary, they will release a limited edition deluxe wooden box set of the band’s entire discography, titled Mnemophobia on July 2nd. The handmade, hand-silkscreened wooden box features 12 vinyl LPs in 6 gatefold sleeves, exclusive colored vinyl variants, a slipmat, metal pin, patch and poster. For more information, see HERE.

Year of No Light’s lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn’t be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. Consolamentum is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.
It comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th – 14th Century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.

“There’s a thread running through all of our albums”, says the band, collectively “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized (“Nord”) and reverberated (“Ausserwelt”), then declaimed as a warning (“Tocsin”). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it’s a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it’s the epiphany of the Fall.”

With debut album Nord (2006) and sophomore release Ausserwelt (2010), the band madethemselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.

With their seminal 3rd album Tocsin, released in 2013, Year Of No Light reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that Consolamentum was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles / Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side.

“We wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible”, comments the band. “All tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most natural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.”

For the adept listener, Consolamentum seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on Tocsin – but the band doesn’t conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography. 

“It’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light” is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos.”

Consolamentum is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like Decibel Magazine says of its predecessor, it’s “audacious, memorable and supremely confident.”

Consolamentum will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records. Preorders are available HERE.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Alastor dare you to examine “Dead Things in Jars” from their upcoming album.

Swedish rock band Alastor share the first single from their forthcoming album Onwards and Downwards today via Heavy Blog Is Heavy. Hear and share “Dead Things In Jars” HERE. (Direct YouTube and Bandcamp.)

Metal Injection recently hosted the first single, the driving rocker “Death Cult” HERE. (YouTube.)

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms… and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days. 

“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.” 

Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy. 

“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel. 

From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness. 

The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward… or downward, depending on your preferences.) 

Onwards and Downwards will be available on LP, CD and download on May 28th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. 

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: Brown Acid – The 12th Trip

RidingEasy Records is back with another round of obscure, rare stoner rock, metal, and psychedelia on Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip. This one brings you ten tunes that stretch from Hawaii to Belgium in terms of their places of origin.

First up is the fuzz-filled “Mother Samwell” by Louisville, Kentucy’s The Water. It’s like T. Rex meets The Guess Who and 1969 southern rock. It fades out far too soon and makes you wish The Water had stuck around after 1972. Hamilton, Ontario’s Village S.T.O.P. brings us the trippy, melting, fuzzy freak-out “Vibrations.” The drums sound like they were recorded in another room with walls of chicken wire and mud, and I mean that in the best way possible.

The bass on White Lightning‘s (hailing from Minneapolis) “1930” is so fat you could stick it on a Parliament track. Shane drops the funky, yet heavy “Woman (Don’t You Go)” from the San Francisco Bay area in 1968…and nothing else. They broke up not long after releasing the track, which is a shame because it sounds like they could’ve been a pretty successful psych-funk band.

Dallas’ Ace Song Service unleashes a hefty Hammond B3 organ on “Persuasion,” and combines it with a sizzling guitar solo. Opus Est is the Belgian band on the record, and their heady song “Bed” is about sex and, apparently, and drugs and rock and roll (Go figure.). The aforementioned Hawaiian band is The Mopptops, who are described in the liner notes as “the Blues Magoos meets Iron Butterfly.” I don’t think I can sum it up better than that (or that wild guitar solo!).

Do you need more cowbell? Youngstown, Ohio’s Artist gives you plenty of it (and plenty of mega-riffs) on “Every Lady Does It.” “Comin’ Home” by Carthage, Missouri’s Stagefright is akin to a MC5 track with its wild drumming, fuzzy vocals, and heavy guitar and bass. The closing track is the wonderfully bizarre, ultra-rare “Don’t Talk About My Music” by Dickens – a band made up of members of and roadies for NRBQ who barely knew how to play the instruments they jam with and recorded in an impromptu session after Jim Nabors cancelled some studio time. The result is a trippy, fun jam of which only fifty or so known copies are in existence. It’s a great treat to end a wild anthology.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

The 12th Brown Acid Trip is scheduled to arrive on, when else, April 20th.

The forthcoming latest edition of the popular compilation series featuring long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles, Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip will be available on April 20th, 2021. Today, hear and share the latest single, the maniacal 1969 rocker “1930” by White Lightning via YouTube and Bandcamp.
Previously, “Mother Samwell” the 1969 rocker by The Waters was launched via YouTube. And, “Woman (Don’t You Go)” by Shane followed in March on YouTube.
The Brown Acid series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records. Read interviews with the series curators via Paste MagazineHERE and LA WeeklyHERE. 
About The Twelfth Trip:
The Waters start this Trip off right with swampy fuzz- and phaser-soaked dueling guitars oozing from the grooves of their 1969 single “Mother Samwell.” The Louisville, KY trio somehow failed to make much of a splash however, only issuing two 45s, one in ’68 and this rocker the following year, before eventually evaporating in ’72. The bassist went on to play in Hank Williams Jr.’s band for a couple of decades, so the band’s fortunes weren’t entirely sunken.
Hamilton, Ontario launched the Village S.T.O.P.’s freak-out heavy psych marauding, but it was after frequent trips to NYC that the Canadian band really learned to let their freak flag fly. Sometimes the band played with their faces painted black & white, other times draped in fluorescent ink & blacklight, with strobe lights and the whole nine yards of theatrics… occasionally even adding a few extra inches of male nudity. Musically, their 1969 track “Vibration” is a bopping number nodding to Frank Zappa, Hendrix and some really brown acid doses. 
White Lightning’s blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls on “1930” is a power metal rocker from 1969 that perfectly epitomizes the raison d’être of this series. The Minneapolis, MN band formed by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan after he left garage psych heroes The Litter, later shortened its name to Lightning. The group only issued one proper album before disbanding in 1971. However, with the late 1990’s reissues and revival of The Litter, Lightning’s bevy of unreleased recordings also surfaced as a self-titled LP and Strikes Twice 1986-1969 CD compilation. 
The blues runs deep in the veins of “Woman (Don’t You Go)” by Bay Area rockers Shane. The biracial group may have borrowed its heavy syncopated groove and lead singer/organist aesthetic from locals Sly & The Family Stone, but their troglodyte fuzz riffs and beastly drums owe just as much to blazing proto-metal hellfire. Sadly, they only released this 1968 single before these men decided to go. 
Ace Song Service probably thought they were pretty clever with their risqué acronym name, but it’s their B-side “Persuasion” that really kicks A.S.S. Rollicking, relentless drums, walking bass, staggering guitars and shimmering Hammond organ shake the foundations while crooning blue-eyed soul vocals remind you that this is still the late-60s. The Dallas, TX band only issued this lone (star) 2-song single before crawling back up from whence they came. 
Opus Est’s strange 1974 headbanger “Bed” has a bit of “Hocus Pocus” by Focus style mania — and we mean that in the best lunacy inducing way. However, it’s the Belgian trio’s heavy panting and squealing vocals in the amorous breakdown that nods to a particular whole lotta nub that gives this song its, um, thrust. After just two singles, Opus Est came and went. 
The Mopptops’ heavy riff of “Our Lives” starts of sounding like Greg Ginn’s frantic guitar work on Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown, before wah-wah and high harmony vocals turn it into more of a Blues Magoos-meets-Iron Butterfly tune. This Hawaiian Islands based quartet took its inspiration more from the British Invasion than local traditions and were quite popular for their gritty long-hair R&B but remained isolated from the world at large. They did however release a handful of 45s between 1965 and the early 70s. This 1968 banger on Fantastic Records is, well, fantastic. 
Youngstown, OH artists Artist weren’t too creative with their band name, instead saving that energy to create meaty midwestern rock’n’roll like “Every Lady Does It.” Harmonized guitar leads and driving cowbell power their hook-filled lone 1977 single. Not much is known about the obscure band, other than singer/guitarist Al Tkach later fronted something he called Reality Rock. 
Rural hard rock bar band Stagefright hailed from Carthage, MO and their 1980 album D-Day is a highly collectible selection of landlocked rippers. Album opener “Comin’ Home” is a barnstorming romp led by vocalist/drummer Jim Mills who somehow smoothly sings while simultaneously playing wild Keith Moon style drum rolls. 
Dickens “Sho’ Need Love” / “Don’t Talk About My Music” 45 is one of those record collector’s Holy Grail type of releases. The 1971 single only exists as a demo, printed as a white label promo pressing for Scepter Records. Dickens were, essentially, a mockery of the era’s hard rock shenanigans, comprised of NRBQ’s road crew and some band members all playing instruments they didn’t know how to play. This recording happened essentially by accident when studio time became available after Gomer Pyle actor and balladeer Jim Nabors cancelled a session. The group quickly cut a few songs, which an enthusiastic A&R man had pressed up, before the label president nixed it and fired the VP for allowing such nonsense. It’s believed that only about 50 copies survived. It’s a shame, since this Flipper-before-Flipper dirge-metal freakout was way ahead of its time. 

Brown Acid: The Twelfth Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on April 20, 2021 via RidingEasy Records. Pre-orders are available for digital (with immediate download of the firstsingle) at Bandcamp, physical pre-orders at RidingEasy Records. 

Keep your mind open.

[Ride on over to the subscription box while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

Review: Sun Crow – Quest for Oblivion

Hailing from the often gloomy, rain-soaked lands of Seattle, Washington, Sun Crow (Keith Hastreiter – drums, Ben Nechanicky – guitars, Brian Steel – bass, and Charles Wilson – vocals) are another one of those bands I stumbled upon via YouTube’s algorithm when it guided me toward their new album Quest for Oblivion. For a while I kept misremembering their name as “Skull Crow” or “Crow Skull,” which I’m sure are names of other cosmic / stoner / doom metal bands somewhere. Sun Crow’s name, however, brings to mind images of a fiercely intelligent, perhaps malevolent creature silhouetted by the sun at dusk, noon, or dawn – and unsettling no matter the time of day.

You’d better be ready to deliver if you name your album Quest for Oblivion, and Sun Crow are more than prepared. The shortest track on the album is just under five minutes in length. Half are over ten minutes each, and all of them are epic, monolithic power drives. Good grief, the opening track, “Collapse,” is like the sound of the namesake giant insect breaking free from its icy tomb in The Deadly Mantis and then proceeded to wreck everything in its path. “Black It Out” has Wilson’s vocals bouncing off high fortress walls while Steel’s bass launching fireballs at invading armies.

“End Over End” seems to stumble around like a sleepy mastodon for a couple moments as it shakes the frost off its wool and prepares to enter into combat with a giant squid that’s preying upon smaller creatures on the edge of a dark lake. Trust me, you’ll understand when you hear it. “Fell Across the Sky” is a powerful tale of some sort of cosmic event, perhaps the one that wiped out the mammoths, and Nechanicky’s guitar has a cool fuzzed reverb throughout it that’s outstanding. Wilson’s screams on “Fear” are pure metal, and Sun Crow wisely blends them with the guitars and Hastreiter’s fire giant heartbeat drumming so neither element overwhelms another.

“Nothing Behind” has a rocking, stomp the pedal to the metal groove. It’s practically made for drag racing. “Hypersonic” starts with shredding cacophony and then melds into a solid, head-banging groove for over nine minutes with some of Wilson’s clearest lyrics about the eventual end of man and the emergence of some…other thing nipping at our heels from the shadows. The closer, “Titans,” is as heavy and powerful as its namesake, and drifts into a great low-key section to lull you into a sense of foreboding before it comes at you like the Kraken rising out of the sea.

This is heavy stuff, but that’s what you want from an album called Quest for Oblivion. You’d be disappointed if it didn’t sound like something you’d play in your starship as you landed on a primordial sphere in deep space.

Keep your mind open.

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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.

[I divine that today is the day you’ll subscribe.]

[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]