As usual, although most albums have been released this year,
if something has blown my mind and is "new' to my ears, it
will also feature here. Because I was mainly absent this year,
a lot of reviews have been taken from reviews I did for
Stoner HiVe or the Doom Charts.
Rest assured though, each and every one
of the following has made me jump up and down or at the
very least, transported me from the dreadful, humdrum
existence of reality to a place of passion, dreams and worship
of the dark, damp underground music that raises my spirits.
1. Moon Curse - Spirit Remains
Throbbing, majestic slabs of psychedelic doom.
2. Abrams - Lust, Love, Loss
A heady mix of stoner and hardcore.
3. High On Fire - Luminiferous
Leaving all comparisons of Sleep behind, Matt Pike and Co
gave us an album for of searing solos, alien mind control
and riffs that shook my fucking soul.
4. Black Rainbows - Hawkdope
Heavy, groovy, unstoppable with hints of space rock expansiveness
combine with driving Stoner song structures to make each track
sound like a classic cut on first hearing. Hints of fuzz electric blues
are scattered throughout with searing effect and yes, it does
make me want to drive faster with my arm hanging out of the window,
music blaring from the speakers on the way to some humdrum place of
work, having my soul lifted by this potential masterpiece.
5. Miles Davis - Live In Tokyo 1975
Unreleased broadcast recorded 10 days before the Agharta and
Pangaea concerts, this has a rawer sound and has Miles and the two
guitarists trying to outdo each other in a war of wah-wah pedals.
6. Acid King - Middle Of Nowhere,
Center Of Everywhere
This is Stoner, Fuzz-laden Doom Blues with a palpable feeling
of tripped out vibes that is rarely heard these days.
7. With The Dead - S/T
Expectations were high with this doom "supergroup". Guess
what? It lived up to the hype - dense, raw and infused with a
feeling of suffocation. Nice.
8. KEN mode - Success
Thick, dense and brutal - hardcore/noise rock that cut
through the fog in my mind.
9. Windhand - Grief's Internal Flower
Misery and doom has never sounded so beautiful or haunting.
10. Bersaerk - Mulm
Bersærk take the stoner template and stomp all over it with
a hardcore attitude giving you 9 tracks that start off fast and
furious and that do not stop until the end. Hailing from Denmark, this
has had the same effect on me when I first heard Kvelertak -
jumping up and down with a stupid grin on
my face.
11. Goya - Obelisk
Big hypnotic grooves give you a trip into the more psychedelic
realms of doom by riffing to an almost mantra like refrain that lodges
deep into your cortex fluids on a primal level to make your body slowly
jerk and move to the primitive and shamanistic tunes that have clearly been
spawned by unclean thoughts and in-pure impulses to damage people
with slow, fuzzed guitars and low-end tuning.
12. James Brown - Sho' Is Funky Down Here 1971
All instrumental and full of heavy fuzzed-out guitars in a jazzy
Or as LK Ultra said " It's a bit like MC5 scoring a soft-core porno
in places. I can see a man with an afro and a mustache in a turtleneck
stepping out of the driver's side door in the middle of an intersection
on a hot afternoon. He pulls up his sidearm and shoots from the hip,
blinking as he does so. Across the street a clean-shaven guy in a blue,
open-collar dress shirt, gold chains and bright yellow pants throws his arms
up after being hit. He then spins backwards and falls face first against
the wall which he slides down very, very slowly. The man with the
mustache and afro blows the smoke from the tip of the gun, then casually
gets back into his car and finishes his turn. Never once does this man show
any emotion."
13. Dopethrone - Hochelaga
Sludge stoner doom with riffage stolen from Hell. Swamp
blues weighed down with menace and power.
14. Gorgantherron - Second Sun
Heavy, heavy metal stoner that rocks like a bastard from
start to finish with swagger and beer.
15. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats -
Night Creeper
I have had this album on repeat and find myself drifting into the
coldness of a foggy London night as twilight descends upon you and
the dark, dank shadow shrouded streets beckon with hints of strange
pleasures or the kiss of a razor blade only to be jolted out my fevered dream
state with a fuzz filled solo and find my head is slowly nodding to the
majestic songs that are starting to feel like the best thing I have played for ages.
16. Coliseum - Anxiety's Kiss
Hardcore that takes the AmRep template and runs with it -
heavy without being brutal ...beautiful pain.
17. Witchskull - The Vast Electric Dark
These Aussie rockers have come up with a compelling and
addictive slice of heavy sounds that just gets better the more
you play it. NWOBHM rubs shoulders with Motorhead and Trouble
giving them a template from which they launch blistering salvos of
hook laden riffs and fist pumping tunes. This is rumbling Stoner/Doom
with it’s own identity – not just another band ripping off some shit from
the past and thinking that is enough.
18. Mammoth Salmon - Last Vestige Of Humanity
This is Doom that has enough venom and raspy vocals to veer
into Sludge with vicious intent. The fuzzed bass is up front in the
mix and powers the songs along as an anchor to the drums that sound
like they are being attacked with hatred.
19. The Black Wizards - Lake Of Fire
Huge sounding and massive, The Black Wizards play Classic
Rock and Stoner with authority and power. Add some Proto-
Doom and all is well.
The riffs are as Sabbathy as you like without being
too obvious which of course means they fucking rock
like a mountain avalanche. Mid paced songs morph into
slow hymns of despair but the melodic and fuzzed solos stop
any signs of wrist slashing - instead you have the uncontrollable
urge to start nodding and foot stomping.
20. The Shrine - Rare Breed
Lip smacking, fuzz stomping, amp humping,
solo shredding, MC5 riffing, crowd surfing,
bass throbbing, beer drinking, drum pounding,
drug snorting, sweat flying, fist punching,
head banging, chorus shouting, throat straining,
foot stomping, Flying V playing, ear bleeding,
rabble rousing fucking rock'n'roll.
..........................................................................
I cannot be be arsed to do this anymore so here is the
rest in list form - no real order, they are all immense
albums and depending what mood I am in will change places
every day. And to be honest, I am only really playing the 1st
3 Motorhead albums at the moment anyway.
Ecstatic Vision – Sonic Praise
Psychopunch – Sweet Baby Octane
Shining – International Black
Jazz Society
Jess & The Ancient Ones –
Second Psychedelic Coming:
The Aquarius Tapes
Lumberjack – Land Of Decay
Rukh – Tickets For A Second
Round
The Who – Live In Hull ‘73
Beerwolf – Oracle’s Prophecy
Out Of Earth – S/T
Six Organs Of Admittance –
Hexadic
Captain Beefheart – Mirror Man 1974
Killer Boogie – Detroit
Shepherd – Stereolithic
Riffalocalypse
Lacertillia – Crashing Into The
Future
Rifflord – 26 Mean And Heavy
Mathusalem – Revival
Lord Montague – The Cave
Satori Junk – S/T
Witchsorrow – No Light, Only
Fire
Space Probe Taurus – Mondo Satan
Ufomammut – Ecate
Luna Sol – Blood Moon
John Cale – Sabotage 1979
Atomic Bitchwax – Graviton
Hard Action – Sinister Vibes
Silent Snare – Darken
Barbarian Fist – The Whorelord
Cometh
Seedy Jeezus – S/T
Glowsun – Beyond the Wall Of
Time
Ruby The Hatchet – Aurum
Prophets Of Saturn – Retronauts
Kadavar – Berlin
Savanah – Deep Shades
Disenchanter – Strange Creations
Brain Pyramid – Magnetosphere
The Bottle Doom Lazy Band – Lost
N’Drunk
Lizards Exist – S/T
Huntress – Static
Lowburn – Doomsayer
Swamp Ritual – Ritual Rising
Plainride – Return Of The
Jackalope
We Hunt Buffalo – Living Ghosts
Wizard Eye – S/T
Beggars – Devil’s Highway
Dreadnought – Bridging Realms
The Heavy Eyes – He Dreams Of
Lions
Ponamero Sundown – Veddesta
So now you know what my brain sounds like.
This post is dedicated to Joop.
