Tigers On Opium – 503.420.6669. Vol 2

Like a rainbow shining through storm clouds to give you advance

warning of sunnier weather to come, Tigers On Opium dispel any

feelings of gloom with some psychedelic hard rock with an

authentic nod to 70's kraut sounds mixed with some spoken word samples

that only add to the doomy feel of things.

The songs are tight compositions with some longer passages

that weave in and out of ideas, musical motifs and themes with

skilled playing and passion. Jumping the divide between 70's classic rock

and the more contemporary sounds of today - this album is a slice of psych

rocking that recalls yesteryear but is firmly entrenched in the now.

Released on Forbidden Place Records

Black Spell - The Purple Skull

                           Black Spell play a superb mix of doom-tainted sludge that

threatens to obliterate everything in its path. Despairing, bleak

vocals echo out a litany of fury that are always fighting to be

heard above the fat, heavy guitar tones that are crashing out

gargantuan riffs.

 

This album is made up of  tracks that take you to a dark swamp,

cut your eyes with razors and leave you to slowly sink into the mire.

Passages within the songs do pick up the pace at times before descending

back into the thick, bad-drug vibe that pervades the Black Spell sound.

 

The crowning glory as far as I am concerned, are the outrageously

fuzzed guitar solos that forge the psychedelic with the heavy - kinda

like Vanilla Fudge crossed with Electric Wizard. At times I find this

genre sometimes suffers from a generic template but in my eyes,

Black Spell have produced one of the Doom albums of the year.

Released on Forbidden Place Records.

                                

Jointhugger - Surrounded By Vultures

Heavy Relic - The Apparition of The Great Cabala

Hey you! 
Yeah, that's right ..... you in the corner with 
the blank stare and drool coming out the 
corner of your mouth. 
You look the sort of person who would be into 
"Earthless" ...... yep , me too. 
I guess you like to light up a "doobie" and jerk 
off to Sonic Prayer ...... yep, me too. 

Heavy Relic are a much heavier version of the 
afore mentioned band - this means jams of 
freakout acid guitar brilliance. 
Heavy Relic play instrumental stoner with heavy 
vibes and as with all instrumental projects the question 
has to be asked - is there enough going on to keep your 
attention wandering due to the lack of vocals? 
In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. 
The guitar riffs are loud and nicely fuzzed, evoking 
the sun-baked desert sound but with a heaviness drawn 
from sludge. Excellent audio clips are used to great 
effect but without being overdone. Drones and atmospherics 
throb underneath the songs, bringing in some 
space-rock undercurrents. 

Bandcamp

Gunslingers - Massacre-Rock Deviants Inquisitors

What do you get if you cross Turkey Bones & The Wild Dogs
with a demented take on the Gun Club?

Gunslingers.

Using the rhythm section from Aluk Todo, the 2 tracks merge
into a 17 minute trip that pulses and sprawls like a drugged-out
snake crawling through your brain.

Distorted vocals alternate between slurred speaking and disjointed
yelps, giving the impression of someone trying to recite poetry under
great duress.

If you have ever thrilled to the guitar playing in the VU "I Heard Her
Call My Name", you are in for a treat. Chaotic train-wreck solos and
riffs are pushed to the front with reckless passion and aggression
that only overdriven amps can provide. This is primitive punk/psych
and I can only wish for an album worth of material!

Thanks to Andy at Riot Season Records for sending this.

Get from Riot Season Records

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Haikai No Ku - Sick On My Journey

Sounding at first like the infamous "Silver Sessions for
Jason Knuth" by Sonic Youth, as the distortion and noise
drill into your head, you start to realise that among the madness,
passages of nightmare psych are being played out - Haikai
No Ku are making music with a language that only they
can hear - it is up to you to try and learn what they are
trying to tell you.

The five tracks merge into a gigantic tidal wave of sound that
incorporate drone, noise rock and psychedelia from a demented
band of mutants. Brain frying wah-wah riffs from the world of
doom are slowly ground out in a mantra of trance inducing sections
over which guitar freak-outs are played - but oh so slowly - what you
think are notes droning out are in fact glacier-slow solos.

This is meant to be played loud - you can almost smell the amps overloading
under the weight of the songs. Feedback and a montage of powerful rhythms
that remind me of very early Swans make sure that your senses are in permanent
overload. This will not be for everyone but those who dare to partake of this
heady, devils drink will be well rewarded. 

Band blurb:

Haikai No Ku – the brainchild of Bong guitarist Mike Vest, Sam Booth and Jerome Smith - will release it’s first album on Burning World Records this august. The release will be available on cd, vinyl and digital.

The band has been described as: ”Death Toll Blues” . Ear damaging psych heavily influenced by Japanese bands like Mainliner, Les Rallizes Denudes etc. Crashing drums and Bass lay down the framework for fiery guitar attacks to lash across peoples faces. Expect dirge, noise and astral planes.

Haikai No Ku play some of the most morose, damaged blues psych we’ve heard in years: death-toll bass and crashing drums lead the way for a solitary guitar line obliterated by total psychedelic guitar scree. Songs start off as loose jams that slowly build up to utter brain-melting acid psychedelia. Early Ramleh gone deathrock?

Thanks to Jurgen from Burning World Records for link.

Order from Burning World Records

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Gladiators Eat Fire - Psychedelic Hogwash (2012)

Band request from Seattle, USA.

Gladiators Eat Fire bring a new dimension to hardcore with
elements of math and doses of heavy psychedelia mixed
together to produce an unholy, experimental noise explosion
but with big fuck-off-tunes and riffs that get heads banging.

Exploding the theory that hardcore is one dimensional, these
guys can go from a slow sludge riff thats twists and turns in
time patterns leading to a Black Flag "My War" ending with
acid drenched guitar echoing along with vocals that go from
bellowing to a whisper.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants some
heavy sounds to assault their ears with.

Bio:
Gladiators Eat Fire are an organic, psychedelic hardcore movement from the heart of Seattle, WA, on a sonic journey in the search for identity and freedom of self expression. This summer, the band will release the Psychedelic Hogwash EP, their newest and most ambitious material to date, and a culmination of half a decade of aural experimentation.

Ever since the release of their 2008 EP "Keep The Beat Alive", recorded by Chris Proff (Ravenna Woods, Strong Killings, Monogamy Party) and mastered by the late Tom Pfaeffle (Nirvana, Alice Cooper, B.B. King), Gladiators Eat Fire have been gaining attention for their intensely passionate live performances, drawing comparisons to bands such as The Mars Volta, Refused, and These Arms Are Snakes. After entering the studio with Proff again, their 2010 full length album, the aptly self-titled "Gladiators Eat Fire", was mastered by Chris Hanszek (The Melvins, Soundgarden, The Pleasureboaters) and marked a clear departure into deeper, uncharted musical territory. As the band experimented heavily with their sound, they drew praise from local press such as The Stranger for their "psychedelic guitars and eerie, echoing vocals that ring through songs like lost souls", while websites such as Punknews.org proclaimed it as "an acid-drenched dancepocalypse".

Over the years, the band has shared the stage with bands as diverse as Wild Orchid Children, Ravenna Woods, and Monogamy Party. They've toured up and down the west coast, and have performed at events such as the Seattle's Cannabis Freedom March and Chaospalooza, as well as Missoula's StaticFest, and Connell's Summer Rocks Festival. The band has also appeared live on Hollow Earth Radio, has received airplay on 90.3 FM KEXP and 99.9 FM KISW, and was chosen as Unsigned Band of the Month in High Times Magazine.

Now, having spent the past several months quietly waiting in the shadows, vocalist Mark Blazer and guitarist Brian Kim continue to carry the torch of their musical vision, aided by bass player James Erwin and drummer Joseph Braley. Recorded mostly live in their basement, the group's new Psychedelic Hogwash EP showcases four diverse songs which the Seattle Weekly boldly claims "[shred] nearly every preconception and stereotype about metal, hardcore, post-rock and math-rock". Without a doubt, Gladiators Eat Fire is ready to unleash their ferociously unique blend of hardcore and psychedelia upon the eyes and ears of the unsuspecting masses. There is no escape.
Because they are good guys, you can pay what you want from Bandcamp and have a CD and 7" coming out on August 14th.

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Cultura Tres - El Mal del Bien

Some heavy sounds from Venezuela.

Cultura Tres tread the murky path of doom, heavy psych, raw
stoner with a touch of sludge riffery. Big, slow and powerful,
the band create some almost post-metal atmospherics to devastating
effect.

The tracks are brooding and raw sounding, I like this a lot and
so should you - Listen

Free download from Bandcamp

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Enchantress - Vol 2/Hear Her Womb War

This is prime psych/stoner/doom riffage with some

fantastic guitar work. I thought there were two vocalists

because of the high and low scales being sung but nope,

there is just one guy doing it all. The guitars are fuzzed

out and give up some sprawling jam work, leaving the

drums and bass to find their own groove.

The songs are riff based and have a loose blues feel to

them which really suits their sound when they press

the magic button entitled 'heavy'.

Clocking in at 4 tracks spread over 22 minutes, this

leaves me wanting to hear a full length album.

Listen

Free download from Bandcamp

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Rangda - False Flag (2010)

Some nice sonic improv on show here.

Bursts of dense slabs of noise with all instruments

set to stun - think Comets on Fire at full flow - ease

off into shamanistic guitar riffs going into quieter

passages.

This combination of light and shade make for the

tension that is evident on this album.

Hypnotic slow tracks build up with thunderous

drumming until distorted guitar start to wail

with wonderful psych exploration.

A fine example of how to be heavy without having

some sort of "core" added to your description!

Listen

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Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You (1970)

First and best album from Atomic Rooster. This

is full of aggressive rock from the brooding opening

track onwards.

Fantastic interplay between keyboards and guitar -

very Jon Lord and Blackmore - prog rock & metal/

acid guitar tunes crash through the album - I am always

surprised that this release does not get mentioned more!

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Bushman's Revenge - You Lost Me at Hello (2009)

Instrumental chaos as the Nordic power

trio veer between heaviness mixed with

wild abandonment, crossing prog-style

passages with classic hard rock riffs which

turn into jazz type freak outs so beloved

by Zappa at his most guitar-god like.

This is a molten mix of styles that has

wild sounding jams as if a cover band

is trying to sound like a stoner group

playing King Crimson doing P Floyd

covers in a mad jazz explosion.

Listen

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Magic Lantern - Platoon (2010)

This falls into the same bracket as The Wooden Shjips,

Sun Dial, Quest for Fire etc.

Jazzy freak-out organs, screaming wah wah, powered

by masses of fuzz guitar - this is heavy psych of the highest

calibre.

Real authentic sounds as well - no polished studio trickery

or dubious sound effects taken from sample CD's.

The guitar player is fantastic - while I would never be

as stupid to compare anyone to Hendrix, if you think

of people who have channeled that vibe: Santana, Marino

etc, I put him in that bracket.

Listen

Band Info

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