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If you are looking for new Stoner Rock, Doom, Heavy Psych or Sludge Metal bands, then you have come to the right place. Heavy Planet has been providing free promotion to independent and unsigned bands since 2008. Find your next favorite band at Heavy Planet. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 24, 2009

We Lost Our Best Friend - R.I.P. Stardog

My wife and I lost our best friend yesterday, our beloved 12 1/2 year old black lab Star. The last few weeks have been some of the hardest days of our lives. We have had Star since she was a puppy and was basically our "child" since we have no children. She had recently been diagnosed with tumors in her gall bladder and liver. The doctor told us that we could do exploratory surgery to see if they were cancerous, but we did not want to put her through that at her age, so we just decided to medicate her and make her as comfortable as possible. Our little "girl" is in heaven now...Rest in Peace our precious Stardog.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Album Of The Week-Clutch-"Strange Cousins From The West" (2009)

Well, here's a shocking revelation, a Clutch album is an "Album Of The Week" on Heavy Planet, this one being their new album entitled "Strange Cousins From The West". With Clutch being one of my favorite bands of all-time I just couldn't resist, and this one does not disappoint either. No keyboard, no harmonica, just kick ass rock and roll, the way only Clutch can do it.



Review:

On their ninth studio album, Strange Cousins From the West, Clutch takes a back-to-basics approach while still continuing down the heavy blues-rock trail they’ve been blazing since 2004’s epic Blast Tyrant. Notable in his absence is keyboardist (and unofficial fifth member) Mick Schauer, who had played with the band since 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus. According to Clutch’s publicist, Schauer hasn’t been in the band since 2007, which, in retrospect, would explain why Opeth’s Per Wiberg was handling keys on the latest Bakerton Group album. Schauer’s absence hardly makes Strange Cousins a failure, but it reinforces how big a part of the band’s sound he had become in recent years.

On a positive note, Tim Sult fans will be thrilled with this album. The void left by Schauer means Sult has more space to fill, and he does so admirably. Several songs even feature two guitar solos as Clutch inches steadily closer to jam band status. Many of these songs, from the first single “50,000 Unstoppable Watts” to the blues dirge “Abraham Lincoln,” seem ready-made for live improvisation. Strange Cousins isn’t a radical departure from the sound Clutch has honed on their last few albums. On song like ”Struck Down” and “Let a Poor Man Be,” Clutch trots out the bouncy, Southern-fried riffs and subversive, sardonic lyrics that we’ve come to expect from the veteran band. It’s that rare breed of music that simultaneously makes you want to shake your booty and throw the horns.

Ultimately, the only thing keeping Strange Cousins from being a bona fide masterpiece is that Clutch have set the bar so high for themselves with their previous releases. Fans who love the last three albums will likely miss the keyboards, and fans who are still clinging to the hope that Clutch will return to the sound of their self-titled masterpiece won’t find much hope here either. Strange Cousins should find a place on a lot of year-end Top Ten lists, and deservedly so. It’s hard to imagine that ten other albums will come out this year that are better than this. But in the pantheon of Clutch albums, Strange Cousins falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. (Mike R. Meyer, StonerRock.com)

Track Listing:

01. Motherless Child
02. Struck Down
03. 50,000 Unstoppable Watts
04. Abraham Lincoln
05. Minotaur
06. The Amazing Kreskin
07. Witchdoctor
08. Let a Poor Man Be
09. Freakonomics
10. Algo Ha Cambiado
11. Sleestak Lightning

Can’t get enough Clutch? Check out http://www.pro-rock.com/freesongweathermaker to download a free never-before-heard Clutch mp3 called “Metroliner Special."

Simply go to the above URL and enter your email to have the track sent directly to your inbox and get rockin’ with bonus "Strange Cousins From the West" material.

Video: 50,000 Unstoppable Watts



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Official Website

Sunday, July 19, 2009

New Band To Burn One To-The Impulse Electric

At this moment, the Chicago metal scene is absolutely on fire with some amazing bands. Here is another band, or shall I say solo project from the multi-talented Edward Nudd. Check out his project The Impulse Electric now! The 6-song album entitled "Canyon of Spiders" was released digitally on 4/28/09 and on CD 5/12/09.

Mastering was handled by Jason Walton (Agalloch) at his Audio Savant
Studios in Portland, OR.



Review:

Listening to the almost entirely instrumental Oak Park, IL, outfit The Impulse Eclectic makes an even bigger impression once it’s discovered that the whole thing is basically a solo project. Multi-instrumentalist and occasional vocalist Edward Nudd drums, plays guitar, bass, and keyboards, which means he’s way into home recording or he plotted out the six songs on his new EP, Canyon of Spiders, in his head in advance. Either way, the music is insular but complete sounding. The problem with solo projects more often than not is they’re too self-indulgent (you could argue that’s why they exist in the first place, for self-indulgence). The Impulse Eclectic doesn’t fall into that trap.

That’s not to say the instrumental prog that pervades Canyon of Spiders is down-home simplistic either, just that Nudd keeps things moving along and none of the songs are really long enough to wear down listeners. “Altercation,” the lead cut, is the second longest song at 5:24. Only closer “Bloodlines” has a longer runtime at 10:51. Nudd is concise in his delivery, and though like a lot of instrumentals, it’s easy to get lost in the title track or “The Abyss Once Illuminated” which follows it — the riffs opening, closing, weaving in and out of each other in a mix that could stand to be fuller but sounds professional and clear nonetheless — when the vocals come in on “Phantom Vibrations,” it’s a jarring enough change to snap back any attention lost.

Nudd’s vocal s t y l e is quiet, sounding as though he lacks confidence in his range, but like a mixture of mid-register James LaBrie and melodic Devin Townsend, his voice gives an edge to “Phantom Vibrations,” offering a change of pace while maintaining a consistency of tone, especially in the layers of guitar. The solo contributed by Great Solar Stance’s Matt Schneider that comes in at 1:52 crosses channels and synchs up with the drums, bass an rhythm guitar for an affect like that on last year’s Cynic comeback album, Traced in Air (thankfully minus the vocoder when the vocals come back in).

“Sunspots” has a rushed feeling to it — not in the recording or performance, just in that each new part feels like it’s interrupting the one that came before it and the accenting crash cymbal is insistent and up front in the mix. At around 2:15, the song gives way to a minute or so of slow-build ambiance before coming back in with a chugging riff and double bass drum Porcupine Tree-s t y l e finishing moment of heaviness.

But if Canyon of Spiders is leading anywhere it’s to the epic sweeps of aforementioned closer “Bloodlines.” Nudd’s vocals offer a singly-layered Steven Wilson diction over the course of two spread out verses and finally self-harmonizing for the third and last toward the end of the song. In between is a lot of the heavy guitar noodling typical of modern prog, but well performed and never over the top enough to cut away from the overall class of the recording.

At its end, Canyon of Spiders shows that although naming a solo project The Impulse Eclectic could easily be seen as a show of pomposity, the actual music made — the only thing that matters — manages to stay grounded where scores of others wouldn’t. This kind of technically-sound prog isn’t everyone’s first choice for repeat listening, but Nudd strikes a balance between his muse and the rest of the world that makes the EP accessible to those who would search it out, which is admirable enough in itself, never mind the fact that I can’t get the main riff of “Altercation” out of my head. (JJ Koczan, StonerRock.com)

MySpace
Buy from CD Baby

Monday, July 13, 2009

Album Of The Week-Bloodhorse-Horizoner (2009)

The Album Of The Week is "Horizoner" by Bloodhorse.



Reviews:

"Bloodhorse still might be the best kept secret in the world of stoner rock. Horizoner is a clinic on how to execute instrumentally driven, well-balanced rock that is as technically competent as it is satisfying. The guitar work is incredibly versatile, the bass lines are capable of standing alone (killer tone certainly helps), and the drumming rarely settles into a predictable course. With strong influences from classic rock (The Who, Deep Purple), metal (Entombed, Metallica), and slight touch of hardcore/punk (Black Flag), Bloodhorse has crafted one hell of a modern stoner rock record in Horizoner. This will certainly end up on my 2009 top ten list come December." (Nick, StonerRock.com)

"Including members of Shelter, The Red Chord and American Nightmare, Bloodhorse have crafted nine tracks of sludgy, groove-filled rock that owes a great deal to old and new. The vocals cross Brent Hinds with Ozzy; the guitars too are reminiscent of Mastodon although the majority is focussed on driving grooves rather than technical intricacies. The band tease with long escalating intros but still take the time to belt out classic rock-infused hardcore. Given the calibre of its members, it’s no surprise such range is a pleasure to absorb." (Dan Morgan, StonerRock.com)

Tracklist:

01. A Good Son
02. A Passing Thought to the Contrary
03. The Old Man
04. Nonhossono
05. Close, But Never so
06. Aphoristic
07. The Morning Burial
08. Paranoiac
09. In Horror

Video: Bloodhorse - "Close, But Never So" @ SMFA, Boston 09/30/07



MySpace

Give it a listen on Rhapsody

Sunday, July 12, 2009

New Video Release: Serpentina Satelite - The Last Drop

SERPENTINA SATELITE was formed by the end of 2003 in Lima, Peru.

Band members are: Aldo
Castillejos (drums)
Felix Dextre (bass/vocals)
Flavio Castillejos (voices/poetry)
Dolmo (leadrhythm guitar)
Renato Gomez (rhythm-lead guitar/vocals)

In late 2004 the band edited independently their first EP named LONG PLAY, featuring 5 epic songs which oscillate among calm, violence and ecstasy, in the spirit of Space and Krautrock. Constant appearances, underground festivals and freak-outs followed during the next years under the cloudy city of Lima. Now, their new record NOTHING TO SAY gets released on TRIP IN TIME (distributed by World in Sound). Again, it is an extended 5 track epic recording but this time, SERPENTINA SATELITE brings us a turbulent and more powerful rough sound. For best listening pleasure, this EP was mastered analogue in Walldorf at Perplex Tonstudio (Guru Guru, Embryo, Kraan).

The epic opener NUEVA OLA takes you right away on a mysterious trip to the satellite’s new musical galaxy. And for the title track NOTHING TO SAY, better fasten your seatbelts—this is a high energy rock & roll freak-out! THE LAST DROP and MADRIPOOR establish the EP's strong overdrive sound before KOMMUNE I, a final 23 minute journey to the roots of psychedelia.

Here is the new video for The Last Drop:



Official video produced and directed by HENRY GATES

www.serpentinasatelite.com
www.myspace.com/serpentinasatelite
www.myspace.com/tripintime
www.myspace.com/worldinsound

Thursday, July 9, 2009

New Band To Burn One To-Fen

The "New Band To Burn One To" today is Fen. This band hails from Vancover, Canada. Their music can be described as dark, progressive metal.

"Fen has laboured for a decade on three recordings. The latest, Congenital Fixation (’06) is a Freudian-esque phantasmagoria, an acid drop into the subconscious, vividly rendered. Before this, came Heron Leg (’03), a story of incest and matricide, which Discorder Magazine has called “one of those great CDs the listener can get into more and more deeply as buried details are unearthed.” Three years prior, the debut release, Surgical Transfusion of Molting Sensory Reflections (’00), identified Fen as “the only band of its kind on the coast” (The Nerve Magazine), likely due to the abundance of odd time signatures and through-composed song forms.
A fourth album, Trails out of Gloom, will be released this fall, as Fen expands itself into the acoustic medium."

Video: Pin Cushion



MySpace
Official Website

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

New Band To Burn One To-So Sayeth

The "New Band To Burn One To" today is Indianapolis, Indiana's very own So Sayeth.



Photo credit: Liz@110db.com

"SoSayeth is a band that proudly waves a middle finger in the direction of anyone standing in the way of a good time. A band for the people, SoSayeth has a solitary agenda; to rock you as hard as the laws of physics will allow. To say that the guitars will crush you like the weight of 20 obese truckers would be an understatement. Sean King’s solos cut to the bone, while Jason Kindred keeps the sound thick like molasses, mixed with tar, mixed with Jager. The rhythm section of Dave Dalton (drums) and Brian Clark (bass) is like a sonic ass kicking, rumbling and pounding you into submission, until your head bobs and hands thrust skyward in approval. Kindred’s voice is the cherry on the top of this rock sundae; Gritty and gravelly, yet smooth as a strippers ass. SoSayeth isn’t reinventing the wheel, this is unrelenting, in your face, rock n’ roll. This is rock in it’s purest, loudest form, SoSayeth…"

So Sayeth has just released their CD The Silver Tongue to some awesome reviews. Here is one of them:

"This one almost got damned to the eternal review pile, you know that pile that never seems to whittle away because there’s a first stack going strong and it too seems belligerent on going down. I received The Silver Tongue a few weeks back and I never got around to listening to it. During this time a brutal stomach bug kicked in and left me bed ridden for a few days; including a night bereft of a single wink. In the early morning hours as delirium kicked in, I started thumbing through some of the discs I had planned on reviewing once I was better. In turn, So Sayeth’s debut “The Silver Tongue” popped up again and I felt it was time to give the record its dues. Despite a hazy brain, one full spin told me I better not ignore the Indiana based four-piece because this album gave me exactly the energy boost I needed in my sorry state!

The Silver Tongue is 11 tracks strong, brimming with a busy boogie of classic, stoner, doom and southern rock. All of the requisite ingredients are on hand; twin guitar action that busts out riffs, harmonies and solos fully backed by a boiling, rhythmic assault and vocals that belt it out with gusto. Vocalist/guitarist Kindred was actually a big draw for me on first listen, the guy has got a great set of pipes, capable of both gruff melodies and pristine hooks in one fell swoop. His lyrics about having a good time all the time and general hellraisin’ make this the perfect album for lettin’ loose on those hot summer nights directly on the horizon."

Read more...



MySpace

Buy the new CD at CD Baby

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Album Of The Week-Dark Castle-"Spirited Migration" (2009)

The Album Of The Week is "Spirited Migration" by Dark Castle.

The City of Saint Augustine, Florida has the distinction of being the oldest city / port in the United States and the home of the duo Dark Castle. Dark Castle released an amazing demo entitled Flight of the Pegasus and have already played numerous shows all over the eastern half of the USA. Spirited Migration continues the metallic doom-psyche journey that Flight Of The Pegasus began. Guttural howls, towering volume, are broken-up with post-rock interludes. Exotic scales and haunting rhythms further pulls one in the atmosphere that Dark Castle creates for the listener. Recorded by Phillip Cope (Kylesa) and Mastered by Scott Hull.



Review:

"When first hearing of the band, I was a bit skeptical because of the name. Then I noticed they were a duo with a woman on vocals/guitar and became intrigued. I enjoyed the “Flight of Pegasus” EP but eventually moved on and forgot about the band. I was excited to hear the new album and can say it will be hard to forget this group again. It seems they have been refining their sound and can be a reminder not to judge a band by its name.

Their sound is so deep and menacing it just seems like there would have to be bass in the mix but Dark Castle pull it off without flaw. The tormented guttural vocals performed by Stevie and drummer Rob match the guitar tone and bring even more power to their thunderous sound. “Awake in Sleep“ draws the listener in with the droning doom of Sunn O))) before a riff turned blunt weapon is embedded in the skull. The opener is the most memorable track on the album. It captures the band’s use of balance between atmosphere and sheer ferocity.

Stevie shows her skill with the strings on “Spirited Migration”, a Latin influenced interlude that brings to mind a sonic journey through the mind of a desert creature. The creative and versatile song writing style on this album is similar to Neurosis and Old Man Gloom. While taking influence from some of the more well know bands in the genre, Spirited Migration still offers ingenuity. The mystical guitar on “Weather the Storm” captivates the mind and projects a brooding storm on the rise into the mind of the listener. The structures for each song differ quite a bit but still allow the listener to feel the whole thing is well connected. I would recommend listening to it all the way through the first few times.

“Flight Beyond “builds up power and soars through some Baroness styled guitar work. This song blends perfectly into “Grasping the Awe” which has some interesting spoken passages. The plodding pace of the appropriately named track, “Growing Slow”, provides the soundtrack to a predator lurking in the presence of his wounded prey. The drumming on the album is not overly complex and there are not fills being thrown around. The drums serve their purpose, which is to be the lumbering, pounding heart of the music. The guitar flourishes in psychedelic beauty at points while the majority of the time is dedicated to pummeling skulls. After hearing Spirited Migration, it is easy to say the group seems very promising and have set the standards high for the next album." (Jordan Fogal, SputnikMusic.com)

Tracklist:

1. Awake in Sleep 06:51
2. Into the Past 05:35
3. Spirited Migration 01:46
4. Growing Slow 04:31
5. Weather the Storm 03:26
6. Flight Beyond 04:14
7. Grasping the Awe 04:12
8. A Depth Returns 06:33

Total playing time 37:08


Video: Crystal Seas - 11-19-08



MySpace

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

New Band To Burn One To-Ruby Bullet



(Photo:Ben Arons)

The "New Band To Burn One To" today is Ruby Bullet. If you are looking for a post punk /prog math metal duo featuring female vocals from NYC, then this band is right up your alley. The band just recently released their CD called "Splitting Heirs" to some pretty stellar reviews.

Review:

"There are a lot of stereotypical roles for women in metal, whether they are the operatic Diva providing some archetypal "beauty" to the "beast" of the traditional metal sound, or providing orchestral or keyboard textures within some overblown musical onslaught. It's somewhat bittersweet that Suzanne Sterne, being the songwriting mastermind, bassist and studio guitarist for Ruby Bullet, is something of a rarity in the metal scene, but that fact can be easily overlooked; compared to many competing releases within the realm of avant-garde metal, Splitting Heirs is a polished set, taking an approach to complex, math-oriented metal that is refreshing, organic and not completely overcooked.

Citing Tool, The Mars Volta and Rush as influences (among many others), one can immediately tell at what musical altar Sterne and drummer Pete Vassil worshipped. While each of the five tunes here fit pretty snugly into song form (having memorable hooks, verses, choruses, and dynamic shifts), the songs feature an appreciable balance of simplicity and complexity, where compound time signatures appear to have a purpose other than to trick the listener. The best moments on the album are the most stripped down, where the overdubbing is kept to a minimum and one can really appreciate the rhythmic interplay between each instrument. Sterne describes herself as a "bassist at heart," and this comes across in her use of a five-stringed instrument, which is at the heart of the most memorable moments on the EP. Vassil's drumming is ornamental but not overbearing, and he and Sterne have a complementary interplay that you don't often see in a metal rhythm section - and seeing video clips of Ruby Bullet's live performance, in which the guitar duties are performed by Aurelien Budynek, you can really see an energy present that is sometimes lost in the mix on the EP.

That's not to say that Ruby Bullet isn't a good studio band - just that sometimes there's a bit too much where there doesn't need to be. Sterne's vocals are well layered and feature some distinctive dual lines and harmonies that add an extra punch to the lyrics, and there are some moments where the massed sound of the bass and guitar tracks congeal quite well. But some of these moments seem tentative, and I often wished that the group had chosen to strip back a few of the overdubs so that the quality of the songwriting can be fully appreciated. For most of the EP, however, there is a confidence that allows these songs to celebrate their leanness. I've heard countless other progressive, math and avant-garde rock and metal bands overcompensate with tons of layers and endless studio tricks, creating an unlistenable mess, and there are many great moments on Splitting Heirs that prove this band is more assured in their approach.

Ruby Bullet is a relatively young band, with two releases under its belt, and I can see many good things in their future. A future, full length album would give them the chance to toy around with their material in the ways that are hinted at here, and I look forward to such a release to see how Sterne and Vassil rise to that particular challenge. In the meantime, Splitting Heirs is a well-focused 19 minutes of music that teases the listener with a few expectations, then defies most of them."

(Adam Matlock, AvantGarde-Metal)


"Machine" video:



MySpace
Official Website

New Blog To Check Out-Hail The Riff

Tim from Stoner Rock Ohio has decided to re-launch the site as a blog. You can visit the new blog here. The blog will keep fans abreast of what is going down in the Stoner Rock/Doom/Metal community in Northeast Ohio and the greater Cleveland metro area, by featuring interviews and show reviews. Stop by and let Tim know what you think.



The 2nd Annual Stoner Rock Ohio Showcase was held on June 13th and featured some awesome bands from the area including Forged in Flame, Threefold Law (Tim's band), Spacecharge, and Firebreathing Bear.

For only 5 bucks you can purchase a bootleg sampler from the event. The sampler includes 1 song from each of the band's sets. You can purchase the sampler directly through the Stoner Rock Ohio Myspace page.
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