Welcome To Heavy Planet!

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!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

CD Review-"Against The Rising Tide" - The Crystal Caravan



























Against The Rising Tide - The Crystal Caravan

To introduce myself to The Crystal Caravan, I first did a little web research. I find a sept-tet of talented Swedes that found a fresh take on a proven classic and southern rock sound. The tunes run approximately 40 minutes with no yawn moments. I am impressed with this collection of songs and find myself listening more and more. The stand out tracks are Apple Hotel (my personal favorite), Take What's Yours, and Wrecking Ball. Apple Hotel has a bluesy, soulful, southern feel to it. Take What's Yours is just a great jam. There are two words that come to mind to describe the closing track Wrecking Ball; epic and masterpiece. What a finale! Fans of late 60's and early 70's rock should most definitely give The Crystal Caravan a listen. Well played sir, well played.

Members:

Niklas "RG" Gustafsson (vox),
Bjorn Lohmander (guitar), Stefan Branberg (guitar),
Jonas Lindskold (organs), Pierre Svensson (bass),
Annika Branberg (percussion),
Christopher Olsson (drums)

Great artwork! Compared to Uriah Heep, Steppenwolf, and Jefferson Airplane. I also hear some Marshall Tucker Band and The Doors.

We'll Always Lose - 3 out of 5 stars, good 70's rock feel, great intro.
Love & Direction - 3 out of 5 stars, great keyboard intro, great vox
Apple Hotel - 5 out of 5, bluesy, soulful, southern, great drum fills!
I'm A Stone - 4 out of 5, uplifting, exciting intro, vox sound very southern.
Focus - 4 out of 5, thick heavy base line, I hear some of The Doors influence on the instrumental and vox.
Blues Blues - 3 out of 5, good jam
Take What's Yours - 4 out of 5, great head banging, love the base line, great scream!
Wrecking Ball - 5 out of 5, mellow intro, kicks up great! epic run time, great guitar solo!

MySpace/Website/Buy

*This review courtesy of Zac Boda. Zac from time to time will write reviews for Heavy Planet. If you are interested in writing reviews please contact me at heavyplanet2001@yahoo.com.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Heavy Rotation-Valkyrie-"Man of Two Visions"

I got this album a while back, but put it on the backburner because I have had so many other albums to listen to. This is the thing that I love so much about music. There is always that one little gem amongst the mass of junk that is so thrilling once you find it. I love the NWOBM meets Psychedelic with a touch of doom sound. The harmonizing vocals rule as well as the brilliant duel guitar leads reminescent of Iron Maiden, which by the way is one of my all-time favorites. This album was originally released on Noble Records in 2008 but has been reissued on Meteor City Records.

"Driven by brothers Jake and Pete Adams, Valkyrie draws from pre-metal style to create a rich and earthy stoner metal sound. They formed in summer 2002 as a three-piece consisting of vocalist/guitarist Jake Adams, bassist Eric Seaman, and drummer Luke Shafer. In 2004 Jake's brother Pete was introduced on second guitar and a five song demo was recorded at a local college radio station. Shafer soon departed and was replaced by Mike Hoke on drums and a new demo, Sunlight Shines, and a split 7" with VOG were recorded. Seaman and Shafer parted ways with the band at the end of 2004 and were replaced by bassist Nick Crabill and drummer Nic McInturff. This line-up recorded the eponymous debut album, which was released by Twin Earth Records. In early 2006 Valkyrie again parted ways with its rhythm section and recruited current bassist Will Barry-Rec and drummer Gary Isom (Spirit Caravan, Pentagram). Isom and Valkyrie parted ways in mid 2007 and Valkyrie recruited drummer Warren Hawkins. Pete Adams is now also a guitarist for the band Baroness.

What others are saying:

"It's that relentless, take no prisoners approach that's the hardest to recreate when the tape's rolling, but Man of Two Visions comes close enough to hammer home the central strength of the group – their ability to fuse classic rock with classic metal and classic doom. It's The Scorpions' In Trance and all of the essential Thin Lizzy records mixed with the first two Iron Maiden albums and leavened with a crushing dose of Pentagram and St Vitus. Wait, does that mean this Man of Two Visions is a classic? You bet your ass it is."-Arzgarth
(StonerRock.com)

"Valkyrie is where 70’s hard rock, 70’s Southern rock, early NWOBHM and DC doom all collide into a sonic supernova. Two among the most fulfilling tracks are the great “Apocalypse Unsealed” and the title track “Man of Two Visions”. Both tracks manage to recall Thin Lizzy, The Outlaws and Iron Maiden all at one time and are of mammoth proportions. Imagine the tension/release of the best epic Maiden tracks and mind-blowing guitar work visited in a 70’s rock fashion. I’d say that the brother’s best work, however, is contained in “The Gorge”. This is a friggin’ delight to listen to. The brothers appear to channel ghosts past from the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains, whose pickin’ and strummin’ put smiles on the faces of folks even in the worst of times. There’s nothing like classic acoustic folk to capture the soul of the South and that the Adams brothers are so freaky talented with any instrument that has strings is a bonus. They could put out a whole album of this stuff and I’d listen to the magic on a daily basis, no shitting you." -Chris Barnes (Hellride Music)

MySpace/Website/Buy/Listen

New Band To Burn One To - Throne of the Void

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is a 3 piece from Rhode Island that play a droney, slow, down tempo doom. Very cool stuff indeed. They have 2 songs on their Myspace page that come in at about 8 minutes a piece. If you like what you hear they're offering a free download of the demo. A link can be found on their Myspace page if interested.

Monday, September 27, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Split Hoof

 
As also seen on The Soda Shop

Introducing to you, a new band (sorta) that is about to unleash a world of hell upon this earth. Guess what? You're all going down too. The band is called Split Hoof.
SPLIT HOOF is a three piece band from Austin, TX that does NOT play sludge metal! Their sound is described as "MOTORHEAD riding on THE CULT jumping over DEEP PURPLE and crashing into BLACK SABBATH." SPLIT HOOF is all about a ferocious live show and a stiff drink! ROCK N ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!!!
The band consists of Wade Morrison (bass, vocals), Chris Lanctot (guitar, vocals) and Kenny Wagner (drums). If Kenny's name sounds familiar it's because he's played in legendary bands such as Sixty Watt Shaman, Superheavygoatass, Thousand Knives of Fire and Halfway to Gone amongst many others.

Their sound is what they describe above. It's a dirty southern hard rock sound that can be compared to Superheavygoatass but with a bit more blues injected for good measure.

Check out their Myspace to hear some demos, become a fan on Facebook and look for their debut self titled album due out real soon on CD, LP and 8 track (yeah, that's right, 8 track).

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Swedish Sunday-Dozer

As originally seen on The Soda Shop.

Welcome back to Swedish Sunday. Today’s band is the great and highly influential Dozer.

From Wikipedia:

Early years
Dozer was formed in Borlänge, Sweden in 1995, playing local youth centres and supporting any bands that came to their hometown. In 1998 the band recorded a Split EP with the American band Unida. The EP was originally released by MeteorCity and re-issued in 2005.

Breakthrough and rise to success
While trying to secure a record deal they sent a demo tape to Man’s Ruin Records, a highly influential label in the stoner rock scene at the time. Frank Kozik, the owner of Man’s Ruin, was thoroughly impressed and the band quickly recorded an album. In 2000 Dozer released their first album In The Tail of a Comet, which was recorded for only $500. The band’s second album Madre De Dios was released on Man’s Ruin in 2001 along with a vinyl version on Molten Universe. Man’s Ruin Records closed down shortly after the release.

For their third album they worked with top Swedish producer Chips Kiesbye, known for his work with bands such as The Hellacopters. Call It Conspiracy was released in 2003 on the local Molten Universe record label and was well received by the media. Soon after the release of the album Erik Bäckwall left the band and was replaced by Daniel Lidén from Demon Cleaner. At this time the band also recorded a video for the single “Rising”.

Recent times
In 2005 Dozer recorded their fourth album Through The Eyes Of Heathens at the Seawolf Studios in Helsinki. The album was released on Small Stone Records with whom they had signed on to earlier that year. The album includes the track “Until Man Exists No More” featuring guest vocals by Troy Sanders of Mastodon. Early in 2006 Lidén left the band and was replaced by Olle Mårthans.

Dozer released their 5th album, Beyond Colossal in late 2008 and followed it up with a short European tour.

Dozer frequently tours and has played more than 300 live shows spanning several countries. They have toured with bands such as Mastodon, Rollins Band, Hellacopters, Spiritual Beggars, Clutch, Unida, Zeke, Nebula, Entombed.

In November of 2009 Dozer played what, according to their guitarist Tommi Holappa, could very well be their last show. They went on a indefinite hiatus due to vocalist Fredrik Norden going back to school, with the other members continuing with different side projects.




Fredrik Nordin – vocals/guitar
Tommi Holappa – lead guitar
Johan Rockner – bass
Olle “Bull” Mårthans - drums




In the Tail Of A Comet (2000)
Man’s Ruin Record

  1. Supersoul
  2. Lightyears Ahead
  3. Speeder
  4. Inside the Falcon
  5. Riding The Machine
  6. Cupola
  7. Grand Dragon
  8. Captain Sweetheart
  9. High Roller













-----------------------------------------------------------------
Madre de Dios (2001)
Man’s Ruin Record
  1. Let The Shit Roll
  2. Freeloader
  3. Soulshigh
  4. Octanoid
  5. Earth Yeti
  6. Full Circle
  7. Mono Impact
  8. Early Grace
  9. TX-9
  10. Thunderbolt
------------------------------------------------------------------
 Call It Conspiracy (2003)
Molten Universe
  1. Hills Have Eyes
  2. Rising
  3. Feelgood Formula
  4. The Exit
  5. Spirit Fury Fire
  6. A Matter of Time
  7. Man Made Mountain
  8. Way To Redemption
  9. Crimson Highway
  10. Black Light Revolution
  11. Glorified
  12. Lightning Stalker
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Through The Eyes of Heathens (2006)
Small Stone Records
  1. The Only Thing I Have
  2. The Big Black Hole
  3. No Soul
  4. Butterfly
  5. Dead Mans Blues
  6. Fool
  7. Crossroad
  8. Away from the Planet
  9. Water in My Wine
------------------------------------------------------------------
Beyond Colossal (2008)
Small Stone Records
  1. The Flood
  2. Exoskeleton, Pt II
  3. Empire’s End
  4. The Ventriloquist
  5. Grand Inquisitor
  6. Message Through the Horses
  7. The Throne
  8. Fire for Crows
  9. Two Coins for Eyes
  10. Bound for Greatness
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. News For Week Ending 9/25/2010

Here are the top Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. news headlines for the week ending 9/25/2010.

CIRCLE, INCREDIBLE HOG To Perform At Next Year's ROADBURN

ORANGE GOBLIN Confirmed For Next Year's MARYLAND DEATHFEST

PENTAGRAM, WHILE HEAVEN WEPT, SOLSTICE Confirmed For HAMMER OF DOOM 5

WHILE HEAVEN WEPT: More Live Album Details Revealed

Ex-KYUSS Member To Guest On ANGERTEA EP

SEVENTH VOID Signs With NAPALM RECORDS

KYLESA: Video Footage From The Studio Posted Online

THE DEVIL RIDES OUT release'Inheritance' video

ZOROASTER RELEASES NEW SONG “WITCH’S HAMMER” VIA ADULT SWIM AND SCION A/V “METAL SWIM” COMPILATION

EARTH Announce Release Details For Reissue Of First Recording Sessions

For more headlines go to StonerRock.com or The Soda Shop

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Over the last few months, in case you haven't noticed, I have had a new contributor to the "New Band To Burn One To" feature. His name is Bill but goes by the moniker "Bufftbone". He has done a tremendous job helping out at Heavy Planet. His website The Soda Shop has some fantastic features as well. Together, we hope to provide as much underground Stoner/Doom/Sludge, etc. information as possible. We will be cross-posting at times to provide information relevant to one another's blogs. The Soda Shop has a great new feature called Swedish Sunday in which a Swedish Stoner Rock band is featured every Sunday. In the works here at Heavy Planet is a new feature focusing on influencial musicians from the Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge genres. Look for other cool features along the way including my year end Top 10 list available at the end of January 2011. If anyone would be interested in reviewing CDs for Heavy Planet, please send me an email at heavyplanet2001@yahoo.com. Still in the works is a possible compilation CD for charity. My nephew has autism, so I was thinking of Autism Speaks. Right now there are only 5 bands that have donated a song to the CD. If you would like to donate a song please send me the MP3 file and a bio to the above e-mail with "Heavy Planet CD" as the subject line. Once again, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy reading the blog.

\m/ ~Reg~

Friday, September 24, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Heliotropes

As also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One to brings us some very cool psychedelic grunge rock. The music is even a bit experimental. The band is Heliotroupes and they are a 3 piece from Brooklyn, New York.
"Yum, dissonant rock straight out of the early '90s. Where have these girls been all my life?? A: in Brooklyn." -feeslist

"About Brooklyn's Heliotropes's first EP I can only say that I check the fucking internet every half hour to see if they've released their first LP. These three tracks are an enrapturing and hypnotic mixture of the junkie folk-pop-environment...the radio-friendly girl-vocals and the massive sweeping riffs." - csakbennhajogerendazatto.freeblog.hu
Check out their Myspace for some tunes and if you like what you hear, download them for free form their Bandcamp page.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Heavy Rotation-Black Sleep of Kali-"Our Slow Decay"

Do you like beer? Check. Do you like metal? Check. Do you want your face ripped off with some blistering riffs? Check. The CD in heavy rotation this week on my weekly commute to work has been Black Sleep of Kali's most recent release on Small Stone records called "Our Slow Decay". The band hails from Denver, Colorado and has been compared to such luminaries such as Mastodon, Bison BC, and High on Fire just to name a few. So if you need your fix of sludgy bombastic riffage then I suggest giving Black Sleep of Kali a generous listen.




















What others are saying:

"With their 2010 debut album, Our Slow Decay, Denver, Colorado's Black Sleep of Kali cast themselves into the crowded fray of post-modern metal bands like Baroness, Torche, Black Cobra and Mastodon, whose fusion of finessed musicianship and bruising violence, primal sludge and progressive complexity, hardcore and metal has arguably become the entire metal genre's leading-edge niche at the start of the ‘10s. And there's certainly no denying that these influences frequently loom large in Black Sleep of Kali's rearview mirrors, because there's just too much Mastodon spread across the epic "In Time," lots of Black Cobra studding the serrated semi-thrashing of "There is Nothing," and plenty of Torche in the omnipresent shouted vocals (and occasional vocal harmonies!) heard throughout. Luckily for the Denver-based group, not even their evident debt to these style-defining forefathers can taint their unquestionable musical ability, nor compromise particularly enjoyable efforts like the briskly galloping "The Crow and the Snake," the mean staccato riffed "The Great Destroyer," and the doom and stoner undertows displayed by "Big Sky." Which is to say, there is abundant individual promise nestled within Black Sleep of Kali's familiar frameworks, and this just places the onus upon them to carve increasingly distinctive material out of the monolithic granite building blocks quarried by others who came before."-Eduardo Rivadavia (All Music Guide)

------------------------------------------------------

"Black Sleep Of Kali (aka BSOK) also brings a sense of chaos to what they do but instead of ramping up the destruction they lay it into a solid groove. Part High On Fire, part Slayer then adding their own dash of this and that Black Sleep Of Kali are another band pushing what groove or stonerrock is into the next wave.

The days of slow stoned grooves are being replaced with a sense of anger and urgency, as if all the stoners found out their stash was gone and got pissed. BSOK’s new album Our Slow Decay is testament to what can be done with groove Sabbath inspired rock when the right people are involved.

Often when a band decides to follow a Sabbath track they abandon all other forms of metal in order to try and write Masters Of Reality II or their own version of a Sabbath record. BSOK are fully aware they have a Sabbath tint so to offset that they bring in elements of thrash metal. It all follows the same musical track but the push/pull of the two styles gives Our Slow Decay a three dimensional depth that a lot of bands in this genre lose. BSOK also knows how to write really cool riffs and then beat the shit out of them.

Much like High On Fire the true secret of BSOK is their drummer who elevates each song into something completely different. A song like “The Crow And The Snake” revolves around a riff that it would be so easy to just lay into with a groove beat. Instead the drums are everywhere, playing weird patterns, off times and fills that sound like they should fail but don’t. It’s not that the drummer (referred to as Gordon) over plays, it’s more that he’s decided to be another guitar in drum form. The grooves are there but so are the notes and solos and all that which is usually left for only the six string.

Our Slow Decay is a record largely shaped by the bands ability to manipulate the low end. This isn’t just bass heavy low end BSOK stake out a territory where everyone adds an ingredient to the low-end stew. The guitars aren’t just heavy they are harshly fuzzed out and scratchy. The bass has it’s own gritty sound to it that calls up images of the strings being so loose the swing off the body. Even the drums seem tuned particularly low and thick. Using that mixture Our Slow Decay has the feeling of a drunken blackout, or at least that fuzzy head you get during the next day’s hang over.

The one Achilles Heel to the album is that the songs tend to go on a little longer than they should. Most bands, even the masters in this genre, tend to get carried away with the "jamming” element when in reality they should get in and get out. A few of the songs here could have been shaved by a minute or more but how do you fault a band for going too long when their whole genre is guilty of it? Black Sleep Of Kali is a great band who combine heavy groove rock with elements of thrash and that kicks ass. If they could rein in the songs a bit they’d be almost unstoppable."
- Iann Robinson (Crave Online)

MySpace/Buy

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Colombian Necktie

As also seen on The Soda Shop

Looking for some kick ass grime/sludge/punk and crust music? Look no further. The New Band To Burn One To for today, Colombian Necktie are your perfect candidates. These 5 guys from L.A. play your style.
Well what can I say about Colombian Necktie that hasn't been said about every other Myspace metal band? We are a group of guys that like stuff that goes booom and shit. Therefore we sound like stuff that goes boooom and shit. bird is the word.
Download their demo now for free (Mediafire link)

Monday, September 20, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - SODA

 
As also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is a band from Germany callled SODA. They're a pretty cool band that plays a nice mix of stoner, hard rock and desert rock. Fu Manchu comes to mind for some reason but they don't really sound like them, vocally anyways. There's 3 songs up on their Myspace page to check out. It is all in german so if you plan on reading anything, knowledge of the language or google translate will be your best friend.

Check them out today

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Feature On The Soda Shop-Swedish Sunday

The dudes over at The Soda Shop have a new feature running every Sunday called "Swedish Sunday". It is no secret that Sweden has become a haven for some of the best Stoner Rock/Doom bands in the world. Lately, there have been a few other regions to produce some stellar acts as well, such as Atlanta(US), Cleveland(US), and Australia. For whatever reason, the Stoner/Doom genre is alive and well in these areas which is a good thing, a very good thing.

Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. News For Week Ending 9/18/2010

Here are the top Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. news headlines for the week ending 9/18/2010.

SOILENT GREEN, PLACE OF SKULLS, ALCEST, IN SOLITUDE, BLOOD CEREMONY Confirmed For ROADBURN

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: Debut Album Reissue To Include Three Additional Songs

OPETH Keyboardist's MOJOBONE To Play First Show In Seven Years

RED FANG Sign To Relapse Records

GOATSNAKE Bassist Interviewed On 'Heady Metal With Jeff Olson'

Fen To Take Trails Out of Gloom Live

KING GIANT: New Video Unleashed

MISS LAVA Annonce New UK Mini-Tour In October

PLACE OF SKULLS: European Tour Dates Announced;
Band Confirmed To Play Roadburn 2011


For more headlines go to StonerRock.com or The Soda Shop

Friday, September 17, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Lemon Bird

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is a very cool four piece from Sweden. These guys play a classic blues rock style with influences from Led Zeppelin, Cream and even a little Blue Cheer. You can even hear some similarities to newer bands such as Dirty Sweet and Night Horse.
—the band who should not be; four personalities converging in a musical project that unites the incompatible. With their guitar dominated hard rock, Lemon Bird originates from blues oriented rock. But thanks to their wide musical background Lemon Bird goes the whole hog—country, folk and unusual rhythms speak a foreign language in their arsenal of rock songs. Lemon Bird's ambition is to break the boundaries and tear down the walls that genre-loving people have been building the past thirty years. The most important criteria are, in studio or on stage, creativity, energy, improvisation and a passion for their music. Despite all this, Lemon Bird never loses focus on the audience.

With a large collection of material, Lemon Bird is constantly revising and re-writing their material. Often on the spur of the moment, right on stage! The motto of Lemon Bird is "We like it, let's do it!". Watching and listening to Lemon Bird, you will soon find out that one plus one plus one plus one equals five, where the magic of their music shapes the form of the fifth element.
They have two albums out, 2008's Rara Avis and their latest, Hangman and the Jury, which is out today (September 17th)

Here's a video and make sure you check out their Myspace page for two others.


 
Check them out today, you'll be glad you did

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Heavy Rotation-U.S. Christmas– "Run Thick In The Night"

If you are into the whole psychedelic space-rock sort of thing, I suggest you direct all of your attention towards the band U.S. Christmas. After the release of their brilliant 2008 release "Eat the Low Dogs", I did not believe that album could be surpassed. On "Run Thick In The Night", the band continues to explore the boundaries of music: dark, brooding, spacey, trippy, chilling or whatever you want to call it, USX simply puts out some truly phenomenal music. I think they just might be one of my new favorite bands!




















What others are saying:

U.S. Christmas are one of those rare bands who can meld seemingly disparate elements together to form their own cohesive and distinct sound. Think Neil Young jamming with Hawkwind, Spacemen 3 and Pink Floyd, and you're in the right direction, but comparisons like those don't even give them their due credit. Bands like USX (as they're commonly referred to...) are more than the sum of their parts. Although the influences are distinct, they've got their own thing going on, and its fully righteous.

Their last album, Eat The Low Dogs, was hailed as a masterpiece, and Run Thick In The Night doesn't depart drastically on the sound they've already established. It begins with the moody, brooding 13 minute track "In The Night", with its heavily textured, wall of sound "outlaw country gone shoegaze" guitars and spacey keyboard sweeps, and morphs quickly into the Hawkwind inspired rager "Wolf On Anareta". "Fire Is Sleeping" is a tender ballad, really upping the ante on the Southern and Skynyrd influences without resorting to the usual cliches, and adds some weepy violin and mournful slide guitar to the mix. The next few songs continue in this s t y l e, country-tinged, acid drenched, and melancholy, until the bass and drum driven track "The Quena" breaks the spell and gives a much needed change of pace.

The rest of the album is more of the same, highlighted by the tremendous closer, "The Moon In Flesh And Bone." It's a well developed, well paced track with some spacey jams and killer guitar work throughout. It shows the band at their best and most elaborate, and provides a fitting close to the album.

The production is awesome. There's a lot going on in every track, and you can hear all of it, yet there's not always a ton of space and separation, so you get that melding of sounds when instruments occupy a bit of the same frequency and dynamic range, resulting in new sounds altogether. The effects are abundant, and yet tasteful and always serve to augment the overall sound rather than act as a novelty.

All in all, this is one I'm going to need to get on vinyl. At 77 minutes in length, it's a bit hard to digest in a single sitting, and I like the four album sides of a 2xLP, with its inherent groupings of songs and "breaks" to catch my breath and let things set in a bit. This is certainly a tremendous effort from U.S. Christmas, but it's challenging, and the pace lags somewhat in the middle of the record, bookmarked between the longer and more upbeat tracks. Still, I'll recommend it, this is a great band, and another great release to their catalog that I think just needs more listening time before I really grow to appreciate its subtleties, much like the first album. Fans of latter day Earth, Across Tundras, and all things trippy take note." -Andy "Dinger" Beresky (http://www.stonerrock.com/)

---------------------------------------------------

"A few months ago one of my friends was hanging out at South By Southwest (you all know how I feel about that shit, my friend is lucky I still speak to him), and I made him promise me that he would check out U.S. Christmas. I think they were playing a Neurot showcase. I don’t remember. He sent me a text mid-way through their set saying that the band’s percussionist was frying on mushrooms, and that the band sounded incredible. For the first time in my life, I was actually jealous of somebody at SXSW. I guess there is a first for everything.

My love for U.S. Christmas is similar to that of artists like White Hills, Emeralds, Harvey Milk, Spiritualized or Earth. They can do no wrong. If a new album is on the horizon, you don’t have to ask me, of course I need to obtain multiple copies on different formats. When the first e-mail graced my inbox detailing the new U.S. Christmas album, Run Thick In The Night (a title culled from the Sam Peckinpah western Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid), I demanded an advance. I requested an interview too…but we’ll see if that ever materializes.

If you’ve heard the band’s recorded output, the foundation of the band’s sound should be familiar by now. Guitars (two, three, maybe sometimes four!?), synthesizers, drums (sometimes two drummers!), bass, drones and strings (most often violin). Salt The Wound featured cuts (some reworked or re-recorded) from the band’s first two self-released CD-rs, Prayer Meeting and Bad Heart Bull (I guess now’s as good a time to say that if you own either of these, I need to buy them from you). The band’s self-titled EP was the first recording of theirs I heard. From the first bars of the fantastically raw, spaced-out blues rocker “Lazarus” I was one-hundred percent sold. By the time Eat The Low Dogs was released, I’d started hailing USX as one of the best rock bands in the world. The have been desribed somewhat simplistically by various music rags as “stoner rock,” but there is much more depth to the band, in my mind they defy such easy classification. There’s a southern, bluesy aspects (without that annoying whiskey-soaked posturing you find on a lot of stoner/metal records). There’s also a ton of far out, Pink Floyd shit involved. Synthesizers and effects pedals spiraling off into distant galaxies, kaleidoscopic and grand, pierced by the heavily-processed vocals of guitarist Nate Hall.

Run Thick In The Night is as consistent and far-out as anything the band has released to date. Some of the melodies actually stand out now, instead of being crushed to dust beneath walls of noise and feedback. You can actually hear chord changes! The band doesn’t play with space as much as on Eat The Low Dogs or Salt The Wound (see: “Silent Tongue,” “Lazarus,” etc.), but the increased attention to filling in gaps between notes aids the band’s desired wall-of-sound. As someone who loved and appreciated the — dare I say it — minimalist compositions of the band’s earlier albums, I’m happy that the more fleshed-out songs on Run Thick In The Night don’t distract from the band’s essence. So often a band decides to record a new album with a highly-touted producers (as USX has done this time around, enlisting Minsk’s Sanford Parker to record, whose credits include Pelican, Lair Of The Minotaur, Nachtmystium, Zoroaster and more) to terrible, over-produced results. That’s most certainly not the case here.

Highlights include the so-very-U.S.-Christmas-esque opener “In The Night,” the acoustic guitar and violin ballad — that’s right, it’s a fucking kick-ass ballad — “Fire Is Sleeping,” and “Suzerain,” which sounds like what Rex could have sounded like if they didn’t go for broke with the alt. country vibe after their first LP. “Fire Is Sleeping” or “Devil’s Flower In Mother Winter” — both stellar acoustic dirges — remind me of that self-titled Flying Canyon record. It’s not CSNY on horse tranquilizers in an echo chamber, but it’s close. Of course, these tunes sound prettier.

The 13-track album closes with the slow-churning hymn, “The Moon In Flesh And Bone.” This is U.S. Christmas at its best. Minimal guitars, straightforward drumming, oozing with violin drones, slow-building with call-and-response vocals, finally reaching its crescendo, catapulting the listener into the deepest regions of space, eventually collapsing into a mess of chaotic noise. At some point I realized that those swirling synthesizers — the key elements of the bands previous albums — had quietly exited some time ago. It’s okay. The guitar/violin interplay is just as great, and it shows that U.S. Christmas is so much more than just a one-trick pony. USX is now capable of both sending you off into the deepest, uncharted recesses of your brain — where the totally psychotropic shit resides — and breaking your heart with ornate requiems. I too once tried to oversimplify the U.S. Christmas sound to a friend by saying, “They pretty much have only one song, but I fucking love it and they play the shit out of it.” Run Thick In The Night blows that idea out of the water, and I am happily humbled to hear it. Like I said earlier, you can’t easily classify a band like U.S. Christmas. You just have to tell people that they fucking rock."-Evan (Swan Fungus)



MySpace/Buy

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - N.O.N.

 
As also seen on The Soda Shop
Today's New Band To Burn One To is N.O.N. They are a 4 piece band that plays old school hard rock and are from Los Angelos, CA.

There isn't to much info on the band right now but they do have 3 tracks up on their Myspace page for your pleasure. Check them out.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. News For Week Ending 9/11/2010

Here are the top Stoner Rock/Doom/Sludge, Etc. news headlines for the week ending 9/11/2010.

SLEEP: Quality Denver Footage Posted Online

THE CULT's ASTBURY, BORIS' ATSUO Discuss BXI Collaboration Project In New Video Interview

PROCESSION Confirmed For Germany's HAMMER OF DOOM 4 Festival

TROUBLE Preparing To Enter Studio

PENTAGRAM Confirmed For Holland's ROADBURN Festival

VENOMIN JAMES To Release 'Crowe Valley Blues' Next Week

SIDEBURN Signs With METAL HEAVEN RECORDS

For more headlines go to StonerRock.com and The Soda Shop

New Band To Burn One To - Hong Faux

 
As also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is a new band comprised of members of Dexter Jones Circus Orchestra and High Chao. Yeah, another Swedish band but that's a good thing. some of the best music comes from Sweden. The style is a fuzzy psychedelic rock. There really isn't to much on the band at the moment. They do have a 3 track demo available for free download by clicking the link below.

Friday, September 10, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Blaxeed

 
As also seen on The Soda Shop

The next group to be featured today is a band from Dayton, OH called Blaxeed. They play some hard blues, rock, metal.
Blaxeed is a heavy drinkin' hard rockin' no frills 4 man rock-n-roll band dedicated to writing and performing original music. This is no bullshit straight up hard rock born like steel from acid & molten pig iron. Bangin' rhythms, rippin' leads, thumpin' bass and screamin' vocals capture a lifetime of emotions in every song. Blaxeed's music truly is rock and roll straight from the soul. Their live performance is nothing less than a rock solid, beer guzzling, whiskey snortin', tube amplified, high voltage, double kick bass beat down of the highest order. So if you or anyone you know is scared of a little loud music, a few cold drinks, and a hell of a good time, make sure to be on the look out Blaxeed may be raising hell in a local bar near you.
They only have 2 songs posted on their Myspace page to hear but more is on the way.




CDBaby

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Heavy Rotation-Snail-"Blood"

If you are unfamiliar with the band Snail, I suggest you get familiar with them as soon as possible. If you like the classic Stoner/Psychedelic/Doom sound, then this CD will be right up your alley.



"Snail formed in 1992 consisting of singer Mark Johnson (The Crucified, Blessing the Hogs), bassist Matt Lynch (Plugusher) and drummer Marty Dodson.


After recording and shopping their first demo they were offered a 4-album deal by Big Deal Records in 1993. That year they recorded their Self-Titled album with help from producer Jonathan Burnside (Melvins, Nirvana, Steelpole Bathtub) at Razor's Edge Studio (the birthplace of Sleep's Holy Mountain) in San Francisco, CA. The album was well received by critics and garnered much praise from magazines such as Magnet, Alternative Press and BAM.


Snail's second release was a 5-song EP called "All Channels Are Open." The EP was recorded on a lowly 4-track in the hopes of capturing Snail's dynamic low-fi sound.


Subsequent to the release of the EP, Snail sadly succombed to the "sex, drugs, and Rock n Roll" lifestyle and eroded to the point of breaking up. The worst part was that they had a complete second album recorded on 4track and was ready to bring it into the studio."

Which leads us to this scenario, the original band went back into the studio along with new band member (guitarist Eric Clausen) and recorded that long lost second album called "Blood". The album was ultimately released on Meteor City Records in 2009 amid some pretty remarkable reviews.

"Snail wanted to create an album which, while staying true to their original stoner-rock/doom sound, would also showcase the unique pairing of Pink Floyd/My Bloody Valentine-esque vocals and melody with punishing sludge metal influences. The result is a hypnotic mix of roaring classic metal, doom, sludge, stoner and psychedelic dubbed "psychedoomic" by lead guitarist Eric Clausen."

What others are saying:

"Wow! First Black Pyramid and now Snail, What a year for releases from Meteorcity! Snail had hung up their boots called it quits, After recording a Self-titled release in 1993 and soon after an Ep titled "All Channels Open "the band fell to the wastelands of Rock n Roll, sex, drugs and evil women (Damn them:-).Over a decade later Snail's new and Unforgiving sound now reigns supreme picking up where they left off and no doubt releasing a dream once thought never to be, to be...


Snail's Blood recording from get go crushes everything in its path! Like a pest or a disease that eats everything in its way. Mental Models is simply Crushing , low down tuned phased out bass line intro which leads into a Goatsnake / Mass styled chord progression , the vocals by Mark are simply killer, delivered with so much heart. You know this record means the world to these guys and yes the dream is now reality.

Cleanliness, another stand out track, is perfect grunge rock but with a heavy stoner edge, that kind of 90's sound we all grew up to dig! Big dual guitars flowing speaker to speaker, rim shot drumming and Marks echoing lyrics, persisting and insisting to "Get High" the lead after the build up is fucking awesome! Short but sweet, perfect 90's heavy grunge riffs, the way the good old carefree days were.

Blood, is something that just consumes you, not one track on this record is a filler, it's heavy, untamed straight to the point heavy ass Fuzzy Groove rock, hook after hook ! How I never heard these guys back in the early 90's is beyond me! Never since the "Alice in Chains" album "Dirt" have I ever been so consumed and buzzed! Snail have managed to bring all there now," old school "influences to the table and produced a record that is so unique and well crafted you'd think there is no way this record could have been shelved and put to rest back in the mid 90's.

Snail have produced something special, production on Blood is absolutely perfect and captured to its finest detail, from the, sustain on the fuzz boxes, every drum hit, every bass note played and every lyric sang. Fans of Valis, Goatsnake and all the grunge era will smash the shit out of this record! Thank you Snail and thank you Meteorcity for delivering yet another killer new release that will no doubt stand the test of time for many years to come \m/" (PlanetFuzz)

Tracklist:

01.Mental Models
02.Sleep
03.Underwater
04.Committed
05.Via/Penny Dreadful
06.Relief
07.Blood
08.Cleanliness
09.Screen
10.Not for Me
11.Blacklight



MySpace/Website/Buy/Listen

New Band To Burn One To - Antique Scream

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop

Next up for the New Band TO Burn One feature is Antique Scream. I recently discovered these guys through a sampler sent to me by label mates Mean Mother (future NBTBOT). They are a 3 piece from Seattle, WA. Their style is a very cool psychedelic blues rock. They have 4 albums/EPs out (3 studio, 1 live). Their sound is similiar to Dirty Sweet, Sea of Air, Goliathon or even Night Horse. They are currently on tour so if you like them, go see them live. If they are even half as good live as they come across on their Myspace songs, you're in for a real treat. Make sure you buy their albums from them at the show, r, if you can't make it, get them on CDBaby. The studio albums are part of the 3 for $15 deal.



Monday, September 6, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Dirty Woman

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop
Today's new band to burn one to comes to us from Mexico. The band is Dirty Woman and they play a dirty southern stoner rock. Their sound is a mix of all the good ones. Atomic Bitchwax, Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Orange Goblin and Fu Manchu among many more.

Band bio in spanish and then the Google translation
Dirty Woman es una banda de stoner metal de la Ciudad de México, es iniciada en 2006 por Edson Alemán, guitarra (Atoxxxico, Invectiva, 34-D, Tusken Raiders, entre otras bandas); luego de algunos cambios de alineación, DW se complementa con: Lutz Keferstein en la voz (Bloodsoaked, LDB, Arkhé), Ángel Castillo en el bajo (Dr. Magnético, Faded Mortar) y Julio César López (Tusken Raiders) en la batería. Nos unen diversas influencias musicales y de pensamiento... No ondeamos banderas de geografías políticas; simplemente creemos en el rock como acto de libertad. Dirty Woman, rock para hombres y mujeres sucias. Salud!!
Dirty Woman is a stoner metal band from Mexico City, is initiated in 2006 by German Edson, guitar (Atoxxxico, invective, 34-D, Tusken Raiders, among other bands), after some lineup changes, complemented DW with: Lutz Keferstein in voice (Bloodsoaked, LDB, Arkhe), Angel Castillo on bass (Dr. Magnetic Faded Mortar) and Julio César López (Tusken Raiders) on drums. We unite diverse musical influences and thought ... No waving the flags of political geographies, just believe in rock as an act of freedom. Dirty Woman, men and women rock dirty. Cheers!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - Rintrah

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is from Nashville, TN. They are Rintrah. They play a heavy alt metal with some psychedelic. Pretty cool stuff. There are 4 songs on their Myspace to listen to and if you like it make sure you get a copy from the band.
Rintrah is a four piece band hailing out of Nashville, TN. While their primary influences are progressive and stoner metal with a healthy dose of psychadelia, they do not restrict themselves to any particular genre. Songs range anywhere from 3 minutes stoner rock with strong hooks to 8 minute epics that cover a range of dynamics.

Formed in 2009, Rintrah consists of bassist Jeremy Fleming, guitarist and main vocalist Brett McKee, drummer Caleb Roney, and guitarist Jason Wright. After months of preparation, the band started hitting the local Nashville scene with positive results, playing with bands such as RWAKE, Royal Thunder, Across Tundras, Evil Bebos, and many more. They quickly moved to record their debut EP "Hold Dear the Ember" which is releasing this June. Comparisons to other bands have been all over the map and descriptions of the music vary just as wildly. The band looks forward to venturing out of its home in Nashville and expand live venues across the US.


"Their beautifully packaged EP is self funded and released, and the band say they haven’t the funds to make the kind of record they’d like, but if that’s the case then judging by how good these tunes are, with some funding they’d be taking over the world."

Emma Gould - Room Thirteen

"”Kallisti” opens like a death march, pulsating drums opening the song up like a tribal ritual. It rotates between sludgy riffing, stoner riffs and intricate rhythms. One thing holds the seven-minute track together – balls-out heaviness. All of Hold Dear the Ember is heavy. Really heavy."

-Hearwax

"Had we stuck around to polish off another batch of blended brilliance we would have missed one of the most badass new local bands to pop up in a long, long time — Rintrah. You read that right: There's a new band in town, and they are actually badass — not, “We're saying they're badass, but that's because there isn't an adjective in the world that could make indie-pop sound cool," but actual, legitimate, burly riff-monster badass...........Seriously, we've got a new band-crush and their name is Rintrah."

-The Nashville Scene

Thursday, September 2, 2010

New Band To Burn One To - 91s

 
As Also seen on The Soda Shop

Today's New Band To Burn One To is from Pennsylvania. They are a 3 piece that play a funky psychedelic stoner rock. Recommended if you like Nebula, Atomic Bitchwax, or just like something new, fresh and different. The band even incorporates elements from 60's classic rock. You can hear some Cream, Hendrix and maybe a little bit of The Who.
This three piece doesn't deserve a bio. They deserve a Tolkien like epic of a novel to describe what is going down in this stoner rock, heavy funk psych of a musical outfit. We make music for the people who get far out. If you get far out...come join us.


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