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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!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

March Bandness 2012: Sludge (South) Region- Round One

VOTING HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR VOTING!


SLUDGE (SOUTH) REGION ROUND ONE

Please listen to the bands in each matchup then vote for your favourite one from each matchup at the end of the post.

Voting for Round One starts 2/29/2012 at 12:01 am EST and ends 03/09/2012 at 11:59 pm EST

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#1 WHORES. VS #16 THE FERTILITY CULT

Whores. (Atlanta, GA)



The Fertility Cult (Finland)



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#8 DEMONIC DEATH JUDGE VS AYAHUASCA DARK TRIP

Demonic Death Judge (Finland)



Ayahuasca Dark Trip (Brazil)



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#5 BLACK SKIES VS #12 FEEDBACK REVIVAL

Black Skies (Carrboro, NC)



Feedback Revival (Nashville, TN)



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#4 THE MATADOR VS #13 GALVANO

The Matador (Queensland, AU)



Galvano (Sweden)



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#6 BANDITO VS #11 ONE INCH GIANT

Bandito (Nijmegen, Holland)



One Inch Giant (Gothenburg, Sweden)



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#3 WIZARD SMOKE VS #14 SUMMONUS

Wizard Smoke (Atlanta, GA)

When the brackets were determined Wizard Smoke had a Bandcamp site. The band is no longer on Bandcamp but the good news is that you can download the entire album for FREE right HERE.

Summonus (Sydney, Australia)



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#7 CONCRETE SUN VS #10 LORD STEREO

Concrete Sun (Novi Sad, Serbia)



Lord Stereo (Warszawa, Poland)



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#2 BEASTWARS VS #15 DOUBLESTONE

Beastwars (Wellington, Australia)



Doublestone (Copenhagen, Denmark)



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Thanks for voting!

*Please do not vote for the divider line.

Vote For Your Favorite Band in Each Matchup


  
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March Bandness 2012: Psychedelic (North) Region- Round One

VOTING HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR VOTING!


PSYCHEDELIC (NORTH) REGION ROUND ONE

Please listen to the bands in each matchup then vote for your favourite one from each matchup at the end of the post.

Voting for Round One starts 2/29/2012 at 12:01 am EST and ends 03/09/2012 at 11:59 pm EST

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#1 SHOCK RADAR VS #16 SCREAMING RATTLER

Shock Radar (New York, NY)



Screaming Rattler (Philadelphia, PA)



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#8 CLAMFIGHT VS #9 MADAM TRASHY


Clamfight (Westmont, NJ)



Madam Trashy (Brooklyn, NY)



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#5 TUNGUSKA MAMMOTH VS #12 SKROGG

Tunguska Mammoth (Montreal, Canada)



Skrogg (Troy, NH)



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#4 BLUE SNAGGLETOOTH VS #13 JAW HORSE

Blue Snaggletooth (Ann Arbor, MI)



Jaw Horse (Philadelphia, PA)



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#6 EGGNOGG VS #11 TRAITORS RETURN TO EARTH

Eggnogg (Brooklyn, NY)



Traitors Return to Earth (Columbus, OH)



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#3 BIRCH HILL DAM VS #14 SWORDS OF TEXAS

Birch Hill Dam (Gardner, MA)



Swords of Texas (Ontario, Canada)



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#7 SADGIQACEA VS #10 RIDE TO RUIN

Sadgiqacea (Philadelphia, PA)



Ride to Ruin (Columbus, OH)



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#2 DOPETHRONE VS #15 FEDERALE

Dopethrone (Montreal, CA)



Federale (Brooklyn, NY)



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Thanks for voting!

*Please do not vote for the divider line.

Vote For Your Favorite Band in Each Matchup




  
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March Bandness 2012: Doom (East) Region-Round One

VOTING HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR VOTING!


DOOM (EAST) REGION ROUND ONE

Please listen to the bands in each matchup then vote for your favourite one from each matchup at the end of the post.

Voting for Round One starts 2/29/2012 at 12:01 am EST and ends 03/09/2012 at 11:59 pm EST

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#1 1000MODS VS #16 SUBSILENCE

1000mods (Chiliomodi, Greece)



Subsilence (Guildford, UK)




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#8 XII BOAR VS #9 THORUN

XII Boar (Aldershot, UK)



Thorun (Cardiff, UK)




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#5 NAUGHTY MOUSE VS #12 LOW SONIC DRIFT

Naughty Mouse (Brussels, Belgium)



Low Sonic Drift (Glasgow, Scotland)




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#4 MIRIAM IN SIBERIA VS #13 MARBLES

Miriam in Siberia (Italy)




Marbles (Portugal)




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#6 WIZARDS OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN VS #11 HEADLESS KROSS

Wizards of Firetop Mountain (Dublin, Ireland)



Headless Kross (Glasgow, Scotland)




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#3 CONAN VS #14 BEAR BRAWLER

Conan (Liverpool, UK)




Bear Brawler (France)




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#7 THE SAND COLLECTOR VS #10 BY DEFINITION

The Sand Collector (Elche, Spain)




By Definition (Brighton, UK)




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#2 THE COSMIC DEAD VS #15 FIRELORD

The Cosmic Dead (Glasgow, Scottland)




Firelord (Turin, Italy)




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Thanks for voting!

*Please do not vote for the divider line.

Vote For Your Favorite Band in Each Matchup


  
pollcode.com free polls 

March Bandness 2012: Stoner Rock (West) Region- Round One

VOTING HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR VOTING!


STONER ROCK (WEST) REGION ROUND ONE

Please listen to the bands in each matchup then vote for your favourite one from each matchup at the end of the post.

Voting for Round One starts  2/29/2012 at 12:01 am EST and ends 03/09/2012 at 11:59 pm EST

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#1 ORCHID VS # 16 VULTURES AT ARMS REACH

Orchid (San Francisco, CA)



Vultures at Arms Reach (Santa Cruz, CA)



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#8 GODHUNTER VS #9 BLACK ACID DEVIL


Godhunter (Tucson, AZ)



Black Acid Devil (Boulder,CO)



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#5 THE SHRINE VS #12 THE MOUNDBUILDERS


The Shrine (Somewhere in California)



The Mound Builders (Lafayette, IN)



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#4 GYPSYHAWK VS #13 FELLWOODS


Gypsyhawk (Pasadena, CA)



Fellwoods (Portland, OR)



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#6 LORD DYING VS #11 AXXICORN


Lord Dying (Portland, OR)



Axxicorn (Portland, OR)



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#3 BLACK WIZARD VS #14 GIANTRIDER



Black Wizard (Vancouver, CA)



Giantrider (Portland, OR)



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#7 GLITTER WIZARD VS #10 THE HEDONS


Glitter Wizard (San Francisco, CA)



The Hedons (Indianapolis, IN)



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#2 WITCH MOUNTAIN VS #15 ONE-EYED KING


Witch Mountain (Portland, OR)



One-Eyed King (96 San Francisco, CA)



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Thanks for voting!

*Please do not vote for the divider line.

Vote For Your Favorite Band in Each Matchup


  
pollcode.com free polls 

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

New Band To Burn One To-MAMMUT

Heavy Planet presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...MAMMUT!


Bio:

Mammut has got it´s roots in 2003 when Johan Hedqvist, Johan Eliasson, Jonas Wedin and Daniel Bergström went to the same school outside of Stockholm, Sweden. They were 15 years old and played some punk and Iron Maiden-covers in a garage. Names and line-ups were changed over the years but the band took it´s final form in 2006 when drummer Daniel Lyngman joined the band. The band name was leChuck, after the computer games pirate, and after loads of demo recordings and live shows the band was playing stoner rock mixed with sludge and doom influences. The lyrics being in Swedish the band name was changed to Mammut in late 2011. Homunkulus, the band´s debut EP, was released early 2012. Influences are Swedish heavy metal band November, Kyuss, Sleep, Neurosis, Kylesa, ISIS and early Iron Maiden among many others.



Thoughts:

"Well folks, there must be something in the water in Sweden that helps create some of the finest Stoner Rock music in the world. Mammut from Stockholm is another fine example. These gents inject a ton of fuzzy riffs, a suave vocal approach and a penchant for punk-infused heavy metal into the four songs on their debut EP "Homunkulus". With lyrics sung primarily in their native tongue, you can immediately detect the the band's influence by the killer grooves, progressive rythyms and erratic drum surges on the opening self-titled track. There is a glimmer of sludge and heavy blues on the remaining tracks but for the most part this is just some damn good rock and fucking roll."
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Monday, February 27, 2012

New Band To Burn One To: SUPERPUMA

Heavy Planet presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...SUPERPUMA!


Bio:

SuperPuma formed in the summer of 2007 and they play loud rock 'n' roll with experimental / blues and alternative / punk elements. They have appeared occasionally in various Athenian venues.

SuperPuma are: Lefty (vocals), Danny (guitar), Billy (bass) and Nodes (drums).

In 2009 they recorded a four track demo in mini-cdr format and DIY feel entitled «Speed ​​The Plow».

They just completed their self financed first full length album titled «Big Cats on the Prowl». It contains 9 new tracks and the first 500 copies come with a 36 page comic booklet designed by the bands guitarist.



Thoughts:


"SuperPuma is a very eclectic mix of heavy rock, twangy cowpunk, and suberb weirdness. With semi-spoken vocals, hard-driving rhythms and gilded riffing this Greek band gets caught in a whirlwind of straight-up rock (One World Nation) and unexpurgated epicness (In the woods...for love (a history in my veins). With SuperPuma, there is enough heaviness and uniqueness to set themselves apart from most of their musical counterparts. Some really cool stuff. I dig it!"

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday Sludge - Grime

I never figured on "sludge" serving as an understatement. Sometimes the "Sunday Sludge" tag can be a stretch, yes. I'll admit it. Nothing is absolute, and if I weren't able to pair sludge with stoner and doom, musings could grow sparse. Stumbling upon Trieste, Italy's Grime, however, resulted in a complete overhaul in what I thought I knew about music's darkest, dirtiest corner. This is miles past sludge.

I hate issuing warnings to accompany a sound I believe you need to hear, so I won't. Grime's songs are slow, feculent, and deeply unsettling. If you love your family, keep this to yourself. Listening to this band effectively stomped every adjective from my vernacular, and I can only hope today's feature doesn't suffer for it. The band's self-titled debut is six servings of the dirtiest sludge metal you'll ever hear. Simple enough.

Impossible to ignore are the film samples included on the album. Cape Fear was the kind of movie my parents never wanted me watching, so reflecting on Illeana Douglas as she pleads for Bobby DeNiro's mercy could fool me into liking a shitty band. But the album's opener, Self-Contempt, leads listeners through a fiery thump of crusty sludge/doom that's heavily distorted, relentlessly grinding, and absolutely vile. As the rhythm chugs, vocals arrive to impale your body and berate your thoughts. Burning your skin, drying out your eyes, and dragging you under a rusty Chevy pick-up, the sound is huge and exhausting. Just to drive home its disgust, this lead-in slows to a smoldering fadeout. You're already drained.

The Journey fades in, rolls in pig shit, and rises and falls with Lorenzo's licks. Marco's vocals are screamed but somehow subdued, oozing belligerence. The track's rhythm is more accessible than you'd expect, but troubling themes are sure to frighten off poseurs. The song breaks and tries to crawl from its lashing. Come on. The sound coils, as if its waiting to unload. Paulo's bass reverb becomes so impatiently heavy that listeners may fail to notice the fuzzy sludge immersing itself.

If Cape Fear was a staple of my formative years, then The Devil's Rejects is the kind of film someone with my preoccupations should never watch. Charon kicks off with one of the film's more unlistenable clips and moves right into a swinging doom pendulum until sludge and fuzz poke their fingers into open wounds. Marco's pipes roll perfectly with the slow, gloomy tempos. This track grinds and chops its way into listeners' hearts, rife with contempt and malice.

I've never caught a butcher off-guard, and who would? If I had, however, the result would be Chasm's axe-grind atmosphere. Crawling to a slow, steady buzz of distortion and agony, these eight minutes serve as the album's most emotional and tortured moments. Tempos lift just after a quick fizzle and pop, but there's no filth left behind. Slow doom never leaves the track, and you'll be left buzzed from the ear-boxing.

Born Sick holds the record's quickest tempo, complete with clouded confidence and a middle finger you can hear. There's a stoner rhythm under the layers of shit, and the song's bottom-out is the perfect precursor to Wife-Beater, our endcap. The distant, crusty fade-in essentially exclaims "fuck it, I ain't goin' to class" and the stoner-sludge embers teetotal into a crunchy, rollicking grind. Perhaps Grime are easing up a bit. Or perhaps the awesome drum-stomp makes me feel like an asshole for suggesting this band will ever relent.

It's hard for most people to grasp the appeal of sludge metal. Some bands try to clean it up, give it a nice shine. It ain't gonna happen, son. So long as bands like Grime are on the bill, the filth and the fury will forever have their place, their nook, their cranny. I can't say I'd want these guys showing up at my house and rubbing all over my furniture. My wife would fucking kill me. But give the band a fair shake and discover that evil still has its place. Like it or not, you can't dismiss a band this sick.



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Saturday, February 25, 2012

MARCH BANDNESS 2012 BANDS, REGIONS AND MATCHUPS ANNOUNCED!

The time has come once again for the 2012 March Bandness tournament. This year Heavy Planet and The Soda Shop bring you an exciting competition in which 64 bands from all around the world square off against each other with only one band reigning supreme. Last year the final game featured Ohio's Stoner/Doom gods Threefold Law versus Texas Stoner Metal merchants Switchblade Jesus with Threefold Law claiming stake as the first annual March Bandness winner. Below are all of the bands, regions and matchups. Voting begins 2/29/2012. Get in on all of the fun now! Will your favorite band win?

DOOM (EAST) REGION


PSYCHEDELIC (NORTH) REGION


SLUDGE (SOUTH) REGION


STONER ROCK (WEST) REGION


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Album Review: Stubb-S/T


Bio:
Superhot Records is very proud to bring you it's first release and the debut album by British psych rockers Stubb. The self-titled LP was cut to tape in the winter of 2010 at Dropout Studios in South London with Tim Cedar of Part Chimp.

Band members are:
Jack Dickinson: Guitar and vocals
Pete Holland: Bass Guitar
Chris West: Drums

Like the guitar tone the live vibe on this record is thick, this is a real band playing real songs in a basement studio with minimal overdubs. Stubb contains 8 modern salutes to the early 70s with lyrical themes covering love, loss, the open road, women and the powerful force of nature.

This is much more than just a one dimensional record though. ‘Crying River’ featuring Malin Dahlgren from Swedish folk duo Polly Tones and the acoustic ‘Crosses You Bear’ provide contrast to the full on valve abuse of songs like ‘Hard Hearted Woman’ and ‘Scale the Mountain’. For the most part however, this is a power trio doing what a power trio does best; warm fuzzy guitars, bass heavy songs, frantic solos and an excessive use of wah-wah.

After touring the UK and Germany with 70s rock preservationists Stone Axe in April 2011 Tony Reed (Stone Axe, Mos Generator) was hired for the job of mixing and mastering. Reed, who has recently finished recording the new St Vitus record, was the perfect man for the job having seen the band live many times and whose own band Stone Axe shares a similar musical heritage.

In April 2012 Stubb will head out on the road again with Stone Axe and fellow Britons Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight in support of the album. The trip will take them around the UK including a stop at the inaugural Desertfest in London and then onto mainland Europe.
Superhot Records release number zero zero one will appeal to fans of Cream, Taste, Graveyard, The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Stubb will be released on CD, LP and digital. All formats will be available direct from Superhot Records. Digital formats will be available direct from Superhot Records as well as iTunes, Amazon MP3 etc.


Review:

It’s nice to come across a band who takes their music seriously without taking themselves too seriously, and I believe Stubb falls right into the middle of that category. They are serious about their music, and they are serious about playing it, something you might not glean from the band’s portrait photo that accompanies the album where they are obviously having a lot of fun with the process of adorning this awesome track collection. The release of their self-titled debut album is a quality achievement, with the predominant sound on this album super heavy, fuzzed out and distorted, riffs and hooks in all the right places, melodies intertwined with the onrush of anabolic sound, vocals that deliver a wonderful and adept finishing touch to exceptional music, long and trippy interludes that harken back to the first era of rock glory, while making a case for inclusion in this, the second era of rock glory. As mentioned above in their press release they depart from the hairier tracks on two occasions, but for me those departures prove they are about playing top notch music, caring first for the craft and quality of their chosen art, while happening to apply that craft to full bodied and muscular rock. I believe you will find yourself listening to Stubb again and again, discovering all the nuances and wonderfulness of each part of each song, while letting the music trigger the primal drive deep inside through exquisite compilations and adept renderings of their hearty work.





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Friday, February 24, 2012

New Band To Burn One To: THRONE

Heavy Planet presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...THRONE!


Bio:

We formed a year ago, we're based in East London. We record and practise in a damp basement called the Doom Room beneath Dalston Kingsland. In the last six months we have been playing live in and around London and we're looking forward to playing at South by Southwest in Texas this Spring. In the last month we've enjoyed playing shows with awesome bands like "Moss" and most recently "Astrohenge".

Nicos Livesey - Guitar / Vocals
Will Michael - Bass
Julia Owen - Drums

Thoughts:


"If the first two songs I heard from this band are an indication of things to come, then by damn I want more! This is raw, stripped-down stoner/doom at it's finest. No fancy production here people (other than some cool vocal layering), just three bandmates planting huge, tasty, skull-splitting heavy ass grooves into your cranium. I must say that the most intriguing part of this band is the simplicity. The vocals bellow over a guiding bass line which are centered around some nice juicy riffs. Yes, I am really psyched about this band for some reason, if you haven't noticed. Listen below and see for yourself!"





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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Review: Lord 13 – 2013

Lord 13 – 2013

Ken ‘Nuclear Dog’ Elliott




Out of the high desert country of . . . Athens, Greece . . . the four piece band Lord 13 have managed to conjure 12 mighty tasty morsels of stoner rock on their second full length album “2013”. Lord 13 have been around long enough to know exactly how to construct a quality product that doesn’t just fit in to the stoner rock genre, but can be regarded as one of that genre’s finest examples of what stoner sound should be. All the pieces that can be used to describe stoner rock – fuzzed out, driving, low guitars; pounding, primal drums; vocals crisp, clean, interesting, and adept; and riffs and hooks that leave you wanting more – is exhibited in spades by that little ol’ band from the cradle of civilization.

“2013” starts off with Fire, a song that lets you know right away that you are in for an enjoyable experience of fuzzed out bliss, starting with a single guitar playing a fun little riff with just the right amount of distortion, followed closely by a piercing pulse from the skins of rhythm, moving smoothly into a quick but all out assault from every instrumental contributor, before shifting into the heart of the song with vocals that bring it all together into a cohesive and enjoyable experience of wonderful sludge and fuzz.

Love and Hate has a bit of psychadelica to kick off another heavy hitting assault, this time kicking up the tempo a notch while including the signature guitar sound that makes stoner songs unique, recognizable, and thoroughly enjoyable. Whether paying homage to the established kings of stoner rockdom or simply including the sound that makes these songs so unique and wonderful, Lord 13 is adept at wielding all sorts of heavy, hard driving riffs and melding them into an impressive array of sound that becomes a very listenable and memorable piece of music.

Love and Hate moves seamlessly into Get You High continuing with the wonderful structure, beat, vocals, riffs, and sounds established on the first act of this fuzz bomb duo.

Off the Edge, the 4th track, is a wonderfully constructed staccato onslaught of drums by Costas, bass by Dee, guitar by John, and vocals by Jim, who also shares in the guitar duties. As memorable as the first three tracks have been the fourth seems to deliver more on the wonderful promise of worthwhile stoner rock.

Free follows the pattern now firmly established by Lord 13 of a tantalizing and meager introduction followed by a well crafted and executed example of metal music, this one most definitely paying homage to several of the genre’s best acts such as the ubiquitous Kyuss and many of its offshoots such as Slo Burn, Fu Manchu, and QOTSA.

The Warning and Wicked Thing surprisingly both kick off right away with full blown sound, this time in the vein of Truckfighters and Freedom Hawk, except heavier, harder, more urgent in their tempo, yet exhibiting dexterity that rivals the best anyone could offer. Both of these songs, each unique in their deliverance of the familiar, stand out as pieces that transcend the mere sound and structure that defines stoner rock while delivering songs worthy of inclusion on your music player’s ‘best of’ playlists.

Lord 13 delivers perhaps the crown jewel of “2013” with Wicked Thing , featuring Orange Goblin’s Ben Ward in a dueling vocals role with Jim on a song worthy of his guest appearance, not by being a clone of OG’s music, but by being among the best crafted songs Lord 13 has to offer.

There is no let up in quality on Make It With You and Keep on Riding, quality songs from beginning to end, delivering still more of that wonderful stoner sound. Keep on Riding can be reminiscent of a number of Brant Bjork’s work, while remaining true to Lord 13’s own established awesomeness of sound.

Not Over is this album’s foray into lengthy psychadelica, cranking out over seven minutes of still more superb distortion and fuzz of the stoner rock mold and from the Lord 13 library of kick ass music.

When you get to the final track you might first think your player has jumped over to ‘radio’ mode and is playing something from some other source, but in fact it’s instead playing Walking In Sin, a decided departure from the rest of the album on which it appears Jim and his guitar are delving down an acoustic pathway, accompanied by a flute, and delivering what, for me, is a wonderful and worthwhile offering of music that simply proves that Lord 13 are more than a stoner rock band, they are musicians and artists, very gifted in what they are able to craft and share. This song is a joy in which to listen, and a fine way to close out what is truly a memorable and worthwhile collection of some of the best stoner music I’ve heard since Freedom Hawk’s “Sunlight” album.

Lord 13 consists of:

Costas: Drums
Dee: Bass
John: Guitar
Jim: Vocals, Guitar

The best part about the album is that you can get it for FREE along with their previous releases. Go here to download.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Zac's "Double Dose" - Bell Witch / Woodsman


Bell Witch: Demo 2011

We, to this day, have not covered funeral doom here on the Double Dose. Though not my normal cup of tea, in the proper mood and dosage this sedate annihilation of the eardrums is welcome. So, I present to you Bell Witch and their demo released this past October. On a side note, this is an excellent sound track for the celebration of All Hallow's Eve, and the release date was perfectly timed.

Bell Witch are a drum and bass duo from the Pacific Northwest. Dylan Desmond, of Lethe and Samothrace, cover bass duties while Adrian Guerra, also of Lethe and Sod Hauler, cover drums. Both contribute to the vocals which range from melodic singing to vicious shrieks. Regurgitating their influences of "suffering, pain, death..." the two have composed a trance inducing and ghostly resonance as any good doom metal should. Clear your schedule for the next forty minutes, because Bell Witch are here to doom you right back to the dark ages.




Members:

Dylan Desmond - Bass / Vocals
Adrian Guerra - Drums / Vocals

I bandcamp I facebook I myspace I web I I web store I

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Woodsmen: Mystic Places EP

Our second shot of the Dose this week couldn't be farther from Bell Witch. Chalk this one up to the Psyche category because it doesn't get much more psychedelic than Woodsman and their latest release Mystic Places EP. The tone of the EP begins quite intense, like a train rolling into a tunnel that quickly becomes light and airy with an in utero, ambient background. The vocals, when they are present, are overcast by the beautifully textured guitars. The songs remain peaceful, perfect for zoning out for the thirty minute run time. Mystic Places peaks with its finale Tone Cloak and seems to fade away as quick as it begun. The EP is streaming at bandcamp, along with many other of Woodsman's releases.



Members:

Dylan -
Eston -
Mark -
Trevor -

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

New Band To Burn One To: REVEREND SNOW

HEAVY PLANET presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...REVEREND SNOW!


Bio:

Rising from the smokestacks of "steel city" Hamilton, Ontario comes Reverend Snow.

Reverend snow fuse hypnotic solos, fuzzed out guitar riffs and chaotic drums, putting together their debut album "Rockola de Diablos".  Although RS was formed less than 2 years ago, the 3 members had been friends for many years in Ontario where they all grew up. They had played in previous bands, (Daze, Cream Judge, Hi Tower), playing mainly classic rock, power pop and hard rock....but the drive to make a record influenced by their idols (Black Sabbath, Kyuss,) was always on their minds. Their debut, Rockola De Diablos, is full of heavy riffs, smooth grooves and catchy chorus'. The record is heavy, reminiscent of the steel manufactured in their hometowns north end. For Josh Dion-Broadley (guitar, bass, vocals), Rob Tomalty (guitar, bass) and Mark Zavarise (drums), the album came together very naturally, entirely written, recorded and mixed by RS. Album #2 is already in the plans..


2 The Vaporizer


7 Sabretooth

Thoughts:


"Growing up in a "steel city" as well, I can associate with Reverend Snow more so than others. My father was a steelworker, my grandfather was a steelworker, and well, I sell industrial supplies, so it all comes around full circle. Reverend Snow is a band that takes all of their influences and melts them together for a thick slab of hot molten heaviness. The music has a wonderful fuzzy feel, with elements of desert groove, hypnotic psychedelia and heavy blues.  With riffs as heavy as 350 tons of molten pig iron, Reverend Snow pours their soul into an extremely well-written and well-played debut . The band has made their entire album available for free which you can download at the link below."
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Monday, February 20, 2012

New Band To Burn One To: HOSOI BROS.

HEAVY PLANET presents today's "New Band To Burn One To"...HOSOI BROS.


Bio:

Hosoi Bros formed in January 2010. Since then we have played with Red Fang, The Sword, Monotonix, Pack of Wolves, Skeleton Witch, Gypsyhawk, Totimoshi, and in March we're playing with Truckfighters. We've all been in tons of bands no one outside of Memphis has probably heard of, but Apple played in Bury the Living, Drewbie and Blasingame played in Mouth Karate and I played in a band called Typhoon Killer in Portland. Drewbie, Apple, and I were all in a band called Evil Wizard Eyes together. It was awful. Apple was a guitar player playing drums. Bad. Hosoi. Bros just put out a 7". We also made a shitty (awesome?) video for "Wine Witch".



Thoughts:

"Dammit Hosoi Bros. only two songs? This high energy, party-invoking band fires up the ignition and puts the pedal to the metal. The band in some aspect reminds me of Barn Burner and Valient Thorr by the way they take hold of a song and feed the energy through your veins with sheer intensity and groove. No wonder the band has shared the stage with so many other bands, a perfect primer to get the juices flowing. Fuck coffee this morning, Hosoi Bros. was my adrenaline rush!"

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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Sunday Sludge: Bädr Vogu - "Exitium"


Apparently the left arm of sludge metal extends far beyond the outer limits of Louisiana's bayous and Georgia's swamps. Credit the deep South for shaping many of the earliest, more influential sludge bands, sure (Melvins notwithstanding). But take a poke through other corners of the continental states and you'll be amazed at what festers beneath the surface. Today's Sunday Sludge highlights California's Bädr Vogu, self-described as "West Oakland Blues Crust." Their 2011 full-length debut, Exitium, is about as crusty as sludge can get without caking shut entirely.

With its heels dug firmly into broken soil and its deepest roots cemented distantly (though relevantly) in the blues of another time, Exitium certainly falls under a different moon than, say, Robert Johnson or Sleepy John Estes. "Crust" must be the operative term here, and Bädr Vogu glaze these six tracks with enough filth and snarl to harden even the softest, most milquetoast of sludge fans.

The sharp shrill of Wolves In The Ruins guides a snail's drone into the album's true rumble character. Guitars resonate and bass crunches, with the introductory black shroud dissipating as the rhythm grinds its snout into the earth. Rob's bass is absolutely vile, remaining low and loose throughout the entire track (and essentially the entire album). Sean's toilet-growl vocal proves no less effective than that of George Fisher or John Tardy, though there's parity where he reaches out with a howl. This opener stays true to its promise of fuzzy filth and quickly gets listeners dirty.

Almost crust-punk is Soliloquy of Belligerence, faster in tempo and more traditional in rhythm than its lead-in. Sean's vocals remain perfectly disheartening, and the choppy, grinding plateau is greeted by a death march into a boiling pond of reverb. The tandem of Joe and Bryce on guitar, added to Justin's kit-pummeling, effectively split the track in half. The rhythm grows back as Rob's bass hums from the mud. The sounds have come full circle, as the shifting tempos cease with a high-pitched fadeout. You're gonna need that towel.

Sound clips can sometimes detract from an album's atmosphere, coming off as inane or extraneous. Nomad's hobo-tao, however, seems a perfect companion to the middle finger of the track's blues skeleton. The entire song seems to be sniffing for scraps, as intermittent patches of crusty punk build toward total chaos. The song manages to implode into itself, but not before embracing the self-destruction.

If you figured a change of pace was in order, you're more perceptive than me. The lonely guitar haunt of Extinguished is as creepy as anything you'd find in a dusty attic, while the saunter of Rob's bass adds another layer of eerie. As Justin's drums set the stride, a dirty blanket of sludge envelopes the doom tempo. Sean's vocals are an instrument all their own as plates shift, the ground underneath begins to break, and tempos enter a sort of fartlek sprint-and-crawl. Riding the hunched back of Joe's and Bryce's guitar virtuosity, this long, drawn-out bout with loneliness holds as much intrigue as many entire albums.

Every track on the album manages to swing over the bar, ending up where it started with an added dizziness. Slumlord Blues is the album's *ahem* blues-iest track, back-dropped by a curtain of sludge. More accessible than the rest of the album but no less violent, this dirty bounce moves to full doom, with vocals shouted rather than grumbled. Guitars buzz, drums obliterate, and the fury carries over into the album's final coup, Barons of Filth. Beginning with a hollow, distant thump, the sludge arrives quickly and rhythms shift unexpectedly. Bädr Vogu find their instrumental harmony best on this track, Exitium's strongest. Every member is given marquee status here. The band drags us into the bayou and leaves us for dead before shifting to stoner sludge. Guitars turn on the headlights, but tempos drag us behind a moving car. That slow tempo eventually returns, and splintered logs seem the only appropriate vessel.

I'm not terribly familiar with blues pioneers, and I'm certainly no bay area native. I can't even begin to imagine where Bädr Vogu draw inspiration (maybe I should leave it alone), but the result is a debut album that'll knock you on your ass. While the blues i DO know managed to mask displeasure with acceptance and sarcasm, this "crust blues" doesn't mask a damn thing. Sludge is characteristically pessimistic, occasionally hopeless. But Bädr Vogu spin that hopelessness into a meltdown of accomplished sludge normally reserved for more seasoned artists. It's impossible to believe this is a debut, and it's even more impossible to believe Bädr Vogu have only existed since 2009.



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