LP Review: Shrooming Widow by Void Commander

As a great big fat choking smoke cloud descends upon you, filling your lungs with a dense clogging clawing, commanding every gap and hole it finds, becoming one with you, you manage to exhale within the last gasping inch of breath you've got left, right before the next fuzzed-up doom riff smothers you again. It's as glorious as it is suffocating, and Void Commander pummel you in droves with one dense heavy riff after the next. It's not a record for the faint-hearted.

Hailing from "the dark forests" of Sweden, the trio of Bobby K, Linus O, and Jimmy J have released their debut full-length record of heavy HEAVY stoner doom distorted psychedelic riffs in the mammoth Shrooming Widow, and it's fits perfectly between Sleep and Spaceslug on the drifting-alone-in-outer-space-high-as-fuck-being-pulled-apart-by-a-black-hole noise spectrum: so you can see why we love it.

With tracks like, well, every damn track here, but in particular '2061' reaching such earthly decimals to rupture your eardrums, and make you nauseas from the pounding drumming and doom-chainsaw guitar work, you find yourself constantly caught between banging your head 'til death and riding that magical carpet into the higher plains of your existential mind. When one mind mulching track ends, another starts up right where they left off, 'Acid Queen' continues the powerful dooming riffs setting the stoner tempo as high as they dare to go. The instrumental bass heavy 'Tongue Whip of the Alien Mothership' is the marker that separates the pretenders from the real lovers of all that is HEAVY as the record continues for another ten songs of the same smothering riffs in glorious succession.

'Days Will Pass and Years Will Die' is our standout track on Shrooming Widow, with Bobby K's haunting vocals tripping over the top of some of the sharpest riffs the band have to offer. The song encompasses everything the band are about, with their psychedelic tinged astral riffs, crushing doom-laden bass riffs and drumming, and droning, continuous drug-fuelled riffs (they have a lot of riffs) all within the same glorious 8-minute wonder.

Shrooming Widow is an excellent debut record from a band that we're certain to hear a lot more from for years to come, if our eardrums can honestly handle it.

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LP Review: Codex Narco by Godhunter

Now this is a fucking powerful record!

Godhunter, from Arizona, Tucson, have been producing stoner sludge for a number of years now, and when several members of the band left at the end of 2015, it seemed like the band's days were numbered, however, guitarist/vocalist David Rodgers, drummer Andy Kratzenberg, and keyboardist Matthew Davis continued on writing new music, changing from their ever present commentary on social injustice to taking a more personal approach and focusing on their own individual struggles, and it's made for a short but stunning new record, combining elements of doom, sludge, post-metal, industrial, and stoner to the perfect degree.

Codex Narco opens with 'A Dread of Some Strange Impending Doom', a two-minute doom opus, setting the tone as a bleak but charging expedition into the band's consciousness, putting you at an unsettling ease before the dark psychedelic stomping riffs of 'Like Glass Under Black Fingernails' hits you with it's doomy gutteral atmospheric ambiance. The vocals are a perfect juxtaposition of gentle heart-wrenching clean aches and aggressive power as the two singers vie for the most poignant delivery. The music is as bleak as it is powerful, and it grips you.

'Our Blood Is Poison' is a dark audio recording that sends a few shivers down your spine before the excellent 'Cocaine Witches & Lysergic Dreams' gives you a glorious wall of noise, dealing with issues of cocaine use shouting "The high isn't forever, and neither is this, the song is just as temporary as the fix" as the industrial stoner doom backdrop drives the music along with incredible power and force. It's a song not to be fucked with.

The band have recruited members of CHRCH, Mountaineer, Demon Lung, Methra, and Thorne to play on this record, and they've impressed to make Codex Narco a short but brilliantly powerful record, a one which even a cover of Tegan and Sara's 'Walking With a Ghost' fits in perfectly. Godhunter have produced a massive sound on a small scale, and it's impact is as heartfelt as it is speaker shattering. Available on cassette from Baby Tooth records, and digitally, we recommend you get this now.

All proceeds from the record go to Planned Parenthood.

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Album Review: 'Green' by Mage

Isn’t it sweet when as a music community we get together to show solidarity and an appreciation for the things we care about? Leicester (UK)-based Mage are certainly grateful. After a successful Pledge Music campaign, their fans helped fund their latest and fourth record Green. 

The record itself, laid down at Skyhammer Studios by Chris Fielding, is seven chunks of straight-forward in yer face riffage, much in the vein of DOWN, CoC or Alabama Thunderpussy. 

Green opens with foot-stomping riff on Nowhere To Nothing that Pepper Keenan would be proud of, and the southern sludgy comparisons don’t stop there. The pounding drums open up Primitive Drive before pulling back to a slow morose guitar chords, evoking images of going eye to eye with an alligator in a Louisiana swamp. And listen out for a guest appearance from Raging Speedhorn front-man John Loughlin, who guests on three tracks. On stand-out track Vultures Mass, Mage deliver an epic slow-burner that grows to the doomiest of conclusions and rounds the record off. 

Mage are becoming regulars on the UK stoner scene, and through their head-nodding up-tempo groove combined with slower sludgy riffing, you can hear why. If you dig your big heavy riffs, melodic vocals and shit tons of groove, then hit play. 

Get in the beers in, roll up a fat one and join Mage in the Green.  

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LP Review: Relic by Forming the Void

The artwork to Forming the Void's second release depicts a cloaked figure carrying a trident, riding a harnessed piece of earth with a chain of other rocks through the cosmos with a hawk by it's side; it's dark, psychedelic, and perfectly encaptures the slow driving riffs that this Louisiana band deliver with a blunt knife to the temple.

Opening track 'After Earth' slowly picks you up on a dust cloud, sailing through the atmosphere of hazy drones and soothing guitar picks before delivering it's crushing blow of stoner/doom riffs like a creeping tsunami. The vocals of James Marshall are really refreshing to listen to as they avoid the typical stoneresqe gruff shouting vocals, but instead have a more 90's grunge tone to them as the guitars chug away in the background to a pulsating beat. The band lay the doom ethic on as thick as they do the crushing stoner,and it's a combination which is all encompassing, at times soaring with touches of psychedelia, and others the slowest of doom.

'The Endless Road' has similarities with bands like Sergeant Thunderhoof, with thick layers of crushing riffs building upon progressive musicianship with becomes quite captivating to listen to. 'Bialozar' is straight up powering stoner metal with attitude and we just cannot stop throwing fists at the fuzzy guitar riffs with smiles on our stupid faces. Forming the Void aren't necessarily breaking boundaries with their music, but they are doing the best possible versions of their genre that they could hope for.

The rest of the record simple continues to just fucking destroy you, with each pulverising guitar riff of 'Relic', the psychedelic hammering of 'The Witch', and the menacing doom of 'Unto the Smoke', all beating you black and blue, just so they can soothe you with an absolutely killer version of Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' to close the record, seriously, you've got to hear this track! Relic is a superb stoner/metal/doom record which will be getting many many many a repeated listen at Heavy Planet HQ. Go and listen and tell us how right we are.

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LP Review: Let It Burn by REZN

Now this is just what we needed! It's been a pretty slow start to the beginning of 2017 for us guys at HP, we needed a bit of a wake up call to get our arses into gear, and it turns out that an almighty heavy slab of cosmic doom will do just the trick! Enter Chicago's REZN.

Coming across like a psychedelic Electric Wizard, REZN are making a huge noise on their debut full-length record; the guitars are tuned to their fuzzy maximum while the drums echo from the gut and the vocals drone into a tripped out phenomena. Opening track 'Relax' doesn't fuck about, and begins to pummel your senses from the start with its chugging stoner/doom riffs creating a wall of sound that will crush weaker individuals. Everything about REZN's sound is massive, the drum kit must need replacing after each set the way Patrick Dunn pounds away, but then at the flick of a switch they create delicate tripped out moments of hazy clarity, before you fall out of the sky and hit the ground with the massive riffs.

'Wake' creeps along like a Black Sabbath song that was dropped for being a bit too heavy, with lots of trippy vocals and bass lines that'll make you not even need those drugs to reach your astral plain of consciousness. But even in their quieter moments they can't stop themselves from being heavy as hell as the riffs and cymbals come crashing down once again. 'Dread' is the calm amongst the ongoing storm, a short instrumental moment of reflection on the havoc that has been caused so far. 'Rezurrection' comes across with elements of a Far Eastern space trip, standing the hairs on your neck on high as the band take you under their spell.

Let It Burn is an hour's worth of extraordinarily heavy cosmic doom that dips its toes into a lot of stoner and psychedelic elements with spectacular results. It crushes your soul, and that's all we can really ask for.

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LP Review: Feed The Rats by Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Ever since catching these guys headline at the Cluny venue in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, towards the end of last year, we’ve been waiting for this record to drop, and by god how mightily it crashes to earth; psychedelic stoner riffs, earthly pounding drums, and vocals at their rawest, Feed The Rats is a hell of a statement from Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs that we’ve had on repeat for a good month now (hence the delayed review).

Pigs(x7) are a band containing members of other North Eastern England bands such as the fantastic Blown Out, Ommadon, and Khunnt, and the musical dexterity is expressed vividly on opening track ‘Psychopomp’, a 15 minute headfuck of thrusting riffs and psychedelic nuances that keep you gripped to the songs’ core base of being a heavy-ass rock song. The pace never falters, dips, or stops for a breather as the drums pound from the first note to last, the guitar riffs are heavy and dream like, while the vocals of Matthew Baty constantly toe the line between a man possessed and about to lose his voice, to sheer anger.

After the mammoth opener, the band create the “normal” length ‘Sweet Relief’ which is pure heavy stoner majesty. Same pounding drums, heavy riffs, agonising vocals, condensed under five minutes, you know it’s a monstrous song when it tightens its grip on your windpipe until you start turning blue. Feed the Rats is only three tracks long, but with the 1st and 3rd tracks hitting over 30 minutes combined, it’s a fair amount, especially when the colossus of ‘Icon’ begins to slay away at your speakers, what little energy remains in you quickly gets burned up in the smoke haze filled waves of purple and green that spin towards you with every word and riff Pigs(x7) layer on top of the last. 

The band are all the good kinds of claustrophobic, the good kinds of sweaty sleaze, the highs from the drugs, the ringing from the burst ear drums, and the blood from your broken nose. Many people will have said this before of the band, and many will to come, but, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

(Oh, and that's some sweet ass artwork too! The vinyl comes as a die-cut and the coloured insert is inter-changeable with the figure on the front)

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Album Review: 1000mods - Repeated Exposure To...

1000mods are Greek gods and I love them.  They bring the heavy so very well, so perfectly that from the first day I heard them I was a fan.  Well now they went and did it, they made the album I knew they could and should.  1000mods released “Repeated Exposure To…”, their third full length album in September and it is one of my favorite albums of the year and of my entire life.  

The album opens with Above179, five minutes and 41 seconds of pay fucking attention.  “We are the gods, the kings of nowhere / we are the dogs that live in despair” Dani screams at you with his bass hung at his knees and the rest of the band obliges.  Showing you with every note that these bad asses from Greece are not to be taken lightly.  

The highlight of the album, for me, is the suddenly very personal “The Son”.  It is one of my favorite tracks of the year and as soon as I heard it I fell in love with it.  The perfect blend of beauty and rage.   My father died yesterday and this is the only song I wanted to hear, it is perfect.  For that reason you get every word of it and 1000mods, my brothers, you get a thank you for creating something that means a great deal to me personally.   

People are telling me how
Blank is the world
Freedom is giving me now
The soul that I sold
I am a son of a gun
I'm shooting my life
You're gonna see the one
The one you don't like

Heaven rejects me
And throws me back
I am forgotten
I live in the dark
I'm smoking woods
And I'm sniffing the clouds
I am the name
That nobody shouts
The skin of my mother
Is under my veins
I feel so empty
I got no remains
The voice of my father
Is so long and gone
I am the son of a loaded gun

Happiness is full of lies
I'm killing my dreams
I'm speaking and everything dies
I wake up in screams
Emptiness sparks in the light
Watching you fade
Please don't give up the fight

Follow your fate

Heaven rejects me
And throws me back
I am forgotten
I live in the dark
I'm smoking woods
And I'm sniffing the clouds
I am the name
That nobody shouts
The skin of my mother
Is under my veins
I feel so empty
I got no remains
The voice of my father
Is so long and gone
I am the son
I am a gun

This is one of the best albums of the year, no matter what style of music you favor.  Dani, Giannis, George and Labros have created something that demands and deserves your attention.  I do not know them, but I thank them for what they made and cannot recommend more that each and every one of you get this album and get to experience it for what it is, a glorious, heavy masterpiece.  

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WM 

Album Review: Resonance by Kingsnake

This album is a road album.

Not in the way one normally thinks of a road album where you can drive through the countryside mindlessly while being entertained with what comes out of the speakers. No this is a road album and the machine driving is Philadelphia’s own Kingsnake and you are the one getting run over.

This gas guzzler doesn’t have heated seats or child safety locks and it sure as hell ain’t got a back-up camera because it just doesn’t do reverse. Kingsnake’s fourth album Resonance growls and rumbles like an eight cylinder big block while spitting shredded tires in plumes of burnout smoke.

I have long been a fan of Kingsnake and feel this latest album is their finest work to date.  This 43 minute journey starts with Dairy Of A Bad Man which certainly seems appropriate. The band fires up the engine and announce their intentions with an up tempo warning that gives way to the growling vocals of Bill Jenkins:    

Well lemme tell you I was raised by wolves, yeah that’s what all the people say
"He needs to mind his manners and read more books!” As they beg the creator that I would grow to be a civilized, pacified, well-dressed mess

The pedal gets expertly pushed by the rhythm section of Matt Farnan on drums and Matt Kahn on bass while the high octane guitar work of Brian Merritt brings the song to full bore. This is how you start a road trip right here people.




There are no sightseeing points of interest on this voyage as every song demands your full attention to the road and every gravelly turn brings a flavor all its own. The barroom brawl feel of Evening Blues gives way to the driving bass thump of Preachers Of Heresy. Right when you think you have it all figured out Miss Sorceress is in front of you and all you can do is grip the steering wheel tighter and hang on as it takes you through two separate gears of heavy goodness. The crushing second part of this one is Kingsnake at their best, ripping loose, barely holding the road and really not even giving a shit about it just knowing that they will make it through by the grace of the gods.
 
Skeletons takes things down some challenging terrain so they back off the gas a bit to keep the wheels firmly on the dusty road they are taking us. Behind The Sun gets us back on the open pavement in a style that harkens back to the rock gods of yesterday updated with some of the latest technologies. It’s like a resto-mod ’72 Mustang Fastback with a brand new 600 horsepower crate engine.

Next up is Athena and she is the shortest song on the album but this goddess of wisdom comes with a fury. End Of Time is a heavy blues masterpiece that showcases what I so enjoy about this ride. As the penultimate track we get the wonderfully greasy bass line backed up with a drum beat that forces your head back and forth in time. The guitars go from wailing out from on high to chugging heavy from a place blacker than fresh asphalt. The message of the lyrics has one of the most memorable lines in an album full of them:  

The hunter, the pig, and the preacher
Who you gonna trust when it’s the end of time?

The album closes with Phoenix which is simply, a fucking powerhouse. It is the perfect heavy, hard driving, raucous close to the album. Resonance ends with a rebirth and nothing will ever be the same again.

What impresses me most about this album is not the individual performances by these fine musicians which are all fantastic, but how all these parts fit together into a cohesive, beautifully-crafted, finely-tuned beast of a machine. Each note, each song belongs right where it is and makes the trip feel like an expertly guided tour of heavy, bluesy, dirt-under-your-fingernails rock and roll and one of my favorite albums of the year.

Just remember this beast gets eight gallons to the mile and definitely ain’t street legal.

Hold on tight people.

http://www.kingsnakephilly.com/

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- WM