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Greenleaf has always occupied a unique niche in the world of Swedish stoner rock. As a side band with a rotating roster (comprised of musicians handpicked from the likes of Dozer, Lowrider, Demon Cleaner, and Truckfighters) they exist essentially as the musical equivalent of a superhero team. Part of the fun is seeing who shows up when guitarist Tommi Holappa yells "Avengers assemble!" and what havoc that particular permutation will wreak. As a consequence to all the lineup rotations, Greenleaf have exhibited a chameleon-like quality to shift from muscle car fuzzouts ("Witchcraft Tonight") to struttin blooze ("Stray Bullit Woman") to haunting epic ("Nest of Vipers").
On their fifth and latest album Trails & Passes Holappa and mainstay bassist Bengt Backe are joined by newcomers Arvid Jonsson on vocals and Sebastian Olsson on drums. The resulting record is decidedly mature on the surface but deceptively subversive at its core, a dichotomy which actually extends to the visual presentation as well. The beautiful front cover artwork could easily be mistaken for one of those discs on display at the Starbucks counter for people to use as a soundtrack for their Sunday afternoon hikes. Take one look at the outdoorsy group shot on the inside however and you see the band looking like a bunch of guys that just got through disposing of a body in the woods.
Trails & Passes kicks off in blistering fashion with leadoff track "Mother Ash", a full-throttle rocker highlighted not only by Holappa's nimble guitarwork but by the mellifluous vocals of the golden-throated Jonsson. The riffage continues to spew forth like molten blasts of magma on "Equators", replete with cowbell and monolithic fuzz, and "Depth of the Sun" which features rhythmwork from Backe and Olsson that joyously harkens back to Jones and Bonham circa Led Zeppelin I. The focus nonetheless remains on Tommi's guitar, as evidenced on "Humans" with its funky strutting riffs and scorching solo.
"With Eyes Wide Open" begins with a scraping intro that segues into a laid-back spacey vibe. With the refrain of "open up your eyes, don't trust their lies" chanted over hypnotic tribal drumming, the track is easily the record's resident smokeout bong star and would easily be the best tune on the album if not for the monumental title track. Over fuzzed-out bass and a hard charging beat, "Trails and Passes" rips along at a driving pace until erupting in a volcanic avalanche of searing licks. By the time it's done, you're volunteering to go back on the trails and passes with them to help dispose of more bodies.
Early rock and roll of Fifties America influenced the youth of Britain who eventually overwhelmed the music world themselves with the British Invasion of the sixties, inundating radio waves and album sales with new, fresh, exciting music that was a forerunner of massive change in the worldwide culture of man. The British Invasion’s music legacy still rings loud and clear today as music from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, and so many others can still be enjoyed as everlasting masterpieces. But the seeds were sewn with the tremendous music of 50s America, music that begat change, inspired a generation, and lit the ignition to a musical explosion of incalculable proportions spanning continents and generations.
There are plenty of indications, most notably in the number of bands now in the UK playing variations of stoner, doom, and psychedelia, that select American rock music from the 70s and the 90s has sewn its own seeds, adding to a groundswell across the pond that is just now beginning to burgeon into something significant, something hopefully steadfast and powerful, something that can add to a worldwide development of the ‘good stuff’, music that is real, enjoyable, massive, that has taken the essence of those two rock eras and suffused it with newness, creativity, and sheer volume of both decibels and choice selection. No place represents that uprising better than the warrior islands of the UK where a large number of bands are creating, playing, and producing music that is the sole reason rock n’ roll has not yet died a death of ennui brought about by the decadence of a single controlling voice for what gets played to the masses.
Today’s spotlight falls on one of the highlights of the stoner/psychedlic groundswell with the superb band Mother Corona, who this past April released their first full length LP, “Out of the Dust”. The band consists of Lee Cressey on guitar, Rob Glen on bass, and Dave Oglesby on drums and vocals, a three piece band that creates a whole lot of magic without a whole lot of help. I suspect one of the keys to their beautiful renditions is the simplification in instrumentation, a formula most bands follow whose music makes its way to our site, keeping the music simple, clean, and raw, where distortion is in the amplification of one guitar, where the frequencies aren’t over-mixed to confusion, and nothing gets drowned out by over-instrumentation.
Mother Corona plays stoner music to the maximum, incorporating the very best of the low frequency, fuzzy distortion that is the hallmark of the genre. They incorporate quite a bit of Dozer in the way they structure their music, the best Dozer stuff, the “Coming Down the Mountain” Dozer. The “Trail of a Comet” and “Madre de Dios” Dozer. There’s quite a bit of Firestone, Truckfighters, and early Freedom Hawk in there as well, not to mention some Astroqueen. What they really sound similar to, which is a great thing, are their fellow UK upstarts Steak, Enos, and Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight. Make no mistake, though, these guys carve out their own superb, face stomping, diesel fuel burning inter-continental ballistic mayhem filled with huge, powerful, balls to the wall sound that drives hard and deep without relent.
These guys have been kicking it around since 2006, trouping down the same roads as their warrior isle compatriots, building up a grassroots following by playing in bars and taverns with the occasional gig opening for better known acts that weren’t better acts. This is the typical story. What’s not typical is their music. While it is derivative, it is also unique, a result hard to engineer to say the least. Their music sounds like what you love while not being a copy of anything else you’ve ever heard. Oglesby’s vocals are reminiscent mostly of Alice in Chain’s Layne Staley, but are uniquely suited to Mother Corona’s loud and abusive music, setting the tone perfectly on each song and carrying its weight in instrumentation throughout. At the same time for Mr. Oglesby the drumwork is mighty and fierce, doing more than the typical requirement of keeping the time by relentlessly driving the music forward with panache and heart. Rob Glen’s bass adds a stout component to the melodies and pace of the music with a thunderous, raucous, and raunchy delivery filled with passion and skill. The guitar of Lee Cressey is adept, masterful, wonderful, and wild. He takes it places that induce wonderment and deep satisfaction, plunging into the darkest depths of distortion and soaring to the heights of psychedelic stratospheres. Blended together these 4 instruments deftly and expertly rendered by the 3 musicians of Mother Corona combine to form some of the finest stoner/psych music of a generation.
The six minute track “Hedonist King” starts off the album and immediately sets the tone with some trippy guitar to go along with the energetic drums of the opening seconds. Vocals become a focal point quickly into this funky, fun tune where “ . . . dancing in the rain, drinking in the sun . . . “ sets the tone for a hedonistic trip replete with groovy riffs, head swinging bass, and chunky, heart pounding drums, overlaid with sing along vocal decadence.
“Sunscope” brings the fuzz, hot and heavy, relentlessly rendered by both guitars in a display of power, with primeval solos delivering long, satisfying salvos of chest thumping dynamism in over five minutes of a superb specimen of stoner rock music.
The third track gets to showcase an opening with strictly bass and light, acid induced guitar work dancing above, along with a bit of cymbal spangle to accentuate the deep distortion that is strictly a setup for the booster engine explosion that becomes “Sonic Tomb”. The pace is fast, the effort is maximal, and the sound is deep and brutal.The listener becomes the poor ringer slated to fight the champ and gets round after round of constant jabs and right hooks, each heavier and more fierce than the last, relentless in delivery, and somehow beautiful in ferocity.
“Cosmic Collisions” at number four comes in at seven and a half minutes of deep, dark, distortion, low, slow, heaviness pouring through every crack and crevice until you are filled to the brim with big chunks of fuzz. Steady all the way through but overlaid with cloudy riffs and foghorn guitar solos, this song is the megaton meteorite from space that has punched a hole in the atmosphere before cratering the landscape with its sonic boom of distortion.
Track 5, “Qualuude 74’ “ is another low, slow fuzzbomb with a beautiful tempo within each stanza that leads into chainsaw choruses before giving way to a series of skillfully rendered solos, along with athletic and powerful bass riffs, and finally leading into a final but urgent stanza and chorus set. The lyrics are a longing for an old favorite in recreational mind and mood alteration, qualuudes, a prescription medication no longer available but fondly remembered for its effects.
“V.A.G.” gets my vote for favorite song. Not necessarily best, because they are all superb, buy my favorite nonetheless. It has a classic tempo, upbeat and pure enjoyment, striking that primal, tribal chord that triggers movement from deep down, exploding outward in a shiver of sparks and energy. It is a short treatment but packs a mighty wallop of fuzz and fun. It is primarily an instrumental with a short vocal set brimming with intense delivery. Riffs and solos abound, drums are intense and insistent, the bass as primal as the rhythm.
Number 7, “Nuclear Winter”, is an eight minute treasure that strikes a chord somewhere between nostalgia and yearning, conjuring all the best music of eras gone by while promising the best of what’s to come. This song leans toward the psychedelic with a trippy trek that meanders through the minstrel waters of early seventies Steppenwolf while towing high tech equipment utilized to the max by the guitar solos of Lee Cressey, rhythmically driven forward by the scull-like strokes of Oglesby’s sticks as he croons beautifully that it’s “ . . . oh so cold . . . “ Perhaps this is the best song on the album, no one would argue the point I’m sure.
The title track is number 8, an up tempo fuzz bomb that sets a livlier tone than the majority of the songs on the album while still unleashing furious and heavy nap and pile gutiar work. The song ends at about the 4 minute mark, but leads into a hidden jewel after 2 minutes of silence. After the 6 minute mark Mother Corona lay down a beautifully rendered ode to the fathers of stoner metal and fuzz rock music, Black Sabbath, by playing “Into the Void”. It’s not Ozzy and Tommy, but Dave, Lee, and Rob do a superb job of covering the song, putting as much into it as they do their own stuff, which is a considerable tribute from a trio of musicians that play music at its best to one of rock’s biggest legends who can certainly be considered as one of the all time best.
Heavy Planet presents . . . today’s “New Band To Burn One To”, Satellite Beaver, hailing from Warsaw, Poland.
Band Bio:
Satellite Beaver are a hard rocking Sludge/Stoner Metal Band from Poland.
The members are:
Simon the beaver – vocals, guitars Tom the beaver – guitars Mad the beaver - drums [place your name here] – bass guitar (searching for new one at the moment)
Satellite Beaver play a hard hitting blend of Stoner, Sludge, Doom and Hard Rock to brilliant head-banging effect.
From the band (paraphrased):
"Have you ever tried to imagine yourself as a hairy space dozer furious enough to destroy planets? Not very likely, but now the time has come to confront one face to face.
Formed in Warsaw in 2008, Satellite Beaver search for their own style and they are more stubborn than Sisyphus himself. Inspired and influenced by traditional grunge and stoner rock genres, the band has come a long way to the point where now they are searching for the thickest guitar strings and biggest crash cymbals ever created. What’s more, they have dared to spread their “tune it lower” philosophy during live performances with local and foreign stoner bands such as Belzebong, Luna Negra / Tres Perros, Karma To Burn, and Mars Red Sky.
Satellite Beaver are preparing brand new material for their debut album release, but before that happens, some chapters have to be closed. That’s why “The Last Bow” EP has been released. It contains 4 tracks composed in 2010-2011, which provide a point of view at the direction the band now moves toward: from the catchy, rock’n’rollin’ ‘Way before’, through the classic stoner track ‘Pershing’ and the slower ‘Urania’ to the gloomy and massive ‘Roadtrip’ track, which is closest to the style the band’s digging at the moment."
Thoughts:
Satellite Beaver have distinguished themselves in more ways than one, not just with this EP, but by their presence as an up and coming rock n’ roll force, displaying an incredible imagination and a big blazing bazooka of a rock n’ roll heart. They seem to have found the sound they love, have embraced it whole-heartedly, and apparently have decided to launch a full bore, all out assault on the world at large, turning the tide of heavy music toward the purest of rock genres, using the weapons they know can turn the tide: the biggest, loudest, testosterone fueled, nitro burning guitars and drums the likes of which you’re not likely to hear anywhere else. Take a listen to the new EP “The Last Bow” and be prepared to be literally blown away by a quick, but complete onslaught of 4 of the finest stoner, doom, sludge rock songs compiled together in a single place. The band is proudest of the final track, “Roadtrip”, saying it represents the direction they’re headed, but all tracks are ass-kicking landmines of explosive
stoner treasures.
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.
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
The Dutch instrumental rock band Tank86 is going on tour across Europe with the renowned Swedish rock band Dozer. The Beyond Collosal Tour starts on November 19 in Berlin and will visit 16 cities throughout Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria and end on December 6 in Vroomshoop (NL). Vienna, Munich and Cologne, to name a few, are cities which the tour will visit.
Since Tank86 launched their debut album, Behold, in January 2008, things are going really well.
Bandmember Joost Kruiswijk: "It`s unbelievable what we`ve experienced this year. We we`re overwhelmed by all the good reviews for both the album and our live shows. To be the supporting act for bands like Monster Magnet is in itself something every band dreams of, but the European tour really tops it off."
On November 30, the two bands will hit venue W2 in Den Bosch (NL) where they will join up with Witchcraft. For more info, including the full list of tour dates, visit www.Tank86.com.
The Album Of The Day is "Through The Eyes Of Heathens" by Dozer.
Woe to those who dismissed Sweden's Dozer as distant, perhaps unimportant satellites to the mostly U.S.-centric, late-'90s stoner rock solar system, for here they are: five years beyond that scene's generally accepted heyday, and ten into their career -- and still they orbit, only now exerting the gravitational pull of a major heavenly body upon the smaller bands that lie scattered across the vast stoner rock asteroid belt. Can you dig? In the event you can't, and prefer less colorful descriptive methods, suffice to say that Dozer's fourth album, Through the Eyes of Heathens, cements the band's gradual transition from perceived followers to acknowledged leaders of this perennially beloved subgenre of underground hard rock. In fact, the ten tracks making up Through the Eyes of Heathens almost serve as a "state of the genre" address, boasting a broad cross section of historic stoner rock hallmarks. Take infectiously stripped-down tunes like "Drawing Dead," "Born a Legend," and "The Roof, the River, the Revolver," for instance -- all of them so timeless they simultaneously fit in with the mid-2000s crop of post-stoner heavy blues-rock bands (Halfway to Gone Alabama Thunderpussy, etc.), and those Harley-on-the-highway, heavy groove-rock anthems laid down by Dozer's original contemporaries, Clutch and Fu Manchu. The apocalyptic "Until Man Exists No More" (featuring guest vocals from Mastodon's Troy Sanders) and the light-and-shade extremes of "Days of Future Past" dredge up massive Black Sabbath power chords from stoner rock's sister subgenre, doom, and the epic "Big Sky Theory" delves in neighboring psychedelic and space rock tendencies, while "From Fire Fell" and "Omega Glory" span the sonic evolution from Kyuss' pounding quasi-thrash to Queens of the Stone Age's driving riff-o-rama and quirky falsettos. There's even a total curve ball in "Man of Fire," where jabbing guitars and grungey vocal tones temporarily have the band sounding like Pearl Jam -- weird! In the end, if there's anything truly dating -- or at least geographically specific -- on this album, it's Dozer's obvious disinterest in any of the Southern rock overtones so prevalent among mid-2000s retro rock combos, but they're never really missed here. Rather, Through the Eyes of Heathens offers top-of-the-line stoner rock at a time when it's sorely needed to revitalize the style. (Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide)
Trails and Passes by Greenleaf
