Quick Hit: MOANING CITIES - "Moaning Cities"

I think perhaps I need to place a permanent office in the midst of the fertile stoner/psych/doom/retro rock country of Belgium. Many of the bands and albums I've highlighted in the past few months have come from that rich rock n' roll province. Today we add one more to the burgeoning list with Moaning Cities, a quartet of interesting blueprint. Operating with both guitar and sitar, backed magnificently by a female rhythm section, Moaning Cities manage to pack plenty of bite and ferocity around ragged edges and furious riffs, co-mingling with otherwise smooth, milky psychedelic power sojourns.

Moaning Cities have been around for 5 years, and have managed to release 3 albums, the first of which is showcased here today. This is because the first album has a more ragged stoner vibe, as does the second album, "Pathways Through the Sail", while the latest release, "D. Klein" is more soporific and spell-binding. The matchless melodies and mammoth music of Moaning Cities can catch one occasionally reminiscing in brief spurts on the fine desert rock of Kyuss. There is nothing direct, no homage, just a recognition that what you are listening to combines power, heart, and musical athleticism, the very best of what rock has to offer.

bandcamp *|:|* facebook *|:|* soundofliberation*|:|* youtube *|:|* label *|:|* website

NEW BAND TO BURN ONE TO: KUJARA

Hailing from London, Kujara are a three piece delight of conglomerated brilliance. They have brought a big metal pot of thick, viscous rock stew to a bubbling, gurgling roil on their debut, the impressive "Three Days". The bill of materials for their music is an explosive amalgam from nearly every corner of the rock world, combining the best aspects of stoner fuzz delight, deep dark doom, progressive psychedelics, heartstrings of retro/blues rock, a haunting desert atmosphere, tight hooks, memorable melodies, expertly rendered and harmonized vocals, energy beams of blazing and powerful riffage, and through it all, through all that homage and recognition, a bright and exciting sound that is uniquely their own.

As with every new and exciting band that makes its way into the stoner rock milieu, the hope here is that Kujara will return soon enough with more brilliance and fun. Until such time this initial EP of sheer magnificence will certainly carry us along for quite some time.

bandcamp >>|<< facebook >>|<< youtube

7" Review: Aboleth - EP-I

Feast your eyes on that simple, beautiful album cover above. It's a bellwether for what is packaged inside. Los Angeles trio Aboleth have kicked off their career with a sweet three song 7" record simply titled EP-1, packed with explosive stoner rock magic that runs the gamut of tripping all the right triggers of outstanding stoner/desert/retro/blues rock.

The hard rocking trio include:

Brigitte Roka on vocals
Dan Joeright on drums
Collyn McCoy on baguitar

Baguitar? What the......? McCoy, stoner rock royalty from both Trash Titan and Ultra Electric Mega Galactic, has devised a new hybrid instrument that allows him to riff both ultra high and mega low. The sound of this beautiful invention is a runaway blitzkrieg thunder vortex, which McCoy unleashes from the jump on the first track, "No Good".

"No Good" is a tremendous introduction to Aboleth's sound as Joeright's skinskinning comes in alongside McCoy's baguitar monsoon licks to create a clean, athletic sound that stretches the boundaries of blues rock riffing. It pulls you in quickly with its brilliance before the door squeaks open for Roka's raspberry sweet and smoky bourbon vocals to ooze seamlessly into the mix, making a triumvirate of indigo crisp and mesmerizing stoner bliss. This song is raucous and well crafted, a whipsaw of thick multidimensional fuzz, a deluge of intriguing sound and melody.

Next up is "Corpsehunter", another onslaught of sound and craft, weaving melody with those unique baguitar riffs and Roka's pitch perfect vocals, vocals that simultaneously haunt and exhilarate. Closing out the thrill ride is "Captain Cheese", a nearly 7 minute psychedelic turn on a measured metal journey, impeccable in detail and nuance, and brilliant in deeply heartfelt exertion.

The sound Aboleth has crafted is simply exquisite. It's fine stoner/desert rock, but doesn't rest there on any laurels. The sound of the baguitar is equally exquisite, magnifying the energy and amplitude of standard fuzz riffage, which makes for a deeper than usual intrigue for the listener. Roka's vocals are unique. They contain both the sharp cutting edge of the finest of female vocals while tempering that keenness with an underlying ragged snarl that magnifies the appeal of the whole. And then there are the clean, clear, muscular rhythms of Joeright's drumwork, who manages to pull off the difficult task of making the underlying rhythm significant enough to be enjoyed without ever stepping on the magnificence of his cohorts' contributions. The three pillars upon which Aboleth are founded and upon which it stands are formidable in function, breathtaking in form, and a fantastically thrilling encounter.

Aboleth are in the studio cranking out their next wide spectrum stoner sojourn. Once this initial triple jam foray gets a bit of notoriety the anticipation for future releases will likely skyrocket. This first stage booster is powerful and magnificent and should pave the way for the explosive stages of future releases.

bandcamp ||  facebook || instagram

Nuclear Dog's 2016 Favorites

I know I'm late. Schedules are hectic and excuses are thick. Not to mention choices are numerous. There is always such a plethora of great new music released worldwide each year.  That's a great thing, wouldn't you agree?

My favorites are, and have always been, albums with key characteristics, namely lots of guitar, most of it of the fuzzy variety, decent to great vocals, melody in song structure, and either memorable songs or a memorable sound, or both. I am not musically technical, unfortunately, so what I mean by melody in song structure simply means old fashioned song arrangements with rhyme scheme stanzas, choruses, solos, bridges, etc. at a 'fun' tempo, whatever that may mean.  Vocals to me are of utmost importance. A great vocalist can make or break what is otherwise a great album. When it comes to rating an album I often find that if there are a number of songs I put in my top playlist then, obviously, the album gets 'starred' as well. But sometimes there may not be a standout song so much as all the songs resonate greatly for an overall quality of awesomeness. The best example of that might be Nuclear Dog's favorite album of 2014, ¡Pendejo!'s "Atacames", or The Phuss' "On the Prowl", both of which are replete with great sounding songs, each as awesome as the last. And, of course, topping the list of prerequisites, the reason we all listen to these genres, the reason thousands of musicians worldwide generate this music despite the paucity of fortune or fame, is the guitar - BIG juicy, powerful guitars, generally tuned toward the low end with only the occasional foray into high falutin' solos - this is what drives us, artist and listener alike.

As usual, there were too many great releases this past year to have a conclusive 'best of' list. Any list may be missing an incredible album that simply escaped the notice of the lister. It's happened to me each year, usually at the hands of our HeavyPlanet guru, Reg, who always uncovers an album that would easily slot into my own list, if only I had known of it, if only I had been paying attention. But that's the fun of having so many lists, there is always something new and great to discover.

At HeavyPlanet.net and www.facebook.com/HeavyPlanet we strive to introduce the world to great music, most of it newly released, much of it from bands who've yet to 'make it', and all of it simply musically, heavily, fuzzily awesome. My list will have a paucity of 'known' bands or albums, keeping to the HeavyPlanet tradition and intent, but this is primarily a coincidence. Out of the thousands of worldwide releases in 2016 these simply are my favorites, no other agenda present, starting with #20 and working up to numero ichi.

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20. Stone Cream - "Rust"

Pure stoner goodness out of Greece. Not much is known yet of this band. They released this album via bandcamp in December and then another full LP in January of 2017. I suspect we'll learn more of who they are in the coming year, but in the meantime we have this magnificent music.

Release date - December 7, 2016

Favorite track - "Haunted Train"

Hometown: Somewhere in Greece

bandcamp

19. Stone House on Fire - "Neverending Cycle"

Sophisticated, clean, psychedelic, and deep. This is the third album from this Brazilian four piece.

Release date - June 14, 2016

Favorite track - "Anger"

Volta Redondo, Brazil

bandcamp || facebook || instagram || youtube

18. Wreck Plus - "Dark Constructor"

Tight and imaginative retro-fuzz from this gifted quartet that rocks hard and fast with relish and rigor.

Release date - December 11, 2016

Favorite track - "Starcrossed Lovers"

Hometown: Paris, France

bandcamp ||  facebook || youtube

17. Black Doldrums - "Exit City Lights"

Moody, mysterious, and deliciously dark psychedelia from this warrior isles duo.

Release date - August 12, 2016 & December 29, 2016

Favorite track - "It's a Dandy Massacre"

Hometown: London, England

bandcamp || facebook || twitter || tumblr || bandcamp



16. Wasted Theory - "Defenders of the Riff"

Lots to love here. Big, bold, and brash sound. Hot, swampy vocals. Crude, honest, rock n' roll lyrics. A full ten song LP of great butt-kick fuzz from this gnarly quartet.

Release date - October 30, 2016

Favorite track - "Belly Fulla Whiskey"

Hometown: Somewhere in Maryland and Delaware

bandcamp || facebook

15. The Freeks - "Shattered"

This band can be classified as somewhat of a supergroup, with founding members of Fu Manchu, Nebula, Backbiter, and others, but really the supergroup status lends itself more to the music that to anyone's CV. This is an album swollen with high energy music that runs roughshod through punk, funk, stoner, grunge, psychedelic, and seventies sounds. It's edgy, jagged, melodic, and quite brilliantly a riotous, romping lot of fun.

Release date - November 11, 2016

Favorite track - "Ivana"

Hometown: Rome, Italy

bandcamp || facebook || website 

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It probably goes without saying that any of the top 15 albums in my list could just as easily have been in the top spot. They're all exceptional and have made 2016 another incredible year for the fuzz.



14. Geezer - "Geezer"

Geezer have a mammoth sound, including perfectly tinged vocals, driving drumwork, massive bass, and monstrous guitar. They continue to deliver some of the most intoxifying music of the stoner/blues/metal genre. This album is replete with deep, tightly woven psychotropic threads of brilliance. Now part of the Ripple Music label, Geezer continue to grow, expand, and deliver. Bravo.

Release date - November 18, 2016

Favorite track - "Sun Gods"

Hometown: Kingston, New York

bandcamp || facebook || label



13. Cybernetic Witch Cult - "Spaceous Cretaceous"

This album is fun, enjoyable, unique, and chock full of knock yer block off rock woven around stories of fantasy and science fiction. While the theme is imaginative and quixotic, fun and exhilarating, rendering tales of deep space, mythical beasts and beings, mesmerizing magic, as well as the frontiers and power of science, the underlying structure of musical magnificence is what carries the day with deft musicianship and elegant melodies steeped in soaring blues rock, a pitch perfect vocalist with both edge and range, and supremely spellbinding guitar mastery.

Release date - May 28, 2016

Favorite track - "Enchantress"

Hometown: Cornwell, England

bandcamp || facebook || website



12. Deep Aeon - "The Devil's Vision"

Well, fuck! This one is both a celebration and a fare thee well, of sorts. After releasing some of the juiciest stoner rock over the course of three short years (too little of it for my covetous desires) Deep Aeon have called it kaput. Before disbanding they had begun production on a new album, and this EP is what they were able to record before the fateful fuzzy fission.

I realize this is only two songs and probably shouldn't be considered, but..........but, these two songs are simply magnificent. Well structured melodies of memorable scope and quality are bound on all sides by deep musical skill and deft delivery. The music is brooding and intense, the vocals penetrating, the melodies wonderful and memorable, and the guitars offer intricate tapestries of fatal, cold-blooded amplifications of doomsday steel.

The good news is that three of the four Deep Aeon members will remain together, forming soon a new band under the cognomen of Heavy Beam, having already recruited a new vocalist. This is exciting news. We extend to this coalescing stoner fuzzcraft, consisting of the aforementioned new singer as well as members Nickolaj Marfels, Alexander Weber, and Axel Meyer, all the hope and good will we can muster, which is a purely self-serving bestowment....BECAUSE WE WANT MORE!!

Release date - July 4, 2016

Favorite tracks - "The Vision", "Devils"

Hometown: Düsseldorf, Germany

bandcamp || facebook



11. Youngblood Supercult - "High Plains"

The evocative atmosphere wrought by this flatlander quartet is one of a piercing, keening young love lost, of heightened senses in bitter cold darkness, one of despair and desperation in bleak and lonely places. That's the incredible haunting sense of mystery and nostalgia fashioned by the twin engines of Youngblood's psycho-blues guitar sound and nimbly ardent vocalist.

Release date - February 19, 2016

Favorite track - "Monolith"

Hometown: Topeka, Kansas

bandcamp || facebook || website

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10. Desert Colossus - "Desert Colossus"

Fun and athletic is the atmosphere for most of this LP of initial release and signal quality from this exciting new quartet. There is fuzz galore and a sound that is smack dab in the middle of stoner/desert/fuzz rock. They do not so much as sound like Kyuss, but sound like a perfect fit for whatever exact genre Kyuss slots into. Melodic, upbeat, and deeply intriguing melodies are matched by twin guitar energy, powerful rock vocals, deftly driving drums, and a bass that'll cause you to bob and weave in ecstatic splendor.

Release date - January 3, 2016

Favorite track - "Fat Chicks"

Hometown: Zaandam, Netherlands

bandcamp || facebook



9. Slumber Dust - "Slumber Dust"

Another initial release from gifted artists striking out with deftly crafted songs of deep reverberations and mighty fuzztone fabrics of sound. Intriguing melodies intertwine seamlessly with psychedelic stretches of mind expansion and tribal intrusion.

Release date - October 22, 2016

Favorite track - "Pyramids"

Hometown: Saint Catharines, Ontario, Canada

bandcamp || facebook || soundcloud



8. Samba Cemetary - "The Bushgate"

This music is at once powerful and intelligent, driving hard ahead with white hot fierceness just as it slips smoothly into the icy coldness of psychedelic underfuzz. The riffs pummel and penetrate, drawing little blood in their sharpness while inflicting maximum metal carnage. Song structure is nimble and enduring, drawing in the listener over and again to consume the heady, quixotic experience. The vocals are unique and intriguing, adding to the overall thrill of new discovery and familiar heat as each song is savored and embraced.

Release date - September 19, 2016

Favorite track - "Last Samba"

Hometown: Berlin, Germany

bandcamp || facebook || youtube || website



7. Mesmer - "Mesmer"

The guitars are a dazzling, haunting, massive sound of macabre metal carried along by dark, delicious melodies and a vocalist of eerily beautiful tone and timbre, evoking haunted houses of horror and towers of terror through keenly wrought edges of nervous awareness.

Release date - June 3, 2016

Favorite track - "Weight of Confusion"

Hometown: Oakland, California

bandcamp || facebook



6. Stone Witch - "Order of the Goat"

This album is like an incessant, relentless heavy armored track brigade grinding and crunching its way through black forest gravel roads sodden and sopping with the dark blood of a thousand zombie amplifiers wailing and howling through the dank, dark night into the eternal stygian abyss. Dual guitars are unremitting in all-out onslaught of riff and solo, while the vocals deliver exquisite, alluring, haunting lyrics of depth and melancholy. Earth-rattling bass and superhuman staccato stickwork pulverize to bliss and submission.

The desert climes of Arizona are home to this magnificent quartet and their initial foray into the bastions of stoner rock, desert rock, and occult rock.

Release date - July 13, 2016

Favorite track - "Blood Feast"

Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona

bandcamp || facebook


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I'm tempted to list the final five as 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e. Any of these five could've made my #1 position. But that's a cop out, so in the immortal words of William Shakespeare, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;"



5. Fall of an Empire - "Croweater: An Echo in the Bone"

Fall of an Empire released one hell of an album in 2014 in "Songs of Steel and Sorrow". Following up with something that good and that successful must be a neat trick (sarcasm), because as often as not a sophomore event struggles to match the heart and magic of the inaugural product, so when "Croweater" was released it was like an overwhelming rush of sweet snowy air. The talent and ability of this savvy quintet of stoner rock fabulists carried the day in overwhelming style. They again achieved a mighty and preeminently worthy collection of massively thrilling tales ensconced deeply in thick magic woolen riffs and heart piercing musical tales of medieval woe and enchanted adventure. The scope is huge, the delivery massive, and the experience thrilling.

Release date - August 17, 2016

Favorite track - "Uprising"

Hometown: Spartanburg, South Carolina

bandcamp ||  facebook



4. Mississippi Bones - "2600 AD: and Other Astonishing Tales"

Prolific, esoteric, and deep fried in southern stoner fuzz, Mississippi Bones are as gifted as a band can be. They create a LOT of music. They create a lot of GREAT music. Their songs are musically and lyrically profound, pulling you in myriad directions of intrigue, alluring in quality of riff and reverb, mesmerizing in tale, primal in melody and rhythm, there is more to chew on than ever meets the external acoustic meatus at first echo.

Release date - September 2, 2016

Favorite track - "Outhouse Poet (or Shitty Lyricist)"

Hometown: Ada, Ohio

bandcamp ||  facebook || twitter



3. Buzzzard - "Cold Blood"

Finding "Cold Blood" is a coup in my reckoning. The characteristics and qualities I always listen for when first experiencing an album, whether from a known group or someone new, are all present on this album. Twin guitars of heat and smoke, along with a bruising bass and piercing drums blister the auditory system in unrelenting brilliance. Three vocalists harmonize in glory and grandeur, led magnificently by a quintessential lead voice of fuzz rock purity. The primal chord of melody is fully exploited through each track by this melancholy stoner blues machine, combining to deeply hypnotize from the initial fuzz pedal power up to the last skin rap and cymbal tap.

Release date - November 23, 2016

Favorite track - "Nowhere to Go"

Hometown: Carbondale, Illinois

bandcamp ||  facebook



2. Ruff Majik - "The Fox"

The fuzz is huge on this magnificent album out of South Africa. A splendid blending of mammoth riff distortion driven by captivating and beguiling song structures as well as a new age vocalist of ability and intrigue. This threesome are nimble in execution yet powerful in deliverance. The music is uniquely their own, with little in the way of homage other than maybe the tonal range they choose to chisel from the stoner rock escarpment and vague references to a half dozen foundations of metal.

Release date - September 1, 2016

Favorite track - "Canned Fruit Bats"

Hometown: Pretoria, South Africa

bandcamp ||  facebook



1. Black Water - "Edison's Elephant"

I want to start by pointing out I know that technically this album was released in 2015, but it was a December release date and I didn't come across it until late January of 2016. This album is just too good to not share with as much of the world as is willing to peruse my list and perhaps sample the music therein. If you're as much a fan of bluesy stoner desert magic as I am then you'll surely appreciate the magnitude of what these Virginians have wrought. They are incredibly gifted song-writers, with half of this album getting the 5 star treatment on my personal favorites playlist. The melodies are immortally memorable, the tenor pure blues melancholia, the guitars as fine and ferocious as can be found in the dark, mossy metal underground, an inspired drummer and brutal bassist, an adept, keen vocalist and an ability to galvanize the disparate pieces into something truly special and enduring.

Release date - December 10, 2015

Favorite track - "Blueser"

Hometown: Rocky Mount, Virginia

bandcamp ||  facebook || twitter


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As with many bands that ply the stoner/doom/psychedelic/retro/blues waters the artists featured here are inspired by their love of the music and abilities that allow them to lay tone to tape. Brilliance isn't always discovered by record labels, late night TV hosts, or reality television. It doesn't mean that innate genius isn't to be found and enjoyed, at least not anymore. While Black Water, Ruff Majik, and Buzzzard, and the other bands on lists present and past, might not enjoy a tour with Disturbed, or whatever pretender gets the luxury of backing these days, I hope that at the very least they find their way into the hearts of the lovers of the best rock and metal on the planet. 

Album Review: 'Midnight Cometh' by Wo Fat

For the uninitiated, Wo Fat are Dallas Texas 3-piece riff-lords whose sound is buried deep in desert rock, under the influence of bluesy doomy psychedelia, who've been tripping to Sabbath, Hendrix and Kyuss records for years. They return with their latest long-player 'Midnight Cometh' out on 20th May 2016 - and first on Ripple Music - that features 6 tracks that entrenches their signature sound beyond 2014's The Conjuring (review here). As firm favourites over here at Heavy Planet, Wo Fat's records have regularly been featured in 'top album of the year' review posts... so it's safe to say our collective expectation has been set pretty high in recent years... Have I just jinxed it?

Well, whoever hears the first 30 seconds of opener 'There's Something Sinister In The Wind' and is not stomping their feet, has cold blood in their veins. This record grabs you by the balls from the outset and there’s little let-up. The first two tracks are a frenetic 'Friday night' groove before stepping off the gas for the more expansive and standout track 'Of Smoke And Fog', clocking in at over 11 minutes, but who's counting? Album closer “Nightcomer’ is a majestic mid-tempo groove that slinks like a desert snake, with a sneaky sting in the tail as the record combusts in on itself only drowned out by your screams of MORE MORE!! There are huge moments peppered throughout this record that surprise you which you only pick up on further listens, that compels you to hit the repeat button. And rising those waves of tempo throughout the record never feels self-indulgent on the bands part - just great riffs that get you high and bring you down again. You can already hear how ‘Riffborn’ and ‘Three Minutes To Midnight’ will be making their way straight into Wo Fat's live sets.

Production-wise Midnight Cometh is everything we've come to expect from a WoFat record - ear bleeding levels of fuzz, sweat-drenched Bluesy lead guitar, relentlessly pounding drums, and riffs for days. Is there a greater guitar virtuoso than Kent Stump in the stoner rock world right now? Wo Fat have certainly honed their craft over a six album career to today where the band are embarking on a second European tour that includes appearances at Desertfest (London, UK) and Hellfest (Clisson, France).

The band and album are epitomized by the lyric on Riffborn - ‘We live by the old ways, we know what came before. Build ourselves a purple haze. We are the Riffborn’ - and it's a statement of intent which holds true throughout. Wo Fat are a melting pot of influences, taking the best bits from the stoner rock pantheon through the ages and melding them together to forge their own style. They continue to work their voodoo, keeping us captivated under their sonic spell. You need this record in your collection...

Order the album | Like on Facebook | Band Website

LP Review - 'Sermonize' by Isaak + Interview

Italian stoner-rockers Isaak are back with their latest record 'Sermonize', the follow up to 'The Longer The Beard The Harder The Sound' released in 2013. The album is being released by both Heavy Psyche Sounds on vinyl, and on CD early 2016 by Small Stone Records.

I managed to catch up with drummer Andre, and ask him a few questions about the new record...


It’s been two years since the first Isaak album - what can fans expect from the new record?

They should expect something new! We tried to merge our souls, lives and passions into this record, cause we needed to leave a message as a representation of Isaak. Sermonize fully represent us, also as a live band: it’s authentic and sincere. We can say that we are growing up, day by day, like a human being; we are evolving, our sound is evolving and we are constantly looking for new forms of expression. We are tied to our roots (the Kyuss cover is an evidence) but we love to experiment and risk on a genre, stoner rock, which sometimes could be very self-referring. This is what our beloved fans should expect: the desire to listen the same track tons of time and always find something unexpected!


The new album, Sermonize - can you tell us a bit about the choice of title?

Sermonize literally means: to preach, talk moralistically. The title is tightly connected with the lyrics of the album, which deeply sum up the personal life experience of every band member. The record speaks about loss, pain, passion, sacrifice, change and the necessity to find ourselves. We moved to a heavier sound texture, leaving (at least for this record) our lysergic stamp just to express these concept better, as a rant to the world. Curiosity: the previous title was “Prayers For The Tightrope Walker”!


How was the writing/recording process for this album, compared to 'The Longer The Beard...'? 

The writing process always start with a guitar riff brought by our riff machine Scazzi (Francesco, guitarist), then together we think about how to complete it with the proper intention; there are not such differences from “The Longer..”, basically we have different ideas and inspirations and more maturity to turn them into a more personal and harmonic style.


Richey Beckett contributed to the album artwork - how did you get to work with him?

We all are huge fans of Richey, we do love his works and we always thought about a collaboration; basically we dropped him a line proposing our idea and including some of the new tracks and he made the artwork painting, then our brother SoloMacello created the layout! That’s it!


You guys are from Genova, Italy - how is the stoner rock scene in Italy right now?

The Italian stoner rock scene is growing up strong and bearded! There are many cool bands (as JussiPussi, Humulus, Glory Owl and more) which are contributing to create the awareness that our scene is every bit as good as the American one!


What are the bands/artists that inspire you to make music in Isaak?

We all have different musical tastes and inspirations: Scazzi (Guitars) is more on Death Metal (Carcass, Slayer, Obituary), Gigi (Vocals) prefers more classic rock (Mark Lanegan, Tom Waits), Gabri (Bass) is a grunge lover (Nirvana, Pearl Jam) and Andre (Drums) is a musical whore cause everything could be his cup of tea, from post rock (Vanessa Van Basten) to hip-hop, to Beyonce or Wolves In The Throne Room. But of course we all agree when we talking about Torche, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Baroness, Mastodon, Entombed, Screaming J Hawkins.. who wouldn’t be!


How would you convince someone who’s never heard your music to check out Sermonize?

Cause Sermonize is the album with the raddest artwork in the world! Ahahaha!


What are the band's plans for 2016? Any tours or festivals planned?

We’ll tour around Europe in March 2016 to promote the album, thanks to HeavyPsychSound; but don’t forget that on February SmallStone Records will release the cd version of Sermonize!


If you could sum up Isaak with three words, what would they be?

Well… Kyuss on steroids!!!



'Sermonize' is packed to the brim with hard-rocking bangers, perforated with grooving riffs and the distinct growls and howls of vocalist Gigi. Like a convertible cruiser in the desert, it races towards its destination with very little let-up, burning rubber all the way. Tracks like 'The Peak' and 'Almonds & Glasses', have the pedal flat down to the metal, which provide a perfect foil for the more exploratory jams like 'Lucifer's Road' and 'The Phil's Theorem'.

The desert-scene influence on Isaak is fully evident, not least with the cover of 'Yeah'! The vocals have a John Garcia laid back swagger, but the overall vibe here is less expansive and psychedelic and way more in your face, up tempo and to-the-point. And that's no bad thing, these guys know how to write a 4 minute smash and grab!

For me, this new record is a real step forward in the evolution of Isaak, having followed their progression since their former life as Ghandi's Gunn. The sound is heavier, more considered, and the song-writing steps away from Kyuss-worship enough to solidify the band's identity as their own. Also a quick mention to the awesome artwork too... such a stunning piece by Richey Beckett.

2016 could be a big year for these dudes!

Follow the band here - Bandcamp | Facebook

LP Review: "What We Make Our Demons Do" by Linie

OK guys…try to (futilely) wrap your mind around this one.  Try to hear in your head a German-born Glenn Danzig fronting Ministry while covering “Welcome to Sky Valley” era  Kyuss. Good, now go sit down and have a breather. That’s a fair assessment of the heavy alchemy that is “What We Make Our Demons Do” by Linie. This group totally embodies and fulfills the term “robotic groove”. 

A perfect example of this is the #2 track (after the creepy spoken word computer voice intro) “Blood on your arms”. The central theme centers on an elliptical opening riff that never really goes away. It’s like watching a tsunami crossing the earth’s ocean. It pushes and ebbs. It slides and crashes. It changes this way and that but never fully goes away. Linie have absolutely digested early krautrock pioneers like CAN as filtered through their industrial and stoner rock progeny.  Josh Homme’s first couple of Queens albums examined similar themes; turning a repeated musical thought over and over again as if looking at the same object from different angles.

Yeah, this can be some deep stuff, but I don’t want you to get the impression that this is somehow clinical in anyway. The point where the krautrock comparison starts to fall apart is the actual SOUND of the band. “Bearing Life” is pure catharsis. As dark ambient drones and buzzes whir through the background the lead vocals scream out from the bottom over a synthetic drum beat. The tension builds until it explodes into waves of distortion. This, in effect, is the trademark of the band. Not since Opeth has a band so successfully (and whole-heartedly committed to) manipulating dynamics. They use those repeated musical figures and electronics as a baseline to veer away from. It’s the variation that makes this such compelling music; sometimes raging, sometimes unnerving, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by this stuff.

Head over to their Bandcamp, YouTube and Facebook pages to check out this incredible music.

LP Review - Multiverse by Electric Valley

The sound of lo-fi stoner fuzz rock flows through Spaniards Electric Valley, with one ear firmly placed in the Kyuss inspired base, with the other finding its own voice in today’s market, their debut full-length record is drenched in nostalgia as much as it is leading the way forward in the stoner scene.

The vocals of Miky Simón carry the same muffled strain of a younger John Garcia, perfectly encapsulating the fuzzy muffled tones of the guitars and mid-paced jams, adding touches of adrenaline where necessary. The record opens with ‘Lizard Queen’, showcasing the band’s excellent ear for song writing, mixed in amongst the sounds heard throughout the record of hushed guitar riffs, buried under sand dunes of fuzz and bass-led guitar changes, but it’s a lo-fi sound which lets the vocals really cry out at times, before descending into psychedelic tinged instrumental jams, common place throughout Multiverse.

The Madrid band’s sound is exemplified on the track ‘UFO’s Rain’ as a grunge tipped vocals lead the band into their biggest chorus on offer as the guitars and vocals become their angriest, and therefore at their greatest range. By the time album closer ‘Minutemen’s Ballad’ has caressed and sent you down a stoner head-tripping swirl of muffled distortion, you begin to understand what Electric Valley are all about, a band who don’t copy the past, but one who wear their influences proudly on their sleeves, using the sound of the desert to portray the anger in their own lives. If it was a record released 20 years ago it would be lauded over, so no reason why it shouldn’t get the same praise today. 

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