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!
Band Name: Swamp Things Genre: Hard Rock Location: Oslo, Norway Brief Bio/Description: The Norwegian four-piece band Swamp Things have now submitted our second album, 'Blue Desert, Red Skies', for mastering, and a release is imminent.
We've been playing together, with different line-ups and Ola being the only founding member, since 2009. Our first record, 'All Beer and Skittles', was recorded in 2012 and released in 2013.
We play a hard-hitting form of rock, inspired by stoner, hard rock, prog and doom. Band Members:
Ivan Reigstad (lead vocals)
Ola Solheim (guitar)
Pål G. Sivertzen (drums, programmed synth, backing vocals) Ruben Carlsen (bass) Links:Facebook
Twenty years ago, Kyuss instructed us to "listen without distraction." The older I get, the more difficult this becomes. It's probably unfair, but some Sunday Sludge screenings are broken into two or three acts. When a band fuzzes my way and chews up less than twenty minutes of my morning, they may aleady have a distinct advantage. But the inner controversy erupts when a record spins all too quickly and I'm left hungry.
Such was the case with As The Blind Strive, a four-track demo from Oslo-based post-sludgers Rongeur. Ticking just past 19, the songs lick low-slung rhythms with callous barks and shit-caked guitar spikes, a delicious amalgam that'll require a second helping. Focused, divergent, and jarringly violent, it doesn't take long for this collection to shake off its shine.
Three vocalists offer varying levels of angst, ranging from eye-opening growls to storms of anguish. Violence is directed both inward and outward, deliberate in its opening target on Lying Bastard Whore. But the vacant post-metal sorrow litters tinny plucks and intermittent bass peaks that lend a bounce, blinding the flattened spite and scurrying into the fuzzy, distorted Traitors. Here the filth emerges and threads a thick chug, numbing via repetition and ticker-tape guitar.
Jon Hogg is quicker and more straightforward than its predecessors, but the mossy stoner pace hits a halt at the midpoint. The slow slugs lumber and loom with hanging reverb as the stomp sets up the seediest of summer camps, abruptly closing and tying into Why Would You. A deliberate trot swells to a steamroll, swirling dust and storming under cymbals. This closer burns hottest on its steady gait, bouncing and blistering to punch out the stoner tag. It's short, but fuck... it's sweet.
For the remainder of my day, Rongeur WILL BE the distraction and I'll get nothing done. Combining stoner-sludge and post-metal elements should create a clusterfucked toss, but As The Blind Strive defies odds and glazes the vast sorrow with white-knuckled crisis. Varying pace and never settling in, Rongeur batter us with every brand of heavy. And we'll drop everything once they're ready for another round.
Norwegians Barbarian Fist are a power trio doom metal band and according to their bandcamp blurb they, "Consist of equal parts downtuned fuzz guitar, used up riffs, and sexual innuendo, this power trio strives to make music
that will
make you less inclined to take a bath, more likely to ingest large
amounts of beer, as well as instantly grow a magnificent
beard(regardless of gender)."
There are 2 songs that make up this demo EP with "The Whorelord Cometh" being the first and which opens with a sample from Conan the Barbarian and Arnie, after having been asked what is best in life replies, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." A soft groove then teases before an almighty fuzz is turned up to supreme and drops with all the fuzzed out glory of anything by those weedian priests we know as Sleep. The similarity to Sleep stays through much of the first half of this song with vocals that drip Sleep-ness but half way things turn blissfully psychedelic with soaring riffs and licks that had me thinking of Astroqueen and their catchy riffed and ultra-fuzzed brand stoner metal.
"No Brakes on the Rape Train" has some solo guitar work that takes a few leaves out of Colour Haze's book before the chunky fuzz riffs and thundering drums are unleashed to reveal a hazy blend of Kyuss and Colour Haze style riffs blowing with an air of breezy positivity that lead to hugely satisfying guitar lickery towards the end. Licks so satisfying in fact that despite this track being an instrumental, I still managed to sing along.
There is little new or unique in Barbarian Fist's sound but what stands out for me is that this band take used up riffs and meld them with their own to make some very pleasing stoner/doom metal and I very much hope to hear more from this band in the future.
Today, dear and beloved followers of the doom, I will introduce to you two fine collections of metal music that fit nicely into the type of music we like to play, to hear, to enjoy, and to experience at Heavy Planet. The music of both bands in today's Atomic Split feature is quite refreshing in its originality and uniqueness, set apart from anything that might be mundanely classified as strictly stoner, doom, or psychedelic. One of the more exciting bands that make Small Stone Records home is Gozu; popular, powerful, and well established with earlier releases that have garnered a mighty following in the underground arena, and now releasing a new album that is brimming with, at the very least, anticipation and excitement. A relatively unknown act hailing from Norway without much history upon which to draw, Spectral Haze are relying here strictly upon the strength of their music. Today we review both and see how they each fare. So, without further adieu . . .
Gozu have enjoyed a level of success to this point in their career, due entirely upon their superb brand of stoner/doom music, garnering attention both with their initial 7 track EP release in 2008 and the release of their 2010 LP "Locust Season" on the Small Stone Records label by playing music that is deep, rich, and unique in much of its melodic makeup. The masterful riffs are ever present, blending a wonderfully rich texture of distortion and heft with a modicum of head snapping funk. A unique and wonderful feature of Gozu's sound are the vocals, which are vibrant and athletic, combining with well crafted melodies that are always intelligent as well as pleasing. With such a high level of accomplishment for their EP and for the "Locust Season" LP there is no denying the anticipation accompanying the 2013 release of their second LP for Small Stone Records.
Gozu's band members, hailing from Boston, are listed as:
Marc Gaffney - vocals / guitar
Barry Spillberg - drums
Doug Sherman - guitar
Joe Grotto - bass
When you listen to "The Fury of a Patient Man" for the first time, as a fan of Gozu and their past music, you will instantly and immediately be filled with a sense of . . . not quite relief, really, but of satisfaction, because you will recognize what you know without yet knowing it, which is exactly what you want as a devotee of a band and their past accomplishments, music that is at once familiar and fresh. Familiarity is evident immediately, and freshness soon follows as song by song unfolds with Gozu's signature sound and quintessence.
Gozu not only continue cranking out their muscular and deft brand of metal, but follow their previously established method of styling their songs after pop culture icons. One of the most notable on the new LP is the song "Charles Bronson Pinchot", a quick and melodic tank ride that combines adept and muscular riffs with Gaffney's spellbinding vocals. The song turns out to be brilliantly titled as it combines the sinewy fury of Charles Bronson with the more cultured overtones of Bronson Pinchot.
"Snake Plissken" makes an appearance in the penultimate song showcasing a more direct vocal delivery combined with hairy, heavy guitar licks in a cage match delivery of blow upon blow of sound and fury.
Drawing upon their EP from 2008 Gozu have included "Traci Lords" on "The Fury of a Patient Man", and we can only guess as to why. The song is quality, as is all the music on any of their three releases, and certainly worthy here of inclusion among the nine original offerings.
Gozu have not disappointed in releasing their second full length album as "The Fury of a Patient Man" is stellar in delivery in every way and deserves aught but positives and superlatives for the work within it. This is a significant album, not only for Gozu, for Small Stone Records, for the stoner and doom genres, but for metal music in general because it conveys quality throughout, in every angle and plane, whether relishing the superb guitar work, marveling at the gifted clarion vocals, or basking in the melodic construction of each song. It is quite simply a landmark album.
I am not able to tell you much about Spectral Haze. I don't even know who the band members are. They hail from Oslo and they have a 4 song EP available on bandcamp.com or soundcloud.com. And that's all you need to know outside of what you will learn when you listen to these four 'little' tracks.
The music is a psychedelic romp through fuzz and distortion, led inexorably onward by eerie, screaming vocals that startle and haunt, but never get in the way of the beautifully crafted and delivered guitar riffs that mesmerize you through to the very core of your rock n' roll soul.
The songs tend to quietly build in tempo and power eventually reaching an amplitude of magnificent levels that paves the way for payoff as the guitars carry out a melodic hook of exquisite delivery and caliber before abating back to the haunted environment of the opening, which is a near perfect description of "Kali Magick (Stepping Outside of Time).
The gradual climb to climax on "Kashf (Gaining Familiarity With Things Unseen Behind the Veils) is delivered with more fuzz and distortion than the previous track, and is a slower power climb to the all out delivery of overdriven amplification.
Each song on this EP is a slow and satisfying power trip through a psychedelic landscape of vibrating strings and haunting melodies surrounding guitar hooks of exquisite delivery.
