Album Review: Howling Giant - "Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2"

This!  This.  This is something special.  The attraction was immediate, unstoppable and obviously inspiring as it got me to write my first review of the year and this is September.  People, you need to hear this record.  Howling Giant, the Nashville, Tennessee three piece tickled my fancy with this album and made me write a review.  My fancy so likes their brand of tickle.

As the second release of an expected three EP set, Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 is an impressive endeavor.  The tones are perfect.  Roger Mark's bass has thicker fuzz than meat left on the counter upon your return from a cruise around the world, best displayed in the song Pioneer.  Tom Polzine's guitar ranges from the massive crunch of a drill rig burrowing to the earth's core in Circle of Druids all the way to a wind chime on a sun bleached porch during the beautiful The Forest Speaks.  The drumming of Zach Wheeler is outstanding throughout, a true joy to hear as he pushes and pulls the tempo with intrepid style and unrepentant dominance.  The addition of the organ/synth work by Drew Harakal is so tastefully done and understated but yet adds so very much to the overall sound of the record.   Polzine, Marks and Wheeler all contribute to the vocal harmonies which wrap up this gift from outer space with a message of ascension against all odds and evils encountered.

Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2 is a journey you have to take, not because it is our job or what is expected from us, but because it is what is right.  The album is a heavy, progressive, quantum theory of groove that will take you through the wormhole with a smile on your face for the entire ride.

Absolutely one of my favorites this year and will, without question, be making my year end list.

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WM

LP Review: He Dreams of Lions by The Heavy Eyes

You know that feeling you get when you’ve been longing for something, so passionately, for such a length of time, that a fear creeps into your conscious that it couldn’t possibly match your expectations? It’s a feeling that’s sadly all too few and far between in appearances, but it’s one that is to cherished. It’s fair to say that we here at Heavy Planet have been waiting with baited breath for Memphis Tennessee’s The Heavy Eyes’ third record to drop, the worry was whether it would meet expectations, but it didn’t, it exceeded it!

2011’s self-titled record laid the foundations for The Heavy Eyes on the heavy blues scene, adding elements of stoner rock into a hazy, riff loaded album which hit us like a freight train. The follow up, 2012’s Maera was an improvement still on the bands already solid foundations, keeping the blues at the forefront of their playing. So where were they to go next? Three years later and the band have found a heavier button than “loud” and used it with a fuzz pedal to make gigantic noises. He Dreams of Lions is a record that drips fuzzy blues riffs through every gap they can find around Tripp Shumake’s greater defined and vibrant vocals, while still being as laid back as the floor.

Opening track ‘Shadow Shaker’ lays the foundations for the album, with pounding drums and heavy, hypnotic guitar riffs, and a driving song structure, galloping the listener forward into a blues future that the band are writing themselves. The song qualifies every genre bracket the band are currently tearing open, showing the direction blues, fuzz, and hard rock could well take. By the time second track ‘Saint’ kicks in to immediate flow, the record has your entire attention as you thrash your head and mosh with yourself over the top of the frenetic riffs and heavy-ass percussion section.

The band have a fantastic ability to write a song, with hooks that’ll make you wet and want to hear all day long (seriously, the riffs are killer). Each song is a well thought-out construction: ‘Old Satlilo Road’ is a layered fuzz fest encouraging you to blast along, ‘He Dreams of Lions’ is a surf rock cum fuzzed stoner pop song, and it’s great to see the band giving it everything they’ve got. ‘Smoke Signals’ shows off the excitement that comes with following the band in all genre formats, and it’s a song which is going to win over many people unfamiliar with the sound.

By the time the record closes with the (yes you’ve guessed it)fuzz heavy blues of the slightly downtuned 'Modern Shells', you realise that you’ve been on a journey with the band, over the course of three albums, a sound which has become louder and more defined for a band who don’t just write great songs, but execute them musically to perfection, and it has led us to He Dreams of Lions, a record which is almost perfect with what it intends to do; rock your balls off! This is a superb album which needs to be in your collection alongside every other quality stoner/fuzz/blues record you cherish.

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Song of the Day-Mass Driver-"Boss Fight"

"Boss Fight" is taken off of the band's latest release "Mass Driver 2". This band from Tennessee definitely has a penchant for the cool Cali stoner rock sound. Plenty off fuzz, a sweet laid back vibe, and a fuck it all punk attitude. As the band says, "stop worrying about being hip or trendy, ditch the makeup and silly costumes, and just fucking jam!" Get out your boards and ride! For more information, please check out the following links: Facebook | Bandcamp

Quick Hit: Howling Giant

Awaken the Giant

Recorded in one of the band member's bedroom (are you kidding me??) , this monstrous slab of soaring vocal harmonies, spectacular riffing, and an explosive groove crush and destroy everything in it's path. The spine-tingling bass line of "Whale Lord" is forever embedded. This may be one of the best EPs these ears have ever heard. Listen to this loud as fuck!

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Sunday Sludge: Koza

Ah, gettin' back to our Sunday Sludge roots... This whole thing began in 2011 and repeatedly seemed to circle South, as if every detour just above Mason-Dixon resulted in a magnetic bitch slap from Georgia, Arkansas, or Louisiana. Labels are broad, misleading, and generally unfair to bands and listeners, but Southern metal has its own hue. The family tree is tight, unwavering, and generally impenetrable from an outsider's perspective. So here I go again, worming my way to the table for loose scraps.

Served hot and violent this morning is Chattanooga's Koza and their 8-track self-titled EP. Their hue is distinctly Southern, but their sludge sets itself apart in being more to the point, never exhausting the listener and always lacing a scornful thread between tracks. It's hard to enjoy sweet tea when you're stuck in a thorny thicket, so take a hard swallow and do your best to endure Koza's spiked, hard-charged blend of heaviness.

Take Up the Serpent introduces a foreign guitar buzzing like flies, dropping a buoyant sludge gait under a dynamic veiled vocal. As this opener bulldozes through its choppy, stuttered thorax, the band's cyclical approach reveals itself and stomps back to brass tacks. Quickly and relentlessly, listeners have their comfort clipped and gnawed away. The quick-footed stoner cruise of Hoof is an abrupt juxtaposition, leaking Buzzov*en malevolence. For as amped as it gets, though, the track is somehow sticky. And now the unease has taken full grip.

The EP's midsection is an exercise in broad vision, never committing to a single rhythm or riff and shifting between doom, shoegaze, groove, and boggy stoner-sludge. Perhaps that sounds messy, but these songs have way too much to chew on for just one listen. You'll need multiple screenings, and Koza's push to grind you into powder is tense, tight, and strangely satisfying. Slow plucks on March of the Snails are merely a harbinger of fuzzy, columned doom. Death Rattle's wet cobblestone tip-toe wrings nerves like shadows in a greasy alley, fully cementing a cold, uneasy mood. At least, until an outward rip of the seams explodes into unhinged brutality. And when The Silent Bleed The Same drags guitar barbs across weathered skin, we realize we're in too deep.

While Tsunami's marriage of swarming hornets and thick sludge grooves stomps with more density, Koza set aside their crowning achievement as the EP's closer. Stench of Desire is immediately horrifying, breathing slow and opaque just behind your neck. Nodding toward Rwake and channeling the pragmatic narratives of Phil Anselmo, the track's quietest moments are its most unsettling. We're worn thin by the repeated slugs to our senses. The stylistic shifts are permeated by matted fur, and the final ceaseless stoner metal push is our last gasp.

Clocking just over twenty minutes, this goat's varied attack weighs like a lifetime of bruising. The jagged guitars, spiked tempos, and misty morning sludge crawls hardly begin to illustrate all this sound delivers. Koza drag us to a steamy swamp on a journey that's part judgment, part ostracism, and wholly taxing on our brittle frames. This EP hits all points to remind us there's still no fuckin' around down South.

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Sunday Sludge: Oxxen

Had I just driven east a bit further, I could've avoided all this shit. Last weekend's road trip to Memphis brought along an accidental stumble into a hip-hop joint, countless panhandlers begging for leftovers, and a saucy southern couple that I'm pretty sure wanted to trade weird sex with my wife and I. We returned with countless stories, but what I didn't find was anything that would interest the Sunday Sludge faithful. But hey, I maintained my curiosity on whether there was some toxic Tennessee thickness I may have missed. I went lookin' for trouble, and I found Chattanooga's Oxxen.

The band's loose-hipped, bong-ripped self-titled triptych of southern stoner-sludge is fat with varied tempos and rattled groove. Fans of Orange Goblin and High On Fire are gonna rub their gums with Oxxen's long-cut blend of silt and glowing embers. Boasting 24 minutes of shifts and stomps, this EP is damn-near impossible to sit through without destroying your musty basement bedroom.

The slow stoner buzz of This Shit Ain't Exactly Thunderdome wears off with a medieval drop of repetition and ominous rhythms. Smashing everything in sight like a punctured cement balloon, this lead track establishes a tone of unpredictability via low bass dregs and lurid, grounded drum patterns. Bill Robinson's guitar buzzes above the slugs, while his vocal is raw and varied. Oxxen have us pinned with splintered sticks to the bottom of a steaming bog.

The High On Fire influence is fierce and immediate on the double-kicked, flesh-bubbled Stoic Men Under Ancient Lord. Passages of buzzing fans initiate a difficulty swallowing, a sort of looming mothman fear. Heavy on cymbals and long on shit-hot guitars, a choppy tightening of the reins pares down this cruiser. Intense glances precede a slow, sludgy mudfight. The beasts have circled and you've got shit in your pants. Luckily, everything around you is equally caked with hot filth.

I didn't figure the EP's eleven-minute closer could match its midsection, but goddamn... Riddle Of Steel is a crunchy, full-flavored grip on shifting stoner-sludge mastery. With as mossy and dense as this track is, I'd advise it can only be fully appreciated at maximum volume. The vocal has echoes of noise metal, while Dimebag's Washburn pullback is summoned and celebrated. Tom Thrash Childers thumbs slower and slower at a club-footed stomp around a fire, a fire built for a doom-dicked Sturgis send-off. The eleven crushing ticks reach an agonizing curb before the scratchy pepper of shrapnel returns. Increasingly frayed but somehow bound together by twigs and burlap, this is one track to keep hot and brand on your arm.

It appears Oxxen have been at this for a while. Calloused and weathered aren't the right terms, simply because they manage to sound fresh and open-ended among all the overgrowth. To be succinct, we can simply say these three tracks burn hot. You don't know where it began or how it'll spread, but it's that good, slow crawl toward an elusive buzz that makes this EP so enticing. Like the first shot, the first deep hit, or the first full-out fucking dive into the fire, Oxxen craft a blazing blend of stoner-sludge metal that numbs your senses.

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New Band To Burn One To: LASER FLAMES ON THE GREAT BIG NEWS

HEAVY PLANET presents... LASER FLAMES ON THE GREAT BIG NEWS!

BAND BIO:

Gang vocals, viola, blast-beats, dive-bombs and galloping guitars galore accented by some of the sweetest vocal harmonies ever to drip down from the south side of the Mason Dixon. “Lambs” the first release by Tennessee’s “Laser Flames on the Great Big News,” features four catchy-as-hell, southern-rock songs bursting at the seams with beauty, power and ache. With all the groove, soul and killer riffs of a Hendrix tune mixed wtih the heaviness of Sabbath, “Lambs” could be the imagined outcome of ‘Masters’ era Metallica playing the stolen backline of Lynyrd Skynyrd til fingers, feet and vocal chords bleed.

“Lambs” genre hops a thousand hyphens and stylistically traverses much of the rock and extreme music universe, but doesn’t get lost in gimmicks or novelty games. This is music that’s real, played for therapy and release by four hard rock soldiers. Sung to hell and back with alternating male and female vocals, "Lambs" is like L'autrichine era Jucifer, Cat Power before she cleaned up and (the) Melvins doing their best T Rex impression.

Featuring John Judkins, current bassist of Rwake, and formerly of Today is the Day and Christine; Laser Flames on the Great Big News is a band that plays rock songs for metal heads, country ballads for crust-punks and classic rock for black metal maniacs. Such fine melody made evil through heartache and the devil’s electric guitar. If Led Zeppelin, Sabbath and Thin Lizzy find time on your turntable next to Slayer, Melvins and Mayhem, Laser Flame on the Great Big News have something you should hear.

Play it loud!!!



THOUGHTS:

"Wow! What is there left to say that the bio hasn't already said. I am going to try and describe what the hell I just listened to. Laser Flames on the Great Big News is not only the most unique band names I've ever heard  but is pretty fitting for the abstract music that the band plays. The band has a huge southern rock influence but throw in some grind and crusty punk and that is where the fun begins. The classic angel vs. devil emerges as the angelic vocals matchup in a battle royale against the muddied guitar licks. This music goes from here to there without missing a beat, and even though the band crosses genres frequently throughout each song, the melody is never sacrificed. This is a gratifying experience for anyone that likes to go outside of their comfort zone when listening to music. You can grab this latest EP for free on their Bandcamp page. Yep, I said FREE!"

Laser Flames on the Great Big news is from Nashville, Tennessee and will be appearing at the "Mutants of the Monster II" festival, in Little Rock, Arkansas during the last weekend of August. The festival features Yakuza, Pallbearer, Rwake, Deadbird and other Handshake Inc bands Biipiigwan, and ((Thorlock)).

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