QUICK HIT: Destroyer of Light - "Chamber of Horrors"

It's early, but a heads up is perfectly warranted for the beautifully rendered, dark and haunting, doomscape album, "Chamber of Horrors", by the Austin, Texas-based doom band Destroyer of Light. The album releases on July 14, so be sure to set a reminder. There is a placeholder song, "Prisoner of Eternity", from the album at bandcamp to give you a taste of what's to come.

The music is eerie yet exhilarating, transporting the listener through a vast kaleidoscope of dark delights, songs of black despair rescued by bright runs of gargantuan riffs, and an overarching battle between gloom and hope.  It's engaging, magnetic, and powerful.

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QUICK HIT: Kitchen Witch - "Kitchen Witch"

You're just standing there, innocently, expectantly, hoping to engage with the new discovery when Georgie and Simon begin a bisensual assault of straight stinging jabs to your ears......they use their instruments of choice, of course, vocals for Georgie, and bass guitar for Simon. The assault is powerful, coordinated, measured, and.......delightful! Soon enough the rest of Kitchen Witch join in, Conor on guitar and John on drums, and the odyssey has begun, a colorful trip of brilliance and ecstasy.

The bluesy rock sound of Kitchen Witch will quickly bludgeon any impending designs on productivity you may have had, snaking it's electrified tendrils in and around the primal center of your musical DNA before tightening it's amplified grip, supplanting any sense of awareness for an overabundant experience of joy and euphoria. Yeah. It's that powerful. So, lie back, let go, lick your lips, and luxuriate in the lush experience of Kitchen Witch's superior sound.

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QUICK HIT: Blackbird Hill - MIdday Moonlight (maxi)

May 5th is the official release date for Blackbird Hill's latest EP, "Midday Moonlight (maxi)", but the music is available for streaming a day early on their bandcamp page. This duo from Bordeaux, France are master blues rock craftsmen, expertly cobbling together powerful tunes of melodious amplification with their single guitar, single trap set, two voices, as well as a knack for engaging melodies and powerful hooks. Their songs range from haunting ballads to rip-roaring rockers, all supremely crafted and heartily delivered. If you listen today, hopefully you'll return tomorrow and download this gem of a collection.

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Album Review: Ruff Majik - "The Fox"

Whew! Where are my asbestos gloves? This album is HOT!! Searing through the ionosphere from Pretoria, South Africa, screaming towards us cloaked in fuzz stuffed riffs, raucous runs, and joyous melody comes the latest release by one of Stoner Rock's new breed of jam masters, Ruff Majik. "The Fox" delivers six fibrous, rollicking delicacies of amplified fuzz close on the heels of their 2015 offering of "The Bear", itself bursting forth with six jagged metal edges of sharp and smoky stoner standards.

Ruff Majik are comprised of:

Johni Holliday - Guitars, vocals, and narratives
Benni Manchino - Drums and narratives
Jimi Glass - Bass guitar

As an EP of six, "The Fox" has little room and little time to waste in solidifying a sound that will attract the ear of discerning stonerheads. I can safely and securely report they have been quite successful in utilizing every bit, every note, every riff, every run, every song on this astounding release.

"King of the Badgers"  This opening track begins with what would appear to be a setup for a psychedelic riff trip, but before the initial minute has closed the band has unleashed fuzzy hell on our senses, and all out distortion through melodic amplification. Fittingly, Glass's bass begins the riffslaught, followed closely by Holiday's dextrous riff-fire and then Manchino's undertow of power. The tenor of the song is pure stoner bliss, with low tuned distortion and filtered fierceness throughout, before closing on a short, melancholy acoustic coda.

"Wax Wizard" begins with heads tilted simultaneously to the sky at the gargantuan sound and straight downward to the dark abyss of low tuned stoner perfection. This song is deliberate, dank, and darkly determined in its steady onslaught of hammer blows and husky sound detonations.

Third in line is "Canned Fruit Bats", which utilizes a very cool opening couple of minutes. The fidelity at the outset is low, simple, and melodically beautiful, almost as if being played through your portable hi-fi at the beach back in the day. But very cool soon gives way to awesome. Awesome in scope, delivery, and emotion. The band's now customary onslaught begins with, and sustains an up-tempo flow of fuzzy chords and dusty laser riffs wrapped in a vocal and lyrical masterstroke. This song is a treasure.

"Sodoom and Gomorah" is a dirge of dark delight, gloomy and certain in its trudging tempo through melodic muck before revving up its outboard amplifiers to cut a quick and deadly swath toward its riff laden conclusion.

Opening with a poetic reading that is a prelude to what's to come is "Coffin Dragger", another beautifully crafted up-tempo onslaught of fuzz and distortion in the same vein Ruff Majik have perfectly established to this point, but offering up something new and immensely compelling, burying your experience deep into exquisite riffs of bass, string, and skin.

The closer is an emotional ride told in two parts, each equally adept at portraying the darkness of emotion and loss. "Royal Forest" is a beautifully haunting tale, perfectly accentuated through low wailing riffs and woeful vocals.

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ALBUM REVIEW: FALL OF AN EMPIRE - "CROWEATER: AN ECHO IN THE BONE"

South Carolina's Fall of an Empire had arguably one of the best releases of 2014 with their debut album Songs of Steel and Sorrow, named by HeavyPlanet's own Reg as a top ten album for that year. Now they're back with a follow up album, Croweater: An Echo in the Bone. How does this 6 track EP stack up to their gargantuan debut? One spin through is enough to let you know this purple covered jewel exceeds any eager expectations. So well crafted, well constructed, and keenly delivered is the music on this six song presentation it is not beyond the realm of possibility it will become an album for the ages, a metal standard to be enjoyed through time and generations to come.

Each song is an exquisite blend of melody, craft, and fuzz, delivered with high handed skill of the most accomplished songsmiths while brandishing the heart of the hungry tyro. The weaving of syrupy rich solos, gritty riffs, crackerjack rhythm, and exuberant drumwork is exquisitely framed by the magnificent vocals of frontman Kenny Lawrence whose voice is a beacon of rock clarity seldom matched in a sea of thousands of gargling mediocrities.

Band members include:
Brent Carroll - Guitar/Vocals
Shane Smith - Bass
Cody Edens - Guitar
Brad Munoz - Drums
Kenny Lawrence - Lead Vocals

Fall of an Empire's style, if you will, is one of evocative, haunting ballads of deep, rich texture, amplified thrills, gargantuan twin guitars, and leviathan bass and drums trolling along a rumbling underworld of deafening darkness. No song exemplifies this more than the title track "Croweater". The standout song of the album, perhaps, is "Uprising", a relentless pummeling of sound and turbulence whose inexorable vibrations quickly sync to a primal core of sonority. Each song is an adventure of deep stirring with payoff in excess as heart, guile, and finesse deliver a trove of music treasure.

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Nuclear Dog's Atomic Split: Wall of Sleep - "Mao's Gauntlet" / Geezer - "Gage"

Sometimes things, when first presented, don't jump out at you right away. Sometimes things seem vaguely interesting upon first encounter, but depending on mood or other mitigating circumstances perhaps what seemed somewhat interesting at first wasn't quite enticing enough to warrant immediate attention, so, perhaps, these things are set aside - physically, metaphysically, subconsciously, not to be explored further in lieu of other, seemingly more pertinent things  . . . at least for awhile. But something about these ignored entities doesn't quite allow for total disappearance into the void of forgetfulness, so instead they languish in their vacuous corner, surrounded by dark matter, building up dark energy, biding time, waiting for the opportunity to spring forth, to seemingly unleash upon their unsuspecting host a power and a fury of unsurpassed quality and content as to render said host apoplectic . . . and pleasantly surprised. How was such incredible content not noticed right away, for it is now obvious these things that had been closeted alongside the mundane and the unworthy not only are deserving of light and attention, but had been in danger of squander, a crime of unimaginable proportions.

Ladies and gentlemen, today we are in for a memorable experience in the world of real music, or stoner rock as it is often characterized, for languishing in the corner of old Nuclear Dog's pile o' music were 2 very exciting and enticing EPs that thankfully fought their way through the fibrous scar tissue of my deeper recesses and have now become features on the grand stage of Heavy Planet.
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WALL OF SLEEP - "MAO'S GAUNTLET"

Hailing from Silver Spring, Maryland - basically D.C. country - the three piece band Wall of Sleep have yet to make their mark on the webwide world in a noticeable way, perhaps, other than in one significant aspect, which is, of course, by creating some toothsome psychedelic stoner sounds in their relatively short time as music manufacturers. Forming in 2011 they have released three EPs, and are in the process of releasing another despite having just released the excellent "Mao's Gauntlet" in March of this year. Each of the EPs offers well crafted metal, progressing on each one in craftsmanship and insight, culminating in the superb quality and sound of today's subject album.

Band members include:

Drew O'Rourke - Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Casey Minnick - Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Ben Perper - Drums

The four songs on 'Mao' demonstrate a significant progression in rendering and attention to detail from the band's initial Demo of 2011. The songs here are deep and soulful, capturing a magnificently haunting intensity accentuated by the rumbling riffs of the abyss and a melody ripped from haunted recesses of depravity. The shared duties between O'Rourke and Minnick on vocals and guitar provide an intriguing experience of varying execution between songs. The song writing on each of the four tracks demonstrates an amazing and almost lofty aptitude within the professed genre of stoner, psychedelic metal. The opening track provides memorable hooks ensconced well within gargantuan riffs, scorching solos, and mammoth drum runs. Perhaps the flagship song is O'Rourke's "Parallel", unfolding in a lengthy and memorable twelve minutes in which a melancholy and melodramatic overtone permeates throughout the clever construct. This gives way to the powerful "Seen Our Tomorrow", a slow, steady rumble of force and passion. "Summer Trip Suite" closes out the album in similar style to its predecessor, providing another expanse of primal musical satisfaction of interwoven intricacy and surmounting power.

All of Wall of Sleep's music is available on bandcamp and is well worth exploring, perhaps taking a cue from this fortunate reviewer by not setting it aside in some dark corner where it would be at the mercy of the whims of the universe, for this band's music has earned a significant place in the spotlight of the cosmos, without a doubt.





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GEEZER - "GAGE"

Geezer, too, have been together a short amount of time, forming in 2010 in Kingston, New York. But in the span between then and now they have developed an excellent reputation by putting out two incredible albums, the first being the wonderful "Handmade Heavy Blues" and the second one being "Gage", a four track anomaly of brilliance.

The plan for Geezer this past March was to record one new song for a specific event, but the creative juices were flowing that day as three new songs had been captured during their time in the studio, comprising the bulk of "Gage". To round it out the band included the recording of the only time the song "Dude, It's Molecular" was ever played by them.

Band members:

Pat Harrington
Chris Turco
Freddy Villano

The opening track, "Ancient Song", wastes no time establishing the haunting quality of the track and the album with a barbed riff that harpoons center mast on the heart. Massive bass and power vocals soon join in the unfurling of the massive, dark tapestry of this opening song where melody, hook, riff, and solo richly intertwine. "Thorny" kicks in with a power blues riff of an equally haunting and memorable quality. Next up is the awesomely titled "Ghost Rider Solar Plexus" in which the opening blues riff is a gutshot blast of salt and pellets. The melody is a memorable and hook laden adrenalin adventure romp. The bass is a leviathan of low end rumble, the blues guitar forging molten riffs of iron and steel, and the drum work massive and purposeful. The closer, "Dude, It's Molecular", the aforementioned one off, again displays a memorable, soulful blues rock quality seemingly forged in the blazing hot fields of a Mississippi Delta of eras past.

Incredible musicianship is the hallmark of Geezer's EP, a worthy, treasured, and indelible addition to any collection. Available on bandcamp alongside Geezer's LP, "Handmade Heavy Blues"



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