Triple Thursday: Fuzziebär, Out Of The Earth, 4 Ciénegas

Fuzziebär – Lach- und Krachgeschichten

Brunswick, Germany, has delivered some MIGHTY devastating heavy-ass fuzz/stoner riffs and destruction in the form of Fuzziebär with their debut record Lach- und Krachgeschichten (which translates as “Laughter and Noise Stories”). Potential mis-pronounciations aside, this record is devastating and a whole load of fun on equal levels.

With the key aim being to play the heaviest fuzz/stoner/doom/psych riffs possible, the German trio deliver almighty blows to the senses. Opening with ‘Funny Ass Joke’, Lach- und Krachgeschichten is brutal from the outset, combining charging doom riffs with layers of fuzz thrown directly at your face, it’s joyous in its attitude of messing you up: what is better than pounding riffs after all? With vocals sang in their national tongue (I don’t speak German) the tone and attitude of the band still pours through the music, making you a part of their sound, even if you may not relate to the lyrics. Take a track like ‘Oszillation’ for instance; you might not understand a single word singer Ingo sings/yells down the microphone, but it doesn’t for a second stop you pounding your head like there was no tomorrow with the guitar playing taking you at one point down a psychedelic path, before the next throwing you directly under the wheels of a stoner motorcade once again.

The record falls into the “epic” category, not only due to it’s length (somewhere around the 70 minute mark), but also for it’s experimentation in styles, with the album’s length allowing the band to manoeuvre through garage rock (‘Links Baby’), psychedelia (‘Medizin’), high energy fuzz (‘Katapult’), frenetic stoner (‘Vomit’), with continuous elements of doom and voice sampling throughout, it’s an extremely impressive debut record, especially as it was all recorded DIY style in one take per track. Fuzziebär want to take your on one fucked up ride. Are you game?

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Out Of The Earth - Out Of The Earth

 

We imagine that you are much like us, for we love nothing more than some simply awesome stoner riffs, along with strong vocals, and a bit of a tune in there for good measure. It’s with simple asks such as this that it’s all the more joyous coming across bands like Out Of The Earth with their utterly superb self-titled debut album, which is basically full of everything we want from a stoner rock band.

The Greek trio have produced a well rounded, heavy rocking, stoner jamming, danceable, debut record that combines stoner elements with touches of grunge (especially in the Chris Cornell-esqe vocals of Thanos Vlachos), and a blues hard-rock swagger that oozes sheer sex appeal from the booming speakers (listen to ‘Sinewave’ and tell us that you don’t get a metaphorical boner!) The stoner rock pounding of ‘Need’ gets the record off to a throbbing start as the trio show that they can master great songwriting ability while at the same time rocking the fuck out. It’s the song structures that make this band stand out most of all from the crowd, yes they have fantastic vocals, tight talented musicianship, but most of all, they have actual bona-fide songs that wrap Out Of The Earth into an album you can take your time over, with repeated listens from start to finish, allowing you to envelop all the time signatures, guitar shredding, lyrics, husky tones, and groove laden bass lines, and appreciate every ounce of it.

Sandwiched between Clutch and The Heavy Eyes, Out Of The Earth have everything you could possibly want from a stoner rock band, and all the things you didn’t know you needed. Records this good don’t come along that often, so make sure you savour it while you can.

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4 Ciénegas - Cuatro Ciénegas

 

We at Heavy Planet are big fans of South American bands Bar de Monjas and Vinnum Sabbathi, basically because they are two of the heaviest, damn awesome fuzz bands we’ve come across in a long time, so when we saw that members from both bands had combined to make up an instrumental side project (along with drummer Daniel from Los Dealers), we were excited beyond our adult years should allow us, and high expectations, which were matched with aplomb!

In all seriousness though, is there anything these guys can’t do? After impressive releases in their respective bands, Cuatro Ciénegas threatens to overtake all of those achievements. Blasting out of the gates, the record starts at full pelt, gains momentum, and collapses under its own wait after just 30 minutes. Opening track ‘Hiena’ builds its stoner layers into crushing waves of fuzzy joy, thick with menacing head bangs, gut punching drumming, all the while maintaining a psychedelic stoner backdrop, firmly rooted in the band’s core make-up.

As the record progresses with the likes of ‘Dobsonfly’ violently beating your ass to the wall with gigantic riffs and fuzzed out tones, ‘Ergot’ exploring a doomier approach to their instrumentation, and ‘Salem Trials’ and ‘Claviceps’ are just simple stoner/fuzz masterpieces, you soon become very aware that 4 Ciénegas have brought their A game to the table on their debut full-length record! All they ask of you is to inhale the fuzz, and let it destroy you. VIVA 4 CIÉNEGAS!!!!

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