QUICK HIT: Child - "Blueside"

Take a trip today with Child. A trip that floats on psychedelic fabrics of deep Indigo Blues, propelled ever onward by the steadfast strength of Cerulean Blue guitar riffs, solos, and mind-calming runs, fortified by Azure Blue vocals of passion and clarity, bolstered by the primal rhythms of Beryl Blue drumwork and deep Navy Blue bass lines. The journey begins in Melbourne, Australia, running a path straight through the moist, hot climes of the Mississippi Delta and on into the bright, crisp air of the Mojave Desert before steering a course for a deep blue odyssey of worldwide deliverance.

This album is at once stirring and joyous, drawing obviously from a fount of blues rock masters, infusing a whiff of the dexterity borne of the deserts of the American West, all the while underpinning psychedelic melodies with gargantuan riffs of deep, low amplification.

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Band Submission: Vessel-Heavy Stoner Rock / Psychedelic Rock From Melbourne Australia

Band Name: Vessel
Genre: Heavy Stoner Rock / Psychedelic Rock
Location: Melbourne Australia
Brief Bio/Description: Vessel is a solo project which utilizes the help of friends and session musicians to complete it's sound. Starting out as a bunch of songs left over from previous bands and collaborations, Vessel has morphed into a fat and fuzzy psychedelic metal machine with the release of sophomore album "Nostalgia".
Band Members:
Jordan Forster - Guitarist and songwriter.
Links: Bandcamp | Facebook

Band Submission: Merchant-Psych Sludge/Doom From Melbourne, Australia

Band Name: Merchant
Genre: Psych Sludge/Doom
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Brief Bio/Description: Formed in late 2014, Merchant have quickly cemented their place in the landscape of the feedback soaked heavy underground by pummeling venues with aggressive live rituals and crushing riffs.
Band Members:
Ben - Guitar
Mirgy - Vox
Nick - Drums
Wilson - Bass,Vocals
Links: Bandcamp | Facebook

Song of the Day-The Black Guild-"Figure It Out"

"Figure It Out" is taken off of the band's self-titled full-length debut release. This song oozes with elements of classic hard rock, southern rock swagger and a blues appeal. Add to that a gritty, rough around the edges vocal and a pedal to the metal hammond organ grind and you have one hell of a good thing going. This is just some damn good time, beer chuggin' rock n' roll. For more information, please check out the following links: Facebook | Bandcamp

New Band To Burn One To: Never

Australian five-piece Never have delivered a swift kick to the bollocks with their demo EP. Three tracks of huge riffs, growling vocals, and heavy as hell percussion that smack you into next week. You listen to tracks like ‘Serpent Woman’ and ‘Trampled Like A Goat’ and can see the five Melbourne guys in a sweaty, dingy, badly lit bar, sweating the beer through their hair, ripping you a new one as your neck snaps from over use. This is pure rock and roll, and we love it! Get it at their Bandcamp.

Song of the Day-Field-"The Hate"

"The Hate" is taken off of the band's 3-song EP of the same name. Doom-laden riffs, chest-collapsing heaviness and a drowsy lethargic pace, oh and did I mention riffs? For more information, please check out the following links: Facebook | Bandcamp

EP Review: Time Here Is Up by The Ivory Elephant

There is so much soul-pleasingly phenomenal heavy blues doing its best to pull today into the 1970s around in today’s music scene, that for the second EP from Melbourne, Australia’s, The Ivory Elephant, to stand out from the crowd, shows this record for the exceptional work that it is. Much where Child stood out last year with their exceptional self-titled record (both bands are from the same place), this three piece match their laid back, knee-drooping thick riffs, drenched in an aged old whiskey swagger, letting your eyes close as the waves of soulful psychedelic heaviness encompass you.

There is more tempo to Time Here Is Up than compared to Child however as the stronger percussion begins with ‘Save My Soul’ fighting the weary vocals of Trent Sterling gliding the song down its story-telling path. It’s this type of heavy psych blues that flows into you like a cloud of hypnotic dust, caressing your soul, so that the guitar riffs of ‘Devil’s Waiting For Me’ enrapture your bones, Hendrix-style.

Whether it’s the heavier numbers, or the gloriously laid back meanderings of ‘Killing’, a modern day Muddy Waters picking away at the strings of your soul, The Ivory Elephant have created a masterful work of the blues genre, hopefully not to be a hidden gem formuch longer.

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Sunday Stoner Sludge: Olmeg - "Primordial Soup"

This is as much time as I've spent with any one single band in ages. Melbourne's Olmeg consumed a frigid November weekend with their 2012 debut, Slab, only to follow it up by introducing the sophomore epic Primordial Soup. I'd hoped to wrap up a few loose ends at home, but this trio of diggers managed over two hours of distraction that I'd welcome back without hesitation. As a student of the 90's, these nine tracks presented me the makings of a disenchanting trap. What I found was instead a trip marrying my past and my present, an incredibly staggering ambivalence between looking back and facing forward.

That Slab was all I could've wanted, littered with quick, punchy grunge dropped into a bath of fuzz and jangled funk. Riffs, sludge rhythms, meaty choruses, and occasional catharses lulled me into a build toward poignant ascents, steadily swelling behind a slow and cavernous psychedelia drifting into barroom blues and southern fists. Those bloody knuckles bobbed for stones and came up caked, but the trippy mirages stole marquee billing. This band wants to come unhinged, it's clear. What's more evident on their nine-track return, due out December 12th, is the crafted strides these mates have committed to making.

Spacey, smooth, tripped-out... Trans-dimensional hits a gait and becomes all things. Jammy instrumentals immediately showcase the strides the band made in those two years, complete with focused warble and thick-riffed skyshots. The chippy sandiness of Megalomaniac sits low, simmering and dazzling with lo-fi QOTSA stickiness that stares with head-up fuzz deflation under a slow stagger. The Wolves billows with stoner crunch, buoyant without being cartoonish. Olmeg's engine hums and purrs with a tasty viscosity. So here we are, fellas. Lightyears ahead of where we'd expect.

The immediately pensive, somber Nest is distant until meat-riffs fall like boulders. These courses vary from more-than-you-can-chew to whisper-sniff-swipe servings, the main course a gristle sitting long on the tongue. Wash it down in cosmic guitar bursts and rest that sorrow under a blanket of warm stoner fuzz, bro. And that reflection returns with Scolder, Olmeg's swamp-swagger sway that relents to rueful lumbers. Oh, that sad stoner, struggling to find his place between two divergent atmospheres. This is for him.

For all its tip-toeing, though, Primordial Soup lays down some fucking beef. Tilt the landscape and welcome Told You So, the band's return to stoner-sludge groove. Swirls crash with epic gravity, but what's heaviest is the patience the band exercises. Sure, those quiet moments hold a spooky, touching gravity... But the track truly serves as just another showcase of improved craft and expansive, evolving style. Crunching and punching with loose limbs, Olmeg swell in every direction toward a shameless, hard-boiled cosmos. Mettle is melodic and hopeful, steadily plugging and plodding as the best stoner-sludge does. It's grungy and quite patient, breaking into a fuzzy bass isolation. So hey, isn't that just SO, like, 90's?

I don't have enough space, and if you've made it this far into this gushing diatribe, it's fair to ask why you haven't just clicked the links and screened the tracks. There's a LOT here to digest, and every bit holds a fair balance between past, present, and future. Every track from Primordial Soup provides an exercise in pulsing strength, but still manages the sack to hit every corner. These passages display endless evolution and aren't about to shy from the pain that comes with it. With unmatched tonal movement, these nine tracks offer unpredictable shifts that are deceptively uncalculated and unfairly precise. Olmeg break us, fold themselves, and expand our atmosphere. As this band welcomes the dirt, they encapsulate us without apology.

As stated, 12-12-14. Until then...

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Sunday Stoner Sludge: Riff Fist

I don't feel much like writing this morning. The weather fucking sucks, I just blew a few bills on new tires yesterday, and last night's chocolate stouts have painted me ragged. I needed a pick-me-up; something straight to the point that didn't meander and hover and drop hints. Melbourne's Riff Fist offered the most succinct elixir I could find, slapping me silly with... um... riffs. Six tracks off two releases are rotating in my den as I try to figure out how the fuck this meatiness stayed off my radar for so long.

2013's Fistful Of Riffs is just that. Twenty-four minutes of caffeinated stoner-sludge riffage packed tight under white-knuckle truth. Give it a go. Chase it with this year's For A Few Riffs More, uncorking Master of the Grove as a chaser to Riff Stew. There's no pretense here. If you spent any of the 90's enjoying Paw but found them a tad bleak, this has just enough shine and balls to push you west with no doubts. Hit up these links and get dirty. My hangover's gone and I'm jumping in with both feet.

Er... fists.

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New Band To Burn One To: CHILD

HEAVY PLANET PRESENTS...CHILD!

"The buzz is currently swirling around this amazing three piece from Melbourne, Australia. The reviews are starting to trickle in as people just can't get enough of the soulful, heavy fuzzed-out blues trip brought to you by Child. The bass barrels through your chest as the crushing fuzz paralyzes while you are drawn in by the soothing impassioned vocals. Songs such as opener "Trees" and "Mean Square" will leave you gathering up your jaw from the ground. Year end top 10 for sure. I can't recommend this album enough. Now go listen!"

Beer Pairing: Young's Double Chocolate Stout

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Nuclear Dog's Atomic Split: Estoner - "The Stump Will Rise" / Motherslug - "Motherslug"

The Stoner Rock world is chock full of magnificent, electrifying music that bests anything, ANYTHING, played in mainstream forums. It amazes me that none of the publications I read, whether online or in print, seem to be aware of what goes on in the world of low tuned fuzz. Queens of the Stone Age gets prominent billing for an album that is a shadow of anything Kyuss ever produced save, perhaps, their initial release. Black Sabbath returns after several decades with a worthy effort that has everything but perhaps the heart of what once was, heart that now reverberates throughout the Stoner Rock world with bands that have taken up the mantle, trying desperately on one hand to achieve what the Black Sabbaths of the world have already achieved while simultaneously achieving what those aging bands no longer can. Heart is the key, and hunger is the driving force. Without hunger heart can't live. Without heart, hunger is absent. Perhaps the music we review on Heavy Planet reaches a small and passionate audience, one whose nearly matches that of the architects of the sound we crave, but I believe we have keyed into the absolute best music alternating current has to offer. If mainstream hasn't clued in on that fact . . . well, then they're relegated to listening to the Kanyes and Lumineers on offer, and pity to them, I guess. I'll take Estoner and Motherslug, today's featured Stoner Rock generators, any day, any time. I'm thankful it's there to take.
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ESTONER - "THE STUMP WILL RISE"

Okay, I'm late to the party on this album. It was released in October of 2012 and I have only recently become aware of its dulcet tones. Hah! Dulcet tones. Yes, but in a low, fuzzed out, distorted, shredded scrap metal sort of way! Estoner grind and slice through thick slabs of iron and steel with twin guitar shredders and a vocalist for the ages.

Hailing from Talinn, Estonia  band members include:

Corey Tomlins - Vocals
Ralf Vinkler - Guitar
Kristian Vallikivi - Guitar
Jaanus Luka - Bass
Anton Veeremets - Drums

Estoner became a full band in 2011 and spent months on the road honing their sound. A mini release of 3 songs during that time quickly sold out and gave the band impetus to create this septet of massive, deep metal melodies of psychedelic tendencies.

The sound Estoner have created is brilliant and unique. They employ a superfecta of unique, spine chilling vocals, multi shredding twin guitars that lay down the thick, jagged  pile of metal tapestries, brilliantly crafted melodies chock full of sharp steel hooks, unfolding and engrossing story lines, and engrossing rhythms.

The album opens with the superb "Greenseeker", a perfect representative of all that's great with "The Stump Will Rise", nearly 9 minutes in length, heavy, low, and deliberate, and showcasing both melody and Tomlins' unique, haunting vocals. Nowhere on the album is the mammoth driving power of Luka's bass more present than on track 2, "Meet the Abyss". "Darth Vader Has a Hangover" opens with an incredible duet of synchronized stoner rumble and a serene, almost acoustic treatment that morphs quickly into sheer power and monstrous driving riffs in an ode to the timeless space cowboy classic. "Stump" is an incredibly intriguing mix of deliberate driving power, and wild, nearly incongruous sounds dashing in, out, and around the methodical onslaught of the master melody. "Level 5 Wizard", as you might expect, takes a more ethereal, spiritual journey, while never leaving behind the heavy machinery on an extended trip of color and emotion, while "LSD Vampyr" continues the smoky, hazy journey of metallic fuzz, neither song to be outdone by the mega trippy, ultra shaggy "Mindweasels".

This album is one of a kind and if you are a fan of the fuzz and an appreciator of metal melody, as well as relishing singular vocals, you should find this album a cut above most. I regret not finding this jewel last year because it most certainly would have made my top 20 end of year list. It's the kind of album that gets better each time you listen to it, and sounds better with high quality headphones cranked up beyond what is healthy for these old rock and roll ears.





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MOTHERSLUG - "MOTHERSLUG"

Whenever I see that a band is a five piece I tend to get excited because most of the time it means dual guitars, which is certainly the case once again today with Motherslug. Guitars are what set the great music of the Stoner/Doom/Psychedelic world apart from all others because guitar is used to perfect effect much of the time, cranking out low, loud riff rhythms while shredding the dark energy of the universe with searing light beams of power and brilliance. Motherslug do that in spades, as they say. The guitars permeate to the core, to the very essence of existence in this powerful half hour experience.

Motherslug hail from Melbourne, Australia, having formed very recently in 2012 with what began as a mutual admiration of the music of Kyuss by

Ferg - Rhythm Guitar
Nick - Drums

who began jamming together and discovering a propensity for the low end heaviness of stoner rock, and so decided to add to the mix

Matt - Lead Guitar

who brought incredible depth and dexterity. It took some time for the fledgling band to find

Cyn - Bass

to round out the instrumental sound. It took several months more to find the right fit for the final instrument, but then along came

Cam - Vocals

a unique and perfectly matched talent whose vocal abilities are supreme and immediately evident when you first listen to Motherslug play. While his pipes are reminiscent of many of rock's great wordthrashers it retains its own unique and incredible sound.

This is a band that displays it all in their songs, and while the starting point for them is this self titled 4 track EP, it is very much massive in content and quality, providing riveting and explosive low end brilliance.

The opening track, "Symptoms (of the Human Race)" hearkens back to classic sounds of seventies metal as well as evoking the nimble melodies of high desert masters of the nineties and beyond. "Rollin'" carries the gargantuan sound forward with a classic blues rock theme married beautifully to massive metal riffs and licks of gargantuan proportions, overwrought with spacey, haunting laser beam solos. The deliberate, "Devils Rise" is a slow rolling river of sound forcing its current of monstrosities to carry you along until you succumb to its dark depths, while "Space Man" lives up to its billing with a psychedelic din that sits squarely on top of your chest threatening to interrupt the natural rhythms within with an intruding enormity of decibel distortion, leaving your only recourse to yield to the mercies and vagaries of its low tuned capriciousness.

"Motherslug" hits the mark dead center with their maiden release, providing a worthy collection of massive stoner melodies. I look very much forward to their first full length album, but I also simply look forward to once again spinning this beauty up once again.





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Nuclear Dog's Atomic Split: The Superguns - "The Superguns" / Totimoshi - "Mysterioso"

Diversity is the name of the game today, tokers and smokers. We start off with standard straight up hairy ass rock and roll. Fun and furious. Loud and raucous. The best kind of rock, not just because it rocks your nuts off, but because it wasn't made just for the sake of it. It was made by design, and the design is retro rock genius, the kind of rock you picture powering up out of primordial rock soup in a 4 wheel drive hemi and plugging into the first stack of amps available. We don't slip away from genius on the second album, but we do veer away to a whole new rock design spectrum, one that isn't so straight up perhaps, one that isn't perfectly derivative, one that may have ancestors who crawled out of the primordial stew, but whose most recent relatives are scattered about punk, new wave, stoner, and grunge nursing homes. The loud and raucous remain, as do the fun and furious. The asses may not be quite as hairy, but there's hair in there somewhere, and lots of fuzz.

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THE SUPERGUNS - "THE SUPERGUNS"

As we did last week, this week we visit a band from Melbourne, Australia, The Superguns, who forged themselves and their sound, as so many bands that play this wonderful kind of music do, in the bars and venues scattered around their city and surrounding townships, as well as from numerous jam sessions in their studio, which happens to be a former bordello, perhaps lending its spirit to the genius of the song making of this 4 piece rock dynamo.

Band members:

Jackyboy Sullivan - Vocals
Aidan Barrett - Lead Guitar
Benny Langman - Bass
Rene Badalassi - Drums

The four ass kickers of The Superguns have been together for more than a couple of years, and are now releasing their first collection of original songs with 5 songs that fit smoothly and easily into the best rock and roll experiences - the guitars are big, loud, and soul searingly brutal - the bass is straight from dynamite blasting grounds - the drums perform the dual job of driving the music while entertaining with virtuoso fills and rolls -  and the vocals . . . if, instead of auditioning for vocalists for your band you had software that created vocals according to your specifications, Jackyboy's sound is likely what you would come up with for this type of hard driving, balls to the wall rock. All of this musicl ability is bound together by solid song writing that packs each with hooks aplenty, clever and contagious choruses that'll have your head spinning the songs long after the power to your music player has been removed. Archetypal images come to mind when listening to this music, images of big classic cars with 454 cu. in engines, sunglasses, hair, bikinis, liquor bottles, the Zig Zag man, huge car speakers, smoke, sweat, black concert tees, and huge smiles as the car roars down the road, the speakers blaring a valhala vanguard. This music is big and rambunctious, party music for the ages, so those images come easily, but what never gets lost within the gargantuan riffs is the melodic platform base upon which it all stems, because these songs are both bodacious and intriguing, instantly satisfying as well as timeless.

"Love Pump" opens the 5 track stand in that bodacious and conspicuous fashion already mentioned. Jackyboy and Badalassi (this has to be one of the coolest natural names in rock history), in vocals and drumwork, set the pace with energy and vigor that Barrett and Langman have no trouble matching. The song bleeds straight into "Big Foot" without hesitation, a slow down in tempo, but the same intensity in everything else. The chorus on this song, with the hook 'Big Foot's on the loose', will no doubt stay with you for awhile. The solo section of the song provides fun more than giving some sort of demonstration, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience, because while Barrett wails away on his strings, Langman is simultaneously blasting away with Badalassi, creating a huge and astonishing sound.

"Whiskey Fist" . . . man if there was ever a great party rock name for a song . . . carries the intensity along with a quick, up tempo, riff filled monstrosity that ends in a spiral of Panzer blitz ferocity. Mind blowing and mouth watering all at once.

"The Superguns Must Die" closes the EP with what is likely the best track. It's full of fun and fury, blistering riffs blasting away at Gatling gun speeds, chewing up and spitting out the huge rock sounds that are the hallmark and exultation of this awesome gang of four from Melbourne. The Superguns, ladies and gentlemen.





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TOTIMOSHI - "MYSTERIOSO"

I have been listening to this album all week, enjoying it immensely, knowing I wanted to review it today. I found this little jewel on bandcamp.com with a release date of August 2012. Well, it turns out it was released much longer ago, originally, but rereleased this past year. Zac reviewed their latest album, "Avenger", back in November of 2011, and later named it to his top 10 albums for 2011. Between "Avenger" and "Mysterioso" are 2 other albums, and one preceding it. They are not all in one place, however, not that I can find anyway. Doesn't matter. What matters at the moment is this album, regardless of history. I guess I'm doing a second day of  'In Case You Missed It' because apparently I missed it and didn't know better til now. It's worthy of a listen, do not doubt that, though, regardless of release date. It's fresh and new to those of us that missed it the first time through.

Band members include:

Tony Aguilar - Guitar
Meg Castellanos - Bass
Johann Zamora (at the time "Mysterioso" was recorded) - drums

What Totimoshi have produced on "Mysterioso" is an intriguing blend of varying styles that aren't mashed for mashing's sake. In the end, what matters on these songs is quite obvious, and that is the music, the quality of the song, and the level of passion and ability they bring to the execution of their music. This all is pretty amazing when you consider the sparsity of instruments. One guitar, one bass, one trap set and music that sounds as big as 5 three piece bands thrown together.

The starting point for the album is "Float", a very cool and simultaneously heavy number that blends a myriad of sounds throughout the length of the track, churning heavily away on all instruments, but coolly laying down the vocals. Stick with it from beginning to end, over and again, and you will find something new to chew on quite frequently.

The second song, "Screwed" just makes me shake my head. This is because it uses sounds that aren't normally used, perhaps experimenting a bit, or perhaps using something the band is familiar with, but something I'm not quite familiar with myself. The thing is, it works, and it works very well. It's an intriguing and pleasing song. I've heard music in the not so distant past, by quite talented musicians, that were 'experimental' and crap for it. So, I appreciate making the sound and the listener's experience the priority as opposed to being top dog artist, or whatever. Pushing the envelope is great, but not for the sake of pushing it, instead for the sake of discovering something newly fun. This may be an older album, but there still isn't much music out there pushing boundaries the way Totimoshi has here. "Screwed" is an absolute blast, containing interesting and fresh sounds while delivering a song that resonates primally.

"Cellophane" is chock full of sounds so big I don't think a whole roll of its namesake material would contain it for long. It's the type of song that starts at a certain level and slowly builds up toward something monumental. The thing is, the beginning point is huge. The guitars are heavy, distorted, fuzz laden beasts of burden, that gain momentum as they climb UP the mountain, reaching the acme and crashing back down in a blissful cacophony of bass bombs and a stoner/grunge avalanche.

"The Bleed" kicks off with gargantuan drums that never let up, basement busting bass, and crazy bandsaw guitar paired with low tuned stoner riffs. Sheer joy reigns throughout. "Dirt Farmer" is quite like minded delivering a full instrumental take on the sound, intensely piquing interest along the way.

"Oblivian" is the penultimate song, and starts out with a super cool riff evolution. Totimoshi are good at everything they do, but loud, heavy, booming, delicious, fierce, fun guitar is where they excel the most, and thankfully focus the most. The drums on "Mysterioso" tend to match that intensity as does the bass, instruments too often relegated to background noise, but never out of earshot here.

The closer is "Horselaugh" and in a similar fashion to the rest of the album the guitar here is big, bold, different, and engrossing, moving through variations that make the dog drool flow. A stripped down bridge where the vocals are the focal point brings something not heard so much on the previous tracks, adding to the incredible variety and entertainment this album provides.

This may be an older album, but it is quite worthy of listening to today, and any day from now til the universe goes dark.




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