Pete's Top Ten of 2017

Let's do this shall we?

10. Hark - Maschinations It's a damn shame that these guys have just announced they're splitting up as they're one of the most technical and experimental with their riffing in the stoner genre. At least we have two excellent records to remember them by.

9.  Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

You really need to spend some time with this record, not just because of the 83 minute running length of the one song here, but with its layers and emotional turmoil within. A wonderful tribute to a fallen friend.

8. Godhunter - Codex Narco

Heavy and beautiful Nine Inch Nails doing doom sounding album. This has been my nicest suprise of the year.

 7. Telekinetic Yeti - Abominable Two guys making this much noise in the stoner/doom scene is always something to behold. Fuzzy riffs upon slower fuzzy riffs make this an excellent debut release. 

6. OHHMS - The Fool If you get a chance to see these guys live, go do it! Much like their shows, this debut full-length is heavy, often chaotic, and often beautifully stripped back. A superb record. 

 5. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed The Rats I still enjoy telling people about this band, mainly for the name, but because their sound is an awesome mix of stoner psychedelic pounding. There's only three songs here, but with two of them hitting the 20 minute mark, you know they're something special. 

 4. Spaceslug - Time Travel Dilemma These Polish stoners are going from strength to strength with each release, exemplifying the claustrophobic riffs with the hazy vocals and heavy-ass song structures, I can't wait to hear what they come up with next. 

3. Elder - Reflections of a Floating World I really don't need to say anything about this. Go read every other End of Year list that any publication has put out and you will see this on there. The best band in the genre at present.

 2. REZN - Let It Burn I've had almost an entire year to listen to this record on repeat over and over, and the heaviness of it all never fails to floor me each time. A truly excellent record.

 1. Forming The Void - Relic This has been the standout record for me this year, by some way, with it's psychedelic tendencies, doom riffs, stoner wanderings, powerful vocals (that guy can sing!!)and one of the best Led Zeppelin covers i've heard. We've had our eye on Forming The Void for some time now, and hearing 'Relic' makes us feel like proud dads. 

That's it from me this year, as a whole we've been a bit on the quiet side at Heavy Planet HQ, but we've never stopped listening to everything we've been able to get our hands on, that flame will never die out. I hope each and every one of you have had a great year, and I hope that you do everything you can to make 2018 an even better one.

 Stay heavy.

 Pete x

LP Review: Let It Burn by REZN

Now this is just what we needed! It's been a pretty slow start to the beginning of 2017 for us guys at HP, we needed a bit of a wake up call to get our arses into gear, and it turns out that an almighty heavy slab of cosmic doom will do just the trick! Enter Chicago's REZN.

Coming across like a psychedelic Electric Wizard, REZN are making a huge noise on their debut full-length record; the guitars are tuned to their fuzzy maximum while the drums echo from the gut and the vocals drone into a tripped out phenomena. Opening track 'Relax' doesn't fuck about, and begins to pummel your senses from the start with its chugging stoner/doom riffs creating a wall of sound that will crush weaker individuals. Everything about REZN's sound is massive, the drum kit must need replacing after each set the way Patrick Dunn pounds away, but then at the flick of a switch they create delicate tripped out moments of hazy clarity, before you fall out of the sky and hit the ground with the massive riffs.

'Wake' creeps along like a Black Sabbath song that was dropped for being a bit too heavy, with lots of trippy vocals and bass lines that'll make you not even need those drugs to reach your astral plain of consciousness. But even in their quieter moments they can't stop themselves from being heavy as hell as the riffs and cymbals come crashing down once again. 'Dread' is the calm amongst the ongoing storm, a short instrumental moment of reflection on the havoc that has been caused so far. 'Rezurrection' comes across with elements of a Far Eastern space trip, standing the hairs on your neck on high as the band take you under their spell.

Let It Burn is an hour's worth of extraordinarily heavy cosmic doom that dips its toes into a lot of stoner and psychedelic elements with spectacular results. It crushes your soul, and that's all we can really ask for.

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