LP Review: Forest of Legend by Forest of Legend

Back in June of 2015, we said of Forest of Legend's demo that they 'have the potential in them to make an incredible record. Watch this space'. Well, we write this review with big gloating grins on our faces, the guys have come through with the goods!

The three piece Virginians have taken the doom genre by the scruff of the neck and spat bile down it's throat with their self-titled debut. The vocals of Gage Shanahan are dirty and pissed off, giving the drawn out riffs an added urgency of anger and guttural desperation that builds each crushing riff into a crashing display of power, prevalant on opening track 'Lightbringer' with elements of sludge thrown into their standard heavy doom riffing. To give these guys just a 'doom' would do a disservice to their other exploratory sounds as they often trail off into psych guitar solos or power riffs that will beat your brain to mush.

As the crawling 'Cursed By Night' rains down upon you, you begin to realise that these guys mean some serious business. Often elements of Sleep and Black Sabbath are at the forefront of what they do, but the references to their peers are a tribute, not a rip off, as layers of orgasmically crushing riffing comes over you in waves, and you accept it full force. With all tracks landing between 7-8 minutes in length, it's not a record for the feint hearted. The band flitter between slightly high tempo doom ('Neptune's Glacier')and the slow-crushing stuff we all adore ('Divine Greataxe') and they feed so well into one another.

Each track is a powerhouse standout, with tracks 'Bane of the Black Lung', 'Holy Throne' and 'Brotherhood of the Black Sun' all warranting the same superlatives such as "heavy as fuck", "crushing our spines" and "riff upon riff upon riff of glorious riffs". We said these guys would make something special, and how right we were. One of the underground doom albums of the year.

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LP Review: Olde One Ascending by Vokonis

When Earth is no longer big enough to contain your seismic riffs, the only place left is the infinitely expanding dimensions of space, and that is exactly where Swedish heavy stoner/psych trio Vokonis firmly thrust themselves with their debut record Olde One Ascending, with riffs capable of bringing down planets, drumming the depths of a black hole, and vocals with the force of star imploding, the band have gone all in and left nothing to waste. Anyway, that’s enough of the space analogies, let’s get to the music.

The record opens with the thunderous ‘Olde One’; eight minutes of pure heavy stoner rock, charging ever forward after it falsely appears to head into a space rock direction. There are hints of the bands psychedelic roots and the underlying sound of doom, but the gigantic rolling riffs bring about hefty head banging. The vocals of Simon Ohlsson are passionately shouted with more of a ritual echo rather than anger, a little reminiscent of early Black Pyramid. The loud drone of the vocals remain at a constant attention grabbing level throughout the record, as ‘The Serpent’s Alive’ follows a similar route but leaning towards more psychedelia routes as the killer guitar solo takes your tripped out subconscious by the balls and reminds it who’s boss.

The guitar work and drumming are at an excellent standard, wielded by talented musicians who wear their influences on their sleeves (mainly Sleep) as the power of ‘Acid Pilgrim’ melts the speakers, the sheer stoner audacity of ‘Shroomblade’ is orgasmic to listen to with riffs to destroy the heaviest of hearts, and closer ‘Hazmat The Ashen Rider’ releases a cacophony of riffs directly into your face without an ounce of apology. The six songs on offer here fly by in an instant, but the whole record leaves you with your fists clenched, and a feeling that what you’ve just listened to was just about as heavy as it gets (and just in case you didn’t realise the name of this blog, that’s how we like things around here!). Olde One Ascending is an excellent heavy record and if your speakers can take it, get a hold of a copy now!

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New Band To Burn One To: The Druids

We told you about these guys a few weeks ago with our Band Submissions, but now that their record has officially been released, we felt it necessary to tell you all about them once more to make sure you understand why you need these guys amongst your record collection!

Four guys from Washington DC, going by the names Earth Druid, Space Druid, Elder Druid, and Mountain Druid, have just released an EP of gloriously epic proportions, covering every inch of stoner, fuzz, doom, paganist rituals, psychedelia, and drug usage that you could possibly hope for. The songs on their debut EP shift between thunderous riffs, to 70’s tripping hard rock with doom overtones with such ease it is a “FUCK YEAH” kind of a listen. Get onto this band immediately as their sound is going to appeal to every Sleep, Black Sabbath (They cover 'Wicked World' afterall), and Hawkwind worshipper out there!

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LP Review: I by PEDRA PRETA

Something dark, heavy, and brutal has emerged from the depths of South America in the form of Brazil’s PEDRA PRETA, and their debut record, I, with enough venom and stoner hooks to grind you to your core.

The four-piece have melded together every form of heavy music you love into one confined, suffocating space, where you can experience every head banging emotion you can muster. The riffs switch between drawn out doom and fist-pumping stoner, while the vocals have a hint of bi-polar disorder, jumping between death-like screams to laid back psychedelia. It makes for an edge of your seat listen.

Opening track ‘O Ritual’ starts off as a tribute to Sleep with its repetitive killer riff leading you into a full blown stoner death assault (or as the band call it, “funeral rock’n’roll”) as Mickael Rabello’s vocals are screeched from the depths of hell. ‘Sgurd’ displays some excellent sludge heaviness before ‘Evil Spell’ displays the bands cleaner cut stoner side with softer vocals, but the riffs remain just as dominant throughout.  

When closing track ‘Devils Way’ sucks you into its stoner delicacy, you realise that the record works better with its polar opposite vocal approaches than it would without, as it sets the band apart from the rest of their peers, but also it makes for a much more interesting listen, as when the riffs can’t get any heavier, you have to turn the vocals up to their raw, punishing best, to which PEDRA PRETA do with immense satisfaction. 

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