Quick Trip: ORANGE SUNSHINE - "HOMO ERECTUS"

A stunning blend of great late 60s, early 70s style psych-rock with heavy stoner fuzz sensibilities has been captured on this nearly 2 decade old album by Orange Sunshine. Listening to it is sort of a double deja vu by going back to the band's early days of the new century where they brilliantly captured the sound of 4 decades prior, the decades of flower power, of tripping on mind altering pharmaceuticals and mind blowing heavy rock, the decades of musical captivation and discovery.

The music on this album has an almost magical immersive quality to it, whether you lock yourself into your mancave and test the limits of your speakers, lock yourself out from your surroundings with headphones, or utilize your car's bluetooth functionality on that long roadtrip, you will quickly find that even without the help of pharmaceuticals your mind is expanding in pleasurable and exciting ways. The spells cast on this album are rendered with mystical guitar work that colorfully penetrates to a pulsing primal core, led by vocals that use that great breakout quality of rock vocalists of the era and accompanied by a superior, groovy beat of drums, and rapturously cool bass bonanza.

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Quick Hit: EARTH WITCH - "OUT OF THE SHALLOW"

Earth Witch have been producing and playing high energy, heavy metal doom rock since they first formed on Halloween night in 2012 playing Black Sabbath covers. An early EP, released on Halloween in 2013, was a brilliant admixture of psychedelic Black Sabbath doom. For their next offering to the dark fandom gods of haunting melodies and mammoth black-bottom riffs Earth Witch have stepped up their game, submitting a full-length LP of masterful musical acumen. The melodies are exciting and memorable, the riffs are an amalgam of searing psychedelic solos, subterranean rumbles of earth and stone, with characteristics of stoner/desert sounds sewn perfectly into the patchwork of deep doomness and ephemeral wisps of phantom Sabbath spirits. All of this comes to you in afterthought as you listen because the immediate response is joy, joy in experiencing music that masters every trait that we love about low-tuned massive, heavy metal. It's a forty minute escape, much more capable than any current virtual reality gimmick. It's an ode to past brilliance yet still a discovery of fresh raw power entirely attuned to primal urges of amplified sound.

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DESERT STORM / SUNS OF THUNDER: SPLIT

Coming this week will be an opportunity to pre-order a 7" vinyl split between veteran heavy rock bands Desert Storm and Suns of Thunder.

To warm up for it, here is a gateway to the archives of each band, an excursion well worth a commitment, and never before featured on Heavy Planet.


If you are not yet familiar with either band, you should find that you can enjoy their decibel busting, high wattage music from past releases. Once you've laid your dark, demented minds to waste from the blitzkrieg onslaught of ethereal musical mayhem you might find you are primed for the forthcoming vinyl offering.

DESERT STORM
Desert Storm is a stoner rock, doom rock veteran hailing from the UK. They have an archive of magnificently crafted albums stretching  back to 2008, each chock full of high voltage, low tuned awesomeness. They have been featured quite a number of times at Heavy Planet:

LP Review: Desert Storm - Omniscient
LP Review: Desert Storm - Horizontal Life
New Band to Burn One To - Desert Storm

The gravel voiced frontman Matt Ryan is the epitome of the stoner/doom rock genre, deftly delivering haymaker vocals that match the darkly laden depths of bassman Chris Benoist's thunderous thumping, the supreme riffage and scorching solos of guitarists Chris White and Ryan Cole, as well as the driving dementia of drummer Elliot Cole.

The split features the new song "Signals From Beyond" which is a melodious romp of delightfully amplified distortion, booming and crackling with resonance and grace.

SUNS OF THUNDER
Suns of Thunder are not only prolific, dropping electric energy filled rock and romp dating back to the turn of the century, but are legendary in their home country of Wales. Suns of Thunder were part of a feature on Heavy Planet in which the live event, Swamp Feast, featuring Suns of Thunder, their split partners Desert Storm, as well as The Witches Drum, was caught live by Heavy Planet:

Live Review: Swamp Feast with Honky, Desert Storm, The Witches Drum, and More

High energy, explosive, adroit riffs from dual guitarists Greg Brombroffe and Matt Williams are matched with equal power, intensity, and proficiency by the same pair on their complementary vocals. The rumble and thunder of bassist Chris James propels the music forward with a voracious capacity while the high energy mojo of the music is laid out first and foremost by the virtuoso stickwork of drummer Sam Loring.

The newly crafted song "Earn Your Stripes" delivers another example of the deftly orchestrated melodies of power riffs and raunchy fun to the split with their fellow stoner rock countrymen.

These two massive representatives of rock in the twenty-first century have teamed up to release a high quality contribution of heavy low tuned sublimity this coming April. Pre-sales begin on March 29, in which you can order your vinyl copy here:

http://www.h42records.com/

Desert Storm
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Suns of Thunder
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