LP Review: Shrooming Widow by Void Commander

As a great big fat choking smoke cloud descends upon you, filling your lungs with a dense clogging clawing, commanding every gap and hole it finds, becoming one with you, you manage to exhale within the last gasping inch of breath you've got left, right before the next fuzzed-up doom riff smothers you again. It's as glorious as it is suffocating, and Void Commander pummel you in droves with one dense heavy riff after the next. It's not a record for the faint-hearted.

Hailing from "the dark forests" of Sweden, the trio of Bobby K, Linus O, and Jimmy J have released their debut full-length record of heavy HEAVY stoner doom distorted psychedelic riffs in the mammoth Shrooming Widow, and it's fits perfectly between Sleep and Spaceslug on the drifting-alone-in-outer-space-high-as-fuck-being-pulled-apart-by-a-black-hole noise spectrum: so you can see why we love it.

With tracks like, well, every damn track here, but in particular '2061' reaching such earthly decimals to rupture your eardrums, and make you nauseas from the pounding drumming and doom-chainsaw guitar work, you find yourself constantly caught between banging your head 'til death and riding that magical carpet into the higher plains of your existential mind. When one mind mulching track ends, another starts up right where they left off, 'Acid Queen' continues the powerful dooming riffs setting the stoner tempo as high as they dare to go. The instrumental bass heavy 'Tongue Whip of the Alien Mothership' is the marker that separates the pretenders from the real lovers of all that is HEAVY as the record continues for another ten songs of the same smothering riffs in glorious succession.

'Days Will Pass and Years Will Die' is our standout track on Shrooming Widow, with Bobby K's haunting vocals tripping over the top of some of the sharpest riffs the band have to offer. The song encompasses everything the band are about, with their psychedelic tinged astral riffs, crushing doom-laden bass riffs and drumming, and droning, continuous drug-fuelled riffs (they have a lot of riffs) all within the same glorious 8-minute wonder.

Shrooming Widow is an excellent debut record from a band that we're certain to hear a lot more from for years to come, if our eardrums can honestly handle it.

Bandcamp|Facebook

New Band To Burn One To: Z/28

Big flat slab of good ol’ stoner rock and roll emanates from the speakers as the debut EP from Massachusetts trio Z/28 strikes off every riff and desert scorched highway of your stoner car ride’s dream. There’s nothing new or ground breaking in their sound, but it’s a glorious noise which encapsulates all of our loves into one short bundle of riffing joy (try to tell me that ‘Blinded’ doesn’t get you going). Excellent potential!

Bandcamp|Facebook

New Band To Burn One To - Phase Order

“Three dudes who like fuzzed out riffs” . That’s the extent of the bio that we’ve got on these guys (except that they’re from Chicago), but what else do you really need to know about a band when their music is all that counts, and luckily for these guys, their sound is awesome drawn out fuzz riffs over a charging stoner stomp background, that’s as rough and ready as you’d want from a demo, and it’s everything you’d crave from the dark, damp corners of a seedy bar with the lights turned down low, and the gritty riffs downtuned even lower.

The trio (Mike- Bass, Tony – Drums & Vocals, Lev – Guitar) mix drawn out instrumentals (‘Offering’ & ‘Red Flux’) with punk rock stoner excellence (‘Goathouse’) to an impressive ability. Watch out for these guys in the future, and burn a fat one while you can!

Bandcamp|Wordpress

Om - Advaitic Songs - Full Album Review

The sonic alchemy of Om is a contientous effort towards hosting an array of disastrous doomsday hymnals for the modern man with ancient sounds. This effort marks the first time Om has gone on record as a trio, Bass titan Al Cisneros and Grails skinsman Emil Amos flanked by tamburist and co-vocalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe from Lichens. The record is also flanked with 2 cellists, a violinist, flute, and tabla. The full rotation of Om's previous efforts is returned with another dose of drone-heavy ancient music. Evoking textures akin to the ancient isod (drone), the album plunges us into a trance-like pit of would-be archaic cult chants.

1. "Addis" - A lone and ominous female vocalist moans over haunting sahara-inspired bells drenched in reverb. Violin, piano, and guitar penetrate the background. Warm mesmerizing religious tones with cavernous depictions propel the piece.

2. "State of Non-Return"- Only making entrance as a mellowed guitar and piano tour, Al Cisneros snaps back in with a bassline reminiscient of his  Sleep years, a metallic beastly voyage of bass doom-dom winding up in a somber, brooding string arrangement.

3."Gethsamane"- A tune mirroring Grails persuasions towards big cavernous opuses, this tune plods on with a dark bass line connected with gregorian chantlike vocals and swirling violin all underpinned by a pulsing tambura. This culminates in a nasty octaved guitar line.

4."Sinai"- Wailing moaning overtone-rich drones pinch the intro to this tune before Cisneros' harrowing vocals arrive. The din echoes on until the tribal  pouncing drum kicks in, complete with a low tinged guitar line and piercing string snaps. The cello comes in and out with interplay a few times. 10 minutes of trance-like doom

5. " Haqq-Al Yaquin"- Might have the most demonic cello line I've ever heard on a doom record. Complete with plodding tabla and evocative quiet vocals with arabic tinged melody intertwined. A haunting closer complete with crafty folkish guitar shimmering over the trancelike rhythm.

Overall, the record speaks to a grooving ancient-sounding monolithic psycho-spiritual gloomfest. A triumph of Om's somber but monolithic intent to inflect atmosphere into their playing. A genuine return to form for the band, this album is a prime example of the power of orchestral instruments to inflect the most devious of sounds into the most prudently bellowing and electric music.

Check out Om 

((web l facebook ))

Album Review : Major Kong - Doom for the Black Sun

An instrumental trio straight out of Poland birthed from the remnants of Fifty Foot Woman, Major Kong struck back sans-vocalist and took off with an EP entitled "Orogenesis.:" They then followed up with a full length in March entitled "Doom for the Black Sun." 

While the title parallels a certain famous band from the california desert's famous record, the album pours on a heaping load of delicious cannabuttery flavor all its own.

The band brings a big stirfry of the regular doom catalog. With dinosaur sized riffs and down right disgusting grooves,  Major Kong creates a unique amalgam of what one could only describe as Bongzilla doing steamroller hits with Earthless - and deciding to record the ensuing jam.

The album hits it off with sampled occult themed audio, than the bludgeoning begins.The opener "IDDQD" echoes ferocious Electric Wizard-isms before splashing into a wailing solo. This track than plows into a major section laden with envelope filtered drones that plow into more modal tinged riffage. The song trills with timbres one could liken to Rosetta or Tombs- thick, crushing, and atmospheric - yet still burning.

The next tune, "The Swamp Altar" traverses into a dominant blues territory, first engaging us with clean pickin' before launching thru distortion laden splendor. This track oozes Church Of Misery style mischief, bludgeoning the listener with another zesty solo and breaching into vicious southern style metal. The title in this case is undoubtedly telling- a listen to for any fan of obnoxiously loud swamp metal (think Down or Weedeater.)

Enter "Primordial Gas Clouds." Damn. before bursting into diminished/chromatic minor doomliness, the band lays down a thick semi swung drum groove. This one really brings to mind HoF's "The Art of Self Defense" riffwise before splitting into pentatonic tinged guitar wankery. Recommended for anyone who's into Matt Pike!

"Acid Transmission"- exactly as one would expect. A long wobbly, warbly, woofy bit. it once again starts with an eerie sample before spitting itself back into gear. The middle section has the same vibe as any Clutch solo (due to similar effects processing) and thus kind of brings to mind the aforementioned band's 2nd album. The tune eventually divulges into dissonant squelches, spitting you right back out ...

...to "Witches On My Land." Once again opening with a freaky battered woman's sample, this tune pours on the doom syrup with another dose of Sleep-tinged riffs. Slow and low - the track fits perfectly in with the rest of the tunes- only suffering from a repeated key and similarity to the prior songs. Thematically however, the tune is in line with everything else going on thus far.

The last track is seriously straight out of Bongzilla's riff vault. Wicked, steady, and straight ahead- "Demolition Whale" plods forward at the continued bewitched stoner pace. Interestingly the tune in 3/4 offers  a little time variation. When the tune eeks out with atmospheric flanged effects it's pretty clear what's going on here with this Polish power trio.

A band very well-versed on the fundamentals of stoner rock this should be an great listen for any Weedian. The only thing the album suffers from is length- the band gets a little bogged down from evoking prior riffs as the songs progress- however- that is not to say that the listening experience is unenjoyable. This band definitely has promising horizons and a clear understanding of who their audience is. I hope we get more nuggets of these guys in the future!

"Witches On My Land" and  "The Swamp Altar"previously appeared on "Orogenesis"

Major Kong is:

Dominic Stachyra- Bass

Pawel Zmarlak - Drums

Michal Skula- Guitars

((facebook l bandcamp l myspace l t-shirts ))