Occult Vibe Haven (OVH)
COSMIC REAPER sounds like they finally stopped asking whether something works and just let it exist. Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned doesn’t try to guide you, doesn’t frame itself, doesn’t bother explaining why it’s slow or heavy or uncomfortable. It just sits there, looming. The stoner rock looseness from earlier days feels burned off; […]
Another year in music has come and gone, and I’ve spent the past twelve months spinning, digging, and obsessing over records that really stuck with me. 2025 brought a mix of heavy hitters, hidden gems, and a few surprise twists I didn’t see coming. Here’s my personal top twenty albums of the year – the […]
Well, II Bleak feels less like an album and more like a place you’re not supposed to stay in for long. Vast Pyre don’t dress this thing up or frame it as some grand doom journey – it just sits there, cold and heavy, grinding away at its own pace. The band clearly aren’t interested […]
There’s a certain satisfaction in watching a band strip away the frills and hit you square in the chest with nothing but raw muscle and intent. That’s what Washington’s Borracho have done on their sixth studio album, Ouroboros. Gone are the sprawling psychedelic detours of the last couple of records – this is a power […]
I’ve been trying to describe what this album feels like, not what it “is,” because what it “is” depends on the day. First spin, I thought it was their most straightforward thing yet. Second spin, nope, it’s actually looser than the debut. Third spin, I stopped trying to categorize it at all. Maybe that’s the […]
Few instrumental bands carry a sense of quiet insistence like Basaltic Plateau. Their debut LP, Dead Dinosaurs Echoes, doesn’t announce itself loudly. Instead, it unfolds slowly, unevenly, with the weight of something long-shaped beneath the surface. The trio’s history is tangled. Marco and Maurizio had played together years ago in Le Mal Noir, a university […]
Turin isn’t the first city you associate with shadowy, slow-burning heavy rock, but Dune Aurora have been sharpening their sound there for a while. Ginny, Roberta, and Serena first surfaced with a few singles and the 2022 Lonely Town EP, and even then it was clear they weren’t following anyone’s playbook. Their music felt like […]
You can almost smell the dust in this one! Emulations sounds like the kind of record that shouldn’t even exist anymore – recorded loud enough to leave dents in the room, but played with the patience of people who’ve been through the long haul of noise and come back wanting only the essentials. No tricks, […]
I don’t know what’s in the water down there, but GOATFATHER sounds like they’ve been breathing exhaust fumes for breakfast again. Their third album, House of the Rising Smoke, comes out this October and, to be honest, it’s probably their most “them” record yet. If you’ve heard Monster Truck you’ll get the idea, but this […]
The Origin & Identity: How did you all come together as a band, and when did it feel real? – We used to be in other bands together in the past. It felt real when we opened for the Heavy Metal band Raven. Note: Metallica opened for Raven in 1983, that’s as close as we […]