Occult Vibe Haven (OVH)
The lack of guitar is probably the first thing people will mention about Mama Doom. Fair enough. But after a while it isn’t really the interesting part of Eminent Womb anymore. Chuckie Rumbles’ bass carries enough weight to keep the songs firmly in doom territory, while D. Lolli’s keyboards give the album its stranger side […]
Paranoid Reverb’s Red River Black Roots is the kind of record that makes more sense with some volume behind it. The Thessaloniki band started in 2020, released their debut Billion Drops, and now return six years later with a darker and heavier second album, their first for Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records. The main ingredients […]
There is a point with heavy psych records where you know within the first few minutes whether you’re going to spend the next forty minutes actually listening or simply letting a bunch of fuzz, reverb and tasteful guitar noodling happen somewhere in the background. Pelegrin fortunately belong to the first category. The French trio have […]
FANE never really tried to flatten me with this record. Funny thing is, I expected exactly that. Louisiana sludge, two people, an album called Armageddon Scars… I figured it’d come straight out swinging. It doesn’t. The heavier parts are all there, but they don’t arrive in a rush. The record seems perfectly happy letting things […]
Some records ask for your full attention. This one just assumes you’ll give it. Seeing two tracks stretching past twenty minutes each made me hesitate for a second. Progressive rock has a habit of mistaking length for substance, and I’ve heard enough albums where twenty minutes could’ve easily been cut to ten. That never really […]
I went into End of Days without knowing much about Okay You Win, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. By the time “Smoke” had finished, I was already thinking, “Yeah, these guys know how to write a proper heavy rock song”. What kept bringing me back throughout the album was Dave Kirk’s voice. […]
Instrumental post-metal can lose me fast if the riffs aren’t carrying enough weight, or if the atmospheric parts feel like they’re just filling time. The Sky Was Colored as Hammered Lead never really had that problem. The whole thing runs like one long piece more than eight separate tracks. I didn’t even catch where one […]
Green Desert Water have been around long enough that they no longer need to prove they can write a good stoner rock record. The real question with Eerie Meadows is whether the Spanish trio can keep their sound fresh while staying rooted in the same heavy-rock traditions that shaped their earlier work. The answer is […]
The first few minutes just sort of drifted by, and I wasn’t sure where BANTORIAK were trying to take things. But somewhere along the way I stopped waiting for a big moment to happen and started enjoying the ride for what it was. This is one of those albums that works best when you let […]
Yawning Man have always sat in that strange corner between desert rock, psychedelic jam music and instrumental post-rock, but they’ve never really sounded locked into any of it. Pavement Ends keeps that same loose foundation, only this time it feels heavier and darker than usual. Not in a metallic way. The guitars still drift, the […]