Tag: heavy rock

  • Forming the Void – Rift

    Forming the Void – Rift

    Lafayette, Louisiana might only be 150 miles from New Orleans, but native sons Forming the Void are much further removed from the NOLA sludge metal of Eyehategod or Crowbar. Their 2017 record Relic reminded me of a cross between Torche and Sleep, with a side of early Mastodon, and landed on my year-end top 10…

  • Black Elephant – Cosmic Blues

    Black Elephant – Cosmic Blues

    Album number three from Black Elephant landed in late July on Small Stone Records. Their heavy, fuzzy psychedelic rock is certainly right at home on one of the leading purveyors of stoner rock, as this Italian outfit walk the line between desert rock and vintage psych jams for 34 minutes. “Cosmic Soul” kicks things off with a mellow…

  • Fu Manchu – Clone of the Universe

    Fu Manchu – Clone of the Universe

    In an ever-changing universe, one thing that is pleasingly consistent is a new Fu Manchu album; it is as though this album was always with us, like some 70s stoner artifact. Fuzzy riff and grooves abound, and tracks like “Slower Than Light,” “Don’t Panic,” and the title track will please long-term Fu-fans. Interestingly though, the final…

  • Alms – Act One

    Alms – Act One

    I caught this Baltimore-based band last year at Days of Darkness, where they opened the first day of the festival—a few of their female-fronted doom tunes reminded me of early Blood Ceremony. And yet, while keyboardist Jess Kamen’s vocals feature prominently on nearly all of the six songs on Act One, they are not strictly…

  • Troll – self-titled

    Troll – self-titled

    Now, “The Troll” is not my favourite Saint Vitus song. Not even on Mournful Cries. (“Dragon Time” FTW!) But when you’ve got a trad doom band from Portland ostensibly named after a Vitus track, I’m pretty much guaranteed to give it a listen. This album was actually self-released on cassette in 2016, before Shadow Kingdom…

  • The Raz – The Raz

    The Raz – The Raz

    Good music is always timeless music and such is the case with the music made by the splendidly named The Raz. Their self-titled debut could have been recorded at any time in the last fifty years (which I mean as the highest compliment). Their musicianship is very strong and the band gel together well, giving them…

  • Greystone Canyon – While The Wheels Still Turn

    Greystone Canyon – While The Wheels Still Turn

    Australia has a great track record for producing classic rock acts like Rose Tattoo and AC/DC, so it is no surprise that Greystone Canyon, hailing from Australia, have those bands in their musical DNA. The very name Greystone Canyon sums up images of cowboys on a vast empty landscape. It’s a very cool name for…

  • Andrew WK – You’re Not Alone 2LP

    Andrew WK – You’re Not Alone 2LP

    An epiphany: since first appearing on the pop music radar in 2001 with the release of his debut album, I Get Wet, Andrew Wilkes-Krier has chased the idea and image of a perfect party as well as producing a genuinely kinetic soundtrack for such an event with little thematic deviation (obvious exception being the piano-focused,…

  • Grave Lines – Fed Into The Nihilist Engine

    Grave Lines – Fed Into The Nihilist Engine

    Like Mogwai meeting Black Sabbath, this is music that mines dark inner depths. The music is given a chance to breathe, to surge and fall, like a painting composed of monochrome darkness. I felt ‘the Nihilist Engine’ the album refers to could be the modern world we live in, a world that crushes hope if…

  • Mos Generator – Shadowlands

    Mos Generator – Shadowlands

    Shadowlands, the sixth album by Washington fuzz rockers Mos Generator is officially released on May 18, the same day that they play Toronto for the first time. So hey, CD release party at Baby G’s? This Listenable Records recording follows by a couple years its predecessor, 2016’s Abyssinia, a pretty solid heavy-rocking release in its…