stoner rock

State of Mind is an album released by Canadian stoner rock band Black Sheep, at the end of June. Relatively concise, the record has little more than thirty-six minutes, and has seven tracks: 1) Is It You; 2) Time Is Mine; 3) Under The Crimson Tide; 4) On The Highway; 5) Until The Shadow Come Again; 6) I'll Find You; 7) Wasted Love; with furious and expansive, but gracious musical hyperboles, and a striking resonant sound, whose profoundly dense, dynamic and diluted tonalities gradually penetrates into increasingly pragmatic, diffusive and cohesive layers of sound, the style displayed by Black Sheep on this album is a glorious and distinctive conjuncture of creative, restless and magnificent authorial compositions, that destilates with mordacity and uneasiness a singular and highly expressive work, with potential to effectively establish superior standards to the genre. 

With a cohesive and extensive musical unity, State of Mind is as gracefully concise as it is powerfully remarkable. Capturing an atmosphere of dispersive, but concomitantly explosive sonorous diligence, the band astutely conceives a style so bright, refined and elegant that — despite the fact that departs from the general commonplaces of the genre — they manage to fully develop their creative sensibilities to overcome structural limitations, sucessfully sculpting splendid harmonies in flexible, expansive, colorful and vivid tonalities.  

With an audacious and passionate sensitive disposition, that realigns the sound's most abrasive and organic elements into a more dissolute musical diagram, State of Mind manages to display highly heterogeneous melodies, while at the same time the signature style of the band can be perceived as distinctly recognizable and familiar. Exhibiting a fantastic set of qualities that undoubtedly qualifies Black Sheep as expressively singular, State of Mind reveals a band that unquestionably stands out as an amazingly peculiar act within the genre, displaying easily a degree of lucidity, sensibility and technical competence, that perfectly converges to a horizon of gracefully impeccable, original and innovative standards.   

Masterfully abrasive, dynamic and powerfully genuine, State of Mind is a highly vigorous, disruptive and delightful album, that came to introduce more proverbial and genuine elements to the genre. With a degree of sensibility that knows how to extract precisely the most gracious, unpredictable and tenacious components within a musical framework — with the aim to conceive a tempestuous palace of desolation made of hazardous symphonies, strong enough to survive a succession of collisions with the most brutal features of the human nature —, Black Sheep rises as a monumental axis of horizontal creativity and splendor, willing to show to audiences a more redemptive, consistent and veracious way to make music. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Covern Of The Snake is an album released on July 12, by Australian stoner rock band Arrowhead. Almost forty minutes long, the record has eight tracks: 1) Coven Of The Snake; 2) All Seeing Eye; 3) Ceremony Of The Skull; 4) Ghost Ship; 5) Root Of Evil; 6) Dopanaught; 7) March Of The Reptiles; 8) Golden Thunderhawk; with powerful and deeply energetic harmonies, this album displays abundantly the best qualities of the genre. With tempestuous and abrasive guitar lines, amazingly crafted melodies, playfully arid, but sober vocals and an exceedingly brutal, though lucid and perfectly distinct musical style, Arrowhead definitely gives a new, imponderable and more genuine vitality to stoner rock with this splendid work, whose strength can inspire underground acts to incorporate more authentic and original virtues into its artistic aspirations. 

Despite the fact that the band departs from the general and ordinary features of the genre, they are creative and audacious enough to reinvigorate with a very authorial sonorous disposition all the common standards of stoner rock. With a gracefully restrained — but at the same time vigorous and robust musical technique —, the band goes a long way in meticulously exploring fearless sound possibilities, though they are competent enough to design a very singular style, never misrepresenting the genre or disfiguring its harmonious layout.

With a ferocious and disturbing, but exceedingly pleasant and marvelous sound that definitely has all the necessary qualities to please stoner enthusiasts, Coven Of The Snake reveals a wonderful surprise to the audience in one track after another, displaying a sagacious degree of musical proficiency, that unquestionably makes Arrowhead the fundamental axis for a more original and innovative development of the genre. With the glorious ability to conceive highly intelligent, dynamic and vivacious atmospheres, the musical style shown by this work exhibits a profoundly skilled, mature and sensational degree of artistry, that not only deserves to be fully appreciated, but also has to be assimilated with a pattern of sensibilities that is correctly aligned with its ever expansive diagram of creative splendor. 

With a fantastic and spectacular sound, that offers to the audience the marvelous opportunity to be fully delighted with a high quality stoner rock, this sensational  album is an exceptional and majestic work of art, whose formidable level of creative originality and sound fidelity will make the band exponents of the scene, at least in their home country. An impeccable record that has what it takes to propose a serious and constructive revolution in the genre — for the sake of its refinement —,  Coven Of The Snake is not just a triumph of Arrowhead, but of all those people who are tremendously passionate about this wild and amazing genre, that is stoner rock.



Wagner

psychedelic / stoner rock

Let me ask you a question. Are you a fan of Hawkwind? or bands playing spaced out fuzz from a galactic stage in the middle of the cosmic hyperverse? Or maybe spacey stoner rock that sounds like it's been dug up from the middle of the Nevada Desert and eaten way too much peyote? If you answered yes to any of those questions then gather round friends as I have a new album to introduce you to in the form of Trondheim natives Dune Sea and their self titled album. 

The first place you think of when you mention fuzzy space rock or desert/stoner rock may not be Norway but these guys are looking to change that. They are well schooled in the art of the heavily distorted groovy bass heavy sound we know and love. They have tried to sprinkle a bit of originality in there in the form of some bluesier sounds but make no mistake, this album is balls to the wall space/stoner rock worship.

Opener Pentobarbitol And Ethanol (yeah that one just rolls off the tongue doesn't it!) shows you just what to expect from the album. It's bass driven spaced out bliss and does not disappoint. The whole album continues on exactly as you would expect, indeed if there is one criticism one can point at this is that it's not very original, but then again, why try when imitation is the best form of flattery. The track Morphine does hint at more rockier inclinations but it is a mear toe-dip in the grand scheme of things and it does open out into a wonderful progressive section towards the end which I would have liked to see expanded upon. The song Green has a great blues tinged riff and is dripping with reverb drenched spacey goodness, the rhythm section is particularly impressive as it bounces and grooves along and is a personal highlight from the album. 

So then, fans of space rock or stoner rock will find much to like here and is well worth your time, however, if you are not keen on either of these styles then move along as this album will do nothing to change your mind. 

​Simon

stoner rock

Heliosphere is an album released on July 7, by Dutch stoner rock band Mantra Machine. A very interesting and exceedingly cohesive work, the record features marvelous guitar lines, interlaced with wonderfully introspective harmonies, that definitely establishes a punctual and dense alignment between rhythm and melody. With a restrained and salutary sensibility, that easily overcomes the boundaries of its intuitive, but restless creativity, Heliosphere impresses from the very beginning. Despite the relatively simple and ordinary musical structure — that one could mistakenly assume as a derisive limitation —, Mantra Machine works from the basic components of stoner rock, expanding them in a very discreet, but expressive atmosphere. 

Forty-three minutes long, the record has four very extensive tracks: 1)Hydrogen; 2)Atmos; 3)Delta-v; 4)Heliosphere; with a signature sound that definitely elevates their musical aspirations to a moderate, but also colorful harmonious background, the style of Mantra Machine is ostensibly serene and captivating, although displays with a sober degree of sophistication a graceful and elegant dynamism, that showcases an astute and original creative restlessness, whose fluidity is converted to a pure, almost delusional sensitive experience.

Despite some minor restrictions — as the sound can be perceived as generic at times — the overall style displayed by Mantra Machine on this album is gracefully cohesive, masterfully attractive and diffusively melancholic, for the most part. With a sensational musical disposition that inadvertently challenges the genre, while at the same time vehemently respects its stylistic boundaries, Heliosphere can be considered a refined, genuine and superbly tenacious work of art, which is astoundingly marvelous all the way through. With a highly effective and creative synergy, that circulates over the axis of its own sonorous strength, the vigorous energy, exhibited by the group on this fabulous record with such an imponderable vitality, is a marvelously virtuous accomplishment, that not only showcases their formidable potential, but also highlights them as an inevitable rising act, in the worldwide contemporary scene of the genre. 

With a vigorous creative lucidity, and a masterful musical tenacity — whose sound expands from the interior realm of its introspective passionate ternderness —, Heliosphere reveals itself a gracefully complete and astounding record, that will make all enthusiats of the genre celebrate widely the immensely beautiful, simple, poetic, somber and delightful musical experience propitiated by this wonderful work of art. 



Wagner

noise / dark ambient / experimental

bandcamp

electronic

dSound In Silence

progressive / metal / black metal

heavy metal / thrash metal

downtempo / electronic / post rock / shoegaze

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psychedelic / doom

sludge / black metal

ambient / modern classical / experimental

bandcamp

drone / doom / noise / experimental

ambient / electronic

noise rock

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock

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​Serge

hard rock / stoner rock

Valley of Shadows is an album released in 17 May, by American psychedelic stoner/ sludge metal band Duel, from Austin, Texas. With a furious, though vivaciously dynamic, dense and voracious sound, that encapsulates energetic and straight to the point guitar lines that revolves around their acid diagram of lancinating full throttle melodies, Duel showcases on this album a graciously aggrandizing tale of old school sonorous metabolism – truly committed to its wild and savage origins – that heavily dictates the powerful coordinates of a magnet of rhythmic legendary harmonies that burst into flames in a sonic speed, for the glory of rock’n’roll and the total amazement of the audience.      

A relatively concise album, Valley of Shadows is thirty seven minutes long, and has eight tracks: 1) Black Magic Summer; 2) Red Moon Forming; 3) Drifting Alone; 4) Strike and Disappear; 5) Broken Mirror; 6) Tyrant on the Throne; 7) I Feel No Pain; 8) The Bleeding Heart; exceedingly marvelous all the way through, the album is a genuine demonstration of creative musical vivacity, that recognizes no boundaries to the landscape of its restless, audacious and sensitive musical horizon. With the gracious atmosphere of a hazardous and scalding desert that is about to melt everything on its way, the furious, but uplifting sound of Duel definitely lives on the groundbreaking edge proposed by the mordacity of its pungent style.    

With a heavy sound whose tempestuous, but groovy melodies puts the band in a very particular category of hard rock, the expansive and vibrant elements that are abundant in the periphery as well as in the main nucleus of the band’s creative diagram conceives a very balanced sound, that is never predictable or monotonous. The synergy displayed by the ostensibly solid virtues that are highlighted in their complex sound arrangements exposes a very dense and methodic musical alignment, that dilapidates in a concentrated panorama of extraordinary artistic grace a sensational conjuncture of qualities, that are rarely combined in such a vivacious manner.

An almost impeccable album, that displays a genuine style conceived in very exceptional and singular musical perspectives, Valley of Shadows reveals itself to be a very elegant and original work, with no artistic nor technical deficiencies whatsoever. A greatly conceived and executed work, Duel deserves to be seen as a fundamental group in the psychedelic hard rock underground scene, as they are ready to take, to shake and to reinvent the genre, with the aim to create something extraordinarily exciting and authentic, as only a few other bands have the abilities to do so, with the same amount of competence and professionalism. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Sonic Sloth is the eponymous debut album of a German stoner rock band, released on 18 May. With a hazardous, but intelligent and dynamic sound, the group proves that they came to aggregate more dilated virtues and to rearrange in a new, more distinct set of qualities the eviscerating and lugubrious musical patterns of the genre. With a consistent sound – that plays with the expansive layout of its own allegoric harmonious vicinities –, Sonic Sloth showcases a meticulous and methodic style, that definitely improves with an efficient degree of perception the profoundness of its effervescent and cohesive intensity.      

A little more than fifty minutes long, the album has five very extensive tracks: 1) Elders Of Azah; 2) Power 9; 3) Blaine The Pain; 4) D.A.S.; 5) Sonic Sloth; with a diligent and marvelously dilapidated sonorous atmosphere that showcases the arduous instrumental possibilities fearlessly explored by the band, the group’s style seems to dilute its consistent and energetic horizon of harmonies in the sensible vortex of its own volatile magnificence, revolving around the darkest contingence of its own abrasive and pervasive calmness.   

Like most bands of the genre, one of Sonic Sloths’ biggest triumphs are the viciously dense, penetrable, cohesive and sometimes perfunctory guitar lines, that conceives an arduous sound that definitely resonates throughout the limitless virtues of its profoundly introspective and dispersive artistic nature. With a sound that seems to be describing an entirely new and different colorful universe of personal diligence, the style of Sonic Sloth is a marvelous and brave exposition of creative authenticity and inherent audacity, greatly conceived as the apex of a genuine sensibility, that really knows how to correctly pursue and achieve its fundamental artistic goals.      

With an extraordinary grace that unveils the marvelous and dissonant nature of their music, Sonic Sloth enters the underground scene in great style. Displaying a formidable level of sensibility – easily perceptible by the discreetly delicate and accessible diagram by which their music is conceived –, that irradiates in each molecule of its creative components a salutary and proficient tribute to serenity itself, the sound of Sonic Sloth gradually, but efficiently consolidates the most abrasive, hostile and stagnant, yet profoundly peaceful in its spiritual essence, elements of the genre as its new fundamental virtues, converting a generally brutal and acid style into something more tranquil, despondent and introspective, without ever distorting the genre, not even for a second. 


Wagner

stoner rock 

Greatestits is an album released on May 19, by Israeli stoner rock band The Great Machine. A visceral album with formidably acid melodies, and crudely abrasive, dense and intense guitar lines, this is a sensibly lucid and technically sober work, that definitely delivers at its finest moments the best elements the genre has to offer, all of them perfectly dilapidated with an infuriating creativity, that definitely attends the highest expectations of the genre’s audience. With a savage sound – that grows more and more brutal as the album evolves, and seems eager to explode everything ahead of its lancinating ferocious and mordacious hostility – Greatestits reveals itself an exponentially prestigious work of art, that can be exceedingly aggressive and direct as well as concomitantly refined and elegant.      

Relatively concise, the album is little less than thirty-nine minutes long, and has six tracks: 1) Chris; 2) Bitch Too; 3) The Capricorn's Silent Walk Through Pagan Fire And The Sea Of Blood; 4) Keith; 5) Hollow; 6) DM II; with a marvelous sonorous dissonance that revolves around the most formidable aspects of the genre, The Great Machine – on its slowest songs – showcases exasperating musical tonalities, whose harmonies reverberates around the discreet peripheries of its own diffusive and overwhelming shadows. Now, despite the fact that they can be relatively conventional at times, their sound never disappoints, as their rhythmic ferocity seems always to be escalating towards an endless creative voracity, that will totally dismantle the organic flexibility of its own sensitive virtues. 

With the relentless nature of their compositions, even their calmer songs seems to be impregnated with a sense of fatality, though there is a serene and gentle side discreetly placed into their music, that softly displays the most introspective abilities of their art. With a lucid, though sometimes lugubrious atmosphere that highlights the greatest possibilities that the trio’s musical diagram has to offer, The Great Machine certainly has conceived this work as a glorious and ardent triumph of the genre. 

With a sound that can be melancholic and lethargic in one moment, and marvelously aggressive and furious on another, The Great Machine reveals itself to be a formidably versatile, genuine, inventive and demanding band, that definitely pushes hardly the volatile boundaries of their expansive creative energies, to offer to their audience the best songs they could conceive, playing them with an astounding level of sonorous exasperation, whose efficient qualities definitely proves why they can be considered majestic exponents in their genre of choice.   


Wagner

stoner rock / progressive / experimental

bandcamp

Different Layers of Fear is an album released on May 10, by Romanian stoner/psychedelic rock band Methadone Skies. A very interesting and abrasive album, the level of powerful energy, consistency and creative strength demonstrated by this work is simply above all the extraordinary measurements one can imagine, much more by their creative audacity than the beauty of the music itself. With elegant and symmetric, though mostly diluted harmonies, the style of the group gravitates towards a vast and dense cosmogony of dynamic, but synchronic musical tonalities, where a modest degree of experimentalism and graciousness showcases a proverbial and dispersive sense of lugubrious tenacity. 

Seventy-one minutes long, Different Layers of Fear has seven very extensive tracks:
1) Where Were You When We Were Into the Void?; 2) God Help Us All; 3) Focus; 4) Contra; 5) Ol' Painless; 6) A Glitch in the Sun; 7) Manos; though the album eventually resents itself of some degree of monotony – given the length of some songs –, this beautiful work has a formidable set of qualities, intrinsic to its exceedingly peculiar, delightful and audacious musical style. With expansive melodies and a dynamic density that lives by the color of its graciously designed and sculpted sonorous atmosphere, the general creative diagram displayed by the songs revolves around a rhythmic synergy between creativity and technique, that proves to be a major point of cohesion in the axis of the group’s restless, but competent style.  

With a gracefully vivacious sound that departs from the horizon of its sometimes slow, but consistent patterns, this album is a collection of lovable dream-like symphonies, that definitely creates a peculiar, but methodic universe of harmonies within its diluted introspective existence. As the album evolves, the sound becomes more serene, perceptive and transparent, showcasing a stylish lucidity whose clear visibility exposes a strong and visceral degree of musical authenticity, whose standards definitely highlights the most formidable virtues – stability, cohesion, serenity – displayed by the band. 

With vocals eventually surfacing a little after forty-minutes, this additional surprise comes as a pleasant quality that aggregates a gracious element of sensibility and grandiosity within the band’s musical atmosphere. All along the way, Different Layers of Fear proves itself to be a majorly epic, genuine and ambitious album, whose ostensible levels of excellence, experimentalism and originality certainly will please all enthusiasts of the genre, possessing all the necessary qualities to shake and to take the underground scene by storm, with a natural and inherent artistic authority.  


Wagner

stoner rock

bandcamp

High Road Trippin' is an album released on May 3, by French stoner rock group The Psychedelic Kings. A very concise work – only half an hour long –, the record has six tracks: 1) Soul Elevator; 2) High Speed Mama; 3) Vintage Motel; 4) Pacific Winds; 5) Cream Buick Ride; 6) Trippin' Ball; while the band departs from more conventional musical standards, here you find an incredible abundance of qualities, such as dynamism, contingence, creativity and authenticity, firmly inserted into the sound, as well as ardent amounts of endless genuine energy. Despite the fact that you can’t expect too much from this album in what concerns innovative qualities, The Psychedelic Kings display a formidable and ostensibly lucid degree of competence and stylish fidelity, while delivering exceedingly great traditional old school stoner rock, throughout the whole album.  

With an intense synergy that disrupts, but also complements the sensibilities of its own vivid and sonorous graciousness, High Road Trippin' navigates into dispersive and delusional waves of greatness, creating atmospheres of prominently sensorial distinctions of rapture, that positively eludes the listener with the colorful density of its artistic pragmatism, though with a honest, efficient and consistent degree of satisfaction. With methodic, but vivaciously creative and flexible guitar lines – that travels highly in the vicinities of a psychedelic horizon of gracefulness –, the music of The Psychedelic Kings definitely aggregates more sensible and cohesive principles into the genre as a whole, while the captivating elegance of their sound remains probably as their greatest quality. 

With revolving virtues that are dynamically combined to produce a certain sonorous effect, The Psychedelic Kings reveals themselves to be methodic artists that really know how to create simple, but timeless and impactful music, with enough abrasiveness to shake the entire underground scene, even with a record as concise as this one.     

With a restrained and discreet sonorous ambivalence that definitely knows how to implement in the crest of its melodies the greatest virtues of a truly poetic and organic creative vivacity, The Psychedelic Kings unveils on High Road Trippin' the very best they have to offer to their audience: pure, simple, direct, honest and straight to the point stoner rock, as only a few other bands out there are able to give with such a genuine, sincere, graceful and impeccable level of dedication and strength. 


Wagner