stoner rock / alternative rock / grunge

Hell yeah, rock 'n fucking roll, causing desert level reaching temperatures and making me regret that I don't have a car. This is road music pur sang, perfectly suited for a cross country trip. Well, in most countries it is. In Belgium I wouldn't recommend going on a cross country trip by car. Our traffic is awful. Our highways look exactly the same as our parking spots, filled with stationary cars and fighting families. 

Wait, sorry, I'm digressing again. 

Her Name Was Fire is a Portuguese duo, formed in 2015 or 2016 after a heated conversation about rock music.  Shortly after, they found themselves in some kind of room, rocking their asses off to their own groovy mix of of stoner rock and grunge. They liked what they heard and decided to record an album. That thing is now available for your enjoyment and here are a few reasons why you check it out.

One. It rocks. That first song, 'Little Pain' is a smasher and it's far from the only one on this album. It's an uptempo rocker, delivered straight from the nineties. It brings all the goodness of Queens Of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters and Nirvana. The whole album is loaded with these groovy and fuzzy tunes, irresistible to stoner rockers and grunge adepts alike. Even when the tempo goes down, the songs never lose their immersive character. 

Two. This album contains some of the best vocal performances I have ever heard in this scene. Both musicians sing, quite often together, which enhances the joyous and powerful atmosphere of the whole thing. Furthermore, Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box' must have been a big influence, coincidentally one of the grunge songs with the best vocals lines. The song 'Way To Control' even manages to come up with poppy and punky vocals and they work bloody damn well.

Three. It rocks. It rocks so damn well that I have decided to turn it into a reason twice. My absolute favorite here is 'Summer Strummer', another irresistible uptempo blaster. There's a touch of noise rock in that one too, which obviously is another huge plus. Oh well, maybe I'm just being nostalgic for those awesome and exhilarating nineties. Then again, some huge band forgot to record this album back then and Her Name Was Fire turned it in a potential future classic now.


​Serge

psychedelic / stoner rock / space rock

RLC is an album by Brazilian stoner rock trio Saturndust, released on April 17. Almost one hour long, the record has six tracks: Negative-Parallel Dimensional, Astral Dominion, RLC, Titan, Time Lapse Of Existence and Saturn 12.c. With doom and psychedelic elements masterly aggregated into the laziness of the sound, their music combines the flexible confluence of stoner, with the more lurid, slanting and diluted elements of cosmic rock. With dilated rhythms, and a very elusive soundscape that outlines with fervor exceedingly organic melodies over a solid compass of plenitude and homogeneous synchronicity, the music of Saturndust encompasses a great interlude of despondent harmonies, creating in their magnanimously effervescing cauldron of reticent pretentious ebullitions a slow, but efficient and formidably patient space opera, fully comprehensive of the epistemological components displayed in the genre.    

The harmonies are built calmly, vaguely and deeply, and in the slowness of their imponderably lucid digressions, intricate harmonies are reproduced at the height of a magnanimous retribution of serene legitimacy, that leads the listener throughout an omnipotent maze of vivacious ardor and sonorous splendor.

Probably one of the best works that I have heard in the genre, RLC ostensibly dilapidates with captivating sensibility the best elements of the genre, truly developing a very unique style of sound, capable of reshaping in the vicinities of its melodies an acceptance of continuity somewhat plausible, given the expansive nature of their music, inherently traced to a cosmic frame of infinity, generated by a diluted and incredibly shaped space rock, reiterated by a flexible, lose and vague artistry, understood as the main qualities of their creative principles.

Firmly engraved in the traditional components of stoner rock, but aggregating several elements of other genres – and first of all, mainly developing accurately the eccentricities of their own style –, Saturndust has done a very competent, skilled and ostensibly graceful work on RLC. Although their music is amazing, and can’t be categorized – at least, in my personal point of view – as particularly distressful, boring, tedious or monotonous, their work can be mostly and specifically directed to people who are unconditional enthusiasts of space opera rock. 


Undoubtedly an interesting work, RLC can be considered a milestone of the genre, as the technique displayed by the band reveals, in the final result, a very good album, that has everything to please a very extensive audience. 


Wagner

psychedelic / blues / stoner rock

Well, after two ambient albums, it was time for something different, something where the guitars, drums and rough vocals reign supreme. This one is something for the desert rockers among us, and I won't be surprised if I get to see this French duo perform these tunes on the upcoming edition of Desertfest. However, since we're not there yet, let's enjoy these six searing hot psychedelic blues rock songs.

The inspiration for these songs seem to come directly from the Mississippi Delta where blues legends like Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker rose to fame. Yes, the means blues, laced by the contemporary rock of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd or Creedence Clearwater Revival. Furthermore, Blackbird Hill throws in some psychedelic rock here and there, like in the awesome opener 'Trigger Law'.

My personal favorite on this album is a long ballad 'Stories From The Road'. I know, I'm a sucker for ballads, but believe me, it's a damn good one. The whole album is damn good, raising the temperature to desert levels and putting the listener in a deep, blissful trance. What else could you possible want? So yes, psychedelic stoner blues fans of all ages, you might have discovered a new favorite here...


​Serge 

stoner rock

Rooster is an album by American stoner rock group Brume, from San Francisco, California, released on April 20. Fifty one minutes long, the record has six tracks: Grit and Pearls, Harold, Reckon, Call the Serpent's Bluff, Welter and Tradewind. With the traditional approach to the genre, densely eroded by pervasively abrasive guitars that drive exceedingly slow rhythms to the normal persuasive axis of its expansive sonorous universe, Rooster is a reasonable album, with interesting melodies and intricate harmonies. Nonetheless, as usual for the genre, the draconian stylish virtues of the work are too excessively dragged all the way through, which makes the album overtly monotonous, after a while. Which, of course, is more of a characteristic of the genre itself, than a fault of the band, that only follows the traditional style of their genre of choice. 

Unfortunately, there is little Rooster can offer to more experienced enthusiasts of the genre, although the album has expressive merits. With poetic passages, some sober and marvelously exceptional guitar lines, and, above all the other elements, fascinating and perfectly aligned female vocals – certainly the most efficient and wonderfully creative flavor of Brume’s music – Rooster can be majorly described by its efficient set of qualities, despite the fact that Brume narrowly escapes the traditional ordinary features of the genre. 

I think enthusiasts of stoner rock will definitely be overjoyed by this album. In a more technical evaluation, Brume can be ostensibly described as a promising band, although they have potential to be more creative in some aspects. But the treatment displayed by them at the sonorous configuration of their own style shows, indeed, a very energized and confident band, with real musical proficiency, a major technical domain, and a formidable sense of intuitive creativity. They do manage to stay above the average score, as they have a superior sense of formal solicitude, concerning their competent, veracious and vehement artistic skills.

Although I can’t qualify Rooster as a masterpiece, in its own terms this work can be classified as a major album – especially in the vein of its technical abilities –, and I can’t deny the fact that this record shows a formidable degree of originality, and its own frame of artistic achievements. Evidently, Rooster is a very good stoner rock album, and certainly, has an enormous potential to find a respectable audience within the underground music scene.   


Wagner

psychedelic rock

Into the Long Night is an album by Danish garage/ psychedelic rock group The Sonic Dawn, released on April 21. A little more than thirty six minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Intro, Emily Lemon, On the Shore, As of Lately, Six Seven, Numbers Blue, Lights Left On, l'Espion and Summer Voyage. With intelligent, spontaneous and wisely dynamic psychedelic grooves, Into the Long Night is an interesting and refreshing album, that has on the verge of its effusively elongated style the best influences of seventies rock’n’roll. With impressionistic melodies, burnt at the despicable road of a red sun, the overall harmonies of the songs are quite surprising, and sustain in the precious context of its dimensional elements the greatest journey of a very idyllic nostalgia-driven acid rock album. 

With sensible and delicate melodies, Into the Long Night is an interesting and reasonable record, although unfortunately doesn’t offer a very original outlook into the strength of genre. Falling sometimes into a more generic and perfidious sonorous derailment, Into the Long Night has its moments of enthusiastic apex, though you can’t afford to be in high expectancy here. 

Into the Long Night, after all, manages to be a good album, but the group fails to give a more original and authentic sonorous impulse to their sound, despite the fact that their music has, indeed, a formidable amount of energy, and genuine vigor. But in what concerns the style, they seem too vaguely familiar with other acts of the genre. 

Nevertheless, I seriously think that Into the Long Night has potential to attract a loyal amount of enthusiasts. Despite the fact that the sound becomes too excessively uniform and ordinary as the album progresses, there is a genuine effort consciously displayed for the sake of refinement throughout the whole album, and their competent technique cannot be ignored either. After all, the record disappoints a little, but in the end, the work achieves a reasonable level of creative intensity, with some very good songs along the way, especially the second, and the last three – Emily Lemon, Lights Left On, l'Espion and Summer Voyage, respectively – that summarizes beautifully The Sonic Dawn’s poetic effort in their free-flowing style of psychedelic rock. 


Wagner


 

stoner rock

King Tide is an album by Australian stoner rock band Riff Fist, released on April 17. A little more than half an hour long, the record has only five songs: the eponymous King Tide, D.T.U.B., Chugg, Fist Bier (Noch Eins) and Beer and a Cigarette. A very interesting stoner rock album, severely unconventional, the irreverent nature and character of Riff Fist’s music remembers a little other groups of similar breed, like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More, although not exaggeratedly. Provided with a very distinct identity, Riff Fist’s musical outline is intriguing, despite some sonorous restrictions and limitations. Their music, in general, expresses a very secure musical intuition, and a cohesive certainty, that makes Riff Fist a band very easy to categorize, to appreciate and to listen.

Despite the fact that King Tide is not exactly an extraordinary or magnificent album, the general line of work is competent, and technically proficient. With comprehensive melodies, and a rude and crude style, very different in practice, but fun to listen, to understand and to explore, King Tide, in a very positive light, is a tempestuous and vociferating album, with a decent degree of audacity and originality courageously added to the outline of the musical frame.

Undoubtedly, there is a vast degree of talent into this band, and they surely know how to use it. Revolving harmonies and intelligent guitar lines certainly are the most distinct features of the work, that whimsically elaborates at the epicenter of these qualities decently good and stylish songs, exponentially true to the musical identity developed by the band. 

With a gracious singularity, Riff Fist has elaborated King Tide as a charming and captivating album, that has underlined in the peripheral score of its abilities a somewhat impressive and torrid style, that consolidated in the vicinity of its brave and wild melodies a wise confluence of definitive perceptions, that upgraded the music into a more lancinating scale of authenticity.    


 
Wagner

psychedelic, stoner, blues, rock

One With The Universe is an album by German psychedelic blues/ stoner rock group Samsara Blues Experiment, released on April 10. With five tracks – Vipassana, Sad Guru Returns, Glorious Daze, One With The Universe and Eastern Sun & Western Moon –, this album has legitimate grooves, a very dynamic symbiosis of sound and an ostensibly singular energy, that highlights an intricate fluidity of capacities, that probably can be considered the best element in their music. 

With an interesting pace, in the slower passages the group follows a more traditional approach in what concerns the stoner rock musicality, despite fresh and interesting guitar lines. With an intriguing level of creativity, that inserts with a vibrating intensity the most overwhelming harmonious elements into their music, the longer songs – as usual, and this should be considered a wider problem that affects the entire genre, and not specifically the band – becomes resented of monotony and exasperation, although musically they do follow with an urgent and efficient technicality the sonorous standards of the genre. 

One With The Universe – mostly instrumental – is a provocative and lucid album, that plays intelligently with a pervasive scale of creative elements. With slower melodies densely relocated in corners severed by interchangeable heavy passages, ignited by a more lucid and voracious seventies rock’n’roll atmosphere, the record has axiomatic moments of intense and exhilarating rapture. Precise and incisive guitar lines also gives to the record a very mordacious tone, where infinitely expansive harmonies draw directly into the center of the universe of the music’s soul pragmatic scales of dreams, that easily becomes lost in the endless vicissitudes, captured by the sensibility of the band’s style. 

Nonetheless, I haven’t found the album to be perfect, despite its vast range of protuberating qualities. With some songs being exceedingly long, an inherent sense of monotony inevitably becomes predominant, and several passages unavoidably sound too extensively generic, repetitive and uniform to support. Technically, though, the album presents an interesting degree of competence and efficiency, that deserves to be appreciated.   

As far as my final evaluation goes, One With The Universe is not a marvelous album, but represents the genre of stoner rock with great sensibility, and displays a respectable degree of lucid, sober and genuine creativity. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Cepa is an album by Argentinian stoner rock group Runa Gaman, released on April 12. With only three songs – Golem, Solaris and Duna Creciente – Runa Gaman’s music can be primarily defined as the creative convergence of colorful tones and psychedelic grooves, combined in an irrefutable symbiotic chemistry, wisely disposed in a symmetric chain of irrevocable functional efficiency. With interesting guitar lines, and an harmonic presence that deserves to be captured attentively, their melodies are well crafted and brilliantly elaborated all the way through. With the ability to expand into a field of sonorous tonalities and vibrant shapes the elusive catharsis of a multitude of crescent realities, the music of Runa Gaman departs from original quotients of sound, exacerbated by multiple melodic affinities, that revolves around an ocean of harmonic possibilities, cautiously explored by the group, in the creative composition process. 

For enthusiasts of slow rock, Cepa will be considered a very different album. With a profound comprehension of a deeply reverberating sonorous expansion, cosmic guitar lines makes the listener travel into a universe of segmented, but continuous interludes, that engraves the abundance of a correlated sensibility, that overwhelms the expressive dimensions of the music. 

With the sensation that you are listening to one continuous song, Cepa is one from only a handful of albums in the genre that do not sound tedious nor monotonous. With interchangeable tonalities that constantly revolve around its own axis, the beauty of the songs constantly evokes its own hallucinatory metamorphosis, subtlety changing from one delusional soundscape to another.   

A transpiring, intelligent and marvelous album energized by a consistent pattern of musical principles, Cepa is a very lucid and cohesive work of art, that translates in the majesty of its ambitious proposal the authenticity of its own aspirations. With no faults whatsoever to be pointed out, despite the simplicity of the work – or maybe, because of it – Runa Gaman crafted Cepa as a precious and inspiring work of art, postulated by a formidable conjuncture of sensibility and intuition. 
 

 
Wagner

drone, doom, stoner rock

Across the River of Time is an album by drone/ doom/ stoner German duo Father Sky Mother Earth, released on April 2.  Thirty seven minutes long, the record has only two tracks:  The Return of Alhazred and the eponymous Across the River of Time. Primarily atmospheric in nature, with an intensely sinister layout of dense expectations, the sonorous style of Father Sky Mother Earth is thoroughly lenient, but distinctly voracious as well. As strange as it seems, despite little rhythmic variations and the general uniformity of the sound, monotony and exasperation are out of the equation here: their style is promising, enduring, solid and consistent, and the anguish provoked and emancipated by the afflictive expectancy generated by the agonizing behavior whimsically dilapidated by their sound is not only purposefully well designed, but majestically monumental as well.

The nature of their music is profoundly ambivalent, and unmistakably pragmatic. Not only enabling, but sustaining an irrevocable atmosphere that produces anguish and anxiety in the general syncope of its soundscape, the two tracks present on this album legitimately captures within the axis of its own interior universe an essentially hostile and dense definition of dying disillusion. The affinity expressed in the deeply fugacious ordeal of the music has an imponderable strength over the listener, and you feel magically bound to the intense and dubious atmospheric nature of the work.     

An interesting record – almost esoteric in the rapture contrivances of its anatomy – that sensibly replicates in the nature of its own purpose the exhilaration of a personal universe undefined by the characteristics of a singular crisis, Across the River of Time is an album with high probabilities to impress any audience. The intense power that emanates from its insidious, perfidious, densely vast, exponentially rude and ecstatic – but at the same time beautiful – melodies makes this record a highlight of the genre. The subtle intrusive behavior of the music deeply contrasts with its capacity to insert into the innermost molecules of the melodies a calm transient pattern of anxious expectation, that revolves around a corner that ostensibly ignores its correlation with an imaginary parallel universe of dilacerating nothingness.  

A dense, pervasive, somber and intricate album, Across the River of Time is a sinister, but overwhelming drone/ doom/ ambient record, that expands in the discreet side of its nature the nefarious audacity of its intentions. True to the sober and consistent vitality of the work, Father Sky Mother Earth certainly has created one of the most wonderful, tense, abrasive and fiercely despondent masterpieces ever conceived in the history of the genre. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Realms of the Metaphysical is an album by New Zealander stoner rock group Arc of Ascent, released on April 9. Almost forty seven minutes long, the record has six tracks: Set the Planets Free, Eye of Sages, Hexagram, In the Light, Benediction Moon and Temple Stone. A lot more fascinating than other albums of the genre – perhaps by virtue of the excellent and overwhelming vocals of Craig Williamson, since instrumental stoner generally can be very monotonous –, Realms of the Metaphysical is a very interesting, elevating and superior record. Abrasive guitar lines, conspicuous lancinating notes, a crude savagery and an overwhelming sense of security incorporates into the work a concept of completeness, that really inserts into the music elements of imponderable intricacy and demise. 

The melodies are, indeed, pervasively fascinating, wonderfully exploratory and well-designed. With a vigorous and genuine creative layout, Realms of the Metaphysical was conceived to be a more fluid and ostensibly vivid stoner album, with conspicuous guitar lines that dilates and dissipates ostentatiously sonorous underworlds of expansive delusion, and remarkably lucid monumental digressions.  

With an underlined sound that progressively becomes more sensitive and evaporated, the album has a consistent and projective sonorous nucleus, that interchangeably interacts with all the elements of its natural cohesion of primarily higher musical components. Way more inventive and creative than what is usually testified in the stoner rock genre, Arc of Ascent dilapidates several new frontiers to the wider principles that dictates the general pace of the music, and the final result couldn’t have been better. 

A gracious album, with a spirituous element of intense and meticulous ordination, Realms of the Metaphysical doesn’t disappoint. Full of qualities, and displaying a formidable degree of audacity, this record manages to be way more evolved, responsive and dynamic than other works of the genre. With a devotional and salutary dedication, the band managed to conceive a solid, intelligent and remarkable record, that deserves to be highlighted as a genuine pearl of stoner rock.   


Wagner

alternative rock / hard  rock / stoner rock

Beyond The Sun is an album by Canadian hard rock band Woodhawk, released on April 7. Almost forty minutes long, the record has nine tracks: Beyond The Sun, The High Priest, Living In The Sand, Magnetic North, Lawless, Quest For Clarity, A New Hope, Foresee The Future and Chrononaut. Woodhawk, essentially an alternative rock band with hard rock elements, has a style that resembles a little – but very little – almost forgotten post grunge related acts, like Tantric and Days of the New. But the best assertion for their sound – although I really don’t like comparisons – can be described as someone who has really taught Nickelback and Creed how to create and play music decently. Of course, with Deep Purple and Whitesnake elements added to it. 

But considerations apart, Woodhawk has a very personal and virtuous style. Fluid, free-flowing, wild and explosive, Beyond The Sun is a highly energetic album, with exceedingly dimensional and expansive guitars, wisely inserted into a vigorous dynamic of persuasive intelligence.  With fabulous melodies, and an intensely vibrating – although sometimes crude and rude – level of originality, the songs on this album have a strong personal identity, that abundantly escalates into the voracious fields of their harmonies a virtual solicitude, that captivatingly standardizes in the shapes of the rhythms a splendid vigor, that purposely defines in the labor of its own sonorous universe the voracity of its artistic intentions.   

Although Beyond The Sun is not exactly a marvelous album, it’s fantastically pretty revealing, in what concerns scope, style and technique. And it’s undeniable the fact that Woodhawk is several levels above the vast majority of other bands of the genre. 

An intelligent, vibrating and interesting album, Beyond The Sun, unfortunately, after a certain time, becomes too uniform and too monotonous, with the general melodies appearing to be too similar to one another. Nevertheless, the album indeed scores high in a general evaluation, and technically, they are astoundingly precise and effective as well.  The best songs in this album, in my opinion, are the first and the seventh, the eponymous Beyond The Sun and A New Hope, respectively.

A very interesting album, Beyond The Sun has potential to capture a loyal audience within the hard/ alternative rock music community. And to engrave the strength of their work on the scene, of course.  


Wagner

stoner rock

The Nacarat is an album by Canadian stoner rock group Monobrow, released on April 6. Almost forty minutes long, but with only five tracks – The First Vague Rumblings of Impending Revolution, Capes and Monocles, We Can Make it Look Like an Accident, Twin Sheiks and The Decline of the West and Other Small Tragedies – The Nacarat, in several aspects, is the typical stoner rock album. Nonetheless, the melodies are incredible more volatile, voluble and fascinating than usual. With an unpredictable versatility, the diluted corporeal melodies present in the songs immerse the listener into the expansive tunnel of a surprisingly flexible journey, that continues over the outstanding frontiers of incommensurable sensorial transitions, over the free-flowing cosmic rhythms that sagaciously refract the sound directly into one’s mind. 

With a very fluid body of sound, The Nacarat can be categorized as a dimensional travel, that very sensibly – but acutely, as well as wisely – uses the virtual propensities of sound to experiment in different densities the rhythmic dissonances that creates the vivacious conflagrations of its ostensive perpetual harmonies, that seems to replicate introspective layers of subjective intonations from the periscope of its own instinctively primal artistic objectives.

An interesting stoner rock album, with more nuances and versatility than usually seen in the genre, in any moment the listener is struck by monotony or boredom. Monobrow has managed to create a truly intriguing, colorful and fascinating instrumental album, full of perspectives and dissociations, that really has surpassed the most rigid and rigorous expectations normally associated with the genre. 

A lucid, precisely technical, meticulous and splendid work, The Nacarat is a record full of qualities, and probably one of the best in the genre that I have heard. With a formidable scale of sensorial elements, expressively combined to elaborate an exhilaratingly intense sonorous work of art, The Nacarat is a very surrealist – almost majestic – and astute musical monument, that has conceived in the interior structure of its precious projective scale an entire field of visionary possibilities, creating and experimenting audaciously the volatile and sublime nature of their own style, without fear of doing it wrong. And let’s be real, with such a vigorous and consistent level of talent and creativity, they couldn’t have done wrong, not even for a second.       


Wagner

stoner rock / sludge metal

Black Tundra is the debut album of the eponymous Polish stoner rock group, released in April 6. Thirty six minutes long, the record has six tracks: Before The Fall, Gates of Moss, Black Tundra, Blinded by the Northern Lights, Circling the Dead and No Dawn. A stoner rock work with some sludge metal elements, Black Tundra manages to be an interesting work. Mainly slow, as usual for the genre, their songs have an abundance of imperially effective elements, poignantly drained by the infallible and colossal framework of a sound consciously built at the apex of a genuine creative fury.

The third track, also titled Black Tundra, certainly can be considered the best song of the album. A furious, intense and profound tune, there is a fundamental vitality firmly encapsulated into the song’s essence, that ostensibly reveals a monumental strength, with qualities able to elevate to a higher path the harmonies tied to a sphere of perpetual omniscience, with the power to control all the ponderable serenities of the heart.  

With very good songs, Black Tundra achieves a reasonable level of artistry on their debut. Although there is a severe lack of new elements and creative audacity in the album, they’ve managed to stand above the average score, if compared to other acts of the genre. The songs are formidably well elaborated and executed, and reveal an intricate level of pristine sagacity. Unfortunately, some elements lost within their songs are too common ground, and in certain passages, small levels of monotony are an inevitable feature. Nonetheless, vibrating and wonderful guitar lines punctuates with brilliance and delicacy the most marvelous moments of the album.     

Although Black Tundra can’t be considered a fabulous masterpiece, the album manages to be good and satisfactory after all, despite a profusion of predictable elements intensely delineated within the songs. Nevertheless, here we testify the formidable potential of a band that has all the necessary elements to be major in the underground music scene, with a profusion of intelligent harmonies, an outstanding songwriting competence, and great capabilities concerning technical skills. Black Tundra rejuvenated some aspects of their genre of choice, and certainly inserts themselves into the underground music scene as a very gratifying promise, that has a perceptive amount of talent, with the power to create and release very interesting albums in the future.     

 
Wagner

stoner rock

Light Beyond the Sea of Smoke is an album by American stoner rock group Supersonic Dragon Wagon, released on April 8. With eight tracks – Snerfulnerpus, Strange Illusion, Bring you to my Hole, Endless Night, Slow Eyes, The Road King, Fall on Me and The Way Out – Light Beyond the Sea of Smoke is a typical, ostensibly ordinary stoner rock album. With heavy, pungent and incisive, but slow melodies, the music of Supersonic Dragon Wagon is meticulously crude and intense. With abrasive guitar lines, and a very outstanding work concerning the structure of the melodies, Light Beyond the Sea of Smoke is an interesting stoner rock album, although, being too deeply engraved in the traditional elements of the genre, suffers from a general lack of creative audacity.

With very, very slow, sometimes almost dragged melodies, and ostensibly lugubrious guitars, the overall musicality of this album is quite good, fundamentally cohesive and wisely punctuated by a profoundly sewed sonorous coherence. Nonetheless, given the generally slow, and mainly ecstatic and motionless expressive musicality of the genre, the album inevitably resents itself from an acute level of monotony, that makes the record quite tedious for the most part.

But, general appointments aside, in technical aspects, the album shows an expressive and reasonable level of competence, that inserts Supersonic Dragon Wagon alongside all the major favorable stoner rock contemporary acts of the underground scene. Unfortunately, with its overall musicality fulfilled by ordinary commonalities for the most part, there are little virtues on this work. I basically already had described all of them. 

Evidently, Light Beyond the Sea of Smoke is a skilled album, with some degree of restricted qualities, being relentless in the general premise of its purpose: to disperse very diffuse, slow and abrasive stoner rock music. Enthusiasts of the genre, and avid fans of motionless rock will be pleased and exceedingly satisfied with this album. Nevertheless, this work hasn’t met my personal criteria, standards and musical taste, but if this kind of music is your thing, go ahead. It will be almost forty minutes of your life.  

            
 
Wagner

stoner rock / hard rock

Supreme Machine is an album by Swedish hard rock/ heavy metal group Grand Delusion, released in March 31. Relatively concise, being only thirty nine minutes long, the album has six tracks: Just Revolution, Mangrove Blues, Trail of the Seven Scorpions, Imperator, Infinite and Ghost of the Widow McCain. Formidably enthusiastic, energetic, powerful, thunderous and tempestuous, Supreme Machine is a fantastic wild rock album. The first song already is enough to capture the listener by storm: Just Revolution is a wonderful song, with wild guitar lines, rebel harmonies and exceedingly vibrating melodies, that excels in the voracious rampant of youthful rebelliousness propelled by its rhythmic strike. I had to listen to this amazingly magnificent song three times in a sequence, because I simply couldn’t believe how marvelous it sounds. But as the album goes on, the fury, the spontaneous grace, the wild guitars and the rebelliousness continues, in a visceral and compelling thrill. 

All the way through, Supreme Machine reveals itself to be a very functional and interesting album. Honoring the wild rock tradition, Grand Delusion really knows how to create reverberating, color living, insurgent and vivid guitar lines, that engraves in the crest of the harmonies all the major eccentricities of their vibrating and monumental style.       

Although I haven’t found the album to be a masterpiece, they certainly have all the chances to achieve a more impeccable level of musicality, despite the fact that, in technical terms, they are already pretty close to perfect. Being, as a matter of fact, amazingly talented musicians with a major musical proposal, that really knows what they are doing, as a group, they are fairly conscious and secure not only about their style, but, more precisely, about their genre of choice as well, dominating with competence, expansive skills and masterful abilities each and every aspect of their vigorously elemental musicality, that enables them to create the awesome music that you can hear on this astounding record. 

With long passages, and more ethereal, diffuse and antagonistic harmonies as well, stoner rock elements are also abundant in Grand Delusion’s music, with splendid guitar solos genuinely elucidating the imperial contours of a very audacious music, filled with unexpected components and a pure sense of authenticity, that remains fresh throughout the adventurous sonorous journey that Supreme Machine has revealed itself to be!    


Wagner

stoner rock

Abominable is the debut album by American stoner rock duo Telekinetic Yeti, released on March 17. With eight tracks – Abominable, Electronaut, Stoned and Feathered, Colossus, Lightbearer, Apophis, Beneath the Black Sun and Himalayan Hymn – Abominable has formidable and eviscerating guitar lines, despite its slow and cohesively vague output. With rewarding, but at the same time captivatingly condescending harmonies, the album has the general stoner rock characteristics: mainly instrumental, with slow melodies, monotonous passages, seventies wild rock intonations and glances of psychedelic atmospheres, Abominable manages to be a really interesting album. With a solid identity, and a certain glimpse of audacity, this work is a redeeming revivalist of the true soul of wild and slow proverbial rock.

Although I can’t categorize this album as a masterpiece, Abominable has a great deal of qualities. True to the stoner rock intuition, and vehemently faithful to the loyalty of its sentimental soul – but carefully developing the axiomatic genesis of its own style –, Telekinetic Yeti has created a fascinating album, that has on the horizontal axis of the meticulous nature of their melodies the imponderable creativity that displays the fluidity of a gregarious expansion of vigorous rhythms throughout the sonorous universe of their formidable musicality. With relaxed, calm and serene – sometimes almost dragged – melodies, predominantly assuming the embryonic elements of their musical cosmogony, Abominable has revealed itself to be an astonishing work, spiritually sidelined by comprehensively eccentric harmonies and a sensorial taste for vagueness. Nevertheless, despite the complacent slowness of the rhythms, more than usually expected, the record is considerably interesting, and, unlike several other albums of this particular genre of music, the traces of monotony are scarce and inexistent for the most part.  

Don’t get me wrong: there is nothing on this album that you haven’t heard before in a hundred other albums of the genre, especially if you are a stoner rock veteran or enthusiast. But Abominable manages to have abundantly all the necessary elements to be considered a good album for the category, since each and every one of them are spectacularly worked in the highest standards possible. These are fairly competent, talented and skilled musicians. But sooner or later you reach the inevitable conclusion that, in the end, this is just another stoner rock album. 

Highly recommendable, although there is a virtual absence of surprising elements, the wrong components are almost absent either. Abominable manages to be a very outstanding, efficient, lucid, sober and vigorous stoner rock album. While there are literally no innovations, Telekinetic Yeti displays a certain degree of authenticity, with full credibility for not sounding generic or repetitive. The duo reveals itself to be a splendid musical act, capable of developing its own style, but maintaining the shapes and lines of stoner rock, without deforming or distorting the genre. 


Wagner

stoner rock

Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is an album by Italian stoner rock group Humulus, released on March 24. Almost forty four minutes long, the album has six tracks: Distant Deeps Or Skies, Catskull, Anachronaut, The Gold Rush, The Great Hunt and Rama Kushna. With slower harmonies, but an incredible pace, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is a fantastic and very lucid album, a splendid work of stoner rock. With lancinating, but simultaneously calm, lucid, sober and serene guitar lines, this record is simply captivating. With the characteristic hazy and sometimes apprehensive atmosphere that perfectly defines the genre and delineates the shape of the style, there is an interestingly predominant symmetry in the music of Humulus: the brutal, dense and expressively cohesive melodies offers a pronounced contrast to their logical, systematically balanced and  intense sonorous upheaval, formidably displayed at the conscience of their visceral musicality. 

Although their sound can be best described as typical stoner rock – more or less –, Humulus has a very persuasive and expressive style. Nonetheless, despite the overwhelming qualities displayed by the group in their magnificent and sensible musical conjuncture, the album Reverently Heading Into Nowhere, unfortunately, is not perfect. With an abundant stream of monotony, you can feel all the way throughout the record the lack of more vibrant, hostile and vivid passages, which could have granted to this work a more imponderable sense of lucidity, splendor and tactical beauty. Nonetheless, it’s obvious that they are following the usual musical assignments – as well as the main categorical elements – of their genre of choice, and the sonorous lethargy and uniformity that is constant in their musical framework can be considered more of an aspect of the genre itself, than a fault or a misconception from the band. 

But, observations aside, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere is a very inspiring, consistent and captivating album. With powerful, abrasive and corrosive guitar lines, that can be strangely and simultaneously soft as well, this is an album full of underlying qualities, that not only honors the genre in an unimaginable scale, but certainly will easily find its way towards the enthusiasts of the genre.    

With an impressive amount of qualities, a vigorous and precise artistic proposal, and a lucid sense of authorial creativity, Reverently Heading Into Nowhere, by Humulus, is a genuine stoner rock album. Despite minor imperfections, there are no general faults to be pointed out whatsoever. This album is strong enough to serve as a poignant reference for the genre. 



​Wagner

stoner rock / grunge / alternative rock

Hailing from Lausanne, Switzerland, stoner rock trio Hey Satan comes up with an interesting blend of rock styles, including stoner rock, alternative rock and grunge. The trio, consisting of former members of Shovel and Houston Swing Engine, stands for pure rock 'n roll pleasure, something that is almost always welcome here, even if there is no bass guitar involved. Yes, two guitars, drums and vocal cords are all Hey Satan need to turn a gig into a searing hot party.

Opener 'Fallon City Messiah' immediately drags this thing into the world of stoner rock as Kyuss is by far the first band that comes to mind. Their influence will be a constant throughout the album, but here and there they are being joined by other grandmasters. 'Legal Aspect Of Love' brings Nirvana to mind, and especially their 'Heart Shaped Box' song. Alice In Chains is another influence which is quite noticeable here, along with Led Zeppelin, be it somewhat heavier.

On 'sunshine Blues' the trio shows their knowledge of both blues and psychedelic rock. But then, a first - and only - point of criticism arrives. Those first three songs drive on a modest tempo and that doesn't seem to change on the rest of the album. Although there is plenty of energy to be found, I wouldn't mind a few uptempos songs. Those would add some variation to the entire thing. 'Song For A Lost Mariner' is a step into the right direction but that one too quickly adapts the same tempo as the others.

That being said, 'Bastardizer' is another firm step into that uptempo goodness, be it for a while. This is the stuff I was writing about in the previous paragraph, stuff that might appear more often on the next Hey Satan album. And in that aspect I have to mention the fierce, almost thrash metal/hardcore inspired 'Black Flags Down'. Perhaps that song should have been placed earlier on the album. It's a blast.

So I asked and Hey Satan delivered, that's a good thing. In all, this obviously is an excellent stoner rock album, loaded with thick riffs and hypnotic drums. Fans of the genre can easily trust this trio to bring the fuzz and get the party started. No doubt about that. I'm sure these songs will find thier way to my speakers more often, with 'Black Flags Down' probably becoming the most played song. Of course I will recommend it to all you stoner rockers. After all, you live for this kind of music...


​Serge

stoner rock

The White Flies is an album by the eponymous Brazilian stoner rock act, released in February 5. Thirty seven minutes long, the record has six tracks: Propeller, Chaser, 3am Samba, Liquify, Pipeline Echo and Daydream Tendency. A formidable album, one of the best that I have heard on the genre, I’m extremely proud to be able to acknowledge the fact that this magnificent band is from my country. With a proficient style, and a very methodic line of work, the instrumental sensibility of the musicians can be described as functional and efficient, and they have a genuine technicality that gives to their sound a very special component that is full of life, although its main elements are very gentle, soft and discreet. 

The sound is calm and slow, and these characteristics are a mainstay throughout the whole album, although they are expressively competent in more aggressive and abrasive musical passages. But the strongest element of their music is a powerful objectivity, that really digresses from a very methodic and carefully detailed sonorous elaboration, that extracts from exceedingly meticulous guitar lines the arbitrary power of an extremely surreal and intense musicality. In fact, The White Flies reveals itself to be a very splendid work, that has on the intricacy of a permanently detailed calmness the splendid ingredients for a profoundly developed singular style. 

Of course, you have to be an ardent enthusiast of this genre of music, to have an affinity with their sound, otherwise chances are high that you will become extremely bored. But if you like slow motion mosaic impressionistic tunes in superbly dense reverberating musical tonalities, The White Flies is an album that becomes almost a religious obligation to hear! A fantastic album indeed. And what can be pointed out as incredibly impressive on this record is the fact that, despite, the predominantly slow harmonies, you never feel yourself encircled by a singular trace of monotony whatsoever. The album is splendidly interesting, expressively wonderful, quite charming, delicate and full of marvelous melodies.   

Without a doubt, The White Flies is an amazing album. Certainly, a golden pearl for each and every enthusiast of stoner rock. It’s almost a crime not to listen the astoundingly singular conjunction of qualities that this formidable record proved itself to be!    



Wagner

punk / stoner rock

Divide & Conquer is the debut full length by Norwegian crossover stoner punk act Bokassa, to be released via All Good Clean Records on March 25th. A little more than half an hour, the record has nine tracks: Intro, Last Night, Walker, Crocsodile Dundee, Genocidal, Five Finger, Here Goes Nothing, Retaliation and Stoner Anthem. A choleric album with a predominantly direct and furious punk rock essence, Bokassa works splendidly well the infusion of primitive and technical stoner rock elements into their music, unraveling a singular style that came as a result of a very audacious, ambitious and marvelously realized crossover, that crafted a vehemently genuine, surprising and strong hybrid genre, peculiarly brilliant, unexpected and astoundingly creative, like something you have never heard in your whole life before. 

Although their sound could be described as essentially crude, raw and hostile, there is an intense energy and an infuriating vibrating rhythm, splendidly adorned by excellent and thoroughly dilapidated melodies, sidelined by aggressive and stubborn guitar lines, that dictates the aggressiveness in one hand, but on the other, never leaves an intelligent sonorous intricacy behind. 

Divide & Conquer is fundamentally an amalgamated synergy of an aggressive sonorous explosion, ready to announce the end of the world. With vigor, objectivity and seriousness, Bokassa displays a formidable musical intensity, that elaborates, dilates and expands a more refined and exploratory, but nonetheless brutal and grotesque, new form of wild rock. With simple, but amazingly furious and highly energetic guitar lines, Divide & Conquer is an aggressive, corrosive and effectively consistent album, loyal to the most honorable traditions of punk rock, but never renouncing to the delirious traces that has solidified the graceful tonalities of their musical peculiarities. It becomes very clear that they worked hard – and very successfully – to develop an abrasive and formidable degree of authentic expression. And they have achieved this goal quite high, I would say. 

My two favorite tracks on this album, without a doubt, is the fourth and nine – Crocsodile Dundee and Stoner Anthem, respectively – which seems to be, at least in what concerns my personal musical tastes, the cherries on the top of the cake. Formidable songs, that explores and exposes the incredible versatility and the lucid abilities of a band that has an exceedingly bright future ahead of them, Divide & Conquer, after all, certainly has everything to be considered a fundamental masterpiece of the crossover musical phenomenon.   
    

​Wagner