The world has many things to thank Denmark for over the years, not least its incomparable sense of style and Copenhagenis home to some of the world’s most sought-after designer brands and classic products. My kids would say the piece de resistance is Lego, however they probably haven't stepped on it with no socks on, if they had I am sure they’d change their tune haha.Have you done it?Hurts like fuck doesn’t it
When I was a kid the most famous Dane I was aware of other than Lurpak butter was Jan Molby, then when I got into metal, Lars Ulrich was obviously a name associated with Denmark and is arguably one of the countries most recognisable faces, reviled and loved in equal measure, when you trace the roots of Danish heavy metal he is probably top of the tree.
Hailing from Denmark, you’d be mad(s)(Mikkelson) to overlook the band DISRULE., because they are a diamond (King), a doom/stoner heads wet dream, because these guys can groove and rock out with the best of 'em. Clutch, Down, Fu Manchuand the mighty Black Sabbath all come to mind upon listening to their second record “Sleep In Your Honour”and in keeping with the spirit of legendary bands such as Sabbath, it was recorded live at Dead Rat Studio in just two days.
Streaming in full today exclusively, ensure you turn this one up loud(drup) with a bier (Susanne) in hand.“Sleep In Your Honour”is released this FridayviaSeeing Red Recordsand is available HERE
It has been hectic 2018 to say the least, so forgive me readers for I have sinned, it has been 6 months since our last SOUR 16, and our usual presentation of the16 most popular albums of the month. So given that I have failed to deliver the chart for the last six month, I’ve decided to present not only the most albums of the 7 months , but also the individual charts for the months you missed. So by my reckoning that 112 albums for you to check out. So apologises normal services is resumed, here is our TOP 16 MOST POPULAR ALBUMS OF 2018 SO FAR and the SOUR 16(JAN - JULY 2018)
Here’s a quick recap, each month you the reader are unwittingly compiling a list of the top 16 records of the month, covering all genres of metal. Is it not a chart, in which reviewers or contributors extol their opinion about their favourite music. To put it simply, theSOUR 16 are the records that have been trending the most at SLUDGELORD HQ.
The results are compiled based on the amount of page views the reviews have received and are then calibrated into the list below. (Total views are highlighted in brackets)
"Clone of the Universe" is the twelfth example that there's only one Fu Manchu and this album is a great mix of the heavy, the fast, the slow and the riff.
“Clone of the Universe” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. "Intelligent Worship" (3:08)
2. "(I’ve Been) Hexed" (2:48)
3. "Don’t Panic" (2:05)
4. "Slower Than Light" (3:26)
5. "Nowhere Left to Hide" (4:19)
6. "Clone of the Universe" (2:58)
7. "IL Mostro Atomico" (18:08)
The Review:
Can you imagine an 18 minute song written and performed by Fu Manchu? Oh yeah, and it features the guitar escapades of none other than Rush's Alex Lifeson? Yeah, I couldn't either. That changed this week, though, when the kind people over at At The Dojo Recordshooked us up with "Clone of the Universe," Fu Manchu's twelfth album. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. This 18 minute epic, "Il Mostro Atomico" closes out the album. Let's start at the beginning.
From opener "Intelligent Worship"on, Fu Manchu knows what's up. Ripe with those stop-go riffs that only Fu Manchu can master, the band plays through these seven songs the only way they know how - thick on the fuzz, heavy on the low end, and loud as hell.
The stoned stomp of "(I've Been) Hexed" leaves its mark with both its riffs and its catchy chorus. Fu Manchu has always proven to be experts when it comes to those one-liner choruses, and "(I've Been) Hexed" is no different. In perfect call and response fashion, Hill proclaims "I've been Hexed" as the backing vocals take over, "I see it in your eyes." These lines get passed back and forth for a while, the drums go nuts, and those guitar solos wail. An absolute toe tapper, and once Fu Manchu hit the road in support of this album, "(I've Been) Hexed" is going to be a crowd favorite, too.
The album keeps its momentum going in o "Don't Panic." Again, a song that boasts a one-liner chorus - "Don't panic!" - and it's going to have stoner rockers far and wide bowing down at the feet of Fu Manchu party. The title track has the same effect, and even though not many of us can tell you what Hill means when he sings "Clone of the Universe," we can all agree that it sounds fucking cool, and that's all that fucking matters.
For the most part, Fu Manchu has made themselves a name by laying the groundwork for upbeat stoner rock. Each song of theirs makes a race for the chorus, rocks out a little, and is out within 4 minutes. This is part of what makes Fu Manchu so good; this band knows how to cluster quality and then land a punch with it. "Clone of the Universe" stays true to this formula, mostly.
Sure, these SoCal boys have had an 8 minute song here and there, but on this new record, Fu Manchu hits the eighteen minute mark. Alex Lifeson from Rush helps out in this experiment. The track's instrumental, mostly, and sounds like a mixture of a bunch of Fu Manchu riffs pasted together. The best part, it works. The riffs are great, the transitions are great, and the song builds in such a way that it starts without giving too much away. Even by the 10, 12 or 15 minute mark, the song still rocks hard and doesn't dip once.
In many ways, "Clone of the Universe" might be more familiar to those who grew up on Fu Manchu. The album's got that stoner rock rhythm that Fu Manchu made famous, thanks mostly to Brad Davis on bass guitar and drummer Scott Reeder. These two are locked in and make these tunes tumble down the road like a VW van with marijuana smoke billowing out of the windows.
"Clone of the Universe" is also an album that's determined to push the boundaries of the band's sound. The result is a great mix of the heavy, the fast, the slow and the riff. For Fu Manchu, "Clone of the Universe" is the twelfth example that there's only one Fu Manchu, and plenty of impersonators.
“Clone of the Universe” is available to buy on CD//DD//Vinyl via here
"Force Field" is an album that punches you in the face from the moment is starts, and keeps up its unrelenting force until the album’s grand finale. The songs are short, they’re fast, and each one hits its chorus within 30 seconds. There are no frills, no bullshit, just straight up rock n’roll with attitude.
“Force Field” CD//DD//LP track listing:
01. Hippie Speedball 02. Earth Shaker (Which Doobie U Be) 03. Alaskan Thunder Fuck 04. Shocker 05. Crazy 06. Fried Dyed And Layin To The Side 07. Shell of a Man 08. Houndstooth 09. Tits and Bones 10. Humble Brag 11. Super Highway 12. Liv A Little
The Review:
When The Atomic Bitchwax got their start in the 90’s, they offered up the flip side of the coin to the West Coast’s Fu Manchu. Like the Fu, The Atomic Bitchwax also had punk roots, dirty guitars, hard drumming and a link to rock royalty. What sets these bands apart is mostly the themes in the lyrics. Fu Manchu sings about babes and cars, The Atomic Bitchwax spits lyrics about drugs and flying through space. Sure, this is a pretty blunt summation of both bands, but the bottom line is, The Atomic Bitchwaxappeals to the space-punkers. Their music is for those who want their Monster Magnet faster and their Fu Manchumore psychedelic. The Atomic Bitchwaxfills that void perfectly.
In layman’s terms, The Atomic Bitchwax is a stoner rock band. But as Monster Magnet continues their way back to their psychedelic beginnings and Fu Manchu gets heavier, The Atomic Bitchwax once again fills the void between these two and does so by dropping the “stoner” tag. The word “rock” is what remains, and that’s just what we need in these times of pigeonholing bands into genres that are so specific that there’s no fun left in the music.
On December 8, The Atomic Bitchwax are going to drop a belter of an album. It goes by the name “Force Field” and its one helluva rock album. It’s one that punches you in the face from the moment is starts, and keeps up its unrelenting force until the album’s grand finale. The songs are short, they’re fast, and each one hits its chorus within 30 seconds. There are no frills, no bullshit, just straight up rock n’roll with attitude.
Opener “Hippie Speedball” is a quick two-and-a-half minute glimpse of what the band is here to do; rock. Follow-up “Earth Shaker” does the same, and the increasing speed and intensity in the third song “Alaskan Thunder Fuck” nails down the band’s mission statement. The cuts are teeming with vocal harmonies, polished beyond belief but no less sharp and mean. And when Pantella pounds on his drums, you can hear him grinning with satisfaction. Kosnik and Finn are also grinning, no doubt about that, and this adds to the album’s presentation. The band is smug, they know they’re kicking ass and they know their licks are second nature. This is rock n' roll.
“Force Field”confirms the direction The Atomic Bitchwaxtook on 2015’s “Gravitron.” On “Force Field,” the New Jersey three-piece don’t do much more than open the flood gates and barrage the listener with hard-ass riffing and tight-ass rhythms. This happened in 2015 and it’s happening again now. Therefore, the simple conclusion is, if you dug “Gravitron,” you’ll love “Force Field.”
Welcome back the sweet scent of freedom. Breath in the greeheen! BRANT BJORK has come to revive your spirit: The Kyuss- and Fu Manchu legend has just announced his first ever live recording
From the opening guitar riff of "Europe '16", recorded in Berlin, one can sense the buzz of classic rock electricity that transcends into new spheres. This is controlled madness between trippy and doomy, groovy and sludgy!
Set for release September 22nd on Napalm Records, BRANT BJORK has now revealed the cover artwork and track list of his first and highly anticipated live record. Not only that you can check out an exclusive track from the album below
“This record is live. Live records are ugly and they should be. When a band plays live, they let their hair down. Live is all that really matters. There are those moments in life when everything is ok and these are the moments when you are doing exactly what your here on the planet to do. You're right where you are supposed to be with no shame, no fear, no regret, no envy, no hatred and no apology. I always say this band brings a feeling. The feeling is always primary and the sound, secondary. At least to me. In the book of Tao, there is a passage..."naming is the origin of all particular things". I use here the term ugly to refer to my naming of my particular relationship with my soundscape. my my my. Why the term ugly? Because its the opposite of pretty. As the popular saying goes, "It is what it is". As for my music, my band and this live record, I prefer to say, "it is what it isn't".” - Brant Bjork on Europe '16.
“Europe ’16” track listing
1. Buddha Time 2. Controllers Destroyed 3. Humble Pie 4. Stakt 5. The Gree Heen 6. Lazy Bones-Automatic Fantastic 7. Stokely Up Now 8. Dave's War-Dave's Peace 9. Biker No. 2 10. Freaks Of Nature 11. Low Desert Punk 12. Let The Truth Be Known-Jumpin' Jack Flash
To also celebrate the release of the record, you can catch BRANT BJORK on tour in Europe here:
Live Rituals
04.08.17 GR - Almiros Magnisias / Los Amiros Festival 05.08.17 AT - Waldhausen / Lake on Fire 06.08.17 HU - Budapest / Tixa 08.08.17 DE - Hamburg / Sommer in Altona 09.08.17 DE - Stuttgart / Universum 10.08.17 CH - Duedingen / Bad Bonn 12.08.17 BE - Kortrijk / Alcatraz Festival 14.08.17 CH - Martigny / PALP Festival
'Gree Heen Europe 2017' with special guest Sean Wheeler:
26.09.17 Stockholm | Debaser Strand 27.09.17 Stavanger | Folken 28.09.17 Oslo | John Dee 29.09.17 Gothenbourg | Sticky Fingers 30.09.17 Copenhagen | KB 18 01.10.17 Hamburg | Logo 02.10.17 Leipzig | UT Connewitz 03.10.17 Bielefeld | Forum 04.10.17 Amsterdam | Melkweg 05.10.17 Eindhoven | Effenaar 06.10.17 Pratteln | Up In Smoke 07.10.17 Aschaffenburg | Colossal 08.10.17 Brussels | Botanique 09.10.17 Rennes | Ubu 11.10.17 Bilbao | Kafe Antzokia 12.10.17 Porto | Cave 45 13.10.17 Lisbon | RCA Club 14.10.17 Madrid | Caracol 15.10.17 Barcelona | Bikini 16.10.17 Marseille | Jas Rod 17.10.17 Torino | Blah Blah 18.10.17 Ravenna | Bronson 19.10.17 Zagreb | Vintage Industrial Bar 20.10.17 Wien | Arena ( with Stoned Jesus + Beastmaker ) 21.10.17 Munich | Keep It Low
St Louis's SPACETRUCKER will re-issue their debut album “Launch Sequence”on CD, just in time for their spring tour. The album consists of seven tracks that combine stoner rock with the heavy grooves of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Despite the fact that the band has been in existence for a relatively short time, they have opened for bands like Jucifer, The Obsessed, and Karma to Burn. Today we’re excited to debut the opening track from the album, entitled “New Pubes”, not only that we hooked up with the band to ask if they could list their Top 5 stoner rock & stoner metal albums, as we take our weekly trip to the extreme, by cranking it to 11.Why do we go to 11,because “It’s one louder, isn’t it?”
Kyuss - “SkyValley”
Perhaps it's because this was literally the first real stoner rock record I heard, to me it is THE stoner rock record; strange and heavy sounding with a psychedelic twinge and immensely strong riffage. I still remember my first listen of it; being one of my first forays into non-commercial music, I wasn't even sure what to do with it but it was the most unique thing I'd heard and has been hugely influential since. I continue to blast it regularly while cruising in the van, clenching my fist and shaking it with every syllable as I rasp out my best Garcia impression.
Sleep - “Dopesmoker”
I first heard “Dopesmoker” in the "Jerusalem" format, divided up into separate tracks. It blew my fucking mind anyway, but once I learned of the struggle involved and intent to get an uncompromised version of the real single track full-length album released, I respected this weedian saga even more. Every aspect of this from analog album production of a track of this length to executing this song live demands respect. Any true riff worshipper should consider it heresy to not hail to this album and its creators.
Fu Manchu - “King of the Road”
The sunken mid range sound of the entire album marks it as a staple of stoner recording mentality, as well as the obvious driving force of fuzzed-out pentatonic riffs and a metronomic mountain of drums. For the gear head this particular album speaks volumes… defining the very clear association between enthusiasm for vintage machines and stoner rock. It has also become the undisputed theme music for a small sect of automobile enthusiasts: vanners. From the cover artwork to our anthem "Boogie Van",this is van jam number one.
The Melvins – “A Senile Animal”
They're difficult to pinpoint as solely stoner rock since the Melvins catalogue contains elements that range from totally bad ass chunky riffs and strong vocal harmonizing to drone noise and deranged octave shifts. This album made my list because it tends far towards the first two aspects like 1994's “Stoner Witch” but is especially mind warping being their first with the backing of Big Business members, adding a second drummer to increase the mad rhythm dynamics of their already incredible and unconventional Dale Crover.
Red Fang – “Murder the Mountains”
The single "Wires" was my first listen, and while that track is a great straightahead highway rocker (and the video is highly amusing), every tune on this album is a kick in the nuts. Haunting lyrics and high contrast duelling vocalists are only the beginning; the drums are so dynamic I remember them like lyrics and the music is incredibly sludgy and brutish considering it is (the only album on this list) in standard tuning. Their deceptively simple approach to constructing ripping, writhing songs is the musical equivalent of Walter Sobchak's kidnapping resolution plan to "grab one of 'em and beat it out of him."
Simply put, this album slays. It delivers on all levels. The band know that hell awaits down the line, but they are having a great time on the way. Life affirming stuff.
“A Bend Through Space and Time” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. On and On (in your mind) 2. Don’t Give Away the World 3. Kobold in the Breadbasket 4. Laughingstock 5. The Meaning of Life 6. Recommended Daily Dosage 7. Knuckledragger 8. Kerfuffle 9. Your Inner Lemmy 10. the Demons Come Home to Roost
The Review:
Devil To Pay hail from Indianapolis, the Midwestern city that spawned The Gates of Slumber- but this album is a different proposition. The record is at the stoner end of the doom spectrum; that is to say that the sounds here have as much in common with Orange Goblinor Fu Manchuas they do with Sleep. The groovy “On and On (In Your Mind)” sets out the band's stall with some propulsive riffs and deft drumming- good vocal, solid work all around. “Don't Give Away The World” continues building on this foundation; a rumbling groove is complimented by a great mix in which the bass rumbles and runs with Butler-esque precision.
The downtuned riffage does not stop there and the band shows another more restrained mood through “Kobold In The Breadbasket”, which has a trippy quality. The rhythm sections works very well throughout the album- the intro to “The Meaning of Life” highlights its' lock-tight precision (nice cymbal chokes, too). The band can burn rubber when necessary- witness “Recommended Daily Dosage” for proof.
“Knuckledragger” sounds as you might expect from the title and includes the album's title in the lyrics (listen out). The band's knack with song titles continues with “Kerfuffle”, which is a head nodder of a tune, and the titles reach a peak with “Your Inner Lemmy”, which possesses all the swagger of Motorhead in any era- a raging badass of a track! It is a fine tribute to the great man's approach to life and knocks Metallica'splodding “Murder One” right out of the ring.
After this rip roaring ride through the stoner rock universe, “The Demons Come Home to Roost” is an epic finisher. Close to eight minutes of dynamically shifting tempos, metallic crunch and powerhouse performances. Simply put, this album slays. It delivers on all levels. The band know that hell awaits down the line, but they are having a great time on the way. Life affirming stuff.