ALBUM REVIEW: 1968, "Ballads of the Godless"

By: Dominic Walsh

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 07/07/2018

Label: Independent

There is always demand for heritage and that retro rock and roll sound and 1968 are more than capable purveyors.

“Ballads of the Godless” DD//LP track listing:

1). Devilswine

2). Screaming Sun

3). Temple of the Acidwolf

4). S.J.D.

5). Chemtrail Blues

6). McQueen

7). The Hunted

8). Mother of God

The Review:

Formed in 2013 out of a chance meeting between Sam (Orr, guitars) and James (Coppack, vocals) 1968was created out of their love for many legendary albums created in the year that signalled the beginning of a darker, heavier movement in music and popular culture; a period in time characterized by an evolving socio-political environment, the end of the colourful ‘Summer of Love’ era and the dawn of a more cynical cultural landscape defined by the Manson murders and the Altamont tragedy.

1968’s previous EP’s may have been well received and they’re not shy of throwing their influences in the spotlight. The big difference between “Fortuna Havana” and their debut album is that the band have added a heavy level of grunge to their sound. So whilst Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Jimi Hendrix are all prevalent, there is also more than a heavy smattering of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden.

“Devilswine” opens up the album in scintillating fashion and pulls many styles into its glorious mix. Towering riffs blow you away more than once as you voyage through the track. Dan Amati’s drumming is brilliant throughout and it’s his range of tempos and styles that set off this exciting opener. Its abrupt ending gives way to the chug of “Screaming Sun” which sees strained vocals play off against more melodic backing vocals.

“Temple of the Acidwolf” is pure Alice In Chainsworship in the harmonic vocal delivery. The lead guitar work is tripped out as the vocals get gradually more psychedelic. The whole trip, literally and metaphorically, is quite sublime. The same can be said of one of the albums highlights, “McQueen”. Building gradually throughout its near 7 minute duration, the peak of the track is excellent and begs your attention.

As the title suggests, “Chemtrail Blues”is a bluesier affair – this is not tender though. Distorted guitars, rolling bass and more crashing drum work help elevate the track away from the standard blues fair. “The Hunted” plays with a more upbeat tempo and traditional feel akin to the more trad feel of “Fortuna Havana”. “Mother of God” closes out the album as a more jam laden instrumental. It fades out in the same way the album fades in; a swarming maelstrom of feedback.

1968 aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they’re playing with the motion of that wheel. Some of the production on the album dips here and there, maybe due to split responsibility but with that being said, “Ballads of the Godless”is a solid step in the right direction after some excellent EP’s. There is always demand for heritage and that retro rock and roll sound and 1968are more than capable purveyors.

“Ballads of the Godless” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Possessor - "The Ripper"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 24/11/2017

Label: Wicked Lester Records |

Graven Earth Records

"The Ripper" is one of the most pleasing releases to wrap 2017 and open up 2018. Possessor's massive sound and brutal composition make it one of the more intimidating listens on the scene, and one you should get to know now, if you aren't already down.

“The Ripper”CD//CS//DD track listing

1. Conjure and Possess

2. Guillotine

3. Wet Cemetery

4. The Slime        

5. Whitechapel Murders

6. Lava 

7. Notting Hell

8. Hacksaw

9. Earth Shaker

The Review:

London's thrash marauders Possessor have been at this for awhile, and get fans excited by its mutated form of garage, hardcore, thrash and even a splash of doom from moment to moment. The three-piece managed to carve its own lane in English metal through efforts like its 2016 album "Dead By Dawn," 2015's "Stay Dead" EP and many more. To its credit, Possessor has garnered, through this time, much critical acclaim for its distorted sludge and classic-metal influenced roar.

A band this busy – Possessor has offered nine records since 2014 – always raises eyebrows. Is there potential for burnout, or whiling through all one's creative juices? "The Ripper," an ambitious nine-song album with miles of fire to it, generates a number of these questions, undoubtedly.

So where is a band that gets high regard and seems to have a lot more in the tank to do when music itself is evolving constantly? In the case of Possessor, which melds enough traditional metal to offer a timelessness to its sound, there is an inherent advantage here, since it is not wedded to trends. "The Ripper"starts with "Conjure and Possess," a double-down of guitars and monster riffs that make it clear that Possessor is taking no prisoners. Again, there's an approach that seems to defy our almost innate desire for something wholly new. We're in a moment of so many metal consolidations – black metal with everything, hardcore and more subgenres are blended all the time – that fans almost start to expect it. Bands like Mastiff and Possessor seem to instead revel in straight-ahead metal. There are a list of gifted influences you hear on the opener and its followup, "Guillotine," including Pantera, Megdeth and Exodus among them. A few critical ears might feel this could be considered derivative or even a bit too 1990s. "Wet Cemetery" delivers a bit of grunge-style punk that still stands out for its heaviness. However, Possessor does something that is much harder to pull off than it seems. Songs like "Whitechapel Murders" and "Earth Shaker" come across as inspired by influences, rather than mimicking those acts. Herein Possessor make a far greater return than maybe even at first glance.

If you enjoyed the band's earlier work, like its driving and ferocious album, "Electric Hell," there's a lot on "The Ripper" to please you. The music thrashes hard while being enjoyable for new fans. Cuts like "Hacksaw" are some of Possessor's better songs.  "The Ripper" is one of the most pleasing releases to wrap 2017 and open up 2018. Possessor's massive sound and brutal composition make it one of the more intimidating listens on the scene, and one you should get to know now, if you aren't already down.

"The Ripper" is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: The Oxford Coma - "Everything Out of Tune"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 13/10/2017

Label: Independent

 “Everything Out Of Tune” is a breath of fresh air at a time when heavy music is becoming ever more reliant on recreation of past glories. The Oxford Coma delivers a welcome blast of vital strangeness while still riffing harder than most of their peers.

“Everything Out of Tune” DD//LP track listing:

1. Trauma (Maybe I’m Forgetting Something)
2. Inflatable Patriots (Touching People In Their Sleep)
3. Patterns Of Thought
4. Cartoons
5. Junkies & God
6. Everything Is Out Of Tune (My Only Victories Are Others’ Failures)
7. Reciprocal Damage
8. Smack & Temporary Enlightenment
9. Good Job Boys

The Review:

Phoenix quartet The Oxford Coma serve up a feast of unpredictable heavy delights on fourth LP “Everything Out of Tune”. Elements of grunge, stoner rock, psychedelia and even a little noise rock grit make their presence felt during this intoxicating voyage. Although there are familiar influences evident throughout, it is The Oxford Coma’s distinctive execution that makes this record so weird and compelling. 

“Trauma (Maybe I’m Forgetting Something)” rumbles into life like a Josh Homme-fronted Melvins while “Patterns Of Thought” sounds like Alice In Chains getting lost in the desert after a healthy dose of peyote. The title track is a whirlwind riff onslaught that somehow manages to maintain a balance of mathematical complexity and no-nonsense rock action to great effect. It is a perfect distillation of what makes The Oxford Coma great, intricate musicianship combined with skillful songwriting warped through a hazy psychedelic filter.

As the record progresses, The Oxford Coma dial back the heaviness and let their woozy melodic side come to the fore. “Reciprocal Damage” is the closest the band get to a regular song, the calm withdrawn vulnerability of the verses in stark contrast to the roaring release of the choruses. The track is built around a catchy guitar line that burrows deep into your brain and is simultaneously menacing and haunting.  “Smack And Temporary Enlightenment”establishes a suitably narcotic atmosphere via clouds of chiming harmonics punctured by bursts of restrained yet still incisive riffage while “Good Job Boys” brings the record home with a slow-burning epic.

“Everything Out of Tune”is a breath of fresh air at a time when heavy music is becoming ever more reliant on recreation of past glories. The Oxford Coma delivers a welcome blast of vital strangeness while still riffing harder than most of their peers.

“Everything Out of Tune”is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Gruntruck - "Gruntruck"

By Theron Moore

Album Type:Full Length

Date Released:13/10/2017

Label:Found Recordings

Gruntruck straddles that line between heavy, melodic, and noisey, not afraid to venture into Pearl Jam territory when it feels like it, then take a hard left and land somewhere near the sound of Alice In Chains.  Listening to “Gruntruck”, I think I finally understand what grunge was about.  Sure it was a trend, but bands like this just wanted to rock.  And that’s what this record does. 

  

“Gruntruck” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Bar Fly

2). Trip

3). War Flower

4). Noise Field

5). Build A Hole

6). Situation

7). It's Alright

8). Reverse Angel

9). Spy

10). Machine II

11). Flang

The Review:

I caught Skin Yard twice, live.  Ben McMillan and Jack Endino.  Heavy beyond heavy and way ahead of their time.  And then came Gruntruck.  Everything I just said multiplied by two.  Only two albums released but an amazing and influential band to say the least.  The voice of Seattle himself, Ben McMillan, Tom Niemyer, Tim Paul and Scott McCollum. The original lineup.  Alex Sibbald and Josh Snider would slide on in during the early 90’s but the band was never the same following an ugly legal battle with Roadrunner Recordsand disbanded in 2002. 

Tragedy struck six years later in 2008 when Ben McMillan passed away from complications with Diabetes, a disease he’d been struggling with for several years prior.  But one thing has always remained a constant with this band.  Their fan base never gave up on them.  For years there’s been chatter of a “lost” record that Gruntruck did that never surfaced. Did it exist or was it just rumor? 15 years after the band calls it a day, Found Recordings will be releasing this very record we speak about.  That’s right, it’s not a rumor any longer.  The infamous “lost” record will be released October 13^th. 

I’ve heard the record.  In fact, to tell you the truth, I’ve listened to it several times.  Classic Gruntruck.  It picks up where the band left off.  Seamlessly I might add.  I referenced Skin Yard above.  This’ll appeal to fans of that band as well, as both Gruntruck and Skin Yard had similar musical visions.  The thing about Gruntruck is / was, they had a wider musical vision than not just Skin Yard, but many of their Seattle peers as well.  Track two, “Trip,” brings this point home.

Gruntruckstraddles that line between heavy, melodic, and noisey, not afraid to venture into Pearl Jam territory when it feels like it, then take a hard left and land somewhere near the sound of Alice In Chains.  It’s interesting to listen to these songs and hear the cross pollination of Gruntruck with say, Mother Love Bone, Skin Yard, Green River, and of course The Screaming Trees.  They were friends, they influenced each other.  They weren’t afraid of letting that sound grow and take on a life of its’ own.  That was an important component of grunge as we know it.

It feels good listening to this record and hearing McMillan’s voice again.  The band sounds just as good now as it did back in the day.  That is, the music is timeless.  Songs like “Situation” ring with that Seattle intensity the scene had back in the 90’s, that brand of heaviness that seemed so unique to the Pacific Northwest.   The Alice In Chains feel of track 8, “Reverse Angel,” brings freshness to the here and now, when so much music feels cookie cutter or obsessed with retro rehash.

Listening to “Gruntruck”, I think I finally understand what grunge was about.  Sure it was a trend, but bands like this just wanted to rock.  And that’s what this record does.  That’s what Gruntruckhas always done. They rock. Give it an honest listen.  I bet it’ll grow on you.  Gruntruckwas and still is, killer for its time.

“Gruntruck” is available to preoder/buy here

Band info: facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Disastroid - "Screen"

By: Ernesto Aguilar

Album Type: Full length

Date Released: 02/10/2017

Label: Independent

A few listens through "Screen" and you're certain to hear a truly unique voice at work.

“Screen” CD//DD track listing

1. Screen

2. New Day

3. Dinosaur

4. I Didn't Kill Myself

5. Getting in the Way

6. Coyote

7. Choke the Falcon

8. Clinical Perfection

9. Gunslinger

The Review:

With more than 10 years in, San Francisco's heavy music trio Disastroidhave seemingly outlasted their share of other acts. Over that decade, the group has built a strong following in the Bay Area through its many live shows and steady output. Now back for the first time since a seven-inch of post-punk tracks last January, the team has something to prove.

Longevity is a weird thing. Performers can either get better as they age or their material can sound stale and uninspired without challenges. Disastroid's 2014 release, "Missiles," received positive press for a formula it continues on "Screen." Given the buzz the band has gotten during their tenure for its music, one has to ask if the new stuff can meet the high bar the group has previously set.

A lot gets made of Disastroid's seemingly undefinable sound. It's really not that difficult, frankly. The band does a version of hard rock that is influenced by heavier genres, such as post-punk, doom and hardcore. You may have heard this kind of hybrid more and more over the last couple of years, in part because it is listenable and gives musicians a lot of space to explore their own inspirations and concepts. On "Missiles," Disastroid happened to rise above the din of performers plying their trade here through sheer chemistry and creativity. Yet as more bands gravitate to this corner of music, standing out can only get more contentious. With that come issues of simply making better music too.

On a positive note, the California crew's new release, its fourth full length, continues its own musical tradition in grand style.

The title track kicks off this recording, and it is a superb example of why Disastroid's blend of melodic music is so disarming. The composition is particularly great, with the guitars and Travis Williams' bass complementing Braden McGaw's drums. Production on vocals is excellent; it is just enough to make it distinct, but muddy enough to keep it from mainstream rock. You get more of that post-punk vein with "New Day" and "I Didn't Kill Myself" – they're the subsequent cuts and demonstrate aptly Disastroid's commitment to its craft as well as creating an album poised to evolve the group's long-honed sound.

Sometimes the aforementioned heavier styles get more prominent on "Screen" – catch the doom soaked "Dinosaur" for example – but Disastroidis fundamentally a band anchored to hard rock. One might expect it sounds more interesting to portray unclassifiability than a style a few might find passé, but really Disastroid is one of the best independent bands out there doing what they do. And it is flourishes like "Getting in the Way," which does post-punk and hard rock stunningly well, that show you how talented Disastroid is at creating a bigger, bolder soundscape than three players might otherwise seem to offer.

"Screen"has many memorable forays. The syncopated rhythms and original arrangement of "Gunslinger" give it a classic feel. Even the briefest cut, "Clinical Perfection," with its dense drum and bass foundation, packs tremendous power. "Coyote" feels like zenith on "Screen." As one of the longer songs situated toward the middle of the album, its stoner-infused guitar chord progressions and building bassline set an introspective mood. Here and throughout, guitarist/vocalist Enver Koneya gets a nod for singing that's actual singing. Koneya can set the tone with his lyrical delivery, and does it with aplomb. A few listens through "Screen"and you're certain to hear a truly unique voice at work.

"Screen" is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Melvins - "A Walk With Love & Death"

By: Ben Fitts

Album Type: Full Length (Double)

Date Released: 07/07/2017

Label: Ipecac Recordings

 

On “A Walk with Love and Death”, the Melvins do both things that their cultish fans love about them, and do them both damn well.

“A Walk With Love & Death” CD//DD//LP track listing:

“Love”

1. Aim High
2. Queen Powder Party
3. Street Level St. Paul
4. The Hidden Joice
5. Give It to Me
6. Chicken Butt
7. Eat Yourself Out
8. Scooba
9. Halfway to the Bakersfield Mall
10. Pacoima Normal
11. Park Head
12. T-Burg
13. Track Star
14. The Asshole Bastard

“Death”

1. Black Hearth
2. Sober-delic (acid only)
3. Euthanasia
4. What’s Wrong with You
5. Edgar the Elephant
6. Christ Hammer
7. Flaming Creature
8. Cactus Party
9. Cardboro Negro

The Review:

Thirty-four years into their career, the Washington trio Melvins have established themselves as one of the most important groups of weirdos in the history of recorded music. They pioneered the very foundations of both sludge and grunge, were the first to fully utilize the uses of drop tunings and were a major influence on seemingly every metal band at least bordering doom on this side of 1990. It is impossible to view a new work of theirs without the context of their back catalogue. And that back catalogue is vast, but amazingly contains scarcely a forgettable record. Each new Melvins release finds a new personality and/or territory and their newest full-length, “A Walk With Love & Death” does both. Twice.

At twenty-three songs (with a total runtime of eighty-nine minutes), “A Walk With Love & Death” is the Melvins’ first double-album, and they embrace the concept. While many albums spread themselves between two disc because there was simply too much material to be contained on just one, on “A Walk With Love &  Death”, the Melvins create two distinct, separate albums (the first titled “Death”, the second titled “Love”) and package them together as one cohesive unit.

“Death”, the first disc, is by far the more accessible of the two discs and is rank with breezy, blues based grooves. “Death” opens the swampy “Black Health”, which, while still clearly the Melvins, is oddly reminiscent of Creedence Clearwater Revival or Tony Joe White. Intensity builds over the darker, grungier track “Sober-Deli (Acid Only)” before the arrival of “Euthanasia”, a rumbling, groove based sludge metal song (the kind of sound that many think of first when they think of the Melvins).

These moods represented by these first three tracks, bluesy and breezy, grungy and sulky and classic Melvins sludge, more or less define the remaining six songs on the “Death” side of “A Walk with Love and Death”. They are mixed differently and to different proportions, from the stomping bluesy rock and roll of “What’s Wrong With You” and “Cactus Party” to the menacing, propulsive sludge of “Flaming Creature”, the latter of which possibly takes the cake for the best track to be found anywhere on the “Death” side of the album and incorporates some of the funnest, most rifftastic and straightforward music that the Melvins have ever recorded. However, this is balanced out by the following disc, “Love”. That is where things get weird.    

After the buzzing, white instrument noise that ends “Cardboa Negro”, the track that closes “Death”, “Love” introduces itself with ambient street noise on the track “Aim High”. Snippets of casual conversation, the clacks of high-heeled feet and the drone of wind striking a mic set up to introduce the second disc of “A Walk With Love & Death”. “Love”is not all tape collage, and at nearly thirty seconds into “Aim High”, a synthesizer, playing actual tonal notes, can be heard struggling over the din of human background noise, a battle that it eventually loses. “Aim High” sets the precedent for the rest of the second disc.

 “Love” is a constant back and forth between tonal music, made by instruments, and ambient, collected sounds. Both ingredients get chances to shine, in varying amounts, throughout “Love”. The tracks on “Love” to feature the most music (as it is traditionally understood) are punk-infused, avant-garde jazz piece “Scooba”, which even features singing vocals (albeit sampled, and somewhat comical ones) and “Give It To Me”, which sounds like a Chicago blues band caught in the midst of interdimensional travel, and sounds less and less like Chicago and more like that other dimension as the song progresses. Conversely, tracks such as “The Hidden Joice” and “Chicken Butt” are built around studio altered spoken samples, with only a backdrop of dissonant synthesizers (with some sparse guitar playing on “The Hidden Joice”). The other ten tracks on “Love” explore seemingly every midpoint one can imagine, from the white noise feedback and out of focus guitar shredding of “Street Level St. Paul” to the casual street noise set to an electronic background of “T-Burg”.

It wasn’t enough for the Melvins to just make a double album. If they were going to do it, they were going to do it in a way that displayed the duality of their nature, taking both ends to their extreme. “Death”is upbeat, groove-based, energetic, punk derived rock and roll that teeters into metal, grunge and blues as they see fit. It is quite possibly the most conventional, accessible collection of music that the band was ever released, even more so than classic major label efforts such as “Houdini” or “Stoner Witch”. And it’s wonderfully enjoyable. The second disc, “Love”, is some of the band’s most obtusely difficult music, on par with 1994’s infamous display of weirdness, “Prick”. And it’s wonderfully challenging. On “A Walk With Love & Death”, the Melvins do both things that their cultish fans love about them, and do them both damn well.   

 “A Walk with Love and Death” is available here

Band info:  bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Carnaval - "Miss Universe"

By: Luciano Penelu

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 21/121/2017
Label: Kapa Records

This album is a fine piece of Stoner Metal, and is as well executed and produced, as any other great and famous band on the scene. Grab a smoke, sit down and listen to it. You will see what I mean.

“Miss Universe” CD//DD track listing:

1). New Shoes of Mine

2). Seven

3). Moon Shuffle

4). Round Nose Cat

5). Bluebird

6). Space Bar

7). Silver Starlight

8). Rocket

9). Burning Sun

The Review:

The Slovenians of Carnaval have history. They’ve been around since 2004, and "2" (2009), "1"(2010) and "Tennis Football Basketball" (2012), their previous albums, are strongly recommended Stoner jewels. Listen to “1”, as a warm up and you will see that these guys don’t fuck around: by that time they already were a solid and impressive band.

Now, four years after the last full length, they overwhelm us with this “Miss Universe” (2016, Kapa records). It is an impressive album. During its nine tracks, everything works perfectly. I would say that it is everything you can expect from a good Stoner band, with some extra hand of personality and care. On the track “Seven” (track 2), for instance, it is amazing how the drums are executed, followed by some well-placed percussion work and acid bass lines, fat guitars and beautiful vocal work, with the vocals playing an important and central role throughout the album. It makes an interesting contrast with the other instruments, balancing the formula with some delicacy. During the tracks, the right-placed guitar solos are like a relentless dope binge for ears, and the drums are very creative, brilliantly followed by the bass in these moments.

Sometimes, like in the opening track “New shoes of mine”, maybe because of the dense guitar tones, or the connection with the Blues, it reminds me of Goatsnake, and I cannot think of a better band to reference. The studio / production work also deserves a lot of recognition. It sounds fat and greasy, and it pleases me a lot.

As I mentioned before, Carnaval is a mature band firing on all cylinders and on this “Miss Universe”, there are no loose ties, and all songs are great. “Bluebird” is one of my favorites, with its hypnotic riff that echoes for days. It is that kind of music that can last for an hour, and that’s all our stoned minds could ask for. The next one, “Space bar”, is also catchy, beautifully executed and reminded me a lot of Red Fang.

This album is a fine piece of Stoner Metal, and is as well executed and produced, as any other great and famous band on the scene. Grab a smoke, sit down and listen to it. You will see what I mean. 

“Miss Universe” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp