Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight
Going Home
Superhot Records

Trippy Wicked sounds like someone with whom I ought to be partying. Immediately. As for those Cosmic Children? Well, my guess is they’re the ones handing out the red cups and hitting on all the women. Point is, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, it’s substantially more interesting than what’s going on around you, and just listening to this UK power trio’s absurd stoner blues will have you scrounging for loose change and crumpled bills in every crevice of your denim so you can buy a ticket for a ride on the mothership. Of course, an all-access pass would be even better, that way when they turn on the afterburners to roast the weenies, and go motorcycle skydiving, you won’t miss one second of the stupid, sleazy action. Following 2009′s supremely bad-ass debut, Movin On, and the 2010 four-song acoustic EP The Bleak, Going Home is all kinds of good-time doom, nine songs of fuzzed-out groove metal laced with weird beard elements like hand claps, brass, orchestration, smack rock, and Southern boogie. I suppose it doesn’t really make that much sense, but it works like a fucking charm. That’s what makes Trippy so damn wicked, really.

Listen to Going Home by Trippy Wicked & the Cosmic Children of the Knight!

Arc of Ascent
The Higher Key
Self-Released

Arc of Ascent straddle the stoner/doom divide like sentient giants, spiritual lion tamers of a beastly Kyuss/Sleep hybrid, a crooked staff in one hand and a whip in the other. Their 2010 debut, Circle of the Sun, was a bold and fuzzy big top spectacle, and follow-up The Higher Key is definitely a continuation of the same spacey show, but it’s not the thick, groovy riffs or the the psychedelic effects that mark this new album as a must-experience circus. No, instead it’s the strong voice of bassist Craig Williamson that sparks this comet’s fire, a soaring furnace of hypnotic melody with just a hint of dastard caterwauling, not unlike one Messiah Marcolin if the robed night stalker presided over asteroids instead of gravestones, and it truly separates the New Zealand power trio’s acid blast of narco-metal from the deluge of monolithic mayhem with which it might otherwise get lumped.

Listen to “Celestial Altar” from The Higher Key!

Conan
Monnos
Burning World Records

Barbarian fuzz from these aptly named Brits who’ve been demolishing us with down-tempo doom since their 2007 demo Battle in the Swamp. They were a two-piece at the time but have since (barely) evolved into a trio, yet while they’ve progressed in numbers their sound has regressed, becoming ever more disparaging and hellish with each passing release. Monnos, then, is six songs of cavernous riffs and craggy terrain, a lurking, lumbering beast with dull teeth and a thick jaw, which makes for devouring souls a slow and tragic process. Conan have always excelled at writing rock-rattling songs dredged in vast amounts of trepidation, and indeed the entirety of Monnos drips with despair, and while “Hawk As Weapon,” the redone, meatier version of “Battle in the Swamp,” and “Grim Tormentor” attack without prejudice, it’s the album’s final three songs that stalk you cold. Beginning with the drone-heavy “Golden Axe” and then moving into the uneasy, sprawling shadows of “Headless Hunter” and “Invincible Throne,” the back end of Monnos is a constant threat that something terrible will happen to you. The mark of a damn good doom record, I’d say.

Listen to Monnos by Conan!