I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…
Black Rainbows Supermothafuzzalicious!!
HeavyPsychSounds Records
The title of Black Rainbows’ third full-length should be enough to break the handle right off yer crank, but in case you need extra convincing, this is some hot-as-the-sun Italian boogie doom from a power trio who are dwarfed only by the stacks through which they blast this dynamite rock. They sounded a lot like Kyuss on their 2007 debut Twilight in the Desert, but they’ve since molded their raw and green stoner sound into something heavier and bluesier, which means they now stomp and howl like a Small Stone band junked out on stardust and motor oil. Oh yeah.
Shooting Guns Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976
Self-Released
Instrumental psych-metal from Canada’s Shooting Guns, whose magic dealin’ dates should give you an indication of where they mined the fuzzy nuggets that fill this black sack ’cause the whole thing sounds like a 60s-fried stomp through a field of bear traps in foggy moonlight. Take the hairy doom of “Dopestrings” and “The Last Great Depression,” the acid drone of “Harmonic Steppenwolf” and “Liberator,” and the weird garage of “Public Taser” and “Stay Awake Forever” and you’ve got a debut full of toxic nocturnal emissions that’ll jangle your mind just right.
Listen to Born to Deal in Magic: 1952-1976 right here!
Re1ikt Reki prabili liod
Vigma/BMA
I don’t know how to pronounce the band’s name, nor do I know the translation to any of the song titles or lyrics, but what I do know about this Belarusian band is that they’ve put out a slew of releases since 2008 and their 2011 effort, Reki prabili liod (which I do happen to know means ‘rivers broke through the ice’), is a daunting and epic blend of post-rock and progressive metal with some folk influences mixed in (like their chilling cover of “Rana na Ivana,” a traditional Belarusian folk song). Reki prabili liod contains all the melodic darkness of a Swallow the Sun without any of the death, which I suppose will remind you of bands like Russian Circles or Red Sparowes. With an Eastern European twist, of course.
Check out the video for the song “Reki pad ildom” here!
I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…
Bädr Vogu Exitium
Momento Mori
An indecipherable logo on a crudely drawn, nightmarish, post-apocalyptic scene usually portends ugly sounds, and so it is with Oakland’s Bädr Vogu, who slog and growl their way through a sludgy mess of crust and doom metal on their full-length debut Exitium. The songs are long, the titles contain words like ruin, belligerence, slum, and filth, and I swear the bass guitar on “Nomad” sounds like barking dogs. Hell, it sounds like that on all the songs. I could tell you more but I think you’ve got a good idea of the necro-madness that awaits you here.
Self-deprecating genital humor aside, Sweden’s One Inch Giant bring about twelve inches of solid stoner rock to the prehistoric party on their debut album Malva. Songs like “Ripe and Bold” and “Feed the Fire” drop outta the sky like fuzzy meteors, and “Echoes in the Night” and “Treasures That Betray” are the inevitable doom of their impact, but it’s the bluesy hard rock hooks throughout Malva that really shake the trees. In fact, songs like “Fur of the Lord” and “Train of Lies” are laced with so much smack groove that the band sounds as much like Alice in Chains as they do Goatsnake, which is pretty awesome.
Vol. 2 is actually the third release from Miriam in Siberia, who are actually from Italy. They even sing in Italian, which seems to suit their breezy psych rock particularly well. And Vol. 2 is miles better than their 2006 self-titled EP and 2009′s Il Suono del Phon, as if the band finally decided to ditch the light, meandering AOR, put both feet on the gas, and drive straight into the mouth of the acid witch to steal her last remaining teeth in order to crush them down and feast on the dust. You might need a translator for the lyrics, but you should be able to understand the fuzzy, organ-fried prog pretty damn well.
UK power trio Stubb step out of some foggy way-back machine, blown fuzzboxes and torn blotting paper spilling out about them, mere casualties of a road long traveled, and set their phasers to super-stun. Their mission, no doubt decreed by the God of untamed sideburns, paisley blouses, and flaming guitars, is to zap you with psych rays and fry your mind with electric blues, thereby enslaving you to the almighty groove. Resistance to this deliciously heavy tone is futile, so I’d surrender now if I were you, because Stubb’s self-titled debut album boasts enough in-your-face bass and righteous riffs to blast you to smithereens. Of course, that’s speaking only of the atomic shock of songs like “Road,” “Soul Mover,” and “Hard Hearted Woman,” and should your defenses allow you to absorb that 70s-bred hyper-blow, you’ll surely find yourself at the mercy of their alternate modes of attack, like the cosmic chorus melody of “Scale the Mountain,” the pagan folk of “Crosses You Bear,” and the acid rock of “Crying River”. Even though there’s plenty of opportunity for Stubb to let their wah-wah solos and freak jams run amok, they refuse to drag the album out and do a killer job of keeping their retro static short and sweet. Oh, and Stubb called on ally Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Stone Axe, HeavyPink) to mix and and master this one (and provide additional guitar on “Crying River”), so that ought to tell you that they’re taking this whole invasion thing pretty seriously. Yes, mission accomplished, I’d say.
Black Rainbows
Shooting Guns
Re1ikt
Miriam in Siberia
Stubb