Danava
Hemisphere of Shadows
Kemado

Danava have always been able to separate themselves from other Iommi-inspired retro rockers by infusing an unabashed weirdness into all that they do. Hemisphere of Shadows, the Portland band’s third full length and first since 2008′s UnonoU, is no exception, and, in fact, the addition of a second guitarist (Andrew Forgash) means the blitzkrieg of riffs are now twined-out to inflict a maximum assault of strange. With a much shorter run-time than previous albums and a decidedly tighter focus, Hemisphere of Shadows finds Danava reigning in their druggy psych-metal jams without strangling them, and without stripping them of their cosmic, downer, prog, and occult flourishes. Danava seem to be so on point here that there’s no way they didn’t record this album at Stonehenge one white hot and foggy night, and with songs like “Shoot Straight With a Crooked Gun,” “The Last Goodbye,” “I Am the Skull,” and “The Illusion Crawls” (featured earlier this year on a split with Lecherous Gaze and Earthless) galloping around like Ichabod Crane in an Iron Claw t-shirt, Hemisphere of Shadows will find all kinds of favour with fans of ’70s freak n’ roll and fuzzy good times.

Listen to “The Illusion Crawls” from Hemisphere of Shadows!

Haunted Leather
Desert Spells
Self-Released

Mega-fuzzy mind fuck from the awesomely named Haunted Leather, a trio of robed heatwave hallucinations floating amongst some sandy dunes, spewing these seven desert spells at you like a flood of rubber lava. This vibration worship comes straight out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, of all places, no doubt culled from some wood-paneled, suburban den, its thick shag floor littered with empty cough syrup bottles. I’d cite Om, Naam, Orange Sunshine, Dead Meadow, and Hawkwind as obvious influences on Haunted Leather’s heavy psych, but I think they’ve also spent a lot of time chasing the midnight sun and memorizing kaleidoscope designs. However they get their freak on, there’s a few things I know for sure: the music pulses and oozes like a fat wave of strange, the vocals are a numbing wail of some long lost ancient language, and the whole thing will knock you into a half-conscious state of dopey bliss.

Listen to “Sun It Shines” from Desert Spells!

Helms Alee
Weatherhead
Hydra Head

Bands like Baroness, Harvey Milk, Big Business and Torche (and Floor before them) are probably the ones you immediately think of when someone mentions the term ‘melodic sludge.’ But another band, often found on the same bill in smaller letters, that deserves every bit the attention thanks to their 2008 debut full-length, Night Terror, is Helms Alee. But it’s been three years since we’ve heard from Helms Alee, who’ve kept a much lower profile than their contemporaries, which means it falls on the shoulders of their sophomore release, Weatherhead, to legitimize the band’s sound as a forceful one and further expose the Seattle trio for the capital letter weird metal titans they really are. What Weatherhead does is succeed at extrapolating and exploring territories far beyond the melodic sludge they reveled in on Night Terror, and we hear them drawing dirty, noisy, no wave, late 80s to early 90s influences from the likes of the Melvins and Sonic Youth. Weatherhead, then, is awash in slower, pastoral moments (“Music Box,” “Mad Mouth,” and “Epic Adventure Through the Woods (Sucker Punch)”) and instances of over-the-top scuzzy pop (“8/16,” “Revel!,” and “Born in Fiberglass”), but it’s still held together by the usual torrent of core-shaking heaviness and male/female vocal harmonies in which the band specializes. Night Terror junkies should find familiar friends in “Pretty As Pie” and “Speed Sk8r,” but it’s the wide-reaching, muscle and brains dichotomy that makes this album such a wonderfully strange bedfellow.

Listen to “Pretty As Pie” from Weatherhead!