Midnight
Satanic Royalty
Hells Headbangers

After almost ten years of releasing only splits and EPs — and not really wanting to become a real band at all –  Cleveland’s cult metal band Midnight have finally succumbed to a full-length job, and it’s the genuine article, man. Led by Athenar, the same freak responsible for the brew-fueled madness that was Boulder, Midnight don executioner hoods, worship flame and steel, and rip through ten songs (eleven if you have the vinyl) of black metal thrash so absurdly good you’ll be reawakening neck muscles that have been retired since the early 80s. It’s clear that Midnight’s mission is annihilation, which they deliver to you, like a shitty 2 AM pizza, in thirty minutes or less, and despite the fact that Satanic Royalty is dripping with Venom inspired evil violence, its really powered by a degenerate biker rawk Athenar has no doubt borrowed from his Boulder days. Thus, every song, especially “You Can’t Stop Steel,” “Lust, Filth and Sleaze,” and “Shock ’til Blood,” sound like Cronos leading Motörhead on a black-winged ride outta hell and straight up your ass. Anyone who has stuck by Midnight over the years waiting for this day to come can go ahead and raise their gauntlets high. As for the uninitiated, prepare to be outright dominated by pure metal riff-itude.

Listen to “Lust, Filth and Sleaze” from Satanic Royalty!

Elder
Dead Roots Stirring
MeteorCity Records

Elder tap that critical vein, the one where the blood runs slow and thick, and they must know how good their stuff tastes, how addictive it really is, because like any pusher worth their salt, they hook us five songs at a time every two to three years. Thank Satan’s graces that those five songs hold enough crushing doom to keep us down and out until the next batch roll around. ‘Twas the way with their self-titled debut and just when you thought they’d been pinched and were gone forever, lost to the land of the tattooed sodomites, they show up like a greasy cousin to ruin your life once more. And with news that Black Pyramid has crumbled, now is the perfect time for Elder to indoctrinate the proud and confused with their spaced-out Sleep worship. On Dead Roots Stirring, the Massachusetts trio take the fuzz-punch of their debut and trick it out with a heavy dose of harmonics and melodic riffs, creating a more energized psych-doom that treads other genre waters as well, like stoner rock and post-rock. The end result is 52 minutes of boundary-baiting boldness; part Wizard, part Sasquatch, part Jupiter, all Awesome.

Listen to “The End” from Dead Roots Stirring!

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!