Psychedelic Rock

Netherlands – Severance Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on April 9, 2023 in Reviews, Noise Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Sludge, Sludge Metal, 19 comments

“Netherlands has been kicking, screaming, and blowing out subs with furiously fuzzed twangs for a little over ten years now. Up until receiving this promo for their seventh album, Severance, I had no idea this band existed. Powered primarily by Brooklyn native Timo Ellis, ever busy with various groups (Cibo Matto and Morningwood, to name a couple) ranging from power pop to stoner rock to art rock, Netherlands explores the loudest and proudest of what the multi-instrumentalist has assembled over the years.” No sleep til…Netherlands!

The Turin Horse – Unsavory Impurities Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on March 29, 2023 in Reviews, Hardcore, Noise, Noise Rock, Post-Hardcore, Psychedelic Rock, Sludge, Sludge Metal, 32 comments

“Just look at that cover! I didn’t quite care what it ended up being when I saw that brazenly bright, composite-faced figure with its many mouths open in… anguish? Excitement? Both? Of course, I knew it had to foreshadow noise to some degree—something so frighteningly stitched could only be the result of frequencies scraping the boundary between pique and pleasure.” Horse show.

REZN – Solace Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on March 23, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Shoegaze, 42 comments

“I admit, I avoided this band in the past because weed pun names rub me the wrong way. I have nothing against hazy plant explorations—I dabble—but you can only laugh so many times at joke titles like “Kief Castle” or Stoned Jesus. Heck I’m sure in the right state of mind I’ve even made my own joke band names. Chicago’s REZN isn’t here to joke around though. Eschewing comical escapism, this young quartet aims for a more conscious and guided meditation.” Two bongs may make a light.

No Spill Blood – Eye of Night Review

By Dolphin Whisperer on February 28, 2023 in Reviews, Post-Metal, Psychedelic Rock, 31 comments

“Guitars scream metal. We’ve mused around the idea that metal can escape the confines of a typical treble assault with bands like Greber and Twin Lords highlighting fervent and twisted bass melodies as the fright and flight of the program. In aggressive and emotional takes on sludge and hardcore, it works. Other acts like Seum eschew the standard 6-stringer cultivating a hypnotic groove—to a fault, perhaps—to carry their torch down the metal path. No Spill Blood falls closer to this category with their 2015 debut Heavy Electric holding a unique place in the stoner rock (ish) scene for elevating the groovy shred-less platform with fierce layers of synthwork.” Synth spillage.

Pelegrin – Ways of Avicenna Review

By Thus Spoke on February 17, 2023 in Reviews, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, 10 comments

“Over their wanderings through the desert, an ethereal soundscape of psychedelic rock ebbs and flows like the undulating dunes of sand. In a style that sways between chilled-out stoner and prog rock, Pelegrin paint a hazy desert vibe with a broad brush.” Desert planes.

Arthur Brown – Monster’s Ball [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]

By Felagund on January 6, 2023 in Things You Might Have Missed 2022, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, 43 comments

When I approached His Thiccness Lord Steel about writing up a TYMHM about the new album from shock rock godfather Arthur Brown, his response was much like one of his gorilla jabs: swift, accurate and painful (at least for Grier). “He’s the original Alice Cooper,” Steel said. “And by extension, the real King of Diamonds.” It was with these words of simian wisdom that I set out to dive deeper into this English octogenarian’s latest album Monster’s Ball. Of monsters and madmen.

Sammal – Aika laulaa Review

By Carcharodon on November 17, 2022 in Reviews, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, 23 comments

“Maybe it’s just me but, if I were looking to quote ‘rave reviews’ of a band, I wouldn’t necessarily single out the phrase “Earnest, vibrant music specked with impressive nuance.” Nevertheless, this is the phrase that a promo blurb writer selected from our review of Sammal’s last effort, Suuliekki. Treble Yell, who penned that review in March 2018, had gone on an entirely non-suspicious but very sudden and permanent sabbatical by the time I was press ganged into service later that year. But he clearly enjoyed, without loving, Suuliekki. Since then, Sammal has shed both its keyboard player and bassist. Perhaps you, like me, think that for a band like Sammal, which trades in progressive 70s-inspired neo-folk, both of those positions are fairly critical. Well, these three Finns laugh in your face.” Folk is not afraid of you.

Vitskär Süden – The Faceless King Review

By Huck N Roll on November 7, 2022 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, 12 comments

“Well, this is certainly a unique release in many ways, and thanks to the bureaucracy of our PDS this one slipped by everyone and right down to me. Meet Vitskär Süden, a progressive/psychedelic/overall trippy band that hails not from some esoteric land as the umlauts in their name might suggest, but rather from Los Angeles, California. These guys have been playing together in some form or other for around twenty years now, but as Vitskär Süden this is their second release. The Faceless King follows up 2020’s well-regarded eponymous debut.” Dungeons and prog kings.

Arkheth – Clarity Came with a Cool Summer’s Breeze Review

By Kenstrosity on September 29, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Symphonic Metal, 39 comments

“Even for I, Voidhanger, Clarity Came with a Cool Summer’s Breeze is a hallucinogenic odyssey of unreal proportions. In its wild ways of whimsy, I catch whiffs of everything ranging from Ved Buens Ende, Blut Aus Nord, Vulture Industries, and even The Beatles. With an expansive stylistic gamut to manage, it’s bewildering that Tyrone not only concocted a compelling compound with it, but also condensed it into a tight and twisted thirty-seven minutes.” Shrooms with a view.

King Buffalo – Regenerator Review

By GardensTale on September 10, 2022 in Reviews, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, 48 comments

Last year, in the midst of endless lockdowns, I got my lucky mittens on King Buffalo’s excellent The Burden of Restlessness. I had not heard another record that more perfectly encapsulated the experience of isolation resulting from the pandemic, nor have I since. The album was announced to be the start of a rapid-fire trilogy, the finale supposed to come out before the year was through. The vinyl crash elongated that schedule a tad, which caused part two, Acheron, to drop in the middle of list season and tumble between wall and ship. It had deserved better; not only is it a wondrous and otherworldly psychedelic trip, the whole album was recorded live in an actual cave for a unique sound not easily reproduced. So let me make it up to the band by at least addressing the closing chapter of the pandemic trilogy: Regenerator.” Royal animals.