“The Midnight Ghost Train understand that they’ll find it difficult to survive in the avalanche of stoner-doom bands in existence these days, so they’ve taken a step back, dressed themselves in a morose southern armor, and decorated their largely hard-rock vehicle with funk, country, blues, stoner and sludge.” Watch for falling rock.
“Before we begin, let’s take a moment and admire the cover art to your left, shall we? Here we have Steel Druhm and a fellow soldier buddy, waging intergalactic war against alien things while the logo for Cleveland’s Contra may or may not cause Konami’s lawyers to give them a phone call quicker than one can shout, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.”” Ape escape and stoner grapes.
“Norway’s The Soundbyte, a project of The 3rd and the Mortal guitarist Trond Engum, seeks to improve the reputation of scene-setting noisescapes with its 4th experimental platter, Solitary IV. Full disclaimer, it’s only tangentially in the camp of metal, but few experimental albums are and the material on display here is not something we want to keep from you. Let’s get to it.” We’re givers.
“It’s occurred to me that when I go stoner, more times than not, I tend to lean against bands just west of me. Bands like Kyuss, Sleep, High on Fire—all residing in sunny California. Funny enough, my favorite stoner outfit is all the way out in England. Hell, if you were to look at my stoner collection, you’d think Orange Goblin was an outlier and that stoner metal was an American thing. And my review of Temptation’s Wings newest record wouldn’t challenge that assumption. And now, the stoner bug has bit old Grier once again. I desire something to make my eyes puffy, my ears happy, and chill me the fuck out.” Lead or gold?
“Every so often, an album comes out of nowhere and truck sticks you into next Tuesday. Elder’s 2015 opus Lore did that for me. Their complex brand of New England stoner metal featured the right amount of proggy psych stylings to land in my personal Top Ten. Lore has been a constant friend these last two years, and I expected that topping it would be tough, given its lofty heights and incredible riffcraft. Leave it to Reflections of a Floating World to prove me so incredibly wrong.” Respect your Elder.
“As anyone who knows me well enough can attest, I function in strange ways. I enjoy my iced coffee in the wintertime. In the summertime, though, when everyone is either at the beach or cruising down the highway of their choice, I prefer to shutter myself in my house, grab a beer, and listen to either Kyuss or funeral doom. Strange, I know, but there’s something to be said about taking it easy on days where it’s overly sunny and hot as balls outside. So imagine my delight when I discovered La Mort de L’Infidele by France’s Sektarism in the promo bin, just waiting for me to engage in enough summertime sadness to make Lana Del Ray blush.” There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.
“Feast your eyes on that cover! There be breasts, beasts and planetary bodies. If there was ever a piece of truly van worthy art, this is that thing. As impressive as the art is, this here is a music review site, or so I’ve been told. That requires me to delve into the sounds Mothership deliver on their third album of 70s influenced stoner rock curiously titled High Strangeness.” Could the music ever match that glorious cover art?
“One of death metal’s weirdest phenomenon was the so-called ‘death ‘n’ roll’ movement. First popularized by albums like Entombed’s Wolverine Blues and Carcass’s Swansong, death ‘n’ roll is kind of like your weird older cousin at the family reunion. On one hand, you have to love him because he’s family — but at the same time, nobody really talks about him or seems to be totally comfortable in his presence. Point is, death ‘n’ roll is one of those genres that most people seem to tolerate rather than actually enjoy, and maybe that’s why bands like Lubricant are so often overlooked.” Death rock in a tight place.
“Supersonic Rock’n Roll is a hard hitting redneck rampage through the dusty deserts of the Australian outback. If you’ve never been, Zombie Motors is about to take you on a tour, like it or not.” Undead outback tours? That could be a money maker!
“Have you ever gone camping, and that one friend brings his guitar to play songs around the fire? But the thing is, he can’t really play, he’s a shitty singer, and he only knows Bob Seger songs. You sit there saying to yourself, ‘I wish I was actually camping with rock legend John Garcia. That would be the best camping trip ever.’” Cold breeze, clean air….
