Psychedelic Rock

Gone Cosmic – Send for a Warning, the Future’s Calling Review

By Kenstrosity on September 2, 2022 in Reviews, Hard Rock, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, 20 comments

“One of the cruelest fates to befall any given record that comes across my desk at Angry Metal Guy Judgment Emporium is to be totally forgotten. It happens, more often than I’d like. Gone Cosmic’s last record, Sideways in Time, succumbed to such a fate. It was a good record, with tons of groove and fronted by a passionate, powerful vocalist. But it was only because I caught the Canadian quartet’s upcoming sophomore full-length, Send for a Warning, the Future’s Calling, in the promo bin three years later that I remembered that Gone Cosmic existed.” Sleeping on the cosmos.

Lucid Grave – Cosmic Mountain Review

By Carcharodon on July 19, 2022 in Reviews, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, 22 comments

“I have recently come to the conclusion that it is sometimes a good exercise to deliberately review two records of the same genre back to back. Not to directly compare the two but to get one into the right mindset and to think about makes a great record in this particular field. And so it is that I find myself reviewing two stoner metal records in consecutive weeks. It’s lucky that I am not trying to compare them, however, as Copenhagen, Denmark’s Lucid Grave could not be more different—within the confines of stoner metal, anyway—from last week’s Holyroller.” Where the mountain meets the desert.

HolyRoller – Swimming Witches Review

By Carcharodon on July 13, 2022 in Reviews, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, 19 comments

“The stoner rock / stoner metal scene is one littered, perhaps more than many sub genres, with tepid mediocrity. One where the utterly forgettable bands seem to massively outnumber both the outstanding and the awe-inspiringly awful acts. While the likes of Clutch, Monster Magnet and Red Fang stand head and shoulders above most in the genre, I have begun to wonder whether there is something intrinsic in the style that leads to so much tediousness. Can North Carolina quartet HolyRoller buck this trend and avoid the apparent pitfalls that trap so many of their baked brethren to deliver something truly interesting with debut Swimming Witches?” Don’t witches just sink?

Wo Fat – The Singularity Review

By Huck N Roll on May 9, 2022 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, 22 comments

“Wo Fat and I go back a long ways. Some trivia for you before we dig in: my first ever Angry Metal Guy review was written in May of 2016, for the band’s Midnight Cometh album. But, dear readers, I hear you saying “Huckster, we never saw said review.” This is true. By the time Steel Druhm and myself sorted things out, my fully-edited review was a few weeks too late to post. It probably sucked as well, but the album didn’t. It isn’t possible for these guys to suck, to be honest. And now here we are, six years to the month later, and I can finally review a Wo Fat album for you.” Wo to you of earth and sea.

Alunah – Strange Machine Review

By Crispy Hooligan on April 16, 2022 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Rock, 32 comments

“Birmingham-based Alunah returns with their fourth album—Strange Machine—and second since the departure of founding members Sophie and David Day. As originally formulated, Alunah played straightforward—albeit folk-tinged—doom metal. Perhaps the biggest difference from doom in the vein of Saint Vitus is Alunah’s penchant for the bounce and swing of early Black Sabbath’s heavy blues.” Rage against the Strange Machine.

JIRM – The Tunnel, The Well, Holy Bedlam Review

By Huck N Roll on March 8, 2022 in Reviews, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, 5 comments

“The Tunnel, The Well, Holy Bedlam: one of the coolest album titles so far this year. It comes to us courtesy the psychedelic spaced-out minds of JIRM, known as Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibus until 2018’s Surge Ex Monumentis album. Now here they are four years older and wiser but presumably just as high, with their fifth album, and with a title like that (and some cool song titles as well) I’m intrigued despite my tepid thoughts on their last one.” Holy Batman.

Kryptograf – The Eldorado Spell Review

By Maddog on March 1, 2022 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, 11 comments

“With that album cover, you know exactly what you’re getting. You’ve heard it before – a bunch of musicians who smoked one too many joints in high school, and then one too many joints in college, and decided to share their boundless love for early Black Sabbath with the world. Norwegian four-piece Kryptograf is relatively new to the overcrowded stoner rock scene, but they made a splash with their self-titled 2020 debut, which melded vintage doom, hard rock, and psychedelic jams.” Loving the leaf.

Seremonia – Neonlusifer Review

By GardensTale on February 13, 2022 in Reviews, Psychedelic Rock, Stoner Metal, 14 comments

“If I have to attach a motto to Seremonia’s style, it would be ‘no school like old school.’ Old school here means raw psychedelic rock straight from the 70’s, its DNA profile demonstrating a direct descendancy from Hawkwind. There are two sides to this particular coin. One’s the rollicking hard rock with which the album bursts from its stable, where the deliberate lack of polish is particularly noticeable in the static-laden crunch and fuzz of the rambling riffs. The other is slow and experimental psych jam.” Jam the fuzz.

Space Coke – Lunacy Review

By Dear Hollow on February 5, 2022 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Sludge Metal, 9 comments

“Stoner doom, for as hallucinatory as their source material seems to be, tends to be fairly straightforward: just take some Black Sabbath riffs and crank the distortion while smoking some dope. I’ve tended to avoid these bands for this reason, that the latest iteration of Sleep isn’t something that gets my gears grinding. I’m already skeptical of heavy and doom metal, so why would I go for anything that is just an amped-up version of them? Well, why don’t you just ask Space Coke? “If the amp don’t smoke, it ain’t Space Coke,” after all.”” Big Pharma.

Obsidian Sea – Pathos Review

By Carcharodon on February 2, 2022 in Reviews, Alt-Metal, Psychedelic Rock, 18 comments

“Pathos is the fourth full-length from Bulgarian trio Obsidian Sea, and their second for current home, Ripple Music. It is also not at all what I was expecting. Obsidian Sea was unknown to me until I picked this up for review but, given the band name, I was expecting some dark and stormy prog, perhaps infused with elements of doom, sludge or even some epic post-metal. That is not what I got, however.” Choppy waters.