Stoner Metal

Monster Magnet – Last Patrol Review

By Steel Druhm on October 5, 2013 in 2013, 3.5, American Metal, Heavy Metal, Napalm Records, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Stoner Metal, 4 comments

“That sketchy van is back in town. You know, the one with New Jersey plates, mushrooms and wizards painted on the side and the “Free Candy” bumper sticker. And as usual, there’s more smoke pouring from the tinted windows than from the tailpipe. That can only mean Monster Magnet is back to drop more of their spaced-out, stoner-themed hard rock to conjures the era of bongos, free love and lava lamps. Coming off 2010s masterful Mastermind release, Dave Wyndorf and company had some big sandals to fill.” So how do you fill a sandal exactly? Monster Magnet fills it with rowdy, stripper club friendly rock and that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Windhand – Soma Review

By Steel Druhm on September 6, 2013 in 2013, American Metal, Doom Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Doom Metal, Stoner Metal, 9 comments

“Windhand is like the next door neighbor who walks around his front yard in tidy whities whilst swigging from a can of Rheingold ®. You want to like him, but he makes it really tough. As purveyors of super fuzzed-out, monolithic stoner doom, they’re often mentioned in the same breath as Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats; likely due to the groovy, 60s/70s style vocals they utilize. However, where Uncle Acid writes relatively short, hooky doom-rock anthems, Windhand opts for huge, laboriously slow, long-winded odes to mammoth distortion similar to Electric Wizard and Dopesmoker-era Sleep.” Windhand, the cult heroes of ginormous stoner doom/drone are back to oppress the masses with the power of THE RIFF! Will Steel Druhm be oppressed? He’s always so damn anti-authority, so who knows?

Nymf – From the Dark Review

By Steel Druhm on September 2, 2013 in 2013, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Swedish Metal, Transubstans Records, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, Stoner Metal, 2 comments

“Every now and then AMG himself deigns to drop an unknown chestnut of metal into my promo bin and demands my thoughtful analysis. From past experience, these have ended up being quite enjoyable surprises (Dofka, Degial). Now he’s provided me with From the Dark, the second release from the obscure Swedish stoner/doom act Nymf which walks the line between typical stoner acts like High on Fire and Orange Goblin, American trve metal like Argus and more traditional doom like Candlemass.” Rough n’ ready stoner/doom from Sweden sounds mighty good and Steel Druhm would usually order it from the menu, but will Nymf satisfy him or get sent back to the chef along with some choice words?

Hexvessel – Iron Marsh Review

By Steel Druhm on April 27, 2013 in 2013, 3.5, Finnish Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Stoner Rock, Svart Records, Progressive Metal, Stoner Metal, 8 comments

“Things seem to come on threes, be they good, bad or some combination thereof. As proof of this cosmic law, this week has graced me with three examples of stoner/doom/retro music: Ghost, Spiritual Beggars and now Hexvessel. I hadn’t heard of this oddball, psychedelic group of Finns until their No Holier Temple album last year, and I found myself quite taken with their folksy, trippy and hypnotic take on 60s and 70s rock.” And now they’re back with an EP that tells the rest of the story! Are you ready for more Finnish forest folk? You better be!

Moss – Horrible Night Review

By Noctus on April 11, 2013 in 2.0, 2013, Doom Metal, English Metal, Reviews, Rise Above Records, Sludge, Uncategorized, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal, 6 comments

“Even attempting to articulate just how great a band Moss are at what they do is a fool’s errand. Not only is their sound crushing and brooding beyond any band I’ve ever experienced but every new recording they release seems like a blue-moon event that simply cannot be missed. Horrible Night, Moss’ latest album, was met with an equal amount of excitement to die-hard fans, me among them — anxiously waiting for the follow-up to 2009’s absolutely monolithic Sub Templum, which is one of doom/drone metal’s best releases bar none.” Noctus tells you whether or not it was worth not sleeping or eating for months to get his hands on the very first copy of Horrible Night.