BAD GUYS - Bad Guynaecology (Album Review)

"There is no meaning and that's the point, there is no point at all"

I was introduced to Bad Guys by Joop Konraad of The Stoner Hive blog. They grabbed me and put me in the back of a van, they stripped me down to my tighty whiteys, tied me up, gagged me and forced me to "Witness a New Low" ... metaphorically. Before you get the impression that this is one of those social justice "call-out" articles, let me say that although part of me was more than a little repulsed and appalled by what the band did to me (...metaphorically), I secretly enjoyed the experience and would have gladly taken seconds ... though I'd never mention so in polite company.

Enter the band's second album, suitably titled "Bad Guynaecology". Bad Guys are here to make you feel uncomfortable, from the traumatizing album cover on down. They're the funky uncles, the politically incorrect raconteurs of hard rock. Like Jesus before them, Bad Guys take the losers of society on board and give them a voice. But before you get the impression that this band is all fun all the time and that their music is inconsequentially light, understand that behind all the madcap storytelling sits a heavy nihilistic spirit. While clowns may grin but weep inside, Bad Guys leer while numb inside.

The opening track, "Crime" is a vivid and memorable tale about shoplifting. It's told in the spoken/sung style reminiscent of Suicidal Tendencies's "Institutionalized" (as an easy example). The story is told from the shoplifter's point of view as he goes through the motions and emotions of the crime. While the shoplifter's motivations may be slight and spoiled, it matters to him and the force of its telling makes it matter to us. The rogue's gallery exhibit continues on the next song, "Prostitutes (Are Making Love In My Garden)", featuring a catalog of Bad Guy observations about the world's oldest profession is exactly the kind of song you'd think twice about playing in front of sweet little old ladies.

What makes Bad Guys good is that they don't shy away from the grimy underside of life, they turn over the rocks in society and observe and record the scurryings. This is science, the study of absurdity. The song "Reaper" says it all, really: "There is no meaning and that's the point, there is no point at all".

Musically, the band is adventurous, but favors a rough stomping ground, offering 8 songs and 40 minutes of hard rockin' good times. There's a good amount of variation here and Bad Guys are coming from a punk-ish place, spiritually, but to me the highlight of the album is the storytelling, which is unusual because I typically tune lyrics out and listen to the vocal melodies.

Rating: «««½ / 5

'Bad Guynaecology' is released on CD and LP by Riot Season Records, you can order a copy at this location.

Bad Guys on facebook
Riot Season Records on facebook



Here's a video to play for sweet little old ladies:

BLACK RAINBOWS - Hawkdope (Album Review)

If you don't know by know, then 'Hawkdope' should cement things for you: Black Rainbows are one of the best rock bands in the world. The consistently high level of artistry of the band's output over the course of eight years, four albums, one E.P. and a highly regarded 4-way split album is staggering. I wrote about them once before, for the 'Holy Moon' E.P. which you can find at this location, but I'm not sure I drove the above point home enough in that one. This is the band's first full-length album since 2011's 'Supermuthafuzzalicious!!' and in that time some things have changed and some have stayed the same. Let's get into it ...

I caught on to Black Rainbows very early on in my discover of the underground stoner rock world. Before facebook, before the Paranoid blog, way back when I was deep down the wormhole of youtube suggested video links. I heard a song off of the band's 2010 album 'Carmina Diabola' and it blew my tiny, insignificant mind. When I finally tracked the album down I wasn't disappointed, it was a masterpiece. It's just a collection of 10 straight forward scorchers with some proggy elements. The same can be said of the above-mentioned follow-up from 2011. I saw 2013's 'Holy Moon' EP as somewhat of a departure. The band was spreading their psychedelic wings to a certain extent, with songs like "Chakra Temple" and the title track, it was an experimental effort. The band has always had a touch of Hawkwind in them, but I don't think anybody could have expected the "sound paintings" sections found on the EP.

'Hawkdope' is classic Black Rainbows, but they've retained more than just a hint of those psychedelic tendencies to stay true to their label name (Heavy Psych Sounds). For the most part, the new album is stuffed full with head-down rockers, but room is made for smoke-blown sections and ripping solos. This is Black Rainbows gone cosmic, but staying within the lines of their established boundaries. The Italian trio subtly deviates from the formula here, musically and structurally and the result is a more dynamic album. Though the pausey rhythms that characterized earlier albums have largely been jettisoned here, the stripped down approach acts as a stage II rocket, propelling the band into the cosmos. Musical boundaries have been eliminated, this is the band's apotheosis. Black Rainbows can go anywhere from this point, the nine-minute title track is proof of that.

'Hawkdope' will be released this Saturday, March 14 by Heavy Psych Sounds, but you can stream the entire album right now over at The Obelisk website.

Rating: «««« / 5

Black Rainbows on facebook
Heavy Psych Sounds on facebook

BRETUS - The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Album Review)

I've been sitting on this potboiler for about three months now, keeping mum about it and it's been killing me. I wanted to hold off on talking about this album until there was a solid timetable for its release. Well, I still haven't seen an exact date for its release from Blood Rock Records, but the band said March, so that's close enough.

Bretus's new album is riffier and probably better than its predecessor, 'In Onirica' which I happened to like a great deal (two years ago this month I posted the review at this location). While the new album has lost some the prog appeal of the last one, it aligns more closely with throwback metal bands like Devil or Demon Eye, whose albums made the top three in my best of lists for 2013 and 2014 respectively, so you know I'm biased towards this kind of sound to begin with. But why wouldn't I be? This is exactly what I'm looking for: it's heavy, riffy, sounds like the kinds of albums I'd heard in my uncle's basement suite in the mid-80's and isn't alienatingly overproduced.

The first bit of info about the album I'll arm you with is that it's a concept album. As your inner Sherlock Holmes can surmise 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is about the seminal H.P. Lovecraft tale of the same name. The story is broken down here, quite well actually, with each song title breaking down the story in chronological order. Interestingly, I was in the middle of reading this story when the album was sent to me. Still am in fact because as a pure piece of writing, it's not one of Lovecraft's best. But the story resonates. It's about "otherness" and true alien-ness, and perhaps in a bout of self-awareness, Lovecraft turned the tables on himself, to see his xenophobia through the other side of the lens. Or maybe he was just trying to shock. None if which is here nor there really.

'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' is full with riffs the way a mother shark is full with shark babies. The crispest example is third track "Captain Obed Marsh". I put it on a podcast weeks ago and I still haven't gotten over this song. The whole first half of the album is a gallery of riffs, the Italian band puts on a clinic here.

On the second half of the album, the mood darkens considerably, starting with "The Oath of Dagon" as narrator Robert Olmstead runs into increasing danger. The atmosphere grows darker and increasingly frantic and claustrophobic. The listener loses some of "easy-listening" nature of those bright, memorable side one riffs on side two, but by then you're already knee deep in the story of the album and pulled along compulsively. That said, the darker side isn't without its thrills. "The Horrible Hunt" stands alone, musically with its cycle of almost black metal riffing, near thrash tempo and doom metal bridge. It's a tour de force.

If the idea of adapting Lovecraft's famous tale appeals to you, you should check out the 2001 film Dagon from director Stuart Gordon (the best interpreter of Lovecraft's stories). It's a loose adaptation of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" that plays a bit like Night of the Living Dead with horribly deformed fish people in the place of zombies. I recommend it as highly as I do this album.

It was incredibly difficult not to put this album in my top 2014 list, but I wanted to play by the rules, this album being destined for a 2015 release, it didn't belong on a 2014 list. But I can tell you right now, that this album is best of 2015 list bound. Three months after first hearing it, I haven't stopped listening to it and I'm sure that this album will take its place among the two albums mentioned above along with Magister Templi's 'Lucifer Leviathan Logos' as timeless metal albums that will never grow old.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Bretus on facebook

QUEEN CRESCENT - Self-Titled (Album Review)

This is great stuff.

Queen Crescent is an all woman band from the Bay Area of California who make heavy, dark and punky stoner doom rock with flute. Comparisons will be made to Blood Ceremony and maybe even Jethro Tull, but should be avoided. These ladies do their own thing, and that thing is spectacular. These heavy ladies will also be lumped in with the occult rock label and there's some truth to that if you look at the song "Majic Moonjynuh", but this album is no more occult related than any other rock n roll album to emerge since Bill Haley & the Comets told the world what time it is.

Main vocalist Andrea Genevieve automatically brings to mind Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, especially on the album's best song, "Culture Vulture". But we're only talking tone of voice here, because she's singing from a low register. As far as what's going on musically, Queen Crescent are in a class of their own. It's hard to imagine flute as a blunt object for instance. It's used almost as a percussion instrument in this standout track, but if it can be done flautist / vocalist Melissa Vu will find a way to do it.

Flute is a huge part of what shapes Queen Crescent's sound, it's treated as a lead instrument. This allows the incredibly low-tuned guitars to slide under the radar and hit the listener on an almost subconscious level. This is what gives the music its dark and mysterious overtone. Some might hear it and read the sound as "occult", but what they're hearing is the contrast that springs from the interplay. The light tones of the flute, playing a darkened melody with that basso rumble underneath has a somewhat hypnotic effect. The musical mysticism expressed on this album is more attuned to the true magical experience of psychedelics than the often overblown imagery of the stirring of cauldrons and the riding of broomsticks.

What really matters is the music itself and this 7-song, 33-minute debut is potent stuff. Powerful vocals, solid melodies, heavy riffs and killer flute are all driven along at a solid pace from the back end by drummer Amy Martinez. You get an easy sense of the tongue-in-cheek sensibilities of the band with song titles like the above-mentioned "Majic Moonjynuh" and the short warm-up of "In the Court of the Crescent Queen". Also, any outfit that gives a respectful nod to the iron-fisted musical gymnastics of Mr. Fripp and company are alright in my book.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

You can find out more about this hard-working, up-and-coming band at the following links:

Queen Crescent official website
Queen Crescent on bandcamp
Queen Crescent on facebook
Queen Crescent on twitter
Queen Crescent on instagram

'Queen Crescent' is now available on LP and digitally. Check out the album on the player below

EVIL INVADERS - Pulses of Pleasure (Album Review)

Every now and then an album comes out of the blue and surprises you. I wasn't expecting much when I came across the new Evil Invaders album, I wasn't expecting anything really, and it floored me. I tend to focus on stoner rock and doom metal when it comes to new music and Evil Invaders isn't that. They're a throwback band, rooted in the mid-80's era of freewheelin' thrash. It was a time when genre boundaries were being erected, but were small enough to look over to the other side, when metal was just metal, not specific sub-types. It was a time when bands were carving out their own niche and creating their own legend. This Belgian quartet comes from that iconoclastic mold-breaking state of mind.

The first thing you're likely to notice is the rubber burning riffery of the opening measures of "Fast, Loud n Rude" (see video below). The song works like the introductory abstract to a thesis paper. "On this album, this is what you should expect" and the outline is executed to perfection. Evil Invaders are often categorized as Speed Metal, but as I mentioned earlier, it's so much more than that. There is technical excellence and breakneck speeds on display but what remains is the feel, the mood of the album. It's a stiff finger in the face of any self-proclaimed authority that would impose any kind of limitation on the band.

The second thing you're likely to notice about this band are the crazy vocals of axe-wielding frontman Joe. There's nothing understated about this band. Every performance is a tour de force, every act is death-defying and that spirit is embodied in those vocals. They sit on the high end and take flights of fancy nearly every line of every verse. Far from being annoying or showy, Joe is the musical soul brother of those early metal vocalists. The overall throwback style also places Evil Invaders genetically as the faster, more obnoxious (in a great way!) cousins of New York leather-bound metallers Natur and London's Amulet among a host of others. But few if any get that mid-80's metal spirit dead on ... while progressing it, the way Evil Invaders do.

After a self-released a demo appeared in 2009 ('D-emokill') and having recorded a self-titled E.P. for Empire Records back in 2013, this is the band's first full-length album. It will be released by Napalm Records on various dates in different territories over the next couple of days and weeks. Here's your timetable courtesy of the label:

G/A/S/Europe/AUS: 27.02.2015
UK/NO/FR/DK/IT: 02.03.2015
SE/ESP: 04.03.2015
USA/CAN: 10.03.2015

You can pick up the album on CD or vinyl (3 options) at this location.

Rating: «««« / 5

Evil Invaders facebook page

TAKEN BY THE SUN - Self-Titled (Album Review)

Incredible cover artwork by Nick Keller.

It's not everyday you come across a band that describes their music as "Post-Metal / Jazz / Doom / Ambient Sludge", so it's with a high level of awareness that you approach Chicago's Taken By the Sun. You just know you're going to either love the music ... or despise it deeply and passionately.

Taken By the Sun's self-titled debut is progressive in the truest sense, it speaks the language of stoner and doom metal but invents new phrases, crashing the borders of both extreme and post-metal styles along the way. The patchwork monster of sounds and styles isn't entirely unlike what a Neurosis would produce with the "kitchen sink metal" sensibilities of Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals thrown in. You may hear an odd-time hammer slam of a drum beat with a haunting melody plucked away in the background before the two elements switch places of prominence. You might hear dry throat cries mingling with melodic vocals atop a choppy chaotic sea of noise, before the entire structure solidifies and girders itself with a stoner riff.

But apart from what sounds familiar, there are times you will hear things on this album you've never heard before, like the soaking wet modulating bass tone of the incredible "Red" or the "bone-dance" riffing in parts of "Volatile". The magnum opus of this first outing would have to be the closing track "Ornaflux", which was premiered over at the terrific Sludgelord blog. You can listen to that track at this location. It's a good introduction to the band, it shows what they're all about, a bludgeoning attack buffeted by polyrhythms, around the world melding of styles a head-sploding chaotic chorus and it just so happens to be a great song to boot. It's incredible when you hear it to think that the album was recorded live with minimal overdubs.

This all might sound like direction-less nonsense, but that's my words failing, not the band. The styles in the utility belt may clash, but each is used in its proper place. This band is Batman. The raw elements of sound are then re-combined in novel ways, by finding just the right mixture to create a powerful new beast never before glimpsed by man. This band is Mr. Hyde.

The album goes live on Taken By the Sun's bandcamp page tomorrow, February 24.

Rating: «««« / 5

Taken By The Sun facebook page

Official website

SATURNALIA TEMPLE - To The Other (Album Review)

Cover artwork by Manuel Tinnemans & Michael Idehall.

Saturnalia Temple first caught my attention when I heard the delay-beset title track from their 'Aion of Drakon'. I've been mildly obsessed with the album ever since. It's such a unique sounding song and really the whole record is like that. It's only later you find out the band doesn't play "shows", they play "rituals" and that they take their noggin-exploding quite seriously. It only makes their efforts all the more impressive: it's one thing to stumble upon a unique and awesome sound, it's another to make a conscious effort to reach for the moon and scrape blue cheese dust off your fingertips when you're done.

Saturnalia Temple has returned with their second full-length album. The first thing I noticed is that it's not as experimental as 'Aion ...' which gives 'To The Other' a more streamlined and focused feel. Maybe it's because of the absence of the delay effect on the vocals, which has been a staple of the band. It really makes things disorienting, in a good way, and lends the music the elan of a sleazy drug trip. I didn't notice any vocal effects at all on this record, and it gives things a cleaned-up feel.

If you haven't heard Saturnalia Temple in a while you forget just how heavy they are, this album will remind you. Despite any streamlining, their distinctive blending of expansive space rock adornments with evil vibes and void-black riffs ensures they remain one of the more memorable bands from Stockholm or anywhere else on the planet. The closest to 'Aion ...' the band ventures is album closer "Void", which makes smart use of delay and repeat effects to bring the spookiness to cacophonous levels.

They don't put releases out one after another, this is just the band's second full-length album in nearly 10 years of existence and first in four years, but when they speak I listen. Saturnalia Temple isn't the kind of band to waste even a second of their record or your time, if they do something you better believe it's to achieve a particular effect. They can have such tight control over their output and still sound wild and free ... and that can be a double edged sword.

I'm not sure exactly how the album was recorded, but it doesn't feel like it was recorded live with everybody all jamming in the same room. It just doesn't have the loose, improvisational feel of earlier recordings. Main man Tommie and full-time bassist Peter are aided and abetted on 'To The Other' by American drummer Tim Call of the black metal band The Howling Wind and funeral doom band Aldebaran among others. He's a prolific recording artist in his own right having drummed on well over a half dozen records from different bands in the past couple years. He also played with Saturnalia Temple on their brief American excursion in 2013. One thing is clear, when you compare 'To The Other' to their original 'Ur' demo, you hear immediately how far this band has come.

But, it's hard to say a more polished-sounding Saturnalia Temple is a better Saturnalia Temple, and yet 'To The Other' is still a terrific album.

I'm skeptical of anything released in the first quarter or even half of the year ending up on year end lists because music people have the memory of goldfish. That's not a harsh criticism, art is inherently disposable, it's more ephemeral than clothing for example, and less utilitarian. But I'd still be surprised if this album didn't end up on more than just a couple year end lists.

'To The Other' is available to order right now at the links provided below, and will begin shipping out tomorrow, February 23.

Rating: ««««½ / 5

Saturnalia Temple facebook page

Official website

Order the album:

The Ajna Offensive (North America)
Listenable Records (Europe)

MISTY GREY - Grey Mist (Album Review)

This is throwback music best described 

in terms of an evolutionary throwback animal.

Wait a minute! Don't hang up that phone. The voice you hear on the other end is bizarre and confusing. It's hard to incorporate because it's so unconventional, but that doesn't mean it ought to be rejected outright. I'm telling you this for your own good, because that helium-infused voice you hear belongs to a witch and a witch scorned becomes a feast of shit for your life. If you turn your back now to the Misty Grey it will come back to haunt you.

I understand why you want to run in the opposite direction, believe me. I've been there. We've all been to a haunted place like this, a crossroads between worlds. I had the same initial reaction, but trust me it'll go better for you if you don't resist.

Encountering Misty Grey for the first time is to first encounter the opposite sex. It's a frustrating challenge but the sooner you fight through the initial bouts of loathing, the sooner you'll realize that there are tantalizing mysteries behind the surface. To encounter Misty Grey is to encounter "the other", and we know enough now not to reject something out of hand because it is different from the norm. When you fight through the dread, you will understand the pleasures inherent in such "difference". To reject Misty Grey is to fear the unknown and to fear the unknown is to lie to oneself, because underneath it all, originality is the currency of art and art is truth.

The vocals will challenge you as they challenged me. I was able to see past the illusion and I saw the witch behind it, that is my great fortune. Now I've joined the Misty Grey witch cult.

Go with your gut, go with that initial reactions that was ready to go to war with the band when you first heard the heavy riffs. You haven't heard riffs this raw since Pentagram. Imagine or remember what the reaction was when people first heard Saint Vitus or Trouble or Cirith Ungoll or Kyuss. These are bands you and I might take for granted today, but they all feature vocalists not even their Grandmas could love. Remember that over time, people came to think even pugs were cute. Pugs!

Initially pugs were palace guard dogs in China. Roughly the size of a Saint Bernard, twice as mean as a Pit Bull, and uglier than hell. 'Grey Mist' is really no different. This is throwback music best described in terms of an evolutionary throwback animal. The vocals will make you feel uncomfortable and uncertain, but there's no mistaking the music. The overall effect is akin to the uncanny valley experienced when we see near-human automata. It's almost right, but there's just something a little off about it. I guarantee you after the second listen you won't even remember what you thought was so weird about it in the first place. But that might just be the witch hypnotizing you. Either way you won't care, you'll be happy. It's okay, you can go ahead and trust me on this. Now ... join us!

Rating: ««««« / 5

Misty Grey facebook

'Grey Mist' is currently available to download on the player below. Shadow Kingdom Records will soon release a cassette version of the album, followed by a CD version.

Shadow Kingdom Records webstore