Occult Vibe Haven (OVH)
Cløudy Skies had me waiting for the guitars to turn ugly. There’s plenty of time spent with these clean, ringing melodies, and I like the sound of them, but I kept wanting the duo to push things further instead of letting another stretch of dreamy atmosphere roll by. When the heavier parts finally kick in, […]
IRATA have been around since 2007, yet here we are with only their fourth full-length. Seven years have passed since Tower, and Human doesn’t sound like a band desperately trying to make up for lost time. Quite the opposite, actually. These eight songs take their time, sometimes to a fault, but there’s enough going on […]
Twenty years as a band, four full-length albums, and enough long breaks to make that anniversary feel a little questionable even to the people celebrating it. Our Ceasing Voice have never been the most predictable outfit, and The Origin of Everything comes after another stretch of silence, with songs rescued from abandoned sessions and newer […]
There was always more to WITCH RIPPER than the sludge tag suggested. The Seattle quartet started out heavier and rougher, but HOMESTEAD already showed a band that wasn’t particularly interested in staying in one lane. THE FLIGHT AFTER THE FALL pushed the progressive side further. THROUGH THE HOURGLASS continues that move, although the biggest change […]
Lord Elephant come from Florence and have been making instrumental heavy psych since 2016. Their second full-length, Ultra Soul, is a seven-track slab of doom, blues, stoner rock and psychedelic wandering, released through Heavy Psych Sounds. The big difference from their debut Cosmic Awakening seems to be experience. The band have spent a lot of […]
The lack of guitar is probably the first thing people will mention about Mama Doom. Fair enough. But after a while it isn’t really the interesting part of Eminent Womb anymore. Chuckie Rumbles’ bass carries enough weight to keep the songs firmly in doom territory, while D. Lolli’s keyboards give the album its stranger side […]
Paranoid Reverb’s Red River Black Roots is the kind of record that makes more sense with some volume behind it. The Thessaloniki band started in 2020, released their debut Billion Drops, and now return six years later with a darker and heavier second album, their first for Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records. The main ingredients […]
There is a point with heavy psych records where you know within the first few minutes whether you’re going to spend the next forty minutes actually listening or simply letting a bunch of fuzz, reverb and tasteful guitar noodling happen somewhere in the background. Pelegrin fortunately belong to the first category. The French trio have […]
FANE never really tried to flatten me with this record. Funny thing is, I expected exactly that. Louisiana sludge, two people, an album called Armageddon Scars… I figured it’d come straight out swinging. It doesn’t. The heavier parts are all there, but they don’t arrive in a rush. The record seems perfectly happy letting things […]
Some records ask for your full attention. This one just assumes you’ll give it. Seeing two tracks stretching past twenty minutes each made me hesitate for a second. Progressive rock has a habit of mistaking length for substance, and I’ve heard enough albums where twenty minutes could’ve easily been cut to ten. That never really […]