Occult Vibe Haven (OVH)
Some records hit you in the gut. Others in the teeth. This Side of the Dirt does both. First note drops and you feel it in your ribcage, like a van rolling over your spine. Dusted Angel didn’t come back to make a point – they came back because they couldn’t not. Fifteen years since […]
Danakil Heat don’t really sound like a new band anymore. There’s too much dirt in the gears for that. Doomsday Delight comes on quick – three tracks, no time to stretch – and still manages to feel bigger than it is. The fuzz hits first, that thick Helsinki tone, half-garage, half-machine. It doesn’t wait around […]
You can tell right away BREATH aren’t trying to make “songs”. Brahman sounds like they’re summoning something – slow, old, and not entirely friendly, but not evil either. It’s that big middle space between calm and collapse. Everything feels stretched out and deliberate, like they’re chasing the space inside the sound, not the sound itself. […]
It’s been four years since Two of Swords, and Bentrees finally drop Silver Veins. Six tracks, no filler, no showing off – just that thick, hypnotic low-end fuzz they’ve been hammering since the early days. Recorded at Sonusville Studio in Siliqua, it sounds like it – earthy, not overproduced, just real instruments in a room, […]
Stone Machine Electric don’t play songs so much as drop you inside them. Faces is six slabs of slow-burn hypnosis, the kind of record that doesn’t hurry to prove a damn thing. These Texans have been circling the underground for years, and you can hear the road miles baked into every stretch of feedback and […]
The first note hits, and the room smells of damp wood and a faint electric hum. Faces creeps in slowly, sticky in the air, settling into corners before you even notice. Zombie Eater have spent years in Helsinki basements and German backrooms, and you can hear the floors sagging under the weight, the lights flickering, […]
I came to Imperfection with a bit of caution, not because I doubted HEBI KATANA, but because after three albums of raw, sticky Tokyo doom, you start wondering how much more weight a trio can carry without spilling over into overkill. What hits first is how completely they don’t care about that question. The riffs […]
Some bands write songs. These maniacs in Liguria build collapsing wormholes and then jump inside. Sideral Voivod isn’t polished, it’s not safe, it’s a fuzz-drunk meteor crash rolling downhill until it smokes out the neighborhood. Heavy grooves that lurch and stagger, riffs like molten concrete, bass throb that sounds more animal than instrument. You can […]
From the rainy, gray corners of Portland, Oregon, a new monster crawls out of the sludge. Chaos and Catastrophes, the first full-length from Ravine, doesn’t bother with pleasantries – it hits you fast and leaves your head ringing like you just got flattened by a truck. This record smells like bourbon, burnt rubber, and wet […]
Nepal Death never sounded like a band that wanted to be filed neatly in the record store. With Pilgrims and Psychonauts they’ve doubled down on that instinct and made something that’s too heavy for the cosmic folk crowd, too freaked for the stoner riff bros, too raw for the synth fetishists. It’s not really about […]