Witching Chronicles: Exploring Our Ceasing Voice’s The Origin of Everything
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 […]
Album Premiere & Review: Mama Doom – Eminent Womb
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 […]
Album premiere: FANE – Armageddon Scars
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 […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring A World Worth Burning’s The Sky Was Colored as Hammered Lead
Instrumental post-metal can lose me fast if the riffs aren’t carrying enough weight, or if the atmospheric parts feel like they’re just filling time. The Sky Was Colored as Hammered Lead never really had that problem. The whole thing runs like one long piece more than eight separate tracks. I didn’t even catch where one […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring BANTORIAK’s Vol. II
The first few minutes just sort of drifted by, and I wasn’t sure where BANTORIAK were trying to take things. But somewhere along the way I stopped waiting for a big moment to happen and started enjoying the ride for what it was. This is one of those albums that works best when you let […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Mandy Manala’s Something Wicked
The first thing I noticed about Something Wicked wasn’t the riffs. It was the voice. A lot of bands working somewhere between occult rock, doom and heavy rock end up treating vocals like another layer of atmosphere. Mandy Manala go in the opposite direction. Christa NedergĂĄrd sits right in the middle of everything, and after […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Sons of Ghidorah’s Raining Fire
Some bands spend years trying to “expand the genre”. Sons Of Ghidorah sound more interested in plugging straight into a giant amplifier and seeing how much weight they can push through it before the walls crack. “Raining Fire” sits somewhere between stoner rock, doom, heavy psych and old-school heavy rock, but the album never feels […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Mörkekraft’s Fragments
Mörkekraft is a Norwegian band doing that mix of heavy rock, stoner stuff, and some lighter psychedelic touches. They’re just shaping familiar ideas in their own way and seeing where it lands. I’ve seen the album mostly placed somewhere between stoner rock and melodic hard rock, with a bit of that older classic guitar-rock thinking […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring DROMOS’ Failing Light
DROMOS are from North London, started back in 2019. This is their first full album after a couple of tracks they put out on Dry Cough last year. Coming out May 15th on Argonauta. Some of the guys have been in Grave Miasma and other underground bands, so they know what they’re doing with heavy […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Solar Mantra’s State of Joyful Lightness
Rome-based, started off more instrumental, now fully locked into a stoner rock framework with vocals, but that description already sounds more stable than the record actually feels. What they’re doing still sits in stoner rock world, but it’s not the comfortable, nostalgic kind. There’s a rougher edge here, sometimes leaning into grunge weight, sometimes drifting […]