Occult Vibe Haven (OVH)
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Well… Norwegian band White Tundra have only been around since 2023, but their second record already feels like they’re finding their own lane in the heavy underground. Stories from the Dark is six tracks of thick, fuzzy heavy rock that mixes stoner groove, doom weight and a distinct cold Nordic flavour. It’s not pure desert […]
Very interesting band from Milan, Italy. Sun Fall Down called the album Burn and it’s their first full one. Nine tracks plus a short intro on the digital version. The whole thing is built around an astronaut floating in black space with a sun in his hands. The artwork and lyrics make it clear, it’s […]
3+2 is one of those albums where nothing really jumps at you at first. It just starts and keeps going, and you kind of realize later you’ve been listening for a while. REPETITA IUVANT plays instrumental post-rock, but not the dramatic kind with big build-ups. More like repeating guitar ideas that slowly change while they’re […]