CROBU - More Than This (Album Review)

Release Date: May 22nd 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

More Than This - Tracklisting

More Than This

Crows

Awake

The Bleed

Violet

Full Speed Ahead

Even Worse

I Am The Leaf

Members

Andrea (Guitar)

Federico (Vocals)

Alessandro (Drums)

Lorenzo (Bass).

Review

More Than This is the debut album from Stoner Metallers CROBU who add a menacing NOLA momentum to their music with the band inspired by the likes of DOWN, Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar. The band offset this NOLA murky style of melody against the likes of KYUSS, Black Sabbath and SLEEP. Their debut album is quite a murky and unsettling affair which doesn’t skimp on the aggressive slabs of WEEDIAN based heaviness. CROBU excel in delivering a style of distorted, down tuned and fuzzed out musical passages which has a delicate level of pissed off aggression.

CROBU’s sound isn’t the most polished around with the band adapting a lo-fi quality to their music which allows More Than This to have quite an exciting and unpredictable aura of quality from the very start. The album does feel like a NOLA and SOUTHERN METAL album at first especially within the storming opening tracks of More Than This, Crows and Awake.

However, little by little, CROBU start adding traces of modern day Stoner Metal into the music which gives a record slightly drugged out aesthetic with some classic WEEDIAN musical interplay happening between, Andrea, Alessandro and Lorenzo providing the musical chops for Federico to inject his intense and grizzled musical persona into the mix.

The lyrics are quite grounded with a simple premise to them but they get the job done with CROBU becoming ever more confident with each passing moment. The grooves become more aggressive and super intricate with a grizzled determination exploding into fucked up FUZZ METAL instrumental solos. The music becomes even faster and quite psychedelic with the NOLA creative fumes taking a back seat on the later parts of the album.

You can detect a slight movement into European based Stoner Rock/Metal reminiscent of the likes of DOZER and ORANGE GOBLIN in places which gives a grittier style of melody to develop on tracks such as Violet, Full Speed Ahead and I Am The Leaf.  CROBU have crafted quite a superbly entertaining debut album that covers a wide range of the whole modern day Stoner Rock/Metal scene while allowing themselves to play other areas of music such as Fuzz, Psych. Sludge and Grunge. 

More Than This feels like CROBU have been around for the last thirty years of the whole Stoner Metal movement as this record has a timeless quality to it all. You’ll be surprised what CROBU has in store for you with this outstanding debut album. Add this great album to your collection at the earliest opportunity as these guys are the real deal. End Of!!!

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to CROBU f0r the promo.

More Than This will be available to buy soon on CD/DD/Vinyl.

Links 

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Fossile - No King (Album Review)

Release Date: May 15th 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

No King - Tracklisting

1.Metro Map of Veins 05:49

2.Mongolia 06:02

3.Guardian 05:59

4.Master Race 05:40

5.No King 04:50

6.Hopeless 05:27

7.Sick Dimension 06:31

Review

Firstly I have to thank Doomcakes from the amazing blog Screaming From The Heavy Underground for this great recommendation. As this awesome album would have passed me by.

Finnish Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metallers Fossile debut album No King is quite an electrifying mix of different heavy sounds from the underground scene inspired by the likes of Thin Lizzy, Mastodon, MONOLORD, DOZER and LOWRIDER. The band have a superbly socially aware conscience within their hard hitting lyrics that give this record an extra layer of pissed off aggression whilst keeping in with the grounded reality of the modern day scene. There’s some classic hard rock instrumental solos that remind me of Thin Lizzy and DOZER which allows Fossile to play a fast paced style of Sludge/Stoner Metal throughout the whole album.

Fossile are adept at employing a dangerous style of AMPLIFIER HEAVINESS into their music that fans of MONOLORD will go crazy for as the music can be deliberately slow at times which allows their DOOM METAL persona to take complete control on tracks such as Metro Map Of Veins, Mongolia and Guardian.

There’s also a thrilling NORDIC style of Prog Metal that starts to develop that allows the vocals to have a more restrictive and earnest delivery to them. This allows the record to have a more human and organic feeling especially when the dual vocals take a commanding presence throughout the whole of Fossile’s musical delivery. You can feel that intense Sludge Metal sound coming at you from all directions which is quite a familiar and highly effective musical weapon from the Finnish Heavy Metal Scene that I’ve seen used with bands such as Demonic Death Judge. 

No King runs for forty minutes across seven tracks and feels quite longer than it actually is. That’s a good thing as Fossile do many different progressive things with their music which is superbly original on different parts of the album. As I’ve stated previously, this is quite an aggressive and emotionally charged record but one that’s packed full of sublime melodies that have a graceful atmosphere to them. Fossile know when to drop the hammer and play a thuggish vibe to their music but they show great musicianship when playing a more mellow Post-Stoner delivery which leaves you fully satisfied on tracks such as Master Race, No King and Sick Dimension.

This is a record that’s bold enough to comment on the fucked up moments currently going on with the world and Fossile standing by their convictions which I fully endorse. This is a record with BRAINS and BRAWN in equal measure with Fossile demonstrating a great level of maturity you rarely expect within a debut album but these guys are the real deal.

They’re bound to have an exciting future within the underground scene that should hopefully see them gain a loyal following and release more outstanding records in the future such as this one.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Links 

BandCamp | Instagram

Doom/Sludge Outfit Blüdwyrm Prepare To Release The Blissful Sleep Of Ignorance on Road To Masochist

From Dorset’s gently undulating chalk downs and ancient woodlands comes a new and far from picturesque entry into the UK’s proud annals of down-tuned, dirt-encrusted, slow-motion metal. Despite only lurching into existence in 2025, Blüdwyrm are already building a formidable reputation for themselves with their snarling collision of soul-shaking doom and feral sludge. They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Witchsorrow, Viking Skull, Mephistofeles, Komatsu, Bile Caster, Nomadic Rituals, Bismut and many more – and this summer their debut EP is set to be unleashed. Prepare for the suppurating sound of The Blissful Sleep Of Ignorance!

This trip into the underworld begins with the lead weight ‘Preacher Of My Own Demise’, which rumbles into life on the back of a thick, rolling riff with a snarling stoner groove, before its own colossal mass sends it sliding over the edge of a crevasse, into a slough of sludge and inescapable sucking filth. With all light extinguished we find ourselves in the dark caverns of ‘Isolate’, where a raw, bleeding vocal intones a trance inducing invocation over a relentless, pulsing crawl towards the grave. 

This is oppressive and lightless…doomed, damned and dying. Next up in this litany of grim deeds, ‘The Vultures’ may start with a ragged and stained, rattling groove but it soon collapses into a pained crawl - slower and slower, crushing you down into the dirt – before rearing to its feet with a wailing solo for a last charge to its broken conclusion. Morose, regretful, echoing notes then summon into half-life the decimating, desecrating monster that is ‘Pesticides’. 

A vein of sorrow, like a stream of polluted blood runs through the depths of this ragged ravine, carved out by world-eating riffs, while coruscating vocals and tumbling drums supply the momentum to carry this dying behemoth across the finish line to the accompaniment of wails of agonised feedback. The Blissful Sleep Of Ignorance feels sick and wounded, but utterly defiant and indisputably real. Just like the band’s devastating live performances, this EP delivers a cathartic cleansing and leaves you in a beautifully bloody state of shock.

Looking inwards with an unwavering honesty and reflecting on the world around them through an unfiltered lens, Blüdwyrm bring a palpable emotional depth to the crushing heft and fierce intensity of their music. It’s a powerful combination that gives The Blissful Sleep Of Ignorance an addictive quality that will have you reaching for its vial of dark, bittersweet elixir time and time again. Perfectly imperfect, with open heart and open wounds, Blüdwyrm will be darkening your summer skies from June 5th, when Road To Masochist unleash The Blissful Sleep Of Ignorance on CD and cassette. Everything is about to get a whole lot heavier.

Line-up:

Leo Butterworth: Bass & Vocals

Alex Jones: Guitar & FX

Seb Olds: Drums

Genre: Doom/Sludge Metal

For fans of: Electric Wizard | Weedeater | Cough | Dopethrone

Further Information:

https://linktr.ee/bludwyrm_uk

https://roadtomasochist.co.uk/

Bending Light - Bending Light (Album Review)

Release Date: May 10th 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Bending Light - Tracklisting

1.Split Infinity 03:58

2.Strangeland 05:24

3.Kill Joy 04:54

4.The Spaniard 01:26

5.Faded 06:09

6.Salo 06:00

7.Distant Past 03:46

8.Euphrates 06:35

Members

Drums: Jeffrey Ruoss

Bass: Damon Deluca

Vocals / Guitar: Ethan Parr

Guitar: Patrick Hogg

Keys: Jonathon (Coop) Cooper

Review

Bending Light’s debut album is an interesting record with the band feeling like they belong to the same Psychedelic Stoner Rock/Metal realm as such bands as ELDER, King Buffalo, Howling Giant and Weedpecker. However, Bending Light added a different mix to that equation with the band adding areas of Occult Rock and Doom Metal imagery into their music. There’s a provocative sound that emerges that sees a later of Prog Rock appearing to give Bending Light a soulful style of Seventies Hard Rock that’s merged fully within the modern day surroundings of their main Stoner Metal narrative they create on the whole album.

The record is beautifully insightful and wonderfully melodic with great levels of Post-Stoner passages with some upbeat Post-Rock, Space Rock and Ambient sounds that often play tricks with the listeners imagination on tracks such as Split Infinity, Strangeland and Kill Joy. Bending Light fuses Alt Rock and Grunge sensibilities that gives another aura of superb creativity to their music. The lyrics are quite insightful and the excellent vocals from Ethan Parr are quite sweet-natured and warm-hearted which fully sells that Heavy Psychedelic element that the band fully become part of before the record reaches its natural conclusion. 

Production values are expertly delivered that allows Bending Light to have a commanding presence throughout the album which allows them to move quite convincingly through the whole Doom/Stoner Metal spectrum with an epic sideline of MASSIVE GROOVES dictating the whole action. There is a subtle Sludge Rock atmosphere that develops on tracks such as Kill Joy, Faded, Salo and Euphrates with Bending Light perhaps leaning into the more commercial aspects of Stadium Rock which is one of the main strengths of the album.

I also love the wonderful interplay of the keyboards that Jonathon (Coop) Cooper brings to the band as it’s quite gloomy, eerie and superbly optimistic at times though everyone puts in a first rate musical performance on the album. The music is EPIC and downright CINEMATIC in places especially on the later stages of the record. There is some clever sonic manipulation and distortion at play which fully sells the Occult Rock and Doom Metal aspect of this album 

Bending Light's debut album is an excellent and brilliantly observed record that demands your full attention. This is the type of album that could easily allow Bending Light to aim high for bigger and better things. They have the songs and creative vision to back up their undeniable talent which should see them go a long way within the Doom/Stoner Metal scene.

Words by Steve Howe

Links 

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Alt Metal/Prog Metallers BLOSSOM CULT Release New Video For “Paint The Sky” From Debut Album "Home"

German alternative/progressive metal collective BLOSSOM CULT have unveiled the official video for “Paint The Sky”, taken from their recently released debut full-length album Home, out now in Digital HR and CD formats.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/5HD5jHUa1Vo

Blending emotional intensity with cinematic depth, “Paint The Sky” captures the essence of BLOSSOM CULT’s distinctive sonic identity: where crushing riffs, atmospheric textures, orchestral layers, and raw introspection collide in constant tension. As one of the emotional cornerstones of Home, the track explores the fading momentum of youthful idealism as it confronts emotional exhaustion, alienation, and the slow acceptance of a fractured reality.

“‘Paint The Sky’ began as a song about resistance and the urge to break free,” says vocalist and guitarist Janos Romualdo Krusenbaum. “But as it evolved, it became more about the realisation that not every fire keeps burning forever. There’s a point where rebellion gives way to fatigue, where anger turns inward, and where you begin to question whether escape or change is still possible. That transition became the emotional core of the song.”

Filmed on location at Trudi in Essen and produced by Simon Gatzka, the video visually expands the conceptual universe of Home, translating the song’s emotional descent into haunting and immersive imagery that moves from defiant energy towards quiet resignation.

With Home, BLOSSOM CULT deliver an ambitious conceptual debut examining disorientation in the modern age and the search for meaning amid political division, technological acceleration, and emotional detachment. Rather than offering direct commentary, the album channels these tensions through deeply personal songwriting marked by vulnerability, atmosphere, and emotional weight.

The album also features collaborations with acclaimed guest musicians including Leo Margarit, Andreas Kübler, Peter Voronov, and Zach Ansley, marking a significant evolution following the band’s earlier EP releases Closure (2020) and Prequel (2021).

Line-up:

Janos Romualdo Krusenbaum – Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Max Trockenberg – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Elias Bauer – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Maurice Hoch – Bass
Peter Robers – Drums

Links

Website: https://www.blossomcult.com
Bandcamp: https://blossomcult.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blossomcult
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blossomcult
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3lEDkY0Rj5iU163Ytg-kPw

Stoner Metallers CANNABUS Release New Song/Video For "4RUNNER" Which Is A Psychedelic, Heavy Rock Trip From Their Forthcoming New Album

Canadian heavy psychedelic rockers Cannabus return with “4Runner,” the fourth single & third music video from their upcoming full-length album “Ride The Bus”, due July 3 through Black Throne Productions & Kozmik Artifactz.

“4Runner” captures the band’s continuing evolution beyond their jam-heavy roots seen in their previous EPs such as “The Other Side” and “The Maple Spliff Sessions”. It balances live-wire heaviness with sharpened songwriting and pushes the band further into a more refined direction while staying true to their signature blend of psychedelic rock and heavy desert rock grooves.

Accompanying the release is a new music video filmed and edited in house by Black Throne Productions & Strange Matter Media, delivering a kaleidoscopic visual trip through liquid light projections and mind-melting effects.

The video was shot live at Bovine Sex Club in Toronto during the single release show for “The Green”; the third single from the upcoming album and it reflects the hallucinatory effect Cannabus embodies during their live sets which combine heavy fuzz worship and mind-twisting psychedelic guitar work.

With “4Runner” Cannabus offers a final potent glimpse into “Ride The Bus” before it’s release on July 3rd 2026.

Vinyl Pre-Orders available at: 

https://blackthroneproductions.com/products/cannabus-ride-the-bus

https://kozmik-shop.com/CANNABUS-Ride-The-Bus-Brown-Sugar-Edition-metallic-transparent-antique-copper-LP

As a whole, “Ride the Bus” follows in the footsteps of their previous EP releases such as “The Maple Spliff Sessions” from April 20, 2023 and “Other Side” from April 19, 2024 and places heavy emphasis on authentic 70's-inspired, fuzzed out blues and high-energy psychoactive guitar solos.

Release Date: July 3
Label: Black Throne Productions & Kozmik Artifactz
Format: Digital / Vinyl

Listen To The New Single Here:

Bandcamp: https://cannabus.bandcamp.com/track/4runner
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1howstrmxl7hJRzWTkFlmP?si=9vqo159qTCGFAEwFv8iHxg
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/cannabus/1674032226
YouTube: https://youtu.be/7CEJtnfoN3c

“Far Gone Blues” Official Music Video: https://youtu.be/8eK4MHUK-d8?si=MnAx6ulAm4LMWYn3

“In the Pocket (Live)” Official Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwO4bVbXSM8

https://blackthroneproductions.com/products/cannabus-ride-the-bus

BAND BIO

Cannabus is a three-piece stoner / desert rock band from Welland, Ontario, Canada, driven by grit, groove, and fuzz-drenched riffs. Blending dirty blues rock with heavy psych, punk attitude, and metal weight, they craft a raw, smoke-thick sound that hits low, drags slow, and lingers like a haze.

Their debut release, “The Maple Spliff Sessions” was the result of a year and a half of jams forged into a four-song EP, loaded with ’60's and ’70's heavy, tripped-out psychedelia and thunderous ’90's-inspired fuzz riffs.

Following up with their second EP “The Other Side”, the band continued to push their sound further into heavier, groovier territory. Previously released tracks & music videos from “Ride the Bus” include their first single “Far Gone Blues” the second “In the Pocket”, and now the final single from the album “4Runner”, all filmed and edited by Strange Matter Media / Black Throne Productions. The singles show promise of a hard-hitting dose of riff-driven psych and low-end heaviness.

CREDITS

James Matheson- Guitar/Vocals
Brandon Doucet- Drums
Ethan Scott- Bass

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Z Hollow Studios
Videos filmed & edited by Ryan Hilton at Strange Matter Media
Released by Black Throne Productions
Single Art by: Ryan Hilton

FIND CANNABUS HERE:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cannabusband
Bandcamp: https://cannabus.bandcamp.com/music
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1howstrmxl7hJRzWTkFlmP
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/cannabus/1674032226
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CannabusBand

Thanks to Black Throne Productions For The Details.

Burial Clouds - Burn Holy (Album Review)

Release Date: May 22nd 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Burn Holy - Tracklisting

1. Burning The Olive Tree

2. Windflower

3. Ashen Altar

4. Negations

5. Be Not Afraid

6. Screaming, Drowning Pacified

7. Forget Me Not

8. Eyes Without Light

Members

Matt Mitchell – guitar

Flynn Hargreaves – bass

Marina Lavelle – vocals

Bryce Ramsey – guitar

Tim Iserman – drums

Review

Doom/Post-Metallers Burial Clouds have gone under some significant lineup changes since their acclaimed 2023 album Last Days Of A Dying World. Only founding members Matt Mitchell (Guitar) and Flynn Hargreaves (Bass) remain from the line-up from that album. Marina Lavelle takes over the position of lead vocalist that offers a start contrast to the last album.

Bryce Ramsay (Guitars) and Tim Iserman (Drums) have joined the band as well which sees the band operate with a more powerful and beautifully dynamic sound. Burial Clouds sophomore album Burn Holy still offers a similar tone to their last album but one that leans quite heavily into the areas of Shoegaze, Post-Rock and Alt Metal with delicate experimental touches dictating the quieter moments of the album.

Opening track Burning The Olive Tree captures a band demonstrating their newly found creative energy which transforms into levels of Doom, Post-Metal, Prog Metal and Atmospheric Sludge surroundings that can be quite folk obsessive especially within how the vocals are delivered at times. However, there’s a menacing and violent quality that appears within Marina’s vocals and the brutal onslaught of down-tuned instrumental sounds that can move into areas of Thrash Metal which was a welcome surprise especially within the excellent second track of Windflower.

Burial Clouds showed influences from the likes of YOB, Mastodon, Alice In Chains and Pallbearer on their last record which you can feel instantly here but there’s a sense of grounded Post-Doom and Gothic realism within this record. Marina’s vocals are beautiful, poetic, violent and even horrifying at times when she delivers brutal screams into the mix. Sometimes you feel that there are multiple vocalists performing on this record as they all have a different flow and identity to each other. So be prepared for some extreme vocals being added along this heavy monolithic journey.

Burial Clouds move into more disturbing levels of Extreme Metal which I’m fully on board for as the record still manages to convey a hugely original style of Post-Doom, Sludge and Post-Metal that makes you questioning your own sanity at times on tracks such as: Ashen Altar, Screaming, Drowning Pacified and Eyes Without Light. However there’s still moments of pure uplifting musical brilliance that feels like it’s coming from a different band but Burial Clouds continuously surprise for the better throughout the album.

The dual vocals are another highlight which showcases a wonderfully constructed “LIGHT vs DARK” aspect to the whole album with intense outbursts of thrash metal beats and sullen Post-Metal movements that leave a lasting impression on the listener. 

Even the production values are top-notch with Burning Clouds engineering, recording and mixing the album themselves. That was a masterful decision for the band to take. As it gives them more control over their own music and it feels like a more personal record compared to their debut album. The band was mastered by the legend that is Brad Boatright at the famed Audiosiege.

Burn Holy is a complex and brilliantly daring album that Burial Clouds should rightly be proud of and one that could establish them even further within the underground scene and beyond.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Earsplit PR for the promo.

Burn Holy is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl.

Links 

Official | Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram