Jesus The Snake - Black Acid, Pink Rain (Album Review)

Release date: July 11th 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Black Acid, Pink Rain – Tracklisting

1.Karma 10:28
2.Floyds I 09:04
3.Floyds II 08:59
4.Duna 09:36
5.Black Acid, Pink Rain 10:55

Members

Jorge Lopes - guitar
Rui Silva - bass
João Costa - drums
Gonçalo Palmas - keyboards

Review

Black Acid, Pink Rain is the debut album from Portuguese Psychedelic Stoner/Desert Rockers – Jesus The Snake. The album is progressive from start to finish with the majority of the songs running between 9 to 10 mins each. 

Jesus The Snake are not the most heaviest Stoner/Desert Rock band but they do add a lot of heavy psychedelic sounds to their overall sound. The music can be quite jazzy in places and influenced from the 60s/70s Psychedelic Rock scene. Though I can hear a deep Yawning Man influence on certain parts of the album.

Opening song – Karma – is a mixture of different styles such as Psych Rock, Desert Rock, Stoner Rock, Jazz with the band keen to experiment with their sound from the start. The hazy psychedelic riffs can be too “freaky” to hear at times and the song does take an age to fully get moving. The song has too many stop-start moments for own personal tastes. As the song builds upto an exciting part and the band pull back and play a different style of music. However, this is still a highly confident song with the band showing what accomplished musicians they actually are.

Second song – Floyds I – is another “Jazz” style song with Psychedelic Stoner/Desert Rock grooves making their appearance known early from the start. Jesus The Snake add a more soothing “Ambient” style vibe to this song with the 60s Psychedelic Heavy Rock riffs allowing the song to grow naturally. The second half of the song is a lot more faster and the band play a grittier 70s Hard Rock sound that allows the listener to become part of the action.

Third song – Floyds II – sees the band continue with their “slow-paced” delivery with the familiar Psychedelic Stoner/Desert Rock sounds slowly taking their time to fully appear. When the Heavy Riffs appear then all hell breaks loose and Jesus The Snake create some of the heaviest and most exciting parts of the album entirely on this song alone.

The final two songs – Duna and Black Acid, Pink Rain – are both superbly written songs and once again take time to for the heavier moments appear. That’s been the main theme for this album and I applaud Jesus The Snake for remaining true to their artistic vision.

This album won’t be for everyone and is perhaps best suited to people who enjoy their Instrumental Stoner Rock being a lot more experimental compared to other bands of the genre.

Overall, Black Acid, Pink Rain is a damn good album and you should give it a listen if you want something different from the standard Desert Rock/Stoner Rock sound.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

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Arrowhead - Coven Of The Snake (Album Review)

Release date: July 12th 2019. Label: Ripple Music. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Coven Of The Snake – Tracklisting

1.Coven Of The Snake 04:39

2.All Seeing Eye 05:10

3.Ceremony Of The Skull 04:53

4.Ghost Ship 03:56

5.Root Of Evil 04:59

6.Dopanaught 04:47

7.March Of The Reptiles 04:21

8.Golden Thunderhawk 06:42

Members

Brett Pearl - Guitar/Vocals

Matt Cramp - Drums

Arron Fletcher - Bass Guitar

Raff Iacurto - Guitar

Review

Aussie Psych Stoner Rockers Arrowhead return with their new album Coven Of The Snake and it sees the band with a heavier Doom Metal sound compared to their previous releases. Their trademark Psychedelic Stoner Rock/Metal grooves are still there. However, it feels Arrowhead have “come of age” with this release as everything feels more grown up and the album has some hard-hitting themes and ideas running through it’s DNA.

Arrowhead dive right in playing one of the heaviest and standout songs on the album with the fantastic sounding title song – Coven Of The Snake. The album captures the Doom/Stoner Metal world perfectly well within it’s 4:39 minute running time. As the riffs have the right balance of Psychedelic grooves and Progressive Doom/Stoner Metal sounds. The vocals from Brett are good and brings more balance to the overall flow of the song.

Second song – All Seeing Eye – has a more Classic Rock/Heavy Metal feel with elements of Psychedelic Stoner Rock holding everything together. This song reminded of early-era The Sword in so many ways. You know when The Sword were a great Hard Rock band before changing into a boring commercial act. Well, Arrowhead deliver a familiar sounding groove and it’s so damn good to hear. This is still Arrowhead’s show but it’s good to hear some familiar influences on this song.

Third song – Ceremony Of The Skull – carries on the Psychedelic Stoner/Fuzz/Doom Metal theatrics with absolute confidence. Arrowhead don’t mess around on this song and treat the listener to an exciting and gloomy song that ranks as one of the best songs held on the album.

Arrowhead continue moving effortlessly between the Fuzz Rock, Doom Metal and Stoner Metal genres with absolute confidence and the results are refreshing as hell. The lyrics are one of the best things about the album. As they allow Arrowhead to have a more threatening presence as result. Match this against the top-notch music the band have written for this album and you can see why Arrowhead have delivered their best album yet.

Songs such as: Ghost Ship, Root Of Evil, March Of The Fireflies and Golden Thunderhawk – prove why Arrowhead are one of the best Stoner Rock/Metal bands currently within the Australian scene.

A huge shout-out should goto Clayton Segelov who recorded, mixed and produce this album and it sounds incredible from start to finish. Clayton allows Arrowhead’s music to fully come to life and it’s a LOUD, MEAN and HEAVY AS HELL experience that leaves you wanting more.

Overall, Coven Of The Snake is an album that is fully worth your time and deserves a place in your record collection.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Richard at Sheltered Life PR for the promo. Coven Of The Snake is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Ripple Music.

Links:

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Black Pistol - Sins Of The Father (Album Review)

Release date: July 12th 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

Sins Of The Father – Tracklisting

1.Nowhere to Run

2.Call to Arms

3.Devil in Disguise

4.Down the Hatch

5.Heaven and Hell

6.Sins of the Father

7.Psycho Maniac

8.Disease

9.Evil

10.Preacher

Members

Vocals - Stiaan Bruwer

Guitar - Roan Mustang

Bass - Jacques le Roux

Drums - Nicolas Cage

Review

Black Pistol debut album Sins Of The Father sees a band playing with extreme confidence and creating an album that takes influence from the Classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal scenes of yesteryear. Though, adding a modern Stoner Rock groove. The album is perfectly balanced creating a sound that captures the vivid hard rock energy of Seventies/Eighties Stadium Rock.

Black Pistol are not afraid adding a heavier style of Hard Rock/Metal on the album especially on the excellent opening song – Nowhere To Run – which sets the scene perfectly well for the rest of the album to follow. The vocals have a “classic” approach to them but still sounding distinctively modern at the same time. The lyrics are what you would expect for an album such as this. However, they are quite truthful and powerful in all the right places.

Second song – Call To Arms – is a Southern Rock/Boogie Rock driven number with the band showing another side to their overall sound. The lyrics are quite direct especially with lead singer Stiaan making a passionate plea to Hard Rock/Heavy Metal community. This is pure ROCK & ROLL EXCESS and will have the most jaded Rock/Metal fan rocking in agreement. There is a slight Stoner Rock swagger being played in the background and keeps the whole mood vibrant and quite upbeat from start to finish.

Third song – Devil In Disguise – is one of the heaviest and perhaps hard-hitting songs contained on the album and that’s down to the superb melodies and lyrics the band have written for this song. The song can be quite psychedelic in places. It seems Black Pistol are still adding different sounds to their music and it’s quite refreshing to hear. As you don’t know what Black Pistol will do next on this album.

Black Pistol continue on their destructive path by playing addictive Hard Rock/Heavy Metal riffs that allows the band to create their own addictive sound. Expect to hear more top-notch moments of Psych Rock, Classic Rock, Stoner Rock with a no-nonsense Southern Rock/Metal groove holding everything together.

Black Pistol prove their worth on songs such as: Down The Hatch, Heaven And Hell, Sins Of The Father and Preacher. As these songs are perhaps the standout songs on the album and where the band write and play the most passionate songs held on the entire album. Though, the entire album is built upon RIFFS and the album is full of them. The album is superbly put together and is helped by top-notch production as well.

Sins Of The Father has something for everyone to fully appreciate and enjoy.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Plug Music Agency for the promo. Sins Of The Father will be available to buy on DD via from July 12th 2019.

Links:

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CABLE - Take The Stairs To Hell (Album Review)

Release date: July 26th 2019. Label: Translation Loss Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Take The Stairs To Hell – Tracklisting

1.Forest Dream (intro)

2.It Cost Me Everything

3.Black Medicine

4.Low Man

5.Rats on Fire

6.Eyes Rolled Back

7.Rivers of Old

8.Take The Stairs To Hell

Members

Randy Larsen – Bass,Vocals

Bernie Romanowski – Guitar

Chris “Fish” Harding – Guitar

Peter Farris – Vocals

Alex Garcia-Rivera – Drums)

Review

Take The Stairs To Hell is the first new album from Sludge Metal Heavyweights Cable in a decade and it’s most definitely been worth the wait. As the band have created a highly unorthodox and different sounding album that you would expect from this legendary band. Cable have always been known to experiment with their sound and their previous albums are a testament to that fact.

However, this album is perhaps one of their strangest and most enjoyable albums they’ve released to date. A mixture of Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal and Hardcore Punk sounds impress from the very start.

The songs contained on the album vary in length, with some lasting around thirty seconds or so. The first opening songs – Forest Dream (Intro), It Cost Me Everything and Black Medicine – offer a bleak insight to the heavy sludge grooves that Cable have created for this album. The vocals are good as ever and have a quite a passionate feel to them even with the raw sounding production contained on the album.

The lyrics are equally unforgiving especially on It Cost Me Everything and Black Medicine. The overall mood of the album becomes gloomier and that leads to some of the heaviest and harshest riffs contained on the album. Add strands of Psychedelic Rock/Metal and Cable have captured some of the most heartfelt sounds of their legendary career.

Take The Stairs To Hell does allow Cable to play epic sounding moments of Psychedelic Sludge/Stoner Rock and it’s good to see a different side to Cable. Black Medicine is perhaps the best song on the album as it shows you the different sides of Cable and how creative the band can actually be with their music.

The rest of the album sees Cable treating the listener to a wide array of different sounds and ideas with the experimental style of Sludge Metal the band play on songs such as: Low Man, Eyes Rolled Back, Rivers Of Old and Come Home (Outro).

Take The Stairs To Hell is superbly produced and allows the album to be perhaps the most truthful album released this year with Cable adding a deep rooted Punk Rock influence and hard-hitting social conscience to their music.

My only complaint with the album is it’s too short running under thirty minutes and I wanted this album to be on slightly longer. Though, we should celebrate that we finally have a new album from Cable and this is an album worth celebrating.

Overall, Take The Stairs To Hell is a genuinely exciting and hard hitting album that leaves you wanting more. This is one of the best albums that Cable have released in years.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Perfect World PR for the promo. Take The Stairs To Hell will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Translation Loss Records from July 26^th 2019.

Links:

Instagram | BandCamp

Black Pistol Announce Details Of New Album - Sins Of The Father

Black Pistol release new album “Sins Of The Father”

Cape Town based hard rock band Black Pistol have released their new album Sins of the Father. The album is testament to the power of driving riffs, pounding drums, rumbling bass and soaring vocals.

Before recording started the band made the decision to track everything live as they explain, “The idea behind this was to capture who we are, what we do, how we act and react, our passion and soul. When a listener presses play, we want our energy to explode throughout the room and invite you to be with us for the entire album.”

Reecorded and produced by Jo Ellis at his Blue Room Studios in Ladismith, who comments on working with the band, “I absolutely loved having the guys in the studio. They came to every session well-prepared and ready to lay down great, tight live performances. No messing about - good songs, performed with energy, fire and passion. I'm so proud of the record we made together!”

The lyrical content of this album is vastly different from their previous work where vocalist Stiaan Bruwer was more concerned about writings lyrics that might sound cool or paint this image of a hard rock ‘n rolla. With this album he wanted to write content that felt real and relatable.

“Honesty was a difficult thing to get out on paper, and scary! When you talk about struggles with antidepressants and thoughts of suicide, you are letting complete strangers into your personal life, and that can be a very intimidating thought.” Says Stiaan Bruwer.

He goes on to add, “I felt comfortable writing about topics such as religion and my struggles with depression. We wanted people to really connect with the lyrics and we did not want to create this pretentious curtain where we try to fall into the stereotypical hard rock band.”

He goes on to add, “I felt comfortable writing about topics such as religion and my struggles
with depression. We wanted people to really connect with the lyrics and we did not want to
create this pretentious curtain where we try to fall into the stereotypical hard rock band.”

Sins Of The Father is available on all digital platforms from July 12th 2019.

Track Listing:

1.Nowhere to Run
2.Call to Arms
3.Devil in Disguise
4.Down the Hatch
5.Heaven and Hell
6.Sins of the Father
7.Psycho Maniac
8.Disease
9.Evil
10.Preacher

Links

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(EchO) Release New Video For New Single - The Ferryman - from their upcoming new album Below The Cover Of Clouds

We're more than happy to introduce you the first single of our new album "Below the Cover of Clouds", that will be released worldwide by BadMoodMan Records (Solitude Productions) on September the 13th, 2019.

This song is called "The Ferryman", one of the best songs that we've ever written.
The lyrics of this track were inspired by the movie "Stalker", the famous Tarkovskij masterpiece.

The video was made by Razvan Alexandru, guitarist and founder of the Romanian doom metal band Abigail.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/echoband.official
https://www.instagram.com/echodoom_official/
https://echodoom.bandcamp.com/

3 Wheeler Band - 333 (EP Review)

Release date: July 3^rd 2019. Label: Self Released. Format: DD

333 – Tracklisting

1.The Wolf 05:23

2.The God 05:06

3.The Night 06:24

Members

Adrian G. - Guitars and Vox

Davo C. - Bass

Jose M. - Drums

Review

Coming almost three years after their last album, Mexican Hard Rock/Stoner Rockers 3 Wheeler Band return with 333 and it’s another round of heavy sounding Stoner Rock riffs. The vocals are good throughout the EP but it’s the music where the band impress the most.

333 is a hazy mix of Psych Rock, Classic Rock and Stoner Rock with an angry fuelled edge compared to the band’s previous releases. 333 is more focused than their last album and has a more volatile edge especially on the excellent opening song – The Wolf.

The Wolf feels influenced by a wide range of different Stoner Rock bands and sometimes the overall sound of the EP isn’t that original in places. However, 3 Wheeler Band carry on playing heavy psychedelic grooves with enormous style and extreme confidence.

The other two songs on the EP (The God and The Night) matches the playful and angry energy contained on the first song and it’s good to see 3 Wheeler Band carry on playing their classic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal sound to it’s natural conclusion. The best song on the EP has to be the final song – The Night.

3 Wheeler Band have delivered the goods with this EP as it leaves you wanting more and I’m hoping that a new full length album isn’t too far behind.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Links:

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