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Release Date: 20th February 2026. Record Label: Heavy Psych Sounds. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
The End Is High - Tracklisting
1.Bong & Chain
2.420 Horsemen
3.Hempnotized
4.Reefer Mortis
Members
Sheepy Dude - Bass
Alky Dude - Guitar
Cheesy Dude - Guitar
Hexy Dude - Drums
Review
Instrumental Doom/Stoner Metallers Belzebong return after an eight year absence with their new album The End Is High which offers a more apocalyptic take on their music. There is a foreboding sense of dread that the world is going to end but with the band’s great sense of WEEDIAN humour spliced throughout the album. The whole journey can be quite EVIL at times but Belzebong still apply their intense style of psychedelic heaviness into the mix with masses of distorted sludgy melodies that appear in spectacular fashion within the epic opening track Bong & Chain.
Bong & Chain runs for almost eleven minutes with a fuzzed up and highly aggressive energy which is classic Belzebong through and through. The sound is quite progressive with Belzebong undergoing a slight musical makeover with elements of Sludge Rock and Prog Metal appearing towards the later stages of the song. With a great reliance on LOW & SLOW grooves and the heavier fast-paced melodies, Belzebong offer the best of both worlds where they both collide in spectacular WEEDIAN fashion. With traces of Space Rock and Cosmic Distortion slowly starting to filter through from the background, this is a powerful statement of intent from the band to show that one of the best bands from the Instrumental Doom/Stoner Metal scene are ready to take over the world once more.
Second track 420 Horseman sees Belzebong returning to their old creative ways by adding trippy and surreal soundclips into the mix whilst expanding upon with that free-spirited and aggressive STONER energy they’ve originally made their names with. The sound is perhaps more dominated by the FUZZED OUT atmosphere with sudden flashes of Cosmic Doom and Post-Stoner surroundings. The whole thing is played to great effect when the LOUD WALL OF NOISE transcends into different and multiple levels of sludgy distortion. Belzebong play a fast paced style of music where some of the finest grooves appear on the whole record. This is the shortest track on the album running for under six minutes in length but the clever use of Ambient and fractured Psychedelic methods is put to great effect within the closing moments of the whole track.
The final two tracks of Hempnotized and Reefer Mortis offers around nineteen minutes of pure WEEDIAN and STONED OUT chaos with Belzebong injecting trippy counter culture soundclips within Hempnotized and with Reefer Mortis having a slightly more outrageous Science Fiction vibe, However, the music is KING with the band playing some of the gnarliest, trippy and heaviest grooves of their entire career.
The band is perhaps more experimental with their music but still keeping within their overall classic sound. With deeper progressive themes starting to emerge, you really do start to feel the sense of dread about the end of the world but it’s told with great comedic timing and bold humour that you can’t help but cheer on Belzebong succeeding with their overall mission.
The End Is High is a masterclass of Instrumental Doom/Stoner Metal from one of the legendary bands of the underground scene. They have been gone for a long time but Belzebong always deliver records that are stone cold classics and this is no different with this perhaps easily becoming another ALBUM OF THE YEAR contender for the band.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.
The End Is High is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Heavy Psych Sounds.
Belzebong links
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