Stoner Rockers Portland's BELONGING Announce The Vinyl Re-Release Of Their Debut Album HOLLOW CELLS

Following up the release of their debut LP, Portland-based post-hardcore trio from the Upper Midwest channels grunge, doom, and psychedelic rock into a haunting re-release via Dipterid Records.

What began in isolation has returned with force. Belonging, a genre-defiant trio with roots in North Dakota and Minnesota, is reissuing their debut album ‘Hollow Cells’ through Portland-based imprint Dipterid Records. Originally self-released, the album is now being offered a proper platform to a hidden gem waiting to be unearthed by a broader audience attuned to its raw emotional depth.

The band—Bryce August (guitar/vocals), Jeremy Hansen (bass), and Shane Heilman (drums)—formed out of the tight-knit DIY scenes of the Upper Midwest, later converging with the heavier and more experimental currents of the Pacific Northwest. The result is a massive, emotionally complex sound, blending the raw urgency of punk and screamo with the heavy, hypnotic energy of sludge, psych, and grunge.

“Hollow Cells was the culmination of a lot of different influences,” says guitarist and vocalist Bryce August. “We wrote and recorded a lot of these songs during the Covid quarantine — so there's a sense of alienation, isolation, creeping dread… and a desire to cut silence with noise.”

The record’s thick atmosphere of disquiet is met with a visceral, melodic pushback. Fuzzed-out guitars groan and bloom. Basslines writhe under crashing drums. Each track captures the tension of breaking free — of finding belonging in dissonance.

The band draws on the Midwest’s punk/hardcore pedigree as much as the doom-laden legacy of Pacific Northwest icons. “Initially we fused my punk and screamo roots with Jeremy's experience in Portland noise rock bands and Shane’s post-metal drumming,” Bryce continues. “As we refined the songs, we took a lot of influence from PNW bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Melvins, alongside the more psychedelic elements of bands like Lungfish and Black Angels.” That background of evolving influences carries weight, not just in tone, but in atmosphere—textured, heavy, and deeply rooted in emotional contrast. As Bryce concludes, “All of that together surfaces as the heavy, hypnotic energy of stoner/doom that flavors our particular take on post-hardcore.”

The reissue comes courtesy of Dipterid Records, a label devoted to underground sonic oddities. Founder Kevin Curty recalls: “I discovered Belonging through a mutual friend of Jeremy's. When I heard ‘Hollow Cells’ I was honestly shocked it hadn’t already been picked up. It was love at first listen.”‘Hollow Cells’ from Belonging is coming out on via Dipterid Records. 

Pre-order here.

Links

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MORDBEAR - MORDBEAR (EP Review)

Release Date: June 06th 2025. Record Label: Dipterid Records. Formats: DD

MORDBEAR - Tracklisting

1. Like the Dead

2. A Mirror with a Sea of Flames

3. The Alchemist

Members

Tyler Balthaser (guitars, vocals)

Nico Martinez (bass)

Erik Larson (drums)

Review

MORDBEAR is a Doom/Stoner Metal band from Portland, Oregon and their debut self-titled EP is easily comparable to the likes of Black Sabbath, SLEEP, OM and Acrimony. There’s a subdued atmosphere that first appears within the opening track Like The Dead with MORDBEAR supremely becoming confident with each passing moment. The sound is quite melodic and brings a classic 1990’s Stoner Rock/Metal sound into the slight Proto-Doom attitude that also appears within MORDBEAR’s delivery. 

The EP allows MORDBEAR to showcase their fine style of Hard Rock delivery with some classic guitar shredding set against a backdrop of gloomy instrumental passages. The vocals from Tyler Balthaser are quite stylish and even understated with Tyler putting in a commanding performance within the more DOOM obsessive moments. 

MORDBEAR plays around with Psychedelic sounds and SONIC passages for the second track A MIrror With A Sea Of Flames. The sludgy guitars make a sneaky appearance here and there with a slowly played delivery that becomes more Proto-Doom riff-focused once again. This song is never in a rush to reach its natural conclusion with MORDBEAR playing multiple different styles of Psych Stoner Metal with a creepy OCCULT vibe appearing within Tyler’s vocals and the fantastic rhythm section of Nico Martinez (Bass) and Erik Larson (Drums) leading the way. There sudden flashes of early-era SLEEP starting to dominate or decimate the musical landscape which results into some of the best grooves of the EP.

The final song The Alchemist is the standout track lasting over seven minutes where MORDBEAR fully settle within their DOOM & GLOOM surroundings. The foreboding sense of trippy Psychedelic grooves and small amounts of distorted modern day Stoner Metal sees the band come kicking and screaming into the modern underground scene. The music is played at a superb slow-to-mid pace once again which allows the music to grow naturally with epic slabs of SLUDGE ROCK to appear. 

MORDBEAR’s debut EP is an excellent release which allows the band to showcase their own style of Psych Stoner Metal that should see the band start building a loyal following within the underground scene before the full length debut album appears. 

Check this out when you can as it’s an absolute BEAST of a record.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Discipline PR for the promo.

The debut EP arrives June 6 via Dipterid Records. Pre-order from now on here.

Links

BandCamp | Instagram

Portland's Stoner Metallers MORDBEAR Delivers Crushing Debut EP Due To Release June 06th 2025

MORDBEAR EP Details

Release: June 6, 2025
Genres: Stoner Rock, Doom Metal, Acid Metal.
Format: EP,DR.
FFO: Sleep, Om, & Acrimony
Label: Dipterid Records

Tracklist:

1. Like The Dead
2. A Mirror with a Sea of Flames
3. The Alchemist

The Lowdown

Emerging from the rainy gloom of the Pacific Northwest, Mordbear arrives with a debut EP that fuses gritty stoner-metal grooves with surreal storytelling and a heavy dose of acid-fried mysticism. Built on a foundation of ‘70s proto-metal and acid rock, but firmly grounded in the present, Mordbear is the sound of three seasoned musicians channeling personal mythologies, literary references, and esoteric philosophies into towering riffs and wild sonic turns.

Mordbear is the collective force of Tyler Balthaser (guitars, vocals), Nico Martinez (bass), and Erik Larson (drums), each bringing years of experience from vastly different musical backgrounds—from hardcore and jazz to psych and doom. Their chemistry lies in the process: “I write demos for the songs, bring them to the guys, and we work them out until we have something that we are excited about... with the Mordbear footprint on them,” Tyler shares.

The self-titled EP showcases three tracks that function less like a conceptual arc and more like a collection of strange transmissions from the minds of its creators. As frontman and songwriter Tyler Balthaser puts it: “There isn't too much of a specific thread between the songs — two I've worked on in one form or another for a few years now, and one, ‘The Alchemist,’ is pretty new for all of us.”

But what links them is an uncanny ability to turn off-kilter ideas into heavy, head-nodding anthems. The opener, 'Like the Dead,’ was inspired by a surreal conversation with a hippie veterinarian, recounting a theory about global warming, rabid bats, and a Southern California zombie outbreak: “The theory itself and especially the source and setting stuck it in my head, until it was time to write lyrics for what was the first song for this project.”

‘A Mirror with a Sea of Flames’ pulls its title from Tom Wolfe’s ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,’ conjuring visions of DMT-fueled trips and side-mirror firestorms on a school bus full of proto-hippies winding through the hills of New York in the mid ’60s. Commenting on the inspiration spark, Tyler says: “The text and imagery felt like they were prime for a stoner metal song to me, and shoe-horning dimethyltryptamine into a song’s lyrics alone was worth it.”

Photo credits: Peter Subaiya.

Meanwhile, ‘The Alchemist’ explores an eerie modern parable about self-transformation and the cost of ambition in a capitalist world: “Early interests in esoteric schools of thought taught me about alchemy—really just an early form of chemistry, but also an allegory for refining yourself into a better version through introspection and intention,” Tyler shares, while taking a more literal approach, reflecting on our hypercapitalist society: “It can feel like you need to trade your life for a small amount of gold just to get by, and people seem to be willing to trade more and more for a smaller piece.”

At its core, Mordbear is a debut that doesn’t just introduce a band—it builds a world. One that is chaotic, cinematic, and just strange enough to feel true. 

The debut EP arrives June 6 via Dipterid Records. Pre-order from now on here.

Links

BandCamp | Instagram

Thanks to Discipline PR for all of the details.

An Interview With Alexei Korolev From Doom/Sludge/Fuzz/Stoner Metallers THE COMPANY CORVETTE

Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metallers The Company Corvette has just released their superb new album Little Blue Guy which is full of seedy FUZZED UP and DOWN TUNED grooves from start to finish.

This is the first album from the guys in over seven and a half years with Little Blue Guy being their most brilliantly entertaining album to date. If you dig bands such as The Melvins, BORIS, Black Sabbath and even some cool bands from the legendary Grunge scene.

I caught up with Alexei Korolev (Guitars) from The Company Corvette to discuss the history of the band and the making of the new album.

Hi guys. Thanks for doing the interview. How are things with you all today.

Not bad, I am at the end of my COVID, feeling better and almost ready to make a run to the practice space and do some heavy chugging. Thanks for taking your time to do this!!

For people not in the know, can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where it is today.

We have known each other from living in the same neighborhood, so when we lost our jobs, the opportunity came to jam and we immediately started writing songs. The name came first and i couldn’t not join a band with such a ridiculous name. We have gotten a lot better as players over time and are able to do more of the things that we want to hear.

How would you describe your overall sound over the past 15 years that the band have been together.

In the beginning, we had a lot more of a psychedelic punk kind of a sound. That’s just how we played without trying very hard. You can still hear the doom and the metal in our songs, but we had a pretty sloppy approach and had crappy gear and didn’t really care that much (we still retain some of those elements on some of the songs!). Over time, we picked up some better guitars and amps and dialed in our sound a little bit to where we could sound the way we wanted to hear it. And of course Ross’ vocals have improved immensely since the first two albums and now fit the music so much better. We changed drummers twice which was always an upgrade as well.

We're here to talk about your new album Little Blue Guy. What can people expect from the album,

It flows from the really heavy and doomy songs to more of a stoner and psychedelic direction towards the end. We thought that would make it for a better listen as a whole. We even slightly changed the track order for vinyl vs digital release to accommodate that flow. It has about everything that we like - from super slow doom metal to silly rock’n’roll.

The album impressed me greatly with it's low & slow approach with a gloomy sense of down-tuned FUZZ Rock amongst the Doom/Stoner Metal aspects of the whole album. Quite a different creative feel and sound compared to your previous albums. Did you want to release something more gloomier and heavier for this release.

Yea, thanks! Not sure how intentional that was. Think it’s just us progressing to where we want to be, musically. I always like to have a slow song or 2. I had those really cool slow and heavy riffs and we had the time to really focus on them. We played a lot of shows while still working on the songs, and we also spent a lot of time in our practice space jamming. We just really wanted to make the heavy stuff as heavy as possible, and silly stuff as fun as it should be, because we knew we could. It all came together nicely.

Where did the name Little Blue Guy for the album come from

Ohhh…. seeing things under the influence of certain mushrooms…. being trapped in a small crappy apartment in the city… sometimes you get strange visions.

Was this an easy or hard album to record for.

This one was pretty easy. We loved the studio and the people working there from doing our last album. We had our songs down (except for the last one.) Hearing things sounding so crisp and heavy and feeling good about the material and our playing and getting the help we needed from Matt Weber (our engineer) made it a really exciting and stress free experience. Definitely the most satisfying and enjoyable recording process we’ve ever had as a band.

Did your daily struggles, challenges and uplifting moments in life shape up the creative outline for the album.

Maybe subconsciously… we don’t know. I guess if someone had a shitty day, they might start a practice with a more aggressive riff, I suppose. But really, we just play the music we love. Once we get in our practice space, nothing really matters. There’s no windows, no clock, no other people - just us, our gear, our music and a cooler full of beer. We just jam and have a great time. It all comes from our influences, really. We don’t play doom metal because we are sad, though it would be weird to play our ‘funny’ riffs if we weren’t enjoying ourselves.

What is the creative process or setup within the band? Do you write the music together or do certain people within the band do that.

Always starts with a riff or two and build it from there. I'm a bit more obsessive and will sometimes bring almost finished songs, while Ross leaves things a bit more open ended and I can infuse some of my ideas to finish them off. Ultimately, we jam and jam and iron out the kinks, maybe alter the structure a bit until everyone is on the same page. And then come the lyrics. That is all Ross and is a bit of a mystery. He would sing those songs for months, and then in the studio would be frantically scribbling things right before going to the vocal booth. Nobody knows. We are definitely a RIFF band. Words are just icing on the cake.

Drummer Zach Price has joined the ranks since your last album. How did you meet and recruit Zach. What does Zach bring to the overall sound of The Company Corvette.

We have played with Zach’s other bands and been friends with some of his old bandmates. Always loved his drumming. We heard that he quit his band and, when our drummer left, we asked him. We actually waited a while so that nobody gets mad at us for “stealing their drummer”, which they still did. But it worked out excellently, I wish that happened sooner. He gets it. He is a superb listener and is willing to work on riffs with us and make songs the best they can be, and we can always agree on a choice of beer.

You're from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What is the local live scene there. Do you have a live scene to perform gigs on a regular basis or do you have to travel further afield. (Though I'm a huge fan of fellow Philadelphia Stoner Rockers ALMOST HONEST).

Well, we have slowed down a bit since Ross moved to a different town. But yea we regularly played local shows with our friends’ bands, opened for lots of great touring bands coming through Philly for a long long time, as well as making a few trips outside of the city and state. Stinking Lizaveta is our favorite local band, or anywhere, really. They got to be really good friends of ours and we played a lot of shows opening for them. 

Our very first show was with Serpent Throne and Jail, then also brand new bands playing their first shows. Serpent Throne have done pretty well for themselves in the years to come. But that was ages ago. Ruby The Hatchet is another local band we played with that made a name for themselves worldwide. The scene comes in waves, bands come and go and newer bands show up. Then there were bands like Skeleton Hands, and Black Urn a few years back, who were the younger kids coming to our shows at one point. They are gone now. Don’t think we know Almost Honest. Great name. I think they are from a bit outside of Philly, a little out there in Pennsylvania - it’s a huge state so that makes sense. The older we get the harder it gets to keep up with the newer bands.

What future gigs have you coming up and will you be promoting the album more next year.

Yes, we plan to do a record release show in town this winter, and hoping to make a trip to Pittsburgh, where we have a lot of friends. It is hard to find time with Ross living farther away now, but we all would love to play more.

The artwork for the new album is sublime which isn't surprising since the artwork is by the legendary Drew Elliott (Midnight, Amorphis, Blood Feast, Necrophagia, etc). How much involvement did you have with the final design and how did you manage to work with Drew in the first place.

Drew is a close and dear old friend of ours. He lives in town, we hang out, he is the best dude. We told him about our experience and the idea that came from it. He did our last cover as well but we wanted to have more of his signature style on this new painting. He draws these frightening characters and figures, and so he gave us this little blue guy in a gross little apartment, which we thought was perfect.

Your new album is being released by Strange Mono Records. How did you hook up with that label and what formats is the album being released upon.

Again, we have been friends with Dan for a long time. We were sitting on our finished album not knowing what to do with it until he got his label going and decided to help us get it out. We are very thankful because it is impossible to get any labels’ attentions and we never had anyone help us like that before. It’s fun working with friends! It is coming out on vinyl LP, cassette tapes, and of course digital download.

What bands or artists influenced you to pick up an instrument and to become a musician.

Oddly, a lot of old thrash metal, early death metal and doom. Kreator, Carcass, Cathedral, that sort of thing… old Sepultura, Entombed, Obituary. That’s the stuff we grew up with. Ross has a lot of punk influences as well, Butthole Surfers is a big one, Fang, Germs. Stuff that sounds like everything is about to fall apart. We share a lot of love for bands like Saint Vitus, The Obsessed, Melvins, Monster Magnet etc, whom I may have discovered after I first picked up a guitar, but who’ve been strong influences in shaping my playing.

Do you have any side projects that folks can check out.

I have a metal project with Zach called Decorporealized, and also play drums in a punk band called Be Nothing (Strange Mono). Ross is in a newer band called Cat Eye, and he was in Beer Breakfast Dungeness Crab, and also in Big Burly, both have releases on Strange Mono. When The Corvette isn’t doing stuff, we are still rockin’.

Before you go, do you have any words of wisdom for your fans currently out there.

Stay warm! No… We aren’t done yet! We keep doing it, however slowly. There are more riffs and songs to mess around with out there. There will be time, we’ll find em. And also - stay warm, stay hydrated! Thanks!

Words by Steve Howe and Alexei Korolev

Thanks to Dan at Discipline PR for arranging this interview and thanks to Alexei for taking the time out to do the interview.

Little Blue Guy will be available to buy on Cassette/DD/Vinyl via Strange Mono Records from December 01st 2023.

Links

Facebook | BandCamp

The Company Corvette - Little Blue Guy (Album Review)

Release Date: December 01st 2023. Record Label: Strange Mono Records. Formats: Cassette/DD/Vinyl

Little Blue Guy - Tracklisting

Little Blue Guy

Marshmallow

Out Of Control

Brain Cells...But Who's Buying

Stupid

Drag

Ted Tedder

Lit The Wrong End

Members

Alexei Korolev - Guitars

Ross Prtichett - Bass/Vocals

Zach Price - Drums

Review

Sludge/Stoner Metallers The Corvette Company return with their new album Little Blue Guy and it's an album with the lowest of low end sounding Fuzzed Out Doom and the heaviest of Distorted Sludge/Stoner melodies with the band drawing upon sounds from bands such as Black Sabbath, The Melvins, BORIS and even grungier aspects appearing. The album captures the seedier elements of the 70's Heavy Rock and Proto-Doom grooves which is transported to a minimalistic style of 1990's Sludge/Stoner Metal with the LOW & SLOW performance of the instrumental sounds that deliver the majority of the tracks to the creative finish line.

The Corvette Company delves into areas of pure good old fashioned RAWK & ROLL where sound of the album builds into classic sounding guitar shredding but with a delicate Sludge Rock and Fuzzed Up balance. Little Blue Guy moves along at its own pace which you can feel within the punishing opening tracks of Little Blue Guy, Marshmallow and Out Of Control. These three tracks alone prove that The Corvette Company offer music that's both STYLISH and full of violent distorted SUBSTANCE with some excellent vocals from Ross Ptrichett who also provides a kick-ass and threatening low-end presence on Bass Duties. Ross's vocals are modelled after both Ozzy Osbourne and King Buzzo where they move from a melodic classic Doom Metal style to the more volatile Sludge Metal style. This is a good flow to have with the album moving into unexpected creative territories within the overall WEEDIAN realm.

The Corvette Company operate at multiple speeds but the entire tone of the album is consistently "LOW & SLOW" or "AMPLIFIER DISTORTED" and that is perhaps the best way for the band to deliver their music to. As it's murky, sinister and brilliantly seedy throughout every aspect of the entire record. With powerful drumming by Zach Price and sublime aggressive Psychedelic guitars from Alexei Korolev, Little Blue Guy even captures the similar spirit that Church Of Misery deliver with their music with The Corvette Company having more focus on extended instrumental jams with a frantic Classic Hard Rock vibe appearing within the classic guitar shredding which brings a much needed 1980's Hard Rock and Heavy Metal excess energy to the album.

Other standout tracks include: Brain Cells...But Who's Buying, Drag, Ten Tedder and Lit The Wrong End. 

The later stages of the album may not be as progressive as the earlier songs but The Corvette Company offer the most riffiest and weedian mind inducing moments on perhaps the tracks mentioned above with Brain Cells..But Who's Buying and Lit The Wrong End being my favourite moments of the entire album. 

There's a deep wonderful sense of irony and awareness to The Corvette Company's lyrics but the music remains serious business with Little Blue Guy wholly becoming the band's most confident album to date. The whole record is brilliantly fun which offers listeners a damn good time within it's 41 minute running time. 

With a multitude of different styles of Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal being played on the record where ANARCHY reigns supreme with The Corvette Company providing one of the best undiscovered gems of the underground scene this late in the day.

Little Blue Guy is one hell of a release and if you want an album with enough power to kick the living shit out of you just through their wonderfully intense grooves alone, then this is the album for you.

Words by Steve Howe 

Thanks to Discipline PR for the promo.

Little Blue Guy will be available to buy on Cassette/DD/Vinyl via Strange Mono Records from December 01st 2023.

Links

Facebook | BandCamp