The HazyTones - Wild Fever (Album Review)

Release Date: May 10th 2024. Record Label: Black Throne Productions. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl

Wild Fever - Tracklisting

1. Wild Fever 

2. Red

3. Inside of Your Brain 

4. Night is Young

5. Disease

6. Down

7. God Told You

8. Eye for an Eye

Members

 

Mick Martel – vocals and guitar

Gabriel Prieur (PRIEUR & LANDRY) – drums

John Choffel – guitar

Caleb Sanders – bass

Review

Psych/Doom/Stoner Metallers The Hazytones return with Wild Fever which is their first new album in over six years. The record sees the band become more destructive, aggressive and heavier compared to their previous albums. Wild Fever is full of passionate 1970’s Hard Rock sounds and seedy Fuzzy Psychedelics which merges the street level style of Doom/Stoner Metal which is heard throughout the record. 

However, despite the more menacing approach, The Hazytones haven’t skimped on their classic blend of melodic RAWK ‘N’ ROLL which is heard within the superb opening track of Wild Fever. The band combines Proto-Doom, Classic Hard Rock and modern day Psych Stoner Rock which allows Mick’s vocals to take a more commanding performance. The vocals and lyrics are very much part of the Classic Rock movement but still having a more refreshing Stoner Rock theme throughout.

Second track Red sees The Hazytones deliver a classic TWIN guitar style reminiscent of Thin Lizzy and some epic HEAVY METAL touches that feel inspired by Metallica in places. However, the Proto-Doom and Stoner Rock sound reigns supreme even when the band play more epic sounding Twin Guitars with a thumping Psychedelic vibe that allows the guitar shredding to become DOOM & GLOOM on the closing stages.

Third track Inside Of Your Brain opens with an epic Instrumental Jam with even more screeching guitars and a seedy Fuzzed Up attitude with first rate drumming from Gabriel perhaps being the main highlight. It’s a short instrumental track which soon gets the blood pumping for the next heavy round of Aggressive Stoner Sounds to appear.

The next two tracks of Night Is Young and Disease sees The Hazytones become ever more accustomed with the DOOM & GLOOM surroundings of their heavier Stoner Metal style with a frantic Sludge Rock sound appearing. The vocals are excellent once again and homage to the world of 1980’s Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. Wild Fever is quite outlandish with the band having a blast conjuring up sinister amounts of gloomy Fuzz/Stoner Metal with a THRASH outlook which is perhaps the most technically impressive on the album.

The final three tracks of Down, God Told You and Eye For An Eye once again sees The Hazytones combine the worlds of Classic Heavy Metal and modern day Doom/Stoner Metal with intense blasts of melodic Psychedelic and Proto-Metal sounds. God Told You and Eye For An Eye are my favourite tracks on the album with the newfound seedy and sinister creative energy that soon gives way to more wicked sounding instrumental passages that allows Wild Fever to become quite a destructive force of nature that also benefits from first rate production values.

The Hazytones have called upon two imposing figures from the Doom/Stoner Metal scene to make this album a demented reality. WO-FAT’s Kent Stump is on mastering duties with MONOLORD's Esben Willems on mixing duties. Two more great reasons to check out Wild Fever as they give the record a more muscular sound. 

Wild Fever is a ferocious record which ultimately earns its place under the “DOES IT DOOM” category and on this evidence WILD FEVER does indeed DOOM from start to finish. The Hazytones have made their most impressive and brilliantly entertaining record to date.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to C Squared Music for the promo.

Wild Fever will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Black Throne Productions from May 10th 2024.

Links

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

An Interview With Psych Doom/Stoner Rockers THE HAZYTONES

Psychedelic Doom/Stoner Rockers The Hazytones return after a six year absence with their upcoming excellent third full length album Wild Fever. The band have ventured into heavier and more aggressive areas of music compared to their previous two albums. 

Wild Fever will be out to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Black Throne Productions from May 10th 2024.

I caught up with the band to discuss the making of their new album.

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

The band came together in 2016 with an idea to start a stoner band. The main focus was always to be dedicated and to tour as much as we could.

Why did you call yourselves The Hazytones

Our bass player at the time wanted to name the band the Barrytones and I (Mick) suggested the Hazytones

How would you describe your overall sound for your upcoming new album Wild Fever. It’s more destructive, aggressive and heavier compared to your previous albums.

I think you’ve summed it up well by calling it destructive and aggressive, and heavier. It’s also more Wild and there’s a big chances it will give you a fever

What can people expect from the album and what is the creative outline or story for the album.

The album was inspired by our own experiences, we experience the lives of a rock and roll band so it’s very exciting and something you get a bit fuzzy and then you write songs about self destruction

Where did the name Wild Fever for the album come from

We thought the record was pretty wild and sometimes on tour you can start to feel a little feverish, and when it goes bad we say you got the Wild Fever

Was this an easy or hard album to record for

It was not easy because a lot of times we had the Wild Fever, joking but life got a little crazy between when we started it 2019 and when we finished in 2023

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.

We write music together but sometimes someone will bring riffs and we work on them separately

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

Definitely because we try to write about real things, so must subject on the album we feel them

Ripple Music released your excellent second album Monarchs Of Oblivion back in 2018. What was that experience like having your album released by that great label. And did you leave on good terms as you now have the excellent label Black Throne Productions releasing your new album.

We love Ripple Music, they are a great label from California. A lot of times has passed since 2018 and we decided to go with a label that was closer

How did you hook up with Black Throne Productions and what formats is the album being released upon

We met in a show in Toronto, the album will be released on vinyl and cd

You're from Montreal, Quebc, Canada. What is the local Hard Rock and Heavy Metal scene like there. Is there a thriving gig scene and community that allows you to perform regularly or do you have to travel further afield to perform on a regular basis.

We do both we play in the city which has a very good scene and we also tour the US and Europe whenever we have a chance

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

We are currently inside the ‘’Eternal Delirium Tour’’ and we should be announcing more tours outside Canada soon

What are your favourite venues when you have toured in the past. Any particular venues or locations you always look forward to when touring.

We will be playing the Bovine Sex club on this tour and it’s one of our favorite venue in Canada

How would you describe the live The Hazytones experience.

It’s definitely a lot of energy coming from 4 guys, we sweat a lot and we always give our 100%

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

Grunge/hard rock music influenced us into picking a guitar

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

Our drummer plays in a band called Prieur & Landry and our bass player plays in Caliber Sands. Check it out

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

Make sure to listen to the new record Wild Fever when it drops on May 10th

Words by Steve Howe and The Hazytones

Thanks to Black Throne Productions Inc and C Squared Music for arranging this interview and for The Hazytones for completing the interview.

Wild Fever will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Black Throne Productions from May 10th 2024.

Links

Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram

Things Are Getting Hazy: An Interview With The HazyTones

Some people wait for new records from well-promoted bands who gain their contracts with major labels, but doom underground holds really groovy examples of slow and low bands with strong potential. The Hazytones appeared in Montreal just one year ago with their vision of vintage fuzz-clad doom rock and for this one year it gave a clear shape for their ideas.

First there was the single “Living on the Edge”, and then the self-titled album was born. Fair, extremely catchy and full of hooks it grabs your attention from the very first listen. Frey Coaster (bass, vocals), Ulrick LaMast (drums) and Mick Martel (guitars, vocals) put a lot of effort in this album, so I was bloody impressed and I asked them a few questions about The Hazytones.

Mick and Fred satisfied my curiosity with truly interesting answers.

What drove you to gather together and play this form of psychedelic doom rock? What's your primary motivation?

We are motivated by a lot of stuff. First of we wanted to bring back the vintage sound of the 70's through our first album. We really like albums like Mind Control form Uncle Acid which is really stoner and psych for example. Fred, the bass player, is also a big fan of the early Black Sabbath stuff (Master of Reality, Paranoid, etc.). We really like the sound of an heavy distorted fuzz. On the album, we tried to keep everything analog.

There's almost no digital effect on it. I think that what gives the album his 70's feel. We also like the vocals with a lot of reverb and delay. For this purpose, we used a vintage Rolland Space Echo which gives a crazy atmosphere and you can definitely hear it on the record. But when we were recording the album, in September 2015, we didn't know that the band would draw so much attention from the stoner/doom scene.

At first in Montreal, we started playing small gigs and we received good comments about the music and our stage presence. Then, a manager, Fred Roy-Hall, decided to take care of us and push us further. That's about when we decided to take it to the next step.

Your debut self-titled record was released in September 2016 as a digital album, what about physical formats?

Actually, we have it in physical format on CD, it just got added to Bandcamp for shipping. We made 500 copies (sold about 300 already) and we are currently printing vinyls that are coming at the beginning of 2017.

The album's artwork and songs' titles show the witching essence of your music. How do you see The Hazytones' lyrical concept? What did you put into it?

Mick Martel, the singer of the band, wrote all the lyrics of the album. He likes to take the feel of the everyday life. Almost like an anthropologist, he observes people around him. He also pick themes from his personal experience. Then, he interprets and transforms it into metaphors that are much darker than the real life. He likes to keep the lyrics not too obvious and let the auditor make his own idea. He wants people to be able to relate to the lyrics in their own way.

The Hazytones – Living on the Edge

And the same is about your sound – what are its necessary elements?

For the sound, we wanted to push the rock envelope as far as we could, heaviness wise. As we told you earlier, we like the heavy distorted fuzz. That was the corner stone of The Hazytones' sound. We also like the reverb and delay that you can hear on the vocals. This element is really important on the sound of the album. Furthermore, we wanted to push and compress the drum and bass really hard so it gives a heavy feel to the rhythm section.

When we were crafting the songs, we put a lot of crazy effects that apparent to psychedelism. For example, on Fool's Paradise, we made a psychedelic effect on the song's outro. It was a lot of fun to try out some of these stuff in the studio.

We can also talk about the tempo changes. There are a lot a mood changes and tempo changes, especially on the bridges and solo sections of many song. It's the case on Light Of The Day, Fool's Paradise, Free From Your Spell, Children Of The Universe, etc.. We really enjoy creating those kind of arrangements. It's really challenging, especially in the studio.

Finally, a lot of people tell us they enjoy our songs because of their catchiness. There are big chorus that you can easily sing along like on Free From Your Spell.

How do you see strong sides of the band? Which song represents the best of The Hazytones from your perspective?

The song that represents the band best is Light Of The Day, it's heavy, catchy, and makes people bounce their heads and go crazy at our shows. That's what we are aiming for but I think that the second album will be a little more on the psychedelic side. The strong side of the band for me is our vintage feel. People always mention our stage presence. We must admit that the band is definitely a LIVE band and we work hard to put on a great show.

I saw some The Hazytones photos and that groovy video you did shoot for one of your songs – it seems that you take the band quiet ironically. So what’s it about first of all? Is it about fun or is it about sinister tunes?

We take the band very seriously, we actually have two videos on YouTube. The first one is for Living On The Edge. It was made by a Montreal artist name Seb Black and it really represents the band with his dark vibe. The second video is for Light of the Day, which was made a little faster because we were leaving on tour. This one will definitely make you puke if you watch it after too much whiskey eheh... 

To answer more seriously, we are more about the music that the image. We really worked hard on the album and we continue to write and record. We know that the image of the band is really significant, but we put much more efforts on the music.

The Hazytones – Light of the Day

Canada isn't known as the band with a strong doom scene and it is difficult to touring because of big distances between cities. How do you deal with organization of gigs in your area?

Touring Canada can be a pain in the neck if you know what I'm saying, average drive is 6 hours a day or more. Sure the doom or stoner scene isn't super big in Canada but people appreciate it. More and more stoner bands are starting to get together and I think we'll see the number of stoner/doom bands increase over the next years.

What is the most enthusiastic feedback The Hazytones received till now?

The most enthusiastic feedback The Hazytones received was actually all the reviews that were written about the album so far. All the reviews were rave reviews from all over Europe (Russia, Ukraine, France, Belgium, United Kingdom) and the United States. We are also really stoked about a couple of label offers we've been receiving. We can't discuss the details for the moment, but all we can say is that 2017 will be a good year.

What are The Hazytones plans for the next year?

In 2017, we plan to tour Europe, Canada, and the United States. The European tour is set in March and April 2017. The Canadian tour is set in May and June. Nothing is confirmed for the USA so far, but we work on getting our visas and on booking shows. We're always writing songs so there's a chance that we might release our second album in late 2017 or early 2018. It depends of a lot of things as we told you previously (labels, tours, work flow and composing of the songs, etc.).

Words by Aleks Evodkimov and The Hazytones

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp