Soundtrack To The End Of The World...

Crippled Black Phoenix - I, Vigilante (2010)

I had heard the name Crippled Black Phoenix a few times over the last 3 years or so but the penny never really dropped and it wasn't until relatively recently that I actually picked up any of their material. I was in New York last year perusing the vinyl shelves of Generation Records when I noticed the cover. It looked familiar, so without so much as checking who it was I tucked it under my arm and carried on searching... One of my best spur of the moment purchases ever! But lets back track a little... 
In 2004 Justin, drummer from Iron Monkey and until most recently Electric Wizard began laying down recordings that had been running through his head for a while. These recordings, spurred on by Mogwai's Dominic Aitchison later went on to form the foundations of whats now described as post rock super group - Crippled Black Phoenix. 

They had a bit of an unorthodox beginning, with most of the plethora of members having various other commitments and tours with other bands progress was slow. By the way, when I say plethora Im not exaggerating, CBP have had no less than 28 members. Thats quite a feat in itself.

I will announce now, that if you're expecting a similar sound and style to Dukes Of Nothing, Murder One, Acrimony or other Iron Monkey related acts then you'll be in for a bit of a shock. Expect soulful, somber and moving ballads often pushing the 10 min mark. But for those of you possibly doubting keep an open mind because this band is genuinely epic and this album is there best work to date. The opening track 'Troublemaker' has become one of my favourite songs of the last few years.

With the vast array of members at anyone time, use of victorian style and unusual instruments coupled with the choice of peculiar venues, witnessing this band do their thing it honestly an experience to behold. However, it also poses a slight problem with fitting the band into any one genre. To date I've heard them referred to as; prog rock, stoner prog, doom, folk doom, freak folk, ambient folk, end-time rock, shoe-gaze, orchestral rock, space rock and even emo. I must admit, on hearing the latter I very nearly swung for the person who described them as such. Either way it would be wrong to pigeon hole this outfit. The precessional use of each instrument unusual or not, adds such levels and depths not really seen on this scale since the likes of Pink Floyd's heyday. This album is really a great testament to the great talent and expertise of each and every member. What ever you're preference of music you all should seriously consider picking this gem up. Especially if you're able to dig it out on vinyl, notably the limited edition of 250 white vinyl.   

Oh, and if you're lucky enough to spot these guys playing live near you, good god buy a ticket and get you're ass down to the show!

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Explosions In The Sky, Electric Moon, Graveyard, The Machine, Arenna

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I, Vigilante (320kbps)

Their Answer To Everyone...

Murder One - Untitled EP (2002)

The early 2000's were quite kind to the British metal scene. Things had turned for the better, nu metal was slowly burning out and the acts doing the rounds in the UK were not only getting heavier but also getting more coverage to boot. I personally think this was in no small part down to Iron Monkey. The guys paved the way and influenced many of the bands that seeped out the wood work in the following years and the media, suddenly realising they'd not known what they'd got til' it was gone, lapped it up. 

In the years post Iron Monkey's demise Johnny went on to front a few bands; Armour Of God, My War and this, my personal favourite Murder One. Obviously the projects were all abruptly cut short following his untimely death but Murder One continued, firstly with guitarist Mark covering Johnny's vocal duties before then recruiting John Loughlin (from the mighty Raging Speedhorn) for a full time position. The band stormed forward, touring relentlessly and in 2006 released their first and last full length album entitled Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid. But for the moment lets stick with the first EP. 

It may only be a 4 track debut but it was truly brutal in every Iron Monkey esque sense of the word. Johnny's awesome deep growl is there in all its glory but now it was joined flawlessly with Paul Catten's very unique and distinct style. The two worked perfectly together and coupled with the often sinister subject matter of the lyrics the end result was savagely dark and violent. Johnny put his all into everything he did, theres evidence of this in pretty much every bit of material he recorded. But when you listen to the track Answer To Everyone it really feels like he knew this would be his final chance to attack all the idiots and haters that ruined everything that had come and gone in the few years prior and he'd pushed that little bit harder. Years of frustration, illness and being screwed over had built up to this moment and he was determined to have the final say.

And he did. 

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Raging Speedhorn, Burnt By The Sun, Charger, The Chariot, Soilent Green

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Untitled EP (320kbps)

Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid (320kbps)

Kings Of Stoner Metal...

Dukes Of Nothing - War & Wine (2002)

Now the question you have to ask yourself is - Am I ready for some whiskey fuelled, balls to the wall rock n' roll? If the answer is no, then its probably best that you jog on now. However if you chock full of testicular fortitude and actually have a brain in your skull then here's Dukes Of Nothing.

Not too long after Iron Monkey broke up bassist Doug, guitarists Stu and Dean (also of Acrimony) coupled with Orange Goblin drummer Chris Turner hurriedly put this motley crew together. Joined and fronted by GQ style writer, newest Turbonegro vocalist and general class act punk and connoisseur Tony Sylvester the band was unfortunately relatively short lived. But this always somewhat seemed to be on the cards for the heavy metal quintet. Never really interested in making it big the guy's modus operandi was always to just play for their own amusement and see if anyone liked it. I can even recall Tony's words to me on his vision for the future of the band; "We want to play a few shows - release a seven inch - play with Wino then retire." Well, two out of three was definitely still a victory if you ask me.
The shows were where Dukes of Nothing really came into their own. Fuelled predominantly on booze these guys were absolutely thunderous live. I was lucky enough to catch them quite a few times, the most memorable performance of which was in a small club in the midlands. The atmosphere was electric, ear bleedingly loud and the crowd were lapping it up... Right up until, if I remember correctly, the plug was pulled because the ceiling below the gig was beginning to crack... To be honest though I'm really surprised this didn't happen at every show. 

Spending most of their time touring with various other projects they only got around to producing just this one studio album and contributing to a couple of seven inches. None the less War and Wine is still utterly blinding and a true hidden gem and widely overlooked classic debut/swan song. It may only be about 22 minutes long but it's a fast, dirty and ruthless fusion of awesome punk and southern rock. So then, what else could you possibly ask for? 

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Orange Goblin, Iron Monkey, Speedealer, Alabama Thunder Pussy, Big Business

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War & Wine (192kbps)

Ruined By Idiots - A Tribute...

Iron Monkey - Ruined By Idiots (2003)

Its been 9 years almost to the day since the legend Johnny Morrow's untimely death. So as a tribute to this unsung icon all the reviews this week will be related to the man himself and his fellow band members post Iron Monkey projects.

Geez, so where do I start?...

John Paul Morrow... Well the first time I met Johnny was at the first Iron Monkey gig I ever went to, at, if I recall rightly The Old Angel in Nottingham, UK. I was a mere teen at the time and all I can recall from the show was being battered into a pulp by flying bodies in the pit, smashed instruments and the back drop... That infamous back drop - the thing of now local metal band legend. It looked to be what I can only describe as an old bed sheet scrawled with 'Iron Monkey' in what seemed to be black paint but could have easily have passed for faeces. Like some sort of souvenir from a prison riot or dirty protest. It was one of the first gigs Ild ever been to, and in a way that kind of makes me sad. Solely because very few shows I've been to since have managed to match it in atmosphere, aggression and shear ear bleeding volume. But anyone who actually got to see Iron Monkey live knows all to well this wasn't a one off. The band oozed a raw brutal energy in every sense possible, weather it was live performances or during interviews. They played what they wanted, how they wanted and never gave two shits about the media or press attention seeking. One of the best examples of this was during a show in Brighton where one audience member decided to pitch bottles and abuse at the band during their set. As the story goes, he later attempted to sue the band after a monitor was dropped squarely on his face through a fog of flour, a bag of which Johnny had stolen from the venues kitchen and hurled into the crowd mid set. But for me their pièce de résistance came in 1999 when having scored a ride to Holland on Metallica's tour bus. The guys promptly laid waste to every drop of booze in sight, beat each other with a kettle full of boiling water and attempted to punch Dean out of the emergency exit while traveling at 60+ mph. All in all causing over £400 of damage. This was typical Iron Monkey - pure unadulterated carnage, on and off the stage. But unlike most other bands they were down to earth with it. Wether it was a result of individual upbringing or the fact the band had been messed around and screwed over more times than I've had hot dinners, I don't know. But over the years Doug has got me out of a fair few scrapes and scuffles and still to this day Johnny remains one of the nicest, most genuine guys I've ever been lucky enough to meet. Giving myself and many other people I know regular tips and suggestions for new and obscure bands was one of his many personal accolades. Just a couple of weeks ago fellow writer Andy was reminiscing about browsing a record store in Nottingham back in the day and how Johnny had got him to into Church Of Misery. I'm quite adamant that because of Johnny's absence over the last few years my potential recorded collection has a severe deficit.
But the Monkey weren't just local legends and by no means was their music secluded to this side of the pond. As rumour has it Phil Anselmo's infamous 1996 overdose took place while listening to the bands first album. Quite a notable rock and roll claim to fame I'm sure you'll agree. So it's not in the slightest bit surprising that the guys were held in such high respect by many other NOLA originating bands and acts, most notably Eyehategod who flew over to headline the great man's tribute shows 'Morrowfest' in 2002. Even over a decade later its clearly obvious that the memory of the band is still weights heavy on the guys. Just late last year I went to see Eyehategod in my home town, and midway through their set they kicked straight into 'Bad Year' with a furious conviction. A honest and fitting tribute to one of, if not the best metal bands ever to originate from these shores.

I dont think there's much need in describing in great detail the bands sound. If you don't know by now then shame on you, but if you have been under a rock all this time then this is the perfect way to get acquainted. A great mix of intense live recordings, rare studio tracks and great covers. 

Long live Iron Monkey!

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Eyehategod, Buzz•oven, Carcass, Church Of Misery, Coffins  

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Ruined By Idiots (192kbps)

• Update •
 

Having received an rather nice email from former Monkey and Electric Wizard drummer Justin Greaves here's an recently unearthed video of some early Iron Monkey live in Wolverhampton, UK courtesy of the man himself... Enjoy.

Waxing Lyrical - Vinyl Review...

Arson Anthem - Insecurity Notoriety (2010)

Took me a while to actually get my hands on this, but a few months back my buddy Rich managed to get a few imported over for his store. What a gent.

Anyway, I will keep this short and sweet as I am inundated with reviews to write and most of you will already be aware of this latest of super groups and may well have a good idea of what to expect - C'mon, Mike Williams, Hank III and Phil Anselmo... You've gotta have a pretty good idea of whats gonna happen here. 

I must confess I wasn't massively impressed with the first EP but fortunately they stepped it up a gear for this outing and it does seem to bear more elements of each members individual stylings and nuances. Something which no doubt everyone would be expecting. A bit like Superjoint Ritual fused with Eyehategod. But thats probably stating the obvious. What you may not expect is the heavy punk aspect. Yeah, Eyehategod's history is steeped in punk overtones but given the pace they play at it isn't always immediately apparent. But with Arson Anthem's upped tempo its easy to recognise influences such as Discharge and Black Flag, plus with the song durations rarely exceeding the 2 minute mark you can even pinpoint a certain grindcore aspect. Think of a purely analogue Agoraphobic Nosebleed... Pretty cool eh?

If you haven't already go have a wonder over to Phil's own record label The Housecore Records, who have snapped up the majority of NOLA's bands, which proves to be quite a fine lineup...

• Label: The Housecore Records

• Pressing Info: Undisclosed number on clear and black.

• Price: £12 - £18

~  Jay

For Fans Of; Eyehategod, GG Allin, Doom, Discharge, Void

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Security Notoriety (196kbps)

News...

Head over to our amp reviews section for our debut entry and our personal first choice of valve amps the sexy Jolida JD801S...

You've Gotta Love Those Damned Italians...

The Sade - Damned Love (2011)

Right, the last few posts have been slightly leaning more toward the post rock/ambient side of things. But fear not Im here to get things on a more stoner rock path... So I present to you... The Sade.

The guys have been around for about 3 years, but this is the Italian power trio's first full length album to date. Its a 13 track album, pushing the 45 minute mark, so you cant accuse the band of slacking off all this time.

I've got to say Im so glad I found this album, it ticks all the boxes of something I've been looking for for a while - its all heavy blues/southern rock with a unique foreign twist. Something a little bit different yeah, but it really works. In recent years a lot of bands around Europe have picked up the desert rock style and ran with it, The Shooters, Bandito and Howler Toad to name just a few. Fair play to them, they've manage to take a predominately State side genre and make it work else where, and work really well to boot. But few bands over this side of the pond really took on a bluesy/southern rock kind of style of their own and made it work exceptionally. The Sade are an exception. Complete with harmonica backing and a great occasional blue grass twang, the chaps have not only managed to execute an awesome bluesy style, but successfully fused it with a Misfits-esque punk tone and feel. Granted that sounds weird on paper, but bear with me. A bit like Turbonegro, that slightly punky sound and good old rock riffage is there in absolute bucket loads, but without the often questionable subject matter of the lyrics. The clash of styles works insanely well, surprisingly some would say. 

This is a blindingly good debut. Its like it was perfectly crafted to drive to. Catchy guitar licks, foot pounding drums and furious vocals... Lets just hope they can keep it up for the second album. If you want some southern rock played by what sounds like a foreign Danzig then I really think you're gonna love Damned Love.

The album's out now, but theres also a vinyl pressing in the pipeline. Head over to Go Down Records to pre order it... I will be.

~ Jay

For Fans Of: Danzig, Orange Goblin, Motorcity Daredevils, Turbonegro, Whiskey Six

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Damned Love (192kbps)

A Continental Coalition...

Hotel Wrecking City Traders & Gary Arce - Self Titled (2011)

I honestly can't believe just how many bands have contacted us from Australia. In the last week alone Ive had no less than 6, I swear they're slowly monopolising this blog one post at a time. None the less Im desperately trying to keep up with the demand and get the reviews out there so guys can check out these great bands. 

So here's the latest gem Ive received, courtesy of Hotel Wrecking City Traders and no other than Gary Arce of Yawning Man himself. 

Now when, as a relatively small band you luck out and get to collaborate with another artist its pretty exciting. But when you land someone like Gary Arce - a guy who's played such a massively vital part of the Californian desert rock scene for well over 20 years... You've gotta be just a little bit happy with yourself. Right? Well, they are and with just cause because this is a bit of a monster of an album. Wave after wave of mammoth pysch guitars crash down with that same eerie tone of Yawning Man. Not to the point where you could easily confuse the two, but just enough for Arce to make his presence known without taking away any of the sound and drive that HWCT have established over the last 4 or so years. With such a talent and power house like that joining you too, thats no mean feat. Its really one of the best collaborations I've heard in years. The album itself is just spanned across two 10+ minute tracks, for some this will drag a little understandably, but every now and again theres a little hook that will catch you and stick in your head for the rest of the day. Its a great piece of work and I would love to hear a follow up, especially if the trio got a little more experimental. God knows they've proved the talents there for it. At the end of the day if you're looking for something more on the stoner side of the desert scene then this wont really quench your thirst. But, and this is a big but, if spaced out jams and ambient fuzz is more up you're street then you with adore this album. Its truly one for the early desert rock enthusiast, and if you're a vinyl nut too boot you'll be happy to know its going to be coming out in a limited pressing of 300 on lovely 180g blue wax when its released on June 27th through Brofidelity Records. 

Check the link below for a teaser of the new record.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Yawning Man, God Speed You! Black Emperor, Grails, Red Sparowes, The :Egocentrics

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Hotel Wrecking City Traders & Gary Arce (192kbps)

Doom Down Under...

No Anchor - Real Pain Supernova (2011)

I first happened upon No Anchor a while back when I picked up their 2009 release Steam - a dark brooding, occasionally screaming 5 track EP. So it wasn't too much of a surprise to me that ild have a bit of a strange one on my hands here... I'll tell you now, if you can imagine a The Melvins getting together with The End and playing a mix of Isis and Black Pyramid you'd be astonishingly close to to what Real Pain Supernova sounds like. The mind truly boggles at how varied and diverse this album is.

Mastered by Mell Dettmer who's worked with the likes of Sunn O))) and Boris, its the 4th release by the Aussie post rock-doom-sludge monger trio and it really is a belter! 

From the beginning of the first track its difficult to gather just what you're in for - Slow bass and an unusually complimentary up beat drum line are met with with vocals that echo that of Black Francis (The Pixies) before taking a dark and screaming turn more in the style of Norma Jean. The pace ducks and dives through the whole of the record with huge fuzzy riff heavy build ups before plummeting back to earth with down tempo moody soundscapes and ambience. You could never be accused of pigeon holing these guys, there's just way to much going on. Like many sludge bands over the years that element of punk is certainly there with No Anchor, but unlike any other sludge band I can think of its fused with a touch of post rock mellowness and the occasional ferocity of hardcore. I tried to describe the album to a friend recently. The best I could come up with was 'If The Pixies had all been schizophrenic, hooked on PCP and challenged to get signed to Southern Lord they would have probably sounded like this.' So if that hasn't sold it to you nothing will. In short this is definitely one of the most unique albums I've heard over the last couple of years. Its slightly different to what I would usually put up, but its something a bit special and well worth getting your hands on. Plus it doesn't hurt that the guys can still crank out some damn catchy riffs too. 

Go have a browse of the band's pages and download this awesome little piece for a price of your choice! Or like me, go one step further and have a search for it up on super limited vinyl - Lovely!

~ Jay 

For Fans Of; Isis, The End, The Pixies, Torche, Sun Of Nothing

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Real Pain Supernova (320kbps/FLAC)

On The Bright Side...

Light Bearer - Lapsus (2011)

My review of this record is bound to be somewhat biased, sadly. Figures – my first review for this esteemed blog and I blow my independence straight off the bat. Anyway, Light Bearer are formed from the ashes of the awesome Fall of Efrafa, whose Warren of Snares trilogy is one of the best things to have happened to post-metal in the last few years. I fully intend to review it properly if I can find someone to give me a copy of the vinyl set...
Anyway, where Fall of Efrafa focused on political movements, religion, intolerance and Watership Down (no joke!) across their records, Light Bearer are driving down a far more straight and narrow discussion of religion and the concept of creation of myth and religion from an atheist or antitheist perspective, referencing Milton, Dante and Philip Pullman along the way. Musically, the band channel the spirit of FoE, Cult of Luna, Pelican and Isis magnificently, creating a sound of surprising scale. Doomy riffs compete with stunning atmospherics, beautiful post rock touches, and Alex’s startling roar. The progression is king here, with songs built around stunningly simple and singular chord progressions that are built with layers of noise to create soundscapes that never feel crowded. Other nice touches are present; pianos are used, and the addition of a lovely Cello line to ‘Primum Movens’ adds a further level of depth. Songs are allowed the space to develop – in particular, the epic ‘Armoury Choir’ passes through several movements, building to a crushing climactic section. Atmospheric touches are ever present, with ‘The Metatron’ beginning with chanted vocals over a keyboard drone, and periodic drops to keyboards in ‘Primum movens’.
It’s a great record. If Pink Floyd had been bought up on Cult of Luna, Electric Wizard and Converge, this is what ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ would have sounded like. The best bit? This is part one of four, so Light Bearer will be with us for some time. They’re hitting the road again in September, I believe, go check them out.


~ Andy

For Fans Of; Crippled Black Phoenix, Red Sparowes, Cult Of Luna, Windmills In The Ocean, Taiga

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Lupsus (320kbps)

Interview - Dopefight

All the guys from the blog were out in force last night to catch Dopefight tearing up Birmingham. We caught up with Ant, Pull and Owen to discuss their UK tour, Rick James and why they're marketing their music to people with ADHD...

[Jay] - Guys, thanks for catching up with us. Welcome to Birmingham. Home of Black Sabbath, Napalm Death and UB40.
[Ant] - [laughs] It's great to be here.
[Pull] - Yeah, we've not actually played round here before. It makes a change coming up north.


[J] - I've Got to start by saying congrats on the album 'Buds', its been getting really excellent reviews all over the net. How have you found the response yourselves?
[A] - Its been amazing. We've had a lot responses to it from the States, Germany and Finland, we've been shipping out merch all over the world. We're Slightly merch greedy really. We like to keep bringing out new shirt designs. Its something not a lot of bands do, but it also just keeps people interested.
[Owen] - And the thing is as well its not that expensive as a mark up to do it in big batches. I mean, why should we wait for a label to come along and do that and then they'll take most of the fucking cut.
[A] -Yeah we really like to keep the whole DIY ethos.
[O] - The whole point of the Big Cartel site is to fund this really. Pay for petrol, pay for rehearsal space, pay for the studio etc.
[A] - At the end of the day being in a band cost money and time and if you don't have that theres not fucking band so we need to make some money. As long as we're not out of pocket its cool.


[J] - All in all you've got to be pretty chuffed, what with everything being self funded and produced?
[A] - Yeah. We got approached by a couple of labels but they just totally fucked us over. That was after the demo we got interest, then the split ep (with Dead Existence) we did ourselves. Then after that we were just like lets just do it all ourselves.


[J] - So how long have you guys been together now?
[O] - 2 years, 1 month.
[Pull] - Haha, he's been counting man!


[Andy] - Thats either - 'Oh, this is the best thing ever' or 'Oh no, not another fucking day!'
[P] - [laughs] The prison sentence continues.


[J] - So you're wrapping up your UK tour now. How's it been?
[A] - Well tomorrow's the last day really. Last week was mainly with Hang The Bastard and this week with Dead Existence. We're back down in Camden playing an all dayer. Its going to be awesome the lines up's amazing. 


[J] - Actually entirely off the back of you guys we checked out Hang The Bastard... Really good stuff!
[A] - Yeah they're awesome. They're more involved in a slightly different scene to us, they're a bit more of a hardcore band. So some of the shows we played with them were a bit… well, some of the crowds were fairly tough. A lot of 'chin strokers'.
[P] - You don't get a lot of cross over really.
[A] - It was cool that there was a nice mix of people. They were fucking good gigs but you know, not particularly comfortable.


[J] - It's always uneasy when you come up against an audience expecting something different.
[A] - Yeah it's difficult, but I suppose that sort of thing kinda needs to happen a bit more.


[Andy] - How did you find it affected your performance?
[O] - We just do the same thing we always do, fuck em' if they don't like it.
[P] - That was the crazy thing about the Hang The Bastard shows. There were all these crazy kids windmilling to us, on all the really doomy bits, and it was just like 'really?'
[A] - It was quite weird watching these kids trying to like beat down dance when we're playing slow.


[J] - Were they at least doing it in time?
[A] - Haha, no of course not. That would have been amazing though.
[P] - I think theres one set dance move they do and i don't think it really matters whats playing. You cant really modify it at all.


[Andy] - Other than that how's the tour life been treating you guys? Crashing on peoples floors or just sleeping rough?
[A] - Mostly random  peoples floors. We just turn up - 'Who's house is this? Dunno'. Wake up in the morning - 'Who's house is this? Dunno. Bye!'
[P] - I think we've been pretty lucky where theres been not situations where we've had to sleep in an alley way or anything yet.


[J] - Where have been your best shows?
[A] - I think our best shows have always been in london so far. London's just where we always kind of feel at home and we usually have the best reception. We've played quite a few shows there and they've just got better and better. We're really pleased with it.


[J] - So whats next for you guys? You mentioned being approached by record labels. Is that something you're going to completely try and avoid?
[A] - Not completely. There's a little bit of interest at the moment we're just waiting on finalising some things. Obviously we're not going to say anything just yet. But regardless of that situation we've got some cool records coming out. A split with Trippy Wicked and then we should be doing a split with The Fucking Wrath coming out in a couple of months on Hell Comes Home Records. So yeah, theres a few things in the pipeline.


[J] - Anything in the way of a full length album?
[O] - Yeah, but thats not going to be until next year. Then when we do that we want to hold back to have a really good producer to work with rather than just go at it. The next one has to make Buds look absolutely fucking shit. There's so many bands that have that second album syndrome. The first albums great and the second one is just dire.
[A] - And now theres been, thankfully and amazingly, such a great response from the album. The hype's going to be there. So we're just going to take our time with the next album. We'll throw out another EP and a couple of splits just to tide things over and keep ourselves going. Then come next year we're gonna get on the new material.


[J] - Who would you like to produce it?
[A] - Kurt Ballou would be awesome.
[O] - Or Alex Newport would be wicked… Or Dr Dre!
[P] - Oh that would be a loud album man! He's production's loud as fuck.
[A] - But we'll just see how it goes. If everything comes to plan there should be some really exciting things happening.


[J] - Its a completely cliche question, but who are your biggest influences?
[O] - RICK JAMES!
[A] -Yeah, we love Rick James. But before this we all mainly played in punk bands so theres a wide array of influences there. Thats why Dopefight is the way it is. Its not really doom or anything. You've probably noticed the songs aren't that long and they change all the time. We just don't have the patience to write 10 minute songs with the same fucking riff, going on and on and on.


[J] - Well Buds when you look at it, theres like 13 tracks including the hidden one. - Pretty unconventional for a band of the genre. It makes a refreshing change really.
[A] - Well yeah, we're just punks playing doom really. Its doom for people with no patience. Or doom for kids with ADHD. Thats how i'd describe it.


[J]- Well I think i got the tag line for the interview right there!
[All] - [laugh]


[Andy] - So how does your writing process work?
[A] - Its basically either of these two write a riff, play a beat to it, leads to another riff. To write an actual song is really natural to us.
[O] -Then we'll spend like an hour doing it and getting into it then just be like nah that's the biggest pile of shit and just scrap it. Theres a lot of songs on Buds that were like that and then the penny dropped, and something clicked.
[A] - I think for the next album thats where we're going to be different. We'll be a bit more militant and a bit more strict about quality control. If we don't like something we'll just chuck it out rather that just going 'yeah thats fine'.
[O] - If you think about it too much then it just fucks up.
[A] - Yeah, if it becomes a real challenge and a chore then theres not fucking point.
[P] - Sometimes we can be writing a song and it just goes on and on and on and we just end up cutting it out because if it doesn't feel right now its not going to feel right on stage.


[J] - Talking about being on stage, who would you really like to play with?
[O] - The Sword.
[A] - Bongzilla if they ever got back together.
[P] - Oh yeah definitely!
[O] - Actually, in an ideal world, Nail Bomb.
[A] - Well we're playing with Eyehategod and Church Of Misery coming up at the bed of the month, but thats just a one off show in Bristol. But we're playing in Kingston the same fucking day! But yeah, we've got some good showing coming up.

~

Check out our review of Buds here.


For photo's of the gig itself, just click on the picture at the top or head over to our Facebook page.

~ Jay

Waxing Lyrical - Vinyl Review...

Doomriders - Black Thunder (2005)

Not exactly a new on here, hell it's 6 years old, but it's something that deserves to go up none the less. One, because it's an awesome album and second Magic Bullet were good enough a couple of months back to press a new batch, limited to 500 - 250 on dark purple marble and 250 on light purple marble. There's still some left, so shoot on over and pick on up while you can. 

Anyway, I will keep this short and sweet because lets face it you've come here because you love you're stoner/doom rock etc... and its pretty doubtful that you don't already have this album. But for those who haven't got it but do love the likes of High On Fire, The Sword, Black Tusk etc. Well this album is right up your street.

• Label: Magic Bullet  


• Pressing Info: 
Test pressing (2005): 165 Hand-numbered test-pressing copies with silk-screened sleeve  
First pressing (2006): 447 Black  - 369 Transparent gold - 169 Transparent green  
Second pressing (2008): 100 Marble mix - 100 Amber mix - 100 Green mix - 100  Deep green mix - 100 Red mix
Third pressing (2011): 250 Dark purple - 250 Light purple


• Price: £12 - £18

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Black Cobra, The Sword, Baroness, Black Pyramid, Pulling Teeth 

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News...

Hello interwebians!


Just a quick update on the blog.
As some of you may have noticed over the last few weeks the blog has undergone a bit of a re-vamp and various tweaks here and there. Since the creation of the Facebook Page our views have gone up more than 500%!... Yes I actually worked the percentage out! So with the addition of more views we've also been inundated with requests from bands to be put on the site. This has proved to be a bit of a struggle for just myself, so as a result I have scoured far and wide... Well, ok maybe not far and wide, but I've brought two friends on board as new writers - Jon and Andy. Head over to our new contact page to get aquainted.
You may have also noticed the addition of the audio equipment reviews just below our banner. Although not quite finished yet, check back regularly for various reviews on all your vinyl related audio needs.


We are expanding pretty rapidly and we'd love to find more reviewers all over the world. So if you're interested please drop us a message letting us know who you are, where you're from and what you'd like to do.


Huge thanks to everyone who has supported the blog so far. Much love to you all!

~ Jay