Blast From The Past...

West, Bruce & Laing - Why Dontcha (1972)

It dawned on me a couple of days ago that I hadn't given you a classic rock album in a while. Well, absolutely months actually. To be honest it had become kind of difficult to find something classic yet widely new to a vast majority of people. So I got on with racking my brain in an attempt to give you something a little obscure. Well, maybe obscure is too strong, perhaps lesser known would be more fitting. Then it hit me. Just last month while traveling through a small village in Wales I spotted a tiny record store. Needless to say I dived in and proceeded to ransack their wears for anything and everything interesting looking. Much to my surprise I stumbled up West, Bruce & Laing's 3rd and final album 'Whatever Turns You On', something I'd been hoping to find for a while in order to complete my collection of theirs. I will however start from the beginning though, with this, the trio's first release from way back in 1972...
Following the break up of Mountain in the same year, lead man Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing teamed up with legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce and immediately began work on material. Despite forming in Chicago and guys actually originating from New York and England that familiar Mountain esque southern rock style and sound is still massively present. West's signature lead breaks and bellowing voice are also still in full effect. Like you're listening to Mountain 2.0.
The group toured pretty extensively for the initial 2 years they were around, but also managed to stop for long enough to knock out 2 studio albums and a live recording. The trio finally split in 1974 but a couple of years back they once again reformed and hit the road once more, now under the name West Bruce jr & Laing. Yup, Jack's son Malcolm picking up where his father left off. A pretty daunting task if you ask me, especially when you're dad was in Cream.

So just for you lovely people I have scoured the interwebs to bring you the best copies of these albums I can find. Enjoy!

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Mountain, Sir Lord Baltimore, Cactus, ZZ Top, Wild Turkey, 

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Why Dontcha (320kbps) •  Live 'N' Kickin (320kbps) • Whatever Turns You On (320kbps)

Top Dead Utahans...

Top Dead Celebrity - Self Titled (2009)

Firstly, I've got apologise to our newest writer Jeff for kind of hijacking his debut review. Well not hijack, but foreword is really a better way of putting it. But I love this band. They're awesome and incredibly underrated. Their second album, 'Midwestern Rube' went straight to our top 10 of 2011 at number 1 and is still there now (just click the artwork to the right to see the review). Hailing from Utah, they're also our very own Jeff's neighbours and friends, so there really is no one more fitting to review this, the bands first album. So without much further ado...

~ Jay

~

For my first music review on RWTD, I chose one of my favorite albums of all time. TDC’s first self-titled release from 2009 on Exigent Records. Jeff Anderson, lead vocals and guitar, is an emphatic musician. His lyrics are guttural yet easily understood, and his songs tell a coherent story. They rock you right into your face holes. The sound stage of this album is deep and hits you right in the gut, like being stabbed repeatedly with a very large dagger. From fast paced songs like “Illuminati” and “Lucifer’s Hammer” to almost Pink Floyd-ish on “The Animal” which is 11:37. Top Dead Celebrity has a ghoulish undertone to their music, it makes my hair stand on end, like walking the catacombs of Paris alone. I have to say too that they are just as good and polished live as they are recorded. Their musicianship is extremely good. Their drummer is excellent, with very powerful, intricate work. The studio work is impressive and the edition of Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China bits on “Six Demon Bag” is interesting and fun. With the depth and strength of their musical abilities, I am astonished that Top Dead Celebrity is not part of all you, the reader’s music collections. They are readily available on Itunes or CDbaby.com as well as on Facebook. Go, go now and get this!
Cheers.

~ Futzer

For Fans Of; Orange Goblin, Red Fang, Wo Fat, Dukes of Nothing, Planet Of Zeus

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Top Dead Celebrity (252kbps)

Experimental Extremists...

Humanfly - II (2008)

Some people may question why we review the things that we review. Sometimes the answer is simple – in this case I drove fellow blog conspirators Jay and Jon back from a Dopefight gig a few of weeks back, slipped this disc in the CD player and after the first track Jon threatened to steal it. It occurred that if veterans of the trade like these guys hadn’t heard Humanfly, then maybe some of you guys hadn’t either.

Humanfly are just plain awesome. Straddling the fine line between doom, sludge, stoner and post metal magnificently, they carve huge riffs out of the ether, all bass-y sludge-y tones and tight percussion. If you need reference points, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, a more prog Neurosis, these will all do the trick. They’ve put out three records to date, this, perhaps unsurprisingly, is their second. They’re all great, I’d advise you to check them all out – in fact their first album ‘A God Amongst Insects’ is available for free download from their bandcamp page (there will be a link somewhere below) – but ‘II’ is my favourite purely from a consistency perspective.

The first track, ‘Another week in the theme park of death’ is possibly the best opener to a record I’ve heard in ages. A quiet, reverb soaked, almost picked expression builds gently, supported with a full sounding bass line, and meanders gently for nearly four minutes, lulling the listener into a false sense of security, before a frankly enormous sludge riff comes out of nowhere. The first time the shock is almost palpable. It’s a great riff too, driven by a frankly huge bass line. Vocals are layered on sparingly, with a refreshingly non-screamy approach and opting for more of an emotive mixture of shout and singing, sounding for all the world like a man striving to sing loud enough to be heard over the cacophony, such that his voice cracks. Surprisingly, this works remarkably effectively. Later in the song the riffs drop to half time; at this point I normally get goose pimples.

And this is just the first song. There are five more with lots of other touches to bring out, but I think I’ve said enough. Go and listen to this record, it’s simply awesome.

~ Andy

For Fans Of; Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, Russian Circles

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II (320kbps)

Sounds Like Scouse Sludge...

Iron Witch - Demo (2011)

Something a little heavier for you now ladies and gents. How does a little bit of grimy punk influenced sludge sound to y'all? Good, well I present for your consideration, hailing from Liverpool, England; Iron Witch. Basically this is Nola style dirty sludge done by Scousers... and done bloody well!
Right, there's an absolute shed load of sludge bands doing the rounds throughout the UK alone, but the thing is, and I dont like to criticise too much here, the vast majority of them are pretty shoddy. They seem to think that they can get away with pretty much anything quality wise and just pass it off as 'sludge'. It's like trading volume over talent, but you can't do this. It just doesn't work. You don't have to be a genius to work this out either, just look at the pioneers of the genre; Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, Soilent Green, Acid Bath... etc etc. They all had a certain groove to them. It doesn't matter if it's buried under excessing fuzz, it's always there. So if you cant write a good riff, don't bother trying to start a sludge band. It's that simple. The other thing you need to know about this genre is that 99% of the bands have some kind of punk roots or heavy influence. Whether it's Black Flag or GG Allin it's there somewhere. So now thats out the way I'm glad to announce that Iron Witch clearly understand this simple formular and execute it with brutal conviction. It's only a demo but the quality is evident. Evident and more than worthy to be placed on the roster of such labels as Southern Lord or Phil Anselmo's latest project The Housecore Records. That may seem a bit of a bold statement but you give these guys a listen then make you're own decision.
Iron Witch have firmly cement their name with the likes of other UK acts such as the awesome Dopefight, Hang The Bastard and Dead Existence that are currently on the scene and dominating it with their own new generation of sludge and doom. All bands that deserve a whole lot more attention then they are actually getting. So with that said, shoot on over to Witch Hunter Records and see what other little gems the guys have dug out for your listening pleasure.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, Buzz•oven, Outlaw Order, GG Allin,

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Demo 2011 (320kbps)

News...

Just a quick snippet of news for all you followers out there...

Firstly we've added a new, more comprehensive review for Pro-Ject's RPM 9.2 Evolution turntable... 

Oh, it's a beauty! Head over to our turntable review page for the lowdown and some new pictures. 

We have also given you a new cartridge review in the shape of Ortofon's awesome 2M series. Needless to say you can find this in our cartridge review page.

Finally, we're looking for a new writer. If you have a love of all things vinyl and stoner rock/doom orientated and would like to help us out, please drop us an email.

~ Jay

Greeks, Guts & Grooves...

Planet Of Zeus - Macho Libre (2011)

Again this was yet another band that kind of passed me by for a while. The name had popped up here and there on and off but it was only when I was getting ready for a night out on the tiles at a friends and the demo for their track 'Leftovers' came blaring out of his computer that I began to do some proper listening. I promptly downloaded the first album; Eleven The Hard Way and was instantly hooked. But unfortunately this was still about a month or so prior to the release of this record, which a few friends of mine had been lucky enough to hear a few rough tracks of and described as 'blowing the first album out of the water'. Much to my relief I managed to blag an early copy and its barely been of my stereo since. That sweet southern metal guitar twang and dirty, gritty vocals instantly grabbed me once again and with seconds my head was nodding and feet were tapping. The instant feeling of being gutted that I hadn't got hold of any of their stuff sooner quickly gave way to foot tapping joy as I trawled youtube in search of clip after clip of them. I must have watched about 8 or 9 videos before I actually figured out that these guys weren't from the US. I know that sounds pretty amateur but if you've heard them before you'll understand and if you havent you soon will. They sound like they should be locals at SXSW, not hailing from Greece. Their sound echos that of the likes of Maylene or Red River Revival. But dont get me wrong, in no way are these chaps ripping off anyone else or posing as a poor mans immolation. Macho Libre is utterly riddled with quality riff after riff and it certainly doesn't hurt that their vocalist Babis has one of best stoner rock/southern metal voices you'll ever hear. Totally raw and gravelly yet still skilled enough to successfully pull off a wide variety of peaks and styles. Not bloody bad for some who's native tongue is that which he sings in..
So what should you expect from Macho Libre? Well if you haven't guessed already, pretty much balls to the wall, Texan style southern rock. But in the same tone they're no one trick pony either as they're perfectly able to nail some chilled out tracks too 'Unicorn Without A Horn' and 'Hazelnur (RIP)' are blissfully mellow and strangely reminiscent of a mix of Pink Floyd and some of the instrumental Hendrix tracks he recorded. Kind of in the same vein of Black Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan'. But yes, the heavy rock style is definitely where POZ really do excel. If this album doesn't make you wanna jump in to a Dodge Charger and tear round at high speed jumping over barns and police cars then there's something seriously wrong with you! Best review of this record actually came from a friend of mine when he summed it up in this short sentence; "I swear, you can take pretty much any track on here and edit it over clipped footage of Dukes Of Hazzard and it works perfectly... every time!" Now, if you haven't been convinced after that you never will be.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster, Artimus Pyledriver, Orange Goblin, Naam, Black Label Society

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Macho Libre (320kbps)

Bluesy Texas Trio...

Chili Cold Blood - Rock N Roll, Motherfucker! Redux (2005)

I stumbled onto these chaps entirely by chance. I was trawling through youtube searching for something new, or at least new to me and just clicked the video below solely because it had a skull and crossbones on it. I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but bite me. If you've got cool artwork then I will more than likely listen to your band first. I know I'm shallow. I dont care. Besides, I bet y'all are still reading on mainly because of the boobs above. Go on, just admit it. But enough about my questionable selection methods and you perverts, on to the job in hand.
I love a bit of blues every so often, and the dirtier and heavier the blues the better. Well luckily for me it doesn't get much dirtier or heavier than Chili Cold Blood efforts.
This Texas three piece have been knocking around for almost a decade, starting life as a duo before finding a couple of drummers and cracking out their first album.
The over all style can be captured as a mix of blues, country, blue grass and classic rock n roll. But dont worry if any of those elements put you off, when you combine that sound with tales of whiskey, women and murder it makes for a great result. Imagine Jerry reed using Seasick Steve's instruments to play a set comprising of just Maylene songs and you're pretty much there. Their back catalog does vary over the years a bit too, so if you dont dig this album head over to their sites and have a listen to some of the more recent recordings.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Jerry Reed, Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster, The Datsuns, Barn Burners, Seasick Steve,

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Rock N Roll, Motherfucker! Redux (224kbps)

Rocking A Retro Lineup...

Ripple Music - 1st Anniversary Sampler (2011)

Here at the blog we love small record labels, especially when they go to the trouble to contact us and offer us free things. So naturally when an email from Todd at Ripple Music popped up in our inbox we were more than happy to help these fellas out.
The guys at Ripple Music have spent the last year scouring around in search of bands that keep that classic rock sound alive and kicking. They've proven to be pretty adept at doing so too. This little sampler will hopefully wet your taste buds enough to head on over and check out some more of their signings. The bands sampled on the album range from a an old school mix of classic acid rock and southern inspired rock to a mellow chilled out Incubus kind of sound. There's something there for everyones taste. The highlights for me being the tracks by Grifter, Venomin James and the superbly retro JPT Scare Band.
Be sure to head over and check out their expanding vinyl selection too as there's some cracking little limited pressings up for grabs.

Now go download the album and let the music do the talking!

For Fans Of; Clutch, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Artimus Pyledriver, Red River Revival, Motorcity Daredevils 

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1st Anniversary Sampler (320kbps)

Waxing Lyrical - Vinyl Review...

Gentlemans Pistols - At Her Majesty's Pleasure (2011)

Recent addition to my vinyl collection here. Having been browsing the shelves of my mates record store I spotted it I had a bit of a flash back. I could have sworn I picked it up when it came out a few months back... alas some how I forgot. I know, shame on me. Anyway, better late than never so lets crack on with the review.
Gentlemans Pistols have been doing the rounds since about 2003, they've cracked out a couple of & inches but didn't get around to releasing a full studio album until 2007. They then waited until now to give us another offering. Thats not a huge amount of material for nigh on a decade, but lets not judge. Besides, its quality not quantity that matters and luckily this happens to be the guy's ethos. Plus when quality is matched with a great resonating classic rock style, well that does just make my day. I've always professed that I was born 30 years too late. I missed all the best stuff by a fair few years and the 80's weren't too kind to the whole rock scene - too much hair spray and tight trousers/lycra for my liking. Much like today unfortunately, but at least today we have these guys doing their part in keeping that classic sound alive without coming over too cliché or cheesy. This album is full to the brim with what are best described as homages to some of the greats. There's some clear inspiration from the likes Zeppelin, Sir Lord Baltimore, Atomic Rooster, Steppenwolf and even a little early KISS to name just a few. The latter there can be heard so evidently in the track I Wouldn't Let You, which I guarantee will take no more than 5 seconds to remind you of Love Gun. Nothing wrong with that if you ask me, I'm all for sharing your influences and reflecting them in your own work. Sometimes bands can take it too far and just blatantly just rip a classic off but fortunately Gentlemans Pistols seem to have such an eclectic range of inspiration that every track tips it's hat towards another band's archive of work. It's great to hear and also a bit of a rarity. In fact the only record I can think of that was so diverse in this kind of way was Wolfmother's self titled debut. Just like the aforementioned it's also jam packed full of memorable foot tapping riffs and licks. A lot of which have a distinct southern sounding undertone with the tracks like Peeping Tom and The Ravisher have a certain touch of Skynyrd and Mountain about them.
If you're a lover of the 70's and the pure awesomeness that the decade positively exploded with then I urge you to pick up this album, and what better way than on lovely vinyl!...


• Label: Rise Above Records

• Pressing Info: Limited to 100 Clear - 300 Black - 300 Red - 300 Gold

• Price: £15/$22

~ Jay

For Fans Of: Black Spiders, Asteroid, Firebird, Highway Robbery, Leaf Hound

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At Her Majesty's Pleasure (320kbps)

Bringing Back Capital Punishment...

Hang The Bastard - Raw Sorcery EP (2009)

As you can probably tell by their name alone, London five-piece Hang The Bastard aren’t the type to pull any punches. It may be two years old now, but their brilliant sludge fuelled debut EP Raw Sorcery set the foundations to build upon for their first album, the recently released Hellfire Reign.
As far as first impressions go, Raw Sorcery has that chaotic experience down to an absolute tee. The relative serenity of the first minute and a half of the opening track ‘Failed Harvest’ truly is the calm before the storm. What you get after that is an unstoppable, unrelenting tirade of epic breakdowns, violent vocals and riffs straight out of the Sabbath back catalogue. ‘Pillage Your Village’ showcases the slower, sludge style that is more akin to Soilent Green and Eyehategod, whilst ‘Awaken Ye Heathens’ and ‘Oblivion’ provide the energy and harsh screams to make sure the EP finishes in a typically brutal fashion.

The beauty of Hang The Bastard, is that you cannot pigeonhole them into a single genre. You can hear the riff-heavy influences of Sabbath, the thrash-heavy influences of Slayer and the Southern metal influences of Down and Eyehategod throughout, which all culminates into a violent masterclass in crushing eardrums.
Off the back of their first full length release (Hellfire Reign) and having played over 200 shows throughout Europe in the last 18 months, it’s safe to say that Hang The Bastard are well and truly here to stay.

~ Jon

For Fans Of; Iron Monkey, Soilent Green, Converge, Monster Coyote, Dopefight

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Raw Sorcery (192kbps)

Beats Born In Bordeaux...

Year Of No Light - Live At Roadburn 2008 (2011)

Ah, Roadburn. Ride with the Devils’ spiritual home, and a pretty good reason to live in Holland, as if the liberal approaches to drugs and prostitution weren’t enough. For those that don’t know, Roadburn is an awesome annual festival putting on the best of stoner, sludge, doom and post metal. Recently, they’ve even started putting out CDs of some of the sets. See the excellent Neurosis set from 2008, for example. Well, now it’s the turn of Year of No Light, French post-metal types that took the Isis blueprint and twisted it into something beautiful with their debut ‘Nord’. This record is particularly interesting, as the set took place prior to the departure of singer Julien and their move to singular instrumental glory as typified by 2009’s ‘Ausserwelt’.
To the tracks though – the production is incredible for a live record, the rhythm section given real weight, guitars sounding huge, and vocals sounding as raw as all hell. Tracks like ‘Traversee’ actually slightly improve on the versions on ‘Nord’, picking up the pace slightly and sounding somehow more brutally raw than the studio produced versions on the album. The band are tight, balancing sombre psychedelics, crushing sludge riffs, tortured screams and postrock touches to devastating effect, most notably on ‘Metanoia’, originally to be found on the Rosetta/Year of No Light/East of the Wall split. It’s an absolutely epic noise that demands attention, especially when that brutal rising progression runs headlong into the simply massive ‘L’angoisse Du Veilleur De nuit D’autoroute’. I get goose pimples listening, honestly.
Jewel in the crown is last track ‘The Golden Horn of the Moon’, a live collaboration with Fear Falls Burning, a drone led shoegaze epic, with washes of feedback and distortion building relentlessly for over 14 minutes. It’s a near perfect way to end the set. Awesome.


~ Andy

For Fans Of; Isis, Cult Of Luna, Cave In, No Anchor, White Hills

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Live At Roadburn 2008 (192 kbps)

The Russians Return...

Kamni (Kамни) - A.T.O.M

These fellas were one of the first bands that I reviewed here and also one of the reasons I started the blog in the first place. If you didn't check out the review and EP the first time around good god go and do it now! You can find it here.

I've been itching to hear more of Kамни's stuff since I discovered the aforementioned EP, so I almost soiled myself when I checked back on their myspace and found this had been put up for a free download. Yes, you heard me right, once again these chaps are giving it away for free!

I will give the game away a bit here, but if you're expecting a repeat of the selftitled EP you maybe left a little perplexed. It's all gone a little space rock to tell the truth. Not that thats a bad thing in the slightest, it actually seems to have a nice balanced mix of that and doom. The beginning also gives a slightly unorthodox feel too, its almost like guys have a Beatles esque moment and buggered off to India for a while. Distant haunting ambience laced with guitars posing as sitars and what sounds like pan pipes. Worry not though, the slow chugging riffs soon kick in but are just bookended with more trippy spaced out distortion and more whaling guitars. But the most important thing is that it works, and works really well. The first EP went down an absolute storm, so this kind of experimentation was fundamentally a real risk. But a risk that ultimately paid off. Nothing lets this EP down, everything's done with the upmost care and the guys have been sure not to over use the samples or push their luck with the experimentation. It's altogether slower and more sombre than their previous work but it will surely keep you hooked, and even though its only 4 tracks, it's certainly not a case of blink and you'll miss it, this thing pushes the 40 min mark. Not a bad bit of work when you consider that you can sit and listen with out feeling bored or cheated because of constant repetition. So once again a top class release from the boys from Kамни... Time to break out the bong, sit back and enjoy some more awesome epic Russian space doom. 

~ Jay

For fans of; Electric Wizard, Sleep, Stonehelm, Pelican, Dozer 

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A.T.O.M (320kbps)

Deep Down Dirty & Bluesy...

DeepSeaGreen - Valsorda (2011)

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but there is absolutely no shame when the band concerned is the Black Keys. After last year’s release of their self-titled debut album, London-based blues four-piece DeepSeaGreen return with the superb six track EP Valsorda.  It’s really no surprise to see who they have been influenced by. There are shades of 60’s Hendrix and 70’s Zeppelin, up to the sounds of modern day bands such as the Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. In truth, that is the greatest accolade you can award to the production of Valsorda, is that it could well have been recorded anytime in the last 40 years. There is a fantastic fusion of mellow, retro blues combined with dirty riffs and brilliantly raw vocals courtesy of Trent Halliday.  Undoubtedly the jewel in the crown of Valsorda is ‘Over Song’ – the shortest song on the album, but littered with catchy riffs and lazy, husky vocals throughout. ‘Coagula’ takes things a little slower, whilst ‘Nowhere To Hide’ is everything what DeepSeaGreen are all about, and subsequently contributes to an absolutely filthy blues sound.  Unusually for a band of their genre, all but one of the six tracks pushes the four minute mark, but that is too no detriment to the quality of the EP. It’s utterly faultless. Like the Black Keys? You will absolutely love this.


~ Jon

For Fans Of; Radio Moscow, The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Shellfin, Aver

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Valsorda (320kbps)

News...

Right, it's been a busy couple of weeks and there's been a few updates to report on.
Firstly we've recruited a new writer in the shape of Jeff (Futzer), our first yank. He's hit us up with a couple of equipment reviews so be sure to check the pages. We're still on the hunt for another writer or two, ideally from somewhere around Europe and/or Australia, so just drop us a line if you're interested!

Secondly we're going to try and step it up a gear and give you a review every couple of days now so check back regularly for updates or like us on Facebook to be kept in the loop.

~ Jay

Waxing Lyrical - Vinyl Review...

Roadsaw - Roadsaw (2011)

I've cut in a little here because we were due to give you a nice shiny new vinyl review and just yesterday this lovely little record finally appeared on my door step and I've been waiting to get this up since it was first released. So here we go... Roadsaw - veteran hard rockers with a distinct southern twang and swagger. Sounds good right? Well it is, and just what we're looking for here. 

The first I heard of this bearded four some was when I was trawling Smallstone Records for new and interesting vinyl releases. From first glance this appeared to be a debut but these guys have been churning out their particular concoction of southern stoner rock for nigh on 18 years. With this revelation in mind I back tracked and checked out some of the earlier material just for a bit of a comparison. Time has seemed to change these guys a little. For those of you familiar with their previous work you'll be glad to know those trademark catchy riffs and hooks are back in full force. But as for the over all sound and tone, everything feels a lot more smooth and polished. For all of you not acquainted with them, they're a bit like a slightly slower tempo Orange Goblin... In layman's terms.

Recently playing SXSW the Massachusetts quartet clearly had a trek and a half on their hands to join the rest of the awesome Smallstone show case. Sharing the stage with Sasquatch, Dixie Witch and blog favourites Lo-Pan, it really makes me wish I lived bloody closer!

Never the less, if you haven't already go give these guys a listen and swing by Smallstone Records on your way to find some fantastic vinyl releases!

• Label: Smallstone Records

• Pressing Info: Limited to 40 Purple/Blue Marble - 100 Clear Blue - 100 Black

• Price: £15/$20

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Orange Goblin, Naam, Planet Of Zeus, Asteroid, Clutch

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Roadsaw (320kbps)

Straight From The Valleys...

Sigiriya - Return To Earth (2011)

Now this is where our Johnny Morrow/Iron Monkey tribute draws to an end. Its been a good (nearly) two weeks and hopefully any of you out there who weren't too familiar with the work are now a little wiser. The feed back so far has been cracking so hopefully we've done the great man/band proud.

Right, so how many of you guys remember Acrimony?... Awesome Welsh band that had a good 10 year run from the early 90's to 2001. They only released two full length albums but did have a fair few EP's and some nice splits, most notably their final one with Church Of Misery... Anyway, this is what formed from the ashes of this great, yet highly under appreciated band. 

I will confess that I had only recently heard of them and only in passing, but as it turns out Sigiriya formed just a couple of years ago and have been slowly working on material, doing the rounds and are poised to release their first full studio album. The guys were also kind enough to get in touch with me and send over a copy of the new release and their blessing to put a track up here... True gentlemen!

I wont dwell too much on the band themselves, as their bio pretty much says it all. So in their own words...

"Beneath the soil of a Welsh valley a heavy metal life-force regains strength: rising from the ashes of stoner doom merchants Acrimony, Sigiriya is born.
Eight years after the demise of Acrimony, guitarist Stu O’Hara, bassist Mead, drummer Darren Ivey and vocalist Dorian Walters have reconvened. Not wanting the limitations of reforming a project long dead to them, Sigiriya brings a fresh take on their trademark monolithic heavy groove. While Acrimony hailed from the temples of deepest space, Sigiriya come from the earthy depths, bringing hefty, tremor-inducing sonics that pay homage to the riff.
Time served in the likes of Iron Monkey, Helvis, Dukes Of Nothing, Black Eye Riot, The Nine and Yeti have only added to their thick output, giving the foursome a more dynamic, meaner, leaner, earthier approach, which has developed an intense dirty sound with elements of boogie, classic rock and even crust. Taking their name from the mystic ‘throat of the lion’ rock in Sri Lanka, their rumble has been moving the Black Mountains of their homeland and will soon be moving the tectonic plates of the earth. To borrow a phrase from their former outfit: ‘Bong On, Live Long…'"

Voila!
Now hit up the link below for a taster of the album and watch this space for a review of the vinyl release which is (fingers crossed) soon to be in the pipeline... Sweet!
Also keep and eye out as these chaps will soon be hitting the road around the UK and possibly playing at a venue near you, and if you happen to reside in the London area in August they will be playing with our friends Dopefight at the Unicorn in Camden.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Acrimony, Naam, Black Eye Riot, The Sword, Black Pyramid

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Whiskey Song (320kbps)