T'is The Season To Be Sludgy... Again!...

Alas, we're at the end of another year and we all didn't die last Friday. So to celebrate that fact here's our awesome annual collection of all the best stuff we received throughout the year. Yup, 54 tracks of stoner rock, sludge, doom, metal, post rock, post metal, psych and hardcore...

Riding With The Devil Vol. 2 (320kbps)

A big thank you goes out to all the bands and friends who were great enough to hit us up with their work and go on to use it for this cd. More massive thanks go out to; all at Cavity Records, Devouter Records, Go Down Records, Kozmik Records, The Mylene Sheath, Ripple Music and Thirty Days Of Night Records for generally being top notch chaps.

See all you bitches in the new year!
~ Jay

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I'm Back! And I Bring Swedes!

Bottlecap - Self Titled (2012)

Fellow riders, I have returned from the desolate wastelands of sleepless nights, eye strains and headaches: school-work. I've been going through some very important steps toward my college education and I apologize to all of you for skipping out on writing for this behemoth of a blog. 

While I was gone, we were contacted by Bottlecap, our latest addition to the list of awesome Sweidish bands. When this trio contacted us, they described themselves as a stage-eating band, and after hearing their music and seeing their live videos, I could not come up with a more accurate description. they kick all kinds of ass with their raw guitar tones, kickin' drums, and gritty vocals. All the songs in the album have a really nice combination of punk energy with garage band scales and riffs. The vocalist's style makes me think of some kind of combination of a younger more garage rocky Lemmy Kilmeister with Iggy Pop. The guitarist has a tone that I've heard before but never hear someone use it for an entire song: it's a combination of fuzz and a harmonizer which is an effect that pretty much clones the guitar signal into another signal in a different pitch. The album is jam-packed with headbangin grooves and they managed to throw a clean ballad in there just to get a cherry on top of this great album.

~Bernardo

For Fans Of; The White Stripes, The Datsuns, The D4, The BellRays, 

Website - Facebook - Soundcloud

And From The Ashes...

War Wolf - Riding With Demons (2012)

I for one was pretty gutted when earlier in the year Ant dropped me a line to tell me the mighty Dopefight were breaking up. But fortunately for us Paul, Ant and fellow buddy Oli already had their contingency plan in motion, and so War Wolf was born. Little time past between the spawning of the band and heading into the studio. But instead of just cranking out the typical rushed demo down at the local studio, the trio pissed off to Canada. Bit of an unprecedented move I know, but not without reason, as good friend and Yoda like recording master Nick Kinnish moved there a few years back. Not a house hold name I grant you, and certainly a hell of a way to travel but Nick's catalog of work at the mixing desk with the likes of Architects, Throats, Johnny Truant and of course Dopefight really speaks for itself.
So with the quality of the final production pretty much a sure thing, what exactly can you expect from War Wolf? Well, if you're waiting for Dopefight 2.0 then, I'm sorry to burst your bubble. A safer bet would be to expect a series of sonic bursts consisting of both classic rock and post punk inspired riffage all accompanied with a health dose of angered roaring and Ant's awesome ferocious drumming. Totalling less than 15 minutes the album kind of reminds me of Agoraphobic Nosebleed's side of The Poacher Diaries but slightly less... clinical? Keeping that fine balance of catchy guitars, gut wrenching vocals, occasional machine gun like drum beats and a smattering of samples, then wrapped up and presented to you with all the subtlety of a shotgun blast to the face.
The long and short of it is, if you've ever had even a passing interest in the mixture of hardcore and sludge then this is gonna be right up your alley. Whats more, Headless Guru Records are going to be pressing it on lovely 10" in February, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
~ Jay

For Fans Of; Trap Them, Iron Witch, Grime, Swarm Of Spheres, Starve

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Riding With Demons (320kbps)

News...

Firstly, apologies for the week off... Between work, the upcoming holiday and illness it's been a bit of a struggle. Normality shall return on monday though, as Bernardo takes the reigns of the blog for a few weeks while I'm on the oposite side of the world. Keep emailing us your bands though!

New Vinyl Releases -
Mamiffer/Pyramids - Split EP (Hydra Head)
Doomrider - Black Thuner (Reissue) (Magic Bullet)
This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain (Reissue) (Magic Bullet)
Black Sabbath - The Vinyl Collection 1970-1978 (Napalm)
Earthling Society - Zodiak (Nasomi)
Nails - Obscene Humanity 7" (Southern Lord)

Vinyl Pre-Orders -
No Reality - Beyond Infinite (Thirty Days Of Night)

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Don't forget our big prize draw at the end of the year people!
Our box of goodies is getting bigger and bigger each week. We've got shirts from Dopefight, Gurt and Church Of Misery, cd's from Sleep (limited edition), Sonic Flower (limited edition), Stubb, Trippy Wicked, Ivy Garden Of The Desert and loads more. Some great signed 7" and 12" vinyl as well as some cassettes, posters and loads of stickers.

To be in for a chance to win the lot just drop us a donation and you'll go in to the draw at the end of the year. Every 5 bucks you donate gets you a ticket in the hat.

We really appreciate all donations big or small, they really help out for the costs of keeping the blog running. So to all those who have donated already, thank you!

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If you want you're band reviewed on the blog, would like us to add you're company or store our links page, have us mention you're new release above or would like to send us any physical merch (which is always massively appreciated!) then just drop us an email.

Remember to like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us here on Blogspot.

A Shower Of Bastards...

The Gentleman Bastards - Self Titled (2012)

Bit of a long overdue change of pase for today. I love me some sludge and doom, but I must confess I my heart has always been within the realms of classic, southern and dirty old stoner rock. So being as these Alabama bastards tick all those boxes and more it's safe to say I'm onto a personal winner.
Wallowing in a heathy dose of your typical southern rock style, the album actually rests on the more gentle side of the genre. Sounding distinctly modern in its composition it's tone well and truly lies somewhere back within the 70's amongst the likes of Cactus, Mountain and Black Oak Arkansas. Which suits me just fine as I've always maintained that I was born 30 years too late. Either way your pendulum swings, whether you prefer your modern or classic heavy rock there's something here for you. The little twinges of Soundgarden esque licks that leak through from time to time I can really do without. Thats more of a personal preference and down to my sheer dislike of Chris Cornell though if I'm honest so it shouldn't reflect on these fellas in the slightest. Hell, it only takes about 20 seconds to realise these chaps have potential by the bucket load. Though, I do think that if they could wrangle a decent veteran recording engineer and mixer that have an established track record I think they could just push the envelope that little bit further and go from good to bloody brilliant and possibly start giving the big boys a run for their money. But that all takes money, so c'mon, if you wanna hear more from the Bastards' drop them a few bucks...
~ Jay

For Fans Of; Clutch, Gentlemans Pistols, Blowback, Thunderfist, DeepSeaGreen  

Website • Facebook • Bandcamp

The Gentleman Bastards (320kbps)

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Berlin Bruisers...

The Trollenberg Terror - Orchid/Dahlia (2012)

Fancy destroying your eardrums for a few days? Well, Germany's The Trollenberg Terror may have just the tonic, or should I say tonic's because the trio have actually offered up a couple of head crushing albums this year alone.
The first, from back in May is Orchid, a relentless blitzkrieg of an album dropped to a tuning evidently devised by Satan himself... Or Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Stomping a path through a variety of genres, the guys never really set up shop in any particular one for too long. With a clear and present respect an appreciation for sludge and all subgenres, it's easy to get lulled into a sense that you're listening to another down tempo NOLA kind of act. That thought is quickly washed away with torrents upon torrents of grindcore, hardcore, doom, stoner rock and good ol' plain metal (to name just a few elements). Managing to stay within the confines of 'varied' without straying into 'confusingly convoluted' is a difficult line to tread when doing this but they just manage it, by the skin of their teeth. The result, in most places is actually bloody impressive, especially within the moments of riff heavy breaks overlapped with screamed vocals.
The second and most recent offering Dahlia treads in very much familiar footsteps. All those same combinations of elements are there in all their glory, but this time around they seem to have a slightly more focused and metal like finish to them. What ever your prefer taste maybe you'll find it here. The wider your tastes, the more you'll dig The Trollenberg Terror, that much I can guarantee.
~ Jay

For Fans Of; Soilent Green, Discordance Axis, 3 Stages Of Pain, Gore Beyond Necropsy, Siege  

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Orchid (320kbps) • Dahlia (320kbps)