Hailing from Arizona, Stratus Nimbus play a furious type of stoner and psychedelic rock with heavy metal influences. “Equality,” the opening track on their self-titled six-song EP, is loaded with guitars that would be right at home on Nirvana’s Bleach album as much as they would on a Black Sabbath record. The vocals, by Doug Dowd, are so full of reverb that they almost sound like they were recorded underwater.
The guitars on “Can’t Break Free” by Tom Goddard and Dan Dowd roll over you like waves breaking on rocky shores and threatening to drag you under or smash you to pieces. “A Walk in the Dark” is a great, creepy track that is a cool mix of Alice in Chains, Dio, and I think something from an unpublished Lovecraft story. Linda Rydelius’ vocals on it are like a dire warning to travelers on a bleak mountain pass.
“Galaxy Girl” is fine spacey psych. I love the way the guitars roar and whisper at the same time throughout it. “You Take” clearly shows the band’s love of heavy metal, as it sounds like a late 70’s track you’d hear blasting from your brother’s van as he cruised Main Street. The EP ends with “Rain Jam,” which is crunchy-punchy stoner rock that probably knocks you back on your heels live.
These cats have good things ahead of them if this EP is any indication. It’s loud, distorted, and weird, as good rock from the desert should be.
Keep your mind open.
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#15 – Death from Above 1979 at the Chicago House of Blues October 13th
Yeah, the whole show was this crazy. It was a rough pit, but worth a couple spins through it to feed off the energy DFA1979 were throwing at us.
#14 – Buzzcocksat the Vic Theatre in Chicago September 22nd
Speaking of rough mosh pits, I helped break up a fight in this one. I’d been waiting a long time to see Buzzcocks, and it was well worth it.
#13 – Clutchat Pierre’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana June 10th
“Hottest show of the tour. No question,” said Clutch lead singer Neal Fallon. It was indeed damn hot in there, and Clutch seemed to use the heat like a furnace to create some sort of alchemical spell.
My wife and I were front and center for the funkiest show we saw all year. The crowd was bonkers by the end of their set. “I almost left,” said one woman as we were leaving the show. “I’m glad I stayed.” Shame on you if you missed it.
This was a beautiful show in an intimate venue, and Brazilian bossa nova / eletro siren Ceu had the whole room in the palm of her hand by the end of it. I couldn’t stop grinning through the whole performance.
Don’t let anyone tell you that there’s no good music anymore. There is always good music. You just have to find it. I hope this list and this blog helped you discover some good stuff in 2016.
I reviewed close to 50 albums released in 2016 last year, so I’ve decided to highlight the top 25. Here are numbers 25-21.
25.Slavesbring great British punk that skewers not only the elite rich, but also Millennial slackers and even the stupidity of drunk driving.
24.Dunsmuiris a metal supergroup featuring members of Clutch, Fu Manchu, The Company Band, and Black Sabbath. Their debut is a concept record about a shipwrecked crew fighting monsters on a remote island.
23.
Canadian psych-rockers Elephant Stonehave yet to put out a bad record, and this one added electro touches to their mix of 1960’s psychedelia and bhangra.
22.
Birth is a fine piece of stoner rock from this three-piece Australian outfit. I was on a big stoner rock kick in 2016 and ORB certainly fit the bill.
21.
Klaus Johann Grobe were a delightful discovery this year, and their latest album, Spagat Der Liebe, is a fun electro / lounge record suitable for both late night parties and making out.
Who cracks the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Keep your mind open.
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Age of Winters, the debut album from The Sword (J.D. Cronise – guitar and vocals, Bryan Richie – bass, Kyle Shutt – guitar, Trivett Wingo – drums) is nothing short of a metal masterpiece. It was a bold statement in 2006 and is still just as powerful a decade later, putting many newer metal albums to shame.
What makes it different? For one, the instrumentation. The Sword can shred like a Ninja Turtles villain and jam harder than Schmucker’s equally well. Second, their lyrics are epic. “Barael’s Blade,” for example, is a song about a magic sword that starts with the lyric “Forged by the Crow-Mage from shards of darkness.” You can’t get much more metal than that.
“Freya,” about the queen of the Valkyries, hits as hard as “a sword of fire and an axe of gold.” The result of the bloody battle portrayed in the song is cursed by survivors in “Winter’s Wolves.” “The Horned Goddess,” who “sits astride mountains tall and wide,” is a heavy salute to (I think) Hela – the Norse goddess of the underworld. The song chugs along like the boots of a Viking army climbing a glacier. “Iron Swan” is a fast song about a dark boat that brings death to one’s enemies. The guitars shred like stampeding horses on it.
“Lament for the Aurochs” is the heaviest doom-metal track on the record. The bass rumbles, the cymbals crash, and the guitar solos are like battle cries. The first verse alone tells you how heavy this song is: “Laboring in the liquid light of Leviathan, spectres swarm around the sunken cities of the Saurians. Rising from the void through the blackness of eternal night, Colossus of the Deep crashing down with cosmic might.” Who else is crafting lyrics like this?
“March of the Lor” is a powerful “instrumental in eight movements” that puts about ten minutes of blistering rock into less than five minutes. “Ebethron” has a sweet drum solo in it (When was the last time you heard a drum solo in a song, metal or otherwise?) and is an epic tale of a warlord preparing for a world-shaking battle.
The whole album is world-shaking. You need this in your collection if you’re a metal fan.
Imagine you flew from Guatemala to Chicago to see a band and they only played four songs (including the encore), but you were ecstatic by the end of the show. This is what happens at Earthlessshows.
My friend, Paul, and I went to see Earthless, Ruby the Hatchet, and Marmora at the Empty Bottle. It was my third time seeing Earthless and Paul’s first. We hadn’t seen either of the opening acts. Paul and I are big fans of Earthless and their mostly instrumental cosmic rock, and the Empty Bottle (which was sold out) would be the smallest venue in which I’d seen them so far.
We met a couple who drove in from Wisconsin to see them for the first time. We all talked about the number of songs we’d get to hear from Earthless. They played four the first two times I saw them, so Paul and I were betting on at least three. The couple from Wisconsin hoped for four, and they were correct.
First up were Marmora – a Chicago four-piece that blended stoner rock with punk. Paul knew we were in for something groovy when their lead guitarist came out wearing a “Got blunt?” T-shirt.
Marmora – rocking hard despite having a rough day at the office.
Marmora had been through a rough day. The lead singer had screwed up his ankle, they mentioned having some sort of vehicle trouble earlier, they accidentally set their gear in dog poop while loading the van, the drummer’s foot pedal broke (thankfully, they had another), and the lead singer broke a string on his guitar. They put on a good set despite all that, and their rhythm section is particularly good.
Ruby the Hatchet put on a fine set of witchcraft rock with song titles like “Pagan Ritual” and “The Unholy.” They have a great organ player who brings a cool 1960’s vibe to their power. Their lead singer commands a room and her hand gestures as she soaks in the band’s sound might as well have been learned from Dr. Strange.
Ruby the Hatchet casting spells on all of us.
Earthless walked on stage with no muss or fuss. They said hello and then unleashed. A brother-sister duo from Guatemala were next to me and told me how they’d come to the States to follow Earthless on their current tour. They were big fans of stoner / doom metal. The brother, David, told me he’s been reaching out to stoner metal bands in hopes of convincing them to tour in Guatemala, where there is no stoner metal scene according to him. He and his sister had a great time, although his sister couldn’t understand why the audience wasn’t dancing more. “American audiences are so fucking stiff,” she told me.
She probably changed her mind by the time a fight broke out in a mosh pit started by some dude high and / or drunk out of his mind. I saw her grab the guy by the face while he was being dragged out by fans and security. Earthless, meanwhile, were too busy detaching the roof from the Empty Bottle and rocketing into space to notice or care. All three of them were on fire, but I must mention that this was the hardest I’ve seen drummer Mario Rubalcaba play so far. He beat his kit like it stole his skateboard.
That’s not a disco ball above Earthless. It’s a small moon they pulled down from the heavy gravity of their set.
Their first song, “Uluru Rock,” was 25 minutes long. The second, “Violence of the Red Sea,” was 15. The third, “Sonic Prayer,” was a half-hour. They came back on for a quick encore – a blazing cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown” that lasted under five minutes and left everyone stunned. “I liked them before,” Paul said. “I like them even more now.”
Walking back out into the low 30’s weather after getting our faces melted was jarring, but it felt great. We’d been elevated. I’ve always said that Earthless chose that name for their band because their music can’t be confined to this planet. They proved that again in Chicago.
Looking for hard rock best suited for running moonshine or chugging it? Look no further than Scattered Hamlet (Richard Erwin – bass and vocals, Adam Joad – vocals, harmonica, and guitar, Jake Deling Le Bas – drums, percussion, and vocals, Adam Newell – lead and slide guitars, vocals) and their new album Swamp Rebel Machine. The interior art features a rendition of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, but the logo has been changed to “Don’t fuck with me.” It’s a theme evident in the opening track, “Battle Hymn,” and the instrumentation is indeed not something with which to fuck.
“Whip-Poor-Will” hits as hard as any Zeke track (especially Erwin’s bass groove). “Stonewall Jackson” starts with a conversation between two pals – one of who would rather watch The Dukes of Hazzard than get laid. I can’t help but wonder if this is based on a real conversation one of the band members with someone. Newell shreds on it, by the way.
“Four Barrel Mojo” is dirty honkytonk rock. “White Trash” grooves so well that the Donnas might smash a couple guitars in “Why didn’t we come up with that lick?” rage. The title track is the first single off the record. It’s a good choice since it sums up the band’s ethos (hard-workin’, hard-rockin’, hard-drinkin’, school of hard knocks graduates). “Green Bastard” has some of Le Bas’ hardest and funkiest drumming on the record. Joad salutes his grandmother on “Outlaw Breed” (“Grandma taught me nothing’s guaranteed except the hillbilly pride and the outlaw breed.”).
“Rimfire” reminds me of good hair metal, which is an elusive beast these days. “Buckshot” could be a lost Nashville Pussy track, and I love the way Joad’s vocals border on screams for a lot of it. The closer is “The Lesson,” which ends the album on a metal note that would make Clutch proud. Newell goes for broke on it, and I love the drum and bass breakdown near the end.
Swamp Rebel Machine is a good, dirty, gritty, heavy rock record. We need this kind of “Don’t fuck with me” rock right now. People are pissed and making their voices heard, and they could very well be playing this record in their earbuds as they march or mosh.
Clutch released its compilation album La Curandera on black vinyl on October 7th. La Curandera was originally released on Sept. 29, 2015 in a limited, pink vinyl edition for RED’s “Ten Bands One Cause” campaign to celebrate breast cancer awareness month. Due to continued demand, Weathermaker Music decided to re-release this album at this time on black vinyl.
La Curandera is a compilation of 8 tracks from Clutch’s vast catalog of songs.
“The track listing features characters that can only be described as formidable female protagonists” states front man Neil Fallon. “And to put this project over the top we are lucky to have the cooperation of world renowned illustrator Becky Cloonan who created brand new artwork fitting this cause.”
Recorded September 30, 2015, Live at Third Man Records is a fast, furious capsule of the raw energy of Death from Above 1979 (Sebastien Granger – drums and vocals, Jesse Keeler – bass and vocals). No guitar here, folks. Drums, bass, and vocals are more than enough.
“Right on Frankenstein” has enough electro-fuzz in it to bring an animated corpse to life. “Where have all the virgins gone?” the band wonders on “Virgins,” which has a wickedly slick bass groove that’s hard to describe. The bass on “Going Steady,” however, is almost like drone synth rock. Jack White, head honcho at Third Man Records, probably loves the title of “White Is Red,” and he can’t argue with the heartfelt lyrics.
“Trainwreck 1979” is about a deadly crash of a chlorine train tanker and hits about as hard. “Gemini” hits even harder, with squeaky, almost tortured bass and race to the finish drums (which makes sense since it was the last track recorded for side A of the vinyl release).
Side B starts with “Little Girl,” a love song with doom rock bass riffs and post-punk drums. “Go Home Get Down” has freakier bass and lyrics, and “Government Trash” is appropriately trashy and loud.
I’m going to assume “Always On” refers to the distortion pedals used by the band, because the song is a cranked-up, raucous rocker that reminds me of a rocket launch in the way it constantly builds to near burn-out. They close the live session with “The Physical World.” “Oh no, not again. I get this feeling this is not the end,” Granger sings, but end it must and they go for broke and fade out in squalls of feedback.
It’s a short, but strong live recording and a must for DFA 1979 fans.
I love a good instrumental, and Gravel Drag‘s(Chris Bowyer – bass, Ben McKinney – drums, Steve McKinney – guitar) Sly Fox EP has four of them. All are tight stoner rock tracks that each clock in under four minutes. Gravel Drag doesn’t have time for spacing out for long stretches. They’re too busy making hard-hitting swamp metal.
“War Beast” sounds like Helmet and Sleep met in a dark alley and got into a fight. Ben McKinney’s drums remind me of classic Helmet fills and Steve McKinney and Chris Bowyer supply the heavy Sleep-like riffs.
“The Legend of Sly Fox” is peppier than “War Beast,” but it’s no less heavy. I love how crisp Ben McKinney’s snare is in this. “KnockoutKing” is a knockout. Loud, squelching guitar, one-two punch combo bass, and mosh pit drums all equal a great tune.
The closer is “Radio Curse,” and I wonder if the title refers to the lack of radio play for instrumental riff rock like this. Bowyer channels his inner Peter Hook with his bass at first and then drops stuff heavier than Hook ever did in Joy Division.
It’s a shame this is only a four-song EP because it’s heavy enough to be a full album. An LP from these guys would probably have the mass of a dwarf star.
Australia’s Wolfmother return in 2016 Victorious. It’s a proper name for the album, because the band (Andrew Stockdale – guitar, bass, and vocals, Josh Freese and Joey Waronker – drums) can claim victory in the world of rock with it.
The opening riff of “The Love that You Give” instantly lets you know Wolfmother means business with this record. It’s fast and like something you’d crank as you race across the desert flats of Oz. The title track has Sabbath-like chugging as Stockdale’s vocals rise to give praise to a powerful woman snatching victory from outside forces trying to destroy her. The breakdown on this cut is outstanding and like something you’d hear blasting out of your brother’s customized van in 1978.
The heavy organ on “Baroness” is the magic touch on it, and the boot-stomping drums are an added bonus. “Pretty Peggy” is, believe it or not, a lovely ballad that has Stockdale singing to the back wall of the club. It has a bit of a psych-rock feel that I like.
“City Lights” gets back to the rock with Stockdale’s guitar practically singing backing vocals. It’s a great summer driving song. The drums and cymbals on “The Simple Life” are anything but simple, nor is Stockdale’s shredding. His riffs on it are some of my favorite of the record. “Best of a Bad Situation” has a nice pop ring to it, especially with the acoustic guitar and handclaps, and Stockdale’s vocals are light-hearted on it.
“Gypsy Caravan” is a classic cosmic rock track from the band. Stockdale’s reverbed vocals mix well with the groovy organ, fuzzed guitars, and Keith Moon-like drumming. The caravan seems to be travelling more around Saturn than through a dusty outback town. “Happy Face” has synths that remind me of ELO songs. Imagine ELO as a psych / stoner rock band and you’ll get the idea. The album ends with “Eye of the Beholder,” which is heavy enough to be about the multi-optic monster from Dungeons & Dragons. Stockdale brings some of his best “epic rock” vocals to the closer, the drums go for broke, and Stockdale’s guitar is more like a bullet train racing by you.
Victorious is a nice return for Wolfmother. They are currently on tour, and I recommend you see them. They pull no punches on stage and leave you humming their songs for days afterwards.
Keep your mind open.
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