Stoner rock – 7th Level Music

Review: The Death Wheelers – The Ecstasy of Möld

First, I need to give The Death Wheelers a thumbs-up for the Ennio Morricone joke with titling their new album The Ecstasy of Möld. The Death Wheelers are big fans of cult films and cinema in general, and the riff on Morricone’s classic “The Ecstasy of Gold” from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is brilliant.

As is the album. Opening with the short but heavy “Loud Pipes Take Lives,” and a man declaring he’ll purify the world with blood, the album lets you know right away that this is going to be a wild ride. Need further evidence? Well, the thrash metal banger “Homicycle Maniac” (which my computer’s autocorrect wants to write as “Hemicycle Maniac,” which works just as well) will convince you. “Hella Hammered” continues the thrash metal shredding, proclaiming that the motorcycle gang of the band’s moniker are a “bunch of real psychopaths.”

“Un Pneu Dans La Tombe — Aide Musicale À Mourir” dips a bit into psychedelia before it turns into a riff-raging rocker. The title track claims “There is only one ecstasy…Death!” and then launches into pounding punk rock. “Blood, Bikes and Barbiturates” has more heavy cymbal crashes than I could count.

“Bleu Nuit (Les Plaisirs De La Chair)” is one of the trippiest tracks on the record as the band goes looking for pleasures “more primitive” than what you’d find in a strip club. The groove on it is top-notch. The distortion and reverb are cranked on “Way of the Road” for you and your neighbor’s enjoyment (and don’t miss the salute to Led Zeppelin in it).

“The Heretic Rites of Count Choppula,” apart from having a great title, adds touches of horror-surf rock to the album that show another side of The Death Wheelers you didn’t expect at first, but think, “Oh yeah, that tracks.” when you hear it. Finally, “Get Laid…to Rest” ends the album on a Pink Floyd-like mind trip to give your brain a chance to reset after all the chaos you just heard.

It’s another fine instrumental rocket blast from The Death Wheelers. Get in on this roadtrip or get the hell out of the way.

Keep your mind open.

[I might reach ecstasy if you finally subscribe today.]

[Thanks to Daniel at RidingEasy Records.]

Review: Mind Wolf – Chalet EP

I don’t know what’s in the water in Belgium and France as of late, but both countries are churning out good doom and stoner metal bands seemingly every month. Belgium’s trio of Mind Wolf is a good example, and their new EP, Chalet, is a great way to be introduced to them.

The opening riff of “Love without a Home” crushes you right away, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they named the EP Chalet, start off the record with this track, and featured a pixelated image of a burning house on the cover. The song burns everything around it to the ground, bringing to mind some early Alice in Chains tracks.

The bass on “Like a Song” reminds me of some Royal Blood tunes as Mind Wolf speeds down the road and sings about how music can change the feel of anything around you. The short guitar solo on it is pretty slick, and the breakdown after is is pretty sick.

No, your ears aren’t deceiving you, the only lyrics of “Hanne Desmet” are, “She can do it. She can really, really, really ice skate.” That’s because it’s about Hanne Desmet – the Belgian short track skater who won a Bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in the Women’s 1000-meter event. She was the first Belgian woman to win a medal in any Winter Olympics event. Mind Wolf are apparently big fans of her and I hope she cranks this on her earbuds during practice.

“Just Don’t” is a brutal takedown of perhaps an ex-lover or some jerk the band met who tried to show them up at something, but they quickly figured out it was all “just a show.” The EP ends with “Seduction,” which has some of the wickedest beats on the record and grungy guitars from end to end.

Go visit this Chalet, but be careful it doesn’t scorch you.

Keep your mind open.

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[Merci à Mind Wolf!]

Venamoris covers Scorpions’ “Animal Magnetism” for their newest single.

Venamoris, the heavy, brooding noir outfit who blend darkwave and metal, featuring Paula and Dave Lombardo, release their sophomore album, To Cross or To Burn, on Feb. 28 via Ipecac Recordings.

Alongside the album announcement, Venamoris unveil “Animal Magnetism,” a striking cover of Scorpions’ 1980 love song. The haunting rendition features a guest appearance from Dave’s former bandmate, Gary Holt (Exodus, Slayer). The song is accompanied by a Displaced/Replaced created video.

Dave reflects on the personal significance of including “Animal Magnetism” on To Cross or To Burn:

“The first rock concert I ever attended was on May 25, 1980, with Scorpions opening for Ted Nugent’s ‘Scream Dream’ tour. We (Slayer) had covered a couple Scorpions songs in the early years but I never would have thought of re-imagining one of their songs at that time. Now it seems like the most natural thing to do. I could hear Paula’s sultry voice, the song taking on a slightly industrial feel… and I could fully hear Gary Holt play this insane lead. It’s been incredible to see this idea come to life. To release this at the same time this iconic band celebrates 60 years is a perfect way for me to thank them for an inspiring first show in 1980 and for all that they have contributed since.”

The married duo teased To Cross or To Burn’s 2025 arrival with the 2024 singles “In The Shadows” and “Spiderweb,” which were praised for their unique sound – described by Consequence as “trip-hop style” fused with “the dark/folk metal of Emma Ruth Rundle and Chelsea Wolfe,” while Revolver has described the pair as “spellbinding.”

Paula, who wrote the album’s nine-original songs, offers insight into the album:

“To Cross or To Burn has taken us down a darker, very different path than our first album. There’s a confidence in this body of work. An overall vibe of heaviness that was unexpected. Verses of hard truths now bound in acceptance. The soul-searching continues.”

To Cross or To Burn is available for pre-order now with the collection available digitally, on CD and on both white and limited-edition red vinyl: https://venamoris.lnk.to/cross.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Monica at Speakeasy PR.]

Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 5 – 1

Here they are: My top five concerts of 2024. They were doozies.

#5: Slift – Reggie’s Music Joint, Chicago, IL, October 18, 2024

This was the first time I saw Slift in 2024, and the second time I’d seen them in a small venue. It had been a while since I’d been to a show at Reggie’s, and I’d forgotten how small it is. I figured Slift were going to blow off the back wall with their cosmic rock, and I was right. I don’t know how the building didn’t collapse.

#4: Osees – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, October 19, 2024

Yes, I saw Slift one night and then Osees the next. This was the second of two shows at Thalia Hall for Osees (another yearly tradition for them), and seeing them on a bare stage with a fun crowd in one of my favorite venues was outstanding. It was, as always, a blast and the pit crowd is like a reunion of pals you haven’t seen in a year.

#3: LCD Soundsystem – Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, IL, May 26, 2024

It’s always good to see LCD Soundsystem, and this was night three of a four-night residency at the Aragon for them. It was also my girlfriend’s first time seeing them, and experiencing that with her was delightful. They had a nice tribute to Steve Albini during “Someone Great.”

#2: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Huntington Bank Pavilion, Chicago, IL, September 01, 2024

It had been a couple years since I’d been to a KGATLW show, and this was my first three-hour marathon set by them I was able to attend. Good grief, they slayed this stage, playing everything from Nonagon Infinity cuts to a short techno set. They even went longer than three hours by ending the show with a nearly twenty-minute version of “Head On / Pill.” The massive crowd was in heaven.

#1: Orbital – Radius, Chicago, IL, March 23, 2024

This show was like stepping into a time machine and emerging into a 1995 rave. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see Orbital, and they hadn’t been in Chicago in many years. This was also my girlfriend’s first “rave” of sorts, and the crowd was a mix of Gen Xers like us, new rave kids, goths, and even senior citizens. I hadn’t danced that much in a long while.

I’m looking forward to shows in 2025. I already have tickets to see Viagra Boys this year, and will soon have tickets for King Buffalo‘s current tour. Other bands I hope to catch this year are George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Mdou Moctar, Helmet, Kelly Lee Owens, Soft Play, Gang of Four, Amyl and The Sniffers, A Place to Bury Strangers (again), Diana Krall, Alison Krauss, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard (again), and Osees (again).

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 live shows of 2024: #’s 20 – 16

The concerts keep getting wilder as the lists continue. Here’s the start of the top 20 live shows I saw in 2024.

#20: Iguana Death Cult – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL, October 19, 2024

I’d never heard or seen these guys until they opened for Osees one night. That’s not an easy task for anyone, and they crushed it with their wild style of garage punk and trombone madness.

#19: The Sword – Stubb’s BBQ, Levitation Austin, November 03, 2024

The Austin hometown heroes returned for a rare reunion show to close out the Levitation Music Festival main stage, and the crowd went wild for them, often chanting songs with them like a medieval army off to knock down a fortified keep.

#18: Slift – Far Out Lounge, Levitation Austin, November, 01, 2024

This was my second time seeing Slift this year, and the crowd at this outdoor venue was jam packed into a small area that still had room for a crazy mosh pit. As usual, they blew everyone’s minds with their cosmic rock.

#17: Meatbodies – Reggie’s Music Joint, Chicago, IL, October 18, 2024

Damn, these guys are good. They played powerful psych rock that comes at you from all directions. Seeing them in a small venue like this was icing on the cake.

#16: Wine Lips – Parish, Levitation Austin, November 02, 2024

This was a bonkers way to end the third night of the Levitation Music Festival. Wine Lips put on a crazy show in a packed, humid venue that barely left room for walking, let alone moshing or crowd-surfing. They had many new fans after this, me included.

Who made it into the top 15? There’s one band I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see live. Come back tomorrow to learn more!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 25 albums of 2024: #s 20 – 16

Here we are at my top 20 albums of 2024. That was fast! Let’s get to it!

#20: Curses – Next Wave Acid Punx Deux – Secret Cuts

This collection by Curses is a great one of rare goth, darkwave, and synthwave cuts that makes you wonder where these bands have been all your life.

#19: Punchlove – Channels

The wall of sound on this shoegaze record from Punchlove is at times deafening and other times soothing. They’re one of my top picks to be one of the Next Big Things.

#18: Paperkraft – Not C but K

Here’s some groovy house music for you from Japan. This EP was a great debut.

#17: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Duff Riffs

“What if we made an album that was all big, dumb riffs?” Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol asked. Well, they did it, and it’s a lot of big, dumb, riffing fun.

#16: Dion Lunadon – Memory Burn

It’s another scorcher from Dion Lunadon as he packs more energy into this EP than many double albums you’ve heard.

Who’s in the top 15? Come back tomorrow to learn!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Karkara – All Is Dust

Back in the spring, when you were trying to choose which bar to get drunk in during spring break, or finally cleaning out your damn garage, or planning a garden that, let’s face it, you knew you wouldn’t properly care for anyway, three lads from Toulouse known as Karkara (Maxime Marouani – drums and vocals, Hugo Olive – bass and synths, and Karim Rihani – guitar and vocals) were releasing an album about a man in search of an imagined utopian city somewhere in the desolate wasteland of what was modern-day civilization. That album’s title sums up the themes of the concept album, and your planned garden and the crap in your garage — All Is Dust.

The King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard comparisons are valid, as the trio unleashes a lot of wild guitar work and beats in what sound like ever-changing time signatures and discuss heavy concepts of end times and spin wild sci-fi tales. Opening track “Monoliths” is a wallop as soon as the first chord. You’ll have no idea how three guys produce that much sound. They’d be a great double-bill with King Buffalo.

Olive’s bass on “The Chase” is outstanding and the song might cause you to drain your car’s gas tank from mashing the pedal to the floor and not letting up for the next seven minutes. Jérome Bievelot‘s guest saxophone solo on this is on par with Captain Beefheart psychedelic chaos.

“On Edge” hits with doom-heavy bass riffs and drum as the protagonist in Karkara’s story is almost to the point of madness in his quest to find paradise. Rihani’s guitar solo on it is the sound of a frantic mind trying to figure out what’s happening while also struggling to avoid a slip into paranoia. “Moonshiner” has nothing to do with racing across Kentucky hillsides with illegal hooch while revenue men are chasing you, but everything to do with mesmerizing guitar work and mind-altering sounds to help you drift to the moon if you wish.

“Anthropia” is the name of the mythical city our hero has sought, and now he’s finally catching sight of it on the horizon. The song becomes a passionate race to get there, avoiding dangers the whole time. When he does finally get there, however, he discovers the title track — a blaster of a track that summarizes the hero’s rage and then determination to build on what has been destroyed.

It’s a heavy record, both in concept and riffs, and one of the fiercest I’ve heard all year.

Keep your mind open.

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[Merci à Angéla à NRV Promotion.]

Review: Tropical Sludge – Astral Mind

When he’s not laying down epic cosmic rock guitar riffs with Comacozer, Rick Burke, otherwise known as Tropical Sludge, makes mind-altering psychedelic instrumental music that blends Eastern elements with rock sounds and even a bit of New Age styling on his newest record Astral Mind.

Starting with “Dreaming Shaman,” the album uses sitar and synths to elevate you off the ground right away. “Tranquility” blends ambient forest sounds with the sitar and tabla to the point where you start to think, “This would make a really good make-out record.”

Burke uses simple, repetitive guitar notes on “Flowers” to put you into a nice trance. I seem to hear native Aboriginal Australian instruments in “Witchcraft,” which wouldn’t surprise me at all since Burke is from Oz. Burke’s use of sampled dialogue on the track (and others) that’s sometimes difficult to decipher is a neat effect, making you wonder what’s being discussed but not worrying about it at the same time. The voices become other natural sounds emerging from and blending into the musical land / sky / sea / space-scape he’s created.

“Digital Hippy” is appropriately hazy and groovy (listen carefully for that 70s funk bass). “Zen Tribe” practically pulls up next to you on a hand-poled river boat and offers you the opportunity to glide across the water and forget everything on shore that was weighing on you. “Hypnotising the Serpent” takes us further down the river and then across the sky instead of over the waterfall.

This album might indeed take your mind to the astral plane. It’s worth the trip.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Rick Burke!]

Rewind Review: Windhand – self-titled (2012)

Richmond, Virgina’s Windhand released their self-titled full-length debut in 2012 and have become doom metal heavyweights since then.

You might think it’s an EP at first, since it only have five tracks, but the last two are each over ten minutes long. There are more heavy riffs and growling menace on this record than there are in a den of angry bears.

Starting with “Black Candles,” the double-whammy of guitarists Asechiah Bodgan and lead guitarist and producer Garrett Morris hits you out of the cemetery gate and Dorthia Cottrell‘s spooky vocals must have caused chills in 2012 because they still do now.

“Libusen” starts with the sound of a thunderstorm, and it’s peaceful at first, and then Nathan Hilbish‘s bass and Ryan Wolfe‘s drums hit like sledgehammers. Cottrell sounds like she’s singing from, or possibly toward, a portal to another dimension that Morris’ guitar solo has apparently opened.

“Heap Wolves,” the shortest song on the album at a little under five minutes, wastes no time in hitting hard and heavy for its run time. Cottrell’s vocals are often hard to decipher, but that’s often the point. They become another instrument, a chant, a spell, a hypnosis.

“Summon the Moon” starts off slow and menacing, like something awakening under a swamp. Hilbish’s bass is the low rumble of a yawning beast until it turns into a hungry roar. Cottrell’s hypnotic voice becomes one of ancient, seething rage while Wolfe uses big hits with simple cymbal hits to create a slightly unsettling effect.

You can help but crank “Winter Sun.” It’s perfect for putting on a suit of magic armor, casting a spell to commune with spirits, and digging an ancient book out of a collapsed tomb inhabited by a wraith. The fuzzy snarl throughout makes you feel ready for battle rather than dreading the dark forces plotting your demise.

It’s a powerful debut and Windhand has since taken the metal world by storm. I’ve been to multiple shows where they’re not playing and people are talking about them. This is a great place to start if you’re still new to them.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin 2024 – Day Four

We decided to end Levitation 2024 with a lot of metal.

My girlfriend slept and relaxed during the day, while I went to End of an Ear Records (where Drop Nineteens were doing a signing) and scored some fun CD compilations of everything from Italian late 1970s disco to classic British punk.

We were famished by late afternoon, and I realized that my girlfriend hadn’t yet experienced Stubb’s for their food, so it was an easy decision to go there. She fell in love with their Serrano cheese spinach.

I was surprised that the show that night, featuring Gran Moreno, The Well, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Pentagram, and The Sword, didn’t sell out right away – especially since it included The Sword reunion set. Lo and behold, it did sell out before day four arrived and the crowd was massive.

There’s about another third of this crowd behind us in this photograph. The turnout was wild. I hadn’t been around that many metal fans since probably Psycho Las Vegas in 2020. The line to buy The Sword’s merch was over an hour long for some people, and people were dropping money like mad. Metal fans always bring cash to spend.

We missed the first part of Gran Moreno’s set, but what we heard was a lot of heavy Latino garage rock from the duo. Up next were local doom darlings The Well, who crushed it as always and teased their upcoming album with “Christmas Lights.” The night crept in during their set, which was appropriate for their material.

The Well casting a Darkness 150′ radius spell.

Up next were another Austin trio, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, or, as I saw them listed on a fan’s shirt, “Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Whatever the Fuck.” The mosh pit for their show of what I call “goofy metal” (I mean, they have a song called “Peanut Butter Snack Stix,” after all – which they played.) was insane. Their drummer is impressive, laying down thunderous stuff. They also teased new material coming soon.

Metal legends Pentagram showed they still have chops and commanded the stage with wizard-like power. The gray hair and beards only seemed to be lightning erupting from their bodies.

The crowd was at full capacity by the time The Sword hit the stage, and everyone was singing / yelling “Barael’s Blade” with them for the opener. “Cloak of Feathers” was a welcome addition, as was “The Hidden Masters.” Crowd surfers were abundant and everyone was going bonkers for most of their set.

It was a heroic return for them, as big as some of the epic tales they spin on their albums. “I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of metal,” my girlfriend said.

It was another fun year in Austin. The vibe was, as always, great, and the people were all lovely.

On Day Three, at the Hotel Vegas “Levitation Lounge,” I chatted with a father, Eric, and his son, Charlie from Minneapolis. Charlie had convinced Eric to come with him for the festival, and Eric was surprised to discover “This is all my music.” He was stunned at the sounds he was hearing, and loved how “You tell people you’re here for this festival, and they don’t know what you’re talking about. I love that. It’s like they don’t know it’s going on.”

Levitation still, somehow, feels like a secret even though it brings in some of the best bands in the world. “The level of musicianship here is amazing,” my girlfriend said after experiencing the festival for the first time.

It’s true. It’s always true.

See you next year, Austin.

Keep your mind open.

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