What is one surefire way to get me interested in a new album? Start your promo material for the record like this: “Drawing inspiration from pioneers like The Velvet Underground and psychedelic icons, The 13th Floor Elevators…”. This is all this reviewer needs given my love for both bands listed in that sentence. This is how Heavy Psych Sounds describes the debut record from Black Honey Cult, a Los Angeles band with guys who have been around the scene, but have now, with this record, created something special.
The opener, Operation, is a keys-led Kraut meets Lou instrumental that sets up the rest of the record perfectly. Golden Dragon is where the space rock Velvets kicks in hard, and boy am I ready to bop around my office. The guitar work, the revved-up tempo and keys, the whole vibe, it is next level great. Dead In Me is hypnotic space garage rock at its finest. These guys get it.
Black Eyed Soul is where I hear a more modern 13th Floor Elevators, with keys taking the place of the electric jug, and boy am I here for it. There is a punk edge to these guys that comes through beautify on this track and all the others on their debut. One of my favourite songs of all time is What Goes On, so of course I love Side Steppin' City Streets, which has some serious Foggy Notion vibes as well.
I even get some Modern Lovers here, which makes me love this record even more. Trippy and sexy is what you get from the straight out of NYC instrumental LSD And Me while Take Me Down is the Velvets meets Hawkwind in all the best ways. Roller Coaster is the absolute perfect way to close this record out, in all of its tripping at an amusement park in space goodness.
Imagine a world where The Strokes followed up their debut with something that was this amazing. Or a world where everyone dropped what they were doing to listen to a record like what Black Honey Cult has brought us today, like the tastemakers did for Is This It. Bands throw around The Velvet Underground all the time as an influence, but the bands that get it sound like Black Honey Cult. This record rules and is a perfect debut album. 10/10
Palantyr - The Ascent & The Hunger (Jawbreaker records) [Rich Piva]
I don’t go speed metal all that often these days, but when I do, I always hope it will be as good as the six songs on the latest offering from the French band Palantyr. The Ascent & The Hunger is the first new music since the band changed their name from Destrukt last year and boy is this crew unleashing havoc on the world under this new moniker.
Athéna leads the way here with some killer female vocals to go along with the amped up Maiden vibes that are all over The Ascent & The Hunger. This record does not let up for the 30 minutes that it kicks your ass for. The track Son Of The White Mare is my favourite, as the Maiden guitars partner with a breakneck speed and Athéna’s powerful and echoed vocals make this one amazing heavy metal track. Oh, did I mention it slows down like something out of Ride The Lightning too? Killer stuff. Love the ripping solo at the end by Ravenheart, who plays lead on the first three tracks while Odysseus covers the back side three songs, both gentlemen ripping it up on all of the songs.
Imagine a world where The Strokes followed up their debut with something that was this amazing. Or a world where everyone dropped what they were doing to listen to a record like what Black Honey Cult has brought us today, like the tastemakers did for Is This It. Bands throw around The Velvet Underground all the time as an influence, but the bands that get it sound like Black Honey Cult. This record rules and is a perfect debut album. 10/10
Palantyr - The Ascent & The Hunger (Jawbreaker records) [Rich Piva]
I don’t go speed metal all that often these days, but when I do, I always hope it will be as good as the six songs on the latest offering from the French band Palantyr. The Ascent & The Hunger is the first new music since the band changed their name from Destrukt last year and boy is this crew unleashing havoc on the world under this new moniker.
Athéna leads the way here with some killer female vocals to go along with the amped up Maiden vibes that are all over The Ascent & The Hunger. This record does not let up for the 30 minutes that it kicks your ass for. The track Son Of The White Mare is my favourite, as the Maiden guitars partner with a breakneck speed and Athéna’s powerful and echoed vocals make this one amazing heavy metal track. Oh, did I mention it slows down like something out of Ride The Lightning too? Killer stuff. Love the ripping solo at the end by Ravenheart, who plays lead on the first three tracks while Odysseus covers the back side three songs, both gentlemen ripping it up on all of the songs.
The middle part of this “mini-album” rules, with NWOBHM but heavier vibes of Ravenous following up …Mare, making it quite the one-two punch. It’s not like the opening two tracks, Shan E Sorkh and Broken Mirror (both taken, with …Mare, and redone from an earlier Destrukt EP) don’t rip it up, because they do, and set the record up nicely. The Paul Roland cover of Nosferatu is a fun addition to the mix while the closer, Graveyard, is pure speed metal, with an opening reminiscent of the drums on Painkiller and a pace that would rival anything out there in the speed genre today.
Palyntyr has a new name and six new tracks here to run you down, and boy do they deliver. Some really good retro speed metal for 2025 that stands up against anyone playing the stuff out there today. 8/10
Gama Bomb - Necronomicon Automaton (Prosthetic Records) [Matt Bladen]
Irish thrashers Gama Bomb drop a foursome of tracks left off their excellent 2023 record BATS. Now that record was pretty much a perfect mix of neck breaking thrash, cartoon silliness and shout along choruses, so are the songs they left off more po-faced political numbers or 20 minute prog epics? No. One is about the dangers of nunchucks, then there's Victorian robots and scaring your mum, all those adult, serious topics that you may not see on the nightly news.
The skill of Gama Bomb is still there though, Nunchucks! Is faster than a pizza craving Michelangelo, Domo Dixon and John Roche's guitars feeding on both classic thrash and classic metal. In the engine room Chris Williams' drumming sticks to a regulated thrash blast but the pace never dips as Joe McGuigan's bass shifts the groovier tones of Intror The Deceiver as Necropanzer sees Philly Byrne do his best Rob Halford.
What we basically have here four more songs that Gama Bomb can add to their live shows which have been spread throughout 2025, the next chunk in Ireland and then a wider tour in October. Get you gang vocals ready as Gama Bomb come packing with some more thrash anthems. 8/10
RAD - Toxic Slime (Radicalised Youth) [Matt Bladen]
A year on from their first demo, Brighton crossover thrashers RAD deliver a bubbling cassette's worth of Toxic Slime.
Yeah I said cassette as this debut EP is only available on the little rectangle of plastic that used to go in my Ford Fiesta. Released via Cut & Run records and produced Chris Sanderson (Grove Street), Toxic Slime takes on the US crossover scene with influences from 80's movies and skateboard culture.
From the riff shifting title track where there's classic thrash and classic metal moments, the heaviness builds on Snake On The Take, a politically charged number with dive bombs and those hardcore punk influences bound to cause pits galore. Yeah it's crossover thrash metal alright, unrefined and snarling, the vocal growls angrier than Dave Mustaine when you mention Metallica.
While Gaslighter begins with a Slayer homage, Dying To Live doubles down on the heavy with a bit of modern 'core' sound, especially from that thick as concrete bassline. RAD slam down hard with Toxic Waste, it's a Bogus Journey indeed and I will say "Excellent!" *Widdles*. 8/10
Palyntyr has a new name and six new tracks here to run you down, and boy do they deliver. Some really good retro speed metal for 2025 that stands up against anyone playing the stuff out there today. 8/10
Gama Bomb - Necronomicon Automaton (Prosthetic Records) [Matt Bladen]
Irish thrashers Gama Bomb drop a foursome of tracks left off their excellent 2023 record BATS. Now that record was pretty much a perfect mix of neck breaking thrash, cartoon silliness and shout along choruses, so are the songs they left off more po-faced political numbers or 20 minute prog epics? No. One is about the dangers of nunchucks, then there's Victorian robots and scaring your mum, all those adult, serious topics that you may not see on the nightly news.
The skill of Gama Bomb is still there though, Nunchucks! Is faster than a pizza craving Michelangelo, Domo Dixon and John Roche's guitars feeding on both classic thrash and classic metal. In the engine room Chris Williams' drumming sticks to a regulated thrash blast but the pace never dips as Joe McGuigan's bass shifts the groovier tones of Intror The Deceiver as Necropanzer sees Philly Byrne do his best Rob Halford.
What we basically have here four more songs that Gama Bomb can add to their live shows which have been spread throughout 2025, the next chunk in Ireland and then a wider tour in October. Get you gang vocals ready as Gama Bomb come packing with some more thrash anthems. 8/10
RAD - Toxic Slime (Radicalised Youth) [Matt Bladen]
A year on from their first demo, Brighton crossover thrashers RAD deliver a bubbling cassette's worth of Toxic Slime.
Yeah I said cassette as this debut EP is only available on the little rectangle of plastic that used to go in my Ford Fiesta. Released via Cut & Run records and produced Chris Sanderson (Grove Street), Toxic Slime takes on the US crossover scene with influences from 80's movies and skateboard culture.
From the riff shifting title track where there's classic thrash and classic metal moments, the heaviness builds on Snake On The Take, a politically charged number with dive bombs and those hardcore punk influences bound to cause pits galore. Yeah it's crossover thrash metal alright, unrefined and snarling, the vocal growls angrier than Dave Mustaine when you mention Metallica.
While Gaslighter begins with a Slayer homage, Dying To Live doubles down on the heavy with a bit of modern 'core' sound, especially from that thick as concrete bassline. RAD slam down hard with Toxic Waste, it's a Bogus Journey indeed and I will say "Excellent!" *Widdles*. 8/10
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