Everyone's favourite hard to classify doom(?) metal cats Spider Kitten return with their new album The Truth Is Caustic To Love, released through APF Records, it's another auditory trip through the discontent, as if Alice In Chains jammed with Electric Wizard after doing all the brown acid, difficult to get a fix on what is actually happening but all the while intoxicated by the thick smog of bong smoke and distorted fuzz. Spider Kitten don't do nice, it's not upbeat anthemic music, they create noise to aid with catharsis, to piss you off and stress you out.
Band founder Chi Lameo, puts his pain to paper, exploring his own mortality with the honesty often only reserved for a shrink be it addiction, mental illness the continuing disillusionment with planet earth and it's inhabitants, Chi sings as if he's totally lost the will to exist and that this music is his only way to feel human, his grungy vocals and thick soupy guitar lines craft slow, disquieting, salvos that shift into aggressive picking, atmospheric weirdness and even some country style moments (Febrile & Taciturn).
All three members of Spider Kitten contribute more than one instrument, Chi handling most of the vocals and guitar but bass and piano too while Chris West, who is first and foremost a brilliant drummer, playing with deftness and spacial awareness but with the power of jackhammer, also adds bass, vocals and guitar. While former member Rob Davies returns to play bass but also adds his former position with some guitar.
The collaborative, multi-instrumental nature of Spider Kitten showcases the focus they have had since 2021's Major Label Debut, the thirty releases before that were quickly concieved and executed expressions of a broken mind but since 2021 and now moresow with their two albums for APF Spider Kitten feel as of they're more focussed, their stupidly eclectic, ultra heavy, psych/prog/doom/thing has a place to exist and The Truth Is Caustic To Love is an album for just that, existence, we may not thrive but we're not dead yet, spending our lives in a void of media influence and chemical escapism.
Spider Kitten is the soundtrack to the end times but gives no indication of when that will be, so just crank up the volume and settle in. 9/10
Goblinsmoker - The King's Eternal Throne (APF Records) [Matt Bladen]
The Toad King story comes to an end with The King’s Eternal Throne, the new record from Durham sludgesters Goblinsmoker, the monarchs of all things heavy APF are releasing this climactic record as both previous parts have come on Sludgelord records.
Though never intended to be played live, Goblinsmoker have been blowing up P.A’s and shaking foundations across the UK and Europe with appearances at Bloodstock, Desertfest, Doomlines, going to Poland for Red Smoke Festival this summer, everywhere they go they spread the gospel of The Toad King and his goblin subjects that allow themselves to be smoked by their leader.
Part three of this blackened doom concept trilogy finds him cast out and bitter, slaying the ruling toad class and now sits in place of them as the one true king, his loyal subjects still offering themselves up to be put between paper and smoked so the king enters a drug induced haze. However, with the saga coming to an end the goblin shaman has hatched a plan to ultimately kill the king and let the goblins live free from all tyranny.
There’s a huge amount of complexity and lore in the concept of these record, but the music Adam Kennedy (vocals/guitar/bass) and Michael Guthrie (drums) make is mostly without any frills, prehistoric knuckle dragging sludge with visceral vocals, the final moments of the Toad King explored through 3 extended cuts of crushing heaviness
The finale of the title track bleeding into Toad King played in a ‘dungeon synth’ style to add a bit of a dramatic closure to the whole story. All three of their albums were dedicated to their founding drummer/bassist Calum Young and this one is no different, the trilogy inspired by him, so I see this as fitting eulogy to his memory.
The King’s Eternal Throne closes a chapter on Goblinsmoker, with The Toad King now dead and the comfort of having a concept to draw on where do they go from here but for now Goblinsmoker’s APF debut is every bit as impressive as its predecessors. 8/10
King Potenaz - Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1 (Majestic Mountain Records) [Rich Piva]
Italian trio King Potenaz’s new record, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1, is four songs over 40 minutes. That right there will eliminate some listeners, but let’s focus on those of us who have a longer attention span. Generally, these guys bring some heavy stoner doom to the party, and that is what you get with these tracks.
King Potenaz - Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1 (Majestic Mountain Records) [Rich Piva]
Italian trio King Potenaz’s new record, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1, is four songs over 40 minutes. That right there will eliminate some listeners, but let’s focus on those of us who have a longer attention span. Generally, these guys bring some heavy stoner doom to the party, and that is what you get with these tracks.
This album is a slow and plodding trip that I think some will bail on because these songs are not exactly filled with tempo changes and different musical directions. What they are filled with are riffs, cool psych guitar work, echoey vocals, and some serious heavy atmosphere.
Electric Wizard? Check. Black Sabbath? Check. Sleep? Check. All the things they say in their bio comes out in the four tracks on Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1, and all of it is cool, but even for a guy who enjoys long songs and dirges, these tracks can be a lot. I could see all of these songs cut by 2-3 minutes and still build the doomy mood and killer atmosphere that they create, without losing some of the impatient listeners.
Electric Wizard? Check. Black Sabbath? Check. Sleep? Check. All the things they say in their bio comes out in the four tracks on Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1, and all of it is cool, but even for a guy who enjoys long songs and dirges, these tracks can be a lot. I could see all of these songs cut by 2-3 minutes and still build the doomy mood and killer atmosphere that they create, without losing some of the impatient listeners.
You cannot deny the riffs are there, and the drumming is killer, and when the pace picks up these guys can rip it up, like towards the end of Rivers Of Death. A very cool song that could have been seven minutes instead of ten. The Empty Hand opens up with a killer bass line and that riff, but again may have been helped by just a bit of editing, but it is still excellent doomy psych.
At just under six minutes, Sabbatum Sanctum is the shortest of the four tracks, but is also the slowest and most plodding songs on the record, with a serious occult psych vibe that scared me when I first heard it. Cool.
From the shortest to the longest, the almost fourteen-minute Ariadne, The Serpent Witch, which again continues the trend of having some killer parts that could have been pared down and is also scary as hell. The addition of the female vocals as Ariadne is a killer and takes this track to another level.
Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1 lives up to its name, but a bit of editing may have helped broaden the listening base of the record. I’m not sure King Potenaz really cares about that. These guys just want to doom it up and bring some mind altering and frightful atmosphere to this black mass, so in that aspect, mission accomplished. There are some really great moments on this record. 7/10
Aceves - Magnum Dopus (I:And:I Recordings) [Rich Piva]
Bassist from legendary band Zed, Mark Aceves, has been through a lot over the past year or so suffering some serious personal loss, some of which you may have heard about if you are a fan of his band. While the weight of such close loses could bring a man down to his knees.
Arcane Desert Rituals Vol.1 lives up to its name, but a bit of editing may have helped broaden the listening base of the record. I’m not sure King Potenaz really cares about that. These guys just want to doom it up and bring some mind altering and frightful atmosphere to this black mass, so in that aspect, mission accomplished. There are some really great moments on this record. 7/10
Aceves - Magnum Dopus (I:And:I Recordings) [Rich Piva]
Bassist from legendary band Zed, Mark Aceves, has been through a lot over the past year or so suffering some serious personal loss, some of which you may have heard about if you are a fan of his band. While the weight of such close loses could bring a man down to his knees.
Aceves instead let his pain open up a creative spurt that he had never experienced before, resulting in what is his first ever solo record, Magnum Dopus, under the name Aceves Now, given all that he has been through, you may think this record would be chock full of sadness and doom, but instead, choosing “live life to its fullest” instead of “wallow in self-pity” as a theme.
Magnum Dopus is a fun, personal, therapeutic, and kick ass party down record that you would never get from the band he is most known for which makes this record even more fun.
Opening with a very relevant excerpt from his late bandmate’s podcast, Mark recommends the listener to shake their booty and ass with the good time rock and roll of The True And Indisputable Meaning Of Rock And Roll, which sets the mood of Magnum Dopus perfectly. Still Aint Dead is like stoner, DIY Motorhead, and is wonderful.
Opening with a very relevant excerpt from his late bandmate’s podcast, Mark recommends the listener to shake their booty and ass with the good time rock and roll of The True And Indisputable Meaning Of Rock And Roll, which sets the mood of Magnum Dopus perfectly. Still Aint Dead is like stoner, DIY Motorhead, and is wonderful.
Taxi Driver is a fun little punk ripper and one of two odes to his wife, doubling down of the personal aspect of the record, without it being a sappy ballad (don’t worry, there is one of those later).
Love In The Time Of Apocalypse shows how Aceves understands atmosphere in his songs while Hail Mary exists just to rip shit up and bring a very cool vocal melody to the party. Just Your Disguise leans towards his love of 90s alt rock while being chunky at the same time. I love his layered vocals on this one. I mentioned melody and 90s earlier, which is what we get with Daisies, leveraging his love of Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., and lullaby earworms to create my favorite track on the record.
A heavy Lee Fields cover? Yup, and it fits perfectly, and is also super personal and meaningful song he picked to cover. I mentioned that sappy ballad, and maybe sappy is not the right word, but the acoustic driven For My Children that ballad, and is a great way to close out this deeply personal journey.
Mark Aceves wants to hear fun in his rock and roll again, so that’s exactly what he created with Magnum Dopus. These are nine tracks of a man working though his stuff, coming out on the other side with as much of a sunny outlook on life as possible as well as a super fun, all over the place in the best sort of way, rock and roll record that is one of your soundtracks to the summer. 8/10
Mark Aceves wants to hear fun in his rock and roll again, so that’s exactly what he created with Magnum Dopus. These are nine tracks of a man working though his stuff, coming out on the other side with as much of a sunny outlook on life as possible as well as a super fun, all over the place in the best sort of way, rock and roll record that is one of your soundtracks to the summer. 8/10
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