Hurst, Texas psych doomsters Stone Machine Electric new record, Faces, brings a mind-bending heaviness that leverages all sorts of cool influences.
From Alice In Chains, to Led Zeppelin, to Hawkwind, to Southern Rock, to jam bands to just about everything else. The great JJ Koczan from The Obelisk once said about the band “…you know why I like Stone Machine Electric? Because I genuinely don’t know what’s coming next…”. I love this quote, because it is perfect for the band and perfect for the new record as well.
Tenebrae Latebra can’t really offer much in the time its allotted despite it being a wonderfully put together piece. Its orchestral build crying out for longer and could have really changed things up had they done so.
Its then back to basics with Summoning The Dark, until they bottom things out at mid-point and it takes a darker turn and goes heavy with a storming set of riffs. There is no denying that they can solo, combining speed and fury that is dazzling but there is something that is just not happening for me. Is it the familiarity from song to song?
Faces is less about their improvisational side which gave them the “doom jazz” moniker, and more about straight up song structure for the six tracks on record number six. While the song structure is more traditional, the six songs on Faces are all over the place stylistically in the best kind of way.
The eight minute opener, Just Another Wizard, starts with some synth and a sparse sound until the riff comes in and the plodding psych doom begins. I love the echoed vocals that partners so well with the low-end sound on this one. Great stuff. The middle to end part gets all trippy and it is glorious. Walls Of Hate has a grungy riff and has this very cool, off balanced kind of feel to it that gets all chunky and strangely heavy (in a good way). I love how it gets all proto doomy towards the end as well.
The eight minute opener, Just Another Wizard, starts with some synth and a sparse sound until the riff comes in and the plodding psych doom begins. I love the echoed vocals that partners so well with the low-end sound on this one. Great stuff. The middle to end part gets all trippy and it is glorious. Walls Of Hate has a grungy riff and has this very cool, off balanced kind of feel to it that gets all chunky and strangely heavy (in a good way). I love how it gets all proto doomy towards the end as well.
Chroma has this doomy, grungy Zeppelin vibe to it is and is probably my favourite song on the record. Manic has another killer riff that continues this journey. I love how psych these guys get when they go off and jam for nine minutes, especially the guitar work on this one. Price Of It All has this Crazy World of Arthur Brown/Ghost thing going on and is super fun and evil lyrically. Maybe the most fun track the band has ever done and would easily be their radio hit. The closer, The Alp, gets the trio back to their heavy doom ways. You can’t help to hear some of their buddies Wo Fat on this track.
A band who never stays the same and you never know what to expect, Stone Machine Electric bring their most straight up rock record of their career with Faces, and boy is it great. The guys show they are not just “doom jazz” or a heavy improvisational band. These six songs show that if SME want to, they can write and deliver a record with more straight up song structures along with the best of them. 9/10
Moribund Oblivion – Intertemporal (Theogonia Records) [Spike]
Moribund Oblivion’s Intertemporal is a record that lives in the spaces between moments. From the first note, it grabs you, not with flash or theatrics, but with a sense of immediacy, of being pulled into a world where time itself seems to warp. There’s a tension here that reminds you why black metal can still feel dangerous, even when tempered by moments of melody and atmosphere.
The album opens with A Piece Of Infinity a blast of tremolo riffs and blast beats that threatens to overwhelm, yet it unfolds with subtle melodic passages and occasional clean vocals. It’s a reminder that the band are willing to take risks, to layer contrast on contrast, and it works brilliantly: the chaos never feels arbitrary. Cold The Night leans into melodic death metal territory, intricate guitars weaving around pounding drums, creating a sense of both dread and grandeur. Each song feels like it’s pulling you in a slightly different direction, yet everything is cohesive, the chaos has a logic.
Deceptive Portals flirts with unpredictability, adding minor jazzy flourishes and eerie effects without ever letting the black metal core slip. By the time the title track arrives, with its ethereal guitar tones and haunting female vocals, the album has already drawn you into its atmosphere. The song isn’t just a break in intensity; it’s a mirror to everything that came before, reflective and slightly unsettling, like looking at a memory from another life.
The production is precise enough to let every layer breathe but still captures the rawness essential to the style. You hear the sting of the guitars, the weight of the drums, the way each element coils around the others. Played on speakers or headphones, Intertemporal rewards close attention, revealing textures and nuances that keep pulling you back.
Moribund Oblivion manage to balance aggression and introspection in a way that few bands attempting this fusion do. Nothing here feels forced: every blast beat, every tremolo run, every melodic twist serves the atmosphere. There’s danger in the music, yes, but also space to feel it. By the end of the album, you’re not just listening, you’re moving through the temporal shifts the title promises, experiencing a journey that is both brutal and beautiful.
Intertemporal is an album that demands attention and rewards patience. Moribund Oblivion have crafted something dark, intelligent, and alive; an album that lingers long after the final note fades. 8/10
Mors Principium Est - Darkness Invisible (Reigning Phoenix Music [Mark Young]
Ah, melodic death metal.
The 9th album starts with a lean onto the symphonic side, distorted spoken passages into a deftly built rager that ticks all of the pre-requisite boxes necessary of this genre. Rapid drums, blurred guitar lines that soon drop into what I would say is an attempt at an anthemic chorus. It’s a good stab at getting the song over in the live environment, anchoring the fury with some very effective hooks.
A band who never stays the same and you never know what to expect, Stone Machine Electric bring their most straight up rock record of their career with Faces, and boy is it great. The guys show they are not just “doom jazz” or a heavy improvisational band. These six songs show that if SME want to, they can write and deliver a record with more straight up song structures along with the best of them. 9/10
Moribund Oblivion – Intertemporal (Theogonia Records) [Spike]
Moribund Oblivion’s Intertemporal is a record that lives in the spaces between moments. From the first note, it grabs you, not with flash or theatrics, but with a sense of immediacy, of being pulled into a world where time itself seems to warp. There’s a tension here that reminds you why black metal can still feel dangerous, even when tempered by moments of melody and atmosphere.
The album opens with A Piece Of Infinity a blast of tremolo riffs and blast beats that threatens to overwhelm, yet it unfolds with subtle melodic passages and occasional clean vocals. It’s a reminder that the band are willing to take risks, to layer contrast on contrast, and it works brilliantly: the chaos never feels arbitrary. Cold The Night leans into melodic death metal territory, intricate guitars weaving around pounding drums, creating a sense of both dread and grandeur. Each song feels like it’s pulling you in a slightly different direction, yet everything is cohesive, the chaos has a logic.
Deceptive Portals flirts with unpredictability, adding minor jazzy flourishes and eerie effects without ever letting the black metal core slip. By the time the title track arrives, with its ethereal guitar tones and haunting female vocals, the album has already drawn you into its atmosphere. The song isn’t just a break in intensity; it’s a mirror to everything that came before, reflective and slightly unsettling, like looking at a memory from another life.
The production is precise enough to let every layer breathe but still captures the rawness essential to the style. You hear the sting of the guitars, the weight of the drums, the way each element coils around the others. Played on speakers or headphones, Intertemporal rewards close attention, revealing textures and nuances that keep pulling you back.
Moribund Oblivion manage to balance aggression and introspection in a way that few bands attempting this fusion do. Nothing here feels forced: every blast beat, every tremolo run, every melodic twist serves the atmosphere. There’s danger in the music, yes, but also space to feel it. By the end of the album, you’re not just listening, you’re moving through the temporal shifts the title promises, experiencing a journey that is both brutal and beautiful.
Intertemporal is an album that demands attention and rewards patience. Moribund Oblivion have crafted something dark, intelligent, and alive; an album that lingers long after the final note fades. 8/10
Mors Principium Est - Darkness Invisible (Reigning Phoenix Music [Mark Young]
Ah, melodic death metal.
The 9th album starts with a lean onto the symphonic side, distorted spoken passages into a deftly built rager that ticks all of the pre-requisite boxes necessary of this genre. Rapid drums, blurred guitar lines that soon drop into what I would say is an attempt at an anthemic chorus. It’s a good stab at getting the song over in the live environment, anchoring the fury with some very effective hooks.
In terms of putting their best foot forward, Of Death opens their account up nicely. Its not reliant on just hammering you, and the lead breaks that come in near the song end are written with an eye on both technical prowess and having an emotional base to it. You can tell that after 9 albums that they have this approach down to a tee. As good as it is, it doesn’t strike me as being nasty enough with a crisp and clean production in which you can hear everything. For me it needs a level of grit but lets see how the rest plays out.
Venator comes at you in a similar fashion bursting from the blocks with speed but laced with a deft melodic arrangement. Its energy is there for you to hear, especially when the solo drops but I’m not getting a buzz from it at all. Monuments is more of a mid-paced affair, stepping back from the rapido tempo that started proceedings. That slower speed gives them full reign to throw the melodic guitar lines in at every step but it all feels very safe.
That’s the overall vibe from a personal perspective, that at this point the band are in safe mode, knowing how to write material that is impressive (it is) whilst possibly forgetting why they do it in the first place. I don’t review music in order to deliberately find fault but as I traverse my way through these opening songs all seem to follow a pattern with only the speed being a variable.
Tenebrae Latebra can’t really offer much in the time its allotted despite it being a wonderfully put together piece. Its orchestral build crying out for longer and could have really changed things up had they done so.
Its then back to basics with Summoning The Dark, until they bottom things out at mid-point and it takes a darker turn and goes heavy with a storming set of riffs. There is no denying that they can solo, combining speed and fury that is dazzling but there is something that is just not happening for me. Is it the familiarity from song to song?
Or is it just destined to be one of those albums that I don’t get along with? It’s a combination of things really because younger me would have loved this because they tear through the remainder of the songs, from Beyond The Horizon and its faster than light playing, the fleet-fingered and foot In Sleep There Is Peace that touches down like a spinning top. But for all that speed, the fury behind is not aligned.
An Aria Of The Dammed is given longer to imprint on your mind and is another quality piece of music that takes in the orchestral and gives it a measure of life before its time elapses. Which takes us to All Life Is Evil, and they deliver an absolute pearler of a song. I’ve talked before about this music needing a visceral element to it, no matter how good the music is, it has to resonate somehow. All Life Is Evil picks up the classical motif from An Aria and brings it in, giving it an epic feel and as a result an emotional connection with me.
An Aria Of The Dammed is given longer to imprint on your mind and is another quality piece of music that takes in the orchestral and gives it a measure of life before its time elapses. Which takes us to All Life Is Evil, and they deliver an absolute pearler of a song. I’ve talked before about this music needing a visceral element to it, no matter how good the music is, it has to resonate somehow. All Life Is Evil picks up the classical motif from An Aria and brings it in, giving it an epic feel and as a result an emotional connection with me.
This is a fantastic track, just fantastic with that choral approach providing that missing piece of the puzzle. From a review perspective, this is frustrating because I’m not suggesting that the music is poor, far from it. You don’t get to make 9 albums by being poor at it, I am suggesting that they have possibly forgotten that this music must have more than just speed or technical ability, it must thrill you and this in all honesty doesn’t.
Rounding things off is Makso Mitä Makso (Isac Elliot cover) and is, well basically a metal version of Scandi-pop song. I think that fans of the band will be happy with this, but I don’t think it will hold many surprises for them. I’d be interested to see them explore more of that orchestral side because those two short ‘break’ songs are extremely well put together. For me, this is a 6/10
White Reaper – Only Slightly Empty (Blue Grape Music) [Cherie Curtis]
White Reaper brings us 10 fun, feel-good and catchy tracks which offers something everyone can enjoy. Only Slightly Empty is a great album for a long drive or music you might hear at your local rock pub.
White Reaper brings us 10 fun, feel-good and catchy tracks which offers something everyone can enjoy. Only Slightly Empty is a great album for a long drive or music you might hear at your local rock pub.
It has summery pop punk energy with raw vocals but a more technical approach to their instrumentals. This album shifts in pace going from an almost floaty, steady bop with tracks like Touch and Honestly which has slower drums and layered vocals with stunning glittery riffs and bass to a faster party anthem like Coma and Rubber Cement.
My favourite from this album is Enemy John, it feels nostalgic and melancholy with a chorus to sing along and rhythm to dance too and Blue consistent with Enemy John but with interesting sound samples. Eraser is striking, the vocals are lilting in delivery leaning towards their garage / pop punk side it was very refreshing to hear yet it didn't feel like the odd one out it was more creative but in keeping with their tone.
Overall, the production, performance and delivery for Only Slightly Empty is great. It can get repetitive around track 5 but if you’re a fan of garage punk or pop rock it's something you’ll enjoy. It may not be my personal preference, but I know a lot of people who would love this album. 6/10
My favourite from this album is Enemy John, it feels nostalgic and melancholy with a chorus to sing along and rhythm to dance too and Blue consistent with Enemy John but with interesting sound samples. Eraser is striking, the vocals are lilting in delivery leaning towards their garage / pop punk side it was very refreshing to hear yet it didn't feel like the odd one out it was more creative but in keeping with their tone.
Overall, the production, performance and delivery for Only Slightly Empty is great. It can get repetitive around track 5 but if you’re a fan of garage punk or pop rock it's something you’ll enjoy. It may not be my personal preference, but I know a lot of people who would love this album. 6/10
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