In praise of Satan and all his works, occult French band Witchthroat Serpent look to corrupt the children of Jehovah into their service if their Satanic majesty with new album Demons Left To Roam.
Hypnotic doom that leans heavily on fuzz, spectral vocals and slow repeating rhythms, each song will ring inside your brain for days after, slowly taking over your body like the black oil from X-Files until you need to throw the recor down again to pledge your allegiance to Lucifer.
Formed way back in 2011, the quartet have been walking in the footsteps of Electric Wizard and Monolord with both feet firmly set in the concrete tones of horror, the occult and all things that come with it, the horror driven lyrics, the long instrumentals, the fuzz, the volume, everything you could want from evil psych rock.
Whether you've heard their albums before or on their splits with bands such as Dead Witches, the Toulouse band always give their best showings on their own albums, through the thick as tar doom of Silver Bell Of Ritual, the screaming lead guitars and spatial awareness on the glacial The Screaming Magpie while the end comes with Sabbath worship of The Zany Magician.
Witchthroat Serpent present The Demons Left To Roam, and they will corrupt you with their sinful, hazy, heft. 8/10
Pegzilla – Disobedience (Ripple Music)
L.A rock trio Pegzilla don’t hide their ideals with their name. This is “witchy stoner rock” with female first agenda, an assertiveness, that often spills over into aggression as frontwoman Olivia Saperstein writes lyrics to criticize the patriarch, by advocating for more women enter and flourish in the heavy music scene, forcing the male dominated labels and festivals to be more inclusive in their signing and booking strategy.
With Disobedience the band have provided their mission statement, following an EP and singles with Ripple Music backed debut record, this trio are set to take the stoner metal scene by storm. The fuzzy guitars and haunted vocals of Olivia add those witchy elements while the thick grooves from Juan Barsse (bass) and open drumming of Ryan Swain move them between thick metal stoner and floaty desert rock.
The kick off being the Troll On Speed, a fat riff and clever lyricism “I get so hard when you turn we down” and “who else is going to gatekeep” particularly effective, the anger just at boiling point as they shift from the doomy tones of Pistola into the occult murder rock of Chelsea before slowing into the tribal rhythms of Virginia Werewolf which worships Sabbath through Feminine rage, perfectly showcasing Pegzilla at their gargantuan best, spectral, feminist and slightly murderous with some killer riffs holding it all together on tracks such as Bootlicker especially.
There’s a retro feel to Disobedience, but it’s never a main focal point like it is with some bands, Pegzilla’s sound encapsulates a lot of stoner/doom/desert style, the latter on Hell Ya Brother and with Troll Reprise they play that opening riff to close out the album as if the circle is complete. Female empowerment through fat riffs and packs with the dark beings, Pegzilla are coming, bend over and take it! 8/10
Travo - Wasteland (Fuzz Club)
Portugal quartet Travo are a band who blend music and literature on this new record with each song inspired by a section of T.S Eliot's The Waste Land, if only loosely the themes of that poem can be felt more strongly these days and Travo channel the themes through this new record in a swirling mass of psychedelic intensity.
These hit you like a trip gone wrong through walls of noisy riffs, ambient textures, mind bending vocals and a nagging insistence that draws you in never lets you go. The insistence is a deliberate move on the band's part as they recorded it in break from touring, bottling that live lighting and adrenaline as they wrote this record in the studio with an urgency to get new material out on the road.
Wasteland combines psych rock experimenting with garage rock ferocity as they break out with Burial, then get angular with Decipher, allowing the atmospheres to increase on Silenced Soul which bleeds into the full stems ahead garage punk of Sleeper. Travo are a band that hit you hard and fast, allowing for some rest time, the beginning of this record is full of fire and fury.
The second half though has the woozy Way Down on it which takes you in the other direction towards the spatial sparsity. Though the Title Track manages to get the primal power moving again with it's huge drum intro, squealing feedback and screamed vocals that lead into Rapture, the final song on this record, a throbbing, tenacious, instrumental which builds into a closing crescendo.
Travo create music as a force of nature, psychedelic but unnerving with an aggression of Altamont it’s a bad trip made real, dive in headfirst and embrace chaos. 8/10
Doctor Nez – Nothing Short Of Silver (Self Released)
Doctor Nez is a one man show with the titular Doctor performing/recording/engineering everything on this third EP, Nothing Short Of Silver.
The first part of what will be an ongoing set of conceptual releases that bleed the myths of creatures that go bump in the night with some D&D like table top gaming, through fuzz occult stoner doom inspired by Sabbath, Goblin and Uncle Acid.
Driven by guitars that have never not had a fuzz pedal used with them and vocals that feature some reverb, it’s got a tone so familiar that it could be called Renfield, but there's also some classic rock sounds that arrive too with more clean voices and some big choruses on the title track.
Dusk sets the cinematic tone while Last gets things going properly, the lycanthropy continuing through Pale Full Moon as Find Familiar add those D&D inspirations as the EP closes out with Perfectly Human where the likes of Green Lung can be heard.
Nothing Short Of Silver is a decent stoner EP from Doctor Nez, if the occult, hard rock style is up your street go check it out. 7/10
L.A rock trio Pegzilla don’t hide their ideals with their name. This is “witchy stoner rock” with female first agenda, an assertiveness, that often spills over into aggression as frontwoman Olivia Saperstein writes lyrics to criticize the patriarch, by advocating for more women enter and flourish in the heavy music scene, forcing the male dominated labels and festivals to be more inclusive in their signing and booking strategy.
With Disobedience the band have provided their mission statement, following an EP and singles with Ripple Music backed debut record, this trio are set to take the stoner metal scene by storm. The fuzzy guitars and haunted vocals of Olivia add those witchy elements while the thick grooves from Juan Barsse (bass) and open drumming of Ryan Swain move them between thick metal stoner and floaty desert rock.
The kick off being the Troll On Speed, a fat riff and clever lyricism “I get so hard when you turn we down” and “who else is going to gatekeep” particularly effective, the anger just at boiling point as they shift from the doomy tones of Pistola into the occult murder rock of Chelsea before slowing into the tribal rhythms of Virginia Werewolf which worships Sabbath through Feminine rage, perfectly showcasing Pegzilla at their gargantuan best, spectral, feminist and slightly murderous with some killer riffs holding it all together on tracks such as Bootlicker especially.
There’s a retro feel to Disobedience, but it’s never a main focal point like it is with some bands, Pegzilla’s sound encapsulates a lot of stoner/doom/desert style, the latter on Hell Ya Brother and with Troll Reprise they play that opening riff to close out the album as if the circle is complete. Female empowerment through fat riffs and packs with the dark beings, Pegzilla are coming, bend over and take it! 8/10
Travo - Wasteland (Fuzz Club)
Portugal quartet Travo are a band who blend music and literature on this new record with each song inspired by a section of T.S Eliot's The Waste Land, if only loosely the themes of that poem can be felt more strongly these days and Travo channel the themes through this new record in a swirling mass of psychedelic intensity.
These hit you like a trip gone wrong through walls of noisy riffs, ambient textures, mind bending vocals and a nagging insistence that draws you in never lets you go. The insistence is a deliberate move on the band's part as they recorded it in break from touring, bottling that live lighting and adrenaline as they wrote this record in the studio with an urgency to get new material out on the road.
Wasteland combines psych rock experimenting with garage rock ferocity as they break out with Burial, then get angular with Decipher, allowing the atmospheres to increase on Silenced Soul which bleeds into the full stems ahead garage punk of Sleeper. Travo are a band that hit you hard and fast, allowing for some rest time, the beginning of this record is full of fire and fury.
The second half though has the woozy Way Down on it which takes you in the other direction towards the spatial sparsity. Though the Title Track manages to get the primal power moving again with it's huge drum intro, squealing feedback and screamed vocals that lead into Rapture, the final song on this record, a throbbing, tenacious, instrumental which builds into a closing crescendo.
Travo create music as a force of nature, psychedelic but unnerving with an aggression of Altamont it’s a bad trip made real, dive in headfirst and embrace chaos. 8/10
Doctor Nez – Nothing Short Of Silver (Self Released)
Doctor Nez is a one man show with the titular Doctor performing/recording/engineering everything on this third EP, Nothing Short Of Silver.
The first part of what will be an ongoing set of conceptual releases that bleed the myths of creatures that go bump in the night with some D&D like table top gaming, through fuzz occult stoner doom inspired by Sabbath, Goblin and Uncle Acid.
Driven by guitars that have never not had a fuzz pedal used with them and vocals that feature some reverb, it’s got a tone so familiar that it could be called Renfield, but there's also some classic rock sounds that arrive too with more clean voices and some big choruses on the title track.
Dusk sets the cinematic tone while Last gets things going properly, the lycanthropy continuing through Pale Full Moon as Find Familiar add those D&D inspirations as the EP closes out with Perfectly Human where the likes of Green Lung can be heard.
Nothing Short Of Silver is a decent stoner EP from Doctor Nez, if the occult, hard rock style is up your street go check it out. 7/10
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