High Priestess - High Priestess

Record Label: Ripple Music



High Priestess are a recently new Los Angeles trio who play heavy psychedelic music. The band was formed in 2016 through an advertisement that the band's bass player and vocalist, Mariana Fiel placed on Craigslist when she was seeking like-minded musicians. The band now consists of Katie Gilchrest on guitar and vocals, Mariana Fiel on bass/vocals, and Megan Mullins on drums. The three musicians released a five song demo in 2017 and got a record deal with Ripple Music due to their musical style and the strength of their work so their first album has now come into fruition.

The first song "Firefly" informs their listening masses as to what High Priestess is all about. The band immediately lay on a hypnotic psychedelic groove which the the trio then incorporate with the slow crushing plod of doom metal. The soaring yet melodic vocals add further to the ethereal quality of the song. The ten minutes of the song takes psychedelic influences from the past and the metal element and the prominence of the instruments gives the song a modern feel. "Despise You" opens with a much more laid back approach and the singing starts much earlier in the piece. This second composition also takes a metallic twist with loud drums and frightening growls that seem much more sinister than most death metal bands as they aren't a constant feature and take you by surprise. Elements of the song are reminiscent of Soundgarden but High Priestess definitely have their own unique thing going.

The intro to "Banshee" wails doom metal but the dreamy vocals come in and the loud drums disappear for a while only to return again. The band utilize the loud-quiet-loud approach to great effect. "Take the Blame" is a fuzzed out heavy jamming rock tune. Some of the tune is in the video below.



The vocals on "Mother Forgive Me" are quiet with some even whispered and this aids the hypnotic psychedelic quality to remain a constant feature.

Starting an album with the longest song didn't seem a wise choice but High Priestess still command your attention immediately and they aren't about quick punches although this self-titled does have a couple of short burners and the variations in tune length are a wise move. This album is recommended for anyone interested in modern psychedelia.

3.5/5

Release Date: 18 May 2018


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Howling Giant - Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2

Record Label: Self-release





The band's chosen handle, Howling Giant suggests a gargantuan blood-curling beast and their latest EP title, "Black Hole Space Wizard Part 2" and song titles like "The Forest Speaks", "Circle of Druids" and "Earth Wizard", leaves little doubt that these three guys from Nashville, Tennessee are not only music nerds but also sci-fi and fantasy nerds.

From the outset of the EP, Howling Giant let you know they aren't just messing around with sound, the album opener, "Henry Tate" is nearly all instrumental groove as their are haunting spoken parts. Howling Giant let you know through their psychedelic space rock that they're going on a trippy ride and want you to take a seat and strap yourself in alongside them for the journey.
"The Pioneer" begins as a radio-friendly rock tune. The vocals of Tom Polzine are reminiscent of Jon Toogood from Shihad and the first three minute of the song do remind me of that band's recent rockier tracks but Howling Giant take off into more fuzzed out territory than the long-running New Zealand band have dared to.



There's a warning of an onset of ominous doom to come in "Visions", due to some slowed but incredibly heavy Sabbath riffs. While the melodic clean and incredibly accessible vocals are at the forefront of the mix, the music carries a heavy sense of foreboding doom through the heavy fuzzed out riffs until around the five minute mark where the band veer further into space with a more psychedelic stoner sound with wailing guitar. "The Forest Speaks" is an instrumental track with aucoustic guitar, baritone sax and synth. This track will draw the band many comparisons to the progressive sound of Jethro Tull and the space rock of Hawkwind. Comparisons aside, "The Forest Speaks" is a beautiful and relaxing soundscape.

After lulling the listener in, with a tranquil piece, Howling Giant take a medieval twist with "Circle of Druids" and conjure up Black Sabbath era Ozzy vocals with an emphasis on percussion and chants to come together (intentional nod to The Beatles, that you'll get when you listen to the track) and ascend from Avalon. The fuzzed out guitar leads voyage all over the place searching for Excalibur.







Mammoth crushing doom riffs set the tone of "Earth Wizard". This is the type of song that slowly creeps up behind you and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as the band lay down breathtakingly heavy riffs.


To merely say that this EP is good would be understating a fact, the six songs on this release are fantastic and all fans of space rock, stoner rock and metal, psychedelic rock should listen to this Howling Giant. The whole album can be streamed and bought for name your price at the band's bandcamp page. You know what to do and if you want greater riff sensation do what the band tell you to on their bandcamp page and play these songs at maximum volume.

4.5/5

Release Date: 25 August 2017


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Faces of the Bog - Ego Death

Record Label: DHU Records


Chicago band Faces of the Bog released their "Ego Death" album late last year. However, we didn't hear it back then and DHU records is releasing the album on a limited vinyl release run this September so you can stare at a bigger version of the trippy artwork on the album cover while you listen to the album.

In this case judging an album by the cover isn't a bad thing at all, the music on Ëgo Death"is just as trippy and heavy as the cover suggests. Faces of the Bog mix psychedelic rock with sludge and a touch of early grunge ala early Soundgarden. The vocals go from clean to a dirty yelling caveman who has dropped a huge boulder that refuses to move on his toes and often the music goes from tripped out psychedelic rock to grunge to the filthiest sludge within a single track. Drawing comparisons for Faces of the Bog to other bands isn't an easy task but there are elements of post-metal Neurosis, the more psychedelic side of Pink Floyd, a fair amount of the sludge of Eyehategod and more than a touch of the heavy grunge of early Soundgarden.





There's an ethereal quality to the music here because Faces of The Bog are psychedelic and progressive sludge. On single songs like Ëgo Death" and the eight minute album ender, "Blue Lotus, a first time listener and even when the familiarity has grown, it's difficult to guess the path the band will choose and there are so many layers when Faces of The Bog turn on the heaviness that strongly shakes an awareness that music captures and transports us through a portal to another dimension.

4/5

Release Date: 22 September 2017


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The Flying Eyes - Burning of the Season

Record Label: Ripple Music



On their fourth album, The Flying Eyes open with a scorching fuzzed out psychedelic rock tune entitled, "Sing Praise". There's a strong early 60's/late 70's vibe modernized and amped up to arrive at your ears through modern technology. There's a laid back approach to the Jim Morrison tinged vocals in "Drain and you can easily hear and smell the joints being passed around when the band play live in the song's quieter spacier moments. The track builds up to a finale with the sort of bluesy hard rock with a controlled chaos that Danzig achieved on the first few albums. The cosmic vibe continues in the nine minutes of "Circle of Stone" with some great guitar shimmering' and shining through yet allowed to fuzz out.

The vocals on "Farewell" are reminiscent of Gary Moore's approach to both his blues output and his slower hard rock tunes. Musically the track is equally muscular without The Flying Eyes flapping well away from the psychedelic rock highway. "Rest Easy" is as dreamy and laid back as its moniker suggests. This is music designed for putting the headphones on and contemplating the possibilities of life on other planets while gazing up at the stars in the night sky.

As none of the lengthier tracks outstay their welcome, it is very difficult to find fault with this album with each listen to "Burning of the Season, there is the discovery of something new to like about the album. Ripple Music has chosen another winner with signing The Flying Eyes.

4/5

Release Date: 22 September 2017



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Mojo Waves - "Lo and Behold"

 

 Regular blog readers may remember the Finnish trio, Mojo Waves 3 song EP, which was reviewed here. The band was young and had their chops together.  The vocal  still sound like helium balloons were sucked seconds before the recording process but it definitely gives these guys a cool and not often-heard sound.  On their facebook page Mojo Waves describe themselves as a garagedelic rock band and honestly, that's about the size of it as they combine straight up no-nonsense garage rock with 70's style psychedelic hard rock.

There's weighty fuzzed out riffs and the energy isn't as frantic as the 3-song EP but it's still there only a little more stripped back which carries more weight in the band's longer outing.   In the past review, I stated that the vocals may be a weakness on a full length but they definitely make the band stand out from all of the cookie cutter rock and metal crowd.

"Mousetrap" is an appropriately named highlight.  The vocals resemble a screaming rodent and there's a steady garage rock stomp with a little fuzzed out guitar.  You cross your fingers while you wish on the fate of the mouth.   "Flowers" has a Byrds style harmony and combined with the no-bullshit rock and roll, there's a dirty sweetness that will appeal more to those who like a rawness to their music.

A few of the riffs here and there are familiar but often the reason many things in music are cliched is only because they are good. As Mojo Waves bandcamp states this is, "Music that is clear and fuzzy but at the same time clear and peculiar."   It will be interesting to see what this trio does next.

Check the album out for yourself on the  Mojo Waves bandcamp site.

4/5

Electric Shepherd - The Imitation Garden

San Francisco trio Electric Shepherd join the long list of rock trios that once again prove four on the floor isn't always the best way. Listening the great pscychedelic rock these guys produce without knowing anything about their populace, you'd swear by the excellent musicianship that there were far more members and that these guys have been around a long time and witnessed the 70's wave of psych firsthand but further inspection proves that these guys have released one previous album and that they are all still in their twenties.

In the name of research, I checked out their earlier album and heard a heavy Pink Floyd influence although the band didn't sound at all like clones. On "The Imitation Garden" trippy guitar riffs fly at you from the outset of "Totem". Electric Shepherd put a trance over the listener in "The Escapist" and the heavy wah wah guitar that enters the frame only enhances the cosmic spell. The drummer tends towards a more jazzy side rather than traditioanl rock. The beginning of "The Imitation Garden Part I" reminded me of Valkyrie(what's going on with that band these days?) but it's because both bands have similar influences. Electric Shepherd may not be a metal band but both bands have clearly heard more than a little Wishbone Ash (the "Argus" album is the one that really comes to mind)and managed to incorporate it in their own unique sound. "Totem II" has the band in instumental jam mode. A sparseness of sound is used in "Angels In the Grove". The drums sit mostly in the background allowing the lush guitar sound to strongly breeze in through with sung verses coming in and out of the fray. It's unsurprising that a band who choose a name from a sci-fi story have a song entitled "A Mechanical Flower". The song sounds like someone blowing into a large shell with occasional drumbeats and voices inside their head verging on escape. The song leads into the lengthier "Into the Forest, Father/Angels(reprise)". "Heaven Don't Need" opens with a quiet intro then gets slightly jazzy before the dums thud and there's more than a push towards heaviness though eventually the guitar opts out in favour of a hazy trippiness but a head-bobbing rhythm stays throughout the number.

You know how sometimes just slight lyrical similarities can have you thinking of another band? Well, in the case of "Sometimes I About" as there's a lyrical connection to "The House of The Rising of The Sun" with a reference to New Orleans and similar blues guitar and organ to The Animals' cover though there's far more and longer instrumental breaks in this tune.

If it sounds like I'm raving about this album, there's a good reason for it as it's the type of album that reviewers love to get to listen to but unfortunately makes the quality makes it difficult to get other reviews done as it screams out for replaying and on each replaying new discoveries are unearthed. The December 18th release date means "The Imitation Garden". won't show up on many end of year lists but Electric Shepherd definitely make mine as they have managed to make retro psychedelia sound fresh which is no small feat. Oh, yeah by the way, their bio says they're for fans of Cream, Blue Cheer, The Doors, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Dungen and Tame Impala and I'm not going to argue with any of those reference points.

5/5

"Imitation Gardens" promo single is free online music available from their bandcamp

Also check out the electric shepherd site which features spinning vinyl.

Like these guys or after more psychedelia? Then check out Buzzmutt.



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Buzzmutt - Static In the Mind's Eye Chpt 1

Buzzmutt – Static in the Mind’s Eye – Chapter 1

Earlier in the year I ventured out of the house to see a reasonably well-known American psychedelic band who were really just Black Sabbath clones in different clothes and haircuts, not that there’s anything wrong with that unlike paraphrasing hit and miss TV comedy shows. The band asked for no photos to be taken and the mirror ball with the lights took care of that anyway because most of the pictures wouldn’t have turned out. Listening to Buzzmutt from San Francisco, it’s easy to picture them using the lighting and mirrorball as another instrument or even a separate band member.

There’s no faking pscychedelia in Buzzmutt’s music; these guys are not just weekend flare wearers and incense burners. It would be totally incorrect to state that there is a hallucegenic undertone because if Hunter s. Thompson was to be in a band Buzzmutt would be that band. The band conveys a spaced out airiness in songs like “The Trickster” and “Adjusted Sight”. The rythym section proves their worth in “Coming To”. If chemical lounge jazz swing isn’t a genre yet then “I Don’t Remember Pain” sets a precedent. “After That” rubs with a Velvet Underground rawness vocally although there’s a pervading spring of a puppy here too. Stylistically these guys are capable of going all over the map while retaining their own sound and testament to that is when garage punk parks up and yells and sings “Sharp like Razor”. Pleasurable distortion without added weird primal effects sums up “Jungle Zombie”.

These guys sent me an email describing their music as noisy experimental indie rock kind of stuff. The word "expreimental" is often used in musician speak and means only listenable to the band and a few of their friends. Believe me, that’s not the case here. All too often twelve songs from an unknown band wear out there welcome however Buzzmutt have abided by the review rulebook and followed Rule 1117 section E, which categorically states don't make each song sound the same but if you do then make certain that your band don't sound like shit. Unfortunately most bands don't even read the rulebook past page 3, the forming a band section.

Buzzmutt may have their own sound but one song sounds different enough to another for them to not only get away with it but for the length to make sense. No complaints about this release being too short either from this reviewer. It’s available from their bandcamp site at a price of your choosing or on cassette from the band.

4.5/5




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The Barrens - The Barrens

Curries with a mix of spices and Bollywood films with their mix of ingredients are known as Masala as they take a pinch from here, a scraping from over there and another pinch from the small box that has been sitting on the pantry shelf for over a year. This helps their flavours to appeal to a wider range of people.


New York band The Barrens describe themselves as diverse and daring psychedelic rock.
The band utilize the dual singer approach with both male and female voices both together and individually. An unwary listener is lulled in by the shoegazy indie opener "Claw Remains" and then beaten slowly over the head with the Black Sabbath and Kyuss influenced "Felt". After being hammered down The Barrens lift spirits with the upbeat cheerful pop of "Bottom of The Well". Debbie Chou's voice bestows a dreamy character to "In and Ice" without stealing attention away from the wall of reverb guitar.

My Bloody Valentine fans are likely to drool at "Sagaminopteren Psychedelum". "Yellow Cigarette" toys with casual listeners who are likely to hear the intro and dismiss it as just another pop song. The drums are hammered and the vocals are distorted and a humming bird hovers over the chaos checking in for nectar whenever it feels the desire.

"Better" made me nostalgic for beef noodles, dumplings and scooter chaos because the song is reminiscent of Taiwanese band, Tizzy Bac, who are a better version of Bens Fold Five largely due to female vocals.


The Barrens are definitely a hard group to pin down although they do snuggle reasonably comfortably into the psychedelic rock label. The band's diversity is their strength. The band have found their niche but possess a wilingness to stretch further.

3.5/5



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Gladiators Eat Fire - Psychedelic Hogwash

Another day and there's another noisy Seattle band popping up or so it seems. It's fairly easy to pigeon hole Gladiators Eat Fire as living directly of and coming out of the bowels of that particular mushroom cloud since their bio describes them as an organic psychedelic hardcore movement. However, with their first EP, "Keep The Beat Alive" released in 2008, it's clear that despite being a young band, Gladiators Eat Fire are far from green and inexperienced although they are definitely experimental.

In many ways, the band are either a reviewer's dream or nightmare because nailing their sound down pat is akin to playing pin the tail on the donkey with a live animal. The band chop and change their sound with greater frequency than a third world transportation system. Unsuspecting listeners will easily dismiss opener "Dispossessed" as sludgy hardcore due to its slow and heavy start with microphone swallowing shouted grunts but the midway through the song changes with melodic chanting with more indie type sounds ensuring a good time but won't be heard any time at a monastery near you. If the Birthday Party discovered funk and speed simultaneously then they might have just come up with the noisy dance trance "For a Second I Thought I was going to Die".

Listening to "This Shit is Chiamus", it's a challenge not to think of Nomeansno, even if the vocals sound nothing like the elderly canucks, but as the band possess the same freaky ability to switch style mid-song and keep a listener interested while the drummer moves from pounding demons from his chosen instrument to a more loving caress whenever the mood takes him. "The New Paridigm" begins with yelling over buzzsaw guitars yet transforms into Fugazi nightmares about maybe more than just stage diving and T-shirts.

Those who think hardcore is nothing but noise will have their delusions shattered by this EP. Gladiators Eat Fire are a band who challenge genre purists to think outside the mosh pit. So remember, hogwash is better than no wash at all and Psychedelic Hogwash is cleansing.

4/5



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