Ladies and germs, please put your filthy hands together for the kings of the high desert heavy blues… This is LUNA SOL a band drawn from the high mountain country of Colorado and Kentucky, existing with no doubt for the pure love of rock ‘n’ roll. And a very specific breed of it, with a bluesy, bittersweet, and darkly-hued dive bar vibe and a warm, driving rhythmic underbelly that brings comfort to misery and has a way of lifting the spirits.

“The personal struggles and joys we’ve shared through making this album highlighted that at the end of the day life is good,” says Hermano guitarist David Angstrom, who has fronted the band since 2012, “and each day is a reward that we need to cherish and take in.”

'Vita Mors’ (2024) is their third LP, releasing tomorrow on Ripple Music – a big album with a big, thumping heartbeat. When I say big, I mean 13 tracks worth of stirring, soulful, foot-stomping rock, with real lyrics about real shit.

Joining the core of the band (which also includes Zeth Pedulla/drums and Doug Tackett/bass) are members of Black Stone Cherry, Kingfish, Hermano, Disengage, and Supafuzz, along with Luna Sol friends and family. There’s a vibrancy about these various collaborations on tracks throughout the album that comes through from the get-go with “Black Cat Callin’” – a stage-storming evolution of blues, soul, and rock influences spanning decades.

The genre of rock 'n’ roll is proving enduring, even if it seems to go “underground” in the popular culture from time to time. Tracks like “Head in a Hole” cannot help but raise hell in any generation (you’ll hear many of those friends and family in the chorus, I suspect). Luna Sol’s music does the trick, thanks to a good infusion of '70s guitar-driven axe-wielding with a swampy, southern-desert twist (check out 1:52 on “Never In My Life” and the deadly riffage of “Freelance Friend”).

There is some balance with the moody “Low 'n Easy,” which reminds me fondly of Jerry Cantrell’s Degradation Trip in its dour, grungy mix. “I’ve been wrong, I’ve been right. Some will say…I bite.” The vocals are jaded and mellow throughout which is a nice contrast to the slithering rhythm, piercing tap tap of the drums, and a downtuned guitar and bass.

Speaking of downtuned, “Surrounded by Thieves” begins as an amp-worshipping gem, and you can tell the band is having fun with it, too. This may be my favorite of the record, just for how effectively pedal effects are used to shape the atmosphere of the song. The riff on this one is gnarly a.f. “Let’s go drink in the sun, let’s go drown in the moonlight, and live life on the run.” The vocals really bring out the lyrics’ rebellious intent.

“No Substitutions” is as heavy as Rage Against The Machine, but turns the guitars in a bluesier direction. The sway of the rhythm is driven and rollicking. Luna Sol play with conviction, in a way that can’t help but pull you away with the tide, if you’ve got on a good pair of headphones especially.

There’s a near 22-minute bonus track which was a refreshing capstone to what has been a hard-driving album.

Look for Luna Sol’s Vita Mors releases Friday, September 20th on Ripple Music on vinyl, compact disc, and digital formats (get it here).

Stick it on a playlist with Creedence Clearwater Revival, Clutch, Corrosion of Conformity, Brant Bjork, and Old Blood.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

LUNA SOL is a highly regarded high mountain stoner blues rock band led by veteran singer and lead guitarist David Angstrom, known for his work in bands such as Hermano, Asylum On The Hill, Black Cat Bone and Supafuzz. Now in its 14th year, the band is poised to deliver its finest album yet through Californian imprint Ripple Music.

To bring this vision to life, Angstrom enlisted the help of drummer Zeth Pedulla and bassist Doug Tackett. The trio’s chemistry was immediate and undeniable. As the riffs began to flow, songs came to life and they decided to hit record to capture the beautiful heaviness they were creating together. From the onset, they all wanted “Vita Mors” to feel and sound live, pulling the listener into a small dive bar nestled in the mountains and filled with Marshall stacks, Les Pauls, a massive amount of drums and a wall of bass amps to shake the foundation.

“Vita Mors” highlights Angstrom’s desire to evolve and explore new musical territory while staying true to his Southern Kentucky roots. Doug and Zeth create beautiful layers of fury in one breath while offering a divine delicacy in the next, a perfect foundation for Angstrom’s madness, stories, riffs and noise. It was recorded in Dave Angstrom’s home studio in the foothills of the Rocky Mountain, mixed and mastered by Jason Groves (Supafuzz/Asylum On The Hill alumni) and assisted by Ty Tabor (King’s X).

YOB: Live & Loud in Louisville

At the start of summer, photographer Johnny Hubbard witnessed a live show of legendary underground band YOB, playing Portal in Louisville, Kentucky. Here are some of his choice snaps, captured during Yob’s first US tour since 2019.

Death on the horizon
Consciousness asleep
The soul is unprepared
Fear runs deep
Always agonizing
On what can’t be known
Heavy is the burden
When the jester rules the throne

Churning maelstrom
A dying kiss
Fury let loose

A mammoth portal
Of epic size
Ruthless intensity
Eating all light

Aeons old black hole devours
Empty hollow within
Eating the pain
Rejecting the soul
The beginning of the end

Siren’s call
From the sea
Raging current
Pulls us under
Fighting for air
Scream for release
As colors dance and weave

Beyond all birth and death
The real is timeless
Open the shutter of the mind
And it will be flooded with light

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For the past few weeks, Doomed & Stoned has been treating you to the sounds of ‘Final Frontier’ (2019), the new EP from Kentucky’s proggy instrumental post-sludge quartet FORREST, and today we get to hear the record in its entirety. It’s a clever, even inventive, and electrifying spin that finds Forrest wrangling a rambunctious, sprawling sound like a veteran rodeo cowboy.

Here we have five exciting numbers that can certainly stand up as self-contained tracks, but for full impact you can’t beat taking them as five consecutive shots (though you might end up just a bit tipsy by the end). There’s the hot-to-trot opener, “Bubba”; the monstrous “To Lose a Whale”; the grave, but persistent doomer, “The Final Frontier (Dan II),” featuring some very tight drumming; the punchy, proggy crooner “The Intensity of Frenchness”; the folksy jig-turned-dirge, “Specialman,” complete with some surprisingly warm vintage rock moments; and the vigorous album closer, “Vacation (…Don’t Ever Come Back), which feels like a solemn car ride full of aching heads and reflection after a night of solid debauchery.

Congrats to Riley Logan (lead guitar), Charlie Overman (rhythm guitar, synths), Jared McIntyre, and Josh Summerville (drums) on this bold and distinct entry into the ever crowding swamp of sludgy doom! If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself binge listening this one on the daily. Final Frontier by Forrest releases on Wednesday, July 17th.

Give ear…

Peeking Under The Hood with Forrest

'Final Frontier’ is an incredible effort, guys. What are some of your roots, musically and technically speaking?

For influences, I’d say Melvins, Deftones, Yob, and Mastodon.

I’m always interested to hear different band’s experiences recording an album, especially when it sounds this damned good. Walk us into studio, if you would, and describe the whole she-bang for.

The EP’s got its fair share of progginess, but even the least doomy tracks on the record were recorded through old Sunn stuff and driven mainly by boutique fuzz pedals built by our friend Eric over at frost giant electronics – he’s also in the band Switchblade Jesus. The production and engineering side of things was done by our good friend Will Chewning at Springhurst Recording studio. The environment was super chill, and this was the second time we’ve worked with him. We love it there. The artwork was done by Brittani Fuller.

I think it would be cool to give our readers some insight into the songs on the new record. Do you mind walking us through it?

Alright, Billy, so in regards to background on the tracks:

Bubba – As far as thematic tie-ins, it’s named after the character Bubba from the movie Forrest Gump. In fact, as you’ll see, most of this EP’s songs are either Forrest Gump themed or Star Trek: The Next Generation themed.

To Lose a Whale – This song was originally going to be added to the end of the EP as a bonus track. However, once the song was finished we timed it’s length and discovered it was roughly three-and-a-half minutes long, so we decided to add it as its own track. With this second song, while it does have a rather different sound than the rest of the EP, it still follows a similar formula to many Forrest songs, "Bubba” and “The Intensity of Frenchness” in particular – the pattern being a heavy/catchy intro riff, a high, spacey post-lead thingy in the middle, and then a return to that heavy/catchy riff. The song was in part inspired by Gojira, hence the name, “To Lose a Whale.” On the song “Flying Whales” by Gojira, their vocalist at one point screams, “I have to find the whales!” Riley and I were listening to it once and he goes: “It’d have to be pretty fuckin hard to lose a whale!” Beyond the Gojira reference, the sample in the beginning is from a scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Data attempts to do stand-up comedy.

The Final Frontier (Dan II) – Half the title is obviously a Star Trek reference. However, the second half is the song’s original title, very simply “Dan II.” There’s a song off of our first EP entitled “Dan,” named after Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump. In “Dan II” we took the bridge riff from the original “Dan” and turned it into one of the song’s main riffs. The bridge section in the middle of the song, over which Riley takes a solo, was probably bit off the album which we all spent the most time obsessing over. That bridge section was inspired primarily by Yob. I can say with confidence, I think it’s one of the sweetest doom riffs around.

The Intensity of Frenchness – This is a reference to Captain Jean Luc-Picard, the captain of the Enterprise on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The song opens with a sample from the show in which Picard delivers his famous one-liner: “Make it so.” The intro riff is also inspired by a French progressive rock band called Totorro. This is the third song on the record after “Bubba” and “To Lose a Whale” that follows the formula of heavy/catchy intro to weird, spacey post-lead riff and then back to a heavy/catchy riff. In this song, and in Bubba’s case, they return to the same riff as in the intro.

Specialman – This one’s named as such because Forrest Gump is a special man. Maybe that’s insensitive or something, I don’t know. Regardless, this one’s inspiration is sort of all over the place. The only thing I can say for sure is that the bridge section with the jazzy chords was written in an attempt to weave a doo-wop chord progression into a metal song, and I’d say it was done successfully. The song reminds me of the Melvins, in many ways – the last riff of the song, the tones, and the way things are played; you know, dynamics and all.

Vacation (…don’t ever come back) – After the recording was finished, Riley described it as John Baizley and Mike Scheidt merged into one big, pretty, doomy thing. Something along those lines. It was heavily inspired by the Baroness song “Grad,” and while I can’t say for certain, I’d say the flute popped into his head either from Zelda or from Jethro Tull. The song gets its title from another Forrest Gump reference, in which Forrest is talking about his Dad leaving his Mom and him as a boy, and his Mom describing it to him as a vacation. I think Forrest asks something like, “What’s a vacation?” and she goes when you leave and never come back. Something along those lines.

What kind of instruments, amps, and gear did you use in the recording?

Just for context, our standard rigs are:

Charlie (rhythm guitar): Epiphone SG for C standard tuning, an Ibanez rg7421 for 7-string A standard tuning, Egnater Tweaker 40 amplifier head, Way huge electronics Green Rhino, Frost Giant Electronics Massif, a 300-watt 2x12 with an Eminence Tonker and an Eminence Legend 1218. I also turned on a nano chorus occasionally.

Riley (lead guitar): Gibson Les Paul Studio, occasionally a Fender Strat, both for C standard tuning, Ibanez rg7421 for 7-string A standard tuning, Jet City JCA20HV which is a head they made in part with the Soldano brand. He uses a Laney 2x12, also 300-watts with two Eminence Swamp Thangs in it. As far as pedals for him, he was using a Frost Giant Electronics Soma Fuzz, a Leviathan which is a custom one off pedal he had made by a guy here in Lexington, which is an octave fuzz and a JFet boost. He uses an ehx canyon for a ton of the ambient parts as well. Along with a delay and chorus here and there.

Jared (bass): Squier Jazz bass for C standard, Epiphone Thunderbird bass for A standard. We tracked Jared through a DI, and then reamped him through an old Sunn Sorado head. We also used that head all over the record for guitar overdubs. For some parts Jared would use an old 90s Black Russian Big Muff as well as an EHX POG. I believe we ran him through an ampeg speaker cab, but I can’t remember specifically. If you’d really like to know I can find out.

Josh (drums): Josh switches up his rig constantly, but at the time of recording he was using a drum kit with evans drum heads, and a mix of meinl, and Zildjian cymbals. He used Vic Firth sticks as well I’m pretty sure.

With the standard rigs out of the way, for the individual songs some little extra pieces of gear are:

For the song Bubba, we used pretty much only our standard rigs on this song, not really many overdubs. However, the spacey post lead section in the middle, Riley used an MXR Blue Box, an octave fuzz, to really thicken up those leads and add an extra layer to everything.

While it’s probably one of the songs that strays most from doom in the traditional sense, much of To Lose a Whale was recorded through that old Sunn Sorado head guitars and bass included, along with the standard rigs of course. Josh also used some bongos on this track.

Mostly standard rigs were used for the bones of The Final Frontier (Dan II), however, we did lots of overdubs with the old Sunn head through an Emperor 4x12 loaded with Ted Webers. For this song I’d say it’s also important to note we used exclusively dirt sounds from the amps for crunchy stuff and our Frost Giant Electronics fuzzes for the big fuzzy bits, i.e. most of the song. (laughs) Nothing in between, though. For this one, I put a Korg Ms-20 mini synthesizer with a bit of analog tape echo added over top of the very beginning of the song to thicken it up even more. It was a patch I’d been working on for a while, and I was glad to get to use it. Riley used his canyon pedal lots on this track, as well.

Once we transition into the clean bit right before the super heavy middle section with the same melody, Riley’s tone there is his Frost Giant Electronics Soma turned on with the volume on his guitar rolled off, I think it sounds particularly amazing right there. When that riff gets giant and fuzzy over top of the fuzziness there’s a Hammond organ droning and following the melody of that riff. When it goes back into the crunchy riff that was taken from the original Dan, we used that old Black Russian Big Muff for guitar overdubs when the whole band kicks in.

We used standard rigs for both Specialman and The Intensity of Frenchness, plus a banjo overdub on the middle section of the latter.

For the final track, Vacation (…don’t ever come back), Riley used his standard guitar rig and his Leviathan for pretty much all the dirt. I didn’t play guitar on this track and instead just did some droning on the Korg MS-20 mini synthesizer, as well as a Roland Juno-6 synthesizer. There’s also a flute.

Forrest has some Bandcamp download codes for y'all and I do mean they have dropped the motherlode! Get 'Final Frontier’ (2019) por nada while you can (redeem here).

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Two years ago to the month, Moonbow released their critically acclaimed debut album The End of Time (2013). For the last two years, the band has been writing a lot of material and playing shows in between David McElfresh’s touring with his other and well-known band Hank 3.

Moonbow are:

• Matt Bischoff (Vocals)
• David McElfresh (Guitars, Fiddle, Vocals, Mandolin, Steel Guitar
• Ryan McAllister (Bass
• Steve Earle (Drums)

During the writing process for the new record, vocalist Matt Bischoff and guitarist David had the idea to put out an acoustic set of songs that were very personal to them. This later would become Volto del Demone (2015). The songs were recorded between December 2013 and April 2015 at The Den recording studio in Petersburg, KY. Now Moonbow finally unveiled Volto del Demone in its entirety, streaming exclusively through Doomed & Stoned, leading up to the official release on August 28th.

The new LP also features a very special guest appearance by Hank 3 himself on vocals, drums, bass, keyboards, and bizarre atmospheric sounds on the song “Face of the Demon.”

Get your hands on the record starting next week here.