Number 10

 

 

Number 10

As we enter the Top 10, we have also arrived at the realization that so far a lot of your choices have been released by either Heavy Psych Sounds, Blues Funeral Recordings or and even more by Ripple Music. And guess what. The Number 10 album was released by Ripple Music as well and all the way back in January! And across many reviews it has been accurately described as the bands most eclectic release to date. It builds on everything the fans already loved, while confidently pushing forward into new territories. Stoner rock, grunge, alternative grit and flashes of metal colliding without ever spinning out of control. Razor tight performances and fearless songwriting. With a vocalist clearly reinvigorated delivering lyrics that are raw, reflective and sharply human. His voice shifting smoothly between restraint and eruption. A record that does not simply hit you hard, it stick with you, like a scar you forgot about until you brush against it and immediately remember exactly what you did and how you got it. Emotional weight throughout, but still catchy and always unflinchingly honest. Nobody ever claimed you had to arrive at the finish line unscathed.. 

On Number 10 we find: 

GODZILLIONAIRE – DIMINISHING RETURNS

 

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Number 10

 

 

Number 10

Another almost sixty points takes us from Acid Mammoth on Number 11 into the Top 10. Legendary bands releasing new albums this year all seem to have made one of their best in their career according to the votes that came in. And the one we find on Number 10 can be added to that majestic list. Renewed fire and all! Coming straight at you from the center of the earth. The vocalist has quit the drink and gotten healthy, can that be the thing that makes this new album so bizarrely good? Perhaps so, cause now, on their new, tenth album he is in extremely great shape, both lyrically and vocally, and perhaps better then he has ever been before. And then there’s a new bass player as well. Another spark of new energy to fire up the beast. Rumbling bass, thundering drums, rampaging riffs and wild solo work, and that’s just the opening track. Classic metal, motoring energy, a few more psychedelic tracks and a whole lot of fire! The band sounds even more inspired and worthy of the legendary status we always knew they deserved. As if they’ve always been that dormant volcano and now decided to erupt in a most glorious pyroclastic flow. I for one feel the fire in my belly! And I can’t wait to see them live again!

According to all of your votes, on Number 10 we find: 

Orange Goblin - Science, Not Fiction

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Peaceville Records

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Number 10

 

 

Number 10

We enter the Top 10 by jumping 12 points from Number 11, where we found Fire Down Below. For this one we get back on that evil and ominous sounding streak, we go and sing praise to Shaitan! But even if this is some wicked an unholy doom, there is always something compelling and enthralling about this band. Especially live. And on this album, they seem to have captured that aspect of them better than ever. Touching on something stranger, some eighties things and often imploring a melody, a rise in tone that reminds you of something, hidden, somewhere deep in your brain. Earworms a plenty! And then there’s that one track, that does that same thing once again, but that for me personally at least, harshly rips you away from that doom trance state you were in, due to them vocals. But since music is always in the ear of the beholder, just like these worms, it might work out totally differently for you. Yes, in short, I’m not a fan of worms. But I am a fan of owls and crows, and they eat worms, when they’re hungry enough. So, just start over and have those birds in the intro set the scene…

On Number 10 we find…

Dopelord – Songs For Satan


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Blues Funeral Recordings

Number 10

 

 

Number 10

Thank you all, all you crazy followers that voted for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022. We’ve already passed 10 spots and sixteen bands with their respective albums. Up next is Number 10, indeed, we’re already entering the Top 10. And I’m going to make some remarks that are perhaps a bit lame and will immediately make obvious what album we find on this Number 10 position. Here goes nothing… We loved her earlier work, her earlier albums: Debut, Post, Homogenic and even Vespertine. After that the only album that did something for me, was perhaps Volta. Her newest Fossora record, will be a listened once and that will be enough kind of deal for me. Probably. Lame right? You know we’re kidding and we’re not really talking about Björk. But the pitch, the color and the overall sound of the vocalist of this band has so many similarities its kind of frightening. But you can also just move past the voice and on to the compositions, onto the countless use of stonerrock influences, psychedelics and doom into their proggy rock. For even though the voice might take center stage at the beginning, you soon find out that there’s amazing guitar work and wonderful drums waiting to be discovered. On Number 10 we find!   

Gaupa – Myriad

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Out on Nuclear Blast

On to Number 9!

Number 10

 

 

Number 10

We are entering the Top 10 today… We jump an exact thirty points from Number 11 where we found Heave Temple, Kal-El and Void Commander to reach Number 10. A band we all love very dearly and who has been making the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with almost every album they ever released. Reaching Number 6 in 2019. Number 2 in 2017 and Number 14 in 2014. And thanks to all your votes made it to Number 10 this year... Tom Hanno wrote about this one on the Doom Charts: “The album shows this Swedish powerhouse expanding upon their already amazing sound; their use of heavy riffs coupled with mellower, almost psychedelic sections really gives them something special. Then we add in guitar tones that most people wish they could get, some of the best percussion work on the planet, (particularly during the title track), a thunderous, massive bass guitar sound, and you get the makings of greatness!!!” Indeed, the progressive touches in their doom sound, slowly moving away from the trod, plod and nod of their earlier work makes this one shiny diamond of heavy rock! It is their time on Number 10!

Monolord – Your Time To Shine

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Number 10

 

 

Number 10

Entering the Top 10 today… And this means another big jump from Witchskull on Number 11 to reach Number 10; a jump with over a hundred points in fact. Well, there aren’t that many bands that can truly deliver this kind of feeling and atmosphere with a potent mixture of mercury stoner riffs, grinded blues patterns and pressed psychedelic ambience. There is a presence lurking hear that feels weird and will ride your body like a wave of goosebumps. Changing up their magical concoction with every record, the (now) trio delivers something stunningly sinister and majestically gothic. Nothing seems to be standing in their way of imploring gritty metal riffs and chugging rhythms to create their ideal and seemingly perfect universe… Creepy by default and completely enthralling! Furious, epic and cinematic! Indeed, here is Number 10!

All Them Witches – Nothing As The Ideal

 

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New West Records

Number 10

Number 10

A very close call indeed getting into the Top 10! Cause we jump only 4 points from Lo-Pan on Number 11 to reach the album that features on the Number 10 spot! A band that we have loved since the very beginning and which we mentioned on the HiVe with almost every release. They however never made it to the Top 20 Countdown for some insane reason. But here they are now! They in fact almost made it with another album as well. Cause yes, this band managed to release two amazing records in one year. And the other one ended up around the 30th spot. Madman Tony Maim wrote about these cats when the album came out: “These guys just do it right. Expansive soundscapes carry you along – in my head I am riding a skeletal horse across a blasted city ruin being trailed by mutated wolves and shambling cannibal women who are strangely sexy. Stunning guitar work and song composition make me want this piped directly into my ears at all times. This is the good shit.” Strangely sexy, strangely satanic and strangely evil! On Number 10 we find!

Clouds Taste Satanic - Evil Eye

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Number 10

Number 10

Just be sure we mention everyone gets how the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown works we mention once again that it is a voted list. It has been since 2009. And no less than 79 music fiends sent in their list of favorite albums this year. And thanks to all the votes that came in for the Number 11 album, we pass Boss Keloid and their Melted On The Inch album on the eleventh position and enter the Top 10 of this Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018. We move another eight points up now and find two bands occupying the same position. We have featured both bands on the HiVe before but not their latest works, which makes it okay for all of you out there to chase us down the street and throw dead possums at us until sunrise. Cause both albums are simply put: amazing! One band comes once again from Ukraine and the other from the USA. And both of them are heavy in their very own way. Progressive, groovy, pop sensible, aggressive; mixing stoner and metal with punky psychedelics on thirteen tracks it’s a masterpiece meant for a majestic sunrise. While the other mixes all that up with much more post-rock, shoegazing and atmospheric elements without ever leaving the heavy waters. Luscious is a word that comes to mind with both albums and so does epic… So, before we started naming even more words of praise let’s starting listening to the two albums we find on Number 10 !

Somali Yacht Club – The Sea

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ASG – Survive Sunrise

Number 10

Number 10

As we enter the Top 10, we jump almost twenty points this time around. We leave Mothership breathing dust and croaking an ugly cough on Number 11 as we prepare to join this crazy cult! They came out left field and took everyone by surprise. Sure, we enjoyed the hell out of that 2016 album. But I guess nobody expected something this insanely good! Themselves included, so it seems. They must have known they created something wild and wonderful, but they were not prepared for the enormous amount of love to be shown for the album. They galloped high and mighty across the Doom Charts and stayed there for a few months. And rightfully so, for it is a total ripper! As Bucky Brown (from the Ripple Effect) already stated on the Doom Charts: “As expected, the new album is a total ripper. The blues are as heavy as ever, the psych factor overflowing with dusty fuzz, vocals grizzling with dreamy rigor, and mountains of riffs that rattle the stage like a wild mustang bucking through the Americana spirit world.” Right on! Ride on!

Youngblood Supercult - The Great American Death Rattle

Number 10

Number 10

Wretch on Number 11. What a highly deserved spot! And now, entering the Top 10, we once again find two bands occupying that same spot. I guess there were just too many albums released in 2016 that were so freaking good! And yes, once again only a few points above Number 11 and both very different animals. One of them delivering one of the best cosmic stoner blues albums of the year and the other high octane psychedelic heaviness. Yet also very alike. Both of them lead the Doom Charts at one point and both of them have this outlaw quality to their music. You know, the soundtrack to a marauding herd speeding down the middle of the highway, tense for action, long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping. Riffs that shine like filthy chrome and vocalists that run flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given. Indeed, two bands that are here to show the squares some class and give’m a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know… 

Sinister Haze – Laid Low in the Dust of Death

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Geezer – Geezer

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Nummer 10

Number 10

“Well, we like to let down our hair and pep it up at the dances, but we keep it slower when we broadcast. We have to please everybody, and that softer music appeals to the larger amount of people. It's like eating too much cake. You have to have your steak too.” ~ Vaughn Monroe

As we pass The Machine with four points and enter the Top 10 it feels only fitting to let someone else do the talking about this album. Also, because we talked a lot about this band, this year and in other years. Cause they ended up on the third position in 2012 and on the second position in 2011. So here’s Charlie Tooth: “Apparently the only thing Dylan, the Animals and Derek And The Dominoes have on these Swedes is that they didn't make the list! Their 2015 LP is a perfect example of why classic never really goes out of style. How can a band that started around 2006 sound so classic? My guess is pure feel, emotion with a sense of natural playing and writing ability. Their 2015 album is pure and clean. It's not surprising these blues rockers rank so high on the  Stoner HiVe people's picks! a truly cool blues based machine that set themselves apart from the Iommi worshiping guitar bands!” Number 10 is taken up by…

Graveyard – Innocence & Decadence

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Number 10

Number 10

“A 10 year old single malt from the Yamazaki distillery, aged in bourbon barrels. A lovely fruity dram, quite floral. The nose is fruity and rich. Plenty of barley malt and caramel, cereal sweetness and winter spice. Vanilla cream and mixed peels with a hint of nuts. The palate is of medium-body with notes of rich peels and winter spice, aniseed and a herbal note. A bitter oak develops. The finish is dry and of good length with acacia honey.”

Number 11 was occupied by those damned Wizards. And when we enter the top ten we find a band that has made it all the way to the Fifth position back in 2012; which can also be seen as the record that brought then the bigger audience they damn well deserve. This year they have eight points more than Electric Wizard and have returned from an unholy chasm. Filled with a masterful groovy rhythm section and ten ton heavy riffs they show us what true motoring stoner and no nonsense rock is all about. And then there’s that growling voice, that voice that carries that sharp edge and which will never hesitate to cut your throat when it comes down to that…

Orange Goblin - Back from the abyss

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Number 10

Number 10

 

“They took a standard brown malt bill and augmented with Aromatic, Marris Otter, Cara-Crystal wheat, flaked barley, chocolate, and special roasted malt. They then overloaded it with Cascade, Centennial, Northern Brewer, Simcoe, and Chinook hops, leading to a complex battle of pine and citrus flavor and aromatics. Which has lead to: Rich citrusy, floral hop aromas with a crisp, vivacious fruity-yet-dry medium-to-full body and a long, grilled root vegetable, chocolate mint and honey grilled citrus finish.”

 

Two points above Number 11 we enter the top 10 with a band that is the embodiment of underground, experimental and jam based grooving. Released only a month ago it has quickly surged through the hearts of all music lovers out there and mesmerized with its four tracks.  With heavy nods towards seventies heavy psychedelic rock and worldly influences it is a pure and unadulterated cosmic adventure blow out. Chuck full of massive riffs and gigantic rhythms this proggy stoner extravaganza is paying homage to the giants of yore and with it, it turns into something gigantic itself.  So get your bathing suit on and prepare to float… 

 

 

 

Samsara Blues Experiment – Waiting For The Flood

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Number 10

Number 10

“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?” Isaiah 33:14

And now we enter the Top 10 of this years Ultimate Stoner HiVe top 20 of albums. Which means the world has not come to an end and those Maya, Hopi, Indus cultures and a caseload of lovely freaks had it wrong. So we can now look forward actually seeing who ends up on the Number 1 position according to 56 sent in lists and to 2029 when the world will come to an end according to a few other maniacs or 2060 according to Newton. Hell; as long as we try to make this floating rock a bit better for everyone inhabiting it; I don’t mind sticking around. And I think those freaks we find on Number 10 would not mind either; even though they get their kicks from a very destructive power. Which you can hear in their burning riffs and blistering drums. Their sixth studio album is an almost bombastic inferno of heaviness that borders on insane punctuation and a highly exact execution. Ambitious yet extremely atavistic.

High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis

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Number 10

“No, I am not a Moroccan cat. This is my ode to the Sons Of The Desert. And I don’t mean the brilliant three(four)some responsible for the Number 10 album.”

Number 10

Who could have known that one faithful night in a liquor store could mean a resurgence this big of what once was known as the lost instrumental stoner legend. Since their reformation they have delivered an album a year although their first in 2009 was a live record. This time they were once again supposed to be accompanied by two singers just like on their 2010th one, which ended on number five last year. But what happened to the recordings done with John Garcia? Were they all to be used for his own project Garcia Vs Garcia; which keeps getting postponed? And ofcourse Daniel Davies did his part; after which they returned to their relentless tour schedule. But after time it once again became clear that the band should remain instrumental and Daniel left to pursue his own music, delivering a mighty EP called Hidden Faces. We are left with 8 tracks of driving rhythms, pounding drums and groovy guitar-work, which keep in vein with all their heavy tunes that came before… We’re now at 51…

Karma to Burn – V

Number 10

Number 10

The first entry of the top 10 goes to a band that can easily be labeled as one of the hardest working bands in the scene. These Norwegians are almost always on tour; the guys never look at a watch during those shows and where they find the time to actually record an album beats the hell out of me. And the album they released this year is their third in two years. And we can be positively sure that there is still more and much more to come. The new record does not intentionally innovate anything they have done before; but their combination of progressive, psychedelic, heavy and raw sounds remain forever inevitably fascinating. Like Starhammer; an epic piece of almost thirteen minutes. The song begins reasonably structured after which a long jam rides you away on a dusty trail that remains exciting throughout the journey. Solo’s like their life depended on it; and in the way the guys play of each other you know that they’re part of one of the best musical teams in the world. A threesome with their own unique idiom, set of rules and styles. And only a few groups can follow that lead…

Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit

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Number 10

Number 10

We are entering the top 10; ladies and gentlemen! (Hey; that rhymes!) And we do this with a band that has been around for a while. And these guys honor that fact with producing a record that sounds like it was made even way before their start. It sounds like the heavy rock of the sixties and seventies is rejuvenated and mixed with the desert rock sound of the band that was the start of this band; Fu Manchu. Laid back rock that touches all the bases that make this genre so freakin great: heavy riffs, space-rock, psychedelica, worldly influences, desert feels, bluesy solo’s and lounge moments that make lounge lizards crap their pants… Released in 2008 as a six, seven and eight song counting EP; this is the 2009 version with ten songs. Aah yes; this is some aptly named Heavy Psych…

Nebula – Heavy Psych

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