Number 6

 

 

Number 6

We mentioned it before the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2025 started and mentioned it again when we talked about Number 7. But today, we jump more than 700 points to reach Number 6! 700 points! That’s a lot! A personal favorite of mine that will surely end up in the Top 3 of my personal list. A band that also made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown  of 2023 with their album from that year. Released through Full Contact Safari Records in October we jotted down some words about this album at the moment of release. The Melbourne, Australia three outdid themselves delivering a string with which to pull the curtain away and have all onlookers be amazing by the world being revealed. Across two vast, immersive pieces, the trio bend time, letting guitars swell like tides, synths haunt the horizon, and rhythms pulse with ancient weight. This is heavy music that breathes, meditative, cinematic, and deeply physical, moving from sparse, desolate calm to towering eruptions of post-metal force. Solemn, guiding vocals cut through the expanse, leading the listener with purpose rather than excess. Nothing here rushes or unravels; every layer is deliberate. Cosmic yet grounded, ferocious yet serene, the album feels unearthed rather than written, a landscape to inhabit, to return to… and slowly absorb… until everything around you has returned to dust… 

On Number 6 we find: 

KHAN - THAT FAIR AND WARLIKE FORM // RETURN TO DUST

Homepage

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Linktree

Khan - That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust

 Khan's Creatures on the Stoner HiVe Top Countdown of 2023

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

Before we get to a few smaller jump in points we make another huge leap with no less than 176 points from Rezn at Number 7 to reach this album on Number 6. A band that made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before as well. Reaching Number 9 in 2022 and Number 2 back in 2020. A band who’s vocalist is known to say whatever comes to mind and therefor gets himself into trouble often enough. And a drummer that must have a lot of Scottish heritage in his veins! Ho ho ho, sorry about that, but those remarks might only make sense to the band themselves. It’s an album that features two new members and that fact warped the sound a bit. There is more blues now, in tones and overall feel. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t enough of that riff fuel that was always there. Or those psychedelic and stoner rock motifs that will get you sky high. No, that vision is still quite clear! They are the same comic rockers that will rock every stage and they are the same seventies loving fuzz monsters. They just implore more earthy sounds now and have become even bigger experts in conjuring up a warm and nostalgic feel, whatever the lyrical subject might be… Even if it involves murderous cults…

According to all of your votes, on Number 6 we find:

Psychlona - Warped Vision

 

Bandcamp

Instagram

Facebook

Homepage

Magnetic Eye Records

Full review on Stoner HiVe

Phil Hey Interview

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

It takes almost 60 points to jump from Margarita Witch Cult on Number 7 to reach Number 6! Where we find an album about which we wrote a lengthy piece about when it was released. And a band that made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before, back in 2015. And who certainly would have made it more times had we started sooner, since they only released one album since the HiVe started back in 2009. A band that has been putting out music since 1994 and was founded a year before that. And is still fronted by the same Queen. A band that delivered amazing stoner, metal and doom albums, that all meandered through the psychedelic landscape. High dependable and always delivering the good stuff. But with this new album, they go beyond all that. All those boundary markers from before are ripped out of the soil and not just moved but thrown into the endless void.
It’s a sonic trip that tries to make you envision interplanetary existence as well as the fact that linear life does not exist. Your path will swerve every which way but straight. And that is exactly how the music comes across, as an extremely dense, yet meandering path through the wasteland of existence. The moments of release, when inhibitions are elegantly stripped away and euphoria is on the brink of exploding, feels as much as those tab induced experiences, where you were an intrepid inner space wanderer, as music can possibly attain. But as we mentioned, there is light and vision, but also darker recesses that are more dangerous, thanks to that dense and doom approach. And then when it all ends, that final track, if there’s ever been a song in the stoner doom genre that represents that green light, that sense of hope and belief, that there can be a better future, that the journey to the unknown destination, might be fruitful, this is it. Heavily inspired by many space exploration movies and ideas, and the fact that the band makes it sound as big as the universe and thought provoking about human inner workings, is beyond… Many albums have felt like a small and logical step for the King, but this is a giant leap for the Queen…

On Number 6 we find...

Acid King – Beyond Vision


Homepage

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

We jump only twelve points from Freedom Hawk on Number 7 to reach this band and their album on Number 6. The next jump will be bigger though… Anyway, on Number 6 we find a band that even got some remarks from voters that did not vote for them, stating: ‘well, I’m not voting for them, they’re going to get enough votes anyway.’ I guess there are even some Stoner HiVe Top 20 followers that do some strategic voting! Holy hell! Well, we never got around to mentioning them on the HiVe this year, but we did manage to see them live again after a gap of quite some years. On the Helldorado Festival in Eindhoven… But due to wild nature of the festival, things tend to get a bit hazy there and I have bizarre memories of seeing them on all of the stages of the Festival. Indeed, it got a bit weird over there! You could say Red Alert! Watch out! But we don’t really listen, cause We Strive For Excellence in whatever we do. Even partying… Or well… And more extremely personal stuff, it also features a song, that in my mind, could have been the best song of this year, if only they did a few things a bit different. I love the voice man. And so do all the fans of this band. And Jackhammer Our Names, could have featured more of the voice, more of the proclamation, declaration nature it does so well… Anyway, obvious from the start… We find on Number 6!

Clutch – Sunrise On Slaughter Beach


Homepage

Facebook

Instagram

Out on Weathermaker Music

On to Number 5!

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

Only ten points! Once again we only need an exact ten points to jump from Acid Mammoth on Number 7 to reach the album that is featured on Number 6 today… Moving towards the opposite side of the heavy spectrum this album starts so compelling with the atmospheric, Americana bended, bluesy stroked, folky mountain guitar; one cannot help but fall in love with these modest beginnings. The fuzz, the blues, the grunge, the stoner and the doom that is present on this psychedelic rock album comes in waves and both that intro and outro serve as two devious bookends between which the album can rock out, noise out or trickle like saddened blue moonlight dripping from above… Or as Tony van Dorston stated on his amazing Fast ‘N Bulbous year end rundown: “They maintain an element of slow and low desert psych, but the menacing guns, peyote and decomposing bodies lurch now leans toward sludge metal and stoner doom, something there’s no shortage of.” No shortage indeed; and like the lodestone north is will always draw you home… On Number 6 we find:

Jack Harlon & Dead Crows - The Magnetic Ridge

Bandcamp

Facebook

Instagram

Number 6

 

 

Number 6

To reach Number 6 we jump a hundred and forty points from BoneHawk on Number 7. Where we find a band that has made the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before; back in 2018 they reached the Number 12 spot. Once again we hear a partnership between sludge metal, stoner and prog being performed at the very edge of the alchemic dreamstate. You will soon be lost in an golden oblivious state and you will experience the impressionistic compositions in all its glory. With ever more use of melodies, intricate structures and dynamic extremes they conjure up a majestic groove that will swallow you whole. It turns the heavy churn into something transcendental, mystical and magical. And it turns their sound into the all encompassing greatness of genre breaking and boundaries shaking music. An album that should be in everyone’s possession! On Number 6:

Forming The Void – Reverie

Homepage

Bandcamp

Instagram

Facebook

Ripple Music

(ps. I would love that part of the cover as a surfboard!)

Number 6

Number 6

And now for the lift off! We come to the big jumps in points! For the Top 6 positions seem to be in a league of their own. We jump almost 150 points after The Devil And The Almighty Blues on Number 7 reach Number 6. Indeed, Number 6 stands tall above all that came before and the rest as we shall see, even taller. But even so, we can all find comfort in the fact that even though these albums all got way more votes then the other albums, those other albums still got a lot of votes or a few votes, making them all good, great or amazing in the eye of the beholder. And that is the only eye that counts. Right?  But as we arrive on Number 6 we can look back at the times these cats made the Top 20 Countdown before. Reaching Number 14 in 2014 and Number 2 in 2017. Can we compare thee to a summers day? Or the new album, released on Relapse Records in September, to those earlier two? Ofcourse we can. But should we? It was the honorable Bucky Brown that has always been pretty vocal about his lack of understanding why everyone was so smitten with this trio’s sound, that stated what perhaps means the fans are divided on this one. He stated that this was the first album he truly dug and could perhaps even love. And we heard that mentioned by others that were never on board with these cats. Which means it is a step in another direction for the low, slow, yet crushingly loud and fuzz-laden doom of the three. Where the build and the break and the pound and the push was always key on earlier albums, this has more emphasis on melody, while still retaining their colossal side. And still retaining that immense boom these cats create! Oh yes, there shall be no comfort when Number 6 gets loud!

Monolord - No Comfort

Bandcamp

Facebook

Number 6

Number 6

And then, out of the blue, Christmas has come and gone and we’re back to the grind. Slaving away at whatever it is we all do out there. But luckily there's is all this great music to give us our moments of peace and respite...  And on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018 where we pay homage to all those amazing album that were released this year. We jump another big twenty points to reach Number 6. Leaving Windhand and their awesome Eternal Return album on position Number 7. The album we arrive at now was recorded in the fabled Rancho De La Luna studio. It has turned their might jam-band-status into something much more concise and groovy vintage. It has turned it into a much bluesier take on everything they did and what’s even a bigger change, is that the mostly instrumental band has decided to use the vocal possibilities as well and that has resulted in the fact that we are now serenaded to for almost three quarters of the album. And it, rest assured, fits the music and it lifts the entire album up into the domain of legendary records. It’s bluesy, it’s psychedelic, it’s heavy and by God, it’s good!  So, on Number 6 we find ourselves….

Earthless – Black Heaven

Number 6

Number 6

Five points above Red Mountains; which we found on Number 7 we find an album which was released in the first weeks of this horrible year of our Lord 2017. Doom. Metal. Vintage. Seventies. They are all key words here. The six tracks are all doom soaked, sonic wickedness, extremely heavy and completely drenched with a bloody haze. It's a Polish quartet that uses everything classic to produce something that sounds evil, occult and mystical without ever really occupying any of those words totally. For, there is no slaughtering of innocent children here or maidens let to an altar to be sacrificed. No, the mesmerizing and hallucinatory tracks make you envision lizards living inside celestial bodies or filthy priests dancing silly dances. And yes, it will make you ache for even more of that good dope... For dope it is! Really dope!

Dopelord - Children of the haze    

Number 6

Number 6

You can always count on Witchcraft in some form or way. Right? Well, we jump quite a few points now to Number 6. And there we find two bands, one was released on my birthday in December 2015 and the other at the end of October 2016. Oh, yes, another band from December making the list and this high even! But then again, it was to be expected, cause the album soar high in the beginning of 2016. It lead the Doom Charts in fact and the other band this as well towards the end of the year. So, it’s definitely logical to find these two cracking our flights or riffs together. Smooth, warming blues metal, hard rock and swampy doom-tinged psychedelic vistas that enchant with their majestic jams! And that’s just the first album we mentioned. The second one is different creature but big on riffs for sure. In fact, they make a statement about being guardians of the guitar magic and they surely are. Stoner metal trucking that just keeps unloading riff upon riff, getting fatter and heftier as you drive along. Infusing their love for the riffs with your heart and soul, becoming like them protectors of that charm as well. Standing with them, flag in hand, on that hill, fighting off all oncomers to defend what we all hold so dear…

Egypt – Endless Flight

&

Wasted Theory – Defenders Of The Riff

Bandcamp

Facebook

Facebook

Bandcamp

Number 6

Number 6

“All the good cakes have already been eaten by people with wigs and stuff.” ~ Frank Zappa

A massive jump of fourteen points takes us up to Number 6. A band that made the list at Number 7 back in 2011 and the absolute Numero Uno according to Charlie Tooth. So let’s let him do the talking. “I ask you, how can a band like this not make the list? That's right, no way in hell it wouldn't! This year’s release is kick ass, bad ass and downright dirty. Ten tracks of unadulterated bliss, from Sexecutioner right to the pop savvy Ice Age Hey Baby. This trio is a bands band in every sense of that statement. Pantella, Ryan and Kosnik all shine on this record. For a band that has been around well over a decade the shit just keeps getting better. And have you ever seen a bassists fingers eat lighting and crap thunder like Kosnik's do? (Sorry, I had to fit that in. Hahaha) Thank you for another awesome atomic release.” Fourteen points above Kadavar on Number 7 we find on Number 6 ...!

The Atomic Bitchwax – Gravitron

Homepage

The awesome cake above courtesy of the boys from . . . . . :    Freedom Hawk.

Who made the list at Number 16 this year and baked the cake above for the 6th birthday of one of their sons. Best of late birthday wishes for the little man and thanks to Freedom Hawk for sharing the awesome picture. As well as their awesome new album!

Number 6

Number 6

“Chapter6, 3 year old Single Malt Whisky. Unpeated whisky, made by Iain Henderson. Matured solely in Bourbon casks. A great reflection on the wonderful work done at the distillery and a real hint of things to come. Unchillfiltered - Natural Colour.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise for me in this year’s Stoner HiVe countdown. As we jump 26 points from Fu Manchu to reach the next band; with a female vocalist. A band and album that for some weird reason completely passed me by before all the votes came pouring in. I had no idea. So we immediately needed to get that fixed. And what a fix it was! Ancient and bronze, vintage and doom. We’re back in the sixties and there is a bright and kaleidoscopic psychedelic edge to everything you hear. Instrumentation that holds its own against so many of those originals and organ sounds that make you lick your fingers. And there’s the vocalist. She has range and dynamic and knows how to pull you close or set you free. Simply wonderful. This kind of copper color music is always welcome, because it is like velvet for your ears…

Electric Citizen – Sateen

Facebook

Bandcamp

Number 6

 Number 6

 

“It is described as a “dark, spiced ale with the aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg,” with a 9.0 percent alcohol content by volume. The beer is made with seven different types of malts, including two-row, Munich and others, along with magnum hops. Spices include ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and orange peel. And it is malty and big-bodied, with intermingling toasty and fruity characters. Almost a dessert in itself, it’s the quintessential winter beer – absolutely savory. And absolutely allusive…”

 

 

We climb three points from Red Fang to make it to Number 6 where we find another bunch of old rockers that made the countdown before. Their 2010 record made it to Number 14 that year and we were all glad the boys had made a new one and the frontman was back and ready for action. The new one goes a more psychedelic and experimental route in comparison with the one that came before but not as much as the older ones that we all hold close to our hearts. Sludge, Space, Sleaze and all kinds of heaviness go hand in hand with trippy lyrics and a hypnotic atmosphere. Now all we need to do is hope this isn’t their last patrol…

 

 

 

Monster Magnet – Last Patrol

 

 

Homepage

Facebook

 

Number 6

Number 6

“And will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.” Revelation 20:8

And yes, as we skip ahead with seven points to the next entry we once again find a collection of crazy Swedes. Four young dogs that sound like the masters of old. And to complete that fact they produced a true album’s album. Cause from the first forest noises to the last birds singing in the closing track it is a complete and utter musical adventure that transport the listener to green pastures, wide landscapes and mountainous regions. Their sound is huge, cumbersome, heavy and gigantic; like the name of the band suggests; yet surprisingly agile and on some weird and possible insane level folksy, pure and luscious. It sounds like the rumblings of a monstrous storm; but one that does not bring destruction; but life and renewal...

Mamont - Passing Through the Mastery Door

Bandcamp

Number 6

“I’m off to see my grandma in the woods. A bring her a basket full of incredible tunes!”

Number 6

Like a barren and hostile wasteland; with a dusty wind carrying spooky sounds and almost ethereal voices we find ourselves roving around on an alien planet. The atmospheric feel to the album that we find on number six is amazing and at times awe inspiring; and then to think it is only their first full-sized record after having released their very first EP last year. And these guys dare to break from the norm; they dare to not play the notes, they dare to use their voices, and differ in riffs and time signatures to an enormous degree. It’s a trio that has quicksilver coursing through their veins and know the alchemy of using that right; with long sleek psychedelics and fuzzed out guitars; with an endless groove on the bass and two different vocal lines. In the end, you can only just put the needle back on again, crack open a beer and marvel at that sun setting in the deep red sky…

Mars Red Sky - Mars Red Sky

Number 6

Number 6

At number six we find a band that also had an entry last year; which is quite a feat wouldn’t you say. And with a promise to release a fourth record in 2011 they might end up scoring a hattrick. And that will be a hard thing to beat. Last year they ended up at place number 14; this time around we find them at 6. And this Dutch threesome not only has the work ethic and mentality that goes back to the glorious years of rock; their music does so too. We can hear the Jimi and Zeppelin influences in the long weaving psychedelic songs; and the Blue Cheer and Colour Haze moments during the moments of groove. And with maybe a few more nods towards Kyuss this time around we can safely say that their psychedelic fuzz, whirling jams, tight stoner and acidic riffing makes them a favorite to most of us!

The Machine – Drie

Homepage

6

Numero 6

The most talked about band of the second half of 2009. Comprised of three (four) legends; and even if you don’t like them, you have to admit muscial geniuses; this band has been taking the world by storm. Superb basslines, incredible drumwork and a guitarvibe for every occasion. And not that every note or groove stuns the mind or blows you away; but the combination of it all and the atmosphere it evokes sure will. The three seem to be masters in evoken a feeling of adventure and fun. And that is always a good thing…

Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures

http://www.mediafire.com/?nj0xyl30wmg