Big Scenic Nowhere - Lavender Blues

Big Scenic Nowhere - Lavender Blues
Heavy Psych Sounds – 2020
Psych, Desert, Stoner, Free
Rated: ****

Sporting an 18th place entry on the October Doom Charts and a little blurb by yours trule, the new Big Scenic Nowhere. Out on Heavy Psych Sounds the new Lavender Blues EP by Big Scenic Nowhere is once again parading a majestic line-up. We’re ofcourse treated to the wonderful sounds of Gary Arce, Bob Balch, Bill Stinson and Tony Reed. But this time there are more legends in the equation. How about a Danial Mongrain? Or a Per Wiberg? And last but not least, the godfather himself Chris Goss. Indeed, Lavender Blues is sporting all the goods and selling us a progressive rock adventure that incorporates all that, once in a distant past, came together in the desert. With more than enough space, stoner and psych it is Big Scenic Nowhere at it’s best: incredibly wide vistas and total freedom. It produces that righteously coveted prize of rock… Free rock for the open mind!  

(Written by JK)

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The Doom Chart for October 2020

Doom Charts

    “When I was younger I knew I could do anything – I could be the president if I wanted to, but that was a stupid idea – I’d rather be a rock star...” ~ Kurt Cobain

 

Kurt Cobain for president? Can we write him in? I’m sure somebody somewhere is thinking the same thing. Maybe being a rock star wasn’t a good idea and had he taken a different path we could be voting him into office right now? Fun to imagine, but we know the reality…

October is one of my favorite months mostly due to the nostalgia surrounding the changing of the colors, shorter days, and the crisp, cool mornings. Lately it’s seemed like no month will top the last in the music realm, yet here we are banging our heads in disbelief on the quality of tunes still coming at us. We’re continually climaxing month to month in terms of relentless exposure to music in the heavy underground.

In typical fashion, nearly 300 different albums voted to chart this month and for the first time in the history of the charts, to my knowledge, besides the very first chart, the entire top 25 albums are NEW meaning no repeats from last month. This is just insane, and that’s not even counting the host of bad ass albums just released on October 30th as our voting closed up for the month.

The all new October Doom Charts are here! Yes, ALL NEW! As Bucky already mentioned; every album on this list wasn’t on it a month prior. Almost 300 albums got voted for and the Top 25 are all brand new! Incredible! Sporting all that good and heavy stuff we all love so dearly! Personal votes went out to Fumarole, Pallbearer, Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Occult Hand Order, Ruff Majik, Horizon, Molassess, Big Scenic Nowhere, Fuzz, NARLA, The Re-Stoned & Sautrus ... Yikes! Quite a lot to make the final list! And there is even more of that good stuff out there! Cause just below the 30 posted are albums like Last Ride by Vessel of Light and Run To The Sky by Falcon Haptics waiting to jump on the list… Perhaps next month they will sire higher? Or perhaps another 25 all new albums will appear? Who knows… But it is all good and all heavy! And we love them all!

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album reviewers from the heavy underground around the globe.  Each month, our critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge metal, stoner-psychedelic and heavy rock albums.  The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart below.  This is a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world…

The Doom Chart for October 2020

Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon

Big Scenic Nowhere – Vision Beyond Horizon

Heavy Psych Sounds – 2020

Rock, Stoner, Desert, Punk

Rated: ****

It just entered the Top 10 of the January Doom Charts of 2020 and we were honored to write those few dubious lines about Vision Beyond Horizon, the new Big Scenic Nowhere record. We know the project and we know what kind of music we can get ready for. The only think to know is what kind of guests are involved and how good on the scale of great, to awesome, to legendary, to universe shattering it will be… “Oh yes! A new record by the Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) duo and their ever revolving array of helping hands. Mario Lalli,. Nick Oliveri, Per Wiberg, Tony Reed, Bill Stinson, Alain Johannes and a few heroes more. Perhaps a little less drawn out, jammy or wide in comparison to their earlier release but still very desert and very stoner. Which is logical when you think of all that great stuff Arce and Balch have been a part of. Indeed, killer riffs and desert psychedelics a plenty! Oh, and yes, one weird fast punk track?!”  Only a few quick lines indeed, enough to entice and not give away too much. Perhaps a fitting description for that Vision Beyond Horizon…

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Elden

Vessel

An Evening With Knives

She Loves Pablo

Big Scenic Nowhere

Big Scenic Nowhere – Dying on the Mountain

Big Scenic Nowhere – Dying on the Mountain

Blues Funeral Recordings – 2019

Stoner, Psych, Prog

Rated: ****

Just when you thought the days of the Supergroup were over, along comes one with a veritable Honor Roll of legend and influence - indeed, the musicians at work here not only shaped the Stoner movement and all that followed, they also inspired a generation to think outside the confines of the Metal genre and re-discover that 70's spirit of experimentation. Dying On The Mountain follows a similar vein of exploration that Elder tapped into... An excursion without any preconceived thought to the members' past outings. Weighing in at just over the 20 minute mark,  the title track flows with the easy energy of a band who are both familiar and comfortable with each other's styles: That instantly - recognizable Nick Oliveri bassline rumbling and tumbling through mescaline-like distortions of Bob Balch & Gary Arce's guitars, puncturing the drifting backdrops of Per Wiberg and Tony Reed's keyboard wizardry. Dying On The Mountain's three parts move from slo-burn Psychedelia, through lush choral sections into an ultimate Heavy assault at the finale. Second track, "Towards The Sun" heralds back to the members' Glories of Old - Heavy, trippy, slightly dark in places, it thunders along with a relentless doomed rhythm that captures the soul. Big Scenic Nowhere have done what few 'Supergroups' have done before - created a work that is intelligent, exciting and as full of the same Stoner spirit from its practitioners as they had at the beginning. It's good to have you back folks... It's been a long, strange trip...

(Written by Reek of STOOM)

(Also featuring Mario Lalli, Bill Stinson, Jim Monroe, Thomas Jäger, Lisa Alley and Ian Graham. During those sessions Alain Johannes also joined in and on January 31st a new album shall be released through Heavy Psych Sounds entitled: Vision Beyond Horizon. Go hear the first single 'The Glim'.)

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