The Number One album of 2010

The Number One album of 2010

Before we start the Countdown of 2019 we look back at those past 10 years of Stoner HiVe. We know it is now the eleventh edition of the Countdown. But we celebrate 10 years. 10 years of heavy riffs, romps and stomps! 10 years of heavy magic! That all started back in 2009 when the blog started to have a vehicle to count down the best 20 albums of 2009. The edition of 2010 had 37 lists to tally which ofcourse made the outcome even more valid for that year. That list, deduced out of the lists sent in by 37 heavy music fiends,  started with Endless Boogie – Full House Head on Number 20. It featured Sasquatch – III on Number 3 and the amazing Been Obscene - The Magic Table Dance on Number 2. About the Number One album from 2010 we wrote:

“The number one album according to 37 lists sent in by the Stoner HiVe peeps; the one that bested number two with a mere six points difference; the one that received the double amount of points that number three received, is a band that has been around since 1993 and released their seventh record this year. And after only a few tones you know that this record continues where the fantastic Witchcult Today left off. Occult and bloody tales of devil-worship and hallucinogenic fantasies full satyrs and other fun scum. With a pure underground seventies sound we are treated to eight ostracisions that are both haunting and hypnotic. Furious bass; droning riffs and a voice that wails as heavy as the guitars provide a wall of sound that feels like a mythical castle to some otherworld creature. It is once again a dark and twisted record that must have been invoked by Lucifer himself. A Mass so great that its addictive power sucks you in leaves you nothing but the humming Blackness of these electrified magicians! The gold medal goes to; the number one album of 2010 according to the Stone HiVe Freaks is…”

We were honored to have Kyle aka Shasta Beast revisit the album for the HiVe…  “A long, long time ago in a HiVe far, far away, the number one place in 2010's countdown was awarded to Black Masses, the seventh entry in the long and storied career of misanthropic doom legends Electric Wizard. Continuing the group's mastery of evil down-tuned audio, upon its release Black Masses was a departure from the cleaner (by Wizard standards), more droning riffage of 2007's "Witchcult Today", wielding a crushing wall of sound coated in haze and filth that called to mind the legendary tones of "Dopesmoker". Amidst all the noise, however, were catchy and driving riffs, particularly those of "Black Mass" and "Venus in Furs", that hinted at the sleek and modern self-described boogie to come on 2017's divisive "Wizard Bloody Wizard". Taking all this into account, revisiting the album is an unexpected delight, as Black Masses shows the Wizard at some of their most energetic and adventurous, from the swirling riffs, psyched out solo, and tribal drums of the excellent "Patterns of Evil" to closer "Crypt of Drugula", a nine minute instrumental creepshow straight from a horror movie, complete with thunder and creaking, otherwordly feedback. In retrospect, Black Masses was a unique and transitional milestone between the Wizard of yore and today, and even buried among such a deep and consistently impressive catalog, the album is a standout and without a doubt still earns its warped and hellish throne at number one.”

Electric Wizard - Black Masses

(For the rest of the Top 20 of 2010, visit the Countdown So Far post on the blog...)

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

Stoner HiVe’s

Top 5 artists listened to last week…

Eyrth

Dead Witches

Electric Mary

Flotsam and Jetsam

Jupiter

O’ what a beautiful sun out there! Is the winter truly over? Already? We can only hope so! Well, it’s been another full week and another week of highly different listening habits on certain days. And a few of those bands we listened to we shall keep out of the Top 5, simply because they have no merit for the crazies who might be checking this post out. Or should we mention Dream Theater and their technical prowess or that we had to rediscover Cocteau Twins, thanks to Reek Of STOOM? Nah, let’s leave’m off the list and just mention the Five HiVe relevant artists and their respective artists… Right? Well, here goes… Cold atmospheric doom metal straight from outskirts of Riga, Latvia. The album is called Fracture and the band Eyrth and turns out to be one hell of a sonic wrecking ball! Mark Greening (former Electric Wizard, also of Ramesses, With The Dead) and vocalist Virginia Monti (Psychedelic Witchcraft) joined forces to found the heaviest occult psych superbeast to see the light this year: Dead Witches! The Final Exorcism is their first release (through Heavy Psych Sounds) and offers exactly the kind of slow dragging occult sounding psychedelic doom one would expect from these heavy weights. A surprise? No, but damn freakin good anyway! Electric Mary hails from Australia and releases their new album Mother through Listenable Records. No Aussie pub rock, but sweet sounding hardrock with that fine bluesy edge. This is intense classic stuff with a modern feel. No way to not immediately fall in love with the new Electric Mary! Was uncertain if we should keep Flotsam and Jetsam on the list, but we should, we just should. Cause their new album The End of Chaos is just one hell of a kick in the nuts! Out on AFM Records the heavy metal with it’s thrash and speedy influences is pure quality. Iosomnia by Finnish trio Jupiter takes us back to everything the Stoner HiVe loves! Heavy psychedelic, doomy stoner and progressive touches! It’s one hell of an adventure! And one you should all experience! At least once! So check it out! Check’m all out!

Number 15

Number 15

After spending time with the tasty tones from the very last album (they're calling it quits) of The Flying Eyes on Number 16 we have arrived at the final album that only had few points more than the three we found occupying Number 20. It’s an album that has gotten as much flak as it has gotten love. Flak because the band will always be remembered for that legendary album they released many years ago and love because that legendary album has also gotten them fans for life. Our Madman Tony Maim wrote a fine piece about the album and the legendary stuff just mentioned. But it will forever be your choice on which side of the fence you are on. But of course, these cats found their way onto the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before. Their 2014 album reached Number 11 back then and in 2010 they reached the Number One spot. Their signature attitude towards doom ever prevalent; they move into different territories with every album without ever losing that 'garage' and 'ugly' feel to their beautiful doom. Many of which drag you down in a whirling electric cesspool full of blood, sex and death!

Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard

Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard

Electric Wizard – Wizard Bloody Wizard

Spinefarm Records – 2017

Doooooom

Rated: ?????

Earlier this year, At The Drive-In released an album after a 17-year break between recording. I liked it a lot but reading some of the comments about “in•ter a•li•a”, you would think that ATDI had committed genocide and pissed on the remains. Arguably their break through record, “Relationship Of Command” was lauded as a post-punk masterpiece – rightly or wrongly, and created a fanatical and rabid fanbase to whom “ROC” was the best album ever made. I base any review on how it compares to Black Flags “My War”. It was not as good but still a great listen. Because I am so fucking old, I am not going to have any albums coming along that will change my life anymore … kinda sad, but true. I have had my mind blown by hearing The Stooges, Pistols, Clash, Motorhead, AC/DC, Killing Joke etc. But for a lot of younger people, maybe “ROC” was their first defining album they had experienced and anything less than that will never meet their expectations. And so, to Electric Wizard (about time I hear you mutter). “Dopethrone” was a huge milestone for people and became THE album that defined a movement. Did it change my life? No – it was not as good as “My War” … But it did open up a world of heaviness that I had somehow missed out on until then. And that may be the problem for EW. Always being judged on an album way back in their past. Never living up to expectations. Wanting to grow as a band and not just record “Dopethrone” over and over again. “Wizard Bloody Wizard” is a riff heavy beast with fuzzed solos, proto-metal blues and tighter song structures. I like it. It also has a similar feel and sound to many other albums out at the moment. Albums that have clearly used EW as a template. Bands that have plundered the EW ethos and made their own sound. Leaving any new offering by EW not as “special” as “Dopethrone”. I cannot score this out of five because my critical opinion may differ widely from anyone else depending on how much earlier EW stuff has “changed” your life. This time dear readers, you and only you will have to be the judge and jury. May the Dark Lord guide you wisely!

(Written by Tony Maim)

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With The Dead – Love From With The Dead

With The Dead – Love From With The Dead

Rise Above – 2017

Rock, Doom, Metal

Rated: ****

November 2015 saw the release of the debut self-titled effort by With The Dead. The Lee Dorrian-fronted group came out swinging and everyone seemed to cheer them on. The band now continues without Mark Greening from Electric Wizard, still features guitarist Tim Bagshaw of Ramesses. But also, bassist Leo Smee (formerly a bandmate of Dorrian‘s in Cathedral) and ex-Bolt Thrower drummer Alex Thomas and return with follow-up Love From With The Dead. Eight tracks, heavier, darker and more evil than before. The first release was evil and dark, with this definite love for occult sounding doom. Well, Love From With The Dead adds to this a level of devastation and soul crushing gloom. Sludgy in nature, the drag and push you towards the edge of a massive quagmire. “This last couple of years have been quite soul-destroying. There's been a lot of personal shit going on, and during this entire process so much fucking bad shit has happened in my personal life and other people's personal lives. Everything you hear on this LP; the angst is very real. I've never felt so disillusioned with life and the world around me.” Dorrian states in an interview. This is definitely audible on the record. There does not seem to any glimmer of hope anywhere. Slow, heavy, raw and grating, a righteous avalanche of destructive doom!

(Written by JK)

Rise Above Records

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Electric Wizard - See You In Hell

 Electric Wizard - See You In Hell

And yes, the UK cult legends Electric Wizard have teamed up with Noisey to premiere the video for the new song See You in Hell, which singer/guitarist Jus Osborn called "the most brutally simple and Neanderthal song ever."

Watch and listen HERE.

The song appears on Wizard Bloody Wizard, the long-anticipated new LP, which is full of cranium-crushing bludgeon rock — a relentless aural brain rape and, like the band's beloved vintage horror/exploitation movies, definitely not for those of a nervous disposition.

Wizard Bloody Wizard arrives via Witchfinder/Spinefarm on November 10

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Stoner HiVe's Top 5 Artists listened to last week

Stoner HiVe's

Top 5 Artists listened to last week:

Peter Pan Speedrock (17)

Electric Wizard (12)

The Last Shadow Puppets (8)

Naevus (7)

Asteroid (6)

With The Dead – With The Dead

With The Dead – With The Dead

Rise Above – 2015

Rock, Metal, Doom

Rated: ***

Back in 2013, when Lee Dorrian blew out the candles over Cathedral, it was only a question of time before he would re-surface in a new project. A musician like Dorrian can never sit still for too long, even though he professed his wish to focus most of his attention on his Rise Above Label. So when the rumors started circulating about a possible collaboration between dear old Dorrian and Tim Bagshaw and Mark Greening from Electric Wizard the excitement became a tangible buzz throughout the dark music caverns. On the self-titled debut-album of With The Dead we receive, completely in line with all expectations, ponderous metal mixed with thunderous rock and a multitude of dark and dusty tones and extremely malevolent sounding riffs. It is without a doubt a definite successor to all Cathedral ever was and Electric Wizard had slowly lost, at least for a lot of many Wizard fans. It is the sound of yore and of intense, powerful compulsion. Exorcism and resurrection and the birth of something wild and wonderful…

(Written by JK)

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Electric Wizard live at The Roundhouse, London

Electric Wizard live at The Roundhouse, London 

 15th May 2015

In the beginning there was the word and the word was God. He kinda looked around and decided to do some stuff. On the first day he said “Let there be light” and there was light and that was cool. On some other days he did a lot stuff that made the world but on the seventh day he took a rest, got kinda bored and so invented Doom. And lo, he spake unto me and said: "Maim, go ye to that London and observe the mighty force of nature called Electric Wizard.” …. And so I did go to that London and looked for where the legions of the damned gathered, smoking the merry-jew-wanna and soaking strong alcohol and many of the people there did sport beards of plenty with jackets festooned with myriad patches of Satan and I knew I had arrived. Inside the venue I did observe much crowds of sloth and untidiness combined with unkemptness and reckless abandonment of social politeness and lo, I liked what mine eyes beheld. And then, like the prophets foretold, Electric Wizard came on stage and their souls were claimed by the devils imps for the satanic noise could not of come from any of God’s fair creatures. My stomach felt funny as the sheer volume made my bowels move in time to the bass and the drums sounded like the crack of  hell opening up and the guitars roared their defiance to the heavens and the vocals described all manner of atrocities that man has committed and the solos pierced my inner temple of calmness and I wanted to legalise drugs and murder. And it came to pass that I departed the depths of depravity a changed person. I have turned my back on the light and now follow a path of darkness and despair. All hail the Wizard.

(Written by Tony)

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Pictures: Tony Maim & Dave Pettit

Number 11

Number 11

“On the nose we detect autumn fruits with dry spices and a barley gristiness all perfumed together. On the palate anticipated crushed sugar, barley, spiced fruit and oak. All leading to a toffee- fruity - barley and lightly oaked finish.”

It was Mos Generator on position Number 12. And once again we climb just one point to Number 11. And here we find a band that already made it to the Number 1 position in Stoner HiVe countdown history. It was the year of 2010 and outside the masses where gathering to witness something dark. This year they prophesize something just as evil and wicked. Mesmerizing repetition and enough remorseless reverb to make their preaching feel like a jump of a harrowing cliff edge. It is a bleak and lumbering trek accompanied by psyched out jams that wield immense hypnotic power. Making you believe there’s no time like the present…

Electric Wizard - Time To Die

Tony's piece on Stoner HiVe

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Electric Wizard – Time To Die

Electric Wizard – Time To Die

Spinefarm Records – 2014

Doom, Doom and some more Doom

Rated: ?????

To borrow from Magritte – “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” – this is not a review, rather more a collection of thoughts about the new Electric Wizard album that have struck me as I play it. A lot of cry-babies want “Dopethrone” to be recorded over and over and over again. These words will not be for you. I like a band to try new ideas, sounds, concepts etc and not to live on past glories. And so I have actually listened to other albums this remarkable and influential group of changing musicians have offered us. The word “Doom” now seems to encompass anyone with heavy rock leanings and the words “Witch” or “Black” somewhere in their name. Oh and a female vocalist? Perfect… I really like many of these bands but Doom they ain’t – just great rock bands. Live with it. The Wizard have stuck to a vision of bleakness, darkness, heaviness and nightmarish visions that refuse to be defined by a cool riff or retro leanings. They mean it man! The clean(ish) production that has dominated the last couple of albums has been replaced with a suffocating stew of murky beats and distant vocals, filthy, half heard solos and riffs that sound like misery. This album is not meant to be liked or admired but played as a statement of intent. Is it any good? Yes. Is it great? ….. I need to give it some more plays before I can make my mind up. Is it the best Doom album you will hear this year? No. Play it and make your own mind up.

(Written by Tony)

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And do you remember which position Black Masses was on according to 37 freaks who voted for the Stoner HiVe top 20 in 2010?

Number 1

Number 1

THE GOLD MEDAL

The number one album according to 37 lists sent in by the Stoner HiVe peeps; the one that bested number two with a mere six points difference; the one that received the double amount of points that number three received, is a band that has been around since 1993 and released their seventh record this year. And after only a few tones you know that this record continues where the fantastic Witchcult Today left off. Occult and bloody tales of devil-worship and hallucinogenic fantasies full satyrs and other fun scum. With a pure underground seventies sound we are treated to eight ostracisions that are both haunting and hypnotic. Furious bass; droning riffs and a voice that wails as heavy as the guitars provide a wall of sound that feels like a mythical castle to some otherworld creature. It is once again a dark and twisted record that must have been invoked by Lucifer himself. A Mass so great that its addictive power sucks you in leaves you nothing but the humming Blackness of these electrified magicians! The gold medal goes to; the number one album of 2010 according to the Stone HiVe Freaks is:

(Drumroll)

Electric Wizard - Black Masses

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