Black Lung – Forever Beyond

 

 

Black Lung – Forever Beyond
Magnetic Eye Records – 2026
Rock, Prog, Psych
Rated: *****

The American outfit Black Lung released their self-titled debut EP back in 2014 and followed that one up with two albums that matched that first release in quality before blowing all of that out of the water with the brilliant 2022 album Dark Waves. And since the beginning of March there’s a new addition called Forever Beyond, an album that proves to be even more beautiful than all that came before. The psychedelic rock continues to drift ever closer to the sound of All Them Witches, but where that band leans into an increasingly oppressive atmosphere, Black Lung instead expands outwards… Crafting something wide, grandiose, and filled with sweeping gestures. Even when the themes touch on fascism, blind nationalism, and the suffocating machinery of capitalist oligarchy, the music remains strangely alluring: seductive, provocative, and at times even dreamlike.

At moments, the band veers into blues-inflected passages, or even allows hints of metal to surface, but always the result is the same, an invitation to lose yourself, to smile quietly, and to drift into reverie. Added to this is the remarkable voice of vocalist Dave Cavalier, which arrives precisely when needed to deepen the emotional resonance of each passage. The result is an album that stands as one of the finest you are likely to hear this year. Thematically, it may speak to the current condition of human society, and in doing so perhaps achieves a kind of  timelessness. In any case, it all feels as though Forever Beyond has been made for eternity…

(Written by JK)

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Black Lung – Ancients 

Abrams – Loon

  

Abrams – Loon 
Blues Funeral Recordings – 2026
Rock, Grunge, Alternative, Hardcore, Metal 
Rated: *****

Out since yesterday, the brand new Abrams album Loon! An outfit we always admired, but we only mentioned their 2022 In The Dark release. Shame on us! And shit, they might even sound a bit angry about it. Nah, they’re angry about the state of the world I reckon… And has turned their sound ever more intense! A sharp electrifying evolution for the sound the Denver four has sent out into the world, morphing ever more into something volatile and confrontational. There is no backing down from this, it’s in your face, and stays there from opening track Glass House till the final Sirens. It’s transmutation of their very own blend of melody, shoegaze haze and hook driven riffs into kamikaze like machine metal. Shot through with an intense sense of anger, urgency and attention seizing power. Surging with abrasive energy, the seemingly chaotic and noisy wild outs  still retain all of the emotional pull that has always defined the band… 

The already mentioned opener Glass House and following White Walls lunge at you, foaming at the mouth. Riffs slash and convulse, drums hammer with feral intent and the whole thing feels only moments away from total collapse or mind shattering explosion. And yet, through all that splintered noise, you can feel the vocals rise, ragged, frayed, human and almost warm, like someone is trying to confess or implore, over the roar of a city burning wild with flames. It’s an approach they perfect on Loon. Sometimes, pulling back long enough to let dizziness set in, teasing with respite and melody before plunging back into the fray. A high wire act above all the chaos, where every note might be the one to make it snap. Exhilarating and dangerous! Do you feel lucky?   

(Written by JK)

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Bismut – Matsutake

 

 

Bismut – Matsutake
Tonzonen Records – 2026
Instrumental, Rock, Psychedelic
Rated: *****

At first it feels like wandering into a clearing you weren’t meant to find… Spores immediately circling all around you, the sound quickly rising from the ground, tangled and alive! Bismut’s new album Matsutake, immediately takes root… It grows, spreading through dense looping riffs that never feel constructed, but discovered. Like something foraged rather than written, their heaviness emerges from repetition and patience. Each riff circling back, each pattern thickening, blossoming… 

There is a pulse beneath it all, for at their core lies a deep commitment to heavy, riff-driven structures, dense, circling patterns that anchor everything in a raw, physical intensity. Opening track Alienation immediately being a prime example. Steady, insistent and communal, the trio move as if one, listening closely to one another, following subtle shifts and allowing the music to breathe and sprawl. What begins as a single idea stretches outwards into something unpredictable. You can hear on record that the live animal is even wilder. Grooves deepen, rhythms fracture and then suddenly, cohere again. It’s a process. A process of getting there. A process of becoming rather than arriving. 

Sticking to tone, adding to the menace, following track Neugier’s primary impulse remains physical and direct: groove, repetition, and impact. The band thrives on endurance, patiently building and sustaining energy until it becomes all consuming. Going live Friday the 17th (HERE), it’s the logical second single, building around the weight of their sound. Traces of the atmospheric and the exploratory linger like spores in the air, psychedelic hues, fleeting moments of drift, never overtaking the terrain. The ground remains firm, physical, driven by the ritual of the riff and the rhythm. And as we near the end and the movement slows… We soon get whirled around, in a dervish fashion until break down. And once again, you can hear it become absolute ferocious on stage somewhere.

Assemblage follows, starts like the desperate moment of respite needed. Touches of jazz-like wandering and atmospheric sketching, turn the vista upside down. But soon the drums get this nervous edge. And in the upside down world, the war between control and surrender commences. They build patiently, endure within the groove, and trust the unfolding, the polyphonic jazz lines sprouting beneath, the industrial reverberations echoing the darkness that hides within machines. It feels raw, forceful and like some sort of last stand. And we’re only halfway through…

They keep up the pace, the energy, the overarching tones and feelings during the other three tracks as well. Showcasing what drives the Bismut three, their true character, a balance of exploration and force, guided by instinct and driven by the power of the riff. And in that persistence, their music ceases to be a performance and becomes an ecosystem. That’s why there’s something fitting in the way Matsutake echoes the spirit of The Mushroom at the End of the World book by Anna Tsing. Both seem to emerge from desperate margins, places shaped by collapse, unpredictability, and the absence of structure. The music, like the mushroom, does not impose itself on the landscape. It listens, adapts, and grows in response to what’s there. Riffs feel like traces of something uncovered, as if the spores were always waiting beneath the surface.

In that sense, the album that releases through Tonzonen Records on April 24th, carries a kind of fragile resilience. It thrives not despite uncertainty, but because of it. The grooves stretch and persist, forming temporary worlds that feel communal and fleeting at once. Moments of connection arise, dissolve, and leave behind only a lingering sense of having witnessed something spectacular. The Bismut three seem to share an understanding that beauty does not require control or perfection. Instead, it exists in the entanglement, in the improvisation, the repetition, the patient act of staying with something as it becomes. What Bismut seem to capture is that same quiet truth… Even in fragmented spaces, among the wreckage and the ruins, something beautiful can still grow, stubborn and luminous.

(Written by JK)

Check out the first single Alienation now and be ready for the full Matsutake album on April 24th! 

And while you're at it, congratulate drummer Peter, for it's his birthday!



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Red Sun Atacama – Summerchild

 

 

Red Sun Atacama – Summerchild
Mrs Red Sound – 2026
Rock, Garage, Stoner, Punk, Desert, Psych
Rated: *****

Blasting out of the gate! With opening track Passenger, the Red Sun Atacama three present you with the perfect battering ram to disclose all the secrets that their new album Summerchild contains! Wild and unpredictable you run along with the Passenger wickedness until you crash into a field of daffodils, and just lay there, letting a sun-washed and laid-back jazz moment take control. But that doesn’t last, and the break down pulls you up and tears you asunder! Wowzah! Following track Conveyor even ups the ante when it comes to forcefully taking the listener along the ride with them. Try and sit still, impossible! And so it will be for the rest of the crowd at whatever venue or festival you will see them live… 

Red Sun Atacama, three Bordeaux-based crazies that have been releasing music into the world for more than ten years and absolutely blew everyone away with their Darwin album from 2022. Well, Summerchild is another step in their evolution, taking even more daring chances with dynamics and control. Cause where Passenger detonates and has that snarling desert-drenched punk charge, third track Weightless lures you in slow, turning your attention into a haze before dropping the hammer. Then there’s Ragdoll that sprawls and spirals and becomes this wild-eyed trip that captures the band at their most unhinged and hypnotic. Or Graze The Sun that combines both of those worlds and spices it all with heavenly and very riotous guitar work.

So yes, one moment your are hurtling down a sun scorched highway with no brakes and speakers blown. And the next you collapse on the side of the road, watching the sun set, as the band eases off and become this dreamy exhale like the track Sundown. And that moment of respite feels entirely earned, as you’ve travelled with all eight tracks, you’ve watched them swell, recede and surge. You’ve whirled around on whatever sand dune you happened to find yourself on and you will always remember the trip. Red Sun Atacama delivered something magical. A truly vivid, immersive ride that rewards anyone daring to dance with the Summerchild...

(Written by JK)

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Red Sun Atacama – Darwin

Number 18 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Desert Colossus – Apparatus

 

Desert Colossus – Apparatus
Self-released – 2026
Stoner, Rock, Metal, Sludge
Rated: *****

We fell in love with Desert Colossus the moment we heard their Golfshoes track for the very first time. I guess that was some ten years ago. And since then we’ve been lucky to see them live a couple of times and always felt justified in our love for these cats. Cause they’ve always done it all in their own singular way and with a dose of energy, fun and humor that is hard to come by. And now there’s proof once again that they do everything however they want and however they feel like. For they just unceremoniously dropped a bombshell of a record called Apparatus on March 1st without sending out promos beforehand or calling out to a record label for aid with this stunning album. That’s how they roll and have been rolling ever since they put on them Golfshoes… 

But this time around it’s serious business, they’ve realized they have their own style, are highly accomplished in what they do and should dispel with trying to make light of it. There’s still fun and humor, textually, musically, but it’s all served with such fervor and zeal, that you can’t help but be entirely swept off your feet from first opening track Hermit till final song Come Forth…

Most of the songs have this stand out vocal part that is bound to drag every listener along, hook, line and sinker. This is the ear worm kind that will surely get the crowd a grooving or the listener at home to scream that sentence out loud. Whether it’s the swing in Sweet Cherries Hang Low, the with Komatsu in mind line “My shit smells savage” during Feel Me Up or the absolute brilliant ending to the chorus of Black Out, “I knew her name and now it’s gone…” And those are just a few of the lyrical, vocalized gems found on Apparatus. Which you know will be there from that very first opening line: “You should see me now, nothing’s in my way” in Hermit. But it has so much more… 

For they have upped their game in every aspect, turning the Desert Colossus sound into something leviathan would quiver and quake for! You can almost feel the veil lift, the curtain rise, as Hermit starts with a slow-burning desert vision, which just rolls on towards the horizon on towering waves of fuzz. The riffs stretch wide and heavy, pulsing with hypnotic and powerful intent. The grooves man, they swing big and have you lusting for that swaggering motion and that more ritualistic desert churn. Or take that thick distortion and off center rhythmic approach, during Hermit, the different sections, giving it all that restless spirit edge. In synch with all that opening song wants to be. 

Most of it was recorded during the pandemic and afterwards mastered by Karl Daniel Liden, giving the highly dynamic and versatile album that extra push, stomp and cohesive ability. That open aired beginning of Three Eyed Fox, slowly edging through the hallway, before coming to the punch in the face and the carpet pull. And as you fall backwards through the second slow and spacious melody part, you feel a smile creeping through every fiber of your being, because you fall in love with all the creativity displayed. A bit of grunge here or punk there, or a mirror image of Red Fang for an instant. 

But on other tracks they let the melody take flight, first drifting through some thick distortion, turning misty as rhythms shift shape and then, as the passages open into spacious elevations, they fly away… Before snapping back with a bite! Entirely immersive, balancing raw grit with so much fun and awe inspiring hooks, this is a Desert Colossus on the absolute top of their game. I cannot wait to see them live again and shout along. Cause over here, next to the record player, with the album on repeat, every run again, another mile deeper into a vast, echoing landscape, that never lets me go, I am starting to feel like that Hermit… But… “I’m not crazy, I will never be alone again…”

(Written by JK)

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Desert Colossus – Eyes And Tongues

Desert Colossus – Desert Colossus

 

Yeast Machine – Bad Milk

 

 

Yeast Machine – Bad Milk
Noisolution – 2026
Rock, Stoner, Grunge, Alternative 
Rated: *****

Love the vocals and the way they let them hang, love the Queens of The Stone Age vibes and how they ferment into something intoxicating and very much their own. Love the new album Bad Milk by Yeast Machine. I mean, there’s no need to beat around anything here, they’ve delivered an amazing album that marries a grunge edge to the stoner rock sound of the first Californian boom. And then spice it up with something pop sensible and groovy, or even extremely danceable like the middle track and paradoxically titled Dust On The Radio…

But that’s what it often feels like, Dust On The Radio, some late night transmission, shadowy and smudged with distortion, but pulsing with live. Across the record the band pull you through all these different scenes, sudden eruptions of noise that collapse into hushed, smokey reflection, then rise again into something bold and unshakably alive. Chaotic yet intimate. 

Opening in the desert, with immediate movement and restless, hook driven energy. And as the broadcast continues, the atmosphere deepens, darkens, and emotion seems to linger longer, and the edge feel more frayed and worn. And during the final stretch of the record you feel it tighten its grip until everything spill out in a raw and cathartic release. And as dawn rises, you feel like you’ve moved with them and through something lived-in and electric. Messy, entirely honest and impossible to forget. Like the taste of... 

(Written by JK)

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Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows - Inexorable Opposites

 

 

Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows - Inexorable Opposites
Magnetic Eye Records – 2026 
Rock, Psych, Stoner, Blues
Rated: *****

As usual, we’re late to the party. I’m pretty sure Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows invited us before, and I hope we RSVP’d. But even though I am sure we were at one of their shindigs and The Magnetic Ridge album even made it to the Number 6 spot of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021, we can’t remember being this enamored and blown away by their music. The new Inexorable Opposites album, officially released through Magnetic Eye Records on February 6, sounds like the work of a couple of boys who’ve been searching for the fabled crossroads on every dreary midnight and finally found it… 

And as they rode away, twenty-one grams lighter, lightning flashing in the distance, that electric edge of a world half made, half imagined on Inexorable Opposites, blurs the line between mythic outlaw and the man behind the gun even more. Eight tracks surging like that desert storm, where opener Moss immediately roars like a horizon split by fire and the final To Die drifts like sun-bleached bones beneath a vast and indifferent sky. 

The devil does not care. He also does not forget. But with new drummer Brayden Becher driving the gallop, they might just stay ahead of him. They sound larger, heavier and alive with the chaos of creation itself. The drums and the scars, it’s what holds this record up to the light where the guitars can shine and burst alight with holy fire. For even though the songwriting feels like a reckoning and a map, stitched together from personal trauma, there is always the spectral weight of the imagined Jack. No sympathy for the devil, keep that in mind…

It’s a journey away from the crossroads, through all the wreckage and the ruin, and ultimately beauty, where every riff becomes a brush with violence and transcendence, with dark fire and glimmering light. And as those contrasts envelope you, the atmosphere ever more grandiose, you will find out the relentless motion of the album has brought you back to those dark bottomless eyes, they see you, they see your soul. And as you stare into that sun-scorched void, you suddenly feel  yourself surrounded by a serene form of tranquility, escape remains possible, everything remains possible… 

(Written by JK)

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Number 6 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2021

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Mientras Las Abejas Duermen – MLAD

 

 

Mientras Las Abejas Duermen – MLAD
Estudio Mazmorra / Kozmik Artifactz – 2026
Rock, Psych, Stoner, Doom, Prog
Rated: *****

In the sun-baked hills of southern Spain, a secret stirs. Hailing from Cadiz, Spain, we’ve been keeping an ear open for everything these three produce ever since we first got wind of their first single El Camino Silencioso. The name alone, Mientras Las Abejas Duermen, has a magical dream like quality. And as you listen, you hear that this trio of wandering alchemists of sound, have crafted a treasure. Their debut album, whispered and howled in Spanish, carried on riffs that feel older than the land itself, whispers of a path your heart has always known. Each song a step along this once hidden path, moving from meditative valley of slow hypnotic grooves, into towering peaks of doom-lade intensity. El Camino Silencioso was but the first map, as the full album now reveals the landscape in its entirety, unfolding through improvisation and collective instinct, riding forward on riffs that feel like hoof falls or watching them crash over forgotten ruins like a storm meant to steer the wayward spirit into the right direction. As if the music knows the way better than any guide ever could. Psychedelic textures shimmer like mirages, progressive turns surprise like sudden clearings in a forest, and the subtle Andalusian air present on all compositions, but even more on the two Cruz interludes and ending Cruz de la Viñuela track, warms every bit of the traveler’s soul. The album feels like mystery turned sound and like a hidden treasure for everyone who dares to follow its path. And as some of you might know, following that path will lead you to your own personal and unique destiny. So fear nothing, even when the music storms and swells, the path of sound is truly alive and it will know the way… 

(Written by JK)

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Oreyeon – The Grotesque Within

 

 

Oreyeon – The Grotesque Within
Heavy Psych Sounds – 2026
Rock, Stoner, Sludge, Grunge, Doom, Metal
Rated: *****

That opening salvo, after the casssette tape has started the opening track Echoes Of Old Nightmares, turning their grungy doom sound into sludgy lift-off will surely turn all heads and get all heads a nodding. Majestic is definitely applicable to the new Oreyeon album The Grotesque Within. The Italian foursome deliver this album four years after the stunning Equations of The Useless and three years after the two track Doom Session Vol.8. And it can be viewed as their fourth full-size since the first Builders Of Cosmos album that arrived in 2016. That’s ten years ago, a landmark… And so is The Grotesque Within! 

The Grotesque Within unfolds like a dim corridor with no visible end, each riff a flicker of failing light each drum sound burrowing down as if the corridor gets smaller and smaller. Self-produced, half recorded in their very own studio and the other half in Outside Inside Studio in Treviso, during the winter of 2025, the album trades some of the band’s cosmic sprawl for a more earthbound, sludge toned, grunge streaked weight and crawl. Inspired by the existential unease of Thomas Ligotti works, the songs accept all the horrors we face, feel and commit with a mass of tones and drifting vocals. 

It’s the monolithic doom riffs, looming like unseen structures in the dark that commend the nod first place. But then the vocals start to weave and whisk you away, throttling along the psychedelic textures that meander and shake like uneasy dreams. Breathing shadows, the record seems patient in its delivery, preferring to put exclamation marks behind the nod and not the explosion. Creeping ever more oppressive towards the end of that corridor, meticulously, composed and in total acceptance of its inevitable descent. 

On some level Oreyeon has always been massive yet nuanced, brooding and gazing upon everything involved with life, but with The Grotesque Within they turn that quality into an overwhelming monster wave, the kind of tsunami that causes quiet euphoria. And that’s a quality little bands that call their own. Immerse yourself and swim with all tides of The Grotesque Within… 

(Written by JK)

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Oreyeon – Equations For The Useless 

 

Stargo – Violet Skies

 

 

Stargo – Violet Skies
Self-released / Broken Music – 2026
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Psych
Rated: *****

We dug their debut album Parasight immensely and absolutely loved the follow-up Dammbruch. So, when we learned that Stargo was releasing another album called Violet Skies, we sat up straight and waited for the promo to land. And once it did, we spun it relentlessly and soared with it through those Violet Skies… 

So, Stargo, the spacefaring veterans of Germany’s Heavy Underground return as if emerging from a long orbit, five years older and gravitationally stronger. And with Violet Skies they deliver an event horizon kind of moment… For once you cross into these tracks, there is simply no way back…

The new Violet Skies album seems to be the perfect sweet spot between those two earlier albums, imploring more of the metal touches and song structuring from the debut, while letting tension and sounds develop as they did on Dammbruch. They have long since blended stoner rock haze, psychedelic drift, and metallic heft into their very own signature sound. But where the first two albums seemed to bookend the extremes of their sound, Violet Skies sits dead center and pulls you in like a majestic kind of black hole… 

Tightening the screws, leaving off lengthy instrumental explorations and still maintaining that expansive edge. Perfect example is offered immediately with opener Interstellar, which comes out swinging with lumbering doom weight and expansive, cosmic lift, before turning into a metal burner. There’s some serious dynamic control in play and the metallic pacing seems to want to pay homage to their metal heroes of yore as much as it turns up the tension, which is stretched by a stoner ending that could be built upon endlessly on a live stage somewhere.  

Following Shine Like Diamonds follows with all the propulsion and fire it could muster, the chorus flaring like a distant sun urging escape velocity. With the raw, grounded vocals, cutting through the riffs like transmissions from long lost galaxies. And that is an edge the Dortmund three seems to display throughout the record, balancing crushing mass with fragile human signals. And offering insights into what these songs could do experienced live.

But it’s Tharsis, the ten-minute wormhole of shifting textures and disciplined musicianship, bending time without losing direction that seems to suck in most of your attention. There’s suspense there,  but more often than not, they let their riffs whirl around and become the tunnel towards an entirely different side of what could become the infinite. Cause as Tharsis develops and opens up, there are many moments that might go on longer and wilder as they perform this song on a stage somewhere. And that might be the very best thing about Violet Skies, many of the songs will make you long to see the band live. They will have you longing, almost achingly so…

Which only grows with the ending of The Great Machine. This is the intimate, the heavy and the cliff hanger ending every albums lusts for but are rarely delivered. It’s a send off with a promise and a demand. From both sides, you might demand more and Stargo wants you to come see them. To drift with them, live, somewhere, towards the infinite.. Towards those Violet Skies… 

(Written by JK)

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You Guitarprayer - I Am The Light / The Light I Am

 

 

You Guitarprayer - I Am The Light / The Light I Am
Worst Bassist Records – 2025
Rock, Noise, Psych, Stoner, Garage, Punk
Rated: *****

Do you have a weird kind of rock itch that Triggerfinger used to scratch? Are you in need for some raw power? Some energy that feels tangible yet has this enormous mysterious quality? Look no further, for there’s a trio out of Cologne that plays noise rock, stoner touched and with a punk attitude, that scratches everything out. For this is alive! With currents biting through skin and concrete, twisting, thrashing, spitting fire into your veins. It’s chaos, it’s holy, it’s everything and it’s coming straight at you!

They’re called You Guitarprayer, and I’m sure they’ve been getting flak for their chosen name ever since they started back in 2016. But Soheyl Nassary (vocals, guitar), Scharco, (bass) and Spiro Kotsomitopoulos (drums) are old dogs and have been earning their spurs in all sorts of bands for ages. And if you listen closely,  you might just be able to hear every scar and spark from those days in the way they attack their instruments. Their sound… Never polite and it sure as hell isn’t tidy, manages to combine so many different genres and goes on strange tangents that not many bands can truly pull off. The balancing of those scales, is an art! It’s noise, psych, stoner, garage, shoegaze, and cinematic fever dreams that seem to be wrestling around in the same freaking notes… 

Now, You Guitarprayer where a complete and happy surprise for me, and I had not heard their Art Won’t Tear Us Apart Again, (love that title and the obvious nod) debut album. But hearing it now, it shows they knew from a start that they would never be aiming to fit into anybody’s scene. Sharp, heavy and wild, but also very open, spacious and windy, as if they’d left the windows cracked during a storm. Walls were shaking and there are definite moments where you could hear the air move. That’s a rare balance and they nailed it! There it is again… Balance… 

And on I Am The Light / The Light I Am they nailed it even harder! They obviously kept pushing, playing hard, staying loose, letting instinct steer the wheel. The singles they dropped showed a band stretching out, growing teeth in all the right places and shedding skin to grow scales. There are no apologies and You Guitarprayer knows, they’re never needed anyway. They’re committed and way too invested, and everything worth doing, is worth doing right… 

And all of that has led to I Am The Light / The Light I Am becoming bigger, deeper, vibrant and absolutely alive. It’s still very raw, and there are moments when there is this weird wistful energy and then you imagine someone like Iggy Pop definitely giving the nod to these guys on stage. After which the beautiful chaos they’ve owned since they started, becomes something radiant and glowing, and with so much soul deep inside their noise. Thrilling! Goosebumps all over…

Forgive them their name, for You Guitarprayer is a band of three, three brethren that are following the pull of something real. This is music that hits you in the chest. You feel it in your stomach. It sends shivers down your spine. You Guitarprayer aren’t just playing these notes, they’ve captured a lifetime within an they’ve got voltage running through them! 

(Written by JK)

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Yawning Man – Pavement Ends

 

Yawning Man – Pavement Ends
Heavy Psych Sounds Records – 2025
Rock, Stoner, Desert, Psych
Rated: *****

Back when I fell in love with everything that originated from their desert, there were only some dubious quality demo’s and loose songs to be found about this legendary band. And then, almost ten years later, there it was… The first studio album by Yawning Man called Rock Formations. And then another ten years later they toured Europe with the Fatso Jetson & Yawning Man line-ups combined. And for the Deventer show, they had something special, cause earlier that year they had recorded a new Ten East album called Skyline Pressure with Erik Harbers & Pieter Holkenborg from the now defunct Automatic Sam on guitar and bass. A legendary night and something I could never have imagined happening as I listened to those early demo’s and actually thinking back then that I was born in the wrong place and time… 

And as we skip another ten years we have now arrived at their seventh studio release, Yawning Man’s Pavement Ends. And even though the pavement might end, and the asphalt might melt into dust and with the right kind of ears you can hear the ghost of those generator parties still hum in the sand, this could surely not be the end for Yawning Man. The sound has aged, matured, slowed down on some levels, but it is still the kind of music that will continue to play when your phone signal dies, and the sun burns your eyes and the mirage winks at you. This is Yawning Man, this is Pavement Ends, music coming through from the far edge of consciousness…

Older, dustier and perhaps not as punky as before, they are still doing their very own thing. The thing that became a scene before anyone ever knew that it could become a scene. Gary Arce and Mario Lalli are the ones that actually played on those sand dunes with those generators and cheap beer, summoning sound out of heat, making those starlight nights truly come alive and shadows become their own entity. They’ve never lost that touch…

Just listen to opening track Burrito Power. You will swear the horizon starts to tilt, guitars moaning across rusted hoods, a bass that crawls forward like a mirage that refuses to stay still. Deliberately slow, heavy and o’ so beautiful. But beautiful in a way that feels like it might just become dangerous, with the wrong choice made. And as you watch the sunset it will be up to you, chuck the half empty bottle to the ground, or guzzle it up and ride those bad intentions… 

Gestapo Pop rides the dip in light, the sunset drip, and in fact it just drifts deeper into the haze. Shimmering guitar work depicting Van Gogh like stars becoming a halo of light, looping and bending until you completely lose track of time. And by the time third track Bomba Negra hits, I’ve forgotten what planet I’m  on. No longer listening to a simple rock album, but a cinematic and aural adventure drawn by tones eroding themselves into soundscapes. 

And as you feel enveloped in the warm embrace of all those constantly degrading tones, you feel its comfort and know the masters of groove are also experts in dream sequences extraordinaire. To bring some of that groove back there’s Dust Suppression, leisurely moving around with cosmic swagger, this shortest track still feels like grand architecture. Gradual and precise, yet o’ so flowing and fluid. 

Nine minute title track will take you to the limits and beyond. Desert hypnosis personified, endless in its feel and atmosphere, like a drive towards nowhere, and with a reverb that stretches out like a memory of something that might never actually have happened. And if Pavement Ends does not shut you up, makes you lie down to listen to the desert, than surely closing track Bad Time To Be Alive will. There’s no way to not feel saddened by what this song says with just the title and the forlorn attitude. This is not a protest, but an acknowledgement of everything we collectively have let happen to humanity and the planet. Lie down. Listen. And repeat, it might help. It surely did for me. 

And that restorative energy, is part of what makes Pavement Ends so damn good. It never tries to hard, there’s no showmanship, but pure craft. No trickery, just three musicians locked tightly into each other’s pulse that they might as well use the same heart. Maybe they already do. And if you long for the sun and know that everything starts with that golden orb and that as long as the sun rises there can still be hope, this album will certainly strike a chord with you. Exhale, let the horizon do the talking, just like Yawning Man. You can leave your despair and expectations on the road behind your, exactly… There, where the Pavement Ends… 

(Written by JK)

Pavement Ends comes out November 14th, but you can listen to Yawning Man’s first single Bomba Negra right now over on the Heavy Psych Sounds bandcamp page… 



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Florist – Adrift

 

 

Florist – Adrift
Threat Collection Records – 2025
Rock, Metal, Stoner, Doom, Prog, Psych
Rated: *****

When the honorable Rich Piva from Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip, Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour and of course the Doom Charts keeps raving about the new Florist album, you know you are going to need to revisit that album and come to grips with the fact that you might have missed something elemental there! And after having Adrift on repeat for the better part of the past week we can safely state we get where Rich is coming from! And where the Florist four are coming from! 

The first thing that hits me is the low-end rumble, the universal hum, the 432Hz, the frequency of cosmic truth. The Tampa four open Adrift by tuning the room, my brain and maybe the solar system itself. And just like that, I’m gone! Blasting through the stratosphere on riffs thick enough to bend gravity itself, a rhythm section pounding like war drums in zero-G and a madman behind a synth and theremin rig flicking switches like he’s trying to signal for contact on a distant planet! 

Man, this is serious! They know exactly what they are doing. Pushing familiar doom, psych, stoner, space rocking tropes through a wormhole and pulling out something so alive, so incredibly fun, it feels a little dangerous! Another Moon hits like a second track should, firing on all cylinders and making my neurons shift gear and lose grip on reality! The sound of four lunatics in perfect synch, bashing their way through a black hole with nothing but their smiles to keep them from losing their collective minds. 

Adrift is only six songs and only a half hour long, but who cares about numbers and who cares about time, when the walls seem to be melting all around you? We’re nearly in the fourth dimension. And feel like a brightly burning ball of light! Cause the entire release, despite the crazy grins, the incredible amount of enjoyment, moves with surprising grace. Final track Adrift (Part B) floats into orbit, with a majestic groove, shimmering, weightless, free. Like colliding galaxies the different layers wrap around each other, as the bassline’s gravitational field pulls it all together. Impacted by the meteor drums. Only a swallowing sun could become large enough to engulf these tracks and return them to the stardust form whence they came… 

Made from stardust, this star chasing space ship has every note soaked to the maximum with some  yet to be invented kind of rocket fuel. High, space rocking, psych trucking energy that benefits from volume levels that might cause another big bang somewhere beyond our own existence. In the end, the sheer exuberance and euphoria felt while listening to Adrift is the only way to know for sure that I wasn’t hallucinating. Florist have cracked open the frequency of cosmic truth and found some golden interstellar vein of groove. I’m hooked. 

(Written by JK)

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Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin

 

 

Howling Giant – Crucible & Ruin
Magnetic Eye Records – 2025
Rock, Prog, Metal
Rated: *****

Somewhere… At the very edge of creation, a novice god shapes a new world. Fragile, glowing, pulsing, imperfect. Below, a civilization rises from the dust that slowly settles, searching for meaning under the celestial skies. And far beyond the reach of this puny civilization, chaos stirs, twisting their fate in unseen ways. Further outwards, in the deepness of the void, a cosmic archivist watches with pen in hand, chronicling it all… Every triumph… Every fall… 

And even though Stoner HiVe has been jotting down words about Howling Giant ever since that first EP back in 2015, I am not that archivist. No, he or she is part of the universe created by the Howling Giant four on their brand new concept album, Crucible & Ruin. And it turns that cosmic myth into molten rock, burning riffs and flowing melody. The Nashville quartet, cause they are four now, since guitarist and synth player Adrian Lee Zambrano joined, have turned another corner in widening their scope. This time they’ve created an entire universe and lore to accompany it… 

It's been ten years since that first EP and they’ve kept delivering those beautiful tunes ever since. With The Space Between Worlds from 2019 and Glass Future from 2023 being absolutely stunning. That last one even coming as close to perfection as you can possibly want as a rock outfit. And now, only two years later, they’re back with Crucible & Ruin! Out this Friday, the 31st of October through Magnetic Eye Records. 

It all begins with Canyons, a storm of riffs and whirling melody. Born as the different members where demoing new material, the song instantly became a favorite among them. And it’s easy to see why. The guitars roar like tectonic plates shifting under divine hands, triple vocal harmonies soar and take the composition skywards. Canyons feels like the sound of creation itself, vibrant but so volatile, dangerous and so alive. 

The opener has a dizzying effect and plunges the listener into the turbulent heart of its universe. Following Hunter’s Mark and Archon up the ante with more aggression, channeling the chaos of gods at war, thunderous riffs, sharpened by all the clashes. A riff foundation from which the civilization might once again be built, dynamic and o’ so heavy, rumbling like ancient engines of creation. And then as we pass into the eye of the storm, moments of glistening beauty surface. Lesser Gods drifts like starlight through the debris, a melancholic instrumental, that shows the band’s softer side, offering a different story telling arc. The perfectly named Archivist, feels like a cosmic journal entry, a slow building of melody and texture that eventually erupts into a wild revelation. 

The cosmic puppet master is felt even more during the two finales that are Beholder I: Downfall and Beholder II: Labyrinth. It pulls the threads together in an epic display of scale and scope. The classic riffs giving way to spiraling guitar lines, winding and gliding, the narrative reaching its apocalyptic crescendo as gods and mortals meet their fates. Without any doubt, the addition of Adrian Lee Zambrano has been a master move, it reshapes their sonic DNA and offer even more layers and textures. Offering more interplay between the guitars, lush synth backdrops and the precise delivery of every riff. The sound of a band expanding ever outwards and inwards. Knowing their forte and exploring boundaries by dipping their toes over the edge… 

And where their former Glass Future album might have felt like a voyage through nebulae, Crucible & Ruin is there at the moment of creation, inside a star being born. Production that glows with clarity and composition that burn with severe purpose. Their newly created lore is a myth made through heaviness, that balances grandeur and harmony with aggression. And the result is heavy enough to shake the heavens and intelligent to stir every soul. Crucible & Ruin is a cosmic parable told with a shake and a rumble. And somewhere, in the deepness of the void, that celestial archivist must be smiling… As he or she listens to this symphony for the gods… 

(Written by JK)

Listen to the first three Crucible & Ruin singles right now... 

And come back for more Howling Giant this Friday, October 31st! 

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Howling Giant – Howling Giant EP Review 

 

Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds Review

 

Number 13 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2019

 

Number 5 on the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2023 

 

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

 

Khan - That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust
Full Contact Safari Records – 2025
Rock, Psych, Stoner
Rated: *****

They’re blowing up! Or already did so? Either way, seeing Khan at Sonic Whip this past year was again magical. And after hearing their new two track, 45 minute long That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust album, I can’t wait to see them again! Magic… 

It’s what these Melbourne three do. Magic. There’s this moment, deep into the first track of That Fair and Warlike Form // Return to Dust, where time starts to flow at a different speed and seems to fold in on itself. Guitars swell like the rising tide, a pulse like the heart of something ancient underneath and a haunting synth has you surfing across the edges. No longer a sound, but a presence. And you can feel your heart start to grow and this is where Khan now thrives, in the space between all the surging energies, between the fury and the stillness, the chaos and the clarity. 

That moment, out of time, shows that the Melbourne three, Josh Bills (vocals, guitar, keys), Will Homan (bass), and Beau Heffernan (drums) are no longer writing songs. They are building landscapes. Inventing worlds. And each of the two over twenty minute long pieces are a journey, through a magical and vast terrain. From desolate plains of clean guitar and ambient textures, to volcanic eruptions of sludge and post-metal force of nature. Heavy is as heavy comes, but this is not just heavy, it’s deeply meditative, out of body experience music, cinematic and so otherworldly beautiful. 

On opener That Fair and Warlike Form you can drift endlessly and still feel the bands resistance to go into a freak out jam. Instead they build deliberately, layering each emotion, texture and riff with purpose and intent. The vocals, clean, solemn and commanding. Guiding you like a shaman through the desert, showing you the way like a dreaming track storyteller, bringing forth understanding and acceptance. 

Return to Dust follows and with equal weight it evokes all of the above, below and beyond. Cosmic and earthy, as synths shimmer and riffs collapse like crumbling stars at the end of eternity. Echoing not just the ancient or the future, but all the magic that has every been around. There’s so much gravitas surrounding this record that one might assume this record wasn’t made at all, it was unearthed, conjured into existence. And now that it is here, it has become a world unto itself, one to live in, revisit and slowly absorb. One passage at a time, for all eternity… 

(Written by JK)

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

Appalooza – The Emperor of Loss

 

 

Appalooza – The Emperor of Loss
Ripple Music – 2025
Rock, Grunge, Stoner
Rated: *****

Is this thing on? Are you listening? No. Not to me and not like that. LISTEN. With your chest. With your bones. With the part of your brain that still remembers what it means to feel before everything got sterilized and shoved through algorithms. That’s the place Appalooza reaches with The Emperor of Loss, a place where the amps are redlining, the sky is bleeding grunge, and the Horses of Brittany ride again, screaming riffs into the void like warlords of groove.

I hit play on Grieve and for a moment I think I’ve been transported to my favorite time in the nineties. For a moment I feel the room shimmer and vibrate around me, it felt like the walls were breathing. The drums kicked in like a door being shattered in slow motion, and the riff—good God, the riff, wasn’t just heavy, it lumbered and moaned. It groaned under its own weight. This wasn’t some cheap studio polish. This was handcrafted darkness, direct from the muddy hooves of the long-gone stallions.

But don’t get me wrong. This isn’t nostalgia. This isn’t retro. This is grunge after exile, stoner rock fed on glass and diesel, shoved forward by a hobo carrying a shotgun under its coat to blast you with bullets of doom. The guitars don't strum, they snarl! The drums don’t keep time, they summon storms. The vocals? Imagine a prophet who saw the end of the world and decided to front a band instead of starting a religion. That’s Wild Horse. And if he’s the preacher, then Black Horse and Lone Horse are the engine of the apocalypse, low end and thunder wrapped in kerosine and fire. 

And the title track? Emperor? It starts gentle, almost acoustic, almost beautiful, before it turns and bares its teeth like a wolf in the dark. The riff hits like a betrayal. The tones bite your neck. The whole song is a slow-motion fall from grace. You’ll want to hit the floor and stay there, just to make sense of it all. They get proggy. They get sludgy. Tarantula is a monster, a feedback-soaked wall of sound with bloodshot eyes. Stockholm is tight as hell, like a machine built by madmen. Iscariot sounds like Josh Homme fighting Jerry Cantrell in a dive bar, and both of them win.

And let’s talk about the production. It’s perfect because it isn’t. It’s raw, but huge. Polished, but never pretty. Like someone recorded this album inside a collapsing cathedral, surrounded by amplifiers the size of elephants. And then there’s Adios Maria, closing the record with flamenco flair like the ghost of some long-lost love waltzing through a war zone. Who ends a sludge-grunge-prog-doom album with a Latin guitar ballad? Appalooza do. Because they can. Because they feel with very fiber of their being they should.

Did you listen? Now go. There’s a mountain waiting for you. Where you can preach about Appalooza. Take The Emperor of Loss with you and play it loud enough to make your followers true believers, to scare the sins out of the infidels and turn that towering mountain into a trail of dust...

(Written by JK)

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