Helms Alee – Keep This Be The Way

 

 

Helms Alee – Keep This Be The Way
Sargent House – 2022
Rock, Sludge, Metal, Prog
Rated: *****

The lines below appeared on the Doom Charts first, but because we want to keep track of things, we decided to repost them here as well. And hey, any extra attention for this amazing album is always a good thing! Atmospheric sludge, grunge metal, alternative everything… Whatever genres you come up with, HELMS ALEE is here to bend them, break them and turn it all into something devastatingly beautiful. It does not necessarily make sense and it definitely does not have to make sense, just take the title for instance: KEEP THIS BE THE WAY. It has a certain ring to it, a certain cadence that makes you understand it all on a totally different level. And that’s how HELMS ALEE seems to work. For me at least. It taps into something subconscious and activates all your senses. Turning all their seemingly chaotic compositions into a finely tuned clockwork of delicate grace. For even though their hardcore, noise and sludge might be brutal; whenever the wave breaks and starts the roll back, the calm, the tranquility and the expanse that opens up, immediately quenches all that mouthwatering sour with equally savoring sweetness…

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Helms Alee
Desert Wave
AAWKS
High Noon Kahuna
The Yardbirds
Locust Point
Samán
Бур
Ealdor Bealu
Early Moods

As you can see from that Top 10 list above, we have mostly been listening to albums released in 2022. Because of all the work on all the year-end-list, for Stoner HiVe and Doom Charts. But soon, we will be getting back to the normal Stoner HiVe program. And to start the year off properly, we got a special worldwide premiere tomorrow! So, tune in tomorrow and get ready to surf!

Joop Konraad’s – Personal Top 20

 

 

Joop Konraad’s – Personal Top 20

It’s my Personal Top 20. It keeps amazing me the amount of great music released every year. Ever since Stoner HiVe started in 2009 the amount of great releases in our little Heavy Underground niche is stunning. For even though you can peruse my Personal Top 20 here… There are many more albums that I thoroughly loved! Soon, a lot of Personal Top 20 lists of all the Contributors will appear on the Doom Charts Page. And will share mine there as well. Here, it’s just the list. And on the Doom Charts I will add some blurbs for all those amazing albums… Let's hope we are treated to as much good and heavy stuff in 2023 as well!

1.    King Buffalo – Regenerator

2.    Elder – Innate Passage

3.    Sergeant Thunderhoof – This Sceptered Veil

4.    The Same River – Weight of The World

5.    Samán – II. Montaña Roja

6.    Besvärjelsen – Atlas

7.    Psychlona – Palo Verde

8.    Ealdor Bealu – Psychic Forms

9.    Helms Alee – Keep This Be the Way

10.    High Noon Kahuna – Killing Spree

11.    Greenbeard – Variant

12.    Steak – Acute Mania

13.    Mecanicos – Nomade

14.    Vitskär Süden – The Faceless King

15.    Red Sun Atacama - Darwin

16.    The Otolith - Folium Limina

17.    Samavayo – Payan

18.    Valley Of The Sun - The Chariot

19.    AAWKS – Heavy On The Cosmic

20.    Indian Handcrafts – Empress In Decline

And here is a list of another 75 amazing albums in alphabetical order that we had trouble with kicking out of our personal Top 20… And just so you know, below this list, we could mention another 100 that we also dig.  And I’m sure we’re also forgetting to mention a few and we will probably discover another dozen amazing 2022 albums soon enough…

3 Wheeler Band – In The Name Of The Holy Riff
Abrams – In The Dark
Acid Row – Afterglow
All Souls – Ghosts Among Us
Black Lung – Dark Waves
Black Space Riders – We Have Been Here Before
Carson – The Wilful Pursuit Of Ignorance
Cave In – Heavy Pendulum
CB3 – Exploration
Clutch – Sunrise on Slaughter Beach
Conan – Evidence Of Immortality
Cowboys & Aliens – Burn!
Dapunksportif – Old, New, Fast’n’Slow
Demonauta – Low Melodies About Chaos
Desert Wave – Deafening Silence
Deville – Heavy Lies The Crown
Doctor Explosion – Superioridad Moral
Druids - Shadow Work
Early Moods – Early Moods
Ecstatic Vision – Elusive Mojo
Faith In Jane – Axe to Oak
Fire Horse – Out Of The Ashes
Foot – You Are Weightless
Freedom Hawk – Take All You Can
Gaupa – Myriad

Geezer – Stoned Blues Machine
Great Rift – Utopia
Half Gramme of Soma - Slip Through the Cracks
Indus Valley Kings – Origin
JIRM - The Tunnel, The Well, Holy Bedlam
Kryptograf – The Eldorado Spell
LáGoon – Bury Me Where I Drop
Mammoth Volume - The Cursed Who Perform The Larvagod Rites
Messa – Close
Mexicoma – Kalpa
Mezzoa – Dunes of Mars
Miscellen – Black Mandala I
Museum of Light – Horizon
My Sleeping Karma – Atma
Obiat – Indian Ocean
Odonata - Gravitational Perturbation
Orango – Mohican
Oreyeon – Equations For The Useless
Paralyzed – Heavy Road
Pariahlord – Vultures
Phiasco – Kessel
Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality
Quiet Confusion – Magella
Ruby The Hatchet – Fear Is A Cruel Master

Rumours - The Lower We Sink, The Less We Care
Sasquatch – Fever Fantasy
Sleepwulf – Sunbeams Curl
Somali Yacht Club – The Space
Sons Of Arrakis - Volume I
Supasonic Fuzz – Cobracadabra
Surfsquatch – Planet Neptune
Sweet Cobra – Threes
Telekinetic Yeti – Primordial
Temple Fang – Jerusalem/The Bridge
Tenebra – Moongazer
Thammuz - Sons Of The Occult
The Anomalys – Glitch
The Black Legacy – Stones
The Gray Goo - 1943
The Swell Fellas – Novaturia
The Tazers – Outer Space 
Torpedo Torpedo - The Kuiper Belt Mantras
Torrents – Dual Fates
Ultracombo – Season II
Volcanova – Cosmic Bullshit
Warlung – Vulture’s Paradise
Weddings - Book of Spells
Wo Fat – The Singularity

 

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Rumours
Helms Alee
Famyne
Terror Cosmico
Sergeant Thunderhoof
Moura
Ultima Radio
Gramma Vedetta
Slow Wake
Peth

The Doom Chart For April 2022

 

 

Doom Charts

“The bigger, the better… In Everything”

Freddy Mercury

Festival season is upon us! Finally! Oh, how we missed all those live shows… Which means many of the Contributors are out of bounce and bouncing hard to all those heavy tunes everywhere! Don’t worry, they all delivered their votes; but perhaps the blurbs are written by a lot of the same cats this month. It happens… But it happens exactly on the month that the Doom Charts crazies did something crazy once again… Indeed, we’ve extended the list to 40. There are multiple reasons to do so. But… We weren’t sure if we should. I mean, we could just post the total list of 299 albums that received votes this month. But then, that would defeat the purpose of the chart, we reckon. No, the main reason is the fact that the amount of albums released on a monthly basis, continues to grow and the sheer brilliance of many of those albums continue to shock and awe. Not so long ago albums could easily carry over a month. Or even two… You know, Lore by ELDER made the list three months in a row. This does not happen anymore, NOT because the albums aren’t that good, but because there are more and more albums THAT good. The amount of voters might also have something to do with that or perhaps that some promos are sometimes a bit too much ahead of the actual release date… Anyway… We’ve extended the list by ten… Should we keep it that way? Or go back to thirty? Let us know… O’ and let us know which albums you dug the most! Cause it might just be our next favorite album as well! Check’m out! Check’m all out!

Oh no! The fuzz might fracture your nose! It's the all new April Doom Charts!This time around; with 40 amazing albums listed!

Personal votes went out to: Greenbeard, Alunah, Steak Band CARSON, Somali Yacht Club, Blues Weiser, Geezer MESSA and Helms Alee!

But we sure as hell could have voted for each and everyone of those magnificent albums on this list! Check'm out! Check'm all out!

 

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and 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 CHARTS FOR APRIL 2022 !

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Carson
Sleeping Child
Greenbeard
Oh Hiroshima
Blues Weiser
Greenseeker
Helms Alee
Ealdor Bealu
Ribbons of Euphoria
Stereochrome

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Helms Alee
Ealdor Bealu
James LaBrie
Drive-By Truckers
Black Rainbows
Warcoe
Stöner
Steak
Carson
Cancer Bats

The Madman’s Monthly Ruckus Round-up

 

The Madman’s Monthly Ruckus Round-up

As we almost enter August and we shall be treated to a new Doom Chart edition we look back to what Madman Tony Maim had to say about June! Cause as you might have gathered,  he fired up his Black Insect Laughter blog a bit… Once a month the Madman will put forth his choices of Punk and Hardcore releases that made him go: ‘fuck yeah!’. And that’s the most important reason we want to hear about new releases! So, head on over to Black Insect Laughter and read up on all that insanity from the past months before August starts damaging your ears! Fine picks indeed! The oi-punk of Boots On The Ground by Gutter Knife for instance. And when his quote reads: “Horrible old skool three chord three piece skate punk thrash band straight off the mean streets of South Wales UK. Been waiting a while for some new material and this does not let you down…” You know you need to check out Grand Relapse by Pizzatramp! O, and then he goes and mentions Helms Alee, which seems a bit odd between all those punk records; but it’s Helms Alee; and we love Helms Alee! So we can understand why the Madman chose to mention the new Notiluca by the majestic Helms Alee!

Hey… And while you’re there! Check out the Madman’s very own project 3 Chord Propaganda! He just released his DEad Poet TapesVol.1 and it’s filled with punk poetry and gritty grunge!

Stoner HiVe's Top 10 Artists listened to last month

Stoner HiVe's

Top 10 Artists listened to last month:

We Hunt Buffalo (77)

Helms Alee (73)

Peter Pan Speedrock (58)

Soundgarden (52)

Val Tvoar (33)

Duskwood (26)

It Was The Elf (26)

Lords of The Brett Stone (26)

The Answer (26)

Winter Moon (26)

ps. Almost forgot to post the monthly list... 

Stoner HiVe's Top 5 Artists listened to last week

Stoner HiVe's

Top 5 Artists listened to last week:

Helms Alee (73)

Year Of The Cobra (24)

Komatsu (22)

Whores. (20)

Winter Moon (19)

Helms Alee – Sleepwalking Sailors

Helms Alee – Sleepwalking Sailors
Suburban/Sargent House – 2014
Sludge, Experimental, Psych
Rated: *****

Starting off a mention like this with the remark that an album is simply indescribable, indescribable good and genre-defying indefinable is never a good idea. But we did it anyway and now will have to make due. The first two records by Helms Alee released on the now defunct Hydra Heads Records were already heavy laced with ideas and possibilities but somewhere along the way failed to make their point. Well, the new album Sleepwalking Sailors knows exactly where to stick the pointy edge. Released via Sargent House which also features notorious bands like Deafhaven and Boris the Seattle trio drives it home on eleven tracks that exact vengeance on all those concepts that escaped their grasp on their earlier releases. The almighty and sovereign sound was recorded analog and expertly captured by studio genius Chris Common (Chelsea Wolfe, Pelican, Isis). Their radical sludge, ice cold post rock and snide digs of wave and psychedelica leaves the listener breathless, uneasy and in awe. The female vocals by bass player Dana James and witchy drum beast Hozoji Matheson-Margullis cast off like bouncing stones against the waves of brutal screams by guitarist Ben Verellen. Which could or should be used even more I reckon; for this sweet and sour, acid and base approach is what Helms Alee does best. It is a drainage of opposites that just gets more condensed as it whirls and twists it way towards the inevitable end. Sleepwalking Sailors is a massive thunderstorm with bursts of sunlight interspersed; it seems like magic and it enchants like a snakelike rainbow biting its own tail. And there’s no way for you to dodge the lightning…

(Written by JK)

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