Number 3

 

 

Number 3

And now, with almost a hundred points, we climb from Temple Fang at Number 4 into the Top 3 of this years Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. An album, out on Metal Blade Records, which we wrote about on Stoner HiVe back in April when it was released and concluded with: “Grandiose in gestures and offering up an entire night sky filled with shooting stars, the album is the velvet blanket keeping you warm. Scarlet in color and doom to the touch…” And yes, the journey begins in familiar shadows, doom, heavy, slow burning and bursting with atmosphere. And then quickly develops, unfolds into something broader and even more confident then before. Dark melodies rise where pure weight once dominated, gothic rock textures from another era seep and drip naturally into their scarlet-hued world. Immaculate production and a sense of direction and purpose, give off the scent of unwavering intention. Imploring some more postpunk oriented movement and weaving their haunting atmospherics in almost drone like tapestries, the new seven track, 42 minute long album displays as much of the artistry as it does of their ability to cross genres. Spinning yarns of classic metal riffs through eighties touched songs or letting the vocalist haunt and chill, while always giving her the room to go into whatever territory she wants to go. Captivate, enchant or wrap you around her fingers with her almost jazzy stylistics whenever the music quiets down and waits for the overture to commence, as it does during that beautiful Immolation song. Or The Dress, which will quiet your soul as you listen, enthralled with all that goes on. A shooting star, leaving the heavy underground and soaring through the cosmos… 

On Number 3 we find: 

MESSA - THE SPIN

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Messa – The Spin

Number 5 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2022

Number 13 on The Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2018

Number 3

 

Number 3

A big jump takes us into the Top 3. No less than 322 points from that majestic split album by Elephant Tree & Lowrider on Number 4 brings us to the Bronze Medal position. It’s not a competition, there are no real medals. And all of us love different albums for different reasons at different times. But this album received this amount of votes at this moment in time. And once again, we can’t thank you all enough for voting for and following the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2024! We love doing it and with the feedback we receive, we love doing it even more! So, thank you! And we thank this band for continuously releasing amazing albums! We don’t review this band on Stoner HiVe a lot. Not because we personally don’t love it. Cause we do. We love this band to bits! But we usually have to write about it for the Dutch magazine we write for and because they usually make the Countdown and usually end up on the Top 3 of the Countdown anyway. They are that good. That singular. That identifiable. Number 3 in 2021. Number 3 in 2018. Number 1 in 2016. Number 9 in 2014. Number 14 in 2012. That’s right their incredibly groovy stonerrock has gotten more intense with the vocalist that joined back in 2014. Ten years on every single member is the most important one and it feels like the band cannot exist without them anymore. Singular in delivery and presence, the four are more than their number. A stand-out band that continues to deliver outstanding albums!

According to all of your votes, on Number 3 we find:


Greenleaf - The Head & the Habit

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Number 3

 

 

Number 3

Today we enter the Top 3 according to all of the votes that came in! We can’t thank you all enough for voting for and following the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2023! We love doing it and with the feedback we receive, we love doing it even more! So, thank you! And today, we jump almost thirty points from Number 4 to Number 3. Hippie Death Cult’s Helichrysum album missed the Bronze by almost thirty points. Their earlier album took the Number 1 spot on the Countdown back in 2019 and this one feels, in many ways, like a righteous continuation of that album. Seeds were planted and the new one feels like a blossoming of that sound into sonic and cosmic proportions. We wrote a few words about the album back in September, when it also took the Top spot on the Doom Charts. Where we wrote: “Their psychedelic doom, their highly fuzzed out take on it, with sludge tones and kraut hypnotism has always been a band that knew how to catch a groove and follow the flow. And where their earlier album perhaps started off a bit slower, a bit more open spaced, the new one makes its intentions clear from the start. The opening track, with its ominous riff, soon even denser and darker, before it’s allowed to open up, turns more galactic as we continue on and the vocals wind itself along the echoing guitar. And that cosmic edge, turns it all into something even more hypnotic than we are used to. Hypnotic, addictive and obliterating, this is the new galactic drug of choice for every heavy rock junkie…”

On Number 3 we find…

Domkraft – Sonic Moons

 

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Number 3

 

 

Number 3

 

This Sceptered Veil by Sergeant Thunderhoof on Number 4 missed the Number 3 position by only twelve points. But after the Number 3 album we make another huge jump in points to get to Number 2 and 1. But before we do, we are here to bow before the band and album we find on the Number 3 spot. Indeed, the Bronze Medal goes to a band that has been making the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with almost every release they put out since we started doing this in 2009. They even reached the Number 1 spot in 2014. But also Number 8 in 2016, Number 13 in 2012 and Number 8 in 2009. That’s why we started writing a big post about all their releases when their new album came out, trying to make sense of where the new album would sit in their huge discography. But we never got around to finishing the post. Although perhaps in some other universe we did? For this album, does something to me, something a weird book called Hoe Ver Is Dunn? by strange Dutch writer Jaap Verduyn also does. It transports you straight out of the trenches into this alien world where battles are fought with swampy stoner metal riffs, blues influences and southern styled, almost jazzy jams. There is voodoo magic going on, turning all the seven songs on this album into a wild all-encompassing fiery beast of a record. Which makes it feel like poetic justice that we find it on Number 3!

 

 

Wo Fat – The Singularity

 

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Out on Ripple Music

 

On to Number 2!

 

Number 3

 

 

 

Number 3

We’ve arrived at the Bronze Medal position. The Number 3 spot. Thanks to everyone that voted we got almost crushed to death by the heaviness of Abyssal Trip, that Spelljammer album on Number 4. But we survived and jump almost three hundred points to reach Number 3. Where we find a band that has made the third spot of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown before and a Number 14 spot, a Number 9 spot , O’ and a Number 1 spot… So, we can safely assume all your crazy heavy rock fiends out there, that vote for the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown, love everything this band does. And I reckon we could have known the album that was released in March of this year would make the Top 20 Countdown. It ended up on Number 3, thanks to all your votes. A band that got started as a side-project has been turning everybody on ever since its first release. And where the first four records could even really be seen as side-project releases; it was the fifth album that discovered a sound that they slowly wanted to churn into a maelstrom of perfection. With the drummer and vocalist that joined back then in 2014 they turned to perfect those rumbling drums, those circling riffs, that drawling voice and make it all their very own sound. Ever more propelled by a powerful groove and a thundering boogie the tracks take a life of their own. With some blues and old roots influences they have become what they possibly set out to become from the beginning… It can’t get better than this, can it? On Number 3:

Greenleaf – Echoes From A Mass

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Number 3

 

 

Number 3

We can’t believe we are already at the Number 3 position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2020. The Bronze Medal! And shit, we can’t believe this fucked up year is almost done as well! And that we can look forward into 2021 with some hope that the fucked up thing of 2020 will finally be done with. But before we get into that state of mind, you know, that state, we put on King Buffalo we found on Number 4 yesterday one last time (for now); so we can try and come to grips of jumping another big hundred and sixty points to reach Number 3. Yes, another hundred and sixty points higher than that amazing King Buffalo album… And here we find a band that reached the Number 14 position of the 2016 Top 20 Countdown with their previous album and obviously reached the first spot of the Doom Charts back in April with their new one. This English psychedelic stoner rock formation delivers their take on earthy and folky inspiration with a high dose of fuzz and equal amount of enchanting atmosphere. Some doomy energy here and a lot of progressive touches turns this album into a must-have classic with no effort at all. For the unbelievable amount of earth shaking riffs and thundering grooves seem to continue on like a tsunami of heaviness. You can’t remain the occasional user listening to this one; it will enlarge any form of habit or addiction you have to this kind of music; it will balloon and it will be majestic! So, once more, into the breach for the Bronze Medal. On Number 3 in 2020 we find!

 

Elephant Tree – Habits

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Number 3

Number 3

We jump 30 points from Saint Karloff on Number 4 to enter the Top 3. And here we find an album that held the Number 1 spot the first few days the lists came in. An album we had definitely expected on the Top 20; but which I had not thought would be among the very top of said list. But it is here and we ofcourse put it on repeat when all you crazy music fiends out there started voting for it. We were instantly hooked when it came out in May of this year through Ripple Music. But that was May, we must confess, and the albums that came out throughout the year afterwards made us forget about this super record. But now, back on repeat, we get it! We get it for sure! Cause their super fuzzy blend of seventies inspired blues and subtle rock ‘n roll has a very sweet and sunny  charm. It ticks all the right boxes of early hardrock and super stoner grooves. There are ofcourse influences of Zeppelin and Sabbath; but the psychedelic take on some tracks, the occult atmosphere on others and the huge gestures sets them apart from those early bands and all the groups that show their colors more. This powertrio knows where to grab the mustard and then produce something super infectious. So once more, over we go, on the Bronze Medal position, with once again, seventies inspired awesomeness… Number 3 of 2019 is!

Salem's Bend - Supercluster

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Number 3

Number 3

And now as we enter the Top 3 and see which record ends up with the Bronze Medal, we can probably guess which ones ended up on Number 2 and Number 1 as well. I am pretty sure you all know which. There was no escaping that fact. On a lot of the lists that came in the three were riding high and glorious on top. So we pass Graveyard and their Peace album on Number 4 with almost thirty points to go see about that album on position Number 3. Which is once again a band from Sweden and once again an album that has seen many editions of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. Number 9 back in 2014, Number 14 in 2012 and Number 1 last year. This record continues where the last album left off. And thus; it gives us their very own groove and energy, it’s their bounce, it’s their stomp and you cannot help but bounce and stomp along. Chuck full of majestic riffs and amazing hooks it shows once again that these cats know what their signature sound has become. And even if you feel for a second that the album sounds like the band sounded on the last one, you realise that it is the sound which drew you in in the first place. And hey, riding that green water rapid makes everything alright! All the time!

So here is the Bronze Medal, which goes to the Number 3 position... Where we find...

Greenleaf - Hear The Rivers