Kyle SB / Shastabeast’s – Personal Top 20

 

 

Kyle SB / Shastabeast’s – Personal Top 20

 

We had hoped to post Kyle SB / Shastabeast’s - Personal Top 20 yesterday, on January 6… Why you ask? Cause it was his birthday! We congratulated him yesterday, but do so again today! Congratulations Kyle SB! The very best of wishes for the upcoming year and may it be a brilliant one. And we also congratulate him with his personal Top 20 today. And indeed, Kyle SB is also part of the Doom Charts, and he runs the Instagram page of the Doom Charts. And his Personal list will of course also appear on the Doom Charts, but then with little blurbs for each and every entry. But we’re posting it here as just the list. Just because we like to keep things nice and tidy; and up with the tradition…

 

 

20. Foothills - Ingress

19. Grief Circle - Weightless

18. Woorms- Fatalismo

17. Bones -Vomit

16. Greenbeard - Variant

15. Mammoth Volume - The Cursed Who Perform The Larvagod Rites

14. The Grand Mal - The Grand Mal II

13. C.Ross- Skull Creator

12. Howard- Event Horizon

11. The Gray Goo - 1943

10. Black Lung - Waves

9. Samavayo- Payan

8. Sky Pig- It Thrives In Darkness

7. UWUW -S/T

6. Kurokuma- Born of Obsidian

5. Gondhawa- Mäanthagorī 

4. Perennial - In The Midnight Hour

3. The Swell Fellas - Novaturia

2. -(16)- -Into Dust

1. Druids -Shadow Work

Sky Pig - It Thrives in Darkness

 

 

Sky Pig - It Thrives in Darkness
Forbidden Place Records - October 2022
Sludge, Doom, Psych
Rated: *****

"It Thrives in Darkness" is the second full-length and third release for Sacramento sludgers Sky Pig, and the case they continue to make for themselves as one of the top sludge acts around is pretty much inarguable. Where 2020's "Hell is inside you" was evil, thunderously heavy, and sickeningly psychedelic, "It Thrives in Darkness" consistently one-ups it. The drums are booming, the walls of guitar and bass tone are on the Richter scale, and the vocals are gut-wrenching. It's not all big and burly though, as singer and guitarist Rob Sneddon mixes things up with some clean vocals that are truly the icing on Sky Pig's rancid cake. Cavernous and haunting, not unlike his usual scorching delivery in a way, but the passages of clean singing are subdued and warped as to augment each song's atmosphere perfectly. In "Motionless", the buildup towards colossal shouts of the sky being "just a big black hole" becomes all the more daunting, and the marching drive of "Sinning Time" is given an extra layer of urgency and inevitability. The lyrics themselves are fittingly bleak and crushing as well, weaving tales of Lovecraftian darkness and monstrosities befitting of the excellent album art. This comes as no surprise, however, as Sky Pig have proven themselves masters of atmosphere. Swirling, unsettling psychedelic passages often squirm into the ears before the next mountain of crushing noise topples over. Case in point the epic seven minutes-plus "In Light of your Death", which uses sonic space to as much effect as claustrophobic walls of sound. Don't let that leave you unprepared for the song's finale, however, though you'll likely get steamrolled just the same. The finale and title track finishes off the album appropriately, offering spine-tingling moments of calm before ripping your head off with gargantuan riffs, low end, and drums. Sky Pig are here for nothing less than total aural destruction, and we should thank the Great Old Ones for that.

(Written by Shastabeast aka Kyle SB)

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Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s Quick Fire Friday

It’s Friday, the final Friday of a month, which means a new Doom Charts is lurking just around the corner. Most of our time is therefor devoted to getting that all sorted out. But we still managed to wrangle out a little thing we call Quick Fire Friday! A dark, twisted, black and doom version of Quick Fire Friday this time around. And we know… All those releases, singles, ep’s, albums, they are worth way more of our time! But you know how it is… There is so much out there, so much good and heavy stuff, and we just simply cannot ever do it all justice. So here it is. Another Stoner HiVe Quick Fire Friday! And it burns hot like molten lava!

Ad Nihil – No Eternal Truth

Out on Addicted Label, Russian six piece Ad Nihil delivers yet another incredibly dark and twisted album called No Eternal Truth. Bleak and black metal, doom, sludge, noise and hardcore are only a minor part of the incredibly forlorn and hopeless sound, that the vocals grunt and the story tells. A story about the crisis of civilization and emergency for mankind, the total decay of everything…

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Tattered The Wall – Shedding Season

Out on Cursed Monk Records, Tokyo based trio Tattered The Wall are a guitar less, instrumental, sludge, industrial, junk band with bass, drums, and unholy amount of noise. Not meant for the fainthearted and not meant for easy listening, this will distort your vision and make you stop eating, hang upside down, and spin yourself into a silky cocoon. Hoping, you will emerge one day, a butterfly… But you will probably turn into a radiating bloat fly…

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Vuara – A Normal Man

More Cursed Monk Records and more blackened noise metal from Russia! Vuara brings you speeding hardcore doom sludge and pure chaos. Cassettes for A Normal Man are out via Trepanation Recordings, but the sound on the five tracks in anything but normal. But if extreme hardcore metal is your cup o tea, than yes, Vuara has a kettle for you to pour from. Scalding hot, boiling metal!

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Sky Pig – It Thrives In Darkness

Sky Pig, the name always makes me think of Animals by Pink Floyd, which saw a new version releases recently. But the Sacramento trio, delivering its full-sized debut It Thrives In Darkness on Forbidden Place Records have little to do with or time for the Floyd stuff. No, they deliver metal, of the doom and sludge variation, with some definite menacing post-metal and ominous psych influences interspersed. Scuzzy, fuzzy and filthy.

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Ommnus / My Pitbull Lucifer – Split album

No Profit Recordings is releasing a split album between Ommnus and My Pitbull Lucifer, both delivering five tracks. Well, MPL does six with an intro track, but let’s now dwell on that. But instead dive together with the astronaut on the amazing cover art, into the punk doom metal, the blackened sludge, the hardcore and speed metal, the alternative rock, the stonerrock and the weird mixture of all of those. It’s good, it’s awesome and it’s split right down the middle!

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Sky Pig - Hell Is Inside You

Sky Pig - Hell Is Inside You

Transylvanian Tapes - July 2020

Sludge, doom, psych

Rated: ****

I was hooked on Sacramento sludge trio Sky Pig's 2018 debut Three Way, and two years of hoping for more have paid off with their second EP Hell Is Inside You. The group have taken their sinister, psychedelic mixture of doom and sludge to another level across four tracks of crushing noise. Opener "Gimp" immediately lays waste to eardrums with its weighted low end and grinding guitar, doling out a trudging, impossibly heavy riff. Sky Pig's sound is massive, a dense wall of distortion and leaden tone that's almost industrial in its ruthless assault. The caustic shouted vocals and bashing, rock solid drums complete the picture, creating an ominous atmosphere that makes good on its threat. Following track "The Scag" is a standout, leading in with chilling spoken word and chugging, bottomless low end. The build-up of tense anticipation would be right at home in a horror movie, and is released by a monstrous churning riff. The second half of the EP leans further into the doom aspect of Sky Pig's sound, with "Save Yourself" bringing the low and slow with eerie, warped effects and cavernous singing that turns into an ear-splitting roar. Closing epic "The Strain" slows it down even more, drifting and pummeling over nine minutes of psychedelic and crushing nod. Hell Is Inside You is a powerful statement from a band who, with just two EPs, have made themselves a unique and menacing force to be reckoned with in the world of heavy. Take the dive and get lost in Sky Pig's dark, sludgy world.

(Written by Shasta Beast)

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