The Doom Chart for October 2020

Doom Charts

    “When I was younger I knew I could do anything – I could be the president if I wanted to, but that was a stupid idea – I’d rather be a rock star...” ~ Kurt Cobain

 

Kurt Cobain for president? Can we write him in? I’m sure somebody somewhere is thinking the same thing. Maybe being a rock star wasn’t a good idea and had he taken a different path we could be voting him into office right now? Fun to imagine, but we know the reality…

October is one of my favorite months mostly due to the nostalgia surrounding the changing of the colors, shorter days, and the crisp, cool mornings. Lately it’s seemed like no month will top the last in the music realm, yet here we are banging our heads in disbelief on the quality of tunes still coming at us. We’re continually climaxing month to month in terms of relentless exposure to music in the heavy underground.

In typical fashion, nearly 300 different albums voted to chart this month and for the first time in the history of the charts, to my knowledge, besides the very first chart, the entire top 25 albums are NEW meaning no repeats from last month. This is just insane, and that’s not even counting the host of bad ass albums just released on October 30th as our voting closed up for the month.

The all new October Doom Charts are here! Yes, ALL NEW! As Bucky already mentioned; every album on this list wasn’t on it a month prior. Almost 300 albums got voted for and the Top 25 are all brand new! Incredible! Sporting all that good and heavy stuff we all love so dearly! Personal votes went out to Fumarole, Pallbearer, Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Occult Hand Order, Ruff Majik, Horizon, Molassess, Big Scenic Nowhere, Fuzz, NARLA, The Re-Stoned & Sautrus ... Yikes! Quite a lot to make the final list! And there is even more of that good stuff out there! Cause just below the 30 posted are albums like Last Ride by Vessel of Light and Run To The Sky by Falcon Haptics waiting to jump on the list… Perhaps next month they will sire higher? Or perhaps another 25 all new albums will appear? Who knows… But it is all good and all heavy! And we love them all!

Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and album 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 Chart for October 2020

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

 

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

Ruff Majik
Hey Colossus
Faith No More
The Patients
Pallbearer
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle
LA Guns
Mr.Bungle
Spirit Adrift

Number 12

Number 12

Exactly one point above Spaceslug's Time Travel Dilemma album that occupied the Number 13 spot we find a massive quartet carrying a casket filled with intense progressive doom metal. They reached Number 4 of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown with their 2014 album. And this year we find them on Number 12. The four freaks are still doom, definitely doom, but have let their love for prog and hardrock shine through ever more. With more space and even better vocals the album masks itself as an instant pleaser. But in truth, it takes a while to grasp every composition completely. It is a grower; and it will probably even age better than many of the albums released this year. It's got all the heaviness you need and so many layers to be discovered it might take another year to really let it all sink in. But we are not inconsiderate or heartless and can therefor truly understand its current spot on the Countdown... Check out the casket full of riffs!

Pallbearer – Heartless      

Number 4

Number 4

“This is a very peaty whisky at 60 ppm phenols. It is a single cask, matured exclusively in an ex-bourbon barrel from Maker’s Mark. The E:4 was bottled on 2012-11-02, and the outturn was 300 bottles.  Nose: Mild smoke, surprising really – I was expecting a more distinct smokiness from the 60 ppm, but there you go. Well-rounded and mature sweetness. Vanilla, milk chocolate, and butterscotch and caramel. It is also very fruity, bundles of apples and pears. Braunstein has a very fruity and rich new make, and the distillery character shows through here. Taste: OK, here comes the smoke. And it is massive! This whisky certainly packs a punch! I also find milk chocolate, and licorice caramel to slightly temper the punchy peat. Finish: Long finish; rich, fruity, smoky and sweet. ’nuff said!”

The first bigger jump begins now and with an album I had not, to be honest, expected to end up this high on the list. We add 43 points to Blues Pills on Number 5 to reach the next level. Which, even though the sound is incredibly heavy and the themes definitely dark; lead to a  record that in its whole does feel warm and begs to be heard over and over again. This is without a doubt masterful doom and metal and shows that the guys want to aim both higher and lower without changing their sound all at the same time. The biggest change in comparison to their amazing debut album from 2012 is perhaps the fact that the vocal melodies have become more important and that the band are changing rhythms and riffs quicker without losing that hypnotizing edge we all love so dearly…

Pallbearer - Foundations Of Burden

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Yob – Live at the Underworld, London

Yob – Live at the Underworld, London 
8th September 2014

I missed Bast due to a patient throwing a bowl of yogurt over me! Yeah, sounds funny now but it did hold me up somewhat. This meant that the band playing when I had descended the stairs into the pit of heat, sweat and mob of head banging fanatics were the always popular Pallbearer. Now I have never really got into this band due to the vocals reminding me of countless 70’s/80’s average rock bands that I did not like then and certainly do not want to hear again. However in a live setting the singer has a much rawer edge that to my ears just raises them up into a different level. Their set was great, the sound was fantastic and the crowd responded with many a flailing of limbs and heads. I was surprised to see many people leaving to go up to the bar when they had finished – or get some cooler air but who cared – this meant that I could be in the second row from the stage. 

Some guys wandered on stage setting up guitars and chatting to people at the front. I suddenly realised it was Yob. Cool guys, just doing their thing and getting ready.  Mike Scheidt slowly started to chime out some clean notes that just rang and echoed for a while until the weight of the universe seemed to crash upon me as Yob let rip with all the sonic weapons at their disposal. This was music experienced through your bowels and chest as well as your ears. After the opening track – I think it was “Ball of Molten Lead” – they played the new album “Clearing The Path To Ascend” in its entirety. Some of the songs passages really had a trance like quality to them that really brought blissed out expressions to the crowd – worship at the Sonic Church of Yob is performed at full volume here – this was devotional music created by guitars, passion, growls, croons, bass that levels mountains and drums that made my eyes burn. They played a mesmerising set that was perfect in tone, sound and power. Due to the heat and beer, to be honest I kinda lost the plot as to what was being played towards the end, I was just content to let everything wash over me. This was probably the most intense, draining concert I have been to in a long time and one I will not forget in a hurry.

(Written by Tony)

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