Mothership- High Strangeness (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS049)

This is an album I had been really looking forward to. Met these guys a few times and they are super nice people and rock like a motherfucker. The album starts off with the title track, an instrumental with some great playing. I love the spacey effects, double tracked guitars and great bass line. Super cool way to start the record before they kick in with Ride the Sun, a killer rocker and I really like the laid back vocals of Kelley. Midnight express starts off with some drums (highly panned) and then the main riff kicks in on this slower almost doom rocker. Crown of Lies has a bit of a gallop to it and later classic metal riffing and some great solos later. Killer song.  Helter Skelter (not a cover of the Beatles) has another hell of a catchy riff in this short track. Eternal Trip starts off with just Kelley on the guitar (with a bit of delay) and then the bass comes in with a great back up and Kelley goes for a melodic solo and they do some nice panning of the guitars. A beautiful instrumental. Wise Man is another mid paced track but with a real headbanger feeling in this short 2 ½ min track. Speed Dealer is the last track and another one where Kelley plays some great guitar and I like the use of effects, double tracking, etc..  I was really gladly surprised to see the band slow things down a bit and write some killer mid paced tracks as I felt they had too many high speed tracks and it could all start to be a bit too much the same but man, this record opens it up wide for the band to create more diversity in their live set. Excellent record, Guys…

http://mothership.bandcamp.com

http://www.heavyspsychsounds.com

Nick Oliveri- No Hits at All Vol. 1 (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS046)

This is a pretty interesting compilation of tracks that Nick sung the lead vocals on for other bands so it is not his music. The CD features tracks by Komatsu, Death Acoustic, Winnebago Deal, Svetlanas and Kniks Grounden Pistolhogs.  Quite a few of the songs are cover songs including Black Flag, Motorhead (Speedfreak) and the Groundhogs. IT is a short 20min EP but rocks and if you like Nick, you will probably dig to hear these tracks.

http://www.heavyspsychsounds.com

Raikinas- Arcadia (H42 Records H42-026)

This is a band from Sardinia, Italy formed in 2011 and with three albums released. The four piece band has played with a lot of stoner rock bands in the scene (and I guess Duna Jam!).  Anyway, the album features 7 tracks starting off with Klepsydra. Classic stoner rock groove with a sort of shouted vocal as the band powers on. Some nice guitars in the break. Later the track slows things down to a doomy crawl and the vocal comes back again on this long track.  Rokka continues with a straight up stoner riff and groove. Volcano has a cool effect on the guitar at times and starts slow but then rocks out but later spaces out and later gets very repetitive, so be patient. Interlude I is a strange spoken word thing that ends side A. 17 January starts side B. Some nice spacey guitar on this track and classic stoner riffing as well. 21^st June has a bit too much of the same singing and riffing but a good energy. Idyllium is a cool song a real change of pace with a really beautiful melodic start and a nice laid back track. Interlude II is another strange one with some almost like throat singing that leads into the song, Oracle. This track probably has the best guitar playing on the record and starts very relaxed but builds in a great way. The track also features some organ.

The band has a great stoner rock sound and groove and mix it up with some nice guitar parts. I did not like the sound production on the record as it has a quite loud and dry drum sound. Stoner rock in Italy lives!!!!!!

 Band Facebook Page

http://h42records.com

Dead Witches (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS048)

Dead Witches is a new UK band featuring Mark Greening (former Electric Wizard/With The Dead/Ramesses) and vocalist Virginia Monti from Psychedelic Witchcraft. Carl Geary on bass and Greg (Pearson) Elk on guitar (who died last year) fill out the line up. The album features  an intro and then 5 tracks (about 30mins).  The intro features some drony organ and slow melodic guitars and dies out before 3mins before really getting far. Dead starts the slow doom trip with a pretty basic doom sound and a very clean production with drums mixed quite high, nearly equal to the guitar and bass, so it sounds a bit strange to me. IT is the drummers band so he wants to be the loudest perhaps? Anyway, pretty basic slow building with passionate female vocals. Drawing Down the Moon continues things in about the same vein but rocks out at the end. A melodic guitar is played underneath (a bit too low) the main heavy riff. There is a short guitar solo again really buried as the track really picks up the pace towards the end and rocks out (Check out the video below). Ouija brings back the doom guitar (No god in Heaven, no god in hell is the main vocal line) and intense drumming but not much happening on this track. Mind Funeral has the most heavy riff on the record, a bit more of a groove and one for the doom bangers! A World of Darkness ends this short record with another track, much like the previous. I have to say, due to the sound production, which I did not like, this is an album I will not visit much. Pretty average doom does not really stand out in the genre, sorry to say. Check it out and make your own decision.

https://www.facebook.com/DeadWitches/

http://www.heavyspsychsounds.com

Craneium- Meet on Mars 7” (H42 Records)

This band comes from Turku Finland and has been around since 2011. Both of these tracks come from a previous release (never on vinyl though!) called Explore the Void. The 7” starts off with Meet on Mars. This is a heavy riffing (no solo) stoner rock track with slower breaks and good dynamics and a great sound production. The singer has a cool voice. Holy Oath has a sort of punky frantic pace and a more spoken word like vocal to start. As the track evolves it kicks into a more stoney groove with some cool wah guitar.  This 7” comes in several colours and a great fold out artwork sleeve. Cool stuff.

http://craneiumband.bandcamp.com

http://h42records.com