The Re-Stoned- Reptiles Return (Clostridium Records CR022)

Clostridium is back with another cool release. I really loved the last Re-Stoned record and was looking forward to this one. This one has shorter tracks, 8 in total of instrumental stoner stuff with a lot of great guitar. I love the slide guitar work on the opening track called Return. It also has a nice bluesy ending. Run changes things up with some keyboards. The Mountain Giant is a great stoner groove rocker! Sleeping World is a slow, bluesy track and something totally different but cool and a nice way to end the side. Flip it over for Winter Witchcraft has a beautiful melody and some nice windy sounds to start the record off. A very beautiful floating track with some nice percussion as well. Lovely guitar. Walnut talks is a quite short number. Flying Clouds is one of the longest tracks with a more stretched out guitar section over some nice bass lines. Roots Pattern is the last track on the LP and features some acoustic guitars and drony synths to accompany the track. Over all, a very nice record and not as heavy as the bands other stuff but some great tracks. I noticed in the credits this record was mastered by the Swedish guitarist, Janne Stark. Cool…

http://www.clostridiumrecords.de

http://www.facebook.com/therestoned

Monsternaut (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS 040)

Monsternaut are a Fu Manchu inspired stoner rock band from Finland.  A really Fu Manchu inspired band…. Damn… the voice is different but the music and sound production is more their own but song structure and singing style.. real close. . Dog Town shows the bands biggest influence straight out the door with this one. Back for More is even more Fu Manchu! Ha… still god damn rocking stuff! Mountain Doom is a really cool track with a longer guitar solo section and although it has doom in the title is not nearly as doomy as the later track, Mexico.  It was not until track 5, Black Horizon, which the band starts to take off. This is a longer track with a great spacey ending but it fades out. Damn.. Volcanos has a bouncing bass line and a distorted vocal and grooves. Mean machine

Mexico is a cool doomy number and quite different, slower, heavier. About 3 ½ mins in they shift gears and head into a more stoner rock sound and a short guitar solo. Dragons (hear it below) ends the record with an uptemp rocker. A fun and pretty cool record but lacking on originality. I guess these guys kick some ass live though!

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com

http://monsternaut.bandcamp.com

Mos Generator- The Firmament CD (Stickman Records)

Mos Generator is a very productive band from Washington state lead by Tony Reed. This is a five song LP of jams for the film The Firmament. The band is expanded a bit with the addition of Andy Sorter on Fender Rhodes on a few tracks and Bo Micconaghie on 2^nd guitar. Fall of Megiddo is a very Pink Floyd inspired blues jam with some really nice guitar work (not up to the level of godly David Gilmour though!). Track 2, Zero to Infinity is more inspired by King Crimson (minus the mellotron, which will come later!) with both heavy and dreamy parts. Wicked Willow is the first track with vocals and also features acoustic guitar. At 3mins the track increases intensity with the electric guitars smashing in and the vocal becomes more powerful. Dead Souls (Joy Division cover) is really different with the bass line really driving the track. A tough band to do good justice of when covering.  Warrior Soul were successful though with Interzone, which I like better than the original. Outlander (see video below) closes the mini-LP.  Another very cool record…

http://www.stickman-records.de

Boveda del Sol- Terra Firma (Self Released Portugal 2016)

Boveda del Sol is a solo project of Portuguese musician, Jordi Pajagut. I met Jordi at the reverence Festival. He said he was very inspired by the stuff I did with my own band, Oresund Space Collective. Obrigado.. This is not at all like ØSC though, just to let you know. The title track starts things off with a doomy riff and some organ. It slowly gathers a groove though and then the vocal. Oh shit… This really caught me by surprise! I did not expect a death metal like vocal. Some how it works but I am not a fan of this vocal style at all as I can’t understand anything that is said so it is more like an instrument in a way.  Effective?? Maybe… The vibe changes quite a bit around 4:30 and gets more spacey with the guitar line but also some synth sounds. Suno starts off with some cool spacey guitar with delay and some drums. At 2:30 the doom and death vocal kicks in again. Intense. The spacey guitar line is still there but now mixed further in the back and a layer of spacey synths is floating through the sound as well. It fades out after 7mins. Echeyde starts pretty spaced out and reminds me a lot of the beginning of the ØSC Ode to a black hole record. Nivaria is a 4min instrumental track. I really like this one with the great bass lines more in the front and then the heavy part comes later. Erg starts off with some really spacey sounds and a simple guitar and stays pretty droney and spaced out the entire time.  Sigil ends the album and is slow to build up with some more elaborate synthesizer stuff over a basic guitar line and it just slowly evolves over the 4mins and then there is silence for a min and then some gongs-bells before the main theme returns once again to end the CD.. Cool stuff… I could see Jordi and myself making some music in the future in Portugal…

http://bovedadelsol.com

The Freeks- Shattered (Heavy Psych Sounds HPS 044)

I believe this is the bands third album. I have only heard the first one a few years back and sadly missed their show in Denmark when Isaiah from earthless was touring with them but Ralph told me it was a fun and crazy tour. Anyway, this album features 13 tracks of wild garage rock stuff with a nasty vocal. I just can’t get used to the vocals. Ruben (Guitar, ex-Fu Manchu), Tom (Bass, ex-Nebula) and Jonathan (Guitar, ex- Angry Samoans) are all listed as singing but not sure who is the main vocalist? Esteban plays some keys while Bob Lee kicks out the drums.  The basic tracks were laid down on one day in April 2015 and then they did some overdubs in different studios to complete the LP. I guess they come and tour Europe next year?? We will see…   Anyway, this album has a lot of raw energy and with two rocking guitar players and some just good wild R&R vibes with the occasional dip into something more bluesy like Where did you go (I love the piano parts!).  Vocal sounds like old Alice Cooper on this one!  Sylvia is a bit more psychedelic. A fun album with great energy.

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com

http://thefreeks.bandcamp.com

www.thefreeks.com