QUICK HIT: Swanmay - "Stoner Circus"

Releasing today, "Stoner Circus" is Swanmay's second recording, the first being the excellent EP "Metronome". The band's trio of riff-slingers, hailing from the Steel City of Linz, Austria, are true thaumaturges of fuzz, infusing their deep, immersive music in lusty amplification and emotionally palpable effects anchored to intelligent melodies and razor-sharp hooks capable of engulfing your metal soul in paroxysms of sheer indulgence.

Run away as fast as you can from the mundane and join this circus of fuzz today to get in on the ground floor of its mammoth awesomeness.

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LP Review: The Magic Low Transmitter by Far Away Town

After a series of Eps, Austrian three-piece Far Away Town have laid bare all of their rawest offerings on their debut full length record The Magic Low Transmitter, and it’s just what the desert stoner fuzz rock aficionado in you wants to hear. Lots of thick heavy distorted riffs, repeatedly pounding your gut into the sandy Palm Springs future.

Guitarist and vocalist Alex starts things gutturally with album opener ‘Baroon’ stomping it’s riff laden foot print all over your worn-out back. The track builds and crashes with aplomb intertwined with softer and sharper vocals echoing ghost-like across the fuzzed out riffs. The band adopt a fuzz sound which does not overpower the rest of the band, but instead works at a naturally aggressive edge which allows the drums to pulverise on their own standing, and the vocals to blend into the band’s sound as opposed to be lost within. This is stoner fuzz that will dominate when played live!

As the record progresses through the powerful ‘Commander (Max P.)’, the quite beautifully heavy layered instrumental ‘Come On, Come On’, and, well, every other track of distorted bass-laden riffage, the Austrians become a powerful figurehead in the stoner world, with an intent to completely wear your headbanging skills out, combining riff with riff, overlaying heavier fuzzy sounds, and once again, the riffs. Far Away Town have created an awesome record for lovers of everything heavy, it’s no wonder that these guys have toured with Brant Bjork and Truckfighters in the past. Go check this out now!

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Song of the Day-Parasol Caravan-"Rising"

"Rising" is taken off of the upcoming release "Para Solem" due out out on October 30, 2015. This caked in mud riff fest is a feast for the ears. Underneath all the filth lies a heavy groovin' beast chock full of massive guitar, a burly rhythm section and one hell of a chorus. For more information on the band and this release please check out the following links: Facebook | Bandcamp

Quick Hit-Savanah-"Deep Shades"

A rather unique take on the Stoner/Doom genre is set forth by Austrian band Savanah. What sets the band apart from others is the lead singer's interesting vocal prowess. It is a deep and nasally bellow which sometimes suggests Maynard (Tool) and then digs into somewhere between Glenn Danzig (Danzig, Misfits) and David Gahan (Depeche Mode), yep I did say interesting. The musicianship is tight as hell and the riffing is phenomenal. The bass guitar barrels through your chest like an eighteen wheeler and is steadied by a unwavering rhythm. The songs build and become quite hypnotic in the sense that you are being drawn into the music that engulfs you. Favorite track: Deep Shades.

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New Band To Burn One To: Les Lekin

In dark desolate industrial backgrounds, where single flickering lights bait their last breaths amongst the choking encroachment of depression and anger, bands like Les Lekin are born, full of brutal destruction and raw essential power.

With heavy doom psych riffs encasing your ears, the Austrian three-piece (Peter G –guitar, Stefan W – bass, Kerstin W – drums) are at times darkly bleak with undertones of more darkness, and at other times truly inspiring heavy riffing like a flame in the darkness of a tortured nightmare. Influences are a plenty for these post-rock-sludge psychedelics with the likes of Pelican, 5ive, and Red Sparrows coming to the forefront. It’s a scene that is a lot more challenging to conquer than many, and the down-turned tone of the guitars, and the lack of vocals make for limited range, but where Les Lekin carve their own path is through their psychedelic nuances, shown heavily in their mind bending track ‘Useless’ taken from their All Black Rainbow Moon record. It’s a trippy psych sound which doesn’t deviate from the concrete structure of the songs, but rather builds to an other-worldly climax, descending into imploding riffs and heavy as hell breakdowns. There are stoner elements revealed in the relentless ten minute ‘Allblack’ before the 13-minute ‘Loom’ completely shreds your body to dusty apocalyptic ashes.

With the winter nights slowly encompassing our bodies, the realities of the darkness and alienation of death and destruction that lie on the other side of the candle flame, outside of the warm homely fire and the safety of being indoors, all the things we choose to protect ourselves from are brought to light with stark devastating beauty by Les Lekin, a harsh beauty that you can’t hide away from, a one that encompasses your soul. Give All Black Rainbow Moon many a spin, uncover it’s thick layered body, immerse yourself, and see what type of person you come out as through the other side.

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Sunday Sludge: Lowbau - "A Darker Shade of Blues"

Nobody takes a sick day when they're sick. When the asshole across from your cubicle is absent from work, bet your right arm he's gonna show up the next day with a rehearsed response to "how ya feelin'?" Nights get rowdy, the town slut won't leave your porch without assuring "I never do this," and your childhood buds hate their lives so much that they'll buy you that superfluous shot just to avoid being alone at 2:00am. Look, dude... I was young once, too. Sometimes it's hard to keep up, and sometimes you can't face your day because you lost your ass last night.

I've got these Sundays reserved for a fuckin' reason. If I tried pulling this shit on Tuesdays I'd have a real hard time keeping up with my own bullshit excuses. I play both victim and offender, but it's certainly a struggle I created. If it's one pint beyond a doctor's orders, I'll manage coffee and a fresh breath. But I don't know how I'm gonna handle Vienna's Lowbau. All the southern-sludge memories are rockin' my frame this morning, and A Darker Shade of Blues is painting my reality a new shade of stunned.

Contrasting influences play a role on this thirteen-track sludge rattler, but bringing them to alliance is Lowbau's blue ribbon. The meld of C.O.C., Pantera, and Alabama Thunderpussy angles and vibrant narrations will leave a tapestry of brazen imagery that few bands can authenticate. At times somber in the south, others thick in rusty fog, A Darker Shade of Blues threw itself onto the hood of my car and glared me in the eye. I don't care what you believe or what you question, Lowbau crafted a litany of both queries and responses, here offering both for the picking.

Opening on the crisp acoustic strums of 13, A Darker Shade of Blues is pregnant with promise. The instrumental opener is distant and sullen, but the sliding shifts and low bass thumbs press forward and soothe enough to quell any doubt. The steel toed double-kick of The Prosecution Rests... green-lights a coked-out aggression that trips most bands. Groove and pull-back are a clear Pantera nod, but Lowbau breed their own buzz-saw beauty. The blistered brutality is met with a furrowed brow, unlocking the riff and pacing a slow sludge that echoes with swinging-cock solos. The closing stomp-stagger showcases a power; let's call this an opus of opiates, because this southern sludge is daunting.

A Million Years of Rain just might be the fucking best song you'll hear this year. Southern slides and tripping basslines stroll through the dark drop of sludge blackness as if they've been there before. What's placid and pensive grows worn and thick. Everything works here, staggering toward a denouement loaded with everything that's fucking incredible about this band (massive riffs, leathered vocals, guitar proficiency, and low-mud basslines) striking an undeniable harmonic(a) balance.

For all of Lowbau's dick-thrust guitar, they offset the nut-pats with crunching groove, hitting hard on every facet of Modern Day Alchemist. Rhythms shadow the lyrical nastiness, grinding with distorted pullback and relatively tasty crunch for themes so gnarly. The buzzing, festering Grounded is equally as choppy, pulsing with a "teenage spirit" you left in a bottle behind your high school's bus garage. The track is low, intermittent, and dripping with just a whisper of insanity. So nobody really notices when punchy trench-warfare is carried out on a ticker-tape tapestry of guitar jizz.

Oh, and sketchy subject matter is hardly taboo for this quintet. Consider the living-room stomp of Alcoholic, for example. The dixie-bounce hits heavy as fuck with low bass as a twice-baked stop/start dynamic dominates, but a drunk's lack of attention to detail takes center stage here. The changing paces are slick, sure... but you're focused on finding your lighter and swearing at your neighbor about exactly where the property line sits. When are you gonna get your act together? Nanny stutters with slow-bled abrasions, slurring and swaying as you stare at the babysitter's tits. Don't worry, the smile is lost halfway through when you realize this creep ain't kiddin'. There's a Tool-ish Intermission before the return of bass bounce and low-drawn dirty blues.

Slugging away at ticking minutes, The Theft of Time is so thick with butcher-block chops (led by Brea's drums) that it'd be easy to miss the chorus, the buckets of drenched guitar, and the incredible vocals scratched with bruised hands. The buzzsaws manage to dam up a bit, but Jesus, this southern-sludge grind swings a sledge at jagged rocks and comes out ahead.

There's a lot o' music here. Gnaw more than sixty minutes with the first twelve tracks and you'll doubt you've got the steam for a nine-minute closer. Shit, the loose-doom fuzz of the disc's title track is a strong snag of sooty, soggy sludge decay. Plug toward revolutionary snares all you wants, but southern-rock emerges. Rhythms clip slow as dust and tar marry to jam your lower lip with a buzz you won't get from Beech-Nut. Progressing toward an exhausting melange of sticky rhythms and double-kicks is just where Lowbau promised to end their night. Blues return on the back of hovering atmospheres and boggy diamond-point acoustic plucks, but you've already made up your mind.

I love a beer or two with my Sunday Sludge, but this is too much. Lowbau flew under my radar for too long and decided 72-plus minutes of my life needed what they were offering. They were right, but I'm too muddled to fish at this point. Shredded sentiments, primitive/distant drums, and a fuckload o' groove should carry Lowbau beyond their thick-misted influences. This depth, these vocal walls, and the echoes of the southern timber are incredibly enticing. Don't worry about tomorrow.

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New Band To Burn One To: SEA OF DISORDER

HEAVY PLANET presents...SEA OF DISORDER!

BAND BIO:

We both were born in Salzburg / Austria where we still live and create our music. Our main influences come from Doom, and we wanted to create melodic, atmospheric but also rough and sometimes brutal sounding mixture of our own style. We are only two persons, and played all the instruments ourselves, did some drum recordings in our hometown Salzburg first, and then recorded the guitars, bass and keyboards in our own little ‘studio’ ( also known as: at home ).

We also feature two guest Musicians on our first EP: Loic Rossetti who sang on the last two [ The Ocean ] Albums ‘Heliocentric’ and ‘Anthropocentric’ appears on Track 3 & 4 with some vocals, which was a big honor to us! Chris Huber from Salzburg, who is mainly known as ‘Wach’ with his own Ambient / Noise Project and released three Albums on various Labels, made the Intro Track for Song 1 & 2.

[ ~ Sea Of Disorder ~ "EP" ] is about ‘something’ awakening deep below the Sea as a metaphor for the beast that slumbers in every human being and is being suppressed by the daily circumstances that are going on in everydays life that block the real emotions and feelings people would and should have…

THOUGHTS:
"With an outpouring of wave after wave of crushing guitars and cymbal crashes, this two-member band from Austria creates a beautiful yet devastating piece of atmospheric post-metal sludge. The band sets the tone by using oceanic sound effects and soft guitar passages in preparation for the release of what lurks beneath. Once the beast has risen a huge guttural howl is emitted creating a towering storm filled with furious and erratic drum fills. The story ends with the epic album closer "Chapter III ~ Reinvigoration / Thalassophobia". This is music that opens your mind, creating a vision that lets you escape the realities of our sometimes mundane existence."

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New Band To Burn One To-Tracker

The "New Band To Burn One To" today is Tracker.

Tracker is an Austrian band consisting of varied elements of desert rock, Kraut, psychedelia and noise. Tracker create soundscapes in the classic rock trio format with guitar/bass/drums/vocals. These are
only cornerstones for a much more multilayered sound. Nasty sounds from self built fuzz boxes meet
psychedelic space parts, kaossilators compete with bizarre iPhone-synths, fat desert riffs dance with
grumpy lo-fi beats and the dusty elegance of desert rock is hijacked by monotone kraut-beats.

The band's 2009 EP was never given a proper release until it was voted best national record by fm4's (Austria's leading alternative radio station) “house of pain” crew. After learning of this accolade, the band was signed to Psychedelia/Space Rock label Sulatron Records. Their new album "How I Became an Alien" includes reworked versions of songs from their 2009 ep as well as some new psychedelicia-laced morsels.

This trio of musicians create a unique twist on the psychedelic/space/desert/noise genre with their bastard mix of Queens of the Stone Age meets Sonic Youth. Very cool spacey stuff indeed.


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