The Top 20 Albums of 2015 - As Chosen By You

2015 - what a year for new music...

It's safe to say the world's of doom, sludge & stoner have each had strong years - there's been so many incredible records, and be sure to check out some of the Heavy Planet writers top 20's in the coming days... But where would Heavy Planet be without YOU, our riff-hungry audience?

We thought it would be interesting to look at what albums you responded to this year, and rank them based on hits of their reviews... And give you another chance to discover that next killer band you've been looking for.

So here in all their glory are the top 20 records of 2015 as chosen by you...


20. 'Black Age Blues' by Goatsnake

Read the review


19. 'Radiant Moon' by WATCHTOWER

Read the review


18. Hawkdope by Black Rainbows 

Read the review



17. "Lore" by Elder

Read the review


16.  'Restarter' by Torche

Read the review


15. 'Sermonize' by Isaak

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14. 'I Am Heavy Metal, Who Are You?' by Omar

Read the review



13. 'Koza' by Koza

Read the review



12. 'To Dethrone A God 'by The Sun The Moon The Stars

Read the review



11. 'Chapter 1: A Long Time Coming' by Profane And The Sacred

Read the review



10. 'Cold Was The Ground' by The Midnight Ghost Train

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9. Overstaying My Welcome by Void Cruiser

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8. 'Solus' by Bardus

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7. 'Terminal' by Limb

Read the review



6. 'Before The Fog Covers The Mount' by 1886 

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5. 'Stereolithic Riffalocalypse' by Shepherd

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4. 'Gravitron' by The Atomic Bitchwax

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3. 'MagicMustache' by Black Pussy

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2. 'Home Is Where The Hatred Is' by Primitive Man

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1. 'Living Ghosts' by We Hunt Buffalo

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Thank you for your continued support of Heavy Planet, and most importantly the bands who put everything they have into making the music we go fucking nuts for...

Bring on 2016!

LP Review: 'Black Age Blues' by Goatsnake

It’s that glorious time of year again. The sun is out, the birds are singing and Goatsnake has released their 3^rd full length (and 15 years after their last!)album. Those of us that have obsessed over Southern Lord head honcho Greg Anderson’s project have been waiting patiently for this day ever since. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the music is how this really isn’t Greg Anderson’s record. This is very much a band where every component is necessary.

Goatsnake has always been a group built from 3 primary pillars. The first is Greg’s unmistakable tone; a sonic haymaker delivered directly into the cerebellum via Les Paul and SUNN model T amps. The second is Pete Stahl’s voice. As heavy as they are, Goatsnake have always been a “singing” band. His voice sometimes rages, sometimes flutters, sometimes howls all over this record. The third, and most overlooked IMHO, has always been the rhythm section. Long time drummer Greg Rogers and new(er) bass player Scott Renner remind me of a quote by producer extraordinaire Chris Goss when talking about working with Ginger Baker;  “I really felt the need to work with a drummer who could swing”. That’s what you get out of this duo…in the most brutal and monolithic sense possible. Each downbeat sounds as if a new fissure has been opened in the earth’s crust as the hairs rise on the back of your neck.

Album opener “Another River to Cross” starts as literally a continuation of the final track from 2000’s Flower of Disease album “The River”.  It slowly fades in with a cacophony of wails and strings only breakdown to a detuned acoustic guitar and foot tap. Have Goatsnake tempered their trademark tsunami of guitars? Are we in for an Opeth-like sedate trip along a soft winding river? It’s just about at this moment that Anderson’s hellfire fueled, Mack-truck of guitars blows open a rift in space-time with a classic Goatsnake riff.

The album rarely lets up from there; varying only slightly in intensity. Some of the highlights include the titular track with its cyclical opening riff setting up the mammoth main melody; John Lee Hooker reborn as a fire-breathing stegosaurus smashing his way through tectonic plates. This music is HUGE. Another killer track is “Graves”. This is Goatsnake’s not-so-subtle head nod to Sabbath’s “Into the Void”. Whereas  Iommi’s staccato main riff comes sputtering out like a machine gun, this one plods through the tar pits on the way to the main chorus. 

This album proves that Goatsnake haven’t lost a step in the intervening years and, if anything, have improved over their previous work. This is a band that understands time and timing. Every breakdown is set up for maximum impact like two .45 rounds center mass. This is NOT an album to be missed.

New Band To Burn One To: LIMB

HEAVY PLANET presents...LIMB!

BAND BIO:

Limb are a London-based quartet who deploy crushing riffs, rhythms and vocals, all housed in a vat of slow-churned tar that fans of Goatsnake and Weedeater will lap up. It's not all crushing atmospheres though: the band shift up through the gears with ease to deliver driving rhythms and galloping riffs in 'Black Rat' and 'Dead Voice', both of which take you back to glorious classic rock hooks of the '70s. The band are also not afraid to ease up on the attack either: there's an undercurrent of barely restrained melody, most prominent in the stripped-down passages of the opening track 'Daemoness', whose vibe is that of AmRep records or even Neurosis.

THOUGHTS:
""Angst-ridden, thought-provoking and heavier than your mom, these London-based doomsters take their Doom to a whole new level. The music is sludgey, slow and a whole ton of heavy. Lead track "Daemoness" is a skull-rattling slab of progressive sludge while second track "Black Rat" evokes a huge and glorious stoner riff which leads into the elephantine stomp of "Dead Voice". Three songs that will leave a massive imprint in your mind and this is only a demo. Hell fuck'n right. Doom on Limb!"
For fans of:  WEEDEATER, GOATSNAKE, NEUROSIS

To help others enjoy this awesome band, please leave a comment as to whom you think this band "sounds like" or may be "for fans of". Thanks!

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Album Of The Week-"Flower Of Disease"-Goatsnake (2000)

I was on Rhapsody the other day looking for some new stuff to put on my MP3 player and came across this gem. I just loved this album when it came out and unfortunately sold the CD.  This is Stoner/Doom metal at its finest. Therefore, I am making "Flower Of Disease" by Goatsnake the "Album Of The Week" this week. Can you dig it!

Review:

"With Flowers of Disease, Goatsnake delivers its trademark slick, thick, and smooth guitar tones à la Kyuss meets Black Sabbath, way-low dropped tunings, heavy drumming, solid production values, and some pretty weird instrument appearances. These guys have been around the proverbial doom metal block, and it shows. Pete Stahl gives a vocal performance that is unique, melodic and dynamic in range, lending a classic doom sound that's an increasingly untypical and refreshing vocal approach in today's black-, death-, and grindcore-influenced doom metal scene. The slow- to mid-paced grooves are all the Sabbath-inspired heaviness you could hope for, but much of the album comes off like a wasted summer evening from your best memories. "Easy Greasy" has Stahl singing "Fellout and tore up/With my friends and their freaks/We laugh and lie so high it's sweet." Not only that, but the mouth harp thing, along with the slow, heavy groove, gives off this "down by the river, takin' it easy" feeling. This is a doom record though, and aside from the fact that there's plenty of mellow "let it go" attitude here, the title track is the most morose. "Flower of Disease" conjures suicidal thoughts with the lyrics "I touch these walls of this place I know/Death is standing right outside the door/I smile inside to hide the cries/The pain just loves to multiply." An enjoyable listen, this album is a perfect marriage of modern production techniques, excellent riffing, melodic classic doom, and grooving ambience."  (Paul Kott, All Music Guide)

Track Listing:

01- "Flower of Disease"
02. "Prayer for a Dying"
03. "Easy Greasy"
04. "El Coyote"
05. "The Dealer"
06. "A Truckload of Mamma's Muffins"
07. "Live to Die"
08. "The River"

Listen
MySpace

Album Of The Day-Goatsnake-"Trampled Under Hoof-EP" (2004)

The Album Of The Day is "Trampled Under Hoof" by Goatsnake.

Awesome Ep featuring two very cool covers "Burial At Sea(MP3)" by St. Vitus and "Hod Rod(MP3)" by Black Oak Arkansas.



Metal – if it wasn’t already – is now blatantly self-reflective. Intent, whether mildly tongue-and-cheek, or darkly confrontational, has found itself a casualty in the mix-and-matching of genre and performer. References – and there are plenty of them – are nearly omni-directional. Appropriately, there is some difficulty in deciding where to begin: Goatsnake’s lineup alone is the pinnacle of sonic gravitas, with ex/current members of Sunn O))) (guitarist Greg Anderson), The Obsessed (bassist Scott Reeder), and D.C. hardcore outfit Scream (vocalist Pete Stahl) larding the pot...(Read more)

Track Listing:

1. Portraits of Pain
2. Black Cat Bone
3. Juniors Jam
4. Burial At Sea (St. Vitus cover)
5. Hot Rod (Black Oak Arkansas cover)

Stream

MySpace

*Review courtesy of Dusted Magazine