Tag Archives: heavy psych

ALBUM REVIEW: Softsun – Eternal Sunshine – Heavy Psych Sounds

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Going into silent moments before winter, a change of soundtracks is needed. This album helps to achieve that goal. Gary Arce from Yawning Man started Softsun a couple of years ago. On Eternal Sunshine (Heavy Psych Sounds), Arce uses guitar tones similar to those employed with  Yawning Man, but with a more melodic shoegaze vibe. This project’s strength actually lies in the vocals of bassist Pia Isaksen. She brings a more song-focused element to the table by creating a more tangible narrative. Her voice weaves sleepy melodies in the spaces left by the floating guitar parts.  The second song works off a similar formula, as the opening track that finds the band continuing to capture a languid mood as the vocals coo their way into a lonely sunset. Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Yawning Man – Pavement Ends

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If you have ever eaten a gummy and thought:

“This is not doing shit!”Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Insomniac – Om Moksha Ritam

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Atlanta’s Insomniac brings the surreal sounds of the early nineties back to life on Om Moksha Ritam (Blues Funeral Recordings). These guys drape brooding baritone vocal lines over layers of atmospheric guitar that swell into big sludge-tinged riffs of epic proportions. On a song like “Mountain,” the twin guitar attack is a dizzying affair that accelerates in an almost Mastodon-like manner. Deceased drummer Amos Rikin keeps the cymbals crashing with enough gusto to move their hypnotic riffage with locomotive momentum. This reaches peak heaviness for these guys when harsher growls roar up from the back of the mix to accent the punchy chugs.Continue reading →


EXCLUSIVE ALBUM PREMIERE: Occult Hand Order – “Silence By The Raging Sea”

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France’s Psychedelic Heavy Doom power trio Occult Hand Order will release their new album, Silence By The Raging Sea, tomorrow, October, 20th, 2023. The band has teamed up with Ghost Cult to bring you the full album stream! Following two solid EP’s the band is ready to go to the next level on Silence By The Raging Sea. In addition two impressive singles already releases (“Sink” and “Sailors”), the album was recorded and mixed by Roman Peyr in Chasseneuil, France, and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna). Stream the new album here: Continue reading →


ALBUM REVIEW: Yawning Balch – Volume One 

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Consisting of desert rock pioneers from the legendary acts Yawning Man and Fu Manchu, supergroup Yawning Balch releases an ever-prolific debut entitled Volume One via Heavy Psych Sounds. Just like the album title, Yawning Balch embarks the first volume of their musical career’s trajectory through this debut. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Oreyeon – Equations For The Useless

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Italian stoner rockers Oreyeon release their third album Equations For The Useless (Heavy Psych Sounds), a potent mix of stoner, grunge, heavy rock, and lengthier progressive compositions. This album notably draws on the influences of years gone by not only in style but was also recorded live, an approach to a recording I’m very much a fan of. 

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ALBUM REVIEW: Big Scenic Nowhere – The Long Morrow

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Culled from the same sessions that birthed the Lavender Blues EP in 2020, Big Scenic Nowhere’s second full-length expands the supergroup’s jammed out take on Desert Rock. However, The Long Morrow (Heavy Psych Sounds) sets itself apart from Vision Beyond Horizon by means of a more grounded approach. There aren’t as many songs as before and the album is about ten minutes shorter than its predecessor overall. The guest list also isn’t as loaded this time around, only featuring keyboardist Per Wilberg and The Cure/David Bowie guitarist Reeves Gabrels on the colossal title track.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Eldovar – A Story Of Darkness And Light

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Not content to just let the sludgy boi/spooky girl pairings have all the fun with multi-artist collaborations in Doom, A Story Of Darkness And Light (Stickman Records)features the coming together of Elder and Kadavar as Eldovar (I don’t know where that ‘o’ comes from either). The two groups certainly make for interesting bedfellows; while both are arguably rooted in Seventies Rock traditions, Elder has evolved to Heavy Prog splendor while Kadavar largely subsists on off-the-cuff Stoner Blues. However, their shared interest in various genre experiments as well as established track records of high quality material gives plenty of fertile ground for such a union.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Monolord – Your Time To Shine

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Five albums into a career as one of the top bands in the modern Stoner Doom scene, Monolord offers their mellow, tripped-out effort to date with Your Time To Shine (Relapse Records). While there’s still plenty of dank fuzziness to go around, it feels almost like a backdrop at times as the cleaner guitar textures are given near equal priority and the vocals are at their most prominent. Fortunately, it feels like more of a culmination of a gradual trajectory rather than a radical shift in direction; after all, these elements started gaining traction on 2019’s No Comfort and it’s easy to imagine guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jager’s 2020 solo album rubbing off on the process.

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REVIEWS ROUNDUP: Blackwater Holylight, Hex A.D. and Green Lung

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Blackwater Holylight – Silence/Motion

With Blackwater Holylight’s unique brand of Doomgaze getting gradually heavier with each passing album, it makes sense that their third full-length, Silence/Motion (RidingEasy Records), pushes that heaviness to its furthest extents yet.

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