After years of no gigs, many festivals moved, or revamped. Into the Void has been around a while, but this year is the first time it is held in Eindhoven, Just one day we have 11 bands to get through in the Effenaar, with a nice mix of genres that the Club Void shows also share. Given the rather solid line-up for those who love Stoner, Doom Metal, Psych, and even some post-Metal, Ghost Cult went to have a look.
A brand new supergroup has formed with legends of Doom Metal including members of Type of Negative, Crowbar, and Down dubbed EYE AM. The news was revealed in a post from Florida metal label Corpsepaint Records! The band consists of Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative and Silvertomb on guitar and drums, Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, Down, and Kingdom of Sorrow, and Todd Strange, formerly of Crowbar and Down. The debut single will be recorded by bassist Roger Lima of Less Than Jake.
Gaerea had a 2022 about as good as any Extreme Metal band, with the release of their third full-length album Mirage driving forward their sound and eloquently merging ferocious Black Metal with elements of heavy “post-” music to create a unique style, on a record that was one of the finest of the year. And during this period of creativity vocalist and guitarist Guilherme Henriques would continue to develop his Oak side project with former drummer Pedro Soares, which had begun when the two were writing and recording Gaerea’s debut album Unsettling Whispers in 2018.
Over the years, the ever-talented J Mascis has been creating powerful impacts on the underground music scene by being involved in a myriad of projects. He is best known for being the frontman of the legendary three-piece alternative rock act Dinosaur Jr., but there are also plenty of other projects that he has left marks on. Some of them being the short-lived hardcore punk quartet Deep Wound, the Sabbath-influenced stoner/doom act Witch, and the rather underrated sludge/doom act Upsidedown Cross, to name some.
Ghost Cult caught up with Mattias Nööjd of Firebreather! The band was new to America and on the eve of their massive tour with Monolord! They tour Europe later on with High on Fire and others. Their album Dwell In The Fog was newly released at the time of this interview and you can buy it from Riding Easy Records, at the link below. Continue reading
Baltimore’s annual Grim Reefer Fest has announced its full lineup for the upcoming event. Baltimore, MD on Saturday, April 29th, 2023. Heading up the bill are Bongzilla, with Ilsa, Borracho, Haze Mage, Wizard Rifle, False Gods, Sun Voyager, Faith in Jane, Holy Fingers, and Blightbeast! Tickets are $35 in adv and $50 at the door and can be purchased directly at the link below.
Poster by GhostBat
Here’s to genuinely hoping that 2023 would be a decent year for stoner rock releases – with the existence of records like The Lord Knows (Ripple Music) by the Swedish newcomers Tidal Wave. The Swedish stoner scene has always been all-around fascinating to me, with big names I admire such as Besvärjelsen and Skraeckoedlan, or even the all-time legendary Truckfighters. It’s always refreshing to see up-and-coming names coming right in, too.
For more than a decade, music fans have gathered at the Junebug Boogie Ranch in Cookeville, Tennessee for the Muddy Roots Festival. The fest celebrates Punk, Roots, Metal, Folk, and just about everything in between. We reviewed the 2022 fest here. Weekend passes are on sale now, with the first bands to be announced for next year soon!
Press on, intrepid reader, to find out our top albums of 2022, as voted for by the cast, crew and hangers-on of the good ship Ghost Cult. Over 275 albums were nominated (including one stray and errant vote for Stryper… we’ve had words), some people lauded albums as the greatest of all time that no one else noticed, other albums picked up a steady stream of votes across the board without tickling the top of anyone’s charts, but through it all, we’ve been able to compile our team list of the best 75 albums of the year. And there are some absolute corkers, here. 75 of them, to be exact…
