Hour of Power 01/31/14

1. Elementary Man (Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell / Check 'em Before You Wreck 'em) PRE
2. See That My Grave Be Kept Clean (The Electric Revival / Pirate Radio)
3. Rhetoric of No (Indian / From All Purity)
4. Fever (King Mastino / We Refuse To Sink)
5. Piece of Mind (13eaver / Self-Titled)
6. Rob Delaney & Matt Pike (Back & Forth Episode 23)
7. The Maloik [live] (Buzzherd / On Sinking Ships ... Rats Drown)
8. Madam Elbib [live]  (The Great Electric Quest / N.A.) PRE
9. State Flag Blues (The Heavy Company featuring Pat Harrington / digital single)
10. Dying Days (Screaming Trees / Dust)
11. Forever My Queen (Pentagram / First Daze Here)

 PRE = Pre-Release / Not yet available

2012 Chronicle (Year in review) part 8 - Best of August

August 2 - Pitch Black Forecast (Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame)

August 3 - Lemonparty (The All-Seeing)

August 3 - RED DESERT (Damned By Fate) - Melodic downtuned and fuzzed out rock and roll riffs with excellent hooks.  What you're looking at here is a Top 10 album of the year, so it is revealed.  I've lived with this album for months and its many terrific tracks have become staples of the daily hour long commute to work mix.  Very few albums grabbed me for as long or as hard as this one has.  And it has one of the best album covers of the year.  It's a winner all the way around.  What's not to like?  See my previous write-up of Red Desert.  Get it here on Bandcamp.  Highlight include "Devils Curse" and "Lust Queen".  Rating 4.5/5

August 5 - Atragon (Vol. I)

August 8 - Hyne (3000)

August 11 - Salem's Pot (Sweeden)

August 12 - DOPETHRONE (III) - It is something to behold listening to this Montreal based three piece run through riff after riff of the grooviest, doomiest shit you will ever smoke ... er, hear.  The death metal vocals may be a turn off for some, but the riffs will bring one and all back, every time.  This band is something special.  Get it here.  Highlight include "Hooked" and "Devil's Dandruff".  Rating 4/5

August 14 - Slow Mover (ST)

August 18 - Tsepesch (Demo)

August 19 - MARA (Demo) - This Swedish four piece released one of the year's best demos.  They play Doom / Stoner / Sludge, in that order.  They can haul ass and play slow all at the same time (it has to do with vocals and crash symbol).  They could use a little love (or at least 'like') on Facebook.  Get the demo for free here.  Highlight include "Greed" and "Possessed".  Rating 4.5/5

August 24 - MEXICOMA (Supervoid) - Swedish six-piece stoner rockers Mexicoma brought their triple guitar attack out of hiding and returned with their second release.  This 4 song EP unleashed one of the catchiest songs of the year in "Mortified".  No joke, that song gets caught in my head at least once a week.  Get it here, if you dare.  Highlight include "Mortified" and "Room 101".  Rating 4/5

August 24 - VINUM SABBATUM (Bacchanale Premiere) - This Finnish quintet dropped the vintage rock and roll album that no one was expecting after establishing their sound as traditional doom.  Well, the album is more along the lines of proto doom.  There's still plenty of doom and thunder, but filtered through a Deep Purple lens so to speak.  Indeed that DP sounding organ is a big part of this album's sound and one of the main reasons I found it so addictive.  The album is extremely hook heavy as well and the A5 digipack CD packaging is just great, it comes with lyrics printed in the booklet to boot.  Any way you look at it, it's a killer package.  Get it here.  Highlight include "Earthrise" and "Tombstone Rider".  Rating 4.5/5

August 28 - ADMIRAL SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVELL (Don't Hear It ... Fear It!) - The Shovell's impressive debut proves that the UK hard rockers don't make cooped-up compositions.  They let their children wander free, to laugh and spread their wings, to explore inner and outer space while ever remaining tethered to a late 60s early 70s framework.  Get it here.  Highlight include "Killer Kane" and "Red Admiral, Black Sunrise".  Rating 4.5/5

August 28 - NIGHTSTALKER (Dead Rock Commandos) - Greek stoner rock legends Nightstalker made their Small Stone record label debut with 'Dead Rock Commandos' and aced it.  10 good songs full of memorable riffs and lasting hooks.  Just a solid, solid album.  If you like rock, you'll like this.  Get it here.  Highlight include "Dead Rock Commandos" and "Go Get Some".  Rating 4/5

August 29  - CAPTAIN CRIMSON (Dancing Madly Backwards) - Seems my fingers are stuck typing about this band the way the songs are stuck in my head.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: one of the catchiest albums of the year.  Solid, steady driving hard rock that veers off into controlled chaos.  Wonderful stuff.  Get it here.  Highlight include "Dancing Madly Backwards" and "Lonely Devils Club".  Rating 4.5/5

August 30 - BISON, BISON (ST) - This was one of the first reviews I did and the band were very supportive.  Great guys.  Their 6 song EP challenged me and re-taught me the value of embracing the unexpected.  Terrific 3-piece stoner rock from Portland with traces of indie rock and many other styles on display.  Hunt them here.  Highlight include "Sweetish" and "Rivertown".  Rating 4/5

August 30 - Black Magician (Nature Is The Devil's Church)


August 31 - AT DEVIL DIRT (Chapter II "Vulgo gratissimus auctor") - Chilean duo At Devil Dirt have one of the best guitar sounds on the market today (rivaled only perhaps by Conan).  It's deep and mossy.  It will tear your skull apart.  The drums shake mountains and crash lightning.  The multi-tracked vocals smell sweet but spit poison.  At Devil Dirt have found an identity and exploit it for all its worth, 11 equally good songs of heavy fuzz and catchy harmonized melodies.  Read my original review of this terrific album here.  Get it here, and read the press clippings on the page while you're at it ;-).  Highlight include "I Am An Ugly Skin" and "Let It Flow".  Rating 5/5

Best Album From August 2012:
'Chapter II "Vulgo gratissimus auctor"' by AT DEVIL DIRT

Best Song From August 2012:
"Mortified" by MEXICOMA

Hour of Power

Highlights from the week of 10/14/12 - 10/20/12

1). Mark of the Beast (Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell / Don't Hear It ... Fear It)
2). Lonely Devils Club (Captain Crimson / Dancing Madly Backwards)
3). An Alternative to Freedom (Witchcraft / Legend)
4). Rivertown (Bison, Bison / ST)
5). Damn the Sky (Beastwars / ST)
6). The Lost Art of Bong Rips (Goat Bong / Goat Worship and Sodomy)
7). Hell's Heroes (Venomous Maximus (Beg Upon the Light)
8). Earthrise (Vinum Sabbatum / Bacchanale Premiere)
9). Levitation (Down / Down IV)
10). Lord of Desolation (Bedemon / Symphony of Shadows)

Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell - Don't Hear It ... Fear It

I'm going to tell you right off the bat, this is one of my current favorites.  The Shovell picks right up where my other favorite musical genre(s) (late 60s / early 70s British psychedelic / prog rock) leaves off.  Right from the get-go the intro to "Mark of the Beast" is clearly a blood relative of the classic (and heavy as shit) "Old Man Going" by the Pretty Things.  Once the intro gives way to the verse the album picks up some heavy steam and continues to gain momentum until the final showstopper of "Killer Kane" ("Bean Stew" the CD's closer is listed as a 'hidden track'), clearly one of the great heavy rock songs of the year (see current Doom Charts) or of any year for that matter.

The Shovell know just what they have here in the "Killer Kane" riff, even foretelling its passing in an untitled interlude midway through the album.  It's like they just couldn't wait to give you that riff.  How can you argue, it's not the kind of riff you just sit on, but it's just a 49 second preview, when the song finally kicks off and that pause-y chorus crashes in, it's catchy as hell.  Same with "Red Admiral, Black Sunrise", catchy as hell.  "Devil's Island" and "Mark of the Beast" have also been making the rounds and absolutely crushing misery on my daily hour-long commute to work playlist.

Again, this is a very Prog-Psych album with more than a waft of heavy blues rock, but played catchy in the vein of Octopus' "Restless Night" or Grapefruit's "Deep Water" albums.  Tony McPhee of the legendary Goundhogs (their 1968 debut lp "Scratching the Surface" being one of my all-time favorites) appears on "Scratchin and Sniffin" and "Bean Stew".  The prog psych feel comes across when the riffs stop flying momentarily and smoke-thick atmospherics and heavy tension building instrumental passages wash in, as though for the listeners to catch our collective breaths and get ready for another dive in to the fray.

There's also a palpable nautical vibe to some of the songs, some of the passages are very sea-like in a way that I can't describe because I lack the technical language, but it has a very maritime feel in a way that Ahab only hints at.

For those who like classic, stadium-sized guitar rock riffs with more than just a pinch of thought put into the songwriting, this album is highly recommended.  A future classic for sure.

Reminds me of: Atomic Rooster, Grapefruit (later), Groundhogs, High Tide, Octopus, Pretty Things, Sir Lord Baltimore

My Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: Hard Rock, Retro Rock, Psychedelic, Stoner, Prog




Tracklist:
1). Mark of the Beast (6:03)
2). Devil's Island (7:16)
3). iDeath (6:11)
4). Untitled (0:49)
5). Red Admiral, Black Sunrise (7:05)
6). Scratchin' and Sniffin' (4:59)
7). The Last Run (4:11)
8). Killer Kane (3:23)
9). Bean Stew (7:15)
Total Run Time: 47:08

Release Date: August 28, 2012

Suggested Listening Activity for fellow non-stoners: Lighthouse tipping (like cow-tipping, only with a Lighthouse)

Better Reviews:
Doommantia
The Obelisk
Cosmic Lava
The Soda Shop
Fast n Bulbous

GET IT HERE