Fair Warning! Don't Miss ... Lizard Queen

Though their debut album is only months old, one of the members of Italian stoner freak out band Deep (check out the PH article here / and my review here) has returned with a second new project called Lizard Queen, as if to prove that this band is the Italian equivalent of Ice Dragon.  Their self-titled debut is weighty and substantial.  Indeed it is an absolute boulder of desert rock.  Though not as experimental in terms of style, texture and structure as Deep's album, that exploratory nature displayed by the parent band shows full blooming expression here in the form of thematic variation (both within each individual track and within the structure of the album overall), improvisation and above all else, feel.  The vocals are laid back, punctuated by heartfelt flights and generally match the mood of the music behind them while the riffs flow along languidly and are exploited  to their fullest measure by lengthy compositions, creating a hypnotic effect.  Simply put, once you press play on track 1, you are locked in with no desire to escape.  Lizard Queen casts a deep spell and puts you in a trance.  However, don't expect a droney album with a bunch of one note songs, 'Lizard Queen' has more than a few curve balls to throw at you, and when they come, they fly at full force.

And when I speak of weightiness, I mean it.  At 56 and a half minutes, this isn't your typical four song tryout that most bands test the waters with, this is a veritable 72 ounce steak of fully stoned rock n roll and with a blank price tag on bandcamp this is the band that keeps on giving.  Check them out on the player below:

Lizard Queen on facebook

Fair Warning! Don't Miss ... Deep - Vol. 1

Deep emerged from the ocean of underground bands without much hype or fanfare, but a great deal of enthusiasm from reviewers (including my review over at Temple of Perdition).  At this point, they are a potential sleeper pick for many "year end lists" while still remaining ensconced in shadow among listeners.  Their music is a strange beast, a study in experimental sounds, rich and dark tones poured across pan fried fuzz.  The lo-fi recording of 'Vol. 1' brings out the live vibrancy, urgency and immediacy of the music that is as refreshing in itself as the sounds are original.

Here's an excerpt from my review on Temple of Perdition:

"Deep is one of the most original sounding and imaginative bands I’ve heard in a long while.  They take the basic elements of stoner and doom music and, in a 360 degree fluid environment, carry those elements to strange places, making unexpected blind leaps within the gloom.  Such creativity is the very stuff of life itself.  If the world ran on logic alone there would be very little to do but be trampled upon and die.  Well there’s no trampling where this band is coming from.  It is believed that 80 percent of all organic life on earth lives within the deep.  It is within this teeming spirit that Deep’s 8 song album finds its home. 

Plunge into the paper thin production and razor sharp fuzz of opening track “Sun” and right away the band name begins to take shape and make sense.  One thing that can’t be passed without further mention is the fuzz tone which sounds at times like the band is running a fuzzbox through a Tesla coil rather than a guitar and amp.  “Sun” bobs atop the surface with the brightest sound on the record and it is after this point that we dive down into ever-darkening layers where internal thought is the only companion."

Once again, don't take my word for it, check them out for yourself at the following links:

Deep's facebook page