2013 Chronicle (Year in review) part 8 - Best of July 2013

July 1 - Chili Cold Blood (And Now the Dawn)

July 2 - Pyres (Year of Sleep)

July 5 - GOATESS (ST) - Pure psychedelic doom.  The sum of Swedish quartet Goatess's debut was greater than its parts and made for one of the best debut records of the year.  Then again, it wasn't entirely unexpected as I can't see legendary vocalist Chritus being involved in anything that isn't great.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Eyes of Zamiel" and "Devil's Wind".  Rating 4/5

July 5 - TOMBSTONE (Where the Dead Belong) - Though the official release date for this one is in January, the album was available for streaming only for months, it wasn't made available to download until this date.  In the end, it was a terrific collection of stoner blues riffs in the Church of Misery mold and a light years leap forward from their 2012 debut EP.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Werewolf" and "No Tomorrow".  Rating 4/5

July 6 - Black Majik Acid (ST)

July 6 - Ride Into the Sun (ST mini-LP)

July 8 - Corsair (Alpha Centauri)

July 9 - DIRTY STREETS (Blades of Grass) - The long awaited follow-up to this Memphis trio's excellent 'Movements' album displayed a soulful veneration of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and the J.B.'s while still sounding like back country cousins to the Black Keys.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Blades of Grass" and "Truth".  Rating 4.5/5

July 9 - EARTHEN GRAVE (ST) - What's not to love about this one?  Ex-Trouble man Ron Holzner, world-class violinist Rachel Barton Pine and a great vocalist in Mark Weiner help make Earthen Grave's debut on Ripple Music a winner.  Guitarists Jason Muxlow & Tony Spillman pile on the riffs like mashed potatoes while Barton Pine pours on the gravy.  This album would be a stand out any year in any era.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Earthen Grave" and "Death is Another Word".  Rating 5/5

July 9 - SHROUD EATER (Dead Ends EP) - Florida sludge metal trio Shroud Eater ripped faces on their third official release.  Power packed doom grooves and aggressive vocals set a tone that sticks to you like a sweaty t-shirt in a mosh pit.  This five song EP proves why Shroud Eater are among the leading [piercing] lights of Southern Sludge.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Tempest" and "Sudden Plague".  Rating 4.5/5

July 16 - PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS (Walk Through Exits Only) - Pantera / Down / Superjoint Ritual, etc. frontman Phil Anselmo's debut solo album was a remarkable work from a lifelong metal fan who simply wanted to add to his beloved music without repeating anything that had been done before.  No small task.  Well, the results speak for themselves as Phil Anselmo crafted a stunningly good metal album that simply defies subgenrefication.  It's all the more remarkable considering the 40-something year old had never really written music before.  That's not to downplay the contributions of his backing band, called 'The Illegals' for this particular release.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Walk Through Exits Only" and "Battalion of Zero".  Rating 4.5/5

July 16 - Trouble (The Distortion Field)

July 18 - BORRACHO (Oculus) - D.C.'s resident stoner rock kingpins crushed with their first substantial offering of new material since 2011's critical darling 'Splitting Sky'.  Reduced to a power trio, the band nevertheless delivered a free-flowing album that is not only a worthy follow-up to their debut, but arguably surpasses it.  Get it here. Highlights include: "I've Come For It All" and "Empty".  Rating 4.5/5

July 21 - Fangs of the Molossus (ST)

July 21 - Sumeru (ST EP)

July 23 - CURSE THE SON (Psychache) - 'Psychache' was up for streaming on bandcamp for as many as 7 months before it was finally made available for download to the public on this date.  It took a hot minute for the album to catch on, but when it did it wouldn't let go.  Hands down Ron Vanacore's riffs and vocals and drummer Michael Petrucci's groovy-infested syncopation made this one of the year's top notch doom records.  It was later still pressed to vinyl and released by STB Records.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Spider Stole the Weed" and "Goodbye Henry Anslinger".  Rating 4.5/5

July 23 - MISS LAVA (Red Supergiant) - 'Red Supergiant' was actually released late in 2012 and flew completely under the radar until Small Stone Records caught wind of it, re-mastered it for more depth and re-released it on this date.  This is where you go when you're looking for a full album's worth of relentless stoner grooves.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Ride" and "Desert Mind".  Rating 4.5/5

July 24 - Wicked Inquisition (Silence Thereafter)

July 26 - Dozer (Vultures EP)

July 30 - HOLLOW LEG (Abysmal) - Florida sludge metal quartet Hollow Leg upped the ante in a major way on their second album, providing some of the most memorable moments in the genre all year.  They did this with riffs, memorable lyrics and bone splintering power grooves of atomic blowback proportions.  Seriously, don't let this one fly under your radar.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Ride To Ruin" and "Abysmal".  Rating 4.5/5


Best Album From June 2013:
'Psychache' by CURSE THE SON

Best Song From June 2013:
"Abysmal" by HOLLOW LEG

PARANOID Thoughts:

I've prepared a Top 20 Albums on the Rise list as a companion piece to last night's Top 20 I didn't listen to enough.  Most of the albums on this list I only just caught on to recently or was too busy focused on other albums to devote an appropriate amount of attention to until just recently, and some of them are re-discoveries of albums that simply slipped past me.  Basically, I'm trying to give as many deserving albums a share of the spotlight as possible.  These are all albums on the way up my lists ...

(Deep breath...) The Top 20 Rising Albums That Probably Would Have (or at least Might Have) Made the Top 100 of 2013 List if it was Published Two Months Later (now, exhale ..!):
1). Subrosa - 'More Constant Than the Gods'
2). Arrowhead - 'Atomsmasher'
3). Motörhead - 'Aftershock'
4). Blackwitch Pudding - 'Taste the Pudding'
5). Black Majik Acid - ST
6). Sangoma - 'Diviner'
7). Gaggle of Cocks - 'Low Class Trendsetter'
8). Bayou - ST
9). Zemial - 'Nykta'
10). Eye - 'Second Sight'
11). Fuzz - ST
12). Slasher Dave - 'Spookhouse'
13). Bardo Pond - 'Peace on Venus'
14). Stoned Cobra - 'High & Mighty'
15). Cokegoat - 'Vessel'
16). Doomriders - 'Grand Blood'
17). Earth Witch - 'Earth Bound' EP
18). Foghound - 'Quick, Dirty & High'
19). Ride Into the Sun - ST mini-LP
20). Djinn & Miskatonic - 'Forever in the Realm'*

*Looks like this project may now be defunct according to bassist Jayaprakash Satyamurthy.

Hour of Power 11/23/13

1. Exordium (animated short) 2013
2. The Vampyre of Time & Memory (Queens of the Stone Age / ... Like Clockwork) 2013
3. Bullets & Graves (Corrections House / Last City Zero) 2013
4. Battalion of Zero [live at Housecore Horror Fest] (Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals / Walk Through Exits Only) 2013
5. Abysmal / 8 Dead (In a Mobile Home) [live] (Hollow Leg / Abysmal) 2013
6. Shroud Eater [live in Savannah, GA] 2013
7. Champions (Sandrider / Godhead) 2013
8. Ancient Light (Mountain Witch / Cold River) 2013
9. The Blood Is Cold (Dozer / Vultures EP) 2013
10. Frown Curve (March the Desert / Waves on the Moon EP) 2013
11. Cosmic Communion (Brimstone Coven / II) 2013
12. Groundman (Terra Firma / Harms Way) 2001 'classic clip'

Hour of Power 10/26/13 (playlist)

1. Goodbye Gemini (Blood Ceremony / The Eldritch Dark) 2013
2. Children of the Sun (Nightstalker / Dead Rock Commandos) 2012
3. Heartbreaker (Motörhead / Aftershock) 2013
4. Loner (Black Sabbath / 13) 2013
5. Golachab (Saturnalia Temple / Impossibilum EP) 2013
6. Go Blind (Shooting Guns / Brotherhood of the Ram) 2013
7. Ride to Ruin (Hollow Leg / Abysmal) 2013
8. Conscience (At Devil Dirt / Plan B: Sin Revolución no hay Evolución) 2013
9. Evil Eye (Fu Manchu / The Action Is Go) 1997 'classic clip'

And a special bonus:
10.  Cooking Hostile with Phil Anselmo Episode 1 2013

Hollow Leg - Abysmal (album review)

Cover artwork by Shawn Garrett.

Everything about Hollow Leg is aggressive, from the lyrics to the Pike-ian vocals, from the floor tom pounding drums to the heavy handed way in which they're played.  It's a trait that I find is shared in common with many Florida based bands, a regional in-your-face flavor.  But aggression isn't just chest beating forcefulness, it can also take the form of insistence and when it comes to catchiness and hooks, Hollow Leg drives hard to the hoop and takes it to the house.

And right off the bat, Hollow Leg puts its best foot forward.  Yes, there are puns here.  Album opener, "Abysmal" is the absolute inversion of its name, much like the inverted cross in the wolf's face which graces the album's cover.  No, I'm not talking antonyms.  I'm talking terrific.  I'm talking about a tune torn from the terrifying territory of doom.  The title track of this here album moves you.  It's heavy, groovy, addictive and if and when we're talking about songs of the year, absolutely essential to the conversation.  Driving rhythms duke it out with descending riffs and those vocals.  This shows you the band means business.   And then, as if to prove "Abysmal" is no fluke, the ones with the hollow legs unleash "Ride to Ruin" on your battered ass.  There's an 'it' factor here, my friends.

But first, the band some other sides to show you.  "8 Dead (In a Mobile Home)" spills directly from the mouth of "Abysmal" and is in many ways more low key and yet an entirely appropriate follow up.  Slower and more menacing, this songs gives a good glimpse as to what to expect from this band for the most part on side A, which is lumbering riffs met with a cascading punctuation of crash.  It also happens to be one of the stand out tracks on this debut effort.

And, as if the lyrics and sounds of the first three tracks aren't enough to emphasize the band's keen sense of horror, instrumental track "Pompeii" slams down an almost Nightmare on Elm Street-ish keyboard-like guitar effect with altogether shattering and destructive force.  It needs to be heard to be believed.  This track leads right in "Ride to Ruin".  I don't know, the more I hear it, the more it rivals the title track for catchiness and groove.  It's kind of a toss up here for which one's best, they are both amazing songs.  "Ride to Ruin" just may have you pumping your fist, punching the air in wide swinging arcs.

"The Dog" isn't far behind these two in effectiveness either.  By now the pattern is set, Hollow Leg makes much of hanging moments and empty space.  That's what establishes your swamp funk groove.  They keep it coming too, even towards the end of the disc, relentless in their pursuit of neck breaking grooves.  "Cry Havoc" is perhaps the most musically far-reaching track on the album and brings a return to that mysterious guitar effect while taking the groove to pulsating places.

'Abysmal' is available as a digital download and on LP, you can find both on bandcamp by following the links on the player below.  If you like aggressive and groovy doom, you won't be disappointed

Highlights include: "Ride To Ruin" and "Abysmal"

Rating: 4/5


Total Run Time: 35:30

SCOTT ANGELACOS-VOCALS
TIM CRETER-DRUMS
TOM CROWTHER-BASS
BRENT LYNCH- GUITAR AND BACKING VOCALS

From: Jacksonville, Florida

Genre: Doom, Sludge

Reminds me of: Beastwars, Eyehategod, Shroud Eater

Release Date: July 30, 2013

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