2013 Chronicle (Year in review) part 2 - Best of January 2013

We continue our look back at the year that was, now moving month to month in our journey through the best albums of 2013.

January 1 - NEON WARSHIP (ST) - Right off the bat, first day of the year and you get a candidate for best album.  Talk about setting a high standard!  What makes this 5 song album so great?  In short, killer riffs which can shift into improvised freakouts and balls out singing that reaches into falsetto at the drop of the hat.  One of the most energetic albums of the year, and the vocals are the fuel that powers the riffs, which are the engine that drives it.  None of this went unnoticed as the band was later signed by Small Stone Records and I've got a feeling we won't have to wait too long from now to hear the band's next effort.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Carry You Away" and "Paralyzed".  Rating 5/5

January 4 - PALM DESERT (Rotten Village Sessions) - This Polish quintet unleashed an album that sounded worthy of the deep musical heritage from the place where they take their name from.  Melodic fuzz rock to quench the thirst of desert dwellers everywhere.  Palm Desert weren't done here either, they released a largely improvised six song EP later on in the year, but what a way to kick off a solid year for the band and for stoner rock in general!  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Damn Good" and "Acid Phantom".  Rating 4.5/5

January 6 - TSAR BOMBA (Silent Queen) - Grungy French stoners Tsar Bomba blew my mind with their debut album 'Silent Queen'.  Tsar Bomba are at the vanguard of a grunge revival spearheaded by amazing bands like Soundcrawler, Mount Fuji and Mother of God which unfortunately seems to have slightly stalled for the moment (or maybe I've just had my head buried in the sand of doom for too long).  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Enter The Void" and "The Devil's Been Busy".  Rating 4.5/5

January 7 - Lord Summerisle (EP)

January 8 - Half Gramme of Soma (ST)

January 10 - Atomic Vulture (Planet Emerals)

January 11 - ICE DRAGON (The Soul's Midnight) - Ice Dragon's legendary output from 2012 was somewhat curtailed this year.  All they did was put out a mind-bending EP, a timeless album and a soul crushing single in the space of this single year.  Hardly prolific, right (wink, wink)?  The first of their efforts, 'The Soul's Midnight' was a terrific 4 song highlight which showcased a spacier side to the band (they have an endless array of facets).  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Understanding Ouroboros" and "The Soul's Midnight".  Rating 4/5

January 11 - Stone Machine Electric (ST)

January 12 - MARCH THE DESERT (ST) - Brighton UK quartet March the Desert introduced themselves to the world as one of the heaviest stoner psych bands from the British Isles with their self-titled album.  Hints of Cream and Blue Cheer combined with devastating heaviness and the sensibilities of Kyuss to form a heady combination.  The album showed a lot of potential, which they would eventually live up to on a later EP.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Blind" and "Mizar".  Rating 3.5/5

January 14 - Spider Kitten (Cougar Club)

January 17 - Naga (demo)

January 19 - Doublestone - (ST EP)

January 21 - ALEPH NULL (Belladonna EP) - German power trio Aleph Null is black hole heavy, mind bendingly psychedelic and highly intelligent.  Their second EP, 'Belladonna' explored the psychedelic side of the band a bit more fully than their initial release 'Dale'.  'Belladonna' stayed in Paranoid rotation for months, even though it only contains four songs.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Belladonna Wreath" and "Mars Father".  Rating 4.5/5

January 22 - DEMONAUTA (Caminando En La Luna EP) - 'Caminando En La Luna' (walking on the moon) was the first South American release of the year to hold my attention and not let go, and there have been more than a few of those this year.  Beautiful fuzz tone here, drums that are right on the money for what a song needs, making one of the tastiest stoner dishes of the year.  Strange thing is, this thing has a life of it's own.  What started as a five song jaunt around the moon, has grown while you weren't watching into a nine song fuzz marathon.  Check the link to see.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Hotel" and "Hacia el 6to Sol".  Rating 4.5/5

January 22 - HEAD OF THE DEMON (ST) - This was the most fascinating album of the year and I couldn't stay away from it.  Bleak soundscapes and evil vibes create a haunting blackened doom metal soundtrack to tamper with unknowable forces to.  It doesn't hurt the expert atmosphere that the recording itself sounds like the musical equivalent of The Blair Witch Project (1999) or Robert Bloch's Notebook Found in a Deserted House.  If you fear for your immortal soul, you are wise to stay far away from Head of the Demon, listening may be like inviting the demon in.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "By Titan Hand" and "Phantasmagoria".  Rating 4.5/5

January 26 - Lowburn (Soaring High EP)

January 27 - Church of Void (Winter Is Coming EP)

January 28 - MAGIC CIRCLE (ST) - 'Magic Circle' was one of those albums I waited months just to hear it.  It started getting a big buzz around my favorite review sites, but I've got to say tracking it down wasn't as easy as it could have been.  No bandcamp or itunes is fine, but ordering the CD online became a bit of a hassle.  Most important though is the music and Magic Circle seems to have taken the emotional pitch of Pallbearer and infused it with feverish energy.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Winter Light" and "The Greatest Escape - White Shores".  Rating 4.5/5

January 29 - Five Horse Johnson (The Taking of Blackheart)

January 29 - THE GATES OF SLUMBER (Stormcrow) - Well, this turned out to be The Gates of Slumber's swan song (at least for now [fingers crossed]) as the band recently dissolved.  This Scion A/V released 5 song EP featured some of the band's best and doomiest material yet, and it's entirely free.  The one lone bright spot in the band breaking up is the possibility of getting twice as much doom from McCash and Simon with whatever they choose to do next.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Son of Hades" and "Death March".  Rating 5/5


Best Album From Jaunary 2013:
'Neon Warship' by NEON WARSHIP

Best Song From January 2013:
"Carry You Away" by NEON WARSHIP

Top 6 Things Scion A/V did this year:
1). Scion Rock Fest in Memphis, TN
2). The Gates of Slumber - 'Stormcrow' EP
3). Fu Manchu / Moab split single
4). High on Fire - "Slave the Hive" single
5). Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals - "Ugly Mug" single for Housecore Horror Film Festival
6). Scion [Musicless] Music Conference

Hour of Power 02/09/13 (playlist)

Kind of a big week for bands releasing music videos with Jess & The Ancient Ones, Ancient VVisdom and Desert Storm leading off this week's Hour of Power, in that order, with new promo clips, followed-up by some new sounds released by two of the bigger names of the UK doom scene, Moss and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.  Then I get my seventies fix out of the way with a pair of tracks by Road and Jerusalem.  Then we move into some vids from bands reviewed earlier in the week on this very blog, Neon Warship, Atomic Vulture and Torso.  We finish things off with my favorite Troggs song, maybe their most psychedelic outing, "Night of the Long Grass".  Earlier this week Reg Presley (born Reg Ball), lead singer of The Troggs passed away at the age of 71.  Here's to Reg ...

1. Astral Sabbat (Jess & The Ancient Ones / Astral Sabbat EP) 2013
2. Deathlike (Ancient VVisdom / Deathlike) 2013
3. Shadow of an Eagle (Desert Storm / Horizontal Life) 2013
4. Horrible Nights (Moss / Moss' Horrible Night) 2013
5. Poison Apple (Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats / Mind Control) 2013
6. I'm Trying (Road / ST) 1972
7. Midnight Steamer (Jerusalem / ST) 1972
8. Carry You Away (Neon Warship / ST) 2013
9. Missing Link (Atomic Vulture / Planet Emerald) 2013
10. Room (Torso / Inside EP) 2012
11. Night of the Long Grass (The Troggs / Trogglodynamite) 1967

Neon Warship - ST (album review)

The Neon Warship sets sail on their debut release for epic and choppy waters, a sojourn noted for its sea spraying hi-hats and moody breakdowns along the cove of space rock.  Lame riffing on the name aside, this is one of those rare releases that are quickly becoming a favorite around Paranoid Hitsophrenic HQ: the nautically themed album.  It's not enough to give one's band a nautically themed name or the album a nautically themed title, there has to be something more to break through into the nautically themed music category.  Something almost indescribable.  To be nautically themed a band must sound like the sea itself.  The crashing waves, the straining ropes and creaking wood, the cries of gulls and for some odd reason that I can't name, quick strumming on the first three strings evokes a watery mood.  The slower middle part of "Paralyzed" and the beginning of "Burn the Breeze" quite effectively evoke the mood of the sea, as does most of the album.

But Neon Warship has more than just that going for them.  This is a hard rocking album full of big riffs and even bigger vocals.  Opening track "Carry You Away" soars with momentum and establishes the pace and high energy that defines this release.  The tempo may vary but the energy the band puts out is both tangible and relentless.  It's nice, every now and then, to hear a band that embraces naked power and raw skill.  There's not much subtlety on this album.

While there are countless guitarists that do double duties on vocals, rarely does one express such high levels of talent on both as Kevin Schindel.  The first thing that strikes the listener upon hearing Neon Warship for the first time, aside from the killer riffs, is the balls out singing which threatens to shift upwards at a moment's notice and take the head clean off the listener's shoulders.

The next thing that might strike the listener are the high-powered storm-blown winds belched and bellowed by the guitar or sea-spawned drums of Jay Bird which sound like the ocean surface, rhythms lapping like waves intermingling, beneath the surface Matt Tackett's bass currents pull the listener along with a terrible momentum to nearly drown in a kicking struggle.  But this is a hopeful record, not a downer by any stretch and ultimately the listener is washed ashore on a desert paradise, 'Neon Warship' tucked safely under an exhausted arm (format: reader's choice) and a compatible player in a small private thatch-roofed hut just off the beach.  Ultimately the listener wakes up, spits out sand and brine, spies the listening material and nods in approval.

If there were any justice in this world, a song like "Carry You Away" would be number one on all the rock radio stations around the world.  The precedent has been set with a band like Wolfmother.  The similarities are there on the surface: humongous riffing swagger, the aforementioned balls out singing and always impressive punchy dynamic syncopation.  But much as it might be tempting to compare the bands, Neon Warship are more focused in their efforts and a great deal more consistent.  I admit I never heard Wolfmother's sophomore effort but their Grammy Award winning debut was uneven at best, a couple good songs that one was likely to hear on a given night on the radio anyway and dumptrucks full of hype.  Neon Warship won't be getting much hype, except in places like this, but as was said, there's simply no justice.

Nary a weak moment passes during 'Neon Warship''s allotted span.  If there were a new band that played hard and heavy and epic enough to convince one to paint a kick ass mural on the side of one's van and grow a rad handlebar mustache, it would be Neon Warship.  Like a large number of great bands the spirit of the 70s possesses them, but very few albums from the 70s ever sounded this heavy, or this consistently good without veering off into AOR territory, but that's another conversation altogether.  In short 'Neon Warship' is the first hard rock masterpiece of 2013 and the great news is, the band has already written some new songs and is hoping to release a full-length album by the end of the year.  Not sure how much more the band considers a full length album to be, but this self-titled debut is as close as it gets without going over at 36 minutes and change.  It'll be a doozy.

Highlights include: "Carry You Away" and "Paralyzed"

Rating: 5/5

Total Run Time: 36:13

From: Dayton, Ohio

Genre: Hard Rock, Stoner, Psychedelic, Prog

Reminds me of: Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, Captain Beyond, Corrosion of Conformity, Heat, Wolfmother

Release Date: January 1, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: Leave your stomach behind you as you sail the seven galax-seas at warp speed.

Better Reviews:
Soda Shop
Sludgelord

Sludgelord interview