NAGA to release debut album March 30

Great news came down to me this morning.  Remember when Naga released this promising E.P. / demo last year? [Read the review here]  Here they come with their debut full-length ...

"Recorded and mixed in Fall 2013 by Maddalena Bellini in Naples and mastered by James Plotkin in Philadelphia, Hēn is NAGA’s debut album: 5 tracks of doom and post-core, a black monolith which recalls Black Metal atmospheres –will be released in Vinyl by the dutch label Lay Bare Recordings (distributed by Burning World Records) and on CD bythe italian labels Fallodischi, Shove Records and La fine in March 30th 2014. The sound evoked by Emanuele Schember (bass), Lorenzo De Stefano (vocals and guitars) and Dario Graziano (drums), is a morbid, pachydermic, low-tuned mid-tempo. Hēn is the word used by the ancient Greeks to indicate the One, the divine principle embracing the whole reality, it’s the highest idea, it’s what the Becoming implies, it’s where everything originates and everything returns."

Why I Doom Part 3 - I Sold My Soul For Black Sabbath

"You can't just turn it off and on like a switch."

It's a familiar refrain.  You hear it at the end of every sports season when teams are asked the pointed question of whether or not they will rest starters and risk losing momentum before the playoffs begin.  If there is anything equivalent to the playoffs in the doom blogging world it's the end of the calendar year.  A time for best of lists and looks back.  In truth, a time of increased traffic and increased workloads.

I took a couple of weeks off at the beginning of the year (after the "playoffs") and the truth is, it's been a struggle to get back up to full speed.  I haven't been in "game shape".  And so that old familiar refrain has proven true.  The spirit is willing but the clock makes weaklings of us all.

One thing I always have time for however, is the first six Black Sabbath albums.  Last week, I was on my way to work and had just finished listening to 'Not So Bad', the killer sophomore outing from Polish stoner band Naked Brown (you better believe a full review is coming!) and stuck for ideas of what to listen to next, I went to the old stand-by solution.  I threw on "Into the Void" by Black Sabbath and chased it with 'Vol. 4' and got through the first half of 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' before my shift started.  It ended up being a productive day at work.  I was energized, excited and just felt good to be me, good to be alive.  I was singing and head nodding on the break room deck, walking around, unable to sit down.  Some 15 years after "discovering" the band, this is what Sabbath still does to me.

The truth is, the feeling I get from listening to those albums is nearly indescribable, but I'll try to do it anyway.  If we all had somebody in our lives that made us feel this way after so many years, I think we'd all be truly happy and basically cut all the petty shit, be productive people and just get on with our lives.  This may seem like a superfluous statement but I think Sabbath fans would all understand what I mean when I say, "fucking people, man!  People!"  Who among us Sabbath fans hasn't found (or at least tried to find) that quiet spot at the party, away from people, in the basement or on the porch or on the un-lit side of the house?  Why?  Because you just need a break from people, because you don't feel like being judged or pressured and just want to relax for a minute, collect your thought and be yourself.  Basically, Sabbath makes me feel like it's okay to be me.  Sure, I feel that way much of the time anyway, but those first six Sabbath albums make me feel like it's really okay and not just something that I take on faith.

I remember my redneck metalhead uncles discussing Black Sabbath reverently and with a twinge of fear or awe in their eyes when I was very little.  The name and associated imagery along with my uncles's reaction to the band made me shy away from them for years.  It's not that I wasn't interested, that I wasn't drawn to this dark, secretive music and its forbidden promises, it's that I knew I wasn't ready.  Surely, this was evil, evil music.  Just hearing it in the background might infect my mind with devils.  Knowing that it was older, slower and heavier than the Venom's and Slayer's of the world just made it seem all the more unholy.  This mysterious entity emerged like a chthonic god of the underworld at a time when feel good hits dominated AM radio.  This was primordial heavy metal, it just had to be the most evil thing in the entire world.  Without hearing too much of it I just knew it was too hardcore for my little mind to handle.  So I latched on to AC/DC and Metallica, Faith No More and Guns n Roses.  Safer stuff.  But in the back of my mind I always knew I'd get there eventually.

My mom tried to raise us Christian and though she failed ... miserably, some of that stuff just never leaves you.  If nothing else, she instilled in me a healthy dose of paranoia.  When I was eight or nine years old she told me that the government was watching me through the TV screen.  She told me that paper money and coins were going to be replaced entirely by "credits" or numbers on a computer and that in order to have access to my credits a future one world government was going to try to make me receive the mark of the beast, which I always imagined was a tattooed barcode on my forehead, and that it all had to do with a final war between God and Satan.  Only those who didn't receive the mark would find their place in heaven.  I only found out last summer that she was raised as a Jehovah's Witness until she became pregnant with my older brother at the age of 14.  It seemed the community elders didn't take too kindly to the little miracle that was my sibling and she was summarily excommunicated for the act of life-giving.  All of this goes towards describing my young mindset which was inquisitive, but tempered by superstition.  I didn't "believe" in any of the stuff she told me, but I thought it a good idea to hedge my bets by not diving head first into the wrong side of the eternal struggle.

But by the time I was 17 years old, I knew I was ready.

I got my hands on the first album and "Paranoid" and there's been no looking back ever since.  The music was incredible with a dark atmosphere like no one else and an otherworldly heaviness.  The subject matter wasn't ao shocking to me though because I saw it coming.  "Black Sabbath", "War Pigs", "Electric Funeral" and "Hand of Doom" were almost tame compared to my expectations.  The shock came later, when I heard "After Forever" for the first time.  Now that I didn't see coming.  Being the age I was I hated the song at the time because it was pro-God and flew so much in the face of what I expected of the band.  Maybe listening to Black Sabbath wasn't the most bad ass thing in the world I could do.  The song is now one of my many favorites from the band and I've even grown to love it's positive nature.  Matter of fact, it's almost the perfect song to capture and articulate the entire ouevre of Black Sabbath (or at least the first six albums) which is: Don't judge a book by it's cover and question everything, especially yourself.

And so, they are the perfect band for the introvert.  The heaviness enshrouds you and comforts you in its darkness, creates a still, internal place where you can really examine yourself, the world around you and your place in it.  Important stuff!  You go this place with headphones and maybe dark sunglasses on and either your hair or a beer hiding your face.  This is a place to get lost in, a place where it's okay, really okay to be who you are, even though you're still working on it.  Above all else, though they are discussing some heavy topics there remains and overlying positivity to it, especially on "Master of Reality" and beyond.

15 years later and through all the changes I've gone through in my musical tastes and trying new things and new genres, Black Sabbath has remained the one constant.  There are other bands that do similar things to me: the first four Metallica albums, Monster Magnet, Alice in Chains and The Beatles spring instantly to mind and perhaps even Nine Inch Nails if I ever listened to it, but Sabbath is Sabbath and I've never failed to observe it and keep it "unholy".  They all do different things to me, but none of them are as "life affirming" as Sabbath.  You go through life and you do your thing, you float through it doing your best and once you pass a certain age it doesn't occur to you that you need some kind of external boost until you get one.  I'm as comfortable in my own skin as I'm ever going to be, but it still feels great to listen to The Six and have that deep seated belief that it's okay to be an outsider confirmed.  The first six Black Sabbath albums (or "The Six" as I call them) are always there for me even when I'm not.  Maybe you can't just turn it off and on like a switch, but The Six will always turn me on when I'm feeling uninspired.  They are like a best friend, a constant companion, they are a part of my life and I couldn't imagine what life would have been like without them.  That's the power of music.

Thanks for reading.

Blood Red Water - Thundersnow in Venice (Official Music Video)

Venice, Italy's sludge doom masters Blood Red Water have released the brand new video for "Thundersnow in Venice", the closing track from their recent 'All the Ills of Mankind' E.P [see review].  It's not the catchiest or hookiest song from the release, but it is perfectly representative of the overall Blood Red Water sound from their first two E.P.'s, including 2012's 'Tales of Addiction & Despair'.  As you may tell from the video thumbnail, it's not a happy sound.  The video is set in Venice and was directed by the band's drummer Fiorica Gasparini.  Like the song itself, the video captures the essence of the band's distinctively despairing sludge.



Directed & Edited by
Fiorica Gasparini

Starring
Carlotta Mazzoni, Lorenzo Petri, Michele Sabbadin, Eric Danzo, Marco Salvatici, Francesco Voltan

Written by
Blood Red Water

Music performed & composed by
Blood Red Water

Recorded by
Gianluca Zanin
Studio Beat2

Copyright
Blood Red Water

Special thanks:
Marco Salvatici, Giulia Simionato, Lorenzo Petri, Emanuele Zago, Carlotta Mazzoni, Luca Ferrarese

http://bloodredwater.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/bloodredwater
bloodredwater@gmail.com

Thanks to Mick for providing the video!

New Recording Contracts for Valley of the Sun & Alunah (News)

The first time I heard Valley of the Sun's 'The Sayings of the Seers' I had one thought:  why aren't these guys signed?  The Cincinnati, Ohio stoner trio would easily fit onto the roster of any of the leading stoner labels or rock labels in the world today.  They were definitely high on my imaginary short list of bands to sign when I start up a record label of my own.  Well, now I wouldn't have to in such an imaginary scenario.  Alunah's star has been rising steadily over the course of the past year.  It seemed like only a matter of time before the Birmingham, England area quartet sealed the big deal and any success they see is well-deserved for this hard-working, excellent band.  Congratulations to both Valley of the Sun and Alunah!  I've been rooting for both of you!! - LK

I would now like to share with you the official press releases of the two signings (Thanks to Platinum PR for sending the news).

VALLEY OF THE SUN SIGN TO FUZZORAMA RECORDS!!! 
- New Album & European Tour Dates in Spring 2014! -

US Power Stoner Rock band VALLEY OF THE SUN just announced that they have signed with Truckfighters' label Fuzzorama Records,who will be releasing the band's upcoming album "Electric Talons of the Thunderhawk" on March 28th in Europe & March 31st 2014 for the UK!
To celebrate the release of their new album live, Valley Of The Sun will be also finally hitting the road next year for some long-awaited European shows alongside with TRUCKFIGHTERS and WHITE MILES! 

Check out all tour dates below & mark your calendar for the release of the new album by Valley Of The Sun - "Electric Talons of the Thunderhawk" - set to hit the European stores March 28th & in the UK on March 31st 2014 via Fuzzorama Records - but rumors saidyou will be able to pick up an early copy at all upcoming live shows!

TRUCKFIGHTERS, VALLEY OF THE SUN & WHITE MILES live in Europe:

Feb 14: Debaser Strand - Stockholm, Sweden
Feb 15: Blaa - Oslo, Norway
Feb 16: Beta - Copenhagen, Denmark
Feb 18 Uebel & Gefaehrlich - Hamburg, Germany
Feb 19 Lido - Berlin, Germany
Feb 20 Groove Station - Dresden, Germany
Feb 21 Backstage - Munich, Germany
Feb 22 Chelsea - Vienna, Austria
Feb 24 Hafenkneipe - Zurich, Switzerland
Feb 25 Freakout - Bologna, Italy
Feb 27 Melkweg - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Feb 28 Divan du Monde - Paris, France
Mar 06 Luxor - Cologne, Germany
Mar 07 AB - Brussels, Belgium
Mar 08 Underworld - London, United Kingdom

www.facebook.com/valleyofthesun

www.valleyofthesun.bandcamp.com
www.fuzzoramarecords.com

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

ALUNAH SIGN WORLDWIDE RECORD DEAL WITH NAPALM RECORDS!

Birmingham based psych doom band Alunah are proud to announce that they have signed a worldwide album deal with Napalm Records!
Alunah worked with them previously on a limited vinyl release of the band's last record "White Hoarhound", and after demo-ing some new tracks entered talks with Napalm Records regarding a full worldwide recording and publishing contract.

Napalm Records will release a limited edition digi-pack and gatefold LP; and Michael Cowell will illustrate the full packaging. 

"Alunah are incredibly happy to have signed a worldwide album deal with the world renowned label Napalm Records. We already have a strong working relationship from when they released a vinyl version of our second album "White Hoarhound", and we are proud to have been asked to join the Napalm family on a more long-term basis. We have a hard working ethic, are constantly evolving and appreciate everything given to us. We are joining a roster which boasts some of the best bands in the industry, and we're confident that this new phase in our relationship is a mutually beneficial one." -  Vocalist & guitarist Sophie Day

Alunah will be working once again with Sound of Liberation regarding the band's 2014 European tour, and will be embarking on a UK tour in May/June. 

Find Alunah on:

www.alunah.co.uk
www.facebook.com/alunah.doom

www.alunah.bandcamp.com

www.napalmrecords.com

The Ultimate Stoner HiVe top 20 albums of 2013

I've been thinking for a long time how to get you guys involved in the doom charts in some way to make them into something really special.  That's one of the reasons I started doing the Super Doom Chart every month, as a kind of beta test.  I'm still working on it, but I'd be more than happy to take your suggestions on the matter in the comment section below or on the Paranoid Hitsophrenic facebook page.  But my buddy Joop Konraad of the Stoner Hive blog has already found a way to get everybody involved and engaged with an annual end of the year top 20 list of his own.  Draft up a ranked list (top 1-5, after that it doesn't matter) of your favorite albums released in 2013 from any genre of music and send it via email to stonerhive@gmail.com.That's all you have to do.    As Joop says, the list can be 1, 5, 10, 20, 41 or 968 albums long. The lines will stay open until December 11, on the 12th of December Joop will roll out #20, that's the 20th most voted for album by you and me.  The 19th spot will roll out on the 13th and so on until the list reaches its stunning conclusion.  Last year, it was a lot of fun and he does a great job of rolling the albums out.  I must admit it's pretty exciting checking in to the Stoner Hive every day to see what album comes in next.  So get cracking on those lists!  There's less than a week of voting left to go, but surely enough time to send one in.  I encourage you all to do this so we can get the most accurate look at what albums people loved from 2013 as we possibly can!  I'll leave you with the words of Joop Konraad:

About a week ago we put out the first announcement to get the attention of all of you lovely freaks out there. Which already garnered quite some results. Even though the deadline to send in your list of favorite albums of 2013 closes on December the 11th. We already received TWENTY-TWO lists in past days. Amazing! So send yours as well in the upcoming days; before the countdown of the Stoner HiVe top 20 albums of 2013 starts on December 12th... Send yours HERE. Do it. Otherwise this dude will come and kick your ass! Or so he claims…

Just to be sure here are the rules once again. It is a weighted vote count. But you decide how many albums you sent in and if they are in any order. You can send in 1, 5, 10, 20, 41 or 968 albums. They need to be released between December 2012 and now. When they are in no particular order they are all counted as high vote; but not as top three votes. Otherwise the points are cast in the order you put them with the top three gaining a few extra points. And you can vote for any album or EP you desire…

Check out the earlier editions to see the outcome the past few years… It has been a steady grower and we hope to exceed the amount of lists we received last year… Here’s us hoping it will happen… So let’s all dress up like Santa and start making a list; checking it twice… And find out who’s damn heavy and who’s got the detonating device… Err..!?

And this update:

The lists are rolling in nicely! But let’s push the people around us into action. We can always use more. Said the sex addict to the alcoholic… Even though the deadline to send in your list of favorite albums of 2013 closes on December the 11th. And we start the countdown on December 12th; we would love to see the lists roll in even more… So send yours HERE. Cause even this guys is counting the days on his seven fingers! 

See what's up on all the posts about the Ultimate Stoner HiVe top 20 countdown HERE !

Send your lists HERE

Do it!! You know you want to ...

Hamburg's Hammer Studios (GAMMA RAY / DARK AGE ) destroyed in a mass fire: HELP FOR THE BANDS!!

I was sent this bit of bad news late last night.  I just got home from work so I'm posting it now.  There was a fire at a Hamburg (Germany) practice / recording studio and several bands lost all their gear and equipment in the blaze.  Though I'm not familiar with any of the bands I understand how unbelievably shitty it must be for a band to lose all of its instruments and I also feel a bit of urgency to help as my paternal grandfather was from Hamburg.  Please help out if you can.  Read the press release  below to find out how:

Hamburg's Hammer Studios ( Gamma Ray / Dark Age ) burnt down! 

- Help for musicians in organisation with the Hamburg Cultural Foundation + donation account now available! -

It is a dark time for the music scene in Hamburg, Germany: On Monday, November 18th 2013, the legendary Hamburg-based 'Hammer Studios', ran by Kai Hansen & Dirk Schlächter of Gamma Ray and Eike Freese (Dark Age), burnt down in a mass fire. 

The recording studio, several practice rooms of Hamburg-based bands and a visual artist studio were completely destroyed. The damages are immense and according to initial estimates more than in a few hundred thousands. Together with the Hamburg Cultural Foundation an official donation account for the involved artists, who have lost their rehearsal rooms, studios & full equipment in the fire, has now been established.
For reasons yet unknown, on Monday, 18/11/2013 a warehouse complex in Hamburg went up in flames. Affected by the fire including the prestigious 'Hammer Studios' are several rehearsal rooms of local bands such as Brothers In Arms, A Million Miles, Chain Reaction, Black Hawk, Sambódromo, Kamizaraky, The Golden Creek or Cate 's Leila .
Valuable musical instruments, all guitar collections, amplifiers, and studio facilities were destroyed in the mass fire. Most of the bands are uninsured or underinsured and now fear for their existence.

In order to help these artists quickly and easily, a consortium of helping hands has now been launched in support of the victims:
The Facebook page  »Help4HammerStudios«  now acts as the central point for those who want to help. Within only a few hours more than 4,500 people have already found together who want to support the musicians, whether in kind and cash donations till offering equipment or new rehearsal room facilities. In addition, already more than 50 bands have reported their assurances to support their musician fellows in form of benefit concerts.
With a separate fund-raiser campaign among its members as well as at this year's 'Hamburg Music Prize' "Hans" on November 27th, also thecommunity of interest 'Hamburg Music Economy (IHM e.V.) want to help the affected artists and music companies.

The Hamburg Cultural Foundation has just established an official account for donations to support the artists & producers, who have lost everything in the fire:

Name: Hamburgische Kulturstiftung
Bank: Berenberg Bank
IBAN DE25201200000052757010
BIC BEGODEHH
Keyword:  Help 4 Hammer Studios

More infos & how YOU can help at:
www.facebook.com/Help4HammerStudios
www.facebook.com/groups/HELPHAMMERSTUDIOS

Doctor Smoke Full Set from Stoner Hands of Doom XIII

Appearing out of nowhere from a village called Mingo Junction in Ohio, Doctor Smoke seem to have an "it" factor to them.  The band combines many of the best elements of the stoner and doom sounds into a sleek and heavy rock n roll beast.  I'll be featuring the band right here, sometime next week and I'll get more into it then.  A week ago, Doctor Smoke appeared at Strange Matter in Richmond, Virginia for the Stoner Hands of Doom XIII festival and their full set has been posted to youtube.  It was shared to me via their Indiegogo campaign [link below] which they set up to fund their debut full-length album.  I'm not sure if I should be sharing this video or not, but like a good journalist, I cannot keep a secret.  I believe it's the people's right to know!!  The 31 minute show features a couple of the songs from the band's already released demo [link(s) below], but the bulk of the set is comprised of songs from the upcoming full-length album.  Here's your sneak preview.  Enjoy ...

(and if you do enjoy, please contribute to the band's indiegogo campaign)



Doctor Smoke Indiegogo campaign

Doctor Smoke on facebook
Doctor Smoke's ENTIRELY FREE demo on bandcamp

German Fuzzrockers DAILY THOMPSON Video for "Attract Me"

Fresh off the Paranoid Newswire from Bilocation Records, recent label signees Daily Thompson have released a video for "Attract Me" from their three song demo.  Okay, it's not so fresh and you may have caught the video on a certain phallic-themed website a couple weeks ago, but I didn't, I missed that one entirely and I'm thinking that maybe some of you did too.  So here it is and I'm glad the guys from Bilocation sent me the link, thanks dudes!  As for the video itself, it's your basic "band in the jam room" set up but the song will strangle you with groove and for that alone, the video is compelling.  It's so damn groovy I had to watch the video twice in a row!! (And uh ... just for the record, it had nothing to do with seeing bassslayer Mephi move along to said groove, alright?  Nothing!)  Anyway, the big news here is that the band is going into the studio to record their debut full-length album next week.  It promises to be a good one, and in the meantime, I'll just be sitting here waiting to hear it.



The band will go into studio next week and record their first full length after the huge success of their 3 track demo, featuring their version of superfuzzy heavyrock! The debut album will be out on high quality vinyl through Bilocation Records in 2014!

The three soundvisionaries of Daily Thompson mix their personal influences from early Grunge & best Stonerrock combined with their special groove to a massive overridden, extremly fudgy Superfuzz-Bigmuff!
Guitar, bass, drums. Rehearsals – Recordings – playing shows!

Out of this mentality, musical playfulness and the associated enthusiasm for absolute lunacy the band “Daily Thompson” was formed in late 2012. The listeners can hear from the live in the studio recording sessions the usual Fuzz-, WahWah- and distortion attacks of DailyThompson in such a raw and honest manner that everybody will notice: this band from Dortmund/Germany takes no prisoners!

Daily Thompson on facebook

Daily Thompson soundcloud page
Daily Thompson on Bilocation Records site

Daily Thompson merch page

Old Man Wizard - The Bearded Fool Video

Friends of the blog, Old Man Wizard released the second video from their debut album, 'Unfavorable' on NBC San Diego's Sound Diego program Saturday night.  The band plan on releasing videos for all six songs on the album with each one being as different from the others as possible.  Who thinks none of them will top the 'fun factor' found in this one (yes, that IS a challenge)?  As I've mentioned about a billion times here and there, "The Bearded Fool" is a Paranoid favorite and this video does the song swift justice.  So enjoy and spread it around ...

Why I Doom Part 2: One Year "Uninterrupted"

One year and just a sliver shy of 100,000 page views later, there are no regrets.

I started this blog because there were so many great albums around, I wanted to do my part to help promote this criminally underappreciated subgenre that had restored my faith in new music.  It was also a good way to stay in shape writing-wise and to give myself a challenge.  I had never done an album review before I started Paranoid Hitsophrenic and I had no plans as to how long I would keep this thing going.  No expectations and no second guesses were just about the only rules I went into this thing with.  Well, those two and the idea that negative reviews are a waste of everybody's time.

Oh, just a thought about the name of the blog.  I'm not great with titles.  I knew I wanted a title that riffed on Black Sabbath, but it seemed like all the good ones had already been taken.  So I started riffing on Paranoid.  Paranoia and identity have been running themes throughout my writing and it seemed like the perfect starting point.  I've been doing what eventually became the 'Doom Charts' forever so I'm always looking for hits for my personal charts, a play on words later and a title was born.

The title of this post: "uninterrupted".  If it seems like a lot of the posts here are disjointed and don't flow as a single piece of writing, it's because they are disjointed and the majority of them weren't written in one sitting, or even in one week.  For the most part, I've had to write reviews in bits and pieces because believe it or not, there is a real life that goes on behind the scenes, lazy as I try to be.  I started off writing reviews in single album-length sittings.  It wasn't long though before I got stumped and would have to break things off early and get back to them.  Also, the time it took to write reviews didn't always make me the greatest of people to live with, especially when the blog was new, the routine was new and there was no great reason as to why I was doing it.  Often, I'd be trying desperately to finish a thought or sentence with my ladyfriend trying to get my attention in the background.  My thoughts didn't often win those battles either.  By now, things have settled in to a more comfortable routine of writing around others' schedules, for the most part ...

I got my first couple facebook shares very early on (via Venomous Maximus and Bison, Bison) and that inspired the hell out of me.  I wanted to say thanks or something so I started a facebook profile and, after being a cynical curmudgeon about 'social networking' for a number of years, I'm glad I did it.  Six months ago I started a facebook page for the blog itself and some 240 'likes' later, I'm slowly learning how to run it properly.  I started doing interviews early on because that's just what music sites do and over the course of the year, I think, I learned how to do those the right way too.  Hell, I've even been interviewed myself a couple times (on Temple of Perdition and The Ripple Effect websites) and those were a lot of fun.  They taught me a lot, those interviews.  The thing I'm most proud of is that I continue to learn something new about life or writing every single day and Paranoid Hitsophrenic has been a huge part of that process this year.  It might be time to get back to doing those ...

Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I opened up the doors for review submissions and was excited to see the response.  Before long however, it became overwhelming.  At one point I had a queue of some 70 albums and EP's to review.  Being just one guy, with a full time job, I started being unable to fulfill commitments as the list of submissions spiraled out of control.  For that reason, the year hasn't been a complete success and I had to close the submission door.  I did whittle that list down a bit but there are still 52 albums and EP's in that list that I never got around to featuring.

I went a bit crazy with the year end stuff, which I think is a lot of fun.  I wrote something like 120 or 130 short reviews of different albums in December on top of my regular schedule of articles which put me way behind schedule.  When the new year hit, I decided to up my game and really focus on the writing, trying to make it as strong as I possibly could, and for a time, it seemed to be working.  I started writing reviews on the side for Stoner Hive and it felt like I might be stretching myself a little thin.  Then I opened my big mouth and said how much I'd like to write for Sludgelord ... one day.  Well, it seemed there was no time like the present.  It wasn't long after that that The Temple of Perdition came calling.  I'm a huge fan of that blog too and there was no way to refuse the invitation to write for them.  I had a week off in February and I pulled myself out of the quagmire and got a week ahead of schedule.  By mid April I was behind again, writing for four blogs and starting to struggle with the words.  How do I say roughly the same thing in a new way?

It was around that time that I started the facebook page and from an idea by Steve Miller (who writes for Temple of Perdition), I came up with the concept of the 'Super' Doom Charts (he even came up with the name, though that was later).  What an insane thing that was to do, but remember, there have been no regrets here.  Compiling the 'Super' Doom Charts ensured that the end of every month is a chaotic clusterfuck but it's the best damn idea I ever had for this blog.  The first one rolled out June 1st.

Then, the day after America's Independence Day, my Step-Father passed away suddenly and it was time to focus on real life and family once again.  It's still tough and my mom's still taking it hard.  It's still really tough.  Anyway, I had to stop writing for the other blogs after that and there are no hard feelings.  When it happened, I was working on a review of Steak's then-new 'Corned Beef Colossus' EP.  I started writing it at their place, where I was staying for the weekend with my ladyfriend.  We do that occasionally.  I played the EP and Step-dad commented that "Hey, these guys sound like Black Sabbath!"  I wrote it into the review.  I found it weird because of all the bands I listen to, Steak seems like one of the least Sabbath-y of them all.  It was a good weekend.  Less than two weeks later he was gone, and I couldn't bring myself to finish the review.  Just thought I'd share that brief little story.

After that, I just didn't have as much time to focus on the blog and I found myself, more often than not, listening to an album for the first time, reviewing it and posting it here all on the same day.  That's not the way I like to work, but I had to do it to keep this thing going.  By now things have calmed down quite a bit.  These days, I like to listen to an album once with no pressure and no thought of starting a review, then listen to it a second time and write an introduction (things always go easier when you have a good introduction), then listen to it a third time on the day of posting, and write the bulk of the review in that one sitting.  It's a good way to work, I think because it's less stressful.

The blog keeps growing.  Even as I write this, this has been the biggest day for the blog yet.  Why?  I don't know, but things keep expanding rapidly.  I went from 20 pageviews a day to 200, then to 400 and the blog is currently enjoying its first four digit pageview day, a year to the day that it was born.  But it would all mean nothing without the relationships that have been forged along the way.  Getting to know my fellow reviewers and music fiends from around the world and some of the dudes in the bands has been the highlight of the whole process.

Artwork by Olaf (Talis)

It's been a crazy year.  I never thought this thing would catch on, even in the small way that it has.  The readership has grown every single month and the posts here have been shared more times than I can count, more times than I even know about I'm sure.  There was ample opportunity in my personal life and ample excuses to lose interest, stop blogging and move on to other things.  The demands of the blog are such that I've started three short stories, one novel and one non-fiction book (plus another novel idea and an idea for a comic book series) this year and have nothing concrete to show for it.  There were other ideas that came and went too, nothing outside the blog got finished.  There were plenty of blog-related ideas too that came to nothing.  There were so many things I didn't have time to do.  I had no idea what would happen with this blog, but I had about a dozen ideas when I started, most of which were never done, some of which were quickly dropped or only done once.  Time is a mothah and it goes by way too fast.  And yet there are no regrets.  I don't resent the blog for the time it consumes and I don't see it as an imposition.  What's sustained me over the course of a crazy year is that people keep reading and keep sharing what I have to say about this or that album, or my lists of what I'm listening to at the moment.  It makes me give a shit.

Today, Paranoid Hitsophrenic celebrates its first birthday and it's all your fault.  Thanks everyone!

R.I.P.
Rick Cimato (Thinning the Herd)
Mike Scaccia (Ministry, Rigor Mortis)
Jeff Hanneman (Slayer)
Kevin McDade (Behold! The Monolith)
Craig Ethier
Joey LaCaze (Eyehategod)
The Gates of Slumber
Mike Boone (Sourvein)
and everyone else who went down fighting this year.

A PARANOID PREMIERE!! - New OLD MAN WIZARD track "FOREVERMORE", from the upcoming album 'UNFAVORABLE' NOW STREAMING!!

Cover artwork by Valin Mattheis

Some months back I stumbled onto a band called Old Man Wizard and their song "The Bearded Fool".  There was no way I could ignore a band or song with those titles and to have both in one was irresistible.  The song was a giant slayer of classic rock and prog feelings that is almost indescribable and it made a sizable dent on my 'mini' doom charts.

Well the band has a full-length album coming out November 1st and "Forevermore" is your first glimpse of what to expect from it.  "Forevermore" is a mammoth slice of hard edged prog and illustrates the breadth and scope of this individualistic band.

You can find Old Man's Wizard's bandcamp page here and you can find them on facebook right here.  They've got the 6-track album set up as a $1 digital pre-order on their bandcamp right now.

Take a listen ...
 

Why I Doom part 1: What is wrong with radio.

I know how it all works: money.  The roots of all things evil and vile, that dangerous non-substance whose sole footing in reality exists as a collection of worthless paper and coins in our pockets that is neither a good nor a commodity in and of itself but can purchase a human being, if you know what stones to overturn.  It's no more real than the ideas inside your head and yet its presence upon our everyday reality is all-encompassing, even smothering.  It controls what we eat, how we live and even, what we hear on the radio.  Money is given to radio stations around the world for a promise.  A promise to play.  Any thought that the musical "hits" of the world become so of their own volition due to artistic or even popular merit are as accurate and useful as a free election in Nazi Germany.  It is from this fountainhead of the most unnatural of processes that the mainstream is force fed.

And the view above ground is nearly as bad as it could be.  I won't suggest that the current climate of mainstream modern rock radio is as bad as it was between the years 1986-1989, but it's not far off at this point.  There are glimmers and sparks of good music here and there, but are they rays of hope or dying embers?  Evidence points to the latter as most of the decent songs played on my hometown station, 99.3 The Fox, are by aging and waning artists whose peak periods mostly came just before or after I was in high school (that was a long time ago folks!).  Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Queens of the Stone Age & Nine Inch Nails among the most notable.  A small handful of others play heavy, fuzzy rock & roll and are mostly influenced by the Black Keys:  Monster Truck, The Sheepdogs and one or two others whom I can't even name due to lack of identification over the airwaves.

At a glance, this seems like a good pool to draw from.  But the reality is these bands are played intermittently between blocks of five or ten pop songs that simply can not be considered rock n roll.  There's one song out right now (okay I'll google it): "Afraid" by some shitty band called The Neighbourhood.  The lyrics read

"You’re too mean, I don’t like you, fuck you anywayYou make me wanna scream at the top of my lungsIt hurts but I won’t fight youYou suck anywayYou make me wanna die".  

I'm sorry but that's just not rock n roll.  "You make me want to die" is just not a rock n roll response to a given negative situation.  "You make me want to  ... Pick up a sledgehammer" or "You make me want to ... step on the old distortion pedal and play at 11" would be appropriate.  But to roll over and die?  That's not rock n roll.  This and a whole legion of others are clearly pop songs and they dominate rock radio not by brute force and command of presence, but by a naggy insistence brought on by a nauseous amount of repeat plays, which has been brought to you by the letter B for blood money.

Okay, that's a bit strong but the current state of modern rock radio recalls clearly in my mind the days when Robert Palmer, Tears For Fears & The Call ruled the airwaves.  Luckily, I had young uncles.  I wasn't naieve enough to think that this was the best of what guitar oriented music had to offer.  It wasn't often that I got to hear a Judas Priest or Metallica record but that I knew they were around cleared the cobwebs of my mind from ... The Simple Minds.  Even in those days though there were glimmers of hope.  Faith No More & Living Colour had some good songs on the radio in the latter stages of the decade.  But really, when "Cult of Personality" is the best of what the mainstream has to offer rock n roll, it's time to clear the leaves from the creative gutter.

Enter those bands listed above, who mixed Punk Rock with Black Sabbath, Neil Young with Metallica and who otherwise turned rock music on its head.  Sadly, the mainstream legacy they left in their wake is all but irrelevant (Stone Temple Pilots has a new single out with the singer from Linkin Park, want to hear it?), and these bands are left to work their own depleted soil to this day.  But these bands did not spring fully formed out of a vacuum.  The (under)groundwork had been laid by such forgotten 1980's heroes as The Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Mudhoney, The Melvins, Black Flag, Fugazi, The Screaming Trees and any number of all-time greats who never truly got their due.

Which brings us elliptically to the present day, because there is a stirring beneath the surface.  I can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it and touch it.  You can too, reader.  That's why we're here.  Just when what is offered on mainstream radio seems as bad as it could possibly get, the discerning head for the cellar and latch 'er up.  Below ground, heavy guitar based music has rarely been tougher, bolder, more heartfelt or generally better.

It begs the question: can lightning strike twice?  The answer is yes, but in which spot?  Above ground the pundits and punters alike have 'known about' stoner rock for a long time now and for a long time it was considered "the next big thing".  Well, a decade and a half later everybody's still wondering when exactly that "next" time will be.  And what roll doth the internet play?  What roll the blogs to play in this drama of the ears?  We (the bloggers) are pretty much powerless, voiceless and toothless because we don't have the money to promote the bands that deserve and even need to be heard.  We do what we can and it always feels to me that when I've introduced somebody, just one person to a band, that I've done enough.  I've done my job.  That's what it's all about.  But there's always a lingering sense that I'm preaching to the already converted.  You never know, there's always somebody new stumbling accidentally through the cellar doors where bands like Witchcraft, Devil to Pay, The Heavy Eyes, From Beyond, Snake Thursday, Red Desert, At Devil Dirt or any number of Small Stone Records bands (just off the top of my head of "radio worthy" bands) capture them until the hostage becomes a Patty Hearst type figure and supports the cause wholeheartedly.  That's my story anyway.

But, we're not talking about one or two people who tumble down an open cellar door.  We're talking about the big time, big exposure and big airplay.  Why?  I can hear a couple of you murmuring angrily out there about not wanting to lose 'your' band to the mainstream and how it would never be the same again if your cherished underground band breaks through.  How they won't be 'yours' anymore.  Well you, my friend, are a snob, and worse, you would deny a favored musician a degree of financial independence that would ensure him or her that much needed commodity that is always in short supply but more precious than air: time.

I don't know what's going to happen.  If I had to guess, I'd say that things will probably continue much as they are now, until they get even worse that is.  I'm not sure when or even if the breaking point will come when enough (probably high school age or younger) rockers will say enough is enough and they NEED to hear the heavy, NOW.  This moment cannot come soon enough, but when it does, I suspect it won't be what we're hoping for.

In the brandy sipping circles of rock n roll intellectualism, it is considered that the genre goes through (roughly) 13 year cycles beginning in 1951 with the release of Ike Turner's barnstorming "Rocket 88" single which led to the first cycle spanning the years 1951-63 inclusive and is best represented by Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Cliff Richard in the UK.  Then the British Invasion happened, The Beatles changed the sound of music forever and led rock n roll down the garden path of psychedelia which stateside morphed into a near nightmare at the hands of The Doors among others.  This wave eventually lost steam however as the free love generation went the way of disease-addled sleaze of stadium rock and overblown progressive navel-gazing.  Then the next cycle started.  Punk rock dropped an atom bomb on the whole-LP-side long suites and elaborate stage set-ups (costumes and props) of prog with its short blasts of three chord fury.  But, as seems to always be the case, the punk ethic mutated in the hands of mainstream acceptance into new wave and a more in-your-face brand of pop star such as Madonna.  Enter Nirvana and the fourth cycle of rock n roll.  Grunge did away with the synthesizers and canned drum machine and got back to angry levels of distortion and the angst of Generation X that had very little to do with interesting or unique hair styles.  Take it from one who was there, with all that hairspray gone, it was a breath of fresh air.  It didn't last however as grunge paved the way for Nu Metal and I'll be damned if it wasn't time for the next cycle before you knew it.  Only, this one didn't come.  Not really.

I always considered the fifth cycle of rock music to have begun with the release of The Strokes 'Is This It' album back in 2001.  'Garage rock' as it was dubbed by the media then grabbed the rock n roll listener by the throats with The White Stripes, The Hives and Jet, among others following in the New York rockers' wake in quick succession.  The ride didn't last long.  It seemed people were developing shorter and shorter attention spans.  Hell, even the bands themselves seemed to be as well.  It didn't take long, not long at all before bands like the Kings of Leon doffed their exciting, heavy and southern rock approach for a castrated, testosterone depleted and decidedly non-dangerous brand of dentist office soundtrack 'rock'.  And we remain in this phase today to a greater or lesser extent.

Anyway, it's about time for another cycle.  Strictly speaking the sixth cycle won't happen until 2016, but if the fifth cycle started when I believe it did, that accelerates the timeline slightly.  We're about due.  When I listen to what's on commercial radio I'd say we're about due.  And of course, I'm rooting for the stoners!  As a lifelong "heavy guitar-oriented" music fan, I can't tell you how excited I was to discover the stoned and doomed underground early last year.  I hadn't listened to anything recorded after the early 1970's for a good five years before embarking on my voyage of discovery.  I can't tell you how excited I was, but I try to every single time I post something here.  But are the stoners the inheritors of the earth?  My gut and my pessimism say no.  What the hell does it matter that a band like Vista Chino already has over 150,000 likes on facebook when I'm not hearing them and the successive wave of bands behind them on the radio?  That's nearly three times as many as The Sheepdogs and Monster Truck combined and I hear them on the radio all the time (although not often enough because those two, unlike most bands on the radio these days are actually good).

So what will it take for the stoners to break through?  Money.

I don't have it and you don't have it, but somehow it still speaks volumes all around us.  Somebody turn down the damn radio will you?

I suspect that if and when Stoner Rock finally does hog the spotlight it won't be what you or I was hoping for.  Mostly likely it will be pre-fabricated bands that nobody has ever heard of, new bands that come from out of nowhere, cobbled together and put together by labels to produce a manufactured sound.  The labels will pass around Truckfighters albums at meetings, dissecting them and analyzing them at length, trying thickly to understand what it is that makes them probably the best band in the world and how they can tap into that fuzz tone like vampires.  Most likely it would have to be that way because the bands that we cherish down here in the dirt will not be willing to play along with the pre-scripted outrages and marketing blitzes that go along with the whole game.  "Mr. Dango found OD'd in Hotel Room, Revived Moments Later" will scream the headline.  The byline will read "I was hangin' with Jimi, why'd you wake me up?"  One.  Big.  Predictable.  Nightmare.

But you know what?  The stuff I'm hearing on the radio nowadays sucks and somebody needs to do something about it.  Don't you think?

The House by the Cemetery (1981) (movie review)

This is the fourth Lucio Fulci film I’ve seen after Zombi 2, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead and I’m becoming more and more familiar with the ‘language’ of Fulci, his pacing and his tendencies.

A quick plot set-up (no spoilers): A professor moves his family of three from New York City to a small New England town to continue the research of a recently deceased colleague.

An obvious influence on this film is Stephen King’s The Shining, specifically in the form of a ghost who speaks telepathically with the little boy in the film.  Themes of relocation and alienation are present as well.  When the family first arrives in the small New England town, the ghost is actually standing across the street and down a ways talking to the boy just as King had his ghost stand waving on the horizon, calling to Danny in a distant voice.  It’s fair play because Stanley Kubrick decided to leave things a bit more subtle in his film adaptation of the book and as the old adage goes “it’s okay to steal from outside the medium you are working in”.  It’s assumed that not every film goer reads novels and had film audiences only just witnessed the same scene in Kubrick’s take on the novel of a year and a half earlier, it wouldn’t have worked.  Well it works here and I recognized it instantly.  See, one other tool in the storyteller’s bag of tricks is to reference other recognizable works to put a spell on the reader / viewer / audience.  As the mind recalls the more well-known story, it also brings back the feelings of the original.  Done well, this technique adds layers to a story and gains sympathy from an audience (see my review of Uncle Acid’s recent abum ‘Mind Control’ wherein this same technique is used to admirable effect).  Done poorly however, and this technique is simply wretched thievery (see another 'flower-themed' band who shall remain nameless).

Fulci was a master of gore.  Now, gore isn’t necessarily the greatest thing in the world because directors often take a hamfisted approach to it.  Fulci’s gore was over the top as it should be and he’d keep the camera’s eye trained on it for an uncomfortably long period of time.  One scene in particular (and there’s a minor SPOILER here) is when they finally get into the cellar and Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco)’s hand is attacked by a bat.  Norman stabs it with a pair of sharp scissors but the bat doesn’t die.  Not initially anyway.  Fulci kept the voltage turned up on viewers until the smoke started pouring from the skin.  No way, you were going to get off easy in a Fulci movie.  In a Fulci movie?  Forget it!  The man made you squirm.  If there was a death in the story, he wasn’t going to simply cut away to a funeral service.  Fulci wasn’t a reporter, he was a revealer.  If there was a death in the story he was going to show it to you.  It was Akira Kurosawa who said that it’s the job of the artist to never look away.  Fulci never looked away and he was fearless in sharing what he saw.  In a way, he challenged audiences to be the artist, or at least to have an artist’s mind and see what the artist sees, to understand what it was that they saw.  And what they saw was horrorific.

Fulci was also a master of atmosphere.  He could do more with cobwebs and a flashlight than any ten CGI artists put together, hell, any hundred.  Atmosphere is all-important to the horror genre.  While the Doom Metal band grapples with finding just the right and lowest tonal frequencies possible, the horror writer struggles with atmospheric embellishment.  Sure, horror fans, we like an interesting plot and we’ll sit through and hour and a half of slow pacing just to get to the small handful of lasting and horrific images, those things are important, but what we’re really there to experience is the atmosphere of horror.  Aside from those few ‘setpieces’ what atmosphere can do is make an average movie stand out, it can make a boring movie at least visually interesting and it can make a bad movie into something memorable.  Fulci manipulated light and shadow like an ethereal puppeteer.  It’s a conspicuously subtle technique from a man who is known primarily for the gore he wrenched from his characters.  Little visual things like tombstones among dead trees and dusty old books swimming with occult secrets and his use of cellars.  There’s nothing like a good cellar in a horror film.  From Poe’s The Black Cat to Night of the Living Dead ((1968) & (1990)) it’s been a genre trope almost since the beginning.  Fulci extracts full value from his in this movie: loud, creaking stairs; mesmeric eyes peering from shadow (another Fulci trademark but never so memorable as here) with cobwebs and strange, The House by the Cemetery has some of the best basement / cellar scenes in the business.

All that said, the man had his filmmaking flaws and there’s a flip side to all the excellent work Fulci did in his films, this one is no different.  As he was wont to do to exploit the full nauseating potential of his wonderful gore, Fulci often attempted the same technique of engaging in a staring contest with viewers during all major scenes tense or intense.  In other words, he hung around too long.  The problem was perhaps one of feel or one of editing, but the fact is he shot his wad too early too often and just let it sit there creating more awkward moments than ones fraught with exciting tension.  Instead of a slow build up, it was often a long, drawn out conclusion that viewers had to wrestle with and the climactic scene which begins with the young, annoyingly voiced Bob is locked in the cellar creates many a shift in seat, a wristwatch checked, a doodad played with because the attention of the viewer really does flounder.  Both tension and momentum are lost in this scene despite the excellent job that had been done in setting this scene up.

Fulci has Ann, the babysitter who is originally introduced to viewers as a red herring, meet a grisly demise in a similar locked cellar scenario.  Images of dismembered children are there in the lead up to this scene.  Of course, it’s probably best that Fulci didn’t exploit the scene’s full potential with such a set-up because he would have been relentless about it, showing the dismemberment in explicit detail, crossing a line into truly poor taste.  There are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed and an on-screen child murder is one of the thickest, boldest lines one can imagine.  The dismembered corpses of children colors pretty close to outside the borders as is and was one of the elements which gave this film its infamous ‘video nasty’ rating in the UK.  Anyway, in spite of the careful build-up the scene just falls flat.  How long can it possibly take for Dr. Freudstein to walk up a dozen steps anyway?

Of the four Fulci films I’ve viddied, this one is right up there among his best work, though, and once the climactic scene gets moving it leads to some of the most memorable moments in the film.  Although I would have liked to have seen the cemetery aspect of the film’s title emphasized a lot more one can’t fault the man’s overall storytelling capabilities.  Pacing and execution are a little off at times, but that’s as is expected.  At the end, he delivers on the horror director’s promise of a few key unforgettable images (who can forget the knife twisting into Dr. Freudstein churning out a nearly endless ream of maggots?) while padding the memory with a bed of imagery and moments.  But, can anyone tell me just what the hell happens at the very end?

CREEPIER THAN CHUCKY

One of the most disturbing aspects of the film though, has nothing to do with storytelling or technique and everything to do with performance.  The voice of the young boy, Bob Norman (Giovanni Frezzi) is just not right.  This is an Italian movie with Italian direction, and Italian production, but Italian actors speaking English.  The film is overdubbed which adds a soupcon of just right B-grade silliness.  The actor speaking for Bob, the child, is not a child, but a woman trying poorly and failing miserably to sound convincingly like a little boy.  For the first half of the film at the very least it’s a major distraction and I could see it being a deal breaker for some.  It really doesn’t help matters that Frezzi has a naturally creepy quality that is brought out by the character’s indifference and obliviousness towards the horror around him.

As mentioned above Bob befriends a ghost, a little girl who may be a couple years older than him.  She gives him a beat-up and broken limbed doll for him to play with.  Dolls, specifically older dolls are one of the creepiest, ghastliest inventions in the history of mankind.  I haven’t seen the movie Chucky since I was a child, not since around the time it came out and the reason is, dolls are fucking gross, period.  That shit is traumatizing to a young person.  Also remember that episode from Seinfeld where Jerry and Kramer switch apartments after the Kenny Rogers’ Roaster’s sign is turned on ends with a scene where the silhouette of a doll called Mr. Marbles is seen scuttling around the apartment while Jerry tries to sleep.  All of that pales in comparison to the creepiness of this kid and his unnatural voice playing with a girl’s doll.  It pales and withers!

As always, this being a music blog, we've got to talk about the Walter Rizzati film score.  Beautiful and haunting, Rizzati broadcasts waves of paranoia through moviegoers by his use of grating static-y drone which is turned up to 11 in key scenes, then has the rug pulled out from underneath it by a hard cut, just dangling the audience on a frayed string.  It's an effective technique when used at the right moment, but I'm afraid it's overdone here and goes from being a potential legendary masterpiece of Italian horror soundtrack to something that becomes really distracting and ultimately annoying.  Here's a lesson kids, know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Just because something works one time doesn't mean you've got to go back to it every time.  Now, I don't know how much input Rizzati had in these decisions but I suspect they were Fulci decisions, a man who seems to have lived by the credo, "if something's worth doing, then it's worth overdoing".

Rating: 4/5

Directed by	Lucio Fulci
Produced by	Fabrizio De Angelis
Screenplay by	Lucio Fulci Giorgio Mariuzzo Dardano Sacchetti
Story by	Elisa Briganti (as Elisa Livia Briganti)
Starring	Catriona MacColl (as Katherine MacColl) Paolo Malco Ania Pieroni Giovanni Frezza Silvia Collatina
Music by	Walter Rizzati
Cinematography	Sergio Salvati
Editing by	Vincenzo Tomassi
Studio	Fulvia Film
Release date(s)	14 August 1981
Running time	87 min.
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Other links:

Horrorev review

DVD Beaver review

Wikipedia page