2013 Chronicle (Year in review) part 9 - Best of August 2013

August 2 - Picaporters (Elefantes)

August 5 - Causa Sui (Euporie Tide)

August 6 - NIGHT DEMON (ST EP) - There are a mountain of terrific 4-song E.P.'s on the market but few generate as much excitement as 'Night Demon'.  For fans of metal, this is like being transported through time and space.  The year is 1980, the place is a pocket dimension in which bicep flexing, beer-spitting riffs combine with soaring clean vocals.  If that sounds obnoxious to you, then you are wrong.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Night Demon" and "The Chalice".  Rating 4.5/5

August 9 - BEELZEFUZZ (ST) - Maryland doom trio Beelzefuzz released their debut record through Church Within Records on this date and I haven't been able to put it down since.  Soaring vocals are entwined around a big epic sound to create one of the more infectious albums of the year.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Lonely Creatures" and "Hypnotise".  Rating 5/5

August 10 - Weedpecker (ST)

August 13 - ICE DRAGON (Born a Heavy Morning) - Ice Dragon's most ambitious album to date cuts a wide arc across the various musical guises of the band.  From AM radio pop opener "Wakin' Up" to a middle section that's as heavy in atmosphere as a migraine, the album is a shitty day in microcosm, which is sucks to live through but is great to listen to.  This album also marked the first time that Ice Dragon found themselves on CD (through Navalorama Records).  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "I'm Lost" and "The Past Plus the Future Is Present".  Rating 4.5/5

August 15 - SPIRAL SHADES (Hypnosis Sessions) - This cross-continental collaboration is a marvel of the internet age.  Khushal brings Ozzy-esque vocals from India with a flair that can only come from his cultural heritage while Filip cut his teeth as youtube cover song sensation Deventy before bringing a startlingly organic style of guitar shredding complete with amazing riffs from The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Norway.  This 9-song demo is incredible.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Illuminati" and "Torment".  Rating 4.5/5

August 24 - The Myrrors (Ramona Parra single)

August 25 - Arkham Witch (Hammerstorm)

August 27 - 45 Rats (Electric)

August 27 - RED HOT REBELLION (Melt the Sky) - Dayton, Ohio's Red Hot Rebellion only knows one speed: the speed of projectile vomit.  This 5-song EP is the follow-up to last year's stellar self-titled 10-song collection and it continues the band's white knuckled focus on pumping out party anthem rock n roll.  Don't miss this one!  Get it here. Highlights include: "You Bring The Thunder, I'll Bring The Lightning" and "Alcohol".  Rating 4.5/5

August 27 - SPACE MUSHROOM FUZZ (A Possible Paradox) - 'A Possible Paradox' was Space Mushroom Fuzz's second album of the year and it wouldn't be their last.  This six-song space rock trip continued to explore the hidden boundaries between 70's hard rock riffs, trolling the outer limits of melody and growing cultures of free flowing improvised jams like fungal spores in a petri dish.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "For a Lifetime" and "A Possible Paradox".  Rating 4/5

August 28 - Djinn & Miskatonic (Forever in the Realm)

August 30 - CHURCH OF VOID (Dead Rising) - It didn't take long for this Finnish doom metal quintet to make an impact on the scene.  After releasing an excellent 4-song E.P. early in the year, the band signed with the impeccable Svart Records and released their first full-length album on this date.  It's a killer record that brought out the metal aspect in the band's doom metal sound.  Church of Void have marked themselves as a band to watch in the coming years.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Winter Is Coming" and "Dead Rising".  Rating 4/5

August 30 - DOCTOR SMOKE (Demo 2013) - Here's a band that quite literally came from out of nowhere and blew my socks off ...  From a tiny town in Ohio, Ole Doc Smoke's 4-song debut may be the best, catchiest E.P. I've heard since Moon Curse's unimpeachable 5-track debut from last year.  This new band compares favorably to Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats but substitutes the latter's Beatles influence for that of Pentagram.  After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the band has recently finished recording their first full-length album.  Based on the strength of this E.P. it promises to be an early contender for album of the year for 2014.  Original review here.  Get it here. Highlights include: "The Willow" and "The Seeker".  Rating 5/5

August 30 - Moonbow (The End of Time)

August 30 - Stonegriff (Prologus Magicus)

August 31 - ARROWHEAD (Atomsmasher) - How this album nearly passed me by is a testament to my own ignorance as Super Doom Chart contributors kept voting for it over and over again for a period of months.  I can see why they did almost instantly when I finally gave it a spin.  An authentic desert rock sound that gives Vista Chino a run for their money, this Aussie trio quietly released one of the absolute best fuzz rock albums of the year on this date.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Eagle Death Machine" and "Blood From a Stone".  Rating 4.5/5

August 31 - The Auras (ST EP 2)

August 31 - BLACKWITCH PUDDING (Taste the Pudding) - This is one I only caught onto recently, but it's a great one (thanks to Sludgelord for bringing the band to my attention).  What we've got here is perhaps a stateside equivalent to the UK band Groan, who are all about good times party anthem hard rock played fast and mean.  Get it here. Highlights include: "Mortre'D" and "Super Sluts From Outer Space".  Rating 4/5


Best Album From June 2013:
'Beelzefuzz' by BEELZEFUZZ

Best Song From June 2013:
"Night Demon" by NIGHT DEMON

PARANOID Thoughts:

If you didn't know this already I am Canadian, living outside of Vancouver, BC.  What can I say?  I don't mind being a homer and giving just a little bit extra support to my neighbors, that's what we do up here because we're fucking polite.  Got it!?!?  2013 was a strong year for Canadian hard rock and metal, maybe the strongest I've ever seen.  With debut albums by La Chinga, Anciients and Pyres drumming up attention from a variety of sources, you might say it was a banner year for Canuck rock.

However, Canada still lags behind the rest of the world in terms of the amount of heavy underground bands compared to other small market nations.  It's a boot time Canada started flexing its igloo-living, moose-wrestling, lumberjack-job-having muscles.  There is hope though, we're a maturing nation when it comes to the world of entertainment and the arts.  Therefore 2014 promises to be just as strong a year as 2013 if not stronger with amazing albums by Sandveiss [see the paranoid review by Love Among Ruins here], the Sludgelord approved Dead Ranch and the Shadow Kingdom Records released self-titled Funeral Circle album all set to make an impact on the Paranoid Best Of 2014 list already.

Oddly, I never actually heard what may have been the best hard / stoner rock album to come out of Canada this year, that being 'Furiosity' by Monster Truck.  I've heard the singles on the radio and I actually just grabbed it so don't give me too hard a time about it, we Canadians are kind of sensitive.

The Top 10 Canadian Albums of 2013:
1). Blood Ceremony - 'The Eldritch Dark' (Toronto, Ontario)
2). Tumbleweed Dealer - ST (Montreal, Quebec)
3). La Chinga - ST (Vancouver, B.C.)
4). Pyres - 'Year of Sleep' (Toronto, Ontario)
5). Holy Mount - 'Alpic' (Toronto, Ontario)
6). Anciients - 'Heart of Oak' (Vancouver, B.C.)
7). Black Wizard - 'Young Wisdom' (Vancouver, B.C.)
8). Diablo Strange - 'Sordid Tales' (Moncton, New Brunswick)
9). The Auras - ST EP 2 (Toronto, Ontario)
10). We Hunt Buffalo - 'Blood From a Stone' EP (Vancouver, B.C.)
Honorable mention: Monster Truck - 'Furiosity' (Hamilton, Ontario / never heard it, bro)

Hour of Power (08/24/13)

1. Southern Discomfort (Eyehategod / Southern Discomfort) 2000
2. Lucifer Takes the Crown (Nymf / From the Dark) 2013
3. Cult of the Witch Goddess (Fangs of the Molossus / ST) 2013
4. The Watcher [live 2013] (Ice Dragon / The Burl, The Earth, The Aether) 2010
5. Lathe Biosis (Pelican / Forever Becoming) 2013
6. Concrete (Batillus / Concrete Sustain) 2012
7. The Juice (Causa Sui / Euporie Tide) 2013
8. Babylon (The Scimitar / rehearsal video) 2013
9. The Tower (Blizaro) 2013
10. Torment (Spiral Shades / Hypnosis Sessions) 2013
11. Hush [live on Playboy After Dark] (Deep Purple / Shades of Deep Purple) 1968 'classic video'

Spiral Shades - Hypnosis Sessions Demo (album review)

Spiral Shades represents the best of what the internet has to offer to the arts.  Filip Petersen, a musician from Norway who, on the strength of cover song videos uploaded to youtube, has garnered a solid cult following and parlayed that into a globe-spanning recording effort with a like-minded friend from India.  On youtube, he is called Deventy and his videos are well-known and well-loved in the world of doom metal.  Now, it appears, it's time for him and Khushal Bhadra (guitars, vocals) to "give back" to the genre.

Right off the  bat, Spiral Shades hit you with energy and power.  In some ways it's an unusual first strike, rather than building layers of ever increasing slow and heavy waves before launching into a fully formed composition as would be the typical doom thing to do, Spiral Shades just grab you and toss you into the deep end all at once.  But it's on this opening track, "Frustration" that you already begin to see how aptly named the band is as the riffs hammer, bend and curlicue in agonizing contortions ... and it sounds great!  Bhadra is Ozzy-like, sounding nearly like Christian Linderson of Goatess & Lord Vicar, etc., he does it with a good deal of skill and it never sounds strained or forced the way some Ozzyesque vocalists can be, but just a word of warning for listeners, don't expect a lot of variation in range, technique, melody or style.  "Frustration" sends a shock through the listener with its abrupt beginning, but before too long the band settles down into a sound which may soon become one of the more highly original and identifiable within the genre.

This duo also released a trio of preview songs on Soundcloud in the days and weeks leading up to 'Hypnosis Sessions' release.  "Illuminati" was the first of these that I heard.  Chandleresque hammer-ons, drums that build to a crashing climax and frothy electro static fuzz are married to a vocal that is every bit as Ozzy as it is inherently Indian with its steady vibratto melodies.  Spiral Shades have something unique going on here.  There are little bits and pieces that sound vaguely like doom bands that have come before, and only the best and most classic doom bands at that, however, the full compliment of elements can't help but congeal into something fantastically unique.

Spiral Shades distinguishes themselves by their high energy and virtuosic performances.  The guitars speak on this demo.  They speak in a language that is sophisticated and distinctive and they speak it in a loud and authoritative voice.  On this album the guitar is an instrument of interstellar / infernal communication, pulsating, twitching, convulsing, billowing, rending but never breaking.  "Wizardry" is perfectly named as a showcase of the band's guitar wizardry indeed.

Typically, songs are kept on the upper end of the doom speedometer, when Spiral Shades slows things down it's as a counterpoint to the headiness of the rest of the album, dragging you through the sewer as it were, perhaps for some perspective.  And though they're a faster band than most doom combos, their resonant sound rumbles speakers with the deepest, heaviest and slowest of them.

Doommeisters be forewarned, you're going to feel like an idiot if you miss out on this album and everyone's talking about it at the end of the year.  This is easily one of the best and certainly one of the most unique and distinctive doom albums of the year so far, and we're two thirds of the way through the year so that kind of phrase is beginning to take on some meaning.  The internet is a crazy place, where people do crazy things and get a lot of attention for no good reason ... but then on the flipside there are people like Petersen who, as Deventy, does his own thing, makes it interesting, gets a small amount of attention, but from the right kind of people, and parlays it into a demo album that can stand proudly next to the efforts of those who inspired him.  Then there are people like myself who take further notice ... and so on.  What does it all mean?  All I know is that this album could not and would not have been possible without the influence of the internet.  How is it possible to make an album with someone you've never met?  Let alone an excellent one!  I don't know, Spiral Shades do, they can show you how on the player below.

Highlights include: "Illuminati" and "Wizardry"

Rating: 4.5/5


Total Run Time: 54:14

From: Norway, India

Genre: Doom, Metal,

Reminds me of: Black Sabbath, Lord Vicar

Release Date: August 15, 2013

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