HOBO MAGIC – Hobo Magic

hobo magic lpFrom Brisbane comes classic metal/stoner metal band Hobo Magic; a band deep into the sounds of early Sabbath and more than ready to shake their audience with a rather fierce bottom end. There are hundreds of bands out there churning out post-Kyuss riffage, of course…so many, in fact, that it’s easy for many of them to be overlooked, or indeed, lost in the noise. Fans of the style should make a special pilgrimage through the realms of the internet’s countless stoner bands to find Hobo Magic, for musically, they have something special that really sets them apart.

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SKELETOON – The Curse Of The Avenger

Skeletoon_Curse of the AvengerTomi Fooler was once the vocalist with a Helloween tribute band. Realising the potential for self-written material, the almost laughably named Skeletoon set upon a quest to bring classic sounding power metal to the world. Never letting his love for that German band too far out of his sights, 2016’s ‘The Curse of the Avenger’ often sounds like the kind of album Helloween should have made instead of the fan-polarising ‘Chameleon’ in the early nineties, crossed with the better bits of Roland Grapow‘s Masterplan. It mightn’t come as a surprise, then, that Grapow has been enlisted for lead guitar duties throughout the album – and it’s mostly his presence, old hand that he is at this style, that gives the album it’s best musical moments.

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WASTED SHELLS – Dark Matter EP

wasted shellsWith roots that stretch back as far as 2006, Sweden’s Wasted Shells had various line-up changes before jelling into a more cohesive unit in 2010. Albums followed in 2011 and 2013, between hundreds of live shows, each move a step closer to perfecting the band’s metallic assault. Their third release – 2015’s self-released ‘Dark Matter’ – is a veritable half hour of power.

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ANGERDOME – Angerdome

angerdomeGroove metal arguably came of age with Pantera’s third release for East/West Records, 1994’s ‘Far Beyond Driven’. Taking the sound the band had pretty much perfected on 1992’s ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ and cranking the dials into the red on all fronts, it became the blueprint for all to follow. There have been some great bands working within the metal subgenre since that time, of course, but arguably, Lamb of God set a new standard with ‘Ashes of the Wake’ in 2004.

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