WYOMING YOUNG AND STRONG – Wicked Upon You EP

Recorded and mixed by Bloodhag’s Jeff McNulty and mastered by the legendary Tad Doyle, this EP from Seattle stoners Wyoming Young and Strong has a huge, live in the studio sound that makes similar works by renowned producer Jack Endino seem half-arsed. Presenting a wall of distortion coupled with sludge/hardcore riffs that sound like early Tad battling with ‘Ozma’ period Melvins, the band take the stoner metal sound from their earlier ‘Black Wire’ LP and ramp everything up about three fold. The results are absolutely devastating.

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SLOWER – Slower

Slower. As the name implies, this band is all about the doom. However, this is doom with a twist. Bringing together members of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Kylesa, Year of The Cobra and others, the performers are famous in their own right, but nowhere near as famous as Slower’s choice of material. This debut album features five Slayer classics, each one drastically reimagined as a timeless doom/sludge piece; five numbers that end up invariably sounding like more like Acid King than Kerry King. It seems inconceivable that speed driven bangers that sound tracked a generation’s metallic apocalypse could take on the stance of Electric Wizard and Witch Mountain, but behind their comical name, Slower have made such things a striking reality.

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WEIRD TALES – Second Coming, Second Crucifixion

It’s taken Weird Tales a fairly long time to actually make a record deserving of their talents. Their early works often sounded like a swampy, low budget mess; their EP of blues covers was a woefully misjudged experiment, and although their live EP from 2021 was very cool in its own way, it often sounded like there was a much better band desperate to be heard underneath the mass of distortion.

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CULT BURIAL – Reverie Of The Malignant

In September 2021, right at the point the UK found itself between two pandemic lockdowns, extreme metal band Cult Burial released their ‘Oblivion’ EP. A genuine musical onslaught, its three tracks combined elements of thrash metal, technical death metal and hardcore to create an absolutely punishing listen – in the best possible way. For lovers of such extremity, it was a pure joy – an example of a band taking familiar traits and pushing forward into new, complex musical landscapes. If you could bend your ears past the noisiest elements, each of the arrangements showcased a real sense of adventure, proving these musicians were more than a cut above your average death metal band.
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ABIURO / FALSE GODS – Split EP

It’s East vs. West on this sludge metal face-off from Doom Fujiyama Records when Japan’s own Abiuro go head to head with New York riff beasts False Gods. Two of the scene’s heaviest bands together on one release automatically ensures a doomy delight, but the stakes are even higher when both acts turn in some of their most immense riffs to date.

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