Tag Archives: stoner

THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #115

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This visit to the Singles Bar is quite guitar driven in places, with a brilliant single from a Scottish pop-rock band, some heavy shoegaze, and a slab of enormous sounding stoner rock providing the backbone of the eight picks. That said, there’s still enough of a deviation from rock influences to make this as strong as previous Singles Bar selections, with a soulful number shared by one of George Ezra’s colleagues, a great synth based track, and a piece of soul driven pop ready to be discovered. As always, of course, we hope you find something new to enjoy.

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RAVINE – Chaos And Catastrophes

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Labelled “extremely brutal” by Eyehategod guitarist/Down drummer Jimmy Bower, Ravine pull no punches when it comes to delivering a heavy riff. The Oregon band’s brand of sludge/doom and hardcore mightn’t reach the insane levels of heaviness set by Byzanthian Neckbeard or Dopethrone, but the best moments on their 2025 release ‘Chaos and Catastrophes’ are on a par with many a great and muddy sounding, riff wielding act.

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ELECTRIC CHILDREN – Deceivers / Blood Red River

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Electric Children’s 2022 single ‘Triste Journee’ was an interesting recording. It featured prominent garage rock guitars, punchy keyboards that drew as much influence from novelty horror rock as much as 60s fare from the likes of Question Mark and The Mysterians, and topped that with a muli-lingual lyric that further escalated their slightly trashy vibe. It was certainly nothing like you’d expect from an act being promoted with the stoner rock/desert rock label. Their 2024 single ‘Scene of The Crime’ gave more of a stoner link due to a guesting Nick Oliveri, and although the recording was driven by fuzzy riffs with the tone of Queens of The Stone Age in a particularly punchy mood, the end result, again, owed a little more to garage rock. Shouting gang vocals and a massive drum sound invited stronger comparisons with a ‘Tomorrow Hit Today’ era Mudhoney, but labels aside, it was a huge step forward and an indicator of potentially great things ahead from this band.

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WITCHCRAFT – IDAG

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Five years on from their lockdown release, ‘Black Metal’, which saw Witchcraft trading in their trademark stoner riffs for a bleak, stripped down occult folk sound, and almost a decade after the release of the brilliant ‘Nucleus’, the Swedes play things fairly safely on their 2025 long player ‘IDAG’. In this case, though, the feeling of safety has its own strength: founding member Magnus Pelande sounds more comfortable than ever working within a classic doomy metal format, and for the band’s fans, this return to a more “classic” Witchcraft sound will certainly present a welcome move, even if in some ways it feels like a step backwards.

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FVZZ POPVLI – Melting Pop

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When it comes to stoner influenced sounds, Italian band Fvzz Popvli aren’t afraid of mixing things up a little. On their third album (the prosaically titled ‘III’, released in March 2023), their distorted, Orange Goblin-esque blueprint came with a few very welcome twists. ‘Post Shit’ took a layer of stoner fuzz and placed it across a high octane number that celebrated the spirit of garage punk; the percussive ‘Monnoratzo’ shared some fairly typical stoner rock guitar sounds and a busy Geezer Butler inspired bassline, but injected the usual tropes with more of a Latin American groove, sounding like an uneasy blend of Fu Manchu and Santana, and – perhaps best of all – ‘The Last Place of Shame’ worked a massive chorus to its advantage, with a melody that sounded more like a Britpop throwback from Shed Seven than the expected Sabbath and Corrosion of Conformity influences usually found at the heart of the genre’s usual fare.

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