Imagine what Melvins might sound like if they played in a huge aircraft hanger, its empty space echoing each note and increasing the overall intensity. Or perhaps you took Cathedral and Down LPs and played them back at about 15rpm. That’s kind of the effect that you’ll get from hearing this five tracker from Portland sludge merchants Spacebeast for the first time.
Tag Archives: stoner
KING COLUBUS – King Colobus EP
“Breathe out, breathe in…it’s time for the circus to reel you all in” exclaims King Colobus frontman Stewart MacPherson during ‘Tits & Teeth’ – very much a contender the most interesting track on the Devon-based band’s self titled EP release. Acting as part of the main hook, his unsettling request seems at odds with the old stage maxim at first, but it’s that unflinching contrast that makes the track so appealing. There’s nothing flippant about this performance; no greasepaint masking the true emotions. Nor is there anything nothing disposable about the surrounding heavy riffs or swathes of fuzz that drive the band’s sound. Here, perhaps more than ever, the band put across their musical intents with the most clarity. With a combination of stoner rock grooves, dark vocals and alt-rock leanings, these guys have solid foundations.
Thrones, Kings, Minos & Rhinos (A Real Gone Sampler)
An important and popular fixture on the Real Gone calendar, the free sampler has offered a broad range of tracks for keen-eared listeners since its inception back in 2010. Usually, the samplers would cover a broad range of music. This year, in line with 2014, we’ve covered so much metal, it needed it’s own free download!
AWOOGA – Alpha EP
Sheffield’s Awooga play music with a dark soul, but it could never be tagged gothic. Their music has a doomy heart, but it’s not straight up doom metal. It’s progressive and can be heavy, but never in the half-arsed way that three thousand Dream Theater wannabes think is acceptable. If you were to try and pigeonhole them, the closest comparison would be to liken them to a hybrid of Amplifier and early Deftones. The Amplifier-ish elements within their heavy and wandering arrangements probably went some way to scoring the band support slots with Amplifier themselves even before they’d released any studio material. How they got to support the Soft Machine obsessed Knifeworld, on the other hand, is anyone’s guess…
DEATH METAL POPE – Harvest EP
Despite their chosen name, Death Metal Pope aren’t a death metal band. Some of their vocal choices are towards the extreme in places and there are occasions where the riffs step into the fast and intense sphere of extreme metal but, for the bulk of their material, these three Long Islanders love it slow and heavy. At least three quarter’s of 2016’s ‘Harvest’ is a stoner metal fan’s dream. They mightn’t score many points for originality, especially since the clean end of the vocal more than resembles Phil Anselmo in places and the music is very Down-centric, but, make no mistake, the results come close to stoner perfection.