What I liked during 2018

BEST RELEASES – 2018

Probably the best releases I’ve heard during the 2017 are (no particular order):

Turtle Skull – Turtle Skull

1 No News is Bad News 6:55
2 Take it or Leave it 8:26
3 Eden 6:08
4 Empty Ships 8:23

 

The Myrrors – Borderlands

1 Awakening 0:46
2 The Blood That Runs the Border 5:45
3 Formaciones rojas 7:06
4 Biznagas 6:35
5 Call for Unity 3:01
6 Note From the Underground 19:45

 

Sixcircles – New Belief

1 New Belief Begins 3:09
2 Blue Is the Colour 3:52
3 Come, Reap 3:49
4 Time of Erosion 3:29
5 The Prison 3:15
6 Sins You Hide 4:08
7 Late to Awake 4:31
8 Take Me to Your Desert 3:48
9 Lavender Wells 4:24

 

Twin Speak – Soulss

1 Soulss 8:26
2 Black On Biscay 7:34
3 Dilettantes 5:52
4 Moonbathing 8:51
5 Mantras Monsters 11:13

 

Deathbell – With the Beyond

1 With the Beyond 4:13
2 Emerald Eyes Shine 6:24
3 Come to Trouble 9:35
4 Over the Rim 4:43
5 They Still Wander 5:49
6 Rise From Your Grave 6:16

 

River Cult – Halcyon Daze

1 Likelihood of Confusion 7:19
2 The Sophist 11:56
3 Seething 7:31
4 Halcyon Daze 7:01
5 Point of Failure 7:59

 

 

 

 

What I liked during the 2017

BEST RELEASES – 2017

Probably the best releases I’ve heard during the 2017 are:

Pretty Lightning – The Rhythm of Ooze
https://prettylightning.bandcamp.com/

 

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Polygondwanaland

Very personal records that surely deserve your attention, we really need such releases nowadays.

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Then I would add

Mouth – Vortex

Woodsplitter – Journey Into Krautrock

Causa Sui – Vibraciones Doradas

Galactic Gulag – To the Stars by Hard Ways

Uffe Lorenzen – Galmandsværk

Nate Hall – The Center of the Earth

Void Generator – Prodromi

 

Just because they are able to keep a bit of personal interpretation of  the performed style.

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An Honorable Mention I’d say

Howling Giant – Black Hole Space Wizard: Part 2

 

The Spacelords – Water Planet

Chivo Negro – Volume Death

Shadow Witch – Disciples of the Crow

StoneBirds – Time

Mt. Mountain – Dust

Toke – (Orange)

Moon Mother – Riffcraft

 

 

 

 

Shadow Witch – Disciples of the Crow (Salt of the Earth – 2017)

———Anton Van Kleek (drums), David Pannullo (bass, vocals), Earl Lundy (lead vocals, mellotron, loops), and Jeremy Hall (guitar) have the rare merit of having a style.

———Indeed, the general public has not yet noticed them but they really worth a listen.

———After Sun Killer (2006) here you are Disciples of the Crow a mix of Doom/Stoner/Metal/Progressive.

———Very well played and produced, Love Could Be Like This and Reap give you the measure of the entire release.

No panic if you listen to a bit of Soundgarden, Leviathan, Mastodon, Tool.

Check it please.

1. Love Could Be Like This 04:39
2. Reap 04:52
3. Cruel 04:40
4. Disciples of the Crow 04:03
5. Stranger Skies 04:28
6. The Sea 06:37
7. Beneath The Veil 03:09
8. Dead Heroes 04:26

Black Capricorn – Omega (Stone Stallion Rex – 2017)

———Italians Black Capricorn, from the very beautiful Sardinia, are back with a double vinyl, properly out on 11.02.2017, after Cult of the Black Friars (2014).

———Andrea Cadeddu [Lord Fex] (lead guitar), Matteo Carta [Il Baro Matta] (vocals, synthesizer), Fabrizio Monni [Kjxu] (rhythm guitar, didgeridoo), Rachela (drums), Virginia (bass) offer a doom release.

———The sound is powerful, the song (Evil Horde of Lucifer) is regular, the performance lacks a bit. Same for Accabadora that is a long and slow track.

The sound of the whole platter is good, dark and powerful, songs are not bad but don’t have anything in particular

Check the official clip here below.

Disc 1
side A
01 Alpha
02 Evil Horde of Lucifer
03 Accabadora
04 Flower of Revelation

side B
05 Antartide
06 Black Capricorn’ seal

Disc 2
side C
07 Devil and the Death
08 The man who dared
09 Stars of Orion

side D
10 Quest for Agartha
11 Omega

 

Øresund Space Collective – Hallucinations Inside the Oracle (Space Rock – 2017)

 

———Prolific danish Øresund Space Collective, an ensemble of Dr Space – synths; Hasse – doun douns, bass, talking drum; Jiri – bass; Jonathan – violin, guitar, bass, farfisa, and others; KG – sitar, guitar, synths; Magnus – guitar, synths; Tim – drums is out with Hallucinations Inside the Oracle now for their own label named Space Rock.

———Opening with Reflections in the Minds Eye, a raga-song quickly introduce us the whole mood. An instrumental, improvisational, space, psychedelic release as we would have expected. They scan areas already plowed by many others in the past, in a rock contest.

———ESP opens with a Dusseldrof styled electronic sequence, crazed spaced out guitars, solid rhythmic; later the synth gives way to a different rhythm and groove, always as impro and so on up to the end.

———The Oracle fits a whole vinyl (!) and it’s a summation of what we heard before.

Hallucinations Inside the Oracle is an old psychedelic/raga styled release, but we like that, even if actually sometimes it may seems too long.

1 Reflections in the Minds Eye 19:38
2 ESP (Extreme Spatial Perspective) 19:31
3 The Oracle 40:47

 

The Atomic Bitchwax – Force Field (Tee Pee – 2017)

———The Atomic Bitchwax are back with a new record.
———Well, Force Field is an ensemble of obviousness, well done but all the music here is a mix of fast songs dealing with Rock and Roll and Metal done yet, nothing more.

———12 songs of pure cliché.

If you don’t need something different the record it’s ok.

1 Hippie Speedball
2 Earth Shaker (Which Doobie U Be)
3 Alaskan Thunder F*ck
4 Shocker
5 Crazy
6 Fried Dyed and Layin to the Side
7 Shell of a Man
8 Houndstooth
9 Tits and Bones
10 Humble Brag
11 Super Highway
12 Liv a Little

Radar Men From the Moon – Subversive III (Fuzz Club – 2017)

———Radar Men From the Moon is a band from Netherland, that is Glenn Peeters (guitar), Jan-Titus Verkuijlen (bass), Tony Lathouwers (drums). Seventh release for this guys, third Subversive saga.

———This record is an electronic trip by dark elements, techno and something they call progressive. Before doing that they did something like space rock, psychedelia, stoner and jamming vibes.

———Probably they got this new direction trying to hold and experiment some new ways around electronic music. Coming from the Düsseldorf Schule I must admit that this is not so bad, even if electromusic is not my cup of tea.

———It still has some ‘psychedelic’ elements but Radar Men From the Moon got a totally new style that I can’t say if they now can be counted in a rock scene.

If you dig all the 70 minutes and you are not an orthodox may be you can listen to that with pleasure.

1 Secret Howl in the Ambient Night 7:02
2 Drunk with God 10:12
3 Beeldenwereld 7:58
4 Abstraction and Society 11:31
5 De Spelende Mens 3:18
6 Transgression Cave 9:24
7 Spectacle 5:26
8 Black Canvas, Dark Majesty 19:08

Vibravoid – Mushroom Mantras (Stoned Karma – 2017)

———Christian Koch [aka “Dr.”] (vocals, guitar), Robert “Bender” Braune (drums), M. Lammert (bass) consistently keep on playing their stuff. This is their 13th full-lenght, if I don’t get wrong.

——–Typical clone of old music coming from the sixties and seventies, Dr. Koch & Co. offer a mix of approximate performing of something we can call sixties psychedelia with garage influences.

———Om gang ganpataye namah and the Legend of Doctor Robert (probably a celebration) give an ideas of the whole platter.

———Drums are always ‘behind’ the timing, and the out of tune is always around the corner too, but if you like the mood, the style, this is ok.

The whole record is along the same lines as we said, so if you like that it’s ok, but nothing more.

1 Om gang ganpataye namah 4:39
2 The Legend of Doctor Robert 3:50
3 Echoes of Time 3:57
4 Sarveshaam svastir bhavatu 2:25
5 Apollo69 2:30
6 Purple Pepper 5:14
7 The Orange Coat 19:48
Vibrations From the Cosmic Void
8 Krautfaktor I 4:24
9 Krautfaktor II 21:49
10 Krautfaktor III 3:08

Causa Sui – Vibraciones Doradas (El Paraiso – 2017)

———Causa Sui from Denmark don’t need too many introductions. This is their 11th full-lenght.

———The Drop is a stoned intro a la Kyuss, space in the middle, more liquid and relaxed at the end.

———-El Fuego it’s a long track, with a desert intro a la Desert Session, guitar + wha, then it turns into a relaxing 3/4 tempo with organs and delayed guitars, later it grows and sometimes it seems some of Motorpsycho, then back to the desert with Colour Haze.

———Viborera is a sort of ethereal acoustic/electronic interlude before Seven Hills that leads us to the desert one more. Rhythm is more fast and compact but the sound is the same. A nice groove here with a nice crescendo.

———Vibraciones Doradas is the heaviest track here, but their instruments are out of tune, probably due to the down-tuning. Very nice the final, just listen (Motorpsycho, Colour Haze, Void Generator).

———The album is well recorded and produced with simple formulas that they are able to gives us as fresh.
Don’t try to find something new here, just sure formulas, just Causa Sui.

A1 The Drop 7:12
A2 El Fuego 11:24
A3 Viborera 2:08
B1 Seven Hills 7:25
B2 Vibraciones Doradas 9:05

 

Ruby The Hatchet – Planetary Space Child (Tee Pee – 2017)

———Imagine a mix of Hard Rock, Prog and Metal, this is Planetary Space Child from Ruby the Hatchet.

———3rd full-lenght for the Americans Jillian Taylor (vocals), Johnny Scarps (guitar), Mike Parise (bass), Owen Stewart (drums), Sean Hur (organ), may be far from their previous releases.

———Anyway, that pumming make it as Hard Rock, phrases and soloing make it as Metal, keyboards make it as Prog.

———This is a good record guys…when Pagan Ritual flows I am still not disappointed. The Fool has a nice soft intro then the rhythmic is well done as usual here, with the usual ethereal vocals of Jillian, but now they are too similar as themselves. Same for Symphony of the Night, and so on.

The record is nice, is good, sometimes it seems it has only one sensation, it could have been better.

1 Planetary Space Child 6:35
2 Killer 4:34
3 Pagan Ritual 5:58
4 The Fool 5:33
5 Symphony of the Night 7:08
6 Gemini 4:17
7 Lightning Comes Again 6:58