Harvey Milk - st

Lovingly pinched from StonerRock.com: I’ve gone over my history with Harvey Milk in greater detail before, but for context’s sake, the condensed version is thus: Once upon a time, I was a no-nothing mainstream metalhead who had grown tired of the crap I listened to. Then I discovered Harvey Milk and it was, more or less, a musical rebirth. I still don’t know a hell of a lot, but thanks to Harvey Milk, I know more than nothing.

I owe the band a debt of gratitude, one that I gladly repay a small portion of every time a new release of theirs hits my desk. Even when the material isn’t a game changer – like the good-but-not-great contribution to their recent split with Wildildlife – it deserves a mention, because, well, it’s Harvey Milk. It may be genius or it may fall short, but it’s still worth a listen.

That said, their s/t (something tells me that’s the actual title and not an abbreviation for “self titled”), also known as The Bob Weston Sessions, also know as “The Debut That Never Was,” is another essential Harvey Milk album. But in this case, the target audience is a little more precise, namely those already on board with the band. Why? Because you've heard it all before.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – Harvey Milk – s/t.

OM - God Is Good

Lovingly pinched from Stonerrock.com: It’s irrational, I know, but when a band I like loses half of its original members, I tend to get a little worried. It’s not as if there’s a proven mathematical formula that separates creative from uncreative, good from bad, but after a certain point, I can’t help but think the core ideal of the group gets compromised.

Especially when the members are so intertwined, as was the case with Al Cisneros and Chris Hakius. When news broke that after three full-lengths, one live album, and a slew of splits, Hakius was leaving the two-piece, my reaction was, “Well, so much for that.” New drummer Emil Amos had an impressive enough resume – Grails came close to stealing the show when they opened for OM in Boston – but in my mind, OM was the sum of Cisneros and Hakius. Early clips of OMv2 had the pair coming off as disjointed, with Cisneros’ rumbling, hypnotic bass lines working against Amos’ busier playing. That only reinforced my assumption.

Turns out it was just growing pains. With God Is Good, OM finds itself not only sure-footed but marching forward in a new direction. Don’t get me wrong – it’s still unmistakably OM, right down to Cisneros’ mystic spirituality gobbedly-gook lyrics (I guess I don’t read the same books as him), but as the album progresses, it’s obvious that the change in drummers has created a new sense of purpose.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – OM – God Is Good.

The Gates of Slumber - Hymns of Blood and Thunder

Lovingly pinched from our friends at Stonerrock.com: If The Gates of Slumber’s sophomore album, Suffer No Guilt, proved they could write undeniably great songs and follow-up Conqueror showed they were able to write a consistent album, Hymns of Blood and Thunder demonstrates they can do both at the same time.

What that means is Hymns of Blood and Thunder has a hard-hitting immediacy that doesn’t let up until the last note. Opening track ‘Chaos Calling’ packs a stronger punch than Suffer’s ‘Angel of Death’ and Conqueror’s ‘Trapped in Web’ combined, no small feat. It’s a classic metal juggernaut, mixing brute force and grandiosity with some absolutely killer riffs.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – The Gates of Slumber – Hymns of Blood and Thunder.

Abramis Brama - Smakar Sondag

Lovingly pinched from Stonerrock.com: In many ways, Abramis Brama is the crazy old uncle of the Swedish retro rock scene. Most people will place Witchcraft at the top of the heap, assuming they kicked the whole sub-genre off. But Abramis has been at it just a little longer and yet never managed to grab that brass ring.
Those in the know laud the group, but to the vast majority, Abramis is at best a band they’ve heard of but not actually heard.

Here’s hoping Smakar Sondag changes that. My experience with the band is limited to Dansa Tokjavelns Vals and their live album from a couple of years back, but compared to those two, Smakar is a noted progression.

Continue reading: StonerRock.com – Abramis Brama – Smakar Sondag.

Please click here for the audio stream of Abramis Brama live at Roadburn 2006.

Yob - The Great Cessation

Lovingly pinched from one of our favorite websites: Playing in a band isn’t supposed to be pretty or fair, but what happened to Middian was about as dogshit awful as it gets. Mike Scheidt’s post-YOB project had every indication of surpassing YOB’s already awe-inspiring output (and this, mind you, I base on “Dreamless Eye” alone), and then some do-nothing, go-nowhere band from – well, who the fuck cares, really? – hits them with a cease and desist order due to a trademarked name. If you can barely break even on tour, how are you going to pay for legal fees? The short answer is “You can’t,” so Middian hung it up.

That would have been a completely disastrous turn of events had Scheidt not resurrected YOB. And, judging by the anguished roar that he lets loose at two minutes and 23 seconds into lead track “Burning the Altar,” he also channeled the rage and pent-up aggression of the Middian experience into The Great Cessation. Doom – be it traditional, crust, funeral, psychedelic, or whatever other sub-sub-genre’s out there – is meant to be dour and slow, but here it’s also furious.

Please read the full review at:  StonerRock.com – YOB – The Great Cessation.