Strange to check out without any other posts on a Friday, I know. There’s actually a lot of news that needs to go up — Witchcraft were announced as headlining Desertfest in Berlin, Trippy Wicked were added to the London fest and I’ve got a new song from Endless Boogie and a new single from Radio Moscow that I’d like to post — as well as a review of sludge madmen Fire to Fields that I said I’d post this week, but this morning a dog my sister got me in high school — that’s me trying to distance myself from it and not say “my dog” — had to be put down at 15 and to be honest, my head’s just not in the right space for reviewing anyone’s anything. I’m gonna go home, get in bed, and watch Futurama in the dark. The other stuff I’ll post tomorrow.

Not telling you this in some internet bitching plea for sympathy, just trying to explain why there are no other posts today. In the meantime, when it comes to my own particular vision of escapism, nothing quite does it like Duna Jam. The above clip of Zagreb heavy psych rockers Seven that Spells was filmed in 2010 and I guess the best thing you could say about it (or anything else, ever), is that the band stands up tonally to the gorgeousness and lushness of their surroundings on the beach in Sardinia. Maybe one of these years I’ll get there. I think I’d probably have to win the lottery, lose 100 pounds and buy $20,000 worth of photo equipment first, but hey, could happen.

Thanks to all for reading as always, and even though I’ll be posting tomorrow and I’m not really signing off, I hope you have a great weekend. A quick last-minute kudos to Clamfight, who’ve been added to Stoner Hands of Doom XIII along with Lo-Pan, Freedom Hawk, It’s Not Night: It’s Space, Order of the Owl and others. More news on that to come as well next week, and though I’m loathe to promise something and then not have time to deliver on it, my plan is also to post the 20 albums I’m looking forward to in 2013. I started just with 10 and then it turned out there was too much good stuff in the works for this year to leave it at that, so yeah, keep an eye open.

Okay, I split. Back at it tomorrow, and if you were waiting on something in particular to go up, your patience is appreciated.

The second full-length onslaught from these Croatian purveyors of the heavy cosmic psych, Summon the Waves (Setalight Records) finds the four-piece Stonebride coloring outside the lines in Hubble shades while nodding at the head-caked riff crowd with amped crunch and minor-key melodicism. The psych here is dark (that whole minor-key thing) and moody, but never whiny or miserable. Rather, Stonebride play layers of guitar off each other in extended passages and occasionally go into hyper-hypnotism with sometimes too-brief moments of repetition. Head. Trip. Rock.

All seems straightforward and riffy from the intro “The Phoenix,” but “Shadows Like Snakes” makes short work of that impression, constantly shaping and reshaping itself over its nine and a half minute runtime. Though the track begins heavy, the self-harmonizing vocals of Krnfa add complexity to the songcraft, doing call and response à la Dirt-era Alice in Chains for a chorus of “In the arms of God/There is no shame/In the Arms of God/We’re all the same,” while Tjemisir’s guitars chug out underneath. At about the 4:30 mark, the song opens up for an extended instrumental jam that not only shows of Tjemisir’s solo acumen, but some impressive tom work from drummer Thee Steps and well-timed distortion from relatively banally-named bassist Lenny.

So then you’ve got it all figured out again, and you think Stonebride’s Summon the Waves is just going to be another one of those meandering heavy psych records – a little more weighty than Colour Haze or any of their growing legion of imitators, but making plenty of the same moves structurally – and there comes “Crimson Tongue” and “Mute Heart Rivers,” two six-plus minute offerings that up the melody and heavy/ambient interchange. “Crimson Tongue” has some megaphone vocals from Krnfa in the verse but changes to a whispery, softer approach for the chorus, where Thee Steps’ hi-hat is almost a little too busy hitting sixteenths. But soon the music changes again, the guitars pick up and you’re grooving on one of those High on Fire moments where the chaos has given way to the power of the riff. It’s a suitable lead-in for the Melvins-style drum opening of “Mute Heart Rivers,” which retains its percussive edge throughout, affecting a slow build that culminates, appropriately, shortly before the song ends.

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NOTE: For the first two installments, go here and here.

When I stumbled on the video for Good Day to Die‘s “Desert City Lights” and posted it, I hadn’t really intended on “Croatian Doom!” becoming a running theme for the site. But truth be told, I’m really interested in any kind of stoner scene in the city of Zagreb or in Croatia as a whole.

Like just about everywhere else, there’s actually a pretty vibrant metal underground in Croatia. Someone in Good Day to Die was kind enough to inform me of such by sending along a copy of the 2006 compilation, New Underground: Hard Hitters from Croatia (Dallas Records). Aside from “Desert City Lights,” which makes an appearance, there isn’t much that’s Obelisk-relevant, but plenty of n?-metal and even some emo. Looks like doom is the underground’s underground once again.

Thanks to Good Day to Die for sending over New Underground for me to check out. There’s nothing quite like getting an education.

A little while back, I did a, “Hey check it out” type thing on Croatian doomers Good Day to Die. Well, since I just came across the more stonerly Stonebride, who hail from the same city (Zagreb), it seems only fitting that I do the same for them. Helps that they’re pretty good. Their latest record, Inner Seasons, came out last year. Someone out there needs to educate me. Is there a Zagreb scene? Does it rule? Were they jamming out to Sky Valley at roof parties on top of Zagrep?anka in ’94? One can only hope.

While I’m doing research (read: “dicking around on band websites”) , enjoy this Stonebride video from this year’s Stoned from the Underground fest in Deutscheland. When you’re done with that, hop over to their MySpace page and get a taste of “Moonrider.” It’s awfully tasty for a song with such a cornball name.

Here’s something you don’t see every day: The band is called Good Day to Die and they hail from Zagreb, Croatia. Croatian doom! The Riff is universal.

Check out their MySpace page if you get a minute, and even if not, here’s their video for the song “Desert City Lights,” from their debut album, Hazing through Shadows — mixed by none other than Steve Austin from Today is the Day!