Well, now that the forums are back online and everything seems to be working in the back end of the blog proper as well, I thought it was only fair to close out the week. A little psychedelia for your Sunday from what I think was one of the year’s best records in the genre: Quest for Fire‘s Lights from Paradise. The song is “Greatest Hits by God.” Hope you enjoy.

Next week is Xmas, but we’ll pick up the top 20 of 2010 countdown with number eight, and keep moving despite holidays and the rest of it. I’ll also have an EPIC interview with Victor Griffin of Place of Skulls/Death Row/Pentagram fame in which he opens up about his spiritual beliefs, working with Bobby Liebling on the new Pentagram and much more, so please, stick around for that. I was on the phone with the guy for over an hour spread across two days and I really think it’s one of the best interviews to come on this site yet. I’m very excited.

If you’re reading this, thanks. I’m sorry about the glitch in the forums that caused them to bite it, and like I said yesterday, I’m going to do my best to see that doesn’t happen again. Database backups abound!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’ll be on the couch reading and listening to music with the little dog Dio for as much of today as possible, and tomorrow we’ll pick back up with reviews and regular posting. I look forward to it.

I have next to no information about Toronto weirdo outfit Godstopper. There’s a quizzical Tumblr page with some pictures and clips, a Bandcamp site (so we can deduce they’re at the forefront of musical social networking), but no bio, lineup info or any of that kind of thing. Given the strangeness of the avant garde doom they get up to on their aptly-titled Demo 2010, I think that’s probably for the best. Keep a little mystique about them. Better than picturing a bunch of dudes with beards in black t-shirts and their hands in their pockets.

There are three tracks on Godstopper‘s Demo 2010, and what rings true in each of them is that the band have a keen melodic sense to what they do. It comes out in the mix-dominating guitar on “Clean House,” and some of vocals of “Don’t Walk Home.” Godstopper manage to keep a balance between quirkiness and hooky accessibility that keeps you wanting to hear more. Even if you don’t like it, you want to sit through it and see where it goes.

The Yawning Man-style guitar tone of short instrumental “SAARENTTO” round out the 7″-length release, and though it’s just about 15 minutes long, Demo 2010 holds much promise for oddities to come. It will be interesting to hear whether Godstopper stay more or less in the same vein of experimentation, go even further into dissonance or start upping the melody and blending it with Melvins-style plod. Judging by the three cuts on Demo 2010 (which you can hear below), they could really go any way they please.

When Tee Pee Records put out Quest for Fire’s self-titled full-length last year, I got a promo of it, and it went promptly on my shelf. I didn’t even listen. You know why? Because I knew that if I listened to it, I’d like it, and then it would be one more god damn album to buy, one more god damn band to like, one more god damn show to trek out to. Blah.

Of course, I got mine in the end, as Tee Pee now releases the follow-up from these Toronto argonauts, Lights from Paradise. Sure enough, a promo of the record came in the mail, and I put it on, and now I want both albums. So yeah, thanks a lot.

Lights from Paradise is eight tracks of sprawling psychedelia from the Canadian four-piece, ranging from the ritualistic stillness of opener “The Greatest Hits by God,” which seems to capitalize on what Om might sound like with two guitars, to the semi-raucousness of “Set Out Alone” or the Dead Meadow freakout of “In the Place of a Storm.” Of the sundry personality traits the band shows on the album, I prefer the moody, subdued side that comes out on the first track or “Psychic Seasons,” which boasts one of Lights from Paradise’s few excursions into acoustics and also features some strings for a classy touch. Of course, there’s something to be said for the extended Beatles-style solo in closer “Sessions of Light” as well, which shows Quest for Fire as a band with more than just a reverb pedal and propensity for jamming, complex as its melody structure and progression are. Take your pick, really.

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It might have been cool had Toronto trio Demontage decided to call their Shadow Kingdom debut, “The Principle Extinction” as in, an extinction of the beliefs of a person or group, but The Principal Extinction, as in, either the initial or that of a school administrator, works too. This being their third album overall since forming nine years ago, I’m sure they thought it all out beforehand and picked that which best represented the music.

About that music: Demontage traffic in a heavy blackened thrash. Right in opener “Entourage of Demons Dances,” one can hear shades of Bathory, Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Darkthrone, the latter evident not only in the relatively lo-fi production value of the drumming, but also the clear punk roots. But let it be understood: Demontage do not make for easy listening. The record is six tracks, two of which approach 10 minutes in length, of pure metallic fuck-all; the band’s reckless attitude injecting “Accursed Saboteur” and “Satan of Self (The Warrior)… and Seer of Truths (The Conjurer)” with an aggressively free-spirited feel.

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Toronto‘s most righteously stoned doomers Sons of Otis are back with six more droned-out, smoke-filled anthems of echoplexed dissatisfaction. Exiled is the band’s fifth album — second for Small Stone after both Man’s Ruin and The Music Cartel collapsed following Otis releases (they’re just that heavy) — and after reading Arzgarth‘s review on Stonerrock.com the other day, I figured I’d chime in with one of my own. You know, just to make the world complete.

By way of preface, I have a great respect for Arz and his status in the stoner scene is unquestionable. He does very, very good work with unwavering dedication. Exiled he categorized as starting off strong but ultimately losing his interest as the band drifted “off into their own realm (or even further into it).” All well and good — and nine-minute dronefest “Tales of Otis” certainly is a mountain to climb — but I think there’s more at hand here than just the album getting boring as it plods onward. Read more »