Opening track “Stop” on? Enojado‘s debut full-length Till the Distance is Complete (The Black Desert Inn) doesn’t really give much of an idea of what the Deutsche metallers are setting out to do with the record. The first three minutes of the five-minute track are near n?-metal before a really sludgy part gives way to more chugging. Fortunately, although they approach Disturbed-style thickheadedness on “Stolen Charger,” most of the songwriting draws influence directly from Entombed. The title cut, which follows “Stop” not a moment too soon, is the real mission statement. Guitarist and singer Stephan Kieserling is a one-man combination of L.G. Petrov and Alex Hellid, adjoining his (mostly) rough vocals with a six string tone straight out of Sunlight Studios and taken further in the stoner/doom direction than the seminal Swedes ever dared to tread.

“Mammoth City” is set on a killer Kyuss riff as Kieserling and second guitarist Stephan Merkle fuzz out before the mammothness for which the city is named shows up in the form of Martin Merkle‘s rumbling bass. For his cleaner vocals, which come up more later in the record, Kieserling combines the approaches of Pepper Keenan circa Wiseblood and James Hetfield when he had the mullet. There’s bite and darkness to the material, but as the principal songwriter Kieserling proves somewhat uneven. By the time “Underdog Blood Exposure” — track four and possibly the heaviest of all 10 — came around, I found myself wondering when or if the band was going to make the Cephalic Carnage left turn into ultra-doom that I’d been hoping and the guitar tone had been begging for. They never did.

Interestingly, they hit the stoner/doom fork in the road and pointed Till the Distance is Complete squarely toward the former, hitting the aforementioned “Stolen Charger” bump before going ?ber-Uprising on “Broken Legs,” asking the deep question in the titular line, “Have you ever tried to run with broken legs?” Awesome. I’m not about to hold the blatant Entombed influence against them. I’ve said it before: the world needs more “Seeing Red.”

The real kicker is the soft, (gasp!) sweet guitar opening of album highlight “Still Drowning.” It seems to come out of nowhere, yet there were somehow just enough stonerisms preceding it to make it fit perfectly. If anything on the record offsets the dips of “Stop” and “Stolen Charger,” “Still Drowning” is it.

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Los Angeles rural riffers Night Horse, who released their debut EP on Tee Pee not so long ago, are streaming a new song now. Not only that, but San Diego‘s prog specialists Astra have also put up a new track to their MySpace page that comes off their Rise Above debut, The Weirding. Nothing like free goo. Here’s press release excerpts:

Night Horse:
Fresh off the heels of their critically acclaimed EP The Dark Won’t Hide You, Night Horse return with another heavy helping of rockin’ blues ‘n roll by the name of “Good Bye Gone,” the A side to a split single with like-minded roots rockers from San Diego, Dirty Sweet — the first of three split singles Night Horse have planned for this summer on Tee Pee Records.

Night Horse, “Good Bye Gone”

Astra:
San Diego based progressive rock band Astra has completed work on its hotly-anticipated debut album, entitled The Weirding.?The record hits stores in North America today via Rise Above Records. A taste of what The Weirding holds in store can be experienced now as the new Astra song ?The River Under? been posted online at this location.

Palm Springs desert rockers Dali’s Llama have put up a new video of them recording at perennial badass Scott Reeder‘s studio, The Sanctuary. Their new album is reportedly due in September. The jury is still out on whether or not it will feature any songs about King Platypus, but here’s the clip:

If you read this page regularly, thanks. If you put any stock in the opinions here presented, thanks even more. I don’t delude myself into thinking there’s some grand impact being made, but if you check out a CD or download something or go to someone’s MySpace because you saw the name or the link here, I think that’s fucking awesome and appreciate it more than I can say. Once again, here’s my list of the top five albums so far this year:

1. Los Natas, Nuevo Orden de la Libertad
2. Wino, Punctuated Equilibrium
3. Truckfighters, Mania
4. Heaven and Hell, The Devil You Know
5. Goblin Cock, Come with Me if You Want to Live

By way of honorable mention, I’ll point out Brothers of the Sonic Cloth‘s 2009 demo and Candlemass‘ Death Magic Doom. There are others. Lots of them.

But the time for looking back is over, at least for now. The rest of this year will bring new records from Yob, Clutch and (hopefully) Masters of Reality, and a shit ton more, so there’s still plenty to look forward to and enjoy when the release dates come. I’ll do my best to keep up with it all, and if you stumble back this way at some point along the line, then thanks again.

Yeah, this was fairly obvious after the interview with Sergio Chotsourian went up last Thursday night, but I’m pretty sure nobody’s paying attention anyway and even if they are, it bears repeating that Los Natas‘ Nuevo Orden de la Libertad (Small Stone) is the finest album to come out so far this year. Number one on the Top Five of the First Half of 2009. The multi-directional Argentinian rockers have stripped down their sound to its barest essentials and rawest form yet, lending the music an intensity never before attained in the band’s storied 16-year tenure.

The songs are approached with a revolutionary fervor and a feel of overdriven underground punk that complements the Los Natas sound perfectly. There’s a dirty sophistication to the heavy parts, and the several acoustic and Western or South American-inspired interludes show that although Nuevo Orden de la Libertad is clearly a record with something to say, time and thought have been given to aesthetics as well. As I mentioned previously, it wasn’t an easy call between this and Wino‘s Punctuated Equilibrium, but in the end, it was the immediacy of these tracks that put them over the top.

By way of sampling the album at its finest, here is the video for the title track of Nuevo Orden de la Libertad. Whatever else you do today, make sure you listen to it and please, please, don’t miss out on this record.

It’s been raining in the valley for what feels like the last month and a half. No summer this year, just a wet season. So we left for the weekend and have managed to squeeze in some sunshine up in CT. I’ll take what I can get. Somehow feeling like I should be listening to Winter in a Jersey June just doesn’t make sense to me.

In the spirit of less troubling climes and launching a hopefully pleasant weekend, I gladly offer this video from embattled New Orleans sludge stoners Suplecs, filmed at Emo’s in Austin, TX, on New Year’s Day in 2008. They’re covering The Beatles‘ “I Want You (She’s so Heavy)” as they secretly do on their second record, Sad Songs, Better Days. Not the best sound, but good enough so you get a sense of how much they rule.

Whatever the weather is by you, have a great weekend.

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s people who rip on unsigned bands. In all but the most extreme of circumstances, the reviewer in question or the drunk guy at the show is being a douche. As such, when I tell you that I’m not really all that into Halifax, Nova Scotia independent rockers Broken Ohms‘ Nocturnal Emissions — despite both their name and that of the seven-track offering — understand it comes after several listens and heartfelt consideration over whether it’s better to be honest or to blindly support self-releasing musicians. Still up in the air on that one.

Nocturnal Emissions clocks in at 31+ minutes, so call it an EP if you want, but it’s long enough to be a full-length (lest we forget that Slayer‘s Reign in Blood lasts a meager 28 minutes), and Broken Ohms‘ sound rests comfortably in the semi-fuzzed more commercial regions of heavy rock. Like a blending of Queens of the Stone Age and Soundgarden, the latter especially in the occasionally soaring/searing vocals of Peter Hubley, they energetically plow through opening duo “Choix” and the catchy “So Mean” showcasing rich tones in the guitars of Troy Wilson and the bass of Stephen MacDonald and able-bodied percussion from Vince Martin (since replaced by Nicolas Michaud). On paper, it all seems to work.

So what’s the problem? Well, the vocals come from the post-John Garcia school of stretching the vocal cords near the point of snapping them and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. “Telepsychopathic” follows an easy enough groove, but the more Cornell-styled echoing approach — nothing against the echo, actually; a lot of Hubley‘s singing on Nocturnal Emissions could stand some reverb — of “For the Air” and the higher pitched moments are cringe-worthy, at least partially because of the mix which features the words like Brian Posehn‘s pants feature the dong. Couple that with the sudden maybe-Christian bent of “Fear of God” (reminiscent of Seemless) and the oddly fuzzless indie of “Missing,” and parts of the record just feel out of place. On a CD only half an hour long, that makes a big difference.

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If adventure is his destiny, as doom legend Wino asserts on “Smilin’ Road” from his first-ever solo record, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord), then we’re all just lucky to be along for the ride. With songs from as far back as his days in The Obsessed in 1979, one of the genre’s most potent personalities and most seminal artists crosses creative paths with his past in bands like Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand and even Saint Vitus. Joined by Clutch drummer Jean Paul Gaster, it’s a once-in-a-decade kind of release. And I’m still fighting over whether or not it should be number one on this list, even as I type.

Despite the shadow cast over the album by the recent and untimely death of bassist Jon Blank (Rezin), the spirit of the music elicits a transcendent joy that is simply too powerful to be ignored. Even at its heaviest moments, as on the speedy title track, there is a humility and wonder in the performances bound to bring a smile to the face of anyone with ears and half a brain. Punctuated Equilibrium, with explanatory liner notes penned by Wino himself, is a special release in an amazing discography. There is only one Wino.

While I can’t imagine there are any interested parties who haven’t yet heard this record, here’s opening cut “Release Me” from Punctuated Equilibrium. One listen and you’ll be hooked.