I don’t want to say I was prepared to be let down by Hypnos 69‘s maybe-final LP, Legacy, when it was released earlier this year on Elektrohasch Schallplatten, but basically I was. Nothing against the Belgian classic proggers, but in my mind, an album of the same quality as 2006’s The Eclectic Measure just wasn’t a fair expectation to put on a band. I mean, The Eclectic Measure was a landmark, a thing of beauty. A once-in-a-career achievement.

Spoiler alert for anyone who doesn’t yet know: They did it. Legacy is a better album than The Eclectic Measure. It’s more developed in every way — guitarist/vocalist Steve Houtmeyers proving to be as talented a singer as he is a songwriter and a soloist — and although even as I gushed all over the record in my review, I wasn’t sure if the songs therein would prove as memorable as those from The Eclectic Measure, Legacy has proven strong in this regard as well. I’m just as likely to hum a flute part as I am to sing a lyric. The blend of elements on a track like the 18-plus-minute closer “The Great Work” is nothing short of majestic.

It’s not that they’re genre-less, or not completely aware of the context in which they’re making music. It’s simply that Hypnos 69 are in a class of their own. Legacy is a staggering collection of songs. There are days when I feel like I’m too tired to listen to it because I won’t have the energy to fully enjoy the experience, but my own worthiness aside, the growing and morphing appeal of Legacy‘s rich melodies and complex arrangements only means that the pleasure in listening is going to increase with age. One of the year’s best and then some.

Loud, riffy and full of the à la mode style of heavy found in bands like Torche, the Wausau, Wisconsin, trio Romero debut with a raucous self-released 7″ called Solitaire. Those who pay attention to such things will note guitarist/vocalist Jeffrey “Madman” Mundt (I don’t know if anyone actually calls him that, but as a fan of Barton Fink, one can hope) is a former drummer of Naked Aggression, but more pivotal to Romero‘s sound than anyone’s past is the grooving riffage, the heavy crashes of drummer/vocalist Ben Brooks and the rumble of Josh Stanchik, which turns an already engaging finale of the first and title-track into a moment of genuine asskickery. Romero will probably be familiar to those acquainted with modern stoner metal, but in both “Solitaire” and “El Sentido Morboso,” they prove they’re definitely worth a look at either their Facebook or Bandcamp pages.

Their intent and their experience is clear. Romero doesn’t come off like a “new” band, and I don’t mean that to say their sound is stale, just that they execute these tracks professionally and with a confidence that comes from years of playing. Mundt sticks to a semi-melodic shout vocally, and his riffs are obviously leading the charge, but he has a few flourishes in his playing on “El Sentido Morboso” that work well with the the intricate style of Stanchik, whose low end is a major source of Solitaire‘s appeal. They run the social networking gamut, with the aforementioned sites as well as a MySpace page, YouTube channel and Twitter feed, so the expectation is that one way or another, we’ll be hearing from them again soon. For now, the vinyl is available at any of the links above, and for those who’d stream it first, the Bandcamp player below allows for just that. There’s even a bonus track to go along with the full 7″.

When last they were heard from, the all-caps Brooklyn math/noise rock trio STATS had just issued a three-song sampler EP of their heady wares. Some things, it seems, haven’t changed at all, as the instrumental unit deliver three new cuts in the form of the Crowned EP on The Path Less Traveled Records. The songs, which total just under 21 minutes, are a logical extension of the prior material, their angularity and linear structures walking a fine line between technical prowess and song flow, and presented with cleaner production and full jewel case artwork, Crowned gives an overall aura of a tighter, more established unit.

It’s a short release, and one wonders if STATS aren’t just going to adopt the EP as their formal modus operandi, realizing that a full-length of this kind of tech material would be asking a lot of their audience. Robert Fripp once said of his soundscapes that the average listener could only take about 20 minutes of it at a time, then they needed a break, and if we apply the same to STATS, then Crowned is right on target. Opener “Guthy Renker” twists ably and offers flashes of noise rock groove, weighted by the bass of Tony Gedrich, who also adds a piercing noise flourish near the 1:50 mark. I’d be lying if I said it was pleasant to the ear, but it serves its purpose. Guitarist Joe Petrucelli doesn’t shred or try to fill the space vocals might otherwise occupy with lead lines, instead setting and keeping the course of sub-noodling scale work, drummer Hank Shteamer deftly maintaining pace in purposefully awkward time signatures.

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I know most people have already split to do the family Xmas thing or at very least get drunk, but I just wanted to take a second to wish everyone a happy holiday and to say thank you for checking in on this site, for registering for the forums, and most of all, for coming back once you’ve already been here. Today we passed 250,000 page views for the month of December alone, and that’s the best present I could ask for.

It seems like kind of a random choice, but I thought we’d end this week with Italian fuzz rockers Black Rainbows. The track is “Himalaya” from their 2010 album, Carmina Diabolo, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the holiday — you could argue the Himalayas are cold and it’s cold on Xmas, but that’s a stretch at best — but somehow it seemed to work. It’s straight-up riff rock. Stoner rock. I hope you enjoy it.

Much to come next week. We’ll finish up the top 20 of 2010 countdown and I’ll also have a bunch of other “Best Of”-type posts. If you’ve been wondering what my favorite cassette of the year is, that’s just one of the secrets to be revealed.

Until then, a merry Xmas to you and yours. I wish you the happiest and safest of yules, and please remember that if you need a place to get away for a couple minutes, the forums never close. I know I’ll be checking in.

I didn’t realize it until just now, but Archaic Volumes was also my number four album for the top half of 2010. Sheer coincidence, but it should say something about the quality of Fatso Jetson‘s latest work that it has held its position while other albums have fallen out of favor or gotten shelved. The core trio of guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli (also Yawning Man), bassist Larry Lalli and drummer Tony Tornay, joined on Archaic Volumes by saxophonist Vince Meghrouni, crafted probably the year’s most solid rock album. In every move it made, it was assured, mature and blindingly confident, and like a guy who says he can walk sideways up a wall and then does it, all of Fatso Jetson‘s showiness was backed by chops.

As the year has worn on and my appreciation for Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes has transcended the honeymoon period one often has with killer records, I’ve sat and admired each single performance on the album. The two Lallis, Tornay and even Meghrouni all delivered in a huge way on these songs, be it the sax-soaked instrumental “Here Lies Boomer’s Panic” or the underrated desert vibes of “Back Road Tar,” and the resulting total listening experience was stronger still. It was a striking balance of hard-fought talent and creative songwriting.

I’ve said before that I knew going into Archaic Volumes that I would like it. That was no mystery. The album still took me by surprise, however, in that I didn’t know I would dig it as much as I did, and moreover, that I would return to it as much as I have throughout the rest of the year. But the more I hear these songs and the more familiar I become with the turns Fatso Jetson makes — as from the aggressive gutter punk of “Garbage Man” (a The Cramps cover) to the soothingly psychedelic closer “Monoxide Dreams” — the better I want to know them. Even with as much time as I’ve spent hearing these Archaic Volumes, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface.

Venerable Californian heavy rockers Fu Manchu are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their classic third album, In Search Of…, by touring it. They’ll be playing the whole record front to back for the first time, first in Europe, then in the US. There are a lot of bands doing this kind of thing these days, but screw it, In Search Of… rules. I’d happily see that show.

Here’s the story from Blabbermouth, and the poster with the tour dates:

Southern California’s heavy fuzz rock legends Fu Manchu will celebrate the 15th anniversary of their major label debut, In Search Of… The hardworking group will be undertaking a headlining tour with a set comprised of the entire album from start to finish. Many of these songs will be performed live for the first time ever.

On March 1, Fu Manchu will make In Search Of… available as a 180-gram vinyl reissue on the band’s own At the Dojo Records worldwide. The band will also be selling the reissue at these shows as well as on CD. On March 2, Fu Manchu will launch its European trek in the UK.

“I can’t believe that it has been 15 years since we recorded In Search Of…,” states Fu Manchu vocalist/guitarist Scott Hill. “We are stoked to be playing these tunes for the fans and will be doing a few of them for the first time ever and maybe the last.”

The band intends to replicate the classic album experience in upcoming tours with subsequent albums and their companion vinyl reissues. Fu Manchu will also tour the US for “In Search Of…15 Years” later in 2011. Details are expected to be announced in the near future.

Of the several surprises on Boston doomers Blue Aside’s debut EP, The Orange Tree (Hydro-Phonic Records), none struck me more than when I found out there were only three dudes in the band. The layering, specifically in the guitar, and the diversity of the vocal approaches – from death growls to Porcupine Tree-style soothing harmonies and space rock emanations in between – made me sure there were at least four parties involved, if not five. But no, Blue Aside is a trio, boasting ex-members of Palace in Thunderland (the same band from whom sprung Black Pyramid) and Aeolian Race, who came together with a mind toward combining sci-fi lyrics with diverse doom and heavy psychedelia. It’s not a formula that’s never been applied before, but to their credit, I can’t think of a single band out there that sounds like Blue Aside do on The Orange Tree, however genre-ingrained the EP might be.

The five-song, 36-minute EP (for what it’s worth, I probably would have called it a full-length; the fact that Blue Aside didn’t makes me think that when they get around to putting out an LP, it could very well wind up an hour or longer) kicks off with “The Traveler of Time and Space,” the opening riff of which sounds so much like Electric Wizard’s “Witchcult Today” that I was sure Blue Aside were going to turn out to be another in the growing class of occult metal clones – The Orange Tree quickly shifts into different territory. Guitarist Adam Abrams offers some lead lines, and then death metal vocals kick in – all three members of the band are listed as handling vocals, and not having seen them live, I don’t know who contributes which approach – sounding more like Brendan Small’s work in Dethklok than anything else. And that’s not the last time I’m going to make that comparison, either. In no time, though, the track shifts tempo into upbeat space rock to deliver its echoey, clean-sung title line and more soloing from Abrams, backed by the capable tom-work of drummer Matt Netto and the bottom end of Joe Twomey. The second Dethklok comparison comes in the guitars that start second track “Otis’ Sun” (most likely a titular nod at Toronto riff-lords Sons of Otis, whom Blue Aside cite as an influence), which run in multi-layered harmony not unlike the intro to “Go into the Water” from the cartoon outfit’s 2007 debut The Dethalbum, albeit over less active drumming. For what it’s worth, I don’t draw that line in order to poke fun at Blue Aside or anything like that, I’m just trying to give The Orange Tree some context, and certainly the sweetly melodic vocals that kick in on “Otis’ Sun” are all their own.

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Sometimes this album is so beautiful it hurts. The melodic breaks, the interplay between Herbrand Larsen‘s and Grutle Kjellson‘s vocals, the keyboard flourishes, the pounding heaviness of it. I know there are a couple really amazing progressive black metal bands out there — Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord come to mind — but for me, nothing tops Enslaved, and Axioma Ethica Odini might be the bravest album they’ve made in their 20-year career.

You could sit for a week and parse every second and still not manage to capture it. I remember the first time I listened, I was just so happy it didn’t follow a similar production course to that of 2008’s Vertebrae, but it wasn’t until I really dug into Axioma Ethica Odini that the scope of the thing became clear. The first half of the record is your pretty typical Enslaved material — still better than, oh, everything else in its genre — but Side B’s prog overload really pushed Axioma Ethica Odini into the upper echelon of 2010 releases for me. It’s another one of those albums I just can’t seem to leave home.

Even listening to it now to write this, I’m distracted by the fucking brilliance of the album (among other things). The chorus of “Lightening” gives me a chill up my spine every time, and even a song like “Singular,” which I didn’t fully appreciate when I reviewed the record, has grown on me to the point where I’ll put Axioma Ethica Odini away for a day or so, then stop and say to myself, “Why the hell am I not listening to Enslaved?” And you know what the answer is? The answer is I put on Enslaved. Constantly.