South Carolinian trio Auralayer make their full-length debut with Thousand Petals on July 14 through King Volume Records. The nine-song/35-minute outing is the latest in a splurge of quality offerings from the label — see also Fairie Ring‘s LP out in April and Lord Mountain‘s January release this year alone — and boasts production by former Kylesa guitarist Phillip Cope, […]
Welcome to the second week of the Quarterly Review. Last week there were 50 records covered between Monday and Friday, and barring disaster, the same thing will happen this week too. I wish I could say I was caught up after this, but yeah, no. As always, I’m hearing stuff right and left that I […]
Welcome back to the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s not quite the same as the Mountain of Madness, but there are definitely days where it feels like they’re pretty closely related. Just the same, we, you and I, persist through like digging a tunnel sans dynamite, and I hope you had a great and safe […]
In 2009, Robotic Empire released the comprehensive and consuming 11LP/8CD discography box set Below & Beyond (discussed here) from Miami bomb-tone heavy rockers Floor. The band, part of the wide-reaching family tree of sludgers Cavity, had their own sludge elements, but with the vocals and tonal heft of guitarist Steve Brooks, fostered a penchant for upbeat and […]
Lords of the North, Lords of the North (2008) A proposal for a science experiment: Some label — for hypothetical purposes let’s say it’s Cursed Tongue Records for the vinyl and Ripple Music for the CD, and maybe someone else does a limited tape version somewhere along the line too; I like King Volume, so let’s […]
Connecticut’s New England Stoner & Doom Fest 3 continues to take shape ahead of next May 15-17 in Jewett City at Altone’s Music Hall. The third lineup announcement brings locals, travelers, touring bands and a bit of sonic diversity, so pretty much whatever you could ask. High Reeper and Heavy Temple — hey, that’d be a cool tour, wouldn’t it? […]
As someone who spent roughly five minutes not-at-all-surviving in the corporate sector working in something loosely related to marketing, I’m sometimes interested in moves like this. Obviously it’s a play toward a wider appeal, right? More people will be interested in Oblivion Access than Austin Terror Fest, which sounds like an extreme metal festival exclusively. […]
One could go on at some length about the legacy of the Stoner Hands of Doom Festival, which, like much of the pre-social-media universe, feels like part of some bygone era, when in fact the last edition was held in 2013. The Maryland Doom Fest 2019 pre-fest party — which I’ll only argue with because, […]
