The Patient Mrs. looked over at me the other day and was like, “Kind of a hard comedown from Vegas this year, huh?” And she was right, it has been. My second voyage to Planet Desert Rock Weekend (review here) was a really, really good time, and I guess a couple days away from the overarching weight of reality circa early ’26 was something I couldn’t see I needed as much as I did. I had been hoping to come home and hit the ball rolling on writing and feel like my head was back in it. That wasn’t really how it’s worked out.

Fortunately for me, Planet Desert Rock Weekend‘s founder and curator John Gist is already rolling out names for 2027’s PDRW VII, and it’s a get-your-ass-here assemblage with Greenleaf headlining the first announcement, Shun following up on Throttlerod‘s appearance this year and being part of a strong initial showing from Small Stone Records alongside Winds of Neptune (I still need to review that one; a Quarterly Review is coming later this month I hope) and Sundrifter, while Sergeant Thunderhoof return and Brimstone Coven make a first appearance, Humulus travel from Italy (that’s going to be a good one) and recent Ripple Music signees Florist round out.

As has been the case for the last few years, the sense of curation bleeds through the names being dropped, and if we assume the bands announced today are a little more than a quarter of the full lineup — that’s going by a max of six bands on a night this year, making this announcement more than one night’s total worth of bands, not that they’re all necessarily playing the same night, etc. — then I’m eager to see how the rest shakes out over the next weeks and, presumably, months before next January gets here. And I’m glad to have it to look forward to, frankly.

The PR wire has it like this:

Planet Desert Rock Weekend VII – 2027 Presale & Lineup Announcement

Planet Desert Rock Weekend is proud to announce its volume 7 for 2027! The dates are January 28- 31, 2027 and will take place again at The Usual Place!

We have 8 bands including 3 international to divulge and some new new ticket options. The 2026 version was our biggest one since the inception of Planet Desert Rock back in 2018. The feedback has been amazing and now the pressure is on to curate a lineup that will be held to the standards we have created. We hope you join us for this new sonic adventure in rock music.

PDRW will now have a VIP ticket option that will allow early entry to be behind the scene and see soundcheck as well as get your wristband for the evening that will permit you to be able to re-enter quickly and avoid the line. In addition we have a poster included with the VIP package. We offer 3 and 4 night choices. We will only being selling 400 total as we are not going to compromise the atmosphere and comfortable environment as well sell too many to have to move to a larger venue. So it’s 1st come 1st serve and we will see in the future if nightly tickets are an option!

The lineup:

Greenleaf/ Sweden

We have tried for a number of years to get this amazing band over and we are overjoyed to have one of the top heavy rock bands from around the world joining us for an exclusive west coast event. Meaning just Vegas… no California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon etc…. Flying in just for us! We are honored to have them!

Sergeant Thunderhoof / England (U.K.)

Returning after an amazing set at PDRW V, we are fired up to have this spectacular British band back and they will be playing a regular set and exclusively Muramasa from their split on Ripple Music they did with Howling Giant. This should be a very unique set to witness and rock to!

Humulus/ Italy

Long time heavy psych rockers Humulus makes their USA debut to continue to tradition of Italian bands playing PDRW. The band has been in the scene since 2012 and their recent 2023 release “Flowers of Death” with new vocalist Thomas Greenwood was a killer release ushering in an evolved sound.

Brimstone Coven/ West Virginia

Veteran retro hard rocking band Brimstone Coven has been steadily dropped cool albums since the early 2010s including a fantastic 2025 release “The Light Not Shines for Thee”. Key highlights including smooth harmony vocals and an homage to rock music of years past.

Sundrifter/ Boston

Returning to PDRW out of Boston all 3 of their releases have been phenomenal. The band’s sound has a near futuristic sound at times that touches upon other worlds in the galaxies and vocals that belong near the top of the heavy underground.

Shun/ North Carolina-South Carolina

Real excited to have Shun join the party in 2027 with their heavy atmospheric post rock sound that harkens to a more 90s vibe. Features fromtman Matt Whitehead from Throttlerod. This will be their west coast debut!

Florist/ Tampa

Heavy psych rockers Florist might be one of hotter bands in the scene right now on the heels of their 2025 release. They have played multiple east coast fests and we are excited to have them head west for PDRW with their theremin and other instruments. This is gonna be spacy stoney cool!

Winds of Neptune/ Detroit

Debut album in late 2025 on Small Stone Records created a lot of cosmic waves so much so they landed #1 for the November Doom Charts. Their retro 70s rocking vibe with massive riffs fits right in with PDRW. Oh and the drummer from Flogging Molly is in the band! COOL!

Tickets available now for presales until they are gone and then prices go up some: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/planet-desert-rock-weekend-vii-january-28-31-2027-tickets-1983056894554?aff=oddtdtcreator

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/171CqcorKR/

https://www.facebook.com/VRRProductions/
https://www.facebook.com/vegasrockrevolution/

Greenleaf, Live in Nantes, France, April 1, 2025

I’ve been trying to post this for like a week. This happens to me now. I’ll be sitting on the couch at like 7PM or some such — well past what I consider ‘Obelisk time’ in my feeble brainclock — and see some relevant item on my phone. I haven’t covered Krach am Bach much in years past, so I probably said something like, “Oh shit right on, I can post about something new,” and started to put the thing together. I don’t remember if I squared the poster image or the fest did — probably them. But then I get in the actual back end of the site and there are like 50 other things and then I’m already late and blah blah fucking blah here I am with another festival lineup post. I’m sure by now the lineup has been completed and the festival — which is set for Aug. 2-3 — has already taken place. Because time would bend over backwards just to screw me up, and I say that as the voice of experience.

But the lineup. Seems likely The Devil and the Almighty Blues will be out on tour, ditto A Place to Bury Strangers, Wine Lips, Deathchant, El Perro. You’ll notice Elder-offshoot Delving among the confirmations, which might mean another studio offering from that project is on the way, and I’ll go to bat for each of Karkara, Humulus, Travo and Black Helium being worth your time based solely on my experience with their recorded output. There’s more to come here, but I’m not sure how much more you really need.

Check it:

+++ First announcements || Tickets available +++

In case you’re wondering about some news for the 29. Krach am Bach Festival, we’ve got the finest selection for a ride through heavy, fuzz-drowned and hypnotic space trips.

Orange Goblin |UK
A Place To Bury Strangers |US
The Devil And The Almighty Blues |Norway
Wine Lips |Canada
Tuber |Greece
Deathchant |US
El Perro |US
Madmess |Portugal
delving |US
Verstärker |US
KARKARA |France
Humulus |Italy
TRAVO |Portugal
Black Helium |UK
ᴉGeRaldᴉ |France

More bands to be announced soon!
+++
Get your tickets here: https://shop.paylogic.com/604ee181fd7d4834aa24ee0a0c0c10a6

https://www.facebook.com/krachambach
https://www.instagram.com/krachambachfestival
https://linktr.ee/krachambachfestival
https://krachambach.de/

Orange Goblin, Live at Freak Valley 2023

In a week that’s pretty light on announcements, be it for tours or new releases or whathaveyou, Italy’s Humulus shine through with live plans for the early part of this New Year, with one TBA still saddled in a stretch of 10 days and more listed as being in the offing. The occasion of the trio’s going is 2023’s Flowers of Death (review here), which was the first outing from the band to feature guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni after a lineup shift that saw him step in after 2020’s The Deep (review here).

Their fourth full-length overall, it also featured a collaboration with Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, whose presence and influence certainly doesn’t hurt, and in part with that laid out a progressive and psychedelic course for their work to follow going forward. If you didn’t hear it — and if you didn’t, it’s okay, I don’t hear everything either — it’s at the bottom of this post and since it came out in September and 2024 is only two days old, it’s still a new release, so have at it. The dates were posted on social media as follows:

Flowers of Death Tour 2024 💥 here’s the first part of the tour dates confirmed for the next year…Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and for the first time Denmark 🔥 We wish you all the best for the new year and we hope to see you in front of the stage…and don’t forget to drink good beers 🍺 cheeeers

07.03 Gerwerk Winterthur CH
08.03 Freiburg Im Breisgau DE
09.03 Sas Delemont CH
10.03 Rockhaus Salzburg AT
11.03 Kopi Keller Berlin DE
12.03 TBA
13.03 Lygtens Kro Copenhagen DK
14.03 Pogo Retroquitaten Telgte DE
15.03 Vortex Siegen DE
16.03 Bandhaus Erfurt DE
17.03 Live Bar Sölden AT
more TBA

Humulus:
Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass

https://www.facebook.com/humulusband
https://www.instagram.com/humulus.band/
http://www.humulus.bandcamp.com

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz
https://www.instagram.com/kozmikartifactz/
https://kozmik-artifactz.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/taxidriverrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/taxidriverworld/
https://taxidriverstore.bandcamp.com/
http://taxidriverstore.com

Humulus, Flowers of Death (2023)

Revamped Italian heavy rockers Humulus will release their new album, Flowers of Death, on Sept. 1 through Taxi Driver Records and Kozmik Artifactz. Running seven tracks/43 minutes and varying from the heavy psychedelic post-stoner earthiness of opener “Black Water” to the blasted-into-space finale in “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” it is the fourth full-length overall from the Brescia trio, who made their self-titled debut in 2012. It follows a not unreasonable three years behind 2020’s The Deep (review here), and is consistent with theme that emerged there of progressing outward from their heavy rock foundation. Flowers of Death has the additional distinguishing factor of being the first Humulus outing since guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni joined the band late last year, taking the place of Andrea Van Cleef alongside bassist Giorgio Bonacorsi and drummer Massimiliano Boventi.

In some ways, that change is the story of the album. It’s not the story of the songs, but if one heard The Deep or 2017’s Reverently Heading into Nowhere (review here), there’s been incremental growth all along from the band’s beery beginnings, and that’s true here too. Swapping in Mascheroni — who also fronts garage’d psych-blues rockers Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans and did the covers for the “Seventh Sun” single (premiering below) and the LP — accounts for the shifts in sound beyond that, whether that might be manifest in the way second cut “Secret Room” follows the fluid and modern roll of “Black Water” with a faster, riffier push, turns on a dime drawn from “Misty Mountain Hop” and winds up in pastoral psych that puts one in Arbouretum-style sunshine ever so briefly, and finishes by hinting at the cosmic launch to come at Flowers of Death‘s end as it fades out.

Not only is there variety in terms of where a given song might go, but structurally between them as well. “Shimmer Haze” essentially follows one righteously swinging progression for most of its five minutes, with a guitar-led mellow break in its second half that builds back up and some groovy kick drum in its earlier verses, and when they bring back that main riff at 4:47 with barely half a minute left, they gracefully and unhurriedly tie it together as a grounded heavy rocker while holding to the exploratory atmosphere of the first two tracks. I don’t think “Shimmer Haze” is anything particularly new from Humulus, but it’s greatly to their credit that they make it come across like it is. As the centerpiece, “Buried by Tree” moves into a slightly faster tempo and is marked by the tom work behind Mascheroni‘s vocals and guitar starts and stops, coming to a head as the guitar aligns with Bonacorsi and Boventi and shoots into the chorus, departing from there into a spacious midsection that gradually jams back to another round through the verse and hook, both efficient in execution and laid back in presence.

At 7:30, “Seventh Sun” is the second longest piece on Flowers of Death and is something of a landmark for Humulus. As the band explains below, it was the first track written with Mascheroni, and its languid rollout through an extended intro positions it directly into heavy psychedelia in a way that the additional guitar from Colour Haze‘s Stefan Koglek (who also apparently leant a hand in songwriting as well) very much fits when it arrives near the song’s middle. By the time they get there, Humulus have already hypnotized the listener with the flow built around the bassline, guitar starting off, leaving, then fading back in as the track sleeks into its verse. Koglek‘s lead will be recognizable to Colour Haze fans, and its end marks a change into a more active solo and ending section, and where “Shimmer Haze” turned back from its shorter excursion to finish with reinforcement of structure, “Seventh Sun” willingly lets itself go instrumental into that good night, its residual hum seeming to last right until the snare snap of the title-track announce it’s time to boogie.

And so it may be. Surf boogie at that. Taking ’60s garage and modern heavy psych and, yeah, some surf in that guitar line, the three-piece skillfully bring the listener back from the trance of “Seventh Sun” with physical (relative) urgency in the short cut that precedes the takeoff of the 10-minute “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” — one imagines a document with three words all-caps: “PLANT MORE TREES” — which follows suit from “Seventh Sun” in not coming back once it goes into its jam, but is resolute in its cosmic feel. Once more to the credit of Humulus‘ songwriting, the initial verses are more than a formality en route to the extended instrumental finish, which comprises the last six-plus minutes and brings subtle dynamic in its moments of digging in loud or quiet, but definitely saves its biggest thrust for last, a coursing wall of interstellar fuzz nova-blasted by a star about to be recycled.

I’m not sure one could really hope to summarize the totality of Flowers of Death in a single track anyway, and as an alternative, space rock works to emphasize the open stylistic nature of Humulus at this stage in their career, more than a decade on from their first record and with a one-third-new lineup. I’ve said on multiple occasions that swapping a guitarist — let alone a guitarist/vocalist — from a power trio is a major change for a band to make. It’s had a significant impact on Humulus as well, but they haven’t lost the thread from where The Deep was leading, even as they’ve thrown open new and exciting creative avenues to traverse.

“Seventh Sun” premieres below, with more comment from the band, preorder links, and so on after.

Please enjoy:

Humulus, “Seventh Sun” track premiere

https://youtu.be/i-QhVYwFxF0

Humulus on “Seventh Sun”:

“The idea of this song came from an old bass riff that Giorgio used to play to check his sound in rehearsal, studio, live, etc. We never built up a song on this riff, so when Thomas joined the band in November 2022 was the first idea we started to jam on. This is the first song that we wrote for the new LP and during the months we’ve spent writing the rest of the songs, it changed a lot and we added and cut different parts. Also under the supervision of Stefan from Colour Haze who played an additional guitar part. For sure is one of the most psychedelic and atmospheric song of this LP and more than the others represents well the transition from the ‘Old Humulus sound’ to the new one.”

Song Name: Seventh Sun
LP Name: Flowers of Death
Music by Humulus, Lyrics by Thomas Mascheroni
Additional guitar by Stefan Koglek (Colour Haze)
Artwork for the Single by Thomas Greenwood

‘Flowers of Death’ preorder: http://www.kozmik-artifactz.com/ & http://taxidriverstore.com

Tracklisting:
1. Black Water
2. Secret Room
3. Shimmer Haze
4. Buried By Tree
5. 7th Sun
6. Flowers Of Death
7. Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth

Humulus:
Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass

Humulus on Facebook

Humulus on Instagram

Humulus on Bandcamp

Kozmik Artifactz website

Kozmik Artifactz on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz on Instagram

Kozmik Artifactz on Bandcamp

Taxi Driver Records on Facebook

Taxi Driver Records on Instagram

Taxi Driver Records on Bandcamp

Taxi Driver Records store

Something of a different look from Humulus on their upcoming Flowers of Death LP. The follow-up to 2020’s The Deep (review here) sees the Brescia-based three-piece making their first offering with new guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni, who joined the band late last year, playing alongside bassist Giorgio Bonacorsi and drummer/band-ambassador Massimiliano Boventi. The heft is still there, as songs like “Shimmer Haze” and “Buried by Tree” will attest, but some of the burl has been swapped out for an exploratory sense, and Mascheroni imports some of his psychedelic and melodic sensibility from his solo work — he also did the cover art — giving a fresh voice to the group who released their beer-rocking self-titled debut in 2012.

They don’t sound like a completely different band — though they do go full-space rock at the end with “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” with engrossing results — but like they’re pursuing the direction they took with the somewhat-left-turn that their 2020 LP represented, and they sound like they’ve restructured the group, which they have. Mascheroni replaces Andrea Van Cleef in Humulus, and has a style of his own. I’m not going to say it’s better or worse now, because that’s not really what it’s about — though if you want radical honesty, Humulus now are probably more in line with what I’d put on for a given afternoon — but listening to Flowers of Death as I’ve been fortunate enough to do, they sound excited and eager to plumb these new reaches of sound, and I look forward to hearing where they end up.

They’re confirmed for Keep it Low in Munich this year, which Colour Haze also regularly play, it being their hometown. You’ll note that band’s guitarist Stefan Koglek had a hand in advising on songwriting (not a tutelage that’s going to hurt) and plays extra guitar on “Seventh Sun.” That song has a mellow drift and the kind of build that I very much wouldn’t mind watching emanate from a festival stage. I won’t make it to Keep it Low unless a miracle happens, but as a word to the wise, it’s something you might consider.

I’ll hope to have more to come on the record as we get closer to the release. For now, here’s the announcement and some words on it from Boventi:

HUMULUS – Flowers Of Death

Release date: 1st September 2023

Preorder link: http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/

Label: Kozmik Artifactz (LP, 300 copies) Taxi Driver (CD, 300 copies)

Says Massimiliano Boventi: “I think that the most important thing for a band like us who recently had a lineup change, is to start immediately to work hard on new material…and it’s exactly what we did from november until april 2023. The result is an LP that reflects what Humulus are in this moment: you can feel in the songs the ‘classical’ Humulus style that is more connected to the rhythmical part of the band, the oldest part :) , and the fresh air given by the new member. But the most important thing for us is that these parts are well connected and we feel us again as a band, musically speaking but also as friends.

It was also a pleasure and a great honour to be helped by Stefan Koglek from Colour Haze who gave us precious tips about what to do in the songs without changing our band sound. We never did this before with other artists for previous records and was really a different and very stimulating thing to do for composing part of the LP. And he played an additional guitar part on the song called “Seventh Sun”.

So we are really excited about this release, and also some gigs for October and November are coming.

All the songs are written and played by Humulus.
This Lp was recorded in April 2023 at IndieBox Music Hall Studio (Brescia) by Giovanni Bottoglia.
Cover art by Thomas Mascheroni (our Singer and Guitar player).
Stefan Koglek: Additional guitar on “Seventh Sun”.

Humulus:
Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass

https://www.facebook.com/humulusband
https://www.instagram.com/humulus.band/
http://www.humulus.bandcamp.com

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz
https://www.instagram.com/kozmikartifactz/
https://kozmik-artifactz.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/taxidriverrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/taxidriverworld/
https://taxidriverstore.bandcamp.com/
http://taxidriverstore.com

Humulus, The Deep (2020)

And so the Fall tourscape continues to unfold. King Buffalo heading abroad again is news, I think. They’re playing RippleFest Texas at the end of September, and between Keep it Low 2023 on Oct. 6-7 and the also-Sound–of–Liberation-affiliated Lazy Bones Festival in Hamburg, for which they were confirmed last week, it looks like they’ll once more spend at least the better part of a month on the road. Good to know these things.

Joining them in this whopper of an announcement is the e’er aggro Mantar, reinvigorated doom legends The Obsessed — who seem to be hitting the touring circuit that much harder with their revamped lineup — the reliably-unhinged Eyehategod, upstart rockers Slomosa, and Humulus, Dirty Sound Magnet, The Moth (who rule and hopefully have a new record coming), Eremit, Lucid Void and masked marauders Iron Walrus. It’s a busy one, but check out the generational blend between the likes of Colour Haze, The Obsessed, Eyehategod and Alabama Thunderpussy and the likes of Slomosa, King Buffalo, and Lucid Void.

Seems to me like we’re in a pretty killer moment of established acts still getting out and releasing quality material (The Obsessed have a new album that hopefully will be out concurrent to this tour) and newer bands on the rise. As the 2020s play out post-pandemic, this may be the shape of the next few years. Let’s learn from the past and support the shit out of the next generation of bands, hmm?

Here’s the latest:

NEW BANDS ADDED TO KEEP IT LOW FESTIVAL 2023

Hey Keepers,

we’re super stoked to present you the latest additions to our Keep It Low line up!

Please welcome to the bill:

MANTAR
The Obsessed
King Buffalo
EYEHATEGOD
Slomosa
Dirty Sound Magnet
Humulus
THE MOTH
Eremit
Lucid Void
IRON WALRUS

FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1511616365992301

Complete line-up:
COLOUR HAZE – MANTAR – THE OBSESSED – KING BUFFALO – EYEHATEGOD – ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY – BELZEBONG – SLOMOSA – THRONEHAMMER – DAILY THOMPSON – DIRTY SOUND MAGNET – HUMULUS – THE MOTH – EREMIT – LUCID VOID – IRON WLARUS

& MANY MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED

Weekend tickets are available in our shop.
www.sol-tickets.com

Keep It Low Festival
6. & 7. October 2023
Backstage Munich

https://www.facebook.com/keepitlowfestival/
https://www.keepitlow.de/
https://www.soundofliberation.com/
http://www.sol-tickets.com

King Buffalo, “Firmament” live in St. Louis, MO, Jan. 15, 2023

A few weeks back, Italian heavy rockers Humulus announced the departure from the band of guitarist/vocalist Andrea Van Cleef, a not-at-all minor presence in the Brescia-based trio alongside bassist Giorgio Bonacorsi and drummer Massimiliano Boventi. Good terms, still friends, all that. Sometimes it’s time to go. It happens. Boventi and Bonacorsi said at the time they would be continuing the group, and today they announce that Thomas Mascheroni will take over fronting duties from here on out.

Mascheroni, who also performs as Thomas Greenwood in the outfit Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans, released the psych-garage-blues-ish Rituals full-length earlier this year, and comes to Humulus following the band’s 2020 third LP, The Deep (review here). That record greatly expanded Humulus‘ prior approach, sort of blew the roof off the thing, and while there isn’t any new audio from Humulus Mk. II yet, I’ve been fortunate enough to hear some recent rehearsal recordings of new songs in progress, and they sound like Humulus are going to be continuing on an exploratory path as Mascheroni and the established rhythm section come together.

They’re saying new album in 2023. Crazier things have occurred, certainly, and I hear having goals is a good thing. Best of luck to the band, and Van Cleef, who has said he’s soon to return with a new project. Again, goals. My goal right now is another cup of coffee, so while I handle that you read this from the PR wire:

Lineup changes are often difficult and complex and when Andrea decided to quit Humulus was for sure not easy to look to the future immediately with positive vibes… but we’ve been lucky and few days after the break up, Thomas Mascheroni joined the band!!!

He has also a solo project with the name of Thomas Greenwood and his last record “Rituals” (https://thomasgreenwoodband.bandcamp.com/album/rituals) went out this year. We’ve listened to this LP, and we really liked his sound and his voice.

So here we are!!! We are working hard on new material, new songs are coming fast and for sure we’ll be out later in 2023 with an LP.

Some gigs are already planned for spring and summer and we’ll play new songs and some old classics… stay tuned on our social pages for announcements.

We are very excited for this new adventure, for sure the new sound and songs will be different, but this is the best part of the game!!!

Humulus are:
Thomas Greenwood – Guitar/Vocals
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums

Photo by Francesca Bordoli @francescabordoliph

https://www.facebook.com/humulusband
https://www.instagram.com/humulus.band/
http://www.humulus.bandcamp.com

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz

Humulus, The Deep (2020)

Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans, Rituals (2022)

Bringing together players from Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK, Austria, Northern Ireland, Italy, Greece, Sweden, the US and Brazil, the Stoner Rock Worldwide Community Album 2021 boasts seven tracks of remote compositions and recordings, with the songs emerging from members having participated in a call to arms during the pandemic. It’s a hugely ambitious project. In regular circumstances, it would be impressive enough to curate a series of bands and players coming together on a new anything. To sort various parties across international borders into working units even in the age of social media, and then to have them work together creatively, is an oh-hell-no kind of job. Kudos to Felix Melchhardt on making it happen.

Pretty astounding stuff. Vinyl’s in the works as we speak, and the stream went live this past Friday. You’ll find it at the bottom of this post, and considering the amount of effort that seems to have gone into every level of making it, the download is dirt-frickin’-cheap.

More info:

Stoner Rock World Wide Community Album Digital Release out now! 35+ Musicians, Remotely composed and recorded.

Remotely composed, recorded and finally pressed on vinyl together as a worldwide community of heavy rock lovers – The Stoner Rock World Wide Community Album.

26. May 2020: “What if we release an album remotely composed, recorded and finally pressed on vinyl together as a worldwide community of heavy rock lovers? Musicians world wide writing an album for our lovely world wide community, that’s the deal and we think we could make this happen.” – And we did so.

Key Facts
– 7 Tracks – Remotely composed, recorded and mixed by more than 35 musicians spread over the globe. Magic definitely happened, friendships were made.
– Mastered by Niklas Källgren (Truckfighters).
– Once pressed, worldwide distribution via various heavy rock labels.
– Special guests: Bob Balch (Fu Manchu), Papanikolaou Babis (Planet of Zeus), Tolis Motsios (Nightstalker).
– People participating in the project did not know each other before. Only the love for heavy rock connects them. They were brought together by an open call-out to the community by SRWW 2 years ago.
– Groups were brought together via Facebook. They internally organized themselves on how to approach the songwriting process, exchanged ideas and finally put together 7 unique songs.
– Anything that could go wrong, went wrong (really) – but we made it. **ck COVID.
– Pressed on vinyl right now.
– Bandcamp digital release co-finances the master, distribution and further costs.
– Endurance was key. Shoutout to all the people involved.
– Coordinated by Felix Melchhardt in the name of SRWW. (Cone (Band), Blackdoor Music Festival, SRWW)

Personnel:
Track 1 – Dreams of Space
Francesco Bonardi – Guitar (Hackberry, Netherlands)
Eric Frantzen – Bass (Mantra Machine, Netherlands)
Drev – Vocals (Descarado, Sweden)
Miguel Pereira – Guitar (Bushfire, Germany)
Sascha Holz – Drums (Bushfire, Germany)

Track 2 – Remain
Martin Frank – Bass / Vocals (White Noise Generator, Germany)
Thomas Berger – Drums (Timestone, Austria)
Tony Hochhuber – Guitars (Germany)

Track 3 – The All Seeing Sun
Diamond Pr – Guitar / Vocals (The Same River, Greece)
Oscar Flanagan – Guitar (Insonika, Sweden)
Armin Lehner – Keys (Ozymandias, Austria)
Brien Gillen – Drums (Elder Druid, Northern Ireland)
Rafael Denardi – Bass (Rafael Denardi, Brazil)
Special Guest: Papanikolaou Babis (Planet of Zeus, Greece)

Track 4 – Raw
Luke Taylor – Drums (White Noise Generator, Germany)
Derek Fisher – Guitar (Moth66, USA)
Niels van Eldijk – Bass (Ramkoers, Netherlands)
Ben Plochowietz – Guitar / Vocals (Scorched Oak, Germany)
Christoph W. – Vocals (Ozymandias, Austria)
Special Guests: Tolis Motsios Nightstalker (Greece)

Track 5 – Calypso
Tom Maene – Guitar (Motsus, Belgium)
Jeroen Schippers – Drums (Mantra Machine, Netherlands)
Linda Hackmann – Bass / Vocals (Scorched Oak, Germany)
Dimitris Vardoulakis – Vocals (Honeybadger, Greece)
Jonas Hartmann – Keys (Willow Child, Germany)
Special Guest: Bob Balch (Fu Manchu, US)

Track 6 – Stalactite Caves
Alex Pöll – Bass / Vocals (Cone, Germany)
Jakob Aigner – Guitar / Vocals (Timestone, Austria)
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums (Humulus, Italy)
Uwe Halmich – Guitar (Eternal Engine, Germany)

Track 7 – Wastelands
Peter Dragt – Drums (Bismut, Netherlands)
Jake Wallace – Guitar (Elder Druid, Northern Ireland)
Jason Recoing – Bass (Pelegrin, France)
Dale Hughes – Synth / Keys (Electric Octopus, Northern Ireland)
Francois Roze – Guitar / Vocals (Pelegrin, France)

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https://apps.apple.com/de/app/stoner-rock-world-wide/id1478558984
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.srww&hl=de&gl=US

Various Artists, Stoner Rock Worldwide Community Album 2021