6:25PM – Sunday – Hotel Mercure, Tilburg

Japanese bringers of death Coffins had just started up on the main stage, but I had a vision of myself a year ago gruelingly trying to wrap up the entire Afterburner in one post (I did it, sort of) and decided promptly to stop back into the hotel and get a grip on the day. It’s amazing how laid back the Afterburner is. A lot of the rush and push is gone – probably because there are only half as many active stages and almost no time conflicts between bands – and everyone seems calmer. The change is enjoyable, and it’s a really smart way to end the fest.

Now that I’ve seen it three times, I think I can safely say Roadburn is probably the best live production in the world. Certainly the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve been to festivals where the people putting it on have a clue, and I’ve been to festivals where that’s very much not the case, but here, it’s not even that Roadburn and the 013 know how to put on a show, but they know why they’re putting it on, and for whom. It’s a vibe like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and a hell of a way to spend a weekend.

I managed to walk into the Green Room just as the lights went down for Sungrazer. They were the only band playing this weekend whose album I brought with me to listen to on the plane, and I was really looking forward to seeing how they came across on stage. Their low-slung stoner rock was one of the highlights of the whole weekend, “Common Believer” and “Zero Zero” being particularly killer, and they announced a new album for later this year and closed with a new song that had a more expansive, psychedelic feel. I stood right up front for the whole set and could practically feel the heat coming from Rutger Smeets’ guitar amps.

The crowd was nuts for them, and though the fact that they’re Dutch natives might have something to do with that, I think more it was the riffs and the tones. There’s something about that kind of heavy psych that makes me so happy. I stood there and watched and I was glad to be there, and they were glad to be there, and everything worked out. It was a great experience, and they still have some kinks to work out performance-wise, but there’s nothing stopping them from being forerunners in the next Eurostoner generation if they want to be.

On Thursday, New York’s own Blood Farmers were on at the same time as Wovenhand, so I knew I definitely wanted to see them at the Afterburner. Doom for doomers – no other way to put it. They haven’t put out a record since their 1995 self-titled on Hellhound, but man, they didn’t miss a beat when it came to the kind of straightforward, riffy classic doom they wanted to elicit. With Coffin Joe (look it up) on the screen behind them, they doomed their way through their allotted 50 minutes and even went over time a little bit, having to end suddenly after finishing a song and saying, “Well, I guess that’s it.” They still got a good response from the main stage room.

Although Coffins were pretty heavy, I had interest in seeing Dragontears, but the Green Room was mostly full, so I stood in back for a couple minutes, then ran by the merch area and picked up the two Spindrift CDs for sale. Seemed the least I could do after missing their set for Sungrazer at the start of the day. Black Pyramid was there too with new merch, and Dave Sherman of Earthride is set to play bass later on tonight with Sourvein, so that should be a trip as well. Right now though, it’s Dutch guitar trio The Machine in the Green Room and Dead Meadow on the main stage, so it’s probably time I head back. More once I have it, and more pics after the jump.

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I had been looking forward to hearing the self-titled debut from Dutch rockers Sungrazer for a while before it showed up. The album, which was originally released by the band before they got picked up for CD/vinyl issue through Germany’s Elektrohasch Schallplatten, is comprised of six tracks of warm, heady and definitively European psychedelia, given to regular jams among the three members and an overwhelming natural flow. They work in a few stoner rock elements – the occasional catchy chorus or heavy riff section – but Sungrazer, who formed in 2009 and are already at work on the follow up to Sungrazer stay true to the bright colors of the album art with rich, encompassing sounds, like the layered harmony vocals of “Somo” or the sax-laden explorations of “Intermezzo.”

They open with the laid back “If,” setting the tone for Sungrazer immediately with the soothing vocals of guitarist Rutger Smeets and bassist Sander Haagmans. The album inevitably falls under the heading “mostly instrumental” for its extended jam sections, but it’s worth noting that when there are vocals, as on “If” and “Somo” and the later “Zero Zero,” they come on with structure behind – actual verses and choruses, in other words. Sungrazer don’t feel by any means tied to a formula, and drummer Hans Mulders has his work cut out for him keeping the jams tied to the ground throughout the album. To his credit, he does, and even at these songs’ farthest out, there’s something for listeners to hold onto. It’s part of the overall balance that Sungrazer seem to have a natural hold of, between stoner rock, jam and psych. As “If” gives way to “Intermezzo” – which wasn’t included on the original CD issue of the album and features guest sax from Conny Schneider – the transition is smooth enough to run your hand over, and likewise “Intermezzo” into “Somo.” The sax goes away, but it’s so easy to get lost in the vibe of the album, you might miss the change from one song to the other.

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As a general rule, I try to avoid reviewing compilations, because either the review winds up being a list of the bands involved with nothing of substance said about any of them, or it’s promo-speak pushing an album by saying, “It’s good, you should buy it.” Finally approaching the Planetfuzz Records debut release, Cowbells and Cobwebs, which culls together a whopping 28 underground purveyors of heavy and fuzzed out rock over the course of two 14-track discs, the best I’m hoping for is a combination of both the above. Needless to say, I’ve been sitting on the review for a while, and for me to go track by track and analyze each song would (1) take too long and (2) make for a review of such length that no one would ever read it, being of no use to any of the parties involved – bands, label, reader or myself. To give away the conclusion early: It’s a quality collection with a bunch of previously unheard material that those who think they can hold their breath for nearly 160 minutes (each disc is 79-plus) of fuzz without drowning in it would do well to check out.

A few familiar names pop up on the first disc, appropriately labeled Cowbells. Bands like Orthodox Fuzz, Arrowhead, Ride the Sun, Honcho, Gate 9, Sungrazer and The Grand Astoria are situated next to newcomers Mangoo (who might win the award for best band moniker on the comp), Loimann, Sons of Giants, Propane Propane, Audio Dream Sister, Moab and Spelljammer, and the highlights are just about evenly split between bands I knew going into Cowbells and Cobwebs and bands I didn’t. Sungrazer’s jammy “Zero Zero” shows there’s ample reasoning behind their having been signed to Elektrohasch, and I didn’t think much of it for its opening, but Propane Propane’s “It’s Alright” wound up one of the high points of the collection for its drum sound alone. Norwegian rockers Honcho check in with a track called  “Earth” from their 2010 self-released Battle of Wits album and the song is positively gorgeous in that post-Soundgarden Euro-stoner kind of way, while just a few tracks earlier, Ride the Sun show why their name has been ringing out so far over the last year or so with the previously-unreleased “Ride.”

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One can only assume it’s as romantic as it sounds: Two relative newcomer acts taking in the sites across nine days in Europe, hitting Germany, The Netherlands, France and Switzerland along the way. What a blast. I wish both bands all the best and hope the shows are killer.

You’ll notice the dates are day first, then the month. I’m throwing a bone to anyone in Europe who checks out this site and has to see it the wrong way all the time. Plus that’s how they came in and I’m too lazy to change them. A rare collision of convenience and courtesy. Here’s the news from Deville and Sungrazer:

Swedish heavy riffers Deville and Dutch stoners Sungrazer will head out in Europe together in October!

15-10 Vortex Siegen (DE) with Baby Woodrose
16-10 Die Twee Wervershoof (NL)
17-10 De Engel Den Helder (NL)
18-10 L’Excalibur Reims (FR)
19-10 Le Klub Paris (FR)
20-10 Gaswerk Winterthur (CH)
21-10 Thunderbirdclub St. Etienne (FR)
22-10 Le Poulpe Reignier (FR)
23-10 Volume Nice (FR)
24-10 Yukon Bar Collombey (CH)