Album Review- Druganaut -'Druganaut'

Location: Newcastle, UK

From the thunderous sludge of low-end pioneers Iron Monkey to the cosmic freak outs of Welsh legends Acrimony, the Brits have always somewhat of an edge on their European and American peers in terms of producing proper gritty, gnarly stoner/doom bands.You wouldn't expect much less from the isle that birthed Sabbath  ,but even then, the UK underground scene is an embarrassment of riches at times.From the bleak complexity  of HARK, to the off the wall rumblings of bands like Valfader and Wolfshead, it seems there's definitely  been something quite strong and possibly illegal  being funneled into the water/Carling over the last couple of years.Now another bunch of down tuned miscreants have arrived to pound your eardrums, drink all your good beer and probably fuck your girlfriend as soon as you've fallen asleep.Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Geordie monsters Druganaut, and their monolithic debut self  titled album.

From the opening chords of 'Smoke The Dead', its very clear we're not fucking around here:Druganaut are the real deal.No cute attempts at 'the vintage sound'.No silly fantasy lyrics(apart from the pervy, sexual kind, but more on that later) and absolutely no attempt to placate the Metal Hammer set with watered down pop choruses.This is heavy as balls, hard hitting stoner metal in the vein of Crowbar or early Down, a wicked riposte to a decade of Toni And Guy groomed posers with Washburn guitars and Top Shop Metallica Ts. Druganaut's ace in the hole is front man Craig Relf, a man who sounds like he gargles broken glass and whiskey first thing in the morning as a warm up.If Relf were to recite One Direction lyrics as poetry, it would still sound scary as fuck, and its his throaty contributions that stand out ,investing every note with soulful invective and earthy conviction.Lyrically, Relf imbues songs with a vein of black humour and sinister storytelling nous,coming across as both darkly colloquial and menacing as hell.

That's not to marginalize the rest of the band of course, and credit goes to guitarists Kyle Partridge and Adam Sheriff for some of the grooviest, catchiest riffs we've heard from a band of this ilk in quite some time.Witness the elephantine boogie of 'Carradine's Closet', a poor-taste but high gain  tribute to the late B-Movie legend, or the sinister intro to 'Sober Again' , and be reminded just why you fell in love with this kind of music in the first place.Granted, not every track is a classic('Sex Face' is just a little overcooked and doesn't really fit with the rest of the tracks in my honest opinion) but for the most part  'Druganaut'  is a great collection of songs, a steroidal rhythm section and strong production holding the whole thing together.

If,like me,you find latter day Down and COC utterly disappointing, and miss bands like Raging Speedhorn in your life, you could do far worse than giving 'Druganaut' a listen.Weighty, weedy grooves and planet sized riffing,it's time to shake your bones . . .

Rating:8/10

For fans of: Crowbar, Down, Raging Speedhorn, Two Tales Of Woe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/druganautband

Band Profile: https://www.facebook.com/druganautband/app_2405167945

Ep Review - Mu Cephei- 'Demo'

Location:Kildare, Ireland

Label:Unsigned

Release Date:August 2013


Lurching forth from a practice space in deepest Kildare(a county known for it's high level of gloom), doom/sludge trio Mu Cephei are intent on raping your ears and poisoning your mind with their own brand of noxious psychedelic doom.Sans a bassist, they  nevertheless manage to conjure up a cacophony of primal low end noise, imbued with a touch of deft melody, that should have fans of slo-mo, hypnotic violence foaming at the mouth(dirty bastards that they are.)

Owing more than a small debt to the horrific mantras of bands like Electric Wizard, Mu Cephei deal in the kind of oppressive, funereal dirges that put one in mind of every kind of drug sickness you can imagine.From the first monolithic rumblings of opener 'ilyushin' , to the closing feedback and phaser  drenched moments of  'Vacuum Phase Transition', the atmosphere created is reminiscent of a particularly bad come down, the kind that invades your every sense of being and stays with you for months afterwards.Front man Rob's vocals, drenched as they are in reverb and buried way down in the mix, are perfectly judged, all clean singing, albeit hidden under as many effects as humanly possible.It's a sound closer to prime Church Of Misery or Icelandic loons Volva than say, Eyehategod, swathes of psyche-tinged misery filtered through a production that is as warm and stripped down as they come, allowing the band's murky sound room to breath.

Even though this is essentially a glorified demo, the quality of what's on offer here pisses all over most 'proper' full length doom releases this year.Give it a few months, ,and maybe a full length ,  and Mu Cephei will no doubt join the likes of Weed Priest and Slomatics in flying the flag for Irish sludge/drone/doom bands.Essential, addictive, evil stuff.

Rating: 8.5/10

For fans of :Electric Wizard, Slomatics, Ufomammut, Weed Priest

Buyit here(name your price download) here:http://mu-cepheidoom.bandcamp.com/album/demo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuCephei

Download of the week - Valfader 'Whispers of Chaos'

Location:Bath/Bristol  ,UK

Our download of the week this week comes from the fantastic Valfader, who have just unleashed the epic Whsipers of Chaos, four tracks of fuzzed out sludge/post metal brilliance which reference everything from Isis to latter day Taint to Sabbath.Describing themselves as "three guys with valved amps, big drums and heavy riffs" who "remember the good old days of big riffs and mind trips",expect them to become a key band in the  UK and European  sludge scene in the coming months.

Ste

For fans of : Isis, Taint, Volva, Intronaut

Get it here: http://valfader.bandcamp.com/album/whispers-of-chaos 

Price:Name Your Price

Album Review- Weed Priest - 'Self Titled'

Location: Galway,Ireland

Label:N/A

Release Date: 25/02/2013

Track Listing:

1.Final Spell
2.Erichtho
3.Walpurgia
4.Thy Kingdom Gone
5.Weed Priest
6.Day Of Reckoning

As a blogger, one will receive a lot of debut demos from different  bands, and as a result start up some correspondence with them, and in a lot of cases, or at least I've found this to be the case, one finds themselves following some bands , charting their progression from something ramshackle but promising, into a band genuinely capable of making an impact in their particular scene.So it was with Galway stoner-doom trio Weed Priest.One of the earliest bands to be reviewed on Born Again Nihilist, their debut demo was hugely enjoyable ,if a little rough around the edges, with a production that was,to be kind,a wee bit under-cooked .However,I found myself revisiting it a fair few times, and wondering, given a bit more studio time etc, what the clearly talented three-piece could conjure up on a full length effort.Well, I may wonder no more, as just a couple of days ago, a small parcel came crashing through my letterbox, and contained within was a radioactive green- on- black slice of black magick. My sermon was begun . . .

From haunting opener 'Final Spell' onwards, it's immediately apparent that the Priest have stepped it up several dozen notches in terms of production  from that aforementioned three track demo. Atmospheric but not overdone, with a surprisingly clean drum sound(minimal reverb,take note please you doom drum freaks) , and a stripped down approach to the recording of the  guitars that lets the riffs breath.There are none of the usual tricks and effects laden on here, and the band are left to get on with the business of crushing you under a wall of demonic noise,extremely fucking slowly.

If one was looking for a comparison, it would probably be fair to say that the Weed Priest sound lays somewhere between the bellicose ,slo- mo bombast of Sleep at their best, and the queasy atmospherics of prime Electric Wizard. Tracks like 'Walpurgia' and 'Erictho' revel in their monotonous ,smoked out fury, vocalist Adam De Monlung half chanting,half roaring his vocal lines,not sounding a million miles away from Al Cisneros before he discovered Hare Krishnas and fell out with Pike. .This is a band that rock, but more in the geological sense ,as all the best doom does, riffs that pull  like tectonic plates shifting, a ritual of hellish stoner vibes and devilishly dark grooves.De Monlung's guitar work is also excellent, and each lead break is compelling listening,his technique minimal but still affecting.The guitar  tone is also perfectly judged, not overly awash with fuzz and all the usual tricks of the sludge/stoner/doom rabble, but still genuinely heavy,consistent and pleasingly raw.

Weed Priest  then, preaching the gospel of doom, and doing it right.Turn on, light up, play fucking loud.

Rating:8.5/10

For fans of : Sleep, Electric Wizard, Cathedral, Mourning Beloveth, Rites


Buy it here: http://weedpriest.bandcamp.com/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/WeedPriest

bornagainnihilist@gmail.com

Album Review, Otis Reaper – Self-titled, 2011

Otis Reaper. A new one for the B.A.N palette to enjoy, these guys (and girl) are bringing the shit to fuel the fan out in Tennessee. There is a seriously rich mix of all heavy things going on here so if you're in a mood for something tasty and brutal check this bastard out!

Something akin to Kyuss' 'Wretch' is invoked as soon as “Traversing the Orbs of Time” blasts out with all its single coil pickup fury (not a guitar player? Google single coil pickup). Dreadlocked guitarist Ben Price lays the grit on thick and caramely with flustered, grunge-era guitar tones, while drummer Cres Murchison and bassist Madison Clifton keeps things bouncy and smooth down below. On top of all this, frontman Jay Murchison screeches a pained vocal, keeping all this energy firmly grounded in good hard sludge. And he wastes no time in asserting himself; whereas many singers will allow such a guitar driven track time to breathe with a long intro, Jay jumps right in the thick of it before long!

On we march to “Optimator”. This one has a bizarre southern cheeriness to it, that combined with the guitar tones described above, becomes reminiscent of the vibe of Black Sabbath's 'Sabotage' album. No doubt the recent good news of Sabbath's return won't do Otis Reaper any harm since this is the case! Up next, “Footprints in the Dead Earth”, things get altogether heavier. The southern bite remains but is coupled with rolling rhythms from Cres and low, low guitar riffs, not far away from the early Baroness records. Nothin' wrong with that says I! Jay's barked and spat vocal brings additional aggression during the track's breakdown. The weight and madness last a savage seven minutes, all filled with fuckin' top notch riffing and already the band have demonstrated a diverse plethora of influences and capability to explore them.

We all love a little Traditional Doom and next track, “Graveyard Sorcery”, is just the fix you want. Old-school Obsessed style riffing and slow, ponderous drums with a relentless occult vocal and lyrical content. Guitarist Ben displays his dexterity on this one with some Brent Hinds influenced fret-bending work. Finally we are hit hard by the punk rock chops of “Unspeakable Acts of Intoxication”. It smacks of angsty Melvins atmosphere and puts it to brilliant affect. Ben Price stands out like a shining star made of riffs turned visual in some unknowable act of a forgotten psychedelic god: what a monster of a track! Of the whole record this one is going down as my personal favourite.

These guys are a rare breed; a band that know what they want and at the same time pays tribute to who they love. There is a tremendous air of honesty about the material that is only ever achieved on record when a band really loves what they're playing and don't need to feign the smiles, very punk and very cool! The extremely raw production only adds to the effect, like those old Black Flag or Melvins records you love, the production becomes part of the sound. These guys are one to watch because I'm gonna put my money on these guys climbing the local scene ladder in the coming months and years. Pull out Otis Reaper's self-titled record, lash it on the stereo, bring the lads over, crack a few cans, sit down, talk shite and bloody enjoy, you won't be disappointed!

Otis Reaper – Self-titled, 2011.

Rating: 8/10

For fans of: early Baroness, Black Sabbath, The Obsessed, Melvins.

Standout Tracks: Footprints in the Dead Earth, Graveyard Sorcery, Unspeakable Acts of Intoxication.

Listen Here: http://www.reverbnation.com/otisreaper

Edward Gerard Brophy

bornagainnihilst@gmail(DOT)com

No Anchor - Real Pain Supernova (Digital Edition), 2011

No Anchor. Now this is an interesting one. I have always wondered, ever since first watching Spinal Tap with my first drummer and first girlfriend (not one in the same) and exclaiming in bafflement “are they all using basses?!?”, during the performance of 'Big Bottom', whether any band had taken the multiple-bass-no-guitar route. And low and behold, here is the very band!

“The End”. Slight, touchy delay, then the bomb drops like an all bass Neurosis tribute. Drummer Alex shifts between steady Mitch Mitchell style grooves and brief machine gunning staccato hammers while an atmospheric alt-rock vibe is established, until it all goes back to deathly sludge just shy of the four minute mark. All powered by one of those riffs you don't want to end! But alas, at six and a half minutes The End finally ends (chuckle), and we make our merry way into the hostile depths of “Wolves Bite and Disappear”. This is fuzz country right here! The distortion laid on thick and sharp with wonderfully echoey vocals moving gracefully over top. The whole affair is over as soon as it has begun.

Already it is apparent to the innocent blogger that this band is uncompromising, and more power to 'em for that very reason. There is something that has to be loved about bands that make their records hard on the ear but pleasant on the mind.

“Dead Pony” comes out of nowhere and hits you a smack in the gob like Boris on coke and alcohol; just a brief layover before the 17 minute monster, “Gatton Bohemia”. This one could make Troy Sanders drool with all the mighty stoner rock influenced bass-from-hell riffing. These lads don't spare the feedback! Just south of six minutes they do something I just love to hear: musical use of feedback. There is almost a discernible melody in the tortured squeaking.

We chill out a little (but only a little) with following track “Shut My Mouth”, which is there to download for free folks. The raw production works to great affect with this mostly instrumental outing, during which one pictures OM playing with spiked drinks. Things now take a turn in the cynical Nirvana direction with the stark and vindictive “The Perils of Small Town Living”. It builds up gradually, as if it is never due to break out, yet at four minutes in a mood a million miles away comes rushing in and changes the landscape entirely.

The fx is brought out for the stomper “Come Again”. This is a little more Smashing Pumpkins tinged, with a solid flow to the riffing and letting the drums guide the dynamics. And sticking to the fx, final track “Key Cutter” opens with some traditional synth-like fuzz, but only for a moment before launching straight into the meat of the song. Key Cutter is by far the most unique track on the record, closer to a ballsy Kasabian than the earlier Neurosis leanings. It is certainly a noteworthy stand out, the 'shouting down a length of drainpipe' vocals are enough to make it fascinating, add in the relentless bass and you've got this blogger listening! And the most unexpected ending to boot: a minimalist beat underneath a chorus of slow girlband style vocal harmonies: utterly fascinating!

This is a very interesting record for many reasons, most of which I listed above (in accordance with my job!). This is a record for those who want to test the mettle of their ears! It's not easy, between the sheer volume of it all; the raw as fresh meat production and the feedback galore, it is testing. But, as I said before, you gotta love bands who do that and make the record they want to make. Check it out at the link below and enjoy! Edward OUT...

No Anchor – Real Pain Supernova (Digital Edition), 2011.

Rating: 7/10

Stand-out Tracks: Wolves Bite and Disappear, Perils of Small Town Living, Key Cutter.

Listen Here:

By Edward Gerard Brophy

bornagainnihilist@gmail(DOT)com

You Should Be Listening To... Cultura Tres

A recommendation came our way from Vania Yosifova, of Facebook fame, to check out this band from Venezuela. If you're looking for some new doom based sludge to enjoy, Vania is the one to ask, and sure enough, she was right on the money with this one! This band are currently enjoying a nice bit of success, their recently released LP "El Mal Del Bien" having been well received around the doom community, and it is one to check out, an immense DIY effort if ever you've heard one! So, if you find yourself in one of those inexplicable moods for long drawn out intros, dissonant chords that could frighten a bishop and vocals angrier than a 4 year old who's been given socks for X-mas, then check out Cultura Tres! Keep a keen eye on the Heavy Psych Stoner Doom Rock facebook group for all that you could want in contemporary heaviness, and cheers again to Vania for the introduction.

YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO CULTURA TRES

Edward Gerard Brophy,

bornagainnihilist@gmail(dot)com

You Should be Listening to... Baroness

In a perfect world, Baroness would need no introduction, but, circumstances as imperfect as they are, this simply brilliant band are still lurking just north of the underground. Formed in Georgia, the current hotbed of progressive sludge (Kylesa, Damad and Mastodon, to name a few), in 2003 and coming from hardcore stock, the band are carving a path all their own with their impressive blend of prog-metal dexterity with sludge dirt and weight, the whole thing mixed with melodic elements of post-hardcore. The result is a sound that was captured on their first full-length record, the perfection of 2007's 'The Red Album'. If you haven't heard this record, fuck me, you are missing out!!! If you ignore every other recommendation Nihilist makes, please! for the sake of your mental health, heed this one! Here's a live taste of personal favourite 'Isak'. 

YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO BARONESS

Edward Gerard Brophy,

bornagainnihilist@gmail(dot)com

Album Review - Sleestak ' The Fall Of Altrusia'

Every so often, as a fan of underground stoner/doom/post metal/whatever, an album and a band will come along that make you sit up and mutter to yourself "Fuck me, this is something special".Today my friends, that band is  Sleestak , and the album is the sublime, stunning , 'The Fall Of Altrusia', which it is my pleasure to review for you lucky, lucky people.

Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not, as far as I'm aware, previously known for it's hotbed of post-metal/prog talent ,but all that may be about to change.Essentially one song, split, Mars Volta style, into seven distinct sonic chapters, 'The Fall Of Altrusia' is one of those albums that can be described, without exaggeration, as a journey, one that traverses so many different moods and musical landscapes , but yet without compromising an iota of cohesiveness or focus, with a fantastically clear production to accentuate the song's understated power and heft.

The band's sound can best be described as a blend of doom/post metal/prog influences, but with enough subtleties to their sonic palette to set them apart from the current horde of  downtuned Neurosis worshippers , and give them a sense of something truly unique, and the band incorporate a vast and diverse range of influences,everything from the cold industrial lamentations of Godflesh, to the gloom of post-punk pioneers Joy Division, and via a musical filter that seemingly incorporates everything from Isis to , dare I say it,  early Pink Floyd. .Passages of spaced out , ethereal guitar and hauntingly crooned vocals give way  to lead -heavy , doom riffs, and segueing back then to gorgeous post-rock lamentations, not a second feeling inessential or wasted.Granted, it may not be an easy journey to make , with sparse vocals and a required certain degree of patience, but by the time the band have ascended to the blissful, melancholy heights of the closing moments of the album , you won't care, and the feeling on completing the album , to anyone with any sense, should be a desire to take this fabulous journey once more.

Of course, 'Altrusia' isn't for everyone.There is some that may find it's cold,desolate atmosphere somewhat overbearing, it's epic instrumentation possibly too minimalist, too unforgiving.But, as a great man, once said :

Fuck em.

This is brave, beautiful stuff, and well deserving of your hard earned cash as anything by any of heavy music's bigger names this year. A truly wonderful work of  progressive metal , each new listen reveals new depths to the band's sound, and in this reviewer's humble opinion, 'The Fall Of Altrusia' may just yet be one of the best albums released this year.

Rating:9/10

For fans of : Isis, Godflesh, Pink Floyd, Baroness, Burst

Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/sleestak 

                  http://www.reverbnation.com/sleestakmusic

Buy the album here: http://sleestakmusic.com/store.html

Stephen O ' Connor, Born Again Nihilist

bornagainnihilist@gmail(dot)com