German Sludge Metal.

Thanks to Thorsten from Burden for sending me this EP.
Burden is a German Stoner/Sludge Metal band. I like this stuff, great riffs, raw vocals and a heavy sound. I see a great future for this band. Enjoy and support them!

The dilemma of 21st century hard rock and metal: Bands bug with synthetic soundscapes to dub their deficient riffs. Juvenile hypermetalbands piss off their audience with their plagiarism. Bands lose touch to the veritable expression and true feeling of Rock'n'Roll and dilute this once so wild and aggressive music with trivial and weepy material. When BURDEN was founded by Saint D. (g) an gundel (g.) there was no doubt that they did not want to be part of this so called rock scene. Instead of trying to work with too many alien influences, their focus was clearly set from the beginning: to lead good old Rock-Music back to its roots without loosing touch to the presence and future. There can only be one goal! To bring back the honest and pure feeling that once was associated with rock music and rank it first!

With Dave (DEADSPAWN, ex PURIFY) a drummer living for his ideals and Rock'n'Roll was found soon. The founding year has been exclusively spent rehearsing and creating songs since BURDEN has never been about snapshots at all. In the course of time and after lots and lots of self-critical songwriting some very intense and authentic tunes emerged. But how to create real smashers when there is no pressure on your guts? It took some time to find a suitable and tight bassist. Fortunately they met Johnny Clash after some months and his impressive skills were overwhelming. Save the best for last as the saying goes - in summer 2008 Thorsten was recruited to join and complete the BURDEN army. His vocals have shot the musical standard on another level. Thorstens powerful and variable way of singing shows the real face of burden – a face other bands would kill for!

BURDEN let their music do the talking. Their unique mixture of Southern Rock, Sludge and Metal is no acoustic binge drinking, it's an uncompromising sound for people who appreciate straightforward music.
(From MySpace)

Burden - The Fool (Promo EP 2009)

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Back On Track With Stoner From Virginia.

After ten days of sickness I'm back again.
Pontiak from Virginia, U.S.A. is an out of the ordinary Stoner Rock band. Maker has some Psychedelic influences. The vocals sound a bit like Josh Homme. Further I can't compare this album with nothing. Maker is a great Stoner Rock album anyway. I guess you have to judge it for yourself and let me know what you think by giving a comment.

Pontiak exists at a nexus between several musical spheres. It incorporates elements from classic rock and psychedelia into modern drone without owing complete allegiance to any of the three. Upon first listen some of the group’s latest effort, Maker, can sound a little too close for comfort to material by Comets On Fire, Dead Meadow, Crystal Antlers, and Black Mountain – all of them traveling a road well worn by Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, and The Grateful Dead. It’s not that Pontiak has made a bad album by any means, but for a good majority of the crowd to which the band is trafficking in (in other words indie rockers) it’s going to feel just a little too familiar. Pontiak is by no means any more derivative than the other modern bands I’ve mentioned, and Maker shouldn’t be overlooked because of this. The album itself is a far better effort than the most recent releases of all of them.
In many ways Maker succeeds where those other groups have failed – by reigning in some of the endless jamming in favor of more concise riffage and economical songs. Most of the songs on the album clock in easily under five minutes and many far less than that. Only on the title track does Pontiak let loose with roughly fourteen minutes of loose, sun-baked jam and skyward facing drone. At times the album even manages to achieve the always difficult task of trading in ZZ Top style “boogie blues” riffs.
The end result is that Pontiak has made a good but not great album that will most likely be limited to an audience made up of fans of the aforementioned bands. This stuff just isn’t heavy enough to necessarily qualify as metal and not forward thinking enough to appeal to the avant-garde set. Chalk up another entry in the canon of modern classic rock indie bands. Hopefully Pontiak won’t get lost in the shuffle before it becomes truly great.
(By Joe Davenport at Adequacy.net)

Pontiak - Maker (2009)

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One Year Of Insanity!

Time flies when you're having fun! I'm doing this thing exact a year this very day!
When I started this blog I was listening this album a lot. So it's time to post it now. Let The Churches Burn by the Swedish Stoner Doom band Suma is the album of the year of 2006, no argue about that! The threatning starts with the first track Let The Churches Burn. There's so many tension on this album. It's like a haunted house at a lunapark. Scary as hell. The music is just awesome. Slow down-tuned riffs that are like a steam roller crushing everything on it's way. Very great guitars, pounding drums, a roaring bass and even sometimes a singing saw (with effects). And then the vocals. They are really frightening.
Other cool tracks are: Blood Pony, Beef and No, You're The Monkey. So let me say to you: Enjoy!

"After being transfixed by the amazing Toner Low album, I found myself with an appetite for more devilish doom drone. No sooner had I reviewed that and Let the Churches Burn arrived. By the end of the opening title track, my need for a fix had been satiated. Massive riffs collide with a bludgeoning percussion, the effect laden vocals scream out at you as the Mogadon-ic slow pace and perfect production (courtesy of the one and only Billy Anderson) create a menacing, grime-laden doom classic. Similar moments can be found across the album's length, all interspersed with Sunn0))) style drone passages. The resulting dirge is hypnotic yet through headphones its denseness can feel claustrophobic."

"The samples used suppliment the anti-religious mood eminating from the lyrics as well as providing a contrast to the Jus Oborn-style vocals. Electric Wizard seem to have a definite influence on the music as well, their darkest moments feasted upon by Suma for inspiration, and welded to the aforementioned drone sensibilities of restraint, noise and occasional minimalism. This is an incredibly heavy and dark album. Let the Churches Burn is an immense record that fans of the sonic extremeties of doom should be aware of."
(By Pete Crowther at AllThatIsHeavy)

Suma - Let The Churches Burn (2006)

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A Swedish Stoner Project.

Revolution Rock is the first full-lenght album of Greenleaf, a side-project of Dozer. This project is one of the best Stoner Rock things I ever heard. An important member is Bengt Bäcke, who plays bass and organ. He also owns the studio where Greenleaf recorded their albums. Tommi Holappa plays his guitar awesomely. (Listen for example to Red Tab, those licks make my flesh creep).
The albums Secret Alphabets and Agents Of Ahriman shows some real progression of this fine Swedish project. Too bad that they only hitted the stage in Sweden. Enjoy!

Hard rocking all the way from beginning to end. This is my first taster of Greenleaf, and I like it. It's super psychedelic at times, other times it's super rocking garage style, like MC5...along those lines. Slight hint of the doom/blues here and there. A good mix of 70's rock styles for sure. "
(By Rob Wrong at StonerRock.com)

Greenleaf - Revolution Rock (2001)

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Re-Post Request: FIRESTONE.

Here's another re-up, posted before here.

Firestone - Stonebeliever EP (2002)

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Firestone - Mexicon EP (2002)

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Finnish Stoner: PLUTONIUM ORANGE.

Here's another great band from Finland. Plutonium Orange is a Stoner Rock band with Metal influences. When I listened the album Volume the first time it reminds me of something, but I couldn't figure out what. Later I realized it sounds like another Finnish band called Sunride. Volume is a very great album. There's only one thing: It sounds a bit too nice, it should have been more raw. That's my only criticism.
If you like this album, you can buy it here. Enjoy!

Heard from listeners: The Cult, Mustasch, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Muse, Tool, Monster Magnet, Queens of the Stone Age, Danko Jones, Entombed, you name it.
(From Myspace)

Plutonium Orange - Volume (2009)

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Electric Magic Volume 5.

I posted the thirst three Electric Magic samplers by the German webzine Generated X at here. This is Volume 5. There are some nice bands on it, like The Machine, Toner Low, Radio Moscow. I guess you will like it. Click on the back cover for a readable tracklist.

Electric Magic Vol.5 (June 2009)

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Generated X Website

When I Hear That Death Punk Sound: ERECTION!

Turbonegro, what can I say about them? That they are too shocking with their act? Well, I don't care about that. What I do care is that they play an excellent combination of Hard Rock and Punk. Turbonegro are the true inventors of Death Punk.
For now I want only to post the albums Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes, cause they're the best Turbonegro made. The guy from the review below feels the same I guess, cause he put these albums in one review. Ass Cobra is more punkier and Apocalypse Dudes is more Hard Rock orientated. At this album they got a new guitar player called Euroboy. That guy play so damned good. I think you will like Turbonegro (Even the most die-hard Stoners will!) Enjoy!

I’m doing both albums in one review really because I think the story behind this band would have been told twice if I did, and I remember receiving some flak about doing it in by Templar’s review. So, sorry if you got a problem with that but I don’t feel like repeating myself or boring you twice. So on with the review: One of the darkest and most disturbing bands that have ever formed, Turbonegro is re-releasing their classic albums 96’s Ass Cobra and 98’s Apocalypse Dudes on Epitaph, and with the lead singer finally released from the Italian mental institution that halted the band in late 1998, a headlining slot on three major European music festivals, and a new album coming this spring they are ready to take the world by storm. This band brings together the theatrical antics of early Alice Cooper, with the urgency and power of Black Flag, mixes with the striped down driving rock of MC5 and the Stooges, and provides a healthy dose of attitude as well to create their own distinct form of rock that many have dubbed leather rock. Not to be taken lightly, this band can not be described in words, as much as a person needs to hear them to appreciate the power that they possess.

In 1996 Turbonegro released the first of two musical masterpieces. “Ass Cobra” was a period of growth from the band’s original funk-rock roots to a down’n dirty rock sound. The sound of this band can only be described as a garage rock with an enormous amount of energy and passion injected into it. The sheer attitude and lyrical punch that is contained on this disc grabs the listener and doesn’t let go until the end. Songs such as “Midnight NAMBLA”, “Denim Demon”, and “I Got Erection” stay with the listener long after a listen and only get creepier and more disturbing with each listen. Another highlight of this album was the hilarious spoken intros on Just Flesh and Imorgen Skal Eg Daue, begins with Steve Ignorant of Crass trying to shake the band down on the phone, the later a Norwegian punker discussing his distaste for American punkers going out with “new wave hooker girls”. They are really funny even after the first time.

As great as that album was, it only got better with the release of 1998’s “Apocalypse Dudes”, hailed by Jello Biafra as “the most important European record ever”. The band took their rock to the next level that even through much of the song writing was simpler, but the lyrics became more sophisticated and the power that each song posed grew to dizzying heights that only the masters of rock had achieved before. I also thought that these sounds sounded much more melodic and less garage rock sounding and more classic rock sounding. It also sounds like this had a better studio and more production but that doesn’t take away from this at all. Songs like “Are You Ready (For Some Destruction)” and Don’t Say Mother Fucker, Mother Fucker”, while completely un-PC and classics and are often covered by bands of every genre including Queens of the Stone Age and Mayhem. The contradictory positive negative images that come from this record continue to amaze me. This band once again the breaking rock down to it basics is the way to go, with out trying to, this band was able to write a album that even five years after it was written it still sounds fresh, and is light-years ahead of anything that is being down today.

To put it simply, these are both records that a fan of any form of rock must own. They are the new form of rock, powerful, yet simple, at first unaccesable, but given time soon a person’s favorite band. The albums also contain a live footage from this summer’s festival appearances, which after watching makes me really want to see them. Great releases that are finally readily available for all, and all I am say is thank you to Epitaph for reissuing them, this might just be one of the greatest things they’ve done.

(By Moldy at Punknews.org)

Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes (1998)

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Turbonegro - Ass Cobra (1996)

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A Demon Cleaner Re-Up.

This one was originally posted here.
The re-up for The Freeflight can be found here.

Demon Cleaner - Demon Cleaner (2002)

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Philadelphia Stoner

Thanks to Ross for dropping this in my mail-box.
The Company Corvette is a Stoner Rock trio from Philadelphia, U.S.A. The first thing I noticed listening this album is the awesome guitar playing by Alexei, just excellent. This guy is a real talent. I like his riffs. Drums and bass are very solid. The voice of Ross is just great. The Company Corvette combines Stoner Rock with some Doom and Hard Rock. On their MySpace they claimed to be influenced by ZZ Top, Motorhead and Saint Vitus. You have to hear this. And when you did, you know you have to support them! Enjoy!

The Company Corvette - The Company Meeting (2009)

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