Blue Record With Bonus!

I guess the most people know this album by now, but I have to post it anyway. When I bought this CD, I did not know there was a bonus CD included. This bonus CD contains (a part of) their performance at Roadburn 2009. I think it's a part of their show, because the CD last only 34 minutes.
The Blue Record is just what you expect from Baroness, Heaviness in all aspects. This is a truly great album. Enjoy and buy!

In 2007 Baroness released an album with glorious red artwork. In a fit of unbelievable creativity, they named it Red Album. In 2009 they are cementing their reputation for nomenclature with the ingeniously titled companion album – Blue Record.

Like all great pairings though, these two Baroness albums are a contrasting duo. Red Album was a galloping charge of muscular grooves, building layer upon layer of sound into an unrelenting assault. Blue Record is a different beast entirely, trading the slowly building sonic landscapes of its predecessor with a more jarring sound, full of twists, turns and tangential moments. This is an inventive album, one not afraid to tone down the band's clear talent for musical muscle for the sake of originality.
Baroness have undoubtedly retained their tight and pounding style, but it has been shoehorned into a different context. Here the guitars lead the way, and while the aggression is still there, they are more willing to throw different tones and styles into the mix. Straight up metal riffage jostles for position with bluesy folk breakdowns, jangling garage rock style arpeggios and prog rock cascading rhythms. Even though the raw vocals at times sound slightly odd against the more delicate musical sections, it's still a breathlessly effective melting pot of sound, and the frenetic pace is sustained throughout.
Despite all of this musical chaos Blue Record manages to maintain an enormous amount of identity. From the sizzling fuzz laden guitar solos to crushing bass grooves; the album positively drips with the flavour of the American Deep South. This grounding provides a sense of unity that ties the album together, giving it a sense of narrative throughout.
Blue Record reinforces Baroness' status as a musical powerhouse, but perhaps more impressive is that is does so whilst deviating substantially from the formula set down in their first full length album. Brave, fresh, and original – this excellent album packs a punch.
(By Richard Wheelhouse at Seaoftranquility.org)

Baroness - Blue Record (2009)

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Bonus CD: Live At Roadburn 2009

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Stoner From Belgium: THE KILLBOTS

Belgium has often good music to offer. The Killbots is a good example of that. They play some energetic Stoner/Hard Rock. Many songs have a high speed Rock 'n' Roll feeling. Listen this album and judge for yourself! Share your findings in a comment!

After two demos and a contribution to a compilation disc, the Killbots finally release their self-titled debut album. First I want to give my deepest respect to the amazing cover artwork which turns out to be a cool, but trashy science fiction poster when you unfold the booklet.

Even if the artwork has a definite Fifties tinge, the Belgians have their musical roots in the Seventies. Their sound is a fluid mixture of groovy stoner and rock’n’roll. If I need comparisons, you don’t need to look further than Queens Of The Stone Age, Fu Manchu and Kyuss, although retro rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Crowes also seem to have left their mark.

The Killbots have a rather raw approach towards songwriting. Their music has some melodic parts, but the huge majority consists of dirty rock’n’roll combined with a maximum portion of noise. The album contains two instrumental songs which seem to contain a lot of improvisation which works especially fine for the ten minutes long Tantra. The album’s last track starts like a outro, but develops into a journey to the weirdest fields of rock music. Another highlight is the sex minute long Rule Me Out with its groovy start before taking a turn to calmer regions and finally culminating with quite fuzzy structures.

The album is nearly one hour long, and the changes from song to song work well enough. On the one hand, the Killbots’ music doesn’t ask too big an effort from the listener, yet on the other hand, it’s hard to concentrate fully on the album as real highlights are hard to find. Everything on this CD has been popular in the Seventies and in the Nineties when this genre experienced a revival. Eventually I don’t see the point in recording an album that doesn’t give a damn about originality. This is a privilege which may be claimed by Motörhead or AC/DC, but a newcomer band should first define their own style before allowing themselves to get rid of innovation.
(From Disagreement.net)

The Killbots - The Killbots (2007)

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Space Probe Taurus

Space Probe Taurus is a Swedish Stoner Rock band with Garage Rock influences. This album rocks! Read the review below and you know what I mean. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Acid Fuzz Rock from Sweden you will get from ex-Snake Machine (1992-1997), which are now SPACE PROBE TAURUS. The sound is compared with bands like Mudhoney, Hellacopters, Stooges, MC 5, NEBULA and a little FU MANCHU. The opener DIG THE LIZARD is a fast forward dirty rock song in the veins of THE HELLACOPTERS or GLUECIFER, with some Fuzz Rock elements. BUZZ AMP, ELECTRIC EXPLOSION and SNAKEBIRTH are that direction. And it will give you the typical sound. It would be a boring record, if not the other tracks like MOLTEN LAVA (with a great Stoner Rock beginning), BAREFOOT (the typical Stoner touch again, but with a lot of drive!) or the mighty and slower PSI-BURN, which is a great groove monster with excellent vocal lines. This track is the highlight on that record in my eyes. Sounding like a good Stoner Rock song, written in the best Stoner Rock years, back in 1998-2000. SUPERSONIC WOMAN rocks too and LEVITATION give you the classic psychedelic input, which made NEBULA huge. The last track (bonus track) called SHE-WOLF, BABY is taken from the movie HOLLYWOOD SHE-WOLF. Cool. All in all a record which makes a lot of fun and sounding fresh if you not expect a new influence for the Stoner Rock scene. Good record, this sound will work on stage definitely.
(By Jochen at Daredevilrecords)

Space Probe Taurus - Space Probe Taurus (2005)

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Here It Is!

I was waiting a long time for this one. Astrosoniq's new album Quadrant is awesome. I don't want to spill more words on this one. Check it out, enjoy and then... BUY IT! (And tell me what you think!)

Every Dutch stoner-rocker knows this band: Astrosoniq. I had the honour of witnessing their first show in a long time recently, and I was blown away by the sheer quality of this act. Now they have released their new record Quadrant, the follow up to their 2006 release Speeder People. And let me tell you, it is mighty good stuff!

I have to honestly admit that this is the first actual Astrosoniq release I hear, but damn has it convinced me! This record is so well produced, arranged and played, it’s almost out of this world, or as you might say, from out space. These guys take elements of classic rock, stoner, grunge, psychedelics, industrial, metal, country and avant-garde and mould it into a giant monolithic whole, topped with brilliant guitar solos. It’s like stepping into a wormhole into another dimension of rock music. And even better, every time I play it, it gets better and better! A true masterpiece indeed.

Every song on Quadrant has a face of its own, making every song a small trip in a whole of a giant space odyssey. This stuff goes right from Pink Floyd to Orange Goblin to Alice In Chains to Saint Vitus and back without breaking a sweat. And to make it even more interesting, you can listen to the track ‘Zero’, which also features a guest appearance by the band ZEUS (with that Lama guy Jeroen van Koningsbrugge) on both the left and right channel of your stereo individually as well as together. The finishing touch is found in a cover version of the Dutch noise band T-Nailed’s ‘Bored’.

Conclusion: a fucking brilliant record with a nomination for my personal yearlist! If you dig the band, or even remotely dig one of the styles they play, make yourself a happy man and check Quadrant out asap!
(By DemonDust at Metalrage.com)

Astrosoniq - Quadrant (2009)

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Finnish Stoner

If you like some up-tempo Stoner Rock, then this EP is your thing. Zerocharisma play damn fine Stoner Rock. I guess this was their only release. Too bad, I wish I could hear more of this band. Except for this review there's nothing to find about Zerocharisma, no website and no MySpace (Also too bad). Listen and enjoy!

Whoa!!! This record roars like a dragster at full speed! This great Ep is released by the good label Monsterzero Records...and their choice was right, because the band we're talking about has great chances to rise to great fame levels; Zerocharisma plays a sort of punk-influenced stoner-rock, mixed with some motorhead...I could say optimal tourmate of Zerocharisma are the finnish Sunride...they seem to have the same fuckin' irty attitude...they are the perfect bands to listen to at a wild alcholic party. Really adrenalinic.This Ep contains five top class songs. Oracle, the opener, is really fast and amphetaminic, Ridin' Astro is a bit slower, but still heavy. Then it's time for Caliphornia, another fast song...but with a lovely mid-tempo stoned break. The fourth song is Space Probe, and it's once again time for a highway ride in the night...this is my favourite song, and probably the most psychedelic, too. Finally, there is the title track, Flip the Man; in the beginning, it seems to be the most punk-song of the whole cd. Then, it becomes a real kick it the head, due to its dirty stoned-punk attitude I really love. The performance of the musician is perfect (especially, i loved the singer's voice) and the recording is really really good. A very high recording standard, for Zerocharisma. Definetively, this is a very very good record from Monsterzero Records...every rock-lover should buy it...another perfect record for tripping on the highway...
(By Alex (Stoned Gods))

Zerocharisma - Flip The Man EP (2000)

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Some Milligrams Of Stoner Punk

This is a short album by Milligram from Massachutes, U.S.A. Milligram play some sort of Stoner Punk. The songs sounds like high energized Rock 'n' Roll.

Their MySpace says that Milligram is influenced by the following bands and artists: Black Flag, MAINLINER, Stooges, FEAR, Loop, DWARVES, Jesus Lizard, Tom Waits, Kyuss, Birthday Party, Black Sabbath, HIGH RISE, Neil Young, Fu Manchu, Pink Floyd, La Gritona, Misfits, GUITAR WOLF, Refused, Ornette Coleman, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Unsane.

There are some covers on this album. Check it out!

"Furious as punk and loud as hell, four Boston rock veterans (including ex-Roadsaw-er Darryl Shepherd) pound through seven tracks."

"This band from Massachusetts is a ball of furious energy spawning from such styles as MC5- Stooges."
(From AllThatIsHeavy)

Milligram - Hello Motherfucker! (2000)

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Strange Atmosphere 2.

Some time ago I posted the EP from Bird From The Abyss here. This is the promo-video for the new upcoming album.

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A Truckfighters Re-Up.

A while ago I posted this EP here. Mediafire removed it, so I post it again.

Truckfighters - Heading For God's Warehouse EP (2002)

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A Promise For The Future

Thanks to Planet Fuzz for publishing this demo. I did not really know that there are so many new Stoner Rock bands in Holland. One of them are Stonerfront Nijmegen. They play some decent Stoner Rock and I think they will make some more great music in the future. This three track demo proves that. Promising!

STONERFRONT NIJMEGEN was founded in April 2008 in Nijmegen (Holland). The band works with various musicians and their main target is to make stoner in the tradition of bands like Kyuss and Monster Magnet (MM: early works). One of the goals is not to be original, not to give a new twist to stoner. When the groove is good, when the groove is stoner it doesn't give a damn if it sounds like Unida, Fu Manchu or Lowrider. 'If you like the tracks, then what does it matter if it sounds like a band that you know?'

Along the way STONERFRONT NIJMEGEN will leave behind the idea of working with various musicians, so it can form a 'power-trio'. There is even a rumor that in the future this trio will perform only instrumental stoner. Carefully picked samples will complete the songs...
(Bio from My Space)

Stonerfront Nijmegen - Demo (2009)

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Estonian Stoner Hard Rock

Nevesis is an Hard Rock Stoner band from Estonia. I like their music at this demo and I look forward to their first album.

Nevesis - Demo (2009)

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