Soil Sacrifice

This is yet another fantastic free download Bandcamp discovery!
From Tampere, Finland come the one-man project Consciousness Removal Project by Antti Loponen.

This guy plays impressive Post-Metal with Sludge influences. The album The Last Season is an atmospheric masterpiece. This album contains five amazing tracks that display great musical capabilities.

Antti Loponen had some help with this album of several musicians. Whereby I especially was touched by the violin in the songs Soil Sacrifice and Kyoto.

The Post-Rock genre is in general instrumental music. That is not the case with this project. Antti shows some great vocals, from clean to scream, it sounds awesome.

So The Last Season is for sure a need-to-hear album! Enjoy!

CONSCIOUSNESS REMOVAL PROJECT is a one-man post-metal band from Tampere, Finland. Its only official member Antti Loponen is solely responsible not only for compositions, lyrics and arrangements but also for most instruments and the record production. With the help of a live collective, Consciousness Removal Project has also been able to perform live since 2008.

The music of Consciousness Removal Project has been published on the internet for free since 2004. The style has evolved from guitar-based instrumental rock/ambient towards a post-metallish direction and vocals have been added into the equation. The 2011 album "The Last Season" was also released as a limited-edition CD Digipack.

(Bio from Facebook)

Consciousness Removal Project - The Last Season (2011)

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Copenhagen Space Rock Festival

This compilation was made for the Copenhagen Space Rock Festival that eventually never took place. What was left is this fine compilation of Scandinavian Space Rock music that was released by the Danish label Burnt Hippie Recordings.
When I bought this CD at the Øresund Space Collective show in Leiden I saw one familiar name on this CD and that was Gas Giant. I learned to know about the other great bands that were featured on this compilation like Darksun, Darxtar, Mantric Muse, Pseudo Sun and The Spacious Minds.
This compilation is mandatory for all the Space Rock freaks out there! Enjoy!

This is one of those compilations that you just can't go wrong with. We've got live and unreleased tracks, exclusive to this release, by Dark Sun, DarXtar, Pseudo Sun, The Spacious Mind, Gas Giant, and Mantric Muse. The story behind this disc is that it was originally intended to help promote the festival of the title. But the organizers, the dedicated souls at Burnt Hippie, determined that they wouldn't be able to sell enough tickets to make the show viable and canceled (postponed?) it for the time being. BUT... they also wisely decided to move forward and release this fine collection of music by some of the very best in Scandinavian Space Rock. Here's what you get...

Dark Sun get two tracks, "Electrified" and "The Epic World Of Captain Gizmo". They're an excellent mixture of cosmic Space Rock and electro-dance elements with Nik Turner guesting on sax. It's different than the music heard on their Feed Your Mind album but great songs, which only makes the wait for a new full length from these guys all the more painstaking.

"Warriors/Abberant Station" by DarXtar is a special entry because it's a live track from the mid-90's when Juba Nurmenniemi (now in Pseudo Sun) was still with the band. It's a terrific slab of heavy driving totally spaced out SPACE ROCK. At 9+ minutes it includes the song and an extended instrumental section. Just fantastic. What's interesting is that while it plays as a single track, the intro section ("Warriors") was actually recorded live in ‘95 while the main song ("Abberant Station") was recorded in ‘94.

I think we've published more live reviews (all by Scott) of Gas Giant than any other band. Well it only takes one listen to this 16 minute Stoner-psych trip to understand Scott's enthusiasm for this Danish band. The song is called "Deep Space Flight with Jim on Board" and starts off hard, heavy, and completely spaced with a brain pounding heavy rocking rhythm section and guitar licks that are Space Ritual redux. If you dig Stoner Rock but you're tired of the standard Black Sabbath influenced sludge and are pining away for the heaviest and most acidic of influences in the genre... then you need look no further. Gas Giant will blow your mind. These guys just JAAAAAAAM and SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!

Danish band Mantric Muse is the one entry that many people probably won't be familiar with. That's because they're only now wrapping up their first CD. "Cinope" is a mightily impressive Space-Prog instrumental that combines elements of tripped out Meddle era Pink Floyd and complex but totally spaced out progressive rock. My prediction is that these guys are going to seriously blow some minds when they do come out with an official release.

Ultra heavy space rockers Pseudo Sun also managed to get two tracks. "Shapeshifter" is a live version of the song that appears on their recent Atomic Dogs Don't Bark CD. It's excellent brain smashing Space Rock with Nik on sax. You get the song and the extended instrumental jam... what more could you want? And "Woodland Waterfall" is a very cool Bluesy instrumental acid-psych rock workout. Gorgeously raw and jamming stuff.

Finally, if you've heard even a little music from The Spacious Mind then you'll know that they create some of the most brain massaging space-psychedelia of any band in the world. Their entry is a 12 minute instrumental called "Floatin' Down The River Whistlin' On A Tune". The track begins with an ambient acid-space intro that gradually builds in cosmic power and intensity until it reaches the slow but commanding pace that characterizes the bulk of the tune. These guys really know how to build tension and the early 70's psych-fusion elements keep things rolling along at a slow but hypnotically steady pace. Not among the bands best work, but it's still a solid jam that will conjure up all sorts of fun images as you lay back and gaze up at the clouds.

An excellent set that you simply can't go wrong with. HIGHEST Recommendation!
(By Jerry Kranitz at Aural Innovations)

Tracklist:

1 Dark Sun - Electrified
2 Dark Sun - The Epic World of Captain Gizmo
3 Darxtar - Warriors / Aberrant Station [Live]
4 Gas Giant - Deep Space Jam with Jim on Board
5 Mantric Muse - Cinope
6 Pseudo Sun - Shapeshifter [Live]
7 Pseudo Sun - Woodland Waterfall [Live]
8 The Spacious Mind - Floatin' Down the River

Various Artists - Copenhagen Space Rock Festival (2002)

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Apocalypse Psychedelicka

Galacticka is an Instrumental Psychedelic Rock band from Tampere, Finland. Their sound is mainly based on Space Rock, but there are also some Stoner grooves.This band has created several releases and Apocalypse Psychedelicka is their most recent one. Apocalypse Psychedelicka is a great album with eight songs. Each one is awesome. This is absolutely nice to listen! Enjoy!

Galacticka is a Finnish psychedelic band formed in 2004. Apocalypse Psychedelicka is their first official album, before this they have pot out seven CD-R releases but unfortunately I haven’t heard these. This Tampere-based band plays hypnotic, kraut rock styled and rather heavy improvisation based instrumental rock, and the best reference point might be Circle in the 90’s. The keyboards are a bit more varied and jamming, though.

”Acid Rain”, the first track on the album starts with sounds of rain and thunder. After a drum fill there comes a hypnotic kraut riff in 5/4 time bringing to mind Circle ten years ago. At around the four-minute-marker the keyboards start to jam, nice! Then some heavier, slow riffing and electric piano follow and finally the kraut riff returns before eight minutes along with great analogue synths. An excellent starter! “Unsanity” starts off in a rather peaceful way with clean guitar and small UFO sounds and grows gradually. This is a hypnotic track as well, and soon it cools down again and some rather psychedelic bubbling and hallucinatory sounds follow. Then they build up again and relax in the end. “Implosion” is a wilder and shorter Circle-like blast in ¾ time; heavy and pretty fast stuff. The guitars stay repetitively pretty much in one chord which works. “Fallout” is at first slow and hard stuff with synth effects; at some point the track starts to speed up a bit and gets more variation and we get to hear some hypnotic jamming. After about six and a half minutes there comes a faster, heavier thing that sounds like heavy rock according to my young son. Then some slower, great jamming follows again. “Pigs” is the fastest and wildest track on the album and occasionally it almost crushed your skull. Before one and a half minutes have passed there is a slower part with strange, almost classical sounding melodies. Then it gets faster again and we get some space sounds. Although the album’s been excellent so far, the best piece is still yet to come. “Homo Nihilus” begins peacefully in 7/8 time signature, but gets fiercer after one and a half minutes. There’s some hypnotic going here too. The track cools down a bit again, and a superb, Oriental styled synthesizer solo follows. Towards the end they let it rip so that I’m almost transformed into a black hole. Amazing stuff! One of the best Finnish albums this year.
(By DJ Astro at Psychotropic Zone)

Galacticka - Apocalypse Psychedelicka (2006)

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Enter The Dungeon

Thanks to Tommy from the band Gniyrg Gnaarg for sharing this demo!
What we've got here is a demo of a band with the unpronounceable name Gniyrg Gnaarg. This Finnish/Spanish trio plays a vague combination of Stoner Rock, Doom Metal and Grunge. The result is splendid. Their debut demo called From Mother Sun sounds very nice. It contains four songs that are good for forty minutes of excellent music. The guitar sounds really heavy. The drums and bass do have a lingering and slow groove. The singer has a dark and mysterious voice that fits perfectly well with the music. This demo from Gniyrg Gnaarg tastes definitely for more! Enjoy!

The idea of creating a stoner/doom band was sprung up in the minds of native Helsinkians Tommy and Leo in the early summer of 2008, probably at one of the many bars in Kallio, Helsinki. The band remained a brainchild of the two bassists (one of which had never touched a bass in his life) for over a year, until one night in early september 2009 when we found out that Inés, a Spaniard hwo had settled in Helsinki a few years earlier, wanted an excuse to reincarnate the drummer inside of her. A band was born.

Our music is a combination of stoner rock, doom metal and grunge, and therefore we define our music as "Dungeon".

After playing several gigs at clubs and a few small underground festivals, Gniyrg Gnaarg entered the studio in November 2010 to record their first demo. "From Mother Sun", recorded in November 2010 at the MD-studio in Helsinki, consists of four songs and clocks in at just over 40 minutes. The track list is:
1. Awaiting the Sunlight (10:20)
2. Enter the Dungeon (10:02)
3. Earth Fire (10:56)
4. Big Bang (9:14)

The music of Gniyrg Gnaarg has been heavily influenced by the likes of Black Sabbath (esp. Master of Reality), Kuyss, Electric Wizard, early Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Fu Manchu, Joy Division and several 60/70s hard rock/psychedelic bands.
(Their bio)

Gniyrg Gnaarg - From Mother Sun Demo (2010)

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Strange Atmosphere 3.

These atmospheric tunes were send to me by J.M.A. from the one-man project Bird From The Abyss. Thank you for that!
I did posted the first Bird From The Abyss EP some earlier here. If you've taken the time to listen to this EP then you know what to expect: Some damn fine atmospheric and dark experimental sounds with acoustic parts and strange Psychedelic ambiances. The EP III is in line of the previous releases. Enjoy!

Bird From The Abyss - III (2010)

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A Plutonium Orange 7" Single.

Earlier before I posted the album Volume by the Finnish Stoner band Plutonium Orange here.
This is the the orange 7" single of the album track Bring Out Your dead.
The B side is the song Fruit Of The Doom that appeared at the The Mighty Desert Rock Avengers compilation, that's remastered for this 7". Enjoy!

Plutonium Orange - Bring Out Your Dead 7" (2009)

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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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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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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.

Website

Three Albums Of SUNRIDE

I was really long searching for some Sunride albums. I heard some songs from this Finnish Stonerband on compilation albums. I'm so glad I found three albums on the internet. They sometimes sound a bit like Dozer. Beside their albums there's almost no info on the web.

Sunride was formed in 1993 in Jyväskylä, Finland. They released their self-titled debut demo in 1996. The original line-up consisted of Jani Peippo - Vocals (see also Downfall, Godfall), Mikko Rikala - Guitar, Wille Naukkarinen - Guitar (see also Ghost Brigade), Janne Savolainen - Bass, Screams (see also Rite), Veli-Matti Suihkonen - Drums (see also Ghost Brigade). Janne Julin (see also Ghost Brigade) later replaced Janne Savolainen in Bass.
(From LastFM)

The End Justifies The Means (2005)

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Through The Red (2003)

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The Great Infiltration (2001)

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Strange Atmosphere.

Matias from Finland sended me his oneman anti-band project called Bird From The Abyss. And I must say it sounds very strange, but strange is cool!
Bird From The Abyss combines acoustic guitars with fuzz-elements and more strange stuff, like oriental sounding things. I also experience some sixties psychedelic ambiances.
There is only one thing: Bird From The Abyss is with about twelve minutes way to short. But give it a try.

Bird From The Abyss (2009)

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