I’m sick and tired of all your games.

Remember when I said I’d try to find some news to fit in here every time? Well don’t you concern your pretty head about it, ’cause there won’t be any more. Instead I’m just going to slap myself into Dagon’s territory. Some call them stoners, which I find funny ’cause they are usually too high to stone anyone. If you, like the average man, have missed any of our previous installments of stoner music series you can read them in the following places. Saturndust, Acid King, Elder and Stoned Jesus. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else – somewhere out there – would have written about stoner jams too, but I’m too drunk lazy to go find them.

So anyways, if you haven’t listened to the newest Monolord and you like slow, riff-y and dirge-y stoner doom then read stuff here and listen to it.

Dopethrone

If you like your stoner metal really dirty you would have already listened to this. The songs are short compared to 20+ minute jams that bands like Electric Wizard employ. Dopethrone is determined to groove like the dirtiest blues band on earth, dirty being a keyword here. They aren’t afraid to inject a little sludge into their riffs, and overall I’d say this album has as much alcohol in its veins as it has weed. If you’re anything like me, you were a little disappointed in the newest Weedeater album; Hochelaga, this year’s Dopethrone, release takes that throne more than capably. Stripped of the country-like influence coupled with a stronger groove and better riffs, this is a winner of an album. The two earlier releases are very similar and just as enjoyable, although Hochelaga may be my favorite. And the lead guitar tone is pretty wicked, what with the echoing chambers and all.

Boar

Boar is a Finnish band. They have released some EP’s and splits but haven’t made much noise since their inception in ’09. Come first of May and the wind of change, we’ll see the release of their debut full-length – Veneficae. They’re not afraid of taking their fair share of influences from sludge and change the vocals approach from clean to grunt when called for. Even though Boar writes songs a little longer than the other bands featured here, they don’t overstay their welcome either and are probably the most aggressive of the bunch, which doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t take anything from the psych-oriented-jam-sessions side of things. In fact Boar seems to incorporate influences from every imaginable aspect of stoner into a varied and dynamic album without sacrificing any of the power of the almighty riff that fuels the genre. Veneficae has as many identities as it has songs, and I would not be surprised if it would prove one of the best stoner/doom albums of recent years.

Wölflaut

This three-piece from Portland, Stonerville (or Oregon, not sure which) brings the riffs. So far they’ve released an EP in February, and that’s it. Leveled happens to be a damn righteous EP at that, and by righteous I mean ball-wrenchingly-crushing. It’s played low and mostly slow, but the songs don’t extend to five minutes, which is pretty much Leveled’s main minus. It’s short. The production job seems a little odd for a stoner/doom/thing album, but it’s by no means bad or unfitting. There’s something about the guitar tone that I wasn’t expecting. I’d like to think that cover art is a photograph of the members’ homestead after they leveled it with Leveled; it’s heavy enough to do just that.

 

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