ripple music

Initial Descent: November 25 – December 1, 2018

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Master
Master

Food coma anyone? If you’re in the states you know what I’m talking about and if not you’re all the better for it. Just as waistlines are expanding so is the quantity of releases vying for that ‘before the end of the year’ release date. Good for us. Exactly what, you’re wondering? Read on…

With the exception of a few small spots in time, Master has been around for 35 years and are still here and still kicking all kinds of death metal ass on their fourteenth full length Vindictive Miscreants, so get on that. Just in time for the much needed slow and low feeling after massive amounts of food last week, Psychlona give us rolling rhythms of fuzzed out desert rock on Mojo Rising. Blackened death metal and 90s era thrash collide on Fireborn, the debut EP from Aempyrean, and Bane offer up more blackened death metal on Esoteric Formulae but melodicism takes a front seat on this one.

Jump in face — or belly — first to this week’s offerings and we’ll be seeing you, here, throughout the week. Continue reading →

Profile: Desert Rock Fuzzsters Psychlona

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Psychlona

England might not be the first place anyone would think of when conjuring sights and sounds of fuzzed out desert rock but that’s exactly what Psychlona offer up on full length, Mojo Rising. Their shared love of Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Hawkwind and Sabbath comes through in spades, which isn’t new territory, but it’s the way the band puts this amalgamation together that makes it sound so damn good. It’s a psychedelic ride across a heated desert in a chop top rat rod with a skull shifter, nitrous button and the devil in the passenger seat pushing the journey towards redline. It’s amazing how well Psychlona capture the energy and ethos of desert rock here but furthermore how they effortlessly slide in some well placed doom and fuzz for good measure. Alongside Mojo Rising’s release date, we had the chance to ask the band our set of Profile questions to get a look behind the scenes so head inside to see what they had to say. Continue reading →

Initial Descent: November 4 – 10, 2018

JoshLeave a comment
Valle Crucis
Valle Crucis

November is here and it has brought cold weather with it and earlier darkness. I am not amused, at all. As a kid I loved it but now, nope. But, my seasonal pains is not something you care about so let’s get into what the first full week of metal for this month has to offer…

First up is SC’s answer to vicious and cold black metal, Valle Crucis with their full length debut Iron & Blood – I don’t get enough chances to rep my locals but this duo is stunning, don’t sleep on this one. Next is Hypnagogia from funeral doom by way of death metal legends Evoken, their level of genuine artistry is somewhere high atop the stars and continues that trajectory here. Moving along is the second full length, Holy Grove II, from Portland’s Holy Grove and much like their last one, this album further blurs the lines of heavy metal, doom and space rock but make no mistake it hits as hard as a freight train and scratches that bluesy itch perfectly. Last up, at the top at least, is Thoren with their extremely dissonant take on instrumental, progressive death metal with Gwarth I – if looking for a challenging listen is one of your priorities, this is the one for you.

That’s the first four but there’s so much more. Get in there… Continue reading →

Rainbows in the Dark: BANG – “The Best of BANG”

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bang - best of bang

While Black Sabbath were setting the very bones of what we’ve come to define as heavy metal music, there were a slew of other bands in the late 60s and early 70s playing righteously heavy music.  Mixing boogie, psychedelia and straight ahead rock in the vein of bands like Cream and Blue Cheer. Bang, for a time, were set to be the Next Big Thing, even opening for Sabbath.  Their self titled 1972 debut was a powerhouse of tight, adventurous hard rock but, as is evident on Ripple Music’s recent compilation The Best of BANG, there was a lot more to the band than a couple hard licks and a footnote in the annals of metal.  Bang were a dead on, kick ass rocking unit.   Continue reading →

Profile: Good-Time Stoner Metallers Mr. Plow

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Mr Plow
Mr. Plow

Texas based stoner metal band Mr. Plow have been around, in one form or another, for better than 20 years now and while their discography may not be as deep as you might assume, each entry is filled to the brim with riff heavy, down tuned rock in the vein of Fu Manchu and Kyuss but with their own unique take. Beach in lieu of desert? YES, that’s the vibe in a nutshell. Ripple Music took notice and recently announced that the band would be joining their family and would be releasing their latest album, Maintain Radio Silence, this summer. We recently had the opportunity to ask the members of Mr. Plow our set of Profile questions so head inside to see what they had to say. Also, and in case you missed it, they featured their best of 2017 list with us and you can read that here. Continue reading →