Fuzz

CVLT Nation Sessions: Black Sabbath Vol.4

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The online publication CVLT Nation has released an impressive string of whole album covers featuring metal and punk bands from around the world.  In addition to Black Sabbath, you can check out album tributes to Black Flag, Misfits, Bathory and more.  The Vol 4 sessions boast some of the best current doom bands making music today including Potion, Mindkult and Yidhra.  

Oakland band Yarrow slows down and stretches out Tomorrow’s Dream to a dreadful crawl and manages to sneak in a taste of the first Black Sabbath album during a short segue. Reinterpretations abound all over the album highlighted by Bongripper’s 14 minute(!) rendition of the desolate studio exploration FX. CHRCH feels right at home amping up the terror on Cornucopia whose opening riff surely had a hand in conceiving all of the bands on this comp. Amazing renditions of absolutely classic songs.

Temple Of The Fuzz Witch

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With a name like Temple Of The Fuzz Witch you should be fully aware of what you are getting yourself into when you hit play on the Detroit band’s eponymous debut.  What is surprising is how good of a debut album these seven tracks make up.  These disciples of the mighty Electric Wizard are charting their own course in the land of fuzz and feedback. Album closer Servants Of The Sun deviates from the template a bit by touching on a loud/quiet dynamic that really pushes the band outside traditional fuzz-drenched doom territory.  

#RiffTakes

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Hot takes on new and recent releases as well as some that we just discovered.

Beastmaker – Eye Of The Storm

With one final EP release (the 11thin less than a year!) Trevor Church winds down the mighty Beastmaker so that his new project, the more traditional metal band Haunt can rise up.  The EP series was an amazing feat that ends on a high note with our favorite of the series. Eye Of The Storm combines the best elements of Beastmaker with the new stylings of Haunt to craft a perfect epilogue to the Beastmaker era and prologue to what is to come from Haunt. 

Gale – Gale 

Arizona band Gale immediately hits you in the face with huge riffs on the opening track of their new self-titled release.  Big, thick riffs paired with vocalist Brandon Tutty’s distorted screams make for a formidable follow up to the band’s 2014 release Vol.1.  The decimated forest on the cover of the album is a perfect wrapping for this scorched earth sludge release.

Flight – A Leap Through Matter

A fresh slab of late 70s NWOBHM from Norwegian group Flight.  The band takes a big leap in both production and song writing on their second release A Leap Through Matter.  Flexing their guitar muscle on tracks Reviving Waves and One With The Sun show that the band is comfortable stretching out a tight riff with a solo or two to create a dynamic metal album.

Green Lung – Woodland Rites

The highly anticipated full-length debut from Green Lung lives up to the hype with eight tracks of fuzzed out occult rock.  Green Lung brings a slightly more subdued, melodic sound to Woodland Rites which ups the sinister feel of each track without losing their edge.  Let The Devil In pulls back just enough to let the hook really grab you before the riff takes over.  

Rezn – Calm Black Water

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Chicago band Rezn’s second full-length album Calm Black Water is certain to end up on many best-of lists this year due to a unique blend of heavy psych and doom metal that requires repeated spins in order to sort it all out.  The riffs emerge from the murky depths early on album opener Iceberg and continue throughout six heady tracks.  Rezn creates additional atmosphere by layering heavy effects on the vocals that help to fold them into the textures of the music.  The vocals maintain an ‘under water’ type vibe that contributes to the overall nautical feel of the album.

Vocal effects aside, this album floats (literally) between spacey interludes and mile-high climbing riffs that explode but then drop out in an instance as demonstrated in the track High Tide.  The track ebbs and flows along a calm beat and vocal delivery building up to a crushing riff that finishes out the track.  Rezn has crafted a beautifully heavy album that tweaks the doom metal formula with their own unique spin.  Set sail on the black waters!

Drug Cult – Drug Cult

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Drug Cult’s self-titled first release comes fully formed like a seasoned veteran band hitting it’s creative peak.  Guitars grind and wail on opening track Serpent Therapy as if they are awakening from a long slumber before finally hitting a groove above two and half minutes into the song.  The Wall is the absolute highlight of the album that breaks open with lumbering riff that seems to gain steam like a charging elephant.  The song contains a sweet hook that nearly turns the song into a hummable tune.   

The tone and feel of the album is very much set through the production, especially with the sound of Aasha Tozer’s voice weaving with the guitars and frequently rising above the fuzz.  It has the vintage feel of an Electric Wizard album with a cleaner sound and without the movie clips.  Bloodstone late in the album seems to capture that drugged out feel that I think the album is attempting to convey.  Hearing Tozer hypnotically repeat “Blood is the drug I have been searching for… I want more” creates a chilly soundscape unique to the album.  My guess is that this album will show up on many “best of” lists coming our way in a couple months.

River Cult – Halcyon Daze

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If fuzzy riffs and stretched out solos are your thing, then you will not go wrong picking up the first full-length album from the Brooklyn band River Cult.  The album kicks down the door with Likelihood of Confusion that swings with a Sabbathian riff to open the song before Sean Forlenza’s vocals slide in to flesh out the tune.  Following Confusion is the album’s most ambitious track, The Sophist which is a huge piece of music that drops early in the listening experience but is definitely the high-water mark of the album.  Tempos shift and expand into one another as the band takes you on a 12-minute ride that feels like a late ’69 Hendrix jam.

Much of Halcyon Daze is an instrumental workout with nearly every track stretching into a lengthy jam or two before finishing.  The song Halcyon Daze is a muscular tune that begins slow picking up steam as it chugs through seven minutes of riffage and soaring solos.  Seething is a great example of the band’s ability to get lost in a psych-tinged groove before fading out in a wall of feedback.  Ending the album is Point of Failure which has a southern rock vibe to it with a laid-back build up to the chorus that really highlights Tav Palumbo’s powerful percussion skills.    

#RiffTakes

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Hot takes on new and recent releases as well as some that we just discovered.

Jesus Piece – Only Self

Philly hardcore band’s much anticipated first full-length does not disappoint.  Dense production and multiple influences elevate this album above the standard hardcore fare.  Only Self firmly establishes Jesus Piece as the standard-bearer of the new generation of hardcore bands.

Deathbell – With The Beyond

French doom band that absolutely kills it on their first release.  Soaring female vocals float over huge riffs.  If Windhand is your thing, pick up this release right away.

Potion – Women Of The Wand

Doom three piece out of Sydney, Australia adds some big guitar solos and psych flair to the fuzzed-out riffs.  Two excellent singles released so far.

Shadowmaster – Shadowmaster

Cinematic doom metal in the vein of Electric Wizard or Ramesses.  Hypnotic riffs awash in swirling cymbals punctured by tortured, distorted vocals.

Vuil – Hell

Old school thrash out of Scotland takes us back to the early 80’s packing plenty of speed and riffs.  The band channels Motorhead on the ferocious track Hellracer.

Green Dragon – Green Dragon

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A lot of new or current stoner/doom/fuzz metal bands seem to have a sound that can be traced back in some small part to Seattle grunge legends Alice In Chains.  Whether it is Jerry Cantrell’s guitar tones, the vocal stylings close to Layne Staley’s, or just the band’s dirge-like sound qualities, AiC’s influence is clearly in the mix.  Green Dragon’s debut full length released earlier this year incorporates some of those qualities with the results being one of our favorite 2018 releases.  The band hails from the basements of Maplewood, New Jersey and is made up of veterans of the local metal scene.

In addition to the aforementioned AiC touches, this album is loaded with plenty of fuzzed-out Sabbath riffs and distorted vocals that quickly engage you on the first listen.  Songs such as Dark Rider show the band’s ability to switch gears between an eerie shuffle to an all out fuzz riff groove and back in a single song.  Dead Space kicks down the door showcasing the band’s more up-tempo sound with a riff that could have been right at home on any Kyuss record.  Hoping this is just the beginning for Green Dragon as we look forward to more excellent riffs and some touring if we are lucky.