Bands
Cirith Ungol
Band
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Ventura, CA’s CIRITH UNGOL, one of the most underrated bands from the early ’80s metal scene, released four albums between 1980 and 1991. The group is known for lyrics based on fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery) and is considered one of the earlier epic doom and power metal bands.
Their first album, Frost and Fire, was closer to a hybrid between 1970s hard rock and metal with songs written by then bassist and guitarist Greg Lindstrom, but from King of the Dead and onwards they played a progressive rock influenced kind of doom metal with song lyrics primarily written by vocalist Tim Baker and drummer , however the compositions were usually composed with the inclusion of all the members.
The name CIRITH UNGOL is pronounced “kirith ungol” and is an Elvish phrase meaning “pass of the spider”, which is something that Lord of the Rings fans will surely recognize. The name is, of course, indicative of the band’s fantasy-oriented lyrics, themes and beautiful album artwork.
Conan
Band
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Conan are as heavy as interplanetary thunder amplified through the roaring black hole anus of Azathoth. Remember that sentence, for it is writ large in virgin blood on the walls of the forgotten temple of Bol-Krastor, deep in the steaming forests of forgotten Lemuria. Conan, a monumentally brutal three piece (in the grand tradition of all the hallowed three pieces through time) hold a sinew-tight line and an iron-grip command over the uber-synchronised powerchord changes and tempo-shifts of the anti-holy trio of bass, drums and guitar. Two weary yet defiant men have the task of vocalising wretched thoughts over the turgid weight of Conan’s metalized bombast. They bear it well, for the task is immense.
Hear the roar of battle. Smell the stench of split blood. A thousand heads piled high like a grim mound of suffering – a blasphemy to nature.
Hail Conan.
Ufomammut
Band
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Ufomammut is a power trio formed in Italy in 1999 by Poia, Urlo and Vita, a lineup that has remained stable since. The trio have developed a sound characterized by lengthy songs centered on repeated heavy riffs coupled with droning vocals and the use of sound effects and synths.
Their status as one of the most potent, powerful and artistic contemporary doom artists in existence continues to captivate the masses, and the band’s worldwide grasp grows wider with each release. Their live show is supported by the internationally acclaimed video and graphic art of Malleus, a rock artists’ collective of which Poia and Urlo form a part, who conjure the entirety of Ufomammut’s visual impact.
Mos Generator
Band
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In 2001, the Port Orchard, Washington trio of Shawn Johnson (drums), Scooter Haslip (bass), and Tony Reed (guitars/vocals) emerged from the jam room and studio to the live stage as Mos Generator and began to shake the Pacific Northwest with their incendiary and uncompromising live performances. Between 2002 and 2007, the band four full length studio albums and, in 2008, released a collection of some of Mos Generator’s finest moments by way of “Destroy! The Mos Generator”. By 2008, the band needed a well deserved break to clean up their lives, follow a different muse, and to recharge the energies that make a hard rock band successful.
In 2010, Tony Reed began a relationship with Ripple Music that saw the re-release of the entire Stone Axe catalog, which opened the door to the possibilities of re-launching Mos Generator, and in late Fall of 2011, the long out-of-print debut self-titled “Mos Generator” album saw its re-release in a grand deluxe package. And, by the time of the re-issued debut album hit the streets, the band had already laid down the basic tracks for their first album of new material in over five years.
In October of 2012, “Nomads” will be received by a world-wide audience, who will experience an introspective journey into the depths of interpersonal relations, the struggle for soul survival, and the optimistic hope that it will all work out in the end, all performed over the bands trademark sound of explosive heavy dissonance combined with equally beautiful melodic passages.
Wo Fat
Band
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You can wade through as many press quotes about “Texas-sized” as you want or see how many top-whatever lists Wo Fat have made since the Dallas trio got started in 2003, but none of that is going to be the same as staring down their swampadelic fuzz groove for yourself. If you want to know the monster, shake its hand.
In 2014, Wo Fat will release “The Conjuring”, their fifth full-length and second through Small Stone. Like their last two, 2012’s “The Black Code” and 2011’s “Noche del Chupacabra”, it’s a heavy-riff/heavy-jam blast of a time – the kind of record that turns the vaguely interested into converts and that makes the corners on squares look even sharper. Guitarist/vocalist Kent Stump, bassist Tim Wilson and drummer/backing vocalist Michael Walter are jazz-combo tight and their roll is easy and natural, like you remember Fu Manchu being, but bigger-sounding and in the case of “The Conjuriing”, darker as well.
There’s been a creature lurking in the woods since Wo Fat’s 2006 debut, “The Gathering Dark” – their second album, 2009’s “Psychedelonaut”, pulled back on the threat some to lighten the mood – but whether it’s the motor-driven rush of “Read the Omens” or the you’re-already-lost-in-it riff-exploration of 17-minute closer “Dreamwalker”, “The Conjuring” is indeed a backwoods ritual. Bluesmen have sold their souls for less.
Veterans of Roadburn, slated for Freak Valley 2014 and self-sufficient with Stump handling the recording at his own Crystal Clear Sound in Dallas, Wo Fat push their jams farther than they’ve ever gone before on these five tracks. Topped off with a mastering job from Nolan Brett at Stump’s studio and an otherworldly cover courtesy of Alexander Von Wieding, the beast that Wo Fat’s tectonic riffage calls to earth has never seemed more real or more alive than it does on “The Conjuring”.
Slomatics
Band
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Formed in Belfast late 2004, Slomatics (a band Conan cite’s as an influence) aim to reduce riffs to a primal state of heaviness, to produce music that implodes under it’s own weight, creates a joyous and euphoric state of wellbeing which can only be obtained with a slew of vintage amplifiers, fuzz pedals, analog synths, and an alarming array of percussion instruments.
This has endured through UK tours, gigs in Europe, four albums and a mountain of split/vinyl/cassette releases. 2012’s “A Hocht” was released to widespread critical acclaim, gaining support from around the world which was capped off with a deafening performance at the Incubate Festival in Tilburg.
September 2016 will see the saw the release the bands 5th album via Black Bow Records.
Elephant Tree
Band
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Elephant Tree are a relatively new band who cut their teeth in the London metal scene. While their style is difficult to class under any one particular sub-genre of Metal, it has been most likened to Doom Metal and Stoner Rock, however many people have their own classifications ranging from Blues to Prog. They’re signed to Magnetic Eye Records, who released their killer self-titled debut album this past September
Vokonis
Band
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Hailing from the Swedish city of rain, they were held indoors and practiced, played and cried tears of fuzz days on end. Eventually these hours of fuzz would turn into songs that would become their first album “Olde One Ascending”. Which would receive critical acclaim from all corners of the world.
With a focus on volume, fuzz and riffs they’ve played just over 20 shows in their first year as a band and have played with acts such as Skraeckoedlan, Snailking and Yuri Gagarin. They are not letting up and are relentless in their quest for heavy tone.
DOMKRAFT
Band
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Magnetic Eye Records artist DOMKRAFT, the Swedish trio whose name combines the Swedish “DOM” for judgement and “KRAFT” for power, blasts forth towering dirges of annihilating doom, mindbending psychedelia, and hypnotic minimalism.
Wielding a soundscape of obeliskian riff-majesty, DOMKRAFT discharge layer upon layer of crushing fury, weaving through the wormhole punctures of spacetime in defiance of beginnings and endings.
From Loop to Sleep, Sabbath to Neu!, Hawkwind to Neurosis, and Swans to Spacemen 3, the DOMKRAFT sound is an unsettling mix of grinding riffs, blistering power, and inexorable motion.
Space is trippy, Witch is heavy. Let it be known that the ones who are called Space Witch were spawned in the shining month of July 2007 AD in the kiln strewn kingdom of Stoke on Trent.
They unleashed their astral drone, and the peasants were afraid and they flung themselves down and prayed to the one, for they knew the time had come for the Space Witch, in all her arcane and timeless glory, to finally return to the earth and claim what was rightfully hers.
