Feature: Queens Of The Stone Age Playing SELF-TITLED In It's Entirety

there may be some of you out there that aren't currently aware that the band is currently on tour and are playing their 1998 SELF-TITLED album in it's entirety (in case you haven't already put that together for yourselves)

also...the album is set to get re-released on the 7th of this very month...and to add to all of that...there are some tracks that the band contributed to a split they did with a band called beaver (go on...get the giggles out of the way...we'll wait...) that was released back in 1998...and a song they contributed to a split they did with kyuss that was released back in 1997

and no...i'm not going to give you the titles of those songs...you'll just have to buy it for yourself to find out (or you could just use this thing i just recently came to find out about called google...apparently it comes in pretty handy)

and if you'd like to see the band play their SELF-TITLED album in it's entirety...go here to find out when and where

Feature: Psych Trail Mix Zine

So I'd like to take a minute to talk to you about my friend Brent's music zine called Psych Trail Mix. Some might already recognize this zine and/or Brent's Helios Creed fan site, but if you haven't I urge you to check both of them out.

Psych Trail Mix is one of the most dedicated zines I've seen in a while, and it focuses on exactly what you would expect it to (it covers everything from the God Bullies to the Beatles) with some unexpected and fun extras like the laugh inducing rant on things that should just stop at the end of the most recent issue. Issue #5 was just released and it's downloadable in PDF format so you can read it that way, or he encourages you to print it yourself to get the full experience.

Get more information about this project and read all the issues of Psych Trail Mix here and show your support so zines like this can thrive and continue! I also encourage you to shoot Brent an e-mail at psychtrailmix@yahoo.com with your love and feedback (and tell him I sent you!)

Feature: Soundgarden 7"

on the 26th of this month (this month being november)...soundgarden will be releasing a 7" consisting of 2 previously unreleased songs:

"the telephantasm" and a live version of "gun"

and hopefully with "the telephantasm"...we'll get to hear the story of the wolf on the cover...i mean...just go and look at it...doesn't it look as if it has a story to tell?...maybe it'll tell us the story about THAT DAMNED PUZZLE ON THE SOUNDGARDEN WEBSITE...um..sorry...i didn't mean to raise my voice...BUT THAT DAMN PUZ...sorry

moving on

so be on the look out for 7" of soundgarden

i need to go and scream into a pillow and possibly slap around my incredible hulk punching bag

DAMN YOU TELEPHANTASM WOLF!

Feature: Kingdom of Magic / Sod Hauler Split

When Adrian of Locust Tree Records sent this record over he described it as a "rifftastic masterpiece" and I really can't say that I disagree. This is a split from (Denver band) Kingdom of Magic and (Seattle band) Sod Hauler and since this is actually a pretty amazing split and also something that would be difficult to come across without a bit of friendly promotion, allow me to proudly uptalk this in the remainder of this post.

So yeah - here are two hard rocking bands that are really on their way to making their mark on the face of heavy music; Kingdom of Magic starts the split off with a raging couple of tracks with a noise rock touch and lots of mind bending, catchy riffs, then Sod Hauler turns the rock up even harder with some low end, doom-tinged heavy rock tracks. All in all the high levels of awesome riff-age and unexpected twists and turns in this split make it a really fun listen. Below I included a track listing and a download of "They Say She's Evil" by Sod Hauler. Listen, enjoy, and buy the 12" (go to the label's myspace page here... it's kind of worth purchasing for the album art alone in my mind) if you like what you hear.

Kingdom of Magic
1)Order of the Purple Rhinestone Eagle
2)Elephant Men

Sod Hauler
3)Men Of Oak
4)They Say She's Evil (DL: They Say She's Evil)
5)Horseless Head

Feature: Soundgarden - Telephantasm

this is getting released on the 28th of this month

how many of you are going to lay down some cash for this business?

it really doesn't give much in the way of something new for your everyday soundgarden appreciator...but it is a pretty decent place to start for the newbies

and who knows...maybe this could give way to a new album

so if you're a fan of soundgarden and t-shirts you can buy at flea markets...

Feature: Black Sleep of Kali

I haven't written a feature in a while, but there have been a few events that have forced this band to my attention as of late and so I feel the need to rave about them a bit.

What events, you say? Well, a couple of weeks ago I read about Black Sleep of Kali on the Small Stone website, boasting their sound as "a 200 ton monolith emanating riffs of doom causing all who approach it to bang their heads into epic rock oblivion." Obviously my attention was grabbed, and so I got ahold of their first self-titled effort and jammed it out, then a week or so later serendipitously received an e-mail from Black Sleep of Kali urging me to check out their band (done and done!), along with a copy of their upcoming Small Stone release, "Our Slow Decay," which will be released on August 24th on the label.

After listening to "Our Slow Decay", I can safely say... this is a band that deserves your attention. This is a truly addictive release, and kind of sounds something like an unholy lovechild of Isis and Big Business - massive riffs, rocking catchiness and post-metal aesthetics and influence minus the monotony that can sometimes come with it. The other thing I love about this band? The fact that they came about thanks to a classified ad on the stonerrock.com message boards. I can safely say (without a hint of sarcasm) that coming to learn this fact has made me respect BSOK even more - commitment and music nerdery always makes for the best written tunes. I'm not going to be a spoilsport by leaking this since it's not out for another month, but mark your calendars and keep an eye out for this band... and in the meantime, hit up their myspace and listen to some of their tracks, including a rager from their upcoming release called "The Crow and the Snake".

Links of interest:

www.myspace.com/blacksleepofkali
www.smallstone.com/artistinfo.php?artist=59&s=bsok
www.smallstone.com/albuminfo.php?album=103

Feature: Funeral Circle

This is a pretty eventful day as I've finally finished my first real feature for this site and it's with up-and-coming Canadian doom giants Funeral Circle. This is a band that creates crushing doom metal from it's purest source with influences like Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar and Candlemass. Their material is satisfyingly slow, intricately evil, dripping with heaviness... and of course serves up a nice helping of misery on the side. The band has provided an upload of their mammoth song "Homunculus" here, and you can listen to the furious EP title track "Sinister Sacrilege" here. I suggest you listen to both as it will be worth your while! I seriously can't uptalk this band enough.

...And do I still have more to say, you ask? Of course I do! Below is an interview I conducted with the guitarist of Funeral Circle with whom I've shared a good number of conversations about doom metal, fruitlessly debated what stoner rock should be called and (of course) worshipped at the Pagan Altar with. He's full of interesting information and so you should take the time to read this if you're into doom or heavy music at all, or want to hear about the newest heavy metal supergroup called Motorvenom Sabbathead. Enjoy.

Cara: Hey - first off I’d like to say thanks for taking the time for answering a couple questions. Funny how I used to talk doom with some of you guys in metal forums while you were just releasing your first tracks on MySpace. You seemed to get an overwhelmingly positive response then and now you have recently released an EP that’s still getting a lot of positive feedback. I’m sure things haven’t been as smooth-going as it’s seemed though - how has it been getting to that point?

Pilgrim: The pleasure is all mine, Cara. Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview.

To start off, getting to where we are now was only because of lots of hard work. When I formed this band, I didn't want it to be some "project" or some other nonsense like that. I was always a huge admirer of bands that understood metal as more than just music, it was a lifestyle to them. Funeral Circle is a huge part of my life, because as you well know, metal is my music and is an immense source of inspiration for me. I act more protective about it than I probably should, but I suppose anyone defends something they are very passionate about, well, very passionately...

After many line-up changes and playing a virtually non-existent form of metal in a city where horrid "extreme metal" projects rule supreme, it felt shitty to not get recognized the way I wanted to be. Before playing our first gig, I was thinking there would be real headbangers up front recognizing what we were doing, but of course that's far from reality.

However, we persisted and instead of investing all of our energy in the pathetic local scene (as I'm sure every local scene everywhere is equally as shit) we decided to take our music onto the internet (which was the only real way you could communicate with people around the globe who liked such music) and bring it to the Doom Metal circles. We recorded our first real demo which was some horrid rehearsal tape and it received a mild/lukewarm reception. This made me pretty happy, but I knew that we had something which was going to blow their minds away.

Fast forward a year or so, and another line-up change had occurred. We had gotten a new bassist, an old friend of mine, and we recorded our EP entitled "Sinister Sacrilege" which was released on The Miskatonic Foundation from the UK. It's still selling on both CD and 12" formats and the reception is has gotten blew me away completely. I wasn't expecting such great feedback. I just know that with our next release, we'll be taking things much higher and I am positive our strongest work is yet to come.

Cara: What have you been listening to lately? Anything that’s been influencing you or that you’ve been really enjoying that’s worth mentioning?

Pilgrim: My inspiration for this band derives from NWOBHM and Epic Heavy/Doom Metal. Albums that have had a huge impact on me are Solstice's New Dark Age, all of Pagan Altar's albums, Bathory's Hammerheart, Witchfinder General, Mercyful Fate and King Diamond (too much to name, simply amazing...), Saint Vitus' S/T, Satan's Court in the Act, Candlemass' Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, and of course the more obvious classics like works by Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc.

One album in particular that stands out lately is Scald's The Will of the Gods is Great Power. What a fantastic album, so much character and depth to it... It really reminds me why Doom Metal is the greatest music in the world (at least, to me). Such passion and emotion, and the atmosphere is unmatched. Most of all, it's Metal the way I like to imagine it. Stuck in that time where only the quality of the songs mattered, there was no desire to place experimentation above anything else (especially song writing).

Also, one band that really had a huge impact on the songwriting and attitude of Funeral Circle was The Lamp of Thoth. The way they had a very energetic and charismatic approach to Doom Metal was great to hear, it gave it the music a character that I had never heard. I was floored with them, and they continue to excel. Real masters of this form of music, they should be far more appreciated by fans of any and every genre in metal. Props also to bands such as Orodruin, Slough Feg, Dark Quarterer... and many other I haven't mentioned. Really, I shouldn't be asked this questions! Too many great albums flood into my head!!

Cara: It’s not often you see legitimate doom metal bands hailing from Canada which is why it’s awesome to see a band like Funeral Circle doing so well for yourselves. While I’m on that topic, do you have any opinions about the doom metal scene here in Canada?

Pilgrim: Well, I can certainly comment on Canada's metal scene. It seems like the doom scene is finally starting to take shape with bands like Dark Covenant, and another one I discovered called Father which I thought was cool. They are both from Quebec and the Maritimes, respectfully.

When it comes to Canadian metal overall... I think we have a very rich history of unique sounding bands, and great Heavy Metal... especially here in Vancouver! Bands like Thor, Black Knight, Assault... Fantastic!! Even stuff like Slaughter, Razor, Witches Hammer, Blasphemy, and Voivod... Absolutely devastating metal, Canadians always seem to raise the bar when it comes to that sort of stuff. In the East they also had great old-school bands like Overlord, Sword, Witchkiller/Aceium... All fantastic stuff, I just wish Canada was in that time instead of all this atrocious technical death metal we're known for... Fucking rubbish... We can't forget RUSH as well, very great band.

I also want to make note of those elusive bastards in Tales of Medusa, a great old-school heavy metal band from Vancouver who hide in the shadows... I am at least happy there has been more vitality in the original spirit of metal.

At the end of the day, we aren't too concerned with the doom community in Canada. It would be very nice to have more doom metal bands, but I think the people in Canada are more into extreme stuff... that being said, we ourselves in Funeral Circle have tons of good times doing what we do. We don't do what we do because it hasn't been done before, there is no point to that - It's because it's what we like to do more than anything else.

Cara: Have there been any cool/surreal moments or experiences that have happened to you as a band that stick out as worth mentioning?

Pilgrim: Well, I can definitely say the most surreal moment was having Rich Walker from The Miskatonic Foundation ask us to release our EP. I've always admired him as being a total "no compromising" mother fucker who says what he means and means what he says. It's way to hard to find people like that when it really shouldn't be. His vision of metal is in tune with ours because we think crushing posers and telling assholes in shit bands to fuck off while playing in our own bands is the way to live out the rest of our lives... haha!!

Playing live is always great too! It's great to finally have some fans in town who cheer to certain sections of our songs and pump their fists in the air... Very metal!! I like it!!

Cara: Here’s a kind of tired out question that I always enjoy asking anyways - what would be your dream line-up for a band if you could pick and choose absolutely anyone for any instrument? (You can’t just say Black Sabbath, either!)

Pilgrim: The original line-ups for Venom and Discharge back together! Also, they need to rewind their brains back to 82. Wait does that count? Okay, so seriously... my dream line-ups for a band... heh, can I say Pagan Altar? Sorry, I'm very unimaginative!!

Maybe we could mix the members of Black Sabbath, Venom and Motorhead together in one band? Yeah... I like that, Motorvenom Sabbathead... Very crushing!!!!

Cara: Lastly, what are your plans at the moment for any releases or tours in the future?

Pilgrim: We have two splits in the works with some great bands that will be announced in the future, and we also have a full length in the works which will be our best effort, I guarantee it! Also, to all you Europeans reading this, expect to see us playing there soon enough!!!

Lastly, thank you Cara for the interview. Take care, and Doom On!!!

Do you like what you hear? You can order their EP "Sinister Sacrilege" from:
http://www.hellridemusic.com/ (CD)
or http://www.katholicmagick.org/ (vinyl)

Feature: Last Rizla and The Company Corvette

Not that this website is that big of a deal, but bands do send me their material now and again. (really, thanks for sending me your music, i love to recieve it.) I go through it and select the best ones.. and i mean, come on - would I ever steer you wrong? If you're into hearing some underground talent then keep on reading.

Here's a couple bands from this month that really caught my attention:

First up is Last Rizla, from Greece. Upon first listen I was really digging the Killdozer-esque (at times) vocals and variations of smooth and noisy guitar riffs. They're really eclectic but kind of sound like Kyuss would if they were signed to AmRep. Or something. This demo is sort of like listening to 10 different bands at once, yet it all comes together.

Listen to it here: http://www.rapidshare.com/files/296392775/Last_Rizla_-_Last_Rizla__2009_.zip

or here: www.myspace.com/lastrizla

The next one is called The Company Corvette from Philadelphia. Their style is just heavy, psychedelic rock n roll. They're really reminiscent of Fu Manchu in some ways - I think it's the clean sounding vocals and heavy, groovy riffs. I'm really enjoying this - very smooth and catchy. Upload this album if you're into some really well-done heavy rock.

They just released an album and you can listen to it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QFNNTIA8

Or check out their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/thecompanycorvette

Enjoy!

Feature: Sihr

When Sihr contacted me with some information on this release, i couldn't resist posting it. This is really well done, and they were even featured on Scott Kelly's radio show. Check it out.

"We are heavy, sludgy, fuzzed out metal with elements of experimental noise, prog, psychedlia, and stoner grooves. For fans of Neurosis, Electric Wizard, Mastodon, Melvins, Clutch, Bongzilla, Intronaut, Big Business, Kylesa, Minsk, Young Widows, Cursed, The Sword, Mouth of the Architect, Hawkwind, Ufomammut, 35007 etc." Tracklist: Sihr - Beneath The Twelve Mile Zone (2009)

1. Russian Legs
2. Comes With The Territory
3. Working With Knots
4. Running Wild
5. Unbecoming Misdeeds
6. Kumari Kandam

http://www.mediafire.com/download.phpntuizj3izme
http://www.myspace.com/forsihr
http://forsihr.blogspot.com/
http://www.mininova.org/tor/2903213

Feature: Brothers of the Sonic Cloth

I'm sure most of you recognize the primal, heavy, musical assault that is Tad. Well.. here's his new psychedelic, equally heavy project - Brothers of the Sonic Cloth! I've been trying hard to get some more material of theirs - live shows and the like - since there isnt much. Unfortunately i havent had much luck but there are a bunch of exciting prospects in the future such as a split 10" and full album.

Listen to the few songs there are and enjoy!


http://www.myspace.com/brothersofthesoniccloth


http://www.taddoyle.com/