Stoner Metal – Page 11 – Wonderbox Metal

Blacksnake – Lucifer’s Bride (Review)

This is the second release from Polish Stoner Metal band Blacksnake.

The songs positively ooze out of the speakers, all confidence and charm. The singer has a good set of lungs and brings a classic Metal/Thrash style to the proceedings.

The band manage to combine Stoner riffs with a Heavy Metal feel and vibe. The songs rock out in all of the right ways and the band even inject some interesting ideas into the proceedings; different vocals and effects are all experimented with on top of their Stoner Metal core.

The Metal/Thrash influences that the band have incorporated into their repertoire elevate them above a simple Stoner Metal band and the natural-sounding combination of the two is a real pleasure to listen to, especially when the organ kicks in.

The band have a talent for writing catchy songs and this is an album I can quite happily listen to over and over again. It has the longevity of Thrash with the soul of desert Rock.

Crammed full of enjoyable songs and an honest, no-nonsense delivery this is an album that deserves a wider audience than it’s probably going to get. Be one of the lucky ones and get this now.

Drawers – Drawers (Review)

French Sludge/Stoner Metallers Drawers release their self-titled second album, and as soon as you press play it’s party time at the dive bar for everyone!

Coming across as a mix of Crowbar, Baroness and Mastodon, this is an enjoyable romp through France’s underbelly of Southern-tinged bars. Moving from scrape to scrape all night long and out into the crisp morning dawn to reflect on what’s been lost; the songs are largely high-energy but have a forlorn air of lost-innocence which is somehow endearing.

It’s this aura of fragility coating the otherwise burly riffing and coarse vocals that adds a layer of depth to the band; that lets you know there’s more to this drunken bruiser than meets the eye. The riffs may be heavy and scuzzy but the melodies hidden underneath the obvious give the band a secret ingredient; the same could be said of the vocals also.

Drawers have an undefined edge to their sound that is as apparent as it is hard to grasp. A wonderful combination.

If you enjoy rocked-out Metal of this variety but are also looking for something a little different with it’s own individuality then I’d suggest this album be on your list of wants.

Godhunter – City Of Dust (Review)

Godhunter are a Stoner/Sludge/Doom Metal band from the US, and this is their début full-length City Of Dust.

The album starts out slow and brooding, with the guitars sweeping in low and catching you almost unaware before pulling the feet out from under you in a flurry of desert dust and snake venom.

This is an album comprised of strong riffs and strong songs, but above all enjoyable. There is plenty of meat to the guitars and they have a great big satisfying sound; clear and organic. In fact the production in general manages to sound both professional and raw, taking the best aspects of both extremes to make sure that you know you’re listening to a real living band and not a computer-enhanced version of one.

Godhunter also make use of subtle atmospherics in some of the tracks that enhances the songs by adding more depth and shading. This is done especially effectively in Snake Oil Dealer.

The vocals rage and spit like an extremely angry pit-bull; all belligerence and defiance. He sounds like someone you wouldn’t want to cross for fear of ending up in a lonely, forgotten hole somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It’s not all shouting and anger though as Shooting Down The Sun shows.

Check out Godhunter and see what you think. Like Black Sabbath if they came from the desert and had a singer who angrily grunted and shouted at everyone in the vicinity; there’s plenty of Sludged up groove for everyone.

https://soundcloud.com/earsplit/03-brushfires