Villagers of Ioannina City, one of the leading Greek heavy rock bands, comes from the mountains of Epirus. They are deeply influenced by Greek nature and cosmic phenomena and infuse their unique brand of heavy psychedelic rock with folk instruments such as bagpipes, flutes and, didgeridoo.
The region of Epirus is famous for it’s landscape of mammoth mountains and holy rivers – and now experimental heavy rock. Villagers Of Ioannina City are deeply influenced by Greek nature and cosmic phenomena.
Their second album, Age of Aquarius – originally released in September 2019 – now reissued by Napalm Records. Epirus may become the unlikely epicentre of the heavy rock universe: A mantra for the new Age!
Dvne are a band of great contrasts, weaving titanic heaviness and intricate gentleness together, complex lyrical ideas with engaging storylines, and this has only been expanded upon and concentrated on second album Etemen Ænka. “It’s an album that has a narrative musically and we hope will encourage the listener to explore the universe we’ve created around it,” states guitarist/vocalist Victor Vicart.
“It is a very dense and layered album which will reward multiple listens, and while this is becoming a recurring aspect of our music, we feel that we went further with it this time. It’s also a very polarising album, emotionally speaking. The heavy sections are, well, very heavy, while the clean sections are much more intricate and delicate and in a way wouldn’t be out of place in a Studio Ghibli anime soundtrack.” Exploring everything in greater depth in every way, it is a profound step forward from 2017’s Asheran, starting an exciting new chapter in the existence of one of the most thrilling and imaginative metal bands active today.
Heaviness, riffs, psychedelic, science-fiction… SLIFT’s progressive sound is a colorful and legendary journey to the edge of kraut and stoner rock. From the many shows performed across Europe – sharing the stage with Jon Spencer, DeWolff or Mars Red Sky – to the KEXP session (December 2019 during Les Trans Musicales), the French trio launched an outstanding astral adventure.
SLIFT released their debut EP ‘Space Is The Key’ in June 2017 via Howlin Banana (France) and Exag’ Records (Belgium). Inspired by Alain Damasio’s sci-fi novels and Pierre Ferrero’s illustration work, ‘Space Is The Key’ is a raucous wall of sound and energy. The five nervous tracks are loaded up with fuzz mayhem and maniac beats sharp enough to knock your head off spinning with their hypnotic riffs.
n 2018, Toulouse-based outer space jammers released their first LP ‘La Planète Inexplorée’, helped by garage rock producer Lo’Spider (The Monsters, Aqua Nebula Oscillator, Magnetix) and Jim Diamond (Fleshtones, Sonics, White Stripes) from the mighty Ghetto Recorders, Detroit. The record is the result of many overnight improvised sessions, probably due to their obsession with the krautrock scene and the 70s free jazz albums. Made of sci-fi digressions, the lyrics are about creating space warps and waking up ice giants after a millennia sleeping on a distant planet.
In February 2020, SLIFT released a space odyssey about Titans: ‘Ummon’. Delivered through Vicious Circle Records (France) and Stolen Body Records (UK), the double LP is a powerful blend of acid krautrock and cosmic jazz, that highlights heavy and saturated guitars, huge bass vibrations escaping from the Minas Morgül’s dungeons and Nostromo’s drums travelling at the speed of light. ‘Ummon’ is coming out this June for the very first time in the USA.
Since 2013, TarLung stand for a thick and colossal sound, despite the lack of a bass player: Two low-tuned guitars, hard-hitting drums and brutal vocals are more than enough to create an earth-shattering live sound and mesmerizing records.TarLung was formed in late 2013. After just 6 months the band recorded their self-titled album at Deep Deep Pressure Studios and released it before playing a single live show. A bunch of gigs in Austria and Germany followed, with bands like Saturnalia Temple, EyeHateGod, Arabrot, Suma and Conan.
2016 TarLung hit the Deep Deep Pressure studio again to record the “Void” EP and the follow up full length album “Beyond The Black Pyramid” in a three day session. “Void” was released on tape in October 2016.In 2017 TarLung had their first festival appearence at “United We Stand”, along with other gigs in Germany and Austria. The second full length “Beyond The Black Pyramid” was released in May, with the support of Black Bow Records (Jon Paul Davis/ Conan). The cover art was created by Alex Eckman-Lawn.2018 brought touring through the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland with Throne (Italy), including the “Stoner Doom Festival” in Katowice.
2019/20 were focused on writing new material for the third album, which was recorded in September 2020.Two releases followed in 2021: A split EP with heavy noise rock heroes KRPL from Graz, and the new full length album, “Architect”. The response to “Architect” was overwhelmingly positive, and the TarLung look forward to performing it live as much as possible!
Since birth, ORANSSI PAZUZU, ‘The Demon Of The Wind With The Colour Of Cosmic Energy,’ has never been satisfied to stick with a formula. Each album has seen the band expand upon its previous incarnation and then, like a supernova, blow it up and transform again into something recognizable but completely new.
The band was formed in 2007 by Jun-His (vocals, guitar) and Ontto (bass guitar), who started jamming with Korjak (drums), and Evill (synthesizers, organ, effects) in order to travel into uncharted musical territories. During its initial months, the band wrote songs collectively, fusing together various influences from space rock to black metal, to capture different states of mental cosmos. These early songs were recorded in Korjakʼs family cabin in the late summer of 2008 and released as »Muukalainen Puhuu« in 2009.
»Kosmonument,« their second full-length album, a concept album about a drifter lost in the void, was released in October 2011, followed by various European festivals in 2012, including Roadburn Festival and Hellfest. A year later, the band decided to work with Jaime Gomez Arellano (GHOST, PARADISE LOST, etc.) and traveled to his Orgone Studios in London to record their third album »Valonielu« in 2013 which was presented live on their first full European tour shortly after.
ORANSSI PAZUZU returned in 2016 with the mindbending »Värähtelijä;« an album that continues in the vein of their previous album, giving the band much more room to diverge and explore the vast regions of hypnotic progressive psychedelia and the nebulous outer limits of Scandinavian black metal.
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In 2018, ORANSSI PAZUZU and their Tampere cohorts DARK BUDDHA RISING, known for their grandiose slug-paced ritualist doom metal, recorded a new album, which was released on Svart Records on April 5th, 2019. The amalgam of these two entities was melted as one on »Syntheosis« and released under the moniker WASTE OF SPACE.
„Mestarin Kynsi“ was released in 2020 on Nuclear Blast Records.
In Deafkids’ narrative, where songs melt and dissolve into one another, electronic pulses blend into the power of rhythmic and percussive fabrics frantically woven to imprint this ‘future-primitive psychic scenario’ into the songs.
Difficult to describe or pigeonhole – yet, all the elements which characterize the band’s punk and aggressive aesthetic are present (even if in unpredictable and surprising ways) – barrages of delay and noise, wailing guitars, dancing frenzied rhythms – all culminating in a wild psychedelic journey that’s bound to reach one’s mind through the body while inebriating both.
“Deceived by perceiving our so-called individuality as a form of freedom, we are programmed to live and continue living as a fragmented and binary model of nature. Experimental numbers in a worldwide political power-game where human lives and it’s complexities, connections, necessities and environments are lowered in terms manipulated by algorithms, mind control and brutal force upon our conditions, our rights and our true will. Shaping, overwhelming and fragmenting our tunnels of perception to the point where the excess of information becomes diffuse and the whole contained within each being is more and more dispersed, confused and disconnected, reflecting an insane image of one’s identification with an artificial reality – where in some bizarre way, all these schizophrenic, corrupted and truculent theaters of domination and submission that appears all over human relations seems to make some sense – and of non-identification with what would be our inner reality, the telepathic level behind the veils where boundaries and divisions between us and the plane of consciousness, between you and the other don’t really exist. A level of reality where we might have the power to start learning how to reprogram ourselves by our own tools, being able to visit our internal hall of mirrors beyond space and time and deal with the negative roots of our condensed emotions and traumas trough a new perspective of relation and control with our thoughts, paths and everything we’re connected with. We must unite as one and resist against the violent symbols of oppression, including what’s imprinted on our own self, that must be daily sacrificed. Do not allow yourself to be programmed.”
Sturle Dagsland is a highly acclaimed genre-bending artist from Norway. His long awaited debut album was released on February 5, 2021.
With a wild and unique performance he captivates the audience and takes the listeners on an adventurous, surreal and beautiful journey. Together with his brother Sjur they tour frequently at festivals all across the world, from Shanghai to New York.
This May, Italian alchemists and power trio Ufomammut return with their ninth studio album, Fenice via Neurot Recordings. But not as we’ve heard them before, now “more intimate, more free.”
For over 20 years, the band has combined the heaviness and majesty of dynamic riff worship with a nuanced understanding of psychedelic tradition and history in music, creating a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound destined for absolute immersion.
Fenice (meaning Phoenix in Italian) symbolically represents endless rebirth and the ability to start again after everything seems doomed. The album is the first recording with new drummer Levre, and truly marks a new chapter in Ufomammut history.
“I think we lost our spontaneity, album after album,” says Urlo. “We tried to make more complicated songs and albums, but I think at some point we just ended up repeating ourselves. With Fenice, we were ready to start from zero, we had no past anymore – so we just wanted to be reborn and rise from the ashes..”
While the band are well-known for their psychedelic travels into the far reaches of the cosmos, Fenice is a much more introspective listening experience. Fenice was conceived as a single concept track, divided in six facets of this inward-facing focus. Sonic experimentations abound in the exploration of this central theme; synths and experimental vocal effects are featured more prominently than ever before as the band push themselves ever further into the uncharted territory of their very identity.
Fenice is the sound of a band whose very essence has been rejuvenated, and are welcoming the chance to create music in the way they know best; by unfolding carefully and attentively, by melding those extreme dynamics which render Fenice as a living and breathing creature – and by writing gargantuan riffs that herald their very rebirth.
SÂVER from Oslo, Norway deliver an astounding album of sublime heaviness, shimmering moogs, abrasive vocals and a devastating, gnarly bass tone.
The band recorded the album in May 2018 in Norrköping, Sweden, while camping out in the Swedish woods nearby. Much like label mates LLNN or Briqueville, SÂVER’s sound is characterized by a strong component of apocalyptic synths and textural electronics hovering above the base of heavy guitars and bass – a mélange that works incredibly well, and has been becoming increasingly popular across the globe of heavy music lately.
Traversing through an evocative, feel-good blend of nostalgic 70’s hard rock, proto-metal, folk and psychedelic influences – Isle Of Wisdom emerges as the anticipated third studio album by breakout Swedish “Adventure Rock” stars HÄLLAS.
Formed in 2011 and named after the main character featured in the stories of their lyrics – a knight in a parallel medieval universe destined to take part in a religious war caused by a tyrannical queen – HÄLLAS are the originators of the “”Adventure Rock”” genre, devoting themselves to the aforementioned sonic fusion and eccentric imagery inspired by rock greats of yore with a fantastical twist.
Isle Of Wisdom, the brand new successor to HÄLLAS’s successful full-length offering Conundrum (Top 50 in the Swedish Charts, P3 Guld Award nominee), is set for release on April 8, 2022, just before they hit the road on an extensive European tour.
This collection of fresh tracks allows the listener to emerge in a brand new realm soaked in mystery and retro-rock atmosphere – key features of HÄLLAS’ fantasy and sci-fi driven auditory aesthetic. Produced in collaboration with Linn Fijal and Vilma Colling at Riksmixningsverket studio, which has hosted the diverse likes of Arch Enemy, ABBA and Celine Dion, HÄLLAS experienced the rare chance to once again use ABBA’s unique synthesizers for the production of Isle Of Wisdom.
Comprised of eight bold opuses, Isle Of Wisdom is a deft new step in the noteworthy sonic trajectory of HÄLLAS, cementing them as a band to watch!
Hot Breath releases their debut studio album “Rubbery Lips”. With a foundation built on dirty riffing, memorable hooks, and a no-nonsense attitude, the new album contains 10 tracks of energetic and catchy garage rock ‘n’ roll.
With their minds firmly set on releasing nothing but killers, Hot Breath has pushed themselves into perfecting the sound that they presented on their 2019 self-titled EP. The result is a straight-shooting album, guaranteed to twist your hips. “Rubbery Lips” is recorded and mixed by Mattias Nyberg (The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, The Datsuns).
The cover artwork is made by Anders Muammar. Hot Breath members have previously seen in bands as Honeymoon Disease, Hypnos, Grand and others….
If the name Stöner seems a little on the nose, it is.– Singer/guitarist Brant Bjork (Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Brant Bjork Band) and singer & bassist Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Mondo Generator) were founding members of the stoner rock legend Kyuss and now joined by long time Brant Bjork Band drummer Ryan Gut, they’ve got dibs on the thick dusty swinging grooves.
Stoner’s love for their early inspirations …bands like Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, Ramones, Blue Cheer, Misfits, Black Flag, The Stooges, MC5 to name a few… result in big, groovy sunbaked riffs that can cruise low and slow but then floor it and run all the red lights. Live, this is a band about the magnetism between the players, the groove, the loose vibe, strait up badass rock and roll.
Stöner are masters of their trade. These guys have been knee-deep in this stuff for 30-odd years and have rock & roll running through their blood and bones. For the third and latest album titled “totally….” Stoner is in its true form….getting together and having fun, Stoners world is a colorful joyride, heavy of rock but not of head.
Classic Hard Rock, heavy blues, Desert Rock & Psych Rock jams. These things come organically to this trio ….and as always Stoner can’t help but express an abundance of Punk Rock rawness and a passion for real rock and roll swagger.
With two records currently available “Live at Mojave” and “Stoners Rule”. The latest release “TOTALLY..…” sees the band realizing the chemistry of these old friends and developing a statement of pure rock and roll fun. “TOTALLY… is Produced, recorded and mixed by Yosef Sanborn & Stöner at Wizard West Studios in Chatsworth CA. Released by Italian label Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Guest appearances include Greg Hetson on guitar (Circle Jerks) and Mario Lalli on guitar. Grab a slice and crank it.
Hailing from the west of Norway, the four-piece Slomosa has been making waves across borders. With their heavy sound the band coined their own genre – Tundra Rock – inspired by the American Desert scenes of the ’90s. Influenced by bands such as Kyuss, Elder and Black Sabbath, their music is both heavy and groovy at the same time, with raw vocals and thunderous guitars.
Russian Circles is a three piece instrumental band from Chicago, Illinois. They were formed in late 2004 by guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Colin DeKuiper, both ex-members of instrumental band dakota/dakota. Drummer Dave Turncrantz, ex-member of Riddle Of Steel, joined soon after. They self-released a 4 track CD-EP and signed with Flameshovel (US) and Black Records (UK) for their first full length on CD and to Hewhocorrupts (US) and Friction Records (GER) for the vinyl.
Another limited 7″ came out on Suicide Squeeze. In the autumn of 2007, it was announced that the band had parted ways with Colin DeKuiper. As a result, the bass tracks on their second album, titled Station, were handled by ex-Botch/These Arms Are Snakes bass player Brian Cook (2), who then joined the band permanently. The group’s third full-length, Geneva, was released on October 20, 2009 and reached No. 24 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
In 2011, Russian Circles signed to Sargent House who had previously only exclusively released the band’s albums on limited edition vinyl. Their fourth studio album Empros was released on October 25, 2011. A supporting tour with Deafheaven followed the release. In May, 2013 the group began recording their fifth studio album, produced by Brandon Curtis. Memorial was released at the end of October 2013 and featured a guest-vocal by Chelsea Wolfe. Together they embarked on a co-headlining UK/European tour in the fall.
Russian Circles released its sixth studio album Guidance on August 5, 2016 through Sargent House. The album was produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge fame. In 2019, the band announced that they had begun writing on their seventh album to follow up their previous effort, Guidance. In May 2019, the name of the seventh album was revealed to be ‘Blood Year’ and would be released on August 2, 2019.
Seattle three-piece Helms Alee has announced a new album Keep This Be The Way available April 29th via Sargent House. Across the span of their first five studio albums, the trio zeroed in on different aspects of their sound – a blend of lilting siren songs, crushing Northwest thunder and sludge, angular econo-rock, and heady guitar pop.
But with this Helms Alee have expanded their palette by delving into the production possibilities afforded by recording the album themselves, creating their most dynamic and technicolored work to date. This new approach is immediately evident on first single and album opener “See Sights Smell Smells,” where reverse cymbal crashes, fragmented piano, layered drums, woozy drones, saxophone freak-outs, and trippy vocal treatments transport the listener to an altered state of exhilarated anticipation. The song is accompanied by a video created by Allen Watke whose video art consists primarily of analog equipment with an emphasis on VHS dubbing, glitching & manipulation.
Triptonus will celebrate their latest release “Soundless Voice” with a massive live show. But thats not all: The new rising talents on the heavy psych horizon Lurch are gonna open the evening with their heavy sounds. Furthermore There will be an afterparty hosted by SATANS FINEST RECORD SELECTION @Dreiraum
In short: 2 Bands, Epic Vinyl DJ Set and our favourite venue in Vienna THE TRIPTOLURCH ROLLERCOASTER IS READY TO ROLL
Two guitars, bass, drums, djembe, didgeridoo, wavedrum, and sampler. Furthermore six musicians who utilize their instruments not only to make music but to create the soundtrack for your own trip.
SATANS FINEST RECORD SELECTION: Vienna based Vinyl Selector: Satan’s Finest Record Selection, “With a record box so hot, it must come straight outta hell!” www.facebook.com/SatansFinestRecordSelection
Demon Head is comprised of five internationally based and widely acclaimed musicians; Mikkel Sander Fuglsang, Birk Gjerlufsen Nielsen, Marcus Ferreira Larsen, Thor Gjerlufsen Nielsen and Jeppe Wittus. Though hesitant to compromise the description of the music they perform through generalizing terms of genre, they’ve coined the term “diabolic rock” as an appropriate presentation.
Their fourth full-length – Viscera – is a new beginning for Demon Head. Recorded during the first months of 2020 between the legendary Sweet Silence Studios by Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica, Morbid Angel, Rainbow) and a remote country house in Sweden, the album was mixed by Martin ‘Konie’ Ehrencrona (In Solitude, Tribulation, Nifelheim).
he production shows the impeccable qualities of joined forces, where old techniques meet new aesthetics, and major label possibilities meet underground, uncompromising DIY dedication. The resulting 10 songs showcase acoustic instruments, flourishing mellotron strings, brass instruments, tape manipulation and church organ – displayed in equal measure to the sound of the crushing drums of J.W, cryptic guitars of brothers B.G.N and T.G.N, pounding bass lines of M.S.F, and the vocals of M.F.L combined with the eerily captivating falsetto and baryton of B.G.N.
Bongzilla formed sometime in 1995 in Wisconsin, quickly composing a host of songs inspired by their marijuana. Very little is known about the early years of the band except for their appearances on a host of split and EP releases between 1996 and 1999.
They ended up signing to Relapse Records, releasing 2 LPs on the label. A lineup change prompted one Dixie Dave Collins to join the band as their bassist, leading them to record the band’s fourth album. Amerijuanican was released via Relapse on 27 September 2005 to positive reviews and featured a cover of “Champagne and Reefer” by Muddy Waters. The band toured and remained active until 2009 when the group quietly took a hiatus, their last known show being Forward Fest alongside the likes of Bob Mould, Detroit Cobras and Neko Case to name a few.
Bongzilla began 2017 with a local show in Wisconsin before embarking on another European tour, playing the likes of Roadburn Festival, DesertFest Berlin, DesertFest London, KrisionFest.
Bongzilla have also set course for a 2018 European tour with Dopethrone and Sons of Otis. In early 2020, Bongzilla started their own label called Gungeon Records and released a re-issue of their classic album Apogee.
However, in March of 2020 it would be announced that Cooter Brown would retire from the band due to health and family reasons, with Bongzilla choosing to continue as a thunderous three-piece. During Bongzilla’s first tour as a thunderous three in March of 2020, the tour was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. A few months into the pandemic, Bongzilla began rehearsing and recording for several different record projects – A limited Wake Brewing 7 inch, a full length album titled Weedsconsin, an LP split with the band Tons, and a 7 Inch Split with Boris, the first of a 7 inch Split Series released on Gungeon Records.
Bongzilla announced signing to the Italian label – Heavy Psych Sounds on Janurary 21st of 2021. Bongzilla is preparing for the release of their new full length album Weedsconsin, as well as a limited 7 Inch from Wake Brewing, followed by the Bongzilla / Tons Split for the HPS series – Doom Sessions, as well as the 7 inch split with Boris on Gungeon Records.
Tons formed in 2009 with members of hardcore bands from the Turin scene (The Redrum, Lama Tematica and NoInfo). Slow and heavy sounds take the place of the frenetic HC rhythms; the texts speak about weed in an ironic way, but also about a certain tendency to esotericism that characterizes the city of Turin.
In 2010 they recorded a demo and in 2012 the first full length “Musineè Doom Session”, recorded by Danilo “Dano” Battocchio, was released for the Turin-based Escape From Today and for the Roman Heavy Psych Sounds. In 2013 a split with Lento from Rome came out and Tons began to plow the European venues, opening the stage for bands like Bongzilla, Unsane, Church of Misery, Napalm Death, Pentagram etc …..
In 2014 they were invited to play at the Duna Jam in Sardinia and at the Incubate Fest in Tillburg (NL). In 2015 the drummer Marco Dinocco left the band and was replaced by Andrea Peracchia (Dogs for Breakfast/Slaiver). Paolo Paganelli (Woptime/Linea77) was also added as a solo guitarist. In 2018 the second full length of the band “Filthy Flowers of Doom” was released for Heavy Psych Sounds Rec., which would bring Tons again around Europe in 2018 and in 2019.
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