Sunday, December 27, 2015

Skip's Top 20 Releases Of 2015...

Top 20 of 2015




1. Waft - Chronolith
"The entire album has a raw and gritty feel, like you're standing in a grimy dive bar watching them play in person. But, if you like your doom metal heavily stoned and drunk as a skunk, you'll love Waft."


2. 88 Mile Trip - Through the Thickest Haze
 "With "Through the Thickest Haze" bringing on nine new tracks, I've been having a lot of fun with this album, blasting it just about everywhere I happened to of been the last few weeks."


3. Space Probe Taurus - Mondo Satan
"Having listened to the entire record more than a few times now, I can confidently say there isn't a bad track, or even a mediocre track, on the whole thing. And if fuzz was a narcotic, you'd be dead after a listen, or maybe two for those of us with higher tolerances."


4Grusom - Grusom
"This debut full length from them made an even bigger impression on me though, taking all the great ideas and songs from the demo, building on them and adding more tracks in the studio to drop one of the best albums this year."


"Each of their albums are like the score for some fantastic sci-fi movie that never got made. "Everything Is Good" is no exception to this, with slow and mellow nuances that feel as if you're floating in an infinite cosmic ocean, that more often than not leads into bouts of distorted and groove driven stoner rock that are a trip all their own."


6. Soundcrawler - Dead End Host
"France's Soundcrawler can be described as the feral love child of Alice In Chains and Dozer, switching from heavy riffing to melodic and expansive guitar work that manage to create a sweeping realm of stoner rock."


7. Shellfin - Cities Without Names
"The Australia five piece of Shellfin are back at it, this time with the jewel of a stoner rock album called "Cities Without Names". Using huge array of samples, twenty ton riffs, burly vocals, crack drumming, rolling bass lines, and some interesting sounds in the interim, they put it all together and make it a perfect cocktail of heaviness."


"This second album is a booze fueled rock and roll machine with the finest in stoner and blues hardware, all designed to lay down fuzzed out, distorted riffs and heavy bass grooves."


9. XII Boar - Pitworthy
"Pitworthy" is everything you'd expect from the rowdy dudes in XII Boar, loud and crass stoner metal with a heavy dose of southern rock thrown in for good measure."


10. Matalobos - Matalobos EP
 "At just three tracks and still clocking it at around twenty three minutes, we're dealing with massive portions of darkness and heaviness each time the song changes, each on a monolith in its own right."


11. Dopethrone - Hochelga
 "And if you've never heard these guys, this is as good a place to start as any, just be prepared for the uncontrollable urge to generally cause hell after listening."


 12. Midnight Ghost Train - Cold Was The Ground
"While they seem a bit more willing to explore different styles and sounds this time around, the heart of it all is still the same. Straight forward heavy riffs with a groovy blues flare that's always been part of their signature."


13. Tripping the Mechanism - Epostas Virtus
"Add to that what seems like a band that are constantly developing and refining their sound, and you're left with what could be one of the best EPs of the year, and easily two of the coolest sludge tracks you'll hear this year".

14. Mammoth Mammoth - Hammered Again
"Hammered Again" is just what it sounds like from the title, an album full of hard rock that will be the perfect soundtrack for your next keg party, bong session, or general night of debauchery."


15. Black Space Riders - Refugeeum
"I've been following Germany's Black Space Riders for a couple years now, and they've always done one thing really well, that's playing heavy, psychedelic space rock."


16. Red Mountains - Down with the Sun
 "I discussed my opinion of this band's single "Sun" a little while back, and I'm happy to report back that their debut album "Down With the Sun" lives up to the high expectations I had for it."

17. Nightslug - Loathe
"Mixing bouts of feedback and brutally heavy sludge riffs, Germany's Nightslug treads that line between noise and music at times. At points, melding the two into a sonic monstrosity that completely pummels the listener."


18.  King Bison - King Bison
"These are straight forward, heavy stoner rock tunes with just the right amount of southern rock and blues influences in there to give them that extra little bit of groove in their riffs."


19. Desert Storm - Omniscient
"Seeming to pick up in nearly the same spot that "Horizontal Life" left off at, the opening salvo "Outlander" opens up the flood gates of booze soaked stoner metal that will have everyone head banging and throwing their hands in the air."


20. Holy Serpent - Holy Serpent
"When all of the parts of this LSD lubed machine work together, you're brought to a stoner doom trip that's more than fitting for all of us connoisseurs of heavy out there."



Honorable Mentions~


Simon Magus - First Year Catastrophe
"Masterful grooves mixed with punchy, heavy guitar riffs creates one of the best Sabbath styled doom albums this year."


Arenna - Given to Emptiness
"Arenna's latest effort is forty-seven minutes of pure stoner bliss, and while the ten minute opener is a pretty long track to kick things off, I don't think it really would of worked as well anywhere else."


"The entire album has a gigantic feel to it, like the difference between looking at a mountain range on the horizon, instead of just a mountain."

OneofYou - ReEducation
"OneofYou is a couple of Kansas guys that put on display distorted and aggressive blues riffs, stoner sensibilities, add to that with catchy melodies and vocals that occasionally have a political or social message in their delivery."


Killer Boogie - Detroit
"If you really dig the raw, explosive sound that the Garage and Heavy Rock bands of the 70's trafficked in, and the spaced out adventures from that classic Psychedelic Rock sound, then you've successfully found a new favorite band."


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