Blast From The Past...

West, Bruce & Laing - Why Dontcha (1972)

It dawned on me a couple of days ago that I hadn't given you a classic rock album in a while. Well, absolutely months actually. To be honest it had become kind of difficult to find something classic yet widely new to a vast majority of people. So I got on with racking my brain in an attempt to give you something a little obscure. Well, maybe obscure is too strong, perhaps lesser known would be more fitting. Then it hit me. Just last month while traveling through a small village in Wales I spotted a tiny record store. Needless to say I dived in and proceeded to ransack their wears for anything and everything interesting looking. Much to my surprise I stumbled up West, Bruce & Laing's 3rd and final album 'Whatever Turns You On', something I'd been hoping to find for a while in order to complete my collection of theirs. I will however start from the beginning though, with this, the trio's first release from way back in 1972...
Following the break up of Mountain in the same year, lead man Leslie West and drummer Corky Laing teamed up with legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce and immediately began work on material. Despite forming in Chicago and guys actually originating from New York and England that familiar Mountain esque southern rock style and sound is still massively present. West's signature lead breaks and bellowing voice are also still in full effect. Like you're listening to Mountain 2.0.
The group toured pretty extensively for the initial 2 years they were around, but also managed to stop for long enough to knock out 2 studio albums and a live recording. The trio finally split in 1974 but a couple of years back they once again reformed and hit the road once more, now under the name West Bruce jr & Laing. Yup, Jack's son Malcolm picking up where his father left off. A pretty daunting task if you ask me, especially when you're dad was in Cream.

So just for you lovely people I have scoured the interwebs to bring you the best copies of these albums I can find. Enjoy!

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Mountain, Sir Lord Baltimore, Cactus, ZZ Top, Wild Turkey, 

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Why Dontcha (320kbps) •  Live 'N' Kickin (320kbps) • Whatever Turns You On (320kbps)

Top Dead Utahans...

Top Dead Celebrity - Self Titled (2009)

Firstly, I've got apologise to our newest writer Jeff for kind of hijacking his debut review. Well not hijack, but foreword is really a better way of putting it. But I love this band. They're awesome and incredibly underrated. Their second album, 'Midwestern Rube' went straight to our top 10 of 2011 at number 1 and is still there now (just click the artwork to the right to see the review). Hailing from Utah, they're also our very own Jeff's neighbours and friends, so there really is no one more fitting to review this, the bands first album. So without much further ado...

~ Jay

~

For my first music review on RWTD, I chose one of my favorite albums of all time. TDC’s first self-titled release from 2009 on Exigent Records. Jeff Anderson, lead vocals and guitar, is an emphatic musician. His lyrics are guttural yet easily understood, and his songs tell a coherent story. They rock you right into your face holes. The sound stage of this album is deep and hits you right in the gut, like being stabbed repeatedly with a very large dagger. From fast paced songs like “Illuminati” and “Lucifer’s Hammer” to almost Pink Floyd-ish on “The Animal” which is 11:37. Top Dead Celebrity has a ghoulish undertone to their music, it makes my hair stand on end, like walking the catacombs of Paris alone. I have to say too that they are just as good and polished live as they are recorded. Their musicianship is extremely good. Their drummer is excellent, with very powerful, intricate work. The studio work is impressive and the edition of Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China bits on “Six Demon Bag” is interesting and fun. With the depth and strength of their musical abilities, I am astonished that Top Dead Celebrity is not part of all you, the reader’s music collections. They are readily available on Itunes or CDbaby.com as well as on Facebook. Go, go now and get this!
Cheers.

~ Futzer

For Fans Of; Orange Goblin, Red Fang, Wo Fat, Dukes of Nothing, Planet Of Zeus

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Top Dead Celebrity (252kbps)

Experimental Extremists...

Humanfly - II (2008)

Some people may question why we review the things that we review. Sometimes the answer is simple – in this case I drove fellow blog conspirators Jay and Jon back from a Dopefight gig a few of weeks back, slipped this disc in the CD player and after the first track Jon threatened to steal it. It occurred that if veterans of the trade like these guys hadn’t heard Humanfly, then maybe some of you guys hadn’t either.

Humanfly are just plain awesome. Straddling the fine line between doom, sludge, stoner and post metal magnificently, they carve huge riffs out of the ether, all bass-y sludge-y tones and tight percussion. If you need reference points, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, a more prog Neurosis, these will all do the trick. They’ve put out three records to date, this, perhaps unsurprisingly, is their second. They’re all great, I’d advise you to check them all out – in fact their first album ‘A God Amongst Insects’ is available for free download from their bandcamp page (there will be a link somewhere below) – but ‘II’ is my favourite purely from a consistency perspective.

The first track, ‘Another week in the theme park of death’ is possibly the best opener to a record I’ve heard in ages. A quiet, reverb soaked, almost picked expression builds gently, supported with a full sounding bass line, and meanders gently for nearly four minutes, lulling the listener into a false sense of security, before a frankly enormous sludge riff comes out of nowhere. The first time the shock is almost palpable. It’s a great riff too, driven by a frankly huge bass line. Vocals are layered on sparingly, with a refreshingly non-screamy approach and opting for more of an emotive mixture of shout and singing, sounding for all the world like a man striving to sing loud enough to be heard over the cacophony, such that his voice cracks. Surprisingly, this works remarkably effectively. Later in the song the riffs drop to half time; at this point I normally get goose pimples.

And this is just the first song. There are five more with lots of other touches to bring out, but I think I’ve said enough. Go and listen to this record, it’s simply awesome.

~ Andy

For Fans Of; Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Neurosis, Cult Of Luna, Russian Circles

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II (320kbps)

Sounds Like Scouse Sludge...

Iron Witch - Demo (2011)

Something a little heavier for you now ladies and gents. How does a little bit of grimy punk influenced sludge sound to y'all? Good, well I present for your consideration, hailing from Liverpool, England; Iron Witch. Basically this is Nola style dirty sludge done by Scousers... and done bloody well!
Right, there's an absolute shed load of sludge bands doing the rounds throughout the UK alone, but the thing is, and I dont like to criticise too much here, the vast majority of them are pretty shoddy. They seem to think that they can get away with pretty much anything quality wise and just pass it off as 'sludge'. It's like trading volume over talent, but you can't do this. It just doesn't work. You don't have to be a genius to work this out either, just look at the pioneers of the genre; Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, Soilent Green, Acid Bath... etc etc. They all had a certain groove to them. It doesn't matter if it's buried under excessing fuzz, it's always there. So if you cant write a good riff, don't bother trying to start a sludge band. It's that simple. The other thing you need to know about this genre is that 99% of the bands have some kind of punk roots or heavy influence. Whether it's Black Flag or GG Allin it's there somewhere. So now thats out the way I'm glad to announce that Iron Witch clearly understand this simple formular and execute it with brutal conviction. It's only a demo but the quality is evident. Evident and more than worthy to be placed on the roster of such labels as Southern Lord or Phil Anselmo's latest project The Housecore Records. That may seem a bit of a bold statement but you give these guys a listen then make you're own decision.
Iron Witch have firmly cement their name with the likes of other UK acts such as the awesome Dopefight, Hang The Bastard and Dead Existence that are currently on the scene and dominating it with their own new generation of sludge and doom. All bands that deserve a whole lot more attention then they are actually getting. So with that said, shoot on over to Witch Hunter Records and see what other little gems the guys have dug out for your listening pleasure.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, Buzz•oven, Outlaw Order, GG Allin,

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Demo 2011 (320kbps)

News...

Just a quick snippet of news for all you followers out there...

Firstly we've added a new, more comprehensive review for Pro-Ject's RPM 9.2 Evolution turntable... 

Oh, it's a beauty! Head over to our turntable review page for the lowdown and some new pictures. 

We have also given you a new cartridge review in the shape of Ortofon's awesome 2M series. Needless to say you can find this in our cartridge review page.

Finally, we're looking for a new writer. If you have a love of all things vinyl and stoner rock/doom orientated and would like to help us out, please drop us an email.

~ Jay

Greeks, Guts & Grooves...

Planet Of Zeus - Macho Libre (2011)

Again this was yet another band that kind of passed me by for a while. The name had popped up here and there on and off but it was only when I was getting ready for a night out on the tiles at a friends and the demo for their track 'Leftovers' came blaring out of his computer that I began to do some proper listening. I promptly downloaded the first album; Eleven The Hard Way and was instantly hooked. But unfortunately this was still about a month or so prior to the release of this record, which a few friends of mine had been lucky enough to hear a few rough tracks of and described as 'blowing the first album out of the water'. Much to my relief I managed to blag an early copy and its barely been of my stereo since. That sweet southern metal guitar twang and dirty, gritty vocals instantly grabbed me once again and with seconds my head was nodding and feet were tapping. The instant feeling of being gutted that I hadn't got hold of any of their stuff sooner quickly gave way to foot tapping joy as I trawled youtube in search of clip after clip of them. I must have watched about 8 or 9 videos before I actually figured out that these guys weren't from the US. I know that sounds pretty amateur but if you've heard them before you'll understand and if you havent you soon will. They sound like they should be locals at SXSW, not hailing from Greece. Their sound echos that of the likes of Maylene or Red River Revival. But dont get me wrong, in no way are these chaps ripping off anyone else or posing as a poor mans immolation. Macho Libre is utterly riddled with quality riff after riff and it certainly doesn't hurt that their vocalist Babis has one of best stoner rock/southern metal voices you'll ever hear. Totally raw and gravelly yet still skilled enough to successfully pull off a wide variety of peaks and styles. Not bloody bad for some who's native tongue is that which he sings in..
So what should you expect from Macho Libre? Well if you haven't guessed already, pretty much balls to the wall, Texan style southern rock. But in the same tone they're no one trick pony either as they're perfectly able to nail some chilled out tracks too 'Unicorn Without A Horn' and 'Hazelnur (RIP)' are blissfully mellow and strangely reminiscent of a mix of Pink Floyd and some of the instrumental Hendrix tracks he recorded. Kind of in the same vein of Black Sabbath's 'Planet Caravan'. But yes, the heavy rock style is definitely where POZ really do excel. If this album doesn't make you wanna jump in to a Dodge Charger and tear round at high speed jumping over barns and police cars then there's something seriously wrong with you! Best review of this record actually came from a friend of mine when he summed it up in this short sentence; "I swear, you can take pretty much any track on here and edit it over clipped footage of Dukes Of Hazzard and it works perfectly... every time!" Now, if you haven't been convinced after that you never will be.

~ Jay

For Fans Of; Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster, Artimus Pyledriver, Orange Goblin, Naam, Black Label Society

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Macho Libre (320kbps)