Browsing Tag

stoner

Master Splinter – A Caustic Version: Mike Patton Spawned a Stoner-Rock Monster

Posted on 2 November 2023

If the Alice in Chains discography hit a little bit harder and attacked their song crafting with an infectious sense of facetiousness, their grungy tracks would roll with the same vitriolically zany punches as Master Splinter’s latest single, A Caustic Version, which also runs in the same Machiavellian vein as some of Mike Patton’s most maniacally unhinged tracks.

With the vocals taking on swathes of different guises to amplify the unpredictability of the hard rock hit, your speakers will be smoking the wildfire ignited by the Portland, Oregon-based outfit’s determination not to take themselves too seriously.

If you’re sick of the brooding narcissists who proliferate rock and metal scenes across the globe and want a taste of eccentrically elemental stoner rock ingenuity, sink your teeth into A Caustic Version

A Caustic Version was officially released on October 17th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Arizonian psych-rock experimentalists, SPACEMOOSE, have released their cathartic triumph of a stoner doom debut

Posted on 26 January 2022
SPACEMOOSE by SPACEMOOSE

The experimental music project, SPACEMOOSE, from the Arizona based space rock alchemists Blake Waltein and Josh Merrick, has made its official debut with the self-titled, psychotropic stoner doom single.

The 9-minute long desert rock-inspired single uses the first two minutes to ease you into the opium-den-style opulence and ambience, before darker and more ominous electronic textures join the sitars and tribal vibes. With the addition of angular 60s psych-rock guitars at the 4-minute mark, the single starts to amass momentum steadily, leaving the quiescence from the prelude far behind in the overdriven garagey tones that deliver a sense of chaos to the mix.

Even though the vocals consist of little more than ethereal sermonic chants that bleed into the soundscape, it’s hard not to be beguiled by the mystique in them. It certainly isn’t every day that we hear a debut as authentic and arresting as this 9-minute cathartic triumph. Naturally, we can’t wait to hear what follows.

You can check out the debut single from SPACEMOOSE by heading over to Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Banzai.Giant’s stoner-alt rock track ‘Melancholia’

Posted on 10 August 2017

If you try to unpack Banzai.Giant stoner-alt rock sound you soon find that it is built from some surprisingly deft textures. Rather than just the usual grunge grunt and heavy riffs, there are layers of electronic wash, chiming, jangle pop guitars, progressive passages and dramatic symphonic rock theatre.  All of which is rather pleasing. It is good to come across a band that understand that making an impact isn’t merely the business of volume control, but is more about dynamics and the building of layers to contour the sound.

Post-grunge? Is that a thing? If it is it suits Melancholia which proves great at capturing all of the power of the intent and delivery of the rawest of grunge bands and doing it by drawing the deftest of lines and leaving behind the “I hate by mum because she made me tidy my room” parochialism which was often at the heart of the scene.