Tag Archives: The Obsessed

Platinum Al’s Top 10 Rock & Metal Albums of 2024

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2024 was a fantastic year for new music. As previous, I was asked to compile my Top 10 of the year for Ever Metal, which wasn’t easy. That list has already been published on the EM website, but I’ve replicated it here for anyone who missed it…

Every year, it’s a struggle to whittle down tons of superb albums to just ten.  This year has been just as difficult (if not more so) and I’ve had to leave off a few great releases that just didn’t make the cut, for one reason or another.  I’m sure I’ll regret leaving a few of those off the final 2024 list, even if it’s just because they’re still very new I’ve not had chance to grow into them yet.   

Anyway, here’s the best of 2024 as it feels right now: 

10. Goat Major – Ritual 

Released in March, this debut from Welsh Occult Doom Metal band Goat Major announced a formidable new talent to the scene.  Building on their love of the classic bands that defined the genre, Goat Major add plenty of their own character to a magnificent album. 

9. Crobot – Obsidian 

Crobot’s latest release certainly has a darker, heavier atmosphere than previous albums, but the unmistakeable groovy riffs are well in place and ready to unleash the Hard Rock mayhem.   

8. Acid Mammoth – Supersonic Megafauna Collision 

Greek Doom-mongers Acid Mammoth delivered another heavy weight slab of fuzzy Stoner Metal, with a variety of moods and hefty groove.  Neolithic Rock with a touch of the ethereal. 

7. Duel – Breakfast with Death 

Amazing album title.  Fantastic cover artwork to compliment said title.  And guess what?  This latest release by Texan Stoner Metal gang Duel is even better than first impressions would suggest: Doomy Stoner Biker Rock from hell! 

6. The Obsessed – Gilded Sorrow 

Wino’s legendary Doom Metal crew returned in early 2024, to remind everyone how it should be done.  Infectious, groovy riffs, heavy as shittery songcraft and head spinning melody collide in a perfect meltdown. 

5. Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction 

The definitive Orange Goblin album?  Could be.  This latest OG album demonstrates all of their strengths, welding together the various sounds and genres they’ve mastered over the years.  Bursting with energy and invention. 

4. Torso – Brain Cells 

More exhilarating chainsaw Garage Metal from Torso, this lo-fi masterpiece arrived with all the subtlety of a brick to the forehead.  Less John Carpenter this time, but definitely slasher-splatter death-mosh a go go! 

3. Zombina and the Skeletones – The Call of Zombina 

They’re back!  One of the most wonderful live bands I’ve ever witnessed, Zombina and crew finally returned with a non-stop Horror Punk party, just in time for Halloween.  Long may they continue!   

2. Fu Manchu – The Return of Tomorrow 

The only downside of a new Fu album is waiting for it to be released!  Their first new album in six years was everything I hoped for, a double album split between a first half of fuzzy rockers and a second of slower tempo groovers. RAD! 

1 Sergeant Thunderhoof – The Ghost of Badon Hill 

The ‘Hoofs last album was number 1 in my 2022 Top Ten – and whaddya know, they’ve done it again!  Slightly less bombastic then their previous, but even more engrossing, “The Ghost of Badon Hill” is a mature and thrilling record to get lost in. 

So that’s ten.  Honourable mentions go out to Melvins, Lucifer, Black Tusk, Alunah and Barbarian Hermit amongst many others.   

Here’s hoping 2025 can match this… 

Keep coming back to Ever Metal and Platinum Al’s Virtual Hot Tub for all the best rock and metal reviews!

Misty Grey – Album Review

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Misty Grey – Chapter II

Interstellar Smoke Records

Release date: 20 November 2020

Running time: 39 mins

Review by: Alun Jones

9/10

Can you think of a more apt genre than doom metal for the times we live in?  It’s crazy out there.  From a global pandemic, civil unrest, ecological destruction and lunatics in the most powerful seats in the world, the 21st century becomes more and more apocalyptic day by day.  Party music doesn’t seem right.  On the other hand, the retro stylings of bands like Misty Grey hark back to cosier times of the seventies and eighties when we just had nuclear destruction – and yet more lunatics in power – to contend with.

Misty Grey is not the name of a US mattress actress (don’t bother Googling it, just in case), they are in fact a four-piece doom metal band from Spain.  They deal in extremely authentic, good old fashioned heavy rock in the Black Sabbath/Pentagram/Saint Vitus vein.  We’re in thundering, enormo riff territory, and by ‘eck it’s good stuff.

Originally receiving a CD release back in 2018, “Chapter II” is now available on vinyl from Interstellar Smoke Records.  And a very welcome re-release it is, as “Chapter II” could well have been lost in an Atlantean cataclysm of some type, which would be shameful.

Deceptively pretty Spanish guitar opens the album with a laid-back space-jazz feel, before “Spellbound” erupts with Juan’s raw, grinding guitar.  The chugging riff is illustrative of what to expect from this album; it’s Iommi worship all the way (and bless Misty Grey for it).

If that first track is the first Sabbath album, “Strangers on a Train” is a missing Masters of Reality cut.  It rolls and grooves along, powered by Robin’s bass and Javi’s drums.  On the other hand, “Rebecca” is more like The Obsessed or Saint Vitus, there’s a rough, organic, yet aggressive feel to it.

The musicianship is great, the production has atmosphere and pays homage in a credible, affectionate manner to the band’s influences – without becoming a parody.  The vocals of Beatriz Castillo really help define an individual sound for Misty Grey, she is both tender and terrifying in equal, devastating measure.

I apologise to the band for my crass comparisons to the old masters.  But hey, I don’t listen to this type of music for radical innovation.  The last thing anyone wants to hear is some kind of nu-doom, with samplers and turntables.  Keep it slow, keep it weird, keep it trippy – but most of all, keep it riffy.  Heavy, repetitive and riffy.  Misty Grey do just that on “Chapter II” and it’s all kinds of awesome.  

Check out Misty Grey on: Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and YouTube.

This has been a Platinum Review for Ever Metal.

The Gates of Slumber – Album Review

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The Gates of Slumber – Live at Tempe Arizona

Self-Released (Against PR)

Release date: 28/02/2020

Running time: 37 minutes

Review by: Alun Jones

8/10

Right then, who’s up for some big, fat riffs played at a crawling, slow pace?  You know I am.  Never more ready.  So let’s plunge in and have a listen of this live opus from The Gates of Slumber!  I can promise you that TGOS not only have one of the best band names ever invented – they also do magnificently heavy, Sabbath influenced doom.

This gig was recorded live at the Clubhouse, in Tempe, Arizona – back in 2011, supporting the mighty Orange Goblin.  You can almost feel the heat and smell the beer at the venue on this recording.

Starting out with “Bastards Born”, the riff is slow and menacing, with mournful vocals.  Second track “Ice Worm” ups the tempo a little, with a chugging groove.  The highlight of the album is possibly the gloomy “Day of Farwell”, which is allowed to breathe and sprawl, featuring some spellbinding guitar.  “Coven of Cain” rocks out, before the band slow down to a monolithic pace for “The Wretch”.  Moving those stones from South Wales to Salisbury to create Stonehenge was probably faster.  Finally, the band are at their most Sabbath with the crunching “The Jury”.

Audience reaction is very low in the mix, and the sound is very clear, with no studio or soundboard trickery.  What the listener is left with is a very honest representation of Gates of Slumber – those guitars and drums are free to go straight for the jugular.  It might not be the sort of album that will blow the mind of the casual listener, but for anyone who’s schooled in the melancholy beauty of Saint Vitus and The Obsessed, this is a short but sweet treat.

Will that do for the review, guys?  I’m knackered myself after last night.  I wasn’t partying with Ozzy and Slash again, honest.  I was up all night with Brian May, going on about his bloody astronomy.  “Really Brian?  That is fascinating.  You don’t say?  Yawn.”  Didn’t get a wink of sleep.

You can check out The Gates of Slumber on Bandcamp, Spotify and YouTube.

Also, witness their social media mastery on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This review has been brought to you by Platinum Al in association with Ever Metal.

Wino – Forever Gone Album Review

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WINO – Forever Gone

Ripple Music (Purple Sage PR)

Release date: 26/06/2020

Running time: 46 mins

Review by: Alun Jones

8/10

Who remembers that old TV programme, The Fall Guy?  You know, the one where the Six Million Dollar Man becomes a stuntman/bounty hunter, getting into all kinds of daredevil scrapes whilst pursuing the bad guys?  At the end of every episode, old Lee Majors (for it was he) would be seen chilling in his backyard hot tub, mulling over events whilst drinking a cold beer and smoking a big, fat cigar.

Well let it be known that I, too, like to relax in the tub with a beer after a long, hard day of whatever-the-fuck-it-is-I-do.  None of your business, really.  Just take it from me, I need to unwind in a mass of bubble bath, with candles and refreshment.  And of course, some music, just to add to the ambience.

This might not sound very metal to you, but let me tell ya: this new album from doom metal originator Scott “Wino” Weinrich would make ideal tunes for chilling in the tub.  Or pondering lost loves and fortunes in a dusty bar.  Or sound tracking a lonely drive across the desert, escaping an inevitable encounter.  But to be honest, I like the bathtub metaphor best, ‘cos I’ve not used it before.

“Forever Gone” is stripped down and intimate; the title song itself is just Wino the man, plus acoustic guitar.  Beautifully melancholic, the listener can really get lost in this.  “Taken” also ploughs a lonesome path, with Wino’s voice revealing a soulfulness that I’d never appreciated before.  

For any fans of The Obsessed or Saint Vitus who were hoping for something louder and more aggressive, there’s not too much of a leap from familiar ground really.  Other than the sonics, the emotions of loss and despair are what unifies Wino’s other output to this endeavour.  “Dark Ravine” brings a more Americana style to the proceedings, but it’s all still intense as hell, whether the guitars are turned right up or not.    

It’s not all gloom, though: “You’re So Fine” introduces a laid back, country blues number that sounds almost boogie-ish.  Throw in a great cover of Joy Division’s “Isolation” and this is an album that’s certainly full of surprises.

Great music can create images in your head for your own movie; “Forever Gone” is one of those.  Melodic yet mournful, intense and introspective, there are dozens of stories to be told within the grooves of this record. 

Check out Wino on Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp.

Visit the Ripple music website here, or check ’em out on Facebook or Bandcamp.

And make sure you visit Ever Metal for more reviews of awesome music!

Duel – Valley of Shadows Album Review

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Duel – Valley of Shadows

Heavy Psych Sounds (Purple Sage PR)

Release date: 17/05/2019

Running Time: 38 mins

Review by: Alun Jones

8/10

 

Duel have been on my radar for quite a while.  Despite hearing a few tracks via the band’s social media, I’d never sat down, ear goggles locked in place, to listen to a full album.   So, I was pretty stoked to have the opportunity to review their latest album: “Valley of Shadows”, released recently by Heavy Psych Sounds.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, these four fiends are responsible for an almighty stoner doom racket; full on heavy rifferama with psychedelic and classic metal references.  In case that description alone doesn’t grab you like a graveyard ghoul on the way to an unholy shindig, their whole aesthetic is tripped out in the sort of late-night, B-movie gore that’s lurid enough to make your eyes pop.

It’s like Dracula Has Risen from the Grave soundtracked by a bunch of longhair ne’er-do-wells, and that’s just how I like it.

“Black Magic Summer” opens up the proceedings with some appropriate rain-soaked sound effects, before launching into the heavy-as-a-crypt-door attack.  There’s a brilliantly melodic middle section too, adding some light to the gloom.

Second track “Red Moon Forming” has a direct, driving pace that’s infectious and purposely concocted to inspire the raising of horns.  “Drifting Alone” has a real classic desert rock vibe, with a cool head shaker riff.

“Strike and Disappear” comes on like the vampire Western that Tarantino needs to make.  A slower, bluesy pace with a dusty feel, it’s the first taste we get of a very different – and effective – approach. It melts into a ferocious, face pummelling section that screams blood and violence.

Songs like “Tyrant on the Throne” have a classic metal, almost (gasp!) Iron Maiden feel to them.  Otherwise, the sound explores more of the head-banging, smoke induced groove of bands like Trouble and The Obsessed.

But just like the best stoner metal movers and shakers, there’s always room for some ZZ Top-style boogie, which particularly comes to the fore in the final track, “The Bleeding Heart”.

As always, my sound comparisons are only meant as genuine compliments.  Duel manage to create an album full of their own spirit and character, and it’s one hell of a fun ride.  At turns hypnotic, fist pummelling, and sombre; “Valley of the Shadows” pulls the stake out of the stoner doom corpse and brings it back to bloody life again.

The last time I actually was involved in a duel, it was a case of duelling banjos.  I was on a canoeing trip with some buddies out in the Appalachian back country.  We ran into some unsavoury redkneck types, one of whom challenged me to a banjo showdown.  Of course, I threw in some licks that my old mentor Jimi Hendrix had shown me, and the creepy little weirdo had no chance: I was victorious.

Unfortunately, the locals weren’t too happy and we had a bit of a run-in of sorts with ‘em later.  It was all fun and games really, and we were on our way home soon enough.  But I tell you: just whatever you do, don’t mention piggies to my buddy Bobby.

This review originally appeared on the Ever Metal website, please pay them a visit!

Duel are on Facebook here.

The Duel Bandcamp page is here.

Visit the Heavy Psych Sounds website here.

Heavy Psych Sounds are on Facebook here.

Heavy Psych Sounds are on Bandcamp here.