Yes, I'm a huge fan of Texas' DIXIE WITCH. They are the perfect embodiment of a heavy power trio that is driven by the immortal spirit of rock 'n' roll. All this is rounded off by a soulful and positive vibe that is hard to find these days in heavy music. ...
The DoomDogs return with a new output called 'Unleash The Truth'. Is that an imperative? Do I have to? Okay. To keep it short, I just say, this thing rocks. Buy it. For those that do indeed need a more detailed reason why, here it is: The guys from Sweden give ...
So here is the next band in the current roster of "retro" bands to entertain us with occult Metal. Devil are from Norway and go into a similar direction as, for example, Ghost. There is a certain doomy feeling, metal riffs of the old school, and some kind of ...
When Damo Suzuki, the legendary vocalist of German musical innovators Can, decided to record a live album together with Spanish eccentric progressive outfit CUZO, it is obvious that the result has little or nothing in common with conventional rock music. Recorded in 2009 and released thru Alone Records in 2011, ...
Recently, I have listenend to quite a few albums where certain kinds of intros seemed to be quite common. Finally I can say, that there's again a band who used an intro which surprised me. The mix of reversed played riffs as well as a sample of a choir ...
Not sure if this can be counted as an album as this 8 tracker by Death Valley Driver clocks under 30 minutes but anyways in ca. 28 minutes the quintet (that features Gallactus frontman Dan Hodgson on vocals) deliver a slab of heaviness that is not only based on ...
To be honest, I was delighted when I have noticed the name Boskops in the press info of 'Zugriff'. Why? For me as an old punk this is a well-known name. Boskops were one of the best German hardcore punk bands in the early 1980's and I was a huge ...
After six years of brutality, DEMONICAL have built a solid reputation for themselves thanks to their unrelenting, bone-crushing brand of Swedish death metal. 'Death Infernal' is the band's third album and it is packed to the brim with tasty ingredients; this is heavy-as-a-sack-of-anvils old school death metal with ...
On the basis of the band name, one might think that UK's DESERT STORM are huge Kyuss fans, but this is not the case at all. Instead, 'Forked Tongues' is an undisguised homage to Clutch and Black Label Society. I sometimes get the impression that DESERT STORM do not ...
Despite their success, DEWOLFF don't play it safe with their new album. In fact, it's quite the opposite. 'Orchards/Lupine', released in 2011 via REMusic Records, turns out differently and adopts a new approach. Although DEWOLFF is still closely linked to the rock music of the late 1960's/early 1970's, ...
With 'Collapse The Void' you can expect a furious EP full of grim music. Fast Black Metal riffs beat on the listener - death/doom-like midtempo passages form the framework that will sweep the listener away. The voice of bandleader 'M' is often slow, but always raw and Death Metal-styled ...
Don't be confused by the strange band name. Arizona's DRONE THRONE have nothing to do with La Monte Young, Earth or Spaceman 3. Instead, they offer a raw heavy blend consisting of mid-tempo hardcore punk, 1970's heavy rock, metal and sludge. Out of this have resulted five tracks, which ...
DEXTER JONES' CIRCUS ORCHESTRA (If Light Can't Save Us, I Know Darkness Will) LP/CD
11/14/2010
Until recently, I did not pay much heed to this Swedish band, because the previous album 'Side by Side' didn't get me all too excited. Somehow I have heard it all before, but performed in a more compelling way. But it was obvious that they had great potential, ...
The guys from DOPEFIGHT make no secret of their preferences. On the one hand, they love to smoke huge amounts of weed (and are fully aware of the consequences - just take a look at the backcover), and on the other they prefer a heavy tube-driven sludgy sound. Thus, ...
The knowledge about obscure heavy metal bands of Shadow Kingdom Records never fails to amaze me and DEEP SWITCH is so far the most outlandish group on their release roster. Vocalist Dave McDonough looks like a more extreme version of Keith 'Monkey' Warren (The Adicts) while the rest of ...
Wow, what a cover! This is definitely the funniest and most original artwork that I have seen in 2010 and I can only hope that Bad Afro Records or DRAGONTEARS will use it for a shirt design. Here is the first customer! Quite apart from the packaging, the third ...
The second album from Canada's DEMONTAGE is really a unique beast. Released in 2010 by Shadow Kingdom Records, 'The Principal Extinction' combines different metal styles and transforms them into a coherent package. Here we find elements from thrash and black metal, but also a lot of ingredients from ...
Here, we have the second album from Boston's DIRT MALL who continue where they have stopped with their debut 'Got The Goat By The Horns'. That means rock 'n' roll, which sometimes is close to Detroit's high energy rock of ...
First off all, that's not the German heavy metal band, but the Portugese doom band which was founded one year earlier. Almost unnoticed by the public DAWNRIDER have released their second full-length via Raging Planet Records in 2009. To be honest, after listening to this album for the first ...
It's six years ago when Cosmic Lava received the first album 'Albedo Zero' from UK's DUSTEROID. Like so many other bands, DUSTEROID follow in the footsteps of bands like Orange Goblin, Clutch and Kyuss, without having an own musical profile. Well, ok, others don't have that, too, but ...
I was definitely sacred off by the title of DOOMRAISER's first demo 'Heavy Drunken Doom'. No, I haven't lost my sense of humor, but I have always been bored by party bands, no matter what musical genre it is. There are more interesting topics than your latest bender, ...
DeWOLFF (Strange Fruits And Undiscovered Plants) LP/CD
02/24/2010
The Netherlands are a fertile ground for bands that are strongly influenced from the heavy sounds of the early 1970's, and Orange Sunshine and Wallrus may serve as good examples here. New to that bands is DEWOLFF, founded in 2007 in a Southern part of the Netherlands (Limburg) called ...
If you wonder why I didn't noted the format of the latest release of UK's DOMES OF SILENCE, then I would like to let you know that the band released this single in December 2009 only on I-tunes and other download formats. Pity though, but sometimes that's the ...
I enjoyed the last album of Sweden's DEVILLE very much, particularly because they banned almost all Queens of The Stone Age influences from their songs. This was a further step into finding an own musical identity and I had hoped that DEVILLE go further down the road, but that's not the ...
Finally Black Widow Records allows insight into one of the most interesting and almost forgotten chapters of US-Doom history. 'Alive In Death' is a strong, historic album packed with previously unreleased recordings from the band who later changed their name into Pentagram. Nine years ago, Game Two Records ...
I was never a big fan of Germany's DAWN OF WINTER. Well, I appreciate the fact that they've been around since 1990, but Gerrit Philipp Mutz dramatic vocal style is the main reason why my interest was held in bounds. At its best, Mutz comes close to Scott Reagers ...
Since 1998, this German band is a guarantor for smudgy, super-heavy sludge rounded off with a proper dose of doom metal. Sadly, DUST is still relatively unknown despite the fact that they have released some good stuff over the last eleven years. 'Receive The Frequency' is the band's second self-financed full-length, ...
DRAGONTEARS' first album '2000 Micrograms From Home' found its day-glo niche in my halls of Psychedelia. 'Tambourine Freak Machine' which has been released by Bad Afro Records in 2008, follow up to that magnificent release, but this time the music has a ...
Since the 1980's I'm a fan of the first wave of hardcore bands, which emerged from the Boston scene. Especially groups like SS Decontrol, Siege, and Jerry's Kids were pioneers in the unknown territory of ultra aggressive hardcore and their recordings are milestones in the history of that genre. Well, this ...
Boston's DIRT MALL stuck somewhere between glam rock, Detroit rock'n'roll, and pop punk with their debut album, that has been released in 2007 thru Daykamp Records. Nice ingredients, cool attitude and even their musical skills are notably good. The arrangements of the included eight songs showcase a talented young band who ...
Here we have the first full-length from the Portuguese band DAWNRIDER, who also appeared on a split-7" in 2005 with Maryland's War Injun. I assume that this choice was no accident, because DAWNRIDER especially vocalist F.J. Dias, is a huge fan of the Maryland doom scene and of 1970's heavy rock. ...
Formed in Maryland, USA, DEATH MASK took shape in 1985, and disappeared soon afterwards in 1987. Strongly influenced by Black Sabbath, Venom, Motorhead, Celtic Frost, Trouble, and Judas Priest just to name a few, this disc is a retrospective of their rare recordings and gives a glimpse of what a great ...
After one strong demo released in 2006 under the name Nemesis, DARKEST ERA have finally put out their first release through Eyes Like Snow Records in 2008, a division of Northern Silence Productions. DARKEST ERA hail from Northern Ireland and their folk-inspired heavy metal has brought them much credibility and an ...
I'm surprised again and again, how much bands have arisen out of the ash of Norrsken. There's Witchcraft, the most popular, then Graveyard and DEAD MAN whose sole common denominator to the other two bands is their love for the 60's and 70's, but that's all. You won't hear a lot ...
It's the first release from the new German label Beautiful Scum Records, and it's a damn good label debut. This Italian band was founded in 1989, and this is actually their first offical album, although they gained a lot of good criticism in the early 90's for their first demo and ...
This time the small US-underground label Public Guilt is responsible for the second album of DARSOMBRA, after they already released a 3" CD-R from this one-man band in 2007. The man behind this well-sounding moniker is Brian Daniloski, who was also part of the line-up in bands like Meatjack, Trephine and ...
'Mandala' is the result of the collaboration between D.B.P.I.T. and Kenji Siratori and both have managed to break with usual musical conventions and to explore the world of avantgardistic experimental music, influenced by early Industrial music. While D.B.P.I.T. create very obscure and mystical sounds with the help of varied instruments, what ...
I remember this Swedish band from their split-CD with Sergej The Freak, that was released on Daredevil Records at the end of 2005. Their sound was strongly inspired from Queens Of The Stone Age, although they've set their own musical accents within their accessible sound. A few years later DEVILLE signed ...
I bet, that all three guys of DRIFT have one or three discs of Clutch in their music collection at home. And I'm damn sure, that they like this band a lot, because their musical concept isn't so far away from Maryland's one and only groove kings, especially during the first ...
I can’t help, but the latest album „One Bird, Two Stones“ of Austin’s one and only DIXIE WITCH didn’t convince me as much as I hoped. Maybe my expectations have been too high, because their debut „Into The Sun“ was (and still is) a masterful piece of heaviest southern-drenched 70‘s hardrock, ...
Heavy "stoner" rock from the UK, which should be interesting enough for fans of this genre, but this isn't doing anything for me. This is sounding just too faceless, no matter how rough the singer shouts or how heavy the riffs are. Yes, especially the vocals are my main problem here, ...
Some years have past, since DOZER’s first release, what has been a split-EP with Unida on Meteor City. During the last years, the group had toured a lot through Europe and USA, and recorded further albums. Maybe all this is the reason for DOZER’s excellent developement from a typical sounding Kyuss-clone ...
What for a great second album from one of Germany's oldest Doom Metal bands!!! This is excellent stuff, and much better than their debut album, which always sounded a little bit too weak to me. DREAMING's main influences are still obvious, but this guys are making their very own sound out ...
What can you expect from a band, which consists of the complete Baby Woodrose line-up plus three members from On Trial and from an album-titele like '2000 Micrograms From Home'? Yes, you're right: it's Psychedelic music! But DRAGONTEARS aren't a real band, but more a project of the above mentioned musicians, ...
Due to the "optimistic" title of this compilation, one can be sure that the here included music is free from sweet harmonies and uplifting grooves. Well, some of the bands, which are featured here, have some grooves, but their effect is more like a slab with a sledgehammer than anything else. ...
This is the latest demo from German doom band DUST, recorded in early 2005 and after a period of inactivity in 2004, the band is back with a new five song slab of brute and raw heaviness. While the music is influenced by the usual suspects like Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus ...
DISSOLVING OF PRODIGY (Louceni Se Svetem Pozemským) CD
10/19/2005
The Czech Republic is still a white spot on my musical map, and I have no clue what's going on there. But now it's my first meeting with a Czech band, due to the reason that the Czech label Crystal Productions had sent me over a package, that contains three of ...
First off, it's a big secret for me why this band is still unsigned, because this is one of the most promising underground releases, I received in a long time. This is their self-released debut album, and in opposite to the poor package of this CD-R, the here included cuts are ...
Currently, there aren't much bands around, who are playing such a fine crossover, consisting of 70's heavy rock and early-80's hardcore, like Cleveland's DISENGAGE. This was only one of my first impressions, while listening to their new (and third) album, that has been released via Swell Creek with support by Daredevil ...
It's been nearly two years ago, since the release of this brilliant compilation, but anyway, this disc is so damn good, what makes it still worth to write some enthusiastic words about it. Shifty Records had done some sort of conceptual compilation, dedicated to Godzilla and all his Japanese monster cohorts ...
I'm not sure, how familiar the name Tom Denney is to the readers of the Cosmic Lava, but I like to give you a small introduction into his comprehensive work. During the past years he gained an excellent reputation for his brilliant art that covers concert poster, website layout, video clips, ...
How the hell should I write a review about this compilation, without just adding one superlative after the other? But ok, I will try and start from the beginning with a personal introduction. I've been a fan of the Maryland/DC area since the late 80's, and I still have the days ...
This is the promo of the upcoming debut MCD from heavy US rockers DIRTY RIG. This four guys are fans of 18 wheelers, strong booze and the good ole mother Rock 'n' Roll. Of course, not to forget Sex and other drugs and that's their simple but effective message. They feel ...
This US four piece band had played a lot of shows during the last years in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Diego and this is their nine song debut on Found Music. The label put them close to bands like Kyuss, Solarized, QotSA or Sixty Watt Shaman but ...
The first four track demo from this Argentine band stands in the tradition of 70's Doom-laden Hardrock. Argentina is no blind spot in the history of Hardrock. In the early 70's there were bands like ALMENDRA, AVE ROCK or DIAS DE BLUES etc. and it's good to see that more bands ...
After a long and shitty day you come at home,drink some beer and feel frustrated,and then you went to your friends to play some heavy sick Blues stuff in the garage.You and your friends start with the song "Home Coming" . A slow number with a thick bass-line and you feel ...
DUSTER 69 are ready to release their third full length on Daredevil Records. This group placed their name on the map with numerous tours and build a solid underground following, especially here in Germany. Fuelled by raging metal, DUSTER 69 are nevertheless characterised by 70's heavy rock running through much of ...
DEAD REVOLUTION (Hollow Sounds From The Void) MCD-R
07/19/2004
Here's is the second demo from this Kouvola-based band. If you want to fresh up your geographical knowledge let me tell you that Kouvola is a Finnish city. DEAD REVOLUTION have released this demo in February 2003 that included three songs. The sounds is rougher than on "Narrow Gates", what's not ...
Out of Brooklyn, NY comes this two man band, but to my fortune, DUST TO DUST don't play this kind of republican-pseudo-redneck-hardcore like Biohazard and garbage like this, nor they are playing Doom or Sludge. DUST TO DUST are more in the vein of bands like Fear Factory, combined with elements ...
My expectations were really high on the second album of DIXIE WITCH, because "Into The Sun" is still one of my faves. But I have to admit, that I got my personal problems with "One Bird, Two Stones". Were my expectations too high or am I just in a bad mood? ...
"Misanthropic Generation" reminds me to my old days in the early 80's, when I used to wear spikey hairs and a painted leather jacket, and some of my favourite bands were GBH, Crucifix, Discharge etc. A lot has changed since then, though I still love Crucifix and Discharge. Ok, enough sentimentality, ...
It's the third album of Philadelphia's instrumentalists DYSRHYTHMIA, this time recorded at Electrical Audio Studios with Steve Albini, who's famous for his numerous works with lot of bands during the last 15 years. "Pretest" is like a exciting kaleidoscope, full of amazing pictures and different emotions. The structures are always very ...
Yes, this five-piece won't stop for anything with their fourth album "Stop At Nothing", this time on Relapse Records. DYING FETUS are playing an uncompromising combination of Death Metal and Grindcore, with all the essential trademarks. The vocals are sometimes sounding, as if they were coming out of the deepest hole ...
I will never understand what should be so special about DOWN. The first album was mostly average, with a few good songs on it, but nothing special for me. And I've got the same feeling about this one. Ok, the production is very good and there are a few nice riffs on ...
I needed a long time since I've finally get a copy of the debut of this awesome TX powertrio.And yes, they are a POWER trio in the truest meaning of this word. Aside of all the heavy veterans that are still around I can't remember the debut of a band which ...
This is the fourth full release from the now legendary Welsh Death/Gore/Grind veterans DESECRATION. I never had the chance to listen to their older material, but their hyper-precisce Death Grind is brutal and fast as hell, enriched with original and cynic movie-samples. What I appreciate about DESECRATION is their tightness and ...
One of the heaviest bands from the USA were DEATH ROW, co-founded by Victor Griffin and this is a limited vinyl edition (1000 copies) from Game Two Records, released in 2000. The album consists of various recordings from their rehearsal room and live shows. Unfortunately, the name DEATH ROW lasted only ...
A new Swedish band, that was formed back in 1997 and they are playing very weighty 70's influenced fuzz-driven heavy rock 'n' roll (they call themselves wreck 'n' roll). These guys are of course influenced by Kyuss (or should I write Blue Cheer?), but they have added a sleazy vibe to ...
For me, this trio is a special and unique band. They have captured a very own sound on the first self-titled album, which was far away from today's standards. For sure, they are also influenced by the 60/70's but that's maybe the only thing they've got in common with other bands.Especially ...
Originally released in 1999 on Cranium Records, the excellent US label Brainticket has taken the chance to release this album now in 2001 again. DATURA were formed back in 1995, and after three demos they released the mini CD "Allisone", also on Cranium Records. This band is from New Zealand and ...
A new US-band with their debut on Benchmark Records. They don't cover any new ground, but their downtuned heavy rock is solid and entertaining to keep spinning in my player. A good riff here, and nice chord change there, a vocalist who knows how to use his voice, enough verve so ...
Out of Kouvola, Finland comes this band with this self-released debut, after they released a official demo in February 2003. The group has welded a keening sense of melody to their visceral modern metal sound, and added here and there some riffs, that could be from bands like later Metallica, Pantera ...
