Sleeping Village Reviews
  • REVIEWS & PREMIERES
  • ARCHIVES
    • OLDE REVIEWS
    • OLDE INTERVIEWS
    • OLDE FEATURES
    • OLDE PREMIERES
  • SUBMIT FOR REVIEW!

Electric Cult - Fuzzeremony (Mini-Review)

6/14/2022

0 Comments

 
This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of a sweet, sweet bandcamp find.

Picture
Written by: The Administrator

People are always rattling on about the sophistication and the benefits of Spotify's discoverability algorithms, but I'm gonna be real for a second: if you are willing to put on a good pair of boots and go wading through bandcamp genres tags, you're inevitably gonna find some damn good shit. Case in point: today's album in question. I wanted some dirty stoner metal to sooth my troubled soul, and after a brief period of sifting, Electric Cult's appropriately entitled Fuzzeremony fell into my waiting arms. Sometimes it's simply that easy.

On their second outing, Mexico's Electric Cult nail a delightful balance between scuzzy and fuzzy. Fuzzeremony consists of three tracks proper and a atmospheric intro, and across the album's swampy expanse, sasquatchian riffs and alternately 
melodramatic  clean and throaty vocals plod a treacherous path through the murky mire. The doomy riffage is simple but catchy as all hell, and the rhythm section holds it down with a solid (and occasionally raucous) presence. The vocal refrains are relentlessly earwormy--take the wonderful chorus of standout track "Warlocks Of The Mangrove," which lends significant credence to the track's 6:46 runtime. The same catchy quality can be applied to closer "Rotting Beneath The Sun," which remarkably feels far shorter than its sizable girth might suggest.

While the aforementioned tracks are highly memorable and maintain an energetic sense of momentum, "Temple Of The Crow" is slightly less successful in this regard. The riffs are hefty and the vocals aren't too shabby either, but the number of ideas presented simply aren't enough to carry the track for the entire length without distractions taking root. That said, the sheer quality of the bookending tracks lends Fuzzeremony, as a whole, a high degree of replayability. I've had this thing on repeat for the better part of two hours, and at this rate it has sufficiently oozed its way into my brain. In short? This particular bandcamp foray has been quite the success--Electric Cult hath been uncovered, and their prior EPs await my immediate attention. If you're in the mood for some stoner doom, you could certainly worship at a lesser altar.

Electric Cult - Fuzzeremony was released April 30th, 2022 via The Swamp Records, 
Satan Monolithic Records, and 
Ruidoteka Records


Electric Cult can be found:
Bandcamp

Facebook
Instagram
0 Comments

Witnesses - The Holy Water EP (Review)

6/13/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: The Administrator

This particular scribe tends to wallow in the oppressive confines of tar-thick riffage, but the occasional jaunt through more spacious environs certainly has its perks. Enter The Holy Water EP, the swiftly forthcoming release (June 15th) from the ever-talented genre-spanning Witnesses. At times an expression of sparse ambiance, at others a more traditional doom project, Greg Schwan and friends consistently deliver music with an expansive scope and a cinematic flair. While the deliberate separation remains, this latest three-track manages to combine multiple aspects of the bifurcated Witnesses formula into a single entity. This is doom at its most open, its most atmospheric, and arguably its most emotive.


Read More
0 Comments

TITANOSAUR - Eater of Death (b/w The Time Is Now)(Exclusive Premiere)

6/12/2022

3 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: The Administrator

Sonic qualities aside, Titanosaur is not a moniker that conjures notions of elegance. The name imparts a certain sense of inevitable weight and destructive force. This we know. The hefty behemoth leaves footprints the size of small craters, and crushes cars in its maw like unto a nutcracker chowing down on a walnut. The music, then, must match the aesthetics of the beast. Rest assured, this one-man hard rock/metal outfit out of Hudson, NY, does just that.

Drawing from the venerable likes of Monster Magnet, Red Fang, Motorhead, and Black Sabbath's more overtly rock oriented  work, Titanosaur delivers crunchy riffs and gruff hooks with a no-nonsense air and a hard-edged bite. Back in February of this year,I briefly reviewed Titanosaur's excellent Absence of Universe, stating that, besides demonstrating the band's best work to date, the album illustrated a unique "wry self awareness, notably pounding riffage, and thick application of late cretaceous groove."

Off the back of that release, we've got some new tunes incoming. I love a band on a roll, and Titanosaur is currently cruising. But enough rambling! We're pleased to present here today "Eater of Death" and its accompanying B-Side "The Time is Now." Hit play on the ol' embed below, sit back, and enjoy! As always, we'll be there to meet ye on the other side.


Read More
3 Comments

SKULL FIST - Paid In Full (Review)

6/12/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: Blackie Skulless

While always leaning more towards the speed metal end of things, Skull Fist would tone that back a bit on 2018’s Way Of The Road. While it didn’t stick to me as much as some of their earlier work, the latest disc Paid In Full tightens things up and slaps a sharper identity on there. Naturally, we wind up with more memorability. I’m going to preemptively see this as the point where the band fulfills a sought after “mature” sound.


Filling in different pockets of the traditional metal sound now seems more important. You still get a dose of the older speed-drenched chops, but you’re also now equally likely to encounter stompier rhythms and anything in between. Vocal harmonies add life to the choruses better than any prior Skull Fist record, and there’s certainly no shortage of bassy integrity behind higher leads. In short, some of the most desired parts of the genre are found, and they blend together incredibly. 


Read More
0 Comments

WORLD EATERS - Grinding Advance (An Olde Review from the Archives)

6/10/2022

0 Comments

 
The Sleeping Village has been around for a few years now, and during that time, a lot of reviews have unceremoniously disappeared into the dark confines of our archives, destined to never see the light of the front page again. Music appreciation, however, is a timeless affair, and in that spirit, here is a review retrieved from the depths.

Picture
Written by: The Administrator

Asking if you are in the mood for riff-slangin' death metal born of a war-torn future is hardly a question worth asking...because of course you are. Asking if you are in the mood for some furious Bolt Thrower (and/or Warhammer 40k) worship is a similarly worthless question...because of course you are. Despite seeming somewhat niche, one-man death metal wrecking crew World Eaters carries a wide appeal. 

2021's EP--the mighty Grinding Advance--delivers a pugilistic blow befitting its source material. World Eaters has been quite prolific over the past year or so, releasing a demo and several killer splits, and I'm happy to report that this beast is a very strong showing indeed--David Gupta's best work yet, in my humble opinion. This is a release worth celebrating, so let's get to it.


Read More
0 Comments

FRESH MEAT FRIDAY: June 10th, 2022 Feat. Yatra, Dust Prophet, Adamantis, and Pillärs

6/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s crumbling gates, stuffed to the brim with our sustenance for the following week. Today is the day we must offload all this new music, and so, in the process, we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our choice picks from this veritable mass of fresh meat. This is what we’ll be--and have been--listening to today here at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so! 

On the docket for today, June 10th, 2022:
Yatra, Dust Prophet, Adamantis, and Pillärs

Picture
Yatra -  Born Into Chaos
​
(Prosthetic Records) Records

​Yatra has evolved, and in this humble scribe's opinion, they are better off for it. Previously known for the ability to churn out sludgy stoner metal at a remarkably steady rate, this trio's new album tunnels out of the doomy mire and into an open grave. That's right: they've gone Death Metal, and with a transformation this effortless, it's hard not to root for them. Born Into Chaos ​is predictably heavy as all fuck, and Yatra's palette remains similar. the riffs are still mammothian, just sped up a bit. The snarled vocals are as mean as ever. And the atmosphere is simply crushing.

​Yatra has always had a savage streak, and this album feels like an excellent step outside of a more comfortable formula. I applaud a band taking a big leap. Yatra have done just that, and they have stuck the landing. 
Find it here!

Picture
Dust Prophet - When the Axe Falls (Independent)

Dust Prophet is a fun band to follow, because every new Dust Prophet single is a little bit of an adventure, a little bit outside the  wheelhouse. The also just keep getting better, as far as I can surmise. Indeed, When The Axe Falls might be my favorite thing from them yet. The first half of the song sits of the strong shoulders of churning riffage and a very catchy chorus, and the back end features a gentle instrumental passage before falling back into the central motif. Dust Prophet routinely nails the structure necessary to keep these longer songs interesting. The thematic underpinnings are quite interesting as well–the track details the Axeman of New Orleans, an unidentified serial killer. I'm not a true crime junkie in the slightest, but a little narrative intrigue never goes amiss. In short? This is another great track from a great band.
Find it here!


Read More
0 Comments

WARPSTORMER - Here Comes Hell (Review)

6/9/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: The Administrator

I love when the comments under a release on Bandcamp demonstrate a unified point of view. In the case of Here Comes Hell, the debut 4-track EP from WARPSTORMER, that point of view across the listening base is pretty damn clear. In a word: this thing has riffs. Riffs on riffs on (dare I say) more riffs. As it happens, I'm a bit of a riff connoisseur myself, and after listening to this EP for the third time today, I find myself agreeing with the consensus. This thing packs 'em in and unleashes 'em with the confidence of a seasoned act and the haste of a band excited to parade their entire arsenal in a single 20 minutes span.

That said, the four tracks here are quite varied. The first three lean in varying degrees towards the thrashier end of the self-described "stoner-thrash" genre tag, and closer "Reap What You've Sown (Devourer)" carries itself with a slower and more melancholic air. WARPSTORMER serve up a very nice mix of elements, and their willingness to shake up the pace and mood demonstrates potential for a wide array of sight and sounds in subsequent work. I certainly hope a full album of this stuff is on the horizon...but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. While the future of the band is indeed exciting, Here Comes Hell deserves time to shine on the basis of its own merits.


Read More
0 Comments

AFTERBIRTH - Four Dimensional Flesh (An Olde Review from the Archives)

6/7/2022

0 Comments

 
The Sleeping Village has been around for a few years now, and during that time, a lot of reviews have unceremoniously disappeared into the dark confines of our archives, destined to never see the light of the front page again. Music appreciation doesn't start and end upon release, and in that spirit, here is a review retrieved from the depths.

Picture
Written by: The Administrator

To be frank, I approached Four Dimensional Flesh with immense trepidation. Brutal death metal and/or slam aren’t exactly locales I find myself frequenting with any kind of regularity--if I pass through, it’s usually a lone track in the midst of an otherwise innocuous playlist. While the dedication to slammin’ riffs and woodpecker-on-a-hot-tin-roof percussive fills are certainly attractive bedfellows, the trademark drainpipe gutturals and resonance chamber bree-brees really ain’t this scribes cup o’ vox.

And yet here we are, plumbing the gurgling pipes with a grim sense of glee. Why? Because
 Afterbirth strives to make slam interesting. 
And it is this quality that remains Four Dimensional Flesh’s greatest strength amongst strengths


Read More
0 Comments

10,000 YEARS - Megafauna (Mini-Review)

6/6/2022

0 Comments

 
This year, in an attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we're trying something new and novel around these parts. Namely, we're gonna actually publish the little one-off reviews that were previously (and arbitrarily) deemed too short for publication. In that spirit, here's a mini-review of a single I'm been spinning quite a bit as of late.

Picture

Written by: The Administrator

​
10,000 Years are back in the stoner doom fold with a new album this month, and with a new album come new singles. Hence: the gloriously badass "Megafauna." It is not, notably, the first single released from the forthcoming III to date, but it's a banger, and I simply couldn't wait to talk it up.

There are a variety of things that go hard as fuck in relation to this track. Let me count 'em for your convenience:
  1. This old-skool cool cover art
  2. The notion of extraterrestrial megafauna
  3. Those riffs. My god, those riffs.

For those unfamiliar, 10,000 Years sound exactly like you might expect, given their (I can only assume) High On Fire inspired moniker. "Megafauna," in turn, sounds like much of their prior work, and for that I am thankful. Big meaty stoner riffs stomp with the relative grave of a prehistoric behemoth. Sludgy stuff, in a word. Cymbals crash with thunderous aplomb. Roared vocals cut through the fray with raw uncut--not "emotive" in the typical sense of the word, but certainly loaded with a tangible fury. The leads burrow and crest, helping to maintain a level of dynamic interest that all too often is ignored by other stoner doom outfits in a quest to bludgeon through repetition. Everything here is coated in a thick algae-esque patina. Sonically, nothing in the 10,000 Years formula is fresh per se, but they do what they do really damn well. Thematically, however, their continuing multi-album saga of a crew crash-landed on an alien world lens some serious narrative interest to their project as a whole.
​
In my mind, this track is the soundtrack to a kaiju movie set in the swamps of Dagobah. It's damn good stuff, and if you're in the mood for some thicc stoner doom, 10,000 Years are, y'know, probably a safe bet. "Megafauna" is a great song, and, along with its cohort of singles, serves as an accurate harbinger of what III has to offer. Grab that preorder here!

10,000 Years - III will be released June 24th, 2022 via Interstellar Smoke Records 


10,000 Years can be found:
Bandcamp
​Facebook
0 Comments

SOUL GRINDER - Queen Corrosia (Review)

6/5/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Written by: The Administrator

When it comes the (admittedly ill-defined) bingo card of stuff that I like, Portland's own 
Soul Grinder ticks a lot of boxes, and have been doing so from their inception back in 2018. Their debut EP Terraflesh impressed with a uniquely unhinged energy, and follow-up LP The Prophecy of Blight proudly demonstrated a similar excitement and viscerality, albeit with enough refinement in the songwriting department to lend the band a clear maturity and sense of direction. 

Continuing the trend, the ​Queen Corrosia EP, released this May, subtly substitutes a sense of measured confidence for the sense of breakneck urgency that permeated their earlier work.While undoubtedly aggressive and rash, the title track isn't particularly unhinged--it is not restlessly scrabbling at it's own boundaries. The solo, for example, sits comfortably within the forward canter, and the vocals, while powerful, aren't chaotic to a blistering degree. As a result, this track, and those that follow, feel more settled--although in the grand scheme of exciting punky melodic thrash, Soul Grinder are still sitting comfortably at the more vigorous end of the spectrum. And when you're talking about the carnivalesque world of punky melodic thrash, that's saying a lot. Fear not: the riffs still thrash and stomp in familiar fashion, and Prilzor's vocals still shred through the instrumentation with a  rabid yet gloriously dynamic freneticism.


Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    WELCOME!

    We provide thoughtful reviews of music that wakes us from slumber. Written by a highfalutin peasantry.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021

    Categories

    All
    Acid Rock
    A High Quality Death Metal Album
    Album Premiere
    Album Stream
    Ambient
    Antifascist
    AOTY
    Atmospheric
    Blackened Death Metal
    Blackened Doom
    Blackened Thrash
    Black Metal
    Brutal Death Metal
    Cinematic
    Classic Rock
    Crust Punk
    Death Doom
    Death Metal
    Death Thrash
    Demo
    Doom Metal
    Dungeon Synth
    Electronic
    Electronica
    EP
    Epic Metal
    Extreme Metal
    Folk Metal
    Fresh Meat Friday
    Gothic
    Grindcore
    Grunge
    Hardcore
    Hard Rock
    Heavy Metal
    Heavy Psych
    Indie Rock
    Industrial Metal
    Instrumental
    Jazz
    Lists 2022
    Mathcore
    Melodic Metal
    Metallic Hardcore
    Mini Reviews
    Music Video
    Noise
    Old School Death Metal
    OSDM
    Pop Rock
    Post Metal
    Post-metal
    Post-rock
    Power Metal
    Powerviolence
    Prog
    Progressive Metal
    Prog Rock
    Psych
    Punk
    Raw Black Metal
    Release Day Roundup
    Retrospective Reviews
    Reviews
    Rock
    Sludge
    Soundtrack
    Speed Metal
    Split Releases
    Stoner
    Stoner Doom
    Stoner Rock
    Swedish Death Metal
    Symphonic Metal
    Synth
    Synthwave
    Thrash Metal
    Track Premiere
    Track Reviews
    Traditional Doom
    Traditional Metal

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • REVIEWS & PREMIERES
  • ARCHIVES
    • OLDE REVIEWS
    • OLDE INTERVIEWS
    • OLDE FEATURES
    • OLDE PREMIERES
  • SUBMIT FOR REVIEW!