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  • VVARP ~ POWER HELD IN STONE…. review


    We at Desert Psychlist are very partial to doom of a more sedate and atmospheric nature, strident up-tempo grooves of course have a place in our hearts and we have much music lining our shelves at Stonerking Towers that meet that criteria but what really gets our blood pumping are grooves that lurch toward the finishing line rather than race to get there. Even better for us is if those grooves have an almost spiritual/ritualistic air about them and Australia’s VVARP, Claudia Sullivan (bass/vocals); John Bollen (guitar/vocals/keyboards) and Scott McLatchie (drums), make music that fits that mould perfectly. The band first came to Desert Psychlist’s attention via their 2020 release “First Levitations” a release we described on their Bandcamp page as “thundering riffs counterbalanced by floating monastic vocals“, while calling it in our full review “a must for fans of Windhand, Dead Sacraments and Chile’s Heráldica de Mandra“. The band return this year with “Power Held In Stone” (DHU Records), an engrossing and atmospheric tome they describe as “an imagined soundtrack for a folk horror film that exists only in our collective imagination“.

    Unaccompanied Gregorian-like harmonies announce the start of opening track “Druid Warfare” and are soon joined by bass, drums and guitar in a thrumming distortion drenched doomic groove that offsets its repetitive nature with subtle swells in volume and intensity, a trick that draws the listeners focus more towards the vocals than the music itself, the music in this case seemingly serving as more of a framework for the vocals with those vocals possessing an almost medieval quality. Swelling keyboards accompanied by droning guitar textures herald the arrival of “A Path Through The Veil“, here the music and the vocals stand on an equal footing, bone shaking bass and pummelling percussion laying down a platform of dank groove for lilting dual harmonies and searing lead work to be launched from. Third track “Equinox Portal” sees VVARP  musically shifting up a gear into proto-doomic territory yet vocally still staying in that monastic occult-like pocket that has become the bands default setting, oh and keep an ear out for swirling Celtic flavoured guitar solo that proceeds the songs droning keyboard outro. VVARP go into full stoner-doomic mode for the pulverising “Iron Cloak” with guitar amps dialled to eleven and drums set to thunderous, the vocals sit a little deeper in the mix here but that does not detract from their impact, in fact the song benefits greatly from allowing the instrumentation to be pushed a little more to the fore. The stoner-doomic dynamics explored on the previous song remain in place for final number “Stone Silhouette” the vocal harmonies here are again floaty and monastic but the musical feel is one of intensity and heaviness, well that is apart from the songs deliciously dank and somewhat lysergic middle section where the vocals once again find themselves the full focus of attention.


    Doom with a floating ethereal quality is what VVARP bring to the altar with “Power Held In Stone”, songs full of intensity and heaviness offset with elements that at times border on folkish and otherworldly.
    Check it out …. 

    © 2025 Frazer Jones

  • RED MESS ~ HI-TECH STARVATION …. review


    Red Mess, Thiago Franzim (guitar), Douglas Labigalini (drums) and Lucas Klepa (bass/vocals), started their musical journey in Londrina, Brazil but after what the band describe as “a decade of messing around” decided to relocate to Europe, the trio finally settling on Berlin, Germany as the base for their operations. A few of you out there will already be familiar with the band thanks to the EP’s “Crimson” (2014), “Drowning In Red” (2015) and “Phantom Limb” (2022) as well as their full length releases “Into The Mess” (2017) and “Breathtaker” (2022), the latter of which we reviewed on these very pages. For those not up to speed with the band however Red Mess jam a blend of rock styles that has led the band to describe themselves as “not your regular alternative grunge psychedelic progressive sludge post-punk hardcore groove garage crimson crooked stoner rock band“. This month (August 2025) sees Red Mess releasing their third full length album “Hi Tech Starvation” (Noisolution) a collection of tunes from a band who have a history of delivering ass-kicking groove’n’roll of real quality


    “Huntress” kicks things off, a fuzz heavy opus that’s part grungy metal and part off-centred desert rock with those grungy elements leaning more towards Alice In Chains than they do Soundgarden and the desert rock part of the deal coming more from a Queens of the Stone Age angle than a Kyuss one. Vocals over this song are delivered in clean and slightly cracked tones that although are not especially powerful are nonetheless both impressive and effective. Following number “Inexistant Colours” finds Red Mess for the most part operating in Nirvana-esque loud/quiet/loud territory around a similarly up and down vocal but then sees the band shifting into a more traditional rock groove for the songs final quarter, this section of the song enhanced with searing bluesy lead work. “Ransomware” is a song that straddles territory somewhere between punk rock and its close cousin hardcore, the vocals here a touch more visceral and raw, the guitar tones a touch more waspish and the rhythms a tad less pummelling, well that is up until just around the five minute mark when out of the blue things take a stoner-doomic turn and we are presented with thick slabs of dank riffage and pounding percussion supporting monastic flavoured vocal incantations. Next song “Intravenous” is an unusual but engaging blend of heavy psych and stoner/desert rock salted with totally unexpected elements of Oasis flavoured Brit-pop in its vocal inflections while its follow up “Xenon“, an instrumental, is full on Kyuss worship. Penultimate tune “Kind Villain” is deliciously rowdy and rocking, this also carries a little Oasis styling in the vocal department. Final song, “Uncanny Valley” is a shapeshifting behemoth with grooves that constantly sway between stoner-metallic and grungy beneath vocals that one minute boast a throaty stoner-ish dynamic and the next are being delivered in a buoyant rap-like meter, as closing numbers go this is a MONSTER!


    Banging from its opening note to its last Red Mess’ “Hi-Tech Starvation” is a delightfully eclectic blend of raucousness, restraint and accessibility, an album that will delight “grungers” and “metalheads” alike…as well as all those who fall in-between. 
    Check it out …. 

    © 2025 Frazer Jones

  • The Bryden 2-Step (for Amphibians) Part 1 + Part 2 (National Health, 1978)

    National Health is one of the most intricate and jazzy Canterbury Scene bands, strictly linked to Hatfield And The North, keyboardist Dave Stewart’s band from 1973 to 1975 after his previous experiences with Egg and Khan, but also drummer Pip Pyle’s and guitarist Phil Miller’s ex band. For their 1978 album “Of Queues And Cures”, National Health also included multi-instrumentalist John Greaves of Henry Cow fame. The two parts of The Bryden 2-Step (for Amphibians) respectively open and close this record and are two splendid specimens of Canterbury sound, mixing up melodies, jazz-rock passages and folk-rock elements in a warm, diversified and intricate structure. 

    A real cabinet of curiosities…

    The two sections are rather different in mood (the first one being more up-tempo and jazz oriented than the second one), but there is a strong consistency between them, reinforced by the recurring main theme and the presence of the same guest musicians: Phil Minton (trumpets), Paul Nieman (trombones) and Georgie Born (cello), whose instruments give a wider sonic landscape to this split suite. A special mention goes to the main theme, one of the most charming Canterbury-branded compositions ever and to the constant search for originality throughout these overall 13 minutes of unpredictable music.

  • Metal in Movies: 10 Hard Rock or Metal Songs in Famous American Films

    When a distorted guitar riff cuts through a movie theater’s sound system, something primal happens. The music doesn’t just accompany the action—it becomes part of the story’s DNA, turning ordinary scenes into unforgettable moments that stick with audiences decades later. American cinema has long understood metal’s unique power to amplify emotion, whether it’s channeling teenage rebellion, punctuating an epic battle sequence, or providing the perfect sonic backdrop for a character’s transformation. These aren’t just soundtrack placements; they’re cultural touchstones where Hollywood’s biggest moments collided with some of the heaviest music ever recorded. Read Now

  • FLORIST ~ ADRIFT …. review

     

    Some may remember back in 2023 Desert Psychlist getting a little excited about “Contact” the debut release of Floridian groovsters Florist, an enthralling blend of stonerized metal and space rock that we described as being “music to skateboard through wormholes to“. Well we are about to get excited all over again because Florist, Frankie Consoli (vocals/guitar,/sitar); Kevin Roy (bass); Mike Amador (drums) and Jer Dillow (theremin, synthesizers, percussion),  have just dropped their second album “Adrift” (Threat Collection Records), a release that takes those ideas explored on previous album “Contact” to the next level.

    Florist kick off their second album with “432Hz” a thoroughly engaging instrumental that splices together eastern motifs and Hawkwind-esque whooshes and swirls over a groove that for large parts of its existence boasts an otherworldly reggae-ish feel but does in its last quarter wade through heavier waters. Next up is “Another Moon” and here we find Florist jamming a mix of stoner-ish and heavy psych grooves beneath clean easy on the ear vocal melodies, the space like whoops and whirls this band are so fond of utilizing still all very much in place but this time applied with a modicum of subtlety. “Out Of Space” follows and is classic space rock straight out of the Hawkwind for dummies manual, in other words hard driven rhythms supporting fairly simple chord progressions over which clipped clean and slightly punkish vocal melodies do battle with electronic synthesised weirdness, it is quite frankly SUPERB!  “Grow” kicks off slightly quirky and off-centred accompanied by an equally quirky vocal melody but then starts pulling into its spacious grooviness elements of the blues and classic rock, the band even sounding a little Deep Purple-ish in the songs closing stages, albeit a Deep Purple with Hawkwind’s Michael ‘DikMik’ Davies on the keys. Last but one comes “Adrift (Part A)” a tome that finds the band sounding like a cross between Nashville’s Howling Giant and 60’s psychedelic cult legends Spirit, it is followed by “Adrift (Part B)” a song which sees the band donning black robes matched with lurid legwear to bring us an instrumental opus that is parts proto-doom and parts acidic rock and is totally on-point in both departments. 


    Those out there holding a flaming torch aloft for the early space rock of Hawkwind and first album era UFO while also harbouring a deep love of 90’s desert rock and mid 70’s proto-metal will love what Florist bring to the table with “Adrift“.
     Looks like its time to fire up the old “orgone accumulator” and jump aboard the “silver machine” because there are some new “psychedelic warlords” in town.
    Check ’em out …..

    © 2025 Frazer Jones

  • Legends Forever: Artists with Metal Legacies That Will Never Die

    The hard rock and heavy metal world has lost some of its most influential figures in recent years, leaving behind catalogs that continue to inspire new generations of metalheads. These artists may have left us, but their thunderous riffs, soaring vocals, and indomitable spirits live on through their music. Here are 10 hard rock and heavy metal legends whose legacies will never die. Read Now

  • Album Review: New Lungs by Burnt Tapes


    It’s been three years since I attempted to do an album review but if there is one band that will get me to sit down behind my laptop and do one it’s my friends Burnt Tapes. On August the 8th they will release their long awaited second album, the follow up to 2019’s incredible Never Better (one of my all time favourite albums). The new album is titled New Lungs and being released once again by Lockjaw Records (UK) and Wiretap Records (USA), as well as a tape from Nasty Cut Records (Denmark). Tapes on tape – it’s about time, right?

    I feel like I need to address the fact that this review might come across as incredibly biased. These guys have been friends of mine for a long time now, they started out as Burnt Tapes around the same time as I started doing CPRW and we’ve reviewed every EP and album they’ve released, along with countless live shows. I’ve never made it a secret how highly I think of Phil, Pan, Jordan and Tone not just as musicians but as people, so yeah this will probably come across as a really biased review. I’m saying nice things about my friends’ new album, but rest assured that every word I type in this review I really mean and I’m not just buttering up my mates. I’ve had New Lungs on repeat in a dark room where I usually sleep for a couple of months now and I’m excited to share my views on it with you. Let’s take a deep breath and jump right in.


    New Lungs begins with the song Crisis Actor. The song starts with a familiar Burnt Tapes tone that has me thinking of Lost In Transit, the final track from Never Better. It almost feels like a continuation or at least a call back, something the band are known for doing. I love this. Crisis Actor eases you into the album with Pan’s vocals over that welcoming riff. Before long the whole band comes in. This song sets the tone for the whole album with its big, emotional build. We then launch into a stretch of the four singles the band released in the run up to the album. Up first is MOTHERSGUILT. The very first line features a common Burnt Tapes trope – grinding teeth. I immediately got a kick out of this. The song explores the theme of feeling like you’re not meeting other people’s expectations of you and using the guilt that gives you as fuel to keep on going. I feel like that’s something that most of us has gone through at times, making the song hugely relatable. The chorus will no doubt earn some big sing-alongs and feel cathartic for many. 

    Little Sister was originally released way back in 2023 and gave us a glimpse as to what was coming from the band. Phil takes over lead vocals for this deep and emotional song about a particularly hard and dark time with his mental health that he went through. He tells a story about the journey of reaching a low point and reaching out for help before things get even lower. This is a mid-tempo track with a catchy chorus. The stand out moment on the track however is the guest vocal appearance from Hannah Hermione Greenwood from Creeper on the bridge. This really adds to the emotion of the song. As of yet, Hannah hasn’t joined the band to do this live – maybe at the album launch at the Black Heart in Camden on the 19th of September? That would be cool. Next is the brilliantly titled You Only YOLO Once. This is one of the higher tempo tracks on New Lungs and really showcases the band’s trademark sad boy pop punk moniker. Sonically it’s an upbeat, almost summery-sounding song but when you dig down into Pan’s lyrics you discover a song about his own mental health struggles. The line “every now and then, it hits me like a bullet train” is one I imagine a lot of people listening will find extremely relatable. I know I certainly do. Of course there is another broken teeth reference in the song, because of course there is. I’ve heard that they’re trying to get a dentist sponsorship.

    The album’s title track, New Lungs is the fourth and final single from the album. Continuing the more poppy version of their sound, New Lungs once again talks about mental health. The song actually starts out feeling quite hopeful as Pan sings “new lungs set to breathe new seasons, held breath and an unsure sweaty brow, I’m better now, I’m better.” This mood soon changes though as Pan sings about having a toxic relationship with either another person or their own brain and that person/brain and being brought down once again, not knowing who you are anymore. This song features another great chorus and some big hooks that will really pull a live crowd in. Shelf Life Of The Party is another fantastic song title. Phil is back on lead vocal duties and the energy remains. On my first listen to New Lungs this is one of the songs that really stood out to me. It’s about getting older and feeling burnt out, lost, like you’re finished and you’re not the person you used to be. Phil’s vocals bring an intensity to the song that I love and I really hope it becomes a regular in their live set going forward. 

    Track seven is titled Office On Repeat. On my first listen of New Lungs, my first thought was that this was the album closer as it has a huge, epic ending. There’s still three more bangers to come though and trust me, the closer is an incredible ending for the album. Office On Repeat starts out as a mid-tempo pop punk song talking about the end of a relationship. As we reach the final third of the song, the tempo and melody changes and we get a big emo ending that will get a big reaction from a live crowd. There’s a few moments on this album that do make me think that this has been specifically written with a live crowd reaction in mind and I’m a big fan of when bands do that. The pace is brought right back up on Future Strangers. Have you ever come to a point in your life where it feels like something has hit a road block, you don’t know what comes next and you begin to question everything? That’s what this song is about. I enjoyed the sliver of hope that track gives you as Pan sings “it’ll all make sense in time.” It’s a simple and powerful lyric that works so well in the song.

    The penultimate song is named OnlyFriends. The song starts slowly, similar in style to the classic Things Get Weird. Pan sings softly as the song gradually builds up to its big finale. This slow start really adds to the emotion of the song and really pulls you in. There’s no slow start and then bang, you’re in, OnlyFriends builds and builds and takes you with it. When that big moment does finally come in and it hits you, you feel ready to be hit. Fantastic songwriting. There is also a moment in the song when the band becomes the big stadium rock band they deserve to be when they implement a crowd participation clapping section. The tenth and final song is So Long, Sundays. This might be the most ambitious piece of songwriting that Burnt Tapes have ever attempted and of course they pulled it off. A perfect choice to bring the album to an end. This song is about going through all the hard times that happen in your life and eventually finding your way out of the other side. New Lungs is an album that has plenty of down moments, so having this moment of hope at the end is really refreshing. It serves as a great reminder that no matter how hard things can get, sometimes it will get better and it’s always great to be reminded of that. There’s a moment at the end of the song that I won’t spoil for you but it’s something that I never, ever expected to hear on a Burnt Tapes album. I guess they’ve been hanging out at the New Cross Inn for too long now. 

    It’s been six years since the Burnt Tapes released Never Better and you can really hear the progression the band have made as a band on New Lungs. You can hear a change in their sound but everything you ever loved about the band remains. Daly George from The Ranch once again did a phenomenal job with the production on the album, he did a fantastic job bring all of these songs to life. New Lungs has been my most anticipated album of the year since the band released Never Better and it did not disappoint. I’m not even that sad that the reworked version of Go Drunk didn’t make the cut, as each song brings something different but it all flows nicely together. It’s an album that can be listened to as an album or as singles. I do feel like each one of these songs could’ve been used as a single. As I said at the start of this, Burnt Tapes are my friends and this could come across as biased, but I truly believe that this is a fantastic album. I would say that if you loved Never Better then this might be a bit of a grower but you’ll soon come to love it just as much, if not more. Well done friends, loving your work.


    Burnt Tapes play an album release show with Modern Shakes and Making Friends at the Black Heart in Camden on Friday the 19th of September. You should come to the party. Get your ticket here.

  • Omni Part 2 (Karfagen, 2025)

     Antony Kalugin, the ukrainian multi-instrumentalist behind Karfagen, is a man of many talents and his 2025 album “Omni” is another good example of his stunningly prolific vein (you’ll find more elsewhere in this blog).”Omni” Part 2 is a well built suite, a 22 minute one divided into 4 movements, also enjoyable as stand-alone songs, many of them in a rather slow tempo, but with some welcome accelerations and many, unpredictable changes. 

    As usual, an inspiring cover art

    As always, there are very good melodies and beautiful solos, and this time the vocals, provided by the kinds of Marco Glühmann, Richard Sinclair, Jean Pageau, Bartosz Kossowicz plus, of course, Olha Rostovska and Antony Kalugin himself,  play an essential role in the great picture, something we don’t easily find in Karfagen’s discography. All those different and sensitive voices fit perfectly in such a rich musical texture. Among other guest musicians, Michel St-Père’s (of Mystery fame) guitars and John Hackett’s flute need no introductions and are two more bonuses added to this musical pearl. This is Neo-Progressive rock & Symphonic Rock at their best and I’m glad to loose my mind in this flowing, lush musical river.

  • WITCH HOUND ~ STARTING A COVEN … review


    Witch Hound, JC (lead vocals); Wicked Willy (rhythm guitar/vocals); Jo-Jo (lead guitar); Sir Jay (bass) and Naeltag (Nate Driggs) (drums), cordially invite you to join their coven. We at Desert Psychlist are not quite sure what exactly this coven requires of its members but if activities are just restricted to listening to the type of dank dark stoner doomic noises that can be found on the bands appropriately titled debut EP ” Starting A Coven” then show us where we sign.


    Maybe we should be a little concerned about throwing our lot in with Witch Hound’s new coven given that they kick off their EP with “At The Stake” a song that describes in some detail what will happen if you are exposed as a witch (warlock in our case), oh well we’ve signed up now and we have to admit that those deeply echoed vocals resounding over vibrant thrumming doomic riffage and powerful strident rhythms does seem to have stared something stirring in our blood. Having explained that being burnt is one of the perils of joining their club Witch Hound now ask us to “Face The Wheel” now what “facing a wheel” actually entails is not best explained but let’s be honest it doesn’t sound that pleasant. The actual song though does have its merits, its pounding percussion and low level growling bass lines support some seriously crunching riffage and dank swirling lead work and those gothic laced vocals telling us to expect not just “searing heat” but “searing heat with misery” are pretty damn impressive. Final number “Black Talisman” tells us that death might be the least of our worries and that having joined Witch Hound’s cabal we can now expect to travel on “a path too dark to see”, not exactly selling it are they, but having said that those thick monstrous refrains, those thundering rhythms and those reverberating monastic vocals are so damn good you’ll be selling your soul before you can say “get behind me Satan“
         

    As a recruitment tool Witch Hound’s “Starting A Coven” could do with a little work, the prospect of being burnt at a stake, facing a nasty sounding wheel or losing your soul could possibly hinder membership numbers somewhat, however as a debut EP from a fairly new doom orientated band this three tracker takes some serious beating.
     
    © 2025 Frazer Jones

  • STONEGAZER ~ THRESHOLD ….. review

    Finland’s Stonegazer, current line up Jussi Virtala (vocals); Juho Puusniekka (guitars); Lauri Lehto (guitars); Tomas Kurki (bass) and Jani-Matti Salmela (drums), have been knocking around the underground scene for a fair amount of time but first came onto Desert Psychlist’s radar via their 2016 release “MDRM” a raw edged collection of songs that blended swampy southern sludginess with elements of heavy blues and grunge, a sound that came over at times like a weightier Mississippi Bones. Prior to “MDRM” Stonegazer had released “Volume II” and “Demo 2012“, both releases containing some really good songs but both hampered by less than ideal production values. Things really started to come together for Stonegazer with the 2020 release “The End Of Our World“, an album that saw the band really stepping up a level in the song writing and arrangement stakes as well as seeing them dipping their toes a little deeper into those grungier/bluesier pools they had began to explore on “MDRM“. This year (2025), after a five year break from recording, Stonegazer return with a new release, “Threshold“(Kozmik Artifactz), a far better produced album that fully delivers on all the promise those earlier albums hinted at but just fell short of delivering.

    “Threshold” opens with “The Feed” a brain-frying blend of sludgy metal and heavy rock that begins with guitar feedback screaming around a growling bass motif backed by solid steady drumming then segues into a thrumming blues flecked stoner groove, the song continuing in this mode for a full one minute twenty seconds before being joined by vocals. If you are a fan of big beefy vocals that are a little bit wearied and posses a gritty soulful quality then Stonegazer’s man behind the microphone Virtala is your kind of singer, if you didn’t know he was Finnish you would swear blind he was brought up on a diet of fried chicken and grits in one of America’s southern states. “Next song “Unity” follows along similar lines to it predecessor with bassist Kurki and drummer Salmela laying down a barrage of ebbing and flowing groove for guitarists Puusniekka and Lehto to decorate with a mixture of crunching power chords and piercing lead work, Virtala delivering over this onslaught of bluesy southern metal throaty sermonizing that at times hovers close to the upper reaches of his range. Third track “The Machine” sees Stonegazer introducing into their heaviness subtle touches of psychedelic texturing, not enough to distract ears away from their core metallic bluesiness but enough to be noticeable. It’s back to full on shock and awe for the excellent “Simulacrum” then along comes “Kairos” a song that for Desert Psychlist ticks more boxes than it leaves blank, its groove is throbbing and slightly proto-metallic, its guitar work is a blend of crunchy and swirling and its vocals are bold brash and forceful on the verses and grittily melodious on the chorus. Any bands experimenting with music of a southern rock flavour are almost duty bound to throw their hats into the “torch song” arena and Stonegazer are no exception but where most bands will gradually build their torch songs to a crescendo layer by gradual layer Stonegazer on “Dissolve” go from reflective tranquillity to face-melting intensity in one giant leap. Next song “Age Of Unreason” begins down home and bluesy then explodes into a blustering metallic stoner groove that features growling low end and busy percussion supporting fuzz soaked refrains and feel drenched bluesy soloing over which vocals are delivered in snarly bear-like tones. Final number “The Weight Of The World” comes out the traps furious and feisty then eases back a little on the volume to allow space for Virtala to deliver his wearied and throaty vocals, all well and good up to this point but the real highlight comes when the songs shifts from stoner rock(ish) to stoner doomic, a shift that sees the guitarists layering thrumming textures and piercing solos around a dynamically darker vocal.


    Stongazer’s “Threshold” boasts a sound that takes the heavy southern metal of bands like Pantera and Corrosion Of Conformity blends it with the mid-western swagger of bands like Mississippi Bones and Valley Of The Sun then sprinkles over the results elements of Seattle grunginess and 70’s heavy blues rock. It’s a huge sound that is made to sound even bigger thanks to it’s vastly improved production values. Who would of thought a band from the frozen reaches of Northern Europe could sound so authentically American. 
    Check ’em out ….

    © 2025 Frazer Jones