~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

Cursed Monk Records from Waterford, Ireland has brought us such notables over the years as Coroza, Torpor, Nomadic Rituals, Sloth Hammer, The Red Widows, OLDD WVRMS, and Burn Ritual – many of which have been featured in these pages or on The Doomed & Stoned Show over the past 11 years.

Now we welcome UNBELIEVABLE LAKE from Mid-Ulster, a three-piece heavy psych trio made up of Doc, Pat, and Trev. All of their releases since 2017 have been on a grander scale, trending between 30 and 45 minutes in length. And their latest, ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’ (2025), is no exception.

The tendency toward expression in longer forms, beyond 3-5 minute song structures, is something that heavy bands have experimented with over the decades, Sleep’s Dopesmoker making the most ubiquitous mention in our scene. But several UK bands in recent years have taken a stab at expansive, high-concept compositions, Orme and Ungraven coming most readily to my memory. The atmospherics on this record also call to mind the strange evocations of Trent Reznor’s now 26-year old NIN album The Fragile. Of course the history of psychedelia and progressive rock has long been a launching pad for such longer compositions.

There is no program to the Unbelievable Lake piece, per se, apart from its title. And it may or may not have some deliberate tie-ins with the Harlan Ellison short story of the same name from 1967 (or the subsequent game circa 1995). With that said, there are elements to the music (dronings, hums, electric sounds, screeches, rhythmic niches) that certainly hint at the vast, God-like supercomputer that is the antagonist of Ellison’s work (which, if you haven’t read it, deserves to be heard for the first time in the author’s own crazed audiobook narration).

Unbelievable Lake plot a steady hand on these sonic waters to begin, playing with distorted and emotive guitar chords that have a vaguely new wave flair. The beat is steady, plodding, but with the feeling of ever building intensity, like a great threatening swell of dark clouds mounting in the skies. There are vocals throughout that cry out, sometimes competing with the crescendo of the band itself, but this somehow compliments the sensation of grandiosity.

There is ebb and flow to the piece, as well, so it is not all one wall of sound. When things reach unbearable heights, there is a sudden shift to quiet (as after the first 11 minutes). A calm in the midst of a storm. Might this represent the slow insanity of the characters represented in Ellison’s novel? Or perhaps it is a meditation on the inevitable rise of The Machine itself, which is overtaking all of human existence.

13-minutes in, the bass gently signals a second theme, with a period of psychedelic blissfulness. The riffs spurt and tussle in ways that border between sweet and disturbing. Surely I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is as much a trip for the mind as its literary inspiration.

Elements of it reminded me of the Blade Runner soundtrack, too, namely those plucking, glistening string-like sounds 18-minutes in. This is contrasted with a persistent, emphatic four-note heart beat that becomes more pronounced as the piece rolls closer and closer toward its pre-destined end.

Things get crunchy around the 25-minute mark, taking a decidedly heavier direction, as the machinations of AM grind away, ultimately leaving us in hair-pulling psychological terror. It’s certainly an experiment you will not soon forget.

Look for Unbelievable Lake’s newest contemplation on Cursed Monk Records this Friday, June 13th (pre-order here).

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

Belfast/South Derry heavy experimental psych trio Unbelievable Lake’s second LP, ‘I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’. The follow up to 2020’s Forgive, is a single 41-minute piece, its repetition drives focus on the liminality, identity and the suffocating paralysis of Northern Ireland society.

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Unbelievable Lake

The band writes: “Our music is psychedelic doom, characterised by heavy repetition, layers of tension, and heavy passages broken up with drones. We are inspired musically by early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Om, Sleep, Neurosis, Swans, Camera and Can. Thematically, we draw inspiration from our history of conflict and beautiful surroundings, rural isolation, urban decay, anxiety and paranoia.”

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Some years back, we introduced you to progressive sludge foursome COROZA from Cork, Ireland. Tom Hanno wrote an excellent review of their debut LP, ‘Challiceburner’ (2019), in which he lauded the band for their “heavy, heavy riffing and huge tone.” The band also contributed a track to our compilation Doomed & Stoned in Ireland before the pandemic. In the years since, Coroza has earned a reputation as a firebrand live act.

Today, Doomed & Stoned brings you brand new material from Coroza with the single “Scorched Earth,” an apocalyptic number from their upcoming second full-length 'As Within’ (2024). Here mysterious monastic singing meets deranged howls and mighty roars. Riffs are nothing short of crushing, the rhythm section a windstorm. You’ll certainly want to listen with a good pair of speakers or headphones for full effect.

The nine-minute monolith seems to me like the ebb and flow of crashing tidal waves in the Celtic Sea. There is something both beautiful and chaotic afoot, and one can picture a great asteroid of impending doom not far from view. Perhaps we will self-destruct beforehand in our own man-made funeralopolis. Let Coroza take you for a ride to the End of Days.

Coroza’s As Within releases May 20th on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital formats via Cursed Monk Records (pre-order here). Stick it on a playlist with Yob, Ahab, and Zirakzigil.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

Coroza was formed in Cork, Ireland in mid-2015 and over the course of two years honed their sound into a devastatingly heavy form, which encompasses heavy blues, metal, sludge, doom and stoner elements, leading to the release of their well-received self-titled demo in 2017.

Extensive gigging cemented them into the local scene and soon Coroza began appearing on bills around Ireland, landing support slots to international touring bands such as Conan, Bolzer and Tusker. 2019 saw the release of their debut album Chaliceburner which was met with positive reviews.

Coroza’s second album titled 'As Within’ (2024) was recorded and mixed by renowned producer Aidan Cunningham and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna).

Coroza are:
  • Ciarán Coghlan (guitar/vox)
  • Jack O’Neill (lead guitar/vox)
  • Ollie Cunningham (drums)
  • Tomás O’Brien (bass)

There aren’t a whole lot of bass and drum acts out there. Bell Witch, Big Business, Bardo, and Behoover come to mind (strangely, the majority of bass-led bands also choose names that begin with the letter “B”). What may not be as tough to pull off when tempos are swift, becomes a challenge when everything slows down to a doom’s pace. And you want to strip the band of its (arguably) most popular instrument?

That’s at least how the heavy underground felt until OM came along and blew our minds with the advent of Meditative Doom, sans guitar. Other bands have followed in those footsteps, including Zaum from New Brunswick and Breath from Oregon. Now from Dublin, Ireland comes bass & drum duo TRUE HOME with their own take on meditative doom in ‘Black Lotus’ (2023).

True Home’s most accessible song is placed first on the album, “The Cry of the Mountain Hawk,” featuring a slithering stoner-doom riff that sounds like a royalty fuzzified Tool. Vocals are droning and clean, not too distantly removed from Reverend Bizarre, and share a kinship with Sleep frontman Al Cisneros. This one’s got a chorus that I’ll probably find myself singing whilst making breakfast or taking out the trash. It’s just something I do.

Beneath each song is the lulling sitaresque tone produced by programmed synth. It grounds us to the experience and becomes more and more comforting with eath encounter. “The Great Journey” takes a bluesy, jazzy, off-beat approach to Gregorian Chant, at least until things get electrified to work out all that nervous energy – with irradiated noodling that rivals Swamp Ritual.

The intensity ramps up even more for “Sailing The Sand Dunes,” in which the bass moves with big, sweeping gestures and stays busy as hell trying to keep the barge moving over barren Saharan hills and flats. This is the one, I’m sure, that’ll get people headbanging at concerts.

The last two songs on the album usher us deeper into a realm of tranced-out introspection, with the mysterious, hazy, and hypnotic “Buddham Sagnahram Gachami” and the near 20-minute transcendental colossus, “Ascension Of The Astralnaut,” featuring spoken word passages that serve perhaps to guide the listener into a state of general meditativeness.

The record is ideal for Cursed Monk Records, who specialize in dark musical esoterica. “The darker, weirder, and heavier the better,” their motto goes. True Home’s Black Lotus will be released on May 26th on compact disc and digital formats (pre-order here).

After suffering a dreadful bout with COVID (the Delta strain) in 2021, psychedelic, meditative doom was key to my mental, physical, and spiritual recovery. I’m pleased to have another band enter the fold. Stick True Home on a playlist with OM, Bong, Zaum, Breath, Saturnalia Temple, and Megalith Levitation.

Give ear…

SOME BUZZ

Photographs by Shane J. Horan

True Home is a Dublin Based Psychedelic Meditative Doom Metal two piece. Featuring Declan Beare on Bass/Vocals, and Charlie Appleby on Drums and percussion.

The Bass and Drum combo balance between transcendent meditations and earth shattering heavy riffs.

For two people they move a serious amount of air at bone crushing volumes, helped by the droning modular synth providing a continuous atmosphere to get lost in.

Their 3rd studio album “Black Lotus” comes out on CD and Digital Download May 23rd via Cursed Monk Records.

Ohio-based three-piece sludge machine PYTHIAN are set to release their second EP, ‘Understanding in Light’ (2022), which like its predecessor 'The Great Silence’ (2019) consists of four hefty tracks and clocks in just a tad under thirty minutes in length.

The record commences with a section of noise in which we hear a clinical-sounding voice that seems to be explaining what’s wrong and how to make it better. His words sometimes skip or repeat themselves, which gives off a kind of trippy feeling – like I’m hearing it all through the thick mental haze of a medicated trance.

I can’t be sure of what is really going on, and perhaps that is the point, to bathe us in disorientation. The growing crescendo of cacophony has the effect of tuning out that voice of reason altogether, and then the song proper (“Last Fires”) begins.

Cort Cummerow’s deep, resonant drumming clears the way, stomping down tall grass and kicking aside debre. The irradiated bass of Pat Peltier singes the ground as we walk. Following this, a hail of tremeloes and beastly roars from frontman Ray Barry. We’ve been haunted and followed, condemned to carry the weight of this ancient curse, he laments.

Gradually, we reach a point where we can observe the torched landscape of our collective past. Then comes the realization: these last fires will burn and last. Could this be a poetic allusion to the ravages of COVID-19?

We’ve been haunted and followed
Condemned to carry the weight of this ancient curse
In the death and the dying

Whatever it references, it’s damned relatable in these harsh times. The guitar solo around the four-minute mark accents the mood. It’s touched by the sorrow of waiting, forever waiting, in a place “where men have gone to hide from God.” This is doom!

Pythian’s Understanding in Light presents with urgency and passion, yet finds moments for quiet reflection amidst the chaos. Look for it this weekend, releasing digitally and on compact disc c/o Cursed Monk Records (pre-order here). Today you can hear all its fullness as Doomed & Stoned hosts the streaming premiere!

Give ear…

Hailing from the ancient boundaries of Limerick comes a stout sound from a sludgy band by the name of TOOMS. Jamming for the better part of seven years, the Irish trio adopted its present moniker in 2017 and subsequently released an EP in 2018. Somewhere along the line, they caught the attention of Cursed Monk Records who vowed to release their forthcoming full-length debut, ‘The Orb Offers Massive Signals’ (2020).

The opening track sets the stage with a quote from the Bible’s book of Lamentations chapter 3 and verse 12. While its unclear if this is meant to establish a theme for the record, the notions of suffering and anguish certainly weave their will into many of the songs, if not their general tone and tenor.

Generally speaking, the TOOMS sound is distinguished by smokey atmosphere, crunchy, grindy chords, and damning vocals, met by single lines of contemplative strumming guitar, diaphanous soundscapes, and intense blackened breakdowns.

Holding most of their stylistic leanings in common with Primitive Man and Lord Mantis, the song style is dense, with concentrated moments of fury, and a dour feeling pervading the whole work. Put in their own words, TOOMS “are the world’s first Slippery Metal band” featuring a “blistering mix of sludge, hardcore, and stoner doom, with a kaleidoscopic splash of psychedelia thrown in for good measure.”

This will, of course, be music to the ears of a good chunk of this readership, which is why Doomed & Stoned is pleased to present the world premiere of The Orb Offers Massive Signals for you right now.

Give ear…

OLDD WVRMS. It feels like they’ve been eating away at my flesh and swimming in my bloodstream for a very long time, so much so that I forget to talk about how they’ve infected me. I was halfway through a review of their last effort when life swept me away to other places, then it was already time for a new release from the Belgian band. No, scratch that – two new releases!

This month, the doomed instrumentalists revealed a split with Liège devotional math-prog threesome Ilydaen, just months after the release of the February five-tracker ‘Codex Tenebris’ (2019 - Cursed Monk Records). That’s now two long-plays, two extended-plays, a compilation album, and the aforementioned split to the band’s name.

OLDD WVRMS is a band that seems continually tinkering and experimenting. I mean, you really have to if you’re going to cross the coveted five-year mark as a band, a milestone that seems to be key long-term viability. “There is the beautiful, spacious atmosphere of Agalloch,” I wrote of their last record 'Ignobilis’ (2016). “All this is good news if you long for the cold, crisp air of winter, forests filled with unspeakable darkness, whispering tales of bravery, misunderstanding, and tragedy. The emotion is especially palpable and will haunt my memory for quite some time.”

I also noted at the time that Ignobilis represented “a massive turn to clean singing over previous releases.” In contrast, Codex Tenebris is a reconnects with works like 'Mater Serpentium’ (2015) and NØT (2015), which are also sans voix. Stylistically, you’ll find OLDD WVRMS painting from a similar tonal palate as Enslaved, even dabbling in the technical terrain of Psycroptic, though in much slower compositions.

OLDD WVRMS occupies the space between shadows, where slow, patient, penetrating riffs dwell and dark words are uttered. “La vallée des tombes” is one of the gems of the record, striking a strange balance between meditative bleakness and pounding discord. I’ve long been a fan of dissonant harmonies since I realized it was “okay” to play them as a pianist delving into the oeuvre of Franz Liszt and Alexander Scriabin. Like those composers, OLDD WVRMS utilizes dissonance no merely to jar the listener, but as a critical tactic for establishing bleak moods and a sense of the sinister. Codex Tenebris is available on Cursed Monk Records right here.

On the eve of their music video, “A l'or, aux ombres et aux abîmes,” Doomed & Stoned visited with ØW guitarist and OLDD WVRMS founder Ben in hopes of getting to know this fairly low-key and mysterious doom metal trio – rounded out by Oli and Cho on bass and drums – just a hair or two better.

What is the meaning of the band’s name OLDD WVRMS? Is their significance to the unique spelling of your name?

It’s old Germanic to “Old Worms.” There’s no particular meaning, although I’m a fan of the Dark Souls saga and it could be a reference to the primordial snakes.

I’m curious how your individual paths through life brought you three together?

We’re all from the French side of Belgium, down south. Cho and Oli have known each other for almost two decades. I was searching for bandmates to put up this new project and they were the perfect match. We all played in many bands before ØW, nothing worth naming.

Why does instrumental doom appeal to you guys so much?

We tried several singers, with expectations they couldn’t achieve. It wasn’t bad, but we felt locked in restricted areas – musically speaking, I mean. I took the mic on our previous release Ignobilis, singing just a bit, and even at that point we had the feeling that it wasn’t necessary at all, so we started writing the new album with a fully instrumental approach.

Rare is the band that can make instrumental metal stand convincingly on its own “two feet,” but OLDD WVRMS has done it. What would you say is the secret to pulling this style off successfully?

Thank you. Honestly, it’s hard to say. I guess it’s because we don’t hesitate too long on what’s good or not during the creation process. This and the fact that we blend a lot of influences from various horizons, seems to create something spontaneous. I think that’s what people like about ØW.

What instruments, amps, and gear do you find most useful in bringing your vision to life?

Cho’s setup is pretty straightforward: his beautiful DW kit with aggressive and shining cymbals – and a ferocious need to beat the shit out of it!

Oli is using an Ampeg SVT 3 pro, SWR Goliath and Megoliath cabs with a Fender Aerodyne, plugged into a pedalboard loaded with many effects, drives, octaver, delays, reverbs, etcetera, to achieve the drones parts.

I use a Marshall JCM 800 over modified by Ruthenberg, Marshall and Orange cabs, custom guitars by Denzo Custom Guitars, and a pedalboard loaded with overdrives, delays, and reverbs.

We record in my own studio, The Pale Flame, using the exact same rig live and studio.

I don’t read French, but I’m guessing the song titles are quite important in this selection of five tracks. Can you translate them to English and tell us what you intended to express with each song? Are they meant to stand independently or are they united by a concept?

Basically, all the songs originally had lyrics – and yes, they’re all linked, almost as a soundtrack. The atmosphere we wanted to translate through the songs titles were way more powerful in French, with a little something more poetic and dramatic.

The only concept about Codex Tenebris is the presence and absence of light and obscurity. The idea that the audience is not guided by lyrics and can travel between the songs with their own imagination and create their own stories while listening to our music is extremely satisfying. There’re no guidelines. The music serves your imagination.

So, the first track “Ténèbres” means “Darkness.” It starts the record in a cold, dark place, and song expresses loneliness and fear.

Second track, “A l’or, aux ombres et aux abîmes,” means “To gold, to shades, and to the abysses.” It’s my personal favorite, all about deception, anger, and melancholy.

The third one is “misère & Corde,” literally “Misery & Rope” – a song about grief and loss.

Next one, “La vallée des tombes” or “The valley of tombs,” is a psychoactive and hypnotic song about terror and despair.

“Fléau est son âme” is hard to translate, but it would be something like “scourged is his soul.” It is about letting things go, acceptance, and abnegation.

We briefly corresponded about your EP a few years ago, when I emailed you about a sample you’d selected for the final track. I heard another sample in the final track of the latest LP that intrigued me.

It’s an Egyptian monologue taken from the movie Angel of Mossad, and it’s in correlation with “Fléau est son âme.” It’s the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The narration is beautiful.

What’s the area of Belgium like where you OLDD WVRMS calls home?

We all live in villages – small villages. Everything is very quiet and calm. Nothing ever happens. (laughs) Sorry, there’s just nothing much to say about it.

No worries! I’ve lived in my share of small towns, too, so I get it. What are some of the bands that you play with in your heavy music scene?

We shared the stage with badass bands like Hangman’s Chair, Primitive Man, -16-, Jucifer, the body, Grime, Ortega, and more – hopefully many more to come.

When you look into your crystal ball, do you envision yourself touring?

Yeah, we’d love to. Like everyone else, we have jobs and families, but touring once or twice a year during a few choice weeks would be awesome. Only time will tell if this will happens.

Finally, what would your ideal live performance look like, if you could spare no expense?

Small venues, crowed, with our light man Chouffe and a good sound engineer. You know, keep things simple.

Caustic, vile, and in your face with it. This is SLOTH HAMMER from and let me tell you they’re about as filthy as it comes. I don’t say that just for effect, either. I became bilious, nearing the point of nausea, when I tried auditing the band’s forthcoming full-length in one sitting. It didn’t help that I was in a stuffy room during the hottest part of the day and was a little off my lunch to begin with. I’m sure the band would be delighted with the outcome, regardless.

I’ve kept tabs on Sloth Hammer off and on over the years, hearing rumors of their Mentors-like performances – drummers performing in the nude, frontman dressed in prison stripes, the band at large clad in ski masks. I’m damned curious about their live shows and if I wasn’t so landlocked I’d show up for one of them, though whether I watched from a safe distance or lined right up to face the brutality would be a question answered in the moment.

Since 2011, the band has been documenting the “pure, unbounding misery” of the stage, self-releasing their improvised compositions here and there. Rodger Mortis has long been a fan. Believing it was high time that Sloth Hammer received broader recognition, his label Cursed Monk Records is issuing some of their most brutal filings in a compilation called ‘Superbia Ira Acedia’ (2019) at month’s end. When Rodge asked if I’d be down for debuting it, I replied: “Anything for the cause of filthy, low-down, disgusting, good for nothing, doomed-out English sludge!” Today, Doomed & Stoned shares the album’s third single, a massive 20-minute wrecking ball called “Bombed Out Of Existence.”

“Subject appears to be animal,” we overhear someone saying in its opening moments. “Ursine features, but ostensibly simian. Also elements of a ruminant or ovine anatomy. I can only conclude that we have been confronted by a new species, the likes of which the world has never seen.” The quote is from one Dr. Matthew Chinnery, a veterinarian from the darkly comedic Brit series, The League of Gentlemen. Whether the thematic material develops from there or merely establishes it as a reference point, it’s clear that some kind of extraordinary abomination of a creature is on display here.

Musically, the song unfurls its assault upon the listener like a cluster bomb, releasing a horde of ravenous insects that invade your eardrums, inducing guttural shrieks of panic as they buzz around your brain, accentuated by some fantastic chirps and glitches, damning guitar chords, and those oh-so-maniacal vocals, all laid down over a bed of irradiated fuzz.

The soft repetition of the bass motif reminded me (particularly at the 12:35 mark) of the great Saint Vitus song, “In The Asylum,” which tells the story of girl forcefully treated by medical authorities, as she slowly loses her mind. That is, of course, where any similarity ends between the two bands, though “Bombed Out Of Existence” makes a fitting companion if you’re curious what the asylum is like once the lights turn low.

If you traffic in the miscreantic noise of Fistula and the madness of early '90s Mr. Bungle, but have been missing the depraved sounds of Meth Drinker from your suicidal cocktail, Sloth Hammer will likely stave off those withdrawals and introduce you to a new drug entirely. Look for Superbia Ira Acedia releasing digitally and issued on CD by March 30th via Cursed Monk Records (preorder here).

Give ear…

Some Buzz

Hailing from Leeds in the UK, Sloth Hammer combine elements of Doom, Sludge, Glitch, Circuit Bending, Noise, and Grindcore to create a desperate, ravaged, seething, malevolent sound that may just be the filthiest we have ever heard. It is no wonder that the Sloth’s are right at home sharing a stage with the likes of Primitive Man, Author and Punisher, Fistula, Jucifer, Bismuth, Witchsorrow, and Owlcrusher to name just a few.

Originally a two-piece back in the early days of 2011, working in a small tree house, powered by leaves and sugary liquid. Over time, they discovered more sloths with similar mindsets to make vile, bleak, noisy, weird sounds, without preparation, and soon Sloth Hammer’s visual onslaught turned into a six-piece freak show.

To this day, 8 years later, the band is as new to what might happen as the audience. This idea was transposed onto the first all live, all extemporized studio recording, which Dom at Declared Sound captured more than perfectly.

This CD is a collection of the best of the February 2018 session. Expect slow, expect fast, expect weird, expect what you wouldn’t have expected.

It’s Sloth Hammer Time.

Listening to the new album by San Antonio’s BURN RITUAL makes me miss the sunshine, hospitality, and especially the music of the Lone Star State. Last year, we put together our compilation, Doomed & Stoned in Texas to show you the wealth of talent there – and we only scratched the surface. Burn Ritual at the time was working on ‘Blood of the Raven’ (2018), their first full-length record following their EP debut, 'Like Suffering’ (2017) . Originally the solitary project of frontman Jake Lewis, the band solidified its line-up with Richard Perez (guitar), Chris Trezona (bass), and Brent Standifer (drums) completing the crew. It’s a joy to hear them do their thing, too. Burn Ritual feels like one long, stoned, hypnotic jam in worship to the Riff Gods.

This album has grown on me over time. At first, I was listening to as seven disconnected songs and while it’s probably the case that these were composed separately, then ordered as they are for the album, they are remarkably symbiotic. In fact, Blood of the Raven is best taken in one dose, in a single sitting, with the caveat that one may be induced into a trance-like state before it’s all over!

Drawing upon a wealth of influences, the band follows proudly in the tradition of Electric Wizard, Corrosion of Conformity, and Sleep. It’s hard not to tap your foot to the peppy rhythm of “The Mirror” or engage in slow headbanging to the titular “Blood of the Raven.” “Repent” reflects, I’m sure, numerous such prophetic warnings the band has encountered in the Bible Belt (I really like that Burn Ritual introduced synth effects for this one). “Mountain of Smoke” is a monolith built around a familiar doom metal motif, which is enjoined by singing that seems to echo from on high. “The Creature Inside You” is a dreamy, Ozzyesque number lost in blissful narcotic slumber, while “Follow Me” is an awakening of sorts to go even further down the rabbit hole.

The album concludes with “Cast Away,” which is probably my favorite track, if I had to pick only one. The longest of the bunch at six-and-a-half minutes, the song opens with lonely gusts of wind and a muted bass riff that builds to a crescendo when guitar and drums join. You wouldn’t think a band could get this much juice out of such a short theme, but they do it with gradual layered textures and subtle variation. Winds return to sweep away the dust of time and memory, an effective close to what has been a strange, but thoroughly engaging trip.

Blood of the Raven lets loose on October 1st, with Cursed Monk Records issuing the album on CD and digital formats. Each pre-order includes a nifty Burn Ritual patch, though I hear supplies are limited so hop to it!

Some Buzz

Based out of San Antonio, Texas, Burn Ritual brew their own brand of heavy riffs, bluesy hazy vocals, and massive hypnotic fuzzed out tones. The band combines their love for traditional doom and stoner rock bands with modern elements making it a unique but familiar journey for the listener.

Originally the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Jake Lewis, who performed and recorded on most of the band’s positively received debut EP, 'Like Suffering.’ The one-man project soon paved way for the necessity for a full band of musicians to bring the songs to the stage the way they were meant to be heard. Now a full four-piece band, Burn Ritual has shared the stage with bands such as The Lucid Furs, Black Pussy, and Goya.

The Black Sabbathian foursome has really cemented their sound with 'Blood of the Raven.’ And what they have delivered is an album full of monster hooks and gargantuan riffs drenched in a fuzzy psychedelic haze. A must have for every fan of the genre. (Cursed Monk Records)