Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 
Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

Mastodon
Problem With Dragons
Witching Buzz – Occult Vibe Haven : Cathedral of Smoke: A Tribute to SLEEP
Tony Maim
Gods & Punks
Deathchant
Wealthy Women
Blackmail Damage
Fuzzing Nation
Red Sun Atacama

It’s Monday again! Start of a new week and one chuck full of exciting things, boring rent paying assignments, party times, HiVe premieres and a brand new Doom Chart going live on Friday. Yes! At least one very cool premiere going live this week! And to get you just as excited as me at very start of the wek: get ready for the new Phe single this Thursday! Yes! Yes! Yes! 

Last week went fairly well, looking at what we managed to put online for the HiVe! Right? We mentioned the Wealthy Women album, Blackmail Damage, Deathchant, Hibushibire, Problem With Dragons, Undertong and Jon McGough graced us with a blurb for that wild Datura4 release. Listened to any of them? Do you have a favorite of those? Or of the list above? Not yet, well, go check ‘m out… They’re all worth it! 

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s 
Top 10 Most Listened Artists Last Week…

Mastodon
Dusted Angel
Stoned Jesus
Wucan
Baba Sad
Toilet Snake
A Gram Trip
Hög
The Dogs
Muffasonic

Mornin and welcome to the start of another week. Hope it will be good. Past week was busy and perhaps this week will be only a mildly bit less busy. But still, we managed to put a few posts online. A Quick Fire Friday is always a good day! And rocking out with Toilet Snake on that same day as well. Words about the new Wucan and Baba Sad were published as well as a bit of a longer screed about the amazing new Stoned Jesus album. The first of three to follow in succession! Be ready for those… Friday we’ll see a new Doom Charts edition go live. What’s been your favorite of the past month? Check out the ten listed above and all the others you come across! Enjoy!

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Stoner HiVe's Weekly Top 10 Most Listened

Week 35

Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Spider Kitten
IAH
Mastodon
Boogie Beasts
Our Man In The Bronze Age
Green Lung
Lavaborne
Canyyn
Indigo Raven
Loose Sutures

Mastodon – Hushed & Grim

 

 

Mastodon – Hushed & Grim
Warner – 2021
Rock, Prog, Sludge, Stoner, Metal
Rated: ****

We do that sometimes, we look back at the amount we mentioned a certain band on the HiVe. And in when it comes to Mastodon, well, Crack The Skye made it to the Number 2 spot of the very first Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown we did, back in 2009, when the Stoner HiVe started…  We mentioned Jonah Hex and The Hunter reached Number 15 of the 2011 Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. Once More ‘Round The Sun got a mention in 2014 and then it got quiet. For some reason we never gotten round to mentioning Emperor Of Sand, even though we definitely did dig it. And now it’s 2021 and Hushed & Grim has arrived. A fifteen track album that might definitely be labeled as a magnum opus. Fifteen tracks that will take you with them and give us that Mastodon sound we all love so dearly and then turn the tables on you and explore some more exotic atmospheres, borders and genres; making the entire effort even more prog and even technical than before. Along those lines we might also view the vocal execution, with the different voices of Hinds, Sanders and Dailor adding the perfect, crazy or wild other dimension of a certain part to the other. Highly dynamic and incredibly warm; even the bleakest and darkest moments will not make you shiver but instead reassure and comfort. And they add an amazing guest spot for Marcus King on The Beast turning it into something weirdly southern, otherworldly prog and bluesy yet also dark and heavy. David Witte from Municipal Waste aids on ominous sounding Dagger, quickly turning oriental, eastern and classy. It’s followed by Had It All which features Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, which might be viewed as the most modest and thoughtful of the fifteen, offering insights into retaining sanity and peace after, well, life happens. It also features Troy Sanders mother Jody Sanders on French horn. And then the end run, those final tracks, pounding, sludgy and ending it all with closer Gigantium. What a track! What an album! Authentic and honest. Compelling and intense. Fiery and inspired. Hushed & Grim.

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe’s Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

 

 

Stoner HiVe’s
Top 10 Most Listened Albums Last Week…

Spider Kitten
Black Solstice
Maragda
Mastodon
No Mute
Fliptop Box
Benighted Illusion
Bongzilla
Komatsu
Ouroboric

The Number One album of 2009

The Number One album of 2009

Before we start the Countdown of 2019 we look back at those past 10 years of Stoner HiVe. We know it is now the eleventh edition of the Countdown. But we celebrate 10 years. 10 years of heavy riffs, romps and stomps! 10 years of heavy magic! That all started back in 2009 when the blog started to have a vehicle to count down the best 20 albums of 2009. A list deduced out of eighteen sent in lists. (One list came in later, but was counted anyway.) It resulted in a countdown that started on Number 20 with the Palm Desert album Dawn Of The Burning Sun and found Feuerzeug’s  Drive Fast And Crash on third position and Crack The Skye by Mastodon on Number 2. But what was the Number 1 album from 2009 according to those eighteen heavy music fiends? 

We wrote: “…produced by the masters of meditative atmospheric doom and minimalistic metal. Heavy like a blackhole and loud as a sun storm. Recorded with fifty percent new blood; there is a new drummer in this two-piece; the album does take on a different approach then earlier ones. The search for the perfect tone, the godlike chord continues but with a bit more frivolous instrumentation. Powerful and graceful; less a dead beast dragging itself towards its inevitable end and more that of contemplative remembrance of how existence started…”

And we must conclude, unfortunately, that we have not listened to this album all that much in recent years. Hell, not at all since 2011, we think. And so when revisiting it for this little piece, we do understand why it ended high on that first edition of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown. It still retained that meditative quality and projected the artists as deviant cult leaders. Yet, after these many years, so many cults have come and gone, the minimalistic approach has become a bit stale or simply a bit too easy. Without any doubt there are moments of beauty and even brilliance on those four tracks and especially the nineteen minute opener Thebes. But these are mere glimpses of bright light that die away pretty fast; soon God Is Good becomes clichéd and almost frustrating. Cause you remember reaching enlightenment through OM and now there is only rage when the flute drops in. What happened? Did the world move on? Has the listener been treated to so much meditative heaviness that this sounds old and dated? Or was it never that good to begin with? We don’t know. All we know is that the Number One album from 2009 does not seem to grace our ears much nowadays… How about yours?

Om – God is Good

(For the rest of the Top 20 of 2009, that very first one, visit the Countdown So Far post on the blog...)

Legend of The Seagullmen – Legend of The Seagullmen

Legend of The Seagullmen – Legend of The Seagullmen

Dine Alone – 2018

Rock, Metal

Rated: ***

Apparently, we have Josh Homme to thank for the maritime metal supergroup called Legend of The Seagullmen. The project came into existence when the aforementioned Queens Of The Stone Age mastermind introduced Brent Hinds from Mastodon to filmmaker and guitar player Jimmy Hayward from Jonah Hex. Soon they found vocalist David Dreyer and the ideas for a ‘nautical spaghetti western’ were flying high! The result is here and also features Tool drummer Danny Carey and Zappa Plays Zappa bassist Peter Griffin. The crazies have delivered a self-titled debut with eight tracks that seem inspired by bands like Rainbow and Black Sabbath. Seventies psychedelic, but then metallic and hot sauced with seafaring craziness and stormy tales of woe. There are parts of the record that come across as drunken and marooned. Some guitar parts sound unfinished or like a rough sketch. As do some of the vocals; as if the fun in the studio was a bit too much for the ol’ boys! But that audible fun is also the main charm of the album. The vintage metal sound, the concept and the theatrical hymns entertain, and one cannot help but want to enlist with the Seagullmen and travel the oceans!

(Written by JK)

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Stoner HiVe's Top 5 Artists listened to last week

Stoner HiVe's

Top 5 Artists listened to last week:

Acid Wolf (25)

Crushing Yelllow Sun (24)

Sinner Sinners (22)

Stonila (22)

Mastodon (21)

As stated before, we have been involved with a few projects that have taken up most of our time. But soon a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel shall appear and we have already had some moment to listen to some great new albums. How about the Adelaide born Acid Wolf with their self-titled debut album. Heavy, meaty and everything we love from desert, stoner and fuzz infused with some doom and psychedelics. Yes, it is that good! Crushing Yellow Sun is a one man project that navigates the psychedelic sludge waters. It’s Heavy Times Redux is a combination of two earlier albums and combines the best of what CYS has to offer. Get ready for some heavy times indeed! The new Sinner Sinners record was recorded at Rancho De La Luna, and that should be enough for you to just buy it. For we all know the lines to the Great Magnet are short and direct over there. Damn good stuff once again! Greek instrumental rock force Stonila has released Chaos Legacy and has delivered an album for the summer, to lay bare chested in the shade of an olive tree and sip mastiha. Well. The new Mastodon. Emperor of Sand. It will probably not become a household favorite over here. But hey, it might require a few more spins to dig in to!

Giraffe Tongue Orchestra – Broken Lines

Giraffe Tongue Orchestra – Broken Lines

Party Smasher Inc/V2 – 2016

Rock, Hard, Prog

Rated: ****

When I first learned about this project it still featured or was rumored to feature Juliette Lewis on vocals. It would have truly made this supergroup something to look forward to. When she dropped out my lust for the Giraffe Tongue Orchestra weakened. But luckily, the beast still wandered into my path. For come on, you cannot pass over on a band featuring guitarist Brent Hinds (Mastodon), vocalist William DuVall (Alice In Chains), guitarist Benjamin Weinman (Dillinger Escape Plan), drummer Thomas Prigden (Mars Volta) and Pete Griffin (Dethklok, Zappa Plays Zappa). O’ and Jon Theodore (Queens Of The Stone Age, Mars Volta) also guests on two tracks. The honor roll sounds like a veritable playground of intricate compositions and a whirlwind tornado of riffs, notes and tones. But this time around these fiends who love to freak out with their respective bands have kept the extremes to a minimum. They’ve actually managed to pour their challenging technic displays into something easier to digest and mixed with much simpler straight to the core rock songs. Or even almost danceable grooves with songs like Blood Moon and Everyone Gets Everything They Really Want. But we must conceded that Duvall sounds excellent on almost every track and even seems to push his boundaries. Not to mention the ace duo vocals of him and Hinds on No-one Is Innocent. Does all of this make us forget that the Broken Lines album might have been completely different with Miss Lewis on vocals? Perhaps not, because we still get a tiny taste when she does background for the Back To The Light song. And perhaps so, cause with ten highly different tracks and atmospheres we can safely say there is enough for everyone and a lot for a lot of us. Hell, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra might just win all of us over…

(Written by JK)

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Mastodon – Once More ‘Round The Sun

Mastodon – Once More ‘Round The Sun

Reprise/Warner – 2014

Rock, Stoner, Metal, Sludge

Rated: ****

It is one of their signatures to kick off an album full force and with a righteous stampede. They did this on The Hunter from 2011 which reached the 15th position of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 countdown of that year. And the boys from Mastodon do this once again with Tread Lightly on their new album Once More ‘Round The Sun. It not only functions as the lift off it also seems to condense everything the band stands for in that one track. Blaring and blistering easy to comprehend guitar explosion, technically skilled but always filled of tantalizing rock esthetic. With resounding refrains full of cracked howls, grunts and clean vocals. And with so much pull it is impossible not to join in with their parade. They have been moving ever further away from their Remission and Leviathan beginnings and have been getting ready to produce their very own sizeable but comprehensible metal which remains sludgy and muddy but always with that uplifting edge and with a definite song structuring. More conservative as their previous and with less experimentation the album seems to set up their vision of the Mastodon future. But they refuse to smash it home… This time around…

(Written by JK)

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Number 15

“Look into the puppy eyes! Look into the puppy eyes!”

Number 15

In 2009 these guys were the runner-up to OM who were considered by 18 peeps who sent in their lists that year to have delivered the number one album with their release God Is Good. This year that number two released their fifth studio album, which was less experimental as their former but still remains as heavy and thunderous as a massive crack in the sky. More concise and to the point and with a catchy-ness that might turn more people on to them. It might miss a bit of drive like Leviathan or Blood Mountain, it might lack the progressive adventure feel of Crack The Skye or perhaps the surprise of Remission. But all that is just nitpicking, seeking for little bitty thingies in a puddle of water, and hunting for a needle in the hay…

Mastodon – The Hunter

Mastodon – Jonah Hex

Mastodon – Jonah Hex
Relapse / Reprise – 2010
Metal/Stoner
Waardering: **

Director Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears a Who, Finding Nemo) was approached for the film-adaptation of the bounty-hunting comic book hero Jonah Hexis. He in turn asked composer John Powell (Bourne series, Hancock) to give the movie its musical face. Unfortunately Powell had to leave the film prematurely, which had to be re-shot over and over again; causing the band contracted to fill in the music to have to start over and over too. And Mastodon was not happy. The guys thought they were busy making the best music they had made in their entire career. Composer Marco Beltrami (Terminator 3, Repo Men) was asked to finish the score and after that Mastodon was again asked to please show that mighty sound you do! The result are four songs and two alternate versions that have little taste and show even less of the glory that is Mastodon. On occasion we hear a little of their magic; but that has disappeared again before you know it. I for one am very curious for the material that did not make this EP…

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2

Numero 2

For the piece of silver; we have arrived at the number two spot and have to conclude that even though I was surprised at this in the beginning; it is well deserving. This fourth official studiopiece of this foursome is a bit more wider and less thunderous than the albums that came before. More direct vocal lines; less screams and even harmonizing. Hints of experimental instrumentation in the use of xylophones; Hammonds and basssynths. The entire feel of the album is that of a rockopera and the background for this albums suggests just that. So the most consistent part of the band is the fact that they seem to be getting better and better with each album they deliver. Grand! Great! Glorious! A beast of an album!

Mastodon – Crack The Skye

http://thelastdisaster.blogspot.com/2009/02/mastodon-crack-skyepromo-2009.html