#sleepwulf

~By Billy Goate~

Photograph by Randy J Byrd

With all of the uncertainty and unrest we experienced in 2020, it was hard to imagine what kind of a musical year it would be last January. As it turned out, the music won out, with disquieted souls unleashing a bevy of sound and fury!

Following last week's parade of top albums from the Doomed & Stoned team, it's the editor's turn. I submit for your consideration 13 records that had me coming back again and again.

Nothing - The Great Dismal

The depressive rock vibes of Nothing captured so much of the spirit of 2020 -- wistful, jaded and, well, dismal -- with the sentiment, This will never end.. By October, we were really feeling it, too. Then along came NOTHING (originally a side project of Agalloch members Jason William Walton and Don Anderson) with what I regard as their finest longplay to date, spitting out along with it a plethora of visceral music videos that made The Great Dismal hard to ignore. Timely medicine for my jaded, weary soul. No surprise then that I listened to this album constantly throughout the year.

Isn't it strange Watching people Try and outrun the rain

5 R V L N 5 - The Black Mark

Chuck Clybourne (ex-Faces of the Bog) delivers one of the most authentic and gripping biographical albums of recent memory. I was in the Chicago studio on the final day of its recording and recall how dark and angry it seemed, a doomier kind of industrial metal. The Black Mark includes contributions from Chicago Doomed & Stoned Fest organizer Lara Noel. As I remarked on "Flesh" last January: "The song builds and builds in intensity, generating a wall of sound and fury contrasted with dreamlike vox and emotive synth licks that made me an instant fan of 5 R V L N 5. I suspect the effect will be similar for you."

Crimson Caravan - Big Big Bang

Screeeeeech! Stop the presses! Here's an unbelievable find! Didn't pick up on these Russian stoner-doomers until the New Year's dawn (to be fair, it was released on December 29th), but everytime I listen to Big Big Bang I'm awed at just how goddamn heavy it is. An outstanding specimen of the genre, with songs like "Heap of Junk" of an Electric Wizard, Monolord, or Dopelord aura.

Elder Druid - Golgotha

Those champions of winter, Elder Druid, brought us a compelling sophomore offering in Golgotha, which we were among the earliest to review on January 9th, at which time I gushed: "Every yard as epic as it’s title, its power and majesty bleeds through every low-fuzzed corpuscle and sinew." Almost one year to the day and I must say time was kind to this prodigious paragon.

Enslaved - Utgard

A worthy entry into a very crowded field of contenders, Utgard shows us the more experimental side of Enslaved -- roaring black metal meets seventies prog rock (yep, you read that right). Though their fifteenth (!) LP received some mixed reviews, it's definitely worth hearing because, you know, it's mother effen Enslaved! Plus it draws heavily on Norse mythology, which is always cool. As expected, the album was preceded and followed by a number of music videos that brought us the band in all its coldness, melancholy, and savagery

Ethyl Ether - Neon Chrome Jesus

It was a big year for the South African music scene, led by Cape Town's Ethyl Ether, who released their third album on the newly founded local label Mongrel Records. Keep an eye on this scene, and especially this band, in the year ahead. Psychedelic texture don an eighties rock sound for a very chill vibe, indeed.

Forming The Void - Omens

What can one say about this rapidly rising voice in metal, already a widely recognized voice in doom? The expansive soundscapes, serpentine vocals, and deluge of big low-end. Omens is another out-of-the-ballpark homerun for Ripple and a fitting fourth full-length for the band. We reviewed it in May, at which time I remarked: "It’s earthy moving rhythm is joined by the prophetic utterance of vocals that soar vastly overhead, surveying the horizon like a bird of prey. It’s a vibe that Slomatics fans will be used to, though arguably Forming The Void makes it much groovier. After all, you can’t avoid the influence of the blues in a place like Louisiana.."

Frayle - 1692

The Ohio atmospheric doomers outdid themselves in 2020 by taking us back to another year: 1692. It was on March 1st that the Salem Witch Trials began in Salem Village of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Witnessing their performance at Chicago Doomed & Stoned Show gave me a new appreciation for the thoughtful execution of every note, and the arch that links them all together. They played "Dead Inside", and it was all chills for me. You would be hard pressed to listen to a number like "Burn" and walk away with anything short of adoration.

Greg Puciato - Fuck Content

If you were missing the Dillinger Escape Plan in 2020, their enigmatic singer came back just in time with new solo material, published under the banner of Federal Prisoner. And while there's a lot to love about the album Child Soldier: Creator God, it's the live album that really reached me. It's hard not to get caught up in its adrenaline fueled performances ("Fire for Water"), grungy rumblers ("Deep Set"), incendiary ballades ("Don't Wanna Deal"), and narcotic chill ("Evacuation").

Hellvetika - redux series

Love Spit Love // redux by Hellvetika

Aaron D.C. Edge is one hell of an improviser and absolutely wowed us with this rather brilliant bunch of sludged-up tributes to the musical greats. Under the project name Hellvetika Aaron recorded whole albums of these damning transformations, including covers of: Alice in Chains, AC/DC, Deftones, NIN, Willie Nelson, STP, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Clutch, Depeche Mode, Helmet, Audioslave, Joy Division, Weezer, Radiohead, Sting, and a whole lot more. I have no idea how long the project took him, but it certainly gives release to a lot of pent up emotion, perhaps borne of crushing isolation, and if so that's something I can entirely relate to. The series is also available sans voix right here.

I Am Low - Illusions

Illusions by I Am Low

I've been sort of low-key predicting that Grunge is poised for a big comeback. It's only natural, as the last two decades we reexamined the music of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Hell, Brazil is a few years ahead of us, with grunge bands popping up left and right. Now, from Sweden comes Grunge med båda fötterna på Umeås jord ("Grunge with both feet on Umeå's soil")...I Am Low. Great name for a grunge band that meddles in doom, by the way. Their EP 'Illusions' (2020) (another late-December release) pulls you right in with its filthy tone, shimmering solos, and characteristically dulled singing. Like the disaffected youth of yesterday, they come with a disaffected message:

Here we are now All forgotten They betrayed us All for nothing

Sleepwulf - Sleepwulf

Then out of nowhere the following month, these standing stones of southern Sweden sent us their sublime sounds. Needless to say, we were enamored with the band's eponymous debut. Their feet firmly planted in the Pentagram school of doom, Sleepwulf are kindred spirits of Denmark's Demon Head and Norway's Dunbarrow. The band's debut LP was reviewed by Reek of STOOM in February.

Slift - UMMON

We introduced them to you on episode 18 of The Doomed & Stoned Show, but French band blew up weeks before with the widely-praised single "Hyperion." We wondered where these psychedelic krautrockers had been all our lives! Toulouse is the answer, and UMMON wasn't their only laudible opus, either.

☿

~By Svempa Alveving~

Photo credit: NASA

During this week long retrospective on the best albums of 2020, Doomed & Stoned contributors are sharing 25 of their personal favs from a year that was full of surprises, some dreadful and others delightful.  Svempa Alveving (IG: @doomsdayjesus) is the curator of our beloved compilation Doomed & Stoned in Sweden and a periodic guest on the Into The Void podcast.

Electric Hydra - Electric Hydra

Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle - May Our Chambers Be Full

Novarupta - Marine Snow

Elder - Omens

Hällas - Conundrum

Steve Von Till - No Wilderness Deep Enoug

Lowrider - Refractions

Covenspell - Circle of 13

Dopelord - Sign Of The Devil

Kvll - Death/Sacrifice

Ockultist - Festering Wounds

Occlith - Gates, Doorways, and Endings

Sleepwulf - Sleepwulf

Bonehawk - Iron Mountain

End - Splinters From an Ever-Changing Face

Huanastone - Third Stone From The Sun

Malsten - The Haunting of Silvåkra Mill

Hymn - Breach Us

Bongtower - Oscillator

Pallbearer - Forgotten Days

Slift - Ummon

Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough

Weed Demon - Crater Maker

Convocation - Ashes Coalesce

~Words & Images by Randy J Byrd~

These are the bands in 2020 that helped me forget about work while I was at work. I was lucky enough to stay employed during the pandemic. That's not to say I didnt suffer more anxiety and stress because of it. My day job is much like my night job. It is fun. It is hard work, but it is fun. It's not photographing bands and seeing live shows by any means, but I work in a motorcycle shop.

Thurday is my Music Day at the shop, so when it is Thursday I blast these for the guys and when I spend an hour two in my office these bands keep my peace. When I'm on deliveries throughout all of Virginia and North Carolina, I blast these guys. Some of them are Doomed and Stoned Fest alumni and all of them hold dear to my heart and consider part of my consulate via RiverCity Doom Consulate (my Instagram "brand").

As time goes on, more and more get added to my database of tunes I love. My mind is open and my ears are open. I'm always Hunting for more tunes.

As follows, in zero order, are 20 MD 20/20 bands who had rad releases in 2020:

Thunderchief

Elder Druid

Gypsy Byrd

Low Rider

Sleepwulf

Yatra

Frayle

High Priestess

Thou

Valkyrie

Crystal Spiders

Cruthu

All Them Witches

Switchblade Jesus

Sons of Otis

Sun of Grey

Geezer

Bonehawk

Temple of the Fuzz Witch

Windhand

~By Reek of STOOM~

The very first thought that entered my head was, "Is this a reissue?" Some long-forgotten Tull or Life recording liberated from the dust? Such is the sound of SLEEPWULF.

Wizard Slayer by Sleepwulf

From the opening zazzle of axe and bass, "Wizard Slayer" is as vintage as it gets: brooding and bombastic in equal turn, it unfurls into the kind of prog-cum-proto metal track you'd swear you heard on some early- seventies compilation at a party somewhere. The rough and tumble Tull-like joust of "Beasts of Collision" bursts with pockets of guitar leads and breaks, allowing the band to really rock out. Clear, melodic vocals with that genuine old school rock voice conduit the energies through torrid tales of doom.

"Lucifer's Light" and "Standing Stones" are blues-driven burnouts of sparse melodies, bass and rhythms, the latter exploding into a tour-de-force of raw riffage and fiery licks. The folky interlude of "God of the Gaps" gives way to the rumbling groove of "Tumbling Towers," more heavy, hefty blues. The finale, "One Eyed Jailor" doffs a feathered cap to the proto-metal pioneers of Iron Claw or Blue Cheer with it's subdued, almost restrained power simmering below the surface.

Misty Mountain by Sleepwulf

Sleepwulf have delivered an album of timeless sound: an album that lovingly recreates the raw rampages of bygone heroes and celebrates the beauty of pure, unadorned heavy rock music. A bona fide classic of the genre! Look for it March 6th on Cursed Tongue Records (preorder here).

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Sleepwulf - Sunbeams url (Heavy Psych Sounds, 2022)

Sleepwulf - Sleepwulf (Heavy Psych Sounds, 2022)

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

I'm a preacher's kid and I recall my dad was oft fond of telling folks, "If Satan manifested as a human being, he most likely would not appear as a sinister figure with pitchfork in hand. To the contrary, he would appear as a kindly old man that no one would ever suspect of harming a soul."

Such a personage is perhaps featured on the cover of Sunbeams Curl, where a hermit bathed in the hue of blood red is seen reading or displaying a book, it really depends on your point of view. Is he revealing it or obscuring it from view? Are we looking at the book's text or its cover? The writing itself is indiscernible. I tried every which way -- left to right, right to left, diagonally, horizontally, vertically, and wondered whether there was a message too deeply coded for anyone to break. One thing is for certain: whether priest or heretic, he knows something that you do not.

If there could be a word picture for "occult" this would be it. Don't let that word frighten you prematurely; it simply means something "hidden" or "obscured" from normal sight. I suppose this thought could be extended to encompass mystery and malediction as we come to the second record from Sweden’s SLEEPWULF.

Resting somewhere in the neighborhood of Pentagram and Rory Erikson and Uriah Heep, The Kristianstad quartet came to our attention in 2019, with the single "Lucifer's Light," and this was followed by a full-length release with vinyl issued on Cursed Tongue Records. They've now found a fitting home on Heavy Psych Sounds in the company of Hazemaze, Tons, and Sonic Flower, alongside such scene luminaries as Brant Bjork, Nebula, and Kylesa.

Secrets are revealed on Sunbeams Curl, with the first track boldly proclaiming its allegiances. "Satan Is King" is as blatant a song title as any dreamed up by the anti-rock & metal crowd during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Question: Are they being facetious or does the band really buy into The Devil's Reign? The answer could be neither, as the song could plausibly embody the dire, shaken-voiced warning of some demented old villager, perhaps (and this is a stretch) even from the lips of some Medieval warlock.

The chilling air of urban legends and forbidden tales is everywhere, with "Green Man Dead" holding some contemporaneous significance with its talk of smoke stacks, iron lungs, and contaminated soil. Are we living in the End of Days? Or perhaps the End of These Days? Regardless, it's not far-fetched at all for me to imagine Sleepwulf songs becoming the nursery rhymes of some sunless generation living in fallout and ashes, the new Ring Around The Rosy.

"Sex Magic Manifestation" is the clear standout of the record, and will certainly find delight among fans of dark rockers Castle, Demon Head, and Young Hunter. The song features an effective three-beat chorus that we may well still be humming by year's end.

Next up: "Stoned Ape." The bouncy rhythm of the drums is tempered by chill guitar and buoyant organ tones. The song appears to recount what surely was an auspicious moment in the evolution of our brains -- that moment when our ancestors first encountered psychedelic weeds, flowers, and fungi. It's captured in passages like, "Walk on two feet, you're cunning by Pete, the stars are your new canopy" and then there's something about becoming "the gods that you will create" (a fantastic lyric, BTW). Thus ends the A-side. There are four more songs on B, but this is where our stop is.

This week, Doomed & Stoned presents the world premiere of the music video "Stoned Ape" by Sleepwulf, which is now the third single to be revealed from the band's Sunbeams Curl LP. The release sees light on February 18th (pre-order here).

Give ear...

WATCH: Sleepwulf - Stoned Ape

SOME BUZZ

Sleepwulf are the new wizards on the block of stoner rock. Stemming the forests of Southern Sweden, they have channeled the sultry sounds of old with modern influences to create a heavy sound laden with psychedelic grooves. Fans of bands such as Witchcraft, Black Sabbath, as well as early Pentagram will find plenty to love here. After making waves with their self-released single "Lucifer's Light" they were quickly signed to Cursed Tongue Records in early 2020. Recently emerging from the studio, their critically acclaimed debut album is a bonfire of riff heavy music that is sure to set alight any crowd.

Fresh off the back of their critically acclaimed debut album, reaching #3 in the global doom charts. The Swedish doom wizards, Sleepwulf have now signed with label giants Heavy Psych Sounds to unleash their highly anticipated second LP.

Written in the dark days of 2020-21, this new journey drips with the seductive sounds of riff rock psychedelic ecological doom and conjures the echoes of bands such as Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull.

Out of this fire, Sleepwulf have summoned songs that ooze with fuzzy riffs, sordid tales and seductive occultism.

SLEEPWULF - Sunbeams Curl by HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Records

From mountain peak to valley deep, Sleepwulf’s new album 'Sunbeams Curl' (2022) is a journey that is dripping with the seductive sounds of riff rock psychedelic proto-doom.

Conjuring the sounds of bands such as Black Sabbath and Jethro Tull, Sleepwulf have summoned an album that oozes with fuzzy riffs, sordid tales and seductive occultism. If the first album was about cycles, this one is about breaking them and its consequences.

'Sunbeams Curl' delves further into the well of ancient mysticism, alchemy and the occult. The underlying thread connecting it all, is the power of words to manifest reality; in both the individual and the collective consciousness. This extends to the album artwork, with hidden optics and codes. Deciphering these will reap their own rewards.

The album was recorded live in their own woodland studio outside Kristianstad, Sweden. To capture a live organic sound everything was done live onto an old tape machine. This new album is both heavier and more dynamic, building upon every aspect of the last. This is an album with hidden secrets which will unravel in the not too distant future.

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