Bandcamp Bonanza – Spiritual Dope

I titled this one after one of the featured bands names since it sort of fit the theme of today’s bonanza. Mostly heavy in orientation, these 5 albums all struck a chord with me right away. One of them I haven’t even listened to but all the elements are there to ensure success. The ones I did listen to I listened to on repeat for a good portion of the day of discovery as they were instant barnburners. Have yourself a listen.

Giant Sleep – Move a Mountain

I discovered these guys a few years back. In fact I think it was one of the first reviews I wrote for the blog back when we still had assignments on their self-titled. They were cool then and boy are they cool now. Don’t sleep, even a tiny sleep on Giant Sleep’s new one.

Giant Sleep awakens with an all-out progressive assault in the heavy rock n' roll arena. Move a Mountain is stunning in every sense of the word from the bluesy soul inspired vocal croons to the dynamic atmospheric riffs. Favorite track: Love Your Damnation.

Meteor Chasma – A Monkey Into Space

I don’t know what it is with monkeys lately, but I’m beginning to believe that they are the new goat in terms of hard rock and roll mascots. This one completely blew me away with the shear volume of riffs plowing the airwaves.

Meteor Chasma have stolen the spotlight in heavy, hard-edged rifftown taking their music beyond the limits of atmospheric psych. The burly vocals strike cold and calculated with elements of Floydian Heavy Psych calming the distorted fuzz to the point of no return. The intergalactic groove will induce a ten ton head bob causing the tide to turn on Jupiter. Absolutely righteous!

Spiritual Dope - Dopeland Blues

Here’s an example of a bandname that caught my eye. It just sounds like something I would like. Not because I’m a “doper” but because the melding of dope, spirit and blues just comes across as something that needs my attention. The tags and description caused some hesitation by mentioning the word “instrumental” as that is normally a turn off but I pushed play anyway and by song 2 when the vocals kicked in I knew we had a winner.

Wow! I'm not an instrumental guy but sweet baby Jesus these riffs will plow you over with both sweet melancholic groove and sultry swamp-laden blues. Oh ya, scratch that on instrumental, the vocals caress with a mild fuzzy texture on almost half the tracks. Don't be fooled into thinking this is purely instrumental, although the instrumental tracks rock too. Favorite track: Calcutta.

Drude – Drude

You ever have one of those moments where you’ve seen the album getting passed around online between familiar fans but just never bothered to push play whether it got lost in the shuffle or it just gave off the wrong impression as to what you thought it sounded like and when you finally push play and begin your decent upon the stair stepper at the gym you about lose your shorts? Ya, well me to and that happened today when I finally listened to the Indianapolis heavy hitters Drude. Holy fucking shit are the appropriate words that apply. This thing is so god damn heavy, yet so intriguingly groovy that it keeps you occupied throughout each of its epic songs. I’ll just plagiarize the bands description here since it is spot on:

“A particular strain, a dense and measured hybrid of
doom, hesher and prog that sedates and bludgeons with
equal abandon. In a musical environment where attention spans
are null, Drude make music that grates directly against that simple
fact. "We call it post-toke metal"...The instructions are pretty clear. “ –Drude Bandcamp

Pink Frost – New Minds

Okay, I’ve only heard 2-tracks on this pre-order and am going out on a limb to say this is going to be amazing. Straddling a hazy line between psychedelic pop, punk-laced doom and shoegaze crusted garage rock, Pink Frost have landed themselves into a league of their own. Take a listen to their back catalog if you have any doubts, which you won’t. This is heavy, but not in the traditional way. New Minds comes out in a couple weeks. Vinyl, CD and digital are up for pre-order now. The odds are on your side for a fantastic album. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of these guys once the album is out in full. This will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

Hope you enjoyed today’s offerings. It was basically this last week’s soundtrack and I just had to share with you all. Enjoy.

-The Huntsman