Year

2019 Albums

Album Review: Witch Ritual – Death:Beyond 9 (Stoner Doom)

June 6, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I’m going to try to do this without doing a single pun involving their band name and hopefully without misspelling witch. Witch Ritual is some dense european stoner doom, real melancholic stuff. I haven’t heard their EP, but this is their debut LP that really cements their expectations high. This ones essential for fans Windhand and Jex Thoth, general doomheads should certainly check it out too. It has the raunchiness I love in stoner doom/fuzz without the exploitation aesthetic. It’s pretty awesome all over. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Grimdor – Stone Of The Hapless EP 10 (Black Metal/DS)

June 5, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I did not know that I wanted to hear lofi dungeon synth black metal until this started playing. I can’t believe how listenable this. It’s clearly something finely crafted, using imperfection to accentuate the music. This is some more of the nerdy black metal shit I love. This is my first time hearing them so I have no idea what the rest of their discography is like but I’ll have to take a look back. This is a nice succinct concept album with an audio premise. […]

2018 albums

Album Review: Eluvian – “Prophetic Flame” 8/10 (Melo Death)

June 4, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I found this album due to the artwork from Luke Oram who has done a bunch of solid metal records in the past couple of years like Firelink and Slugdge. He can do a variety of styles really well like fantasy, scifi and horror. He’s done a heap of covers but has a small following, he’s basically one of metals secret weapons right now. As a kind of bonus you can only get here at Noob Heavy, here’s a time lapse of Luke creating the cover for this album: […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Solus – Insight 8 (Black Metal)

May 31, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I will preface this review with the fact that I enjoy melodic black metal and typically can’t stand symphonic metal of any kind. But this self recorded and self released solo project is winning me over with the symphonic aspect, it’s a lot darker than it’s typically arranged. It’s an interesting little detour away from all of the bigger bands. It’s more about the project itself, the craftsmanship and hobby. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Spirit Adrift – Divided By Darkness 7.9 (Heavy Metal)

May 31, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

I discovered this one on bandcamp because of the album cover. It’s pretty awesome and something I noticed is that there’s the artist signature at the bottom, there’s a good idea for you cover artists frustrated by bands or labels not giving credit on promo and bandcamp. This one is done by Joe Petagno. He’s done other Spirit Adrift records but I haven’t heard them. You can visit Joe’s site here and his impressive discog here. I like how he’s filled wherever space would be with some kind of dangerous creature or symbol. There’s a lot going. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Black Mountain – “Destroyer” 9/10 (Stoner Rock)

May 30, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Alright, I’ve reviewed a heap of stoner doom/metal/rock this month but none of them have started with this much groove and old heavy metal and hard rock sensibilities. It’s a very different beast from my usual review in that it sounds like it has mainstream potential and uses poppy rock hooks. Most of what I’ve been listening to it is the kind of dark and heavy shit that can bury your heart so it’s a nice surprise to have a new stoner release that sounds positive and proggy. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Cyttorak – Underdark Invasion From Beyond The Shadow Of The Warp 8.9 (Sludge)

May 26, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Man this album is heavy slick with blackened sludge. It’s fucking nasty. This is the true cosmic terror, most science fiction themed metal bands go the prog kind of stoner route or death metal. Cyttorak goes for a way more abrasive and destructive take on the theme, the true cosmic horror and soul crushing truths. The psychedelic melody comes in the shape of fuzzy ass feedback that work beautifully in the muddy mixing and primal performance. I was very happy to get this one on tape. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Firelink – The Inveterate Fire 10 (Black metal)

May 26, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

This one has straight exploded on me, I put off checking this out when I saw it posted everywhere because I thought it was going to be a standard fare of power metal. Well, after hearing it on a random shuffle list and looking at the artist, I was surprised to hear some classic sounding melodic black metal. Stuff I haven’t heard the sound of since I was a long haired teenager listening to Agathodomain and Empyrean. […]

2019 Albums

Album Review: Estoner – “Tahm” 8.3/10 (Stoner Doom)

May 26, 2019 Noob Heavy admin

Estoner play some complex and often aggressive stoner doom that verges on some vocal and drum stylings from metallic hardcore bands. I really enjoy the blend and how heavy the doom can get. For a self released LP this is high quality, they did a great job recording and finding the right artist for their cover. It’s psychedelic but with an edge, like a bad trip or a conversation with the devil while staring into your heater. […]