“Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work.”
William Somerset
Hi everyone. Just wanted to state the obvious once again. I love my fellow Contributors from the Doom Charts. All of them do majestic work for the Doom Charts and more importantly, for the scene! They tirelessly slave on their respective blogs, podcasts and websites. And they do all of that for their undying love and fealty to heavy rock. Much respect! And of course, there’s another part of the heavy underground that we perhaps should pay more homage to. And we shall do that henceforth on the Doom Charts… The record companies! Cause even though many of the bands featured on the Doom Charts do it all themselves. There are a few nutcases out there, that just like the rest of us Doom Charts Contributors, did not know where to go with all that love for heavy rock. And so, they went on and founded a record label to spread their love for the good stuff! Well, thank you! Thank you all! Cause we do love putting the needle to the groove, gazing for hours on end at the artwork on the cover and sniffing that brandnew jewelcase! So, thank you all you heavy rock loving nutcases, thank you for founding your label, finding the albums you loved and wanted to put out on your label and doing all that work! As of now, we shall try and mention those labels… But we must confess, sometimes, it’s not clearly marked on the band’s websites…
Hi everyone, July has come and gone, and once again we have been blessed with a massive amount of great albums. No less than 215 albums received votes… And the forty with the most votes can be perused below… And at the very bottom, we’ve got a Doom Charts Mixtape again… Featuring the chosen tracks by the Contributors that blurbed about a certain album… Go listen and go doom! It’s why we do this!
Welcome to Doom Charts, representing some of the finest bloggers, journalists, radio, podcasters and reviewers from the heavy underground around the globe. Each month, our critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge, metal, stoner, psychedelic and heavy rock albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart below. This is a one-stop shop for the best new albums in the world…
40. STÍU NU STÍU – NEW SUN / NEW!
39. INDIAN HANDCRAFTS – EMPRESS IN DECLINE / NEW!
38. GRAVE LINES – COMMUNION / NEW!
36. THE CIMMERIAN – THRICE MAJESTIC / NEW!
35. SAMÁN – II. MONTAÑA ROJA / NEW!
34. SLEESTAK – HARBINGER / NEW!
33. RANDY HOLDEN – POPULATION III / NEW!
32. MINAMI DEUTSCH – FORTUNE GOODIES / NEW!
31. BRUJAS DEL SOL – DECULTER / NEW!
29. ZEREMONY – SURVIVIN’ ROCK’N’ROLL / NEW!
28. AAWKS – HEAVY ON THE COSMIC
27. REALM DRIFTER – REALM DRIFTER / NEW!
26. VOIDWARD – VOIDWARD / NEW!
25. WIZZO – MOST SEVERE CRISIS / NEW!
819 Points
Grunge, Stoner, Sludge, Heavy Shoegaze
(Chicago, Illinois, USA)
(Self-released)
Ah the 90s. A great time for music that has been a major influence in a whole bunch of bands putting out heavy rock today. Citing bands like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden will trigger all sorts of wonderful emotions for people of a certain age, and there is a ton of borrowing from them and other like-minded bands of that era today. Wizzo is one of those bands, but for every grungy riff you get from their second album, Most Severe Crisis, you also get some heavy shoegaze vibes of bands like Swervedriver, Hum, and even a band like Ride. This is a big shift from the band’s self-titled debut which leaned a bit more towards the sludgy side of things, even incorporating harsh vocals throughout. Most Severe Crisis goes for even more melody while keeping some of those sludge vibes.
~ Rich Piva
24. LES NADIE – DESTIERRO Y SIEMBRA / NEW!
864 Points
Stoner Metal, Desert Rock, Heavy Psych, Psychedelic Rock
(Córdoba, Argentina)
(Self-released)
Haunting melodies intertwined with heavy pounding riffs carry you to an etheric, introspective and punishing land. A savage land where tensions are progressively built and marvelously dissolved. Unforeseen wonders await you from these nobodies on verge of becoming! What are you waiting for!?!
~ Marc-Eric Gagnon
23. DESERT TWELVE – DESERT TWELVE / NEW!
1195 Points
Stonerrock
(Piacenza, Italy)
(Self-released)
Desert Twelve will be the name of planet Earth for future generations – an alarm/love call for the spirit of nature. Gabriele Finotti (co-founder of Misfatto) works with 3 young and talented musicians for this project, including an excellent female vocalist (Vittoria Ipri). The eponymous debut album gives us a stoner rock full of creativity and impressive musical parts. Your Cold Cold Desert Heart is an 11-minute gem stuck to the top of my July playlist!
~ Thierry ‘Pumpkin-Twelve’ FRANCOIS
22. ETERNAL SUN TEMPLE – VOL I. / NEW!
1449 Points
Psych, Doom, Occult, Rock
(San Francisco, Argentina)
(Self-released)
You are invited to worship the ETERNAL SUN TEMPLE and breathe in the obscure, intoxicating aura of the three godforsaken Argentine pilgrims stabbing each other harakiri style. An overwhelming sonic tapestry of mammoth riffs, meditative, grungy vocal mantra and a hallucinating psychedelic touch that creates a deadly mystical atmosphere will leave you breathless and your soul will burn in the purgatory of the Sun Temple God. „Purge the bastards, May the gods sanctify, The birds that sing, The death’s lullaby“ I lay my soul at the feet of this excellent debut mammoth…
~ Mel Lie
21. TRILLION TON BERYLLIUM SHIPS – CONSENSUS TRANCE / NEW!
1628 Points
Metal, Doom, Sludge, Stoner
(Lincoln, Nebraska, USA)
(Self-released)
Gritty stoner and grainy doom that gets more swampy, sludgy and savage as the albums goes on. Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships delivers a trillion-ton heavy album called Consensus Trance. Low, slow, dark and twisted metal from somewhere, out there, in the darkness..
~ Joop Konraad
20. LORD ELEPHANT – COSMIC AWAKENING / NEW!
1780 Points
Psychedelic Rock, Heavy Blues, Stoner Metal
(Florence, Tuscany/Italy)
(Heavy Psych Sounds Records)
Spacey psychedelic interludes give way to heavy grooving riffs and ripping leads. Then those vibes kinda alternate back and forth throughout but also intertwine at times. This happens seamlessly because the three musicians are so tight although this is their debut album. You can tell they jammed for many hours, they gel perfectly. It’s a spacey, psychedelic, heavy rocking cosmic gem.
~ Andy Kovalcik
19. MEXICOMA – KALPA
2156 Points
Stoner, Desert rock
(Umea, Sweden)
(Majestic Mountain Records)
Mexicoma‘s new album ‘Kalpa‘ is their first release since Obsidian Monolith in 2014 and these deserts toned, riff based, heavy stoner rockers from Umea Sweden have wasted none of that time away in honing
their fantastic formula of killer, anthemic hard rocking. With a new singer at the helm Mexicoma seem to have hit a stride of unshakable and slightly sludgy, grungy excellence that’s brought the band into a brand-new era of righteously stomping, high energy, ass kicking desert rock in it’s most textbook yet exciting essence. Kalpa is a lead heavy, three guitar, burly shred-fest with more riffs than you can shake a clenched fist at and a damn good time from start to finish. A mighty release from a massively formidable band who have only begun to scratch the surface of what’s sure to come with this kind of enduring quality packed into eight monumental tracks.
~ The Doom Oracle
18. SILENT MONOLITH – EMPTY KINGDOM / NEW!
2167 Points
Stoner Rock, Southern Stoner Blues, Doom Rock
(Nashville, Tennessee, USA)
(Records DK)
Power trio Silent Monolith are back with their second full length seven years after their excellent debut. This southern/stoner rock skull crusher has end to end energy and the exact heaviness I am looking for in purveyors of this particular genre. You get some serious stoner/blues era COC vibes but enough of their Tennessee roots weaved throughout the eight tracks to know exactly where this band hails from and the type of bars they destroy when they show up with their gear. When Kenneth Johnson sings “set it up to watch it burn” during the killer title track it kind of says it all for this red hot ripper.
~ Rich Piva
17. VANDHALI – FEVER DREAM / NEW!
2240 Points
Seventies Hard Rock, Proto, Stoner
(Denver, Colorado USA)
(CKS Records)
This bit of seventies inspired goodness dropped with limited fanfare but some serious word of mouth buzz and rightly so. Their Blue Oyster Cult/Uriah Heep/late 70’s Sabbath vibes are just killer. Everything about this release screams that mid to late seventies timeframe, including the song titles (River Styx, Magic Helmet, Cauldron Of Spells) and the fact that it sounds like it was recorded during the sessions for Agents of Fortune, but never do the Dener trio ever sound like they are a cheap rehash of old ideas. This is their unique spin on one of the best eras of music and the results are excellent.
~ Rich Piva
16. RIGHTEOUS FOOL – RIGHTEOUS FOOL / NEW!
2360 Points
Stoner, Heavy Blues, Punk
(Raleigh, North Carolina, USA)
(Ripple Music)
The long-lost self-titled debut from Corrosion Of Conformity offshoot Righteous Fool has found a home on Ripple Music, who are finally unleashing this beast upon the world. Obviously, you are getting some serious COC vibes, like a combination of the early stuff and the more recent stoner side of the band. But this is way more than just a sound-alike side project. This record rips. COC has become a slickly produced band at this point (which I still love), where Righteous Fool has some grime to them. You get bluesy stoner riffs in your face with an old school punk energy. The second half of this album will stand up against anything released this year, or in recent memory. The Righteous Fool record is straight up fire.
~ Rich Piva
15. BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH – FROM THE FATHOMLESS DEEP / NEW!
2709 Points
Doom-, Sludge-, Heavy Metal
(Los Angeles, California, USA)
(Ripple Music)
Slow, Deep – even Harder! This album makes you dive into the deepest depths. Majestic riffs wrapped in sludgy bass riffs in combination with death-doomy vocals. Equally inspiring is the brutally beautiful album cover, which heralds the promising journeys.
~ Silvi Pearl
14. LUCID GRAVE – COSMIC MOUNTAIN / NEW!
2736 Points
Doom
(Copenhagen, Denmark)
(Electric Valley Records)
Copenhagen’s Cosmic Doom purveyors LUCID GRAVE dive into the beckoning void with obvious relish, snarling, creeping, twisting and tripping horrifically through 6 lengthy excursions through the Valley of Death: an immolating strychnine trip!
~ Reek of STOOM
13. SUPASONIC FUZZ – COBRACADABRA / NEW!
3220 Points
Stoner Rock, Desert Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
(Finale Ligure, Italy)
(Orzorock Music)
First off, that rad cover artwork that feel like a pulp magazine collage catch my eyes! Right at the first song, I’m riveted down to my seat and my ears are wide open to absorb these vibrations! Killer riffage with plenty of hooks and a bit of sandy parts to calm the play. Ace vocals kinda remind me both of John Garcia & Jello Biafra (for that little tremolo end)! All of this is supported by a stand out bass and drum section. Everything is invigorating and groovy; you won’t be disappointed!
~ Marc-Eric Gagnon
12. FORMATION RITUAL – THE SHIFTING DUST / NEW!
3495 Points
Classic Metal, Desert Rock, Heavy Psych
(Los Angeles, California, USA)
(Self-released)
Classic rock flavoured vocal melodies, whooshing keyboard textures and scorching guitar solos driven by low booming bass and tight solid drumming are what you can expect Formation Ritual to deliver on “The Shifting Dust” and what they deliver you can expect to be very damn good!
~ Frazer Jones
11. NEBULA – TRANSMISSION FROM MOTHERSHIP EARTH / NEW!
4656 Points
Heavy Psych, Stoner Rock
(USA)
(Heavy Psych Sounds)
From the first second of the opening title track we’re wasting no time in blasting right the fuck off into an expansive and lysergically charged trip out of mega proportions as Nebula seem to have dropped one
of the finest, if not their finest release to date upon us with ‘Transmissions From Mother Earth.’ Recorded and produced in the Mojave desert, the band gives us seven tracks of down and dirty, massively crunchy, dusty fuzz and screaming distortion rolling through your brain like a tumbleweed on fire and as magically manic as a rabid gilla monster at the apex of a peyote trip. The hooks are non-stop, the atmosphere is out of this world and encompasses incredible vocal highlights courtesy of Eddie Glass (dude, there’s even some throat singing and thrown in) and virtually colossal low end. There’s a grip of punchy attitude on display that’s brazenly thumbing its nose at referential box ticking and it’s clear that these lads are having a bloody blast doing what they do best. Blowing our feeble mortal minds with gloriously groovy, desert flavoured, grunged up psychedelia with a distinct metallic tone. The phrase ‘Take me to your dealer’ never had so much meaning as now and I want whatever these dudes are on and then some. An absolutely weird (In the best of ways) and wonderful listen, ‘Transmissions from Mother Earth’ is a massive triumph for this legendary band, a truly brilliant release full of masterful songwriting into the most buzzing, intoxicating oblivion.
~ The Doom Oracle
10. GOATRIDERS – TRAVELER / NEW!
4725 Points
Psych, Stoner, Grunge, Desert Rock
(Linköping, Sweden)
(Majestic Mountain Records / Ozium Records / Evil Noise Records)
Goatriders, the psych/fuzz foursome from Sweden, offer us Traveler, the follow up to their strong 2020 debut release, which continues with their high-quality desert/space jams but takes that rock to the next level. There is nothing sleek or overproduced on Traveler, which fits perfectly for these songs as the need to sound like they were recorded in a cabin in the woods for maximum effect. Old SST Screaming Trees come to mind when listening to Traveler, but if the Trees started to worship Satan. Garage psych freakouts and proto goodness is aplenty, with some Sleepwulf and Witchcraft vibes throughout. Excellent stuff.
~ Rich Piva
9. BIRTH – BORN / NEW!
5016 Points
Progressive, Psychedelic Rock
(San Diego, USA)
(Bad Omen Records)
San Diego’s BIRTH offers up a stunning, visionary and delightful slab of Prime Prog/Psych; meandering, winding and sprawling across 6 tracks showcasing dexterity, true musical craftsmanship, an understanding of Vintage tones and real flair in execution – definitely one to watch out for on many End-of-Year lists!
~ Reek of STOOM
8. IAN BLURTON’S FUTURE NOW – SECOND SKIN / NEW!
5640 Points
Stoner Metal, Metal, Hard Rock
(Toronto, Canada)
(Pajama Party / Seeing Red Records)
What a rush! The multi-talented, genre-hopping Ian Blurton has hand-crafted an excellent metal album fueled by the same ecstatic, bombastic energy of a Green Lung record. The frenzied guitars that propel Second Skin forward are equally matched by Blurton’s earnest vocals, ensuring you’re still humming the record long after it stops playing. Don’t let this one slip by you.
~ Patrick Schober
7. JOSIAH – WE LAY ON COLD STONE / NEW!
5866 Points
Heavy Psych, Stoner, Proto
(United Kingdom)
(Blues Funeral)
Josiah is back!!! Main man Matthew Bethancourt (and now only original member) has revived Josiah after creating some great stuff with Cherry Choke and The Kings Of Frog Island. Back in the early to mid-2000s Josiah was setting the framework of what so many stoner/psych bands are doing today with their three classic records and their new one more than a decade later is right there in quality, albeit a bit darker and more psych leaning on this outing. We Lay On Cold Stone is six tracks of equal parts killer instrumental psych jams and super catchy stoner rock rippers. The drumming is on fire, the guitar work from Bethancourt is some of his best. An excellent return from these legends.
~ Rich Piva
6. BLACK CAPRICORN – CULT OF BLOOD / NEW!
6552 Points
Doom Metal
(Sardinia, Italy)
(Majestic Mountain Records)
So much great music hails from Italy that it can be hard for a new release to stand out from the pack. Power trio BLACK CAPRICORN has no such problem with their new album “Cult of Blood” with its stripped-down focus on fuzzy riffs and faultless rhythms. Add some exhilarating and demonic vocals to the mix, and the result must be one of the best doom releases of the year.
~ Fuzzy Cracklins
5. TELEKINETIC YETI – PRIMORDIAL / NEW!
7264 Points
Stoner Metal
(Dubuque, Iowa, USA)
(Tee Pee Records)
I can’t even begin to tell you how many people recommended this album to me through Instagram. But I can tell you that it was enough that I finally fired the record up. And, well, holy shit. These two guys have perfected their sound. Consequently, Primordial pulses with enormous, mind-blowing riffs that’ll plow right through you, leaving you quietly (and happily) nodding along from the ground.
~ Patrick Schober
4. MY SLEEPING KARMA – ATMA / NEW!
8172 Points
Psychedelic Rock, Post Rock, Stoner, Space
(Aschaffenburg, Germany)
(Napalm Records)
With feelings on the surface, each song contains beautiful passages and multiple incentives, but all of them form a beautiful whole. Full of textures and nuances, they manage to trap the listener in a dream from which they will never want to wake up. A balsamic effect that the band enriches with dynamic and hypnotic rhythms, between monumental instrumental passages, to which they embed their usual heavy hits. ATMA is the darkest and most personal album of a magical band, which once again creates a magical album.
~ Roberto Lucas
3. OBIAT – INDIAN OCEAN / NEW!
8702 Points
Doom, Sludge, Prog Metal, Heavy Psych
(London, UK)
(Self-released)
If blustering sludge-metal with touches of prog running through its veins is your thing but your also partial to occasionally going off piste and wallowing in some textured post-rock and languid ambience then Obiat‘s Indian Ocean just may be the album you have been looking for, it’s an album that ‘s got everything and then some.
~ Frazer Jones
2. PARALYZED – HEAVY ROAD / NEW!
17328 Points
Hard Rock, Heavy Blues, Seventies, Stoner Rock
(Bamberg, Germany)
(StoneFly Records)
PARALYZED hammers out another slab of illicit vocals and powerhouse blues. Sure to be one of the years strongest albums in the heavy underworld. Banging hook, gritty charm and bar room doom. Devils Bride and the infamous “LA Woman” may very well be the same person in a parallel dimension.
~ Bucky Brown
1. SONS OF ARRAKIS – VOLUME I / NEW!
21984 Points
Desert Rock, Stoner Rock
(Montreal, Québec)
(Self-released)
Many music outfits have taken on aspects of Herbert’s epos and processed them through their music and one would lie if he didn’t admit the spice-laced sands have inspired heavy riffers and reefers around the globe, be it Sanrider, Sleep, Dvne, or most recently, Sons Of Arrakis. On ‘Volume I‘, the four-piece goes through the themes of the first couple of books with a riff-heavy yet playful demeanor, successfully painting their own vision of Herbert’s mysteriously archaic sci-fi monument with a fitting desert rock aesthetic.
~ Crypt Guard
Special thanks to the ongoing contributors to the monthly Doom Chart. You folks help give voice to the heavy underground:
Aaron Pickford (The Sludgelord); Adam Walsh (Earmunchies); Andy Benson (Nerve Salad); Andy Kovalcik (Bandcamp-NYP-Hard&Heavy); Bill Goodman (The Evil Engineer); Billy Goate (Doomed & Stoned); Bob “Mr. Weird Beard” Baker (More Fuzz Podcast); Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin); Brandon Collins (Super Dank Metal Jams); Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect); Clint Willis (Hand of Doom Radio); Chris Beck (Doom Tomb Podcast); Chris Latta (Ghost Cult Magazine); Chris Tighe (The Mighty Decibal); The Doom Oracle (Spectral Ecstacy); Doomsday Jesus (DoomsdaysJesus); Duncan Evans (Alternative Control); Eric Varasiftsky (Stoner Rock Army); Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist); Fuzzy Cracklins (Fuzzy Cracklins); Geoff Leppard (Atom Heart Mutha); Graur Zaur (Crypt Guard); Gravitoyd HM (Gravitoyd Heavy Music); Gruby (Doomsmoker); Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe); Héctor “Mr. Heavyhead” Hurtado (More Fuzz); Hugo Hulleman (Metalfan.nl,Orange Maze); Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture); Jamey Morris (Fistful of DOOM); Jay Morgan (High Desert Valley Radio); Jim Thompson (Heavy in the Hills); JJ “HP Taskmaster” Koczan (The Obelisk); John Gist, (Vegas Rock Revolution / The Doomed & Stoned Show); Jonny Pirie (Hour of the Riff); Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe); Ken Elliott (Heavy Planet); Kyle SB / Shasta Beast (Stoner HiVe); Leanne Ridgeway (Riff Relevant); Magnus Tannergren (Into The Void Radio); Marc-Eric Gagnon (Stonefly Effects); Marc C. Pietrek (Vitriol INC / A Dark United Front); Mark Partin (The Ripple Effect); Martin Doomed Desbois (Le Mellow Man, Metal Alliance Magazine) Matt Slighter (Cheeto) (Hwy 420, Core of Destruction Radio) Matthew Thomas (Taste Nation); Mathieu Van Der Hert (Dutch European Stoner Rock); Mel Lie (Sunday’s Heavy Tunes); Mike Williams (I Talk to Planets); Mr Stone (More Fuzz); Pat Schober (Monster Riff); Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker (The Ripple Effect); ‘Papa’ Paul Rote (Doomed & Stoned); Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe); Remi VL (Remi Post Too Many Links); Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip); Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz); Roberto Fuentes (La Habitación 235); Robert Pannell (Doom Loom); Rod Reinhardt (Captain Beyond Zen); Roman Tamayo (Doomed & Stoned); Silvi Pearl (Doomed & Stoned, Electric Fire Records); Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun); Steve Rodger (God’s Holy Trousers); Steve Woodier (Deathrattle Podcast); Tanguy ‘Mr Fuzz’ Dupré (More Fuzz); Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral); Tom Hanno (Tom’s Reviews); Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz); Tony Maim (Black Insect Laughter, Stoner HiVe); Tony Van Dorston (Fast n Bulbous); Wombat Tarantino (Wombat Cult)
Feel free to send in your albums to stonerdoomcharts@gmail.com where they’ll be delegated to the crew above to determine their thoughts and gather the votes at the end of the month. Leave us comments below and let us know what you think about the bands and their albums on the Doom Charts.
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