“Yo, when is the November Charts? I can’t live like this!”

~ Sifir Rakam

“I can’t get into doomcharts here in the UK!? The most recent entry is for 3 Wheeler Band, that Halloween posting. Has something got stuck or …?”

~ Paul Hennelly

The amount of emails and messages we received from all of you in distress about what was keeping the new Doom Charts were heartwarming. Even though we reckoned we made it abundantly clear that the publishing date for the Doom Charts had moved from the 1st of every month to the 1st Friday of every month. This would enable more Contributors to do more work for the Doom Charts and might give more credit to albums released on the final days of the month… And there are so many albums released monthly, during the whole month and on those final days that it still often feels unbearable to not be able to pay attention to them all… Below are 38 all NEW heavy rock albums! Thirty-eight, but any shift in votes might have resulted in a different version. Cause I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the lists the Contributors posted on their own sites? Many have only a handful or perhaps a few more than a handful of votes for the same albums. And yes, you can safely bet that those other records on their respectives lists are stunning as well… Sometimes it feels wrong to not do even more for those albums, but I guess the Doom Charts are purely here to state clearly that the ones listed here, those Forty albums, of the 268 that received votes this month, are the absolute cream of the crop. The cherries on the doom pie, the pick of the heavy litter, the albums filled with every stoner bell and psychedelic whistle you can wish for… And when they arrive with such a loud bang as this months Number One… You can bet your furry little ass that it’s something special! It’s the First Friday of the Month and it’s the October Doom Charts!

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. LADY LUNA AND THE DEVIL – VAMPIRIC VISIONS VOL. I: LIVING BLOOD / NEW!

39. TONS – HASHENSION / NEW!

38. DEADLY VIPERS – LOW CITY DRONE / NEW!

37. ALL SOULS – GHOSTS AMONG US / NEW!

36. SONIC FLOWER – ME AND MY BELLBOTTOM BLUES

35. SURFSQUATCH – PLANET NEPTUNE / NEW!

34. ACID WITCH – ROT AMONG US / NEW!

33. BLACK SPACE RIDERS – WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE / NEW!

32. ELDER – INNATE PASSAGE / NEW!

31. LIQUID EARTH – TEUFELSKREIS / NEW!

30. KING BUFFALO – REGENERATOR

29. BRANT BJORK – BOUGAINVILLEA SUITE / NEW!

28. GHOSTBEEF – GHOSTBEEF / NEW!

27. SAHG – BORN DEMON / NEW!

26. LAZER BEAM – LOST IN OBLIVION / NEW!

25. BATTALIONS – KING OF A DEAD WORLD / NEW!
1096 Points
Sludge, Metal
Hull, UK
APF Records

BATTALIONS return with their fourth full-length release via APF records and it’s a blunt, bludgeoning slab of gritty Sludge Metal! Feral in places, unhinged in others, it’s a rollercoaster ride of venom and vileness!
~ Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe)

24. EDENA GARDENS – EDENA GARDENS / NEW!
1115 Points
Psych, Ambient
Copenhagen, Denmark
El Paraiso Records

Not On Bandcamp

EDENA GARDENS is something of a psychedelic supergroup, featuring Causa Sui’s Jakob Skott and Martin Rude (both also of Rude Skott Duo, London Odense Ensemble and others) alongside Papir’s Nicklas Sorensen. Chances are, if you’re familiar with those bands, that’s enough to peak your interest (and if you’re not, both are highly recommended as some of heavy psych’s leading lights), but the question remains, what does the band sound like? It’s definitely less heavy and less jam-oriented that either Causa Sui or Papir, but no less psychedelic or blissful. Single note guitar lines blend with synth and Skott’s eclectic rhythms to create serene soundscapes that would feel at home alongside a sunny babbling brook perhaps more-so than the gray weather accompanying the album’s October release. An exciting album that, along with the band’s recent live debut, would make one hope that there’s much more to come.
~ Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard)

23. BLACK MATH HORSEMAN – BLACK MATH HORSEMAN / NEW!
1136
Atmospheric Doom, Sludge
Los Angeles, California
Profound Lore Records

Four songs presented as chapters in one huge piece, a mixture of ethereal occult atmospherics and metallic sludginess boasting a swooping soaring dynamic that will appeal to fans of SubRosa and Kylesa but also possibly Windhand and The Haunted. Impressive stuff!
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

22. BLACK ROYAL – EARTHBOUND / NEW!
1274 Points
Sludge, Rock
Tampere, Finland
M-Theory Audio

Pulverizing and heavy-handed rock and roll is at the foundation of this sludge leaning beast of an album. The production is clean and fulfilling, the riffs are massive at every turn while the tempo, which can slow to a sluggish crawl periodically, is generally up-tempo. One element that is very enjoyable to me was the occasional mellow breaks that lean slightly into psychedelic territory. Those passages are used wisely to further enforce how devastatingly mean these songs are. This album sounds great at high volume levels. Make it happen!
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin)

21. UWUW – UWUW / NEW!
1337 Points
Psych, Funk, Soul, Afrobeat
Toronto, Ontario
We Are Busy Bodies

UWUW is a project drawing its members from all over the rich Toronto music scene, and the result is an equally rich psych album in sound and mood. The songs float along in dreamy, funky grooves, with touches of soul and afrobeat among the tasteful horns, saxophone, and trumpet. This is easy listening in the best sense, a blissful trip into psychedelia that will bring a smile to your face. Your day will be better for having “Box Office Poison” stuck in your head.
~ Kyle SB / Shasta Beast (Stoner HiVe)

20. RED MESS – BREATHTAKER / NEW!
1340 Points
Alt-rock, Heavy Psych, Stoner Rock
Londrina,Brazil
All Good Clean Records

If you factor in the grungy loud/quiet/loud dynamics, crunching metallic refrains, powerful clean vocals and tight solid percussion then add into that equation soaring guitar solos that can at any moment collapse into jaw-gaping dissonance you will probably arrive at the same conclusion we did, and that is that RED MESS called this album “Breathtaker” simply because that is exactly what it does… It takes your breath away!
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

19. LAGOON – BURY ME WHERE I DROP / NEW!
1420 Points
Proto, Garage, Psych, Doom, Stoner, Metal
Portland, US
Electric Valley Records

Submerged in proto-doom caves, the band from Portland offers us their particular lysergic and heavy potion with their new album. Six infectious and heavy songs that gravitate in a dark space in which psychedelic elements drug their monstrous doom-oriented riffs. With the shadow of Sabbath falling over the band, LÁGOON with their seventh album, no longer has to prove anything to anyone. Settled as a trio, the band performs songs with a primitive and raw aroma in a cocktail that includes both the most infectious heavy psychedelia and traditional doom, but also heavy-rock and dirty proto-punk sounds.
~ Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz)

18. SAMSARA JOYRIDE – SAMSARA JOYRIDE / NEW!
1449 Points
Heavy-psych, Psychedelic, Rock, Blues, Stoner
Vienna, Austria
Self-released

With a sound that is close to that shown by bands like All Them Witches, blues and psychedelia seem to come together in a wedding ceremony. With clean voices, the band explores smoky atmospheres in which the echoes of the swamp gracefully surface. Executing the songs with measure and precision, they manage to plunge us into a trance that slowly simmers, but with an extremely gratifying result. A narcotic album, but it is also an album where forcefulness appears in every song to remind us that heavy psych is its main creative engine, seem designed for introspection and the encounter with oneself..
~ Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz)

17. RATTLESNAKE VENOM TRIP – DEAD EMPIRE / NEW!
1488 Points
Stoner, Grunge
Dayton, Ohio, USA
Self-Released

The next great band out of Dayton, Ohio has arrived, and they are ready to sting you with their killer toxin that is equal parts heavy grunge and stoner rock resulting in one massive trip. You get an amalgamation of AIC, COC, and Baroness synthesized into a syringe and stuck straight into your rock and roll veins. Excellent stuff.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

16. FAITH IN JANE – AXE TO OAK / NEW!
1728 Points
Psychedelic, Space, Groove
Thurmont, Maryland, USA
Grimoire Records

A decade after their first EP, FAITH IN JANE are still rocking the ethereal realms and redefining the boundaries of what can actually be done musically out where realities clash, meld, and eradicate. The early Floyd/Hawkwind influences are there, for sure, but the Maryland shredders have their fingerprints all over Axe to Oak. Get in your chosen headspace, turn the lights off, and strap in for one helluva cosmic trip!
~ Gravitoyd HM (Gravitoyd Heavy Music)

15. BLACK TONGUE REVEREND – ALL OF THEM HAVE FANGS / NEW!
1925 Points
Fuzz Rock, Blues Rock, Psych Rock
Albany, USA
Self-Released

More than just another bourbon-aged heavy-blues slammer, BLACK TONGUE REVEREND’s debut longplayer smoulders in the shadows, stinkin’ o’ gin as it croons even the woodwork of this spit ‘n’ sawdust joint with soulful ruminations of a life gone mad. Imbibing these eight smoky shots does little to dull the senses, instead they ignite the senses and souls with an impassioned and fervent lust for life; needless to say, All Of Them Have Fangs will have you picking up your guitar, quitting your job, and hitting the open road!
~ JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex)

14. HOWARD – EVENT HORIZON / NEW!
1976 Points
Heavy psych rock, Space rock, Stoner rock
Paris, France
Les Airs à Vif / Season of Mist

Event Horizon is a brilliant opus of heavy rock. It’s full of fuzz, psych, space, spice, spades, Spok and stoner that also stands out for the quality of the vocals, a real sense of madness, and a whole lot of creativity in the instrumentation. The punchy ride on the accretion (compact) disk offers plenty of fun, although the risk of getting sucked into the black hole is real. Are you ready for a 2022 Grammy HOWARD?
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

13. THAMMUZ – SONS OF THE OCCULT / NEW!
2028 Points
Stoner Rock
Netherlands
Argonauta Records

Storming out of the gates with the thrilling, fuzz ridden, stoner trucking, opener Electric Sheep, we get ready for the wild ride that is the new album Sons Of The Occult by Dutch foursome Thammuz. With sublime touches of doom and a stoner metal much of the album will rock every heavy rock loving fiend to their very core; but perhaps it’s the standout track Guayota and Self-Taught Man that sets this album apart from the rest. Far apart in fact… Thammuz have delivered an amazing follow-up to their debut! All hail there far out fuzzy growth! All hail Thammuz!
~ Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe)

12. NEAR DUSK – THROUGH THE COSMIC FOG / NEW!
2493 Points
Stoner Rock
Denver, Colorado, USA
Iron Head Records

Stoner goodness and so many riffs but also both catchy as hell and aggressive in the best kind of way. NEAR DUSK kills it on their sophomore offering. There is not a bad track on Through The Cosmic Fog and Tony Reed’s fingerprints are all over the record making this sound exactly like you think it should: Perfect Stoner Rock!
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

11. MOUNTAINS – TIDES END / NEW!
3048 Points
Heavy, Sludge, Stoner, Doom
London, UK
Self Released

After their very cool first album, MOUNTAINS are back with their second album and surprise with really fat riffs and the corresponding groovy sound. The opener ‘Moonchild’ is an absolute hit and convinces with its interplay of loud, crashing riffs and wonderfully atmospheric, quiet vocals – unbelievably great. ‘Birds On A Wire’ also impresses with its very own atmosphere. Then again this combination of melancholic vocals paired with these powerful killer riffs. Finally we pick out the title track, which also closes the album. The 7+ minute long track has a little bit of Post-Metal about it, with slightly sludge vocals and those impressive, punchy, killer riffs. With “Tides End” the English surprise and delight us at the same time. MOUNTAINS have just pulled out one of the absolute highlights of 2022 and I hope the DOOM CHARTS will help the band a little, so that this will also be appreciated accordingly by the so-called specialist press.
~ Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz)

10. 3 WHEELER BAND – IN THE NAME OF THE HOLY RIFF / NEW!
3458 Points
Heavy, Groovy, Stoner, Desert, Seventies
Monterrey, Mexico
Gravitoyd Heavy Music

You take a measured risk when you name an album In the Name of the Holy Riff. If the record flops, you could go down as the musicians who lack a basic understanding of how to write a decent stoner rock tune. But that’s not a problem for the 3 WHEELER BAND trio. The band has written a string of big, juicy blues rock riffs pumped with fuzz, and the album plays homage to classic rock heroes like Jimi Hendrix while channeling contemporaries like Mondo Generator.
~ Pat Schober (Monster Riff)

9. PSYCHONAUT – VIOLATE CONSENSUS REALITY / NEW!
3550 Points
Psychedelic, Progressive, Post-metal
Mechelen, Belgium
Pelagic Records

The power trio from Belgium is back with an album that sounds like a force of nature! Their musicianship is truly remarkable, easily looking eye to eye with bands like The Ocean, Gojira and even Opeth. Layer after layer, they build intelligent melodies, garnishing them with a wall of crystal clear sound, while Stefan’s versatile vocals have the power to comfort you one minute and the next one break your heart. The title song is out of this world, featuring guest vocals by Stefanie (Brutus) and Colin (Amenra). This is exactly how a prog metal album should sound like. Hands down, one of my AOTY for the year!
~ Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture)

8. DEVIL’S WITCHES – IN ALL HER FORMS / NEW!
4272 Points
Psych/Fuzz
United Kingdom
Majestic Mountain Records

From the opening moment of this album, it requests the listeners attention in a subtle way. Far from what I expected, it takes us on an expansive ride while never fully committing to a specific genre. There are heavier moments along with passive 70’s style pop segments that all find a home under the umbrella of psychedelic rock. Not the melt your mind with blistering solos psych but more of an early Sid era Pink Floyd acoustic style. The band will turn the tides with a slow churning monster directly after. Complete with clean lyrics that could blanket any 90’s era grunge or shoegaze album successfully. So much fun!
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin)

7. GRIN – PHANTOM KNOCKS / NEW!
4590 Points
Psych / Doom
Berlin, Germany
The Lasting Dose Records

The sound that Jan and Sabine Oberg create on Phantom Knocks is nothing short of incredible. I recommend listening to this with headphones on because by the time the outro riff of ‘Shiver’ starts to travel down your ear canals, your brain has already begun to liquify.
~ Jonny Pirie (Hour of the Riff)

6. HALF GRAMME OF SOMA – SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS / NEW!
5616 Points
Hard Rock, Stoner Rock
Athens, Greece
SOL Records

Soma is that drug of happiness consumed by the citizens of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The Greek band HALF GRAMME OF SOMA is back with a superb third full length album Slip Through The Cracks playing stoner tinged with psychedelia. The skillful rhythm section is incredibly precise, the voice is clear and nuanced, the guitars are sharp or twirling, the arrangements are creative. So far from intellectual masturbation the band creates its own universe based on straightforward riffs, spontaneous melodies and addictive energy. Citizen, HGoS is the solution to escape a gloomy world.
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-Soma“ François (Metal Intégral)

5. BAARDVADER – FOOLISH FIRES / NEW!
6048 Points
Heavy Rock, Stoner Metal
Netherlands
Self-Released

BAARDVADER picks up where they left off on their self-titled release in 2020, but continue to expand on their heavy rock sound. This album is arguably heavier, more psychedelic, and more ambitious, grabbing elements of grunge and rock and covering them in a plume of doom filled smoke.
~ Ryan Foster (Slightly Fuzzed)

4. SUN VOYAGER – SUN VOYAGER / NEW!
6630 Points
Heavy Psych, Stoner, Garage, Space
New York
Ripple Music

The boys are back in town with a killer second album that is high octane desert rock right in your face. It makes you wanna take a long ride in the desert and blast it loud! Song after song you go deeper and deeper into this trip. Seriously, this is one of this years best albums, and the more you play it the more you like it, the more you love it!
~ ‘The General’ (Stoner Rock Army)

3. RUBY THE HATCHET – FEAR IS A CRUEL MASTER / NEW!
9220 Points
Hardrock, Prog, Psychedelic Rock
New Jersey, USA
Magnetic Eye Records

Sugary sweet bitter words embrace your heart while listening to this beautiful ballad that will hopefully reach many more. Two lovely voices, accompanied by incredible beautiful sad melodies & guitar solos will not leave you untouched. The wait for the new album was worth it!
~ Silvi Pearl (Doomed & Stoned, Electric Fire Records)

2. CAUSTIC CASANOVA – GLASS ENCLOSED NERVE CENTER / NEW!
9972 Points
Punk, Stoner Rock, Prog Rock, Pysch Rock
Washington DC, USA
Magnetic Eye Records

Turbulent deviations and chaotic interjections are the rules of thumb in CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s maniacal imagination; so skewered and fractured is it from the status quo unpredictability is all you have to depend upon. On their triumphant fifth album, DC’s most eccentric bunch burst through the levées separating their bizarro world from our own, flooding our innocent brains with weird and wonderful tales born out of bedlam and fuelled by anarchic fever dreams. No matter how many times the record spins Glass Enclosed Nerve Center never ceases to thrill; as wild as Roosevelt’s thundering buffalo and as tempestuous as any one of 2022’s tropical storms, your minds will never be the same emerging from this lawless powderkeg.
~ JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex)

1. THE OTOLITH – FOLIUM LIMINA / NEW!
13180 Points
Avant Garde Metal, Atmospheric Doom, Post-Metal
Salt Lake City, Utah
Blues Funeral Recordings

From the ashes of SubRosa rises THE OTOLITH a collection of musicians who make music that is as unsettling as it is soothing, a band whose grooves are a game-changing blend of heaviness and serenity. This their debut album is both majestic and masterful but is best described as mind-blowingly magnificent!
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the great SubRosa, THE OTOLITH delve deeper into the former incarnation’s dark meanderings, this time drawing in elements of Black Metal, Atmospheric Doom, Pagan Folk and Sludge Metal to create a spellbinding and captivating work. “Folium Limina” highlights a band of Vison, Scope and complete Mastery of the Dark Side. Spectacular!
~ Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe)

It arrived like a bolt from the blue, and as the sky turned dark, you could hear the heavy rumbling approaching… And at once you realized you were listening to a hammer strike against the gods… One that would ring on into legend… And forever… An album labelled as avant-garde metal might not always lure you in… But as the debut record Folium Limina by quintet THE OTOLITH shows us, we probably should have let us be ensnared more often. For Folium Limina is a work of art that’s capable of fusing elements of sludge, noise, black, doom and metal into a brilliant symphonic almost operatic album, dizzying, stunning and grandiose.
~ Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe)

The Doom Charts Mixtape…

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); Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard); 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); ‘The General’ (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); JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex); 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); Matt Hartnett (Aftershocks TV); Mel Lie (Sunday’s Heavy Tunes); Mike Williams (I Talk to Planets);  Mr Stone (More Fuzz); Nick Pipitone (The Third Eye, Monster Riff);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); Ryan Foster (Slightly Fuzzed) ; 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 Charts.

Here we are, you and me? At the very bottom? Well, why not leave a comment about your favorite album on the list?