“For most people, Friday’s just the day before the weekend. But after this Friday, the neighborhood’ll never be the same…”

~ Craig Jones

Friday is special… Right? We’re approaching the beginning of a new month again… The First Friday of the new month is when we publish the regular edition of the Doom Charts. The Friday before that, we publish the Peroration. But we also do Friday Freebie’s whenever we have the time on a Friday. Which means, Friday, is Doom Charts day… For many of us, Friday has always been new music day. And ofcourse Friday is the start of the weekend for most of us. Which means, Friday will always have a good vibe for most of us as well. And with the Doom Charts we try to deliver those awesome tunes to make the weekend even better, or set you up to get you through the following week… And we’ve got no less that 24 albums on this January Peroration Post to do just that. A few were featured on the regular edition, but a lot of them are here because one of the Contributors loved it so much he wrote a blurb about it without knowing if it would make the regular edition. Go check’m out! Check’m all out! They might just be your next favorite album!

The following are professions of love and adoration by Doom Charts Contributors for albums they could not stop spinning. Each month, the Doom Charts critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge, metal, stoner, psychedelic and other sorts of heavy rock albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart which is published monthly. However, sometimes a love is so great, but for whatever reason the album unfortunately did not make the published Doom Charts Edition or because there were so many contributors in love with that one album, that many decided to send blurbs for it, and only one got published… You can peruse that love here…

ANONA – ANONA
Pastoral Psych Pop
Brighton, UK
Sound Effect Records

This self-titled EP by ANONA is all kinds of strange, but beautiful as well. There is a mysterious edge to it, but a childlike naivete and lightless as well. There is some time traveling going on, past 60s Canterbury folk for example (the flute plays an important role), and dark smokey jazz combos from the 30s. And then there is the band that consists of all kinds of weird kids with special powers of their own, nine of them in total.
~ Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine)

ANZILLU – EX NIHILO
Thrash Metal
Helsinki, Finland
M-Theory Audio

Rampant thrash with groove that has been grabbed by the neck and dragged kicking and screaming into death metal territory…
~ Steve Woodier (Deathrattle Podcast)

ATSUKO CHIBA – WATER, IT FEELS LIKE IT’S GROWING
Prog Rock, Post Rock, Avant-garde
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Mothland

ATSUKO CHIBA deserves to be mentioned in their own right. With Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing they have created a powerful statement of eclecticism. It is an album that, like water, has many shapes and forms, yet always flows. It can be awesome and majestic, and harsh and incomprehensible, but it remains at all time recognisable.”
~ Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine)

BLACK SKY GIANT – PRIMIGENIAN
Stoner, Instrumental, Desert Rock
Rosario, Argentina
Self-released

Since the release of Planet Terror in 2021, BLACK SKY GIANT has drawn the attention of stoner rockers worldwide. BLACK SKY GIANT is surprisingly a one-man band and has been hailed by some as the best instrumental stoner rocker act from the South American scene. The release of Primigenian doesn’t disappoint, combining the aesthetics of space and desert rock with a trippy feel. Killer riffs and an expansive sound make Primigenian a must-listen for any stoner rock fan.
~ Nick Pipitone (The Third Eye, Monster Riff)

DREAD WITCH – TOWER OF THE SEVERED SERPENT
Sludge Doom
Aarhus, Denmark
Self-released / Bottomless Pit / Gateway Music.

Six tracks of skin crawling doom sludge aural abuse, crushing the megalith with riffs of gravitational force and neutronium density.”
~ Steve Woodier (Deathrattle Podcast)

Tower Of The Severed Serpent is the new album from Danish Doom/Sludge Metallers DREAD WITCH and like their name suggests, the band bring a sense of bleak heaviness to this album but also being quite inventive wit their progressive and trippy psychedelic sounds they bring to the album. The PR Sheet that accompanied this release stated this album would appeal to fans of CONAN, Triptykon and Devin Townsend. That is perhaps the best way to describe DREAD WITCH down to a fine art. As this album matches the bleak monolithic Doom/Sludge grooves that CONAN are known for whilst bringing a warped Progressive creative spirit into the album that have a Devin Townsend edge to them. Tower Of The Severed Spirit is quite riff-centric which you can hear on the stunning opening track The Tower which fuses down-tuned Sludgy guitars and gloomy Doom sounds for a slight WEEDIAN and FUZZY based song. The vocals from Mikael are aggressive, harsh and bleak but they’re very easy to understand. So you can hear all the bleak thoughts the band have written for this track. The song is quite intense with DREAD WITCH playing a wicked style of Psych Doom with flashes of a Post-Sludge environment that grows bitterly cold towards the end of the song. Tower Of The Severed Serpent oozes creative style from start to finish with DREAD WITCH playing a multitude of different sounds within the Doom/Sludge Metal realm.
~ Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun)

GREAT COLD EMPTINESS – IMMACULATE HEARTS WILL TRIUMPH
Atmospheric Black Metal
Saint Agatha, Maine
Self-released

Mixing atmo and ambient elements into black metal is certainly nothing new to the genre but so rarely does it sound as moving and genuine as it does on “Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph.”
~ Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple)

GYPSY CHIEF GOLIATH & END OF AGE – TURNED TO STONE: CHAPTER 7
Stoner Rock, Proto, Hard Rock
Windsor, Ontario and Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Ripple Music

Another amazing split from Ripple who is THE Stoner/Proto/Doom matchmaker. Todd has such a great ear to be able to pair two bands that somehow create a cohesive full length listening experience while allowing these great songs to get out there for more of the masses to discover how excellent these bands are. Five tracks from each band and exactly zero tracks that don’t rock.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

THE HOWLING VOID – INTO DARKNESS EVER MORE PROFOUND
Symphonic, Funeral, Doom, Metal
San Antonio, Texas
Funere

“Into Darkness Ever More Profound,” has a certain regal sophistication that is absent in most other music this dark. It is obvious that a lot of meticulous devotion and care went into the creation of this stunning album. Indeed, darkness has rarely sounded so profound.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple)

JORDAN PEACOCK – A DIFFERENT KIND OF STRANGE
Psych Rock/Jazz Fusion
Nashua, New Hampshire, USA
Self-released

PEACOCK is part of the army of multi-instrumentalist, one-man bands out there in our brave, new digital music age. His synth-heavy A Different Kind of Strange is an ‘80s prog-rock throwback with an ambient feel, the kind of record that would be great for dropping acid and taking a trip to a planetarium. PEACOCK plays the electric and acoustic guitar on the mostly instrumental album and gets a little help from his friends, featuring some spoken word and piano solos. This is world music-styled jams to groove to, but certainly not the cheesy stuff your New-Age-loving aunt likes.
~ Nick Pipitone (The Third Eye, Monster Riff)

JUNGLE ROT – A CALL TO ARMS
Melodic Death Metal
Kenosha, USA
Unique Leader Records

Okay, this album may have been released a long time ago, but I absolutely have to break a lance for the band JUNGLE ROT here. I can’t understand how their melodic Death Metal gets so little attention and has for years. Their new work “A Call To Arms” again has a splendid sound and numbers like the catchy title track, the superlative ‘Genocidal Imperium’, the pounding ‘Asymmetric Warefare’ or the equally grooving ‘Vengeance & Bloodlust’ bang out incredibly fat Boxen and are a feast for fans of melodic death metal.
~ Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz)

LITTLE PIG – LITTLE PIG
Grunge, Rock
Milan, Italy
Self-released

Not on bandcamp

Yeah, LITTLE PIG catapult you back to the 90’s with their eponymous debut and specifically to the golden grunge era. Already the first two tracks, ’27’ and ‘Cameo’ are the absolute top hammer if you like grunge. Groovy, rocking, melodic and above all, the great polyphonic refrains – great cinema boys. The rest of the eight numbers also rock a lot, have the typical grunge trademarks and it could maybe be the beginning of the next grunge wave – I would more than just welcome it. Well, now it’s time to support the band so that the Italians don’t get lost in the release frenzy, because “Little Pig” is just too great for that.
~ Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz)

LONDON ODENSE ENSEMBLE – JAIYEDE SESSIONS VOLUME 2
Jazz, Psychedelic, Free-Form
London, UK / Denmark
El Paraiso Records

Not on Bandcamp

This latest release from LONDON ODENSE ENSEMBLE will probably not float your boat from a ROCK perspective, but if you LOVE Sun Ra’s Adventurism, Davis & Coltranes’ Technicality and ØRESUND SOUND COLLECTIVE’s Cosmic overdrive, then this is for you!
~ Reek of STOOM

LORD MOUNTAIN – THE OATH
Doom metal, Heavy metal, Proto-metal
Santa Rosa, California,USA.
King Volume Records, Kozmik Artifactz

Do you remember their early Sabbathian debut EP? I think LORD MOUNTAIN follows the Heavy Metal history because 7 years later, The Oath is loaded with 80s vibes. I can feel the band’s passion for this classic doom/heavy metal. They dig into the influences of the great masters of the genre, resulting in this sparkling gem. I succumbed to the charm of the vocal melodies that sometimes remind me of this epic and medieval way that characterized WARLORD (another LORD). Crossing both genres, The Oath will appeal to fans of traditional heavy metal as well as Doom metal.
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

From the San Francisco bay, LORD MOUNTAIN pays tribute to the great legends of proto-doom and the most classic heavy-metal. Any gift for the most orthodox lovers of the genre. Hoisting the flag of legendary heavy-metal, the eight songs build an epic tale in which the riff is king. Yes, because we are dealing with songs with a simple structure, but with a power of persuasion and authenticity that not everyone can achieve. Supported by a masterful voice, LORD MOUNTAIN manages to get his songs to elevate us to heaven and then descend to hell with the blow of the sword to release the Holy Grail of proto-doom with more lineage
~ Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz)

The Californian four return with a golden nugget of traditional styled metal. That vintage sounding doom, with overtones of power riffs and fantasy styled lyrics, that thanks to the vocalist, will surely have you imagining those savage quests and perilous journeys you always hoped you would experience at least once. Indeed, the eight tracks on The Oath will feel like a full-on adventure, filled with enough mystique and lore to last you a lifetime.
~ Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe)

LOVE GANG – MEANSTREAK
Garage, Proto, Heavy Psych
Denver, Colorado, USA
Heavy Psych Sounds

The record kicks absolute ass in all its analog to tape glory. This whole album sounds exactly how I want a record to sound. Honest and pure, so fuzzy, amazing drum sound, and just wall to wall energy. Sometimes Blue Cheer, sometimes MC5, sometimes Motörhead, all the time awesome.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

METHANE – KILL IT WITH FIRE
Thrash, Speed, Prog, Metal
Stockholm, Sweden
Self-released

METHANE‘s debut album is as heavy and vicious as it is straight up fun. Old school thrash mixed with proggy guitar flair is couples with a knack for infectious rhythms, combining to blow minds and pump fists. These heshers knocked it out of the park on the first swing.
~ Kyle SB / Shasta Beast (Stoner HiVe)

MOLTEN GOLD – FUTURES PAST
Seventies, Classic Rock, Progressive, Psychedelic, Blues
Oslo, Norway
Kozmik Artifactz

A jewel carved with care to offer the listener his best version. Ideal for any lover of vintage sounds, the album contains all the elements to obtain a gourmet dish, worthy of the best palates. From echoes of the most classic progressive rock, to southern atmospheres, blues and classic rock, this album will conquer hearts. Are you ready to be seduced? The album is packed with beautiful country melodies and high-end vintage progressive hard-rock thumps, making each song shine with its own light in this oft-traveled sonic universe.
~ Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz)

Futures Past isn’t just a classic prog rock album, it’s a time machine that transports the listener straight back to the 70s in sound, style and essence. The band manages to make music that not only pays respects to legends passed but manages to do so in a way that feels fresh and exciting. What the listener has to look forward to is highly varied and excellently written guitar work, thick proggy bass, captivating synthesized keyboards, high energy drums and powerful yet comforting vocals.
~ James Sweetlove (CaveDwellerMusic)

NOTHINGNESS – SUPRALIMINAL
Dissonant Death Metal
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Everlasting Spew Records

Minneapolis five piece NOTHINGNESS play what would be best described as dissonant death metal but with elements of death grind and a focus on cavernous atmosphere. While the music is fast paced, furious and pummeling there is a lot of energy devoted to creating a suffocating, enveloping quality that permeates every element of the release. Just be prepared for the abuse that you will face when listening to this album in full and make sure you have the endurance to withstand it.
~ James Sweetlove (CaveDwellerMusic)

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS – LAND OF SLEEPER
Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Psych, Noise, Grunge
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Rocket Recordings

Land Of Sleeper is the 4th album from Geordie Noisemakers PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS and it’s their most aggressive record to date. Combining a raucous collection of Sludge, Doom, Stoner, Psych, Noise and Grunge sounds that only PIGS(x7) can deliver. Their previous album Viscerals may have been more riff-orientated and perhaps still my favourite PIGS(x7) album. However, this record sees the band on fine menacing form. Sludgy guitars with a Melvins based sound but with their wonderful local Geordie humour intact. The songs can be also more Punk based with a harsh Stoner backdrop on songs such as: Ultimate Hammer, Terror’s Pillow, Big Rig, Pipe Down and Ball Lightning. Land Of Sleeper feels like PIGS(x7) becoming of age and quickly becoming one of the UK’s most impressive Sludge/Stoner Rock Bands have to offer. This is a band on the rise and Land Of Sleeper will see the band edge closer to the mainstream. With bigger tours on the horizon, PIGS(x7) are the band to look out for. If you’re looking for a band with a muscular guitar driven sound that combines the heaviness of The Melvins with all the weirdness of the underground Sludge/Stoner Metal scene then look no further.
~ Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun)

SIGNO ROJO – THERE WAS A HOLE HERE
Sludge metal, Hardcore, Stoner
Karlshamn, Sweden.
Majestic Mountain Records

This SIGNO ROJO album is a brilliant opus of sludge metal! The sound of the guitars is aggressive, the singer screams with his deliciously hoarse voice, the rhythm section is diabolical, so everything tends towards brutality, however the tortuous compositions leave the impression of an inexplicable delicacy in the chaos. There Was A Hole Here is my first pumpkin-blowin’ album of the year.
~ Thierry ‘Pumpkin-T’ François (Metal Intégral)

These Swedish Sludge Metallers have evolved from their early Atmospheric Sludge Metal sound toone of more riff-orientated rock/metal with a slight Stoner Metal undercurrent appearing on theirstunning new album There Was A Hole Here. Embracing the modern rock route that Mastodon/Baroness transitioned early on in their career but the slight difference being that SIGNO ROJO appear still to be part of the Sludge Rock/Metal world. This album is definitely their most enjoyable and creative album yet. Merging Psychedelic Rock grooves and Synths for a more engaging release that you can hear in full force and effect on the sublime opening song Enough Rope. A song that matches the early Sludge grooves of Mastodon and Baroness with the Riff Rock drive of CLUTCH. SIGNO ROJO still manages to hit upon some dark themes within the song but everything is so damn catchy with the different styles of music that the band employs here. The Psychedelic vibes and clean vocals work surprisingly well with SIGNO ROJO operating between their early Atmospheric Sludge sound but with a modern aesthetic being the main strength of the album which SIGNO ROJO uses for the rest of the album. The other impressive aspect of this album is the excellent use of different Psychedelic and Ambient sounds that allows SIGNO ROJO to sound vastly different from their last album. A highly imaginative creative style that fully takes over on outstanding tracks such as: There Was A Hole Here, What Love Is There, Also Ran and Botfly. There Was A Hole Here is my favourite album from SIGNO ROJO and it’s good to see the band taking more daring risks and creative choices with their music. This is the type of album that I wanted Baroness to release after The Blue Album. That’s how great this album is and I’m hoping this album brings SIGNO ROJO more attention with the Sludge/Stoner Metal underground scene.
~ Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun)

SNOWCHILD – II
Traditional Doom Metal, Doom Metal
Wichita, Kansas
Kozmik Artifactz

SNOWCHILD inspire with their second album, appropriately named II, with Proto-Doom interstratified with Ozzy-esk vocals and spheric synths. Don’t be fooled and don’t be too quick to label it as Sabbath Worshipping. These songs need to be given time, you have to immerse yourself to unfold their magical beauty. Epic Proto-Doom of a very special kind!
~ Rod Reinhardt (Captain Beyond Zen)

SLOG – DIVINATION
Funeral, Death, Doom
United States
Morbid & Miserable Records

SLOG present us with a crushing blend of death-doom and funeral doom. 8 bleak hymns that blur the line between primal grief and metaphysical wisdom with terrifying intensity and eerie undertones. The power duo of Nicholas Turner and Jared Moran hit us with a perfect balance of droning minimalism and pummeling ferocity all seeped in a depressive atmosphere. Divination represents something elegantly gruesome that is just beyond our understanding.
~ James Sweetlove (CaveDwellerMusic)

SUPER PINK MOON – IRON RAIN
Post, Doom, Shoegaze
Lviv, Ukraine
Takoe Records

From Hum-like bombast to My Bloody Valentine vacuumcleaner antics, SUPER PINK MOON sounds like a machine, sucking it all up and taking it into space. At times the heavy end prog doom of Somali Yacht Club pops up too, but never too long. Overall Iron Rain is a strong and consistent album that will appeal to heavy mood heads anywhere in the world.
~ Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine)

TRIBUNAL – THE WEIGHT OF REMEMBRANCE
Gothic, Doom
Vancouver, Canada
20 Buck Spin

Arising from undead slumber come forth Canada’s TRIBUNAL, a new force of the gothic/doom scene with their debut album The Weight Of Rememberance, an album draped in a black lace veil, cloaked in vampiric malevolence, beguiling in its beauty, hypnotic with sinful perversion. This is pure blood funeral doom leaving most other bands of this type in thrall…
~ Steve Woodier (Deathrattle Podcast)

WIDERSIN – LOST IN GREY
Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
Athens, Greece
Self-released

80’s flavoured metal welded on to 70’s flavoured hard rock, a mixture of head spinning heavy grooviness and torch bearing melancholy that came out of nowhere and won’t be going back there any time soon.
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

And a special thanks goes out to Doktor420 for the cover image…

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 Decibel); 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); James Sweetlove (CaveDwellerMusic); (Jamey Morris (Fistful of DOOM); Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine); 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); Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple); 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) ; Scott Spiers (CleanAndSoberStoner) ; 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.

“I know you don’t smoke weed, I know this; but I’m gonna get you high today, ’cause it’s Friday, you ain’t got no job… and you ain’t got shit to do.”

~ Smokey