“Summertime and the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the Doom Charts is high…”

~ Ella Fitzgerald (misheard lyrics)

Summertime… When the days stretch endlessly towards golden evenings, and the world seems to breathe to the rhythm of live music. I don’t know what festival season looks like where you are, but here it arrives like a glorious migration, transforming quiet fields into vibrant sanctuaries of sound, laughter, and shared wonder. Every weekend brings another invitation to lose ourselves beneath open skies, where melodies become memories and strangers become friends. These gatherings are more than concerts; they are celebrations of everything that makes life feel wonderfully alive. They remind us to dance without hesitation, to sing without restraint, and to treasure every fleeting moment gifted to us. I never tire of it. The roar of the crowd, the heartbeat of the bass, the pounding of the drums, the warmth of the summer sun surrendering to starlight, and the countless smiling faces all bound by the same unspoken language… For a few precious days, this is where the world feels exactly as it should. All those good people… Good People listen to Good Music!

So check out the list of 18 albums below, rediscover those that were already on the Regular June Charts and find all the others to dance to with all your new friends as the sun slowly sets… Want more good music? There’s always the Wayback Machine or the Chartchives to browse through… And below every monthly post you can find a list of Contributors; (also on the About Page) and they all continue to do wonderful work, throughout the summer, on their own respective sites… Check’m out and give them a virtual fist bump or a physical one, on one of those amazing festivals where you might meet up…

The following are words of adoration from Doom Charts Contributors, devotions to albums they could not stop spinning. Each month, our writers gather to celebrate the finest in doom, sludge, metal, stoner, progressive, psychedelic, and other heavy realms. Their selections are woven into the Doom Charts, published on the first Friday of every month. But some affections run too deep for the regular edition. Some albums fall just outside the chart, or inspire so many write-ups, and only one was chosen. Here, those excesses of love remain… Unfiltered, unbound, and still echoing… A few last words which hopefully will inspire you to listen to those albums…

22AD – SEE THE WORLD
Rock, Stoner, Grunge
Netherlands
Self-released

Some albums ask to be heard… See The World begs to be driven into the horizon. 22AD weave grunge ghosts, desert dust, and ’90s alternative into a hypnotic tapestry where sun-scorched riffs shimmer beneath waves of melody. Recorded at Far Out Sound Studio in Rotterdamn and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén, every song breathes with warmth, groove, and quiet power, balancing brooding introspection with wide-open skies. Echoes of Rancho De La Luna drift through its veins, yet 22AD carve a path entirely their own. Heavy yet graceful, rugged yet romantic, See The World is an endless highway wrapped in sound, waiting to be explored…
~ Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe)

ACID BRAIN – HEPTAMÉRON
Doom, Krautrock, Psychedelic Rock, Postrock
Taipei, Taiwan
WV Sorcerer Productions

‘Heptaméron‘ is de debut full length by Taiwanese outfit ACID BRAIN. Taking influences from mostly krautrock and doom, they find their own niche this early in their career by looking for cracks in the walls to let other influences seep through, like postrock and fragments of East Asian traditional music, while also recruiting Australian singer Lillie Creatures and Chinese experimental jazz saxophone player Li Zenghui for a guest appearance on one track each. The result is an interesting trip through different areas of the heavy underground and beyond.
~ Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe)

ATOM LUX – KAMIKAZE BUTTERFLY
Psych Rock, Soft Stoner, Pop Rock, Prog Rock  
Roma, Italy
Octopus Rising

I’m not usually a fan of solo projects, as they are—by definition—centered on a single stylistic approach that mirrors the creator’s personality. Often, the lack of a clash of ideas or creative friction results in something too uniform. When I discovered ATOM LUX, I never imagined it was the work of a single artist (Lucio Filizola). Kamikaze Butterfly is incredibly varied and full of surprises, cleverly blending vastly different genres: psych, pop, prog, and stoner rock. The five tracks are an absolute delight!
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

BANTORIAK – VOL. II
Psychedelic Rock, Desert Rock
Livorno, Italy
Argonauta Records

Vol. II, the first album from Italian stoner/psych collective BANTORIAK in eleven years, is built upon a base of 70s-era psych. Beginning with the optimistic, dreamy notes of Blu Bus, the album unfolds with open guitar tones that enter like the sunrise, becoming bigger and gradually warming the atmosphere. From here, intricate Eastern influences emerge, working to beautifully accentuate either the delicateness or the weight of any given movement they’re involved in while evoking images of harsh desert terrain. An undertow of hulking stoner/doom also begins a solemn march through nearly every track, typically at the midway point, adding dimension, balance, and a sense of sinister forces at play. The intensity of Vol. II tends to increase as the album plays on, the tone becoming infinitely more tense and trepidatious, culminating with the haunting, hair-raising sounds of final track Karpura. Even though a wide variety of moods are constantly at play here, the fluid movement and immersive cinema of the album guide you smoothly through each chapter. You’ll be lulled, transfixed, intensely engaged, and rattled as you float through a listening experience that infiltrates your senses, soul, and mind.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)

BIG|BRAVE – IN GRIEF OR IN HOPE
Drone, Doom, Experimental
Montreal, Canada
Thrill Jockey Records

BIG|BRAVE are at their best when they’re not collaborating with other artists. Just doing what they do best. No boundaries, just the sonic equivalent of shattered glass that gets stuck in your throat. ‘High on the Low Brow’ catches them displaying their trademark take on atmospheric drone and doom that’s drenched in feedback and at the same time haunting, eerie and angelic.
~ Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe)

BONG WIZARD – TRANSILVANIAN MUNCHIES
Stoner Doom, Doom Metal, Stoner Rock
Houston, Texas, USA
Self-released

It may be easy for some to dismiss bands with THC like references in their name but for me it does not get it old. As a proponent of these activities (for legal medical purposes only) I’m instantly drawn and I want to see how far you can take me out of this planet. It did not take long with Transylvanian Munchies the latest gem from BONG WIZARD. It’s 8 tracks brilliantly put together. The sick guitar tone, cool raspy vocals and plodding to sometimes aggressive rhythmic pace of the percussion complement each other incredibly resulting in a must listen for those who prefer their music toasty.
~ Hugh Jones (The OG Metal Prophet, The Prophet’s Heavy Underground)

CHILD – REBIRTH
Heavy Psych Blues, Hard Rock, Stoner Rock 
Melbourne, Australia
Heavy Psych Sounds Records

Walk in out of the arid heat and into a bar where a band plays desert blues songs that tell your life story is the feeling you get from the latest CHILD album. Rebirth, CHILD‘s fourth album is a gritty soul bearing slab of blues rock showcasing a slightly refined approach of the bands talents that give this one a little more crackle and fuzz.
~ Turbo (Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour)

CHILD are one of those bands that never fail to satisfy; their entire discography is loaded with top-notch songs that are built around sweltering blues, emotive vocals, and a rhythm section that keeps those songs locked in a groove. Well, Rebirth is no different as far as quality goes. However, the band have stripped their sound back to basics, allowing the songs to breathe, and perhaps revealing their rawest form yet, without sacrificing the sound they’re known for. If anything, the six songs illustrate CHILD’s identity even further, highlighting their talent and core strengths even more. Rebirth is a record built around emotion, lyrically it’s very intimate and personal, with heartbreak, loss, and a sense of renewal running throughout. Another solid entry in a catalog that doesn’t have any weak points.
~ Jon McGough (Stoner Rock Army, Stoner HiVe, Outlaws Of The Sun)

CORNUCOPIA – SONGS FOR UNFORTUNATE TIMES
Doom Metal, Heavy Metal  
Nantes, France
L’Ordalie Noire

One of the greatest pleasures I have with the heavy rock underground scene is being able to follow the progress of local bands that I have been fortunate enough to support for some time now. This is true with CORNUCOPIA, whom I discovered a few years ago. So, a few months ago, I was thrilled to learn that the label L’Ordalie Noire, which until then had specialized mainly in black metal, had decided to branch out into stoner/doom by signing the Nantes-based band for their new album. To me, this was a clear sign that the album would have all the qualities needed to make it onto the Doom Charts. And, of course, having listened to it several times, I can confirm that it has those qualities and more. SONGS FOR INFORTUNATE TIMES is a dense and solid doom metal album. It’s a fantastic collection of heavy, dark riffs worthy of the genre’s pioneers, a brilliant tribute full of respect. However, it contains just the right amount of boldness and modernity to make it a really personal work, firmly rooted in a long tradition. And within this tradition, the band fully deserves the place it has carved out for itself.
~Jay Baner (La Capsule Stoner)

Now THIS is exactly what I’ve been craving: no-frills stoner metal moving at the slow burn pace of doom and peppered with grungy soul. The creators of this particular sound, French quartet CORNUCOPIA, make a memorable first impression with their debut album Songs for Unfortunate Times. The aptly titled release offers up raw, weighty, and often bleak tones – powerfully cathartic in its relatability to the state of the world we live in.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)

THE DWARVES – JENKEM
Punk, Rock
San Francisco, CA, USA
Greedy Media

This is THE DWARVES being THE DWARVES, firing fourteen songs at you in a mere eighteen minutes. Still they manage to incorporate everything the band stands for: from catchy pop punk tunes with a bite to hard-hitting hardcore punk, all coming together in a red light pool of signature debauchery. It confirms the status of THE DWARVES as being arguably the best punk band ever to grace the piss- and puke-soaked fields that rest in the aftermath of a forty year long binge on this party planet called earth.
~ Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe)

FISH HOOK SMILE – UGLY LIFE
Stoner Rock, Grunge 
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Glory or Death Records

After disbanding in the early 90s, FISH HOOK SMILE recently reformed and picked up as if absolutely no time had passed. In 2025, the group released a successful self-titled album and is already back with a blistering three-track EP called Ugly Life. This release includes two original songs, Sandbox and the title track, as well as a killer cover of Black Sabbath’s Hole in the Sky. Sandbox in particular shows the band moving in a heavier, more metal-forward direction, while Ugly Life pumps the brakes a bit to ease into some grungy soul with hazy, doomy-psych undertones. True to form, FISH HOOK SMILE brings the essence of 90s era heavy music into present day on Ugly Life, keeping it authentic and infectious while adding a modern, weightier edge.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)

IN A FOREST DARK –  A GOD UNKNOWN
Gothic, Blackened, Death, Doom
Porto, Portugal
Self-released

The album’s depth, however, is much longer and deeper.  None of the songs really have a consistent structure per say but instead rely on a very natural flow across a sound that has a lot of details—this is definitely an album that demands multiple listens and each time you’ll get something new out of it.  I really like albums that one can dive into, sort of live inside, and this album is one that offers such an adventure.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (DoomedForMetal)

IN VESPRO – WHERE SILENCE USED TO SLEEP
Melodic Death, Doom Metal
Rome, Lazio, Italy
Meuse Music Records

Their sound is very longing and full yearning. The melodies, harmonies, and just the epicness in general, is more subtle and downtrodden than in your face explosive.  Considering this is doom, I can’t think of any reason it shouldn’t take this path.  Each song sounds very natural, with an even and smooth flow, despite the somber and destitute atmosphere. 
~ The album’s depth, however, is much longer and deeper.  None of the songs really have a consistent structure per say but instead rely on a very natural flow across a sound that has a lot of details—this is definitely an album that demands multiple listens and each time you’ll get something new out of it.  I really like albums that one can dive into, sort of live inside, and this album is one that offers such an adventure.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (DoomedForMetal)

KALAMATA – ZENOSYNE
Psychedelic Rock, Stoner, Post Rock
Hildesheim, Germany
Copper Feast Records / Made of Stone Recording

German instrumental stoner/psych trio KALAMATA releases their most personal work to date with Zensodyne.  Alternating between quiet, tranquil moments and surges of trepidations intensity, this album beautifully depicts strife, healing, and hope with immersive sound.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)

OKAY YOU WIN – END OF DAYS
Stoner, Heavy Rock, Grunge
London, United Kingdom
Blues Funeral Recordings

Blues Funeral is really on a roll; not just killing it with the established bands putting out amazing new records this year, but also with one of the newer groups signed to the the label, OKAY YOU WIN, out of London, England. These guys are no overnight sensations however; they have been putting in the work in the scene for decades in various forms, and we now all get to hear the fruit of all of their labor in the form of their debut record, End of Days, which is all about their version of grungy stoner desert metal that simply rips the place up while reminding you of all your favorite bands, be it from your choice of desert in California or the Pacific Northwest via 1992. Great vocals, excellent riffs, and a killer rhythm section, all paired with on point songwriting, End Of Days will surprise some with how great it is, only because you had not heard of them before. Killer stuff. 
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip, Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour)

OL’ TIME MOONSHINE – NOW I BLEED
Doom, Stoner, Metal, Rock
Toronto, Canada
Black Throne Productions

Toronto’s OL’ TIME MOONSHINE have prepared a cocktail for your pleasure while listening to their new record, Now I Bleed. A finger of Clutch, a splash of Down, a shot of COC, and a whole lot of riffs and melodies, shaken together, creating an experience that is a whole lot of killer heavy stoner / Southern metal while never skimping on the melodic side that makes this band so unique and this record so great. 
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip, Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour)

STARLESS VOID – MORS CERTA, HORA INCERTA
Atmospheric Doom Metal, Funeral Doom, Death Doom
Poland
Self-released

STARLESS VOID craft a deeply immersive journey through grief, solitude and inevitability. Mors Certa, Hora Incerta unfolds at a deliberate pace, blending crushing doom, haunting melodies and atmospheric depth into a work that feels both intimate and monumental. Rather than relying solely on overwhelming heaviness, the album captivates through emotion, patience and carefully built tension, rewarding listeners willing to lose themselves in its bleak and beautiful world.
~ Marek (Dezarbuzator)

THRAKIAN – THE WAY
Doom, Sludge, Post-Metal
Cardiff, Wales, UK
Aonair Records

The music of “The Way,” seamlessly traverses across a multitude of genres. The filthy tones of sludge cover the rhythms with a heavy grit that is impossible to ignore.  The slower tempo and melancholic atmosphere of doom provide the perfect landscape for the music to expand inside of.  The layered textures of the post create some beautiful and moving passages as well.  All these ideas and approaches swirl together as one big sound—it is quite gripping and infectious.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (DoomedForMetal)

VANDERWALLS – THE WONDERER & THE WANDERER 
Alternative Rock, Post Punk
Bend, Oregon, USA
Self-Released 

The Wonderer & the Wanderer, the new EP from post-punky alt rockers VANDERWALLS, feels a bit stripped down compared to the band’s previous album Life Like Liar. While their new music is still very post punk forward, the guys generally keep the synths turned down to a low roar this time, resulting in a softer sound that revolves a bit more around alternative rock/indie. This shift allows the listener to really focus in on VANDERWALLS‘ thought-provoking lyrics and perceive more emotion and warmth in the band’s expression. The smartly placed middle track Big Shoes stands out as the album’s fun and quirky, upbeat song, a bit of a nod to VANDERWALLS‘ earlier works, but The Wonderer & the Wanderer remains markedly soothing overall. In fact, this is the kind of album that one can count on for any mood: It’s light and refreshing enough to enjoy leisurely while being serious enough to elicit deep introspection and emotion.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)

Special thanks to the ongoing contributors to the monthly Doom Chart.  You folks help give voice to the heavy underground:

Adam Walsh (Earmunchies); Andy Kovalcik (Bandcamp-NYP-Hard&Heavy); Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard); Bob “Mr. Weird Beard” Baker (More Fuzz Podcast); Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick); Chris Beck (Doom Tomb Podcast); Cory Blose (Hobo On The Radio, TotalRock, We Are TRXSH); Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe); Hugh Jones (The OG Metal Prophet, The Prophet’s Heavy Underground); Jamie Laszlo (Sea of Tranquility); Jay Baner (La Capsule Stoner); John Gist (Vegas Rock Revolution / The Doomed & Stoned Show); Jon McGough (Stoner Rock Army, Stoner HiVe, Outlaws Of The Sun); Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe); Jukka ‘Shrike’ Kolehmainen (Shrike’s Listens); Justin Wittenmeier (DoomedForMetal); Kyle SB (Good Boy PR, Stoner HiVe); Marc-Eric Gagnon (Stonefly Effects); Marek (Dezarbuzator); Mitch Kline (DoomyRiffs.com); Remco van Hattum (Riffsniffer); Remi VL (Remi Post Too Many Links); Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip, Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour); Rob Hammer (Rob Hammer, Doom/Stoner/Sludge/Psychedelic); Roberto Fuentes (Red House Store); Rod Reinhardt (Captain Beyond Zen); Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe); Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground); Steve De Rique (Howls from The Hollows, Doomed & Stoned, Stoner HiVe); Svempa ‘Doomsday Jesus’ Alveving (Cries From The Underworld); Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral); Tom Hanno (Tom’s Reviews, The Third Eye); Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz) & Turbo (Rich & Turbo’s Heavy Half Hour)

Feel free to send in your albums to stonerdoomcharts@gmail.com where they’ll be delegated to all the Contributors 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 and your favorite albums.