Album Review: "Wick" by Royal Thunder

I had never heard of Royal Thunder until a couple of years ago when I had the opportunity to see them as the opening act for The Sword.  The outstanding feature of this performance was Mlny Parsonz’s haunting, angst filled vocals, which straddled the line between being sung and being shouted, but always in perfect key, and always with the gravitas of a tortured soul.  

I resolved at the time to investigate Royal Thunder further.  Tragically, by the time headliners The Sword had finished pummeling my brain with an onslaught of mighty riffs the openers had slipped my mind.  I failed to give them the attention they had earned.  When I saw the promotion for their latest album WICK hit my in-box, I was grateful for the chance to remedy this oversight. 

The band has made a point of noting this album is somewhat of a departure from their previous offerings, but it certainly reminds me of everything I liked about their live set.  Moody, dark and rumbling guitar tones, hypnotic drum beats and Parsonz’s spooky vocals.

Album Review: "Astra Symmetry" by Monkey3

The psychedelic slow groove music of Monkey3, isn’t going to generate any mosh pits, yet is still a heavy listen in its own right.  It is exactly the sort of music one would expect from a jam band sonically creating a map of the cosmos. 

Astra Symmetry, the fifth album from the Swiss quartet, is a concept album which attempts to serve as a trippy soundtrack to the zodiac.  Although they have toured Europe extensively and earned the respect of their native continent, this may be the album to finally expand the boundaries of their empire.

Album Review: "Oak" by Oak

Oak

Sometimes I get emails.

When I was younger, I used to have a song for when I got an email. It was a short song, very short.

(Please keep in mind that I began emailing in 1992...so I wasn't getting a whole lot of them at that time.)

Recently, I got an email from London. Apparently, there's a stoner/desert rock band in London named Oak.

I frankly couldn't tell you much about them, even now when I'm writing this post. The final strains of their eponymous EP debut Oak is finishing up and ringing in my ears.

But I don't have much else to say about them. So instead I'm going to ask the question, where in the world did the moniker desert rock come from? As a follow up, I'm going to further posit, did we really need another term besides acid rock?

Interview Karma To Burn Talks Stoner Rock, Numbers, and Malt Liquor

2/11/15 Setlist

When Karma To Burn came into St. Louis on February 11th towards the very end of their tour, they took out some time to speak to me.

Years on, they're still touring, churning out albums, and hailing the almighty riff.

Glacially Musical: Let's start off with the simple things. What are your influences?

Will, Guitar: I don't know. As a kid I started off with classic rock and heavy metal. Around 12 or 13 I moved onto a lot of punk rock and hardcore.

As a real little kid, I listened to real rock'n'roll: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis.

Started to get heavier, Zeppelin, Hendrix, moved onto AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Iron Maiden. Moved onto Black Flag, Sex Pistols, and Dead Kennedy. Then we came up with this crapola.

Evan, Drums: I grew up around a lot of music. My parents always went to shows. There was a good music community in the town where I grew up and I always gravitated towards the drums. I was always listening to classic rock, just the heavy stuff. It was obvious to me that when I was young, I was just digging rock'n'roll.

Sort of the same story as Will. Classic Rock and heavier stuff. Going from there, I had my ups and downs, especially my teens. There was some stuff in there I definitely wish I wouldn't have listened to, but I came out of that all right.