Discover Top Posts Tagged with #wandering midget

Reverend Bizarre: II: Crush the Insects (2005)

By the time Finnish doom trio Reverend Bizarre released what was ostensibly their sophomore album, 2005’s II: Crush the Insects, they’d already presented fans with far more music than most bands on a comparable career timeline.

And not because they’d discovered some magical way to extend a compact disc’s time limits, but because their unorthodox definition “EPs” saw them following 2002’s In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend LP with two “EPs” -- ‘03’s Harbinger of Metal and ‘04’s Return to the Rectory -- that each ran over 70 minutes!

In any case, Crush the Insects was officially given the “album” designation, and it arguably proved to be these doom ambassadors’ most accessible effort to date, thanks to an unusually generous ration of shorter, more brisk offerings like “The Devil Rides Out,” “Cromwell,” and hook-laden opener, “Doom Over the World.”

The latter found the boys clinking their beer mugs in drunken celebration and having way more fun than most bands of their ilk normally allow themselves (see also “By this Axe I Rule!” and “Fucking Wizard”); but then, not taking things too seriously was another special quality that set Reverend Bizarre apart from their all-too-saturnine peer group.

Yet none of this precluded the band from exploring more depressing themes on the desperately dour “Slave of Satan” (itself an edited-down version of a previously released “single”), the ritualistic witchery of “Council of Ten,” or the mystical tree-hugging of “Eternal Forest.”

And, while none of these tracks challenged the half-hour-long behemoths found on other Reverend Bizarre releases, many of them still easily craaaaawled their way beyond the ten-minute mark under the suffocating weight of Peter Vicar's hammering riffs, the Earl of Void's thundering drums, and bassist Albert Witchfinder’s operatic vocals.

All of which made Crush the Insects very much consistent with Reverend Bizarre’s remaining discography (unusually compact, speedy songs, and all), despite the self-mocking sticker found on initial CD copies that read: “The Biggest Sell-Out in True Doom.”

p.s. -- Some of these words originated in my All-Music Guide review of II: Crush the Insects.

More Reverend Bizarre: In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, Harbinger of Metal EP, III: So Long Suckers, Return to the Rectory EP.

The Atomic Bitchwax: The Atomic Bitchwax (1999)

I was sitting with guitarist Ed Mundell on Monster Magnet’s tour bus, in the summer of 1998, when he pulled a CDR out of a manilla envelope shipped from New Jersey bearing the final mixes for The Atomic Bitchwax’s eponymous debut.

This was probably as excited as I’d ever seen the almost painfully shy guitar wiz, as he played me a few tracks by his power trio side project, before we left for a radio station interview I’d set up to promote Magnet’s current tour and eventual No. 1 rock hit, “Space Lord.”

Fast-forward twelve months and The Atomic Bitchwax, which saw Mundell paired with ex-Godspeed bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik and drummer Keith Ackerman, finally unveiled that album -- whose 20th anniversary I am now celebrating here, in disbelief.

Where did all the time go?

As I wrote in the All-Music Guide, the trio specialized in high-octane, ‘70s-based hard rock infused with stabs of space rock and psychedelia, as evidenced by muscular stoner workouts (“Stork Theme,” “Kiss the Sun,” “Gettin’ Old”), frenetic energy blasts (“Hey Alright,” “Shit Kicker”), and extended jams (“Last of the V8 Interceptors,” “The Formula”).

And while, in Magnet, Mundell played sideman to the domineering Dave Wyndorf, in The Atomic Bitchwax he was the undisputed star, showing all the dazzling chops that made him stoner rock’s ultimate guitar hero on “Birth to the Earth,” “Hope You Die” and a manic rendition of his idol Tommy Bolin’s “Crazed Fandango.”

But I’d be lying if I told you any of these songs were as contagious as Wyndorf’s songwriting, so I do believe that The Atomic Bitchwax were fated to remain an underground proposition, even before their independent label, MIA, suddenly went out of business soon after.

Thankfully, the group was instantly snapped up by Tee Pee Records, put out a sophomore LP the very next year, and the Spit Blood EP in 2002 before Mundell’s commitments to Monster Magnet forced his departure in ‘04.

More Atomic Bitchwax: The Atomic Bitchwax II.

#the atomic bitchwax #monster magnet #kyuss #clutch #fu manchu #stoner rock #power trio #hard rock #heavy metal #alice cooper #glen buxton #nebula #los natas #orange goblin #wo fat #wandering midget #acrimony #eternal elysium

Green Druid: Ashen Blood (2018)

I feel compelled to call your attention to the deep green – not standard-issue black – vinyl pictured above, just in case it’s not apparent to the eye ...

With 2018’s Ashen Blood, Denver, Colorado-based, Green Druid joined a proud tradition of color-coded doom bands, including Orange Goblin, Blue Aside, Red Giant, Black Capricorn, Black Rainbows and, of course, Black Sabbath.

That’s them, dressed to doom in monks’ cowls à la Sunn O))), but, though their songs navigate similarly epic lengths as the drone lords’ do, Green Druid have a lot more in common with stoner-leaning doom bands like those cited above, plus Sleep, Acrimony and even Kyuss.

Electric Wizard and Sleep are other obvious touchstones for the lumbering, riff-roaring, minor key hypnosis of “Pale Blood Sky,” “Dead Tree,” and the album’s almost preposterously long, 18-minute centerpiece, “Cursed Blood.”

Meanwhile, additional colossi like “Agoraphobia,” the abnormally energetic “Rebirth” and the magnificently cathartic “Ritual Sacrifice” reveal a subtle eclecticism (yes, I said “subtle”) via atmospheric textures that one assumes were borrowed from post-rock, of all things.

But the clincher that convinced me to commit, and pre-order my copy of Ashen Blood were Chris McLaughlin’s more than acceptable melodic singing (*), which takes several forms here (echo-laden, distorted, whines that sometimes sound eerily feminine) to convey Green Druid’s Lovecraftian visions.

Now, let me caveat all this by saying that these guys are neither original, nor preternaturally gifted enough, as songwriters, to make this a bona fide classic doom/stoner LP, right out of the gate, but rather a very impressive one with lots of potential for improvement, still ahead.

* A sticking point for me these days; I’d much rather hear grunted, non-musical vocals, in heavy music than shitty, ineffective attempts to actually sing.

More Color-Coded Stoner Metal: Blue Aside’s The Orange Tree, Black Capricorn’s Born Under the Capricorn, Orange Goblin’s Frequencies from Planet Ten, Black Rainbows’ Hawkdope, Kyuss’ Blues for the Red Sun.

#Green Druid #Orange Goblin #Blue Aside #Red Giant #Black Sabbath #Electric Wizard #Dopethrone #doom #heavy metal #vinyl #colored vinyl #Sunn O)))#Wandering Midget #Mystick Krewe of Clearlight #Los Natas #Kyuss #Sleep #hp lovecraft

The Wandering Midget: From the Meadows of Opium Dreams (2012)

No, your eyes do not deceive you: this trio of super-baked druids from Finland really call themselves The Wandering Midget.

Their fantastically named sophomore full-length, From the Meadows of Opium Dreams (like, wow), though wreathed in herb smoke and steeped in stoner rock liturgy, actually roots its musical foundation primarily in creeping, rumbling melodic doom, topped with operatic growls.

In fact, cyclopean monuments like “Temples in the Sky” (20 minutes, alternating hypno-riffs, lysergic reveries, etc.) and “Follow the Forest Lights” (a mere 17, with some tasty blues licks) owe a LOT to fellow Fins Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.), but that’s OK, because they rule by any measure.

That being said, for those of you with things to do, dishes to wash, kids to watch, The Wandering Midget also provide a couple of relative “babies” in the twelve-minute “She-Wolf” and jam-free stoned rocker “Prince of Fire.”

There’s also a vinyl-only bonus track here named “Desert Prayers & Sacred Smoke” that grooves and lurches and rolls 'cross the sandy wastes like a bad-ass Weedian caravan, but I sadly can’t find a live link for it!

So I’ll part by pointing out, as if it were needed, that the evocative packaging seen above (complete with poster!) is part and parcel for an optimal, immersive listening experience of From the Meadows of Opium Dreams.

Oh, yeah, and drugs. Lots of drugs.

More Stoned Doom: Acrimony’s Tumuli Shroomaroom, Belzebong’s Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves, Black Capricorn's Born Under the Capricorn, Blue Heron’s Ephemeral, Bongripper’s Satan Worshiping Doom, Bongzilla’s Stash, Cathedral’s The Ethereal Mirror, Dead Meadow’s Dead Meadow, Dopethrone’s Hochelaga, Dozer's Drifting in the Endless Void, Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone, Elephant Tree’s Elephant Tree, Goatsnake's Goatsnake Vol. 1, Green Druid’s Ashen Blood, Hashtronaut's No Return, Haunted’s Haunted, Kyuss’ Blues for the Red Sun, Mourn’s Mourn, Los Natas’ Ciudad de Braham, The Obsessed’s Lunar Womb, Orange Goblin’s Frequencies from Planet Ten, Reverend Bizarre’s In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, Samothrace’s Life’s Trade, Sleep’s Holy Mountain, Sons of Otis’ SpaceJumboFudge, Spaceslug’s Lemanis, Toner Low’s Toner Low, Warhorse’s As Heaven Turns to Ash, Wo Fat’s The Black Code.

#Wandering Midget #Reverend Bizarre #stoner #doom #metal #vinyl #Finland #drugs #electric wizard #los natas #monster magnet #kyuss #Sleep #domkraft #black capricorn

The Wandering Midget - She-Wolf

This band deserves to be fucking huge. I wanna see these guys being mentioned alongside giants like Reverend Bizarre. Yet another reason why Finnish doom is fucking great.