Here Lies Man - You Will Know Nothing

By Calen Henry. You Will Know Nothing is Here Lies Man’s second album in as many years. The band’s sound is self described as “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” and difficult as that may be to grasp that’s exactly what they’ve done. Comprised of members of Antibalas, they know Afrobeat

By Calen Henry.


You Will Know Nothing is Here Lies Man’s second album in as many years. The band’s sound is self described as “What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat?” and difficult as that may be to grasp that’s exactly what they’ve done. Comprised of members of Antibalas, they know Afrobeat and how to expand its sonic palette.

Band founder Marcos Garcia explains that, in the same way Tony Iommi structured blues influenced songs around core riffs, they create riff based songs influenced by Afrobeat. The result is magical, and seems completely natural. The hypnotic grooves inherent to afrobeat are a perfect match to the equally hypnotic heavy psych sound of fuzzed out guitar and keys. It’s no fluke, though, the playing on the album is excellent with intertwining rhythms backing driving guitar lines.

Though I’m no expert on Afrobeat the album strikes me as being extremely dense and exceptionally rewarding for those wanting to deep dive into the music while also being superbly accessible. The production makes it an easy listen, too. The dynamic range (DR) score is 9, so there's lots of room for all the parts to come through. It makes for an easy listen - I’m on my third listen in a row as I write this.

Though not exactly metal, Here Lies Man are completely unique, totally heavy, and one of 2018's essential albums.

Shooting Guns - Flavour Country

By Matt Hinch. You know why instrumental music is important? Without the distraction of someone else’s narrative your mind can open up and create its own story to which the music provides the soundtrack. Or conversely, the opened mind can

By Matt Hinch.


You know why instrumental music is important? Without the distraction of someone else’s narrative your mind can open up and create its own story to which the music provides the soundtrack. Or conversely, the opened mind can empty and simply let you drift into a state of mental suspended animation where no inner dialogue interferes with peace. How your mind chooses to handle riff wranglers Shooting Guns and their latest effort, Flavour Country surely depends on a number of factors but isn’t it worth a try? Just to see? C’mon. It’s cool, man! (Yes, I am peer pressuring you.)

Shooting Guns generally have two methods for propelling you into higher states. The first is a hard-driving heavy psych and the other is a more prairie-fed approach leaning on Americana (or Saskatchewana in this case). On Flavour Country’s six tracks we get a taste of both.

The first two tracks (“Ride Free”, "French Safe”) take the former approach. “Ride Free” show no signs of organ failure as Hammonds are all over this one, driving the free ride down an endless highway. It’s a common feeling one gets from Shooting Guns and their ability to take hold and whisk you away. Their video for “Go Blind” always comes to mind when they’re in this mode. Just rollin’ and rollin’, plowing through whatever they encounter. It’s a more apt visual for “French Safe” though as it crashes harder and faster. Enough so that you can picture the train outfitted Mad Max-style blasting through the lines in its scant 1:42.

“Beltwhip Snakecharmer” and “Vampires of Industry” are the more dusty sunset type tracks here. Laid back and breezy. They’re more chill than the first two for the most part. After the high octane beginning these two feel like you’re stopping for the night on some sort of trip. The setting sun, stillness of night, and soothing psych lead to bliss as guitars and keys dominate with relaxing atmosphere.

A clip from the movie Slackers sets up the album’s final third where the title track and “Black Leather Jacket” bring back the heavy. Heavy psych that is. As usual a base riff keeps the tracks cohesive as the psych-laden leads wander the plains filling mind and soul with images and landscapes. Muscles get loose and eyes get heavy as the slow burn takes hold. Total zoner. But Shooting Guns always find a way to heavy it up, even just for a little while.

The ever-prolific band does what they do again on this one. They stick to their strengths (fuzz, psych, atmosphere, and groove) and deliver another strong album ready to take a load off your mind. Welcome to Flavour Country.

Monolord - Rust

By Calen Henry. In fine Swedish tradition Monolord's sound starts with a Boss guitar pedal. The Boss Hyperfuzz is the backbone of their world crushing sound. Its extremely aggressive fuzz paired with their mammoth riffs has become instantly recognizable.

By Calen Henry.


In fine Swedish tradition Monolord's sound starts with a Boss guitar pedal. The Boss Hyperfuzz is the backbone of their world crushing sound. Its extremely aggressive fuzz paired with their mammoth riffs has become instantly recognizable. Through three records in four years Monolord has maintained their core sound while evolving their musical approach.

Empress Rising was a meditative psychedelic introduction to their fuzzed out instrumentals and reverb-drenched vocals. An exercise in riffery off the highest order, they established their early mastery of long form doom. The production, though, was unpleasantly modern; almost completely void of dynamic range. With Vænir they moved their sound a bit more retro; opening, up the dynamics and adding an ominous Sabbathian edge to the songs. For me, though, it lacked some of the meditative magic of the longer songs from Empress Rising.

Rust sees them split the difference musically between the first two records but with better production than both, making it unequivocally the best Monolord record so far. In a year of stellar doom records (Pallbearer, Elder, Ordos, Loss, Dvne) I was skeptical that Monolord's comparatively simple approach would continue to yield solid material. But Rust stands out because of that, not in spite of it, by tweaking their formula rather than reinventing it to deliver a truly jaw dropping "traditional stoner doom" record. There are a few twists; guitar solos, an organ intro on the title track and a beautiful violin solo at the end of "Wormland" but it's mostly just Monolord doing Monolord the best they ever have.

The production clinches the album's doom supremacy. It's actually difficult to go back to their previous two albums because Rust sounds so much better. The added dynamic range and the organic production makes every part of every song shine.

Most of the songs on Rust are simply composed and performed but the composition is excellent. In contract to previous albums, though, the vocals this time around are as memorable as the riffs. There is something magical about Monolord's sublime monotony; the specific combination of fuzz, riffs, and vocals that's perfected on this record. Their riffing is so visceral that they can get away with the same riff for minutes at a time.

The album closer, "At Niceae" is 15 minutes long and features about four riffs, yet it's a standout track. The riffs and transitions are flawless. At the half way point it dramatically shifts to solo electric guitar, gradually building and adding slide guitar before a lovely acoustic outro. It's the longest example on the album of Monolord's absolute command of flow and composition but the whole album is a showcase for it with nary a superfluous moment regardless of track length.

Monolord have finally realized the promise of their first two records, one of the purest distillations of Sabbathian doom, and I would not be surprised if this ends up becoming my favourite doom record of all time.

Monolord - Vænir

By Calen Henry. Monolord sell a patch with a picture of a divine hand reaching out of the clouds to press the switch on a foot pedal simply labeled “FUZZ”. That image sums up their first record, Empress Rising a fuzz manifesto

By Calen Henry.

Cover Art Julio Reyes

Monolord sell a patch with a picture of a divine hand reaching out of the clouds to press the switch on a foot pedal simply labeled “FUZZ”. That image sums up their first record, Empress Rising; a fuzz manifesto commanding doomheads take notice and feel their bone shaking riffs, right from the first fuzz drop. Underneath the fuzz though and the absolutely killer riffs ran a strong psychedelic undercurrent emphasized by echo drenched vocals.

Vænir shows the same band coming into their own a bit, having already shown their devotion to the Riff and the Fuzz, the two stoner doom gods. The riffs are still stunning, and the vocals remain largely unchanged but the band isn’t afraid to shake things up a bit. They’re less obsessed with crushing tone and have crafted a more varied record with lots going on. The songs meander through riffs and themes rather than hypnotically droning the same few massive riffs (there’s still lots of that though). It makes for a more varied and somewhat pleasant listen, not quite as crushing as Empress Rising, but with more to reward repeated listens.

The result is not unlike Pallbearer’s Foundations of Burden; an undeniably mature sophomore release that leaves the first record as a still compelling statement of intent. Like Foundations of Burden, though, the maturity causes the band to tread closer to sounding like other doom bands. The use of semitones, and increased variety makes Vænir sound closer to Black Sabbath than Empress Rising did. That is by no means a criticism, though, merely an observation.

Vænir shows that Monolord are the real deal. They got everyone’s attention with the massive Empress Rising and Vænir shows they’ve still got lots to say echo-drenched, incomprehensible, and difficult to discern over the massive riffs though it may be.