Kryptograf

Siena Root has been one of Sweden's best kept musical secrets over the past decade or so.  The roots (no pun intended) of the band are clearly in a 70s sound - a bit hard rock - a bit psychedelic.  Their earlier albums have a looser, jammier feel.  A Dream Of Lasting Peace finds them walking a similar path but the material is a bit more focused.  The DNA is still there - the sound is sort of like Deep Purple meets Allman Brothers.  No Southern twang here but the heavy organ work of Erik Petersson definitely reminds more than a little bit of Gregg Allman and at times some Jon Lord as well.  New vocalist Samuel Björö is simply phenomenal.  The guy has a great set of pipes.  So essentially in 2017 we find Siena Root refining and focusing their sound a bit, distilling it down to its purest essence.  So yeah the tunes might be a little bit shorter but you won't feel it.  You'll feel 40 years younger listening to this one - I promise!  BUY OR DIE!!

"REVERB! It’s one of my favorite effects. I’ve tried a few different pedals and played with some built-in amp reverb. With each unique sound, my obsession grows, and I want to collect them all like Pokémon. (Sorry the kids are watching that as I write this.) I love King Buffalo’s sound, especially the spacey tones. With their new album Acheron, I’ve realized to achieve these massive sounds, I won’t need to buy a reverb pedal but an entire cave. This hobby is getting expensive.A flowing stream from inside Howe Caverns is the perfect opening sound and as it fades behind the beautiful guitar work by Sean McVay. Instant chills. As Dan Reynolds and Scott Donaldson join in on bass and drums respectively, even more emotions are felt. One of those feelings was that of jealousy towards JJ Koczan. He got to experience the first song, titled Acheron, first hand inside the cave! Although technical difficulties, and a long load in, prevented him from hearing the remaining three songs, I bet it was an incredible experience.At about ten minutes long, Acheron weaves between those beautiful soft, clean tones with a crunchy distortion that is multiplied as it bounces back off the cave walls. It’s such a full sound and as the distortion cuts out it echoes for seemingly eternity as McVay continues the single note picking. The dynamics are what I love most about King Buffalo as they take it to new heights by weaving serenity with sheer distorted power.Zephyr starts off with a cool drumbeat by Donaldson with droning guitars and layered riffs on top. The music builds little by little and McVay’s voice becomes more intense leading up to a solo that has an insane tone with a lot more of that echoing. Again chills. I’m also fond of how it cuts out abruptly and back to the calm intro, but this time with some spacey vibes. One reason I love King Buffalo is how they completely switch up the song in the middle. With Zephyr, at five minutes in there is the gnarliest crunchy riff that continues with thundering drums and heavy bass. This goes on for a while, adding in a sweet solo, and then wraps up with the beginning of the song seamlessly.three outstanding musicians have created a captivating song [Cerberus] that draws energy from the cave to the sound waves that hit your ear…The rhythm section of the band really shines here. Shadows starts with a simple, yet awesome sounding, drumbeat using the kick and rim of the snare. Reynolds shows off a little here with a moving bass line. The spacey guitars aren’t far behind and are placed over top. One lyric McVay sings is ‘there’s no horizon’ and I know they aren’t singing about their career, but what they’ve put out this last year alone as King Buffalo has an endless horizon to travel.Cerberus concludes this four, long song, album with the near ten-minute epic conclusion. The droning siren intro and psychedelic sounds blend into the background as the drums take the lead in the beginning. Then, the signature triplet palm muted riffs come flooding in towards the middle. The riff actually reminds me of the music playing during the car chase scene on The Matrix Reloaded (the only good part of that movie). These three outstanding musicians have created a captivating song that draws energy from the cave to the sound waves that hit your ear.The Burden Of Restlessness is still on repeat for me but only to be bumped by Acheron now. The cave setting has elevated this album as the music is epic. I hope King Buffalo do a cave tour in the future and if they’re reading this, there’s a cave in Pelham, Tennessee called The Caverns that also happens to be a concert venue and I can provide any information they need to get that show booked!" - The Sleeping Shaman

"The story unfolds in space, be it outer or inner. The path is dark, but the dog will lead the way, just like the hieroglyphs hewn in the eternal oak. The time has come. The claws of the machine accelerate as we thrust into the abyss. From here, a distant light grows like a faint sound from within - getting louder and louder until we realize - there will be no sleep this year. The journey ends where birds used to sing. Sølvhjerneskaller (The Silver Brain Shells) is the second album from Måneskjold following the critically acclaimed Kometen Kommer from 2016. The record is heavily inspired by the space rock sounds that characterized the first album but has a bigger emphasis on the heavier stoner rock sound of the band. Ranging from acoustic psych rock over droning, hypnotic jams to almost prog rock sounding epics, Sølvhjerneskaller is a far more varied and more mature album than its predecessor. Måneskjold pays more attention to song writing while spending a little less time on jamming. The result is a more focused album firmly rooted in the old sound of the band but with plenty of new ideas realized throughout. Sølvhjerneskaller follows two narratives that lead the way through side A and B respectively. Both deal with the theme of destruction and rebirth. Side A follows the legend of the silver brain shells: a story of inner turmoil presented as an intergalactic odyssey of the search for the missing parts of our narrator. From the harvesting of raw materials on faraway planets and back to the forests of planet earth the search seems to be never ending. Side B tells the story of Primus: a man deadly scarred by the destruction of earth through natural catastrophes, who is reawakened onboard a spaceship. Upon reawakening he realizes that his body and consciousness is beginning to merge with the space craft. These two storylines have inspired the gatefold cover where a comic reinterprets the narrative of the songs and turn them into surrealist strips. The comic strips were made by NMAAR while the front was made by Michael Bech Hussein. "

"It feels like a long since I reviewed Saint Karloff’s second album Interstellar Voodoo back in 2019. In those heady days, I was younger, thinner and, possibly, ever so slightly less bald. I was definitely more naïve as well – there’s no way that I’d volunteer to review an album consisting of a single 30+ minute-long track these days. Good, bad or indifferent that’s just too much like actual work.Things have changed for Saint Karloff as well but in more profound ways. Founding member and bass player Ole Sletner passed away in 2021 even as work on this next album was underway. Fortunately for us, the band decided to soldier on with the help of Ole’s brother Elvind as lyricist and Jointhugger’s Nico Munkvold playing bass at live performances. The result is Paleolithic War Crimes and it’s a real treat.I’ll be honest with you: I don’t remember a great deal about Interstellar Voodoo beyond it being a total bitch to review. I recall it being heavy on the vintage-flavoured stoner doom and having some proggy flourishes, but it didn’t make a massive impression on me. This time round, Saint Karloff have turned everything up to 11 to produce an absolute corker of an album. Without being self-consciously retro it has a definite ‘70s all-analogue flavour, mixing the expected stoner doom with an even bigger dollop of prog. Best of all, there are numerous moments that had me remembering a whole slew of classic stoner rock albums from the turn of the millennium which always makes me happy.Psychedelic Man opens with a pounding, mesmeric riff before slowing down into one of those menacing stoner-doom sections that we all know and love. We then have some nice alternating between the two, and just for yucks, Saint Karloff chuck in some bouncy old school stoner sections. It’s a really awesome way to kick of a record – more groove than you could shake a gnarly stick at and with enough switching around between kick-ass riffs to keep even the most easily bored listener interested.Blood Meridian immediately gets toes tapping with a strutting boogie riff before wandering off down an unexpected proggy path with swirly keys and some interesting drumming. That wouldn’t necessarily be quite my bag, but Saint Karloff do it so well and keep things plenty heavy that I’ve no grounds for complaint. Next up we have Among Stone Columns, the obligatory Planet Caravan-style interlude. It’s nicely played, brings to mind balmy summer evenings and only lasts two minutes. I’m good with that.Bone Cave Escape is the centrepiece of the album, appearing as it does in the, um, middle and being really good. This one really harks back to the heyday of stoner rock, kicking things off with four minutes off full-throttle, foot-to-the-floor heavy rock that belong on a record with some sort of muscle car on the front (possibly with Earth rising over the horizon). Cool vocals, a sweet guitar solo leading into a stomping section that really reminded me of QOTSA’s Tension Head and oodles of strutting ‘70s attitude. Brilliant stuff. Just to keep you on your toes though, in typical Saint Karloff fashion, the final two minutes introduces flute, acoustic guitars and performs a complete 180. Awesome on many, many levels.Nothing To Come does the opposite, beginning as a mellow, acoustic proggy number that you could imagine someone donning medieval garb to play. After the bass kicks in, we have a minute or two of flat-out rocking, before settling on a middle ground that combines elements of each section. Death Don’t Have No Mercy has the sort of bluesy feel that you’d expect from the bad grammar in the title, played through a filter of classic stoner rock – very much in the vein of fellow Norwegians Lonely Kamel. I loved the guitar tone on this one, straight from somewhere in Sweden back in 1999, and it marks another one of the subtle changes of mood across the record. Saint Karloff close things out with Supralux Voyager, the sort of epic slow-burn prog odyssey that feels like the only way to end a record like this. A thoroughly satisfying conclusion.Paleolithic War Crimes is such a good record on so many levels: it’s heavy, it swings, it’s brilliantly played and it’s surprisingly diverse. People deal with grief and loss in different ways and it’s not for me to say whether any of them are right or wrong. However, if Saint Karloff were looking to honour the memory of their former friend and band member by releasing one of the rocking-est albums of the year, then I reckon they’ve very much succeeded." - The Sleeping Shaman 

"At one time I considered myself to be Norse Pagan, and though I don’t follow that path anymore, I still have an affinity for Norse Mythology and the lessons contained within their stories. So, when I discovered that the upcoming Mr. Bison album, Echoes Of The Universe, was based upon The Norns, I was more than intrigued, I was downright ecstatic with anticipation. Let’s jump into things with a brief description of The Norns, and why they were so important to Viking Culture.The Norns are three sisters named Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld. They lived underneath Yggdrasil, the world tree, where they work to, according to the albums press statement, ‘weave the threads of universal destiny on a tapestry, in which all existence, in a continuous mix of past, present and future, intersect and influence each other, thereby generating a kaleidoscopic vortex of infinite and unpredictable possibilities’. In other words, they create the fate of each person before birth, and their choices can either be of benefit to that person, or a hindrance that has the power to negatively impact their lives. The Norns hold the keys to our destiny, and they turn them at will.As intriguing as that description may be, it pales in comparison to the music that Mr. Bison recorded for this album. Mixing progressive rock, heavy psych, stoner and psychedelic rock, the band brings us music that takes us on a journey filled with riffs, exceptional vocals and a keen knack for storytelling. It’s also worthy to note that the people that these songs are about are never mentioned by name, leaving the listener to really dig in in order to glean their true meanings. However, the band hooked me up with the info, and for the tracks that we discuss, I will be naming them for you.Echoes Of The Universe begins with The Child Of The Night Sky, a tale of the great wolf Fenrir, son of the trickster God named Loki and a giantess named Angrboða. Fenrir is the bringer of the end of the world, also known as Ragnarok, killer of Odin, and eater of the sun. This song details how the Gods betrayed and trapped Fenrir in order to change their destiny, but The Norns had already written out the fates of the Gods. The music on this treads common ground with progressive bands like Yes and Rush, mostly Yes though. The vocals of Matteo Sciocchetto seem to float perfectly over the music, and the stoner based riffs fit in with style and precision.Dead In The Eye is Odin’s talk with The Norns, in which they discussed his vision of Ragnarok. I would never have gotten that from the lyrics, as they come across as quite cryptic, but from what I can tell, the lyrics are indeed a back and forth conversation. The music and performances are where the song really shines though, as Mr. Bison are skilled players, weaving a tapestry of sounds that go from mellow to aggressive and back again. The vocals are outstanding, but if you know this band at all, then you knew that this would be the case.Another standout is The Veil, a song about trying to escape the destiny written out before your birth, and in my humble opinion, this is the best of the seven songs. The main riff is a bit hypnotic, there’s an element to it I found myself focusing on, losing the outside world to venture into the world that Mr. Bison is in, and it enhanced my listening experience. Literally everything about this song is exceptional, the riffs, the melody, the progressive tendencies, it’s all absolutely fantastic.There are four other songs on this album, but I’ll leave them for you to dissect on your own because part of the experience of this album is figuring out the meanings to the lyrics. However, I will assure you that these songs are incredibly strong, and they all exemplify the best songwriting that this band has had to date." - The Sleeping Shaman

Its been seven years since we heard from this great Canadian band.  Covid held them back but here they are with their fifth album.  This Canadian quartet champions a retro-prog/doom sound that could almost make you think its some long lost recording from the early 70s.  The band is fronted by Alia O'Brien who also plays flute and organ.  There is a touch of the occult going on here, reminiscent of The Devil's Blood.  Toss in a little Jethro Tull, maybe an even greater helping of Black Sabbath and it will put you in the right direction.  BUY OR DIE!Mesmerizing and multi-faceted, Blood Ceremony have spent the last several years blurring the lines between heavy music’s past and present. Formed in Toronto, Canada, in 2006, they were swiftly heralded as a cut above the retro rock pack, armed as they were with a sound that incorporated the riff-driven power of doom, the woozy, warm glow of psychedelia and the flute-fueled magick of acid folk and rootsy prog. After releasing their self-titled debut album through Rise Above Records in 2008, Blood Ceremony have been a superlative presence in the underground; expanding their sonic vision in multiple directions, as albums like 2013’s The Eldritch Dark and, most recently, Lord of Misrule (2016) set a new standard for kaleidoscopic, analogue fervor.Seven years have passed since Blood Ceremony last released a full-length album, but that all changes in 2023. Pieced together during lockdown months, and brought to fruition with a host of esteemed special guests, the Canadians’ fifth album, The Old Ways Remain, is set to emerge in the spring. Diverse, hypnotic and eminently groovy, the new songs push Blood Ceremony’s sound into new territory while also honoring the atavistic ethos that has led them to such triumphs in the past. Initial plans to repeat the successful formula that birthed Lord of Misrule and fly to the UK to record again at Toe Rag Studios in London fell victim to Covid restrictions, and so Sean and his comrades – Alia O’Brien (vocals/flute/organ), Lucas Gadke (bass) and Michael Carrillo (drums) – switched to a simpler but equally satisfying Plan B.“By late 2021, we realized that if we were ever going to finish a new album, we’d just have to record locally and do it ourselves,” says guitarist Sean Kennedy. “And that’s what we did. We started rehearsing the material again and were still really excited by it. Once we revisited everything, we had a new burst of energy. We found a local studio that had what we needed and we were off! Recording nearby allowed us to bring in friends like Laura Bates from (fellow folk-doom crew) Völur to play fiddle, Joseph Shabason added saxophone to Eugenie, and Mike Eckert played pedal steel on Hecate. We produced ourselves, along with our friend, Paul Kehayas. We worked with an engineer named Chris Snow who immediately got what we were trying to do. Richard Whittaker mixed the tracks at his London, UK, studio, and we think he did a great job.”A vital testament to Blood Ceremony’s collective efficacy, The Old Ways Remain is an album for those who love great songs, great riffs and cryptic tales from the outer limits. Along the way, there are strident, balls-out psych rockers like sizzling opener The Hellfire Club (which Sean Kennedy is at pains to say was written before Netflix smash Stranger Things co-opted the phrase!), the swinging, occult stomp of Ipsissimus, the sharp and catchy Hecate, and the absurdly groovy Lolly Willows (previously released as a single in 2019); while the more expansive likes of Eugenie, The Bonfires At Belloc Coombe and wistful closer Song Of The Morrow take the band’s music into gently unfamiliar territory, as their sonorous blend of heaviness and hallucination truly takes flight.“This album is a continuation of our sound, although with every album we try to push ourselves in some new musical directions,” Sean notes. “The album has some folk-rock songs, as well as some heavier tracks, and others with more of a pop vibe. Having said that, we can’t escape ourselves, and I think it will fit alongside our previous releases. One big difference with this record is that we included a song that wasn’t written by a band member. My wife, Amy Bowles, wrote Mossy Wood, which I think is a great folk-rock song. She had written it for an earlier group that she and I were in. It really fit the overall vibe of the record.”And what a vibe that is. The Old Ways Remain stays true to Blood Ceremony’s illustrious past, and yet its reach is longer and broader than on any previous album. Nonetheless, the record’s title comes across as a renewed statement of intent, as the unwavering power of the riff and a huge dose of imagination collide once again, but with more style, class, and enduring impact than ever before.“The Old Ways Remain is taken from a line in an earlier Blood Ceremony song,” Sean explains. “It seems appropriate, actually. We always seem to come back to this idea of the ancient world haunting the present. Arthur Machen explored this in books like The Hill of Dreams and his writing has been a big influence.”Undeniably long-awaited but very much worth the wait, Blood Ceremony’s return promises to inject some otherworldly charm back into the underground. As their songwriting prowess grows and their music takes on deeper and brighter colors in response, the quartet are perfectly poised to renew their special relationship with nostalgic riff-worshippers everywhere. Come the spring, the Old Ways will cast their spell all over again.“We’re looking forward to releasing The Old Ways Remain. It’s been a long time coming, so we’re eager to finally get the songs out there and we hope people enjoy them,” Sean concludes. We have a UK and European tour coming up in May 2023 with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats which will be a great time. It’s been a rough few years, but the old ways remain and the ancient gods live on!”"