Rhin - S/T(2013)

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Kicked off with immediate energy, some nasty fucking vocals, and Very old punk sounding tones and riffery Rhin are a 3-piece Garage Punk band from Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Second song is a bit more hardcore in delivery, but the vocals still keep it in the traditional punk arena. These guys have the classic tone, bright overdriven guitars with galloping mid range fuzz grind bass. If eyehategod were more punk leaning, they might sound like Rhin.

Rhin are very versatile in the variety of music on display. It's like with metal's need to blacken or doomify everything, Rhin needs to punkify everything because it sounds fuckin' cool when they do!

I am gonna guess that these guys are into Weedeater, because like Dixie, the bassist: Dominic Gianninoto; supplies the vocals for this band, the tone is very similar especially in songs like Shrimp and Blooze where the vocals are slightly similar as well.

There seems to be a good alternation in a few styles that Rhin are good at as a song resembling a more southern sounding Dickies song, Feed, follows after their previous exaltation of stoner rock bliss.

After pummeling you with punk blasts on Feed, you are greeted with another EHG esque stoner rock victory, Filth. This is my favorite song of the bunch and at this point I am just going to go ahead and call Rhin "Stoner Punk"

This sounds like a very well produced punk band from the 80s and contains many original ideas, especially in the collage on sounds found on Self-Righteous Prick(Spoiler Alert!!!: Wu-Tang sample).

At the end of the tape, Frost dethrones Filth as my favorite. I love when fast bands with good tone do at least one slow song to display how the tones breathe and mesh with each other. In this song, a tinge in the vocal delivery brings me to the most obvious and final tonparison: The Melvins. How did I not see it before now!? Rhin is a band that I believe have the same potential as the Melvins, especially in terms of longevity and the ability to keep a fresh perspective so as not to grow complacent and stale.

Rhin are an excellent band that definitely know their rock and punk, all I hear is flawless execution of both not only in tonality but also delivery, buy a copy of this limited edition cassette on their bandcamp today!

Toneparisons: Eyehategod, Weedeater, The Dickies, The Melvins

-Stonerhound

Dead Southern Bishop - Hymns of Malice and Discontent(2012)

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Dead Southern Bishop look a lot like they sound, like they could think of a million fucks to give but don't even bother, because who gives a fuck?

Mammoth sounding grit kicks off Last Rites that already has me excited to listen to this thing front to back

The tone sounds like a darker Eyehategod, Incorporating Phil Anselmo esque spoken word which is interrupted by the dominant Mike IX style screams.

They absolutely nail the wooly, woody sound on Bitter. This song greets you with a hellscream that is quite disconcerting, the vocals that follow on this one are reminding me a lot of Rwake.

Bound & Tied contains a very cool vocal cadence matching the tail end of the main riff. Present again are the deep gutteral, matter of fact spoken words ala Anselmo.

Malice sounds like the guys got really chiefed one night while watching Up in Smoke, and during the music sequence at the end someone decided to start blasting Slayer, the four(or perhaps it was at a time when they had 3...) must have looked at each other like Shaggy and Scooby had just learned the location of some scooby snacks and ran straight for the band room.

DSB does a perfect job of creating a huge Dirt wall, especially on Bound & Tied and White Trash Queen. If you really listen closely, you can hear different variances in grit coming from the Left, Right and Center...then when you blur your focus, they are cemented back together into one huge wall of wooly perfection.

White Trash Queen locks into a huge sludge groove at half time as a verse, then at standard time as a kind of chorus which ends up being a really awesome effect. I have heard many bands utilize the age old trick of Chorus being a backward Verse...but this trick works wonders for a listener like myself. Ending in a very sludgy breakdown that makes me imagine Thou adding about 30 bpm to their standard pace, this album has left me in very good taste.

The guys are endorsed by a kickass string company called Knucklehead that makes strings in WTF DOOM sizes for a very low price. I for one will definitely be giving these strings a shot, before switching to huge strings I always loved the sound and feel of the hexcore strings by DR, a luxury that this small company also utilizes within their humble means.

Dead Southern Bishop are one of the purest forms of Sludge I have heard in a long while, commanding a sound all their own while still paying homage to those before that built the sound into what it is today.

These guys have a good groove going in more ways than one, I believe they totally belong on House Core records. This is one of those bands where I don't care how often they release or the quality of the release, I will be watching, waiting, listening and sharing.

Hymns Of Malice And Discontent is available as a free download on their bandcamp.

Toneparisons: Eyehategod, Rwake, Phil Anselmo, Thou

-Stonerhound

Black Tar Prophet - Note to Nod(2012)

http://blacktarprophet.bandcamp.com/track/note-to-nod-side-1

http://blacktarprophet.bandcamp.com/track/note-to-nod-side-2

Channeling drones from the inner tarpits of the soul BLACK TAR PROPHET is a 2-piece instrumental Noise Doom band from Tenessee.

The album starts off with a non-chalant, groovin' bass line littered with samples portraying the irony in the world. When the samples drop out, the fuzz kicks in and the drums get to building.

When you thought the heavy was about to kick in, you are pulled back to the clean bass and what sounds like someone flipping through channels with an eerie underlying sound of some heavily breathing beast. If I had to guess it's Lucifer himself sitting back on a couch made of buds grown in the blood of the weak just after a giant bong rip, admiring the results of his influence in the world. Like an infinitely more mystical and badass Dr. Evil from Inspector Gadget.

The fuzz comes back and thats when Bassist Greg Swineheart really starts pushing it. Still relatively the same riff but each pass contains slight nuances in the drone dynamics, sounds like he is really slamming some pedal volume into the front end and lets it ride.

After letting the fuzz rip into wild feedback for awhile, BTP lock into an extremely huge early Earth sounding drone section that I wouldn't mind hearing on loop for the rest of eternity

Side 1 ends with a barely audible loop under a triumphant bass drone discussing beings with plans for humanity and society until she is cut off by a swell of feedback thats leads us into side 2 with a continuation of the monologue on extra terrestrial influence.

As Side 2 gets rolling, the imagery of 15s blasting and clipping to a point of warping and twisting wildly within their enclosures spewing forth sine wave distortion at their own whim. This side ends with a nostalgic acoustic outro with warbly Longmont Potion Castle reminiscent delayed vocal samples feigning alien assimilation. Too. Dope.

One of my favorite aspects of this band is that the music is a crystal clear reflection of the guys making it, although I don't know them personally, BTP are untainted by the narcissism of trying to be perceived as and rather just being.

The songs from this album were put together by Greg and former guitarist Mark Owen who ended up leaving the band before the CD was released. Mark performed the guitars for this album while Greg handled Drums/samples/tracking/mastering. Greg has pushed forward after the departure of Owen, recruiting Erik Dever for the split album with Crawl as well as an upcoming album in January 2014 which you will catch wind of here most definitely.

Take a hint from BTP, find a friend that plays drums and/or guitar, crank it loud as you can and just start grooving, there is obviously nothing to lose! As the cover clearly illustrates, your amplifiers are either a possession, or an altar...build your wall with reverence and let yourself be heavy!

Toneparisons: Weedeater(Sunn SS heads on the cover, and a concert lead as their bandcamp cover...this may be why...), Earth(early), Sleep, The Body, Eyehategod

You can buy and listen Note to Nod at the bandcamp links above or the bigcartel link below, make your appreciation for Black Tar Prophet OFFICIAL by also liking their facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/blacktarprophet
http://blacktarprophet.bigcartel.com/

-Stonerhound