New Stuff You Should Listen To

Been a while since I've done one of these, huh? I ran out of subgenres to give a primer on (no, I won't do post-metal, sludge metal, they are mostly boring), so let's go over new shit I found in my 1 year hiatus.

Orchid

No, not the screamo band from Massachusetts, only the finest Black Sabbath impersonators to come out in the last few years. Traditional/Trad/Retro/Vest metal came back not to long back, and gave us bands like Witch Mountain, Red Fang, The Sword, and such. As of now, the scene is transitioning to a more 60's-style hard-rock/blues sound reminiscent of early early eaaaaaaaaaaarly Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, with bands like Graveyard, Blues Pills, and Earthless. However, Orchid is the most true to Sabbath of all of them, with a fun drinking game being made of comparing which Orchid songs descend from which Black Sabbath songs. To start, No One Makes A Sound has the classic Sabbath Vol. 4 sounds cribbed right from Supernaut, while the lyrics are pure War Pigs-esque anti-war protesting. 'Course the music is still excellent, Sabbath worship aside. Theo Mindell has an excellent powerful voice that has more snarl than Ozzy's high nasal voice or Dio's power-metal-esque voice. The guitar work is awesome and a tad bit more blues-y than the average Sabbath song, and the bass has some really excellent grooves.

They have several demos and EP's available on their bandcamp page. However, they were signed to my favorite label, Nuclear Blast, not too long back, and have two albums out now. Mouths Of Madness is filled with new material, and The Zodiac Sessions is a collection of all their demo songs. Both are excellent buys.

Truckfighters

Josh Homme, you might know as the guy who helped create the most influential 90 this side of Sleep, called these guys the best stoner metal act of the last few years. Am I maybe a little bit of a huge fan of long-ass stoned-out jams? Yes, but these guys do it sooooooooo good. For about a week sometime in February, Gravity X on repeat was about all I listened to. And it was awesome. I'll admit, it takes a couple of listenings to really fall in love with it, but damn do you fall hard.

Both Universe and Gravity X are excellent, with standout tracks from both of them being Desert Cruiser, Manhattan Project, Mind Control, Get Lifted, and really, the rest of Universe.

Alabama Thunderpussy

These guys popped up on my Last.fm recommendations sometime in January, they are best described as the "metal Molly Hatchet", whom you might know from that one song near the end of the first Rock Band. ATP is good ol' stoner metal heavily marinated in moonshine, barbeque, and Credence Clearwater Revival. Given there is not a thing I dislike in that entire sentence, of course I loved ATP. Their best album, in my opinion is Staring At The Divine, where the song above comes from, and also includes excellent deep tracks like Esteem Fiend, and SSDD. Open Fire is another one of their good albums, with tracks like The Cleansing and Void Of Harmony, though those are the few standouts on that album.

Fall Of An Empire

More blues/stoner metal from the South? Its almost like I have a thing for that sort of stuff. Someone linked me to them on reddit, and oh man, it is a crime these guys aren't signed. Their sole album Songs Of Steel And Sorrow is available on Bandcamp, and is worth every penny. I can say there is not a bad song on this record, though I'm not accounting for my tastes. Vagrant Blues is a solid bluesy number, obviously, The Hero has a chorus that makes you want to sing out loud. Cradle My Ire has absolutely great everything, drumming, basswork, riffage, everything. If you're in the Spartanburg, South Carolina area, catch them, they put on an excellent show.

John Butler Trio

What, not metal? What am I, Relevant Blues/Roots Rock? I'm a sucker for solid blues rock, and Austrailian band John Butler Trio lays down some serious punch. The eponymous John Butler of the aforementioned John Butler Trio also has some serious chops, and that song is currently the reason why my acoustic guitar is in Open C tuning right now. I discovered him through his cover of Pharrell William. I really haven't found a song I don't like from him yet, from Zebra to Losing My Cool, to Treat Yo Mama to Oldman.

So that's what I've been doing for the last year.