Starlight Ritual - Age of the Universe

2016

Killer Metal with killer vocals. Three song e.p. Excellent!

Cough - Still They Pray

2016

Sounds just like old school Electric Wizard, and I'm not even being a lazy reviewer this time.

Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - y proffwyd dwyll

2016

Big huge heavy crushing marches with some spacey trippy sounds tossed in too. The thing that sets these guys apart is the vocals. There's layered female vocals that remind me of 90's bands. Almost like Curve, or My Bloody Valentine.

Black Rainbows - Stellar Prophecy

2016

Sounds a lot like Fu Manchu/Nebula stuff and sounds like Dead Meadow. Heavy psychedelic rock. Lots of nice trippy space out parts.

Trees of Eternity - Hour of the Nightingale

2016

Mournful doom. Sorrowful vocals carry this solid doom album. I don't know the boundaries of gothic or funeral doom. If your a fan of SubRosa this falls in that ballpark.

Planet of Zeus - Loyal to the Pack

2016

This is stoner rock kinda along the lines of Brant Bjork, little bit like Alice in Chains, but not really. Vocals are kinda gruff and there's a bit of a southern tinge to this stoner rock. They're from Greece.

Wasted Theory - Defenders of the Riff

2016

 Really heavy Hard rock vibe. Little bit of tough guy attitude. Like a biker...and Whiskey soaked vocals. Southern vibe.

Black Tomb - Black Tomb

2016

Sludge. For fans of Eyehategod. They drag it out sometimes too, along the lines of Graves at Sea. There's some tasty solos happening once in a while.

Droids Attack - Sci - Fi or Die

2016

I don't know why fans of the Melvins wouldn't like this. If you like Weedeaters stoney groove jams you also would like this. Searing guitars and big production.

Mountain Dust - Nine Years

2016

Rockin' 70's jam out with keyboards. Really good. Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin heaviness and Goatsnake and Sleep.

Conan - Revengence

2016

Big, big, big heavy oppressing crush. An incredibly huge wall of crush, low as you can imagine. The whole album is 48 minutes, but pretty much each song sounds like it's 48 minutes long. They break it up with faster stuff. This album is probably in reality pretty well balanced as far as fast and slow are concerned, but the slow parts, it's like you're drowning. 

Holy Grove - Holy Grove

2016

Heavy straight ahead rockin'. Big riffs of hard rockin' and wailin' vocals. WAILING vocals. Thumbs up. I can appreciate how good this is, man though, these big wailing vocals that just go on and on. It's not something I want to go back and listen to. You know? This band is similar to Avatarium in that respect. This is good, but personally I don't really enjoy listening to it. EDIT - Since first hastily writing this review I've revisited this album and enjoy it quite a bit. It got this heavy heavy rocking with bluesy swaggering vocals over the top. This album is really in that zone. They put on a great show live as well.

Lord Vapour - Mill Street Blues

2016

Blues Rock, Heavy Psyche. Raw old school stoner. Killer album. One the best of 2016. Drawing from the same magic mushroom that Kyuss ingested and puked out oh so long ago. If you like Blue Cheer and things that rock out, this is for you.

Gozu - Revival

 Beefed up traditional rock structures. Reminding me of the chaotic rockin' side of Soundgarden. This has made a lot of peoples best of the year list, I'm not sure I'd go there. Those same people mention Clutch when referring to this. This album probably is among the best at what they do, something rubs me personally a little bit wrong. With the style of music they're touching on here. I mean the sub genre within the genre...a posturing kinda tough guy element, and I don't mean Gozu personally. I'm sure those guys are a bunch of pussy cats. I talkin' about the stripped down kinda bar rock with lots of balls. Gozu go beyond that though they get on with the trippy extended parts while the rhythm section pounds you ever the head. There's solos galore and stuff too.

Mars Red Sky - Apex III

2016

When I play this record it sounds like the bottom end is destroying my speakers. The kick drum seems to be ripping the cone apart from the coil. Which is funny because the vocals have a pretty mellow vibe to them. When that guy is singing it's pretty disarming. and that's the whole trick here. The duality. Not that there's any tricks involved her, and that wouldn't be the only one, because there's a lot of awesome things going on here from this three piece. This is a great album one of my very favorites released this year. If I had to pick an album of the year this is for sure in the top two or three, perhaps even the best. I'm talking about sheer enjoyment I've received. The amount of time I've spent listening to this. Mostly I've listened to this in the car. When I play the record at home it sounds like my speakers are being eaten alive by a garbage truck from the inside out.
     Total eerie outer space trippy heavy psychedelic moon base battle magic. My poor speakers. The songs can switch from a carnival-esq playfulness to crushing marches to the trippiest outer space sci fi adventure, and back again. Seamlessly. There is a smoothness here. A really soothing smoothness the blends right in with some of the heaviest grooves you could ask for.

Greenleaf - Rise Above the Meadow

2016

Now, this drummer rocks out doesn't he!? High energy Stoner rock with soulful vocals. You might be reminded of Dozer. Great songs, great band! One of the best releases of 2016.

Crobot - Welcome to Fat City

2016

Well it's a really beefed up version of the Black Crowes now isn't it? This is get up and shake your ass and have a good time party rock out.

Beelzefuzz - The Righteous Bloom

2016

70's rock! Proggy but stoney rockin'. There's a Witchcraft/Uriah Heap type of thing going on up in here. There's a pretty strong early Scorpions vibe driving this thing. 

Bearhunter - Five Tales of Doom

2016

Heavy slowish mid tempo wall of crushing doom. A lot of slow plodding punishment.

 In the Sleep/Conan/early Melvins but with more zing, realm of things.

Asteroid - III

2016

Easy going stoner like Witchcraft. Mello stuff. Fair bit of Pink Floyd-isms happening here and there.