My Top 13 Stoner/Doom and Heavy Metal albums for July

My Top 13 Stoner/Doom and Heavy Metal albums for July really brings home for me how diverse the heavy underground actually is. Everything from traditional heavy metal, to Doom Folk and Doomgaze is represented here. With some Stoner and Doom thrown in for good measure.

I don’t recall a similar period where so much experimentation and progression has taken place, outside of bands like Elder and King Buffalo. There’s something for everyone in the Heavy Underground, with even more being revealed at the Doom Charts.

In the meantime, here’s my personal best of the best for July!

My Top 13 Stoner/Doom and Heavy Metal albums for July

13. Üga Büga- Year of the Hog

Simply put, I love this album! I think the big reason I’m placing Üga Büga at number 13 so that it’s the first one on the page. I’m horrified at the prospect that someone who’s looking for prime, raw, contemporary Heavy Metal might miss Year of the Hog. Anyone who complains that today’s music sucks simply hasn’t listened to this, especially if they have an ear for Traditional Heavy Metal. Listening to this reminds me of the first time I heard Savatage: it just feels so authentic and heavy while always being a good time. It’s all there: the leads, the insane drumming, the killer bass flying, and the vocals that sound like the band is having a blast. Stellar debut!

12. Voidlung – Maledictus Rex

Voidlung’s Maledictus Rex is a perfect pairing with Üga Büga: a potent double shot of Traditional Heavy Metal. A little doomier, a tad heavier but every bit as fun. In a lot of ways, Voidlung is a flashback to 1983, when metal was starting to take a massive turn. Eventually, it went more in a Death Metal and Thrash direction. But for a brief period of time the NWOBHM riffs reined supreme with a little bit of American bite. Truly for “fans of riffs and good times.” Let the head banging commence, moogerfoogers.

11. Iress – Sleep Now, In Reverse

Iress is feeding my obsession with shoe-gazy and hazy guitars with evocative vocals that make the whole room shimmer. Sleep Now, In Reverse may seem like an oddball selection, but every now and then heavy can be more of a thick quilt than a jackhammer to the temples. Iress has beautifully heavy moments interspersed with undulating waves of tenderness. Put this on at 3 AM after a Lamb of God concert or something, and you’ll feel what I mean while you chill your badass bones.

10 Floating Witch’s Head – You Look Like a Rainbow

I can’t tell if I’m growing more “Indie” or if Indie is getting Heavier. Probably a little of both. I came across this from my good friends at Blood Lemon, who always post about the emerging Idaho scene. All I know for certain is that the Heavy Underground is spreading, even deep into this full-throttled Retro riff fest from Floating Witch’s Head. They run the gamut from 50’s inspired Rock ‘n Roll to total punk vibes, all the way to the trippy HEAVY psychedelia of the 8-minute monster, Medicine Man. For those who jones for the variety of life!

09. Mothman and the Thunderbirds – Portal Hopper

Portal Hopper is a fun one friends, worth your time! My younger friends find it catchy and my older friends find it inviting. My musician friends are impressed with the song structures and the overall creativity of the story presentation. I say you get a couple people together, makes some snacks and listen through, like a movie night! Let your imaginations run wild. Have fun on this sci-fi heroes journey! – Jipsy

08. Shipyard – Swing Bridge

You never truly know where, or when, the most exciting Music from the Heavy Underground is gonna strike. These boys from Down Under have unleashed some furious thunder with Swing Bridge. Pure, heavy as shit fuzzed-out bass and drums that builds and builds while never taking their foot off the freaking gas pedal. Fans of Om, Dread Spire and Breath will eat this one up!

07. Lord Buffalo – Holus Bolus

Doom Folk? Dark Folk? Doomericana? I’m not sure we’ve quite figured out what to call this kind of music, and Lord Buffalo doesn’t seem to care. Along with Wovenhand and Aerial Ruin, Lord Buffalo is carving out a new niche that’s starring to gain momentum in the U.S. Holus Bolus is by far their best album in a catalogue of awesomeness stating back to 2012’s self-titled EP. No matter what you call it, the mix of Americana, Folk, Doom and Psych is an intoxicating brew.

06. Bellwether Ritual – WindBag

Few releases have surprised as much as WindBag. It has a variety of styles, yet somehow manages to maintain consistency. Album opener, Brick by Brick start out as Windhand worship with a heavy and repetitive riff, but the vocals take this to the next level. I actually hear shades of Baroness in the melody lines. All together, it’s a surprisingly original, refreshing, and consistently heavy release the bring something slightly different to the table. Bellwether Ritual is officially a band to watch!

05. Land Mammal – Emergence

Dallas, Texas’ Land Mammal gives us a heady dose of Heavy Psych on their latest album, Emergence. The best way I can describe them is a transcendent combination of Colour Haze and Karma to Burn mixed with Ravar Shankar, the Moody Blues and Om. Seriously, Will Weis’ bass playing verges on Al Cisneros worship at times, but without the overwhelming distortion. The whole point of Clean and Sober Stoner is that you don’t need drugs of any kind to go on a trip with today’s music. As evidence I present you Land Mammal…

04. Black Capricorn – Sacrificing Darkness…and Fire

It’s hard for me to remember the last time I had this on my list much fun with a Doom album. Dark Shaman and Cardinals Folly comes close. But when it comes to unadulterated overwhelming Doom as a concept, few bands come close to Black Capricorn. Check out my mini review below for more details:

03. Vexing Hex – Solve et Coagula

For the sane and logical among you, I do hope you will take my advice and listen to Vexing Hex’s Solve Et Coagula a few times. It really is a great time. It’s an aural amusement park, essentially a scary Disneyland distilled down into forty minutes of incredibly effective pop-rock. If that doesn’t sound like a selling point to you, if that doesn’t sound like something that can only serve the capacity to add joy, cheer, and warmth to your life then by all means skip it. The rest of us are gonna be having fun though. – Reverend Fuzzcut (full review)

02. Wizard Tattoo – Living Just for Dying

Wizard Tattoo is, quite frankly, one of the best cases I can make as to why its advantageous to give certain individuals complete freedom and creative control. Only Bram the Bard could have dreamed this. This record is unique to him and only him. I’m having a hard time listening to much of anything else right now because I keep finding myself to go back to finding nuances every time I hear this record again. It makes me feel like I’m hearing Celtic Frost for the first time all over again and being stunned by the sheer creative scope of the project. – Reverend Fuzzcut (full review)

01. Orange Goblin – Science, Not fiction

Orange Goblin dropped a proverbial bomb on both the underground and mainstream Heavy Metal scenes. Ben Ward gives us a heavy dose of sobriety without the usual kumbaya bullshit that sometimes goes along with it and hits us all where it hurts most- our brains! This is “thinking-persons” Orange Goblin, a plea for rationality and reason in a world polarized by opposite ends of the insane. Forget that this is their tenth album and forget all that pub and biker bar nonsense. Orange Goblin has always been smarter than the rest of us, and 9 tracks of maximum tunage prove it with blunt intensity.

Science, Not Fiction is a dangerous album. It cuts through ideology and “virtue signaling” with brutal efficiency. Sure, you can “rock out” to the rarified Heavy Metal of the band. But take a few minutes, absorb the content, and it’s an angry, snarling beast placing the blame for todays ills squarely where it belongs…

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