~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate It’s getting hot all over the US right now, and no band knows it better than JUPITER CYCLOPS from Phoenix, Arizona, where it’s been inching closer and closer into 120 degree territory lately. Now there’s a band name for you to contemplate the next time you blaze up. Everything about it sounds larger than life, and their new album ‘Age of the UFOnaut’ (2024) definitely goes for it all: a heavy rock tincture of free-wheeling psychedelia with currents doom, groove metal, and NWOBHM. Opener “UFOnaut,” dwells on extraterrestrial themes, with frazzled ap ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate It’s been just a minute since we released our compilation Doomed and Stoned in New Zealand, which we were honored to have preserved by The National Library of New Zealand. The current of underground heavy rock and metal is still strong in The Land of the Long White Cloud (or if you prefer, Middle Earth). Our latest discovery is Wellington five-piece heavy rock beast SIDEWINDER, who today air their latest single “Prisoner” from the upcoming LP ‘Talons’ (2024), an album that has some monumentally heavy moments (wait’ll you hear “The Depths”). We’ve a ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate Classic stoner rock vibes with a doom metal underbelly, that’s what you get with DESERT VULTURES, a side project of Void Tripper. “Honey Beast” is the first sounds generated from the band, hailing from Northeastern Brazil – a departure from the Acid Bath influenced sludge of a Void Tripper’s ‘Dopefiend’ (2021). We’re beckoned into the world of Desert Vultures with a trippy sun-touched riff that lingers like the humid haze of a lazy summer day. The song gets menacing with lumbering bass/drum rhythm, dank slow 'n’ low guitar, and blunted vocals in th ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate Today, we hail a powerful new atmospheric gem from Bordeaux three-piece ENDLESS FLOODS. I’m not sure if the band’s name is drawn from the Song of Solomon or not (“many waters cannot quench love”) or whether it is in reference to something more grim, such as the soul-weathering nature of our era. All that’s important is we have a fourth album from the band, which we brought to your attention way back in 2016 when they released their self-titled debut. Now we ready for a fourth album Rites Futurs, this one featuring a seamless melding of talent from ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate What could be better than a breakfast with Death? What a party, right? Might sound bizarre, but you’ll be up for the vibe right away as soon as you get this album rocking. DUEL releases ‘Breakfast With Death’ (2024) this weekend on Heavy Psych Sounds, a hard-fighting, whisky-spitting, rubber meets the road rock 'n’ roll road trip from Austin, Texas. But it’s not just rock, this is heavy rock with desert, doom, and psychedelic mods on this stream rolling machine, with a rhythm that will not let up from Drew Potter (bass) and Patrick “Scooch” Pascuc ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate AINU is a welcome new name to us, a three-piece heavy cinematic psychedelic post-doom powerhouse from Genoa, Italy (where many a band has popped onto our radar over the years, most recently Isaak). Here emerges today five soundscapes of the instrumental variety, part of the explosion in instrumental rock and metal that has emerged in recent years. The album is ‘Ainu’ (2024) which, besides being the name for the indigenous peoples of northern Japan, means simply “human.” First track is the stormy “Il Faro,” which takes its name from The Lighthouse a ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate Cover Art by Simon Berndt BLACK RAINBOWS has long been a staple of the doom-stoner scene, keeping rock ‘n’ roll fresh and alive with a psychedelic stoner metal twist. Today, the trio from Rome, active since 2005, gives us another taste of that upcoming collaboration with legendary Cali act Nebula, 'In Search of the Cosmic Tale: Crossing the Galactic Portal’ (2024). It’s an easy one to get immersed in, with Nebula taking the first three songs of spacey, fuzzy, hallucinogenic heavy psych, and Black Rainbows injecting the second half with three rambun ..read more

By Billy Goate PIA ISA came to our attention during the pandemic with her first full-length, ‘Distorted Chants’ (2024), and before that from fronting the band Superlynx with roots stretching back to 2013 and four full-lengths (the latest of which came out just last year). There is a lot waiting to be discovered on this side of Norwegian doom – and if you haven’t delved in already, well let’s take the plunge. Billed as psychedelic drone rock, this has a definite doom feel through and through, with Pia Isa bringing the vision to life on guitar, bass, and vocals. It takes its time to unfold, to ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate Artwork by Intuitive Designs There’s been a lot of excitement brewing around New York’s KING BASTARD for years now. We’ve been following their impressive trajectory since early ‘21, bringing you sounds from their debut It Came From The Void. The psychedelic doom trio from Stony Brook are back at it this weekend with the drop of a new four-tracker, 'From Whence They Came’ (2024), and it is nothing short of stunning. Opening number “Knuckle Dragger” is a knock-down-drag-out that summons the ferocity of our ancient past and engulfs us in its sound and ..read more

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~ By Billy Goate We introduced you to PHANTOM HOUND on The Doomed and Stoned Show, and their soulful, heavy as all get-out debut, ‘Mountain Pass’ (2020), which made many an end-of-year list. It’s a powerful, metal-plated mastif of grunge-influenced rock with an authenticity true to the historic past and surroundings of the doomy heavy psych band from west-central California. Now comes word of a new LP, 'From Boom Town to Ghost Town’ (2024), on Glory or Death Records. Phantom Hound comments on its themes: This record is about changing landscapes, uncertain home fro ..read more