
Tag: stoner metal

Doom in Paradise: Psycho Smokeout at Catch One
Nearly two years ago Psycho Entertainment began teasing the return of Psycho California – the fest that ran its initial three years proving itself and building its reputation in Orange County before being taken away from us by Sin City. Despite the slight name change, the fresh presentation of the inaugural Psycho Smokeout lived up to the reputation of its predecessor with a streamlined experience and highly curated lineup of Psycho alumni and first timers alike. related content: Catch One Hell Of A Night With Integrity And Pageninetynine Presented By Psycho Entertainment With a lineup filled with Janky favorites it’s hard to decide where to begin. The stacked scheduling fueled a rush through the maze-like floorplan of Union granting access to rooms and passageways I’d never even known existed. Each twist and turn through black painted halls seemed to bring me to another section of the club where something insane was happening: three separate rooms with live music (one of which included pole dancers), a smaller room with burlesque shows, live glass blowing outside, walls of merch, and a corner devoted to Painkiller Kim DJing next to an (unfortunately out of order) Icee machine. (Apparently the Icee guy never arrived

How to Trip Off Volume: Elder at The Roxy
How do you get high? Flower? Shrooms? Synthetics? Running? There are many ways. Some of them led me to this style of stoner/doom metal in the first place but once I had first began frequenting those concerts and stood among other trippers before a stage where a high was induced through music, I realized not every method can be found on erowid.com. Volume can get you high. Walls of sound can break you through sobriety’s ceiling and beyond that threshold is an especially consciousness-shaking altered state. Few bands build walls of sound so high and holy as the ones featured at The Roxy at this show with progressive doom virtuosos Elder. related content: Earthless Liquified My Face At Teragram With Third Circle Visuals behind the projector’s eye, shooting liquid light on stage as if spitting venom like a Dilophosaurus on LSD, the stage was set for Los Angeles’ best kept stoner secret Yidhra to take the stage. Combining heavy, vibrating doom riffs with hallowed, commanding growls, and a theremin’s whirling alien essence, Yidhra’s sound is original and soul-stirring. Like if Sleep slept with Kenneth Anger’s Technicolor skull, this is dark-side of your trip black light metal to the bone. This

A Handle of Jim Beam and a Joint: Weedeater at Union
Among the veterans of the stoner metal genre, Weedeater is the loudest, the stoniest, and the best. Often times the bands that come to mind when you say stoner metal are Sleep and Electric Wizard, I figure these people have never seen Weedeater live because once you do and headbang your neck off while every piece of your clothing vibrates and you nearly go deaf, you realize no band is heavier. After a Weedeater show, you won’t exclude them from any conversation about the power of live music. related content: Ascending The Holy Mountain: Sleep At The Fonda Theater The Carolinas aren’t heavily represented in metal but when they are, like in this case, they make such a huge splash that you immediately get a sense of the area. If the Carolinas feel like Weedeater, they’re a bold, down to earth, and toughened bunch. related content: Weedeater And The Obsessed At The Regent: Blaze It Up, Fool Dixie Dave, Weedeater’s iconic bassist and vocalist, is the perfect spokesperson for stoner rock. With the ability to drain a handle of Jim Beam and sip on cough syrup during his shows and only being enhanced by these substances, Dixie has develop super human