Check this new video for one of my favorite bands:

Video by Kyle Tompkins

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Psychic Ills - Hazed Dream (Sacred Bones, 2011)

Since 2003, these New York psych rockers have been offering spacious sonic explorations. After three albums and a slew of EP's and singles, they've made they're most accessible recording yet.

This one is pretty straight-forward, a hybrid of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Brightblack Morning Light, Mazzy Star and the most mellow tracks from Wooden Shjips, Hazed Dreams is a mature and focused trip down tremory lane so faded you can't even think about criticizing it.

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Dead Skeletons - Dead Magick (A Records, ltd., 2011)

If you're as tired of the word psychedelic as I am, you're probably going to hate when I tell you that this is the best psychedelic band I've heard in years. They actually sound like salvation for the genre as a whole.

Mysterious and occultic, the imagery in these songs is vibrant and virile, with a seeming overuse of verbal psychotropics and a healthy fear of God and Death. Danger lurks around every corner here, buried in mescaline-soaked minor cords and peyote-laced reverb. Everything here is some religiously erotic incantation worthy of a Jodorowsky film.

The sound is a driving yet loose ride through elements of Jesus and Mary Chain, Black Angels, the Brian Jonestown Massacre's Methadrone era, roadhouse blues and tuvan throat singing. Quite frankly, this is about as romantic as a nightmarish bad trip can get. Highly Recommended.

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White Orange - S/T (Made In China, 2011)

I’d like to file this Portland quartet comfortably between progressive and sludge metal. Unfortunately, their sound is not that simple and it would be an injustice for me to label them as such. They are mesmerizing. With a slick, complex production and a swirling, psychedelic personality all their own, this overdriven, fuzzed out metal behemoth combines a multitude of influences while remaining completely unique.

With regret, I must do a lot of name-dropping here. They borrow from hard rock and metal bands like Deep Purple, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Nebula, The Sword and Mastodon; also included are hints of grunge such as Mudhoney and Nirvana; and there’s a nice touch with vocal sounds not far removed from Al Jourgensen’s Wax Trax days.

I want to call this stoner rock but in good conscience, I cannot. White Orange are more akin to drinking a vat of liquid acid. Space rock? Sure, but these guys travel by way of a wormhole to another dimension. Upon arrival, they are vacuumed into a black hole and spit out the other side, only slightly singed by the neighboring red dwarf.

All metaphors aside, the recurring musical theme of this album is always endearing and tasteful repetition is always welcomed. With fascinating time signature changes, the material never stales.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Rarely does anything so progressive compel this intelligently. White Orange arhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife masters of their craft and deliver their unusual message with grace and tact. Several times during my first listen I found myself drifting off into a bit of a trance. There is an innovative brand of psychedelia presented here that is currently unmatched. What we have here is a forty-four minute album that feels like a lifetime. This band is musical DMT.

The opening track hooked me with a Hawkwind “Psychedelic Warlords” feel. Not much later, there are lyrics that command us to “set the controls for the heart of the sun”. With that theme engaged, White Orange offer us an uncanny narrative that is sure to stake their claim as a new breed of metal.

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This article originally appeared in DOA

Cough - Sigillum Luciferi (2008)

Ok, folks. This is it. Sludge Metal songs about Satan and weed. I'm not sure it gets any better than this. The cover depicts Crowley's eleven-pointed star, a pentagram and marijuana leaves. I doubt they're serious about any of it but the imagery plays on all the attractive cliches of Metal in general and they have the skills and creativity to back it up.

I'm also impressed with the fact that they're not from the west coast. No revolving members from the Graves at Sea / Asunder scene. Richmond, Virginia. That's right. Southern boys. Hell yeah.

They acquired the drummer from The Sword for this album and he definitely makes his presence known. These are extremely slow and impressive compositions with the best production I've heard in this genre (Sanford Parker producer of Nachtmystium). Pure fucking magick. It gets more interesting as the album progresses. Let it seep into you.

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