Doublestone - Devil's Owl / Djaevlens Egn' (2017)

"Raw, fuzzy guitars with a hint of sludgy muck stuck on output retro rockin’ riffs from the past evolving from small grooves into something more sinister and metallic. A male voice attempts to soar, with the hard work and imperfections making the vocals only more human, adding to the retro charm, especially when hinting at old evil.

The retro rawness has been nailed in fine fashion to take you right into the past with an album you’ll be convinced was made decades ago. “Devil’s Own” may be generally on the relaxed side, but there’s always the subtle threat of sin running in the undercurrents! – Cvlt Legion."

Demon Head - Thunder On The Fields (2017)

"On the 7th of April 2017, Demon Head’s new album THUNDER ON THE FIELDS will be released through The Sign Records. The songs were recorded by the Copenhagen band onto 16-track tape, in an isolated cabin where they locked themselves in for weeks in the winter of 2016.

Like its well-received predecessor Ride The Wilderness, the fruit of their communal work is powerfully crafted from start to finish. While the sound stays true to the sinister atmosphere of the debut album, the music has evolved to the next logical step: darker, more tight-knitted, and more diverse. Demon Head is not about trends or imitation. It is about the burning love for music. While in part an homage to the first heavy music, the songs have their own voice. The attitude is of originality and urgency

Duel - Witchbanger (2017)

"Sex, drugs, the occult and buckets of blood. Austin, Texas tripped out heavies DUEL release their second album “Witchbanger”. Eight hard hitting new tracks of deep grooves and blistering riffs paying tribute to the darker breed of early 70’s proto-metal and classic old school early 80’s heavy metal pioneers. Growling desperate vocals and angry fuzzed out guitars telling tales of horror and hallucination. Hard Rock as it should be totally pure and unpretentious. Produced and engineered by lead guitarist Jeff Henson at his new studio Red Nova Ranch in the wastelands of Texas not far from the historic Texas Chainsaw Massacre house. Prepare for Hell or Valhalla, from start to finish this carefully crafted album WILL KILL YOU! For fans of: Judas Priest, Pentagram, Thin Lizzy, Deep

The Ivory Elephant - Number 1 Pop Hit (2017)

"From the depths of Melbourne’s underground, The Ivory Elephant exist in a space of late nights and loud sounds. Music that harks back to the greats of 70s rock n’roll, saturated with heavy psych and down-home delta blues. Melbourne trio, The Ivory Elephant are releasing their first full-length LP Number 1 Pop Hit on Kozmik Artifactz (Child, Buried Feather, The Heavy Eyes, Ruby the Hatchet). Despite the name, the new album explores the darker side of blues-rock, and delves deep into three-piece psychedelia. Recorded at Melbourne’s iconic Soundpark Studios (Paul Kelly, Clairy Browne, Dave Graney) Number 1 Pop Hit was tracked over three days on the bands usual shoe-string budget. Opening with the title track, Number One Pop Hit, is what could best be described as

The Sonic Dawn - Into The Long Night (2017)

Into the Long Night is the second album by The Sonic Dawn, one of the most remarkable bands to come out of the new psychedelic wave in Denmark. Just a few seconds into this album, you will realize that you are in for a mind altering experience.

“It’s a trip! By taking the listeners to places they didn’t expect to go, we hope to make them aware – that they’ll stop up and think about life for a minute. Awareness is the first step to change in the world,” says Emil Bureau (guitar/vocals). To achieve the dramatic changes of mood and feeling that The Sonic Dawn excel at, they mix a wide range of styles, from jazzy sitar pop to heavy acid rock. A pleasant-sounding analog production makes the album easy to approach, not to water it down, but

Here Lies Man - s/t (2017)

"What if Black Sabbath played Afrobeat? In short, that’s the underlying vibe to the self-titled debut by Here Lies Man. The L.A. based quintet is founded and conceptualized by Marcos Garcia of Antibalas, bringing his erudite experience of West African rhythms and music to the more riff-based foundations of heavy rock. The results are an incredibly catchy and refreshing twist on classic forms, without sounding forced and trite like some sort of mash-up attempt. Here Lies Man merges and expands musical traditions organically, utilizing the talents of drummer Geoff Mann (son of jazz musician Herbie Mann) and a host of skilled musicians to make Garcia’s vision a reality. “The repetitive guitar figures that happen in Afrobeat music are very close to heavy rock guitar riffs,” Garcia

Farflung - Unwound Celluloid Frown (2017)

"Cosmic space lords Farflung return with their new Ep 'Unwound Celluloid Frown' 33 minutes of lysergic grooves and slamming riffs.... Imagine, as if the bastard child of Amon Duul ii and Hawkwind arose from the ashes of America....stark and glimmering......bathed in the energetic glow of the Stooges....one last cup raised to the lunatics and wishing for wounds.... They have set their course for the farthest reaches of the universe.... Are you ready? Are you ready to climb aboard their craft? Fasten your safety belts, engage your breathing apparatus...the lift off is about to begin....

Recorded at Saturn Moon Studio and EMU4 Tritium in 016/017 produced by Grenas/Esther/Nakata. With Special Guests: Abby Travis (Track 3) / Jensen Bell. (Track 3)

Troubled Horse - Revolution On Repeat (2017)

"There’s no doubt about the health of rock’n’roll in the minds of Swedish rabble-rousers Troubled Horse. From the off, they charge at us with thundering riffs, their adrenaline-fuelled slabs of hard rock passionately carrying the torch of classic rock history into the future and beyond, swerving all-out nostalgia but celebrating their roots. And it’s a riot. As the title suggests, there’s a social heart beating under there too, the rich tradition of standing up for the underdog strong in their veins. ‘Haven’t you heard? The future’s for the wealthy ones,’ charismatic frontman Martin Heppich cries on The Filthy Ones, before channelling Johnny Rotten: ‘Don’t you know that there’s no future for you?’ That it’s followed by a gleaming riff that prostrates itself before Thin Lizzy on the garage blues-

Doctor Cyclops - Local Dogs (2017)

"Local Dogs is an explosive mixture of seventies heavy rock, New Wave of British Heavy Metal and obscure doomy sabbath-style stuff ready to take you back to the spirit of a different era. Groovy riffs and gloomy paths coming straight from the woods give you the impression that the epic saga of the Seventies ended up in something different than a fleeting reflection of the past. If you like the early Deep Purple groove, try to imagine it mixed with the bluesy Graveyard mood played by Cathedral jamming on Budgie's tunes in Witchfinder General's practice room: then you should be close to realize the spirit and the power of this record. In this contest the featuring of Bill Steer (Carcass, Firebird, Gentlemans Pistols) on lead guitar just tastes like the cherry on top of a tempting

Samsara Blues Experiment - One With The Universe (2017)

"As they returned home to Germany this past week from a South American tour and made ready to head out over the next month on a slew of European dates including festival stops at Under the Black Moon, Riff Ritual, and Desertfest in London and their native Berlin, Samsara Blues Experiment came one step closer to the release of their fourth full-length, One with the Universe. The album — confirmed for a May 12 release through Electric Magic Records with cover art by Michel Bassot newly unveiled below — arrives four years after the third Samsara Blues Experiment outing, Waiting for the Flood, and finds the band pared down to a trio for the first time on a studio offering, returning to activity after several years away following a prolific run between 2009 and 2013, and

Mothership - High Strangeness (2017)

"This time around we are heading out on a fuzzed out intergalactic space ride with Texas Mothership. Their new album is entitled High Strangeness. It is an, albeit brief, but rocking excursion. Those unfamiliar with Mothership may not realize that they were abducted sometime in the mid-70’s, they show up intermittently to drop these heavy ass, fuzzed out tunes for out consumption. Mothership is heavily influenced by ZZ Top, Mountain, Sabbath and the like. They do take a bit of a modern spin on these classic masters.

On to the tracks. The record opens up with the quiet to fuzzed out instrumental title track, High Strangeness. The band kicks off the catchy ass rocking tunes with Ride the Sun. Next up has the sing along chorus

Project Grimm - The Crass Menagerie (2017)

"In 2015, ultra-respected Italian print ‘zine Vincebus Eruptum did a story in its 19th issue highlighting the prodigious and sometimes bizarre Houston noise rock scene. Around the same time, the label wing of the same publication hooked up with the Linus Pauling Quartet to release the early-2016 full-length, Ampalanche, basically putting their money where their mouth is. Or at very least continuing to in a manner beyond the already considerable factor of running a print outlet in the 2010s. Seems fair to look at Vincebus Eruptum Recordings picking up Houston’s Project Grimm (ex-The Mike Gunn) to issue their first album in well over a decade, The Crass Menagerie, as an extension of the same impulse. The record is set to arrive on Feb. 15, and feature eight tracks split up over

Horisont - About Time (2017)

Ready for 2017’s first hard rock highlight? Sweden’s HORISONT present a sheer fantastic blend of classic rock on their fifth opus “About Time”! From the Montrose-tinged rumble of the opening “The Hive” and the sharp, new wave shades and psych rock pulse of “Electrical” through the insistent, lysergic, Lizzy-esque boogie of “Night Line” and the sumptuous, tripped-out splendour of the closing, epic title track, “About Time” is an album of beautifully crafted songs executed with maximum imagination and a whole lot of denim-clad love, even touching upon the radio-friendly sheen of Moog-laced AOR on the irresistibly funky “Boston Gold”. HORISONT are ready to conquer the world with these magical new anthems and delivered one hell of a first release on new label home

Colour Haze - In Her Garden (2017)

"In part, it’s a question of scale. The 12th studio album from Munich-based trio Colour Haze, titled In Her Garden and featuring an array of tracks named for plant-life including “Black Lilly,” “Magnolia,” “Arbores,” “Lotus,” “Lavatera,” and so on, lands less than three full years after its predecessor, 2014’s To the Highest Gods We Know — they also had the live album, Live Vol. 1 – Europa Tournee 2015, out in 2016 — but in its sound and scope, it might have more in common in terms of presentation with the record before that, 2012’s She Said. Like that offering, In Her Garden is a sprawling, 2LP affair — its 72 minutes fit on one CD, however, which She Said didn’t — rife with progressive forward steps on the part of the self-recording three-piece guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek,

The Devil And The Almighty Blues - II (2017)

"As it should, the second full-length from Oslo five-piece The Devil and the Almighty Blues shows marked growth from its predecessor. The Norwegian outfit released their self-titled debut early in 2015 via Blues for the Red Sun Records (with distribution through Stickman), and the six-song II works quickly to build on the potential shown previously in a thick, smokey vibe of classic heavy rock, laid back jam-prone psychedelia and pervasive melancholy. The blues, in other words, indeed proves mighty, even if one might still hear the sorrowful roll of “North Road” and liken its vinyl-ready compression to Scandinavia’s still-pervasive retro movement. In that second cut and pieces like 10-minute opener and longest inclusion (immediate points) “These are Old Hands,”

Lecherous Gaze - One Fifteen (2017)

Oakland, California's LECHEROUS GAZE play, in their own words, "Psycho-delic shred-tastic ultra-hyphened rock-punk heavy jams." ZZ TOP's Billy Gibbons more concisely calls the band's sound "heavy." One Fifteen is The Gaze's third full-length LP and showcases the hyper-talented musicians at the peak of their power. Searing guitarist Graham Clise (Annihilation Time, Witch) sets fires with absolutely ferocious licks while vocalist Zaryan Zaidi and the band spit old-school, no-bullshit, in-your-face, maximum-impact ROCK straight into your kisser. Mean and greasy riff-forward proto-punk is the name of the game! Produced by Greg Wilkinson (Eerie, High On Fire) at Earhammer Studios and mastered by Carl Saff (Earthless, The Shrine), One Fifteen is a nod to

Buried Feather - Mind Of The Swarm (2017)

Buried Feather release their second full-length, Mind of the Swarm. Recorded by Paul Maybury (King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard) and mixed by Nick Franklin (The Grates, Deep Sea Arcade), the new record is a more dynamic realisation of the band’s hypnotic sound. First single “Dust” finds them solidly in kosmische territory, with a head-rush of phased guitars swirling around a locked groove. The record throws up some interesting surprises, with druggy rave-ups and dark, synth-driven slow jams sitting alongside the fuzzy rock tunes.

"The album explodes into earshot swirling deftly on a wave of growling guitars, powerful percussion and those hypnotically charged organ lines

Kingnomad - Mapping The Inner Void (2017)

"If you’re the type of person whose day isn’t complete without some Swedish Psychedelic Doom, then Kingnomad are just what you’re looking for. Formed in 2014 on an endless diet of Sabbath riffs and beer, the first song they wrote was ‘Lucifer’s Dream’, which set the template for the Band’s direction and fittingly opens this album. It’s a great song which will instantly appeal to Uncle Acid fans and also, with its melody and vocals, may well appeal to some of Ghost’s more hard-core followers. ‘Nameless Cult’ follows which riffs away like its predecessor but is more uptempo. ‘Whispers From R’yleh’ is a strange track with it’s gentle strumming and breathless female vocal, before the mother of all riffs kicks in shortly before the song ends. ‘The Witches Garden’ is easy on

White Light Cemetery - Careful What You Wish For (2017)

With production work by the legendary Kent Stump of Wo Fat, Careful What You Wish For, is the Lafayette, Louisiana-based quartet’s third official release overall after their 2011 EP debut “Crow Sessions” and its follow-up, their self-titled full length. White Light Cemetery‘s guitarist/vocalist Shea Bearden, bassist Tara Miller, guitarist Ryan ‘Cletus‘ Robin, and drummer Thomas Colley are the very embodiment of metallic Southern Rock circa 2017 and this fact is verified all throughout “Careful What You Wish For“. If you’ve never heard WLC, it is what would result if one mixed the best elements of Black Oak Arkansas with Pepper Keenan era Corrosion Of Conformity and added a splash of Black Stone Cherry for flavor. Now, who the hell wouldn’t want to check that out I ask you?

Orango - The Mules Of Nana (2017)

"For those of you familiar with Norwegian rock (a fair few, we estimate), the name Orango should ring a bell. The often-cited “hardest working band in Norway” has now found a new home at Stickman Records and we are proud to announce that their new album “The Mules of Nana” will be welcomed to the world on January 13th, 2017!

Orango and Stickman have a history together as old friends and label partners, and we’re glad to see this partnership growing further. As their first proper Stickman release (we distributed their last record Battles in Europe), “The Mules of Nana” is special in a few ways – it’s also the band’s first album with new bassist Hallvard Gaardløs and we feel it