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Metal Chris’ Favorite Doom and Stoner Albums of 2019

I already made lists of my favorite black metal albums (here) and death metal albums (here) of 2019 but with this post we’re going to slow it down with my favorite doom and stoner releases of the year. I use the genre labels pretty loosely here so don’t get too nitpicky and just chill with some of the best slower jams metal had to offer in 2019. They’re not ranked so I just put them in the order of release date. I hope you enjoy my picks and find some new favorites.

Waste Of Space Orchestra – Syntheosis
Released April 5, 2019 by Svart Records
Waste Of Space Orchestra is a band made up of the members of two bands from Finland, Oranssi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising. Not just a few members, it’s the full roster of both bands combined, including both drummers. The resulting album is something quite unique featuring elements of both bands, Oranssi Pazuzu leans toward black metal while Dark Buddha Rising is rooted more in doom metal, with everything wrapped up in heavy amounts of that spacey vibe they both incorporate.

Sunn O))) – Life Metal
Released April 26, 2019 by Southern Lord Recordings
The band Earth created the drone genre but Sunn O))) took it to another level. The duo released two albums in 2019 after 3 years without a studio release, but Life Metal is the better of the two. This extremely slow music that is meant to be played at very high volumes is not for everyone. If you’re looking for riffs there are none. There’s no drums either. The music is more about tone, textures and moods and on this release Sunn O))) shows they’re still the best drone band around.

Duel – Valley of Shadows
Self-released May 17, 2019
The Sword may have gone on indefinite hiatus but fellow Austin, Texas, natives Duel are clearly trying to fill that void. Valley of Shadows is packed with infectious riffs and catchy vocal lines making it quite hard to pick a single song as a favorite, it’s really that good. This album was self released and digital only, but should be on any stoner metal fan’s radar.

Pelican – Nighttime Stories
Released June 7, 2019 by Southern Lord Recordings
Chicago based instrumental band Pelican is a bit of an odd ball on this list, they’re not really stoner nor doom but their first release in 6 years is so strong I had to find a way to include it. Sometimes labeled post-metal, I’m not sold on that take either. Regardless, the band has returned with some of the best songwriting of their career, really tightening up their sound. I just hope the next full length isn’t another six years away.

Beastwars – IV
Self-released June 28, 2019
Recorded in 10 days starting just a week after Beastwars vocalist Matt Hyde finished chemotherapy treatment, this album has a pain and darkness to it that you just can’t fake. The song “Storms of Mars” is a powerful example of the New Zealand based band’s dark sludgey sound as you hear a powerless man begging for just ten more years so he can watch his child grow up. This was obviously a therapeutic album for a band that was recording in the middle of a healing process, as part of that very process, and it makes IV something really special.

LowFlyingHawks – Anxious Ghosts
Released June 28, 2019 by Magnetic Eye Records
This short release covers a lot of ground in just 5 songs. There are slow spacey stoner soundscapes that give way to more straight forward sludge grooves. LowFlyingHawk’s rhythm section includes Dale Crover of the Melvins behind the kit and Trevor Dunn of Mr. Bungle on bass but it’s the seamless transitions of styles that have kept my attention on this release.

Plague Of Carcosa – Ocean Is More Ancient Than The Mountains
Released July 19, 2019 by Sludgelord Records
Plague of Carcosa is another instrumental band from Chicago on this list but their sound is more akin to heavyweights like Bongripper and Conan but with an added Lovecraftian spookiness underneath it all. This release is short but the two songs are long, haunting and crushingly heavy.

Waingro – III
Self-released August 16, 2019
Vancouver based Waingro have put out something fun with their third full length. They play a high energy style of crunchy stoner metal but with a singer that does a hardcore style shouted vocal delivery. I know that isn’t something everyone is going to love but it actually fits the band’s sound well.

Monolord – No Comfort
Released September 20, 2019 by Relapse Records
From Gothenburg, Sweden, Monolord play nothing akin to the melodic death metal the city is famous for. Pallbearer changed the game with their debut release Sorrow and Extinction in 2012 and a wave of doom metal bands with clean vocals popped up around the world, including Monolord. Where Pallbearer has moved further away from doom with every release Monolord has stayed the course and instead of rehashing they have evolved the sound even further. They have managed to make an incredible album here with memorable riffs (that riff at about 3 minutes into “Last Leaf” may be the best on this entire list) but are also able to slow it way down into the doldrums that modern doom is known for.

Holy Serpent – Endless
Released October 18, 2019 by RidingEasy Records
Australian band Holy Serpent put out a really solid slab of stoner/doom metal with Endless. The catchy, thundering riffs on these jams make the release very accessible to any fan of the genre. Dissonant vocals contrast well with the guitar tone creating a sound that is both fun and quite chill at the same time.

Esoteric – A Pyrrhic Existence
Released November 8, 2019 by Season of Mist
Esoteric has long been my favorite funeral doom metal band and their first release in 8 years did not change that opinion. The Birmingham, England, based band has put out an impressive amount of beautiful yet grindingly slow and heavy material since the mid-90s with no concern for commercial appeal. Case in point, A Pyrrhic Existence starts off with a 27+ minute long dirge that, while not particularly marketable on the radio, shows the band building up tension to a crescendo masterfully.

Spaceslug – Reign of the Orion
Released December 6, 2019 by BSFD Records
I’ve really been diving into the world of Eastern European stoner bands the past couple years and Polish band Spaceslug, along with contemporaries like The Re-Stoned, Somali Yacht Club, Bantha Rider and Stoned Jesus, have been proving the area has some of the best bands in the genre today. As you might expect from the title, Reign of the Orion is full of spaced out tunes to help you float away to distant nebulae in your mind’s eye.

December 31, 2019
Categories: Album Reviews, Doom Metal, Drone, Stoner . Tags: 2019, 2019 Year End Lists, Beastwars, Doom Metal, Duel, Esoteric, Holy Serpent, LowFlyingHawks, Monolord, Pelican, Plague Of Carcosa, Spaceslug, Stoner Metal, Sunn O))), Waingro, Waste Of Space Orchestra . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: Leave a comment

Sunn O))) ticket give away

Sunn O))) at the 9:30 Club

Sunn O))) (pronounced “sun”) is coming to the 9:30 Club on Sunday, March 12th, 2017 and we’re so excited to see the kings of drone metal play there that we’re giving away a pair of tickets to this very show! The band is named after the Sunn brand of guitar amps and as you might expect their live shows are very loud. So to enter this contest leave a comment on this post telling me what the loudest concert you’ve ever been to was. Just the band name and venue with at least an estimate of the date is ok, I don’t need the exact date if you don’t remember it. At 5pm EST this Friday, March 3rd, a winner will be chosen at random (using Random.org) from all valid entries to win the pair of tickets. Be sure to use a valid email you check regularly so I can contact you if you win. Don’t worry, I won’t add you to any spam lists or sell your info or anything sleazy like that. If I haven’t heard back from the winner in 24 hours another winner will be chosen at random. If you can’t wait to see if you win or the contest is already over when you read this, then you can get tickets from Ticket Fly for $35 here.

One of the things I’ve always loved about metal is how much diversity there is in the genre. People often think of ultra fast blast beats and masterfully technical guitar solos as defining aspects of heavy metal but Sunn O))) is on quite the other end of the spectrum. The band is known for playing incredibly slow, so slow it’s hard to say there are even any riffs in their music at all. The slow tempo combined with a very loud sound will literally let you feel the music and it will crush you in a completely different kind of way than those blazingly fast bands do. Be sure to bring and wear ear plugs, I witnessed a bottle of liquor vibrate off the shelf behind the bar and shatter when they played at the Black Cat in 2012. Continuing with the confusing band name punctuation theme is the opening act Big ‡ Brave. They’re a post-rock band from Montreal who are also on the Southern Lord record label. Now check out these videos below and let me know what the loudest concert you’ve ever been to was!

Sunn O))) – Kannon 1 Ones

Big ‡ Brave – Look At How The World Has Made A Change

February 28, 2017
Categories: Contests, Drone, Nightclub 9:30 . Tags: 9:30 Club, Big ‡ Brave, Drone, Sunn O))) . Author: Metal Chris . Comments: 24 Comments

Review of Sunn O))) gig at Sonar

On Wednesday the 23rd of September 2009 I got off of work and met up with a friend of mine to head up to Baltimore to catch Sunn O))) at Sonar. They didn’t play the main stage, but the much smaller “club stage”, which was fine by me as it was much more up close and personal. Sunn O))) is a strange band, they rarely tour and when I heard they were coming to Baltimore, a city within driving distance, I had to get a ticket. People either love this band and think that what they are doing is really groundbreaking and genius, or they think it’s just boring ambient noise and a total waste of their time. I’m not a huge drone fan but these guys are one of the best at it, and when describing their music I often think of abstract art in music form. It’s hard to define “songs” of theirs, as it all sort of melts together and the songs don’t really have any structure, well not in the normal sense at least.

Before they even took the stage they ran a fog machine on high for about 20 minutes, with a low volume recording of some sort of chants. Then at about 10:30 pm Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley came out on stage in their monk/jedi robes and started playing what I think was the beginning to the song Aghartha. Usually I’m pretty good at knowing what songs are being played, but again, this band doesn’t make that easy. Then about 10 minutes later Attila Csihar came up on stage, wearing a similar robe. This is the same Attila of Mayhem fame, and I’d actually seen him play with them at this same venue back in May as part of Maryland Deathfest VII. His performance at this smaller show was pretty outstanding, though sometimes I got the feeling he was being a bit distracting from the music itself, it was a Sunn O))) show after all, not an Attila show. Overall it was a really excellent performance from him though and it really showcased his vocal talent quite well. I always liked him better in Mayhem than Maniac, but this Sunn O))) show really highlighted his vocal range, even if I don’t think he said one actual word the whole night.

The set seemed to be what I’d basically call “songs” from their latest album, Monoliths & Dimensions, but I could be mistaken I suppose. It was an unreal experience though, like no concert I’ve been to before. At times everything seemed to be in slow motion, the music, the band’s movements, almost as if time was stretching as you fell into the event horizon of a black hole. The fog and lighting added a sort of murky element, like trying to look at something through dirty water. It was a really overwhelming experience, and it was LOUD. I mean I just saw Motörhead a few weeks before and that was loud, but these guys really made you feel every slow plodding note vibrate through every bone in your body. Of course I was a lot closer to the stage for this show, right up front. Sunn O))) doesn’t have a drummer but they did have a guy doing some sort of programming in the back, and I know I saw a trombone poking out of the fog at some point. The bass was thick and heavy like the foggy air in the room throughout the performance, and the whole thing almost seemed like it was from outer space at times.

Attila added to the theatrics at about midway through the set when he put on some gloves that had laser pointers built into the fingers. The lasers really stood out in the fog and surprisingly the whole effect didn’t come off as a raver thing at all, maybe it was the oversized robe. At some point Attila wandered off the stage for a bit to put on his next costume, which I gotta say what a bit over the top. It was another robe, but this time it was covered in fragments of mirrors. It also had a head piece, something like a head band with big pointy mirror shards coming out of it, somewhat resembling the statue of liberty’s head piece. He kept the laser pointer gloves on with this and did some cool things with the lasers reflecting off the mirrors, especially off the ones on his head. It was certainly a bizarre costume, not sure I’d be caught dead in that, but then Attila has always had a thing for wearing costumes on stage. The two guitarists also had some interesting poses and lurched around on stage very slowly, giving the production a feeling of peeking in on a secret ritual of some Lovecraftian cult.

The music fit this all very well and with the slow build ups and pure raw sound had the audience hypnotized. The slow singular notes building up in intensity into something almost resembling a chord progression really worked well in this setting. There were no breaks between “songs”, it was just one big musical experience. In all the show ended around midnight to an ovation from a crowd that had just had their minds melted for about 90 minutes. As I walked to the car with my friend, we caught a glimpse of the Stratovarius show, which was on the main stage that night at the club, and I remember thinking how I’m so glad I got to see Sunn O))) instead of being into that power metal crap! Damn, they had the bigger audience but those people really had no idea what they just missed only a few feet away. I’ve always been a fan of some of the more strange, bizarre and out there metal bands, of which Sunn O))) definitely fits the category of, so maybe my views on the whole thing are a bit biased, but still I highly recommend checking Sunn O))) out at least once, they definitely put on a show unlike any other band, metal or otherwise.