The Holy Grail

Heavy Lord is one of those bands that I’ve heard a lot about, read some raving reviews of etc, but never actually heard. So I haven’t heard either of their two fullengths, and here we have a re-release of their 2004 demo "The holy grail". It would’ve been cool to have heard their later releases, to be able to hear how they evolved from this. But I suppose it’s only natural to have a first encounter be a demo.

This was recorded in a fully analog studio, which fits their agenda perfectly. The old school influences are radiant, and it often sounds like a drugged-out 60ies hippie convention jamming out some radical rock. They declare they’ll be smoking weed until the day they die, but it’s stoner in more than one manner as it clearly transpires stoner metal as well.

Stoner isn’t a very familiar genre to me; sure I know of it and whatnot, but since I don’t listen much to any practicing band I can’t say I’m an expert on it, not even a novice. But to me this is stoner mixed in with loads (and I mean loads) of psychedelic rock, transferring into an experimental sounds that’s not adverse to breaking boundaries. They never stay firmly in one place, and as the slow, churning riffs gets accompanied with powerful drumming and harsh-as-hell vocals, to be replaced by a more rocking approach I could swear I’m hearing Nirvana in both music and vocals. Now don’t get me wrong, this surely isn’t grunge, but it has a certain flavour that’s reminiscent of said band’s earlier days; but maybe it’s just the drug influence (on the musicians behalf, not mine), I don’t know. But heavy, doom-esque stoner is mixed with experimental rock and even some southern vibes, creating quite an unusual sound to be found.

The re-release has "Get down there you bitch" as a bonus track, for which they returned to the same studio to record, giving it a (albeit slightly more powerful) fitting sound. I rarely listen to this type of music, and I generally can’t stand rock, but Heavy Lord is incredibly energetic and invigorating to listen to. It feels weird to use such a description for such a genre, but it really is captivating and indulging. Imagine Black Sabbath in bed with Electric Wizard.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net