Boar – Kasettikerho #6/6 2012-2013 [2013; Creative Class War]

In “Moonstone Pipe Tomahawk”, the first of this release’s two tracks, Boar serve up seven minutes of lightly psychedelic stoner rock, shifting to sludgier material in the later half. With the central riff essentially carrying the entire song, the extra guitar frippery is totally unnecessary, but not unwelcome, and the drums get just a couple of breaks in which to shine. “Elder”, the second track, moves into more of a doom atmosphere, with lower pitching and background bass drones, riding a wild guitar solo back into stoner metal territory for the finish. Odd pacing and structuring, but still enjoyable.

Astralnaut – In the Gaze of the Gods [2013; self-released]

On their second EP, the Irish group of Astralnaut turn in five tracks of energetic stoner doom, with the riffs doing the heavy lifting for the songs. Some sparky drumming spices things up a bit, but for the most part, it’s pretty standard stuff, though it does lean a little harder towards regular rock song-writing (instead of metal patterns) than most stoner doom. The overwrought vocals end up deflating the music more than they help sell the atmosphere, and the guitar gets a little too cock-rocky at times, but the basic trappings work well enough, particularly if taken as a garage rock form of the usual fare.

Uncle Acid – Mind Crawler [2013; Rise Above Records]

Pulling the second track from their Mind Control album, Uncle Acid open this single with an upbeat but doom-edged piece of psychedelic garage rock, bleary and rough in production, but firm on its riffs and foundations. The B-side cover of Charles Manson’s “Get on Home” gives a comparatively busy folk rock treatment to the originally stark track, cluttering up the mid-range but otherwise doing a decent interpretive job. Neither track justifies the price of a physical copy, but as a companion to the Mind Control LP, it’s a neat little curio.

Corroded Master – The Forgotten Archives Volume 2: The War Songs [2013; self-released]

Bagging up some unreleased tunes, this compilation offers up EBM with a stiffly industrial edge to its rhythms and synth voices. Steady beat-loops with hi-hat samples and ‘oontz oontz oontz’ drum machine compression (plus a few requisite drops of the Amen Break) mark every song, most of which come off as practice runs for more fully-realized tracks. The big exception is “The Invasion”, the ~7-minute closer, which unloads one percussion attack after another, rolling smoothly from one 4/4 to the next, packing in additional beat layers over each other, and escalating a background howl while doing so. That last track is enough to make the EP worth picking up on its own, though the rest remains kind of dicey.

Archenterum – Exhumed [2013; self-released]

Remastering and repackaging content from the French band’s Nuclear Forces demo, originally released in 2000, this EP doles out death metal with a few rough edges, solid riffs, and impressive drum-work. In the better moments, the band brings the beats and shredding together in hard and focused hammerings, but the chiller side of it uses some slick guitar embellishment to balance out the drops in aggression. Quick and sufficiently brutal, but not especially memorable.

Loviatar – Druid’s Curse [2013; self-released]

On this EP, the Canadian group of Loviatar offers up a blend of death metal and alt metal (with a splash of doom), dipping between melodic and brutal inflections in ways that are more ambitious than effective. “Elephant Graveyard” takes place as the most notable of the tracks, thanks to cutting out the vocals and putting all of their effort into composing a compelling melody with interesting turns to its performance, and “Frost Druid” earns second place with a snazzy lead guitar part that the vocals try to match, instead of outdoing. Some interesting moments, but in the end, it feels like it falls just short of being worth the time it takes to listen to the EP.

Lightsabres – Demons [2013; 808 New York, Hink Inc., self-released]

On the first album from the one-man Swedish band of Lightsabres, he presents nine quick cuts (a couple of them less than a minute long) of grungy metal, fuzzed vocals, and lo-fi production. The songs hit and maintain a definite style through their buzzy, down-beat raucousness, but the intentional sloppiness of the music overwhelms itself at times, going past the punk influence into garage-kit rattling, and falling short of the possible noise fusion that might imply in favor of some half-hearted shoegaze lathering. There’s an awareness of the the shortcomings, though, which lead to a few nice high-contrast jumps from blare to clarity, and the record as a whole does a fair job of demonstrating the main ideas Lightsabres would revisit on subsequent releases.

Coffin Torture – CT Top [2013; self-released]

In this one-track single, Coffin Torturee cover ZZ Top’s “Bedroom Thang”, giving the rock number a seven-minute sludge treatment. Thick-fuzzed bass and deep growls handle the low end, ranging up to the cymbals and spiky guitar feedback for the highs, with the central riff getting an extensive workout across body measures and bridges. That deep-ground circling ends up making the song feel considerably shorter than it is, and while the production is rough to the point of verging on lo-fi, it’s not a bad go for fans of the style.

Crown Larks – Catalytic Conversion EP [2013; self-released]

Chill garage rock mixed with psychedelic jazz flavors the debut EP from Crown Larks, with the first four tracks being separated sections of one long song. The transitions and layering are handled nicely, with an intensification of the music coming so gradually that it’s not until the saxophones and keyboards are wailing away in the climax that the full shift realization hits. The remaining three songs, including one live track, serve as a bit of a come-down, with the band free to experiment with their components in the wake of that outburst, and the EP as a whole has a nice structure to it that makes it a natural fit for repeated listenings.

Aleph Null – Belladonna [2013; self-released]

On their second EP, the German group of Aleph Null assemble four tracks of sludgy metal, veering about on the edges of hard rock, heavy metal, psychedelic, and doom. While they hit some good groove stretches, it’s hard to shake the impression of the tracks being mostly experiments for the band to feel out their dynamics, without having much direction or focus in what they’re putting out. Their most effective song on the EP is also their shortest, with the ~3-minute “Gagarin” building on explorations of an acoustic riff while keeping its scope concise. For fans of the band looking for extra material, it’s a nice little set, but even at under half an hour in duration, it feels like the first half of the EP could have been cut without losing much value.