The second quarterly report of 2024 maintains the heavy flow of releases with psych pop, art rock, psych prog, indie pop, proto-metal, epic doom metal, noise, sludge metal and more.

As far as high profile releases, there were no shortage in the mainstream, but in terms of my personal tastes, there was only one contender for the final Fester’s Lucky 13 year-end list, the long-awaited fifth album by Danish band The Sonic Dawn. I couldn’t be further away from what’s popular. But what most people don’t realize is that there is way more to choose from beyond, say, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Pearl Jam, Billie Eilish, The Black Crowes, Jlin, Meshell Ndegeocello, Chastity Belt, The Black Keys, Gary Clark Jr., Rosali, and Vampire Weekend. Those all, by the way, are in the bottom half of my top 200.

The Sonic Dawn – Phantom (Heavy Psych)

Vitskär Süden – Vessel (Ripple)

While I’ve been a big fan of Vitskär Süden’s first two albums, and The Faceless King (2022) showed a strong progression from their 2020 self-titled debut (complete with an AD&D module!), I was hardly prepared for the stylistic leap on their third album. While there was previously enough gothy darkness in their psych prog that I used the psych noir tag on the first two, Vessel takes a giant Talk Talk/Radiohead level step into a really original blend of art rock, psych, space rock and even, more subtly, post-punk, as Ian Curtis’s ghostly presence wafts through the album, leaving a cold chill. Every story-oriented song has it’s own uniquely sound designed flavor, bringing to mind the studio experimentation of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Pink Floyd. On the post-industrial pulse of the Lovecraftian “R’Iyeh,” I could imagine David Bowie being stoked to contribute guest vocals were he alive. Despite the ambitious variety of sounds, the overall vibe is cohesive. It took a while for this one to sink in, as it simply does not play well with other artists on a playlist. It absolutely demands at least a few listens of focused attention. Which sadly means it will soon be relegated to the cult classic ghetto, spoken of with reverence and fervor by a small following, but flying completely under the radar of the masses. Their loss.

Custard Flux – Einsteinium Delirium

Former The Luck of Eden Hall frontman Curvey has conducted an experiment of all acoustic psych prog with Custard Flux from 2018-22 with great success. On his fifth album, he’s gone all electric, resulting, unsurprisingly, in his hardest rocking album yet. It’s a band effort, with rhythm section Timothy Prettyman (bass), Nick Pruett (drums) second guitarist Vito Greco and Andy Thompson on mellotron. While there are ten tracks, most of them have transitions linking them to the next song, giving it the feel of an extended suite, tied together by the theme of atomic madness (Einsteinium is the unstable element that was discovered in the debris after the first hydrogen bomb explosion). As the future looks ever more bleak with the likelihood of nuclear disaster in our lifetime, we at least have this thoroughly modern yet out of time, spiritual, heavy trip.

Caldwell – Caldwell (Popclaw/Rise Above)

As a member of New Orleans garage rockers The Planchettes, Kevan Caldwell contributed to the promising debut The Truth (2019, Rise Above), which had a uniquely sinister garage noir sound that reflects some of their hometown flavor. His solo debut on Rise Above’s new spinoff label Popclaw has him focusing on late 60s era British psych pop, seasoned with garage rock, baroque and sunshine pop along with some Laurel Canyon countrified folk rock. Every track features enough vocal hooks to hang a collection of whimsical vintage hippie hats. While one can imagine many of these songs fitting well next to 1967-69 era Pink Floyd, Donovan, Small Faces and The Pretty Things, Caldwell deftly maintains his own recognizable style. Even when he sings about a garden gnome. As naively retro that might look on paper to some, the result proves that there’s still plenty of unfinished business worth exploring in psychedelic pop.

English Teacher – This Could be Texas (Island)

This debut from Leeds, UK indie pop combo English Teacher quietly snuck up on me with the dry humor that achieves a rare state of charming wit without annoyingly trying too hard. With topics like broken biscuits, side boobs and not having the voice to sing R&B, Lily Fontaine injects just enough bittersweet melancholy to sound poignant rather than jokey. This just might have the kind of staying power of Body Type and Wet Leg. Mainstream pop has gone so far down a wrong turn that it’s bitten it’s own ass like an oroborous, so don’t hold your breath of seeing this band getting widespread coverage.

The Resonars – Electricity Plus

Matt Rendon’s garage psych/power pop outfit has been at it since 1991, and remarkably, their ninth album, the first since Disappear (2020) could be their best. “I Lost You” has a killer fuzz guitar tone, memorable hooks and a well crafted arrangement augmented by piano. “Gold to Blue,” “Spidery Light” all go from strength to strength, and they don’t let up for the entire album. I need to circle back to the older albums to see if they were always this great. If so, why aren’t they bigger than Weezer? Probably because they’ve been squirreled away in the desert behind some mountains in Tucson.

Tarot – Glimpse of the Dawn (Cruz del Sur)

I’d forgotten how much I missed Tarot, the Australian hard rock band who I first heard on The Warrior’s Spell (2015), a compilation of their first three tapes/EPs that mixed Uriah Heep/Deep Purple style proto-metal with folky Wishbone Ash/Jethro Tull psych prog, chock full of killer vocal harmonies, mellotron and great tunes. Along with Brimstone Coven, Demon Eye, Blood Ceremony, Dunbarrow and some others, it seemed that they were on the front lines of a proto-metal wave, of sorts. However after their official debut Reflections (2016), they went silent and I’d assumed they’d broken up like so many other bands. So this new one is not only a surprise, but also a big step up in production quality, arrangements, and much improved vocals. The Hermit seemed to take notes from peak era The Lord Weird Slough Feg and learned to belt them out with authority. I don’t know if the band were toiling away nonstop on this album for the past eight years, but it sure sounds like it.

Pallbearer – Mind Burns Alive (Nuclear Blast)

Ever since forming in Little Rock, AR in the late 00s, Pallbearer seemed destined to blaze a unique path between traditional epic doom metal and more introspective music, their own Southern American take on what Patrick Walker started in the UK with Warning and 40 Watt Sun. While the band took a detour to more trad metal on their fourth album, Forgotten Days (2020), they’re back to fine tuning their own special hybrid of doom, post-rock and slowcore. I hear bits of Duluth, MN’s Low, and even the emotiveness of UK’s Elbow. Like their first three albums, it took some time for them to grow on me. They make music I didn’t know I wanted, but eventually when the right mood strikes, it’s just what I needed.

Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose (Dark Descent)

It’s gratifying to hear bands like Crypt Sermon progressing. The Philadelphia band takes a slow and steady approach, with just their third album since their 2015 debut, Out of the Garden. Five years after The Ruins of Fading Light (2019), it’s clear that the band kept busy working on their craft. When I was blown away by Solitude Aeturnus at Hell’s Heroes this year, I wondered how they might have progressed if they kept recording after 2006. But just as they added to the foundation of Candlemass, Crypt Sermon has more than ably taken the reigns of hard rockin’ epic doom metal stuffed full of grade-A riffs, solos, vocal performances, and production (Arthur Rizk at his best). This is so good I’m tempted to buy tickets to next year’s Hell’s Heroes before the lineup is announced based solely on the hope that Crypt Sermon will be there.

Shellac – To All Trains (Touch and Go)

There’s dissonance between the tragedy of Steve Albini’s untimely passing just days before this release, and the casual, even fun atmosphere of the album, recorded over four weekends between 2017 and 2022. I actually asked Steve about any news on the next Shellac album back in 2021 and he said there wouldn’t be anything for a long time. I suppose another two and a half years is pretty long, but at the time half the sessions were already on tape. For the past 32 years, Shellac has been the trio’s “grown up” band, meaning they all had their lives and day jobs, and they got together to play or record whenever they felt like. It was a pattern that easily could have worked for the rest of their lives. Despite the coincidental darkness of closer “I Don’t Fear Hell,” Albini had every intention of living many more years. While Shellac recordings are generally spare and pristine, there’s a touch of garage rock grime that reminds me of Albini’s work with The Stooges. And while Albini has very publicly mellowed with age, there’s certainly still fangs to be found in songs like “WSOD” and “Scabby the Rat.” But the grim parts are always balanced by his dark humor — “I don’t fear Hell / The floor show would be incredible…If there’s a heaven, I hope they’re having fun / Cause if there’s a hell, I’m gonna know everyone.”

Ufomammut – Hidden (Neurot)

The word on the tenth full-length album from Ufomammut is that it’s their heaviest yet. That’s a tall order, given the historically spine crushing content of the majority of their particular blend of sludge metal, stoner, doom, and space rock. I also recall the headline of my review of Ecate (2015) being “Italian cosmic doom sludge psych lays down their heaviest album in years like the intergalactic space lord bosses they are.” What’s different this time is the flavor of the heavy. Nine years ago, they were incorporating post-industrial influences from the likes of Swans and Killing Joke. While shreds of those influences continue to lurk among their many layers, there’s a few more subtly incorporated facets, including death metal crunch and prog metal on their epic centerpiece, “Mausoleum.” Despite putting out one classic after another for 25 years, the band has not gotten the recognition as influencers, somewhere between Neurosis and YOB, as they should, at least in North America. I’m still optimistic it will happen, as the best stuff generally rises to the top, and metal bands of the future will be citing these Italians as their primary inspiration.

REZN – Burden

When the average album release cadence for bands average somewhere between once every three to four years, it’s surprising to get a new release from REZN just 15 months after Solace (2023). That’s because it was recorded at essentially the same time, and was initially considered for a double album. It makes sense that Burden was released separately, as it’s quite different. While Solace ventured into a gauzy, floaty world of doomgaze so ethereal it verged on dream pop, the latest sees REZN dipping back into their original inspiration, Electric Wizard. Meaning, there’s some acrid misanthropy and a sense of hopelessness and despair that is more in the doom metal wheelhouse. There is still continuity with the contemplative post-rock textures that REZN has been tweaking since Chaotic Divine (2020), and chances are this prolific band will soon take is on another detour soon enough.

The Haven Green – Dreamers In A Dreamless World (Mega Dodo)

The Haven Green was a concept Steve Somerset dreamed up back when he was making high-profile videos in the 80s with Kevin Godley and Lol Creme while living in Ealing, where a greenspace called Haven Green sounded like the name of a late 60s psychedelic folk band. The idea percolated in the back of his head for over three decades, as he played in a variety of projects, including the power/psych pop band The Shadow Kabinet. In 2021, he had just written “Journey to the Stars,” and he realized he just brought The Haven Green to life. The inspiration lit a spark, and soon To Whom it May Concern (2022), Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt (2023) and Dreamers in a Dreamless World came out in quick succession. While late 60s psychedelic folk is a key element, I also hear the folkier side of 80s work by the likes of Julian Cope and Robyn Hitchcock. The day Dreamers was released, I was driving while listening to a playlist of another dozen albums released that day on shuffle. I didn’t know The Haven Green, but my ears perked up every time a song came on and I became obsessed. I’m still working on tracking down the three Shadow Kabinet albums, Hark! (2004), Smiling Worlds Apart (2009) and Nostalgia for the Future (2016), and I keep hitting walls. Until then, Mega Dodo, a perfect label for the three Haven Green albums, conveniently has Somerset’s recent work on Bandcamp.

The Blank Tapes – Good Ol’ Days (It’s A Gas!)
Like Matt Rendon of the Resonars, Matt Adams has been churning out endless supplies of psych/power pop for over two decades. The quality may not have been as consistent at first, which makes Collection 2003-2017 a handy place to sample their first 15 years. Since that compilation, however, his albums have been getting better and better, with Candy (2018), Look into the Light (2019), and the latest, approximately 13th album.

MaidaVale – Sun Dog (Silver Dagger)
I really loved this Swedish psych band’s second album, Madness is Too Pure (2018), where they incorporated some kosmische and post-punk elements. In the six years since then, they’ve dug more into Afrobeat and Tuareg desert rock. Said Ag Ayad of Tinariwen contributed djembe and calabash to the album, and while the propulsive rhythm tracks might evoke their Swedish colleagues Goat, more attention is paid to arranging songs with melodies, hooks and riffs, something I wished Goat would do better.

Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood (Red Creek)
I was a big fan of Julie’s work in Battle of Mice and Made Out of Babies, and celebrated her debut solo album The Bad Wife (2010) with some fanfare. And while her collaboration with Cult of Luna on Mariner (2016) was even more celebrated, and she’s clearly one of the most original voices in the metal-adjacent scene, I’ve barely listened to her music in the past decade. So I kind of forgot about the new album, hence the belated add here. It sounds like this could be her best work yet, and time will tell if I’ll return to it more than her previous work.

Ferocious Dog – Kleptocracy (Graphite)
At the tail end of a Pogues kick, I was craving more, and discovered Ferocious Dog from Warsop, Nottinghamshire. Formed way back in 1988, their first album came out in 2013, and since then they’ve been consistently great, mixing Celtic punk, folk rock, and politics without sounding like idiots, no mean feat. Their seventh album stuffs sixteen songs in just under an hour, and might even be better than the poignant, powerful The Hope (2021).

Goat Girl – Below the Waste (Rough Trade)
It’s surprising that this is only Goat Girl’s third album, as they have covered a lot of artistic ground since their first single in 2016. In the past I’ve associated them with other bands I’ve tagged Trip Jam, but their latest lacks a particular kind of groove that links that music, as they have become both more subdued and experimental. I have no doubt this new direction in art rock and the diffuse array of sounds is a slow burner and will reveal more appealing qualities as time goes on, but it’s in danger of fading into the background without the right amount of focus.

DIIV – Frog in Boiling Water (Fantasy)
Brooklyn dream pop band discards their jangle pop and surf stylings to lean into shoegaze.

Spectres – Presence (Artoffact)
Vancouver post-punk band evolves from darker goth and deathrock roots to jangle pop. Mode Moderne and Male Gaze have dabbled with the post-punk/jangle pop combo, and I’d love more bands to explore this under served hybrid.

Sheverb – She Rides Again (Ladies of Reverb)
This Austin Cosmic Americana/psych band specializes in desert psych surf noir instrumentals. On their third full length they’ve perfected their guns, peyote and dark highways essence.

High Desert Queen – Palm Reader (Magnetic Eye) 
This heavy stoner/desert psych band, also based in Austin, have made an impressive progression from their debut album, placing them near the top of the heap over their peers. While the band has presented a high energy, positive vibe with a sense of humor in their videos, they can do cosmic dread and rage with the best of them, exemplified by the stunning closer “Solar Rain.”

Chameleons – Where Are You? EP (Metropolis)
The band has been touring off and on in recent years, and it’s exciting to see this EP, their first new recordings in 22 years. This inspires hope for another full length from the iconic post-punkers.

Ed Harcourt – El Magnifico (Deathless)
One of the greatest, undersung 21st century singer-songwriters in the UK, Ed Harcourt has been messing around with modern classical instrumental for a few years. But here, he comes up with his best batch of songs since From Every Sphere (2003). In an era when singer-songwriters are ruling the pop charts with an iron fist, everyone should hear what they’ve been missing with Ed Harcourt and proceed to make him rich.

Carpet – Collision (Kapitan Platte)
Fifth album of psych prog from this inscrutable German band. RIYL Motorpsycho, Jaga Jazzist, the Notwist.

Valley Lodge – Shadows in Paradise (Tee Pee)
There’s something in the water this spring that spurred all these long-running power pop bands to come up with their best material. Comedian Dave Hill produces his hardest rocking songs yet.

High on Fire – Cometh the Storm (MNRK Heavy)
As much as I love Matt Pike as a stoner doom icon from his years in Sleep, and his even longer legacy as a sludge metal rifflord, it’s tempting to take their body of work for granted, despite the fact that it’s already been six years since the Grammy-winning Electric Messiah (2018). It takes some awfully close listening to differentiate the nine albums released in the last quarter century, partly because of consistence in quality, and partly because sludge metal is only a sometimes food for my ears, so I don’t spend a ton amount of time. However, deeply embedded within these heavy, noisy tracks is some subtly progressive experimentation and Eastern melodies that merit spending more alone time with ’em.

Bubbling Under

No need to stop where the blurbs do! There are a trio of fine indie dream pop/trip jam releases from women-lead groups that have gotten a lot of playtime for me by Goat Girl, La Luz and Still Corners. There’s mixed reactions to Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ imaginary Italian movie soundtrack. I’d prefer they try to finally match the amazing hooks and riffs ratio of Blood Lust (2011), but it’s pretty amazing for what it is. If you follow Doom Charts, you’ll know that there are already hundreds of heavy psych, stoner doom metal and hard rock albums to sort through. For what it’s worth, along with my top 20 picks, there’s Young Acid, Fu Manchu, Heavy Temple, Black Pyramid, Haunted and Melvins for starters.

If, like me, you can’t have too much psych pop, there’s also GospelbeacH, The Lemon Twigs and Parsnip. Extreme metal doesn’t get as much playtime in comparison to other genres, but I really liked Ulcerate, Inter Arma, Chapel of Disease, Darkthrone, Spectral Voice, Gatecreeper, Thou, Glassing, Necrot and BAT

My highest rated mainstream(ish) pop album pick is WILLOW’s fifth album, Empathogen. She’s always had talent, but at 24 she’s finally hit her stride with a truly impressive album of art and prog pop. Tiny Desk Concert recently revealed her band to be truly tight, with some sick jazz-rock chops.

Streaming Playlists