Hold your bongs high! Now bow down to the almighty DOPETHRONE, whose new album III is a fucking blackened, resinated classic. From the very first vocal sample on the opening song “Hooked,” I was hooked. This tunes just drips with sonic THC that not only gets in your veins with its cosmic riffage, it also energizes you with its never-ending ritualistic melody. DOPETHRONE are able to take doom and view it through a crusty lens, and that perspective brings this genre new heights of audio filth. The vocalist for this band sounds like he has a raspy case of cotton mouth, which only makes his vocal delivery more captivating. You will know when you hear this album that it was created by punks worshipping at the altar of Sabbath while reaching for the moon with the hands Darkthrone. DOPETHRONE are the kind of humans that eat the blues for lunch and wash it all down with a giant jug of crust punch! This is smart, because the way that III is mixed is perfect for their sound. What’s a trip about this band is that, yes, they play doom, but there something very uplifting about this record. I know that this is a fact, because whenever I blast it for my 14-month-old daughter she starts spazzing out and head banging. DOPETHRONE riffs have tell stories that keep you spellbound and anticipating more. This is a band that waves the weed flag high, which is evident in their wicked use of some on-point samples throughout III. You can smell the beautiful stench of the devil’s grass with each play of this album. “Storm Reefer” is a tune that says it fucking all – blast this jam and tell me it’s not sticky and green. I’m floating in space right now… No I’m floating on a huge cloud of DOPETHRONE’s feedback to be exact. It feels so good to be this high above Earth, and when I come down it will be to my dopethrone!

Text by Astrid Tonella

Label: Svart Records

Hexvessel – No Holier Temple

In 2011, Hexvessel released its debut album Downbearer, a little jewel that has rocked my soul for quite a while and has become very intimate to me. For those who are not familiar with the band, Hexvessel is a psychedelic rock folk octet hailing from Finland, founded by Mat “Kvohst” McNerney vocalist for Dødheimsgard and Code.

After a first album highly acclaimed by the critics, there was no wonder Hexvessel’s second opus No Holier Temple was highly awaited. But with no surprise, the band offers us another very unique masterpiece. This is a very daring album, powerful and extremely varied as much in the choice of instruments as in the difference ambiances and emotions it provides. The sound of Holier No Temple sounds like it could have been recorded in the early 70’s, which enhances the vibe researched and adds coherence to the whole album. Its atmosphere and identity is so strong that you’ll feel teleported somewhere in a Finnish forest while listening to it. What is interesting about this record is that you can get it right from the first listen. Full of subtleties, you’ll pick something new each time you listen to it, which shows how rich this album is.

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So what happens when GEHENNA links up with INTEGRITY for a split that’s out now via Holy Terror? I will tell you what happens: it’s all out audio murder against the weak of heart! From the GEHENNA song titles alone – “Parallel Hells” & “Amphetimine Psychosis” – you know that this band wants to cut the tongues out of the false prophets’ mouths. It’s fucking awesome the way the band uses dirgey feedback to set the tone of destruction that they are about to unleash upon you. On both tunes, GEHENNA is able to blend the cold cold nordic winds of black metal with the cyco sleaze of hardcore to perfection! What I’m really impressed with is the interaction between the vocals and the pungent riffs. When you reach the end of “Amphetimine Psychosis” you realize that you don’t want this ride of terror to end! Then this insanely emotional killer riff kicks in for the INTEGRITY song, before it takes you off in another gnarly direction. It’s the fucking guitar playing on “I Know VVhere Everyone Lives” that keeps you pushing the repeat button. The balance between Dwid’s vocal delivery and the rest of the music is on point. What you realize when you hear the INTEGRITY song is that this band has many different influences and are not afraid of allowing them to organically become a part of what they create. This is why I dig this song so much – because of the different dimensions of musical inspiration that are alive in this song. Actually, when I listen to this 7″ it inspires me to do what I have to do in my daily grind.

It’s fucking on…CVLT Nation is ultra stoked to announce that Vol. VII of our acclaimed mixtape series, Blackened Everything, goes live today! We made sure that this one was more brutal than ever before. Get ready to make your ears explode with 21 tracks of pure rancid audio torment! Follow the download links below (scroll over the image to download) and blast this motherfucker loud! Check the tracklisting after the jump. CVLT Nation salutes all of the bands that made it on this volume for creating the music that makes our blood boil!

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Last week Ramesses and Eyehategod ripped their way through Manchester, and it was all captured on film by Monster Riffage. Thank god for the internet, because we can’t fly our asses out to the UK to see an epic show like this one, so we have to put it on fullscreen and crank up the volume and just pretend that we’re there…feeling the bass ripple through our flesh and feeling the fuzzy aftermath of eardrum damage…spark one up and let the music play below…

More videos after the jump…
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In the blues of this universe is where real creativity is alive, because from nothing is how we make everything! ASUNDER was a band that knew how to paint majestic dirgy images with their brand of apocalyptic doom. On May 27th, 2005, in Oakland at the Hazmat, the band gave a superdelic performance that was captured on film by KILLTHATCAT. Today, CVLT Nation would like to share this epic gig with you. Also, make sure to check out a rare CORRUPTED & ASUNDER collaboration together HERE that gives me chills with each listen!

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Last week, Hell Comes Home released two brand new splits and they both fucking kill hard! First up is Rites vs. Dukatalon, and next is Black Sun vs. Throat – when you put the needle down on these records, you will be showered with filth. On a personal level, I have these joints on fucking repeat. You can pick up these off-the-chain 7″ HERE. You how we represent at CVLT Nation, we are streaming them below!

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Earier this year, AGE OF COLLAPSE released a kick-ass album entitled Burden of Beast via Aborted Society Records (check out our review HERE!). I was totally blown away by this record, and one of the many stand-out songs, “Hands That Take,” now has a video produced by Brian Myers. Every time I hear this song, I just know that we have to do something, no matter how big or small, to make a positive impact on this world! AGE OF COLLAPSE are now on a west coast tour – peep the dates plus the video after the jump. Also, stay tuned for Part Two of their artist to artist interview with Murderess.

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After I told my dad I got this here gig writin’ shit for CVLT Nation he asked me what kind of stuff gets posted on the site. I told him mostly reviews of Death Metal and Black Metal and Doom Metal records and that sometimes they review films and art and photography, typically of the macabre and stygian nature. Then my dad said he worries about me and how I spend so much time in a “realm of darkness,” said he wished I would take on subjects of a lighter matter once in a while. Well then, Dad, this here review’s for you.

          Radar Men From The Moon’s debut LP Echo Forever came out almost exactly one Earth year after their EP Intergalactic dada & Space trombones. And ain’t much changed in that year, let me tell ya. This Dutch trio still favors sci-fi movie soundbytes over vocals; they’re still writing riffs that give the listener the effect of ripping a gravity bong in anti-gravity; their songs still rise to float monolithically slow over your head like some star-filled and impossibly ubiquitous menhir from a land where time and land don’t exist. And, most importantly, Radar Men From The Moon are still primarily focused on taking you, the ought-to-be gracious listener, on a little trip – that is, a pleasant voyage through the winking, inky beyond, where always in the outer reaches of your consciousness - like your name being called from without a dream -  you hear the voice of the late Carl Sagan saying something like: “We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”

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I’m not even going to write that much, just know that right here and now you can download a full set of KYLESA, recorded live in 2010 in Porto Rio, Portugal. I will say this – if you are a KYLESA fan, get this, blast it ultra loud and bang your motherfucking head!!! Check out a sneak preview stream of three of the tracks below!

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