Greenleaf Plays On Trails And Passes

Former Swedish sideproject Greenleaf is back with more righteous rock and roll on their newest album Trails & Passes. The new nine-track album falls well within the band's comfort zone with its consistent heavy groove and always satisfying rumble.

Even with the addition of Arvid Jonsson (vocals) and Sebastian Olsson (drums), Dozer veterans Tommi Holappa (guitar) and Bengt Bäcke (bass) drive the familiar formula that has preserved what started as a Dozer side project into what Holappa now considers his primary band (with Dozer becoming a side project). Greenleaf never misses a beat in establishing what this band is about.

The opener Our Mother Ash does it for them. It immediately opens with a percussion-driven beat offset by thunderous riffs. It sets the pace and tone of album, alluding to a presence that deserves to be bowed down to upon arrival. "Dreams will fall, hit on the ground."

Trails & Passes leads to some beautifully strange destinations.

The second track is even better, with its full-throttle classic rock swagger. The melody and crunchy bass work lay down the foundation for tightly formed solos. Heavy rock doesn't get much better.


At more than five minutes, it isn't hard to find dozens of natural openings for the band to break away from their pages and pound out a few jam session styled solos during any live set. As is, Ocean Deep is everything heavy rock can be, densely beautiful with measured amounts of quickly repetitive and wildly individualized intensity. It's arguably the finest track on the album and keeps good company.

Equators follows with a steady driving beat accented by some power blues, bass, and cowbell. The composition is classic: a rolling midrange punctuated by intense drum work and occasional guitar bursts. Depth Of The Sun loads up on a haunting open before a meandering odyessey-infused fable. Humans rounds out the top half of the album and provides a smoky breath before one final build.

Humans also makes for great lead into the experimental open of With Eyes Wide Open. The epic 8-minute heavy brooder drones on through much of the composition, opening up much later (maybe too late) shortly after the four-minute mark. The change in tempo is welcome, even if the band never finds any real urgency for it. The Drum comes across as a stark and welcome contrast, quickly playing itself out in just over two minutes. Get that one.

The album closes out on Bound To Be Machines and Trails & Passes. The former fills up on the Greenleaf  formula while the title track brings Trails & Passes to its natural conclusion. The vocals aren't as strong on Trails & Passes as they could be, but the instrumental work makes up for it with the band finally finding some urgency to close out the album.

Trails & Passes By Greenleaf Rocks 6.4 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Trails & Passes is an album with peaks and valleys, making it possible to stick with some of the highlights alone. Must-have tracks include Ocean Deep and The Drum. The balance largely depends on individual tastes, with Equators, Depth Of The Sun, and Trails & Passes likely rounding out mine.

Trails & Passes can be picked up from Amazon or downloaded from iTunes. You can also order the Trails & Passes by Greenleaf CD from Barnes & Noble. The band is currently touring in northern Europe. Their tour schedule is listed on Facebook.

Deville Teases A Many-Headed Hydra

This past decade has been great for Deville. The heavy rock foursome from Malmö, Sweden, have produced three progressively better albums. Hydra is easily their best.

Not only did the band trade in some of their sludgier stoner rock for something more contemporary, but every inch of the new album is tightly woven and clean. Sure, this new effort lands them somewhere between hard rock and heavy metal, but it's also patently clear that Deville is confident and comfortable in this fuller space.

Hydras have many heads. Some bite.

Overall, Hydra picks up the pace thanks in part to simpler arrangements. No, the band hasn't completely abandoned its stoner rock roots. They've also kept some piggish elements, adding in plenty of dirty riffs and additive hooks. The biggest difference is they want to do more than create atmosphere. They want to drive it. 

Ask the band and they're likely to sum up the changes as simply taking the very best of what works live and putting it together. They don't want anyone to leave their shows bored. And nowhere is this fact more evident than the first track. Lava is a journey, just like the video.

Filmed and directed by Henrik Christoffersson and Peter Tarpgaard, the song lays down a blurry and impossibly impulsive first person account of what it takes to get it done. There might even be an inside joke in featuring drummer Markus Nilsson as the one trying to make the studio session. 

He had two jobs this time out, taking over as engineer too. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean Nilsson was calling the shots. Most people know Andreas Bengtsson asserts himself as the frontman for Deville. He is the one who drives the band forward, just not without asking for opinions and input.

The truth is that it was Bengtsson who wanted Nilsson to mix it after the first mix by someone else flopped. According to Bengtsson, it was too lo-fi and held back too much. Nilsson agreed to fix it, but only on the condition that no one would interfere with his process.

The totality of the album is a more diverse Deville.

The advantage of having Nilsson mix it is apparent. He was there when the band play-tested many of the songs on tour. It could also be in some of the mixes that he accentuates the more experimental moments.

I'm not sure all of them work. For example, Let It Go has these oddly pop-infused choruses sandwiched between heavier steadfast lyrics. The better track is the nod they give to their own past performances as Imperial leans on their atmospheric roots. Stay A Little Longer could have also been more thunderous than subdued.

While there is plenty to like about the album, the best highlights are on the top half of the album. Iron Fed, an underrated track, chugs along at the same relentless clip. In Vain has an almost alternative rock feel as Martin Hambitzer and Markus Åkesson weave together a few timeless impressions. The Knife is a fuzzy, fuller throwback that also contains compact and memorable drum work.

There is no doubt that Bengtsson is more urgent on the album, that Deville packs in more than two guitars to add even more weight to some sections, and it's mostly straightforward hard rock with Nilsson occasionally working overtime. Sometimes it's almost too clean. Sometimes there's too much pop.

Hydra By Deville Drives 7.2 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

The biggest impression most people will take away from the album is that the band isn't confined to the 1970s. Rather than quietly produce something to complement their stoner rock creds, Hydra is a little more modern and a whole lot more serious.

You can find Hydra by Deville on Amazon. You can also order the vinyl edition from Barnes & Noble or download the album from iTunes. They are clearly a band to watch, given that Hydra demonstrates how much more there is to this band than most people realize. It would be great to see even more material that showcases their new-found direction. Maybe they'll leak some while on tour.

Gozu Finds The Fury Of A Patient Man

It might have taken nearly three years for Gozu to return to Mad Oak Studios and the Bridge Sound and Stage to record another album, but the wait was worth it. The Boston quartet's sophomore album, The Fury Of A Patient Man, sounds smoother, sludgier, and more coherent than any previous release.

Notably, Marc Gaffney has perfected his low and soulful melodies, delivering them with enough confidence to keep any previous need for distortions and backup vocals to a minimum. The Fury Of A Patient Man clearly catches Gaffney at his best, not because he is more weathered but because he can be clearly heard with a renewed fortitude.

Gaffney isn't the only one to show improvement. Doug Sherman steps up his consistently thick riffs and permeating groove as Barry Spillberg lays down his relentless drum work, tossing in the occasional creative roll. The band's new bassist, Joe Grotto (Motherboar), also proves to be a natural fit on an album engineered by his brother Benny Grotto along with Owen Curtin.

The Fury Of A Patient Man is a crystalizing moment for Gozu. 

Gozu has always been able to deliver some densely layered onslaughts of metal, but the album opener raises the bar as it sets a stampede pace for the 10-track marathon. Bald Bull rocks.

Although best described relentless metal buzz, it's the intensely memorable guitar solo in the back third of the song that earns it a place among essential metal picks. The rest of the track is near perfect too, everything from Gaffney finding the right groove to Sherman and Spillberg delivering moments of impressively composed and well-executed metal.



With such a strong opener, the second track almost feels too relaxed to follow. In case you don't know, Signed, Epstein's Mom gives a one-off nod to the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter and possibly actor Robert Hegyes. The best part of the track is another rousing solo tucked deep inside it.

Another attention-grabbing title is the mashup Charles Bronson Pinchot. It's heavy, humorous, and gives Gozu another opportunity to prove its potency in marrying two distinct sounds to one song. In this case, they kick off the song with some galloping trash metal but then channel a post-metal atmospheric transition before ending on a note as furious as the one they used to begin it.

What makes these grand transitions so addictive is Gozu's ability to retain an aggressive spontaneity to their song craft. After a couple if passes, you know Irish Dart Fight will eventually be hammered into something other than a whimsical rocker with a seventies swagger. And yet, you'll listen intently for the change up anyway, just in case it turns out different.

Every track feels equally unpredictable: The hook-laden Salty Thumb, sludge heavy Disco Related Injury, and the hauntingly memorable Traci Lords. And then, of course, The Ceaseless Thunder Of Surf belts out for almost a full 24 minutes, bringing the entire album to just over an hour.

This track alone, if not the entire album, sets a high water mark for stoner metal this year. The entire album is meticulously crafted and perfectly executed, with nothing left to chance even if it feels like everything was left to chance.

The Fury Of A Patient Man Burns 9.1 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

If five years requires patience, then Gozu is appropriately ferocious. They have never played tighter or known precisely where they wanted to take anyone who would listen. And perhaps that is what stands out the most on The Fury Of A Patient Man. From the very first track, it's abundantly clear that Gozu knows where they want to take you — and then do it, effortlessly.

The Fury Of A Patient Man by Gozu can be found on Amazon or downloaded from iTunes. The album was originally scheduled to be released in February,  but piracy concerns prompted an early drop date. This is a band worth supporting. Every inch of the album is worth the download. Keep an eye out for tour dates in New England on Facebook.

Wo Fat Hammers Out The Black Code

Back in 2006, Wo Fat released the hazy, smoke-filled metal and blues-infused album the Gathering Dark. The album was a benchmark debut, one that Wo Fat described as a blueprint they could expand upon. They've done that for the past six years.

The Black Code is unquestionably their finest installation of this heavy, crushing rock that carries more improvisational freedom than most bands see in an entire career. The self-recorded five-track full length is a riff-filled 46 minutes of laid back, mind-numbing goodness without a beginning, middle, or end.

The Black Code from the underground. 

The band originally came together in Dallas three years before their first album. Kent Stump (vocals, guitar) had some musical ideas floating around in his head and asked Michael Walter (drums) and Tim Wilson (bass) to jam out together. Stump had already known Walter for 20 years and he and Wilson became friends at a recording studio were they both worked.

Surprisingly, the band was meant to be four piece, but their second guitarist (Matt Watkins) couldn't make the Missouri-Texas commute (although he did make four songs on the debut album). Stump still give Watkins props for influencing him, even though it is evident his own guitar skills have grown.

On The Black Code, Wo Fat opens with the shortest of its five stack. Lost Highway eases into itself as what people have come to expect. Easy riffs laced with cymbal crashes shift into a heavier, more distorted groove before Stump breaks out his gravelly storytelling vocals.

Lost Highway tells you exactly where Wo Fat intends to take you with The Black Code — a deeply hypnotic sci-fi related motif with cyber code, alien artifacts, and alternate dimensions. The arrival coincides with the song's descent into a thick-as-sludge instrumental conjured up from their collective unconscious.



After Lost Highway, everything else is more expansive, opening into bigger and better sound with more room for the band to bring about psychedelic doom. The title track, The Black Code, opens with an ominous arrangement stretched out for a full minute before the song begins to pulse and pick up the beat.

The next nine minutes of the 10-minute track sway back and forth through increasingly progressive sways and drones as Stump attempts to ward away the black code from taking his soul. Like their music that remains rooted in a warm, thunderous roll that harkens back to the Seventies but without any restraints, Wo Fat fights off being tempted by tech. They would rather jam for what ought to feel like infinity but never does.

At center, Hurt At Gone opens with a strong guitar before Stump slides it back to give more attention to Walter's percussion. Wilson fills out the more primitive and bluesy beat and back country lyrics. It feels more aggressive in both its message and meanderings, picking up some Southern folk blues and distorted funk but presenting it with the smoldering smoothness of metal. The solo work is as sharp as ever.

It makes wanting to embed a video from The Black Code even more urgent, but there are only a few decent live clips of Wo Fat floating around like this one from Las Vegas. Black Code is a bit like this, only better.


The last two songs on The Black Code have the balance of the album. The Shard Of Leng is the longer of the pair, an impressively long and hazy instrumental for the first six minutes or so before Stump finds his voice to sing about outer-worldly and spacey experiences. It almost plays as two songs strung together.

The other, The Sleep Of The Black Lotus, anchors the entire album. It's a brilliant piece of heavy rock with poetic imagery tucked between multiple crescendos. It's here that the band's chemistry is at its peak in its ability to bring a song to a climatic finish and then ride it out for another five minutes. Wow.

The Black Code By Wo Fat Hammers Out 8.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale. 

The Black Code is a must have album in entirety. It also brings clarity to Wo Fat's rating system that breaks every album into five scoring points — riff density, riff caliber, post blues factor, groove factor, and dig it. While I don't know if Stump, Wilson, and Walter think of their mad science creation when they are in the studio, The Black Code hits high marks in every category.

The Black Code by Wo Fat can be found on Amazon. You can also download the album from iTunes. Only two tracks are available without purchasing the album so you might as well get it and dig it. You can also keep up with the band on Facebook, where they sometimes tease with big news for hours.

Lo-Pan Paints Up Salvador

Ohio-based hard rock band Lo-Pan likes to make their songs a little longer and their stories a little shorter. Almost everywhere you look, they brush off any story with "We formed. We play. The end."

There is a bit more to the story than that. Jeff Martin (vocals), Jesse Bartz (drums,) Skot Thompson (bass), and Brian Fristoe (guitar) formed about six years ago and produced two independent records before signing with Small Stone Records.

The second, Sasquanaut, originally recorded in 2008, was remixed and reissued in January (except the 10+ minute jam Wade Garrett, which was rerecorded).

Most of the material on the newer album released a few weeks ago was written over the course of three years; more than half of the songs were written while they were on the road. It's difficult to tell which are which. Their songwriting often starts with a jam session between Bartz and Thompson or Bartz and Fristoe. And then something magical happens.

Lo-Pan produces a more dynamic sound with Salvador.

The new album, Salvador (named after Salvador Dali), blends slow burn jams with heavy-handed rockers, sometimes imbued with thunderous guitars, psychedelic grooves, and old school metal. If the sound in general seems any bigger, attribute it to the production and mixing work of Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Boston.

"Benny is a master, man. He’s really, really good," Bartz recently told The Aquarian Weekly, before explaining how some fans miss the DIY dirt but are otherwise happy with the polish.

Truth be told, Lo-Pan is just as raw and dirty as ever — anytime you see them live. Here's a fan-made video of Chichen Itza to prove it.


Chichen Itza is one of several hypnotic rockers worth checking out on Salvador. The only difference is that the big man, Martin, who frequently sings behind instead of in front of the band, sounds even bigger, deeper, and harmonic in the studio.

Other tracks to check out include El Dorado (with some lines cut from El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe), Bleeding Out, Bird of Prey, and Struck Match. Take or leave the rest, but know that most pay homage to their early beginnings as a band, which consisted of nothing more than "dirty rock, stale beer, and an unhealthy obsession with Big Trouble In Little China."

That also means every track showcases instrumentals as part of the arrangements, with sharp guitar riffs balanced by a dizzying, infectious bass. As for the songs, even the most cryptic lyrics connect emotionally. Martin has an amazing voice, even when it's only employed as another instrumental layer.

Lo-Pan's Salvador Hits A Master Stroke At 7.8 On The Liquid Hip Richter Scale.

Everything about the band is home grown and it's great to see they haven't lost their roots while stepping up with a label. It's equally great to see a big heavy rock band put in years of hard work to catch local buzz, occasionally play alongside bigger bands (Red Giant, Saviours, Red Fang, and Valkyrie), and then get a shot because someone took their sophomore album in to Small Stone Records and said someone better listen to it.

With two albums out, Salvador by Lo-Pan is priced better-than-right on iTunes. Salvador is also on Amazon and the CD can be found at Barnes & Noble. The band just completed a three-week East Coast tour and has another concert planned for Kentucky this August.