Lord living fuck, I forgot how haywire it is when that shitbag is in office, and every five minutes he’s committing a crime against humanity. Therapy session was particularly intense this week, and it’s hard not to just want to scream constantly. Marijuana is the answer and so, it would appear, is Weed Demon.
The smoked-out sludge doom crushers return with their third record “The Doom Scroll,” and could they have selected a better title for a record dropping in the hell times? Part 2. This five-track (six if you have the vinyl version, which is hidden at the end) astronaut is perfect mind-blazing fodder for smoking up and trying to think about anything other than reality. The band—vocalist/bassist Jordan Holland, guitarists/vocalists Andy Center and Brian Buckley, drummer Nick Carter—mashes their smoldering, stoner doom that swaggers as hard as it pummels, making for a great escape from your life.
“Acid Dungeon” is an instrumental opener with a slick synth gaze, feeling spooky and borderline horror movie score. The playing shivers and haunts, moving into “Tower of Smoke” that powers with lapping guitars encircling and punchy rhythmic blows. The pace trudges and leaves soot, the playing allowing the heat to bubble dangerously, the instrumental piece burning off into other dimensions. “Coma Dose” chills with noiry playing, the singing warbling as things grow more molten, growls ripping in to pull at guts, with Funerals’ Shy Kennedy adding her own smoking, muscular voice. Things get more grisly as the harsh vocals mix with slurry singing, continuing to build momentum as mud cakes the gears. The bass trudges as the growls strengthen their grip, battering with a mucky intensity that blurs into the night.
“Roasting the Sacred Bones,” which would make Frank Reynolds psyched, starts with clean guitars glazing, a cosmic spiral taking you off into the cosmos, the riffs ruling with barked growls slashing over top. The playing gives off a humid Black Tusk vibe, your senses battered even as acoustic strains come in to offer some cooling, the thrashy energy catching fire and burning relentlessly. “Dead Planet Blues” is the closer, kind of, depending on your format. Acoustics and sun-stained guitars launch, the slide playing adding a strange warmth, the power engulfing. Clean guitar traces color in the riff pockets, guitars dashing through a spacey exhaust that spirals into oblivion. If you have the vinyl version, the album ends with a cover of Frank Zappa’s 1969 classic “Willie the Pimp” that they remake in their own image, keeping the bluesy madness and adding their own ferocity.
Weed Demon’s electrified, smoke-filled haze is thick and alluring as ever on “The Doom Scroll,” a record that might make you do less phone strangling and more immersion in mind-altering substances. You can do a lot worse for yourself as we’re back in the era of insane news every 5 minutes, so this distraction into the cosmos just might be what your ailing nerves desire. This is a brain-frying, clobbering record that’ll let you space out but also will leave unexpected bruising.
For more on the band, go here: https://smokeweeddemon.bandcamp.com/album/the-doom-scroll
To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://www.gloryordeathrecords.com/shop/electric-valley-records
Or here (Europe): https://www.electricvalleyrecords.com/product/weed-demon-the-doom-scroll
For more on the label, go here: https://www.gloryordeathrecords.com/
Meat Mead Metal 