Sleep in The Button Factory/Dublin

Sleep - That's what you shouldn't do on this Wednesday the 23rd of May 2012. The Black Sabbath influenced Doom Rockers from San Jose/California will be playing a gig in The Button Factory here in Dublin and you definitely should not miss this gig. For those who are not familiar with Sleep, check out the video below. It's the one hour track "Dopesmoker" which has only been released in full length in 2003 on TeePee Records. A shortened bootleg version was released by Sleep themselves somewhen last century.
For those who are familiar with the Band, see you in the Button Factory when these lads are on stage.


Also have an eye at the Event on Facebook and the Events-Section for further updates
Tickets at Tickets.ie
Price: €21.50


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A little bit from Wikipedia about them:

Early Years
Sleep evolved in the early 1990s from the band Asbestosdeath, which was established by vocalist/bassist Al Cisneros, drummer Chris Hakius, and guitarist Tom Choi. Asbestosdeath expanded to a quartet with the introduction of Matt Pike on guitar, and recorded two singles - "Dejection" for Profane Existence and the self released "Unclean". Choi departed, and would later found Operator Generator, It Is I, Noothgrush, and Las Vegas' Black Jetts. Asbestosdeath recruited Justin Marler as replacement and the band adopted the new name, Sleep.

Recording Era
Their debut album Volume One was released in 1991. Frequently compared to bands like Saint Vitus, Sleep soon gained a devoted fanbase within the developing doom metal scene. Marler quit the band soon after to take up life as a monk, leaving the band as a power trio for the recording of their Volume Two EP, which was released officially by Off The Disk Records in 1991. The band's next album was sent to the independent label, Earache, as a demo. Recorded at Razors Edge studios in San Francisco, with Billy Anderson handling production, the tape showcased Sleep's love of all things retro, from the blatant Black Sabbath/Blue Cheer influences, to their fixation with 1970's-style tube amplification. The label immediately signed the band and released the tape exactly as it was received.

Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992) is widely considered a seminal album in the evolution of stoner metal. The album's release was followed by a potentially lucrative offer from London Records, and Sleep signed with them. Around this time, Earache released its first Black Sabbath Tribute album, and Sleep contributed a cover of "Snowblind". Under their new contract, they began work on their third album, Dopesmoker, in 1995. Much to the dismay of executives at London records, Dopesmoker was a single song more than one hour long. London Records declared the album unmarketable and refused to release it. Sleep returned to the studio and then submitted their second attempt at the new album. They had retitled it Jerusalem, re-written some of the lyrics and trimmed it down to a "lean" 52 minutes, but it was essentially the same as Dopesmoker. London Records again refused to release it. Frustrated and generally unhappy with the situation, the members of Sleep decided to disband.

Reunion
In May 2009, Sleep reformed to perform two exclusive reunion sets in England as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival. In the shows the band performed for the first time a song that had previously been intended for inclusion on, and wrote during the Dopesmoker recording sessions and widely unheard entitled 'Antarcticans Thawed'. On November 19, 2009 Al Cisneros confirmed in an interview with The Obelisk that Sleep will be reuniting in the fall of 2010 for some US dates. It has also been confirmed that Jason Roeder (of experimental metal band Neurosis) will replace Chris Hakius on drums. The group are confirmed to play the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York this September where they will perform Holy Mountain in its entirety. They are touring the rest of the United States, playing headlining dates and festivals, through September. Sleep embarked on a 9-date US tour shortly after the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. During 2011, Sleep were confirmed as an act for the 2012 annual music festival, San Miguel Primavera Sound, taking place in Barcelona over late May and early June. On April 14, 2012, Sleep will headline the 17th annual Roadburn Festival. A band statement for which reads “Sleep are honored to attend the Symposium of Iommic Research, Tilburg at Roadburn”. In May 2012 the band will support Slayer at the All Tomorrow's Parties 'I'll Be Your Mirror' festival at Alexandra Palace, London.

Chocolate Love Factory - Octavia

I'm pretty sure that everybody knows this feeling: You're sitting at home, going through your music library and you don't know what to listen to. This is where Chocolate Love Factory from Northern Ireland comes in place. Influenced by many different artists like Kyuss or Queens Of The Stone Age, Tool, PJ Harvey and Stevie Wonder, Chocolate Love Factory is creating a great mixture of all of these genres and bands. And if you think that sounds like a weird mash-up of different genres, you're mistaken. The 3 lads know how to combine that all and their unique sound is ranging from Stoner Rock with Blues touches to Progressive Rock or even towards Indie.
They recently released their latest album "Octavia", which was recorded during winter 2011. The overall sound of the album is a bit deeper than the rest of their stuff and leaned more towards stoner rock, with a few more grooving elements. But this album still shows that they don't really care about what genre their music actually ranges in, they just play what they like and what sounds good. And the punk/hardcore touches here and there fit in really well. My favourite on this record is the downtuned track Octavia. But don't take my word, listen for yourself!


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Northern Irish 3-piece Chocolate Love Factory are fresh out of the studio and ready to unleash their first EP, 'Octavia'.

Groovy, dirty and intense; the EP is dripping in the distinctive octave guitar sound that guitarist Rory Dee has made his own. It mixes melody with filthy riffage, and the band (which includes new bassist Pearse McClelland) are confident that the set of songs presented on 'Octavia' will be an accurate representation of where the band is right now.

After a busy 2011 releasing singles 'Rat Bag' & 'Texty Texty' in Spring & Airbrake, Belfast in March; and summer single 'Coral Lady' with an Irish tour in August, the band are back to prove themselves once again.


Recorded in the winter months of 2011 with Neill McCartney at Pretty Circus Studios in Belfast, CLF are eager to share their new material in 2012. Releasing single 'Scarlett Blues' as a taster on 2nd February (download only at chocolatelovefactory.bandcamp.com), the EP itself will be released on both CD and online on 16th February.

Engines of Ruin - Triquetra

Can you remember the days when Karma to Burn had a singer in the band? It didn't sound bad at all, but Karma to Burn got better as soon as they turned into an instrumental stoner rock band.
Same happened to the Dublin based trio Engines of Ruin. They have a few tracks with a singer and they have a very grunge-like sound with a great touch of Stoner Rock, which you can listen to at Reverbnation. Those tracks are great work and they really sound good.
But then, during production of their debut album, the singer left the band and they continued to make music as an instrumental stoner rock band. Which was, not only in my eyes, a great decision.
Their debut contains heavy usage of the Wah pedal, jam parts and a lot of bad-ass riffs. Karma to Burn runs into a truckload of Wah pedals and starts jamming right on the spot, is probably the best way to describe their sound. Nice groovy tunes on a great debut album. The band is currently writing and recording new material, and we are all looking forward to their new stuff.

The current line up:

Adam Brewer/Guitars - Adam Kelly/Bass - Johnny Brewer/Drums

From Breaking Tunes:

Having gone through various line-up changes over the last couple of years, Engines Of Ruin are now a three piece instrumental rock band, consisting of bass, drums and guitars. This came about accidentally as the singer left the band at a time when they had just started to write their debut EP.

Rather than putting everything on hold and audition for singers they decided to hold off for the time being and continue on instrumentally, scrapped what they had written and started over. The band have again looked into getting a singer, but to date have not been fortunate enough to get the right fit. The hunt continues….
Guitarist Adam Brewer took on the responsibility of engineering and mixing the EP. This was no easy task as he had the added pressure of balancing this with his guitar duties. Adam had experimented with recording earlier tracks for the band, but this is his biggest recording gig to date.



"Engines of Ruin are an all-instrumental heavy blues band from Dublin. With the pedal to the metal, and I do mean that literally, the band lays it on heavy with tons of wah-wah and reverb. Engines of Ruin rocks you into oblivion with their scorching solos, crunchy power chords and substantial groove. Check'em out now!" - HeavyPlanet.net


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Talisman Stone

You don't really need guitars to make good music. Bass guitars are enough. The Italian band Talisman Stone from Ravenna knows that and bass guitars are pretty much all they use, apart from Sitar, Synth, Drums and Tabla. Andrea is playing the 5 string bass, Erica is playing the 4 string and Lucia is playing the drums.
All that makes their sound really hard to classify. It ranges from Industrial, Psychedelic Rock over to Stoner Rock, Shoegaze and Post Hardcore with a lot of bass driven sounds, of course. Because of this, they are really worth listening to. And they are coming to Ireland for a short tour around the country, so if you're around, you should definitely go to their gigs. The dates are as follows:

• May 3 2012: TBA, Galway
• May 4 2012: Pheonix/Kildare
• May 5 2012: The Pint/Dublin

Band Members:
Andrea Giuliani - Vocals/Lead Bass Guitar/Sitar
Erica Bassani -Lead vocals/Bass Guitar/Flute
Lucia Centolani - Drums/Tabla


TalismanStone are a trio playing without guitars, made for 2/3 by women and for 2/3 by bassists. Indeed they’re formed by Andrea on vocals, 5 strings bass guitar, effects, sitar and synth; Erica playing the 4 strings bass and on the backing vocals; Lucia playing drums and tabla. Their sound is the result of stoner, rock, shoegaze, noise rock, post punk, post hardcore, industrial, dark, metal and indie influences, and that’s maybe the reason why it is still difficult to classify them in only one genre. Active since 2008 with concerts and recordings: our first album "Sunya" produced by the German label Graveyard Confessional, and this autumn they’ll have their second album "Lovecraftopolis" produced by the Italian label Moonlight Records

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Castero - Consequence Of Thought

Take heavy distorted guitar riffs, stomping drums and a nice bassline, mix that all up with a lot of Metal, Stoner Rock and Doom, add a few guitar solis and a great voice and you have Castero from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. These 4 lads definitely know how to make great Metal influenced heavy Stoner Rock.
Their debut album "Consequence of Thoughts" was released 2010 and offers a wide range of various sounds from Doom Metal to classic Stoner Rock. And yet you can hear the rough Castero sound in every song, which makes it a fantastic debut album.
Therefore a big thanks to Johnny for sending me their CD via post.

The current line up is as follows:

Johnny McMahon - Guitar/Vox
Bob "Mog" Morgan - Bass/Backing Vox
Ritchie Donovan - Guitar

Recently left Castero:

Spanner - Drums


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From their Homepage:

Castero are a 4 piece Heavy Rock band from Munster, Ireland & are strongly influenced by bands such as Down, Clutch, Black Label Society, Grand Magus,Orange Goblin & Black Sabbath.The band play heavy bluesy Rock n Roll.

Debut album "Consequence of thoughts" was released on April 16th 2010.

To date Castero have played on bills with Diamond Head, O/D Saxon, Fivewilldie, Misty Morning, Trench Hell, Haieeta, Brigantia, Three Hour Ceasefire, Wardog,Bad Boat, Old Season, Mourning Beloveth, The Wounded Kings & they have also played at all 6 Siege of Limerick festivals....

Castero are now working on material for their forthcoming second album, this should be ready to roll in 2012.
Its all about the Groove..............

Blood Red Water - Tales Of Addiction And Despair

Thanks to Mick from the Stoner Doom band "Blood Red Water" from Venice/Italy for sharing their five track debut EP with us
Blood Red Water has a lot of Sludge Metal influences which gives their mostly Stoner dominated fuzz sound enough energy to tear down the whole city of Venice.
Singer Michele can definitely not deny his Grindcore roots, and his voice gives their overall sound a bit of a metal touch. Especially the song "Modern slave blues", which, at the same time, is my favourite track on their EP. Considering that this is their first release, it is a really nice album.

From Facebook:


"When life is a stormy sea of addiction and grief, music could be a strong lighthouse”

Blood Red Water formed in the summer of 2010 with Michele (vocals, ex grindcore bands: NAB and Grunter Screams) Fiorica (ex and bass player in Blank Symbol, now at the drum). Michele & Fiorica were longtime friends, drinking partners and united by the passion for sludge music so they decided to create something wicked. Immediately Francesco “Volt” (of mr. Boonekamp) joined them as guitarist and feedback noise junkie, so Mick, Fiorica and Volt started to create their music as Blood Red Water.

Lorenzo Petri from Gli sportivi , Valium doll as bass player joined them after few months.

For Blood Red Water it became clear that the band would not be the umpteenth cover band in the zone but their interest/purpose is writing the music they like and feel. All members love bands like EyeHateGod, Eletric Wizard, St. Vitus (list of musical influences is long, very long) but - jam after jam - they realized to not belong to any particular genre. Some tunes are pretty doomy, other tunes could be more into stoner stuff. Blood Red Water lyrics are a merciless portrait of what can save a life or ditch it. Far away from fantasy themes, lyrics give off Michele’s life experience; you can even find redeem words as well as the deepest dopesick despair. At the end of 2011, they entered at the Flameout studio and they did their first 5 songs EP “Tales of Addiction and Despair”. For the time being the EP is in digital format with a free download, but a physical release of “Tales of Addiction and Despair” is coming soon in the pure spirit of D.I.Y.

In the meantime line-up is changed: Lorenzo left them and they got a new additional guitar player; so the current line-up is: Michele vocals/Fiò drums/Francesco “ Volt” guitars and Dodi guitars Now BRW are planning to play live and spread their EP as much as they can. Let the Blood In!



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Electric Taurus

The Stoner Rock trio Electric Taurus from Dublin is influenced by bands like Hendrix, Clutch, Black Sabbath, Grand Magus, Sleep and many more. They use these influences to create nice, down-tempo Stoner Rock with a lot of Blues elements. Their four track demo album, which you can listen to on Reverbnation, has it all: nice bluesy basslines, heavy riffs, grooving drums and a voice that reminds me of the former Spiritual Beggars singer Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand.
Electric Taurus is for fans of Spiritual Beggars, Lonely Kamel and stoner bands that are heavily influenced by blues.

The band changed their members quite often, and right the current line up is as follows:

James Lynch - Bass Guitar
Matt Casciani - Guitar and Vocals
Mauro Frison - Drums



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Matt and Rob formed Electric Taurus in January 2010, they change few drummers, have the privilege to play with Mino Vitelli and Chris Styne. Finally settle down with Mauro Frison on the drummer stool. Sadly Rob left the band in May 2011 to join his sweetheart in England. Matt then took charge of the vocals and keep on writing new material and recording the final songs for their first album. Finally James Lynch joined the band in July 2011 and the band is a three piece again. Strongly influenced by classic blues (Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Robert Johnson) Rock and Roll (Chuck Berry, Little Richard) and the 60s British invasion (Cream, Free, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin) a lots of stoner bands Kyuss, Sleep, Acid King, Grand Magus and Spiritual Beggers.

Weed Priest

Doom mixed up with a lot of Stoner Rock riffs and a touch of Psychedelic tunes, that is Weed Priest from Galway. The two Lithuanians Adam Demon Lung (Guitar/Vocals) and Ragas Sabbath (Bass) are riffing you deep into the world beyond, here and there guided by Adam Demon Lung's demonic voice, while the Irishman Adrian Z Goat (Drums) is giving you the rhythm for the journey. And they are not going to take you for a short journey. None of their live recorded track is under six minutes, many of them going towards 12 minutes or beyond, and they were all recorded in one or two takes.
They also have a stunning cover of Kyuss' "Molten Universe" that is critically looking at global warming and a cover of Led Zeppelins "When The Levee Breaks". I am a big Kyuss fan myself, so I'm picky when it comes to Kyuss covers, but you really shouldn't miss this rather unconventional version of "Molten Universe".

The Priest was invoked by his 3 acolytes on October 31st of 2008. After six eons of deep slumber He now once again roams the plain of mortals preaching the sermon of doom this world is yet to wake up to.




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Smokin Engine

Smoking Engine is a Stoner Rock band from Dresden/Germany that was formed in 2007. These lads didn't need a bass player on their 2009 EP "On The Roads Of Cosmos Five EP" to create sounds as deep as hell. However, they now added a bass player to their team to push the speakers even more. Think of Doom that is played a bit faster with a lot of fuzz in it. All this comes with a nice rough voice that perfectly fits their rough and overall very deep sound.
Their influences are Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin, Kyuss, Slo Burn, Electric Wizard, Weedeater, Church of Misery, Dozer and Helmet and you can hear a lot of these bands in their sound.

The members are:

Benny - Guitar, Vocals
Henry - Guitar
Max - Drums
and Thomas - Bass



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Wizards Of Firetop Mountain

Wizards of Firetop Mountain is another great five piece Stoner Rock band from Dublin. They play classy Stoner Rock with a touch of Garage Rock a la The Hellacopters and are influenced by Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, High on Fire and many more. I can also hear some Danko Jones influences in their song Dollar Hips. A bit of a opposite to their sound that you hear on the Demo is their song "Onwards Towards The Sun" which is a heavy stoner track with a touch of doom, where you can hear the Black Sabbath influences. It's my favourite track, but it's not included in their demo, which was released 20 May 2011.
They are going to support Orange Goblin in Dublin and Belfast

From Bandcamp

With floods of fire raging from the rocky peaks, five wizards descended their sanctuary,,arriving many centuries later at the Foothills of the ancient Gaelic stronghold Dubh Linn to unleash a furious wrath of Wizardry and Riffs upon the scorched- sunken soil.











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Brains - Strange Meat

Brains is a four piece blackened Rock'n'Roll band from Cork that was formed in 2009. Since all the members of this band were playing in different bands before, it's a blend of different music genres like Blues, Black Metal, Stoner and Psychedelic Rock. They are creating an unique sound that combines all the best from many different music styles. You might not get hooked on them when you listen to it the first time, but after a while you can't get enough. Especially That Awful Witch, which is almost constantly running in iTunes
They released their debut demo "Strange Meat" in 2010 and which was also released on vinyl and they are currently working on their second recording. They will also perform a few gigs in Dublin in February, so check out the Events-Section for updates.


From MySpace:

BRAINS was formed by laapot666 in 2009 and plays Blackened Rock n Roll exclusively. Brains' ultimate aim is to create serious, honest and dark Rock n Roll steeped in the influence of traditional rock arrangements, black metal atmospheres and psychedelic/stoner vibes. BRAINS released their debut demo in early 2010 entitled STRANGE MEAT and made it available as a free download. Since then BRAINS have been putting in much work in the jam room and on the live circuit with a view to becoming a live force to be reckoned with. To be updated as time events dictate...




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Rites - Self Titled

I actually don't like Sludge that much. I'm more the heavy-psychedelic-bluesy-fuzz-riff-guy, but sometimes I need a bit more than that.
Then I need a band like Rites from Galway to get what I want. Heavy in-your-face riffage and a screaming voice that is marching through your ears. Fans of 5ive, Fehler or Isis could really like this 4 piece band that was formed in Nov 2009. Kieran (Guitar/Vocals), Higgins (Guitar), Nicola (Bass) and Rory (Drums) were working together to create this beast of an EP.
Unfortunately, Rory left the Band just recently. So if you're living around Galway, are available for regular practice, gigs, recordings, tours etc, then give them a shout.



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