But is it a step forward, or backwards? That all depends on your perception. I, for one, don’t dig this as much as the first album, and am certainly curious as to which direction the band will take with a new frontman/axeman. One thing is certain, though. Black Pyramid III won’t be a blind buy for me…

Holding On sounds like a big departure for these guys in the early going. Gone is the slow, lazy, southern/stoner vibe, replaced by uptempo tunes and high-pitched, nasal, Ozzy-wannabe singing.

Snail isn’t your typical tune-in-and-drop-out stoner band. There’s something more interesting in this collection of tunes, something in that juxtaposition of the sweet vocals and heavy riffs that has my head nodding in approval.

The songs, like the lineup of the band itself, seem a tad underdeveloped, like a reasonably well-produced demo tape made to audition a bassist and/or singer. I doubt that stoner/doom minded musicians are in great abundance in Belgium, but the band would benefit from both in my belief

Humo del Cairo (Egyptian Smoke!?) is a primarily instro trio from Argentina, with occasional vocals provided in Spanish. You can hear shades of Kyuss (check out “Panorama”), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (“Nimbo” and the opening of “Fuego de San Antonio”), their Argentinian countrymen in Los Natas—or even Sergio Ch’s side-project Ararat (the harmonica and chanting of “Errantes” wouldn’t sound outta place on Musica
de la Resistencia…).

Village of Dead Roads are well versed in the sludge of Crowbar and EHG, along with “post-sludge” bands like Neurosis, while mixing elements of death doom and the atmospheric black metal stuff that’s all the rage these days.

By Gruesome Greg
Freedom Hawk is a four-piece band from Tidewater, Virgina, presumably not far from the Doom Capital. That being said, they are a stoner rock band, through and through. They borrow from the masters (Kyuss, Nebula, etc) without being a band that “sounds too much like” anybody. Vocalist TR Morton obviously takes his cues from Ozzy and John Garcia, and the band has invested in all the right pedals to produce that classic stoner sound, but there’s enough variety and originality on this teaser of an album (seven tracks …

A lost classic no longer, this hidden gem deserves to be heard!