Conan
Monnos
Burning World
02 April 2012

by Tom Dare

Just as thrash comes in degrees of ridiculously fast, the doom/stoner metal bands come in various shades of galactically heavy. Conan are from the end of that spectrum where you literally (in the correct, non-Redknappian use of the word) fear for your speaker cones. You’ll probably have to turn their new album Monnos down a touch after your stereo begins to emit some worrying noises. As a basic premise for an album, this is a bloody good start.

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Black Tusk
Set The Dial
Relapse Records
25 October 2011

by Dan Pelic

As a genre, stoner rock has become much like a steak left too long on the barbecue because everyone got too drunk and high to tend to it: Overdone, dry, and tasteless.

As a band, Black Tusk are probably a bit too drunk and high to avoid embodying the most prevalent negative stereotypes of their genre: Senseless and forgettable riffing, shit vocals, and nonsensical lyrics.

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