2013 : the heavy, sludgy and / or psychedelic moments

here's my selection of my favourite albums released in 2013 that belongs to the heavy / trippy family : heavy metal, doom, heavy rock, sludge, psychedelic rock and stuff related. 16 albums not really given in a specific order.
of course you're welcome to  say in the comments section which other album would, in your opinion, deserves to be in this kind of list.

-Oranssi pazuzu - Valonielu                           my review

-Windhand - Soma                                          my review

-Subrosa - More constant than the gods        my review

-Horse latitudes - black soil                           my review & interview

-The Body - Christs, redeemers                      my review

-Battilus - concrete sustain                             my review

-Nibiru - Caosgon                                           my review & interview

-Pyramidal - frozen galaxies                          my review

-Seven sisters of sleep - opium morals           my review

-Primitive man - scorn                                    my review

-Blaak heat Shujaa - The edge of an era        my review

-Zodiac - A place to hide                                 my review

-Hollow mirros - Hollow mirrors II                my review

-Valient Thorr - our own masters                   my review

-Naam - vow                                                   my review

-Domovoyd - Oh sensibility                             my review

Pyramidal - Frozen galaxies (2013)

Pyramidal comes from Alicante (Spain) and they are the best kept secret of psychedelic rock. I just absolutely can't understand why they are not well known yet because they really deserves to. I listened many times to their first album called Dawn in space (see HERE my review of the record and read the interview with the band) and I'm really pleased to hear that the new one, Frozen galaxies is also awesome. so clearly Dawn in space was not a one shot marvel and Frozen galaxies place Pyramidal among the best recent psychedelic / prog / space rock bands. that being said, what about the music? as they had announced, the progressive side of the songs is more developped in Frozen galaxies, and they kept a really good balance between the proggy side (think early Yes or King crimson and not Dream theater) and their old school heavy rock side. what is more prog in the album? the song structure, especially the more than twenty minutes lasting Frozen galaxies, but also the use of saxophone on the first two songs (it works really fine), and of sitar in the last one (Frozen galaxies). so what do we have? heavy sabbathian / 70' heavy rock riffing, progressive rock elements, blissfull psychedelic and spacey atmospheres, excellent musicianship of all the musicians (it's mainly instrumental, but the vocals in Sons of light are also ok, adding something a bit different in the album), four excellent songs each one different from the others, all that making a very enjoyable and addictive album.

more than recommended!

you can listen to it on their Bandcamp.

Pyramidal

They comes from Spain but their music sends you in space! the astronaut and the stars on the cover of their album are not here by chance...

Pyramidal plays a really cool, well composed and well executed psychedelic rock, hypnotic and trippy. Enough heaviness, good melodies, good drumming, good songs.

I recommend you to take a trip into outer space by listening to their album Dawn in space (released in december 2011) on their bandcamp page. Here is the door to outer space. enjoy the trip! 
but beware : it could be addictive! you've been warned...

addition : Pyramidal just sent me their answers to a few questions I asked them. thank you guys!

here is this email interiew : 

-can you present the band, how was it formed, how it evolved?

The band was formed on summer 2010, two years ago. All members of the band come from other projects and the circumstances makes us get together and make some psychedelic music.

-you released Dawn in space in december 2011, did you released it by yourself? are you looking for a label?

We released the album with the aim of distributing and selling it by ourselves on the internet. But we got the opportunitie of release the album with the “Radix Records” label on CD. We will do a very limited edition of 200 CDs of our debut album that will be available on March 10th on “Radix Records” shop and in our Official Store.

http://radixrecords.bigcartel.com/product/pyramidal-dawn-in-space-cd
http://pyramidal.bigcartel.com/

-how would you descibe it? if I say it sounds a bit like mix between psychedelic/space rock inspired of the 60' or 70' and more recent doom/stoner music would you agree? and is the german like sounding name of some songs a reference to Krautrock or Magma?

We’re all influded by the 60’s psychedelia and the 70’s early heavy. The mixture of Bands like Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and german Krautrock bands is what definitely define our sound.

-will you continue in that direction for the next record? have you already ideas about how it will sound?

We got a bunch of some new ideas. We are now composing a second album that will sound more Progressive. We all like bands like King Crimson, Asia, Van der Graaf Generator or the early Yes and it will be reflected in our new album.
 

-are you going to tour in France and the rest of Europe? (you have to go to Montpellier!)

 

 Our idea is play as far as we can. France will be a good destiny to export our music as well as Germany, Sweden, Italy, Holland… We will love to play in Europe, so we hear any proposal for us to travel and play.

-how would you describe your live performances?

We try to combine the experimental and psychedelic parts with some heavy and raw attitude moments. For us is very important to show the different shapes of our music on stage, the electric riffs dosage and the ambient and psychedelic parts are mixed equally.

-I don't think your music need it, but will you try songs with more vocals?

 Probably second album will have some more vocals. But we pay more attention to music on the creation process. We care in creating deep atmospheres, hypnotic riffs and very intense rhythms that transport the minds of the listeners. Vocals are an extra for us to explain our visions but are not always needed.

-I really like the drum solo in Tempel laru, it fit really well with the song. nowadays drum solos are getting a bit rare did you get inspired by the band of the 70 in doing it? anyway that was a good idea!

Well, drum solos were very popular in seventies. Bands like Led Zeppelin or The Who included drums solos in their studio albums and we think that it fit very good in our music. We have a very good drummer not afraid of taking the leading role.

-do you feel like being part of a scene? how's the heavy/psychedelic music in Spain, can you recommend us some other good spanish band in that style?

The Heavy Psychedelic scene here is a very underground scene. If you try it on the heavy way you will find very cool bands like The Sand Collector or Nahrayan, they’re good friends and we share label with them. The Stoner or Psychedelic sounds are represented here with bands like Piñata or Domo, this last band share a member with us, and we’re going to do some dates together under the name of Sonic Attack Mini Tour around here. To listen more experimental sounds you have Traummaschine or Beiruth, they usually get together and make some music creating a lot of new projects and sounds.

-what do you think of the indignados movement? what's going on in Alicante?

The world nowadays is very chaotic. And the situation here is pretty serious. The people are tired of bullshit and angry because that corrupted people in the power are stealing their money. The revolution is everyday closer.

-what are your projects for Pyramidal?

We will keep on making trippy music to feed our minds. If you want to feed your mind with us you're very welcome to the cosmic journey… Space is Deep & Music is Endless!

-have you something to add? a question to ask me (it's your turn if you want!)?

Just to say thanks for your support. We’re very pleased to know new people on these galaxies that have the same interests in common. Space is a good place to stay.