MELLOWBEAST debut trip "Hyperion"

I hope this review finds you & your loved ones & friends safe and calm. At least we still have great music to enjoy. It's well known that Fuzzy loves his psych rock. (Hello, The Lancasters and Trahir.) So imagine my delight as I started listening to the debut album "Hyperion" from Belfast's MELLOWBEAST. This is the absolute essence of what psych rock is to me: fuzzy riffs laced with spaced-out guitars and vocals. And a theme to tie all the songs together into an experience. Kick back, open your mind, and let the dreamy vibes of MellowBeast flow over your mind:


The riffs, the guitar work, the vocals ... every psych rock fan is going to love this album.

Some might consider "Hyperion" to be a concept album, which I agree with, or perhaps it might be closer to the mark to say it's thematic or a collection of poetic songs that swirl around the dreams of a fuzzed-out traveler.

Dare I say this album can hold its own against such classics as The Small Faces' "Nut Gone" or other seminal psych albums of the late 60s? Yes, Fuzzy dares to say that.

The Mrs. Cracklins mini review: "Psychedelic Hypnotic" while she's dancing around the Happy Hour floor.

MellowBeast band is from Belfast, UK and has this to say:

From a small bedroom on the border of Northern Ireland, mystical sounds can be heard echoing throughout this sleepy hill town. Mellow Beast is a solo project conceived by Paul Scott with only one mission in mind. To take it's listeners on a sonic journey to distant lands 

SWAMPLORD

I have been called the Swamp Lord, so when I spied this sludge psych metal masterpiece on Bandcamp the other day, I had to check it out. Masterpiece? Only if you dig hard fuzz with slow riffs and vocals that stand out from the typical sludge fare like the flame from a methane burst. Check out the debut album from SWAMPLORD:

The guitar solos on this beast are unreal. They veer right into pure psychedelia, and they float around the fuzzy riffs like evil demons trying to infect your brain. And yet the vocals are eerily angelic. Well, demons are fallen angels, right? So I guess that makes sense. Evil angels. Angelic demons.

There is definitely a psychedelic element to this sludge metal. Sludge psych metal.

Definitely it's the vocals with their layers and effects and general trippiness that make this album stand out. Don't get me wrong -- the heavy doom psych is killer. It just becomes super killer with the vocals piled on. Check out SWAMPLORD!