Review: Acid King (USA) - 2016 Doomsday Festival

Acid King (USA), Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless) with Seedy Jeezus, Los Hombres Del Diablo - 2016 Doomsday Festival

Newtown Social Club

Friday 30 September 2016

Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless) with Seedy Jeezus, and Los Hombres Del Diablo had gone down well with the punters by all reports – details are coming so stay tuned.

The band room was comfortably full and the crowd was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Acid King… As soon as the hit they stage, the crowd was in tune and swaying with their music. Like a Jodorowsky movie, Acid King are a stoned experience you can have while straight. Their music takes you away to a new world, an experience. The aural world Acid King create envelopes you like Alice in Wonderland, or the Matrix. Take the blue pill, or red one (perhaps both??) and you’ll be transported. Each tune was nearly ten minutes so you had time to experience their world.

The backdrop of the images and film footage of outer space, burning buildings, blurred landscapes, and burning planets further takes the sub bass sounds deeper into your psyche to fuck you up.

These scene veterans were fresh off a bunch of US gigs and the three day Psycho Las Vegas before coming to Australia, you could see and feel that the their tunes are well honed and crafted, played and lived in. Singer Lori’s vocal is a wailful call, like a gently mournful but ominous sounding wind which you might hear coming through the trees in the wilderness. She simultaneously makes her guitar gently mournfully weep, and espouse other evocative sounds. Bassist Mark Lamb looks like he’s seeking redemption, or enlightenment, as he wrings his instrument, sweating and plays a sonic sound as though it’s a torture rack, one’s stretched out on, and the screws are tightened and wound tauter as their opus' progress. Joey Osbourne pounds his drum in a hypnotic measured heavy rhythm, beating them strategically, to create these aural dreams (or nightmares to some). Mind expansion was in full effect!

Amongst the five or six tracks they played tonight were 'Red River' off Middle of Nowhere… LP, and their encore was ‘Sunshine and Sorrow’ from III

I was new to the band, and upon witnessing their mostly instrumental faire proves a dose worthy taking, for the mind and body. The near tribal pounding, drawn out and thought out tunes giving one time to sup them up and savour them fully. It’s worth taking the trip.

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They are playing tonight, Saturday 1st October, in the Northcote Social Club and the last show of this tour in Australia is tomorrow night, Sunday 2nd October, in Melbourne at the Cherry Bar. Catch them if you

Acid King 'Red River'

Doomsday Festival, Sydney - Windhand + Beastwars + more, Friday 3rd October

Doomsday Festival – Windhand + Beastwars + Summonus + Witchskull

3 October 2014

Hermann’s Bar, Sydney
Review by Derek J. Huckel

Originally on the SF Media website...

With bands such as CHURCH OF MISERY and THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX being some of the past headliners of the Doomsday Festival, I was looking forward immensely to tonights leg of this annual tour.

WITCHSKULL, a Canberran three piece, opened the proceedings tonight and a mind blowing opener they were indeed. They were as if KADAVAR, MONSTER MAGNET and BLACK SABBATH had been blended together, then baked with a pinch or two of doom and feedback. These guys were only playing their second gig! Hailing from bands such as ARMOURED ANGEL and LOOKING GLASS and their time in them explains some of their agility on these chords and constructing such awesome tunes heard tonight. They closed with ‘The Vast Electric Dark’.

SUMMONUS kicked off with three killer new epic tracks, one called ‘The Journey’ clocked in at six minutes and lost no vitality throughout. Their gig hiatus hasn’t made them slouches at all, as evidenced on the Hermann’s Bar stage tonight.

Another newie was tried out tonight, four in total, and it was really good! These guys seem to have a stoner groove recipe they rework or build around which is always a winner. The mighty SUMMONUS, the only Sydney band playing tonight, played a few oldies too including a favourite called ‘Black Sun Dying’. They announced they are recording a new album and that they have a few shows before years end.

One of the two headliners BEASTWARS kicked off a little while later and the response from the sizeable throng now present was instant. The New Zealand bands near hypnotic sound along with the bearded Messianic-like singer Matt Hyde had the crowd in a whirling dervish state, nodding and swaying, for their entire set. Their brand of heavy stoner rock grooves just held you and wouldn’t let go, but you wanted to be in its grip. Some described them once as a marriage of KYUSS and THE CULT but I think they are much more than that now. Check out their album ‘Blood Becomes Fire’, in my top 2013 albums, which several slabs came from tonight. I think that if tonight was a battle, these guys might’ve won.

WINDHAND delivered their doom laden rock to an appreciative audience. The music’s intensity was crushing and the band a sight to witness! It was just head down hair out and the low tempo music was the prime objective with no banter. This Virginian (USA) five piece built layer upon layer of guitars and drums into this brick wall sound of rock/psychedelic/metal which became a sludge doom sound. Tunes here served up were largely off their 2013 LP ‘Soma’, they were ‘Orchard’, ‘Woodbine’, ‘Feral Bones’, ‘Forest Clouds’, ‘Winter Sun’, and ‘Cassock’ ended the great night.