The debut album of Greek band 1000mods, Super Van Vacation, is a landmark in stoner rock, presenting one of the universal flagbearers of the genre. Released in 2011 by Kozmik Artifactz / CTS Productions on CD, vinyl, and digital formats, it immediately drew international attention among stoner rock fans.
The album features ten tracks, including “Vidage,” “Road to Burn,” and the title track “Super Van Vacation,” filled with raw, fuzz-heavy riffs, massive grooves, and psychedelic desert vibes. The songs feel diverse yet cohesive, as if they were crafted spontaneously during a long road trip in a Super Van. The album is instinctive, fierce, and pulsating, capturing the band’s energy in full force.
Critics have highlighted the album’s clean yet gritty production (engineered by Billy Anderson) and its visual concept, with artwork inspired by 1970s psychedelic art, providing a complete sensory experience. Super Van Vacation is more than just a debut—it laid the foundation for Greek stoner rock, showing that bands from Greece could expand the genre, enrich it with their own identity, and simply play music freely, regardless of style.
This release introduced a powerful stoner band, proving that the Greek stoner scene had its own desert—crafted from grooves, instinct, and raw energy. The album’s spontaneous, instinct-driven flow still resonates today, securing its place among stoner rock classics. AMEN!
As a young adult, I was searching for my place in the musical world, which in the mid-to-late '90s could easily feel overwhelming. Grunge was fading, metal was exploring new directions, while Korn, Deftones, Sepultura's Roots, and successive Kyuss releases were shaking up the scene. On the alternative rock side, bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Bush, and Silverchair were pushing their sound in every direction. In Europe, black metal was at its peak, and the Gothenburg sound was breaking new ground. Amid this vibrant musical landscape, I stumbled upon an article about Down's NOLA album. It was intriguing to read that this was a supergroup, whose members I already knew and admired, and that beneath its emotional depth, the songs carried immense power. Every track felt destined to become a classic – and time proved it right.
I walked out and bought the cassette. When I popped it into my Walkman, I was hit simultaneously by the force of the newness and the familiar undertones. The combination was lethal. The sound was gritty, smoky, and atmospheric, while the monolithic riffs shattered my eardrums! This wasn’t the kind of album you needed multiple listens to appreciate – it hit instantly, like intravenous vodka.
Yet, NOLA stands not only as a personal experience but also as a historical landmark. When it was released in 1995, the metal scene was in flux. Down united the South’s biggest names: Phil Anselmo (Pantera), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod), and Todd Strange, creating a sound that was heavy yet breathing. The deep-tuned guitars, the southern rock grooves, the sludge-infused anger, and the introspective melancholy all converged to reach a climax in tracks like “Stone the Crow.” The production is raw by design, as if recorded in a humid, smoky garage filled with whiskey-soaked air.
The album bridged different subgenres: Pantera’s groove metal weight, Crowbar’s massive riffs, and Eyehategod’s psychotic grime merged into an emotionally introspective language. In doing so, Down established the southern sludge school, which later influenced bands like Acid Bath, Weedeater, Bongzilla, and even later acts like Red Fang and High on Fire.
But NOLA is significant not only musically: it is a manifesto of honesty, of depression, grief, and self-reflection from an environment where pain is usually drowned in beer and heavy riffs. That’s why it still resonates today – because it is built not around a moment in time, but around a feeling. Down’s debut stands alongside Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley and Corrosion of Conformity – Deliverance as a cornerstone of ’90s heavy music. An album that doesn’t just play – it lives, breathes, and in its smoky, swampy essence, has etched itself permanently into the history of modern rock. AMEN!
I've been spinning a lot of Lowbau records lately, but this new EP hits differently. The Great Zero has been on my daily playlist since its release — and the opening track, Holy Drones, often gets more than one play in a row. That thick, full, raw sound just pins you to the chair — it’s the kind of energy that makes you turn the volume up without even realizing it.
Released on July 4th, 2025, via Electric Fire Records, The Great Zero features three tracks — Holy Drones, Cosmic Cowboy, and Symphony of Diversity — and it feels like the Austrian sludge/stoner metal outfit’s most ambitious release to date. Each song builds its own world, yet they’re all tied together by a dark, conceptual thread.
Holy Drones opens like a ritual — a hymn to blind obedience and faith turned mechanical. Cosmic Cowboy is a hellish western in space, where even the gods draw their guns. Symphony of Diversity dives into themes of false unity, social conditioning, and the struggle for individuality — lyrically and musically one of their strongest works.
The sound throughout is massive and organic — no overpolished edges, no artificial shine. The drums thunder, the guitars snarl, the bass throbs, and the vocals strike a perfect balance between anger and emotion. You can feel that this wasn’t made to be “perfect” — it was made to be real.
This EP shows a new face of stoner rock — one that doesn’t try to fit in or look back nostalgically, but still respects its roots. The Great Zero might just represent one of the genre’s future directions: heavy, thoughtful, and instinctive all at once. AMEN!
A new force is rising from Denmark’s stoner/fuzz underground. The trio SuperCollider released their debut EP Soundwaves on September 17th — four fuzz-drenched, high-energy tracks that hit straight to the core of heavy groove and distortion.
5 things you should know about Denmark’s SuperCollider ⚡️
1️⃣ A fresh stoner/fuzz rock trio from Esbjerg, Denmark. 2️⃣ Their debut EP Soundwaves dropped on September 17th. 3️⃣ It features four tracks: Flee, Ride The Soundwaves, Clinically Insane and Inhumanity. 4️⃣ Their sound is raw, heavy and full of fuzz — pure “no fuss fuzz rock.” 5️⃣ Mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, The Amorphous Androgynous, etc.) at The Doom Room.
So, let me put it a bit more directly: Lately, I rarely come across bands delivering pure stoner rock, which is why I was thrilled from the very first second with SuperCollider. No polish, as hairy as it gets. No unnecessary extras. No sludge, no doom, no other nonsense. For a moment, I felt transported back to the early 2000s, around the time stoner rock was being born. I hope they never stray from this path — what they’ve delivered here is truly a missing piece in the scene! AMEN!
The name alone says it all — nothing fancy here. Toilet Snake is a sludge-doom trio from Milan that delivers raw, dirty heaviness straight from the underground. Marco Ziggiotti (guitar/vocals), Davide Ratti (bass), and Giacomo Caiazzo (drums) operate with pure DIY spirit. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel — they just keep it loud, filthy, and real. Because in the end, heavy music is all about attitude.
Formed in 2019, the band self-released their debut in 2022, later reissued on vinyl by DHU Records (NL). Their new four-track EP, Back from the Sewers, dropped on August 29th, 2025, via Electric Valley Records and Teschio Dischi — an all-Italian collaboration of pure sludge worship.
This EP doesn’t waste your time. No intros, no gimmicks, no overthinking — just crushing riffs, distorted bass, and pissed-off vocals. As Monuments In Ruin wrote:
“No bells and whistles, make up or flashy wardrobes... Expect loud amps, pounding rhythms and gnarly vocals. One of my favorite EPs of the year.”
And that sums it up perfectly. Toilet Snake reminds us that music isn’t about posing — it’s about guts and conviction.
They won’t change the world. They’re not doing anything new. But what they do have is something that’s been missing from the scene for a long time: that raw, punk-driven “I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’ll play this filth anyway” energy. The same fearless attitude that once fueled the ‘80s punk underground.
If you think sludge has gone stale, think again. You just have to look down in the sewers — that’s where the real stuff still lives.
Szavak és hangok a sivatag merengve lüktető torkából, dűnék felett cikázó akkordok, tétován gomolygó füst, vagy izzó száguldás. "Let the truth be known, Get stoned!"
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