Malditos: "Le Réve"

Impenetrable storms of droning psychedelia

It should come as no surprise that an entity as eclectic as Malditos hails from one of musical experimentation's current strongholds, Oakland, California. Malditos is very much a mindset band. Their darkened, nocturnal desert drones are real party killers, but with the right state of mind and setting, Le Réve turns into a rich, nightmarish phantasmagoria cascading from the your mind's eye. The darkness painted by the Oakland tribe of artists is oppressively thick and impenetrable.

Fu Manchu: "Clone of the Universe"

SoCal ramblings galore

Break out your skateboard, grow out your oddly specific beard style, and bring your best sunglasses: It's time for a new Fu Manchu record! If you expect a bunch of sun-baked, tarmac-scented stoner rock tunes, you never really can go wrong with Scott Hill and company.

Botanist: "Collective: The Shape of He to Come"

Difficult to enjoy, but more than just haphazardly composed black metal

Not being familiar with the works of Botanist, you'll have to excuse me for expecting something a bit different than what Collective: The Shape of He to Come is. In a way you could easily argue that the cover for this 2017 album is indeed very fitting of the obscure, yet oddly naturalistic sounds found on the disc. Whatever it was I originally had thought this album would sound like, that notion was blown to bits and pieces.

Anialator: "Rise to Supremacy"

Resuscitated thrashers on life-support

When an underground 80s metal band resurfaces some 30 years after their last true release, you really got to ask yourself if today's thrash metal scene has a place for them. Anialator never had a real breakthrough with their twin EPs in the late 80s, likely facing an oversaturated scene that was already beginning to move toward a different style.

Acid Witch: "Evil Sound Screamers"

Long awaited return of the Detroit death rockers

Finally, a new album from psychedelic horror metal masters Acid Witch - and just in time for Halloween too! It's been a full seven years since the last full length album from the deadly quartet, though the mean time has seen a few minor releases like the ever awesome split with Nunslaughter and the 80s heavy metal cover EP Midnight Movies from 2015.

Nebulosa: "Crepuscular Battle in a Distant Woodland Town"

Naturalistic synths and unusual folk

Nebulosa welcomes you to an abstract fantasy universe with his latest offering. In this universe he calls upon a simple and bare-bone set of instruments to conjure up an image of this world with an instrumentation that feels desolate, windy and lonesome, yet strangely ominous, brooding and imposing

Homegas: "Homegas"

American country folk for those willing to listen

Homegas is one of those gems that you just come randombly across once in a while. And like so often before, it of course comes at a kind of steep price if you want it physically, and you just might have to get the vinyl if you want to legitimately listen to the album as it's not present on any streaming sites.

Com Truise: "Iteration"

The king of dream synth lets his latest album fall to a slow-burning state

When I first heard Galactic Melt, I was sold. It was unlike anything I'd heard, taking the aesthetic of 80s nerd culture and forging it into something more modern and accessible. Daft Punk and likeminded artists seem like obvious contemporaries to draw comparisons to, but Com Truise did something completely different with the same source material by making it decisively less danceable and poppy, in a way staying a little more true to the retro style.

Argus: "From Fields of Fire"

The difficult fourth one? No chance, this is the confident next album!

Debuts are hard, the follow-up is tough and the third one perhaps even more so. So what do you do when you already have three exceptional albums in the bagage? If you do like Argus from Pennsylvania, USA, you keep on going with unabated ardor.

Slamophiliac: "Slam Rehab"

Underwritten solo-slam for beginners

In a year where several newcomers and oldies have already released absolutely insane albums, Slamophiliac faces a tough situation. Darryn Palmer, slamophiliac extraordinaire and lover of the loathesome, is one of those types of musicians who may have bitten off more than he can chew. He has dozens of similar bands going simultaneously, most of them in the brutal death metal spectrum. The fact that Slam Rehab sounds like a hackneyed surgery could very possibly be due to his busy release schedule - Slam Rehab is already his second album in 2017 with Slamophiliac.

Mindkult: "Lucifer's Dream"

Timeless opium tunes at the edge of the cosmos

Looking for something that takes the edge off every day life? Then let Mindkult's cyclopean riffs crush you with sludgey heaviness instead of your day job and money troubles!

Temple of Void: "Lords of Death"

Hear and obey the gospel of the riffage!

While we grieve the loss of Lasse Pyykkö as the defacto vocalist of Hooded Menace, we can at the very least take solace in the fact that Temple of Void's newest album, Lords of Death, holds the death-doom torch high enough to burn the face of God.

H.P. Lovecraft: "I-II"

Highly overlooked band from one of the most exciting eras in music

It was far from horrific or esoteric when H.P. Lovecraft, the American rock band named after the famed weird horror author of the same name, rode the wave of psychedelia in the late 1960s in the US. Created partly by folk singer George Edwards, H.P. Lovecraft's only two true albums (a few others were later released under Lovecraft and Love Craft without Edwards) feels a bit more backwards-reaching than similar contemporary bands.

Sasquatch: "Maneuvers"

Retrospective stoner metal just the way we like it

As far as stoner metal goes, Sasquatch steer straight for the same pitfalls as many others; Their focus isn't on being original - They're clearly followers of classics like Fu Manchu and Kyuss. Rather, the focus lies with the simple enjoyability of their primal flow, the heavy-handed groove of a well-crafted rhythm section, and the craftsmanship of the riff.

Redrum: "Power Corrupts"

Unpolished gem of old school thrash from when the genre was on its way out of style

Redrum from Sacramento, CA, should by connoisseurs be considered a classic underground American thrash band. They only ever released a handful of demos of varying quality, but the main attraction here is their one full length album Power Corrupts, which was re-released in 2007 by Evil Legends with new artwork (and thank god for that, 'cause the old artwork was terrible and speaks of a limited budget).

Astra: "The Black Chord"

Hyperbole aside, The Black Chord still stands as one of modern times' best prog rock albums, even 5 years on

Though arguably the decade of progressive rock was the 1970's, it's impressive to find that there are still being produced absolutely timeless and phenomenal prog rock albums 40 years on. San Diego's Astra is clearly Floydian in concept and execution, but there is so much more to their sound than a mere Pink Floyd clone.

Sangus: "Vengeful Brutality"

No holds barred, no corners cut, just survival of the fittest

Holding high the tatteret banners of thrash-encrusted black metal are Sangus of Rhode Island, USA. Vengeful Brutality seems a fitting title for the kind of furious black metal ablaze with the naked flames of crust punk that we find under their moniker. But the intensity of the raw abrasions comes at the cost of the atmosphere often found inherent in black metal, gambling with the wholesomeness of the debut, often making it a cacophonous mess of blasting drums and hostile guitars.

The Handsome Family: "Unseen"

In the absence of excellence, Unseen becomes almost ordinary

By 2016 the songwriting duo The Handsome Family have built quite a following on the merit of several albums. Their latest album, Unseen, doesn't seem to be about elaborating on their sound, and this shouldn't come as a surprise or even a prerequisite for a new Handsome Family album. Few do the style that the duo have hunkered down in better than they do, and so they keep it simple by staying within their comfort zone.

Swamp Witch: "Gnosis"

The soundtrack to your worst nightmare

Every so often a band will emerge with little to no warning and simply floor you with its sonic output. One such band is Swamp Witch, with their 2011 EP Gnosis, which forcibly injects tainted acid into the veins of the listener and sends them on a journey of murkey, distorted psychedelia.

Oliver: "Mechanical"

Fans of retro-future synth music, behold!

Though the duo known as Oliver hails from Los Angeles, their sound could easily see them mistaken for a French house group, and indeed they compare favourably to the likes of Justice with a production job as crisp as the air on an exceptionally cold and dry winters day.