Whether you think coding with AI works today or not doesn’t really matter.
But if you think functional AI helping to code will make humans dumber or isn’t real programming just consider that’s been the argument against every generation of programming tools going back to Fortran.
Tags: ai-assisted-programming, ai
Social media has splintered across multiple services since the decline of Twitter. I’ve always managed a lot of social media accounts between my own and ones for MacStories, but today the situation is worse than ever. There have always been services like Buffer that make it easier to juggle multiple accounts and services, but they are more expensive than most indie developers, artists, websites, and other creators can afford and offer more features than most need.
That’s where Croissant comes in. It’s a new iPhone app from Ben McCarthy and Aaron Vegh that simplifies cross-posting to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads at an indie-friendly price. The app doesn’t try to replicate the many features you’ll find in services like Buffer. Instead, it’s focused on making it easier for indie creators or anyone with multiple social accounts to post on multiple platforms at once.
Croissant’s tint color, app icon, and posting button icon are all customizable.
I’ve been testing Croissant over the past week, connecting it to two Bluesky accounts, two Threads accounts, and five Mastodon accounts, and I’ve been loving it. First off, the design is top-tier, as you’d expect from one of Ben’s apps. The UI’s focus is on drafting your posts, and it’s accented with a deep yellow/orange hue that I love. However, the app offers seven other color options to choose from. There are also a total of seven app icon options and three icons to pick from for the button that publishes a post.
Managing accounts in Croissant.
If you have a lot of accounts you want to use with Croissant, you’ll need to start by signing into each, which requires a little patience. However, once you’re set up and ready to go, the rest is smooth sailing. You’ll see icons for each of the accounts you’ve signed into at the top of the app’s compose view. Tap on the row of icons to manage your accounts, removing any you no longer use and adding any new ones. The gear icon in the top-left corner of the view reveals tint, post icon, and app icon settings, and the box icon at the top-right is used to access draft posts that you can save using the app’s Menu button at the bottom of the compose field.
That same Menu button also allows you to delete a post, add to an existing thread, add a content warning, and pick from various audience options. Plus, there are buttons to tag someone, add hashtags, and attach photos or videos to a post. Croissant displays a character counter at the top of each draft post, too.
I appreciate the ‘Do you really want to post this everywhere?’ step.
My favorite part of Croissant is the interaction that takes place when you’re ready to launch your latest hot take into the social media wilderness. Before you post, a list of every account you’ve connected to Croissant slides up from the bottom of the screen. By default, all of your accounts are selected. Tap the big Post button at the bottom of the list, and you’ll launch your words of wisdom into the world across every service you’ve configured. Before you post, you can also de-select any of the accounts listed. That’s great because, although I could fairly be accused of being a chronic cross-poster, even I rarely post everywhere all at once, so I appreciate the chance to fine-tune where my posts will be published.
I like the simplicity of Croissant a lot, but there are a couple of things I’d love to see added in future updates. The first is Shortcuts support. An action that allows me to pick the accounts to send a post from, coupled with Shortcuts’ ability to pull items from RSS feeds, would make publicizing new MacStories articles and podcast episodes a lot easier. Second, a scheduling feature would go a long way toward completely eliminating the need for services like Buffer for a lot of people. Of course, an iPad and Mac version of Croissant would be great too, but I’ve found using the iPhone app on my iPad and on my Mac with iPhone Mirroring to fill that need well so far – except that on the iPad it means logging into all of my accounts a second time, which is a little tedious.
Sometimes the hottest takes cool after a few days in the drafts box.
There’s an added side benefit to using Croissant that I didn’t realize at first but Brendon pointed out to me. Croissant lets you post without the distraction or stress of getting sucked into your timelines. I’ve often had times where I felt like I needed a break from social media but felt compelled to jump back in to make sure we were promoting everything happening at MacStories. With Croissant, you can have it both ways, letting the world know what you’re up to without needing to scroll your timeline.
Croissant, which is available on the App Store for free but requires a subscription for some features, is a clear win for anyone who works online and wants to promote what they make or who maintains active accounts across several services. Neither group is a good fit for expensive social media management services, but for $2.99/month, $19.99/year, or a one-time payment of $59.99, Croissant is a no-brainer.
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It’s also notable what isn’t present on the iPhone this year: there’s no generative AI wackiness at all. There’s no video boost or face-swapping, no adding yourself to group photos, no drawing to add stuff with AI like on the Pixel or Galaxy phones — really, none of it. I asked Apple’s VP of camera software engineering Jon McCormack about Google’s view that the Pixel camera now captures “memories” instead of photos, and he told me that Apple has a strong point of view about what a photograph is — that it’s something that actually happened. It was a long and thoughtful answer, so I’m just going to print the whole thing[…]
John Gruber has quoted the relevant section, and it’s getting rave reviews. Maybe I’m just too dumb to see the profundity, but I don’t think there’s any there there. These are pleasant sounding words along the lines of “music is in our DNA,” but what is the connection to what the Camera app actually does? Reports are that the photos by default look more processed than before. And Apple, like Samsung and Google, has been including features for years that make the photos not what actually happened.
“Something that really, actually happened” is a great baseline compared to Samsung’s nihilistic definition (nothing is real) and Google’s relativistic one (everyone has their own memories). […] But I have to wonder how malleable that definition will retroactively become to make room for Clean Up and future generative features of Apple Intelligence.
What McCormack said is that a photo is a “celebration of something that really, actually happened,” not that the image in the photo actually happened.
Google lets you celebrate a moment where two people were actually standing next to each other by creating such an image from two separate captures where they were standing alone. Apple lets you take a photo of multiple people and objects and remove some of them. What is the distinction here that amounts to a strong point of view? It just seems like a difference in degree. Arguably, the Google example is more truthful in that it’s helping you recreate an actual moment, whereas the Apple one is letting you tune it up to be more what you remembered or wished for than the reality.
If we were talking about this last year, people would say that there’s a big philosophical difference because—although they both combine multiple exposures, add fake bokeh, and use AI to adjust colors and focus, etc.—Android phones let you remove objects and iPhones don’t. But now Apple is adding that, too. If there’s a bright line distinction, I think that was it. Apple crossed it, and I don’t think they’ll stop there. This is fine. It’s a popular feature, and I know people who were considering switching to Android because of it.
In my testing of Clean Up on an image on the latest iOS 18.1 beta build, Apple adds EXIF tags to the image to mark it as being edited with generative A.I. tools. EXIF tags can be erased, though, and I do not see any other indicators.
Previously:
Update (2024-09-25): René Fouquet:
1. Given the iPhone’s image processing pipeline–something they proudly speak of at every chance they get–this statement is already demonstrably false. Photos taken on the iPhone definitely do not show something that actually happened. The darker it gets, the more guesswork flows into an iPhone photo. So much guesswork, in fact, that nighttime photos can easily make up things that have never been there in reality. I have taken a couple of photos that interpreted leafs rustling in the wind as something else entirely.
2. How will they frame it when they will eventually add these features? Because let’s be serious for a second here. They didn’t add those features out of some philosophical stance against AI generated content. That is just corporate bullshit. They are simply way, WAY behind their competition when it comes to this and haven’t gotten around to it (yet), or lack the required competence or whatever. It’ll be fun to read the spins after they inevitably change course.
Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison. You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don’t anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn - you stick your hand in there and it’ll chop it off, the end. You don’t think "oh, the lawnmower hates me" – lawnmower doesn’t give a shit about you, lawnmower can’t hate you. Don’t anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don’t fall into that trap about Oracle.
Tags: oracle, bryan-cantrill
Over the past few years there have been a slowly increasing number of pinboard outages with less communication. While debugging the last outage I purged my local history from the 3rd party Pins iOS app and found that Pinboard was throttling their download API. I could download only 100 of my 50,000 or so pins. (It’s still easy to download the whole set as a file).
That’s ominous, but more importantly Pinboard is a one person show and that person is no longer responding to support emails. Maciej is no longer active on social media that I know of. His Pinboard.in support forum has been quiescent for years. I’ll be researching my micro blog options and I’ll write about what I come up with on tech.kateva.org.
10 years is an eternity on the web. Pinboard had a good run, but it too is passing.
I, too, have see the site become slower and less reliable. Unlike some others, I haven’t had trouble downloading my archive.
Wow, the irony is Pinboard, the very service that championed the idea of “Don’t be a free user” is now shutting down (edit: sorry, ok not shutting down officially but apparently it’s in a free fall for quite some time and nobody gives a damn). Their article argued that free services often turn into pump-and-dump schemes, while paid services promise sustainability and better support. Yet here we are, witnessing the demise of a paid service that couldn’t sustain itself.
It’s a stark reminder that even paid models aren’t immune to market forces and operational challenges.
Maybe the real takeaway is that no business model is foolproof, and unless you can self host something you can never know when and how it will end.
Previously:
“I discovered after going to music festivals that I am a Doom Charts fan. I love the guitars, the phrasing, and the abandon of rock fans..”
~ Beyonce (A misheard quote?)
Last month, we had a amazing amount of albums charging the July Peroration Post. This month, there are eighteen albums ready and waiting for you to jump on. To get your weekend started with. Some might be enjoyed on route to Ripple Fest Texas and others will have you envisioning being there. Either way, all eighteen are stunning releases! And yes, some already made the Regular August Doom Charts, but they received more blurbs and those are posted here… Get groovy! Enjoy the weekend and whatever festival you find yourself on!
The following are professions of love and adoration by Doom Charts Contributors for albums they could not stop spinning. Each month, the Doom Charts critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge, metal, stoner, psychedelic and other sorts of heavy rock and metal albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart which is published on the First Friday of the new month, monthly. However, sometimes a love is so great, but for whatever reason the album unfortunately did not make the published Doom Charts Edition or because there were so many contributors in love with that one album, that multiple blurbs were written, and only the one got published… Well, you can peruse that love here…
ABSORB – SMOG
Doom, Sludge
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Hypaethral Records
The intention of this audio landscape is cold and abrasive as the strength of SMOG by ABSORB begins to rumble from the depths of earth’s core. Looking to the skies above, the clouds turn black and darken. Shadows disappear as the light is taken from view. Smothered by the weight of bone crushing riff after bone crushing riff, this ominous presence brings down the mountain top and cracks from within the earth’s crust. Thick smoke smolders as ash chokes the air. The tension grips tightly, squeezing every ounce from its hold upon the listener with gravel gargling screams. Magma now melts over the topography erasing the memory of what once was. The volcanic eruption has now come to full strength. Nothing is safe and all is forever changed.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
AQUANAUT – AQUANAUT
Hard Rock, Stoner Rock
Trondheim, Norway
Self-Released
AQUANAUT’S self-titled debut has the band proving right out of the gate that they can adeptly play any style of heavy music you can imagine. The album begins on a massively energetic and heavier note with some scintillating representations of stoner rock, sludge, doom metal, and punk (often within the same song). Midway through, AQUANAUT lays on a thick layer of psychedelic rock that is livened by a gritty stoner rock groove. The album wraps up with two melodic (but still undeniably heavy) stoner/alternative jams, a delightfully stark contrast to the sonic pummeling the first few tracks gave us. With that, I probably don’t have to tell you that AQUANAUT supplies an immense amount of variety here. However, my favorite aspect of the album is the impressive adaptability of the vocals, utilizing husky croons, melodic howls, hardcore punky shouts, banshee screeches, and more, all without missing a beat. There’s truly something for everyone on this spectacular debut.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)
COBRANOID – COBRANOID
Thrash Metal, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal
Denver, Colorado, USA
Self-released
Hailing from the mile high city of Denver Colorado, comes COBRANOID, with their relentlessly heavy self titled album that leaves a lasting impact. This album punishes you with their brand of thrash, doom, and heavy metal. The guitars, bass and drums lay the foundation for the gritty, yet beautiful tones of rock that complement the upbeat progressive elements found in metal.. At the forefront are raw, venomous vocals that slither through clever melodies ready to strike hard, strike first, no mercy.
~ Michael D’Amato (Playgroundz Rocks, D’Amato Production)
The FFO section of their press release that was sent to me mentions High On Fire. Indeed, such a name drop requires a pedigree that few bands in the stoner/doom/sludge genre could back up. Despite being a “newer” band with only this album under their belt so far, they back it up extremely well across this blistering six song, 29 minute speed ball of an album. Their press release also called them a mix of thrash/speed and doom. Once again, the band straight up nails that sound. It might be hard to believe that a band could be both doom and thrash but, the truth is, doom doesn’t always have to be slow. Sometimes it is mid paced with a lot of groove—this isn’t funeral or Gothic doom. Much like HoF, COBRANOID mixes several genres at once and can go from slow to fast at the drop of a hat. Regardless of how you may or may not feel about what they call themselves, in the end nothing else matters except their goddamn riffs. And they have riffs for DAYS. Hell, they have riffs for YEARS. The guitars, bass and drums fit more groove into these 29 minutes than a lot of bands do in double that time.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple, DoomedForMetal)
DEMON & ELEVEN CHILDREN – DEMONIC FASCINATION
Doom, Evil Blues
Guangzhou, China
SloomWeep Productions
Like howling wolves in the middle of the night accompanying some heathen ritual honouring the luciferian gift of bands like Electric Wizard and Mephistofeles, Chinese city rats DEMON & ELEVEN CHILDREN summon the best elements of psychedelic doom to infuse their hungry minds with inspiration. The result is some bottom-heavy music that straps you to electrifying sound waves and drags you down in the deepest pit imaginable. A dark and cosy place to be. Like the perfect holiday destination, devoid of all things nice and pretty. Dooooooooooooooooooooooooom.
~ Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe)
Doom done the Chinese way, a wok full of acidic scuzziness and proto-ic doominosity driven by tight solid rhythms over which scorching guitar textures crunch swoop and swirl in response to fey ethereal vocals.
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)
EMU – EMU
70’s, Retro, Psych, Blues, Classic Rock
Sunshine Coast, Australia
No Groove No Good Records
EMU as a collective may be a new band but the members are all veteran musicians within the Australian scene and as such you can expect and receive a seasoned effort with their debut self-titled album. With a powerful backbone of experience and talent in not only musicianship but the creation process as well, EMU have produced a must have album full of gratifying jams and delightful soundscapes. I originally heard the singles they had out on Bandcamp and immediately knew that they had that ‘it’ factor, the type of sound that I search for, something truly special. EMU checked all the boxes and had my attention. Moving on to the album and some of the contents within, let’s just say you’re in for a hell of a ride as the band is a powerhouse that’s full of energy and electrifying proficiency. You’re first introduced to ‘New Age’ a heavy rocking tune with swirling lead guitar, skillful bass, and smashing drums that show that EMU are the true sense of the words ‘power trio’, reflective of some 70’s bands with the same construct. I love the bluesy vocals on ‘Sittin’ Here Thinkin’ there’s a soulful tone and passion displayed over the top of the instrumentation which is very retro rock, proto-metal, and blues heavy itself. Perhaps the most psych-oriented track ‘Once Were Gums’ has my favorite bass lines as it locks in with the drums creating an almost jazzy feel to the rhythm of the song. The buildup climaxes with a commanding chorus of outstanding vocals and an even more formidable guitar solo, securing EMU’s efficiency in songwriting and delivery. If you’re a fan of classic rock, 70’s styled rock, heavy psych, and retro rock I assure you that Emu has you covered with this amazing debut album.
~ Jon McGough (Stoner Rock Army, Stoner HiVe, Outlaws Of The Sun)
ENDLESS VALLEY – KASKASHIR
World, Alternative, Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Brisbane, Australia
Copper Feast Records
This innovative sound connects continents with it’s mix of progressive psychedelic heavy world music. full of incredible guitar tones, energetic jamming percussion, pulsating bass, and soulful world vocal chants. Empty the ocean floors with Kaskashir.
~Michael D’Amato (Playgroundz Rocks, D’Amato Production)
ENDON – FALL OF SPRING
Catastrophic Noise, Harsh Electronics
Tokyo, Japan
Thrill Jockey
Submitting yourself to Fall of Spring by ENDON is similar to diving into the matrix only to discover the electronic pulses are being controlled by dark forces you now have to battle to survive. It would be easy to fall prey to this bait and switch technique. The opening sequence is seductive and welcoming, in a mysterious and dark way. Soft sounds whisper out like a sonic siren song luring you out to sea. Once the trap has been set, screams of agony begin to radiate from reverb soaked walls. Distorted crashes of anger and malice now cover the water like an oil slick spreading. It begins to suffocate everything it touches. The delivery is harsh, the volume is controlled and there is no mistake that you have been ensnared in such a way that oblivion becomes a welcomed companion.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
FÖHN – CONDESCENDING
Funeral doom, Experimental Doom, Avant-garde
Greece
Hypaethral Records
FÖHN is a funeral doom band from Greece who formed in 2016. “Condescending” is their debut full-length album. It shouldn’t be a surprise that FÖHN is yet another great band from Greece. There are many countries with ridiculously great scenes but Greece is a different beast altogether. And so is FÖHN’s “Condescending.” I can say that with the utmost certainty that not only is this one of the best albums, doom or otherwise, I’ve heard in the second half of 2024, it is also going to be a very, very strong contender for album of the year. It’s a stunning example of not only doom metal but music in general. Across the album’s four song, 57 minute runtime, I was thrust into the downward spiral of an ever maddening world. Most funeral doom focuses on sweltering darkness generated by suffocating blankets of glacial riffs. “Condescending” brings that as well but it also adds a layer of psychosis to their bleak poetry, each song pulling me further down into a well, where all the unspeakable things of life wait. But FÖHN’s music doesn’t succumb to the finality of it all; rather, the album embraces it as a tool so that it controls the darkness, not the other way around. There is a certain regal type of songwriting on display here; it’s profane in a way that only funeral doom can be but it’s also methodical, meticulous, and even avant-garde.
~ Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple, DoomedForMetal)
!GERALD! – MUSIC FOR BROKEN ELEVATORS
Prog-, Psych-, Noise Rock
France/England
Self-released
At the “Krach am Bach” Festival one of my campsite friends wore a !GERALD! shirt. !GERALD!? I asked. I had never heard of this band. He highly recommended it and said they would be playing soon, so I walked to the 2nd stage. The band had already started and their proggy Heavy Psych instantly grabbed me – Stoner Happiness. Then suddenly those four weirdos totally freaked out, the song became noisy, the keyboardist jumped like popcorn in a pan, the bass was played with a cello bow, the drummer was hammering strange scrap metal… The faces changed to grimaces … like freaks in a horror-asylum. What a wonderful weird experience! The songs are trippy, proggy, psychedelic and sometimes noisy. I doubt an album can convey this kind of expression. The five songs of the mini-album show their musical excellence, but you need to see them live. If you ever get a chance, go! Don’t think twice! Trust me, I’m the doktor.
~ Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe)
KUNGENS MÄN – FÖR SAMTIDA DJUR 2
Improvisational free-jazz, Psychedelic rock
Stockholm, Sweden
Majestic Mountain Records
‘För Samtida djur 2‘ (translated from Swedish to: For Contemporary Animals) brings us an expansive crescendo on this two volumed road to free-jazz enlightenment courtesy of our trippily- transcendent troubadours. From the first volume ‘För Samtida djur 1,’ comprised of shorter more condensed compositions, we are returned in Part 2, to the classically expansive KUNGENS MÄN constellation with longer, sprawling tracks dead set on expanding that third eye with invitations to inner and outer space. With an unmistakable air of beat era, ultra avant-garde, “cool cat” panache and seamless organic flow, we reach an immersive culmination on this incarnation of the band’s mind expanding sound over this rapturous double album release. KUNGENS MÄN once again show us in a very modern way, that they are a band of limitless scope and depth with their masterfully groovy, deeply trippy, and fiercely funky, free-form psychedelia and absolutely more than deserving of their prolifically royal status as preeminent, Swedish Psych makers.
~ The Doom Oracle (Spectral Ecstacy)
MAMMOTH VOLUME – RAISED UP BY WITCHES
Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock
Lysekil, Sweden
Blues Funeral Recordings
If ever you seek a path where every riff has not been exhausted, then it’s time to take a stroll with Raised By Witches by MAMMOTH VOLUME. This album is the birth of something unique to the heavy music community. This seed has germinated and firmly established its roots in the landscape. Now we experience the blooming flower opening to the warmth of the sun’s rays. Standing tall within the green of the landscape, the psychotropic color scheme shows its beauty like the plume of a peacock. Creative, captivating and had me listening at the edge of my seat as its progressive complexity pollinated for future growth. This is truly a unique album and nothing short of special to hear as a music fan.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
Sweden’s MAMMOTH VOLUME returns with Raised Up by Witches, a powerful testament to their unique blend of stoner rock, prog, and experimental. The album showcases their signature fusion of dirty, fuzzy, and sometimes obscure guitar riffs, dynamic shifts, and thematically deep vocals which draws the listener into their world of complex compositions. An undeniably powerful album that will be remembered in Stoner Rock.
~ Michael D’Amato (Playgroundz Rocks, D’Amato Production)
THE MERCURY IMPULSE – RECORDS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Drone, Dark Ambient, Noise
Chicago, Illinois
Self-released
Cold isolation is the comfort zone where we discover the sonic waves of THE MERCURY IMPULSE flourishing with Records Of Human Behavior. Close your eyes. Now feel the darkness consuming you. As the image of light slowly fades from memory, imagine yourself walking through a distant, cool passage of concrete walls. Hands slowly glide across the rugged textures. The disorientation of darkness and the gripping fear of confusion clench tighter with every step. Damp walls scrub the fingertips with terror and discomfort. The chaos of emotion is the only sense of normalcy to be found in this environment. Where some may find themselves unsettled by the experimental sounds, in the midst of this strange experience, there is an undercurrent of solace among the tones.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
ORME – NO SERPENTS, NO SAVIOURS
Death, Doom
Hertfordshire UK
Self-released
The ground quakes and an avalanche of frozen earth and ice begins its descent from mountaintop thrones as No Serpents, No Saviours by ORME rumbles along distant winds. There is no safe passage for those who chose to stand face to face with the destructive might of this EP. It strikes in waves of cold isolation. Crushing anything in its path. What once found safety has now become crushed under the monolithic weight of these hammer heavy riffs. As a slow, crumbling echo sounds out, these seething, pummeling, yet cathartic riffs find voice and call out. Hold no hope for those standing on this path. When all has settled, the landscape will be flattened and the new masters will slowly ascend to the throne.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
PHENOCRYST – CREMATION PYRE
Death Metal
Lisbon, Portugal
Blood Harvest
Let the ash of enemy bones turn to stone as Cremation Pyre by PHENOCRYST builds a new temple to the gods of death metal. Where dark and destructive riffs are conjured, so shall the guttural voices of the dead speak. Cast forth the doomed souls of sinister shadows and machine gun blast beats. These songs are filtered with a slow sickness and washed in the filth of a doom and gloom that lurks deep below. Brought forward, it now showcases some of the gnarliest death metal one could ask for. Where we sacrifice to the immortal conflagration, so shall Phenocryst rise from the smoldering circle to wear their crown of flame and hate.
~ Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick)
SACRED BUZZ – RADIO RADIATION / REBEL MACHINE
Rock, Psych, Kraut, Garage
Berlin, Germany
Fuzzed up and Astromoon Records
Seven inch vinyl, I love it! It’s the Radio Radiation / Rebel Machine single by Berlin, Germany four SACRED BUZZ! They released a demo in 2023 which featured these two songs and one more and then the very cool Irish label Fuzzed up and Astromoon Records discovered it and demanded it be released on vinyl. And we love them for it! For their garage, punkish version of kraut and psych takes you back to the sixties and seventies and more importantly, will have you going batshit crazy! High danceable and extremely addictive opener Rebel Machine punches you with its punked and garage kraut, it’s there, in your face and there’s no escape. Radio Radiation is slower but shows a band that is not afraid to step out of the narrow structures of sixties garage and turn up the psych more. Both sound sweaty enough and with a promise of a full album next year, you gotta keep your ear to the ground for the right kind of buzz… SACRED BUZZ!
~ Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe)
SATAN’S SATYRS – AFTER DARK
Garage, Hard Rock, Doom
New York, New York, USA
Tee Pee Records
SATAN’S SATYRS have been all about the dirty, filthy garage rock for a long time now, building up quite the cult following over the past fifteen years or so, with a time where the band broke up included, but that is all over now, as the band has their return to the fold record given to us by Tee Pee Records, called After Dark. Stealing a quote from the Tee Pee website, SATAN’S SATYRS sounds like if you soaked Sabbath, Venom, The Stooges, and Blue Cheer in acid and acrimony. This is truly the perfect way to sum this band up, and it works for the nine new tracks on After Dark as well. You get Iggy, Iommi, Cronos, and even a dash of Rollins across the nine tracks on After Dark, all sounding like ithey were recorded in a metal trailer, in the best possible way. Filthy, dangerous, caring for nothing or no one, SATAN’S SATYRS are back and After Dark is their message to the world to look out (again).
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)
SUPERSONIC DRAGON WAGON – FROM THE DEEP
Doom, Stoner Rock, Grunge
San Diego, California, USA
Space Base Records
San Diego stoner/doom outfit SUPERSONIC DRAGON WAGON is back with From the Deep, a collection of both new and previously released tracks. If you’re like me and From the Deep is your first time hearing about the band, this album is a great place to start. SUPERSONIC DRAGON WAGON plays a modern take on traditional doom that dances with fuzzy stoner and a whisper of psychedelic rock. This is delivered with ultra-powerful, often grunge-tinted vocals, in the vein of bands like Baardvader. From the Deep is both heavy and haunting, saturated with both power and feeling. Perhaps best of all, this is an album that reads like an epic journey, filled with all the rising, climactic, and falling actions one would expect and then some.
~ Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground)
ТЯГА – ТЯГА
Stoner, Doom, Grunge, Gothic
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Self-released
With its long and cold winters, Yekaterinburg isn’t the first place you associate with the blistering heat of some tasty groove-driven music. Yet, this Russian four-piece brings the desert to the Ural mountains on their convincing debut with some heavy, low-end, grunge-infused doom and stoner that is at the same time contradictory to and in perfect sync with the stunning voice of singer Jackie. Throw in a bit of a gothic vibe due to said vocals and an album that keeps building and building, and the impression rises that ТЯГА are taking their listeners on a sonic road trip where they slowly introduce them to their unique sound, while gradually dragging their travel companions deeper and deeper into the experience to finally leave a lasting impression.
~ Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe)
The Doom Charts August 2024 – Peroration Playlist…
And a special thanks goes out to Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe) for the cover image…
Special thanks to the ongoing contributors to the monthly Doom Chart. You folks help give voice to the heavy underground:
Adam Walsh (Earmunchies); Andy Kovalcik (Bandcamp-NYP-Hard&Heavy); A.S. Van Dorston (Fast n Bulbous); Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard); Billy Goate (Doomed & Stoned); Bob “Mr. Weird Beard” Baker (More Fuzz Podcast); Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin, Inherent Records, Mystery Pick); Brandon Collins (Morbid And Miserable Records); Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect); Chris Beck (Doom Tomb Podcast); Chris Tighe (The Mighty Decibel); Clint Willis (Hand of Doom Radio); Damien Regnauld (Stoner Freaks Anthology); The Doom Oracle (Spectral Ecstacy); Edouard Dubuisson (Les chroniques d’Eddy, MetalUniverse); Eric Crowe (Doomsayer Records / Halo Of The Goat Radio); Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist); ‘The General’ (Stoner Rock Army) Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe); Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture); James Sweetlove (CaveDwellerMusic); JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex); Jim Thompson (Heavy in the Hills); Jipsy Froud (CleanAndSoberStoner); JJ “HP Taskmaster” Koczan (The Obelisk); John Gist, (Vegas Rock Revolution / The Doomed & Stoned Show); Jon Cosky (Gravitoyd Heavy Music); Jon McGough (Stoner Rock Army, Stoner HiVe, Outlaws Of The Sun); Jonny Pirie (Hour of the Riff); Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe); Justin Wittenmeier (Metal Temple, DoomedForMetal); Kyle SB (Good Boy PR, Stoner HiVe); Lee Edwards (The Sleeping Shaman); Marc-Eric Gagnon (Stonefly Effects); Mats Florstam (Ozium Records); Matthew Thomas (Taste Nation); Matthew Hartnett (Heavy Galaxy); Mel Lie (Sunday’s Heavy Tunes); Michael D’Amato (Playgroundz Rocks, D’Amato Production); Mitch Kline (DoomyRiffs.com); Mr Stone (More Fuzz); Nick Pipitone (The Third Eye, Monster Riff); Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker (The Ripple Effect); Stevie Reek (Howls from The Hollows, Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe); Remi VL (Remi Post Too Many Links); Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip); Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz); Roberto Fuentes (La Habitación 235); Rod Reinhardt (Captain Beyond Zen); Ronny Dijksterhuis (Stoner HiVe); Ryan Foster (Slightly Fuzzed); Ryan Hilton (Black Throne Productions); S Patrick Brooks (The Heavy Underground Farm Report, Outlaws of the Sun); Scott Spiers (CleanAndSoberStoner, Monster Riff); Stephanie Zalta (DoomCakes, Screaming From The Heavy Underground); Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun); Steve Woodier (Anointing The Sick); Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral); Tom Hanno (Tom’s Reviews, The Third Eye); Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz); Tony Maim (Black Insect Laughter, Stoner HiVe).
Feel free to send in your albums to stonerdoomcharts@gmail.com where they’ll be delegated to the crew above to determine their thoughts and gather the votes at the end of the month. Leave us comments below and let us know what you think about the Charts.
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