DOPELORD - Reality Dagger EP review

 

DOPELORD - Reality Dagger EP

Green Plague Records

OK I'll say the quiet part out loud. Years ago I got bored with the whole genre of stoner rock and you did to. I'm not going to name drop anyone but let's just say the heavy hitters were washed up. Worse yet is when SLEEP starts doing nostalgia tours for hipsters then you know it's over. Even worse is when the new bands all sound the same. Then years ago I heard DOPELORD and life was so much better.

That all came about in 2017 when I heard this Polish band's third full length, Children of the Haze, and I hailed that album as the greatest thing since SABBATH's Master of Reality. OK that's a bit of hyperbole on me but seriously DOPELORD fuckin rules. That album was in my end of year favorites. And so was their Sign of the Devil full length from last year. 

So here we have a new three song EP by this four piece act. There's just three tracks which according to the promo info are some song ideas that the band have been playing around with over the years. Basically it's DOPELORD's patented sound and style. You've got some heavy handed groove laden stoner rock with clean vocals. If anything these songs fall on the more melodic side. 

"Your Blood" kinda comes off as a pop number. The title cut is a ten plus minute opus a diabolical psych doom. But the winner of the small bunch is opener "Dark Coils". If all of this is throwaway tracks then let me just say what DOPELORD tosses out is way better than what copycat bands save. Sure I'm biased but hey I'm right. DOPELORD Rules

https://www.facebook.com/GreenPlagueRecords/

LISTEN HERE:

Oops Sorry there's no way, at the moment, for you to check out this EP unless I include a download link. And that ain't happening. So instead here's a DOPELORD Live Stream from 2020. Enjoy because you will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLYjXIQOm4

But hey here's DOPELORD's bandcamp site. Buy it all!

https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/music

DOPELORD - Sign Of The Devil review

DOPELORD - Sign Of The Devil

Green Plague Records




Some years ago I was getting inundated with so many stoner rock releases sent in for review that I swore I'd shoot someone when I saw another. Then this band's third album, Children of the Haze, came in. Well on the bright side it was a damm good release and as far as the person I shot well he recovered while in jail. 


But anyways it was 2017 when this Polish band's third full length came my way. I liked it a lot for a couple of reasons. They stayed on the stoner rock template, were super heavy/fuzzy and performed it well without being pretentious or progressive. If I'm gonna listen to some music within this genre then I wanna hear some raw and dedicated shit. No phonies who just walked in the door. 


Now as far as this fourth album goes, I'll say the band has added some might to their sound. There's a sped up anthem in "Hail Satan". Honestly that speaks volumes for a band who before were slow enough to watch grass grow to. Now you wanna blast this outdoors with a bonfire going. Even better is that their slow groove tunes, like "Heathen", are far heavier than previous material. Plus the psych-out guitar leads are now like charged bolts running through your body.


Sign Of The Devil is six cuts with a running time of a few seconds over thirty six minutes. Yeah for a stoner doom act release that's fast. Frankly that's the way I like it. There's way too many bands in this genre who play the same riff over and over for a few minutes just to turn a six minute song into a nine minute dirge to fill up space. DOPELORD cuts to the heart of the matter and rules. I thought their last album was incredible, this one is as well.


https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Dopelord666

DOPELORD - Children Of The Haze review

DOPELORD - Children Of The Haze

Green Plague Records




First off I'll give these guys props for their song "Scum Priest". That's what I use to call myself whenever I donned my pope's hat (which can be viewed if you scroll down on this site and look to the right). Now with that said I know there are going to be people out their who will bash this Polish four piece for their obvious influence (as in the first three cuts on here) from first wave SABBATH worshipers SLEEP and ELECTRIC WIZARD. Fine but lets think about that for a second. ELECTRIC WIZARD hasn't done anything exciting in years and SLEEP, come on people haven't we've all fallen asleep to their past material enough.


So yeah this third full length by these Polish stoners is a down tuned bong head's dream. It's slow and heavy, like your hipster girlfriend, for the first couple of cuts. But then breaks from the pattern and goes completely psychedelic with the trip out interlude "Skulls and Candles". It's the type of break you need on an album like this. I'd also cite "Dead Inside (I&II)" which combines the pure syrupy grooves with psych out guitar soloing with the second part being all out hard fuckin rock. Real guy clean vocals throughout to boot.

Hey look I'm sure your first wave stoner rock sect will thumb their jaded noses at this but hey listen up. My head was thoroughly banged out by 1979 after having Master of Reality on continuous play for years. If I can appreciate this so should you.

Rating: 5/5

https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Dopelord666