The Top 14 Heavy Rock Albums of any given month are a bit of a challenge. I’m a bit rusty, but I’ll give it a shot!
March came in like a lamb and had me thinking things have FINALLY calmed down in the Heavy Underground. It ended with the roar of a Lion, as late releases hit my ears and a couple of bands reached out to me and asked for a review or at least listen. The past week has been a feverish rush to listen to everything, get a list compiled, and get our votes into the Doom Charts.
I also had a chance to do a Sneak peek video with S. Patrick Brooks from the Heavy Underground Farm Report. He has an amazing channel on YouTube, and does some of the best interviews in the scene. Check out our banter as we each pick 5 bands from our Doom Charts submissions:
This is the first list I’ve written in months, and it was a blast. So much great music continues to get made, and the Golden Age of Heavy Rock continues. It looks like I made it, and I ended up with a Top 14 Heavy Rock Albums of March!
The Top 14 Heavy Rock Albums of March 2025
14. Alitila – Spruce
It’s not every day that JJ Koczan does vocals on an album. Heck, it’s not every decade. He’s darn near unrecognizable as a human voice on Spruce, but dammit, I don’t care. This isn’t Stoner, and it certainly isn’t Doom. But it’s trippy as balls: A full-on EDM assault unlike anything I’ve heard in years. Pro Tip: Make sure you have decent earbuds or headphones for this. It’s full-range (and then some) with unexpected volume swells amidst the noise.
13. Droner – Salt
The only thing I care more about than High Fidelity is a high dose of talent and originality. While I can’t write that I love the mix of Salt, I do love everything else about it. It starts out with a blatant nod towards Nirvana, and winds up seemingly everywhere and anywhere. This is one eclectic album, with guitar worship running throughout. The best thing about it is that the songs, for the most part, are nicely written and edited, with a lot of restraint. Closing number, Feel Something Yet? manages to fit all of the ideas Droner has into a tight 6:10 minutes of wow. This is a band to watch!
12. Museum of Light – Diviner
This is the part of any list I do that gets dodgy. This coming in at number 12 will be ridiculous to many people, and I’m second-guessing it. Diviner is a fantastic album of sharply written Heavy Rock performed with crispness and skill. The spoken word vocals are on point for this, with the poetry of Amelia Urry giving an otherworldly tinge to the whole thing. Highly recommended for fans of eclectic hard rock ala Abrams.
11. Kryptograf – Kryptonomicon
I don’t always know what to make of the current generation’s heavy tilt towards a mid-70s retro sound. If I think about it too much, it kinda ruins the effect. But if I just let go, bands like Kryptograf, that start with a Lynyrd Skynyrd-type twin guitar assault, then morph into a heavier version of Wishbone Ash, are just effing awesome. The guitars have a cleanly recorded overdriven sound, not much fuzz on this at all. The vocals are clean, clear, and fit the music perfectly. Closing track The Gales is the heavy psych climax this album needed. Heavily recommended for fans of Mr. Bison and Saturna.
The Top 10 Heavy Albums for March
10. Rainbows Are Free – Silver and Gold
Ripple Music continues to expand its near dominance in the heavy underground, and Rainbows Are Free is the latest example. This is a heady, heavy dose of Stoner/Doom and Heavy Psych with one foot in the past and one in the future. Unlike the ridiculous cliche associated with that phrase, this band can meld both influences and progression into a near-perfect example of what the best bands are doing. Clean, emotional vocals are perfectly placed among the saturated guitars and nimble rhythm section. This one creeped up on me over time, and could keep doing it for the rest of the year.
09. Pyres – Yun
Pyres hits a sweet spot between late 90s/early 2000s post-grunge hard rock and modern stoner/doom. The centerpiece of Yun is the epic 13 minutes of A Depth Charge At Sea, a showcase for Pyre’s songwriting chops and an ear for long, hazy riffs with radio-friendly vocals. They seem to careen from Baroness to Mastadon, with that late 90’s edge that freaking works. Even the screaming parts are done well, and feel like an organic part of the song. I think Pyres is just beginning, and could go from influenced to influencer on their next release. Yeah. I’m a fan.
08. Seething Sky – Mind Delusions
Seething Sky fulfills a life-long dream of mine: To hear Kraftwerk get fucking heavy. Psych that stuff out and hit damn fuzz pedal, for the love of gawd! But these guys have balls far, far bigger than that. The Kraftwerk reference is deliberate in the opening jam Nachfart. Yeah, yeah, yeah- In english that sounds funny. But this is righteous Krautrock that takes things where I always want Krautrock to go. Like other new bands on this list, the influences are clearly presented. There’s plenty of Colour Haze, even Neu references, and fans of Delving should dig this. Seething Sky is my favorite discovery from Reddit so far! Kraftwerk with FUZZ, indeed…
07. Sloth – Necromagicka
I learned a long time ago, never judge an album by its cover. Unless it’s Sloth. The name and the artwork tell you everything you need to know about this, and it’s still more awesome than it looks. Every month should have an album by Sloth. It’s DOOM without the BS, with vocals too extremely cool for even Electric Wizard. The standouts for this EP are the live cuts: Devil’s Gate and Slow Burn. I mean, damn, this is SO good it hurts. Doom is one thing, but Doom with this kind of boogie behind it is stunning. It rips. It roars. It RAWKS! I’m gonna hurt myself if I keep blasting it and dancing around like an idiot.
But it’s SLOTH!!! And I need to keep writing the Top 14 Heavy Rock Albums…
06. Harvest of Ash – Castaway
I have to admit, one of the big perks of running review sites and a YouTube channel is the opportunity to host premieres. Castaway from Harvest of Ash was a runaway hit on the channel. I guess the viewers loved the heavy, oversaturated guitars and evocative vocals. This is heavy stuff, and a concept album to boot! I agree with the fans of the album: Castaway hits hard in the head and the heart when you listen to it from beginning to end.
05. Rwake – The Return of Magick
This is the LAST album I expected to have in my top 14 Heavy Rock Albums when I first heard it. This style of music is outside of my usual zone, but Blake Carrera has been working me over with his Thou and Mizmor coverage. But that’s not actually what won me over. From the first track, You Swore We’d Always Be Together, I was hit by this incredible amalgamation of Thou, mixed with The Pineapple Thief and a dose of Lindgren-era Opeth. I mean, Rwake achieves the impossible on this album, and I can’t ignore it. Rwake won me over with impeccable musicianship and masterful songwriting. I don’t care what genre you put it in: The Return of Magick is a fantastic album!
04. FuzzEvil – Smear Merchants
FuzzEvil is a band that always strikes me as bigger than they actually are. This point was really brought home in their interview with S. Patrick Brooks on the Heavy Underground Farm Report. Shoot, these are just regular dudes! Smear Merchants does not come from regular dudes, though. This is a band that lives up to its name: The Fuzz is thick and evil. However, there are moments of softness and warmth as well. It comes down to this- Fuzz Evil is the real effing thing from a bunch of dudes we’d all hang out with at a BBQ with and chomp down a rack of ribs. You know, like most of us. My prediction: FuzzEvil will be as big as I think they should be after Smear Merchants
03. Midnight Whiskey Massacre – Satan’s Grin
Midnight Whiskey Massacre is quickly becoming a cult favorite in the Heavy Underground. Satan’s Grin is the latest slab of molten something that makes everyone from the Yawning Scotsman to Outlaws of the Sun scratch their heads a bit. People are getting seriously hooked on the intense, raw power of the songs, combined with the idiosyncrasies of the vocals and guitar leads. I mean, how does he come up with this stuff? And why is it so compelling? I think it’s raw, unbridled honesty.
I tried to get some answers out of MWM mastermind Darren Ironside. Honestly, it left me with more questions. And a deeper appreciation of the guttural assault that is Midnight Whiskey Massacre!
02. Mantras – Mentalism
Mantras.
Ya know, there’s always a least one Mantras for me every month. I’ve got my list done, I’m ready to wrap things up, and I get that loan email at the end of the month announcing something like this: “I would like to share a new album with you.” It’s unsolicited, unexpected, and sent with no understanding of what it’s like to write a monthly list. And it’s also usually awesome, just like The Mentalist.
I mean, it’s fairly easy: Insert immediately to the number two position, with an understanding that this could be a top 10 at the end of the year. This is a form of Doom, heavy on the psych, with blistering flurries of guitar interspersed with plenty of drone, Middle-Eastern modes, and epic songs. With spoken word dialogue from the likes of Alan Watts and Joe Rogan. Everything about this hits the intended target and could launch Mantras into the upper tiers of the Heavy Underground. This one-dude band might need to recruit some members.
01. Sergeant Thunderhoof – Avon Calling
The challenge is for me to write about Avon Calling without bragging that I saw them in Las Vegas. Oops, too late…
Avon Calling is the triumph on multiple levels. The first level is pretty basic: it’s actually a live recording. I grew up in the 1970s, and various bands recorded “live” albums of dubious authenticity. I’m constantly amused at how outraged we are the bands like Kiss get slagged for using backing tracks. Shit, these moogerfoogers have been faking it since 1975, along with virtually all the other great “live albums. Avon Calling is truly LIVE, warts and all. It’s a reputation of all the fakery that’s been a part of Rock since the beginning: it’s bold, brash, and sounds like it’s right off the mixing board. It takes serious balls to relieve something like this.I hope it becomes a trend…
This is as close as you can get to hearing them live. The set list is impeccable, and the opening song “You’ve Stolen the Words” is even more powerful than on This Sceptered Veil. Which is strange, considering the sound quality of Avon Calling is nowhere near the original album. It doesn’t matter. The energy, the power, the perfection of Sergeant Thunderhoof is all there for you to hear and experience. An easy album of the month for me!
PS: I love the humor in the title. Just sayin’
And that’s it for the Top 14 Heavy Rock Albums this month. For these who are curious, ALL of the Clean and Sober Stoner and Monster Riff lists will be published in Monster Riff from now on. Clean and Sober Stoner ventures into areas like recovery, mental health, cultural issues, and even politics. Monster Riff is all about…the monster riffs!