Saunders and Dear Hollow bring their high class tastes to the party with their Top Ten(ish) of 2025. Break out the caviar and meths!
Bunsenburner
Abhorrent Expanse – Enter the Misanthropocene Review
“How experimental is too experimental? That’s the question Chicago’s Abhorrent Expanse posits. It’s clear from the title: Enter the Misanthropocene enters to play jazz and fuck shit up, and “Bitches Brew” is on its final notes. When the Lord of the Promo Pit designated the quartet as “death-drone,” I was intrigued and gobbled up rights. It was clear from the jump that Abhorrent Expanse was not the death metal act with a mammoth guitar tone I had hoped, but an improvisational free jazz quartet that decides to do extreme metal sometimes, with death metal, grindcore, and, yes, drone metal making short-lived appearances.” Expansive ambitions.
Bunsenburner – Reverie Review
“My relationship with Germany’s Bunsenburner grows with each release, and you could say it’s getting pretty serious, like a dark romantasy. I completely ripped third full-length Poise a new one which garnered the ire of mastermind Ben Krahl. But like any hate relationship that borders on masochistic, he saw the light and sent in follow-up Rituals – and our love blossomed. The act’s backbone lies in the fuzz and jam-sesh vibes of stoner metal, but with enough free jazz and crystalline ambiance to kill a full-grown elephant, it embraces the psychedelia in tasteful ways with instrumental prowess.” Lab safety is cat safety.
Killing Spree – Camouflage! Review
“As the old ball bounces, I guess I’m becoming the jazz guy around here. Hey, did you know that the phrase “jazz” probably comes from the word “jasm,” which is an archaic American phrase that means “drive” or “energy?” Now you do. Either way, when the inimitable GardensTale claimed this one, he was like “what the hell” and asked – no, demanded – that I take it after seeing my work with Mamaleek, that whack-ass La Suspendida project, and Bunsenburner’s redemption arc. But Killing Spree is here to kick ass and take names, like down in NOLA or some shit. Does it jazz? That’s the question.” Blue notes in a deadly space.
Bunsenburner – Rituals
“After the ruthless shellacking I gave to Bunsenburner’s debut Poise, I didn’t expect to hear from the German revolving-door collective so soon. My critiques of the debut were called out by mastermind Ben Krahl, but a followup determined that “any publicity is good publicity” and he sent in 2023’s Rituals for another round. Stoner doom to the core, with a crystalline ambiance and jazzy overtures to effectively cover its lack of vocals, Poise was ultimately overlong and directionless. Regardless of my feelings of the debut, the show goes on!” Flame on!
Doom_et_Al’s and Dear Hollow’s Top Ten(ish) of 2022
Doom_et_Al and Dear Hollow spice up the season with their Top Ten(ish) of 2022. Come for the selections, stay to harass them over same.
Bunsenburner – Poise Review
“My students all suspect I spent some time with the “ganja.” They say, “Wow, Mr. Hollow, you’re so chill. I bet you were a stoner in high school. I was way too stuck up to do anything besides the daily Red Bull and Bible study jig, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating some good stoner doom well into adulthood. While my strain of choice falls closer to sludge on the swampy spectrum, I can appreciate acts like Sergeant Thunderhoof and Weedeater for reverb- and fuzz-soaked riffs with killer groove. What does tickle me pickle is jazz and ambient, which are what Bunsenburner says they fuse with stoner doom.” All that stoner jazz (and science).
