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Witch Ripper’s ‘Through the Hourglass’: Two Cent Review

Witch Ripper’s kindred spirits – Mastodon, High on Fire and Baroness, to name a few – have done quite well for themselves thanks in part to keeping their creative juices flowing at practically all times. But by taking a slow-cooker approach instead, Seattle’s Witch Ripper have deftly avoided pitfalls like getting overexposed or even overplayed, and they’ve instead siphoned that time into developing a coherent and well-considered sound. Look no further than their new album, Through the Hourglass, which comes out Friday via Magnetic Eye Records. Read my full review via Veil of Sound.

Lo-Pan: ‘We Play at the Audience. We Do Not Play for an Audience’

Posted in Favorite Films, Features, Interviews with tags Big Trouble in Little China, Lo-Pan, Magnetic Eye on 03/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck

Interview: Lo-Pan Escape Big Trouble and Live to Tell About It

Heavy-hitters Lo-Pan give New Noise an early preview of their fifth record ahead of its April release–and, to The Bad Penny‘s particular delight, geek out about Big Trouble in Little China.

Blue Heron: Breaking Bad-Asses

Posted in Interviews with tags Blue Heron, High Desert Queen, Jadd Shickler, Kyuss, Magnetic Eye on 07/18/2022 by Kurt Orzeck

*Blue Heron performing at their record-release party on July 8, 2022*

“In the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it, they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” -Lewis Rothschild (Michael J. Fox), The American President

Twenty-five years ago — shortly after the demise of Palm Desert, California’s Kyuss roughly 10 hours to the west — a new oasis of low-end heavy rock began to form in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The year 1997 saw the birth of MeteorCity Records, a label devoted to sludge, psych, drone and doom. The label quenched the thirst of hard-rock fans thirsty for more thunderous, bottom-heavy rock beyond what they found on Man’s Ruin Records (which collapsed in 2001).

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