����� Just got this psychedelic deathsludge favorite back in stock on multiple formats for your next descent into horror-obsessed, dope-fueled delirium, including a new vinyl repress that includes an 18" X 24" full-color poster of the cover art.

����� Album number two from this demented Detroit doomdeath outfit, 2010's Stoned delivered ten new tracks of the schlock-fueled psychedelic heaviness that originally flattened my skull to a pile of pulp on their Witchtanic Hellucinations debut. Still drunk off a fetid brew of gore-splattered cinematic sleaze, 80's VHS worship, 70's psychedelic proto-metal, delirious basement occultism, ancient punk rock, denim-draped doom and old-school death filth, these guys have created an intoxicating heaviness with this stuff, their crushing, THC-tinged rumble emanating the autumnal glow of the Halloween season no matter what time of year you throw this album on.

����� The band's obsession with classic creep culture sees them paying homage to classic heavy metal horror movies like Trick Or Treat and Hammer classics like Witchfinder General, with lots of cultural references seeping through their lyrics and imagery. And as before, Stoned serves up samples from those sorts of ancient horror, occult and exploitation films, carefully edited into diabolical intros and laid out over moldy old-school synthesizer music like something from a lost Fabio Frizzi score. The intros and interludes on this album are pretty cool, definitely campy, but perfect for the atmosphere these guys create. That stuff usually gives way to their crushing downtuned doom metal, carved up into infectious, straightforward riffs that wind around your cerebral cortex like a parasitic worms. Musically, you can still hear a classic Cathedral-esque vibe in these molten, fuzz-encrusted riffs and the ponderous weight of Acid Witch's filthy, Sabbathian grooves, but their version of death/doom is so much more warped. The vocals are a putrid, gargling mess echoing over these gore-stained epics, while the songs stick to a mix of simple, rocking riffs and slower chorus sections, where they really lay the doom on thick.

����� There's also lots of keyboard action here. A rollicking, trippy Hammond organ sound haunts most of these songs, sometimes blending with killer 80's style Carpenterian synth, or breaking into a wicked, Deep Purple-esque keyboard solo like on "Live Forever". Definitely a big part of what makes Acid Witch's music so weirdly nostalgic. But amid all of this trippy psych-doom and basement witchery, probably the creepiest track on the whole album is the one that drops all of the metal; the crazed "Whispers In The Dark" really sticks out, starting off as a Gobliny piece of creepy, synth-heavy spook-prog, but over the course of the song slowly degenerating into a druggy, chaotic noisescape filled with hellish screams, bizarre FX and other ghastly sounds. Man, I love this stuff. Stoned is one of those albums that feels like it was custom made for me, fusing all of my obsessions into a pulverizing, pulpy blast of drugged black sludge.