Strider – Midnight Zen

Strider is five-piece from Ankara, Turkey. With Midnight Zen they've released their full-length. They play a tasty mix of stoner rock and heavy psych. There's so much new music coming out within these genres, so there's a lot to choose from. I would be lying if the artwork didn't attract me to give this a...

Zoahr – Apraxia

In 2019 Zoahr pleasantly surprised lovers of heavy and psychedelic music with their highly enjoyable debut album Off Axis (review here). While the songs find themselves on the same territory as bands like Graveyard and Witchcraft there are defintely self-made ingredients from this three piece from Germany to be found. Musically Apraxia elaborates on the...

Khirki – Κτηνωδία

The last two months have been great for heavy rock music. One album that you shouldn't miss out on is Khirki's debut release Κτηνωδία. Khirki is a band from Athens, Greece that combines heavy, high energy rock with traditional musical elements from their area. Κτηνωδία kicks off with three high-paced, energetic heavy rock songs. Deadpan,...

Clouds Taste Satanic – Cloud Covered

Diving into a new Clouds Taste Satanic record is always a delight. Even in the case of an album full of covers. Cloud Covered is by no means a sign that the Brooklyn doomers are out of ideas. On the contrary, recording these songs that influenced the band seems to bring new creativity to the...

Gods Of Space – Against A Falling Sky

(Album cover artwork by Karl Poyzer (www.artstation.com/karlpoyzer)) Gods Of Space is a stoner rock trio from Pennsylvania. After a full length and an ep they released their second ep Against A Falling Sky. The five tracks are based around a sci-fi story. That sci-fi-vibe really comes forward well in the well-crafted music. The first track...

Holy Monitor – Southern Lights

Strangely the Athens based Holy Monitor hasn't been on my radar so far. But their new album Southern Lights is yet already their third album after Holy Monitor (2017) and II (2018). Well, it seems it's time to dig in these albums soon, because Southern Lights is pure psych-delight. The album starts off incredibly strong...

Appalooza – The Holy Of Holies

Releases come and go throughout the year. Keeping up with it all is an almost impossible task. But there are albums that need to be heard and talked about. In the case of Appalooza's new release The Holy Of Holies I'm hopelessly behind. It was released in the beginning of February this year. And after...

Around The Fire – Celestial Keepers

In January the Thessaloniki based doom band Around The Fire released their second album Celestial Keepers. This six track release is the follow-up to the ep Advent Of The Firewalkers (2019). Labelling Around The |Fire as a doom band really sells them short. Although most of the songs on Celestial Keepers are based around doomy,...

Circle Of Sighs – Salo

Circle Of Sighs' Salo is another album that has been haunting Orange Maze's playlist for the last months. Haunting is a suitable word here, because this Los Angeles based band made a record that sounds quite eerie and ominious at times. The fact that the band members aren't mentioned anywhere creates mystique, but to be...

Deepshade – Soul Divider

Deepshade's second full-length Soul Divider got quite a few spins on Orange Maze headquarters the last few months. The album was released on May the 1st this year, but despite several listens, (blame the pandemic) it never came to a review on this site. The last few weeks I rediscovered the album and decided that...