Dopethrone is a three piece band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Active since 2008, this DIY band is known for their abrasive mix of sludge and doom with lyrics based in the self destruction, cannabis, sleazy drug abuse, and the macabre. Influenced by rock n roll, punk, black metal, and blues, the band refers to their music as “Slutch”, the Canadian term for cold sludge, a.k.a. dirty mud snow. They once described it as “frozen sludge, snow covered in addiction, blood, tears, and broken dreams”. After their second release, the band started drawing some attention to them and were invited by Voivod to perform at Roadburn 2012. They since haven’t stopped growing their audience in Europe, their adoptive land. Since their formation, Dopethrone has release five full length studio albums to date, joined some collaborations with other artists, and have regularly toured Europe and Canada. After a series of massive tours in 2019, the band has not hit the road since, and focused on the ‘delicate’ baking of their new release. The new effort, to be out early 2024, will come with North American tours, and even a return to Europe for select dates.

Formed in 2015, Year of the Cobra became a rapidly ascending, radiant star in the horizon of the doom/stoner-scene for a reason. The powerhouse duo, consisting of Amy Tung Barrysmith (vocals/ bass) and Jon Barrysmith (drums), use their limitation in instrumentation to their advantage. Leaving space for every instrument to breathe and to shine, they create a vast, larger than life sound aesthetic. Their songs drift relentlessly from classic epic doom laments into oppressive heavy riff architecture, with traces of hardcore punk and transfiguring psychedelia. In 2016, just a year and one EP into their career, Year of the Cobra released their full-length debut, ...in the Shadows Below. Using the natural, three-dimensional and massively heavy production of Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Sleep) they present themselves as an unbelievably mature and confident band who knows exactly what they want. Following their sophomore EP Burn Your Dead, they had successful tours of Europe and the US, playing a number of well-known festivals along the way, including Psycho Las Vegas, Freak Valley Festival and Prophecy Festival in Germany. The band just released their sophomore full-length Ash and Dust on Prophecy Productions (November 2019), which was produced by the legendary Jack Endino (Nirvana, Tad, Soundgarden). The album has already received high acclaim and the band will hit the road hard again in 2020.

The hiatus from regular band activity saw HUNTSMEN return to their roots as a band, writing on an acoustic guitar and leaning into the narrative storytelling found on their debut full length, American Scrap. An invitation from Roadburn festival in the Netherlands to perform American Scrap in full at the 2022 edition of the festival gave them cause to revisit the songs that saw the band strike out with an Americana-metal sound that has been woven throughout their body of work. 
 A collaborative approach to the songwriting has lent itself well to blending the strengths of the individual band members, as well as allowing space for threads of their own personal stories to to make their way into the sonic tapestry of new tracks, The Dying Pines and Let The Buried Lie Forgotten. The rich instrumental layering and warm vocal harmonies are a vessel for conveying bleak themes of loss and existentialist contemplation. Once again, the evocative cover artwork has been created by drummer, Ray Knipe, complementing the organic sound of the EP, which was recorded at Electrical Audio/Hypercube studios by Sanford Parker, and mastered by Collin Jordan (The Boiler Room). 
 Elements of the post-apocalyptic vibe of Mandala of Fear find their way into this new EP, but The Dying Pines sits outside of the story arc present on the band’s full lengths - a vignette that lets us know the heart of this band still beats strong, and offers a hint of what’s still to come.

LAVISHER is a space rock / velvet grunge band led by Chicago’s Gavin Cushman III. With a sound that nods to Queens of the Stone Age and A Perfect Circle, with hints of Deftones and Failure, LAVISHER conjures lush, distorted dreamscapes that swim in a river of riffage. LAVISHERS’s second full-length album Aligned & Vital delivers twelve diverse songs rooted in nostalgia and exploration. As they continue to carve their niche in the modern rock landscape, their message is clear: the future of heavy, heartfelt rock is here—and it’s dressed in velvet.