MetalSucks

Priestess are easily my favorite band on the Tee Pee Records roster, most of which is firmly planted on the psychedelic rock side of the stoner spectrum (although, as I learned a couple of months back, Earthless are pretty fucking rad too). Priestess, however, have serious balls of steel; the easy analogy would be to say they’re a less weird / more consistently rocking version of Queens of the Stone Age, but like most musical band-to-band analogies that description falls shorts of capturing the band’s true essence. Where Queens come from a background rooted in punk as much as metal, Priestess are straight up metal dudes influenced by equal parts by traditional heavy metal and NWOBHM; witness Mikey Heppner’s scorching guitar solos juxtaposed with the band’s Sabbath-esque grooves.

The Canadian quartet’s new album Prior to the Fire has been out in their homeland since October but is only coming to US, UK and European shores February 2nd (unless, of course, you live in 2010 and have the rendering-international-release-dates-useless Internet… but that’s a topic for another day). The entire album is currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page; you best check it out now because it probably won’t be up there for long and that shit is the bomb, I promise.

-VN

Canadian stoner metallers Priestess were way too cool for their alma mater RCA Records, for whom they released only one album — 2006’s Hello Master — before being dropped. The album undoubtedly underperformed by major label standards, even with that nice sync fee they got for the inclusion of “Lay Down” in Guitar Hero III. Fitting then that stoner stalwarts Tee Pee Records have picked up Priestess to release their next album Prior to the Fire in February of 2010. Tee Pee’s roster includes a lot of acts just a tad too like wayyy stooooned ouuut maaaan for this site’s tastes, but with the release of Iron Age’s stellar thrasher  The Sleeping Eye earlier this year and the announcement that Priestess have joined their ranks, things are looking a bit heavier at the Tee Pee camp.

Priestess have a new song called “Sideways Attack” up on their MySpace page. Me rikee… it’s a bit more up-tempo than a lot of the material from Hello Master and the production is super-dry but tight, not unlike that of Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf.

Priestess performed in NYC this week twice at the CMJ Music Marathon… if you were there, kindly fill us in.

-VN

Here at MetalisNotGood, we take our stony music quite seriously.

Duh.

So clearly we’re rabid fans of the almighty Tee Pee Records, a label known for representing the best in stony bands from the US and abroad…..in this case, ‘abroad’ means Canada (why not?), and the band you oughtta check out is Toronto’s Quest For Fire. This is music for taking bong hits in the eye of a hurricane to — the songs shift from calm, haunting, almost-drony creepers to raucously boogie-stomping classic rock-ish ragers…..their self-titled album (due out on June 9th) definitely exhibits range in mood whilst retaining a specific ’sound’ throughout.

Metal with a capital KILL, this is most definitely not — but fans of shweet/shwirly/shtony bands like Dead Meadow shan’t be disappointed.

You can currently catch these craysee Canucks on the road with The Pink Mountaintops…..tour dates on MySpace, but NYers be forewarned — they’ll be in Brooklyn this Friday night and Manny-Hatty on Saturday. Light em up!

Visit Quest For Fire on MySpace

-KW

What better way to take a much-deserved break from the vapid Hollywood wasteland than to roll up a fat one and bro down with some of the best stoner/doom rock/metal bands in the world? Tee Pee Records is hosting the second annual “Manifest Destiny” this Sunday, September 7th, at The Echoplex on Glendale, and you shan’t be disappointed — notable acts on the bill include the almighty Witchcraft from Sweden, San Diego’s Earthless, and Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis’ band Witch (in which J plays drums).

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Those who complain we don’t dedicate enough space to left coast coverage, take heed — the Manifest Destiny festival is coming to The Echoplex in Los Angeles on September 7th. The festival, which is curated by Tee Pee Records, features bands from the label’s roster of stoned-out, psychadelic metal — Witchcraft, Earthless, Witch, The Warlocks, Graveyard, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound, Ancestors, Night Horse, and T.K. Webb & the Visions. That is a fucking phenomenal lineup, and the day promises to be full of good times in additional to great music — so be sure to bring some shrooms with you, or at least some pot brownies… ya hear?

After the jump, check out the trippy tour poster artwork.

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