The Black Map #241: THVNDERHEAD from Oxford!

Comedian Bob Mortimer lost 9 teeth to a chilled KitKat Chunky and had to cancel an appearance on Sunday Brunch? Damn. That must have hurt. We digress. Why are we here? Oh yeah, it’s the return of The Black Map, our feature that looks at the great and the good of the United Kingdom Underground Metal scene by putting a spotlight on them so bright that it will burn your retinas. The FBI integration staff are proud.

A band so fresh that they only have one single out in internet land at the moment, Thvnderhead are a Progressive Metal act formed by a collective of Oxford laboratory scientists who like nothing more than to balance psychedelic and stoner with more traditional heavy metal elements when they are not stimulating growth in petri dishes. Spearheaded by Joram van Rheede (guitar, bass (studio), synths (studio), mixing and mastering) the group are promising a debut album in late 2023 and gave us single “Further“ to suggest what that might sound like.

Originally recorded in 2018 during a series of live jam sessions between three founding members, the band used the great plague years to refine their art, telling an epic, psychedelic Instrumental Metal journey named after Ken Kesey’s infamous road trip bus. First recorded in 2018, over the pandemic the track was layered with atmosperes including backing chants, synth loops, an indian elephant bell, and the sound of brain cells firing in a laboratory (because one member of the band is in fact a  neuroscientist)…