sHEAVY

Before I'd ever heard of sHeavy and discovered the band when I was obsessing over doom and stoner bands back in the mid 2010's, Jeff had given me a CD of Synchronized. The band name was weird and the album artwork wasn't really appealing... hell, I'd never even heard of Rise Above Records at the time... and the CD quickly ended up on the bottom of a pile of things that I wasn't really interested in but also couldn't throw out. Even after falling in love with The Electric Sleep and Celestial Hi-fi, I still didn't really bother with that Synchronized CD.

Earlier this year, I stumbled upon the fact that Rise Above had finally issued Synchronized on vinyl at some point in 2024. There was a time when it seemed that every Rise Above release quickly sold out... and the clear vinyl die hard editions that are limited to only 100... goddamn, you had to be quick with your order if you hoped to get one. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the clear vinyl was still available for this record and I quickly grabbed one.

I don't know why I'm slow like this sometimes, because this album is so fucking good. I had plenty of opportunities to appreciate this record before this, and I ignored every one. So glad that this vinyl release finally set me straight. Great stoner doom metal, and it is a straight up crime that the die hard version of this is still available at Rise Above.