(((O))) Review: Yeah Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!! Vol. 2

It’s a hot Sunday evening, deep in the heart of Texas, at 100 degrees, mind you. Here I am, replaying the original BioShock on my XBOX Series S, which celebrates its 19th anniversary in 2026, with 2027 marking its 20th anniversary, while listening on my iPod touch to the second volume from Lee Dorrian’s label, Rise Above Records: Yeah Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!! It seemed like the first volume was just the beginning when it was originally released last year on March 21st.

It took me back to my review from August of last year, when I went back to discover hidden treasures that, as I mentioned in my review of the first volume, existed beyond Sabbath, Purple, and Zeppelin. I found obscure gems that were often under the radar, while also discovering the Esoteric label through Rare Bird, Julian’s Treatment, and Egg. Now, with the second volume, it seems Dorrian is delivering even more killer goods that you might want to take notice of.

As Austin Matthews mentions in the introduction liner notes, “We can say with some certainty, that the one thing that keeps us awake at night is the thought that such killer material may have long ago headed to the council dump.” These were bands whose recordings, despite their quality, were in-your-face and delivered the goods in a way that shows just how hard Lee and Austin have worked to find these unearthed bands. They were ahead of their time and flew under the radar during the 1970s, when heavy rock was still kicking and screaming like a mo-fo.

Presenting shuffling and blistering guitar and bass textures with a raunchy, garage-rock blues attitude, the return of B.O.M.B.’s ‘Like A Dreamer’ sounds, in its acetate quality, like a combination of the Edgar Broughton Band and Scottish underground band Writing on the Wall during their Power of the Picts era. The guitars roar out of the nightclubs in the heart of London with an ultimate forcefulness, reigning down massive terror that speaks of that swirling Vertigo-era sound.

The tribal, percussive late-’60s vibe and fuzztone Middle Eastern textures of Mind Exchange’s ‘Vale of Time’ put you in the heart of Ancient Egypt and among Native American tribes, feeling like something straight out of the Nuggets compilation. It’s ominous, surreal, and meditative, with some disturbing tones that’ll make you want to find out what in the hell is going on.

East Grinstead-based Grind goes for a morally and spiritually ascending attack, with a nod to The Attack’s ‘Mr. Pinnodmy’s Dilemma.’ Vocalist Steve Barber delivers a full-throated performance on ‘Revenge’ that sounds like it’s about to erupt. You can really hear elements of Iggy and the Stooges across their first two albums, as well as the original Alice Cooper band during the Love It to Death era. This was a time when the Detroit scene was rising and putting the hippies down with some heavy punches and plenty of heavy wah-wah improvisation, the kind of thing that would have made Hendrix stand in awe.

When you hear a name like Wicked Nun, you almost think it sounds like a Nunsploitation film, ranging from Häxan, Ken Russell’s The Devils to Abel Ferrara’s controversial 1981 classic Ms. 45. But this Kent-based group lends its own bluesy texture to ‘Love So Bad,’ combining train-chugging drums, prog-like organ work that speaks a little bit of The Nice, and a cat-and-mouse guitar solo that puts you right in the heart of the films I mentioned earlier.

Despite its quality, the fifth track by Fusion Farm, ‘The Keys to Hell’, walks straight into a marching occult atmosphere somewhere between Black Sabbath and Black Widow, right in the heart of their home country of Seaford in East Sussex. It’s proggy, filled with reverberating, menacing vocal effects, and, dare I say, a chant-like roar that will make you shit your pants 24/7. Oh yeah, Fusion Farm are no spring chickens when it comes to the occult.

Midland’s own Bonehead channels both Leaf Hound and Amon Düül II with ‘Free to Escape’. Brought together, and I might be wrong, through Led Zep’s own honourable Bonehead alumnus Robert Plant, who, according to Matthews, introduced guitarist Elmer O’Shea to Band of Joy vocalist and guitarist Paul Lockley, the band delivers a track that soars across the heavens. The doubled guitar improvisation in the midsection, combined with the stop-and-go interplay between bass and drums, gives the song a sense of movement as it goes up and down the spiral staircase and heads straight into Wolf City territory.

Next, we head to Southeast London with Peaceful Persuasion, which starts out moody before turning into a crunching, trippy, 12-bar, harder-edged blues-rock drive across the country on ‘Hoping to Be Someone Totally Different Tomorrow’. The band flips its attack with some hallucinogenic chorus effects that make your skin crawl. Meanwhile, the Canned Heat nod from the mysterious Good Knight behind ‘Loving Scream’, with piano, guitar, bass, and a revved-up ride across the country, remains a powerful composition that would be perfect for getting your headbanging on with this bad boy.

In West London, Joy takes the doom genre to a whole other level with its darker, folkier, slithering, and hypnotic approach on ‘Evil Woman’. It feels like she’s about to enter the clubs as people part like the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments, making way for the ruler and wicked queen to approach. She makes her citizens bow to her rule with an iron fist, while melodic yet sinister forces hit you right in the stomach.

Closing out the second volume is Devon-based Cat Iron. Listening to ‘You Know You’ve Been Wrong’ brings quite a bit of a nod to Black Widow, but its leading guitar solo, wah-wah chords, menacing bass walking across the mountains, and mellow drumbeats put you right in the thick of hard rock and Deep Purple’s In Rock era. It’s the kind of performance that would have made the MKII-era lineup stand in awe of what this band was doing behind closed doors.

With Nuggets and the Brown Acid series standing as excellent compilations in their own right, it seems that Yeah Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!! is becoming part of that same obscure family. What makes this series stand out, though, is the sense of discovery behind every track. You’re not simply listening to another collection of heavy songs; you’re hearing pieces of a musical history that could have easily disappeared.

That’s what makes this second volume such a fun listen. From the fuzz, blues, psychedelia, prog, garage rock, and early doom, there’s something here for anyone who wants to dig beyond the usual names of Sabbath, Purple, and Zeppelin. These are the kinds of recordings that make you wonder how some of these bands managed to remain hidden for so long.

Lee and Austin are our Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, digging through the archives and following every musical clue to uncover these forgotten treasures. If the first two volumes are any indication, the investigation is far from over. Here’s hoping there are many more lost recordings waiting in the vaults for another volume, because Yeah Man, It’s Bloody Heavy!! has proven that the underground history of heavy rock still has plenty of stories left to tell.