Still drawing upon my holy scripture of hardcore aggression and noise rock discordance, I have slowly been drawn into the fetid depths of Riff worship - the slower the better.

Elements of Doom are now apparent but with my needles in-the-red recording technique still favouring slabs of distortion rather than clarity or production, it is still lo-fi and rough as fuck.

All Hail The Riff!

"Tony Maim, colleague from a music blog Black Insect Laughter, some of you might know him by his band entitled Zeppheroin. Tony just released another self-recorded doom/noise/hardcore release. It's a Mad Max! Highly Recommended!"
ARCHIVE HATE blog

"There's something to be said about self-produced music...I don't know what that saying is, but let's just chalk it up to: "It's pretty damn impressive." Tony Maim, aka Zeppheroin, seems to have mastered his vision of do-it-yourself doom, and, on his latest EP, has taken the genre to a deep, dark place that truly displays the talents of the one-man band. Keeping it slow and riddled with riffs, Maim's project never veers off course and focuses in on near drone territory. Maim's gravelly vocals never try and overshadow the well-placed instrumentation or impressive shredding, and with each track clocking in around the 6- to 7-minute mark, Maim makes it abundantly clear that the music is what drives his passion for metal.
Ratcheting down the tempo from his past releases, Maim reveals the versatility of his song-writing and shows that nothing hits home quite like a crushing sound at a sluggish pace. Don't let the tech metal kids and breakdown-saturated, new school shit fool you, Maim is hear to tell you that if it is too slow, then you're too young."
RIDE WITH THE DEVIL blog


"Zeppheroin is a one man lo-fi, noise rock, punk, and hardcore band from London, UK who formed in 2011. Howl is Tony's latest three song offering, released via bandcamp on May 17th, 2013. On Howl, Zeppheroin have adapted more of a doom, sludge, and stoner rock approach, which really suit's Tony's sound well. On Howl, Tony offers up three songs of aggressive and noise rock tinged hardcore with a great doom/sludge/stoner rock undercurrent. Musically, Zeppheroin calls to mind bands such as Saviours and Ancient Sky channelled through bands like Doomriders. Great stuff, and it's great to see Tony continuing to experiment with his sound. Enjoy!"
ELEMENTARY REVOLT blog

"Zeppheroin is a one man band from London and I suppose there are distinct advantages to taking this approach to personnel, or lack thereof. For one thing, there’s no lobbying for a drastic change in direction when new influences take hold. Anything you want to do as a one man band, you just do it, best you can.
You walk down the street with your hands in your pockets, all alone. No one can help you. What you must do, must be done alone. You are doomed.

Zeppheroin began life as an industrial punk / post-rock project, with a Joy Division influence and Lennonesque elements with talk of “Working Class Messiah”s and such. One can’t help but smile when listening to Zeppheroin’s latest, it’s a departure to be sure. If you listen to Zeppheroin’s first offering, 2011’s ‘Atrocity Exhibition’, his next release, 2012’s ‘Naked Lunch’ and this latest EP, ‘Howl’, back to back to back, the picture that is painted is one of a risk taker.

You cross the street, it’s coming. You look both ways before crossing, doesn’t matter it’s on its way. You are doomed.

But to me, I can’t help but smile and think about the irresistibility and inevitability of doom. It’s inescapable. From his bandcamp page:

“Still drawing upon my holy scripture of hardcore aggression and noise rock discordance, I have slowly been drawn into the fetid depths of Riff worship - the slower the better.

Elements of Doom are now apparent but with my needles in-the-red recording technique still favouring slabs of distortion rather than clarity or production, it is still lo-fi and rough as fuck.

All Hail The Riff!”


That quote kind of sums it up and says it all right there, doesn’t it? Puts a smile on the face. ‘Howl’ is three songs long and 18 minutes wide, giving it more inches around the waist than the 16 minute hardcore tinged ‘Naked Lunch’s 7 songs combined. Maybe that’s the joy of doom right there. While we may be rushing around our whole lives in a techno punk nightmare, the doom allows us to slow things down and take our time. Somehow, when that happens, time itself slows and what time we have is more appreciated or at least put to better use.

You pick up a paper and it’s sprawled across every headline. It hangs over your head like the sword of Damocles. It wants to embrace you, fold you in its arms, and wrap around you like a shroud. Man, you are doomed!

Anyway, ‘Howl’s doomed approach is quite a ways away from ‘Atrocity Exhibition’. It seems like, once you get a taste of doom, there’s no going back. To Zeppheroin’s credit, he wears the patched denim of doom like a warrior born. Minor tweaking and adjustments to the vocals deliver a flawed but flawless doom vocal performance in a Wino or Karl Simon style. Opening track “Black Colossus” may very well have seen the one-man behind this band trade in his Grant Morrison comics for some Robert E. Howard paperbacks. Whatever he’s done to prepare for his first foray into howling doom, he’s done it well. For my money, this one and the last track, “Fabricated Heroism” really hit the mark.

But, in the end, you feel no embrace. You are all alone. The doom is a spectre and what you must do, must be done alone. After all, there’s only one thing to do when you are so doomed.

If what you’re looking for is something to innovate and push the genre into bold new directions, well keep searching. For those with a voracious appetite for all things slow and heavy, something that’s more than just a little bit out of the ordinary, then listen, feast your ears on this EP. I for one will be watching this band, to see what comes next.

In the end, nothing can save you. You are trapped in an endless vortex with no way out, save one. You can either doom or be doomed. You know what must be done. You must turn the tables and embrace the doom. "
TEMPLE OF PERDITION blog

"Black Insect Laughter produces a sapphire zephyr that brings screaming proclamation and howling dismay from a long forgotten gutter somewhere between madness and hysteria. It is the man behind this beautiful website that pulls the strings on his very own musical outlet that has been dubbed Zeppheroin. Which produces lo-fi doom with furious aggression and a staggering appetite to eat fire in Paradise Alley. Which sounds like the madman bum searching for carnal desire and unsavory lust for unspeakable truths that flusters the mind and boils the blood. Which drags itself through hopeless back streets and corridors filled with wailing despair and the loathsome charm of the failed and the doomed. Which can only truly be appreciated by those that have heard the pure hymn stemming from the gloomy underground and have seen the absolute heart of the riff, the rock and the poetry of life butchered out of their own bodies good to eat for a thousand years…"
Stoner HiVe blog

"Zeppheroin is a one man Noise/Punk/Rock/Hardcore Artist from London, UK.
Zeppheroin is the work of one twisted soul by the name of Tony. Who also happens to run the brilliant blog - Black Insect Laughter.
I originally featured this demented soul back in Sept 2012. Well Tony is back with his latest release - HOWL 3 songs totalling 18 fucked up minutes that only Tony can deliver.

His own description should tell you what to expect.
"Still drawing upon my holy scripture of hardcore aggression and noise rock discordance, I have slowly been drawn into the fetid depths of Riff worship - the slower the better.
Elements of Doom are now apparent but with my needles in-the-red recording technique still favouring slabs of distortion rather than clarity or production, it is still lo-fi and rough as fuck. "
All Hail The Riff!

Yeah this release is probably Tony's loudest work to date. And possibly his finest in my humble opinion. It has a great DIY edge to standout from the crowd.

Plus it's very loud from start to finish. You want loud crunching guitars and vocals to match well this is the release for you.

It's available to download on BandCamp Buy Now Deal. So if you like what you hear headover to Tony's blog for more great articles within the underground scene.

Excellent work as always Tony. Keep it up dude.
SLUDGELORD blog