Heavy Trip – Liquid Planet

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · January 13, 2025

Heavy Trip is a heavy psychedelic rock instrumental band from Vancouver, BC, Canada. The power trio consists of Cole Jandrisch on guitar, Cole Vibert on bass, and Ben Frith on drums. Their debut Self Titled album was released in 2020. The band’s latest sophomore album, entitled Liquid Planet, came out November 28th, 2024. The record was self released and contains four songs in forty one minutes.

Heavy Trip blew me away from the very first listen! I had no idea what to expect and to be honest, when I saw that each song was quite lengthy, I was a little skeptical. Not that there is anything wrong with long songs per se, but keeping my interest for the duration, that would be the challenge. Well, mission accomplished! I was totally engaged and locked in for the whole ride.

The title track “Liquid Planet” begins the album with the guitar riff starting things off. The bass and drums join right in and Heavy Trip sets the course with an avalanche of monstrous riffs and blistering psychedelic leads. “Liquid Planet” is a thirteen minute musical cascade of punishing Sabbath-esc riffing combined with Hendrix style freak out guitar leads. The dynamic rhythm section of bassist Cole Vibert and drummer Ben Frith cements a tight and solid foundation for Cole Jandrisch’s guitar-mageddon assault. His scorching leads and colossal riffing ebb and flow with the song in a natural formation. Vibert fills in the gaps eloquently with his rolling bass lines and lead bass attack on certain parts. Heavy Trip sounds improvisational and free in their execution but tightly deliberate and connected at the same time. The guitar leads are very adventurous and unconfined but the heavy stoner riffs are unyielding and compact. When combined together, “Liquid Planet” is an engrossing and compelling voyage of riff roaring menace and acid rocking recklessness.

The second track “Silversun” pounds right into the heavy rhythm and switches to a barreling doom riff with an escalation of leads. The song picks up the pace in an onslaught of driving distortion of compounding riffs and screaming solos. The music reminds me of a mix of early Atomic Bitchwax with the freak out leads akin to Ed Mundell, and The Mystick Krewe Of Clearlight, with their brutal and swampy riffing. A glorious combination indeed with two of the finest artists gelled into one organism.

“Astronaut” begins with penetrating bass, swirly guitars, and pounding drums. The song quickly up-tempos into another bombastic rhythm of brutal destruction. A merging of catatonic riffing with a fury of psychedelic squealing, “Astronaut” is a heavy hitter in all of its rocking glory. The excellent interplay of lead bass and guitar wankery is delightful and fascinating. The song flows into a cool bass break around the 5:30 mark and shifts into a slower doom passage that encapsulates into a thunderous beat down of riffs and shredding leads. The nine and a half minute track is chock full of glorious riff after riff and may actually cause head trauma if the listener is not careful. Again, a grand slam combo of Clearlight and the Bitchwax.

The fourth and final track is called “Mudd Red Moon”. The ten minute closure starts with a warm and fuzzy bass riff that transcends into a mountainous canyon of riffs and trippy leads. Around the 6:30 point, the bass guides the song into yet another dimension. The band is really jamming hard at this point and then dazzles back to the doom and sludge and meticulously fades it out with some distorted sounds of guitar noise and then abruptly stops.

Heavy Trip doesn’t let up at all on all four of these songs. Each one leaves me at the edge of my seat, trying to hold on and figure out where this trip is heading. I am completely blown away by this record and it really ignites my love for heavy instrumental riff rock music. This band caught me by surprise and I wish I had heard this last month. Liquid Planet would have surely landed on my top twenty list.