I’m proud to announce The Obelisk is now sponsored by the All That is Heavy webstore.

This has been a while in the making. Over the years I’ve had various people ask me about buying ads on the site and things like that. Coming from print media, it’s never been something I’ve wanted to do — in fact, part of the appeal of running a site like this is that I’ve never been beholden to outside companies or advertisers in the same way I was during my time in print.

I’ve known Dan Beland from All That is Heavy for nearly a decade, back to his days running StonerRock.com, as well as MeteorCity and of course All That is Heavy itself. He’s someone I’ve felt strongly about supporting in the past — there are numerous Buried Treasure posts dedicated to purchases made from his store — and I still find new bands from All That is Heavy, just as I’ve always done. He’s someone with a deep knowledge of the community he serves. Plus, in not dealing directly with a record label, it’s not like Dan is going to reach out to me and say, “Hey, I’ve got 50 new releases in the store this week and you need to review them all or I’m pulling my ad.” That’s just not the way this is going to work.

We run in the same sphere enough that of course there will be overlap between what I cover and what he carries — the partnership wouldn’t make any sense otherwise — but the editorial integrity of this site is paramount to me and I have it in writing from Dan that there will be no pressure toward anything in particular from that end. Truth is he doesn’t really have time for it and neither do I. We’re both one-man operations trying to make our day as productive as possible. To wit, he doesn’t know I’m putting this post up and I doubt very much he’d care either way if he did. In all likelihood, this will be the last time I post about it, but I thought you should know what was up.

You may have noticed the link at the top of the page that looks like this:

The Obelisk is proudly sponsored by All That is Heavy

Click through on that and you’ll get a code allowing you 15 percent off anything you order from All That is Heavy.

We’re on a six-month trial and either of us can back out at either time, so maybe this’ll last and maybe it won’t. I’ve always tried to do new things with The Obelisk. This is another extension of that, and like all the rest, we’ll see how it goes.

Thank you for your continued support and all the best,
JJ Koczan

A mere two weeks ago, I posted notice that the kind souls at the All That is Heavy webstore were having a mega-sale with discs and t-shirts at 25 and 50 percent off. I also confessed that I did this only after going in and solidifying my own purchase. Well, the box showed up Wednesday and I’ve been making my way through the goods ever since. Here’s what I picked up:

The Body, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
Paul Chain “The Improvisor,” Cosmic Wind
Church of Misery, The Second Coming (Diwphalanx reissue)
Leif Edling, The Black Heart of Candlemass
The Gates of Slumber, Villain, Villain
500 Ft. of Pipe, Dope Deal
500 Ft. of Pipe, The Electrifying Church of the New Light
Masters of Reality, Pine/Cross Dover (American version)
Mustasch, Parasite!
OJM, The Light Album
OJM, Under the Thunder
OJM, Volcano
Ponamero Sundown, Stonerized
Raging Slab, Raging Slab (2009 Rock Candy reissue)
Sgt. Sunshine, Black Hole
Sin of Angels, In the Grip of Despair

Stuff like the 500 Ft. of Pipe and Mustasch I’d had my eye on for a long time. The psyched-up Fu Manchu fuzz of the former has been a delight long awaited. With The Body, I felt like I was finally giving into the hype, but at the sale price, decided it was now or never. Ponamero Sundown I wanted to listen to again before reviewing the new one and couldn’t find my old sleeve promo — apparently I’ve never heard of YouTube — and Masters of Reality I bought solely for the different label name on the side of the disc. It’s not the first time I’ve done that with them.

OJM I wanted to backlog since reviewing Volcano, and I included Volcano too because I didn’t have a full copy. The Raging Slab I very much enjoyed last night after work, imagining what new wave/no wave New Yorkers must have thought of them busting out those songs in 1989 and seeing the old pictures of drummer Bob Pantella, now of The Atomic Bitchwax. Sgt. Sunshine‘s a little stranger than I expected, but still pretty cool, and listening to it now, I think I might’ve already owned this Sin of Angels CD.

The rest I haven’t gotten to yet, but it’s worth noting that even with the drastically slashed prices, Dan and Melanie — the above-noted kind souls — included a freebie in the form of Black Materia, by Black Materia, which is rife with Anathema-style sorrow and metallic melody, in addition to being a Final Fantasy reference. Dig it.

The sale’s still on, but I don’t know for how long or anything like that. Hopefully I’ll have time to recoup some funds for another round before it ends, but even if not, I think I did alright the first time. If you missed the link above, check out the list of goods here.

I admit it: I went in, filled a shopping cart full of sale items, and completed my purchase before posting this news. It was selfish of me, and all the more wrong because it was $200 directly from my savings account in a time when The Patient Mrs. and I are supposed to be living on austerity measures, but damn, 25 and 50 percent off at All That is Heavy is just too good to resist. Buried Treasure post to follow when the package arrives.

If you’ve already signed up for their mailing list, you saw this, but if not, here’s the news from All That is Heavy:

Howdy!

This is a quick update to let you know that we just launched our “Super Summer Fun Mega-Sale” this morning. This is by far OUR BIGGEST SALE EVER with well over 1500 items on sale for a massive 25% to 50% OFF!!! You’ve never seen so much good music (and t-shirts) at such low prices in your life!

Here are a few short notes about the sale:

** There are well over 1,500 CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, Posters and VINYL on sale for 25% to 50% OFF!

** We haven’t run a mega-sale like this in years and who knows when the next one will be?! NOW is your chance to get the most spectacular deals that we ever offer!

** Most of the 50% OFF items are full-on clearance items. Meaning they won’t be restocked once they’re sold out. We only have one or two or three copies of most of them as well, so act fast or miss out!

** If you wear a Small or XXL T-shirt then this sale will be a gold mine for you! All sizes S, M, L, XL, and XXL are represented in this sale but we have an especially large number of Smalls and XXLs on sale!

** Please spread the word. If you own a blog, website, Twitter account, etc., please announce this sale to your readers/followers! Thank you!

Check it out right here: http://www.allthatisheavy.com/sale.asp

Happy Shopping!
Fill your boots while you’ve got the chance!
Love, Dan & Melanie

In my seemingly-unending quest to purchase things with Electric Wizard logos on them, I recently fired up the intertubes and made my way to the venerable All That is Heavy webstore to pick up a Black Masses t-shirt. While I was there, shopping cart open, I figured I’d grab a couple other goodies as well, which was probably the right move (it always is), since the shirt didn’t fit anyway. Depressingly, that’s probably not the shirt’s fault.

Anyway, here’s the rest of what I got in the order, alphabetically:

Brutus, Brutus
Floodstain, Slave to the Self-Feeding Machine
Saint Vitus, Hallow’s Victim/The Walking Dead
Stoned Jesus, First Communion
Vibravoid, Burg Herzberg Festival 2010
Wo Fat, The Gathering Dark

There’s a couple clunkers in there. Although its title serves as an appropriate summation of how I felt about myself after the Electric Wizard shirt didn’t fit, the Floodstain album was a more metal than I was looking for in that lunk-headed moshing kind of way. Stoned Jesus sounded so much like Sleep they should be paying them royalties, but they have a song called “Red Wine,” they’re from the Ukraine and — for crying out loud — they’re called STONED JESUS! Charm goes a long way in my book.

Brutus were the first new band I found out about on the forums, and though I’ll probably always think of them first for that, their self-titled album on Transubstans also rules. “Swedish Lady,” dude. Wo Fat I got while the getting was good, and I had the bootleg CD of Hallow’s Victim/The Walking Dead, but couldn’t resist SST‘s recently-issued official version. It’s Saint Vitus. Sometimes it’s okay to have doubles.

Occasionally Vibravoid‘s studio work — though I like it — tends to meander more than it means to and get lost in itself (and thus get lost on me), so I grabbed their Burg Herzberg Festival 2010 at import price thinking it might be a little more grounded, and it was. The decade-spanning German psychedelic acid rockers/clothing outfitters open with a cover of The Beatles‘ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and work in some Strawberry Alarm Clock as well, so even though it cost me more than the t-shirt, I still feel like I came out on top.

Some you win, some you lose, but overall not a bad get. Money’s been tight lately, so this and the arrival of another long-awaited package (next BT post) should do much to hold my buying impulse in check for the time being. Okay, probably not, but that’s what I’ll tell myself while I debate bidding on Clutch promos on eBay.