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Gjenferd Premiere “Starless”; Self-Titled Debut out May 10

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on February 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

gjenferd starless

Norway’s heavy renaissance continues with the May 10 release of Gjenferd‘s self-titled debut on Apollon Records. To be sure, youth is on Gjenferd‘s side as they unfurl “Starless” (premiering below) as the first single from the upcoming six-track LP, but with hints in “High Octane” of upstanding countrymen heavy rock preservationists Spidergawd, a thread of organ running throughout that is more than just mix-filler or complementary happenstance following the guitar pattern, and what seems like a clear idea of the kind of band they want to be, it’s a noteworthy arrival for more than just the harmonies and ’70s-prog-classicism-gone-rockin’ in the culmination of “Restless Nights,” the sweeping chorus in “Burning Soil” or the way the lead guitar in “Beneath the Wave” surges to the fore ahead of the jammier reach (still plotted but maybe part-improv) in “All That Remains is Haze,” though certainly all of those help.

There’s vintage worship happening, but not enough to push aside the breadth of the Hans Uhre production or the mix/master by now-of-Enslaved‘s Iver Sandøy. That speaks to the idea of the band knowing what they’re about as noted above, and in terms of the actual listening experience, I think you can hear in the seven minutes of “Starless” how they take advantage of modern tonal largesse to coincide with their root melodicism. I don’t think anyone’s claiming to have invented space here or trying to pretend they’ve invented a wholly new style, but neither is there want of personality or freshness of approach in the songs. If I tell you ‘heads up’ on the record and invite you to dig into the single, know that I’m trying to make your day better and think there’s a good chance this’ll do it. A bit of Rhodes dreaminess is good for the soul anyhow.

Please enjoy:

gjenferd (Photo by Vegard Ekberg)

Gjenferd is a brand new band from Bergen (but formed in Kristiansand), Norway, inspired by heavy rock’s childhood when hammond organs and walls with guitar amplifiers dominated the stages. Long nights of lager, noise, obscure 70s records and rigging of way too heavy Fender Rhodes have resulted in an album that is a sonic explosion of tenacious and hard-hitting riffs, electric noise and idiotically catchy vocal harmonies.

On 1 March, the band will release the album’s first single “Starless”.

The band consists of members from, among others, Kryptograf, Edvard Borneo and Metusalem.

gjenferd self titledRecorded by: Hans Uhre
Mix and master by: Iver Sandøy
Artwork and layout: Robert Høyem
Recorded at Grisehuset (Odderøya)

Gjenferd er:
Vegard Bachmann Strand – Gitar og vokal
Jakob Særvoll – Keyboard og vokal
Samuel Robson Gardner – Bass
Sivert Kleiven Larsen – Trommer

Photo by Vegard Ekberg.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556612214668
https://www.instagram.com/gjenferdband/
https://gjenferdbergen.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bergenapollonrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/apollonrecords/
https://apollonrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://apollonrecords.no

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Quarterly Review: Spotlights, Kanaan, Doom Lab, Strange Horizon, Shem, Melt Motif, Margarita Witch Cult, Cloud of Souls, Hibernaut, Grin

Posted in Reviews on May 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-qr-summer-2020

Today is the last Quarterly Review day until July. I don’t know yet what shape that QR will take, whether 50 records, 100 records, 700 records or somewhere between. Depends on how the ongoing deluge of releases ebbs and flows as we head into summer. But if you count this and the other part of this Spring’s Quarterly Review, you get a total as of today of 120 releases covered, and considering the prior QR was just in January, and that one was another 100 records that’s a pretty insane amount of stuff for it being May 12.

And that’s basically the moral of the story, again. It’s a ton of stuff to encounter, hear, maybe live with if you’re lucky. I won’t make it a grand thing (I still have too much writing to do), but I hope you’ve found something cool in all this, and if not yet among the 210 albums thus far QR’ed in 2023, then maybe today’s your day as we hit the end of this round.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Spotlights, Alchemy for the Dead

Spotlights Alchemy for the Dead

There are not many boxes that Spotlights‘ fourth album and third for Ipecac, Alchemy for the Dead, leaves unticked. Thematic, musically expansive, finely crafted in its melody and with particular attention to mood as when the bassline joins then leaves behind the acoustic guitar as a preface to the big finish in the closing title-track, it is a consuming, ultra-modern take on heavy rock from the trio of bassist/guitarist/vocalist Sarah Quintero, guitarist/synthesist/vocalist Mario Quintero and drummer Chris Enriquez, substantial even before you get to the fact that its 47 minutes push LP format limits, it speaks emotionally in rhythm as much as the thoughtful vocal interplay on “Sunset Burial,” growing intense around a central chug of guitar for one of the album’s more brazenly metal stretches. Elsewhere, standout moments abound, whether it’s the channel-panned snare buried in the second verse of “Algorithmic,” the proggy moodshifting in “Repeat the Silence,” Spotlights becoming what Deftones wanted to be in the heavygaze of “The Alchemist,” drift meeting head-on crash in “Ballad in the Mirror,” which also rolls out a fuzz-tone riff of statistically significant proportion then finds room for a swell of airy guitar before dissipating into the next mellow verse circa 2:30, more crashes to come. With the synth/sax/big-riff-and-shout interplay at the center in “False Gods,” Alchemy for the Dead would seem to mark the arrival at where Spotlights have been heading all along: their own version of a heavy of everything.

Spotlights on Facebook

Ipecac Recordings website

 

Kanaan, Downpour

Kanaan Downpour

The mellotron in the title-track, surrounded by dense bass, fleet runs of scorch-prone guitar and resoundingly jazzy drumming, emphasizes the point: Kanaan are a band elevating heavy rock to their level. The Norwegian trio aren’t shy when it comes to riffing out, as they demonstrate in the Hedwig Mollestad collaboration on “Amazon” and intermittently throughout Downpour‘s closing pair of “Solaris Pt. 1” and “Solaris Pt. 2,” each topping seven minutes. But neither are they limited to a singular nodding expression. While still sounding young and energetic in a way that just can’t be imitated, Downpour boogies almost immediately on opener “Black Time Fuzz,” and is often heavy and grooving like a straightforward heavy rock record, but as that tambourine in “Orbit” shows, Kanaan are ready at a moment’s notice with a flourish of guitar, some key or synth element, or something else to distinguish their pieces and in the soundscaping of “Psunspot” (sic) and the scope they claim throughout side B, they remain one of Europe’s brightest hopes for a future in progressive heavy, sounding freer in their atmospheres and in the build of “Solaris Pt. 1” than they did even on 2021’s Earthbound (review here). There’s a reason just about every festival in Europe wants them to play. The proverbial band-on-fire.

Kanaan on Instagram

Jansen Records website

 

Doom Lab, Zen and the Art of Tone

Doom Lab Zen and the Art of Tone

Zen and the Art of Tone, perhaps unsurprisingly, sets itself to the task in its title as Anchorage, Alaska-based Doom Lab mastermind Leo Scheben guides the listener through mostly short-ish instrumental pieces based around guitar, sometimes ultra-fuzzed with a programmed beat behind as on “Whole-Tones on Tail” or the extra-raw 1:24 of “Motörvamp” or the subsequent “Sabotaging the Sabocracy,” a bit clearer at the outset with “X’d Out,” but the drive toward meditation is clear and allows for both the slower, more doomed reaches of closer “Traveling Through the Cosmos at Beyond the Speed of Light” and the playful elder-funk of “The Plot-Twist” or the bounce of “Lydia Ann.” All told, the 12 songs and 36 minutes of experimentation on offer will resonate with some more than others, but Scheben sounds like he’s starting a conversation here with “Mondays Suck it Big-Time” and “Psychic Vampires” and the real question is whether anyone will answer. Sometimes a project comes along that’s just on its own wavelength, finding its own place in the pastiche, and that’s where Doom Lab have been at since the outset, prolific as well as dedicated to exploration. I don’t know toward what it’s all leading, but not knowing is part of enjoying hearing it, and maybe that’s the zen of the whole thing to start with.

Doom Lab on YouTube

Doom Lab on Bandcamp

 

Strange Horizon, Skur 14

Strange Horizon Skur 14

Barely a year after making their full-length debut on Apollon with Beyond the Strange Horizon (review here), Bergen, Norway, traditionalists dig deeper into the proto-style roots of doom on their four-song second LP, Skur 14. Named after a rehearsal space complex (presumably where they rehearse) in their hometown, the album runs shortest-to-longest in bringing together Scandi-folk-rooted classic prog and heavy styles, but by the time they get to “Tusser Og Troll,” the 14:47 finale, one is less thinking about the past than the future in terms of sound. Acoustic guitar begins “The Road” ahead of the straight-ahead riff and post-punk vocals, while “Cursed and Cast Out” is both speedier in the verse and more open in the hook before shifting into rolls on the snare and more theatrical shove that, much to the band’s credit, they handle fluidly without sounding either ironically over the top or like goobers in any way other than how they want. With the seven-minute “Candles,” the procession is slower and more vintage in form, reminding a bit of Demon Head but following its own anthemic chorus into an extended solo section before side B is dedicated solely to the spread of “Tusser Og Troll,” which ends with an organic-feeling jam laced with effects. A strong second outing on a quick turnaround that shows clear progression — there’s nothing more to be asked of Skur 14.

Strange Horizon on Facebook

Apollon Records store

 

Shem, III

Shem III

Sure, the third album from Stuttgart drone-psych-jammers Shem — titled III, lest there be any doubt — starts off with its 16-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Paragate,” but given the context, it’s the second cut on side A, “Lamentum” (2:50), that most piqued my interest. It’s a fading in snippet of a progression, the drums steady, volume swells behind a strumming guitar, some vocal chanting as it moves through. Given the entrancing spaciousness of “Restlicht” (7:34) and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” (11:55), I didn’t expect much more than an interlude, and maybe it’s not intended to be, but that shorter piece does a lot in separating the long cut on III‘s first half from the two on the second, so serves a vital purpose. And in that, it represents III well, since even in “Restlicht,” there seems to be a plan unfolding, even if improvisation is a part of that. Bookending, “Paragate” is mellow when it isn’t congealing nebular gasses to make new stars, and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” finds itself in a wormhole wash of guitar while the ride cymbal tries to hold structural integrity together, the whole engine ending up kissing itself goodbye as it shifts from this dimension to one that, let’s be honest, is probably more exciting.

Shem on Bandcamp

Clostridium Records store

 

Melt Motif, Particles. Death Objective

melt motif particles death objective

You ever hear a band’s album and think maybe it worked out better than the band thought it would when they started making it? Like maybe they surprised even themselves? That was Melt Motif‘s 2022 debut, A White Horse Will Take You Home (review here). The heavy industrial outfit founded by Kenneth Rasmus Greve and legit-doesn’t-need-a-last-name vocalist Rakel are joined by Brazilian producer Joe Irente for the curiously punctuated 10-track follow-up, Particles. Death Objective, and though they don’t have the element of surprise on their side this time out (for themselves or listeners), Melt Motif as a trio do expand on what the first album accomplished, bringing ideas from electronic dance music, sultry post-rock and hard-landing beats — plus some particularly striking moments of weighted guitar — to bear such that “Warrior” and “I’m Gone” are assured in not needing to explode with aggression and even with all its ticks and pops, the penultimate “Abyss” is more about atmosphere than impact. “Fever” creates a wash and lurches slow and heavy following on from “Broken Floor” at the beginning, but in “Full Moon” it’s a techno party and “Never_Again” feels like experimentalist hip-hop, so if you thought the book was closed aesthetically on the project, the sophomore outing assures it very much is not. So much the better.

Melt Motif on Facebook

Apollon Records on Bandcamp

 

Margarita Witch Cult, Margarita Witch Cult

margarita witch cult self titled

As it begins with the telltale strut and maddening catchiness of “Diabolical Influence,” one might be tempted to think Birmingham’s Margarita Witch Cult are playing in Uncle Acid‘s sinister sandbox, but the two-minute fuzz-chug-punker burst of “Death Lurks at Every Turn” corrects this notion, and the rest of the UK trio’s nine-song/31-minute self-titled Heavy Psych Sounds affirms there’s more going on. “The Witchfinder Comes” is a classic Sabbath-worship roller with multi-tracked vocals — guitarist Scott Vincent is the only one listed on vocals, so might just be layering; Jim Thing is on bass and George Casual on drums — and “Be My Witch” is a lesson in how to make thickened fuzz move, but it’s the pointedly Motörheaded “Annihilation” (1:42) that most stands out, even with the likewise speedy shuffle of “Theme From Cyclops” (1:34) right behind it, the faster takeoff welcome to offset the midtempo home-base of the trio’s grooves. As to that, “Lord of the Flies” nestles itself into a comfortable tempo and resolves in a nod that it seems to have spent much of its five minutes building toward, a last run through the main riff more celebration than repetition ahead of the instrumental “Aradia,” which like “The Witchfinder Comes” featured on the band’s 2022 Witchfinder EP (review here), and the previously-issued single “Sacrifice,” which closes. Bottom line is they’ve got a righteous sound and their first album shows they know how to wield it. The smoke-filled sky is the limit from here. Hail next-gen stoner rock.

Margarita Witch Cult on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

Cloud of Souls, A Fate Decided

Cloud of Souls A Fate Decided

Trading between charred rasps and cleaner declarative singing, Indianapolis-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Chris Latta (The Skyspeakers, Lavaborne, ex-Spirit Division) guides the mostly-solo-project — Tucker Thomasson drums and plays lead guitar; not minimizing anyone’s contributions — Cloud of Souls through a tumultuous journey along the line between ancient-of-days doom and black metal, strident at times like Bathory, sometimes all-out ripping as on the earlier-Enslaved-style “Hiding from Human Eyes,” and growing deathlier on “Where Failure Dies” ahead of the closing title-track, which threatens to break out the razors at any moment but stays civilized in its doomly roll for the duration. Whatever else Latta accomplishes in this or any of his other outfits from here on out, he’ll always be able to say he put out a record with a centerpiece called “Time for Slaughter,” which isn’t nothing as regards artist achievements — the song taps pre-NWOBHM doom until it turns infernal in the middle — and while there’s clearly an aspect of self-awareness in what he’s doing, the exploration and the songwriting are put first such that A Fate Decided resounds with a love for the metal that birthed it while finding its own path to hopefully keep walking across future releases.

Cloud of Souls on Facebook

Cloud of Souls on Bandcamp

 

Hibernaut, Ingress

Hibernaut Ingress

When I tell you Hibernaut has three former members of Salt Lake City psych-blues rockers Dwellers in the lineup, just go ahead and put that expectation to the side for a minute. With guitarist Dave Jones stepping to the front as vocalist, Joey Toscano (also ex-Iota) moving from guitar/vocals to lead guitar, Zach Hatsis (also ex-SubRosa) on drums and Josh Dupree on bass, their full-length debut/first release of any sort, Ingress — recorded of course by Andy Patterson — has more in common with High on Fire and dirt-coated raw thrash than anything so lush, and at 11 songs and 74 minutes long, that will toward the unrestrained is multifaceted as well. There’s rock swagger to be had in “Magog” or the spinning riff of “Summoner,” but “Mines” has more Celtic Frost than Kyuss to it, and that isn’t a complaint. The material varies — at over an hour long, it fucking better — but whether it’s the double-kick rampage of “Kaleidoscope” or the furious takedown of “Lantern Eyed,” Hibernaut revel in an overarching nastiness of riff such that you might just end up scrunching your face without thinking about it. There’s room for a couple nods, in “Projection,” or “Aeons Entombed,” but the prevailing impression is meaner while remaining atmospheric. I like that I have no guess what they’ll do after this. I don’t like having to check autocorrect every time it replaces their name with ‘Hibernate.’ If only I had some gnasher heavy metal to help me vent that frustration. Oh wait.

Hibernaut on Instagram

Hibernaut on Bandcamp

 

Grin, Black Nothingness

GRIN BLACK NOTHINGNESS

For their Black Nothingness EP, Berlin-based DIY aficionados Grin — bassist Sabine Oberg and drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg — stripped their sound back to its most essential parts. Unlike 2022’s Phantom Knocks (review here) long-player, there’s no soundscaping, no guitar, no Hammond. There is low end. There are drums. There are growls and shouts and there are six tracks and none of them reaches three minutes in length. This ferocious display of efficiency counterintuitively underscores the breadth of Grin‘s approach, since as one band they feel unrestricted in terms of arrangements, and Black Nothingness — on their own The Lasting Dose Records imprint and recorded by Jan — benefits from the barebones construction in terms of sheer impact as heard on the rolling “Gatekeeper” before each ending measure of “Midnight Blue Sorrow” seems to leave a bruise, or even the opening semi-title-track “Nothingness” staking a claim on hardcore gangshout backing vocals for use pretty much anytime. “Talons” is less in-your-face with its violence, but the threat remains fervent and subsequent closer “Deathbringer” perfectly conveys that sense of exhaustion you have from when you’ve been so angry for so long that actually you’re just kind of sad about it. All this and more in about 12 minutes out of your busy and intensely frustrating life makes Black Nothingness one of 2023’s best short releases. Now rage, damnit.

Grin on Facebook

Grin on Bandcamp

 

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Quarterly Review: Yatra, Sula Bassana, Garden of Worm, Orthodox, Matus, Shrooms Circle, Goatriders, Arthur Brown, Green Sky Accident, Pure Land Stars

Posted in Reviews on September 19th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Oh hello. I didn’t see you there. What, this? Oh, this is just me hanging out about to review 100 records in 10 days’ time. Yup, it’s another double-wide Quarterly Review, and I’m telling myself that no, this isn’t just how life is now, that two full weeks of 10 reviews per day isn’t business as usual, but there’s an exceptional amount of music out there right now, and no, this isn’t even close to all of it. But I’m doing my best to keep up and this is what that looks like.

The bottom line is the same as always and I’ll give it to you up front and waste no more time: I hope you enjoy the music here and find something to love.

So let’s go.

Quarterly Review #01-10:

Yatra, Born into Chaos

yatra born into chaos

The partnership between Chesapeake extremists Yatra and producer Noel Mueller continues to bear fruit on the band’s fourth album and first for Prosthetic Records. Their descent from thick, nasty sludge into death metal is complete, and songs like “Terminate by the Sword” and “Terrorizer” have enough force behind them to become signature pieces. The trio of Dana Helmuth (guitar/vocals), Maria Geisbert (bass) and Sean Lafferty (drums, also Grave Bathers) have yet to sound so utterly ferocious, and as each of their offerings has pushed further into the tearing-flesh-like-paper and rot-stenched realms of metal, Born into Chaos brings the maddening intensity of “Wrath of the Warmaster” and the Incantation-worthy chug of closer “Tormentation,” with massive chug, twisting angularity and brain-melting blasts amid the unipolar throatripper screams from Helmuth (reminds at times of Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved), by now a familiar rasp that underscores the various violences taking place within the eight included tracks. I bet they get even meaner next time,. That’s just how Yatra do. But it’ll be a challenge.

Yatra on Facebook

Prosthetic Records store

 

Sula Bassana, Nostalgia

Sula Bassana Nostalgia

Part of the fun of a new Sula Bassana release is not knowing what you’re going to get, and Nostalgia, which is built from material recorded between 2013-’18 and finished between 2019-’21, is full of surprises. The heavy space grunge of lead cut “Real Life,” which along with its side A companion “We Will Make It” actually features vocals from Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt himself (!), is the first here but not the last. That song beefs up early Radiohead drudgery, and “We Will Make It” is like what happens when space rock actually gets to space, dark in a way but expansive and gorgeous. Side B is instrumental, but the mellotron in “Nostalgia” — how could a track called “Nostalgia” not have mellotron? — goes a long way in terms of atmosphere, and the 10-minute “Wurmloch” puts its well-schooled krautrockism to use amid melodic drone before the one-man-jam turns into a freakout rager (again: !), and the outright beautiful finisher “Mellotraum” turns modern heavy post-rock on its head, stays cohesive despite all the noise and haze and underscores the mastery Schmidt has developed in his last two decades of aural exploration. One wonders to what this sonic turn might lead timed so close to his departure from Electric Moon and building a Sula live band, but either way, more of this, please. Please.

Sula Bassana on Facebook

Sulatron Records store

 

Garden of Worm, Endless Garden

Garden of Worm Endless Garden

Continuing a streak of working with highly-respected imprints, Finland’s Garden of Worm release their third album, the eight-song/43-minute Endless Garden, through Nasoni Records after two prior LPs through Shadow Kingdom and Svart, respectively. There have been lineup changes since 2015’s Idle Stones (review here), but the band’s classically progressive aspects have never shone through more. The patient unfolding of “White Ship” alone is evidence for this, never mind everything else that surrounds, and though the earlier “Name of Lost Love” and the closer “In the Absence of Memory” nod to vintage doom and the nine-minute penultimate “Sleepy Trees” basks in a raw, mellow Floydian melody, the core of the Tampere outfit remains their unpredictability and the fact that you never quite know where you’re going until you’re there. Looking at you, “Autumn Song,” with that extended flute-or-what-ever-it-is intro before the multi-layered folk-doom vocal kicks in. For over a decade now, Garden of Worm have been a well kept secret, and honestly, that kind of works for the vibe they cast here; like you were walking through the forest and stumbled into another world. Good luck getting back.

Garden of Worm on Facebook

Nasoni Records site

 

Orthodox, Proceed

orthodox proceed

Untethered by genre and as unorthodox as ever, Sevilla, Spain, weirdo doom heroes Orthodox return with Proceed after four years in the ether, and the output is duly dug into its own reality of ritualism born more of creation than horror-worship across the six included songs. “Arendrot” carries some shade from past dronings, and certainly the opener before it is oddball enough, with its angular riffing and later, Iberian-folk-derived solo, but there’s a straigter-forward aspect to Proceed as well, the vocals lending a character of noise rock and less outwardly experimentalist fare. “Rabid God” brings that forward with due intensity before the hi-hat-shimmy-meets-cave-lumber-doom “Starve” and the lurching/ambient doomjazz “The Son, the Sword, the Bread” set up the 10-minute closer “The Long Defeat,” which assures the discomforted that at least at some point when they were kids Orthodox listened to metal. Righteously individual, their work isn’t for everyone, and it’s by no means free of indulgence, but in 42 minutes, Orthodox once again stretch the limits of what doom means in a way that most bands wouldn’t dare even if they wanted to, and if you can’t respect that, then I’ve got nothing for you.

Orthodox on Facebook

Alone Records store

 

Matus, Espejismos II

Matus Espejismos II

Fifty years from now, some brave archivalist soul is going to reissue the entire catalog of Lima, Peru’s Matus and blow minds far and wide. A follow-up to 2013’s Espejismos (review here), Espejismos II brings theremin-laced vintage Sabbath rock vibes across its early movements, going so far as to present “Umbral / Niebla de Neón” in mono, while the minute-and-a-half-long “Los Ojos de Vermargar (Early Version)” is pure fuzz and the organ-laced “Hada Morgana (Early Instrumental Mix)” — that and “Umbra; / Niebla de Neón” appeared in ‘finished versions on 2015’s Claroscuro (review here); “Summerland” dates back to 2010’s M​á​s Allá Del Sol Poniente (review here), so yes, time has lost all meaning — moves into the handclap-and-maybe-farfisa-organ “Canción para Nuada,” one of several remixes with rerecorded drums. “Rocky Black” is an experiment in sound collage, and “Misquamacus” blends acoustic intricacy and distorted threat, while capper “Adiós Afallenau (Version)” returns the theremin for a two-minute walk before letting go to a long stretch of silence and some secret-track-style closing cymbals. The best thing you can do with Matus is just listen. It’s its own thing, it always has been, and the experimental edge brought to classic heavy rock is best taken on with as open a mind as possible. Let it go where it wants to go and the rewards will be plenty. And maybe in another five decades everyone will get it.

Matus on Facebook

Espíritus Inmundos on Facebook

 

Shrooms Circle, The Constant Descent

Shrooms Circle The Constant Descent

Offset by interludes like the classical-minded “Aversion” or the bass-led “Reprobation,” or even the build-up intro “S.Z.,” the ritual doom nod of Swiss five-piece Shrooms Circle‘s The Constant Descent is made all the more vital through the various keys at work across its span, whether it’s organ or mellotron amid the lumbering weight of the riffs. “Perpetual Decay” and its companion interlude “Amorphous” dare a bit of beauty, and that goes far in adding context and scope to the already massive sounding “The Unreachable Spiral” and the subtle vocal layering in “The Constant Descent.” Someone in this band likes early Type O Negative, and that’s just fine. Perhaps most of all, the 11-song/48-minute The Constant Descent is dynamic enough so that no matter where a given song starts, the listener doesn’t immediately know where it’s going to end up, and taking that in combination with the command shown throughout “Demotion,” “Perpetual Decay,” the eight-minute “Core Breakdown” and the another-step-huger finale “Stagnant Tide,” Shrooms Circle‘s second album offers atmosphere and craft not geared toward hooking the audience with catchy songwriting so much as immersing them in the mood and murk in which the band seem to reside. If Coven happened for the first time today, they might sound like this.

Shrooms Circle on Facebook

DHU Records store

 

Goatriders, Traveler

Goatriders Traveler

I’m gonna tell you straight out: Don’t write this shit off because Goatriders is a goofy band name or because the cover art for their second album, Traveler, is #vanlife carrot gnomes listening to a tape player on a hillside (which is awesome, by the way). There’s more going on with the Linköping four-piece than the superficialities make it seem. “Unscathed” imagines what might have happened if Stubb and Hexvssel crossed paths on that same hill, and the album careens back and forth smoothly between longer and shorter pieces across 50 engrossing minutes; nature-worshiping, low-key dooming and subtly genre-melding all the while. Then they go garage on “The Garden,” the album seeming to get rawer in tone as it proceeds toward “Witches Walk” and the a capella finish in “Coven,” which even that they can’t resist blowing out at the end. With the hypnotic tom work and repeat riffing of the instrumental “Elephant Bird” at its center and the shouted culminations of “Goat Head Nebula” and “Unscathed,” the urgent ritualizing of “Snakemother” and the deceptive poise at the outset with “Atomic Sunlight,” Traveler finds truth in its off-kilter presentation. You don’t get Ozium, Majestic Mountain and Evil Noise on board by accident. Familiar as it is and drawing from multiple sides, I’m hard-pressed to think of someone doing exactly what Goatriders do, and that should be taken as a compliment.

Goatriders on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Evil Noise Recordings store

Ozium Records store

 

Arthur Brown, Long Long Road

Arthur Brown Long Long Road

At the tender age of 80, bizarrist legend Arthur Brown — the god of hellfire, as the cover art immediately reminds — presents Long Long Road to a new generation of listeners. His first album under his own name in a decade — The Crazy World of Arthur Brown released Gypsy Voodoo (can you still say that?) in 2019 — and written and performed in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Rik Patten, songs like “Going Down” revisit classic pageantry in organ and horns and the righteous lyrical proclamations of the man himself, while “I Like Games” toys with blues vibes in slide acoustic, kick drum thud and harmonica sleazenanigans, while the organ-and-electric “The Blues and Messing Round” studs with class and “Long Long Road” reminds that “The future’s open/The past is due/In this moment/Where everything that comes is new,” a hopeful message before “Once I Had Illusions (Part 2)” picks up where its earlier companion-piece left off in a manner that’s both lush and contemplative, more than a showpiece for Brown‘s storytelling and still somehow that. His legacy will forever be tied to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown‘s late-1960s freakery, but Long Long Road is the work of an undimmed creative spirit and still bolder than 90 percent of rock bands will ever dare to be.

Arthur Brown on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

Prophecy Productions store

 

Green Sky Accident, Daytime TV

Green Sky Accident Daytime TV

Ultimately, whether one ends up calling Green Sky Accident‘s Daytime TV progressive psychedelia, heavier post-rock or some other carved-out microgenre, the reality of the 10-song/50-minute Apollon Records release is intricate enough to justify the designation. Richly melodic and unafraid to shimmer brightly, cuts like “Point of No Return” and the later dancer “Finding Failure” are sweet in mood and free largely of the pretense of indie rock, though “Insert Coin” and the penultimate piano interlude “Lid” are certainly well dug-in, but “Sensible Scenes,” opener “Faded Memories,” closer “While We Lasted” and the ending of “Screams at Night” aren’t lacking either for movement or tonal presence, and that results in an impression more about range underscored by songwriting and melody than any kind of tonal or stylistic showcase. The Bergen, Norway, four-piece are, in other words, on their own trip. And as much float as they bring forth, “In Vain” reimagines heavy metal as a brightly expressive terrestrial entity, a thing to be made and remade according to the band’s own purpose for it, and the title-track similarly balances intensity with a soothing affect. I guess this is what alt rock sounds like in 2022. Could be far worse, and indeed, it presents an ‘other’ vision from the bulk of what surrounds it even in an underground milieu. On a personal level, I can’t decide if I like it, and I kind of like that about it.

Green Sky Accident on Facebook

Apollon Records store

 

Pure Land Stars, Trembling Under the Spectral Bodies

Pure Land Stars Trembling Under the Spectral Bodies

With members of Cali psych-of-all explorers White Manna at their core, Pure Land Stars begin a series called ‘Altered States’ that’s a collaboration between Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz Records, and if you’re thinking that that’s going to mean it’s way far out there, you’re probably not thinking far enough. Kosmiche drones and ambient foreboding in “Flotsam” and “3rd Grace” make the acoustic strum of “Mountains are Mountains” seem like a terrestrial touch-down, while “Chime the Kettle” portrays a semi-industrial nature-worship jazz, and “Jetsam” unfolds like a sunrise but if the sun suddenly came up one day and was blue. “Lavendar Crowd” (sic) turns the experimentalism percussive, but it’s that experimentalism at the project’s core, whether that’s manifest in the nigh-on-cinematic “Dr. Hillarious” (sic) or the engulf-you-now eight-minute closer “Eyes Like a Green Ceiling,” which is about as far from the keyboardy kratrock of “Flotsam” as the guitar effects and improvised sounding soloing of “Jetsam” a few tracks earlier. Cohesive? Sure. But in its own dimension. I don’t know if Pure Land Stars is a ‘band’ or a one-off, but they give ‘Altered States’ a rousing start that more than lives up to the name. Take a breath first. Maybe a drink of water. Then dive in.

Pure Land Stars on Bandcamp

Centripetal Force Records store

Cardinal Fuzz Records store

 

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Friday Full-Length: Kryptograf, Kryptograf

Posted in Bootleg Theater on August 12th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Released through Apollon Records amid the anxious hopelessness of June 2020, Kryptograf‘s self-titled debut was and is a deceptively complex outing. It runs a straightforward-enough eight songs and 38 minutes, and on its surface it’s something one would hear starting out with “The Veil” and probably classify the Norwegian four-piece as vintage-minded heavy rock and consider the matter settled. “The Veil” is among the clearest expressions of its own intentions in its new-generation-coming-up interpretations of earliest Witchcraft and Graveyard, but even in that song’s bridge riff, there are shades of doom, and later on, the easy plot essentially gets thrown out the window in favor of a tambourine-laced frenzy solo shove, loosely Graveyard-informed, but more raucous in Eirik Arntsen‘s (also vocals) cymbal work and more definitively fuzzed in the guitars of Vegard Strans and Odd Erlend Mikkelsen (both also vocals). Oh, and by the way, it’s also only about three minutes long.

And yeah, on paper that’s a tempo change, but like in (conceptual more than sonic, but a bit of that too, naturally) Sabbathian tradition, the tempo change does more for the song in the actual listening experience, informing subtly that one song isn’t necessarily going to be one thing, and as Eivind Standal Moen‘s bassline introduces “Omen,” the outward procession creeps forward with now-via-then flourish, reminding distinctly of Copenhagen’s Demon Head on the six-minute track as they proto-doom roll and nod their way toward the nine-minute “Seven.” There are a couple genuine twists as the Bergen-based unit move through their first record, and “Seven” is well placed as one of them. The only way it might work more to shift the listener’s expectation is if they’d put it as the opener instead of “The Veil,” but it gets the job done in contrasting that and “Omen” just fine, and unfurls with flourish born of a yet-unrevealed heavy psychedelic underpinning.

There are flashes of prog as well — largely unavoidable anytime you’re breaking out a mellotron — but the keys and guitars mesh together with a fluidity that hints toward the jam to come, and the band depart earth’s atmosphere with little fanfare and much hypnotic guitar work, spanning channels here and there while the drums and bass join the freakout, gradually parachuting back into the more structured riffing. The effect the departure has is to make the rest of thekryptograf kryptograf song feel more open, and as it pushes to the finish, the residual resonance carries over into the ’70s-future-synth that begins “Crimson Horizon,” a still-far-out atmosphere soon crashing into an earthy riff and one of Kryptograf‘s most memorable progressions, a purposeful regrounding on the part of the band that pins down the multifaceted nature of their craft. They can be both these things on their debut, and more besides, since the steady nod and lush vocal melody of “Crimson Horizon” — like a mellower take on modern stoner riffing — leads into the more garage-doom, post-Uncle Acid harmonized hook of “Sleeper,” which is a standout for the album as a whole with its chorus and vague air of danger.

The depth of vocal arrangements is something Kryptograf continued to explore earlier this year on their second album, The Eldorado Spell (review here), but it remains one of an apparent multitude of stylistic assets at their disposal, and as impressive as the playout of “Sleeper” is, it’s not by any means a full summary of the band’s strengths then or now. One could probably fill another post entirely with flowery (floury, if you’re thinking of it as baking bread, which I’m not; carbs) descriptions of the progression of material across side B of this self-titled, with “Crimson Horizon” acting as an album-leadoff-worthy introduction before its upbeat swing or the clarion stretch of standalone guitar that rises out of the crash circa four minutes in, reaffirming the groove they’ll ride to the song’s finish and the start of “Sleeper,” etc., but even in that regard, distinguishing side B from A, the last three tracks of the Kryptograf seem to have a mission of their own. “Ocean” begins with contemplative acoustic strum, Zeppelin-ish, but only because they made it shimmer, and a watery layer of vocals accompanying, taking cues more from the prog rock that took hold after Floyd than from Floyd themselves while lasting only 2:40, the shortest of the song-songs on the record.

In terms of value to the overarching listening experience of the album, “Ocean” and its placement in the tracklisting shouldn’t be discounted just because “Seven” is more than three times as long. The effect of giving the audience a chance to breathe, appreciate what’s just taken place across “Crimson Horizon” and “Sleeper,” while getting set up for “New Colossus” still to come, is crucial. Further, it claims an entire unplugged sonic spectrum as fair game for Kryptograf‘s future work — a notion the band wouldn’t wait long to pay off on opener “Asphodel” from The Eldorado Spell — and offers another avenue through which their longer term growth may or may not manifest. That doesn’t mean they have to do an entire unplugged release at any point however long their tenure may go, but if they wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to call it unprecedented.

But “Ocean” further works alongside the instrumental outro “∞ (Infinite)” to surround “New Colossus” and give that penultimate inclusion a presentation that feels duly earned by its marching early fuzz riff, spacious vocal melody — reminds me of Acid King, if faster — and cymbal-crashing proto-burl groove later as the band touches a bit on a Sleepy nod delivering the title-line, builds and crescendos in a tidy sub-five-minute course. The hums and psychedelic ambience of “∞ (Infinite)” afterward feel like and likely are an afterthought — and actually, if one discounts “∞ (Infinite),” it makes “Crimson Horizon” the centerpiece, which kind of makes sense in terms of how the record plays out front-to-back — but the subdued ending further adds to the scope of Kryptograf‘s Kryptograf, and presages future exploration that, two years later, is already underway.

Throughout this year and probably next and the one after and for however long I keep this site going, I’ve been going back and digging into albums that, because I apparently spent the whole year in a bunker, I didn’t get to review at the time. Kryptograf‘s self-titled was something I kept feeling like I needed to be writing about right up until the second LP was announced. I’ll say sincerely that having now dug into it thusly, I feel like a weight has been lifted. Fortunately I know a god record to put on for that kind of party.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

Alarm went off at four, kid up at five. I woke up without any real sense of how today was going to go, which is far from a personal preference. To a certain extent, every day brings some invariable degree of chaos, today just more. Family stuff. A lot of it. This afternoon. I’m told it involves bowling.

I could use a shower that lasts as long as I’m thinking watching The Pecan bumper-bowl through however many frames will go, but it’s been a couple days and I’ll settle for whatever I can get. Summer of Pivot. I have pivoted to stink.

Ups and downs the week, usually within like 25 seconds of each other. I’ve informed The Pecan that I’m leaving next week for a few days — that’s Psycho Las Vegas, which I’ll be covering in my addled, harried fashion — and that he’ll be on his own taking care of mommy. He pretty much expresses any emotion, positive or negative, through some manner of violence right now, whether it’s pinching, punching, kicking, headbutting, biting, pushing, etc., so how he actually feels about me going is anyone’s best guess, but I’d say probably he’s less than pleased. Coming home from Freak Valley in June was a fucking disaster, on every level emotional and practical. I’m hoping this goes smoother but not holding my breath.

Precisely the same thing might be said of living into 2023 and beyond.

Speaking of the things we do to survive, I guess going without the antidepressants is going okay? Not great? Not terrible? It’s kind of just life, which is how I think it should feel about a week out from stopping the daily pills. I talked about this last week if you’ve no idea where it’s coming from. I haven’t been crying — except at that one episode of Bluey where Chili’s sister is infertile; that one sure hit home — which last time I tried to go off meds I definitely spent a good portion of the time doing, so that feels like a win. I haven’t really stopped moving this week either though, so maybe that’s part of it.

I don’t know. I’ll keep plugging along and see where I end up. This week was a week. Today has for the last nine hours been and will continue to be a day. The weekend will be a weekend. None of it will be easy, and hopefully none of it will be harder than it should be.

Are these the best days of my life?

I don’t know. Sometimes I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by so much love and other times I want nothing so much as to veer into oncoming traffic. It’s cool though, I hear there are pills for that. Ha.

Gimme show next week. Psycho Las Vegas coverage next week. Before I go, premieres for Howling Wolves, Faith in Jane, Electric Hydra and a full stream and review (I call them ‘fullies’ but only to myself because no one else in my day-to-day gives even the remotest of shits) for the All Souls/Fatso Jetson live split. If you want a preview of that, All Souls already snuck their portion up on Bandcamp. I don’t even care, I’m just happy to have the excuse to write about the bands.

That last will be up Thursday, which is also the start of Psycho, so there you go. I fly back the Monday after. Early, I think, but not as early as I’ll fly back from Høstsabbat in Oslo this October, which I’m already very, very much looking forward to attending as well. That one’s a to-the-airport-right-after-the-show kind of situation. Can always sleep at the gate if need be, and I suspect it will.

But I’m getting off track. Shower now, bowling after? Fun fact about me: I’m the worst bowler in the world. Even with bumpers. I’d be amazed if The Pecan, at four and a half, didn’t whoop my ass in bowling. Good. He could use a win and if I’m gonna lose anyway, it might as well be to him.

Or maybe I just won’t bowl and will spend my time on little-dude-management, which as I may or may not have effectively conveyed in the last four-plus years, is a full-time gig.

Thanks for reading. Great and safe weekend, whatever you might be up to. Hydrate, watch your head, shower when you can. Back on Monday.

FRM.

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Quarterly Review: MWWB, Righteous Fool, Seven Nines and Tens, T.G. Olson, Freebase Hyperspace, Melt Motif, Tenebra, Doom Lab, White Fuzzy Bloodbath, Secret Iris

Posted in Reviews on July 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

I don’t know what day it is. The holiday here in the States has me all screwed up. I know it’s not the weekend anymore because I’m posting today, but really, if this is for Tuesday or Wednesday, I’m kind of at a loss. What I do know is that it’s 10 more records, and some quick math at the “71-80” below — which, yes, I put there ahead of time when I set up the back end of these posts so hopefully I don’t screw it up; it’s a whole fucking process; never ask me about it unless you want to be so bored at by the telling that your eyeballs explode — tells me today Wednesday, so I guess I figured it out. Hoo-ray.

Three quarters of the way through, which feels reasonably fancy. And today’s a good one, too. I hope as always that you find something you dig. Now that I know what day it is, I’m ready to start.

Quarterly Review #71-80:

MWWB, The Harvest

MWWB The Harvest

It’s difficult to separate MWWB‘s The Harvest from the fact that it might be the Welsh act’s final release, as frontwoman Jessica Ball explained here. Their synth-laced cosmic doom certainly deserves to keep going if it can, but on the chance not, The Harvest suitably reaps the fruit of the progression the band began to undertake with 2015’s Nachthexen (review here), their songs spacious despite the weight of their tones and atmospheric even at their most dense. Proggy instrumental explorations like “Let’s Send These Bastards Whence They Came” and “Interstellar Wrecking” and the semi-industrial, vocals-also-part-of-the-ambience “Betrayal” surround the largesse of the title-track, “Logic Bomb,” the especially lumbering “Strontium,” and so on, and “Moon Rise” caps with four and a half minutes of voice-over-guitar-and-keys atmospherics, managing to be heavy even without any of the usual trappings thereof. If this is it, what a run they had, both when they were Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard and with this as their potential swansong.

MWWB on Facebook

New Heavy Sounds website

 

Righteous Fool, Righteous Fool

Righteous Fool Righteous Fool

Look. Maybe it’s a fan-piece, but screw it, I’m a fan. And as someone who liked the second run of Corrosion of Conformity‘s Animosity-era lineup, this previously-unreleased LP from the three-piece that included C.O.C. bassist/vocalist Mike Dean and drummer/vocalist Reed Mullin (R.I.P.), as well as guitarist/vocalist Jason Browning, is only welcome. I remember when they put out the single on Southern Lord in 2010, you couldn’t really get a sense of what the band was about, but there’s so much groove in these songs — I’m looking right at you, “Hard Time Killing Floor” — that it’s that much more of a bummer the three-piece didn’t do anything else. Of course, Mullin rejoining Dean in C.O.C. wasn’t a hardship either, but especially in the aftermath of his death last year, it’s bittersweet to hear his performances on these songs and a collection of tracks that have lost none of their edge for the decade-plus they’ve sat on a shelf or hard drive somewhere. Call it a footnote if you want, but the songs stand on their own merits, and if you’re going to tell me you’ve never wanted to hear Dean sing “The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown),” then I think you and I are just done speaking for right now.

Righteous Fool on Facebook

Ripple Music website

 

Seven Nines and Tens, Over Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers

seven nines and tens over opiated in a forest of whispering speakers

I agree, it’s a very long album title. And the band name is kind of opaque in a kind of opaque way. Double-O-paque. And the art by Ahmed Emad Eldin (Pink Floyd, etc.) is weird. All of this is true. But I’m going to step outside the usual review language here, and instead of talking about how Vancouver post-noise rock trio Seven Nines and Tens explore new melodic and atmospheric reaches while still crushing your rib cage on their first record for the e’er tastemaking Willowtip label, I’m just going to tell you listen. Really. That’s it. If you consider yourself someone with an open mind for music that is progressive in its artistic substance without conforming necessarily to genre, or if you’re somebody who feels like heavy music is tired and can’t connect to the figurative soul, just press play on the Bandcamp embed and see where you end up on the other side of Over Opiated in a Forest of Whispering Speakers‘ 37 minutes. Even if it doesn’t change your life, shaking you to your very core and giving you a new appreciation for what can be done on a level of craft in music that’s still somehow extreme, just let it run and then take a breath afterward, maybe get a drink of water, and take a minute to process. I wrote some more about the album here if you want the flowery whathaveyou, but really, don’t bother clicking that link. Just listen to the music. That’s all you need.

Seven Nines & Tens on Facebook

Willowtip Records website

 

T.G. Olson, II

TG Olson II

In March 2021, T.G. Olson, best known as the founding guitarist/vocalist for Across Tundras, released a self-titled solo album (review here). He’s had a slew of offerings out since — as he will; Olson is impossible to keep up with but one does one’s best — but II would seem to be a direct follow-up to that full-length’s declarative purpose, continuing and refining the sometimes-experimentalist, sometimes purposefully traditional folk songwriting and self-recording exploration Olson began (publicly, at least) a decade ago. Several of II‘s cuts feature contributions from Caleb R.K. Williams, but Olson‘s ability to build a depth of mix — consider the far-back harmonica in “Twice Gone” and any number of other flourishes throughout — is there regardless, and his voice is as definitively human as ever, wrought with a spirit of Americana and a wistfulness for a West that was wild not for its guns but the buffalo herds you could see from space and an emotionalism that makes the lyrics of “Saddled” seem all the more personal, whether or not they are, or the lines in “Enough Rope” that go, “Always been a bit of a misanthrope/Never had a healthy way to cope,” and don’t seem to realize that the song itself is the coping.

Electric Relics Records on Bandcamp

 

Freebase Hyperspace, Planet High

Freebase Hyperspace Planet High

Issued on limited blue vinyl through StoneFly Records, Freebase Hyperspace‘s first full-length, Planet High, is much more clearheaded in its delivery than the band would seem to want you to think. Sure, it’s got its cosmic echo in the guitar and the vocals and so on, but beneath that are solidified grooves shuffling, boogieing and underscoring even the solo-fueled jam-outs on “Golden Path” and “Introversion” with a thick, don’t-worry-we-got-this vibe. The band is comprised of vocalist Ayrian Quick, guitarist Justin Acevedo, bassist Stephen Moore and drummer Peter Hurd, and they answer 2018’s Activation Immediate not quite immediately but with fervent hooks and a resonant sense of motion. It’s from Portland, and it’s a party, but Planet High upends expectation in its bluesy vocals, in its moments of drift and in the fact that “Cat Dabs” — whatever that means, I don’t even want to look it up — is an actual song rather than a mess of cult stoner idolatries, emphasizing the niche being explored. And just because it bears mentioning, heavy rock is really, really white. More BIPOC and diversity across the board only makes the genre richer. But even those more general concerns aside, this one’s a stomper.

Freebase Hyperspace on Facebook

StoneFly Records store

 

Melt Motif, A White Horse Will Take You Home

Melt Motif A White Horse Will Take You Home

Not calling out other reviews (they exist; I haven’t read any), but any writeup about Melt Motif‘s debut album, A White Horse Will Take You Home, that doesn’t include the word “sultry” is missing something. Deeply moody on “Sleep” and the experimental-sounding “Black Hole” and occasionally delving into that highly-processed ’90s guitar sound that’s still got people working off inspiration from Nine Inch NailsThe Downward Spiral even if they don’t know it — see the chugs of “Mine” and “Andalusian Dog” for clear examples — the nine-track/37-minute LP nonetheless oozes sex across its span, such that even the sci-fi finale “Random Access Memory” holds to the theme. The band span’s from São Paulo, Brazil, to Bergen, Norway, and is driven by Rakel‘s vocals, Kenneth Rasmus Greve‘s guitar, synth and programming, and Joe Irente‘s bass, guitar, more synth and more programming. Together, they are modern industrial/electrionica in scope, the record almost goth in its theatrical pruning, and there’s some of the focus on tonal heft that one finds in others of the trio’s ilk, but Melt Motif use slower pacing and harder impacts as just more toys to be played with, and thus the album is deeply, repeatedly listenable, the clever pop structures and the clarity of the production working as the bed on which the entirety lays in waiting repose for those who’d take it on.

Melt Motif on Facebook

Apollon Records on Bandcamp

 

Tenebra, Moongazer

tenebra moongazer

Moongazer is the second full-length from Bologna, Italy-based heavy psychedelic blues rockers Tenebra, and a strong current of vintage heavy rock runs through it that’s met head-on by the fullness of the production, by which I mean that “Cracked Path” both reminds of Rainbow — yeah that’s right — and doesn’t sound like it’s pretending it’s 1973. Or 1993, for that matter. Brash and raucous on its face, the nine-song outing proves schooled in both current and classic heavy, and though “Winds of Change” isn’t a Scorpions cover, its quieter take still offers a chance for the band to showcase the voice of Silvia, whose throaty, push-it-out delivery becomes a central focus of the songs, be it the Iommic roll of “Black Lace” or the shuffling closer “Moon Maiden,” which boasts a guest appearance from Screaming TreesGary Lee Conner, or the prior “Dark and Distant Sky,” which indeed brings the dark up front and the distance in its second, more psych-leaning second half. All of this rounds out to a sound more geared toward groove than innovation, but which satisfies in that regard from the opening guitar figure of “Heavy Crusher” onward, a quick nod to desert rock there en route to broader landscapes.

Tenebra on Facebook

New Heavy Sounds website

Seeing Red Records website

 

Doom Lab, IV: Ever Think You’re Smart​.​.​. And Then Find Out That You Aren’t?

doom lab iv

With a drum machine backing, Doom Lab strums out riffs over the 16 mostly instrumental tracks of the project’s fourth demo since February of this year, Doom Lab IV: Ever Think You’re Smart​.​.​. And Then Find Out That You Aren’t?, a raw, sometimes-overmodulated crunch of tone lending a garage vibe to the entire procession. On some planet this might be punk rock, and maybe tucked away up in Anchorage, Alaska, it’s not surprising that Doom Lab would have a strange edge to their craft. Which they definitely do. “Clockwork Home II (Double-Thick Big Bottom End Dub)” layers in bass beneath a droning guitar, and “Diabolical Strike (w/ False Start)” is a bonus track (with vocals) that’s got the line, “You’ll think that everything is cool but then I’ll crush your motherfucking soul,” so, you know, it’s like that. Some pieces are more developed than others, as “Deity Skin II” has some nuanced layering of instrumentation, but in the harsh high end of “Spiral Strum to Heaven II” and the mostly-soloing “Infernal Intellect II,” Doom Lab pair weirdo-individualism with an obvious creative will. Approach with caution, because some of Doom Lab‘s work is really strange, but that’s clearly the intention from the start.

Doom Lab on Bandcamp

 

White Fuzzy Bloodbath, Medicine

White Fuzzy Bloodbath Medicine

What you see is what you get in the sometimes manic, sometimes blissed-out, sometimes punk, sometimes fluid, always rocking Medicine by White Fuzzy Bloodbath, which hearkens to a day when the universe wasn’t defined by internet-ready subgenre designations and a band like this San Jose three-piece had a chance to be signed to Atlantic, tour the universe, and eventually influence other outcasts in their wake. Alas, props to White Fuzzy Bloodbath‘s Elise Tarens — joined in the band by Alex Bruno and Jeff Hurley — for the “Interlude” shout, “We’re White Fuzzy Bloodbath and the world has no fucking idea!” before the band launch into the duly raw “Chaos Creator.” Songs like “Monster,” “Beep-Bop Lives” and “Still” play fast and loose with deceptively technical angular heavy rock, and even the eight-minute title-track that rounds out before the cover of Beastie Boys‘ “Sabotage” refuses to give in and be just one thing. And about that cover? Well, not every experiment is going to lead to gold, but it’s representative on the whole of the band’s bravery to take on an iconic track like that and make their own. Not nearly everybody would be so bold.

White Fuzzy Bloodbath on Facebook

White Fuzzy Bloodbath on Bandcamp

 

Secret Iris, What Are You Waiting For

secret iris what are you waiting for

With the vocal melody in its resonant hook, the lead guitar line that runs alongside and the thickened verse progression that complements, Secret Iris almost touch on Euro-style melancholic doom with the title-track of their debut 7″, What Are You Waiting For, but the Phoenix, Arizona, three-piece are up to different shenanigans entirely on the subsequent “Extrasensory Rejection (Winter Sanctuary),” which is faster, more punk, and decisively places them in a sphere of heavy grunge. Both guitarist Jeffrey Owens (ex-Goya) and bassist Tanner Grace (Sorxe) contribute vocals, while drummer Matt Arrebollo (Gatecreeper) is additionally credited with “counseling,” and the nine-minutes of the mini-platter first digitally issued in 2021 beef up a hodgepodge of ’90s and ’00s rock and punk, from Nirvana grunge to Foo Fighters accessibility, Bad Religion‘s punk and rock and a slowdown march after the break in the midsection that, if these guys were from the Northeast, I’d shout as a Life of Agony influence. Either way, it moves, it’s heavy, it’s catchy, and just the same, it manages not to make a caricature of its downer lyrics. The word I’m looking for is “intriguing,” and the potential for further intrigue is high.

Secret Iris on Facebook

Crisis Tree Records store

 

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Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers Premiere “Long Way Home” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

ole devil and the spirit chasers

Oslo blues rockers Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers will make their full-length debut through Apollon Records this September with Apocalypse Blues. It’s a fitting title for the heavy blues rock outfit that first came together during the covid-19 pandemic, born of guitarist/vocalist Ole Teigen‘s oft-divergent musical impulses — he’s currently drumming in Superlynx, released a solo album last year, also on Apollon, has played in the black metal band Den Saakaldte as well as Dødheimsgard, is currently in Midnattsvrede and others; such is the plight of the capable and creative multi-instrumentalist — and one can easily relate to some desire to find comfort in the familiar warmth of classic sounds under those circumstances. Maybe then Apocalypse Blues will be an album for the times. Hard to say for sure, as I haven’t heard it yet.

Before the record-proper shows up, the first single “Long Way Home” finds the band — who very generously abbreviate their moniker as ODATSCH, which is fun — rocking it out live in the studio in the video premiering below. This version of the song is not — repeat, not — the version that will end up on Apocalypse Blues, but it is being paired with that as part of a digital-only two-songer ahead of time. In any case, Teigen, vocalists Anita Antal (also ole devil and the spirit chasers apocalypse bluesflute) and Ann Christin Willumsen, bassist Artur Gosan and drummer Christian Håpnes Svendsen come across as a band schooled in the style they’re making, but there’s really no attempt being made — at least in the live version of “Long Way Home” — to try to sound vintage. Nor does there need to be. The structure, melodies and groove are classic enough on their own, and one wouldn’t want to risk dulling either the harmonies between Antal and Willumsen, the flourish of psychedelic guitar, or the flute as they appear here.

So while “Long Way Home” as you see it below isn’t the same one you’ll hear on Apocalypse Blues, I wouldn’t expect it to be too far off. It’s interesting to watch the band in the clip in the various split screens, clearly enjoying the process of feeling their way into the bluesy aesthetic. It’s a nascent chemistry taking shape, and there’s a dynamic there worthy of the exploration they’re giving it. This kind of outfit is best suited to the stage, so one wonders how much playing out they’ll ultimately do — not like Teigen doesn’t have anything else going — but consider for a second the put-up-or-shut-up boldness of a group releasing their first single from their first record and instead of doing a lyric video or something say screw it and play the track live. Hard not to respect that, and chops ensue.

Enjoy:

Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers, “Long Way Home” video premiere

Ole Devil & the Spirit Chasers – Long Way Home

It’s the first single from the upcoming album Apocalypse Blues, coming some time in September.

The single features the album version, plus a live-in-studio version as a B-side – which is the one they made a video for.

The video was recorded in studio Fjærdingen HK 9 january 2022

Mix & master: Ole Teigen, Crowtown Recordings.
Video: Artur Gosan

Ole Devil & the Spirit Chasers are:
Drums: Christian Håpnes Svendsen
Bass: Artur Gosan
Flute/vocals: Anita Antal
Vocals: Ann Christin Willumsen
Guitar/vocals: Ole Teigen

Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers on Facebook

Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers on Instagram

Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers on Bandcamp

Ole Devil and the Spirit Chasers website

Apollon Records on Facebook

Apollon Records on Bandcamp

Apollon Records website

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Strange Horizon Premiere “Divine Fear” from Beyond the Strange Horizon

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

strange horizon

Norwegian classic prog/doom rockers Strange Horizon will release their debut album, Beyond the Strange Horizon, through Apollon Records on May 6. From the opening “Tower of Stone” through the finale “Death in Ice Valley,” the record follows a course born of traditionalism in and outside of Northern Europe. One can hear shades of various landmark acts throughout the album’s eight-track course — they’re not wrong when they call out Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus specifically below; to that list I’d add Reverend Bizarre and Pagan Altar — but even in the layered vocals from guitarist Stig V. “Qvillio” Kviljo on “Tower of Stone,” one can hear shades of modern methodologies breaking through, to say nothing of the bass tone of Christer S. Lindesteg or Kviljo‘s own guitar, or the drums of Camilla Wergeland Anfinsen, which push the opener’s swinging progression right into the Dave Chandler-esque sway of “Fake Templar” like they were shoving riffs off a cliffside into murky waters below. Extra distortion, you say? Don’t mind if I do.

Beyond the Strange Horizon plays out in such fashion, the trio well aware of where they’re coming from and who they want to be for this, essentially the first collection of their career; the three-song Demo MMXVIII from 2018 appearing here reworked in the tracks “Fake Templar,” “The Final Vision” and “Chains of Society.” They’re reorganized and spread throughout the album — it’s not that they’re tacked on for filler, in other words — and as the nodding fuzz of “The Final Vision” picks up from “Fake Templar” before it, the hook of that second track almost daring to soar, Strange Horizon offer a take less definitively retro than that of Trondheim’s Dunbarrow, for example, but still showcase their roots well, ending side A with the longer and more progressive “Divine Fear” in classic LP fashion, giving an almost hypnotic and mournful conclusion to the engaging first-half salvo while expanding on the ideas presented,Strange Horizon Beyond the Strange Horizon working in some more melodic flourish and entrancing the audience enough so that the snare that starts “They Never Knew” arrives as an extra snap-to-attention on linear (CD/DL) formats.

The rest of “They Never Knew” is duly brash, rawer than “Fake Templar” in its intention but still holding a swinging groove and a lyric that seems to be rife with doomly condemnation. It and “Chains of Society” together — the latter the last of the three demo pieces to appear on the record — establish a solid momentum for the second half of Beyond the Strange Horizon, longer and plenty dug in as “Tower of Stone” foretold, but moving fluidly all the while. Thus it is that the penultimate “Turning the Corner” is perfectly placed; a sub-four-minute quiet stretch born of “Planet Caravan” impulses but presented earthier, more personal, almost folkish in another context — a song that could just as easily have had a heavy incarnation but unfolds to add texture and atmosphere to the release as a whole. It is ever more righteous backed by the nine-minute “Death in Ice Valley” — which may or may not have guest vocals alongside those of Kviljo — which seeks to summarize what the band have accomplished throughout while still adding to it in terms of the near-psychedelic soloing and outward-seeming, keys-included jam at the finish, Strange Horizon having established the rules of structure and then chosen to break them with suitable aplomb.

In terms of appeal, there’s more than just classic doom happening in Beyond the Strange Horizon stylistically, but that is the ground from which the band are reaching up. This first full-length may prove formative in the light of subsequent releases to come — they certainly sound interested in building on what they do here — but the potential for what may be shouldn’t detract from the accomplishments they’ve already made in songwriting and performance, meeting trad doom head-on with individual drive. I feel like there’s more to say here about the richness of their tones and the subtle divergences there, but with “Divine Fear” premiering below, there’s no shortage of opportunity for you to hear that for yourself.

Order link and whatnot follow. If you’re wondering, “lead-heavy Scandinavian heavy metal” is the translation of what they call themselves. One is not inclined to argue.

Please enjoy:

Strange Horizon, “Divine Fear” track premiere

Preorder: https://orcd.co/strangefinal

Traditional doom metal, or as we often call it, blytung skandinavisk heavy metal! Influenced by Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Count Raven, the Finnish scene, the Maryland scene, 60s/70s proto-hardrock, blues and NWOBHM.

Strange Horizon:
Stig V. “Qvillio” Kviljo – Guitar, vocals
Christer S. Lindesteg – Electric bass guitar
Camilla Wergeland Anfinsen – drums on demo and album

Strange Horizon on Facebook

Strange Horizon on Instagram

Strange Horizon on Bandcamp

Apollon Records on Facebook

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Kryptograf Premiere The Eldorado Spell in Full; Album Out Friday

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on February 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Kryptograf press 2022

Bergen, Norway, classic heavy/progressive rockers Kryptograf release their second full-length, The Eldorado Spell, through Apollon Records on Feb. 25. The follow-up to the four-piece’s well-received late-2020 self-titled debut is preceded by standalone singles made for “The Well” and “Cosmic Suicide,” both of which are included here as well as part of an overhead view of a garden of vintage delights. The sometimes-progressive-leaning outfit aren’t through opening track “Asphodel” before they’ve cut from their post-Witchcraft riffing into an acoustic led frolic nodding toward later-Ozzy Black Sabbath, but it’s ultimately the retro influence that wins out in terms of defining their sound — that is to say, Kryptograf build on the aesthetic pioneered by bands like Graveyard and the aforementioned Witchcraft, more than they try to pretend the last half-century of heavy rock never happened.

Either way you go, The Eldorado Spell is duly captivating for its 45-minute run, and further establishes Kryptograf among Northern Europe’s next-generation retro-ist practitioners in bands like Demon HeadDunbarrowStuck in Motion and so on. While keeping an abidingly organic feel, however, Kryptograf don’t lean on aesthetic to take the place of songwriting. The chugging nod groove of “Cosmic Suicide” is familiar enough sounding as an execution of genre, but “Lucifer’s Hand” dips into more severe atmospherics in its second half, and “Creeping Willow” effectively pays off its early tension in a searing guitar solo later on; traditionalist, to be sure, but engaging that tradition toward its own ends as each piece of The Eldorado Spell makes its presence known Kryptograf The Eldorado Spellwhile serving the grander purpose of the album as an entirety. Worth noting that at 45 minutes, The Eldorado Spell is actually on the longer end of a release of its style, but the proggier sides of “Creeping Willow” and the title-track — the fluidity with which the latter evolves into a kind of moody pastoralism of interwoven layers of guitar and spoken vocals, for example — account for that differential, and even in the interludes “Across the Creek” and the penultimate, mellotron-inclusive “Wormwood,” the time is not at all misspent.

If anything, the burgeoning patience in Kryptograf‘s sound speaks well of the direction Kryptograf are headed, but they still have the energy in their approach to pull influence from “Chylde of Fire” for the closer “The Well” at the end of side B’s immersive run through cuts like “The Spiral” and the bluesy “When the Witches,” with the latter being about as spacious as the band gets in its extended solo jam sounding improvised in its foundation but moving smoothly back to the chorus just the same. Kryptograf are growing, and that’s audible throughout The Eldorado Spell both in the standout pieces like “Cosmic Suicide” and “Creeping Willow” as well as in how the last three tracks flow one into the next. That growth — something to appreciate in itself, mind you — doesn’t take away from the depth of their craft here, however, and as they continue to develop aspects like the multi-vocalist arrangements and to find their niche between proto-metal, classic doom and progressive rock, the identity they’ve begun to shape will likewise find its form. What matters today is that The Eldorado Spell rocks, but it’s the manner in which it does so that will keep listeners returning to the full-LP experience on offer.

I dug the first record but didn’t get to properly cover it (look for it as a Friday Full-Length in a couple years, I guess), so it’s with marked pleasure that I can host the stream of The Eldorado Spell in its entirety ahead of the release. You’ll find it streaming on the player below, followed by a few preliminaries courtesy of the PR wire.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Kryptograf is back with their second album The Eldorado Spell, to be released in February 25th on Apollon Records.

Inspired by the heavy sound of the late 60s and 70s, the four old souls in Kryptograf from Bergen, Norway will hex you with their collective vocals, destructive riffs and inventive songwriting.

Kryptograf is an eclectic but fiercely focused addition to the doomy Bergen underground.

Tracklist
1. Asphodel
2. Cosmic Suicide
3. Lucifer’s Hand
4. Creeping Willow
5. Across The Creek
6. The Eldorado Spell
7. The Spiral
8. When The Witches
9. Wormwood
10. The Well

Line-up:
Vegard Strand – Guitar / Vocals
Odd Erlend Mikkelsen – Guitar / Vocals
Eirik Arntsen – Drums / Vocals
Eivind Standal Moen – Bass

Kryptograf, “Cosmic Suicide” lyric video

Kryptograf on Bandcamp

Kryptograf on Facebook

Kryptograf on Instagram

Apollon Records on Facebook

Apollon Records on Bandcamp

Apollon Records website

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