The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ben Lombard of Bog Wizard

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I play guitar and do most of the vocals for the band Bog Wizard, and usually have at least a hand in the writing process, whether that’s interpreting things Harlen (drummer) is throwing at me or putting together my own riffs.

I’d always sort of had an interest in music, both of my parents played instruments when I was young, but past learning the C-chord on an old acoustic, I didn’t really pick up an instrument until middle school when I started playing snare drum in the school band. That progressed to general percussion, but I’d only ever learned to read music halfway, and to this day can pick out the rhythm but not the note names from a piece of sheet music. Sometime in late high school I got a guitar for my birthday, but ended up quickly trading it for a bass that I began noodling around on.

As far as how the band got started, I met Harlen and some others in college that were in a sort-of band, sort-of looking for a bassist, and I ended up going over to try out, and eventually started to hang with them regularly. It wasn’t too long before someone told me that I played bass like a guitar and I should play guitar, and from there Harlen and I both sort of learned our instruments together I suppose.

From there it took about ten years and half a dozen band names before we actually formed Bog Wizard and stuck with the moniker.

Describe your first musical memory.

I think it would have to be either my mom singing or playing either the piano or the flute. I would always sit next to her on the piano bench and go through all the sheet music books she had, handing her ones that I thought looked interesting and trying to get her to play them. Unfortunately, interesting looking also usually meant difficult, and she would often sigh and laugh a little about what I picked before trying to play it anyway.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I might just have to throw a couple answers out there for this one, it’s hard to pick favorites! I’ll start with the best concert I’ve been to, had to be the Devin Townsend Project, Gojira, and Opeth together at The Vic in Chicago. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen any of the bands, I’d seen Opeth many times at that point and had even seen Devin open for Gojira before. Devin was great, Opeth was great, but Gojira stole the show, and was hands down the best live set I’ve ever witnessed. Something about their whole presence, the energy and the performance, was just on another level. A close runner-up for the winner here would be the time I saw Dethklok and Mastodon co-headline at the Fillmore in Detroit.

Out of gigs we’ve performed ourselves, our most recent one at Mulligan’s Pub in Grand Rapids with Starman Deluxe (who filled-in last minute) and Iron Mountain stands out. The crowd was there to rock, it was a great lineup, and they gave us our first real mosh-pit, definitely an awesome night.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I suppose being a teenager and realizing that I might be bisexual or gay instead of straight was a big one. I’m still wrestling with the finer points of that actually, 15 or more years later. Not the question of if I’m straight or not, I’m not, more how far into the gayness spectrum I am, haha.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully being more satisfied with the work one produces! Being able to express more clearly the thoughts and feelings you want to express, a heightened ability to express yourself in your chosen medium, regardless of what that may be.

How do you define success?

In steps, and there are many, and they depend on your ambitions. A small success for us was getting our music out there in the first place, having a physical thing that we created that we could put into the hands of others. Another might be playing our first gig, and then our first gig outside our hometown. Starting to collaborate with other artists, coming to the realization that there are people out there, maybe even a fair amount of people, that want to hear our music, that are waiting for us to put out more. This all sounds like success to me, with hopefully more to come!

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The ugliness in some people that the pandemic brought out, their absolute disregard for the wellbeing of those around them.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

There are so many ways this answer could go. I suppose I’ve never really had a plan about where to point my creative interests, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at in Bog Wizard right now, so, further Bog Wizardy things? We do have some things in the works, we might have something going on with some unconventional cover songs in the future, trying to turn non-metal into metal, basic alchemy stuff.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Expression, whether of self or of an idea, and the ability to put that expression or idea out into the world for others to perceive, perhaps providing a connection between people who would have otherwise never met or interacted.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to the weather being consistently warm enough for me to get outside on a regular basis, I spent far too much time cooped up inside over the winter and that needs to change. More specifically, I’ve been getting into disc golf more and more over the past couple years, and I’m going to try to get out and practice a lot more as I’d like to eventually get good enough to play in my local league.

https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/
https://twitter.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
https://bogwizard.bigcartel.com/

Bog Wizard feat. Froglord, “The Frog Lord” official video

Shenanigans ensue. April 1 is the arrival date for Bog Wizard and Froglord‘s A Frog in the Bog split/collaborative release, and it may just turn out that it’s all an elaborate prank and none of it, none of us, you or me or the bands or the songs or anything at all, actually exist. But, assuming the world is in some cruel way what it seems to be, the five-track outing, which finds Bog Wizard summoning Froglord onto “The Frog Lord” — there’s a “ribbit” there, audible, you can hear it — and the UK-based Froglord bringing Bog Wizard aboard for the closing companion-piece “The Bog Wizard,” there’s clearly a plan at work here. In some of Bog Wizard‘s over-the-top doom-metal melodrama and majickal-or-however-you-want-to-spell-it thematic, the outing brings to mind a rawer, suitably mossier take on Merlin‘s chicanery, but from the moment the listener first faces the “Reptilian Death Squad” through the grueling rumble of “The Bog,” “The Wizard” (not at all a cover) and “The Bog Wizard” — arranged shortest to longest as they are on either side of five and a half minutes long — there’s clearly a plan at work.

The plan is “fuck it.”

Listening to this chirruping reptiles begging for sex at the outset of “The Frog Lord,” which picks up from the ultra-subdued lull-away-your-conscious-mind finish of “Reptilian Death Squad” — god damn these words are fun to write — there’s charm to spare. Bog Wizard and Froglord are a solid match tonally, with the latter more produced with more clarity than the Michigan trio of guitarist/vocalist Ben Lombard, bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/synthesist/vocalist Harlen Linke, but there’s atmosphere to both and the fact that they’re so clearly on the same page in terms of storyline and the overarching riff-what-thou-wilt mindset assures that the 37 minutes of A Frog in the Bog are consistent just the same. And if they weren’t, would it really matter? Do you go into a Bog Wizard and Froglord split — even if you know nothing of either act’s prior work; Froglord‘s entirely new to me if it makes you feel better — expecting clean progressive rock? Hell no you do not. You expect lumbering riffs, abiding murk, and the willful sense that whatever’s going on and however lumbering a given stretch might be, there’s a good time being had. So happens that’s precisely what’s delivered.

You’ll note the videogame-style cover art here; I speak from experience in telling you that neither playing instructions nor controller overlays are included, but they do have the courtesy to tell you that in the fine print. Perhaps next time. I know I’ve got a couple NES controllers laying around, and as merch/sticker ideas go, that’d be a new one as far as I’ve seen. As it stands, A Frog in the Bog is brilliant in its regressive take, refusing to operate on any terms other than those it sets for itself, and engaging its audience with craft and personality alike. It would be dumb to ask more of it than that. Don’t be dumb.

Bog Wizard and Froglord both give a solid idea of where they’re coming from in the clip for “The Frog Lord” below — I’d be interested to know what venue Froglord filmed at — and in the midst of it all, you’ll see somebody’s kid dancing, orb tricks, and so on.

Have fun. Let yourself enjoy a thing.

This, particularly:

Bog Wizard feat. Froglord, “The Frog Lord” video premiere

Preorders UK: https://froglord.bandcamp.com/album/a-frog-in-the-bog

Preorders US: https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/album/bog-wizard-vs-froglord-a-frog-in-the-bog-split

A Frog in the Bog is a collaborative concept split album. What that means is that this split has been written from the ground up to tell a cohesive story. Both halves of the split feature shared vocal parts between the bands, in the conclusionary tracks.

Bog Wizard and Froglord are both very narratively driven bands, telling tale of their respective characters. The Froglord is a god-like swamp dwelling being with a congregation of worshippers and followers. The Bog Wizard is an angry hermit wizard whos only preferred company is the creatures he summons to do his bidding, and he’s highly protective of his territory.

A Frog in the Bog tells the story of their fateful meeting, as the Froglord encroaches into the Bog Wizard’s well-guarded territory with his congregation, from each of their unique perspectives. It describes the Bog Wizard’s anger as he realizes this being has intruded on his land, the curiosity of the Froglord as to who and what lies in the swamp, their ultimate battle, and face to face meeting. Who will win?

Track Listing for A Frog in the Bog:
1. Bog Wizard – Reptilian Death Squad (8:12)
2. Bog Wizard – The Frog Lord, feat Froglord (12:21)
3. Froglord – The Bog (5:27)
4. Froglord – The Wizard (5:34)
5. Froglord – The Bog Wizard, feat Bog Wizard (5:35)

Bog Wizard is:
Ben Lombard (guitar/vox)
Harlen Linke (percussion, synth, vox)
Colby Lowman (bass)

Froglord is:
Froglord

Froglord, “The Bog” official video

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Twitter

Bog Wizard on Instagram

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

Bog Wizard webstore

Froglord Linktree

Froglord on Bandcamp

Froglord on Facebook

Froglord on Instagram

You don’t need me to tell you about the charm factor here, right? Two bands, disparate in locale, come together to collaborate and unite in creative purpose on a split where they also appear on each other’s tracks, and not only that, but they’re brought together a narrative spanning both of their work, given it 16-bit cover art (that’s right, I’m thinking Genesis-era, or maybe one of those super-underrated SNES RPGs; I’d play it either way) about a Froglord encountering a Bog Wizard. I don’t know how the Bristol, UK, and Michigan-based acts know each other, and frankly, it’s a secondary consideration given the above. However it came about, this sounds pretty awesome.

As someone who appreciates a good story and has dug Bog Wizard‘s work to-date — Froglord‘s various singles on Bandcamp are right on as well, just new to me — this feels like a no-brainer. Hail the reptilian death squad, which I’m sure someone out there believes is a real thing.

To wit:

Bog Wizard/ Froglord to release collaborative concept split, A Frog in the Bog on April 1st, 2022

A Frog in the Bog is a collaborative concept split album. What that means is that this split has been written from the ground up to tell a cohesive story. Both halves of the split feature shared vocal parts between the bands, in the conclusionary tracks.

Bog Wizard and Froglord are both very narratively driven bands, telling tale of their respective characters. The Froglord is a god-like swamp dwelling being with a congregation of worshippers and followers. The Bog Wizard is an angry hermit wizard whos only preferred company is the creatures he summons to do his bidding, and he’s highly protective of his territory.

A Frog in the Bog tells the story of their fateful meeting, as the Froglord encroaches into the Bog Wizard’s well-guarded territory with his congregation, from each of their unique perspectives. It describes the Bog Wizard’s anger as he realizes this being has intruded on his land, the curiosity of the Froglord as to who and what lies in the swamp, their ultimate battle, and face to face meeting. Who will win?

Track Listing for A Frog in the Bog:
1. Bog Wizard – Reptilian Death Squad (8:12)
2. Bog Wizard – The Frog Lord, feat Froglord (12:21)
3. Froglord – The Bog (5:27)
4. Froglord – The Wizard (5:34)
5. Froglord – The Bog Wizard, feat Bog Wizard (5:35)

Preorders for cassettes, vinyl, and CDs available March 4th!

US Shipping merch via Bog Wizard, UK via Froglord

Bog Wizard is:
Ben Lombard (guitar/vox)
Harlen Linke (percussion, synth, vox)
Colby Lowman (bass)

Froglord is:
Froglord

https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/
https://twitter.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
https://bogwizard.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Froglorddoom/
https://www.instagram.com/froglordband/
https://froglord.bandcamp.com/

Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke (2021)

Froglord, “Samhain”

Points for honesty here. In addition to featuring within their ranks Hubert ‘Cebula’ Lewandowski, who doubles as the head of Galactic SmokeHouse, also plays in The Howling Eye and apparently has a thing for taking his clothes off at gigs, Dirty Nips have titled the second side of the physical version of their first LP ‘Jams ‘n’ Shit.’ We should all strive toward such expressive straightforwardness.

The newcomer trio hail from the wellspring of ’90s Britpsych that is Bristol — actually, it’s just where The Heads are from, but that’s enough as far as I’m concerned — as Lewandowski relocated from Poland, and he and Łukasz Domański either were or are bandmates in The Howling Eye as well. Set to release on Feb. 10, Can O’ Dirty Demo Nipples has surely already destroyed the targeted ads I’ll get because of my search history, and I feel all the more compelled to throw myself headfirst into the fuzz of its advance singles “The Third Nipple” and “Dirty Nips Pt. II.” I’m sensing a theme here.

If the cover looks like it’s a funny shape, that’s because it’s a cassette release. It’s 42.0 percent dirt concentrated.

Oh, lighten up:

Dirty Nips – Can O’ Dirty Demo Nipples – 2022 – (Fuzz / Psych) Bristol, UK

Bristol’s heavy psych-rock trio Dirty Nips debuts CAN O’ DIRTY DEMO NIPPLES, their first ever release consisting of self-produced material recorded during COVID-19 lockdown, the cassette album is set to be released 10th of February 2022 released by Galactic SmokeHouse.

Dirty Nips is a new outlet that is sure to entertain any fan of fuzz, heavy riffs and the 60s. Drawing on influences in bands like Meatbodies, Fuzz or Fu Manchu, Dirty Nips embody an original and coherent spirit of Bay Area heavy psych rock scene; fun, noise and freedom.

CAN O’DIRTY DEMO NIPPLES is an album made in a 100% DIY fashion. Released on cassette, it’s written, recorded, mixed, mastered, funded and produced entirely by the band itself – with Alicja Gołębiewska designing cover art. The album came about in spite of constant pitfalls of covid pandemic, i.e. numerous lockdowns, border shut and other such attractions. It consists of SIDE A with six songs, also available digitally, and mysterious SIDE B available only for physical album holders. Put it on, crank it up and feel the dirt!

Tracklisting:
1. The Basement
2. The Third Nipple
3. As I Stumbled
4. Jachetki
5. Dirty Nips pt II
6. Mountain’s Calling

music:
Łukasz Domański
Hubert ‘Cebula’ Lewandowski

guest musicians (side B):
Stanisław Cybulski
Tomasz Gołda
Maciej Szukała*
Miłosz Wojciechowski*

* (also appears on The Third Nipple)

https://www.facebook.com/DirtyNips
https://www.instagram.com/dirtynipsmusic/
https://dirtynips.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GalacticSmokeHouse
https://www.instagram.com/galacticsmokehouse/
https://galacticsmokehouse.bigcartel.com/

Dirty Nips, “The Third Nipple” official video

Dirty Nips, Can o’ Dirty Demo Nipples (2022)

Okay. Day Three. The halfway point. Or the quarter point if you count the week to come in January. Which I don’t. Feeling dug in. Ready to roll. Today’s a busy day, stylistically speaking, and there’s two wolf bands in there too. Better get moving.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Duel, In Carne Persona

Duel seem to be on a mission with In Carne Persona to remind all in their path that rock and roll is supposed to be dangerous. Their fourth album and the follow-up to 2019’s Valley of Shadows (review here) finds the Austin four-piece in a between place on songs like “Children of the Fire” (premiered here) and “Anchor” and the especially charged gang-shout-chorus “Bite Back,” proffering memorable songwriting while edging from boogie to shove, rock to metal. They’ve never sounded more dynamic than on the organ-inclusive “Behind the Sound” or the tense finale “Blood on the Claw,” and cuts like “The Veil” and the particularly gritty “Dead Eyes” affirm their in-a-dark-place songwriting prowess. They’re not uneven in their approach. They’re sure of it. They turn songs on either side of four minutes long into anthems, and they seem to be completely at home in their sound. They’re not as ‘big’ as they should be by rights of their work, but Duel serve their reminder well and pack nine killer tunes into 38 minutes. Only a fool would ask more.

Duel on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Mastiff, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth

Fading in like the advent of something wicked this way coming until “The Hiss” explodes into “Fail,” Hull exports Mastiff tap chug from early ’00s metalcore en route to various forms of extreme bludgeonry, whether that’s blackened push in “Beige Sabbath,” grind in “Midnight Creeper” or the slow skin-crawling riffage that follows in “Futile.” This blender runs at multiple speeds, slices, dices, pummels and purees, reminding here of Blood Has Been Shed, there of Napalm Death, on “Endless” of Aborted. Any way you go, it is a bleak cacophony to be discovered, purposefully tectonic in its weight and intense in its conveyed violence. Barely topping half an hour, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth knows precisely the fury it manifests, and the scariest thing about it is the thought that the band are in even the vaguest amount of control of all this chaos, as even the devolution-to-blowout in “Lung Rust” seems to have intent behind it. They should play this in art galleries.

Mastiff on Facebook

MNRK Heavy website

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Wolftooth, Blood & Iron

Melody and a flair for the grandeur of classic NWOBHM-style metal take prominence on Wolftooth‘s Blood & Iron, the follow-up to the Indiana-based four-piece’s 2020 outing, Valhalla (review here), third album overall and first for Napalm Records. As regards trajectory, one is reminded of the manner in which Sweden’s Grand Magus donned the mantle of epic metal, but Wolftooth aren’t completely to that point yet. Riffs still very much lead the battle’s charge — pointedly so, as regards the album’s far-back-drums mix — with consuming solos as complement to the vocals’ tales of fantastical journeys, kings, swords and so on. The test of this kind of metal should ALWAYS be whether or not you’d scribble their logo on the front of your notebook after listening to the record on your shitty Walkman headphones, and yes, Wolftooth earn that honor among their other spoils of the fight, and Blood & Iron winds up the kind of tape you’d feel cool telling your friends about in that certain bygone age.

Wolftooth on Facebook

Napalm Records on Bandcamp

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Illudium, Ash of the Womb

Another argument to chase down every release Prophecy Productions puts out arrives in the form of Illudium‘s second long-player, Ash of the Womb, the NorCal project spearheaded by Shantel Amundson vibing with emotional and tonal heft in kind on an immersive mourning-for-everything six tracks/47 minutes. Gorgeous, sad and heavy in kind “Aster” opens and unfolds into the fingers-sliding-on-strings of “Sempervirens,” which gallops furiously for a moment in its second half like a fever dream before passing to wistfully strummed minimalism, which is a pattern that holds in “Soma Sema” and “Atopa” as well, as Amundson brings volatility without notice, songs exploding and receding, madness and fury and then gone again in a sort of purposeful bipolar onslaught. Following “Madrigal,” the closing “Where Death and Dreams Do Manifest” finds an evenness of tempo and approach, not quite veering into heavygaze, but gloriously pulling together the various strands laid out across the songs prior, providing a fitting end to the story told in sound and lyric.

Illudium on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

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Ascia, Volume 1

Ascia takes its name from the Italian word for ‘axe,’ and as a solo-project from Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, the 20-minute demo Volume 1 lives up to its implied threat. Launched with the instrumental riff-workout “At the Gates of Ishtar,” the five-tracker introduces Monni‘s vocals on the subsequent “Blood Axes,” and is all the more reminiscent of earliest High on Fire for the approach he takes, drums marauding behind a galloping verse that nonetheless finds an overarching groove. “Duhl Qarnayn” follows in straight-ahead fashion while “The Great Iskandar” settles some in tempo and opens up melodically in its second half, the vocals taking on an almost chanting quality, before switching back to finish with more thud and plunder ahead of the finale “Up the Irons,” which brings two-plus minutes of cathartic speed and demo-blast that I’d like to think was the first song Monni put together for the band if only for its metal-loving-metal charm. I don’t know that it is or isn’t, but it’s a welcome cap to this deceptively varied initial public offering.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Black Capricorn on Facebook

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Stone From the Sky, Songs From the Deepwater

France’s Stone From the Sky, as a band named after a Neurosis singularized song might, dig into heavy post-rock aplenty on Songs From the Deepwater, their fourth full-length, and they meet floating tones with stretches of more densely-hefted groove like the Pelican-style nod of “Karoshi.” Still, however satisfying the ensuing back and forth is, some of their most effective moments are in the ambient stretches, as on “The Annapurna Healer” or even the patient opening of “Godspeed” at the record’s outset, which draws the listener in across its first three minutes before unveiling its full breadth. Likewise, “City/Angst” surges and recedes and surges again, but it’s in the contemplative moments that it’s most immersive, though I won’t take away from the appeal of the impact either. The winding “49.3 Nuances de Fuzz” precedes the subdued/vocalized closer “Talweg,” which departs in form while staying consistent in atmosphere, which proves paramount to the proceedings as a whole.

Stone From the Sky on Facebook

More Fuzz Records on Bandcamp

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The Brackish, Atlas Day

Whenever you’re ready to get weird, The Brackish will meet you there. The Bristol troupe’s fourth album, Atlas Day brings six songs and 38 minutes of ungrandiose artsy exploration, veering into dreamtone noodling on “Dust Off Reaper” only after hinting in that direction on the jazzier “Pretty Ugly” previous. Sure, there’s moments of crunch, like the garage-grunge in the second half of “Pam’s Chalice” or the almost-motorik thrust that tops opener “Deliverance,” but The Brackish aren’t looking to pay homage to genre or post-thisorthat so much as to seemingly shut down their brains and see where the songs lead them. That’s a quiet but not still pastoralia on “Leftbank” and a more skronky shuffle-jazz on “Mr. Universe,” and one suspects that, if there were more songs on Atlas Day, they too would go just about wherever the hell they wanted. Not without its self-indulgent aspects by its very nature, Atlas Day succeeds by inviting the audience along its intentionally meandering course. Something something “not all who wander” something something.

The Brackish on Facebook

Halfmeltedbrain Records on Bandcamp

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Wolfnaut, III

Formerly known as Wolfgang, Elverum, Norway’s Wolfnaut offer sharp, crisp modern heavy rock with the Karl Daniel Lidén mixed/mastered III, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Kjetil Sæter (also percussion), bassist Tor Erik Hagen and drummer Ronny “Ronster” Kristiansen readily tapping Motörhead swagger in “Raise the Dead” after establishing a clarity of structure and a penchant for chorus largesse that reminds of Norse countrymen Spidergawd on “Swing Ride” and the Scorpions-tinged “Feed Your Dragon.” They are weighted in tone but emerge clean through the slower “Race to the Bottom” and “Gesell Kid.” I’m going to presume that “Taste My Brew” is about making one’s own beer — please don’t tell me otherwise — and with the push of “Catching Thunder” ahead of the eight-minute, willfully spacious “Wolfnaut” at the end, the trio’s heavy rock traditionalism is given an edge of reach to coincide with its vitality and electrified delivery of the songs.

Wolfnaut on Facebook

Wolfnaut on Bandcamp

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Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Rosalee EP

Having released their debut full-length, TTBS, earlier in 2021 as their first outing, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lincoln, Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships still seem to be getting their feet under them in terms of sound and who they are as a band, but as the 34-minute-long Rosalee EP demonstrates, in terms of tone and general approach, they know what they’re looking for. After the thud and “whoa-oh” of “Core Fragment,” “Destroyer Heart” pushes a little more into aggression in its back end riffs and drumming, and the chugging, lurching motion of “URTH Anachoic” brings a fullness of distortion that the two prior songs seemed just to be hinting toward. It’s worth noting that the 16-minute title-track, which closes, is instrumental, and it may be that the band are more comfortable operating in that manner for the time being, but if there’s a confidence issue, no doubt it can be worked out on stage (circumstances permitting) or in further studio work. That is, it’s not actually a problem, even at this formative stage of the project. Quick turnaround for this second collection, but definitely welcome.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

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Closet Disco Queen, Stadium Rock for Punk Bums

Their persistently irreverent spirit notwithstanding, Closet Disco Queen — at some point in the process, ever — take their work pretty seriously. That is to say, they’re not nearly as much of a goof as they’d have you believe, and on the quickie 16-minute Stadium Rock for Punk Bums, the Swiss two-piece-plus, their open creative sensibility results in surprisingly filled-out tracks that aren’t quite stadium, aren’t quite punk, definitely rock, and would probably alienate the bum crowd not willing to put the effort into actively engaging them. So the title (which, I know, is a reference to another release; calm down) may or may not fit, but from “Michel-Jacques Sonne” onward, bring switched-on heavy that’s not so much experimentalist in the fuck-around-and-find-out definition as ready to follow its own ideas to fruition, whether that’s the rush of “Pascal à la Plage” or the barely-there drone of “Lalalalala Reverb,” which immediately follows and gives way to the building-despite-itself finisher “Le Soucieux Toucan.” If these guys aren’t careful they’re gonna have to start taking themselves seriously. …Nah.

Closet Disco Queen on Facebook

Hummus Records website

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A solo-project of Oli “Arachnid” Mason, Visions From Beyond released its Eternally Bound, Whipped by Time tape earlier this year through Dry Cough Records and will follow on Nov. 1 with the four-song EP, Drawing Down the Darkness. Beginning with the raw gutturalism of “Re-Animator” — shout to Jeffrey Combs — and proceeding into its title-track, the circa-20-minute release blends grim extremity of death metal with an underlying riffiness of purpose. Mason‘s vocals are barely decipherable as such; it is more grunt than even growl, but righteously animalistic in any case, and even as “Drawing Down the Darkness” finds him shifting into a claws-up howl amid blastbeats and thrashing whirlwinds, there’s a central groove maintained that continues into “Confronting the Adversary” and the crashing “Lord of Flies,” both of which refuse to take a side in the eternal balance between death and doom and death-doom and doom-death.

One way or the other, Visions From Beyond is coated in dirt. Specifically graveyard dirt, and probably a specific old-ass graveyard in Bristol at that. “Lord of Flies” was released as a single ahead of the EP’s post-Halloween arrival, but I’ll tell you outright that it’s going to be too extreme for most ears. I don’t say that as a dare; it’s just a simple fact. And for an imprint that often celebrates brutality at the expense of the accessible, it makes a fitting 50th release for Dry Cough. Kudos.

Info from the PR wire:

VISIONS FROM BEYOND – Drawing Down the Darkness

Dry Cough has once again delved into the ancient cosmic abyss to bring you the harrowing new EP from Visions From Beyond.

Following hot on the heels of the well received release of debut cassette, ‘Eternally Bound, Whipped By Time”, Visions From Beyond have conjured four more tracks of murky & desolate death-doom, riddled with weighty riffs and ethereal guitar lines, just in time for the bleakest time of year.

Dark times are best soundtracked by the darkest music.

Drawing Down The Darkness will be released on cassette on 1st November 2021.

Tracklisting:
1. Re-Animator 4:24
2. Drawing Down the Darkness 5:46
3. Confronting the Adversary 4:52
4. Lord of Flies 5:14

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Visons From Beyond, “Lord of Flies”

Hey kid, you like live shows? Think you can get behind a three-day/20-band extravanganza spread out over a couple weeks in Bristol? Fucking a right you can. Snuff Lane presents the aptly-named Return of the Riff show series, with three nights of killer UK-native acts doing what they do in celebration of reemerging from out of the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic. My understanding is the UK is getting ready to completely open up, so hey, these shows might even happen. Pretty rad. And so are the lineups.

You can see below the headliners respectively are Desert Storm, Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs and Slabdragger — all worthy — but note too the inclusion of Desert Storm offshoot Wall, as well as Sigiriya and Ritual King, Cybernetic Witch Cult (who have a new lineup) and perennial favorites Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters. Wren and Trevor’s Head and Ten Foot Wizard and Old Man Lizard on back-to-back nights? I won’t get to see any of it, but hell’s bells I’m glad it exists.

Info follows here, courtesy of the PR wire. If you make it to Bristol, enjoy:

Return of the Riff – Bristol, July-August ‘21

To celebrate the return of live music within England, we are uncontrollably excited to have teamed up with The Crofters Rights, Bristol to host ‘Return of the Riff’.

Three events with heavily stacked line-ups, offering rare performances with some of the UK’s finest Riffslingers within an intimate setting. We are excited to finally unveil the full line-up; now boasting 20 artists, across 3-days.

Sunday 25th July now hosts Brighton born post-hardcore, sludgy post-rockers Earth Moves, (formed of members from We Never Learned To Live, Grappler, and Cloud Boat).

Sadly, due to the drummer breaking his leg, 1968 have had to withdraw from Saturday 8th July’s RotR. They are now replaced by both Bristol-based three-piece psychedelic post-rockers Mammoth Toe, and stonerpunks from the sewers of Surrey, Trevor’s Head.

20-Bands / 3-Days / 1-Venue / Whole Lotta Riff
The Crofters Rights, Bristol

Sunday 25th July ’21 ~ 16:00 – 23:30
Desert Storm + Gurt + Monolithian + Cybernetic Witch Cult + Sail Band + Earth Moves + Wall

Saturday 7th August ’21 ~ 16:00 – 22:30
Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs + Sigiriya + Ritual King + Suns of Thunder + Trevor’s Head + Mammoth Toe

Sunday 8th August ’21 ~ 16:00 – 23:30
Slabdragger + Ten Foot Wizard + Wren + Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters + Old Man Lizard + Made of Teeth + The Malefic Grip

More Info/RSVP: https://bit.ly/3A3iOor
Tickets: http://hdfst.uk/return-of-the-riff

Bundle option is available when purchasing from any event. Limited bundle tickets remaining.

Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs, “Garden” Live in Norwich, UK, March 2020

Bristol, UK, three-piece Yo No Se release their second full-length, Terraform, on June 18 through Stolen Body Records. It is an album that has precious little time to screw around. Its 11 tracks run a total of 41 minutes, and as the follow-up for 2017’s Soma, it brings together rawness and aesthetic development across songs that appear simple but offer depth of sound and atmosphere alike, and as it pushes through opener “Black Door” — one of the longer inclusions at 4:49 — the stage is set for a punk-derived vibe that recalls Bleach-era Nirvana — Jack Endino mastered here — in its tonal buzz and in the sneer and drawl of guitarist Al Studer, which comes more forward for the unabashed hook of the subsequent “Santa Muerte,” leading to some fuller tonality in “Pilot” and nastier thrust in “Misery,” a momentum quickly built that holds to and through the trippier sway of “Mosquito” and into “Slaughter,” a centerpiece of more drawn tempo but still readily within the reach they’ve established, as well as the themes of general human terribleness that seem to permeate.

No argument, right? Humans? The worst?

Studer, bassist Jason Strickland and drummer Matt Neicho structure side B not entirely dissimilar from the preceding half of Terraform, but the plot thickens. “Hairy Chin” bounces unrepentantly, and “Feast of Lies” feeds a proto-thrash impulse while “Hold Fire” speaks to post-Nebula recklessness, but oh my goodness it’s fun. The brashness, the undercoating of fuckall that runs alongside the songwriting, and the attitude that’s laced throughout, wherever an individual song is headed, brings the two bookended sides — shorter tracks surrounded by longer ones — not enough cohesion to make it predictable but enough so that you’re never going to go any further off the rails than the trio want you to be. There’s a story to tell here after all, and if the horrors of the Bruce Pennington album art don’t hook you — so death metal as they are — the hooks will, and though one hasn’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet, it seems fair to say that the pick-your-dystopia age in which we dwell is not absent from the context of these sonic digs.

The penultimate “Nectar” hits the four-minute mark and is downright patient compared to some of what’s come before, but Yo No Se save their broadest reach for the concluding title-track, a languid rollout moving beyond the prior cut in order to shove Terraform into the band’s outer reaches while still keeping a foot back for the dug-in-dirt tonality that’s been working to their benefit since “Black Door.” I can’t imagine I’m the first to make the Nirvana comparison and I doubt I’ll be the last, but Yo No Se push an edge and nastiness of their own, like they’re pouring water on dust of grunge and calling the mud sludge rock.

You can see the premiere of the “Mosquito” video below, followed by the release info, courtesy of the PR wire.

Get nasty and dance:

Yo No Se, “Mosquito” official video premiere

Yo No Se on “Mosquito”:

“Mosquito is a song about people living off of your hard work. The same people that leave the moment they have nothing more to gain from you. For the video we asked our friend Toby Cameron of On Par productions to film Alex so we could then get Arturo Baston to work his magic over the top.”

Preorder: https://bit.ly/3rxPAZL

Video concept by Alex Studer. Filmed by Toby Cameron of On Par. Animation and edit by Arturo Baston.

Yo No Se return after a 5-year hiatus since their last album, Soma. Their new album Terraform continues on from the dystopian world created in Soma but this time taking the narrative to the stars. Terraform explores the ideas of making a fresh start on another planet but the same problems creep in…. Greed, corruption and hate. Exploring more of a grunge feel along with some hard psych the band recorded with Dom Mitchison (as well as Alex doing guitars and vocals at home), mixed with Ali Chant and mastered again with grunge godfather, Jack Endino.

The band have toured across Europe in support of Soma in the last 5 years and gained a reputation for their loud and energetic shows. The album has 3 drummers under its belt and countless breakdowns on the road. With the pandemic kicking in just as the band started touring, they had plenty of time to finally record (and find another drummer). Terraform is a record 5 years in the making due to sheer bad luck. Hopefully, their luck will change as the band are already working on their follow up record.

The artwork for the cover is by renowned sci-fi artist Bruce Pennington.

Tracklist:
1. Black Door
2. Santa Muerte
3. Pilot
4. Misery
5. Mosquito
6. Slaughter
7. Hairy Chin
8. Feast Of Lies
9. Hold Fire
10. Nectar
11. Terraform

Line up
Alex Studer: Guitar, Vocals
Jason Strickland: Bass
Matt Neicho: Drums

Yo No Se on Facebook

Yo No Se on Instagram

Yo No Se on Bandcamp

Stolen Body Records website

Stolen Body Records on Facebook

Stolen Body Records on Instagram