Quarterly Review: Spirit Adrift, Northless, Lightrain, 1965, Blacklab, Sun King Ba, Kenodromia, Mezzoa, Stone Nomads, Blind Mess

Posted in Reviews on September 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Here we go again as we get closer to 100 records covered in this expanded Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s been a pretty interesting ride so far, and as I’ve dug in I know for sure I’ve added a few names (and titles) to my year-end lists for albums, debuts, and so on. Today keeps the thread going with a good spread of styles and some very, very heavy stuff. If you haven’t found anything in the bunch yet — first I’d tell you to go back and check again, because, really? nothing in 60 records? — but after that, hey, maybe today’s your day.

Here’s hoping.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone

Spirit Adrift 20 Centuries Gone

The second short release in two years from trad metal forerunners Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone pairs two new originals in “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” — songs for our times written as fantasy narrative — with six covers, of Type O Negative‘s “Everything Dies,” Pantera‘s “Hollow,” Metallica‘s “Escape,” Thin Lizzy‘s “Waiting for an Alibi,” ZZ Top‘s “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings” and Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Poison Whiskey.” The covers find them demonstrating a bit of malleability — founding guitarist/vocalist does well with Phil Lynott‘s and Peter Steele‘s inflections while still sounding like himself — and it’s always a novelty to hear a band purposefully showcase their influences like this, but “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” are the real draw. The former nods atop a Candlemassian chug and sweeping chorus before spending much of its second half instrumental, and “Mass Formation Psychosis” resolves in burly riffing, but only after a poised rollout of classic doom, slower, sleeker in its groove, with acoustic strum layered in amid the distortion and keyboard. Two quick reaffirmations of the band’s metallic flourishing and, indeed, a greater movement happening partially in their wake. And then the covers, which are admirably more than filler in terms of arrangement. Something of a holdover, maybe, but by no means lacking substance.

Spirit Adrift on Facebook

Century Media store

 

Northless, A Path Beyond Grief

northless a path beyond grief

Just because it’s so bludgeoning doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all it is. The melodic stretch of “Forbidden World of Light” and delve into progressive black metal after the nakedly Crowbarian sludge of “A Path Beyond Grief,” the clean vocal-topped atmospheric heft of “What Must Be Done” and the choral feel of centerpiece “Carried,” even the way “Of Shadow and Sanguine” seems to purposefully thrash (also some more black metal there) amid its bouts of deathcore and sludge lumbering — all of these come together to make Northless‘ fourth long-player, A Path Beyond Grief, an experience that’s still perhaps defined by its intensity and concrete tonality, its aggression, but that is not necessarily beholden to those. Even the quiet intro “Nihil Sanctum Vitae” — a seeming complement to the nine-minute bring-it-all-together closer “Nothing That Lives Will Last” — seems intended to tell the listener there’s more happening here than it might at first seem. As someone who still misses Swarm of the Lotus, some of the culmination in that finale is enough to move the blood in my wretched body, but while born in part of hardcore, Northless are deep into their own style throughout these seven songs, and the resultant smashy smashy is able to adjust its own elemental balance while remaining ferociously executed. Except, you know, when it’s not. Because it’s not just one thing.

Northless on Facebook

Translation Loss Records store

 

Lightrain, AER

lightrain aer

Comprised of five songs running a tidy 20 minutes, each brought together through ambience as well as the fact that their titles are all three letters long — “Aer,” “Hyd,” “Orb,” “Wiz,” “Rue” — AER is the debut EP from German instrumentalists Lightrain, who would seek entry into the contemplative and evocative sphere of acts like Toundra or We Lost the Sea as they offer headed-out post-rock float and heavy psychedelic vibe. “Hyd” is a focal point, both for its eight-minute runtime (nothing else is half that long) and the general spaciousness, plus a bit of riffy shove in the middle, with which it fills that, but the ultra-mellow “Aer” and drumless wash of “Wiz” feed into an overarching flow that speaks to greater intentions on the part of the band vis a vis a first album. “Rue” is progressive without being overthought, and “Orb” feels born of a jam without necessarily being that jam, finding sure footing on ground that for many would be uncertain. If this is the beginning point of a longer-term evolution on the part of the band, so much the better, but even taken as a standalone, without consideration for the potential of what it might lead to, the LP-style fluidity that takes hold across AER puts the lie to its 20 minutes being somehow minor.

Lightrain on Facebook

Lightrain on Bandcamp

 

1965, Panther

1965 Panther

Cleanly produced and leaning toward sleaze at times in a way that feels purposefully drawn from ’80s glam metal, the second offering from Poland’s 1965 — they might as well have called themselves 1542 for as much as they have to do sound-wise with what was going on that year — is the 12-song/52-minute Panther, which wants your nuclear love on “Nuclear Love,” wants to rock on “Let’s Rock,” and would be more than happy to do whatever it wants on “Anything We Want.” Okay, so maybe guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter Michał Rogalski isn’t going to take home gold at the Subtlety Olympics, but the Warsaw-based outfit — him plus Marco Caponi on bass/backing vocals and Tomasz Rudnicki on drums/backing vocals, as well as an array of lead guitarists guesting — know the rock they want to make, and they make it. Songs are tight and well performed, heavy enough in tone to have a presence but fleet-footed in their turns from verse to chorus and the many trad-metal-derived leads. Given the lyrics of the title-track, I’m not sure positioning oneself as an actual predatory creature as a metaphor for seduction has been fully thought through, but you don’t see me out here writing lyrics in Polish either, so take it with that grain of salt if you feel the need or it helps. For my money I’ll take the still-over-the-top “So Many Times” and the sharp start-stops of “All My Heroes Are Dead,” but there’s certainly no lack of others to choose from.

1965 on Facebook

1965 on Bandcamp

 

Blacklab, In a Bizarre Dream

Blacklab In a Bizarre Dream

Blacklab — also stylized BlackLab — are the Osaka, Japan-based duo of guitarist/vocalist Yuko Morino and drummer Chia Shiraishi, but if you’d enter into their second full-length, In a Bizarre Dream, expecting some rawness or lacking heft on account of their sans-bass configuration, you’re more likely to be bowled over by the sludgy tonality on display. “Cold Rain” — opener and longest track (immediate points) at 6:13 — and “Abyss Woods” are largely screamers, righteously harsh with riffs no less biting, and “Dark Clouds” does the job in half the time with a punkier onslaught leading to “Evil 1,” but “Evil 2” mellows out a bit, adjusts the balance toward clean singing and brooding in a way that the oh-hi-there guest vocal contribution from Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab (after whom Blacklab are partially named) on “Crows, Sparrows and Cats” shifts into a grungier modus. “Lost” and “In a Bizarre Dream,” the latter more of an interlude, keep the momentum going on the rock side, but somehow you just know they’re going to turn it around again, and they absolutely do, easing their way in with the largesse of “Monochrome Rainbow” before “Collapse” caps with a full-on onslaught that brings into full emphasis how much reach they have as a two-piece and just how successfully they make it all heavy.

Blacklab on Facebook

New Heavy Sounds at Cargo Records store

 

Sun King Ba, Writhing Mass

Sun King Ba Writhing Mass

I guess the only problem that might arise from recording your first two-songer with Steve Albini is that you’ve set an awfully high standard for, well, every subsequent offering your band ever makes in terms of production. There are traces of Karma to Burn-style chug on “Ectotherm,” the A-side accompanied by “Writhing Mass” on the two-songer that shares the same name, but Chicago imstrumental trio Sun King Ba are digging into more progressively-minded, less-stripped-down fare on both of these initial tracks. Still, impact and the vitality of the end result are loosely reminiscent, but the life on that guitar, bass and drums speaks volumes, and not just in favor of the recording itself. “Writhing Mass” crashes into tempo changes and resolves itself in being both big and loud, and the space in the cymbals alone as it comes to its noisy finish hints at future incursions to be made. Lest we forget that Chicago birthed Pelican and Bongripper, among others, for the benefit of instrumental heavy worldwide. Sun King Ba have a ways to go before they’re added to that list, but there is intention being signaled here for those with ears to hear it.

Sun King Ba on Instagram

Sun King Ba on Bandcamp

 

Kenodromia, Kenodromia

Kenodromia Kenodromia EP

Despite the somewhat grim imagery on the cover art for Kenodromia‘s self-titled debut EP — a three-cut outing that marks a return to the band of vocalist Hilde Chruicshank after some stretch of absence during which they were known as Hideout — the Oslo, Norway, four-piece play heavy rock through and through on “Slandered,” “Corrupted” and “Bound,” with the bluesy fuzzer riffs and subtle psych flourishes of Eigil Nicolaisen‘s guitar backing Chruicshank‘s lyrics as bassist Michael Sindhu and drummer Trond Buvik underscore the “break free” moment in “Corrupted,” which feels well within its rights in terms of sociopolitical commentary ahead of the airier start of “Bound” after the relatively straightforward beginning that was “Slandered.” With the songs arranged shortest to longest, “Bound” is also the darkest in terms of atmosphere and features a more open verse, but the nod that defines the second half is huge, welcome and consuming even as it veers into a swaggering kind of guitar solo before coming back to finish. These players have been together one way or another for over 10 years, and knowing that, Kenodromia‘s overarching cohesion makes sense. Hopefully it’s not long before they turn attentions toward a first LP. They’re clearly ready.

Kenodromia on Facebook

Kenodromia on Bandcamp

 

Mezzoa, Dunes of Mars

Mezzoa Dunes of Mars

Mezzoa are the San Diego three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ignacio “El Falcone” Maldonado, bassist Q “Dust Devil” Pena (who according to their bio was created in the ‘Cholo Goth Universe,’ so yes, charm is a factor), and drummer Roy “Bam Bam” Belarmino, and the 13-track/45-minute Dunes of Mars is their second album behind 2017’s Astral Travel. They sound like a band who’ve been around for a bit, and indeed they have, playing in other bands and so on, but they’ve got their approach on lockdown and I don’t mean for the plague. The material here, whether it’s the Helmet-plus-melody riffing of “Tattoos and Halos” or the more languid roll of the seven-minute “Dunes of Mars” earlier on, is crisp and mature without sounding flat or staid creatively, and though they’re likened most to desert rock and one can hear that in the penultimate “Seized Up” a bit, there’s more density in the guitar and bass, and the immediacy of “Hyde” speaks of more urgent influences at work. That said, the nodding chill-and-chug of “Moya” is heavy whatever landscape you want to say birthed it, and with the movement into and out of psychedelic vibes, the land is something you’re just as likely to leave behind anyway. Hit me as a surprise. Don’t be shocked if you end up going back to check out the first record after.

Mezzoa on Facebook

Iron Head Records website

 

Stone Nomads, Fields of Doom

stone nomads fields of doom

Released through emergent Texas-based imprint Gravitoyd Heavy Music, Stone NomadsFields of Doom comprises six songs, five originals, and is accordingly somewhere between a debut full-length and an EP at half an hour long. The cover is a take on Saint Vitus‘ “Dragon Time,” and it rests well here as the closer behind the prior-released single “Soul Stealer,” as bassist Jude Sisk and guitarist Jon Cosky trade lead vocal duties while Dwayne Crosby furthers the underlying metallic impression on drums, pushing some double-kick gallop under the solo of “Fiery Sabbath” early on after the leadoff title-track lumbers and chugs and bell-tolls to its ending, heavy enough for heavy heads, aggro enough to suit your sneer, with maybe a bit of Type O Negative influence in the vocal. Huffing oldschool gasoline, Fields of Doom might prove too burled-out for some listeners, but the interlude “Winds of Barren Lands” and the vocal swaps mean that you’re never quite sure where they’re going to hit you next, even if you know the hit is coming, and even as “Soul Stealer” goes grandiose before giving way to the already-noted Vitus cover. And if you’re wondering, they nail the noise of the solo in that song, leaving no doubt that they know what they’re doing, with their own material or otherwise.

Stone Nomads on Facebook

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Bandcamp

 

Blind Mess, After the Storm

Blind Mess After the Storm

Drawing from various corners of punk, noise rock and heavy rock’s accessibility, Munich trio Blind Mess offer their third full-length in After the Storm, which is aptly-enough titled, considering. “Fight Fire with Fire” isn’t a cover, but the closing “What’s the Matter Man?” is, of Rollins Band, no less, and they arrive there after careening though a swath of tunes like “Twilight Zone,” “At the Gates” and “Save a Bullet,” which are as likely to be hardcore-born shove or desert-riffed melody, and in the last of those listed there, a little bit of both. To make matters more complicated, “Killing My Idols” leans into classic metal in its underlying riff as the vocals bark and its swing is heavy ’70s through and through. This aesthetic amalgam holds together in the toughguy march of “Sirens” as much as the garage-QOTSA rush of “Left to Do” and the dares-to-thrash finish of “Fight Fire with Fire” since the songs themselves are well composed and at 38 minutes they’re in no danger of overstaying their welcome. And when they get there, “What’s the Matter Man?” makes a friendly-ish-but-still-confrontational complemement to “Left to Do” back at the outset, as though to remind us that wherever they’ve gone over the course of the album between, it’s all been about rock and roll the whole time. So be it.

Blind Mess on Facebook

Deadclockwork Records website

 

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Swallow the Sun Post “This House Has No Home” Video; More Touring Announced

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

swallow the sun

Less than a week after punctuating a currently-in-progress round of European touring with fest appearances this Spring in the Czech Republic, Romania and Austria, Finland’s Swallow the Sun will return to North American shores in their full-on push to support their late-2021 album, Moonflowers (review here). It’s already their second US stint for the record behind a headlining run last Fall (review here), and they’ll be in the company of Portuguese legends Moonspell, which is nothing if not a good fit. I cannot imagine it’s the first time these two acts will have played together.

Look at that list of tour dates though. My goodness that’s a bit of loveliness to see, isn’t it? To help mark the occasion and provide me with an excuse to revisit Moonflowers this afternoon, Swallow the Sun have posted a brand new video for “This House Has No Home.” The imagery is suitably grim — a kind of Victorian/goth vibe for the protagonist in her admirably elaborate headdress — but if you haven’t heard the record in its entirety, “This House Has No Home” makes a resounding enticement. The closer of Moonflowers, it is the moment when at last Swallow the Sun answer back the melancholy tension they’ve been amassing all the while, blastbeats and blackened screams playing off the familiar downer melodies with an aplomb that has been rare over the course of the band’s arc to this point.

That is to say, it’s always been clear they could wreck shit like this, but they’ve rarely chosen to do so. The video is a welcome showcase moment for a song that earns its place as a standout. And if you’re on the fence about heading out to a show — these guys played Clifton, NJ, and brought an all-pro, kickass execution on a night when doing otherwise probably would’ve been easily justifiable — the possibility of this turning up in the set might just be enough to get you off the couch. It was for me, anyhow.

Enjoy:

Swallow the Sun, “This House Has No Home” official video

Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN release their new music video for “This House Has No Home”, from their recent full-length album Moonflowers. Watch the video, which was filmed, directed and edited by Vesa Ranta & Petri Marttinen from Kaira Films, HERE.

SWALLOW THE SUN have also just announced that they will be hitting the road in Europe and North America again. After a successful U.S. Winter tour in 2021, the band is happy and proud to announce a North American Tour with Moonspell and Witherfall. In addition to the tour North American tour, the band will also play shows in Finland this summer. For all who cannot wait that long, the band is currently on a European tour with Primordial and Rome, which started last Friday. Check out the full list of tour dates below and mark your calendars. For more information, head over to SWALLOW THE SUN’s Facebook page HERE.

SWALLOW THE SUN Tour Dates:
11.04. Southend, UK – Chinnery’s
12.04. Colmar, France – Le Grillen
13.04. Lyon, France – C :C :O Villeurbanne
14.04. Paris, France – La Machine du Moulin Rouche
15.04. Pratteln, Switzerland – Konzertfabrik Z7
16.04. Mannheim, Germany – Connexion Complex
17.04. München, Germany – Dark Easter Metal Meeting
18.04. Eindhoven, Netherlands – Effenaar
19.04. Berlin, Germany – Lido Berlin
20.04. Bremen, Germany – Modernes Bremen
21.04. Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset
22.04. Gothenburg, Sweden – Valand Nattklubb
23.04. Stockholm, Sweden – Slaktkyran
21.05. Tel Aviv, Israel – Gagarin Club
26.05. Oulu, Finland – Special
27.05. Tampere, Finland – Tullikamarin Pakkahuone
28.05. Jyväskylä, Finland – Lutakko
01.06. Helsinki, Finland – Tavastia
02.06. Kuopio, Finland – Sawohouse
03.06. Joensuu, Finland – Kerubi
04.06. Seinäjoki, Finland – Rytmikorjaamo
15.07. Gävle, Sweden – Gefle Metal Festival
12.08. Fortress Josefov, Czech Republic – Brutal Assault
13.08. Caransebes, Romania – Gugulan Rock Festival
19.08. Spital am Semmering, Austria – Kaltenbach Open Air
25.08. New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
26.08. Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
27.08. Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger
28.08. Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Heaven)
29.08. Orlando, FL – The Haven
31.08. Houston, TX – Scout Bar
01.09. Austin, TX – Come and Take it Live
02.09. Dallas, TX – Trees
03.09. StS HEADLINE SHOW w/ Witherfall, El Paso, TX – Rockhouse Bar & Grill
04.09. Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater
05.09. San Diego, CA – Brick by Brick
06.09. Los Angeles, CA – 1720
07.09. Sacramento, CA – Goldfield Trading Post
08.09. Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
09.09. Seattle, WA – Substation
11.09. Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
12.09 Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater
13.09. Joliet, IL – The Forge
14.09. Indianapolis, IN – Irving Theater
15.09. Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
16.09. Montreal, QC – Cafe Campus
17.09. Quebec City, QC – Source de la Martinière
18.09. Boston, MA – Middle East Downstairs
23.10. Istanbul, Turkey – Doom Over Istanbul

Swallow the Sun, Moonflowers (2021)

Swallow the Sun website

Swallow the Sun on Facebook

Swallow the Sun on Twitter

Century Media website

Century Media on Facebook

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Friday Full-Length: Strapping Young Lad, City

Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 10th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

This is my effort to wipe the slate clean in my own brain. City, released in 1997 by Vancouver’s Devin Townsend-led Strapping Young Lad through Century Media, deserves to be in conversation as one of the best metal records of all time. Shit, Gene Hoglan’s drums alone. But that’s not really why I’m listening to it. I’m listening to it because I’ve spent this entire week pissed off at myself, totally unmotivated to write, and I just want something to shake me out of my own head while at the same time pummeling my bones into powder. Accept no substitutes.

Yesterday was a 10-post day. That happened both because relevant news announcements kept coming and because I fucked up on TWO premieres. One I forgot about while putting the day together on Wednesday — had to write the piece Wednesday night after the kid went to bed, which is generally me-and-Patient-Mrs. time — and the other I had to do Thursday morning. Both pieces kind of sucked as a result, but what does it even matter? No one gives a shit. Bands got links to share on social media and a pullquote and there you go. Everybody moves on. Oh hey, there’s Crowbar announcing a record. That’s content!

But really, fuck content.

Except “Room 429.” That’s content I can get behind. And “All Hail the New Flesh,” I suppose. “Detox.” “Oh My Fucking God.” Fucking “AAA.” The rest.

I haven’t been doing the writing I’ve been wanting to do and I’m furious about it. More, I’m furious because I feel like I’m not doing it because I don’t have time. There’s so much shit I feel ‘obligated’ to post about — obligated to whom? for what reason? — that I can’t even keep up with. Today I wanted to review the new Spaceslug. It’s out today. I was going to premiere it at one point and then the band decided to go with someone else. Their prerogative. I’ve done strapping young lad cityplenty with Spaceslug over their years and will likely continue to. Can’t have ego about that shit or you’ll lose your mind (though I admit sometimes I take it personally; I’ve never been cool enough blah blah blah). I’d love to interview them about the record, actually. But I was going to review the album anyway for today and with all the extra crap held over from Wednesday to yesterday there was just no way to get it done.

Next week, you say? That’s the Quarterly Review. So much for any time for anything else, really, Monday to Friday — actually I already have an interview scheduled I’ll need to post at some point with Jon from Conan, assuming it happens — and then next weekend, as I should be starting work on my own Best of 2021 list and all that, I’m slated to do an in-studio for two days. That’ll be good for getting me out of the house — something I ALMOST did this week to go see All Them Witches and pulled out in the end — but leaves me otherwise lacking time. I am tired and burnt out wondering what the fuck I even bother doing any of this for? Free CDs sometimes? I’m 40 years old. Is this really going to be my life’s work? A fucking blog that hasn’t been updated since 2009? Do I really hate myself this much?

And I just got hit up for something next Wednesday that I can’t really say no to, so in addition to 10 short reviews of discs, that. Ugh.

I pitched a book project to Sound of Liberation for next year covering the entirety of the Truckfighters, Greenleaf and Asteroid 15-date tour in Europe. I don’t know what next year will bring in terms of festivals — if Roadburn will happen, if I’ll be invited, etc.; it’s a whole new world and generally shittier, so I’m not counting on anything — and who knows too what next summer will be like by the time Freak Valley, which I’m dying to get to and should’ve been to years ago already, happens. SOL said yes to the book, which would be made from posts and pics I’d put on this site, edited together as a volume and probably fleshed out a bit by me after the tour, and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty much hanging my hat on that possibility. That’s the thing I’m looking forward to. It feels just a little too much like a daydream to be real, and thus I am skeptical of its reality. Mighty tenuous.

It’s the holidays so of course everything is awful. The kid hates my guts, which is legit because I’m a prick. The Patient Mrs. is stressed about work and money, also legit because we’re paycheck-to-almost-paycheck forever. I want to go to bed for a month and not see or talk to anybody. I hate being in my skin. Tired, old, sad and angry. Damaged and helping nothing.

“So here’s all my hopes and aspirations/Nothing but puke.” God damn this record is amazing.

That’s enough. New Gimme show today. 5PM. Free. http://gimmemetal.com

New merch at MIBK. Sweatpants and dugouts and shirts. Not free. http://mibk.bigcartel.com/products

Great and safe weekend. Quarterly Review starts Monday. Five days, plus another five in January.

FRM.

The Obelisk Forum

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Live Review: Swallow the Sun in Clifton, NJ, 11.29.21

Posted in Reviews on November 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Swallow the Sun (Photo by JJ Koczan)

This was the first indoor show I attended since Jan. 2020, which is by far the longest stretch of my adult life. Probably and then some. I’ve never thought of Clifton, NJ, as my “safe space” over, say, the moon or anywhere else, but Swallow the Sun were supposed to play Dingbatz in that forgotten Spring of 2020, and I was looking forward to it since the announcement in Dec. 2019, so to see them now, almost two years and so many grey hairs later, feels a bit like symmetry in an asymmetrical time. To call it “post-pandemic” would only be wrong if one thinks about it in terms of the pandemic being over.

The last time I was at Dingbatz was probably over a decade ago. I don’t remember what or when. But the room was much as I remembered, and the bill — extra loaded with five bands, which was two locals on front of the three touring acts — was running late when I walked in. Abigail Williams was getting ready to go on, when according to the schedule I saw they should’ve been playing. Some things, then, never encounter variants. But I’ve always liked the place. Its silly bat mural was covered by Swallow the Sun‘s banner, if it’s still there at all.

Masks were rare. I had one and was warm with it on. Several others near me up front did too, and I was no less comforted by the fact that the dude to my right was also wearing sweatpants, though I didn’t see the name of his blog on the leg, which I’m not sure makes me better or worse off. Jersey metal holding its own on a Monday night. I missed Wilderun, but there was a momentary mosh while Abigail Williams played, which was adorable.

The four-piece were, incidentally, beset with technical difficulties from the outset. Before the outset, even. I kind of had the feeling when they threw up their hands and decided to go without the stage monitors that maybe it wasn’t going to be a career-highlight set for them. They ended up stopping what seemed to be early if it wasn’t, and were clearly frustrated. Sound was clipping, coming in and disappearing, vocals ultra-loud, then gone. On the way to the venue, the bluetooth in my car kept dropping out in the middle of songs. Frontman Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams sounded like that. No fault of his own.

I don’t imagine that’s easy for a band in any circumstances, let alone one who’ve been together for over 15 years, playing a tour that’s been delayed by more than a year. I felt for the dude. He said that if anyone wanted to hear the band sound much better, to make the short trip to New York for the next show. I wouldn’t be doing that, but I wondered whether one shitty Monday night on a long tour matters to someone who’s been doing it so long, or if a couple days from now it’ll be forgotten. I guess it depends on how sensitive you are generally, how much you can write that kind of thing off. Between the bands, Saliva‘s “Click Click Boom” played on repeat, and I was reminded a bit why I felt relief when lockdown started last March. Fate is a total asshole, if you believe in that kind of thing.

My alarm had gone off at 5:30AM. I am not in “show-shape,” as I otherwise might be, and I’ll admit to being distracted by folks wearing bare faces around me, considerations of scary headlines from reputable sources, sweating in my mask, feet sore after an embarrassingly short amount of time, breathing in the fog machine, clicking, clicking, booming. Swallow the Sun‘s setup took a while. I’ve had the same headache for four weeks running. Can’t remember when I inhaled that hammer. I wished I had a bottle of water. I had downed an extra pot of coffee to prepare for being awake later than 8:30PM. Canceled a dermatology appointment in the morning. Clear my calendar. Edna, hold all my calls.

The coffee might’ve made the difference in, say, my ability to remain standing as long as I did. Despite my bizarre-headspace, there were a couple genuine moments of communion when Swallow the Sun played. The room, packed at the start of the set, thinned out as it edged toward midnight, but cuts like “Falling World,” “Firelights,” “New Moon” and the pairing of “Woven into Sorrow” and “This House Has No Home” from the recently issued Moonflowers (review here) had heads banging in more than just my own languid doomer nod. People were going for it.

Those last two finished out a regular set that had led off with “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” and “The Enemy” from the same record, and I suppose that part of the challenge after 20 years is what to put in the set and what to leave out. I wouldn’t have minded “When a Shadow is Forced into the Light,” but you can’t have everything. The encore, with “Plague of Butterflies Pt. 2” and “Swallow,” was rightly and duly appreciated by those who remained, and I was one of them, though I’ll confess I’d moved to the back by then. No new album at the merch table. The live album, sure. Alas.

A show. With hoo-mans. I’ll spare you the list of gigs I’ve missed since concerts started happening in the face of covid, but there have been plenty. I don’t know if it was the fact that the band came from Finland to play Clifton or what, but there was something about this show that finally got me out of the house. Does that mean I’m about to become Johnny Outandabout? Yeah probably not. But this was a moment out of my own head that I haven’t had in too long and from here I’ll take it one at a time; show, day, minute. One thing — I was not surprised in the least to find out how much I’ve missed love music. I’ve known that all along.

Close eyes, pull out earplugs just a little bit for “Swallow” while they build that chug into sudden oblivion. “Thank you. Good night.” Indeed.

This tour rolls on — New York next, as Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams assured — and when it’s done, Swallow the Sun will go back to Europe for an even longer stretch there supporting Moonflowers. Who the hell knows if those dates will happen, and who the hell knows when I’ll get myself out again to another venue, another town, or hell, to Dingbatz again for who knows what. I certainly don’t. But at least for the next few minutes I’m not going to worry about it, because if there’s a lesson amid all the bullshit of the last two years, isn’t it to be thankful for what you have while you have it because it can all evaporate faster than you ever thought?

When the show was over, I went outside, took off my mask. Cold air on my face. Felt like I could breathe a little bit, you know?

Thanks for reading.

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Album Review: Swallow the Sun, Moonflowers

Posted in Reviews on November 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Swallow The Sun Moonflowers

Moonflowers is the eighth full-length from Jyväskylä, Finland-based Swallow the Sun, who’ve worked with Century Media since issuing their 2015 triple-album, Songs From the North I, II & III (review here). Comprised of founders Juha Raivio (guitar), Mikko Kotamaki (vocals) and Matti Honkonen (bass), as well as drummer Juuso Raatikainen, guitarist Juho Raiha, and keyboardist/backing vocalist Janni Peuhu (who’ll sit out the touring cycle for Moonflowers owing to commitments to his other band, Mercury Circle), they celebrated the band’s 20th anniversary earlier this year with the release of 20 Years of Gloom, Beauty and Despair: Live in Helsinki, captured at Tavastia Club in Feb. 2020, but Moonflowers feels no less like a victory lap when it comes to their stylistic accomplishments, sweeping grandiosity — looking at you, the solo in “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me” — emotive resonance and melding of slower extreme metal, death-doom and lush melodicism.

On paper, this has been their aesthetic foundation all along, since 2003’s The Morning Never Came brought such revitalizing energy to a modus that bands like Katatonia and My Dying Bride, even Paradise Lost, had largely left behind at that point, but it says little of the craft Swallow the Sun bring to their material, their refinement across offerings like 2005’s Ghosts of Loss, 2007’s Hope, 2009’s New Moon (review here) and 2012’s Emerald Forest and the Blackbird (discussed here) commitment to challenging themselves in songwriting and performance two decades on from their inception, and the ensuing influence they’ve had on European doom in doing so.

At 52:40, Moonflowers is the second-shortest album that Swallow the Sun have ever made by all of nine seconds — 2019’s When a Shadow is Forced into the Light (review here) ran 52:31 — but that brings into emphasis the efficiency of a track like second cut “Enemy” or the opening semi-titular “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” which vary in structure between gracefully flowing sections and smashes between loud/quiet tradeoffs, and along with the subsequent, longer “Woven into Sorrow” and “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me,” welcome the listener back into the morose world the band are so adept at creating.

What might seem like novelty, a bonus instrumental version of Moonflowers that features the orchestral sections of the tracks performed by Finland’s Trio NOX further serves to highlight Swallow the Sun‘s songwriting. “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” or the later “The Void” — which is plenty flowing in either incarnation — as even the melodies that in the “full” versions fill out and complement the songs prove memorable enough to stand on their own. On Moonflowers proper, it is the earlier tracks that do the bulk of the work in carrying forward the lasting impression; the choruses of “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery,” “Enemy” and “Woven into Sorrow” acting like the more straightforward fare ahead of the atmospheric side B that begins with “All Hallows’ Grieve,” which features Oceans of Slumber vocalist Cammie Gilbert alongside Kotamaki, and continues into “The Void” and “The Fight of Your Life” ahead of the striking, black metal-adjacent finish of “This House Has No Home,” which is something of a sucker-punch after the immersion preceding.

Swallow The Sun

In the overarching structure, Moonflowers doesn’t operate so differently from When a Shadow is Forced into the Light, but where there it was the opening title-track as the standout, here the material after lives up to the high standard that “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” sets. “Enemy” hits hard at the outset but sets its course initially led by the melody before the crash cymbal and the growling prechorus take hold, shifting to the hook itself, which is also clean-sung. The growl of Kotamaki and his arrangements of melodic and brutal vocals aren’t to be understated when it comes to the crucial aspects of Swallow the Sun. On “Woven into Sorrow,” he moves between a verse that brings to mind the Queensrÿche radio hit “Silent Lucidity” and a set back chorus, building to an eventual release of tension in the second half that is a defining moment for the record as a whole, let alone the first four of its eight component pieces.

It’s worth noting that the vinyl edition of Moonflowers breaks down across four sides with two songs each. As to how flipping platters between “Enemy” and “Woven into Sorrow” or “The Void” and “The Fight of Your Life” might change the listening experience, I can’t say, but the linear progression from the first half of the album into the second is such that Swallow the Sun effectively lead their audience farther down a path until the forceful delivery of “This House Has No Home” acts as a lash-out payoff for everything that preceded it.

That the band remain so identifiably themselves across the span of Moonflowers is a joy and a triumph in itself, if perhaps an expected one given that they are 20 years on from first getting together. Whatever the format in which one might encounter it, what Moonflowers adds to Swallow the Sun‘s legacy, pedigree or whatever you want to call it is another representative forward step in their steady growth. They are not revolutionizing their sound or the genre as a whole — they weren’t the first in their style by any means — but they have over time made themselves a standard-bearer in melodic death-doom precisely because of efforts like this, and the reward for the listener comes in letting go and trusting the band to lead the experience as they do.

Because there isn’t really an aspect of Swallow the Sun that’s left to chance at this point, but for every layer of depth in the mix of a track like “The Fight of Your Life” and for every fluid shift in “Woven into Misery,” the construction supporting it is likewise thoughtful and complete. There is never a doubt as to the band’s control of the procession — that’s not to say “dirge,” but one could — and whether one engages with it on the level of mood or simply delights in the cathartic pummel of its heaviest stretches, Moonflowers is a stirring reminder of why Swallow the Sun have endured as long as they have and why they’ll hopefully continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Swallow the Sun, “Woven into Sorrow” official video

Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video

Swallow the Sun website

Swallow the Sun on Facebook

Swallow the Sun on Twitter

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Swallow the Sun Announce US Tour Dates; “Woven Into Sorrow” Video Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 4th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Swallow The Sun

Before everything went to shit, I was going to go see Swallow the Sun at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey. And after the pandemic hit and of course the tour got canceled like everything else, I thought to myself, “well there’s no way that chance will ever come again. A band coming from Finland to play 20 minutes from my house at a club with a big goofy bat painted on the back of the stage.”

And here we are. I’ll be honest, playing Dingbatz, on a weeknight, a few days after Thanksgiving, does not sound to me like it’s going to be a banger night for the tour. Maybe not packed. But you know what? I’m gonna go. I’ll probably buy merch too, unless it’s all longsleeves or whatever. I’ll go because it’s a show the loss of which I was feeling for more than a year (yes, really; I’ve been listening to this band since their first record) and because they have a new album coming out and I’m looking forward to that too. There’s a video for one of the songs at the bottom of this post. It sounds a little like Queensryche early on, but they do well with it.

So yeah. I’m glad this tour and this show are happening:

swallow the sun tour poster

SWALLOW THE SUN ANNOUNCES U.S. MOONFLOWERS TOUR 2021

PRE-ORDER THEIR FORTHCOMING ALBUM MOONFLOWERS HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Moonflowers

Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN, have just announced their Moonflowers Tour 2021, which will included support slots from Abigail Williams and Wilderun. The band will be touring the U.S. starting November 20th in Mesa, AZ and wrapping on December 19th in West Hollywood, CA. Tickets are available for purchase, HERE: https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun

SWALLOW THE SUN will be on tour supporting their forthcoming full-length album, Moonflowers, which will be released worldwide via Century Media Records on November 19th. Moonflowers will be available as Ltd. Deluxe sky blue 3LP+2CD & Art Print Box Set, Ltd. 2CD Mediabook, Gatefold black 2LP+CD and digital album (incl. Bonus album) and can be pre-ordered, HERE: https://swallowthesun.lnk.to/Moonflowers

Just last week, the band released their first track and music video off the album for “Woven Into Sorrow”. “Woven Into Sorrow” is the first heavy version to be released off the record, as the band already released classical editions of the songs featured on Moonflowers. Check out all of the released classical/instrumental Trio N O X versions of tracks off Moonflowers for “Moonflowers Bloom In Misery – Classical Version”, “Enemy – Classical Version”, “Woven Into Sorrow – Classical Version”, “Keep Your Heart Safe From Me – Classical Version”, “All Hallows’ Grieve – Classical Version”, “The Void – Classical Version”, “The Fight Of Your Life”, and “This House Has No Home”.

SWALLOW THE SUN U.S. TOUR DATES:
w/Abigail Williams and Wilderun
November 20 – Mesa, AZ – Nile Theater*
November 21 – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad*
November 22 – Dallas, TX – Trees*
November 23 – Austin, TX – Come and Take it Live*
November 24 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar
November 26 – Orlando, FL – The Haven
November 27 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
November 28 – Baltimore, MD – Angels Rock Bar
November 29 – Clifton, NJ – Dingbatz
November 30 – Brooklyn NY – The Monarch
December 1 – Montreal, QC – Cafe Campus
December 2 – Quebec City, QC – La Source de la Martiniere
December 3 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
December 4 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
December 5 – Detroit, MI – The Sanctuary
December 6 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Crafthouse
December 7 – Joliet, IL – The Forge
December 8 – Madison, WI – The Crucible
December 9 – Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze
December 10 – Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
December 11 – Denver, CO – Herman’s Hideaway
December 12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Liquid Joe’s
December 14 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
December 15 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
December 16 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
December 17 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Upstairs
December 18 – Santa Ana, CA – Stages
December 19 – West Hollywood, CA – Whiskey A Go-Go
*no Abigail Williams

2022
Jan-24 München, DE – Backstage (Halle)
Jan-25 Ljubljana, SLO – Orto Bar
Jan-26 Milano, IT – Legend Club
Jan-27 Montpellier, FR – Secret Place
Jan-28 Barcelone, ES – Bóveda
Jan-29 Madrid, ES – Sala, Caracol
Jan-30 Toulouse, FR – Le Rex
Jan-31 Lyon, FR – CCO Villeurbanne
Feb-01 Paris, FR – Backstage
Feb-02 Köln, DE – Essigfabrik
Feb-03 Bochum, DE – Matrix
Feb-04 Copenhagen, DK – Pumpehuset
Feb-05 Stockholm, SE – Nalen
Feb-06 Oslo, NO – Parkteatret
Feb-07 Götebord, SE – Valand
Feb-08 Hamburg, DE – Headcrash
Feb-09 Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz
Feb-10 Luzern, CH – Schüür
Feb-11 Martigny, CH – Caves Du Manoir
Feb-12 Meyrin, CH – Undertown
Feb-13 Nantes, FR – Le Ferrailleur
Feb-14 London, UK – Underworld
Feb-15 Glasgow, UK – Slay

SWALLOW THE SUN is Mikko Kotamaki (vocals), Matti Honkonen (bass), Juuso Raatikainen (drums), Juho Raiha (guitars), and Juha Raivio (guitars).

http://www.swallowthesun.net
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
http://www.centurymedia.com/
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia

Swallow the Sun, “Woven into Sorrow” official video

Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video

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Swallow the Sun Announce Moonflowers LP out Nov. 19

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Swallow The Sun band painting

How do you make a new Swallow the Sun album even more melancholy? Add a bonus version of the songs redone in string arrangements, I’d think should do it. Such is the case with the long-running Finnish death-doomers’ upcoming work, Moonflowers — which is about the most Swallow the Sun-esque thing I can think of for them to call a record — which is set to release on Nov. 19. They’ve linked up with Trio NOX, also from Finland, and are going to be piecemealing out one instrumental track at a time in a series of animated videos ahead of the first single from the album proper, which is a pretty clever way to build momentum leading up to a release when, say, you can’t tour.

Oh, and apparently the moon on the album cover is painted in guitarist Juha Raivio‘s blood. Maybe that’s true, maybe not, but it’s a fun claim to make either way. I know you don’t really care, but this band is great.

The PR wire has all the preliminaries and release dates and thisses and thatses. Dig:

Swallow The Sun Moonflowers

SWALLOW THE SUN ANNOUNCES NEW STUDIO ALBUM ‘MOONFLOWERS’

BAND ANNOUNCES BONUS INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM; WATCH “MOONFLOWERS BLOOM IN MISERY”

Finnish death doom masters, SWALLOW THE SUN, announce their new album Moonflowers. The album, which they have written, recorded and mixed is set for release on November 19th, 2021.

SWALLOW THE SUN will also be releasing a bonus album featuring instrumental versions of all the regular album tracks off Moonflowers. The instrumental album has been composed for strings and was recorded at Sipoo Church in Finland. The strings were performed by the group called “Trio NOX” from Finland. Watch the animated video for “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery”, the first instrumental version and animated video released off the forthcoming bonus album, HERE. Each instrumental song will have an animated video, which were created by Dronicon Films, released every week, leading up to the first single release of the main album.

“I know well that I should not say this, but I deeply hate this album. I hate where it takes me, how it makes me feel and what it stands for me personally. I wish it wouldn’t. But for all its honesty I got no option than also love it. That is all that matters to me with the music anyway and it doesn’t matter how it makes me feel, as long as it does. For me this album is like a mirror of a deep self-disappointment. Even I still want to believe that there is and could be more than this in me. But I don’t need or want to talk more about it. After all music means so different things to each one of us by how we have walked our own paths, and that is a beautiful thing about music. There is no right or wrong,” states SWALLOW THE SUN guitarist Juha Raivio.

“After I had finished writing all the music for this record in the fall of 2020 I started to write these small instrumental versions of the album songs for the violin, viola, cello and piano. Mostly because I was wondering how it would feel like to hear all these songs first as these intimate versions instead of a full band album. It was really beautiful to see and hear these songs come alive in this way and form, recorded live in this big church in Finland. To be able to hear the echoes of this music reflecting from the church walls and feel the very soul of these old wooden instruments played by real people in this sacred place. Something about hearing the strings breathe this fragile beauty into these songs that carry so much pain otherwise. Now looking back, maybe I wrote these versions just for myself to be able to hear and feel at least some kind of a beauty and solace in these songs, maybe…

I wanted to create the cover art of this album myself this time, so it would stand as brutally honest for me as the music is. So I painted the moon on the ‘Moonflowers‘ cover with my own blood and I decorated it with the flowers I picked up and dried on the spring of 2016. Maybe it isn’t the most outstanding looking piece of art ever made in this world, but for me it is everything. I wasn’t going to write any new music before I would have moved towards the right direction in my life, but finally all this music just forced itself out of me during the long nights of this hope crushing and neverending lockdown prison. Something grew out from that void eventually and writing these songs made me think a lot about moonflowers that bloom at the darkest hour of the night, so that name felt right to call the album also.”

Moonflowers tracklist:
1. Moonflowers Bloom In Misery
2. Enemy
3. Woven Into Sorrow
4. Keep Your Heart Safe From Me
5. All Hallows’ Grieve (Featuring Cammie Gilbert)
6. The Void
7. The Fight Of Your Life
8. This House Has No Home

Raivio further states, “In other news, unfortunately our busy brother Jaani will step aside from the band at least for this new album cycle, but we are happy to tell that you can hear Jaani’s backing vocals on the new album anyway.”

Jaani Peuhu adds, “Sadly, COVID-19 messed up everything including the release schedules of my bands. Both the Mercury Circle and Swallow The Sun albums are being released at the same time, making it impossible for me to tour with both bands. For this reason, I decided that it’d be better for me to solely focus on MC for this release cycle. That being said, the upcoming Swallow The Sun album will be amazing, and I am so happy we could still do it together. I wish the best of luck to StS on their tour with it!”

Band painting by Doppelganger-Art

SWALLOW THE SUN is Mikko Kotamaki (vocals), Matti Honkonen (bass), Juuso Raatikainen (drums), Jaani Peuhu (keys and vocals), Juho Raiha (guitars), and Juha Raivio (guitars).

http://www.swallowthesun.net
https://www.facebook.com/swallowthesun
http://www.centurymedia.com/
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia

Swallow the Sun via Trio NOX, “Moonflowers Bloom in Misery” official video

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Friday Full-Length: Celtic Frost, Monotheist

Posted in Bootleg Theater on July 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

What a record. I know Celtic Frost‘s legacy was already long since set by the time they returned to do Monotheist in 2006, and that their earlier works in 1984’s Morbid Tales EP, 1985’s debut album, To Mega Therion, and 1987’s Into the Pandemonium — not to mention what Thomas Gabriel Fischer and Martin Eric Ain had done previously in Hellhammer — had already cast them as one of the formative units not just of black metal, but of a new kind of heavy darkness in general. But 15 years later and long since the band fell apart all over again, Monotheist still resonates, and it’s still so goddamned dense. Thick to the point of making it difficult to move through. Righteous in the challenge it issued to its audience. Righteous in its unmitigated grandiosity. Righteous in its crush, righteous in its indulgent use of space and ambience. Righteous in its heft and heavy in its righteousness.

Fischer had gotten divorced in 2004, and that may well have played into some of the spit in his vocal approach on songs like “Progeny” or “Domain of Decay,” though as I recall many of these songs were older at least in their foundation. The CD came with extensive liner notes — a band putting out their first LP in 16 wanting to be understood are well within their rights to do so — with Ain and Fischer, sometimes opaque, sometimes straightforward, talking about the whens and wheres. If you got the digipak, it came with the extra track “Temple of Depression,” which is a welcome speedier thrust between “Os Abysmi vel Daath” and “Obscured,” but listening back to Monotheist now, I wonder if the album isn’t best served as a double-vinyl. Certainly CDs were already in decline in 2006 and now-clunky-looking iPods were high fashion, but vinyl had yet to make its mass-market comeback as the dominant physical format, but Monotheist works exceedingly well with breaks.

Part of that is the aforementioned density. Celtic Frost‘s sound is about more than just the chug of their riffs, and they never hit harder or certainly with more elaborate produciton behind them than they did on Monotheist, making their atmospheres all the more consuming. The 2LP edition traded out “Temple of Depression” for the more atmospheric “Incantation Against You,” with guest lead vocals by Simone Vollenweider — a performance worthy of the investment that was also a bonus track on the Japanese edition CD; you could go nuts keeping it all straight — but the way that the songs split up into sides highlights the natural flow from one movement into the next, the album working in stages until finding its culmination in “Triptych I: Totengott,” the 14-minute “Triptych II: Synagoga Satanae” and “Triptych III: Winter (Requiem, Chapter Three: Finale),” the last a four-minute orchestral instrumental answer back to previous Celtic Frost works that would be a fitting culmination to Celtic Frost‘s career even if they didn’t know it at the time.

The initial salvo of “Progeny,” “Ground” and “Dying God Coming into Human Flesh” is unfuckwithable. The immediacy of the first, the still-catchy crush of the second and the ambience of the third — it sets the stage perfectly for Celtic Frost Monotheisteverything Celtic Frost and their vast array of guests, engineers, session players, etc. will offer throughout, the actual band involved being Fischer, Ain, drummer Franco Sesa and guitarist Erol Unala. Ain and Fischer sharing vocal duties on “A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh” particularly, in how it pushes wider the context of the listening experience, is a thing to be treasured in the message it sends to the audience. As heavy and as bludgeoning as Monotheist is, it stretches no less wide as it goes deeper.

And deeper is exactly where the LP version heads on side B, with “Drown in Ashes” bringing in guest singer Lisa Middelhauve (Xandria) in a grim duet with Fischer ahead of the return to harsh doom chug in “Os Abysmi vel Daath” — a landmark hook in any language — and the spacious, patient “Obscured,” again with Vollenweider turning in an emotive performance alongside Fischer, the two touching on harmony even as the distortion builds behind them. “Incantation Against You,” though it starts the next platter, builds in turn on that, with “Domain of Decay” bringing a return of sheer aural force for a quick four and a half minutes before “Ain Elohim” offers as pure a take on Satanism as I’ve ever encountered: “There is no god but the one that dies with me,” along with a stretch of pure avant garde metal that’s outside genre even as the band helped define it.

While we’re pushing boundaries, “Totengott” feels prescient 15 years later with its Ain-led ambient black metal, while “Synagoga Satanae” brings the summary of the proceedings — including co-producer Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain, etc.) on backing vocals — as a whole and “Winter (Requiem, Chapter Three: Finale)” serves as epilogue, a final, ultra-purposeful three-part ending that especially isolated on side D of the 2LP version underscores the strength of intention behind everything happening on Monotheist.

This is the kind of record a band does once in a career. It is all-consuming, an utter creative blowout, and in hindsight, it’s not surprising they didn’t make another. It’s not so much that they couldn’t have topped it — I won’t say a negative word about what Fischer has gone on to do in Triptykon in carrying forward what Celtic Frost established here, up to and including the 2020 live record from Roadburn 2019 completing Celtic Frost‘s “Requiem” — but it seems ludicrous now to think they would’ve done anything else. How could they? What’s left after you’ve already dug to the marrow of yourself and presented it to your listener? Sometimes there’s just nothing more that needs to be said.

Beautiful, genuinely engrossing, punishing, Monotheist is a museum piece for what heavy metal can be. That’s not what everyone will want from a given listening experience, but the last statement Celtic Frost would make was that if you weren’t going to meet them at their level, then you were only going to be obliterated for standing in their way, even at the cost of obliterating themselves.

One of the best albums the aughts had to offer, and of course rest in peace Martin Eric Ain, who passed away in 2017.

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

I’m having dental surgery on Monday. They’re putting a screw in the hole in my mouth here a molar was until I had it pulled, with an eventual eye toward a dental implant. I guess the screw will be an improvement over the presently empty spot, though that’s been an interesting experience. They had to take the tooth out in pieces it was so dug in, did a good amount of bone graft with some magical science pellets. I anticipate having a rod screwed into my jawline will present some discomfort. I don’t expect it to interrupt the flow of the Quarterly Review, and that and passive interest-in-what’s-gonna-happen is about the extent of my feelings on the matter, apart from the general nervousness about leaving the house, doing a thing, and so on.

Fucking Celtic Frost, man. How good is that record? I got to interview Martin Ain and Tom Fischer when they played New York on tour, in-person, and it was fucking awesome. They had rented an apartment downtown and then later that night they demolished B.B. King’s in Midtown Manhattan, and it was well worth breaking my blood oath never to go to Midtown. That room was pure love, despite the blanket of bleakness cast over the entire proceedings. So heavy. I just looked to see if there was any audio or video of it on YouTube, and there isn’t, but if you want to go down a rabbit hole, there’s plenty of older live stuff there.

This week brought the exhale that was being able to send The Pecan to daycamp for three hours every day. An easy pattern to fall into, thanks largely to the fact that he was in preschool before. We dropped him off a bit ago, in fact. He didn’t even look back at us as he went through the door, so I guess he likes it well enough. Very good.

That three-hour respite is huge, from 8:30-11:30. It allowed me to do the Quarterly Review this week while staying sane in the process, and since he still takes a rest in the afternoon — sometimes he naps, but mostly he just goes up to his room and farts around making various degrees of noise in unsupervised but contained fashion — I had some time to unwind, read a book, which is massive as far as my general quality of life goes.

I’m reading Star Trek books, as usual, a three-part series called ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ about Jim Kirk and Gary Mitchell, who dies in the (second) pilot of The Original Series, about how they’re best friends and Kirk has to deal with the fallout of having to kill Mitchell after he becomes a megalomaniac with godlike powers. You’d want to retcon it now making him a malevolent Q. And by you, I mean me, in fan-fic. As regards brain power, though, it’s this or that, and I’m better off here.

But that impulse is there for sure.

Come hang out in the Facebook group. It’s getting to be a whole thing.

New Gimme show today, as previously noted. You can listen free: https://gimmeradio.com. 5PM Eastern. Lotsa Neurosis, little bit of me talking about how good Neurosis are. Good fun.

That’s about all I’ve got. Thanks again to everybody who’s snagged some of the new merch. Thinking it might be time to end the run in another week or so, just because I’m starting to feel like a shill plugging it, but please know that your support is sincerely appreciated. Much love.

Great and safe weekend. Hydrate, watch your head, all that stuff. Have fun.

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