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Quarterly Review: Monkey3, The Quill, Nebula Drag, LLNN & Sugar Horse, Fuzzter, Cold in Berlin, The Mountain King, Witchorious, Skull Servant, Lord Velvet

Posted in Reviews on February 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

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Day four of five puts the end of this Quarterly Review in sight, as will inevitably happen. We passed the halfway point yesterday and by the time today’s done it’s the home stretch. I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s been a lot — and in terms of the general work level of the day, today’s my busiest day; I’ve got Hungarian class later and homework to do for that, and two announcements to write in addition to this, one for today one for tomorrow, and I need to set up the back end of another announcement for Friday if I can. The good news is that my daughter seems to be over the explosive-vomit-time stomach bug that had her out of school on Monday. The better news is I’ve yet to get that.

But if I’m scatterbrained generally and sort of flailing, well, as I was recently told after I did a video interview and followed up with the artist to apologize for my terribleness at it, at least it’s honest. I am who I am, and I think that there are places where people go and things people do that sometimes I have a hard time with. Like leaving the house. And parenting. And interviewing bands, I guess. Needing to plow through 10 reviews today and tomorrow should be a good exercise in focusing energy, even if that isn’t necessarily getting the homework done faster. And yeah, it’s weird to be in your 40s and think about homework. Everything’s weird in your 40s.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Monkey3, Welcome to the Machine

monkey3 welcome to the machine

What are Monkey3 circa 2024 if not a name you can trust? The Swiss instrumental four-piece are now more than 20 years removed from their 2003 self-titled debut, and Welcome to the Machine — their seventh album and fourth release on Napalm Records (three studio, one live) — brings five new songs across 46 minutes of stately progressive heavy craft, with the lead cut “Ignition” working into an early gallop before cutting to ambience presumably as a manifestation of hitting escape velocity and leaving the planetary atmosphere, and trading from there between longer (10-plus-minute) and shorter (six- and seven-minute) pieces that are able to hit with a surprising impact when they so choose. Second track “Collision” comes to crush in a way that even 2019’s Sphere (review here) didn’t, and to go with its methodical groove, heavy post-rock airiness and layered-in acoustic guitar, “Kali Yuga” (10:01) is tethered by a thud of drums that feels no less the point of the thing than the mood-aura in the largesse that surrounds. Putting “Rackman” (7:13, with hints of voice or keyboard that sounds like it), which ends furiously, and notably cinematic closer “Collapse” (12:51) together on side B is a distinct immersion, and the latter places Monkey3 in a prog-metal context that defies stylistic expectation even as it lives up to the promise of the band’s oeuvre. Seven records and more than two decades on, and Monkey3 are still evolving. This is a special band, and in a Europe currently awash in heavy instrumentalism of varying degrees of psychedelia, it’s hard to think of Monkey3 as anything other than aesthetic pioneers.

Monkey3 on Facebook

Napalm Records website

The Quill, Wheel of Illusion

the quill wheel of illusion

With its Sabbath-born chug and bluesy initial groove opening to NWOBHM grandeur at the solo, the opening title-track is quick to reassure that Sweden’s The Quill are themselves on Wheel of Illusion, even if the corresponding classic metal elements there a standout from the more traditional rock of “Elephant Head” with its tambourine, or the doomier roll in “Sweet Mass Confusion,” also pointedly Sabbathian and thus well within the wheelhouse of guitarist Christian Carlsson, vocalist Magnus Ekwall, bassist Roger Nilsson and drummer Jolle Atlagic. While most of Wheel of Illusion is charged in its delivery, the still-upbeat “Rainmaker” feels like a shift in atmosphere after the leadoff and “We Burn,” and atmospherics come more into focus as the drums thud and the strings echo out in layers as “Hawks and Hounds” builds to its ending. While “The Last Thing” works keyboard into its all-go transition into nodding capper “Wild Mustang,” it’s the way the closer seems to encapsulate the album as a whole and the perspective brought to heavy rock’s founding tenets that make The Quill such reliable purveyors, and Wheel of Illusion comes across like special attention was given to the arrangements and the tightness of the songwriting. If you can’t appreciate kickass rock and roll, keep moving. Otherwise, whether it’s your first time hearing The Quill or you go back through all 10 of their albums, they make it a pleasure to get on board.

The Quill on Facebook

Metalville Records website

Nebula Drag, Western Death

Nebula Drag Western Death

Equal parts brash and disillusioned, Nebula Drag‘s Dec. 2023 LP, Western Death, is a ripper whether you’re dug into side ‘Western’ or side ‘Death.’ The first half of the psych-leaning-but-more-about-chemistry-than-effects San Diego trio’s third album offers the kind of declarative statement one might hope, with particular scorch in the guitar of Corey Quintana, sway and ride in Stephen Varns‘ drums and Garrett Gallagher‘s Sabbathian penchant for working around the riffs. The choruses of “Sleazy Tapestry,” “Kneecap,” “Side by Side,” “Tell No One” and the closing title-track speak directly to the listener, with the last of them resolved, “Look inside/See the signs/Take what you can,” and “Side by Side” a call to group action, “We don’t care how it gets done/Helpless is the one,” but there’s storytelling here too as “Tell No One” turns the sold-your-soul-to-play-music trope and turns it on its head by (in the narrative, anyhow) keeping the secret. Pairing these ideas with Nebula Drag‘s raw-but-not-sloppy heavy grunge, able to grunge-crunch on “Tell No One” even as the vocals take on more melodic breadth, and willing to let it burn as “Western Death” departs its deceptively angular riffing to cap the 34-minute LP with the noisy finish it has by then well earned.

Nebula Drag on Facebook

Desert Records store

LLNN & Sugar Horse, The Horror bw Sleep Paralysis Demon

LLNN Sugar Horse The Horror Sleep Paralysis Demon

Brought together for a round of tour dates that took place earlier this month, Pelagic Records labelmates LLNN (from Copenhagen) and Sugar Horse (from Bristol, UK) each get one track on a 7″ side for a showcase. Both use it toward obliterating ends. LLNN, who are one of the heaviest bands I’ve ever seen live and I’m incredibly grateful for having seen them live, dig into neo-industrial churn on “The Horror,” with stabbing synth later in the procession that underscores the point and less reliance on tonal onslaught than the foreboding violence of the atmosphere they create. In response, Sugar Horse manage to hold back their screams and lurching full-bore bludgeonry for nearly the first minute of “Sleep Paralysis Demon” and even after digging into it dare a return to cleaner singing, admirable in their restraint and more effectively tense for it when they push into caustic sludge churn and extremity, space in the guitar keeping it firmly in the post-metal sphere even as they aim their intent at rawer flesh. All told, the platter is nine of probably and hopefully-for-your-sake the most brutal minutes you might experience today, and thus can only be said to accomplish what it set out to do as the end product sounds like two studios would’ve needed rebuilding afterward.

LLNN on Facebook

Sugar Horse on Facebook

Pelagic Records website

Fuzzter, Pandemonium

fuzzter pandemonium

Fuzzter aren’t necessarily noisy in terms of playing noise rock on Pandemonium, but from the first cymbal crashes after the Oppenheimer sample at the start of “Extinción,” the Peruvian outfit engage an uptempo heavy psych thrust that, though directed, retains a chaotic aspect through the band’s willingness to be sound if not actually be reckless, to gang shout before the guitars drift off in “Thanatos,” to be unafraid of being eaten by their own swirl in “Caja de Pandora” or to chug with a thrashy intensity at the start of closer “Tercer Ojo,” doom out massive in the song’s middle, and float through jazzy minimalism at the finish. But even in that, there are flashes, bursts that emphasize the unpredictability of the songs, which is an asset throughout what’s listed as the Lima trio’s third EP but clocks in at 36 minutes with the instrumental “Purgatorio,” which starts off like it might be an interlude but grows more furious as its five minutes play out, tucked into its center. If it’s a short release, it is substantial. If it’s an album, it’s substantial despite a not unreasonable runtime. Ultimately, whatever they call it is secondary to the space-metal reach and the momentum fostered across its span, which just might carry you with it whether or not you thought you were ready to go.

Fuzzter on Facebook

Fuzzter on Instagram

Cold in Berlin, The Body is the Wound

cold in berlin the body is the wound

The listed representation of dreams in “Dream One” adds to the concrete severity of Cold in Berlin‘s dark, keyboard-laced post-metallic sound, but London-based four-piece temper that impact with the post-punk ambience around the shove of the later “Found Out” on their The Body is the Wound 19-minute four-songer, and build on the goth-ish sway even as “Spotlight” fosters a heavier, more doomed mindset behind vocalist Maya, whose verses in “When Did You See Her Last” are complemented by dramatic lines of keyboard and who can’t help but soar even as the overarching direction is down, down, down into either the subconscious referenced in “Dream One” or some other abyss probably of the listener’s own making. Five years and one actual-plague after their fourth full-length, 2019’s Rituals of Surrender, bordering on 15 since the band got their start, they cast resonance in mood as well as impact (the latter bolstered by Wayne Adams‘ production), and are dynamic in style as well as volume, with each piece on The Body is the Wound working toward its own ends while the EP’s entirety flows with the strength of its performances. They’re in multiple worlds, and it works.

Cold in Berlin on Facebook

Cold in Berlin website

The Mountain King, Apostasyn

the mountain king apostasyn

With the expansive songwriting of multi-instrumentalist/sometimes-vocalist Eric McQueen at its core, The Mountain King issue Apostasyn as possibly their 10th full-length in 10 years and harness a majestic, progressive doom metal that doesn’t skimp either on the doom or the metal, whether that takes the form of the Type O Negative-style keys in “The White Noise From God’s Radio” or the tremolo guitar in the apex of closer “Axolotl Messiah.” The title-track is a standout for more than just being 15 minutes long, with its death-doom crux and shifts between minimal and maximal volumes, and the opening “Dødo” just before fosters immersion after its maybe-banging-on-stuff-maybe-it’s-programmed intro, with a hard chug answered in melody by guest singer Julia Gusso, who joins McQueen and the returning Frank Grimbarth (also guitar) on vocals, while Robert Bished adds synth to McQueen‘s own. Through the personnel changes and in each piece’s individual procession, The Mountain King are patient, waiting in the dark for you to join them. They’ll probably just keep basking in all that misery until you get there, no worries. Oh, and I’ll note that the download version of Apostasyn comes with instrumental versions of the four tracks, in case you’d really like to lose yourself in ruminating.

The Mountain King on Facebook

The Mountain King on Bandcamp

Witchorious, Witchorious

WITCHORIOUS SELF TITLED

The self-titled debut from Parisian doomers Witchorious is distinguished by its moments of sludgier aggression — the burly barks in “Monster” at the outset, and so on — but the chorus of “Catharsis” that rises from the march of the verse offers a more melodic vision, and the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antoine Auclair, bassist/vocalist Lucie Gaget and drummer Paul Gaget, continue to play to multiple sides of a modern metal and doom blend, while “The Witch” adds vastness and roll to its creeper-riff foundation. The guitar-piece “Amnesia” serves as an interlude ahead of “Watch Me Die” as Witchorious dig into the second half of the album, and as hard has that song comes to hit — plenty — the character of the band is correspondingly deepened by the breadth of “To the Grave,” which follows before the bonus track “Why” nod-dirges the album’s last hook. There’s clarity in the craft throughout, and Witchorious seem aware of themselves in stylistic terms if not necessarily writing to style, and noteworthy as it is for being their first record, I look forward to hearing how they refine and sharpen the methods laid out in these songs. The already-apparent command with which they direct the course here isn’t to be ignored.

Witchorious on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

Skull Servant, Traditional Black Magicks II

skull servant traditional black magicks ii

Though their penchant for cult positioning and exploitation-horror imagery might lead expectations elsewhere, North Carolinian trio Skull Servant present a raw, sludge-rocking take on their second LP, Traditional Black Magicks II, with bassist Noah Terrell and guitarist Calvin Bauer reportedly swapping vocal duties per song across the five tracks while drummer Ryland Dreibelbis gives fluidity to the current of distortion threaded into “Absinthe Dreams,” which is instrumental on the album but newly released as a standalone single with vocals. I don’t know if the wrong version got uploaded or what — Bauer ends up credited with vocals that aren’t there — but fair enough. A meaner, punkier stonerism shows itself as “Poison the Unwell” hints at facets of post-hardcore and “Pergamos,” the two shortest pieces placed in front of the strutting “Lucifer’s Reefer” and between that cut and the Goatsnake-via-Sabbath riffing of “Satan’s Broomstick.” So it could be that Skull Servant, who released the six-song outing on Halloween 2023, are still sorting through where they want to be sound-wise, or it could be they don’t give a fuck about genre convention and are gonna do whatever they please going forward. I won’t predict and I’m not sure either answer is wrong.

Skull Servant on Facebook

Skull Servant on Bandcamp

Lord Velvet, Astral Lady

lord velvet astral lady

Notice of arrival is served as Lord Velvet dig into classic vibes and modern heft on their late 2023 debut EP, Astral Lady, to such a degree that I actually just checked their social media to see if they’d been signed yet before I started writing about them. Could happen, and probably will if they want it to, considering the weight of low end and the flowing, it’s-a-vibe-man vibe, plus shred, in “Lament of Io” and the way they make that lumber boogie through (most of) “Snakebite Fever.” Appearing in succession, “Night Terrors” and “From the Deep” channel stoned Iommic revelry amid their dynamic-in-tempo doomed intent, and while “Black Beam of Gemini” rounds out with a shove, Lord Velvet retain the tonal presence on the other end of that quick, quiet break, ready to go when needed for the crescendo. They’re not reinventing stoner rock and probably shouldn’t be trying to on this first EP, but they feel like they’re engaging with some of the newer styles being proffered by Magnetic Eye or sometimes Ripple Music, and if they end up there or elsewhere before they get around to making a full-length, don’t be surprised. If they plan to tour, so much the better for everybody.

Lord Velvet on Facebook

Lord Velvet website

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Friday Full-Length: Caltrop, Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes

Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

I shudder to think what Caltrop would’ve been able to do with a third full-length. It’s been 10 years (and about a month) since the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, four-piece released their sophomore LP, Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes (review here), and it continues to amaze me just how vivid of a mental impression it makes. Sometimes when a song gets stuck in your head, it’s like a vague impression or you only hear one piece. With this record, the tone and the production stay with you, so you don’t just hear a riff or a melody in your head, you hear it as it actually sounds. The shared vocals of guitarist Sam Taylor and bassist Murat Dirlik continue to be a defining feature, as well as the dizzying chemistry between them, guitarist Adam Nolton and drummer John Crouch. I never got to see this band live. I very much wish I had.

Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes was produced by Nick Peterson, and oh my it does jam. Consider “Light Does Not Get Old,” which picks up in pastoral-but-progressive fashion from “Ancient” immediately preceding and the opener “Birdsong.” The one-two at the outset is a boon to the listening experience on the whole, and I can’t sit here and take away from the memorability of those two tracks, and “Light Does Not Get Hold” both intends to and does switch up the vibe, but the album isn’t so much ‘front-loaded’ as ‘loaded,’ with the likes of the fuzz-noisy “Shadows and Substance” — some good old Southern-style West Coast noise rock — and the 13-minute focal point “Perihelion,” “Form and Abandon” returning to ground somewhat before falling apart and leaving quiet sparse guitar at the end, “Blessed” foreshadowing a subsequent decade of heavy psychedelic blues rock, or “Zelma” wrapping up with a humming drone running underneath wistful post-rock instrumentalism as though something just had to dirty it up.

Or maybe dirtying it is the wrong idea, but at very least something to make it grounded, because as progressive as Caltrop get in these eight tracks and 53 minutes — the vinyl is three sides on a 2LP — they never lose their organic feel. Some of that is the vocals of Dirlik and Taylor. You can hear voices push themselves and crack throughout, and it makes “Ancient” all the more of a standout. It happens later in “Light Does Not Get Old” as well, as the precursor to a fuzzed-out freaked-up psychedelic lead because fucking obviously. Caltrop aren’t the only band ever to smash different parts together and make it work, but there are moments on this record that sound like they were just trying to have fun playing opposites. I interviewed Taylor at the time and he talked about the differing songwriters and how everyone had a hand in putting the album together. I had asked how soon after their 2008 debut, World Class, they started writing new songs:

We wrote way back, in the last couple years, “Ancient,” “Light Does Not Get Old,” we wrote “Perihelion” and we wrote ”Blessed.” Those were really three pieces of material that we’d written and recorded as early as 2010. We recorded some of thosecaltrop ten million years and eight minutes three songs, a very rough version of them, and we were listening to those recordings, we just got together with Nick Peterson, who did the record, and we just set up and did two days – didn’t even try all that super hard to get the takes right – and we listened through those as a rough version of what we were going to do to record, and then we came back and re-recorded all of them at that warehouse in a serious recording session, and got them all done and mixed. We decided it was a 12-minute thing, a 13-minute thing and an eight-minute thing. Although it was great, we decided it needed more material to offset the longer, dense stuff.

We decided to write four things that we each brought. We normally are real egalitarian and all operate within the writing process. This time, we put these four things, and everybody brought something. Everybody brought an idea and we turned that into a song. We tried to limit them to five minutes. We wrote four five-minute things to offset the more dense, longer material that we’d already written, and we recorded those in a separate [session]. We wrote those within probably eight months and recorded them in a separate session. To answer your question, this has been kind of ready to go, because we ended up not getting Holidays for Quince to agree to do it until… We wanted it out last summer or fall, honestly. Then they wanted to have a finished product for a few months, so it ended up getting basically put off until this spring, because there’s no point in putting a record out in January. That’s what happened there.

It’s almost quaint now to think of an album only being delayed by a couple months, but that aside, it’s the structure of the thing I want to point out and the idea that, okay, they needed more songs so everybody got to put together a piece. That’s “Birdsong,” “Shadow and Substance,” “Form and Abandon” and “Zelma.” And it works. You would think it should sound disjointed? Well it does. And guess what? It doesn’t fucking matter. Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes, 10 years later, still bounces from one idea to the next, one song to the next, in a way that feels completely free and completely its own.

I guess in the end that’s what I’m trying to hone in on here. It’s not that Caltrop didn’t give a shit. Far from it. You don’t write songs this complex if you don’t care. But they took a live, spontaneous approach to their recording, they let themselves show a little personality, they broke a few of the “rules” of what making a heavy record should be, and though I never. got. to. see. them. live., having Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes as a document of what made them such a special band to start with isn’t to be undervalued.

These guys were friggin’ great in the right way at the wrong time. A summer album. I wish they’d done another record and I wish they’d gotten their due on this one.

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

So the site passed 15,000 posts this morning. The Sasquatch review was number 15,000 published. I guess that’s not nothing. I’m not sure what it is. Thanks though, you know, for reading.

Negative headspace this week despite spending pretty much the whole thing writing about good music. Food issues. Nervous about the prospect of flying to Germany and being away for longer than I have been in about three years. Nervous that I’m continuing to fuck up as a parent, as a husband. All of it, really. This too.

Also tired of being sick. Still with the head cold, allergies, whatever it is post-covid. I’m glad to say that while the whole house has been sick, everyone seems to be on the mend. The Patient Mrs. is currently dying The Pecan’s hair purple for wacky hair day at preschool. Gonna have some eggs in a bit. So could be worse, certainly. Yesterday was rough. Today we’ll see.

The good news is my mother is coming for dinner, and it’s been about four weeks since that happened since her house had an outbreak right around the same time we did here, the two thankfully unrelated. But everybody’s well enough now that interaction can happen, so that’ll be good. And tomorrow we head north to CT to see The Patient Mrs.’ mother and sister as well. Leaving the house, changing things up. Good things.

Couple premieres next week, some cool stuff. I’m gonna stream the Foot record on Wednesday. In my head though I’m already starting to get ready for Freak Valley. I’ve never been before, so that should be an interesting experience. Been a long time since I was outside my comfort zone like that. I hope I remember how much I love it.

Great and safe weekend. Watch your head, wear your mask, don’t forget to hydrate. Thanks again for reading.

FRM.

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Soon A.D. Post Video for “Gold Soul”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on June 21st, 2016 by JJ Koczan

soon ad

They were known as Soon just a couple scant months ago when they released their debut album, Vol. 1 (review here), through Temple of Torturous, but apparently sometime between then and now, they’ve added the someone-threatened-to-sue A.D. to the moniker. Thus, Soon A.D. have a new video. Fine. My question here is who the hell owns the word “soon?” Is there another band out there called Soon? Was the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, four-piece just completely tired of being Googleproof? I’d be very interested to know what happened there. Soon A.D., however, seem to prefer being shrouded in mystery.

If you got the chance to hear Vol. 1, there’s a high probability “Gold Soul” was one of the most resonant impressions. Like the bulk of its surroundings, it’s coated in effects and given a melodic depth to match, but its central riff is a particular standout and likely to get in your head and not get out. Soon A.D. wander around here and there during the midsection of the song, but the verses have a kind of lumber to them that usually doesn’t come hand-in-hand with their brand of accessibility. It’s the key blend — heavy, melodic, psychedelic, poppy — that defines Soon A.D.‘s first offering, and it would seem to be the groundwork for future stylistic expansion. At least that’s the hope.

Album is out now. Might be a sleeper, but I think if you take the time to check out “Gold Soul” below, you’re not likely to regret it.

Enjoy:

Soon A.D., “Gold Soul” official video

Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based transcendental rock unit, SOON A.D., (formerly Soon), is very pleased to unveil the stunning new video accompaniment to “Gold Soul.”

What SOON A.D. has manifested with Vol. 1 is multifaceted, melodic and adventurous. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based quartet pulled from a deep well of influence and experience in crafting its eight-song LP spending a concentrated week of revising and tracking, plus two months of tinkering, at the Greensboro studio Legitimate Business with engineer Kris Hilbert (Torch Runner, Between The Buried And Me, The Body) at the helm.

Soon on Thee Facebooks

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Soon at Temple of Torturous

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Make Release Pilgrimage of Loathing July 15

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 8th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

make (Photo by Matthew Brantley)

With a new label behind them in Accident Prone Records and a clear demonstration of a more raging approach in the streaming track ‘The Somnambulist,’ North Carolinian post-metal trio work quickly to follow-up their second album, The Golden Veil (review here), with Pilgrimage of Loathing. The band make no bones about the social themes with which they’re working this time out, and certainly in that regard there’s plenty to talk about these days in the US, with our rampaging shitshow election cycle, generations of needless warmongering, discrimination and on and on, so cheers to Make for being so bold as to seize the moment and channel that aggression into something so useful as a creative work, as opposed to, say, an online clickbait thinkpiece about how someone “totally slayed” Donald Trump, which seems to be all anyone else has come up with at this point.

Album info, preorder link and the stream of “The Somnambulist” follow here, courtesy of the PR wire. You’ll note a more blackened approach to the vocals than their last time out. Have to wonder if that plays out across the whole record. Would be fitting enough if so:

make pilgrimage of loathing

MAKE premiere brand new track ‘The Somnambulist’ and announce new partnership with Accident Prone Records.

New album out July 15.

Chapel Hill, NC, psychedelic doom warriors MAKE have unveiled the first track off their highly-anticipated third album, Pilgrimage Of Loathing, due out on July 15 via Accident Prone Records. Titled ‘The Somnambulist’, the new track is a hulking beast that sets the tone for the rest of the album – a far more venomous affair than last year’s acclaimed ‘The Golden Veil’.

Fueled by disgust and anger at the current state of the US political system, especially the discriminatory laws being enforced on people within their home state of NC, Pilgrimage Of Loathing builds on the foundations laid by their two previous albums and explores darker musical territories and intent.

Says Scott Endres (vocals / guitar): “This record is very much a response to all of the horrible, horrible shit happening in America right now. So much to be ashamed of. We loathe the police who kill minorities, we loathe the politicians who paint targets on minority groups for career gain, we loathe the general complacency of the entire populous, we loathe the media who gave Trump the time of day, we loathe the oligarchy the country has become. So much loathing, so much awfulness. And we trudge through it with our middle fingers in the air saying, ‘We are not fucking ok with any of this.’”

Recorded by Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business and mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Sunn0))), Phantomsmasher), the album will be MAKE’s first for Portland, OR, based Accident Prone Records after recently inking a deal.

Says Gary Bahen (AP Chief): “I found out about MAKE on a recent trip to Chapel Hill. When I got back to Portland, I checked them out, and was instantly blown away by what I heard. They’re reminiscent of some of my favorite metal bands, but at the same time truly unique in the overall feelings and emotions that they evoke. I believe strongly in a DIY ethic, and try to run Accident Prone accordingly. That is another thing that drew me to MAKE. They obviously don’t sit back and wait for people to do things for them, they actively put out records, promote shows, tour, etc. I’m very excited to be releasing Pilgrimage Of Loathing and can’t wait to unleash it on the world.”

Pilgrimage Of Loathing is available for pre-order now on Vinyl and digital formats here.

Catch MAKE live when they hit the road in July with Dragged Into Sunlight and Primitive Man.

JULY
w/ Dragged Into Sunlight and Primitive Man
19 SAN ANTONIO, TX, Paper Tiger
20 DALLAS, TX, Three Links
21 NEW ORLEANS, LA, Siberia
22 ATLANTA, GA, The Earl
23 RALEIGH, NC, Kings

MAKE are Scott Endres (vocals, guitar), Spencer Lee (vocals, bass), Luke Herbst (drums)

www.facebook.com/thebandmake
twitter.com/thebandmake
thebandmake.blogspot.com
http://accidentprone.com/

Make, “The Somnambulist”

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Soon Premiere “Burning Wood” from Debut Album Vol. 1

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on February 19th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

soon-vol-1

[Click play above to hear “Burning Wood” from Soon’s debut, Vol. 1. Album out March 4 on Temple of Torturous.]

Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based four-piece Soon offer up their aptly-titled debut full-length, Vol. 1, on March 4 via Temple of Torturous. As 35 minutes/eight tracks, it is a substantial-enough long-player, but it covers a scope even broader than its runtime might lead one to believe, and while the group trace their lineage to more indie-minded outfits The Love Language, Bitter Resolve and Grohg, the explorations contained here, from the rolling groove of opener “We are on Your Side” to the drone ritual closer “Rise,” feel geared most of all toward establishing, developing and generally screwing around with a new sonic identity. That is to say, Vol. 1 is a varied collection of tracks that doesn’t feel hindered by genre one way or another, and a decent portion of its persona comes from that will to move beyond various sonic boundaries.

That Soon — the four-piece of guitarist/vocalists Stuart McLamb and Mark Connor, bassist/vocalist Robert Walsh and drummer/vocalist Thomas Simpson — do this while sounding natural in their songwriting and changes makes the debut all the more impressive. A couple plucked acoustic notes intro “We are on Your Side” before the full-toned electric guitar kicks in, and a shoegazing verse takes hold around a minute in to build tension before the chorus, which uses multiple singers and has a doom-pop anthem feel to it, tripping into late-’60s guitar soloing as if they hadn’t already melded enough styles together. After another verse and chorus, they end acoustic and the sub-three-minute “Burning Wood” takes chugging hold backed by keyboard and a driving riff that somehow still acts as a vocal showcase. The second cut is steadier and more stylistically settled, but “See You Soon” fleshes out a grungier side and makes it clear that Soon haven’t yet shown their full breadth. So it is that “Gold Soul” includes particularly impressive vocal harmonies and strings to add a post-Morricone vibe to its dense riffing and additional percussion behind its guitar solo in the second half, none of which sounds overly kitchen-sink or out of place.

soon

No small feat to create a mix deep enough to accommodate, but Soon have a decidedly tossoff feel to nearly everything on Vol. 1, like they plugged in that day and that’s what happened to come out. In fact, that may be true, but as “Gold Soul” gives way to the more stripped down, snare-heavy “Glass Hours,” another side of their blend of psychedelic sludge, thick tones and melodic consciousness comes to the fore, partially reviving the likes of “Burning Wood” and “See You Soon,” but also given a different context through the subsequent “Mauveine,” which also features a string arrangement but is centered around melancholy acoustic strumming and a wistful vocal line. The underlying sense of space keeps it cohesive with its surroundings, but “Mauveine” is a conscious departure from a lot of what Vol. 1 aims toward, and that’s very clearly the idea. It also sets up the closing tracks, “Datura Stramonium” and “Rise,” which are the two longest inclusions and wildly different from each other. Harmonized vocals again tie “Datura Stramonium” to the rest, but there’s a howl and sparkle in the guitar that I can’t seem to separate in my mind from U2 from when they were (allegedly) good, though atop a flurry of tom runs they deliver both a scorching psychedelic wash of noise and a satisfyingly weighted finish, which lets “Rise” round out the album with a six-and-a-half-minute drone/chant assault, marked out by sporadic turns in the guitar and a SunnO)))-style backing for choral melody.

I won’t say the pairing doesn’t work, because it does, but it’s a challenging finish nonetheless, and this too is quite obviously intentional. In combination with its surroundings, “Rise” serves to point out the sort of dual nature of Soon‘s debut, which is that it has these complex aesthetic ideas that it portrays as though they were the simplest thing in the world. Well of course you’d go from the acoustic downer into weighted alt psych-pop into the drone metal finish! It’s almost too obvious! Meanwhile, the listener’s head is left spinning after the band has capped “Rise” with immersive low end and finished the record cold. It is an ambitious first offering preceded only by a couple digital demos, and it seems to so easily accomplish what it sets out to do that it’s deceptive the first couple times listening, you have to go back and make sure you heard what you just heard. Fortunately, they make those return trips worthwhile in the richness of the album as a whole.

Soon on Thee Facebooks

Soon on Twitter

Soon at Earsplit Compound

Soon at Temple of Torturous

Temple of Torturous on Bandcamp

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Quarterly Review: Horisont, Blackwolfgoat & Larman Clamor, Matushka, Tuna de Tierra, MAKE, SardoniS, Lewis and the Strange Magics, Moewn, El Hijo de la Aurora, Hawk vs. Dove

Posted in Reviews on September 30th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-quarterly-review-fall-2015

Cruising right along with the Fall 2015 Quarterly Review. I hope you’ve been digging it so far. There’s still much more to come, and I’ve spaced things out so that it’s not like all the really killer stuff was in the first day. That’s not so much to draw people in with bigger names as to get a good mix of styles to keep me from going insane. 10 records is a lot to go through if you’re hearing the same thing all the time. Today, as with each day this week, I’m glad to be able to change things up a bit as we make our way through. Let’s get to it.

Fall 2015 Quarterly Review #21-30:

Horisont, Odyssey

horisont odyssey

Aside from earning immediate points by sticking the 10-minute title-track at the front of their 62-minute fourth album, Swedish mustache rockers Horisont add intrigue to Odyssey (out on Rise Above) via the acquisition of journeyman guitarist Tom Sutton (The Order of Israfel, ex-Church of Misery). Their mission? To rock ‘70s arena melodies and grandiose vibes while keeping the affair tight enough so they don’t come across as completely ridiculous in the process. They’ve had three records to get it together before this one, so that they’d succeed isn’t necessarily much of a surprise, but the album satisfies nonetheless, cuts like “Blind Leder Blind” departing the sci-fi thematics of the opener for circa-1975 vintage loyalism of a different stripe, while “Back on the Streets” is pure early Scorpions strut, the band having found their own niche within crisp execution of classic-sounding grooves that seem to have a vinyl hiss no matter their source.

Horisont on Thee Facebooks

Rise Above Records

Blackwolfgoat & Larman Clamor, Straphanger / Drone Monger Split

blackwolfgoat larman clamor split

I’ll make no bones whatsoever about being partial to the work of both Blackwolfgoat – the solo experimental vehicle of Boston-based guitarist Darryl Shepard – and Larman Clamor – the solo-project of Hamburg-based graphic artist Alexander von Wieding – so to find them teamed up for a split 7” on H42 Records is something of a special thrill. Shepard’s inclusion, “Straphanger,” continues to push the thread between building layers of guitar on top of each other and songwriting that the last Blackwolfgoat full-length, Drone Maintenance (review here), found him exploring, while Larman Clamor’s “Drone Monger” is an alternate version from what appeared on last year’s Beetle Crown and Steel Wand (review here) and “Fo’ What You Did” digs deep into the swampy psych-blues that von Wieding has done so well developing for the last half-decade or so in the project’s tenure. My only complaint? No collaboration between the two sides. Would love to hear what Shepard and von Wieding could do in a cross-Atlantic two-piece.

Blackwolfgoat on Thee Facebooks

Larman Clamor on Thee Facebooks

H42 Records

Matushka, II

matushka ii

II is the aptly-titled second full-length from Russian heavy psych instrumentalists Matushka, who jam kosmiche across its four component tracks and round out by diving headfirst into the acid with “Drezina,” a 20-minute pulsation from some distant dimension that gives sounds like Earthless if they made it up on the spot, peppering shred-ola leads with no shortage of effects swirl. In comparison, “As Bartenders and Bouncers Dance” feels positively plotted, but it, “The Acid Curl’s Dance” before and the especially dreamy “Meditation,” which follows, all have their spontaneous-sounding elements. For guitarist Timophey Goryashin, bassist Maxim Zhuravlev (who seems to since be out of the band) and drummer Konstantin Kotov to even sustain this kind of lysergic flow, they need to have a pretty solid chemistry underlying the material, and they do. I don’t know whether Matushka’s II will change the scope of heavy psychedelia, but they put their stamp on the established parameters here and bring an edge of individuality in moments of arrangement flourish — acoustics, synth, whatever it might be — where a lot of times that kind of thing is simply lost in favor of raw jamming.

Matushka on Thee Facebooks

Matushka on Bandcamp

Tuna de Tierra, EPisode I: Pilot

tuna de tierra episode i pilot

If a pilot is used in television to test whether or not a show works, then Tuna de Tierra’s EPisode I: Pilot, would seem to indicate similar ends. A three-song first outing from the Napoli outfit, it coats itself well in languid heavy psychedelic vibing across “Red Sun” (the opener and longest track at 8:25; immediate points), “Ash” (7:28) and the particularly dreamy “El Paso de la Tortuga,” which closes out at 4:08 and leaves the listener wanting to hear more of what Alessio de Cicco (guitar/vocals) and Luciano Mirra (bass) might be able to concoct from their desert-style influences. There’s patience to be learned in some of their progressions, and presumably at some point they’ll need to pick up a drummer to replace Jonathan Maurano, who plays here and seems to since be out of the band, but especially as their initial point of contact with planet earth, EPisode I: Pilot proves immersive and a pleasure to get lost within, and that’s enough for the moment.

Tuna de Tierra on Thee Facebooks

Tuna de Tierra on Bandcamp

MAKE, The Golden Veil

make the golden veil

Much of what one might read concerning North Carolinian trio MAKE and their second album, The Golden Veil, seems to go out of its way to point out the individual take they’re bringing to the established parameters of post-metal. I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but part of that has to be sheer critical fatigue at the thought of another act coming along having anything in common with Isis while at the same time, not wanting to rag on MAKE as though their work were without value of its own, which at this point an Isis comparison dogwhistles. MAKE’s The Golden Veil successfully plays out an atmospherically intricate, engaging linear progression across its seven tracks, from the cut-short intro “I was Sitting Quietly, Peeling back My Skin” through the atmospheric sludge tumult of “The Absurdist” and into the patient post-rock melo-drone of “In the Final Moments, Uncoiling.” Yes, parts of it are familiar. Parts of a lot of things are familiar. Some of it sounds like Isis. That’s okay.

MAKE on Thee Facebooks

MAKE on Bandcamp

SardoniS, III

sardonis iii

To an extent, the reputation of Belgium instru-crushers SardoniS precedes them, and as such I can’t help but listen to “The Coming of Khan,” which launches their third album, III (out via Consouling Sounds), and not be waiting for the explosion into tectonic riffing and massive-sounding gallop. Still the duo of drummer Jelle Stevens and guitarist Roel Paulussen, SardoniS offer up five tracks of sans-vocals, Surrounded by Thieves-style thrust, a cut like “Roaming the Valley” summarizing some of the best elements of what they’ve done across the span of splits with Eternal Elysium and Drums are for Parades, as well as their two prior full-lengths, 2012’s II and 2010’s SardoniS (review here), in its heft and its rush. A somewhat unanticipated turn arrives with 11:46 closer “Forward to the Abyss,” which though it still hits its standard marks, also boasts both lengthy atmospheric sections at the front and back and blastbeaten extremity between. Just when you think you know what to expect.

SardoniS on Thee Facebooks

Consouling Sounds

Lewis and the Strange Magics, Velvet Skin

lewis and the strange magics velvet skin

With their debut long-player, Barcelona trio Lewis and the Strange Magics answer the promise of their 2014 Demo (review here) in setting a late-‘60s vibe to modern cultish interpretation, post-Uncle Acid and post-Ghost (particularly so on “How to be You”) but no more indebted to one or the other than to themselves, which is as it should be. Issued via Soulseller Records, Velvet Skin isn’t afraid to dive into kitsch, and that winds up being a big part of the charm of songs like “Female Vampire” and “Golden Threads,” but it’s ultimately the chemistry of the organ-inclusive trio that makes the material hold up, as well as the swaggering rhythms of “Cloudy Grey Cube” and “Nina (Velvet Skin),” which is deceptively modern in its production despite such a vintage methodology. The guitar and keys on that semi-title-track seem to speak to a classic progressive edge burgeoning within Lewis and the Strange Magics’ approach, and I very much hope that’s a path they continue to walk.

Lewis and the Strange Magics on Thee Facebooks

Soulseller Records

Moewn, Acqua Alta

moewn acqua alta

Basking in a style they call “oceanic rock,” newcomer German trio Moewn unveil their first full-length, Acqua Alta, via Pink Tank Records in swells of post-metallic undulations that wear their neo-progressive influences on their sleeve. Instrumental for the duration, the three-piece tracked the album in 2014 about a year after first getting together, but the six songs have a cohesive, thought-out feel to their peaks and valleys – “Packeis” perhaps most of all – that speaks to their purposeful overall progression. Atmospherically, it feels like Moewn are still searching for what they want to do with this sound, but they have an awful lot figured out up to this point, whether it’s the nodding wash of airy guitar and fluid heft of groove that seems to push “Dunkelmeer” along or second cut “Katamaran,” which if it weren’t for the liquefied themes of the art and their self-applied genre tag, I’d almost say sounded in its more spacious stretches like desert rock à la Yawning Man.

Moewn on Thee Facebooks

Pink Tank Records

El Hijo de la Aurora, The Enigma of Evil

el hijo de la aurora the enigma of evil

Since their first album, 2008’s Lemuria (review here), it has been increasingly difficult to pin Peruvian outfit El Hijo de la Aurora to one style or another. Drawing from doom, heavy rock, drone and psychedelic elements, they seem to push outward cosmically into something that’s all and none of them at the same time on their third album, The Enigma of Evil (released by Minotauro Records), the core member Joaquín Cuadra enlisting the help of a host of others in executing the seven deeply varied tracks, including Indrayudh Shome of continually underrated experimentalists Queen Elephantine on the acoustic-led “The Awakening of Kosmos” and the penultimate chug-droner “The Advent of Ahriman.” Half a decade after the release of their second album, Wicca (review here), in 2010, El Hijo de la Aurora’s work continues to feel expansive and ripe for misinterpretation, finding weight in atmosphere as much as tone and breadth enough to surprise with how claustrophobic it can at times seem.

El Hijo de la Aurora’s website

Minotauro Records

Hawk vs. Dove, Divided States

hawk vs dove divided states

Dallas outfit Hawk vs. Dove recorded Divided States in the same studio as their self-titled 2013 debut (review here) and the two albums both have black and white line-drawn artwork from Larry Carey, so it seems only fitting to think of the new release as a follow-up to the first. It is fittingly expansive, culling together elements of ‘90s noise, post-grunge indie (ever wondered what Weezer would sound like heavy? Check “X”), black metal (“Burning and Crashing”), desert rock (“PGP”) and who the hell knows what else into a mesh of styles that not only holds up but feels progressed from the first time out and caps with an 11-minute title-track that does even more to draw the various styles together into a cohesive, singular whole. All told, Divided States is 38 minutes of blinding turns expertly handled and impressive scope trod over as though it ain’t no thing, just another day at the office. It’s the kind of record that’s so good at what it does that other bands should hear it and be annoyed.

Hawk vs. Dove on Thee Facebooks

Hawk vs. Dove on Bandcamp

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Make to Release Second Album The Golden Veil in July

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 9th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

make

If you look at the waveform of Make‘s “The Absurdist,” the first-revealed song from their second album, The Golden Veil, it gives a sense of the calculation at work in the audio itself, which builds from a quieter, ambient opening to a post-metallic crush of dense tones and growling vocals in a manner no less linear than it appears. The new full-length is the follow-up to Make‘s debut LP, Trephine, which the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, trio released in 2011. As to what the rest of the long-player might hold, given the breadth of “The Absurdist” as it makes its way from one end of that line to the other, I wouldn’t hazard a guess.

The PR wire invites digging:

make the golden veil

MAKE RETURN WITH TRIUMPHANT SECOND ALBUM

After a year-long hiatus, North Carolina’s doom-metal stalwarts MAKE return with their long-awaited second album.

‘The Golden Veil’ is the follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed ‘Axis’ EP and debut full-length ‘Trephine’ and is set for release on July 23.

Says bassist Spencer Lee: “’The Golden Veil’ feels at once more diverse and more concise. We’ve explored a few elements of our sound that had previously been something we’d only touched on briefly, or maybe even just hinted at by proximity. The space is spacier, the metal is heavier, and the concept (though in a sense more nebulous) feels more completely realized.”

Recorded at Legitimate Business, NC, with engineer and producer Kris Hilbert (The Body, Torch Runner) at the helm, the album was mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, Jodis) and is easily MAKE’s heaviest, most psychedelic, and most sonically lush release to date.

MAKE have played Hopscotch Music Festival, toured with Dragged Into Sunlight and shared bills with Unfomammut, Deafheaven, Alcest, Coffinworm, The Atlas Moth, Altar Of Plagues, Crowbar and many others, and are fixtures of North Carolina’s music scene.

The album will be available for download on July 23, followed by a limited edition 180gm vinyl version with deluxe packaging in September.

Pre-orders can be made here: https://thebandmake.bandcamp.com/album/the-golden-veil

MAKE are: Scott Endres (vocals, guitar), Spencer Lee (vocals, bass), Luke Herbst (drums)

www.facebook.com/thebandmake
twitter.com/thebandmake
thebandmake.blogspot.com

Make, “The Absurdist”

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audiObelisk: Caltrop Premiere “Blessed” From Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes

Posted in audiObelisk on March 9th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

It feels like cheating somehow to post the song “Blessed” from North Carolinian foursome Caltrop‘s new album, Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes. I almost want to put out a spoiler alert with it — WARNING: THIS SONG CONTAINS AN ALBUM-DEFINING APEX.

Maybe that’s not the kind of thing that would fit on a government warning label, but it certainly applies to “Blessed,” which is the penultimate track on Caltrop‘s second full-length for Holidays for Quince Records. Like the rest of the tracks, it follows a blindingly creative direction that never lets go of its immediacy or tonal warmth, but really, to pick one song to premiere that represents Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes as a whole is impossible. The record is too varied, too progressively structured and too engaging as a single work to be so easily parsed.

So I picked what, to me, most feels like the culmination of it. We start off with winding, jazzy fuzz, but soon Caltrop — guitarist/vocalist Sam Taylor, bassist/vocalist Murat Dirlik (who also painted the butterflynoceros on the album cover), guitarist Adam Nolton, and drummer John Crouch — veer into the song’s proggy crux. Other parts of the record feel more informed by the band’s time on the road alongside Brooklyn post-metallers Hull, in what they’re playing more than how it actually sounds, but “Blessed” balances the same kind of tonal sweetness that made 2008’s World Class such a joy with neo-Southern lead work and an overarching build that sweeps you into it before you even realize you’re gone.

And then the warning above applies. “Blessed” has forward motion so subtle but so effective, I couldn’t help pick it to stream, and I hope you’ll agree when you enjoy it on the player below:

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Ten Million Years and Eight Minutes was recorded and mixed by Nick Petersen in Chapel Hill, NC, and mastered by James Plotkin. The album will be available April 3 as a CD or download and can be pre-ordered through Holidays for Quince here. For more info, check out the band on Thee Facebooks or hit up their website.

Caltrop on tour:

04/12 Charleston, SC Tin Roof
04/14 Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor
04/20 Brooklyn, NY St. Vitus w/ Hull
04/21 Richmond, VA Strange Matter “Year of Shit III”
05/19 Asheville, NC The Get Down
05/22 Harrisonburg, VA Blue Nile
05/23 Pittsburgh, PA 31st Street Pub
05/24 Columbus, OH Carabar

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