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Chron Goblin Announce European Tour with Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 5th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

chron goblin

This won’t actually be Chron Goblin‘s first European incursion, since the uptempo Calgary good-time rockers hit UK shores to play Desertfest London three years ago. It will definitely, however, be the first time they cross the Atlantic (and much of the North American continent to get there, if you want to be geographically correct about it) in support of their new album, Backwater (review here), and that’s enough to make it an event. They’re joined in this endeavor by the France-based/Spanish-named thematic riffers Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel, also labelmates on Ripple Music, and the run starts May 31 in their hometown of Strasbourg, near the German border.

The two groups will be back and forth between France, Germany and Switzerland through June 12, with the shows presented by Total Volume AgencyChron Goblin put the word out via the social medias, from whence the following poster by Un Sang d’Encre and info comes, followed by the band’s video for “Fuller,” ready for the digging:

chron-goblin-los-disidentes del sucio motel tour

Chron Goblin to tour Europe May 31 – June 12

We are overjoyed to announce that we’ll be playing in France, Germany and Switzerland with Ripple Music labelmates Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel this spring! This is a dream come true for us and we’ve been itching to return overseas since performing at Desertfest UK in 2013. Many thanks to Total Volume Agency for setting this up and cheers to Un Sang d’Encre for the wicked Beavers and Roosters tour poster.

Chron Goblin & Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel on tour:
May 31 – La Maison Bleue / Dirty 8 – Strasbourg (Fr)
June 1 – Rare Guitar – Münster (De)
June 2 – Immerhin Würzburg – Wurzburg (De)
June 3 – cassiopeia Berlin – Berlin (De)
June 4 – Rockpool eV – Halle (De)
June 6 – Bucéphale – Draguignan (Fr)
June 7 – Post Tenebras Rock – L’Usine – Genève (Ch)
June 8 – Gaswerk – Winterthur (Ch)
June 9 – Coq d’Or – Olten (Ch)
June 10 – Les Passagers du Zinc – Besançon (Fr)
June 11 – Warmaudio – Lyon (Fr)
June 12 – Le Klub – Paris (Fr)

https://twitter.com/ChronGoblin
http://www.chrongoblin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ChronGoblin
http://www.ripple-music.com

Chron Goblin, “Fuller” official video

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Quarterly Review: Chron Goblin, Slabdragger, Jupiter, Izo, Cultist, Haoma, Spaceslug, Slush, Menimals, The Linus Pauling Quartet

Posted in Reviews on April 1st, 2016 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk quarterly review spring 2016

Thus ends another successful Quarterly Review. And by successful I mean I survived. There were a few minutes there when I actually thought about spreading this out to six days, doing another batch of 10 on Monday, but then what happens? Then it’s seven days, then eight, then nine, and before I know it I’m just doing 10 reviews every day and it’s more of a daily review than a quarterly one. Next week we’ll get back to whatever passes for normality around this place, and at the end of June, I’ll have another batch to roll with. Maybe the beginning of July, depending on time. In any case, thank you for reading this week. I hope you’ve found something in all this that you’ve dug, and that this final round offers something else that resonates.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Chron Goblin, Backwater

chron goblin backwater

Calgary party rockers Chron Goblin pay homage to Seattle with a song named after the city on their third album, Backwater (on Ripple Music), but they continue to have way more in common with Portland, Oregon. The follow-up to 2013’s Life for the Living (review here) pushes into psychedelic groove early in its title-track and gets bluesy for most of the subsequent “The Wailing Sound,” but it seems even that song can’t resist the urge to throw down and have a good time by the end, and cuts like “Give Way,” the galloping opener “Fuller” and the requisite “Hard Living” reaffirm the band’s commitment to heavy riffs and positive vibes. The stylistic elephant in the room continues to be Red Fang, but as they’ve done all along, Chron Goblin work in shades of other influences in heavy rock – if they were from the Eastern Seaboard, I’d call it Roadsaw – and put a stamp of their own on the style.

Chron Goblin on Thee Facebooks

Ripple Music

 

Slabdragger, Rise of the Dawncrusher

slabdragger rise of the dawncrusher

“Mercenary Blues” is near-immediate in telegraphing the level of heft Slabdragger will emit across their second album, Rise of the Dawncrusher, which tops an hour in five tracks (one of them four minutes long) and shifts between clean vocals, screams and growls from bassist/vocalist Yusuf Tary and guitarist/vocalist Sam Thredder as drummer Jack Newham holds together tempo shifts no less drastic. The shorter cut, “Evacuate!,” is an extreme take on heavy rock, but as Slabdragger move through the extended “Shrine of Debauchery” (12:23), “Dawncrusher Rising” (15:16) and “Implosion Rites” (17:20), their methods prove varied enough so that their material is more than just an onslaught of thickened distortion. I wouldn’t call it progressive exactly, but neither is it lunkheaded in its intention or execution, as the chanted melodies buried deep in “Shrine of Debauchery”’s lumber, derived perhaps in part from Conan and Sleep but beholden to neither so much as its own righteous purposes.

Slabdragger on Thee Facebooks

Holy Roar Records

 

Jupiter, Interstellar Chronodive

jupiter interstellar chronodive

Finnish heavy psychedelic rockers Jupiter take a decidedly naturalist position when it comes to their style. Yeah, there are some effects on the guitars throughout Interstellar Chronidive, the trio’s second album behind 2014’s Your Eccentric State of Mind, but it’s more about what the three players can accomplish with dynamic tempo and mood changes than it is creating a wash, and that gives songs like “Stonetrooper” and “Dispersed Matter/Astral Portal” a classic feel despite a decidedly modern production. “Premonitions” provides raucous fuzz worthy of any next-gen stoners you want to name, and the 14-minute “In Flux” answers its own initial thrust with and expansive, liquefied jam that’s all the more emblematic of the organic core to their approach, Hendrix-derived but not Hendrix-emulating. Bright guitar tone, rich bass and swinging drums aren’t necessarily unfamiliar elements, but the touches of space rock narration on “Dispersed Matter/Astral Portal” and the consuming nod of closer “Vantage Point” assure there’s no shortage of personality to go around.

Jupiter on Thee Facebooks

Jupiter on Bandcamp

 

Izo, Izo

izo izo

Also stylized as IZ? with a long accent over the ‘o,’ Izo is the self-titled debut from Italian double-guitar instrumental four-piece Izo, who bookend four flowing and densely weighted progressions with an intro and outro to add to the atmospheric breadth. Rather than choose between heaviness or ambience, Izo – guitarists Paolo Barone and Maurizio Calò, bassist Francesco de Pascali and drummer Luca Greco – play both into each other so that a song like “Hikkomori” is as engaging in its heft as it is hypnotic. That might be easier to do without vocals, but it’s essential to Izo’s approach, and something that, for their debut, sets up future expansion of post-metal and psychedelic elements. I’m not sure if there’s a theme or narrative for the album, but consistent use of Japanese language and imagery ties the material together all the same, and Izo emerge from their first album having shown a clearheadedness of purpose that can only continue to serve them well.

Izo on Thee Facebooks

Acid Cosmonaut Records

 

Cultist, Three Candles

cultist three candles

Cultist made their introductory statement in the early hours of 2016 with Three Candles, a five-song EP from the social media-averse Cleveland, Ohio, trio featuring members of Skeletonwitch, Mockingbird and Howl. In the wall of fuzz they construct, the swing injected into their rhythms and the use of multiple vocalists, there’s a strong undercurrent of Uncle Acid to “Path of the Old One,” but “Consuming Damnation” distinguishes itself with a more aggressive take, rawer in its melodies, and the creeping closer “Eternal Dark” is up to something entirely more doomed. How this balance will play out with the more familiar riff-patterning in “Follow Me” is the central question, but for their first tracks to be made public, Cultist’s Three Candles offers fullness of sound and the realization of an aesthetic purpose. Yes, there’s room to grow, but they already have a better handle on what they want to do than a lot of bands, so it should be interesting to keep up.

Cultist on Instagram

Cultist on Bandcamp

 

Haoma, Eternal Stash

haoma eternal stash

Ultra-thick, ultra-dank, Haoma is the work of Swedish duo R (bass/vocals) and S (drums), and the three-tracker Eternal Stash is their second self-released EP. The offering takes its title from the opener and longest track (immediate points), and wastes no time with subtlety in getting down on molten Cisneros-style stoner-doom grooves. Sleep meets Om isn’t a huge divide to cross, but there’s a blown-out sensibility to the vocals as well that speaks to some element of Electric Wizard at play, and the overarching roughness suits Haoma’s tonal crunch well. Even when they break to wah bass in the second half of “Eternal Stash” to set up the ensuing jam, this underlying harshness remains, and “Unearthly Creatures” and “Orbital Flight” build on that, the latter with a march that feels more decidedly individual even if constructed on familiar ground. Heavy, raw, unpretentious celebration of groove is almost always welcome by me, and so Haoma’s Eternal Stash is likewise.

Haoma on Thee Facebooks

Haoma on Bandcamp

 

Spaceslug, Lemanis

spaceslug lemanis

Another boon to Poland’s emerging heavy rock scene, Wroclaw’s Spaceslug slime their way out of the ground with their debut long-player, Lemanis, a seven-cut paean to weighted tone and laid back roll. Vocally, the trio seem to take a cue from the Netherlands’ Sungrazer, but their riffs are far more dense and while the penultimate interlude “Quintessence” and the earlier “Galectelion” demonstrate a sense of spaciousness, the context in which that arrives is much more weighted and, particularly in the second half of “Supermassive,” feels culled from the Sleep school of Iommic idolatry. No complaints. The record clocks in at 43 minutes all told and in no way overstays its welcome, rounding out with the nine-minute title-track, an instrumental that’s probably not improvised but comes across as exploratory all the same. The CD version is out through BSFD Records, but don’t be surprised when someone picks it up for a vinyl issue, as both the front-to-back flow and the artwork seem to be made for it.

Spaceslug on Thee Facebooks

Spaceslug on Bandcamp

 

Slush, American Demons

slushies american demons

An element of twang that seems present even in the most uproarious moments of SlushAmerican Demons tape comes to the fore with the brief “Leshy,” a quick, fleetly-strummed bit of slide guitar the follows highlight cut “Bathysphere” and precedes “Death Valley,” both of which bask full-on in the garage shake, proto-punk vibe and anything goes swagger the Brooklynite trio have on offer throughout their third EP. That countrified twist plays well alongside the drawling skate rock of “In the Flesh,” which seems to take on some of The Shrine’s West Coast skate vibes with a twist of New York fuckall, and the quick crotchal thrust off “Silk Road,” which serves as Slush’ most purely punkish moment. “Death Valley” closes out with a tale of drugs and the desert, the vocals somewhere between Misfits and early Nick Cave, drenched in attitude and accompanied by fuzz that seems to be likewise. Bonus points for the silver tape and copious included art and info.

Slushies on Bandcamp

Lean on Bandcamp

 

Menimals, Menimals

menimals menimals

Strange spirits are afoot throughout MenimalsMenimals, the maybe-debut from the Italian troupe who engage wantonly in the proliferation of post-Mike Patton creepy darkjazz across five cuts of sparse, spacious weirdness. Issued through Phonosphera/Riot Season, it’s a work of high atmospheric density but ultimately more about mood than sonic impact, evoking complex shapes – dodecahedrons, tetrahedrons, octahedrons – as a mirror for its own quizzical mission. The kind of record that those who don’t spend time trying to figure it out are going to have more fun with, it makes its most effective impression on “Transitioning from a Cube to the Octahedron” on side B, evoking minimalist drone rock atmospheres as whispered vocals tie it to the rest of Menimals’ bizarre vibe. That’s not to take away from the noisy finish of closer “Bird on the Wind as a Hinge,” which follows, just to note that Menimals manage to somehow find balance in all the subdued seething and resonant experimentalism.

Menimals on Thee Facebooks

Riot Season Records

Phonosphera Records

 

The Linus Pauling Quartet, Ampalanche

the-linus-pauling-quartet-ampalanche

By way of a confession, I wanted to end this batch of 50 reviews with something I knew I dug, and that distinction goes to Houston rockers Linus Pauling Quartet, whose latest full-length, Ampalanche, is released via the label wing of Italian ‘zine Vincebus Eruptum. An album that offers some of the most pretense-free rock flute I’ve ever heard on “Slave to the Die,” it’s a down-home weirdo rocker that might, at a moment’s notice, plunge full-on into psychedelia in “Sometimes” or, say, include a 49-minute echoing space-drone “Vi, de Druknede (We, the Drowned)” as a download-only bonus track, and the fact that Linus Pauling Quartet can always be relied on for something different but consistent in charm and the quality of songwriting is not to be taken for granted, whether it’s the Midwestern noise rock of “Brisket” or the fuzzy roll of dreamy album-closer “Alive.” Yeah, I was doing myself a favor by finishing with Ampalanche. I have absolutely zero regrets. Linus Pauling Quartet continue to be woefully underappreciated.

Linus Pauling Quartet on Thee Facebooks

Vincebus Eruptum webstore

 

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Chron Goblin Post New Video for “Fuller”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 30th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

chron goblin

Not really a surprise that the video for “Fuller,” taken from Chron Goblin‘s newly released third album and Ripple Music debut, Backwater (review forthcoming), would be a good time — that’s kind of the band’s thing — but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. The new clip from the Calgary-based heavy rock foursome chronicles a freaked-out day in the life of a pizza deliverer, and that includes a guest appearance from the Gimp or otherwise some dude in a wrestling mask, doing stoned doughnuts in an empty parking lot, and dropping off lunch at the Breaking Bad trailer out in the middle of nowhere. I’ve never delivered pizzas professionally, but I imagine it’s pretty accurate to the reality of the situation.

The final stop? To Chron Goblin‘s rehearsal space, where the band awaits two pepperoni pies. As to whether or not they actually get them, I won’t spoil the video entirely, but as ever, it’s more about the journey than the destination, and “Fuller” makes for a fun trip along the way. A catchy, upbeat riff-and-hook approach is cut into a couple times for video/sound effects — the squealing tires into the guitar solo is particularly effective — and the song stands up well to the comedy, which it would have to for this kind of thing to work. Tension builds as the groove thickens later on, but though the stakes are high, e.g. pizza en route, but Chron Goblin never lose sight of the party they’re throwing sonically, and coupled with the songcraft they display throughout Backwater‘s entirety, that’s more than enough to hold even the most fickle of attentions for four minutes or so.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be ordering a pizza.

Enjoy:

Chron Goblin, “Fuller” official video

We are proud to present a new music video for “Fuller”! Check out the ill-fated pizza delivery action adventure featuring the lovely and hilarious CJ. Directed, edited, and shot by our very own Josh Sandulak.

Chron Goblin on Thee Facebooks

Chron Goblin Twitter

Chron Goblin merch

Ripple Music

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Chron Goblin Sign to Ripple Music; Backwater Due Nov. 13

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 4th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

chron goblin (Photo by Unfolding Creative Photography)

Calgary to Portland is about 13 hours by car according to the robot overlords who run our lives (that’s if you take I-84), but that seems to be a hop, skip and a jump for Chron Goblin. The Canadian four-piece have just inked a deal to release their third full-length, Backwater, through Ripple Music, and between their party-heavy aesthetic, the fact that they recorded in Portland with Adam Pike at Toadhouse (also Red Fang) and a vocal guest spot from Holy Grove‘s Andrea Vidal, they seem to be erasing the geographic difference one step at a time.

Chron Goblin‘s second record, Life for the Living (review here), was released in 2013, and to give a sample of where they’re at now, the band have posted the new track “Fuller” for your streaming pleasure. Find it under the artwork and PR wire info below:

chron goblin backwater

CHRON GOBLIN announce release of new album Backwater on Ripple Music | Stream and share new track ‘Fuller’

Backwater will be released via Ripple Music worldwide on 13th November 2015

Canada’s heavy-riffin’ four-piece Chron Goblin have today announced their signing to the California-based label Ripple Music – home to the likes of Sweat Lodge, Mothership, Mos Generator and JPT Scare Band – along with details of their third, forthcoming album, Backwater.

Venturing to Portland to work with Adam Pike at Toadhouse Studios in February 2015, the band’s intention was to explore the heavy sonic principles of the Pacific Northwest and embrace Portland’s music scene. Under the tutelage of Pike, who recorded Red Fang’s debut album and tours with them as their front of house engineer, he served as an integral component in achieving the band’s aspirations in the studio and ensuring their exploits across the city were well advised.

Swagger and muscle, charm and wit, Chron Goblin pair melody with aggression and groove for a fresh interpretation of heavy. Following the success of 2013’s sophomore album Life For The Living, and having toured the UK, USA and Canada, the band’s third full-length album Backwater picks up where the former left off. Holy Grove vocalist, Andrea Vidal, features on the ethereal first half of ‘The Wailing Sound’, a track offering contrasts to brain pummelling heavy rockers such as ‘Fuller’, ‘Give Way’, and the meandering complexities of ‘The Return’.

Chron Goblin:
Josh Sandulak
Devin Purdy
Richard Hepp
Brett Whittingham

https://twitter.com/ChronGoblin
http://www.chrongoblin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ChronGoblin
http://www.ripple-music.com/

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