So this is episode 60 of the bi-weekly The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal. Yeah, I know the banner above still says ‘Radio.’ I think it still gets the point across and I haven’t had time to make a new banner. In any case, I never would’ve guessed that I’d still be doing this thing for well over two years at this point. I don’t remember the date of the first episode, but I started keeping track of playlists at episode 06 and that was Dec. 2018. Was a pretty good show, too.

I’m not really doing anything special for the ‘anniversary,’ such as it is. But the show kind of works in stages, pushing into some progressive and/or psychedelic black metal before diving into heavy Americana, melancholia and doom and ultimately rounding out with SÂVER, whose 19-minute “Dimensions Lost, Obscured by Aeons” was too perfect a capper not to include. It’s something a little different than the usual heavy rock or psych or doom fare, but still tangential. Oh, and The Pecan puts a guest appearance in for the voice tracks. Always nice when he shows up.

Thanks for listening and/or reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 05.28.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is June 11 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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There’s always something special about a basement record store, so I was only too glad to descend the flight of stairs leading to Boston’s Armageddon Shop during my recent trip there to see Black Pyramid, Gozu and Infernal Overdrive at Radio in Somerville. I’d been to the Providence location before, and found it much to my liking, so the Boston one seemed an obvious choice to pass some time before the show.

From what I understand, it’s relatively new, and it looks it. The walls, but for a large cork bulletin board overflowing with flyers, were painted bright white — very neo-black metal — and the floor was clean and unscuffed, kind of emphasizing a minimalist look. It wasn’t cramped, as a lot of record stores are, and the entire right side of the store and most of the left as well was devoted to well-spaced bins of vinyl. A shelf directly across from the entrance had some tapes on it, so I went there first.

It doesn’t appear in the picture above, but that’s only because I’ve been so unwilling to remove it from my car since I made the purchase. For $3.99, I got a cassette of C.O.C.‘s Wiseblood, and of all the money I spent that night, that was hands-down some of the best. CDs took up a whole section of the back wall (there were some dollar boxes as well that I glanced through) with the discs positioned sideways so you had to crane your head even as you bent down to look at the bottom rows.

Turned out to be worth the effort. I bought The Body‘s Anthology, because hey, it’s New England, and Paracletus, by Deathspell Omega, because I figured I’d want it eventually and I might as well spend the money there rather than give it to Amazon or whoever. There was a cheapy copy of last year’s Aphotic by Novembers Doom, and I’ll probably never listen to it, but I got that anyway, just to have it, and a used version of The Late Great Planet Earth by Mos Generator that I figured (rightly) would do my rockin’ soul some good.

The finds of the trip, though, were an original CD issue of Parliament‘s Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome — which fucking rules — and the first Witch Mountain record, Come the Mountain. I’m sure I could find all kinds of reissues of Funkentelechy if I wanted to, but it was cool to hear a first-run pressing (cooler still because it too was $3.99) and Cordell Mosson‘s bass and Bernie Worrell‘s keys make the whole thing. And the Witch Mountain I just figured I’d missed the boat on and would never find, what with it being released over a decade ago, the label Rage of Achilles being defunct and the band being on the other side of the country.

I guess you never know what you’ll find, which is probably the reason I keep going to these places even as they seemingly all start to phase out CDs in favor of vinyl. General compulsion you could consider as a secondary factor, but either way, I was glad I had the chance to hit up this Armageddon Shop, because like the other one in Providence, it was a cause definitely worth supporting. Check out their website here.

I rolled into the office a little bit ago like, as a friend once put it, “a bag of bashed assholes.” I don’t even know what that actually means, but it somehow fits the utterly demolished feeling of this morning. If e’er I was a warrior, this was the weekend for it, and as I sat here, thinking I’d put on Sungrazer or something else peaceful to start off the week on a quiet note, the self-punishment instinct kicked in, emasculated me by calling me a vulgar word for ladyparts, and hit the Deathspell Omega. So here we are.

Being the Enslaved fan I am, and having only a vague, dabbler’s interest in black metal, I feel like I have my quota for the progressive end of the genre filled, and so I haven’t delved into bands like Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord as much as I should have. I figure there’s time. Either way, the nine-minute madness of “Devouring Famine/Apokatastasis Pantôn” is like the cup of coffee I’m too tired/lazy to actually get up and get.

It was three shows in a row over the last three nights — Friday was Cortez/Mighty High in Brooklyn, Saturday was The Atomic Bitchwax/Black Cobra/The Sword/Kyuss Lives! in Jersey, and last night was The Body/Zoroaster/Black Cobra in Brooklyn — and over the next three days, I’ll have reviews of each, plus pictures. Because that’s how I roll. A warrior on the weekend. There should be some kind of clever phrase for that.

This week is also special because I’ll have a Q&A posted with Tony Reed. Now, if you’re paying attention, you’re probably thinking, “WTF, mate? Isn’t Tony Reed the dude from HeavyPink? Nepotism!” You’re not wrong. Tony Reed is in HeavyPink and I put out the HeavyPink 7″ on The Maple Forum — but, it just so happens that Tony Reed engineered the recording of the new Saint Vitus album, which is due in March, and in the interview, instead of talking about his own musical projects, we talked exclusively about his time in the studio with Wino, Dave Chandler, Mark Adams and Henry Vasquez. A chance to speak to the cat who put the first Vitus record since 1995 to tape? You’re fucking right I’m running that.

Getting posted tomorrow is also a track from cult doomers Uzala, and that’s definitely worth sticking around for, as is the inevitable album review from Dala Sun to come later in the week. I’ll get to those live reviews first, though, and depending on if I have it in me Thursday night to hit up Pilgrim at the St. Vitus Bar, I might have that review on Friday.

Thanks to everyone who has thus far left a comment on the Top 20 list, especially the depth of insight offered by critiques such as, “what a shitty list.” Always glad to foster a discussion.

Hope you had a great and safe weekend. See you back here in a couple minutes.