Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Leipzig-based heavy rockers Godzilla in the Kitchen will tour their native Germany in October and November, getting out to meet up with Greece’s Godsleep for a few shows and supporting their 2022 album, Exodus (review here), while probably starting to think about what comes next as well. They offered Live at Break Out earlier in 2023 and you can stream that below, along with the studio LP because thoroughness.
The run is 14 shows, one day off, all in Germany, and seeing shows booked in just Germany I guess shouldn’t seem weird, since most broader European tours feature at least two or three dates there along with stops in other countries. But fair enough. They’ll roll through their hometown the second night and proceed through Nov. 11, where the final show is in Hildburghausen.
Poster, info/dates, links and audio, courtesy of the PR wire:
GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN are touring Germany in autumn!
GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN announce their “Future of Mankind” tour for the fall. After the release of their 2nd album “EXODUS”, the first released live album “Live at Break Out” and their 2nd appearance at the Wacken Open Air, the Leipzig based heavy psychedelic rock band is touring Germany again.
The trio consisting of guitarist Eric Patzschke, bassist Simon Ulm and drummer Felix Rambach already inspired 2022 and 2023 at the WACKEN OPEN AIR. Almost a year after the release of their 2nd album via Argonauta Records and subsequent tour, EXODUS will be in the spotlight again. The “Future of Mankind Tour 2023” is targeting 14 cities in Germany.
The trio of guitarist Eric Patzschke, bassist Simon Ulm and drummer Felix Rambach already thrilled 2022 and 2023 at the WACKEN OPEN AIR. Almost a year after the release of their 2nd album and subsequent tour, EXODUS will be in the spotlight again. The “Future of Mankind Tour 2023” is targeting 14 cities in Germany.
As a follow-up to the impressive debut album GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN, EXODUS also presents itself as an authentic and lively instrumental work, which invites you to dive in and enjoy. With a refreshing mix of melodic recognizability and rhythmic complexity, Godzilla In The Kitchen provide excitement in their live performances.
If you’re still not convinced, you can check out the band’s live album “Live at Break Out” in advance and come to one of the 14 dates.
Posted in Questionnaire on May 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Eric Patzschke, Felix Rambach and Simon Ulm of Godzilla in the Kitchen
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
What we do I describe as having fun! But the most important thing is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We spend a lot of time together and for this reason it is important to spend this time with a smile on your face, no matter how serious the music is. Of course, our music is basically serious and so are the topics we address with our covers and videos. We started jamming and quickly realized that we all shared similar musical roots. First songs were written pretty easily and so we decided to stick to that process. In some way we express what moves us. Every time we jam something that really gets us, everyone in the room knows immediately: that was awesome – let’s make something out of it. You could say the songs depicts our emotional state at the time it were written. In our two albums, of course, we have gone through a development. Exodus is more of an overall concept, whereas on Godzilla In The Kitchen we also had many different songs related to the genre. We love both albums and they mean a lot to us as a band.
Describe your first musical memory.
Eric Patzschke: My musical inspirations are manifold. but today i would limit myself to my biggest inspiration: Led Zeppelin. To this day, I can turn on any record by this band without a single song on it annoying or disturbing me. The songwriting is simply impeccable, everything fits, the sound is timeless and what inspires me the most is that they never thought about music genre. There is rock, prog, psychedelic, folk, country in their songs but in the end it is still Led Zeppelin. For me simply the greatest band in the history of music.
Felix Rambach: The discovery of the band Porcupine Tree was one of the main turning points in my musical development. When we had our final concerts at the music school, my teacher wanted me to play “The Sound Of Muzak” by Porcupine Tree. By that time, I covered a lot of rock and metal songs from Slipknot, Green Day, Lamb Of God, System Of A Down, but also some of the older stuff like Dire Straits, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and so on. But when I was introduced to the musical work of Gavin Harrison, I was immediately flashed. The combination of his sound and the way he constructs his drum parts were kind of a game changer for me. I really wanted to become such a musical and interesting drummer like he is. Since then I have studied a lot of musicians like Danny Carey, Benny Greb, David Garibaldi or Jeff Porcaro (and still do). I like how all of them manage to serve the music while preserving recognizability by their sound and the way they play. They always add something special to the music. And that’s what I want to do when we write our own songs. Make the music more interesting while keeping the vibe of the song running and evolving. For me, there is never a master plan, we jam and whatever comes out, if we like it, we keep it. That’s what I really love about our music, every song is always kind of a retrospect at our emotional state of the time it was written.
Simon Ulm: I am pretty sure my first musical memory was listening to the “Made in Japan” Live Album of Deep Purple. I remember listening to the Bass Lines of Roger Glover and thinking: I definitely wanna do something like this. I think this was before I started walking. From there on I sucked in every Rock and Metal song I could get my hands on and dreamed of moving people with hammering bass lines myself. When I was thirteen, I discovered “Forty Six & 2”by Tool and immediately bought a cheap bass guitar and amp. That’s how it happened!
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Wacken 2022. We were invited to play six shows at the biggest metal festival in the world. It was the first festival experience as artists and also the first time Wacken Open Air for us. Having both of it checkmarked in one run is definitely something we are very proud of. We have a very detailed report on our website if you wanna read about all the details of this trip.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
It wasn’t possible for us to get together on a continuous basis after graduation in 2016. We each had to earn money and come to terms with our new lives as workers. In 2020, we all finally settled back in Leipzig. So you can say that we were very inactive as a band for at least 5 years and only saw each other once a month. It was a very hard time for the band. But we always believed that we would get back together in one place and go for it. Funnily enough, that happened in the middle of the 2020 pandemic. We remastered the first album and recorded the second one straight away. 2022 then Wacken and touring and we can’t wait to go on tour again this year.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
What we notice, not at least because it affects our own music as well, is that everything is getting way more technical. There are numerous ways to set up your gear in the way you want it to achieve the sound you’re aiming for and the result is that music itself is getting more and more detailed. The term “sound” is becoming increasingly important, you want one that makes you recognizable but not too diverged from the average listening habits. It’s a tough balancing act. Plus, with today’s capabilities for everyone to produce and promote their own music very easily, you have to compete with a lot of other musicians. However, this – in order to keep your music interesting and some sort of outstanding – leads to whole new approaches to writing music and thus to many niche genres.
How do you define success?
To us, success is measured by response. As artists, we make our art to transport something. Since we don’t have any lyrics, we aim to transport feelings by our music. And the idea of transporting something seems to lose sense when there’s no one receiving it. We want to take the people out on a journey with us, either to forget about their everyday worries, problems and anxieties or to process them in a world we created. So basically, every person truly appreciating our music is a success for us.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Ok let’s try to stick to something unserious here. A story from our last tour in October 2022: Simon, our bass player, was so exhausted shortly before the end of the tour that he took his sleeping bag and lay down on the board next to our car and just slept for two hours. We still have no idea how he managed to do that and why he felt better afterwards than before, but we hope that our sleeping situation on tour will improve in the future and that we can offer him a warm bed next time…
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A 3rd album :)
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art is a way of communication, it transports feelings and emotions in a way that spoken words aren’t capable of. Today, a lot of popular music is produced with no real intention, lyrics are vacuous and the main goal of those songs is to be not annoying or irritating. It kind of leads you to not listen properly. But if you make music as art because you have something to say, you want people to listen, to feel what you want to make them feel, whether its pleasant feelings like love, joy or uncomfortable feelings like anxiety, depression, frustration and so on. You need the full spectrum. Otherwise, you’re not producing art, you’re producing entertainment.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Reviews on January 11th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Not to get too mathy or anything — stay with me, folks — but today is the day the Winter 2023 Quarterly Review passes the three-quarter mark on its way to 80 of the total 100 releases to be covered. And some of those are full-lengths, some are EPs, some are new, one yesterday was almost a year old. That happens. The idea here, one way or the other, is personal discovery. I hope you’ve found something thus far worth digging into, something that really hits you. And if not, you’ve still got 30 releases — 10 each today, tomorrow, Friday — to come, so don’t give up yet. We proceed…
Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #71-80:
Black Math Horseman, Black Math Horseman
Though long foretold by the prophets of such things, the return of Black Math Horseman with 2022’s self-titled, live-recorded-in-2019 EP some 13 years after their 2009 debut full-length, Wyllt (discussed here, interview here), helped set heavy post-rock in motion, is still a surprise. The tension in the guitars of Ian Barry (who also handled recording/mixing) and Bryan Tulao in the eponymous opener is maddening, a tumult topped by the vocals of Sera Timms (who here shares bass duties with Rex Elle), and given thunder by drummer Sasha Popovic, and as part of a salvo of three cuts all seven minutes or longer, it marks the beginning of a more intense extraction of the atmospheric approach to heavy songcraft that made their past work such a landmark, with the crashes of “Cypher” and the strummy sway of “The Bough” following ahead of shorter, even-driftier closer “Cypber.” There’s a big part of me that wishes Black Math Horseman was a full-length, but an even bigger part is happy to take what it can get and hope it’s not another decade-plus before they follow it with something more. Not to be greedy, but in 2009 this band had a lot more to say and all this time later that still feels like the case and their sound still feels like it’s reaching into the unknown.
The names here should be enough. It’s Aidan Baker from heavy drone experimentalist institution Nadjaja (‘and’ in Finnish) Jussi Lehtisalo from prog-of-all masters Circle, collaborating and sharing guitar, bass, vocal and drum programming duties — Lehtisalo would seem also to add the keyboards that give the the titular neon to centerpiece “Neon Splashing (From Your Eyes)” — on a 53-minute song cycle, running a broad spectrum between open-space post-industrial drone and more traditional smoky, melancholic, heady pop. Closer “Racing After Midnight” blends darker whispers with dreamy keyboard lines before moving into avant techno, not quite in answer to “I Wanna Be Your Bête Noire” earlier, but not quite not, and inevitably the 14-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “(And I Want Your Perfect) Crocodile Tears” is a defining stretch in terms of ambience and setting the contextual backdrop for what follows, its howling guitar layered with drum machine churn in a way that’s analogous to Jesu in style but not form, the wash that emerges in the synth and guitar there seeming likewise to be the suddenly-there alt-reality New Wave destination of the more languid meander of “Face/Off.” The amalgam of beauty and crush is enough to make one hope this isn’t Baker and Lehtisalo‘s last get together, but if it is, they made something worth preserving. By which I mean to say you might want to pick up the CD.
While their crux is no less in the dreamy, sometimes minimalist, melodic parts and ambient stretches of their longer-form songs and the interludes “In the Tall Grass” and “Bloom (Reprise),” the outright crush of Sacramento’s Chrome Ghost on their third record, House of Falling Ash (on Seeing Red), is not to be understated, whether that’s the lumber-chug of 14-minute opener “Rose in Bloom” or the bookending 13-minute closing title-track’s cacophonous wash, through which the trio remain coherent enough to roll out clean as they give the record its growl-topped sludge metal finish. Continuing the band’s clearly-ain’t-broke collaboration with producer Pat Hills, the six-song/50-minute offering boasts guest appearances from him on guitar, as well as vocals from Eva Rose (ex-CHRCH) on “Furnace,” likewise consuming loud or quiet, punishing or spacious, Oakland-based ambient guitarist Yseulde in the lengthy, minimalist midsection of “Where Black Dogs Dream,” setting up the weighted and melodic finish there, with Brume‘s Susie McMullin joining on vocals to add to the breadth. There’s a lot happening throughout, loud/quiet trades, experimental flourish, some pedal steel from Hills, but guitarist/vocalist Jake Kilgore (also keys), bassist Joe Cooper and drummer Jacob Hurst give House of Falling Ash a solid underpinning of atmospheric sludge and post-metal, and the work is all the more expressive and (intermittently) gorgeous for it.
Straight-ahead, metal-informed, organ-inclusive classic heavy rock is the order of the day on Wölfhead‘s second album, Blood Full Moon, which is the Barclona-based four-piece’s first offering since their 2011 self-titled debut and is released through Discos Macarras, Música Hibrida and Iron Matron Records. An abiding impression of the 11-song offering comes as the band — who filled out their well-pedigreed core lineup of vocalist Ivan Arrieta, guitarists Josue Olmo and Javi Félez, and drummer Pep Carabante with session players David Saavedra (bass) and Albert Recolons (keys) — present rippers like the Motörhead (no real surprise, considering) via Orange Goblin rocker “Funeral Hearse” as the tail end of a raucous opening salvo, or the later “Mother of the Clan,” but from there the proceedings get more complex, with the classic doom roll of “Rame Tep” or the Jerry Cantrell-esque moody twang of “Everlasting Outlaw,” while “Eternal Stone Mountain” blends keyboard grandiosity and midtempo hookmaking in a way that should bring knowing nods from Green Lung fans, while “The Munsters” is, yes, a take on the theme from the tv show, and closer “El Llop a Dins” takes an airier, sans-drums and more open feel, highlighting melody rather than an overblown finish that, had they gone that route, would have been well earned.
Issued through Argonauta Records, Exodus‘ seven inclusions are situated so that their titles read as a sentence: “Is,” “The Future of Mankind,” “Forced By,” “The King of Monsters,” “Because,” “Everything That Has Been Given,” “Will Be Taken Away.” Thus Leipzig, Germany, instrumentalists Godzilla in the Kitchen‘s second album is immediately evocative, even before “Is” actually introduces the rest of what follows across three minutes of progressively minded heavy rock — parts calling to mind Pelican duking it out with Karma to Burn — that give way to the longest cut and an obvious focal point, “The Future of Mankind,” which reimagines the bass punch from Rage Against the Machine‘s “Killing in the Name Of” as fodder for an odd-timed expanse of Tool-ish progressive heavy, semi-psych lead work coming and going around more direct riffing. The dynamic finds sprawl in “Because” and highlights desert-style underpinnings in the fading lead lines of “Everything That Has Been Given” before the warmer contemplation of “Will Be Taken” caps with due substance. Their use of Godzilla — not named in the songs, but in the band’s moniker, and usually considered the “king of monsters” — as a metaphor for climate change is inventive, but even that feels secondary to the instrumental exploration itself here. They may be mourning for what’s been lost, but they do so with a vigor that, almost inadvertently, can’t help but feel hopeful.
Megalurching post-sludgers Onhou leave a crater with the four-song Monument, released by Lay Bare Recordings and Tartarus Records and comprising four songs and a 41-minute run that’s crushing in atmosphere as much as the raw tonal heft or the bellowing vocals that offset the even harsher screams. Leadoff “When on High” (8:19) is the shortest cut and lumbers toward a viciously noisy payoff and last stretch of even-slower chug and layered extreme screams/shouts, while “Null” (10:39) is unremittingly dark, less about loud/quiet tradeoffs though there still are some, but with depths enough to bury that line of organ and seeming to reference Neurosis‘ “Reach,” and “Below” (11:55) sandwiches an ambient beginning and standalone keyboard finish around post-metallic crunch and not so much a mournfulness as the lizard-brain feeling of loss prior to mourning; that naked sense of something not there that should be, mood-wise. Sure enough, “Ruins” (11:03) continues this bleak revelry, rising to a nod in its first couple minutes, breaking, returning in nastier fashion and rolling through a crescendo finish that makes the subsequent residual feedback feel like a mercy which, to be sure, it is not. If you think you’re up to it, you might be, or you might find yourself consumed. One way or the other, Onhou plod forward with little regard for the devastation surrounding. As it should be.
Less meditative than some of Germany’s instrumental heavy psych set, Bremen’s Fuzzerati explore drifting heavy psychedelic soundscapes on their 47-minute second album, Zwo, further distinguishing themselves in longform pieces like “Claus to Hedge” (13:01) and closer “Lago” (13:34) with hints of floaty post-rock without ever actually becoming so not-there as to be shoegazing. “Lago” and “Claus to Hedge” also have harder-hitting moments of more twisting, pushing fuzz — the bass in the second half of “Claus to Hedge” is a highlight — where even at its loudest, the seven-minute “Transmission” is more about dream than reality, with a long ambient finish that gives way to the similarly-minded ethereal launch of “Spacewalk,” which soon enough turns to somewhat ironically terrestrial riffing and is the most active inclusion on the record. For that, and more generally for the fluidity of the album as a whole, Fuzzerati‘s sophomore outing feels dug in and complete, bordering on the jazziness of someone like Causa Sui, but ultimately no more of their ilk than of My Sleeping Karma‘s or Colour Haze‘s, and I find that without a ready-made box to put them in — much as “instrumental heavy psych” isn’t a box — it’s a more satisfying experience to just go where the three-piece lead, to explore as they do, breathe with the material. Yeah, that’ll do nicely, thanks.
At least seemingly in part a lyrical narrative about a demon killing an infant Jesus and then going to hell to rip the wings off angels and so on — it’s fun to play pretend — Afghan Haze‘s Hallucinations of a Heretic feels born of the same extreme-metal-plus-heavy-rock impulse that once produced Entombed‘s To Ride Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth, and yeah, that’s a compliment. The bashing of skulls starts with “Satan Ripper” after the Church of Misery-style serial murderer intro “Pushing up Daisies,” and though “Hellijuana” has more of a stomp than a shove, the dudely-violence is right there all the same. “Occupants (Of the Underworld)” adds speed to the proceedings for an effect like High on Fire born out of death metal instead of thrash, and though the following closer “Gin Whore” (another serial killer there) seems to depart from the story being told, its sludge is plenty consistent with the aural assault being meted out by the Connecticut four-piece, omnidirectional in its disdain and ready at a measure’s notice to throw kicks and punches at whosoever should stand in its way, as heard in that burner part of “Gin Whore” and the all-bludgeon culmination of “Occupants (Of the Underworld).” This shit does not want to be your friend.
My only wish here is that I could get a lyric sheet for the Britpsych-style banger that is “Costco Get Fucked.” Otherwise, I’m fully on board with Canadian trio Massirraytorr‘s debut LP, Twincussion — which, like the band’s name, is also styled all-caps, and reasonably so since the music does seem to be shouting, regardless of volume or what the vocals are actually up to in that deep-running-but-somehow-punk lysergic swamp of a mix. “Porno Clown” is garage raw. Nah, rawer. And “Bong 4” struts like if krautrock had learned about fuckall, the layer of effects biting on purpose ahead of the next rhythmic push. In these, as well as leadoff “Calvin in the Woods” and the penultimate noisefest “Fear Garden,” Massirraytorr feel duly experimentalist, but perhaps without the pretension that designation might imply. That is to say, fucking around is how they’re finding out how the songs go. That gives shades of punk like the earliest, earliest, earliest Monster Magnet, or The Heads, or Chrome, or, or, or, I don’t know fuck you. It’s wild times out here in your brain, where even the gravity slingshot of “The Juice” feels like a relatively straightforward moment to use as a landmark before the next outward acceleration. Good luck with it, kids. Remember to trail a string so you can find your way back.
Serbian five-piece Tona make their self-titled second LP with a 10-song collection that’s less a hodgepodge and more a melting pot of different styles coming together to serve the needs of a given song. “Sharks” is a rock tempo with a thrash riff. “Napoleon Complex Dog” is blues via hardcore punk. Opener “Skate Zen” takes a riff that sounds like White Zombie and sets it against skate rock and Megadeth at the same time. The seven-minute “Flashing Lights” turns progadelic ahead of the dual-guitar strut showoff “Shooter” and the willful contrast of the slogging, boozy closer “Just a Sip of It.” But as all-over-the-place as Tona‘s Tona is, it’s to the credit of their songwriting that they’re able to hold it together and emerge with a cohesive style from these elements, some of which are counterintuitively combined. They make it work, in other words, and even the Serbian-language “Atreid” gets its point across (all the more upon translation) with its careening, tonally weighted punk. Chock full of attitude, riffs, and unexpected turns, Tona‘s second long-player and first since 2008 gives them any number of directions in which to flourish as they move forward, and shows an energy that feels born from and for the stage.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 17th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Leipzig, Germany, instrumentalist trio Godzilla in the Kitchen will release their new album, Exodus, on Oct. 28 through Argonauta Records. “Everything That Has Been Given” (video premiering below) is the penultimate inclusion on the seven-track follow-up to the three-piece’s 2015 self-titled debut (also remastered in 2020), and the second single behind the closer “Will Be Taken Away.” In the spirit of bands like Red Sparowes, the tracklisting for Exodus takes on a sentence structure: “Is the future of mankind forced by the King of Monsters because everything that has been given will be taken away?”
I’m gonna say… yes, to that question?
Especially if by “the King of Monsters” you’re talking less about Godzilla and more about capitalism-fueled climate change, but as Godzilla in the Kitchen are instrumental, it’s that much harder to know if they are. In any case, they make the seven and a half minutes of “Everything That Has Been Given” roll by in a molten ooze, following the My Sleeping Karma-esque contemplations of “Will Be Taken Away” with a more direct approach tonally and in terms of the riff, while still keeping the overarching impression smooth and perhaps more calming than the threat of the title might otherwise be.
The video itself features the band playing in manipulated form, plus some kind of forging of an object that according to the band is a metaphor for finding the perfect noise, that itself of course being a metaphor for the creative process as a continual trying and failing to chase an ideal that, in itself, is barely conceivable. Which is why everyone you know who’s even mildly interesting feels like a fraud all the time.
Godzilla in the Kitchen will support Exodus by heading out on a stretch of Fall tour dates that you can see below, along with more background on where they’re coming from with the video’s narrative, the all-important preorder link, and so on.
Please enjoy:
Godzilla in the Kitchen, “Everything That Has Been Given” video premiere
Godzilla in the Kitchen on “Everything That Has Been Given”:
“Over waves of disarray and chaos one of the last survivors of mankind is trying to find what constitutes the perfect noise. While sometimes harmonizing, sometimes separating and erupting in dissonance, he finally find his way into the shared rhythm. Once in sync with everything that has been given, he is allowed to leave behind the endless loop and receives the final gift of mankind: The truth within resonating matter. Creation and destruction unfold a spiritual journey, connecting human with its nature.
A big shotout to our dear friend Nico Gebe for finding the right images to our new release. “EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN” sets the landmark what to expect from our upcoming Album „EXODUS“.”
EXODUS will be released through the Italian label ARGONAUTA RECORDS by October 28 and it is expected to be within the highlights of the year, with preorder starting soon at this location: http://www.argonautarecords.com/shop/
GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN will enter the stages for an album release tour in October, with their friends of HAVEN, KYNING, RIVERHOUSE and BLACK KARMA. Check out the dates below and make sure to follow them for updates.
TRACKLIST IS THE FUTURE OF MANKIND FORCED BY THE KING OF MONSTERS BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN WILL BE TAKEN AWAY
TOUR DATES 10/27 Prague @ Cross Club (w. RIVER HOUSE) 10/28 Hof @ Alte Filzfabrik (w. RIVER HOUSE, KYNING) 10/29 Sebnitz @ Klangmanufaktur (w. BLACK KARMA) 10/30 Łódź @ Wooltura (w. HAVEN) 10/31 Braunschweig @ Tante Puttchen 11/01 Jena @ Café Wagmer (w. HAVEN) 11/02 Herzberg @ Westbahnhof (w. HAVEN) 11/03 Münster @ Heile Welt (w. HAVEN) 11/04 Asendorf @ Break Out (w. HAVEN) 11/05 Chemnitz @ Oberer Gasthof Grüna (w. HAVEN) 11/10 Berlin @ SAGE Club (w. Haven) 11/15 Weimar @ C.Keller 11/26 Leipzig @ Ost-Passage Theater (w. KYNING)
Godzilla in the Kitchen are: Guitar: Eric Patzschke Drums: Felix Rambach Bass: Simon Ulm
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 24th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
If you’re looking for insight into the Psycho Las Vegas 2021 lineup, I have precious little to offer. What started out being accused of being an American answer to Roadburn has become a spectacle unto itself, operating at a scale that’s more in competition with the likes of a heavy metal Riot Fest or Coachella, and has likewise developed a community of its own. As for what catches my eye here, Cephalic Carnage for sure, as well as a few carryovers from what would’ve been 2020, and the likes of The Sword, who I guess are back together now? Fair enough. Oh, and the GZA, for good measure. Katatonia and Mercyful Fate and Elder and a couple others aren’t making the trip, but there’s certainly plenty here to occupy your weekend. If the Vegas-in-August heat don’t melt your brains, the riffs surely will.
What’s a guy gotta do to get invited to do a DJ set at Psycho Las Vegas? I’m gonna send Nate Carson an email and see if he’s got any tips.
Ty Segall next to Satyricon. Fatso Jetson and Profanatica. Immolation and Dengue Fever. The Flaming Lips and Cannibal Corpse. If you’re asking for it to make sense, you’re doing Psycho wrong. This is an event that defines its own parameters.
Approach thusly:
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2021 Lineup
America’s rock n’ roll bacchanal returns to Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino August 20th through August 22nd, with another resort-wide casino takeover unlike any of its kind.
Now approaching its fifth year in the swirling neon decadence of Las Vegas, PSYCHO will feature over seventy artists across four stages including the world-class Events Center, the iconic House Of Blues, Mandalay Bay Beach, and the vintage Vegas-style Rhythm & Riffs Lounge in the center of the casino floor.
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2021 will continue to redefine America’s conception of what a festival can be.
Psycho Swim “The Official Psycho Las Vegas Pre-Party” Old Man Gloom, Bongzilla, Death Valley Girls, Polyrhythmics, The Skull, Blackwater Holylight, Here Lies Man, DJ Scott Seltzer
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2021 Lineup: Emperor, GZA, Mayhem, Obituary, Ty Segall, Satyricon, Watain, Paul Cauthen, The Sword, Cephalic Carnage, Health, The Bridge City Sinners, MGLA, Intronaut, Exhorder, Pinback, King Dude, Khemmis, Mothership, Toke, Lord Buffalo, Psychlona, Claude Fontaine, Hippie Death Cult, Foie Gras, ALMS, Mother Mercury, DJ Ethan MCCarthy, DJ Scott Seltzer, DJ Nate Carson, DJ Painkiller, Danzig, The Flaming Lips, Thievery Corporation, Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Red Fang, Cursive, Pig Destroyer, Poison the Well, Eyehategod, Primitive Man, Death by Stereo, Curl Up & Die, Boysetsfire, Fatso Jetson, Profanatica, Adamantium, Silvertomb, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Withered, Flavor Crystal, Highlands, Vaelmyst, Black Sabbitch, The Tim Dillon Comedy Hour, Down, Exodus, High on Fire, Osees, Amigo the Devil, Drab Majesty, Crippled Black Phoenix, Weedeater, Full of Hell, Midnight, Repulsion, Cult of Fire, Zola Jesus, Tsol, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Guantanamo Baywatch, Immolation, Dengue Fever, Creeping Death, Kanga, Warish, Glacial Tomb, Relaxer, Vitriol, DJ Scott Seltzer, “Ask Doc” Q&A with Doc Mcghee
Posted in Columns on January 17th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Every time Chris “Woody High” MacDermott sends in one of these Spine of Overkill columns, I just want to spend the whole day listening to classic thrash. So it goes with this month’s, in which — after hearing Ben Smith of The Brought Low talk a bit of smack — he rallies to the defense of Exodus‘ 1985 ripper, Bonded by Blood. Could a Brought Low/Mighty High feud be in the works? Only time will tell.
Enjoy:
Recently Ben from The Brought Low said on the internets that Exodus is whack and that he’s OK going on record with it. Chances are he’s thinking of the stupid videos for “Toxic Waltz” and “Low Rider” that he watched on channel U68 in Queens as a kid. Somehow I doubt in 1984 he was trying to track down a copy of their Whipping Queen demo or live tapes through the pages of low budget fanzines. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions but I’m here to set the record straight. Bonded by Blood is absolutely their greatest album and it fuckin’ kicks major ass!!
Formed in 1980 as a traditional Judas Priest/Iron Maiden-style metal band, the core Exodus members were drummer TomHunting along with the guitar tag team of KirkHammett and GaryHolt. It wasn’t until they discovered belligerent heavy metal maniac PaulBaloff and made him their singer that the Exodus attack was under way. A demo in 1982 unleashed the songs “Whipping Queen,” “Death & Domination” and “Warlords.” A live demo the following year contained a killer song called “Die by His Hand.” An important part of this song would later wind up in Metallica‘s “Creeping Death” and cause a lot of arguments in parking lots, basements and woods for years to come. It wasn’t until Kirk quit that the Exodus sound would really take shape. Under the direction of Gary, the band starting cranking out the ultra-violence jams that we all know and love as Bonded by Blood.
Opening with a bomber sound effect, the song “Bonded by Blood” explodes out of the speakers and causes immediate psychotic reaction. The first time you hear Baloff screaming lyrics like “Metal and blood come together as one/Onlookers they gasp in dismay,” there’s no going back to “Hot Rockin’” by Judas Priest. “Onlookers they gasp in dismay” is a key line for the time period. If you put this tape on at a party and started raging you might actually get to hear the entire song due the stunned nature of the non-metal brethren, especially when you scream “INTENSE METAL IS ALL THAT YOU NEED!” in the face of a cheerleader. And as you’re getting muscled out the door at least you get deliver the gospel of “Metal takes its price – BONDED BY BLOOD!!”
Now that you’ve been kicked out of the party, it’s time to rage to the rest of it in the safety of an empty field or, if you’re really lucky, in a moving car. Start to finish, this album is the definition of drunken, anti-social pugnaciousness. Their theme song “Exodus” has a pummeling riff that will give you that extra bit of adrenaline you need to pull stop signs out of the ground. “And Then There Were None” is a little slower but is just the right tempo for when you’re rocking a parked car back and forth trying to flip it over. “A Lesson in Violence” is great thing to threaten the old man at the liquor store with who wants to see your ID. All of this means you’re under the “Metal Command” of Exodus, “A wall of sonic sound with amps turned up to 10!” And that’s just side one!
Flip it over and Tom Hunting‘s drums set you up for an attack of “Piranha.” One of their fastest songs, it’s also a great warning not to try and do battle with this “deadly school.” Almost a full minute of solo acoustic guitar starts off “No Love.” That would be totally unacceptable if it wasn’t such a heavy song about human sacrifice. “Deliver Us to Evil” is what Mercyful Fate might have sounded like with John Brannon of Negative Approach singing instead of the caterwauling of Queen Rhinestone. The bloody mess of side two wraps up with the absolutely vicious “Strike of the Beast,” one of Gary‘s best riffs.
Recorded in 1984, Bonded by Blood was actively being passed around by tape traders long before its official release in the spring of ‘85. Exodus were huge in their native San Francisco but had not yet done a lot of touring. By that time Metallica was touring their second album Ride the Lightning and Slayer had put out their debut album and two EPs. But when Exodus finally did go on tour, it was with Slayer as they took turns blowing Venom off the stage. It’s well documented on the incredible VHS tape called The Ultimate Revenge, filmed at Studio 54 in New York City (later to become the “new” Ritz). You get to witness Baloff‘s giant afro, hilarious stage banter and the band’s methed up metal attack. Slayer‘s portion is unbelievably heavy. Poor Venom never stood a chance. Touring on the weak Possessed album and without original guitarist Mantas, they refused to let the live footage shot be used in the video. Instead there’s an interview with Cronos and Abaddon while promo videos take the place of their performance. It is to my eternal regret that I was not at this show.
Paul Baloff got the boot from Exodus not long after and things were never the same. Exodus went on to have some successful albums but they always seemed to be competing with Anthrax as to who could be silliest with the shorts and moshing business. They’ve been cranking out some brutally heavy albums for the past 10 years but a big portion of their set remains the Bonded by Blood album. This album was also a good bridge to the Master of Puppets fans who initially found stuff like Hell Awaits, War & Pain, Heavy Metal Maniac and Morbid Tales way too raw. As Baloff would say “metal rules & if you don’t like it, die!” Rage in peace, Paul. YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
