A word about the image above. ‘AI art’ has become a thing people argue about on the internet. Like everything. Fine. I made the above image with a prompt through whatever Microsoft is calling its bot this week and got what I wanted. I didn’t have to talk to anyone or pay anyone in anything more than the personal data you compromise every time you use the internet for anything, and it was done. I could never draw, but when I finished, I felt like I’d at least taken part in some way in making this thing. And telling a computer what to make and seeing what it gets right and wrong is fascinating. You might feel a bit like you’re painting with words, which as someone who could never draw but could construct a sentence, I can appreciate.

I’m a big supporter of human creativity, and yes, corporations who already hold creative professionals — writers, editors, graphic designers, etc. — in such outward contempt will be only too happy to replace them with robots. I was there when magazines died; I know how that goes. But instead of being reactionaries and calling for never-gonna-happen-anyway bans, isn’t it maybe worth acknowledging that there’s no going back in time, that AI art isn’t going anywhere, and that it might just have valid creative uses? I don’t feel like I need to defend myself for making or using the image above, but I did try to get a human artist first and it didn’t work out. In the hard reality of limited minutes, how much should I really chase when there’s an easier way to get what I want? And how much can people be expected to live up to that shifting moral obligation in the long term?

The future will laugh at us, inevitably, either way. And fair enough with the world we’re leaving them.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

—

Lord Dying, Clandestine Transcendence

While bearing the tonal force of their roots in doom, Portland’s Lord Dying have nonetheless willfully become a crucial purveyor of forward-thinking death metal, driven by extremity but refusing to subdue its own impulses to fit with genre. At 12 songs and an hour’s runtime, Clandestine Transcendence neither is nor is supposed to be a minor undertaking, but with a melodic declaration in “Unto Becoming” that’ll elicit knowing nods from Virus fans and a mentality of creative reach that’s worthy of comparison to Enslaved, Lord Dying showcase mastery of the style the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Erik Olson, guitarist Chris Evans, bassist/vocalist Alyssa Maucere and drummer Kevin Swartz explored with vigilance on 2019’s Mysterium Tremendum (review here), and an ability to depart from aggression without losing their intensity or impact on “Dancing on the Emptiness” or in the payoff of “Break in the Clouds (In the Darkness of Our Minds).” They may be headed toward too-weird-for-everybody megaprogmetal ultimately, but the challenges-to-stylistic-homogeny of their material are only part of what gives Clandestine Transcendence its crux, and in fostering the call-and-response onslaught of “Facing the Incomprehensible” alongside the epic reach of “A Bond Broken by Death,” they cast their own mold as unique within or without of the heavy underground sphere.

Lord Dying on Facebook

MNRK Heavy website

—

Black Glow, Black Glow

The late-2023 self-titled debut from Black Glow marks a new beginning for Monterrey, Mexico, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Gina Rios, formerly of Spacegoat, and something of a creative redirect, taking on a sound that is less indebted to boogie and classic doom but that has clearly learned the lessons of its influences. Also credited with producing (Victor “KB” Velazquez recorded, mixed and mastered, which doesn’t invalidate the credit), Rios is a strong enough performer to carry the five-song EP/short-LP on her own, but thankfully bassist Oscar Saucedo and drummer Octavio Diliegros bring tonal fullness to the breadth of atmosphere in the rolling closer “Obscured Jail,” reaching past seven minutes with fluidity that adds to Black Glow‘s aspects of purpose and craft, which are significant despite being the band’s first outing. As a vehicle for Rios‘ songwriting, Black Glow sound immediately like they can evolve in ways Spacegoat likely couldn’t or wouldn’t have, and that prospect is all the more enticing with the accomplishments displayed here.

Black Glow on Facebook

Black Glow on Bandcamp

—

Cracked Machine, Wormwood

Between the leadoff of “Into the Chronosphere” and “The Glowing Sea,” “Return to Antares,” “Burning Mountain” and “Desert Haze,” UK instrumentalists Cracked Machine aren’t short on destinations for the journey that is their fourth full-length, Wormwood, but with more angular texturing on “Eigenstate” and the blend of tonal float — yes, even the bass — and terrestrial groove wrought in the closing title-track, the band manage to emphasize plot as well as a sense of freedom endemic to jam-born heavy psychedelia. That is to say, as second cut “Song of Artemis” gives brooding reply to the energetic “Into the Chronosphere,” which is loosely krautrocky in its dug-in feel and exploratory as part of that, they are not trying to pretend this material just happened. Layers of effects and a purposeful reach between its low and high ends in the solo of “The Glowing Sea” — with the drums holding the two together, as one would hope — and subsequent section of standalone guitar as the start of a linear build that spreads wide sonically rather than overpowering with volume speaks to a dynamic that’s about more than just loud or quiet, and the keyboard holding notes in the culmination of “Burning Mountain” is nothing if not purposeful in its shimmering resonance. They may be headed all over the place, but I think that’s just a sign Cracked Machine know how to get there.

Cracked Machine on Facebook

Cracked Machine on Bandcamp

—

Per Wiberg, The Serpent’s Here

Currently also of Kamchatka and Spiritual Beggars and maybe Switchblade, the career arc of Per Wiberg (also ex-Opeth, live work and/or studio contributions for Candlemass, Grand Magus, Arch Enemy, mostly on keys or organ) varies widely in style within a heavy sphere, and it should be no surprise that his solo work is likewise multifaceted. Following on from 2021’s EP, All Is Well In the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out (review here), the six-song and 41-minute (seven/47 with the bonus track Warrior Soul cover “The Losers”) finds cohesion in a thread of progressive styles that allows Wiberg to explore what might be a Gary Numan influence in the verses of “The Serpent’s Here” itself while emerging with a heavy, catchy and melodic chorus marked by a driving riff. The eight-minute “Blackguards Stand Silent” works in movements across a structural departure as the rhythm section of Mikael Tuominen (Kungens Män) and drummer Tor Sjödén (Viagra Boys) get a subtle workout, and “He Just Disappeared” pushes into the cinematic on a patient line of drone, a contemplative departure after the melancholic piano of “This House is Someone Else’s Now” that allows “Follow the Unknown” to cap the album-proper with a return to the full-band feel and a pointed grace of keys and synth, clearly working to its creator’s own high standard.

Per Wiberg on Facebook

Despotz Records website

—

Swell O, Morning Haze

Bremen, Germany’s Swell O released their apparently-recorded-in-a-day debut album, Morning Haze, in Feb. 2023 and followed with a vinyl release this past Fall on Clostridium Records, and if there’s anything clouding their vision as regards songwriting, it didn’t make it onto the record. Proffering solid, engaging, festival-ready desert-style heavy rock, “Hitchhiker” sweeps down the open highway of its own riff while “Black Cat” tips hat to Fu Manchu, the title-track veers into pop-punkish uptempoism in a way “Shine Through” contrasts with less shove and more ambience. The seven-minute “Summit” extrapolates a lean toward the psychedelic from Kyussian foundations, but the crux on Morning Haze is straightforward and aware of where it wants its songs to be aesthetically. It’s not a revolution in that regard, but it’s not supposed to be, and for all its in-genre loyalism, Morning Haze demonstrates an emergent persona in the modernized ’90s fuzz-crunch semi-blowout of “Venom” at the end, which wraps a salvo that started with “Hitchhiker” and lets Swell O make the most of their over-quickly 31-minute first LP.

Swell O on Facebook

Clostridium Records store

—

Cower, Celestial Devastation

Accounting for everything from goth to post-hardcore to the churn of Godflesh in an encompassing interpretation of post-punk, London outfit Cower could fill this space with pedigree alone and manage to nonetheless make a distinct impression across the nine songs of Celestial Devastation. Organic and sad on “We Need to Have the Talk,” inorganic and sad on “Hard-Coded in the Souls of Men,” electronic anti-chic before the guitar surge in “Buffeted by Solar Winds,” and bringing fresh perspective to Kataonia-style depressive metal in “Aging Stallions,” it’s a album that willfully shirks genre — a few of them, actually — in service to its songs, as between the software-driven title-track and the downer-New-Wave-as-doom centerpiece “Deathless and Free,” Cower embark on an apparent critique of tech as integrated into current life (though I can’t find a lyric sheet) and approach from seemingly divergent angles without losing track of the larger picture of the LP’s atmosphere. Celestial Devastation is the second album from the trio, comprised of Tom Lacey, Wayne Adams (who also produced, as he will) and Gareth Thomas. Expect them to continue to define and refine this style as they move forward, and expect it to become even more their own than it is here. A band like this, if they last, almost can’t help but grow.

Cower’s Linktr.ee

Human Worth on Bandcamp

—

HORSEN3CK, Heavy Spells

Boston’s HORSEN3CK, who’ve gone all-caps and traded their second ‘e’ for a ‘3’ since unveiling the included-here “Something’s Broken” as a debut standalone single this January, make a rousing four-song statement of intent even as the lineup shifts from piece to piece around the core duo of Tim Catz and Jeremy Hemond, best known together for their work as the rhythm section of Roadsaw. With their maybe-not-right-now bandmate Ian Ross adding guitar to “Something’s Broken” and a different lead vocalist on each song, Heavy Spells has inherent variety even before “Haunted Heart” exalts its darker mood with pulls reminiscent of Alice in Chains‘ “Frogs.” With Catz taking a turn on vocals, “Golden Ghost” is punk under its surface class, and though “Haunted Heart” grows in its crescendo, its greater impact is in the vibe, which is richer for the shift in approach. “Thirst” rounds out with a particular brashness, but nowhere HORSEN3CK go feels even vaguely out of their reach. Alright guys. Concept proved, now go do a full-length. When they do, I’ll be intrigued to see if the lineup solidifies.

HORSEN3CK on Facebook

HORSEN3CK on Bandcamp

—

Troll Teeth, Sluagh Vol. 1

New Jersey doom rockers Troll Teeth‘s stated goal with Sluagh Vol. 1 was to find a sound the character of which would be defined in part by its rawer, retro-styled recording. The resultant four-song outing, which was their second EP of 2023 behind Underground Vol. 1, doesn’t actually veer into vintage-style ’70s worship, but lives up to the premise just the same in its abiding rawness. “3 Shots for a 6 Shooter” brings a Queens of the Stone Age-style vocal melody over an instrumental that’s meaner than anything that band ever put to tape, while nine-minute opener “1,000 Ton Brick” feels very clearly titled in honor of its own roll. It might be the heaviest stretch on the EP but for the rumbling low distortion spliced in among the psychedelic unfolding of 16-minute closer “Purgatory,” which submerges the listener in its course after “Here Lies” seems to build and build and build through the entirety of its still-hooky execution. With its title referencing the original name of the band and a focus on older material, the rougher presentation suits the songs, though it’s not like there’s a pristine “1,000 Ton Brick” out there to compare it to. Whether there will be at Sluagh Vol. 2 at any point, I don’t know, but even the intentionality of realizing his material in the recording process argues in favor of future revisits.

Troll Teeth on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

—

Black Ocean’s Edge, Call of the Sirens

Celebrating their own dark side in the opener “Wicked Voice,” German heavy rockers Black Ocean’s Edge keep the proceedings relatively friendly on Call of the Sirens, their debut long-player behind 2022’s Dive Deep EP, at least as regards accessibility and the catchiness of their craft. Vibrant and consistent in tone, the Ulm four-piece find room for the classic rock of “Leather ‘n’ Velvet” and the that-might-be-actual-flute-laced prog-psych payoff of “Lion in a Cage” between the second two of the three parts that comprise the title-track, which departs from the heavy blues rock of “Drift” or “Cold Black Water,” which is the centerpiece and longest inclusion at 7:43 and sets its classic-heavy influences to work with a forward-looking perspective. At 42 minutes and nine tracks, Call of the Sirens feels professional in how it reaches out to its audience, and it leaves little to doubt from Black Ocean’s Edge as regards songwriting, production or style. They may refine and sharpen their approach over time, and with these songs as where they’re coming from, they’ll be in that much better position to hit the ears of the converted.

Note: this album is out in April and I couldn’t find cover art. Band photo above is by Matija Kasalo.

Black Ocean’s Edge on Facebook

Black Ocean’s Edge on Bandcamp

—

SONS OF ZÖKU, ËNDL​Ë​SS

If an album could ask you, musically, why you’re in such a hurry — and not like hurrying to work, really in a hurry, like in how you live — the mellow psych and acid folk proffered by Adelaide, Australia’s SONS OF ZÖKU on their second full-length, ËNDL​Ë​SS, might just be doing that. Don’t take that to mean the album is still or staid though, because they’re not through “Moonlight” after the intro before the bass gets funky behind all that serene melody, and when you’re worshiping the sun that’s all the more reason to dance by the moon. Harmonies resonate in “Earth Chant” (and all around) atop initially quiet guitar noodling, and the adventures in arrangement continue in the various chimes and percussion instruments, the touch of Easternism in “Kuhnoo” and the keyboard-fueled melodic payoff to the pastoralism of “Hunters.” With flute and a rhythmic delivery to its group vocal, “O Saber” borders on the tribal, while “Yumi” digs on cosmic prog insistence in a way that calls to mind the underappreciated Death Hawks and finds its way in a concluding instrumental stretch that doesn’t lose its spontaneous feel despite being more cogent than improv generally comes across. “Lonesome Tale” is a melancholy-vibe-reprise centered around acoustic guitar and “Nu Poeme” gives a sense of grandeur that is unto itself without going much past four minutes in the doing. Such triumphs are rare more broadly but become almost commonplace as SONS OF ZÖKU set their own context with a sound harnessing the inspiration of decades directing itself toward an optimistic future.

SONS OF ZÖKU on Facebook

Copper Feast Records store

—

Admittedly, there’s some ambition in my mind calling this the ‘Spring 2024 Quarterly Review.’ I’m done with winter and March starts on Friday, so yeah, it’s kind of a reach as regards the traditional seasonal patterns of Northern New Jersey where I live, but hell, these things actually get decided here by pissing off a rodent. Maybe it doesn’t need to be so rigidly defined after all.

After doing QRs for I guess about nine years now, I finally made myself a template for the back-end layout. It’s not a huge leap, but will mean about five more minutes I can dedicate to listening, and when you’re trying to touch on 50 records in the span of a work week and attempt some semblance of representing what they’re about, five minutes can help. Still, it’s a new thing, and if you see ‘ARTIST’ listed where a band’s name should be or LINK where ‘So and So on Facebook’ goes, a friendly comment letting me know would be helpful.

Thanks in advance and I hope you find something in all of this to come that speaks to you. I’ll try to come up for air at some point.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

—

Slift, Ilion

One of the few non-billionaire groups of people who might be able to say they had a good year in 2020, Toulouse, France, spaceblasters Slift signed to Sub Pop on the strength of that wretched year’s Ummon (review here) and the spectacle-laced live shows with which they present their material. Their ideology is cosmic, their delivery markedly epic, and Ilion pushes the blinding light and the rhythmic force directly at you, creating a sweeping momentum contrasted by ambient stretches like that tucked at the end of 12-minute hypnotic planetmaker “The Words That Have Never Been Heard,” the drone finale “Enter the Loop” or any number of spots between along the record’s repetition-churning, willfully-overblown 79-minute course of builds and surging payoffs. A cynic might tell you it’s not anything Hawkwind didn’t do in 1974 offered with modern effects and beefier tones, but, uh, is that really something to complain about? The hype around Ilion hasn’t been as fervent as was for Ummon — it’s a different moment — but Slift have set themselves on a progressive course and in the years to come, this may indeed become their most influential work. For that alone it’s among 2024’s most essential heavy albums, never mind the actual journey of listening. Bands like this don’t happen every day.

Slift on Facebook

Sub Pop Records website

—

Grin, Hush

The only thing keeping Grin from being punk rock is the fact that they don’t play punk. Otherwise, the self-recording, self-releasing (on The Lasting Dose Records) Berlin metal-sludge slingers tick no shortage of boxes as regards ethic, commitment to an uncompromised vision of their sound, and on Hush, their fourth long-player which features tracks from 2023’s Black Nothingness (review here), they sharpen their attack to a point that reminds of dug-in Swedish death metal on “Pyramid” with a winding lead line threaded across, find post-metallic ambience in “Neon Skies,” steamroll with the groove of the penultimate “The Tempest of Time,” and manage to make even the crushing “Midnight Blue Sorrow” — which arrives after the powerful opening statement of “Hush” “Calice” and “Gatekeeper” — have a sense of creative reach. With Sabine Oberg on bass and Jan Oberg handling drums, guitar, vocals, noise and production, they’ve become flexible enough in their craft to harness raw charge or atmospheric sprawl at will, and through 16 songs and 40 minutes (“Portal” is the longest track at 3:45), their intensity is multifaceted, multi-angular, and downright ripping. Aggression suits this project, but that’s never all that’s happening in Grin, and they’re stronger for that.

Grin on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

—

Pontiac, Hard Knox

A debut solo-band outing from guitarist, bassist, vocalist and songwriter Dave Cotton, also of Seven Nines and Tens, Pontiac‘s Hard Knox lands on strictly limited tape through Coup Sur Coup Records and is only 16 minutes long, but that’s time enough for its six songs to find connections in harmony to Beach Boys and The Beatles while sometimes dropping to a singular, semi-spoken verse in opener/longest track (immediate points, even though four minutes isn’t that long) “Glory Ragged,” which moves in one direction, stops, reorients, and shifts between genres with pastoralism and purpose. Cotton handles six-string and 12-string, but isn’t alone in Pontiac, as his Seven Nines and Tens bandmate Drew Thomas Christie handles drums, Adam Vee adds guitar, drums, a Coke bottle and a Brita filter, and CJ Wallis contributes piano to the drifty textures of “Road High” before “Exotic Tattoos of the Millennias” answers the pre-christofascism country influence shown on “Counterculture Millionaire” with an oldies swing ramble-rolling to a catchy finish. For fun I’ll dare a wild guess that Cotton‘s dad played that stuff when he was a kid, as it feels learned through osmosis, but I have no confirmation of that. It is its own kind of interpretation of progressive music, and as the beginning of a new exploration, Cotton opens doors to a swath of styles that cross genres in ways few are able to do and remain so coherent. Quick listen, and it dares you to keep up with its changes and patterns, but among its principal accomplishments is to make itself organic in scope, with Cotton cast as the weirdo mastermind in the center. They’ll reportedly play live, so heads up.

Pontiac on Bandcamp

Coup Sur Coup Records on Bandcamp

—

The Polvos!, Floating

Already fluid as they open with the rocker “Into the Space,” exclamatory Chilean five-piece The Polvos! delve into more psychedelic reaches in “Fire Dance” and the jammy and (appropriately) floaty midsection of “Going Down,” the centerpiece of their 35-minute sophomore LP, Floating. That song bursts to life a short time later and isn’t quite as immediate as the charge of “Into the Space,” but serves as a landmark just the same as “Acid Waterfall” and “The Anubis Death” hold their tension in the drums and let the guitars go adventuring as they will. There’s maybe some aspect of Earthless influence happening, but The Polvos! meld that make-it-bigger mentality with traditional verse/chorus structures and are more grounded for it even as the spaces created in the songs give listeners an opportunity for immersion. It may not be a revolution in terms of style, but there is a conversation happening here with modern heavy psych from Europe as well that adds intrigue, and the band never go so far into their own ether so as to actually disappear. Even after the shreddy finish of “The Anubis Death,” it kind of feels like they might come back out for an encore, and you know, that’d be just fine.

The Polvos! on Facebook

Surpop Records website

Smolder Brains Records on Bandcamp

Clostridium Records store

—

The Cosmic Gospel, Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love

With a current of buzz-fuzz drawn across its eight component tracks that allow seemingly disparate moves like the Blondie disco keys in “Hot Car Song” to emerge from the acoustic “Core Memory Unlocked” before giving over to the weirdo Casio-beat bounce of “Psychrolutes Marcidus Man,” a kind of ’60s character reimagined as heavy bedroom indie, The Cosmic Gospel‘s Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love isn’t without its resentments, but the almost-entirely-solo-project of Mercata, Italy-based multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Medina is more defined by its sweetness of melody and gentle delivery on the whole. An experiment like the penultimate “Wrath and Gods” carries some “Revolution 9” feel, but Medina does well earlier to set a broad context amid the hook of opener “It’s Forever Midnight” and the subsequent, lightly dub beat and keyboard focus on “The Richest Guy on the Planet is My Best Friend,” such that when closer “I Sew Your Eyes So You Don’t See How I Eat Your Heart” pairs the malevolent intent of its title with light fuzzy soloing atop an easy flowing, summery flow, the album has come to make its own kind of sense and define its path. This is exactly what one would most hope for it, and as reptiles are cold-blooded, they should be used to shifts in temperature like those presented throughout. Most humans won’t get it, but you’ve never been ‘most humans,’ have you?

The Cosmic Gospel on Facebook

Bloody Sound website

—

Grave Speaker, Grave Speaker

Massachusetts garage doomers Grave Speaker‘s self-titled debut was issued digitally by the band this past Fall and was snagged by Electric Valley Records for a vinyl release. The Mellotron melancholia that pervades the midsection of the eponymous “Grave Speaker” justifies the wax, but the cult-leaning-in-sound-if-not-theme outfit that marks a new beginning for ex-High n’ Heavy guitarist John Steele unfurl a righteously dirty fuzz over the march of “Blood of Old” at the outset and then immediately up themselves in the riffy stoner delve of “Earth and Mud.” The blown-out vocals on the latter, as well as the far-off-mic rawness of “The Bard’s Theme” that surrounds its Hendrixian solo, remind of a time when Ice Dragon roamed New England’s troubled woods, and if Grave Speaker will look to take on a similar trajectory of scope, they do more than drop hints of psychedelia here, in “Grave Speaker” and elsewhere, but they’re no more beholden to that than the Sabbathism of capper “Make Me Crawl” or the cavernous echo of “Earthbound.” It’s an initial collection, so one expects they’ll range some either way with time, but the way the production becomes part of the character of the songs speaks to a strong idea of aesthetic coming through, and the songwriting holds up to that.

Grave Speaker on Instagram

Electric Valley Records website

—

Surya Kris Peters, There’s Light in the Distance

While at the same time proffering his most expansive vision yet of a progressive psychedelia weighted in tone, emotionally expressive and able to move its focus fluidly between its layers of keyboard, synth and guitar such that the mix feels all the more dynamic and the material all the more alive (there’s an entire sub-plot here about the growth in self-production; a discussion for another time), Surya Kris Peters‘ 10-song/46-minute There’s Light in the Distance also brings the former Samsara Blues Experiment guitarist/vocalist closer to uniting his current projects than he’s yet been, the distant light here blurring the line where Surya Kris Peters ends and the emergently-rocking Fuzz Sagrado begins. This process has been going on for the last few years following the end of his former outfit and a relocation from Germany to Brazil, but in its spacious second half as well as the push of its first, a song like “Mode Azul” feels like there’s nothing stopping it from being played on stage beyond personnel. Coinciding with that are arrangement details like the piano at the start of “Life is Just a Dream” or the synth that gives so much movement under the echoing lead in “Let’s Wait Out the Storm,” as Peters seems to find new avenues even as he works his way home to his own vision of what heavy rock can be.

Fuzz Sagrado on Facebook

Electric Magic Records on Bandcamp

—

Gozd, Unilateralis

Unilateralis is the four-song follow-up EP to Polish heavydelvers Gozd‘s late-2023 debut album, This is Not the End, and its 20-plus minutes find a place for themselves in a doom that feels both traditional and forward thinking across eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points, even for an EP) “Somewhere in Between” before the charge of “Rotten Humanity” answers with brasher thrust and aggressive-undercurrent stoner rock with an airy post-metallic break in the middle and rolling ending. From there, “Thanatophobia” picks up the energy from its ambient intro and explodes into its for-the-converted nod, setting up a linear build after its initial verses and seeing it through with due diligence in noise, and closer “Tentative Minds” purposefully hypnotizes with its vague-speech in the intro and casual bassline and drum swing before the riff kicks in for the finale. The largesse of its loudest moments bolster the overarching atmosphere no less than the softest standalone guitar parts, and Gozd seem wholly comfortable in the spaces between microgenres. A niche among niches, but that’s also how individuality happens, and it’s happening here.

Gozd on Facebook

BSFD Records on Facebook

—

Sativa Root, Kings of the Weed Age

You wouldn’t accuse Austria’s Sativa Root of thematic subtlety on their third album, Kings of the Weed Age, which broadcasts a stoner worship in offerings like “Megalobong” and “Weedotaur” and probably whatever “F.A.T.” stands for, but that’s not what they’re going for anyway. With its titular intro starting off, spoken voices vague in the ambience, “Weedotaur”‘s 11 minutes lumber with all due bong-metallian slog, and the crush becomes central to the proceedings if not necessarily unipolar in terms of the band’s approach. That is to say, amid the onslaught of volume and tonal density in “Green Smegma” and the spin-your-head soloing in “Assassins Weed” (think Assassins Creed), the instrumentalist course undertaken may be willfully monolithic, but they’re not playing the same song five times on six tracks and calling it new. “F.A.T.” begins on a quiet stretch of guitar that recalls some of YOB‘s epics, complementing both the intro and “Weedotaur,” before bringing its full weight down on the listener again as if to underscore the message of its stoned instrumental catharsis on its way out the door. They sound like they could do this all day. It can be overwhelming at times, but that’s not really a complaint.

Sativa Root on Facebook

Sativa Root on Bandcamp

—

Volt Ritual, Return to Jupiter

Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Mateusz, bassist Michał and drummer Tomek, Polish riffcrafters Volt Ritual are appealingly light on pretense as they offer Return to Jupiter‘s four tracks, and though as a Star Trek fan I can’t get behind their lyrical impugning of Starfleet as they imagine what Earth colonialism would look like to a somehow-populated Jupiter, they’re not short on reasons to be cynical, if in fact that’s what’s happening in the song. “Ghostpolis” follows the sample-laced instrumental opener “Heavy Metal is Good for You” and rolls loose but accessible even in its later shouts before the more uptempo “Gwiazdolot” swaps English lyrics for Polish (casting off another cultural colonialization, arguably) and providing a break ahead of the closing title-track, which is longer at 7:37 and a clear focal point for more than just bearing the name of the EP, summarizing as it does the course of the cuts before it and even bringing a last scream as if to say “Ghostpolis” wasn’t a fluke. Their 2022 debut album began with “Approaching Jupiter,” and this Return feels organically built off that while trying some new ideas in its effects and general structure. One hopes the plot continues in some way next time along this course.

Volt Ritual on Facebook

Volt Ritual on Bandcamp

—

This news came out I think last week, and I’ll admit I was kind of hoping an album announcement would follow quickly behind. As I haven’t seen word of a new Insect Ark yet, I figured better late than never to get word up that the two-piece of Dana Schechter (known for her work in Swans and The Angels of Light as well as Gnaw, and of course Bee and Flower back when) and Tim Wyskida (for whom Khanate would be enough pedigree on its own were he not also part of Blind Idiot God) had inked a new deal with Debemur Morti Productions to issue said release sometime in the bellypart of 2024.

That probably makes it a summer arrival, which further makes it early to see anything substantive about what to expect from the first Insect Ark LP to see release since Schechter relocated the band to Berlin, Germany. 2020’s The Vanishing (review here) came out on Profound Lore, while the next year’s Future Fossils EP compilation (review here) was through Consouling Sounds in Belgium, and both were killer, but to think Schechter is going to repeat herself is laughable. Since the project’s outset, Insect Ark has maintained its experimentalist crux even as The Vanishing seemed to bring structure to the anti-genre atmospheric malevolence.

Expect more of that, I guess, if expecting such a thing is possible. The news below is little more than an Instagram post I cut and pasted. Sign of the times. Minimal though it is, here it is, with a hope of more to follow soon:

We are excited to announce that INSECT ARK signed to Debemur Morti Productions. 

Insect Ark is the Berlin-based duo of American artists Dana Schechter (@swans_official) and Tim Wyskida (@officialkhanate). 

With a shared obsession for innovation and distillation, the group created a new album which will be released mid-2024, offering a sonic landscape which vacillates between sensory overload and isolation in a seething void.

http://www.insectark.com
http://www.insectark.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/InsectArk
http://www.instagram.com/insectark

https://www.facebook.com/debemurmorti
https://www.instagram.com/debemurmorti/
https://dmp666.bandcamp.com/
https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

Insect Ark, Future Fossils (2021)

German heavy instrumentalists Schubmodul are set to issue their sophomore LP, Lost in Kelp Forest, on Feb. 23 through Tonzonen Records. As the title alluding to submerged plantlife hints, the album follows a submerged conceptual narrative such that the sun-reflecting lead guitar in “Emerald Maze” around six minutes into the total 9:57 genuinely seems to discover something as it shifts from its exploratory outset into a more linear pattern ahead of a thicker riff’s return. Samples bolster the affair and fill in some of the places vocals might otherwise have gone — according to the PR wire below King Gizzard did that at one point?; fair enough — as across the six-song/42-minute rolling horizon, the three-piece of Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker bring purpose to a weighted and progressive-leaning, clear-headed psychedelia. This could easily have been an LP of jams that afterward the band decided was about the ocean. That’s not what’s happening here.

Schubmodul‘s material is composed and brings a sense of intention even to the nodder chug in “Silent Echoes” that feels like it could be anything. It’s not that you feel like you’re underwater or that, thankfully, the music itself sounds like it, but the power of suggestion, the commonality of the metaphor within the genre, and your own willingness to go should be enough to get you there. The trio open with “Voyage” and offer the first of the six individualized progressions within the songs, each carving out its own space of the entirety both in terms of story — I’m just cut and pasting the credits so I don’t spell anyone’s name wrong: the spoken narrations are France’s Alma Chomel and Shane Wilson in the US — and the alignment around and movement through structured parts. A band with a marker-board in the rehearsal space? They might be. Somebody, somewhere along the line, has arranged the parts of Lost in Kelp Forest, if not as a cinematic experience, then certainly with a mind toward evoking an emotive or associative response in the listener. As the swinging ‘verse’ of the penultimate “Ascension” (visualizer premiering below), with its proggy bass punches and strutting groove emerges from the spaces cast in the largesse of “Silent Echoes” just before, Schubmodul offer dynamic of intention as well as volume, reaching into varying niches of microgenre while thoughtfully distinguishing their songs in conceptual approach and the finer details of their layering.

An example of that lies in the acoustic beginning of “Renegade One,” the five-minute finale of side A. They open into a groove bordering on huge, as one will, and are both methodical in terms of pace and mindful of when the changes should be. A switch to lead guitar here, some flourish on drums to mark the transition. A stop before you jump in again. Complemented by a captured tonality that is sharper at its corners than one might at first expect, Schubmodul can gear a given part or track toward impact or atmosphere seemingly as they choose, and more often than not on Lost in Kelp Forest, they choose both. The record is stronger for it while still remaining cognizant enough of their basic underlying riffage to be likened to later Karma to Burn, though certainly Schubmodul have layered an entire aesthetic atop that most straight-ahead of instrumental structural foundations. “Ascension” ends sharp and gives over to the Wilson voiceover, naming a deep sea wreck of a ship named Renegade One and revealing the mission to harvest kelp forests that, well, don’t let me spoil it. Ambient guitar behind, the heart of the story ends in closer “Revelations” with an urging to “protect our planet and all living things” before its meditative roll takes hold in earnest. And of course they build around the finale as they’ve been building all along to their various purposes either in storytelling or kicking ass more generally.

It’s not quite a blowout, but it’s the end credits as the pace picks up in the second half of “Revelations” and the band push into the last fadeout. I’m not quite ready to call Schubmodul heavy prog, though there’s some distillation of an Elder influence audible in the shimmering of the guitar and some of the sway in their larger grooves. I can’t get away from feeling like someone in the band — be it Stecker, Kellner or Franke — has some noisier background, but across Lost in Kelp Forest, everything the band put into the record is funneled into the central purpose of the narrative and the songs themselves, and the story being told is that much clearer and expressive for that. Giant kelp can grow up to 250 feet tall, two feet per day if it’s the right kind. An underwater forest is an entire ecosystem, with predators and prey, eggs laid behind leaves and fish living off the plants that are their entire world. Humans I think mostly use it as a place to keep discarded plastic wrap.

But our pitiful species’ disregard for the (actual) treasures that surround us nothing new, and if part of Schubmodul‘s intent is to remind of that or at least pull the thought out of the listener’s brain, then they have succeeded in affecting the mood and mindset of their audience — I was thinking about genocide, now I’m thinking about climate crisis; welcome to the 2020s! everyone’s sad and everything is why — and that’s not an accomplishment to discount. Their debut, 2022’s Modul I, functioned similarly in terms of impact and atmosphere, but what’s found in terms of method and purpose throughout Lost in Kelp Forest is a marked forward step that comes with a greater breadth of production to match that of its basic sound. I don’t know that their next effort — the e’er crucial ‘third record’ — will tell the same kind of tale or not, but I would expect the refinement of approach that Schubmodul have undertaken in the last couple years to continue, and that means that’s an album I’ll want to hear.

Please enjoy the visualizer for “Ascension” premiering below, followed by more from the PR wire:

Schubmodul, “Ascension” visualizer premiere

Lost In Kelp Forest is a concept album that doesn’t take place in the vastness of space like its predecessor, but rather in an underwater world. The six mainly instrumental pieces are accompanied by narrator voices, which reveal a coherent fictional story on a dense atmospheric carpet of sound. The voices were professionally recorded by Alma Chomel from France and Shane Wilson from the USA.

As a foundation, the triumvirate, formed by a classic line-up of guitar, bass and drums, thunders a mix of space, stoner and progressive rock onto the stage, which is occasionally supplemented by synthesizers, sound and voice samples. Dreamy, atmospheric passages combined with colossal riffs will often lead to an epic melodic zenith of voluminous, warm sounds, over which gentle to fast guitar solos are released.

The compositions use a large modal palette and versatile harmonies that are intended to continually surprise the listener and at the same time follow a driving, natural and catchy rhythm. Lost In Kelp Forest has a very high level of attention to detail and should remain exciting even after repeated listening.

The band’s inspiration for this album was genre-typical greats like Elder, King Buffalo, more progressive bands like Dream Theater and elements from Hans Zimmer’s film music. The idea using a spoken word on top of the music was inspired by the albums Eyes Like The Sky and Murderer Of The Universe by King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard. Lost In Kelp Forest was recorded in August 2023 in the legendary Tonmeisterei in Oldenburg, Germany. The entire album was recorded in just six long days. The band was housed in the studio for the entire recording process, which created a unique atmosphere. The first tracks (Emerald Maze and Silent Echoes) were written shortly after the release of the first album in spring 2022 and set the basic mood of the album. The remaining pieces were completed by summer 2023.

Tracklist
1. Voyage
2. Emerald Maze
3. Renegade One
4. Silent Echoes
5. Ascension
6. Revelations

Schubmodul are Christoph Kellner, Fabian Franke and Nils Stecker.

Schubmodul on Instagram

Schubmodul on Facebook

Schubmodul on Bandcamp

Schubmodul on Spotify

Tonzonen Records website

Tonzonen Records on Facebook

Tonzonen Records on Bandcamp

This past Friday, classically progressive heavy rockers Mouth released Vortex Redux through This Charming Man Records. And though ‘redux’ in a heavy context has come to be associated with Magnetic Eye Records‘ ongoing album-tribute series, no, this is not Mouth or anyone else covering their own album. Remastered with the included bonus track “Turn the Lie” (video premiering below) and liner notes by yours truly.

The Köln-based trio — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Christian Koller, drummer/keyboardist Nick Mavridis and bassist Thomas Johnen, who made his first appearance on last year’s Getaway (review here) in the role previously filled by Gerald Kirsch — originally released Vortex (review here) in 2017 through Al!ve/Blunoise Records as an eight-years-later follow-up to their debut, Rhizome, but really, it was the point at which their proggy intent found its fruition. With underlying influence from the heavier end of the style and a modern cast on vintage ideologies, they’ve been able to position themselves in both worlds as a band whose foundation is in prog textures with keys and retro organs and synth and melodies and all that stuff mixed with the occasional let-loose of a thicker shove.

It’s a fine line and Mouth dance all over it, but you’ll pardon me if I leave the analysis there. I’ve both reviewed this album AND I wrote the liner notes below in blue — as opposed to the usual ‘bio I wrote’ tag I apply in situations where editorial and promotional lines are blurred (always uncomfortable; full disclosure, I actually don’t remember if I was compensated or not for the below writing; I’m terrible with money and knowing things generally; see also ‘incompetent’) — that begin with “Welcome…” and end where they end. Seems like plenty, so if you’re still reading at all and haven’t already started the clip, I’ll just say that that whole “prog + fun” equation alluded to above is exactly what comes to life here, and in close-up style.

Plenty more of my blah blah blah follows — I didn’t even know they were using the notes as promo copy until the record was out, but fair enough — and the clip’s three minutes and weird and kind of lo-fi, which somehow makes it more of a good time. But you’re right in the box with them, so I hope you’ve showered recently. Nobody wants to be the one stinking up the practice space.

Please enjoy:

Mouth, “Turn the Lie” video premiere

This is the bonus track of the redux version of MOUTH’s second album VORTEX.
Order the new mastered and reworked album here:

https://thischarmingmanrecords.de/produkt/mouth-vortex-redux-col-12/

camera: Jerome Crutsen

Welcome to the definitive Vortex. The LP you’re holding has been on a journey, and no, not just shipping. Mouth’s second after 2009’s Rhizome, Vortex was mostly recorded in 2011 and 2012 over five sessions in a small space where the band rehearsed. Material was pieced together intermittently over a period of 11 months with Chris Koller handling guitar, keys and bass and Nick Mavridis on drums. That’s where it started. Two construction projects: the studio and a recording that would help define the course of the band in classic and melodic progressive rock, happening almost simultaneously in a creative meta-narrative that could easily stand as analog for the depth of pieces like “Into the Light” or the sprawling “Vortex” itself, which opens the record (new and old editions) in an encompassing display of impulse and fluidity

Through experiments in atmosphere like “March of the Cyclopes” and toward the finish of “Epilogue,” Mouth married sounds that in other contexts would come up disparate, like finding a hidden magnetism between two north poles.

Most of the Vortex songs were created on the spot in the studio.There would be no way to know it at the time, but this process would result in a collection of songs with a broad range, within as well as between the component tracks. “Parade” taps Sly Stone on the shoulder and asks if he wants to party (he does), while the penultimate “Soon After…” resonates with its smoky, mellow-jazz vibe. “Vortex” itself happens over six movements and was put together across different sessions, while “Epilogue” happened in a day.

Dissatisfaction with the original mix – and when an album has as much put into its arrangements as Vortex, that balance matters – would lead Mouth to offer Out of the Vortex in 2020 as a collection of alternate versions of pieces like “Mountain” and “Parade,” as well as the unreleased “Ready” and “Homagotago’s Paddle Boat Trip,” the latter an apparent successor to a cut from Floating. But sometimes a thing nestles itself into the back of your head and just won’t leave, and Mouth’s pursuit of a finished Vortex would lead them into the studio again.

Koller handled the remix himself in Oct. 2023, and in addition to helming the new master, krautrock legend Eroc (who drummed in Grobschnitt) brought a gong to mark the beginning of “March of the Cyclopes.” Like a lot of the finer touches on this Vortex, be it a hashed-out stretch in the title-track built on a drum/bass jam or just pulling the vocals and Hammond down a bit in “Epilogue,” the result is a stylistic flourishing that was there all along throughout the journey and now can finally shine as the band intended. – JJ Koczan / Dec. 2023

Pressing Info:
100 copies black (mailorder edition)
400 copies purple transparent wax
-> all copies come with a fold out poster

Mouth, Vortex Redux (2024)

Mouth on Facebook

Mouth on Instagram

Mouth on Bandcamp

Mouth on Soundcloud

Mouth linktr.ee

This Charming Man Records website

This Charming Man Records on Facebook

This Charming Man Records on Instagram

This Charming Man Records on Bandcamp

I distinctly remember being in the hotel room in Tilburg at whichever Roadburn it was circa 2010 and putting on the proper CD of Samavayo‘s Death.March.Melodies! for the first time. It was part of a stack of compact discs I’d picked up at various merch tables throughout the day; the album was released on Nasoni and I snagged it from the Exile on Mainstream distro while nerding out, trying not to be intimidated by Andreas Kohl and failing. Back in the room, I put the disc in the player and dug in. It wasn’t my first time hearing the band, whose sound has taken on nearly two decades of development since. You’ll note the mention below of Iraq War II and the post-9/11 sphere in which the album arrived. That awareness of social issues extends throughout Samavayo‘s entire career. It is part of what defines their aesthetic.

Certainly that was the case on their 2022 full-length, Pāyān (review here), which they followed later that year with the compilation Songs for the Iranian People, which it’s worth noting came before the current US war of aggression in the Middle East got started. Democrats’ poll numbers tank, they just seem to decide it’s time to bomb Yemen. Worked for Obama. As long as you have no moral scruples about being a war criminal, it’s fine.

Anyhoozle, Death.March.Melodies! will be reissued through Noisolution on March 22, Samavayo doing a bit of looking back before they invariably move forward with what’s coming next for them — live shows mostly in Germany, and probably continued writing (that’s confirmed; they’re also working on new stuff). There’s a fair amount of info below, so take your time soaking it up, and both the most recent comp and Death.March.Melodies! (original master) stream below, hoisted from Bandcamp.

From the PR wire:

We are very proud to announce the re-issue of our debut LP “Death.March.Melodies!” from 2005 on March 22nd through our beloved label Noisolution!

“We were young and had been quite busy in the previous years. The first 4-track demo in 2002, the first EP “131” in 2003, the second EP “Songs from the Drop-outs” in 2004 and the absolute hit on Stoned From the Underground in 2004! It was time for the first album!

We had already played a few shows in and around Berlin and through Caligula666 in other federal states and picked up various influences! And we recorded this one song in the ORWOhaus with Daniel Hassbecker: The first version of “Keep on Rollin'”.

With a colorful mix of songs with influences from punk, stoner, heavy rock and a lot of metal, we have the Death.March.Melodies in 2005! recorded. The time was marked by the wars after September 11th, especially the Second Iraq War. The artwork was just as dark!

The album paved the way for us into the European stoner scene. In 2007 we played 70 self-booked shows, including in Greece. Long before the stoner scene was as big as it is today!

Looking back, this album was not only important for us, but 18 years later we hear from various fans of the scene that this album was one of the first stoner albums by a German band and that they grew up with it. We are incredibly proud of that!

Many of our new fans over the last few years haven’t seen this album on vinyl and certain songs like “Nutso” or “Heavy Song” have also been part of our live set over the last few years!

It has been sold out for over 10 years now and we did a remaster by Pascal Stoffels and new artwork by Kiryk Drewinski. We will play shows in Feb to May where we will be adding songs from DMM. And one of the highlights is our Berlin show, the first edition of Samavayo & Friends with Mother Engine and Sons of Morpheus on April 13th!

There will be a very limited “Club 100” sale on Feb 18th 18:00 cet!

The features of the “Club 100” version are
– Protective cover with additional screen printed artwork
– Demo CD with 6 unreleased pre-production and live songs from the years 2004-2007
– Limited and exclusive patch with artwork from 2005
– Hand signed double sided poster (band photo vs. lyrics)
– Hand numbered & stamped

Our shows so far:
24.02.2024 DE Neckargemünd, Altes E-Werk – NeckargemündTicket
25.02.2024 DE Frankfurt, Zoom Frankfurt
12.03.2024 DE Hamburg, Bar 227
13.03.2024 NL Nijmegen, De Onderbroek
14.03.2024 DE Dusseldorf, Pitcher
15.03.2024 DE Siegen, VORTEX SURFER Music Club
16.03.2024 DE Erfurt, Bandhaus Erfurt
17.03.2024 DE Hannover, Kulturzentrum Faust
13.04.2024 DE Berlin, Samavayo & Friends
10.05.2024 CG Martigny, Les Caves du Manoir

more shows tba!

The Bandcamp sale will start on Feb 19th!

Samavayo is:
Stephan Voland (Drums, Vocals)
Andreas Voland (Bass, Vocals)
Behrang Alavi (Vocals, Guitar)

https://www.facebook.com/samavayo/
https://www.instagram.com/samavayo/
https://www.samavayo.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/samavayo

http://www.noisolution.de/
https://www.facebook.com/noisolution
https://www.instagram.com/noisolution/

Samavayo, Songs for the Iranian People (2022)

Samavayo, Death.March.Melodies! (2005)

At this point it’s been over six years since Darmstadt, Germany, heavy rockers Bushfire put out their last album, 2018’s When Darkness Comes (review here), and it seems like if a follow-up is something that’s ever going to happen, now’s probably a good time. The long-running troupe sent word that they’ve welcomed bassist Nicolas Kurz back into the fold and they don’t go so far as to announce recording plans or say a thing is done, but they do say flat out they’re targeting a 2024 release, and there’s a lot of year left, so they might even get there.

The band released their Live at 806qm recording in 2020 and played Desertfest Belgium last year. I’d assume any future live plans will come together around the recording, whenever that happens, so it might be a bit before they’re out for anything more than a getaway, but that they’re moving forward is still good news. Proceedings proceeding, and so on.

Frontman Bill Brown checked in on socials:

Yo, BILL here, on behalf of BUSHFIRE.

Well, you might have noticed we’ve been off the radar for quite some time. And trust me, it’s not been easy.

Understanding. For me this means in these almost 20 years as a BUSHFIRE member, in this band you must have a love for music and share with other musicians, musical ideas, a common ground and goal so to say. Sometimes that’s tougher than you’d think. As a lyricist, I depend on the music to drive me into the emotional journey so I can reflect and convey, if nothing but, a feeling. I can only assume every musician has exactly that feeling no matter the instrument. Dependance, on one another. We take a journey together and it’s tough sometimes. I’m nothing without my band. Well ok, a poet maybe.

As always in life, things change. Our bassist and good buddy Vince, has decide to depart from the BUSHFIRE saga, on his own terms and personal reasons. It lay heavy in our hearts but understanding is key. We wish him nothing but the best.

From Vinz:

“When I joined Bushfire I was a fan of the band. I had seen them in 2012, playing a gig in Das Bett in Frankfurt and I thought “This is the music I would like to play!”. Fast forward a couple of years and I was waking up at 6 every morning to practice dozens of songs after Billorone had asked me: “Do you have time for a 2 weeks tour of the Balkans?”. It has been 10+ years of efforts and rewards, sacrifices and satisfactions, sweat and thrills, passionate fights and passionate harmonies, crazy highway trips, long stage-time waits, amazing concerts. I leave now because I need to find a new perspective, you know when sometimes a cycle must close? I will stay a Bushfire fan. I wish you good luck, guys, and I bow one last time to all the people that have been supporting us all along. Rock on!”

As bittersweet as this may be, we are excited to announce and love to re-welcome, NICK. (Nicolas Kurz)

Nick has shared the stage with us through the years with countless heroes of music.

We have a history, it’s comforting. Between (2011-2013) (recorded: Heal Thy Self), we’ve crossed Europe, destroying minds and ears along the way. It’s amazing to have him back for the support and journey. So let’s raise a glass to our brother’s return!

That being said, we’ve been focusing on our new album diligently. Our goal is to record, produce and release this album this year. Determined to take a new journey and return to the light, love, family, friends and stage that we’ve been so greatly missing.

Understanding is key.
See you very soon.
Love.
BUSHFIRE

http://www.facebook.com/bushfiremusic
https://www.instagram.com/bushfireofficial/
https://bushfire.bandcamp.com/
http://www.bushfiremusic.com/

Bushfire, Live at 806qm (2020)

I’ve been trying to post this for like a week. This happens to me now. I’ll be sitting on the couch at like 7PM or some such — well past what I consider ‘Obelisk time’ in my feeble brainclock — and see some relevant item on my phone. I haven’t covered Krach am Bach much in years past, so I probably said something like, “Oh shit right on, I can post about something new,” and started to put the thing together. I don’t remember if I squared the poster image or the fest did — probably them. But then I get in the actual back end of the site and there are like 50 other things and then I’m already late and blah blah fucking blah here I am with another festival lineup post. I’m sure by now the lineup has been completed and the festival — which is set for Aug. 2-3 — has already taken place. Because time would bend over backwards just to screw me up, and I say that as the voice of experience.

But the lineup. Seems likely The Devil and the Almighty Blues will be out on tour, ditto A Place to Bury Strangers, Wine Lips, Deathchant, El Perro. You’ll notice Elder-offshoot Delving among the confirmations, which might mean another studio offering from that project is on the way, and I’ll go to bat for each of Karkara, Humulus, Travo and Black Helium being worth your time based solely on my experience with their recorded output. There’s more to come here, but I’m not sure how much more you really need.

Check it:

+++ First announcements || Tickets available +++

In case you’re wondering about some news for the 29. Krach am Bach Festival, we’ve got the finest selection for a ride through heavy, fuzz-drowned and hypnotic space trips.

Orange Goblin |UK
A Place To Bury Strangers |US
The Devil And The Almighty Blues |Norway
Wine Lips |Canada
Tuber |Greece
Deathchant |US
El Perro |US
Madmess |Portugal
delving |US
Verstärker |US
KARKARA |France
Humulus |Italy
TRAVO |Portugal
Black Helium |UK
ᴉGeRaldᴉ |France

More bands to be announced soon!
+++
Get your tickets here: https://shop.paylogic.com/604ee181fd7d4834aa24ee0a0c0c10a6

https://www.facebook.com/krachambach
https://www.instagram.com/krachambachfestival
https://linktr.ee/krachambachfestival
https://krachambach.de/

Orange Goblin, Live at Freak Valley 2023