Quarterly Review: Novembers Doom, Abrams, The Grand Astoria, Hosoi Bros, Codeia, Ealdor Bealu, Stone Lotus, Green Yeti, Seer, Bretus

Posted in Reviews on July 13th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-summer-2017

So, after kvetching and hemming and hawing and all that other stuff that basically means ‘fretting and trying to shuffle a schedule around’ for the last several days, I think I’ve now found a way to add a sixth day to this Quarterly Review. Looking at all the records that still need to be covered even after doing 50, I don’t really see any other way to go. I could try to do more The Obelisk Radio adds to fit things in, but I don’t want to over-tax that new server, so yeah, I’m waiting at the moment to hear back on whether or not I can move a premiere from Monday to Tuesday to make room. Fingers crossed. I’ve already got the albums picked out that would be covered and should know by tomorrow if it’s going to happen.

Plenty to do in the meantime, so let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Novembers Doom, Hamartia

novembers-doom-hamartia

Look. Let’s be honest here. More than 20 years and 10 records in, one knows at least on a superficial level what to expect from Chicago’s Novembers Doom. Since their first album arrived in 1995, they’ve played to one side or the other between the spectrum of death-doom, and their work legitimately broke ground in the style for a US band and in general. After a push over their last couple albums including 2014’s Bled White (review here) into more deathly fare, Hamartia (on The End Records) brings 10 tracks and 58 minutes of the melancholy dramas – special hello to the piano/acoustic-led title-track – and gut-wrenching, crushingly emotive miseries – special hello to “Waves in the Red Cloth” and “Ghost” – that have defined them. One doesn’t expect a radical departure from them at this point and they don’t deliver one even as they turn to another side of their overarching aesthetic, but whether it’s the still-propulsive death gallop of “Apostasy” or the lush nine-minute finale “Borderline,” Novembers Doom reinforce their position as absolute masters of the style and give their longtime fans another collection of vital woes in which to revel.

Novembers Doom on Thee Facebooks

The End Records website

 

Abrams, Morning

abrams morning

Not a hair out of place in the execution of Morning, the Sailor Records second long-player from Denver three-piece Abrams (interview here). That has its ups and downs, naturally, but is suited to the band’s take on modern progressive heavy rock à la newer Mastodon and Baroness, and with production from Andy Patterson (of SubRosa) and Dave Otero (Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, etc.), the crisp feel is both purposeful and well earned. Their 2015 debut, Lust. Love. Loss. (review here), dealt with a similar emotional landscape, but bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen, guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster and drummer Geoffrey Cotton are tighter and more aggressive here on songs like opener “Worlds Away” (video posted here), “At the End,” “Rivers,” “Can’t Sleep” and “Burned” (video posted here), and “Mourning,” “In this Mask” and closer “Morning” balance in terms of tempo and overall atmosphere, making Morning more than just a collection of master-blasters and giving it a full album’s flow and depth. Like I said, not a hair out of place. Structure, performance, delivery, theme. Abrams have it all precisely where they want it.

Abrams on Thee Facebooks

Abrams on Bandcamp

 

The Grand Astoria, The Fuzz of Destiny

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Dubbed an EP but running 29 minutes and boasting eight tracks, The Grand Astoria’s The Fuzz of Destiny is something of a conceptual release, with the St. Petersburg, Russia-based outfit paying homage to the effect itself. Each song uses a different kind of fuzz pedal, and as the ever-nuanced, progressive outfit make their way through the blown-out pastoralism of opener “Sunflower Queen” and into the nod of “Pocket Guru,” the organ-inclusive bursting fury of “Glass Walls” and the slower and more consuming title-track itself, which directly precedes closer “Eight Years Anniversary Riff” – yup, it’s a riff alright – they’re able to evoke a surprising amount of variety in terms of mood. That’s a credit to The Grand Astoria as songwriters perhaps even more than the differences in tone from song to song here – they’ve certainly shown over their tenure a will to embrace a diverse approach – but in giving tribute to fuzz, The Fuzz of Destiny successfully conveys some of the range a single idea can be used to conjure.

The Grand Astoria on Thee Facebooks

The Grand Astoria on Bandcamp

 

Hosoi Bros., Abuse Your Allusion III

hosoi-bros-abuse-your-allusion-iii

Oh, they’re up to it again, those Hosoi Bros. Their 2016 full-length, Abuse Your Allusion III, from its Guns ‘n’ Roses title reference through the Motörhead riffing of “Saint Tightus” through the stoner punk of “Topless Gnome” and the chugging scorch of the penultimate “Bitches are Nigh” offer primo charm and high-order shenanigans amid the most professional-sounding release of their career. Across a quick 10 tracks and 36 minutes, Hosoi Bros. readily place themselves across the metal/punk divide, and while there’s plenty of nonsense to be had from opener “Mortician” onward through “Lights Out” (video premiere here) and the later swagger of “Unholy Hand Grenade,” the band have never sounded more cohesive in their approach than they do on Abuse Your Allusion III, and the clean production only seems to highlight the songwriting at work underneath all the zany happenings across the record’s span, thereby doing them and the band alike a service as they make a convincing argument to their audience: Have fun. Live a little. It won’t hurt that much.

Hosoi Bros on Thee Facebooks

Hosoi Bros. on Bandcamp

 

Codeia, “Don’t be Afraid,” She Whispered and Disappeared

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There’s actually very little that gets “Lost in Translation” in the thusly-titled 22-minute opener and longest cut (immediate points) of German post-metallers Codeia’s cumbersomely-named Backbite Records debut album, “Don’t be Afraid,” She Whispered and Disappeared. With heavy post-rock textures and an overarching sense of cerebral progressivism to its wash underscored by swells of low-end distortion, the three-piece of guitarist/backing vocalist Markus L., bassist/vocalist Denis S. and drummer Timo L. bring to bear patience out of the peak-era Isis or Cult of Luna sphere, sudden volume shifts, pervasive ambience, flourish of extremity and all. Nine-minute centerpiece “Shaping Stone” has its flash of aggression early before shifting into hypnotic and repetitive groove and subsequent blastbeaten furies, and 16-minute closer “Facing Extinction” caps the three-song/48-minute offering with nodding Russian Circles-style chug topped with growls that mask the layer of melodic drone filling out the mix beneath. They’re on familiar stylistic ground, but the breadth, depth and complexity Codeia bring to their extended structures are immersive all the same.

Codeia on Thee Facebooks

Backbite Records website

Mountain Range Creative Factory website

 

Ealdor Bealu, Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain

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“Water Cycle,” the 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) of Ealdor Bealu’s debut full-length, Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain, introduces a meditative feel and a breadth of sound that helps to define everything that follows. The ostensible side B leadoff of the self-release, “This too Shall Endure” (11:04), offers no less depth of atmosphere, and the graceful psychedelic expanses of the penultimate “Behind the Veil” continue to add to the overall scope with interplay of tempo variety and acoustic and electric guitar, but even earlier, shorter cuts like the wistful indie rocker “Deep Dark Below” and the linear-building “Behold the Sunrise” have an underlying progressivism that ties them to the longer form material, and likewise the particularly exploratory feeling “Ebb and Flow,” which though it’s the shortest cut at just over five minutes resonates as a standout jam ahead of “Behind the Veil” and subtly proggy seven-minute closer “Time Traveler.” The Boise-based four-piece of guitarist/vocalist/spearhead Carson Russell, guitarist Travis Abbott (also The Western Mystics), bassist/vocalist Rylie Collingwood and drummer/percussionist/saxophonist Alex Wargo bring the 56-minute offering to bear with marked patience and impress in the complexity of their arrangements and the identifiable human core that lies beneath them.

Ealdor Bealu on Thee Facebooks

Ealdor Bealu on Bandcamp

 

Stone Lotus, Comastone

I can take spicier foods than I ever could before.

One might consider the title of “Mountain of Filth,” the second cut on Stone Lotus’ debut album, Comastone, a mission statement for the Southwestern Australian trio’s vicious ‘n’ viscous brand of rolling, tonal-molasses sludge. Yeah, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Dave Baker, bassist Samuel Noire and drummer Reece Fleming bring ambience to the interlude “Aum,” the slower loud/quiet shifts in “Anthropocene” and the subsequent “Umbra” that leads into the creepy launch of the title-track – in fact, quiet starts are something of a theme throughout Comastone; even the thudding toms that begin opener “Swamp Coven” pale in comparison to the volume swell of massive distortion that follows closely behind – but it’s the rhythmic lumber and the harsh vocals from Baker that define their course through the darker recesses of sludged-out misanthropy. No complaints there, especially on a first long-player, but Stone Lotus are right to keep in mind the flourish of atmosphere their material offers, and one hopes that develops parallel to all the crushing weight of their mountainous approach.

Stone Lotus on Thee Facebooks

Stone Lotus on Bandcamp

 

Green Yeti, Desert Show

I'm not sure if that's an effect of dropping carbs or how it would be, but it's strange.

Even before it announces its heft, Green Yeti’s Desert Show casts forth its spaciousness. The second offering from the Athens-based trio in as many years dogwhistles heavy riffing intent even unto its David Paul Seymour album cover, but the five track rollout from guitarist/vocalist Michael Andresakis, bassist/producer Danis Avramidis and drummer Giannis Koutroumpis, as it shifts from the opening salvo of “Black Planets (Part 1)” and “Black Planets (Part 2)” into the Spanish-language centerpiece “Rojo” (direct homage perhaps to Los Natas? if so, effectively done) and into the broader-ranging “Bad Sleep (Part 1)” and 15-minute closer “Bad Sleep (Part 2)” builds just as much on its atmosphere as on its newer-school stoner rock groove and fuzz riffing. It is a 41-minute span that, without question, speaks to the heavy rock converted and plays to genre, but even taken next to the band’s 2016 debut, The Yeti has Landed, Desert Show demonstrates clear growth in writing and style, and stands as further proof of the emergence of Greece as a major contributor to the sphere of Europe’s heavy underground. Something special is happening in and outside of Athens. Green Yeti arrive at the perfect time to be a part of it.

Green Yeti on Thee Facebooks

Green Yeti on Bandcamp

 

Seer, Victims

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Let’s just assume that Seer won’t be asked to play at Dorney Park anytime soon. The Allentown, Pennsylvania, three-piece dig into largesse-minded instrumental riffing someplace between doom and sludge and do so on raw, formative fashion on the two-song Victims EP, which features the tracks “Victims… Aren’t We All?” and “Swollen Pit,” which is a redux from their 2015 debut short release, Vaped Remains. Some touch of Electric Wizard-style wah in Rybo’s guitar stands out in the second half of the opener, and the closer effectively moves from its initial crawl into post-Sleep stonerized idolatry, but the point of Victims isn’t nearly as much about scope as it is about Rybo, bassist Kelsi and drummer Yvonne setting forth on a stomping path of groove and riff worship, rumbling sans pretense loud enough to crack the I-78 corridor and offering the clever equalizer recommendation to put the bass, treble and mids all at six. Think about it for a second. Not too long though.

Seer on Thee Facebooks

Seer on Bandcamp

 

Bretus, From the Twilight Zone

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Doom! Horror! Riffs! Though it starts out with quiet acoustics and unfolds in echoing weirdness, Bretus’ new album, …From the Twilight Zone, more or less shouts these things from the proverbial cathedral rafters throughout its seven tracks. The Catanzaro, Italy, foursome weren’t shy about bringing an air of screamy sludge to their 2015 sophomore outing, The Shadow over Innsmouth (discussed here), but …From the Twilight Zone shifts more toward a Reverend Bizarre trad doom loyalism that suits the Endless Winter release remarkably well. Those acoustics pop up again in expanded-breadth centerpiece/highlight “Danza Macabra” and closer “Lizard Woman,” and thereby provide something of a narrative thread to the offering as a whole, but on the level of doom-for-doomers, there’s very little about the aesthetic that Bretus leave wanting throughout, whether it’s the faster-chug into drifting fluidity of “The Murder” or the nodding stomp of “In the Vault” (demo posted here) and crypto-NWOBHM flourish of “Old Dark House” (video posted here). Not trying to remake doom in their own image, but conjuring an eerie and engaging take in conversation with the masters of the form.

Bretus on Thee Facebooks

Endless Winter Records

 

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Hosoi Bros Premiere “Lights Out” Video

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

hosoi-bros

I really dig the comment below about Hosoi Bros‘ new album, Abuse Your Allusion III from Severin Allgood. First of all, he’s right, the record is easily the most professional-sounding thing the Memphis-based heavy punkers have done — if you caught onto it last year, think of a less metal incarnation of Bloodcow‘s Crystals and Lasers as a comparison point — but it’s also interesting the way Allgood brings up how technology has changed the way we interact with music in our day-to-day. He names names: Bandcamp, Soundcloud, iPhone, Macbook, Spotify, your earbuds.

Hosoi Bros, who release Abuse Your Allusion III Sept. 23 on Typhoon Killer Records, already have it up and available to order from Bandcamp, so it’s not like they eschew this technology. I’m not sure a band could and reasonably expect anyone to hear their music. And Allgood isn’t necessarily the first to bring up the idea of making a full-album as opposed to a collection of single tracks, but I guess I haven’t often thought of streaming technology in terms of having a hand in leveling the playing field from a production standpoint, or how that might be used as a drive to surpass the status quo, as Hosoi Bros do with their latest.

Of course, it’s a more general statement about the album as a whole than “Lights Out” itself, for which you’ll find the chicanery-prone outfit getting up to some primo nonsense. At four and a half minutes, “Lights Out” is one of the longer tracks on the record, which has been a while in the making — they premiered a video for “Hands of Stone” here last year — but its catchy rush and crisp execution represent Abuse Your Allusion III well, even if it’s not as outwardly silly as “Drunk Donkey,” “Saint Tightus” or “Topless Gnome.”

Please find the video below, followed by the aforementioned statement from AllgoodAbuse Your Allusion III (note: it’s the first one) is out Sept. 23.

Enjoy:

Hosoi Bros., “Lights Out” official video

Severin Allgood on Abuse Your Allusion III:

We got super weird with this album. There’s gongs, bells, synths, and tree frogs. Alan Burchum did an amazing job with the production. It feels like an album. And by that I mean, it feels like when I was a kid and would bring home a new cassette and throw it on my stereo. Bandcamp and Soundcloud have decimated the playing field. Every idiot with an iPhone or a Macbook now has a demo available for download. We set out to make a polished, cohesive, and complete thought. We spent a lot of time adding layers and playing with track order. This album is designed to be played loud on your stereo. It was not made with the idea of individual tracks for Spotify radio. Take out your earbuds and crank up your speakers.

Hosoi Bros on Thee Facebooks

Hosoi Bros on Twitter

Hosoi Bros on Bandcamp

Typhoon Killer Records webstore

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Hosoi Bros Premiere Video for “Hands of Stone”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on May 12th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

hosoi bros (Photo by George Hancock)

For today’s lesson in obscure pop culture history, we turn to Memphis four-piece Hosoi Bros, and their new video for the track “Hands of Stone.” It’s been a couple years since we last heard from the heavy punk rockers, who’ve got two 7″s under their collective belt in the form of 2012’s Snorlokk (video here) and earlier 2012’s Wine Witch (review here), but they’re set to issue a debut long-player and are currently in the somewhat harrowing process of finding a label home. For a band who occupy a kind of sonic nether region between tonally weighted groove and punkier roots, it can be difficult, but if time has proven anything about Hosoi Bros, it’s that they know how to blow off some steam.

Which brings us back to where we started: that lesson in obscure pop culture history. “Hands of Stone,” the new song and video from Hosoi Bros‘ upcoming full-length, refers to professional wrestler Ron Garvin who, in a 1980s feud with Ric Flair, was called “The Man with Hands of Stone.” So be it. The song’s lyrics make numerous references to classic professional wrestling, from Dusty Rhodes to the Legion of Doom, but even if you didn’t happen to be an ’80s kid, I think the point comes across in the catchy hook of “Hands of Stone,” and Hosoi Bros reinforce the charm and will to not take themselves too seriously that they showed on their initial singles.

When the new album might arrive is up in the air, but I’ve got the pleasure today of hosting the premiere of “Hands of Stone.” If you’re wondering whatever became of Garvin, he did some time in what was then called the WWF and now owns a couple used car dealerships in North Carolina and is a licensed pilot. Hosoi Bros give him due homage with “Hands of Stone,” and you’ll find the video on the player below. Please enjoy:

Hosoi Bros, “Hands of Stone” official video

Hosoi Bros on Thee Facebooks

Hosoi Bros on Bandcamp

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Hosoi Bros. Take on a Black Metal Vampire Zombie Raccoon in New Video, “Snorlokk”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 8th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

I’m not sure whether you’d call it a vampire raccoon or a zombie raccoon, but if it bites you, you end up in corpsepaint and the only thing that seems to be able to stop you is the thrust of a can of Tecate into your mouth, at which point you’ll shotgun it, having punctured the can with your sharpened vampire zombie raccoon fangs. All this brilliance and more can be found in the new video from Memphis-based miscreants Hosoi Bros., who were last seen fighting off the Wine Witch, and seem to have no shortage of monsters to defeat with their riffs and beer. Hey, if anything was gonna do it…

Needless to say, charm abounds. “Snorlokk” comes from a Typhoon Killer Records 7″ of the same name that you can hear in its entirety and purchase via Hosoi Bros.’ Bandcamp page.

You’ll find the Wes Williams-directed video below. Watch out for beer coming way too close to LPs and a kid at the end holding up a copy of the new Vitus album, which no child should be without:

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Hosoi Bros, Wine Witch 7″: Beware the Bite of the Purple Teeth

Posted in Reviews on January 24th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Something about Severin Allgood’s delivery of the chorus lines in “Wine Witch” – the cadence of, “She’s the wine witch/Purple teeth/Six-six-six” – reminds me of Suplecs at their most fun-loving, but I can’t quite figure what it is. Backed on vocals by his fellow guitarist Shawn Apple, Allgood fronts Memphis, Tennessee, four-piece Hosoi Bros for the course of their brief Wine Witch debut 7”, ripping quickly through the aforementioned title-track and “Yellow Fever,” which follows an even speedier course. The band formed in 2010 has shared the stage with the likes of The Sword, Skeletonwitch, Red Fang and Totimoshi, and though they come off young as a unit, Allgood, Apple, bassist Drewbie Crenshaw and drummer JimmyJames Blasingame seem to have all been kicking around Memphis as members of various projects and bands. Hosoi Bros – one must resist the temptation to put a “The” before the band’s name – are cohesive across their first two tracks, however, and have a clear idea of where the core of their sound lies, and that’s mostly in their riffy punk influence. Wine Witch is pressed to a limited-to-300 edition of glow-in-the-dark vinyl, and shows immediately that the band – whose logo is remarkably similar in shape to that of Danish thrashers HateSphere – threatens nothing when it comes to taking themselves too seriously. Their Red Fang-esque video for “Wine Witch,” included below, confirms this as well.

What Hosoi Bros most have going for them is the energy in the material. Both “Wine Witch” and “Yellow Fever” teem with an unforced quickness of pace that only further highlights the excitement conveyed. The stuff is fairly basic stylistically, but that’s the point of it. Even with the two guitars, Hosoi Bros aren’t looking to make Wine Witch a prog record; they keep the formula simple and get right to the point. Bolstered by the humor in the lyrics – lines like “Merlot: Steals your soul” from “Wine Witch” – the songs are all the more memorable as a debut showing from the band. I don’t know if they’d be able to keep it up for a full-length without presenting some shift in sound, but a first 7” is certainly no time to worry about such things, when what Hosoi Bros are clearly trying to do is punk out and have a good time. They do it. Both “Wine Witch” and “Yellow Fever” – which is, near as I can tell, a variant on that of the jungle – are a lot of fun in their immature way, and delivered with a strength of performance from the band that shows they’re not just jokes. Crenshaw’s bass has its work cut out for it in keeping up with Apple and Allgood on guitar, but he more than manages, and Blasingame adds consistent snare rolls to “Wine Witch” while laying back more to ride the groove on “Yellow Fever” to show a bit of diversity and give a sense of adaptability. “Yellow Fever” borders on offensive, but stays on the side of cheeky, which is where it belongs, and its chorus of “I’m young/I’m ready/Yellow fever’s got the best of me” is undeniably catchy, while the verse – seemingly shouted by both Allgood and Apple – is harder to discern.

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