https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Ceremony of Sludge X Lineup Announced; Tickets Now Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Tenth one, huh? And final? Why, I remember when the first Ceremony of Sludge was announced, put together at the ambitious behest of members of Lamprey, who played, and Captain Couch Records. Well, even with the lost year in 2021 — they got to sneak one in for March 2020 before lockdowns happened — doing anything like putting together a festival 10 times, even an intentionally small one, is an accomplishment of which to be proud. I wish them nothing but the best in February, and I hope that this is actually able to happen as scheduled.

There are no bands shared between the first and last lineups for Ceremony of Sludge — and here I should say that the usual never-say-never applies here as with most things concerning rock and/or roll — though that would be fun. There are veterans though in Witch Mountain, Glasghote, and Mane of the Cur, and I think Lord Dying might’ve played at some point too, as well as members of A//tar in other bands. And while we’re talking about it, these bands rule. I’d be well into seeing Breath and ILS and Maximum Mad. Ceremony of Sludge always knew what was good in Portland, not the least because it was a part of making it happen.

Congrats on 10 editions and a job well done. Maybe this is it, maybe not, but if it is, all the more reason to celebrate.

Lineup follows:

Ceremony of Sludge x lineup Square

CEREMONY OF SLUDGE X – Feb. 25 & 26

This is the end, friends: the tenth and FINAL Ceremony Of Sludge! It’s been a blast celebrating Portland’s (and beyond) heaviest bands with you all this past decade – we hope you’ll join us one last time.

Tickets: https://ceremonyofsludge.ticketleap.com

Night 1 – Feb. 25
Lord Dying
Maximum Mad
Glasghote
ILS

Night 2 – Feb. 26
Witch Mountain
A//tar
Breath
Mane of the Cur

https://www.facebook.com/ceremonyofsludge/
https://instagram.com/ceremonyofsludge
https://ceremonyofsludge.ticketleap.com/

Lord Dying, Mysterium Tremendum (2019)

Witch Mountain, “Priceless Pain”

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ILS Release Curse on CD & Vinyl

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Look. I don’t always go in for brash, elbow-throwing aggro noise heavy, and I think this would be a much different site if I did. But sometimes a band comes along and hits it just right to suit a mood, and that’s ILS right now. The band has been mentioned around here a few times, and 2020’s Curse was reviewed last Fall, so I’m only glad to see it coming out with another CD pressing and vinyl issue through France’s Vicious Circle Records. I like CDs. I like vinyl. I think the format wars are garbage. The more the merrier.

And yeah, the intense bursts of tracks like “Don’t Hurt Me” and “Casket Race” are suiting me just fine right this second. Maybe later on I’ll go back to some acoustic acid-folk whatever or space rock myself into unconsciousness as I’m wont to do on a given afternoon, but at the moment, I’m happy to take the punches as they come. Wham.

News from the PR wire via The Obelisk’s now-once-again-functional contact form. How about that?

ils curse

ILS “Curse” European Reissue in vinyl /CD available on POGO records / Vicious Circle records

After a 1st acclaimed “PAIN DON’T HURT” EP released last Year and a first edition of 300 golden LP of « CURSE », sold out during preorder last autumn, POGO and Vicious Circle reissue this master piece in a new European version

ILS is a 4 piece disaster chic band from Portland, OR. ILS consists of Tom Glose (Black Elk) on vocals, Nate Abner (The Days, The Nights) on guitar, Tim Steiner (Passerby) on drums and Adam Pike (White Orange) on bass.

10 SONGS – 29 MIN

AVAILABLE:
CD Digipak
BLACK VINYL (12″ – printed inner-sleeve – 1 black vinyl – download coupon included)
SILVER VINYL – LIMITED EDITION – 300 COPIES / ONLY 50 AVAIL ON THIS SHOP (same as standard but with a silver vinyl)
https://www.viciouscircle.fr/en/album/curse

and ONLY 14 copies on POGO
https://pogorecords.bandcamp.com/album/ils-curse-pogo-147

TRACKLIST :
1. Bad Parts
2. Curse
3. Don’t Hurt Me
4. No Luck
5. Noose
6. Whitemeat
7. Northstar
8. Casket Race
9. It’s Not Lard, But It’s a Cyst
10. For the Shame I Bring

ILS are:
v. Tom Glose
g. Nate Abner
d. Tim Steiner
b. Adam Pike

ilspdx.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/ilspdx/
https://www.facebook.com/PogoRecords
https://pogorecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/viciouscirclerec
https://viciouscircle.bandcamp.com/
http://www.viciouscircle.fr/

ILS, Curse (2020)

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Quarterly Review: Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Cruthu, Sólstafir, ILS, Bismut, Cracked Machine, Megadrone, KLÄMP, Mábura, Astral Sleep

Posted in Reviews on October 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

We’ve reached the portion of the Quarterly Review wherein I would no longer know what day it is if I didn’t have my notes to help me keep track. I suppose it doesn’t matter — the day, that is — since it’s 10 records either way, but I’d hate to review the same albums two days in a row or something. Though, come to think of it, that might be a fun experiment sometime.

Not today. Today is another fresh batch of 10 on the way to 60 by next Monday. We’ll get there. Always do. And if you’re wondering, today’s Thursday. At least that’s what I have in my notes.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Stygian Bough Vol. I

bell witch aerial ruin Stygian Bough Volume 1

The collaborative effort Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin and their 64-minute full-length, Stygian Bough Vol. I — the intention toward future output together hinted at in the title already confirmed by the group(s) — is a direct extension of what Aerial Ruin, aka Erik Moggridge, brought to the last Bell Witch album, 2017’s Mirror Reaper (review here), in terms of complementing the crushing, emotionally resonant death-doom of the Washington duo with morose folk vocal melody. Stygian Bough Vol. I is distinguished by having been written by the two-plus-one-equals-three-piece as a group, and accordingly, it more fluidly weaves Moggridge‘s contributions into those of Bell Witch‘s Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman, resulting in an approach like if Patrick Walker from Warning had joined Thergothon. It’s prevailing spirit is deep melancholy in longer pieces like “The Bastard Wind” and “The Unbodied Air,” both over 19 minutes, while it might be in “Heaven Torn Low I (The Passage)” and “Heaven Torn Low II (The Toll)” that the trio most effectively bring their intent to life. Either way, if you’re in, be ready to go all the way in, but know that it’s well worth doing so.

Bell Witch on Thee Facebooks

Aerial Ruin on Thee Facebooks

Profound Lore Records website

 

Cruthu, Athrú Crutha

cruthu Athrú Crutha

Traditional doom with flourish both of noise and NWOBHM guitars — that turn in the second half of opener “Transformation” is like a dogwhistle for Iron Maiden fans — I hear Cruthu‘s second album, Athrú Crutha, and all I can think of are label recommendations. The Michigan outfit’s 2017 debut, The Angle of Eternity (review here), was eventually issued on The Church Within, and that’d certainly work, but also Ván Records, Shadow Kingdom, and even Cruz Del Sur seem like fitting potential homes for the righteousness on display across the vinyl-ready six-song/39-minute outing, frontman Ryan Evans commanding in presence over the reverb-loaded classic-style riffs of guitarist Dan McCormick and the accompanying gallop in Matt Fry‘s drums given heft by Derek Kasperlik‘s bass. Like the opener, “Necromancy” and “Dimensional Collide” move at a good clip, but side B’s “The Outsider” and closer “Crown of Horns” slow things down following the surprisingly rough-edged “Beyond the Pale.” One way or the other, it’s all doomed and so are we.

Cruthu on Thee Facebooks

Cruthu on Bandcamp

 

Sólstafir, Endless Twilight of Codependent Love

Sólstafir endless twilight of codependent love

Whereas 2017’s Berdreyminn (review here) existed in the shadow of 2014’s Ótta (review here), Endless Twilight of Codependent Love brings Iceland’s Sólstafir to a new place in terms of their longer-term progression. It is their first album with an English title since 2005’s Masterpiece of Bitterness, and though they’ve had English-language songs since then, the mellow “Her Fall From Grace” is obviously intended to be a standout here, and it is. On the nine-song/62-minute course of the album, however, it is one impression of many, and in the raging “Dionysus” and post-blackened “Drýsill,” 10-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Akkeri,” richly atmospheric “Rökkur,” goth-lounging “Or” and worthy finale “Úlfur,” Sólstafir remind of the richly individual nature of their approach. The language swaps could be reaching out to a broader, non-Icelandic-speaking audience. If so, it’s only in the interest of that audience to take note if they haven’t already.

Sólstafir on Thee Facebooks

Season of Mist website

 

ILS, Curse

ils curse

Curse is the first long-player from Portland, Oregon’s ILS, and it’s a rager in the PNW noise tradition, with uptempo, gonna-throw-a-punch-and-then-apologize riffs and basslines and swaps between semi-spoken shouts and vicious screams from Tom Glose (ex-Black Elk) that are precisely as jarring as they’re meant to be. I don’t think Curse is anyone’s first time at the dance — Glose, guitarist Nate Abner, bassist Adam Pike or drummer Tim Steiner — but it only benefits across its sans-bullshit 28-minute run by knowing what it wants to do. Its longest material, like the title-track or “Don’t Hurt Me,” which follows, or closer “For the Shame I Bring,” rests on either side of three and a half minutes, but some of the most brutal impressions are made in cuts like “It’s Not Lard but it’s a Cyst” or leadoff “Bad Parts,” which have even less time to waste but are no less consuming, particularly at high volume. The kind of record for when you want to assault yourself. And hey, that happens.

ILS on Thee Facebooks

P.O.G.O. Records on Bandcamp

 

Bismut, Retrocausality

bismut retrocausality

Apart from the consciously-titled three-minute noiseblaster finale “Antithesis” that’s clearly intended to contrast with what comes before it, Bismut‘s second LP for Lay Bare, Retrocausality, is made up of five extended instrumental pieces the shortest of which is just under 13 minutes long. The Nijmegen-based trio — guitarist Nik Linders, bassist Huibert der Weduwen, drummer Peter Dragt — build these semi-improvisational pieces on the foundation they set with 2018’s Schwerpunkt (review here), and their explorations through heavy rock, metal and psychedelia feel all the more cohesive as a song like “Vergangenheit” is nonetheless able to blindside with the heavy riff toward which it’s been moving for its entire first half. At 71 minutes total, it’s a purposefully unmanageable runtime, but as “Predvídanie” imagines a psych-thrash and “Oscuramento” drones to its crashing finish, Bismut seem to be working on their own temporal accord anyhow. For those stuck on linear time, that means repeat listens may be necessary to fully digest, but that’s nothing to complain about either.

Bismut on Thee Facebooks

Lay Bare Recordings website

 

Cracked Machine, Gates of Keras

Cracked Machine Gates of Keras

UK instrumentalists Cracked Machine have worked relatively quickly over the course of their now-three albums to bring a sense of their own perspective to the tropes of heavy psychedelic rock. Alongside the warmth of tone in the guitar and bass, feeling drawn from the My Sleeping Karma/Colour Haze pastiche of progressive meditations, there is a coinciding edge of English heavy rock and roll that one can hear not so much in the drift of “Temple of Zaum” as in the push of “Black Square Icon,” which follows, as well as the subtle impatience of the drums on “October Dawn.” “Move 37,” on the other hand, is willfully speedier and more upbeat than much of what surrounds, but though opener/longest track (immediate points) “Cold Iron Light” hits 7:26, nothing on Gates of Keras sticks around long enough to overstay its welcome, and even in their deepest contemplations, the feeling of motion carries them and the listener effectively through the album’s span. They sound like a band realizing what they want to do with all the potential they’ve built up.

Cracked Machine on Thee Facebooks

Kozmik Artifactz website

PsyKa Records website

 

Megadrone, Transmissions From the Jovian Antennae

Megadrone Transmissions From the Jovian Antennae

From cinematic paranoia to consuming and ultra-slow rollout of massive tonality, the debut offering from Megadrone — the one-man outfit of former Bevar Sea vocalist Ganesh Krishnaswamy — stretches across 53 minutes of unmitigated sonic consumption. If nothing else, Krishnaswamy chose the right moniker for the project. The Bandcamp version is spread across two parts — “Transmission A” (21:45) and “Transmission B” (32:09) — and any vinyl release would require significant editing as well, but the version I have is one huge, extended track, and that feels like exactly how Transmissions From the Jovian Antennae was composed and is supposed to be heard. Its mind-numbing repetitions lead the listener on a subtle forward march — there are drums back in that morass somewhere, I know it — and the piece follows an arc that begins relatively quiet, swells in its midsection and gradually recedes again over its final 10 minutes or so. It goes without saying that a 53-minute work of experimentalist drone crushscaping isn’t going to be for the faint of heart. Bold favors bold.

Megadrone on Thee Facebooks

Megadrone on Bandcamp

 

KLÄMP, Hate You

klamp hate you

Sax-laced noise rock psychedelic freakouts, blown-out drums and shouts and drones, cacophonous stomp and chaotic sprawl, and a finale that holds back its payoff so long it feels cruel, KLÄMP‘s second album, Hate You, arrives less than a year after their self-titled debut, and perhaps there’s some clue as to why in the sheer mania of their execution. Hate You launches with the angularity of its 1:47 title-track and rolls out a nodding groove on top of that, but it’s movement from one part to another, one piece to another, is frenetic, regardless of the actual tempo, and the songs just sound like they were recorded to be played loud. Second cut “Arise” is the longest at 7:35 and it plays back and forth between two main parts before seeming to explode at the end, and by the time that’s done, you’re pretty much KLÄMPed into place waiting to see where the Utrecht trio go next. Oblivion wash on “An Orb,” the drum-led start-stops of “Big Bad Heart,” psych-smash “TJ” and that awaited end in “No Nerves” later, I’m not sure I have any better idea where that might be. That’s also what makes it work.

KLÄMP on Thee Facebooks

God Unknown Records website

 

Mábura, Heni

Mábura heni

Preceded by two singles, Heni is the debut EP from Rio de Janeiro psychedelic tonal worshipers Mábura, and its three component tracks, “Anhangá,” “III/IV” and “Bong of God” are intended to portray a lysergic experience through their according ambience and the sheer depth of the riffs they bring. “Anhangá” has vocals following the extended feedback and drone opening of its first half, but they unfold as a part of the general ambience, along with the drums that arrive late, are maybe sampler/programmed, and finish by leading directly into the crash/fuzz launch of “III/IV,” which just before it hits the two-minute mark unfurls into a watershed of effects and nod, crashing and stomping all the while until everything drops out but the bass only to return a short time later with the Riff in tow. Rumbling into a quick fade brings about the toking intro of “Bong of God,” which unfolds accordingly into a riff-led noisefest that makes its point seemingly without saying a word. I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but it’s a first EP. What it shows is that Mábura have some significant presence of tone and purpose. Don’t be surprised when someone picks them up for a release.

Mábura on Thee Facebooks

Mábura on Bandcamp

 

Astral Sleep, Astral Doom Musick

Astral Sleep Astral Doom Musick

It’s still possible to hear some of Astral Sleep‘s death-doom roots in their third album, Astral Doom Musick, but the truth is they’ve become a more expansive unit than that (relatively) simple classification than describe. They’re doom, to be sure, but there are progressive, psychedelic and even traditional doom elements at work across the record’s four-song/43-minute push, with a sense of conceptual composition coming through in “Vril” and “Inegration” in the first half of the proceedings while the nine-and-a-half-minute “Schwerbelastungskörper” pushes into the darkest reaches and closer “Aurinko ja Kuu” harnesses a swirling progressive spread that’s dramatic unto its last outward procession and suitably large-sound in its production and tone. For a band who took eight years to issue a follow-up to their last full-length, Astral Sleep certainly have plenty to offer in aesthetic and craft. If it took them so long to put this record together, their time wasn’t wasted, but it’s hard to listen and not wonder where their next step might take them.

Astral Sleep on Thee Facebooks

Astral Sleep on Bandcamp

 

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ILS Sign to P.O.G.O. Records; Pain Don’t Hurt EP Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 9th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

Portland heavy noise rockers ILS have released their debut EP, Pain Don’t Hurt, through French label P.O.G.O. Records. The band features vocalist Tom Glose of Black Elk and Clarity Process guitarist Nate Abner, and hey, past bands are fun and all that, but I think the pummel of “It’s Not Lard but it’s a Cyst” speaks for itself over the course of its two minutes, and “For the Shame I Bring” is just the right kind of punishment for, say, sitting on your ass all day while going out of your mind waiting for the internet guy to (not) show up. Just a random example. Not speaking from personal experience or anything.

Oh wait, yes I am. Either way, it’s a solid fit for that I’m-so-restless-I’m-about-to-burst-out-of-my-skull thing that, as human beings, we all know too well. The band released the EP last month and P.O.G.O. posted it as of Jan. 2, so whether you want to call it a 2018 or a 2019 release, I don’t think it matters nearly as much as having your head bashed in by it. Which you can name your own price to do.

Info follows:

ils pain dont hurt

For this beginning of the new year (the 26th!), we are very happy to welcome in the P.O.G.O. family, the furious guys of ILS coming from Portland – USA.

We invite you to discover their 1st EP “Pain Do not Hurt”, for fans of Jesus Lizard, Unsane, Steel Pole Bath tub, Flipper, Drive Like Jehu, Whores, Bummer …

(download it for FREE on bandcamp, if problem contact us) –

Tracklisting:
1. No Luck 02:52
2. It’s Not Lard But It’s A Cyst 02:18
3. Northstar 02:08
4. Curse 03:34
5. For The Shame I Bring 03:29

ILS is:
Nathan Abner, g
Christopher Frey, b
Tom Glose, v
Tim Steiner, d

Four guys in PDX who’ve all been in other bands and stuff. This is what we do now. We like loud, aggressive and abrasive. We also like space, like, the place. You don’t have to but it might help.

ilspdx.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/ilspdx/
https://www.facebook.com/PogoRecords
https://pogorecords.bandcamp.com

ILS, Pain Don’t Hurt (2019)

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