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Quarterly Review: Buddha Sentenza, Magma Haze, Future Projektor, Grin, Teverts, Ggu:ll, Fulanno & The Crooked Whispers, Mister Earthbound, Castle Rat, Mountains

Posted in Reviews on January 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-winter 2023

Here we are. Welcome to 2023 and to both the first Quarterly Review of this year and the kind of unofficial closeout of 2022. These probably won’t be the last writeups for releases from the year just finished — if past is prologue, I’ll remain months if not years behind in some cases; you do what you can — but from here on out it’s more about this year than last in the general balance of what’s covered. That’s the hope, anyway. Talk to me in April to see how it’s going.

I won’t delay further except to remind that we’ll do 10 reviews per day between now and next Friday for a total of 100 covered, and to say thanks if you keep up with it at all. I hope you find something that resonates with you, otherwise there’s not much point in the endeavor at all. So here we go.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #1-10:

Buddha Sentenza, High Tech Low Life

Buddha Sentenza High Tech Low Life

With a foundation in instrumental meditative heavy psychedelia, Heidelberg, Germany’s Buddha Sentenza push outward along a number of different paths across their third album, High Tech Low Life, as in the second of five cuts, “Anabranch,” which builds on the mood-setting linear build and faster payoff of opener “Oars” and adds both acoustic guitar, metal-impact kick drum and thrash-born (but definitely still not entirely thrash) riffing, and later, heavier post-rock nod in the vein of Russian Circles, but topped with willfully grandiose keyboard. Kitchensinkenalia, then! “Ricochet” ups the light to a blinding degree by the time it’s two and a half minutes in, then punks up the bass before ending up in a chill sample-topped stretch of noodle-prog, “Afterglow” answers that with careening space metal, likewise progressive comedown, keyboard shred, some organ and hand-percussion behind Eastern-inflected guitar, and a satisfyingly sweeping apex, and 12-minute finale “Shapeshifters” starts with a classic drum-fueled buildup, takes a victory lap in heavy prog shove, spends a few minutes in dynamic volume trades, gets funky behind a another shreddy solo, peaks, sprints, crashes, and lumbers confidently to its finish, as if to underscore the point that whatever Buddha Sentenza want to make happen, they’re going to. So be it. High Tech Low Life may be their first record since Semaphora (review here) some seven years ago, but it feels no less masterful for the time between.

Buddha Sentenza on Facebook

Pink Tank Records store

 

Magma Haze, Magma Haze

Magma Haze front

Captured raw in self-produced fashion, the Sept. 2022 debut album from Magma Haze sees the four-piece embark on an atmospheric and bluesy take on heavy rock, weaving through grunge and loosely-psychedelic flourish as they begin to shape what will become the textures of their sound across six songs and 42 minutes that are patiently offered but still carry a newer band’s sense of urgency. Beginning with “Will the Wise,” the Bologna, Italy, outfit remind somewhat of Salt Lake City’s Dwellers with the vocals of Alessandro D’Arcangeli in throaty post-earlier-Alice in Chains style, but as they move through “Stonering” and the looser-swinging, drenched-in-wah “Chroma,” their blend becomes more apparent, the ‘stoner’ influence showing up in the general languidity of vibe that persists regardless of a given track’s tempo. To wit, “Volcanic Hill” with its bass-led sway at the start, or the wah behind the resultant shove, building up and breaking down again only to end on the run in a fadeout. The penultimate “Circles” grows more spacious in its back half with what might be organ but I’m pretty sure is still guitar behind purposefully drawn-out vocals, and closer “Moon” grows more distorted and encouragingly fuzzed in its midsection en route to a wisely understated payoff and resonant end. There’s potential here.

Magma Haze on Facebook

Sound Effect Records store

 

Future Projektor, The Kybalion

Future Projektor The Kybalion

Instrumental in its entirety and offered with a companion visual component on Blu-ray with different cover art, The Kybalion is the ambitious, 40-minute single-song debut long-player from Richmond, Virginia’s Future Projektor. With guitarist/vocalist Adam Kravitz and drummer Kevin White — both formerly of sludgesters Gritter; White is also ex-Throttlerod — and Sean Plunkett on bass, the band present an impressive breadth of scope and a sense of cared-for craft throughout their immersive course, and with guitar and sometimes keys from Kravitz leading the way as one movement flows into the next, the procession feels not only smooth, but genuinely progressive in its reach. It’s not that they’re putting on a showcase for technique, but the sense of “The Kybalion” as built up around its stated expressive themes — have fun going down a Wikipedia hole reading about hermeticism — is palpable and the piece grows more daring the deeper it goes, touching on cinematic around 27 minutes in but still keeping a percussive basis for when the heavier roll kicks in a short time later. Culminating in low distortion that shifts into keyboard revelation, The Kybalion is an adventure open to any number of narrative interpretations even beyond the band’s own, and that only makes it a more effective listen.

Future Projektor on Facebook

Future Projektor on Bandcamp

 

Grin, Phantom Knocks

grin Phantom Knocks

Berlin duo Grin — one of the several incarnations of DIY-prone power couple Jan (drums, guitar, vocals, production) and Sabine Oberg (bass) alongside EarthShip and Slowshine — grow ever more spacious and melodic on Oct. 2022’s Phantom Knocks, their third full-length released on their own imprint, The Lasting Dose Records. Comprised of eight songs running a tight and composed but purposefully ambient 33 minutes with Sabine‘s bass at the core of airy progressions like that of “Shiver” or the rolling, harsh-vocalized, puts-the-sludge-in-post-sludge “Apex,” Phantom Knocks follows the path laid out on 2019’s Translucent Blades (review here) and blends in more extreme ideas on “Aporia” and the airy pre-finisher “Servants,” but is neither beholden to its float nor its crush; both are tools used in service to the moment’s expression. Because of that, Grin move fluidly through the entirety of Phantom Knocks, intermittently growing monstrous to fill the spaces they’ve created, but mindful as well of keeping those spaces intact. Inarguably the work of a band with a firm sense of its own identity, it nonetheless seems to reach out and pull the listener into its depths.

Grin on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

 

Teverts, The Lifeblood

Teverts The Lifeblood

Though clearly part of Teverts‘ focus on The Lifeblood is toward atmosphere and giving its audience a sense of mood that is maintained throughout its six tracks, a vigorousness reminiscent of later Dozer offsets the post-rocking elements from the Benevento, Italy, three-piece. They are not the first to bring together earthy bass with exploratory guitar overtop and a solid drum underpinning, but after the deceptively raucous one-two of the leadoff title-track and “Draining My Skin,” the more patient unfurling of instrumental side A finale “Under Antares Light” — which boasts a chugging march in its midsection and later reaches that is especially righteous — clues that the full-fuzz stoner rock starting side B with the desert-swinging-into-the-massive-slowdown “UVB-76” is only part of the appeal rather than the sum of it. “Road to Awareness” portrays a metallic current (post-metal, maybe?) in its shouty post-intro vocals and general largesse, but wraps with an engaging and relatively spontaneous-sounding lead before “Comin’ Home” answers back to “The Lifeblood” and that slowdown in “UVB-76” in summarizing the stage-style energy and the vast soundscape it has inhabited all the while. They end catchy, but the final crescendo is instrumental, a big end of the show complete with cymbal wash and drawn solo notes. Bravo.

Teverts on Facebook

Karma Conspiracy Records store

 

Ggu:ll, Ex Est

ggu ll ex est

An engrossing amalgam of lurching extreme doom and blackened metal, the second long-player, Ex Est, by Tilburg, Netherlands’ Ggu:ll is likewise bludgeoning, cruel and grim in its catharsis. The agonies on display seem to come to a sort of wailing head in “Stuip” later on, but that’s well after the ultra-depressive course has been set by “Falter” and “Enkel Achterland.” In terms of style, “Hoisting Ruined Sails” moves through slow death and post-sludge, but the tonal onslaught is only part of the weight on offer, and indeed, Ggu:ll bring dark grey and strobe-afflicted fog to the forward, downward march of “Falter” and the especially raw centerpiece “Samt-al-ras,” setting up a contrast with the speedier guitar in the beginning minutes of closer “Voertuig der Verlorenen” that feels intentional even as the latter decays into churning, harsh noise. There’s a spiritual aspect of the work, but the shadow that’s cast in Ex Est defines it, and the four-piece bring precious little hope amid the swirling and destructive antilife. Because this is so clearly their mission, Ex Est is a triumph almost in spite of itself, but it’s a triumph just the same, even at its moments of most vigorous, slow, skin-peeling crawl.

Ggu:ll on Facebook

Consouling Sounds store

 

Fulanno & The Crooked Whispers, Last Call From Hell

fulanno the crooked whispers last call from hell

While one wouldn’t necessarily call it balanced in runtime with Argentina’s Fulanno offering about 19 minutes of material with Los Angeles’ The Crooked Whispers answering with about 11, their Last Call From Hell split nonetheless presents a two-track sampler of both groups’ cultish doom wares. Fulanno lumber through “Erotic Pleasures in the Catacombs” and “The Cycle of Death” with dark-toned Sabbath-worship-plus-horror-obsession-stoned-fuckall, riding central riffs into a seemingly violent but nodding oblivion, while The Crooked Whispers plod sharply in the scream-topped six minutes of “Bloody Revenge,” giving a tempo kick later on, and follow a steadier dirge pace with “Dig Your Own Grave” while veering into a cleaner, nasal vocal style from Anthony Gaglia (also of LáGoon). Uniting the two bands disparate in geography and general intent is the dug-in vibe that draws out over both, their readiness to celebrate a death-stench vision of riff-led doom that, while, again, differently interpreted by each, sticks in the nose just the same. Nothing else smells like death. You know it immediately, and it’s all over Last Call From Hell.

Fulanno on Facebook

The Crooked Whispers on Facebook

Helter Skelter Productions site

 

Mister Earthbound, Shadow Work

Mister Earthbound Shadow Work

Not all is as it seems as Mister Earthbound‘s debut album, Shadow Work, gets underway with the hooky “Not to Know” and a riff that reminds of nothing so much as Valley of the Sun, but the key there is in the swing, since that’s what will carry over from the lead track to the remaining six on the 36-minute LP, which turns quickly on the mellow guitar strum of “So Many Ways” to an approach that feels directly drawn from Hisingen Blues-era Graveyard. The wistful bursts of “Coffin Callin'” and the later garage-doomed “Wicked John” follow suit in mood, while “Hot Foot Powder” is more party than pout once it gets going, and the penultimate “Weighed” has more burl to its vocal drawl and an edge of Southern rock to its pre-payoff verses, while the subsequent closer “No Telling” feels like a take on Chris Goss fronting Queens of the Stone Age for “Mosquito Song” on Songs for the Deaf, and yes, that is a compliment. The jury may be out on Mister Earthbound‘s ultimate aesthetic — that is, where they’re headed, they might not be yet — but Shadow Work has songwriting enough at its root that I wouldn’t mind if that jury doesn’t come back. Time will tell, but “multifaceted” is a good place to start when you’ve got your ducks in a row behind you as Mister Earthbound seem to here.

Mister Earthbound on Facebook

Mister Earthbound on Bandcamp

 

Castle Rat, Feed the Dream

Castle Rat Feed the Dream

Surely retro sword-bearing theatrics are part of the appeal when it comes to Brooklyn’s potential-rife, signed-in-three-two-one-go doom rockers Castle Rat‘s live presentation, but as they make their studio debut with the four-and-a-half-minute single “Feed the Dream,” that’s not necessarily going to come across to all who take the track on. Fortunately for the band, then, the song is no less thought out. A mid-paced groove that puts the guitar out before the ensuing march and makes way purposefully for the vocals of Riley “The Rat Queen” Pinkerton — who also plays rhythm guitar, while Henry “The Count” Black plays lead, Ronnie “The Plague Doctor” Lanzilotta is on bass and Joshua “The Druid” Strmic drums — to arrive with due presence. With a capital-‘h’ Heavy groove underlying, they bask in classic metal vibes and display a rare willingness to pretend the ’90s never happened. This is to their credit. The sundry boroughs of New York City have had bands playing dress-up with various levels of goofball sex, violence and excess since before the days of Twisted Sister — to be fair, this is glam via anti-glam — but the point with Castle Rat isn’t so much that the idea is new but the interpretation of it is. On the level of the song itself, “Feed the Dream” sounds like a candle being lit. Get your fire emojis ready, if that’s still a thing.

Castle Rat on Instagram

Castle Rat on Bandcamp

 

Mountains, Tides End

Mountains Tides End

Immediate impact. MountainsTides End is the London trio’s second long-player behind 2017’s Dust in the Glare (discussed here), and though overall it makes a point of its range, the first impression in opener “Moonchild” is that the band are already on their way and it’s on the listener to keep up. Life and death pervade “Moonchild” and the more intense “Lepa Radić,” which follows, but it’s hard to listen to those two at the beginning, the breakout in “Birds on a Wire,” the heavy roll of “Hiraeth” and the rumble at the core of “Pilgrim” without waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Mountains to more completely unveil their metallic side. It’s there in the guitar solos, the drums, even as “Pilgrim” reminds of somewhat of Green Lung in its clarity of vision, but to their credit, the trio get through “Empire” and “Under the Eaves” and most of “Tides End” itself before the chug swallows them — and the album, it seems — whole. A curious blend of styles, wholly modern, Tides End feels more aggressive in its purposes than did the debut, but that doesn’t at all hurt it as the band journey to that massive finish.

Mountains on Facebook

Mountains on Bandcamp

 

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Howling Wolves Premiere “Eye of the Storm” Video; As Above So Below Out Now

Posted in Bootleg Theater on August 15th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

howling wolves

Berlin heavy punk rockers Howling Wolves released their second album, As Above So Below, on June 26 through Karma Conspiracy Records. It is the first offering from the band in five years since their self-titled debut, and it continues the four-piece’s stated grown-ups-with-hardcore-riffs intentions, pushing the balance between aggression and groove from where it was in the Beforetimes to the bass-punching middle ground of “Reclaim,” which slow down just where you expect it to speed up, or the earlier single “Bad Company,” which even with its galloping stretch holds to the song’s overarching movement. The album runs 10 songs and 42 minutes with “Night Off” (3:24) as the shortest track and throwing-elbows-in-the-pit closer “D.I.E.” (4:55) the longest, even though the last 20 seconds or so are a kind of residual noise at the ending — so yes, tightly packed. That’s pretty clear.

Germany has a long and encompassing history of punk rock, so you don’t need my ass to come along and start comparing them to American bands just because that’s who I hear in my head, but to go with all that careening attitude and would-be-frenetic-but-we’re-all-over-30-and-who-has-the-time riffing there are hints of the thrash and heavy metal of yore, not quite the grandiosity of NWOBHM, filtered through the hardcore punk that at least some if not all of guitarist Gregor Nick, bassist Hannes Pfeifer, drummer Riccardo Zander and vocalist Felix Weckowski probably grew up playing. One can hear in opener “World of Doubts” and the subsequent shover “Eye of the Storm” — gadzooks! there’s a video premiering below! — this amalgam of styles coming together. Howling Wolves As Above so BelowCrucially, the band seem conscious of what they’re doing but not necessarily held back by any self-imposed limits on their sound. Sharp as it is and as hammered out as the Jan Oberg-recorded/mixed As Above So Below is in the end-product, the songwriting feels organic in that way.

So which side wins out? Metal, punk or heavy rock? Hard to call it, so I won’t. Weckowski‘s vocals — cleaner than on the self-titled, less throaty and more melodic, still rooted in hardcore — add to the gotta-do-this-now vibe of a cut like “Human Error,” riding the start-stop riff effectively and knowing precisely where to take the chorus like someone who’s been there before, while but for its relatively laid back delivery and fuzzier tone the subsequent “Grin” could be outright thrash and “Parting Ways” may or may not pull a little d-beat into its sweaty run to underscore its point. It’s not necessarily that Howling Wolves sound like they have multiple writers — they very well might, I don’t know — but As Above So Below is unified more through performance than the similar purposes of its tracks, and that essentially lets the band go where they want in a given song. I’d say they keep it within reason, but the transition that seems to be taking place in bringing them from hardcore punk to heavy rock is still happening, and that can be heard in the intensity of “Parting Ways” before “Treadmills” steps a little further into nodder groove.

The clip for “Eye of the Storm” follows the aesthetic pattern in bringing together different sides. Skateboards, Adidas and ’90s hip-hop hand gesturing meets leg kicks, constant motion and more than an edge of good humor, so yes, they’ve got their bases duly covered. Same applies to As Above So Below, really, and even the album’s title seems to acknowledge a multifaceted nature, despite being a familiar enough turn of phrase. Hardcore punk isn’t ever going to be everybody’s jam — nine times out of 10, it’s not really mine either — but the more you dig Howling Wolves‘ tracks, the more there is to hear that they’re bringing to their foundation, expanding beyond the debut with a due sense of putting the songs first and letting the rest sort itself out later. And speaking of later, As Above So Below was recorded with Oberg (Earth Ship, Slowshine, Grin, etc.) at Hidden Planet Studio in earliest 2021, which means that even as it came out the recordings were nearly 18 months old. Even if they go five years between full-lengths again, they seem to be well on their way.

Video and PR wire info follow here. Please enjoy:

Howling Wolves, “Eye of the Storm” video premiere

The Howling Wolves’s Sound on the new record is like a mix of 80s Metal guitar heaviness, 90s Grunge catchiness, on a Stoner Rock vibe transported with the urgency of Hardcore Punk. So figure out! We call it SabbathPunk because it feels like a mix of Black Sabbath HardRock Metal and HardcorePunk with a nice dose of melody. So basically a hybrid of everything nice and heavy.

Independent from the actual pandemic shit the songs deal with failure of humanity on all its levels. A lot of personal reflection on both sides of the spectrum are happening and end with a positive note. Its about losing deadweight like unnecessary relationships or hiding from the outside world. There is a will for better times and new starts. But in the end its: Fuck Them All, I will do it on my own.

TRACKLIST
1. World Of Doubts 04.27
2. Eye Of The Storm 04.03
3. Bad Company 03.30
4. Night Off 03.24
5. Human Error 04.27
6. Grin 04.03
7. Parting Ways 04.14
8. Treadmills 04.41
9. Reclaim 04.20
10. D.I.E. 04.55

LINE UP
Riccardo Zander – drums
Gregor Nick – guitar
Hannes Pfeifer – bass
Felix Weckowski – vocals

Howling Wolves, As Above So Below (2022)

Howling Wolves on Facebook

Howling Wolves on Instagram

Howling Wolves on Bandcamp

Karma Conspiracy Records on Facebook

Karma Conspiracy Records on Instagram

Karma Conspiracy Records website

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Quarterly Review: DVNE, Wowod, Trace Amount, Fuzzcrafter, Pine Ridge, Watchman, Bomg, White Void, Day of the Jackal, Green Druid

Posted in Reviews on April 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-spring-2019

Oh, hello there. Don’t mind me. I’m just here, reviewing another 10 records today. I did it yesterday too. I’ll do it again tomorrow. No big deal. It’s Quarterly Review time. You know how it goes.

Crazy day yesterday, crazy day today, but I’m in that mode where I kind of feel like I can make this go as long as I want. Next Monday? Why not? Other than the fact that I have something else slated, I can’t think of a reason. Fortunately, having something else slated is enough of one. Ha. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

DVNE, Etemen Ænka

dvne Etemen Ænka

It’s like Scotland’s DVNE threw all of modern heavy metal into a blender and hit “cohesive.” Etemen Ænka‘s lofty ambitions are matched indeed by the cohesion of the band’s craft, the professionalism of their presentation, and the scope of their second album’s 10 component tracks, whether that’s in the use of synth throughout “Towers” or the dreamy post-rock aside in “Omega Severer,” the massive riffing used as a tool not a crutch in “Court of the Matriarch,” closer “Satuya” and elsewhere, and even the interlude-y pieces “Weighing of the Heart,” “Adraeden” and the folkish “Asphodel” that leads into the finale. DVNE have made themselves into the band you wish Isis became. Also the band you wish Mastodon became. And probably six or seven others. And while Etemen Ænka is certainly not without prog-styled indulgence, there is no taking away from the significant accomplishment these songs represent for them as a group putting out their first release on Metal Blade. It’ll be too clean for some ears, but the tradeoff for that is the abiding sense of poise with which DVNE deliver the songs. This will be on my year-end list, and I won’t be the only one.

DVNE on Thee Facebooks

Metal Blade Records website

 

Wowod, Yarost’ I Proshchenie

Wowod Yarost I Proshchenie

Beginning with its longest track (immediate points) in the 11-minute “Rekviem,” Yarost’ I Proshchenie is the third full-length from St. Petersburg’s Wowod, and its sudden surge from ‘unfold’ to ‘onslaught’ is a legitimate blindside. They hypnotize you then push you down a flight of stairs as death growls, echoing guitar lines and steady post-metallic drum and bass hold the line rhythmically. This sense of disconnect, ultimately, leads to a place of soaring melody and wash, but that feeling of moving from one place to another is very much the core of what Wowod do throughout the rest of the album that follows. “Tanec Yarosti” is a sub-three-minute blaster, while “Proshschenie” lumbers and crashes through its first half en route to a lush soundscape in its second, rounding out side A. I don’t care what genre “Zhazhda” is, it rules, and launches side B with rampaging momentum, leading to the slow, semi-industrial drag of “Chornaya Zemlya,” the harsh thrust of “Zov Tysyachi Nozhey” and, finally, dizzyingly, the six-minute closer “Top’,” which echoes cavernous and could just as easily have been called “Bottom.” Beautiful brutality.

Wowod on Thee Facebooks

Church Road Records on Bandcamp

 

Trace Amount, Endless Render

trace amount endless render

The chaos of last year is writ large in the late-2020 Endless Render EP from Brooklyn-based solo industrial outfit Trace Amount. The project headed by Brandon Gallagher (ex-Old Wounds) engages with harsh noise and heavy beatmaking, injecting short pieces like “Pop Up Morgues” with a duly dystopian atmosphere. Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc.) guests on drums for opener “Processed Violence (in 480P)” and the mminute-long “Seance Stimulant,” but it’s in the procession of the final three tracks — the aforementioned “Pop Up Morgues,” as well as “S.U.R.V.I.V.A.L.” and “Easter Sunday” — that Gallagher makes his most vivid portrayals. His work is evocative and resonant in its isolated feel, opaque like staring into an uncertain future but not without some semblance of hope in its resolution. Or maybe that’s the dream and the dance-party decay of “Dreaming in Displacement” is the reality. One way or the other, I’m looking forward to what Trace Amount does when it comes to a debut album.

Trace Amount on Thee Facebooks

Trace Amount on Bandcamp

 

Fuzzcrafter, C-D

Fuzzcrafter C D

French instrumentalists Fuzzcrafter issued C-D in October 2020 as a clear answer/complement to 2016’s A-B, even unto its Jo Riou cover art, which replaces the desert-and-fuzz-pedal of the first offering with a forest-and-pedal here. The six works that make up the 41-minute affair are likewise grown, able to affect a sense of lushness around the leading-the-way riffage in extended cuts “C2” (13:13) and the psychedelic back half of “D2” (13:18), working in funk-via-prog basslines (see also the wah guitar starting “D1” for more funk) over solid drums without getting any more lost than they want to be in any particular movement. In those songs and elsewhere, Fuzzcrafter make no attempt to hide the fact that they’re a riff-based band, but the acoustic side-finales in “C3” (which also features Rhodes piano) and “D3,” though shorter, reinforce both the structural symmetry of the mirrored sides as a whole and a feeling of breadth that is injected elsewhere in likewise organic fashion. They’re not changing the world and they’re not trying to, but there’s a mark being left here sound-wise and it’s enough to wonder what might be in store for the inevitable E-F.

Fuzzcrafter on Thee Facebooks

Fuzzcrafter on Bandcamp

 

Pine Ridge, Can’t Deny

Pine Ridge Can't Deny

Pine Ridge‘s second album, Can’t Deny, finds the Russian four/five-piece working in textures of keys and organ for a bluesier feel to tracks like the post-intro opening title-cut and the classic feeling later “Genesis.” Songwriting is straightforward, vocals gritty but well attended with backing arrangements, and the take on “Wayfaring Stranger” that ends the record’s first half conjures enough of a revivalist spirit to add to the atmosphere overall. The four tracks that follow — “Genesis,” “Runaway,” “Sons of Nothing” and “Those Days” — featured as well on 2019’s Sons of Nothing EP, but are consistent in groove and “Sons of Nothing” proves well placed to serve as an energetic apex of Can’t Deny ahead of “Those Days,” which starts quiet before bursting to life with last-minute electricity. A clear production emphasizes hooks and craft, and though I’ll grant I don’t know much about Siberia’s heavy rock scene, Pine Ridge ably work within the tenets of style while offering marked quality of songwriting and performance. That’s enough to ask from anywhere.

Pine Ridge on Thee Facebooks

Karma Conspiracy website

 

Watchman, Behold a Pale Horse

watchman behold a pale horse

Plain in its love for Sabbath-minded riffing and heavy Americana roll, “Bowls of Wrath” opens the three-song Dec. 2020 debut EP, Behold a Pale Horse, from Indiana-based solo-project Watchman, and the impression is immediate. With well-mixed cascades of organ and steadily nodding guitar, bass, drums and distorted, howling vocals, there is both a lack of pretense and an individualized take on genre happening at once. The EP works longest to shortest, with “Wormwood” building up from sparse guitar to far-back groove using negative space in the sound to bolster “Planet Caravan”-ish watery verses and emphasize the relative largesse of the track preceding as well as “The Second Death,” which follows. That closer is a quick four minutes that’s slow in tempo, but the lead-line cast overtop the mega-fuzzed central riff is effective in creating a current to carry the listener from one bank of the lake of fire to the other. In 15 minutes, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer Roy Waterford serves notice of intention for a forthcoming debut LP to be titled Doom of Babylon, and it is notice worth heeding.

Watchman on Instagram

Watchman on Bandcamp

 

Bomg, Peregrination

bomg peregrination

Bomg‘s Peregrination isn’t necessarily extreme the way one thinks of death or black metal as extreme styles of heavy metal, but is extreme just the same in terms of pushing to the outer limits of the aesthetics involved. The album’s four track, “Electron” (38:12), “Perpetuum” (39:10), “Paradigm” (37:17) and “Emanation” (37:49), could each consume a full 12″ LP on their own, and presented digitally one into the next, they are a tremendous, willfully unmanageable two-and-a-half-hour deep-dive into raw blowout dark psychedelic doom. The harsh rumble and noise in “Perpetuum” some 28 minutes on sounds as though the Ukrainian outfit have climbed the mountains of madness, and there is precious little clarity to be found in “Paradigm” or “Emanation” subsequent as they continue to hammer the spike of their manifestations deeper into the consciousness of the listener. From “Electron” onward, the self-recording Kyiv trio embark on this overwhelming journey into the unknown, and they don’t so much invite you along as unveil the devastating consequences of having made the trip. Righteously off-putting.

Bomg on Thee Facebooks

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

 

White Void, Anti

white void anti

As much as something can fly under the radar and be a Nuclear Blast release, I’m more surprised by the hype I haven’t heard surrounding White Void‘s debut album, Anti. Pulling together influences from progressive European-style heavy rock, classic metal, cult organ, New Wave melodies and a generally against-grain individualism, it is striking in its execution and the clear purpose behind what it’s doing. It’s metal and it’s not. It’s rock and it’s pop and it’s heavy and it’s light and floating. And its songs have substance as well as style. With Borknagar‘s Lars Nedland as the founding principal of the project, the potential in Anti‘s eight component tracks is huge, and if one winds up thinking of this as post-black metal, it’s a staggeringly complex iteration of it to which this and any other description I’ve seen does little justice. It’s going to get called “prog” a lot because of the considered nature of its composition, but that’s barely scratching the surface of what’s happening here.

White Void on Thee Facebooks

Nuclear Blast Records store

 

Day of the Jackal, Day Zero

Day of the Jackal Day Zero

Leeds, UK, four-piece Day of the Jackal bring straight-ahead hard rock songwriting and performance with an edge of classic heavy. There’s a Guns ‘n’ Roses reference in “Belief in a Lie” if you’re up for catching it, and later cuts like “Riskin’ it All” and “‘Til the Devil” have like-minded dudes-just-hit-on-your-girlfriend-and-you’re-standing-right-there vibes. They’re a rock band and they know it, and while I was a little bummed out “Rotten to the Core” wasn’t an Overkill cover, the 10 songs of love and death that pervade this debut long-player are notably hooky from “On Your Own” to “Deadfall” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Deathride,” which casually inhabits biker riffing with no less ease of movement than the band would seem to do anything else. Production by James “Atko” Atkinson of Gentlemans Pistols highlights the clarity of the performance rather than giving a rawer glimpse at who Day of the Jackal might be on stage, but there’s plenty of vitality to go around in any case, and it’s headed your way from the moment you start the record.

Day of the Jackal on Thee Facebooks

Day of the Jackal on Bandcamp

 

Green Druid, At the Maw of Ruin

green druid at the maw of ruin

Following their 2018 debut, Ashen Blood (review here), Denver heavy lifters Green Druid give due breadth to their closing take on Portishead‘s “Threads,” but the truth is that cover is set up by the prior five tracks of huge-sounding riffery, basking in the varying glories of stoner doom throughout opener “The Forest Dark” while keeping an eye toward atmospheric reach all the while. It is not just nod and crush, in other words, in Green Druid‘s arsenal throughout At the Maw of Ruin, and indeed, “End of Men” and “Haunted Memories” bridge sludge and black metal screaming as “A Throne Abandoned” offers surprising emotional urgency over its ready plod, and the long spoken section in “Desert of Fury/Ocean of Despair” eventually gives way not only to the most weighted slamming on offer, but a stretch of noise to lead into the closer. All along the way, Green Druid mark themselves out as a more complex outfit than their first record showed them to be, and their reach shows no sign of stopping here either.

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Earache Records website

 

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Pine Ridge Sign to Karma Conspiracy Records; Can’t Deny Due This Summer

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Russian heavy blues rockers Pine Ridge will release their new album, Can’t Deny, through Italy’s Karma Conspiracy Records this summer. The full-length is their second overall behind 2016’s From Somewhere, to Nowhere…, and it follows a pair of EPs and the 2020 single “We Come Around.” That latter track — streaming below — will feature on the nine-song full-length, as well as a gruff take on “Wayfaring Stranger” and other sundry classic-heavy-via-blues originals.

Veterans of the esteemed Nasoni Records, the band pay particular attention to atmosphere despite being reasonably straightforward in their approach, and Can’t Deny is all the more stirring for that. I’m afraid I had to look up where Yekaterinburg is in Russia — headed east, in Siberia; it turns out it is Russia’s fourth largest city — but these guys are further proof that easy-to-dig heavy rock and crop up just about anywhere.

No exact release date for Can’t Deny, but Karma Conspiracy sent the signing announcement down the PR wire:

pine ridge

PINE RIDGE ENTER KARMA CONSPIRACY RECORDS ROSTER

OUT ON SUMMER 2021 THEIR DEBUT LP

These guys are lovers of everything from the 70’s: From classic rock vibes and psychedelic notes to stoner moments and jazzy keys, all fused into powerful blues-rock – that’s PINE RIDGE.

Formed in 2014 and based in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the band started its journey by making blues rock-inspired tunes in the university basement.

Since then they became real professionals, released their debut LP “From Somewhere, to Nowhere…” on vinyl by Berlin record label “Nasoni-Records”, went on numerous tours in Russia and performed at many festivals.

Now they have just finished working on their new LP called “Can’t Deny”, a crazy mix of various rock genres with allusions to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple including all those classic rock bands which made PINE RIDGE “sound like many bands and unlike anyone else at the same time.”

PINE RIDGE is a modern age band that combines classic rock traditions with their own unique style and flavour.

PINE RIDGE DEBUT LP CAN’T DENY, published and worldwide distributed by KARMA CONSPIRACY RECORDS, will be out on SUMMER 2021.

LINE UP
Vasiliy Pishchukhin (Lead/Vocals)
Michael Kislovskiy (Keys)
Konstantin Zakhlestin (Drums)
Boris Zhvakin (Sax)
Kate Keniaikina, Mr.T (Backing Vocals)

https://www.facebook.com/pineridgeband/
https://www.instagram.com/pineridgeband/
https://pineridgeband.bandcamp.com/
https://pineridgeband.com/
www.facebook.com/karmaconspiracyrecords
www.karmaconspiracy.it

Pine Ridge, “We Come Around”

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Black Magic Tree Premiere “Mandala Lady” Video; Through the Grapevine out Next Week

Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

black magic tree

Germany’s Black Magic Tree will release their first full-length, Through the Grapevine, on Jan. 22 through Karma Conspiracy Records. Ahead of that momentous occasion — and I’m not being sarcastic, a band releasing their debut is a special moment in their lives, perhaps even more considering they’ve waited over a year to do it — they’re premiering today a video for the song “Mandala Lady” that you can see below. Should you be surprised that it features a lot of mandala-type designs? No you should not. But actually in terms of that it does some cool things with animation and bringing a feeling of motion to the proceedings, though the song itself is by no means lacking movement.

Primarily you’ll find that “Mandala Lady,” which was recorded by Richard Behrens (Heat, ex-Samsara Blues Experiment) at Big Snuff Studio, is catchy as hell, and immediately establishes the Berlin five-piece’s penchant for classic hooks. Classic hooks, but not necessarily vintage sound. Behrens has done plenty of heavy ’70s worship before for bands, and done it well, but though Black Magic Tree‘s roots may lie there (pun TOTALLY intended; bite me), the tones of the two guitars are more modern and though the groove is comfortable and warm, it’s not necessarily trying to adhere to the tenets of heavy boogie.

Perhaps that happens elsewhere on Through the Grapevine, I don’t know — haven’t heard the record but I wouldn’t mind doing so — and if it does, cheers to the band on changing things up. But we don’t have long to wait for the seven-song Through the Grapevine to come out, just a week, and until that happens, the clip for “Mandala Lady” makes for an enticing glimpse at things to come. The heavy rock converted will find it no challenge to dig into what’s going on here, and though the black and white flashes speed up a bit during the solo in the second half, if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing, you should still be alright. It’s not hard strobe or anything.

With that and some comment from the band below, I’ll just say enjoy and get ready to have this song repeating in your head for the rest of the day:

Black Magic Tree, “Mandala Lady” official video premiere

Black Magic Tree on “Mandala Lady”:

“Mandala Lady” is the second single off our debut album “THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE” which is due out on January 22, 2021 through Karma Conspiracy Records. The song is about a mysterious “Mandala Lady”. The lyrics revolve around a graceful, spiritual figure everyone is attracted to. Is she real or maybe just an illusion?

The video for the song was shot in September 2020 in front of a green screen. We wanted to utilize psychedelic animations while incorporating video shots of the band members and a dancer who embodies the “Mandala Lady” metaphor. The video turned out really cool and interesting with lots of swirly and hallucinatory visuals while keeping an old school black/white style. Stylistically, the song combines elements of heavy blues rock, heavy psych and stoner rock.

Vinyl preorder: https://www.karmaconspiracy.it/store/black-magic-tree/33-1-through-the-grapevine.html#/74-version-vinyl

Founded in 2018 in Berlin, Germany, BMT released its first EP, “Of Animals and Men”, soon after in 2019. The band has now taken the next step in its evolution with the recording of a full debut album, “THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE”. The seven slabs of rock were laid down in Big Snuff studio in late 2019 under the guidance of Richard Behrens (FOH mixer for Kadavar) and Nene Baratto, who also mixed and mastered the album. The psychedelic album cover art was designed by renowned Berlin-based artist Martin Meir. “THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE” will be available digital and on vinyl on Karma Conspiracy Records.

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Black Magic Tree on Instagram

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Karma Conspiracy Records website

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Quarterly Review: Pallbearer, Fulanno, Spirit Mother, Gevaudan, El Rojo, Witchwood, Gary Lee Conner, Tomorr, Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Karkara

Posted in Reviews on December 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

There isn’t enough caffeine in the universe to properly sustain a Quarterly Review, and yet here we are. I’ve been doing this for six years now, and once started I’ve always managed to get through it. This seven-day spectacular hits its halfway point today, which is okay by me. I decided to do this because there was a bunch of stuff I still wanted to consider for my year-end list, which I’d normally post this week. And sure enough, a few more have managed to make the cut from each day. I’ll hope to put the list together in the coming days and get it all posted next week, before the poll results at least. I’m not sure why that matters, but yeah.

Thanks for following along if you have been. Hope you’ve found something worth digging into.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Pallbearer, Forgotten Days

pallbearer forgotten days

Their best record. I don’t want to hear anymore about their demo, or about 2012’s Sorrow and Extinction (review here) or anything else. This is the album Pallbearer have been driving toward since their outset. It is an amalgam of emotive melody and tonal weight that makes epics of both the 12-minute “Silver Wings” and the four-minute “The Quicksand of Existing” that immediately follows, that hits a morose exploration of self in opener “Forgotten Days” and “Stasis” while engaging in metallic storytelling on “Vengeance and Ruination” and “Rite of Passage,” the latter incorporating classic metal melody in perhaps the broadest reach the band has ever had in that regard. So yeah. Pallbearer don’t have a ‘bad’ record. 2017’s Heartless (review here) was a step forward, to be sure. But Forgotten Days, ironically enough, is the kind of offering on which legacies are built and a touchstone for whatever Pallbearer do from here on out.

Pallbearer on Thee Facebooks

Nuclear Blast website

 

Fulanno, Nadie Está a Salvo del Mal

fulanno Nadie está a salvo del mal

The fog rolls in thick on Argentinian doomers Fulanno‘s second full-length, Nadie Está a Salvo del Mal. The seven-track/42-minute outing launches in post-Electric Wizard fashion, and indeed, the drawling lumber of the Dorset legends is an influence throughout, but by no means the only one the trio of guitarist/vocalist Fila Frutos, bassist Mauro Carosela and drummer Jose A. are under. They cast a doom-for-doomers vibe almost immediately, but as “Fuego en la Cruz” gives way to “Los Elegidos” and “Hombre Muerto,” the sense of going deeper is palpable. Crunching, raw tonality comes across as the clean vocals cut through, and the abiding rawness becomes a part of the aesthetic on “Los Colmillos de Satan,” a turning point ahead of the interlude “Señores de la Necrópolis,” the eight-minute “El Desierto de los Caídos” and the surprisingly resonant closing instrumental “El Libro de los Muertos.” Fulanno are plenty atmospheric when they want to be, and one wonders if that won’t come further forward as their progression continues. Either way, they’ve staked their claim in doom and sound ready to die for the cause.

Fulanno on Thee Facebooks

Forbidden Place Records on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records on Bandcamp

 

Spirit Mother, Cadets

spirit mother cadets

Preceded by a series of singles over the last couple years, Cadets is the full-length debut from Los Angeles four-piece Spirit Mother, and it packs expanse into deceptively efficient songs, seeming to loll this way and that even as it keeps an underlying forward push. The near-shoegaze vocals do a lot of the work in affecting a mellow-psych vibe, but there’s weight to Spirit Mother‘s “Ether” as well, violin, woven vocal layers, and periodic tempo kicks making songs standout from each other even as “Go Getter” keeps an experimentalist feel and “Premonitions” aces its cosmic-garage driver’s test with absolutely perfect pacing. The ultra-spacey “Shape Shifter I” and more boogie-fied “Shape Shifter II” are clear focal points, but Cadets as a whole is a marked accomplishment, particularly for a first LP, and in style, substance and atmosphere, it brings together rich textures with a laissez-faire spontaneity. The closing instrumental “Bajorek” is only one example among the 10 included tracks of Spirit Mother‘s potential, which is writ large throughout.

Spirit Mother on Thee Facebooks

Spirit Mother on Bandcamp

 

Gévaudan, Iter

gevaudan iter

UK four-piece Gévaudan made their debut in 2019 with Iter, and though I’m late to the party as ever, the five-song/53-minute offering is of marked scope and dynamic. Its soft stretches are barely there, melancholic and searching, and its surges of volume in opener “Dawntreader” are expressive without being overwrought. Not without modern influence from Pallbearer or YOB, etc., Gévaudan‘s honing in on atmospherics helps stand out Iter as the band plod-marches with “The Great Heathen Army” — the most active of inclusions and the centerpiece — en route to “Saints of Blood” (11:54) and closer “Duskwalker” (15:16), the patient dip into extremity of the latter sealing the record’s triumph; those screams feel not like a trick the band kept up their collective sleeve, but a transition earned through the grueling plunge of all the material prior. It’s one for which I’d much rather be late than never.

Gévaudan on Thee Facebooks

Gévaudan website

 

El Rojo, El Diablo Rojo

el rojo el diablo rojo

The burly heavy rock of “South” at the outset of Italian heavy rockers El Rojo‘s El Diablo Rojo doesn’t quite tell the whole tale of the band’s style, but it gives essential clues to their songwriting and abiding burl. Later pieces like the slower-rolling “Ascension” (initially, anyhow) and acoustic-inclusive “Cactus Bloom” effectively build on the foundation of bruiser riffs and vocals, branching out desert-influenced melody and spaciousness instrumentalism even as the not-at-all-slowed-down “When I Slow Down” keeps affairs grounded in their purpose and structure. Riffs are thick and lead the charge on the more straightforward pieces and the seven-minute “Colors” alike as El Rojo attempt not to reinvent heavy or stoner rocks but to find room for themselves within the established tenets of genre. They’ve been around a few years at this point, and there’s still growing to be done, but El Diablo Rojo sounds like the starting point of an engaging progression.

El Rojo on Thee Facebooks

Karma Conspiracy Records website

 

Witchwood, Before the Winter

witchwood before the winter

Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, some Led Zeppelin in “Crazy Little Lover” and a touch of opera on “Nasrid” for good measure, Witchwood‘s 62-minute Before the Winter 2LP may be well on the other side of unmanageable in terms of length, but at least it’s not wasting anyone’s time. Instead, early rockers like “Anthem for a Child” and “A Taste of Winter” and the wah-funked “Feelin'” introduce the elements that will serve as the band’s colorful palette across the whole of the album. And a piece like “No Reason to Cry” becomes a straight-ahead complement to airier material like the not-coincidentally-named “A Crimson Moon” and the winding and woodsy “Hesperus,” which caps the first LP as the 10-minute epic “Slow Colours of Shade” does likewise for the record as a whole, followed by a bonus Marc Bolan cover on the vinyl edition, to really hammer home the band’s love of the heavy ’70s, which is already readily on display in their originals.

Witchwood on Thee Facebooks

Jolly Roger Records website

 

Gary Lee Conner, Revelations in Fuzz

gary lee conner revelations in fuzz

If nothing else, Gary Lee Conner sounds like he probably has an enviable collection of 45s. The delightfully weird former Screaming Trees guitarist offers up 10 fresh delights of ’60s-style garage-psych solo works on the follow-up to 2018’s Unicorn Curry, as Revelations in Fuzz lives up to its title in tone even as cascades of organ and electric piano, sitar and acoustic guitar weave in and out of the proceedings. How no one has paired Conner with Baby Woodrose frontman Uffe Lorenzen for a collaboration is a mystery I can’t hope to solve, but in the swirling and stops of “Cheshire Cat Claws” and the descent of six-minute closer “Colonel Tangerine’s Sapphire Sunshine Dreams,” Conner reaffirms his love of that which is hypnotic and lysergic while hewing to a traditionalism of songwriting that makes cuts like “Vicious and Pretty” as catchy as they are far out. And trust me, they’re plenty far out. Conner is a master of acid rock, pure and simple. And he’s already got a follow-up to this one released, so there.

Gary Lee Conner on Thee Facebooks

Vincebus Eruptum Recordings website

 

Tomorr, Tomorr

tomorr tomorr

Formed in Italy with Albanian roots, Tomorr position themselves as rural doom, which to an American reader will sound like ‘country,’ but that’s not what’s happening here. Instead, three-piece are attempting to capture a raw, village-minded sound, with purposeful homage to the places outside the cities of Europe made into sludge riffing and the significant, angular lumber of “Grazing Land.” I’m not sure it works all the time — the riff in the second half of “Varr” calls to mind “Dopesmoker” more than anti-urbane sensibilities, and wants nothing for crush — but as it’s their debut, Tomorr deserve credit for approaching doom from an individualized mindset, and the bulk of the six-song/48-minute offering does boast a sound that is on the way to being the band’s own, if not already there. There’s room for incorporating folk progressions and instrumentation if Tomorr want to go that route, but something about the raw approach they have on their self-titled is satisfying on its own level — a meeting of impulses creative and destructive at some lost dirt crossroads.

Tomorr on Thee Facebooks

Acid Cosmonaut Records on Bandcamp

 

Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Red Tide

temple of the fuzz witch red tide

Well what the hell do you think Temple of the Fuzz Witch sounds like? They’re heavy as shit. Of course they are. The Detroiters heralded doomly procession on their 2019 self-titled demo/EP (review here), and the subsequent debut full-length Red Tide, is righteously plodding riffery, Sabbathian without just being the riff to “Electric Funeral” and oblivion-bound nod that’s so filled with smoke it’s practically coughing. What goes on behind the doors of the Temple? Volume, kid. Give me the chug of “The Others” any and every day of the week, I don’t give a fuck if Temple of the Fuzz Witch are reinventing the wheel or not. All I wanna do is put on “Ungoliant” and nod out to the riff that sounds like “The Chosen Few” and be left in peace. Fuck you man. I ain’t bothering anyone. You’re the one with the problem, not me. This guy knows what I’m talking about. Side B of this record will eat your fucking soul, but only after side A has tenderized the meat. Hyperbole? Fuck you.

Temple of the Fuzz Witch on Thee Facebooks

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

 

Karkara, Nowhere Land

karkara nowhere land

Rife with adventurous and Middle Eastern-inflected heavy psychedelia, Nowhere Land is the follow-up to Toulouse, France-based Karkara‘s 2019 debut, Crystal Gazer (review here), and it finds the three-piece pushing accordingly into broader spaces of guitar-led freakery. Would you imagine a song called “Space Caravan” has an open vibe? You’d be correct. Same goes for “People of Nowhere Land,” which even unto its drum beat feels like some kind of folk dance turned fuzz-drenched lysergic excursion. The closing pair of “Cards” and “Witch” feel purposefully teamed up to round out the 36-minute outing, but maybe that’s just the overarching ethereal nature of the release as a whole coming through as Karkara manage to transport their listener from this place to somewhere far more liquid, languid, and encompassing, full of winding motion in “Falling Gods” and graceful post-grunge drift in “Setting Sun.”

Karkara on Thee Facebooks

Stolen Body Records website

 

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El Rojo Premiere “Cactus Bloom” from El Diablo Rojo Album

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 6th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

el rojo (Photo by TuEm)

Recorded by Filippo ‘Phil Liar’ Buono of Karma Conspiracy Records at Monolith Recording Studio in February, El Rojo‘s second full-length, El Diablo Rojo was finished just ahead of the quarantine as a result of the country’s early-adopter/particularly-severe COVID-19 outbreak. As that has now spread to other parts of the Europe and the planet as a whole, it has usurped public consciousness in a way few things ever could. If a comet were on a course to smash into the planet, it’s hard to imagine it would be more of a topic of discussion.

Nonetheless, El Rojo — a double-guitar five-piece based in Morano Calabro in the southern part of the country, right on the bridge-of-the-foot part of the heeled boot that is the Italian peninsula — are pressing ahead with the release later this Spring. One assumes the lack of a precise release date also is related to the outbreak, since pressing, shipping and even packaging are all affected one way or another, but certainly that does nothing to make the music any less powerful. “Cactus Bloom” is the six-minute closer of El Diablo Rojo, and while its tonality is steeped in desert-worship warmth and it moves from a quiet wistfulness to a more aggressive stance by the time it’s finished, the weight of the message being delivered is significant and only grows more so as the volume intensifies later, to the point that vocalist Evo Borruso asks point blank, “Can you hear my rage?” Loud and clear, sir.

Perhaps El Rojo were thinking about issues of climate change when they put the song/album together, or at least some part of it, but no question the video for “Cactus Bloom” represents the current situation in Italy, and by that I mean the stark realities of living in social isolation, at physical remove from loved ones, bandmates, peers, fellow citizens, and so on. As the drone footage of empty landmarks shows, what should be brimming with tourists pissing off the Italian natives — hey, I’ve been one of those tourists, it’s the same everywhere — are empty spaces, looking mournful in sunlight or all the more like the ruins we’ll leave behind us when we’re gone and even the drones have stopped flying.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic will recede in the months to come. The virus may be with us for years, but the scale will change, doors will reopen to some degree, and a long recovery will begin. That would seem to make it all the more crucial to capture this fleeting moment, not only to preserve it for the future to learn from, but to remind ourselves of what it was to live through this time and how it brought into focus that which was most important to us as human beings. To love, to share.

Made in isolation, with band members filming themselves performing the track, here’s El Rojo‘s “Cactus Bloom.”

Please enjoy:

El Rojo, “Cactus Bloom” official video premiere

Cactus Bloom is the final track of our new concept album. The album itself is based on the tale of the struggle of a whole generation of youngsters coming from the southern part of Italy. The sound is elegant, nostalgic on purpose. The music plays along with lyrics full of melancholy, bitterness and rage, in which the protagonist speaks intimately of the hard times we all are living, of the sorrow for an uncertain future, of a context that seems to have given up on life.

Cactus Bloom is the metaphor of a difficult environment like the desert and how, in this ambient, the miracle of blossoming can happen. We must be able to understand that life always win: it’s engraved in our DNA.

The events hitting our life right now strengthen the message inside the tune and this is the reason that led us to tell this tale directly from our homes, where we are secluded at the moment. We share the restriction with all the people on the planet and so, along with this, we all share the uncertainty about the future.

So, during this time of isolation, should we reconsider our lives?

Shall we understand that everything that we were taking for granted could, in the beat of an eyelash, be gone?

We are asking ourselves these questions and, in the isolation of our own homes with no resources but our smartphones, we created this video along the notes of our new single, which is titled “Cactus Bloom”.

El Rojo is:
Evo Borruso (Vocals)
Fabrizio Vuerre (Guitar)
Fabrizio Miceli (Guitar)
Pasquale Carapella (Bass)
Antonio Rimolo (Drums)

El Rojo on Thee Facebooks

El Rojo on Instagram

El Rojo on Bandcamp

Karma Conspiracy Records on Thee Facebooks

Karma Conspiracy Records website

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The Elephant Premiere “Monkey Demon” Video from Self-Titled Debut

Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 17th, 2019 by JJ Koczan

the elephant (Photo by Claudia Vitali)

Italian trio The Elephant released their self-titled debut album on Oct. 25 through Karma Conspiracy Records, and hey, you like bass? Me too. That’s good because The Elephant have two of ’em, and what’s more, they do away with pesky guitars getting in the way of all those low end good times. The three-piece of bassist/vocalists Giovanni Murolo and Marco Catacchio and drummer/percussionist Marco Sanchioni aren’t necessarily doing anything so crazy stylistically as they bring together shades of Queens of the Stone Age (“Black White Alice,” “Walk with the Sun”), The Midnight Ghost Train (“Quicksand Morning,” “Catfish”), Truckfighters (“River,” “Deep Down Tale”) and so on, but what they bring to the deceptively efficient 10-track/36-minute procession is an indelible mark of personality that comes through not just the punchy basslines, but through the dual-vocals as well, which seem that much higher in the mix — vocals high in the mix is like a hallmark of an entire branch of Italian heavy rock; you could write a thesis about it and believe me I’ve thought about doing so — for the lack of guitar under which to be buried.

Though somehow, given the croons and growls shared between Murolo and Catacchio, I don’t think even a six-string or two riffing out would be enough to repress the personae on display. Because there’s a lot of it throughout The Elephant‘s The Elephant, and even with the lead-in twanging introduction “Mud Song” ahead of “River,” and not just those two, but also “Quicksand Morning,” “Black White Alice” and “Monkey Demon” placed as the first half of the album in order of shortest-to-longest, as though the The Elephant The Elephantthree-piece are leading the listener deeper with each subsequent cut — indeed they are —  it can take a bit of getting used to. As “Deep Down Tale” answers back the energetic outset of “The River” before its own (temporary) mellowing, it also sets up the plunge through “Catfish,” “Summer Blood” and “The Stoker” en route to the more spacious and atmospheric “Walk with the Sun,” which is something of a surprising turn for the record to take, even at its conclusion, but by no means beyond the band’s reach as they clearly demonstrate, though it’s in moments like “Summer Blood” when they careen between loud/quiet volume changes and off-the-rails-but-actually-still-on-them mania that they seem most in their element.

But then, it’s important to remember The Elephant, as much as a self-titled can be interpreted as a declaration of intent — and a debut likewise — is indeed a first album, and by no means needs to be an endgame of any band’s progression. That is, The Elephant may yet have exploring to do and growth as songwriters, etc., it’s just hard to say at this point. But what they make clear in this collection is their intent toward vital delivery, weighted tone — though with two basses and no guitar, they might get to “weighted tone” whether they wanted to or not — and cleverly structured craft, and that’s certainly enough to pique interest.

If you haven’t checked out the record yet — hey, it’s been a busy couple months and it’s hard to keep up with all the rock coming out of Italy these days; I get it — it’s at the bottom of this post, and if you’d like a quicker sampling, you’ll find the video for “Monkey Demon” premiering below, with kids wearing masks Point Break-style and raising a bit of hell in slow motion. There’s some fire at the end, and it’s well shot, so yeah, bonus.

Hope you dig it:

The Elephant, “Monkey Demon” official video premiere

The Elephant self-titled debut album is out via Karma Conspiracy Records. Order it in physical or digital format here: https://theelephantband.bandcamp.com/

Feeding on a sound that is characterized by the combination of two (!) distorted basses, stubborn and obsessive rhythms with their roots in the blues, alternated with alienating and psychedelic atmospheres; it’s especially also this unique voice of singer and bassist Giovanni Murolo, who gives the trio its very special vibes, soul and grooves. The Elephant’s self-titled album is the result of a year’s work, with themes heavily inspired by the poetry of William Blake, Dylan Thomas and Henry Michaux.

The Elephant is:
Giovanni Murolo – Bass & Vocals
Marco Catacchio – Bass & Vocals
Marco Sanchioni – Drums & Percussion

The Elephant, The Elephant (2019)

The Elephant on Bandcamp

The Elephant on Bandcamp

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Karma Conspiracy Records website

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