Patriarchs in Black Sign to Metalville Records; New Album This Summer

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 6th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

Just five months out — to the day — from the Oct. 6, 2023, release of their second album, My Veneration (review here), Patriarchs in Black announce they’ve signed with Metalville Records (home to The QuillSiena Root, and scores of others) to issue their third LP this summer. And even if that turned into Fall — note “should” below — that’s still just a year from the sophomore LP and a pretty quick turnaround for the project that has its core duo in guitarist/songwriter Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Vessel of Light, etc.) and drummer Johnny Kelly (Type O NegativeDanzig, etc.), as well as on-pace with their debut, Reach for the Scars, which came out in 2022.

Coordinating between Kelly and Lorenzo would be plenty, but the range of guest players and singers continued to expand on My Veneration, with Karl Agell (currently of Lie Heavy and Legions of Doom, also ex-C.O.C. for the Blind album) and Mark Sunshine (now also in Unida, once signed to Metalville with RiotGod) contributing vocals along with Darryl McDaniels from Run-DMC, and bass work from JD DeServio of Black Label SocietyDave Neabore from Dog Eat Dog, and others. Putting out a record every year when everybody lives in the same house is one thing. I know working remote has become easier, but there are a lot of threads to align in Patriarchs in Black, and man, email is a pain in the ass. You might be that doomed too if you were trying to digitally chase down bassists and vocalists from various continental corners.

But that oldschool urgency is part of who Patriarchs in Black are, so I have not the slightest doubt the follow-up to My Veneration will manifest sooner than later. The PR wire brought the signing announcement ahead of later details of the recording and release. My favorite part is when Lorenzo, in all-caps for emphasis, says it’s, “FUN FUN FUN.” No doubt that’s a very particular idea of a good time, but it’s one I share.

Dig:

patriarchs in black

PATRIARCHS IN BLACK sign with METALVILLE, prepare new album for summer – features members of DANZIG, TYPE O NEGATIVE, HADES

Today, Metalville Records announces the signing of Patriarchs in Black. The first fruit of this union shall be the band’s highly anticipated third album, which should see international release this summer.

Former Type O Negative / Danzig drummer Johnny Kelly and guitarist / riff writer Dan Lorenzo (Hades, ex-Non-Fiction) formed Patriarchs In Black at the end of 2021. The project included well-known guests on vocals and bass, including Karl Agell ( COC Blind / Lie Heavy) , Jimmy Gnecco, Dewey Bragg ( Kill Devil Hill / Bill Ward) among others. Their debut single “Demon of Regret” came out January 2022, and the debut album Reach For The Scars was released on July 1st, 2022. Their second album, My Veneration, was on October 6th, 2023 with multiple guest vocalists and bassists.

For the forthcoming third studio album (and first for Metalville), Dan Lorenzo has already written ten new songs. As always, Johnny Kelly on drums and lots of amazing singers and bassists will contribute. “It’s SO fun, and not putting too much pressure on singers to come up with one or two amazing lyrics and melodies a year. I write a LOT of riffs / music. Our third album came together very easily. FUN FUN FUN,” says Dan.

More Patriarchs in Black news to be announced shortly. For more info, consult the links below.

https://instagram.com/patriarchsinblack
https://patriarchsinblack.bandcamp.com/

www.metalville.de
www.facebook.com/metalville

Patriarchs in Black, My Veneration (2023)

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Quarterly Review: Lord Dying, Black Glow, Cracked Machine, Per Wiberg, Swell O, Cower, HORSEN3CK, Troll Teeth, Black Ocean’s Edge, SONS OF ZÖKU

Posted in Reviews on February 27th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

The-Obelisk-Quarterly-Review

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

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

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

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Lord Dying, Clandestine Transcendence

Lord Dying Clandestine Transcendence

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

Lord Dying on Facebook

MNRK Heavy website

Black Glow, Black Glow

black glow black glow

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

Black Glow on Facebook

Black Glow on Bandcamp

Cracked Machine, Wormwood

Cracked Machine Wormwood

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

Cracked Machine on Facebook

Cracked Machine on Bandcamp

Per Wiberg, The Serpent’s Here

PER WIBERG The Serpent's Here cover

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

Per Wiberg on Facebook

Despotz Records website

Swell O, Morning Haze

Swell O Morning Haze

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

Swell O on Facebook

Clostridium Records store

Cower, Celestial Devastation

cower celestial devastation

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

Cower’s Linktr.ee

Human Worth on Bandcamp

HORSEN3CK, Heavy Spells

horsen3ck heavy spells

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

HORSEN3CK on Facebook

HORSEN3CK on Bandcamp

Troll Teeth, Sluagh Vol. 1

troll teeth sluagh vol. 1

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

Troll Teeth on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

Black Ocean’s Edge, Call of the Sirens

black ocean's edge (Photo by Matija Kasalo)

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

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

Black Ocean’s Edge on Facebook

Black Ocean’s Edge on Bandcamp

SONS OF ZÖKU, ËNDL​Ë​SS

sons of zoku endless

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

SONS OF ZÖKU on Facebook

Copper Feast Records store

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SOMA to Release Burning is Learning March 19; New Single “Shivranjani” Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan

soma

It is a little known fact outside of the region and the culture, but the place where I grew up and now reside, Parsippany, New Jersey, is an epicenter of South Asian immigration. At this point, multiple generations of immigrants from all over the Indian subcontinent have made their home here, and form an essential part of the community. The town celebrates Diwaali. There are badass Indian grocery stores all the way down Rt. 46 to Lake Hiawatha, and because it’s still Northern New Jersey, you might find a spot offering tandoori chicken pizza, representative in some way of the American dream of cultural meld as well as the country’s need to turn every food into an unhealthier version of itself.

I’m not sure where SOMA are from in my beloved Garden State — which has its flaws and corruptions like most places but is my home — but it makes sense to me somehow that a bunch of guys from punk and metal roots might end up exploring traditional Indian devotional music in their psychedelia. Following behind 2022’s Shiva/Shakti, the upcoming Burning is Learning is their second album. It was recorded by Monster Magnet‘s Phil Caivano, mastered by John McBain, and will be released through Centripetal Force on March 19 like the headline says. The first single from the album is “Shivranjani,” and the scale for which it’s named indeed comes from Hindustani classical music, about which I’ll tell you outright that, despite living in an enclave, I’m almost entirely ignorant. That’s what I get for going to school in the next town over.

The PR wire brings words and sounds. Dig in:

soma burning is learning

SOMA’s “Shivranjani” releases February 15, 2024

Centripetal Force announces the release of SOMA’s “Shivranjani,” the first track released from the forthcoming album Burning is Learning, a collection of sacred hymns, spellbinding dirges, and a little bit of mystical meandering.

According to the band, “Contained within ‘Shivranjani’ are notes reflecting that Bliss, an existence without concept or form. It is performed in honor of the unblemished consciousness of Infinite Goodness, the most Terrible, and the most Benevolent. It is a song offered to whom is born every day, yet has never been created nor destroyed.”

Burning is Learning is being presented in a 200 copy vinyl pressing. The album will also be available digitally. The release date for Burning is Learning is March 19, 2024.

A limited number of vinyl preorders will include artist prints of both the front and back covers, as painted by Robert Ryan (front cover) and Kevin Craig (back cover).

SOMA (Sacred Order of Mystic Apogees) is a group of multi-instrumentalists from New Jersey with deep roots in the DIY hardcore punk and heavy metal scenes of the area. They consider their music to be eclectic and sacred, with much of their musical approach grounded in traditions most associated with Pakistan and India. Burning is Learning is their second album.

Preorders for the vinyl digital, will go live at midnight (Eastern Standard Time) on February 15th.

https://www.facebook.com/somakirtan/
https://www.instagram.com/soma_kirtan/
https://somakirtan.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/centripetalforcerecords
https://www.instagram.com/centripetalforcerecords/
https://www.centripetalforcerecords.com/

SOMA, Burning is Learning (2024)

SOMA, “Om Namo Bhagavate Ramakrishnaya” Live in New York

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Quarterly Review: Tortuga, Spidergawd, Morag Tong, Conny Ochs, Ritual King, Oldest Sea, Dim Electrics, Mountain of Misery, Aawks, Kaliyuga Express

Posted in Reviews on November 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

The-Obelisk-Quarterly-Review

Generally I think of Thursday as the penultimate day of a given Quarterly Review. This one I was thinking of adding more days to get more stuff in ahead of year-end coverage coming up in December. I don’t know what that would do to my weekend — actually, yes I do — but sometimes it’s worth it. I’m yet undecided. Will let you know tomorrow, or perhaps not. Dork of mystery, I am.

Today is PACKED with cool sounds. If you haven’t found something yet that’s really hit you, it might be your day.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Tortuga, Iterations

TORTUGA Iterations

From traditionalist proto-doom and keyboard-inflected prog to psychedelic jamming and the Mountain-style start-stop riff on “Lilith,” Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga follow 2020’s Deities (discussed here) with seven tracks and 45 minutes that come across as simple and barebones in the distortion of the guitar and the light reverb on the vocals, but the doom rock doesn’t carry from “Lilith” into “Laspes,” which has more of a ’60s psych crux, a mellow but not unjoyful meander in its first half turning to a massive lumber in the second, all the more elephantine with a solo overtop. They continue throughout to cross the lines between niches — “Quaus” has some dungeon growls, “Epitaph” slogs emotive like Pallbearer, etc. — and offer finely detailed performances in a sound malleable to suit the purposes of their songs. Polish heavy doesn’t screw around. Well, at least not any more than it wants to. Tortuga‘s creative reach becomes part of the character of the album.

Tortuga on Facebook

Napalm Records website

Spidergawd, VII

spidergawd vii

I’m sorry, I gotta ask: What’s the point of anything when Spidergawd can put out a record like VII and it’s business as usual? Like, the world doesn’t stop for a collective “holy shit” moment. Even in the heavy underground, never mind general population. These are the kinds of songs that could save lives if properly employed to do so, and for the Norwegian outfit, it’s just what they do. The careening hooks of “Sands of Time” and “The Tower” at the start, the melodies across the span. The energy. I guess this is dad rock? Shit man, I’m a dad. I’m not this cool. Spidergawd have seven records out and I feel like Metallica should’ve been opening for them at stadiums this past summer, but they remain criminally underrated and perhaps use that as flexibility around their pop-heavy foundation to explore new ideas. The last three songs on VII — “Afterburner,” “Your Heritage” and “…And Nothing But the Truth” — are among the strongest and broadest Spidergawd have ever done, and “Dinosaur” and the classic-metal ripper “Bored to Death” give them due preface. One of the best active heavy rock bands, living up to and surpassing their own high standards.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

Morag Tong, Grieve

Morag Tong Grieve

Rumbling low end and spacious guitar, slow flowing drums and contemplative vocals, and some charred sludge for good measure, mark out the procession of “At First Light” on Morag Tong‘s third album and first for Majestic Mountain Records, the four-song Grieve. Moving from that initial encapsulation through the raw-throat sludge thud of most of “Passages,” they crash out and give over to quiet guitar at about four minutes in and set up the transition to the low-end groove-cool of “A Stem’s Embrace,” a sleepy fluidity hitting its full voluminous crux after three minutes in, crushing from there en route to its noisy finish at just over nine minutes long. That would be the epic finisher of most records, but Morag Tong‘s grievances extend to the 20-minute “No Sun, No Moon,” which at 20 minutes is a full-length’s progression on its own. At very least the entirety of side B, but more than the actual runtime is the theoretical amount of space covered as the four-piece shift from ambient drone through huge plod and resolve the skyless closer with a crushing delve into post-sludge atmospherics. That’s as fitting an end as one could ask for an offering that so brazenly refuses to follow impulses other than its own.

Morag Tong on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Conny Ochs, Wahn Und Sinn

Conny Ochs Wahn Und Sinn

The nine-song Wahn Und Sinn carries the distinction of being the first full-length from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs — also known for his work in Ananda Mida and his collaboration with Wino — to be sung in his own language. As a non-German speaker, I won’t pretend that doesn’t change the listening experience, but that’s the idea. Words and melodies in different languages take on corresponding differences in character, and so in addition to appreciating the strings, pianos, acoustic and electric guitars, and, in the case of “Welle,” a bit of static noise in a relatively brief electronic soundscape, hearing Ochs‘ delivery no less emotive for switching languages on the cinematic “Grimassen,” or the lounge drama of “Ding” earlier on, it’s a new side from a veteran figure whose “experimentalism” — and no, I’m not talking about singing in your own language as experimental, I’m talking about Trialogos there — is backburnered in favor of more traditional, still rampantly melancholy pop arrangements. It sounds like someone who’s decided they can do whatever the hell they feel like their songs should making that a reality. Only an asshole would hold not speaking the language against that.

Conny Ochs on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream website/a>

Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror

ritual king the infinite mirror

I’m going to write this review as though I’m speaking directly to Ritual King because, well, I am. Hey guys. Congrats on the record. I can hear a ton going on with it. Some of Elder‘s bright atmospherics and rhythmic twists, some more familiar stoner riffage repurposed to suit a song like “Worlds Divide” after “Flow State” calls Truckfighters to mind, the songs progressive and melodic. The way you keep that nod in reserve for “Landmass?” That’s what I’m talking about. Here’s some advice you didn’t ask for: Keep going. I’m sure you have big plans for next year, and that’s great, and one thing leads to the next. You’re gonna have people for the next however long telling you what you need to do. Do what feels right to you, and keep in mind the decisions that led you to where you are, because you’re right there, headed to the heart of this thing you’re discovering. Two records deep there’s still a lot of potential in your sound, but I think you know a track like “Tethered” is a victory on its own, and that as big as “The Infinite Mirror” gets at the end, the real chance it takes is in the earlier vocal melody. You’re a better band than people know. Just keep going. Thanks.

Ritual King on Facebook

Ripple Music website

Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost

oldest sea a birdsong a ghost cropped

Inhabiting the sort of alternately engulfing and minimal spaces generally occupied by the likes of Bell Witch, New Jersey’s Oldest Sea make their full-length debut with A Birdsong, A Ghost and realize a bleakness of mood that is affecting even in its tempo, seeming to slow the world around it to its own crawl. The duo of Samantha Marandola and Andrew Marandola, who brought forth their Strange and Eternal EP (review here) in 2022, find emotive resonance in a death-doom build through the later reaches of “Untracing,” but the subsequent three-minute-piece-for-chorus-and-distorted-drone “Astronomical Twilight” and the similarly barely-there-until-it-very-much-is closer “Metamorphose” mark out either end of the extremes while “The Machines That Made Us Old” echoes Godflesh in its later riffing as Samantha‘s voice works through screams en route to a daringly hopeful drone. Volatile but controlled, it is a debut of note for its patience and vulnerability as well as its deep-impact crash and consuming tone.

Oldest Sea on Facebook

Darkest Records on Bandcamp

Dim Electrics, Dim Electrics

dim electrics dim electrics

Each track on Dim Electrics‘ self-titled five-songer LP becomes a place to rest for a while. No individual piece is lacking activity, but each cut has room for the listener to get inside and either follow the interweaving aural patterns or zone out as they will. Founded by Mahk Rumbae, the Vienna-based project is meditative in the sense of basking in repetition, but flashes like the organ in the middle of “Saint” or the shimmy that takes hold in 18-minute closer “Dream Reaction” assure it doesn’t reside in one place for too much actual realtime, of which it’s easy to lose track when so much krautgazey flow is at hand. Beginning with ambience, “Ways of Seeing” leads the listener deeper into the aural chasm it seems to have opened, and the swirling echoes around take on a life of their own in the ecosystem of some vision of space rock that’s also happening under the ground — past and future merging as in the mellotron techno of “Memory Cage” — which any fool can tell you is where the good mushrooms grow. Dug-in, immersive, engaging if you let it be; Dim Electrics feels somewhat insular in its mind-expansion, but there’s plenty to go around if you can put yourself in the direction it’s headed.

Dim Electrics on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

Mountain of Misery, In Roundness

Mountain of Misery In Roundness

A newcomer project from Kamil Ziółkowski, also known for his contributions as part of Polish heavy forerunners Spaceslug, the tone-forward approach of Mountain of Misery might be said to be informed by Ziółkowski‘s other project in opener “Not Away” or the penultimate “Climb by the Sundown,” with their languid vocals and slow-rolling tsunami fuzz in the spirit of heavy psych purveyors Colour Haze and even more to the point Sungrazer, but the howling guitar in the crescendo of closer “The Misery” and the all-out assault of “Hang So Low” distinguish the band all around. “The Rain is My Love” sways in the album’s middle, but it’s in “Circle in Roundness” that the 36-minute LP has its most subdued stretch, letting the spaces filled with fuzz elsewhere remain open as the verse builds atop the for-now-drumless expanse. Whatever familiar aspects persist, Mountain of Misery is its own band, and In Roundness is the exciting beginning of a new creative evolution.

Mountain of Misery on Facebook

Electric Witch Mountain Recordings on Facebook

Aawks, Luna

aawks luna

The featured new single, “The Figure,” finds Barrie, Ontario’s Aawks somewhere between Canadian tonal lords Sons of Otis and the dense heavy psych riffing and melodic vocals of an act like Snail, and if you think I’m about to complain about that, you’ve very clearly never been to this site before. So hi, and welcome. The four-song Luna EP is Aawks‘ second short release of 2023 behind a split with Aiwass (review here), and the trio take on Flock of Seagulls and Pink Floyd for covers of the new wave radio hit “I Ran” and the psychedelic ur-classic “Julia Dream” before a live track, “All is Fine,” rounds out. As someone who’s never seen the band live, the additional crunch falls organic, and brings into relief the diversity Aawks show in and between these four songs, each of which inhabits a place in the emerging whole of the band’s persona. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but sign me up for the Canadian heavy revolution if this is the form it’s going to take.

Aawks on Facebook

Black Throne Productions website

Kaliyuga Express, Warriors & Masters

Kaliyuga Express Warriors and Masters

The collaborative oeuvre of UK doomsperimental guitarist Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, Ozo, 11Paranoias, etc.) grows richer as he joins forces with Finnish trio Nolla to produce Kaliyuga ExpressWarriors & Masters, which results in three tracks across two sides of far-out cosmic fuzz, shades of classic kraut and space rocks are wrought with jammy intention; the goal seeming to be the going more than the being gone as Vest and company burn through “Nightmare Dimensions” and the shoegazing “Behind the Veil” — the presence of vocals throughout is a distinguishing feature — hums in high and low frequencies in a repetitive inhale of stellar gases on side A while the 18:58 side B showdown “Endless Black Space” misdirects with a minute of cosmic background noise before unfurling itself across an exoplanet’s vision of cool and returning, wait for it, back to the drone from whence it came. Did you know stars are recycled all the time? Did you know that if you drop acid and peel your face off there’s another face underneath? Your third eye is googly. You can hear voices in the drones. Let me know what they tell you.

Kaliyuga Express on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

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Quarterly Review: Primordial, Patriarchs in Black, Blood Lightning, Haurun, Wicked Trip, Splinter, Terra Black, Musing, Spiral Shades, Bandshee

Posted in Reviews on November 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

The-Obelisk-Quarterly-Review

Day two and no looking back. Yesterday was Monday and it was pretty tripped out. There’s some psych stuff here too, but we start out by digging deep into metal-rooted doom and it doesn’t get any less dudely through the first three records, let’s put it that way. But there’s more here than one style, microgengre, or gender expression can contain, and I invite you as you make your way through to approach not from a place of redundant chestbeating, but of celebrating a moment captured. In the cases of some of these releases, it’s a pretty special moment we’re talking about.

Places to go, things to hear. We march.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Primordial, How it Ends

primordial how it ends

Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have 66 minutes to talk about the end of the world? No? Nobody does? Well that’s kind of sad.

At 28 years’ remove from their first record, 1995’s Imrama, and now on their 10th full-length, Dublin’s Primordial are duly mournful across the 10 songs of How it Ends, which boasts the staring-at-a-bloodied-hillside-full-of-bodies after-battle mourning and oppression-defying lyricism and a style rooted in black metal and grown beyond it informed by Irish folk progressions but open enough to make a highlight of the build in “Death Holy Death” here. A more aggressive lean shows itself in “All Against All” just prior while “Pilgrimage to the World’s End” is brought to a wash of an apex with a high reach from vocalist Alan “A.A. Nemtheanga” Averill, who should be counted among metal’s all-time frontmen, ahead of the tension chugging in the beginning of “Nothing New Under the Sun.” And you know, for the most part, there isn’t. Most of what Primordial do on How it Ends, they’ve done before, and their central innovation in bridging extreme metal with folk traditionalism, is long behind them. How it Ends seems to dwell in some parts and be roiling in its immediacy elsewhere, and its grandiosities inherently will put some off just as they will bring some on, but Primordial continue to find clever ways to develop around their core approach, and How it Ends — if it is the end or it isn’t, for them or the world — harnesses that while also serving as a reminder of how much they own their sound.

Primordial on Facebook

Metal Blade Records website

Patriarchs in Black, My Veneration

Patriarchs in Black My Veneration

With a partner in drummer Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Danzig, etc.), guitarist/songwriter Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Vessel of Light, Cassius King, etc.) has found an outlet open to various ideas within the sphere of doom metal/rock in Patriarchs in Black, whose second LP, My Veneration, brings a cohort of guests on vocals and bass alongside the band’s core duo. Some, like Karl Agell (C.O.C. Blind) and bassist Dave Neabore (Dog Eat Dog), are returning parties from the project’s 2022 debut, Reach for the Scars, while Unida vocalist Mark Sunshine makes a highlight of “Show Them Your Power” early on. Sunshine appears on “Veneration” as well alongside DMC from Run DMC, which, if you’re going to do a rap-rock crossover, it probably makes sense to get a guy who was there the first time it happened. Elsewhere, “Non Defectum” toys with layering with Kelly Abe of Sicks Deep adding screams, and Paul Stanley impersonator Bob Jensen steps in for the KISS cover “I Stole Your Love” and the originals “Dead and Gone” and “Hallowed Be Her Name” so indeed, no shortage of variety. Tying it together? The riffs, of course. Lorenzo has shown an as-yet inexhaustible supply thereof. Here, they seem to power multiple bands all on one album.

Patriarchs in Black on Instagram

MDD Records website

Blood Lightning, Blood Lightning

Blood Lightning self titled

Just because it wasn’t a surprise doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best debut albums of 2023. Bringing together known parties from Boston’s heavy underground Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die, etc.), Doug Sherman (Gozu), Bob Maloney (Worshipper) and J.R. Roach (Sam Black Church), Blood Lightning want nothing for pedigree, and their Ripple-issued self-titled debut meets high expectations with vigor and thrash-born purpose. Sherman‘s style of riffing and Healey‘s soulful, belted-out vocals are both identifiable factors in cuts like “The Dying Starts” and the charging “Face Eater,” which works to find a bridge between heavy rock and classic, soaring metal. Their cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Disturbing the Priest,” included here as the last of the six songs on the 27-minute album, I seem to recall being at least part of the impetus for the band, but frankly, however they got there, I’m glad the project has been preserved. I don’t know if they will or won’t do anything else, but there’s potential in their metal/rock blend, which positions itself as oldschool but is more forward thinking than either genre can be on its own.

Blood Lightning on Facebook

Ripple Music website

Haurun, Wilting Within

haurun wilting within

Based in Oakland and making their debut with the significant endorsement of Small Stone Records and Kozmik Artifactz behind them, atmospheric post-heavy rock five-piece Haurun tap into ethereal ambience and weighted fuzz in such a way as to raise memories of the time Black Math Horseman got picked up by Tee Pee. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. With notions of Acid King in the nodding, undulating riffs of “Abyss” and the later reaches of “Lost and Found,” but two guitars are a distinguishing factor, and Haurun come across as primarily concerned with mood, although the post-grunge ’90s alt hooks of “Flying Low” and “Lunar” ahead of 11-minute closer “Soil,” which uses its longform breadth to cast as vivid a soundscape as possible. Fast, slow, minimalist or at a full wash of noise, Haurun‘s Wilting Within has its foundation in heavy rock groove and riffy repetition, but does something with that that goes beyond microniche confines. Very much looking forward to more from this band.

Haurun on Facebook

Small Stone Records website

Kozmik Artifactz website

Wicked Trip, Cabin Fever

wicked trip cabin fever

Its point of view long established by the time they get around to the filthy lurch of “Hesher” — track three of seven — Cabin Fever is the first full-length from cultish doomers Wicked Trip. The Tennessee outfit revel in Electric Wizard-style fuckall on “Cabin Fever” after the warning in the spoken “Intro,” and the 11-minute sample-topped “Night of Pan” is a psych-doom jam that’s hypnotic right unto its keyboard-drone finish giving over to the sampled smooth sounds of the ’70s at the start of “Black Valentine,” which feels all the more dirt-coated when it actually kicks in, though “Evils of the Night” is no less threatening of purpose in its garage-doom swing, crash-out and cacophonous payoff, and I’m pretty sure if you played “No Longer Human” at double the speed, well, it might be human again. All of these grim, bleak, scorching, nodding, gnashing pieces come together to craft Cabin Fever as one consuming, lo-fi entirety, raw both because the recording sounds harsh and because the band itself eschew any frills not in service to their disillusioned atmosphere.

Wicked Trip on Instagram

Wicked Trip on Bandcamp

Splinter, Role Models

Splinter Role Models

There’s an awful lot of sex going on in Splinter‘s Role Models, as the Amsterdam glam-minded heavy rockers follow their 2021 debut, Filthy Pleasures (review here), with cuts like “Soviet Schoolgirl,” “Bottom,” “Opposite Sex” and the poppy post-punk “Velvet Scam” early on. It’s not all sleaze — though even “The Carpet Makes Me Sad” is trying to get you in bed — and the piano and boozy harmonies of “Computer Screen” are a fun departure ahead of the also-acoustic finish in closer “It Should Have Been Over,” while “Every Circus Needs a Clown” feels hell-bent on remaking Queen‘s “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Medicine Man” and “Forbidden Kicks” find a place where garage rock meets heavier riffing, while “Children” gets its complaints registered efficiently in just over two boogie-push minutes. A touch of Sabbath here, some Queens of the Stone Age chic disco there, and Splinter are happy to find a place for themselves adjacent to both without aping either. One would not accuse them of subtlety as regards theme, but there’s something to be said for saying what you want up front.

Splinter on Facebook

Noisolution website

Terra Black, All Descend

Terra Black All Descend

Beginning with its longest component track (immediate points) in “Asteroid,” Terra Black‘s All Descend is a downward-directed slab of doomed nod, so doubled-down on its own slog that “Black Flames of Funeral Fire” doesn’t even start its first verse until the song is more than half over. Languid tempos play up the largesse of “Ashes and Dust,” and “Divinest Sin” borders on Eurometal, but if you need to know what’s in Terra Black‘s heart, look no further than the guitar, bass, drum and vocal lumber — all-lumber — of “Spawn of Lyssa” and find that it’s doom pumping blood around the band’s collective body. While avoiding sounding like Electric Wizard, the Gothenburg, Sweden, unit crawl through that penultimate duet track with all ready despondency, and resolve “Slumber Grove” with agonized final lub-dub heartbeats of kick drum and guitar drawl after a vivid and especially doomed wash drops out to vocals before rearing back and plodding forward once more, doomed, gorgeous, immersive, and so, so heavy. They’re not finished growing yet — nor should they be on this first album — but they’re on the path.

Terra Black on Facebook

Terra Black on Bandcamp

Musing, Somewhen

musing somewhen

Sometimes the name of a thing can tell you about the thing. So enters Musing, a contemplative solo outfit from Devin “Darty” Purdy, also known for his work in Calgary-based bands Gone Cosmic and Chron Goblin, with the eight-song/42-minute Somewhen and a flowing instrumental narrative that borders on heavy post-rock and psychedelia, but is clearheaded ultimately in its course and not slapdash enough to be purely experimental. That is, though intended to be instrumental works outside the norm of his songcraft, tracks like “Flight to Forever” and the delightfully bassy “Frontal Robotomy” are songs, have been carved out of inspired and improvised parts to be what they are. “Hurry Wait” revamps post-metal standalone guitar to be the basis of a fuzzy exploration, while “Reality Merchants” hones a sense of space that will be welcome in ears that embrace the likes of Yawning Sons or Big Scenic Nowhere. Somewhen has a story behind it — there’s narrative; blessings and peace upon it — but the actual music is open enough to translate to any number of personal interpretations. A ‘see where it takes you’ attitude is called for, then. Maybe on Purdy‘s part as well.

Musing on Facebook

Musing on Bandcamp

Spiral Shades, Revival

Spiral Shades Revival

A heavy and Sabbathian rock forms the underlying foundation of Spiral Shades‘ sound, and the returning two-piece of vocalist Khushal R. Bhadra and guitarist/bassist/drummer Filip Petersen have obviously spent the nine years since 2014’s debut, Hypnosis Sessions (review here), enrolled in post-doctoral Iommic studies. Revival, after so long, is not unwelcome in the least. Doom happens in its own time, and with seven songs and 38 minutes of new material, plus bonus tracks, they make up for lost time with classic groove and tone loyal to the blueprint once put forth while reserving a place for itself in itself. That is, there’s more to Spiral Shades and to Revival than Sabbath worship, even if that’s a lot of the point. I won’t take away from the metal-leaning chug of “Witchy Eyes” near the end of the album, but “Foggy Mist” reminds of The Obsessed‘s particular crunch and “Chapter Zero” rolls like Spirit Caravan, find a foothold between rock and doom, and it turns out riffs are welcome on both sides.

Spiral Shades on Facebook

Spiral Shades on Bandcamp

Bandshee, Bandshee III

Bandshee III

The closing “Sex on a Grave” reminds of the slurring bluesy lasciviousness of Nick Cave‘s Grinderman, and that should in part be taken as a compliment to the setup through “Black Cat” — which toys with 12-bar structure and is somewhere between urbane cool and cabaret nerdery — and the centerpiece “Bad Day,” which follows a classic downer chord progression through its apex with the rawness of Backwoods Payback at their most emotive and a greater melodic reach only after swaying through its willful bummer of an intro. Last-minute psych flourish in the guitar threatens to make “Bad Day” a party, but the Louisville outfit find their way around to their own kind of fun, which since the release is only three songs long just happens to be “Sex on a Grave.” Fair enough. Rife with attitude and an emergent dynamic that’s complementary to the persona of the vocals rather than trying to keep up with them, the counterintuitively-titled second short release (yes, I know the cover is a Zeppelin reference; settle down) from Bandshee lays out an individual approach to heavy songwriting and a swing that goes back further in time than most.

Bandshee on Facebook

Bandshee on Bandcamp

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Samantha Marandola & Andrew Marandola of Oldest Sea

Posted in Questionnaire on November 13th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

oldest sea

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Samantha Marandola & Andrew Marandola of Oldest Sea

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Sam: I put my current emotional state into sonic form. My music is highly autobiographical, and the process of writing and performing it is like a form of self-therapy.

Describe your first musical memory.

Sam: I was laying on the couch with my dad watching a Roy Orbison concert on TV. If my memory serves me right, it was not long after he died and they were airing a bunch of his filmed performances. I’d never heard a voice like that before. It was so ethereal and I was completely mesmerized. I was only 4 or 5 years old.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Sam: I think my earliest musical memory is probably also my best musical memory.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Andrew: I’m never married to any set of beliefs. I do not take offense to my personal ideas being challenged. I embrace the possibility of being incorrect.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Andrew: Artistic progression leads to more questions than answers. Writing and imagining is a never ending labor.

How do you define success?

Sam: When you feel like what you’re doing has purpose and meaning, then that’s what I consider to be success.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Sam: There’s this really gory scene in the movie Bone Tomahawk and the visuals haunt me to this day.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Sam: I’d like to eventually score films.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Sam: I mean, art elevates. I truly believe that the action of creating something from nothing raises the collective vibration of the world. You make the world a better place when you make art.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Sam: Oh man, I’m in my late thirties so the things I look forward to usually have something to do with home repairs. We’re getting our deck replaced soon and wow that’s pretty exciting.

https://www.facebook.com/oldestsea
https://www.instagram.com/oldestsea/
https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/

https://darkestrecords.bandcamp.com/

Oldest Sea, “Sacred Destruction” official video

Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost (2023)

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Ego Planet Premiere Self-Titled Debut in Full; Out Friday

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on October 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

ego planet

This Friday, New Jersey-based heavy rockers Ego Planet will issue their self-titled debut through Argonauta Records. The band took kind of a roundabout path to existence — as you can read below, the songs on Ego Planet began life as solo demos by Chris Baker, who plays guitar and bass on the album; vocalist Jarrett Mead lived in Seattle, etc. — but you’d hardly know any of that from the music. Comprised in its vinyl edition of 10 songs that run 38 minutes — the LP has two bonus tracks; the hook of “Dead Man’s Float” is enough on its own to justify shelling out for the whole record but thankfully isn’t close to being on its own making the argument — Ego Planet engages classic structures and rock songwriting forms while interpreting them through big, accessible hooks and a style that borders on the commercial.

Now, when I say commercial, there’s a bit to unpack, particularly as relates to Ego Planet. Where a lot of modern heavy plays atmospherics through effects or synth or just noise off of verses, choruses, bridges, and so on, perhaps in intros or outros or breaks; it becomes a distinct thing within a whole work. The ambient parts. Ego Planet have some of that as well, at the beginning of opener “Swallow the Sun” to immerse the listener at the outset, or as a preface to the tense metal chug of “Entertainment” — the acoustic start of “Order of the Tree,” but even the openness of the verse in the two-minute “Leviathan” holds depth in its sound en route to its even-bigger-hook ending, and Ego Planet use that space effectively in changing the mood and character of their songs without indulgences. The album is sharp and professional in a way that many heavy rock records are not interested in being, and Ego Planet‘s drawing from ’80s metal in cuts like “Entertainment,” “Butcher’s Blade” and the first of the bonus tracks “T.H.E.N.” brings that much more personality to the deftly set course through grunge and heavier styles that show up in the songs.

But “commercial” as regards heavy rock and roll doesn’t exist. There’s no MTV to shoot for, no radio play. Chasing streams ego planet self titledand cynically manipulating algorithms feels lesser in scale than “The Call” and “Reflection,” which round out the opening salvo after “Swallow the Sun” — presumably not about the Finnish band, but you never know — impact-swings to its cold finish. Among the messages conveyed in those first three songs before “Entertainment” and “Butcher’s Blade” start roughing up the place is the focus on songwriting throughout, but performance meets that on every level across the span, whether it’s Steve Iannettoni‘s drums declaring the apex of the leadoff or maximizing the roll in the already-noted chorus of “Dead Man’s Float” or Mead‘s harmonizing there. And that remains true as Ego Planet explore the post-grunge hard rock of “Faceless Children” with hints of Dehumanizer-style Iommism in the riff of its verse, following up in the chorus of the subsequent “Order of the Tree” with a metal-informed largesse that’s not aggressive in the delivery and defined in no small part by its likewise expanse of melody.

They’re more than flirting with heavy metal here, and that’s not a negative judgment by any means. Without tipping over into outright anger in the presentation, Ego Planet find and successfully manipulate a balance of elements that makes their self-titled feel even less like a debut and even more professional. Some bands just know what they’re going for at the outset. As “T.H.E.N.” bases itself around a sharper, defined chug en route to its chorus, it seems to be working toward a big finish and bounces its groove with extra stops in the second half, but if it hasn’t gotten across yet, it’s “Dead Man’s Float” that delivers on that promise, with Lo-Pan soul, Alice in Chains breadth and a roll that makes its four-minute runtime feel short. It is the kind of track that rings in your head afterward, and so is impeccably placed.

And if you didn’t know, this is the part where I generalize that last statement to Ego Planet as a whole, because while “Dead Man’s Float” has that memorability and is positioned to highlight it, the awareness on the band’s part of the moves they’re making here resonate with intention. I don’t know where Ego Planet see themselves going in terms of sound — there are hints dropped in a few progressive twists, and I’ll just mention that they haven’t actually thrashed out at this point and they wouldn’t necessarily be out of line if they did next time — but moving forward from such an expertly-crafted first LP, they’ll be in that much better position to continue to push themselves as they audibly do here.

That’s it, kids. Album streams below, followed by the preorder link and PR wire info. Hail Garden State heavy.

Enjoy:

Ego Planet, Ego Planet (2023)

Preorders are up at this address: https://www.argonautarecords.com/shop/

Ego Planet is a Heavy Rock band based in New Jersey, formed in 2020 from a collection of instrumental demos founder, Chris Baker, wrote in the midst of the Covid-19 quarantine.

After several months of writing, Chris partnered up with vocalist/lyricist, Jarrett Mead, to add a voice to his music. The two collaborated to finish 10 songs remotely while Jarrett was living in Seattle, WA. In January of 2021 recording began at Backroom Studios in Rockaway, NJ with owner/engineer Kevin Antreassian. The studio band features Jarrett Mead (Vocals), Chris Baker (Guitars/Bass) and Steve Iannettoni (Drums).

TRACKLISTING:
1. Swallow The Sun
2. The Call
3. Reflection
4. Entertainment
5. Butcher’s Blade
6. Leviathan
7. Faceless Children
8. Order Of The Tree
9. T.H.E.N. (Vinyl Bonus Track)
10. Dead Man’s Float (Vinyl Bonus Track)

Ego Planet on Facebook

Ego Planet on Instagram

Ego Planet on Bandcamp

Ego Planet on Linktr.ee

Argonauta Records on Instagram

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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Oldest Sea Post “Sacred Destruction” Video; A Birdsong, A Ghost LP Out Dec. 1

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

oldest sea

Stepping forward as the also-life-partners duo of vocalist/pianist/synthesist Samantha Marandola and guitarist/bassist/drummer Andrew Marandola, New Jersey’s Oldest Sea — lest we forget that my beloved Garden State once produced Evoken — herald their upcoming debut full-length, A Birdsong, A Ghost, with the minimalist drone creep of “Sacred Destruction,” the opening piece of the record for which a new video can be streamed below. Grueling riffs, fragile-but-maybe-rage-shaking vocal melodies, a resonant expression and a heft that goes beyond tone to the overarching atmosphere typify the first public audio from the follow-up to Oldest Sea‘s 2022 Strange and Eternal EP (review here), and it may well be that the rest of what follows on A Birdsong, A Ghost is even more ethereal, but the impression from the clip is that there’s a context being set for the whole work — a whole-album intro, in other words — and so “Sacred Destruction” feels bigger than itself on multiple fronts.

Very much looking forward to digging into this record. Here’s the news from the PR wire so I can say I posted it later:

oldest sea a birdsong a ghost cropped

OLDEST SEA- A Birdsong, A Ghost

OLDEST SEA: ethereal doom duo expresses “feminine rage, grief, and transformation” on new album “A Birdsong, A Ghost”; official music video now streaming, directed by Dylan Pecora (Merzbow, Ecology: HomeStones)

Oldest Sea announces the December 1st release of its new full-length album, A Birdsong, A Ghost.

The album will be released on Darkest Records, the label owned by Jordan Cozza of sludge-doom greats HUSH.

Pre-order the LP, here: https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/album/a-birdsong-a-ghost

“It’s an expression of feminine rage, grief, and transformation,” says Oldest Sea vocalist Samantha Marandola. “It’s kind of just one long primal scream for me.”

On “Sacred Destruction,” the album’s opening track, Marandola’s crystalline vocals, layered sumptuously, dance around the sparse twang of a lonesome guitar, building tension that eventually gives way to a majestic doom dirge. Marandola’s voice is stunning and one-of-a-kind. Whether quavering vulnerably or soaring all-powerfully, it hooks the ear and commands attention like a hawk’s talons sunk in flesh.

“I started as a one-person project back in 2017 and wrote experimental, ethereal, folk music,” she says. “My husband Andrew joined me a short while later and we began to play out as a two-piece. By 2021, my writing evolved into something heavier.”

Across A Birdsong, A Ghost – five tracks, clocking in at almost 40 minutes and unfolding like one long scene in a film – the couple set a tone that is haunting, otherworldly, and heartbreaking. The two have stated their influences to include doom bands such as Mournful Congregation and Shape of Despair, composers such as John Carpenter and William Basinski, and iconic vocalists such as Björk and Roy Orbison. All are clearly represented here.

The Marandolas also give credit to their rural New Jersey surroundings. Samantha, who works by day in environmental conservation for a land and water trust, states: “It is very rural. A farming community. Being so close to the natural world has a huge impact on how and what I write.”

The “Sacred Destruction” video, created by Philadelphia sculptor and video maker Dylan Pecora, is a gorgeous, surreal clip, laced with body horror, reminiscent of the works of Matthew Barney. “The song is about letting go of a former self,” says Samantha. “Dylan’s video captures everything that’s meant to be conveyed in that song, and I really appreciate their surrealist approach. They found a way to seamlessly unify song and film so that they’re essentially one unit.”

Pecora’s credits include building props and puppets for Saturday Night Live, and creating music videos for artists such as Merzbow. They are also alleged to be involved in the mysterious Ecology: HomeStones project, which has amassed more than half a million followers across social media.

A Birdsong, A Ghost was engineered and mixed by the Marandolas and mastered by Dan Lowndes (Leviathan, Unearthly Trance).

Oldest Sea has played shows with the likes of Planning for Burial, Bell Witch, and Mizmor. A short tour with Oktas begins November 9th.

Tour:
Nov 9 – Worcester, MA @ Ralph’s Diner (w/ Oktas)
Nov 10 – Providence, RI @ The Mayday (w/ Oktas)
Nov 11 – Portland, ME @ Urban Farm Fermentory (w/ Oktas)
Nov 12 – Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House (w/ Oktas)
Nov 13 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Desperate Annie’s (w/ Oktas)

Tracklist:
1) Sacred Destruction
2) Untracing
3) Astronomical Twilight
4) The Machines That Made Us Old
5) Metamorphose

Lineup:
Samantha Marandola – vocals, synth, piano
Andrew Marandola – guitar, bass, drums

https://www.facebook.com/oldestsea
https://www.instagram.com/oldestsea/
https://oldestsea1.bandcamp.com/

https://darkestrecords.bandcamp.com/

Oldest Sea, “Sacred Destruction” official video

Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost (2023)

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