Hey there and welcome back to the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review. Today I’ve got another 10-record batch for your perusal, and if you’ve never been to this particular party before, it’s part of an ongoing series this site does every couple months (you might say quarterly), and this week picks up from yesterday as well as a couple weeks ago, when another 70 records of various types were covered. If there’s a lesson to be learned from all of it, it’s that we live in a golden age of heavy music, be it metal, rock, doom, sludge, psych, prog, noise or whathaveyou. Especially for whathaveyou.

So here we are, you and I, exploring the explorations in these many works and across a range of styles. As always, I hope you find something that feels like it’s speaking directly to you. For what it’s worth, I didn’t even make it through the first 10 of the 50 releases to be covered this week yesterday without ordering a CD from Bandcamp, so I’m here in a spirit of learning too. We’ll go together and dive back in.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Smokey Mirror, Smokey Mirror

Those in the know will tell you that the vintage-sound thing is over, everybody’s a goth now, blah blah heavygaze. That sounds just fine with Dallas, Texas, boogie rockers Smokey Mirror, who on their self-titled Rise Above Records first LP make their shuffle a party in “Invisible Hand” and the class-conscious “Pathless Forest” even before they dig into the broader jam of the eight-minute “Magick Circle,” panning the solos in call and response, drum solo, softshoe groove, full on whatnot. Meanwhile, “Alpha-State Dissociative Trance” would be glitch if it had a keyboard on it, a kind of math rock from 1972, and its sub-three-minute stretch is followed by the acoustic guitar/harmonica folk blues of “Fried Vanilla Super Trapeze” and the heavy fuzz resurgence of “Sacrificial Altar,” which is long like “Magick Circle” but with more jazz in its winding jam and more of a departure into it (four minutes into the total 7:30 if you’re wondering), while the Radio Moscow-style smooth bop and rip of “A Thousand Days in the Desert” and shred-your-politics of “Who’s to Say” act as touch-ground preface for the acoustic noodle and final hard strums of “Recurring Nightmare,” as side B ends in mirror to side A. An absolute scorcher of a debut and all the more admirable for wearing its politics on its sleeve where much heavy rock hides safe behind its “I’m not political” whiteness, Smokey Mirror‘s Smokey Mirror reminds that, every now and again, those in the know don’t know shit. Barnburner heavy rock and roll forever.

Smokey Mirror on Facebook

Rise Above Records website

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Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows, Hail to the Underground

The moral of the story is that the members of Melbourne’s Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows — may they someday be famous enough that I won’t feel compelled to point out that none of them is Jack; the lineup is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Tim Coutts-Smith, guitarist Jordan Richardson, bassist Liam Barry and drummer Josh McCombe — came up in the ’90s, or at least in the shadow thereof. Hail to the Underground collects eight covers in 35 minutes and is the Aussie rockers’ first outing for Blues Funeral, following two successful albums in 2018’s Hymns and 2021’s The Magnetic Ridge (review here), and while on paper it seems like maybe it’s the result of just-signed-gotta-get-something-out motivation, the takes on tunes by Aussie rockers God, the Melvins, Butthole Surfers, My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division (their “Day of Lords” is a nodding highlight) rest organically alongside the boogie blues of “Roll & Tumble” (originally by Hambone Willie Newbern), the electrified surge of Bauhaus‘ “Dark Entries” and the manic peaks of “Eye Shaking King” by Amon Düül II. It’s not the triumphant, moment-of-arrival third full-length one awaits — and it would be soon for it to be, but it’s how the timing worked with the signing — but Hail to the Underground adds complexity to the narrative of the band’s sound in communing with Texan acid noise, country blues from 1929 to emo and goth rock icons in a long-player’s span, and it’ll certainly keep the fire burning until the next record gets here.

Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Noorag, Fossils

Minimalist in social media presence (though on YouTube and Bandcamp, streaming services, etc.), Sardinian one-man outfit Noorag — also stylized all-lowercase: noorag — operates at the behest of multi-instrumentalist/producer Federico “WalkingFred” Paretta, and with drums by Daneiele Marcia, the project’s debut EP, Fossils, collects seven short pieces across 15 minutes that’s punk in urgency, sans-vocal in the execution, sludged in tone, metallic in production, and adventurous in some of its time changes. Pieces like the ambient opener “Hhon” and “Amanita Shot,” which follows headed on the quick into the suitably stomping “Brachiopod” move easily between each other since the songs themselves are tied together through their instrumental approach and relatively straightforward arrangements. “Cochlea Stone” is a centerpiece under two minutes long with emphasis rightfully on the bass, while “Ritual Electric” teases the stonershuggah nuance in the groove of “Acid Apricot”‘s second half, and the added “Digital Cave” roughs up the recording while maybe or maybe not actually being the demo it claims to be. Are those drums programmed? We may never know, but at a quarter of an hour long, it’s not like Noorag are about to overstay their welcome. Fitting for the EP format as a way to highlight its admirable intricacy, Fossils feels almost ironically fresh and sounds like the beginning point of a broader progression. Here’s hoping.

Noorag on YouTube

Noorag on Bandcamp

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KOLLAPS\E, Phantom Centre

With the notable exceptions of six-minute opener “Era” and the 8:36 “Uhtceare” with the gradual build to its explosion into the “Stones From the Sky” moment that’s a requisite for seemingly all post-metal acts to utilize at least once (they turn it into a lead later, which is satisfying), Sweden’s KOLLAPS\E — oh your pesky backslash — pair their ambient stretches with stately, shout-topped declarations of riff that sound like early Isis with the clarity of production and intent of later Isis, which is a bigger difference than it reads. The layers of guttural vocals at the forefront of “Anaemia” add an edge of extremity offset by the post-rock float of the guitar, and “Bränt Barn Skyr Elden” (‘burnt child dreads the fire,’ presumably a Swedish aphorism) answers by building tension subtly in its first two minutes before going full-barrage atmosludge for the next as it, “Anaemia,” and the closing pair of “Radiant Static” and “Murrain” harness short-song momentum on either side of four minutes long — something the earlier “Beautiful Desolate” hinted at between “Era” and “Uhtceare” — to capture a distinct flow for side B and giving the ending of “Murrain” its due as a culmination for the entire release. Crushing or spacious or both when it wants to be, Phantom Centre is a strong, pandemic-born debut that looks forward while showing both that it’s schooled in its own genre and has begun to decide which rules it wants to break.

KOLLAPS\E on Facebook

Trepanation Recordings on Bandcamp

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Healthyliving, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief

A multinational conglomerate that would seem to be at least partially assembled in Edinburg, Scotland, Healthyliving — also all-lowercase: healthyliving — offer folkish melodicism atop heavy atmospheric rock for a kind of more-present-than-‘gaze-implies feel that is equal parts meditative, expansive and emotive on their debut full-length, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief. With the vocals of Amaya López-Carromero (aka Maud the Moth) given a showcase they more than earn via performance, multi-instrumentalist Scott McLean (guitar, bass, synth) and drummer Stefan Pötzsch are able to conjure the scene-setting heft of “Until,” tap into grunge strum with a gentle feel on “Bloom” or meander into outright crush with ambient patience on “Galleries” (a highlight) or move through the intensity of “To the Gallows,” the unexpected surge in the bridge of “Back to Back” or the similarly structured but distinguished through the vocal layering and melancholic spirit of the penultimate “Ghost Limbs” with a long quiet stretch before closer “Obey” wraps like it’s raking leaves in rhythm early and soars on a strident groove that caps with impact and sprawl. They are not the only band operating in this sphere of folk-informed heavy post-rock by any means, but as their debut, this nine-song collection pays off the promise of their 2021 two-songer Until/Below (review here) and heralds things to come both beautiful and sad.

Healthyliving on Facebook

LaRubia Producciones website

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MV & EE, Green Ark

Even before Vermont freak-psych two-piece MV & EE — Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, both credited with a whole bunch of stuff including, respectively, ‘the real deal’ and ‘was’ — are nestled into the organic techno jam of 19-minute album opener “Free Range,” their Green Ark full-length has offered lush lysergic hypnosis via an extended introductory drone. Far more records claim to go anywhere than actually do, but the funky piano of “No Money” and percussion and wah dream-disco of “Dancin’,” with an extra-fun keyboard line late, set up the 20-minute “Livin’ it Up,” in a way that feels like surefooted experimentalism; Elder and Valentine exploring these aural spaces with the confidence of those who’ve been out wandering across more than two decades’ worth of prior occasions. That is to say, “Livin’ it Up” is comfortable as it engages with its own unknown self, built up around a bass line and noodly solo over a drum machine with hand percussion accompanying, willfully repetitive like the opener in a way that seems to dig in and then dig in again. The 10-minute “Love From Outer Space” and nine-minute mellow-psych-but-for-the-keyboard-beat-hitting-you-in-the-face-and-maybe-a-bit-of-play-around-that-near-the-end “Rebirth” underscore the message that the ‘out there’ is the starting point rather than the destination for MV & EE, but that those brave enough to go will be gladly taken along.

MV & EE Blogspot

Ramble Records store

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The Great Machine, Funrider

Israeli trio The Great Machine — brothers Aviran Haviv (bass/vocals) and Omer Haviv (guitar/vocals) as well as drummer/vocalist Michael Izaky — find a home on Noisolution for their fifth full-length in nine years, Funrider, trading vocal duties back and forth atop songs that pare down some of the jammier ideology of 2019’s less-than-ideally-titled Greatestits, still getting spacious in side-A ender “Pocketknife” and the penultimate “Some Things Are Bound to Fail,” which is also the longest inclusion at 6:05. But the core of Funrider is in the quirk and impact of rapid-fire cuts like “Zarathustra” and “Hell & Back” at the outset, the Havivs seeming to trade vocal duties throughout to add to the variety as the rumble before the garage-rock payoff of “Day of the Living Dead” gives over to the title-track or that fuzzier take moves into “Pocketknife.” Acoustic guitar starts “Fornication Under the Consent of the King” but it becomes sprinter Europunk bombast before its two minutes are done, and with the rolling “Notorious” and grungeminded “Mountain She” ripping behind, the most unifying factor throughout Funrider is its lack of predictability. That’s no minor achievement for a band on their fifth record making a shift in their approach after a decade together, but the desert rocking “The Die” that closes with a rager snuck in amid the chug is a fitting summary of the trio’s impressive creative reach.

The Great Machine on Facebook

Noisolution store

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Swanmay, Frantic Feel

Following-up their 2017 debut, Stoner Circus, Austrian trio Swanmay offer seven songs and 35 minutes of new material with the self-issued Frantic Feel, finding their foundation in the bass work of Chris Kaderle and Niklas Lueger‘s drumming such that Patrick Àlvaro‘s ultra-fuzzed guitar has as strong a platform to dance all over as possible. Vocals in “The Art of Death” are suitably drunk-sounding (which doesn’t actually hurt it), but “Mashara” and “Cats and Snails” make a rousing opening salvo of marked tonal depth and keep-it-casual stoner saunter, soon also to be highlighted in centerpiece “Blooze.” On side B, “Stone Cold” feels decidedly more like it has its life together, and “Old Trails” tightens the reins from there in terms of structure, but while closer “Dead End” stays fuzzy and driving like the two songs before, the noise quotient is upped significantly by the time it’s done, and that brings back some of the looser swing of “Mashara” or “The Art of Death.” But when Swanmay want to be — and that’s not all the time, to their credit — they are massively heavy, and they put that to raucous use with a production that is accordingly loud and vibrant. Seems simple reading a paragraph, maybe, but the balance they strike in these songs is a difficult one, and even if it’s just for the guitar and bass tones, Frantic Feel demands an audience.

Swanmay on Facebook

Swanmay on Bandcamp

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Garden of Ash, Garden of Ash

“Death will come swiftly to those who are weak,” goes the crooning verse lyric from Garden of Ash‘s “Death Valley” at the outset of the young Edmonton, Alberta, trio’s self-titled, self-released debut full-length. Bassist Kristina Hunszinger delivers the line with due severity, but the Witch Mountain-esque slow nod and everybody-dies lyrics of “A Cautionary Tale” show more of the tongue-in-cheek point of view of the lyrics. The plot thickens — or at very least hits harder — when the self-recorded outing’s metallic production style is considered. In the drums of Levon Vokins — who also provides backing vocals as heard on “Roses” and elsewhere — the (re-amped) guitar of Zach Houle and even in the mostly-sans-effects presentation of Hunszinger‘s vocals as well as their placement at the forefront of the mix, it’s heavy metal more than heavy rock, but as Vokins takes lead vocals in “World on Fire” with Hunszinger joining for the chorus, the riff is pure boogie and the earlier “Amnesia” fosters doomly swing, so what may in the longer term be a question of perspective is yet unanswered in terms of are they making the sounds they want to and pushing into trad metal genre tenets, or is it just a matter of getting their feet under them as a new band? I don’t know, but songs and performance are both there, so this first full-length does its job in giving Garden of Ash something from which to move forward while serving notice to those with ears to hear them. Either way, the bonus track “Into the Void” is especially notable for not being a Black Sabbath cover, and by the time they get there, that’s not at all the first surprise to be had.

Garden of Ash on Facebook

Garden of Ash on Bandcamp

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Tidal, The Bends

Checking in at one second less and 15 minutes flat, “The Bends” is the first release from Milwaukee-based three-piece Tidal, and it’s almost immediately expansive. With shades of El Paraiso-style jazz psych, manipulated samples and hypnotic drone at its outset, the first two minutes build into a wash with mellow keys/guitar effects (whatever, it sounds more like sax and they’re all credited with ‘noise,’ so I’m doing my best here) and it’s not until Sam Wallman‘s guitar steps forward out of the ambience surrounding at nearly four minutes deep that Alvin Vega‘s drums make their presence known. Completed by Max Muenchow‘s bass, which righteously holds the core while Wallman airs out, the roll is languid and more patient than one would expect for a first-release jam, but there’s a pickup and Tidal do get raucous as “The Bends” moves into its midsection, scorching for a bit until they quiet down again, only to reemerge at 11:10 from the ether of their own making with a clearheaded procession to carry them through the crescendo and to the letting-go-now drift of echo that caps. I hear tell they’ve got like an hour and a half of this stuff recorded and they’re going to release them one by one. They picked an intriguing one to start with as the layers of drone and noise help fill out the otherwise empty space in the instrumental jam without being overwrought or sacrificing the spontaneous nature of the track. Encouraging start. Will be ready when the next jam hits.

Tidal on Instagram

Tidal on Bandcamp

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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: Mario Rodriguez, Tyler Davis & Caleb Hollowed from Smokey Mirror

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How did you come to do what you do?

Tyler Davis: Years and years of the universe and myself always pushing me to where I am today.

Mario Rodriguez: I fell in love with music at a young age. As a child my mother exposed me to soul, my father exposed me to classic rock, and my sister exposed me to metal. At age 9 I began exploring music for myself and started actively seeking out sounds that excited me. At age 12 I started playing guitar and at age 13 I played my first club show. I played in bands on and off throughout high school and began pursuing music more seriously after graduation. By age 20 Tyler and I formed Smokey Mirror.

Caleb Hollowed: I started playing music with friends in middle school and by the time I was 18 I started looking for gigs. I grew up listening to bands like The Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, and other classic groups. I knew in my heart that’s what I was meant to do, no question.

Describe your first musical memory.

Tyler: MTV in the 90s and Soul Train reruns were big for me as a kid. But listening to my grandfathers Bob Wills and Willie Nelson records, or learning about ZZ Top listening to Q102 at home in Dallas with my dad are some of my happiest early musical memories.

Mario: My earliest memories are hearing Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass with my mom. I also have early memories of hearing Santana and The Beatles with my dad.

Caleb: My mother listening to “CSNY – Deja Vu” on an old tape. Still love that group so much! Also the sound of Patsy Cline’s voice is prevalent in my early memories. I remember my mom making me two step with her in our family kitchen to old country songs.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Tyler: Witnessing George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic perform in Dallas 2012, or performing with Smokey Mirror in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on my 27th birthday.

Mario: My best musical memories are seeing Motörhead in 2009 and B.B. King in 2013. I’ll never forget how it felt to be in their presence.

Caleb: Seeing Dickie Betts with The Allman Brothers Band has to be my top musical memory.

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

Tyler: Any time living a life creating and playing music gets tough or complicated, we’re forced to come to terms with why we do what we do, which is serving something higher than ourselves.

Mario: When I was in my teens and early twenties I accepted a lot of mistreatment from former bandmates for the sake of being involved in a project that I’d poured a lot of time, effort, and resources into. Eventually I realized that nothing was worth compromising my dignity, so I started over from square one and formed Smokey Mirror with bandmates who are both kind and mutually respectful. In the end I learned an invaluable lesson.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Tyler: Hopefully towards true clarity and whole, honest expression of self while being considerate of but not controlled by external circumstances.

Mario: Ideally, artistic progression leads to a never-ending journey of self discovery. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, forever into eternity.

Caleb: To a true sense of self. It may never lead to anywhere, just a long journey that never ends. People change, so does artistic expression.

How do you define success?

Tyler: Feeling content with your legacy, when we depart we can’t take things only leave them.

Mario: I also define success as contentment with one’s legacy. I’d also add that success can be measured by the greatness one inspires in others.

Caleb: Being pleased with something you’ve created or been apart of.

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

Tyler: Witnessing the realities of working in the US healthcare system was kind of a bummer, but anything we can learn from isn’t a total loss.

Mario: I’ve seen a lot of talented, promising musicians allow their pride and poor self control to stunt their musical growth.

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

Tyler: Album #2 and 3!!!

Mario: Albums #2 and #3 for sure! Also maybe a catapult that can be used to launch all the world’s billionaires into the sun.

Caleb: There’s so much, but I guess I’d like to do more vocally driven songs with 3-4 part harmonies.

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

Tyler: Traveling and experiencing the world outside of the US, whether touring with Smokey or on vacation with my dog and girlfriend

Mario: I’m looking forward to traveling Costa Rica with my girlfriend later this year.

Caleb: I love nature. Last year I was supposed to go to Yellowstone with my dad, but there was a lot of rain that caused the roads to wash away, BS you might remember from the news. I think we’ll try it again this year after Smokey is back from tour.

https://www.facebook.com/smokeymirrortx/
https://www.instagram.com/smokeymirrortx/
https://smokeymirrortx.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/riseaboverecords/
https://www.instagram.com/riseaboverecords/
http://www.riseaboverecords.com/

Smokey Mirror, “Magick Circle” official video

Smokey Mirror, Smokey Mirror ep (2017)

If you’re a heavy boogie rock band getting signed to Rise Above Records, that’s some boogie I want to hear. Congrats to Smokey Mirror out of Dallas for signing to said ultra-respected purveyor to deliver their self-titled debut full-length on May 5. First single, “Magick Circle,” indeed is a burner shuffle, and if you want a preview of a couple of the other tunes, the band’s Bandcamp has “A Thousand Days in the Desert” as a standalone single and their 2017 self-titled first EP had “Invisible Hand” and “Magick Circle” too, so at least that should give some idea of where they’re coming from.

And the video below is kind of charming. Maybe that sounds smarmy and I don’t really mean it that way, but yeah, I went to shows in garages and shit when I was young and it was as much about being with the people you were with as it was about anything else and it was a party. I think that happened to me once. Or maybe it was a movie. I don’t know. Look, sometimes you get stoned in the afternoon.

The PR wire has details on Smokey Mirror‘s Smokey Mirror (LP), which is out, once again, on May 5, once again, on friggin’ Rise Above Records. Nice one:

Groovy Psych Rockers SMOKEY MIRROR Announce Self Titled Album to be Released May 5th on Rise Above Records!

Share Single “Magick Circle” & Music Video

There are times in the life of every temporal traveller when thunderous electric boogie rock is the only thing that makes any sense at all. Formed in Dallas, Texas, amid the dying embers of 2015, Smokey Mirror have dedicated themselves to spreading a gospel of scorched-earth riff worship and wild, psychedelic abandon. Led by vocalist/guitarist Mario Rodriguez, they have steadily nurtured their untameable sound, building toward the impending release of their self-titled debut album. Completed by bassist Tyler Davis, guitarist Caleb Hollowed and drummer Cam Martin, Smokey Mirror are only just beginning their trip…

“Our musical masterplan was to write songs that blend energetic heavy blues rock with elements of progressive and freeform styles of music,” says Mario, “We wanted to make music that is engaging to both casual listeners and the refined ears of musicians. We performed around Texas as a trio [with former drummer Josh Miller] for a few years and began collaborating with Cam in the spring of 2018, just before SXSW. A few months later, we met our guitarist Caleb at Charley’s Guitar Shop [in Dallas], where he works as a repairman. We started playing as a quartet and began finalizing material for our first full-length shortly thereafter.”

Capturing the fiery, hypnotic chaos of Smokey Mirror on tape was always going to require some expertise. Initial sessions took place at Palmyra Studios in the small town of Palmer, Texas, with Paul Middleton in the engineer’s chair, and a whole load of classic, vintage gear.

“Our engineer, Paul Middleton, was the bassist and singer for the late 70’s heavy rock band Blackhorse,” says Mario, “He also spent decades working as a touring sound engineer for the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Julio Iglesias, during the peaks of their careers! Palmyra uses all vintage, analogue recording equipment, including two-inch tape machines and a 1969 Neive console formerly owned by Abbey Road studios.”

Originally due to be recorded in early 2020, Smokey Mirror’s debut faced the same delays that scuppered everyone’s best laid plans back in that accursed year, along even more unforeseen obstacles to contend with. Nonetheless, rock ‘n’ roll simply refuses to be stopped.

‘Smokey Mirror’ Track List:
1. Invisible Hand
2. Pathless Forest
3. Magick Circle
4. Alpha-State Dissociative Trance
5. Fried Vanilla Spider Trapeze
6. Sacrificial Altar
7. A Thousand Days in the Desert
8. Who’s To Say
9. Recurring Nightmare

Album Art and Pre-Orders Will Be Available SOON!

Mario finishes, “Our shows are raw, loud, energetic, spontaneous! Amps screeching, cymbals crashing, bodies dancing, beer spilling, glass breaking, smoke filling the air, and people living in the moment. Our plan is to continue writing music that pushes and inspires us, and to produce more recorded works that expand upon the creative path we’ve set on our first album. We want to travel the world as much as possible and share our music with as many crowds as we can reach!”

In a world that makes no sense at all, only rock ‘n’ roll can still ring true. Smokey Mirror have tapped into some kind of new magic on their first full-length album, and the results rock with more power, passion and psychedelic fervour than any album, debut or otherwise, in recent memory.

Take a look in the Smokey Mirror and you will see kaleidoscopic multitudes grinning back at you. Embrace the electric boogie. It’s coming for us all.

Smokey Mirror:
Mario Rodriguez – guitar/vocals
Tyler Davis – bass
Caleb Hollowed – guitar
Cam Martin – drums

https://www.facebook.com/smokeymirrortx/
https://www.instagram.com/smokeymirrortx/
https://smokeymirrortx.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/riseaboverecords/
https://www.instagram.com/riseaboverecords/
http://www.riseaboverecords.com/

Smokey Mirror, “Magick Circle” official video

Smokey Mirror, Smokey Mirror ep (2017)

Been a while since the last word from Blood Ceremony, but the Toronto-based classic heavy prog rockers aren’t at all unwelcome as they announce that in addition to heading to Europe in May to tour alongside Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, hitting Desertfest London, Soulstone Gathering, Desertfest Berlin and assorted sure-to-be-packed dates between them, the band will at last follow-up 2016’s Lord of Misrule with their fourth album, The Old Ways Remain.

Some of those old ways include, apparently, self-recording, which the four-piece ended up doing after their plan to abscond to London (where they’d done Lord of Misrule) hit the brick wall of global pandemic like so much else at the outset of this decade. How fortunate we are that everything is fine now, right? Right? And all we have to worry about are the oceans rising up to swallow us and our children’s children? Right? Right? Hashtag ‘blessed’.

I digress. Blood Ceremony were always a band that other people were more into than me, but I’ve seen them live a couple times over the years and only come away from the experience wondering why I don’t listen to them more, so I’m happy to have the chance to dig into something new and see how it fits. There’s no audio yet — respect. — but some footage from the studio has new sounds and that’s at the bottom of the post where that kind of thing goes, and the PR wire has details on the record if not the cover art, and it should be noted that the album is coming out through Rise Above Records, whose release calendar has been pretty light since 2020. Glad to see a return to activity there as well.

Here’s a snazzy pic of the band, the album info and those tour dates:

Occult Flute Rockers BLOOD CEREMONY Announce New Album ‘The Old Ways Remain’ to be Released May 5th

EU Tour With Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats in May!

Seven years have passed since Blood Ceremony last released a full-length album, but that all changes in 2023! Pieced together during lockdown months, and brought to fruition with a host of esteemed special guests, the Canadians’ fifth album, ‘The Old Ways Remain’, is set to emerge May 5th.

Diverse, hypnotic and eminently groovy, the new songs push Blood Ceremony’s sound into new territory while also honoring the atavistic ethos that has led them to such triumphs in the past. Initial plans to repeat the successful formula that birthed ‘Lord of Misrule’ and fly to the UK to record again at Toe Rag Studios in London, fell victim to Covid restrictions, and so Sean and his comrades – Alia O’Brien (vocals/flute/organ), Lucas Gadke (bass) and Michael Carillo (drums) – switched to a simpler but equally satisfying Plan B.

“By late 2021, we realized that if we were ever going to finish a new album, we’d just have to record locally and do it ourselves,” says guitarist Sean Kennedy. “And that’s what we did. We started rehearsing the material again and were still really excited by it. Once we revisited everything, we had a new burst of energy. We found a local studio that had what we needed and we were off! Recording nearby allowed us to bring in friends like Laura Bates from (fellow folk-doom crew) Völur to play fiddle, Joseph Shabason added saxophone to ‘Eugenie’, and Mike Eckert played pedal steel on ‘Hecate’. We produced ourselves, along with our friend, Paul Keyahas. We worked with an engineer named Chris Snow who immediately got what we were trying to do. Richard Whittaker mixed the tracks at his London, UK, studio, and we think he did a great job.”

A vital testament to Blood Ceremony’s collective efficacy, ‘The Old Ways Remain’ is an album for those who love great songs, great riffs and cryptic tales from the outer limits.

‘The Old Ways Remain’ Track List:
1. The Hellfire Club
2. Ipissimus
3. Eugenie
4. Lolly Willows
5. Powers of Darkness
6. The Bonfires at Belloc Coombe
7. Widdershins
8. Hecate
9. Mossy Wood
10. Song of the Morrow

“We’re looking forward to releasing ‘The Old Ways Remain’. It’s been a long time coming, so we’re eager to finally get the songs out there and we hope people enjoy them,” Sean concludes, “We have a UK and European tour coming up in May 2023 with Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats which will be a great time. It’s been a rough few years, but the old ways remain and the ancient gods live on!”

Blood Ceremony hit the road with labelmates Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats in May:

SAT 06 Edinburgh,Scotland La Belle Angele OR Liquid Rooms
SUN 07 London, England Desertfest
MON 08 Brugge, Belgium Cactus Club
WED 10 Toulouse, France Le Metronum
THU 11 Madrid, Spain La Paqui
FRI 12 Barcelona, Spain Sala Apolo 2
SAT 13 Villeurbanne, France Le Transbordeur
MON 15 Zürich, Switzerland Plaza
TUE 16 Milan, Italy Santeria Toscana 31
THU 18 Budapest, Hungary A38 Ship
FRI 19 Krakow, Poland Soulstone Gathering
SAT 20 Prague, Czech Rep. Palac Akropolis
SUN 21 Berlin, Germany Desertfest Berlin

https://www.facebook.com/bloodceremonyrock/
https://www.instagram.com/bloodceremony_/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2GCHfAuitdlOYPjRrgPhI6

https://www.facebook.com/riseaboverecords/
https://www.instagram.com/riseaboverecords/
http://www.riseaboverecords.com/

Blood Ceremony, The Old Ways Remain studio footage

Japanese murder rock stalwarts Church of Misery announce they’ll make a new album this summer. The band, who just slid under the lockdown wire in being able to perform their 25th anniversary North American tour in 2020 before lockdowns started, released their most recent outing, And Then There Were None (review here) in 2016, and it was particularly notable for American fans since founding bassist, songwriter and lone consistent member Tatsu Mikami selected a US-based lineup for the band, with guitarist Dave “Depraved” Szulkin (Blood Farmers), drummer Eric Little (Earthride, ex-Internal Void), and Scott Carlson of frickin’ Repulsion on vocals.

For the new incarnation of Church of Misery, Tatsu — who also has a new album coming out Sept. 30 with his even-more-’70s-rock band Sonic Flower on Heavy Psych Sounds — brings in Sonic Flower‘s drummer, Tishiaki Umemura, vocalist Hiroyuki Takano (who did the aforementioned tour in 2020) and Eternal Elysium‘s Yukito Okazaki.

The prospect of Eternal Elysium guitar and Church of Misery bass together is an intriguing one, but Tatsu always has a few surprises up his sleeve. Among the points of intrigue, I’m curious to know how the band’s outright glorification of violence — a signature element no less than their ultra-Sabbathian riffs — will be received in a social climate where the value of life, such as it is, has been reinforced by the near-universal trauma of plague, as well as political violence, and in the case of Europe, outright war. Also entirely possible that, after more than a quarter-century, they’ve run out of serial killers to talk about.

Oh wait. Actually there’s no way that last one is true. So much murder.

From social media:

Church of Misery – New Album

It has been 6 years since the last album “And then there were none” released in 2016. Finally, Church of Misery will start recording for new album in this summer!

TATSU MIKAMI (bass) and HIROYUKI TAKANO (vocals) will do the recording with supporting musicians for this album. TOSHIAKI UMEMURA on drums (Sonic Flower, ex-AUMA) who also plays on the Sonic Flower new album. And on guitar, Japanese Doom Guru YUKITO OKAZAKI (Eternal Elysium). Eternal Elysium is a doom band with a longer career than Church of Misery actually!

Recording will be start at the end of August in Tokyo and Nagoya Japan. The album will be total 7 songs that consist of 6 new songs plus one cover song of a 70’s heavy rock band. The album will continue to be released on Rise Above Records.

More details will be announced as they become available!

http://www.churchofmisery.net/
https://www.facebook.com/churchofmiserydoom/
https://www.instagram.com/churchofmiseryofficial/

Church of Misery, Live at the High Water Mark, Portland, OR, March 1, 2020

You have your coffee yet? I’ve got mine. Today’s Friday, which means day five of this six-day Spring 2022 Quarterly Review, and it’s been a hell of a week. Yesterday was particularly insane, and today offers not much letup in that regard. If you’d have it another way, I’m sorry, but there’s too much cool shit out there to write about stuff that all sounds the same, so I don’t. I’ve had a good time over this stretch and I hope you have too if you’ve been keeping up. We’ll have one more on Monday and that’s it until late June or early July, so please enjoy.

And thanks as always for reading.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Pike vs. the Automaton, Pike vs. The Automaton

Matt Pike acoustic? It happened, and YOU were there! Truth is, the strumming foundation on which “Land” is built is just one example of Pike vs. The Automaton‘s singular get-weirdness, and followers of his career arc through Sleep and High on Fire from playing basements to winning a Grammy will recognize pieces of cuts like “Abusive” and “Trapped in a Midcave,” the all-out rager “Alien Slut Mom” (which of course was the lead single), the bombastic expanse of “Apollyon,” the even-more-all-out-rager “Acid Test Zone” and the dug-in get-weirdness of “Latin American Geological Formation” as one of heavy music’s most influential auteurs welcomes (?) listeners into a world of swirling chaos, monsters, conspiracies and, of course, riffs. The album saves its greatest accomplishment for last in the 11-minute “Leaving the Wars of Woe,” but if you’re old enough to remember when Rob Zombie did those off-the-wall cartoons for White Zombie videos and the Beavis and Butt-Head movie, listening to Pike vs. the Automaton is kind of like living in that for a while. So yeah, awesome.

Pike vs. The Automaton website

MNRK Heavy website

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End Boss, They Seek My Head

Maybe the heaviest sans-bass low end since Floor? That’s not a minor claim, but at very least Wellington, New Zealand’s End Boss put themselves in the running with They Seek My Head, their debut album. The guitars of Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce are the crushing foundation on which the band is built, and with Beastwars‘ own Nathan Hickey on drums, there’s a reliable base of groove to coincide as all that weight becomes the backdrop for E.J. Thorpe‘s vocals to soar over top on cuts like “Heart of the Sickle” and “Punished.” It’s a wide breadth throughout the eight songs and 33 minutes, allowing “Becomes the Gold” to show some emotive urgency while “Nail and Tooth” seems only to be sharpening knives at the outset of side B, while “The Crawl” just about has to be named after its riff and fair enough. “Lorded Over” hints at an atmospheric focus that may or may not further manifest in the future, but the closing title-track is what it’s all about, and it’s big nod, big melody, big hooks. You can’t lose. Onto the ‘best debuts of 2022’ it goes.

End Boss on Facebook

Rough Peel Records website

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Artifacts & Uranium, Pancosmology

Fred Laird (Earthling Society, Taras Bulba) and Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, etc.) released their self-titled debut as Artifacts & Uranium in 2021 as a collection of three massive dronescapes. Their follow-up, Pancosmology, telegraphs being more compositionally-focused even before you put it on, running eight songs instead of three, and indeed, that’s how it turns out. There are still massive waves of exploratory drones, guitar, electric piano, drums programmed and real — Nick Raybould plays on half the tracks, so a potential third in the duo — synth, bass, whatever a Gakken Generator is, it all comes together with an understated splendor and a sense of reaching into the unknown. Witness the guitar and synth lines of “Silent Plains,” and are those vocals buried so deep in that mix? I can’t even tell. It doesn’t matter. The point is that for 37 minutes, Laird and Vest (and Raybould) take you on a psych-as-spirituality trip into, around and through the universe, and by the time they get to “The Inmost Light” noisewashing at the finish, the feeling is like being baptised in a cold river of acid. If this is the birth of the gods, I’m in.

Taras Bulba on Facebook

Echodelick Records website

Weird Beard Records webstore

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Night City, Kuang Xi

After the slower rolling opener “Broken Dick,” Night City‘s debut cassette EP, Kuang Xi, works at a pretty intense clip, taking the Godflesh vibe of that lead track, keeping the abiding tonal thickness, and imbuing it with an also-’90s-era Ministry-ish sense of chaos and push. The four-song outing works from its longest track to shortest and effectively melds heavy industrial with brutal chug and extreme metal, and one should expect no less from Collyn McCoy, whose plumbing of the dark recesses of the mind in Circle of Sighs is a bit more purely experimentalist. That said, if “Encryptor/Decryptor” showed up as a Circle of Sighs track, I wouldn’t have argued, but the use of samples here throughout and the explicitly sociopolitical lyrics make for coherent themes separate from McCoy‘s other project. “Steppin’ Razor” uses its guitar solo like a skronky bagpipe while calling out Proud Boy bullshit, and in fewer than three minutes, “Molly Million$” finds another gear of thrust before devolving into so much caustic noise. The version I got also featured the dancier “Tomorrow’s World,” but I’m not sure if that’s on the tape. Either way, a brutalist beginning.

Night City on Facebook

Dune Altar website

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Friends of Hell, Friends of Hell

Rise Above Records signing a band that might even loosely be called doom is immediately noteworthy because it means the band in question has impressed label owner Lee Dorrian, formerly of Cathedral, who — let’s be honest — has some of the best taste in music the world over. Thus Friends of Hell unleash 40 minutes of dirt-coated earliest-NWOBHM-meets-Celtic–Frost chugging groove, with former Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou (currently Mirror) on drums and Sami “Albert Witchfinder” Hynninen (Spiritus Mortis, Reverend Bizarre, Opium Warlords) on vocals, biting through catchy classic-sounding cuts like “Into My Coffin” and side B’s “Gateless Gate” and “Orion’s Beast.” Unremittingly dark, the nine-song collection ends with “Wallachia,” a somewhat grander take that still keeps its rawness of tone and general purpose with a more spacious vibe. It is not a coincidence Friends of Hell take their name from a Witchfinder General record; their sound seems like prime fodder for patch-on-denim worship.

Friends of Hell on Instagram

Rise Above Records website

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Delco Detention, What Lies Beneath

The second full-length keeping on a literally-underground theme from 2021’s From the Basement (review here), the 10-song/35-minute What Lies Beneath finds founding Delco Detention guitarist Tyler Pomerantz once again getting by with a little help from his friends, up to and including members of Hippie Death Cult — Eddie Brnabic shreds over instrumental closer “FUMOFO” — The Age of Truth, Kingsnake and others. Angelique Zuppo makes a highlight of early cut “Rock Paper Scissors,” and Dave Wessell of Ickarus Gin brings a performance that well suits the strut-fuzz of “War is Mine,” while instrumentals “What Lies Beneath” and “Velcro Shoes” find Tyler (on bass and guitar) and drummer Adam Pomerantz digging into grooves just fine on their own. The shifts between singers give a compilation-style feel continued on from the first record, but a unifying current of songwriting brings it all together fluidly, and as “A Slow Burn” and “Study Hall Blues” readily demonstrate, Delco Detention know how to take a riff out for a walk. Right on (again).

Delco Detention on YouTube

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

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Room 101, Sightless

Put Lansing, Michigan’s Room 101 up there with Primitive Man, Indian and any other extreme-sludge touchstone you want and their debut long-player, Sightless, will hold its own in terms of sheer, concrete-tone crushing force. In answering the potential of 2019’s The Burden EP (review here), the album offsets its sheer bludgeoning with stretches of quiet-tense atmospherics, “Boarded Window” offering a momentary respite before the onslaught begins anew. This balance is further fleshed out on longer tracks like “Dead End,” with a more extended break and the title-cut with its ending guitar lead, but neither the sub-five-minute “Windowlicker” nor “Boarded Window” earlier want for mood, and even the finale “The Innocent, the Ignorant and the Insecure” brings a feeling of cohesion to its violence. This shit is lethal, to be sure, but it’s also immersive. Watch out you don’t drown in it.

Room 101 on Facebook

Room 101 on Bandcamp

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Hydra, Beyond Life and Death

Heralded by the prior single “With the Devil Hand in Hand” (posted here), which is positioned as the closer of the 41-minute five-tracker, Hydra‘s second full-length, Beyond Life and Death, finds the Polish four-piece pushing deeper into doomed traditionalism. Where their 2020 debut, From Light to the Abyss (review here), had a garage-ist edge, and if you work hard, you can still hear some of that just before the organ kicks in near the end of “On the Edge of Time” (if that’s a “Children of the Sea” reference we can be friends), but after the more gallop-prone opener “Prophetic Dreams” and the penultimate “Path of the Dark”‘s whoa-oh backing vocals, the crux of what they’re doing is more NWOBHM-influenced, and blending with the cult horror lyrical themes of centerpiece “The Unholy Ceremony” or the aforementioned closer, it gives Hydra a more confident sound and a more poised approach to doom than they had just two years ago. The adjusted balance of elements in their sound suits them, and they seem quickly to be carving out a place for themselves in Poland’s crowded scene.

Hydra on Facebook

Piranha Music on Bandcamp

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E-L-R, Vexier

The two 12-minute tracks “Opiate the Sun” and “Foret” bookend Swiss trio E-L-R‘s second LP for Prophecy Productions, Vexier, and the intention would seem to be plain in hooking and immersing the listener in the experience and flow of the album. Like their wildly impressive 2019 debut, Mænad (review here), this collection has plenty of post-metallic elements, and there’s specifically a post-black metal bent to “Three Winds” in its earliest going — by the midsection it’s come apart into broad, open spaces, but the rush comes back — and the centerpiece and shortest track, “Seeds,” which seems to shine even brighter in its melody than the opener, as the vocals are once more presented on a level plane with the rest of the atmospheric elements, far back in the mix but not at all lacking resonance for being vague. “Seeds” is a fitting summary, but “Fleurs of Decay” leans into the expectation of something harsher and “Foret” boasts a more complex linear build, stretches of drone and a broader vocal arrangement before bringing the record to its gentle finish. I liked the first record a lot. I like this one more. E-L-R are doing something with sound that no one else quite has the same kind of handle on, however familiar the elements making it up might be. They are a better band than people yet know.

E-L-R on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

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Buffalo Tombs, III

Titled Three or III, depending where you look, the third long-player from Denver instrumental heavy rockers Buffalo Tombs follows relatively hot on the heels of the second, Two (review here), which came out last October. Spearheaded by guitarist/bassist Eric Stuart, who also recorded the instrumentation sans Patrick Haga‘s own self-recorded drums (lockdown? depends on when it was) and mixed and mastered — Joshua Lafferty also adds bass to “Ancestors” and “Monument,” which are just two of the six contemplations here as Buffalo Tombs explores an inward-looking vision of heavy sounds and styles, not afraid to shove or chug a bit on “Swarm” or “Gnostics/Haint,” but more consistently mellow in mood and dug into its own procession. “Familiars” hints at aspects of heavy Americana, but the root expression on III comes across as more personal and that feeling of intimacy suits well the mood of the songs.

Buffalo Tombs on Facebook

Buffalo Tombs on Bandcamp

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Premiered on New Year’s Day, the first video from Friends of Hell is, among other things, delightfully informative. Amid its shot-in-a-cave redness, we find former Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou (currently of Mirror) on drums — which, hey, good to know — and we find the band doomed as fuck. Quite, quite doomed. Doom. Fucking. Metal.

This is essentially what was promised by the new project, spearheaded by Danazoglou with Sami “Albert Witchfinder” Hynninen (Spiritus Mortis, Reverend Bizarre, Opium Warlords) on vocals, but it’s nice to hear it fulfilled from the chugging, downtrodden riffing and abiding sense of darkness that pervades. The Obsessed, Candlemass, maybe even some Saint Vitus in there — you may or may not know the drill, but I’m going to assume you do. It’s doom metal. A band doesn’t name itself after a Witchfinder General record if they’re coming along to screw around. And frankly, Rise Above Records doesn’t sign a doom band if they don’t have their shit in line.

“Shadow of the Impaler,” as noted, is the first glimpse at Friends of Hell‘s upcoming self-titled debut, which is out in March on Rise Above. I haven’t heard the full thing yet — I don’t even know who’s in the band besides Danazoglou and Hynninen — so I’m going in here as curious as anyone else and I won’t pretend otherwise, but I think you’ll get the feel for where they’re working from in terms of influence. They’re working from doom. Toward doom.

And if I can add to that: “doom.”

Fucking a.

Enjoy:

Friends of Hell, “Shadow of the Impaler” official video

Shadow Of The Impaler is the debut promo video from Friends Of Hell. Their self-titled debut album will be released worldwide on March 18th 2022. It’s a masterclass in classic Doom Metal. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Director / editor:
Pete Voutilainen

Camera:
Samu Hupli
Riku Hyötyläinen
Esa Valkeajärvi
Pete Voutilainen

Producer:
Esa Valkeajärvi

Production company:
One Eye Media

Friends of Hell on Instagram

Rise Above Records on Facebook

Rise Above Records website

Released in 2002 on Rise Above Records and The Music Cartel (which at the time brought Rise Above‘s releases to the US market), Coup de Grace is the fourth album from London’s Orange Goblin. In some ways it was a departure, and in some ways an affirmation of the band they were becoming and would continue to become. Transitional? Yeah, but a standout too. If you only know their first couple records, or you only know their latter-day output — their latest LP, The Wolf Bites Back (review here), came out in 2018 — it might take a minute or two to understand where they’re coming from.

But, until they actually go ahead and just release an album of Motörhead covers, Coup de Grace is probably the closest they’ve come yet to doing so. Where their 1997 debut, Frequencies From Planet Ten (discussed here), and its 1998 follow-up, Time Travelling Blues (discussed here), had been pretty well dug into the then-formative idea of what stoner rock was, grown out of the band’s origins as Our Haunted Kingdom and inflected with doom accordingly, and 2000’s The Big Black (discussed here) began to expand upon in sound, drawing back on the fuzz and filling that space with a harder-edged burl that, over time, has become a defining element of Orange Goblin‘s craft. Coup de Grace would continue that stylistic movement while at the same time stripping down the approach to as raw as it’s ever gotten in their career.

Aided in their cause by producer Scott Reeder (Kyuss, The Obsessed, etc.), Nebula‘s Tom Davies and twice-appearing guest vocalist John Garcia (Kyuss, Slo Burn, Unida, Hermano, etc.) — who shows up on the ultra-hooky “Made of Rats” and the late “Jesus Beater” — guitarists Pete O’Malley and Joe Hoare, then-bassist Martyn Millard, drummer Christopher Turner and vocalist Ben Ward brought a new echelon of themselves to the work they did across Coup de Grace‘s 12 tracks and 51 minutes, from the right-on-fuck-yes heavy chug of “Rage of Angels” and the boozy brawl of “Monkey Panic” to the out and out punk rock of opener “Your World Will Hate This” and the Misfits cover “We Bite,” the ’70s heavy blues of “Stinkin’ o’ Gin” and the careening biker vibe in “Whiskey Leech” and the quintessentially-their-own cuts like “Getting High on the Bad Times” and “Born With Big Hands,” Orange Goblin‘s we’re-down-but-at-least-we’re-drunk point of view taking shape amid the fuzz-overdose of “Red Web” or “Made of Rats,” the hook of which is so straight-ahead it feels like the song is punching you in the face with it, which, yeah, it kind of is.

The acoustic-led instrumental “Graviton” notwithstanding, one thing Coup de Grace doesn’t really try to do is hypnotize. “Stinkin’ o’ Gin” is the longest cut at 7:21 and has its jam as it pushes deeper into the second half of the song, but even there, you know in hearing it that Orange Goblin are going to bring it back around to finish out, and they do, letting the album cap with a sample: “What the hell was that shit?” Nearly 20 years later, it’s a record that’s only continued to hold up, and it does so while finding a blend of heavy rock, punk, and doom that feels as organic as anything Orange Goblin have ever done to-date. At no point during Coup de Grace does it sound like the band sat down and said, “Okay, now we need a song that does this” — maybe they actually did, but it doesn’t matter because the finished product of the album doesn’t sound that way. It sounds like they were in the rehearsal space following riffs and this is where they led to.

And at some point you have to give mention to the production specifically, because Coup de Grace doesn’t sound like anything other Orange Goblin release, before or since. Yes, they absolutely built on what they did here with 2004’s Thieving From the House of God, but the charged aggression that began to show its head with The Big Black and seemed to come into focus here would inevitably continue to become a feature for them, on Thieving as well as 2007’s recently-reissued Healing Through Fire, pairing with the penchant for memorable songcraft that’s been a part of their identity since the first record but that really came forward starting with Time Travelling Blues as well. But the sound of Coup de Grace is distinct, and the balance it strikes on its own is perfectly suited to the material, allowing “Rage of Angels” or “Red Web” to be thick enough to get their point across but still be consistent with barroom throwdowns like “Getting High on the Bad Times,” or twisting speeds of “We Bite” and “Your World Will Hate This.”

Maybe this is the true record that’s not overthought. Maybe this is the one. It doesn’t by any means sound thrown together haphazardly — the sounds are sharp and you certainly wouldn’t call anything missing from the end result of the mix — but Coup de Grace feels almost live-tracked for the energy Orange Goblin put behind their delivery, and Reeder‘s recording job captures that in undeniable form. Maybe it did just happen that way. Wouldn’t that be something? Imagine that for a minute.

Orange Goblin‘s progression would continue, has continued, to evolve over nearly two decades, and each of their albums is a landmark on their narrative path. Coup de Grace is no mere aside — it’s crucial for what it tells you about where they’re coming from as players and as a group collaborating together on songs — and as much as their output over the last 10 years on the aforementioned The Wolf Bites Back, 2014’s Back from the Abyss (review here) and/or 2012’s A Eulogy for the Damned (review here) has seen them push more toward hard-landing metal, the stylistic foundation on display throughout “Made of Rats,” “Getting High on the Bad Times,” “Born With Big Hands,” “Monkey Panic” and others from Coup de Grace can still be heard in their sound. They are, then, persistently themselves in what they do.

Unfuckwithable? Pretty much.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading.

—

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to having these songs stuck in my head for the next few days. I had wanted to close out last week with this record, even had the back end stuff on the post ready to roll out once I actually got the writing done, but there turned out to be too many announcements coming in last Friday to make it happen in the time I had available. And I can’t really fool myself into thinking anyone’s weekend beyond my own hinges on what I feel compelled to say about a 20-year-old Orange Goblin album. Truth is, I just like writing about them and was bummed to have to push it back. But we got there eventually.

Here’s how the rest of December looks:

— Next week is not the Quarterly Review.

— The week after is. I need to look over the next week, because I might have two full weeks’ worth of stuff and if I do, I’m going to do half in December and half in January, five days each with 50 records for a total of 100.

— The week after that is the Xmas holiday. My goal is to have my Best of 2021 stuff up by Xmas Eve.

— After the holiday I don’t really have a plan yet, but hopefully I can either wrap up some final 2021 reviews or start on stuff that’s coming out in January. We’ll see.

If past is prologue, I’ll be playing catchup forever with this stuff, but who knows. I’ve managed to successfully get through every year-end whatnot to this point, so I’m reasonably confident I can do so again, no matter how many rolled eyes I might garner from The Patient Mrs. in the meantime. Well earned, all of them. I am, in fact, ridiculous, and I do these things to myself.

I’ve got about an hour until The Pecan’s bus drops him off and I need to make Gimme Metal playlists — two of them, because of the holiday — and set up stuff for Monday so I can write probably over the weekend as much as possible, so I’m going to leave it there. Motivation to get up in the morning has been nil, so I’ve been doing my best to accommodate that. I’m very tired. It’s kind of my thing.

But again, the stuff that (I think) needs to get done does, and even if I end up having to move an Orange Goblin Friday Full-Length down a week, ain’t nobody crying but me. So there.

Please add your picks to the year-end poll.

Please buy Obelisk sweatpants.

Please be kind to each other. Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, celebrate love, be cool like you are, watch your head. I’ll be back on Monday and kicking around on the laptop as much as possible this weekend.

FRM.

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