The fucking intensity of this band. Following on from last year’s divine-comedic EP, Seconda Morte (review here), Alicante, Spain, heavy noise rock trio Rosy Finch offer further evidence of their general not-screwing-around nature with the 20-minute/three-song pro-captured live-in-studio clip ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions.’ Premiering below, the session features three tracks — “Oxblood,” “Gin Fizz” and “Ruby” — taken from the band’s 2020 sophomore full-length, Scarlet (review here), and makes no apologies either for the fullness of its tonal assault or the way in which, like the record itself, the songs are able to shift between melodic, atmospheric heavy and rawer punishment.
Founding guitarist/vocalist Mireia Porto and bassist Óscar Soler share vocals in a way they couldn’t on Scarlet since the latter hadn’t joined the band yet when the record came out, representing their live presence with Juanjo Ufarte holding the march steady on drums. On paper, their approach shouldn’t work at all, but like Seconda Morte, these new takes on Scarlet cuts harness noise vibes without losing their ambience, cacophony without sacrificing groove, and have enough space to account for melody as well as the caustic, “Gin Fizz” blending grunge, riot-grrrl screams and sludge metal with purpose and force alike after the outright nastiness that emerges in “Oxblood” and before “Ruby” digs even deeper, comprising most of the second half of the video by itself.
Worth noting that Marcos Baño, who directs here, also helmed the clip for “Purgatorio” from the EP last year, the indoor portion of which was filmed at the Creative Madness Lab, and the collaboration is successful again in conveying the righteous fury as well as the scope of these songs. It may be that some of the intent behind ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ — the last three words there indicative of a series — is to demonstrate the way Rosy Finch now handle the work of the band’s earlier incarnation, which they wield like a weapon, but to more generally showcase what they bring to the stage in a live setting; considerably more than simple aggression but plenty of that as well, deliberate in execution and the build and release of tension as it is.
That aggro sensibility has been a defining feature of their output to-date — though I’ll emphasize that it’s not all that’s happening in their songs and this video proves that again — and as such they’re somewhat subject to the perils of inhabiting a place between styles, crossing lines of heavy rock, punk, metal and noise while refusing to commit to just one approach. Or three. The tradeoff there is Rosy Finch are a more interesting band for the breadth, and if a given listener/viewer was undecided on whether or not to catch them performing, say, at Desertfest London 2023 where they’ll play next month, it’s hard to imagine taking in ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ and not coming down in their favor.
Please enjoy:
Rosy Finch, ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ premiere
Rosy Finch full performance at Creative Madness Lab
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Staring at the poster of the finished lineup, there’s nothing more to do than congratulate the Desertscene crew on Desertfest London 2023. You could spend an entire day at any single stage in any single venue and call it front-to-back a good time. I’ve been posting festival lineups for Desertfest since it started in 2012 and this is the biggest and best it’s ever been. If you’re going, I’ll tell you flat out I’m jealous. It looks like it will be an amazing experience, and right up to the last lineup announcement, it’s quality as much as quantity when it comes to who is playing, on what stage, and when. It is the heavy festival ideal; a lineup that crosses generations and geographies to give those fortunate enough to be there something they’ll never forget.
So that’s it. Go if you can. Here’s the reportedly final update:
Desertfest London announces final bands and day splits for 2023, including Nebula, Dozer, Fatso Jetson + more
Desertfest London have announced the final bands and day-splits for 2023’s line-up, which will be taking place across Camden from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th May and promises to be heavier than the King’s coronation crown.
The final few bands to join the already stellar line-up includes the heavy groove rocking trio Nebula, Sweden’s stalwarts of stoner Dozer and the godfathers of the Desert Fatso Jetson. French post-metallers Year Of No Light will also be playing their first London show since 2013.
Also joining the line-up is Antwerp’s Gnome who will bring their dirty riffs, anarcho-punks Bad Breeding to get everyone fired up and acclaimed virtuoso Cellist Jo Quail to bring another dynamic to proceedings.
Electric Funeral will also be keeping the party going with a Sabbath covers set at Friday night’s after party and the festival is completed with Elder Druid, Kurokuma, Firebreather, Earth Moves, Untitled With Drums, Graywave, Mountains, Rosy Finch, Lowen, Homecoming, Wall and Death Wvrm.
The final additions join festival headliners and cult heroes Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats who will be playing the Roundhouse for the very first time. As one of the most widely-requested bands in the Desertfest-sphere, Uncle Acid’s trippy and melodic riff-driven hard-rock is uniquely original, yet an utterly timeless beast and will close Desertfest 2023 in a mystical cloud of doom and awe.
Friday’s headliners are none other than Swedish heavy-blues maestros Graveyard who will draw out raw emotion with their lyrical prowess & introspective compositions whilst Saturday welcomes back Corrosion of Conformity who have not been on UK soil since 2018 so expect big, loud and memorable things from their appearance at the festival!
Full Line-Up for Desertfest London 2023:
FRIDAY 5TH MAY ELECTRIC BALLROOM GRAVEYARD KADAVAR CHURCH OF MISERY VALLEY OF THE SUN SPACESLUG ELECTRIC FUNERAL (AFTER PARTY)
UNDERWORLD DISCHARGE BAD BREEDING DAWN RAY’D KUROKUMA TERROR COSMICO
POWERHAUS YEAR OF NO LIGHT SUM OF R EARTH MOVES WYATT E IRON JINN
Spanish heavy alt and sludge rockers Rosy Finch will release Seconda Morte on Nov. 4 through Lay Bare Recordings, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones. The four-song offering runs 28 minutes long and follows the band’s 2020 sophomore album, Scarlet (review here), as a flowing conceptual piece drawing strongly from 1990s riot grrrl aesthetics while functioning in a range of sonic styles, from hard-hitting aggro fire to answer the intensity of Scarlet to more serene fare like that at the outset of nine-minute closer “Paradiso” or the strum of the later not-quite-hidden acoustic finish. In particular — and this is something you’ll see in the video premiering for the penultimate “Purgatorio” below as well — founding guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Mireia Porto seems to pay homage to Courtney Love and Hole‘s ’94 album, Live Through This, but immediately Rosy Finch are on their own wavelength musically, opening Seconda Morte as they do with the gradual beginning of the deeply ambient instrumental “Selva Oscura,” which prefaces many of the smoothly executed volume trades and style swaps to come.
Drummer and returning producer Jose F. Rojo recorded the EP — one more song and for sure it’d be a full-length, even with that long instrumental opener, and it’s on the line between EP and LP anyway, but they call it the former so I’m rolling with it — with Porto also credited as producer, and one can hear the depth of their approach in the layered growls and harsh vocals of “Inferno,” the wrenching lead guitar of that song’s guitar solo and the sudden drop to organ sounds and ethereal fare that precedes the next turn to the verse. Here Rosy Finch are part-Pantera, part-early-Tool, and unquestionably in command tonally as well as in the aggression level of their delivery. Longer than “Selva Oscura,” “Inferno” sets the shorter-song-into-longer-song A/B pattern that plays out across “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso” still to come, the two five-minute tracks each giving over to something that reaches broader, though one could hardly accuse “Purgatorio” of wanting for atmosphere with its post-rock wisps of floating guitar early and gradual coalescing in a pre-chorus that holds its threat in the drum crash before receding and telling you without telling you that the next time that part comes around, you’d best watch your ass.
The making-good on that promise is no doubt a big part of why “Purgatorio” was picked as the first single from Seconda Morte, and I find I’m even less able to argue listening to the driving nod and the band’s ability to keep it together even as the song pushes into an increasingly furious procession. At 5:06, “Purgatorio” is the shortest track — “Selva Oscura” is 5:18, but would be a less representative single — but it emphasizes the fluidity of the changes Rosy Finch are able to make throughout Seconda Morte, and all the more for arriving ahead of the from-the-ground-up beginning of “Paradiso.” In its just-under-10 minutes, the finale moves from heavy post-rock and psychedelic hypnotics into riffy triumphalism and storm-conjuring, maybe a bit of Viaje a 800 influence resonating subconsciously there, back to the float, back to the crunch, and as it crosses the midpoint threshold, into a more melodic but still weighted dreamscape, consuming and growing fuller in its wash as it moves through. You don’t know it at first, but that’s the trick the band are so able to pull off in introducing their shifts so smoothly that if you don’t follow closely, you can end up looking back after a minute and wondering how you got there. That’s a compliment to the band as well as a boon to repeat listens.
It’s also perhaps nowhere so prevalent as in the final turn undertaken by “Paradiso,” which is to leave that wash behind on a slow fade, patient noise setting a tide-going-out bed for the hard strum of acoustic that Porto‘s last vocals will soon follow, solo, voice-and-guitar style. One is reminded of Nirvana and the swath of acoustic pieces they inspired near the ends of records with “Something in the Way,” but the mood of “Paradiso” at the finish is Rosy Finch‘s own, and that the guitar sounds a little beat up is a reasoned choice to add to that mood. It’s not like there weren’t perfectly tuned instruments around, but sometimes that’s not what you want, and like so many of the moves Porto, Rojo and the band make here, it works in no small part because they are assured enough in their purposes to nail it. You can (and mostly should) do whatever you want — doom what thou wilt, if you want it another way — so long as nobody gets hurt who doesn’t want to and you’ve got creative intent backing you up. As they move closer toward a decade’s tenure, Rosy Finch have obviously learned that lesson well, and they have the presence of craft to bring their audience along for the ride.
“Purgatorio” doesn’t necessarily give the whole story of Seconda Morte in terms of sound, then, but it does showcase the atmosphere and general vibe of the EP. You’ll find the video below, followed immediately by more from the PR wire.
Enjoy:
Rosy Finch, “Purgatorio” video premiere
Today sees the release of Purgatorio, the first single and video taken from the bands highly anticipated EP Seconda Morte, a moody, thrilling journey based on the poem The Divine Comedy, which releases on the 4th November 2022 via Lay Bare Recordings, Discos Macarras, and LaRubia Producciones.
“Purgatorio is the second part of the Dante’s The Divine Comedy and the first track on side two of the new album.” Says vocalist and guitarist Mireia Porto. She delves a little deeper into the meaning behind the song, “It’s about Dante’s journey through Mount Purgatory, describing the climb to the seven terraces which all represent the seven deadly sins. The punished souls residing there are suffering and expecting to receive forgiveness and Dante believes their sins arise from love.”
The video was directed Mireia and shot by Marcos Bañó at Creative Madness Lab, as well in a mountainous red-sand desert, representing the Mount of Purgatory, where Dante is watching a sinner stuck on the terrace of the wrathful. “For me, this is the most common sin: harm of others for not facing your own demons.” Comments Mireia.
The trio burst onto the scene in 2013, founded by singer/guitarist Mireia Porto (who also later played with stoner doom phenoms, Hela). Having released two successful full-length albums and an EP, the line-up changed in 2019 during the recording of their barnstormer 2020 album, ‘Scarlet’. Óscar Soler (previously of space-rockers Pyramidal) and Juanjo Ufarte (from psychedelic doom merchants, Grajo) took over on bass and drums respectively, and a new day dawned in the Rosy Finch camp, one filled with heightened aggression and intent.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Yo, not for nothing, but you could go see Incantation and Bongripper and Naxatras on the same lineup if you go to Antwerp. Or how about Alunah, Gozu and Suma? Cities of Mars and Stygian Bough? Slomatics and Somali Yacht Club and Polymoon? Sasquatch and Weedpecker? God damn.
If I had cash and time, I — well, I’d do a lot of things — but I’d be at this one. I know sometimes in the grand scheme of things looking at a bunch of names on a poster your eyes can glaze over, but if you can stop that from happening here, it’s worth looking at the stylistic sprawl that’ll take place over the course of the weekend. It is far more in terms of aural landscaping than simply desert, which has been true of the various Desertfest-branded events over the last, I don’t know, six years-plus, but is only emphasized here.
Plus, just about anytime Slomatics do anything it makes me happy. Those guys are great.
From the PR wire:
DF 2022 ANTWERP: WEEDPECKER, WUCAN, SLOMATICS, AND MORE!
This is the final batch of names that completes the DF Antwerp line-up, and we’ve definitely saved up some fine morsels for last. All sizes and shapes is the name of the game, so get hyped and dig in.
For those of you who like their stoner music to truly widen the senses, WEEDPECKER and SOMALI YACHT CLUB definitely fit the bill. Both incorporate many psychedelic influences in their jams, taking you on a killer trip.
On the more brutal side of things, we welcome New York’s death metal pioneers INCANTATION who come to celebrate their ‘Tricennial of Blasphemy’. With SLOMATICS, we present you with the heaviest of heavy in sludge doom. No messing about – just pummelling wall-to-wall riffage.
WUCAN and ROSY FINCH enrich our line-up with two kick-ass women that deal in idiosyncratic and highly original rock. Wucan’s Francis Tobolsky still rocks a flute like nobody’s business, and speaking of unconventional instruments in stoner bands: meet MY DILIGENCE who traded their bass player for a Moog keyboard!
As an unfortunate side-note: we have been mercifully spared of cancellations this year.. until now. We are sad to let you know that MOTHERSHIP will not be appearing at this year’s Desertfest Belgium. Their slot has already been filled in above, but still… it’s a bummer.
But hey! We’re still looking at one seriously sumofagun line-up for three days of delicious fuzztastic wreckage… So if it wasn’t before NOW is the time to secure your tickets. Especially because those Reduced Price Combi Tickets are going fast and be gone before you know it.. Don’t let it happen! Don’t do it! By which we mean: do it!
Posted in Features on June 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Grados. Minutos. Segundos. is a multi-volume compilation assembled at the behest of Spinda Records, highlighting the label’s native Spanish underground scene across a series of 12 split seven-inch vinyls. Set for release between last Friday and next Spring, the pressing is one-time-only, limited to 240, hand-numbered and though I generally don’t post sale links like, available right here: http://spindarecords.com/grados-minutos-segundos/
I’m not the type to tell you outright to spend your money. I know everyone works hard and cash is hard to come by and capitalism is terrible, etc., but the reason that link is there is because I respect the living shit out of this project and the obvious love that birthed it. Spinda Records is no slouch when it comes to promoting Spanish heavy anyhow, but Grados. Minutos. Segundos. brings that to a different level entirely. Consider — it could’ve probably just been a 3LP box. Or a double-CD or something like that. But the focus here is so much on the lushness of presentation, and on highlighting the work of the bands. Every act is given their own space. It’s a beautiful concept, and if you snag one of these, consider yourself lucky.
My hope is that as each installment of Grados. Minutos. Segundos. comes out, I’ll have a corresponding track-by-track from the bands. You’ll find the first one below. My sincere thanks to Berto Cáceres from the label for putting it — and the compilation — together.
Enjoy:
Grados. Minutos. Segundos. Track-by-Track Pt. 1
MOURA – “Muiñeira da Maruxaina”
“[…] The “muiñeira” is one of the most popular Galician traditional music genres and we wanted to make an approach to it from “krautrock” and psychedelic perspective, respecting some of its characteristics. Lyrically, the song is about the folktale of the Maruxaina, a mermaid who lives in a cave in an island in San Cibrao (north coast of Galicia) and helps or confuse sailors by playing a horn or with her singing, depending on different versions of the tale. Galician traditional percussions were heavily used in the song and an arpeggiator to keep the pulse of the trance along with the guitar riff […]”
ROSY FINCH – “Black Lodge”
“[…] As a big fan of ‘Twin Peaks’, I always had the idea of turning into Laura Palmer and living inside a dark song. In “Black Lodge” you can see many references and symbology of Lynch’s universe. We tried to reflect the anguish but also the seduction undertaken by the characters. But not only the video has been inspired by the TV series; lyrics describe some moments and iconic quotes of the show but always through Laura Palmer’s voice […]”
ADRIFT – “Abracadabra”
“[…] On this track we don’t play around with long progressions as we are used to. Instead we play heavily from the very first second and there’s no time to relax at all. Going against our usual way of writing songs, we chose a couple of riffs and wrote the whole song around them without thinking too much and having fun trying not to get complicated. The lyrics talk about the current situation and how some media and “important” people manipulate the reality in order to control the people and do what they want with them. They’re kind of magicians doing tricks to make you think as they want you to think […]”
ADRIFT – “Lush Lands”
“[…] Inspired by the book ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad, this tracks talks about a situation in which you decide to go to the deepest darkness looking for somebody and how you can finish feeling attracted by the horror you see on your way to that person. This track stars as a good exercise of space rock, full of delays and reverb, to finish as a huge and repetitive wall of noise. It’s like a mantra to get into trance […]”
MONDO INFIEL – “Estigmas”
This track talks about those close-minded-people who are not able to see further than their own shoes, not being even able to question their way of thinking or understanding that not everyone else will think the same way. This can continue for years and makes them feeling attacked by others just for the fact of them having a different point of view about religion, politics or culture. Type O Negative and Killing Joke inspired the song a lot, although it doesn’t sound to those bands at all – I wish Pete Steele or Jaz Coleman took care of the vocals in the song.
PARTÍCULA – “La Fosa”
From the deepest and darkness roots of heavy psych and the most powerful ’70s hard rock, this track emerges like a cathartic experience, where frustration and hope return to our reality transformed into an authentic iron fist, ready to take you to another dimension.
MEDICINA – “Vilo”
This songs talks about the uncertainty and anxiety caused when things are out of your hands. This can happen on any aspect of your life. We do not attach to any sound in particular when writing but this reminds me to Steve Albini and Big Black.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 10th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
SonicBlast Fest announced its 2021 edition was being postponed at the end of the month, and already they’re turning around and making a first announcement for 2022. That’s kind of comforting. Some of these acts — looking at you, Psychlona — have been waiting to play the Portugal-based festival since being announced for 2020 — but barring disaster, there’s a reasonable expectation that 2022 might be a return year, so in addition to them, SonicBlast Fest 2022 is rolling out the formidable likes of Green Lung, Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Weedeater, 1000mods, The Machine, Samavayo, The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Tia Carrera, Slift, and a ton of others with more to come. If you’re going to do a thing, get in there and do it.
Tickets are on sale now, or if you’ve already got them either for 2020 or 2021, they’ll carry over. 2020 was supposed to be my year to hit this fest, as well as a whole bunch of others. So it goes. If you make it to Âncora for the three-dayer next August, you go with my respect and admiration, and no shortage of jealousy.
Lineup info follows here, as per socials:
Come fanatics, come to the sabbath
We’re totally psyched to announce Electric Wizard, Weedeater, Pentagram (official), 1000mods, W.I.T.C.H We Intend To Cause Havoc, Night Beats, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Meatbodies, SLIFT, The Devil And The Almighty Blues, BALA, Mythic Sunship, GREEN LUNG, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Psychlona, Toxic Shock, The Machine, Tia Carrera, The Goners, Samavayo, Rosy Finch, We Hunt Buffalo and 24/7 DIVA HEAVEN to SonicBlast Fest 2022.
*** more to be announced soon***
SonicBlast Fest 2022 11, 12 and 13th August Praia da Duna dos Caldeirões Âncora, Portugal
Tickets bought for the 2021 edition are automatically valid for 2022.
Tomorrow, June 10, marks the release of the first installment of Grados. Minutos. Segundos., a massive undertaking done at the apparently masochistic behest of Spinda Records. Four installments are being made, each comprising three split seven-inch records, two bands on each, and the releases happen between now and next March. Spinda is only making 240 of them, and they’re bringing in 24 of the best acts from the Spanish underground, including newcomers like Moura and the megagroup Mondo Infiel, as well as more established acts like Rosy Finch, Arenna and Atavismo.
Take a second and imagine the passion inevitably driving such an endeavor. It has e’er been Spinda Records‘ project to capture the Iberian psych, prog, heavy scene in a bottle, but never all at once like this. Grados. Minutos. Segundos., a one-time-pressing box set being released over the course of nine months, is the very essence of a labor of love.
And the bands involved have been doing it up accordingly. To wit, Rosy Finch today premiere their video for “Black Lodge,” which takes its visual and sonic theme from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks with frontwoman Mireia Porto in the role of Laura Palmer. Porto here handles bass, guitar and vocals, while Lluís Mas drums — this is contrary to the single they released in Feb., on which Óscar Soler plays bass and J.F. Rojo drums; both were involved with the production here on one level or another — and the recording took place between 2018 and last year across three different cities, finally mixed together by J.F. Rojo in 2020.
True to Rosy Finch‘s aesthetic, “Black Lodge” brings together ’90s riot grrrl influences with modern atmospheric sludge. Some of the visuals and brooding-into-screams here remind distinctly of Hole, but that’s more a credit to the team behind the video for capturing the post-Lynch visual landscape that was rock on MTV in the 1990s. Porto warns at the outset that she’ll see us in 25 years. As the chugging, gleefully repetitive central riff meets with the foreboding melody and delivery of the lyrics, creating a world that song, video and idea all inhabit together cohesively, one can only hope it’s not actually that long.
More info on the clip and on Grados. Minutos. Segundos. follows here, courtesy of Spinda Records.
Enjoy:
Rosy Finch, “Black Lodge” official video premiere
Rosy Finch on “Black Lodge”:
As a big fan of ‘Twin Peaks’ I’ve always had the idea of turning into Laura Palmer and living inside a dark song. In “Black Lodge” you can see many references and symbology of the Lynch’s universe. We try to reflect the anguish but also the seduction undertaken by the characters. Not only the video has been inspired in the TV Series, the lyrics describe some moments and iconic quotes but always through the Laura Palmer’s voice.”
Baja Fidelidad Producciones Directed by Marcos Bañó & Mireia Porto. Filmed by Marcos Bañó & Mireia Porto. Edited by Marcos Bañó. Produced by Monty Peiró & Mireia Porto. Assistants: Rafa Fernández & Óscar Soler. Stylism & Makeup: Monty Peiró & Mireia Porto. Starring: Sofía Martínez as “Kitty Grrrl”, Clio Candela as “Bunny Grrrl” and Mireia Porto as “Laura Finch”.
Song performed by Rosy Finch, 2020 Recorded and mixed by J.F. Rojo at Red Records, San Isidro, Spain. Mastered by Furinyaki Records Studio, Barcelona, Spain.
‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’ is a no-return trip around the four cardinal points of the deepest underground music scenes in Spain. Thanks to a boxset full of previously unreleased tracks of 24 indie Spanish bands you’ll have the chance to understand how’s the sound of this new generation of independent musicians. You don’t want to be told about it, you want to be part of it.
‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’ will be made of 12x 7″ vinyl records (to be released in 4 batches from June 2021 to March 2022), being each of them shared by 2 bands with apparently no connection at all.
‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’ works as a subscription, which means that music fans will get both digital and physical releases in 4 batches: June, September and December 2021; and March 2022. With the pre-order kicking-off on 5th May 2021, the boxset will be for sale as from 10th June 2021 exclusively atspindarecords.comand spindarecords.bandcamp.com.
The project is limited to 240 hand-numbered boxsets, designed by The Braves Church and including 12x 7″ vinyl records, booklet, download code and stickers, as well as a tee-shirt and tote bag on its deluxe and freak editions. There won’t be reissues, so when they’re gone, they’re gone!
But in this limited-edition boxset you won’t only find bands coming from Spinda Records roster as it is also open to others in order to get a solid project for the fans to enjoy. From the psychedelia of Acid Mess, Atavismo, Arenna or The Soulbreaker Company to the heavier sounds of Rosy Finch, Adrift, Domo or Santo Rostro; without forgetting the alternative rock of Medicina, Habitar La Mar, The Dry Mouths and Laverge; the hard rock of Partícula, Saturna or Kabbalah; the progressive rock of Moura, Pyramidal, Híbrido or Cró!; as well as new bands such us Cemënteri, Here The Captain Speaking The Captain Band, Battosai, Mía Turbia or Mondo Infiel. Fitting 24 bands in the same project can be tricky, and it is; but Spinda Records are here to have fun… Spinda Records is here for “fiesta”.
Rosy Finch on “Black Lodge” are: Mireia Porto: voces, guitarras, bajo Lluís Mas: batería
Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Alarm went off this morning at 3:45. Got up, flicked on the coffee pot, turned the heat on in the house, hit the bathroom and was back in bed in four minutes with an alarm set for 4:15. Didn’t really get back to sleep, but the half-hour of being still was a kind of pre-waking meditation that I appreciated just the same. Was dozing when the alarm went off the second time, but it’s day two of the Quarterly Review, so no time to doze. No time for anything, as is the nature of these blocks of writeups. They tend to be all-consuming while they’re going on. Could be worse. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Khemmis, Doomed Heavy Metal
Denver four-piece Khemmis have made themselves one of the most distinctive acts in metal, to say nothing of doom. With strong vocal harmonies out front backed by similarly-minded guitars, the band bring a sense of poise to doom that’s rare in the modern sphere, somewhat European in influence, but less outwardly adherent to the genre tenets of melancholy. They refuse to be Paradise Lost, in other words, and are all the more themselves for that. Their Doomed Heavy Metal EP (on 20 Buck Spin and Nuclear Blast) is a stopgap after 2018’s Desolation (review here) full-length, but at 38 minutes and six songs, it’s substantial nonetheless, headlined by the Dio cover “Rainbow in the Dark” — capably done with just a flair of Slough Feg — with a take on Lloyd Chandler‘s “A Conversation with Death” and “Empty Throne,” both rare-enough studio cuts, for backing, as well as three live cuts that cover their three-to-date albums. The growls on “Three Gates” are fun, but I’ll still take the Dio cover as the highlight. For a cobbled-together release, it feels at least like a bit of thoughtful fan-service, and really, a band could do worse than to serve their fans thoughtfully.
There are shades of doom metal’s origins underlying Mutant Flesh‘s first release, the eight-song/33-minute Evil Eye, but the Philly troupe are too gleeful in their weirdness ultimately to be paying full homage to the likes of Witchfinder General, and especially in a faster song like second cut “Meteoric” and the subsequent lead-guitar-flipout-and-vocal-soar title-track, they tap into the defiantly doomed vibe of earliest Saint Vitus. That’s true of the crawling “Euthanasia” as well, which crashes and nods as it approaches the six-minute mark as the longest inclusion here, but even the penultimate “Blight” brings that twisted-Black–Flag-noise-slowed-down spirit that lets you know there’s consciousness behind the chaos, and that while Mutant Flesh might seem to be all-the-way-gone, they’re really just getting started. Maybe their sound will even out over time, maybe it won’t, but for what it’s worth, they do ragged doom well from the opening “Leviathan (Lord of the Labyrinth)” onward, and feel right at home in the unhinged.
Having just shredded their way across Europe, War Cloud took their set into the Earhammer Studio with Greg Wilkinson at the helm in an attempt to capture the band in top form on their home turf. Did it work? The results on Earhammer Sessions (Ripple Music) don’t wait around for you to decide. They’re too busy kicking ass to take names, and if the resulting 29-minute burst is even half of what they brought to the stage on that tour, those must’ve been some goddamn shows. Songs like “White Lightning” and the snare-counted-in “Speed Demon” and “Striker” feel like they’re being given their due in the max-speed-NWOBHM-but-still-too-classy-to-be-thrash presentation, and honestly, this feels like War Cloud have found their method. If they don’t tour their next album and then hit the studio after and lay it down live, or at least as live as Earhammer Sessions is — one never knows as regards overdubs and isolation booths and all that — they’re doing themselves a disservice. War Cloud play metal. So what? So this.
Void of Sleep return after half a decade with the prog-doom stylings of their third album, Metaphora (Aural Music), which stretches dramatically through songs like “Iron Mouth” (11:00), preceded by the intro “The Famine Years” and the shorter “Unfair Judgements,” preceded by the intro “Waves of Discomfort,” and still somehow manage not to sound out of place tapping into their inner Soilwork in the growled verses/clean choruses of “Master Abuser.” They get harsh a bit as well on “Tides of the Mourning,” which uses its 10:30 to summarize the bulk of the proceedings and close out the record after “Modern Man,” but that song has more of a scope and feels looser structurally for that. Still, that shift is only one of several throughout Metaphora, which follows the Italian five-piece’s 2015 LP, New World Order (discussed here), and wherever Void of Sleep are headed at any given moment, they head there with a duly controlled presence. Clearly their last five years have not been wasted.
As yet, Germany’s Pretty Lightning remain a well kept secret of fuzz-psych-blues nuance, digging out their own niche-in-a-niche-in-a-niche microgenre with a natural and inadvertent-feeling sense of just writing the songs they want to write. Jangle Bowls, which puts its catchy, semi-garage title-track early in the proceedings, is the duo’s second offering through Fuzz Club Records behind 2017’s The Rhythm of Ooze (review here), and seem to present a mission statement in opener “Swamp Ritual” before bringing a due sense of excursion to “Boogie at the Shrine” — damn that’s a smooth groove — and reviving the movement in “RaRaRa,” which follows. Closer “Shovel Blues” is a highlight for how it drifts into oblivion, but the underlying tightness of craft in “123 Eternity” and “Hum” is an appeal as well, so it’s a tradeoff. But it’s one I’ll be glad to make across multiple repeat visits to Jangle Bowls while wondering how long this particular secret can actually be kept.
The painted-blood-red cover of Rosy Finch‘s second album, Scarlet (on Lay Bare Recordings), and horror-cinema-esque design isn’t a coincidence in terms of atmosphere, but the Spanish trio bring a more aggressive feel to the nine-track outing overall than they did to their 2016 debut, Witchboro (review here), with additional crunch in the guitar of Mireia Porto (also vocals and bass) and bassist Elena Garcia, and a forward kick drum from Lluís Mas that hammers home the impact of a pressure-on-head squeezer like “Ruby” and even seems to ground the more melodic “Alizarina,” which follows, let alone the crushing opener/longest track (immediate points) “Oxblood” or its headspinning closing companion “Dark Cherry,” after which follows the particularly intense hidden cut “Lady Bug,” also not to be missed. Anger suits Rosy Finch, it seems, and the band bring a physicality to the songs on Scarlet that only reinforces the sonic push.
Brutal, gurgling doom-of-death pervades The Haunting Continuum from Denver one-man-unit Ghost Spawn, and while the guitar late in “Escaping the Mortal Flesh” seems momentarily to offer some hope of salvation, rest assured, it doesn’t last, and the squibbly central riff returns with its extremity to prove once more that only death is real. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kevin Berstler is the lone culprit behind the project’s first full-length and second release overall (also second this year, so he would seem to work quickly), and across 43 minutes that only grow more grueling as they proceed through the centerpiece title-track and into “The Terrors that Plague Nightly” and the desolate incantations of “Exiled to the Realm of Eternal Rot,” there are some hints of cleaner grunts that have made their way through — a kind of repeated “hup” vocalization — but this too is swallowed in the miasma of cave-echo guitar, drums-from-out-of-the-abyss, and raw-as-peeled-flesh production. Can’t get behind that? Probably you and 99.9 percent of the rest of humanity. For us slugs, though, it’s just about right.
It’s kosmiche thrust and watery vibes when Agrabatti go Beyond the Sun. What’s there upon arrival? Nothing less than a boogie down with Hawkwind at the helm of a spacey spaced-out space rocking chopper that you shouldn’t even be able to hear the revving engine of in space and yet somehow you can. Also synth, pulsating riffs and psych-as-all-golly-gosh awakenings. Formed in 2009 by Chad Davis — then just out of U.S. Christmas, already at that point known for his work in Hour of 13 and a swath of other projects across multiple genres — and with songs begun to come together at that time only to be shelved ahead of recording this year, Beyond the Sun sat seemingly in some unreachable strata of anomalous subspace, for 11 years before being rediscovered from its time-loop like Kelsey Grammer in that one episode of TNG, and gorgeously spread across the quadrant in its five-cut run, with its cover of the aforementioned Hawkwind‘s “Born to Go” so much at home among its companions it feels like, baby, it’s already gone. Do you need sunglasses in the void? Shit yeah you do.
Four sprawling doom epics comprise the 2019 debut album — and apparently debut release — from Illinois four-piece Dead Sacraments, who themselves are comprised from three former members of atmospheric sludgers Angel Eyes, who finished their run in 2011 but released the posthumous Things Have Learnt to Walk That Ought to Crawl (review here). Those are guitarist Brendan Burchell, bassist Nader Cheboub and drummer Ryan Croson, and together with apparently-self-harmonizing vocalist/guitarist Mark Mazurek, they cast a doom built on largesse in tone and scope alike, given an air of classic-metal grandiosity but filtered through a psych-doom modernity that feels aware of what the likes of Pallbearer and Khemmis have done for the genre. Nonetheless, as a first record, Celestial Throne shines its darkness brightly across its no-song-under-nine-minutes-long lumber, and affirms the righteousness of doom with a genuine sense of reach at its disposal.
The languid and trippy spirit in opener “Solar Flares” is something of a misdirect on the part of organ-laced, Cologne-based heavy rockers Smokemaster, who go on to boogie down through songs like “Trippin’ Blues” before jamming out classic heavy blues-style on “Ear of the Universe.” I’m not saying they don’t have their psychedelic aspects, but there’s plenty of movement behind what they do as well, and the setup they give with the first two cuts is effective in throwing off the first-time listener’s expectation. A pastoral instrumental “Sunrise in the Canyon” leads off side B after, and comes backed by “Astronaut of Love” (yup, a lovestronaut) and “Astral Traveller,” which find an engaging midpoint between the ground and the great beyond, synth and keys pushing outward in the finale even as the bass and drums keep it tethered to a central groove. It’s a formula that’s worked many times over the last half-century, but it works here too, and Smokemaster‘s Smokemaster makes a right-on introduction to the German newcomers.
