This will be a two-week Quarterly Review. That means this Monday to Friday and next Monday to Friday, 10 releases per day, totaling 100 by the time it’s done.

Me? I’m taking it one week, one day, one album at a time. It’s the only way to go and not have it seem completely insurmountable. But we’ll get through it all. I started out with the usual five days, and then I went to seven, then eight, and at that point I felt like I had a pretty good idea where things were headed. The last two days I filled up just at the end of last week. Some of it is I think a result of quarantine productivity, but there’s a glut of relevant stuff out now and some of it I’m catching up on, true, but some of it isn’t out yet either, so it’s a balance as ever. I keep telling myself I’m done with 2020 releases, but there’s one in here today. You know how it goes.

And since you do, I won’t delay further. Thanks in advance for reading if you do.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Carlton Melton, Night Pillers

Rangey mellow psych collected together with the natural shimmer of a Phil Manley (Trans Am) recording and a John McBain master, the new mini-LP from Mendocino medicine makers Carlton Melton is a 31-minute, five-song meditative joy. To wit, “Safe Place?” Is. “Morning Warmth?” Is, even with the foreboding march of drums behind it. And “Striatum,” which closes with interplay of keys and fuzzy leads and effects, giving a culminating seven-minute wash that doesn’t feel like it’s pushing far out so much as already gone upon arrival, indeed seems like a reward for any head or brain that’s managed to make it so far. Opener “Resemblance” brings four minutes of gentle drone to set the mood ahead of “Morning Warmth” — it might be sunrise, if we’re thinking of it that way — and centerpiece “High Noon Thirty” bridges krauty electronic beats and organic ceremony that feels both familiar and like the band’s own. They may pill at night, but Carlton Melton have a hell of a day here.

Carlton Melton on Facebook

Agitated Records website

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Crown, The End of All Things

Weaving in and around genres with fluidity that’s tied together through dark industrial foundations, Crown are as much black metal as they are post-heavy, cinematic or danceable. “Gallow” or the earlier “Neverland” call to mind mid-period, electronica-fascinated Katatonia, but “Extinction” pairs this with a more experimental feel, opening in its midsection to more unsettling spaces ahead of the dance-ready finish. There’s nothing cartoonish or vamp about The End of All Things, which is the French outfit’s fourth album in 10 years, and it’s as likely to embrace pop (closer “Utopia”) as extremity (“Firebearer” just before), grim atmospherics (“Nails”) or textured acoustics (“Fleuve”), feeling remarkably unconcerned with genre across its 45 entrancing minutes, and remarkably even in its approach for a sound that’s still so varied. It’s not an easy listen front to back, but the challenge feels intentional and is emotional as much as cerebral in the craft and performance.

Crown on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Noêta, Elm

Swedish duo Noêta offer their second record for Prophecy Productions in Elm, comprising a deceptively efficient eight songs and 38 minutes that work in atmospheres of darker but not grim or cultish folk. Vocalist Êlea is very much a focal point in terms of performance, with Andris‘ instrumentals forming a backdrop that’s mournful on “Above and Below” while shimmering enough to bring affirmation to “As We Are Gone” a short while later ahead of the electrified layering in “Elm” and the particularly haunted-feeling closer “Elm II.” “As I Fall Silent” is a singularly spacious moment, but not the only one, as “Fade” complements with strings and outward-sounding guitar, and some of Elm‘s most affecting moments are its quietest stretches, as “Dawn Falls” proves at the outset and the whispers of “Elm” reaffirm on side B. Subdued but not lacking complexity, Noêta‘s songs make an instrument of mood itself and are pointedly graceful in doing so.

Noêta on Facebook

Prophecy Productions website

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Polymerase, Unostentatious

Unostentatious, which is presumably not to say “humble,” may or may not be Polymerase‘s debut release, but it follows on from several years of inactivity on the part of the Philippines-based mostly-instrumentalist heavy psych trio. The band present four duly engaging and somewhat raw feeling jams, with a jump in volume as “Lightbringer//Lightgiver” picks up from “A Night with a Succubus” and opener “The Traveler” and a final touch of thickened, fuzzy sludge in the rolling “Green is the Color of Evil,” which closes at a lurch that comes across at significant remove from the title-hinted brightness of the song just before it. Uneven? Maybe, but not egregiously so, and if Polymerase are looking to give listeners an impression of their having a multifaceted sound, they most assuredly do. My question is over what span of time these tracks were recorded and what the group will do in moving forward from them, but I take the fact that I’m curious to find out at all as a positive sign of having interest piqued. Will hope for more.

Polymerase on Facebook

Polymerase on Bandcamp

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Lucid Sins, Cursed!

Lucid indeed. The band’s self-applied genre tag of “adult AOR” is more efficient a descriptor of their sound than anything I might come up with. Glasgow’s Lucid Sins released their acclaimed debut, Occultation, in 2014, and Cursed! is the exclamatory seven-years-later follow-up, bringing together classic progressive rock and modern cult heavy sensibilities with a focus on songwriting that’s the undercurrent from “Joker’s Dance” onward and which, as deep as “The Serpentine Path” or the title-track or “The Forest” might go, is never forgotten. To wit, the penultimate “By Your Hand” is a proto-everything highlight, stomping compared to the organ-prog “Sun and the Moon” earlier, but ultimately just as melodic and of enviable tonal warmth. Seven years is a long time between records, and maybe this material just took that long to put together, I don’t know, but I had no idea “cult xylophone” was a possibility until “The Devil’s Sign” came along, and now I’m not sure how I ever lived without it.

Lucid Sins on Facebook

Totem Cat Records store

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Hekate, Sermons to the Black Owl

Australia’s history in heavy rock and roll is as long as that of heavy rock and roll itself and need not be recounted here, except to say that Hekate, from Canberra and Sydney, draw from multiple eras of it with their debut long-player, Sermons to the Black Owl, pushing ’70s boogie over the top with solos on “Carpathian Eagle” only after “Winter Void” and “Child of Black Magick” have seen the double-guitar-and-let’s-use-both four-piece update nascent doom vibes and “Burning Mask” has brought a more severe chug to the increasingly intense procession. A full production sound refuses to let the quick eight-tracker be anything other than modern, and though it’s only 28 minutes long, the aptly-titled “Acoustic Outro” feels earned atmospherically, even down to the early-feeling cold finish of “Cassowary Dreaming.” The balance may be then, then, then, and now, but the sense of shove that Hekate foster in their songs gives fresh urgency to the tenets of genre they seem to have adopted at will.

Hekate on Facebook

Black Farm Records store

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Abel Blood, Keeping Pace with the Elephants

One does not evoke elephantine images on a heavy record, even on a debut release, if aural largesse isn’t a factor. New Hampshire trio Abel Blood — guitarist/vocalist Adam Joslyn, bassist Ben Cook, drummer Jim DeLuca — are raw in sound on their first EP, Keeping Pace with the Elephants, but the impact with which they land “The Day that Moby Died” at the outset is only encouraging, and to be sure, it’s not the thickest of their wares either. “Enemies” already pushes further, and as centerpiece “UnKnown Variant” would seem to date the effort in advance, it also serves the vital function of moving the EP in a different, more jangly, grungier direction, which is a valuable move with the title cut following behind, its massive cymbals and distorted wash building to a head in time for the nine-minute finale “Fire on the Hillside” to draw together both sides of the approach shown throughout into a parabolically structured jam the middle-placed surge of which passes quickly enough to leave the listener unsure whether it ever happened. They’re messing with you. Dig that.

Abel Blood on Facebook

Abel Blood on Bandcamp

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Suffer Yourself, Rip Tide

Begun in 2011 by guitarist/vocalist Stanislav Govorukha and based in Sweden by way of Poland and the Ukraine, death-doom lurchbringers Suffer Yourself are not strangers to longer-form material, but to my knowledge, “Spit in the Chasm” — the opening and longest track (immediate points) on their third record, Rip Tide — is the first time they’ve crossed the 20-minute mark. Time well spent, and by that I mean “brutally spent,” whether its the speedier chug that emerges from the willful slog of the extended piece’s first half or the viciously progressive lead work that tops the precise, cold end of the song that brings final ambience. Side B offers two shorter pieces in “Désir de Trépas Maritime (Au Bord de la Mer Je Veux Mourir),” laced with suitably mournful strings and a fair enough maritime sense of gothic drama emphasized by later spoken word and piano, and the brief, mostly-drone “Submerging,” which one assumes is the end of that plotline playing out. The main consumption though is in “Spit in the Chasm,” and the dimensions of that fissure are significant, figuratively and literally.

Suffer Yourself on Facebook

Aesthetic Death website

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Green Dragon, Dead of the Night

High order Sabbathian doom rock from my own beloved Garden State, there’s very little chance I’m not going to dig Green Dragon‘s Dead of the Night, and true to type, I do. Presented by the band on limited vinyl after digital release late in 2020, the four-song, 24-minute outing brings guitarist/vocalists Zach Kurland and Ryan Lipynsky (the latter also adding keys and known for his work in Unearthly Trance, etc.), bassist Jennifer Klein and drummer Herbert Wiley to a place so dug into its groove it almost feels inappropriate to think of it as a peak in terms of their work to-date. They go high by going low, then. Fair enough. “Altered States” opens with a rollout of fuzz that miraculously avoids the trap sounding like Electric Wizard, while “Burning Bridges” murks out, “The Sad King” pushes speed a bit will still holding firm to nod and echo alike, and “Book of Shadows” plunges into effects-drenched noise like it was one of the two waterslides at the Maplewood community pool in summertime.

Green Dragon on Facebook

Green Dragon on Bandcamp

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ÂGE TOTAL, ÂGE TOTAL

The kind of record that probably won’t be heard by enough people but will inspire visceral loyalty in many of those who encounter it, the self-titled debut from French collaborative outfit Age Total — bringing together members from Endless Floods out of Bordeaux and Rouen’s Greyfell — is a grand and engrossing work that pushes the outer limits of doom and post-metal. Bookending opener “Amure” (14:28) and closer “The Songbird” (16:45) around the experimentalist “Carré” (4:06) and rumbling melodic death-doom of “Metal,” the album harnesses grandiosity and nuance to spare, with each piece feeling independently conceived and enlightening to musician and audience alike. It sounds like the kind of material they didn’t know they were going to come up with until they actually got together — whatever the circumstances of “together” might’ve looked like at the time — and the bridges they build between progressive metal and sheer weight of intention are staggering. However much hype it does or doesn’t have behind it, Age Total‘s Age Total is one of 2021’s best debut albums.

Endless Floods on Facebook

Greyfell on Facebook

Soza Label on Bandcamp

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[Click play above to stream the premiere of ‘King of Xenphobia’ by Greyfell. Their Horsepower album is out Jan. 12 via Argonauta Records, Soza and Atypeek Music.]

It wasn’t really until the rolling noisefest that closing track “Hervé” became that Greyfell‘s 2015 debut, I Got the Silver Vol. 1 really did anything to portend the band they would be just a few years later. The bulk of that album used more straightforward heavy rock as a foundation for weaving through a couple different styles, from alternative heavy to meaner, more punk-ish fare. Now, the Rouen, France-based outfit make a significant turn of sound with their second full-length, Horsepower, and find themselves aligned to Atypeek Music, Argonauta Records and Soza for the cause, trimming four minutes off the first record’s already manageable 38, and more importantly, delving into rich, headphone-ready progressions of densely-packed, organ-laced heavy post-rock tonal wash, seeming to roll out patiently even when uptempo across five tracks that reach across styles even as they find such solid footing in a molten rhythmic foundation.

Now comprised of the first-name-only lineup of vocalist Hugo, guitarist Clément, bassist Boubakar and drummer Thierry, it’s reportedly the addition of keyboards that allowed this shift to take place, but it’s such a drastic turn of style that one can’t help but read purpose into it. That is, it didn’t just happen one day that somebody showed up to practice with a Korg and made the resonant tones of “Spirit of the Bear” happen. Or if they did, there was definitely some discussion afterward about the direction in which Greyfell were headed as a result. Even with the record preceding, Horsepower carries the feel of a second debut for the freshness of approach it brings from Greyfell, and if, like me, you didn’t hear I Got the Silver Vol. 1 when it came out, Horsepower sets so much of its own context that one wonders if the underlying message isn’t the band casting its songs forward as a true sonic identity for themselves.

The album takes place over two clearly-intentioned vinyl sides, the first comprised of three shorter pieces, the latter of two longer ones, and to hear the fuzz from the guitar of Clément at the start of opener “People’s Temple,” one might think there’s some continuity between the debut and the sophomore outing, but soon enough, the track begins to unfurl its breadth. Hugo‘s vocal approach contributes immediately to the sense of space in the leadoff piece and will persist in doing so throughout the songs that follow on side A, “Horses” and “No Love,” a blown-out effect calling to mind some of Ice Dragon‘s vibe, but subtly engaging a swath of growls and delivery styles that grow into a theme around which the lumbering instrumentalism takes place. He looses a first raw-throated scream circa 4:45 into “People’s Temple” that foretells of some of what “Spirit of the Bear” will have to offer in a mirror at the start of side B, but it’s in the heft of the layers packed into the song itself that the opener makes its major impression.

So even as they embark on exploring these new textures, Greyfell do well to bring a sense of balance to their style. Though shorter, “Horses” is even more melodic and swirls to a thrilling head of chaos before evening itself out near its conclusion, finding resolve in cacophony and not only providing a transition point between “People’s Temple” and the nodding centerpiece “No Love,” but doing so with a purpose of its own as well derived from a tight and linear progression almost imperceptible on first listen but which plays out gracefully nonetheless. “No Love” seems to find even standing but at about 3:30 moves into a section of malevolent whispers backed by atmospheric shouting for maximum creep-out while speaking to a theatrical element the band credits to black metal but could just as easily derive from an art rock influence of one sort or another. In any case, amid the modern prog doom winding riff earlier and the layered melodies of vocals, it’s yet another turn Greyfell pull off ably with Horsepower seemingly as a result of simply having the confidence to make it happen.

One might say the same of how the eight-minutes-apiece pair of “Spirit of the Bear” and closer “King of Xenophobia” function on side B — the first as the most extreme moment on the offering and the latter as the most progressive. Perhaps in part because of the cover art that adorns it, or because of the diversity of aesthetic overall, it’s hard to think of any single moment on Horsepower as being “dark,” but if anything comes close, it’s “Spirit of the Bear,” which takes a meaner turn first in its chorus and then slows into a semi-blackened doom just past its midpoint en route to even nastier sludgy bombast and roll. The real surprise comes with a chant-style melody tossed in near the finish, and that would seem to be what ties “Spirit of the Bear” most to “King of Xenophobia,” which, while starting off no less languid in tempo, breaks in its verse to a vastness that the more claustrophobic piece before it largely eschewed. As the organ takes on a horror-derived spirit before the four-minute mark, a choral effect surrounds Hugo that denotes the transition into what will be Horsepower‘s final push, lurching to life via drums as a melee of feedback and noise surrounds before the chorus reemerges.

That underscoring of songcraft feels significant particularly in the band’s closing argument, though frankly, with their having made such a leap between I Got the Silver Vol. 1 and this album, I wouldn’t dare predict where they might head after Horsepower. If indeed this is them finding themselves sonically, they’ve done well in hitting on an approach that leaves them room to grow an individualized sensibility while maintaining a core of songcraft — “King of Xenophobia” demonstrates this perhaps most plainly of all — and should they decide to reinvent themselves once more for a third long-player, they’ve no doubt learned some crucial lessons from the experience of putting these tracks together. Either way, mark that a win. From a listener’s standpoint perhaps all the more, since the depths to which Horsepower plunges feature such character and ambient vitality, setting the familiar and the distinct against one another in fluid and cohesive fashion.

Greyfell on Thee Facebooks

Greyfell on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records website

Wasn’t it just yesterday I was talking about how Argonauta Records‘ lineup continues to explode unabated? Yup, it was. Granted I was a few days behind on the announcement that Italian rockers Di’Aul joined the multinational roster of Argonauta acts, but I think it goes to the prove the point anyway that here we are mere hours later and Argonauta have picked up another band — enter Greyfell, from France — and announced another release, this one due in early 2018.

Titled Horsepower, it’s the second Greyfell full-length behind 2015’s name-your-price-download, very-punctuated I.Got.the.Silver Vol. 1, which is streaming here. The label said Di’Aul would be out in February, and Greyfell have an “early 2018” tag in contrast to that, but honestly, Argonauta is pretty on its stuff when it comes to actually getting this constant slew of records out, so yeah, I wouldn’t expect it to get past Spring before Horsepower shows up. Another one for the 2018 list in the meantime.

Info comes from the PR wire:

GREYFELL – ARGONAUTA RECORDS

French Doom Metallers GREYFELL inked a deal with ARGONAUTA RECORDS.

Equally influenced by violence and hypnosis, GREYFELL doom sonorities are able to blend Black Metal, Psych and Hardcore echoes, drawing influences from the sonic heavyweights like Type O Negative, Sleep and Kickback, with a sound that proves to be celestial, telluric and all around massive.

Their second album “Horsepower” explores new territories with the arrival of a fourth member on keyboards and synths, thus going even further into massive drones and ghostly textures.

Produced entirely on their own, this new record marks the beginning of their collaboration with Argonauta and pushes the boundaries of heaviness and incantatory atmospheres.

GREYFELL “Horsepower” will be released by early 2018.

“There will be a light in the dark, there will be quiet before the storm, there will be harmony in chaos.”

Greyfell is:
Clément : gitar
Thierry : trommer
Boubakar : bassen
Hugo: Torden

https://www.facebook.com/Greyfellband/
https://greyfell.bandcamp.com/
facebook.com/argonautarecords
www.argonautarecords.com

Greyfell, I.Got.the.Silver Vol. 1 (2015)