You know what’s disheartening? When someone goes ‘thanks dudes.’ You know, I share a review or something, the band reposts and goes ‘thanks to the crew at The Obelisk blah blah.’ What fucking crew? If I had a crew, I’d put up 10 reviews every single day of the year. “Crew.” Shit. I am the crew. In the description of this site, the very first thing it says is “One-man operation.” It’s a fucking solo-project. That’s the whole point of it. It’s like me looking at your bass and going, “Sweet guitar, thanks for the solos brah.” I’m happy people want to share links and this and that, but really? It’s been nine years. Give me a break.

Oh yeah, that’s right. Nobody gives a shit. Now I remember. Thanks for reading.

And while we’re here, please remember the numbers for these posts don’t mean anything. This isn’t a countdown. Or a countup. It’s just me keeping track of how much shit I’m reviewing. The answer is “a lot.”

Grump grump grump.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Lucifer, Lucifer II

Recorded as the trio of vocalist Johanna Sardonis (ex-The Oath), guitarist Robin Tidebrink (Saturn) and guitarist/drummer Nicke Andersson (Death Breath, ex-Entombed, ex-The Hellacopters), Lucifer’s second album, Lucifer II (on Rise Above), follows three years after its numerical predecessor, Lucifer I (review here), and marks its personnel changes with a remarkable consistency of mission. Like Mercyful Fate gone disco, the formerly-Berlin/London-now-Stockholm group bring stage-ready atmospheres to songs like “Phoenix” and the riff-led “Before the Sun,” while unleashing a largesse of hooks in “Dreamer” and the boogie-pushing “Eyes in the Sky.” “Dancing with Mr. D” brings nod to a Rolling Stones cover, and “Before the Sun” reaffirms a heavy ‘70s root in their sound. I can’t help but wonder if the doomier “Faux Pharaoh” is a sequel to “Purple Pyramid,” but either way, its thicker, darker tonality is welcome ahead of the bonus track Scorpions cover “Evening Wind,” which again demonstrates the ease with which Lucifer make established sounds their own. That’s pretty much the message of the whole album. Lucifer are a big band. Lucifer II makes the case for their being a household name.

Lucifer on Thee Facebooks

Rise Above Records webstore

—

 

Heilung, Lifa

Lifa is the audio taken from the live video that brought Denmark’s Heilung to prominence. Captured at Castlefest in The Netherlands in last year, the impression the expansive Viking folk group made was all the more powerful with elaborate costuming, bone percussive instruments, antlers, animal-skin drums, and so on. Their debut studio album, Ofnir, came out in 2015 and like LIFA has been issued by Season of Mist, but the attention to detail and A/V experience only adds to the hypnotic tension and experimentalist edge in the material. Does it work with just the audio? Yes. The 12-minute “In Maijan” and somehow-black-metal “Krigsgaldr” maintain their trance-out-of-history aspect, and the 75-minute set blends multi-tiered melodies and goblin-voiced declarations for an impression unlike even that which Wardruna bring to bear. Whether it’s the drones of “Fylgija Futhorck” or the chants and thuds of “Hakkerskaldyr,” LIFA is striking from front to back and a cohesive, visionary work that should be heard as well as seen. But definitely seen.

Heilung on Thee Facebooks

Season of Mist website

—

 

Amarok, Devoured

Eight years after their founding, an EP and several splits, Chico, California, atmosludge extremists Amarok make their full-length debut with Devoured on Translation Loss. If it’s been a while in the making, it’s easy enough to understand why. The album is rife with brutalist and grueling sensibilities. Comprised of just four tracks, it runs upwards of 70 minutes and brings a visceral churn to each cut, not forgetting the importance of atmosphere along the way, but definitely focused on the aural bludgeoning they’re dealing out. Tempos, duh, are excruciating, and between the screams and growls of bassist Brandon Squyres (also Cold Blue Mountain) and guitarist Kenny Ruggles – the band completed by guitarist Nathan Collins and drummer Colby Byrne – Amarok make their bid for Buried at Sea levels of heft and rumble their way across a desolate landscape of their own making. Eight years to conjure this kind of punishment? Yeah, that seems about right. See you in 2026.

Amarok on Thee Facebooks

Translation Loss Records webstore

—

 

T.G. Olson, Ode to Lieutenant Henry

Here’s a curious case: T.G. Olson, founding guitarist and vocalist of Across Tundras, is a prolific experimental singer-songwriter. His material ranges from psychedelic country to fuller-toned weirdo Americana and well beyond. He’s wildly prolific, and everything goes up on Bandcamp for a name-your-price download, mostly unannounced. It’s not there, then it is. Olson’s latest singe, Ode to Lieutenant Henry, was there, and now it’s gone. With the march of its title-track and a complementary cover of Townes van Zandt’s “Silver Ships of Andilar,” I can’t help but be curious as to where the tracks went and if they’ll be back, perhaps in some other form or as part of a different release. Both are plugged-in and coated in fuzzy tones, with Olson’s echoing vocals providing a human presence in the wide soundscape of his own making. The original is shorter than the cover, but both songs boast a signature sense of ramble that, frankly, is worth being out there. Hopefully they’re reposted at some point, either on their own as they initially were or otherwise.

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

T.G. Olson/Across Tundras on Bandcamp

—

 

Sun Dial, Science Fiction

If space is the place, Sun Dial feel right at home in it. The long-running UK psychedelic adventurers collect two decades’ worth of soundtrack material on Science Fiction, their new release for Sulatron Records. Made with interwoven keyboard lines and a propensity to periodically boogie on “Mind Machine,” “Airlock,” “Infra Red,” etc., the experimentalist aspect of Science Fiction is all the more remarkable considering the album is compiled from different sources. One supposes the overarching cosmos is probably what brings it together, but with the samples and synth of “Saturn Return” and the lower end space-bass of pre-bonus-track closer “Starwatchers” – that bonus track, by the way, is a 15-minute version of opener “Hangar 13” – and though the vast majority of the Science Fiction relies on synth and keys to make its impression, it’s still only fair to call the proceedings natural, as the root of each one seems to be exploration. It’s okay to experiment. Nobody’s getting hurt.

Sun Dial on Thee Facebooks

Sun Dial at Sulatron Records webstore

—

 

Lucid Grave, Demo 2018

There are three songs on Lucid Grave’s first outing, the aptly-titled Demo 2018, and the first of them is also the longest (immediate points), “Star.” It presents a curious and hard to place interpretation of psychedelic sludge rock. It is raw as a demo worthy of its name should be, and finds vocalist Malene Pedersen (also Lewd Flesh) echoing out to near-indecipherable reaches atop the feedback-addled riffing. Quite an introduction, to say the least. The subsequent “Desert Boys” is more subdued at the start but gets furious at the end, vocals spanning channels in an apparent call and response atop increasingly intense instrumental thrust. And as for “Ride the Hyena?” If I didn’t know better – and rest assured, I don’t – I’d call it doom. I’m not sure what the hell the København five-piece are shooting for in terms of style, but I damn sure want to hear what they come up with next so I can find out. Consider me enticed. And accordingly, one can’t really accuse Demo 2018 of anything other than doing precisely what it’s supposed to do.

Lucid Grave on Thee Facebooks

Lucid Grace on Bandcamp

—

 

Domadora, Lacuna

Comprised of four-tracks of heavy psychedelic vibes led by the scorch-prone guitar of Belwil, Domadora’s third album, Lacuna, follows behind 2016’s The Violent Mystical Sukuma (discussed here) and taps quickly into a post-Earthless league of instrumentalism on opener “Lacuna Jam.” That should be taken as a compliment, especially as regards the bass and drums of Gui Omm and Karim Bouazza, respectively, who hold down uptempo grooves there and roll along with the more structured 14-minute cut “Genghis Khan” that follows. Each of the album’s two sides is comprised of a shorter track and a longer one, and there’s plenty of reach throughout, but more than expanse, even side B’s “Vacuum Density” and “Tierra Last Homage” are more about the chemistry between the band members – Angel Hidalgo Paterna rounds out on organ – than about crafting a landscape. Fortunately for anyone who’d take it on, the Parisian unit have plenty to offer when it comes to that chemistry.

Domadora on Thee Facebooks

Domadora on Bandcamp

—

 

Klandestin, Green Acid of Last Century

That’s a big “fuck yes, thank you very much” for the debut album from Indonesian stoner metallers Klandestin. Green Acid of the Last Century arrives courtesy of Hellas Records and is THC-heavy enough that if they wanted to, they could probably add “Bong” to the band’s name and it would be well earned. Eight tracks, prime riffs, watery vocals, dense fuzz, stomp, plod, lumber, shuffle – it’s all right there in homegrown dosage, and for the converted, Green Acid of the Last Century is nothing short of a worship ceremony, for the band itself as well as for anyone taking it on. With the march of “Doomsday,” the unmitigated rollout of “Black Smoke,” and the swirling green aurora of “The Green Aurora,” Klandestin wear their holding-back-a-cough riffage as a badge of honor, and couldn’t be any less pretentious about it if they tried. From the hooded weedian on the cover art to the Sleepy nod of closer “Last Century,” Green Acid of Last Century telegraphs its intent front-to-back, and is all the more right on for it.

Klandestin on Thee Facebooks

Hellas Records on Bandcamp

—

 

Poor Little Things, Poor Little Things

You get what you pay for with “Rock’n’Roller,” which leads off the self-titled debut EP from Bern, Switzerland-based Poor Little Things. Around the core duo of vocalist Tina Jackson and multi-instrumentalist Dave “Talon” Jackson (also of Australia’s Rollerball) on guitar, bass, synth and percussion is Talon’s The Marlboro Men bandmate Fernando Marlboro on drums, and together the band presents five tracks of remember-when-rock-rocked-style groove. Fueled by ‘70s accessibility and a mentality that seems to be saying it’s okay to play big rooms, like arenas, cuts like “Drive” seem prime for audience participation, and “Break Another Heart” gives a highlight performance from Tina while “About Love” showcases a more laid back take. They close with the 6:37 “Street Cheetah,” which struts appropriately, and end with a percussive finish on a fadeout repeating the title line. As a showcase of their style and songwriting chops, Poor Little Things shows significant promise, sure, but it’s also pretty much already got everything it needs for a full-length album.

Poor Little Things on Thee Facebooks

Poor Little Things on Bandcamp

—

 

Motorowl, Atlas

Every now and then you put on a record and it’s way better than you expect. Hello, Motorowl’s Atlas. The German troupe’s second for Century Media, it takes the classic stylizations of their 2016 debut, Om Generator, and pushes them outward into a vast sea of organ-laced progressive heavy, soaring in vocal melodies and still modern despite drawing from an array of decades past. The chug in “The Man Who Rules the World” would be metal for most bands, but on Atlas, it becomes part of a broader milieu, and sits easily next to the expansive title-track, as given to post-rocking airiness in the guitar as to synth-laden prog. That mixture of influences and aesthetics would be enough to give the five-piece an identity of their own, but Atlas is further characterized by Motorowl’s ambitious songwriting and benefits greatly from the melodic arrangements and the clear intention toward creative development at work here. Those who take on its seven-track/45-minute journey will find it dynamic, spacious and heavy in kind.

Motorowl on Thee Facebooks

Motorowl at Century Media website

—

 

‘Come, Worship!’ says the sign outside the Church of the Cosmic Skull. Or at least it would if they were a building and not a band. Still, the invitation is there, and the Nottingham, UK, seven-piece — who made their debut in 2016 with the excellent and continually striking Is Satan Real? (review here), could hardly make the prospect sound more exciting than they do on their second LP for Kozmik Artifactz (tape out on Septaphonic Records), the nine-track/41-minute Science Fiction. From the hat-tip to Queen in the opening title-track and the hymnal vibe in second cut “Go by the River” to the unbridled gospel bliss of “Revolution Comes with an Act of Love” and the later bluesy stretch of “The Cards that You’re Playing,” Church of the Cosmic Skull evoke a fitting sense of worship through their harmonies, classically progressive tones, synths, etc., and when it comes down to what exactly is being worshiped, as close as I can tell, it’s joy. Pure joy worship.

Each song approaches it from a slightly different angle, from the slow serenity of centerpiece “The Others” through the quick but subtle enough to make it a highlight linear build of closer “The Devil Again,” but much as the distinct sonic elements of brazen vocal harmonies, electric cello and keys and synth run along with the standard guitar, bass and drums, so too does joy seem to be the underlying theme of Science Fiction, and its expression throughout is nothing short of revelry. Led by guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and producer “Brother” Bill Fisher, Church of the Cosmic Skull features the congregational lineup of vocalists Sister Caroline Cawley and Sister Joanne Joyce bassist/vocalist Brother Samuel Lloyd, cellist/vocalist Sister Amy Nicholson, keyboardist/vocalist Brother Michael Wetherburn and drummer Brother Laurence Stone, and while like any drug, joy can be dangerous in leading to a loss of control, the band keeps a firm control on the meter and direction of their output across the entire record.

They do so via songwriting, and under the direction of Fisher — whom one hesitates to call auteur when he’s surrounded by the contributions of so many others, but seems to be running the show in any case — they proffer memorable verses and choruses and while the organ-soaked “Paper Aeroplane and Silver Moon” ranges past the six-minute mark, it’s impossible to ignore how tight in performance and structure songs like “Go by the River” and “Timehole (Gonna Build a Rocket)” are. Church of the Cosmic Skull embraced a pop influence on their debut as well, but like the rest of their approach, that too has taken a step forward here, and with driving moments like the cultish galloping riff of the aforementioned longest track, there’s a diversity in sound enough not only to make Science Fiction flow from front to back, but to give each song an opportunity to stand out on its own as well. In that way, it’s all the more fair to think of it as a classic-style long-player in how it’s put together, since its ordering was clearly thought out to maximize both the whole listening experience and the impact of each piece. To be blunt, it worked, and Church of the Cosmic Skull sound all the more accomplished for it. Their arrangements are more complex and their harmonies all the more gorgeous, but there’s still the root of a verse/chorus approach beneath that does not lessen their accessibility factor at all.

Like I said at the outset, there’s an invitation being made here, and if the band presents a kind of manifesto anywhere on Science Fiction, I’d say the best summary of their perspective overall arrives in “Revolution Comes with an Act of Love,” which departs from the devilish cultism of the debut — it’s not by any means fully gone; see “The Devil Again” at the album’s finish — but this time through it’s more about the wholeness of spirit itself rather than how it comes about. At least that’s how it reads on listening. There are moments of unashamed fun — again, “Timehole (Gonna Build a Rocket Tonight)” — and more melancholy exercises like “The Cards that You’re Playing” and “The Devil Again,” and “Cold Sweat” is a highlight for taking a Thin Lizzy-style swaggering rhythm and pushing it into a choral realm, but apart from the gleefulness of the atmosphere throughout, what’s striking about Science Fiction is the increasing breadth of the band’s craft and the fact that they can make their songs do all these different things while still retaining a consistent and distinct sound.

With the conceit of religiosity as a factor, Church of the Cosmic Skull nonetheless allow themselves to push beyond novelty. They wear white on stage. They call themselves “Brother” and “Sister.” They’re just as likely to reference ’70s rock as timeless spirituals. Yet with the quality of their output, these things become less like a gimmick and more part of the overarching aesthetic statement. In a frenzied multimedia world, Church of the Cosmic Skull offer an experience about more than just the music, however central that still remains. And in that frenzied world, as with any church, they offer a chance to step outside of oneself and glimpse something grander, even if it’s a purely human realization, rather than one based on dogma or other arbitrary facets.

Ultimately, Science Fiction, while its name evokes images of space rock and visions of futures bright or dark, finds its tie to the genre more through the creation of its own world even than that rocket that it’s gonna build tonight. It finds Church of the Cosmic Skull thoughtful in their composition and delivery, patient in their expression but still exciting to hear, and boldly manifesting the joy they seem to be worshiping throughout. They have been and remain a special band, and with the forward drive they show here, it feels like their growth will only continue as their good word spreads. Rejoice — as in, be made joyful again and celebrate. The invite is right there waiting to be answered, and the congregation is ready to receive any wayward comers ready to bask in the new sunlight.

Church of the Cosmic Skull website

Church of the Cosmic Skull on Thee Facebooks

Church of the Cosmic Skull on Soundcloud

Church of the Cosmic Skull on Bandcamp

Church of the Cosmic Skull on YouTube

Church of the Cosmic Skull on Instagram

Church of the Cosmic Skull on Twitter

Kozmik Artifactz website

Kozmik Artifactz on Thee Facebooks

There’s good news and then there’s the good news, and UK harmony-bringers Church of the Cosmic Skull specialize in the latter, with harmonized hymnals to soothe the troubled soul and a classically progressive aplomb that proved to be immediately fluid, gentle, kind and heavy all throughout their 2016 Kozmik Artifactz debut, Is Satan Real? (review here), and with a second album, Science Fiction, the seven-piece group only look to expand their palette sonically and emotionally, leaving their audience to wonder if their noise is actually so joyous or if the smiles they’re sharing are hiding pointed teeth and seeming to enjoy the ambiguity.

Much more on this one to come, I hope, but here is the preliminary announcement and info on Science Fiction as per the PR wire:

New Album ‘Science Fiction’ Out May

Church of the Cosmic Skull release their second studio album ‘Science Fiction’ this May on limited edition heavyweight vinyl, CD (Kozmik-Artifactz), and limited edition cassette (Septaphonic).

Described as ‘Occult Pop’ for fans of ELO, Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac and Queen, the 9 track record from the Nottingham based ‘spiritual organisation’ sees an expansion on the prog / psych / retro stylings and hook-heavy songwriting of the critically acclaimed debut ‘Is Satan Real?’ (2016 Bilocation Records). Piano and vintage synths have been introduced alongside the Hammond organ, electric cello and six-part vocal harmonies, resulting in a sound that truly ‘puts the ABBA in Sabbath’.

The decision to self-produce the release is a reflection of both the changing landscape of the music industry, and the Church’s wholeheartedly DIY approach, having turned down major label offers in favour of maintaining independence. Quoting one of the ‘7 Objects’, Church founder Bill Fisher describes the record as a chance to ‘Celebrate and uphold the freedom of art, science and thought.’

‘Science Fiction’ will be supported by UK and European shows, including Desertfest Berlin and an elaborate live event on June 2nd. The group are contributing a track to Magnetic Eye Records’ Pink Floyd ‘The Wall Redux’ tribute album alongside the Melvins and Mark Lanegan, and continue their ‘Tele-Vision’ output with three new music videos, coming soon at cosmicskull.org.

Church of the Cosmic Skull is:
Michael Wetherburn – Hammond Organ & Vocals (Hellset Orchestra, Ulysses Storm)
Loz Stone – Drums (Iron Swan, Rescued by Wolves)
Sam Lloyd – Bass & Vocals (You Slut!, Pilgrim Fathers)
Jo Joyce – Vocals (Solo Artist)
Amy Nicholson – Electric Cello & Vocals (Hellset Orchestra, Polymath)
Caroline Cawley – Vocals (Dystopian Future Movies)
Bill Fisher – Guitar & Vocals (Mammothwing, Distillery Blues Band)

churchofthecosmicskull.com
cosmicskull.org
facebook.com/churchofthecosmicskull
soundcloud.com/churchofthecosmicskull
churchofthecosmicskull.bandcamp.com
youtube.com/c/churchofthecosmicskull
instagram.com/churchofthecosmicskull
twitter.com/thecosmicskull
play.spotify.com/artist/3KY6i8EJac9URU9OeC1n89
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/church-of-the-cosmic-skull/id1146826464#

Church of the Cosmic Skull, “Evil in Your Eye”