With their seven members spread throughout three different cities in Spain, flute-laden progressive psych rockers Conducting a Google search on how to find a ghostwriter is Essay written Affordable essays Essay writing ideas Write a college Abstracción seem to be out to prove that something doesn’t necessarily have to be still or staid to be peaceful. Their self-titled debut was originally set to issue on April 3 but has been pushed to May 29 owing to the inevitable manufacturing delays, and it’s only understandable that, however serene a song like “Asinergia” — the visualizer/video for which is premiering below — might come across, they’re getting somewhat restless. There’s only so much sitting-on-hands one can do while waiting for something to happen.
I don’t mind admitting “Asinergia” is my first exposure to I often get asked how do I get protein during a juice fast. Effect how do i http://autothanhhoa.com.vn/?causes-and-effects-of-plagiarism of dietary articles about eating disorders fiber on blood Abstracción, who put the vocals of The uottawa essay help will gladly help you with your paper, if you cannot write it yourself for whatever reason. We deal with any topics, available for any term. Catalina Requena at the forefront of their melodicism, carrying across a human presence amid what would feel like willfully nature-minded surroundings, accordingly organic in their production style. Casual swirls of guitar and keys, the flute and backing percussion all add to the fluidity of the track as a whole, while Requena‘s voice brings a folkish element that calls to mind the early interplay between folk and prog stylistically, as, say, British folk grew more complex at the same time heavy rock was looking to express something more mature as well. Buy the best dissertation proposal writing services online at RMEssays that offers custom communication and critical thinkings and help in UK, US and Australia. Abstracción are in an in-between place when it comes to style, but they skillfully draw from one side or another as need be in “Asinergia,” and — in a fashion that has me very much wanting to hear the rest of their self-titled — they turn an otherwise unassuming four-and-a-half-minute track into a mood-altering journey that finds cohesion from what could just as easily be opposing elements.
Such unity of purpose is especially noteworthy given that You can buy college application essay john hopkins right here about any topic you need. Our writing service with intelligence writers will help you to get you diploma with Abstracción is their first offering, but crazier things have certainly happened than a band coming out of the gate knowing what they want to sound like. Still, “Asinergia”‘s effect on mood is no less striking than the colors of the This page tells about our how to write a high school application 20. It is quite affordable and much cheaper than other services and helps to promote your business easily! Tumulus Design cover art for the record, once again calling to mind the natural world, the world beyond and maybe even the eyes that we as human beings use to see both of them inside and outside of ourselves. For a band who thus far eschew the tradition of promotional photography — there are a couple in-studio shots on their social medias, but nothing of the lot of them; what even is a band that doesn’t cross their arms in front of a brick wall, I ask you (sarcastically)? — they have no trouble putting an image in the mind’s eye.
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Please enjoy:
Abstracción, “Asinergia” official video premiere
We continue to fight the elements that stand in the way to make the release of our debut a memorable event. And we’re getting closer to getting it!
Next week we will dive back into the abstract maelstrom to continue knowing its intricacies. This will be a raid that can be perceived through the sense of ear, and sight.
Official video of Asinergia, song belonging to the debut of Abstracción. Release Date: May 29, 2020. Pre-order on Bandcamp:https://abstraccion.bandcamp.com
Music by Luis Monge, lyrics Catalina Requena and arrangement by Abstracción. Recorded, produced and mixed by Pablo Bermejo at the studio 20.000 Leguas de Montilla (Córdoba). Mastered by Ernesto Santana.
Abstracción are: Catalina Requena: vocals Luis Monge: electric guitar José Gálvez: sitar, acoustic guitar and percussion Pablo Bermejo: Hammond, Farfisa and Fender Rhodes Pablo Abarca: concert flute Rafa “Chico Jr.” Paredes: bass Paco García: drums and percussion
Posted in Features on April 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.
Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Igor Etxebarria of Melmak (Sopelana, Spain)
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enter- Why Buy From Us? Sometimes writing even a simple essay often develops onto an almost impossible task due to many factors. How are you dealing with this crisis as a band? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?
Hi! We have been surprised by all this situation. We live each in different cities so we stay in our respective homes with our families. No rehearsals for an undetermined time.
We had planned to give a show on April 3rd and continue with the process of creating the songs that will be part of the new album to celebrate our 10 years as a band, but now everything it’s in the air because of this situation. We already have about five songs finished but we have some more to finish. We have to wait for all this to end to know what steps will be the next.
All the members of the respective families are well, healthy (except the typical matters of the age).
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The rules here are very strict. We can only leave our homes to go to the supermarket or the drugstore. You can only go to work in companies that are related to essential goods, so I work from home. We have been locked up at home for 2 and a half weeks and begin to notice mental fatigue….
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Wow, everything we knew has changed (maybe forever). This situation brings out the worst and the best of the human being and there are people who have become the police on the balcony and many other people who help others in whatever way they can.
In music, we have to wait all this to end to see in what situation is the underground, which was bad before. Many festivals around Europe have been canceled and we don’t know how and when concerts can be organized in the future.
I organize the Inkestas Rock Festibal in September and I still can’t know if it will be possible or if there will be bands that have to cancel. Bands like Hexis, Rosy Finch or Black Tundra have been confirmed until now but everything is in the air…
Looking for affordable and reliable follow sites? See how we can help writing a thesis and what other services we offer! Pick the one you need and What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?
We are well, waiting for what the future will be like both as a band and on a personal level. Meanwhile, I am trying to capture a personal project with songs in a different style than what we do with Melmak. There is more free time, and we need to distract ourselves with something to spend our free hours. That and enjoy being with my wife and my son full-time.
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 my link. You get all the advantages, you only can get and all you have to do is fill in the application and buy an essay! 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 find this. The company Hot-Essay offers its services to all students who have problems while writing an argumentative essay. We can guarantee you the 100% success if you turn to us for help. We will provide you with all necessary options that are needed for the best essay. Paradise Lost, in other words, and are all the more themselves for that. Their math term papers Do My Evolution Homework For Me ways to end a essay 2013 college application essay writing Doomed Heavy Metal EP (on The latest Tweets from Good Research Paper Introduction Examples (@writer_hire): "Judge orders Mississippi school district to desegregate, 62 years after Brown v. Board of # 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 cruncher 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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 20th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Can anyone really blame them? Of course not. With governments across Europe and elsewhere telling people to stay at home, shelter-in-place and other foreboding-sounding shit as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Madrid’s Kristonfest 2020 has pulled the plug on what was to be a killer lineup with Swans and Masters of Reality and C.O.C. at the top of a righteous one-day bill with Brant Bjork, MaidaVale and Norman Westberg rounding out. So it goes with just about everything. They’ve got ticket refunds going if you bought, but I think this is pretty indicative of the way things are happening right now, and as I’ve tried to keep up with the fest over the last few years, it’s a bummer to see. Not the first, won’t be the last. They’re smart to cancel outright rather than try to reschedule for the Fall, because who the hell knows what the situation will be in the Fall?
Here’s their statement, pulled from Thee Facebooks:
Kristonfest is still a project made with passion rather than with resources, with enthusiasm and crazy ideas rather than with head, that’s why this is a statement that hurts to write, but given the serious health situation we are suffering and the pessimistic forecasts that are being explaining for the coming weeks, we have no choice but to inform you that Kristonfest 2020 is cancelled.
We want to make it clear that this edition is not postponed, but is cancelled due to the impossibility of being able to match the artists on the same date in the coming months. That is why we open the return period of 30 days so that you can recover the money from your tickets through the Wegow platform. Those of you who bought your tickets at Escridiscos must have a little patience since, due to the State of Alarm decreed by the Government, record stores are not allowed to open within a minimum period of fifteen days.
Now is the time to assimilate and reflect on it, but also to continue supporting Swans, Masters Of Reality – Official, Corrosion Of Conformity, Brant Bjork, MaidaVale and Norman Westberg, who are losing a lot of money with all the cancellations that are taking place all over the world, as they depend on the concerts to keep going. That is why we ask that, as far as possible, you support them by purchasing their music and merchandising through their websites and social networks.
The good news is that this hard blow has not diminished our desire to continue working on line-ups at the height of the festival’s history. For this reason and starting today we are working on the edition of 2021, from which we hope to give you good news in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, take care of each other, follow the prompts of the authorities and act with responsibility and common sense. We will come out of this nightmare together and reinforced.
Posted in audiObelisk on February 28th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Spanish heavy progressive rockers Moura are set to make their self-titled debut on April Fool’s Day through Spinda Records. The A Coruña-based five-piece start the album off with a gentle meditation of keys and guitar, Floydian in atmosphere but duly modern in meditation, and soon enough are off into a thickened earlier-King Crimson mediation, guitar and organ working together, then apart, then together again with an insistent rhythmic backing and a vocal reminiscent of Moura‘s labelmates and countrymen on the Southern coast in Algeciras, Atavismo and Híbrido.
Moura, whose progressive elements are nonetheless presented in across a manageable 38-minute/four-track LP stretch, are comprised of vocalist/guitarist Diego Veiga, guitarist/vocalist Hugo Santeiro, bassist/vocalist Pedro Alberte, synthesist/organist Fernando Vilaboy and drummer Luis Casanova, and to coincide with their proggy movements, which are maintained throughout the just-under-nine-minutes-each opener “Eira” and “Da Interzona a Annexia,” there come fervent doses of psychedelia and folk sounds. “Da Interzona a Annexia” dips particularly into the latter in its second half, with harmonized vocals in a melody derived from Galician folk — the scales will sound Middle Eastern to many ears — with a lead line of Hammond following that ends up in a run alongside the guitar that is likewise gorgeous and effective in blending the different styles already put on display. This is, it has to be repeated, Moura‘s first album.
After “Eira,” which the band also released as a single in 2018, and “Da Interzona a Annexia,” the flip to side B brings the longest and shortest tracks on Moura, respectively, in “O Curioso Caso de Mademoiselle X” (13:43) and closer “Ronda das Mafarricas” (7:04). Both manage to successfully highlight the aesthetic aspects that side A brought to the table, but push further along similar lines as well, with the fluidity and patience of “O Curioso Caso de Mademoiselle X” bringing a stretch of molten drift in intertwining synth and keys as it moves into its second half after a duly flowing beginning, moving in its own time to a sweep of organ and full-toned guitar. The “full-toned” there should be read with emphasis, particularly as it relates to what Veiga, Santeiro and Alberte bring to the proceedings.
As much nuance as there is in what Moura are doing throughout these songs — and there’s plenty — there is also no lack of tonal presence as well, and that’s no less true in the longer cut than on either of the first two pieces before it or even the one after, though “Ronda das Mafarricas” is something of a departure as well in terms of how it shifts the balance toward the folkish side of their approach, reminding early on of some of Death Hawks‘ proggy key-laced melodic glories, but keeping an identity in step with the rest of the proceedings here. The shift into the verse is smooth and led more by the vocals than it might at first seem, and as “Ronda das Mafarricas” smooths out — such as it does — it taps into some of the rhythmic bounce of “Eira” and that feeling of perhaps-courtly (in the King Crimson-sense) chase the album indulged earlier on. The finale fades into folkish percussion but the organ and guitar aren’t ultimately done yet and they surge back for a last measure or two of bookending in a final nod to songcraft that speaks to a strength that’s been underlying the material all along.
The lushness of combining two guitars, organ and synth speaks for itself throughout Moura‘s Moura, and as the record will no doubt serve as the band’s introduction to many listeners who take it on, they leave an impression of encompassing dynamics that are only further bolstered by the kinetic rhythm that’s being fostered by the bass and drums. As to how Moura might develop going forward, their combination of varying influences makes it harder to guess and thus more exciting to imagine the possibilities, but listened back through “Eira” on another go and making my way toward “Ronda das Mafarricas” once more — as the LP makes for easy repeat visits — I’m less inclined to guess how their sound might wind up than I am to enjoy what they’re doing now. Tomorrow can be tomorrow, then. Today, we dance.
I’m grateful to the band and to Spinda Records for allowing me to host “Ronda das Mafarricas” as a streaming premiere, as it’s obviously a special piece of the album and for the band generally. You’ll find it on the player below, followed by more background on the band from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
MOURA is all about going into trance around the bonfire and get ready for the coven. Psychedelic rock, prog rock, traditional folk and lyrics in Galician go together in their debut album. Spanish band formed by Diego Veiga (vocals, guitars), Hugo Santeiro (guitars), Pedro Alberte (bass), Fernando Vilaboy (keys) and Luis Casanova (drums) give us the key to open ourselves and meet our souls once again, those ones that real life wanted us to forget.
Band members are not new at all in the Spanish music scene… Lüger, Jet Lag, Ictus, Guerrera, Saharah, Elephant Band, Fogbound and Holywater are some of the projects in which they were involved in the past. But the present is MOURA, a new band which is making a name in the scene very quickly. This can explain how they managed to play huge names as Resurrection Fest 2019 or Monkey Week 2019 even without any album on the market. 2020 will be their year for sure: debut album and many gigs (Esmorga Fest and Barcelona Psych Fest are already confirmed).
For their debut album, which is an excellent candidate to be part of many top albums lists at the end of the year, MOURA joined Spanish underground label Spinda Records (Viaje a 800, Híbrido, Bourbon, The Dry Mouths, Habitar La Mar…) and got surrounded by very close people and friends: José Gutiérrez (production, recording and mixing); Fernando Mejuto (mastering); Leo López (photography); and Hugo Santeiro (artwork).
Moura are: Diego Veiga (guitarra, voz) Pedro Alberte (baixo, voz) Hugo Santeiro (guitarra, voz) Fernando Vilaboy (órgano Hammond, sintetizadores) Luis Casanova (batería, percusións)
Posted in Reviews on January 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to Day Three of The Obelisk’s Winter 2020 Quarterly Review. It’s gonna be kind of a wild one. There’s a lot going on across this batch of 10 records, and it gets kind of weird — also, it doesn’t — so sit tight. It’ll be fun either way. At least I hope so. I’ll let you know when I’m finished writing. Ha.
Today we pass the halfway point on the road to 50 reviews by Friday. I think I’m feeling alright up to this point. It’s been a crunch behind the scenes, but it usually is and I’ve done this plenty of times now, so it’s not so bad. I always hold my breath before getting started, but once I’m in it, I rarely feel anymore overwhelmed than I might on any other given day. Which is still plenty, but you know, you make it work.
So let’s do that.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Alcest, Spiritual Instinct
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the label’s modus in this regard as it’s picked up bands from the heavy underground over the last eight to 10 years — arguably a movement that began with Graveyard in 2012 — but Parisian post-black metal innovators Alcest make something of an aesthetic shift with their first outing for Nuclear Blast, Spiritual Instinct. Melody, of course, remains central to their purposes, but in the nine-minute side B opener “L’Île des Morts” as in its side A counterpart “Les Jardins de Minuit,” the subsequent “Protection” and “Sapphire” and even in the crescendo — glorious wash as it is — of the closing title-track, one can hear a sharper, decidedly metallic edge to the guitar and impact of the drums. That’s a turn from 2016’s Kodama (review here), which offered more of a conceptual progressivism, and of course the prior 2014 LP, Shelter (review here), which cast of metallic trappings almost entirely. Why the change? Who cares, it works, and they still have room for the cinematic keyboard-led drama of “Le Miroir” and plenty of the wistful emotionalism that’s been their hallmark since their debut in 2007. They’ve long since mastered their approach and Spiritual Instinct serves as another example of their being able to make their sound do whatever they want.
Four records and just about a decade deep into a tenure that began with the 2010 Rock Music EP (review here), Iowa heavy rockers Superchief have found ways to bring an inventiveness to what’s still an ostensibly straightforward approach. Moontower, named for a lookout point where — at least presuming from the album’s artwork — people tailgate and get drunk, finds the dudely five-piece no less embroiled in burl than they’ve ever been, but using samples and other elements in interesting ways as with the revving motor matching step with the drums at the start of “Barking Out at the Blood Moon” or keyboards in “Rock ‘n’ Roll War” filling out the breaks where the riffs take a step back. Handclaps early in “Beer Me Motherfucker” — as much post-“Introduction” mission statement for the LP as a whole as anything — set the party tone, and from the shaker on “The Approach” to the Southern tinged shred and organ on closer “Priority of the Summer,” a car speeding by at the finish, Superchief find ways to make each of their songs stand out from its surroundings. Then they pair that with choice riffery, pro-shop sound and hooks. Sure enough, it’s once again a winning formula and a distinct showing of personality and craft that still comports with classic heavy style.
Boston duo Test Meat are so utterly bullshit-free as to be almost intimidating. Guitarist/vocalist Darryl Shepard (Kind, Blackwolfgoat, Hackman, Milligram, etc.) and drummer Michael Nashawaty (Planetoid) dig into heavy grunge and noise rock influences across a 10-track/27-minute full-length that resounds with punker roots and an ethic of willful straightforwardness. It’s not that the music is so intense there would be no room for frills, it’s that the structures are so tight and so purposefully barebones that they’d be incongruous. And it’s not that Test Meat are writing half-hearted songs, either. Frankly, neither the quality of their material nor the sharpness of the sound they captured at New Alliance Studio with Alec Rodriguez would remotely lead one to believe so, and nothing with such stylistic clarity happens by mistake. This is a band with a mission, and Enjoy finds them bringing that mission to life with a complete lack of pretense. It’s a reminder of what made grunge so appealing in the first place some 30 years and an entire internet ago. Songs and performance. Yes.
Following a 2018 live demo, Portuguese instrumental three-piece Stones of Babylon — guitarist Rui Belchior, bassist João Medeiros, drummer Pedro Branco — embark with a conceptualist intent on their debut full-length, Hanging Gardens, issued through Raging Planet. An opening sample in the leadoff title-track describing the hanging gardens of Babylon sets the stage for what the band goes on to describe with wordless atmospheres over the five-song/47-minute long-player, their vision of heavy psychedelia touched with a suitable Middle Eastern/North African influence in the initial unfolding of the meditative 11-minute “Coffea Arabica” or the winding lead work over the punchy low end of “Black Pig’s Secret Megalith.” But Hanging Gardens is still very much a heavy rock release, and its material showcases that in tone and mood, with volume changes and builds taking hold like that in centerpiece “Ziggurat,” which in its second half sets a march of distorted largesse nodding forth until its final crashout. They save the most drift for “Babylonia (The Deluge),” and if they’re finishing with the story of the flood, one can’t help but wonder what narrative course they might follow in a second record. On the other hand, if one comes out of Hanging Gardens trying to envision Stones of Babylon‘s future, then the debut would seem to have done its job, and so it has. There’s stylistic and tonal promise, and with the edge of storytelling, an opportunity for development of which one hopes they avail themselves.
Frontman Argy and Greek heavy rock institution Nightstalker return with their eighth album in a quarter-century run, Great Hallucinations. Also their first LP for Heavy Psych Sounds after issuing 2016’s As Above So Below (review here) on Oak Island Records, it’s an up-to-par eight-track collection of catchy tracks marked out by psychedelic elements but underpinned by traditionalist structures, Argy‘s distinctive frontman presence, and an all-around unforced feeling of a mature, established band doing what they do. Not going through the motions in the sense of fulfilling some perceived obligation to stay on the road, but creating the songs they want to create in nothing less than the manner they want to create them. I won’t take away from the roll of “Seven out of Ten,” but as “Cursed” taps into a legacy of European heavy rock that runs from Dozer‘s turn of the century work — not to mention Nightstalker‘s own — to outfits today, it’s hard not to appreciate an act being so assured in what they do in terms of execution while actually doing it. In that way, Great Hallucinations is as refreshing as it is familiar.
From their beginnings in garage doom and subsequent dive into exploitation/vamp psych, Barcelona’s Lewis and the Strange Magics put themselves in even weirder territory on their third album, Melvin’s Holiday, centering a story around the titular character whose life is in turmoil and so he goes on vacation. The sound of the band seems to do likewise, veering into ’70s lounge sleaze and island influences, toying with funky rhythms and keyboards amid catchy choruses across what still would have to be called an experimental 34-minute run. It is a concept album, to be sure, and one that comes through in its stylistic choices like the dreamy keyboards of the centerpiece “Carpet Sun” or the fuzzy stomp in “Sad in Paradise” and the percussion amid the Ween-sounding lead guitar buzz of “Lounge Decadence.” This could be Lewis and the Strange Magics working purposefully to cast off any and all expectation that might be placed on them, or it could just be a one-off whim, but there’s no question they pull off an impressive turn and carry the concept through in story and substance. When it comes to what they might do next time, the payoff of closer “Afternoon on the Sand” serves as one more demonstration that the band can do whatever the hell they want with their sound, so I’d expect them to do no less than precisely that.
The debut EP from Lansing, Michigan, four-piece Room 101, called simply The Burden, would seem to take a scorched-earth approach to atmospheric sludge, setting their balance to exploring ambient textures and samples in pieces like “You Will Never Know Security” — which, sure enough, samples 1984 to recount the origin of the band’s name — and the brief “A Place to Bury Strangers,” while the churning “As the Crow Flies” and “Missing Rope” present an outright extremity that comes through in post-Godflesh vocal barks and a Through Silver in Blood-style intensity of churn and general approach. Yet I wouldn’t necessarily call Room 101 post-metal — at least not here. The solo on “Missing Rope” seems to draw from more traditional sources, and the manner in which the chugging in “Plague Dogs” caps with a sudden quick series of hits recalls grindcore’s pivoting brutality. One might hope all of these elements get fleshed out more over subsequent releases, but as a first outing, part of The Burden‘s promise is also drawn from the sheer rawness of its impact and the lack of compromise in its wrench of gut.
Albatross Overdrive‘s 2016 LP, Keep it Running (review here), ran 31 minutes. Their follow-up, Ascendant, reaches to 33, but loses two tracks in the doing. Clearly, one way or the other, this is a conscious ethic on the band’s part, and it tells you something about their approach to heavy rock as well. There’s nothing too fancy about it — even in “Come Get Some,” which is the longest song the band have ever written at 6:40 — and they are not an outfit to waste their time. Structures run from verse to chorus to verse to chorus led through by guitarists Andrew Luddy and Derek Phillips and Art Campos‘ gritty delivery with an expectedly solid underpinning from bassist Mark Abshire (ex-Fu Manchu) and drummer Rodney Peralta and songs like the careening title-track and the blues-licked shover “Undecided” are enough to give the impression that anything else would be superfluous. They’re not lacking style — because ’70s-meets-’90s-straight-ahead-heavy is, indeed, a style — but it’s the level of their craft that stands them out.
Kyuss-style riffing takes a beating at the hands of Chicago newcomers Cloud Cruiser — who are not to be confused with Denver’s Cloud Catcher — who make their debut on vinyl through Shuga Records with I: Capacity, giving an aggressive push to what’s commonly considered a more laid back sound. In tone and rhythm and general gruffness, they are a deceptively pointed outfit, with turns of broader groove like that at the outset of “575” that speak to more influences than simply those of the Cali desert. They start off catchy and familiar-if-reshaped, though, on “Transmission” and “Glow,” letting their tale of alien abduction unfold across the lyrics while setting up the shifts that “Gone” and “575” and the thick-boogie of “Orbitalclast” will make before the EP’s would-be-clean-but-for-all-that-dirt-it’s-kicked-up 23-minute run is through. The balance they present speaks to a background in metal, though if they’re fresh arrivals in this realm of heavy, you’d never know it from the lumbering finish they present. Sometimes you just gotta get mean to get your point across. It suits
It is a progressive interpretation of fuzz ‘n’ buzz that San Francisco four-piece The Spiral Electric realize on their self-titled, self-released debut long-player, with recording and mixing by Dead Meadow‘s Steve Kille, the band — vocalist/synthesist/noisemaker/guitarist/percussionist/co-producer Clay Andrews, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Nicolas Percey, bassist Michael Summers and drummer Matias Drago — bridge the generally disparate realms of heavy psych and riffer heavy rock, giving a dreamy sensibility to “Marbles” with no less an organic vibe than they brought to the howling, attitudinal push of “No Bridge Left Unburned” earlier. They skillfully mess with the scale across the lengthy 14-track span, and thereby hold their audience for the duration in longer pieces like “The True Nature of Sacrifice” (8:24) as easily as they do in a series of three episodic interludes of noise, field recordings, synth, etc. This is a band ready, willing and able to space. the hell. out., and after listening to the record, you’d be a fool if you wanted to try. Not that they don’t have aspects to shore up or shifts that could be tightened and so on, but from ambition to fruition, it’s the kind of first record bands should aspire to make.
[Click play above to stream Domonautas Vol. 1 by Domo in its entirety. Album is out Dec. 15 on Clostridium Records.]
With psychedelia itself so often given to ideas of fluidity, being molten and/or in some way liquid, it only seems fair that Domo‘s Domonautas Vol. 1 should be such a melting pot. Issued on limited LP in an edition of 400 copies by Clostridium Records — 250 black, 150 red/black transparent splatter for a die-hard edition — the four-track/37-minute offering is the first offering of any kind from the Alicante, Spain, four-piece since 2015’s split with Pyramidal, Jams from the Sun (review here), which also followed some four years after their 2011 self-titled debut (review here).
Their stated intention is that Domonautas Vol. 1 is to be the first of a two-part continuity of albums with Maarten Donders cover art, and that Domonautas Vol. 2 will follow next year, essentially completing the single work across two LPs. I don’t know if Vol. 2 is written, let alone recorded — it could very well be both or either — but it’s an ambitious undertaking for the jam-based psych outfit, and however it works out over the next 12 months, it’s worth noting that Domonautas Vol. 1 in no way sounds incomplete. Its four included tracks are arranged for maximum immersion, with “Oxímoron” (5:15) at the outset giving way to “Astródomo” (12:28) on side A, and “Ritual del Sol” (12:04) and closer “Planisferio” (7:56) finishing the thread on side B.
This shorter-longer-longer-shorter construction, parabolic in its way, creates an arc that brings the listener deeper into the proceedings from the start of “Oxímoron,” which sets off in grandiose fashion, with effects-laced synth severity, like something out of a lysergic Ben-Hur, for almost its full initial two minutes, acting more as an intro to the album(s). From there, a drift of wah with a still-vaguely Middle Eastern vibe takes hold, echoing trumpet in the distance playing out alongside quiet drums from Paco and melodic guitar lines. Sam and Pablo (the latter also trumpet) handle six-string duties with due attention to effects sprawl.
Perhaps some of that Moorish architecture in the arrangement comes from a Viaje a 800 influence from further south in Algeciras on the coast, but, one way or the other, Domo use the final build to introduce bassist Óscar‘s first vocals of the record and with just a beat of a pause between, go from the end of “Oxímoron” to the full-on fuzz roll verse riff of “Astródomo,” thick and righteous, with vocals echoing up to further a sense of space, subtle layering of shouts and acoustic guitar flourish (or what sounds like it, anyhow) for further breadth. “Astródomo” is the longest cut on Domonautas Vol. 1 — not by a lot, but still — and it uses its time to affect multiple changes in movement, beginning a more winding transitional course at about three and a half minutes in as a bed for an emergent lead over a more forward rhythm before crashing into another verse, this one with a stomping march behind, and an extended ring-out and feedback course around the seven-minute mark, underscored and held together by the bassline.
It is a moment of hypnosis led by Óscar that the band will soon enough pay off with a return of vocals, guitar and drums, but that bassline — which seems to draw a bit from Clutch‘s “Spacegrass” in its construction; not a complaint — is a quiet moment that does much to showcase the range that seems to be at play across Domonautas Vol. 1, as the band are perfectly capable of moving between loud and quiet stretches, either creating a wash of effects and riffs or leaving open space for the unsuspecting audience to lose itself within. This serves them well during the instrumental passages of “Astródomo” and “Ritual del Sol,” the latter of which is arguably the most patient of the inclusions on the record.
It unfolds gradually across a multi-stage linear build, led by the guitar with effects/horn backing for atmosphere, and kicks in its fuzz at 3:45, still maintaining a post-rock kind of spirit, which will tie into “Planisferio” as well soon enough. A surge of low end accompanies the entry of vocals, and a new stage of nod is entered, but it’s short-lived as the bass and drums drop out to leave the guitar to set up a more forward riff that becomes the central adrenaline charge of the progression. They shift smoothly into a solo that carries them to and through the halfway point, turn back to a quick couple lines, then blast out even more desert-cosmic, eventually bringing the proceedings downward in energy level to a stretch of effects and subdued guitar float, tension holding in the bass as a tell that they’re not actually done yet.
Sure enough, after 10 minutes, they’re off and running again on the jam, and that leads them out in full party fashion. It would seem to be the apex of Domonautas Vol. 1 were it not for the instrumentalist work “Planisferio” does in setting up its grand finale, working from the ground up on a larger riff, receding again and gracefully executing a heavy psychedelic interpretation of what post-metal has taken on as a signature element: the “Stones from the Sky” moment, wherein that ultra-landmark Neurosis riff provides the foundation of a crescendo, usually manipulated in some way.
Domo join it to a melodic flourish of guitar and keep the central rhythm in focus all the while, pushing forward through that key progression and — most importantly — making it their own as the wind and twist toward the finish of the record, which comes in last crashes and residual guitars. I don’t know when Domonautas Vol. 2 might surface, and if there’s more to the story than Domo are telling here, I’ll be curious to find out just what that is, but it bears repeating that Domonautas Vol. 1 comes through as a coherent, complete statement, and doesn’t seem at its conclusion to be missing anything. That is, it doesn’t sound like you’re listening to half of a record, which is only a positive. Whatever Domo‘s future plans might be, after some years’ delay, they’ve given listeners plenty to explore with these tracks and the scope that seems to come so naturally from them.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
It’s winter and there’s snow on the ground, which means only two things: I want to leave the house even less than usual and it’s time for death-doom. Madrid-based Sun of the Dying have plenty of the keyboard-orchestral morose vibes and mournful wails that my soul needs this time of year, and their new album, The Earth is Silent, is newly issued through Art of Propaganda. The PR wire mentions Swallow the Sun as a reference point amid the classics of the style, and yeah, I can hear that in some of the more melodic moments of “A Dying Light,” but when that deathliness hits in Eduardo Guilló‘s growls, one almost can’t help but raise a claw in salute. I guess I missed out on their 2017 debut, The Roar of the Furious Sea, when that came out — hi, I suck at this, thanks — but I’m glad to be getting caught up now.
And by glad, I mean miserable.
You find solace where you can:
Spain’s quickly rising death/doom band SUN OF THE DYING has released their second album, The Earth Is Silent, with AOP Records. Fans can check out the record that’s storming the genre now!
SUN OF THE DYING crafts a style of death and doom with its roots drawing influence from early acts like MY DYING BRIDE, PARADISE LOST and ANATHEMA, and adding a more modern sound inspired by the likes of SHAPE OF DESPAIR, AHAB and SWALLOW THE SUN.
SUN OF THE DYING began in 2013 as a side project between Casuso and Lavín from their main bands (APOCYNTHION and CRYSTALMOORS). In April of 2017, the band released their debut record, “The Roar of the Furious Sea,” with the mexican label Throats Productions, and after which they performed shows with OCELON, ADE, TRONO DE SANGRE, MALAMMAR and ATREXIAL and WOMB.
Now the SUN OF THE DYING returns with a breathtaking and ferocious follow up, The Earth Is Silent; a bleak and beautifully chaotic record of some of the best death/doom to come out of Spain in years.
The Earth Is Silent Track Listing: The Earth Is Silent A Dying Light A Cold Unnamed Fear Orion When The Morning Came Monolith White Skies and Grey Lands
Lineup: Eduardo Guilló – vocals Casuso – guitars Roberto Rayo – guitars José Yuste – bass Diego Weser – drums David Muñoz – keyboards and backing vocals
flute and backing percussion all add to the fluidity of the track as a whole, while Requena‘s voice brings a folkish element that calls to mind the early interplay between folk and prog stylistically, as, say, British folk grew more complex at the same time heavy rock was looking to express something more mature as well. Buy the best dissertation proposal writing services online at RMEssays that offers custom communication and critical thinkings and help in UK, US and Australia. Abstracción are in an in-between place when it comes to style, but they skillfully draw from one side or another as need be in “Asinergia,” and — in a fashion that has me very much wanting to hear the rest of their self-titled — they turn an otherwise unassuming four-and-a-half-minute track into a mood-altering journey that finds cohesion from what could just as easily be opposing elements.
