I like a good mystery every now and again, so when the link to check out Guerrera came through late last week with no info on the band or so much as a, “Hello please listen to our shit kthxbye,” I did something I wouldn’t usually do in that situation and clicked to take a listen to the band’s Under the Gypsy Sun full-length, which counts itself as blues but is almost certainly right in line with what commonly gets shuffled out as stoner rock. Mid-paced riffs lead through thick grooves and heady psych vibing, fuzz tones, developing into righteous but still directed jams as the songs play on.

Under the Gypsy Sun more or less unfolds in stages. The opening duo of “Believe in Pain” and “Dead Man” take on straightforward stoner drive, the first starting languid and mounting an effective build on its way while the second takes that momentum and pushes it through classic rocking stomp without getting into retroism, but it’s with the shorter “Make Me Feel” that Guerrera really begin to show there’s more to them than just riff cycles and echoing vocals. Tight and efficient, “Make Me Feel” finds immediate contrast in the five-minute “Living for You,” an even more directly linear progression perhaps more telegraphed but no less satisfying than that of “Dead Man” before it.

The next big change follows “Living for You,” however, whenthe 10:39  “Ted Kaczynski” takes hold. Its first three minutes are spent unfolding a sleepy jam, but the song never lacks for movement or a sense that Guerrera don’t know where they’re going. Feeding directly into the closing title-track, the transition from one to the other is so smooth that I have to keep watching the player to see when it’s actually happening. By the time they finish “Under the Gypsy Sun,” heavy psych elements have been introduced and my biggest argument with their initial blues positioning isn’t so much that it isn’t true as much as it’s not at all the whole story.

What is the story? I don’t really know. They’re from Spain, there are four of them and Under the Gypsy Sun is available for free download at the Guerrera Bandcamp. I suppose that hardly makes for a compelling biography or pitch email to send to a reviewer, but in picking out an Add of the Week for this week at The Obelisk Radio, there was little doubt where I’d end up. Check out the full stream of Under the Gypsy Sun below:

Guerrera, Under the Gypsy Sun

A bit of continuity never hurt anyone. You might remember last week’s Radio Add of the Week was by a newcomer Spanish band called Llord. You might not. Well, as it turns out, guitarist/vocalist David and drummer Michael Kelly from that outfit have another new band, this one called named Lord Summerisle after Christopher Lee‘s character in The Wicker Man. That’s a pretty good start. Their debut demo is, like Llord‘s, only three tracks, but it still gives an idea of where the band is coming from, blending progressive technicality and noodling with stretches of heavier grooves. Together with bassist Diego Caicedo, the trio moves away from Llord‘s primitive riff-led extremity and into move complex and effects-driven sounds, remaining instrumental while setting the course with opener “Pare Huarg,” while revealing an echoing clean-singing style from David on the spacier second cut, “1864.”

With all three songs running over six minutes long, Lord Summerisle give parts plenty of room to breathe and develop, but I wouldn’t call their demo jammy in the sense of a lot of modern Euro heavy. Rather, “1864″ filters classic prog complexity through modern tones, and the vocals give an airy, open feel. Where Llord‘s demo was recorded live, this one feels more layered and constructed. That continues through the last cut, “Ocellót,” though the riff and motoring tempo put it more in line with mid-’70s bruisers, there’s nonetheless a process at work in the presentation that runs deeper than “plug in and hit record.” That’s not to say Lord Summerisle sound unnatural, because they don’t, just that what the trio shows on their first outing is a personality distinct from that of the band with whom they share two-thirds of a lineup. They’ve made the demo available as a free download through Bandcamp, from whence the player below also comes:

Take note: Spanish outfit Mind! have just released their first album, Stunde Null, on LP/CDR through their own Not on Label Records in cooperation with several others (Odio Sonoro among them). Pressed in an edition of 500 copies, the record finds Viaje a 800 guitarist Alberto “Poti” Mota heading the Algeciras-based four-piece on guitar/vocals/keys/theremin, joined by Matt (guitar/vocals/keys), Pow (bass/vocals) and Serg (drums), and while his distinct voice and tone are bound to result in comparisons between Mind! and Viaje a 800, who released their long-awaited third album, Coñac Oxigenado (review here), in 2012, the new outfit has a definite personality of its own, given to blending elements of space and psychedelia without the same kind of moodiness Mota presented last year. True to its artwork, Stunde Null is a much brighter affair.

And to put a point on it, gorgeous. It’s not lush in the kitchen-sink sense, but a song like “Cosmic Tide” still has plenty of patience and cautious flowing to it, while elsewhere, Stunde Null plays driving Hawkwindian rhythms off Pink Floyd stoicism and electro-acoustic blend. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a good portion of the release is instrumental, but whether it’s the minimalist “Magallanes” interlude that follows the grand swirling payoff of “Cucumbers from Mars” or the early krautrocking Eastern scales of “Time to Fly,” which later settles into the most distinctly Floyd-esque progression of the album, Mind! satisfy the urge both for immersion in a psychedelic listening experience and for dynamic arrangements and songwriting. At its core, Stunde Null marks a richly impressive debut for the outfit, strikingly mature and exploratory. Listening back to the unfolding groove of opener “Sundrun Hreyfingarlaus,” my only hope is that Mind! puts out records more often than does Viaje a 800.

Indeed, that may well be part of Mota‘s impetus for getting the new project off the ground (and into the stratosphere), but time will tell. The aesthetic is different enough between the two bands to make me think that’s not the whole story, but certainly fans of Viaje a 800 will be pleased here, as should followers of jam-ready Euro space rock. Mind!‘s Stunde Null is a welcome surprise.

The band are on Thee Facebooks here. Check out Stunde Null on the player below, courtesy of the Mind! Bandcamp:

There’s not much known about Spanish sludge rockers Llord. The Barcelona-based trio recorded their debut demo last October and put it up for free download on Jan. 31, its three-tracks given a sense of extremity through guitarist David‘s vocals even as the band shows a commitment to a classic heavy approach, recording live and completely without the use of effects pedals. The former is nothing new — recording live is cheap and makes sense for a first demo by which to give listeners a general idea of what you’re going for sonically — but the lack of effects, Llord‘s attaining such tonality without a fuzz box or wah, that intrigues, whether it’s on the lead lines of “Iron Pescatore” or the larger stretch of riffing contained in 10-minute closer “Verro.”

Also noteworthy is the richness of the tones Llord are able to dial in. Bassist Aris complements David‘s guitar with clean, full-sounding runs, and even though the vocals have a more extreme metal bent — they remind especially on the slower Slayerisms of “Ordell” of Lair of the Minotaur — with drummer Mike serving as the anchor for their riffy wanderings, the material wouldn’t sound out of place with classic heavy rock wails put over them. This balance immediately gives Llord an individual sensibility in their take, and though I’m sure the demo’s primitive assault will be used as the first step in a progression that it is, it still provides a fascinating listen here and now.

Take a listen via the Llord Bandcamp stream below and see if you don’t agree. Glad to have these guys included in The Obelisk Radio:

Half a decade after issuing their excellent sophomore outing in the form of Estampida de Trombones, Andalusian heavy rockers Viaje a 800 emerge a much different band on the follow-up, Coñac Oxigenado. Not necessarily sonically – their sound is still very much defined by an encompassing, moody tonal weight and the lower register vocals of bassist Alberto “Poti” Mota – however, Mota has revamped Viaje a 800’s lineup and shifted the songwriting process, going from a four-piece to a trio and writing some of the longest songs the band had ever put on an album. Where Estampida de Trombones had shorter pieces like “Nicosia” or “Zé,” none of Coñac Oxigenado’s five tracks clocks in at under six minutes, and the album as a whole is a full 51 minutes long. I’d say that the band had a lot on their minds after not issuing a record in five years, but the break between their 2001 Diablo Roto De debut and Estampida de Trombones was six years, and the second album was the shorter of the two. In any case, Viaje a 800 – who release the full-length, as always, via Alone Records – are well suited to the more extended form, and the album is clearly organized to showcase the longer cuts, with the three that run over 10 minutes positioned as the opener, centerpiece and closer. Those are “Oculi Omnium in Te Sperant Domine,” “Eterna Soledad” and “What’s Going On,” respectively, and each of them as well as “Ni Perdón Ni Olvido” and “Tagarnina Blues” between have something different to offer the listener who would take them on. The closer is notable for the departure from the band’s native Spanish to English lyrics, but even so, Viaje a 800 still sound like Viaje a 800 more than they sound like anyone else, and anyone who got into either or both of their other albums will recognize elements still present in their sound, whether it’s the insistent rhythms, vague Monster Magnet influence or choice riffing. Given that Mota is joined by two new players – J. Angel on guitar/backing vocals and Andres on drums – I don’t know and won’t presume to say how much of the songwriting was his to start with, but as Viaje a 800 came into their third with a strong sound developed over two prior outings, that they’d develop the sound rather than depart from it in spite of lineup shifts can only be a good thing. Particularly given how much Coñac Oxigenado rocks.

On either of their past albums, “Oculi Omnium in Te Sperant Domine” might have been more than one song. Viaje a 800 open with a driving riff that soon leads into the hook of a verse – Mota wasting no time in establishing a straightforward push – and soon Angel takes the fore with a couple leads offset by vocals here and there around the central figure carried across on rhythm guitar, bass and drums. Just past three minutes in, however, the pace cuts and flourishes of percussion and a descending stair progression lead the way out to a psychedelic interlude. Mellotron sounds underscore a sparse bluesy guitar before Andres ups the snare punctuation and Mota returns on vocals for a still-slowed verse. In turn, this gives way to a faster bass-introduced section topped with fuzz guitar that veers into flamenco claps and rhythmic intricacy. The guitar eventually comes back alongside Mota’s steady bassline and Andres’ consistent snare march, but Viaje a 800 never quite get back to the initial verse progression, ending instead what started out as a simply structured song with a lengthy instrumental jam. Whether or not it was their intent to catch their audience off guard, I don’t know, but the disorienting effect persists and it feels purposeful. The shorter “Ni Perdón Ni Olvido” starts out more metallic with a guitar like from Angel that feels culled from the playbook of Countdown to Extinction-era Megadeth – of course the context is different – that immediately grounds Coñac Oxigenado’s flow and sets the course for the next seven-plus minutes, most of which is derived from that initial distorted verse line. Angel’s lead work proves a highlight throughout the record, but as “Ni Perdón Ni Olvido” branches out so specifically from the guitar line, it seems especially notable on the second track. As “Eterna Soledad” gets underway with an organic-feeling mandolin groove, he becomes all the more a standout factor in Viaje a 800’s current incarnation.

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Card-carrying lifers in doom’s avant garde, Spanish outfit Orthodox will issue Conoce los Caminos on Jan. 28 through Alone Records. Orthodox already re-released their 2005 demo earlier this year on tape, but the pressing was limited to 152 copies and presumably they’ll make more than that of Conoce los Caminos. Hopefully, anyhow. Either way, the new collection is up for pre-order now, as the PR wire informs:

Orthodox is set to launch their new B-sides and rarities compilation “Conoce los Caminos: 2005-2010? [translation: Know the Paths] due on January 28th 2013.

For limited time and only through our website you can PRE-ORDER this 2CD + official release T-shirt. This compilation shows the band’s amazing ability to build bridges and overcome genre barriers from metal to post rock to avant garde with firm hand towards an “uber-doom” with the unmistakable stamp of Orthodox.

Songs composed over five years, from their beginnings to 2010, which include: four previously unreleased tracks, demos from Gran Poder and Sentencia, Venom and Black Sabbath covers released at the time by Southern Lord in the U.S. and two songs taken from their 7 ” released by Doomentia.

Borja, the drummer, states about this work “it´s a sample of topics and ideas that we have done in the past and keep haunting us for the future … all the stories are closed in themselves; with this 2CD we seek to give a little more meaning to ours and see if we can expand Orthodox´s circle of sound …”.

Tracklisting

cd1
1 ‘Matse Avatar’
2 ‘YHVH’
3 ‘Genocide’
4 ‘Black Sabbath’
5 ‘Heritage’
6 ‘Apoc, 17.5′
7 ‘Different Envelopes’
8 ‘Japan Rush’

cd2
1 ‘Geryon´s Throne’ (demo 2005)
2 ‘El Lamento del Cabrón’ (demo 2005)
3 ‘Ascensión’ (demo 2008)

Dawn in Space is the debut release from Spanish double-guitar heavy jam foursome Pyramidal. Issued on CD by Radix Records and limited gatefold 2LP with bonus tracks through Krauted Mind, the full-length mostly follows the guitars of Miguel Angel Sanz and Óscar Soler (the former also contributes synth and the latter the album’s sparse vocals) and like the architecture of the band’s native Alicante, there’s a vague Middle Eastern influence in the psychedelic ranging that works coincidingly with the modern heavy jam mindset. Tonally, even a minor-key cut like “Kosmik Blizzard” isn’t so viscous that it can’t move, and Pyramidal do well throughout to vary the pace and level of activity so as to hold attention for Dawn in Space’s 62-minute duration, or at very least not lull to sleep when it doesn’t mean to be hypnotic. The “chill” effect that a lot of European heavy psych has had to offer over the last year or two – thinking of bands like Samsara Blues Experiment, Electric Moon and their ilk of post-Colour Haze improvisers – comes across quite clearly through some of this material, and at over an hour long, it’s hard to believe that’s not on purpose, but there’s a space rocking musical influence as well to go along with the titles and artwork that comes through Lluís Mas’ drumming and Miguel Rodes’ bass; a sense of forward and outward push. For that, Pyramidal earn their requisite-for-space-rock Hawkwind comparison, but again, Dawn in Space has more going on stylistically than just following Dave Brocke’s chemtrails. To put a point on it, the hidden track that comes on about a minute after closer “Mars Lagoon” ends has more in common in terms of its ethic and execution with Yawning Man.

And though that’s true – maybe it seems like a finer line than some, but it’s also more breadth than one finds in many acts – what’s really going to make any release like Dawn in Space is going to be the chemistry between the players involved. Sanz, Soler, Rodes and Mas give an ample showing in this regard, the patience of the build in the 10-minute “Pastikleuten (Part I & II)” being a prime instance, but it’s pretty clear from the whole of the album that it’s a case of development getting under way and what’s playing out across these seven-plus songs is the beginning stages of what will undoubtedly be a more protracted arc. Still, wah-drenched solos and transitional injections of synth from Sanz have their own appeal, and Pyramidal’s dedication to and strong sense of aesthetic carry them through much of this material, and whether it’s the verses that suddenly appear on the later “Tempel Iaru” or “Black Land,” which follows the brief and swirling opener “Intronauts,” or the longer instrumentals that make up the crux of Dawn in Space, one could hardly listen to the record and not come out of it thinking the band has no idea what they’re doing. Like doom for doomers, it’s heavy psych for heavy psychers, mixed so that Rodes’ bass stands out punctuating “Kosmik Blizzard” as much as the riff it’s feeding into, and so that Mas’ drums never quite leave the ground but never sound like they’re purposefully staying attached to it either, far-miked cymbals coming across naturally. Perhaps predictably, Pyramidal recorded the entirety of Dawn in Space live, and that warmth and vibrancy is there both in tone and performance. The guitars never quite shred, but the leads suit the mood well, and though the midsection of the title-track feels a bit like it’s lost its footing, there’s something about that sensibility that works well with Pyramidal’s overall approach.

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After a couple starter splits, singles and EP releases, Spanish four-piece Adrift made their full-length debut in 2008 with Monolito, an album that wore its winding post-Mastodon neo-prog metal influence on its sleeve. The complexity of rhythm and overall extremity finds further push in the forthcoming Alone Records follow-up, Black Heart Bleeds Black, which is darker atmospherically and more conscious of but not modeled after mid-period Neurosis‘ apocalyptic churn. Doomed in mood and guitar-led sensibility, its songs follow progressive structures to vicious ends and offer little hope to those who’d take them on.

More importantly, the overall impression Black Heart Bleeds Black gives is more individualized than was the first record, and Adrift work within a variety of forms that maintain their pummel even as they change the direction from which that pummel comes. Tonally, it’s metal, and I hear a bit of Converge‘s bombast in the screams of “Mallet Man,” but there’s more happening in these songs than any one band comparison can really convey, the two guitars of Macon and Jorge (the latter also vocals) working into and out of tandem stretches with an ease that skillfully undercuts the difficulty of what they’re actually doing.

And where a lot of prog (neo- or otherwise) seems to forgo its sense of songwriting to convey musicianship, even on the trace-state instrumental “Erich Zann Movement,” Adrift don’t lose the human feel to what they do — they’re just reeling back for the next blast, which of course arrives in the form of the 9:48 “Fury Roof.” In terms of giving a concise impression of what Black Heart Bleeds Black does, though, the seven-minute “Wolves Searching Dams” is densely packed with aggression and ambience in kind, relentlessly driven forward by frantic guitars, Jaime‘s drums and Dani‘s bass, as you can hear for yourself on the player below:

For CD and/or vinyl preorders of Black Heart Bleeds Black, click here. Much thanks to Alone Records for granting permission to host the stream, and to find out more about Adrift, be sure to hit them up on Thee Facebooks or their Something Called MySpace page.

Adventurous Andalusian heavy psych trio Viaje a 800 made their full-length debut with 2001′s Diablo Roto De…, and it would be another six years before their sophomore outing, Estampida de Trombones, came out. The second album was released by Alone Records, who also reissued the first one that same year, and it’s through that same label that the follow-up to Estampida de Trombones, titled Coñac Oxigenado makes its way to the public this spring.

Coñac Oxigenado is widely varied and doesn’t really belong to any single genre, but Viaje a 800 consistently maintain elements of space and heavy rock throughout, even as they veer into atmospheric interludes on Coñac Oxigenado‘s five extended tracks, which become as much about the mood they create as about the riffs or the complex, highly-stylized rhythms.

If the album is anything, though, it’s meticulous. You can hear it when the organ subtly joins in behind the acoustic/percussion interplay of 10-minute centerpiece cut “Eternal Soledad,” or when opener “Oculi Omnium in te Sperant Domine” gives way to an interlude of flamenco-style hand claps. Viaje a 800 leave room for jams, but nothing on Coñac Oxigenado is happening by accident.

You can find out for yourself on the markedly progressive “Oculi Omnium in te Sperant Domine” by streaming it on the player below. Given that it’s not every year that Viaje a 800 get a new record out, I’m thrilled to be able to host the track for you to check out, followed by some info courtesy of Alone Records:

Viaje a 800 is an Andalusian and Spanish rock classic. Not as “Andalusian rock” label, but as a feature of identity. A band respected by critics and audience, with a journey full of obstacles (three discs in 12 years of age) and abused by bad luck, with which Alone Records has maintained a close relationship since our label took his first steps as record company. Finally, the highly anticipated Coñac Oxigenado album will be released during the second quarter of 2012. With this album, Viaje a 800 closes a stage in which the band undergoes changes in its classical line-p, which delivered rock gems as Diablo Roto De and Estampida de Trombones. Now, Coñac Oxigenado appears as the end after more than 10 years being a reference in the Spanish doom-prog scene in Spanish language. Unique in its kind and unmatched on scene.

If you want to hear more, the band has two other songs from Coñac Oxigenado streaming through the label’s Soundcloud page, where you can also check out tracks from Black Rhino, Adrift and others.

Proffering heady mostly-instrumental psychedelic jams in what I’m quickly coming to think of as the neo-European tradition, Spanish trio Domo set out on a wandering journey across the seven tracks of their self-titled Radix Records debut. In that the song are mostly named for concepts out of Hindu/Buddhist theology – the one exception is “Eta Carinae,” named for a nebulous star system – one might draw an immediate comparison to My Sleeping Karma, although Domo’s arrangements are simpler and less pointed in terms of structure. The three-piece of guitarist Samuel Riviere, bassist/vocalist Óscar Soler and drummer Paco García inject some vaguely “Eastern” elements into their sound, as the scales of “Asura” show, but mostly staving of a generic feel throughout Domo’s 64 minutes is the interplay between the members of the band. The music feels natural in the recording and spontaneous where it goes, but Domo seem nonetheless aware that they’re making an album and not just jamming out or playing a live show. The shorter, acoustic-led “Pretas,” which comes after the first three extended cuts, speaks to that, as does the 1:59 synth interlude “Eta Carinae” that sets up sprawling closer “Samsara.” These tracks offer a respite from the depths to which Domo plummet (or, alternately, the heights in the atmosphere they ascend) on the more sprawling voyages

“Yamantaka,” which rests between the two breaks (“Pretas” and “Eta Carinae”) affects a more spacious bluesiness. Riviere is in the lead on guitar and until about five and a half minutes in, it seems like he’s just going where his fingers take him until Soler and García pick up the rhythm and lead into a section that alternates between Hendrix and Hawkwind on its way to interstellar oblivion. When the guitar cuts out momentarily, one finds one can breathe and better appreciate Soler’s bass tone, which is subtly fuzzed and warm enough to engage. Earlier on the album, it opened the first track, “Nadi,” but with so much between then and “Yamantaka,” it was easy to lose it in the mix – plus, Riviere is almost an entity unto himself within the band, soloing atop the rhythm section and only occasionally meeting with it – that one tends to follow him and wonder where that groove is coming from. Soler and García both prove worth the extra attention throughout Domo, although the latter does more to keep the pace and keep the material grounded than he does to add flash to the songs or show off with fills or complex beats. The task set upon him is difficult enough, but he does as able a job as anyone could, and when Domo let go and really take off – “Samsara,” for example – it’s because they want to, not because they’re out of control. “Samsara” and “Prana,” the second offering, are the only cuts on Domo to feature Soler’s vocals, which aren’t out of place in the music but aren’t really present enough to anchor it anyway. “Prana” in particular begins with such a morass of noise before García kicks in on drums that even if Domo went full verse/chorus/verse on it after that, it would still be more exploratory than not.

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The last couple years have seen the rise of a new school in European heavy psychedelia. Taking influence as much from acts like Colour Haze, Dozer and 35007 as they took in turn from Kyuss and their desert ilk, bands like Samsara Blues Experiment and Sungrazer have been able to forge a new wave of heavy jamming that relies just as much on spontaneous-sounding interplay between band members as it does on warm, Orange-hued low end and fuzzy stoner rock riffs. The effect is often hypnotic and engaging, and with their Nasoni Records debut, Beats of Olarizu, Spanish outfit Arenna join the forerunners of the style. The two-guitar five-piece formed in 2005 and recorded Beats of Olarizu over the course of four days (two in May, two in September) last year, resulting in a CD that stretches 68 minutes and a double vinyl that’s even longer – three more tracks – of Billy Anderson-mastered psychedelic expanse. Information is minimal on who does what, but the band is comprised of Guille, Javi, Txus, Kike (that’s a listed name, no offense intended in its use here) and R. Ruiz with several guests throughout contributing synth and Hammond on later cuts like “The Strangest of Lives,” “Eclipse” and the sprawling CD closer “Metamorphosis in Ic (0.9168 g/cm³).”

Four out of the six CD tracks also feature guest vocals from Jony Moreno of fellow Spanish rockers The Soulbreaker Company, but as the first three of Beats of Olarizu’s cuts are more straightforward structurally, the album really is one that unfolds gradually as you listen to it. Opener “Morning Light” is longer than the two songs that follow, “Receiving the Liquid Writings” and “Fall of the Crosses,” but its slow amplifier hum intro and lead nonetheless into an upfront verse/chorus that reminds vocally a bit of an accented Goatsnake in the verses. “Morning Light” appropriately sets the tone of Arenna’s methodology to come over the subsequent material, but more even than that, it shows one of the band’s great strengths immediately to be in its rhythm section. The guitars are fuzzed out and the vocals are melodic – and, with the addition of Moreno, more intricately arranged than one might initially think – but the bass and drums are driving the song almost as soon as it kicks in. That holds true on “Receiving the Liquid Writings” as well, but perhaps most of all on the bouncy “Fall of the Crosses,” which is the shortest cut here at 5:26 and finds the bass taking lead setting a funky rhythm that III-era The Atomic Bitchwax might have concocted had they been so inclined. It’s a classic rock shuffle, and after the more directly riff-led “Receiving the Liquid Writings,” one of Beats of Olarizu’s refreshing changes of pace.

And while that’s true, there’s no question that the more individualized material on Beats of Olarizu comes in the second half of the album’s track list. “Eclipse” develops slowly with sampled nature sounds, acoustic guitar and Hammond organ, the electric guitars beginning to subtly wind their way into the mix only after three of the total near-12 minutes, taking the hold just before the four-minute mark. Even then, the song has a confidence in its open feel that I didn’t get from “Fall of the Crosses” or “Morning Light,” that Arenna are comfortable as a unit to ride out the bass line and let the synth fill out their sound, the guitars adding echoing notes here and there to highlight the sparseness. Rightly, “Eclipse” relegates vocals to almost an afterthought; they arrive with a chorus after six minutes in and soon enough are swallowed up for another three minutes of solid riff-led jamming before making another appearance with the aforementioned chorus lines, which in turn give way again to the guitars and the close of the song. Without knowing how the tracks are arranged across the two LPs of the vinyl edition, I’ll say “Eclipse” feels like an apex of Beats of Olarizu and could easily carry the responsibility of capping off a side and/or disc on its own.

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With three massively varied full-lengths already under their collective belt, be-robed Andalusian doom trio Orthodox return with the follow-up to 2009’s Sentencia in the form of Baal. Baal, released like its predecessor through Spanish imprint Alone Records, is comprised of five tracks that follow the band’s charted course of morose exploration, but find them bringing some crunch into their dirges. Where Sentencia had a medieval, blackly-plagued vibe to it, Baal is more directly doomed, though you might not know it from the near-six-minute instrumental opener, “Alto Padre,” which sets a tone of the kind of free jazz ethic Orthodox has been incorporating into their sound since their 2006 debut, Gran Poder. What remains most consistent about Orthodox on Baal is the band’s ability to affect a mood and their truly open creative sensibility. As much as they’re within the doom genre, they’re almost never limited by it, and from bassist Marco Serrato Gallardo’s victorious vocal warble on “Taurus” to the recklessly rhythmic drive of “Hanin Ba’al,” it seems Orthodox could go anywhere at any moment and be able to pull something coherent out of it.

That’s no easy feat when you’re working with this kind of sonic breadth. With just three members in the band – Gallardo is joined as ever by guitarist Ricardo Jimenez Gómez and drummer Borja Diaz Vera – Orthodox manage to completely set an atmosphere both expansive and encompassing, despite a traditionally doomed, spacious feel in the songs. Gómez’s layers of guitar on “Alto Padre” strum and ring freely while Vera rolls on his toms behind, leaving Gallardo to thicken and fill out the song on bass. It’s hard to tell from there where Orthodox might be going with Baal – at least hard to tell correctly – and it’s as though they’re leading from Sentencia directly into this newer material, leaving it up to the first track here to provide the transition from one to the next. If we take “Taurus,” then as the beginning of Baal proper, it’s a lumbering and thoroughly doom face that Orthodox are presenting on their latest work. Gallardo would seem to lead the charge with open bass notes ringing through the breaks and vocals that march as much as they do anything else, but Gómez soon injects one of Baal’s several killer solos and makes his presence known that way. Over time, the members of Orthodox have clearly gotten more comfortable with each other as players, and their interaction is the key to making Baal a success. They never sacrifice artistry or dumb down their playing style to highlight a riff, but neither do they fail to pay homage to the heaviness that was doubtless the impetus behind forming the band in the first place.

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There’s no telling where the sludge is going to come from next. Andalusian three-piece Monkeypriest got together in 2006 and are now releasing their debut full-length, The Psalm, on heavy Spanish imprint Féretro Records. The album is seven songs, four of which are 6:45-7:00 minutes long, and though that might make it seem like Monkeypriest are working well within a formula, the other tracks – an instrumental opener called “Hanuman’s Dance,” a cover of Cerebral Fix’s “Feast of the Fools” and 10-minute closer “Our Kingdom (Involution Pt. II)” – are enough to break up the proceedings, and combined with the elements of metallic extremity the trio incorporate, The Psalm comes across more varied than one might think. It’s probably not going to blow any minds when it comes to sludge – shades of Eyehategod and Crowbar underscore much of the riffing from guitarist Marco Álvarez – but they have enough different about them to keep the tracks interesting.

Part of that includes a militant kind of nature-based spiritualism and activist sense. Lyrics like “Listen to the sound of nature/I have to follow your work/My protector, my Lord/I need your powerful words” from the title-track sound more like they should be coming from some swoopy-haired Christian deathcore, but Monkeypriest elevate environmentalism to a religious level and use it as the central theme of The Psalm. One might have a hard time figuring that out through the growls and screams of bassist Pedro Román, backed periodically by Álvarez, but the words are right in the liner notes for anyone who wants to explore the album on that level. Even through song titles like “The Word of the Priest” and “Involution,” though, it should be clear from the outset that Monkeypriest have a message they’re trying to deliver. For lack of a better word, call it preaching. It’s also worth noting that each member of the trio uses a numerical stage name. Álvarez is Monkeypriest #1, Román is Monkeypriest #2, and drummer Julio Moreno (who replaced Rafael García sometime before the album was recorded) is Monkeypriest #4. I thought for the purposes of this review that real names would make it easier to distinguish who was doing what.

“The Word of the Priest,” which follows “Hanuman’s Dance,” is more or less a mission statement for The Psalm lyrically and musically. The pacing is on the slower end of middle, and that seems to be where Monkeypriest are most comfortable. Moreno begins the track with heavy thuds and keeps that ethic moving well into “The Psalm,” which follows, enacting builds and subtle tempo changes skillfully. It being sludge, the riffs are central, but the dry-throated rasp of the vocals to “The Psalm” will also make it a standout to those who appreciate screams over their doom. The groove the band follows the riff into proves worthy of naming the album after, but the real surprise follows a Román-led bass break, when the band launch into black metal-style blastbeats and a guitar line that could have come off any of the last several Satyricon records. It’s a unique moment on The Psalm, but hardly Monkeypriest’s only foray into the more extreme end of metal. There’s still that Cerebral Fix cover to come. They do well blending those elements into their sound, though, and it gives The Psalm a sense of being more than just another screamy sludge outing.

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Whereas much of the movement in the last several years of heavy psychedelic rock has been toward the more freeform, jamming style of bands like Earthless and Naam, the Vitoria-Gasteiz collective The Soulbreaker Company from the north of Spain present an incredibly tight-wound vision of what space-leaning psych can be on their second Alone Records full-length, Itaca. The six-piece (plus guests) band run through a wide array of sonic motifs, from the jazzy synth-prog of opener “It’s Dirt,” to the Doors-y feel of the ending movement of “Sandstorm,” always maintaining control, always sounding full. Never a hair out of place, so to speak. It’s an accomplishment mostly in the complexity of the song arrangements – I know of plenty two-piece bands who can’t get to the point of togetherness The Soulbreaker Company have with up to eight or nine people on a single track.

Part of that credit has to go to Chris Fielding, who produced Itaca at Foel Studios in Wales (Obiat, Conan, Porcupine Tree) along with the band. The sounds here are crisp but not unnatural, and there’s a remarkable balance between the separation in the instruments and their meshing. The already-noted opener earns kudos not only for its creative breadth, but for being the longest cut on Itaca at 9:38 (I’m almost always a sucker for a band who opens with their longest song instead of tacking it at the end), and cuts like “Oh! Warsaw,” the catchy “Sow the Roses” and the later, piano- and horn-driven “Take a Seat on the Moon” only reinforce the album’s primary statement, that The Soulbreaker Company are a band for whom the limits are few and far between. They have the will (and the personnel) to take listeners on a genuine journey, and the more of Itaca I dig into, the farther-ranging I’m finding it to be. While the classic rock approach of vocalist/guitarist Jony Moreno (backed occasionally by Layla Seville and/or Joanne Deacon) does a lot of the tying together of the different-sounding tracks, there’s also a tonal consistency to the material on Itaca that serves to heighten the drama of the songs while it helps the flow one to the next. Fans of Hypnos 69 will swoon over the guitar work of Daniel Triñanes and Asier Fernandez on “Colours of the Fire” and the sax-playing of Kike Guzman (who might want to think about adopting a nom de guerre) on “It’s Dirt” and “No Way Back Home,” on which the Hammond of Oscar Gil also provides an album highlight.

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Fresh off last year’s three-way split with Lords of Bukkake and Sons of Bronson and single-track Lords of the Cave Worm full-length, Barcelona crushers Warchetype make their latest offering with the album Ancestral Cult of Divinity. Released, like their first two LPs, on Alone Records, the six-cut Ancestral Cult of Divinity showcases the kind of self-awareness you might expect in modern traditional doom, owing much of its sound to a darker interpretation of The Obsessed with nods to Trouble, Candlemass, Saint Vitus and Black Sabbath along the way, but Warchetype don’t shy away from displaying a heavier, death metal influence. This is a big part of what distinguishes them from the legends by whom they’re inspired, and given a long European history for pioneering death/doom, the five-piece is by no means out of line with a slew of preceding acts.

Led by the snail’s pace riffage of guitarists David Bruguera and Jordi Boluda and fronted by the versatile Iban Arrieta, Warchetype cast an effective balance of new school and traditional doom, their roots showing through in the structure and tempo changes of their songs – three of which on Ancestral Cult of Divinity cross the 11-minute mark – and the freshness with which they approach the sound providing that new school feel. Where a lot of trad-doomers feel reinterpreted Sabbath riffs are enough, Warchetype repurposes “Snowblind” into closer “Doom Brotherhood,” a song well aware of the tribute it’s paying and all the more effective for wearing its influence on its sleeve. Likewise, the Wino-style vocal cadence in the verses of “Bastards” makes no bones about its origins.

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