https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Valborg to Release Endstrand April 7

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

valborg

Last heard from the 2016 two-songer Werwolf (review here), which for my money was one of the best short releases of the year, dark German metallers Valborg are set to return in April with a new full-length titled Endstrand that will see release on Prophecy Productions/Lupus Lounge. Their prior outing, Romantik, was something of a gem that I caught onto well after the fact, but with Endstrand will mark their sixth record and each one seems to be a different atmosphere from the last, so I’ll look forward to finding out what’s in store this time around. I always feel guilty for not being immediately on top of good albums, hearing something months after the fact and kicking myself for not having reviewed it at the time. Not gonna miss this one, is the bottom line.

The PR wire brings art and details:

valborg endstrand

VALBORG to Release New Album, ‘Endstrand’, April 7

German Trio Dishes Cerebral, Punishing Metal via Dark New LP

German ensemble of dread VALBORG has signed with underground indie Lupus Lounge / Prophecy Productions. The self-described “German metal monster” will release its new full-length LP, Endstrand, on April 7.

Championed by Celtic Frost / Triptykon architect Tom G. Warrior as “abundantly original and unique “ and “a mixture of Bohren und der Club of Gore, early Black Sabbath and Hellhammer”, VALBORG creates dense, inventive music that escapes categorization. The trio’s blunt, forceful songs are at once raw and primitive yet hold a nihilistic sophistication that forges clouds of nightmarish atmosphere, giving them a narcotic, dreamlike feel that very few bands achieve.

Produced by Markus Siegenhort (Lantlôs), Endstrand is a 13 song end-time vision hosting apparitions of empty beaches, bunkers in the dunes, novel biological phenomenon, washed up artifacts, noise distorted signals and omnipresent whirring, all of which float above the backdrop of VALBORG’s utterly barbaric death crunch. Forging “brutal and wasted, yet powerful” music, VALBORG unleashes sound as scorched-earth policy on Endstrand, delivering an immersive mysteriousness and darkness that has earned the group the right to be called one of Europe’s most exciting extreme metal bands.

“Working with Prophecy now feels natural and good to us,” comments VALBORG bassist Jan Buckard. “We’re looking forward to a pleasant time together.”

Track listing:

1.) Jagen
2.) Blut am Eisen
3.) Orbitalwaffe
4.) Beerdigungsmaschine
5.) Stossfront
6.) Bunkerluft
7.) Geisterwürde
8.) Alter
9.) Plasmabrand
10.) Ave Maria
11.) Atompetze
12.) Strahlung
13.) Exodus

https://www.facebook.com/valborgband/
https://zeitgeister.bandcamp.com/
http://us.prophecy.de/artists/valborg/
https://www.facebook.com/prophecyproductions/
https://twitter.com/ProphecyProd

Valborg, Werwolf (2016)

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The Obelisk Presents: The Top 20 Short Releases of 2016

Posted in Features on December 30th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk top 20 short releases

Please note: This post is not culled in any way from the Year-End Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2016 to that, please do.

Yeah, I know I said as much when the Top 20 Debut Albums of 2016 went up, but I take it back: this is the hardest list to put together. And to be honest, there’s a part of me that’s hesitant even to post it because I know as soon as I do someone’s going to be like, “No way you dick your entire existence is shit because you forgot Release X,” and very likely they’ll be right. Up to the very moment this post is going live, I’ve been making changes, and I expect I’ll continue to do so for a while after it’s out there.

So what’s a “short release?” That’s another issue. Pretty much anything that’s not an album. Singles, digital or physical, as well as EPs, splits, demos, and so on. The category becomes nebulous, but my general rule is if it’s not a full-length, it qualifies as a short release. Sounds simple until you get into things like, “Here’s a track I threw up on Bandcamp,” and “This only came out as a bonus included as a separate LP with the deluxe edition of our album.” I’m telling you, I’ve had a difficult time.

Maybe that’s just me trying to protect myself from impending wrath. This year’s Top 30 albums list provoked some vehement — and, if I may, prickishly-worded — responses, so I might be a bit gunshy here, but on the other hand, I think these outings are worth highlighting, so we’re going forward anyway. If you have something to add, please use the comments below, but remember we’re all friends here and there’s a human being on the other end reading what’s posted. Thanks in advance for that.

And since this is the last list of The Obelisk’s Best-of-2016 coverage, I’ll say thanks for reading as well. More to come in the New Year, of course.

Here we go:

scissorfight chaos county

The Obelisk Presents: The Top 20 Short Releases of 2016

1. Scissorfight, Chaos County EP
2. Earthless / Harsh Toke, Split
3. Mars Red Sky, Providence EP
4. Mos Generator, The Firmament
5. Soldati, Soldati
6. Monolord, Lord of Suffering / Die in Haze EP
7. Wren, Host EP
8. Goya, The Enemy EP
9. The Sweet Heat, Demo
10. River Cult, Demo
11. Stinkeye, Llantera Demos
12. Megaritual, Eclipse EP
13. Ragged Barracudas / Pushy, Split
14. Mindkult, Witchs’ Oath EP
15. Iron Jawed Guru, Mata Hari EP
16. Brume, Donkey
17. Bison Machine / Wild Savages / SLO, Sweet Leaves Vol. 1 Split
18. BoneHawk / Kingnomad, The Second Coming of Heavy: Chapter Three Split
19. Wicked Gypsy, EP
20. Love Gang, Love Gang EP

Honorable Mention

An expansive category as ever. In addition to what’s above, the following stood out and no doubt more will be added over the course of the next few days. If you feel something is missing, please let me know.

Presented alphabetically:

Cambrian Explosion, The Moon EP
Candlemass, Death Thy Lover EP
Cultist, Cultist EP
Danava, At Midnight You Die 7″
Dos Malés, Dos Malés EP
Druglord, Deepest Regrets EP
Fu Manchu, Slow Ride 7″
Geezer, A Flagrant Disregard for Happiness 12″
Gorilla vs. Grifter, Split
Holy Smoke, Holy Smoke! It’s a Demo!
Karma to Burn, Mountain Czar
LSD and the Search for God, Heaven is a Place EP
Pallbearer, Fear and Fury
Reign of Zaius, Planet Of…
Sea of Bones / Ramlord, Split
Shallows, The Moon Rises
The Skull, EP
Snowy Dunes, “Atlantis Part I” digital single
Sun Voyager / The Mad Doctors, Split
Valborg, Werwolf 7″

Notes

Was it just the raw joy of having Scissorfight back? No, but that was for sure part of it. It was also the brazenness with which the New Hampshire outfit let go of their past, particularly frontman Christopher “Ironlung” Shurtleff, and moved forward unwilling to compromise what they wanted to do that made their Chaos County so respectable in my eyes. Having always flourished in the form, they delivered an EP of classic Scissorfight tunes and issued a stiff middle finger to anyone who would dare call them otherwise. They couldn’t have been more themselves no matter who was in the band.

At the same time, it was a hard choice between that and the Earthless / Harsh Toke split for the top spot. I mean, seriously. It’s Earthless — who at this point are the godfathers of West Coast jamadelica — and Harsh Toke, who are among the style’s most engaging upstart purveyors, each stretching out over a huge and encompassing single track. I couldn’t stop listening to that one if I wanted to, and as the year went on, I found I never wanted to.

I was glad when Mars Red Sky included the title-track of the Providence EP as a bonus cut on their subsequent album, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul), both because it tied the two releases together even further and because it gave me another opportunity to hear it every time I listened to the record. Their short releases have always shown significant character apart from their full-lengths, and this was no exception. I still tear up when I hear “Sapphire Vessel.”

To bounce around a bit: Had to get Mos Generator on the list for the progressive expansion of the live-recorded The Firmament. Stickman was right to put that out on vinyl. Both Monolord and Goya provided quick outings of huge riffs to sate their respective and growing followings, while Megaritual’s Eclipse basked in drone serenity and the debut release from Sergio Ch.’s Soldati provided hard-driving heavy rock with the particular nuance for which the former Los Natas frontman is known. It’s the highest among a slew of first/early outings — see also The Sweet Heat, Wren (Host was their second EP), River Cult’s demo, Stinkeye, Mindkult, Iron Jawed Guru, Brume, Wicked Gypsy and Love Gang.

Ultimately, there were fewer splits on the list this year than last year, but I’ll credit that to happenstance more than any emergent bias against the form or lack of quality in terms of what actually came out. The BoneHawk and Kingnomad release, the Ragged Barracudas and Pushy split, and that heavy rocking onslaught from Bison Machine and company were all certainly welcome by me, and I’ll mention Gorilla vs. Grifter there too again, just because it was awesome.

One more time, thank you for reading, and if you have something to add, please do so in the comments below. Your civility in that regard is appreciated.

This is the last of my lists for 2016, but the Readers Poll results are out Jan. 1 and the New Year hits next week and that brings a whole new round of looking-forward coverage, so stay tuned.

As always, there’s much more to come.

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Quarterly Review: Red Fang, Black Moon Circle, Druglord, Drone Hunter, Holy Serpent, Lugweight, Megaritual, Red Lama, Lacy, Valborg

Posted in Reviews on December 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk winter quarterly review

Feeling good going into day two of the Quarterly Review. The good news about how heavy music has become such a vast universe is that there’s always plenty to cover without having to really dig into stuff I don’t find interesting. Of course, the other side of that is feeling constantly behind the curve and overwhelmed by it all, but let’s not talk about that for the moment. Point is that as we make our way through this week and into the next — because, remember, it’s six days this time, not five — a big part of me still feels like I’m just scratching the surface of everything that’s out there. It still seems just to be a fraction of the whole story being told around the world in the riffiest of languages. We all do what we can, I guess. Let’s get started.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Red Fang, Only Ghosts

red-fang-only-ghosts

Four albums into one of the decade’s most successful and influential heavy rock careers, doesn’t it seem like Portland, Oregon’s Red Fang are due for a truly great record? Their 2013 outing, Whales and Leeches (discussed here), was rushed by the band’s own admission – their focus, as ever, on touring – and Only Ghosts (on Relapse) unites them with producer Ross Robinson and mixer Joe Barresi, two considerable names to bring heft and presence to the 10-track/42-minute outing. And I’ve no doubt that “Shadows” and the bigger-grooving “The Smell of the Sound” and opener “Flies” kick ass when delivered from the stage, and it’s true they sound more considered with the ambience of “Flames” positioned early, but Only Ghosts still comes across like a collection of songs united mostly by the timeframe in which they were written. Doesn’t mean they don’t build on Whales and Leeches, but now five years on from 2011’s Murder the Mountains (review here), and with their dynamic, charged and momentum-driven sound firmly established, Red Fang still seem to be at the threshold of some crucial forward step rather than stomping all over it as one might hope.

Red Fang on Thee Facebooks

Relapse Records website

 

Black Moon Circle, Sea of Clouds

black-moon-circle-sea-of-clouds

After releasing a self-titled debut (review here) and the follow-up Andromeda (review here) in 2014, 2016’s Sea of Clouds (on Crispin Glover/Stickman) is the third proper studio full-length from Norway’s Black Moon Circle – though at that point, define “proper.” In 2015, the trio/four-piece – Trondheim-based guitarist Vemund Engan, bassist Øyvin Engan and drummer Per Andreas Gulbrandsen, plus Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective on synth – also released The Studio Jams Vol. I (discussed here) and in addition to the four tracks of Sea of Clouds, they’ve also had a Vol. II (review here) out this year. The definitions become fluid, is what I’m saying, and that couldn’t be more appropriate for the sound of “Lunar Rocket,” the outward-gazing space rock of “The Magnificent Dude,” “Moondog” and “Warp Speed,” which indeed offer enough kosmiche expanse to make one wonder where the song ends and the jam begins. Or, you know, reality. One has to wonder if Black Moon Circle might bridge the gap at some point between studio improv and more plotted songwriting, but as it stands, neither side of their dual personality fails to engage with its flow and drift.

Black Moon Circle on Thee Facebooks

Black Moon Circle at Stickman Records

Black Moon Circle at Crispin Glover Records

 

Druglord, Deepest Regrets

druglord-deepest-regrets

A one-sided 12” EP issued by STB Records in late 2015 as the follow-up to Richmond dirge-fuzzer trio Druglord’s debut album, Enter Venus (review here), the three-track Deepest Regrets represents the band’s final studio material with bassist Greta Brinkman (ex-L7) in the lineup, who’s since been replaced by Julian Cook. That distinction matters in no small part because so much of Druglord’s purposes on Deepest Regrets’ three component songs – “Regret to Dismember,” “Speedballs to Hell” and “Heaven Tonight” – is about reveling in low end. Rawer than was the album preceding, they find guitarist/vocalist/organist Tommy Hamilton, Brinkman and drummer Bobby Hufnell emitting an oozing lurch, blasting out thickened motor-riffing, and fortifying a darkly psychedelic drear – in that order. True to EP form, each song gives a sampling of some of what Druglord has to offer coming off the album, and with a recording job by Garrett Morris, who also helmed the LP, it remains a fair look at where they might head next, despite the shift in lineup.

Druglord on Thee Facebooks

STB Records webstore

 

Holy Serpent, Temples

holy serpent temples

Melbourne’s Holy Serpent return with Temples (on RidingEasy), their second full-length after 2015’s self-titled debut (review here), and continue to offer an engaging blend of well-blazed psychedelia and heavier-rolling groove. Especially considering they’ve still only been a band for two years, the four-piece of guitarists Nick Donoughue and Scott Penberthy (the latter also vocals), bassist Dave Barlett and Lance Leembrugen remain striking in their cohesion of purpose, and Temples opener “Purification by Fire” and ensuing cuts like the fuzz-wall centerpiece “Toward the Sands” and echo-laden “The Black Stone” only continue to stretch their intentions toward ever more acid-ic flow. They called it “shroom doom” last time out, and seem to have moved away from that self-branding, but however one wants to label Temples, its five tracks/43 minutes push ahead from where Holy Serpent were just a year ago and, rounding out with the slower churn of “Sativan Harvest,” still reminds that mind expansion and deeply weighted tonecraft are by no means mutually exclusive.

Holy Serpent on Thee Facebooks

Holy Serpent at RidingEasy Records

 

Drone Hunter, Welcome to the Hole

drone hunter welcome to the hole

Self-releasing Croatian instrumental trio Drone Hunter devise vigilantly straightforward riffing on their second album, Welcome to the Hole, finding room for some charm in titles like “Wine Dick,” “Crazy Ants with Shotguns” and the closing “A Burning Sensation,” the latter of which seems to draw particularly from the playbook of Karma to Burn. That comparison is almost inevitable for any riff-led/sans-vocal three-piece working in this form, but the crunch in “Fog Horn” and “Waltz of the Iron Countess” isn’t without its own personality either, and as with a host of acts from the Croatian underground, they seem to have a current of metal to their approach that, in the case of Welcome to the Hole, only makes the entire affair seem tighter and more precise while maintaining tonal presence. Fitz (guitar), Klen (bass) and Rus (drums) might not be much for words or last names, but their sophomore full-length comprises solid riffs and grooves and doesn’t seem to ask anything more than a nod from its audience. A price easily paid.

Drone Hunter on Thee Facebooks

Drone Hunter on Bandcamp

 

Lugweight, Yesterday

lugweight yesterday

Lugweight is comprised solely of Brooklyn-via-Richmond-Virginia transplant Eric Benson, and the project makes its full-length debut with the evocatively-titled drone wash of Yesterday following one EP and preceding another. Fair to call it an experimental release, since that’s kind of the nature of the aesthetic, but Benson demonstrates a pretty clear notion of the sort of noise he’s interested in making, and there’s plenty of it on Yesterday in “Sleeping on Cocaine,” on which one can hear the undulating wavelengths emanating from speaker cones, or the penultimate “Love Song for the Insane,” which features chanting vocals in echoes cutting through a tonal morass but still somehow obscure. A 33-minute five-tracker, Yesterday doesn’t overstay its welcome, but alternates between sonic horrors and warmer immersion in the shorter centerpiece “Bleed My Sorrow” and closer “Show Me Where the Shovel Is,” coming dangerously close in the latter to doom riffing that one might almost dare to put drums to. Solo drone guitar, even when this thick, is never for everyone, but one doubts Benson was shooting for accessibility anyhow.

Lugweight on Bandcamp

Forcefield Records website

 

Megaritual, Eclipse

megaritual eclipse

To hear Australia’s Megaritual tell it, the 25-minute single-song Eclipse EP was recorded on Mt. Jerusalem in New South Wales this past summer, the one-man outfit of vocalist/guitarist/sitarist/drummer Dale Paul Walker working with bassist/Monotronist Govinda Das to follow-up his prior two Mantra Music EPs, recently compiled onto an LP (review here) by White Dwarf Records. Whether or not that’s the case, “Eclipse” itself is suitably mountainous, building along a linear course from sea level to a grand peak with droning patience and gradual volume swells, lush and immersive psychedelia in slow-motion trails, a sparse verse, percussion, sitar, guitar, bass, and so on coming to a glorious vista around the 17:30 mark only to recede again circa six minutes later in a more precipitous dropoff. The digital edition (and that’s the only edition thus far) comes with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” which makes good company for the hypnotic titular exploration and the quick progression it represents after the other two short releases.

Megaritual on Bandcamp

White Dwarf Records website

 

Red Lama, Dreams are Free

red lama dreams are free

Heavy psychedelic pastoralists Red Lama enter the conversation of 2016’s best debut albums with Dreams are Free, initially released on All Good Clean Records and subsequently picked up by Stickman. Leaning more toward the liquid end of psych-blues, the Danish seven-piece immediately transcend with opener “Inca” (video here) and quickly showcase a subtlety for build that only gets more potent as they move through “Sonic Revolution” and “The World is Yours,” unfolding due heft in the latter without losing the laid back sensibility that the vocals bring sweetly, melodically, to the material. The later “Mekong River” seems almost like it’s going to shoegaze itself into post-rock oblivion, but Red Lama hold their sound together even into the 10-minute closer “Dalai Delay” – aptly-titled twice over – and deliver with striking patience a languid flow with hints of underlying prog experimentation. How that will come to fruition will have to remain to be seen/heard, but Dreams are Free also dips into funkier groove on “Dar Enteha,” so while they probably could be if they were feeling lazy, Red Lama don’t at all seem to be finished growing. All the better.

Red Lama on Thee Facebooks

Red Lama at Stickman Records

 

Lacy, Andromeda

lacy andromeda

Lacy is an experimental solo-project from former Lord guitarist Stephen Sullivan, based in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and part of a deep sludge underground that goes back well over a decade. Andromeda is his third album with the outfit and the second to be released in 2016, though unlike the preceding Volume 2. Blue, its 12 tracks were recorded in a matter of months, not years. All instruments, arrangements, vocals and the raw recording were handled by Sullivan himself (he also took the photo on the cover) but cuts like “Gyre Hell” and the acoustic “Push Me Away” veer around self-indulgence or hyper-navelgazing – I’d call “Offal and the Goat Brains” experimental, but not narcissistic – and he seems more interested in writing songs than making a show of being outside this or that imaginary box. Still, Andromeda offers diversity of instrumentation and arrangement, unplugging once more for “Healer” before closer “Always” finishes the album as a rumbling and grunge-laden love song.

Lacy on YouTube

Lacy on Bandcamp

 

Valborg, Werwolf

valborg werwolf

After catching on late to German metallers Valborg’s 2015 fifth album, Romantik, I told myself I wasn’t going to miss whatever they did next. The single Werwolf (on Temple of Torturous and Zeitgeister) might be a quick check-in of just two songs – “Ich Bin Total” and “Werwolf” itself – but the classic European-style death-doom chug of the latter and the vicious crash of the former I still consider a reward for keeping an eye out. “Ich Bin Total” is less than three and a half minutes long, and “Werwolf” just over five, but both feature choice chug riffing, darkened atmospherics and art-metal growls that only add to the clenched-teeth intensity of the instruments surrounding. They spare neither impact nor ambience nor lives as Werwolf plays out, the title cut riding its massive progression forward to a sensory-overload of nod before finally offering some release to the tension in a second-half guitar lead, only to revive the brutality once more, repetitions of “werwolf” chanted in growls over it. Awesome.

Valborg on Thee Facebooks

Temple of Torturous website

 

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Roadburn 2017: My Dying Bride, Scissorfight, Backwoods Payback, Come to Grief and More Added

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 15th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

Roadburn 2017 banner

Roadburn 2017 adds 26 new bands to its lineup. Let me spell that out: TWENTY-SIX. And from My Dying Bride to Sumac to Scissorfight to Memoriam to Valborg, it’s precisely the kind of all-things-to-all-people mix that one has come to expect from the annual April festival, promising an experience like no other in John Dyer Baizley‘s curated event, as well as sets from the likes of Gong and Backwoods Payback and Suma and Unearthly Trance, the latter two who were former US tourmates once upon a time and will reunite in Tilburg this coming Spring. Blown away by how huge this event has become, and how every year it just seems to keep growing and moving forward. Sit back and look at the poster below for today’s adds. It’s astounding.

Tickets on sale now. From the PR wire:

roadburn-2017-new-adds-my-dying-bride

Twenty six new bands added to the Roadburn 2017 line up

My Dying Bride will take to the Roadburn stage for the first time
David Tibet and Youth will perform as Hypnopaz?zu
Wolves In The Throne Room return from hibernation
Memoriam breathe new life into death metal
Wear Your Wounds show a different side to Jacob Bannon as part of John Dyer Baizley’s curation
Carpenter Brut take synthwave to new and exciting places
Those Poor Bastards conjure up the image of two undead holy preachers
….and more

MY DYING BRIDE:
My Dying Bride have been confirmed to make their Roadburn Festival debut at the 2017 edition of the festival. As one of the leading lights of metal during the 90s, where they helped to further define what doom metal really was and where it could still go, this West Yorkshire bunch earned a place in metal history. They’ve done it all and somehow have managed to remain fresh and inventive.

The influential British doom band will perform a suitably mournful doom-filled set on Saturday, 22 April, 2017 at the 013 venue.
Read more about My Dying Bride here.

HYPNOPAZ?ZU:
It’s PixieTime

Girls and Boys—

For our HypnoPickNick

Bring Moons and Toys!

We are thrilled to announce that Hypnopaz?zu (David Tibet of Current 93 and Youth of Killing Joke) will perform at Roadburn Festival 2017, alongside Ulver, on Sunday, April 23 at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Their album, Create Christ, Sailor Boy, ranks among our albums of the year at Roadburn HQ, and we cannot wait to witness it brought to life on stage at Roadburn 2017.

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM:

Wolves In The Throne Room will be returning to Europe for the first time since 2012, and since they announced their subsequent hiatus. The band will steer away from the ambient and ethereal landscapes they created on their 2014 album Celestite, instead setting their sights on the more raw and earthy sounds from earlier in their back catalogue. Whatever choice cuts they select to serve up, the set is sure to be a masterclass in atmospheric black metal from one of the most important bands to leave their mark on the genre in recent years.

Wolves In The Throne Room will play at Roadburn Festival 2017 on Thursday, April 20, at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

MEMORIAM:

Bolt Thrower’s Karl Willetts started Memoriam as “a celebration of life through death metal”, and the results are exactly as one might expect. Having recruited Benediction bassist, Frank Healy, former Bolt Thrower drummer, Andy Whale, plus guitarist Scott Fairfax, Memoriam are clearly on an old school, death metal mission.

Willetts commented: “Memoriam are pleased to announce that they will be playing at the acclaimed Roadburn festival in 2017.

“We have seen this festival grow over the years and for us to be among the illustrious selection of bands playing this year is an honour!!! With our debut album to be released sometime early 2017 Roadburn will give us the opportunity to showcase our new material. Memoriam will unleash its devastating weaponry upon Roadburn 2017 and provide a true celebration of life through old school death metal.”

Follow Memoriam onward into battle on Saturday, 22 April when they play at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

WEAR YOUR WOUNDS:

Wear Your Wounds – Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon’s intensely personal project – is an outlet he has been quietly feeding over the years, a repository for his lo-fi solo recordings that will now finally see the light. Scheduled for April 7th, just a couple of weeks before Roadburn, Wear Your Wounds’ first self-titled full length has us sitting on our hands with excitement.

John Dyer Baizley comments:
“I’ve never seen them perform (who has, really?) so it goes without saying that I will be front and center for this moment. The lineup for Wear Your Wounds will include the following, in addition to Jake Bannon himself: Chris Maggio (Sleigh Bells, Trap Them, Coliseum), Mike Mckenzie (The Red Chord, Stomach Earth, Unraveller) Adam McGrath (Cave In, Zozobra, Nomad Stones), and Sean Martin (Hatebreed, Twitching Tongues, Kid Cudi, Cage). Don’t let that list fool you, THIS IS NOT A SUPERGROUP, but its hard to deny the talent and power within those musicians and collaborators. Please don’t miss the opportunity to witness their first-ever performance.”

CARPENTER BRUT:

Carpenter Brut take the essence of metal that you like, the parts of techno that you used to like and the atmospheric film music of Carpenter/Argento/Goblin that you love, to create a heady, melodic and intense genre. This French outfit is taking the synthwave to new and exciting places.

Carpenter Brut play on Saturday, 22 April at the 013 venue, Tilburg.

THOSE POOR BASTARDS:

Sounding like two undead holiness preachers, crawling out of an abandoned Mississippi graveyard consumed by the foul bog and delivering their message of the endtimes, Those Poor Bastards will hover around the next edition of Roadburn determined to convince you that your eternal soul is already damned beyond redemption.

With the devil on their trail and the graveyard constantly looming ahead, Those Poor Bastards will ruin Het Patronaat when they play their ghoulish songs on Thursday, 20 April at Roadburn 2017 in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

ALSO CONFIRMED:

(DOLCH) lined up to shapeshift and mystify
ASH BORER deliver innovative Cascadian black metal to the Roadburn masses
BACKWOODS PAYBACK deliver honest expressions of heartfelt, heavy rock and roll
CASUAL NUN to deliver downright heavy psych
COME TO GRIEF will pay homage to Grief’s legacy
EMMA RUTH RUNDLE will perform a set thick with emotion and densely packed with honesty
ESBEN AND THE WITCH promise to delight with atmospheric, apocalyptic rock
FANGE make their debut with heaps of D-Beat and amplifier worship
GONG will lead us into psych rock sonic anarchy
NO SPILL BLOOD to demonstrate a fusion of muscular, sludgy punk energy and swirling synthesiser noise as part of John Dyer Baizley’s curated event.
OXBOW will release their next album, Thin Black Duke, shortly ahead of their Roadburn performance
SCISSORFIGHT promise to “unleash some New Hampshire backwoods debauchery”
SUMA bring their abrasive doom from Sweden
SUMAC sees the return of Aaron Turner to Roadburn with his denser-than-a-black-hole outfit
UNEARTHLY TRANCE set to combine the nihilism and confrontational approach of real sludge, both in lyrics and in actual musical delivery
VALBORG return to deliver another dose of their bleakly elegant presence.
VANUM will set Roadburn ablaze with a blend of icy melody and blackened atmospheric majesty
WOLVENNEST will churn up some utterly hypnotic, sonik soundscapery
YOUTH CODE show off their aggressive and expansive modern take on the EBM sounds of the 80s as part of John Dyer Baizley’s curated event.

Artists already announced for Roadburn 2017 include Coven, Warning (playing Watching from a Distance in full), Artists in Residence – GNOD, Mysticum, Oranssi Pazuzu, Deafheaven, Chelsea Wolfe, and our 2017 curator, John Baizley who will perform with Baroness, plus many more. Roadburn Festival will take place 20-23 April, 2017 at the 013 venue, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Tickets are on sale for Roadburn 2017 and can be purchased from this link.
4 day – 195 Euro
3 day (Thu, Fri, Sat) – 172 Euro
Single day ticket, Sunday only – 54 Euro

Thursday, Friday and Saturday single day tickets will be on sale at a later date.

http://www.roadburn.com/
https://www.facebook.com/roadburnfestival
https://twitter.com/roadburnfest

Scissorfight, Chaos County (2016)

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Valborg to Release Werwolf EP Sept. 23

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2016 by JJ Koczan

valborg

I’d hardly call myself an expert on Germany’s Valborg at this point, but the more I hear, the more I like. The dark metal three-piece will issue a new EP, titled Werwolf, on Sept. 23 through Temple of Torturous, and if you want to hear what I’m talking about, by all means dig into “Ich Bin Total” below, the churning metallic riff and lurching vibe of which should bring a recall of the best of peak-era Paradise Lost though the band undeniably bring their own spin to it as well.

It took me a bit to catch onto it, but their 2015 album, Romantik, is a gem of atmospheric bleakness and the band released the collaborative EP, Karbon Winter, earlier this year, working directly with Costin Chioreanu‘s Bloodway project. Werwolf — normally I’d say something smartass about “therwolf, thercastle” but in light of Gene Wilder’s recent passing will let it go this time — will be out as a limited 7″ and “Ich Bin Total” is one of two tracks being featured. I’d sure as hell be interested in hearing the other one.

Preorders are up now. From the PR wire:

valborg werwolf

Valborg – German Dark Metal Trio Reveal New EP Details Share First Single “Ich Bin Total”

German dark metal trio VALBORG have announced a new EP titled “Werwolf”, due out on September 23rd via Temple Of Torturous.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marius Costache at Studio 148 in Bucharest, Romania, “Werwolf” follows up their critically-lauded fifth album “Romantik”, released last year through Temple Of Torturous and sees the German trio fulfilling their fans’ wishes who were constantly requesting the recordings of two of the most acclaimed songs from their live set, “Werwolf” and “Ich Bin Total”. Originating from the pre-Romantik era those songs represent the best of what Valborg stands for and also offer a glimpse of what is about to follow on the sixth full-length record, which is already in the making. Pre-orders are available here.

Jan Buckard – Bass, vocals
Christian Kolf – Guitars, vocals
Florian Toyka – Drums

http://www.valborg.de
http://www.facebook.com/valborgband
http://www.templeoftorturous.com
http://www.facebook.com/ToTRecords
http://www.templeoftorturous.bandcamp.com

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Valborg and Bloodway Release Karbon Winter Collaboration

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 8th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

I’ll rarely say this, but Valborg & Bloodway get my vote for Roadburn 2017. Not that I actually get a vote, but if I’m fortunate enough to go and they’re on the bill, I’ll be there front and center when the German and Romanian collaborative outfit start into the tracks from their Karbon Winter EP, newly issued and positively crushing in its churn. The collaboration was apparently born of a joint tour, but as you can see in the lineup info below, it really is the two bands working together, and it sounds massive enough to come from two outfits, one of which includes acclaimed artist Costin Chioreanu and the other Christian Kolf, also of post-metal experimentalists Owl.

You can check out the title-track of the EP in the video below. See if the cave-echo doesn’t do it for you. It’s sure as shit doing it for me:

valborg bloodway karbon winter

VALBORG and BLOODWAY digital EP ‘Karbon Winter’ out now!

After the “Horrors of the Unknown” tour in fall 2015, it was clear to many that the friendship between Bloodway and Valborg was something truly special. In January, while Valborg was in Bucharest for a concert, the two bands met, composed and recorded a song together, “Karbon Winter”. Few months later a second song entitled “Ashes”, was worked out by only the bands guitarists. So, this way, this digital EP got born. This is not a split, this is actually music crated together by both bands!

1. Karbon Winter 06:17
2. Ashes 04:23

This EP is a collaboration between 6 musicians:
Costin Chioreanu – Guitars, Keyboards (Bloodway)
Christian Kolf – Guitars, Vocals (Valborg)
Florian Toyka – Drums (Valborg)
Jan Buckard – Bass (Valborg)
Alex Ghita – Percussion (Bloodway)
Mihai Andrei – Bass (Bloodway)

“Karbon Winter” song credits:
Music by Valborg and Bloodway. Lyrics by Christian Kolf.
Composed and recorded in studio 148, Bucharest, Romania on January 7th, 2016. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Marius Costache at Studio148.

“Ashes” song credits:
Music by Costin Chioreanu & Christian Kolf.
Recorded on June 7th, 2016. Mixed and mastered by Costin Chioreanu.

Cover Art by Costin Chioreanu – www.twilight13media.com

You can listen “Karbon Winter” EP in full or buy it from:

https://bloodway.bandcamp.com/
https://zeitgeister.bandcamp.com/

Valborg & Bloodway, “Karbon Winter”

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audiObelisk Presents: Live Roadburn 2010 Audio Streams from Bong, Death Row, Karma to Burn, Moss, The Lamp of Thoth, The Machine and Valborg

Posted in audiObelisk on June 10th, 2010 by JJ Koczan

Today The Obelisk is proud and thrilled to have been given permission to host the next batch of audio streams from the 2010 Roadburn Festival, which took place April 15-18 in Tilburg, Netherlands at the 013 Popcentrum. Please click the links below to listen, and enjoy.

Bong live at Roadburn 2010

Death Row live at Roadburn 2010

Karma to Burn live at Roadburn 2010

Moss live at Roadburn 2010

The Lamp of Thoth live at Roadburn 2010

The Machine live at Roadburn 2010

Valborg live at Roadburn 2010

More streams and info on the Roadburn audio crew available here. Special thanks to Walter and the Roadburn festival.

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