Posted in Questionnaire on May 27th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Dan Blomquist of Conclave & Benthic Realm
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I currently play drums in two bands from Massachusetts, Conclave and Benthic Realm. I grew up in a musical family with both my parents being performing violinists. I took piano lessons first growing up, played hand bells at my Dad’s church, then trombone and saxophone in grade school band but ultimately found my sweet spot with smashing things in the drums around sophomore year of high school. Been my drug of choice since.
Describe your first musical memory.
How about my first musical memory of when my musical taste changed from what I was raised to listen to and learn to play, to the heavier side of music. Around 1979 or so, my Dad and I made our ritualistic trip to Radio Shack. He was an electronics engineer and a hi-fi nut so this was like his second home. This particular trip I had enough money that I bought myself a small handheld AM/FM radio. As soon as we got home I headed out to Anne’s Variety Store to go purchase some penny candy with my totally badass handheld radio.
I ran to the top of the hill on the way to the store and BOOM! I had FM Rock Radio on! KISS was playing and I’d never heard anything like them before. That was the moment my tastes changed. My Dad would break my balls after that about every single band I would introduce to him, but he always encouraged me to play… and to play “quieter.” When my Dad passed away five years ago and I had to go through his belongings at his house, I found the radio was still there in a box with all kinds of other radios and gear. I took it home and have it to this day.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Being a kid helping my Dad by carrying his music stand into what ever music hall, conservatory or orchestra pit he was playing in. He always made me feel like I was part of the orchestra or ensemble he was playing with and it felt amazing, like I was 10 feet tall.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I’m actually coming up empty on this one. I suppose I could go back to when I stopped believing in God, but I’m not really sure that I ever truly believed in it to begin with. I’d like to be spiritual, but we’re all just organic matter that will rot away so what’s the point. My whimsical essence isn’t going to travel through the cosmos for eternity. Make the most of the time you’ve got. It’s all you’ve got. Believe that.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Ultimately, where it’s supposed to I would say. Progression in the arts can be very different from one person or form to another. So how and where you progress is kind of organic, evolutionary and unavoidable. Plus progress is the route of all evil they say, so there’s bonus points for being evil.
How do you define success?
I’d define success as being able to take something positive away from everything you do even if you seem to fail at it. In other words, if you set a weight loss goal of dropping 50 lbs in a year and lose less than that in a year, you still succeeded in progressing towards your goal. If you don’t lose sight of that, you’ll continue on and reach your ultimate goal which was to lose the weight, even if it took a longer amount of time. To fall short of your goal and stop before finishing the journey is to be unsuccessful. Don’t stop, don’t give up and you’ll always succeed.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Family and friends die from alcohol, drug abuse and suicide.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Inner peace.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Feeling. Whether you’re creating it or taking it in, it’s about how it makes you feel. The artist, the viewer, the listener, the reader, all of it, all of them, everyone.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
NON-musical in the immediate future would have to be my daughter and the youngest of my three, graduating high school in June and beginning her college stem classes this summer. She’s had more than her fair share of struggles and obstacles in her life leading up to this point and I couldn’t be more proud or grateful for the beautiful and incredible person she is.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 23rd, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I know Benthic Realm have all that melody, and that’s super, don’t get me wrong. I’d even go as far as super-duper, okay? I won’t say a bad word about it, because there isn’t a bad word to say. But if you go ahead and plug your eyeballs into the video for “Untethered” below and watch bassist Maureen Murphy do that longer-chug-pause-shorter-chug thing while drummer Dan Blomquist is busy giving his double-kick the business, that’s death metal happening. In listening to the Krista Van Guilder-led Worcester, Massachusetts’ three-piece’s 2018 second EP, We Will Not Bow (review here), I’m not sure I got just how deep the metal ran in terms of what they were doing. Obviously, it’s metal, and with Van Guider‘s vocal proclamations and gruelingness of riff, it’s plenty doomed, but it never occurred to me really to think of it as death-doom, and with “Untethered” brought into focus apart from its companion tracks on the EP, I’m feeling a bit like I need to revise that position.
And if is death-doom, or maybe doom-death — or melodic doom-death, if one is feeling micro-specific — then fair enough for the dynamic at play between Van Guider, Murphy and Blomquist, as the stylistic breadth and consuming atmospheric darkness only suits them in the recording. It’s ultimately fitting that “Untethered” was captured at the Stoned to Death 3 fest in Brattleboro, Vermont — check out Turn it Up! and In the Moment Records if you’re in town — where they shared the stage with Desolate, Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean, Conclave and others, since it would seem to be a natural setting, but it’s all the more fortunate that Benthic Realm have the clip to work from as it highlights the scope and nuance of their sound and might lead one to go so far as to revisit We Will Not Bow in its entirety. To that end, you’ll find the stream at the bottom of this post.
What’s the lesson? Well, I think mostly that the trio’s sound isn’t a settled issue. These are experienced players — Van Guilder was in Second Grave, WarHorse, etc., while Blomquist currently splits his time in Conclave and Murphy has played in a variety of acts from Dimentianon to Negative Reaction to Second Grave, and so on — but there’s obviously a continuing element of exploration to what they’re doing, and it remains to be seen what they’ll find in the darkness of their own making. A debut full-length seems warranted as a means of fleshing out their sound, though maybe that’s just me hoping they get one out sooner rather than later.
“Untethered” was shot by Sonic Titan Studios. Please enjoy:
Benthic Realm, “Untethered” official video
Video footage c/o Sonic Titan Studios from Stoned To Death Fest-3 filmed inside The Stone Church in Brattleboro, VT.
Posted in Reviews on December 10th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
We meet again! The second week of this amply-proportioned Quarterly Review begins today as we move ever closer toward the inevitable 100-album finish line on Friday. There is an incredible amount of music to get through this week, so I don’t want to delay for too long, but as we look out across the vast stretch of distortion to come, I need to say thank you for reading, and I hope that you’ve been able to find something that’s kicking your ass a little bit in all the right ways so far. If not, well, there are 50 more records on the way for you to give it another shot.
Here goes.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Thou, Magus
How can something be so raw and forward thinking at the same time? Baton Rouge’s Thou might be the band of their generation who’ve added the most to sludge in terms of pushing the style in new directions and shaping genre to their purposes. Magus (on Sacred Bones), their fourth or fifth full-length depending on whom you ask, is an overwhelming 75-minute 2LP of inward and outward destructive force, as heavy in its ambience as in its weight and throat-ripping sonic extremity, and yet somehow is restrained. To listen to the march of “Transcending Dualities,” there’s such a sense of seething happening beneath the surface of that chugging, marching riff, and after its creeping introduction, “In the Kingdom of Meaning” seems intent on beating its own rhythm, as in, with fists, and even a stop-by from frequent guest vocalist Emily McWilliams does little to detract from that impression. Along with Magus, which rightly finishes with the lurching threat of “Supremacy,” Thou have released three EPs and a split this year, so their pace runs in something of a contrast to their tempos, but whether you can keep up or not, Thou continue to press forward in crafting pivotal, essential brutalizations.
Sulatron Records‘ pressing of Liquid Visions‘ 2002 debut, Hypnotized, is, of course, a reissue, but also the first time the album has been on vinyl, and it’s not long into opener “State of Mind” or the grunge-gone-classic-psych “Waste” before they earn the platter. Members of the band would go on to participate in acts like Zone Six, Wedge, Electric Moon and Johnson Noise, so it’s easy enough to understand how the band ties into the family tree of underground heavy psych in Berlin, but listening to the glorious mellow-unfolding-into-noise-wash-freakout of 15-minute closer “Paralyzed,” the appeal is less about academics than what the five-piece of vocalists/guitarists H.P. Ringholz (also e-sitar) and Kiryk Drewinski (also organ), bassist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (also Fender Rhodes and Mellotron), drummer Chris Schwartzkinsky and thereminist Katja Wolff were able to conjure in terms of being both ahead of their time and behind it. As the album moves from its opening shorter tracks to the longer and more expansive later material, it shows its original CD-era linearity, but if an LP reissue is what it takes to get Hypnotized out there again, so be it. I doubt many who hear it will complain.
The second short release from Benthic Realm behind a 2017 self-titled EP (review here) finds the Massachusetts-based trio of guitarist/vocalist Krista van Guilder (ex-Second Grave, ex-Warhorse), bassist Maureen Murphy (ex-Second Grave) and drummer Dan Blomquist (also Conclave) working toward a refined approach bridging the divide between doom and darker, harder hitting metal. They do this with marked fluidity, van Guilder shifting smoothly between melodic clean singing and harsher screams as Murphy and Blomquist demonstrate like-minded ease in turns of pace and aggression. The penultimate semi-title-track “I Will Not Bow” is an instrumental, but “Save us All,” “Thousand Day Rain” and closer “Untethered” — the latter with some Slayer ping ride and ensuing double-kick gallop — demonstrate the riff-based songwriting that carries Benthic Realm through their stylistic swath and ultimately ties their ideas together. If they think they might be ready for a debut full-length, they certainly sound that way.
Maybe Ape Machine need to make a video with cats playing their instruments or something, but five albums deep, the Portland outfit seem to be viciously underrated. Releasing Darker Seas on Ripple, they take on a more progressive approach with songs like “Piper’s Rats” donning harmonized vocals and more complex interplay with guitar. It’s a more atmospheric take overall — consider the acoustic/electric beginning of “Watch What You Say” and it’s semi-nod to seafaring Mastodon, the likewise-unplugged and self-awarely medieval “Nocturne in D Flat (The Jester)” and the rocking presentation of what’s otherwise fist-pumping NWOBHM on “Bend Your Knee” — but Ape Machine have always been a band with songwriting at their center, and even as they move into the best performances of their career, hitting a point of quality that even producer Steve Hanford (Poison Idea) decided to join them after the recording as their new drummer, there’s no dip in the quality of their work. I don’t know what it might take to get them the attention they deserve — though a cat video would no doubt help — but if Darker Seas underscores anything, it’s that they deserve it.
Stockport, UK, three-piece Under bring a progressive edge to their pummel with their second album, Stop Being Naive (on APF), beginning with the deceptively thoughtful arrangement of crushing opener and longest track (immediate points) “Malcontent,” which unfurls a barrage of riffs and varied vocals contributed by guitarist Simon Mayo, bassist Matt Franklin and drummer/keyboardist Andy Preece. Later cuts like “Soup” and “Grave Diggers” tap into amorphous layers of extremity, and “Happy” punks out with such tones as to remind of the filth that became grindcore in the UK nearly 40 years ago, but while “Big Joke” rolls out with a sneer and closer “Circadian Driftwood” has a more angular foundation, there’s an overarching personality that comes through Under‘s material that feels misanthropic and critical in a way perhaps best summarized by the record’s title. Stop Being Naive is sound enough advice, and it comes presented with a fervent argument in its own favor.
Trimming the runtime of their 2017 debut, Otherworld (review here) nearly in half, Austin weirdo rockers Evil Triplet present the six-song/38-minute single LP Have a Nice Trip on Super Secret with classic garage buzz tone on “A Day Like Any Other,” a cosmic impulse meeting indie sneer on opener “Space Kitten” and a suitably righteous stretch-out on “Aren’t You Experienced?” — which is just side A of the thing. The pulsating “Open Heart” might be the highlight for its Hawkwindian drive and momentary drift, but “Pyramid Eye”‘s blown-out freakery isn’t to be devalued, and the eight-minute capper “Apparition” is dead on from the start of its slower march through the end of its hook-topped jam, reminding of the purpose behind all the sprawl and on-their-own-wavelength vibes. A tighter presentation suits Evil Triplet and lets their songs shine through while still highlighting the breadth of their style and its unabashed adventurousness. May they continue to grow strange and terrify any and all squares they might encounter.
To a certain extent, what you see is what you get on Vestjysk Ørken‘s debut EP, Cosmic Desert Fuzz. At very least, the Danish trio’s three-tracker first outing is aptly-named, and guitarist/vocalist Bo Sejer, bassist Søren Middelkoop Nielsen and drummer Thomas Bonde Sørensen indeed tap into space, sand and tone on the release, but each song also has a definite theme derived from cinema. To wit, “Dune” (11:41) samples Dune, “…Of the Dead” (9:13) taps into the landmark George Romero horror franchise, and “Solaris” (14:15) draws from the 1972 film of the same name. The spaciousness and hypnotic reach of the latter has an appeal all its own in its extended and subtle build, but all three songs not only pay homage to these movies but seem to work at capturing some aspect of their atmosphere. Vestjysk Ørken aren’t quite rewriting soundtracks, but they’re definitely in conversation with the works cited, and with an entire universe of cinema to explore, there are accordingly no limits as to where they might go. Something tells me it won’t be long before we find out how deep their obsession runs.
I have no interest in playing arbiter to what’s “true” in doom metal or anything else, and neither am I qualified to do so. Instead, I’ll just note that Germany’s Dawn of Winter, who trace their roots back nearly 30 years and have released full-lengths on a one-per-decade basis in 1998, 2008 and now 2018 with Pray for Doom, have their house well in order when it comes to conveying the classic tenets of the genre. Issued through I Hate, the eight-track/51-minute offering finds drummer Dennis Schediwy punctuating huge nodder grooves led by Jörg M. Knittel‘s riffs, while bassist Joachim Schmalzried adds low end accentuation and frontman Gerrit P. Mutz furthers the spirit of traditionalism on vocals. Songs like “The Thirteenth of November” and the stomping “The Sweet Taste of Ruin” are timeless for being born too late, and in the spirit of Europe’s finest trad doom, Dawn of Winter evoke familiar aspects without directly worshiping Black Sabbath or any of their other aesthetic forebears. Pray for Doom is doom, because doom, by doomers, for doomers. The converted will be accordingly thrilled to hear them preach.
Semi-retroist Southern heavy blues boogie, some tight flourish of psychedelia, and the occasional foray into broader territory, Stuttgart three-piece Pale Heart‘s StoneFree debut long-player, Junegleland is striking in its professionalism and, where some bands might sacrifice audio fidelity at the altar of touching on a heavy ’70s aesthetic, guitarist/vocalist Marc Bauer, key-specialist Nico Bauer and drummer Sebastian Neumeier (since replaced by Marvin Schaber) present their work in crisp fashion, letting the construction of the songs instead define the classicism of their influence. Low end is filled out by Moog where bass might otherwise be, and in combination with Hammond and Fender Rhodes and other synth, there’s nothing as regard missing frequencies coming from Jungleland, the nine songs of which vary in their character but are universally directed toward honing a modern take on classic heavy, informed as it is by Southern rock, hard blues and the tonal warmth of yore. A 50-minute debut is no minor ask of one’s audience in an age of fickle Bandcamp attentions, but cuts like the 12-minute “Transcendence” have a patience and character that’s entrancing without trickery of effects.
UK instrumentalist three-piece Slowbro‘s full-length debut, Nothings, brings forth eight tracks and 51 minutes of heavy-ended sludge rock notable for the band’s use of dueling eight-string guitars instead of the standard guitar/bass setup. How on earth does something like that happen? I don’t know. Maybe Sam Poole turned to James Phythian one day and was like, “Hey, I got two eight-string guitars. So, band?” and then a band happened. Zeke Martin — and kudos to him on not being intimidated by all those strings — rounds out on drums and together the trio embark on cuts like “Sexlexia” (a very sexy learning disability, indeed) and “Broslower,” which indeed chugs out at a considerably glacial pace, and “Fire, Fire & Fire,” which moves from noise rock to stonerly swing with the kind of aplomb that can only be conjured by those who don’t give a shit about style barriers. It’s got its ups and downs, but as Nothings — the title-track of which quickly cuts to silence and stays there until a final crash — rounds out with “Pisscat” and the eight-strings go ever so slightly post-rock, it’s hard not to appreciate the willful display of fuckall as it happens. It’s a peculiar kind of charm that makes it both charming and peculiar.
I ran to the top of the hill on the way to the store and BOOM! I had FM Rock Radio on! KISS was playing and I’d never heard anything like them before. That was the moment my tastes changed. My Dad would break my balls after that about every single band I would introduce to him, but he always encouraged me to play… and to play “quieter.” When my Dad passed away five years ago and I had to go through his belongings at his house, I found the radio was still there in a box with all kinds of other radios and gear. I took it home and have it to this day.
