Posted in Whathaveyou on March 29th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
With ambition a-plenty and a varied background among its staff that includes label work, booking shows, curating a festival, playing in bands and all manner of promoting all of the above — up to and including sending out an announcement of the fact that they exist — Vinter Records is a new Oslo-based venture that brings together recognizable faces from the likes of HYMN, SÂVER, the Høstsabbat fest and Indie Recordings to explore and rightly put forth bands beginning by highlighting the aesthetically diverse and vibrant creative underground in their home country of Norway. The first act signed to the imprint is MoE, who are also from Oslo and not at all to be confused with the all-lowercase jam band, who are terrible.
In addition to that first pickup, Vinter Records also announces intentions toward creating a Høstsabbat Live Series, and jeez, if they have anything from the last five-plus years recorded, we’ll all be lucky. Even if not and it’s only something they do going forward, that will be a series to watch for. Whether it’s Slabdragger in the basement or The Devil and the Almighty Blues up on the altar, Høstsabbat gets great sound.
And just so everything’s clear, it’s Vinter Records staff above and MoE below. Lest we mix up our promo shots.
From the PR wire:
Announcing VINTER RECORDS
New record label founded by Indie Recordings, Høstsabbat Festival professionals
Vinter Records is a tight-knit group of four, consisting of musicians, enthusiasts, a label-head and a festival organizer, booker and promoter — all closely connected to the heavy underground scene in Oslo, Norway.
“Our motivation is simple: We want to help highlight the scene and culture we love, and is a big part of ourselves. Our scene in Scandinavia, and in Oslo in particular, is thriving. We will offer new perspectives and showcase this special scene to a broader audience,” says Ole Helstad, co-founder of Høstsabbat, head of booking at Revolver Oslo, bassist in SÂVER and Kite and now co-founder of Vinter Records.
First Signing: MoE
Vinter Records announces the first band on its roster is Norwegian avantgarde sludgers MoE – one of the most prolific and interesting heavy bands Norway has to offer.
“We’ve been huge fans of MoE for a very long time, so we’re very honored by their trust in us. To have MoE as a Vinter Records debut release is a hell of a start,” says Markus Støle, drummer in SÂVER and HYMN and co-founder of Vinter Records.
MoE comments: “There’s a new kind of energy in the Oslo underground. There’s a sense of will, and the power to execute this very will. When we met up with Vinter there was a sense of immediate chemistry. They have a different background, other perspectives, different acquaintances and an energy matching our own. We look forward to moving forward with our most ambitious album to date in partnership with Vinter.”
Vinter Records Background:
Vinter Records consists of Ole Helstad, Christer Kaupang, Linda Melsom and Markus Støle, whose combined experience, years of touring and numerous album releases, have led to valuable understanding of the industry’s do’s and don’ts, in terms of what makes a fruitful label relation as well as how to pinpoint a band’s next logical step.
With various backgrounds from booking, as musicians, and as promoters, combined with Melsom’s decade-long involvement in the record industry; Vinter Records begins with an extensive international network.
“All of us have been active contributors in the underground for years. Vinter Records is a natural extension of this devotion. It feels great to start something new and fresh, grounded in and made for the scene we love and part take in,” comments Melsom.
Høstsabbat Live Series
Vinter is closely knit to the annual Høstsabbat Festival and will offer physical, exclusive live recordings from their promoted shows, titled Høstsabbat Live Series.
“It feels natural to work within our own scene, though we don’t seek to be a genre-specific label. We will take one step at a time. Our concept is organic growth,” says Melsom.
The self-titled debut album from Chesapeake Watershed progressive doomers Beelzefuzz (review here) was issued in 2013 through The Church Within Records. I remember it feeling like it was an excruciatingly long wait for the album to show up, both from their earlier demos and also just the record itself. The first time I’d seen them was Days of the Doomed II (review here) for a short set in June 2012, then again at Stoner Hands of Doom XII (review here) about two and a half months later. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt, bassist Pug Kirby and drummer Darin McCloskey (also of Pale Divine), they made a formidably individualized impression on stage and on the demos they were giving away after that sampler set in Wisconsin (discussed here), Ortt‘s wide-eyed and effects-harmonized vocal conjurations, quirky style of riffing, and the guitar-as-organ sound that would become a Beelzefuzz trademark but never fully understood when it came to the eventual two albums they would release. If everyone could’ve seen them on stage, it all would have made a lot more sense.
I went back and looked over my review from when the eight-song/36-minute LP came out, and first of all, it was l-o-n-g. You think it takes me a long time to say what I’m trying to say now? Shit, right around 2012/2013, I apparently decided to take myself super-seriously and yeah. Wow. Anyway, digging through the verbiage, I at least acknowledged at the time that the album format inherently couldn’t capture the full impact of the band, since so much of the appeal was in watching Ortt‘s wizardry, backed as it was by the reliable and classic styling of McCloskey on drums, emphasizing the ’70s rock and prog elements of their doom. In 2013, I noted the album was full of promise, and I remember being particularly struck by how much heavier the guitar sounded than on the demos or live, that the chug in the final version of “All the Feeling Returns” carried more weight than it had initially, but fair enough. The album was full of promise. Listening to it now, I’m still a fan. I have a couple t-shirts somewhere.
It’s a shame on multiple levels that the band didn’t last, but among them is the fact that in this age of livestreaming and ready-made video-ness, they’d probably do pretty well playing “Reborn” or “Lotus Jam” or the seven-minute “Hypnotize” on whatever form of social media as a way to engage their fans. Ortt posts a solo track every now and again to Instagram and that’s cool, so maybe the band would’ve found a broader audience that way, but they also never really toured and didn’t seem inclined to do so, which is also fair. You’d probably have a hard time making a career out of Beelzefuzz. Silly name. Weird sound. Unless you’re ready to move to London, it’d be rough to make a go of it, and Beelzefuzz was well entrenched in Maryland doom. The fact that they stood out from so much of it was part of what made their debut so exciting. In a scene that prided itself on traditionalism and following in the riffy footsteps of Wino, Al Morris III and others, Beelzefuzz represented a step aside from that in favor of something willfully fresh, still doom in its atmosphere and still plenty heavy — again, surprisingly so on this album — but ahead of its time in its proggier bent and standout songwriting.
A complicated series of events would eventually consume the band. You know all those killer ’70s heavy rock records that you listen to and think, “How was this band not huge?” Kind of the same thing here. Beelzefuzz fell first to a discord between Kirby and the other two players. I’ll spare you the links to all of this, but you should know they’re there. That split led to legal proceedings involving use of the name — imagine that for a second — and for a hot minute, that seemed like it was going to be the end of the band. Ortt and McCloskey regrouped as Righteous Bloom about a week later, and brought in Revelation/Against Nature bassist Bert Hall, Jr., and hell, that was exciting too. Hall is a low-end master and a rhythm section of him and McCloskey together was only going to result in warm, rolling groove excellently suited to Ortt‘s riffs. And it did.
Righteous Bloom began releasing tracks one at a time and eventually became Beelzefuzz again late in 2015. They brought in Greg Diener — McCloskey‘s bandmate in Pale Divine — and in 2016, released Beelzefuzz II: The Righteous Bloom (review here) through Candlelight imprint Restricted Release. Guess what? It was cool and didn’t get the attention it deserved. Maybe that fraught two years showed up a bit in their sound, the struggle and stress surrounding the band came through a bit in the songs, but not really. They showed a more progressive side of their songwriting and of course, solos from Diener were never going to hurt. Beelzefuzz simply rolled on.
They played here and there to support the album locally, in Maryland, Delaware, etc., and that was where their reputation was always based. I was fortunate enough to see their last show at Maryland Doom Fest 2019 (review here) and the love for them was palpable in that room in Cafe 611, Frederick, MD. A fitting sendoff if there had to be one.
The happy post-script to the 10-year run of Beelzefuzz is that Ortt wound up joining Diener and McCloskey in Pale Divine in time to contribute to last year’s Consequence of Time (review here), which was a doomly joy to behold, mixing the band’s longstanding traditionalist aspects with Ortt‘s quirk. That left Hall as the odd man out — Pale Divine already had an ace bassist/sometimes vocalist in Ron “Fezzy” McGinnis, late of Admiral Browning — but he’s apparently been working on solo material, as he’ll play April 10 at Cafe 611 with a bunch of others in a kind of early welcome-back-to-shows show. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about going.
Everyone’s alive, so there’s always a chance Beelzefuzz might decide to pick it back up and start anew, but even if that doesn’t happen, this record holds up easily to the eight years since it came out, and there’s nothing to make me think it won’t continue to do so as more time goes on.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
This week was a blur of email anxiety. I had notes to send to the Weirdo Canyon Dispatchstaff for the Roadburn Redux thing — you’d be AMAZED at the people who flaked — and requests for interviews for that, and PostWax liner notes emails and then a couple people want to interview me as if I have anything interesting to say other than to complain, plus I wasn’t sleeping and everything had that the-universe-is-awful sheen from my glazed eyes. I managed to do two decent interviews though; the one that went up with Oryx yesterday and one yesterday morning I did with Domkraft that I’m going to try to get up next week.
Next week, also, is the Quarterly Review. I know. I’m stupid. But the week works and I’ll get through it. Honestly, with the big release day that today is — Greenleaf, Genghis Tron, Yawning Sons, Shiva the Destructor, Wheel, 1782, The Quill, and others if that’s not enough; was enough for me to just put those first two in my Amazon cart — it’s I’m hoping news chills out a bit next week and I can focus on the 10-albums-per-day thing. With my luck, festivals will probably come back.
Does it matter? Nah. I’m small potatoes. Low stakes to everyone except me if I don’t post whatever that thing is until tomorrow.
I need to remind myself of that.
Took a break just now to rearrange some furniture with The Patient Mrs. in our living. An old hangover lamp down to the basement, move the new rug, new shelves for The Pecan’s toys in, and so on. We’re having company for dinner — Slevin, in fact, who you’ll remember is the lovely chap who helped make this site go live in the first place some 12-plus years ago — and his Special Lady. It’ll be nice. We’re supposed to grill and slated to have high winds this afternoon. If that means I smell like meat for the rest of the evening, I’ll take the hit. Maybe change my shirt before bed. Maybe.
My family will return next week here. The room I’m in now — we’ve called it ‘the big room’ for at least as long as I’ve been alive; recall this house belonged to my grandmother/grandfather — is our dining room, a door out from the kitchen added on to the original house during a period of what I’ll assume was prosperity for my grandparents. Its wood paneling, circular red fireplace, vinyl floor and back bar are very much in line with my own aesthetic. We spend a lot of time out here. We lit fires all winter. Somehow that feels important to me, though I know all nostalgia and sense of ‘connection’ to a thing is pretend at best and damaging at worst. The more you cling to, the more you lose, and so on.
Oh, I also got pitched on a book project compiling I guess some of the best stuff from around here the last 12 years? Kind of a bizarre idea, but it might actually happen given who’s behind it. If you have any thoughts on what should be included, I’m happy to take requests. I have no clue where to start or end.
No Gimme show this week. Next week. So it’s that, QR, maybe Domkraft interview video and an announcement Monday that I need to confirm. Plus I’m recording interviews where I’m being interviewed I think on Sunday and Thursday, and I’m interviewing Steve Von Till of Neurosis tomorrow for a thing, and I need to set up a line with Tau from Tau and the Drones of Praise for another thing, plus find a time to talk with Mat Bethancourt about Josiah coming back asap and then I expect by the time I get through all that and 10 reviews a day by the end of next Friday, plus The Pecan — whose fractured skull is fine, by the way, genuine thanks to everyone who expressed concern — I will have burst an embolism in my own brain and I’ll just be dead. Fine. It’s how I always wanted to go: overwhelmed.
Great and safe weekend. If it’s Spring where you are, enjoy Spring. Don’t forget to hydrate and watch your head.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, this is the kind of thing that should be happening. Sun Crow last year offered up an admirably original take on the tenets of heavy rock with their debut, Quest for Oblivion (review here), and they’ve been accordingly picked up by Ripple Music to release that album and presumably whatever they do next. The record is still fresh, having come out in November, and you can hear it below if you didn’t, but they’re featuring the song “Collapse” ahead of the physical pressing with the Ripple logo on board — this news was enough to get me to pick up the “pandemic edition” of the self-released CD; as of this post there are now six left — and of course they’ll do vinyl and whatnot as well. That’s a significant 2LP.
I swear, just this last news post, then I’m checking out for the week.
Congrats to the band and cheers as ever to the label. Ripple‘s on a tear if you haven’t noticed.
From the PR wire:
Seattle doom blues merchants SUN CROW sign to Ripple Music for worldwide debut album release; stream first single “Collapse” now!
Seattle-based up and coming stoner rock foursome SUN CROW just signed to Ripple Music for the worldwide release of their debut full-length ‘Quest for Oblivion’ on July 2nd, 2021. Plunge your ears in their tar-thick new single “Collapse” now.
SUN CROW is a heavy rock band out of Seattle. Their debut release ‘Quest for Oblivion’ clocks in at a monolithic 70 minutes in a Northwest haze of thick Sabbathian riff and groove. Through their loud and bleak existential doom rock, the quartet channel sounds recalling early proto metal and warps them into a contemporary and heavy metallic, dark psyche experience.
Says the band about this new collaboration: “We are stoked to be working with Ripple Music to bring heavy tales to the furthest shores. It’s a pleasure to be a part of the Ripple Family, and an honor to count ourselves among these talented sound makers we’ve admired for a long time. From the first call it seemed like an uncanny connection, and that we’d found a home of like-minds on a corner of this rock we ride on hurtling through space. Collapse is the opening call to Quest for Oblivion, a heavy reflection of memories surfacing from our journeys out of the past headlong into an unknown. The louder we turn it up, the deeper into the night it echoes. »
Working from a time-slip in the tight and gritty live spaces of the Pacific Northwest, guitarist Ben Nechanicky and drummer Keith Hastreiter exploit years of making music together along with the thundering bass of Brian Steel and expressive vocal style of Todd Lucas to create heavy rock obliterations untethered to conventional delivery. Rain-soaked doom blues, moss-covered stoner rock, grey sky heavy psych, whatever they call it, SUN CROW calls the old spirits of high volume heavy rock into close quarters and paints the ceiling and walls with magnets, wood, and glass. Their debut album ‘Quest For Oblivion’ will be issued on July 2nd, 2021 on CD, limited edition vinyl and digital through Ripple Music.
SUN CROW Debut album ‘Quest for Oblivion’ Out July 2nd, 2021 on Ripple Music
TRACK LISTING: 1. Collapse 2. Black It Out 3. End Over End 4. Fell Across The Sky 5. Fear 6. Nothing Behind 7. Hypersonic 7. Titans
First self-released in November 2020 through Bandcamp, SUN CROW’s debut ‘Quest for Oblivion’ was well received and highly regarded by the heavy underground. The album topped the Doom Charts in November and December 2020, landing itself on many best of and year-end lists, and it continues to make waves. The band joined the Ripple Music family in early 2021 to create a heavy partnership that will see wide distribution of their molten debut, and future smoldering releases.
SUN CROW is Guitar — Ben Nechanicky Drums — Keith Hastreiter Bass — Brian Steel Vocals — Todd Lucas
Dig this vibe. Baltimore’s Black Lung are currently in the Magpie Cage with producer J. Robbins working on their fourth full-length for release (hopefully) later this year. It is not at all the first time the two parties have collaborated, and the trio have their work cut out for them in following-up 2019’s third album, Ancients (review here), which was consistent in its black-and-white aesthetics and heavy blues with their past offerings while still reaching toward new ground in songwriting and style. They’ve apparently been sitting on at least some of the material for a while as well — not shocking, considering the state of the world — as the video below for the new song “Demons” was recorded live at Wright Way Studios with Steve Wright engineering late in 2019, intended, as noted below, as a promo for a European tour that was subsequently canceled.
So it goes. You’ll hear guitarist Dave Cavalier pushing some almost Witchcraft-style fragility in the vocals of “Demons,” and that’s cool too, but as someone who’s never seen the band live despite their having three albums out, I’ll take what I can get in terms of watching them play. Guitarist Dave Fullerton, Cavalier and drummer Elias Schutzman (the latter also of Revvnant) have a classic and organic seeming dynamic, which isn’t particularly shocking to find out given that’s how they come across on record as well, but hey, confirmation is always nice.
And whatever final version of “Demons” surfaces on their yet-untitled next full-length, the album will invariably find the band shifting that chemistry between the two guitars and the drums as well, since for the first time they’ll be working with a live bassist in Charles Walsh. As of yesterday, they were done with rhythm tracks (bass and drums, maybe also guitar?), so proceedings are proceeding.
I’ll hope to have more on the next Black Lung as they get closer to the release. Until then, a substantive teaser follows.
Enjoy:
Black Lung, “Demons” live at Wright Way Studios
Elias Schutzman on “Demons”:
“Demons” was the first song we wrote with Dave Fullerton in the band (our new guitarist). We actually recorded and filmed this video in late 2019 as promo for our 2020 European tour, which obviously never happened due to Covid. I think we play the song even better now, but this video captures the early stages of the new lineup. We’re now in the studio with producer J. Robbins tracking our next album which will definitely feature this song…
Recorded live at Wright Way Studios Engineered and mixed by Steve Wright Filmed by Matt Kelley
Black Lung is: Dave Cavalier- Vocals, Guitar Dave Fullerton- Guitar Elias Schutzman- Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The title of Per Wiberg‘s new EP is almost as formidable as the list of awesome bands he’s played with. The Swedish keymaster, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter has featured live or in the studio with the likes of Spiritual Beggars, Kamchatka, King Hobo, Candlemass, Opeth, Switchblade, on and on and on, and on May 14 he’ll release the four-song All Is Well In the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out, which derives its significant name from those of the songs that comprise it. There’s no audio yet, though if you’re feeling it you can hear some cuts from Wiberg‘s 2019 outing Head Without Eyes on the YouTubes, but preorders are up now through Despotz Records. If you know his work at all, you don’t need me to hype it up.
Art and details for the release came down the PR wire:
PER WIBERG: Swedish Multi-Instrumentalist To Release New EP May 14th Via Despotz Records; Preorders Available
Swedish multi-instrumentalist PER WIBERG will release his brilliant new solo EP, All Is Well In The Land Of The Living, But For The Rest Of Us… Lights Out, on May 14th via Despotz Records.
A sonic craftsman of the highest order, WIBERG’s work has illuminated an array of classic albums (and stages) over the years performing with the likes of Opeth, Spiritual Beggars, and Candlemass as well as Clutch/The Bakerton Group, Switchblade, and Kamchatka to name just a few. However, it’s WIBERG’s solo work that serves as the pinnacle of his odyssey through music. Over three decades of expertise culminate into a sound that is distinctly PER WIBERG’s own.
In 2019, WIBERG released his debut solo offering Head Without Eyes, consummating his career as a musician with an eruption of soulful song. Nordic prog in a gnawing stew of jolting guitar notes, jangling bones, and emotive melodies, the critically-lauded recording laid bare a beautifully uncharted new terrain that outstripped the laurels of his past and solidified his strong presence as a unique solo artist in his own right.
Aptly titled for these turbulent times, WIBERG’s latest EP, All Is Well In The Land Of The Living, But For The Rest Of Us… Lights Out, is a commanding celebration of innovative rock at its best. Expanding and further evolving his vision, WIBERG adeptly paints the definitive and familiar paradigms of golden age progressive rock with spirited and electrifying twists of dark tone. Listening to a master weave his deep spells, from shadow to light, we are at once entranced and delighted in equal measure as PER WIBERG brews a potent concoction that’s captivating, catchy and forever expansive and impassioned. From tracks like “All Is Well,” which comes across like Young Gods gone prog, to the haunting and avant-garde “But for The Rest Of Us,” which basks in dark improv in the vein of Alice Coltrane/Sun Ra, WIBERG unfolds his sound out in blankets of fresh atmosphere. “In The Land Of The Living” smashes latter era Sonic Youth alt rock into the heavy fuzzing riffs of King Crimson/Hawkwind with a bassline that has you hitting the steering-wheel across bleak highways while “Lights Out” lies on the melancholic side of Dark Side Of The Moon with Ulver at their most post-pop and early Porcupine Tree at their most anthemic. If you want to hear Swedish progressive metal taken to the next level of dark melodic exploration, you will find your black heart shrouded in a very different kind of heavy with All Is Well In The Land Of The Living…
All Is Well In The Land Of The Living, But For The Rest Of Us… Lights Out Track Listing: 1. All Is Well 2. In The Land Of The Living 3. But For The Rest Of Us… 4. Lights Out
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Josiah this cover on Instagram yesterday and I had the feeling something was up. It’s been 20 years since the UK heavy fuzzbringers made their debut with the Out of the First Rays EP, and today comes word that a Heavy Psych Sounds reissue of same will be out June 11 with preorders up now. It’s been kind of apparent something’s up with the long-defunct outfit, who broke up in 2009 as guitarist/vocalist Mathew Benthancourt pursued garage psych with subsequent outfit Cherry Choke, since they’re essentially new to current social media and their Bandcamp lists them as reactivated as of last year.
Does that mean new material? Maybe. In the meantime, it means this reissue, and if this is the first of several — certainly their 2002 self-titled and 2004’s No Time and 2007’s No Time are nothing if not ripe for a look from the post-Facebook generation of rockers — then all the better. If there’s a record to come, it’ll come. Let them remind people who they are first.
Bottom line is this is a killer band and good news any way you look at it.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce JOSIAH repress of the debut EP Out Of The First Rays – presale starts TODAY!!!
Today we are extremely proud to start the presale of the JOSIAH legendary debut and sold-out EP Out Of The First Rays!!!
20 years on and Out Of The First Rays is still as powerful today. As the band rip straight into “Head On” it’s clear that Josiah wanted to take heavy rock back to it’s opiate drenched roots. Psychedelic lyrics sung with soul and the heavy as fuck grooves laid down across this release owe a debt to Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet.
“Malpaso” quickly became the bands signature track (featuring on film soundtracks and TV shows) with its pulsating riffs and trippy middle section and “Spacequake” makes you start to think there must be something in the midlands water supply, as Bethancourt echoes Ozzy with “come take my hand my child” and the Iommi styled guitar hooks kick you straight in the gut. “Sweet Smoke” kicks off side B with its Cactus meets Grand Funk early 70’s rock vibes. The sonic interplay between the power trio, back the vocals up for this anthem to a burning earth – “Let the flames just take you higher”.
The 10 minute closer “Black Maria” with its psychedelic twin vocals and one of the heaviest riffs you’ll hear this side of dead, gives way to uptempo bass grooves and a wah drenched lead break. Take another sip of the electric kool-aid baby, before we “slide down the cosmos” and fall into the big black sleep.
It’s the year 2000 – the world did not end, Uncle Acid, Graveyard and Kadavar are nothing but twinkles in Satan’s eye – and Josiah are about to come together to make something very heavy happen. From the beating heart of the UK, Mathew Bethancourt, Sie Beasley and Chris Jones laid down a dark sound, laced with acid and fuelled by Bethancourts heavy fuzz-wah guitar playing. Early live shows with the likes of Nebula, Zen Guerilla, Atomic Bitchwax and more, unleashed the loud, full stack, heavy psych rock experience of Josiah.
The group quickly rose to prominence on the UK scene with heavy touring and in June 2001 released their debut record Out Of The First Rays via Cargo Records. The quick to sell out 10″ EP’s killer cut “Malpaso” was aired by Marianne Hobbs on the Radio One Rock Show and Metal Hammer included “Spacequake” on their best new UK bands compilation CD.
RELEASED IN 15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL 150 ULTRA LTD SIDE A/SIDE B WHITE-YELLOW-RED VINYL 300 LTD RED VINYL BLACK VINYL
PRESALE STARTS: MARCH 25th
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 11th
TRACKLIST Head On Malpaso Spacequake Sweet Smoke Black Maria
JOSIAH is Mathew Bethancourt – vocals & guitar Sie Beasley – bass & vocals Chris Jones – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Promising ‘heavy rock ‘n’ cock,’ and I suppose delivering that in their burly riffing, Poland’s Tortuga have inked a deal to release their next album through Napalm Records. I’m always fascinated when Napalm picks up a heavy band, whether it’s Tortuga, Villagers of Ioannina City or The Midnight Ghost Train a few years back. The label had a heavy rock spinoff for a while called Spinning Goblin that was subsumed into the mothership, but among all the various types of metal it seems like there are probably one or two heads in Napalm‘s offices that dig riffs. That’s usually how metal labels end up signing heavy rock bands, frankly. See also: Melvins on Atlantic, Clutch on Columbia, and so on.
With Napalm though, I’m never able to predict who or what next, and more often than not, I’m surprised. Sure, Napalm would release Monster Magnet and Greenleaf. Those are bigger bands. Established. Tortuga have two records out and another reportedly coming in 2022. Their sound is huge, as you can hear in the stream of last year’s Deities, below, so maybe it’s just that and the right combination of plans, perspective, accumulated YouTube streams and groove. Kudos to the band either way. The tacit hat-tip here from the Austrian label to the vibrant Polish underground isn’t to be overlooked.
From the PR wire:
Psychedelic Stoner/Doom Metal Upstarts TORTUGA Sign Worldwide Record Deal with Napalm Records
The four piece from Poland is working on new music for 2022
Napalm Records is proud to announce the signing of Psychedelic Stoner and Doom Metal outfit TORTUGA from Poland! After making a giant impact on the scene in 2017 with their self-titled EP, followed by their H.P. Lovecraft inspired album Deities (2020) that gathered hundreds of thousands of streams across all streaming platforms, TORTUGA is ready to dive into the next chapter of their career!
TORTUGA are currently working on new music, set for release via Napalm Records in 2022.
TORTUGA about signing to Napalm Records: “We weren’t very respectful towards the Lovecraftian Deities on our second LP, so they punished mankind with a pandemic and made it impossible for us to tour with our album. Gladly, they are merciful, and they gave us a second chance in the form of a pretty awesome collaboration with Napalm Records. We are already working on our third album and rest assured that this time we won’t mock any deities. We learned our lesson.”
Posted in Questionnaire on March 26th, 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: Sacha Besson of Fuzzcrafter
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
It’s a strange instrumental mix of fuzz rock and progressive music, with a lot of different influences ranging from funk to doom metal and world music. We have already released two albums, A – B and C – D, that were both recorded during live studio sessions. We feel that recording that way, in an age of overproduced albums with thousands of tracks, allows us to reach the authenticity and wildness that made the rock ‘n’ roll classics we love.
We try to make music we would be happy to listen to: with massive amounts of fuzz, long tracks with complicated structures, and musical changes you wouldn’t have expected a second earlier.
Describe your first musical memory.
I’m not coming from a musician family, I was not really exposed to music as a child. But I remember having a kind of revelation when playing Zelda Link’s Awakening on my Gameboy when I was like six or seven. The goal of the game is to pick up eight musical instruments through the dungeons. Every time you pick one, the instrument plays his part, then once again with the ones you already got. You literally assist to the creation of the arrangement. I played that on repeat and was like “Wooah, that’s cool, I wanna do this!”
Not really rock ‘n’ roll is it? Fuzzy stuff came later.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
We had a lot of good times with the band, but I’d say the day we finished tracking the second album. It was a challenging session, we had two rough days. It was the first time we recorded tracks that long and technical. When we finally laid down the last track, I was very proud of what we had accomplished. There’s an euphoria you’d never get if you record the instruments one by one.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
As an independent band, I don’t think there are that many occasions for this kind of dilemmas. We’re just having fun playing music we love.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
The more you progress, the more you understand how little you really know. I sure feel that way with music, I guess it’s the same in other artistic fields.
How do you define success?
Setting yourself goals that seem a bit too high, and working your ass off until you finally achieve something you’re proud of. The rest is bonus.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Humanity going completely crazy, speeding up the extinction of entire species all over the planet to preserve short-term personal comfort… And… Star Wars Ep. VIII.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
We would really like to incorporate more guest musicians, and different kind of instruments in the next releases. We really love the trio format, and I think the limitations it imposes pushes the inspiration in a cool way; but why not bonus tracks with a way bigger band?
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Isn’t not having a function one of the main characteristics of art?
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
A good beer in a bar with friends when that weird Covid situation is over!
