Posted in Questionnaire on May 30th, 2022 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: Giovanni Giovannini of Deadpeach
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
we play for expressive necessity, we started to give out our emotions
Describe your first musical memory.
my mom making me breakfast before I go to school while listening to the radio
Describe your best musical memory to date.
bad brains live in a small club, in the mid ’90s
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
honestly don’t remember , but touring together can test you
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
to a kind of religion that leads to the truth if followed objectively and not subjectively
How do you define success?
money and stress
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
addiction
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
a country house with a rehearsal room and lots of free time
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
set yourself free and wake up from the sleep in which man lives
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Swedish heavy rockers turned metallers Deville have finished recording their next album for release on Sixteentimes Music. Back in December, they released the single “Speaking in Tongues” (posted here) and “Hanged, Drawn & Quartered” — am I crazy in thinking that’s a kind of cheeky poke at High on Fire‘s “Hung, Drawn & Quartered?” or am I the only one in the universe who thinks that kind of grammatical callout exists? — and said they were headed to the studio, so because it’s now still March in my brain, their being finished sounds about right. Wait, what?
Guitarist/vocalist Andy Bengstsson and company grew even more aggressive on 2018’s Pigs With Gods (review here), and they’re certainly not letting up here, so one expects the album will be a likewise push. Although, neither “Hanged, Drawn & Quartered” nor “Speaking in Tongues” are going to be on said record, which means that once it’s announced Deville will still have the chance to, if it’s in their plan anyhow, offer up singles from the album too. The lesson: Bands: record everything. Deville end up with like nine months’ worth of material to keep their name out there ahead of an album release and it’s two extra tracks. Brilliant.
From the PR wire:
DEVILLE – Hanged, Drawn & Quartered
During the writing sessions for our new album out later this year (yes it is recorded and ready!) we decided to release some singles that will not be on the album. This is the second single and it is a heavy one called “Hanged, Drawn and Quartered”. Click on the pre-save button in the link and you will have it the second it is out on the 20th of May!
I’m not going to pretend to have any insight on Black Sabbath‘s Heaven and Hell beyond the scope of what’s been written about the album over the 42 years and one month since its arrival. It is simply one of if not the greatest piece of heavy metal ever released. Think of this as a celebration. It not only brought the band into contemporary status with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and revived the arc of their career with the inclusion of then-Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio on vocals in place of Ozzy Osbourne, but it brought their songwriting to a new level of complexity entirely, as guitarist Tony Iommi seemed able to find a manner in which to channel the riff-driven approach that made records like Master of Reality (discussed here) and Volume 4 highlights of early ’70s heavy — as well as the landmarks from which the aforementioned NWOBHM was in part built — into something newer and more grand. Black Sabbath weren’t breaking ground stylistically in the same way they did with their self-titled or Paranoid, but Heaven and Hell (which previously closed out a week here) was a revolution and a reignition for them and it helped steer heavy rock and roll and heavy metal into a new era for the 1980s, the soaring, seven-minute title-track alone standing out for its ability to find a way to convey a sense of the epic without tipping fully over into the self-indulgence of prog rock. Heaven and Hell, then, is Black Sabbath having it both ways.
Forgive me if I assume familiarity on the part of the reader with the album. If you’ve never heard Black Sabbath‘s ninth LP (in 10 years, mind you), or you’ve never really bothered to dig into the various post-Osbourne eras of the band, it was issued by Warner Bros. in 1980 as the follow-up to 1978’s Never Say Die, and to put the two albums side-by-side is perhaps one of the starkest contrasts one could hope to make. Famously drugged-out and careening toward mediocrity, the combination of Iommi, Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward still were able to conjure a few classics even in sounding past their peak just several years earlier, but no question it was a slide from both the grittier heft of Master of Reality and the electrifying performances on albums like 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and 1975’s Sabotage, never mind the genre-codifying influence of their first four LPs — though I know Never Say Die and its predecessor, 1976’s Technical Ecstasy (discussed here) for sure have their proponents. In considering Black Sabbath, however, the only proper scale to rate it is alongside other Black Sabbath. Sometimes that isn’t even fair. So here we are.
Among Heaven and Hell‘s stunning aspects — and there are many, between the scope of the production, the range of songs like “Children of the Sea” or “Die Young” in bringing Iommi‘s acoustic work into the actual pieces themselves, Butler‘s bassline alone on the title-track still imitated, and the nod of the closer “Lonely is the Word” remaking blues rock in its image — is the fact that, all told, it runs just about 40 minutes in length. Four songs on a side, rocker up front with “Neon Knights” opening — an energy that a year later “Turn Up the Night” on 1981’s Mob Rules (discussed here) would brazenly attempt to recapture — and then quickly unfolding into the broader intentions of “Children of the Sea,” setting up the back and forth interplay of grandiosity and straightforwardness that the bass-led “Lady Evil” and “Heaven and Hell” continued on side A and “Wishing Well,” “Die Young,” “Walk Away” and “Lonely is the Word” reaffirmed on side B, Black Sabbath pushing and pulling their audience along this dynamic course without even really letting on what’s happening; a subversive duality further conveyed through the album cover. Still, what they accomplish in the five and half minutes of “Children of the Sea” is more than many bands have done in their entire career, to say nothing of “Heaven and Hell” or the scorching payoff of “Die Young” to come. Pairing those with the hooky — and outwardly misogynist in a way that became a hallmark of Dio‘s lyrics — “Lady Evil” and “Walk Away” or even “Wishing Well,” which is probably as close as this record comes to filler, establishes a pattern and a personality unlike anything else in the Black Sabbath catalog, before or after.
The band’s run with Dio was short. Already noted, Mob Rules arrived in 1981, minus Ward on drums, and after 1982’s crucial Live Evil (discussed here), Iommi and company teamed with Deep Purple‘s Ian Gillan for 1983’s still-undervalued Born Again (discussed here) before a few floundering years — lest we forget Glenn Hughes on Seventh Star in 1986 — led them into the Tony Martin era with 1987’s The Eternal Idol (discussed here). A momentary reunion with Dio for 1992’s Dehumanizer (discussed here) brought a darker, meatier tonality and a signal of refocus not unlike what Heaven and Hell did following Never Say Die, but it was a short-lived collaboration and Dio was back to his own band soon enough, Sabbath returning to work with Martin for the bulk of the ’90s until their reunion with Osbourne in 1997 led to years of touring and their first Ozzy-fronted studio recordings in two decades (looking at you, “Psycho Man” and “Selling My Soul” from the 1998 Reunion live album).
A 2007 collection The Dio Years with new Dio-fronted studio tracks led to the formation of Heaven and Hell with Iommi, Butler, Dio and drummer Vinny Appice, and though Dio would pass away just three years later, the band nonetheless managed to tour and offer up 2009’s The Devil You Know (review here) even amid his and Iommi‘s declining health, finding a way to salute their long-intertwined paths while remaining vital, creative and unabashedly heavy as elder statesmen of metal; a magic that 2013’s Rick Rubin-helmed 13 (review here) would attempt to harness, seemingly as a closing chapter for the band’s studio work with Osbourne and their first album with him since Never Say Die. Retirement touring, Osbourne‘s own, well-publicized physical decline, and other collaborations have come in the years since, but the future of the band is never written until its written. I won’t speculate.
However you ultimately define Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell is a touchstone beyond touchstones. In the realm of desert-island albums, it is the island you want to be stranded on.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
I’m still sick. Or I’m sick again? Or I have allergies? I’m not really sure. I woke up at about 4:15 yesterday morning and was miserable from that point on. Sinus pressure in my head utterly inescapable, snot leaking out my nose all day, coughing. No sore throat to speak of, and in direct comparison to the week before, the rest of my body didn’t feel the same as when I was covid, which was somewhat ironically like a lockdown keeping me in place because my entire being felt so wretched — for only about two days, thankfully — but still, a wreck.
I’ve been awake now since 3:15AM. The Patient Mrs. has already gotten up and given me a bucketload of shit for getting up so early, thereby inevitably leading to hardship and fatigue later in the day. The facts that (1:) I wasn’t sleeping anyway because in my head I’d already started to compose the above writeup for Heaven and Hell and (2:) it’s not like she’s about to stop grading to let me write about 42-year-old metal records for a couple hours in the early afternoon and (3:) big change, I managed to think better than to mention. But there really is nothing like starting what’s probably going to already be a long, tough stretch of hours with your spouse pissed off at you. Super, super helpful.
She bought me medicine yesterday, which was helpful — perhaps none of us are at our best in the middle of the night — and I took all of it. I said this out loud yesterday to her and I stand by it. If it’s allergies that I was suffering from yesterday — some mysterious pollen blooming or whatever — then it’s the worst allergies I’ve ever had. Even more than that, The Pecan was in the exact same condition. A fucking mess. All day. Miserable. Kept him home from school. I did go to bed yesterday afternoon for about 90 minutes, which helped — so thanks to The Patient Mrs. for that, definitely — but by the time Strange New Worlds was over was no less desperate to return there than I had been after lunch. It was a brutal day.
His covid test, meanwhile, was negative. I show a faint line positive on the home test. The PCR I took last Thursday, meanwhile, was negative. No one knows anything, everything is fucked. I’m glad fewer people are dying, and I’m glad not to need to be put on a ventilator. I know some who were not so fortunate. Needless to say, having the sick kid as an additional factor of anxiety did not aid on any level whatsoever. It’s been a tough few days. I was feeling better before that.
Steps to be taken? Well, I’ve got nose spray, a leftover steroid inhaler hanging around, Zinc, various Claritins, Mucinexes, DayQuils and so on to parse out. I’ve already finished an iced tea and nearly a full pot of coffee, and I’ve set an alarm on my phone for noon to make another. Beyond that and the usual hydration, I’m not really sure what there is to do. I’m out of Paxlovid, if this is still covid, and in the meantime, one of my nephews up the hill at my mother and sister’s house has tested positive, so even if I was willing to bring someone from over there in to assist here — a thought I find not particularly thrilling, given the potential risk of exposure from us to them, never mind from them to us — outside help would seem not to be forthcoming.
Survival-mode, then. The tv went on early yesterday, may go on earlier today. We’ll see.
I did manage to floss yesterday and this morning though, and that felt good. And I’ve gotten about 150 responses from people looking to take the Obelisk Questionnaire, so it seems that feature will continue for the foreseeable future. I’m glad. I like it.
I wish you a great and safe weekend. Have fun, stay healthy, watch your head, drink water. It’s 5:30AM now and I have more writing to do for today, so I’mma skip out. New Gimme show this afternoon. It’s a good one. I know you don’t care but I do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
There’s a moment right at four minutes and 30 seconds into Exosphere‘s new single where everything seems to be thudded into place and someone — guitarist Steven Graff, perhaps — lets out a throatripping scream that pushes into a another register higher and yeah, right in that moment, that’s where “Beg Towards the Sky” reminds me of Strapping Young Lad. And to be honest, even if the rest of the song wasn’t a charge of hardcore-informed mostly-but-not-entirely screamy aggro sludge, that’d be enough to get me on board. Just that extra push. Sometimes that kind of thing can make all the difference.
Nonetheless, in my head, I feel like the song should be “Beg Toward…” without the ‘s’. I actually went and looked it up though, and here’s what Merriam-Webster said: “Both toward and towards are fine to use and have been used interchangeably since their creation in the 9th century.” First of all, I love the fact that this has been a question for minimum 12 centuries. Also, I like finding stuff out about words. Maybe we’ll go towards this, toward that. Exosphere, clearly, will be skybound either way in the song. Also nodule-bound if they keep up that screaming. Gotta take care of yourselves, dudes.
Track’s at the bottom of the post. Enjoy:
Exosphere Release Blistering New Track – “Beg Towards The Sky”
“Beg Towards The Sky is a blistering track that captured the universal fear of AI autonomy/free will and presents it with riff after pummeling riff of energetic grooves and grandiose atmosphere.”
Exosphere is a psychedelic sludge band hailing from the suburbs of Chicago. Combining thick grooves, dissonant riffs, and shoegazey post rock inspired clean passages. This 4-piece channels equal parts peace and chaos to create an unparalleled combination of sounds that leaves the audience perplexed and captivated.
EXOSPHERE IS Jackie Frank Russell III – Vocals, Guitars Steven Graff – Guitars, Screams Henry Edward’s – Bass Guitar Bill Kaszubowski – Drums
In the dark, hunkered-down, showless expanse of time that was Winter 2020/2021, then-Long Beach-based heavy psychedelic rockers Spirit Mother took part in the livestream series ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ (review here) at the behest of producer/director Ryan Jones, whose Giant Rock Records would later release the resultant live album(s) in cooperation with Heavy Psych Sounds. In Spirit Mother‘s case, the live record made for a vibrant follow-up to their 2020 debut LP, Cadets (review here), and helped showcase what the band might have to offer on tour when and if such things ever became possible again.
They did, and starting this Saturday, Spirit Mother — now relocated to Eastern Oregon, as we’ve all fantasized about doing at one point or another — will kick off a weekender leading to a longer stint in the formidable company of Blackwater Holylight on the West Coast/Midwestern portion of that band’s inaugural headlining tour. To mark the occasion, the then-four-piece of bassist/vocalist Armand Lance, violinist/vocalist SJ Lance, guitarist Sean McCormick and drummer Landon Cisneros offer the new video below for “Black Sheep,” taking the Cadets audio and bringing the nighttime vibes from Live in the Mojave Desert Vol. 3 (review here) to create a ritualistic visual that’s meditative and seething with violence at the same time. I won’t spoil it, but it’s fairly consuming.
Since recording Cadets and performing the livestream, Spirit Mother have become a (sort of?) five-piece with the addition of Camille Getz to at least the touring lineup. I’m really not sure the status on that. Tell you what, if you go see them on tour, let me know who’s there — thanks in advance. In the meantime, I and anyone else sharing the geographic misfortune to not be on the other side of the Mississippi River have at least this video to dig into like so much raw organ meat, and while I would love, love, love to tell you all about Spirit Mother‘s new album, their lush, ranging, folk-informed psychedelic unfurling and this and that and whatever else I might say, I have no knowledge (truly) of such a thing existing or even being in the works. Let them tour first, then we’ll worry about the rest.
All of which is to say this: “Cool band. Hope they do more soon. Go see them if you can. Enjoy the video either way.”
Thanks for reading:
Spirit Mother, “Black Sheep” video premiere
Spirit Mother is an American heavy-psych rock group. Originally hailing from Long Beach, CA, an isolated ranch house in the high-desert of Eastern Oregon now serves as home base for the band.
The band stayed busy during lockdown by putting together a new collection of music. The first two songs of this collection were released exclusively for their acclaimed live record/concert film, “Live In The Mojave Desert Volume 3” a Stoned And Dusted production released jointly by Giant Rock Records and Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
Spirit Mother Tour Dates: May 28 – Bozeman, MT – Filling Station VFW May 29 – Rapid City, SD – Cave Collective May 31 – Des Moines, IA – Gaslamp June 1 – Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 2 – Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 3 – Green Bay, WI – Lyric Room (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 5 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 7 – Denver, CO – Hi-Dive (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 8 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 9 – Boise, ID – Neurolux Lounge (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 17 – Felton, CA – Felton Music Hall (w/Blackwater Holylight) June 18 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room (w/Blackwater Holylight)
It’s the last Friday of the month, and if you’ve been keeping up throughout the year so far, you know that means All Them Witches have a new song as part of their Baker’s Dozen monthly singles project. This is actually the first month I’ve managed to remember before the song was actually posted, so I’ll pat myself on the back in having the back end of this post ready to go, and having now actually heard the thing, it’s 17-minute soan renders it as something of an EP unto itself. That, mind you, is not a complaint.
With Hammond organ pulsing alongside the guitar and a hooky groove that’s uptempo without trying too hard to sell itself to the listener, the mega-jam starts off fluid and stays that way for the duration. Robby Staebler, by this point in the band’s career, is a master of working around the central beat, so that even as the rhythm holds, he’s not playing the same thing necessarily every measure through. That makes the transitions in “Acid Face” even smoother, as it heads into Doors-style guitar spaciousness after about six minutes in and picks its way back up through spring morning pastoralia en route to ever more ethereal, improvibing (sic) hypnosis, active without too much going on, laid back without being boring. A jam to hang with for a while.
All Them Witches is: Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals Robby Staebler – drums, vocals Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes piano, keys, violin
All Them Witches, “Blacksnake Blues”
All Them Witches, “Fall Into Place” official video
Posted in Questionnaire on May 27th, 2022 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: Ciarán Coghlan of Coroza, Astralist & Obsidian Imagery
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I would reluctantly call myself an artist in the sense that I make music and art in various forms. It’s something I’ve always done, before I could talk or walk, I was creating things. Most of us are like this from an early age. Unfortunately, some people just stop or don’t consider it a worthwhile endeavor and put it to the back of their mind for the rest of their life. I have always had a creative streak and it’s what makes life interesting for me – trying to create something that I am proud of. And behind that one thing that works are 100 other things that failed for me to get there. It’s about learning lessons and applying them to the next thing you create.
Describe your first musical memory.
My first real musical memory (besides background noise on the radio) was hearing my older brother playing Nirvana and Guns ‘n’ Roses loud as hell in his room (probably around 1993). That really opened my ears up to the fact that music could be a source of expression that channeled anger, depression, frustration, attitude, rebelliousness and many, many more perspectives that you won’t hear on the radio.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I could name about a thousand different things – but the best in recent memory was playing a headline gig in Limerick, here in Ireland in November 2021 with Coroza and having my other band Astralist as one of the opening bands for our debut performance. It was our first time back playing with Coroza since 2019 because of all the lockdowns and no live music being performed in two years. It was a cathartic experience; the crowd was happy to be back witnessing live music and we were just all so happy to be back on a stage again. If that would have been the last time I ever played music I would have been happy to go out on that night alone.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I have always been a strict atheist bordering on some nihilistic tendencies. In the past couple of years I had a series of bizarre coincidences and synchronicities in my life that really made me question things and start to explore the more esoteric and spiritualistic side of life. I still don’t hold any particular belief to heart, but I was once convinced that life was a futile thing with no real meaning – I firmly held that belief until suddenly I felt there very well could be something else beneath and beyond our reality.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Artistic progression should lead to a better understanding of the world and of people. We’re all different in so many ways and all so similar in other ways. Art being subjective means that there are infinite possibilities for progression in infinite directions. Try and do something that hasn’t been done before, create a chord progression you’ve never heard before, draw something you’ve never seen before. By crossing boundaries and pushing the envelop we discover things about ourselves and the world we live in and about each other. Why does someone love or hate a particular piece of art or music you made? Their honest answer will help you learn more about them, about yourself and about your art.
How do you define success?
I define success by how happy and content you are in life. Money and material possessions will never be able to guarantee that. For me, the act of creating art that releases a part of yourself into the world and is consumed by others to move them in some way is success. You made somebody feel something, made them reflect on things and think about the world differently.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Manowar closing out Hellfest in 2009. Just a terrible, terrible thing to witness. It was 60 percent speeches about how metal they are and then the rest was just bad power metal, bad acting and fireworks. It was the kind of thing that if it were someone’s first introduction to metal I fully would understand if they never wanted to hear metal ever again.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I’d like to try my hand at a music video at some point. I did some video editing in college many moons ago and only very recently have started teaching myself how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects again. I’ve always had an interest in photography and videography. There’s a lot of room to tell stories in a visual aspect that can lend so much more to a song’s meaning – whether you’re seeking to clarify things to the listener or obscure them even further.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To me, the function of art is to make people think differently about the world around them. With visual art that is by rearranging objects that exist in society to make people view society in a different way. With music the same is true but you are using musical notes and arrangements to essentially do the same thing. We’ve all had that one of those moments where a song, or a movie or a piece of art changed your life – something that came at you from the left field and turned your worldview upside down and inside out. That, to me, is what art should aim to do. Even if it’s just a fraction of that feeling – but it should stir something in the observer/listener.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Travelling abroad again in a post-pandemic world. I think travel is such an important thing to do in order to gain some perspective on life.
Yeah, there are some longer songs here. Truth be told, I wanted that. I wanted the show to have a flow from one track to the next. A lot of it is a pretty dug-in, trippier vibe. There’s some light and dark, and when you get to Wild Rocket and YOB that’s a kind of blasting point that I acknowledge in the subsequent voice track too, but I get two hours every other week to do this thing and I had a specific idea for how I wanted to use it this time.
Does that matter? I don’t know. I just want you to listen to Moura and Okkoto because those records has been laying waste to my soul of late. Lili Refrain I was put onto last weekend or somewhere thereabouts and I wanted to check out more, so there you go, and I feel punk rock guilt for missing Blackwater Holylight and BleakHeart when they came through — to be fair, I had/kinda-still-have the plague — and I thought that I’d probably be the only person on Gimme to play something like Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, so after having closed out last week with that on the site, the temptating to include it was too much to resist. Everything else was built off that.
I did my best to make a good show. If you listen, I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 05.27.22
Moura
Lúa vermella
Axexan, Espreitan
Okkoto
Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea
Climb the Antlers & Reach the Stars
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Utopia
Magick Brother & Mystic Sister
Kungens Män
Vaska lyckokaka
Kungens Ljud & Bild
Blue Heron
The Buck
Ephemeral
VT
Blackwater Holylight
Who the Hell
Silence/Motion
BleakHeart
The Dead Moon
Dream Griever
Lili Refrain
Ichor
Mana
Wild Rocket
Formless Abyss
Formless Abyss
Mt. Echo
Flummox
Electric Empire
YOB
Nothing to Win
Clearing the Path to Ascend
VT
Wo Fat
The Oracle
The Singularity
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is June 10 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
