Posted in Whathaveyou on May 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Nearly four years since their last album, II (review here), came out in 2018, Ohio progressive heavy rockers Brujas del Sol will issue Deculter on July 22 in continued collaboration with Kozmik Artifactz. The record is sitting on my desktop, which would be awesome and I’d probably be going on right now about how rad it is but for the fact that my laptop crashed and I’m writing this on my phone, meanwhile feeling like a garbage fire because either of resurgent covid or allergies, one of which has also infected my son. His covid test was negative but he’s also extra miserable so who the royal fuck knows anything anymore.
So anyhow, I’ll get to listening at some point when my head doesn’t feel like it’s baking bread with too much yeast and then I’ve no doubt of the evening radness in the Middle West. One of these days. Looks like the album’s been done for a while though, which makes me wondering about the vinyl pressing delays. It’s a thing I’m glad exists either way. Let me say that for now.
Can’t fucking breathe through my nose.
PR wire:
Brujas Del Sol Return with Brand New Album “Deculter”
“Deculter is the quintessential record of the Brujas sound. Though several songs were written over a year before we recorded this album in the summer of 2020, that turbulent time only made us strive harder to capture our musical catharsis.
Alongside the rest of the world, our personal lives have changed quite a bit since we last released music. Adrian moved to Asheville, NC from our hometown of Columbus, Ohio; he and Derrick are now brother-in-laws, and Josh has become a father. Also, for the first time since forming this band 10 years ago, we wrote, recorded, and toured as a trio.
There was a sense of urgency, stronger than we’ve ever felt before, to get this album done and do it right – to prove to ourselves that making music was not only still possible, but necessary after everything we’ve been through together.
The heavy riffs, ethereal melodies, propulsive drums, and pulsating synths that are our trademarks have been refined on Deculter to something more than the sum of its parts. We hope this album is for you what it is for us: raw, progressive, and uncompromising.”
Deculter will be released 22nd July on Kozmik Artifactz, available on heavyweight gatefold vinyl from Kozmik Artifactz, as well as on Bandcamp and all major digital streaming platforms.
Available as Limited Edition Vinyl
Release Date: 22nd July 2022
VINYL FACTZ – Plated & pressed on high performance vinyl at Pallas/Germany – limited & coloured vinyl – 300gsm gatefold cover – special vinyl mastering
TRACKS 1. Intro 2. Divided Divinity 3. Lenticular 4. To Die on Planet Earth 5. Myrrors 6. Arcadia
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you’re talking a pedigree in UK doom, being able to namedrop Solstice is a good way to catch the eye. I’ll add to that Monolith Cult and Lazarus Blackstar as well, but however you come at it, Wolves in Winter signing to Argonauta for a to-be-released-sometime-ever debut album is notable. And really if not talking about a pedigree in UK doom, why not? It’s fun. You should try it.
There’s no audio or details for the impending long-player yet, but Wolves in Winter have a 2022 version of the prior demo track “Sobering Thought” on their Bandcamp — also streaming at the bottom of this post — and it promises blending of classic and modern doom methodologies that the PR wire further hints toward, verses sounding like the record Danzig should’ve made with Chris Fielding before opening to the layered harmonies of the chorus and subsequent shifts. Then they break out the BIG riff. It’s a good time and hopefully heralds more to come.
Signing announcement follows from the PR wire:
WOLVES IN WINTER (feat. members of Solstice, Lazarus Blackstar, Monolith Cult & more) Sign With Argonauta Records!
Epic, emotional, eloquent… Newly formed UK doom metal quintet Wolves In Winter have hit the ground running. Forming between lockdowns in 2020, Wolves In Winter have worked tirelessly to forge a crushing fusion of traditional and contemporary doom metal. The band is comprised of seasoned veterans from the UK heavy music underground, including former and present members of Solstice, Lazarus Blackstar, Monolith Cult, Slammer and more, effortlessly building on a wealth of experience and carving a fully realised sound and vision. Today, the heavy doom collective has announced their worldwide signing with Argonauta Records, who are proud to release the band‘s upcoming, first full-length album during 2022!
“We’re really excited about our collaboration with Argonauta – they’re a great label, who are easy to work with and they have some really cool, quality bands on the roster,“ the band comments. This is a great opportunity to bring ourselves to a wider audience, with the help from an established and respected record company and we’re looking forward to our journey with them.“
Wolves In Winter have written and recorded their forthcoming debut album with Chris Fielding (Conan) at Foel Studios. Working with Fielding has allowed them to capture enormous tones and crushing riffs. The quintet seamlessly honour doom metal traditionalists such as Cathedral and Candlemass, yet go toe to toe with contemporary favourites including Pallbearer and Windhand. Wolves In Winter land on both sides of the coin, building dynamic, weighty and nuanced lengthy tracks that are as heavy sonically as they are emotionally. With riffs and chord progressions that are contemplative and melancholic, a subtle yet driving rhythm section, and a powerhouse lead vocal performance which brims with emotive and passionate gravelly harmonies akin to Alice In Chains, Wolves In Winter have already crafted a versatile, engrossing and powerful sound.
Wolves In Winter are currently working hard behind closed doors and have already attracted a buzz from metal publications and record companies. Watch out for many more updates and album details to follow, as with their recent signing with powerhouse label Argonauta Records, Wolves In Winter will undoubtedly make a huge impression in the metal scene holding onto an album that will turn heads!
Wolves In Winter are: Izak – bass Adam – drums Wayne – guitar Enzo – guitar Jake – vocals
Finnish electronic experimentalists Enphin will issue their debut/not-at-all-debut album, End Cut, through Pelagic Records on June 24. “The Non-Returners” (premiering in the video below) is the third single from the LP behind “Cut Flesh” and “Communion,” and if three seems like a lot of visual focus before the record’s out, the music earns the cinematic accompaniment. In the interest of full disclosure, Lauri Kivelä, Vesa Vatanen and I have been involved in a secret-so-far-type hard industrial project for more than the last year (there’s a record done, hoping to find someone to put it out). In Enphin, those two are joined by Joakim Udd and JP Koivisto, and the reason End Cut would be a “not-at-all-debut” is because Enphin are the latest incarnation of the band that used to be known as PH, and before that, were once the droned-out cosmos dwellers Mr. Peter Hayden. To their credit, the clue is right there in the logo: en-PH-in.
Putting End Cut and Enphin in that context, all of their releases are a turn from the one before, so that the same should apply to this 13-song/49-minute collection shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. With the dance-ready opener “An Nihilist” — true nihilism manifest right in the grammar — and the electrogoth vibes of “Perpetual Night” and “Nothing,” the interlude-ish soundscapes of “The Test View,” “Kaiverrus,” “Drones” and the penultimate “Raunioina,” the meditative pulsations and synthesizer wash of “Moth,” “Communion”‘s heavier-landing beat and the more frenetic programmed chaos of “Protocosmic,” the four-piece bounce through moods and styles with out-there post-krautrock futurism and a Ulverian neo-New Wave atmosphere, progressive in construction and primal in much of the underlying rhythm despite the elaborate and well-mixed layers surrounding. The last PH album was 2019’s Osiris Hayden (review here) on Svart, and as they continue their seemingly perpetual evolution, one sound into the next, one guise into the next, Enphin carve out niches for themselves while creating a world that is no more dystopian than that in which we live (maybe less, this week), but that in the urgency of “Cut Flesh” and the slow-unfolding resolution of End Cut in “Sang Unity” ahead of “Raunioina” and the nine-minute self-acknowledging capper “Endling” still manages to feel like a new reality.
So it is. I’ve said on any number of occasions regarding PH and related outfits that theirs is a work of extremity, and that’s true of End Cut as well despite some moments that willfully evoke a poppish sensibility. Enphin will not be for everybody, and having written about them for a decade before knowing them more personally, they know it. But if it’s extreme, it’s a purposeful extremity. They’re not just blasting you with noise — and to say they are would be ignoring the dynamic shifts in volume, tempo and tone across the album’s span — each piece has an expressive position within the record’s entirety, even “Drones” with its obscure speech, off-kilter key notes bridging “Protocosmic” and “The Non-Returners” so they, like the rest of End Cut, flow together as one consuming, multifaceted entirety before the final wash of “Endling” moves with unhindered beauty into a blinding techno afterlife. Suffice it to say that anywhere Enphin go, they establish a claim on their territory that speaks to the members’ extensive history in trying something new, finding what works, and then using it to swallow listeners whole.
And while one may raise an eyebrow at the marketing strategy of changing the name of your band as readily as an album title, it’s hard to ignore how easily “The Non-Returners” slips into the unspoken narrative of the video that follows here. I’m not looking to give away the ending, but I think she killed a guy. In any case, the song’s methodical unfolding, effects-carrying melody and eerie vibe is emblematic if not nearly entirely representative of the full album, even in combination with the clips for “Communion” and “Cut Flesh” near the bottom of the post, so consider it more of a teaser than a stand-in for End Cut. You’ll find it plenty immersive for its four and a half minutes, just the same.
Please enjoy:
Enphin, “The Non-Returners” video premiere
For over 21 years, Finnish psych doom outfit ENPHIN have been pushing the envelope of their sound and their upcoming album End Cut sees the band incorporating elements of new age, synthpop and early electronica. Complemented by the ambient vocals of electro-pop singer Ringa Manner (Ruusut, The Hearing) ‘The Non-Returners’ listens like the sonic propaganda of a new authoritarian regime of extraterrestrials that sits nicely on playlists like Electronic X or pov: ur in an 80s film driving at night.
The discography of Finnish industrial outfit ENPHIN is marked by name changes and highly conceptual compositions exploring a Jungian-Alchemical spiritual progression theme. “Communion” is a dignified space doom overture in which the quartet from Kankaanpää proclaim the unity of all. Amidst shimmering synth textures and spirited moaning of members of the fairer sex, we find a feverish manifesto on the interface of early electronic music and psychedelic doom metal.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
As they’ve shown a wont to do on occasion, Pittsburgh four-piece ZOM have announced their intention to head abroad for a short stint of select dates. Heralding their 2022 album, Fear and Failure, on StoneFly Records, the band will perform select UK shows in the company of The Velvet Queens from Lincolnshire in England, beginning in Newcastle before heading further north into Scotland for a stop at the famed Bannerman’s in Edinburgh — where once upon a time Conan recorded a live album — and looping back down to Rotherham, which is one of the not-insignificant drives on the stint.
Perhaps this is kindergarten-level insight, but I’m happy tours like this can happen again. I’m glad US bands can get out to where the action is — nothing against the creativity of the States’ underground, but the audience is in UK/EU and if you’re reading this you already know it — and that the possibility at least exists for Euro acts to come over here for festivals and so on, even if the reality of that is ridiculously and needlessly more difficult. But at least it’s possible. At least you can leave the fucking house. Isn’t that in itself enough reason to do so? I’m asking as someone who just had (kinda still has but let’s not talk about it) covid. Is this not the stuff of life?
Dates from the PR wire:
ZOM announce 2022 UK Tour
Pittsburgh, PA (USA) groove-heavy rockers, ZOM (StoneFly Records), are headed to the UK in late August, 2022.
ZOM initially had a UK tour booked in 2020 but we all know what happened that year.
Gero: “Yeah, it was a drag. We didn’t even get to announce it because we were watching this new virus thing like everybody else. You know how the rest went. Marc Walsh (booking agent – Rock the Foundry) has been a huge help. He had to start from scratch this year but put together a helluva run for us in the UK, where we’ve never played. Only Matt (guitar) has ever even been there.
“Obviously there’s so much rock n’ roll history there, never mind the geography and architecture. The four of us always dive into new cultures and local history so we couldn’t be more stoked to be going to England and Scotland. Most of all though, we can’t wait to play for some of our fans over there and make new ones. England’s been good to us. The Velvet Queens are going to be joining us on the road and it’s gonna be a blast.”
DATES: 08.31 Trillians Newcastle 09.01 Bannermans Edinburgh 02.09 The Hive Rotherham 03.09 Tap ‘n’ Tumbler Nottingham 04.09 The Metal Monocle Leicester
ZOM is: Gero Von Dehn: Vocals/Guitars Sam Pesce: Bass Ben Zerbe: Drums, Percussion Matthew Tuite: Guitar
Posted in Questionnaire on May 26th, 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: Scott Donaldson of King Buffalo
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I define myself as a musician and small business owner. It started from a desire to play music with friends and organically grew into a full-time job.
Describe your first musical memory.
Watching music VHS tapes at my dad’s. The three that come to mind to mind are Styx and Van Halen Live concerts. I remember Alex Van Halen making his drumset sound like a helicopter which blew my mind at the time and Tommy Shaw having a shiny metallic guitar that changed colors (it was just the stage lights). My tiny brain thought a color changing guitar was the ultimate. It’s kinda hilarious that I now have a drumset that can “change color” haha. The 3rd was all the Def Leppard music videos through Hysteria. I loved and completely wore through that tape.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
That’s tough. I’ve been extremely fortunate to meet a lot of super talented musicians and even luckier to be able to call many of them friends. I honestly can’t pick just one but it’d involve touring with them.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Probably when Sean said I should start playing certain songs to a click. A lot of his delays are mapped out and for some of the synth work, I have to be exactly on. I didn’t like the idea at first and now I love it. It’s comforting to know I’m in the right place and kinda liberating. Thanks Sean!
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Does anyone know? I think everyone’s journey is different. Each person has their own views and ways of moving forward. I think it depends on the person and the environment they develop in.
How do you define success?
I think definitions of success change as you grow musically and as a person. Success to me when I first started was to make four records with my name on it and to do a West Coast tour. Now we’re approaching 10 records with KB so, I think we’ve achieved some success, but I also think there’s a lot more to go.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
A dog at a live show without ear protection. Please protect your animals!
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
It’d be cool to have some KB tunes in a video game haha.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
For me it’s trying to have fun. Music has become my full time job and I’m lucky to be able to say that. I think it can become easy to get jaded and forget how far you’ve come. I don’t want to take anything for granted and enjoy things for as long as they last. Having fun while creating is essential, because if it stops being fun I think it can stifle your creativity.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Dune Part 2. I read all the books over the pandemic and always had a campy appreciation of the David Lynch film. Part 1 was close to perfect for me and I’m excited to see what the next one brings. Fingers crossed they make a 3rd as well.
Swedish heavy progressive rockers Time Dwellers will release their debut album, Novum Aurora, tomorrow through Argonauta Records. The outfit — and really, aren’t we all dwellers in time? — is a relatively recent project from some clearly-aware-of-what-they-want-to-do players, including Martin Fairbanks, whose prior band The Graviators released their last album, Motherload (review here), in 2014, and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kristofer Stjernquist, who had previously worked together with Fairbanks in the group Nymf.
Together with The Graviators‘ founding drummer Henrik Bergman (also percussion and backing vocals, as listed below), the three-piece bring forth Novum Aurora as a suitable discovery of new light in sound, pulling together classic prog lushness from the likes of Gentle Giant or Greg Lake-era King Crimson and melding it with a post-McCartney bounce on “At Least We’re Having Fun” or “Seasons Change,” among a slew of heavy rock songcraft impulses. Fairbanks, with a mellow, breathy vocal delivery, harnesses a psychedelic edge, but the intention is clear and conveyed purposefully in the nine-minute album opener and longest track (immediate points) “Rising Dawn/Awakening/Metamorphosis,” which serves effectively in summarizing much of the shimmering resonance to follow, the active synth line and drums of its first part and bright melody giving over to mellow, subtly fuzzy-funky stretch of verses — note the stop after the mention of death — before linear-building into a more densely weighted wash.
That’s not by any means everything Novum Aurora culls across its eight-song/48-minute expanse, but it’s certainly a start. “At Least We’re Having Fun” is a delight both for its Beatlesian casualness and its seeming acknowledgement of prog’s obscure place in the pantheon of rock and roll, and the still-melodically-centered “Seasons Change” turns that bounce heavier with a Scorpions-style tonality and groove behind it, catchy but not dumbed down in order to be so, echoing the sentiment in the opener in the line “Sometimes I feel I want to die,” the uptempo nature of the song nonetheless full of life. “What’s About to Happen…” is a shorter sweep, starting quiet and growing full over just two and a half minutes, big-drum rumbling in its second half under wistful guitar, and it finds an answer in the subsequent “Sound of the Apocalypse,” where the low end and later sense of surging vocal layers pays off some of the darker moodiness that’s already unfurled, the flow central, patient, but moving.
Cohesive in execution, it borders on overwhelming, which is only right given the subject matter, and as with “Rising Dawn/Awakening/Metamorphosis” giving over to “At Least We’re Having Fun” and “Seasons Change” being complemented by the shorter “What’s About to Happen…,” so too does “Sound of the Apocalypse” move into “Surfing With Greta” (3:56), inevitably bringing to mind Steve Vai‘s Surfing With the Alien, but establishing its own presence through guitar-whalesong and a steady drum backing. The structure shifts with the arrival of closing pair “You Are the Sun” and the digital-bonus “Tabular Balls” (as opposed to “Tubular Bells?”), which both top seven minutes.
The former, in wrapping the vinyl, brings a suitable sense of landing in its pastoral psychedelia, Stjernquist‘s vocal reminiscent of Death Hawks but more likely drawn from the same foundation of classic heavy prog. The latter, meanwhile, feels kin to “Seasons Change” with its “The Zoo”-esque riff and general ’70s rock fluidity, but the presence of synth and keys in fleshing that out isn’t to be understated, particularly in the beginning and end. As with the start of Novum Aurora, the finish seems aware of its place in the sphere of the entirety and moves to land not only an impression of its own, but one that speaks to the broader reach of the work. It is very much the kind of listen where what you put into it is what you get out, and as their debut, Time Dwellers‘ Novum Aurora sets up a forward progression that one only hopes can and will continue along the path set out here.
Not a minor undertaking front-to-back, but worth digging into in repeat fashion.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
Time Dwellers, Novum Aurora (2022)
Progressive rock trio TIME DWELLERS, the brainchild of former Graviators guitarist Martin Fairbanks and multi-instrumentalist and singer Kristofer Stjernquist, is gearing up for the release of their upcoming debut album, Novum Aurora, due out on May 27, 2022 via Argonauta Records.
Formed in 2017, the TIME DWELLERS blend anything from rock to prog, funk, and jazz to compose a potpourri of songs that are still coherent and cohesive. Novum Aurora showcases a musical landscape filled with mellotron, 12-string guitar, synthesizers, grooving rhythms, thrilling guitar solos and imaginative existential lyrics delivered from a whisper to a lion’s roar. In a world that’s growing more cynical by the minute, where popular music, at the same rate, is getting saturated and bland, the TIME DWELLERS set out to put a blanket around you and soothe your aching soul, while not fearing any musical limits and borders.
“Novum Aurora is an album with a lyrical theme about the apocalypse, the direction we are headed, but also of hope and beauty, that there will be a new dawn, perhaps a spiritual awakening,“ the band explains. “We are all Time Dwellers in the sense that we live here and now in the present. There is no future, there is no past, there is only now. Transform and transcend along with your fellow Time Dwellers! You are the sun, it’s time to rise and shine.”
Album Release: May 27, 2022 – Argonauta Records
Tracklist: 1. Rising: Dawn / Awakening / Metamorphosis 2. At Least we´re Having Fun 3. Seasons Change 4. What’s About to Happen… 5. Sound of the Apocalypse 6. Surfing with Greta 7. You are the Sun 8. Tabular Balls (CD Bonus Track)
TIME DWELLERS are: Kristofer Stjernquist: Lead vocals, mellotron, synthesizers, pedal bass, electric bass, 12-string guitar, rhythm guitar Martin Fairbanks: Lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals Henrik Bergman: Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Okay, it’s been a minute since the cross-continental two-piece Spiral Shades last checked in. The India-and-Norway-based duo released their digital-only EP, Children of Doom (discussed here), and that was a short tribute release consisting of just three covers. Their debut album, Hypnosis Sessions (review here), was issued in 2014 on RidingEasy Records. But here’s the thing. Even when the tribute EP came out, Spiral Shades — who are not to be confused with Spiral Grave, Spiral Skies or any of the other spirals careening out there — were talking about getting to work on their next record. It’s just been seven years in the making.
The band reportedly finished the recording in 2020 and I guess have been mixing back and forth since then? They signed with Majestic Mountain Records in 2021 — I’d usually catch that kind of news, can only wonder why I didn’t, but I’m sorry to not have an immediate excuse handy; I just suck at this — and I guess now the yet-untitled release to come is done, mastered, finished. Any way you want to slice it, this has been a pretty significant undertaking on the part of the band. I doubt they were working 40 hours a week to put it together, but consider having lived with these songs for over a half-decade minimum and just now getting to the point of having an end-product to show for it. They must be on fire to get this shit out.
And that’s a record I’m looking forward to hearing. From socials etc.:
We are done mixing and mastering our sophomore album. Special thanks to Maxim Losch from Redville Studio for doing such a fabulous job on the record. Redville Studio Majestic. Mountain Records.
— Spiral Shades is a doom metal project formed in 2012 that is inspired by two individuals from different countries with a common goal of making an album together. Khushal Bhadra a Guitarist, Songwriter from India, Mumbai city and Filip Petersen (Guitarist, Bassist) from Norway, Vennesla got to know each other through Youtube because of their common interest in 70’s heavy doom/progressive rock music.
Posted in Questionnaire on May 25th, 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: Adam O’Day of Mollusk
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a drummer and a fine art painter.
Describe your first musical memory.
My dad let me borrow a Walkman, to shut me up at my big brother’s soccer games. The two cassettes I had were Beastie Boys – License to Ill, and Weird Al – UHF soundtrack.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
When I saw my brother and sister sing together on a bar room stage in Athens, Georgia, it blew my mind.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
When a loved one dies, I feel like there is no god.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
It leads to a long-lasting sense of childhood wonderment.
How do you define success?
I define success for myself differently, updating the definition often. Currently, success in the music world, just means playing as loud and powerful as possible with my best bud Hank.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I saw a guy get shot and killed in D.C. Haunts my nightmares.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I have always thought it would be cool to make a sad cowboy album. And then make a doom version of the same tunes.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
They say visual art is the decoration of space and music is the decoration of time. But good art is relevant to both dimensions.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
This Friday, I have my biggest art exhibit ever, showing over 45 pieces.
