Beginning with “Outer Space” and ending with “Sunset,” Sunset in the Outer Space is the 2017 debut album from Italian heavy instrumentalists Black Is? Just a Dark White, and while the band’s curiously punctuated moniker and sans-vocal configuration might bring to mind an act like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the four-piece from Bolzano are distinguished through their double-guitar heft and readiness to hit hard on the Karma to Burn-but-slower-ish riffing of second cut “Bad Taste,” as well as their general atmosphere, which is more heavy rock than post-rock.

That’s not to say Black Is? Just a Dark White — the name… well… isn’t really accurate on any level, but I’m willing to grant that maybe in Italy the words “black” and “white” can be used in a sentence without immediate racial implications; that’s just not possible in the US — are wanting for atmosphere, because they’re not. From the “Komet Lulu” Neudeck artwork adorning the front cover to the breadth of the material itself, Sunset in the Outer Space is both varied and colorful, maybe somewhat self-aware as they riff doomly in the later “Graveyard,” but able to work fluidly across longer or shorter songs — “Bad Taste” is three minutes, “A Travel to Nowhere” is near 10 — so that the entirety of the 47-minute offering holds together despite each piece of it being a distinct progression, seemingly written to stand on its own rather than just be a part of an overarching work.

What I mean is that there are seven songs on Sunset in the Outer Space and they all have a clear beginning and end, whatever else may vary. “Outer Space,” the penultimate “The Way” and “Sunset,”  which follows as the finale, all seem to unfold with a stretch of silence or near silence, but even “Bad Taste” announces its presence and intentions in a clear manner. In that particular case, the band is giving clear homage in the telltale start-stop riffing to the West Virginian godfathers of instrumentalist heavy, but after the lead guitar reaching into the void as it does in the first half of “Outer Space” before, the context is such that even by stripping down to their most straightforward take on the record, Black Is? Just a Dark White manage to use it to expand on what they already did on the first track.

This sort of cleverness of arrangement extends to the material itself and can also be seen in how the songs are structured through the tracklisting, which is set up more for the CD to which the album was pressed than vinyl. “Outer Space” gives way to two sets of three songs, each one comprised of a shorter song and two longer ones. Think of it as: one, three, three. In this way, “Bad Taste” is a lead-in for “A Travel to Nowhere” and the subsequent “Slowtorch,” which I’ll just assume is named for the band (who put out a record this year, something Black Is? Just a Dark White probably wouldn’t have known was going to happen in 2017), who are also from Bolzano, and that the slower, grittier riffing, choice bassline and flowing groove in that song are intended as a salute to hometown heroes. Fair enough. With “A Travel to Nowhere” at 9:40 and “Slowtorch” at 8:42, there’s plenty of substance to both, but it’s the weight of the rollout in the latter that most separates it from the surroundings. Nod will happen, even unto the relatively subdued guitar interplay at the end of the song. No getting away from that groove. And no complaints.

“Slowtorch” being paired next to “Graveyard” makes me wonder if perhaps that too is titled after the band (who are from Sweden, not Italy, but still), but the classic doom ringing out in the opening riff of the four-minute roller would seem to tell a story of actual mournfulness. The song itself is more Candlemass or Reverend Bizarre than Graveyard, despite being called “Graveyard,” and somehow I don’t think they’re looking to title pieces after bands and then try to sound like those bands, which would be a nifty trick but not much more than novelty. “Graveyard” has a doomed lurch and is a marked swap in vibe as it picks up from “Slowtorch,” and moves into “The Way” (8:57) and “Sunset” (7:16), which as noted are the last two inclusions here and despite being shorter as a pair than “A Travel to Nowhere” and “Slowtorch” are perhaps even more a world of their own.

Quiet and hypnotic guitar begins “The Way” after a barely-there-but-definitely-there ambient stretch, and the song takes shape with a patience that “Bad Taste” would’ve otherwise rendered unthinkable, linear-building into its solo-topped and chugging midsection, getting loud and staying that way for the duration. It’s not quite a jam, but sounds improvised in part and benefits from that spirit, ending with a holdout as the distortion fades to the silence from which the bass intro of “Sunset” takes over, soon joined by ringing heavy psych guitar and a proggy contemplation that lasts but a moment before being swallowed at about 1:45 by meatier tonality and volume. “Sunset” swells and recedes without necessarily veering into loud/quiet tradeoff cliché, and the drift of its intro returns in the middle only to see the push revive and ultimately win out — the rumble is palpable as they bring Sunset in the Outer Space to a close, and the impression given is that stretch probably could have kept going into perpetuity, save, of course, for the limitations of format.

I was given a copy of this CD earlier this year at Freak Valley Festival by bassist Felli Cetti and it made the trip home with me and has been a regular go-back-to-it kind of album since. I’m not saying it’s perfect or that the band didn’t have room to grow — in fact one of the strengths of it is multiple avenues of forward potential — but it’s eminently listenable, and leaves me wondering what a follow-up might sound like this half-decade later. Their last post on social media was plugging an Oct. 2021 show — with Slowtorch, as it happens — so I’ve no idea if something’s in the works or not, but either way, Sunset in the Outer Space holds a place for what might still at some point be a next offering.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

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So the Quarterly Review is done. That feels pretty good. That’s two with 100 records in a row. I’m going to try my absolute damnedest to not do the same thing when the next one comes, probably in early January by the time I get there but I’d much rather have it in mid-December, before the holidays and list time and all that other crap. I’ll look at the calendar. Either way, I expect no trouble in filling at least 50 albums, and if I need to break it in half like I’m pretty sure I did between 2021 and 2022, I know nobody’s going to complain because I’m the only one who gives a shit anyway.

Did I tell you I went to see Rammstein a few weeks back? My mother and my sister and I went. A family outing. Super cool. Great show. I’ve been on a huge kick with the band ever since — went from Sunset in the Outer Space right to Herzeleid, which is why I mention it — and I might decide to close a week with Zeit, their new album, if I’m feeling fancy. Been probably since 2005 that I last wrote about one of their records, so yeah. That would be an interesting challenge. We’ll see.

If I do, it won’t be next week. Next week I head to Oslo for Høstsabbat for the first time since 2019, which was both yesterday and an eternity ago. I’ll admit I’m a little nervous about the travel, about being in a place that’s not here for a couple days. And I wonder if maybe I haven’t lost a step in the intervening years. Can I still go do a trip like that? I mean, I did Freak Valley in June and that was great, and if you can make it through Psycho Las Vegas you can survive anything, so I guess, but anyway, anxious about the act of going. It is my sincere hope that none of my flights get canceled for some bullshit reason, but given my recent travel experience I’m not holding my breath and I’m not going to relax until I’m actually there. No doubt living with me in that mindset will be wonderful for both The Patient Mrs. and The Pecan for the next week.

Before I fly out on Thursday, I’ll review the new Clutch hopefully on Monday and have full streams for Twin Drugs, Sun Voyager and Caustic Casanova. Substantial week either way. Nothing like diving right back in after coming up for air from a Quarterly Review.

Speaking of, I went swimming a couple times this week. I don’t like the gym, but it is close to the house and has a pool. Gonna try the local YMCA today I think and see if that’s any better in terms of vibe.

Today is a new The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal, 5PM Eastern time. I already posted the playlist, but it’s a good one, all Quarterly Review stuff. Certainly there was plenty to choose from. Anyway: http://gimmemetal.com

Thanks for reading, and have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, watch your head. If it’s Fall where you are, enjoy the crisp air, changing leaves, the necessity of a light hoodie. It’ll be winter before you know it, but a fleeting sweet spot is a sweet spot nonetheless. Worth recognizing.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

Tonight, Nashville four-piece play Nottingham, UK, as part of a Fall UK/European tour that will take them through almost all of October. I mention it both because, well, they plug the tour with the link below and because the latest installment of their ongoing ‘Baker’s Dozen’ monthly singles project is called “Tour Death Song,” which, as you might guess, is also about touring.

It’s always seemed like All Them Witches have had a complicated relationship with being on the road. They’ve been at it since at least 2013 and they’re a professional band, so that’s how they make their money, by going places and playing. Obviously that’s been a rough economy for the last two years, and they’ve never pretended that it’s easy work, but as soon as stuff opened back up, All Them Witches were quick to get back out.

As they move through this year-long project, this would seem to be the most direct acknowledgment of the effect of lockdowns on the band, though I’ve listened through a couple times and I didn’t catch any lines about “hey we miss our families and personal lives so please buy a t-shirt,” and I somehow doubt they’d be so crass. Parks, who I’m just going to call by his last name since that’s how I think of him, features in the video playing acoustic guitar, and generally speaking is a better lyricist than that.

Like much of ‘Baker’s Dozen,’ it’s a moody vibe here, but it tips more toward the structured end of songwriting than some of the jammier fare that the series has wrought. As ever, All Them Witches sound most of all like All Them Witches. I very much hope to see them at some point soon. It’s been a few years.

Time flies:

All Them Witches, “Tour Death Song”

allthemwitches.lnk.to/soon

Tour On Sale Now:
https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/tour

Subscribe: https://allthemwitches.lnk.to/subscribe

All Them Witches is:
Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals, acoustic guitar
Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals
Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Allan Van Cleave – Rhodes piano, keys, violin

All Them Witches, “Tiger’s Pit”

All Them Witches, “6969 WXL The Cage”

All Them Witches, “L’Hotel Serein” official video

All Them Witches, “Acid Face” official video

All Them Witches, “Blacksnake Blues”

All Them Witches, “Fall Into Place” official video

All Them Witches, “Silver to Rust” official video

All Them Witches, “Slow City” official video

All Them Witches on Facebook

All Them Witches on Instagram

All Them Witches on Bandcamp

Guess this is it, huh? Always bittersweet, the end of a Quarterly Review. Bitter, because there’s still a ton of albums waiting on my desktop to be reviewed, and certainly more that have come along over the course of the last two weeks looking for coverage. Sweet because when I finish here I’ll have written about 100 albums, added a bunch of stuff to my year-end lists, and managed to keep the remaining vestiges of my sanity. If you’ve kept up, I hope you’ve enjoyed doing so. And if you haven’t, all 10 of the posts are here.

Thanks for reading.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

Hazemaze, Blinded by the Wicked

This is one of 2022’s best records cast in dark-riffed, heavy garage-style doom rock. I admit I’m late to the party for Hazemaze‘s third album and Heavy Psych Sounds label debut, Blinded by the Wicked, but what a party it is. The Swedish three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ludvig Andersson, bassist Estefan Carrillo and drummer Nils Eineus position themselves as a lumbering forerunner of modern cultist heavy, presenting the post-“In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” lumber of “In the Night of the Light, for the Dark” and “Ethereal Disillusion” (bassline in the latter) with a clarity of purpose and sureness that builds even on what the trio accomplished with 2019’s Hymns for the Damned (review here), opening with the longest track (immediate points) “Malevolent Inveigler” and setting up a devil-as-metaphor-for-now lyrical bent alongside the roll of “In the Night of the Light, for the Dark” and the chugging-through-mud “Devil’s Spawn.” Separated by the “Planet Caravan”-y instrumental “Sectatores et Principes,” the final three tracks are relatively shorter than the first four, but there’s still space for a bass-backed organ solo in “Ceremonial Aspersion,” and the particularly Electric Wizardian “Divine Harlotry” leads effectively into the closer “Lucifierian Rite,” which caps with surprising bounce in its apex and underscores the level of songwriting throughout. Just a band nailing their sound, that’s all. Seems like maybe the kind of party you’d want to be on time for.

Hazemaze on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds store

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Elephant Tree, Track by Track

Released as a name-your-price benefit EP in July to help raise funds for the Ukrainian war effort, Track by Track is two songs London’s Elephant Tree recorded at the Netherlands’ Sonic Whip Festival in May of this year, “Sails” and “The Fall Chorus” — here just “Fall Chorus” — from 2020’s Habits (review here), on which the four-piece is joined by cellist Joe Butler and violinst Charlie Davis, fleshing out especially the quieter “Fall Chorus,” but definitely making their presence felt on “Sails” as well in accompanying what was one of Habits‘ strongest hooks. And the strings are all well and good, but the live harmonies on “Sails” between guitarist Jack Townley, bassist Peter Holland and guitarist/keyboardist John Slattery — arriving atop the e’er-reliable fluidity of Sam Hart‘s drumming — are perhaps even more of a highlight. Was the whole set recorded? If so, where’s that? “Fall Chorus” is more subdued and atmospheric, but likewise gorgeous, the cello and violin lending an almost Americana feel to the now-lush second-half bridge of the acoustic track. Special band, moment worth capturing, cause worth supporting. The classic no-brainer purchase.

Elephant Tree on Facebook

Elephant Tree on Bandcamp

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Mirror Queen, Inviolate

Between Telekinetic Yeti, Mythic Sunship and Limousine Beach (not to mention Comet Control last year), Tee Pee Records has continued to offer distinct and righteous incarnations of heavy rock, and Mirror Queen‘s classic-prog-influenced strutter riffs on Inviolate fit right in. The long-running project led by guitarist/vocalist Kenny Kreisor (also the head of Tee Pee) and drummer Jeremy O’Brien is bolstered through the lead guitar work of Morgan McDaniel (ex-The Golden Grass) and the smooth low end of bassist James Corallo, and five years after 2017’s Verdigris (review here), their flowing heavy progressive rock nudges into the occult on “The Devil Seeks Control” while maintaining its ’70s-rock-meets-’80s-metal gallop, and hard-boogies in the duly shredded “A Rider on the Rain,” where experiments both in vocal effects and Mellotron sounds work well next to proto-thrash urgency. Proggers like “Inside an Icy Light,” “Sea of Tranquility” and the penultimate “Coming Round with Second Sight” show the band in top form, comfortable in tempo but still exploring, and they finish with the title-track’s highlight chorus and a well-layered, deceptively immersive wash of melody. Can’t and wouldn’t ask for more than they give here; Inviolate is a tour de force for Mirror Queen, demonstrating plainly what NYC club shows have known since the days when Aytobach Kreisor roamed the earth two decades ago.

Mirror Queen on Facebook

Tee Pee Records store

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Faetooth, Remnants of the Vessel

Los Angeles-based four-piece Faetooth — guitarist/vocalist Ashla Chavez Razzano, bassist/vocalist Jenna Garcia, guitarist/vocalist Ari May, drummer Rah Kanan — make their full-length debut through Dune Altar with the atmospheric sludge doom of Remnants of the Vessel, meeting post-apocalyptic vibes as intro “(i) Naissance” leads into initial single “Echolalia,” the more spaced-out “La Sorcie|Cre” (or something like that; I think my filename got messed up) and the yet-harsher doom of “She Cast a Shadow” before the feedback-soaked interlude “(ii) Limbo” unfurls its tortured course. Blending clean croons and more biting screams assures a lack of predictability as they roll through “Remains,” the black metal-style cave echo there adding to the extremity in a way that the subsequent “Discarnate” pushes even further ahead of the nodding, you’re-still-doomed heavy-gaze of “Strange Ways.” They save the epic for last, however, with “(iii) Moribund” a minute-long organ piece leading directly into “Saturn Devouring His Son,” a nine-and-a-half-minute willful lurch toward an apex that has the majesty of death-doom and a crux of melody that doesn’t just shout out Faetooth‘s forward potential but also points to what they’ve already accomplished on Remnants of the Vessel. If this band tours, look out.

Faetooth on Facebook

Dune Altar on Bandcamp

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Behold! The Monolith, From the Fathomless Deep

Ferocious and weighted in kind, Behold! The Monolith‘s fourth full-length and first for Ripple Music, From the Fathomless Deep finds the Los Angeles trio taking cues from progressive death metal and riff-based sludge in with a modern severity of purpose that is unmistakably heavy. Bookended by opener “Crown/The Immeasurable Void” (9:31) and closer “Stormbreaker Suite” (11:35), the six-track/45-minute offering — the band’s first since 2015’s Architects of the Void (review here) — brims with extremity and is no less intense in the crawling “Psychlopean Dread” than on the subsequent ripper “Spirit Taker” or its deathsludge-rocking companion “This Wailing Blade,” calling to mind some of what Yatra have been pushing on the opposite coast until the solo hits. The trades between onslaughts and acoustic parts are there but neither overdone nor overly telegraphed, and “The Seams of Pangea” (8:56) pairs evocative ambience with crushing volume and comes out sounding neither hackneyed nor overly poised. Extreme times call for extreme riffs? Maybe, but the bludgeoning on offer in From the Fathomless Deep speaks to a push into darkness that’s been going on over a longer term. Consuming.

Behold! The Monolith on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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The Swell Fellas, Novaturia

The second album from Nashville’s The Swell Fellas — who I’m sure are great guys — the five-song/32-minute Novaturia encapsulates an otherworldly atmosphere laced with patient effects soundscapes, echo and moody presence, but is undeniably heavy, the opener “Something’s There…” drawing the listener deeper into “High Lightsolate,” the eight-plus minutes of which roll out with technical intricacy bent toward an outward impression of depth, a solo in the midsection carrying enough scorch for the LP as a whole but still just part of the song’s greater procession, which ends with percussive nuance and vocal melody before giving way to the acoustic interlude “Caesura,” a direct lead-in for the noisy arrival of the okay-now-we-riff “Wet Cement.” The single-ready penultimate cut is a purposeful banger, going big at its finish only after topping its immediate rhythmic momentum with ethereal vocals for a progressive effect, and as elliptically-bookending finisher “…Another Realm” nears 11 minutes, its course is its own in manifesting prior shadows of progressive and atmospheric heavy rock into concrete, crafted realizations. There’s even some more shred for good measure, brought to bear with due spaciousness through Mikey Allred‘s production. It’s a quick offering, but offers substance and reach beyond its actual runtime. They’re onto something, and I think they know it, too.

The Swell Fellas on Facebook

The Swell Fellas on Bandcamp

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Stockhausen & the Amplified Riot, Era of the Inauthentic

For years, it has seemed Houston-based guitarist/songwriter Paul Chavez (Funeral Horse, Cactus Flowers, Baby Birds, Art Institute) has searched for a project able to contain his weirdo impulses. Stockhausen & the Amplified Riot — begun with Era of the Inauthentic as a solo-project plus — is the latest incarnation of this effort, and its krautrock-meets-hooky-proto-punk vibe indeed wants nothing for weird. “Adolescent Lightning” and “Hunky Punk” are a catchy opening salvo, and “What if it Never Ends” provokes a smile by garage-rock riffing over a ’90s dance beat to a howling finish, while the 11-minute “Tilde Mae” turns early-aughts indie jangle into a maddeningly repetitive mindfuck for its first nine minutes, mercifully shifting into a less stomach-clenching groove for the remainder before closer “Intubation Blues” melds more dance beats with harmonica and last sweep. Will the band, such as it is, at last be a home for Chavez over the longer term, or is it merely another stop on the way? I don’t know. But there’s no one else doing what he does here, and since the goal seems to be individualism and experimentalism, both those ideals are upheld to an oddly charming degree. Approach without expectations.

Artificial Head Records on Facebook

Artificial Head Records on Bandcamp

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Nothing is Real, The End is Near

Nothing is Real stand ready to turn mundane miseries into darkly ethereal noise, drawing from sludge and an indefinable litany of extreme metals. The End is Near is both the Los Angeles unit’s most cohesive work to-date and its most accomplished, building on the ambient mire of earlier offerings with a down-into-the-ground churn on lead single “THE (Pt. 2).” All of the songs, incidentally, comprise the title of the album, with four of “THE” followed by two “END” pieces, two “IS”es and three “NEAR”s to close. An maybe-unhealthy dose of sample-laced interlude-type works — each section has an intro, and so on — assure that Nothing is Real‘s penchant for atmospheric crush isn’t misplaced, and the band’s uptick in production value means that the vastness and blackened psychedelia of 10-minute centerpiece “END” shows the abyssal depths being plunged in their starkest light. Capping with “NEAR (Pt. 1),” jazzy metal into freneticism, back to jazzy metal, and “NEAR (Pt. 2),” epic shred emerging from hypnotic ambience, like Jeff Hanneman ripping open YOB, The End is Near resonates with a sickened intensity that, again, it shares in common with the band’s past work, but is operating at a new level of complexity across its intentionally unmanageable 63 minutes. Nothing is Real is on their own wavelength and it is a place of horror.

Nothing is Real on Facebook

Nothing is Real on Bandcamp

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Red Lama, Memory Terrain

Copenhagen heavy psych collective Red Lama — and I’m sorry, but if you’ve got more than five people in your band, you’re a collective — brim with pastoral escapism throughout Memory Terrain, their third album and the follow-up to 2018’s Motions (discussed here) and its companion EP, Dogma (review here). Progressive in texture but with an open sensibility at their core, pieces like the title-track unfold long-song breadth in accessible spans, the earlier “Airborne” moving from the jazzy beginning of “Gentleman” into a more tripped-out All Them Witches vein. Elsewhere, “Someone” explores krautrock intricacies before synthing toward its last lines, and “Paint a Picture” exudes pop urgency before washing it away on a repeating, sweeping tide. Range and dynamic aren’t new for Red Lama, but I’m hard-pressed to think of as dramatic a one-two turn as the psych-wash-into-electro-informed-dance-brood that takes place between “Shaking My Bones” and “Chaos is the Plan” — lest one neglect the urbane shuffle of “Justified” prior — though by that point Red Lama have made it apparent they’re ready to lead the listener wherever whims may dictate. That’s a significant amount of ground to cover, but they do it.

Red Lama on Facebook

Red Lama on Bandcamp

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Echolot, Curatio

Existing in multiple avenues of progressive heavy rock and extreme metal, Echolot‘s Curatio only has four tracks, but each of those tracks has more range than the career arcs of most bands. Beginning with two 10-minute tracks in “Burden of Sorrows” (video premiered here) and “Countess of Ice,” they set a pattern of moving between melancholic heavy prog and black metal, the latter piece clearer in telegraphing its intentions after the opener, and introducing its “heavy part” to come with clean vocals overtop in the middle of the song, dramatic and fiery as it is. “Resilience of Floating Forms” (a mere 8:55) begins quiet and works into a post-black metal wash of melody before the double-kick and screams take hold, announcing a coming attack that — wait for it — doesn’t actually come, the band instead moving into falsetto and a more weighted but still clean verse before peeling back the curtain on the death growls and throatrippers, cymbals threatening to engulf all but still letting everything else cut through. Also eight minutes, “Wildfire” closes by flipping the structure of the opening salvo, putting the nastiness at the fore while progging out later, in this case closing Curatio with a winding movement of keys and an overarching groove that is only punishing for the fact that it’s the end. If you ever read a Quarterly Review around here, you know I like to do myself favors on the last day in choosing what to cover. It is no coincidence that Curatio is included. Not every record could be #100 and still make you excited to hear it.

Echolot on Facebook

Sixteentimes Music store

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As will happen during a Quarterly Review, I’ve sort of found myself thinking there’s a ton of stuff that I don’t want to see get lost in the shuffle, and I’ve decided to focus this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal on making sure that doesn’t happen.

‘Selections from the QR’ may be the theme here, but what it rounds out to is a cool mix of mostly new music either way. Goes without saying that with 100 releases covered, there was plenty to choose from, and indeed I might end up doing a second of these — it was a two-week Quarterly Review after all, ending today — but if you’ve kept up with that or not, this is a summary of some of what was included. Like the Quarterly Review itself, it’s pretty heavy on vibe and atmosphere, but there are a couple bangers in there too that, along with the rest, I most certainly hope you enjoy.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 09.30.22 (VT = voice track)

Mezzoa	Moya	Dunes of Mars
Lightrain	Hyd	AER
Spirit Adrift	Mass Formation Psychosis	20 Centuries Gone
VT
Cachemira	Ambos Mundos	Ambos Mundos
Goatriders	The Garden	Traveler
Garden of Worm	In the Absence of Memory	Endless Garden
Church of the Cosmic Skull	Now’s the Time	There is No Time
Voidward	Chemicals	Voidward
Early Moods	Curse the Light	Early Moods
Maunra	Lightbreather	Monarch
Obiat	Ulysses	Indian Ocean
Reverend Mother	Locomotive	Damned Blessing
Deer Creek	A Dark, Heartless Machine	Menticide
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships	Mystical Consumer	Consensus Trance
Blacklab	Abyss Woods	In a Bizarre Dream
VT
The Gray Goo	Bicycle Day	1943
Les Lekin	Ascent	Limbus

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 14 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

Some considerable names in the first announcement for Desertfest London 2023. The festival set for next May 5-7 in Camden Town will be kind of the first to be removed from the effects of pandemic delay — many artists who played earlier this year had been originally booked for 2020. Seeing them move forward is encouraging.

All the more so given the bands playing, from Uncle Acid and Kadavar to High Desert Queen and Plainride. With Mars Red Sky, Ecstatic Vision and Gaupa included, Blood Ceremony, Spaceslug and a ton of others in just this first round, it looks like Desertfest is ready to throw down after a few rough years, now a survivor event hopefully that much stronger for the experience as it moves past its first decade into the next.

Announcement follows, as seen on social media:

DESERTFEST LONDON – FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED FOR 2023 EDITION

Tickets via www.desertfest.co.uk

Returning stronger than ever thanks to the unyielding support of our steadfast fan base, Desertfest is now entering its eleventh year next May. Kicking off the initial 2023 announcement, we welcome cult heroes Uncle Acid and the deadbeats to headline the Roundhouse for the very first time. As one of the most widely-requested bands in the Desertfest-sphere, the Uncle Acid amalgamation of riff-driven hard-rock & trippy melodic weavings has allowed a uniquely original, yet utterly timeless beast to form.

Swedish heavy-blues maestros Graveyard join once again, eliciting raw emotion with their lyrical prowess & introspective compositions. One of the greatest live acts of all time, German groovers KADAVAR and worshippers of vintage occult folklore Blood Ceremony, all of whose boundary pushing retro-rock sounds make a gratifying return.

For those with a heavier appetite, macabre Japanese doom legends Church of Misery, genre-bending nihilists INTER ARMA & London’s own gloom heroes Grave Lines should be a delectable entrée to proceedings.

Ukraine’s Somali Yacht Club will undoubtedly meet a rapturous reception when their flawless musicianship makes its long awaited Desertfest debut. Dynamic US rockers Valley of the Sun will also make their first DF appearance, as they quickly propel themselves onto ‘must see’ lists across the globe.

Poland’s own Spaceslug will bring revellers into a world of atmospheric sci-fi influenced proto-doom, whilst the unique sounds of Mars Red Sky, GAUPA & Ecstatic Vision also up the ante with their progressive fusions of stoner & psychedelia.

Rounding off this first announcement, we also warmly welcome Celestial Sanctuary, High Desert Queen, Plainride, Everest Queen, Venomwolf & Margarita Witch Cult.

Weekend tickets for Desertfest London 2023 are on sale now, with much more still to be announced – www.desertfest.co.uk

Artwork by Callum Rooney

http://www.desertscene.co.uk/support
https://www.facebook.com/DesertfestLondon
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_london/
https://twitter.com/DesertFest
https://www.desertfest.co.uk/

April 2023 release date for a band from the Netherlands with Oeds Beydals on guitar? That tells me Iron Jinn are at least looking to have a release party at Roadburn Festival next year. That’s supposition on my part, mind you, not insider info or anything like that, but I was fortunate enough to be there when a somewhat different incarnation of what’s become Iron Jinn played Roadburn 2018 (review here), and I recall it being righteously all over the place.

The lineup of the band has changed in the ensuing four years — and the name; they were Iron Chin at the time, which I assumed derived from Beydals‘ then-chops-heavy facial hair; I guess once you fill the beard in it makes less sense — but the first single from Iron Jinn‘s self-titled debut is “Soft Healers” and is streaming now at the bottom of this post. You will find it atmospherically rich and, well, righteously all over the place throughout its seven minutes.

More to come on this one, but the point is the music, so if you want to jump to that as you read, no one’s going to hold it against you. From the PR wire:

IRON JINN Signs With Stickman Records; Debut Album Coming April 2023 – First Single Out Now!

Stickman Records, label home for high class bands such as Elder, Motorpsycho, King Buffalo, Weedpecker and many more, is proud to announce a new signing: Iron Jinn from Amsterdam. Iron Jinn are Oeds Beydals (The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley), Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed, De Niemanders), Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy) and Gerben Bielderman (Pauw). Their self-titled debut is a frantic album that follows the logic of a dream: none. The nine songs are the result of a chaotic accumulation of modern world impressions, information and conversations that are forcefully pushed through a human funnel: the minds of Oeds and Wout.

Iron Jinn sounds downright exciting. The voices of Wout and Oeds reverberate passionately over mesmerizing grooves and pure melodies and harmonies. A rare combination in contemporary (rock) music. Guitarists/songwriters Oeds and Wout crossed paths for several years whilst playing in Death Alley and Shaking Godspeed. Finding common ground in challenging the status quo in heavy rock music, their first real get-together birthed a festival: the all-nighter Last Night On Earth. For their second collaboration they took to the Roadburn 2018 stage and performed new original material as Iron Jinn (then spelled ‘Iron Chin’). After their Roadburn live debut they kept on writing, teamed up with longtime friend and powerhouse drummer Bob and commenced the recordings for this debut album in the spring of 2021. After that Gerben was added to the band’s line-up.

Soft Healers is the new single from the album, and it’s now streaming HERE: https://bfan.link/soft-healers

Wout Kemkens explains: “When we wrote Soft Healers, the nasty throbbing sensation of the music drove me towards the old Dutch saying, ‘soft healers cause stinking wounds’. The song also deals literally with the physical side of thoughts and actions: matter over mind, a reversal of the popular modern world catchphrase. Humans can be great tricksters, but it’s hard to outsmart some realities, I guess. You cannot always place will above matter, something we love to do.”

Rolf Gustavus (Stickman Records): ‘As a rule, we at Stickman Records don’t just sign bands out of the blue, but rules are made to be broken. We are always looking for that indefinable quality in the bands we work with, a unique spark that we feel sets our label apart from the pack. When we heard the first song “Winding World” we already knew this was a special record and a rare band that would fit our roster perfectly.’

https://www.instagram.com/iron_jinn=-
https://www.facebook.com/ironjinn

https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://www.stickman-records.com/

Iron Jinn, “Soft Healers”

The video at the bottom of this post for the new Polymoon single “Wave Back to Confusion” — because surely confusion is waving at us — carries with it the first audio from the band’s upcoming second album, Chrysalis. To be released Feb. 17, 2023 — the future! — it is the follow-up to Caterpillars of Creation (review here), the Tampere, Finland, outfit’s wildly impressive debut full-length, and a record they seem intent on blowing out the airlock with the cosmic and progressive heavy rock on display throughout its progeny.

In five minutes, Polymoon assure of progressive intent and craft through the purposefulness with which they approach space rock, setting alight the psychedelia that defined the already-multifaceted Caterpillars of Creation with shimmering tonality and a gonna-just-spread-this-sound-out-all-over-right-here mindset that speaks to both their ongoing search for new ground and their mastery over the terrain they currently occupy. Feels needless to say, but I look forward to more.

February is a whole season away, but especially since Polymoon are touring in October, one somehow doubts this will be the last time they’re heard from before Chrysalis arrives as their first offering through Robotor Records.

Said label was kind enough to shoo this down the PR wire:

Polymoon – Chrysalis

Berlin-based label Robotor Records to release Polymoon’s first single Wave Back To Confusion on the Friday 30th of September.

Preorder: https://www.robotorshop.com/robde/polymoon.html

The first appetizer from Polymoon’s sophomore album Chrysalis will soon be available in visual form. The first single from the forthcoming album called Wave Back To Confusion will be available on all platforms on the 30th of September. Chrysalis will be released by Robotor Records on the 17th of February, 2023.

Polymoon have since their inception strived to encapsulate their psychedelic vision into a concrete form, the first result of which was their critically acclaimed debut album Caterpillars of Creation released via Svart Records in the fall of 2020. Polymoon have since then honed their vision and signed a pact with Robotor Records. Polymoon’s second musical manifestation will be released through Robotor Records on the 17th of February, 2023.

“Wave Back To Confusion is a song about drowning and letting things go. Through purifying drowning, all vanities disappear and the purpose of life is revealed. Listen to the song and you will find yourself swimming among sparkling lakes made of stars and blissful nuclear explosions full of colors.”

Polymoon is a rock band from Tampere, Finland where it was formed in the autumn of 2018. Polymoon’s unique sound draws from various influences, including psychedelic rock, progressive rock and shoegaze. Since its formation, Polymoon has aimed to lift the listener to a higher level of existence through the aural combination of euphoria and melancholia. On their debut album, Polymoon strived to lure their listeners towards them, to join them behind their secretive veil.

But Polymoon is this formless entity no more. On their second album the clandestine curtains have been opened: embrace the second phase of Polymoon’s metamorphosis where everything is exposed and nothing is hidden anymore. The chrysalis is opening and the newly-formed wings are slowly unfolding. Old conventions have been blown to pieces and the shell is cracking. The rays of light are shining through more brightly than ever before. Be prepared to dance.

Upcoming Polymoon gigs:
30.9. Lost In Music Festival / G Livelab, Tampere
7.10. Lepakkomies, Helsinki
8.10. Vastavirta, Tampere
12.10. Schaubude, Kiel
13.10. Café Mukkes, Leeuwarden
14.10. TBA
15.10. De Onderbroek, Nijmegen
16.10. Desertfest Antwerp
18.10. C.Keller & Galerie Markt 21, Weimar
19.10. Zukunft Am Ostkreuz, Berlin
20.10. Warsztat, Kraków
21.10. Lemmy, Kaunas
22.10. Depo, Riika
23.10. Sveta Baar, Tallinna

POLYMOON is:
Tuomas Heikura / Drums
Jesse Jaksola / Guitar
Otto Kontio / Guitar
Kalle-Erik Kosonen / Vocals, Synthesizer
Juuso Valli / Bass

https://www.facebook.com/polymooooon/
https://www.instagram.com/polymooooon/
https://soundcloud.com/polymooooon

https://www.facebook.com/robotorrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/robotorrecords/
https://robotorrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.robotorrecords.com/

Polymoon, “Wave Back to Confusion” official video

Welcome to the penultimate day of the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review, and yes, I will make just about any excuse to use the word “penultimate.” Sometimes you have a favorite thing, okay? The journey continues today, down, out, up and around, through and across 10 records from various styles and backgrounds. I hope you dig it and check back tomorrow for the last day. Here we go.

Quarterly Review #81-90:

Motorpsycho, Ancient Astronauts

There is no denying Motorpsycho. I’ve tried. Can’t be done. I don’t know how many records the Norwegian progressive rockers have put out by now, and honestly I wonder if even the band members themselves could give an accurate count. And who would be able to fact check? Ancient Astronauts continues the strong streak that the Trondheim trio of Tomas Järmyr, Bent Sæther, and Hans “Snah” Ryan have had going for at least the last six years — 2021’s Kingdom of Oblivion (review here) was also part of it — comprising four songs across a single 43-minute LP, with side B consumed entirely by the 22-minute finale “Chariot of the Sun/To Phaeton on the Occasion of Sunrise (Theme From an Imaginary Movie).” After the 12-minute King Crimsony build from silence to sustained freakout in “Mona Lisa Azazel” — preceded by the soundscape “The Flower of Awareness” (2:14) and the relatively straightforward, welcome-bidding “The Ladder” (6:41) — the closer indeed unfurls in two discernible sections, the first a linear stretch increasing in volume and tension as it moves forward, loosely experimental in the background but for sure a prog jam by its 11th minute that ends groovy at about its 15th, and the second a synthesizer-led arrangement that, to no surprise, is duly cinematic. Motorpsycho have been a band for more than 30 years established their place in the fabric of the universe, and are there to dwell hopefully for a long(er) time to come. Not all of the hundred-plus releases they’ve done have been genius, but they are so reliably themselves in sound it feels silly to write about them. Just listen and be happy they’re there.

Motorpsycho on Facebook

Stickman Records store

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Abrams, In the Dark

Did you think Abrams would somehow not deliver quality-crafted heavy rock, straightforward in structure, ’00s punk undercurrent, plus metal, plus melody? Their first offering through Small Stone is In the Dark, the follow-up to 2020’s Modern Ways (review here), and it finds guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster joined by on guitar by Patrick Alberts (Call of the Void), making the band a four-piece for the first time with bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen and drummer Ryan DeWitt completing the lineup. One can hear new textures and depth in songs like “Better Living” after the raucous opening salvo of “Like Hell” and “Death Tripper,” and longer pieces like “Body Pillow,” the title-track and the what-if-Blizzard–of–Ozz-was-really-space-rock “Black Tar Mountain,” which reach for new spaces atmospherically and in terms of progressive melody — looking at you, “Fever Dreams” — while maintaining the level of songwriting one anticipates from Abrams four records in. They’ve been undervalued for a while now. Can their metal-heavy-rock-punk-prog-that’s-also-kind-of-pop gain some of the recognition it deserves? It only depends on getting ears to hear it.

Abrams on Facebook

Small Stone Records on Bandcamp

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All India Radio, The Generator of All Infinity

Australia-based electronic prog outfit All India Radio — the solo ambient/atmospheric endeavor of composer and Martin Kennedy — has been releasing music for over 20 years, and is the kind of thing you may have heard without realizing it, soundtracking television and whatnot. The Generator of All Infinity is reportedly the final release in a trilogy cycle, completely instrumental and based largely on short ambient movements that move between each other like, well, a soundtrack, with some more band-minded ideas expressed in “The New Age” — never underestimate the value of live bass in electronic music — and an array of samples, differing organs, drones, psychedelic soundscapes, and a decent bit of ’80s sci-fi intensity on “Beginning Part 2,” which succeeds in making the wait for its underlying beat excruciating even though the whole piece is just four minutes long. There are live and sampled drums throughout, shades of New Wave, krautrock and a genuine feeling of culmination in the title-track’s organ-laced crescendo wash, but it’s a deep current of drone that ends on “Doomsday Machine” that makes me think whatever narrative Kennedy has been telling is somewhat grim in theme. Fair enough. The Generator of All Infinity will be too heady for some (most), but if you can go with it, it’s evocative enough to maybe be your own soundtrack.

All India Radio on Facebook

All India Radio on Bandcamp

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Nighdrator, Nighdrator

Mississippi-based heavygaze rockers Nighdrator released the single “The Mariner” as a standalone late in 2020 as just the duo of vocalist/producer Emma Fruit and multi-instrumentalist JS Curley. They’ve built out more of a band on their self-titled debut EP, put to tape through Sailing Stone Records and bringing back “Mariner” (dropped the ‘The’) between “Scarlet Tendons” and the more synth-heavy wash of “The Poet.” The last two minutes of the latter are given to noise, drone and silence, but what unfurls before that is an experimentalist-leaning take on heavier post-rock, taking the comparatively grounded exploratory jangle of “Scarlet Tendons” — which picks up from the brief intro “Crest/Trough” depending on which format you’re hearing — and turning its effects-laced atmosphere into a foundation in itself. Given the urgency that remains in the strum of “Mariner,” I wouldn’t expect Nighdrator to go completely in one direction or another after this, but the point is they set up multiple opportunities for creative growth while signaling an immediate intention toward individuality and doing more than the My-Bloody-Valentine-but-heavy that has become the standard for the style. There’s some of that here, but Nighdrator seem not to want to limit themselves, and that is admirable even in results that might turn out to be formative in the longer term.

Nighdrator on Bandcamp

Sailing Stone Records store

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Seven Rivers of Fire, Sanctuary

William Graham Randles, who is the lone figure behind all the plucked acoustic guitar strings throughout Seven Rivers of Fire‘s three-song full-length, Sanctuary, makes it easy to believe the birdsong that occurs throughout “Union” (16:30 opener and longest track; immediate points), “Al Tirah” (9:00) and “Bloom” (7:30) was happening while the recording was taking place and that the footsteps at the end are actually going somewhere. This is not Randles‘ first full-length release of 2022 and not his last — he releases the new Way of the Pilgrim tomorrow, as it happens — but it does bring a graceful 33 minutes of guitar-based contemplation, conversing with the natural world via the aforementioned birdsong as well as its own strums and runs, swells and recessions of activity giving the feeling of his playing in the sunshine, if not under a tree then certainly near one or, at worst, someplace with an open window and decent ventilation; the air feels fresh. “Al Tirah” offers a long commencement drone and running water, while “Bloom” — which begins with footsteps out — is more playfully folkish, but the heart throughout Sanctuary is palpable and in celebration of the organic, perhaps of the surroundings but also in its own making. A moment of serenity, far-away escapism, and realization.

Seven Rivers of Fire on Facebook

Aural Canyon Music on Bandcamp

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Motherslug, Blood Moon Blues

Half a decade on from The Electric Dunes of Titan (review here), Melbourne sludge rock bruisers Motherslug return with Blood Moon Blues, a willfully unmanageable 58-minute, let’s-make-up-for-lost-time collection that’s got room enough for “Hordes” to put its harsh vocals way forward in the mix over a psychedelic doom sprawl while also coexisting with the druggy desert punkers “Crank” and “Push the Venom” and the crawling death in the culmination of “You (A Love Song)” — which it may well be — later on. With acoustic stretches bookending in “Misery” and the more fully a song “Misery (Slight Return),” there’s no want for cohesion, but from naked Kyussism of “Breathe” and the hard Southern-heavy-informed riffs of “Evil” — yes I’m hearing early Alabama Thunderpussy there — to the way in which “Deep in the Hole” uses similar ground as a launchpad for its spacious solo section, there’s an abiding brashness to their approach that feels consistent with their past work. Not every bands sees the ways in which microgenres intersect, let alone manages to set their course along the lines between, drawing from different sides in varied quantities as they go, but Motherslug do so while sounding almost casual about it for their lack of pretense. Accordingly, the lengthy runtime of Blood Moon Blues feels earned in a way that’s not always the case with records that pass the single-LP limit of circa 45 minutes, there’s blues a-plenty and Motherslug brought enough riffs for the whole class, so dig in, everybody.

Motherslug on Facebook

Motherslug on Bandcamp

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Cheater Pipe, Planetarium Module

Keep an ear out because you’re going to be hearing more of this kind of thing in the next few years. On their third album, Planetarium Module, Cheater Pipe blend Oliveri-style punk with early-aughts sludge tones and sampling, and as we move to about 20 years beyond acts like Rebreather and -(16)- and a slew of others including a bunch from Cheater Pipe‘s home state of Louisiana, yeah, there will be more acts adapting this particular stoner sludge space. Much to their credit, Cheater Pipe not only execute that style ably — Emissions sludge — on “Fog Line Shuffle,” “Cookie Jar” or “White Freight Liner Blues” and the metal-as-punk “Hollow Leg Hobnobber,” they bring Floor-style melody to “Yaw” and expand the palette even further in the second half of the tracklist, with “Mansfield Bar” pushing the melody further, “Flight of the Buckmoth” and closer “Rare Sunday” turning to acoustic guitar and “The Sad Saga of Hans Cholo” between them lending atmospheric breadth to the whole. They succeed at this while packing 11 songs into 34 minutes and coming across generally like they long ago ran out of fucks to give about things like what style they’re playing to or what’s ‘their sound.’ Invariably they think of these things — nobody writes a song and then never thinks about it again, even when they tell you otherwise — but the spirit here is middle-fingers-up, and that suits their sound best anyway.

Cheater Pipe on Facebook

Cheater Pipe on Bandcamp

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Old Million Eye, The Air’s Chrysalis Chime

The largely solo endeavor of Brian Lucas of Dire Wolves and a merry slew of others, Old Million Eye‘s latest full-length work arrives via Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube with mellow psychedelic experimentalism and folk at its core. The Air’s Chrysalis Chime boasts seven pieces in 43 minutes and each one establishes its own world to some degree based around an underlying drone; the fluidity in “Louthian Wood” reminiscent of windchimes and accordion without actually being either of those things — think George Harrison at the end of “Long Long Long,” but it keeps going — and “Tanglier Mirror” casts out a wash of synthesizer melody that would threaten to swallow the vocals entirely would they not floating up so high. It’s a vibe based around patience in craft, but not at all staid, and “White Toads” throws some distorted volume the listener’s way not so much as a lifeline for rockers as another tool to be used when called for. The last cosmic synthesizer on “Ruby River,” the album’s nine-minute finale, holds as residual at the end, which feels fair as Lucas‘ voice — the human element of its presence is not to be understated as songs resonate like an even-farther-out, keyboard-leaning mid-period Ben Chasny — has disappeared into the ether of his own making. We should all be so lucky.

Old Million Eye on Bandcamp

Cardinal Fuzz Records store

Feeding Tube Records store

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Zoltar, Bury

“Bury” is the newest single from Swedish heavy rockers Zoltar, who, yes, take their moniker from the genie machine in the movie Big (they’re not the only ones either). It follows behind two songs released last year in “Asphalt Alpha” and “Dirt Vortex.” Those tracks were rawer in overall production sound, but there’s still plenty of edge in “Bury,” up to and including in the vocals, which are throatier here than on either of the two prior singles, though still melodic enough so that when the electric piano-style keys start up at about two and a half minutes into the song, the goth-punk nod isn’t out of place. It’s a relatively straight-ahead hook with riffing made that much meatier through the tones on the recording, and a subtle wink in the direction of Slayer‘s “Dead Skin Mask” in its chorus. Nothing to complain about there or more generally about the track, as the three-piece seem to be working toward some kind of proper release — they did press up a CD of Bury as a standalone, so kudos to them on the physicality — be it an EP or album. Wherever they end up, if these songs make the trip or are dropped on the way, it’s a look at a band’s earliest moves as a group and how quickly that collaboration can change and find its footing. Zoltar — who did not have feet in the movie — may just be doing that here.

Zoltar on Facebook

Zoltar store

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Ascia, III

Sardinia’s Fabrizio Monni (also of Black Capricorn) has unleashed a beast in Ascia, and with III, he knows it more than ever. The follow-up to Volume II (review here) and Volume I (review here) — both released late last year — is more realized in terms of songcraft, and it would seem Monni‘s resigned himself to being a frontman of his own solo-project, which is probably the way to go since he’s obviously the most qualified, and in songs like “The Last Ride,” he expands on the post-High on Fire crash-and-bash with more of a nodding central groove, while “Samothrace” finds a place for itself between marauder shove and more direct heavy rock riffery. Each time out, Monni seems to have more of an idea of what he wants Ascia to be, and whether there’s a IV to come after this or he’s ready to move onto something else in terms of release structure — i.e., a debut album — the progression he’s undertaken over the last year-plus is plain to hear in these songs and how far they’ve come in so short a time.

Ascia on Bandcamp

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

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