Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
When was the last time you put on a record that was Slayer one minute and Earthride the next? Well, I guess if you have those particular listening habits maybe it hasn’t been all that long, but that’s a one-two that comes together at the outset of Olde Grale‘s debut five-tracker Blood of Fools just the same, the riffing of title-track duly thickened to warrant being the work of two bands together. Those two bands? Olde and Grale, of course.
I won’t pretend to know when it happened or what prompted it, but at some point, the Toronto-based outfits got together and made this sub-25-minute crusher with no apparent regrets. Intricate and prog-metallic in “Senile Dementia” before the gallop takes off, alternately chugging and pummeling thereafter, with the slower “Unseen Reaper” backing to emphasize largesse, the EP seems to follow ideas from multiple sources but wants nothing for cohesion, capping with a rush in “Faith Healer” that, even if Grale hadn’t covered Entombed before might be enough to make one think they should.
Does is slow to a crushing finish? No! They end with all good speed and do justice to the thrust shown throughout without necessarily giving up the tonal density one would hope for with two bassists on board. If you’re still reading this, I’ll be honest and say I don’t know why. The player’s at the bottom of this post, and Salt of the Earth has CDs — that’s right, kids: compact discs; they use lasers and are from the future — so by all means, dig in:
OLDE + GRALE = OLDE GRALE
WHEN TWO GREAT THINGS COME TOGETHER = BLOOD OF FOOLS
From caveman sludge through hook-laden smoked-out grooves all the way to razor-sharp thrash, OLDE GRALE is made up of 8 Canadians who care little about labels or rules; they only want to crush you.
“Blood of Fools” is a 5-song trip that runs the gamut of all things heavy. 70s riff rock, monolithic doom, speed metal and thrash, OLDE GRALE bring the goods that any fan of aggressive music should appreciate in spades.
A complete celebration of the underground, step up and get knocked down.
Recorded remotely and at BWC STUDIOS (Kingston) and mixed/mastered by Greg Dawson of BWC Studios. All songs by Olde and Grale.
Guitars: Greg Dawson and Chris “Hippy” Hughes Drums: Ryan Aubin and Kevin Farmer Vocals: Doug McLarty and Daniel Allen Bass: Mark Rand and Cory McCallum
Posted in Questionnaire on April 25th, 2023 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: Matt Price of Behold! the Monolith
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m a guitarist, musician and guitar teacher. Playing guitar was just something I felt overwhelmingly drawn to pursuing and ultimately really enjoy doing.
Describe your first musical memory.
Probably just listening to my parent’s records as a little kid, which were mostly Beatles records, In-A-Gadda-Da Vida from Iron Butterfly and a Spider-Man “Rockomic” they got me. My first vivid musical memory was a few years later getting to see Judas Priest at the height of their powers.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I’ve gotten to play with some of my Metal idols from time to time; so I’m going to go with the time I got to jam a few tunes with Lemmy at a small Hollywood club a few years back. He was so cool and just wanted to jam some Blues tunes. Of course at some point someone yelled “Lemmy is God” to which he replied “no I’m not, God is good”. It was a surreal evening.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I try not to be too rigid in my thinking so I feel like they are tested all the time.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Getting better and better at creating or conveying whatever it is your art is.
How do you define success?
Doing something you love, and if it helps, entertains or uplifts others that’s a huge plus. And if makes a few bucks or at least doesn’t cause you to hemorrhage money indefinitely even better still.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Twitter.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
The next Behold! The Monolith album (which we are actually working on now).
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To convey an idea or invoke or enhance a feeling or emotion. Sometimes it can make you think and sometimes it’s just entertainment (which is fine).
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is part of why hosting festivals is a good idea — because bands need to get there. And no, it’s not declining cognition (this week), I do remember that it was only yesterday I posted the Red Mesa version of this tour announcement, but you know, Houston’s Doomstress have some dates that aren’t with Red Mesa on here — both play Maryland Doom Fest, which is the occasion for their being on the road, hence the point in the first sentence; fests make things happen in the ecosystem, not just in themselves — and Red Mesa had some dates that weren’t with Doomstress, and both acts have other stuff going on too. To wit, Doomstress are booked two days to record while they’re in Ohio. So I didn’t think anyone would complain about six shows, including MDDF, being listed twice. In fact, I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t mentioning it right now, no one would even blink.
So yeah, maybe it’s business as usual, but right on to these bands getting out and even more right on to Doomstress doing some recording. I asked guitarist/vocalist Doomstress Alexis what they had planned for the studio — two days isn’t much if they’re making a whole album, but it’s not impossible to at least do live-recorded basic tracks to take home and work on; get those drums down in a big room and you can do anything; all depends on process — like five minutes ago, so no, I haven’t heard back yet, but when/if I do I’ll update the below with that info as well. Maybe it’s a secret. Those are fun too sometimes.
Poster and dates follow:
Doomstress & Red Mesa will be touring together in June to play Maryland Doom Fest.
Doomstress will also be spending 2 days recording some new material at Supernatural Sound while in Ohio.
Looking forward to getting back to it after a lengthy break from the road.
Doomstress live: FRIDAY JUNE 16 SAN ANTONIO, TX LIGHTHOUSE LOUNGE w/ Cortege, Red Beard Wall, Red Mesa SATURDAY JUNE 17 HOUSTON, TX BLACK MAGIC SOCIAL CLUB w/ Red Mesa SUNDAY JUNE 18 ARLINGTON, TX DIVISION BREWING w/ Red Mesa, Stone Machine Electric, Pathos and Logos MONDAY JUNE 19 MEMPHIS, TN THE HI TONE w/ Red Mesa, Deaf Revival WEDNESDAY JUNE 21 ASHEVILLES, NC THE ODD BAR w/ Red Mesa, Bonedozer THURSDAY JUNE 22 FREDERICK, MD MARYLAND DOOM FEST FRIDAY JUNE 23 CLEVELAND,OH FIVE O’CLOCK LOUNGE MONDAY JUNE 26 LOUISVILLE KY HIGHLANDS TAP ROOM
Doomstress is: Doomstress Alexis (bass&vox) Brandon Johnson & Matt Taylor (lead/rhythm gtrs).
Greek sludge rockers Last Rizla release their new album, Noise Without Decay, on May 12 through Venerate Industries. And, well, I’ve heard it, and there’s lots of noise and not much decay, at least in terms of force-of-delivery, as the four-piece of G., C., K. and S. — it’s okay dudes, my name is initials too — craft the follow-up to their 2018 EP Mount Machine (review here), their sound is cast like a cruel shadow over the 40 minutes and nine cuts. Depending on what and when you count, Noise Without Decay is the band’s first long-player since 2009’s self-titled debut, but for a band who’ve shown such a penchant for doling out short offerings and splits, etc., over the intervening 14-plus years, they in no way seem uncomfortable in the form. You’d think they wouldn’t be used to it or something, but no.
The actual level of punishment meted out in a given song might vary, but Last Rizla are almost uniformly aggressive. Even the later “Mushy Peas,” which starts out at a sort of bopping-along-casual groove, shifts into more pointed, angular starts and stops and is topped by the blown-out shouts that populate each piece and give the entirety of Noise Without Decay such a post-hardcore vibe. But true to Freek Greek heavy, the story isn’t so simple as band-plays-style, and even truer to the Hellenic underground, Last Rizla know which rules they want to follow and which they want to break. Bookending opener “B52” and closer “B53” fuse punkish bite with tonal heft, and especially in the instrumental finale, they seem to be going for some nod to the ‘bomb-tone’ ethic of Floor, but even there, they keep a rock production, and the rounded edges of their tone and the methodical execution of “Bloody, Hairy” speak to a root in doom/sludge, no matter the actual tempo at which a song is delivered, be it the rager “No Way Out” answering the near-immediate burst of “B52” or the strident “Hades,” which is the longest track at 6:24 and reminds in its howling guitar offsetting dense tonal chug of Swarm of the Lotus, albeit not as harshly produced.
Which is what I’m trying to get at here. Even as compared to Mount Machine — and granted that was five years ago at this point, or four if you want to go by the fact that these songs were recorded nearly a year ago — the recording here by Iraklis Vlachakisallows for some breadth and the creation of an atmosphere of more than aggression or bludgeoning. As consistent as the shouting, hard-riffing and nodding grooves are throughout, Last Rizla circa this maybe-second full-length aren’t just one thing, even when they’re trying to convince you otherwise, and the movement behind their sludge is palpable. They make it rock, sprint, or stand up and bring itself down directly on the listener’s head with little thought to mercy or the manner in which that kind of violence tends to ripple. While even the title speaks to a kind of urgency, the material offers that and grit alike, mining individualism from the swaying build-up of centerpiece “The Debt” ahead of the more sprawling “Hades” and the caustic noise rocker “Classic Marathon,” which is duly stripped-down feeling at 3:47 and answers the earlier insistence of “Rebound” in its midtempo post-’90s nastiness.
Still, for as much as Last Rizla gnash and rip and tear and claw throughout the nine-song stretch, there’s depth to the proceedings — “Bloody, Hairy” drops a lyrical reference to misfortune, reminding that Last Rizla once upon a 2011 were involved in the Miss Fortune was a Henhouse Manager (review here) comp of then-up-and-coming Greek acts like 1000mods, Sadhus, the Smoking Community, Bad Trip, Yassa and others — and as their scene comes to maturity within some of those other groups and without, Last Rizla provide a balance (a mix by Kowloon Walled City‘s Scott Evans doesn’t hurt there either) between bombast and purpose, and the places they go throughout Noise Without Decay are engaging almost in spite of themselves. If you can hang with pissed off sludge rock, that’s still very much at the foundation, but they show that such designations can be as much a beginning as an end all through the record, and while “B53” ends in done-blown-up noise — think Neurosis consumed by the distortion at the end of “Stones From the Sky”; you can hear it in the video below — even in that last moment, there’s no letup, no decay, no flinching from the purpose they’ve established as their own. The word for that kind of thing is “righteous,” and so they are.
Life is full of surprises and if you had ‘Last Rizla roaring back with a more mature and still-plenty-brash second full-length’ on your 2023 Heavy Underground Bingo card, I salute you, but either way, the pit they dig out in this new batch of songs isn’t to be underestimated, and one might find that the more one listens to Noise Without Decay, the more likely skin is to crawl. Don’t worry though, that’s the whole idea. It’s supposed to make that happen. So let it.
The clip below is the premiere of “Rebound,” and should give you some idea of what the band are going for in terms of general construction/destruction throughout. By all means, please dig in and enjoy:
Last Rizla, “Rebound” video premiere
We recorded Noise Without Decay during May and June 2022 in our studio, Créme Chalet, in Kallithea, Athens, Greece.
This city is ruthless, constant and grey. The weather was and has been swinging between dark and stormy but at times sunny and mostly warm.
Noise Without Decay was recorded by Iraklis Vlachakis, mixed by Scott Evans (Antisleep Audio – also guitarist for Kowloon Walled City) and mastered by Saff Mastering.
Like good sauerkraut, it’s now fermenting and will be released by Venerate Industries this May.
Last Rizla, Noise Without Decay behind-the-scenes video
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This will be Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first foray into the East Coast, and more specifically in the Northeast, which is fair enough. They’ve done Joshua Tree and San Francisco, so I guess if you’re ever going to bring that to the other side of the US, Saint Vitus in Brooklyn and Metro Gallery in Baltimore are the right spots. I might like to see them do a fest in Woodstock or some such, maybe something out in the woods, but won’t at all complain about a two-dayer this November that’s certain to feature killer acts based on the banner it’s flying alone.
To wit, The Golden Grass are right there and have a new record, Geezer are from Kingston, Ecstatic Vision from Philly, and while you’re there, Ruby the Hatchet only make any show they play better. Add Sun Voyager to make it a party, bring in someone from the West Coast, someone from Europe, snag Gozu from Boston and maybe even that Alabama Thunderpussy reunion up from Virginia if they’re available, and of course I’ll add Caustic Casanova here because they should be playing everything and are from D.C., maybe Cosmic Reaper, and you’re on your way. Or I’m on mine, I guess. To Brooklyn.
Of course that’s all speculation, and I’m sure more than a little wrong. The fest will be held Nov. 10-11, and as with the others in California, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, etc., the lineups will mostly swap per night — bands play New York or Baltimore first, then switch — and they’ll start doing lineup reveals in three weeks. So let’s see — three weeks from today is May 16. Calendar is marked for it.
Until then, then. The PR wire brought word:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is coming for the first time to New York and Baltimore with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!
In cooperation with Saint Vitus and Savage Party, today Heavy Psych Sounds has announced the dates of the first HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – NEW YORK & BALTIMORE.
The HPS Fest will be taking place 10th and 11th of November at the St. Vitus in New York and same days at Metro Gallery in Baltimore.
“We are super stoked to organize one of our HPS FESTs on the US East Coast for the very first time!!” Says Rajko Dolhar from Heavy Psych Sounds. “After conquering the West Coast in March we are ready to rock the East Coast too. First bands + tickets presale will be announced in three weeks.”
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST
NEW YORK & BALTIMORE
@ St. Vitus, New York
and
@ Metro Gallery, Baltimore
November 10th and 11th 2023
!!! FIRST ANNOUNCED BANDS + TICKETS PRESALE IN 3 WEEKS !!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is one of those lists of tour dates that should read like homework of bands to check out. Whether it’s Red Beard Wall, Stone Machine Electric, Book of Wyrms, Doomsday Profit, WyndRider, Silent Monolith, Seahag and Mammoth Caravan or Psychotic Reaction, on and on, Albuquerque trio Red Mesa will be keeping good company as they make their way to and from this year’s Maryland Doom Fest in June, and that’s before you account for their being on the road with Doomstress out of Texas.
It’s a solid 14-day run and it comes as Red Mesa are fresh off recording their third full-length for release next year. That will make it the follow-up for 2022’s single “Forest Cathedral” (review here) and 2020’s The Path to the Deathless (review here), their debut having been 2018’s The Devil and the Desert (review here), and it was recorded by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio, as were the other two LPs.
More on that likely to come, I’ll note as well that in addition to Maryland Doom Fest, Red Mesa have been added to Burque Rock City Festival and RippleFest Texas, so the next few months should be busy. They sent the following down the PR wire:
RED MESA – Desert Moon Tour 2023
Albuquerque, NM’s high desert rockers Red Mesa are finishing up their new full-length “Partial Distortions” set for a 2024 release on Desert Records. In June of 2023, they will be embarking on a 17 day tour, joining up with Houston’s Doomstress for the initial journey out east, both bands ending up at The Maryland Doom Fest in Frederick, MD.
Here’s the dates: FRIDAY JUNE 16 SAN ANTONIO, TX LIGHTHOUSE LOUNGE w/ Cortege, Red Beard Wall, Doomstress SATURDAY JUNE 17 HOUSTON, TX BLACK MAGIC SOCIAL CLUB w/ Doomstress SUNDAY JUNE 18 ARLINGTON, TX DIVISION BREWING w/ Doomstress, Stone Machine Electric, Pathos and Logos MONDAY JUNE 19 MEMPHIS, TN THE HI TONE w/ Doomstress, Deaf Revival WEDNESDAY JUNE 21 ASHEVILLES, NC THE ODD BAR w/ Doomstress, Bonedozer THURSDAY JUNE 22 FREDERICK, MD MARYLAND DOOM FEST SATURDAY JUNE 24 RICHMOND, VA THE FUZZY CACTUS w/ Book of Wyrms, Plaguefever SUNDAY JUNE 25 RALEIGH, NC THE POUR HOUSE w/ Doomsday Profit, Lie Heavy TUESDAY JUNE 27 KNOXVILLE, TN THE BRICKYARD w/ Wyndrider, Shockwolf, Sun Mantra WEDNESDAY JUNE 28 NASHVILLE, TN SPRINGWATER SUPPER CLUB w/ Rift, Silent Monolith THURSDAY JUNE 29 LITTLE ROCK, AR WHITEWATER w/ Seahag, Mammoth Caravan FRIDAY JUNE 30 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK GRAND ROYAL w/ Psychotic Reaction, BugNog, Sedona Crystal Bitch
For the three Texas dates, Hunter Dawson with Extra Meat (@_huntdawson), who has filmed two videos for the band, will be providing a visual experience into Red Mesa’s set.
Red Mesa is also slated to play two other festivals so far this year; BURQUE ROCK CITY in Albuquerque, NM, and RIPPLEFEST in Austin, TX.
Poster by Josh Schneider.
Red Mesa is: Brad Frye of Desert Records on Guitar/Lead Vocals Roman Barham of Monolith on the Mesa on Drums/Backing Vocals Alex Cantwell: Bass/Backing Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This one’ll make your day better. Get in the right frame of mind though. You’re thinking funky when it comes to Montana’s The Gray Goo, which is appropriate, but throw in some stoner chicanery and, in the case of this single, a heaping dose of Primus-style storytelling and noodling, and you’re well on your way to “Alligator Bundee,” which I think is kind of like Cocaine Bear except with a stoned gator who horror-eats a litany of humans and other creatures, including “babies, old ladies, puppies, rats and cats” and who — as an alligator — forcibly emasculated the engineer who recorded his debut EP because, “Snare sounded like shit.”
Comedy gold, in other words. The Gray Goo last weekend returned to Rocky Mountain Riff Fest in Kalispell, and “Alligator Bundee” is likewise a herald for their next full-length, Circus Nightmare, which will see release in June as the follow-up to 2022’s 1943 (review here). That debut spanned genres in such a way as to make me think “Alligator Bundee” is the beginning of what’s in store on the sophomore outing, not the end, and that’ll be just fine, thanks.
They made a post on the internet about a thing:
Surprise!
Our first single of our upcoming album titled “Circus Nightmare”.
Alligator Bundee displays yet another genre bending direction The Goo can travel to. This track reeks of a swamp and is about a serial killer alligator. Matt and I wrote this one after Zach got into a snowmobiling mishap and broke his back. We didn’t have a drummer and it was in the midst of the pandemic when Matt was living in my garage. We were bored and high, but the result turned out super fun! We really embraced our foot stomping Montana roots on this one… even though the song is about Florida… and most of us have never even seen an alligator in the wild… or been to Florida…
Oh well, a lot of things don’t make sense all the way up here in these cold dreary mountains. We hope you enjoy it, we love you so much and appreciate the support!
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Brazilian trio Mordor Truckers last hailed with the 2020 single “Red Sands” (review here) from what at the time was a herald of a debut studio EP to come. Up to that point and still to-date, the band’s most substantial offering was/is 2019’s Ao Vivo – Pequeno Anfiteatro, and indeed both cuts on the new two-songer Nowhere featured there as well: “Ammit” and “Mindless.”
That release — which even has the photo above for its cover, making that also at least four years old; a different version was used in the post linked above, so they’ve definitely gotten some mileage out of it — was much rawer in sound, but had a personality of its own in bootleg fashion. I doubt Mordor Truckers intended at the time that it would become the epicenter of everything else they’d do for nearly the next half-decade, but at least it doesn’t suck. It’s got that going for it.
Nowhere picks up more or less where “Red Sands” left off, with a north-of-six-and-a-half-minute run of psychedelia-informed heavy rock, loose-feeling in its construction as “Mindless” works into and through its jammy midsection, but never in any real danger of losing its footing with the wall o’ fuzz looming just ahead. As with “Ammit,” guitarist/vocalist Manuel Ceballos, bassist Patrick Jordy and drummer/backing vocalist Brendan Bazzi keep a mind toward atmosphere, and as well as sheer nod, though “Ammit” grows more active and noisier from its quiet, meditative beginning.
Either way you go, you don’t lose. It’s a short release, obviously, but its two songs are still more than you’d likely cram on a 7″ and they want three bucks for them. Doesn’t seem like too huge an ask, though one hopes that at some point soon they dig into making a debut full-length as well, even if that’s just a compilation of the various tracks they’ve put out thus far with another song or two included. We’ll see I guess. Vibe is right on in the meantime, though, and I enjoy specifically how cult or purposefully-vague sounding this isn’t.
From the PR wire:
Mordor Truckers – Nowhere EP
After a certain time without new releases, the stoner rock/stoner doom trio “Mordor Truckers” appears now with a new and also well-known material in the newest and most recent EP titled as “Nowhere”.
The release is the result of a totally independent production by the band and contains two songs previously released only in a live version, now recorded and mixed by Júlio Cesar at “Wecando Music” studio in Joinville – Brazil.
The songs are “Mindless” and “Ammit” and are available on several major music streaming platforms, youtube and bandcamp.
Tracklisting: 1. Ammit 07:05 2. Mindless 06:46
Mordor Truckers is: Patrick Jordy: Bass Manuel Ceballos: Guitar/Vocals Brendan Bazzi: Drums/Backing Vocals
