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 Harvey of Exhumed, Gruesome, Pounder, etc.

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I guess I define what I do as making shit – or taking things from my mind and working them into something other people can also check out – whether that’s a piece of music, writing, drawing or whatever it might be. So yeah, making shit.

Describe your first musical memory.

That’s a tough one. My earliest musical memories are tangled up in other stuff – I remember the theme song and all of the musical score pieces for the Spider-Man cartoon from the late 60s very vividly from my childhood, but there was also music from Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and tons of stuff from my Dad’s record collection – stuff I love like Hendrix, Cream, the Beatles, the Allman Brothers, the Kinks, the Who, the soundtrack to The Big Chill, which had a ton of old Motown tracks on it – and stuff that kinda bugs me like Janis Joplin, Emerson Lake and Palmer and stuff like that. That was all of the stuff floating around my house circa 1979-1981, which are really the first memories I can sort of conjure in the corner of my eye. When I try to really wrap my perception around them or see them clearly, they recede, but they’re definitely there. I remember humming all the time as a kid while I drew – I loved to draw as a little kid, mostly comic book stuff – and my mom asking me what I was humming and I had no idea, it was just whatever little tune was running through my head, so I guess that’s always been there. I feel very lucky that little tune has never stopped, it’s just mutated and spiraled and branched into a tangle of streams and floods and tributaries of consciousness.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

As an audience member, I think my favorite moment came while watching S&M II in San Francisco where Metallica played with the symphony. There was a fantastic contrabass player who did an incredible arrangement of Anesthesia – Pulling Teeth that was incredibly moving. Knowing what that might have meant to Cliff had he lived to see it just filled me with an unexpected surge of emotion that brought me to the brink of tears. As a songwriter or a player, I don’t know that there’s a “best moment” really. I love the feeling of each tiny, incremental epiphany that comes from finally making sense of some aspect of music theory or coming up with a sick riff or seeing your idea work in ways you didn’t even anticipate. Every time is amazing, and it happens all the time. That’s what keeps me interested (okay, maybe obsessed) with writing music pretty much all the time.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Over the years, I’ve come to be more objective about my own perspectives, or at least I’ve tried to become more objective. One shift that was significant to me was that I realized that I grew up thinking that the most important things in my music were the music itself and (most importantly) why I was making that music. In learning from / working with others, I’ve come to realize that the presentation and execution of the idea is as important (sometimes more important) than the idea itself. I always saw that as secondary, and shied away from it by trying to call it vanity or pretension, but I realize now spending time on the presentation and execution (whether it be the instruments and gear used to execute the idea or the production values, etc) enriches the idea itself and helps people understand the “why” behind it. That’s a truth that took far too long for me to consider, and even longer for me to admit and subsequently embrace.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It can lead pretty much anywhere – which is what’s so exciting about it. But for me, I try to make sure it’s not a linear path. I don’t want to progress into a “final form,” because that implies that the journey has an endpoint. I know it’s cliché, but the point is the journey itself, following each tangent into something new and interesting – even if it leads to frustration or “failure,” there’s value in the journey and in the seeking of something. It’s like knowing yourself – a thing that’s never fully possible, but it’s 100% valuable to pursue. I’d say progression leads away from stagnation, away from ideological death and towards something vital and something real.

How do you define success?

Satisfaction with your work – fulfillment from your work, both artistically (the first priority) and materially. Also muscle cars, hookers and cocaine. Kidding (sort of).

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

I remember being really intoxicated in San Francisco years and years ago and somehow my girlfriend and I were hanging out with someone that worked in the morgue of a hospital. As we continued to imbibe, we left the bar and they ended up taking us on a walkthrough which was really interesting. They offered to show me the corpse of a Jane Doe that had washed up out of the bay and clearly they thought it would be cool if I wanted to check it out. I agreed, but upon seeing the body, bloated and discolored from being in the water, I instantly regretted it. I felt like I was intruding on something personal and sad and it wasn’t my business to see that. Whoever that person was, they deserved better than to be leered out by some drunk coked-out Death Metal guy.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

A full-length, epic motion-picture soundtrack.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Communication – it’s a way of communicating things that you may not even understand about what you’re feeling to people who then not only connect with you and your feelings, but internalize that art and connect it to their own experiences and emotions. That’s a wonderful, wondrous thing to attempt.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Summer, also known as the best season!

https://mattharveymustbedestroyed.bandcamp.com/

Matt Harvey, Toward the Cold Light (2024)

Philadelphia-based heavy transcendentalists Rope Trick released their two-songer Red Tide EP at the start of February. Recorded live, it’s their first output since 2017’s Red Tape EP (discussed here), which was also their debut, and with Indy Shome and Nate Totushek from Queen Elephantine (yes, both) comprising the lineup, it should be little surprise that they dig in as deeply as they do across “Crescent” (12:28) and “Neptune” (8:39), the former of which is well broiled in its tense rhythm before the vocals even start circa five minutes in, and the latter of which dares more melody in its culmination and feels more straightforward perhaps for the fuzz in Shome‘s guitar, but on closer inspection is no less exploratory than the cut before it.

It’s not what you’d call a lush production — and Queen Elephantine have never been really about that either, so it makes sense — but there’s plenty enough clarity for Red Tide to establish a meditative vibe and argue in favor of following where the music flows, whether that’s the crashes and raw vocal plead of “Crescent,” which is somehow still also mathy-jazzy in its comedown tumult, or the chunk-chug in the outset of “Neptune” building up like an extrapolation of Melvins in their oddball heyday. Yeah, it’s been seven years. Time is imaginary.

Except, maybe, for marking shows on your calendar. Those you’ll find below as Rope Trick head out to support Red Tide live as they also did for its ruby-hued predecessor, courtesy of the PR wire:

ROPE TRICK release RED TIDE and announce Northeast US shows

ROPE TRICK is an experimental heavy psych rock duo from Philadelphia, consisting of Indy Shome on guitar and vocals and Nate Totushek on drums (also of Queen Elephantine). Listeners have compared them to Neil Young, Soundgarden, Jandek, Fela Kuti, and Black Midi.

RED TIDE was released digitally on February 1st. The artwork was done by Josh Yelle and it was recorded by Bruce Howze at Red Planet Studios.

ROPE TRICK is supporting it with a series of shows this Spring 2024 through the Northeast US, ranging from Virginia to New Hampshire.

TOUR
Spring 2024 ▼ East Coast

3/29 – Clinton CT, Scottish Dave’s Pub
3/30 – Southbridge MA, Starlite Gallery
4/12 – Somerville MA, The Rockwell
4/13 – Providence RI, AS220
4/21 – Queens NY, Trans-Pecos
4/27 – Dover NH. Flight
5/04 – Philadelphia PA, Haus of Yarga
5/10 – Baltimore MD, The Crown
5/11 – Richmond VA, Fuzzy Cactus

Rope Trick are:
Guitar + Vocals by Indy Shome
Drums by Nate Totushek

https://www.instagram.com/ropetrickband/
https://www.facebook.com/ropetrickband
ropetrickband.bandcamp.com
http://ropetrickband.com

Rope Trick, Red Tide (2024)

Well, the last couple years don’t seem to have made All Are to Return any less caustic. Fair enough. The still-mostly-anonymous-I-think industrial doom two-piece based in the Netherlands were last heard from with their 2022 single “A State in Fear,” and April 26 will mark the arrival of III, which they’ll issue through Tartarus Records in an edition of 50 tapes at a release show that’s also a label showcase about which you can read more below. The first aural peek at III, which of course follows late-2021’s II (review here), arrives in the form of “Drift,” which just might be the harshest three minutes you spend today. At least I’d hope so.

In “Drift,” even the backing drones that spread out through the atmospheres of All Are to Return‘s software-led churn feel nastier, and the way some of the vocals are obscured speaks to the band working with an ideology toward a three-dimensional mix. The rest of III bears that out like an existential burden, and as relates to its surroundings, “Drift” turns out to be one of the more accessible tracks on the record. For example, it’s got a beat, even if that beat is blown out and being used to collapse your rib cage.

Album’s out April 26, as per the PR wire:

All Are To Return announce new album AATR III // Single premiere

All Are To Return Single Premiere ‘Drift’

The ecological dark of our existence is pulsating with the presence of loss. Shifts occur on the periphery of awareness. Fundamental ruptures only inferred from apparent disappearance. Something felt before it is known. From here on, there are no stones that mark the path. -AATR

The two-man formation All Are To Return presents extreme, experimental music with an urgent sense of dread. The duo’s new album III will be released on April 26 via Tartarus Records.

We have entered a new age of extinction – of poisoned lands, habitat destruction and encompassing climate catastrophe. AATR III reflects the harshness of life laid bare to the vagaries of capital, of uncaring generations heaping misery on their successors and the life-forms with which they share a fragile biosphere.

The album’s unmitigated brutality of sound and expression are mediation of these concurrent events. Colossal noise-scapes are shaped with pulsing synth patterns, shredding percussion and vocals that are screams from the void. As a whole, the many-layered compositions carry massive assaults on the senses and a rage unhuman.

Manmade disasters borne from decades of unfettered greed, of carbon capital plundering the earth and choking its habitants – capital unleashed through self-interested short-sightedness, decades of corruption and denial of clear fact.

Our habitats swallowed by rising seas, engulfed in flames. As we drown, burn, or slowly parch and wither, we remember. Oceans heat and corals die as pale sludge in bright blue waters – thousands of years of unfathomable complexity undone in decades. Forests burn and ancient trees that were young when the pharaohs build their monuments perish in the flames. Poisons have spread through all ecosystems. The product of profit-maximizing agriculture at war with life. As insects disappear they signal extinction on a massive scale.

What is lost, is lost forever.

We will remember you through your shattered bones, your battered skulls turned fossil. We will remember you through your plastic deposits, your carbon waste, your radio-active poisons still leaking into our bodies. We will remember your bright and brief existence – and the inevitability of your demise.

Pressing info: 50x Cassettes

AATR III drops April 26th during their debut performance at the Tartarus showcase at Vera, Groningen in the Netherlands with label friends Ultha, Oud Zeer (Throwing Bricks & Ontaard), and Ortega. Event & Tickets: https://www.vera-groningen.nl/events/tartarus-records-presents-2024/

All Are To Return is:
F: Bass, Drums, Guitars, Vocals, FXs
N: Synths, FXs

https://allaretoreturn.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/allaretoreturn
https://allaretoreturn.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TartarusRecords
https://www.instagram.com/tartarustapes
https://tartarusrecords.com

All Are to Return, “Drift”

All Are to Return, “A State in Fear” (2022)

This Wednesday, March 27, Swedish heavy and progressive rockers Skraeckoedlan return with their fourth full-length, Vermillion Sky. It is their second LP through Fuzzorama Records behind the sprawling realization of 2019’s Eorþe (review here), with the years between finding the Borlänge/Norrköping four-piece reissuing their 2011 debut, Äppelträdet (review here) and its 2015 follow-up, Sagor (review here), through The Sign Records, and its arrival has been anticipated since the band unveiled “The Vermillion Sky” as a standalone single over half a year ago.

Vermillion Sky is a multifaceted project even before one gets to the rhythmic twists and melodic reaches, the grandiosities and quiet moments offered in its component eight tracks and 47 minutes, and if part of either that span of months or the not-accounted-for-by-plague portion of the five years it’s been since Eorþe comes from lining up logistics on either the video game or English-language novel intended to be released to complement the music, fair enough, though it was four between Sagor and that record as well, so it’s not an outlandish dearth of activity by any means. The novelization of Vermillion Sky, reportedly broken into chapters around each song, will perhaps be of particular interest to that non-Swedish-speaking contingent of their listenership who’ve maybe not been curious enough to run their lyrics through a translation matrix to get a semblance of the themes out of science-fiction, daikaiju, and so on.

To wit, “The Vermillion Sky,” caps an expansive A-side that begins with the drone-backed staticky dialogue in the two-minute intro “Cosmic Dawn” from whence a Devin Townsendy prog flow emerges with the anchoring fuzz on Erik Berggren‘s bass and fluid drumming of Martin Larsson‘s drums complemented by shimmer of synth and the guitars of Robert Lamu and Henrik Grüttner in a showcase of maturity and (condensed) patience that serves as preface to the stately composition of the title-track and others here. That obscured speech, mixed low enough that you genuinely might not hear it the first time through, ties into the escape-from-earth — and no, it’s not lost on me that their last record was ‘earth’ in translation — narrative of “The Vermillion Sky,” and while they seem to work in as well as around this thematic and it might at first be unclear how the hooky repetitions of the in-English title lyric to second single “Night Satan” fit in, the concept remains present for the lines, “Så lägg din hand i min och visa mig bland stjärnorna/Jag la min hand i din och du visa mig oändlighet” (“So put your hand in mine and show me the stars/I put my hand in yours and you show me infinity,” according to the internet), so those connections are there if not always obvious. One assumes the same applies for the likes of “Starsquatch,” “Metagalactic Void Honcho,” who sounds as burly as one might expect given the title, “Meteorb” or “Astronautilus” as well.

But even if you as the listener don’t take Vermillion Sky on for its storyline at all or if scrolling shooter games aren’t your thing, the songs are enough to carry you through. “Starsquatch” enters with a burst, resets in an open expanse of keyboard and sweeps in the first of a vast collection of massive grooves, characteristic in its adherence to fuzzier tonality and arrangement depth evident even just in the space between the guitar and drums, never mind the e-bow or whatever effect it is or the arrangement of lead and backing vocals in the rolling chorus. Hitting a stop at 4:40 into its 7:58, they break to echoing vocals and standalone guitar before surging forward again in a pointed wash of distortion that turns out to be a misdirect as they cut to clearer-sounding dual-guitar leads and a faster tempo verse ahead of the actual solo. Of course the riff comes back, bigger and more consuming, and the pattern of side A is set when “Mysteria” takes its turn riff-punching through the wall with dense low end and purposeful shove — the first half of the album trading shorter-to-longer pieces starting with “Cosmic Dawn” and the second half switching that to its own two longer tracks bookending the relative brevity of “Night Satan” and “Meteorb.”

So Skraeckoedlan are playing with time as well as space on Vermillion Sky, and the level of composition and nuance with which they do so shouldn’t be understated. Lamu‘s vocal melodies — and I’m sorry, I don’t know every detail on who’s doing what vocally here, but there are voice-swaps enough to make me think it’s multiple singers — go beyond following the riffs, which are occasionally busy enough that that would be a challenge anyway, and feel like part of the atmosphere along with the Mellotron and Rhodes (or some such) that further distinguish “Mysteria” after the push through its first half has already brought intense strikes of piano as part of its culminating build just before the two-and-a-half-minute mark.

That holds true in rougher-delivered or shoutier stretches like the end of “Mysteria,” or the gutted-out verses of “Metagalactic Void Honcho” surrounded by what sounds like duly gravitational destruction that dares some hope in its lead-topped final nod before it cuts to far-back guitar echoes and thud to end, or the galloping midsection of “Meteorb,” wherein even the air-tight structure and quick 3:38 runtime are enough for the band to use vocals as an instrument corresponding to the mood of a given part. The scorch of keyboard in that song’s charge, the way the drums open up the groove in the last hook, the details and nuance of the keys, synth, guitar, effects, whatever, in the mix — it all comes together as a complete representation of craft from Skraeckoedlan that feels deeper and more dug into its own processes than they’ve been before, but at the same time is more engaging and outward-reaching for that. If that’s a mature Skraeckoedlan self-producing and wielding their own sound, cognizant of their dynamic and the physicality of the material they’re writing, I’ll take it happily. They always feel like they’re ready to break out and run. That catch-up-to-this energy is always there, pulling the audience forward.

At the same time, their sense of control is palpable, whether it’s the look-what-we-can-do-with-a-stoner-riff mid-tempo chug in the verses of “Night Satan” — lest we forget their tonal and recording tutelage under Truckfighters (who also run Fuzzorama Records) — or the furies manifest in dramatic style on “Metagalactic Void Honcho” just before, but detracts neither from the energy in their delivery or their willingness to go all-in on an arrangement like “Astronautilus,” mellowing after its verse for a moment of proggy, key-topped exploration as it circles around and builds tension for its flowing, deceptively graceful emergence, leading into a solo and chorus that reinforce notions of structure even as they adrenaline-boost Vermillion Sky out of the atmosphere and into the resonant float of its comedown, some staticky layer there calling back to the opening of “Cosmic Dawn” as that structural cohesion finds its own meta level on which to operate.

Each album Skraeckoedlan have released has been an incremental step forward creatively from the one before it, and that applies to Vermillion Sky even as the band further define and distinguish an idea of their individual sound. That they recorded and mixed it themselves (Magnus Lindberg mastered) is also a crucial consideration — not because of any kind of down-scaling in production value; there isn’t one — but as another way to continue to grow as a unit and a means of more directly bringing their music to life. And whatever else is happening around them in various media, whatever apocalypses they’re conveying in the world they’ve conjured, these songs feel utterly alive.

The album streams in full below. Please enjoy:

Skraeckoedlan, Vermillion Sky album premiere

Order link: https://eu.fuzzoramastore.com/en/skraeckoedlan.html

In short, this is a sci-fi themed concept piece that screams DIY, having been entirely written, recorded, produced and mixed by the band themselves. A huge undertaking, especially considering one of the first steps in the process was basically to google: “how to properly mic a snare drum”. Mastering however has been beautifully done by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna), which as always has yielded fantastic results.

Speaking of DIY and huge undertakings, Vermillion Sky will also be available as a novel (date to come), where each chapter corresponds to a track on the album. The story has been written by the band and is for those that want to take a real deep dive into the concept and join the crew of the Vermillion Sky as they unravel a mystery with galactic consequences. Contrary to the signature Swedish lyrics of the songs, the novel is in English.

An even more active way to interact with the release is to play the Vermillion Sky computer game the band has helped create. It’s an 8-bit style point chaser, where you travel through the Void as the ship, collecting upgrades to survive the multitude of enemies trying to put an end to your journey. If you want the absolute best experience of the game, make sure to come to one of the release tour shows, where Skraeckoedlan’s very own Vermillion Sky-arcade machine will be featured.

Live long and prosper!

Vermillion Sky tracklist
1. Cosmic Dawn (2:42)
2. Starsquatch (7:58)
3. Mysteria (5:21)
4. The Vermillion Sky (7:10)
5. Metagalactic Void Honcho (8:07)
6. Night Satan (4:53)
7. Meteorb (3:38)
8. Astronautilus (7:50)

Skraeckoedlan:
Robert Lamu – Vocals, Guitar
Henrik Grüttner – Guitar, Vocals
Erik Berggren – Bass, Vocals
Martin Larsson – Drums, Vocals

Skraeckoedlan, Vermillion Sky game preview

Skraeckoedlan’s website

Skraeckoedlan on Instagram

Skraeckoedlan on Facebook

Fuzzorama Records website

Fuzzorama Records on Facebook

Fuzzorama Records on Instagram

Fuzzorama Records on Bandcamp

[Please note: If you’ve been keeping up with this as a series, Technical Ecstasy would be next, but it closed out a week already and I stand by what I wrote there as it relates to the catalog. In any case, thanks for reading. -JJ]

Never Say Die! was of course the death knell of Black Sabbath‘s original run. It is to wonder what might’ve been had they been able to hold together the founding incarnation of the band into perpetuity instead of splitting with vocalist Ozzy Osbourne after wrapping the Fall tour alongside openers Van Halen supporting this release. But maybe there’s a glimpse of that in how the mixed-bag nine songs of Never Say Die! strode forth with swagger and renewed vigor after the band seemed confused in their ambitions on 1976’s Technical Ecstasy (discussed here), which was perhaps pulled between impulses toward commercial success, being taken seriously as artists, guitarist Tony Iommi‘s pull toward broader-scope songwriting that had been flourishing just a few years earlier on 1975’s Sabotage (discussed here) and 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (discussed here) and his increasing role as producer and emergent bandleader. A flash of what an Ozzy-fronted Sabbath might’ve been as the shift to the 1980s loomed, just closer than the horizon.

To wit, a new generation of hard rock bands and also — a few acts like Trouble, The Obsessed and Saint Vitus working directly in younger-Sabbath‘s wake — were coming up and would continue to in the next few years. The ’70s were winding down. Vietnam was history. Even disco was passé by 1978, or at least on its way to becoming New Wave. Joy Division‘s first album would come out in 1979. Things had changed. Black Sabbath met those changes with what probably sounded at the time like a sustainable version of their approach. As pieces like “Junior’s Eyes” signaled their maturity in the parental voice of the lyrics and “Over to You” somewhat tamely renewed a penchant for societal critique that had brought about “Children of the Grave” and “War Pigs,” Never Say Die! would nonetheless be defined by the shove of its opening title-track.

Uptempo in its shove but inevitably swill swinging with Bill Ward on drums, “Never Say Die” is sub-four minutes of heavy rock righteousness with an earworm hook and a sweeping riff that gives both Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler room to shine. Never Say Die! isn’t without its Sab-experimental aspects. Whether it’s Don Airey‘s keys starting off second track “Johnny Blade” and piano adding atmospheric light touches in “Air Dance” or the sax-laced strut of the penultimate interlude “Breakout” before Ward takes lead vocals for the finale “Swinging the Chain,” there’s plenty of showcase for the sonic progression that would in some ways end with this record. But while “Johnny Blade” has a Sabbath-does-Bowie vibe to its storytelling and does well in creating an atmosphere corresponding to that, at its heart is the bluesy stomp of its riff, and that holds true for “Junior’s Eyes” and side A capper “A Hard Road,” with its everybody-on-board gang vocals in the chorus and unabashed-feeling groove. All three of those run over six minutes long, and they’re not without their indulgences in solos and arrangement, but in terms of the underlying approach, the band’s vision of who they are seems clearer than it did two years prior.

I won’t claim to know why that is, and it doesn’t really line up with the circumstances of Never Say Die!‘s making, which involved Osbourne (whose father’s death is the basis for the aforementioned “Junior’s Eyes” lyric) quitting the band and being replaced by Dave Walker (Savoy Brown, Fleetwood Mac) before rejoining, finishing the record, touring, and being fired, various other disagreements over direction, more business trouble and working at a studio in Toronto that reportedly no one had looked at beforehand, drugs drugs drugs — also booze — and so on. But as side B launches with the standout “Shock Wave,” fostering a tonal grit reminiscent of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath topped off by a layered melody from Osbourne, if Never Say Die! is sloppy or haphazard, it’s organic to the material in a captured-live sense. “Air Dance” pushes against this idea with its midsection departure into piano, keys and wistful jazz guitar, and so does “Breakout” with its cocaine-era saxophone wankery, but Sabbath had done acoustic and/or piano pieces before, and “Air Dance” establishes its verse and atmosphere before embarking on what’s still a plotted linear build, and under the brass in the two and a half minutes of “Breakout” is a rolling movement that feels like it maybe taught Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (among others) how guitars should sound.

“Over to You,” which appears between “Air Dance” and “Breakout” in the tracklisting, keeps the piano from the preceding song, and feels sure-footed enough in its verse and chorus that “Breakout” doesn’t come across as so substantially different in intent from “Orchid” on Master of Reality (discussed here) or “Laguna Sunrise” from Vol. 4 (discussed here), even if its actual execution leads it elsewhere. All of these feed into an overarching vibe for Never Say Die! that positions it as tangibly above Technical Ecstasy in craft and performance — each member of this band hit their stride as a player at some point in this eight-year stretch in ways that would define their respective career arcs, but that didn’t necessarily happen all at the same time or according to the order of LP releases — while having traded some of its soul for that self-awareness and direction.

As “Swinging the Chain” wraps, Ward holds out his notes and even hits a falsetto that speaks to his emergence as a singer. In another reality, would he have taken over lead vocals after Osbourne‘s departure? Or could Black Sabbath have pulled it together and kept the Osbourne/Iommi/Butler/Ward configuration somehow, and if they had, would they still push forward with something as outright majestic as 1980’s Heaven and Hell (discussed here), which introduced then ex-Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio as their new frontman and felt like all the more a radical turn for it, or continue to backslide into a kind of comfortable mediocrity even before they hit middle-age? Flashes of their former greatness amid an endless string of identifiable but watered-down riffs, with neither the force nor passion behind them of their earliest work?

Of course these things could’ve happened, and if they had, maybe Black Sabbath would still be as revered as they’ve been since reforming their lineup in the later-1990s. But in this universe, Never Say Die is impossible to divorce from its context as the ‘last’ Black Sabbath original-lineup LP, and if you reorient to a position of looking forward from it rather than looking back at it, maybe that’s for the best. Nonetheless, at its center, it’s still these players captured at this time, and as the capstone of their run, there remains positive forward potential in its songs as well as the exeunt omnes spirit so easily read into “A Hard Road,” making it an ending worthy of the beginning from whence it came.

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

—

I gotta answer some emails. If you’ve reached out to me, oh, let’s say in the last four or five months, and not heard back, I’m sorry. My time is pretty tight these days — genuinely more so than I expected it to be when I sent my daughter off to full-day kindergarten this past Fall — and I’ve found my capacity for getting back has taken the brunt of that. I was never especially good at email, to be honest. I find now I’m about ready to move on from it, though no, that doesn’t mean I’m shutting off the contact form on this site. Just that I’m ready for whatever technological advance in communications might eventually follow to render it obsolete. Branded mini-emails like social media DMs aren’t really cutting it either. Same anxiety on approach, less easy to sort through and find what you need when you need it.

First, I’m lucky anyone thinks enough of what I do here to send their music in the first place, whether it fits or not. Second, I’m doing my best and I acknowledge that things will not always be as they are today.

But yeah, email.

If you dug the string of Black Sabbath week-closeouts, I’m glad. It was a fun project. I was thinking I might dig into Kyuss in a similar fashion, but we’ll see. There are a couple other not-multiple-week odds and ends I’d like to do as well, but I’m content not to decide anything about even next Friday this week, as much as I do enjoy getting an answer for that kind of question ahead of time. For example, I currently have two full albums slated to stream in May, and not necessarily at the start of the month. Working ahead is how I stay sane in this to the extent that I do. In my head, I’m feeling like it’s time to put together the back end for Monday’s review.

And about next week. Monday’s a Skraeckoedlan full stream, Tuesday I’m going to try to follow that with a Colour Haze studio log-ish-type feature. Wednesday is Cancervo’s new LP, Thursday is the Esben Willems solo record with a track-by-track, and Friday I’m leaving open either for Craneium or some other review that strikes my fancy. Or maybe I’ll post that Brume video interview where I, well, just sucked. Their record doesn’t, and that helps. We’ll see.

I got some pretty thoughtful comments last week, more than just internet-style platitudes and/or empty optimism, and thank you for that. You might not find this surprising, but sometimes writing a thing out helps me organize my thoughts. Wild, I know.

This week was my wife’s Spring Break, and it was wonderful to have her home. Tuesday we went to the Job Lot, today we went to the library to look at alternative Zelda books for The Pecan, who at this point continues to want to read nothing else, and even just having her in the house, whether she’s working upstairs or down, whatever it is, makes life better on every level. I’ll miss her next week when she goes back to work.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate. I’ve got my water jug and my bluetooth speaker and some clothes laid out for after I shower, which is my stank-ass-self’s next stop. Beyond that, primo hours of fuck-off time ahead. I hope you also get a bit of a chance to relax, however that looks for you. Thanks again for reading and checking in. Back Monday.

FRM.

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Amid the various distractions of another day like the other days, the teaser for Borer‘s Bag Seeker caught my eye in coming down the PR wire. I don’t remember what I was supposed to be doing when I was rerouted, but that’s hardly the first time that’s happened. It’s why I keep notes, and Borer quickly went into those as well. The New Zealand extreme-sludge five-piece will release their debut album — the title as noted above is Bag Seeker — on May 10 through Landmine Records. Fair enough.

I’m not generally one for teasers. Usually you don’t get much more than 30 seconds or a minute or so of music and if you’re already excited for a thing, a snippet is really just there to piss you off that you can’t hear more. Ultimately, it was Borer‘s teaser, where you see the band in the studio sort of standing around, looking like they’re getting ready to record something or other, as part of a track plays. There’s a moment in there as the 57-second video plays out where the tone kicks in, and not then, but maybe like the next measure, the way they take that surge and lock it into the stankfaced nod they’ve already established hit me just right. All of a sudden, well, I was pissed off I couldn’t hear more.

The cover, album info, order link, etc., are below, as well of course as that teaser. By way of a plug, I’ll have the video mentioned in the press release premiering here April 2. That’s a Tuesday, if you were curious. Sometime between now and then I’m going to try to find out exactly what kind of bag is being sought.

For now:

BORER: Christchurch, New Zealand Caustic Sludge Metal Quintet To Release Debut LP, Bag Seeker, On Landmine Records May 10th; Album Details, Teaser, And Preorders Posted

Landmine Records, formed and operated by members of Blindfolded And Led To The Woods, welcomes fellow New Zealand crew BORER to the label, for the May release of their caustic debut LP, Bag Seeker.

BORER was expelled into the void in 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Christchurch, Aotearoa, by vocalist Tom Brand and guitarist Boden Powell, shortly thereafter fleshed-out by guitarist Tim Hunt, bassist Greg Newton-Topp, and drummer Josh Reid. Worshipping the tones of Electric Wizard, Iron Monkey, and the like, they released their two track EP, Priest Thrower, in October 2021 which created a buzz in the sludge/doom scene and led to support slots with Beastwars, Stalker, and more, as well as playing some of the most renowned rock and metal festivals in Aotearoa.

2023 saw the BORER crew work away on their debut full-length, the now completed Bag Seeker. The resin-coated grooves of the hulking album deliver five tracks, most of which pass the ten-minute-mark, dragging the listener on a harrowing, bongwater and lukewarm beer bender which culminates in the twenty-one-minute epic “Lord Of The Hanged.”

Bag Seeker was recorded and mixed in Christchurch by Joseph Veale (Blindfolded And Led To The Woods), mastered by Luke Finlay at Primal Mastering, and completed with artwork and layout by Jake Clark (Mr Wolf), and is a detrimental listen for fans of Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, Weedeater, Fistula, Indian, Dystopia, and Electric Wizard.

Bag Seeker will be released on CD and all digital platforms on Landmine Records May 10th. Find preorders HERE: https://borersludge.bandcamp.com/album/bag-seeker

Stand by for an official video, live announcements, and more to be dispatched surrounding the release of the record.

Bag Seeker Track Listing:
1. Bag Seeker
2. Ket Witch
3. 6.32
4. Wretch
5. Lord Of The Hanged

BORER:
Tom Brand – vocals
Boden Powell – guitar
Tim Hunt – guitar
Greg Newton-Topp – bass
Josh Reid – drums

https://www.facebook.com/sludgeborer
https://www.instagram.com/borer__aotearoa
https://borersludge.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/landminerecords
https://landminerecords.bandcamp.com

Borer, Bag Seeker teaser

While it’s unclear at this time how many clergy members they’ll actually run into on the tour, Cardinals Folly make clear their blasphemous intent in their first US run of shows, which they’re calling ‘Deranging Priests Across the US 2024.’ Steeped in the doomly traditions of their Finnish homeland and the broader underground universe of classic metal, the band will travel to the States in support of 2023’s Live by the Sword, released through Soulseller Records. It looks like a DIY tour — at least there isn’t a booking company’s name on the poster — and so it’s all the more imperative to help out if you can. Richmond, VA, New York, NY, etc., take note.

It’s comforting to know that while the tour takes place about a month ahead of Maryland Doom Fest 2024 — inarguably the best foot the US Eastern Seaboard has to put forward as regards the doomedest of doom — they will still get to see the town of Frederick, where it’s held, and play at Cafe Nola. I hope someone down there shows them around or some such, but I probably don’t even need to say that. Maryland doom wants nothing for hospitality.

Cheers to the band on making the voyage. Here’s the announcement they put out on socials:

CARDINALS FOLLY – “DERANGING PRIESTS ACROSS THE US 2024” TOUR

THIS MAY – A FINNISH DOOM METAL SHOCKWAVE ALL THE WAY FROM MIDWEST TO THE EAST COAST – FUELED BY THE NEW ALBUM “LIVE BY THE SWORD” WITH AN UNHOLIER-THAN-THOU HEAVY METAL SPIRIT !!!!

Some help is still needed with a few dates, as you can see. And any is appreciated. So let us know.

Live dates:
05.18 Madison WI The Wisco
05.19 Indianapolis IN Black Circle Brewing
05.20 Chicago IL Reggies
05.21 Ypsilanti MI The Regal Beagle
05.22 Youngstown OH Westside Bowl
05.23 Rochester NY Bug Jar
05.24 Providence RI Wes’ Rib House
05.25 Frederick MD Cafe Nola
05.26 Help
05.27 Help
05.28 Washington D.C. Pie Shop
05.29 Help
05.31 St. Paul MN White Rock Lounge
06.01 Milwaukee WI Sabbatic

LINE-UP
Mikko “Count Karnstein” Kääriäinen – Bass, Vocals
Juho “Nordic Wrath” Kilpelä – Guitars
Joni “Battle Ram” Takkunen – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/cardinalsfolly/
https://www.instagram.com/cardinalsfolly/
http://cardinalsfolly.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/soulsellerrecords
https://www.instagram.com/soulsellerrecords
https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.soulsellerrecords.com

Cardinals Folly, Live by the Sword (2023)

Dug-in Athenian riffchuckers Acid Mammoth are set to issue their fourth LP, Supersonic Megafauna Collision, on April 5 through Heavy Psych Sounds. It arrives three years after their duly rolling 2021 offering, Caravan (review here), and feels no less self-aware in highlighting its elephantine nature, a largesse of sound that begins in the opening title-track — catchy, doomed but not necessarily miserable, more reveling in the worship of volume and tone, a nodding testimony — and follows where the smoke goes throughout its six-track/41-minute entirety.

And if you’re expecting me to drop a reference here to that smoke leading to the Riff-Filled Land, well, I guess that’s reasonable enough. But don’t let that take away from the fact that Acid Mammoth have been declaring their brand of stoner-doom dogma since their 2017 self-titled debut caught the attention of Heavy Psych Sounds in the first place. And along with the over-the-top, heavy-speaking-to-heavy title underscoring the latest outing’s aural heft in language the genre-converted should have no trouble understanding — that is, it feels like one is supposed to look at Supersonic Megafauna Collision and/or the Branca Studio cover that adorns it and rightly anticipate being flattened by the proceedings — the overarching crush that gets a bit more down and dirty in “Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming)” (video premiering below) becomes not a downer slog, but instead a vital celebration of its own motion.

This is an aspect of the work the band themselves acknowledge in the PR wire info below — thinking specifically of “all that enthusiasm and excitement,” etc. — and part of it might just be down to that the record, with the exceptions of 11:53 closer “Tusko’s Last Trip” and the trade-volume-for-hypnosis “One with the Void” (4:35) before it, keeps its songs to about six minutes in length, keeps its energy high, and feels in its bulk specifically composed to be played live. Through the title cut, “Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming),” the Electric Wizardly slough of “Garden of Bones” on which Marios Louvaris seems to keep the momentum going in part by peppering in double-kick amid the tempo comedown riffery, and “Atomic Shaman,” which leads off side B in what feels like direct complement to the catchiness that began in “Supersonic Megafauna Collision,” Acid Mammoth dare to bring vibrancy to a style of doom that in the hands of many outfits in Europe and elsewhere has a hard time getting out of the way of its own misery. Among the many other things Acid Mammoth accomplish on Supersonic Megafauna Collision, they make it fun to play in the mud.

The vocals of Chris Babalis, Jr., which are Sabbath-rooted but have never wanted for their own character in that — Babalis on guitar/vocals and Louvis on drums make up half the returning lineup with guitarist Chris Babalis, Sr. and bassist Dimosthenis Varikos are another piece of what carries that fervor through to the listener. This is true even as one waits for the volume burst in “One With the Void” that doesn’t actually arrive until after the riff of “Tusko’s Last Trip” enacts its own build, and as infectious as the earlier pieces are in their choruses and brighter mood, it’s the vocals that provide consistency as the second half of the record departs from “Atomic Shaman” into the last two songs, fostering tension in “One With the Void” that “Tusko’s Last Trip” pays off in its outbound march and the gritty low end that leaves space for lead guitar to cut through before and after they set up and execute the concluding, jammier procession, an especially scorching solo over brash plod that could probably have just kept going all day like that providing the album’s final statement before the quick fade brings it down.

While consistent in tone, “Tusko’s Last Trip” is purposeful in delivering on the trope of a harder-hitting, broader-in-scope capstone, and it ends up hitting its mark — not unexpectedly, considering it’s Acid Mammoth‘s fourth full-length — in a way that also calls out the clarity of big-riff-party intent throughout Supersonic Megafauna Collision‘s early going. And yet, if they wrote it for Caravan, it would’ve been a completely different song three years ago. The band have never sounded tighter than they do in these songs, and while that’s part of the appeal, they neglect neither the atmospheric scope nor the raw impact crucial to engaging the audience whose passion for the form they so readily share. All of these elements, plus melody, chemistry, aesthetic and craft, align just right to let Supersonic Megafauna Collision present a fresh take to those with ears willing to hear it. Whatever else they do or don’t do from here, they’ve captured a moment.

Enjoy the clip for “Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming)” — which is mostly safe for work, if that helps? — below, followed by some words from the band on it and more from the PR wire:

Acid Mammoth, “Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming)” video premiere

Acid Mammoth on “Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming)”:

“Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming)” is the third track of our upcoming new album ‘Supersonic Megafauna Collision’. It is a witchy track, filled with fuzzy riffs and an unholy atmosphere. Debauchery is taking place in the wickedest of covens, with smoke and blood transcending your soul. Join the coven and relish its serpentine bliss!”

Preorder: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS299

About their upcoming fourth studio album “Supersonic Megafauna Collision”, vocalist and guitarist Chris Babalis Jr. says: “While the previous album was composed and recorded during a state of total COVID lockdown in 2020, our new album was composed and recorded after the world had gotten back to a new state of normalcy after we had toured and played shows all over Europe, and all that enthusiasm and excitement we gathered while touring was put into this new album. We wanted to record a heavy and explosive album with lots of fuzz, that retains what made our sound great in our previous releases but take it a few steps further, and that’s exactly what we did. The album starts as a celebration of all things fuzzy with the title track, and it just gets darker and darker as the album progresses, until it concludes in complete and utter heartbreak with the song “Tusko’s Last Trip”, telling the heart-wrenching real story of Tusko, an elephant who was murdered as a result of cruel human experimentation.”

“Supersonic Megafauna Collision” was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Descent Studio, with drums recorded at Ritual Studios. The artwork was created by Branca Studio.

*** ACID MAMMOTH *** EUROPEAN TOUR 2024
SA 27/04/2024 IT TORINO – Blah Blah
SU 28/04/2024 *** OPEN SLOT ***
MO 29/04/2024 ES BARCELONA – Razzmatazz 3
TU 30/04/2024 ES MADRID – Wurlitzer Ballroom
WE 01/05/2024 ES PORTUGALETE – Sala Groove
TH 02/05/2024 FR MARSEILLE – Le Molotov
FR 03/05/2024 FR CHAMBERY – Brin de Zinc
SA 04/05/2024 CH ALTDORF – Vogelsang
SU 05/05/2024 IT BOLOGNA – TBA
MO 06/05/2024 IT *** OPEN SLOT ***
TU 07/05/2024 IT *** OPEN SLOT ***

TRACKLISTING:
1. Supersonic Megafauna Collision (6:38)
2. Fuzzorgasm (Keep on Screaming) (6:12)
3. Garden of Bones (6:28)
4. Atomic Shaman (6:12)
5. One With the Void (4:35)
6. Tusko’s Last Trip (11:53)

ACID MAMMOTH is
Chris Babalis Jr. – Vocals, Guitars
Chris Babalis Sr. – Guitars
Dimosthenis Varikos – Bass
Marios Louvaris – Drums

Acid Mammoth, Supersonic Megafauna Collision (2024)

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Acid Mammoth on Instagram

Acid Mammoth on Bandcamp

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