Posted in Features on August 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Former Trouble and current The Skull vocalist Eric Wagner has died of pneumonia brought about by Covid-19. His son, Luke Wagner, confirmed on social media. It is impossible to estimate the devastation that Wagner’s loss means to the international underground community at large, but it nearly goes without saying that he was a legend in his own time with a career spanning more than 40 years behind him, as well as someone continuing to do pivotal work in doom metal today.
As part of Trouble, Wagner was essential in defining the trajectory of American doom. Early albums through Metal Blade Records like 1984’s Trouble/Psalm 9, 1985’s The Skull and 1987’s Run to the Light set forth a blueprint that many still follow today, and even as Trouble shifted into more heavy rock and classic rock-minded fare on their 1990 self-titled, their efforts remained no less crucial, with Wagner’s Beatles influence becoming all the more defining on 1992’s Manic Frustration and 1995’s Plastic Green Head, which would be his final album with the band until 2007’s Simple Mind Condition.
Always creative and a songwriter in his own right, Wagner would work across multiple outfits at a time, whether it was the collaboration Lid with Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema or his 2004 participation in Dave Grohl’s Probot project, which helped introduce his voice and style to a broader audience prior to his return to Trouble for what would be his last full-length with the band. In the years following his departure from Trouble, Wagner went on in 2012 to found The Skull alongside guitarist Lothar Keller and fellow Trouble veterans Ron Holzner (bass) and Jeff Olson (drums), first as an homage project and later one with original material.
The Skull’s two full-lengths, For Those Which Are Asleep and The Endless Road Turns Dark, would see release in 2014 and 2016, respectively, through Tee Pee Records. Blackfinger, which would become something of a side-project as The Skull took priority, also released two albums, in 2014’s self-titled and 2017’s When Colors Fade Away, with the acoustic solo collection, Highdeas Vol. 1, arriving in 2015.
It was reported late last week that Wagner, who contracted Covid-19 while on a co-headlining tour with The Skull and fellow landmark outfit The Obsessed, had entered the hospital with Covid pneumonia and that remaining live dates including a slated appearance at Psycho Las Vegas were canceled. He was, again reportedly, unvaccinated.
He was someone whose work was immediately identifiable, and his influence is spread across generations of music from all over the world. It is impossible to hear his voice and not know who’s performing, and on stage, he brought a sense of character and even at times humor to his presence that was inimitable and spoke to his Chicago roots. He may be best remembered as Trouble’s singer, but the arc of his career would find him inspiring others multiple times over, and his passion for what he did was no less inimitable than the voice that was so much his own. If it is impossible to rank the scale of his influence, that is because it continues to spread.
As somebody fortunate enough to interview Wagner on several occasions and to see him live on many more, I offer sincere condolences on behalf of myself and this site for whatever that’s worth to Wagner’s friends, family, bandmates, and any other associates. In my experience, he was a sweet, humble man who understood his place and at least some of what his work meant to others. Of his feelings on Trouble after leaving the band, he told me in 2011, “Those four guys are the only ones who know what it was like to do what we did… I can talk to them and they know exactly what I mean and what it felt like and what we went through.” It was a moment of rare perspective that still resonates a decade later.
Posted in Reviews on August 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Whether you would skip delightedly across planetary orbits like so many invisible jump ropes or drift serene through a sea of nebular gases, Comet Control are your one-stop shop. The prismatic Toronto space — the final frontier? yes! — adventurers built themselves a whole studio to make their third LP, and, well, it worked. Inside the Sun collects eight new tracks for the Tee Pee Records follow-up to 2016’s Center of the Maze (review here), running an immersive and at times peaceful but not at all staid 45 minutes across two well delineated sides of melodic psychedelia. Be it in opener “Keep on Spinnin'” or its side B counterpart title-track, wherein the drums of Andrew Moszynski (Marco Mozin fills the role live) punctuate in submotorik fashion an outbound shove of intention, or in later, less-or-un-percussed folkish stretches like “The Afterlife” and closer “The Deserter,” the last of which finds Jay Lemak‘s keys complemented by guest violin from Sophie Trudeau — who plays in Godspeed You! Black Emperor and, mathematically speaking, either is or is not related to the Canadian prime minister — Comet Control‘s depth of sound and flowing graciousness of craft comes across as the most crucial element of who they are.
They put the rockers up front, and the first sound one hears on “Keep on Spinnin'” is a wake-the-hell-up drum fill from Moszynski that stops dead before the guitars of founding principals Chad Ross (also vocals) and Andrew Moszynski kick in to lead the way out of the atmosphere on a rocket fueled by fuzz-laced shuffle, bass and drums the engine driving upward and outward as the keys add melodic flourish to the vocals, complementing the spaces between verse lines. It is a purposefully movement-minded, rhythmic leadoff. A statement. It does not reveal everything about Comet Control‘s intentions throughout Inside the Sun — it’s not a full summary or anything like that — but the facts that it’s one of two songs running over seven minutes long, that it starts the record, and that it’s the most active inclusion on it aren’t a coincidence. The band clearly wants to convey the feeling of motion, maybe even of being alive after five years of absence. One does not begrudge the boogie. And even as they move into a noisy wash in the song’s second half, only to stop dead once again and speak the single word “spinnin’,” they bring that keyboard line back around to top the reemergent push, and the melody’s never far off.
If it matters, everything that follows is slower to some degree — though I’m not about to compare BPMs with “Secret Life” (premiered here) to find how by how close the two are exactly — but side A remains uptempo, defined in no small part by its initial axial directive. The shaker-inclusive chug of “Welcome to the Wave” finds its verse tempting Rolling Stones comparisons, but the quick hook hints at mellower vibes to come, the song’s title-line arriving in the lines “Moving in and out of phase/Welcome to the wave,” later, the urging, “Go inside the wave,” just before the solo. It is bright in that wave, and duly undulating, but again, the rhythm section acts as the anchor, and that shaker’s right there the whole time, earning its place among the final elements to stand at the end of the track, cutting off before “Secret Life” — the shortest inclusion at 3:40 and another kick in pace, howling in guitar, punchy in snare, and right on for the duration — takes over, lead lines trilling like a theremin amid a spirit that feels near to garage rock but is fuller in its sound than anything so willfully raw. Somehow it’s a fitting point of dimensional shift to the more languid but still rolling “Good Day to Say Goodbye.”
Taking Inside the Sun as a linear progression, the dream-keys and organ of “Good Day to Say Goodbye,” the nodding groove, bright melody and anchoring fuzz riff around which it’s based serves as a vital transition to what follows on the second half of the record. The longest song at 7:27, it also offers a reminder that Ross and Moszynski worked together in Quest for Fire before Comet Control‘s 2014 self-titled debut (review here), and is fair enough ground for them to cover, hitting a midpoint in tempo between the “Keep on Spinnin'” and “Secret Life” before and “The Afterlife” and “The Deserter” still to come while giving space — there’s that word again — for the title-track and the penultimate “Heavy Moments” to unfurl amid the lushness that surrounds. “Inside the Sun” itself feels broad because it is, guitars swirling by its end in a way that lets the listener know they’re not coming back this time, and that’s suitable to shift into the outright headphone-ready gorgeousness of “The Afterlife.” It is also how side B embodies the back-and-forth ethic of Inside the Sun on the whole. Where the first half of the album played off pace between fastest and middle gears, the second oozes further into drift the alternating pattern, especially in “The Deserter” at the finish, speaking to just how far Comet Control are ready to go.
Understand: there is no conflict in this. Even if it is a case of competing impulses in the writing, that doesn’t come through in the finished product, which is all the more to the band’s credit since they’re working in their own studio for the first time. Rather, the post-’90s-alt wistfulness in the guitar of “Heavy Moments” offers a smooth letting go into “The Deserter,” which unfolds with such patience as to make its relatively short four-and-half-minute runtime deceptive. Keys and effects swirl begin, vocals arrive, bass, drums follow gradually, the aforementioned violin becoming a part of the whole with marked ease. It is perhaps in these final minutes that Comet Control most reinforce what’s been uniting the material all along through the back and forth. Aside from the overarching course they’ve set into the ether, it is the melody that brings the songs together throughout Inside the Sun. Of course that’s not to take anything away from what the rhythm section does throughout in reinforcing the trajectory — that work is crucial to the impression made by the album as a whole and the individual tracks as pieces of it — but as they ebb and flow, Comet Control are no less purposeful in their soothing last stretch than they were in the outset’s relative intensity. It is the willingness to be beautiful that makes Inside the Sun so encompassing.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The four-and-a-half minute lesson from the new KITE video actually doesn’t even take that long to learn. It is thus: KITE are still nasty as fuck. The Oslo-based sludge aggressors offered up Irradiance last year through Argonauta, and they’ll follow it on a quick turnaround Oct. 8 with Currentsvia the increasingly busy Majestic Mountain Records. Lead single “Turbulence” — with its Blair Witch-esque video down at the bottom of this post — is a rager and would not seem to be alone in that company if their prior work is anything to go by.
Their hardcore/post-hardcore roots remain present, but accompanied by a thickness of tone that stands them out from that genre even as it makes them all the more skin-peeling. There’s stripped-down and then there’s stripped-off, but really, you weren’t using that flesh anyway.
The PR wire, blessings and peace upon it, offered the following:
Norwegian Sludge Trio KITE Unearth Dark Nature and Discord on Savage New Record
Currents by KITE will be released 8th October on Majestic Mountain Records
Kite is a Norwegian three-piece, with members from Sâver, Tombstones, Dunderbeist, Stonegard, Team Me, Jaqueline.
Recorded at an abandoned pig farm in Hamar, Norway by the band and producer Fredrik Ryberg (Andrew W.K.), Currents is the latest entry in a collection of rare, intermittent, yet wholly compelling releases by the Oslo-based sludge/post-hardcore trio, KITE.
Aiming to reboot the buzz built around last year’s Argonauta Records-approved album, Irradiance, the band is thrilled to be stepping out into the void once more, backed by the clout of a mighty new battalion.
“The team behind Majestic Mountain Records are solid idealists with a true passion for music,” explains vocalist/guitarist, Ronny Flissundet. “We’ve been truly impressed by the fantastic work they’ve done with the likes of Jointhugger and Draken. Having met them personally at numerous Roadburn Festivals down the years, they just feel like the perfect match for us.”
Leading with new single, ‘Turbulence’, an eerie and manic song musically and lyrically, the disorientating video delivers a whole other level of nightmarish intrigue. Directed and shot by Gøran Karlsvik in an eastern Norwegian wood full of dark nature and vivid uncertainty, the song and video capture the gloomy and sonic disposition of a band that prides itself on the intensity of discord. Scarred and scored by throat-tearing vocals and skull crushing melodies.
Currents by KITE will be released 8th October on Majestic Mountain Records.
The secret ingredient is groove. Only it’s not a secret. It’s pretty much right there, the whole time, from the second you press play on Wo Fat‘s near-13-minute opus “Nameless Cults,” and it remains unrelinquished until the entirety of Cyclopean Riffs (review here) is over with the fading jammy strains of Egypt‘s “Ancient Enemy” on side B. Totem Cat Records issued this split in 2013 between the Texan and North Dakotan outfits, and some eight years later it remains a standout in both discographies. And eight years later, I still have no idea what specifically about these riffs makes them cyclopean — Legend of the One-Eyed Riff? — but sometimes a thing sounds cool enough that it doesn’t matter. However many eyes these riffs have — could just as easily be dozens, I’d think — there’s no mistaking two locked-in bands sharing space on a record, hitting it hard with thick tones, big jams and what’s-that-word-again-oh-yeah groove. All the groove.
Even in this age of various split series and releases from Ripple Music‘s The Second Coming of Heavy and Turned to Stone to Heavy Psych Sounds‘ Doom Sessions, and so on, the split is usually an overlooked form when it comes to longer term listening. That is, if two bands are on tour and they put out a seven-inch together to mark the occasion, hey, great. I still have a Pelican/Scissorfight single that I picked up when they played Knitting Factory in Manhattan and it’s a great memory every time I see it. But, series aside, a lot of times bands putting out splits is just about sharing costs for pressing, and there’s always a chance that the two productions will be uneven, or the quality of the material will, or whatever. There’s a lot that can result in a split that gets put on the shelf and left there, either figuratively or literally speaking.
Cyclopean Riffs is the other kind of split. “Nameless Cults” and “Electric Hellhound” finds Wo Fat — guitarist/vocalist Kent Stump (who also recorded), drummer/backing vocalist Michael Walter, bassist Tim Wilson — at a high point. In 2012, the Dallas three-piece offered The Black Code(review here; also discussed here) through Small Stone and it remains a highlight of their catalog as well as of the heavy rock of the last decade more generally. Having perfected their early approach across their first three albums, the fourth was a showcase point from which they’d continue to expand their sound, and the two tracks they brought to the split with Egypt every bit stood up to the LP that preceded them, the former speaking to the more jam-intentioned side of the band while the latter reminded that they’re still songwriters at heart, with a classic energy and an arsenal of hooks. In under 20 minutes, they reaffirm what worked so well on The Black Code, reverse it by putting the longer-form work as the first song on the 12″ (immediate points), and give their listenership another chance to dive in and indulge. The material doesn’t sound like leftovers, mostly I think because it isn’t.
Similarly, Egypt fucking bring it. Based in Fargo, the trio of bassist/vocalist Aaron Esterby, guitarist Neal Stein (who also also recorded), and drummer Chad Heille had issued their debut album, Become the Sun (review here) through Totem Cat and Doomentia Records in January, and thereby offered nearly an hour of call-it-a-slab-worthy heft and nod, offset by an underlying predilection for boogie that came through even the sludgiest of moments. With Esterby‘s rough-edged vocals surrounded by this wash of bobbing-head groove, their two nine-minute inclusions on Cyclopean Riffs — “Blood Temple Hymn” (9:06) and “Ancient Enemy” (9:02) — still ring to me like a bonus round for the record prior, though they’re up to something of their own as well and stand apart in their purpose. With Nolan Brett at Wo Fat‘s Crystal Clear Sound mastering, there’s no dip in production value — Stein engineered and mixed at the Opium Den in Moorhead, Minnesota — and “Blood Temple Hymn” is a dirt-riffer’s daydream, an act of volume worship that’s as much call to prayer as expression of ingrained Sabbathian faith. Fuzz in excelsis. The structure of “Ancient Enemy” is different with its later repeated lines, but neither song is worried about getting mellow when it wants to and riding back to more weighted fare.
The bouncing movement under the solo of “Blood Temple Hymn” is a special moment unto itself, never mind where the release as a whole stands. But the lightning-in-a-bottle truth of Cyclopean Riffs is that it brought two acts together who were hitting their stride and had found their sound at the same time. Their journey there was different, and their sounds were different, but I’m sorry, anyone who wants to debate the quality of what’s on offer here simply hasn’t listened to it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cyclopean Riffs was in part responsible for the barrage of split series that started a couple years later. Either way, the work speaks for itself, grooves for itself, and needs no prattling from me to do so.
Egypt would go on to put out two full-lengths after Cyclopean Riffs in 2015’s Endless Flight (review here) and 2017’s Cracks and Lines (review here) before calling it quits for what was actually the second time, the band having broken up before their first album (it’s a long story, but that’s pretty much it). Both bands from here expanded their territory to include Europe. Wo Fat had already been in Spring 2013 for the first of several incursions, playing Roadburn (review here) in the Netherlands, Desertfest, etc., but Egypt would make their way abroad in 2015 to herald Endless Flight, touring with Tombstones en route to Freak Valley Festival, and be back the following Spring after the release, for Desertfest 2016 in London and Berlin. Wo Fat‘s two studio LPs since Cyclopean Riffs, 2014’s The Conjuring (review here) and 2016’s Midnight Cometh (review here), found them continuing to refine their approach. I hear a new one’s in the works and has been for a while now. Half a decade since they were last heard from, I’m ready to find out where they might go.
In any case, sometimes you want groove. Cyclopean Riffs continues to provide. Little bit of a different structure to this post, with the artwork on top instead of the side and the two embedded players. All four tracks weren’t on Bandcamp and I didn’t feel like wading into YouTube. Think of clicking play twice like flipping the sides of a record. I’m sure you can handle it.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
—
It’s 6:28AM. The Pecan is upstairs, banging away on his walls. He put a hole in the wall of his closet. His bedroom is pretty barren compared to the living room, which doubles as his main play space, but he’s got toys and stuff up there. I guess banging on the wall is more satisfying. He and The Patient Mrs. patched the one hole he made, and he’s made another since. He’s very much that kind of kid.
His last week of camp is this coming week. He has a week and a half between camp ending and school starting — stop me if I’ve told you this already, which I think I might’ve, but it continues to be on my mind — and I’ve been getting up at 4:30 to accommodate that in terms of my own writing schedule. It’s worked to a fair degree, but I find that by the middle of the day, I’m dead on my feet. Or more likely, dead on the couch. He goes upstairs to take a rest in the afternoon and more often than not I nod off wherever I am at least for 15 or 20 minutes, longer if I can. I’d much rather spend the time reading, or writing for that matter, or doing anything vaguely productive, but yeah.
I took this past Monday off from doing a review in order to finish PostWax liner notes for Mammoth Volume. That may just have to be how those get done this Fall, though frankly I hate the thought. But the internet didn’t end without me, as I’ve always told myself it won’t, so an uncommitted day like that can still be put to decent use. The liner notes turned out okay. Lot of personality in that band. Hopefully my writing wasn’t so dry as to sap all of it. Shrug. I do what I do.
This weekend, that’s get questions out for The Otolith to answer. Plenty to talk about there, since the band is “formed from the ashes of” — a phrase I definitely won’t use in the final draft — SubRosa. Plus the record’s awesome, so I could do worse than listening.
Green Lung video interview is gonna go up on Monday. They talk about playing Bloodstock and their new record, which is killer and out in October. Early bird for a chat, I know, but whatever. There’s nothing like advanced notice.
New Gimme Show today at 5PM. Please listen and thanks if you do: http://gimmeradio.com
It’s a good show. Next one will be good too. Already started the playlist, in my head if not actually Google Sheets.
Hey you. Have a great and safe weekend. Thanks for reading. Please hydrate, watch your head, hold your loved ones close and everybody else at a respectable distance, wear your mask when you’re out and about, get your shot if you haven’t, but otherwise, have the fun you can and feel what good you can.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 20th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Looks like a good run. It’s more than three weeks on the road that Texas heavy troupes Monte Luna and Temptress will spend together, and that’s pretty significant. Frankly, I have to think that if these shows weren’t going to happen, they wouldn’t have been booked in the first place. Of course, like everything now, they’re pending too, but the tour starts at the Obelisk-presented Heavy Mash 2021 in Arlington on Oct. 2 before picking up on Oct. 5 and heading out from there.
What can you say at this point? Go safe? Observe any and all local precautions? You know, if there was ever any doubt that heavy bands do it for love, consider touring in a surging pandemic as evidence. I don’t know, but I doubt Monte Luna or Temptress are getting live-off-this-money guarantees, and it’s a marked risk being undertaken on their part. I’m not saying they shouldn’t tour, just that they’re clearly doing so because they believe in what they do, and that’s worthy of respect.
These are strange times.
From the PR wire:
Two Tons Of Texas Tone! MONTE LUNA & TEMPTRESS Confirm Fall U.S. Tour Dates
From Texas, by way of Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth, comes two tons of tone as MONTE LUNA and TEMPTRESS have joined together to ramble on with a slew of tour dates this Fall.
MONTE LUNA, a psychedelic sludge metal band from Austin Texas, is James Clarke, Danny Marschner, and Garth Condit. Joining forces in 2015, the heavy trio was largely influenced by dark and experimental bands such as Neurosis, The Melvins, and Eyehategod. With punishing riffs and titanic drumming, Monte Luna has been carving a name for themselves since the debut of their EP ‘The Hound’ (2016). They released their full-length, self-titled album in Fall 2017 to outstanding reviews and followed up with relentless touring in 2018.
The band signed with Italian label Argonauta Records in December 2018 and has since re-released their ‘Monte Luna’ debut on vinyl into the international markets. In 2019, Monte Luna successfully released their second album ‘Drowners Wives’, but, as with countless others, their accompanying U.S./EU. tour was postponed due to the pandemic. The band performed a CVLT Nation-Sponsored Livestream in 2020, with the audio released as a benefit to their local music venue The Lost Well. Monte Luna has slowly begun to return to shows over the past year with the culmination of this Fall 2021 tour with Temptress.
TEMPTRESS is a quartet of misfits thunderously tempting fate to boom their way across Big Texas and beyond at the speed of sound. Kelsey Wilson, Andi Cuba, Erica Pipes, and Christian Wright all decided to get together in mid-January 2019 for a simple afternoon of rocking out with the intent for nothing more than keeping their skills sharpened. They weren’t planning to be a band, it just worked.
In five months, these four seasoned players went from jamming for fun in a practice space to writing and recording some potent heavy metal songs. As Temptress, they began performing them live and in June 2019, they presented their first original songs in the ‘Temptress’ EP release. Temptress is currently putting the finishing touches on their debut full-length album, which is expected for release in early 2022.
Today, the Texas heavy duo of Temptress and Monte Luna share their travel plans in a run of U.S. tour dates for Fall 2021. Starting October 2nd in Arlington, Texas for HEAVY MASH FEST with the likes of Holy Death Trio, Summit, Warlung, Hippie Death Cult, and Rainbows Are Free, the tour then routes up the Eastern seaboard and winds across the Midwest and back down to finish in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Halloween, October 31st.
MONTE LUNA & TEMPTRESS – U.S. FALL TOUR 2021
Oct. 02 – Arlington, TX @ Division Brewing / Growl Records – Heavy Mash Fest (w/ Holy Death Trio, Summit, Warlung, Hippie Death Cult, Rainbows Are Free)
Oct. 07 – Houston, TX @ 1810 Ojeman Oct. 08 – Lafayette, LA @ Freetown Boom Boom Room Oct. 09 – Baton Rouge, LA @ 524 Oct. 10 – New Orleans, LA @ Santos Bar Oct. 11 – Panama City, FL @ Sharks’ Oct. 13 – Athens, GA @ Flicker Theatre Oct. 14 – Asheville, NC @ Odditorium Oct. 15 – Chapel Hill, NC @ The Kraken Oct. 16 – TBA Oct. 17 – Baltimore, MD @ The Depot Oct. 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie Oct. 19 – Jewett City, CT @ Altone’s Music Hall Oct. 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Gold Sounds Oct. 21 – Allston, MA @ O’Briens Oct. 22 – Youngstown, OH @ Westside Bowl Oct. 23 – Columbus, OH @ Spacebar Oct. 24 – Indianapolis, IN @ Black Circle Brewing Co. Oct. 25 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies Oct. 26 – Cincinnati, OH @ Legends Oct. 27 – Louisville, KY @ Mag Bar Oct. 28 – Nashville, TN @ The East Room Oct. 29 – Birmingham, AL @ The Nick Oct. 30 – Little Rock, AR @ Kanis Skatepark – Kanis Bash Oct. 31 – Tulsa, OK @ The Whittier Bar
Good show. Starts heavy, stays heavy. Gets a little rocking by the end, but even the Acidemia jam that caps has a good sense of heft behind it. I noticed last episode had a pretty fair amount of drift — and this one isn’t entirely without, as you’ll notice — but I guess sometimes those aggro tendencies surface. Plus I’ve been very much enjoying the new LLNN album, and you can’t really start with that and not keep going with more extreme fare. Or I can’t, anyway. Or at least I didn’t. So there.
The Pecan joined in on the voice tracks, which was fun. I tried to get him to say his letters but he was like “up yours,” as ever. He knows them, and I guess that’ll have to do for now. But he got such a kick out of hearing himself on the playback that he started sprinting back and forth across the sectional in our living room, so I’m glad to know he at least enjoys taking part, even if having your toddler on is about as un-metal a thing I can think of. I’ve always maintained I have no business being on Gimme, even before they renamed it. It’s nice to be right every once in a while, even if it’s gonna feel bad when they eventually shitcan me.
Either way, thanks for listening and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 08.20.21
LLNN
Obsidian
Unmaker
Yanomamo
Dig 2 Graves
Yanomamo/Slomatics Split
Churchburn
Scarred
Genocidal Rite
VT
Sky Pig
The Strain
Hell is Inside You
Guhts
Eyes Open
Blood Feather
Year of No Light
Réalgar
Consolamentum
Blackwater Holylight
Around You
Silence/Motion
Deep Tomb
Endless Power Through Breathless Sleep
Deep Tomb
Starless
Pendulum
Hope is Leaving You
VT
Craneium
Shine Again
Unknown Heights
Kal-El
Mica
Dark Majesty
Crystal Spiders
Morieris
Morieris
Solemn Lament
Celeste
Solemn Lament
VT
Acidemia
Caximbo
Podridão
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Sept. 3 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
More of a sprint than a marathon, the video below by Gothenburg, Sweden-based motorrippers Warhawk for “There Will be Blood” comes from a series the four-piece have unveiled recorded live at Studio Berserk, with Monolord‘s Esben Willems at the helm. Total funtime — I meant to type “runtime” but I’m leaving it — for what I’m hoping will release as a live EP is upwards of 13 earthly minutes, and for that the unit offer four tracks of bruiser heavy-punk-via-proto-thrash, taking cues from any number of careening heavy rockers, most notably Motörhead on “Bad Reputation” and “Fool Me Twice,” but also vintage-era Ozzy Osbourne on “Pray for War” and later Britpunk on “There Will be Blood,” all of which, whatever nuance they bring, remain rippers.
For me, this is end-of-the-week stuff, and I mean that in the best way. You’re zonked. Your brains are coming out of your feet and you’re not even traveling Ludicrous Speed. It’s been a long road, getting from there to here, and you’re feeling it. Well, here comes a quick round of righteously arrogant heavy rock and roll, audio recorded and filmed live for your streaming enjoyment, and suddenly that last hill isn’t so much a thing to be climbed as drilled through. You can do it; rock and roll is here to help.
Maybe I’m talking to myself. Usually the case. Either way, Warhawk have a couple singles on the ol’ Bandcamp — they call what they do “filth rock,” which is as good as anything I could come up with — and I hear that Willems, who’s hosting the clip below on his account, is also premiering the full set video on the morrow. So if you want to do the like-and-subscribe thing, it might be handy to remind yourself. Or remind myself. Whatever. While I’m reminding, apparently the band has nine songs in the can to make an album with. Starting with the live clips is a good way to go, though. They make a pretty killer impression.
Runtime funtime:
Warhawk, “There Will be Blood” live at Studio Berserk
Meet the Warhawk.
Warhawk is the bad news you’ve been waiting for. From the very beginning, way back in 2019, an act of celebrating old love with borrowed tunes.
First takes in the studio was instrumental and the need for a vocalist led to the merge of members of Strul and singer Rob of Rawhide.
During the heatwave June 2021, four middle aged youngsters entered the eminent Element Studio with engineer excellence Öskar Karlsson to record what will be a solid LP of nine tracks, to be released on Cimex Records.
Only a month later a third session followed, live in Esben Willems’ Studio Berserk. That session was also shot and edited by Josefine Larsson. This session will also be released as an EP on all the usual platforms within the next few weeks.
You are going to see, hear and smell this glove a lot in the near future.
“If it feels good, do it”.
Warhawk are: Rob – Vocals Erik – Bass Pär – Guitar Matte – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 19th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
But wait, there’s more! On the very day it begins hosting its 2021 festival, Psycho Las Vegas has announced a new label imprint, Psycho Waxx. Sadly I don’t think they’re hiring A&R, otherwise I’d surely apply for the job and clog there roster with Swedish bands who won’t sell. Shame though.
Instead, they throw their hats into the tribute compilation game — who doesn’t like a gritty reboot? — with Löve Me Förever, a suitably umlauted homage to Motörhead that will boast new recordings from High on Fire, Blackwater Holylight, Mothership, Nick Oliveri and a slew of others. One expects that by the time it’s out it will be completely over the top, because Psycho is nothing if not on-brand in how they do.
One would remiss not to note that Löve Me Förever isn’t the first of recent heavy underground Motörhead tributes. Midwestern label The Company exceeded a Kickstarter goal to produce Ferociously Stöned: The Company Tribute to Motörhead, which it released in April and has out on physical as well as digital formats, with Keef Mountain, Hyborian and others in the label’s sphere taking part. While we’re on the subject, Psycho Waxx‘s Motörhead tribute probably won’t be the last either. These kinds of thing are going to be happening for a long time. At least as long as they sell, if not longer.
What follows came from social media:
PREORDERS are now open for LÖVE ME FÖREVER, a @psychowaxx tribute to one of the greatest rock ‘n roll bands of all time.
Motörhead is embedded deep in Psycho’s DNA, which is why we’ve got a slew of this year’s bombers hitting our Downtown Vegas studio during the fest to lay down their love in epic homage to the undeniable legends.
Löve Me Förever arrives on lavish double vinyl in 2022, with insane Motörhead cuts from the likes of HIGH ON FIRE, MIDNIGHT, EXHORDER, BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT, EYEHATEGOD, CEPHALIC CARNAGE, MOTHERSHIP, FOIE GRAS, HOWLING GIANT, CREEPING DEATH and more, plus an all-star collaborative take on “Ace of Spades” featuring Phil Anselmo, Gary Holt, Chuck Garric, Nick Oliveri and Dwid Hellion, among others. It’s everything you’d expect from Psycho as we throw down the gauntlet on our first official release.
2021 Psycho Las Vegas attendees pre-ordering on site at the fest will take home a limited edition cover art print, and receive a deluxe Psycho Waxx slipmat with record shipment. Art prints can be picked up at the Psycho showroom on Sunday, August 22 at 3 PM, held under the name on your pre-order.
