Posted in Whathaveyou on March 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
If you keep up with Sunnata on social media, I’m not sure how much of this info will be new to you, as the Polish prog-heavy ritualists have been talking about their new album, Chasing Shadows, for a while now and posted “Saviours Raft” as a first single from it. But the May 10 release date is an occasion I want to mark, and between that and the finalized (as much as these things ever are) tour dates, opening cut “Chimera” as the second single, and the details about the LP, I figure fair enough to post. Truth be told, I’ve heard the record at this point and this is information I’ll want later to review. As to the thing itself, I’m just getting to know it, so I’m not going to dig into absolutes or pretend I’m ready to have something substantive to offer as far as an opinion, but if you’ve been looking forward to it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
More to come, then. Same as ever for release announcements. Fine. As you take on “Chimera,” understand it’s the beginning of a larger unfolding, and if you can put your body someplace where Sunnata are going to be, I recommend you do that. Either way you go, immersed is where you’re headed.
Onward:
Polish doom band Sunnata announce new album Chasing Shadows; release haunting new single
Single ‘Chimera’ streaming now
Band are touring Europe / UK from May
Feral wilderness prophets Sunnata, (sanskr. noun emptiness, voidness) have announced their fifth full-length album Chasing Shadows will be self-released on 10th May. Ahead of the album, the band have released their beguiling new single ‘Chimera’ with accompanying music visualiser.
Sunnata commented on the new single: “‘Chimera’, the opening track from Chasing Shadows, manifests the presence of duality across the entire universe. Just like a mythical hybrid creature, the song is a bizarre mix of different genres and ideas, glued together into a compelling passage. From a blast beat and Pattonesque vocals, through a ceremonial trance-inducing build-up to a heavy, rock n rolling riffage, ‘Chimera’ proves to be an amalgamation, binding those pieces together to form a single entity.
“The song’s lyrics bind many paradoxes together, posing them as something inherent to reality. Dreamy recall of hinduistic Maya sets the tone of the piece – an ever-evolving appearance, an ever-changing shape. The cycle of life – the one who comes from the horizon and goes away – is prevalent like an imperative. Those who try to deny it and shape the world to their individual needs are fighting for the cause that is unreachable.
“The evolution binds units together, but also sets them apart. Paradoxes are part of us. Only the one, who is born and dead at the same time, prevails.”
The four piece Warsaw-based doom metal magi have been paving their own way to higher metal skies since their 2014 debut Climbing The Colossus. Their spellbinding sophomore album Zorya (2016) made the band gather even more momentum with regard to the European alternative heavy scene. Third album Outlands (2018) brilliantly brought out even more character, confidently crossing the frontier of progressive doom to land in even more melancholic and mind-expanding alleys. Fourth release Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021) was their most transcendent, melding together all the heaviness, intensity and tenderness into a graceful, cross-pollinating form, to create something incredible that grabbed the attention of fans and press worldwide, demanding attention and respect.
Chasing Shadows sees Sunnata expanding their sonic spectrum with their most complex record to date. Exploring both the most extreme aspects and subtle incarnations of their essence, Chasing Shadows is a mind-altering doomscape painted with everlasting, captivating stories. Hitting high notes in the eyes of fans and journalists, from here Sunnata are free to roam wherever.
Commenting on the album: “The fifth album for a band like ours is no joke. We are extremely proud on one hand, but also exhausted on the other as the creative process pushed us to the current limits. It’s the most complex and longest Sunnata record to date. Filled with nuances, genre blends and confident expansion of the band’s sound spectrum. Anyone familiar with our discography can easily tell that both change and experimentation are part of our nature, but at the same time – the constant need to push ourselves outside of the comfort zone, go beyond – is what stretches one’s limits. Maybe this is why we liked the title so much – we are chasing the uncatchable – shadows, illusions, visions and try to frame them with our musical language.”
Known for their expressive and atmospheric live performances, Sunnata have already taken part in various international festivals and been invited to open for Mastodon, Paradise Lost, Entombed AD, Rotting Christ, Sleep, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and The Sword. To celebrate the album release Sunnata will hit the road this summer on the following dates.
May 10: (PL) Warsaw – Hybrydy – Release Party May 13: (CZ) Brno, Kabinet Muz May 14: (HU) Budapest, Robot May 15: (AT) Salzburg, Rockhouse May 16: (DE) Jena, Klub Kuba May 17: (BE) Liege, La Zone May 18: (UK) London, Desertfest May 20: (FR) Lille, La Bulle Cafe May 21: (BE) Brussels, Le Lac May 22: (NL) Nijmegen, Merelyn May 23: (DE) Dresden, Ostpol May 24: (PL) Poznan, 2Progi May 25: (PL) Cracow, Studio May 31: (DK) Esbjerg, Fuzztival Esbjerg Aug 17: (UK) ArcTanGent
Posted in Reviews on February 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Admittedly, there’s some ambition in my mind calling this the ‘Spring 2024 Quarterly Review.’ I’m done with winter and March starts on Friday, so yeah, it’s kind of a reach as regards the traditional seasonal patterns of Northern New Jersey where I live, but hell, these things actually get decided here by pissing off a rodent. Maybe it doesn’t need to be so rigidly defined after all.
After doing QRs for I guess about nine years now, I finally made myself a template for the back-end layout. It’s not a huge leap, but will mean about five more minutes I can dedicate to listening, and when you’re trying to touch on 50 records in the span of a work week and attempt some semblance of representing what they’re about, five minutes can help. Still, it’s a new thing, and if you see ‘ARTIST’ listed where a band’s name should be or LINK where ‘So and So on Facebook’ goes, a friendly comment letting me know would be helpful.
Thanks in advance and I hope you find something in all of this to come that speaks to you. I’ll try to come up for air at some point.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Slift, Ilion
One of the few non-billionaire groups of people who might be able to say they had a good year in 2020, Toulouse, France, spaceblasters Slift signed to Sub Pop on the strength of that wretched year’s Ummon (review here) and the spectacle-laced live shows with which they present their material. Their ideology is cosmic, their delivery markedly epic, and Ilion pushes the blinding light and the rhythmic force directly at you, creating a sweeping momentum contrasted by ambient stretches like that tucked at the end of 12-minute hypnotic planetmaker “The Words That Have Never Been Heard,” the drone finale “Enter the Loop” or any number of spots between along the record’s repetition-churning, willfully-overblown 79-minute course of builds and surging payoffs. A cynic might tell you it’s not anything Hawkwind didn’t do in 1974 offered with modern effects and beefier tones, but, uh, is that really something to complain about? The hype around Ilion hasn’t been as fervent as was for Ummon — it’s a different moment — but Slift have set themselves on a progressive course and in the years to come, this may indeed become their most influential work. For that alone it’s among 2024’s most essential heavy albums, never mind the actual journey of listening. Bands like this don’t happen every day.
The only thing keeping Grin from being punk rock is the fact that they don’t play punk. Otherwise, the self-recording, self-releasing (on The Lasting Dose Records) Berlin metal-sludge slingers tick no shortage of boxes as regards ethic, commitment to an uncompromised vision of their sound, and on Hush, their fourth long-player which features tracks from 2023’s Black Nothingness (review here), they sharpen their attack to a point that reminds of dug-in Swedish death metal on “Pyramid” with a winding lead line threaded across, find post-metallic ambience in “Neon Skies,” steamroll with the groove of the penultimate “The Tempest of Time,” and manage to make even the crushing “Midnight Blue Sorrow” — which arrives after the powerful opening statement of “Hush” “Calice” and “Gatekeeper” — have a sense of creative reach. With Sabine Oberg on bass and Jan Oberg handling drums, guitar, vocals, noise and production, they’ve become flexible enough in their craft to harness raw charge or atmospheric sprawl at will, and through 16 songs and 40 minutes (“Portal” is the longest track at 3:45), their intensity is multifaceted, multi-angular, and downright ripping. Aggression suits this project, but that’s never all that’s happening in Grin, and they’re stronger for that.
A debut solo-band outing from guitarist, bassist, vocalist and songwriter Dave Cotton, also of Seven Nines and Tens, Pontiac‘s Hard Knox lands on strictly limited tape through Coup Sur Coup Records and is only 16 minutes long, but that’s time enough for its six songs to find connections in harmony to Beach Boys and The Beatles while sometimes dropping to a singular, semi-spoken verse in opener/longest track (immediate points, even though four minutes isn’t that long) “Glory Ragged,” which moves in one direction, stops, reorients, and shifts between genres with pastoralism and purpose. Cotton handles six-string and 12-string, but isn’t alone in Pontiac, as his Seven Nines and Tens bandmate Drew Thomas Christie handles drums, Adam Vee adds guitar, drums, a Coke bottle and a Brita filter, and CJ Wallis contributes piano to the drifty textures of “Road High” before “Exotic Tattoos of the Millennias” answers the pre-christofascism country influence shown on “Counterculture Millionaire” with an oldies swing ramble-rolling to a catchy finish. For fun I’ll dare a wild guess that Cotton‘s dad played that stuff when he was a kid, as it feels learned through osmosis, but I have no confirmation of that. It is its own kind of interpretation of progressive music, and as the beginning of a new exploration, Cotton opens doors to a swath of styles that cross genres in ways few are able to do and remain so coherent. Quick listen, and it dares you to keep up with its changes and patterns, but among its principal accomplishments is to make itself organic in scope, with Cotton cast as the weirdo mastermind in the center. They’ll reportedly play live, so heads up.
Already fluid as they open with the rocker “Into the Space,” exclamatory Chilean five-piece The Polvos! delve into more psychedelic reaches in “Fire Dance” and the jammy and (appropriately) floaty midsection of “Going Down,” the centerpiece of their 35-minute sophomore LP, Floating. That song bursts to life a short time later and isn’t quite as immediate as the charge of “Into the Space,” but serves as a landmark just the same as “Acid Waterfall” and “The Anubis Death” hold their tension in the drums and let the guitars go adventuring as they will. There’s maybe some aspect of Earthless influence happening, but The Polvos! meld that make-it-bigger mentality with traditional verse/chorus structures and are more grounded for it even as the spaces created in the songs give listeners an opportunity for immersion. It may not be a revolution in terms of style, but there is a conversation happening here with modern heavy psych from Europe as well that adds intrigue, and the band never go so far into their own ether so as to actually disappear. Even after the shreddy finish of “The Anubis Death,” it kind of feels like they might come back out for an encore, and you know, that’d be just fine.
The Cosmic Gospel, Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love
With a current of buzz-fuzz drawn across its eight component tracks that allow seemingly disparate moves like the Blondie disco keys in “Hot Car Song” to emerge from the acoustic “Core Memory Unlocked” before giving over to the weirdo Casio-beat bounce of “Psychrolutes Marcidus Man,” a kind of ’60s character reimagined as heavy bedroom indie, The Cosmic Gospel‘s Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love isn’t without its resentments, but the almost-entirely-solo-project of Mercata, Italy-based multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Medina is more defined by its sweetness of melody and gentle delivery on the whole. An experiment like the penultimate “Wrath and Gods” carries some “Revolution 9” feel, but Medina does well earlier to set a broad context amid the hook of opener “It’s Forever Midnight” and the subsequent, lightly dub beat and keyboard focus on “The Richest Guy on the Planet is My Best Friend,” such that when closer “I Sew Your Eyes So You Don’t See How I Eat Your Heart” pairs the malevolent intent of its title with light fuzzy soloing atop an easy flowing, summery flow, the album has come to make its own kind of sense and define its path. This is exactly what one would most hope for it, and as reptiles are cold-blooded, they should be used to shifts in temperature like those presented throughout. Most humans won’t get it, but you’ve never been ‘most humans,’ have you?
Massachusetts garage doomers Grave Speaker‘s self-titled debut was issued digitally by the band this past Fall and was snagged by Electric Valley Records for a vinyl release. The Mellotron melancholia that pervades the midsection of the eponymous “Grave Speaker” justifies the wax, but the cult-leaning-in-sound-if-not-theme outfit that marks a new beginning for ex-High n’ Heavy guitarist John Steele unfurl a righteously dirty fuzz over the march of “Blood of Old” at the outset and then immediately up themselves in the riffy stoner delve of “Earth and Mud.” The blown-out vocals on the latter, as well as the far-off-mic rawness of “The Bard’s Theme” that surrounds its Hendrixian solo, remind of a time when Ice Dragon roamed New England’s troubled woods, and if Grave Speaker will look to take on a similar trajectory of scope, they do more than drop hints of psychedelia here, in “Grave Speaker” and elsewhere, but they’re no more beholden to that than the Sabbathism of capper “Make Me Crawl” or the cavernous echo of “Earthbound.” It’s an initial collection, so one expects they’ll range some either way with time, but the way the production becomes part of the character of the songs speaks to a strong idea of aesthetic coming through, and the songwriting holds up to that.
While at the same time proffering his most expansive vision yet of a progressive psychedelia weighted in tone, emotionally expressive and able to move its focus fluidly between its layers of keyboard, synth and guitar such that the mix feels all the more dynamic and the material all the more alive (there’s an entire sub-plot here about the growth in self-production; a discussion for another time), Surya Kris Peters‘ 10-song/46-minute There’s Light in the Distance also brings the former Samsara Blues Experiment guitarist/vocalist closer to uniting his current projects than he’s yet been, the distant light here blurring the line where Surya Kris Peters ends and the emergently-rocking Fuzz Sagrado begins. This process has been going on for the last few years following the end of his former outfit and a relocation from Germany to Brazil, but in its spacious second half as well as the push of its first, a song like “Mode Azul” feels like there’s nothing stopping it from being played on stage beyond personnel. Coinciding with that are arrangement details like the piano at the start of “Life is Just a Dream” or the synth that gives so much movement under the echoing lead in “Let’s Wait Out the Storm,” as Peters seems to find new avenues even as he works his way home to his own vision of what heavy rock can be.
Unilateralis is the four-song follow-up EP to Polish heavydelvers Gozd‘s late-2023 debut album, This is Not the End, and its 20-plus minutes find a place for themselves in a doom that feels both traditional and forward thinking across eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points, even for an EP) “Somewhere in Between” before the charge of “Rotten Humanity” answers with brasher thrust and aggressive-undercurrent stoner rock with an airy post-metallic break in the middle and rolling ending. From there, “Thanatophobia” picks up the energy from its ambient intro and explodes into its for-the-converted nod, setting up a linear build after its initial verses and seeing it through with due diligence in noise, and closer “Tentative Minds” purposefully hypnotizes with its vague-speech in the intro and casual bassline and drum swing before the riff kicks in for the finale. The largesse of its loudest moments bolster the overarching atmosphere no less than the softest standalone guitar parts, and Gozd seem wholly comfortable in the spaces between microgenres. A niche among niches, but that’s also how individuality happens, and it’s happening here.
You wouldn’t accuse Austria’s Sativa Root of thematic subtlety on their third album, Kings of the Weed Age, which broadcasts a stoner worship in offerings like “Megalobong” and “Weedotaur” and probably whatever “F.A.T.” stands for, but that’s not what they’re going for anyway. With its titular intro starting off, spoken voices vague in the ambience, “Weedotaur”‘s 11 minutes lumber with all due bong-metallian slog, and the crush becomes central to the proceedings if not necessarily unipolar in terms of the band’s approach. That is to say, amid the onslaught of volume and tonal density in “Green Smegma” and the spin-your-head soloing in “Assassins Weed” (think Assassins Creed), the instrumentalist course undertaken may be willfully monolithic, but they’re not playing the same song five times on six tracks and calling it new. “F.A.T.” begins on a quiet stretch of guitar that recalls some of YOB‘s epics, complementing both the intro and “Weedotaur,” before bringing its full weight down on the listener again as if to underscore the message of its stoned instrumental catharsis on its way out the door. They sound like they could do this all day. It can be overwhelming at times, but that’s not really a complaint.
Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Mateusz, bassist Michał and drummer Tomek, Polish riffcrafters Volt Ritual are appealingly light on pretense as they offer Return to Jupiter‘s four tracks, and though as a Star Trek fan I can’t get behind their lyrical impugning of Starfleet as they imagine what Earth colonialism would look like to a somehow-populated Jupiter, they’re not short on reasons to be cynical, if in fact that’s what’s happening in the song. “Ghostpolis” follows the sample-laced instrumental opener “Heavy Metal is Good for You” and rolls loose but accessible even in its later shouts before the more uptempo “Gwiazdolot” swaps English lyrics for Polish (casting off another cultural colonialization, arguably) and providing a break ahead of the closing title-track, which is longer at 7:37 and a clear focal point for more than just bearing the name of the EP, summarizing as it does the course of the cuts before it and even bringing a last scream as if to say “Ghostpolis” wasn’t a fluke. Their 2022 debut album began with “Approaching Jupiter,” and this Return feels organically built off that while trying some new ideas in its effects and general structure. One hopes the plot continues in some way next time along this course.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
When I started this post, Poland’s Red Smoke Festival had just unveiled the first names for its 2024 edition, set for this July 12-14. That was Domkraft, Coogans Bluff, Earth Tongue and Narbo Dacal. You know how it goes, you get caught up with stuff, a couple days go by, and now there’s four more adds in Acid Rooster, Kanaan, Perilymph and Tuskar, so it’s safe to say the event is taking shape at a fairly good clip. I don’t know the announcement schedule or anything like that, but if you’re in Poland or thinking of making the trip, I imagine you also don’t need me to suggest following their socials, etc. Even if you don’t, I believe you are capable.
So does the festival, which admirably dispenses with some of the social-media-era hoopla around these things by making a slogan out of ‘The Less You Know the Better.’ They might be right, or at least there’s a philosophical argument waiting to be made there. Either way, there were YouTube and Facebook links for the bands, but again, I believe in your power to dig and would encourage you to do so. I only took them out because it looked funny on the page and this site does weird things with YouTube hyperlinks. Certainly all parties involved have online presences and audio, which even 30 years later kind of makes the internet feel like a miracle. Not to mention it’s how I know this fest exists in the first place.
Even so, I don’t know much more than this, so I suppose I’m doing alright in that regard:
First announcements for RSF2024
COOGANS BLUFF – Horns Rock’n’Roll Dance From Germany
Domkraft – Riffs Riffs Riffs Repeat From Sweden With Love
Earth Tongue – Odd But Gold Heavy Psych Fuzz From New Zealand
Narbo Dacal – (Be)Witching Metal From Poland
Acid Rooster – Endless Trippy Kraut Experience from Germany
Kanaan – Blazing Freeform Psychedelic Rock From Norway
Perilymph – Beautiful Psychedelic Sounds From Germany
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
It takes a fair amount these days to even tempt me to engage with Spotify, but I’ll tell you in all honesty I’ve spent the last eight minutes hooked into my personal least favorite streaming service — all of the strengths of YouTube, by which I mean obnoxious ads, with none of Bandcamp’s band-benefit sales tie-in, mostly lazy curation and an intrusive app — to hear Sunnata‘s new single “Saviour’s Raft.” The song comes from their hotly anticipated fifth full-length, the title of which is newly revealed as Chasing Shadows, ahead of further delving into the record itself next week, when “Saviour’s Raft” will pull into harbor at the aforementioned Bandcamp, along with preorders, probably some cool shirts, this and that. You know the drill.
But the song itself — oof that’s good. Post-metallic intensity met with their established meditative psych modus: it’s a blend that works so fluidly from Sunnata that I’ve heard nobody else come close to, however many shades of post-metal might be out there by now. In any case, they’re among the forerunners of Polish heavy, and like their countrymen in Dopelord, Spaceslug, and so on, Sunnata have an identity keyed into a style without necessarily being subjected to its restrictive aspects. They’ve only ever grown to this point. I haven’t heard the full album yet, but “Saviour’s Raft” bodes well for continuing that streak.
We are delighted to share the first song “Saviour’s Raft” from the upcoming 5th album “Chasing Shadows”. Inspired by “The Raft of The Medusa” painting, it’s a sonic exploration of its meaning and a complex, 8 minute long story.
It will appear on Bandcamp together with album and merch preorder next week.
Stream it now on Spotify!
SUNNATA live: 13.05 Brno CZ Kabinet Muz 14.05 Budapest HU Robot 15.05 Salzburg AT Rockhouse 16.05 Jena DE Klub Kuba 17.05 Liege BE La Zone 18.05 London UK Desertfest London 2024 20.0 Lille FR La Bulle Cafe 21.05 Brussels BE Le Lac 22.05 Nijmegen NL Merleyn 23.05 Dresden DE Ostpol
Posted in Questionnaire on January 3rd, 2024 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: Kamil Ziółkowski of Mountain of Misery, Spaceslug, O.D.R.A., Palm Desert, Etc.
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
When it comes to issues related to playing music, which is probably what the question is about, I define myself as, on the one hand, a drummer in several bands, but also a creator of music, and the creation of music, the creative process itself, is what I like the most. The symbiosis between several people functioning as a band is something wonderful and the resultant of their actions creating a common creation gives great satisfaction. The love for playing and creating music began when I was 16 years old and that’s when I started playing bass, a year later I switched to drums and it stayed that way, it’s what I identify with the most.
Describe your first musical memory.
It’s hard to single out any specific memory, music has basically always accompanied me. I was lucky that my father listened to broadly understood rock music, and this type of sounds accompanied me from childhood. Bands like Black Sabbath, TOTO, Marillion, Genesis and so on, they shaped me as a person and as a guy who would play music in the future. I started collecting music on physical media when I was 7, back then it was still cassette tapes, first it was… Roxette (!), then things like Def Leppard, and finally grunge, mainly Pearl Jam, then Soundgarden and this was the time I consider it “forming me” as a listener. I love and listen to these bands to this day.
Describe your best musical memory so far.
As a listener, it’s a concert by The Cure, which I love and was at in concert years ago. As a musician, it’s probably the entire period since 2008, when I finally managed to create good things, then the bands I was in were formed and their functioning gave me a lot of fun, I’m talking about Palm Desert and O.D.R.A, and a few years later Spaceslug appeared, the band from which I am probably best known on the broadly understood underground scene.
When was a strongly held belief tested?
You’re asking if I ever doubted playing music. If so, the years between 2006 and 2008 were such a dead period that I was seriously considering selling the drums and calling it quits. Then there was a big revival, as I mentioned above, from that moment on I can’t imagine the moment when I would stop doing it. I would feel an incredible emptiness inside myself if that happened.
Where do you think artistic progress is leading?
Progress can only be assessed from the perspective of time, 50 years ago everyone could also be surprised and announce the end of something when it turned out that progress contributed to something good. I think that artistic progress always goes in the right direction, after all, it is art, right?
How do you define success?
Success is doing something for a long time that gives you satisfaction.
If we evaluate it in hindsight and are satisfied with it, then we can say that we have achieved it.
The scale of success depends, of course, on our expectations and perspective, and is different for everyone.
Have you seen something you wish you hadn’t seen?
Yes, the internet is terrible. I won’t go into details, but I didn’t realize how far can go people to satisfy their sexual “needs” ;)
Describe something you haven’t created yet but would like to create.
Simple, something original enough to take your breath away… And on a more down-to-earth level, in strictly musical terms, I would like to create rock music supported by string instruments, specifically violins.
What do you think is the most important function of art?
Bringing beauty and happiness to everyone who wants to interact with it.
Something non-musical you’re looking forward to?
I can’t wait for my first trip to the United States in next month (January) . Although I’m going there to play a concert with Spaceslug, I also treat it as a journey to the big world, to the place from which I have drawn culture since I was a child, the world with which I was so fascinated, and finally, after many years, such an opportunity arose for the first time.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
As of earlier this week, Polish ritualized progressive heavy rockers Sunnata had completed the tracking of their next full-length and set down to mix. That can take an afternoon or it can take six weeks, but when it’s done, they’ll be off to mastering and in light of what they say below about it in announcing this initial batch of tour dates, they’re looking toward a Spring release.
So be it. One looks forward to the next step from the group after 2021’s Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (review here) continued their outward-facing, inward-looking trajectory of meditative heftcraft. They’ll be 10 years removed from their debut under the Sunnata moniker, 2014’s Climbing the Colossus (discussed here), and their work since then has shown a crucially willful progress. They are a band who want to keep growing, in other words. They’ve got their sound and their tonality, but they’ve yet to present an album that didn’t put some kind of new spin on that, and it doesn’t feel like a reach to expect that to apply to their next work as well. They set a high standard, and at this point one should be comfortable they’ll hit it on their way to the next marker.
And if you’re still reading and you haven’t seen them live, you’re not late. They’ll be at Desertfest London (I don’t know about Berlin, but it’s definitely possible) along with the following:
We slowly reveal plans for 2024.
Following the release of our not-yet-officially-announced album, we will tour Europe. More dates in May will be uncovered soon. Tickets are on sale so get’em now – it really helps us get the things going. Link in the comments! 💥
Meanwhile, we start mixing of you-know-what.
13.05 Brno CZ Kabinet Muz 14.05 Budapest HU Robot 15.05 Salzburg AT Rockhouse 16.05 Jena DE Klub Kuba 17.05 Liege BE La Zone 18.05 London UK Desertfest London 2024 21.05 Brussels BE Le Lac
Posted in Reviews on December 11th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
[Full disclosure: this release originally appeared as part of Postwax Vol. II, for which I wrote the liner notes and was compensated. I’m reviewing anyway. If you want to call it a conflict of interest, feel free to sue me in the Open Court of Stoner Rock™ sometime. Or maybe just relax.]
The fifth full-length from Warsaw’s Dopelord, Songs for Satan is a masterpiece of devil-worshiping stoner doom metal. The ideal version of itself. Released through Blues Funeral Recordings, the seven-track (six plus an intro) offering sees the band — guitarist/vocalist Paweł Mioduchowski, bassist/vocalist Piotr Zin, guitarist Grzegorz Pawłowski and drummer Piotr Ochociński — in complete control of their approach on every level, from craft through the intricacies of tone and performance to the headphone-worthy atmospheres that come through material that is pointedly, intentionally, efficiently constructed. Each song is a monument to its own volume, and even the eerie quiet stretches are a call to listeners to join the band in their ceremonial cause.
It strikes an impeccable balance between melody and rhythm, with huge grooves through side A’s “Night of the Witch” — a landmark hook and one of 2023’s strongest singles; it emerges from the nighttime forest noise of “Intro,” comes back around (plus Mellotron!) for the two-minute epilogue/sequel “Return of the Night of the Witch” to wrap side B, becoming something of a root sonic theme for the record’s course — “The Chosen One” and “One Billion Skulls” through the corresponding maddeningly catchy love song “Evil Spell” mirroring “Night of the Witch” while being something else and the de facto capper “Worms” pushing into more extreme sludge ahead of the aforementioned outro, all with an overarching flow and an abiding lack of pretense that says if you came here for riffs and weed and Satan, Dopelord have your number.
There are myriad arguments for and against Satanism in rock and metal. It’s certainly been done before, if that matters (I’d argue less in-genre then generally). It’s an inherent validation of christianity, since even in mockery it acknowledges the dogma as a cultural force. It can be a crutch lyrically for some acts, but that’s not what’s happening across Songs for Satan, which was written lyrically as a political response to catholic cultural oppression in Poland and the hard move toward conservatism the Polish church has made since the ‘end’ of the Cold War. Amid basslines fat enough to keep you warm in a Warsaw winter and a guttural shout that acts as preface for the screams of “Worms” to come, “One Billion Skulls” repeats the lines, “Standing on the edge of time/I’m spitting in the face of god,” as its arrival point, and even the first verse of “Night of the Witch” is an exultation to those alienated by the militant faithful:
Each time they laugh into your face With each stone they throw You lose belief in who you are And cave inside Hear us calling from the dark Through the cold of the night Now your time has finally come To find your way…
A crow caws, the plod starts with fuzz of deceptive warmth and consuming largesse, and Dopelord guide the listener through Songs for Satan with cleverness, righteousness, and skill. To wit, the layering in the chorus of “Night of the Witch.” While consistent with the rest of the song-songs on Songs for Satan (not “Intro” or “Return of the Night of the Witch,” that is) in being circa seven minutes long, “Night of the Witch” stands out for how it’s built as well as its message and aural/stylistic appeal. Most of the album was recorded with Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio, who also mixed and mastered, while rhythm tracks, synth and vocals were done in Warsaw in Santa Studio and Silent Scream Studio.
Guitar solos were done separately, by Barszczi Kanada at Giorgio Mordo Studio, with the exception of “Worms,” which boasts guest shred by Midnight guitarist Vanik. This info is on Bandcamp and elsewhere, and is included here for future reference, but it demonstrates as well the process by which Songs for Satan was shaped and for a process that included four different studios at various points, there is not a part on the record, not a song, a verse, or the airy solo held out under the last rolling chorus of “Evil Spell” — that chorus, “What do I have to become for you to love me?/A wizard?/What will you become if you love me back?/A witch?,” imprinting itself upon the brain, perhaps permanently — that is wasted.
Everything on Songs for Satan aligns to the mission at hand. Dopelord are focused, detail-oriented as shown in the low-mixed growl adding weight to the chorus in “Night of the Witch” and throughout “The Chosen One” or the sort of tectonic shimmy as the title-line is delivered in “One Billion Skulls,” they present the most realized vision to-date of themselves. They’ve been at the forefront of Poland’s underground for a while — a rich and varied scene with the likes of Spaceslug, Belzebong, Tortuga, Sunnata, Weedpecker and scores of others — and reaffirm that position handily throughout as they crash and bash across the record’s 38 component minutes with cold grace, taking familiar elements of genre and putting them to specific, admittedly somewhat reactionary, purpose.
Despite being completely over the top in terms of volume and the basic hugeness of its sound, Songs for Satan doesn’t feel like it’s doing too much or too little; the burst-to-riff two minutes into “One Billion Skulls” and the derived-from-’60s-psych manner in which the keys (maybe Mellotron) play out the melody of “Night of the Witch” to conclude with “Return of the Night of the Witch” before they drop back to forest-night noise at the very finish underscores the level of consideration at hand. This is not lazy, nothing-to-say, haphazard, throw-riffs-together songwriting.
Rather, Songs for Satan — which in the PostWax edition included the extra track “Satan’s Call” — revels in its sense of completion. It is professional. Crisp. Sharp. Listenable. Accessible, at least if you’re already a capital-‘h’ Heavy convert. And it sounds massive enough to pull a gravity field. Front to back — and I mean that — Songs for Satan delivers on the promise of Dopelord‘s early output and draws strength from the unified perspective of the lyrics, while staying committed to the stoner-doom at their core, giving intricacies their due alongside the flattening effect of their tonality. Anger as successful motivator? Probably in part, but in these songs of defiance and Satanic praise, Dopelord build as many altars as they tear down. Easily among 2023’s most accomplished albums, and a defining moment for the band.
There will be those who write it off immediately thinking it’s cliché or who will otherwise miss the point. I would encourage you heartily to not be one of them.
Posted in Reviews on December 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The second full-length from Polish heavy psych rockers Wodorost, titled From the Depths, arrives with a direct intent toward immersion. Following on from the Warsaw-based three-piece’s hotly-tipped 2021 self-titled debut, the band — guitarist/vocalist Bartłomiej Głowiński, bassist Jan Witusiński and drummer Anna Żukowska, teamed with returning producer Jacek Stasiak at Kongo Studio — offer a linear experience across two sides of engaging songwriting and what sounds like moments of expressive, fun improvisation on what has been positioned by the band as, “A concept work symbolizing a resurfacing from the abyss, a metaphorical journey through inner exploration and recovery from depression.” The theme can also, of course, be seen on the cover art by M & P Ferenc and Bartłomiej Głowiński.
And sure, one can hear hope in the newschool space boogie of “Whirl,” or in the warm, Colour Hazey tones that go exploring in “Temple” early on, or in the subsequent “Visions,” which is a funky raga wakeup jam with a sans-vocal chorus that returns to end after the song shifts through a Kyuss-style desert riff, but one has to be in it to hear it. That is to say, Wodorost have put it all in front of the listener, but the listener has to pick it up. If you’re not careful, if you don’t give From the Depths its own due time to unfold and reveal its structure in its own way, the eight songs and 45 minutes could wash over you beginning with the intro “Submerged,” which fades slowly in from silence on an atmospheric undersea drone, spooky, loosely threatening, but resonant just the same as the drums begin the march into “Depths.”
Maybe not such a surprise that the post-intro leadoff on a record does a lot of the work in telling the audience about the album, but in tone and purpose, “Depths” is a herald for what Wodorost will do throughout the LP with which the song shares part of its title, while at the same time an excellently placed divergence, since nearly all of what follows is almost completely instrumental. There are two spoken parts — Michał Ferenc (of the art?) contributes voice, Witusiński and Żukowska the words — on “Beyond the Blue” and “Reflections,” but other than that, “Depths” is the only cut on From the Depths that has vocals, and it is the only cut that has singing, which is handled by Głowiński with lyrics once again courtesy of the rhythm section.
This has an effect on the listener almost like a secondary introduction. Wodorost have taken the time to carefully bring you to this place and now they’re going to tell you about it, even if that’s not what the words are actually about. The sound is rawer on the hole, and more cosmically commanding, but the drums hold the procession through the finish and by the time “Depths” is done, Wodorost have completed the welcoming portion of the collection. You could say they did that with “Submerged” but as “Temple” begins its own subdued introduction, the patience and the sense of exploration feel distinct from “Depths,” which thanks to splitting “Submerged” off as the album intro, stood on its own. When the “Temple” riff begins, it’s the kind of next-generation interpretation of heavy psychedelic tenets that made Sungrazer such a draw over a decade ago, only now it’s a new generation again.
But the depth, scope and jam-prone foundations of the style remain firm, and Wodorost use them through the instrumental “Temple” and “Visions” to let parts and entire songs breathe as they seem to want to, and where a lot of bands will tell you they’re chasing creative energies distinct from themselves through the universe, “Beyond the Blue” is particularly organic in its change right around 5:30 when the subtle circling around the band have been doing clicks on the big-sound pedals and they ride that crescendo and its offset chug through the end of the song. Volume, warmth, flow. The spoken part gives a human presence ahead of the danceable “Whirl,” which turns improv-sounding before the guitar shreds in midair, while “Reflections” fades in on wispy runs of memorable lead notes — flicks of melody, almost — and builds on its light bluesy feel, setting itself on a trip that pays off noisy but doesn’t leave the comedown hanging as might be a misstep on an album that feels so otherwise complete.
That notion extends to “Dry Out” as well, which like stretches in “Whirl” and “Reflections,” in that From the Depths is effective in balancing composition and improvisation, and for someone new to the band like myself, the capping nod and entrancing instrumental course of the closer reinforces the potential Wodorost have displayed, whether a given song was more straightforward, set itself to wandering, or brought together both in a dynamic that one hopes will only prove so malleable over a longer term as they move forward. As it builds to its head right near the album’s completion, “Dry Out” still seems to be revealing places Wodorost might go and what they might ultimately bring to a genre that, for all its molten sound, is rarely so able to transcend its own methodologies.
