Quarterly Review: Maggot Heart, Catatonic Suns, Sacri Suoni, Nova Doll, Howl at the Sky, Fin del Mundo, Bloody Butterflies, Solar Sons, Mosara, Jupiter

Posted in Reviews on October 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk winter quarterly review

Wednesday, huh? I took the dog for a walk this morning. We do that. I’ve been setting the alarm for five but getting up before — it’s still better than waking up at 4AM, which is a hard way to live unless you can go to bed at like 8 on the dot, which I can’t really anymore because kid’s bedtime, school, and so on — and taking Tilly for a walk around the block and up the big hill to start the day. Weather permitting, we do that walk three times a day and she does pretty well. This morning she didn’t want to leave the Greenie she’d been working on and so resisted at first, but got on board eventually.

In addition to physical movement being tied to emotional wellbeing — not something I’m always willing to admit applies to myself, but almost always true; I also get hangry or at least more easily overwhelmed when I’m hungry, which I always am because I have like seven eating disorders and am generally a wreck of a person — the dog doesn’t say much and it’s pretty early and dark out when we go, so I get a quiet moment out under the moon going around the block looking up at Venus, Jupiter, a few stars we can see through the suburban light pollution of the nearby thoroughfares. We go up part of the big hill, have done the full thing a couple times, but she’s only just three-plus months, so not yet really. But we’re working on it, and despite Silly Tilly’s fears otherwise, her treat was right where we left it on the rug when we got back. And she got to eat leaves, so, bonus.

There are minutes in your day. You can find them. You can do it. I’m not trying to be saccharine or to bullshit you. Life is short and most of it is really, really difficult, so take whatever solace you can get however you can get it. Let’s talk about records.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Maggot Heart, Hunger

maggot heart hunger

This is Maggot Heart‘s third record and they’re still a surprise. It can be jarring sometimes to encounter something that edges so close to unique within the underground sphere, but the Berlin outfit founded/fronted by Linnéa Olsson (ex-The Oath, ex-Grave Pleasures, ex-Sonic Ritual) offer bleak and subversively feminine post-punk informed by black metal on Hunger, and as she, bassist Olivia Airey and drummer Uno Bruniusson (ex-In Solitude, etc.), unfurl eight tracks of arthouse aggro and aesthetic burn, one can draw lines just as easily with “Nil by Mouth” or the later “Looking Back at You” to mid-’70s coke-strung New York poetic no wave and the modern European dark progressive set to which Maggot Heart have diligently contributed over the last half decade. The horn sounds on “LBD” are a nice touch, and “Archer” puts that to work in some folk-doom context, but in the tension of “Concrete Soup” or the avant garde setting out across the three minutes of the leadoff semi-title-track “Scandinavian Hunger,” Maggot Heart demonstrate their ability to knock the listener off balance as a first step toward reorienting them to the atmosphere the band have honed in these songs, slightly goth on “This Shadow,” bombastic in the middle and end of “Parasite,” each piece set to its own purpose adding some aspect to the whole. You wouldn’t call it easy listening, but the challenge is part of the fun.

Maggot Heart on Instagram

Svart Records website

Rapid Eye Records on Bandcamp

Catatonic Suns, Catatonic Suns

Catatonic Suns Catatonic Suns

Adjacent to New Psych Philly with their homebase in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and with a self-titled collection that runs between the shoegazing shine of “Deadzone,” the full-fuzz brunt of “Slack” or “Inside Out,” the three-minute linear build of “Fell Off” made epic by its melody, and the hooky indie sway of advance single “Be as One,” the trio Catatonic Suns make a quick turnaround from their 2022 sophomore LP, Saudade, for the lysergic realization and apparent declaration of this eight tracks/31 minutes. With most cuts punkishly short and able to saunter into the noise-coated jangle of “Failsafe” or the wash of “Sublunary” — speaking of post-punk — Catatonic Suns eventually land at closer “No Stranger,” which tops eight minutes and comprises a not-insignificant percentage of the total runtime. And no, they aren’t the first heavy psych band to have shorter songs up front and a big finale, but the swirling layered triumph of “No Stranger” carries a breadth in its immersive early verses, mellow, sitar-laced midsection jam and noise-caked finish and comes across very much as what Catatonic Suns has been building toward all the while. The same might be true of the band, for all I know — it seems to be the longest piece they’ve written to-date — but either way, put them on the ‘Catatonic Voyage’ tour with Sun Voyager for two months crisscrossing the US and never look back. Big sound, and after three full-lengths, significant potential.

Catatonic Suns on Instagram

Agitated Records website

Sacri Suoni, Sacred is Not Divine

Sacri Suoni Sacred is Not Divine

Densely weighted in tone, brash in its impact and heavy, heavy, heavy in atmosphere, Sacri Suoni‘s second album together and first under their new moniker (they used to be called Stoned Monkey; kudos on the change), Sacred is Not Divine positions itself as a cosmic doom thesis and an exploration of the reaches and impacts to be found through collaborative jamming. Four songs make it — “Doom Perspection of the Astral Frequency 0-1” (8:15), “Six Scalps for Six Sounds” (10:28), “Cult of Abysmus” (13:15) and “Plutomb, Engraved in Reality” (8:02) — and as heavy has they are (have I mentioned that yet?) there is dynamic at play as well in the YOB-ish noodles and strums at the start of “Six Scalps for Six Sounds” or in “Cult of Abysmus” around the 10-minute mark, or in the opener’s long fade, but make no mistake, the mission here is heft and space and the Milano outfit have both in ready supply. I think “Plutomb, Engraved in Reality” has maybe three riffs? Might be two, but either way, it’s enough. The character in this material is defined by its weight, but there are three dimensions to their style and all are represented. If you listen on headphones, try really hard not to pulverize your brain in the process.

Sacri Suoni on Facebook

Zanns Records website

Nova Doll, Denaturing

nova doll denaturing

Earthy enough in tone and their slower rolling moments to earn an earliest-Acid King comparison, Barrie, Ontario’s Nova Doll are nonetheless prone to shifting into bits of aggro punk, as in “Waydown” or “Dead Before I Knew It,” the latter of which closes their debut album, Denaturing, the very title of the thing loaded with context beyond its biochemical interpretations. That is, if Nova Doll are pissed, fair enough. “California Sunshine” arrives in the first half of the seven-song/29-minute long-player, with rhythm kept on the toms, open drones and a vastness that speaks at least to some tertiary affect of desert rock on their sound. Psychedelia comes through in different forms amid the crunch of a song like “Mabon,” or “California Sunshine,” and the bassy centerpiece near-title-track feels willfully earthbound — not complaining; they’re that much stronger for changing it up — but the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Casey Cuff, bassist Sean Alten and drummer Daniel Allen ride that groove in “Denaturation” like they already know the big spaceout in “Light Her Up” is coming. And they probably did, given the apparent care put into what is sometimes a harsh presentation and the variety they bring around the central buzz that seems to underscore the songs. Grown-up punk, still growing, but their sound is defined and malleable in its noisy approach on their first full-length, and that’s only encouraging.

Nova Doll on Instagram

Tarantula Tapes website

Black Throne Productions website

Howl at the Sky, In Line for the End Times

Howl at the Sky In Line for the End Times

With their self-released debut album, In Line for the End Times, hard-driving single-guitar four-piece Howl at the Sky enter the field with 12 songs and a CD-era-esque 55-minute run that filters through a summary of decades of heavy rock and roll influences. From their native state of Ohio alone, bands like Valley of the Sun and Lo-Pan, or Tummler and Red Giant a generation ago — these and others purveying straight-ahead heavy rock light on tricks and big on drive. More metal in their riffy underpinnings than some, certainly less than others, they foster hooks whether it’s a three-minute groover like “Stink Eye” and opener “Our Lady of the Knives” or the more spacious “Dry as a Bone” and the penultimate “Black Lung,” which has a bit more patience in its sway than the C.O.C.-circa-’91 “The Beast With No Eyes” and modernize ’70s vibes in the traditions of acts one might find on labels like Ripple or Small Stone. That is, rock dudes, rockin’. Vocalist Scott Wherle bears some likeness to We’re All Gonna Die‘s Jim Healey early on, but both are working from a classic heavy rock and metal foundation, and Wherle has a distinguishing, fervent push behind him in guitarist Mike Shope, bassist Scot “With One ‘T'” Fithen and drummer John Sims. For as long as these guys are together, I wouldn’t expect too many radical departures from what they do here. Once a band has its songwriting down like this, it’s really more just about letting grow on its own over time rather than forcing something, and the sense they give in listening is they know that too.

Howl at the Sky on Facebook

Howl at the Sky on Bandcamp

Fin del Mundo, Todo Va Hacia el Mar

Fin del Mundo Todo Va Hacia el Mar

The first two four-song EPs by Buenos Aires psych/post-rock four-piece Fin del Mundo — guitarist/vocalist Lucia Masnatta, guitarist Julieta Heredia, bassist Julieta Limia, drummer/backing vocalist Yanina Silva — wander peacefully through a dreamy apocalypse compiled together chronologically as Todo Va Hacia el Mar, the band’s Spinda Records first long-player. From “La Noche” through “El Fin del Mundo,” what had been a 2020 self-titled, the tones are serene and the melodies drift without getting lost or meandering too far from the songs’ central structure, though that last of them reaches broader and heavier ground, resonance intact. The second EP, 2022’s La Ciudad Que Dejamos, the LP’s side B, has more force behind its rhythms and creates a wash in “El Próximo Verano” to preface its gang-vocal moment, while closer “El Incendio” takes the Sonic Youth-style indie of the earlier material and fosters more complex melodicism around it and builds tension into a decisive but not overblown resolution. It’s 34 minutes long and even between its two halves there’s obvious growth on the part of the band being showcased. Their next long-player will be like a second debut, and I’ll be curious how they take on a full-length format having that intention in the first place for the material.

Fin del Mundo on Facebook

Spinda Records website

Bloody Butterflies, Mutations and Transformations

Bloody Butterflies Mutations and Transformations

A pandemic-born project (and in some ways, aren’t we all?), the two-piece instrumentalist unit Bloody Butterflies — that’s guitarist/bassist Jon Howard (Hordes) and drummer August Elliott (No Skull) — released their first album, Polymorphic, in 2020 and emerge with a follow-up in the seven tracks/27 minutes of the on-theme Mutations and Transformations, letting the riffs do their storytelling on cuts like “Toilet Spider” and “Frandor Rat,” the latter of which may or may not be in homage to a rat living near the Kroger on the east side of Lansing. The sound is punker raw and as well it should be. That aforementioned ratsong has some lumber to its procession, but in the bassy “Fritzi” that follows, the bright flashes of cymbal in opener “BB Theme” (also the longest inclusion; immediate points) and the noisy declaration of post-doom stomp before the feedback at the end of “Wormhole” consumes all and the record ends, they find plenty of ways to stage off monochromatism. Actually, what I suspect is they’re having fun. At least that’s what it sounds like, in a very particular way. Fair enough. It would be cool to have some clever lesson learned from the pandemic or something like that, but no, sometimes terrible shit just happens. Cool for these two getting a band out of it. Take the wins you can get.

Bloody Butterflies on Facebook

Bloody Butterflies on Bandcamp

Solar Sons, Another Dimension

solar sons another dimension

Whilst prone to NWOBHM tapping twists of guitar in the leads of “Alien Hunter,” “Quicksilver Trail,” etc. and burling up strains of ’90s metal and a modern heavy sub-burl that adds nuance to its melodies, Solar Sons‘ fifth album, Another Dimension, arrives at its ambitions organically. The Dundee, Scotland, everybody-sings three-piece of bassist/lead vocalist Rory Lee, guitarist/vocalist Danny Lee and drummer/vocalist Pete Garrow embark with purpose on a narrative structure spread across the nine songs/62 minutes of the release that unveils more of its progressive doom character as it unfolds its storyline about a satellite sent to learn everything it can about the universe and return to save a dying Earth — science-fiction with a likeness to the Voyager probes; “The Voyage” here makes a triumph of its keyboard-backed second-half solo — presumably with alien knowledge. It’s not a minor undertaking in either theme or the actual listening time, but hell’s bells if Another Dimension doesn’t draw you in. Something in the character has me feeling like I can’t tell if it’s metal or rock or prog and yes I very much like that about it. Plenty of room for them to be all three, I guess, in these songs. They finish with the swing and shred and stomp of “Deep Inside the Mountain,” so I’ll just assume everything works out cool for homo sapiens in the long run, conveniently ignoring the fact that doing so is what got us into such a mess in the first place.

Solar Sons on Facebook

Solar Sons on Bandcamp

Mosara, Amena

mosara amena

A 5:50 single to answer back to last year’s second long-player, Only the Dead Know Our Secrets (review here), the latest from Mosara — which is actually an older track given some reworking, vocals and ambience, reportedly — is “Amena,” which immediately inflicts the cruelty of its thud only as a seeming preface for the Conan-like grueling-ultradoom-battery-with-shouts-cutting-through about to take place. A slow, noise-coated roll unfolds ahead of the largely indecipherable verse, and when that’s done, a cymbal seems to get hit extra hard as though to let everyone know it’s time to really dig in. It is both rawer in its harshness and thicker in tone than the last album, so it puts forth the interesting question of what a third Mosara full-length might bring atmospherically to the mix with their deepening, distorted roil. As it stands, “Amena” is both a steamroller of riff and a meditation, holding back only for as long as it takes to slam into the next measure, with its sludge growing more and more hypnotic as it slogs through the song’s midsection toward the inevitable seeming end of feedback and drone. Noisy band getting noisier. I’m on board.

Mosara on Facebook

Mosara on Bandcamp

Jupiter, Uinumas

Jupiter Uinumas

Jupiter‘s Uinumas is a complex half-hour-plus that comprises their fourth full-length, running seven songs — that’s six plus the penultimate title-track, which is a psych-jazzy interlude — as cuts like “Lumerians” and “Relentless” at the outset see the Finnish trio reestablish their their-own-wavelength take on heavy and progressive sounds classic and new. It’s not so much about crazy structures or 75-minute-long songs or indulgent noodling — though there’s a bit of that owing to the nature of the work, if nothing else — but just how much Jupiter make the aural space they inhabit their own, the way “After You” pushes into its early wash, or the later “On Mirror Plane” (so that’s it!) spaces out and then seems to align itself around the bassline for a forward shuffle sprint, or the way that closer “Slumberjack’s Wrath” chugs through until it’s time for the blowout, which is built up past three minutes in and caps with shimmer that borders on the overwhelming. An intricate but recognizable approach, Jupiter‘s more oddball aspects and general cerebrality might put off some listeners, but as dug in as Jupiter are on Uinumas, on significantly doubts they were shooting for mass appeal anyhow. Who the hell would want that anyway? Bunch of money and people sweating everything you do. Yuck.

Jupiter on Facebook

Jupiter on Bandcamp

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Catatonic Suns to Release Self-Titled Album Next Week

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Catatonic Suns

This is somewhere between me trying to give you a heads up on a record that I think sounds pretty cool and a band with some potential, and a note to myself about the same. The release of Catatonic Suns‘ upcoming album — it’s not their self-titled debut, but the vibe I get from the below is they kind of wish it was and listening to it, I get that — snuck up on me, and now here we are and it’s not next week through Agitated Records, same day as the Carlton Melton album that’s streaming today. The good news is I’ve got a Quarterly Review slated for next week and will get to write a bit about Catatonic Suns then, but in case you didn’t feel like waiting the extra week, the singles “Failsafe” and “Be As One” are streaming at the bottom of this post and there’s a bunch of info off the PR wire to go by, so dig in.

Young band, East Coast psych, heavy in parts but not beholden to it, a bit of indie they might shake off as they get older and more into garage and boogie, etc. Just thought it was something that might make your day better since it did mine. I’ll review next week. For now, this:

Catatonic Suns Catatonic Suns

New album from noisy/shoegazey psych trio CATATONIC SUNS

Creating a blend of 90s indie DIY sensibilities with blankets of psychedelia

Listen to new single ‘Be As One’

Catatonic Suns new album sees them blend the underground psychedelia of the late 80s / early 90s Pacific Northwest with the shimmering shoegazery of Britain from the same time. Heavy and soft guitars, songs that soar, these new recordings verge on the epic.

For fans of The Verve (early), Screaming Trees, Truly, Ride, Slowdive, Alice In Chains.

Pennsylvanian three-piece Catatonic Suns release their brand new album via Agitated Records this autumn (Fall if you reside in the US), Patrick Shields and Jakob Christman have known each other since birth, obsessing on punk rock, but the band actually formed in 2019.

Vocalist / guitarist Patrick and fellow guitarist Llambro Llaguri began creating homemade psychedelic 4 track cassette demos during the Winter of 2015, taking heavy inspiration from an eclectic mix of acts ranging from Ween to R.E.M.
As these early songs were created, the duo sought other like minded individuals in their hometown of Allentown, PA to take these primitive demos to the next level. It was then that Patrick recruited another childhood friend, Jakob Christman, to fill the role of bass along with another mutual friend Caleb Strobl completing the rhythm section of Catatonic Suns.

In 2019, the group put out their first release, the Catatonic Suns demo, a collection of lo-fi recordings made by Patrick over the years. During this period, the band began to make a name for itself by playing shows across eastern Pennsylvania including the Lehigh Valley where local garage rock heroes Original Sins hailed from. During the months of August and September of the same year, Catatonic Sun’s reputation for wall of sound psych-grunge was really brought to life when the group teamed up with local record producer guru Matt Molchany of Shards Recording Studio to track their debut studio venture “Aphelion” (more of an extended EP). Self-released in the December, the album found an audience beyond the local music circuit of Pennsylvania, even reaching countries such as the U.K., Germany and Japan.

CATATONIC SUNS
CATATONIC SUNS
AGITATED RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: 6TH OCTOBER 2023 (LP/CD/DL)

Tracklist
1. Deadzone
2. Slack
3. Failsafe
4. Inside Out (Original Sins cover)
5. Sublunary
6. Fell Off
7. Be As One
8. No Stranger

Recorded early 2023 at Shards Recording Studio, Bethelem, PA with tracking and mixing once again by Matt Molchany. Mastered by Mikey Young.

Catatonic Suns is Patrick Shields (guitar, vocals), Jakob Christman (bass) and Caleb Strobl (drums).

Agitated/Catatonic Suns intend to remaster/reissue Saudade on LP/CD formats in 2024, to coincide with debut UK shows.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100062929104785
https://instagram.com/catatonic.suns
https://catatonicsuns.com/
https://linktr.ee/catatonicsuns

https://www.facebook.com/AGITATEDRECORDS/
https://instagram.com/agitated_records
http://agitatedrecords.com/

Catatonic Suns, “Failsafe”

Catatonic Suns, “Be As One”

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jared Stimpfl of Orphan Donor

Posted in Questionnaire on April 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

jared stimpfl orphan donor (Photo by Oliver Jones)

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: Jared Stimpfl of Orphan Donor, Secret Cutter, Captured Recording Studio

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

I’m mostly an experimental screamo/grind/metal studio project called ORPHAN DONOR. I play every instrument minus vocals, and produce the music in my home studio. It was always meant to be a release for me and I’ve been doing it for over a decade. Was always pushed to do it because I mentally didn’t have anything else I could channel my manic energy into.

Describe your first musical memory.

I remember maybe I was three or four, In my dad’s Astro van he was listening to the Eagles. I kept hearing this particular sound that just kept repeating over and over again, It was a snare drum, and I couldn’t conceptualize the rest of a drum kit yet. Drums have always stood out to me at my earliest memories of music.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Probably playing at Roadburn 2019 with Secret Cutter. That was surreal. And seeing Bush when I was 13.

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

Probably when I decided to quit my day job of 17 years to pursue a more meaningful and fulfilling existence. I always knew I wouldn’t be a nine-to-fiver.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Better songwriting and playing in general. I’ve seen a constant growth with any sort of practice I do. Orphan Donor being one of them.

How do you define success?

Fulfillment and Love. If I get those two things out of most things in my day I’m winning.

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

2 Girls 1 Cup. And a host of GIFS on Reddit. Jesus.

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

Infinite wealth so I can just live in the moment all the time.

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

Some sort of suffering and drive.

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

Movie theaters. Just kidding I don’t miss those at all.

Http://orphandonor.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/orphan_donor
https://www.facebook.com/OrphanDonor
http://www.capturedrecordingstudios.com
http://www.zegemabeachrecords.com
https://zegemabeachrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/zegemabeachrecords
http://www.secretcutter.com
https://secretcutter.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/SecretCutter
https://www.instagram.com/secretcutterband
https://twitter.com/cutter_secret

Orphan Donor, Old Patterns (2020)

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From Spliff to Riff Fest Set for Oct. 21; Solace, Electric Horsemen, Green Meteor & More Confirmed

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 4th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

Cool mix of bands taking part in the first-ever From Spliff to Riff fest this October in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Alternative Gallery will play host to the event, and it’s worth noting that the top two acts on the bill — Solace and Electric Horsemen — are both relatively recently reformed. NJ chaosbringers Solace have been playing out sporadically since 2015 and earlier this year they released their first single since 2010’s A.D. (review here) in the form of the limited cassette  Bird of Ill-Omen (review here), which so far as I know has only been available at shows. In addition to headlining at From Spliff to Riff, they just topped the bill at the first NEPA Heavy-Psych-Doom fest in Stroudsberg, PA, and they’ll take part in the first Descendants of Crom festival in Pittsburgh this September as well.

Electric Horsemen, meanwhile, announced they were back just this past February. They posted a previously-recorded single and set about playing locally in the Eastern Pennsylvania region, and should be right at home at The Alternative Gallery in the company of fellow PA-based acts like HighburnatorLord CrowGreen MeteorThe Stone Eye and Mudbucker, as well as Black Hand, who will come north from Delaware to play.

Pretty strong group of locals to inaugurate what will hopefully become a yearly tradition. Here’s the lineup info and links as posted on the Thee Facebooks event page:

From Spliff to Riff banner

From Spliff To Riff Fest

OCT. 21

The Alternative Gallery
707 N 4th St, Ste 103, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18102

First annual “From Spliff To Riff Fest”

8 bands, 2 stages, a full day of heaviness in the heart of downtown Allentown at The Alternative Gallery! More details to come, but for now, just chew on this lineup!

SOLACE (NJ)
http://www.facebook.com/SolaceBand/
ELECTRIC HORSEMEN (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/electrichorsemen/
HIGHBURNATOR (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/highburnatorband/
LORD CROW (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/lordcrowriffs/
GREEN METEOR (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/greenmeteor/
BLACK HAND (DE)
https://www.facebook.com/BlackHandMarksYou/
THE STONE EYE (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/TheStoneEye/
MUDBUCKER (PA)
https://www.facebook.com/mudbucker/

https://www.facebook.com/events/209122586283542/
https://www.facebook.com/thealternativegallery/

Solace, “Indolence” live at the Brighton Bar, June 24, 2017

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Quarterly Review: Novembers Doom, Abrams, The Grand Astoria, Hosoi Bros, Codeia, Ealdor Bealu, Stone Lotus, Green Yeti, Seer, Bretus

Posted in Reviews on July 13th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-summer-2017

So, after kvetching and hemming and hawing and all that other stuff that basically means ‘fretting and trying to shuffle a schedule around’ for the last several days, I think I’ve now found a way to add a sixth day to this Quarterly Review. Looking at all the records that still need to be covered even after doing 50, I don’t really see any other way to go. I could try to do more The Obelisk Radio adds to fit things in, but I don’t want to over-tax that new server, so yeah, I’m waiting at the moment to hear back on whether or not I can move a premiere from Monday to Tuesday to make room. Fingers crossed. I’ve already got the albums picked out that would be covered and should know by tomorrow if it’s going to happen.

Plenty to do in the meantime, so let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Novembers Doom, Hamartia

novembers-doom-hamartia

Look. Let’s be honest here. More than 20 years and 10 records in, one knows at least on a superficial level what to expect from Chicago’s Novembers Doom. Since their first album arrived in 1995, they’ve played to one side or the other between the spectrum of death-doom, and their work legitimately broke ground in the style for a US band and in general. After a push over their last couple albums including 2014’s Bled White (review here) into more deathly fare, Hamartia (on The End Records) brings 10 tracks and 58 minutes of the melancholy dramas – special hello to the piano/acoustic-led title-track – and gut-wrenching, crushingly emotive miseries – special hello to “Waves in the Red Cloth” and “Ghost” – that have defined them. One doesn’t expect a radical departure from them at this point and they don’t deliver one even as they turn to another side of their overarching aesthetic, but whether it’s the still-propulsive death gallop of “Apostasy” or the lush nine-minute finale “Borderline,” Novembers Doom reinforce their position as absolute masters of the style and give their longtime fans another collection of vital woes in which to revel.

Novembers Doom on Thee Facebooks

The End Records website

 

Abrams, Morning

abrams morning

Not a hair out of place in the execution of Morning, the Sailor Records second long-player from Denver three-piece Abrams (interview here). That has its ups and downs, naturally, but is suited to the band’s take on modern progressive heavy rock à la newer Mastodon and Baroness, and with production from Andy Patterson (of SubRosa) and Dave Otero (Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, etc.), the crisp feel is both purposeful and well earned. Their 2015 debut, Lust. Love. Loss. (review here), dealt with a similar emotional landscape, but bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen, guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster and drummer Geoffrey Cotton are tighter and more aggressive here on songs like opener “Worlds Away” (video posted here), “At the End,” “Rivers,” “Can’t Sleep” and “Burned” (video posted here), and “Mourning,” “In this Mask” and closer “Morning” balance in terms of tempo and overall atmosphere, making Morning more than just a collection of master-blasters and giving it a full album’s flow and depth. Like I said, not a hair out of place. Structure, performance, delivery, theme. Abrams have it all precisely where they want it.

Abrams on Thee Facebooks

Abrams on Bandcamp

 

The Grand Astoria, The Fuzz of Destiny

the-grand-astoria-the-fuzz-of-destiny

Dubbed an EP but running 29 minutes and boasting eight tracks, The Grand Astoria’s The Fuzz of Destiny is something of a conceptual release, with the St. Petersburg, Russia-based outfit paying homage to the effect itself. Each song uses a different kind of fuzz pedal, and as the ever-nuanced, progressive outfit make their way through the blown-out pastoralism of opener “Sunflower Queen” and into the nod of “Pocket Guru,” the organ-inclusive bursting fury of “Glass Walls” and the slower and more consuming title-track itself, which directly precedes closer “Eight Years Anniversary Riff” – yup, it’s a riff alright – they’re able to evoke a surprising amount of variety in terms of mood. That’s a credit to The Grand Astoria as songwriters perhaps even more than the differences in tone from song to song here – they’ve certainly shown over their tenure a will to embrace a diverse approach – but in giving tribute to fuzz, The Fuzz of Destiny successfully conveys some of the range a single idea can be used to conjure.

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Hosoi Bros., Abuse Your Allusion III

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Oh, they’re up to it again, those Hosoi Bros. Their 2016 full-length, Abuse Your Allusion III, from its Guns ‘n’ Roses title reference through the Motörhead riffing of “Saint Tightus” through the stoner punk of “Topless Gnome” and the chugging scorch of the penultimate “Bitches are Nigh” offer primo charm and high-order shenanigans amid the most professional-sounding release of their career. Across a quick 10 tracks and 36 minutes, Hosoi Bros. readily place themselves across the metal/punk divide, and while there’s plenty of nonsense to be had from opener “Mortician” onward through “Lights Out” (video premiere here) and the later swagger of “Unholy Hand Grenade,” the band have never sounded more cohesive in their approach than they do on Abuse Your Allusion III, and the clean production only seems to highlight the songwriting at work underneath all the zany happenings across the record’s span, thereby doing them and the band alike a service as they make a convincing argument to their audience: Have fun. Live a little. It won’t hurt that much.

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Codeia, “Don’t be Afraid,” She Whispered and Disappeared

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There’s actually very little that gets “Lost in Translation” in the thusly-titled 22-minute opener and longest cut (immediate points) of German post-metallers Codeia’s cumbersomely-named Backbite Records debut album, “Don’t be Afraid,” She Whispered and Disappeared. With heavy post-rock textures and an overarching sense of cerebral progressivism to its wash underscored by swells of low-end distortion, the three-piece of guitarist/backing vocalist Markus L., bassist/vocalist Denis S. and drummer Timo L. bring to bear patience out of the peak-era Isis or Cult of Luna sphere, sudden volume shifts, pervasive ambience, flourish of extremity and all. Nine-minute centerpiece “Shaping Stone” has its flash of aggression early before shifting into hypnotic and repetitive groove and subsequent blastbeaten furies, and 16-minute closer “Facing Extinction” caps the three-song/48-minute offering with nodding Russian Circles-style chug topped with growls that mask the layer of melodic drone filling out the mix beneath. They’re on familiar stylistic ground, but the breadth, depth and complexity Codeia bring to their extended structures are immersive all the same.

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Ealdor Bealu, Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain

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“Water Cycle,” the 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) of Ealdor Bealu’s debut full-length, Dark Water at the Foot of the Mountain, introduces a meditative feel and a breadth of sound that helps to define everything that follows. The ostensible side B leadoff of the self-release, “This too Shall Endure” (11:04), offers no less depth of atmosphere, and the graceful psychedelic expanses of the penultimate “Behind the Veil” continue to add to the overall scope with interplay of tempo variety and acoustic and electric guitar, but even earlier, shorter cuts like the wistful indie rocker “Deep Dark Below” and the linear-building “Behold the Sunrise” have an underlying progressivism that ties them to the longer form material, and likewise the particularly exploratory feeling “Ebb and Flow,” which though it’s the shortest cut at just over five minutes resonates as a standout jam ahead of “Behind the Veil” and subtly proggy seven-minute closer “Time Traveler.” The Boise-based four-piece of guitarist/vocalist/spearhead Carson Russell, guitarist Travis Abbott (also The Western Mystics), bassist/vocalist Rylie Collingwood and drummer/percussionist/saxophonist Alex Wargo bring the 56-minute offering to bear with marked patience and impress in the complexity of their arrangements and the identifiable human core that lies beneath them.

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Stone Lotus, Comastone

I can take spicier foods than I ever could before.

One might consider the title of “Mountain of Filth,” the second cut on Stone Lotus’ debut album, Comastone, a mission statement for the Southwestern Australian trio’s vicious ‘n’ viscous brand of rolling, tonal-molasses sludge. Yeah, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Dave Baker, bassist Samuel Noire and drummer Reece Fleming bring ambience to the interlude “Aum,” the slower loud/quiet shifts in “Anthropocene” and the subsequent “Umbra” that leads into the creepy launch of the title-track – in fact, quiet starts are something of a theme throughout Comastone; even the thudding toms that begin opener “Swamp Coven” pale in comparison to the volume swell of massive distortion that follows closely behind – but it’s the rhythmic lumber and the harsh vocals from Baker that define their course through the darker recesses of sludged-out misanthropy. No complaints there, especially on a first long-player, but Stone Lotus are right to keep in mind the flourish of atmosphere their material offers, and one hopes that develops parallel to all the crushing weight of their mountainous approach.

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Green Yeti, Desert Show

I'm not sure if that's an effect of dropping carbs or how it would be, but it's strange.

Even before it announces its heft, Green Yeti’s Desert Show casts forth its spaciousness. The second offering from the Athens-based trio in as many years dogwhistles heavy riffing intent even unto its David Paul Seymour album cover, but the five track rollout from guitarist/vocalist Michael Andresakis, bassist/producer Danis Avramidis and drummer Giannis Koutroumpis, as it shifts from the opening salvo of “Black Planets (Part 1)” and “Black Planets (Part 2)” into the Spanish-language centerpiece “Rojo” (direct homage perhaps to Los Natas? if so, effectively done) and into the broader-ranging “Bad Sleep (Part 1)” and 15-minute closer “Bad Sleep (Part 2)” builds just as much on its atmosphere as on its newer-school stoner rock groove and fuzz riffing. It is a 41-minute span that, without question, speaks to the heavy rock converted and plays to genre, but even taken next to the band’s 2016 debut, The Yeti has Landed, Desert Show demonstrates clear growth in writing and style, and stands as further proof of the emergence of Greece as a major contributor to the sphere of Europe’s heavy underground. Something special is happening in and outside of Athens. Green Yeti arrive at the perfect time to be a part of it.

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Seer, Victims

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Let’s just assume that Seer won’t be asked to play at Dorney Park anytime soon. The Allentown, Pennsylvania, three-piece dig into largesse-minded instrumental riffing someplace between doom and sludge and do so on raw, formative fashion on the two-song Victims EP, which features the tracks “Victims… Aren’t We All?” and “Swollen Pit,” which is a redux from their 2015 debut short release, Vaped Remains. Some touch of Electric Wizard-style wah in Rybo’s guitar stands out in the second half of the opener, and the closer effectively moves from its initial crawl into post-Sleep stonerized idolatry, but the point of Victims isn’t nearly as much about scope as it is about Rybo, bassist Kelsi and drummer Yvonne setting forth on a stomping path of groove and riff worship, rumbling sans pretense loud enough to crack the I-78 corridor and offering the clever equalizer recommendation to put the bass, treble and mids all at six. Think about it for a second. Not too long though.

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Bretus, From the Twilight Zone

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Doom! Horror! Riffs! Though it starts out with quiet acoustics and unfolds in echoing weirdness, Bretus’ new album, …From the Twilight Zone, more or less shouts these things from the proverbial cathedral rafters throughout its seven tracks. The Catanzaro, Italy, foursome weren’t shy about bringing an air of screamy sludge to their 2015 sophomore outing, The Shadow over Innsmouth (discussed here), but …From the Twilight Zone shifts more toward a Reverend Bizarre trad doom loyalism that suits the Endless Winter release remarkably well. Those acoustics pop up again in expanded-breadth centerpiece/highlight “Danza Macabra” and closer “Lizard Woman,” and thereby provide something of a narrative thread to the offering as a whole, but on the level of doom-for-doomers, there’s very little about the aesthetic that Bretus leave wanting throughout, whether it’s the faster-chug into drifting fluidity of “The Murder” or the nodding stomp of “In the Vault” (demo posted here) and crypto-NWOBHM flourish of “Old Dark House” (video posted here). Not trying to remake doom in their own image, but conjuring an eerie and engaging take in conversation with the masters of the form.

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Endless Winter Records

 

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Live Review: Clutch, Mondo Generator and Saviours in Allentown, PA, 12.30.12

Posted in Reviews on January 2nd, 2013 by JJ Koczan

How bummed was I to miss Wino opening for Clutch, you ask? Well I was super friggin’ bummed. Thanks for rubbing it in. Between parking and standing on line to get into Crocodile Rock, I missed his set entirely to the point that I thought maybe he was going on after Saviours and before Mondo Generator, or maybe even after Mondo Generator and before Clutch, where they could transition from one set to another by launching into “Red Horse Rainbow” from Pure Rock Fury, on the album version of which Wino guested on guitar. No such luck. Turns out I just missed him.

It was a shitter way to start out an otherwise great night. Saviours were just getting ready to start up when I walked in. In all the years I’ve been going to shows, this was my first time at Crocodile Rock, which reminded me a bit of the Machine Shop in Flint, MI, in its late-’90s vibe. They were around for nü-metal and had the framed pictures on the wall of Union and Ill Nino to prove it. The sound wasn’t bad, but the place was already packed and only became more so. Doubtless a good portion of the crowd came as refugees from the originally scheduled Starland Ballroom show, unfortunately canceled in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy while that venue, which was flooded out, rebuilds and regroups.

But for missing Wino (I mean, seriously, how do I miss Wino? I’m Mr. Wino Wednesday — you’d think I’d just have like a Wino-dar to go off and let me know when he’s playing), the evening had much to offer. Clutch rolling through on their annual holiday run playing no fewer than four new songs from the forthcoming Earth Rocker, a reinvigorated Mondo Generator, and Saviours, who I hadn’t seen in three years since they hit Brooklyn supporting Saint Vitus. Not much had changed, though their stonerly riffer’s thrash seemed all the more Californian perhaps because it was 20 degrees outside and half the crowd had their winter coats on. Some stuff is just better left to warmer weather.

Still, the band seemed to waste no time in winning over any skeptics who might have been present. “Crucifire,” from their full-length debut of the same name, was especially visceral, with guitarists Austin Barber and Sonny Reinhardt doing classic metal harmonics for an audience that seemed to appreciate the Maiden influence. Bassist Carson Binks and drummer Scott Batiste made a formidable rhythm section beneath the rampant soloing, locking in fast grooves in a kind of insistent thrust, all thrash but aware too of classic metal and hints of doomed thickness. Whatever else you can say about Saviours, they’ve always effectively straddled genre lines, and though I basically missed the boat on their 2011 album, Death’s Procession, they made a resounding statement in its favor by closing with “Crete’n” from it. If I’d been able to get to the merch table from where I was standing, I’d probably have bought a copy.

Ditto that for Mondo Generator‘s 2012 offering, Hell Comes to Your Heart, because whatever else you can say about Nick Oliveri‘s many adventures — in and out of Kyuss Lives/Vista Chino, on probation for a well-publicized swat team incident, etc. — he fucking brought it to Croc Rock. I was surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been. He’s got more than enough presence to front a band, and though in Mondo Generator, the focus is largely on the abrasive-type edge he brought to Queens of the Stone Age during his tenure there, his songwriting core remains above average. I’m a firm believer that neither he nor Josh Homme are as strong separately as they are together, but I suppose you could say the same for any number of pivotal collaborations. Either way, the band behind him was tight, and they threw in enough QOTSA material — opening with “Ode to Clarissa” and also sprinkling “Gonna Leave You” and “Millionaire” throughout — to keep any attention that might have otherwise wandered, my own included.

At least from where I was standing, it seemed like a pretty hip room, so I think most people knew what and whom they were watching, though I heard someone comment that they must have been from NJ because guitarist Ian Taylor was wearing a shirt that said “Don’t Mess with Jersey” on the front. That led me to wonder what it might be like to see Mondo Generator without any of the context of Oliveri‘s time in Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, etc., and just to take it all on the level of “some band opening for Clutch.” I think I’d still call them a solid stage act, but the level of appreciation would undoubtedly be different, as when they closed with “13th Floor” from 2000’s Cocaine Rodeo, realizing the song also appeared on QOTSA‘s Rated R as “Tension Head.” It’s the little things. In any case, for never having caught Oliveri‘s outfit live before, they impressed, and his bass tone remains enviable pretty much unto itself.

I was still holding out hope that Wino might just jump on stage for a couple acoustic songs before Clutch got going, but no dice. It would’ve been hard to follow the unhinged punkisms of Mondo Generator anyway, and the crowd around me didn’t exactly look like the unplugged type. Dudes in Fear Factory and Deftones shirts, Black Label Society and so forth. Sometimes I forget how distinguishable “heavy” and “metal” can be, but it’s cool, or at least it was once Clutch took the stage. They were universally agreed upon.

The set opened with “The Mob Goes Wild” and went right into “Walking in the Great Shining Path of Monster Trucks” from Transnational Speedway League: Anthems, Anecdotes and Undeniable Truths. That Clutch would hit up their full-length debut — which turns 20 in 2013 — at all was a shocker, but to do it so early in the set even more so. By the time they got around to some of the new songs, though, it made sense. Following “50,000 Unstoppable Watts” from 2009’s Strange Cousins from the West, the landmark Maryland foursome dove headfirst into “Crucial Velocity,” which was as straight-ahead and aggressive a song from them as I’ve heard since 2001’s Pure Rock Fury. They’ve said all along that was their intent for Earth Rocker, or at least how things wound up, but still, “Crucial Velocity” hit with a surprising swiftness from a band who’ve spent their last three records reveling in blues and funk influences almost exclusively.

Nothing against either approach. Frankly, Clutch could do whatever the hell they want and their audience, likely myself included, would be along for the ride. And if Clutch have in fact decided to take an approach more similar to their earlier noise-rocking days — some of the stuff I’ve heard from Earth Rocker bears that out, some less so; I’ve yet to listen the whole album and can only go on what I’ve seen them do live — it makes an interesting kind of sense in terms of how they relate one album to the next. Interview fodder, if nothing else. They backed “Crucial Velocity” with “Gravel Road,” frontman Neil Fallon picking up his slide and joining Tim Sult on guitar, while bassist Dan Maines — who I ‘m pretty sure was in the pocket before he even walked on stage — and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster held together a semi-extended jam that seemed to indicate that Clutch are working on reconciling the different aspects of their musical personality, still developing after more than 22 years.

“Earth Rocker” itself, the title-track of the upcoming album, reads more or less like a manifesto. Lines like, “If you’re gonna do it, do it live on stage/Or don’t do it at all,” and, “I don’t need your stinkin’ laminate/I don’t need your VIP/I don’t need your dedications/’Cause I wear it on my sleeve,” certainly back that up, and Fallon makes a convincing case with Clutch‘s roadtime bolstering his argument. The chorus was smoother in Allentown even than when I saw them play the track in Jersey in October. Once again offsetting old and new, “Earth Rocker” shot into “A Shogun Named Marcus,” and though I’d seen the setlist beforehand to take a picture of it, it was still a palpable thrill when they threw in “Regulator” from 2004’s Blast Tyrant — their first collaboration with producer Machine, who also helmed the new album. Have I mentioned Clutch have a new record coming yet? Oh, I have? Okay then.

One hopes you’ll forgive the overkill on the point, but honestly, seeing the new stuff was a big part of the reason I wanted to catch the show, Clutch‘s holiday tour tradition notwithstanding. “Cyborg Betty” seemed like it needed some more time to set in than the other two — or maybe that’s just because I didn’t know it as well — though it did well shifting into “Child of the City” from From Beale Street to Oblivion, which is a cut I initially wrote off when the record came out but has since become a favorite live, and “Cypress Grove” once again from Blast Tyrant, the pair of songs united by a heavy stomp that is definitively Clutch‘s own, and before I knew it, the show was almost over. I stayed up front the whole time, having kind of hollowed out a niche near the security barricade, and waited for “D.C. Sound Attack,” positioned as the penultimate feature of the regular set, right before “Electric Worry.”

That’s pretty good company to keep, especially for a new song, but Clutch seemed to be betting that the harmonica and midsection cowbell jam would find favor even among people unfamiliar with the song as a whole, and they were right. Probably also helped that “D.C. Sound Attack” has one of those choruses you seem to want to sing along to even before it’s over the first time — “Hell hounds on your trail/What a pity/But that’s the price you pay/Shaking hands in Necro City” — but no question that the place went off when Fallon picked up the cowbell from his mic stand. They seemed like they were still nailing down some of the transitions, and especially compared to “Cypress Grove” or “Child of the City,” two songs Clutch could probably play in their sleep if they were so inclined, “D.C. Sound Attack” seemed particularly new, but they killed it nonetheless, and one imagines that by the time Earth Rocker is out and they come back through with Orange Goblin in tow, the response will be significant.

When they came back out for an encore following “Electric Worry” — a fight broke out in the middle of the song and Fallon called it “boring” — the joke was that it was for “a couple more thrashers,” but with “Animal Farm” from 1995’s self-titled and “Pure Rock Fury,” that kind of turned out to be the case. They ripped through one song and then the next, both are classics in the Clutch canon at this point, and then were gone, offstage just past midnight. It seemed like a fast 90 minutes, but there you go.

By the time I got home about 95 minutes later, I could already feel the cold I’d been nursing come to its full brunt, and though I consoled myself for missing Wino by saying I’d catch him in Brooklyn with Mondo Generator and Saviours as their tour continues following the end of the Clutch holiday run, I left work early on account of feeling like crap and now know that’s not the case. So it goes. But though I spent Dec. 31 in full-on dead duck mode, hopped up (down?) on NyQuil and barely conscious, I still feel like I sent out 2012 in high spirits for having seen Clutch one more time before hanging up the new calendar.

Extra pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

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