Athens-based heavy progressives The Lotus Matter will release their debut album, In Limbo Pt. 1, through Sound Effect Records on June 13. As one can see in the extensive list of guest performers below — they hit 10, which will happen when you bring in a string quartet on your opening track — the record is neither without ambition nor scope. Katerina Charalampopoulou sets the tone vocally with the quiet croon on “In Limbo” before giving over to the nine-minute sprawl of “Into the Bone,” the first of several hypnotic transitions made throughout the five-song/45-minute long-player while keeping a focus on melody and expressive intention.
There are progressive metal aspects, born reportedly out of more extreme influences from their earlier days (this is their first record; how early are we talking?), but while I wouldn’t call In Limbo Pt. 1 patient in the sense of being content to dwell in parts — it is that when it wants to be, but mostly The Lotus Matter are on their way somewhere — it is brimming with intention.
The Opethian shift to acoustic and piano in “Into the Bone,” for example, and the emergence from it, the airy-then-bopping start to side B and the post-grunge melody that plays out over successive dramatic finishes there, with “Run. Rest. Return.” being a particular highlight with a dark existential lounge-y kind of sound, not quite yacht metal, but classy in performance and arrangement, however brooding the album’s second half might get. Or the first, for that matter, which wants nothing for intricacy either.
Ultimately, there isn’t a single part or impression that typifies In Limbo Pt. 1, but it’s vibrant front-to-back, even as it explores spaces more or less liminal-sounding from the grit of their weightiest chug to the bagpipes in the side-A-capping centerpiece “Erased?” Here, as across the album, the arrangement and the craft are thoughtful and tasteful, metal-rooted in a way that will feel familiar to those who’ve gotten into the ritualism of Poland’s Sunnata, but the range here is The Lotus Matter‘s own.
And the album is surprisingly encompassing for a debut. I don’t know that The Lotus Matter — guitarists Constantinos Nyktas (also vocals) and Giorgos Petsangourakis, keyboardist/vocalist Aggelos Bracholli, bassist/vocalist Panagiotis Vekiloglou and featuring the drumming of Lazaros Papageorgiou — have an In Limbo Pt. 2 waiting in the can or they don’t, but the linearity across what’s billed as Pt. 1 of an implied series, however limited, offers a complete-album flow and cohesion.
Whether you’re listening on a two-sided vinyl or straight through digitally or on CD — make no mistake, 1993’s favorite format is coming back around — digging into the tension in the drums early on “Run. Rest. Return.” or the last harmonies of “The Shepherd,” they never hold it so tight as to be insular or inaccessible, but to give a sense of grace to correspond to the heavier or brasher moments of those culminations.
That is to say, they go way, way down, and they go way, way up and whatever you want that to mean, you’re probably right. But the point is the dynamics, the unwillingness to rest, and the corresponding unwillingness to put anything in the songs that doesn’t want to be there. There’s no shortage of flourish in In Limbo Pt. 1, but it’s purposeful, and the songs are accordingly complex without sounding bloated because, in the end, the songs are what’s being served by the arrangements.
Below you’ll find the premiere of the video for “Erased?,” followed by more from the PR wire, including all those credits for who does what.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
The Lotus Matter, “Erased?” video premiere
“In Limbo Pt. 1” is the debut album from the Greek Progressive/Post Metal band The Lotus Matter. Originally formed in 2017 under a different name and lineup, the 5-piece went through several changes over the following years. As the band transitioned from their early progressive death metal sound, their music evolved into a more experimental and atmospheric style, blending a diverse array of influences and genres.
Informed by ‘90s post-metal/indie, they couple art-rock density with classic ‘70s “grandeur”! “In Limbo Pt. 1” is complex yet crispy, with distinct, interlocking melodies over a cinematic ambience.
The album was recorded at both Backstage and Brain Drain Studios, mixed by John Vulgaris at Electric Highway Studios and mastered by Theodoros Bournas at Arkadikon Studio. In addition to the core members of the band, The Lotus Matter employ guest vocalists, strings and bagpipes, elevating “In Limbo Pt. 1” to a non-stop artistic feat!
“In Limbo Pt. 1” is due out on June 13, on limited edition vinyl (classic black and bone color vinyl), and digipack CD, via Sound Effect Records.
Tracklisting: 1. In Limbo 2. Into The Bone 3. Erased? 4. Run, Rest, Return 5. The Shepherd
Credits: Recorded at Brain Drain studios Drums recorded at Backstage studios Mixed by John Voulgaris at Electric Highway Studio Additional Mixing by Panagiotis Vekiloglou and Constantinos Nyktas at Backstage Studios Mastering by Theodoros Bournas at Arkadikon Studio Photos by Christianna Gerou, Collage by Anna Spyraki, Layout by George Fotopoulos Very special thanks to Nikos Michalas
Additional Performers: Lazaros Papageorgiou – Drums Katerina Charalampopoulou – Lead Vocals on “In Limbo”, Backing Vocals on “Into The Bone” and “Run. Rest. Return.” Stavrialena Gontzou – Backing Vocals on “Into The Bone” and “Run. Rest. Return.” Kostas Trakadas – Trumpet on “Run. Rest. Return.” Konstantinos Lazos – Bagpipes on “Erased?” Aggeliki Ikonomou – Violin on “In Limbo” Nikos Firgiolas – Viola on “In Limbo” Rafail Kontogouris – Viola on “In Limbo” Marianna Maraletou – Cello on “In Limbo”
Welcome to the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review. If you’re unfamiliar with the format or how this goes, the quick version is each day brings 10 new releases — albums, EPs, even a single every now and again — that are reviewed at at the end of it everybody has a ton of new music to listen to and I’m a little closer to being caught up to what’s coming out after spending about a season falling behind on coverage. Everybody wins, mostly.
It’s a seven-day QR. As always, some of what will be covered is older and some is new. There are a couple 2024 releases. The 10,000 Years record, for example, I should’ve reviewed five times over by now, but life happens. There’s also stuff that isn’t released yet, so it all averages out to some approximation of relevance. Hopefully.
In any case, we proceed. Thanks if you keep up this week and into next.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Pagan Altar, Never Quite Dead
Classic metal par excellence pervades the first Pagan Altar album since 2017 and the first to feature vocalist Brendan Radigan (Magic Circle) in place of founding singer Terry Jones, who passed away in 2015 and whose son, guitarist Alan Jones, is the sole remaining founding member of the band, which started in 1978. Never Quite Dead collects eight varied tracks, some further evidence for the line of NWOBHM extending out of the dual-guitar pioneering of Thin Lizzy, plenty of overarching melancholy, and it honors the idea of the band having a classic sound without sacrificing modern impact in the recording. The subdued “Liston Church,” the later doomly sprawl of “The Dead’s Last March” and the willful grandiosity of the nine-minute finale “Kismet” assure that Never Quite Dead indeed resonates vibrant with a heart made of denim.
Somewhere between proto-punk and 1990s alt-rock come Designer with the three-song demo Weekend at Brian’s. Based in Asheville, the band have an edge of danger to their tones, but the outward face is catchy and quirky, a little Blondie but with deceptively heavy riffing in “Magic Memory” and extra-satisfyingly farty bass in “Midnight Waltz” as the band engage Blue Öyster Cult in a conversation of fears, the band wind up somewhere between heavy modern indie and retro-minded fare. “Ugly in the Streets” moves like a Ramones song and I’ve got no problem with that. However they go, the songs are pointedly straightforward, and they kind of need to be for the stripped-down style to work. Nothing’s over three minutes long, the songs are tight, and it’s got style without overloading on the pretense, which especially for a new outfit is an excellent place to start.
The hopeful keyboard of album intro “Orbital Decay” gradually devolves into noise, and from there, Swedish crash-and-bash specialists 10,000 Years show you what it’s all about — gutted-out heavy riffing, ace swing in “The Experiment” and a whole lot of head-down forward shove. The Västerås-based trio have yet to put out a record that wasn’t a step forward from the one before it, and this late-2024 third full-length feels duly realized in how it incorporates the psychedelic aspects of “Ablaze in the Now” with the physical intensity of “The Weight of a Feather” or closer “Down the Heavy Path.” But they’re more dynamic on the whole, as “Death Valley Ritual” dares a bit of spoken drama, and “High Noon in Sword City” reminds that there’s a good dose of noise rock underpinning what 10,000 Years do, and that cacophony still suits them even as they’ve expanded around that foundation over the last five years.
Amber Asylum are a San Francisco arthouse institution, and from its outset with the five-minute instrumental “Secrets,” the band’s 10th album, Ruby Red, counsels patience in mournful, often softspoken chamber doom. The use of space as the title-track unfolds with founding violinist/vocalist Kris Force‘s voice over minimalist bass, encompassing and sad as the song plays out with an emergent dirge of strings and percussion, where the subsequent “Demagogue” is more actively drummed, the band having already drawn the listener deeper into the record’s seven-song cycle. The cello of Jackie Perez-Gratz (also Grayceon, Brume) gives centerpiece “The Morrigan” extra character later on, and it’s there in “Azure” as well, though the context shifts with foreboding drones of various wavelengths behind the vocals. Ambience plus bite. “Weaver” rolls through its first half instrumentally, realigning around the strings and steady movement; its back half is reverently sung without lyrics. And when they get to closer “A Call on the Wind,” the sense of unease in the violin is met with banging-on-a-spring-style experimentalist noise, just to underscore the sense of things being wrong as far as realities go. It’s not a minor undertaking as regards atmospheric or emotional weight, but empathy resounds.
With Fu Manchu as a defining influence, Greek heavy rockers Weevil set forth with Easy Way, their 10-song/42-minute self-released debut album. They pay homage to Lemmy with the cleverly-titled “Rickenbästard” — you know I’m a sucker for charm — and diverge from the straight-ahead heavy thrust on the mellower, longer “The Old Man Lied” and “Insomnia,” but by and large, the five-piece are here to throw down riffy groove and have a good time, and they do just that. The title-track, “Wake the Dead” and “Headache” provide a charged beginning, and even by the time the crunch of “Gonna Fall” slides casually into the nodder hook of closer “Last Night a Zombie” (“…ate my brain” is the rest of the line), they’ve still got enough energy to make it feel like the party could easily continue. It just might. There’s perspective in this material that feels like it might take shape over time, and in my mind, Weevil get immediate credit for being upfront in their homage and wearing their own heavy fandom on their sleeves. You can hear their love for it.
Adventurous and forward-thinking post-metal pervades Swedish trio Kazea‘s debut album, and the sound is flexible enough in their craft to let “Whispering Hand” careen like neo-psych after the screams and lurch of “Trenches” provide one of the record’s most extreme moments, bolstered by guest vocals. Indeed, “Whispering Hand” is a rocker and something of an outlier for that, as Pale City Skin draws a downerist line between Crippled Black Phoenix and circa-’04 Neurosis, “Wailing Blood” finds a way to meld driving rhythm and atmospheric heft, and the seven-minute “Seamlessly Woven” caps with suitable depth of wash, following the lushness of the penultimate “The North Passage” in its howling, growl-topped chorus with another expression of the ethereal. I haven’t heard a ton of hype about I, Ancestral, but regardless, this is one of the best debut albums I’ve heard so far this year for sure. Post-metal needs bands willing to push its limits.
Hard not to think of the 14-minute weirdo-psych jam “Mycelium” as the highlight of Dyp Tid, but one shouldn’t discount the lead-you-in warmth and serenity of opener “Pendelen Svinger,” or the bit of dub in the drumming of “Clock of the Long Now,” and so on as Norway’s Electric Eye — which is a pretty straightforward name, considering the sound — vibe blissful for the duration. The drone “Den Første Lysstråle” is hypnotic, and though the vocals in “Mycelium” are a sample, the human presence periodically sprinkled throughout the album feels like it’s adding comfort amid what might be an anxious plunge into the cosmos. They finish with “Hvit Lotus,” which marries together various kinds of synth over a deceptively casual beat, capping light with vocals or synth-vocals in a bright chorus over chime sounds and drifting guitar. You made it to the island. You’re safe. Gentle fade out.
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Guglielmo Allegro is the sole denizen behind Void Sinker, and while I know full well we live in an age of technological wonders/horrors, that one person could conjure up such encompassing heavy sounds — the way 14-minute opener “Satellite” just swallows you whole — is impressive. Oxygen is the Salerno, Italy, DIY project’s fourth full-length in two years, and its intent to crush is plain from the outset. “Satellite” has its own summary progression of what the rest of the album does, and then “Oxygen” (9:45), “Collision” (15:23) and “Abyss” (13:32) play through increasingly noisy slab-riff distribution. This is done methodically, at mostly slow tempos, with tonal depth and an obvious awareness of where it’s coming from. Presumably that, and a lack of argument from anyone else when he wants to ride a groove for 15 minutes, is why Void Sinker is a solo outfit. One of distinctive bludgeon, it turns out. Like big riffs pushing the air out of your lungs? Here you go.
Draken drummer André Drage leads the group that shares his name from behind the kit, it would seem, but even if only one name gets to be in the moniker, make no mistake, the entire band is present and accounted for. Challenging each other in jazz-prog fashion, Wolves is the second album from the Group in as many months. It leads off with its longest track (immediate points) “Brainsoup,” and by the time they’re through with it, it is. We’re talking ace prog boogie, funky like El Perro might do it, but looser and more improv feeling in the solo of “Potent Elixirs,” giving a spontaneous impression even in the studio, ebbing and flowing in the runs of “Tigerboy” while “Wind in Their Sails” is both more King Crimson and more shuffling-Rhodes-jam, which is the kind of party you want to be at whether you know it or not. The penultimate “Fire” gets lit by the guitar, and they round out with “Nesodden,” a sweet comedown from some of Wolves‘ more frenetic movements. Like a supernova, but not uncontained. This is a band ready to drop jaws.
The Sept. 2024 third album from NYC-based vintage rockers The Mystery Lights skillfully weaves together garage rock and ’60s pop theatrics, giving the bounce and sway of the title-track an immediately nostalgic impression that the jangly “In the Streets” is probably about a ahead from in terms of influence, but the blend is the thing. Regardless of how developed the punk is or isn’t in a given track — I dig the shaker in “Trouble” and it manages a sense of ‘island’ without being racist, so bonus points for that — or how “Cerebral Crack” brings flute in with its extra-fuzzed guitar later on or “Memories” and “Automatic Response” feel more soul than rock in both intent and manifestation, The Mystery Lights benefit from pairing stylistic complexity with structural simplicity, and the 12 songs of Purgatory find a niche outside genre norms and time all the more for the fact that the band don’t seem concerned with anything so much as writing songs that sound like home the first time you hear them.
Greek atmospheric heavymakers Church of the Sea will release their second full-length, Eva, on April 11 through These Hands Melt. Like their 2022 debut, Odalisque (review here), the seven-song/30-minute new outing is expansive in sound and finds the three-piece of vocalist Irene, guitarist Vangelis and synthesist Alex running deep textural threads through material that’s heavy whether it grows from cinematic foreboding to reveal itself as the monster eating you — as several tracks here do; looking at you, “Widow,” “Garden of Eden,” “Churchyard,” all of which are much louder by the finish than at the start — or is quieter and more brooding. Atmosphere is a central purpose; mood too.
And even if some of the structural paths are similar, as noted above, the sounds that come and go in the arrangements of keys, guitar, sundry electronic beats and other noises give life and variety to the methodical tempos and progressions behind Irene‘s breathy delivery, well suited to the echo treatment it gets in “Churchyard” or “The Siren’s Choice,” which unfolds after the table-setting intro “How to Build a Universe Pt. I” — to be sure, “Pt. II” bookends at the finish — with a treat of distorted guitar and a spacious sound that dares poppish keys in the second half at the same time as a semi-industrial slog is happening behind and Irene‘s voice is carrying the still-melancholic apex of the song. It ends up being a powerful moment if you let it be, and for being not without its element of challenge for all the melody and not-aggro presence, in terms of how the listener hears it, Eva is as much about the ambient drones and experimental flourishes as the solidity of the structures holding them up. Even the smallest-seeming piece of the thing can take you somewhere.
As regards the title-track, for which a video is premiering below, it took me specifically to “The Mirror” by SubRosa, more specifically the drumstick-on-mic-stand-for-percussion version found on their Subdued live album. Far back in “Eva” there’s a tock keeping time and it adds a folkishness alongside the guitar line that put me right there, and that’s not a complaint. Church of the Sea are coming from someplace else in terms of style, to be sure, and the build in “Eva” grows into more of a march in the song’s second half as that initial guitar line is swallowed by a current of distortion drone. The subsequent “Widow” feels more industrial at the start, with a darker rough hum and purposefully contrasting sweet vocal overtop, somehow mourning… I don’t know… everything?, but creating the space that the blinding guitar comes to occupy later effectively, and finding a way to bring hope to Eva without departing entirely the atmosphere or modus laid out up to that point.
“Widow” is where the A side ends on the vinly edition of Eva, and that makes sense as “Garden of Eden” fades in with bright guitar, far back drumming and an almost brazenly rocking feel. Sure enough, heavier guitar kicks in Jesu-style after about a minute with a nodder riff to accompany the hook. It recedes again for the next verse and it seems like the back and forth will be the crux of it, but the second half is a departure elsewhere that turns out no less satisfying, and before “How to Build a Universe Pt. 2” answers back to the intro to round out, “Churchyard” reminds of late era Author and Punisher by the time it’s done but at the start feels more like it’s drawing from Twin Peaks than post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Or at very least, can’t it be both? Sure can on “How to Build a Universe Pt. 2.” Perhaps more to the point, Church of the Sea speak to both these sides fluidly, organically, and efficiently, and that’s before you get to the biblical theme of the lyrics drawing the songs together.
Though it’s the first single from the album, don’t expect “Eva” to represent everything going on with the LP that shares its name, and do go into it with an open mind. As always, I hope you enjoy.
Greek doomgaze trio Church of the Sea have unveiled the title track of their upcoming album “Eva”, which will be released on 11 April 2025 via These Hands Melt.
“Eva” reimagines the biblical story of Eve, challenging the traditional narrative and celebrating her defiance. The band explains, “Eva” is a twist in the story from the Book of Genesis, where the female is not seen as the sinner for seeking knowledge, but as the rebel that embraces what others consider ‘forbidden’”.
Regarding the music video, Church of the Sea added: “The video is a further juxtaposition between the forbidden and what is established as righteous and ideal. The creations of man that abuse nature, in contrast with the animalistic instincts in all of us, fighting to break free.”
For the recording of “Eva” the band returned to Suono Studios, while Alex Bolpasis was responsible for the engineering, production and mixing. The album was mastered by Nick Townsend at Infrasonic Mastering.
Tracklisting: 1. How to Build a Universe Pt. 1 2. The Siren’s Choice 3. Eva 4. Widow 5. Garden of Eden 6. Churchyard 7. How to Build a Universe Pt. 2
Church of the Sea are: Irene – Vocals Vangelis – Guitars Alex – Synths and samples
Posted in Reviews on December 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Day four of five for this snuck-in-before-the-end-of-the-year Quarterly Review, and I’m left wondering if maybe it won’t be worth booking another week for January or early February, and if that happens, is it still “quarterly” at that point if you do it like six times a year? ‘Bimonthly Quality Control Assessments’ coming soon! Alert your HR supervisors to tell your servers of any allergies.
No, not really.
I’ll figure out a way to sandwich more music into this site if it kills me. Which I guess it might. Whatever, let’s do this thing.
Quarterly Review #31-40
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Sergeant Thunderhoof, The Ghost of Badon Hill
A marked accomplishment in progressive heavy rock, The Ghost of Badon Hill is the fifth full-length from UK five-piece Sergeant Thunderhoof, who even without the element of surprise on their side — which is to say one is right to approach the 45-minute six-tracker with high expectations based on the band’s past work; their last LP was 2022’s This Sceptred Veil(review here) — rally around a folklore-born concept and deliver the to-date album of their career. From the first emergence of heft in “Badon” topped with Daniel Flitcroft soar-prone vocals, Sergeant Thunderhoof — guitarists Mark Sayer and Josh Gallop, bassist Jim Camp and drummer Darren Ashman, and the aforementioned Flitcroft — confidently execute their vision of a melodic riffprog scope. The songs have nuance and character, the narrative feels like it moves through the material, there are memorable hooks and grand atmospheric passages. It is by its very nature not without some indulgent aspects, but also a near-perfect incarnation of what one might ask it to be.
The stated objective of Swallow the Sun‘s Shining was for less misery, and fair enough as the Finnish death-doomers have been at it for about a quarter of a century now and that’s a long time to feel so resoundingly wretched, however relatably one does it. What does less-misery sound like? First of all, still kinda miserable. If you know Swallow the Sun, they are still definitely recognizable in pieces like “Innocence Was Long Forgotten,” “What I Have Become” and “MelancHoly,” but even the frontloading of these singles — don’t worry, from “Kold” and the ultra Type O Negative-style “November Dust” (get it?), to the combination of floating, dancing keyboard lines and drawn out guitars in the final reaches of the title-track, they’re not short on highlights — conveys the modernity brought into focus. Produced by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, A Day to Remember, Muse), the songs are in conversation with the current sphere of metal in a way that Swallow the Sun have never been, broadening the definition of what they do while retaining a focus on craft. They’re professionals.
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, The Mind Like Fire Unbound
Where’s the intermittently-crushing sci-fi-concept death-stoner, you ask? Well, friend, Lincoln, Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships would like to have a word, and on The Mind Like Fire Unbound, there’s a non-zero chance that word will come in the form of layered death metal growls and rasping throatripper screams representing an insectoid species about to tear more-melodically-voiced human colonizers to pieces. The 45-minute LP’s 14-minute opener “BUGS” that lays out this warning is followed by the harsh, cosmic-paranoia conjuration of “Dark Forest” before a pivot in 8:42 centerpiece “Infinite Inertia” — and yes, the structure of the tracks is purposeful; longest at the open and close with shorter pieces on either side of “Infinite Inertia” — takes the emotive cast of Pallbearer to an extrapolated psychedelic metalgaze, huge and broad and lumbering. Of course the contrast is swift in the two-minute “I Hate Space,” but where one expects more bludgeonry, the shortest inclusion stays clean vocally amid its uptempo, Torche-but-not-really push. Organ joins the march in the closing title-track (14:57), which gallops following its extended intro, doom-crashes to a crawl and returns to double-kick behind the encompassing last solo, rounding out with suitable showcase of breadth and intention.
Planet of Zeus make a striking return with their sixth album, Afterlife, basing their theme around mythologies current and past and accompanying that with a sound that’s both less brash than they were a few years back on 2019’s Faith in Physics (review here) and refined in the sharpness and efficiency of its songwriting. It’s a rocker, which is what one has come to expect from these Athens-based veterans. Afterlife builds momentum through desert-style rockers like “Baptized in His Death” and the hooky “No Ordinary Life” and “The Song You Misunderstand,” getting poppish in the stomp of “Bad Milk” only after the bluesy “Let’s Call it Even” and before the punkier “Letter to a Newborn,” going where it wants and leaving no mystery as to how it’s getting there because it doesn’t need to. One of the foremost Greek outfits of their generation, Planet of Zeus show up, tell you what they’re going to do, then do it and get out, still managing to leave behind some atmospheric resonance in “State of Non-Existence.” There’s audible, continued forward growth and kickass tunes. If that sounds pretty ideal, it is.
Cinematic in its portrayal, Le Premier Soleil de Jan Calet positions itself as cosmically minded, and manifests that in sometimes-minimal — effectively so, since it’s hypnotic — aural spaciousness, but Paris’ Human Teorema veer into Eastern-influenced scales amid their exploratory, otherworldly-on-purpose landscaping, and each planet on which they touch down, from “Onirico” (7:43) to “Studiis” (15:54) and “Spedizione” (23:20) is weirder than the last, shifting between these vast passages and jammier stretches still laced with synth. Each piece has its own procession and dynamic, and perhaps the shifts in intent are most prevalent within “Studiis,” but the closer is, on the balance, a banger as well, and there’s no interruption in flow once you’ve made the initial choice to go with Le Premier Soleil de Jan Calet. An instrumental approach allows Human Teorema to embody descriptive impressions that words couldn’t create, and when they decide to hit it hard, they’re heavy enough for the scale they’ve set. Won’t resonate universally (what does?), but worth meeting on its level.
There are two epics north of the 10-minute mark on Caged Wolves‘ maybe-debut LP, A Deserts Tale: “Lost in the Desert” (11:26) right after the intro “Dusk” and “Chaac” (10:46) right before the hopeful outro “Dawn.” The album runs a densely-packed 48 minutes through eight tracks total, and pieces like the distortion-drone-backed “Call of the Void,” the alt-prog rocking “Eleutheromania,” “Laguna,” which is like earlier Radiohead in that it goes somewhere on a linear build, and the spoken-word-over-noise interlude “The Lost Tale” aren’t exactly wanting for proportion, regardless of runtime. The bassline that opens “Call of the Void” alone would be enough to scatter orcs, but that still pales next to “Chaac,” which pushes further and deeper, topping with atmospheric screams and managing nonetheless to come out of the other side of that harsh payoff of some of the album’s most weighted slog in order to bookend and give the song the finish it deserves, completing it where many wouldn’t have been so thoughtful. This impression is writ large throughout and stands among the clearest cases for A Deserts Tale as the beginning of a longer-term development.
I find myself wanting to talk about how big Liminal Escapism sounds, but I don’t mean in terms of tonal proportion so much as the distances that seem to be encompassed by Greek progressive instrumentalists Anomalos Kosmos. With an influence from Grails and, let’s say, 50 years’ worth of prog rock composition (but definitely honoring the earlier end of that timeline), Anomalos Kosmos offer emotional evocation in pieces that feel compact on either side of six or seven minutes, taking the root jams and building them into structures that still come across as a journey. The classy soloing in “Me Orizeis” and synthy shimmer of “Parapatao,” the rumble beneath the crescendo of “Kitonas” and all of that gosh darn flow in “Flow” speak to a songwriting process that is aware of its audience but feels no need to talk down, musically speaking, to feed notions of accessibility. Instead, the immersion and energetic drumming of “Teledos” and the way closer “Cigu” rallies around pastoral fuzz invite the listener to come along on this apparently lightspeed voyage — thankfully not tempo-wise — and allow room for the person hearing these sounds to cast their own interpretations thereof.
One could not hope to fully encapsulate an impression here of nearly three and a half hours of sometimes-improv psych-drone, and I refuse to feel bad for not trying. Instead, I’ll tell you that Grand Fractal Orchestra — the Psychedelic Source Records 3CD edition of which has already sold out — finds Budapest-based guitarist Ákos Karancz deeply engaged in the unfolding sounds here. Layering effects, collaborating with others from the informal PSR collective like zitherist Márton Havlik or singer Krisztina Benus, and so on, Karancz constructs each piece in a way that feels both steered in a direction and organic to where the music wants to go. “Ore Genesis” gets a little frantic around the middle but finds its chill, “Human Habitat” is duly foreboding, and the two-part, 49-minute-total capper “Transforming Time to Space” is beautiful and meditative, like staring at a fountain with your ears. It goes without saying not everybody has the time or the attention span to sit with a release like this, but if you take it one track at a time for the next four years or so, there’s worlds enough in these songs that they’ll probably just keep sinking in. And if Karancz puts outs like five new albums in that time too, so much the better.
It probably goes without saying — at least it should — that while the classic folk fingerplucking of “Whispering Waters” and the Americana-busy “Laurel Creek Blues” give a sweet introduction to Blake Hornsby‘s A Village of Many Springs, inevitably it’s the 23-minute experimentalist spread of the finale, “Bury My Soul in the Linville River,” that’s going to be a focal point for many listeners, and fair enough. The earthbound-cosmic feel of that piece, its devolution into Lennon-circa-1968 tape noise and concluding drone, aren’t at all without preface. A Village of Many Springs gets weirder as it goes, with the eight-minute “Cathedral Falls” building over its time into a payoff of seemingly on-guitar violence, and the subsequent “O How the Water Flows” nestling into a sweet spot between Appalachian nostalgia and foreboding twang. There’s percussion and manipulation of noise later, too, but even in its repetition, “O How the Water Flows” continues Hornsby‘s trajectory. For what’s apparently an ode to water in the region surrounding Hornsby‘s home in Asheville, North Carolina, that it feels fluid should be no surprise, but by no means does one need to have visited Laurel Creek to appreciate the blues Hornsby conjures for them.
With a sensibility in some of the synth of “Hacamat” born of space rock, Congulus have no trouble moving from that to the 1990s-style alt-rock saunter of “Diri Bir Nefes,” furthering the momentum already on the Istanbul-based instrumentalist trio’s side after opener “İskeletin Düğün Halayı” before “Senin Sırlarının Yenilmez Gücünü Gördüm” spaces out its solo over scales out of Turkish folk and “Park” marries together the divergent chugs of Judas Priest and Meshuggah, there’s plenty of adventure to be had on Göçebe. It’s the band’s second full-length behind 2019’s Bozkır — they’ve had short releases between — and it moves from “Park” into the push of “Zarzaram” and “Vordonisi” with efficiency that’s only deceptive because there’s so much stylistic range, letting “Ulak” have its open sway and still bash away for a moment or two before “Sonunda Ah Çekeriz Derinden” closes by tying space rock, Mediterranean traditionalism and modern boogie together in one last jam before consigning the listener back to the harsher, decidedly less utopian vibes of reality.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This is the first Orange Goblin date I’ve seen for 2025, and surely won’t be the last fest the UK troupe headline as they continue to support this year’s Science, Not Fiction (review here) in Europe and beyond. At Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Athens — the first time Italy’s Heavy Psych Sounds has put on one of its branded festivals in Greece — Tuber, Belzebong, Black Rainbows and Acid Mammoth will join in the fray of the two-nights/two-clubs event set for March 7 and 8, plus more names still to be unveiled. Of those, Tuber and Acid Mammoth represent the fertile native Greek underground, and it’s unlikely they’ll be the only ones to do so by the time the lineup is done. There’s no lack of bands to choose from between now and the end of winter.
The announcement came through today with what’s probably ultimately about half the bill — unless they’re really packing them in, which is always possible; I don’t know if Arch Club or Universe have more than one stage — but it’s a strong start either way and a way to let the heavy heads of Athens know that a thing is happening as tickets go on presale. This may be the first time in Athens, but it’s not at all Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first time branching into new territory, and you’ll note the partnership here with local producer TMR Entertainment Group, which continues a thread of aligning with regional promoters to ensure things go off with no more hitches than one might generally encounter in stoner-anything.
Another killer two-dayer, and that this sentence started with “another” should be taken as a sign of how utterly spoiled the world is for heavy festivals. Think about where you were and weren’t four years ago.
From the PR wire:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ATHENS 2025
– FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ATHENS – 7th and 8th MARCH 2025 –
FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED TODAY
THE HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST is landing in Athens for the first time on March 7 & 8, 2025, bringing with it an unstoppable rock earthquake! For two electrifying nights, ARCH Club and Universe will transform into hotspots for the stoner, doom, and psych rock scene, hosting some of the genre’s most legendary names.
Today Heavy Psych Sounds Records in cooperation with TMR Entertainment Group is announcing the FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS !!
– HPS FEST ATHENS 2025 – 7th and 8th March @ Arch Club @ Universe
FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS
ORANGE GOBLIN TUBER BELZEBONG BLACK RAINBOWS ACID MAMMOTH + more TBA
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 24th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ll admit that while I’ve long recognized Nightstalker as OG champions of Greek heavy rock circa-1990-whatever, I’ve never actually dug into their 1994 debut, Side FX. This reissue, announced today from Heavy Psych Sounds — which also put out the band’s latest album, Great Hallucinations (review here) — has provided an excuse to do so.
The debut is a good place to start, as it turns out, brimming with the hallmarks of the era in crunchy guitars, punchy bass, and a blend of Motörhead and Black Sabbath that’s a bit darker than some of the more desert-style stoner of the day, but that’s ultimately less metal than I’d been made to understand. It’s brash, and there’s a break near the end of “Funny Paper” — just a couple seconds in the sub-three-minute cut –that drops to bass and drums alone that reminds me of Megadeth‘s “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” that brought a smile to my face, but it’s way more about groove than aggro vibes, and that’s just fine. Like the headline says, the release date is Nov. 15.
That the band will have a new record out next year and a significant round of live dates for their 35th anniversary is likewise welcome news, if you need something else to look forward to about next year — can’t hurt — and as there are surely listeners who, like me, have never taken Side FX on, having gotten on board with Nightstalker at some later point in the last three decades, you’ll find it streaming at the bottom of this post. It’s ’90s-tastic:
Brand new reissue of the NIGHTSTALKER legendary debut album Side FX in new coloured vinyls !!
Nightstalker’s debut album, recorded in 1993 and released in 1994, captures the raw, rebellious energy of the era, blending gritty, Motörhead-inspired heaviness with infectious grooves. Emerging from Greece during the height of grunge and alternative music, the band delivers a sound that’s unapologetically rough and driven by a heavy, rhythmic pulse. Their music channeled the raw power of ‘90s rock while Nightstalker carved out their own space with their hypnotic riffs, groovy basslines, and a dark, rebellious spirit.
A bold first step, this album sets the tone for Nightstalker’s journey.
“It’s been 30 years since Side FX dropped, and those riffs still hit hard. We’re proud to reissue our debut for all of you who’ve been with us since day one—and those just discovering it now! Crank it up and hear what our sound was like in the early 90s..” Andreas & Argy
Athens classic-heavy purveyors Bus — aka Bus The Unknown Secretary — move deeper into the metallic with their third full-length, We Are the Night. Set to release June 21 as their first offering through Sound Effect Records and the follow-up to 2019’s Never Decide (review here), the tight-knit 33-minute eight-songer LP manifests influences that have been at work in their sound since their 2016 debut, The Unknown Secretary (review here), but it is as refined in its focus as it is brazen in the proto-thrash shove of “Amass Empathy” or the Judas Priest-style careening chug of “Somebody Spits on You,” so perhaps it’s fair to say they’re leaning into the harder, rawer, and less boogie-prone side of their collective persona.
They do so with immediacy resultant in part from a generally stripped-down feel in the material. It’s not all as outwardly speedy as the opening title-track (video premiering below) and initial single and album-closer “Under My Skin” — to wit, the penultimate “Rise of the Fallen” pulls back on the throttle to give its lead guitar all the more space to establish a sinister atmosphere leading into the finale, with organ melody adding some light to its own crescendo — but the forward charge is nonetheless definitive, and bolstered by the divergence into garage-doom lumbering of “Rumours” and the returning production work of John Vulgaris keyed for warmth as well as clarity enough to let the changes shine through.
But it also helps that Bus aren’t trying to hide where they’re coming from or play coy in stylistic terms. Whether it’s “I’ll Be Dead for You” with a riff so ’80s that even Mötley Crüe’s AI would be impressed, or the way “Nevermind/Realise” complements its twisting guitar leads with a cyclical rhythm on drums and extra punch in the bass, the four-piece hold fast to the classic-metal foundations driving them. They don’t dwell too long in any single movement, but each piece adds something to the overarching flow and contextual dynamic, as when “Rumours” redirects the momentum after the speedier “Somebody Spits on You” or “Amass Empathy” kicks off side B with such pointed intensity. We Are the Night isn’t as broad in its reach as some of what Bus have done in the past, but in trade, its specific focus becomes a strength that makes it hit that much harder.
With “Rumours” and the chunkier riffing of “Rise of the Fallen” offsetting the sheer thrust that surrounds and “Under My Skin” capping with not-the-record’s-first nod to the NWOBHM in the guitar and a bookend to the title-cut, We Are the Night isn’t hyper-simplified or just a half-hour-plus of Bus doing the same thing eight times over. Instead, they bring pretense-free homage to the metal of eld and present songs varied in character but united in purpose, efficient in craft and rife with aesthetic intent. That’s not the most “get those horns up!” sentence I’ve ever written, for sure, but amid all the brash riffing and hairpin turns they pull off, they’re making a declaration of who they are and what they want to do at this stage in their tenure.
Will it be the same going forward? Hell if I know. But if you’ve followed Bus at all to this point or if they’re completely new to you, the vitality with which they execute We Are the Night invites you to be in the moment with it, and maybe let later worry about later later. Garage metal? Freedom metal? Trad metal? Call it whatever you want, it’s no less exciting to take on front to back.
Enjoy the video for “We Are the Night” below, followed by more from the PR wire:
Bus, “We Are the Night” video premiere
Doomed by the cruelty of the new world, we’re once again ready to smash the bridge of the imperial vision, right here – right now! A truly independent and irreverent album has landed! “WE ARE THE NIGHT” came to seal the extraordinary music attitude of the extreme classic rock quartet from Athens. Through the difficulties of the recent years BUS got more motivated and the result is a true solid rock/metal album. Compact! Powerful! All killer, no filler! Just bangers such as the self-titled song “We Are the Night”, “Somebody Spits on You”, ‘I’ll be Dead for You” and “Under My Skin”.
The album was recorded live in three days at Electric Highway Studios in Athens, engineered once again by John Vulgaris. It’s the second time the band trusts John Vulgaris for his creativity and input in the creative process, like singing and playing various instruments. So, let’s find the reason for tonight and bang our heads with heavy metal, sex and rock n roll.
“We Are the Night” is due out on June 21st on vinyl and CD! Pre-sale shall be announced soon.
Tracklisting: 1. We Are the Night (5:14) 2. Somebody Spits on You (2:36) 3. Rumours (4:46) 4. I’ll Be Dead for You (3:53) 5. Amass Empathy (3:14) 6. Nevermind/Realise (3:02) 7. Rise of the Fallen (5:39) 8. Under My Skin (5:03)
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Greek traditionalist heavy outfit Bus — aka Bus the Unknown Secretary — have signed to Sound Effect Records for the June 21 release of their third full-length, We Are the Night. It’s the band’s first LP since 2019’s Never Decide (review here), which came out through RidingEasy, and while it keeps the semi-retro spirit that the band have proffered since their 2016 Twin Earth debut, The Unknown Secretary (review here), lead single “Under My Skin” pulls back on the boogie and garage aspect of that in favor of a rawer, more Motörheaded charge.
If you found yourself swept up in the fist-in-the-air NWOBHM-gone-raw force of Danava‘s Nothing but Nothing in 2023, “Under My Skin” should have little trouble getting where the title says it’s headed. With punches of bass behind its proto-thrash solo, a hooky chorus and infectious physical shove, it accounts for some of the darker mood Bus presented on their 2022 EP, Black Magic Bus, and couples that with an urgency that speaks to its having been recorded live in the studio.
As to whether or not “Under My Skin” represents everything Bus are doing on We Are the Night, I’d suspect not based on their past work, but frankly, the lead single already indicates a clear pivot from that foundation, so the door is open wide enough that it’s not worth speculating. It is worth looking forward to finding out, though, so I’m rolling with that.
Sound Effect sent the following down the PR wire:
BUS – “We Are the Night”
Bus the Unknown Secretary, collectively known as BUS, sign with Sound Effect Records and announce third album “We Are the Night”! Recorded live in the studio in just 3 days, “We Are the Night” is a solid rock/metal album, an “all killer, no filler” proposition and a must for all metal devotees across the globe. “We Are the Night” is due out on June 21st on vinyl and CD! Pre-sale shall be announced soon.
the grit of their weightiest chug to the bagpipes in the side-A-capping centerpiece “Erased?” Here, as across the album, the arrangement and the craft are thoughtful and tasteful, metal-rooted in a way that will feel familiar to those who’ve gotten into the ritualism of Poland’s Sunnata, but the range here is The Lotus Matter‘s own.
