Atlas, the second full-length from Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen, is out May 27. It is the Dalarna five-piece’s first outing for Magnetic Eye Records following 2018’s Vallmo (review here) on Suicide Records and DalaPop and the subsequent 2019 Frost EP (discussed here) issued through Blues Funeral Recordings‘ PostWax vinyl subscription before seeing wider public release. Comprised of 10 tracks, Atlas — which is aptly titled if one considers the world-on-shoulders connotation, perhaps also a roadmap of how to survive under all that weight — runs 47 minutes and was written by the band mostly-remotely during pandemic lockdown before being recorded and sent to the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Katatonia, ex-Demon Cleaner, on and on) for mixing and mastering.

Any and all concern about the album feeling or sounding disjointed as a result of the forced shift in how it was written should be allayed. On both a technological level and in terms of the actual listening experience, Atlas is cohesive, together in a way that makes one inclined to italicize the word, and a logical step forward in sound and style from Vallmo and Frost, fueled by the songwriting of guitarists/backing vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot, the periodically-haunting echo-laced vocals of Lea Amling Alazam, and the unrepentant, varied grooves of bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Erik Bäckwall.

Those familiar with Besvärjelsen will recall that Rockner and Bäckwall are veterans of Dozer and Greenleaf, and the match of their playing and the mix and finishing touches from Lidén — also veteran of those two bands, in production and on drums — is especially critical to the impact throughout Atlas. As much as pieces like the rousing set-the-tone opener “The Cardinal Ride” (premiering below) and its side B counterpart/prior single “Digerliden,” the subsequent, mellower and airier “Descent” and its corresponding side A precursor “Clouds” lean hard into melody vocally and instrumentally — either keys or guitar effects fleshing out the material at various points along the way — it’s Bäckwall‘s snare that’s the first thing the listener hears on the album.

And between his fleet work on toms and cymbals on the crunched-out chugger “House of Burning Light” and the largesse of Rockner‘s rumble that matches the thud of second track “Acheron,” it’s doesn’t feel out of place to be reminded a bit of mid-period Dozer‘s penchant for shove, though with Besvärjelsen circa 2022, the context in which that element is put to use is obviously different. Fluid in tempo, open-feeling even as “The Cardinal Ride” executes the first of Atlas‘ statistically-significant hooks — bar chart forthcoming (no, not really) — and mindful of bringing together the emotional urgency of the lyrics with the weight of the music over, under, around and through which they’re delivered, depending on the moment.

In craft and realization, Besvärjelsen are methodical. Whether a given song is faster like “The Cardinal Ride” or slow like the assumed side A finale “Paradise,” an anguished linear build like “Descent” or a soaring wash in its peak like the near-eight-minute album closer “Divided Ends,” the collective hand of the band is controlled, poised and leaves Alazam room to belt out the lyrics with due force and attitude, as on “House of the Burning Light,” where the cadence nods at hip-hop without actually being it and “Obscured by Darkness,” in which doubt and negative self-talk become fodder for one of the record’s most memorable rollouts, heavy, lonely in a way that suits the era, and raw such that even the lush surroundings and insistent nod seem affected by the directness.

The aural weight in “Obscured by Darkness” isn’t to be understated either, as “Acheron” and “House of the Burning Light” — which has a genuine mosh part snuck into its post-chorus; one more reach outside heavy rock genre confines that fits with what they’re doing more generally precisely because they make it do so — act as foreshadow while the side B pairing of “Descent” and the cinematic-feeling keyboard interlude “Celestial” (would’ve worked in Dune) just prior to “Obscured by Darkness” itself ensure that the sheer impact of the penultimate cut will be duly felt, its rhythm a reminder that Besvärjelsen at their heaviest are peer to fellow Swedes like Domkraft or Cities of Mars in the sphere of post-Monolordian lumber.

At least, when they want to be. And here too one finds perhaps the most important crux of Atlas at work. Whether Besvärjelsen are bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders or finding a path simply to get through one road to the next — or both — it is their unwillingness to easily fit that most typifies their individuality as a group. That is to say, there’s always something about the songs that stands them out, and even across the 47 minutes of the album — which isn’t so long as to be unmanageable for an LP, but is by no means short either — they find ways to be expressive and engaging in kind, letting the immersion in the first 90 seconds of “Clouds” be answered by the slow-but-not-languid unfurling of what follows and layering “Digerliden” with backing vocals and a floating guitar lead that’s striking enough to speak to the consciousness on the band’s part of who they are and what they want their material to be.

The fact that they record themselves is evident in their attention to detail — a fleeting example: Alazam‘s line, “You smell like rot inside” ends just as two melodic keyboard notes answer half a minute into “Descent” — but the entirety of Atlas, when taken as a whole, feels complete and able to bring the audience into the sound that is even more definitively their own than it was three or four years ago. More over, they give no impression that their growth is finished or that they’re done experimenting and pushing the limits of aesthetic or their own abilities in writing or playing, so as much mastery as they readily showcase front-to-back throughout, Besvärjelsen‘s creative progression may still just be getting under way as they respond to, build on, and surpass their first full-length with this second one. Perhaps the circumstances in the writing of Atlas weren’t ideal. It’s difficult to hear the result as anything else.

“The Cardinal Ride” and a third installment of the Making-Of video series premiere below, followed by some words from the band, relevant links and a slew of other clips.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, “The Cardinal Ride” premiere

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 3 premiere

Erik Bäckwall on “The Cardinal Ride”:

“‘The Cardinal Ride’ was the only song on the album that started as a jam and evolved from there. It was faster at first and had the working name “Sendrag, which means “Cramp” due to the effect it had on my right leg. It went through several iterations before Johan finally nailed the arrangement and Lea came up with the vocal melody and lyrics.”

‘Atlas’ was recorded at Studio Gröndal and Studio Glashuset, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén in Sweden. The artwork was created by Besvärjelsen and Łukasz Jaszak. The album will be available as blue and curacao marble vinyl LP, digisleeve CD and digital on May 27th, 2022 with preorder available now via Magnetic Eye Records: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

BESVÄRJELSEN New album “Atlas”
Out May 27th on Magnetic Eye Records – Preorder: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

TRACKLIST:
1. The Cardinal Ride
2. Acheron
3. Clouds
4. House of the Burning Light
5. Paradise
6. Digerliden
7. Descent
8. Celestial
9. Obscured by Darkness
10. Divided Ends

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 2

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

We are drawing ever closer to the May 27 release of Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen‘s new album, Atlas, on Magnetic Eye Records. And that’s good news both because the record is good and because I’m starting to get tired of sitting on my hands waiting to review it. A couple weeks ago — it was March 16, but who’s counting — the five-piece premiered the first in a series of three behind-the-scenes videos covering the making of Atlas (posted here, also below), as well as a clip teaching those of us who may have been curious how to pronounce the band’s name. Rest assured, if I’m ever fortunate enough to interview anyone from this band, I’ll still probably say it wrong. I try my best, regularly fail.

This is the second clip, as you likely inferred. The band are getting ready to enter the studio and make the record after writing remotely — about which none of them seemed to be particularly thrilled. Everyone kind of agrees sending files through Google Drive is an interesting way to collaborate and allowed them to try new things — you can hear the results in the sonic branchouts on Atlas — but it doesn’t feel like wild conjecture to say that it probably would’ve been the band’s preference if, you know, there wasn’t a global pandemic preventing them from doing shows and rehearsing in-person all the time and so on. Stick around for more hard-hitting insight on the universally obvious as only The Obelisk can bring it.

I said last time I was hosting all three of these clips, and dammit, I am. The good news is that the next one (slated as of now for May 11) will at last be the point at which I dig into the record for review. For now I just seem to keep getting swallowed up in its open spaces, and that’s fine too. I’ll take that.

Not wanting to include the same glut of PR wire info as last time, you’ll just find the lineup down there in blue, basically as a spacer between the new video and the older ones, including that for “Digerliden” from the record. I know that kind of thing doesn’t matter to anyone but me, but it matters to me, so there.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 2 premiere

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen release their new album, Atlas, on May 27 through Magnetic Eye Records. And to answer your next two questions: there are three of these ‘Making Of’ videos, and yes, I’ve signed on to premiere all three of them. If that makes you say to yourself, “Gee, this guy must really be a nerd for this band,” congratulations. That, indeed, is the point I’m trying to make.

There are two clips below. The first is the first part of the ‘Making Of’ series, and the second is a pronunciation guide for the band’s name. And yeah, that’s kind of a goofy idea, a funny concept, but as vocalist Lea Amling Alazam takes you through the phonetics and you see guest appearances from the likes of Howling Giant and labelmates Caustic Casanova, she also gives some background/trivia on the area of Sweden the band come from, and if you stick around there’s even a commemorative plate with the king and queen on it. And no, Besvärjelsen is not pronounced like you probably thing it is. With my North Jersey accent, I’m not sure I’d try to say it back to the band without practicing first for a long time.

Things to watch for in the making of clip? Alazam‘s many hairstyles. A Dozer LP behind guitarist Staffan Stensland Vinrot while he talks about the band getting together, a Rainbow one for drummer Erik Bäckwall, who, like bassist Johan Rockner, has been a member of Dozer (the latter still is), and some killer live footage — including what looks like a dug-out festival in a quarry; what’s that one? — that brings into emphasis the varied kinds of atmospheres one might find Besvärjelsen working with at any given point as they certainly do on Atlas, guitarist Andreas Baier stepping back in terms of production to the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (recently nominated for the Swedish equivalent of a Grammy for his work on the latest Greenleaf LP).

I’m gonna stop here, because I find that the more I type while listening to Atlas, the more I want to review it and, well, May’s still a long time away. We’ll get there though, and these clips offer fun and context along the way to digging deeper into the record.

Clips and the band’s latest bio follow.

Please enjoy:

Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 1

How to say “Besvärjelsen”

What to do when you like rock and doom born from the desert but your surroundings offer anything but arid lands? BESVÄRJELSEN found an impressive answer in the grim forests of their homeland in Dalarna, Sweden. Having grown up in the far north at the meeting grounds of ancient Norse and Finnish cultures amongst echoes of runes and gods, shamans and spirits, the spellbinding five-piece crafted their name from the Swedish word for “conjuring” while drawing heavy inspiration from local lore, mysticism, and the dark, old musical traditions. Yet BESVÄRJELSEN are anything but another “pagan” outfit longing for a time that never was. With its wistful melodies and towering riff-power their sophomore full-length “Atlas” represents a logical step along the course that BESVÄRJELSEN charted from the start.

The band was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot in 2014 with a clear vision to channel the spirit and traditions of the vast Dalarna forests, a region otherwise famous for its painted wooden horses, into contemporary heavy music. Once vocalist Lea Amling Alazam arrived with a fiery passion for punk and stoner rock that had begun at the local skate park when she was just counting 13 years, Andreas and Staffan happily relegated their shared vocal duties to a supporting role – an easy choice as Lea’s distinctive voice summoned the intimacy and charisma of singers like NINA SIMONE or AMY WINEHOUSE. BESVÄRJELSEN released their debut EP “Villfarelser” in 2015, which was followed quickly by the “Exil” EP in 2016. The Swedes’ debut full-length “Vallmo” hit the streets of Stockholm and elsewhere in 2018. The album merged crushing riffs and storming drums with increasingly sophisticated melodies and thoughtful themes. With the mini-album “Frost”, BESVÄRJELSEN intended to crush stages all over Europe in 2019, before being forced into involuntary live performance hibernation for two years.

Although compelled to write separately, the band used the spare time to compile a wealth of ideas, amassed remotely and shared across the miles and months of relative solitude, which would finally result in the recording of “Atlas” with producer Karl Daniel Lidén in 2021. Re-purposing melancholic harmonies that could have been derived from the playbook of ALICE IN CHAINS, adding gravity that would make Windhand proud, and topping their upgraded sound with exciting yet intimate vocal lines, BESVÄRJELSEN have carved a towering monolith from solid rock and planted it firmly into the magical woods of their homeland to send its heavy lay-lines around the globe that is burdening the shoulders of the titan “Atlas”.

BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen on Facebook

Besvärjelsen on Bandcamp

Besvärjelsen website

Magnetic Eye Records on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Just before setting up to write this post, I locked in a fair amount of coverage for the forthcoming LP, Atlas, by Swedish atmospheric heavy rock five-piece Besvärjelsen. I did this, simply, because the band rules. I haven’t heard Atlas yet — it’ll be out May 27 through Magnetic Eye, so I guess I have some time there — but the band will run a series of behind the scenes clips beforehand. In addition to teaching people how to say their name —  my money is on “bezz-VER-yell-sun,” but I don’t actually have any money — the three videos spaced out between next week or the week after and early May will I assume feature footage of the studio and new music snippets and all that kind of thing. I’m hoping as well we get a look at some of Dalarna, from whence the band hail. In talking to the band for their PostWax release, both guitarist Andreas Baier and vocalist Lea Amling Alazam mentioned the affect of their surroundings on the music. I’d be interested to see such a place, and maybe we all will.

Preorders for the album are up, and that’s wonderful, but even better is the new video for first single “Digerliden,” which you can see at the bottom of this post.

As per the PR wire:

BESVÄRJELSEN: new album details + first video released!

Swedish heavy rockers BESVÄRJELSEN share their new video “Digerliden” as the first single taken from their new album ‘Atlas’, to be released on May 27, 2022 through Magnetic Eye Records.

Guitarist and vocalist Andreas Baier explains the song title: “The title ‘Digerliden’ takes its name from a place in Sweden’s Dalecarlian Finnmark which roughly translates as ‘the dire suffering’, which relates to the hardship that its ancestral people endured while trying to survive and grow crops in its vast forests and mountains. It is a magical and mysterious please, and its native folk music was a well of inspiration for this song.” Singer Lea Amling Alazam adds: “The lyrics deal with people in love who hate themselves. After watching Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged, I was very inspired by the way their harmonies work and the kind of numb yet powerful melodies. I also felt a bit of a need for an Arabic harmony, so I wanted to find a way to combine grunge and Middle Eastern influences.”

On their sophomore full-length “Atlas”, aptly named after the mythical Greek titan who literally carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, BESVÄRJELSEN take a huge step toward the perfect wedding of melodic doom with subtle touches of prog as well as punk, folk, and classic rock. The distinctly urban component in the sound of these rockers is very much amplified by the outstanding vocals of Lea Amling Alazam. The charismatic singer took a fresh approach by embracing melodies and phrases of the grunge and emo sounds that defined her youth as well as African and Middle Eastern music – while keeping her characteristic bluesy undertones.

With its wistful melodies and towering riff-power, “Atlas” represents a logical progression along the course that BESVÄRJELSEN charted from the start. The band was co-founded by guitarists and vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot in 2014 with a clear vision to channel the spirit and traditions of the vast Dalarna forests, a region otherwise famous for its painted wooden horses, into contemporary heavy music. Andreas, coming from a background in punk and hardcore, had realized that by slowing things down, their music would gain in-depth while allowing haunting melodies to exist alongside a cathartic heaviness.

‘Atlas’ was recorded at Studio Gröndal and Studio Glashuset, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén in Sweden. The artwork was created by Besvärjelsen and Łukasz Jaszak. The album will be available as blue and curacao marble vinyl LP, digisleeve CD and digital on May 27th, 2022 with preorder available now via Magnetic Eye Records: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

BESVÄRJELSEN New album “Atlas”
Out May 27th on Magnetic Eye Records – Preorder: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas

TRACKLIST:
1. The Cardinal Ride
2. Acheron
3. Clouds
4. House of the Burning Light
5. Paradise
6. Digerliden
7. Descent
8. Celestial
9. Obscured by Darkness
10. Divided Ends

Line-up
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass

https://www.facebook.com/besvarjelsen
https://www.instagram.com/besvarjelsen
https://besvarjelsen.bandcamp.com/
http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Besvärjelsen, “Digerliden” official video

Besvärjelsen, Frost (2019)

You know what’s disheartening? When someone goes ‘thanks dudes.’ You know, I share a review or something, the band reposts and goes ‘thanks to the crew at The Obelisk blah blah.’ What fucking crew? If I had a crew, I’d put up 10 reviews every single day of the year. “Crew.” Shit. I am the crew. In the description of this site, the very first thing it says is “One-man operation.” It’s a fucking solo-project. That’s the whole point of it. It’s like me looking at your bass and going, “Sweet guitar, thanks for the solos brah.” I’m happy people want to share links and this and that, but really? It’s been nine years. Give me a break.

Oh yeah, that’s right. Nobody gives a shit. Now I remember. Thanks for reading.

And while we’re here, please remember the numbers for these posts don’t mean anything. This isn’t a countdown. Or a countup. It’s just me keeping track of how much shit I’m reviewing. The answer is “a lot.”

Grump grump grump.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Lucifer, Lucifer II

Recorded as the trio of vocalist Johanna Sardonis (ex-The Oath), guitarist Robin Tidebrink (Saturn) and guitarist/drummer Nicke Andersson (Death Breath, ex-Entombed, ex-The Hellacopters), Lucifer’s second album, Lucifer II (on Rise Above), follows three years after its numerical predecessor, Lucifer I (review here), and marks its personnel changes with a remarkable consistency of mission. Like Mercyful Fate gone disco, the formerly-Berlin/London-now-Stockholm group bring stage-ready atmospheres to songs like “Phoenix” and the riff-led “Before the Sun,” while unleashing a largesse of hooks in “Dreamer” and the boogie-pushing “Eyes in the Sky.” “Dancing with Mr. D” brings nod to a Rolling Stones cover, and “Before the Sun” reaffirms a heavy ‘70s root in their sound. I can’t help but wonder if the doomier “Faux Pharaoh” is a sequel to “Purple Pyramid,” but either way, its thicker, darker tonality is welcome ahead of the bonus track Scorpions cover “Evening Wind,” which again demonstrates the ease with which Lucifer make established sounds their own. That’s pretty much the message of the whole album. Lucifer are a big band. Lucifer II makes the case for their being a household name.

Lucifer on Thee Facebooks

Rise Above Records webstore

—

 

Heilung, Lifa

Lifa is the audio taken from the live video that brought Denmark’s Heilung to prominence. Captured at Castlefest in The Netherlands in last year, the impression the expansive Viking folk group made was all the more powerful with elaborate costuming, bone percussive instruments, antlers, animal-skin drums, and so on. Their debut studio album, Ofnir, came out in 2015 and like LIFA has been issued by Season of Mist, but the attention to detail and A/V experience only adds to the hypnotic tension and experimentalist edge in the material. Does it work with just the audio? Yes. The 12-minute “In Maijan” and somehow-black-metal “Krigsgaldr” maintain their trance-out-of-history aspect, and the 75-minute set blends multi-tiered melodies and goblin-voiced declarations for an impression unlike even that which Wardruna bring to bear. Whether it’s the drones of “Fylgija Futhorck” or the chants and thuds of “Hakkerskaldyr,” LIFA is striking from front to back and a cohesive, visionary work that should be heard as well as seen. But definitely seen.

Heilung on Thee Facebooks

Season of Mist website

—

 

Amarok, Devoured

Eight years after their founding, an EP and several splits, Chico, California, atmosludge extremists Amarok make their full-length debut with Devoured on Translation Loss. If it’s been a while in the making, it’s easy enough to understand why. The album is rife with brutalist and grueling sensibilities. Comprised of just four tracks, it runs upwards of 70 minutes and brings a visceral churn to each cut, not forgetting the importance of atmosphere along the way, but definitely focused on the aural bludgeoning they’re dealing out. Tempos, duh, are excruciating, and between the screams and growls of bassist Brandon Squyres (also Cold Blue Mountain) and guitarist Kenny Ruggles – the band completed by guitarist Nathan Collins and drummer Colby Byrne – Amarok make their bid for Buried at Sea levels of heft and rumble their way across a desolate landscape of their own making. Eight years to conjure this kind of punishment? Yeah, that seems about right. See you in 2026.

Amarok on Thee Facebooks

Translation Loss Records webstore

—

 

T.G. Olson, Ode to Lieutenant Henry

Here’s a curious case: T.G. Olson, founding guitarist and vocalist of Across Tundras, is a prolific experimental singer-songwriter. His material ranges from psychedelic country to fuller-toned weirdo Americana and well beyond. He’s wildly prolific, and everything goes up on Bandcamp for a name-your-price download, mostly unannounced. It’s not there, then it is. Olson’s latest singe, Ode to Lieutenant Henry, was there, and now it’s gone. With the march of its title-track and a complementary cover of Townes van Zandt’s “Silver Ships of Andilar,” I can’t help but be curious as to where the tracks went and if they’ll be back, perhaps in some other form or as part of a different release. Both are plugged-in and coated in fuzzy tones, with Olson’s echoing vocals providing a human presence in the wide soundscape of his own making. The original is shorter than the cover, but both songs boast a signature sense of ramble that, frankly, is worth being out there. Hopefully they’re reposted at some point, either on their own as they initially were or otherwise.

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

T.G. Olson/Across Tundras on Bandcamp

—

 

Sun Dial, Science Fiction

If space is the place, Sun Dial feel right at home in it. The long-running UK psychedelic adventurers collect two decades’ worth of soundtrack material on Science Fiction, their new release for Sulatron Records. Made with interwoven keyboard lines and a propensity to periodically boogie on “Mind Machine,” “Airlock,” “Infra Red,” etc., the experimentalist aspect of Science Fiction is all the more remarkable considering the album is compiled from different sources. One supposes the overarching cosmos is probably what brings it together, but with the samples and synth of “Saturn Return” and the lower end space-bass of pre-bonus-track closer “Starwatchers” – that bonus track, by the way, is a 15-minute version of opener “Hangar 13” – and though the vast majority of the Science Fiction relies on synth and keys to make its impression, it’s still only fair to call the proceedings natural, as the root of each one seems to be exploration. It’s okay to experiment. Nobody’s getting hurt.

Sun Dial on Thee Facebooks

Sun Dial at Sulatron Records webstore

—

 

Lucid Grave, Demo 2018

There are three songs on Lucid Grave’s first outing, the aptly-titled Demo 2018, and the first of them is also the longest (immediate points), “Star.” It presents a curious and hard to place interpretation of psychedelic sludge rock. It is raw as a demo worthy of its name should be, and finds vocalist Malene Pedersen (also Lewd Flesh) echoing out to near-indecipherable reaches atop the feedback-addled riffing. Quite an introduction, to say the least. The subsequent “Desert Boys” is more subdued at the start but gets furious at the end, vocals spanning channels in an apparent call and response atop increasingly intense instrumental thrust. And as for “Ride the Hyena?” If I didn’t know better – and rest assured, I don’t – I’d call it doom. I’m not sure what the hell the København five-piece are shooting for in terms of style, but I damn sure want to hear what they come up with next so I can find out. Consider me enticed. And accordingly, one can’t really accuse Demo 2018 of anything other than doing precisely what it’s supposed to do.

Lucid Grave on Thee Facebooks

Lucid Grace on Bandcamp

—

 

Domadora, Lacuna

Comprised of four-tracks of heavy psychedelic vibes led by the scorch-prone guitar of Belwil, Domadora’s third album, Lacuna, follows behind 2016’s The Violent Mystical Sukuma (discussed here) and taps quickly into a post-Earthless league of instrumentalism on opener “Lacuna Jam.” That should be taken as a compliment, especially as regards the bass and drums of Gui Omm and Karim Bouazza, respectively, who hold down uptempo grooves there and roll along with the more structured 14-minute cut “Genghis Khan” that follows. Each of the album’s two sides is comprised of a shorter track and a longer one, and there’s plenty of reach throughout, but more than expanse, even side B’s “Vacuum Density” and “Tierra Last Homage” are more about the chemistry between the band members – Angel Hidalgo Paterna rounds out on organ – than about crafting a landscape. Fortunately for anyone who’d take it on, the Parisian unit have plenty to offer when it comes to that chemistry.

Domadora on Thee Facebooks

Domadora on Bandcamp

—

 

Klandestin, Green Acid of Last Century

That’s a big “fuck yes, thank you very much” for the debut album from Indonesian stoner metallers Klandestin. Green Acid of the Last Century arrives courtesy of Hellas Records and is THC-heavy enough that if they wanted to, they could probably add “Bong” to the band’s name and it would be well earned. Eight tracks, prime riffs, watery vocals, dense fuzz, stomp, plod, lumber, shuffle – it’s all right there in homegrown dosage, and for the converted, Green Acid of the Last Century is nothing short of a worship ceremony, for the band itself as well as for anyone taking it on. With the march of “Doomsday,” the unmitigated rollout of “Black Smoke,” and the swirling green aurora of “The Green Aurora,” Klandestin wear their holding-back-a-cough riffage as a badge of honor, and couldn’t be any less pretentious about it if they tried. From the hooded weedian on the cover art to the Sleepy nod of closer “Last Century,” Green Acid of Last Century telegraphs its intent front-to-back, and is all the more right on for it.

Klandestin on Thee Facebooks

Hellas Records on Bandcamp

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Poor Little Things, Poor Little Things

You get what you pay for with “Rock’n’Roller,” which leads off the self-titled debut EP from Bern, Switzerland-based Poor Little Things. Around the core duo of vocalist Tina Jackson and multi-instrumentalist Dave “Talon” Jackson (also of Australia’s Rollerball) on guitar, bass, synth and percussion is Talon’s The Marlboro Men bandmate Fernando Marlboro on drums, and together the band presents five tracks of remember-when-rock-rocked-style groove. Fueled by ‘70s accessibility and a mentality that seems to be saying it’s okay to play big rooms, like arenas, cuts like “Drive” seem prime for audience participation, and “Break Another Heart” gives a highlight performance from Tina while “About Love” showcases a more laid back take. They close with the 6:37 “Street Cheetah,” which struts appropriately, and end with a percussive finish on a fadeout repeating the title line. As a showcase of their style and songwriting chops, Poor Little Things shows significant promise, sure, but it’s also pretty much already got everything it needs for a full-length album.

Poor Little Things on Thee Facebooks

Poor Little Things on Bandcamp

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Motorowl, Atlas

Every now and then you put on a record and it’s way better than you expect. Hello, Motorowl’s Atlas. The German troupe’s second for Century Media, it takes the classic stylizations of their 2016 debut, Om Generator, and pushes them outward into a vast sea of organ-laced progressive heavy, soaring in vocal melodies and still modern despite drawing from an array of decades past. The chug in “The Man Who Rules the World” would be metal for most bands, but on Atlas, it becomes part of a broader milieu, and sits easily next to the expansive title-track, as given to post-rocking airiness in the guitar as to synth-laden prog. That mixture of influences and aesthetics would be enough to give the five-piece an identity of their own, but Atlas is further characterized by Motorowl’s ambitious songwriting and benefits greatly from the melodic arrangements and the clear intention toward creative development at work here. Those who take on its seven-track/45-minute journey will find it dynamic, spacious and heavy in kind.

Motorowl on Thee Facebooks

Motorowl at Century Media website

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As announced earlier this week, tomorrow is the digital release date of Atlas, the new single from German four-piece Wight. With vinyl forthcoming through H42 Records (presale starts tomorrow for that as well) sometime over the summer, the band begins quickly to move forward from their 2016 third album, Love is Not Only What You Know (review here), while keeping some of the same principals intact. You might recall that Love is Not Only What You Know was the latest in a series of three departures for Wight; each of their full-lengths to-date has marked a significant shift in sound from the one before it.

In the case of Love is Not Only What You Know, it was funk and soul elements incorporated with a classic rock feel building on the heavy psych of 2012’s Through the Woods into Deep Water (review here), which likewise was a marked shift from the straightforward nod-riffing of 2011’s Wight Weedy Wight (review here) debut. Out and out they go. Where they’ll stop, nobody knows.

With Atlas, though, Wight maintain some of the flavor of their third outing while also moving it forward. The single features two versions of the song “Atlas,” one performed by the band and the other an extra-funkified redux called “Atlas (Flashbaxx Remix),” which you know is trouble from the sheer number of ‘x’s the title contains. It lives up to that standard. Even the core “Atlas” is plenty dangerous, though, with the organ and Rhodes lines of Steffen Kirchpfening intertwining with René Hofmann‘s guitar early only to step back and allow his increasingly soulful vocal delivery — coated in far-off echo here that seems to answer him back when heard through headphones — to feature even more than on the last record en route to a quick but telling bridge jam held together atop the rhythm from bassist Peter-Philipp Schierhorn and drummer Thomas Kurek and a last run through the somewhat restrained hook.

It’s a quick listen, under five minutes, but it sees Wight bring further cohesion to the impulses that drove the material their last time out, and when the “Atlas (Flashbaxx Remix)” starts in with its Curtis Mayfield-style groove, yeah, the band lets you know they have a few more tricks up their collective sleeve yet. I’d love to hear these dudes with a full-on funky string section. It could happen. Don’t think it couldn’t.

Wight have a history of performing live in videos. They did it to lead the way into the last album with a clip for “The Love of Life Leads to Reincarnation” (posted here), and they represented Through the Woods into Deep Water by actually going to the woods and playing the title-track (posted here), so to find them digging into “Atlas” leading into the single fits their character well enough, and it’s to their credit that as they keep pushing their sound to these new places, they refuse to not draw that line of vitality in their approach. There’s some surprisingly melancholy imagery included here — for a track so colorful, the clip is awfully black and white — but Wight have very clearly come to dwell on their own wavelength, so I’m not inclined to ask questions.

Please find the video premiere for “Atlas” below, followed by the credits and the band’s upcoming live dates. My thanks to Wight and H42 Records for letting me host it.

Enjoy:

Wight, “Atlas” official video

Recorded live at Orange Box Studio, Darmstadt, January 2017

Produced by René Hofmann, Fat&Holy Records 2017

– Video Credits –
Camera & post-production: Gabriel Sahm, Johanna Amberg
Additonal Camera: Martin Kadel, Jonas Eichhorn, Fabian Weber

– Audio Credits –
Recording: Hüseyin Köroglu, Josko Koketovic
Mixing: Maurice Young
Mastering: René Hofmann

– Wight is –
Rene Hofmann: Vocals, Guitar
Peter-Philipp Schierhorn: Bass
Thomas Kurek: Drums
Steffen Kirchpfening: Organ, Rhodes

Wight live:
Mar 24 Centralstation Darmstadt, Germany w/ Colour Haze & My Sleeping Karma
Apr 01 Sputnikhalle Münster, Germany
May 05 DasBach Vienna, Austria
May 06 Zukunft Chemnitz, Germany
May 24 Schraub-BAR Bückeburg, Germany
May 26 Limes Cologne, Germany
May 26 O:M:A Karlstadt am Main, Germany

Wight on Thee Facebooks

Wight on Twitter

Wight on Bandcamp

H42 Records website

H42 Records on Thee Facebooks

On March 24, in their hometown of Darmstadt, Germany, four-piece psych-fusion rockers Wight will play one of the shows I’d most like to see in 2017. They’ll be supporting the ongoing, Obelisk-presented European tour of My Sleeping Karma and Colour Haze (dates posted here), and golly, that’s a good bill. Talk about front-to-back. Wight of course round out that stupidly-awesome trio of acts as they continue to support last year’s likewise excellent Love is Not Only What You Know (review here), but before they take the Centralstation stage, they’ll also be posting a new single called “Atlas” that finds them further digging into the funky, soul-laden sound they proffered on that 2016 album. Vinyl is due this summer on H42 Records, but one can definitely understand why they’d want the track out earlier as well. It’s quite an occasion.

Keep an eye out to0, because later this week I’ll be premiering a video for “Atlas.” Should be on Thursday if all goes according to my (not really all that evil) evil plans. The track and its remix both rules, so please, yeah, watch for it.

H42 has the WHY-IS-THIS-NOT-A-POSTER-ON-MY-WALL cover art and release details below:

ATLAS new Single from Wight out March 17, 2017

Wight announces new Single
Digital out on march 17th
Vinyl presale starts march 17th (release in June/July)

New year, new music. Wight give us new tunes in form of ATLAS!

The song is supposed to reflect the grey winter in Germany, as well as the topic of the titan “Atlas” our typically German mentality. Foreign people come and we are afraid of change and get angry with oracles / media, which is why we like to react very reserved. We whine a lot although 80% of our problems are complete luxury problems. We do not know hunger!

In september 2016 “Love Is Not Only What You Know”, the third album by the German band Wight, was released. The band was founded in 2008, in 2011 they released the self-produced debut “Wight Weedy Wight”. 2012 followed the second LP “Through The Woods Into Deep Water”, as well as concerts and festival performances, among others at the Stoned From The Underground and the Desertfest in Berlin.

Limited Edition up to 200 copies out on H42 Records (H42-044)
50 on GLOW IN THE DARK vinyl
50 on CLEAR vinyl
50 on PINK vinyl
100 on BLACK vinyl
+ 20x TESTPRESS Edition with different Artwork (Only from H42 Records)

Tracklist:
A1 Atlas
B1 Atlas (Flashbaxx Remix)

Wight live:
Mar 24 Centralstation Darmstadt, Germany w/ Colour Haze & My Sleeping Karma
Apr 01 Sputnikhalle Münster, Germany
May 05 DasBach Vienna, Austria
May 06 Zukunft Chemnitz, Germany
May 24 Schraub-BAR Bückeburg, Germany
May 26 Limes Cologne, Germany
May 26 O:M:A Karlstadt am Main, Germany

https://www.facebook.com/wightism
https://twitter.com/wightism
https://instagram.com/wightism/
https://wight.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/H42Records
https://twitter.com/H42Records
https://www.instagram.com/j.b.h42records/
http://www.h42records.com/

Wight, Love is Not Only What You Know (2016)