NOTE: Gonna leave this post in the first spot for a couple days. New ones will appear underneath.

Since starting The Obelisk, I’ve made no secret of my unbridled fanboy status for all (or at least most) things Man’s Ruin Records. The now-defunct label headed by artist Frank Kozik put out some of the best music I’ve ever heard, and the bands released under the Man’s Ruin banner went on to influence an entire generation of underground rock, virtually defining and redefining The Heavy for the better part of a decade.

This podcast only scratches the surface of Man’s Ruin‘s impact crater. Some of the bands were Kozik discoveries, some were established acts he picked up for a release or two, but what is always assured with Man’s Ruin is that you’re going to get a work of quality, passion and genuine aesthetic. I can only hope Transmission 005 from the audiObelisk captures some of that. Like the banner above (made from an original Kozik poster), it was compiled in a spirit of reverence and with the utmost respect for those involved.

I didn’t exhaust my Man’s Ruin collection to put together all these songs, but also there are some things I just don’t own. Vinyl, for example. And Chrome. And Killdozer. And the first Desert Sessions. Nonetheless, these are all my personal rips from CDs and I think they’ve made for the best podcast yet. I’m optimistic you’ll agree when you download the file by clicking the image above, follow this link, or stream it on the player below.

aOT5

Just because I found the timeline interesting, I included the years the albums were released in the track listing. We start off with Tummler in 2000, and you’ll find the rest after the jump…

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NOTE: This post is going to stay here for a little bit. New ones will appear underneath.

Look. I didn’t know what else to do. I’ll still have a regular May podcast either this week or next, but in honor of the life and career of Ronnie James Dio, I made this too. I didn’t number it because it’s not a regular podcast, and I just thought maybe some of you would get some comfort in listening. It’s 25 songs, two hours long. You can get the file here, click the image above, or stream it below:

Diocast

There are some cuts you don’t get on the “greatest hits” stuff that I hope other fans will dig as much as I do. I know this isn’t the kind of thing The Obelisk usually covers, but Dio‘s work meant a lot to me over the years, and if you’re complaining, you’re an asshole.

Apologies for the downtime today and yesterday. Yahoo is fucked, but everything should be back to normal now (if not, please let me know). I’ll do my best to pick up with regular posting tomorrow, but no promises.

Track list for the Dio-cast is after the jump. I hope you enjoy it.

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Friends, I’ve been going nuts the last couple days trying to figure out what to do for the next audiObelisk Transmission and I’m torn between two options. I know I could just do one this month and one the next, but what the hell, if I’m gonna be putting in the hours to compile the damn thing, I at least want to be into it. So I put it to you. Here are the two choices to which I’ve narrowed it down. Please vote in the comments thread.

Option #1: Rule Britannia
The idea here is basically that it’s all British bands. From Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to El Schlong and Obiat, with all your Electric Wizards and Orange Goblins in between, this would basically be a collection of the UK‘s kickass contributions to the genre. Not entirely comprehensive, of course — or else it would need to be a 10-hour-long Ken Burns documentary — but a good mix, with new music from Cathedral included.

Option #2: To the Ruin of Man
A salute to Man’s Ruin Records. This podcast would take a look at the defunct label’s influence over doom and stoner rock by featuring tracks from Dozer, (pre-Los) Natas, Acid King, Porn, Nebula, Suplecs and plenty of others who released albums through Frank Kozik‘s imprint. Might not be as diverse as the British podcast, but you can bet your ass this one won’t be short on distortion.

So it’s up to you. You see my dilemma. Please cast a vote by leaving a comment to this post. Most votes by the end of the week gets a podcast.

Exclusive to the audiObelisk is this epic new track from Massachusetts metallers of stone, Black Pyramid. Culled from their forthcoming split with Kentucky duo Old One, “Illumination” stretches over 15 minutes in length and sees the trio — Andy Beresky (guitar), Gein (bass) and Clay Neely (drums) — push their mastery of the riffing arts into new territory from what was previously heard on their 2009 self-titled.

Black Pyramid‘s portion, rounded out by the track “Warswine,” was mixed by engineer Justin Pizzoferratu, and both Black Pyramid and Old One‘s tracks were mastered by Matt Washburn (Mastodon, Starchild). The Black Pyramid/Old One split is due out shortly on Serpent Records. Listen to “Illumination” here:

Illumination

While you listen, Andy Beresky fills us in on the goings on with the track:

The way the song relates to the album material is simple: we had finished with the album, and that freed us up to experiment and broaden our horizons a bit with our splits and sevens, so that’s what we decided to do. With the Old One split, we initially decided to go with the traditional “long song” approach, and have one extended track. Then the problem became writing it. “Warswine,” which became the second track on the split, was actually written first, even though it wasn’t originally meant for the split. It just took me a long time to approach writing a song that long, to figure out where to start. Eventually I just sat down and figured I’d have to start somewhere, and if I came up with a good beginning theme, then I could build off of that, and the song would just write itself. Well, that’s pretty much what ended up happening, but when I stretched it out to 20 minutes or so, I realized that about five minutes of it really was unnecessary and dragged it out too much, so we cut that and just went with the bare bones. Originally I had written a more ambient section between the tremolo picked section and the psychedelic Floydian part with the solo, but it just wasn’t needed, so we cut it, and that allowed us to record and use “Warswine” for the split also.

Lyrically, I’m not really going to get into what “Illumination” is about, but it’s kind of like a state of the union address, there are a lot of veiled references as to what I see going on at the time, take that for what you may. If you think a certain passage or phrase means a certain thing, then hey, chances are that it does. We want people to enjoy it for what it is: a longer song that we put a lot of thought and time into, rather than nitpick what the details of the song really mean. We like to think that the song as a whole tells its own story, and has its own unique perspective.

Yeah, I know it’s late, but as I said, this one is worth waiting for. It’s a sonic salute to this year’s Roadburn fest, which is set to take place this coming week at the 013 Popcentrum (pictured above) in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Actually, even though it’s the longest podcast I’ve done yet — OVER THREE HOURS — it’s about half a sonic salute, since the playlist is really just scratching the surface of the great acts on the bill.

But there was some stuff I just couldn’t leave out. Kyuss in honor of Garcia Plays Kyuss, Goatsnake, Los Natas, new music from Tom G. Warrior‘s Triptykon, Samsara Blues Experiment, live Church of Misery from last year’s Roadburn fest (a different track than last time), Eyehategod, The Gates of Slumber and a ton of others. As always, all rips are my own, straight from physical media. No digital sources or recoding of files, and in the spirit of the schedule, which allows bands enough time to play full sets instead of shortened festival times, I haven’t shied away from including longer songs here — see YOB, Bong, Jesu, etc.

If you’re heading to the fest, I’ll see you there. I’ll be the fatass American with the laptop. If you’re not going, enjoy a collection of killer tunes. I figured either way, these bands kick ass and make for a good mix of music, so please, enjoy. Click the image above or here to get the file, or stream it here:

audiObelisk Transmission 004

We start off with Kyuss doing “Freedom Run.” Full playlist is after the jump…

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[Note: I decided to feature this again since there had been enough posts in the meantime to knock it off the top page. Today’s newer posts will appear underneath.]

It’s been seven years since the last Solace record came out, and The Obelisk is proud to premiere the first leaked track from their new record, A.D., which hits iTunes next month and will exist in the physical realm come June. The song is “Za Gamman,” it rocks, and if you seek any further information, I recommend you check out either Solace‘s MySpace page or the Small Stone website. While I’m plugging things, my review for A.D. is here.

Solace, “Za Gamman”
Za Gamman

Says guitarist Justin Daniels of the track: “I’d have to say that it’s one of the more Solace-sounding songs on the album and I have to give Jason credit for sticking that ungodly hook in my head. That motherfucker’s voice soars at the end of the song. Chills every time.”

Solace recently announced they’ve been added to the lineup of this year’s Hellfest in France. They’ll be playing alongside the likes of Garcia Plays Kyuss, Yawning Man, Black Cobra, Brant Bjork, Mondo Generator, Weedeater and Rwake in the Terrorizer tent on Sunday, June 20. Oh yeah, Kiss and Motörhead will be there too.

In case the references regularly dropped around here aren’t enough of an indicator, I’ll say it outright: The Big Lebowski is my favorite film of all time. Since it has an ever-growing cult behind it, I know I’m not especially unique in this regard, but I don’t care. It is my cinematic ideal.

I could but won’t linger on the topic of the film’s memorability, easily-impersonated lines and characters. Suffice it to say this is a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Since before I was podcasting. Since before there was The Obelisk. The idea is a relatively simple one — interspersing clips from Lebowski between songs — but the execution is much more complex.

Foremost, how to choose what to include? In a movie where virtually every line is pull-worthy, how does one decide what stays out? Was I right to sacrifice “I can get you a toe” for “I’ll suck your cock for a thousand dollars — Brant can’t watch though, or he has to pay a hundred?” I don’t know. All I can say is I did my best and I hope you enjoy.

Click here for audiObelisk Transmission 003: The Dude Abides.

Contained within, you’ll find new music from Sardonis, The Brought Low and Church of Misery (live), as well as classics from Kyuss, Melvins, Sleep, Electric Wizard, Orange Goblin and more. Full track list is after the jump…

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Well, there was enough of a response last time that I decided to go ahead and make another podcast. You’ll note the new banner in the sidebar and the one above, and yes, it’s Transmission 002 from the audiObelisk. And in case it’s not clear, the title is, “An Ode to Fuzz.”

aOT2

We can get to the tracklisting in a second, but first, the disclaimers:

? These songs are all my rips.
? With the exception of Sasquatch, they were ripped directly from physical media (CDs) to wav form, compiled in Sony SoundForge 10 and then converted to 256k bitrate mp3 for better sound quality than standard iPodular fare. Sasquatch was converted from an aiff file to wav, then to mp3.
? The file is 287mb, and there is just over two and a half hours’ worth of music.
? I once again chose not to inject myself into the proceedings in some kind of DJ form. I still reserve the right to do so in the future.

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s a collection of some of the best fuzz rock has to offer, from the doom of Electric Wizard to the high desertry of Kyuss and Natas. Some obvious, some obscure. It features new songs from Asteroid and Sasquatch. I don’t think there’ll be many complaints with the song selection.

Please enjoy the stream above or download the file. Full tracklist is after the jump, comments are more than welcome.

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