Posted in Whathaveyou on May 19th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Note the butt-load of fests included in the upcoming round of European touring for Austin, Texas, heavy rollers High Desert Queen. As their recent-enough-to-call-it-new new video for “Time Waster” demonstrates, that’s par for the course for when they get out, and if you’ve seen them before, you know the good times that ensue from there. Big riffs, communal vibes, the whole nine. You get that in the video plus a bit of behind-the-scenes whathaveyou, light shenanigans and make-your-own-fun waiting around. Tour, in other words. It was shot on tour.
I know we’re just about at a year out from Palm Reader (review here), their second LP and first for Magnetic Eye, but I can’t help but be curious what their third album might tell in terms of their sound. Seems like a band who’ve hit every big ‘moment’ they’ve had to face thus far in their tenure absolutely head-on. So what’s that ‘next step’ like for that band? That’s what I’m wondering, despite the fact that I have no idea when we’ll find out. I wouldn’t expect a third LP in 2025, but they do seem to enjoy a bit of momentum.
As seen on socials, posted by Magnetic Eye:
You can take the Europeans out of Texas, but you can’t keep the Texans out of Europe! (Not our best, but might be a viable joke in there) Our own HIGH DESERT QUEEN will head back across the pond this summer for a massive run of club dates and festival appearances as they continue to spread their addictive 2024 slab of heaviness ‘Palm Reader’ to receptive minds and ears far and wide 🎸👍🔥 Celebrating the occasion, they’ve released a new tour footage video for the album track “Time Waster” which is live now on our YouTube 👀 Go check out the video featuring the legends in Faso Jetson and get your tickets now for High Desert Queen’s upcoming European dates:
HIGH DESERT QUEEN Europe Summer Tour 2025 25 JUL 2025 Karlsruhe (DE) Das Fest 26 JUL 2025 Gent (BE) Gent City Festival 27-31 JUL 2025 TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON 01 AUG 2025 Beelen (DE) Krach am Bach Fest 02 AUG 2025 Porta Westfalica (DE) Festivalkult 03 AUG 2025 Amsterdam (NL) De VerbroederIJ 05 AUG 2025 Bremen (DE) Meisenfrei Blues Club 06 AUG 2025 Recklinghausen (DE) Backyard Club 07 AUG 2025 Hannover (DE) Perle 08 AUG 2025 Sudwalde (DE) MuTaChi Fest 09 AUG 2025 Wedehorn (DE) Eekboom Open Air 10 AUG 2025 Dresden Chemiefabrik 11 AUG 2025 Bamberg (DE) Live Club 13 AUG 2025 Cham (DE) L.A. Club 14 AUG 2025 Kusel (DE) Kinett 15 AUG 2025 Stemwede (DE) Stemweder Open Air 16 AUG 2025 TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON Poster by @72826_
HIGH DESERT QUEEN are: Ryan Garney – vocals Phil Hook – drums Morgan Miller – bass Rusty Miller – guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Well, here we are. The stories are everywhere and varied around the basic theme of ‘Brown person gets illegally disappeared’ and even as the United States postulates to white South African refugees fleeing I’m not sure what for the dickish optics of racism, actual legal residents are having their rights thrown away in favor of harassment and illegal imprisonment. If you were going to travel here for any reason, be it vacation, work, or just to see that big fancy arch in St. Louis, do yourself a favor and stay home. This place is a shithole run by psychopaths who believe in either nothing or nothing other than their own holy ascension and what profit they can make from it. You could easily do better, nation-wise. Canada or Mexico, for example.
Lord Buffalo were ready to go when drummer Yamal Said was grabbed and taken nobody knows where to, let’s assume, catch a ration of bullshit no one has ever needed in their life. Beaten, starved, kept in cages — these are the things the United States does to prisoners. Solitary confinement for days. These are unconscionable acts apart from being immoral, and my greatest fear about this awful moment in US history is that when it’s over — and it will end; all authoritarians die — no one will be held accountable and my countrymen will learn nothing and nothing will get better in any meaningful way.
Because that’s where we are. The fuckups have already happened, are already happening, and to repair trust in basic institutions let alone standing in the rest of the world is going to take decades, probably more than the rest of this century, to happen, if it happens at all. I sincerely doubt I’ll live to see it, not the least from the forward-into-brick-wall trajectory of American foreign and domestic policy, taking institutions that were basically functional and supported the infrastructure of the broader government and axing the people who know how to make them run. An economic approach like bad improv jazz. Still genocide. And at home the roads crumble, the schools get worse, everything gets more expensive and the news blinks when the head of the executive branch takes a $400 million bribe in open public.
We are backward and terrible, and if the experiment of the United States was to coexist and move into the future as a successful multicultural society, that experiment has failed in the face of a few rich white motherfuckers who don’t even have the common decency of past generations to build things like libraries or sculpture gardens. Radical wealth redistribution now. Disband ICE now. Fuck all fascists, including your friends, neighbors, family, cops and local and national government. This is how a halfway decent idea for a country dies and deserves it.
From social media:
[UPDATE 05/15: The word is that Said was picked up for a warrant and taken to local jail, not detained by immigration enforcement. I’m not sure how ‘regular old police state’ is supposed to make me feel better about things, but there you go. The band apparently didn’t know. They did the correct thing and got him a lawyer. People are still being grabbed off the street every day in this country for the purpose of stoking fear and division. It doesn’t just have to happen to someone in a band for you to care.]
We are heartbroken to announce we have to cancel our upcoming European tour. Our drummer, Yamal Said, who is a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States (green card holder) was forcibly removed from our flight to Europe by Customs and Border Patrol at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Monday May 12. He has not been released, and we have been unable to contact him. We are currently working with an immigration lawyer to find out more information and to attempt to secure his release. We are devastated to cancel this tour, but we are focusing all of our energy and resources on Yamal’s safety and freedom. We are hopeful that this is a temporary setback and that it could be safe for us to reschedule this tour in the future. In our absence, our touring partners Orsak:Oslo will continue to perform the tour. We urge everyone to go see this amazing band and support them over the next couple weeks.
Affected dates:
15.05 – Heerlen, NL – Nieuwe Nor
16.05 – Aachen, DE – Lolaparoli
17.05 – Nijmegen, NL – Sonic Whip Fest
18.05 – Hamburg, DE – Stubnitz
19.05 – København, DK – Råhuset
20.05 – Oslo, NO – Revolver
21.05 – Göteborg, SE – Fyrens Ölkafe
23.05 – Helsinki, FI – Sonic Rites Fest
LORD BUFFALO is: Daniel Pruitt – guitar, bass, piano, vocals, melodica Garrett Hellman – guitar, sub-bass, piano, synths Patrick Patterson – violin Yamal Said – drums, percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Okay, so, in 10 days, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol will have traveled from their hometown in Austin, Texas, to embark on their first European tour, making stops at Obsidian Dust, Sonic Whip, Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin and Mystic Festival, in addition to copious club shows covering much of the continent. Upon returning home, a week later the trio will host their own all-dayer, in Austin, Big Dumb Fest 3, which they’re also playing.
Four days after that, they’re in New York supporting Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs at Le Poisson Rouge, which is a show the city will talk about for the rest of this year at least, and taking off on a round of East Coast touring that will bring them to the end of June. In July they’re at Unhinged Fest in Denver, and then in August they follow-up the Eastern run by doing a full West Coast jaunt.
Just a band working their ass off. Nothing to see here.
Except for the show, which as I understand it is quite a thing to see indeed.
From the PR wire:
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announce BIG DUMB FEST 2025 and US tour with THE SWORD
EU & UK tour starts May 15th
Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announce their 3rd annual hometown BIG DUMB FEST today, as well as US tour dates supporting the reunited The Sword. The festival is curated by the band, who hand picked the entire 7 band lineup (with RBBP headlining the event) and collection of food vendors. BIG DUMB FEST 3 takes place Saturday, June 14th at Mohawk Austin. (Assets)
The Sword dates start in August, and cover the Western US. RBBP returns to the East Coast in June supporting Pigs x 7. The band also launches their first EU & UK tour in May. Please see all dates below. Tickets for all shows are available now HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
BIG DUMB FEST 2025 – Austin, TX – Saturday, June 14th – Mohawk Austin – 6pm
Bands: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol * Gus Baldwin & The Sketch * The Grasshopper Lies Heavy * Glime * Gran Moreno * Subpar Snatch * Bat Lips *
Food: Bad Larry’s Burger Club – Grandpa’s Glizzys – Sucio Boy Burgers
BIG DUMB RIFFS is available on digital, LP and cassette, released May 10th, 2024. Order/stream the album on all formats HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL EU/UK LIVE 2025: 15/05 Brussels, BE – Obsidian Dust Festival 16/05 Nijmegen, NL – Sonic Whip Festival 17/05 Wolverhampton, UK – Dive 18/05 London, UK – DesertFest London 20/05 Paris, FR – Mécanique Ondulatoire 21/05 Lille, FR – Le Bulle Café 22/05 Bochum, DE – Die Trompete 23/05 Berlin, DE – DesertFest Berlin 24/05 Lübeck, DE – Treibsand 25/05 Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn 27/05 Malmö, SE – Plan B 28/05 Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik 29/05 Traunstein, DE – Cafe Festung 30/05 Bolzano, IT – Zoona 31/05 Ljubljana, SI – Menza Pri Koritu 01/06 Zagreb, HR – Vintage Industrial Bar 02/06 Vienna, AT – Arena 03/06 Budapest, HU – Szimpla 05/06 Gdansk, PL – Mystic Festival 06/06 Brno, CZ – Kabinet MUZ 07/06 Prague, CZ – Bike Jesus
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL – US LIVE 2025: 06/14 Austin, TX – Mohawk – BIG DUMB FEST 2025 06/18 NY, NY – Le Poisson Rouge* 06/19 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts* 06/20 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club* 06/21 Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird* 06/23 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop* 06/24 Detroit, MI – Magic Bag* 06/25 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall* 06/27 Toronto, ON – The Concert Hall* 06/28 Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz* 06/29 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall* 07/26 Denver, CO – Unhinged Fest 08/17 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom + 08/18 Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar + 08/19 Denver, CO – Gothic Theater + 08/20 Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall + 08/22 Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory + 08/23 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s + 08/24 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater + 08/25 Boise, ID – Knitting Factory + 08/27 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall + 08/28 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s + 08/29 San Diego, CA – Belly Up Tavern + 08/30 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether +
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With no Desertfest New York this year (and, let’s face it, maybe not next year either), I don’t have the luxury I’ve enjoyed throughout the 2020s thus far of consoling myself at missing Ripplefest Texas by seeing some of the same acts coming through without having to fly out to do it. Not so much this year. In unveiling its full lineup for this September, Ripplefest Texas 2025 lays out an absolute dream of a bill — from Weedeater to Suplecs to Mothership to Author and Punisher (new record by then?) to Sundrifter and Mr. frickin’ Plow and Lake Lake — it’s the most imperative US festival lineup I’ve seen pretty much since Ripplefest Texas last year.
I’ve never been to Ripplefest Texas and it’s been over 15 years since the last time I set foot in Austin, but I’d be there in a hot minute for this one. Gonna start a GoFundMe for the flight and lodging (more likely, beg my wife). If you get there, congratulations on your life.
Check out the new adds and the full lineup below. It’s a beautiful thing:
The best family reunion of the year is back! The lineup for RippleFest Texas 2025 is now complete and you will not want to miss your chance to see the best music at the friendliest festival in the world. Lick of My Spoon Productions brings you the only open air festival in the US with ABSOLUTELY ZERO BAND OVERLAPPING! New bands added to an already stacked lineup are ASG, Author & Punisher, Mondo Generator, High Desert Queen, Bronco, Rainbows Are Free, The Absurd, Volume, Gran Moreno, Karma Vulture, and Desert Suns.
The festival will once again be held at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, TX on September 18-21, 2025. Get your tickets now at www.lickofmyspoon.com.
Full List of Bands: Weedeater Whores. Mothership Author & Punisher Mondo Generator ASG Unida Wo Fat Valley of the Sun Left Lane Cruiser High Desert Queen Mos Generator Telekinetic Yeti Human Impact Mountain of Smoke Thunder Horse Suplecs Kind Bronco Sundrifter Rainbows Are Free Fostermother Mr. Plow Kupa Pities Luna Sol Shun Gran Moreno Stone Nomads Volume The Absurd Desert Suns Karma Vulture Lake Lake Sons of Gulliver
Have you made your plan to see Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol this year? If not, the band offer a new video for “Clowntown” as a 98-second reminder. The Austin, Texas, trio have done no shortage of touring, including the East Coast, but as they herald their 2024 album, Big Dumb Riffs (review here), the imperative is there. They were at SXSW this weekend — has SXSW come back around to being cool again yet? if not, it surely will, not that anyone would say so if it did — for two gigs and are about to set out on a West Coast run that will take them into April for two dates with The Sword.
Later this summer, they’ll be at Unhinged Fest in Denver, but before that is the European tour that includes Obsidian Dust, Sonic Whip, Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin and Mystic Festival in Poland, as well as copious club shows tying the fest stops together. As many of those as there are — fest stops — I was hoping the band would also join the lineup for Desertfest Oslo, which would allow me to answer the initial question of this post in the positive. But even without a Norwegian pop-in at the outset (date-wise, it would’ve been the start of the tour), it’s a badass run and I’ve no doubt the band will come out of it exhausted with a bunch of new friends.
You’ve got time for this video, so don’t pretend you don’t. It’s a minute and a half long. It took you longer to read to this point than it will take you to watch the clip, which maybe I should take as a clue to shut the fuck up and let you do that. By all means, enjoy. Dates and such follow from the PR wire, and the album stream’s at the bottom of the post:
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, “Clowntown” official video
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol drop “Clowntown” video, Western US tour starts March 19, EU & UK tour May 15
Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol share the official video for “Clowntown”. The track is the opening tune to their breakout album Big Dumb Riffs. Watch and share “Clowntown” HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA8AurTKf7g
RBBP launch Western U.S. tour dates on March 19th, followed by their first ever EU and UK shows, kicking off on May 15th. Please see all dates below. Tickets for all shows are available now HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
BIG DUMB RIFFS is available on digital, LP and cassette, released May 10th, 2024. Order/stream the album on all formats HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL – US LIVE 2025: 03/19 Phoenix, AZ – Linger Longer Lounge 03/20 San Diego, CA – Whistle Stop 03/21 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon 03/22 Oakland, CA – Thee Stork Club 03/24 Portland, OR – Show Bar 03/25 Seattle, WA – Barboza 03/27 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge 03/28 Fort Collins, CO – The Coast 03/29 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre 03/30 Colorado Springs, CO – Vultures 04/10 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater (w/ The Sword) 04/11 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger (w/ The Sword) 07/26 Denver, CO – Unhinged Fest
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL EU/UK LIVE 2025: 15/05 Brussels, BE – Obsidian Dust Festival 16/05 Nijmegen, NL – Sonic Whip Festival 17/05 Wolverhampton, UK – Dive 18/05 London, UK – DesertFest London 20/05 Paris, FR – Mécanique Ondulatoire 21/05 Lille, FR – Le Bulle Café 22/05 Bochum, DE – Die Trompete 23/05 Berlin, DE – DesertFest Berlin 24/05 Lübeck, DE – Treibsand 25/05 Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn 27/05 Malmö, SE – Plan B 28/05 Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik 29/05 Traunstein, DE – Cafe Festung 31/05 Ljubljana, SI – Menza Pri Koritu 01/06 Zagreb, HR – Vintage Industrial Bar 02/06 Vienna, AT – Arena 03/06 Budapest, HU – Szimpla 05/06 Gdansk, PL – Mystic Festival 06/06 Brno, CZ – Kabinet MUZ 07/06 Prague, CZ – Bike Jesus
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol: Leo Lydon: eight-string guitar/vocals Aaron Metzdorf: bass Sean St.Germain: drums
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, “Whip it Around” official video
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs (2024)
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Ready for immediate digging is the new single from Slumbering Sun, and given how quickly they’re into the verse and chorus of “Together Forever,” ‘immediate’ would seem to be the operative word. The Austin-based five-piece will issue Starmony, their second full-length, on May 9 as the follow-up to their 2023 debut, The Ever-Living Fire (review here), and the flow, intermittent lumber, and Faith NoMore-style vocals of the single bode well.
As you listen, keep in mind this is how the record starts. First track, and they dive right in like that. Can’t help but be curious if the rest of the LP follows in such upfront fashion. Spring seems like a decent time to find out.
The following came from the PR wire:
Slumbering Sun shares “Together Forever” single from forthcoming album Starmony
Austin band Slumbering Sun share the first single from their forthcoming sophomore album today. Hear and share the single “Together Forever” HERE:https://song.link/SlumberingSun-TogetherForever
Slumbering Sun also plays SXSW on Thursday this week at the annual Stoner Jam.
Slumbering Sun is a powerful new melodic doom entity formed by members of underground mainstays Temptress, Destroyer of Light and Monte Luna. Their resulting sound explores broader melodies and sonics than their other bands, inspired as much by Celtic folk standards as by doom, grunge and shoegaze.
Slumbering Sun makes music for crazy romantics. Keegan Kjeldsen, James Clarke, Kelsey Wilson, Garth Condit and Kelly “Penny” Turner joined forces in 2022 in order to weave a dreamy kind of doom that would incorporate shoegaze, grunge and prog. All were friends in the Texas metal scene, assembled from bands in Austin & Dallas, who sought to elevate the love and camaraderie they’d found over the years into an artistic vision.
After releasing their debut, The Ever-Living Fire (2023, #20 debut on Doom Charts), Slumbering Sun played their first show at Stoner Jam during SXSW, embarked on a series of regional tours, and capped off the year with an appearance at Ripple Fest. The band spent all of 2024 making their second effort, Starmony, in between touring the Midwest, and releasing their single “Out of the Blue & Into the Void” — a brilliant mashup of Neil Young’s and Black Sabbath’s classic tracks. With no plans to slow down, and the band intends to make more metalheads than ever pound their fists and cry about their exes.
Artist: Slumbering Sun Album: Starmony Record Label: Self-released Release Date: May 9th, 2025
01. Together Forever 02. Keep it Secret 03. Midsommar Night’s Dream 04. The Solar Bear 05. Danse Macabre 06. The Tower 07. Wanderlust
SLUMBERING SUN LIVE 2025: 03/13 Austin, TX – The Far Out – SXSW – Stoner Jam
Band members: James Clarke (Vocals) – of Monte Luna Keegan Kjeldsen (Guitar) – of Destroyer of Light Kelsey Wilson (Guitar) – of Temptress Garth Condit (Bass) – of Monte Luna, Scorpion Child Penny Turner (Drums) – of Destroyer of Light
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Currently in the Midwest as they finish up shows this weekend on a tour that brought them back toward the Eastern Seaboard supporting their 2024 album, Big Dumb Riffs (review here), Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol will embark on their first-ever stint in Europe and the UK this June. By then, they’ll already have their March tour of the West Coast — their umpteenth, I believe — under their collective belt, and they were out this past Fall with King Buffalo, so the voyage abroad could hardly come at a better time, momentum-wise. You’d almost think these things were planned out in advance.
The PR wire brought dates and ticket/album order links. I don’t know if the video for “Whip it Around” has been posted here yet, but that’s definitely a worthy way to spend a literal minute of your day. Among the slew of Eurofests they’re playing, I was hoping they’d get added to Desertfest Oslo, which I’ll hopefully be attending in May, but apparently no dice as yet. Will keep my fingers accordingly crossed, as this is a band I feel like I need to see.
The dates:
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announce full EU & UK tour dates in May, Western US tour in March
Austin trio Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol announce the complete dates of their upcoming first ever EU and UK tour today, kicking off on May 15th. Please see all dates below. Tickets for all shows are available now HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
The band is currently on the road for the last week of their East Coast tour with Lip Critic supporting. Following shortly after SXSW, the band embarks on Western US headlining dates.
BIG DUMB RIFFS is available on digital, LP and cassette, released May 10th, 2024. Order/stream the album on all formats HERE: https://taplink.cc/rickshawbillie
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL – LIVE 2025: 02/13 Hamtramck, MI – Small’s (w/ Lip Critic) 02/14 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle (w/ Lip Critic) 02/15 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club (w/ Lip Critic) 02/16 Minneapolis, MN – Zhora Darling (w/ Lip Critic)
03/19 Phoenix, AZ – Linger Longer Lounge 03/20 San Diego, CA – Whistle Stop 03/21 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon 03/22 Oakland, CA – Thee Stork Club 03/24 Portland, OR – Show Bar 03/25 Seattle, WA – Barboza 03/27 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge 03/28 Fort Collins, CO – The Coast 03/29 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre 03/30 Colorado Springs, CO – Vultures 04/10 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater (w/ The Sword) 04/11 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger (w/ The Sword)
RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL EU/UK 2025: 15/05 Brussels, BE – Obsidian Dust Festival 16/05 Nijmegen, NL – Sonic Whip Festival 17/05 Wolverhampton, UK – Dive 18/05 London, UK – DesertFest London 20/05 Paris, FR – Mécanique Ondulatoire 21/05 Lille, FR – Le Bulle Café 22/05 Bochum, DE – Die Trompete 23/05 Berlin, DE – DesertFest Berlin 24/05 Lübeck, DE – Treibsand 25/05 Stockholm, SE – Bar Brooklyn 27/05 Malmö, SE – Plan B 28/05 Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik 29/05 Traunstein, DE – Cafe Festung 31/05 Ljubljana, SI – Menza Pri Koritu 01/06 Zagreb, HR – Vintage Industrial Bar 02/06 Vienna, AT – Arena 03/06 Budapest, HU – Szimpla 05/06 Gdansk, PL – Mystic Festival 06/06 Brno, CZ – Kabinet MUZ 07/06 Prague, CZ – Bike Jesus
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol: Leo Lydon: eight-string guitar/vocals Aaron Metzdorf: bass Sean St.Germain: drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Emerging from Austin with a pointed harshness and heft to spare, Texan sludge metal four-piece Forebode released the four-song/29-minute The Pit of Suffering (review here) in 2021. It is not shy about establishing aural dominance. Lordly half-time riffing punctuated by pinch harmonics in lead cut “Metal Slug” (5:41) sets the stage as guitarist Eddie Konopasek lays out the nod that drummer Zach Donnelly and bassist Guillermo Madrigal take up with due lumbering, a defining element in the rasp and growl of TJ Lewis held back for the verse because good slaughter takes time. The nasty-ass chug and death growls, slowdown and bassy pummel that have hit in “Metal Slug” by the time the song is a minute and a half deep into its plunge are telling.
Forebode have some root in the post-hardcore raw-mean formative sludge of Eyehategod, but in following-up their self-titled 2019 debut EP (review here), it’s a fullness of sound and a creation of atmosphere that’s consistent. The band recorded with Kevin Butler at Test Tube Audio, who also mastered, for two days in Feb. ’21, and sent to Alec Rodriguez at New Alliance Audio in Massachusetts to mix. Was the same with the first EP. I don’t know if there’s a connection between the band and New England, Rodriguez specifically — he’s more associated in my mind with heavy rock than sludge; admittedly, after a certain point, riffs is riffs — but listening, I can’t help if his touch doesn’t account for some of the frigid feel in the chug and brash-crash of “Devil’s Due” (7:20) or the wall of distortion it brings to bear in its second half, Lewis accordingly switching to a growl to suit the bludgeon. I don’t know if that’s real, but you can read it into the music if you want and even accounting for the notion sonically makes it true, so whatever as regards intention.
Actually, on that subject, the priorities throughout The Pit of Suffering — anybody remember the pit of despair from The Princess Bride? yeah, this is different — seem at first mostly to be purely violent. Nothing against that. The cathartic aspects across the relatively short amount of your day Forebode are asking aren’t to be discounted. At even moderate volume, The Pit of Suffering is a mood-altering experience and a powerful sound. Its darker atmospheric cast feels as much emotional as tonal, which is no minor achievement considering that at no point does Lewis sing clean, and there is a sneaky patience in Konopasek‘s riffing that helps create the sense of space throughout. Even having the vocals coated in reverb adds to it, letting the most throatripping of screams feel like a tie to black metal as Forebode commune with the extreme. I don’t necessarily think the band sat down and said that was what they were going to do — “okay guys, time to work in a little black metal so four years from now some dingus can talk about it on the internet — but it’s what the album sessions and their songwriting process resulted in, and it speaks to a will to blur genre lines while still remaining essentially a genre work rooted in the less-kind end of sludge.
They are not without respite. The penultimate title-track (7:46) begins with an acoustic reprieve, momentary, before unfolding the markedly vicious crux of the song, a slow, open riff and doomed plod met with throatrippers from some mountaintop or other, a kind of self-directed physical punishment being shared with the listener. In terms of lead guitar, “The Pit of Suffering” is the epic. It offsets its central lumber with airier lines, and as the key change hits and the vocals turn to death growls, the setup is there for the next plotted lead line as contrast. This isn’t anything revolutionary in sludge or metal more broadly, go low go high crush all, but Forebode execute with particular fervor and “The Pit of Suffering” hits into a series of stops as it moves into its second half that is outright excruciating, amplifier rumble and sustained growl dropping back out to acoustic like the intro for just a moment before slamming back with full tonality and piercing scream. It’s the acoustic that wins the day in the end, though.
There, anyhow. That doesn’t account for “Bane of Hammers” (8:53), which revives a bit of Southern-style swing in its initial riffing, daring some bounce after the more emotive title cut. The finale is consistent with everything before it in being heavier than a son of a bitch, but it moves fluidly in such a way as to highlight how cohesive the release as a whole has been. On that note, I don’t know whether the band call it an EP or an LP. It was the former in my mind when I reviewed it. Now I’m less certain. The interplay between the tracks, the glee with which “Bane of Hammers” enacts its extreme-sludge-meets-stoner-riffing chicanery and the ease with which it falls into the gallop and even a bit of blast-ish duggery speak to The Pit of Suffering as a debut LP — and a good one, if short — but if the band were to decide in a year that they’ve got 40-50 minutes of music and that’s their first album, I’m not about to fight anybody over it. It’s not like it’s how they pronounce their name or anything. Ha.
Like the review link above would tell you, this isn’t my first time hearing this record, but I had occasion to dig into it again last weekend as I was hanging around Las Vegas for Planet Desert Rock Weekend — Adam Sage, who was kind enough to let me stay for the fest (he’s also in Sonolith, if you need a band connection for a name), and I had it on a couple times driving here and there and whatnot — and it resonated again. I don’t know what the band’s plans are for 2025 beyond a couple Spring shows and an appearance at Stoner Jam in Austin at SXSW, which is next month and looks killer as ever with Duel, Bridge Farmers, Switchblade Jesus, Tia Carrera, Amplified Heat and many other righteous parties either of or not of Texan affiliation, including Sonolith, Lord Velvet and Demons My Friends.
Always badass, that bill. I’d be happy to wax nostalgic about SXSWs of yore — did some of that last weekend too, dropping names like Tia Carrera and Amplified Heat — but the point here is Forebode are getting out a bit in the early part of this year and hopefully that momentum continues to serve them well as they move on from here.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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Oh man, the comedown was real this week. After that fest last weekend was so, so, so good, I spent most of Tuesday out of my head trying to clean the house ahead of my family coming to celebrate my nephew’s 17th birthday — happy birthday, duder — and taking like three hours to get 40 minutes’ worth of writing done. That sucked. Yesterday also kind of sucked. Was Wednesday easier? It seemed it at the time and that’s as good as gold. Today I’ve already dropped the kid off at school, taken the dog to the groomer, gone to Costco, had breakfast, picked the dog up and so on all in the company of The Patient Mrs., so if I’m later than usual posting this (I am), that’s why. I’ve been having out picking up provisions, running errands and otherwise having a lovely morning/early afternoon. In a little bit we’ll go pick up the kid and hopefully the thread will continue.
But that fest was something special. The people. The fact that just about everybody knew or at least by the end of the weekend was up for saying hi to everyone else. The music was great, of course, and the chance to see European or UK bands like Samavayo, Green Desert Water, JIRM or Sergeant Thunderhoof on US soil isn’t something I take lightly. There aren’t a lot of people who can or will bring these acts over, and if you can do it, you can change lives, band and fan alike. People were falling over for Sergeant Thunderhoof. It was rad to witness. I was lucky to be there.
For what it’s worth, it was an easy flight home. Four hours with a good tail wind and I had the entire row to myself. Can’t get better than that. I played Zelda the whole time and it was a last bit of chill before I got back home and back into the thing.
Thanks if you kept up with that coverage. I have more trips coming up this year:
April – Roadburn
May – Desertfest Oslo (I hope)
June – Freak Valley (need to confirm flight)
July – Bear Stone (just about confirmed)
And then September is Desertfest New York, which barring disaster I’ll look to attend. I know, Ripplefest Texas is there, but that’s a flight I can’t afford. Flying to Vegas is cheap and the airfare was gifted to me. Four or five days in Austin is like $1,000 minimum flights and hotel and I don’t have it. We’ll see, but I know that’s there. I hear it calling to me.
However any of the above plays out over the coming months, thanks for following along with this site. The response to the 16th anniversary post was extremely heartening, here and on socials, and I thank you for that. I was in the car with The Patient Mrs. before talking about how blown away I was by it, which is definitely a conversation we’ve had before. She’s very tolerant. “The Tolerant Mrs.” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
I’m gonna leave it there, I think. Icarus Burns album premiere on Monday, Tuesday a Lorquin’s Admiral video premiere, Wednesday something new from Voidward, Thursday a Passing Bell video premiere, and Friday either a Möuth review or a video interview I’m going to do with Matte from Sound of Liberation on Monday for their 20th anniversary and My Sleeping Karma’s return (he’s also the band’s bassist). We’ll see how it shakes out.
Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, stay warm if it’s cold, cool if it’s hot. Don’t sled into any fenceposts. I’ll be here writing if you need me for anything.
FRM. Oh, and new merch coming soon, I think. Been asked a couple times about that lately.
