We press on, until the end, though tired and long since out of adjectival alternatives to ‘heavy.’ The only way out is through, or so I’m told. Therefore, we go through.

Morale? Low. Brain, exhausted. The shit? Hit the fan like three days ago. The walls, existentially speaking, are a mess. Still, we go through.

Two more days to go. Thanks for reading.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #81-90:

Farflung, Like Drones in Honey

No question Farflung are space rock. It’s not up for debate. They are who they are and on their 10th full-length, Like Drones in Honey (on Sulatron, which suits both them and label), they remain Farflung. But whether it’s the sweet ending of the “Baile an Doire” or the fuzz riffing beneath the sneer of “King Fright” and the careening garage strum of “Earthmen Look Alike to Me,” the album offers a slew of reminders that as far out as Farflung get — and oh my goodness, they go — the long-running Los Angeles outfit were also there in the mid and late ’90s as heavy rock and, in California particularly, desert rock took shape. Of course, opener “Acid Drain” weaves itself into the fabric of the universe via effects blowout and impulse-engine chug, and after that finish in “Baile an Doire,” they keep the experimentalism going on the backwards/forwards piano/violin of “Touch of the Lemmings Kiss” and the whispers and underwater rhythm of closer “A Year in Japan,” but even in the middle of the pastoral “Tiny Cities Made of Broken Teeth” or in the second half of the drifting “Dludgemasterpoede,” they’re space and rock, and it’s worth not forgetting about the latter even as you blast off with weirdo rocket fuel. Like their genre overall, like Sulatron, Farflung are underrated. It is lucky that doesn’t slow their outbound trip in the slightest.

Farflung on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Neptunian Maximalism, Finis Gloriae Mundi

Whether you want to namedrop one or another Coltrane or the likes of Amon Düül or Magma or whoever else, the point is the same: Neptunian Maximalism are not making conventional music. Yeah, there’s rhythm, meter, even some melody, but the 66-minute run of the recorded-on-stage Finis Gloriae Mundi isn’t defined by songs so much as the pieces that make up its consuming entirety. As a group, the Belgians’ project isn’t to write songs to much as to manifest an expression of an idea; in this case, apparently, the end of the world. A given stretch might drone or shred, meditate in avant-jazz or move-move-move-baby in heavy kosmiche push, but as they make their way to the two-part culmination “The Conference of the Stars,” the sense of bringing-it-all-down is palpable, and so fair enough for their staying on theme and offering “Neptunian’s Raga Marwa” as a hint toward the cycle of ending and new beginnings, bright sitar rising out of low, droning, presented-as-empty space. For most, their extreme take on prog and psych will simply be too dug in, too far from the norm, and that’s okay. Neptunian Maximalism aren’t so much trying to be universal as to try to commune with the universe itself, wherever that might exist if it does at all. End of the world? Fine. Let it go. Another one will come along eventually.

Neptunian Maximalism on Facebook

I, Voidhanger Records on Bandcamp

Utech Records store

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Near Dusk, Through the Cosmic Fog

Four years after their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), Denver heavy rock and rollers Near Dusk gather eight songs across and smooth-rolling, vinyl-minded 37 minutes for Through the Cosmic Fog, which takes its title from the seven-and-a-half-minute penultimate instrumental “Cosmic Fog,” a languid but not inactive jam that feels especially vital for the character it adds among the more straightforward songs earlier in the record — the rockers, as it were — that comprise side A: “The Way it Goes,” “Spliff ’em All,” and so on. “Cosmic Fog” isn’t side B’s only moment of departure, as the drumless guitar-exploration-into-acoustic “Roses of Durban” and the slower rolling finisher “Slab City” fill out the expansion set forth with the bluesy solo in the back end of “EMFD,” but the strength of craft they show on the first four songs isn’t to be discounted either for the fullness or the competence of their approach. The three-piece of Matthew Orloff, Jon Orloff and Kellen McInerney know where they’re coming from in West Coast-style heavy, not-quite-party, rock, and it’s the strength of the foundation they build early in the opening duo and “The Damned” and “Blood for Money,” that lets them reach outward late, allowing Through the Cosmic Fog to claim its space as a classically structured, immediately welcome heavy rock LP.

Near Dusk on Facebook

Near Dusk on Bandcamp

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Simple Forms, Simple Forms EP

The 2023 self-titled debut EP from Portland, Oregon’s Simple Forms collects four prior singles issued over the course of 2021 and 2022 into one convenient package, and even if you’ve been keeping up with the trickle of material from the band that boasts members of YOB, (now) Hot Victory, Dark Castle and Norska, hearing the tracks right next to each other does change the context somewhat, as with the darker turn of “From Weathered Hand” after “Reaching for the Shadow” or the way that leadoff and “Together We Will Rest” seem to complement each other in the brightness of the forward guitar, a kind of Euro-style proggy noodling that reminds of The Devil’s Blood or something more goth, transposed onto a forward-pushing Pacific Northwestern crunch. The hints of black metal in the riffing of “The Void Beneath” highlight the point that this is just the start for guitarists Rob Shaffer and Dustin Rieseberg, bassist Aaron Rieseberg and grunge-informed frontman Jason Oswald (who also played drums and synth here), but already their sprawl is nuanced and directed toward individualism. I don’t know what their plans might be moving forward, but if the single releases didn’t highlight their potential, certainly the four songs all together does. A 19-minute sampler of what might be, if it will be.

Simple Forms on Facebook

Simple Forms on Bandcamp

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Lybica, Lybica

Probably safe to call Lybica a side-project for Justin Foley, since it seems unlikely to start taking priority over his position as drummer in metalcore mainstays Killswitch Engage anytime soon, but the band’s self-titled debut offers a glimpse of some other influences at work. Instrumental in its entirety, it comes together with Foley leading on guitar joined by bassist Doug French and guitarist Joey Johnson (both of Gravel Kings) and drummer Chris Lane (A Brilliant Lie), and sure, there’s some pretty flourish of guitar, and some heavier, more direct chugging crunch — “Palatial” in another context might have a breakdown riff, and the subsequent “Oktavist” is more directly instru-metal — but even in the weighted stretch at the culmination of “Ferment,” and in the tense impression at the beginning of seven-minute closer “Charyou,” the vibe is more in line with Russian Circles than Foley‘s main outfit, and clearly that’s the point. “Ascend” and “Resonance” open the album with pointedly non-metallic atmospheres, and they, along with the harder-hitting cuts and “Manifest,” “Voltaic” and “Charyou,” which bring the two sides together, set up a dynamic that, while familiar in this initial stage, is both satisfying in impact and more aggressive moments while immersive in scope.

Lybica on Facebook

Lybica on Bandcamp

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Bird, Walpurgis

Just as their moniker might belong to some lost-classic heavy band from 1972 one happens upon in a record store, buys for the cover, and subsequently loves, so too does Naples four-piece Bird tap into proto-metal vibes on their latest single Walpurgis. And that’s not happenstance. While their production isn’t quite tipped over into pure vintage-ism, it’s definitely organic, and they’ve covered the likes of Rainbow, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, so while “Walpurgis” itself leans toward doom in its catchy and utterly reasonable three-plus minutes, there’s no doubt Bird know where their nest is, stylistically speaking. Given a boost through release by Olde Magick Records, the single-songer follows 2021’s The Great Beast From the Sea EP, which proffered a bit more burl and modern style in its overarching sound, so it could be that as they continue to grow they’re learning a bit more patience in their approach, as “Walpurgis” is nestled right into a tempo that, while active enough to still swing, is languid just the same in its flow, with maybe a bit more rawness in the separation of the guitar, bass, drums and organ. Most importantly, it suits the song, and piques curiosity as to where Bird go next, as any decent single should.

Bird on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Pseudo Mind Hive, Eclectica

Without getting into which of them does what where — because they switch, and it’s complicated, and there’s only so much room — the core of the sound for Melbourne-based four-piece Pseudo Mind Hive is in has-chops boogie rock, but that’s a beginning descriptor, not an end. It doesn’t account for the psych-surf-fuzz in two-minute instrumental opener “Hot Tooth” on their Eclectica EP, for example, or the what-if-Queens–of–the–Stone–Age-kept-going-like-the-self-titled “Moon Boots” that follows on the five-song offering. “You Can Run” has a fuzzy shuffle and up-strummed chug that earns the accompanying handclaps like Joan Jett, while “This Old Tree” dares past the four-minute mark with its scorching jive, born out of a smoother start-stop fuzz verse with its own sort of guitar antics, and “Coming Down,” well, doesn’t at first, but does give way soon enough to a dreamier psychedelic cast and some highlight vocal melody before it finds itself awake again and already running, tense in its builds and overlaid high-register noises, which stand out even in the long fade. Blink and you’ll miss it as it dashes by, all momentum and high-grade songcraft, but that’s alright. It does fine on repeat listens as well, which obviously is no coincidence.

Pseudo Mind Hive on Facebook

Copper Feast Records website

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Oktas, The Finite and the Infinite

On. Slaught. Call it atmospheric sludge, call it post-metal; I sincerely doubt Philadelphia’s Oktas give a shit. Across the four songs and 36 minutes of the two-bass-no-guitar band’s utterly bludgeoning debut album, The Finite and the Infinite, the band — bassist/vocalist Bob Stokes, cellist Agnes Kline, bassist Carl Whitlock and drummer Ron Macauley — capture a severity of tone and a range that goes beyond loud/quiet tradeoffs into the making of songs that are memorable while not necessarily delivering hooks in the traditional verse/chorus manner. It’s the cello that stands out as opener “Collateral Damage” plods to its finish — though Macauley‘s drum fills deserve special mention — and even as “Epicyon” introduces the first of the record’s softer breaks, it is contrasted in doing so by a section of outright death metal onslaught so that the two play back and forth before eventually joining forces in another dynamic and crushing finish. Tempo kick is what’s missing thus far and “Light in the Suffering” hits that mark immediately, finding blackened tremolo on the other side of its own extended cello-led subdued stretch, coming to a head just before the ending so that finale “A Long, Dreamless Sleep” can start with its Carl Sagan sample about how horrible humans are (correct), and build gracefully over the next few minutes before saying screw it and diving headfirst into cyclical chug and sprinting extremity. Somebody sign this band and press this shit up already.

Oktas on Facebook

Oktas on Bandcamp

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Scream of the Butterfly, The Grand Stadium

This is a rock and roll band, make no mistake. Berlin’s Scream of the Butterfly draw across decades of influence, from ’60s pop and ’70s heavy to ’90s grunge, ’00s garage and whatever the hell’s been going on the last 10-plus years to craft an amalgamated sound that is cohesive thanks largely to the tightness of their performances — energetic, sure, but they make it sound easy — the overarching gotta-get-up urgency of their push and groove, and the current of craft that draws it all together. They’ve got 10 songs on The Grand Stadium, which is their third album, and they all seem to be trying to outdo each other in terms of hooks, electricity, vibe, and so on. Even the acoustic-led atmosphere-piece “Now, Then and Nowhere” leaves a mark, to say nothing of the much, much heavier “Sweet Adeleine” or the sunshine in “Dead End Land” or the bluesy shove of “Ain’t No Living.” Imagine time as a malleable thing and some understanding of how the two-minute “Say Your Name to Me” can exist in different styles simultaneously, be classic and forward thinking, spare and spacious. And I don’t know what’s going on with all the people talking in “Hallway of a Thousand Eyes,” but Scream of the Butterfly make it easy to dig anyway and remind throughout of the power that can be realized when a band is both genuinely multifaceted and talented songwriters. Scary stuff, that.

Scream of the Butterfly on Facebook

Scream of the Butterfly on Bandcamp

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Holz, Holz

Based in Kassel with lyrics in their native German, Holz are vocalist/guitarist Leonard Riegel, bassist Maik Blümke and drummer Martin Nickel, and on their self-titled debut (released by Tonzonen), they tear with vigor into a style that’s somewhere between noise rock, stoner heavy and rawer punk, finding a niche for themselves that feels barebones with the dry — that is, little to no effects — vocal treatment and a drum sound that cuts through the fuzz that surrounds on early highlight “Bitte” and the later, more noisily swaying “Nichts.” The eight-minute “Garten” is a departure from its surroundings with a lengthy fuzz jam in its midsection — not as mellow as you’re thinking; the drums remain restless and hint toward the resurgence to come — while “Zerstören” reignites desert rock riffing to its own in-the-rehearsal-room-feeling purposes. Intensity is an asset there and at various other points throughout, but there’s more to Holz than ‘go’ as the rolling “50 Meilen Geradeaus” and the swing-happy, bit-o’-melody-and-all “Dämon” showcase, but when they want to, they’re ready and willing to stomp into heavier tones, impatient thrust, or as in the penultimate “Warten,” a little bit of both. Not everybody goes on a rampage their first time out, but it definitely suits Holz to wreck shit in such a fashion.

Holz on Facebook

Tonzonen Records store

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In many ways, this is my favorite kind of Quarterly Review day. I always place things more or less as I get them, and let the days fill up randomly, but there are different types that come out of that. Some are heavier on riffs, some (looking at you, Monday) are more about atmosphere, and some are all over the place. That’s this. There’s no getting in a word rut — “what’s another way to say ‘loud and fuzzy?'” — when the releases in question don’t sound like each other.

As we move past the halfway point of the first week of this double-wide Quarterly Review, 100 total acts/offerings to be covered, that kind of thing is much appreciated on my end. Keeps the mind limber, as it were. Let’s roll.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #21-30:

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — goes that White Hills stumbled on an old hard drive with 2007’s Heads on Fire‘s recording files on it, recovered them, and decided it was time to flesh out the original album some 15 years after the fact, releasing The Revenge of Heads on Fire through their own Heads on Fire Records imprint in fashion truer to the record’s original concept. Who would argue? Long-established freaks as they are, can’t White Hills basically do whatever the hell they want and it’ll be at the very least interesting? Sure enough, the 11-song starburster they’ve summoned out of the ether of memory is lysergic and druggy and sprawling through Dave W. and Ego Sensation‘s particular corner of heavy psychedelia and space rocks, “Visions of the Past, Present and Future” sounding no less vital for the passing of years as they’re still on a high temporal shift, riding a cosmic ribbon that puts “Speed Toilet” where “Revenge of Speed Toilet” once was in reverse sequeling and is satisfyingly head-spinning whether or not you ever heard the original. That is to say, context is nifty, but having your brain melted is better, and White Hills might screw around an awful lot, but they’re definitely not screwing around. You heard me.

White Hills on Facebook

White Hills on Bandcamp

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Dystopian Future Movies, War of the Ether

Weaving into and out of spoken word storytelling and lumbering riffy largesse, nine-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “She Up From the Drombán Hill” has a richly atmospheric impact on what follows throughout Dystopian Future Movies‘ self-issued third album, War of the Ether, the residual feedback cutting to silence ahead of a soft beginning for “Critical Mass” as guitarist/vocalist Caroline Cawley pairs foreboding ambience with noise rocking payoffs, joined by her Church of the Cosmic Skull bandmate Bill Fisher on bass/drums and Rafe Dunn on guitar for eight songs that owe some of their root to ’90s-era alt heavy but have grown into something of their own, as demonstrated in the willfully overwhelming apex of “The Walls of Filth and Toil” or the dare-a-hook ending of the probably-about-social-media “The Veneer” just prior. The LP runs deeper as it unfurls, each song setting forth on its own quiet start save for the more direct “License of Their Lies” and offering grim but thoughtful craft for a vision of dark heavy rock true both to the band’s mission and the album’s troubled spirit. Closer “A Decent Class of Girl” rolls through volume swells in what feels like a complement to “She Up From the Drombán Hill,” but its bookending wash only highlights the distance the audience has traveled alongside Cawley and company. Engrossing.

Dystopian Future Movies on Facebook

Dystopian Future Movies store

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Basalt Shrine, From Fiery Tongues

Though in part defined by the tectonic megasludge of “In the Dirt’s Embrace,” Filipino four-piece Basalt Shrine are no more beholden to that on From Fiery Tongues than they are the prior opening drone “Thawed Slag Blood,” the post-metallic soundscaping of the title-track, the open-spaced minimalism of closer “The Barren Aftermath” or the angular chug at the finish of centerpiece “Adorned for Loathing Pigs.” Through these five songs, the Manila-based outfit plunge into the darker, denser and more extreme regions of sludgy stylizations, and as they’ve apparently drawn the notice of US-based Electric Talon Records and sundry Euro imprints, safe to say the secret is out. Fair enough. The band guide “From Fiery Tongues,” song and album, with an entrancing churn that is as much about expression as impact, and the care they take in doing so — even at their heaviest and nastiest — isn’t to be understated, and especially as their debut, their ambition manifests itself in varied ways nearly all of which bode well for coming together as the crux of an innovative style. Not predicting anything, but while From Fiery Tongues doesn’t necessarily ring out with a hopeful viewpoint for the world at large, one can only listen to it and be optimistic about the prospects for the band themselves.

Basalt Shrine on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

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Psychonaut, Violate Consensus Reality

Post-metallic in its atmosphere, there’s no discounting the intensity Belgium trio Psychonaut radiate on their second album, Violate Consensus Reality (on Pelagic). The prog-metal noodling of “All Your Gods Have Gone” and the singing-turns-to-screaming methodology on the prior opener “A Storm Approaching” begin the 52-minute eight-tracker with a fervency that affects everything that comes after, and as “Age of Separation” builds into its full push ahead of the title-track, which holds tension in its first half and shows why in its second, a halfway-there culmination before the ambient and melodic “Hope” turns momentarily from some of the harsher insistence before it, a summary/epilogue for the first platter of the 2LP release. The subsequent “Interbeing” is black metal reimagined as modern prog — flashes of Enslaved or Amorphis more than The Ocean or Mastodon, and no complaints — and the procession from “Hope” through “Interbeing” means that the onslaught of “A Pacifist’s Guide to Violence,” all slam and controlled plunder, is an apex of its own before the more sprawling, 12-minute capper “Towards the Edge,” which brings guest appearances from Brutus‘ Stefanie Mannaerts and the most esteemed frontman in European post-metal, Colin H. van Eeckhout of Amenra, whose band Psychonaut admirably avoid sounding just like. That’s not often the case these days.

Psychonaut on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Robot God, Worlds Collide

If you’re making your way through this post, skimming for something that looks interesting, don’t discount Sydney, Australia’s Robot God on account of their kinda-generic moniker. After solidifying — moltenifying? — their approach to longform-fuzz on their 2020 debut, Silver Buddha Dreaming, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Raff Iacurto, bassist/vocalist Matt Allen and drummer Tim Pritchard offer the four tracks of their sophomore LP, Worlds Collide, through Kozmik Artifactz in an apparent spirit of resonance, drawing familiar aspects of desert-style heavy rock out over songs that feel exploratory even as they’re born of recognizable elements. “Sleepwalking” (11:25) sets a broad landscape and the melody over the chugger riff in the second half of “Ready to Launch” (the shortest inclusion at 7:03) floats above it smoothly, while “Boogie Man” (11:24) pushes over the edge of the world and proceeds to (purposefully) tumble loosely downward in tempo from there, and the closing title-track (11:00) departs from its early verses along a jammier course, still plotted, but clearly open to the odd bit of happy-accidentalism. It’s a niche that seems difficult to occupy, and a difficult balance to strike between hooking the listener with a riff and spacing out, but Robot God mostly avoid the one-or-the-other trap and create something of their own from both sides; reminiscent of… wait for it… worlds colliding. Don’t skip it.

Robot God on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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AAWKS, Heavy on the Cosmic

Released in June 2022 and given a late-in-the-year vinyl issue seemingly on the strength of popular demand alone, AAWKS‘ debut full-length, Heavy on the Cosmic sets itself forth with the immersive, densely-fuzzed nodder riff and stoned vocal of longest track (immediate points) “Beyond the Sun,” which finds start-with-longest-song complement on side B’s “Electric Traveller” (rare double points). Indeed there’s plenty to dig about the eight-song outing, from the boogie in “Sunshine Apparitions,” the abiding vibe of languid grunge and effects-laced chicanery that pervade the crashouts of “The Woods” to the memorable, slow hook-craft of “All is Fine.” Over on side B, the momentum early in “Electric Traveller” rams headfirst into its own slowdown, while “Space City” reinforces the no-joke tonality and Elephant Tree-style heavy/melodic blend before the penultimate mostly-instrumental “Star Collider” resolves itself like Floor at half-speed and closer “Peeling Away” lives up to its title with a departure of psychedelic soloing and final off-we-go loops. The word-of-mouth hype around AAWKS was and is significant, and the Ontario-based four-piece tender three-dimensional sound to justify it, the record too brief at 39 minutes to actually let the listener get lost while providing multiple opportunities for headphone escapism. A significant first LP.

AAWKS on Facebook

AAWKS on Bandcamp

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Smokes of Krakatau, Smokes of Krakatau

The core methodology of Polish trio Smokes of Krakatau across their self-titled debut seems to be to entrance their audience and then blindside them with a riffy punch upside the head. Can’t argue if it works, which it does, right from the gradual unfurling of 10-minute instrumental opener “Absence of Light” before the chunky-style riff of “GrassHopper” lumbers into the album’s first vocals, delivered with a burl that reminds of earlier Clutch. There are two more extended tracks tucked away at the end — “Septic” (10:07) and “Kombajn Bizon” (11:37) — but before they get there, “GrassHopper” begins a movement across four songs that brings the band to arguably their most straightforward piece of all, the four-minute “Carousel,” as though the ambient side of their persona was being drained out only to return amid the monolithic lumber that pays off the build in “Septic.” It’s a fascinating whole-album progression, but it works and it flows right unto the bluesy reach of “Kombajn Bizon,” which coalesces around a duly massive lurch in its last minutes. It’s a simplification to call them ‘stoner doom,’ but that’s what they are nonetheless, though the manner in which they present their material is as distinguishing a factor as that material itself in the listening experience. The band are not done growing, but if you let their songs carry you, you won’t regret going where they lead.

Smokes of Krakatau on Facebook

Smokes of Krakatau on Bandcamp

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Carrier Wave, Carrier Wave

Is it the riff-filled land that awaits, or the outer arms of the galaxy itself? Maybe a bit of both on Bellingham, Washington-based trio Carrier Wave‘s four-song self-titled debut, which operates with a reverence for the heft of its own making that reminds of early YOB without trying to ape either Mike Scheidt‘s vocal or riffing style. That works greatly to the benefit of three-piece — guitarist/vocalist James Myers, bassist/vocalist Taber Wilmot, drummer Joe Rude — who allow some raucousness to transfuse in “Skyhammer” (shortest song at 6:53) while surrounding that still-consuming breadth with opener “Cosmic Man” (14:01), “Monolithic Memories” (11:19) and the subsequent finale “Evening Star” (10:38), a quiet guitar start to the lead-and-longest track (immediate points) barely hinting at the deep tonal dive about to take place. Tempo? Mostly slow. Space? Mostly dark and vast. Ritual? Vital, loud and awaiting your attendance. There’s crush and presence and open space, surges, ebbs, flows and ties between earth and ether that not every band can or would be willing to make, and much to Carrier Wave‘s credit, at 42 minutes, they engage a kind of worldmaking through sound that’s psychedelic even as it builds solid walls of repetitive riffing. Not nasty. Welcoming, and welcome in itself accordingly.

Carrier Wave on Facebook

Carrier Wave on Bandcamp

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Stash, Through Rose Coloured Glasses

With mixing/mastering by Chris Fielding (Conan, etc.), the self-released first full-length from Tel Aviv’s Stash wants nothing for a hard-landing thud of a sound across its nine songs/45 minutes. Through Rose Coloured Glasses has a kind of inherent cynicism about it, thanks to the title and corresponding David Paul Seymour cover art, and its burl — which goes over the top in centerpiece “No Real” — is palpable to a defining degree. There’s a sense of what might’ve happened if C.O.C. had come from metal instead of punk rock, but one way or the other, Stash‘s grooves remain mostly throttled save for the early going of the penultimate “Rebirth.” The shove is marked and physical, and the tonal purpose isn’t so much to engulf the listener with weight as to act as the force pushing through from one song to the next, each one — “Suits and Ties,” “Lie” and certainly the opener “Invite the Devil for a Drink” — inciting a sense of movement, speaking to American Southern heavy without becoming entirely adherent to it, finding its own expression through roiling, chugging brashness. But there’s little happenstance in it — another byproduct of a metallic foundation — and Stash stay almost wholly clearheaded while they crash through your wall and proceed to break all the shit in your house, sonically speaking.

Stash on Facebook

Stash on Bandcamp

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Lightsucker, Stonemoon

Though it opens serene enough with birdsong and acoustic guitar on “Intro(vert,” the bulk of Lightsucker‘s second LP, Stonemoon is more given to a tumult of heavy motion, drawing together elements of atmospheric sludge and doom with shifts between heavy rock groove and harder-landing heft. And in “Pick Your God,” a little bit of death metal. An amalgam, then. So be it. The current that unites the Finnish four-piece’s material across Stonemoon is unhinged sludge rock that, in “Lie,” “Land of the Dead” and the swinging “Mob Psychosis” reminds of some of Church of Misery‘s shotgun-blues chaos, but as the careening “Guayota” and the deceptively steady push of “Justify” behind the madman vocals demonstrate, Lightsucker‘s ambitions aren’t so simply encapsulated. So much the better for the listening experience of the 35-minute/eight-song entirety, as from “Intro(vert)” through the suitably pointy snare hits of instrumental closer “Stalagmites,” Lightsucker remain notably unpredictable as they throw elbows and wreak havoc from one song to the next, the ruined debris of genre strewn about behind as if to leave a trail for you to follow after, which, if you can actually keep up with their changes, you might just do.

Lightsucker on Facebook

Lightsucker on Bandcamp

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Belgium’s Black Mirrors will release their second album, Tomorrow Will Be Without Us, on Nov. 4 in continued alliance with Napalm Records. What a four years it’s been since the band issued their debut, Look into the Black Mirror, and one gets the sense from the title of the new record, the in-the-crematorium-with-the-body cover art, and the album info wrought by the PR wire below that there’s been some shift in perspective on the part of the group, perhaps pulling back from the Native American-informed imagery and lore in favor of a more real-world outlook.

Which means — given the ‘real world’ we’re living in — that maybe they’ve gotten somewhat darker in the last couple years. Black Mirrors are by no means alone in expressing anxiety about the unfolding effects of climate change on the planet, and since damn near everything everywhere is political all the time, I guess on some level Tomorrow Will Be Without Us probably is too, at least if “Anthropocene” and “Ode to My Unborn Child” are anything to guess by. I haven’t heard the record yet, so can’t speak to how it all plays out, but cool that Alain “Never Gonna Hurt a Record to Have Him Involved” Johannes makes an appearance, and if Black Mirrors are expanding in sound and mindset, that’s only going to result in more interesting music as far as I’m concerned. So here’s to that.

Video for “Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You” is down at the bottom of this post. Preorders are up and the link is in the info here twice, just in case you miss it the first time out:

BLACK MIRRORS Announces New Album, ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ Out November 4, 2022 via Napalm Records!

Watch the Music Video for First Album Single “Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You”!

Pre-Order HERE: https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/blackmirrors

2017 saw Brussels-based rock sensation BLACK MIRRORS take the world by storm with the debut of their awe-inspiring ‘Funky Queen’ EP. Feverishly acclaimed live appearances and a powerful festival showcase later, the band, fronted by extraordinary vocalist Marcella Di Troia, quickly inked a worldwide deal with leading rock and metal empire Napalm Records, soon gaining further praise with the release of their first full-length album, ‘Look into the Black Mirror’.

Continuing to exceed expectations, the unstoppable BLACK MIRRORS have now crafted a new masterpiece and one of rock’s leading highlights of 2022 – their upcoming release, ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’, out November 4, 2022 via Napalm Records!

Are we killing our own planet? No, BLACK MIRRORS don’t believe that we as humans have the power to destroy mother earth. However, as the album cover below portrays, it’s clear who will end up burning – all living creatures, us. ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ is a clear statement impacting every single one of us living on our planet. As first album single “Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You” proves, the band pushes their fuzz pedals to the max, delivering a powerful rock anthem you can’t help but move and groove to, yet perfectly showcases BLACK MIRRORS’ unforced, versatile and organic talent.

BLACK MIRRORS about their first single:
“‘Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You’ is one of the first songs we wrote and recorded for this album. We felt the song really helped us to shape the album as it embraces a lot of different influences like Nirvana and Hole, but also Queens of the Stone Age, Jack White and even Radiohead. The song is a shout out to the bitter world we’re living in, a shout out to our consumerist society! Our beautiful planet has its limits! We are on a sinking ship. We have left so many living beings to die, to disappear even. We need to change now more than ever – we have to change our ways.”

About the new video, the band states:

“The energy of “Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You” video is pretty close to what you can expect from a live show of Black Mirrors. Furthermore, we focused on what’s behind the lyrics. The colors, mainly yellow and red, were used as a symbol of the burning of our forest, our planet. One of the outfits Marcella’s wearing is a nod to the last mass extinction to warn us of the 6th mass extinction we are currently living in. At the end, she even changes into a tree to embody the return to nature.”

BLACK MIRRORS’ sophomore outing is a deep, soulful and vividly textured 90’s inspired rock record with umpteen layers begging to be picked apart with each spin, and lyrically, traverses humankind’s increasing apathy towards the world around them. The grunge-infused guitar lines meld in harmony, giving way to memorable riffs, rhythmic gems, big grooves and the addictive, beautifully unchained vocals of Di Troia. The album fluxes from fierce and blustery to often gentle and calming, channeling the flavor of MTV’s glory era showcasing acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead, Hole, Alain Johannes, Alice in Chains and beyond.

Contrary to the album’s title and its evocative themes about today’s society and a world falling apart, tomorrow does belong to BLACK MIRRORS – there is no doubt they will own the next decade, providing us with the finest in heavy rock and melodic grunge grandeur the world of tomorrow unconditionally needs.

“Like all of us, we had to go through a lot during these past years. ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ is our answer to all the questions we had during that time, our reflection on the ecological catastrophe we’re all witnessing, our thoughts on our consumerist society, …”, the band comments. “Writing these songs gave us the strength to go forward and to heal us, it was our catharsis. We deeply hope it will bring you some light in these dark times.”

Together with the touch of worldwide-acclaimed producer Alain Johannes (Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, No Doubt), BLACK MIRRORS have reset the bar to unexpected heights, and their new album promises to leave its mark on today’s rock scene worldwide! One can be sure, the music world of tomorrow would be a lonely place without BLACK MIRRORS, and ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ locks them at the top.

‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ will be available in the following formats:
– CD Digisleeve
– LP Gatefold BLACK
– LP Gatefold Marbled BLACK/GOLD (ltd. 300)
– Digital Album

Pre-Order ‘Tomorrow Will Be Without Us’ HERE: https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/blackmirrors

Album Track List:
1. Snake Oil
2. Lost in Desert
3. Tomorrow Will be Without Us
4. Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You
5. Ode to my Unborn Child
6. Through the Eyes of a Giant
7. Collapsology (Raise Your Voice), feat. Alain Johannes
8. Anthropocene
9. Tears to Share
10. Say it Again

BLACK MIRRORS Live:
11/3/22 (DE) Hamburg – Headcrash (Exclusive Album Release Show!)
11/4/22 (DE) Berlin – Cassiopeia (Exclusive Album Release Show!)
11/18/22 (BE) Brussels – Botanique (Exclusive Album Release Show!)

BLACK MIRRORS Current Line-Up:
Marcella Di Troia (Vocals)
Pierre Lateur (Lead Guitar)
Yannick Carpentier (Drums)
Pierre Guillaume (Guitar, Synths, Backing Vocals)

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Black Mirrors, “Hateful Hate, I’ll Kill You” official video

Prior to this unveiling of the cover art for their new album, Honesty Integrity Friendship Passion, Belgian shenanigans-noisemakers 30,000 Monkies posted a dot-to-dot line-drawing version of the sweet-dohggy face that adorns its front for their listeners to fill in on their own. This is charm, in other words. To coincide with this, the four songs on the half-hour release offer pummel, abrasion, and chug, growing admirably massive on “Honesty” plays out before the more cinematic drone of “Integrity” leads to the big-shout heavy riffing of “Friendship,” a beast of a finishing wash and all, and “Passion” closes with 12 minutes of artful bombast, surrounding deeply weighted lumber with avant synthotronics, perhaps tying the disparate elements together as much as one could while reinforcing the message that, basically, screw you for wanting things to be tied up in the first place. Can’t argue.

Gonna get weird, this one.

No audio public from it yet — can’t have everything — but 2019’s Are Forever is streaming below, should you want to get caught up.

From the PR wire:

30,000 MONKIES – HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION

Pre-order of the LP:
https://30000monkies.bandcamp.com/album/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion

Pre-order from Consouling Sounds:

CD: https://store.consouling.be/products/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion-cd
LP: https://store.consouling.be/products/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion-vinyl

Belgian experimental metal band, 30,000 Monkies have consistently been unleashing cathartic noise avalanches in live venues across Europe. Consouling Sounds is happy to announce the upcoming LP from Beringen-based collective – HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION. Commenting on the nature or writing and concepts, Michiel De Naegel admits: “It might seem like a pre-planned concept album, but it really isn’t. The title comes from Lil B’s lecture that took place in New York city in 2012.” – while the rap-artist was referring to a positivistic idea, talking about kindness, Lil B had summed up the concept with four words only: honesty, integrity, friendship and passion.

Guitarist/vocalist, Ruben Savelkoul explains the value of the words saying: “This sequence of words has been living in our minds since then. We kept thinking about doing something with it and finally decided to write the music to fit these words. In the end we wrote a song for each individual word, sonically and thematically inspired by it.”

Both members stress – despite the emotional quality of Lil B’s worldview, the songs are not necessarily representations of it. On HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION, 30,000 Monkies celebrates some core human values the only way they know how: with a banquet of festive sludge metal, droning guitars and an ambient palate cleanser.

Release: September, the 30th
Genres: Noise-rock, Sludge
Label: Consouling Sounds
Format: LP, CD, digital

Tracklist:
1. Honesty
2. Integrity
3. Friendship
4. Passion

“We started out with the idea of one long song in four chapters, fitting the vibes for the title we already had in mind.” – stresses Ruben. The intention to write really diverse and contrasting songs, fitting each title evolved. The situation that became both comfortable and productive for the band led to what they describe as “a DIY approach”. 30,000 Monkies “ourselves” used to control the process entirely. Except for the mastering work. “By “ourselves” I mean Ruben (singer, guitarist) recorded and mixed it in his own ‘FVN KVLT’ Studio, which was sadly demolished right after we finished the recordings.” – the freedom the band got in this situation allowed them to work on the arrangements and songwriting all along the way of making HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION.

Four songs with a mind of their own, boldly moving in different directions while still clearly being part of the ever expanding 30,000 Monkies universe. It’s brutally honest, joyously anthemic, grandly spacious, and above all: a well-meant punch in the feels. It’s an ode to a Lil’ B with warm ideas.

“We never really have a ‘fixed’ approach.” – describes Michiel. What started with the intention to create contrasting songs, fitting with each title led to various changes on the arrangements and approaches. Experimenting with sounds 30,000 Monkies created “Integrity”. “While all the twists and turns of ‘Honesty’ were meticulously planned before recording – ‘Passion’ is a solo-endeavor by Ruben, relying heavily on slowly droning, overdubbed guitars, synths and autotune vocals. ‘Friendship’ was (fittingly) the most collaborative songwriting effort we ever did as a band, trying to get the dynamics right in a live setting before we started recording.”

For the past years, 30,000 Monkies have been stalwarts of the Belgian noise rock scene. ‘Somewhere Over The Painbow’ to ‘Are Forever’, is stuffed with pounds of suave sludge and riffs that sound like a zillion champagne corks popping all at once. HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION continues the tradition of making every next release better and better. Loud and luxurious, sticking out like a stockbroker in corpse paint, it became the newest mark in the history of 30,000 Monkies (who send you their greetings from atop the twisted metallic throne of Rock ).

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https://www.champagnemetal.com/
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30,000 Monkies, Are Forever (2019)

Yo, not for nothing, but you could go see Incantation and Bongripper and Naxatras on the same lineup if you go to Antwerp. Or how about Alunah, Gozu and Suma? Cities of Mars and Stygian Bough? Slomatics and Somali Yacht Club and Polymoon? Sasquatch and Weedpecker? God damn.

If I had cash and time, I — well, I’d do a lot of things — but I’d be at this one. I know sometimes in the grand scheme of things looking at a bunch of names on a poster your eyes can glaze over, but if you can stop that from happening here, it’s worth looking at the stylistic sprawl that’ll take place over the course of the weekend. It is far more in terms of aural landscaping than simply desert, which has been true of the various Desertfest-branded events over the last, I don’t know, six years-plus, but is only emphasized here.

Plus, just about anytime Slomatics do anything it makes me happy. Those guys are great.

From the PR wire:

DF 2022 ANTWERP: WEEDPECKER, WUCAN, SLOMATICS, AND MORE!

This is the final batch of names that completes the DF Antwerp line-up, and we’ve definitely saved up some fine morsels for last. All sizes and shapes is the name of the game, so get hyped and dig in.

For those of you who like their stoner music to truly widen the senses, WEEDPECKER and SOMALI YACHT CLUB definitely fit the bill. Both incorporate many psychedelic influences in their jams, taking you on a killer trip.

On the more brutal side of things, we welcome New York’s death metal pioneers INCANTATION who come to celebrate their ‘Tricennial of Blasphemy’. With SLOMATICS, we present you with the heaviest of heavy in sludge doom. No messing about – just pummelling wall-to-wall riffage.

WUCAN and ROSY FINCH enrich our line-up with two kick-ass women that deal in idiosyncratic and highly original rock. Wucan’s Francis Tobolsky still rocks a flute like nobody’s business, and speaking of unconventional instruments in stoner bands: meet MY DILIGENCE who traded their bass player for a Moog keyboard!

As an unfortunate side-note: we have been mercifully spared of cancellations this year.. until now. We are sad to let you know that MOTHERSHIP will not be appearing at this year’s Desertfest Belgium. Their slot has already been filled in above, but still… it’s a bummer.

But hey! We’re still looking at one seriously sumofagun line-up for three days of delicious fuzztastic wreckage… So if it wasn’t before NOW is the time to secure your tickets. Especially because those Reduced Price Combi Tickets are going fast and be gone before you know it.. Don’t let it happen! Don’t do it! By which we mean: do it!

DF ANTWERP & GHENT REDUCED COMBI: 149 Euros
(valid 4 days: 14-16/10 – Antwerp & 30/10 – Ghent)

DF ANTWERP ONLY REDUCED COMBI: 120 Euros
(valid 3 days: 14-16/10 – Antwerp)

DF ANTWERP ONLY REDUCED DAY TICKET: 58 Euros
(valid 1 day: 14, 15 or 16/10 – Antwerp)

DF GHENT ONLY REDUCED DAY TICKET: 52 Euros
(valid 1 day: 30/10 – Ghent)

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

The lineup for Desertfest Belgium 2022 in Ghent on Oct. 30 is starting to get awfully full for a one day festival. And weird, which of course is a good thing. Desertfest‘s second Belgian edition welcomes cult legends Coven here, most notably — and it’s interesting to note that Jinx Dawson has a “fresh new band” behind her — as well as Steak, Tau and the Drones of Praise, Celeste, Ggu:ll and The Devil’s Trade, so yeah, you could say that the bill is starting to get a little out there. So much the better. You’ve got Elder and Pallbearer up at the top — though I wonder if either is headlining — and Monolord to keep things grounded. Might as well indulge a freaky side too.

If you go, I bet this’ll be a trip. Would love to hear about it sometime:

DF 2022 GHENT: NEW NAMES! COVEN, CELESTE, AND MORE!

After last week’s name dropping avalanche for DF Antwerp, it was high time for us to deliver the goods for the Ghent edition, wouldn’t you agree? So here are some sweet additions to the 30/10 line-up.

COVEN is one of the most revered names in Occult Metal lore. After years of cult status, their legacy finally got the acknowledgement it deserves. Now backed with a fresh new band, legendary singer Jinx Dawson has taken Coven back on the road, and we’re excited to see them play Desertfest Ghent.

Also on the bill will be French post-metal sensation CELESTE, who certainly need no further introduction. Their extreme crushing power is known, loved and feared in equal measure. To further thicken the oppressive atmosphere at De Vooruit venue, we have engaged Dutch doomsters GGU:LL who will present their first new material in 6 years (out later this year on the Ghent label Consouling Sounds). And how about THE DEVIL’S TRADE, aka Hungarian singer-songwriter Dávid Makó and his very personal take on doom folk and Eastern European folklore?

We further welcome London-based rockers STEAK who have certainly turned heads with their adventurous new album ‘Acute Mania’. We’re very excited to see them bring this Floydian opus to our stage. And finally, Shaun Mulrooney’s musical spaceship TAU will be here, along with the mysterious DRONES OF PRAISE who will join him in his neo-folk psychedelic jam-outs.

You know where to find the tickets, and be aware you can get a reduced combi deal for the Antwerp & Ghent festivals combined. Day tickets for Antwerp have also been on sale since last week – so there’s plenty of opportunity to mix and match the festival days to your liking!

DF ANTWERP & GHENT REDUCED COMBI: 149 Euros
(valid 4 days: 14-16/10 – Antwerp & 30/10 – Ghent)

DF ANTWERP ONLY REDUCED COMBI: 120 Euros
(valid 3 days: 14-16/10 – Antwerp)

DF ANTWERP ONLY REDUCED DAY TICKET: 58 Euros
(valid 1 day: 14, 15 or 16/10 – Antwerp)

DF GHENT ONLY REDUCED DAY TICKET: 52 Euros
(valid 1 day: 30/10 – Ghent)

GET ALL YOUR COMBI & DAY TICKETS HERE: https://desertfest.be/antwerp/information/ticketing/

Stay tuned for further updates very soon!

http://www.desertfest.be/
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_belgium/

Tau and the Drones of Praise, “It is Right to Give Drones and Praise” official video

Belgian psychonauts Psychonaut (wait. what?) will issue their new full-length, Violate Consensus Reality, on Oct. 28 through Pelagic Records, and with that, I’ll turn you over to the new streaming track, “Interbeing.”

What, no wax poetry about the band’s psychedelic progressive metal? No comparisons to other acts that either aren’t relevant or just make no sense to anyone other than myself? No hyperbole about the potential for what the first single means for the rest of the album?

No. Fuck it. Sometimes the song is enough.

From the PR wire:

PSYCHONAUT To Release Violate Consensus Reality Full-Length Via Pelagic Records October 28th; “Interbeing” Video Now Playing

Belgium-based progressive post-metal trio PSYCHONAUT will release their Violate Consensus Reality full-length on October 28th via Pelagic Records. In advance of the record’s release, today the band unveils first single “Interbeing,” out now on all streaming platforms.

“Interbeing” is a perfect example of how PSYCHONAUT can embody their subject matter through sound and dynamics. Rather than hiding a mediocre melody behind a big climax, the trio from Mechelen first embodies the moment, before blowing it up to larger-than-life proportions. Similar to classic hard rock tracks like “Achilles Last Stand” or “Immigrant Song,” every note feels devoted to the revelation of a new civilization rooted in mindful co-existence — an enlightening addition to progressive metal.

View PSYCHONAUT’s “Interbeing” video HERE. Stream/download the track HERE.

Stay tuned for more info on Violate Consensus Reality including track listing, additional singles, and preorders to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

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https://psychonautband.bandcamp.com/

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http://www.facebook.com/pelagicrecords
http://www.instagram.com/pelagic_records

Psychonaut, “Interbeing”

Oh we’re in the thick of it now, make no mistake. Day one? A novelty. Day two? I don’t know, slightly less of a novelty? But by the time you get to day three in a Quarterly Review, you know how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go. In this particular case, building toward 100 records total covered, today passes the line of the first quarter done, and that’s not nothing, even if there’s a hell of a lot more on the way.

That said, let’s not waste time we don’t have. I hope you find something killer in here, because I already have.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

My Diligence, The Matter, Form and Power

The Matter, Form and Power is the third long-player from Brussels’ My Diligence, whose expansive take on melodic noise rock has never sounded grander. The largesse of songs like the Floor-esque “Multiversal Tree” or the choruses in “On the Wire” and the layered post-hardcore screams in “Sail to the Red Light” — to say nothing of the massive nod with which the title-track opens, or the progressively-minded lumbering with which the 10-minute “Elasmotherium” closes — brims with purpose in laying the atmospheric foundation from which the material soars outward. With “Celestial Kingdom” as its centerpiece, the heavy starting far, far away and shifting into an earliest-Mastodon chug as drift and heft collide, there are hints of Cave In in form if not all through the execution — that is, My Diligence cross similar boundaries but don’t necessarily sound the same — such that the growling that populates that song’s second half isn’t so much a surprise as it is a slamming, consuming, welcome advent. Music as a force. As much volume as you can give it, give it.

My Diligence on Facebook

Mottow Soundz website

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BBF, I Will Be Found

Their moniker derived from the initials of the three members — bassist/vocalist/synthesist Pietro Brunetti, guitarist/vocalist Claudio Banelli and drummer Carlo Forgiarini — Italian troupe BBF aren’t through I Will Be Found‘s five minute opener “Freedom” before they’ve transposed grunge vibes onto a go-where-it-wants psychedelia from out of an acoustic, bluesy beginning. Garage rock in “Cosmic Surgery,” meditative jamming in “Rise,” and a vast expanse in “T-Rex” that delivers the album’s title line while furthering with even-the-drums-have-echo breadth the psych vibe such that the synthy take of the penultimate “Wake Up” becomes just another part of the procession, its floating guitar met with percussion real and imagined ahead of the bookending acoustic-based closer “Supernova,” which dedicates its last 90 seconds or so to a hidden track comprised entirely of sweet acoustic notes that might’ve otherwise ended up as an interlude but work just as well tucked away as they are. Here’s a band who know the rules and seem to take a special joy in bending if not outright breaking them, drawing from various styles in order to make their songs their own. To say they acquit themselves well in doing so is an understatement.

BBF on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Druids, Shadow Work

Progressive and melodic, the fourth album from Iowan trio Druids is nonetheless at times crushingly heavy, and in a longer piece like “Ide’s Koan,” the band demonstrate how to execute a patient, dynamic build, beginning slow and spaced out and gradually growing in intensity until they reach a multi-layered shouting apex. Drew Rauch (bass), Luke Rauch (guitar) and Keith Rich (drums) all contribute vocals at one point or another, and whether it’s in the plodding rock of “Dance of Skulls” or the not-the-longest-track-but-the-farthest-reaching closer “Cloak/Nior Bloom,” their modern prog metal works off influences like Baroness, Mastodon, Gojira, etc., while retaining character of its own through both rhythmic intricacy and its abiding use of melody, both well on display in “Othenian Blood” and the subsequent, drum-intensive “Traveller” alike. “Path to R” starts Shadow Work mellow after the ceremonial build-up of “Aether,” but the tension is almost immediate and Druids‘ telegraphing that the heavy is coming makes it no less satisfying when it lands.

Druids on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Kandodo4, Burning the (Kandl)

Though it’s spread across two LPs, don’t think of Kandodo4‘s Burning the (Kandl) as an album. Or even a live album, though technically it’s that. You might not know, you might not care, but it’s a historical preservation. ‘The time that thing happened,’ where the thing is Simon Price of The Heads leading a jam under the banner of his Kandodo side-project featuring Robert Hampson of Loop, and bassist Hugo Morgan and drummer Wayne Maskell — who play in both The Heads and Loop — as part of The Heads‘ residency at Roadburn Festival 2015 (review here). I tell you, I was there, and I’ve seen few psychedelic rituals that could compare in flow or letting the music find its own shape(lessness) as it will. Burning the (Kandl) not only has the live set, but the lone rehearsal that the one-off-four-piece did prior to taking stage at Het Patronaat in Tilburg, the Netherlands, that evening. Thus, history. Certainly for the fest, for the players and those who were there, but I like to think in listening to these side-long stretches of expanse upon expanse that all of our great-grandchildren will worship at the altar of this stuff in a better world. Maybe, maybe not, but better to have Burning the (Kandl) ready to go just in case.

Kandodo on Facebook

Kandodo on Bandcamp

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

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Into the Valley of Death, Ruthless

The second EP in about nine months from Los Angeles’ Spencer Robinson — operating under the moniker of Into the Valley of Death — the seven-song Ruthless feels very much like a debut album despite a runtime circa 25 minutes. The songs are cohesive in bringing together doom and grunge as they do, and as with the prior Space Age, the lo-fi aspects of the recording become part of the overarching character of the material. Guitars are up, bass is up, drums are likely programmed, vocals are throaty and obscure at least until they declare you dead on “Ghost,” and the pieces running in the three-to-four-minute range have a kind of languid drawl about them that sound purely stoned even as they seem to reach out into the desert after which the project is seemingly named. Robinson, who also played bass in The Lords of Altamont and has another outfit wherein he fronts a full backing band, is up to some curious shit here, and whether or not it was, it definitely sounds like it was recorded at night. I’m not sure where it’s going, and I’m not sure where it’s been, but I know I’ll look forward to finding out.

Into the Valley of Death on Bandcamp

Doomsayer Records on Facebook

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Stuck in Motion, Still Stuck

Enköping, Sweden’s Stuck in Motion issued their 2018 self-titled debut (review here) to due fanfare, and Still Stuck (changed from the working title ‘Ut på Tur,’ which translates, “on tour”) arrives with a brisk reminder why. Jammy in spirit, early singles “Höjdpunkternas Land,” “Lucy” and “På Väg” brim with vitality and a refreshing take on classic heavy rock, not strictly retro, not strictly not, and all the more able to jam and offer breadth around traditional structures as in “I de Blå” for that, weaving their way into and out of instrumental sections with a jazzy conversation between guitars and keys, bass and drums, percussion, and so on. Combined with the melodies of “Tupida,” the heavier tone underlying “Fisken” and the organ-and-synth-laced shuffle of the penultimate “Tung Sol,” there’s a balance between psych and prog — and, on the closing title-track, horns — which are emblematic of an organic style that couldn’t be faked even if the band wanted to try. I don’t know the exact release date for Still Stuck — I thought it was already out when I slated this review — but its eight songs and 40 minutes are like the kind of afternoon you don’t want to end. Sunshine and impossible blue sky.

Stuck in Motion on Facebook

Stuck in Motion on Bandcamp

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Sageness, Tr3s

A blurb posted by Spanish instrumentalists Sageness — also written SageNESS — with the release of Tr3s reads as follows: “The future seen from the past, where another current reality is possible, follow us and we will transfer to a new dimension. (Tr3s),” and fair enough. One could hardly begrudge the trio a bit of escapism in their work, and listening to the 36 minutes across four songs that comprises Tr3s, they do seem to be finding their way into the ‘way out.’ Though if where they’re ending up is 12-minute finale “Event Horizon,” in which the very jam itself seems to be taffy-pulled on a molecular level until the solid bassline and drums dissipate and what takes hold is a freakout of propulsive, drift-toned guitar, I’m not sure if they do or don’t ultimately make it to another dimension. Maybe that’s on the other side? Either way, after the scope of “Greenhouse” and the more plotted-seeming stops of “Spirit Machine,” that end is somewhat inevitable, and we may be stuck in reality for real life, but Sageness‘ fuzzy and warm-toned heavy psychedelic rock makes a reasoned argument for daydreaming the opposite.

Sageness on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

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Kaleidobolt, This One Simple Trick

You think you’re up for Kaleidobolt, and that’s adorable, but let’s be honest. The Finnish trio — whose head-spinning, too-odd-not-to-be-prog heavy rock makes This One Simple Trick laughable as a title — are on another level. You and me? They’re running circles around us in “Fantastic Corps” and letting the truth about humans be known amid the fuzz of “Ultraviolent Chimpanzee” after the alternately frenetic and spaced “Borded Control,” momentarily stopping their helicopter twirl to “Walk on Grapes” at the album’s finish, but even then they’re walking on grapes on another planet yet to be catalogued by known science. 2019’s Bitter (review here) boasted likewise self-awareness, but This One Simple Trick is a bolder step into their individuality of purpose, and rest assured, they found it. I don’t know if they’re a “best kept secret” or just underrated. However you say it, more people should be aware. Onto the list of 2022’s best albums it goes, and if there are any simple tricks involved here, I’d love to know what they are.

Kaleidobolt on Facebook

Svart Records website

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The Tazers, Outer Space

It probably wouldn’t fit on a 7″, but The Tazers‘ Outer Space EP isn’t much over that limit at four songs and 13 minutes. The Johannesburg trio’s melodicism is striking nearly at the outset of the opening title-track, and the fuzz guitar that coincides is no less right on as they touch on psychedelia without ever ranging so much as to lose sight of the structures at work. “Glass Ceiling” boasts a garage-rocking urgency but is nonetheless not an all-out sprint in its delivery, and “Ready to Die” hits into Queens of the Stone Age-esque rush after an acoustic opening and before its fuzzy rampage of a chorus, while “Up in the Air” is a little more psych-funk until solidifying around the repeated lines, “Give me a reason/Show me a sign,” which culminate as the EP’s final plea, like Witch played at 45RPM or your favorite stoner band’s cooler cousin. Four songs, it probably took more effort to put together than they’d like you to think, but the casual cool they ooze is as infectious as the songs themselves.

The Tazers on Facebook

The Tazers on Instagram

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Obelos, Green Giant

Bong-worship sludge from London. It’s hard to know the extent to which Obelos — which for some reason my fingers have trouble typing correctly — are just fucking around, but their dank, lurching riffs, throaty screams and slow-motion crashes certainly paint a picture anyhow. Paint it green, with maybe some little orange or purple flecks in there. Interludes “Paranoise” and “Holy Smokes” bring harsh noise and a kind of improvised-feeling, also-quite-noisy chicanery, but the primary impression in Green Giant‘s six tracks/27 time-bending minutes is of nodding, couchlocked stoner crush, and I wouldn’t dare ask anything more of it than that. Neither should you. I’d argue this is an album rather than the EP it’s categorized as being, since it flows and definitely gets its point across in a full-length manner, but I’m not even gonna fight the band on that because they might break out a 50-minute record or some shit and, well, I’m just not sure I’m ready to get that high this early in the morning. Might have to reserve an entire day for that. Which might be fun, too.

Obelos linktr.ee

Obelos on Instagram

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