Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Just what do Slomosa have up their sleeves for a second album, I wonder. Their self-titled debut (review here) came out in 2020 on Apollon Records and made a splash and basically as soon as they could be they were on the road for it. I think they played every European festival last year except the three I was lucky enough to go to — which has had the sad effect of making me probably even more eager to see them live — and that album continues to spread via word of mouth even as the Bergen, Norway, four-piece are confirmed for more gigs. And now they’ve signed to Stickman Records; a home for heavy that matters.
So what’s it gonna be with Slomosa? Are they the forerunners of a new generation of heavy rock? Are they the vanguard? I don’t know, but I think the next album is going to tell us an awful lot one way or the other. And I think this signing is big enough news that I’m posting about it on Friday even after I already closed out the week. So yeah, I’m at least open to the idea that they’re the real deal and are going to be leaders of that next-gen of heavy that’s so badly needed, make an impact and be influential. That potential is there. It’s exciting to think it could happen.
This is why you sign up for record label newsletters:
SLOMOSA Sophomore LP to be released on Stickman – new single coming soon
We are proud to announce that SLOMOSA and Stickman are joining forces for the band’s upcoming second full-length, which they recently recorded at Polyfon Studio in their hometown of Bergen, Norway. A single from the album will be released in the coming months, so stay tuned!
Since their sudden appearance on the scene with the self-titled debut album “Slomosa” in 2020, the band has hit the ground running with relentless tours alongside bands such as Orange Goblin, Sasquatch and Stöner.
Singer/guitarist Benjamin Berdous says of the upcoming record:
“The feel good vibes of our first album were apparent in the music, even though the lyrical themes were more serious and angry, but also in some sense comforting for me personally. Since then more of life has happened and things have gotten more serious, and as always this reflects on the music. It’s still important to me that we continue to offer something fresh in an at times homogeneous genre. Catchy vocal hooks and heavy guitar riffs is our recipe, and we don’t plan to mix up our diets!”
Posted in Reviews on February 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It is difficult to convey just how singular Enslaved are. For over 30 years, they have continually refined their sound, moved ever forward and refused stagnation. That’s impressive enough when you have four albums, let alone 16, and their commitment to exploration, to developing new ideas and to pushing themselves and the styles they’ve helped shape to new places has led them to a place where the unknown has become part of their mastery. Their latest full-length and, yes, their 16th, is Heimdal, a title that translates to English as ‘home valley,’ and throughout the included seven tracks, from the kraturocky keyboard jabs in the first couple minutes of opener “Behind the Mirror” to the let-it-all-loose shred Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal unleashes for “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” — also the title-track of a 2021 stopgap EP (review here) — to the final harmony-topped prog-rock shove of the ending title-track, they are indeed at home in this next step of their ongoing, as yet unceasing evolution.
They are second to none in scope, and in the galloping triumph of “Congelia” — a shivers-up-the-spine riff-rooted life-burst that starts at 5:21 and consumes the rest of the song’s eight minutes; kin to standout Enslaved moments like “Fusion of Sense and Earth” from 2006’s Ruun (discussed here) and “The Watcher” from 2008’s Vertebrae and “Roots of the Mountain” from 2012’s Riitiir (review here), but even more gorgeously crafted now than it could have been then — and the depth of layering in guitar, keys and vocals of centerpiece “Kingdom,” and just about everywhere else, they remind that scope is an essential facet of who they are. And so is change. Progress. Movement.
Heimdal is not a record Enslaved could have made even five years ago. It follows a busy few pandemic years of livestreams and live albums after 2020’s studio LP Utgard (review here), and it is very much a sophomore release from the incarnation of the band featuring drummer and producer Iver Sandøy. Alongside founding members Grutle Kjellson (bass, vocals), whose signature rasp saves its most vicious gnash for the djent-doom initial unfolding of the title-track — a fitting way to let listeners know they’ve arrived at the end of all things — but who also works in some spoken narration for “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” and clean singing elsewhere, and guitarist/backing vocalist/keyboardist/etc.-ist Ivar Bjørnson, whose creative drive as main songwriter is the epicenter of the band’s own, as well as the undervalued metallurgy of Isdal and the synth/keys and soaring melodic voice of Håkon Vinje, who joined the band in 2017 and has only added to their reach in the time since, Sandøy contributes in multiple regards to the spiritual and aural force of Heimdal.
As a drummer, he is propulsive beneath the keyboard-led middle of “Forest Dweller,” which begins with acoustic-inclusive layered sweep and ends in a dream-drift exhale after the tension has broke, and no less able to hold the more open groove of “The Eternal Sea” either in its harmonized early moments, the stretch outright charred extremity that follows or the all-in engrossing melodic payoff that follows with his vocals as a crucial element of the whole. Also one of Heimdal‘s principal producers at Solslottet Studios (Vegard Lemme also assisted with engineering), where the basic tracks were recorded — Isdal did the leads/solos at his Earshot & Conclave Studios and additional recording was done at ‘the Overlook Hotel,’ where all work and no play reportedly makes Jack a dull boy — Sandøy is all the more integrated into the five-piece band across Heimdal, and his voice when added especially to that of Vinje, but also the rougher deliveries of Kjellson (mostly) and Bjørnson, results in arrangements that are nothing short of majestic.
Of all the places Heimdal goes in its 49 minutes — including home, apparently — across the material that’s perhaps more expansive than Utgard as an added benefit of the additional years of working with this lineup, Sandøy is able to function at both the core and the forefront of the going. He is there at the payoff of the introductory tour de force that is “Behind the Mirror,” alongside Vinje in a melodic-singing duo that pushes the entirety of Heimdal to a higher level of execution. That’s true even in the darkest corners of the material. The clenched-jaw raging intensity of “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” that reminds of the band’s madly careening earlier days, and the head-spinning, sharp-turning precision of “Kingdom,” the way in which the lumbering doom at the outset of “The Eternal Sea” presents the crashing of waves — all of these moments and so many others are able to be realized because on every level Enslaved can’t not challenge each other to surpass what they’ve done before.
Introducing Vinje with 2017’s E (review here) was a beginning point, and Utgard can now be seen as the start of a new era of progressive manifestations because of the affirmations wrought throughout Heimdal, and both the blinding luminosity and the severity of their material — on the most basic level, the things they can and will do — are harnessed with poise and purpose alike. Longer on average than they were last time out, the songs on Heimdal maintain urgency and atmosphere alike, and whether it’s the open-space first verses of “Forest Dweller,” crooning clean vocals over swirling synth drones before the drums fade in and Kjellson treats his vocal cords to another round of punishment, or the break in the middle of the title-track, a few spoken lines in Norwegian before the drums launch and punctuate the somewhat angular and still melodically stunning keystone ending — not a blowout, but a thoughtful, completing moment that gives over to residual synth to end; a universe’s answer back to the rowing oars and sounding horn at the start of Heimdal about 45 minutes and lightyears before — the band never lose their sense of direction despite what seems at times like a wildly spinning compass.
But that is who they are. Enslaved burn even the loftiest expectations in the fires of accomplishment and give credence to heavy metal as a form of high art. On the front cover, as ever by Tor Ola Svennevig (maybe based on landscape photography by Kjellson and Mirjam Orman Vikingstad?), there are three distinct representations of the past, present and the future, respectively, as water, earth and sky. In the water, we see the past as a reflection of the present and the future; subtly notable for the hillside object that might be a banner, speaking to a history of Norwegian peoples and places that is very much a part of Enslaved‘s thematic explorations. In the sky is the future, foreboding and bright in kind, unknowable. The proverbial limit. And where the logo and title are placed is on the level of the land, the present; somehow all we’re given between the two surrounding temporal infinities. It is a reminder not only that time is fleeting as the idiom says, but that none of those three stages can exist without the other. The present is our own home valley, and as Enslaved continue to chase and seek new realms of sound and presence in that unknown future, they are no less grounded in right now for the multidimensional, ever-blossoming nature of their calling.
Enslaved, Heimdal (2023)
Enslaved, “Congelia” official video
Enslaved, “Forest Dweller” official video
Enslaved, “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” official video
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 27th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A couple things to note here for context. The version of “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” in the video below comes not from Enslaved‘s impending Heimdal album, due March 3 on Nuclear Blast, but from their prior livestream ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience.’ A bluray of that stream, a sort of culmination for the Bergen, Norway-based progressive black metal forebeards — that was a typo but I’m leaving it — from their ‘Cinematic Tour’ series that was released as a CD/DVD box set in 2021, will be included in the special edition of the new record, and featured a collaboration with the band Shaman Elephant. So when you see the glut of dudes in the video and say to yourself, “I don’t remember Enslaved being an orchestra,” well, there’s your explanation.
One can hardly begrudge Enslaved getting some mileage out of ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’ or the streams in general, considering the quality of the audio/visual production at hand. Considering that alongside the adventurous nature of the project to start with, it’s pretty emblematic of who Enslaved are at this point in their career, masters of their sound who refuse not to explore new ideas. That’s been true of their work all along — one can trace a linear path across decades in their studio albums; if you never have, it’s a fun listening project provided you keep an open mind — but the farther out they go from their rawest beginnings, the more daring they seem to become. Special thanks to whoever it was that introduced them to krautrock, however many years ago now that might’ve been. At least 20.
You might also recall “Caravans to the Outer Worlds” was the title-track on an EP (review here) the band released last year. I don’t know if that version is the same one on Heimdal to come, but fair enough if it is, and while I haven’t heard the record yet, with the recent announcement of North American touring alongside Insomnium and Black Anvil, I look forward all the more to being immersed in that special expansiveness that is so quintessentially Enslaved‘s own when the time comes.
For now, dig into this and watch for flashing lights:
Enslaved, “Caravans to the Outer Worlds (Live from The Otherworldly Big Band Experience)” official video
Bergen visionaries Enslaved present, ‘Caravans to the Outer Worlds (Live from The Otherworldly Big Band Experience)’, taken from the bonus version of the upcoming album HEIMDAL. Pre-order / pre-save the album: https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.yde
Left-field metal luminaries Enslaved have revealed a single and video for ‘Caravans to the Outer Worlds (Live from The Otherworldly Big Band Experience)’. The track, which comes from their forthcoming new studio album Heimdal (out March 3rd), as well as last year’s EP of the same name, sees an innovative, alternative live recording and stellar presentation of the song, with nuanced accompaniment from fellow psychedelic Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant.
This extraordinary performance took place one year ago, on last year’s Winter Solstice, via the streaming event The Otherworldly Big Band Experience.
Grutle Kjellson commented, “Caravans To The Outer Worlds’ was the first material written for our upcoming album, and that first song usually points in a certain direction. However, this song points in several directions, and that really made the whole process immensely interesting, and ultimately pushed us making our best album ever!
This live-version, taken from ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’, our last big project keeping us alive during the pandemic, is the first of hopefully many opportunities to behold a performance of this energetic song. We hope you’ll enjoy it. God Jól!”
ENSLAVED – ALBUM LAUNCH EVENT HEIMHUG 03 March NO, Bergen – USF Verftet Head to enslaved.no/Heimhug for more information.
ENSLAVED + INSOMNIUM NORTH AMERICAN CO-HEADLINE TOUR 2023 w/ Black Anvil 05 April New York, NY – Irving Plaza 06 April Boston, MA – Big Night Live 07 April Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre 08 April Toronto, ON – The Opera House 10 April Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall 11 April Chicago, IL – House Of Blues 12 April Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater 14 April Denver, CO – The Gothic Theatre 15 April Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex 17 April Seattle, WA – The Crocodile 18 April Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw 19 April Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre 21 April Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall 22 April Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre 23 April Phoenix, AZ – Nile Theater 25 April Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live 26 April Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall 28 April Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse 29 April Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre 30 April Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
ENSLAVED – 2023 FESTIVAL SHOWS 03 Feb 2023 DK, Fredericia – Winter Metal Magic 13 May 2023 UK, London – Incineration Festival 10-11 Nov 2023 MX, Monterrey – Mexico Metal Fest
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 15th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Norwegian progressive black metal masters Enslavedrecently announced their 16th full-length, Heimdal, would see release through Nuclear Blast on March 3, and today brings word that the band will return to North American shores to support it. Setting off from New York City on April 5 — which my calendar tells me is just four days after Church of the Cosmic Skullhit town for April Fools — Enslaved will co-headline with Insomnium for the better part of the month going coast-to-coast in the process with shoots up north for Montreal and Vancouver. I’m an easy sell on going to see Enslaved live, and if you’re not, it’s your loss. Me and Mike H.’ll happily tell you why you need to show up next time.
Rad as the tour news is, it’s only scratching the surface of everything the stalwarts have going on, between other special performances and festival dates coming up next year, special editions of Heimdal and this and that and then some. To wit, this PR wire info is about 700 words long. Most don’t crack 200, but then again, most bands who’ve been going for 30 years without a break aren’t still pushing boundaries the way Enslaved ceaselessly do with either their level of quality or productivity.
Anyway, here you go:
ENSLAVED Announce Co-Headline North American Tour With INSOMNIUM
Enslaved are pleased to announce a month-long, North American co-headline tour with Insomnium. The run will take place in April 2023, shortly after the release of Enslaved’s new studio album, Heimdal, out March 3rd. Support on the road will come from Black Anvil.
Ivar Bjørnson commented,
“Neither you nor we will BELIEVE how much we are looking forward to coming back to the US of A and Canada in April 2023! We have a new album (and more if you want to be technical), ‘Heimdal’, to show you – spoiler alert: it will lay venues waste. Yes, we are that confident. We also have some rather cosmically awesome (!) bands joining the trek in co-headliners Insomnium and support Black Anvil – how could this become anything but the most spectacular event of 2023?”
Tickets will go on-sale Friday December 16th @ 10am (local time) via the below links.
ENSLAVED + INSOMNIUM NORTH AMERICAN CO-HEADLINE TOUR 2023 w/ Black Anvil 05 April New York, NY – Irving Plaza 06 April Boston, MA – Big Night Live 07 April Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre 08 April Toronto, ON – The Opera House 10 April Detroit, MI – Saint Andrew’s Hall 11 April Chicago, IL – House Of Blues 12 April Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater 14 April Denver, CO – The Gothic Theatre 15 April Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex 17 April Seattle, WA – The Crocodile 18 April Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw 19 April Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre 21 April Berkeley, CA – The UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall 22 April Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre 23 April Phoenix, AZ – Nile Theater 25 April Austin, TX – Come And Take It Live 26 April Dallas, TX – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall 28 April Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse 29 April Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre 30 April Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
ENSLAVED – 2023 FESTIVAL SHOWS 03 Feb 2023 DK, Fredericia – Winter Metal Magic 13 May 2023 UK, London – Incineration Festival 10-11 Nov 2023 MX, Monterrey – Mexico Metal Fest
But Enslaved have even more planned for 2023, including festival show dates, and a unique album release event in their home city of Bergen, Norway. Named Heimhug, the evening will feature an extended Enslaved live set with guests, and very special guest Jo Quail.
Grutle Kjellson commented, “Sometimes the answers and the truths lie under your very nose, or where the journey starts, where you first set sail towards horizons unknown. This was very much the case when we started working on “Heimdal”; we stepped back and looked a bit inwards and also at our immediate surroundings, at the area we hail from and where we still dwell today; Hordaland. On these shores people have been living and dying, worshiping and crying, laughing and lying ever since the Stone Age. History has been written here, history will still be written here and we will continue to dwell here until the end of our days.
“Built around this historical narrative, “Heimdal” was created, and on the 3rd of March 2023 we would like to invite you to celebrate the album release with us and pay homage to our history.
“Under the “Heimhug”-banner, we’re gonna perform a two-set release concert at USF Bergen with very special guests, we’ll have an art exhibition with the specific photographs and drawings we used for the artwork on the album and also an exclusive showing of last year’s “The Otherworldly BigBand experience”.
“See you in Bergen in March! Alu Alu Laukar!”
Enslaved’s 16th studio album, Heimdal, will be released on March 3rd 2023, via Nuclear Blast Records.
Heimdal tracklisting 01. Behind The Mirror 02. Congelia 03. Forest Dweller 04. Kingdom 05. The Eternal Sea 06. Caravans To The Outer Worlds 07. Gangandi (Bonus Track)* 08. Heimdal
Heimdal, is both a departure and a communion with roots forged over three decades ago in the turbulent birth throes of Norway’s black metal scene. The record is named after Heimdal, arguably the most mysterious entity in Nordic mythology.
The record features psychedelic track ‘Caravans To The Outer Worlds’ from last year’s EP of the same name. Album bonus versions contain an extra track, ‘Gangandi’, alongside a Blu-Ray copy of 2021’s stunning Otherworldly Big Band Experience streamed event – the band’s boldest project to date, featuring fellow Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant. The kaleidoscopic stage show features a stellar setlist, covering Enslaved’s career, both past and present.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Norwegian progressive black metal progenitors Enslaved will release their 16th album, Heimdal, March 3 on Nuclear Blast. News comes fresh off the PR wire, along with a video for the first single “Congelia” and the opening of preorders. We would seem to be at the moment of launch, as regards the album generally.
I probably don’t have to ask you when the last time you felt so much anticipation for a band’s 16th record was, but there’s only one Enslaved. The single they released earlier this year, “Kingdom” (posted here), will feature on the record and since I’m in the waiting room of a doctor’s office I haven’t even had the chance to check out “Congelia” yet, but that’s for sure going to happen on the ride home, whether or not the orthopedist takes out the stitches currently residing on either side of my left knee. Good fun.
In any case, Heimdal will be the follow-up to 2020’s Utgard (review here), and on the off chance you don’t already have the kind of crazy unrealistic expectations that the band specialize in surpassing, I’ll tell you outright that you should.
Info from the PR wire:
ENSLAVED Announce New Studio Album “Heimdal”
+
Release New Single/Video “Congelia”
Those few golden, undying hearts are those of secret sons.
And the secrets of the Sun are those of daughters asking to…
Bergen visionaries Enslaved are proud to announce their 16th studio album, Heimdal, set to be released on March 3rd 2023, via Nuclear Blast Records. Today’s news is accompanied by the release of a blistering new single, titled ‘Congelia’, alongside an emotive, environmental video.
Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson & Grutle Kjellson commented,
“It’s quite weird, yet pretty awesome that we are now talking about the release of our 16th album; yes our 16th full-length album release. That’s not too shabby for a couple of scallywags from rural western Norway, is it? If you count our stint in the short lived Phobia-act, we have been playing together for no less than 32 years!
In all these years, Norse mythology has been our umbilical cord to the realms of mysticism and philosophy, and our gateway to the realms of deep psychology and the esoteric worlds beyond. One of the most fascinating characters of our mythology is HEIMDAL, and he has been lurking around in our minds like an enigma for three decades now. His first appearance was in a song called ‘Heimdallr’ on our demo tape ‘Yggdrasill’ back in 1992, and he’s had both minor and more significant roles in our lyrical universe over the years.
This time we have decided to dedicate an entire body of work to this most enigmatic of characters and richest of archetypes – we give you ‘HEIMDAL’. We have reached deeper and scouted further ahead than ever before – the past, present and future sound of the band comes together in songs born from sheer inspiration – it is the common force of a close-nit group of friends and musicians.”
You can pre-order Heimdal here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.ema Listen to ‘Congelia’ here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/congelia.ema
Heimdal, is both a departure and a communion with roots forged over three decades ago in the turbulent birth throes of Norway’s black metal scene. The record is named after Heimdal, arguably the most mysterious entity in Nordic mythology.
The record features psychedelic track ‘Caravans To The Outer Worlds’ from last year’s EP of the same name. Album bonus versions contain an extra track, ‘Gangandi’, alongside a Blu-Ray copy of 2021’s stunning Otherworldly Big Band Experience streamed event – the band’s boldest project to date, featuring fellow Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant. The kaleidoscopic stage show features a stellar setlist, covering Enslaved’s career, both past and present.
Heimdal tracklisting 01. Behind The Mirror 02. Congelia 03. Forest Dweller 04. Kingdom 05. The Eternal Sea 06. Caravans To The Outer Worlds 07. Gangandi (Bonus Track)* 08. Heimdal
Heimdal formats CD Limited edition digipack CD (inc. Bonus Track) + Blu-Ray* 2LP vinyl gatefold – black 2LP vinyl gatefold – white + black marble (Nuclear Blast Excl.) 2LP vinyl gatefold – white + green marble (Nuclear Blast + Selected Retailers) 2LP vinyl gatefold – blue + white marble (UK Retail + EMP) 2LP vinyl gatefold – white (USA Revolver Excl.) 2LP vinyl gatefold (inc. Bonus Track) + Blu-Ray – crystal clear w/ black marble (Nuclear Blast Excl.)* 2LP vinyl gatefold (inc. Bonus Track) + Blu-Ray – clear w/ black + gold marble (Band Excl.)*
Heimdal was produced by Enslaved’s own Ivar Bjørnson, Iver Sandøy and Grutle Kjellson. Mixing was handled by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios, and the final treatment was mastered by Tony Lindgren. The concept and lyrics for Heimdal was, as always, developed by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson in tandem.
The album was recorded primarily at Solslottet Studios in Bergen, which is owned by Iver Sandøy. Solslottet is a satellite of the well-known Duper Studios, where the drums were recorded and engineered by Iver himself, with assistance from Vegard Lemme. The main guitars, bass, pianos, organs, and vocals were also recorded at Solslottet. Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal recorded his guitar leads at his own Earshot & Conclave Studios. The final touches and a few experimental ideas were added at the Overlook Hotel using Solslottet’s mobile studio rig. All music for Heimdal was written and demoed at Ivar Bjørnson’s own Crow’s Nest studio.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I had the benefit of hearing about this in-person this past Saturday, literal minutes before the announcement went out on social media. In the basement of Kulturkirken Jakob for Høstsabbat before Bismarck played, the band’s own Leif Herland confirmed that word was going out and the record — apparently called Vourukasha and almost through the recording process, which Herland is also helming — would hopefully be pressed by Spring. Laughing, I speculated June in response, and Majestic Mountain says “summer” below, so let’s just call it 2023 and let it roll for now.
Whenever it is released Vourukasha will serve as the band’s follow-up to 2020’s Oneiromancer (review here), which was impressively heavy and atmospheric in kind. I’d love to tell you how their Høstsabbat set was, but as I write this, I’m actually sitting in front of the Crypt Stage at Kulturkirken Jakob waiting for them to go on. Call it a rare temporal alignment, maybe, but it’s a new one for me for sure. Kudos to the Bergen five-piece in any case. I hope that in about 10 minutes they bludgeon this place with riffs to celebrate.
From social media, lightly edited for context:
Majestic Mountain Records are pleased to bring you Norway’s Bismarck as the newest members of the Majestic crew.
An uncompromising group of unbelievable substance, bringing obscene amounts of heavy with impeccable vision, pristine production, and unshakable delivery. Majestic? Yes.
Bismarck is a formidable act on stage and off with two incredible releases under its belt since its inception in 2015. The third, a full length of immense tension and atmosphere is forthcoming this spring with details to come. For now, we give you its title and usher in a new era of Bismarck out upon the world.
Bismarck comments: “This a step in the right direction for us! Majestic Mountain Records are burning like a bright flame for the bands on their roster! We are really looking forward to what the future brings and we’re beyond stoked to sign a deal with this hardworking and great label!
The album ‘Vourukasha’ is for us a natural successor to “Oneiromancer”. It’s still influenced by ancient Persian mythology, it has all you expect from us, and then some more.”
“And then some” is the key here. ‘Vorukasha’ is not only a natural progression for the band but it succeeds in taking us through an expanded journey of the Bismarck universe full of gripping mystic allegory and through vast peaks and valleys of abject heaviness drenched in electric, emotive delivery with pristine production.
Please give Bismarck a warm welcome to the Majestic roster, we’re thrilled to be a part of Bergen’s heaviest doom merchant’s next chapter as we give ‘Vourukasha’ the Majestic treatment for release this coming Summer.
Thanks so much for all your support, Majestic Crew.
Posted in Reviews on September 19th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Oh hello. I didn’t see you there. What, this? Oh, this is just me hanging out about to review 100 records in 10 days’ time. Yup, it’s another double-wide Quarterly Review, and I’m telling myself that no, this isn’t just how life is now, that two full weeks of 10 reviews per day isn’t business as usual, but there’s an exceptional amount of music out there right now, and no, this isn’t even close to all of it. But I’m doing my best to keep up and this is what that looks like.
The bottom line is the same as always and I’ll give it to you up front and waste no more time: I hope you enjoy the music here and find something to love.
So let’s go.
Quarterly Review #01-10:
Yatra, Born into Chaos
The partnership between Chesapeake extremists Yatra and producer Noel Mueller continues to bear fruit on the band’s fourth album and first for Prosthetic Records. Their descent from thick, nasty sludge into death metal is complete, and songs like “Terminate by the Sword” and “Terrorizer” have enough force behind them to become signature pieces. The trio of Dana Helmuth (guitar/vocals), Maria Geisbert (bass) and Sean Lafferty (drums, also Grave Bathers) have yet to sound so utterly ferocious, and as each of their offerings has pushed further into the tearing-flesh-like-paper and rot-stenched realms of metal, Born into Chaos brings the maddening intensity of “Wrath of the Warmaster” and the Incantation-worthy chug of closer “Tormentation,” with massive chug, twisting angularity and brain-melting blasts amid the unipolar throatripper screams from Helmuth (reminds at times of Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved), by now a familiar rasp that underscores the various violences taking place within the eight included tracks. I bet they get even meaner next time,. That’s just how Yatra do. But it’ll be a challenge.
Part of the fun of a new Sula Bassana release is not knowing what you’re going to get, and Nostalgia, which is built from material recorded between 2013-’18 and finished between 2019-’21, is full of surprises. The heavy space grunge of lead cut “Real Life,” which along with its side A companion “We Will Make It” actually features vocals from Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt himself (!), is the first here but not the last. That song beefs up early Radiohead drudgery, and “We Will Make It” is like what happens when space rock actually gets to space, dark in a way but expansive and gorgeous. Side B is instrumental, but the mellotron in “Nostalgia” — how could a track called “Nostalgia” not have mellotron? — goes a long way in terms of atmosphere, and the 10-minute “Wurmloch” puts its well-schooled krautrockism to use amid melodic drone before the one-man-jam turns into a freakout rager (again: !), and the outright beautiful finisher “Mellotraum” turns modern heavy post-rock on its head, stays cohesive despite all the noise and haze and underscores the mastery Schmidt has developed in his last two decades of aural exploration. One wonders to what this sonic turn might lead timed so close to his departure from Electric Moon and building a Sula live band, but either way, more of this, please. Please.
Continuing a streak of working with highly-respected imprints, Finland’s Garden of Worm release their third album, the eight-song/43-minute Endless Garden, through Nasoni Records after two prior LPs through Shadow Kingdom and Svart, respectively. There have been lineup changes since 2015’s Idle Stones (review here), but the band’s classically progressive aspects have never shone through more. The patient unfolding of “White Ship” alone is evidence for this, never mind everything else that surrounds, and though the earlier “Name of Lost Love” and the closer “In the Absence of Memory” nod to vintage doom and the nine-minute penultimate “Sleepy Trees” basks in a raw, mellow Floydian melody, the core of the Tampere outfit remains their unpredictability and the fact that you never quite know where you’re going until you’re there. Looking at you, “Autumn Song,” with that extended flute-or-what-ever-it-is intro before the multi-layered folk-doom vocal kicks in. For over a decade now, Garden of Worm have been a well kept secret, and honestly, that kind of works for the vibe they cast here; like you were walking through the forest and stumbled into another world. Good luck getting back.
Untethered by genre and as unorthodox as ever, Sevilla, Spain, weirdo doom heroes Orthodox return with Proceed after four years in the ether, and the output is duly dug into its own reality of ritualism born more of creation than horror-worship across the six included songs. “Arendrot” carries some shade from past dronings, and certainly the opener before it is oddball enough, with its angular riffing and later, Iberian-folk-derived solo, but there’s a straigter-forward aspect to Proceed as well, the vocals lending a character of noise rock and less outwardly experimentalist fare. “Rabid God” brings that forward with due intensity before the hi-hat-shimmy-meets-cave-lumber-doom “Starve” and the lurching/ambient doomjazz “The Son, the Sword, the Bread” set up the 10-minute closer “The Long Defeat,” which assures the discomforted that at least at some point when they were kids Orthodox listened to metal. Righteously individual, their work isn’t for everyone, and it’s by no means free of indulgence, but in 42 minutes, Orthodox once again stretch the limits of what doom means in a way that most bands wouldn’t dare even if they wanted to, and if you can’t respect that, then I’ve got nothing for you.
Fifty years from now, some brave archivalist soul is going to reissue the entire catalog of Lima, Peru’s Matus and blow minds far and wide. A follow-up to 2013’s Espejismos (review here), Espejismos II brings theremin-laced vintage Sabbath rock vibes across its early movements, going so far as to present “Umbral / Niebla de Neón” in mono, while the minute-and-a-half-long “Los Ojos de Vermargar (Early Version)” is pure fuzz and the organ-laced “Hada Morgana (Early Instrumental Mix)” — that and “Umbra; / Niebla de Neón” appeared in ‘finished versions on 2015’s Claroscuro (review here); “Summerland” dates back to 2010’s Más Allá Del Sol Poniente (review here), so yes, time has lost all meaning — moves into the handclap-and-maybe-farfisa-organ “Canción para Nuada,” one of several remixes with rerecorded drums. “Rocky Black” is an experiment in sound collage, and “Misquamacus” blends acoustic intricacy and distorted threat, while capper “Adiós Afallenau (Version)” returns the theremin for a two-minute walk before letting go to a long stretch of silence and some secret-track-style closing cymbals. The best thing you can do with Matus is just listen. It’s its own thing, it always has been, and the experimental edge brought to classic heavy rock is best taken on with as open a mind as possible. Let it go where it wants to go and the rewards will be plenty. And maybe in another five decades everyone will get it.
Offset by interludes like the classical-minded “Aversion” or the bass-led “Reprobation,” or even the build-up intro “S.Z.,” the ritual doom nod of Swiss five-piece Shrooms Circle‘s The Constant Descent is made all the more vital through the various keys at work across its span, whether it’s organ or mellotron amid the lumbering weight of the riffs. “Perpetual Decay” and its companion interlude “Amorphous” dare a bit of beauty, and that goes far in adding context and scope to the already massive sounding “The Unreachable Spiral” and the subtle vocal layering in “The Constant Descent.” Someone in this band likes early Type O Negative, and that’s just fine. Perhaps most of all, the 11-song/48-minute The Constant Descent is dynamic enough so that no matter where a given song starts, the listener doesn’t immediately know where it’s going to end up, and taking that in combination with the command shown throughout “Demotion,” “Perpetual Decay,” the eight-minute “Core Breakdown” and the another-step-huger finale “Stagnant Tide,” Shrooms Circle‘s second album offers atmosphere and craft not geared toward hooking the audience with catchy songwriting so much as immersing them in the mood and murk in which the band seem to reside. If Coven happened for the first time today, they might sound like this.
I’m gonna tell you straight out: Don’t write this shit off because Goatriders is a goofy band name or because the cover art for their second album, Traveler, is #vanlife carrot gnomes listening to a tape player on a hillside (which is awesome, by the way). There’s more going on with the Linköping four-piece than the superficialities make it seem. “Unscathed” imagines what might have happened if Stubb and Hexvssel crossed paths on that same hill, and the album careens back and forth smoothly between longer and shorter pieces across 50 engrossing minutes; nature-worshiping, low-key dooming and subtly genre-melding all the while. Then they go garage on “The Garden,” the album seeming to get rawer in tone as it proceeds toward “Witches Walk” and the a capella finish in “Coven,” which even that they can’t resist blowing out at the end. With the hypnotic tom work and repeat riffing of the instrumental “Elephant Bird” at its center and the shouted culminations of “Goat Head Nebula” and “Unscathed,” the urgent ritualizing of “Snakemother” and the deceptive poise at the outset with “Atomic Sunlight,” Traveler finds truth in its off-kilter presentation. You don’t get Ozium, Majestic Mountain and Evil Noise on board by accident. Familiar as it is and drawing from multiple sides, I’m hard-pressed to think of someone doing exactly what Goatriders do, and that should be taken as a compliment.
At the tender age of 80, bizarrist legend Arthur Brown — the god of hellfire, as the cover art immediately reminds — presents Long Long Road to a new generation of listeners. His first album under his own name in a decade — The Crazy World of Arthur Brown released Gypsy Voodoo (can you still say that?) in 2019 — and written and performed in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Rik Patten, songs like “Going Down” revisit classic pageantry in organ and horns and the righteous lyrical proclamations of the man himself, while “I Like Games” toys with blues vibes in slide acoustic, kick drum thud and harmonica sleazenanigans, while the organ-and-electric “The Blues and Messing Round” studs with class and “Long Long Road” reminds that “The future’s open/The past is due/In this moment/Where everything that comes is new,” a hopeful message before “Once I Had Illusions (Part 2)” picks up where its earlier companion-piece left off in a manner that’s both lush and contemplative, more than a showpiece for Brown‘s storytelling and still somehow that. His legacy will forever be tied to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown‘s late-1960s freakery, but Long Long Road is the work of an undimmed creative spirit and still bolder than 90 percent of rock bands will ever dare to be.
Ultimately, whether one ends up calling Green Sky Accident‘s Daytime TV progressive psychedelia, heavier post-rock or some other carved-out microgenre, the reality of the 10-song/50-minute Apollon Records release is intricate enough to justify the designation. Richly melodic and unafraid to shimmer brightly, cuts like “Point of No Return” and the later dancer “Finding Failure” are sweet in mood and free largely of the pretense of indie rock, though “Insert Coin” and the penultimate piano interlude “Lid” are certainly well dug-in, but “Sensible Scenes,” opener “Faded Memories,” closer “While We Lasted” and the ending of “Screams at Night” aren’t lacking either for movement or tonal presence, and that results in an impression more about range underscored by songwriting and melody than any kind of tonal or stylistic showcase. The Bergen, Norway, four-piece are, in other words, on their own trip. And as much float as they bring forth, “In Vain” reimagines heavy metal as a brightly expressive terrestrial entity, a thing to be made and remade according to the band’s own purpose for it, and the title-track similarly balances intensity with a soothing affect. I guess this is what alt rock sounds like in 2022. Could be far worse, and indeed, it presents an ‘other’ vision from the bulk of what surrounds it even in an underground milieu. On a personal level, I can’t decide if I like it, and I kind of like that about it.
Pure Land Stars, Trembling Under the Spectral Bodies
With members of Cali psych-of-all explorers White Manna at their core, Pure Land Stars begin a series called ‘Altered States’ that’s a collaboration between Centripetal Force and Cardinal Fuzz Records, and if you’re thinking that that’s going to mean it’s way far out there, you’re probably not thinking far enough. Kosmiche drones and ambient foreboding in “Flotsam” and “3rd Grace” make the acoustic strum of “Mountains are Mountains” seem like a terrestrial touch-down, while “Chime the Kettle” portrays a semi-industrial nature-worship jazz, and “Jetsam” unfolds like a sunrise but if the sun suddenly came up one day and was blue. “Lavendar Crowd” (sic) turns the experimentalism percussive, but it’s that experimentalism at the project’s core, whether that’s manifest in the nigh-on-cinematic “Dr. Hillarious” (sic) or the engulf-you-now eight-minute closer “Eyes Like a Green Ceiling,” which is about as far from the keyboardy kratrock of “Flotsam” as the guitar effects and improvised sounding soloing of “Jetsam” a few tracks earlier. Cohesive? Sure. But in its own dimension. I don’t know if Pure Land Stars is a ‘band’ or a one-off, but they give ‘Altered States’ a rousing start that more than lives up to the name. Take a breath first. Maybe a drink of water. Then dive in.
Anyone notice how the new Enslaved video has a better framerate than real life? Shit looks gorgeous. Also, I actually LOL’ed when the piggyback happened at 3:02. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all very artsy and I know it’s a metaphor and so on, but it’s also a guy doing light parkour in the wilderness and then running on a beach and having an old man climb on his back. So, video of the year? Maybe. In any case, you know it’s Iceland even before you look at the names in the credits and see all the ‘ð,’ ‘fn,’ ‘Þ,’ etc. As I said, gorgeous.
“Kingdom” — for that is the name of the song in question — doesn’t come from the band’s new album or anything (they’ve got a record due in Feb.; thanks Mike H. for the info), but it’s definitely, definitely Enslaved. And by that I mean a band who’ve been together over 30 years and have a continuous creative progression the likes of which just about nobody else can boast. I guess you would say “Kingdom” is of the era of 2020’s Utgard (review here) and its Caravans to the Outer Worlds (review here) companion EP, but mostly because that means the band and guitarist/songwriter Ivar Bjørnson are doing whatever the hell feels right and following no other apparent standard. To be fair, that is all they need to do. I do not think Bjørnson or anyone else composing material in Enslaved sits down and says, “now we are going to try adding krautrock rhythmic repetitions to our progressive black metal foundation,” but they keep going and all that stuff comes out. They are exploratory unto themselves.
In the PR wire info below, you might note that in the quote from Bjørnson, he talks about a ‘coming trek.’ I do not know if that means a tour announcement is to follow shortly — I could live 400 years and I’d never be cool enough to have inside info on this band — but it’s something to keep an eye on. Enslaved were in North America this year, curating at the Fire in the Mountains festival in Wyoming, which if you’ve seen as many pictures of it on your social media as I have of mine, you know was quite a thing to miss out on as I did, sad to say. If you were there, you probably don’t need me to tell you about it. Right on.
This is Enslaved‘s second single of 2022 behind the live version of “Bounded by Allegiance” (posted here) earlier this year as taken from their ‘Otherworldly Big Band Experience’ collaborative streaming concert. I would not attempt to guess what they might do from here, but if it is a tour, the arguments in favor of showing up are about as vast as the Icelandic countryside through which all the admirably athletic Icelanders are running in the “Kingdom” video. Don’t worry, they get where they’re going.
Enjoy:
Enslaved, “Kingdom” official video
ENSLAVED Reveal New Single “Kingdom” Alongside Concept Video
ATOMS HUM.
THE ORDER OF ALL. THE OLDEST OF DREAMS.
Today, Enslaved release a stunning new track titled ‘Kingdom’ alongside an evocative concept video. The unorthodox Norwegians have found themselves at an intersection of sorts, where the momentum of living time rushes forward at an ever-increasing pace, imperceptibly modulated by the primeval echoes of eons past.
Ivar Bjørnson stated: “Kingdom – a tribute to the endurance of ideas and the people that carry them forward through hardship and fatigue, for the benefit of us all.
Musically, it is a tribute to the Riff and the Rite: to the Teutonic Thrash kings, to Space Rock, to the Ambient pioneers of the 70s.
With this we ask you to join us on this coming trek. Thanks for listening!”
