Posted in Whathaveyou on May 8th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Having just wrapped the US portion of their tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of their third album, Lore (review here), Elder are about to pick up with the tour in Europe. They’ll be at Desertfest Oslo this week — see you there — and play Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin, Sonic Whip, Mystic Festival on the run. They’re no strangers to hitting the road hard, and that seems to have been the plan for much of this year.
They’d previously announced the Fall dates below supporting (co-headlining with?) All Them Witches, who I’m thinking will have a new record out by the time they make the trip from their home in Nashville. In addition to that, Elder have a handful of newly-announced shows in Iberia leading them to the Westill Fest in France. You’ll find all of the above, below, as per socials:
We’re extremely stoked to be supporting one of our favorite current bands All Them Witches in Europe this October.
Following that, we’ll be playing a few headline shows in Portugal, Spain and France. Tickets for these gigs will go on sale this Friday at 11AM local time.
Supporting All Them Witches 06.10.25 Glasgow (UK), The Garage 07.10.25 Manchester (UK), Manchester Academy 2 08.10.25 Leeds (UK), Leeds Beckett Students’ Union 09.10.25 London (UK), O2 Forum Kentish Town 11.10.25 Paris (FR), Le Bataclan 12.10.25 Brussels (BE), Ancienne Belgique 14.10.25 Utrecht (NL), Tivoli/Vredenburg 15.10.25 Tilburg (NL), 013 Poppodium 17.10.25 Copenhagen (DK), Amager Bio 19.10.25 Berlin (DE), Tempodrom 20.10.25 Warsaw (PL), Progresja 21.10.25 Prague (CZ), Roxy 22.10.25 Vienna (AT), Gasometer 23.10.25 Milan (IT), Alcatraz 24.10.25 Berne (CH), Bierhübeli 26.10.25 Barcelona (ES), Razzmatazz 27.10.25 Madrid (ES), La Riviera
Elder Headlining Shows 28.10.25 Lisbon (PT), RCA Club 29.10.25 Porto (PT), Mouco 30.10.25 Bilbao (ES), D8 Sorkuntza 31.10.25 Toulouse (FR), La Cabane 01.11.25 Vallet (FR), Westhill Festival Artwork by Adam Hill
ELDER “Lore” 10th Anniversary Tour Spring 2025: 08.05.2025 Hamburg (DE), Bahnhof Pauli 09.05.2025 Copenhagen (DK), A Colossal Weekend 10.05.2025 Oslo (NO), Desertfest Oslo 11.05.2025 Stockholm (SE), Hus 7 13.05.2025 Esch-Alzette (LU), Kulturfabrik 14.05.2025 Tourcoing (FR), Le Grand Mix 15.05.2025 Brussels (BE), Le Botanique 16.05.2025 London (UK), Desertfest London 17.05.2025 Nijmegen (NL), Sonic Whip Festival 18.05.2025 Savigny-Le-Temple (FR), Grand Sludge Fest 20.05.2025 Wiesbaden (DE), Schlachthof – Kesselhaus 21.05.2025 Lyon (FR), L’Epicerie Moderne 22.05.2025 Lucerne (CH), Sedel 23.05.2025 Munich (DE), Feierwerk 24.05.2025 Jena (DE), Kuba 25.05.2025 Berlin (DE), Desertfest Berlin 05.06.2025 Gdańsk (PL), Mystic Festival
Elder is: Nick DiSalvo – Guitars, Vocals Mike Risberg – Guitars, Keys Jack Donovan – Bass Georg Edert – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Progressive heavy rock masters Elder are on tour now celebrating the 10th anniversary of their 2015 third full-length, Lore (review here). A worthy cause, indeed. After this US run — they were in Brooklyn last week; my wife had a Board of Ed. meeting — they’ll do Spring fests and club dates in Europe. Their summer looks to be open thus far — a break would be well earned, but I wouldn’t put it past them to sneak in work on their next record if that’s actual downtime — but newly announced is a Fall run, also in Europe, with All Them Witches.
That’s a one-two bill of two of their generation’s best bands, and accordingly, I don’t need to sell you on it, so I won’t. All Them Witches also announced US dates with King Buffalo yesterday, which tells me to expect their next record sometime around the Fall. Fingers crossed, anyhow.
From the PR wire:
ELDER Announce European Tour Dates With ALL THEM WITCHES!
This year marks the 10th anniversary of “Lore”, the ground-breaking, third studio album released in 2015 on Stickman Records by progressive psych-rock spearheads ELDER. In support, the band is currently touring North America followed by Europe in May, including much-awaited festival appearances at such as Desertfest London, Berlin and Oslo, Sonic Whip and many more, playing the album in its entirety!
The band states: “Lore is turning 10 years old. This album marked a point of departure for Elder upon a path which the band is still walking now. For us, this is the record where the band came into its own as a unique voice in the heavy rock underground. As we approach our second decade as a band, we feel it’s appropriate to look back on this landmark for us and acknowledge it properly, which is why we’re doing a tour performing the entire album along with some other tracks from our earlier catalog; we’ll give this era of the band a proper celebration before turning our attention once again toward the future and the next album, currently being written.”
Furthermore, ELDER have just announced to join neo-psychedelic blues rock masters ALL THEM WITCHES on their House of Mirrors Tour in Europe this October, with many more headlining dates around the tour to be revealed soon! Visit https://beholdtheelder.com/tour/ for tickets & more concert info.
ELDER “Lore” 10th Anniversary Tour 2025:
11.04.2025 Columbus (OH), Ace Of Cups 12.04.2025 Chicago (IL), Reggies 13.04.2025 Detroit (MI), Sanctuary 14.04.2025 Buffalo (NY), Rec Room 15.04.2025 Toronto (ON), Axis 17.04.2025 Montreal (QC), Theatre Fairmount 18.04.2025 Hamden (CT), Space Ballroom 19.04.2025 Boston (MA), Middle East 08.05.2025 Hamburg (DE), Bahnhof Pauli 09.05.2025 Copenhagen (DK), A Colossal Weekend 10.05.2025 Oslo (NO), Desertfest Oslo 11.05.2025 Stockholm (SE), Hus 7 13.05.2025 Esch-Alzette (LU), Kulturfabrik 14.05.2025 Tourcoing (FR), Le Grand Mix 15.05.2025 Brussels (BE), Le Botanique 16.05.2025 London (UK), Desertfest London 17.05.2025 Nijmegen (NL), Sonic Whip Festival 18.05.2025 Savigny-Le-Temple (FR), Grand Sludge Fest 20.05.2025 Wiesbaden (DE), Schlachthof – Kesselhaus 21.05.2025 Lyon (FR), L’Epicerie Moderne 22.05.2025 Lucerne (CH), Sedel 23.05.2025 Munich (DE), Feierwerk 24.05.2025 Jena (DE), Kuba 25.05.2025 Berlin (DE), Desertfest Berlin 05.06.2025 Gdańsk (PL), Mystic Festival
With ALL THEM WITCHES: Oct 6: Glasgow, UK – The Garage Oct 7: Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy 2 Oct 8: Leeds, UK – Leeds Beckett Students’ Union Oct 9: London, UK – O2 Forum Kentish Town Oct 11: Paris, FR – Le Bataclan Oct 12: Brussels, BE – Ancienne Belgique Oct 14: Utrecht, NL – Tivoli/Vredenburg Oct 15: Tilburg, NL – 013 Poppodium Oct 17: Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio Oct 19: Berlin, DE – Tempodrom Oct 20: Warsaw, PL – Progresja Oct 21: Prague, CZ – Roxy Oct 22: Vienna, AT – Gasometer Oct 23: Milan, IT – Alcatraz Oct 24: Berne, CH – Bierhübeli Oct 26: Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz Oct 27: Madrid, ES – La Riviera
Elder is: Nick DiSalvo – Guitars, Vocals Mike Risberg – Guitars, Keys Jack Donovan – Bass Georg Edert – Drums
Posted in Reviews on April 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
A lot going on today, not the least of which is the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review passing the halfway mark. Normally this would’ve happened yesterday, but half of 70 records is 35 and unless I’ve got the math wrong that’s where we’re at here. It’s a decent time to check and see if there’s anything you’ve missed over the last couple days. You never know how something will hit you the next time.
The adventure continues…
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Messa, The Spin
Now signed to Metal Blade — which is about as weighty as endorsements get for anything heavy these days — Italy’s Messa emerge from the pack as cross-genre songwriters working at a level of mastery across their fourth album, The Spin, elevating riff-led songs with vocal melodicism and aesthetic flexibility. “Fire on the Roof” is a hook ready to tattoo itself to your brain, while “The Dress” dwells in its ambience before getting intense and deceptively technical — just because a band dooms out doesn’t mean they can’t play — ahead of the Iommi-circa-’80 solo’s payoff. It’s all very grand, very sweeping, very encompassing, very talented and expensive-sounding. “At Races” and “Reveal” postulate a single ‘Messa sound’ that someone more important than me will come up with a clever name for, and the band’s ascent of the last nine years will continue unabated as they’re heralded among the foremost stylistic innovators of their generation. You won’t be able to say they didn’t earn it.
Kansas-based heavy djent instrumentalists After Nations offer their fifth full-length, Surface | Essence, with a similar format to 2023’s The Endless Mountain (review here), and, fortunately, a similarly crushing ethic. Where the prior album explored Buddhist concepts, the band seem to have traded that for Hinduist themes, but the core approach remains in a mix of sounds churning and progressive. Meshuggah are a defining influence in the heavier material, but each ‘regular’ song (about four minutes) is offset by a shorter (about a minute) ambient piece of one sort or another, and so while Surface | Essence gives a familiar core impression, what the band add to that — including in short, Between the Buried and Me-ish quiet breaks like in “Yāti” and “Vīrya” — is their own. Not to harp on it, but the last record played out the same way and it worked there too. Eventually, one assumes, the two sides will bleed together and they’ll lay waste with that all their mathy interconnected atmospheric assault. As-is, the gigantism of their heaviest parts serves them well.
Taking its chiaroscuro thematic to a meta level, The Complicate Path to the Multiverse breaks its eight-song procession in half, with four heavy rockers up front followed by four acoustic-based cuts thereafter. It’s not a hard and fast rule — there’s still some funky wah in the penultimate “When it’s All Over,” for example — but it lets the Roman troupe give a sense of build as they make their way to “Cradle of Madness” in drawing the two sides of light and dark together. The lyrics do much of the heavier lifting in terms of the theme — that is, the heavier material isn’t overwhelmingly grim despite being the ‘darker’ side — but they let tonal crunch have its say in that regard as well, and side A brings to mind heavy rockers with a sense of progressivism like Astrosoniq while side B pays that off with a creative turn. If you don’t know what you’re getting going into it, the songwriting carries the day anyhow, and as laid back as the groove gets, there’s an urgency of expression underlying the delivery.
Likely no coincidence that London instrumentalist guitar/drum duo Bident — get it, bi-dent? two teeth? there are two of them in the band? ah forget it — launch their debut album, Blink, with “Psychological Raking.” That opener lives up to its billing in its movement between parts and sets up the overarching quirk and delight-in-throwing-a-twist that the subsequent eight tracks provide, shenanigans abound in “Calorina Leaper,” “Thhinking With a Moshcap On” and “Blink,” which renews the drum gallop at the end. With a noteworthy character of fuzz, Blink can accommodate the push of “Two-Note Pony” — which sure sounds like there’s bass on it — the nod in “Bovine Joni” and the sprint that takes hold in the second half of “That Sad,” and their use of the negative space where other instruments or vocals might be is likewise purposeful, but they don’t sound like they’re lacking in terms of arrangements thanks to the malleability of tone and tempo throughout. They operate in a familiar sphere, but there’s persona here that will come to fruition as they proceed.
Death-sludge and post-metallic lumber ooze forth from the five songs of Harvest of Ash‘s second full-length, Castaway, which keeps its atmospheric impulses in check through grounded riffing and basslines as the whole band takes straightforward nod and extreme metal methodologies and smashes them together in a grueling course like that of “Embracing.” Remember in like 1996 when a band like Skinlab or Pissing Razors could just make you feel like you needed to take a shower? There’s a bit of that happening on Castaway as well in the opening title-track or the nine-minute “Constellation” later on, what with its second-half murk and strident riff, but a turn to quieter contemplations or a flash of brighter tone, whatever it is that offsets the churn in a given song, gives breadth to all that misanthropic plodding and throaty gurgle. Accordingly, Harvest of Ash end up both aggressive and hypnotic. I’m not sure it is, at least entirely, but Castaway positions itself as post-metal, and if it is, it is its own interpretation of the style’s tropes.
Berlin’s Vlimmer — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, label head and producer Alexander Leonard Donat — return on a not-surprising quick turnaround from late-’24’s full-length, Bodenhex (review here) with six new tracks that include a Super Furry Animals cover of “It’s Not the End of the World?” and quickly establish a goth-meets-new-wave electro dance melancholy in “Firmament” that gives over to the German-language “Ungleichgewicht,” residing stylistically somewhere between The Cure and krautrock experimentalism. Guitar comes forward in “Friedhofen,” but Donat keeps the mood consistent on Diskomfort where the album ranged more freely, and even as the title-track moves into its finishing wash, the bumout remains. And I don’t know if that’s an actual harpsichord on “Nachleben,” but it’s a reminder that the open arrangements are part of what keeps me coming back to Vlimmer, along with the fact that they don’t sound like anything else out there that I’ve heard, the music is unpredictable, and they take risks in craft.
When Duskhead posted “Two Heads” in December from their The Messenger four-songer EP, it was the first new music from the Netherlands-based rockers in a decade. Fair enough to call it a return, then, as the band — which features members culled from Tank86 and The Grand Astoria — unfurl a somewhat humble in everything but the music 15 minutes of new material. “My Guitar Will Save the Day” answers the Elder-ish vocal melody with a fervent Brant Bjork-style roll, while “Kill the Messenger” cuts the tempo for a more declarative feel and “Searchlights” takes that stomp and makes it swing to round out, some layering at the end feeling like it’s dropping hints of things to come, though one hesitates to predict momentum for a band who just got back after 11 years of silence. Still, if they’re going for it, there’s life in this material and ground to be explored from here. Concept proven. Back to work.
Plenty to hear in The Watcher‘s Cruz Del Sur-issued late-2024 debut Out of the Dark as the Boston unit — not to be confused with San Fran rockers The Watchers — unfurl the Trouble-and-Pentagram-informed take on traditionalist metal. The title-track opens and makes an energetic push while calling to mind ’80s metal in the hook, where “Strike Back” and the lead-heavy “Burning World” emphasize the metal running alongside the doom in their sound. Time for a big slowdown? You guessed it. They fall off the edge the world with “Exiled,” but rather than delve into epic Sabbathianism right then, they break into to the thrashier “The Revelator,” which only gets grittier as it goes. “Kill or Be Killed” and “The Final Hour” build on this vitality before the capper “Thy Blade, Thy Blood” saves its charge for the expected but still satisfying crescendo. Fans of Crypt Sermon and Early Moods will want to take particular note.
Each of the six inclusions on Weed Demon‘s cleverly-titled third long-player, The Doom Scroll, adds something to the mix, so while one might look at the front cover, the Columbus, Ohio, band’s moniker and general presentation and think they’re only basking in weed-worshipping dirt-riffed sludge, that’s not actually the case. Instead, “Acid Dungeon” starts off with dungeon synth foreboding before the instrumental “Tower of Smoke” lulls you into sludgenosis before “Coma Dose” brings deathlier vibes and, somewhere, a guest appearance from Shy Kennedy (ex-Horehound), “Roasting the Sacred Bones” strips back to Midwestern pummel circa 2002 in its stoned Rustbelt disaffection, “Dead Planet Blues” diverges for acoustics and the vinyl-only secret track “Willy the Pimp,” a Frank Zappa cover, closes. By the end of the record, Weed Demon are revealed as decidedly more complex than they seem to want to let on, but I suppose if you’re numbed out on whichever chemical derivative of THC it is that actually does anything, it’s all riffs one way or the other. You want THC-P, by the way. THC-A, the ‘a’ stands for “ain’t about shit.” I’m gonna guess Weed Demon know the difference.
The one-man solo-project of Jon Weisnewski (also of Sandrider, formerly of Akimbo), Nuclear Dudes released the rampaging full-length Boss Blades (review here) in 2023, glorious in both its extremity-fueled catharsis and its anti-genre fuckery. Weisnewski described the seven-song EP Compression Crimes 1 as “a synthwave album, probably,” and he might be right about that, but it’s definitely not just that. “Death at Burning Man” brings unruly techno until it lands in Mindless Self Indulgence pulsations, where “Tomb Crawler” surges near its end with metallic lashing. “Skyship” is so good at being electro-prog it’s almost obnoxious, and that too feels like the point as Weisnewski sees through creative impulses that are so much his own. Sleeper outfit, maybe. Never gonna be huge. But if you can find someone else making this kind of noise, you’re better at the internet than I am.
Good first day yesterday. Good second day today. I’ve been doing Quarterly Reviews for over a decade now, and I’ve kind of learned over time the kind of thing I should be writing about. It might be a record that has a ton of hype or one that has none, and it might be any number of styles — I also like to sneak some stuff in here that doesn’t ‘fit’ once in a while — but in my mind the standard is, “is this something I’ll want to have heard and/or written about later?”
For all the terrors of our age, the glut of good music coming out means there’s more than ever I want to write about, and in a weird way, I look forward to Quarterly Reviews as a way for me to dig in and get caught up a bit. I’ve already been blindsided this QR and it’s the second day. I call that a win.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1
There are few acts the world over who so succintly summarize so much of the appeal of modern heavy rock. Norway’s Kal-El offer big riffs, big hooks, big melodies, songwriting, and still manage heavy-mellow vibes thanks to an ongoing cosmic thematic that brings desert rock methods to more ethereal places. Is “Cloud Walker” the best song they’ve yet written? It’s on the list for sure, but don’t discount nine-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Astral Voyager” or the hey-that’s-a-Star-Trek-reference “Dilithium” with its dug-in low-distortion verses and the Captain‘s vocal outreach. All along, it’s never quite felt like Kal-El were reshaping heavy, but as time passes and they unveil Astral Voyager Vol. 1 with immediate promise of a follow-up, it’s curious how much Kal-El and notions of ‘peak genre’ align. Those of you who proselytize for riffs: even before you get to riding that groove in “Cosmic Sailor,” Kal-El are primed for ambassadorship.
North Carolinian sludgethrowers Bronco take their name from their bassist/vocalist, who also goes by Bronco, and who in the 2010s cut a tone-worshiping generational swath through the Southern wing of the style as a member of Toke, proffering heavy riffs, harsh-throat vocals, and a disaffection that can only be called classic. With eight songs rolling out over 45 minutes, Bronco‘s Bronco picks up the thread where Toke left off with pieces like “Ride Eternal,” which crawls, or the declarative riffing of “Legion” (eerie guest vocals included amid all the pummel), or the closer “TONS,” which I’m going to assume isn’t titled after the Italian sludge-band, though if those guys wanted to put out a song called “Bronco” on their next record, they’d be well within their rights. A remarkably cohesive debut for something that’s so loudly telling you to fuck yourself. These guys’ll be opening for High on Fire in no time.
Although one wouldn’t listen to Santiago, Chile’s Ocultum and be likely to have “refined” top the list of impressions given by the raw, rot-coated sludge of their third album and Heavy Psych Sounds debut, Buena Muerte, the grim-leaning atmosphere, charge later in the title-track, cultish presentation and the atmosphere emergent both from guitar-wail and yelling interlude “Fortunato’s Fortune” and from the material that surrounds, whether that’s the title-track or the just-under-12-minute “Last Weed on Earth.” The record finds the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Sebastián Bruna, bassist Pablo Cataldo and drummer Ricardo Robles dug in, stoned and malevolent. They’re not as over-the-top as many in cult rock, but one does get a sense of ceremony from “Last Weed on Earth” and subsequent capper “Emki’s Return” — the latter galloping in its first half and willfully devolved from there into avant noise — even if that’s more about the making of the songs than the performance of genre tropes.
The grunge crunch of “Running With Secrets” and the Cantrell-y acoustics of “Push” are barely the beginning of the story as regards Fidel A Go Go‘s meld of sounds, which ranges from the willfully desert rocking “Sandstorm” to the proggy “Lil Shit,” the transposed blues of “Rainy Days” and the penultimate “Psychedelicexistentialcrisisalidocious,” which is serene in its melody and troubling in the words, as one would hope, and while the moniker and the punny album title speak to shenanigans, the Brisbane four-piece offer a point of view both instrumentally and lyrically that is engaging and draws together the stylistic range. There’s little doubt left to whom “A Stench of Musk” and “Barely an Adversary” are about, but even that’s not the extent of the perspective resonant in these 11 songs. There’s enough fuzz here for desert heads, but Fidel A Go Go are broader in attitude and craft, and Diss Engaged makes a point of its artistic freedom.
Like their 2023 debut EP, Lady Cadaver, Tumble‘s second short offering, Lost in Light sees the trio of guitarist/vocalist Liam Deak, bassist Tarun Dawar and drummer Will Adams working with producer/engineer Ian Blurton (Ian Blurton’s Future Now, etc.) to hone and sharpen a classic, proto-metallic sound without seeing a dip in recording quality. As such, the five songs/20 minutes of Lost in Light are duly brash — looking at you, “Dead by Rumour” and the Radio Moscow-esque “The Less I Know” — but crisp in tone and execution. The mid-tempo “Sullen Slaves” picks up in its solo section later for a bit of boogie, and the slightly-slower metallic lurch of “Laid by Fear” sets up a contrast with the swinging closer “Wings of Gold” that makes the ending of the EP an absolute strut. They aren’t even asking a half-hour of your time, and the rewards are more than commensurate for getting down. They continue to be one to watch as they position themselves for a full-length debut in the next couple years.
Normally I might consider it a hindrance to have no clue what’s going on, but if you’ve never before encountered Italy/France semi-industrial duo Putan Club you might just find yourself in better position going into Filles d’Octobre as the avant garde radfem troupe unfurl a live set recorded at Portugal’s Amplifest, presumably in 2022. But if you don’t know it’s a live record, what’s coming musically, or that Filles d’Octobre is derived from their 2017 debut album, Filles de Mai, there’s a decent change your contextless self will be scrathing your head in wonder of just what’s going on with the bouncy lurch and maybe xylophone of “Filippino,” and that seems to suit Putan Club just fine. If you have to break something to remake it, Putan Club are set to the task of manifesting a rock and roll that is dangerous, new, unrepentantly socially critical, and ready to dance when you are. That they meet these significant ambitions head on shouldn’t be discounted. Not for everybody, but definitely for everybody who thinks they’ve heard it all.
The first live offering from Argentinian prog-heavy instrumentalists IAH follows behind the band’s most expansive studio LP to-date, 2023’s V (review here), and brings into emphasis the group’s dynamic. It’s not just about being able to make a part sound floaty or to make the part next to it crush, but the character of a piece like the 24-minute “Noboj pri Uaset” (which might be new) is as much about the journey undertaken in their builds and the smoothness of the shifts between parts. They dip back to their earlier going for “Sheut” at the start of the set and “Ourboros” and “Eclipsum” the latter of which closes, and the bass in “Sentado en el Borde de una Pregunta” is worth the price of admission alone, never mind as a complement to the extended progression of “Noboj pri Uaset,” which is something of the buried lede here. So be it. On stage or on record, IAH offer immersion unto themselves. A little more tonal edge as a result of the live recording doesn’t hurt that one bit.
Before the Dawn of Time is upwards of the seventh full-length from Swedish vintage-style heavy rockers Gin Lady, and in addition to seeing them make the jump from Kozmik Artifactz to Ripple Music, the sans-pretense 11-songer invents its own moment. It’s like the comedown era (from 1968-1974, roughly) happened, but happened differently. It’s another path to a heavy rock future. There’s ’70s vibes in “Tingens Sanna Natur” a-plenty, and if it’s boogie or push or hooky melodic wash you want, “Mulberry Bend” has you covered for that and then some, never mind the down-home strum of “Bliss on the Line” or the pastoral contemplation of “The Long Now,” as Gin Lady put a classy stamp of their own on classic aural ideologies, as what are no doubt hyperspecific keyboards make the production smooth and let “Ways to Cross the Sky” commune with Morricone while capper “You’re a Big Star” drops a melody that can really only be called “arena ready.” As it stands, it’ll probably go over killer at festivals across Europe.
Duly apocalyptic for being the band’s first full-length release since 2019, Adrift‘s fourth album, Dry Soil, elicits an overarching doom that makes its tonal claustrophobia all the more affecting. The long-running Madrid outfit offer six songs that veer between the contemplative and the caustic as throatrippers worthy of Enslaved add an element of the extreme to the post-metallic intensity of “Edge” and “Restart” in the record’s middle. There are heavy rock underpinnings — that is, somebody here still likes Sabbath — but Adrift are well at home in all the bludgeonry, and “Bonfire” finishes by tying black metal, sludge, noise and darkly thrashing metal together with a suitably severe ambience. Are they torching it at the end? Kind of, but just replace “it” with “everything” and you’ll have a better idea perhaps of where they’re coming from on the whole. But for regionalist discrimination, Adrift would’ve conquered Europe a long time ago.
Berlin trio Black Sadhu — guitarist/vocalist Max Lowry (also synth, effects), bassist Alex Glimm and drummer Martin Cederlund — employ atmosphere to a point of cinematics on their second full-length, Ashes of Aether, following up the post-doom wash of 2021 standalone single “Mindless Masses” with plays back and forth between full-heft nod and take-a-breather meanderings. This cuts momentum less than one might think as the keyboard and drone and sample of “Tumors of Light” lend experimentalist verve to “Descent,” the next of the nine-track outing’s more-complete-song songs, as the latter unfolds with a shine on the crash that continues to cut through the surrounding rumble as the procession unfurls. Patience, then. So long as you know the payoff is coming — and it is; looking at you, “Electric Death” — and don’t mind being stretched and contorted on a molecular level between here and there, you should be good to go.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I just got the new Grin album, Acid Gods, and though it’s only been 13 months since the band last released a full-length — that being Feb. 2024’s Hush (review here) — there’s an immediately apparent twist in approach as the committed-DIY partnered duo of Jan Oberg and Sabine Oberg move past the willfull rawness of their fourth LP toward a fuller interpretation of sludge in their fifth.
So just what the hell does “fuller” mean here? I’m listening to Acid Gods for the first time as I write this — opener “Black Dye” just ended, “Nocturno” hits a stride moving into its middle, etc. — and in addition to Jan easing on the harshness of his vocals ever so slightly and the tones and sounds growing more atmospheric. It’s not a stark change in direction upending their work to-date. They’re plenty forceful throughout and they cap with the two-minutes-each pairing of “Nebulas,” which is more psych, and “Heavy Dew,” which has more crunch, as if to emphasize where they’re at and what’s still at the core of their sound.
In addition to doubling as Earth Ship and that pandemic-era kindness they did as Slowshine, in addition to recording themselves at Hidden Planet Studio and releasing their own material through The Lasting Dose Records, which is also home to Daevar (whose new LP came out Friday, hoping to review), Caffeine and a growing roster of others, Grin also aren’t shy about getting out and touring, so you should probably expect European dates to come.
Meanwhile, I’m gonna go back and dig into the album, which seems like it’s going to offer plenty for the digging.
Here’s PR wire info:
GRIN – NEW ALBUM ALERT!
“Acid Gods” drops on May 30, 2025, via The Lasting Dose Records.
„With their continuously evolving sound, GRIN are a beacon of boundless creativity in the scene and “Acid Gods” is new testament to their artistry. On “Acid Gods” everything is just more. The intensity of the riffs, the boldness of the vocals, the heaviness of the bass and the detailed crunch of the production. Every GRIN album will have you wondering if this band can get any heavier (or better) and the answer is always YES.“ – R. Westerveld
Tracklisting: 1. Black Dye 2. Nocturno 3. Drag Me Down 4. Beneath The Altar 5. Crystals 6. Unshut 7. Slivers 8. Wild Eyes 9. Nebulas 10. Heavy Dew
All music written and performed by GRIN Recorded at HIDDEN PLANET STUDIO / Berlin Produced, mixed and mastered by J. Oberg
Drawings by Dawid M. Piprek Design & Layout by Caspar Orfgen (DAEVAR) 📸 @vrohdo47
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Someday, Berlin. Feast your discerning eyes on the lineup as it stands for Desertfest Berlin 2025, already broken into day-splits as if to make the sheer glut of names easier to read. Polish exports Belzebong and German sludgers Bloodfang are the latest to join the proceedings, and both will play the first of the three days, which now also include a pre-show the night before the lineup for which is still TBA.
It’s particularly cool to see Elder headlining, as that’s a thing that’s been earned over the last 15-plus years of effort on the band’s part, and with The Hellacopters and Dinosaur Jr., there’s a whole past-meeting-present thing happening across the board that’s likewise rad, but Desertfest celebrating cross-generational heavy isn’t new. You can see it as well in Slomosa‘s placement, as well as Castle Rat‘s, the hype around both acts among the most fervent in today’s underground.
A little something for everyone, plus Stinking Lizaveta and Darsombra on the last day for the most glorious of weirdos among the attending. I guess there’s another lineup announcement to come as they round out the bill — time’s a-wastin’ — but for now here’s the latest from the PR wire:
DESERTFEST BERLIN adds BELZEBONG and BLOODFANG to its eclectic 2025-edition, and announces return of legendary Warm-Up Party!
Desertfest Berlin has added two new band names for its outstanding festival edition in 2025, and confirms Poland’s kings of instrumental stoner doom BELZEBONG, and German sludge, doom, and old-school heavy metal powerhouse BLOODFANG!
They will be joining the perhaps best and most eclectic line-up in the history of Desertfest Berlin, featuring iconic DINOSAUR JR., Swedish rock pioneers THE HELLACOPTERS, prog-and psych-rock masters ELDER (playing their groundbreaking “Lore” album in its entirety!), New Orleans sludge legends EYEHATEGOD, MY SLEEPING KARMA, US doom metallers PALLBEARER, Norwegian “tundra rock” frontrunners SLOMOSA, DOZER, TEMPLE FANG, LOWRIDER, Berlin’s riot grrrls 24/7 DIVA HEAVEN, HIPPIE DEATH CULT and so many more incredible live acts the stoner, rock, doom, sludge, psych and metal scene has to offer.
Desertfest Berlin will take place between May 23 – 25, 2025 at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater. Get Tickets, Sleep Over possibilities & more infos now at:www.desertfest-tickets.de
Alongside many more upcoming specials during the festival, Desertfest Berlin furthermore announces the return of its legendary Warm-Up Party for May 22nd at Neue Zukunft! The bands who will be warming you up for this year’s Desertfest are still secret, but will be announced in the days ahead. Tickets for the iconic Warm-Up are now available at: www.desertfest-tickets.de
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 28th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
One can’t help but read some element of nostalgia specifically for the early days of the band in Samsara Blues Experiment‘s Peace of Action (Live 2012) release, issued just yesterday, Feb. 27, as a free download with tracks culled from 2013’s Live at Rockpalast (review here). True, the Berlin-based then-four-piece had been around for four years by that point and indeed had already by then embarked on the let’s-just-go-do-a-thing West Coast tour of the US in 2008 supporting just their demo (discussed here, review here).
In 2010, their first album, Long-Distance Trip (review here), had reaffirmed the heavy psychedelic warmth of ’08’s preceding rough cuts and expanded on it with a purposefully jammy take and a willingness to let the songs breathe that was new. In 2011, the second full-length, Revelation and Mystery (review here), introduced a more progressive edge to the band’s style, as lead guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters (now of Fuzz Sagrado), guitarist Hans Eiselt, bassist Richard Behrens (who now helms Big Snuff Studio, also Wedge, I think still FOH for Kadavar, and others) and drummer Thomas Vedder began to discover their identity in the tonal depth, spiritualistic lyrical framework and expansive reach of their jams.
So by 2012, when Peace of Action was recorded in Germany (Behrens mixed), Samsara Blues Experiment weren’t a brand new band, but they were beginning to come into their own, and the sound was fresh. They were enough of a “thing” in 2012 that they got to do a Rockpalast recording, for example. And even now, listening to them wah-blast their way through “Center of the Sun,” it’s exciting . I was lucky enough to see this band twice in this era, at Roadburn 2011 (review here) and at Desertfest London 2012 (review here), and being a fan of what they did during their time generally, I’ll grant that I come into Peace of Action with some amount of sentimental attachment. But I also know I’m not the only person who remembers when Samsara Blues Experiment sounded like this — “simpler times,” they were — and from “Singata Mystic Queen” onward, they’ve got eight songs and 74 minutes of preserved lightning in a bottle. Yeah, it’s been out there before, but it’s here today and it’s free, and there’s a freak-flag-flying element to that that feels very apropos of the band.
But even if you think of it as a reissue — there was an acoustic bonus track on the original Live at Rockpalast that was a redux of “Singata Mystic Queen” that showed up on Demos & Rarities (review here) in 2023, one of several posthumous releases the band has had since their final album, End of Forever (review here), put a cap on their tenure in 2020 — it’s a well timed revisit to this period in the life of Samsara Blues Experiment. While outright flattening in the riff of “Army of Ignorance,” they could still fuzz-shuffle in “Into the Black.” As “Hangin’ on the Wire” careens into its title-line like last piece of a machine sliding into place to make the whole thing run, there’s little question why Samsara Blues Experiment would highlight a time when they were so dug in. Not only that, but when they were part of a generational ascent that typified much of the 2010s and of course continues to flesh out, and it was all just beginning to see bands recognize their own power and what they brought to the pastiche of the whole. ‘Heavy psych’ had begun to separate itself from just-jammming and psychedelic rock and prog a few years earlier, and Samsara Blues Experiment would become one of the acts who best represented what the style had to offer.
It goes without saying that the performances are on point or it wouldn’t have been made in the first place. Peace of Action is bootleg-style organic — a show recording — but clear enough to let the bluesy underpinning in the early lead work of “Double Freedom” come through sounding improvised like it’s feeling its way through as it goes, and maybe it was, I don’t know. That extended mellow groover closes the set in nearly 18 minutes of far-outbound excursion, and is among the Samsara Blues Experiment one might most think of as a signature piece, along the likes of “Singata Mystic Queen” and “Hangin’ on the Wire,” etc., though it’s always a little different on any recording, at least so far as I’ve heard. Plus, “Double Freedom” didn’t feature on 2023’s Rock Hard in Concert (review here), so to have it documented here is a win not the least for how heavy it gets. Of all the emails I got yesterday, the one announcing the existence of Peace of Action (Live 2012) was an easy favorite.
Relocating concurrently from Germany to Brazil, Peters has spent the last five years or so developing the solo-project Fuzz Sagrado, and has kept busy with reissues for Samsara Blues Experiment in addition to new work with the new band, first in more of a synthy-proggy-heavy variety, more recently tinged with more rock. The impression release to release has been of an artist rediscovering their love of rock and roll, making their way along an ethereal path toward heavier ground. No, I don’t think a Samsara Blues Experiment reunion is coming. At least not one even with the three-piece lineup that this four-piece later became, though it’s always possible Peters may get another lineup of the band together and continue forward, whatever challenges would be involved there between the ex-members and running a German band with a European target audience from South America, I don’t know.
Still, weirder things have happened, but I’m not holding my breath for it. Maybe someday but not yet? I don’t know, and the point is a release like Peace of Action (Live 2012) is a reminder to all good bands to record as much as possible because you never know when you’re gonna want it later, and also to Samsara Blues Experiment‘s fans — again, a number in which I count myself — of the force they were onstage even in their relatively early days. A free download is its own excuse for grabbing anyway, and this one is about as close to no-brainer as you can get. I don’t know how long it’s gonna be there or how long it’s gonna be free, so here’s the link: https://samsarabluesexperiment.bandcamp.com/album/peace-of-action-live-2012
Thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.
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There was one day this week that had two posts? Wednesday I think it might’ve been? Two or three, anyhow. Just not a ton going on that day and I didn’t feel like pretending otherwise or chasing something down for filler. It’s that time of year. Announcements will continue to pick up for albums and tours in the next month, then you’re into Spring and Summer and Fall and year-end time, so whatever. Anyway, I’m doing as much as I can do. This past weekend I couldn’t get a jump on stuff either really since I was coming back from Massachusetts and seeing that Worshipper gig.
Man, that was a good time, and if Widowmaker had been open and a circuit stop when I lived there, I’d have been a regular. Didn’t even have to drive into the city — it was in friggin’ Braintree. Anyway, was a great show and I got to hang out with John Arzgarth and his family for a bit and see some old friends and that was cool. I might think about going up for Hopsmoker Fest next year, if the timing works.
Speaking of Stateside festivals, I’m way bummed about Desertfest New York. In a perfect world, I’d be like, “Oh hello there, Ripplefest Texas,” and simply shift my plans from one weekend to the other, but flying and staying in Austin is much bigger money than maybe sharing an AirBNB with Tim Bugbee in Queens, and Ripplefest needs my coverage like it needs a hole in the head — not that Desertfest ever did, mind you — so I’m not expecting any we’ll-cover-it offers to come anytime soon. Ideally, money just wouldn’t exist and it would all work out.
The world’s falling apart. Or the country, anyway. Anyone want to talk about the impending constitutional crisis of an executive branch ignoring the orders of the judiciary? Fuck, me neither. And of course no legitimate election could ever happen with the court witch-hunting a president, so no election will happen in 2028. The white devils are set loose. And then you find out what country you really live in.
I have no hope for any of it at this point, see no reason to think there’s any stopping the train from where it’s headed, and think my country got too good at taking too much for granted in having a more-or-less functioning democratic government for like three generations, let money into its politics in 2010 and the nation tanked almost immediately thereafter. Sucks that it’s our kids who’ll live in the aftermath — plus climate disaster — but if anyone gave a shit, none of it would’ve happened in the first place. Thanks capitalism, corruption, power, the usual suspects.
Honestly, it hasn’t been that much of a downer week, but when I stop and think about shit, it gets me. Ergo, keep head down, keep working. I hope you have a great and safe weekend, whatever you need to do to blind yourself to the horrors of our day — music helps! — and encourage you to please not forget to hydrate, watch your head, all that stuff. I’ll be back on Monday with I think a Yawning Balch review and then on from there.
New shirts in March? Still the plan so far as I know.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Three more names for Desertfest Berlin 2025 and by all the ‘more’ that’s featured on each day of the poster below, I’m guessing it’s not the last round of lineup additions to come before the festival takes place this May. Scott Hepple and the Sun Band are a mystery to me, but they’re booked now for London, Oslo and Berlin Desertfests, as well as Freak Valley and more, so good for them being all over the place. Hippie Death Cult just announced another European tour, and they too are making the Desertfest rounds in multiple cities, while The Mystery Lights so far as I know are Berlin-only but coming from New York to play, so good on them making the trip too.
You can see the full lineup below, with The Hellacopters, Dinosaur Jr. and Elder headlining and the likes of Slomosa, Dozer, Khan, My Sleeping Karma, Lowrider and Elephant Tree, Stinking Lizaveta and Darsombra, Temple Fang, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol previously confirmed. If you haven’t caught wind of this one yet in 2025, the appeal pretty much speaks for itself.
Or at least the PR wire speaks for it:
DESERTFEST BERLIN adds HIPPIE DEATH CULT, THE MYSTERY LIGHTS and SCOTT HEPPLE & THE SUN BAND, who will join DINOSAUR JR., ELDER, THE HELLACOPTERS & many more outstanding live acts in 2025!
Desertfest Berlin has revealed three new names for its outstanding festival edition in 2025, and confirms Portland’s heavy doom and cosmic riff worship at its finest: HIPPIE DEATH CULT, New York’s raw and fuzzy garage-psych act THE MYSTERY LIGHTS and UK-based psychedelic vintage rockers SCOTT HEPPLE & THE SUN BAND!
This May will see Desertfest Berlin undoubtedly run its perhaps best and most eclectic line-up to date, welcoming iconic DINOSAUR JR., Swedish rock pioneers THE HELLACOPTERS, prog-and psych-rock masters ELDER (playing their groundbreaking “Lore” album in its entirety!), New Orleans sludge legends EYEHATEGOD, MY SLEEPING KARMA returning home, US doom metallers PALLBEARER, Norwegian “tundra rock” frontrunners SLOMOSA, DOZER, TEMPLE FANG, LOWRIDER and so many more incredible live acts the stoner, rock, doom, sludge, psych and metal scene has to offer.
Desertfest Berlin will take place between May 23 – 25, 2025 at Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater. While the Early-Bird tickets sold out in within hours, regular passes are available at:www.desertfest-tickets.de
07.10.25 Manchester (UK), Manchester Academy 2
