I was kicking around the idea of not doing a year-end list for 2020. Honestly, between this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal and the last one, that pretty much covers my picks, and who the hell cares about what order they’re in? It’s December and everyone and their brother has a list out. Do we really need another one? I’m doing a Quarterly Review right now, covering more music. To me, that seems like a more righteous cause.

Of course, I’ll probably end up doing a list anyway next week, but in the meantime, if you’re looking for a soundtrack to your in-quarantine holiday experience, the second half of the ‘Some of the Best of 2020’ spectacular should do well in getting you through the evening. I’m to understand we’ll be breaking travel protocols myself, so if I get the plague that is even as we speak ravaging my homeland, at least I will have deserved it. Firelung and whatnot.

Thanks for listening and reading. New art coming soon.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 12.25.20

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Jan. 8 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

Digging deep on some of this stuff, and I like that. I mean, yeah, you’ve probably heard Enslaved and Lowrider by now, and maybe Black Rainbows, but stuff like Burning Brain Band, Jointhugger and King Gorm could be new to you. I hope so anyhow, that’s why I picked the tracks. That and I thought they were cool. Pretty simple process when it comes down to it.

I did the voice tracks for this one while my son played (first) with kinetic sand and (then) on the piano, so that’s kind of a mess, but I’ve come to enjoy that and it’s a good show either way. If you manage to check it out, stick around for the end, because the last two songs, the long ones from Dire Wolves and Stonegrass, are absolutely killer. I was recently put onto both records and I have absolutely zero regrets. Cardinal Fuzz put out the Dire Wolves LP in April and Stonegrass is out through Cosmic Range Records in Toronto digitally now with LP to follow. Both albums are worth your time if you have the time.

And as always, thanks for listening if you do.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 05.29.20

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is June 12 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Radio website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

This is a band who know what works. Some 13 years on from their debut album, Twilight in the Desert, and working as a flagship act for frontman Gabriele Fiori‘s Heavy Psych Sounds label as well as spearheads of Italy’s jam-packed underground, Roman trio Black Rainbows have every sense of who they are as a unit and where they want to be in terms of their sound. And even as Fiori has split his focus with the label, a festival series of the same name, and with other projects like Killer Boogie and The Pilgrim, the mission of Black Rainbows has remained consistent: To embody the sound of riding a motorcycle made of fuzz riffs through space on a desert interstate to hell.

Cosmic Ritual Supertrip is the seventh or eighth Black Rainbows full-length depending on how you count, and like 2018’s Pandaemonium (review here), it was recorded with Fabio Sforza. Tracked over a period of three days at Forward Studios in Rome, it finds Fiori as the lone remaining original member of the band joined by the rhythm section of returning drummer Filippo Ragazzoni and newcomer bassist Edoardo “Mancio” Mancini, who steps in for Giuseppe Guglielmino. The shifts in lineup around Fiori aren’t necessarily anything new for Black Rainbows, and as noted, who’s where around him ultimately factors little into the band’s purpose. That’s not to take away from anyone else’s personality or playing style — there are certainly changes in the band’s dynamic that have emerged over time as well as an evolution of songwriting that hits its high water mark here — but there’s little question whose band Black Rainbows is.

Past efforts from Black Rainbows have pounded away through space rock, psychedelia, classic stoner idolatry — Nebula have always been a crucial influence — and jammy freakouts, and Cosmic Ritual Supertrip brings a mix of all of the above, but mostly what comes through the 12-track/49-minute long-player (the vinyl leaves off two songs) is the underlying strength of craft. Fiori, Ragazzoni and Mancini weave and wind their way through these varying styles and elements, working at a range of tempos within and between songs, but whether it’s the scorching layered soloing at the apex of “Hypnotized by the Solenoid” or the pure stoner-is-as-stoner-does-ism of the earlier “Radio 666,” there is a distinct energy and vitality to the work that is singularly Black Rainbows‘ own.

The album practically starts at a sprint with “At Midnight You Cry” and even a subdued moment like the two-minute drifter “The Great Design” is followed up by “Master Rocket Power Blast,” which — if it even needs to be said — hits like it’s been huffing paint thinner for three weeks straight and decided now was a good time to try skydiving. What’s come to the fore over time in Black Rainbows‘ let-it-fly-off-the-rails approach, however, is just how much it actually doesn’t fly off those rails. It was true to an extent on Pandaemonium and 2016’s Stellar Prophecy (review here) and 2015’s Hawkdope (review here) as well, but never more than it is now, that there is a plan being followed in the material. The title Cosmic Ritual Supertrip sounds like pure druggy nonsense, but that’s the idea too. The record, the band, and the songs — they’re all supposed to be the vehicle of the pure, out-of-your-mind escapism that is relishing volume, weight, and presence in heavy music. The medium is the message.

Where Black Rainbows bring a shift in approach into play is the focus on songs. Cosmic Ritual Supertrip flows suitably as a full-length release — the vinyl edition drops the last two tracks of the CD, “Searching for Satellites I & II” and “Fire Breather,” bringing the runtime to about 40 minutes even — but it’s the manner on which individual tracks stand out that would seem to distinguish this latest work from its recent predecessors. A normally hard-touring unit, Black Rainbows are no strangers to engaging an audience, and whether it’s the initial salvo of “At Midnight You Cry,” the desert-rolling “Universal Phase,” “Radio 666” and the hotshot swing of “Isolation” ahead of “Hypnotized by the Solenoid,” or later pieces like the lead-and-crash-soaked “Snowball,” “Glittereyzed” with its mashed-together space and gallop impulses, or the almost chunky-style turns of “Sacred Graal” — Deliverance-era C.O.C. come to mind — there’s a sense that even when Cosmic Ritual Supertrip is at its most sonically sprawling, the songs aren’t wasting a second of their time or yours.

I don’t know if it’s right to call it urgency, though it can be intense at times and Black Rainbows have bordered on speed-rocking mania in the past, but these songs maintain the electric current so key to the band’s collective persona even as they feel particularly hammered out and worked through. They’re not overthought, but it’s as though Fiori and company went into the process of making Cosmic Ritual Supertrip with the goal of having the individual tracks each do as much work as possible. And they do, from front to back. Be it the sharp turns from “Hypnotized by the Solenoid” into “The Great Design” into “Master Rocket Power Blast” or the Monster Magnet-y keys and effects laced throughout “Searching for Satellites I & II” or the samples from 1957’s The Giant Claw about seeing a giant bird as a harbinger of death in “Fire Breather” as the band conjure one last rush, each piece finds a way to leave an impression, and because of that, the album as a whole does as well.

It’s not a case where Black Rainbows have undergone a radical shift in approach. Their sound will be easily recognizable for anyone who took on Pandaemonium, etc., but Cosmic Ritual Supertrip proves their mastery of their approach on a new level by seeing them use songwriting in a different way. They’ve released collections of songs before, and they’ve released albums that have cohered like single long-form works as well, but never quite with as much purpose behind doing so as Cosmic Ritual Supertrip has in how it gives each inclusion its moment in the spotlight. As Black Rainbows continue through this stage of their maturity — and 13 years and seven or eight records on, “maturity” seems like a fair word — that they’re still working in different modes of expression as a unit, and seeming to control it more than ever before, could hardly be more encouraging. The possibilities become endless.

Black Rainbows, Cosmic Ritual Supertrip (2020)

Black Rainbows website

Black Rainbows on Thee Facebooks

Black Rainbows on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Inevitable. As Black Rainbows move toward the May 1 release date for their new album, Cosmic Ritual Supertrip, they were more or less bound to announce a round of European touring to support. They’ll of course play the Heavy Psych Sounds Fests in Paris, London, the Netherlands and Belgium, and they’ll do Desertfest in Berlin (they still have room in the schedule for London as well) and a bunch of other festivals along the way between this week and the end of June, as well as shows later this Spring alongside such luminaries as Greenleaf and Elder, which, as ever, is fine company to keep.

I’ve heard Cosmic Ritual Supertrip at this point. Sooner or later I’ll review it — hopefully before May — but if I can bottom line it for you, these guys have taken space rock and classic ’90s-style stoner and made it their own thing. The Nebula/Fu Manchu influence that drove their earlier days is still there, but it’s morphed into a personality that’s more theirs than ever. I’ll leave it there for now, but they’ve worked diligently and you can hear that in the quality of their material and how they’ve moved forward as songwriters and performers. Eight records in they’re still pushing hard. That’s a good fucking band.

Tour dates follow:

BLACK RAINBOWS – EUROPEAN TOUR 2020

Black Rainbows are ready to release this spring their 8th album: “Cosmic Ritual Supertrip”. The new album been recorded at Forward Studios in Rome on an incredible Neve consolle recorded and mixed by Fabio Sforza same engineer of the last album “Pandaemonium.” The new beast has a monolithic force: guitars, drums, bass are all glued together and give the listener a punch on his face!

This album has a magic power mixing together the 70’s attitude with the doom-occult sound and the stoner rock in a masterful way.

*** BLACK RAINBOWS – EUROPEAN TOUR 2020 ***
A lot of headlining shows but also great festivals such as Heavy Psych Sounds Fests in Paris, London, Antwerp, Deventer and Winterthur !!!

05.03.2020 FR Paris – Glazart HPS Fest
06.03.2020 BE Antwerp – Trix HPS Fest
07.03.2020 UK London – Underworld HPS Fest
08.03.2020 NL Deveneter – Burgerweeshuis HPS Fest
25.04.2020 DE Dortmund – Check Your Head Fest
26.04.2020 DE Oldenburg – MTS
27.04.2020 DE Hamburg – Stubnitz
28.04.2020 PL Wroclaw – Dk Luksus
29.04.2020 PL Poznan – Alternativa
30.04.2020 DE Dresden
01.05.2020 DE Leipzig – Zoro
02.05.2020 DE Berlin – DesertFest
06.05.2020 DE Koln-MTC
07.05.2020 BE Bruxelles – Le Nuis Botanique Fest
08.05.2020 FR TBA
09.05.2020 FR TBA
14.05.2020 CH Olten-TBA
15.05.2020 CH Martigny – Caves Du Manoir w/Monkey3
16.05.2020 CH Altdorf – Vogelsang
17.05.2020 AT Salzburg – Rockhouse w/Greenleaf
06.06.2020 CH Winterthur – Gaswerk HPS Fest w/Elder
25.06.2020 DE Munich – Backstage
26.06.2020 DE Passau – Blackdoor Fest

BLACK RAINBOWS is:
Gabriele Fiori – Guitar/Vocals
Filippo Ragazzoni – Drums
Edoardo “Mancio” Mancini – Bass

http://www.theblackrainbows.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BLACKRAINBOWSROCK/
http://blackrainbows.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/

It is increasingly bittersweet, as it has been in the past, to see the lineup for Desertfest Berlin 2020 taking shape, with bands like Lowrider, Motorpsycho, Black Rainbows, Masters of Reality, Corrosion of Conformity, Brant Bjork, Puta Volcano, 1000mods and Orange Goblin on the bill knowing that, unless that Nigerian prince who emailed me comes through with a life-changing amount of money, that’s a lineup I won’t see. Black Rainbows, Motorpsycho, Somali Yacht Club, Los Bitchos and Love Machine are fresh adds to the bill, and you can see for yourself the list of groups they join — I didn’t even mention SÂVER or Temple Fang or Somali Yacht Club in the list above, mostly in an effort not to make myself sad — in the poster below. Nothing less than amazing to see what Desertfest Berlin and the festival brand as a whole have become. I look forward to the New York edition in September.

Here’s word from the PR wire:

MOTORPSYCHO + SOMALI YACHT CLUB + BLACK RAINBOWS + LOS BITCHOS + LOVE MACHINE to join the Line-Up of Desertfest Berlin!

Desertfest Berlin, the leading cult and underground festival of all heavy psych sounds, has announced 5 new and incredible names for their 9th edition, taking place May 1st – 3rd at the Arena Berlin. Progressive psych rock masters, MOTORPSYCHO, Ukrainian stoner rock trio SOMALI YACHT CLUB and Italy’s finest, heavy psych rock unit BLACK RAINBOWS are joining the eclectic Line-Up of Desertfest Berlin 2020! And if that’s not all of today’s great news, Desertfest Berlin has also just added up&coming underground funkers, LOS BITCHOS, and superb garage psych rockers, LOVE MACHINE!

Music writers have never had it easy with Motorpsycho, perhaps less now than ever. Much has been made of the ‘prog rock’ tag in regards to the band’s more recent output, yet they still manage to fall in between the cracks of any definable genres: “too musically unwieldly for the punks, too gnarly for the prog nerds,” as the band puts it. ‘The Crucible’, Motorpsycho’s latest record, is an even further step forward, showing no signs of timidity in songwriting nor performances. Self-contra-dictory as the band is, who has its origins way back in the mid-1980s, it’s somehow more focused, compositionally more ambitious, and undoubtly 100% Motorpsycho. The band, who is known for their outstanding live performances, will play an exclusive show at DF Berlin this year!

Somali Yacht Club is a stoner rock trio from Lviv, Ukraine. The band mixes elements of stoner rock, psychedelic rock, shoegazing and post-metal in their music. The trio has released an EP and two highly acclaimed full-length records to date, followed by countless shows on tour with bands alike Elder, Red Fang, Mars Red Sky and Stoned Jesus. They have already turned the European Festival scene at such as Keep It Low, Void or Swamp Fest into some heavy psychedelic rock wonderlands, Desertfest Berlin will be next!

Black Rainbows have established themselves among the best Heavy Psych Stoner Space bands coming from Europe, spreading the word of Fuzz since 2007! Their sound has oozed between classic ‘90s-style stoner fuzz and deep-cosmos psychedelia, drawing on the best of hard-driving space rock to conjure a vibe totally tripped-out. Two years after their last record, Black Rainbows enter 2020 refreshed and with well-earned veteran status resulting from countless tours, festival appearances, and their track record of absolutely unstoppable energy. Perfect in time for Desertfest Berlin, the band will release their 8th album on May 1st: Get ready for the “Cosmic Ritual Supertrip”!

Los Bitchos are fronted by multi-instrumentalist Serra Petale on lead guitar. She’s flanked by Carolina Faruolo (guitar), Agustina Ruiz (keytar), Josefine Jonnson (bass), and Nic Crawshaw (drums / percussion). Currently the gang reside in London but the members hail from as far and as wide as Perth (Australia), Montevideo, Stockholm, and Croydon. In a short space of time they have already toured with Mac De Marco, Ty Segall, The Black Lips or Kikagaku Moyo to name just a few. These ladies have also smashed out sun-tinged sets at numerous festivals, and will be finally taking over Desertfest Berlin!

Love Machine are back with a new release, a new cast and a fresh breeze on garage and psychedelic rock! On ‘Mirrors & Money’, the five-piece from Düsseldorf, Germany, is more versatile and daring than ever. While its predecessor, ‘Times To Come’, is still all about Westcoast Psychedelia, their new record has a much more complex and modern influence. The band’s proven herb and psychedelic rock is now joined by garage, slacker and soul. The impossible mix, LOVE MACHINE embrace themselves, without any claim to remain in a field for too long and meet the expectations there in the least. Of genre boundaries and conventions, the five would like to know nothing here.

Desertfest Berlin, known for the best band Line- Ups of the entire heavy psych underground as well as its unique atmosphere and surroundings visited by desert rock fans from all over the globe, is directly located at the riverside in the heart of Berlin, the Arena. After last year’s changes of a new sound system, the ‘Black Box’, that got high praise from both guests and critics alike finding themselves back at an intimate, high-energy underground club show, the festival will provide many more specials, space, and again a chill- party – AND live area on the popular “Hoppetosse” boat! Trip into the ultimate riff & heavy psych party of the year this Spring in Berlin, and grab your ticket now! Day and weekend passes, as well as tickets for the infamous DF WARM-UP Party, are now available at THIS LOCATION: https://www.desertfest-tickets.de/produkte

https://www.facebook.com/events/520164272080736/
www.desertfest.de
www.facebook.com/DesertfestBerlin
www.instagram.com/desertfest_berlin

Motorpsycho, “The Crucible”

Italian heavy psychedelic rock magnates Black Rainbows return May 1 with their eighth full-length, Cosmic Ritual Supertrip, from which they’re streaming the first single and for which they’re taking preorders both as of today.

Perhaps the most striking thing about “Isolation,” which is serving as the lead track unveiled, is that an opening riff so killer isn’t how the bands chose to actually start the record. I’d be on board with checking it out anyhow, most likely — eight records deep, and I haven’t heard this one yet, but they don’t have a bummer in the bunch preceding — but I’m all the more interested in knowing how it actually leads off if not with something as awesome as this.

Expect more to come ahead of the release in May. Only reason I haven’t yet sent the label an email asking to set up a premiere is because I can’t actually get to my laptop at the moment to do such a thing. In any case, I will shortly and keep my fingers crossed at the possibility.

Fresh off the PR wire:

BLACK RAINBOWS – Cosmic Ritual Supertrip

Today we are extremely proud to start the presale of the BLACK RAINBOWS brand new album COSMIC RITUAL SUPERTRIP !!!

Black Rainbows are back with a brand new album! This time they are delivering 12 new and fresh tunes. Recorded and produced by Fabio Sforza, who was also behind the previous album Pandaemonium. “Cosmic Ritual Supertrip” has a monolithic force; guitars, drums and bass are all glued together to give the listener a punch in the face! This album gets its magic power from mixing together a 70’s attitude with a doom-occult and stoner rock sound in a masterful way.

We can count a bunch of singles, such as “Isolation” and “Master Rocket Power Blast”, as well as a couple of doomy songs like “Universal Phase” and “Saacred Graal” and also more catchy tunes like “Radio 666” and “At Midnight You Cry”. This is the 8th album of the band and we believe the best one so far. Recorded at Forward Studios in Rome on a huge Neve desk, this new gem will be out May 1st, on Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

The amazing artwork, made by the one and only Robin Gnista, is matching in its entirety the album music concept.

tracklist:
1. At Midnight You Cry
2. Universal Phase
3. Radio 666
4. Isolation
5. The Great Design
6. Hypnotized By The Solenoid
7. Master Rocket Power Blast
8. Snowball
9. Glittereyzed
10. Sacred Graal

BLACK RAINBOWS is:
Gabriele Fiori – Guitar/Vocals
Filippo Ragazzoni – Drums
Edoardo “Mancio” Mancini – Bass

Another week, another city succumbs to the temptation of hosting a Heavy Psych Sounds Festival. This time around it’s Winterthur, Switzerland, and I ask you, how long before franchises are set up in all major urban centers throughout Europe and beyond, and each weekend is a different Heavy Psych Sounds Fest on a constantly-rotating schedule?

And wouldn’t that be kind of awesome?

Of course it helps when you have a heavily touring label roster, but you’ll notice Elder headlining this Swiss edition are not a Heavy Psych Sounds label band, and they’re not the first to take part, but either way, it’s still a good base to draw from. As the HPS and HPS Fest empire expands, the way the different sides work off each other is incredible. In the corporate world they’d call it synergy. In music I think “right on” will probably suffice.

So, right on:

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Announces First Festival Edition In Switzerland! With ELDER, BLACK RAINBOWS, DUEL

Fuzz rock label and booking institution, Heavy Psych Sounds, who specializes in presenting us the best artists of the global heavy psych, doom, fuzz blues and space rock realms, has announced its first festival edition in Switzerland!

While the first HPS Fests were held in Italy, the label has since extended its live reach into the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria and even the USA: The underground cult label is not only THE address for all heavy rock record collectors, but has also become an important live and festival contender; with a brisk participation from heavy music fans all over the world.

After the recent HPS Fests in Berlin and Dresden, Germany, that took place in the end of 2019, were sold-out and once again the label festival-caravan is about to take over the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK this March, Heavy Psych Sounds is proud to announce their first Swiss edition! Taking place in the early summer on June 5th & 6th 2020 at the Gaswerk in Winterthur, as usual Heavy Psych Sounds is triumphing with an outstanding line-up: Prog-rock overlords ELDER, BLACK RAINBOWS, DUEL, ECSTATIC VISION and many more high class acts will be turning the Swiss edition of the HPS Fest into a psychedelic and heavy sounds wonderland! Tickets and more infos are now available at THIS LOCATION!

Switzerland lineup:
Elder
Black Rainbows
Duel
High Reeper
Ecstatic Vision
Deadsmoke
Oreyeon
1782
No Mute
Hellroom Projectors
Ryte

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2625951321025276/

Get ready for a heavy as hell 2020, as the label’s festival series will also take place at the following dates and cities this March, with MONDO GENERATOR, BLACK RAINBOWS, GIÖBIA, DEAD WITCHES & many more:

05.03.2020 FR – Paris / Glazart
06.03.2020 BE – Antwerp / Trix
07.03.2020 UK – London / Underworld
08.03.2020 NL – Deventer / Burgerweeshuis

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

Duel, Valley of Shadows (2019)

Much ado in the ever-whirling universe of Roman heavy spacers Black Rainbows, who’ve not only issued new pressings of their 2018 LP, Pandaemonium (review here), but have announced that their next album is already in the can. Doneski. I don’t know about you, but I anxiously await the news of a release coming through Heavy Psych Sounds any minute now, since as we all know, Black Rainbows aren’t ones to waste time. To that end, they’re currently booked to play three editions of the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in March in Antwerp, Belgium, London, UK and Deventer, the Netherlands, as well as a couple other odds and ends this Spring.

Only snag there is they’ll need a new bassist to do it, as they’ve put out word that Giuseppe Guglielmino is no longer with the band. They’ve got an email listed where one might apply for the position, and though they’ve been through a couple low-end specialists at this point, that still seems like a pretty primo opportunity for any four-stringer out there who wants to join an awesome touring band with a following. Talk about stepping into a cool situation. Anyway, the email’s below, and if you play bass and were thinking about moving to Rome — aren’t we all? — then you might want to drop a line.

Words in blue from thee social medias:

We’re very sorry to announce that Peppe, our bassplayer is no longer a member of Black Rainbows:

Unfortunately our life and band plans were not matching anymore.

We really thanks Peppe for everything done so far and happy we shared this path together until now:

Anyway, we care about to say that he recorded the new album, which we are so proud to present really soon!

In the meantime we are looking for a new bass player in our area, if you think you can fit in the band …write at infoblackrainbows@gmail.com

Today we want to celebrate the repress of the BLACK RAINBOWS last album PANDAEMONIUM with 2 new different covers and coloured vinyls !!!

GRAB YOUR COPY HERE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS073v2
or
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/

USA MARKET via All That is Heavy:
https://allthatisheavy.com/

AVAILABLE IN:
– LTD YELLOW SPLATTER BLACK / GREEN FLUO / RED
VINYL (WHITE COVER)
– LTD GREEN FLUO VINYL (GREEN COVER)
– DIGIPAK

“Well after one and half year, we just realized that our dear last album Pandaemonium was sold out!! We went to pick copies for the tour and some single orders and we realized copies were finished! We are so excited to repress it and it will be an amazing repress cause of two new different covers and vinyl editions. We want to thanks all the people who supported us buying the album so fa.r”

http://www.theblackrainbows.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BLACKRAINBOWSROCK/
http://blackrainbows.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/