Michigan’s Bog Wizard release their fourth album, Satanik Panik, this Friday, on Halloween. One could hardly find a better time to put out a record that calls to mind grainy 1980s footage and its somehow-even-dumber modern corporatized equivalent news clips of America being under threat by ‘The Devil,’ which by the way is a thing that more than half the country still believes in. Red guy. Pitchfork. Will make you burn in hell forever because you jerked off or some shit. Yeah, that’s the guy. You may have seen him 25 years ago or again recently on South Park. As unfathomable as it seems, humans still walk around on the lookout for him. Gonna be searching a while.

And while it’s true that the devil behind most of humanity’s woes turned out to be capitalism, that doesn’t mean Bog Wizard can’t give a well-deserved sendup to the whole notion on Satanik Panik which opens with a Tolkien reference (lest we forget Tolkien was derided as satanic while also writing christian allegory; it goes like that when you deal with idiots) in “The Dead Marshes,” which keeps its introductory insect ambience even as the creeper riff is brought in. It’s not until the verse that the bugs recede, and the dirt-tone of Ben Lombard‘s guitar and Colby Lowman‘s bass are suitably rumbling to clear the air.

Vocals are dramatic but clean at the outset — the title-track soon offers a gruffer take, though I don’t know whether it’s Lowman or drummer Harlen Linke in either — and the march is slow on the album’s opener/longest track (immediate points), but even here, the expectation of fun overrides and Bog Wizard make doomed sounds a good time. “Dragon’s Hoard” leans even further into grim-mood heavy and fosters an atmosphere that makes me wonder why dungeon doom isn’t a thing. Because it could be. Or it probably is and I’m just out of the loop. Roll the dice, create a genre. A hell of a day for the campaign, in any case.

Stoner, doom, sludge, and lore? What’s not to like? “Satanik Panik,” the title-track, is a satire/celebration of heavy metal’s antichristian reputation, with backwards messaging and a chorus chanting the incantation “satan” after a chugging verse topped with gruff but punkish throaty vocals like something out of earliest White Zombie. This is not the preening, trying-to-make-the-listener-think-the-band-actually-believes-this-shit positioning of black metal (which inadvertently reinforces christian dogma; thanks for coming to my Ted Talk), but something entirely more stoned and shenanigans-based. A collective tongue in a collective cheek. More Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and memes than trying to raise an army for the boogieman.

They engage their own prior storytelling in “RIASGLAFM (Swamp Golem Returns),” which along with the title-track makes me wish downloads came with lyric sheets, answering back to “Swamp Golem,” which closed 2020’s From the Mire — Satanik Panik, on the other hand, caps with “Toxic Love,” originally sung by Tim Curry from the 1992 movie Ferngully — and hit a peak as regards sheer heft, with sludgy growls over a lumbering procession. The midsection hook has a thick boogie and cleaner vocals echoing chants (they cycle through twice), and as “Necromancer” follows the centerpiece, Linke‘s synth makes its presence felt in a prominent position, furthering the horror-cinema vibe.

“Necromancer” is also nastier than “RIASGLAFM (Swamp Golem Returns),” vocally and instrumentally. The synth pulls away from some of the heft that the song before wrought, but a screamier take pervades following the gradual build of the intro — which, by the way, encompasses the entire first half of the song — such that Bog Wizard harness a bit of early black metal char, the recorded-in-a-basement feel becoming part of the overarching aesthetic statement.

It is as deep as they go in terms of extremity, but the two-minute “Mind Goblin” switches up the arrangement to bring in resonant, hang-drum-style hand percussion and what I’m pretty sure is credited as “air organ” below, creating a meditative psychedelia that, well, if they wanted to explore that for another 20 minutes or so, I’d be there for it, despite the apparent departure from Satanik Panik‘s theme. Bog Wizard aren’t strangers to soundtracking; “Mind Goblin” is a brief glimpse of this impulse at its best. And naturally, they turn it over in stark style to the metal’ed up “Toxic Love,” which is also under three minutes long and rounds out with the kind of reference that, if you’re a nerd of a certain age, will surely bring a smile to your face. Not taking anything away from a remarkable talent like Tim Curry, the band do not fail to make “Toxic Love” their own.

This is the part where I’m supposed to say that all beliefs are valid and if you think satan walks the earth to tempt mankind into perdition, that’s cool. Actually it’s not. It’s broadly destructive and the interests it serves are not those of humanity or some imagined afterlife. Grow up. I was raised catholic. My entire life I’ve heard the voices of religion beating back and vestiges of human progress, and looking around in 2025, if there was ever a great battle for the soul of this nation, the bad guys have won, in god’s name. I do not respect those beliefs and I won’t ‘tolerate’ bullshit anymore from the intolerant. If Satanik Panik is taking the assholes down a peg by pointing out the utter ridiculousness of dogma as acted-upon philosophy, so much the better. The right side of history needs voicing too.

The album streams in its entirety on the player below. Please enjoy:

Backwards playing records, ancient tombs and candles, funny dice and evil spells, your household is in shambles…

October 31st, 2025, SATANIK PANIK is coming through the darkness to bring our evil forces into your house.

Satanik Panik is our 4th full length album, with six new tracks and one cover song. The album opens with The Dead Marshes, which will be available as a single August 29th!

Satanik Panik will be available on CD and vinyl, more details on all of this to come, with preorders starting soon!

Artwork by the talented Benjamin Blåholtz, who also did the cover art for our split with Froglord.

Recorded at The Staggering Paladin
Mixed by Harlen Linke
Mastered by Esben Willems at Studio Berserk
Album art/ layout by Benjamin Blåholtz

Bog Wizard:
Ben Lombard – Vocals, Guitar
Harlen Linke – Percussion, Vocals, Handpan, Synth
Colby Lowman – Bass, Air Organ

Bog Wizard, “Toxic Love” official video

Bog Wizard store

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

Bog Wizard on Instagram

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Following last year’s Journey Through the Dying Lands (review here), Michigan sludge nerds Bog Wizard have announced their upcoming fourth long-player, Satanik Panik, will be released on Halloween. Because of course. That puts it a year and six days after the last record, which I suppose makes it right on time. The trio haven’t posted any music from the outing as yet — some you win, some you lose — but the last record is below if you want to dig in. I wouldn’t expect too much radical departure. It hasn’t been that long, after all.

It’s a fun coincidence that Satanik Panik is out on Halloween — not that their choice of the release day is a coincidence — since that’s also when Howling Giant‘s record is due. No, the two bands don’t have a ton in common, but they’re both into D&D, so maybe they could hang out and get a celebratory campaign going or something like that. I hear people like fun.

The following came through in a Bandcamp announcement, complete with the incredible cover art:

BOG WIZARD – Satanik Panik

Backwards playing records, ancient tombs and candles, funny dice and evil spells, your household is in shambles…

October 31st, 2025, SATANIK PANIK is coming through the darkness to bring our evil forces into your house.

Satanik Panik is our 4th full length album, with six new tracks and one cover song. The album opens with The Dead Marshes, which will be available as a single August 29th!

Satanik Panik will be available on CD and vinyl, more details on all of this to come, with preorders starting soon!

Artwork by the talented Benjamin Blåholtz, who also did the cover art for our split with Froglord.

Bog Wizard is Ben Lombard (guitar/ vocals), Harlen Linke (percussion/ vocals), and Colby Lowman (bass)

https://bogwizard.bigcartel.com/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/

Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands (2024)

So this is it for the second of two Quarterly Review weeks around here, bringing the total to 100 releases covered since last Monday, with 10 more still to come next Monday.

110 releases, mostly (not all) from about April through November.

That’s insane. More, I’m not in any way prepared to call it or any other Quarterly Review comprehensive. It’s nowhere near everything that’s come out or is coming out. It’s a fraction at best. There’s just so much.

I’m not going to attach a value judgment to that. It’s not good, it’s not bad; it simply is. My processes remain largely unchanged, and whether it’s a net positive that the underground is either sparse and fractured or flooded with bands to such a point that Gen-X reunions underwhelm in the face of so much good, new music being made, I’ll be here regardless. And even if there were a fifth as many bands out there as there are right now, no doubt I still couldn’t keep up.

See you Monday.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

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Elder, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios

While it’s by no means Elder‘s first captured-live release, as they’ve put out festival sets from Roadburn and Sonic Whip in years past, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios answers any what’s-all-this-about questions with the sound of the performances themselves. It’s a single LP, somewhere about 40 minutes long, and in Elder terms that translates to three songs — “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra” (15:33), “Lore” (13:54) and “Thousand Hands” (9:21) — so by no means is it expansive, or comprehensive in representing this era of Elder‘s presence on stage or scope in songwriting. Why put it out instead of some recorded tour night or a compilation of songs from different shows? Same answer as before: the sound of the performances. For sure Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios is a fan-piece, but it is live, and Elder sound fantastic — and it’s probably a pretty decent memory for the band to celebrate — so you’re not at all going to hear me argue.

Elder on Facebook

Stickman Records website

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Kandodo, theendisinpsych

Simon Price, now formerly of UK heavy psych forebears The Heads, returns with the first Kandodo outing since 2019’s K3 (review here) and a reoriented focus on intimacy rather than operating in a full-band style. That is to say, the five-track/44-minute release sounds like the solo album it is. That, however, doesn’t stop “Fuzzyoceans” from casting an expanse in its just-under-11 minutes, with a central rhythmic bounce around which layers of synth and guitar conjure a wash of experimentalist flourish. Lo-fi beatmaking starts in “Chamba7,” the opener, and sounds higher budget as “Theendisinpsych Pt. 1” borders on psych techno — “Theendisinpsych Pt. 2” follows immediately and moves from sustained keyboard notes and a sampled David Bowie radio interview to an evocative, shimmering drone; it isn’t arhythmic, but it doens’t have a ‘beat’ per se — and becomes part of the avant garde soundscape (the lightning part) in closer “Freefalling,” which unfolds in stages of variable volume and hum with some howling leads snuck in near the end. It’s a deep dive and at times a challenging listen. So yes, exactly what one would hope.

Kandodo on Facebook

Kandodo on Bandcamp

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High Reeper, Renewed by Death

When High Reeper‘s third LP, Renewed by Death, was announced back in July, it was notable how much the album’s narrative seemed to position them as a metal band rather than heavy/doom rock, which even though 2019’s Higher Reeper (review here) had its harder-hitting moments, is kind of how I’d come to think of them. The eight songs of Renewed by Death aren’t hyper-aggressive — though you wouldn’t call “Torn from Within” ‘chill’ by any means — but they feel sharper in their composition than the last record, and if High Reeper want to say that “Lamentations of the Pale” and “Jaws of Darkness” are their take on doom metal, I’d only emphasize how much that take feels like High Reeper‘s own in being cognizant of the traditional metal and doom aspects of their sound and making them groove as fervently as they do. The Eastern Seaboard is lucky to have them.

High Reeper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Kanaan & Ævestaden, Langt, Langt Vekk

A low-key highlight of 2024, the collaboration between Norwegian neofolkers Ævestaden and heavy progressive instrumentalists Kanaan — titled Langt, Langt Vekk and comprising nine songs of varied intent, arrangement and origin — resounds with creative depth. It’s in Norwegian, and plays a lot off of traditional folk instrumentation and vocal styles — not to mention the songs themselves, which are also traditionals — but as the two sides come together even just on a three-minute instrumental piece like “Fiskaren,” there’s an organic forested space rock to be found, and whether it’s the somehow-catchy “Farvel” or “Habbor og Signe,” the cosmic-leaning “Vallåt efter C.G. Färje” or the wistful progeadelia that resolves in “Vardtjenn,” the reverence for the material is palpable, and also the reverence for the process itself, for each of these two entities contributing to something grander than either might be able or inclined to conjure on their own. That the collection worked out to be gorgeous, both worldly and otherworldly, and to cast such a breadth while remaining cohesive in mood is a credit to all involved. It could’ve been an absolute mess. It very much is not.

Kanaan on Instagram

Ævestaden on Instagram

Jansen Records website

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MC MYASNOI, Slugs are Legal Now

Slugs are Legal Now contains two live sets from experimental doomers MC MYASNOI, one from Harpa and one from R6013, both venues in the band’s hometown of Reykjavík, Iceland. The setlists are identical at six-per, but the performances are varied in a way that becomes part of the personality of the whole, which is immersive in its droning stretches, sometimes harsher in the noise being made particularly on the rougher R6013 songs, but still able to be heavy in a piece like “Step on Ur Neck” in a way that feels conversant with the likes of Ufomammut or Boris, and neither the moody post-darkjazz of “Nytrogen” nor the drums-and-rumble-do-a-minute-or-two-of-free-psych “lea%rdi%rdx2%rcx” a short time later (watch out for your speakers with that one), do anything to dissuade that impression. “Terror Serpentine” finishes both halves of Slugs are Legal Now with 11 minutes of grim sprawl, and in the culmination, that it’s the keyboard that’s shredding instead of one or the other of the guitars feels suitable to the weirdo nuance MC MYASNOI seem to come by so naturally and pair with a progressive will to grow by screwing with convention. Not going to be for everybody, but those ready to take a risk might find the reward waiting.

MC MYASNOI on Instagram

MC MYASNOI on Bandcamp

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Turkey Vulture, On the List

Back after two years with further affirmation of their comfort with the EP format, Connecticut two-piece Turkey Vulture run a condensed gamut in the six songs and 12 minutes of On the List, with the duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Jessie May and drummer/backing vocalist Jim Clegg giving specifically Misfits-y early punk impressions on “Fiends Like Us,” which “Untitled” takes more of a garage angle on in following before they metal-up for “Dollhouse” and the 48-second grind-punker “Adults Destroy,” which leads to thrashing in “Harvest Moon” offset by doomly swing, and the closing “Jill the Ripper,” going out on a note that toys with goth Americana in the vein of The Bad Seeds and boasts banjo, guitar, percussion and, crucially, accordion from Steve Rodgers in a multifaceted guest spot. The accordion makes it. Turkey Vulture‘s output is generally pretty raw and that’s true with On the List as well, but there’s character in them coinciding with the flow from one aspect of their sound to the next between the songs, and the EP ends up conveying a lot about what works in the band for something that’s 12 minutes long.

Turkey Vulture on Facebook

Turkey Vulture on Bandcamp

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Ghost:Whale, Dive:Two

Doubly-bassed Brussels longform doom explorers Ghost:Whale certainly don’t get any less consciousness melting on the second disc of Dive:Two, which manifests its plunge across three extended pieces each given the title “Dub:Whale” and assigned a Roman numeral, but by then the five songs of the album’s first 67 minutes (as opposed to the 57 of the concluding trilogy) have already passed in the hypnotic, cosmic-doom push of “Under Pressure” and the synth-laced chug nod in the second half of “Les Danses des Sorcieres” that seems to come to a head in the speedier “Ultimas Palabras.” The shortest inclusion at nine minutes and by its finish spending some time cruising around a Truckfightersian desert, “Ultimas Palabras” gives over to “Godzilla” and “Eye of the Storm,” a kind of second LP within the first CD, led into by the synth of “Godzilla” — not a cover — and arriving at the farthest reach in the electronics-infused expanses of “Eye of the Storm,” for which the drums mostly sit out and the noise spends 21 minutes venturing into the unknown. Ghost:Whale are not fucking around. And obviously the “Dub:Whale” tracks are a divergence in intention, harnessing the power of repetition in a different way, but either it’s a logical extension or my brain has just gone numb from the low-end. Fine in any case, honestly.

Ghost:Whale on Facebook

Forbidden Place Records store

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Sheepfucker and Kraut, Bring Your Sheep

Do I really need to tell you these guys are up to some shenanigans? They called the band Sheepfucker and Kraut, for crying out loud. Heavy rock chicanery ensues over eight tracks rife with willful misbehavior, culminating with “Broner” after turning the album’s progression into a kind of playground running between heavy rock, classic and psychedelic instrumentalism, metal and jams. It’s not a little, and I guess a namedrop for Mr. Bungle is somewhat obligatory, but the Bulgarian outfit make themselves welcome in the swath of ground they cover, punkish in their glee on top of everything else in “Bobanei” and the pop-adjacent “Look at Me,” which would seem to have some satire behind its chorus but is a standout hook just the same. They’re not all nonsense, or at least not at the expense of their songwriting in “Rich Man” and “Jolly Roger,” or “Did You Know” mirroring “Look at Me” in the penultimate spot on side B, but if people having fun while making music is a problem for you, I mean, really, you might want to have a good long think on what that’s all about. Yeah, it’s over-the-top. That’s the idea.

Sheepfucker and Kraut on Facebook

Threechords Records on Instagram

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LungBurner, Natura Duale

In some ways, LungBurner‘s second LP of 2024, Natura Duale, reminds of earliest Yatra in bringing together vicious sludge metal and a breadth of atmosphere, but the Atlanta outfit have more of a post-metallic bent as the solo of “Barren” nonetheless dares to soar, and opener/longest track (immediate points) “Requiem” establishes the first of the album’s nods in a build of standalone guitar in the spirit of YOB, and in combination with a churn that wouldn’t feel out of place on Neurot and a crush in centerpiece “(Prey) Job” that opens to a classic stoner metal swagger in its verse, the righteousness here takes many forms, most of them dark, grueling and heavy — this definitely applies to the Celtic Frosting put on the proceedings by the finale “Astral Projection” — but not without a corresponding reach or purpose. LungBurner are served by the complexity of character, and Natura Duale grows more vivid as it goes.

LungBurner on Facebook

Electric Desert Records on Bandcamp

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Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands

With their material steeped in fantasy and horror/sci-fi lore, a goodly portion of it being of their own making, Michigan’s Bog Wizard continue to find the thread between tabletop gaming and sometimes monolithic sludge. The bulk of Journey Through the Dying Lands, which is their second release in a row done in collaboration with a game company, is dedicated to opener “I, Mycelium,” which stretches across 19:50 and unfolds in stages that don’t bother to choose between being brutal or fluid, the band winding up coming across as dug-in as one might expect Bog Wizard to be in the endeavor. There are two more studio tracks, in “Dodz Bringare,” which is black metal until it slams into the doom wall, and “Hagfish Dinner,” on which they depart for two minutes of harmonized chant-like vocals over resonant acoustic guitar. They’re not done yet as Ben Lombard (guitar/vocals), bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/vocalist Harlen Linke offer a glimpse at some live-on-stage banter before tearing into the thrasher “Stuck in the Muck” and backing it with another live track, this one a take on “Barbaria” from 2021’s Miasmic Purple Smoke (review here) that by the time it builds to its galloping finish has already long since demanded every bit of volume you can give it.

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

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I won’t hazard to predict what kind of bizarro doom Michigan’s Bog Wizard have conjured up with their new collection, Journey Through the Dying Lands, which the band are set to release on Oct. 25 in conjunction with Madness Hearts Games. It’s not the trio’s first time at the dance when it comes to melding tabletop gaming and doomly heft, and with a short story by drummer Harlen Linke as a thematic foundation, Journey Through the Dying Lands promises to mix fantasy elements with the band’s particularly sludged collective take in ways that are sure to pique the interests of applicable nerdery while also pulling tracks from past releases for recontextualization.

There’s no audio yet from this Journey the band are undertaking, but the band sent the following info and background down the PR wire. Dig in:

BOG WIZARD –  Journey Through the Dying Lands Out Oct 25th 2024

Independently published in collaboration with Madness Hearts Games

Bog Wizard is a 3 piece doom/sludge/stoner metal band inspired by tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons and Mork Borg, as well as fantasy literature, while often spoofing off the Satanic Panic era. Since 2020 the band has relentlessly released 6 different albums including two splits with the bands Froglord and Dust Lord, multiple soundtracks tied to table top gaming releases, and two full length albums. Bog Wizard features crushing 8 string guitar riffs and a mix of clean and harsh vocals.

Journey Through the Dying Lands is the third full length album by Bog Wizard, which is a concept collaboration album tied to the anthology book of the same name, released by Madness Hearts Games. The book is a compilation of stories taking place in the tabletop game Mork Borg universe, which is described as “a doom metal album of a game.” This compilation features a short story titled “I, Mycelium” written by the drummer for Bog Wizard, Harlen Linke.

Bog Wizard is Ben Lombard (guitar/ vocals), Harlen Linke (percussion/ vocals), and Colby Lowman (bass)

Track Listing:
1. I, Mycelium
2. Dodz Bringare
3. Hagfish Dinner
4. Stuck in the Muck (Live)
5. Barbaria (Live)

Track descriptions:
Journey’s opening track I, Mycelium is a retelling of this story in music form, clocking it at just under 20 minutes, featuring a broad expansive ambient landscape performed by the band, and for the first time in the bands history, Harlen taking lead harsh vocals to voice his story. This track is the entirety of side A on the vinyl release.

The second track Dodz Bringare is based off the character by of the same name, featured in the Journey Through the Dying Lands anthology story Screams of the Necropolis, and the stand alone book Whispers of the Dead Saint by John Baltisberger. John Baltisberger also runs Madness Hearts Games and put the anthology book together.

The third track, titled Hagfish Dinner, is also a retelling of the matching Journey anthology story, written by Ian SerVaas. This track is played on an acoustic baritone guitar featuring heavily layered haunting clean vocals.

The final two tracks on the album are live recordings of the bands tracks Stuck in the Muck and Barbaria released previously on their 2021 full length album Miasmic Purple Smoke, recorded in front of a live audience of nerds at their local game store, Epic Tabletop Hobbies out of Grand Haven, Michigan.

Journey Through the Dying Lands is available for preorder on Vinyl and CD, as well as digitally through Bandcamp.

Album art by Simone Tammetta
Mixed and mastered by Harlen Linke
Live recordings by Zach Crouse

https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/
https://twitter.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
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Bog Wizard, Deck of Ruin and Revelation Soundtrack (2023)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ben Lombard of Bog Wizard

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I play guitar and do most of the vocals for the band Bog Wizard, and usually have at least a hand in the writing process, whether that’s interpreting things Harlen (drummer) is throwing at me or putting together my own riffs.

I’d always sort of had an interest in music, both of my parents played instruments when I was young, but past learning the C-chord on an old acoustic, I didn’t really pick up an instrument until middle school when I started playing snare drum in the school band. That progressed to general percussion, but I’d only ever learned to read music halfway, and to this day can pick out the rhythm but not the note names from a piece of sheet music. Sometime in late high school I got a guitar for my birthday, but ended up quickly trading it for a bass that I began noodling around on.

As far as how the band got started, I met Harlen and some others in college that were in a sort-of band, sort-of looking for a bassist, and I ended up going over to try out, and eventually started to hang with them regularly. It wasn’t too long before someone told me that I played bass like a guitar and I should play guitar, and from there Harlen and I both sort of learned our instruments together I suppose.

From there it took about ten years and half a dozen band names before we actually formed Bog Wizard and stuck with the moniker.

Describe your first musical memory.

I think it would have to be either my mom singing or playing either the piano or the flute. I would always sit next to her on the piano bench and go through all the sheet music books she had, handing her ones that I thought looked interesting and trying to get her to play them. Unfortunately, interesting looking also usually meant difficult, and she would often sigh and laugh a little about what I picked before trying to play it anyway.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I might just have to throw a couple answers out there for this one, it’s hard to pick favorites! I’ll start with the best concert I’ve been to, had to be the Devin Townsend Project, Gojira, and Opeth together at The Vic in Chicago. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen any of the bands, I’d seen Opeth many times at that point and had even seen Devin open for Gojira before. Devin was great, Opeth was great, but Gojira stole the show, and was hands down the best live set I’ve ever witnessed. Something about their whole presence, the energy and the performance, was just on another level. A close runner-up for the winner here would be the time I saw Dethklok and Mastodon co-headline at the Fillmore in Detroit.

Out of gigs we’ve performed ourselves, our most recent one at Mulligan’s Pub in Grand Rapids with Starman Deluxe (who filled-in last minute) and Iron Mountain stands out. The crowd was there to rock, it was a great lineup, and they gave us our first real mosh-pit, definitely an awesome night.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I suppose being a teenager and realizing that I might be bisexual or gay instead of straight was a big one. I’m still wrestling with the finer points of that actually, 15 or more years later. Not the question of if I’m straight or not, I’m not, more how far into the gayness spectrum I am, haha.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully being more satisfied with the work one produces! Being able to express more clearly the thoughts and feelings you want to express, a heightened ability to express yourself in your chosen medium, regardless of what that may be.

How do you define success?

In steps, and there are many, and they depend on your ambitions. A small success for us was getting our music out there in the first place, having a physical thing that we created that we could put into the hands of others. Another might be playing our first gig, and then our first gig outside our hometown. Starting to collaborate with other artists, coming to the realization that there are people out there, maybe even a fair amount of people, that want to hear our music, that are waiting for us to put out more. This all sounds like success to me, with hopefully more to come!

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The ugliness in some people that the pandemic brought out, their absolute disregard for the wellbeing of those around them.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

There are so many ways this answer could go. I suppose I’ve never really had a plan about where to point my creative interests, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at in Bog Wizard right now, so, further Bog Wizardy things? We do have some things in the works, we might have something going on with some unconventional cover songs in the future, trying to turn non-metal into metal, basic alchemy stuff.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Expression, whether of self or of an idea, and the ability to put that expression or idea out into the world for others to perceive, perhaps providing a connection between people who would have otherwise never met or interacted.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to the weather being consistently warm enough for me to get outside on a regular basis, I spent far too much time cooped up inside over the winter and that needs to change. More specifically, I’ve been getting into disc golf more and more over the past couple years, and I’m going to try to get out and practice a lot more as I’d like to eventually get good enough to play in my local league.

https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/
https://twitter.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
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Bog Wizard feat. Froglord, “The Frog Lord” official video

Shenanigans ensue. April 1 is the arrival date for Bog Wizard and Froglord‘s A Frog in the Bog split/collaborative release, and it may just turn out that it’s all an elaborate prank and none of it, none of us, you or me or the bands or the songs or anything at all, actually exist. But, assuming the world is in some cruel way what it seems to be, the five-track outing, which finds Bog Wizard summoning Froglord onto “The Frog Lord” — there’s a “ribbit” there, audible, you can hear it — and the UK-based Froglord bringing Bog Wizard aboard for the closing companion-piece “The Bog Wizard,” there’s clearly a plan at work here. In some of Bog Wizard‘s over-the-top doom-metal melodrama and majickal-or-however-you-want-to-spell-it thematic, the outing brings to mind a rawer, suitably mossier take on Merlin‘s chicanery, but from the moment the listener first faces the “Reptilian Death Squad” through the grueling rumble of “The Bog,” “The Wizard” (not at all a cover) and “The Bog Wizard” — arranged shortest to longest as they are on either side of five and a half minutes long — there’s clearly a plan at work.

The plan is “fuck it.”

Listening to this chirruping reptiles begging for sex at the outset of “The Frog Lord,” which picks up from the ultra-subdued lull-away-your-conscious-mind finish of “Reptilian Death Squad” — god damn these words are fun to write — there’s charm to spare. Bog Wizard and Froglord are a solid match tonally, with the latter more produced with more clarity than the Michigan trio of guitarist/vocalist Ben Lombard, bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/synthesist/vocalist Harlen Linke, but there’s atmosphere to both and the fact that they’re so clearly on the same page in terms of storyline and the overarching riff-what-thou-wilt mindset assures that the 37 minutes of A Frog in the Bog are consistent just the same. And if they weren’t, would it really matter? Do you go into a Bog Wizard and Froglord split — even if you know nothing of either act’s prior work; Froglord‘s entirely new to me if it makes you feel better — expecting clean progressive rock? Hell no you do not. You expect lumbering riffs, abiding murk, and the willful sense that whatever’s going on and however lumbering a given stretch might be, there’s a good time being had. So happens that’s precisely what’s delivered.

You’ll note the videogame-style cover art here; I speak from experience in telling you that neither playing instructions nor controller overlays are included, but they do have the courtesy to tell you that in the fine print. Perhaps next time. I know I’ve got a couple NES controllers laying around, and as merch/sticker ideas go, that’d be a new one as far as I’ve seen. As it stands, A Frog in the Bog is brilliant in its regressive take, refusing to operate on any terms other than those it sets for itself, and engaging its audience with craft and personality alike. It would be dumb to ask more of it than that. Don’t be dumb.

Bog Wizard and Froglord both give a solid idea of where they’re coming from in the clip for “The Frog Lord” below — I’d be interested to know what venue Froglord filmed at — and in the midst of it all, you’ll see somebody’s kid dancing, orb tricks, and so on.

Have fun. Let yourself enjoy a thing.

This, particularly:

Bog Wizard feat. Froglord, “The Frog Lord” video premiere

Preorders UK: https://froglord.bandcamp.com/album/a-frog-in-the-bog

Preorders US: https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/album/bog-wizard-vs-froglord-a-frog-in-the-bog-split

A Frog in the Bog is a collaborative concept split album. What that means is that this split has been written from the ground up to tell a cohesive story. Both halves of the split feature shared vocal parts between the bands, in the conclusionary tracks.

Bog Wizard and Froglord are both very narratively driven bands, telling tale of their respective characters. The Froglord is a god-like swamp dwelling being with a congregation of worshippers and followers. The Bog Wizard is an angry hermit wizard whos only preferred company is the creatures he summons to do his bidding, and he’s highly protective of his territory.

A Frog in the Bog tells the story of their fateful meeting, as the Froglord encroaches into the Bog Wizard’s well-guarded territory with his congregation, from each of their unique perspectives. It describes the Bog Wizard’s anger as he realizes this being has intruded on his land, the curiosity of the Froglord as to who and what lies in the swamp, their ultimate battle, and face to face meeting. Who will win?

Track Listing for A Frog in the Bog:
1. Bog Wizard – Reptilian Death Squad (8:12)
2. Bog Wizard – The Frog Lord, feat Froglord (12:21)
3. Froglord – The Bog (5:27)
4. Froglord – The Wizard (5:34)
5. Froglord – The Bog Wizard, feat Bog Wizard (5:35)

Bog Wizard is:
Ben Lombard (guitar/vox)
Harlen Linke (percussion, synth, vox)
Colby Lowman (bass)

Froglord is:
Froglord

Froglord, “The Bog” official video

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Twitter

Bog Wizard on Instagram

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

Bog Wizard webstore

Froglord Linktree

Froglord on Bandcamp

Froglord on Facebook

Froglord on Instagram

You don’t need me to tell you about the charm factor here, right? Two bands, disparate in locale, come together to collaborate and unite in creative purpose on a split where they also appear on each other’s tracks, and not only that, but they’re brought together a narrative spanning both of their work, given it 16-bit cover art (that’s right, I’m thinking Genesis-era, or maybe one of those super-underrated SNES RPGs; I’d play it either way) about a Froglord encountering a Bog Wizard. I don’t know how the Bristol, UK, and Michigan-based acts know each other, and frankly, it’s a secondary consideration given the above. However it came about, this sounds pretty awesome.

As someone who appreciates a good story and has dug Bog Wizard‘s work to-date — Froglord‘s various singles on Bandcamp are right on as well, just new to me — this feels like a no-brainer. Hail the reptilian death squad, which I’m sure someone out there believes is a real thing.

To wit:

Bog Wizard/ Froglord to release collaborative concept split, A Frog in the Bog on April 1st, 2022

A Frog in the Bog is a collaborative concept split album. What that means is that this split has been written from the ground up to tell a cohesive story. Both halves of the split feature shared vocal parts between the bands, in the conclusionary tracks.

Bog Wizard and Froglord are both very narratively driven bands, telling tale of their respective characters. The Froglord is a god-like swamp dwelling being with a congregation of worshippers and followers. The Bog Wizard is an angry hermit wizard whos only preferred company is the creatures he summons to do his bidding, and he’s highly protective of his territory.

A Frog in the Bog tells the story of their fateful meeting, as the Froglord encroaches into the Bog Wizard’s well-guarded territory with his congregation, from each of their unique perspectives. It describes the Bog Wizard’s anger as he realizes this being has intruded on his land, the curiosity of the Froglord as to who and what lies in the swamp, their ultimate battle, and face to face meeting. Who will win?

Track Listing for A Frog in the Bog:
1. Bog Wizard – Reptilian Death Squad (8:12)
2. Bog Wizard – The Frog Lord, feat Froglord (12:21)
3. Froglord – The Bog (5:27)
4. Froglord – The Wizard (5:34)
5. Froglord – The Bog Wizard, feat Bog Wizard (5:35)

Preorders for cassettes, vinyl, and CDs available March 4th!

US Shipping merch via Bog Wizard, UK via Froglord

Bog Wizard is:
Ben Lombard (guitar/vox)
Harlen Linke (percussion, synth, vox)
Colby Lowman (bass)

Froglord is:
Froglord

https://www.facebook.com/BogWizardBand/
https://twitter.com/bogwizardband/
https://www.instagram.com/bogwizardband/
https://bogwizard.bandcamp.com/
https://bogwizard.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Froglorddoom/
https://www.instagram.com/froglordband/
https://froglord.bandcamp.com/

Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke (2021)

Froglord, “Samhain”

West Michigan sludge purveyors Bog Wizard will release their admirably filthy second full-length, Miasmic Purple Smoke, on Dec. 3 through The Dregs Records. The band lurch into action in following up their earlier-2021 split with Dust Lord (discussed here) and their Summer 2020 debut, From the Mire, as well as 2018’s tellingly-titled Campaign EP, with a collection of six tracks that runs 41 minutes pulling together willful gruel and a guttural sense of the epic.

To wit, “Barbaria” — premiering below — leads the murky dirge procession with eight minutes that find guitarist/vocalist Ben Lombard, drummer/synthesist/vocalist Harlen Linke and bassist Colby Lowman playing howls of its title lyric off of grim, throaty growls, riffs born of the school of Electric Wizard, Windhand, Monolord, etc., readily plodding in raw tones reminiscent of the great history of underrated Midwestern dirt sludge — consider Fistula and the many branches of their dysfunctional family tree, but more doom-informed than punk in the realization.

Though one says that and has to acknowledge Miasmic Purple Smoke‘s tempo outlier in the penultimate “Stuck in the Muck.” So yeah, dudes can play fast when they want to. They can also Sabbath swing like madmen on the title-track or harness cosmic destruction on 12-minute finale “The Void Beckons” — if you’re wondering where the synth is at, there it be — or churn with early-metal ferocity that they just let fall apart like a rehearsal room jam on “The Rogue” (with Linke and Lowman keeping it going; brilliant) or dare some ambience in the interlude “Grimdark” just ahead of the boogie reset at the start of side B, with its “woo!”s and all.

Fuckery abounds amid stylistic shifts, and that shouldn’t be terribly surprising for a band who’ve branded themselves ‘nerd doom’ and tout their love of Dungeons and Dragons, and so on — context for that Campaign EP — but while they’re having a good time in their D&D-meets-ADHD-doom, Bog Wizard‘s sophomore long-player subtly melds sounds and purposes. Whether it’s in the buried-in-mud riffery of “The Rogue” or the somehow-deeper low end that pervades throughout “The Void Beckons,” their passion for what they’re doing is infectious, and the barebones recording becomes an aesthetic unto itself that, again, is part of a long tradition.

You can see in the quote under the track the band talking about the escapist aspects of a song like “Barbaria,” and Bog Wizard are hardly the first to embrace storytelling as a mode of transporting oneself to another world. That they do so in such delightfully gruesome fashion serves to make Miasmic Purple Smoke even more charming in its dungeon-esque atmosphere. Dungeon doom. Cave doom.

Max experience points for those who listen.

Enjoy:

Bog Wizard, “Barbaria” track premiere

Barbaria, the first single off Miasmic Purple Smoke, Bog Wizard’s sophomore full length release, out Dec 3rd 2021.

What the band has to say about the track:

“The album Miasmic Purple Smoke was written and recorded over the course of the last year. The process of this and playing the music itself has been our bit of escapism to keep sane. Much as we have done in the past with our D&D characters and the stories we put ourselves into, and often write our songs about. Using escapism and fantasy in tumultuous times.

“The song Barbaria is embracing this escapism, and allowing our inner barbarian rage to bubble over a bit. It represents the anger and frustration felt over the last year and a half, and provides a way to vent those darker thoughts. And of course, as is our method of operation, channeling the barbarian characters we have played over the years. Gotta keep the nerd in our nerd doom.”

Bog Wizard is a Doom/ Sludge/ Stoner metal band riffing off the satanic panic era with heavy fantasy/ D&D themes. NERD DOOM.

Track Listing for Miasmic Purple Smoke
1. Barbaria [8:30]
2. The Rogue [10:08]
3. Grimdark [1:46]
4. Miasmic Purple Smoke [7:16]
5. Stuck In The Muck [1:19]
6. The Void Beckons [12:26]

Run time: 41:25

Bog Wizard is:
Ben Lombard (guitar/vox)
Harlen Linke (percussion, synth, vox)
Colby Lowman (bass)

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Twitter

Bog Wizard on Instagram

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

Bog Wizard webstore

The Dregs Records on Facebook

The Dregs Records on Instagram

The Dregs Records on Twitter

The Dregs Records webstore