Posted in Whathaveyou on June 16th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
With Monolord, Domkraft, Old Horn Tooth, Earthbong and now Bogwife — among others, obviously — bringing riffy crush to the Kulturkirken Jakob this October, Høstsabbat looks frickin’ killer. I won’t be there to see it, but the taxi I was in going to the train station from Desertfest Oslo last month drove past the Høstsabbathome venue, and I swear to you I got misty eyed, all sentimental about the times I’ve had in that church and the shows I’ve seen. Whether it was Ufomammut, Colour Haze or Mars Red Sky upstairs with the sound bouncing off the walls or Slomatics, LLNN or Papir downstairs in the basement, I have a lot of really good memories of that place and this fest, and if it wasn’t held on my daughter’s birthday, I’d probably be talking about how excited I was to go back this year too. But, you know.
Bogwife, Bong Voyage (which features members of Håndgemeng), Sex Magick Wizards and Cult of Fire are the new adds here. I basically just wanted to talk about how kickass Høstsabbat is, so yeah. From socials:
Sabbathians!
We have news from the crypt!
4 more artists are ready for Høstsabbat 2026. From jazz, to danish stonerrock, to 80’s space-themed heavy rock to epic black metal, this drop has it all!
This reaping includes:
Sex Magick Wizards (NO)
Psychedelic, experimental jazz from well renowned musicians, put together in a jazz ensemble. Frankensteined with parts of Django Reinhardt and Jimi Hendrix fused with Sámi culture and flare. The freejazz quartet will play at our new venue, Kafé Hærverk, and will be the perfect palate cleanser for this year’s Høstsabbat!
Bong Voyage (NO)
All sideburns, no concern! The trailblazing hashtronauts in Bong Voyage returns, now with an 80s inspired full album out as well! Hedonistic Hard Rock dropped in May, and instantly made an impact so good we had to get them back. The wizards of Ozlo are on an eternal quest, not for powder, but to infect everyone with the hedonistic rock flu. Sideburns, leathervests and shoulder-length hair. Watch out!
Bogwife (DK)
In collaboration with Lasher Fest, we bring you Aalborg’s own stoner/doom outfit: Bogwife.
Haunting the swamps of the Danish lowland, these Danish riffmasters have more bluesy grooves than the Blues Brothers, and will bring their murky and gritty stoner-vibe to the Sabbath!
Worship the bog!
Cult of Fire (CZ)
Few bands inhibit the absolute epic atmospheric and ferocious presence that Cult of Fire does. A marriage of Hindu and Buddhist religious themes, Black Metal and musical prowess. This will play straight into the hands of our Church of Riffs, and will be one to remember!
From tantric melodic super-riffing to bone-chilling harsh vocals. We will meditate on death, and the church will be basking in the sonic anthems of impious lacerated melodies.
Never before has the Church of Riffs been closer to a portal to the underworld.
Day two, feeling good after coming in hot yesterday after the weekend of writing. Have I ever told you about my fantasy QR? No? I write reviews of stuff all along, every day, then when it’s QR time I just roll it all out and take an actual week off. Wouldn’t it enhance your enjoyment knowing that somewhere, sometime, I’m sitting on ass and not frantically trying to finish the next day’s reviews?
I haven’t ever been able to manifest that reality, so here I am, yesterday, maybe two days before, trying to put it together. Same as every other QR I’ve done in the past 12 or 13 years, however long I’ve been doing these. Long enough to know when one feels good. Yesterday was cool. I have high hopes accordingly for today’s batch. I try to do myself favors in putting these together as best I can.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Spirit Adrift, Infinite Illumination
Led for the last decade by Nate Garrett initially as a solo-project and then as a full, touring and working band, Spirit Adrift come to a reported close with Infinite Illumination, the Austin outfit’s sixth album. Melancholia and metal intertwine on songs like “Window Within,” the chuggy ’90s groover “Born in a Bad Way,” and “White Death,” which resolves with a massive nod. The band have always tipped the balance of metal and doom, so these are fitting sounds on which to go out, if in fact Garrett (also Neon Nightmare) is done with it. “Where Once There Was an Ocean” unfolds slowly at the end of the album, and stately in its intro and very much in that place between, what with the shredding solo and chugging center riff progression, but it’s all part of the identity the band carved during their time, keeping ’90s Hellhound Records-style doom alive and carried forward for the next generation. Excited for what Garrett does next, but Spirit Adrift earned this farewell in the interim.
‘Embrace’ doesn’t necessarily mean accessibility as Ufomammut‘s Urlo puts the finishing stamp on the two-LP ‘Embrace the Abandon’ cycle with his solo-project The Mon‘s Songs of Embrace. What he calls ’embrace,’ I would generally consider immersion. Drone is a big part of it through this 10-track answer to 2025’s Songs of Abandon (review here), textures of synth and guitar, some jangling keys before the static push in “Ritual of Night Violence.” There’s beauty to be had, whether it’s in the more direct guitar of “Incantation” or “Embers of Calendula,” but neither is “Ritual of Night Violence” the only foray into abrasion, with the penultimate “Echoes of the Drowned” and opener “Invocation of the Abyss” also harnessing these textures. “Embrace the Abandon,” a title-track for two records, closes with shimmery synth, noise, a machine that goes ‘bing!’ and other echoing noises. Texture, in other words. You knew it was going to be out there. Hoping Urlo keeps developing this project as an outlet for such weirdness.
The fourth album from Sweden’s dramatic progressive kraut rockers Hällas — also their first self-release through Äventyr Records — Panorama opens with its longest track (immediate points) in the 21-minute, side-A-consuming “Above the Continuum,” and as a single track, it indeed goes down like the half an album it is. Packed with twists, vocal and tonal changes, shifts in arrangement, that spoken piece in the second half and each new part seeming like a different stage in the dynamic procession leading toward a somehow-not-overblown finish, it’s a triumph of their craft, to say the least of it. Side B brings four cuts starting with “Face of an Angel,” which might be yacht prog but for the Nazgûl wails, while “The Emissary” is more sweeping in its scope and works into a headspinning tizzy before it’s done, giving over to the penultimate “Bestiaus,” which in itself is voice and keyboard but also has a waveform static intro to closer “At the Summit,” begun with classical guitar as they make ready to blow-out a six-minute finish that feels duly epic in its reach. This is a band who’ve made their own place by fitting nowhere else. Panorama feels earned.
London heavy rockers Okay You Win give a couple different looks on their debut album, End of Days, on Blues Funeral. Underlying it all across the eight-song/52-minute offering is a sense of songwriting and intention in how each track unfolds, but to that, there is a longform modus and what feels like a complementary immediacy to offset some of the digging in of songs like “Beat Me Down” or “The Greatest Lie.” End of Days somewhat turns expectation on its head by putting the more expansive material up front, and cuts like “This Damned Place,” closer “Own It” and the abovementioned — all of which top seven minutes in length — present a scope informed by desert heavy and dual-guitar metal, feeling a bit like a complement to labelmates Solace in that regard. The shorter (sub-five minutes) title-track and “Red Flag” land with a more direct take, and what comes across most of all is a nascent malleability between the two sides that feels like it will eventually be bridged in their sound. Taken as a whole, the album is elemental, which is to say, this is a strong and ambitious initial showing, and how they grow from here will be the ultimate story of the band.
You would not call Bong Voyage subtle in opening cut “Saturday Rite Special” (get it?) as they quickly toss out “Hail Satan and Iron Maiden!” among the fervent declarations of self and purpose. That’s not the last time they’ll make that rhyme. The Oslo heavy party rockers, true to form, have plenty of metal in their foundations and the namedrops to prove it, but are here for a good time, and even a comparative letup like “UFOria” or the ’80s-tastic take on Billy Idol in “Enabler” ahead of the big-roller “Wizard of Ozlo” stand testament to the point, never mind the shouty shenanigans of “Large and In Charge,” “Outer Space Freebase” or “In Possession” at the finish. If you’re at the show, they’ve already spilled (poured?) beer on you, but that’s to be expected for material of such physicality, songs written with movement and audience engagement central to their ideology. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but they’re bending the frames to make it roll like it’s drunk and never hungover.
Unflinching in their exploration of the darker side of heavy rock and roll and dungeon-style metal, Fasano, Italy’s King Potenaz follow 2025’s Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 1 (review here) as the core trio of guitarist/vocalist Giuseppe Guarini, bassist Francesco Pensato and drummer Piero Schiavone mirror that album’s structure in a likewise adventurous complement. Whether it’s the grim desert expanse of “Sumerian Nights” or the lumbering psychedoomic jam “A Crack in the Void (The Empty Hand Pt. 2),” King Potenaz remain unto themselves in intention, fostering a fuzzy but still post-punk shove in “Lord of the Rust” — think stonergoth — while “The Nothingness” feels as much like a ritual as a song, the band putting the listener into the proceedings as much as itself. Not redundant of the prior album, but pushing farther from it, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 2 reaffirms the individual nature of what King Potenaz do. They aren’t quite like anything else out there, and more, they seem to know it.
Celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2026, Cowboys & Aliens unveil Finis Temporum, a front-to-back six-song/32-minute banger that’s as righteous an argument in favor of classic-style, turn-of-the-century European heavy rock as one could ask from a band who was there and part of making it. Closer “Asteroid Blast” reminds of that, remade as it was from 2000’s A Trip to the Stonehenge Colony, but I’ll be damned if the opening salvo of “Life Tree” and “Rabbit Hole” doesn’t kick ass out of the gate, backed by the reachout in “Vengeance of the Weird” and the big hook in “Ordinary Bliss” ahead of the fuzzstrutter “Icy Grip.” I suppose that’s to say momentum gets on their side early and the shove that ensues is rad. Melodies soar over tonally and rhythmically vibrant riffing, and though they’re never far removed from the root verse/chorus trades of the material, the excitement level runs high across the span without sounding redundant at any point. If you’re not on board by the end of “Life Tree,” consult your primary care physician.
Endless Floods retain an experimentalist feel despite the outward solidity of their post-metallic take on Passages. With resonant vocals from Louise Dehaye (also sax), the largesse and sway of the full-band sound behind conjured by Stéphane Miollan (bass, guitar, vocals, synth) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, guitars, vocals, percussion) feels expansive and puporseful in a way that ‘experimental’ rarely captures. What’s happening across the four mostly-extended inclusions on the 37-minute outing, however, is a construction of form that is Endless Floods‘ own, able to slide or lumber or crunch through a piece like “Visions” or the lead single “Dieuxième Monde,” which are lush and gorgeous and still feel like a setup for the glory reached in the 10-minute linear build of “Liminal” and the synthy bleed toward closer “Primordial,” wherein the onslaught one might expect is subverted in favor of heavy post-rock ambience, contemplative melody and expansive soundscaping. If you never believed heavy metal could be beautiful, first of all, what are you doing here, and second, Passages serves as a convincing argument. It is engrossing.
Wooden clackychimes mark the beginning of Duncan Park‘s “Chöd” at the outset of the four-song Prana EP, soon complemented by resonant hand-drumming that gradually comes forward as the clacky-clacky recedes. This subdued moment is not misspent, but rather essential to the procession, shifting to standalone guitar on “BEBEBe” in the flavor of something Ben Chasny might elicit from the instrument in serene pastoralism, exploratory but grounded and accessible. Voice is an instrument in “Surfing the Bardo,” and that presence isn’t to be underestimated, but it’s still the guitar in focus, and the way the movement comes apart (before realigning) in the second half reminds of Beatles Esher demos and is correspondingly organic. Same could be said of the tape hiss behind the guitar of the title-track, which noodles around its central figure and sounds joyful in the doing, without getting lost even as it seems to rewind itself back for another listen. A quiet embrace from the Johannesburg-based Park, whose work remains evocative and escapist.
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Luxury Weapons, The Light in a Low Place
Richmind, Virginia’s Luxury Weapons is the trio of Trevor Thomas (Human Thurma, etc.), Bill Badgley (Federation X, etc.) and Erik Josephson (Hex Machine, etc.), and you can just take all that ‘etc.’ as meant to convey lifetimes’ worth of experience making music and playing in bands. The songwriting here is noise rock-sharp, but where the aggression to coincide with the chug might otherwise be is a rousing melodic sensibility, bolstered by the Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) recording job and present in the spacious “Surrender” and the precision turns of “Been Gone” or “All We Knew.” This record came out over a year ago — yeah, it’s damn near June and I’m still sneaking in 2025 releases; wait until you hear about the decades of recorded music that existed before last month — so if you want to take this is me making a note to myself on something cool, I’m fine with that. There’s enough character in Luxury Weapons‘ sound to stand them out regardless of the last 13 months, and I certainly don’t hear anything on their debut that sounds like it’s about to expire now. If you haven’t heard it — and I know you have because you’re cooler than me — perhaps a word to the wise.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 10th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Oslo, Norway, five-piece Bong Voyage have signed to vaunted Californian label Ripple Music to release their awaited full-length debut, apparently titled Hedonistic Hard Rock — something of a self-applied stylistic tag on the part of the band — on May 8. You might recall the heavy rockers, then a four-piece, issued a series of singles between 2022 and 2023. If you do or don’t, the latest of them, “Space Cocaine,” is at the bottom of this post. It was one of five. I’m curious if the album will be comprised in part of those five-total older songs or if Bong Voyage are moving forward. Either is a valid approach.
While I’m here, I’ll note that Bong Voyage clearly had some fun with the cover art to those singles, but I’m honestly not sure anything they could put out front on an LP cover could say more about where the band are coming from than the photo below that was used the other day to make the Ripple signing announcement (in which the band revealed both the album title and the release date; something we don’t always get). The logo fits, you could put the title right there and you’re good to go. I know band-photos-on-covers is out of fashion right now, despite the best efforts of RidingEasy Records, but I’m not sure what more you would want than they’re giving you here, and there’s precedent with Norwegian bands on Ripple after Håndgemeng‘s record last year. Just saying, it would be fun, and fun seems to be part of the point here.
The promo cycle begins in earnest next week, reportedly, so keep an eye out. Here’s the announcement from socials to make it official:
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve signed with the almighty powerful @ripplemusic 🤝 Our debut album, “Hedonistic Hard Rock,” drops on Friday, May 8th, 2026. Get ready – our first single, “Large And In Charge,” hits your ears on February 17th!
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
All this week on a one-per-day basis, the Oslo-based Høstsabbat fest has been adding bands to its increasingly righteous lineup, filling out the poster space beneath headliners Bongripper and the likes of Yawning Man and Black Rainbows with a broad-ranging assortment of styles as they progress into not only having more acts play, but embrace a multifaceted vision of heavy that has room for the likes of Spaceslug as well as the inhumane extreme pummel of Denmark’s LLNN. The latter are a highlight of the latest batch of announcements, returning to Høstsabbat this October after leveling the place in 2019. It was — and I mean this — breathtaking to witness.
The care and curation put into this bill should be obvious to anyone who even samples the Spotify playlist at the bottom of this post, never mind actually searches out releases from the band in question, and though I’m still hobbling somewhat after last October’s edition and the subsequent knee surgery it required, I very much hope to be back in Oslo this Fall to see Høstsabbat 2023 in-person.
Here’s what they posted throughout the week, starting with Spurv today and working back to FFHH on Monday:
Høstsabbat 2023 – SPURV
It’s Friday, and time for the last treat from our large easter egg-drop. Today’s egg contains no chick, but an incredibly beautiful sparrow.
Spurv are the top providers of Norwegian atmospheric post-rock, releasing their third album this fall. It sounds absolutely breathtaking, full of enchanting, calming soundscapes, as well as nerve and intensity.
The sparrow might be small and quick, but the sound of this band is huge and floating.
Weaving instruments together into a carpet of sound that embraces you, and keeps you safe, but simultaneously sends shivers down your spine. Taking you through all the strongest emotions in life, from joy and love, to sorrow, longing and grief.
We can’t wait to let the sparrow take us onto its wings again. Just close your eyes, and try not to cry. Or on second thought – let the river loose, crying is healthy.
Please welcome Spurv to Høstsabbat 2023!
1234!
1234! The holidays are finally here!
Todays announcement are not just keeping their band name simple. Everything about this band is cut to the bone. They are are a two-piece playing rock and roll in its absolute purest form. Bass and drums, four hands in total sync, channeling a very raw feel to their output.
Their debut album from last year, appropriately named «Power and Speed» draws comparison to a wide range of artists, spanning from QOTSA to Motörhead, but still maintaining to keep an honest and catchy sassiness to their well-executed, action-filled sound.
We love a good two-piece at Høstsabbat, and we cant wait to present the in-your-face type of execution from 1234!
They will leave you all in awe.
Please welcome 1234! to Høstsabbat 2023!
LLNN
Holy shitballs, the furious Danes are coming back!
If you were one of the lucky ones attending LLNN back in 2019, I bet you are a bit excited too, right? I dont think we have ever witnessed a gig as demolishing as when LLNN baptized The Crypt in floods of anger and despair. The push these guys are capable of is nothing less than insane. They hit the drums, keys and strings in such a tight manner, you WILL physically feel the riffs, as they are pawing their way through your stomach, further up your spine, until they crush your brain and your head spins. It’s that heavy. It’s that good. LLNN is nuts live.
Not too bad on record either, their recent masterpiece «UNMAKER» from 2021 truly set the bar for LLNN, as they have been featured on every significant festival there is in its wake.
Well done, and well deserved guys! Now back to church:
As it is our anniversary, LLNN was one of those pinnacle bands we felt we had to invite back, and as they never rely on previous achievements, we are positive their return will be triumphant.
We are happy the love between LLNN and Høstsabbat is mutual.
Please welcome LLNN to Høstsabbat 2023!
BONG VOYAGE
New bands appear for so many different reasons. Some because of ambition, some because of pure cynicism, some because of friendship. Some bands, like todays announcement, seems to grow out of something that is already flourishing without restraint.
BONG VOYAGE feels like a testament of the unbelievably vital Oslo-scene, documenting this period of time in the name of rock and roll, as the scandi-rockers and black metallers did before them.
BONG VOYAGE, to us, is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of a new generation of killer bands, finding fellow axe and swordsmen within the walls of the same couple of bars, stretching for the same kind of goals and feels, while sharing a solid passion for catchy riffs, hooks and grooves. And most importantly: BONG VOYAGE never lets the slightly humorous approach go at the expense of their sheer quality. This bunch of stoner rockers is living proof of what a vivid underground scene can, and will do to your city. Høstsabbat is proud of being a part of it.
Bong Iver, Bong Jovi, Elton Bong and Bong Juan will launch Verkstedet to space!
Yes – BONG VOYAGE!
FORCEFED HORSEHEAD
Are we dropping a band on a Monday?
Indeed we are, and we’ll be bringing you the Høstsabbat joy throughout this festive week.
Today´s announcement has literally been grinding around the filthy basements of the Oslo underground for more than a decade. Picking up bits and pieces from more or less every sub-genre of the extreme, Forcefed Horsehead is utilizing their experience to perfection. Their creative stew of punishing, frightening and spellbinding riff-mania crafts a unique blend of metal, previously unheard on our home turf. It never gets boring. It´s unforgiving.
FFHH just unveiled a masterpiece of an album, «Monoceros» is monumental and monstrous in every way. From the intense start of “Every Death You Take”, the album shows a confident band sliding from tar-dripping heaviness to furious d-beats with the greatest of ease. The complexity and intensity are being delivered in an almost laid back manner. Pure madness in its absolute best form.
It’s with a tipsy mix of horror and delight we await the rampage of this beautiful beast!
Posted in Reviews on January 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
There was some pretty good stuff this week, I gotta say. Feels self-congratulatory to be like, ‘hey good job slating reviews, me!’ but there it is. I don’t regret hearing anything I have thus far into the Winter 2023 Quarterly Review, and sometimes that’s not the case by the time we get to Friday.
Of course, there’s another week to go here as well. We’ll pick it back up on Monday with another 10 records and proceed from there. If you’ve been following along, I hope you’ve found something you dig as well.
Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #41-50:
Astrosaur, Portals
This is what happens when you have virtuoso players writing songs rather than paeans to their own virtuosity. Led by founding guitarist Eirik Kråkenes, with drummer Jonathan Eikum (also Taiga Woods) and bassist Steinar Glas (also Einar Stray Orchestra), Astrosaur are blindingly progressive on their third full-length, Portals (on Pelagic), operating with post-metallic atmospheres as a backdrop for stunning instrumental turns, builds and crashes, willful repetition and the defiant denial of same. There’s more scope in the intro “Opening” than on some entire albums, and what “Black Hole Earth” begins from there is a dizzying array of sometimes cosmic sometimes earthborn riffing, twisting bass and mindfully restless drums. “The Deluge” hitting into that chase after four minutes in, that seemingly chaotic swirling noise suddenly stopping “Reptile Empire” and the false start to the 23-minute epic “Eternal Return” — these details and many besides give the overarching weight of Portals at its heaviest a corresponding depth, and when coupled with the guitar’s ability to coast overhead, they are genuinely three-dimension in their sound. You’d be right to want to hear Portals for “Eternal Return” alone, but there’s so much more to it than that.
Kvasir‘s Sagittarius A* Star is named for the black hole at the center of the galaxy, and the 21-minute single-song EP is the follow-up to their 2021 debut album, 4 (review here), a dug-in proto-metallic exploration composed in movements that flow together as a whole organic work. The Portland-based four-piece of guitarists Christopher Lee (also vocals) and Gabriel Langston, bassist Greg Traw and Jay Erbe work on either side between traditional metal and heavy rock riffing, inhabiting both here as “Sagittarius A* Star” launches into its initial verses over the first four minutes, a solo emerging after 5:30 to set the pattern that will hold for the remaining three-fourths of the song. A slowdown takes hold about a minute later and grooves until at about nine minutes in when the bass comes forward and things get funkier. The vocals return at about 11:30 to complement a galloping riff that’s fleshed out until just after the 14-minute mark, when a jazzier instrumental movement begins and the band makes it known they’re going out and not coming back, the swaying finish with more insistent guitar, first interjecting then satisfyingly joining that sway, capping with a (still plotted) jammier feel. If that’s the Milky Way succumbing to ultragravity and being torn apart molecule by molecule en route to physics-defying oblivion, then fair enough. Worse ways to go, certainly.
Though the leadoff Sins of the Father gets reminds of circa-’90s noise metal like Nailbomb, Marylander four-piece Bloodshot lean more into a hardcore-informed take on heavy rock with their aggressively-purposed debut album. Comprised of vocalist Jared Winegardner, guitarist Tom Stacey, bassist Joe Ruthvin (ex-Earthride) and drummer JB Matson (ex-War Injun, organizer of Maryland Doom Fest, etc.), the band push to one side or the other throughout, as on the more rocking “Zero Humility” and the subsequent metallic barker “Uncivil War,” the mid-period Megadeth-style riffer “Beaten Into Rebellion,” the brooding-into-chugging closing title-track and “Fyre,” which I’m pretty sure just wants to kick my ass. The 10-track entirety of the album, in fact, seems to hold to that same mentality, and there’s a sense of trying to recapture something that’s been lost that feels inherently conservative in its theme — “Faded Natives,” “Visions of Yesterday,” the speedier “Worn and Torn,” and so on — but gruff though it is, Sins of the Father offers a pissed-off-for-reasons take on heavy that’s likewise intense and methodical. That is to say, they know what they’re doing as they punch you in the throat.
A second release through Heavy Psych Sounds and Tons‘ third full-length overall, Hashension wears its love of all things cannabian on its crusty stoner sludge sleeve throughout its six-track/39-minute run, begun with the riffnotic “Dope Dealer Scum” before “A Hash Day’s Night” introduces the throatripper vocals and backing growls and a more heads-down, speedier tempo that hits into a mosh of a slowdown. “Slowly We Pot” — a play on Obituary‘s Slowly We Rot — to go along with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (and Gummo) titular references — follows in a spirit as angry as one imagines Bongzilla might be if someone un-freed their weed. Yes, “Hempathy for the Devil” and “Ummagummo” precede the sample-topped slamming march of “Hashended,” and lo, the well-baked extreme sludge they’ve wrought rumbles and thuds its way out, not so much gnashing in the way of “A Hash Day’s Night” or the roll after the midpoint in “Ummagummo” — though the lyrics there seem to be pure weed-worship — but lumbering in such a way as to ensure the point gets across anyhow. I’m not going to tell you you should be stoned listening to it, because I don’t know, maybe you’re driving or something, but I doubt Tons would argue if you brought some edibles to the gig. Enough to share, perhaps.
Mothman & the Thunderbirds vs. World Eaters, Split
In the battle of Philly solo-project Mothman and the Thunderbirds vs. Ontario-based duo World Eaters, the numbers may be on the side of the latter, but each act offers something of its own on their shared 18-minute EP. Presenting two tracks from each band, the outing puts Mothman and the Thunderbirds‘ “Rusty Shackleton” and “Nephilim” up front, the latter particularly reinforcing the Devin Townsend influence on the part of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Alex Parkinson, while “Flash of Green” and “The Siege” from World Eaters — drummer Winter Stomp and guitarist/bassist/vocalist/synthesist David Gupta — present an atmospheric death metal, more than raw bludgeoning, but definitely that as well. As a sampler platter for both bands, there’s more time to get to know World Eaters since their songs are markedly longer, but the contrast from one to the other and the progression into the mire of “The Siege” gives the split an overlaid personality, almost a narrative, and the melodies in Parkinson‘s two cuts have a lingering presence over the masterful decay that follows in World Eater‘s material. One way or the other, these are both relatively upstart projects and their will toward progression is clear, as pummeling as its form may be. Right on.
Preceded by the two-song single Witches Brew/Psychedelic Roadkill, the six-song/24-minute Dark Matter Pt. 1 is short but feels nonetheless like a debut album from Sonoma County, California (try the cabernet), three-piece Deer Lord, who present adventures like getting stoned with witches on a mountaintop, riding free with an out-on-bail “Hippie Girl” in the backseat of presumably some kind of roadster, going down the proverbial highway and, at last, welcoming you to “Planet Earth” after calling out and casting off any and all “Ego” along the way. It is a modern take on stonerized heavy, starting off with “Witches Brew” as the opener/longest track (immediate points) with a languid flow and psychedelic underpinnings that flesh out even amid the apex soloing of “Planet Earth” or the fervent push of the earlier “Ride Away,” that tempo hitting a wall with the intro of “Ego” (don’t worry, it takes off) so as to support the argument in favor of Dark Matter Pt. 1 as an admittedly brief full-length, the component tracks working off each other to enhance the entirety. The elements beneath are familiar enough, but Deer Lord put an encouraging spin of their own on it, and especially as their debut, it’s hard to imagine some label or other won’t get on board, if not for pressing this, then maybe Pt. 2 to come. Perhaps both?
IO Audio Recordings, Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK
Compiling two 2022 EPs into a single LP and releasing through a microcosm of underground imprints in various terrestrial locales, IO Audio Recordings‘ Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK is my first exposure to the Orange, CA, out-there-in-space unit, and from the blower kosmiche rocking “Awaiting the Elliptical Drift” to the sitar meditation “Luminous Suspension,” and the hazy wash of “Sunrise and Overdrive” (that’s side A) to the experimentalist consumption of “VVK” and “Gramanita” rounding out with its heartbeat rhythm giving over to a hardly-flatlined drone after shuffling cool and bassy and fuzzy with jangly jam strum overtop, I tell you in all sincerity it won’t be my last. There’s a broad cross-section stylistically, which suits a compilation mindset, but I get the feeling that if you called it an album instead, the situation would be much the same thanks to an underlying conceptualism and the adventuring purpose beneath the open-structured fluidity. That’s just fine, as IO Audio Recordings‘ sundry transformations only enhance the anything-that-works-goes and shelf-your-expectations listening experience. Not that there’s no tension in their groovy approach, but the abiding sensibility advises an open mind and maybe a couple deep breaths in and out before you take it on. But then definitely take it on. If you need me, I’ll be spending money I don’t have on Bandcamp.
While “bong” in a band name usually connotes dense sludge in my head, Oslo four-piece Bong Voyage defy that stereotype with their Dec. 2022-released second single, “Feverlung” — the first single was October’s “Buzzed Aldrin” — and no, the song isn’t about the pandemic, it’s about getting high. The six-minute rocker hoists jammy flourish mostly in its second half, in a break that, in turn, shifts into uptempo semi-space rock post-Slift pulsations atop a progression that, while I’ll readily admit it sounds little like the song on the whole still puts me in mind of Kyuss‘ “Odyssey” in its vocal patterning and melody. That ending is a step outward from the solidified early verses, which are more straight ahead heavy rock in the vein of Freedom Hawk or a less-directly-Ozzy take on Sheavy, and while one listening for them to bring it back around to the initial riff will find that they don’t, the band’s time isn’t necessarily misspent in terms of serving the song by letting it push beyond exospheric traps. They won’t catch me by surprise next time aesthetically, and it wouldn’t be a shock to find Bong Voyage in among the subset of up and coming heavy rockers that’s put Norway on the underground radar so much these last couple years. Either way, I’ll look forward to more here.
In its early going, Sun Years‘ “Codex” stagger-sludges like Eyehategod with guitarist Dalton Huskin‘s shouty echoing vocals on top, but as it moves into its second half, there’s a pickup in tempo and a bit of swirling lead guitar emerges in the 4:37 song’s closing stretch as Asechiah Bogdan (ex-Windhand, ex-Alabama Thunderpussy) makes his presence felt. Alongside bassist Buddy Bryant and drummer Erik Larson (once-and-again guitarist for Alabama Thunderpussy, drummer of Avail, Omen Stones, ex-Backwoods Payback, the list goes on), Bogdan and Huskin explore mellower and more melodic reaches the subsequent “Teeth Like Stars,” still holding some of their demo’s lead track’s urgency as a weighted riff takes hold in trade with the relatively subdued verse. That’s a back and forth they’ll do again, moving the second time from the more weighted progression into a solo and build into a return of the harsher vocals, some double-kick drumming and a last shove that lasts until everything drops out except one guitar and that riffs for a few seconds before being cut off mid-measure. Well, that’s a band with more dynamic in their first two tracks than some have in their entire careers, so I guess it’s safe to say it’ll be worth following the Richmond, Virginia, foursome to see where they end up next time out.
Recorded by Jan Oberg (Grin, Slowshine, EarthShip) at Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin, Daevar‘s five-track/32-minute 2023 debut album, Delirious Rites, arrives likewise through Oberg‘s imprint The Lasting Dose Records and finds the man himself sitting in for guest vocals on the 10-minute “Leviathan” alongside the band’s own bassist/vocalist Pardis Latif, who leads the band from the depths of the rhythm section’s lurch on the gradually unfolding Windhand-vibing leadoff “Slowshine,” the particularly Monolordian “Bloody Fingers” with Caspar Orfgen‘s guitar howling over a marching riff, and “Leila” where Moritz Ermen Bausch‘s drums offer a welcoming grounding to Electric Wizardly nod and swirl. Thus, by the time his spot in the aforementioned “Leviathan” rolls (and I do mean rolls) around, just ahead of closer “Yellow Queen,” the layers of growling and screaming he adds to the procession are a standout shift well placed to play off the atmosphere established by the previous tracks. Shortest at 5:10, “Yellow Queen” lumbers through more ethereal doom and hints at a psychedelic current that might continue to develop in a midsection drifting break that builds back into the catchy plod from whence it came. Not necessarily innovative at this point — they’re a new band — but they seem to know what they want in terms of sound and style, and that only ever bodes well.
