Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Setting out tomorrow night from their homebase in Richmond, Virginia, heavy psych rockers Book of Wyrms are headed north to Canada this week as part of a run of eight shows. The band offered up a single remixing their track “Hollergoblin” last year, collaborating with rapper/producer Illa Styles, and it’s been since 2023 since their last standalone piece was posted. Kinda due, I guess. I don’t know what their plans are, if there are any, for writing or recording, but getting out on tour certainly counts as “active,” so if they’ve got new material following on from these singles and 2021’s LP, Occult New Age (review here), so much the better, but don’t go telling them I said they’d play new songs or anything. Unless you want to confuse the crap out of them. Leave me out of it anyway, if you don’t mind.
Whatever comes, you can hear Book of Wyrms‘ two most recent digs at the bottom of this post and the tour dates were posted on socials as follows:
Canada tour is coming up fast! Really really stoked about all of these shows. Kicking it off at @thebroadberry with @pallbearerdoom and then heading up to the Great White North to link up with the badass @tumbletheband and @black_throne_productions for a few sick nights before we party down at @lourdfestival. Then, after a little camping, we head home with burners in @thedoomstate, Boston, and @ortliebsphilly.
06.04 The Broadberry Richmond VA 06.05 Vertagogo Hamilton ON 06.06 Expo Vintage Clothing Toronto ON 06.07 CW Coops Barrie ON 06.08 Le Minotaure Gatineau QC 06.11 L’Espace de Repetition Easthampton MA 06.12 O’Brien’s Boston MA 06.13 Ortliebs Philadelphia PA
It’s gonna be so damn fun. ⚔️⚔️⚔️🪐🌩️⚡⚔️⚔️⚔️
Gorgeous orc by @dougkovacsart and tour-postered-up by our lovely drummer @auntmarysays
Posted in Reviews on October 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Last day, this one. And probably a good thing so that I can go back to doing just about anything else beyond (incredibly) basic motor function and feeling like I need to start the next day’s QR writeups. I’m already thinking of maybe a week in December and a week or two in January, just to try to keep up with stuff, but I’m of two minds about it.
Does the Quarterly Review actually help anyone find music? It helps me, I know, because it’s 50 records that I’m basically forcing myself to dig into, and that exposes me to more and more and more all the time, and gives me an outlet for stuff I wouldn’t otherwise have mental or temporal space to cover, so I know I get something out of it. Do you?
Honest answers are welcome in the comments. If it’s a no, that helps me as well.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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AAWKS & Aiwass, The Eastern Scrolls
Late on their 2022 self-titled debut (review here), Canadian upstart heavy fuzzers AAWKS took a decisive plunge into greater tonal densities, and “1831,” which is their side-consuming 14:30 contribution to the The Eastern Scrolls split LP with Arizona mostly-solo-project Aiwass, feels built directly off that impulse. It is, in other words, very heavy. Cosmically spaced with harsher vocals early that remind of stonerkings Sons of Otis and only more blowout from there as they roll forth into slog, noise, a stop, ambient guitar and string melodies and drum thud behind vocals, subdued psych atmosphere and backmasked sampling near the finish. Aiwass, led by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Blake Carrera and now on the cusp of releasing a second full-length, The Falling (review here), give the 13:00 “The Unholy Books” a stately, post-metallic presence, as much about the existential affirmations and the melody applied to the lyrics as it moves into the drumless midsection as either the earlier Grayceon-esque pulled notes of guitar (thinking specifically “War’s End” from 2011’s All We Destroy, but there the melody is cello) into it or the engrossing heft that emerges late in the piece, though it does bookend with a guitar comedown. Reportedly based around the life of theosophy co-founder and cult figure Madame Helena Blavatsky, it can either be embraced on that level or taken on simply as a showcase of two up and coming bands, each with their own complementary sound. However you want to go, it’s easily among the best splits I’ve heard in 2023.
The lines between projects are blurring for Surya Kris Peters, otherwise known as Chris Peters, currently based in Brazil where he has the solo-project Fuzz Sagrado following on from his time in the now-defunct German trio Samsara Blues Experiment. Strange New World is part of a busy 2023/busy last few years for Peters, who in 2023 alone has issued a live album from his former band (review here) and a second self-recorded studio LP from Fuzz Sagrado, titled Luz e Sombra (review here). And in Fuzz Sagrado, Peters has returned to the guitar as a central instrument after a few years of putting his focus on keys and synths with Surya Kris Peters as the appointed outlet for it. Well, the Fuzz Sagrado had some keys and the 11-song/52-minute Strange New World wants nothing for guitar either as Peters reveals a headbanger youth in the let-loose guitar of “False Prophet,” offers soothing and textured vibes of a synthesized beat in “Sleep Meditation in Times of War” (Europe still pretty clearly in mind) and the acoustic/electric blend that’s expanded upon in “Nada Brahma Nada.” Active runs of synth, bouncing from note to note with an almost zither-esque feel in “A Beautiful Exile (Pt. 1)” and the later “A Beautiful Exile (Part 2)” set a theme that parts of other pieces follow, but in the drones of “Past Interference” and the ’80s New Wave prog of the bonus track “Slightly Too Late,” Peters reminds that the heart of the project is in exploration, and so it is still very much its own thing.
A covers record can be a unique opportunity for an artist to convey something about themselves to fans, and while I consider Evert Snyman‘s 12-track/38-minute classic pop-rock excursion All Killer Filler to be worth it for his take on Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Zero” alone, there is no mistaking the show of persona in the choice to open with The Stooges‘ iconic “Search and Destroy” and back it cheekily with silly bounce of Paul McCartney‘s almost tragically catchy “Temporary Secretary.” That pairing alone is informative if you’re looking to learn something about the South African-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer. See also “The Piña Colada Song.” The ’90s feature mightily, as they would, with tunes by Pixies, Blur, Frank Black, The Breeders and Mark Lanegan (also the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins), but whether it’s the fuzz of The Breeders’ 1:45 “I Just Wanna Get Along,” the sincere acoustic take on The Beatles “I Will” — which might as well be a second McCartney solo cut, but whatever; you’ll note Frank Black and Pixies appearing separately as well — or the gospel edge brought to Tom Waits‘ “Jesus Gonna Be Here,” Snyman internalizes this material, almost builds it from the ground up, loyal in some ways and not in others, but resonant in its respect for the source material without trying to copy, say, Foo Fighters, note for note on “The Colour and the Shape.” If it’s filler en route to Snyman‘s next original collection, fine. Dude takes on Mark Lanegan without it sounding like a put on. Mark Lanegan himself could barely do that.
Virginian heavy doom rockers Book of Wyrms have proved readily in the past that they don’t need all that long to set up a vibe, and the standalone single “Storm Warning” reinforces that position with four-plus minutes of solid delivery of craft. Vocalist/synthesist Sarah Moore Lindsey, bassist Jay “Jake” Lindsey and drummer Kyle Lewis and guitarist Bobby Hufnell (also Druglord) — the latter two would seem to have switched instruments since last year’s single “Sodapop Glacier” (premiered here) — but whatever is actually being played by whoever, the song is a structurally concise but atmospheric groover, with a riff twisting around the hook and the keyboard lending dimension to the mix as it rests beneath the guitar and bass. They released their third album, Occult New Age (review here), in 2021, so they’re by no means late on a follow-up, and I don’t know either when this song was recorded — before, after or during that process — but it’s a sharp-sounding track from a band whose style has grown only more theirs with time. I have high expectations for Book of Wyrms‘ next record — I had high expectations for the last one, which were met — and especially taken together, “Storm Warning” and “Sodapop Glacier” show both the malleable nature of the band’s aesthetic, the range that has grown in their sound and the live performance that is at their collective core.
Following on from their declarative 2022 debut, Mile High Downer Rock (review here), Denver trio Burning Sister — bassist/vocalist Steve Miller (also synth), guitarist Nathan Rorabaugh and drummer Alison Salutz — bring four originals and the Mudhoney cover “When Tomorrow Comes” (premiered here) together as Get Your Head Right, a 29-minute EP, beginning with the hypnotic nod groove and biting leads of “Fadeout” (also released as a single) and the slower, heavy psych F-U-Z-Z of “Barbiturate Lizard,” the keyboard-inclusive languid roll of which, even after the pace picks up, tells me how right I was to dig that album. The centerpiece title-track is faster and a little more forward tonally, more grounded, but carries over the vocal echo and finds itself in noisier crashes and chugs before giving over to the 7:58 “Looking Through Me,” which continues the relatively terrestrial vibe over until the wall falls off the spaceship in the middle of the track and everyone gets sucked into the vacuum — don’t worry, the synthesizer mourns us after — just before the noted cover quietly takes hold to close out with spacious heavygaze cavern echo that swells all the way up to become a blowout in the vein of the original. It’s a story that’s been told before, of a band actively growing, coming into their sound, figuring out who they are from one initial release to the next. Burning Sister haven’t finished that process yet, but I like where this seems to be headed. Namely into psych-fuzz oblivion and cosmic dust. So yeah, right on.
Informed by Pallbearer, Warning, or perhaps others in the sphere of emotive doom, UK troupe Gévaudan scale up from 2019’s Iter (review here) with the single-song, 43:11 Umbra, their second album. Impressive enough for its sheer ambition, the execution on the extended titular piece is both complex and organic, parts flowing naturally from one to the other around lumbering rhythms for the first 13 minutes or so before a crashout to a quick fade brings the next movement of quiet and droning psychedelia. They dwell for a time in a subtle-then-not-subtle build before exploding back to full-bore tone at 18:50 and carrying through a succession of epic, dramatic ebbs and flows, such that when the keyboard surges to the forefront of the mix in seeming battle with the pulled notes of guitar, the ensuing roll/march is a realization. They do break to quiet again, this time piano and voice, and doom mournfully into a fade that, at the end of a 43-minute song tells you the band could’ve probably kept going had they so desired. So much the better. Between this and Iter, Gévaudan have made a for-real-life statement about who they are as a band and their progressive ambitions. Do not make the mistake of thinking they’re done evolving.
In some of the harsher vocals and thrashy riffing of Cult of Oblivion‘s opening title-track, Massachusetts’ Oxblood Forge remind a bit of some of the earliest Shadows Fall‘s definitively New Englander take on hardcore-informed metal. The Boston-based double-guitar five-piece speed up the telltale chug of “Children of the Grave” on “Upon the Altar” and find raw sludge scathe on “Cleanse With Fire” ahead of finishing off the four-song/18-minute EP with the rush into “Mask of Satan,” which echoes the thrash of “Cult of Oblivion” itself and finds vocalist Ken McKay pushing his voice higher in clean register than one can recall on prior releases, their most recent LP being 2021’s Decimator (review here). But that record was produced for a different kind of impact than Cult of Oblivion, and the aggression driving the new material is enhanced by the roughness of its presentation. These guys have been at it a while now, and clearly they’re not in it for trends, or to be some huge band touring for seven months at a clip. But their love of heavy metal is evident in everything they do, and it comes through here in every blow to the head they mete out.
The titular rhythmic counting in Austrian heavy-prog quirk rockers High Brian‘s Five, Six, Seven (on StoneFree Records, of course) doesn’t take long to arrive, finding its way into second cut “Is it True” after the mild careening of “All There Is” opens their third full-length, and that’s maybe eight minutes into the 40-minute record, but it doesn’t get less gleefully weird from there as the band take off into the bassy meditation of “The End” before tossing out angular headspinner riffs in succession and rolling through what feels like a history of krautrock’s willful anti-normality written into the apocalypse it would seemingly have to be. “The End” is the longest track at 8:50, and it presumably closes side A, which means side B is when it’s time to party as the triplet chug of “The Omni” reinforces the energetic start of “All There Is” with madcap fervor and “Stone Came Up” can’t decide whether it’s raw-toned biker rock or spaced out lysergic idolatry, so it decides to become an open jam complete people talking “in the crowd.” This leaves the penultimate “Our First Car” to deliver one last shove into the art-rock volatility of closer “Oil Into the Fire,” where High Brian play one more round of can-you-follow-where-this-is-going before ending with a gentle cymbal wash like nothing ever happened. Note, to the best of my knowledge, there are not bongos on every track, as the cover art heralds. But perhaps spiritually. Spiritual bongos.
Shimmering, gorgeous and richly informed in melody and rhythm by South American folk, Búho Ermitaño‘s Implosiones revels in pastoralia in opener “Herbie” before “Expolosiones” takes off past its midpoint into heavy post-rock float and progressive urgency that in itself is more dynamic than many bands even still is only a small fraction of the encompassing range of sounds at work throughout these seven songs. ’60s psych twists into the guitar solo in the back half of “Explosiones” before space rock key/synth wash finishes — yes, it’s like that — and only then does the serene guitar and, birdsong and synth-drone of “Preludio” announce the arrival of centerpiece “Ingravita,” which begins acoustic and even as it climbs all the way up to its crescendo maintains its peaceful undercurrent so that when it returns at the end it seems to be home again at the finish. The subsequent “Buarabino” is more about physical movement in its rhythm, cumbia roots perhaps showing through, but leaves the ground for its second half of multidirectional resonances offered like ’70s prog that tells you it’s from another planet. But no, cosmic as they get in the keys of “Entre los Cerros,” Búho Ermitaño are of and for the Earth — you can hear it in every groove and sun-on-water guitar melody — and when the bowl chimes to start finale “Renacer,” the procession that ensues en route to the final drone is an affirmation both of the course they’ve taken in sound and whatever it is in your life that’s led you to hear it. Records like this never get hype. They should. They are loved nonetheless.
Octonaut, Intergalactic Tales of a Wandering Cephalopod
In concept or manifestation, one would not call Octonaut‘s 54-minute shenanigans-prone debut album Intergalactic Tales of a Wandering Cephalopod a minor undertaking. On any level one might want to approach it — taking on the two-minute feedbackscape of “…—…” (up on your morse code?) or the 11-minute tale-teller-complete-with-digression-about-black-holes “Octonaut” or any of their fun-with-fuzz-and-prog-metal-and-psychedelia points in between — it is a lot, and there is a lot going on, but it’s also wonderfully brazen. It’s completely over the top and knows it. It doesn’t want to behave. It doesn’t want to just be another stoner band. It’s throwing everything out in the open and seeing what works, and as Octonaut move forward, ideally, they’ll take the lessons of a song like the mellow linear builder “Hypnotic Jungle” or nine-minute capper “Rainbow Muffler Camel” (like they’re throwing darts at words) with its intermittent manic fits and the somehow inevitable finish of blown-out static noise. As much stoner as it is prog, it’s also not really either, but this is good news because there are few better places for an act so clearly bent on individualism as Octonaut are to begin than in between genres. One hopes they dwell there for the duration.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s one of my bigger regrets for 2023 that I didn’t get to tag along with Richmond, Virginia’s Book of Wyrms and New York’s Geezer for the trio of Canadian shows they did this past Spring. I was all about it and then there was stuff and that was it. I could go on, would prefer not, so won’t, but yeah.
You might recall the band premiered their 2022 single “Sodapop Glacier” here and their new single is “Storm Warning.” It’ll be out Sept. 13, which is, uh, less than a week from now. So heads up on that. They’ll be playing a gig alongside Thunderchief and Red Beard Wall (from Texas) on the 16th at Banditos in Richmond. If you’re in the area or headed that way, the event page is here and I happened to be invited coincidentally as I was putting this very paragraph together, because timing is everything: https://www.facebook.com/events/838903354277220/
And here’s the PR wire info on the single:
Richmond, Virginia’s BOOK OF WYRMS announce new single “Storm Warning” to release on September 13th via Desert Records.
It’s melodic, driving heavy metal that’s still weird and spacey. Moody female vocals ride on fuzz bass and razor-sharp Marshall leads, as flying saucer synths lurk in the back. The song is about the destructive prowess of weather, and what happens when humans seize that power.
SW was mastered by Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) and features blacklight art by Stephen Krakow (Plastic Crimewave). If you dig doom, psych, or space rock but can’t spare 20 minutes, this jam’s for you.
“Storm Warning” lands somewhere between 80’s Priest and Lemmy’s Hawkwind.
This will be the band’s third release on Albuquerque’s Desert Records.
In 2021, BOW’s third full length “Occult New Age” was released worlwide on LP, CD, Cassette, digital download, and on streaming platforms.
In 2022, a stand alone single (and extended version) called “SodaPop Glacier” was released on streaming platforms and Bandcamp.
An incredibly hardworking band full of wonderful individuals, Book of Wyrms has a rapidly growing fan base. The band took their music to Canada for the first time in May of 2023.
This is a band to watch, as they continue to rise to the top of the heavy underground.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Next month, Kingston, New York, trio Geezer and Richmond, Virginia, four-piece Book of Wyrms will head north together for a three-date weekender in Ontario and Quebec. As both bands note below, it’s their first time playing in Canada, and for the dates in Toronto, Ottawa and Québec City, they’ll be keeping good company with a sampling of the righteous Canadian heavy underground. You can see the names on the poster and in the announcement, so I’ll spare you my just listing them again, but it’s a curated assemblage.
Geezer go in continued support of 2022’s Stoned Blues Machine (review here) on Heavy Psych Sounds, having most recently played Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in San Francisco and Joshua Tree, California. For Book of Wyrms, they’ll herald new projects in the works, including plans to record their next full-length at summer’s end, which will follow their 2022 single “Sodapop Glacier” (premiered here) as well as 2021’s Occult New Age (review here), released by Desert Records.
Of the locals, I’ll cop to being less familiar with Hempress and Acid Moth, though Hempress released their Masters of the Trade LP last year and that’s pretty cool and Acid Moth just last Friday offered their self-titled debut EP, complete with a Trailer Park Boys reference and riffs a-plenty. Aawks, Low Orbit and Witchrot are known quantities and killer enough to make the Toronto show practically a festival. And you’ll note The Death Wheelers, who play the last date in Québec City, released their Topon Das-mastered Mondo Trasho 7″ last Fall as the follow-up to their 2020 debut on RidingEasy Records. Sounds like fun, but I know one way to find out for sure.
To that end, I hit up Geezer last week and invited myself along for the trip. Looks like it might even happen, so one way or the other, here’s looking forward:
GEEZER & BOOK OF WYRMS – Canadian Road Trip
Geezer and Book of Wyrms are teaming up for a May road trip to Canada, joined by noted northern lights Aawks, Low Orbit, and Witchrot (Toronto May 11), Hempress and Acid Moth (Ottawa May 12), and the Death Wheelers (Quebec City May 13). These ragers are generously brought to you by Pale Horse Promotions, Fuzzed n Buzzed Records, and Sewer Pool Productions.
Says Pat Harrington of Geezer: “This will be our first time in Canada and we are totally stoked about it. I reached out to Jake from BoW about the idea of doing some shows together and they were already working on the Canadian idea, so we put our heads together and it all worked out real quick. We’re excited about the bands we’re playing with and the promoters have already been working hard on spreading the word, so we expect this short run to be a banger!”
Says Book of Wyrms’ Jake Linsley: “This will be our first time playing outside the US, and getting to go with our buddies in Geezer just makes it extra badass. I’ve been listening to Aawks a lot so it’s gonna be cool to play with them while we’re up there. Other than that, we have a few summer runs coming up that haven’t been announced yet, a new song on a compilation that hasn’t been announced yet, and we’ll be back in the studio at the end of the summer to record our fourth LP.”
GEEZER & BOOK OF WYRMS live: May 11 Hard Luck Toronto ON w/ AAWKS, Low Orbit & Witchrot May 12 Dominion Ottawa ON w/ Hempress & Acid Moth May 13 Scanner Québec City QC w/ The Death Wheelers
Geezer are: Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar Richie Touseull – bass Steve Markota – drums
Book of Wyrms are: Sarah Moore-Lindsey: Vocals and synthesizers Kyle Lewis: Guitar Chris DeHaven: Drums Jay “Jake” Lindsey: Bass
Posted in audiObelisk on October 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Richmond, Virginia’s Book of Wyrms release their new single ‘Sodapop Glacier’ on Oct. 26 through Desert Records, and much of what you need to know is in the first sentence of the quote from bassist/synthesist Jay “Jake” Lindsey, where he says outright, “We wanted to do something totally different.” All that’s missing is John Cleese sitting at a desk on a beach or in the woods or somewhere; you get the point. And if you’ve heard Book of Wyrms before — which certainly you have, because you’re hip like that, and if not, all are welcome, no gatekeeping — on their 2021 third album Occult New Age (review here) or 2019’s Remythologizer (review here) and 2017’s debut, Sci-Fi/Fantasy (review here), the sense of departure will be pretty immediate in the new piece, the title of which sounds like both a fizzy cloud rolling in over the horizon and a classic Pink Floyd experimentalist epic, and so, I think it’s mission accomplished all around for Lindsey and the rest of the four-piece.
With “Sodapop Glacier,” Book of Wyrms embrace texture as a core methodology. In its 8:54 realization — there is also the 15:42 “Sodapop Glacier (Extended Version)” that comes with the Bandcamp download — the song arrives in movements and waves of drones and synth. Some of the lines of bass hint toward the band’s more structured fare, which is to say, they might sneak in a riff, but the exploratory mindset is paramount, and it is a marked difference from what one generally expects of Book of Wyrms — Lindsey alongside vocalist/synthesist Sarah Moore Lindsey, guitarist Kyle Lewis and drummer Bobby Hufnell — who usually embrace structured and traditional heavy rock songwriting as a central part of their creative ethos. “Sodapop Glacier” is qualitatively ‘something different’ in that it’s directly engaging with ambience and drone meditation in a way that Book of Wyrms never have before.
The result is deeply psychedelic. A mantra of a riff arrives about halfway through the “short” version and the 15-minute version of “Sodapop Glacier” and that feels like a central ground to be touch on as the outward ooze of done and low-key rhythm holds — there are bands in other parts of the world wearing robes and making whole careers out of sounding a lot like this — but it’s a gorgeous procession one way or the other. Also noted below, this is the first time Book of Wyrms have done their own cover art. One sincerely hopes it isn’t the last.
No, Book of Wyrms aren’t the first usually-verse/chorus band to trip out, but they do it remarkably well and in a way that follows their own rules rather than those of drone as a genre, and that makes it all the more easier to appreciate. Maybe it’s a one-off, or maybe their next record will have something working off similar impulses — Occult New Age, which you can stream near the bottom of this post, has the eight-minute “Hollergoblin” with a goodly bit of jamming, so “Sodapop Glacier” isn’t completely out of the blue (and pink and green and orange, all melting together) — but either way it’s an example of a band being willing to try out a new way of working in sound and in addition to respecting that in theory, the reality of the piece itself is gorgeously hypnotic. And I can hear some of the Indian folk influence Lindsey is talking about — there’s a part that sounds like sunrise; you’ll hear it — but he’s right in pointing out that, indeed, it’s not a raga.
Track is out on Wednesday but you can stream it below, followed by the aforementioned quote.
Please enjoy:
Jay Lindsey on “Sodapop Glacier”:
We wanted to do something totally different. We kind of specialize in LPs of very planned songs, so this was pretty much the exact opposite. By myself on a rainy day over the summer and feeling inspired by the weather, I just started playing bass over a drone for a few hours while it rained and thundered. The melodies and phrases were heavily inspired by Northern Indian monsoon ragas (which I listen to a lot during the late spring and summer), but I don’t want anyone to think it’s an authentic interpretation of that rich tradition.
I picked my favorite sections and cut out the rest, and then went back through and built drones and synths to accompany the bass. We brought those tracks to Absolute Future Studio and Bobby added drums and Kyle added guitar. It was very spontaneous for them – they just sort of showed up and played along. Bobby doesn’t usually play to a click without the rest of the band tracking, and Kyle doesn’t use a Telecaster, so that was another element of trying something new. The song was originally 18 minutes long, which is both a sacred number in Judaism and 6+6+6, but we cut it shorter for release (a longer version is available as a bonus track with the single).
It’s also the first time we did the cover art ourselves. We wanted this to be a really different and idiosyncratic effort from us – it’s a collage of some outer space photos and an old painting of a Lord Dunsany story. The song doesn’t tell a story, but it’s supposed to capture the feeling of relief and drama of watching a storm coming in during the hottest part of the day and just violently cooling everything off. You can feel the energy exchanging through the air and it’s both sublimely relaxing and crushingly powerful. You can smell it coming, and you can almost feel the plants and trees opening themselves to the storm. I guess you could call it a prayer or meditation on nature. Thank you for listening and we hope it takes you somewhere cool.
Virginia stoner metal band BOOK OF WYRMS will release their instrumental single “Sodapop Glacier” on October 26th via Desert Records. The song will be available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.
Book of Wyrms are: Bobby Hufnell – Drums and Percussion Sarah Moore Lindsey – Vocals/ Synthesizer Jay “Jake” Lindsey – Bass/ Synthesizer Kyle Lewis – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 14th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Good bill here. I assure you, I’m just about the last person you want to ask concerning anything to do with craft beer — even when I drank I was never that cool — but band-wise, you’ve got a lineup for Doom and Brews III that spans a decent portion of the Eastern Seaboard from the Mid-Atlantic up into New England and beyond. Indianapolis’ Void King will travel the farthest, while Yatra, from Maryland, and Book of Wyrms, from Richmond, Virginia, are set to headline, and alongisde Connecticut natives Curse the Son, Pinto Graham, Afghan Haze, Entierro, Bone Church and Mourn the Light, Clamfight, Thunderbird Divine, The Age of Truth and Almost Honest will be up from PA and Mother Iron Horse and Conclave come south from Massachusetts. Mark it a win.
Goes without saying that everything in existence is tentative, but here’s hoping this one happens. If you’ve been sitting on tickets for the affiliated New England Stoner & Doom Fest 3, you get in free here as well, so, you know, bonus.
Tickets on sale Aug. 6. Here’s info:
SCENE PRODUCTIONS and SALT OF THE EARTH RECORDS are extremely excited to announce the full lineup for DOOM & BREWS III
Altones Music Hall (Jewett City, CT)
November 12 & 13 marks the return of the infamous New England tradition DOOM & BREWS, a gathering of heavy riffs and amazing craft beers… this is an event not to be missed!
2 Days of some of the Best Doom bands in the Northeast & some of the Best Beer New England has to offer!
ATTENTION NESDF3 TICKETHOLDERS!!!!!!
If you purchased tickets to NESDF3 before 2021, you will be on guest list at the door as a thank you for your support and patience.
LINEUP: Friday, Nov. 12: Yatra, Bone Church, Mother Iron Horse, Entierro, Thunderbird Divine, Mourn the Light, Almost Honest
Saturday, Nov. 13: Book of Wyrms, Curse the Son, Conclave, Clamfight, The Age of Truth, Void King, Pinto Graham, Afghan Haze
Posted in audiObelisk on April 2nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Richmond, Virginia, boogie doomers Book of Wyrms release their third long-player and Desert Records label debut, Occult New Age, on May 7. The announcement of the album first came down nearly a year ago, but like everybody’s everything, the four-piece’s recording plans were subject to the ravages of global pandemic. No shock that social distancing can make something like getting together to record a little bit harder.
Occult New Age surfaces now as a clean eight-song/41-minute album in the classic vinyl-minded structure of same. Four songs on each side, and the longest of them, “Hollergoblin,” rounds out side A instead of side B, perhaps in some measure of capitulation to modern attention spans. Or maybe just to give the classic metal that ensues on Occult New Age‘s back half — following the slower rolling “Keinehora,” anyhow — its due. Fair enough, in any case. As with 2019’s Remythologizer (review here) and 2017’s debut, Sci-Fi/Fantasy (review here), the band showcase a range of psychedelic and doomly shifts. Unlike their prior two LPs, however, this one was made as a four-piece, with guitarist Kyle Lewis on board for the recording process for the first time alongside vocalist/synthesist Sarah Moore Lindsey, bassist/synthesist Jay “Jake” Lindsey and drummer Chris DeHaven.
Lewis has been listed as a band member all along, so maybe he just didn’t take part in the recordings for whatever reason, but his presence certainly does nothing to hurt the fullness of tone the band present. Opener “Meteoric Dagger” starts off warm and sleek in its boogie with Sarah‘s vocals working easy in third-record realization over the guitar, drums casual but not lazy in their swing behind. Call it classic if you want because it’s ’70s-derived, but there’s nothing all that retro about it, and the spacey shred that leads to a tempo rollback, if anything, is more ’00s stoner than it is ’70s heavy.
It’s a winner in any case, and a stirring reminder that it was fuzz aficionados Twin Earth Records who first brought the band to daylight. The Sabbath-circa-’74 vibe in Lewis‘ tone on “Colossal Yield” is likewise righteous, and it leads to the quiet, folky interlude “Aubrionlilly” ahead of the aforementioned “Hollergoblin,” a hypnotic two minutes that fades to the silence from whence the side A closer emerges, rumbling, receding, surging and finally running as all-out as the band gets — a satisfying push that in any number of other instances would and could close an album, right unto the synth swapout in the last second. Obviously, it serves its purpose here with nothing more to be desired.
Cymbal wash from DeHaven and a far-back vocal start “Keinehora,” its title derived from the Yiddish words for “no evil eye.” If we’re warding off foul spells and the like, the aura Book of Wyrms set is suitable for doing so, and they unfurl the track en route to flashes of double-kick with patience befitting a group who’ve made the most of opportunities to grow in just the four years since their debut. The riff that launches “Speedball Sorcerer” and the layered interplay that follows is a clarion for what follows there and in the subsequent two tracks — it classic metal of doom.
Flourish of organ adds distinction, but it’s the largesse of the chorus — cymbal crash and churning riff — that make it even more of a standout, at least until about three minutes in when the organ takes the lead. Four minutes well spent (I hope you’ll agree), and it does serve as an entry to the closing salvo, with “Weatherworker” chugging its way into a later melodic ether and the low-end fuzz of “Dracula Prectice” ceding command only when the guitars have swelled to encompass it and the vocals.
The hits at the end and groove they ride out feels organic in purpose, and they don’t overdo it either, jamming their way through into a smoother section of organ and maybe-slide (?) undulations, some more double-kick for emphasis, and a final comedown, purposefully understating the finish after the apex. Legit for a band who’ve clearly focused on bringing more ambience and mood to their approach over time, and after the explorations of Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Remythologizer, they demonstrate a melodic and atmospheric scope that is aware of aesthetic tenets and plays to them well while succeeding in marking out its own stakes of songcraft and performance. Were you to see the band on stage, you might say, “Hey, cool riffs,” but that really wouldn’t begin to cover it. Though yeah, that too, for sure.
You can check out “Speedball Sorcerer” premiering on the player below, followed by some brief comment from the band, preorder link, etc.
Please enjoy:
Book of Wyrms on “Speedball Sorcerer”:
“We are stoked to let everyone hear the fuzzed out boogie of Speedball Sorcerer! This features our friend LJ Rafalko on organ and is about bees. Hope y’all dig.”
Book of Wyrms are back with more out of this world psychedelic metal! The band is set to release their 3rd full-length album, “Occult New Age”, May 7, 2021. With a foundation built on groovy riffs, memorable hooks, and ethereal vocals, the new album contains 8 tracks of energetic and classically catchy metal.
Occult New Age really does mark a new age for the band. Recording for the first time as a four-piece gave the band space to stretch out a little bit and fill the spectrum with big textures and proggy riffs, but their years playing together gives them focus to keep things tight and scatter hooks among the chaos.
Formed in 2014, Book of Wyrms came together to forage strange ingredients for their sonic pot, balancing airy vocals over heavy sludge, cloaking progressive melodies in fuzz, and dropping surprise boogies under retrofuturist synths (people always ask if it’s a theremin). Whenever they could, the band packed into their shiny starcraft to play dive bars and doom fests from New England to Chicago to Texas, leaving a trail of freaked-out squares and demolished tacos in their wake.
Book of Wyrms are: Chris DeHaven – Drums and Percussion Sarah Moore Lindsey – Vocals/ Synthesizer Jay “Jake” Lindsey – Bass/ Synthesizer Kyle Lewis – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The aptly-named desert-dwelling imprint Desert Records continues to build its roster with the addition of Richmond, Virginia, tonebringers Book of Wyrms. The four-piece currently have two full-lengths under their collective belt in last year’s Remythologizer (review here) and 2017’s preceding Sci-Fi/Fantasy (review here), and in addition to the signing, the band announce their intention to hit the studio for a third LP, to be titled Occult/New Age, presumably as soon as conditions allow. Here’s what they had to say:
“We are so stoked and honored to work with Bradley Frye and Desert Records on our upcoming third album, Occult/New Age, to be recorded hopefully this summer or fall!”
The two earlier releases came out through Twin Earth Records and Stoner With Records in the case of the latter, and the band also followed up Remythologizer with the single “Spirit Drifter” in 2019, which of course you can hear on the Bandcamp player below,, following more bio-type info from, of course, the PR wire.
Kudos to the band and label, and here’s looking forward to new stuff to come:
Book of Wyrms is a four-piece heavy metal band with extensive experience jamming in outer space. In 2014 they came together over their mutual adoration of Hawkwind and ZZ Top and then put out a demo in early 2015. It got some positive attention and helped them find their label, Twin Earth Records.
On New Year’s Day, 2017, Americans everywhere stumbled out of each other’s beds to the surprise release of Book of Wyrms’ first full-length, Sci-Fi/Fantasy. The record received even more positive attention and helped the band get shows around the East Coast, New England, the South, and the Midwest. Their second full-length, Remythologizer, came out in August 2019 on tape, cd, and vinyl.
Members: Sarah Moore-Lindsey: Vocals and synthesizers Kyle Lewis: Guitar Chris DeHaven: Drums Jay “Jake” Lindsey: Bass
