Dozer‘s new rare-tracks compilation, Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides, is at least 25 years in the making. Released this week on Blues Funeral Recordings, it is in-part an accounting for the band’s earliest work, a succession of pre-first-album demos and three splits with Demon Cleaner — whose drummer, Karl Daniel Lidén, would remain an essential component of Dozer‘s story through the years, from recording and playing drums for a time up to remastering this material — and a cataloguing of off-album material. The tracklisting is varied in its origins and — with thanks to founding Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa — appears with the sources below. So far as I know, this information hasn’t been released yet elsewhere:

Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides tracklisting (w/ source)

1. Tanglefoot (Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer split, 1998)
2. Hail the Dude (Domestic Dudes split w/ Demon Cleaner, 1999)
3. Centerline (Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer split, 1998)
4. Southern Star (bonus track on Call it Conspiracy vinyl)
5. The Electrocuter (B-side on the Day of the Rope 7”, 2002)
6. Universe 75 (Unreleased early demo)
7. Serpents Head (2011 reissue bonus track for In the Tail of a Comet)
8. Rings of Saturn (LP-only bonus for Madre de Dios)
9. She (Graven Images, Misfits tribute CD, 2000)
10. Mammoth Mountain (Nerve Compilation CD with local Borlänge bands, 1997)
11. Silverball (Hawaiian Cottage split w/ Demon Cleaner, 1999)
12. Star by Star (Split 7” with Giants of Science released in Australia when we toured there in 2004, also B-side on the “Rising” cd single)
13. Season of Giants (Unreleased early demo)
14. Vinegar Fly (Sunride cover from Vultures session, c. 2004)
15. Two Ton Butterfly (Unreleased early demo)

The three demos — “Universe 75,” “Season of Giants” and “Two Ton Butterfly” — either come from 1998’s Universe 75 demo tape (discussed here) or concurrent recordings. The band sound like kids because they were. The material from the three Demon Cleaner splits — 1998’s Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer (discussed here), 1999’s Hawaiian Cottage (discussed here) and 1999’s Domestic Dudes (discussed here) — is just one step removed from those rougher sessions, and for those more familiar with their later work or who got on board with 2023’s righteous reunion offering, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), might be surprising in its desert-rocking style, but Kyuss was a defining influence for a lot of bands at this point, and “Season of Giants” and “Two Ton Butterfly” bear that out, the latter like a specific attempt to capture some of the same energy of Kyuss‘ “Rodeo,” with its explosive volume trades and resultant grooveriding.

Compare that to “Star by Star” from a 2004 split or the depressive-lyric Sunride cover “Vinegar Fly,” which was previously a bonus track on the 2021 reissue (discussed here) of the Vultures EP (review here), originally released in 2013 and recorded with Lidén drumming in 2004-’05 as preproduction for 2005’s Through the Eyes of Heathens (featured here; discussed here), and there’s a notable shift in both the band’s style and the impact-mindedness of the recording. That is to say the band’s sound grew between the time they were appearing on a compilation of local bands from their hometown of Borlänge with “Mammoth Mountain,” which is the earliest and jammiest track on Rewind to Return, from 1997 — they sound like babies because they were — and their refined and somewhat more aggressively charged sound that came to the fore on their 2002 third album, Call it Conspiracy (featured here, discussed here).

Dozer represent all three of their first LPs on Rewind to Return, each with a bonus track. In the case of “Rings of Saturn,” which originally appeared on the vinyl of their 2001 second album, Madre de Dios (featured here), that’s a hook worthy of its position as the centerpiece, but part of the story Dozer are telling as they look back is how they figured out who they were as a band over the course of those first seven or eight years. Holappa and fellow founding guitarist Fredrik Nordin, whose voidbound melodic callout vocals are refined in realtime across “Serpents Head,” “Rings of Saturn” and the roughly concurrent Misfits cover “She,” have proven over time to be at the core of the group, but Lidén‘s work remastering highlights just how heavy Dozer were early on in a way that the original releases never could.

To wit, the tonal beef wrought by “Tanglefoot” and “Hail the Dude” at the outset. These songs, both from Demon Cleaner splits (this being a Dozer review, I’m not going to tell you to go back and listen to Demon Cleaner, but yes, do that), are treasures for longtime fans of the band. Whether you were with them from the start and have those 7″s because you’re Johnny Groundfloor and that’s just how you do, or you came along later and have been subject to someone on YouTube’s digital rip of the vinyl, hearing the fullness of the new masters, they sound new again, and the janga-janga push of “Hail the Dude” — if 1999 could be a riff, it’d be that riff — sounds fresh enough that if you told me it was a new band, I’d be like, “Wow that’s amazing, they sound just like Dozer,” because in any era, Dozer are unmisfugginstakable.

That might be the ultimate lesson of Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides — that Dozer‘s progression defines their tenure; it’s a thesis worth exploring — and as a fan of the band who’s been whining loudly for years to have their early works compiled and released (that’s right folks, I’m taking credit for the whole thing; it was me; you’re welcome), these versions of these songs remind listeners new or old of the path Dozer took to becoming one of their generation’s defining heavy rock bands. I’ll note that it’s not complete. This may be where they blow up the Death Star, but it’s not the whole story. It’s not everything, laid out with the dry procession of ‘this was on this single,’ ‘this was recorded on this afternoon at this time after we had tacos,’ etc. that one might find on a more academically-minded offering, but the thing about the story being told is that it also isn’t complete, and there are more years in addition to more songs.

I don’t know that Rewind to Return will get a follow-up or it won’t, but it could. And whether it’s taken on for nostalgia or the curiosity of newer fans, as a historical document from one of the finest rock bands Sweden ever produced or a casual saunter through part of a footnote portion of Dozer‘s catalog, the songs hold up to the span of years and the weight of expectation, and it’s not hard to hear what would’ve been so exciting about a new band coming out of the gate with these sounds. It still is.

Dozer, “Rings of Saturn” visualizer

Dozer website

Dozer on Instagram

Dozer on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Swedish heavy rockers Greenleaf have spent a decent portion of this year in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut EP (discussed here), and that indeed is a worthy cause. Looking back on that outing, its simple, organic nature is perfectly suited to nostalgia; it was something of a nostalgic sound to begin with. Something influenced by classics becoming classic. The march of generations, and such.

But of course, Greenleaf have more to offer than looking back. Their 2024 album, The Head and the Habit (review here), was supported by tours last Fall and this Spring, and the band will continue on in November, hitting the road for club dates in the post-fall-fest style. The tour runs nine days in Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain, which isn’t the most expansive run they’ve ever undertaken, but covers a decent amount of ground in the time allotted.

If you’ve never seen Greenleaf, hot they do the thing onstage is a big part of why I think of them as one of the best rock bands in the world. I’ve had the good fortune a few times at this point, and if you’re in their path, either for this tour or at any point, consider yourself lucky.

From Sound of Liberation on socials:

⚡️GREENLEAF – EUROPEAN TOUR 2025⚡️

Swedish stoner rock heavyweights Greenleaf are returning to the road this November, bringing their signature mix of thunderous riffs, fuzz-drenched grooves, and unstoppable live energy to clubs across Europe! 💥

Expect a wild ride of pure rock power – loud, heavy, and straight from the heart. Don’t sleep on this!

Here are the full tour dates:
21.11.2025 (DE) München, Feierwerk
22.11.2025 (CH) Aarau, Kiff
23.11.2025 (FR) Lyon, Rock’n Eat
24.11.2025 (FR) Toulouse, Rex
25.11.2025 (SP) Barcelona, Upload
26.11.2025 (SP) Madrid, Bolte
28.11.2025 (FR) Marseille, Molotov
29.11.2025 (CH) Martigny, Caves Du Manoir
30.11.2025 (FR) Colmar

Don’t miss this powerhouse live experience – tickets available now! 🎟️

GREENLEAF is:
Arvid Hällagård – vocals
Tommi Holappa – guitars
Sebastian Olsson – drums
Hans Fröhlich – bass

https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/greenleafband/
www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords

Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit (2024)

What was originally the vinyl-only bonus track of Dozer‘s Man’s Ruin-issued second album, 2001’s Madre de Dios (featured here), “Rings of Saturn” heralds a new rare-tracks compilation from the long-running Swedish heavy rockers. I don’t know what eras of the band this covers, but I promise you this isn’t something I knew was coming when I did that succession of closing out three weeks with Dozer‘s early split singles with Demon Cleaner (discussed here, here, and here) at the end of last month into this one. Rewind to Return will be a double-LP, and there’s certainly plenty of other off-album releases Dozer could pull from.

A bonus track, for example. It had been a while since I heard “Rings of Saturn,” which was long enough to forget the killer groove that the youngins lock in for the second half of the song. If you know the record, it’s got the same turn-of-the-century buzz in the tones, and there’s a visualizer up for it that you can check out at the bottom of this post.

Coincident to the release is a return for tour dates on the US West Coast. As with Domkraft, this will likely be on the same artist visa — these considerations are existential on financial terms for a band who want to travel — they got to play Desertfest New York 2024 (review here), and the underlying message there is buy lots of merch because they invested a shit-load of money into putting themselves in the US at all. They’ll be out with Abrams and Moon Destroys, the latter of whom just wrapped a run with Elder and Sacri Monti as well.

Here’s word from the PR wire:

Stoner rock legends DOZER to release “Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides” double album on Blues Funeral Recordings; US summer tour announced

In celebration of their 30th anniversary, Sweden’s godfathers of stoner rock DOZER announce the special release of the “Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides” double album on August 1st via Blues Funeral Recordings and share a first excerpt with “Rings of Saturn”. Don’t miss them on their upcoming European and US shows!

Crank Rings Of Saturn here: https://tinyurl.com/c27s99xa

Formed in 1995 in the town of Borlänge, Sweden, DOZER led the earliest wave of stoner/desert rock, a fusion of proto-metal, riff-rock and punk that blasted forth from Scandinavia and Europe in response to the tectonic heft and sun-baked fuzz of American bands Kyuss and Fu Manchu.

30 years on, DOZER are heralded as undisputed forerunners of a movement and champions of volcanic energy. Their status was affirmed in 2023 with the release of the landmark Drifting in the Endless Void, an amp-splitting return that dominated best-of lists and turntables, which Distorted Sound called, “a perfectly executed stoner album and then some” and was dubbed “an outstanding comeback” by Hellfire and “a magnetic fireball of propulsive hooks and cosmic majesty” by Decibel. This renewed dominance led to DOZER’s first US tour in 20 years and set the stage for their three-decade milestone in 2025.

DOZER have always been prolific. Driven by take-no-prisoners energy, they’d hit the studio often, laying down songs in rapid-fire batches with little concern for schedules and album planning, and their early days saw the band self-release a multitude of small-run 7-inch singles that tapped into their DIY leanings and allowed forward momentum at maximum velocity. More songs surfaced on compilations and as limited-release b-sides, while others went into the proverbial vault.

In celebration of their 30th anniversary, DOZER enthusiastically present Rewind to Return, a double album of singles, rare tracks and b-sides from across their prolific history. Neither a chronological document nor a comprehensive collection of every non-album track, this is a carefully considered selection of the band’s favorites, chosen for their meaning and impact, brilliantly remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén and assembled to create the best possible record to commemorate DOZER’s vast catalog and untouchable legacy.

DOZER “Rewind to Return: Rarities, Singles and B-Sides”
Out August 1st on Blues Funeral Recordings (2xLP/CD/digital)
Preorder on BFR website: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/
Bandcamp: https://dozerofficial.bandcamp.com/album/rewind-to-return-rarities-singles-and-b-sides
European store: https://en.bluesfuneral.spkr.media/

TRACKLIST:
1. Tanglefoot
2. Hail The Dude
3. Centerline
4. Southern Star
5. The Electrocuter
6. Universe 75
7. Serpent’s Head
8. Rings Of Saturn
9. She
10. Mammoth Mountain
11. Silverball
12. Star By Star
13. Season of Giants
14 Vinegar Fly
15. 2 Ton Butterfly

DOZER further underscore three decades at the forefront of the scene with a handful of European dates in 2025, along with a live return to the US this summer, embarking on a West Coast tour with spectacular up-and-comers ABRAMS and MOON DESTROYS supporting the monumental run.

European festival dates
May 3 – Izegem, Belgium @ Headbanger’s Balls Fest
May 23 – Berlin, Germany @ DesertFest Berlin
October 17 – Thessaloniki, Greece @ Eightball Club
October 18 – Athens, Greece @ Arch Club
Nov 14-15 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Fuzz Festival

Return to the Endless Void US Tour 2025 (with Abrams and Moon Destroys)
August 7 – Las Vegas NV @ The Swan Dive
August 8 – Los Angeles CA @ Lodge Room
August 9 – San Diego CA @ Brick By Brick
August 10 – Palmdale CA @ Transplants Brewing
August 12 – San Francisco CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
August 13 – Eureka CA @ Savage Henry Comedy Club
August 14 – Eugene OR @ John Henry’s
August 15 – Portland OR @ Dante’s
August 16 – Vancouver BC @ Rickshaw
August 17 – Seattle WA @ Substation

DOZER is:
Tommi Holappa – Guitar
Fredrik Nordin – Guitar/Vox
Johan Rockner – Bass
Sebastian Olsson – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/dozerband
https://www.instagram.com/dozer_band/
https://www.dozermusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Dozer, “Rings of Saturn” visualizer

Dozer, Drifting in the Endless Void (2023)

Like their two preceding shared releases — 1998’s Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer (discussed here) and 1999’s follow-up Hawaiian Cottage (discussed here) — the split 7″ Domestic Dudes was released through Molten Universe, the label helmed by Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa. And because it’s the last of the three, it’s easy enough to think of these four songs and 13 minutes as a springboard that sent both of these outfits toward releasing their debut full-lengths in 2000 — that’s Dozer‘s In the Tail of a Comet (featured here, discussed here) and Demon Cleaner‘s The Freeflight (discussed here); note that Lowrider also had their first album and Greenleaf, who pulled members and guests from all three bands, had their first EP in 2000; good living in Sweden at the turn of the century (also now) — and sure enough, there are easy-enough-in-hindsight arguments to be made that that’s what’s happening.

I’m not sure there’s actually such a thing as being ‘ready’ to make an album, since plenty of great ones have been put out by people who obviously weren’t ‘ready’ in any convential sense for what would result. It’s a cliché that rock critics throw out there — myself included (at least in the cliché part; I’m not sure I count as a critic anymore) — as a way of saying, “I think this band could make a record I’d think is cool,” and since it’s generally intended as a compliment and is kind of milquetoast, nobody really blinks. Fine.

By the same token, to listen to Demon Cleaner‘s “Taurus” and “45” and Dozer‘s “Octanoid” and “Hail the Dude,” even in comparison to the work they were doing just a year earlier in 1999, I think you can hear a progression of sound and purpose that helped solidify their respective identities going into their 2000 LPs. Neither of these Demon Cleaner tracks would show up on The Freeflight or the band’s subsequent 2002 self-titled swansong, but they’re for sure on the trajectory of where that album was coming from, loosely grooving and plenty brash in the buzz of “45,” taking the desert roll of “Taurus” and the little bit of a jam they throw into the solo section and paring it back to the most essential components, then setting it to run.

Kyuss still very much is a defining influence — for both bands at this stage, really — but by the end of “45,” Demon Cleaner gave a picture of where they were headed, and given the limitations of the 7″ format they were working in for what was either intended as a series from the start or just became one as they went on, the fact that they manage to give a dynamic expression of their sound in just six minutes and two well-paired tracks speaks to how generally underrated Demon Cleaner‘s work is to begin with. That whole stopped-after-the-second-record thing probably has something to do with that. Bottom line though, Demon Cleaner were onto something here, and though they wouldn’t be a band anymore by the time five years passed after Domestic Dudes came out, they did manage to realize at least some of the potential they showed in these three nascent splits.

“Octanoid,” with its standout pottymouth chorus and the emergent distinctive throaty swagger of guitarist Fredrik Nordin, will be recognizable from Dozer‘s second album, 2001’s Madre de Dios (featured here), and I don’t know that “Hail the Dude” is or isn’t about The Big Lebowski, but it’s possible, as that film was also released in 1999. In any case, with a howl of guitar after the drum count-in and a steady stoner-rock-when-it-was-stoner-rock-now-we-call-it-classic janga-janga in the verse, “Hail the Dude” is exactly the kind ‘lost’ track that has for years been begging to show up on a compilation release of some sort, but I’ve harped on that enough these last couple weeks, and the songs themselves make the argument better than I could anyhow.

I’d be curious to know if Dozer and Demon Cleaner — and you’ll notice that they’ve switched back to Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer on the cover art; for Hawaiian Cottage, Dozer had top billing — went into Domestic Dudes knowing it was the last of three, or if there was no plan to start with, or what, because there’s such a palpable sense in listening to it of both acts being all in. On the first split, they’re beginning to get a sense of who they are, but by the third, Demon Cleaner have a firm grip on their intent in “Taurus” and “45,” and while Dozer would move past the desert-fuzzed style after their second record and find a more individualized take, at times aggressive, at times spacious, and still evolving these many years later, their 2023 comeback, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), boasting a richer sprawl after a 15-year studio absence.

But you knew that, so right on. I know these guys are plenty busy. As previously noted, Demon Cleaner‘s drummer was Karl Daniel Lidén, who not only would go on to play in Dozer and Greenleaf, but would record those bands as well as countless others, his work as producer having no less of an impact on the shape of Swedish heavy across a generation than his contributions as a musician. He continues to produce and/or mix killer records — had a hand in High Desert Queen‘s album last year, which ruled — and this clique of players, from Dozer to Greenleaf, Demon Cleaner, Lowrider, probably a couple others from around then, still exists in terms of collaborating with each other and the friendships that these three platters helped solidify.

And it would just be the bloggiest thing ever for me to tell you that those friendships are what’s most important, that it’s the sense of community and support in the heavy underground that makes it so special in a world that’s come to be defined largely by its cruelties and isolation. All true. But while I’m glad at least some of the relationships here continue on to this day, because it’s nice to have friends or so I’m told, that has little to do with the actual listening experience. As far as a takeaway from the third of the trilogy: understand that Domestic Dudes isn’t really the finish, but barely the beginning of what either of these acts would accomplish. They’re still young, hungry, and yes, both bands also sound ready on whatever level one might think of to take the next step. Obviously they were about to do exactly that.

As always, I hope you enjoy, and I hope you’ve enjoyed all three of these over the last couple weeks. I’ve wanted to write about these forever and it was a lot of fun to dig in. Maybe some day they’ll make a fourth. You never know.

—

Rough week. I’ll be honest, my head’s been elsewhere pretty much since Wednesday. The Pecan’s having trouble at school. She went after a para at lunch who pulled her away from getting into it with another kid, and we had to go pick her up yesterday early. It sucked. The Patient Mrs. and I were an hour away when we got the call, trying to chase down a check so she can buy a car that ended up taking us to a credit union on the campus of (wait for it) West Point, which was surreal even before you get to the gummy I’d eaten. But yeah, that was a long-ass, quiet drive back from West Point to the school. Gut-wrenching.

You feel terrible for the kid. It’s not like she doesn’t know what she’s doing is wrong, she just can’t stop it. She gets overwhelmed and lashes out. The para touched her. I’m sure the kid was doing some goofy shit or calling her names or whatever — there’s a whole set of boys in her class she’s having trouble with the last few weeks and it’s turned her world to shit — but she apparently went after him and then the para and there you go. That was a shitty pickup to live through.

We kept her home today. She’s in the bedroom watching Mark Rober — a new obsession, at least a decent portion of it is science — and will likely be there until hunger makes it untenable. The Patient Mrs. is home today too and the sun looks like it’s daring to come out, so leaving the house might happen at some point. That would probably be advisable, anyhow.

But the kid had a great weekend last weekend, including Monday off, which we spent all day at the arcade at the mall. We even played Super Smash Bros. for N64, which felt like a parenting achievement I didn’t know I’d been waiting for for years, and she got into it deep on some skeeball like the Jersey girl she is, and had a ton of fun. We saw family and family friends and she’d had a decent day last Friday enough that we didn’t get a call and so I thought going into Tuesday maybe upping her meds had helped. Not so much.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were each a wreck and so here we are Friday.

This isn’t our first time in this position as parents. Honestly, after the rough start to kindergarten last year, which was a fucking trauma, I was hoping we were done. Now I’m wondering if this is how it’s going to be and if so, if that’s where we are, how we’re going to move forward. Not only getting her back in school as soon as possible, where she belongs by any measure, but what can be put in place so that the escalation of the last couple weeks stops before somebody gets hurt.

It’s fucking difficult. It’s been a difficult week, and absolutely, I’ve been distracted from what’s going on around here. There’s been a lot of cool shit though, it was a good week. I’m doing my best to keep my head in it, and as usual The Obelisk is a bit of therapy for my brain, even if I’ve come to spend more time complaining about the back-end work of running the site than I used to.

Next week is a Quarterly Review. I’ll start working on it tomorrow. It’s seven days, and then after that I’m going to Roadburn and then I’m taking like a day off after that and that’s basically April. I’ve got premieres set up through the end of the month after the QR and fest coverage, and then we’re into May. It’ll be 2028 before I know it. Shit, she’ll be in fourth grade. That’s almost middle school.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, watch your head, try and have some fun. Things are hard. Take your moments where and when you can, and if you need to breathe, breathe. Thanks as always for reading.

FRM.

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I never had to make my own playlist for one of these posts before, but the second of three Dozer and Demon Cleaner demo-type split 7″s, 1998’s Hawaiian Cottage, wasn’t immediately available all together, and the Demon Cleaner tracks included above — “Heading Home” and “Megawheel” — are taken from the Swedish band’s debut album, The Freeflight (discussed here), as my admittedly limited chase-down skills couldn’t find the single’s recordings streaming anywhere. I own this one — not bragging; it was a valued gift from an even more valued friend – but don’t have a way to transfer. If I hear one complaint about it in the comments, I’ll be surprised, but I felt compelled to mention it just the same.

So, we pick up where we left off last time with the Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer split (discussed here), to which Hawaiian Cottage made a quick-turnaround follow-up, releasing the same year. And like both of Demon Cleaner‘s tracks, which I was happy to find at all, some of what Dozer included here wound up on their own Y2K-issued first album, In the Tail of a Comet (featured here, discussed here), namely the ultra-recognizable, ultra-catchy “Riding the Machine.”

Dozer take top billing this time, so that on the cover it’s Dozer vs. Demon Cleaner — whatever rivalry aspect there may have been between these two bands at the time, they were already friends and collaborators; the ‘vs.’ no doubt comes from the epic battles they all undertook as teenagers playing Street Fighter II. At least that’s the narrative I’ve given it. On Hawaiian Cottage, already one can hear how much the two outfits were growing together, each feeling their way through their desert rock influences while setting themselves on the path to being the bands they’d become during their respective times together, Dozer‘s obviously ongoing. I’m reasonably sure both bands at this point where recording with Bengt Bäcke, who also served as the longtime bassist of affiliated outfit Greenleaf, so how much they’re on the same page here shouldn’t really be a shock.

And an early take on “Riding the Machine,” which would not only feature on Dozer‘s LP but was a highlight of it, is nothing to sneeze at here. Its sound is rawer obviously than the ‘finished’ one, and it comes accompanied by “Silverball,” which didn’t make the record but actually does a lot of work in conveying the intensity that would emerge over time in Dozer‘s sound. As much as their later work, whether it’s 2023’s Drifting in the Endless Void (review here) or 2008’s Beyond Colossal (featured here, discussed here, 2009 interview here), took on a dynamic, atmospheric and immersive sound, the thrust so plainly audible in “Silverball” very much remains a part of what Dozer do. It’s just the fuzzed-out baby version of the thing, which also happens to be awesome.

“Heading Home” begins Demon Cleaner‘s B-side, followed by the does-for-Fu–Manchu-what-Dozer-does-for-Kyuss “Megawheel,” the hook of which makes a fitting complement to “Riding the Machine” as they wrap up the split. Starting off with fuzzy, languid wah, it is pure turn-of-the-century stoner rock bliss, cool in the vocal delivery with a bit of shaker in the groove, then the surge of distortion with the vocals cutting through as they hit into the chorus. Smooth, well executed, bare-bones structurally, but it should be. It’s a demo made by 20 year olds who just happened to have a label — Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa‘s Molten Universe, which also put out The Freeflight — and the capacity to press it up well in advance of the vinyl revival kicking off in earnest.

The repeated lines, “I am slowing down/I am heading home’ in the push of the second half of “Heading Home” give over to a somewhat understated lead and a tempo kick as they decide to tear into it at the end, and “Megawheel” rolls out (get it?) on suitably farty low end and righteous buzz. No disrespect to Dozer, who show up big to be sure, but if it’s a contest of which hook is going to be stuck in your head all day, “Megawheel” is a tough one to get away from.

It is declarative in its stomp but doesn’t stay put as it jumps into the first bridge and stops with a couple hits of cowbell to work back in. The fuzz is warm and there’s plenty for everybody, and where there are times over the course of their two LPs — the second of which was self-titled and issued in 2002; it hasn’t closed a week yet in this fashion but will at some point I’m sure; I keep a list — where they get caught up in the charge and end up more punkish than, say, their side A counterparts on this outing, even when “Megawheel” hits the gas, the sense of control remains firm as they bring it to a head at the finish, a drop-mic moment at the end predating mic drops when it comes down to silence.

There’s a temptation to write a lot into these releases as regards importance-to-genre, and certainly Dozer and Demon Cleaner‘s work warrants that kind of consideration despite the discrepancies between their respective discographies. But the truth of listening, whether you’re putting on your platter that you’ve had since before The Matrix came out and somewhat hilariously codified the 1990s as the peak of civilization, streaming the tracks above or engaging in a little light piracy 27 years after the fact while you wait for the Dozer early-works comp I’ve campaigned for for so long to surface, is so much simpler. It’s not about what Dozer would do over the next decade, or about Demon Cleaner launching the production career of Karl Daniel Lidén, whose work helped directly shape what those of us geographically elsewhere think of as ‘Swedish heavy rock.’ You get that in its quintessential form on this split and its compatriot releases.

But more, it’s about the fact that the bands just went for it. They got in the studio, played the songs, put them out. It’s the joy of creating a thing, of being part of a group creating a thing, of celebrating the sounds you love with your friends. Playing in the truest sense. You can hear all of that on Hawaian Cottage too, and so it seems all the more to capture a special moment in the lifespans of these two acts.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

—

We’ll wrap this informal mini-series next week with 1999’s Domestic Dudes as third of the three. After that, if there’s anyone’s catalog you want to see written up — I did Sabbath at one point last year or the year before, if you’ll recall — I’m open to suggestion if you’d like to leave a comment with one. Kyuss are obvious. Clutch would keep me busy for the rest of the year probably. But I’ve done a fair number of both their records, so that’s a challenge too — stuff where at least most of it hasn’t been already covered. Cathedral would be an interesting one, or Saint Vitus. Colour Haze are one of my favorite bands ever. Might be fun to dig into Chopping Machine or Seven at the start of their catalog.

I just went to change over the load of wash in the basement — speaking of dudely domesticity — and wound up taking a broom to the years’ worth of spider and cobwebs on the ceiling and the walls and everything around the washer and dryer, so let that serve as an indicator of my level of distraction this week. I slept hard last night but woke up at 3AM yesterday morning, so maybe not such a shock, and in terms of quality-of-life, those kinds of days are markedly lower.

Couple that with The Pecan having a harder time in school this week, hitting kids and teachers and yesterday needing to be taken out of an assembly after chasing around a one-armed man wanting to ask him questions about I know not what but I assume his one arm, and a kind of disastrous playdate yesterday where she melted down each time her friend wanted to hang out with the dog — which her friend definitely did, I think in part because my daughter spent so much time losing it — and I upped her meds before sending her in today.

If it wasn’t already a three-day weekend with Monday off, I’d have probably kept her home in an effort to give her a break. As it is, we’ll try and have a quiet-ish day tomorrow while still getting out to do some physical activity — it’s supposed to be nice, so that’ll help — and see where we’re at Sunday and Monday. She’s having issues giving up control of, well, anything, and we fall into arguments of “that’s not your decision” and “you’re not in charge of that” when she starts issuing commands or barking orders. Someday she’ll make an excellent supreme leader of the Terran Empire. Until then, I’d be pretty fucking happy if I could get her out of grade school without her turning the place to rubble.

So yesterday and today kind of become a wait by the phone, which of course helps nothing whether it’s the ambient anxiety of the house or conveying my own disappointing expectations for how things will go. The school’s behaviorist brought me into the office the other day and we sat, The Pecan too, while they talked about everything that’s been going on. It sucked. And they had some plan with some rule sheet that the kid drew up herself or some such — all the therapeutically-designed current things to do to try to get and keep a child on board with the social contract — but she’s burned through so much of that over the years between Early Intervention, OT, DI, speech at home and out, two-and-a-half years of pre-K and Kindergarten that I’m honestly not hopeful anything other than a kick in her dose will see any even medium-term movement in the direction we want. This too is sad. I don’t like drugging my kid. I can’t afford to send her to a school in the woods with a private tutor to teach her mechanical engineering, long division and/or quantum mechanics. If I could, I would. I just want her to be okay and don’t know what to do to help that happen.

In this, as in so many other ways, parenting sucks. She’s got therapy on Monday, which we started for paperwork purposes — insurance stuff, it’s complicated and political so I’m not going to talk about it — and now seems like maybe it’s a good idea to continue.

Am I really gonna leave off on that note? We were doing so well talking about Dozer and Demon Cleaner and here I am with the bumout before I send you packing back to whatever you got distaracted from to read this (hopefully nothing important)?

That’s real life, folks. Sometimes the things that are supposed to make you feel the best make you feel the worst. If that’s harshing a mellow, at least it’s honest. You move on regardless. Another week will come, hopefully better rested and less discouraging. If not, well, Roadburn’s in about two and a half weeks, so a couple days out of my own head are on the horizon, and surely that’s a better place to be as regards the self-talk underlying it all, which grows crueler with the passing of each nervous day.

But if you want something to look forward to, the Lo-Pan album is out next week. I’ll be reviewing that for Monday, I hope. I’ve also got premieres for The Elven, which has Isaiah Mitchell from Earthless involved, as well as Temple Fang and The Summit Fever. So that’s at least two of the best LPs I’ve heard so far in 2025 being written up. Things can’t be that horrible when the music is so good.

Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate.

FRM.

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Even as they get ready to undertake winter and spring tours in celebration of their 2024 album, The Head and the Habit (review here), Sweden’s Greenleaf are taking time to mark the 25th anniversary of the band. Their 2000 self-titled debut EP (discussed here) and 2001 follow-up debut LP, Revolution Rock (discussed here) have been compiled onto what Blues Funeral Recordings is billing as Revolution Rock Deluxe, a jam-packed-with-jams 15-track presentation of Greenleaf‘s earliest work, remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén. It’s about as close to a no-brainer as you can get without actually getting into not having a brain.

The remaster of “Sold My Lady (Out the Back of an Oldsmobile)” — which has always been a better title than a song, but is going to grab attention one way or the other — is streaming at the bottom of this post, along with The Head and the Habit should you want to do a side-by-side of the band Greenleaf were with the band they are now. There’s a lesson about predicting the future in there somewhere.

Info from the PR wire:

Blues Funeral Recordings team up with Swedish heavy rock giants Greenleaf to present “Revolution Rock Deluxe”, a 15-track monster of a record combining their landmark album “Revolution Rock” (featuring members of Dozer, Lowrider, Demon Cleaner) with the long out-of-print 2000 debut EP onto one single package, fully remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén Produktion and adorned with a fresh design by Peder Bergstrand.

⚡️ STREAM newly remastered single “Sold My Lady (Out the Back of An Oldsmobile)”: https://lnkfi.re/soldmylady
📀 PREORDER: https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/album/revolution-rock-deluxe

It will be released on March 28th in limited and worldwide edition 2xLP and digipak CD formats as well as in an extremely limited special deluxe vinyl edition for Blues Funeral’s upcoming PostWax Unlimited subscription series. More info about PostWax Unlimited: bluesfuneral.com/collections/postwax

TRACKLIST:
1. Vat 69
2. Devil Woman
3. Status: Hallucinogenic, Phase II
4. You Got Me High
5. Red Tab
6. The Shipbuilder
7. Electric Ryder
8. Hexagram
9. Monostereowhatever
10. Get Your Love Outta Here
11. Sold My Lady (Out the Back of An Oldsmobile)
12. Kvinna Du Ger Mig Ingen Kärlek
13. Smell the Green
14. Land of Lincoln
15. Status: Hallucinogenic

Led by guitarist Tommi Holappa of European desert rock icons Dozer, Greenleaf began as an informal collective of friends making music inspired by their shared love of ’70s riff rock.

Having transformed into a proper band in 2013, Greenleaf enters 2025 at the forefront of the global heavy scene on the heels of acclaimed latest album The Head & The Habit. Moving into the staggering twenty fifth year of a monumental career, they mark the milestone with a very special reissue of their earliest releases.

Featuring members of Dozer, Lowrider, Demon Cleaner and more, Greenleaf’s first album Revolution Rock was self-released in 2001 and never widely distributed nor repressed since its original 500-copy run. The new Revolution Rock Deluxe combines that landmark album with Greenleaf’s long out-of-print 2000 debut EP onto a single stunning edition, with all songs fully remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén and the original art and design brilliantly refreshed and updated by Lowrider’s Peder Bergstrand.

Join us in celebrating a quarter century of riff majesty with Revolution Rock Deluxe, and experience Greenleaf’s Big Bang for the first time again!

GREENLEAF WINTER & SPRING 2025:

⚡️AUSTRALIA TOUR 2025⚡️:

20.2 Mo’s Desert Club, Gold Coast
21.2 Soapbox, Brisbane**
22.2 Marrickvile, Sydney **
23.2 The Baso, Canberra **
26.2 Tanwells Hotel, Beechworth **
27.2 Medusa, Geelong **
28.2 The Gaso, Melbourne**
1.3 The Cranker, Adelaide**
2.3 Spliffs n Riffs Festival, Perth **
** @iron_blanket

⚡️THE TRICKING TREE TOUR 2025⚡️

28.03.25 (DE) Karlsruhe, SOL Psych Out
29.03.25 (DE) Cologne, SOL Sonic Ride ^
30.03.25 (FR) Wasquehal, The Black Lab *
31.03.25 (FR) Paris, Backstage *
01.04.25 (FR) Nantes, Le Ferrailleur *
03.04.25 (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis * ^
04.04.25 (NL) Eindhoven, Effenaar * ^
05.04.25 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal * ^
* @highdesertqueen
^ @gnomeverse

“Revolution Rock Deluxe” lineup:
Jocke Åslund – Hammond Organ
Bengt Bäcke – Bass, keys
Peder Bergstrand – Vocals, guitar, bass
Tommi Holappa – Guitars, bass
Daniel Lidén – Drums, percussion
Fredrik Nordin – Vocals

GREENLEAF is:
Arvid Hällagård – vocals
Tommi Holappa – guitars
Sebastian Olsson – drums
Hans Fröhlich – bass

www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks
https://www.instagram.com/greenleafband/
https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Greenleaf, Revolution Rock Deluxe (2025)

Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit (2024)

I don’t know if you saw, but in addition to Magnetic Eye recently reissuing most of Greenleaf‘s Small Stone Records era albums — 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (reissue review here) and 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) — the Swedish rockers will also put out a special 25th anniversary edition next year of their self-titled debut EP (discussed here), originally released in 2000 through Tommi Holappa‘s Molten Universe imprint (anybody got a CD copy of the Molten Universe Vol. 1 compilation? I’ve been looking for years), long out of print and the kind of vinyl you see tagged with words like “rare,” priced accordingly.

The band have also just announced Spring 2025 European tour dates as they continue to support this year’s The Head and the Habit (review here), the latest in an ongoing thread of killer full-lengths. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they make the trip over for Ripplefest Texas / Desertfest New York as the closely-associated Dozer did in 2024. Greenleaf spent the bulk of this Fall on the road co-headlining with Slomosa, and as they’ll play both thus-far-announced Sound of Liberation anniversary parties and tour Australia and New Zealand over the winter, it seems only likely that more shows will be forthcoming. In the meantime, this tells us that High Desert Queen (from Austin, Texas) will trek abroad early next Spring, and that Belgium’s Gnome will likely have plenty going on as well.

This is eight shows. It’s eight good ones. Sound of Liberation posted the following:

GREENLEAF – THE TRICKING TREE TOUR 2025

Hey friends,

Greenleaf is hitting the road for The Tricking Tree Tour 2025!🌳🔥

Joining the ride: the mighty High Desert Queen, and on select dates, the epic Gnome!

DATES & CITIES:

28.03.25 (DE) Karlsruhe, SOL Psych Out
29.03.25 (DE) Cologne, SOL Sonic Ride ^
30.03.25 (FR) Wasquehal, The Black Lab *
31.03.25 (FR) Paris, Backstage *
01.04.25 (FR) Nantes, Le Ferrailleur *
03.04.25 (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis * ^
04.04.25 (NL) Eindhoven, Effenaar * ^
05.04.25 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal * ^

* High Desert Queen
^ Gnome

Tickets are flying – don’t miss out!

GREENLEAF is:
Arvid Hällagård – vocals
Tommi Holappa – guitars
Sebastian Olsson – drums
Hans Fröhlich – bass

www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks
https://www.instagram.com/greenleafband/
https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit (2024)

The current incarnation of Greenleaf, pictured above, are getting ready to head out on a Fall tour co-headlining with Slomosa and supported by Magnetic Eye Records labelmates Psychlona. They just put out the new album The Head and the Habit (review here), which is a masterclass in hard-hitting, sans-bullshit heavy rock and blues.

The upcoming reissues of 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (reissue review here) and 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) covers different lineups and the bulk of the Swedish band’s Small Stone Records era, which capped with 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here), at which point vocalist Arvid Hällagård took over for Oskar Cedermalm — also of Truckfighters — who had fronted them for the latter two of these three LPs, and Greenleaf set about changing from Tommi Holappa from Dozer‘s side-project and became a full-time, hard-touring band.

There were years I swore by Agents of Ahriman as the best thing Greenleaf ever did. Then Nest of Vipers came out and that narrative got more complicated. It has not become less so with the records they’ve done since, either, including The Head and the Habit. But if you don’t have these — and I’m not ignoring Secret Alphabets here either; their second LP is a landmark — and have gotten on board with the band in the years since, these are worth having both for contextual purposes in hearing the beginnings of the Greenleaf of today, who I have no qualms touting as one of the best heavy rock acts in Europe or anywhere else, and more importantly, just for hearing them because they’re great records.

They’ll be out around the time the tour with Slomosa and Psychlona starts. The PR wire has more:

Magnetic Eye is stoked to present exclusive new editions of three classic albums from our own almighty GREENLEAF!

Before they became a proper band, Greenleaf started as a loose collective of friends making 70s-inspired hard rock and proto-metal. Led by guitarist Tommi Holappa, co-founder of Euro desert rock originators Dozer, various configurations of Greenleaf included members of Lowrider, Truckfighters, Demon Cleaner, Dozer and more. And despite the rotating cast of players, they managed to release multiple albums of the highest caliber riff rock across the 14 years in their original unstructured form.

Now, in celebration of the Swedish heavyweights’ astonishing 25-year career and the stratospheric release of their latest LP ‘The Head & The Habit’ this year, Magnetic Eye Records brings forth brand new reissues of three of GREENLEAF’s iconic out-of-print classics, with new editions of ‘Secret Alphabets’, ‘Agents of Ahriman’ and ‘Nest of Vipers’ on sleek new colored vinyl and digisleeve CD. Coming this October and available just in time for their massive European tour with Slomosa and Psychlona!

See all the variants of these masterworks right here: http://lnk.spkr.media/greenleaf-reissues

GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA
30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2
01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido
02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan
03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta
04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum
05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void
06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke
07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK
09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena
10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar
11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC
12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low

GREENLEAF is:
Arvid Hällagård – vocals
Tommi Holappa – guitars
Sebastian Olsson – drums
Hans Fröhlich – bass

www.facebook.com/greenleafrocks
https://www.instagram.com/greenleafband/
https://greenleaf-sweden.bandcamp.com/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Greenleaf, Secret Alphabets (2003)

Greenleaf, Agents of Ahriman (2007)

Greenleaf, Nest of Vipers (2012)