Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 26th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
The track “Monastery of the Seven Sages” opens Breath‘s Fall 2025 Argonauta-released sophomore LP, Brahman (review here), and its opening riff is a fittingly Sabbathian call to prayer. The nod that ensues is meditative in style, and the Portland outfit — who were joined by Rob Wrong of Witch Mountain for the album — continue to delve into Cisnernos-esque fluidity, but if Om‘s vaguely spiritual communion is a factor here, it’s not the sum total of what either the song in question or the record it comes from have to offer. It is a beginning, in other words. A shocking observation for the start of an album, right? Stay tuned to The Obelisk for more hard-hitting, in-depth insights like this.
My point — I know I had one when I started — is that Breath are distinguished by what they build around this recognizable core. Their first full-length, 2021’s subsequently-revamped Primeval Transmissions (review here; discussed here), was rawer in its construction even after the 2023 remix/remaster, and I wouldn’t exactly call Brahman lush with the way the band use negative space in the mix to create a sense of humility that one finds visualized in the pilgrimage portrayed in the video below, but no question they’re exploring and fleshing out their sound with synth, guitar and so on. That’s a process one hopes will continue, because it distinguishes Breath from other practitioners and because the further out they go the more they seem to discover is within their creative reach.
It’s obviously early to talk ‘next record.’ It’s only been months since Brahman came out — it’s relevant enough that they just made a video for it, you could say — but to my ears, “Monastery of the Seven Sages” emphasizes the intentional growth on the part of the band, their willingness to push their own for-the-moment limits, and since that inherently leads to the question of where they’re headed and how they might get there, one can’t help but think of them even five years on from their debut as still just beginning to tap into the potential of their sound. I don’t mean to make it seem like they’re in pursuit of a thing, which goes against the whole Buddhist aesthetic overlay, but however you want to frame it, their songwriting is so forward-thinking, so here’s me, accordingly looking forward to what might come.
The clip below came down the PR wire:
Breath, “Monastery of the Seven Sages” official video
Portland’s meditative doom collective BREATH unveil the official music video for “Monastery of the Seven Sages”, a standout track from their critically acclaimed album Brahman, released via Argonauta Records. The song and video exemplify the band’s signature blend of atmospheric doom, post-metal depth and psychedelic heaviness, combining massive riffs, hypnotic basslines, ritualistic rhythms and textured cinematic layers that draw the listener into a meditative sonic journey.
The band comments:
“Monastery of the Seven Sages peers into a distant proto-bronze age landscape obscured by the fog of time. The power and bond of ‘as above so below’ is conveyed through filmmaker Erik Meharry’s vision. His inspiration from the song birthed a whole outline of Lynchian depth that made us all too eager for him to be at the helm. A song following steps like Oannes, looking to the wild horizon of space and Earth and finding connection.”
Posted in Reviews on October 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Day two. Normally this is time for hubristic gibberish about how easy the QR will be, the overconfidence of one whose trees rarely appear as forests. But we persist anyhow, and today looks pretty good from where I’m sitting now, so despite the ‘Day 2 on a Monday’ weirdness, which I’m pretty sure makes no one other than myself even raise an eyebrow, things are rolling and one hopes will continue to be fluid. I wouldn’t say Day 1 came together easily, since it took me like two and a half days to get done, but neither was out unpleasant. Hoping for more of the same here, plus efficiency.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Queens of the Stone Age, Alive in the Catacombs
Something of an identity crisis in Queens of the Stone Age perhaps that sees the long-running highest commercial export of desert rock shift from the cloying pop of their last two albums to a comparatively stripped down live recording in — you guessed it — catacombs, where apparently the acoustics are pretty sweet. Anybody remember when Tenacious D went into ‘the cave’ on the Tribute EP? No? Didn’t think so. Frontman Josh Homme, who carries the minimal arrangements on vocals largely with ease, and his ever-ace band filmed the whole thing; it’s all sepia, all very artsy, and they do “Kalopsia” and dip back 20 years to finish with “I Never Came” after “Suture Up Your Future,” which is the second inclusion by then from 2007’s Era Vulgaris. All told it’s five songs and 27 minutes, and whether you hear it as a cringe hyperindulgence of unaware self-parody or as an expression of human artistry in organic form surrounded by memento mori probably depends on how deep you run with the band. But they’re not hurting anybody either way.
Between recording and then remixing/remastering their 2021 debut Primeval Transmissions (review here) and signing to Argonauta Records, Portland meditative duo Breath, comprised of Ian Caton and Steven O’Kelly, expanded the lineup with Lauren Hatch on keys and their second album, Brahman, brings Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) into the fold on guitar as well as helming the recording. The sense across the eight songs/42 minutes is still of exploring the reaches of consciousness, very post-Om in the foundational basslines and dry vocals, but having Wrong rip out a solo in each break of “Awen” sure doesn’t hurt, and hearing the full band come together around the culmination of “Hy-Brasil,” keys, guitar, bass, drums all-in tonally, is emblematic of their expanding horizons. As for those, “Sages” pushes toward its own vision of psych rock in conversation with the opener, and “Cedars of Lebanon” demonstrates malleability and balance that one hopes portend more to come as the band continues to grow and gel.
Johan Langquist The Castle, Johan Langquist The Castle
Kind of an awkward moniker grammatically for the solo-band fronted by original/once-again/maybe-erstwhile Candlemass vocalist Johan Langquist. Is it possessive? Is he The Castle? I don’t quite understand, but from the operatic complement of Emelie Lindquist‘s backing vocals on opener “Eye of Death” through the litany of compiled singles Johan Langquist The Castle dropped over the course of 2024, there’s no mistaking the classic nature of the doom. “Castle of My Dreams” flows keyboardier on balance, while “Where Are the Heroes” gives riffers shelter in its chug, while “Raw Energy” and “Revolution” toy with the balance between the two sides, with “Freedom” as a classic-metal epic and “Bird of Sadness” as the comedown epilogue. Langquist, absent decades between fronting the first Candlemass LP in 1986 and rejoining the band circa 2011, would seem to be making up for lost time, and the ideas he’s exploring here warrant the investigation. I’m curious where this leads, which I think I’m supposed to be, so right on.
From Joshua Tree, California, Maliciouz is the solo-outfit of Michael Muckow, who handles guitar, bass and drums for the molasses-thick instrumentalist proceedings. Tortoise arrives beating you over the head with its tone and metaphor alike; eight songs and 58 minutes of lumbering density wrought with dug-in purpose, harnessing heaviness-of-place as riffs and often melancholic drone metal crash. It’s an art project, but without pretense of being anything other than it is, and Muckow — who makes a point of noting his age (67) in the press material — composes for flow and immersion as each slow march gives way to the next, culminating in the semi-acoustic “The End,” which is no less on-the-nose than calling the album Tortoise to start with. No grand reflections, no sweeping statement. Tortoise lets the riffs do the talking and they say plenty about the grit and expanse Muckow is trying to conjure. Be careful out there. He makes it easy to get lost.
The former co-guitarist/vocalist of Neurosis has come a long way since his guy-and-guitar beginnings as a solo artist, and Alone in a World of Wounds reaps the textural fruit of Steve Von Till‘s willful artistic progression in a piece like the leadoff “The Corpse Road” or “Distance,” which caps side A fluidly with the only use of drums on the record, reminiscent of The Keening‘s awareness of sonic weight and atmospheric sidestep. The cello, synth and field recordings build out what would be minimalist arrangements without them and remain early-morning quiet, the piano on the spoken-word-topped “The Dawning of the Day (Insomnia)” and flirtations with lushness on “Horizons Undone” softly shaping the album’s world with the electronics of “Old Bent Pine” ahead of the guitar-based “River of No Return,” which closes with what feels like an updated take on Von Till‘s earlier woodsfolk craft, reminding that ‘heavy’ is just as much existential as it is aural.
Solitude Over Control is as much a confrontation as an album, and that’s very clearly the intention behind Glasgow’s Mrs Frighthouse for their Lay Bare-issued debut LP, Solitude Over Control. Its 11 songs foster a bleak gamut of industrial sounds, portraying dark and inflicted sexual violence as part of the band’s expression. Slaying rapists, then, and fair enough. Intertwining layers of vocals and experimentalist pieces like “Seagulls (Part 1)” give an avant-garde air to the crush of “DIY Exorcism” and the lurching, abrasive finish of “White Plaster Roses,” soprano vocals and electronic noise externalizing the unsettled in a way that can only really be thought of as ‘extreme’ in a musical sense. “My body has never been mine,” confess the lyrics of “Our Culture Without Autonomy” with horror-style keyboard behind them; there’s a show being put on here, but it’s visceral just the same, and the later “My Body is a Crime Scene” turns the accusation direct: “My body is a crime scene/He did this to me/My body is a crime scene/You did this to me” in a moment that lands powerfully unless you’re a fucking sociopath.
A joint release between Majestic Mountain and Copper Feast Records, Eroded Forms/Inertia presents as a double-EP split release between Melbourne, Australia, melodic heavy post-metallic rockers Droid, who dare toward aggression on “Reverence” and the sludgier shouts of “Ruin” after leading off with “Khaki” without giving away the plot such that the blastbeats of “Resonance” still hit as a surprise, and Sweden’s I Am Low, who answer the fullness of tone with careening on “Sweet M16” before the grunge melody of “Greed” makes that song a highlight, “Waves” flows with less emotional baggage and a subtle hook, and “Inertia” wraps as a landing point with duly vibrant crash. Grunge and a hairy kind of fuzz are shared between the bands, but each has their own purpose. I don’t know if it’s a release of convenience to make it a split, but it makes for an engaging showcase, and if you’ve never come across either of them, the best arguments for digging in are right there in the songs.
Portland five-piece doomly flamekeepers Tar Pit begin their second full-length (on Transylvanian) with the 10-minute three-parter “Dagon, Dark Lord Dwelling Beneath,” the longest inclusion (immediate points) at 10:15 and bookended with the title-cut at the record’s end. Between, from the more rocking aspects of “Coven Vespers” to the downtrodden roll of “Blessed King of Longing,” the five-piece remind of doom at the turn of the century, when ‘traditionalism’ in doom metal was something of a defiance against modernity instead of an aesthetic unto itself. More than 20 years, The Gates of Slumber, Reverend Bizarre, and what was then the Church of True Doom would seem to have evolved into Tar Pit‘s Eldritch Doom Syndicate, and that’s nothing to complain about as “Blue Light Cemetery” accounts for Candlemass and Cathedral after the dim-blues of “Jubilee” secures the band’s place in the heavy morose. If you were just getting into doom, this kind of thing might make you want to start a band, and yes, that’s a compliment.
Dirt-coated riffing leads the way on GRGL‘s Horror-Bloated Ouroboros six-song EP, as Jake‘s guitar, Hal‘s bass and Nick‘s drumming in the first-names-only Salt Lake City trio align around a chug in the opening “Horror-Bloated Ouroboros (An Overview),” that, despite the dry-throated barks that top it, remains among the more accessible moments of the churning sludge-doom outfit’s 23-minute outing. To wit, “Born Again” and the even more gurgley (hey wait a minute!) “My Skeleton” takes roughly the same elemental formula and slows it the frick down, thereby becoming immediately more tortured. The overarching impression is unipolar — raw, heavy, miserable — and the vocals are part of that, but the dynamic between those first two songs is answered for in the uptick of pace that arrives with “My Pie Hole” and the angularity of the shorter instrumental “Absorption/Secretion,” while the plodding reprise “Born Again (Again)” closes so as to make sure everybody ultimately gets where they need to be, i.e., hammered into the ground. Eat dust shit sludge. Hard to get away from thinking of this as the true sound of our times. Maybe it’s the title.
It’s a clear and classic style across Grusom‘s aptly-titled third album, III, which arrives some seven years after they were last heard from with 2018’s II (review here), the band who’ve become a low-key staple of the Kozmik Artifactz roster demonstrating in no uncertain terms what’s gotten them there. Vintage-heavy heads will find plenty to dig in the organ-laced flow of “Shadow Crawler,” “Hell Maker,” the later “Fatal Romance” and the more open finale “Mortal Desire,” and while “Le Voyage” has many of the same aspects at work, it shows the Danish six-piece as flexible enough in their approach to convey a range of emotions, ditto the wistful Graveyard-y “Memories” and the interlude “Euphoria,” making sure that among the places III might take a given listener, there’s nothing to remove them from the procession carried along by the band.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Portland’s meditative explorers Breath announced in March they’d signed with Argonauta Records for the release of their next album. Already the growth of the project beyond the founding duo of Ian Caton and Steven O’Kelly was well signaled when their 2021 debut, Primeval Transmissions (discussed here), received a remix/remaster in 2023 (review here), and the new record, Brahman, finds them expanding in terms literal and figurative. They’ve added members to the project and, accordingly, become a more encompassing outfit. The second single from Brahman, “Sanliurfa,” is streaming at the bottom of this post and serves as a ready example.
There’s a fair amount of info below that I’ve included because I’ll probably want it later. If you want takeaways, the release date is Oct. 24, I’m pretty sure preorders are coming if not up now, and that you should approach with an open mind. Those are mine, in case you’d like to share them. From the PR wire:
US Meditative Doom Metal Band BREATH Unveil Brahman Album Details; New Single Out Now
Portland’s meditative doom band BREATH will release their new album, Brahman, on October 24th via Argonauta Records. In anticipation, the band shares their second single, “Sanliurfa,” out today and streaming here: https://album.link/breath_sanliurfa
“An exploration into the feeling of metaphysical communion among peers. Doorways between vast celestial ocean above and worlds within. A page less tome in vault of mind. Carved faces in stone relief, tethered to a time. Behind their eyes lie long memory, patient in waiting to arise. Frozen sleep undone by sheer will on tireless wings.
This song was given great care by collaborators Rob Wrong (guitar), & Lauren Hatch (Keys) in concert with Breath’s Bass and Drums. Building on the atmosphere of a cold pre dawn setting, the serpentine sonic route a meditative mind treads.” – says the band
Alongside the new single, the band present the full tracklist and artwork of their upcoming record.
1. Monastery of the Seven Sages 2. Awen 3. Sanliurfa 4. Sages 5. Cedars of Lebanon 6. Hy-Brasil
BREATH had this to say about the album:
“BRAHMAN is an ode to the unchanging all pervasive true reality. It exists in and is the connective thread shared by all living things. The Trimurti in chorus, you and I, all one awareness. Music in service to the mirror of nature, to what can arise through stillness.
These songs were originally written as a three-piece opened to an expanded potential from our two-piece beginning. First enlisting fellow Portlander and peer musician Lauren Hatch on Keys. After recording, Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain, The Skull) was struck with inspiration to write and record guitar for the entire album. This unforeseen development and synchronicity continued, folding in new aspects like the appearance of TJ Minnich (Spitalfield) on Djembe in tracks 2 & 5.
Fed by a magnetic fascination to the mystery schools and Shamanic rites of ancient peoples. Emerging reborn, a mediator of this world and the other. Singing to trees, speaking with animals, imbued with the secret lore. At a cost they overcame with the treasure they sought. It’s losing ourselves in the woods or meditation and transmuting those experiences into the vibrational feeling and space our musical fingerprint holds.”
—
The beginnings of Breath can be traced back to childhood friends Steven O’Kelly and Ian Caton, who began playing music together during High School in the suburbs of Portland OR. The culmination of a search for their own voice, being an inseparable rhythm section for hire through many projects. The fruit of O’Kelly’s magnetism to solo songwriting and spiritual seeking coalesced into their debut Primeval Transmissions released in 2021 by Desert Records. Their album was recorded by Rob Wrong at his home studio Wrong Way Recording in March of 2020, and mastered by the great Tad Doyle. Wrong (also of Witch Mountain) played guitar on a couple tracks on their debut, including the ceremonial Halls of Amenti as part of Primeval Transmission’s remixed & remastered 2023 release by Desert Records.
Taking their inspiration from other heavy hitters such as Earth, OM and Grails, as well as classic mentors Black Sabbath & Ravi Shankar, Breath’s musical tapestry runs deep. Both Caton and O’Kelly learned eastern styles of music playing in Portland’s Gamelan Wahyu Dari Langit from 2016 to 2020. Traditional Indonesian song structure that helped expand their writing beyond the guard rails of western convention. Growling high decibel distortion to restrained incense laden marches influenced by Geddy Lee, Al Cisneros, and earth-shaking rhythms of John Bonham. Portland Oregon’s Breath continue to paint outside their canvas with new additions Lauren Hatch on Keys in 2023 & Justin Acevedo joining on Guitar in 2024.
