Posted in Whathaveyou on April 16th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Uptempo kick, killer shred, the vocals cutting through like early Uncle Acid in a rush, due bluesy shred breaking into slower ethereal groove with organ and the vocals in layers, yeah, you could say Electric Citizen‘s “Static Vision” — not to be confused with now-Heavy–Psych–Sounds-labelmates Ecstatic Vision, who are from Philly — bodes well for what’s in store on their fourth album and first for the aforementioned new label, EC4.
It’s also their first new work in seven years — isn’t it odd how so many artists and bands are, oh, I don’t know, two or three years behind what you might expect a ‘normal’ schedule to be? it’s like there was some shared planetary trauma for two-plus of those years that nobody wants to talk about anymore let alone attempt to process; as a species we are so perpetually dumb — and I think if you dug what I guess we can now call their ‘RidingEasy era,’ the first three records the last of which was 2018’s Helltown (review here), then “Static Vision” should be a ready reminder of their specific brand of kickassery.
The PR wire has details and here they are:
ELECTRIC CITIZEN to release new album “EC4” on June 27th via Heavy Psych Sounds; first single “Static Vision” streaming!
Cincinnati, Ohio proto-heavy and psychedelic rockers ELECTRIC CITIZEN have signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for the release of their fourth studio album “EC4”, this June 27th and unveil the first single.
Seven years after their last release “Helltown”, Electric Citizen returns with their fourth album “EC4” — a powerful statement of renewal and raw energy. Written by Ross Dolan with contributions from the full band, the album was meticulously crafted over several years and recorded with Mike Montgomery and John Hoffman at Candyland Studio in Dayton, KY. It was mixed by Collin Dupuis (Lana Del Rey, The Black Keys) in Detroit and mastered by JJ Golden (Ty Segall, Calexico) at Golden Mastering in California. The album art was created by Neil Krug (Lana Del Rey, Tame Impala, Weyes Blood), who the band worked with for their first album “Sateen”.
Now signed to Heavy Psych Sounds, Electric Citizen is ready to unleash their most potent work yet: a fusion of hypnotic grooves, searing guitars, and Laura Dolan’s mesmerizing vocals. “EC4” is both a homecoming and a rebirth. Electric Citizen is back!
Electric Citizen is a Cincinnati-based rock band known for its fuzzed-out riffs, haunting melodies, and electrifying live shows. Since forming in 2012, it has carved out a distinct sound, blending vintage psychedelia with heavy rock ‘n’ roll. With three acclaimed albums under their belt, Electric Citizen has toured extensively, sharing stages with acts like The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Pentagram and Fu Manchu.
ELECTRIC CITIZEN is Ross Dolan – Guitar Laura Dolan – Vocals Nick Vogelpohl – Bass Nate Wagner – Drums Owen Lee – Keyboards
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Siss are a new band — they’ve got their first demo up and are about to make their live debut; yup, that’s new-band stuff — but you might recall vocalist Laura Dolan and guitarist Ross Dolan from Cincinnati-based classic heavy rockers Electric Citizen. That band’s own debut full-length, Sateen (review here), came out a decade ago (wow.) through RidingEasy Records, who would also stand behind their two subsequent LPs, 2016’s Higher Time (review here) and 2018’s Helltown (review here), the latter of which remains their most recent offering.
In addition to their Dolan contingent, Electric Citizen was a full four-piece featuring bassist Nicholas Vogelpohl and drummer Nathan Wagner, while you’ll notice that with Siss, the configuration is… a full four-piece featuring bassist Nicholas Vogelpohl and drummer Nathan Wagner! Yeah, it’s the same band in terms of the players involved, and obviously some things will have carried over from one band to the next in no small part as a result of that. But at least based on the two streaming tracks “New Drag” and “Prospector,” the vibe I get is more like a reset. Helltown was a bold stepout stylistically, so maybe they thought it was better to leave the progression of Electric Citizen where it was and start over with a new name and new, rawer, more garage-style ideas. I’ll be interested to hear where doing so takes them.
If you’re in town and also curious, the first Siss show takes place this weekend in Cincinnati — info is below. Get video if you go. In the meantime, I don’t know what the band’s plans are as regards touring or making albums or what their preferred deli order is or any of it, but at least in my head, you don’t just drop an established name for no reason, so Siss‘ emergence out of Electric Citizen is notable even before you get to the songs sounding cool.
And speaking of that, here’s this:
Demos are live on bandcamp! More streaming platforms coming soon. Demos Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Brian Niesz.
Tracklisting: 1. New Drag 03:22 2. Prospector 03:38
First Show Saturday, Aug 31 at MOTR Pub Cincinnati with The Harlequins.
Siss are: Ross Dolan: guitar Laura Dolan: vocals Nicholas Vogelpohl: bass Nathan Wagner: drums
Posted in Reviews on August 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This past Spring, Cincinnati, Ohio-based heavy rockers Valley of the Sun posted up the first five songs of their Quintessence LP as Quintessence Pt. 1, heralding their fourth album to come and subverting the general expectation of a single here, a single there ahead of a release date in favor of doing things their own way. Recorded with John Naclerio at Nada Recording Studio — with whom they’ve worked before, notably on 2011’s The Sayings of the Seers EP (review here, discussed here) and the band’s 2014 debut, Electric Talons of the Thunderhawk (review here); Naclerio also adds guitar to “I’ll See Them Burn” here — in April, Quintessence arrives some two years after the band’s third full-length, 2022’s The Chariot (review here), and finds the lineup shifted from a double-guitar four-piece to a trio with guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier, bassist/keyboardist Chris Sweeney and drummer Johnny Kathman, self-releasing after a stretch with Fuzzorama Records and Ripple Music.
While the title seems to speak to some sense of an archetype, the album has been touted by the band as a departure, and in some ways it is. More likely the title refers to the fifth element of space alongside the traditional earth, air, fire and water; song titles like that of opener “Terra Luna Sol,” “Graviton,” “The Late Heavy Bombardment,” “Red Shift,” “Palus Somni” (located on the moon), “Theia” and “Aurora” speak to a spacey theme at least in terms of outward presentation, and the narrative (blessings and peace upon it) holds that this emerged from the fact that they were recording during the total solar eclipse (depicted on the Jarrod Warf cover art) earlier this year. Either way, much of what one has come to expect from a Valley of the Sun outing remains intact, and considering the quality of their craft over the better part of the last 15 years, that should be read as a compliment. “The Late Heavy Bombardment” opens to a fuzzy nodder of a hook that stands alongside a swath of compatriots from their discography, while “I’ll See Them Burn” shoves forward in the later going of Quintessence with a particularly aggressive movement and a sub-three-minute runtime ahead of the ambient interlude “Aurora” and the closing title-track, which stretches over seven minutes as it heads into a long fade following what feels like a duly-weighted, riff-propelled culmination for what the rest of the record has offered up to that point.
As to that, much of the departure seems to be in the overarching feel rather than the structure of what Ferrier, Sweeney and Kathman are playing. Quintessence is still very identifiably a Valley of the Sun album, and benefits from the distinctive fullness of tone and spaciousness the band bring to desert-style heavy. If something is missing from the transition from four players to three, it doesn’t show on the record, though part of that might owe to the fact that in addition to Naclerio and Pete Koretzky, who plays guitar on the early slowdown “Where’s This Place?” (shortened from its original title “Where’s This Place I Roam?”) and their respective bass and drum duties, Sweeney and Kathman also contribute guitar alongside Ferrier‘s own. Fair enough. But “Where’s This Place?” is part of what’s different as well, as it sees the band more willing to throttle back the stage-ready energy that has characterized them up to this point in new ways, offering more complexity of mood. There’s bombast a-plenty in the crashing second half of “Graviton” and a fuzzed-to-the-gills sprawl set forth in “Theia,” but even the latter uses atmospherics in a more patient way, trading back and forth in volume, while “Aurora” and the corresponding side A interlude “Red Shift” deepen the contemplative impression and thus shift the context of Quintessence as a whole.
Is it a stark, radical contrast to the band Valley of the Sun have worked diligently to establish themselves as being for the last decade-plus? No. But neither does it feel like it’s trying to be. “Terra Luna Sol” sets out with a charge that reminds of earlier Solace, while “Palus Somni” pairs hard stops with more straight-ahead verse riffing, and even as Ferrier changes up around his central belt-it-out vocal approach in the early going of “Theia,” or “Palus Somni” and “Where’s This Place?,” he pushes his register on “Quintessence” in a way that is familiar even as it carries the adrenaline of that moment to another level entirely. Ultimately, it is the blend of the recognizable and the new — the proggy flourish of keyboard around the winding guitar in the first half of “Theia,” etc. — that gives Quintessence its distinguishing features, but for those who’ve followed the band, there’s little in the construction that would put one off; Valley of the Sun remain accessible and “Palus Somni” still sounds like it was composed to be played on stage. The difference is there’s more depth to the listening experience and the songs try some new ideas. Continued growth on the part of the band is not going to be a detriment to the audience hearing them, and sure enough, it isn’t as Quintessence unfolds.
It might be a little sadder than one expects Valley of the Sun to be, but I’ll allow that could also be reading into the evocations of “Red Shift” and “Aurora,” and that the album doesn’t just do one thing. That is, if “Where’s This Place?” and “Palus Somni” dare a bit of melancholy, the prevailing spirit of Quintessence is still electric, in both of those songs as well as “I’ll See Them Burn,” “Graviton,” “Terra Luna Sol,” and so on. And if it’s a question of one or the other — mind you I’m not sure it is — Quintessence adds much more to the scope of what Valley of the Sun do musically than it takes away, such that the title-track is given a due sense of arrival for the dynamic they’ve fostered throughout the preceding span. I don’t know what the band’s next chapter might be — they’re on tour now supporting Heavy Temple, which is a hell of a show to see if you can; they’re headlining in Europe this Fall — what the configuration of their lineup might be when they get there, or what it might have to say in building on the expression here, but four albums on, Valley of the Sun are evolving in their maturity while holding to the songwriting that’s been a major strength through their whole run to this point. There’s no level on which that isn’t a win, either conceptually or in execution.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m pretty sure that by the time Valley of the Sun embark on this October run through the parts of Europe that are mostly Germany in the company of rad murk-doom up and covers Daevar, the second part of the Ohio-based heavy rockers’ Quintessence LP will be released. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier, the now-self-releasing unit offered Quintessence Pt. 1 in early May, and the second five tracks of the total 10 that make up the offering seem to be slated for July as per their Bandcamp, while vinyl preorders are listed for Oct. 4 — better get those packages together before you head out, dudes — and CDs on Sept. 25. Pick your poison as regards formats — it’s gonna be fuzzy either way.
The run is taking place under the banner of Sound of Liberation, so appearances for Valley of the Sun at Up in Smoke, Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium and Lazy Bones fests make sense, and you’ll note the Westill Fest in France closes the tour at the start of November. I don’t know much about that one — it’s probably been around for 30 years — but they booked Valley of the Sun, so at very least they’ve got that going in their favor.
SOL posted the following to socials this morning. Remember, if you’re someplace with a TBA, you should help if you can:
VALLEY OF THE SUN EUROPE TOUR 2024 WITH SPECIAL GUEST DAEVAR
Hey friends, we’re super stoked to present you the Valley Of The Sun Europe tour 2024!🔥
Special guest for many of the shows will be Daevar!💥⚸
Valley of the Sun are: Ryan Ferrier – guitars and vocals Chris Sweeney – bass, keys, and additional guitars Johnny Kathman – drums, percussion, and additional guitars (Additional guitars on Where’s This Place I Roam? by Pete Koretzky)
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 3rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Whatever brand of headache you’re working with today — be it work, family, life, hangover, bangover, undercaffeination, overcaffeination, general existential dread, etc. — Valley of the Sun offer Quintessence Pt. 1, the first half of their upcoming self-released LP, as the way out from under it. Recorded not one full month ago, these five new tracks find the long-running Ohoian heavy rockers led by guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier operating as a trio with Chris Sweeney on bass/keys (also some guitar) and Johnny Kathman on drums (also also some guitar), and releasing in DIY fashion as the follow-up to The Chariot (review here), released in 2022 on Fuzzorama Records and Ripple Music.
Ferrier, Sweeney and Kathman pull back on some of the desert-hued thrust that might come to mind if you heard The Chariot or their preceding LPs with “Graviton,” and “Where’s This Place I Roam?” highlights a moodier atmosphere, but “Palus Somni” is as characteristic — quintessential? — Valley of the Sun as you could hope to hear, and as Pt. 1 is only half the story they’re telling, I’ll be all-ears for the rest whenever it might arrive.
They’re already confirmed for a return to Europe this October to play Keep it Low Festival in Munich, and I’m pretty sure there’s more touring to be announced shortly, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, album info and such goes like this, and physical-edition preorders are up now:
Inspired by the total solar eclipse which took place on day 1 of recording (April 8, 2024), Quintessence marks a return to the three-piece format for Valley of the Sun. With massive, sub-octave guitars, thundering bass, and a backbone of rock-solid drumming, the album is a bit of a departure from previous efforts, but long-time fans of the band will still find all the riffs, melodies, and soaring vocals that they’ve come to expect from VOTS over its previous four LP’s.
Releases July 25, 2024.
Quintessence Pt. 1 tracklisting: 1. Terra Luna Sol 04:25 2. Graviton 06:30 3. Where’s This Place I Roam? 04:35 4. The Late Heavy Bombardment 04:18 5. Palus Somni 04:58
Produced, mixed, and mastered by John Naclerio at Nada Recording Studio in Montgomery, New York. Artwork by Jarrod Warf.
Valley of the Sun are: Ryan Ferrier – guitars and vocals Chris Sweeney – bass, keys, and additional guitars Johnny Kathman – drums, percussion, and additional guitars (Additional guitars on Where’s This Place I Roam? by Pete Koretzky)
Posted in Reviews on October 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Wednesday, huh? I took the dog for a walk this morning. We do that. I’ve been setting the alarm for five but getting up before — it’s still better than waking up at 4AM, which is a hard way to live unless you can go to bed at like 8 on the dot, which I can’t really anymore because kid’s bedtime, school, and so on — and taking Tilly for a walk around the block and up the big hill to start the day. Weather permitting, we do that walk three times a day and she does pretty well. This morning she didn’t want to leave the Greenie she’d been working on and so resisted at first, but got on board eventually.
In addition to physical movement being tied to emotional wellbeing — not something I’m always willing to admit applies to myself, but almost always true; I also get hangry or at least more easily overwhelmed when I’m hungry, which I always am because I have like seven eating disorders and am generally a wreck of a person — the dog doesn’t say much and it’s pretty early and dark out when we go, so I get a quiet moment out under the moon going around the block looking up at Venus, Jupiter, a few stars we can see through the suburban light pollution of the nearby thoroughfares. We go up part of the big hill, have done the full thing a couple times, but she’s only just three-plus months, so not yet really. But we’re working on it, and despite Silly Tilly’s fears otherwise, her treat was right where we left it on the rug when we got back. And she got to eat leaves, so, bonus.
There are minutes in your day. You can find them. You can do it. I’m not trying to be saccharine or to bullshit you. Life is short and most of it is really, really difficult, so take whatever solace you can get however you can get it. Let’s talk about records.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
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Maggot Heart, Hunger
This is Maggot Heart‘s third record and they’re still a surprise. It can be jarring sometimes to encounter something that edges so close to unique within the underground sphere, but the Berlin outfit founded/fronted by Linnéa Olsson (ex-The Oath, ex-Grave Pleasures, ex-Sonic Ritual) offer bleak and subversively feminine post-punk informed by black metal on Hunger, and as she, bassist Olivia Airey and drummer Uno Bruniusson (ex-In Solitude, etc.), unfurl eight tracks of arthouse aggro and aesthetic burn, one can draw lines just as easily with “Nil by Mouth” or the later “Looking Back at You” to mid-’70s coke-strung New York poetic no wave and the modern European dark progressive set to which Maggot Heart have diligently contributed over the last half decade. The horn sounds on “LBD” are a nice touch, and “Archer” puts that to work in some folk-doom context, but in the tension of “Concrete Soup” or the avant garde setting out across the three minutes of the leadoff semi-title-track “Scandinavian Hunger,” Maggot Heart demonstrate their ability to knock the listener off balance as a first step toward reorienting them to the atmosphere the band have honed in these songs, slightly goth on “This Shadow,” bombastic in the middle and end of “Parasite,” each piece set to its own purpose adding some aspect to the whole. You wouldn’t call it easy listening, but the challenge is part of the fun.
Adjacent to New Psych Philly with their homebase in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and with a self-titled collection that runs between the shoegazing shine of “Deadzone,” the full-fuzz brunt of “Slack” or “Inside Out,” the three-minute linear build of “Fell Off” made epic by its melody, and the hooky indie sway of advance single “Be as One,” the trio Catatonic Suns make a quick turnaround from their 2022 sophomore LP, Saudade, for the lysergic realization and apparent declaration of this eight tracks/31 minutes. With most cuts punkishly short and able to saunter into the noise-coated jangle of “Failsafe” or the wash of “Sublunary” — speaking of post-punk — Catatonic Suns eventually land at closer “No Stranger,” which tops eight minutes and comprises a not-insignificant percentage of the total runtime. And no, they aren’t the first heavy psych band to have shorter songs up front and a big finale, but the swirling layered triumph of “No Stranger” carries a breadth in its immersive early verses, mellow, sitar-laced midsection jam and noise-caked finish and comes across very much as what Catatonic Suns has been building toward all the while. The same might be true of the band, for all I know — it seems to be the longest piece they’ve written to-date — but either way, put them on the ‘Catatonic Voyage’ tour with Sun Voyager for two months crisscrossing the US and never look back. Big sound, and after three full-lengths, significant potential.
Densely weighted in tone, brash in its impact and heavy, heavy, heavy in atmosphere, Sacri Suoni‘s second album together and first under their new moniker (they used to be called Stoned Monkey; kudos on the change), Sacred is Not Divine positions itself as a cosmic doom thesis and an exploration of the reaches and impacts to be found through collaborative jamming. Four songs make it — “Doom Perspection of the Astral Frequency 0-1” (8:15), “Six Scalps for Six Sounds” (10:28), “Cult of Abysmus” (13:15) and “Plutomb, Engraved in Reality” (8:02) — and as heavy has they are (have I mentioned that yet?) there is dynamic at play as well in the YOB-ish noodles and strums at the start of “Six Scalps for Six Sounds” or in “Cult of Abysmus” around the 10-minute mark, or in the opener’s long fade, but make no mistake, the mission here is heft and space and the Milano outfit have both in ready supply. I think “Plutomb, Engraved in Reality” has maybe three riffs? Might be two, but either way, it’s enough. The character in this material is defined by its weight, but there are three dimensions to their style and all are represented. If you listen on headphones, try really hard not to pulverize your brain in the process.
Earthy enough in tone and their slower rolling moments to earn an earliest-Acid King comparison, Barrie, Ontario’s Nova Doll are nonetheless prone to shifting into bits of aggro punk, as in “Waydown” or “Dead Before I Knew It,” the latter of which closes their debut album, Denaturing, the very title of the thing loaded with context beyond its biochemical interpretations. That is, if Nova Doll are pissed, fair enough. “California Sunshine” arrives in the first half of the seven-song/29-minute long-player, with rhythm kept on the toms, open drones and a vastness that speaks at least to some tertiary affect of desert rock on their sound. Psychedelia comes through in different forms amid the crunch of a song like “Mabon,” or “California Sunshine,” and the bassy centerpiece near-title-track feels willfully earthbound — not complaining; they’re that much stronger for changing it up — but the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Casey Cuff, bassist Sean Alten and drummer Daniel Allen ride that groove in “Denaturation” like they already know the big spaceout in “Light Her Up” is coming. And they probably did, given the apparent care put into what is sometimes a harsh presentation and the variety they bring around the central buzz that seems to underscore the songs. Grown-up punk, still growing, but their sound is defined and malleable in its noisy approach on their first full-length, and that’s only encouraging.
With their self-released debut album, In Line for the End Times, hard-driving single-guitar four-piece Howl at the Sky enter the field with 12 songs and a CD-era-esque 55-minute run that filters through a summary of decades of heavy rock and roll influences. From their native state of Ohio alone, bands like Valley of the Sun and Lo-Pan, or Tummler and Red Giant a generation ago — these and others purveying straight-ahead heavy rock light on tricks and big on drive. More metal in their riffy underpinnings than some, certainly less than others, they foster hooks whether it’s a three-minute groover like “Stink Eye” and opener “Our Lady of the Knives” or the more spacious “Dry as a Bone” and the penultimate “Black Lung,” which has a bit more patience in its sway than the C.O.C.-circa-’91 “The Beast With No Eyes” and modernize ’70s vibes in the traditions of acts one might find on labels like Ripple or Small Stone. That is, rock dudes, rockin’. Vocalist Scott Wherle bears some likeness to We’re All Gonna Die‘s Jim Healey early on, but both are working from a classic heavy rock and metal foundation, and Wherle has a distinguishing, fervent push behind him in guitarist Mike Shope, bassist Scot “With One ‘T'” Fithen and drummer John Sims. For as long as these guys are together, I wouldn’t expect too many radical departures from what they do here. Once a band has its songwriting down like this, it’s really more just about letting grow on its own over time rather than forcing something, and the sense they give in listening is they know that too.
The first two four-song EPs by Buenos Aires psych/post-rock four-piece Fin del Mundo — guitarist/vocalist Lucia Masnatta, guitarist Julieta Heredia, bassist Julieta Limia, drummer/backing vocalist Yanina Silva — wander peacefully through a dreamy apocalypse compiled together chronologically as Todo Va Hacia el Mar, the band’s Spinda Records first long-player. From “La Noche” through “El Fin del Mundo,” what had been a 2020 self-titled, the tones are serene and the melodies drift without getting lost or meandering too far from the songs’ central structure, though that last of them reaches broader and heavier ground, resonance intact. The second EP, 2022’s La Ciudad Que Dejamos, the LP’s side B, has more force behind its rhythms and creates a wash in “El Próximo Verano” to preface its gang-vocal moment, while closer “El Incendio” takes the Sonic Youth-style indie of the earlier material and fosters more complex melodicism around it and builds tension into a decisive but not overblown resolution. It’s 34 minutes long and even between its two halves there’s obvious growth on the part of the band being showcased. Their next long-player will be like a second debut, and I’ll be curious how they take on a full-length format having that intention in the first place for the material.
A pandemic-born project (and in some ways, aren’t we all?), the two-piece instrumentalist unit Bloody Butterflies — that’s guitarist/bassist Jon Howard (Hordes) and drummer August Elliott (No Skull) — released their first album, Polymorphic, in 2020 and emerge with a follow-up in the seven tracks/27 minutes of the on-theme Mutations and Transformations, letting the riffs do their storytelling on cuts like “Toilet Spider” and “Frandor Rat,” the latter of which may or may not be in homage to a rat living near the Kroger on the east side of Lansing. The sound is punker raw and as well it should be. That aforementioned ratsong has some lumber to its procession, but in the bassy “Fritzi” that follows, the bright flashes of cymbal in opener “BB Theme” (also the longest inclusion; immediate points) and the noisy declaration of post-doom stomp before the feedback at the end of “Wormhole” consumes all and the record ends, they find plenty of ways to stage off monochromatism. Actually, what I suspect is they’re having fun. At least that’s what it sounds like, in a very particular way. Fair enough. It would be cool to have some clever lesson learned from the pandemic or something like that, but no, sometimes terrible shit just happens. Cool for these two getting a band out of it. Take the wins you can get.
Whilst prone to NWOBHM tapping twists of guitar in the leads of “Alien Hunter,” “Quicksilver Trail,” etc. and burling up strains of ’90s metal and a modern heavy sub-burl that adds nuance to its melodies, Solar Sons‘ fifth album, Another Dimension, arrives at its ambitions organically. The Dundee, Scotland, everybody-sings three-piece of bassist/lead vocalist Rory Lee, guitarist/vocalist Danny Lee and drummer/vocalist Pete Garrow embark with purpose on a narrative structure spread across the nine songs/62 minutes of the release that unveils more of its progressive doom character as it unfolds its storyline about a satellite sent to learn everything it can about the universe and return to save a dying Earth — science-fiction with a likeness to the Voyager probes; “The Voyage” here makes a triumph of its keyboard-backed second-half solo — presumably with alien knowledge. It’s not a minor undertaking in either theme or the actual listening time, but hell’s bells if Another Dimension doesn’t draw you in. Something in the character has me feeling like I can’t tell if it’s metal or rock or prog and yes I very much like that about it. Plenty of room for them to be all three, I guess, in these songs. They finish with the swing and shred and stomp of “Deep Inside the Mountain,” so I’ll just assume everything works out cool for homo sapiens in the long run, conveniently ignoring the fact that doing so is what got us into such a mess in the first place.
A 5:50 single to answer back to last year’s second long-player, Only the Dead Know Our Secrets (review here), the latest from Mosara — which is actually an older track given some reworking, vocals and ambience, reportedly — is “Amena,” which immediately inflicts the cruelty of its thud only as a seeming preface for the Conan-like grueling-ultradoom-battery-with-shouts-cutting-through about to take place. A slow, noise-coated roll unfolds ahead of the largely indecipherable verse, and when that’s done, a cymbal seems to get hit extra hard as though to let everyone know it’s time to really dig in. It is both rawer in its harshness and thicker in tone than the last album, so it puts forth the interesting question of what a third Mosara full-length might bring atmospherically to the mix with their deepening, distorted roil. As it stands, “Amena” is both a steamroller of riff and a meditation, holding back only for as long as it takes to slam into the next measure, with its sludge growing more and more hypnotic as it slogs through the song’s midsection toward the inevitable seeming end of feedback and drone. Noisy band getting noisier. I’m on board.
Jupiter‘s Uinumas is a complex half-hour-plus that comprises their fourth full-length, running seven songs — that’s six plus the penultimate title-track, which is a psych-jazzy interlude — as cuts like “Lumerians” and “Relentless” at the outset see the Finnish trio reestablish their their-own-wavelength take on heavy and progressive sounds classic and new. It’s not so much about crazy structures or 75-minute-long songs or indulgent noodling — though there’s a bit of that owing to the nature of the work, if nothing else — but just how much Jupiter make the aural space they inhabit their own, the way “After You” pushes into its early wash, or the later “On Mirror Plane” (so that’s it!) spaces out and then seems to align itself around the bassline for a forward shuffle sprint, or the way that closer “Slumberjack’s Wrath” chugs through until it’s time for the blowout, which is built up past three minutes in and caps with shimmer that borders on the overwhelming. An intricate but recognizable approach, Jupiter‘s more oddball aspects and general cerebrality might put off some listeners, but as dug in as Jupiter are on Uinumas, on significantly doubts they were shooting for mass appeal anyhow. Who the hell would want that anyway? Bunch of money and people sweating everything you do. Yuck.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Been waiting for this since Valley of the Sun were announced for Desertfest in London and Berlin, and all the better for the Ohio four-piece that they’ll go further after the latter fest, keeping on with additional club shows supporting last year’s killer The Chariot (review here) album, which offered a ready definition of a band firing on all cylinders.
And of course, before they let out for international waters, Valley of the Sun will support UK harmonizers Church of the Cosmic Skull on a US tour (info here), and that as well is something I’m very much looking forward to. I’m not sure with whom they’ll be playing in Europe and the UK, but I do know that this is hardly the band’s first time over there and there’s no shortage of acts for them to meet up either as local support or doing the whole run, I have no idea.
In any case, these guys staying active post-pandemic is only good news, and as The Chariot wrought their most mature sound to-date, one might rightly think of these tours as a victory lap. The dates for UK and EU are below, venue info in the poster, which you can click to enlarge.
From social media:
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
We’re heading back to the UK and EU this May to rock off all your beautiful faces!!! Ticket links below:
05/05 UK DESERTFEST LONDON 07/05 UK EDINBURGH 08/05 UK NEWCASTLE 09/05 UK SHEFFIELD 10/05 UK MANCHESTER 11/05 UK NOTTINGHAM TBA 12/05 UK BRISTOL 13/05 UK BOURNEMOUTH 15/05 CH LUZERN 16/05 IT TORINO 17/05 HR ZAGREB TBA 18/05 AT GRAZ TBA 19/05 DE PASSAU 20/05 DE DESERTFEST BERLIN 21/05 DE HANOVER 22/05 DE WIESBADEN TBA 23/05 DE MUNSTER 24/05 BE EEKLO 25/05 NL EINDHOVEN 26/O5 DK ESBJERG 27/05 DE KIEL
VALLEY OF THE SUN are: Ryan Ferrier – Guitar/Vocals Lex Vegas – Drums Chris Sweeney – Bass, Keys Josh Pilot – Guitar
Somewhat unbelievably, we’ve reached the penultimate day of the Summer 2022 Quarterly Review. I believe it because every time I blink my eyes, I can feel my body trying to fall asleep. Doesn’t matter. There’s rock and roll to be had — 10 records’ worth — so I’mma get on it. If you haven’t found anything yet that speaks to you this QR — first of all, really??? — maybe today will be the day. If you’re feeling any of it, I’d love to know in the comments. Otherwise, off into the ether it goes.
In any case, thanks for reading.
Quarterly Review #81-90:
Hemlock Branch, Hemlock Branch
[Note: art above (photo by Nikita Gross) is not final. Album is out in September. Give it time.] Those familiar with Ohio sludge metallers Beneath Oblivion might recognize Scotty T. Simpson (here also guitar, lap-steel and vocals) or keyboardist/synthesist Keith Messerle from that band, but Hemlock Branch‘s project is decisively different on their self-titled debut, however slow a song like “The Introvert” might be. With the echo-laden vocals of Amy Jo Combs floating and soaring above likewise big-sky riffs, the far-back crash of drummer David Howell (White Walls) and the it’s-in-there-somewhere bass of Derda Karakaya, atmosphere takes a central focus throughout the 10 tracks and 22 minutes of the release. Hints of black metal, post-metal, doom, heavy psychedelia, and noise-wash dirgemaking experimentalism pervade in minute-long cuts like “Incompatible,” the sample-topped “Temporal Vultures” and “Küfür,” which gives over to the closing duo “Lifelong Struggle” and “High Crimes & Misdemeanors.” As even the longest track, “Persona Non Grata,” runs just 4:24, the songs feel geared for modern attention spans and depart from commonplace structures in favor of their own ambient linearity. Not going to be for everyone, but Hemlock Branch‘s first offering shows an immediate drive toward individualism and is genuinely unpredictable, both of which already pay dividends.
In “Siren” and at the grand, swelling progression of “Zero Trust,” one is drawn back to The Devil’s Blood‘s off-kilter psychedelic occultism by Swedish five-piece Știu Nu Știu — also stylized all-caps: ŞTIU NU ŞTIU — and their fourth album, New Sun, but if there’s any such direct Luciferianism in the sprawling eight-song/47-minute long-player, I’ve yet to find it. Instead, the band’s first outing through respected purveyors Heavy Psych Sounds takes the stylistic trappings of psychedelic post-punk and what’s typically tagged as some kind of ‘gaze or other and toss them directly into the heart of the recently born star named in the title, their sound subtle in rhythmic push but lush, lush, lush in instrumental and vocal melody. “New Sun” itself is the longest piece at 8:17 and it closes side A, but the expanses crafted are hardly more tamed on side B’s “Nyx” or the get-your-goth-dance-shoes-on “Zero Trust,” which follows. Opening with the jangly “Styx” and capping with the also-relatively-extended “Dragon’s Lair” (7:57) — a noisy final solo takes them out — Știu Nu Știu bask in the vague and feel entirely at home in the aural mists they so readily conjure.
The title of Veljet‘s debut LP, Emerger de la mentira llamada dios, translates from Spanish as, ‘Emerge from the lie called god.’ So yes, the point gets across. And Veljet hint toward metallism and an overarching darkness of purpose in “Estar vivo es nada,” “La construcción de los sentimientos negativos,” and the buzzing, bounce-bass-until-it-falls-apart “Arder al crecer,” despite being instrumental for the album’s half-hour duration save perhaps for some crowd noise filling out the acoustic “Mentir con tristeza” at the finish, people talking over acoustic guitar notes, as they almost invariably, infuriatingly will. That three-minute piece rounds out and is in form a far cry from the push of “Inundata” or the buzz-tone-click-into-airiness “Lucifer luz del mundo,” but there’s room for all of these things in what feels like Satanic escapism more than any occult trappings — that is to say, while it’s pretty safe to say Veljet aren’t religious types, I don’t think they’re rolling around holding devil-worship masses either — and the album as a whole is drawn together by this immersive, mood-altering slog, a sense of the day’s weight conveyed effectively in that of the guitars, bass and drums, making the acoustic finish, and the human shittiness of speaking over it, all the more of a poignant conclusion. If god’s a lie, people aren’t much better.
Longform avant metal that draws on atmospheres from Pacific Northwestern blackened tropes without bowing completely to them or any other wholly rigid style, doom or otherwise. Some of the vocals in the more open moments of “Still Life” bring to mind Ealdor Bealu‘s latest in their declarative purpose, but Swamp Lantern‘s The Lord is With Us takes its own presumably-left-hand path toward aural identity, finding a sound in the process that is both ambient and obscure but still capable of deep heft when it’s called for — see “Still Life” again. That song is one of two to cross the 10-minute mark, along with closer “The Halo of Eternal Night,” though wholly immersive opener “Blood Oath (on Pebble Beach)” and “Graven Tide” aren’t far off, the latter nestling into a combination of groove-riding guitar and flourish lead notes intertwining on their way toward and through a well charred second half of the song, the way eventually given to the exploratory title-track, shorter but working off a similarly building structure. They cap vampiric with “The Halo of Eternal Night,” perhaps nodding subtly back to “Blood Oath (On Pebble Beach)” — at least the blood part — while likewise bookending with a guest vocal from Aimee Wright, who also contributed to the opener. Complex, beautiful and punishing, sometimes all at once, The Lord is With Us is a debut of immediate note and range. Who knows what it may herald, but definitely something.
The hellscape in the Jason Barnett cover art for Mexico City duo Terror Cósmico‘s fourth full-length, Miasma, is a fair update for Hieronymus Bosch, and it’s way more Hell than The Garden of Earthly Delights, as suits the anxiety of the years since the band’s last album, 2018’s III (review here). The eight instrumental selections from guitarist Javier Alejandre and drummer Nicolás Detta is accordingly tense and brooding, with “En un Lugar Frio y Desolado” surging to life in weighted push after seeming to pick at its fingernails with nervousness. A decade on from their first EP, Terror Cósmico sound fiercer than they ever have on “Tonalpohualli” and the opener “Necromorfo” sets the album in motion with an intensity that reminds both of latter day High on Fire and the still-missed US sans-vocal duo Beast in the Field. That last is not a comparison I’ll make lightly, and it’s not that Miasma lacks atmosphere, just that the atmospherics in question are downtrodden, hard-hitting and frustrated. So yes, perfectly suited to the right-now in which they arrive.
Somewhere between aggressive post-metal, post-hardcore, sludge and ambient heavy rock, Stockholm’s Urna find a niche for themselves thoroughly Swedish enough to make me wonder why their self-titled debut LP isn’t out through Suicide Records. In any case, they lead with “You Hide Behind,” a resonant sense of anger in the accusation that is held to somewhat even as clean vocals are introduced later in the track and pushed further on the subsequent “Shine,” guitarist Axel Ehrencrona (also synth) handling those duties while bassist William Riever (also also synth) and also-in-Ocean–Chief drummer Björn Andersson (somebody get him some synth!) offer a roll that feels no less noise-derived than Cities of Mars‘ latest and is no more noise rock than it either. “Revelations” fucking crushes, period. Song is almost seven minutes. If it was 20, that’d be fine. Centerpiece indeed. “Werewolf Tantrum” follows as the longest piece at 8:06, and is perhaps more ambitious in structure, but that force is still there, and though “Sleep Forever” (plenty of synth) has a different vibe, it comes across as something of a portrayed aftermath for the bludgeoning that just took place. They sound like they’re just getting started on a longer progression, but the teeth gnashing throughout pulls back to the very birthing of post-metal, and from there Urna can go just about wherever they want.
Finnish songwriter, synthesist, vocalist, guitarist, bassist, etc. Santtu Laakso started Astral Magic as a solo-project, and he’s already got a follow-up out to Magical Kingdom called Alien Visitations that’s almost if not entirely synth-based and mostly instrumental, so he’s clearly not at all afraid to explore different vibes. On Magical Kingdom, he somewhat magically transports the listener back to a time when prog was for nerds. The leadoff title-track is filled with fantasy genre elements amid an instrumental spirit somewhere between Magma and Hawkwind, and it’s only the first of the eight explorations on the 42-minute offering. Keyboards are a strong presence throughout, whether a given song is vocalized or not, and as different international guest guitarists come and go, arrangements in “Dimension Link” and “Rainbow Butterfly” are further fleshed out with psychedelic sax. Side B opener “Lost Innocense” (sic) is a weirdo highlight among weirdo highlights, and after the spacious grandiosity of “The Hidden City” and the sitar-drone-reminiscent backing waveforms on “The Pale-Skinned Man,” closer “Seven Planes” finds resolution in classic krautrock shenanigans. If you’re the right kind of geek, this one’s gonna hit you hard.
The story of Turn to Stone seems to take place in opener “The Man, the Devil and the Grey Giant” in which a man sells his soul to the devil and is cursed and turned into a mountain for his apparent comeuppance. For a setting to that tale, Santander, Spain’s Grey Giant present a decidedly oldschool take on heavy rock, reminiscent there of European trailblazers like Lowrider and Dozer, but creeping on chunkier riffing in “Unwritten Letter,” which follows, bassist/vocalist Mario “Pitu” Hospital raw of throat but not by any means amelodic over the riffs of Ravi and Hugo Echeverria and the drums of Pablo Salmón and ready to meet the speedier turn when it comes. An EP running four songs and 26 minutes, Turn to StoneSabbath start-stops in “Reverb Signals in Key F,” but brings about some of the thickest roll as well as a particularly righteous solo from one if not both of the Echeverrias and the Kyussy riff of closer “Last Bullet” is filled out with a grim outlook of Europe’s future in warfare; obviously not the most uplifting of endings, but the trippier instrumental build in the song’s final movement seems to hold onto some hope or at very least wishful thinking.
Symmetrically placed for vinyl listening, “The Return” and “Golden Skies” open sides A and B of Great Rift‘s second long-player, Utopia, with steady grooves, passionate vocals and a blend between psychedelic range and earthier tonal textures. I feel crazy even saying it since I doubt it’s what he’s going for, but Thomas Gulyas reminds a bit in his delivery of Messiah Marcolin (once of Candlemass) and his voice is strong enough to carry that across. He, fellow guitarist Andreas Lechner, bassist Peter Leitner and drummer Klaus Gulyas explore further reaches in subsequent cuts like “Space” and the soaringly out-there “Voyagers” as each half of the LP works shortest-to-longest so that the arrival of the warm heavy psych fuzz of “Beteigeuze” and minor-key otherworldly build-up of the closing title-track both feel plenty earned, and demonstrate plainly that Great Rift know the style they’re playing toward and what they’re doing with the personal spin they’re bringing to it. Four years after their debut, Vesta, Utopia presents its idealistic vision in what might just be a story about fleeing the Earth. Not gonna say I don’t get that.
Most prevalent complaint in my mind with Torpedo Torpedo‘s The Kuiper Belt Mantras is it’s an EP and not a full-length album, and thus has to go on the Best Short Releases of 2022 list instead of the Best Debut LPs list. One way or the other, the four-song first-outing from the Vienna psychedelonauts is patient and jammy, sounding open, lush and bright while retaining a heaviness that is neither directly shoegaze-based nor aping those who came before. The trio affect spacious vibes in the winding threads of lead guitar and half-hints at All Them Witches in “Cycling Lines,” and cast themselves in a nod for “Verge” at least until they pass that titular mark at around five and a half minutes in and pick up the pace. With “Black Horizon” the groove is stonerized, righteous and familiar, but the cosmic and heavy psych spirit brought forth has a nascent sense of character that the fuller fuzz in “Caspian Dust” answers without making its largesse the entire point of the song. Loaded with potential, dead-on right now, they make themselves the proverbial ‘band to watch’ in performance, underlying craft, production value and atmosphere. Takes off when it takes off, is languid without lulling you to sleep, and manages to bring in a hook just when it needs one. I don’t think it’s a listen you’ll regret, whatever list I end up putting it on.
