Posted in Whathaveyou on February 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I just got the new Daevar record promo and put it on. It’s interesting to hear the band on their third full-length stepping out from their influences. In particular for this 31-minute seven-song outing, note the brevity. “Siren Song,” the second cut and first single from Sub Rosa (which shares a title with ‘Bev screws a ghost’ episode of TNG, also there was the band who were incredible), represents a newfound tightening of craft that even last year’s Amber Eyes (review here) couldn’t boast from its murky positioning. Here, Daevar still resonate ethereal with a sense of space in the sound, but there’s no question they’ve figured something out in songwriting and are working off that.
That’s my first impression of the album. It ends long with the seven-minute “FDSMD,” which may or may not be an acronym related to studying earthquakes — fair enough if it is for the roll of that riff — and are all the more dynamic for the entrenched doomery of that finish. Strong. It helps that as they strip down some of the flourish of their past course, Daevar are also heavier than they’ve ever sounded here.
Gonna hope to have more to come here, but the album announce came from the PR wire over the weekend and here it is:
DAEVAR: Cologne Based GRUNGE/DOOM METAL Outfit Shares Brand New Single “Siren Song”
Taken From The Band’s Third Full-Length Set For Release on March 28th, via Berlin Located Record Label THE LASTING DOSE RECORDS (GRIN, EARTH SHIP, CAFFEINE, SLOWSHINE,…).
Deavar, the Cologne-based trio, kicks off 2025 with their third album, SUB ROSA, evolving their Doom Grunge sound with melodic uptempo bursts and lo-fi textures. Building on their previous releases, they capture the raw energy of the 2020s with intense and rat-drenched riffs, unapologetic lyrics, and a relentless DIY spirit.
While kicking off 2025 as their third year in their band’s history, the Cologne-based trio Daevar announces their third studio album, SUB ROSA. Never slowing down in their musical output and live performances, Daevar continues to redefne their sound in the so called pocket of Doom Grunge. With SUB ROSA, the trio expands their cloudy lo-fi soundscape with fresh invigorating uptempo bursts and bountiful, melodic songwriting.
Building on their previous releases Delirious Rites (2023) and Amber Eyes (2024), Daevar has shaken up the stale pouch of traditional stoner doom structures by capturing the empowering and brutally honest zeitgeist of living in the 20s.
This vibrating, spinning era serves as a catalyst for the swirling melodic riffs and soaring, expansive vocals that defne the seven anthems of SUB ROSA. With Pardis Latif’s blunt, unapologetic lyrics addressing crushing inequities, grotesque inhumanity, and the growth of independence—especially inspired by J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye- Caspar Orfgen elevates his riffs to a more frenetic and melodic level, while maintaining his gritty, rat-drenched roots and razor sharp, cutting solo sound. All of this is framed by the Grohl-esque drumming of Moritz, who guides you like a steady, weathered hand through the raw atmosphere of SUB ROSA, capturing the anxiety of the 2020s.
This hook-laden time capsule of SUB ROSA was once again produced and recorded by Jan Oberg at Hidden Planet Studio and released by The Lasting Dose Records. Oberg’s studio has evolved into Berlin’s own “Space Needle” for the young trio, which blends the feverish grunge drive of Nirvana with the dark, brooding essence of doom.
This whole project of Daevar performing and writing music is build upon love and compassion to the friendship of Pardis, Moritz and Caspar. It goes without saying that this enthusiasm is fueled by a true workaholic mindset and a strong DIY ethic. While Caspar handles the design of all the striking artwork for their releases and merchandise – Moritz creates the visually arresting and atmospheric video content for the music videos and live visuals, inspired by Pardis’ captivating lyrical storytelling and the ethereal, moodsetting, lullaby-like atmosphere the trio crafts with their music.
Teaming up with the booking agency Sound of Liberation in 2023, Deavar played the crème de la crème of genre festivals in 2024, including Freak Valley Festival, Desertfest Berlin & Antwerp, Up In Smoke, Keep It Low, Stoned From the Underground and so on.
They also seized every opportunity to perform in intimate clubs, embarking on an extensive, whirlwind tour and playing their frst international shows. In 2025, Deavar will be hitting the road once again with two European tours and appearances at festivals across the UK, Portugal, Poland, and beyond, further solidifying their reputation as one of the hardest-working and most ambitious acts in the doom pocket.
DISCOGRAPHY: 2023 Daevar – Delirious Rites 2024 Daevar – Amber Eyes 2025 Daevar – Sub Rosa
All songs written & performed by DAEVAR Recorded at HIDDEN PLANET STUDIO / Berlin Engineered, mixed & mastered by Jan Oberg Artwork by Caspar Orfgen
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
True, the first SOL Sonic Ride (info here) hasn’t happened yet, as European heavy booking company Sound of Liberation mark their 20th anniversary with a growing series of all-dayers, but this June in Wiesbaden, Germany, SOL Sonic Ride Part II will bring a fine sampling of touring acts to the proceedings, including King Buffalo, Brant Bjork Trio, the resurgent My Sleeping Karma, Valley of the Sun, Daily Thompson, The Machine and Einseinseins. Wait, that’s everybody. Well I guess it’s a pretty solid bill then.
Note that if you’re dividing the year into quarters — which is something I do around here every now and again; every couple months — this still only covers half of 2025. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s more to come before the year’s out. 20 years, especially 20 years booking heavy music in a time that’s seen the rise of the internet, a global pandemic, and unprecedented instability generally, is a triumph. They should have a party every weekend if that’s what they want. If it ends up being four throughout the rest of the year, well fucking earned.
From socials:
⚡️20 YEARS OF SOUND OF LIBERATION – SOL SONIC RIDE PART ll⚡️
Hey friends,
The celebration continues! 🪩
Join us for SOL SONIC RIDE PART II on June 28, 2025, as we mark two decades of heavy riffs with another epic festival day!
Expect mind-blowing performances from a killer lineup, including:
KING BUFFALO • BRANT BJORK TRIO MY SLEEPING KARMA • VALLEY OF THE SUN DAILY THOMPSON • THE MACHINE • EINSEINSEINS & more to be announced soon!
This time, we’re taking over Schlachthof Wiesbaden for a day packed with electrifying energy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Holy smokes, check out that lineup. 10 bands and not a clunker or a filler in the bunch. Each offers something different, each occupies a different place in sound and has a different history. From heavy psych progenitors Colour Haze through up and comers like Lucid Void and Kant — both of whom have releases out through Sound of Liberation‘s label wing in addition to working with the booking agency — and being My Sleeping Karma‘s first-revealed date for 2025 (come on, Freak Valley; they’re a bucket-list band for me), it’s a stunner even before you tap 1000mods supporting their new record, Slomosa on the heels of their second, Greenleaf being Greenleaf, Gnome and Earth Tongue and Daevar all continuing to kill it. Damn. As all-dayers go, the SOL Sonic Ride — the 20th anniversary celebration of the aforementioned Sound of Liberation, ser for March 29 and happening across two venues in Cologne, Germany — looks positively epic.
You might recall what happened with Sound of Liberation‘s 15th anniversary shindig, which was to have been held in 2020 and became a 17th anniversary shindig in 2022. On more than a few levels, I wish SOL Sonic Ride a less fraught realization. And happy 20 years to Sound of Liberation, while we’re here.
From socials:
20 YEARS OF SOUND OF LIBERATION
Hey friends,
we’re celebrating two decades of heavy riffs!🪩
Join us on March 29, 2025 in Cologne for a one-day-only festival: SOL SONIC RIDE COLOGNE!🚀
Expect explosive performances from some of the heaviest and trippiest bands on the SOL roster, including:
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
German heavy instrumentalists Astral Kompakt will release their full-length debut, Goldader, on Nov. 22 through Tonzonen Records. And from opener “Pirsch” onward, the record is plenty heavy — the lead cut, first of seven total on a 40-minute front-to-back, kicks in from its quiet intro at right around 1:40 — and that’s all well and good, but Goldader is working toward more than just that standard. There are flourishes, pieces of pieces, that seem to come from more progressive fare, even prog-metal in “Batavische Träne I,” where the prior “Welwitschie” offers fluid rumination early and builds in stages, unveiling a plus-sized roll en route to a stop in its final minute from which a Truckfighters-y fuzz-run takes off to end.
The title-track is the longest inclusion at 7:42, and comes off “Pirsch” with a more expansive, psychedelic vibe, but there’s purpose behind everything Astral Kompakt do. These aren’t jams. It’s not unstructured. There’s a plot to each of these tracks — even the wailing feedback and fuzzy comedown leads of the penultimate “Ruin” brim with intent — and while the band make a point of their complexity and are clearly ambitious in terms of challenging themselves as players and writers, that doesn’t come at the cost of the material’s raw impact.
Of course, a production and mix from Jan Oberg at Berlin’s Hidden Planet (see also current releases from Daevar, Caffeine, Oberg‘s own Grin, etc.) isn’t going to hurt the prospect of aural largesse, and Goldader, whether it’s the midsection of the title-track, the immersion of “Pirsch” or the way “Batavische Träne II” (video premiering below) seems to do honor to Karma to Burn‘s central ethic of here’s-the-riff-now-eat-it when it came to groovemaking, but tone and tempo variation assures that not every song has the same goals or winds up in the same place. It is not a collection of linear builds, though “Batavische Träne II” has a doozy after its rocking opening section gives way to a quieter middle before its held-in-pocket nod is laid bare, soon to be topped with a duly airy solo.
But “Ruin” shifts the structure away from that build and works around its core progression with a rocker’s intention and Conan-style tonality underpinning a markedly doomed — and by that I mean grunge — riff. “Ruin” stones out, throws a little wah on the bass even, later on, but ends crushing, and drops to a silence, which the barely-there-at-first ambient opening of “Levitas” gets moving before a cymbal wash marks the arrival point of bloodrush punctuated lumber that ultimately opens to a transposed desert rock riff — (only) in my head, vague echoes of being told I don’t seem to understand the dee-yal — rolled out in a way that’s straightforward enough but doesn’t let go of the mood of its mellower launch.
And do they bring back the crashes and the slammy-slammy and the heavy-heavy whatnot? Well of course they do; rest easy. Shifting from roll to nod and stomp between, Astral Kompakt are once again following a plot, but what distinguishes “Levitas” from “Ruin” before it or even Goldader‘s title-cut, which is the only piece here over seven minutes long, is the clever way the parts are charted and interact with each other. You think one change is coming, another comes, and this is a strength. It’s not that Astral Kompakt are pulling cheeky switcheroos, but instead that the material is interesting enough and executed well enough to stand up to defying the expectations of genre.
In this way, Goldader seems very much to have accomplished what Astral Kompakt set out for it to do, building something that is progressive in construction, rich in atmosphere/mood, diverse in sound and a push in playing if not raw technique for its own sake. There are reaches here, and as sparse as some moments are, the band wield density with cleverness and skill as one of the tools used, and when they hit into a payoff like that of “Pirsch” after spending a minute or so in a welcoming La-La Land of dreamy ’90s-alt lead guitar, they make it physically affecting.
It might take a couple listens to let Goldader sink in completely, and I can’t help you there — it’s not out yet and this is a video not an album premiere; I didn’t even see another single streaming — but the album’s out in two weeks, and I believe strongly in your ability to keep these things in mind. Until it’s out, keep in mind “Batavische Träne II” is riffier on average than some of what Astral Kompakt do in other tracks, but represents well the heavier side without giving up mood.
PR wire info follows the video on the player below. As always, I hope you enjoy:
Astral Kompakt, “Batavische Träne II” video premiere
A video by Astral Kompakt and Solid Waste
Astral Kompakt carefully dissect the psych metal blueprint laid out by Sleep and Electric Wizard, slowing it down, spacing it out and abstracting its essence. Creating a new conversation in which heaviness is not a goal but a means to an end, Goldader, out November 22 via Tonzonen Records, perfects the art of making complexity comprehensible and sonic violence sophisticated.
Stoner rock leans heavily on its psychedelic imagery and lyrics for its allure, leaving a small number of artists capable of writing captivating instrumental music that still fits the bill. Where other acts turn to humorous tropes or excessive layers of fuzz, Germany-based instrumental outfit Astral Kompakt resort to reducing things to a minimum, keeping a tight formation as a trio. With their debut album Goldader they have perfected the art of making complexity comprehensible and sonic violence sophisticated.
Across its 40-minute long runtime Goldader reveals itself as a lexicon of anything prog and stoner, touching upon and playing with stylistic devices that also characterise the metal genre as a whole. From from the jagged start-stop riffing of Pirsch through the subtle polyrhythms of Welwitschie to the repeating motifs of Batavische Träne II, Astral Kompakt prove they understand the elements of the genre and know how to use them in refreshing ways.
The inconspicuous way in which they open the album in 10/8 but make it seem like the most normal stoner riff ever, attests to the ability of Astral Kompakt to make music that is both fun and engaging. The title track innovatively juxtaposes the summer vibes of indie rock with exuberant blast beats, while album closer Levitas skilfully anatomizes the art of melting face, creating an experience in which the real heaviness is found in the space between the distorted chords.
With Goldader Astral Kompakt have indeed struck gold, creating a record you can spend endless moments with, digging around and unearthing all its intricacies. The songwriting is serious but also has a sense of humour, the riffs are both brain-heavy and face-melting, while the album sounds phenomenal thanks to Jan Oberg at who recorded, produced and mixed the album at his Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Not saying I’ve conceded defeat when it comes to trying to keep up with label-branded festival shows happening in various cities across Europe and the US — Ripplefests and Heavy Psych Sounds Fests scattered to various reaches of hither and yon — but I have definitely come to terms with the fact that if I posted every time one is announced or adds to its lineup, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover much else. Only many hours/so much brainpower in the day. Both are fleeting fast as a given morning progresses toward a hurried, inevitably dumber afternoon.
If I recall correctly, Ripplefest Germany is put together by members of Plainride, so seeing them at the top of the thus-far bills for shows in Köln and Berlin isn’t such a shocker, and fair enough both for their involvement in making it happen and for their 2023 self-titled (review here) that was released, of course, on Ripple Music. They’re joined by Håndgemeng and Crowley on both bills, while hotly-tipped rockers Scorched Oak are a fourth name unveiled for the Köln date. The two shows are a week apart — you could feasibly attend both; congratulations on your life if you do — and while some of the lineups will likely continue to be shared as they already are, it seems reasonable to expect not everyone who plays the one will make it for the other. Maybe Scorched Oak have something else going on Dec. 7, you never really know.
Whether I can hold to the pace of announcements or not — not, surely — you’ll find ticket links and more info on Ripplefest Germany 2024 below, courtesy of the PR wire. Note the secret venue in Berlin, because who doesn’t love a mystery?
Have at it:
Heavy rock festival RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2024 edition in Berlin and Cologne; tickets on sale now!
Curated by Californian independent label Ripple Music, heavy rock festival RIPPLEFEST reveals the first bands to play its Cologne and Berlin editions on November 30th and December 7th, with tickets on sale now!
Californian heavy label Ripple Music is known and revered worldwide for unearthing the finest bands in heavy rock and heavy metal and bringing together a vast and passionate community of fans from across the globe. The Bay Area-based label is home to international acts such as The Obsessed, Hermano, Scott “Wino” Weinrich, Tony Reed, Poobah, Wo Fat or Colour Haze.
Dubbing their festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin over the years. Now the German chapter of Ripplefest is ready to celebrate its fifth edition this fall! Returning to the cities of Berlin and Cologne, the festival is once again set to shed light on an array of bands from scene veterans to new blood, from occult rock to doom ‘n’ roll!
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This past Friday, classically progressive heavy rockers Mouth released Vortex Redux through This Charming Man Records. And though ‘redux’ in a heavy context has come to be associated with Magnetic Eye Records‘ ongoing album-tribute series, no, this is not Mouth or anyone else covering their own album. Remastered with the included bonus track “Turn the Lie” (video premiering below) and liner notes by yours truly.
The Köln-based trio — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Christian Koller, drummer/keyboardist Nick Mavridis and bassist Thomas Johnen, who made his first appearance on last year’s Getaway (review here) in the role previously filled by Gerald Kirsch — originally released Vortex (review here) in 2017 through Al!ve/Blunoise Records as an eight-years-later follow-up to their debut, Rhizome, but really, it was the point at which their proggy intent found its fruition. With underlying influence from the heavier end of the style and a modern cast on vintage ideologies, they’ve been able to position themselves in both worlds as a band whose foundation is in prog textures with keys and retro organs and synth and melodies and all that stuff mixed with the occasional let-loose of a thicker shove.
It’s a fine line and Mouth dance all over it, but you’ll pardon me if I leave the analysis there. I’ve both reviewed this album AND I wrote the liner notes below in blue — as opposed to the usual ‘bio I wrote’ tag I apply in situations where editorial and promotional lines are blurred (always uncomfortable; full disclosure, I actually don’t remember if I was compensated or not for the below writing; I’m terrible with money and knowing things generally; see also ‘incompetent’) — that begin with “Welcome…” and end where they end. Seems like plenty, so if you’re still reading at all and haven’t already started the clip, I’ll just say that that whole “prog + fun” equation alluded to above is exactly what comes to life here, and in close-up style.
Plenty more of my blah blah blah follows — I didn’t even know they were using the notes as promo copy until the record was out, but fair enough — and the clip’s three minutes and weird and kind of lo-fi, which somehow makes it more of a good time. But you’re right in the box with them, so I hope you’ve showered recently. Nobody wants to be the one stinking up the practice space.
Please enjoy:
Mouth, “Turn the Lie” video premiere
This is the bonus track of the redux version of MOUTH’s second album VORTEX. Order the new mastered and reworked album here:
Welcome to the definitive Vortex. The LP you’re holding has been on a journey, and no, not just shipping. Mouth’s second after 2009’s Rhizome, Vortex was mostly recorded in 2011 and 2012 over five sessions in a small space where the band rehearsed. Material was pieced together intermittently over a period of 11 months with Chris Koller handling guitar, keys and bass and Nick Mavridis on drums. That’s where it started. Two construction projects: the studio and a recording that would help define the course of the band in classic and melodic progressive rock, happening almost simultaneously in a creative meta-narrative that could easily stand as analog for the depth of pieces like “Into the Light” or the sprawling “Vortex” itself, which opens the record (new and old editions) in an encompassing display of impulse and fluidity
Through experiments in atmosphere like “March of the Cyclopes” and toward the finish of “Epilogue,” Mouth married sounds that in other contexts would come up disparate, like finding a hidden magnetism between two north poles.
Most of the Vortex songs were created on the spot in the studio.There would be no way to know it at the time, but this process would result in a collection of songs with a broad range, within as well as between the component tracks. “Parade” taps Sly Stone on the shoulder and asks if he wants to party (he does), while the penultimate “Soon After…” resonates with its smoky, mellow-jazz vibe. “Vortex” itself happens over six movements and was put together across different sessions, while “Epilogue” happened in a day.
Dissatisfaction with the original mix – and when an album has as much put into its arrangements as Vortex, that balance matters – would lead Mouth to offer Out of the Vortex in 2020 as a collection of alternate versions of pieces like “Mountain” and “Parade,” as well as the unreleased “Ready” and “Homagotago’s Paddle Boat Trip,” the latter an apparent successor to a cut from Floating. But sometimes a thing nestles itself into the back of your head and just won’t leave, and Mouth’s pursuit of a finished Vortex would lead them into the studio again.
Koller handled the remix himself in Oct. 2023, and in addition to helming the new master, krautrock legend Eroc (who drummed in Grobschnitt) brought a gong to mark the beginning of “March of the Cyclopes.” Like a lot of the finer touches on this Vortex, be it a hashed-out stretch in the title-track built on a drum/bass jam or just pulling the vocals and Hammond down a bit in “Epilogue,” the result is a stylistic flourishing that was there all along throughout the journey and now can finally shine as the band intended. – JJ Koczan / Dec. 2023
Pressing Info: 100 copies black (mailorder edition) 400 copies purple transparent wax -> all copies come with a fold out poster
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Life takes you strange places. I’m reporting live from a bench at what I grew up calling Hershey Park — it’s now known as “Hersheypark,” if current signage is to be believed — in not-much-else-here Hershey, Pennsylvania. My wife and kid are and have been for long enough for me to set up the entire back end of this post, maybe 25 minutes or so, waiting on line for a rollercoaster called The Comet. Park opened at 11 and is slammed.
We’re here, my little family unit, because it’s the end of summer. The Patient Mrs. starts a new semester teaching this week, The Pecan goes to school for full-day kindergarten Sept. 5, so this is pretty much it for summer. Why we’re here instead of something not two and a half hours from where we live is because about 25 minutes from here, at 2PM, we’re meeting with a dog breeder to see about maybe buying a three-month-old puppy. It’s a shichon, small, doesn’t shed much or make a lot of noise. A non-dog, by some standards. Fine. If it doesn’t immediately bite my kid, we’ll probably get it. This has emotional baggage for me — shocking, I know — but it’s time to get this kid a dog, so even if it’s not this one, we’ll keep looking.
What does any of this have to do with Ripplefest Germany 2023 announcing lineups for Cologne — Köln in German — and Berlin?
Just about nothing, actually, but it’s why I’m distracted from giving you the usual spiel: “here’s a cool fest I’ll never get to see but maybe you will and we can both daydream so here you go,” so at least that’s a connection. And please don’t take my inability to focus as somehow detracting from the work Max Röbel has done in assembling lineups both representative and forward thinking from Ripple and -adjacent acts. If you need more proof of his noble mission to shake heavy rock genre norms, go check out the new Plainride. Also, good for Crystal Spiders doing a bit of travel.
These reportedly are not the only acts that will be announced for these events, but it’s a start. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it:
RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2023 edition in Berlin and Cologne this fall; tickets on sale now!
The international RIPPLEFEST festival series, organized by renowned California independent label Ripple Music, returns to Germany this fall with two unmissable events! Ripplefest Berlin and Ripplefest Cologne promise a musical experience of the highest caliber for fans of Stoner, Doom, and Heavy Psychedelic Rock.
Ripple Music, a label known for its specialization in heavy rock sounds, aims to promote emerging talents from the international heavy rock underground and bring together fans and bands from all over the globe. Dubbing their own festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events for years, in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Nantes, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin.
The organizer of both Ripplefests is Max Röbel, frontman of Cologne’s heavy rock band Plainride and Head of A&R Europe for Ripple Music. About curating the festival, he says: “Creating a platform for music beyond the mainstream and being able to showcase it with such international lineups is a matter dear to my heart. These festivals are meant to be both a meeting place and a stepping stone for our acts, which is why I am particularly excited that with Kabbalah, Crystal Spiders, and Daevar, we once more have three bands with exceptionally strong frontwomen, on this year’s lineup.”
❱ MOTHER’S CAKE (DE) Stoner rock ❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock ❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW (BE) Stoner rock ❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock ❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock ❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock ❱ DAEVAR (DE) Stoner doom
Welcome to day two of the Summer 2023 Quarterly Review. Yesterday was a genuine hoot — I didn’t realize I had packed it so full of bands’ debut albums, and not repeating myself in noting that in the reviews was a challenge — but blah blah words words later we’re back at it today for round two of seven total.
As I write this, my house is newly emerged from an early morning tornado warning and sundry severe weather alerts, flooding, wind, etc., with that. In my weather head-canon, tornados don’t happen here — because they never used to — but one hit like two towns over a week or so ago, so I guess anything’s possible. My greater concern would be flooding or downed trees or branches damaging the house. I laughed with The Patient Mrs. that of course a tornado would come right after we did the kitchen floor and put the sink back.
We got The Pecan up to experience and be normalized into this brave new world of climate horror. We didn’t go to the basement, but it probably won’t be the last time we talk about whether or not we need to do so. Yes, planet Earth will take care of itself. It will do this by removing the problematic infection over a sustained period of time. Only trouble is humans are the infection.
So anyway, happy Tuesday. Let’s talk about some records.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Bell Witch, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate
Cumbersome in its title and duly stately as it unfurls 83 minutes of Billy Anderson-recorded slow-motion death-doom soul destroy/rebuild, Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate is not the first longform single-song work from Seattle’s Bell Witch, but the core duo of drummer/vocalist Jesse Shreibman and bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond found their path on 2017’s landmark Mirror Reaper (review here) and have set themselves to the work of expanding on that already encompassing scope. Moving from its organ intro through willfully lurching, chant-topped initial verses, the piece breaks circa 24 minutes to minimalist near-silence, building itself back up until it seems to blossom fully at around 45 minutes in, but it breaks to organ, rises again, and ultimately seems to not so much to collapse as to be let go into its last eight minutes of melancholy standalone bass. Knowing this is only the first part of a trilogy makes Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate feel even huger and more opaque, but while its unrelenting atmospheric bleakness will be listenable for a small percentage of the general populace, there’s no question Bell Witch are continuing to push the limits of what they do. Loud or quiet, they are consuming. One should expect no less in the next installment.
Some records are self-titled because the band can’t think of a name. Plainride‘s Plainride is more declarative. Self-released ahead of a Ripple Music issue to accord with timing as the German trio did a Spring support stint with Corrosion of Conformity, the 10-song outing engages with funk, blues rock, metal, prog and on and on and on, and feels specifically geared toward waking up any and all who hear it. The horns blasting in “Fire in the Sky” are a clear signal of that, though one should also allow for the mellowing of “Wanderer,” the interlude “You Wanna…” the acoustic noodler “Siebengebirge,” or the ballady closer “The Lilies” as a corresponding display of dynamic. But the energy is there in “Hello, Operator,” “Ritual” — which reminds of Gozu in its soulful vocals — and through the longer “Shepherd” and the subsequent regrounding in the penultimate “Hour of the Mûmakil,” and it is that kick-in-the-pants sensibility that most defines Plainride as a realization on the part of the band. They sound driven, hungry, expansive and professional, and they greet their audience with a full-on “welcome to the show” mindset, then proceed to try to shake loose the rules of genre from within. Not a minor ambition, but Plainride succeed in letting craft lead the charge in their battle against mediocrity. They don’t universally hit their marks — not that rock and roll ever did or necessarily should — but they take actual chances here and are all the more invigorating for that.
Massachusetts doomers Benthic Realm offer their awaited first full-length with Vessel, and the hour-long 2LP is broad and crushing enough to justify the wait. It’s been five years since 2018’s We Will Not Bow (review here), and the three-piece of bassist Maureen Murphy (ex-Second Grave, ex-Curse the Son, etc.), guitarist/vocalist Krista Van Guilder (ex-Second Grave, ex-Warhorse) and drummer Dan Blomquist (also Conclave) conjure worthy expanse with a metallic foundation, Van Guilder likewise effective in a deathly scream and melodic delivery as “Traitors Among Us” quickly affirms, and the band shifting smoothly between the lurch of “Summon the Tide” and speedier processions like “Course Correct,” the title-track or the penultimate “What Lies Beneath,” the album ultimately more defined by mood and the epic nature of Benthic Realm‘s craft than a showcase of tempo on either side. That is, regardless of pace, they deliver with force throughout the album, and while it might be a couple years delayed, it stands readily among the best debuts of 2023.
Cervus follow 2022’s impressive single “Cycles” (posted here) with the three-song EP Shifting Sands, and the Amsterdam heavy psych unit use the occasion to continue to build a range around their mellow-grooving foundation. Beginning quiet and languid and exploratory on “Nirvana Dunes,” which bursts to voluminous life after its midpoint but retains its fluidity, the five-piece of guitarists Jan Woudenberg and Dennis de Bruin, bassist Tom Mourik, keyboardist/guitarist Ton van Rijswijk and drummer Rogier Henkelman saving extra push for middle cut “Tempest,” reminding some of how The Machine are able to turn from heavy jams to more structured riffy shove. That track, shorter at 3:43, is a delightful bit of raucousness that answers the more straightforward fare on 2021’s Ignis EP while setting up a direct transition into “Eternal Shadow,” which builds walls of organ-laced fuzz roll that go out and don’t come back, ending the 16-minute outing in such a way as to make it feel more like a mini-album. They touch no ground here that feels uncertain for them, but that’s only a positive sign as they perhaps work toward making their debut LP. Whether that’s coming or not, Shifting Sands is no less engaging a mini-trip for its brevity.
On their third album, Where’s the Ground?, Portuguese experimentalists Unsafe Space Garden tackle heavy existentialist questions as only those truly willing to embrace the absurd could hope to do. From the almost-Jackson 5 casual saunter of “Grown-Ups!” — and by the way, all titles are punctuated and stylized all-caps — to the willfully overwhelming prog-metal play of “Pum Pum Pum Pum Ta Ta” later on, Unsafe Space Garden find and frame emotional and psychological breakthroughs through the ridiculous misery of human existence while also managing to remind of what a band can truly accomplish when they’re willing to throw genre expectations out the window. With shades throughout of punk, prog, indie, sludge, pop new and old, post-rock, jazz, and on and on, they are admirably individual, and unwilling to be anything other than who they are stylistically at the risk of derailing their own work, which — again, admirably — they don’t. Switching between English and Portuguese lyrics, they challenge the audience to approach with an open mind and sympathy for one another since once we were all just kids picking our noses on the same ground. Where’s the ground now? I’m not 100 percent, but I think it might be everywhere if we’re ready to see it, to be on it. Supreme weirdo manifestation; a little manic in vibe, but not without hope.
Guitarist/vocalist Henning Schmerer reportedly self-recorded and mixed and played all instruments himself for Neon Burton‘s third full-length, Take a Ride. The band was a trio circa 2021’s Mighty Mondeo, and might still be one, but with programmed drums behind him, Schmerer digs in alone across these space-themed six songs/46 minutes. The material keeps the central duality of Neon Burton‘s work to-date in pairing airy heavy psychedelia with bouts of denser riffing, rougher-edged verses and choruses offsetting the entrancing jams, resulting in a sound that draws a line between the two but is able to move between them freely. “Mother Ship” starts the record quiet but grows across its seven minutes to Truckfighters-esque fuzzy swing, and “I Run,” which follows, unveils the harder-landing aspect of the band’s character. The transitions are unforced and feel like a natural dynamic in the material, but even the jammiest parts would have to be thought out beforehand to be recorded with just one person, so perhaps Take a Ride‘s most standout achievement — see also: tone, melody, groove — is in overcoming the solo nature of its making to sound as much like a full band as it does in the 10-minute “Orbit” or the crescendo of “Disconnect” that rumbles into the sample-topped ambient-plus-funky meander at the start of instrumental closer “Wormhole,” which dares a bit of proggier-leaning chug on the way to its thickened, nodding culmination.
Though pedigreed in a Maryland doom scene that deeply prides itself on traditionalism, Laurel, MD, trio Thousand Vision Mist mark out a progressive path forward with their second full-length, Depths of Oblivion, the eight songs/35 minutes of which seem to owe as much to avant metal as to doom and/or heavy rock. Opener “Sands of Time” imagines what might’ve been if Virus had been raised in the Chesapeake Watershed, while “Citadel of Green” relishes its organically ’70s-style groove with an intricacy of interpretation so as to let Thousand Vision Mist come across as respectful of the past but not hindered by it creatively. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Danny Kenyon (ex-Life Beyond, Indestroy, etc.), bassist/backing vocalist Tony Comulada (War Injun, Outside Truth, etc.) and drummer Chris Sebastian (ex-Retribution), the band delves into the pastoral on “Love, the Destroyer” and the sunshine-till-the-fuzz-hits-then-still-awesome “Thunderbird Blue,” while “Battle for Yesterday” filters grunge nostalgia through their own complexity and capper “Reversal of Misfortune” moves from its initial riffiness — perhaps in conversation with “We Flew Too High” at the start of what would be side B — into sharper shred with an unshakable rhythmic foundation beneath. I didn’t know what to expect so long after 2018’s Journey to Ascension and the Loss of Tomorrow (review here), which was impressive, but there’s no level on which Thousand Vision Mist haven’t outdone themselves with Depths of Oblivion.
Founded and fronted by vocalist George Chamberlin (Ritual Earth), the named-for-a-Joy–Division-tune New Dawn Fades make their initial public offering with the three-songer Forever, which at 15 minutes long doesn’t come close to the title but makes its point well before it’s through all the same. In “True Till Death,” they update a vibe somewhere between C.O.C.‘s Blind and a less-Southern version of Nola-era Down, while “This Night Has Closed My Eyes” adds some Kyuss flair in Chamberlin‘s vocal and the concluding “New Moon” reinforces the argument with a four-minute parade of swing and chug, Sabbath-bred if not Sabbath-worshiping. If the band — whose lineup seems to have changed since this was recorded at least in the drums — are going to take on a full-length next, they’ll want to shake things up, maybe an interlude, etc., but as a short outing and even more as their first, they don’t necessarily need to shock with off-the-wall style. Instead, Forever portrays New Dawn Fades as having a clear grasp on what they want to do and the songwriting command to make it happen. Wherever they go from here, it’ll be worth keeping eyes and ears open.
According to the band, Aton Five‘s mostly-instrumental self-titled sophomore full-length was recorded between 2019 and 2022, and that three-year span would seem to have allowed for the Moscow-based four-piece to deep-dive into the five pieces that comprise it, so that the guitar and organ answering each other on “Danse Macabre” and the mathy angularity that underscores much of the second half of “Naked Void” exist as fully envisioned versions of themselves, even before you get to the 22-minute “Lethe,” which closes. With the soothing “Clepsydra” in its middle as the only track under eight minutes long, Aton Five have plenty of time to develop and build outward from the headspinning proffered by “Alienation” at the album’s start and in the bassy jabs and departure into and through clearheaded drift-metal (didn’t know it existed, but there it is), the work they’ve put into the material is obvious and no less multifaceted than are the songs, “Alienation” resolving in a combination of sweeps and sprints, each of which resonates with purpose. That one might say the same of each of the three parts that make up “Lethe” should signal the depth of consideration in the entirety of the release. I know there was a plague on, but maybe Aton Five benefitted as well from having the time to focus as they so plainly did. Whether you try to keep up with the turns or sit back and let the band go where they will, Aton Five, the album, feels like the kind of record that might’ve ended up somewhere other than where the band first thought it would, but is stronger for having made the journey to the finished product.
Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes, In a Sandbox Full of Suns
Their second LP behind 2020’s Everwill, the five-song In a Sandbox Full of Suns finds German four-piece Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes fully switched on in heavy jam fashion, cuts like “Love Story” and “In a Sandbox Full of Suns” — both of which top 11 minutes — fleshed out with improv-sounding guitar and vocals over ultra-fluid rhythms, blending classic heavy blues rock and prog with hints and only hints of vintage-ism and letting the variety in their approach show itself in the four-minute centerpiece “Dead Urban Desert” and the suitably cosmic atmosphere to which they depart in closer “Time and Space.” Leadoff “Coffee Style” is rife with attitude, but wahs itself into an Eastern-inflected lead progression after the midpoint and before turning back to the verse, holding its relaxed but not lazy feel all the while. It is a natural brand of psychedelia that results throughout — an enticing sound between sounds; the proverbial ‘not-lost wandering’ in musical form — as Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes don’t try to hypnotize with effects or synth, etc., but prove willing to take a walk into the unknown when the mood hits. It doesn’t always, but they make the most of their opportunities regardless, and if “Dead Urban Desert” is the exception, its placement as the centerpiece tells you it’s not there by accident.
