Posted in Whathaveyou on October 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Looks like a banger of a way to lose time for an entire weekend. Inhale the mountain air till you pass out, wheel yourself into Denver’s Bar 404 and set up shop for three days of curated heavy local and farflung (though not the band Farflung), find your bliss and if you’re lucky you might even remember it afterward. The first-ever HUFR Fest — gonna be more like a HUGR Fest by the time everybody’s done giving hugs — will launch with a bang. Looking for something without the same headliners you’ve seen a hundred times? Here’s an event digging into the underground for real and finding something to offer apart from the did-you-know-High-on-Fire-won-a-Grammy norm. I don’t even know Vashon Seed, but I’m keen to find out.
Okay I took two seconds and googled. Roots in Sub Pop pre-grunge Seattle noise, heavy punker approach, one record out in Sept. 2020 (hell of a time for a debut), find it below. See how easy and fun it can be to learn new things?
Six bands Friday, six bands Saturday, five on Sunday. Deer Creek seem to have dropped off, which is unfortunate, but there’s still nary a clunker to be found. If you go to this one, I hope it’s as much of a blast as it looks:
HUFR FEST: Mile High Riffs
April 24–26, 2026 | Bar 404, Denver, CO
The Heavy Underground Farm Report proudly presents HUFR FEST: Mile High Riffs, a three-day celebration of Colorado’s heaviest underground sounds. From stoner rock and doom to psychedelic and desert grooves, this festival unites local legends and national rising acts for a weekend of riffs, community, and fuzz-soaked vibes.
LINEUP Friday, April 24 Vashon Seed Hibernaut Violet Rising Lord Velvet Sonolith Lost Relics
Saturday, April 25 Psalm Momovudu Godzillionaire Luna Sol Blue Heron Cobranoid
Sunday, April 26 Nomestomper Black Sunrise Messiahvore Shadow of Jupiter Peach Street Revival
Posted in Reviews on October 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Last day o’ the QR, and that’s always fun, but looking at the calendar and looking at my desktop, I might try to knucle down for a follow-up edition next month. I know I traditionally do one in December, which is so, so, so stupid, even with the relative dearth of press releases around the holidays, because there’s so much else going on. But maybe in November, before the Thanksgiving holiday. I only have one thing maybe-slated for November now, so now would be the time to slate it. Check back Nov. 10? Roll it out on my sister’s birthday? Maybe.
For now though, one more batch of 10 to round out the 70 total releases covered here, and as ever, I’ve basically packed the final day with stuff I already know I like. That’s nothing against anything on any of the other days, but if you’re a regular around here, you probably already know that I load up the finish to make it easier on myself. Not that any day here was really hard to get through, but for everything else in life that isn’t sitting in front of the laptop and writing about music.
Thanks as always for reading. I hope you found something you dig in this QR. Back to normal tomorrow.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return
Progressive heavy rock spearheads Elder surprise-dropped Liminality/Dream State Return, their first two-songer EP since 2012’s Spires Burn/Release (review here), a couple weeks ago. It’s their first studio outing since 2022’s Innate Passage (review here), and while one might be tempted to read into the melodic wash of “Liminality” (13:10) and the way its vocals become part of the song’s atmosphere, balanced for nuance and texture in the mix, and the keyboardier take on “Dream State Return,” the material was reportedly sourced from pieces of material left over from their last couple albums, rather than written new. Nonetheless, the way these parts are fleshed out underscores just how special a band Elder is, since basically they can take a progression they’ve had laying around for however long and turn into something so majestic. This, in combination with their work ethic, has made them the best band of their generation. They remain such.
Following 2023’s Ingress (review here), brash Salt Lake City four-piece Hibernaut — guitarist/vocalist Dave Jones (Oxcross, Dwellers, ex-SubRosa), lead guitarist Matt Miller, bassist Josh Dupree and drummer Zach Hatsis (Dwellers, ex-SubRosa) — begin to step further out from their influences with their second album, the six-track/47-minute Obsidian Eye. High on Fire remain a central point of inspiration, but you know how that band really kind of announced who they were with Blessed Black Wings and set themselves on their own path? There’s some of that happening in the grooves of “Pestiferous,” “Revenants” and others here, and while the galloping double-kick and dirt-coated declarations might ring familiar, Hibernaut are beginning to put their own stamp on their craft, and one remains curious how that will continue to manifest their persona in their sound. High on Fire never had a song like “Beset,” and that wah on “Engorge Behemoth” has just an edge of Sabbath-via-Electric Wizard, so there’s more here than marauding if you want to hear it.
Titled as though they intended to preempt criticism of their own self-indulgence — a kinder-self-talk version might have been called ‘Expansive’ — the second album from L.A.’s The Oil Barons, Grandiose, is working with an expanded definition of heavy either way. Part desert rock, it’s also Western Americana enough to open with a take on Morricone and while they’re for sure laying it on thick with the gang-chanted version of “John Brown’s Body” worked in between the organ sway of “Gloria” and the nine-minute lap-steel-inclusive expanse of “Shinola.” The later heavy instrumental reacher “Quetzalacatenango” (16:39) and their beefing up of the Grateful Dead regular “Morning Dew” as “Morning Doom” (13:49) are longer, but there’s more going on here than track length, as the melodic twang-pop of “Vivienne” and the light-barroom-swing-into-harmonies-into-riffs of the subsequent “Death Hangs” demonstrate. Top it all off with a purported narrative and Grandiose lives up to its name, but also to its intention.
The first Temple of Love full-length, Songs of Love and Despair, feels very much like a willful callout to classic goth rock. The core, partnered founding duo of vocalist Suzy Bravo (Witchcryer) and guitarist/vocalist Steve Colca (ex-Destroyer of Light), as well as the rhythm section of bassist Joseph Maniscalco and drummer Patrick Pascucci (Duel) begin with a string of catchy, uptempo numbers dark in atmosphere with an unmistakable sheen on the guitar tone and by the time the centerpiece instrumental “Paradise Lost” takes hold with a heavier shift leading into the second half of the album, with “Devil” as an obvious focal point, you’re hooked. The vocal trades on “Save Yourself” and the rocker “Joke’s on You,” with Colca growling a bit, distinguish them as modern, but they’re firm in their purpose unto the string sounds that cap “If We Could Fly,” and clearly aesthetic is part of the mission. They didn’t name themselves after a Sisters of Mercy LP by mistake.
From garage-style heavy and psychedelic jamming, modern space boogie to denser, doomier roll and a stylistically-offbeat quirk that feels ever more intentional, Montana-based trio The Gray Goo are dug into this mini-gamut of style on their third album, Cabin Fever Dreams, with guitarist/vocalist Max Gargasz (who also recorded/produced) giving space in the mix (by Robert Parker) for the melody in Matt Carper‘s bass to come through on 10-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Intrepid Traveler,” beginning a thread of nuance that emphasizes just how flexible the band’s sound is. Even amid the fuzz and chugging resolution of “Isolation” and the jammed-but-with-a-plan “Floodgates,” there’s a sense of looking beyond genre to internalized individualism, the latter carrying into the marching semi-nerd-rapped title-track, which breaks to let the weirdness persist before coming back around with a shuffle to close, while “Manic” (with Colton Sea on guest vocals) roughs up proto-punk until it hits a midsection of Sabbath blues and gets a little more shove from there. “Manic” brings this to a culmination and some chanting gives over the minimal psych experiment “Someone’s at the Door,” which closes. They’ve let go of some — not all, but some — of their earlier funk, but The Gray Goo remain delightfully on their own wavelength. Someone in this band likes Ween, and they’re better for it.
A decade after his first solo release, the declarative 1974 (review here), former Los Natas guitarist/vocalist Sergio Ch. (né Chotsourian, also of Ararat, Soldati, numerous other projects and collaborations) has only broadened his palette around a central approach to avant folk and intimate experimentalism. “Las Riendas” has been around for a while, unless I’m wrong (always possible) and “Tufi Meme 94” is an unearthed four-track demo of the Los Natas song of the same name, but it’s in the repetitions and slow, fuzz-infused evolution of “Tear Drop,” the vocally-focused “Stairway” and the somehow-ceremonial “Centinelas Bajo el Sol” that Shiva Shakti Dramalays out its most ethereal reaches. The album was reportedly put together following an injury to Chotsourian‘s ear, during a recovery period after his “left ear blew up during a Soldati rehearsal.” So there’s healing to be had in “Little Hands” and the buzzing lead of “Violet,” as well as exploration.
Spectral Fields is the duo of Jason Simon (Dead Meadow) and and Caleb Dravier (Jungle Gym Records), and with IV they present a two-part title-piece “IV A” (20:04) and “IV B” (23:12), with each extended track taking on its own atmosphere. The hand percussion behind “IV A” is evocative of quiet desert Americana, like clopping horseshoes, while “IV B” runs more sci-fi in its keyboard and synthy beat behind the central, malleable-and-less-still-than-it-seems overarching drone. The guitar on “IV A” works with a similar river’s-surface-style deceptive stillness. Immersion isn’t inevitable, and the challenge here is to dwell alongside the band in the material if you can, with the reward for doing so being carried across the gradually-shifting expanse that Simon and Dravier lay out. It’s not a project for everybody, but Spectral Fields shine with meditative purpose and ethereal presence alike.
The second full-length, Resolution, from Denver-based harmony-prone heavy rockers Pink Fuzz owes much of its impact to tempo and melody — which I think makes it music. The brother/sister duo of John Demitro (guitar) and bassist LuLu Demitro bass share vocal duties and trade lead spots to add variety across the taut, no-time-for-bullshit 10 songs as drummer Forrest Raup lends shove to the buzzing desert riffage of “Coming for Me,” while the title-track shreds into a ’90s-style ticky-ticky-tock of a groove and “Am I Happy?” moves from its standalone-voice beginning to a gorgeously executed build and roll, bolstered by the Alain Johannes mix bringing up the lead guitar alongside LuLu’s voice, but rooted in the performance captured rather than the after-the-fact balancing of elements. “No Sympathy” and “Worst Enemy” stick closer to a Queens of the Stone Age influence, but the desert is a starting point, not the end of their reach. It’d be fair to call them songwriting-based if they didn’t also kick so much ass as players.
Having the tone is one thing and making it move is another, but Dorset, UK, two-piece The Dukes of Hades bring forth their debut EP, Oracle of the Dead with a pointed sense of push, more so once they’re on the other side of rolling-into-the-slowdown opener “Seeds of Oblivion,” in “Last Rites,” “Pigs” and “Constant Grief,” where the tempo is higher and the bruises are delivered by the measure. Even Gareth Brunsdon‘s snare on “Constant Grief” comes across thick, never mind the buzzing riffs of Steve Lynch, whose guttural vocals top the procession. They save their most fervent shove for the two-minute finale “Death Defying Heights,” but the eight-minute penultimate “Tomahawk” sees them work in more of a middle-paced range while executing trades in volume and even letting go to silence as they hit minute six soon to burst back to life, so they’re already messing with the formula a bit even as they write out what that formula might be. That’s just one of the hopeful portents on this gritty and impressive first outing.
A noise-infused trio from Vancouver — or maybe it’s just that their logo reminds me of Whores. — the three-piece Worse issued their latest single “Misandrist” in memory of Ozzy, following on from the also-one-songer “Mackinaw” from earlier in the year. The newer cut is more lumbering and establishes a larger tonal presence by virtue of its instrumentalist take, while drummer Matt Wood brought party-time shouts to “Mackinaw,” which of course emphasized and complemented the central riff in a different way. Out front of the stage, guitarist Shane Clark and bassist Frank Dingle offer rumble and spacious distortion, the effect seeming to build up with each new, lurching round as they dirge to the fading ringout. Sludgy in form, the affect presents itself like a half-speed High on Fire, which if you’ve got to end up somewhere, is a more than decent place for “Misandrist” to be. If you’re still reading this, yes, I’m talking about myself as well as the band. They’ve got one LP out. I’d take another anytime they’ve got it ready.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Mind you, I don’t know that the upcoming first-ever HUFR Fest in Denver is pronouncing itself as “huffer,” but I’m certainly happy to pretend they are either way. In any case, it stands for Heavy Underground Farm Report, which is helmed by Sean Patrick Brooks, and has been put together with the express purpose of showcasing the Mile High City’s homegrown fare alongside the regionally-imported strains of Blue Heron, Luna Sol, Psalm, Sonolith, Godzillionaire and others. It’s a classic-enough formula, and as missions go, there are few more honorable than pulling a crowd into a room and showing them a piece of the scene they’re standing in, whether a given attendee is from there or not.
However you want to say it, HUFR Fest in running three days is showing itself to be not at all without ambition this first time out. They’re calling it, somewhat inevitably, ‘Mile High Riffs,’ and given the largesse of some of these bands — I just heard Blue Heron‘s take on “Head Like a Hole” for the first time; good fun — that would seem to be the standard they’re applying. Looks like fun.
From social media:
HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs
Denver, Colorado is about to get heavier. Created by Sean Brooks, Andrea Thomas-Brooks, and Zeth Pedulla, HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs is a three-day celebration of stoner, doom, and riff-driven rock, happening April 24–26, 2026 at Bar 404 in the heart of Denver.
With 17 bands across the weekend, HUFR FEST brings the crushing weight of doom, the fuzzed-out haze of stoner rock, and the psychedelic grooves of heavy underground music to the Mile High City. More than just a festival, it’s a gathering for the heavy music community—fans, bands, artists, and riff worshippers alike.
Prepare for walls of sound, swirling smoke, and the kind of communal energy that only heavy music can create. Welcome to HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Take what you can get from Cloud Catcher at this point. The Denver boogiebashers dropped Return From the Cauldron (review here) in 2023 after breaking up in 2019, and in light of the fact that they’ve already un-bandified themselves once, I’m not inclined to take them for granted again. Mile High Live is a new self-released live outing recorded last year. Unsurprisingly, it scorches.
The lineup on Mile High Live is the same as Return From the Cauldron, with founding guitarist/vocalist Rory Rummings joined by bassist Matt Ross and drummer Will Trafas. Somewhat curiously, none of the material on Mile High Live comes from the latest album, but instead from 2017’s Trails of Kozmic Dust (review here) and their 2015 debut, Enlightened Beyond Existence (discussed here). The tunes are killer, so you’re not gonna hear me complain, and as I was fortunate enough to see a different incarnation of Cloud Catcher live some nine years ago, this is a chance to hear the new(er) lineup in action. Again, no shocker here, but the band kill it.
Thus has been the story of Cloud Catcher since their inception. They kicked off with a special energy in their delivery driven by Rummings‘ riffs, and that foundation continues to serve them here. They remain a better band than people know.
From socials and Bandcamp and wherever:
CLOUD CATCHER – Mile High Live
Recorded live on 06/21/2024 at Cervantes’ Otherside
In order to present a true historical documentation of this group, no overdubs of any nature have been performed. Everything you are hearing is CLOUD CATCHER in its purest form, raw… loud… and LIVE.
Thank YOU for listening!
Released May 30, 2025
Tracklisting: 1. Astral Warlord 06:04 2. Trails Of Kozmic Dust 10:51 3. Super Acid Magick 03:38 4. Righteous Ruler 06:47 5. Shores Ablaze 06:28 6. Forgiving Flame 03:51 7. Electric Ritual 05:57 8. Behind The Wall Of Sleep 04:09
Mixed and mastered by Rory Rummings at Cauldron Audio Works, and Hawkwind Ranch Album artwork by Jake Yergs “Cloud Catcher” logo by Christina Hunt
Cloud Catcher are: Rory Rummings – Vocals/Guitar Matt Ross – Bass Will Trafas – Drums
Last heard from with the 2023 EP Get Your Head Right (review here), Denver, Colorado, now-two-piece Burning Sister are getting ready to unveil the band’s second full-length, Ghosts. The follow-up to 2022’s Mile High Downer Rock (review here) answers some of the ‘gazier aspects of Oct. 2023’s Get Your Head Right EP (review here) while invariably presenting a shift in dynamic as a result of the change to their construction. At some point between Fall ’23 and now, bassist/synthesist/vocalist Steve Miller and drummer Alison Salutz parted ways with guitarist Nathan Rorabaugh (Alamo Black), and instead of an immediate replacement, they’ve opted to continue on as a bass/drum heavy psych rocking duo.
Not the least-bold decision they could make, considering the historical reliance of psychedelia on guitar and the gluttonous amount of wankery one can pull off with it when so inclined/talented. Burning Sister‘s approach in the face of this brings in synth from Miller and highlights the tonal reach of the bass, not just conjuring a meditative feel, but fuzzing it out a bit and giving a hint of something otherworldly from an instrument one tends to think of as being pointedly grounded. Floaty bass? Yeah, a bit, but it’s part of a whole molten thing throughout “Lethe//Oblivion” that retains the post-grunge spirit of Burning Sister‘s first LP in such a way as to make me think the album has more tricks up its sleeve than low-end dynamics. And as I’m curious to find out what that might be, as well as to find out whether the band are looking for another guitar player, the single has apparently done its job, so there you go.
Ghosts is coming soon — I don’t have an exact date; keep eyes on socials — and I’ll hope to have more on it as we get there. Enjoy the video in the meantime:
Burning Sister, “Lethe//Oblivion” video premiere
“Lethe//Oblivion” is the debut single from Burning Sister’s sophomore full-length, “Ghosts.”
Steve Miller – bass/synth/vox Alison Salutz – drums
Tracked and mixed by Jamie Hillyer at Module Overload Mastered by Tad Doyle at Witch Ape Studio – Skyway Audio
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 31st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The above photo of Denver’s Oryx was taken at the release show this past January for the band’s latest album, Primordial Sky (review here), and quite simply, it’s what it’s all about. Even before you get to Tommy Davis holding his guitar aloft in triumph, look at the sheer victory on each of their faces. Perhaps most obviously bassist Joshua Kauffman, but definitely there for Tommy and drummer Abigail Davis as well. Sweaty, tired, having very clearly just laid waste to a hometown gig in celebration of their best and farthest reaching work to-date. Fuck. Ing. A.
And speaking of ‘farthest reaching,’ just as Primordial Sky explores new and genre-defiant ground for the band, so too will their travels take them to places yet-unflattened by their volume, tonal density and cathartic take on extreme sludge, likewise spacious and crushing. They’ll go to Japan for the first time in July for a stint of six shows rounding out with two nights in Tokyo. It’s nothing but a feelgood story as far as I’m concerned. Good band puts out killer record and a couple months later does something they’ve apparently been angling toward for years.
You know how on the news they always try to leave off with a story about some neighborhood squirrel who saved a family from a house fire or the cat that traveled 1,500 miles to reunite with its family? Well, something like this is my version of that. Apart perhaps from the music itself — and I’d argue resonant catharsis counteracts depressive aspects; perhaps unsuccessfully depending on the listener — there’s no downer here. It’s only awesome. It feels good to be happy for Oryx, so whether you’ll go to Japan or you’re already there and whether you’ll see them or not, my recommendation is be glad for the band. For most acts from the US, it’s the trip of a lifetime and they’re about to make it. Couldn’t be radder.
From socials:
ORYX – Japanese Tour
Proud to announce our first shows ever in Japan performing ‘Primordial Sky’ this summer. Lineup details to come for each show. We can’t wait! 💥
ORYX JAPAN TOUR 2025 7月1日（火）- 大阪 – HOKAGE 7月2日（水）- 名古屋 – HUCK FINN 7月3日（木）- 京都 – SOCRATES 7月4日（金）- 横浜 – EL PUENTE 7月5日（土）- 東京 – PIT BAR 7月6日 (日) – 東京 – MOD 7/1 (TUE) – OSAKA 大阪 – HOKAGE 7/2 (WED) – NAGOYA 名古屋 – HUCK FINN 7/3 (THU) – KYOTO 京都 – SOCRATES 7/4 (FRI) – YOKOHAMA 横浜 – EL PUENTE 7/5 (SAT) – TOKYO 東京 – PIT BAR 7/6 (SUN) – TOKYO 東京 – MOD
ORYX is: Thomas Davis – all guitars, vocals, synth Abigail Davis – drums Joshua Kauffman – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
You would not accuse Hashtronaut of not knowing what they’re about in Ufomammut-style cosmic largesse and crush and unmititgated stoner idolatry. The suitably-mile-high Denver rollers of very, very large riffs will head out next month on a Spring tour supporting their 2024 debut full-length, No Return (review here), which will see the anniversary of its release shortly before this run starts. Woe unto the eardrums of the masses.
I’m not sure if this is their first time on the Eastern Seaboard or not and I’m not going to pretend to know, but they mention a bunch of new cities either way in the quote below and hint at new material perhaps making its way into the set, to take it as a win either way. I spent half of last year wondering why I didn’t hear more people sloberring on this record on social media and the other half of the year being like “it’s because you don’t pay attention to that shit, duh.” Either way, somebody should be going door-to-door telling nodders about these dudes, and to-date I’ve heard nary a knock.
From the PR wire:
HASHTRONAUT announce East Coast spring tour; debut album available now on Blues Funeral Recordings
Denver, Colorado’s stoner doom specialists HASHTRONAUT are set to spread their skull-crushing, weed-laden gospel with an extensive East Coast tour this spring. Their debut album “No Return” is available now on Blues Funeral Recordings.
Red-eyed at the crossroads of thunderous stoner sludge and towering doom, HASHTRONAUT daze and inebriate the riff-obsessed masses on this planet and beyond. Released in 2024 on Blues Funeral Recordings, their acclaimed debut album “No Return” is a resiny slab in the grand tradition of weed-fiend odysseys from Sleep to Bongzilla, an intoxicating and pummeling trip with a lungful of potent hook-doom and strikingly anthemic vocals that will enthrall fans of Monolord, Windhand or Dopelord. Stream their debut album “No Return” at this location:https://lnkfi.re/hashtronaut
About the upcoming US tour, the band says: “We couldn’t be more excited to get back out on the road again this spring, and even more excited to visit a whole bunch of new cities along the way!! It’s been a long, cold winter in our bunker somewhere outside of Denver, but we emerge with new amps, new riffs, and a new trick or two up our sleeve! See you out there!”
Hashtronaut upcoming US shows: 4.4 – Chicago, Illinois – Reggies 4.6 – Youngstown, Ohio – Westside Bowl 4.7 – Troy, New York – No Fun 4.8 – Brooklyn, New York – The Woodshop 4.9 – Boston, Massachusetts – Middle East Upstairs * 4.10 – Providence, Rhode Island – Alchemy * 4.11 – Lewiston, Maine – The Cage * 4.12 – New London, Connecticut – Telegraph A.Z. * 4.13 – Washington, D.C. – Pie Shop * 4.14 – Atlanta, Georgia – Bogg’s Social 4.15 – Nashville, Tennessee – The Cobra 4.17 – Boone, North Carolina – Lily’s Snack Bar 4.18 – Lexington, Kentucky – Legalize Lex @ Al’s Bar 4.19 – Kansas City, Missouri – Minibar 4.20 – Denver, Colorado – Hi-Dive * with Worshipper
HASHTRONAUT current lineup: Michael Honiotes – Drums* Kellen McInerney – Regular Guitar Robb Park – Stunt Guitar Daniel Smith – Bass/Vocals *all tracks on the album recorded by Eric Garcia
Posted in Reviews on October 21st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This is the last day of the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review. Day 11 of 10, as it were. Bonus-extra, as we say at home. 10 more releases of various kinds to underscore the point of the infinite creative sphere. Before we dive in, I want to make a note about the header above. It’s the same one I used a couple times during the pandemic, with the four horseman of the apocalypse riding, and I put it in place of the AI art I’d been using because that seems to be a trigger for so many people.
In my head, I did that to avoid the conversation, to avoid dealing with someone who might be like, “Ugh, AI art” and then a conversation that deteriorates in the way of people talking at each other on the internet. This saves me the trouble. I’ll note the irony that swiping an old etching out of the public domain and slapping an Obelisk logo on it is arguably less creative than feeding a prompt into a generative whathaveyou, but at least this way I don’t have to hear the underground’s moral panic that AI is coming for stoner rock.
Quarterly Review #101-110:
—
Chat Pile, Cool World
Chat Pile are two-for-two on living up to the hype in my mind as Cool World follows the band’s 2022 debut, God’s Country (review here), with a darker, more metal take on that record’s trauma-poetic and nihilistic noise rock. Some of the bassy jabs in songs like “Camcorder” and “Frownland” remind of Korn circa their self-titled, but I’m not sure Chat Pile were born when that record came out, and that harder, fuller-sounding impact comes in a context with “Tape” following “Camcorder” in bringing together Meshuggah and post-punk, so take it as you will. Based in Oklahoma City, Chat Pile are officially A Big Deal With Dudes™, but in a style that’s not exactly known for reinvention — i.e. noise rock — they are legitimately a breath of air that would be ‘fresh’ if it weren’t so desolate and remains innovative regardless. There’s gonna be a lot of mediocre riffs and shitty poetry written in an attempt to capture a fraction of what this record does.
I guess the anonymous project Neon Nightamre — who sound and aesthetic-wise are straight-up October Rust-and-later Type O Negative; the reason the album caught my eye was the framing of the letters around the corners — have gotten some harsh response to their debut, Faded Dream. Critic-type dudes pearl-clutching a band’s open unoriginality. Because to be sure, beyond dedicating the album to Peter Steele — and maybe they did, I haven’t seen the full artwork — Neon Nightmare could hardly do more in naked homage to the semi-goth Brooklyn legends and their distinctive Beatles/Sabbath worship. But I mean, that’s the point. It’s not like this band is saying they’re the first ones doing any of this, and in a world where AI could scrape every Type O record and pump out some half-assed interpretation in five minutes, isn’t something that attempts to demonstrate actual human love for the source material as it builds on it worth at least acknowledging as creative? I like Type O Negative a lot. The existence of Neon Nightmare doesn’t lessen that at all, and there are individual flashes of style in “Lost Silver” — the keyboard line feels like an easter egg from “Anesthesia”; I wondered if the title was in honor of Josh Silver — and the guitar work of “She’s Drowning” that make me even more curious to see where this goes.
Brooklyn-based instrumentalist five-piece Astrometer present their full-length debut after releasing their first demo, Incubation (review here), in 2022. The double-guitar pairing of Carmine Laietta V and Drew Mack and the drumming of Jeff Stieber at times will put you in mind of their collective past playing together in Hull, but the keys of Jon Ehlers (Bangladeafy) and the basswork of Sam Brodsky (Meek is Murder) assure that the newer collective have a persona and direction of their own, so that while the soaring solo in “Power Vulture” or the crashes of “Blood Wedding” might ring familiar, the context has shifted, so that those crashes come accompanied by sax and there’s room for a song like “Conglobulations” with its quirk, rush and crunching bounce to feel cosmic with the keyboard, and that blend of crush and reach extends into the march of closer “Do I Know How to Party…” which feels like a preface for things to come in its progressive punch.
An annual check-in from universe-and-chill molten and mellow heavy psych explorers Acid Rooster. It’s only been a year since the band unfurled Flowers and Dead Souls, but Hall of Mirrors offers another chance to be hypnotized by the band’s consuming fluidity, the 39-minute four-songer coming across as focused on listener immersion in no small part as a result of Acid Rooster‘s own. That is, it’s not like you’re swimming around the bassline and residual synth and guitar effects noise in the middle of the 14-minute “Chandelier Arp” and the band are standing calm and dry back on the beach. No way. They’re right in it. I don’t know if they were closed-eyes entranced while the recording was taking place, but if you want a definition of ‘dug in,’ Hall of Mirrors has four, and Acid Rooster‘s capacity for conveying purpose as they plunge into a jam-born piece like “Confidence of Ignorance” sets them apart from much of Europe’s psychedelic underground in establishing a meditative atmosphere. They are unafraid of the serene, and not boring. This is an achievement.
Giants Dawrfs and Black Holes, Echo on Death of Narcissus
Five years on from their start, Germany’s Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes present Echo on Death of Narcissus as their third full-length and the follow-up to 2023’s In a Sandbox Full of Suns (review here) as the four-piece bring in new guitarist Caio Puttini Chaves alongside vocalist Christiane Thomaßen, guitarist Tomasz Riedel (also bass and keys) and drummer Carsten Freckmann for a five-track collection that has another album’s worth of knows-what-it’s-about behind it. Opener “Again,” long enough at eight minutes to be a bookend with the finale “Take Me Down” (13:23) but not so long as to undercut that expanse, leads into three competent showings of classic progressive/psychedelic rock, casual in the flow between “Soul Trip” and the foreboding strums of centerpiece “Flowers of Evil” ahead of the also-languid “December Bloom.” And when they get there, “Take Me Down” has a jammy breadth all its own that shimmers in the back half soloing, which kind of devolves at the end, but resounds all the more as organic for that.
Oryx‘s Primordial Sky threads a stylistic needle across its four songs. Delivered through Translation Loss, the 41-minute follow-up to the Denver trio’s 2021 offering, Lamenting a Dead World (discussed here), is no less extreme than one would expect, but to listen to 13-minute opener/longest track (immediate points), 13-minute capper “Look Upon the Earth,” or either of the seven-minute cuts between, it’s plain to both hear and see that there’s more to Oryx atmospherically than onslaught, however low guitarist Thomas Davis (also synth) pushes his growls amid the lurching grooves of bassist Joshua Kauffman and drummer Abigail Davis. This is something that five records and more than a decade on from their start their listeners know well, but as they refine their processes, even the outright sharp-toothed consumption of “Ephemeral” has some element of outreach.
Heads up on this record for those who dig the mellower end of heavy psych, plus intricacy of arrangement, which is a number in which I very much count myself. By that I mean don’t be surprised when Sunface‘s Cloud Castles shows up on my year-end list. It’s less outwardly traditionalist than some of the heavy rock coming out of Norway at this point in history, but showcasing a richer underground only makes Cloud Castles more vital in my mind, and as even a shorter song like “Thunder Era” includes an open-enough sensibility to let a shoegazier sway enter the proceedings in “Violet Ponds” without seeming incongruous for the post-All Them Witches bluesy sway that underlies it. Innovative for the percussion in “Tall Trees” alone, Sunface are weighted in tone but able to move in a way that feels like their own, and to convey that movement without upsetting the full-album flow across the 10 songs and 44 minutes with radical changes in meter, while at the same time not dwelling too long in any single stretch or atmosphere.
While consistent with their two prior LPs in the general modus of unmitigated aural heft and oppressive, extreme sludge, Fórn declare themselves on broader aesthetic ground in incorporating electronic elements courtesy of guitarist Joey Gonzalez and Andrew Nault, as well as newcomer synthesist Lane Shi Otayonii, whose clean vocals also provide a sense of space to 11-minute post-intro plunge “Soul Shadow.” If it’s the difference between all-crush and mostly-crush, that’s not nothing, and “Anamnesis” can be that much noisier for the band’s exploring a more encompassing sound. Live drums are handled in a guest capacity by Ilsa‘s Josh Brettell, and that band’s Orion Peter also sits in alongside Fórn‘s Chris Pinto and Otayonii, and with Danny Boyd on guitar and Brian Barbaruolo on bass, the sound is duly massive, tectonic and three-dimensional; the work of a band following a linear progression toward new ideas and balancing that against the devastation laid forth in their songs. Repercussions of the Self does not want for challenge directed toward the listener, but the crux is catharsis more than navelgazing, and the intensity here is no less crucial to Fórn‘s post-metallic scene-setting than it has been to this point in their tenure. Good band actively making themselves better.
Big-riffed heavy fuzz rock from Northern Ireland as the Belfast-based self-releasing-for-now four-piece of vocalist/synthesist Fionnuala McGlinchy, guitarist Tom Finney, bassist Michael McFarlane and drummer Ciaran O’Kane touch on vibes reminiscent of some of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard‘s synth-fused sci-fi doom roil while keeping the material more earthbound in terms of tone and structure, so that the seven-minute “The Abstract” isn’t quite all-in on living up to the title, plenty liquefied, but still aware of itself and where it’s going. This mitigated terrestrialism — think Middle of Nowhere-era Acid King — is the source of a balance to which Negative Space, the band’s second album, is able to reshape as required by a given song — “Burning Gaze” has its far-out elements, they’re there for a reason — and thereby portray a range of moods rather than dwelling in the same emotional or atmospheric space for the duration. Bookending intro “As Above” and the closer “So Below” further the impression of the album as a single work/journey to undertake, and indeed that seems to be how the character of “The Forest,” “Delirium” and the rest of the material flourishes.
Romanian instrumentalist heavy psych purveyors Methadone Skies sent word of the follow-up to 2021’s Retrofuture Caveman (review here) last month and said that the six-songer Spectres at Dawn was the heaviest work they’d done in their now-six-album tenure. Well they’re right. Taking cues from Russian Circles and various others in the post-heavy sphere, guitarists Alexandru Wehry and Casian Stanciu, bassist Mihai Guta and drummer Flavius Retea (also keyboards, of increasing prominence in the sound), are still able to dive into a passage and carry across a feeling of openness and expanse, but on “Mano Cornetto” here that becomes just part of a surprisingly stately rush of space metal, and 10-minute closer “Use the Excessive Force” seems to be laying out its intention right there in the title. Whether the ensuing blastbeats are, in fact, excessive, will be up to the individual listener, but either way, Methadone Skies have done their diligence in letting listeners know where they’re headed, and Spectres at Dawn embodies that forwardness of ethic on multiple levels.
