Welcome to the penultimate day of the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review, and yes, I will make just about any excuse to use the word “penultimate.” Sometimes you have a favorite thing, okay? The journey continues today, down, out, up and around, through and across 10 records from various styles and backgrounds. I hope you dig it and check back tomorrow for the last day. Here we go.

Quarterly Review #81-90:

Motorpsycho, Ancient Astronauts

There is no denying Motorpsycho. I’ve tried. Can’t be done. I don’t know how many records the Norwegian progressive rockers have put out by now, and honestly I wonder if even the band members themselves could give an accurate count. And who would be able to fact check? Ancient Astronauts continues the strong streak that the Trondheim trio of Tomas Järmyr, Bent Sæther, and Hans “Snah” Ryan have had going for at least the last six years — 2021’s Kingdom of Oblivion (review here) was also part of it — comprising four songs across a single 43-minute LP, with side B consumed entirely by the 22-minute finale “Chariot of the Sun/To Phaeton on the Occasion of Sunrise (Theme From an Imaginary Movie).” After the 12-minute King Crimsony build from silence to sustained freakout in “Mona Lisa Azazel” — preceded by the soundscape “The Flower of Awareness” (2:14) and the relatively straightforward, welcome-bidding “The Ladder” (6:41) — the closer indeed unfurls in two discernible sections, the first a linear stretch increasing in volume and tension as it moves forward, loosely experimental in the background but for sure a prog jam by its 11th minute that ends groovy at about its 15th, and the second a synthesizer-led arrangement that, to no surprise, is duly cinematic. Motorpsycho have been a band for more than 30 years established their place in the fabric of the universe, and are there to dwell hopefully for a long(er) time to come. Not all of the hundred-plus releases they’ve done have been genius, but they are so reliably themselves in sound it feels silly to write about them. Just listen and be happy they’re there.

Motorpsycho on Facebook

Stickman Records store

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Abrams, In the Dark

Did you think Abrams would somehow not deliver quality-crafted heavy rock, straightforward in structure, ’00s punk undercurrent, plus metal, plus melody? Their first offering through Small Stone is In the Dark, the follow-up to 2020’s Modern Ways (review here), and it finds guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster joined by on guitar by Patrick Alberts (Call of the Void), making the band a four-piece for the first time with bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen and drummer Ryan DeWitt completing the lineup. One can hear new textures and depth in songs like “Better Living” after the raucous opening salvo of “Like Hell” and “Death Tripper,” and longer pieces like “Body Pillow,” the title-track and the what-if-Blizzard–of–Ozz-was-really-space-rock “Black Tar Mountain,” which reach for new spaces atmospherically and in terms of progressive melody — looking at you, “Fever Dreams” — while maintaining the level of songwriting one anticipates from Abrams four records in. They’ve been undervalued for a while now. Can their metal-heavy-rock-punk-prog-that’s-also-kind-of-pop gain some of the recognition it deserves? It only depends on getting ears to hear it.

Abrams on Facebook

Small Stone Records on Bandcamp

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All India Radio, The Generator of All Infinity

Australia-based electronic prog outfit All India Radio — the solo ambient/atmospheric endeavor of composer and Martin Kennedy — has been releasing music for over 20 years, and is the kind of thing you may have heard without realizing it, soundtracking television and whatnot. The Generator of All Infinity is reportedly the final release in a trilogy cycle, completely instrumental and based largely on short ambient movements that move between each other like, well, a soundtrack, with some more band-minded ideas expressed in “The New Age” — never underestimate the value of live bass in electronic music — and an array of samples, differing organs, drones, psychedelic soundscapes, and a decent bit of ’80s sci-fi intensity on “Beginning Part 2,” which succeeds in making the wait for its underlying beat excruciating even though the whole piece is just four minutes long. There are live and sampled drums throughout, shades of New Wave, krautrock and a genuine feeling of culmination in the title-track’s organ-laced crescendo wash, but it’s a deep current of drone that ends on “Doomsday Machine” that makes me think whatever narrative Kennedy has been telling is somewhat grim in theme. Fair enough. The Generator of All Infinity will be too heady for some (most), but if you can go with it, it’s evocative enough to maybe be your own soundtrack.

All India Radio on Facebook

All India Radio on Bandcamp

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Nighdrator, Nighdrator

Mississippi-based heavygaze rockers Nighdrator released the single “The Mariner” as a standalone late in 2020 as just the duo of vocalist/producer Emma Fruit and multi-instrumentalist JS Curley. They’ve built out more of a band on their self-titled debut EP, put to tape through Sailing Stone Records and bringing back “Mariner” (dropped the ‘The’) between “Scarlet Tendons” and the more synth-heavy wash of “The Poet.” The last two minutes of the latter are given to noise, drone and silence, but what unfurls before that is an experimentalist-leaning take on heavier post-rock, taking the comparatively grounded exploratory jangle of “Scarlet Tendons” — which picks up from the brief intro “Crest/Trough” depending on which format you’re hearing — and turning its effects-laced atmosphere into a foundation in itself. Given the urgency that remains in the strum of “Mariner,” I wouldn’t expect Nighdrator to go completely in one direction or another after this, but the point is they set up multiple opportunities for creative growth while signaling an immediate intention toward individuality and doing more than the My-Bloody-Valentine-but-heavy that has become the standard for the style. There’s some of that here, but Nighdrator seem not to want to limit themselves, and that is admirable even in results that might turn out to be formative in the longer term.

Nighdrator on Bandcamp

Sailing Stone Records store

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Seven Rivers of Fire, Sanctuary

William Graham Randles, who is the lone figure behind all the plucked acoustic guitar strings throughout Seven Rivers of Fire‘s three-song full-length, Sanctuary, makes it easy to believe the birdsong that occurs throughout “Union” (16:30 opener and longest track; immediate points), “Al Tirah” (9:00) and “Bloom” (7:30) was happening while the recording was taking place and that the footsteps at the end are actually going somewhere. This is not Randles‘ first full-length release of 2022 and not his last — he releases the new Way of the Pilgrim tomorrow, as it happens — but it does bring a graceful 33 minutes of guitar-based contemplation, conversing with the natural world via the aforementioned birdsong as well as its own strums and runs, swells and recessions of activity giving the feeling of his playing in the sunshine, if not under a tree then certainly near one or, at worst, someplace with an open window and decent ventilation; the air feels fresh. “Al Tirah” offers a long commencement drone and running water, while “Bloom” — which begins with footsteps out — is more playfully folkish, but the heart throughout Sanctuary is palpable and in celebration of the organic, perhaps of the surroundings but also in its own making. A moment of serenity, far-away escapism, and realization.

Seven Rivers of Fire on Facebook

Aural Canyon Music on Bandcamp

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Motherslug, Blood Moon Blues

Half a decade on from The Electric Dunes of Titan (review here), Melbourne sludge rock bruisers Motherslug return with Blood Moon Blues, a willfully unmanageable 58-minute, let’s-make-up-for-lost-time collection that’s got room enough for “Hordes” to put its harsh vocals way forward in the mix over a psychedelic doom sprawl while also coexisting with the druggy desert punkers “Crank” and “Push the Venom” and the crawling death in the culmination of “You (A Love Song)” — which it may well be — later on. With acoustic stretches bookending in “Misery” and the more fully a song “Misery (Slight Return),” there’s no want for cohesion, but from naked Kyussism of “Breathe” and the hard Southern-heavy-informed riffs of “Evil” — yes I’m hearing early Alabama Thunderpussy there — to the way in which “Deep in the Hole” uses similar ground as a launchpad for its spacious solo section, there’s an abiding brashness to their approach that feels consistent with their past work. Not every bands sees the ways in which microgenres intersect, let alone manages to set their course along the lines between, drawing from different sides in varied quantities as they go, but Motherslug do so while sounding almost casual about it for their lack of pretense. Accordingly, the lengthy runtime of Blood Moon Blues feels earned in a way that’s not always the case with records that pass the single-LP limit of circa 45 minutes, there’s blues a-plenty and Motherslug brought enough riffs for the whole class, so dig in, everybody.

Motherslug on Facebook

Motherslug on Bandcamp

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Cheater Pipe, Planetarium Module

Keep an ear out because you’re going to be hearing more of this kind of thing in the next few years. On their third album, Planetarium Module, Cheater Pipe blend Oliveri-style punk with early-aughts sludge tones and sampling, and as we move to about 20 years beyond acts like Rebreather and -(16)- and a slew of others including a bunch from Cheater Pipe‘s home state of Louisiana, yeah, there will be more acts adapting this particular stoner sludge space. Much to their credit, Cheater Pipe not only execute that style ably — Emissions sludge — on “Fog Line Shuffle,” “Cookie Jar” or “White Freight Liner Blues” and the metal-as-punk “Hollow Leg Hobnobber,” they bring Floor-style melody to “Yaw” and expand the palette even further in the second half of the tracklist, with “Mansfield Bar” pushing the melody further, “Flight of the Buckmoth” and closer “Rare Sunday” turning to acoustic guitar and “The Sad Saga of Hans Cholo” between them lending atmospheric breadth to the whole. They succeed at this while packing 11 songs into 34 minutes and coming across generally like they long ago ran out of fucks to give about things like what style they’re playing to or what’s ‘their sound.’ Invariably they think of these things — nobody writes a song and then never thinks about it again, even when they tell you otherwise — but the spirit here is middle-fingers-up, and that suits their sound best anyway.

Cheater Pipe on Facebook

Cheater Pipe on Bandcamp

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Old Million Eye, The Air’s Chrysalis Chime

The largely solo endeavor of Brian Lucas of Dire Wolves and a merry slew of others, Old Million Eye‘s latest full-length work arrives via Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube with mellow psychedelic experimentalism and folk at its core. The Air’s Chrysalis Chime boasts seven pieces in 43 minutes and each one establishes its own world to some degree based around an underlying drone; the fluidity in “Louthian Wood” reminiscent of windchimes and accordion without actually being either of those things — think George Harrison at the end of “Long Long Long,” but it keeps going — and “Tanglier Mirror” casts out a wash of synthesizer melody that would threaten to swallow the vocals entirely would they not floating up so high. It’s a vibe based around patience in craft, but not at all staid, and “White Toads” throws some distorted volume the listener’s way not so much as a lifeline for rockers as another tool to be used when called for. The last cosmic synthesizer on “Ruby River,” the album’s nine-minute finale, holds as residual at the end, which feels fair as Lucas‘ voice — the human element of its presence is not to be understated as songs resonate like an even-farther-out, keyboard-leaning mid-period Ben Chasny — has disappeared into the ether of his own making. We should all be so lucky.

Old Million Eye on Bandcamp

Cardinal Fuzz Records store

Feeding Tube Records store

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Zoltar, Bury

“Bury” is the newest single from Swedish heavy rockers Zoltar, who, yes, take their moniker from the genie machine in the movie Big (they’re not the only ones either). It follows behind two songs released last year in “Asphalt Alpha” and “Dirt Vortex.” Those tracks were rawer in overall production sound, but there’s still plenty of edge in “Bury,” up to and including in the vocals, which are throatier here than on either of the two prior singles, though still melodic enough so that when the electric piano-style keys start up at about two and a half minutes into the song, the goth-punk nod isn’t out of place. It’s a relatively straight-ahead hook with riffing made that much meatier through the tones on the recording, and a subtle wink in the direction of Slayer‘s “Dead Skin Mask” in its chorus. Nothing to complain about there or more generally about the track, as the three-piece seem to be working toward some kind of proper release — they did press up a CD of Bury as a standalone, so kudos to them on the physicality — be it an EP or album. Wherever they end up, if these songs make the trip or are dropped on the way, it’s a look at a band’s earliest moves as a group and how quickly that collaboration can change and find its footing. Zoltar — who did not have feet in the movie — may just be doing that here.

Zoltar on Facebook

Zoltar store

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Ascia, III

Sardinia’s Fabrizio Monni (also of Black Capricorn) has unleashed a beast in Ascia, and with III, he knows it more than ever. The follow-up to Volume II (review here) and Volume I (review here) — both released late last year — is more realized in terms of songcraft, and it would seem Monni‘s resigned himself to being a frontman of his own solo-project, which is probably the way to go since he’s obviously the most qualified, and in songs like “The Last Ride,” he expands on the post-High on Fire crash-and-bash with more of a nodding central groove, while “Samothrace” finds a place for itself between marauder shove and more direct heavy rock riffery. Each time out, Monni seems to have more of an idea of what he wants Ascia to be, and whether there’s a IV to come after this or he’s ready to move onto something else in terms of release structure — i.e., a debut album — the progression he’s undertaken over the last year-plus is plain to hear in these songs and how far they’ve come in so short a time.

Ascia on Bandcamp

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

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Welcome back to the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s not quite the same as the Mountain of Madness, but there are definitely days where it feels like they’re pretty closely related. Just the same, we, you and I, persist through like digging a tunnel sans dynamite, and I hope you had a great and safe weekend (also sans dynamite) and that you find something in this batch of releases that you truly enjoy. Not really much point to the thing otherwise, I guess, though it does tend to clear some folders off the desktop. Like, 100 of them in this case. That in itself isn’t nothing.

Time’s a wastin’. Let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

Boris, Heavy Rocks

One can’t help but wonder if Boris aren’t making some kind of comment on the franchise-ification of what sometimes feels like every damn thing by releasing a third Heavy Rocks album, as though perhaps it’s become their brand label for this particular kind of raucousness, much as their logo in capital letters or lowercase used to let you know what kind of noise you were getting. Either way, in 10 tracks and 41 minutes that mostly leave scorch marks when they’re done — they space out a bit on “Question 1” but elsewhere in the song pull from black metal and layer in lead guitar triumph — and along the way give plenty more thick toned, sometimes-sax-inclusive on-brand chicanery to dive into. “She is Burning,” “Cramper” and “My Name is Blank” are rippers before the willfully noisy relative slowdown “Blah Blah Blah,” and Japanese heavy institution are at their most Melvinsian with the experiment “Nosferatou,” ahead of the party metal “Ruins” and semi-industrial blowout “Ghostly Imagination,” the would-be-airy-were-it-not-crushing “Chained” and the concluding “(Not) Last Song,” which feeds the central query above in asking if there’s another sequel coming, piano, feedback, and finally, vocals ending what’s been colloquially dubbed Heavy Rocks (2022) with an end-credits scene like something truly Marvelized. Could be worse if that’s the way it’s going. People tend to treat each Boris album as a landmark. I’m not sure this one is, but sometimes that’s part of what happens with sequels too.

Boris on Facebook

Relapse Records store

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Mother Bear, Zamonian Occultism

Along with the depth of tone and general breadth of the mix, one of the aspects most enjoyable about Mother Bear‘s debut album, Zamonian Occultism, is how it seems to refuse to commit to one side or the other. They call themselves doom and maybe they are in movements here like the title-track, but the mostly-instrumental six-track/41-minute long-player — which opens and closes with lyrics and has “Sultan Abu” in the middle for a kind of human-voice trailmarker along the way — draws more from heavy psychedelia and languid groove on “Anagrom Ataf,” and if “Blue Bears and Silver Spliffs” isn’t stoner riffed, nothing ever has been. At the same time, the penultimate title-track slows way down, pulls the curtains closed, and offers a more massive nod, and the 10-minute closer “The Wizaaard” (just when you thought there were no more ways to spell it) answers that sense of foreboding in its own declining groove and echo-laced verses, but puts the fuzz at the forefront of the mix, letting the listener decide ultimately where they’re at. Tell you where I am at least: On board. Guitarist/vocalist Jonas Wenz, bassist Kevin Krenczer and drummer Florian Grass lock in hypnotic groove early and use it to tie together almost everything they do here, and while they’re obviously schooled in the styles they’re touching on, they present with an individual intent and leave room to grow. Will look forward to more.

Mother Bear on Facebook

Mother Bear on Bandcamp

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Sonja, Loud Arriver

After being kicked out of black metallers Absu for coming out as trans, Melissa Moore founded Sonja in Philadelphia with Grzesiek Czapla on drums and Ben Brand on bass, digging into a ‘true metal’ aesthetic with ferocity enough that Loud Arriver is probably the best thing they could’ve called their first record. Issued through Cruz Del Sur — so you know their ’80s-ism is class — the 37-minute eight-tracker vibes nighttime and draws on Moore‘s experience thematically, or so the narrative has it (I haven’t seen a lyric sheet), with energetic shove in “Nylon Nights” and “Daughter of the Morning Star,” growing duly melancholy in “Wanting Me Dead” before finding its victorious moment in the closing title-track. Cuts like “Pink Fog,” “Fuck, Then Die” and opener “When the Candle Burns Low…” feel specifically born of a blend of 1979-ish NWOBHM, but there’s a current of rock and roll here as well in the penultimate “Moans From the Chapel,” a sub-three-minute shove that’s classic in theme as much as riff and the most concise but by no means the only epic here. Hard not to read in catharsis on the part of Moore given how the band reportedly came about, but Loud Arriver serves notice one way or the other of a significant presence in the underground’s new heavy metal surge. Sonja have no time to waste. There are asses to kick.

Sonja on Facebook

Cruz Del Sur Music store

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Reverend Mother, Damned Blessing

Seven-minute opener ends in a War of the Worlds-style radio announcement of an alien invasion underway after the initial fuzzed rollout of the song fades, and between that and the subsequent interlude “Funeral March,” Reverend Mother‘s intent on Damned Blessing seems to be to throw off expectation. The Brooklynite outfit led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jackie Green (also violin) find even footing on rockers like “Locomotive” or the driving-until-it-hits-that-slowdown-wall-and-hey-cool-layering “Reverend Mother,” and the strings on the instrumental “L.V.B.,” which boasts a cello guest spot by High Priestess Nighthawk of Heavy Temple, who also returns on the closing Britney Spears cover “Toxic,” a riffed-up bent that demonstrates once again the universal applicability of pop as Reverend Mother tuck it away after the eight-minute “The Masochist Tie,” a sneering roll and chugger that finds the trio of Green, bassist Matt Cincotta and drummer Gabe Katz wholly dug into heavy rock tropes while nonetheless sounding refreshing in their craft. That song and “Shame” before it encapsulate the veer-into-doom-ness of Reverend Mother‘s hard-deliver’d fuzz, but Damned Blessing comes across like the beginning of a new exploration of style as only a next-generation-up take can and heralds change to come. I would not expect their second record to sound the same, but it will be one to watch for. So is this.

Reverend Mother on Instagram

Seeing Red Records store

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Umbilicus, Path of 1000 Suns

The pedigree here is notable as Umbilicus features founding Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz and guitarist/engineer Taylor Nordberg (also visuals), who’s played with Deicide, The Absence and a host of others, but with the soar-prone vocals of Brian Stephenson out front and the warm tonality of bassist Vernon Blake, Umbilicus‘ 10-song/45-minute first full-length, Path of 1000 Suns is a willful deep-dive into modernly-produced-and-presented ’70s-style heavy rock. Largely straightforward in structure, there’s room for proto-metallurgy on “Gates of Neptune” after the swinging “Umbilicus,” and the later melodic highlight “My Own Tide” throws a pure stoner riff into its second half, while the concluding “Gathering at the Kuiper Belt” hints at more progressive underpinnings, it still struts and the swing there is no less defining than in the solo section of “Stump Sponge” back on side A. Hooks abound, and I suppose in some of the drum fills, if you know what you’re listening for, you can hear shades of more extreme aural ideologies, but the prevailing spirit is born of an obvious love of classic heavy rock and roll, and Umbilicus play it with due heart and swagger. Not revolutionary, and actively not trying to be, but definitely the good time it promises.

Umbilicus on Facebook

Listenable Insanity Records on Facebook

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After Nations, The Endless Mountain

Not as frenetic as some out there of a similar technically-proficient ilk, Lawrence, Kansas, double-guitar instrumental four-piece After Nations feel as much jazz on “Féin” or “Cae” as they do progressive metal, djent, experimental, or any other tag with which one might want to saddle the resoundingly complex Buddhism-based concept album, The Endless Mountain — the Bandcamp page for which features something of a recommended reading list as well as background on the themes reportedly being explored in the material — which is fluid in composition and finds each of its seven more substantial inclusions accompanied by a transitional interlude that might be a drone, near-silence, a foreboding line of keys, whathaveyou. The later “Širdis” — penultimate to the suitably enlightened “Jūra,” if one doesn’t count the interlude between (not saying you shouldn’t) — is more of a direct linear build, but the 40-minute entirety of The Endless Mountain feels like a steep cerebral climb. Not everyone is going to be up for making it, frankly, but in “}}}” and its punctuationally-named companions there’s some respite from the head-spinning turns that surround, and that furthers both the dynamic at play overall and the accessibility of the songs. Whatever else it might be, it’s immaculately produced and every single second, from “Mons” and “Aon” to “))” and “(),” feels purposeful.

After Nations on Facebook

After Nations on Bandcamp

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Holy Dragon, Mordjylland

With the over-the-top Danzig-ian vocals coming through high in the mix, the drums sounding intentionally blown out and the fuzz of bass and guitar arriving in tidal riffs, Denmark’s Holy Dragon for sure seem to be shooting for memorability on their second album, Mordjylland. “Hell and Gold” pulls back somewhat from the in-your-face immediacy of opener “Bong” — and yet it’s faster; go figure — and the especially brash “War” is likewise timely and dug in. Centerpiece “Nightwatch” feels especially yarling with its more open riff and far-back echoing drums — those drums are heavy in tone in a way most are not, and it is appreciated — and gives over to the Judas Priestly riff of “Dunder,” which sounds like it’s being swallowed by the bass even as the concluding solo slices through. They cap with “Egypt” in classic-metal, minor-key-sounds-Middle-Eastern fashion, but they’re never far from the burly heft with which they started, and even the mellower finish of “Travel to Kill” feels drawn from it. The album’s title is a play on ‘Nordjylland’ — the region of Denmark where they’re from — and if they’re saying it’s dead, then their efforts to shake it back to life are palpable in these seven songs, even if the end front-to-back result of the album is going to be hit or miss with most listeners. Still, they are markedly individual, and the fact that you could pick them out of the crowd of Europe’s e’er-packed heavy underground is admirable in itself.

Holy Dragon on Instagram

Holy Dragon on Bandcamp

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Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Consensus Trance

Lincoln, Nebraska, trio Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships are right there. Right on the edge. You can hear it in the way “Beg Your Pardon” unfolds its lumbering tonality, riff-riding vocals and fervency of groove at the outset of their second album, Consensus Trance. They’re figuring it out. And they’re working quickly. Their first record, 2021’s TTBS, and the subsequent Rosalee EP (review here) were strong signals of intention on the part of guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warner, bassist Karlin Warner and drummer Justin Kamal, and there is realization to be had throughout Consensus Trance in the noisy lead of “Mystical Consumer,” the quiet instrumental “Distalgia for Infinity” and the mostly-huge-chugged 11-minute highlight “Weeping Beast” to which it leads. But they’re also still developing their craft, as opener “Beg Your Pardon” demonstrates amid one of the record’s most vibrant hooks, and exploring spaciousness like that in the back half of the penultimate “Silo,” and the sense that emerges from that kind of reach and the YOB-ish ending of capper “I.H.” is that there’s more story to be told as to what Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships have to offer in style and substance. So much the better since Consensus Trance has such superlative heft at its foundation.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

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Deer Creek, Menticide

Kind of funny to think of Menticide as a debut LP from Deer Creek, who’ve been around for 20 years — one fondly recalls their mid-aughts splits with Church of Misery and Raw Radar War — but one might consider that emblematic of the punk underpinning the sludgy heavy roll of “(It Had Neither Fins Nor Wings) Nor Did it Writhe,” along with the attitude of fuckall that joins hands with resoundingly dense tonality to create the atmosphere of the five originals and the cover medley closer “The Working Man is a Dead Pig,” which draws on Rush, Bauhaus and Black Sabbath classics as a sort of partially explanatory appendix to the tracks preceding. Of those, the impression left is duly craterous, and Deer Creek, with Paul Vismara‘s mostly-clean vocals riding a succession of his own monolithic riffs, a bit of march thrown into “The Utter Absence of Hope” amid the breath of tone from his and Conan Hultgren‘s guitars and Stephanie Hopper‘s bass atop the drumming of Marc Brooks. One is somewhat curious as to what drives a band after two full-length-less decades to make a definitive first album — at least beyond “hey a lot of things have changed in the last couple years” anyhow — but the results here are inarguable in their weight and the spaces they create and fill, with disaffection and onward and outward-looking angst as much as volume. That is to say, as much as Menticide nods, it’s more unsettling the more attention you actually pay to what’s going on. But if you wanted to space out instead, I doubt they’d hold it any more against you than was going to happen anyway. Band who owes nothing to anyone overdelivers. There.

Deer Creek on Facebook

Deer Creek on Bandcamp

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Riffcoven, Never Sleep at Night

Following the mid-’90s C.O.C. tone and semi-Electric Wizard shouts of “Black Lotus Trance,” “Detroit Demons” calls out Stooges references while burl-riffing around Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” and “Loose” manifests sleaze to coincide with the exploitation of the Never Sleep at Night EP’s cover art. All of this results in zero-doubt assurance that the Brazilian trio have their bona fides in place when it comes to dudely riffs and an at least partially metal approach; stylistically-speaking, it’s like metal dudes got too drunk to remember what they were angry at and decided to have a party instead. I don’t have much encouraging to say at this juncture about the use of vintage porn as a likely cheap cover option, but no one seems to give a shit about moving past that kind of misogyny, and I guess as regards gender-based discrimination and playing to the male gaze and so on, it’s small stakes. I bet they get signed off the EP anyway, so what’s the point? The point I guess is that the broad universe of those who’d build altars to riffs, Riffcoven are at very least up front with what they’re about and who their target audience is.

Riffcoven on Facebook

Riffcoven on Bandcamp

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The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Taylor Iversen of Abrams

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Well… I’m a bass player and singer in a heavy rock ‘n’ roll band. I’ve been that thing for roughly fifteen years now, which is almost half my life. Though, I’d be remiss to call myself a professional musician, because the god honest truth is I have no fucking idea what I’m doing.

My older brother gave me his busted ass Yamaha bass guitar when he left home for college around the same time a dear friend gave me Sleep’s Dopesmoker (Then known as Jerusalem) along with a couple of Monster Magnet records, and I was like, “yeah, I wanna do that.” So I bought a shitty Crate combo amp off another bass player buddy of mine, and started learning riffs. First thing I got was that “Seven Nation Army” lick, then Sabbath’s “The Wizard” and “Supernaut” riffs. Once I got to the “Funeralopolis” intro from E-Wiz’s Dopethrone, I was like, “alright, big strings make good, big sound, I’ll figure this all out soon enough…”

When I went to college in Colorado, I met some folks and played in several bands. Just jamming and putting songs together. Playing shows, touring etc. Interestingly, Abrams consists of folks from most of those early projects. Then I was just hooked. Still haven’t learned how to play my instrument though. Maybe one day…

Until then, I big. Play big string. Make good big sound.

Shake that booty.

Describe your first musical memory.

It’s my understanding that in this community these days, liking The Beatles is a death sentence. So if you don’t mind, I’ll plead the fifth here.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Oh sweet Jesus H. Cronenberg, what a question.

Is it… All the moshpits I circled in with friends at shows in my youth living in suburban Minneapolis? Maybe the first time I saw Sunn O)); they were on tour with Boris for Altar and played at the Walker Art Museum, I was 16 and remember my body coming apart into drifting particles. Maybe it’s when I got to see Sleep for the first time, and Al was using my very own amplifier onstage. Does it have anything, anything at all to do with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, or Rubber Soul? Maybe. Or perhaps listening to Godspeed! You Black Emperor for the first time? The first time I saw Soundgarden? “So, bleeeeEEEEEEEEEEDDDD your heart!, OUT!” Ooh! Or the only time I saw Portishead, when the bass drum during “Machine Gun,” moved me a whole foot backward in the crowd. Or when John Garcia from Kyuss joined my band onstage to sing a song once… that was cool. Or when I opened up for Dillinger Escape Plan at a tiny dive bar, but the only reason I got to do that was because Chris Cornell had just died so it kinda sucked? Or when Michael Akerfeldt of Opeth told a young me, after a firm, yet supple handshake, that I looked just like Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon? Could it be that time at Maryland Deathfest when I swore I was going to lose my eye after a nasty hit in the Black Breath pit, but then it didn’t even bruise? Or this one time, a few years ago, when I sat with my legs in a pool at Psycho Las Vegas; a joint in one hand, a beer in the other, cradling a plate of fried chicken in my lap. Fu Manchu was ripping through “King Of The Road…” I remember wondering if there had ever been a better moment? Or many years before, my first time playing Seattle, when I sat on the stoop of The Black Lodge with a pug in my lap wondering the same? I remember seeing Torche with a bunch of friends during a particularly heavy bout of Post-Tour Depression, and I swear that show saved my life. My first time being on tour, maybe?

Any moment of being on tour, really… Shitting my pants and almost dying from diarrhea in Philly… Any of the countless, joyous, frightening memories from those great adventures… Playing a helluva show with some of the best friends my life will ever give me…

Or just enjoying music with any permutation of the same. I mean, there’s just too many moments to pick. Music IS memory, my dude.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I’m ‘starting to think’ that this whole capitalist system is unsustainable, and unable to be fixed. I remember even just a few years ago being like, “nah it’s cool… we’ll figure it out.” and now I’m like, “Oh shit… Well, the whole point of the system is to not figure it out…Because the people at the top have it all figured out for themselves, already.”

Now, I know this pig’s gotta bleed.

Also, I really thought, for a time, that David Gilmour was the best part of Pink Floyd. And then I saw Live At Pompeii and realized that Nick Mason… that guy is the star of that band.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Left.

How do you define success?

My wiiiife.

But seriously,

Whatever floats your boat man. If you’re happy, doing what you’re doing, who’s to tell you you’re not successful? Happiness, I think: That’s success. Content with one’s achievements? Maybe, not necessarily, but that’s what I used to think of when I thought of success…

But now, the more I hear, it seems to be more about the journey than the destination.

So why not just enjoy doing what you’re doing, if doing what you’re doing makes you happy, even if you’re not done. Even if it’s not, “Complete.”

Maybe it’s about following through to some level, but it can’t all be about the end.

Cuz at the end, you’ll be dead, and then who gives a fuck?

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The other day I ‘accidentally’ stumbled onto a video of a guy being obliterated by an industrial lathe. See, I thought it was a different video of a guy being obliterated by an industrial lathe, one that I’d seen before. But this one was way worse.

I frequent some channels pertaining to morbid curiosity now and again. Mostly true crime stuff, and awful, crimes against humanity stuff… Podcasts, documentaries, internet pages… I’m courted by what Dan Carlin of Hardcore History calls a, “fascination with the extremes of humanity,” but watch-people-die stuff really fucks with me… Painfotainment as he called it. Check that episode out. It kind of obviously used to be quite a regular thing with people.

Sometimes, these days, you just fly too close to that old, old flame. Usually for me it surges around 9/11, deep diving into that whole tragedy …shit.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Ah, fuck.

I want to die with a robust catalog of artistic creation. Whether it be music, or writing, or any kind of creativity. I feel like I have a lot of interesting ideas and I really want to get them out there before I’m not here anymore. (See, do I gotta wait that long for ‘success’?) Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to be a rockstar, and I’ve always wanted to be a novelist. And I’m really, desperately attempting to realize that latter dream right now. And have been for the last, like, seven years, and probably, hopefully, for the rest of my life. I’ve got two manuscripts in the can, a 400 page horror (about being in a band), and a 600 page sci-fi… Currently I’m editing and editing and editing the sci-fi, cuz in 2019, in the middle of an editing slog with the horror, which I’d been working on for 5 years by then, I got a wild hare up my ass to just start something new. Now, I’ve gotten better at this part, and am almost done editing ~150 of its 600 pages, enough for friends to read so they can, you know, tell me I’m wasting my time. In which case, I probably won’t listen, because I have, like, dozens of book ideas in my head and this emergent, needling compulsion to get them out. Like a whole interwoven universe of worlds and stories. Bare fiction, fantasy, horror, short stories, screen-plays… I really like writing… And I write a lot… (perhaps not so well.) Can you tell?

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Fuckin, like…  Engaging the mind dawg. Blowin’ your mind, duuuude.. “ What’s that all about, maaaan?”  “What’s the deal with that?” Fuggin, like makes ya’ think, bro.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

What the hell in this world is non-musical?

I could say “Fall; I fucking love autumn.” But, what, you’re gonna tell me that Fall is not musical?

Maybe I could say, “Getting my garden, just right…” but that’s super fucking musical too, isn’t it?

“The third Person-I Get-To-Be-The-Uncle-Of, being born?” C’mon.

“The two cats that hate each other, currently living in my house, learning to get along?” Meow.

It’s all fuckin’ music, man. And I’m excited for it all.

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Abrams, In the Dark (2022)

When it’s not busy being both at the same time, Dreadnought‘s fifth full-length, The Endless, is alternatingly beautiful and destructive, the Denver progressive-black-metal-and-then-some outfit weaving genres together toward an individual expressive purpose in craft and reach. It is comprised of six songs that don’t quite run directly into each other across two vinyl sides (three tracks per), each leading off with the longest piece for its half followed by two shorter cuts, so that “Worlds Break” (8:28) and “Liminal Veil” (9:09) are responsible for leading the listener into and through an atmospheric procession winding enough to make one wonder at times if there’s a path underneath at all, but guided by skillful enough hands that the answer is always yes.

Guitarist/vocalist Kelly Schilling, bassist Kevin Handlon, drummer Jordan Clancy and keyboardist/vocalist Lauren Vieira — recently replaced by Emily Shreve — have precious little to prove at this point in their tenure. A decade from their inception and nine years out from their 2013 debut, Lifewoven, they are able to bring “Worlds Break” from the mountain folk of its beginning build through post-metal lushness into scathing, volcanic aural char and ultimately into something that is neither and both and definitively Dreadnought‘s own as much of the record that follows will continue to be — hanging chimes and all — whatever whiffs of influence one might get along the way from Isis or Enslaved, Alcest, or any number of post-rock acts, jazz cats, classical pianists and so on that I’m nowhere near cool enough to know.

That their expansive approach is unified at all is impressive; it was on 2019’s Emergence and 2017’s A Wake in Sacred Waves (review here) as well, but there’s a shift in production in The Endless that pulls Clancy‘s kick down in the mix and feels less directly tied to metal than was the last album. Pete de Boer at World Famous Studios in the duly mountainous Breckinridge, Colorado, produced, mixed and mastered, and the resulting collaboration seems to adjust the balance between fluidity and impact so that as far as “Worlds Break” goes, it never feels any more disjointed than the band wants it to — when the album’s first scream and surge hits at 2:52 into the opener, that shift is supposed to be and to feel sudden, for example — and the aurally poetic rhythm that backs the melodies in the guitar, bass, keys and shared vocals between Schilling and Vieira on “Midnight Moon” is hypnotic without feeling overwrought.

Likewise, one might find throughout that some of the most intense moments aren’t necessarily when they’re blasting out throatrippers and accompanying squibbleriffs, but as with the bassy midsection of “Midnight Moon,” that beginning stretch of “Worlds Break” and the slowdown finish for side A in the title-track that will find a correspondingly doomed complement in side B’s aptly-named capper “The Paradigm Mirror,” it is the tension in their builds, the sometimes manic interplay of (largely clean) vocals and the dynamic nature of what they do that makes The Endless hit as hard as it does. It is a record you feel physically as much as you hear, and even in its moments of release — “The Endless” slowing down for an echoing-scream roll and wash that gives way to residual guitar drift — the ambience is taut.

In itself, that might seem unlikely, but it’s essential to Dreadnought‘s approach here, and it allows the band to continue exploring with sound as they make their way through the linear course of their material, introducing staticky synth at the outset of “Liminal Veil” to answer Schilling‘s vocal belting and the avant garde weighted guitar strums, atmosphere central but not at all void of emotion. “Liminal Veil” has more breadth in its nine minutes than many bands do in their entire career, but the same could be said of “The Endless” before it, which is about half as long, or the penultimate “Gears of Violent Endurance,” which follows.

As side B unfolds, the second of its three tracks brings The Endless‘ most immediate and outright blackened thrust, but refuses to be tethered just to that, turning to airy, progressive strum for a verse before digging back in, hinting at thicker tonality, then breaking altogether as Vieira and Schilling harmonize a capella to introduce and Opethian guitar figure and lead into the triumphantly melodic build of the song’s second half, not quite embodying the violence of the title but perhaps the aftermath of those gears’ grinding, immersive in a way Dreadnought aren’t always willing to be but consistent in its will to serve no gods stylistically more than it serves the interests of its own craft. That is to say, Dreadnought have an idea of who they are as a band and they’re no less able to work against it as with it and still carry their audience with them.

It is important to note that, as with any kind of extreme music, that audience needs to be willing to go. The Endless is not without its sense of challenge, either for the band challenging themselves or for their challenging their listenership to keep up with them. But the return on the investment of repeat visits is significant, and just as “Worlds Break” brought an encapsulation of what was to come — a closer’s summary slotted as the opener — so too does “The Paradigm Mirror” end the album with an underscoring of the plan that’s been at work all the while, and not just in the return of those chimes (which have been peppered here and there en route), but also the heavy post-rock wash of guitar and keys through which Schilling‘s voice cuts over a beat stark enough to feel reminiscent of Author & Punisher, a final lyric about howling at the moon leading into the last minute of wash, the chimes, and various other mountain-woods-lost-to-time communions.

Progressive music can take any number of forms, and The Endless reminds that something harsh can also be inviting. Those woods, while gorgeous, can surely kill you. Still, the command Dreadnought wield over their songs and their ability to convey uncertainty without actually being uncertain ensure that the chaos is thematic without hindering the delivery of the material itself. Something so dug in and its-own-thing is never going to be universally accessible, and there are likely those with whom The Endless won’t resonate, but in its force and fragility, coil and strike, it is cohesive to such a degree and of such a scope that it can only be called the work of masters.

Dreadnought, The Endless (2022)

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Profound Lore Records website

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Denver’s Abrams aligning to Small Stone Records makes a lot of sense as far as matching bands and labels goes. The band have been belting out hooky, well-crafted and progressive-melody-edged heavy rock and roll since before their debut album, Lust. Love. Loss. (review here), and even the snare drum that begins album opener/first streaming single “Like Hell” seems like an instruction to stand up and take note. So be it. I haven’t heard the full record yet — it’s out Sept. 9, so yeah, plenty of time for these things — but the band’s penchant for songcraft is long since proven in my mind. Really, from that first record on, Zach Amster and company have delivered a professional-quality product while keeping an underground edge to their material. A band ready to make a mark and a label that might let them do it? As I said, a good match.

The PR wire brings details and streaming audio. Side note, I very much look forward to hearing “East Coast Dreams,” which I imagine is about finding good pizza and bagels while people are inexplicably rude to you. Or, if it’s the South, racism. Either way, dudes might want to start dreaming in the other direction, where the grass — at least until it gets consumed by an all-year-season wildfire or turned into a techbro billionaire’s compound– is genuinely greener.

Preorders are up now:

ABRAMS: Denver Rock Outfit To Release In The Dark September 9th Via Small Stone Recordings; “Like Hell” Streaming + Preorders Available

Denver rock outfit ABRAMS will release their new full-length, In The Dark, on September 9th via Small Stone Recordings, today revealing the album’s first official single and preorders.

Initially seeking to fuse melodic hooks with dissonance, ABRAMS began in 2013 in Denver, Colorado, with guitarist/vocalist Zach Amster and bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen. Later joined by drummer Ryan DeWitt, ABRAMS has released an EP and three studio albums, all to critical acclaim. With each release the listener can hear the band evolving and maturing to what it has become today. A band dedicated to compelling songwriting, and energetic live performances, ABRAMS ups the ante with the moody, heavy, psychedelic rock venture of their forthcoming LP, In The Dark.

Adding Patrick Alberts (Call Of The Void) to the lineup, In The Dark serves as ABRAMS’ first release as a four-piece, following behind 2020’s Modern Ways. With the pandemic cancelling all touring plans for Modern Ways, ABRAMS immediately got to work demoing more than twenty-five plus songs for their next release. Given the world was in lockdown, Amster took a deep dive to learn the ins and outs of home recording to refine song structure, with a hyperfocus put on vocal hooks. There was a goal set to have as complete and polished songs as possible prior to entering the studio in Summer of 2021 with producer, engineer, and collaborator Dave Otero (Khemmis, Cattle Decapitation) at Flatline Audio who was the last piece in shaping the final soundscape.

The new collection is a fine-tuned, forty-five-minute sonic journey detailing the angers, fears, frustrations, and joys inherent in living in a world gone mad. With cinematic guitar riffs, brooding leads, and addictive vocal hooks, ABRAMS conjures a mature, polished, and intensely passionate craft, urgent but not at all rushed. There are hints of early AmRep mixed in with the larger sounds of ‘90s alt heroes Failure, Quicksand, and Hum. Combine that with the heaviness of recent Mastodon and stoner psychedelia of All Them Witches and you get In The Dark.

In advance of the record’s release, ABRAMS is pleased to unveil first single, “Like Hell.” Notes the band, “‘Like Hell’ was a no brainer decision for us when deciding what song should lead off the record. It’s one of our heavier songs that grabs your attention from the get-go. There’s a little something here for every rock fan – hooky vocals, heavy riffs, pounding drums, and even some HM2 [distortion] for those metalheads out there. I’d like to think if Queens Of The Stone Age played on Trap Them’s guitar rig, you’d get this song. Enjoy!”

In The Dark features cover art by Robin Gnista and will be available on CD, LP, and digitally. Find preorders at THIS LOCATION: https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-dark

In The Dark Track Listing:
1. Like Hell
2. Death Tripper
3. Better Living
4. In The Clouds
5. Fever Dreams
6. Body Pillow
7. Leather Jacket
8. White Sand
9. In The Dark
10. Black Tar Mountain
11. East Coast Dreams (Digital Bonus Track)

ABRAMS:
Zachary Amster – guitar, vocals
Taylor Iversen – bass, vocals
Ryan DeWitt – drums
Patrick Alberts – guitar

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Abrams, In the Dark (2022)

Here begins day two of 10. I don’t know at what point it occurred to me to load up the Quarterly Review with killer stuff to make it, you know, more pleasant than having it only be records I feel like I should be writing about, but I’m intensely glad I did.

Seems like a no brainer, right? But the internet is dumb, and it’s so easy to get caught up in what you see on social media, who’s hyping what, and the whole thing is driven by this sad, cloying FOMO that I despise even as I participate. If you’re ever in a situation to let go of something so toxic, even just a little bit and even just in your own head — which is where it all exists anyhow — do it. And if you take nothing else from this 100-album Quarterly Review besides that advice, it won’t be a loss.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Magnatar, Crushed

Can’t say they don’t deliver. The eight-song/38-minute Crushed is the debut long-player from Manchester, New Hampshire’s Magnatar, and it plays to the more directly aggressive side of post-metallic riffing. There are telltale quiet stretches, to be sure, but the extremity of shouts and screams in opener “Dead Swan” and in the second half of “Crown of Thorns” — the way that intensity becomes part of the build of the song as a whole — is well beyond the usual throaty fare. There’s atmosphere to balance, but even the 1:26 “Old” bends into harsh static, and the subsequent “Personal Contamination Through Mutual Unconsciousness” bounces djent and post-hardcore impulses off each other before ending up in a mega-doom slog, the lyric “Eat shit and die” a particular standout. So it goes into “Dragged Across the Surface of the Sun,” which is more even, but on the side of being pissed off, and “Loving You Was Killing Me” with its vastly more open spaces, clean vocals and stretch of near-silence before a more intense solo-topped finish. That leaves “Crushed” and “Event Horizon” to round out, and the latter is so heavy it’s barely music and that’s obviously the idea.

Magnatar on Facebook

Seeing Red Records on Bandcamp

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Wild Rocket, Formless Abyss

Three longform cosmic rock excursions comprise Wild Rocket‘s Formless Abyss — “Formless Abyss” (10:40), “Interplanetary Vibrations” (11:36) and “Future Echoes” (19:41) — so lock in your harness and be ready for when the g-forces hit. If the Dubliners have tarried in following-up 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics (review here), one can only cite the temporal screwing around taking place in “Interplanetary Vibrations” as a cause — it would be easy to lose a year or two in its depths — never mind “Future Echoes,” which meets the background-radiation drone of the two inclusions prior with a ritualized heft and slow-unfurling wash of distortion that is like a clarion to Sagan-headed weirdos. A dark-matter nebula. You think you’re freaked out now? Wild Rocket speak their own language of sound, in their own time, and Formless Abyss — while not entirely without structure — has breadth enough to make even the sunshine a distant memory.

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Riot Season Records website

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Trace Amount, Anti Body Language

An awaited debut full-length from Brooklyn multimedia artist/producer Brandon Gallagher, Trace Amount‘s Anti Body Language sees release through Greg Puciato‘s Federal Prisoner imprint and collects a solid 35 minutes of noise-laced harsh industrial worldbreaking. Decay anthems. A methodical assault begins with “Anxious Awakenings” and moving through “Anti Body Language” and “Eventually it Will Kill Us All,” the feeling of Gallagher acknowledging the era in which the record arrives is palpable, but more palpable are the weighted beats, the guttural shouts and layers of disaffected moans. “Digitized Exile” plays out like the ugliest outtake from Pretty Hate Machine — a compliment — and after the suitably tense “No Reality,” the six-minute “Tone and Tenor” — with a guest appearance from Kanga — offers a fuller take on drone and industrial metal, filling some of the spaces purposefully left open elsewhere. That leaves the penultimate “Pixelated Premonitions” as the ultimate blowout and “Suspect” (with a guest spot from Statiqbloom; a longtime fixture of NY industrialism) to noise-wash it all away, like city acid rain melting the pavement. New York always smells like piss in summer.

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Federal Prisoner store

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Lammping, Desert on the Keel

This band just keeps getting better, and yes, I mean that. Toronto’s Lammping begin an informal, casual-style series of singles with “Desert on the Keel,” the sub-four-minutes of which are dedicated to a surprisingly peaceful kind of heavy psychedelia. Multiple songwriters at work? Yes. Rhythm guitarist Matt Aldred comes to the fore here with vocals mellow to suit the languid style of the guitar, which with Jay Anderson‘s drums still giving a push beneath reminds of Quest for Fire‘s more active moments, but would still fit alongside the tidy hooks with which Lammping populate their records. Mikhail Galkin, principal songwriter for the band, donates a delightfully gonna-make-some-noise-here organ solo in the post-midsection jam before “Desert on the Keel” turns righteously back to the verse, Colm Hinds‘ bass McCartneying the bop for good measure, and in a package so welcome it can only be called a gift, Lammping demonstrate multiple new avenues of growth for their craft and project. I told you. They keep getting better. For more, dig into 2022’s Stars We Lost EP (review here). You won’t regret it.

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Lammping on Bandcamp

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Limousine Beach, Limousine Beach

Immediate three-part harmonies in the chorus of opener “Stealin’ Wine” set the tone for Limousine Beach‘s self-titled debut, as the new band fronted by guitarist/vocalist David Wheeler (OutsideInside, Carousel) and bringing together a five-piece with members of Fist Fight in the Parking Lot, Cruces and others melds ’70s-derived sounds with a modern production sheen, so that the Thin Lizzy-style twin leads of “Airboat” hit with suitable brightness and the arena-ready vibe in “Willodene” sets up the proto-metal of “Black Market Buss Pass” and the should-be-a-single-if-it-wasn’t “Hear You Calling.” Swagger is a staple of Wheeler‘s work, and though the longest song on Limousine Beach is still under four minutes, there’s plenty of room in tracks like “What if I’m Lying,” the AC/DC-esque “Evan Got a Job” and the sprint “Movin’ On” (premiered here) for such things, and the self-awareness in “We’re All Gonna Get Signed” adds to the charm. Closing out the 13 songs and 31 minutes, “Night is Falling” is dizzying, and leads to “Doo Doo,” the tight-twisting “Tiny Hunter” and the feedback and quick finish of “Outro,” which is nonetheless longer than the song before it. Go figure. Go rock. One of 2022’s best debut albums. Good luck keeping up.

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Tee Pee Records website

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40 Watt Sun, Perfect Light

Perfect Light is the closest Patrick Walker (also Warning) has yet come to a solo album with 40 Watt Sun, and any way one approaches it, is a marked departure from 2016’s Wider Than the Sky (review here, sharing a continued penchant for extended tracks but transposing the emotional weight that typifies Walker‘s songwriting and vocals onto pieces led by acoustic guitar and piano. Emma Ruth Rundle sits in on opener “Reveal,” which is one of the few drumless inclusions on the 67-minute outing, but primarily the record is a showcase for Walker‘s voice and fluid, ultra-subdued and mostly-unplugged guitar notes, which float across “Behind My Eyes” and the dare-some-distortion “Raise Me Up” later on, shades of the doom that was residing in the resolution that is, the latter unflinching in its longing purpose. Not a minor undertaking either on paper or in the listening experience, it is the boldest declaration of intent and progression in Walker’s storied career to-date, leaving heavy genre tropes behind in favor of something that seems even more individual.

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Cappio Records website

Svart Records website

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Decasia, An Endless Feast for Hyenas

Snagged by Heavy Psych Sounds in the early going of 2022, French rockers Decasia debut on the label with An Endless Feast for Hyenas, a 10-track follow-up to 2017’s The Lord is Gone EP (review here), making the most of the occasion of their first full-length to portray inventive vocal arrangements coinciding with classic-sounding fuzz in “Hrosshvelli’s Ode” and the spacier “Cloud Sultan” — think vocalized Earthless — the easy-rolling viber “Skeleton Void” and “Laniakea Falls.” “Ilion” holds up some scorch at the beginning, “Hyenas at the Gates” goes ambient at the end, and interludes “Altostratus” and “Soft Was the Night” assure a moment to breathe without loss of momentum, holding up proof of a thoughtful construction even as Decasia demonstrate a growth underway and a sonic persona long in development that holds no shortage of potential for continued progress. By no means is An Endless Feast for Hyenas the highest-profile release from this label this year, but think of it as an investment in things to come as well as delivery for right now.

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Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

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Giant Mammoth, Holy Sounds

The abiding shove of “Circle” and the more swinging “Abracadabra” begin Giant Mammoth‘s second full-length, Holy Sounds, with a style that wonders what if Lowrider and Valley of the Sun got together in a spirit of mutual celebration and densely-packed fuzz. Longer pieces “The Colour is Blue” and “Burning Man” and the lightly-proggier finale “Teisko” space out more, and the two-minute “Dust” is abidingly mellow, but wherever the Tampere, Finland, three-piece go, they remain in part defined by the heft of “Abracadabra” and the opener before it, with “Unholy” serving as an anchor for side A after “Burning Man” and “Wasteland” bringing a careening return to earth between “The Colour is Blue” and the close-out in “Teisko.” Like the prior-noted influences, Giant Mammoth are a stronger act for the dynamics of their material and the manner in which the songs interact with each other as the eight-track/38-minute LP plays out across its two sides, the second able to be more expansive for the groundwork laid in the first. They’re young-ish and they sound it (that’s not a slag), and the transition from duo to three-piece made between their first record and this one suits them and bodes well in its fuller tonality.

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Pyre Fyre, Rinky Dink City / Slow Cookin’

New Jersey trio Pyre Fyre may or may not be paying homage to their hometown of Bayonne with “Rinky Dink City,” but their punk-born fuzzy sludge rock reminds of none so much as New Orleans’ Suplecs circa 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Ladyfriend, both the title-tracks dug into raw lower- and high-end buzztone shenanigans, big on groove and completely void of pretense. Able to have fun and still offer some substance behind the chicanery. I don’t know if you’d call it party rock — does anyone party on the East Coast or are we too sad because the weather sucks? probably, I’m just not invited — but if you were having a hangout and Pyre Fyre showed up with “Slow Cookin’,” for sure you’d let them have the two and a half minutes it takes them (less actually) to get their point across. In terms of style and songwriting, production and performance, this is a band that ask next to nothing of the listener in terms of investment are able to effect a mood in the positive without being either cloyingly poppish or leaving a saccharine aftertaste. I guess this is how the Garden State gets high. Fucking a.

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Kamru, Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe

Issued on April 20, the cumbersomely-titled Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe is the debut outing from Denver-based two-piece Kamru, comprised of Jason Kleim and Ashwin Prasad. With six songs each hovering on either side of seven minutes long, the duo tap into a classic stoner-doom feel, and one could point to this or that riff and say The Sword or liken their tone worship and makeup to Telekinetic Yeti, but that’s missing the point. The point is in the atmosphere that is conjured by “Penumbral Litany” and the familiar proto-metallurgy of the subsequent “Hexxer,” prominent vocals echoing with a sense of command rare for a first offering of any kind, let alone a full-length. In the more willfully grueling “Cenotaph” there’s doomly reach, and as “Winter Rites” marches the album to its inevitable end — one imagines blood splattered on a fresh Rocky Mountain snowfall — the band’s take on established parameters of aesthetic sounds like it’s trying to do precisely what it wants. I’m saying watch out for it to get picked up for a vinyl release by some label or other if that hasn’t happened yet.

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Kamru on Bandcamp

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Not sure as to the accuracy of the photo above, as Denver soundspanners Dreadnought posted just a few days ago about bringing second guitarist Ryan Sims into the lineup to help them bring their new material to life on tour with Elder and Ruby the Hatchet later this summer, but it’s nothing if not atmospheric, and so too is the new streaming track “Midnight Moon” that you’ll find at the bottom of this post. That song, which runs a bit under seven minutes long and is thus a perfect lead single for Dreadnought, runs between doom and post-black metal with a keenly directed ambience, thoughtful vocal arrangement, and affectingly wistful close.

The album is available to preorder on CD/LP/DL though Profound Lore — vinyl to be out later this Fall; hazards of the age — and though I don’t see it on the list of dates below, Dreadnought had previously confirmed they were playing Psycho Las Vegas, and I’m perfectly willing to assume that’s happening. What follows here isn’t even a press release, really. I just snagged the info off Bandcamp, but it’s got the info you need just the same, which is song and the preorder link. Aug. 26 is the release date.

Here you go:

DREADNOUGHT – The Endless – Profound Lore

Preorder: https://dreadnoughtdenver.bandcamp.com/album/the-endless

For their fifth full length “The Endless”, Denver, CO genre-defying progressive metal outfit DREADNOUGHT present their most spellbinding musical feature yet. With riveting vocal performances, ferocious grooves, and soaring synthesis, the quartet offers a familiarity to the melodic awe of previous records “Lifewoven” (2013) and “Bridging Realms”(2015) as well as the dark complexities within “A Wake In Sacred Waves” (2017) and “Emergence”(2019), but with a beautifully fresh perspective in writing, production, and performance.

At its inception in 2012, Dreadnought’s four members, including guitarist/vocalist Kelly Schilling, drummer Jordan Clancy, bassist Kevin Handlon, and keyboardist/vocalist Lauren Vieira, strove for a project laser-focused on creativity and exploration, pulling from all aspects of their musical backgrounds to craft something exciting and unique. Joining in the common ground of extreme metal, the quartet explores a blend of prog, doom, folk, jazz, classical, black metal, and post rock.

Thematically, “The Endless” departs from the familiar abstract of Dreadnought’s first four albums and dives into a relatable character arc about the human divide of light and suffering. It is an overture to the complexities of the proliferation of life, exploring the trail of choices that shape our world and our lives. It invites the question, can we overcome our nature and make higher minded choices to better humanity and our planet? Or are we lost in a never ending cycle of shadow?

The album opener “Worlds Break” begins in a post-apocalyptic landscape, heeding our need for guidance in the direst of times. “Midnight Moon” leads the listener in trance, through depths of manipulation and fear. As we reach the title track “The Endless”, lush textures and crooning vocals place us among the pits of despair, shock, and loss. “Liminal Veil” offers a vast landscape of celestial drones and enthusiastic grooves, while “Gears of Violent Endurance” reminds us of our primal nature through great ferocity.

In reaching the album closer “The Paradigm Mirror”, the dust begins to settle yet a great tension remains, inviting us to reflect upon vicious cycles of the human experience and how we can escape them.

Tracklisting:
1. Worlds Break
2. Midnight Moon
3. The Endless
4. Liminal Veil
5. Gears Of Violent Endurance
6. The Paradigm Mirror

Produced, mixed, and mastered by Pete de Boer at World Famous Studios.
Artwork by Reza Afshar.
Design by Shane McCarthy and Kelly Schilling.

Dreadnought w/ Elder & Ruby the Hatchet
8/3 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
8/4 Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
8/5 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Funhouse
8/6 Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
8/7 Charlottesville, VA @ Championship Brewing
8/8 Raleigh, NC @ The Pour House
8/9 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
8/10 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub
8/12 Houston, TX @ White Oak
8/13 Austin, TX @ The Ballroom
8/14 Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
8/16 Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar
8/17 Phoenix, AZ @ The Rebel Lounge
8/18 Las Vegas, NV @ Psycho Swim ** Elder only **
8/22 Boise, ID @ Neurolux
8/23 Portland, OR @ Dante’s
8/24 Seattle, WA @ Substation
8/26 Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
8/27 Los Angeles, CA @ Catch One
8/28 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick
8/31 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
9/2 St Paul, MN @ Turf Club
9/3 Chicago, IL @ Reggies
9/4 Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary
9/5 Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
9/6 Montréal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques
9/7 Quebec City, QC @ L’Anti
9/8 Portland, ME @ Geno’s Rock Club
9/9 Brattleboro, VT @ The Stone Church
9/10 Boston, MA @ Middle East / Downstairs

http://www.facebook.com/dreadnoughtband/
http://www.instagram.com/dreadnoughtdenver
https://dreadnoughtdenver.bandcamp.com/
http://dreadnoughtband.bigcartel.com/
http://dreadnoughtdenver.com/

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/profoundlorerecords
http://www.instagram.com/profoundlorerecords
http://www.twitter.com/profound_lore

Dreadnought, The Endless (2022)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Drew Patricks of Astral Construct

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I push myself to create what I hear in my mind and continually find ways to communicate that vision to as many people as possible. I have always had a special connection to music that I attribute to my parents. My mother was a music teacher and both she and my father played piano. There was always music in our house. For the longest time, I tried to be other musicians and never ventured beyond to find out who I was as a musician and that brought me only limited happiness. When I made the conscious effort to discover my own voice and creativity, I realized the value that brought to my experience.

Describe your first musical memory.

I remember two experiences that started it for me. First, was a “concert” for my parents that I played on a makeshift drum kit to Beatles songs. The second was air guitar to KISS records with friends. “The hottest band in the land!!!”

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Without question, the best memory is releasing my first album, Tales of Cosmic Journeys last year. The people that I have met and the opportunities to become both a better person and musician have been immeasurable. It is encouraging to see how music brings people together.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Anytime you look at the world with a critical mind, you are tested. However, that habit helps us understand there are multiple ways to perceive the craziness around us and, hopefully, find a way through it to something better.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression leads to higher understanding of ourselves and, ultimately, to a feeling of satisfaction. That seems to be a goal that is always so far down the road, though. I think that drives most musicians, the pursuit of that constant progression and the feeling of satisfaction when we share our creativity.

How do you define success?

Success is never straying from the process and continually reaching for better ways to communicate inspiration. It is being able say you have never accepted less than your best.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

So far, my music expresses a need to escape. That says a lot about the amount of horrible things we wish we had not seen and it seems we need moments to get away so we can come back and deal with the things we can’t forever avoid.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I would like to create a live experience that transports people the way all good concerts do. We all have missed that over the time of the pandemic and it is an incredible feeling to go to a show again. My first one back was King Buffalo and it was amazing!! I am looking forward to many more shows in the coming months. Seeing these amazing bands put on their shows makes me want to put on my own someday.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

The most essential function is to manifest feelings. For each individual, those feeling will be different and unique. As artists, we all have an idea of what emotions we are trying to communicate but once it is in the listener’s head, we cannot really control how they view it. We get to initiate that, though, and that is special.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Travel! To finally go places and experience new things.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068801797541
https://www.instagram.com/astralconstructproject/
https://astralconstruct.bandcamp.com/

Astral Construct, Tales of Cosmic Journeys (2021)

Aiwass & ASTRAL CONstruct, “Solis in Stellis”