Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’re feeling like it hasn’t been that long since Coltaine‘s previous album, Forgotten Ways (review here), came out in Sept. 2024, you’re right. By the time Sept. 2025 gets here though and their next record, Brandung sees its release on Sept. 5 through Lay Bare Recordings, a year will have passed. Given the anti-genre-or-may-be-all-genre urgency of the prior LP’s expression, and how much Coltaine give the listener to dig through with their at-times-devastating post-sludge complexity, it’s reasonable to think they’d want to get back in the studio quickly. This ground ain’t gonna break itself.
I haven’t heard Brandung yet — September is four months off — but the band have summer fests including Hoflärm in Germany and a newly-announced release tour to coincide with the record’s arrival that also includes stops at a Lay Bare Fest being put on by their label at the venerated The Black Heart in London, and as well as other fests and a couple TBAs that I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re confirmations waiting to be announced. If you have a way to help though, be sure to offer.
More on the record when I hear it. I’ll go ahead and look forward to that while you peruse the following from socials:
‘Brandung’ Album Release Tour 2025. To celebrate the release of our second album Brandung, we’ll be hitting the road for a series of shows starting this September. But before the tour kicks off, you can already catch us at these festivals:
Festival Summer 2025:
07/06/2025 🇮🇹 Piacenza · Desert Fox Fest 02/08/2025 🇩🇪 Burgbrand Open Air 14/08/2025 🇩🇪 Hoflärm Festival
‘Brandung’ Album Release Tour 2025
02/09/2025 🇩🇪 Mannheim – Alter Open Air 03/09/2025 🇩🇪 Berlin · Tommy-Haus 04/09/2025 🇩🇰 Copenhagen · Lytgens Kro 05/09/2025 🇳🇴 Oslo · Blitz 06/09/2025 ⚡️ To be announced 07/09/2025 🇩🇪 Hamburg · Prinzenbar 08/09/2025 🇨🇿 Prague · Club 007 Strahov 09/09/2025 🇸🇰 Bratislava · Koncerty na Garážach 10/09/2025 🇭🇺 Budapest · Gólya 11/09/2025 🇸🇮 Ljubljana · Klub Gromka 12/09/2025 ⚡️ To be announced 13/09/2025 🇩🇪 Freiburg · ArTik 26/09/2025 🇧🇪 Ghent · Kinky Star 27/09/2025 🇬🇧 London · Lay Bare Fest · Black Heart 23/10/2025 🇩🇪 Oberhausen · Helvete 24/10/2025 🇩🇪 Ulm · Hemperium 25/10/2025 🇩🇪 Karlsruhe · Jubez 08/11/2025 🇩🇪 Nuremberg · Sonus Obscura Festival 14/11/2025 🇩🇪 Stuttgart · Juha West 15/11/2025 🇩🇪 Neunkirchen · Gloomaar Festival
Artwork by @missfelidaeillustration
‘Brandung’ will be released on September 5th via Lay Bare Recordings.
Coltaine: Julia Frasch – vocals Moritz Berg – guitar Benedikt Berg – bass Amin Bouzeghaia – drums
My current read on Coltaine is they’re a way better band than people necessarily realize. To wit, the below live session — the band in a room playing “Mogila” and “Dans un Nouveau Monde” from last year’s Forgotten Ways (review here) — seamlessly brings together post-metal, sludge, the cultistry of The Devil’s Blood and the black metal that that band always seemed to hint toward more than manifest. While they’re by no means just doing one thing on the album — the player’s at the bottom of this post — as someone who’s never had the chance to see them live (though I’ve met members in-person), the session below is both an immersive and an encouraging sampling.
As with the LP, which opens with “Mogila,” ambience is a significant part of the impression Coltaine make. The music is both soothing and crushing in its repetitions in a way that invariably touches on what Amenra do, but that later on finds its apex not at its most extreme moment, but its most melodic. In the video, the shift from “Mogila” to “Dans un Nouveau Monde” happens just before the eight-minute mark, and the latter’s outreach into open spaces is resonant from the initial build onward, an eventual comedown marked with tambourine calling to mind a chime to close the ritual the band have just undertaken.
This video came out to coincide with a tour that started yesterday. I dig it, and maybe if you’re feeling like giving something a little out there a chance it’ll hit you just right, so I’m posting it. Pretty simple math.
Production info and tour dates follow, as per the internet. Enjoy:
Coltaine, Full Performance (Monkey Moon Sessions)
We’ve just released a live session where we perform two songs from Forgotten Ways – “Mogila” and “Dans Un Nouveau Monde.”
Production: Menny Leusmann & Jens Vetter
Bock auf eine Live-Session? Dann schreibt uns an info@monkeymoonrecordings.de
Iberia Tour 2025 kicks off [March 18] in Paris-Montreuil! We’ve also added a show in Portugal on Saturday, March 22nd. We’re excited to visit many new places for the first time. See you there!
18/03 🇫🇷 PARIS – Les Nouveaux Sauvages 19/03 🇫🇷 BORDEAUX – Salem Bar 20/03 🇪🇸 LA CORUÑA – Mardigrass 21/03 🇪🇸 VIGO – Transylvania Club 22/03 🇵🇹 PAREDES DE COURA – Xapas Sessions 23/03 🇪🇸 VALLADOLID – Sala Porta Caeli 25/03 🇪🇸 MADRID – Sala Rockville 26/03 🇪🇸 SANTANDER – Rock Beer The New 27/03 🇪🇸 BILBAO – Estudios Groobe 28/03 🇪🇸 BARCELONA – Freedonia 29/03 🇪🇸 ZARAGOZA – Sala Utopia 30/03 🇫🇷 TOULOUSE – La Mécanique des Fluides
Posted in Reviews on December 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
It’s been almost too easy, this week. Like, I was running a little later yesterday than I had the day before and I’m pretty sure it was only a big deal because — well, I was busy and distracted, to be fair — but mostly because the rest of the week to compare it against has been so gosh darn smooth. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is the last day. The music’s awesome. Barring actual disaster, like a car accident between now and then or some such, I’ll finish this one with minimal loss of breath.
Set against the last two Quarterly Reviews, one of which went 10 days, the other one 11, this five-dayer has been mellow and fun. As always, good music helps with that, and as has been the case since Monday, there’s plenty of it here. Not one day has gone by that I didn’t add something from the batch of 50 releases to my year-end list, which, again, barring disaster, should be out next week.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
—
Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows
After setting a high standard of prolific releases across 2017 and 2018 to much celebration and social media ballyhooing, Berlin jammers Cosmic Fall issued their single “Lackland” (review here) in mid-2019, and Back Where the Fire Flows is their first offering since. The apparently-reinvigorated lineup of the band includes bassist Klaus Friedrich and drummer Daniel Sax alongside new guitarist Leonardo Caprioli, and if there was any concern they might’ve lost the floating resonance that typified their earlier material, 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Lucid Skies Above Mars” allays it fluidly. The more straightforwardly riffed “Magma Rising” (4:31) and the tense shuffler “Under the Influence of Gravity” (4:38) follow that leadoff, with a blowout and feedback finish for the latter that eases the shift back into spacious-jammy mode for “Chant of the Lizards” (12:26) — perhaps titled in honor of the likeness the central guitar figure carries to The Doors — with “Drive the Kraut” (10:34) closing with the plotted sensibility of Earthless by building to a fervent head and crashing out quick as they might, and one hopes will, on stage. A welcome return and hopefully a preface to more.
It doesn’t seem inappropriate to think of Weather Systems as a successor to Anathema, which until they broke up in 2020 was multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Daniel Cavanagh‘s main outlet of 30 years’ standing. Teamed here with Anathema drummer/producer Daniel Cardoso and producer Tony Doogan, who helmed Anathema‘s 2017 album, The Optimist (review here), Cavanagh is for sure in conversation with his former outfit. There are nuances like the glitchy synth in “Ocean Without a Shore” or the post-punk urgency in the rush of highlight cut “Ghost in the Machine,” and for those who felt the Anathema story was incomplete, “Are You There? Pt. 2” and “Untouchable Pt. 3” are direct sequels to songs from that band, so the messaging of Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left of is clear, and Cavanagh unsurprisingly sounds at home in such a context. Performing most of the instruments himself and welcoming a few guests on vocals, he leads the project to a place where listening can feel like an act of emotional labor, but with songs that undeniably sooth and offer space for comfort, which is their stated intention. Curious to hear how Weather Systems develops.
Assembled by bassist Ron Holzner and his The Skull bandmate, guitarist Lothar Keller, Legions of Doom are something of a doom metal supergroup with Henry Vasquez (Saint Vitus, Blood of the Sun) on drums, Scott Little (Leadfoot) on guitar alongside Keller, and vocalists Scott Reagers (Saint Vitus) and Karl Agell (Leadfoot, Lie Heavy, C.O.C.‘s Blind LP) sharing frontman duties. Perhaps the best compliment one can give The Skull 3 — which sources its material in part from the final The Skull session prior to the death of vocalist Eric Wagner — is that it lives up to the pedigree of those who made it. No great shocker the music is in the style of The Skull since that’s the point. The question is how the band build on songs like “All Good Things” and “Between Darkness and Dawn” and the ripping “Insectiside” (sic), but this initial look proves the concept and is ready and willing to school the listener across its eight tracks on how classic doom got to be that way.
The first offering from Netherlands mellow psych-folk two-piece Myriad’s Veil brims with sweet melody and a subtly expansive atmosphere, bringing together Utrecht singer-songwriter Ismena, who has several albums out as a solo artist, and guitarist Ivy van der Meer, also of Amsterdam cosmic rockers Temple Fang for a collection of eight songs running 44 minutes of patiently-crafted, thoughtfully melodic and graceful performance. Ismena is no stranger to melancholia and the layers of “When the Leaves Start Falling” with the backing line of classical guitar and Mellotron give a neo-Canterbury impression without losing their own expressive edge. Most pieces stand between five and six minutes each, which is enough time for atmospheres to blossom and flourish for a while, and though the arrangements vary, the songs are united around acoustic guitar and voice, and so the underpinning is traditional no matter where Pendant goes. The foundation is a strength rather than a hindrance, and Ismena and van der Meer greet listeners with serenity and a lush but organic character of sound.
Never short on attitude, “I Only Play 4 Money” — “If you take my picture/Your camera’s smashed/You write me fan mail/I don’t write back,” etc. — leads off Michael Rudolph Cummings‘ latest solo EP, the four-track Money with a fleshed out arrangement not unlike one might’ve found on 2022’s You Know How I Get (review here), released by Ripple Music. From there, the erstwhile Backwoods Payback frontman, Boozewa anti-frontman and grown-up punk/grunge troubadour embarks on the more stripped down, guy-and-guitar strums and contemplations of “Deny the World” and “Easier to Leave,” the latter with more than a hint of Americana, and “Denver,” which returns to the full band, classic-style lead guitar flourish, layered vocals and drums, and perhaps even more crucially, bass. It’s somewhere around 13 minutes of music, all told, but that’s more than enough time for Cummings to showcase mastery in multiple forms of his craft and the engaging nature of what’s gradually becoming his “solo sound.”
Basking in a heavygaze float with the lead guitar while the markedly-terrestrial riff chugs and echoes out below, Moon Destroy‘s “The Nearness of June” is three and a half minutes long and the first single the Atlanta outfit founded by guitarist Juan Montoya (MonstrO, ex-Torche, etc.) and drummer Evan Diprima (also bass and synth, ex-Royal Thunder) have had since guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Charlie Suárez joined the band. Set across a forward linear build that quickly gets intense behind Suárez‘s chanting intertwining vocal lines, delivered mellow with a low-in-mouth melody, it’s a tension that slams into a slowdown in the second half of the song but holds over into the solo and fadeout march of the second half as well as it builds back up, the three-piece giving a quick glimpse of what a debut full-length might hopefully bring in terms of aural largesse, depth of mix and atmospheric soundscaping. I have no idea when, where or how such a thing would or will arrive, but that album will be a thing to look forward to.
Billed as Coltaine‘s debut LP — the history of the band is a bit more complex if I recall — Forgotten Ways is nonetheless a point of arrival for the Karlsruhe, Germany, four-piece. It is genuinely post-metallic in the spirit of being over genre completely, and as Julia Frasch makes the first harsh/clean vocal switch late in opener “Mogila,” with drummer Amin Bouzeghaia, bassist Benedikt Berg and guitarist Moritz Berg building the procession behind the soar, the band use their longest/opening track (immediate points) to establish the world in which the songs that follow take place. The cinematic drone of “Himmelwärts” and echoing goth metal of “Dans un Nouveau Monde” follow, leading the way into the wind-and-vocal minimalism of “Cloud Forest” at the presumed end of side A only to renew the opener’s crush in the side B leadoff title-track. Also the centerpiece of the album, “Cloud Forest” has room to touch on German-language folk before resuming its Obituary-meets-Amenra roll, and does not get less expansive from that initial two minutes or so. As striking as the two longest pieces are, Forgotten Ways is bolstered by the guitar ambience of “Ableben,” which leads into the pair of “Grace” and “Tales of Southern Lands,” both of which move from quieter outsets into explosive heft, each with their own path, the latter in half the time, and the riff-and-thud-then-go 77 seconds of “Aren” caps because why the hell not at that point. With a Jan Oberg mix adding to the breadth, Coltaine‘s declared-first LP brims with scope and progressive purpose. It is among the best debuts I’ve heard in 2024, easily.
Zagreb-based veteran heavy rockers Stonebride — the four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Siniša Krneta, bassist/vocalist Matija Ljevar, guitarist Tješimir Mendaš and drummer Stjepan Kolobarić — give a strong argument for maturity of songwriting from the outset of Smiles Revolutionary, their fourth long-player. The ease with which they let the melody carry “In Presence,” knowing that the song doesn’t need to be as heavy as possible at all times since it still has presence, or the way the organ laces into the mix in the instrumental rush that brings the subsequent “Turn Back” to a finish before the early-QOTSA/bangin’-on-stuff crunch of “Closing Distance” tops old desert tones with harmonies worthy of Alice in Chains leading, inexorably, to a massive, lumbering nod of a payoff — they’re not written to be anything other than what they are, and in part because of that they stand testament to the long-standing progression of Stonebride. “Shine Hard” starts with a mosh riff given its due in crash early and late with a less-shove-minded jam between, part noise rock, answered by the progressive start-stop build of “March on the Heart” and closer “Time and Tide,” which dares a little funk in its outreach and leaves off with a nodding crescendo and smooth comedown, having come in and ultimately going out on a swell of vocals. Not particularly long, but substantial.
Toad Venom will acknowledge their new mini-album, Jag Har Inga Problen Osv…, was mixed and mastered by Kalle Lilja of Welfare Sounds studio and label, but beyond that, the Swedish weirdo joy psych rock transcendentalists offer no clue as to who’s actually involved in the band. By the time they get down to “Dogs!” doing a reverse-POV of The Stooges‘ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” in classic soul style, they’ve already celebrated in the rushing bliss and Beatles-y Mellotron break of opener “Jag har verkligen inga problem (så det måste vara du),” taken “One Day You Will Be Perfect” from manic boogie to sunny Californian psych/folk rock, underscoring its chorus with a riff that could easily otherwise be black metal, dwelled in the organ and keyboard dramaturge amid the rolling “Mon Amour” — the keys win the day in the end and are classy about it afterward, but it’s guitar that ends it — and found a post-punk gothy shuffle for “Time Lapse,” poppish but not without the threat of bite. So yes, half an album, as they state it, but quite a half if you’re going by scope and aesthetic. I don’t know how much of a ‘band’ Toad Venom set out to be, but they’ve hit on a sound that draws from sources as familiar as 1960s psychedelia and manages to create a fresh approach from it. To me, that speaks of their being onto something special in these songs. Can’t help but wonder what’s in store for the second half.
Following up on the organ-and-fuzz molten flow of “Radio Radiation” with the more emotive, Rolling Stones-y-until-it-gets-heavy storytelling of “Antihero,” Berlin’s Sacred Buzz carve out their own niche in weighted garage rock, taking in elements of psychedelia without ever pushing entirely over into something shroomy sounding — to wit, the proto-punk tension of quirky delivery of “Revolution” — staying grounded in structure and honoring dirt-coated traditionalism with dynamic performances, “No Wings” coming off sleazy in its groove without actually being sleaze, “Make it Go Wrong” revealing a proggy shimmer that turns careening and twists to a finish led by the keys and guitar, and “Rebel Machine” blowing it out at the end because, yeah, I mean, duh. Radio Radiation is Sacred Buzz‘s first EP (it’s more if you get the bonus track), and it seems to effortlessly buck the expectations of genre without sounding like it’s trying to push those same limits. Maybe attitude and the punk-born casual cool that overrides it all has something to do with that impression — a swagger that’s earned by the time they’re done, to be sure — but the songs are right there to back that up. The short format suits them, and they make it flow like an album. A strong initial showing.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
September, huh? That’s definitely far enough away to feel like the future, and I imagine more word on the issue will make its way down the PR wire between now and then, but Coltaine‘s new album, Forgotten Ways, will be released on Sept. 6 as the band’s first outing through Lay Bare Recordings, which I’m pretty sure is what they mean by “debut album” below. You might recall their Afterhour in Walhalla (discussed here) came out in 2020, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t their first long-player either — Mutter Morgana came out in 2016, but that might’ve been under their original moniker, Witchfucker — though that and the rest of the odds and ends along the way have been taken down from their Bandcamp. At very least, call it a fresh start with the new label.
Their 2023 single “Gorit” (video premiere here) is still on there, Russian lyrics and all, and that’s enough to get the point across that you don’t quite know what’s coming from them before you’re through whatever it is you happen to be hearing at the time. Note also that Forgotten Ways was recorded by Jan Oberg, who in addition to playing in EarthShip and Grin, running his own studio and label, has tracked offerings for Daevar, Downfall of Gaia and plenty of others whose names begin with other letters.
The announcement came through to Bandcamp followers, including what I’ll assume is the cover art:
Our debut album, ‘Forgotten Ways’ will be released on Friday, September 6th, 2024, via Lay Bare Recordings.
In a long-gone world where life has faded, “Forgotten Ways” leads through landscapes of desolation. It is a hopeful search for light and a new existence in a decaying reality that knows neither beginning nor end.
Credits: Produced by Coltaine Mixed and Masterd by Jan Oberg, Hidden Planet Studio
Album cover credits: Photo: Jonas Berg
Tourdates will be announced shortly.
— Coltaine is the keyword to an adventure in sound. Formed in 2022 in the mystic atmosphere of the Black Forest, Germany, Coltaine transport their intuitive creations into unusually exciting and diverse microcosms of dark, atmospheric psychedelia whose feeling is that of foggy, post metal-tinged acid rock with the sombre hues of blackgaze.
Coltaine: Julia Frasch – vocals Moritz Berg – guitar Benedikt Berg – bass Amin Bouzeghaia – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Yes, German genre-engulfing post-whatever troupe are heading out on another round of tour dates this Fall. Killer. They’ll be out through most of October and into November, and while they don’t seem as yet to have come to the attention of the Euro festival circuit — something which I imagine their next album will correct — they’ve amassed a significant run between cities across their home country and reaching into neighboring nations.
All well and good. Great, in fact, since touring is exactly what they should be doing at this point, both to build their fanbase and refine their own processes. But I have an issue that I was wondering if you could help me with:
As you scroll down to the tour dates, you’ll notice they’re in bold. I didn’t bold them. The band did. And it’s not done in any kind of html or whathaveyou that I can strip out. I’m sure this makes me old and ignorant — both of which I’ll cop to being — but I don’t know how to make it the plain old text that I turn PR wire blue. So yeah, if you know how to do that, and you could tell me, I’d appreciate it. This isn’t the first time I’ve run into that, but I’m trying to teach my kid to ask for help when she needs it, and so am also putting that into practice for myself. I can’t even find the right phrasing to Google it, and when I ask the Bing AI, it has no clue what I’m talking about. I just don’t want it to be bold, and I want the fonts to match, and I can’t do that in WordPress, apparently.
Thanks if you can help. If not, still good for Coltaine going on tour. Here’s the info:
We’re hyped to announce our next three-week adventure through Europe:
✠: with @allochiria.the.band ◆: with @vampyresband
This will be our first time in Poland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. During the first half of the tour, we’ll be joined by post-sludgers Allochiria from Athens, Greece. And for the second half of the tour, our long-time friends ‘Vampyres’ from Austria will join. It’s going to be a lot of fun!
We look forward to meeting each and every one of you on the road!
Coltaine: Julia Frasch – vocals Moritz Berg – guitar Benedikt Berg – bass Amin Bouzeghaia – drums
On Aug. 4, which is tomorrow, German post-genre rockers Coltaine will release their new digital single “Gorit.” The song runs five and a half minutes and was captured live in June along with the video premiering below, following a second round of touring the band had done alongside Russian-born dark folk singer-songwriter Kariti earlier this Winter/Spring. It has enough scope to fill a full-length. With elements of sludge, post-rock, post-metal, heavy rock, noise, black metal, psychedelia, doom and some genuinely admirable brutality from vocalist Julia Frasch after its feedback-barrage of a break, “Gorit” finds Coltaine in their element manifesting a progression all their own. Here they pummel more than soothe — and I’m not complaining about that; we all gotta take a beating sometimes — but as their most recent album, 2020’s Afterhour in Walhalla (discussed here), demonstrated, the band are capable of great aural kindnesses as well and just because they’re doing one thing in a given track, part, etc., doesn’t necessarily mean that’s also where the next song is headed.
The unpredictability, then, is part of the appeal going into “Gorit,” and Coltaine — Frasch on vocals, Moritz Berg on guitar, Benedikt Berg on bass, Amin Bouzeghaia making his first studio appearance here on drums — offer crush beyond what one might have expected anyhow. With its still-catchy chorus screamed in Russian and a trajectory that shifts from its initial post-sludge push through an ambient pullback into a mellow part made tense by the toms, slowly building through the measures of the pre-chorus before surging back with the hook itself at full volume/impact. Just before two minutes in, they swap out for a stoner rock riff — don’t tell anybody; I think it’s a secret — and Moritz takes a plotted lead over it, not flashy but effective, and the mid-paced insistence of that riff is more fervent for his return after.
You don’t know it yet, but the band are about to throw down. With his headstock on the floor first and then the drop ceiling, Moritz squeals out harsh amplified noise as Benedikt and Bouzeghaia dig into the slowdown with vital force. In the video premiering below, Frasch kneels in front of the drums and makes ready to unleash the above-noted punishment. Laced with echo enough to be cavernous, she joins the lurch and lends the crescendo the destructive presence it has earned before the final minute gives over to a noise-wash comedown, ending in feedback as the clip fades out, somehow seeming short at 5:39 when one considers the amount of ground Coltaine cover. And not just cover, but bring together, because while the band might flash an element of this or that stylistic particularity along the way, their sound is cohesive all the while, purposeful even at its most unhinged. They’ve got a new video now to (further) prove it.
And you’ll find it below, followed by some more comment from the band, recording info, upcoming shows, and so on.
Please enjoy:
Coltaine, “Gorit” live in studio premiere
Benedikt Berg on “Gorit”:
“‘Gorit’ was written by us during a very difficult time. We always played the song last on the ‘Tales of Southern Lands’ tour. However, by now, we also associate positive feelings with the song. Even though the world has still darkened, the many different people we encountered at our concerts in Europe have given us a lot of strength and hope. It is the first song we recorded with Amin Bouzeghaia, who joined Coltaine on the drums during the ‘Summer Death Anthems’ tour in September 2022.”
Spotify, Bandcamp and Youtube release date: August 4th
“Gorit” is a powerful and diverse song that explores themes of burning pain and Weltschmerz. It delves into various subjects, including closure, loss, emotional burden, adaptation to authority, remorse, and the pursuit of reconciliation. The lyrics are written in English and Russian. The live session for “Gorit” was filmed in one continuous take, capturing the raw energy of the band’s performance. The song was recorded in Coltaine’s rehearsal room in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Formed by the Berg brothers, Moe and Benedikt, in 2014, Coltaine emerged in the Black Forest of southern Germany. Channeling their emotions into a unique sound, their music blends 70’s rock, black metal, and ethereal melodies with powerful rock and metal arrangements. Fronted by the versatile singer, Jules, their atmospheric sound spans from soulful harmonies to the darkest growls. With Amin’s relentless drumming, Coltaine’s lineup promises an exciting future.
Lyrics: This whole canon is final.
Burning into the sky.
The fallen, your child is haunting.
You can’t forget all those fights.
горит, горит душа горит сердце болит
(engl.: Burning, burning, the soul is burning, my heart aches)
Adjust to leaders. Soul lost for real. Tell my careless trait. I’ve hurt your soul.
– “Gorit” recorded on June 30th in Karlsruhe, Germany by Coltaine. – Audio captured by Jables. – Mixed & Mastered by Alex Pojda at Holodeckstudio. https://www.holodeckstudio.de – Live session video filmed and edited by Jonas Berg.
Coltaine’s next shows: 13/08 DORTMUND Junkyard Rock with Messa 15/08 MUNICH Backstage München with Messa + Crowbar
BAND MEMBERS Julia Frasch – vocals Moritz Berg – guitar Benedikt Berg – bass Amin Bouzeghaia – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
In September, German post-maybe-not-everything-but-definitely-a-lot-of-things rockers Coltaine teamed up to tour in Europe alongside Italy-based/Russian-born dark folk singer-songwriter Kariti. It was, to say the least, a tour with a decent amount of backstory, as well as Kariti‘s first time on the road, and I guess everyone got along pretty well because they’ll do it again this winter, picking up for a three-week stint that’s markedly longer than the last one in February and carrying into March.
I kept up with the last tour on socials, as one does, and it sure seemed like they were having a good time. Touring in an underground band can be tough in the best of circumstances, so finding a partner to do it with goes a long way. Best wishes to Coltaine and Kariti as they head out once again.
The following came down the PR wire from Coltaine:
Coltaine & Kariti Tour 2023
In February/March we’ll be back on the road for a massive 3 weeks tour.
We’ve had such a blast touring together in September that we decided to go on an even greater adventure. We look forward to meeting each and every one of you on the road! Both bands will be bringing new songs, never heard before neither live nor on record. Considering everything that has been going on in the world, we feel extremely lucky to be able to tour for 3 week, playing over 20 shows in 11 different countries all over Europe. Come hang with us, we cannot wait!
Coltaine + kariti ‘tales of southern lands’ European tour 2023 17/02 DE STUTTGART / Schwarzer Keiler 18/02 DE FREIBURG / Artik 19/02 FR STRASBOURG / Le Local 20/02 CH Zürich / Ebrietas 21/02 FR DIJON / t.b.a 22/02 FR LYON / Le Farmer 23/02 IT MILANO c.i.q. 24/02 IT BOLOGNA / Circolo dev 25/02 IT SCHIO / csa Arcadia 26/02 IT TRIESTE / Round Midnight 28/02 SI LJUBLJANA / Channel Zero 01/03 HR ZAGREB / MoČvara 02/03 HU BUDAPEST / Riff 03/03 SK BRATISLAVA / Kulturak klub 04/03 AT VIENNA / Rhiz 05/03 CZ PRAGUE / Balada Bar 06/03 PL WROCLAW / t.b.a. 07/03 DE BERLIN / Tommyhaus 09/03 DE KIEL / Schaubude 10/03 DE DORTMUND / Rattenloch 11/03 DE KARLSRUHE / P8
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 2nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
It was late — but not that late; there was work to be done after all — on one night or another of this year’s Freak Valley Festival in Germany, which I was electrified with gratitude for witnessing. I was catching a ride back to the little hotel where I was staying who first didn’t, then did, have a room for me, and chatting to the volunteer driving the shuttle about the day, music, and so on. I am rarely “chatty,” but it had been a very good day, and I feel comfortable saying that without remembering specifically which day it was. Her name was Jule, short for Julia Frasch, and over the course of the seven minutes or so, I found out she was the lead vocalist in Coltaine on the band’s 2020 album, Afterhour in Walhalla. I had the Bandcamp page on my phone before I even opened the door to get out of the vehicle, and made the investment more or less immediately upon entering my room. That was June, and I’ve been working to get my head around the record one way or another since.
Based in Karlsruhe, Coltaine would seem to have made crossing genre lines central to their purpose since the outset. Founded by guitarist/vocalist Moritz Berg, and bassist Benedikt Berg under the somehow-less-memorable-but-hey-witches-gotta-get-some-too moniker Witchfucker, the band’s first outing in 2014, Üntrve Bläck Metäl — pressed in an edition of 30 CDs; there are five left as of this post — immediately engaged with the idea of knowing the rules and standards by which styles are designated and shirking them. The personnel and name of the project may have changed, but listening to the psychedelic ritualized char of Afterhour in Walhalla‘s periodically-saxed 11-song/47-minute run, the core intention would seem to be the change. With Michelle Langer on drums, Frasch on lead vocals, and flutist/saxophonist/percussionist Stephan Schimassek in the six-piece lineup, plus guests Julie Grimmer (vocals, percussion) and Fast Fred (percussion), the pulling together, mixing, separating, reconfiguring of aesthetic is central to what Coltaine do.
Songs occupy spaces minimal or overwhelming, beginning with the procession-into-the-water of “Surfing Skeleton Undead,” which gathers itself over the course of its first minute and comes to a swell of blackened heavy psych rock and atmospheric density. Wherever the album goes thereafter, whether it’s the intertwining melodies and shouts and swirls of “God is Nature, God is Dead” or the three-minute mood-guitar/croon of “Berge,” it remains decisively not-metal, and basks in the freedom of movement allowed for that. Afterhour in Walhalla is the band’s sophomore full-length following 2016’s Mutter Morgana — they have a slew of other live offerings, EPs, two-songers, and so on as well, before and after this record — and while I don’t know over how long a period its material came together, the prevailing vibe is expansive enough, especially as the album proceeds into its second half, to make me think it was spread over some time. “Berge” begets the sharper tension of “Verlust,” a different version of which appeared on the first LP, and the flute, acoustics, chimes and chants of “Green Table,” the ritualized psychedelic aspects of which speak to the spirit of everything that surrounds even as they come to purposeful contradiction in the “eins, zwei, drei, vier” count-in at the start of the buzz-toned, dual-vocal, oh-and-a-tambourine-because-of-course blackened punk rock of “Kreative Freiheit” that ends side A in such a manner as to highlight the point that Coltaine — or Witchfucker as they were at the time — have loosed the reins of their aural inhibitions and that the fire-on-the-hillside-at-dusk vibe as depicted on the cover art is very much alive in the music.
That becomes even more true (or ‘trve,’ perhaps, at least to itself) as the whoops and howls in the early going of the nine-minute “Warsong” make an especially ethereal launch for side B. A significant achievement unto itself, “Warsong” is rife with art-rock pulse, Grace Slickian vocal declarations, psychedelic jazz and echoing tremolo guitar, a bit of mouth harp at the end as it comes apart making it feel as though somehow the jam was just starting even as it finished. Interludes play more of a role on the second half of the album than the first, with “Wüstling” renewing the chimes and flute of “Green Table” amid some added shaker, light percussion and fingers sliding on guitar strings before “Reflections,” and the penultimate “Waterfallout” with its toy piano or whatever that is and deep-mixed fuzzy electric guitar ahead of the finale “Intergalaktische Mondzuckerpiraten,” which raises the crucial question, if Coltainearen’t intergalactic moon-sugar pirates, then who is? Certainly I have no idea.
The back and forth aspect of Afterhour in Walhalla‘s latter half, thankfully, does not come with a loss of focus on the part of the band. “Warsong” is a marked accomplishment in vibe and spaciousness, and “Reflections” solidifies around impulses toward psychedelic and progressive black metal shown earlier but dispenses with the harsher shouts and screams, leaving a fluid-sounding ghost of extremity in their place amid the saxophone, rolling groove and forward-thinking arrangement. “Intergalaktische Mondzuckerpiraten” follows suit in closing the record, so that, having eaten whatever ayahuasca-esque lysergic plant — organically grown, no pesticides — was on offer with “Warsong,” the listener then careens into and out of lucidity through the final four cuts. It is Coltaine‘s willful defiance of the rules of genre that make this world-building possible, and as much as one so often is tempted to compartmentalize music, they show what can happen when the mission becomes to encompass, not to limit, various styles and methods. It is refreshing how individualized Afterhour in Walhalla ultimately is.
Aside from the name change, Coltaine have continued to stay busy in terms of music as well. 2021 wrought the lockdown jams collection, Bäd Vibez Önly – Aufarbeitung einer Krise, and earlier-2022 brought the live single “When Tigers Used to Smoke (Live)” as a 10-minute preview of what reportedly will be the opening track of their third full-length. That may or may not change as Coltaine move toward that eventuality, but the song is an adventure just the same, and with the band recently announcing tour dates alongside mournful folk singer-songwriter Kariti, one way or another, they’re clearly starting to think about moving past this record and on to the next.
So be it. What will come will come when it comes. I’m just glad I got to hear this one, and as always, I hope you enjoy too.
Thanks for reading.
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5:49AM. Kid is expected awake any minute now. It’s been at least a week, maybe two, since he slept this late. We went to the zoo yesterday and I guess I kind of ran him into the ground. Good. He needs that. Was falling asleep on the couch next to me during end-of-day-comedown tv time yesterday evening, which is also rare. No fever, if that’s your next question. It’s usually mine at this point, even though we’re all vaccinated and so on.
It was a hard week. In the continuing saga of me being off my meds, I feel a bit more even this week but am generally speaking from a lower place in myself, and I think if you look around here at some of what I’ve written over the last few days, you can see that.
Ah, here he comes down the stairs…
I emailed a friend yesterday about burnout. I rarely do that kind of thing. Most of my relationships are transactional. My “friends” are my friends when they have new albums or tours coming. But I have been feeling hard exhaustion, before and after coming back from Psycho Las Vegas, and am somewhat at a loss how to handle it. I’m tired. Tired of emails. Tired of Facebook. Tired of tour announcements for European bands hitting the road in October and tired even more from caring about it. He told me he meditates for half an hour in the morning, has his routine, tries to find time to relax during the day. I’m not really in a place where I can do that kind of thing, the routine notwithstanding. If I have a spare minute, and even if I don’t, if I’m sitting on my phone during the aforementioned tv time, I’m trying to write. The sad truth is I need this. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me who feels pathetic knowing that.
Homeboy, who would perhaps raise an eyebrow at being referred to as such, expressed faith that I’d sort my shit out. Based on my 40-plus years of very much not, I have my doubts, but the sentiment was appreciated.
Nonetheless we proceed. Burnt or not. Next week is packed, the week after is packed, and the two weeks after that are the Quarterly Review. I told that to The Patient Mrs. last night as she was talking about going to Montreal for a conference the week of the 15th and she said, “happy anniversary baby,” because that’ll be the second week of the Quarterly Review. I said give me a fucking break. She said she was just joking. I said in that case, give me two breaks. We went to bed. That’s life.
Anyway, The Pecan starts school next Tuesday, so that will help get me more time to work and take some of the edge off that has built up over the course of this Summer of Pivot. The Patient Mrs. starting her semester, first full week this week, is added stress, so these things balance out, but we keep going. That’s the thing, keep going. Someone told me this week I was doing a good job as a parent. I damn near cried. No one who actually knows me says that. Certainly not anyone who’s actually seen me parent. I’m fucking awful. I hover. I over-parent. I get mad. I get sad. I grab him and move him and threaten to take shit away because that’s basically the only time he’ll listen to me and, say, stop pushing a 45-year-old woman out of his way at the touch-tank at the zoo. All your bullshit, there it is. I knew going into becoming a father that I would be the source of this kid’s emotional baggage owing to the circumstances of his birth, the donor sperm, all kinds of families, however else we reframe the narrative of ‘daddy shoots blanks so we had to bring in outside help’ to make it palatable/livable for all, but adding to that baggage because I can’t let go of my own crap is a downward emotional spiral that I’ve been riding for the better part of the last five years. Longer even. It’s all part of the same, thoroughly fucked, thing. Me. I’m the problem. Always. So much old shame.
I’m trying. I’m doing my best. Every day, I’m doing my best. And I’m failing all the time.
Oh yeah, fuck Scott Kelly though. At least I’m not beating anybody or trying to convince anyone I’m anything other than a fucking mess. Low bar, perhaps. Fine.
Monday is Labor Day in the US, which is fucking laughable since anytime someone starts talking about supporting worker’s rights or helping poor people in this country on any level more than a snarky tweet, they get assassinated. Happy Labor Day. Here’s a bullet in your face. I’m surprised we still get the day off. The sad American progressive left, waiting for the day when being right about a whole bunch of shit will be enough to actually convince anyone to support a cause. Don’t hold your breath.
I’m gonna go before this gets any worse. Gimme show today, 5PM Eastern. I say “fuck” a few times in the first voice track. I got frustrated. I don’t know. It’s been a hard week. It’s been a hard summer. I’m ready to be done with it and shift into a different routine. I doubt I’ll have time to meditate then either, but I’ve stopped getting high every day, which I was doing for a few weeks there in my I’ll-make-a-habit-of-anything lifestyle (see also this site), and I treated myself to a new Pelican shirt, so if you want to end on a positive note, at least the shirt’s comfortable for now before it goes in the wash.
Have a great and safe weekend. Gonna go to a wedding on Saturday which will be fun and I’ve got two nights of shows in a row next week — Rammstein and Stöner — that are both in New Jersey. One I’ll write about. The other is Rammstein. Both will be awesome. Hope to see you out there, and thanks for reading in the meantime.
