A lot going on today, not the least of which is the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review passing the halfway mark. Normally this would’ve happened yesterday, but half of 70 records is 35 and unless I’ve got the math wrong that’s where we’re at here. It’s a decent time to check and see if there’s anything you’ve missed over the last couple days. You never know how something will hit you the next time.

The adventure continues…

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Messa, The Spin

Now signed to Metal Blade — which is about as weighty as endorsements get for anything heavy these days — Italy’s Messa emerge from the pack as cross-genre songwriters working at a level of mastery across their fourth album, The Spin, elevating riff-led songs with vocal melodicism and aesthetic flexibility. “Fire on the Roof” is a hook ready to tattoo itself to your brain, while “The Dress” dwells in its ambience before getting intense and deceptively technical — just because a band dooms out doesn’t mean they can’t play — ahead of the Iommi-circa-’80 solo’s payoff. It’s all very grand, very sweeping, very encompassing, very talented and expensive-sounding. “At Races” and “Reveal” postulate a single ‘Messa sound’ that someone more important than me will come up with a clever name for, and the band’s ascent of the last nine years will continue unabated as they’re heralded among the foremost stylistic innovators of their generation. You won’t be able to say they didn’t earn it.

Messa on Bandcamp

Metal Blade Records website

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After Nations, Surface | Essence

Kansas-based heavy djent instrumentalists After Nations offer their fifth full-length, Surface | Essence, with a similar format to 2023’s The Endless Mountain (review here), and, fortunately, a similarly crushing ethic. Where the prior album explored Buddhist concepts, the band seem to have traded that for Hinduist themes, but the core approach remains in a mix of sounds churning and progressive. Meshuggah are a defining influence in the heavier material, but each ‘regular’ song (about four minutes) is offset by a shorter (about a minute) ambient piece of one sort or another, and so while Surface | Essence gives a familiar core impression, what the band add to that — including in short, Between the Buried and Me-ish quiet breaks like in “Yāti” and “Vīrya” — is their own. Not to harp on it, but the last record played out the same way and it worked there too. Eventually, one assumes, the two sides will bleed together and they’ll lay waste with that all their mathy interconnected atmospheric assault. As-is, the gigantism of their heaviest parts serves them well.

After Nations website

After Nations’ Linktr.ee

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Lost Moon, The Complicated Path to the Multiverse

Taking its chiaroscuro thematic to a meta level, The Complicate Path to the Multiverse breaks its eight-song procession in half, with four heavy rockers up front followed by four acoustic-based cuts thereafter. It’s not a hard and fast rule — there’s still some funky wah in the penultimate “When it’s All Over,” for example — but it lets the Roman troupe give a sense of build as they make their way to “Cradle of Madness” in drawing the two sides of light and dark together. The lyrics do much of the heavier lifting in terms of the theme — that is, the heavier material isn’t overwhelmingly grim despite being the ‘darker’ side — but they let tonal crunch have its say in that regard as well, and side A brings to mind heavy rockers with a sense of progressivism like Astrosoniq while side B pays that off with a creative turn. If you don’t know what you’re getting going into it, the songwriting carries the day anyhow, and as laid back as the groove gets, there’s an urgency of expression underlying the delivery.

Lost Moon on Bandcamp

Pink Tank Records website

Karma Conspiracy Records website

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Bident, Blink

Likely no coincidence that London instrumentalist guitar/drum duo Bident — get it, bi-dent? two teeth? there are two of them in the band? ah forget it — launch their debut album, Blink, with “Psychological Raking.” That opener lives up to its billing in its movement between parts and sets up the overarching quirk and delight-in-throwing-a-twist that the subsequent eight tracks provide, shenanigans abound in “Calorina Leaper,” “Thhinking With a Moshcap On” and “Blink,” which renews the drum gallop at the end. With a noteworthy character of fuzz, Blink can accommodate the push of “Two-Note Pony” — which sure sounds like there’s bass on it — the nod in “Bovine Joni” and the sprint that takes hold in the second half of “That Sad,” and their use of the negative space where other instruments or vocals might be is likewise purposeful, but they don’t sound like they’re lacking in terms of arrangements thanks to the malleability of tone and tempo throughout. They operate in a familiar sphere, but there’s persona here that will come to fruition as they proceed.

Bident on Instagram

Bident on Bandcamp

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Harvest of Ash, Castaway

Death-sludge and post-metallic lumber ooze forth from the five songs of Harvest of Ash‘s second full-length, Castaway, which keeps its atmospheric impulses in check through grounded riffing and basslines as the whole band takes straightforward nod and extreme metal methodologies and smashes them together in a grueling course like that of “Embracing.” Remember in like 1996 when a band like Skinlab or Pissing Razors could just make you feel like you needed to take a shower? There’s a bit of that happening on Castaway as well in the opening title-track or the nine-minute “Constellation” later on, what with its second-half murk and strident riff, but a turn to quieter contemplations or a flash of brighter tone, whatever it is that offsets the churn in a given song, gives breadth to all that misanthropic plodding and throaty gurgle. Accordingly, Harvest of Ash end up both aggressive and hypnotic. I’m not sure it is, at least entirely, but Castaway positions itself as post-metal, and if it is, it is its own interpretation of the style’s tropes.

Harvest of Ash on Bandcamp

Harvest of Ash’s Linktr.ee

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Vlimmer, Diskomfort EP

Berlin’s Vlimmer — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, label head and producer Alexander Leonard Donat — return on a not-surprising quick turnaround from late-’24’s full-length, Bodenhex (review here) with six new tracks that include a Super Furry Animals cover of “It’s Not the End of the World?” and quickly establish a goth-meets-new-wave electro dance melancholy in “Firmament” that gives over to the German-language “Ungleichgewicht,” residing stylistically somewhere between The Cure and krautrock experimentalism. Guitar comes forward in “Friedhofen,” but Donat keeps the mood consistent on Diskomfort where the album ranged more freely, and even as the title-track moves into its finishing wash, the bumout remains. And I don’t know if that’s an actual harpsichord on “Nachleben,” but it’s a reminder that the open arrangements are part of what keeps me coming back to Vlimmer, along with the fact that they don’t sound like anything else out there that I’ve heard, the music is unpredictable, and they take risks in craft.

Vlimmer on Instagram

Blackjack Illuminist Records on Bandcamp

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Duskhead, The Messenger EP

When Duskhead posted “Two Heads” in December from their The Messenger four-songer EP, it was the first new music from the Netherlands-based rockers in a decade. Fair enough to call it a return, then, as the band — which features members culled from Tank86 and The Grand Astoria — unfurl a somewhat humble in everything but the music 15 minutes of new material. “My Guitar Will Save the Day” answers the Elder-ish vocal melody with a fervent Brant Bjork-style roll, while “Kill the Messenger” cuts the tempo for a more declarative feel and “Searchlights” takes that stomp and makes it swing to round out, some layering at the end feeling like it’s dropping hints of things to come, though one hesitates to predict momentum for a band who just got back after 11 years of silence. Still, if they’re going for it, there’s life in this material and ground to be explored from here. Concept proven. Back to work.

Duskhead website

Duskhead on Bandcamp

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The Watcher, Out of the Dark

Plenty to hear in The Watcher‘s Cruz Del Sur-issued late-2024 debut Out of the Dark as the Boston unit — not to be confused with San Fran rockers The Watchers — unfurl the Trouble-and-Pentagram-informed take on traditionalist metal. The title-track opens and makes an energetic push while calling to mind ’80s metal in the hook, where “Strike Back” and the lead-heavy “Burning World” emphasize the metal running alongside the doom in their sound. Time for a big slowdown? You guessed it. They fall off the edge the world with “Exiled,” but rather than delve into epic Sabbathianism right then, they break into to the thrashier “The Revelator,” which only gets grittier as it goes. “Kill or Be Killed” and “The Final Hour” build on this vitality before the capper “Thy Blade, Thy Blood” saves its charge for the expected but still satisfying crescendo. Fans of Crypt Sermon and Early Moods will want to take particular note.

The Watcher on Bandcamp

Cruz Del Sur Music website

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Weed Demon, The Doom Scroll

Each of the six inclusions on Weed Demon‘s cleverly-titled third long-player, The Doom Scroll, adds something to the mix, so while one might look at the front cover, the Columbus, Ohio, band’s moniker and general presentation and think they’re only basking in weed-worshipping dirt-riffed sludge, that’s not actually the case. Instead, “Acid Dungeon” starts off with dungeon synth foreboding before the instrumental “Tower of Smoke” lulls you into sludgenosis before “Coma Dose” brings deathlier vibes and, somewhere, a guest appearance from Shy Kennedy (ex-Horehound), “Roasting the Sacred Bones” strips back to Midwestern pummel circa 2002 in its stoned Rustbelt disaffection, “Dead Planet Blues” diverges for acoustics and the vinyl-only secret track “Willy the Pimp,” a Frank Zappa cover, closes. By the end of the record, Weed Demon are revealed as decidedly more complex than they seem to want to let on, but I suppose if you’re numbed out on whichever chemical derivative of THC it is that actually does anything, it’s all riffs one way or the other. You want THC-P, by the way. THC-A, the ‘a’ stands for “ain’t about shit.” I’m gonna guess Weed Demon know the difference.

Weed Demon on Bandcamp

Electric Valley Records website

Daily Grind Records on Facebook

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Nuclear Dudes, Compression Crimes 1

The one-man solo-project of Jon Weisnewski (also of Sandrider, formerly of Akimbo), Nuclear Dudes released the rampaging full-length Boss Blades (review here) in 2023, glorious in both its extremity-fueled catharsis and its anti-genre fuckery. Weisnewski described the seven-song EP Compression Crimes 1 as “a synthwave album, probably,” and he might be right about that, but it’s definitely not just that. “Death at Burning Man” brings unruly techno until it lands in Mindless Self Indulgence pulsations, where “Tomb Crawler” surges near its end with metallic lashing. “Skyship” is so good at being electro-prog it’s almost obnoxious, and that too feels like the point as Weisnewski sees through creative impulses that are so much his own. Sleeper outfit, maybe. Never gonna be huge. But if you can find someone else making this kind of noise, you’re better at the internet than I am.

Nuclear Dudes on Instagram

Nuclear Dudes on Bandcamp

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There’s a lot going on here as regards narrative, so bear with me. Get Well Soon is the sixth full-length release from Columbus, Ohio, heavy rock four-piece, as well as their label-debut through Magnetic Eye Records, to which the band signed this past December. It’s been six years since the band put out Subtle (review here) through Aqualamb, which is the longest break they’ve had between albums (caveat of the plague applies). This year also makes it 20 years since the band first got together, picking up from the turn-of-the-century era of capital-‘h’ Heavy and rolling forward with a new generation’s verve. Lyrically, the record touches on themes from religion, war, the politics of both, touring life and more, and with nine memorable cuts playing out across 45 minutes, the four-piece of vocalist Jeff Martin, bassist Scott Thompson, guitarist Chris Thompson (not related so far as I know) and drummer Jesse Bartz, whose cancer diagnosis in 2022 looms among the contexts in which the record arrives.

But Get Well Soon, despite the evocation of the title and the way it points out the emptiness of such a phrase, calling to mind the platitudes, thoughts and prayers sent out on social media, ultimately empty, isn’t about Bartz‘s struggle. Martin offered the following: “If there is a lyrical theme to the album at all I’d say the message is that the war for your heart and soul is over… and you lost. This record isn’t about what comes next. It’s about sitting in that loss and coming to terms with it.”

Fair enough. The band recorded in Columbus with Joe Viers at Sonic Lounge and Andrew Schneider mixed at ACRE Audio in New York — both familiar collaborators — while Carl Saff mastered, and as one would expect for Lo-Pan 20 years on, they leave no question as to what they’re about. From the opening duo of “The Good Fight” and “Northern Eyes” through “God’s Favorite Victim,” which is pointedly about the ongoing Palestinian genocide, and closer “Six Bells,” which approaches the eight-minute mark and is a quintessential Lo-Pan slowdown set to maritime lyric calling back to “The Good Fight” and its line, “I keep on sailing the endless sea,” as well as “Stay With the Boat” and other flashes of what may or may not be tour-as-voyage metaphor throughout, since they have so much going on besides, it’s fortunate for the listener that the songs are so directed, so linear and so well executed.

Thus, in confusing, troubling, stupid times, Get Well Soon becomes both a reality check and an empathetic presence. More than ever before, Martin is in layered harmony with himself, and in addition to making “Northern Eyes” a highlight, the shifting character of Martin‘s voice in “Wormwood” — a little distorted as he shouts out foul beasts of Babylon in the early verse — and the subsequent echo-out in “Ozymandias” bringing the song to a conclusion after a quintessentially Lo-Pan verse that builds tension in the chug and opens to the chorus. The last lines there, “Words that hang on the breeze/Calling out through the trees/Now they’re rotting away/Falling more everyday,” are broad enough to read just about anything into them, where in centerpiece “Rogue Wave” the punch of Thompson‘s bass and the ripper of a guitar solo that follows complement further references to the sea and a kind of hopelessness about making amends.

I don’t actually know this, but “Rogue Wave” is likely also where the vinyl split is — that puts five tracks on side A and four on side B, but with “Six Bells” as the longest, it makes sense — and so as Thompson‘s guitar starts off “Harper’s Ferry” and Bartz eases in with cymbal wash before they smoothly move into the verse of “Harpers Ferry” as Martin invokes fire-and-brimstone preaching to recount the 1859 anti-slavery revolt led by John Brown, a pre-Civil War action the relevance of which goes beyond the US’ original sin of slavery to apply to the current day. Maybe a little inspirational/aspirational? Maybe a self-directed pep talk? Could be.

But again, Get Well Soon isn’t a feelgood record. Make no mistake, Lo-Pan kill it across the board — “Harpers Ferry” could’ve opened the record — the energy is rife and the grooves are mighty, but it’s also heavy vibes in heavy times. “Stay With the Boat” distinguishes itself in both melody and rhythm and exciting turns met with something of a lyrical defeat — remember what Martin said; it’s not that place where you’re picking yourself up, fighting, moving on, etc.; the point of view of Get Well Soon is still very much “in the shit” as regards the stages of grief, and it feels emotionally braver for that — and feels like it came together smoothly, however it actually might have. Everything fits, and if you want a five-minute cut to emphasize Lo-Pan‘s strengths in songcraft or performance, it’s an easy pick.

One imagines “God’s Favorite Victim” is in the penultimate position on the record to be somewhat buried in the hope that the band don’t get disappeared in the night for criticizing Israel. In a country whose whole thing used to be free speech, assembly and whathaveyou, that’s a disappointing and more-than-a-little-horrifying reality to face (to say the least of it), but the band do not mince words in calling out villainy, repression and state-sponsored murder. They do so in a classic Lo-Pan crunch and pull, the verse tightening and the chorus letting loose. It’s nothing new for the band, mind you. Hence “classic.” They’ve done it on Get Well Soon a couple times already, and their 20-year history is replete with chorus aligning, turning, sometimes exploding out of dug-in verses. It is a part of their DNA as a group.

So too are pieces like “Six Bells.” As a fan, my mind immediately flashes to “Bird of Prey” from their 2011 Small Stone-delivered breakout, Salvador (review here) for an example, and that song would seem to get a namedrop in the second verse: “They’ll never understand the bird of prey.” If I’ve focused a lot on the lyrics in this review, and I think I have, it’s a result of the obvious thought and consideration that went into framing and telling the stories the band are telling. “Six Bells” manages to both reference William Blake and include plain-language lines like “You’ve never been my friend,” and “We’ve never been a team,” which feel honest and sincere and cutting. “Ozymandias” holds a warning from Percy Bysshe Shelley, and seems to capture a particular Summer-of-’24 electoral energy with, “Every day getting closer to the dying of the light/And if the fire doesn’t kill her then a new perspective might.” It’ll be something when the democrats run Harris again in the primary for 2028, assuming they haven’t all been gulagged by then.

But it’s the emotive cast of “Six Bells” as delivered through Martin‘s unmatched-in-the-heavy-underground soul, and the force of the full band, whether it’s Bartz‘s cyclical tom runs, Scott‘s crucial low end groove running around Chris‘ riffing and well-plotted leads or what — Get Well Soon emphasizes everything that has not only let Lo-Pan flourish for two decades, most of which they’ve spent as one of the US’ finest acts in underground heavy. And as the finale’s hook anchored is with, “Held down, surrounded by what’s drowning me/Six bells I’m never, ever sick at sea,” the band offer resolution without giving up the still-in-it crux of feeling and being defeated.

In no small part thanks to movement of the songs themselves, Get Well Soon doesn’t sound that way, i.e. defeated. What it seems to do instead is offer the band’s point of view not necessarily as a salve — there’s zero sugar-coating in the lyrics, zero pretense in the construction of the songs; Lo-Pan are not pretending this is something other than the album of songs that it is — but as an experience to which one might relate and feel a little less alone. It’s not for nazis even passively and that it’s willing to take a stand is one more thing to like about it as Lo-Pan remain grounded in a moment that seems to be calling for so much panic. Turns out there is strength to be found in being so thoroughly, existentially beaten.

Consider yourself lucky to be spared some flowery conclusion about Lo-Pan‘s 20 years and the work they’ve done in that time. The truth is they’ve had an influence, but Lo-Pan have never really had much interest in trying to carry the genre or the “scene” on their shoulders. They are who they are, and Get Well Soon doesn’t reinvent their approach, but it showcases the steady growth and identity that has emerged in their work over the amassed decades, countless tours and now-six full-lengths, each of which is a progressive step forward from the last. That’s a thing to celebrate in itself, busy as Lo-Pan might be otherwise.

Lo-Pan, “Northern Eyes” visualizer

Lo-Pan, “The Good Fight” official visualizer

Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon (2025)

Lo-Pan on Facebook

Lo-Pan on Instagram

Lo-Pan on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records store

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records on Instagram

Get Well Soon is the title of the upcoming fifth Lo-Pan album, to be released as their first offering through Magnetic Eye Records on April 4. The lead single and opening track, “The Good Fight” is up for streaming as of today and offers ready emphasis of several of the band’s strengths, be it songwriting, melody, energy of performance, or the general amount of sass being applied at any given moment. A band who’ve long since established ‘their sound,’ Lo-Pan are characteristic in “The Good Fight” and mature in their craft, and five records deep (not six?), still able to come across as brash when they want to be. You know the chorus is coming, and they know it too. Somehow the journey surprises.

Lo-Pan‘s last full-length, Subtle (review here), came out in 2019, which indeed feels a bit like a lifetime ago. I haven’t seen a lyric sheet or heard the full album, so don’t know how much of Get Well Soon is informed directly or otherwise with drummer Jesse Bartz‘s fight with cancer circa 2022-2024, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable given the title to think the subject might come up somewhere. In any case, the hope is that Lo-Pan get on the road and don’t stop, because it’s a better world when they’re on tour somewhere in it.

April’s a ways off, but the new song’s a killer tease. Have at it at the bottom of this post. The text comes from the PR wire:

LO-PAN drop first single ‘The Good Fight’ taken from the forthcoming new album “Get Well Soon”

Preorder link:
http://lnk.spkr.media/lo-pan-get-well

LO-PAN release the first advance single ‘The Good Fight’ taken from the American hard rockers’ new full length “Get Well Soon”. The new album from the long-running Columbus, Ohio foursome has been scheduled to hit the stores on April 4, 2025.

LO-PAN comment: “We rewrote ‘The Good Fight’ about 10 times over four years before recording the tracks and my drums were captured on the second take”, drummer Jesse Bartz explains to which guitarist Chris Thompson adds: “This is one of my favorite songs to play off the new album as it has a Lo-Panthem type quality to it, which is a phrase that Andrew Schneider coined during mixing”. Vocalist Jeff Martin has the final word: “Lyrically, the theme of ‘Get Well Soon’ is more of a ‘stuff is very much broken beyond repair now’ sort of message.”

Tracklist
1. The Good Fight
2. Northern Eyes
3. Wormwood
4. Ozymandias
5. Rogue Wave
6. Harpers Ferry
7. Stay with the Boat
8. God’s Favorite Victim
9. Six Bells

Since 2005, LO-PAN have laboured hard to earn a reputation as one of the most consistent and compelling acts in the modern heavy scene with their blue-collar ethic and singular artistic vision, which is strongly felt on “Get Well Soon”.

On this album, LO-PAN further define their brand of American Hard Rock, a wicked stylistic mix of deep fried heaviness sprinkled with metal and grunge, all fused through captivating songwriting into an irresistible fifth album.

“Get Well Soon” heralds another great leap forward for LO-PAN. Heavy, cool, catchy, and with a marked emotional resonance developed through experience and maturity, “Get Well Soon” will take the Americans to new places around the globe.

Recording by Joe Viers at Sonic Lounge, Grove City, Columbus OH (US)
Mix by Andrew Schneider at ACRE Audio, New York City, NY (US)
Mastering by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, Chicago, IL (US)

Cover photography by Heidi Shapiro
Layout & Art Direction by Chris Smith (Grey Aria Design)

Line-up
Jeff Martin – vocals
Chris Thompson – guitar
Scott Thompson – bass
Jesse Bartz – drums

http://www.lopandemic.com
http://www.facebook.com/lopandemic
https://www.instagram.com/lopandemic/
https://lo-pan-rock.bandcamp.com/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Lo-Pan, “The Good Fight” official visualizer

Lo-Pan, Subtle (2019)

Go figure that as I sit down to start typing out the year-end coverage to go up later this week (which is where there aren’t a ton of posts today and won’t be until it’s done; Thursday, maybe Friday at the rate I’m going?) along comes news of the sort that in my brain needs to be immediately posted. Ohio heavy rockers Lo-Pan moving toward the release of their next full-length — their first since 2019, fifth overall and what will be their first for Magnetic Eye Records — is very much that sort of news for me. The band are coming up on 20 years next year, and whatever else they do to celebrate that, the advent of a follow-up to Subtle (review here) will surely be enough reason for them to hit the road in some fashion. This too is good news.

The PR wire didn’t have any new music to go along with the signing announcement — which would’ve been nice, but you can’t have everything, even at Xmastime — but for me, Lo-Pan being part of a label roster that includes Greenleaf, Elephant Tree, Howling Giant, Brume, Heavy Temple, High Desert Queen, Psychlona, Restless Spirit and so on makes a lot of sense. I was lucky enough to see them in 2023, and I hope to do so again in 2025.

Here’s a photo of the band on a nice day and words from the PR wire:

LO-PAN sign with Magnetic Eye Records!

American hard rockers LO-PAN have set their signatures on a multi-album contract with Magnetic Eye Records. The long-running Columbus, Ohio foursome will release their fifth full-length via the label in 2025.

LO-PAN comment: “It’s an honor to be a part of the Magnetic Eye Records roster”, drummer Jesse Bartz writes on behalf of the band. “We are very excited about the plans that we have for 2025 and beyond. Watch this space for more news coming soon!”

Jadd Shickler adds: “I love breaking new talent, but this label is also a home for iconic heavy bands, and that’s exactly what Lo-Pan are”, the Magnetic Eye director explains. “These guys have been intertwined with the riff-rock, doom, and stoner scene going back over a decade, but they’re something else entirely. They deliver classic rock that’s somehow modern, heavy as hell and at the highest possible level since they started. I can barely express the pride and pleasure it gives me to welcome Lo-Pan to Magnetic Eye! It’s been far too long since we heard new music from them, and we can’t wait to be the ones bringing it to the world!”

LO-PAN are an American hard rock band hailing from Columbus, Ohio, well-known for their powerful blend of driving rhythms, melodic vocals, and immersive sonic landscapes.

Formed in 2005, LO-PAN have laboured hard to earn a reputation as one of the most consistent and compelling acts in the modern heavy scene with their blue-collar work ethic with singular artistic vision.

LO-PAN came together in the vibrant underground Columbus music scene out of a shared love of vintage rock, stoner metal, and modern heaviness. This united four musicians with a passion for pushing boundaries. It was no accident that they took their name from the sorcerous villain in the cult film “Big Trouble in Little China” as the band set out to blend cinematic drama with larger-than-life energy.

From their earliest days, LO-PAN distinguished themselves with an intense live presence and a sound that combined classic rock grit with the crushing weight of stoner and doom influences. What further set them apart was an uncanny combination of weighty power and soaring melodies. Their approach pays homage to the lineage of bands like CLUTCH and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY while carving out their own sonic identity.

LO-PAN’s 2009 debut album “Sasquanaut” was an immediate breakout, earning praise for its infectious hooks and monumental grooves, and established the band as a force to be reckoned with in the heavy underground. Sophomore full-length “Salvador” (2011) solidified their reputation, showcasing a more refined sound and greater musical maturity. 2014’s “Colossus” represented a significant leap forward, pushing into new territories with tighter arrangements and more expansive production by Andrew Schneider (PELICAN, UNSANE et al.). In 2019, LO-PAN released “Subtle”, which marked yet another step in the evolution of their sound. The band dared to take risks by exploring new emotional depths with a more introspective and atmospheric approach, which paid off with critics and fans alike.

LO-PAN have toured and shared stages with such heavyweights as HIGH ON FIRE, TORCHE, and RED FANG, among many others, and have taken their high-energy performances to audiences across the United States and Europe. One of the most vital bands in modern heavy music, LO-PAN inspire and captivate listeners with raw, honest, and unapologetically powerful rock that is both massively thunderous and heartfelt.

LO-PAN will release their fifth full-length via Magnetic Eye Records in early 2025.

Line-up
Jeff Martin – vocals
Chris Thompson – guitar
Scott Thompson – bass
Jesse Bartz – drums

http://www.lopandemic.com
http://www.facebook.com/lopandemic
https://www.instagram.com/lopandemic/
https://lo-pan-rock.bandcamp.com/

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Lo-Pan, Subtle (2019)

Oh hi, I didn’t see you there. Me? Oh, you know. Nothing much. Staring off a cliffside about to jump headfirst into a pool of 100 records. The usual.

I’m pretty sure this is the second time this year that a single Quarterly Review has needed to be two weeks long. It’s been a busy year, granted, but still. I keep waiting for the tide to ebb, but it hasn’t really at all. Older bands keep going, or a lot of them do, anyhow — or they come back — and new bands come up. But for all the war, famine, plague and strife and crisis and such, it’s a golden age.

But hey, don’t let me keep you. I’ve apparently been doing QRs since 2013, and I remember trying to find a way to squeeze together similar roundups before it. I have no insight to add about that, it’s just something I dug back to find out the other day and was surprised because 11 years of this kind of thing is a really long gosh darn time.

On that note, let’s go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

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Agusa, Noir

The included bits of Swedish dialogue from the short film for which Agusa‘s Noir was written to serve as a soundtrack would probably ground the proceedings some if I spoke Swedish, admittedly. As it is, those voices become part of the dream world the Malmö-based otherwise-instrumentalist adventurers conjure across 15 at times wildly divergent pieces. In arrangement and resultant mood, from the ’70s piano sentimentality of “Ljusglimtar” to the darker church organ and flute workings of “Stad i mörker,” which is reprised as a dirge at the end, the tracks are evocative across a swath of atmospheres, and it’s not all drones or background noise. They get their rock in, and if you stick around for “Kalkbrottets hemlighet,” you get to have the extra pleasure of hearing the guitar eat the rest of the song. You could say that’s not a thing you care about hearing but I know it’d be a lie, so don’t bother. If you’ve hesitated to take on Agusa in the past because sometimes generally-longform instrumental progressive psychedelic heavy rock can be a lot when you’re trying to get to know it, consider Noir‘s shorter inclusions a decent entry point to the band. Each one is like a brief snippet serving as another demonstration of the kind of immersion they can bring to what they play.

Agusa on Facebook

Kommun 2 website

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Octoploid, Beyond the Aeons

With an assembled cast of singers that includes Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun), his Amorphis bandmates Tomi Koivusaari and Tomi Joutsen, Petri Eskelinen of Rapture, and Barren Earth bandmate Jón Aldará, and guests on lead guitar and a drummer from the underappreciated Mannhai, and Barren Earth‘s keyboardist sitting in for good measure, bassist Olli Pekka-Laine harnesses a spectacularly Finnish take on proggy death-psych metal for Octoploid‘s first long-player, Beyond the Aeons. The songs feel extrapolated from Amorphis circa Elegy, putting guttural vocals to folk inspired guitar twists and prog-rock grooves, but aren’t trying to be that at all, and as ferocious as it gets, there’s always some brighter element happening, something cosmic or folkish or on the title-track both, and Octoploid feels like an expression of creative freedom based on a vision of a kind of music Pekka-Laine wanted to hear. I want to hear it too.

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Reigning Phoenix Music website

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The Obscure River Experiment, The Ore

The Obscure River Experiment, as a group collected together for the live performance from which The Ore has been culled, may or may not be a band. It is comprised of players from the sphere of Psychedelic Source Records, and so as members of River Flows Reverse, Obscure Supersession Collective, Los Tayos and others collaborate here in these four periodically scorching jams — looking at you, middle of “Soul’s Shiver Pt. 2” — it could be something that’ll happen again next week or next never. Not knowing is part of the fun, because as far out as something like The Obscure River Experiment might and in fact does go, there’s chemistry enough between all of these players to hold it together. “Soul Shiver Pt. 1” wakes up and introduces the band, “Pt. 2” blows it out for a while, “I See Horses” gets funky and then blows it out, and “The Moon in Flesh and Bone” feels immediately ceremonial with its sustained organ notes, but becomes a cosmic boogie ripper, complete with a welcome return of vocals. Was it all made up on the spot? Was it all a dream? Maybe both?

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Shun, Dismantle

Way underhyped South Carolinian progressive heavy rockers Shun arrive at the sound of their second LP, Dismantle, able to conjure elements of The Cure and Katatonia alongside Cave In-style punk-born groove, but in Shun‘s case, the underlying foundation is noise rock, so when “Aviator” opens up to its hook or “NRNS” is suddenly careening pummel or “Drawing Names” half-times the drums to get bigger behind the forward/obvious-focal-point vocal melodies of Matt Whitehead (ex-Throttlerod), there’s reach and impact working in conjunction with a thoughtful songwriting process pushed forward from where on their 2021 self-titled debut (review here) but that still seems to be actively working to engage the listener. That’s not a complaint, mind you, especially since Dismantle succeeds to vividly in doing so, and continues to offer nuance and twists on the plot right up to the willful slog ending with (most of) “Interstellar.”

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Small Stone Records website

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No Man’s Valley, Chrononaut Cocktail Bar/Flight of the Sloths

Whether it’s the brooding Nick Cave-style cabaret minimalism of “Creepoid Blues,” the ’60s psych of “Love” or the lush progressivism that emerges in “Seeing Things,” the hook of “Shapeshifter” or “Orange Juice” coming in with shaker at the end to keep things from finishing too melancholy, the first half of No Man’s Valley‘s Chrononaut Cocktail Bar/Flight of the Sloths still can only account for part of the scope as they set forth the pastoralist launch of the 18-minute “Flight of the Sloths” on side B, moving from acoustic strum and a repeating title line into a gradual build effective enough so that when Jasper Hesselink returns on vocals 13 minutes later in the spaced-out payoff — because yes, the sloths are flying between planets; was there any doubt? — it makes you want to believe the sloths are out there working hard to stay in the air. The real kicker? No Man’s Valley are no less considered in how they bring “Flight of the Sloths” up and down across its span than they are “Love” or “Shapeshifter” early on, both under three minutes long. And that’s what maturing as songwriters can do for you, though No Man’s Valley have always had a leg up in that regard.

No Man’s Valley on Facebook

No Man’s Valley on Bandcamp

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Land Mammal, Emergence

Dallas’ Land Mammal defy expectation a few times over on their second full-length, with the songwriting of Will Weise and Kinsley August turning toward greater depth of arrangement and more meditative atmospheres across the nine songs/34 minutes of Emergence, which even in a rolling groove like “Divide” has room for flute and strings. Elsewhere, sitar and tanpura meet with lap steel and keyboard as Land Mammal search for an individual approach to modern progressive heavy. There’s some shades of Elder in August‘s approach on “I Am” or the earlier “Tear You Down,” but the instrumental contexts surrounding are wildly different, and Land Mammal thrive in the details, be it the hand-percussion and far-back fuzz colliding on “The Circle,” or the tabla and sitar, drums and keys as “Transcendence (Part I)” and “Transcendence (Part II)” finish, the latter with the sounds of getting out of the car and walking in the house for epilogue. Yeah, I guess after shifting the entire stylistic scope of your band you’d probably want to go inside and rest for a bit. Well earned.

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Kozmik Artifactz store

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Forgotten King, The Seeker

Released through Majestic Mountain Records, the debut full-length from Forgotten King, The Seeker, would seem to have been composed and recorded entirely by Azul Josh Bisama, also guitarist in Kal-El, though a full lineup has since formed. That happens. Just means the second album will have a different dynamic than the first, and there are some parts as in the early cut “Lost” where that will be a benefit as Azul Josh refines the work laying out a largesse-minded, emotively-evocative approach on these six cuts, likewise weighted and soaring. The album is nothing if not aptly-named, though, as Forgotten King lumber through “Drag” and march across 10 minutes of stately atmospheric doom, eventually seeing the melodic vocals give way to harsher fare in the second half, what’s being sought seems to have been found at least on a conceptual level, and one might say the same of “Around the Corner” or “The Sun” taking familiar-leaning desert rock progressions and doing something decisively ‘else’ with them. Very much feels like the encouraging beginning of a longer exploration.

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Majestic Mountain Records store

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Church of Hed, The Fifth Hour

Branched off from drummer/synthesist Paul Williams‘ intermittent work over the decades with Quarkspace, the mostly-solo-project Church of Hed explores progressive, kraut and space rock in a way one expects far more from Denmark than Columbus, Ohio — to wit, Jonathan Segel (Øresund Space Collective, Camper Van Beethoven) guests on violin, bass and guitar at various points throughout the nine-tracker, which indeed is about an hour long at 57 minutes. Church of Hed‘s last outing, 2022’s The Father Road, was an audio travelogue crossing the United States from one coast to the other. The Fifth Hour is rarely so concerned with terrestrial impressionism, and especially in its longer-form pieces “Pleiades Waypoint” (13:50), “Son of a Silicon Rogue” (14:59) or “The Fifth Hour” (8:43), it digs into sci-fi prog impulses that even in the weird blips and robot twists of the interlude “Aniluminescence 2” or the misshapen techno in the closing semi-reprise “Bastard Son of The Fifth Hour” never quite feels as dystopian as some other futures in the multiverse, and that becomes a strength.

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Church of Hed website

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Zolle, Rosa

Like the Melvins on an AC/DC kick or what you might get if you took ’70s arena rock, put it in a can and shook it really, really hard, Italian duo Zolle are a burst of weirdo sensation on their fifth full-length, Rosa. The songs are ready for whatever football match stadium P.A. you might want to put them on — hugely, straight-ahead, uptempo, catchy, fun in pieces like “Pepe” and “Lana” at the outset, “Merda,” “Pompon,” “Confetto” and “Fiocco” later on, likewise huge and silly in “Pois” or closer “Maialini e Maialine,” and almost grounded on “Toffolette e Zuccherini” at the start but off and running again soon enough — if you can keep up with guitarist/vocalist Marcello and drummer Stefano, for sure they make it worth the effort, and capture some of the intensity of purpose they bring to the stage in the studio and at the same time highlighting the shenanigans writ large throughout in their riffs and the cheeky bit of pop grandiosity that’s such a toy in their hands. You would not call it light on persona.

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Subsound Records website

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Shadow and Claw, Whereabouts Unknown

Thicker in tone than much of modern black metal, and willing toward the organic in a way that feels born of Cascadia a little more to the northwest as they blast away in “Era of Ash,” Boise, Idaho’s Shadow and Claw nonetheless execute moody rippers across the five songs/41 minute of their debut, Whereabouts Unknown. Known for his work in Ealdor Bealu and the solo-project Sawtooth Monk, guitarist/vocalist Travis Abbott showcases a rasp worthy of Enslaved‘s Grutle Kjellson on the 10-minute “Wrath of Thunder,” so while there are wolves amid the trio’s better chairs, to be sure, Shadow and Claw aren’t necessarily working from any single influence in or out of char-prone extreme metals, and as the centerpiece gives over to the eponymous “Shadow and Claw,” those progressive aspirations are reaffirmed as Abbott, drummer/backing vocalist Aaron Bossart (also samples) and bassist/backing vocalist Geno Lopez find room for a running-water-backed acoustic epilogue to “Scouring the Plane of Existence” and the album as a whole. Easy to imagine them casting these songs into the sunset on the side of some pointy Rocky Mountain or other, shadows cast and claws raised.

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Shadow and Claw 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: Adrian Zambrano of Brujas del Sol

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

I guess I’d just simply say I’m a guitarist. It’s been something I’ve been in love with since I was a kid. My dad is a huge rock and roll guy. Like most of my peers, I’m sure, I was raised on Floyd, Zeppelin, The Doors, ZZ Top. I suppose it just always looked cool to me. (Insert photo of Zeppelin in front of their plane)… How could that not be cool?

Describe your first musical memory.

I’ve always had a love for Guns ‘n’ Roses. I used to wear my dad’s cut off G’N’R shirt around the house as a little kid singing and air guitaring.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

My time in Lo-pan, forcibly short as it was due to family health issues, was so incredible. When Brujas del Sol started, we looked up to them so so much… We still do. Best dudes. Best band.

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

Oh man, one half of my family is from Mexico. Where do I start?

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Hopefully a path of happiness… fulfillment. That can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people.

For me personally, it’s knowing my bandmates feel challenged, open to express themselves.

How do you define success?

People feeling eager to listen to our music or come see a show is enough for me.

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

Halloween Resurrection.

Fuck… maybe I’m lying. Busta Rhymes yelling “Trick or treat, mother fucker” is pretty mint.

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

An all synthesized record. Something I’ve been messing with for a few years now.

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

This is probably a boring answer… but, for me, to get people to think.

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

Hmmm. I’ve gone out on my own professionally and started a finish carpentry company in North Carolina. So, between that and three bands, I reckon I’ve got my hands full.

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Brujas del Sol, Deculter (2022)

On occasion, throughout the last eight years or so that I’ve been doing this kind of Quarterly Review roundup thing, I’ve been asked how I do it. The answer is appallingly straightforward. I do it one record at a time, listening to as much music as possible and writing as much as I can. If you were curious, there you go.

If, more likely, you weren’t curious, now you know anyway. Shall we?

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Russian Circles, Gnosis

You wanna know how big a deal Russian Circles are? I didn’t even get a promo of this record. Granted, I’m nobody, but still. So anyway, here I am like a fucking sucker, about to tell you Gnosis is the heaviest and most intense thing Russian Circles — with whose catalog I’m just going to assume you’re familiar because they’re that big a deal and you’re pretty hip; bet you got a download to review, or at least an early stream — have ever done and it means literally nothing. Just makes me feel stupid and lame. I really want to like this album. That chug in “Conduit?” Fuck yeah. That wash in “Betrayal?” Even that little minimalist stretch of “Ó Braonáin.” The way “Tupilak” rumbles to life at the outset. That’s my shit right there. Chug chug crush crush, pretty part. So anyway, instead of sweating it forever, I’ll probably shut Gnosis off when I’m done here and never listen to it again. Thanks. Who gives a shit? Exactly. Means nothing to anyone. Tell me why I do this? Why even give it the space? Because they’re that big a deal and I’m the nerdy fat kid forever. Total fucking stooge. Fuck it and fuck you too.

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Sargent House store

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Church of the Cosmic Skull, There is No Time

Are not all gods mere substitutes for the power of human voices united in song? And why not tonight for finding the grace within us? As Brother Bill, Sister Caroline and their all-colours Septaphonic congregation of siblings tell us, we’re only one step away. I know you’ve been dragged down, wrung out, you’ve seen the valleys and hills, but now’s the time. Church of the Cosmic Skull come forward again with the message of galactic inner peace and confronting the unreality of reality through choral harmonies and progressive heavy rock and roll, and even the Cosmic Mother herself must give ear. Come, let us bask in the light of pure illumination and revolutionary suicide. Let us find what we lost somewhere. All gods die, but you and I can live forever and spread ourselves across the universe like so much dust from the Big Bang. We’ll feel the texture of the paper. We’ll be part of the team. Oh, fellow goers into the great Far Out, there’s reverence being sung from the hills with such spirit behind it. Can you hear? Will you? There’s nothing to fear here, nothing sinister. Nothing to be lost except that which has held you back all along. Let it all move, and go. Open your eyes to feel all seven rays, and stand peeled like an onion, naked, before the truth being told. Do this. Today.

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Pretty Lightning, Dust Moves

Saarbrücken duo Pretty Lightning follow 2020’s stellar Jangle Bowls (review here) with a collection of 14 instrumental passages that, for all their willful meandering, never find themselves lost. Heady, Dead Meadowy vibes persist on ramblers like “Sediment Swing” and “Splinter Bowl,” but through spacious drone and the set-the-mood-for-whatever “Glide Gently (Into the Chasm),” which is both opener and the longest track (immediate points) at just over five minutes, the clear focus is on ambience. I wouldn’t be the first to liken some of Dust Moves to Morricone, and sure, “Powdermill” has some of that Dollars-style reverb and “The Secret is Locked Inside” lays out a subtle nighttime threat in its rattlesnake shaker, but these ideas are bent and shaped to Pretty Lightning‘s overarching purpose, and even with 14 songs, the fact that the album only runs 43 minutes should tell you that even as they seem to head right into the great unknown wilderness of intent, they never dwell in any single position for too long, and are in no danger of overstaying their welcome. Extra kudos for the weirdness of “Crystal Waltz” tucked right into the middle of the album next to “The Slow Grinder.” Sometimes experiments work.

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Fuzz Club Records store

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Wizzerd, Space‽: Issue No. 001

Combining burly modern heavy riffage, progressive flourish and a liberal dose of chicanery, Montana’s Wizzerd end up in the realm of Howling Giant and a more structurally-straightforward Elder without sounding directly like either of them. Their Fuzzorama Records label debut, the quizzically punctuated Space‽: Issue No. 001 echoes its title’s obvious nods to comic book culture with a rush of energy in songs like “Super Nova” and “Attack of the Gargantuan Moon Spiders,” the swinging “Don’t Zorp ‘n’ Warp” space-progging out in its second half as though to emphasize the sheer delight on the part of the band doing something unexpected. So much the better if they’re having fun too. The back half of the outing after the duly careening “Space Chase” is blocked off by the noisy “Transmission” and the bleep-bloop “End Transmission” — which, if we’re being honest is a little long at just under five minutes — but finds the band establishing a firm presence of purpose in “Doom Machine Smoke Break” and the building “Diosa del Sol” ahead of the record’s true finishing moment, “Final Departure Part 1: The Intergalactic Keep of the Illustrious Cosmic Woman,” which is both an adventure in outer space and a melodic highlight. This one’s a party and you’re invited.

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Fuzzorama Records store

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Desert 9, Explora II

Desert 9 is one of several projects founded by synthesist Peter Bell through a collective/studio called Mutaform in the Brindisi region of Southern Italy (heel of the boot), and the seven-song/63-minute Explora II follows quickly behind June’s Explora I and works on a similar theme of songs named for different deserts around the world, be it “Dasht-e Margo,” “Mojave,” “Gobi” or “Arctic.” What unfolds in these pieces is mostly long-ish-form instrumental krautrock and psychedelic exploration — “Arctic” is an exception at a somewhat ironically scorching three and a half minutes; opener “Namib” is shorter, and jazzier, as well — likewise immersive and far-outbound, with Bell‘s own synth accompanied on its journeys by guitar, bass and drums, the former two with effects to spare. I won’t take away from the sunburn of “Sonoran” at the finish, but the clazzic-cool swing of “Chihuahuan” is a welcome respite from some of the more thrust-minded fare, at least until the next solo starts and eats the second half of the release. The mix is raw, but I think that’s part of the idea here, and however much of Explora II was improvised and/or recorded live, it sounds like the four-piece just rolled up, hit record and went for it. Not revolutionary in aesthetic terms, but inarguable in vitality.

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Mutaform on Bandcamp

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Gagulta, Gagulta

Originally pressed to tape in 2019 through Fuzz Ink and brought to vinyl through Sound Effect Records, Greek sludgers Gagulta begin their self-titled debut with an evocation of the Old Ones before unfurling the 13-minute assault of “Dead Fiend/Devil’s Lettuce,” the second part of which is even slower than the first. Nods and screams, screams and nods, riffs and kicks and scratches. “Late Beer Cult” is no less brash or disaffected, the Galatsi-based trio of ‘vokillist’ Johny Oldboy, baritone bassist Xen and drummer Jason — no need for last names; we’re all friends here — likewise scathing and covered in crust. Side B wraps with the 10-minute eponymous “Gagulta” — circle pit into slowdown into even noisier fuckall — but not before “Long Live the Undead” has dirty-steamrolled through its four minutes and the penultimate “War” blasts off from its snare count-in on a punk-roots-revealing surge that plays back and forth with tortured, scream-topped slow-riff madness. I don’t know if the Old Ones would be pleased, but if at any point you see a Gagulta backpatch out in the wild, that person isn’t fucking around and neither is this band. Two years after its first release, it remains monstrous.

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Sound Effect Records store

Fuzz Ink Records store

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Obiat, Indian Ocean

Some 20 years removed from their debut album, Accidentally Making Enemies, and 13 past their most recent, 2009’s Eye Tree Pi (review here), London’s Obiat return at the behest of guitarist/keyboardist Raf Reutt and drummer Neil Dawson with the duly massive Indian Ocean, an eight-song collection spanning an hour’s listening time that brings together metallic chug and heavy post-rock atmospherics, largesse of tone and melody central to the proceedings from opener “Ulysses” onward. Like its long-ago predecessor, Alex Nervo‘s bass (he also adds keys and guitar) is a major presence, and in addition to vocalist Sean Cooper, who shines emotively and in the force of his delivery throughout, there are an assortment of guests on “Eyes and Soul,” “Nothing Above,” “Sea Burial” and subdued closer “Lightness of Existence,” adding horns, vocals, flute, and so on to the wash of volume from the guitar, bass, drums, keys, and though parts were recorded in Wales, England, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Hungary, Indian Ocean is a cohesive, consuming totality of a record that does justice to the long wait for its arrival while also earning as much volume as you can give it through its immersive atmospherics and sheer aural heft that leads to the ambient finish. It is not a minor undertaking, but it walks the line between metal and post-metal and has a current of heavy rock beneath it in a way that is very much Obiat‘s, and if they’re really back to being a band again — that is, if it’s not another 13 years before their next record — watch out.

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Obiat on Bandcamp

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Maunra, Monarch

Vienna five-piece Maunra enter the fray of the harsher side of post-metal with Monarch, their self-released-for-now debut full-length. With throaty growling vocals at the forefront atop subtly nuanced double-guitars and bouts of all-out chugga-breakdown riffing like that in “Wuthering Seas,” they’re managing to dare to bring a bit of life and energy to the generally hyper-cerebral style, and that rule-breaking continues to suit them in the careening “Embers” and the lumbering stomp-mosh of the title-track such that even when the penultimate “Lightbreather” shifts into its whispery/wispy midsection — toms still thudding behind — there’s never any doubt of their bringing the shove back around. I haven’t seen a lyric sheet, so can’t say definitively whether or not opener “Between the Realms” is autobiographical in terms of the band describing their own aesthetic, but their blend of progressivism and raw impact is striking in that song and onward, and it’s interesting to hear an early ’00s metal influence creep into the interplay of lead and rhythm guitar on that opener and elsewhere. At seven tracks/41 minutes, Monarch proffers tonal weight and rhythmic force, hints toward more melodic development to come, and underscores its focus on movement by capping with the especially rousing “Windborne.” Reportedly the album was five years in the making. Time not wasted.

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Brujas del Sol, Deculter

Still mostly instrumental, formerly just-Ohio-based progressive heavy rockers Brujas del Sol answer the steps they took in a vocalized direction on 2019’s II (review here) with the voice-as-part-of-the-atmosphere verses of “To Die on Planet Earth” and “Myrrors” on their third album, Deculter, but more importantly to the actual listening experience of the record is the fact that they’ve never sounded quite this heavy. Sure, guitarist Adrian Zambrano (also vocals) and bassist Derrick White still provide plenty of synth to fill out those instrumentalist spaces and up the general proggitude, and that’s a signal sent clearly with the outset “Intro,” but Joshua Oswald (drums/vocals) pounds his snare as “To Live and Die on Planet Earth” moves toward its midsection, and the aggression wrought there is answered in both the guitar and bass tones as 12-minute finishing move “Arcadia” stretches into its crescendo, more about impact than the rush of “Divided Divinity” earlier on, rawer emotionally than the keyboardier reaches of “Lenticular,” but no less thoughtful in its construction. Each piece (even that intro) has an identity of its own, and each one makes Deculter a stronger offering.

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Kozmik Artifactz website

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Sergeant Thunderhoof, This Sceptred Veil

A definite 2LP at nine songs and 68 minutes, Sergeant Thunderhoof‘s fifth full-length, This Sceptred Veil, is indeed two albums’ worth of album, and the songs bear that out in their complexity and sense of purpose as well. Not to harp, but even the concluding two-parter “Avon/Avalon” is a lot to take in after what’s come before it, but what Bath, UK, troupe vary their songwriting and bring a genuine sense of presence to the material that even goes beyond the soaring vocals to the depth of the mix more generally. There’s heavy rock grit to “Devil’s Daughter” (lil eyeroll there) and progressive reach to the subsequent “Foreigner,” a lushness to “King Beyond the Gates” and twisting riffs that should earn pleased nods from anyone who’s been swept up in Green Lung‘s hooky pageantry, and opener “You’ve Stolen the Words” sets an expectation for atmosphere and a standard for directness of craft — as well as stellar production — that This Sceptred Veil seems only too happy to meet. A given listener’s reaction to the ’80s metal goofery of “Show Don’t Tell” will depend on said listener’s general tolerance for fun, but don’t let me spoil that for them or you. Yeah, it’s a substantial undertaking. Five records in, Sergeant Thunderhoof knew that when they made it, and if you’ve got the time, they’ve got the tunes. Album rocks front to back.

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Pale Wizard Records store

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Nearly four years since their last album, II (review here), came out in 2018, Ohio progressive heavy rockers Brujas del Sol will issue Deculter on July 22 in continued collaboration with Kozmik Artifactz. The record is sitting on my desktop, which would be awesome and I’d probably be going on right now about how rad it is but for the fact that my laptop crashed and I’m writing this on my phone, meanwhile feeling like a garbage fire because either of resurgent covid or allergies, one of which has also infected my son. His covid test was negative but he’s also extra miserable so who the royal fuck knows anything anymore.

So anyhow, I’ll get to listening at some point when my head doesn’t feel like it’s baking bread with too much yeast and then I’ve no doubt of the evening radness in the Middle West. One of these days. Looks like the album’s been done for a while though, which makes me wondering about the vinyl pressing delays. It’s a thing I’m glad exists either way. Let me say that for now.

Can’t fucking breathe through my nose.

PR wire:

Brujas Del Sol Return with Brand New Album “Deculter”

Preorder: http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/index.php?k=986

“Deculter is the quintessential record of the Brujas sound. Though several songs were written over a year before we recorded this album in the summer of 2020, that turbulent time only made us strive harder to capture our musical catharsis.

Alongside the rest of the world, our personal lives have changed quite a bit since we last released music. Adrian moved to Asheville, NC from our hometown of Columbus, Ohio; he and Derrick are now brother-in-laws, and Josh has become a father. Also, for the first time since forming this band 10 years ago, we wrote, recorded, and toured as a trio.

There was a sense of urgency, stronger than we’ve ever felt before, to get this album done and do it right – to prove to ourselves that making music was not only still possible, but necessary after everything we’ve been through together.

The heavy riffs, ethereal melodies, propulsive drums, and pulsating synths that are our trademarks have been refined on Deculter to something more than the sum of its parts. We hope this album is for you what it is for us: raw, progressive, and uncompromising.”

Deculter will be released 22nd July on Kozmik Artifactz, available on heavyweight gatefold vinyl from Kozmik Artifactz, as well as on Bandcamp and all major digital streaming platforms.

Available as Limited Edition Vinyl

Release Date: 22nd July 2022

VINYL FACTZ
– Plated & pressed on high performance vinyl at Pallas/Germany
– limited & coloured vinyl
– 300gsm gatefold cover
– special vinyl mastering

TRACKS
1. Intro
2. Divided Divinity
3. Lenticular
4. To Die on Planet Earth
5. Myrrors
6. Arcadia

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Brujas del Sol, II (2018)