This isn’t the end of the Quarterly Review — it wraps up on Monday — but it is the end of the week, and I’m ready for it. The music’s been good though and that’s something of a salvation for times where it seems like the strange and terrifying are in competition with each other to make life more awful. That doesn’t end on the weekend, of course, but at least I’ll have two days to put together the last post of this QR, and when you’ve been writing 10 reviews a day all week, half that counts as respite. Something like it, anyhow.

So before we wrap up the week with whatever on earth I’ll actually pick to close it out (any requests?), here’s one more batch, with my thanks for your valuable time and attention. Hope you find something cool.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done

No More Can Be Done is the debut album from South Africa’s P+A+G+E+S, but the Cape Town trio spent five years in the 2010s together as Morning Pages, so that their first record would hold so much intention behind it shouldn’t necessarily be a shocker. The reason behind the name change? An apparent change in their project, which is to say the band got way, way darker, way, way heavier and nasty in that sharp-toothed-thing-you-can’t-see-but-you-know-is-there-also-there-are-no-lights kind of way. The 15-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “The Passage” leads the way down into the bleak, extreme sludge that follows, but as the careful linear build of “Shine On” later demonstrates, P+A+G+E+S are more methodical than the noise and outwardly chaotic feel would seem to indicate. Atmosphere plays a central role in what they do, and that’s consistent from their run as Morning Pages, but No More Can Be Done is about what’s lurking and lurching in the bleakness.

P+A+G+E+S Linktr.ee

P+A+G+E+S on Bandcamp

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Bask, The Turning

Following the intro “Chasm,” Bask launch their fourth album, The Turning, with minor-key mystique and subsequent crush via “In the Heat of the Dying Sun” and “The Traveler,” piling triumph upon triumph in a way that is indicative of the progressive songwriting at work. “The Cloth” is slower, but neither less weighted nor less gorgeous for that, and as “Dig My Heels” works in some of the Southern/Americana pastoralism the Asheville, North Carolina, outfit have always been known for, the melody proves a standout, setting up another life-affirming payoff in the seven-minute “Unwound,” the mellower turn for the build of “Long Lost Light” and the somewhat wistfully twanging undertones of the title-track, which closes with grace and poise rare enough in heavy anything. Clearly a band who have worked to and been successful in transcending their root influences, and an identity that’s been hard-forged over their decade-plus. The Turning sees them actively bring their approach to another level.

Bask on Bandcamp

Season of Mist website

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Matus, El Aullido b/w Planetario

A 15-minute two-songer from Lima, Peru’s Matus, as the psychedelic weirdo sometimes-cultists of long standing offer “El Aullido” (8:45) and “Planetario” (6:55) as their first outing since 2021’s Espejismos II (review here). Both processions — and they are that — feel built out from jams, but the recordings have guitarist Manolo Garfias and keyboardist Richard Nossar (both also alternate bass duties) at their core, along with Roberto Soto‘s drumming, Veronik‘s theremin in the deep-freakout section of “Planetario,” Úrsula Inga‘s vocals on “El Aullido,” and so on with other guests (including Camilo Uriarte, who co-produced and mixed, along solo artist Chino Burga on guitar, and Cristóbal Pérez on sax for “Planetario”) adding to the movement. “El Aullido” pairs shoegaze with a roll informed by South American folk, perfect for Inga‘s vocals, while “Planetario” carries more of its melody in the keyboards and surrounding ambience. It’s a welcome check-in from Matus as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band.

Matus on Bandcamp

Matus on Facebook

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November Fire, 2025

Where New England bizarropsych rockers November’s Fire‘s 2024 album, Through a Mournful Song, took an approach to its material like some of earliest Monster Magnet‘s underproduced kitchen-sink quirk, the two-song EP 2025 presents two different faces, and that turns out to be because the songs included are over 30 years old. “2025” and “Somnia” — the latter which brings in original guitarist Greg Brosseau for a guest spot that includes clean lead vocals — were allegedly written in the early 1990s, and if you told me the root of the title-track was a teenaged thrash riff, they make that easy enough to believe in the modernized, thickened chug of the song as it stands now. That is to say, they’ve brought it into the sludgy experimentalist context of the work now, but it remains dark. As it inevitably would. “Somnia” is shorter, has some backing chants, and feels meditative even as the guitar holds to its restlessness. Weird band staying weird, screwing around with their old stuff and getting something out of it. Sometimes an experiment works.

November Fire Linktr.ee

November Fire on Bandcamp

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Goatmilker, Goatmilker

Bergen, Norway, four-piece Goatmilker don’t really leave you with much choice other than to call them progressive, though that hardly says boo about the reach of their self-titled debut, which is as much psychedelic punk as it is black metal in its rhythms, but remains a work of heavy rock and roll nonetheless, grooving, catchy on “Devils on My Tail,” aggro-weird on “Time… Tearing Apart,” all-in on tonal overwhelm for “Mountains” and cheekily grandiose in the finale “Storm” only after they’ve seen fit to take on Journey‘s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” which given the goes-where-it-wants succession leading up to it hardly feels out of place at all. While at no risk of overstaying its welcome at eight songs and 34 minutes, Goatmilker does make for a challenging listen at times, but the rewards for actually paying attention to what they’re doing are worth whatever effort is required. That is to say, engage actively for best results.

Goatmilker Linktr.ee

Goatmilker on Instagram

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Grin, Incantation

If Grin sound a little different on Incantation, a two-track 7″ with a digital bonus cut in the flatteningly heavy “Echoes in the Static,” that might be because the duo of drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg and bassist Sabine Oberg didn’t record themselves as usual, but instead tracked live at Wave Akademie in their native Berlin with Anton Urban (Jan Oberg co-produced, mixed and mastered, so still had a hand for sure). So, rather than the studio leftovers one might expect mere months after the band’s last full-length, Acid Gods (review here), the songs may have their origins as such but arise from different circumstances. There’s some more of a wash to “Incantation” and “The Color of Ghosts,” and “Echoes in the Static” is consumed by its titular noise toward its finish, but “The Color of Ghosts” dares some melodic vocals amid all that bombast, and as usual, Grin forge their own take on metal, sludge and intense atmospheric heavy.

Grin on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Mezzoa, TON 618

A collection of bangers on the second LP through Glory or Death Records from San Diego rockers Mezzoa, TON 618 plays out over the course of a taut 13 songs and 39 minutes, careening desert style in “Hard to Hear,” punking up the groove in “Chump” before basking in Sabbath worship for “Wasted Universe” (think “Symptom” thereof), building crunching tension in “Uncle Cho” only to release it in the second half of the song with a grunge melody, carrying that melody into “Smiles for Everyone,” and then slamming all that momentum into the fuzzed radness of the lead tone and Alice in Chainsy vocal of “How You Been.” That’s not the end, I’m just less efficient than the band and so I’m running out of space. “Blessing” attains inner Nirvana while “Desert Snakes” sounds like it’s ready for a John Garcia guest spot, “Chachi Liberachi” echoes the sharper corners of “Wasted Universe,” “Goin’ Down” has that riff that every New York hardcore song ever (yes, all of them. don’t @ me.) has but goes somewhere completely different with it, and closer “How Are We” highlights the craft that’s let them do it all in the first place. Hey kid, you like rock music? Well get a load of this.

Mezzoa on Bandcamp

Glory or Death Records website

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Orsak:Oslo, Silt and Static

Beginning with its longest track in the nine-minute “Biting In,” Orsak:Oslo‘s Silt and Static finds the Norwegian/Swedish outfit somewhat outgrown from their dronier foundations, harnessing a psychedelia that moves with krautrocking purposes, while retaining the band’s previously-established ambient instrumentalist approach. “Days Adrift” is an even thicker roll, with ebbs and flows that give precedent to the shove that results in “Salt Stains,” which follows, while “Petals” dips momentarily into minimalism. But the story here is the fullness of sound, with pieces like the subdued-but-building “Resonance in Ash” or “Petals” in conversation with Pelican/Russian Circles-style heavy, while “The Onward Stride” and “Time Leak” bring prog more to the forefront and “Bread and Sink” lets the rumble bring it all together. In these ways, Silt and Static rewrites the story of Orsak:Oslo as a band, and their reach has never seemed so broad.

Orsak:Oslo website

Vinter Records website

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Modder, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun

The hypnotic drone finish of “Type 27” that ends side A of Modder‘s second album, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun, is just one way the band incorporate ambience as a key element in their trades between loud and quiet, tense and open, and crushing and spacious. These different sides come together in various combinations across the six cuts on the Belgian instrumentalist five-piece’s 41-minute run, which sets out in oppressive and blasting fashion with “Stone Eternal,” as heavy as whatever doom you want to put it next to and still able to hit with the precision of Gojira. The shorter “Mather” is more angular, glitchy and mirrored by “Chaoism” on the album’s second half, and though they lead off with their longest track (immediate points) in “Stone Eternal,” the heavy djenty chug that comes to fruition on “In the Sun” is unmistakable as anything but the closer, building, receding, tossing in what sure sounds like a human voice chanting and surging in intensity to round out with a keyboard-overlaid bludgeoning. By then you’re pretty much pulp anyway.

Modder Linktr.ee

Lay Bare Recordings website

Consouling Sounds store

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Futuredrugs, Past Warnings of Present Futures

Past Warnings of Present Futures tells you a lot about its point of view in the title, but electronic experimentalists Futuredrugs push the meaning deeper still, opening with a barely recognizable take on “What a Wonderful World” with “Skies of Blue” and revamping Tom Waits‘ “Dirt in the Ground” on “…And the Gallows Groaned.” The cinematic, dark synth/programmed backdrop of these and the sampled “No Home” blur the line between originality and reinterpretation/manipulation, and I won’t claim to know whether pieces like “Ice Age Coming” or “When the Last Tree Falls” are similarly sourced, but maybe. In any case, in a time when remembering things like “nothing matters anyway” is a comfort, there is space for the open-minded listener to dwell among these seven tracks, which when taken as a whole succeed in embodying the apocalyptic hellscape of recent years. I don’t know if they’re offering sanctuary so much as a snapshot, but as that, it sure feels like an accurate depiction.

Futuredrugs on Bandcamp

Futuredrugs on Instagram

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The new single from Wolvennest, who are no strangers either to subtlety or texture, sonically-speaking, doesn’t hit you all at once and doesn’t give away its linear build, but it’s kind of like flood waters coming up through the floor. All of a sudden, your feet are wet and you’re in it.

“Décharné” is the name of the seven-and-a-half-minute cut from the Belgian dark-arts ceremonialists, taken from their upcoming 2LP fourth album, Procession. Also their first for countryman imprint Consouling Sounds, it’s the follow-up to 2023’s The Dark Path to the Light, which I evidently whiffed on completely. Go figure.

Preorders for Procession are up now and the PR wire brought copious lore for your canonizing. Have at it:

WOLVENNEST Announce New Double Album ‘Procession’ Coming Out This October via Consouling Sounds

The occult doom-rock sextet returns with their most ambitious work to date. Check the opening single, ‘Décharné’ available from now on.

Preorder link: https://store.consouling.be/collections/wolvennest-procession

After a decade, four full-length offerings, and a string of other releases (EPs, a live ritual, and a collaborative album under The Nest banner alongside members of Ruins of Beverast, Primordial, Dool, and Saturnalia Temple), the occult doom-rock sextet Wolvennest return with their most ambitious work yet: the double album Procession, out October 17th via Consouling Sounds on CD digipack, LP (including a limited edition), and digital formats. The release will be followed by a European tour alongside Dolch and Double Darkness. Forged from backgrounds in Rock, occult Doom, Psychedelia, and Black Metal, the Belgian coven has earned a formidable reputation across Europe through transcendent performances at Hellfest, Roadburn, relentless tours, and fevered club rituals. With three guitars forming a wall of sound, the spectral wail of a theremin, sacred projections, and altar-like stage presences, every Wolvennest appearance becomes less a concert than a ceremony – an offering to Death itself.

“We record when we want, with no pressure and no interference from outside forces. We cultivate our own domain, a sanctum where outcasts and zealots still take the time to listen deeply, to feel the music like a bad trip unraveling,” declares guitarist and synth-conjuror Corvus.

Once more mixed and mastered by Déhà at Blackout Studio in Brussels, Procession approaches eighty minutes of unrelenting atmosphere. “Our previous work was a side A/side B journey, but we all felt that returning to a longer format meant erasing boundaries altogether. Procession is an all-or-nothing offering – it begins with warmth and ascends into death and despair,” continues Corvus.

True to tradition, Wolvennest once again summon a guest voice. “In 2019, we witnessed Adaestuo in Brussels – one of the most harrowing Black Metal rites we have ever seen,” recalls guitarist Michel Kirby. “It became instantly clear that Hekte Zaren was the perfect vessel for the song Tarantism. She is a key to the Otherworld, a rarity in these times. We are blessed, or perhaps cursed, to have her presence woven into our music. In the past we’ve had Dagur from Misþyrming, Der Blutharsch, King Dude, and Alex from Ruins of Beverast – all people who create music for the right reasons. Hekte Zaren is no exception.”

Doom, Black Metal, Rock, ambient, even cinematic echoes – all converge in Wolvennest’s sound, defying genre confines. “It has never been an obstacle, but rather a gift,” says singer and theremin-priestess Shazzula. “It allows us to perform at Doom/Stoner gatherings as well as at Black Metal ceremonies.”

Lyrically, the album’s message is stark. “Strip the word procession of its religious bindings,” explains lead guitarist Marc De Backer. “This world has had its chance, and our species has failed utterly. This procession is the soundtrack of our extinction, plain and simple.”

Procession also marks the first recording with new bassist VaathV. “I’ve known the band from its inception, witnessed its evolution, and was born ready. In the studio, I nearly discovered the songs as I recorded them. A challenge, yes, but that’s Wolvennest. The moment itself carries the magic, both live and behind the veil. We are not a jam band, but the spirit of the 70s, when audacity was exalted, still runs through us.”

Track-list:
1. Another Nail
2. Purple Poison
3. The Shadow Of Your Side
4. Damnation
5. Décharné
6. Things That Breathe Are Death
7. Burial
8. Farmadihana
9. Hunters
10. Tarantism
11. The Last Chamber

As with every release, Procession holds its own addictive hymn – this time, The Shadow on Your Side. “The track wasn’t even supposed to make the album,” reveals drummer Bram Moerenhout. “But I finished my parts earlier than expected, so I gave it a chance, without a guide, without tracks to follow. I trusted the demo, and the final incarnation astonished me. It’s one of those songs that lingers after a single listen, yet it still breathes with Wolvennest’s essence – layered guitars, hidden keys, and an aura that won’t let go.”

Wolvennest have never sought universality. With Procession, they plunge unflinching into the vortex, heedless of outside judgment. “It has always been our creed: we must revel in the entire process to conjure something true. That’s why we entrusted Arts of Maquenda with the artwork and Void Revelations with our image. These are people who know us not only as musicians, but as human beings. We wanted that intimacy to resonate in every facet.”

For the first time, the album will be unveiled by Belgian label Consouling Sounds, after years of alliance with Van Records. “Our gratitude to Van is endless – their legacy is monumental. Yet it was time for a new chapter. It means something profound to us to be released by a Belgian label, with vinyl pressed on Belgian soil,” concludes Michel Kirby. Pre-order ‘Procession’ coming out October 17 via Consouling Sounds available from now on here: https://store.consouling.be/collections/wolvennest-procession

https://wolvennest.bandcamp.com/
https://wolvennest.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wlvnnst
https://www.facebook.com/wolvennestband/

https://store.consouling.be/
https://www.instagram.com/consouling/
https://www.facebook.com/ConsoulingSounds

Wolvennest, “Décharné” visualizer

Here we are. Welcome to 2023 and to both the first Quarterly Review of this year and the kind of unofficial closeout of 2022. These probably won’t be the last writeups for releases from the year just finished — if past is prologue, I’ll remain months if not years behind in some cases; you do what you can — but from here on out it’s more about this year than last in the general balance of what’s covered. That’s the hope, anyway. Talk to me in April to see how it’s going.

I won’t delay further except to remind that we’ll do 10 reviews per day between now and next Friday for a total of 100 covered, and to say thanks if you keep up with it at all. I hope you find something that resonates with you, otherwise there’s not much point in the endeavor at all. So here we go.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #1-10:

Buddha Sentenza, High Tech Low Life

With a foundation in instrumental meditative heavy psychedelia, Heidelberg, Germany’s Buddha Sentenza push outward along a number of different paths across their third album, High Tech Low Life, as in the second of five cuts, “Anabranch,” which builds on the mood-setting linear build and faster payoff of opener “Oars” and adds both acoustic guitar, metal-impact kick drum and thrash-born (but definitely still not entirely thrash) riffing, and later, heavier post-rock nod in the vein of Russian Circles, but topped with willfully grandiose keyboard. Kitchensinkenalia, then! “Ricochet” ups the light to a blinding degree by the time it’s two and a half minutes in, then punks up the bass before ending up in a chill sample-topped stretch of noodle-prog, “Afterglow” answers that with careening space metal, likewise progressive comedown, keyboard shred, some organ and hand-percussion behind Eastern-inflected guitar, and a satisfyingly sweeping apex, and 12-minute finale “Shapeshifters” starts with a classic drum-fueled buildup, takes a victory lap in heavy prog shove, spends a few minutes in dynamic volume trades, gets funky behind a another shreddy solo, peaks, sprints, crashes, and lumbers confidently to its finish, as if to underscore the point that whatever Buddha Sentenza want to make happen, they’re going to. So be it. High Tech Low Life may be their first record since Semaphora (review here) some seven years ago, but it feels no less masterful for the time between.

Buddha Sentenza on Facebook

Pink Tank Records store

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Magma Haze, Magma Haze

Captured raw in self-produced fashion, the Sept. 2022 debut album from Magma Haze sees the four-piece embark on an atmospheric and bluesy take on heavy rock, weaving through grunge and loosely-psychedelic flourish as they begin to shape what will become the textures of their sound across six songs and 42 minutes that are patiently offered but still carry a newer band’s sense of urgency. Beginning with “Will the Wise,” the Bologna, Italy, outfit remind somewhat of Salt Lake City’s Dwellers with the vocals of Alessandro D’Arcangeli in throaty post-earlier-Alice in Chains style, but as they move through “Stonering” and the looser-swinging, drenched-in-wah “Chroma,” their blend becomes more apparent, the ‘stoner’ influence showing up in the general languidity of vibe that persists regardless of a given track’s tempo. To wit, “Volcanic Hill” with its bass-led sway at the start, or the wah behind the resultant shove, building up and breaking down again only to end on the run in a fadeout. The penultimate “Circles” grows more spacious in its back half with what might be organ but I’m pretty sure is still guitar behind purposefully drawn-out vocals, and closer “Moon” grows more distorted and encouragingly fuzzed in its midsection en route to a wisely understated payoff and resonant end. There’s potential here.

Magma Haze on Facebook

Sound Effect Records store

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Future Projektor, The Kybalion

Instrumental in its entirety and offered with a companion visual component on Blu-ray with different cover art, The Kybalion is the ambitious, 40-minute single-song debut long-player from Richmond, Virginia’s Future Projektor. With guitarist/vocalist Adam Kravitz and drummer Kevin White — both formerly of sludgesters Gritter; White is also ex-Throttlerod — and Sean Plunkett on bass, the band present an impressive breadth of scope and a sense of cared-for craft throughout their immersive course, and with guitar and sometimes keys from Kravitz leading the way as one movement flows into the next, the procession feels not only smooth, but genuinely progressive in its reach. It’s not that they’re putting on a showcase for technique, but the sense of “The Kybalion” as built up around its stated expressive themes — have fun going down a Wikipedia hole reading about hermeticism — is palpable and the piece grows more daring the deeper it goes, touching on cinematic around 27 minutes in but still keeping a percussive basis for when the heavier roll kicks in a short time later. Culminating in low distortion that shifts into keyboard revelation, The Kybalion is an adventure open to any number of narrative interpretations even beyond the band’s own, and that only makes it a more effective listen.

Future Projektor on Facebook

Future Projektor on Bandcamp

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Grin, Phantom Knocks

Berlin duo Grin — one of the several incarnations of DIY-prone power couple Jan (drums, guitar, vocals, production) and Sabine Oberg (bass) alongside EarthShip and Slowshine — grow ever more spacious and melodic on Oct. 2022’s Phantom Knocks, their third full-length released on their own imprint, The Lasting Dose Records. Comprised of eight songs running a tight and composed but purposefully ambient 33 minutes with Sabine‘s bass at the core of airy progressions like that of “Shiver” or the rolling, harsh-vocalized, puts-the-sludge-in-post-sludge “Apex,” Phantom Knocks follows the path laid out on 2019’s Translucent Blades (review here) and blends in more extreme ideas on “Aporia” and the airy pre-finisher “Servants,” but is neither beholden to its float nor its crush; both are tools used in service to the moment’s expression. Because of that, Grin move fluidly through the entirety of Phantom Knocks, intermittently growing monstrous to fill the spaces they’ve created, but mindful as well of keeping those spaces intact. Inarguably the work of a band with a firm sense of its own identity, it nonetheless seems to reach out and pull the listener into its depths.

Grin on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Teverts, The Lifeblood

Though clearly part of Teverts‘ focus on The Lifeblood is toward atmosphere and giving its audience a sense of mood that is maintained throughout its six tracks, a vigorousness reminiscent of later Dozer offsets the post-rocking elements from the Benevento, Italy, three-piece. They are not the first to bring together earthy bass with exploratory guitar overtop and a solid drum underpinning, but after the deceptively raucous one-two of the leadoff title-track and “Draining My Skin,” the more patient unfurling of instrumental side A finale “Under Antares Light” — which boasts a chugging march in its midsection and later reaches that is especially righteous — clues that the full-fuzz stoner rock starting side B with the desert-swinging-into-the-massive-slowdown “UVB-76” is only part of the appeal rather than the sum of it. “Road to Awareness” portrays a metallic current (post-metal, maybe?) in its shouty post-intro vocals and general largesse, but wraps with an engaging and relatively spontaneous-sounding lead before “Comin’ Home” answers back to “The Lifeblood” and that slowdown in “UVB-76” in summarizing the stage-style energy and the vast soundscape it has inhabited all the while. They end catchy, but the final crescendo is instrumental, a big end of the show complete with cymbal wash and drawn solo notes. Bravo.

Teverts on Facebook

Karma Conspiracy Records store

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Ggu:ll, Ex Est

An engrossing amalgam of lurching extreme doom and blackened metal, the second long-player, Ex Est, by Tilburg, Netherlands’ Ggu:ll is likewise bludgeoning, cruel and grim in its catharsis. The agonies on display seem to come to a sort of wailing head in “Stuip” later on, but that’s well after the ultra-depressive course has been set by “Falter” and “Enkel Achterland.” In terms of style, “Hoisting Ruined Sails” moves through slow death and post-sludge, but the tonal onslaught is only part of the weight on offer, and indeed, Ggu:ll bring dark grey and strobe-afflicted fog to the forward, downward march of “Falter” and the especially raw centerpiece “Samt-al-ras,” setting up a contrast with the speedier guitar in the beginning minutes of closer “Voertuig der Verlorenen” that feels intentional even as the latter decays into churning, harsh noise. There’s a spiritual aspect of the work, but the shadow that’s cast in Ex Est defines it, and the four-piece bring precious little hope amid the swirling and destructive antilife. Because this is so clearly their mission, Ex Est is a triumph almost in spite of itself, but it’s a triumph just the same, even at its moments of most vigorous, slow, skin-peeling crawl.

Ggu:ll on Facebook

Consouling Sounds store

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Fulanno & The Crooked Whispers, Last Call From Hell

While one wouldn’t necessarily call it balanced in runtime with Argentina’s Fulanno offering about 19 minutes of material with Los Angeles’ The Crooked Whispers answering with about 11, their Last Call From Hell split nonetheless presents a two-track sampler of both groups’ cultish doom wares. Fulanno lumber through “Erotic Pleasures in the Catacombs” and “The Cycle of Death” with dark-toned Sabbath-worship-plus-horror-obsession-stoned-fuckall, riding central riffs into a seemingly violent but nodding oblivion, while The Crooked Whispers plod sharply in the scream-topped six minutes of “Bloody Revenge,” giving a tempo kick later on, and follow a steadier dirge pace with “Dig Your Own Grave” while veering into a cleaner, nasal vocal style from Anthony Gaglia (also of LáGoon). Uniting the two bands disparate in geography and general intent is the dug-in vibe that draws out over both, their readiness to celebrate a death-stench vision of riff-led doom that, while, again, differently interpreted by each, sticks in the nose just the same. Nothing else smells like death. You know it immediately, and it’s all over Last Call From Hell.

Fulanno on Facebook

The Crooked Whispers on Facebook

Helter Skelter Productions site

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Mister Earthbound, Shadow Work

Not all is as it seems as Mister Earthbound‘s debut album, Shadow Work, gets underway with the hooky “Not to Know” and a riff that reminds of nothing so much as Valley of the Sun, but the key there is in the swing, since that’s what will carry over from the lead track to the remaining six on the 36-minute LP, which turns quickly on the mellow guitar strum of “So Many Ways” to an approach that feels directly drawn from Hisingen Blues-era Graveyard. The wistful bursts of “Coffin Callin'” and the later garage-doomed “Wicked John” follow suit in mood, while “Hot Foot Powder” is more party than pout once it gets going, and the penultimate “Weighed” has more burl to its vocal drawl and an edge of Southern rock to its pre-payoff verses, while the subsequent closer “No Telling” feels like a take on Chris Goss fronting Queens of the Stone Age for “Mosquito Song” on Songs for the Deaf, and yes, that is a compliment. The jury may be out on Mister Earthbound‘s ultimate aesthetic — that is, where they’re headed, they might not be yet — but Shadow Work has songwriting enough at its root that I wouldn’t mind if that jury doesn’t come back. Time will tell, but “multifaceted” is a good place to start when you’ve got your ducks in a row behind you as Mister Earthbound seem to here.

Mister Earthbound on Facebook

Mister Earthbound on Bandcamp

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Castle Rat, Feed the Dream

Surely retro sword-bearing theatrics are part of the appeal when it comes to Brooklyn’s potential-rife, signed-in-three-two-one-go doom rockers Castle Rat‘s live presentation, but as they make their studio debut with the four-and-a-half-minute single “Feed the Dream,” that’s not necessarily going to come across to all who take the track on. Fortunately for the band, then, the song is no less thought out. A mid-paced groove that puts the guitar out before the ensuing march and makes way purposefully for the vocals of Riley “The Rat Queen” Pinkerton — who also plays rhythm guitar, while Henry “The Count” Black plays lead, Ronnie “The Plague Doctor” Lanzilotta is on bass and Joshua “The Druid” Strmic drums — to arrive with due presence. With a capital-‘h’ Heavy groove underlying, they bask in classic metal vibes and display a rare willingness to pretend the ’90s never happened. This is to their credit. The sundry boroughs of New York City have had bands playing dress-up with various levels of goofball sex, violence and excess since before the days of Twisted Sister — to be fair, this is glam via anti-glam — but the point with Castle Rat isn’t so much that the idea is new but the interpretation of it is. On the level of the song itself, “Feed the Dream” sounds like a candle being lit. Get your fire emojis ready, if that’s still a thing.

Castle Rat on Instagram

Castle Rat on Bandcamp

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Mountains, Tides End

Immediate impact. Mountains‘ Tides End is the London trio’s second long-player behind 2017’s Dust in the Glare (discussed here), and though overall it makes a point of its range, the first impression in opener “Moonchild” is that the band are already on their way and it’s on the listener to keep up. Life and death pervade “Moonchild” and the more intense “Lepa Radić,” which follows, but it’s hard to listen to those two at the beginning, the breakout in “Birds on a Wire,” the heavy roll of “Hiraeth” and the rumble at the core of “Pilgrim” without waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Mountains to more completely unveil their metallic side. It’s there in the guitar solos, the drums, even as “Pilgrim” reminds of somewhat of Green Lung in its clarity of vision, but to their credit, the trio get through “Empire” and “Under the Eaves” and most of “Tides End” itself before the chug swallows them — and the album, it seems — whole. A curious blend of styles, wholly modern, Tides End feels more aggressive in its purposes than did the debut, but that doesn’t at all hurt it as the band journey to that massive finish.

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Prior to this unveiling of the cover art for their new album, Honesty Integrity Friendship Passion, Belgian shenanigans-noisemakers 30,000 Monkies posted a dot-to-dot line-drawing version of the sweet-dohggy face that adorns its front for their listeners to fill in on their own. This is charm, in other words. To coincide with this, the four songs on the half-hour release offer pummel, abrasion, and chug, growing admirably massive on “Honesty” plays out before the more cinematic drone of “Integrity” leads to the big-shout heavy riffing of “Friendship,” a beast of a finishing wash and all, and “Passion” closes with 12 minutes of artful bombast, surrounding deeply weighted lumber with avant synthotronics, perhaps tying the disparate elements together as much as one could while reinforcing the message that, basically, screw you for wanting things to be tied up in the first place. Can’t argue.

Gonna get weird, this one.

No audio public from it yet — can’t have everything — but 2019’s Are Forever is streaming below, should you want to get caught up.

From the PR wire:

30,000 MONKIES – HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION

Pre-order of the LP:
https://30000monkies.bandcamp.com/album/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion

Pre-order from Consouling Sounds:

CD: https://store.consouling.be/products/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion-cd
LP: https://store.consouling.be/products/honesty-integrity-friendship-passion-vinyl

Belgian experimental metal band, 30,000 Monkies have consistently been unleashing cathartic noise avalanches in live venues across Europe. Consouling Sounds is happy to announce the upcoming LP from Beringen-based collective – HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION. Commenting on the nature or writing and concepts, Michiel De Naegel admits: “It might seem like a pre-planned concept album, but it really isn’t. The title comes from Lil B’s lecture that took place in New York city in 2012.” – while the rap-artist was referring to a positivistic idea, talking about kindness, Lil B had summed up the concept with four words only: honesty, integrity, friendship and passion.

Guitarist/vocalist, Ruben Savelkoul explains the value of the words saying: “This sequence of words has been living in our minds since then. We kept thinking about doing something with it and finally decided to write the music to fit these words. In the end we wrote a song for each individual word, sonically and thematically inspired by it.”

Both members stress – despite the emotional quality of Lil B’s worldview, the songs are not necessarily representations of it. On HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION, 30,000 Monkies celebrates some core human values the only way they know how: with a banquet of festive sludge metal, droning guitars and an ambient palate cleanser.

Release: September, the 30th
Genres: Noise-rock, Sludge
Label: Consouling Sounds
Format: LP, CD, digital

Tracklist:
1. Honesty
2. Integrity
3. Friendship
4. Passion

“We started out with the idea of one long song in four chapters, fitting the vibes for the title we already had in mind.” – stresses Ruben. The intention to write really diverse and contrasting songs, fitting each title evolved. The situation that became both comfortable and productive for the band led to what they describe as “a DIY approach”. 30,000 Monkies “ourselves” used to control the process entirely. Except for the mastering work. “By “ourselves” I mean Ruben (singer, guitarist) recorded and mixed it in his own ‘FVN KVLT’ Studio, which was sadly demolished right after we finished the recordings.” – the freedom the band got in this situation allowed them to work on the arrangements and songwriting all along the way of making HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION.

Four songs with a mind of their own, boldly moving in different directions while still clearly being part of the ever expanding 30,000 Monkies universe. It’s brutally honest, joyously anthemic, grandly spacious, and above all: a well-meant punch in the feels. It’s an ode to a Lil’ B with warm ideas.

“We never really have a ‘fixed’ approach.” – describes Michiel. What started with the intention to create contrasting songs, fitting with each title led to various changes on the arrangements and approaches. Experimenting with sounds 30,000 Monkies created “Integrity”. “While all the twists and turns of ‘Honesty’ were meticulously planned before recording – ‘Passion’ is a solo-endeavor by Ruben, relying heavily on slowly droning, overdubbed guitars, synths and autotune vocals. ‘Friendship’ was (fittingly) the most collaborative songwriting effort we ever did as a band, trying to get the dynamics right in a live setting before we started recording.”

For the past years, 30,000 Monkies have been stalwarts of the Belgian noise rock scene. ‘Somewhere Over The Painbow’ to ‘Are Forever’, is stuffed with pounds of suave sludge and riffs that sound like a zillion champagne corks popping all at once. HONESTY INTEGRITY FRIENDSHIP PASSION continues the tradition of making every next release better and better. Loud and luxurious, sticking out like a stockbroker in corpse paint, it became the newest mark in the history of 30,000 Monkies (who send you their greetings from atop the twisted metallic throne of Rock ).

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30,000 Monkies, Are Forever (2019)

Dramatic. Atmospheric. Kinda fucked-sounding. One would expect new Sum of R to meet these criteria, and the band’s third single from the impending Lahbryce full-length on Consouling Sounds does so with aplomb. This is the first Sum of R outing to feature Marko Neuman, a party plenty familiar to Sum of R‘s Reto Mäder and Jukka Rämänen since he and Rämänen both run in the Waste of Space Orchestra-collective sphere.

You can read below about how the collaboration came about for a Roadburn 2020 doodad that, obviously, never happened, but like many others in this warped timeline, Sum of R have made the most of it. “Crown of Diseased” is bleak, spacious, experimentalist. Heavy, death ambient. Like Finnish/Swiss prodigal sons of Khanate come home to roost. I can imagine it in the Green Room at the 013, easy. Maybe a bonus set up at the skate park in the dark without telling anybody ahead of time.

The PR wire has the single and the preorder links:

SUM OF R RELEASE NEW SINGLE “CROWN OF DISEASED”

NEW ALBUM, “LAHBRYCE,” COMING MARCH 2022; PRE-ORDER NOW!

“Lahbryce” will be released March 25, 2022 on Consouling Sounds on 2xLP and CD.

Pre-Order CD: https://store.consouling.be/collections/new/products/album-sum-of-r-lahbryce-cd

Pre-Order 2xLP: https://store.consouling.be/collections/new/products/album-sum-of-r-lahbryce-lp

Every story has a beginning, no matter how unlikely. And the story of the new incarnation of Sum Of R, the project that Reto Mäder formed in 2007 and has led as the only fixed member ever since, began with some really good news, and then some really bad news, because you never know where magic is going to come from.

2020, remember that? Before the world went weird, Sum Of R were supposed to tour, a trek which included a much distinguished Roadburn appearance. The line-up for the tour was already set to be a duo, with Reto joining forces with drummer Jukka Rämänen, known for his presence in such luminaries of the groundbreaking Finnish psych scene as Dark Buddha Rising, Atomikylä or the supergroup Waste Of Space Orchestra (Oranssi Pazuzu & Dark Buddha Rising), not to mention Hexvessel and Dust Mountain. A power duo, in the true sense of the word. Because Roadburn is special, Reto thought about having a guest singer for that particular performance, and once you already have a connection established with the mighty Dark Buddha Rising – a connection first established on the joint Dark Buddha Rising / Sum Of R tour of 2018, by the way –, why look further? Enter vocalist Marko Neuman (also of Convocation and, naturally, the all-consuming Waste Of Space Orchestra), who would make them a remarkable and unlikely trio just for that evening.

Then, as we know, the world changed, and both the tour and Roadburn itself didn’t happen. In one of the best examples of there being a silver lining to almost every bad situation, Reto tried to make something positive of the situation and booked the first possible flight after the first lockdown in his native Switzerland to travel to Finland for three weeks of studio recording with the line-up that never was, Jukka and Marko. And boom: magic happened. As Reto puts it, “we had such a good and intense as well as grateful and creative time together that it could not be more natural that Marko also became a part of Sum Of R through these common experiences. For Jukka and me, Marko’s voice is like a transmitter to another dimension.”

1. Sink As I 08:34
2. Crown Of Diseased 04:46
3. Borderline
4. The Problem
5. Hymn For The Formless 07:18
6. Shimmering Sand
7. 144th
8. Lust

Line-up:
Reto Mäder: Bassguitar, drones, synth, effects
Jukka Rämänen: Drums, percussion, sounds
Marko Neuman: Vocals, synth, noise

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Sum of R, Lahbryce (2022)

Sum of R, “Crown of Diseased” official video

Lark’s Tongue, “The Novelty Wears Thin” video premiere

[Click play above to see the premiere of Stefaan Temmerman’s video for Lark’s Tongue’s ‘The Novelty Wears Thin’. Album preorders are available from Consouling Sounds.]

Illinois heavy post-rockers Lark’s Tongue release their new album, Eleusis, on Feb. 18 through Belgium’s Consouling Sounds. It has been eight years and an entire universe since the Peoria-based five-piece issued their full-length debut, Narrow (review here), and their post-metal-adjacent take on heavy is presented through Eleusis across six tracks and 44 minutes of consuming, melodic fare, heavy in purpose and tone, but not at all held back by that when it comes to making a given song move. The dual vocals of guitarists Christopher Bennett and Jeff Hyde — joined in the band by synthesist Jonathan Wright, bassist Mike Willey and drummer/percussionist Sledd — play a large role in conveying the emotional crux of the material, as they inevitably would, but the instruments behind do well in setting an atmosphere of marked depth and reach for the stories to take place.

There are moments — looking at you, “Arborist” — where if Lark’s Tongue were from Finland instead of Peoria, you’d call them folk metal, but they’re no less likely to tap John Carpenter via slow-Slayer at the outset of “Folly of Fantasy” or circa-2001-Katatonia in the melody of opener “The Novelty Wears Thin” (video premiere below), signaling with a tambourine that, like Crippled Black Phoenix before them, just because Lark’s Tongue could get blast-your-face-off heavy and aggressive at any given moment doesn’t at all mean it’s going to happen. If anything, they’re all the more post-metal for sounding like they’re actually over it.

I took notes while I was listening to the record — the title of which refers to a site in Greek mythology, a season-based myth of rebirth around Persephone and Demeter, etc. — and I hit a point about seven minutes into fourth cut and presumed side B opener “A Common Denial” (10:32) where I actually typed out “This record is officially better than anyone will ever know.” That may prove to be the case over time — certainly plenty of stellar albums fly under the radar of hype or don’t receive the word of mouth attention they deserve — but given the textures of Eleusis and the obvious care and attention detail Lark’s Tongue have taken here, the record deserves a better fate. To wit, that tambourine in “The Novelty Wears Thin.”

Sledd brings hand percussion to bear in various points of the record, whether it’s “Arborist” or elsewhere, but amid the layers of guitar, keys, bass and drums, the tambourine demonstrates a loyalty to an idea of rhythmic movement that’s older, poppier even. It comes in right where so many bands would click on the distortion pedal and start growling. And much like the psych-prog triumph that takes place in “Folly of Fantasy” or the payoffs of “A Common Denial” (their “Stones From the Sky” moment, admirably made their own) and album-closer “Obsolescence” that seem to be doing work on behalf of the entire record as well as their individual purposes, “The Novelty Wears Thin” is nonetheless righteously heavy. But by not becoming a blowout, by ending with that tambourine, the leadoff signals to the listener that Lark’s Tongue will not be swayed from their own purposes to conform to the expectations of genre. And much to their credit, they never do.

The keyboard and organ work of Wright across the span of Eleusis is a thing to celebrate. On the penultimate “Elucidate” — which is as close to a title-track as they come — Wright‘s keys run alongside particularly vital guitar and a verse that’s near Cave In in its careening, adding flourish to the melodies of the vocals and the drive surrounding; a shimmering edge on top of the heavier distortion. That cut is the shortest of the inclusions at 4:05, but the band still find room to break at around the 2:30 mark and pursue another, more open movement, and there too the keys play an essential role in the atmospheric impression being made, and as far out as it goes in its time, it doesn’t lose sight of the melody led by the vocals.

At any given point on Eleusis, there might be so much going on that it’s hard to ascertain what’s what — I’d have sworn I heard a sax on “Obsolescence” when I first heard it; had me looking for a Bruce Lamont guest spot, to no avail — but the vocals do much not just to unite the material which is instrumentally and structurally varied. All the more since they’re presented with a relatively clean treatment — the arrangements are thoughtful enough to call progressive, as on “Arborist” or the hold-back-then-get-just-a-little-shoutier finish in “Obsolescence,” or even the harmonies on “Elucidate” — the human voice coming through with a minimum of effects.

This sensibility, like that tambourine, makes Lark’s Tongue feel less experimentalist than considered. The album having been recorded by Joel Madigan at Sound of Mind in Illinois between late 2018 and early 2019 — it was done in Feb. 2019; Sanford Parker mixed at Hypercube and Kevin Rendleman mastered at Hive Mind Audio — positions it as a pre-pandemic offering, despite the 2022 release, and there is a sense of the band in the room together that can be heard in stretches like the bassline taking “Obsolescence” for a walk (rather than the other way around) in its early going, almost swaggering on the way before the break to the rolling drums and mounting guitar tension that eventually lead to Eleusis‘ last crescendo, or in the slow punch of “A Common Denial,” which toasts heavy Americana on guitar after refusing to take any time other than its own in developing from its melancholy and vaguely futuristic noise intro.

They sneak in the heavy later. It’s a joy. And they’re not necessarily going for a band-on-stage feel, but using the studio space as a means of bolstering the ambience and lushness of the record as a whole. This blend of careful planning — at least apparent careful planning — and vital delivery is a piece of what allows Lark’s Tongue to have such a stylistic reach here, but any route one takes to get there, it’s a question of songwriting. Of craft. And Eleusis is by no means the kind of record to beat you over the head with a hook — its purposes are elsewhere — but its impact is resonant and memorable just the same.

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Getting to the halfway point of a Quarterly Review is always something special. I’m not trying to say it’s a hardship reviewing 50 records in a week — if anything it’s a relief, despite the strain it seems to put on my interpersonal relationships; The Patient Mrs. hates it and I can’t really fault her for that since it does consume a fair amount of my brain while it’s ongoing — but some days it comes down to ‘do I shower or do I write’ and usually writing wins out. I’ll shower later. Probably. Hopefully.

But today we pass halfway through and there’s a lot of killer still to come, so plenty to look forward to either way. The day starts with an old favorite I’ve included here basically as a favor to myself. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Sergio Ch., La Danza de los Tóxicos

Comparatively speaking, La Danza de los Tóxicos is a pretty straightforward solo offering from Soldati/Ararat/ex-Los Natas frontman Sergio Chotsourian, whose ealrier-2021 full-length, Koi (review here), featured both of his children, one rapping and one joining him on vocals for a Nine Inch Nails cover. Perhaps it’s in reaction to that record that this one feels more traditionalist, with Chotsourian (aka Sergio Ch.) still finding 11 minutes to drone out instrumentalist style on closer “Thor Hammer” and to sample Scarface at the start of “Late Train,” but in his guy-and-guitar ethic, a lot of this material sounds like the roots of things to come — Chotsourian has shared songs between projects for years — while keeping a balance between exploratory vibe and traditional structures on pieces like “Skinny Ass,” “La Esquina” and “88.”

Sergio Ch. on Facebook

South American Sludge Records on Bandcamp

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Titanosaur, Absence of Universe

Coated in burl and aggressive presentation as well as the occasional metaphors about stellar phenomena and hints/flourish of Latin rhythm and percussion, Titanosaur‘s fourth long-player, Absence of Universe, sees multi-instrumentalist, producer and vocalist Geoff Saavedra engaging with aggressive tonality and riff construction as well as the various instabilities of the moment in which the album was put together. “Conspiracy” feels somewhat self-explanatory from a lyrical standpoint, and both opener “The Echo Chamber” and “Shut Off the Voices” feel born of the era in their theme, while “So Happy” seems like a more personal perspective on mental health. Whatever a given song’s subject throughout the nine-track/42-minute offering, Saavedra delivers with a heavy rock born out of ’90s metal such that the breakdown in “So Happy” feels natural when it hits, and the rush of finale “Needed Order” seems like an earned expulsion of the tension so much of the record prior has been building, incluing the chugging force of “I Will Live Forever” immediately prior.

Titanosaur on Facebook

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

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Insect Ark, Future Fossils

Future Fossils would seem to take its name from the idea of bringing these tracks together in some effort toward conservation, to keep them from getting lost to time or obscurity amid the various other works and incarnations of Insect Ark. The first three songs are synth-only solo pieces by Dana Schechter, recorded in 2018, and the final piece, “Gravitrons,” is a 23-minute live improvisation by Schechter and then-drummer Ashley Spungin recorded in New York in 2016. The sense that these things might someday be “discovered” as one might unearth a fossil is fair enough — the minimalism of “Gypsum Blade” has space enough to hold whatever evocations one might place on it, and while “Anopsian Volta” feels grounded with a line of piano, opener “Oral Thrush” seems more decidedly cinematic. All this of course is grist for the mill of “Gravitrons,’ which is consuming unto itself in its ambience and rife with experimentalist purpose. Going in order to have gone. As ethics go, that one feels particularly worth preserving.

Insect Ark on Facebook

Consouling Sounds website

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Never Kenezzard, The Long and Grinding Road

Sludge and grind come together on Denver trio Never Kenezzard‘s The Long and Grinding Road, and through what seems to be some modern metallurgical miracle, the album sounds neither like Carcass‘ Swansong nor Dopethrone. After the pummeling beginning of “Gravity” and “Genie,” the interlude “Praer” and the subequent channel-panning-screamer “Ra” expand an anti-genre take as bent on individuality of sound as they apparently are on clever wordplay. “Demon Wheel” has a genuine heavy rock thrust, and “Slowburn” and the looped clock noise of “11:59:59” provide buffers between the extended cuts “Seven Statues” (11:31) and “The Long and Grinding Road” (14:55) itself, which closes, but by then the three-piece have established a will and a way to go wherever they want and you can follow if you’re up for it. So are you? Probably. There’s some underlying current of Faith No More-style fuckery in the sound, something playful about the way Never Kenezzard push themselves into abrasion. You can tell they’re having fun, and that affects the listening experience throughout the purposefully unmanageable 57 minutes of the album.

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Never Kenezzard on Bandcamp

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The Kupa Pities, Godlike Supervision

There’s a thread of noise rock that runs throughout Godlike Supervision, the debut full-length from Munich-based four-piece The Kupa Pities, and it brings grit to both the early-Clutch riffing of lead cut “Anthology” and the later, fuzz-overdose “Queen Machine.” It’s not just about aggression, though there’s some of that, but of the band putting their own spin on the established tenets of Kyuss-style desert and Fu Manchu-style heavy rocks. “Black Hole” digs into the punkish roots of the former, while the starts-and-stops of “Dance Baby Dance” and the sheer push of the title-track hint toward the latter, even if they’re a little sharper around the edges than the penultimate “Surfing,” which feels like it was titled after what the band do with their own groove — they seem to ride it in expert fashion. So be it. “Black Hole” works in a bit of atmosphere and “Burning Man” caps with a fair-enough blowout at the finish, ending the album on a note not unfamiliar but indicative of the twists The Kupa Pities are working to bring to their influences.

The Kupa Pities on Facebook

The Kupa Pities on Bandcamp

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Warpstormer, 1

A newcomer trio, London’s Warpstormer brings together guitarist Scott Black (Green Lung), drummer Matthew Folley and bassist/vocalist Richard J. Morgan (ex-Oak), and their aptly-titled first EP, 1, presents four bangers of unrepentantly brash heavy rock and roll, channeling perhaps some of earlier Orange Goblin‘s boozy-wrecking-crew vibes, but on “Ride the Bomb” digging into post-hardcore and metal as well, the abidingly aggro sense undercut by a quiet stretch holding its tension in the drums as well as the drunken quiet start of “Devourer,” which gets plenty bruising by its finish but is slower in procession certainly than were “Here Comes Hell” and “Storm Caller” at the outset. They’re in and out and done in 19 minutes, but as what otherwise might be a demo, 1 gives a look at where Warpstormer are coming from and would seem to herald future incursions to come. I’ll take it. The songs come across as feeling out where the band wants to be in terms of sound, but where they’re headed, they’re headed with due charge.

Warpstormer on Facebook

Warpstormer on Bandcamp

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Ricardo Jiménez y Antonio Ramírez, Génesis Negro

Génesis Negro perhaps loses something in the audio-only experience. To wit, while Ricardo Jiménez Gómez is responsible for all the music on the album, it’s the illustrations of Antonio Ramírez Collado, bringing together in Blake-esque style mysticism, anatomy, and ideas born of research into early Christian gnostics, that serve as the root from which that music is sprung. Instrumental in its entirety and including a reprint of the article that ties the visuals and audio together and was apparently the inspiration for exploring the subject to start with, its 43-minute run can obviously offer the listener a deeper dive than just the average collection of verse/chorus songs, and no doubt that’s the intention. Some pieces are minimal enough to barely be there at all, enough to emphasize every strum of a string, and others offer a distorted tonal weight that seems ready to interpret any number of psychedelic spiritual chaos processes. If you want to get weird, Ricardo Jiménez y Antonio Ramírez are way ahead of you. They might also be ahead of themselves, honestly, despite whatever temporal paradox that implies.

Sentencia Records on Facebook

Sentencia Records on Bandcamp

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Children of the Sün, Roots

Tracks like “Leaves,” “Blood Boils Hot,” and “Thunder” still rock out a pretty heavy classic blues rock vibe, but Swedish outfit Children of the Sün — as the title Roots would imply in following-up their 2019 debut, Flowers (review here) — seem to dig deeper into atmospheric expression, emotive melodies and patience of craft in the 13-track/44-minute offering. From the the mellow noodling of “Reflection” at the start, a piano-led foreshadow for “Eden” later on, to the acoustic-till-it-ain’t “Man in the Moon” later on, the spirit of Roots feels somewhere between days gone by and days to come and therefore must be the present, strutting accordingly on “The Soul” and making a pure vocal showcase for Josefina Berglund Ekholm, on which she shines as one has come to expect. There are moments where the vocals feel disconnected from the instrumental portions of the songs, but where they go, they go organically.

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The Sign Records on Facebook

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Desert Clouds, Planexit

Is that flute on “Planexit,” the opener and longest track (immediate points), on Planexit, the latest outing from London-based grunge-informed heavy rockers Desert Clouds? It could well be, and after the somewhat bleaker progression of the riffs prior, that escape into melody comes across as well-placed. The band are likewise unafraid to pull off atmospheric Nick Cave-style storytelling in “Wheelchair” and more broodingly progressive fare in “Deceivers,” leaving the relatively brief “Revolutionary Lies” to rest somewhere between Southern heavy, early ’90s melodicism and a modern production. Throughout the 45-minute LP, the band swap out various structural ideologies, and while I can’t help be immersed in the groove and bassline of “Deceivers,” the linear build and receding of the penultimate “Pearl Marmalade” feels no less essential to the impact of the record overall. Behold a band who have found their niche and set themselves to the task of refining its parameters. As ever, it works because songwriting and performance are both right on.

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Mandrone Records website

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Gondhawa, Käampâla

Comprised of Clement Pineau (drums, kamele n’goni, vocals, percussion), Idriss Besselievre (vocals, guitar, sanxian), Paul Adamczuk (bass/guitar, keyboard) and Margot GuilbertGondhawa bring forth a heavy psychedelic cultural sphere throughout the still-digestible six tracks and 37 minutes of Käampâla, with the French trio’s penchant for including instrumentation from Africa or Asia alongside the more traditional guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals resulting in a lush but natural feeling psychedelia that seems to be all the more open for their readiness to jam outside whatever box expectation might put them in. The title-track feels like Mideastern prog, while the subsequent “Assid Bubu” shreds out an echoing lead over a slow-roller of a stoner-jam nod. Their willingness to dance is a strength, ultimately, and their inclusion of these arrangement elements, including percussion, comes across as more than dabbling in world music. They’re not the first to look beyond their effects pedals in manifesting psych rock, but there’s not a lot out there that sounds like this.

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Stolen Body Records website

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Had you asked me how long it’s been since Lark’s Tongue put out Narrow (review here), their debut album, I definitely wouldn’t have told you it was going on eight years, and yet the numbers will not be denied. The melodically-minded post-heavy rockers offered a showcase of copious potential in that first record — enough so that the better part of a decade later, I still find myself looking forward to discovering what’s in store on Eleusis, which Consouling Sounds has up for preorder now ahead of a Feb. 18 release.

Sadly there’s no audio available to dig into that I can find, but hey, after eight years, certainly one would consider Narrow prime for a refresher, so you’ll find that streaming below, however much it may or may not have to do with what the band are up to now remaining to be seen. I dig the Eleusis cover art though. Reminds me of that Peaceville-style classic logo-type, though I doubt there will be much death-doom happening in the material itself. Still, I’ll take it.

Details/links follow:

Lark’s Tongue – Eleusis – Feb. 18

Lark’s Tongue – Eleusis album is now available for pre-order on CD and vinyl! To be released on the 18th of February.

Pre-order CD: https://bit.ly/Eleusis-CD

Pre-order LP: https://bit.ly/Eleusis-LP

The Mysteries of Eleusis continue to defy scrutiny as one of the most ancient occulted narratives. The promise of communion with Demeter echoes a desirous return to the natural world which seems ever more fleeting as we entangle ourselves amidst the tools of modernity. Meditation upon ancient mysteries invites us to imagine an existence where harmony takes precedence over convenience and where our stories remain hopeful in the face of apathy.

And so it is with Lark’s Tongue’s psychedelic opus, Eleusis. Just as the entheogenic kykeon transmuted pilgrims at the Rites of Demeter, Lark’s Tongue forge a dizzying concoction of heaviness and lightness, tension and release. Eleusis is Lark’s Tongue’s first recording for Consouling Sounds and it is a complex tapestry of melodic grandeur and imperial distortion- commingling the sonic loom with stately lyricism and deeply impassioned vocal performances. The result is an album that speaks to truths both hidden and overt. The songs are at once tribal and personal. There is an enigmatic pull contained in these songs that upon surrender delivers a familiar sense of time and place that is just left of center yet all its own.

This Eleusis is subtle without being inscrutable, and, with the right attention, its charms reveal themselves- richly rewarding bold travelers with songs of yearning and questioning, survival and grief- all returning to the altar of earth as they must- to the natural laws that bind our existence together as we push our way through this life and onward to whatever pantheon awaits.

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Lark’s Tongue, Narrow (2014)