Posted in Whathaveyou on May 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Two bands left to announce, huh? Well, having been in Baltimore earlier this month to see them, Holy Fingers would sure as shit be a welcome addition to this bill, and if Heavy Temple are back from Europe by then (and I’m not sure they will be), they’d be my other pick, though certainly Heavy Psych Sounds wouldn’t be out of line to tap either Ecstatic Vision or Ruby the Hatchet for those spots, again pending their availability.
Whoever remains to be added, it’s already a pretty sick bill for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in New York and Baltimore. Bongzilla‘s new record will be out by then, The Golden Grass put out a banger this year, that Gozu album is a beast, so yeah, toss in Lüger from Montreal and The Atomic Bitchwax who are always welcome, add even more cool bands, and it’s a Heavy Psych Sounds Fest. At the Saint Vitus Bar. I remember a time when nobody went to heavy rock shows in New York. Not a label from Italy is hosting a festival in Brooklyn. Time is very, very weird.
I’m gonna say that’s enough since you probably stopped reading anyhow, skimmed the lineup and clicked off, either to buy tickets or elsewhere. Safe travels, either way.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore to take place on November 10-11th with Bongzilla, The Atomic Bitchwax and more; tickets on sale
In cooperation with Saint Vitus Bar and Savage Party, Heavy Psych Sounds Records take over the East Coast with the first edition of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore, to take place respectively at Saint Vitus Bar and Metro Gallery on November 10-11th, 2023. Ten bands are already confirmed, don’t wait to get your tickets!
“We are stoked to organize one of our HPS Fests on the US East Coast for the very first time! After conquering the West Coast in March, we are ready to rock the East Coast too!” says Rajko Dolhar from Heavy Psych Sounds.
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York 2023 Saint Vitus Bar – 1120 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222 BUY TICKETS
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Baltimore 2023 Metro Gallery – 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201 BUY TICKETS
With BONGZILLA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX HIGH REEPER THE GOLDEN GRASS GEEZER BLACK LUNG WITCHPIT COSMIC REAPER GOZU LÜGER + two more bands TBA
Coming at you live and direct from the Wegmans pharmacy counter where I’m waiting to pick up some pinkeye drops for my kid, who stayed home from half-day pre-k on Monday because the Quarterly Review isn’t complicated enough on its own. It was my diagnosis that called off the bus, later confirmed over telehealth, so at least I wasn’t wrong and shot my own day. I know this shit doesn’t matter to anyone — it’ll barely matter to me in half an hour — but, well, I don’t think I’ve ever written while waiting for a prescription before and I’m just stoned enough to think it might be fun to do so now.
Of course, by the time I’m writing the reviews below — tomorrow morning, as it happens — this scrip will have long since been ready and retrieved. But a moment to live through, just the same.
We hit halfway today. Hope your week’s been good so far. Mine’s kind of a mixed bag apart from the music, which has been pretty cool.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Yakuza, Sutra
Since it would be impossible anyway to encapsulate the scope of Yakuza‘s Sutra — the Chicago-based progressive psych-metal outfit led by vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont, with Matt McClelland on guitar/backing vocals, Jerome Marshall on bass and James Staffel on drums/percussion — from the transcendental churn of “2is1” to the deadpan tension build in and noise rock payoff in “Embers,” the sax-scorch bass-punch metallurgical crunch of “Into Forever” and the deceptively bright finish of “Never the Less,” and so on, let’s do a Q&A. They still might grind at any moment? Yup, see “Burn Before Reading.” They still on a wavelength of their own? Oh most definitely; see “Echoes From the Sky,” “Capricorn Rising,” etc. Still underrated? Yup. It’s been 11 years since they released Beyul (review here). Still ahead of their time? Yes. Like anti-genre pioneers John Zorn or Peter Brötzmann turned heavy and metal, or like Virus or Voivod with their specific kind of if-you-know-you-know, cult-following-worthy individualist creativity, Yakuza weave through the consuming 53-minute procession of Sutra with a sensibility that isn’t otherworldly because it’s psychedelic or drenched in effects (though it might also be those things at any given moment), but because they sound like they come from another planet. A welcome return from an outfit genuinely driven toward the unique and a meld of styles beyond metal and/or jazz. And they’ve got a fitting home on Svart. I know it’s been over a decade, but I hope these dudes get old in this band.
The second offering from Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Heath Rave (Altars of the Moon, former drums in Wolvhammer, etc.) under the banner of Lotus Thrones, the seven-song/38-minute The Heretic Souvenir (on Disorder and Seeing Red) draws its individual pieces across an aural divide by means of a stark atmosphere, the post-plague-and-the-plague-is-capitalism skulking groove of “B0T0XDR0NE$” emblematic both of perspective and of willingness to throw a saxophone overtop if the mood’s right (by Yakuza‘s Bruce Lamont, no less), which it is. At the outset, “Gore Orphanage” is more of an onslaught, and “Alpha Centauri” has room for both a mathy chug and goth-rocking shove, the latter enhanced by Rave‘s low-register vocals. Following the Genghis Tron-esque glitch-grind of 1:16 centerpiece “Glassed,” the three-and-a-half-minute “Roses” ups the goth factor significantly, delving into twisted Type O Negative-style pulls and punk-rooted forward thrust in a highlight reportedly about Rave‘s kid, which is nice (not sarcastic), before making the jump into “Autumn of the Heretic Souvenir,” which melds Americana and low-key dub at the start of its 11-minute run before shifting into concrete sludge chug and encompassing trades between atmospheric melody and outright crush until a shift eight minutes in brings stand(mostly)alone keys backed by channel-swapping electronic noise as a setup for the final surge’s particularly declarative riff. That makes the alt-jazz instrumental “Nautilus” something of an afterthought, but not out of place in terms of its noir ambience that’s also somehow indebted to Nine Inch Nails. There’s a cough near the end. See if you can hear it.
Realized at the formidable behest of Heavy Psych Sounds, the seventh installment of the Doom Sessions series (Vol. 8 is already out) brings together Sweden’s strongly cinematic sludge-doomers Endtime with fire-crackling North Carolinian woods-doomers Cosmic Reaper. With two songs from the former and three from the latter, the balance winds up with more of an EP feel from Cosmic Reaper and like a single with an intro from Endtime, who dedicate the first couple of minutes of “Tunnel of Life” to a keyboard intro that’s very likely a soundtrack reference I just don’t know because I’m horror-ignorant before getting down to riff-rumble-roll business on the righteously slow-raging seven minutes of “Beyond the Black Void.” Cosmic Reaper, meanwhile, have three cuts, with harmonized guitars entering “Sundowner” en route to a languid and melodic nod verse, a solo later answering the VHS atmosphere of Endtime before “Dead and Loving It” and “King of Kings” cult-doom their way into oblivion, the latter picking up a bit of momentum as it pushes near the eight-minute mark. It’s a little uneven, considering, but Doom Sessions Vol. 7 provides a showcase for two of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ up-and-coming acts, and that’s pretty clearly the point. If it leads to listeners checking out their albums after hearing it, mission accomplished.
Don’t skip this because of High Priest‘s generic-stoner-rock name. The Chicago four-piece of bassist/vocalist Justin Valentino, guitarists Pete Grossmann and John Regan and drummer Dan Polak make an awaited full-length debut with Invocation on Magnetic Eye Records, and if the label’s endorsement isn’t enough, I’ll tell you the eight-song/44-minute long-player is rife with thoughtful construction, melody and heft. Through the opening title-track and into the lumber, sweep and boogie of “Divinity,” they incorporate metal with the two guitars and some of the vocal patterning, but aren’t beholden to that anymore than to heavy rock, and far from unipolar, “Ceremony” gives a professional fullness of sound that “Cosmic Key” ups immediately to round out side A before “Down in the Park” hints toward heavygaze without actually tipping over, “Universe” finds the swing buried under that monolithic fuzz, “Conjure” offers a bluesier but still huge-sounding take and 7:40 closer “Heaven” layers a chorus of self-harmonizing Valentinos to underscore the point of how much the vocals add to the band. Which is a lot. What’s lost in pointing that out is just how densely weighted their backdrop is, and the nuance High Priest bring to their arrangements throughout, but whether you want to dig into that or just learn the words and sing along, you can’t lose.
Its catharsis laced in every stretch of the skin-peeling tremolo and echoing screams of “Altar of Liar,” Season Unknown arrives as the first release from Poland’s MiR, a directly-blackened spinoff of heavy psych rockers Spaceslug, whose guitarist/vocalist Bartosz Janik and bassist/vocalist Jan Rutka feature along with guitarist Michał Zieleniewski (71tonman) and drummer Krzystof Kamisiński (Burning Hands). The relationship to Janik and Rutka‘s other (main?) band is sonically tenuous, though Spaceslug‘s Kamil Ziółkowski also guests on vocals, making it all the more appropriate that MiR stands as a different project. Ripping and progressive in kind, cuts like “Lost in Vision” and the blastbeaten severity of “Ashen” are an in-genre rampage, and while “Sum of All Mourn” is singularly engrossing in its groove, the penultimate “Yesterday Rotten” comes through as willfully stripped to its essential components until its drifting finish, which is fair enough ahead of the more expansive closer “Illusive Loss of Inner Frame,” which incorporates trades between all-out gnash and atmospheric contemplations. I won’t profess to be an expert on black metal, but as a sidestep, Season Unknown is both respectfully bold and clearly schooled in what it wants to be.
Recorded by esteemed producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Unsane, etc.) in 2021-’22, Colder is Hiram-Maxim‘s third full-length, with hints of Angels of Light amid the sneering heaviness of “Bathed in Blood” after opener/longest track (immediate points) “Alpha” lays out the bleak atmosphere in which what follows will reside. “Undone” gets pretty close to laying on the floor, while “It Feels Good” very pointedly doesn’t for its three minutes of dug-in cafe woe, from out of which “Hive Mind” emerges with keys and drums forward in a moody verse before the post-punk urgency takes more complete hold en route to a finish of manipulated noise. As one would have to expect, “Shock Cock” is a rocker at heart, and the lead-in from the drone/experimental spoken word of “Time Lost Time” holds as a backdrop so that its Stooges-style comedown heavy is duly weirded out. Is that a theremin? Possibly. They cap by building a wall of malevolence and contempt with “Sick to Death” in under three minutes, resolving in a furious assault of kitchen-sink volume, that, yes, recedes, but is resonant enough to leave scratches on your arm. Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t extreme music just because some dude isn’t singing about killing some lady or quoting a medical dictionary. Colder could just as easily have been called ‘Volcanic.’
Seeming always to be ready with a friendly, easy nod, Lafayette/Indianapolis, Indiana’s The Heavy Co. return with “Brain Dead” as a follow-up single to late-2022’s “God Damn, Jimmy.” The current four-piece incarnation of the band — guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, guitarist Jeff Kaleth, bassist Eric Bruce and drummer TR McCully — seem to be refocused from some of the group’s late-’10s departures, elements of outlaw country set aside in favor of a rolling riff with shades of familiar boogie in the start-stops beneath its solo section, a catchy but largely unassuming chorus, and a theme that, indeed, is about getting high. In one form or another, The Heavy Co. have been at it for most of the last 15 years, and in a little over four minutes they demonstrate where they want their emphasis to be — a loose, jammy feel held over from the riffout that probably birthed the song in the first place coinciding with the structure of the verses and chorus and a lack of pretense that is no less a defining aspect than the aforementioned riff. They know what they’re doing, so let ’em roll on. I don’t know if the singles are ahead of an album release or not, but whatever shows up whenever it does, The Heavy Co. are reliable in my mind and this is right in their current wheelhouse.
The intervening year since L.A.’s The Cimmerian made their debut with Thrice Majestic (review here) seems to have made the trio even more pummeling, as their Sword & Sorcery Vol. I two-songer finds them incorporating death and extreme metal for a feel like a combined-era Entombed on leadoff “Suffer No Guilt” which is a credit to bassist Nicolas Rocha‘s vocal burl as well as the intensity of riff from David Gein (ex-The Scimitar) and corresponding thrash gallop in David Morales‘ drumming. The subsequent “Inanna Rising” is slower, with a more open nod in its rhythm, but no less threatening, with fluid rolls of double-kick pushing the verse forward amid the growls and an effective scream, a sample of something (everything?) burning, and a kick in pace before the solo about halfway into the track’s 7:53. If The Cimmerian are growing more metal, and it seems they are, then the aggression suits them as the finish of “Inanna Rising” attests, and the thickness of sludge carried over in their tonality assures that the force of their impact is more than superficial.
Released as an offering from the amorphous Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records, the three-song Protoaeolianism arrives under the moniker of Nepaal — also stylized as :nepaal, with the colon — finding mainstay Bence Ambrus on guitar with Krisztina Benus on keys, Dávid Strausz on bass, Krisztián Megyeri on drums and Marci Bíró on effects/synth for captured-in-the-moment improvisations of increasing reach as space and psych and krautrocks comingle with hypnotic pulsations on “Innoxial Talent Parade” (9:54), the centerpiece “Brahman Sleeps 432 Billion Years” (19:14) and “Ineffable Minor States” (13:44), each of which has its arc of departure, journey and arrival, forming a multi-stage narrative voyage that’s as lush as the liquefied tones and sundry whatever-that-was noises. “Ineffable Minor States” is so serene in its just-guitar start that the first time I heard it I thought the song had cut off, but no. They’re just taking their time, and why shouldn’t they? And why shouldn’t we all take some time to pause, engage mindfully with our surroundings, experience or senses one at a time, the things we see, hear, touch, taste, smell? Maybe Protoaeolianism — instrumental for the duration — is a call to that. Maybe it’s just some jams from jammers and I shouldn’t read anything else into it. Here then, as in all things, you choose your own adventure. I’m glad to be the one to tell you this is an adventure worth taking.
There is much to dig into on the second full-length from Toledo, Ohio, duo Hope Hole — the returning parties of Matt Snyder and Mike Mulholland — who offer eight originals and a centerpiece cover of The Cure‘s “Sinking” that’s not even close to being the saddest thing on the record, titled Beautiful Doom presumably in honor of the music itself. Leadoff “Spirits on the Radio” makes me nostalgic for a keyboard-laced goth glory day that never happened while also tapping some of mid-period Anathema‘s abiding downer soul, seeming to speak to itself as much as the audience with repetitions of “You reap what you sew.” Some Godflesh surfaces in “600 Years,” and they’re resolute in the melancholy of “Common Sense” until the chugging starts, like a dirtier, underproduced Crippled Black Phoenix. Rolling with deceptive momentum, the title-track could be acoustic until it starts with the solo and electronic beats later before shifting into the piano, beats, drift guitar, and so on of “Sinking.” “Chopping Me” could be an entire band’s sound but it’s barely a quarter of what Hope Hole have to say in terms of aesthetic two records deep. “Mutant Dynamo” duly punks its arthouse sludge and shreds a self-aware over-the-top solo in the vein of Brendan Small, while “Pyrokinetic” revives earlier goth swing with a gruff biker exterior (I’d watch that movie) and a moment of spinning weirdo triumph at the end, almost happy to be burned, where the seven-minute finale “Cities of Gold” returns to beats over its gradual guitar start, emerging with chanting vocals to become its own declaration of progressive intent. Beautiful Doom ends with a steady march rather than the expected blowout, having built its gorgeous decay out of the same rotten Midwestern ground as the debut — 2021’s Death Can Change (review here) — but moved unquestionably forward from it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Park myself in Joshua Tree for a weekend just as the winter is turning to spring, catch a ton of awesome bands from and beyond the desert? Yeah, that sounds pretty magical, to be honest. Nothing against San Francisco. I’ve seen videos from outside at Thee Parkside and it looks like an incredible place to see a gig, but if I’m making the trip from the other side of the country — and unless there’s a sudden fiscal windfall in my favor, I’m not, sadly — it’s the desert calling, all the more with All Souls and BigPig and Third Ear Experience on that bill. That’s a memorable weekend in the making.
The 2023 lineups for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in California are finished, and with the two posters next to each other you can see some of the differences from one to the other, but they’re mostly the same as artists will play in one city one night, the other the other, and as someone who remembers seeing Yawning Man and Fatso Jetson together a decade ago at Desertfest London 2013 (review here), I’d offer up a kidney to do so again if I thought I could be healed in time to actually enjoy the show in March.
Anybody want to buy some… shit I have nothing of value. Alright then.
Here’s the bill:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is proud to announce *** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA 2023 JOSHUA TREE & SAN FRANCISCO ***
full lineup announcement
Heavy Psych Sounds together with Plastic Cactus Productions and Subliminal SF presents the full lineup of the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest California 2023 !!!
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ***CALIFORNIA 2023*** MARCH 25 & 26
SAN FRANCISCO @ OPEN AIR AT THEE PARKSIDE
JOSHUA TREE @ HI DESERT CULTURAL CENTER
JOSHUA TREE HI DESERT CULTURAL CENTER MARCH 25th and 26th
WINDHAND WEEDEATER BRANT BJORK NEBULA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX YAWNING MAN FATSO JETSON DUEL HIPPIE DEATH CULT GEEZER KADABRA WARLUNG LOVE GANG WITCHPIT COSMIC REAPER ALL SOULS BIG PIG THIRD EAR EXPERIENCE DEATHCHANT WHISKEY AND KNIVES HIGH TONE SON OF A BITCH
SAN FRANCISCO OPEN AIR AT THEE PARKSIDE MARCH 25th and 26th
WINDHAND WEEDEATER MONDO GENERATOR NEBULA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX DUEL HIPPIE DEATH CULT GEEZER KADABRA WARLUNG LOVE GANG COSMIC REAPER WITCHPIT DEATHCHANT HIGH TONE SON OF A BITCH DISASTROID
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A couple days’ escape to Joshua Tree just as winter starts to wane sounds pretty god damn good right now. And that’s nothing against San Francisco, mind you — there’s an Amoeba Music there, so however otherwise expensive lodging may be, it’s worth it — but a bit of desert rock in its native habitat feels like a win, and with more bands to be announced, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in California makes an enticing prospect. Daydream-worthy.
Traveling from the East Coast will be Weedeater, the particularly sludgy Witchpit, Cosmic Reaper and The Atomic Bitchwax, Duel make the trip from Texas, Hippie Death Cult come down from Portland, Oregon, and Brant Bjork and Nebula represent California itself, so already the two-dayers (which will swap lineups from one night to the next) are varied in geography and style, and one would expect no less at this point. It ain’t Heavy Psych Sounds‘ first rodeo. The label/booking empire also recently announced two fests in Italy and if past is prologue, one expects plenty more to come as well spread throughout 2023.
We live in a golden age. Peak riffs.
From the PR wire:
*** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA *** first confirmed bands
Heavy Psych Sounds together with Plastic Cactus Productions and Subliminal SF presents the 2023 edition of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA !!!
The HPS Fest California will be taking place 25th and 26th of March, 2023 at the Thee Parkside (open air) in San Francisco and Hi Desert Cultural Center in Joshua Tree !!!
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – CALIFORNIA @ Thee Parkside, San Francisco @ Hi Desert Cultural Center, Joshua Tree
March 25th and 26th 2023
FIRST CONFIRMED BANDS
WEEDEATER BRANT BJORK NEBULA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX DUEL HIPPIE DEATH CULT COSMIC REAPER WITCHPIT
+ more TBA
In January we will unveil the full line up and single day line up.
Same line up will play both cities in different days !!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Bringing together Swedish cinephiles Endtime with North Carolinian psych-doom purveyors Cosmic Reaper, the latest installment of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ ongoing series, Doom Sessions Vol. 7, will see release on Jan. 13. I have no problem admitting that I’ve basically whiffed on this entire stretch of releases over the last two years, which has featured some awesome bands putting out some killer music. I’m sorry, I do my best, but there’s only so much capacity and it’s not like the label is lacking for other output, including from these bands, both of which have been covered in the last couple turns. I’m not gonna make excuses, I’m just one person. If I could write about more music, I would.
Maybe I’ll get to review this, maybe I won’t, but Endtime‘s Devo cover sounds right on, so if I can at least get that posted below, that’s something anyhow. Right? Desperately clinging to some kind of relevance amid a changing internet landscape and generational evolution of communication technology and band emergence? Sure. Right.
From the PR wire, while that’s still a thing:
Heavy Psych Sounds announce ‘Doom Sessions Vol. 7’ split EP with ENDTIME and COSMIC REAPER; stream debut single “Tunnel Of Life” now!
Heavy Psych Sounds Records announce the release of ‘Doom Sessions Vol.7’, the seventh chapter of their revered split series featuring Swedish nihilist doom unit ENDTIME and US stoner doom merchants COSMIC REAPER, to be released on January 13th. Listen to the first single with Endtime’s gloomy cover of DEVO’s “Tunnel Of Life” now!
Listen to Endtime doomy rendition of DEVO’s “Tunnel Of Life”
Says ENDTIME about the song: “This is the stuff that dreams are made of! The collective hard work of exposing nihilism and negativity to the masses has paid off. The fruits of our musical and televisionary labor will finally be available on Doom Sessions Vol. VII. We’re here to set the record straight by bringing you a cover of the legendary band DEVO and their track ‘Tunnel of life’. On this, we brought in Gottfrid Åhman from In Solitude, No Future, Invidious and Pågå on the Mellotron. Devo was right! Devo knew! All those crazy prophecies came true!”
Since their ignition in 2020, the ‘Doom Sessions’ series have been delivering steamroller after steamroller, packing together earth-shattering collaborations between the loudest stoner and doom acts of this world. From Conan to Bongzilla, Acid Mammoth, -(16)- and Grime, each ‘Doom Sessions’ EP presents previously unreleased tracks from both bands involved while being wrapped in a devilish artwork design by Branca Studio. ‘Doom Sessions Vol.7’ makes no exception, and the grim and unearthly synth-laden songs of Endtime match perfectly with the evil, slow and low spacey doom of Cosmic Reaper.
TRACKLIST: 1. Endtime – Tunnel of Life 2. Endtime – Beyond The Black Void 3. Cosmic Reaper – Sundowner 4. Cosmic Reaper – Dead and Loving It 5. Cosmic Reaper – King of Kings
ENDTIME is: Joppe Ebbeson – Guitar Daniel Johansson – Guitar Nicke Björnör – Drums Afshin ‘Affe’ Piran – Bass Christian Chatfield – Vocals
COSMIC REAPER IS: Thad Collis — guitar/vocals Dillon Prentice — guitar Garrett Garlington — bass Jeremy Grobsmith — drums
Charlotte, North Carolina-based four-piece Cosmic Reaper offered up their self-titled debut just over two months ago, on March 19, through Heavy Psych Sounds. The album is a feast of nod, a celebration of the void, and catchy to boot, taking influence from the swirling lurch that Windhand built from the foundation of Electric Wizard‘s ultra-stoned crush, and bringing both a current of noise and a sense of underlying structure to all that swirling murk, so that even as “Heaven’s Gate” pushes directly out-out-out from where opener “Hellion” leaves off, there’s still a sense of direction amid all the resultant spaciousness.
And so there remains one. Cosmic Reaper‘s Cosmic Reaper — sadly no eponymous track, but maybe next time — runs seven songs and 44 minutes, and is largely unipolar as regards tempo. Sure, there’s enough room for some swing as “Stellar Death” picks up from the opening duo, or later in “Wasteland II” (hey, there’s a video for that song right down there!), but even this is relative to the crawl of “Hellion” or the nine-minute penultimate cut “Planet Eater,” which as something called “Planet Eater” will inevitably do, becomes a focal point. But whether slow or slower, Cosmic Reaper‘s songs by no means lack character. Tonally they are rich in the bass of Garrett Garlington and the guitars of Dillon Prentice and Thad Collis, and as shifts in solos or the level of fuzz bring crescendos like those in the midsection of the aforementioned “Stellar Death,” drummer Jeremy Grobsmith demonstrates malleability in propelling or giving space to what surrounds.
The album takes its time, and that’s to its credit. While the vinyl edition splits up “Wasteland I” and “Wasteland II,” in a linear listen brings that downerdelic instrumental centerpiece and the ensuing rollout of “Wasteland II” together in duly hypnosis-into-slapped-face style, and “Wasteland II” is both the most uptempo inclusion and the heaviest, with layered solos in the back end trading channels over still-massive riffs, doomed right to the finish. With more echo in its vocals and more room to let those echoes flesh out, “Planet Eater” moves along a different edge of dynamic, still well in line tonally with what surrounds, but working in such a way that I’d neither be surprised to find out it was the first song written for the album or the last. In any case, it sounds like it was fun to put together.
Coming right after the “Wasteland” two-parter, it makes one wonder if there isn’t an impulse toward longer-form material that will continue to develop in Cosmic Reaper‘s modus as they go forward — nothing on their four-song 2019 EP, Demon Dance, touched six minutes, though they came close — but one way or the other the sense of bookend with which “Infrasonic” caps, bringing the listener back to the rumbling ground “Hellion” laid out and finishing with a short stretch of the massive stomp the band have kept in their pocket all along, capably wielded, not overused. Maybe that restraint is worth noting as well in terms of potential, that Cosmic Reaper — however familiar their overarching aesthetic may willfully be — aren’t just blindly throwing riffs at each other or their listeners. But the fact that potential itself is a subject at all should be taken as a sign of the self-titled’s various merits and overall cohesion. They don’t sound like a brand new band, and indeed they’re not.
If you haven’t yet dug into Cosmic Reaper, it’s streaming in full at bottom of this post — age of horrors and wonders and all that — and you’ll find the video for “Wasteland II” premiering like two line breaks from here.
So enjoy:
Cosmic Reaper, “Wasteland II” official video premiere
WASTELAND II is a Cosmic Reaper track, taken from their self-titled debut album. The release is out on Heavy Psych Sounds !!!
SAYS THE BAND: “Wasteland II is an anthemic tribute to long nights of vices and the liberating days of the road. With driving riffs, soaring vocals, and explosive solos, it thunders through with a familiar head banging groove of years past. This video is a Kalediscopic Fever dream of exploitation films, Government propaganda and biker gangs. A collaboration between the band and longtime friend and film fanatic Reed Williams!”
I was putting the show together the other day — like everything else in the last two weeks, I had to push off doing so owing to family stuff — and when I was picking tracks, it just kind of occurred to me that I might as well do a whole show of Heavy Psych Sounds stuff. It was like, “Oh, I’ll play Bongzilla and those new Hippie Death Cult and Acid’s Trip tracks,” and then it was “Well I haven’t played any of the new Sonic Flower yet and that’s Tatsu from Church of Misery so that’s cool,” and then from there filling out an entire two hours’ worth of Heavy Psych Sounds stuff was shockingly easy.
New 16, 1782, Cosmic Reaper, Acid Mammoth, on and on, and some other awesome stuff that’s come out in the last couple years, and two hours later, it still only barely scratches the surface of what the Italian label has done. To wit, the catalog reissues from Doze and Nebula and Brant Bjork go unrepresented here. As does the last Yawning Man or the upcoming Yawning Sons, both of which I’ve played recently on the show. But yeah, there’s so much stuff to go through, I simply didn’t have room for it all, especially knowing that I wanted to end with the 19-minute track from Orgöne because that record is so weird and out there even in comparison to other stuff the label does.
I talk a bit here, mostly just to be like, “Duh that was awesome” about one song or another. Despite my verbal bumbling and constant “uh”-ness, I hope you enjoy the show.
Thanks for listening and/or reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 03.19.21
Bongzilla
Free the Weed
Weedsconsin
Hippie Death Cult
Red Meat Tricks
Circle of Days
Acid’s Trip
Faster, Chopper, Boogie!
Strings of Soul
Sonic Flower
Super Witch
Rides Again
16
Death on Repeat
Doom Sessions Vol. 3
VT
Black Rainbows
Sacred Graal
Cosmic Ritual Supertrip
Fatso Jetson
Flesh Trap Blues
Split with Farflung
Ecstatic Vision
Grasping the Void
For the Masses
Acid Mammoth
Ivory Towers
Caravan
Crypt Trip
Hard Times
Haze County
VT
Big Scenic Nowhere
Tragic Motion Lines
Vision Beyond Horizon
High Reeper
Bring the Dead
Higher Reeper
The Pilgrim
Waiting for the Sun
…From the Earth to the Sky and Back
Geezer
Black Owl
Groovy
Cosmic Reaper
Hellion
Cosmic Reaper
1782
The Chosen One
From the Graveyard
VT
Orgöne
Erstes Ritual
Mos/Fet
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 2 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Radio on January 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I was pretty late turning in the playlist for this episode. Not as late as I could’ve been, mind you, but late enough. It kind of got away from me, as will happen from time to time with… everything, I guess. But I got it done and decided against doing a voice track to go with it because I didn’t want to take the extra time from the engineer, a nice guy named Henry who puts up with my late ass on the regular, when he has other stuff to work on. Plus, there’s some good flow to these tracks and I don’t need to screw that up sounding like a doofus, so yeah.
A couple of tracks from the upcoming Heavy Psych Sounds stuff — Cosmic Reaper and Acid Mammoth. You’ll note too the new Monolord single “I’m Staying Home” opens the thing. Kudos to those guys on being topical, even if the track was recorded in 2019. And then we do some long songs in the middle and get heavy and aggro at the end, just to change it up a little bit. Keep things lively some 51 episodes in. Still can’t tell you how flabbergasted I am Gimme has let this go on so long. I’m just gonna ride it out and see where it goes, like I do.
Thanks for listening and/or reading. Hope you dig the show if you check in.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 01.22.20
Monolord
I’m Staying Home
I’m Staying Home
Cosmic Reaper
Hellion
Cosmic Reaper
Lammping
Jaws of Life
New Jaws
Scorched Oak
Desert
Withering Earth
Kabbalah
Stigmatized
The Omen
Acid Mammoth
Berserker
Caravan
Kombynat Robotron
Signal Hill
Spontane Emission
Hammada
Domizil
Atmos
Giants, Dwarfs and Black Holes
In the Circle
Everwill
Sarkh
Morast
Kaskade
Wowod
Proschenie
Yarost I’ Prochenie
Dread Sovereign
Nature is the Devil’s Church
Alchemical Warfare
Nomadic Rituals
Them
Tides
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 5 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
