Cork, Ireland-based atmospheric sludge/post-metal four-piece Coroza will release their second album, As Within, through Cursed Monk Records on May 20. Today they’re premiering their video for the title-track, which takes the familiar notion of a band-in-a-place-type clip and uses it as a means of emphasizing the mood and character of the music. As the 10-minute finale of the LP that bears its name unfolds, its quiet intro pulls back from the colorful stained glass of the initial shot and shifts into black and white as the pullback from the window reveals Coroza set up on the floor of what looks to be a fancy university library or some such. At about a minute in, both the song and the clip burst to life around a heavier part change, the color returns with vivid clarity and the band play through the closing cut that gives the album its name.

That visual change is thoughtful, not haphazard, and like the various mirror effects and swirls throughout, it coincides with where the song is going and highlights the considered aspects of Coroza‘s craft. In following their 2019 debut, Chaliceburner (review here), guitarist/vocalists Jack O’Neill and Ciarán Coghlan, bassist Tomás O’Brien (who makes his first recorded appearance on the album) and drummer Oliver Cunningham depart from some of the ultra-extended fare on offer such that, where only one song on Chaliceburner was under 10 minutes long, on As Within, the only track that crosses the same line is “As Within” itself, however close others might come.

It’s not a huge upheaval in aesthetic terms, but at five songs and 42 minutes, As Within gives a more efficient impression even in the take-a-moment-to-commune-with-the-deity-or-deities-of-your-choice-before-the-riff-hits break in the penultimate “Scorched Earth.” Whether that’s a purposeful change of approach, mindful creative progression or simply the shape the songs took as the bludgeoning nods were compiled, I don’t know, but like when the color pops back on in the “As Within” video, the methodical manner in which the bordering-on-extreme heft of “Immersed” is delivered, and the way the instrumental “The Shifting Sands” follows its quiet-loud-quiet pattern as something of an interlude-plus for the centerpiece of the digital and CD versions of the album, it feels like they meant for it to happen.

But to be sure, the crux of As Within is in its crush, conveyed immediately upon the start of opener “Myrrh,” which has well-I’m-sure-this-is-about-as-heavy-as-it’ll-get written all over it until “Immersed” comes on some nine minutes later and is even more trenchantly apocalyptic. Given space in the reverb on that low distortion as well as in the vocal tradeoffs between Coghlan and O’Neill — a guttural rasp reminiscent of Celestial-era Isis meeting with chant-like meditative melodies in the cleaner parts — As Within opens further in “The Shifting Sands” en route to the renewed intensity of “Scorched Earth” and the title-track’s subdued intro and ensuing productive destruction resolved in mood and thoughtful in execution. If it’s never occurred to you to say the phrase, “Hail Irish heavy” out loud, the monolithic lumber and roiling tension of “As Within” might get you there.

They provide a bit of relief around six minutes in, and the leads in the second half carry an airier reach not entirely removed from the plod-and-tremolo finish of “Myrrh,” the opener and closer giving a symmetrical feel to As Within while further emphasizing the sense of purpose brought to the album as a whole work. They know of what they obliterate — which is to say they’re schooled in genre and I don’t think anyone here would try to get away with saying they’d never heard Neurosis — but Coroza‘s second full-length takes significant strides in establishing the band’s place in the harder-hitting depths of the post-metallic sphere, doing so with distinct, affecting and cathartic force.

Coroza will play at Cursed Monk Records‘ 2024 edition of Monk Fest on July 6, performing As Within in its entirety. I hope someone gets video with soundboard audio.

More on that (including the ticket link) and about the record (including the preorder link) follows the video premiere below, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Coroza, “As Within” video premiere

Cursed Monk Records are thrilled to announce that we will be releasing Coroza’s sophomore album “As Within.”

Not only will Coroza be joining us for this year’s Monk Fest, but they will also be playing their new album “As Within” in full! Monk Fest 2024 will take place on July 6th. Monk Fest is in aid of Temple St. Children’s Hospital. Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monk-fest-2024-tickets-765729105367

Preorders: https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/album/as-within

Coroza was formed in Cork, Ireland in mid-2015 and over the course of two years honed their sound into a devastatingly heavy form, which encompasses heavy blues, metal, sludge, doom and stoner elements, leading to the release of their well-received self-titled demo in 2017.

Extensive gigging cemented them into the local scene and soon Coroza began appearing on bills around Ireland, landing support slots to international touring bands such as Conan, Bolzer and Tusker. 2019 saw the release of their debut album Chaliceburner which was met with positive reviews.

Coroza’s second album titled “As Within”, was recorded and mixed by renowned producer Aidan Cunningham and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna).

Says the band: “We would like to thank Aidan Cunningham – Mixing for recording and mixing this album. All tracks were recorded live in the room with some overdubs added afterward. Aidan’s work ethic, knowledge and insight was invaluable and we cannot thank him enough for how this album turned out. He captured the exact sound we were hoping for. Also, a huge thanks to Magnus Lindberg Productions for mastering the album and ensuring it gets heard perfectly in all formats.”

‘As Within’ releases May 20th on LP, CD, Cassette, and Digital!

Preorders are open via the Cursed Monk Bandcamp: https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/album/as-within

Tracklisting:
1. Myrrh (9:40)
2. Immersed (8:51)
3. The Shifting Sands (4:24)
4. Scorched Earth (9:03)
5. As Within (10:14)

AS ABOVE – SO BELOW
AS WITHIN – SO WITHOUT

Coroza are:
Ciarán Coghlan – guitar/vocals
Ollie Cunningham – drums
Tomás O’Brien – bass
Jack O’Neill – lead guitar/vocals

[Live photo by Shane J. Horan Photography.]

Coroza on Facebook

Coroza on Instagram

Coroza on YouTube

Cursed Monk Records website

Cursed Monk Records on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records on Instagram

Cursed Monk Records on YouTube

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

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

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: S.M. from Blut

—

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

Destruction through repetition. Repetition through destruction. Broken amps forever!

Blut is a by product of a down trodden existence, soaked in booze and regret, it came to us through a need to do something repetitive and loud with no real rules or boundaries.

Describe your first musical memory.

Listening to Boney-M in my mum’s car then getting home and Led zeppelin is on the radio.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

SWANS

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

I,m not sure we really believe in anything, especially anything political or religious.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Can lead many places some good some not so good, its the trauma and tragedy leading up to the progression which is of most importance to us.

How do you define success?

Making sure that the person who digs your first record digs the latest record as well, never compromising and playing loud at every opportunity! Oh and fuck the money!

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadnt

The many saints of Newark.

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

Double album. One doom disc one noise disc.

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

To terrorize and make the listener or viewer think and feel something, to batter down the mediocre, to move forward with limited and broken tools, to struggle.

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

The next bottle of Jim Beam.

https://www.instagram.com/blut.band/
https://bluthell.bandcamp.com/

https://www.cursedmonk.com/
https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/cursedmonk/
https://www.instagram.com/cursedmonkrecords/

Blut, Covers (2023)

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

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

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Alex Hölzinger of TOOMS

—

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

The short answer is Slippery Metal. That phrase kinda started as a joke, but I guess over time it became true. We find it hard to pin down exactly what genre we play. We have such varied taste in music, and not just in metal. I would like to think that that eclectic taste an be heard in the music. We all met about 10 years ago while studying fine art and we jammed here and there over the years. Played a couple shows at house parties and some small venues. Even recorded an EP. But we never really took it too seriously. When we re-branded as TOOMS about 4 or 5 years ago, we got more focused, began writing more songs. We set goals for ourselves as a band. Got better at our instruments. Began making merch etc. It is in constant development, and I love where it is and where it’s going. That said, we are still not taking it too seriously haha.

Describe your first musical memory.

As a kid, maybe 3 or 4, I had a tennis racket that I would play as a guitar while running around the apartment listening to Die Toten Hosen’s – Ein Kleines Bisschen Horrorschau. Definitely my first introduction to guitar music. Where it all started to go wrong I suppose haha.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

As a band, I’m sure I can speak for all three of us when I say getting to close out the Jagger Stage at Bloodstock 2022. That definitely felt good. So cool to bring our weird sounding band to a bigger stage and get a positive reaction. The first time we where invited to play The Siege of Limerick was also a milestone for us. Maybe recording our first full-length too. We unfortunately released it during global lockdown, and never got to do an album launch or anything, but the experience of being in a studio and everything that goes along with that was great. We learned A LOT while making T.O.O.M.S.

As a personal memory, I would have to say seeing Soundgarden followed by Black Sabbath in 2012, to this day, crowd surfing the length and breadth of that enormous crowd during Paranoid, highlight of my life. Seeing Sleep for the first time was a spiritual thing too. That band has some of the most amazing lore. Dopesmoker to this day remains the Mac Daddy of stoner doom.

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

Wow, that is a great question. I could get real dark on this one (#128517#)

But I guess I’ll just say this, no matter how hard things get, they always get easier. Pressure forms diamonds folks.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Better art, or rather more refined art. You learn how say more with less.

How do you define success?

Success to me is being happy and content, and being proud of what you do and how you do it. Leading a simple life without any unnecessary stress.

Also driving a sports car and owning a huge house with gold toilets and marble floors, filled with lots of expensive vases and a jet ski. Oh and various exotic pattés in the double door fridges you have in each room of your 16 room mansion. Hmmm, maybe being buried in one of those limited edition KISS coffins, that is pretty fuckin’ successful.

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

I saw GZA preforming Liquid Swords in its entirety. That was once one of my favorite hip-hop albums. Haven’t been able to listen to it since.

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

Music that sells (#128517#) I joke I joke.

I have been meaning to make this lamp/sculpture from a log and LEDs. I have been drying it for a number of years, and I think it’s about ready to go. More music with TOOMS obviously too, we have enough material for a second album, pretty much ready to go.
I’d love to get into making short films too, and score them myself. I have made a couple music videos and really enjoyed the process. From filming to editing. Imagine a spaghetti western meets an art house ambient kind of thing. Beyond the Black Rainbow meets the Dollars Trilogy, something like that.

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

To make the viewer/listener think, feel or question. And to allow the creator to express and share freely. Sometimes it’s a pure cathartic release, other times it’s an idea manifest and shared. Abstract or more on the nose, doesn’t matter, subconsciously, it’s a release. At least if it’s made with passion and integrity. I also believe that once art is created, it’s left into the world, and will survive longer than its maker, so you get to leave a part of yourself behind. Always thought that was pretty cool.

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

Dinner.

https://www.facebook.com/TOOMSband/
https://www.instagram.com/tooms_uta/
https://tooms.bandcamp.com/

https://www.cursedmonk.com/
https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/cursedmonk/
https://www.instagram.com/cursedmonkrecords/

TOOMS, The Schmeckoning (2023)

Yeah, but what will you need gods for? Granted, opiates for the masses won’t get far without them, but how many other uses do abstract deities actually have? For all the purported omnipotence, has one ever managed to jump a car battery? Ever made you soup when you’re sick? Organized and executed a surprise birthday party, or even aided in any way in doing so?

No. Where, indeed, is your savior now?

You Will Need Gods is the impending second full-length from Belfast’s Molarbear, and it’s out Xmas week — see? you don’t even need gods for ostensibly religious holidays — through Cursed Monk as the follow-up to 2018’s Storklord, which I’m just going to assume was a shenanigans-laced treatise on human reproductive culture. You can see the band’s winner of a video for “Omega Supreme” at the bottom of this post, and it should give something of an idea where they’re coming from in terms of point of view, with a robot and a dinosaur and heavy aggro groove and all that fun stuff. I haven’t heard the rest of the record yet, because existentially speaking I’m something of a slouch, but the holidays will be here before you know it. Preorders are already up.

You don’t actually need gods to preorder either. Just PayPal or some such.

I really can’t wait to read the lyrics for this one. From the PR wire:

MOLARBEAR – You Will Need Gods

Release Date: December 23rd

Preorder: https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/album/you-will-need-gods

Format: CD, Digital Download

Cursed Monk Records are thrilled to release MOLARBEAR’s sophomore album You will Need Gods on December 23rd.

Since their debut Storklord, Belfast’s MOLARBEAR have become a live favorite all across Ireland with their crushingly heavy, groove laden shows. This year their music video for Omega Supreme was even nominated for an Northern Ireland Music Prize for Video Of The Year.

Big dirty riffs, lots of shouting and also some nice bits, infectious experimental sludge documenting the human experience. you’ll love it.

https://www.facebook.com/allhailmolarbear/
https://www.instagram.com/allhailmolarbear
https://twitter.com/wearemolarbear
https://molarbear.bandcamp.com/

https://www.cursedmonk.com/
https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/cursedmonk/
https://www.instagram.com/cursedmonkrecords/

Molarbear, “Omega Supreme” official video

Molarbear, You Will Need Gods (2022)

Molarbear, Storklord (2018)

Costa Rican death sludge four-piece VoidOath are set to issue their first full-length, Ascension Beyond Kokytus, Sept. 30 through Cursed Monk Records and Cognitive Discordance Records. The project bears relation to the likewise-longform Crypt Monarch in guitarist/vocalist Christopher G. De Haan (who may or may not have also produced) and guitarist Jose Rodríguez, as well as Age of the Wolf in De Haan and drummer Gabriel Ortiz — VoidOath is completed by bassist Allan Salas — and the album follows 2020’s debut EP, Illumination Through Necromancy, which was one of any number of gruesome death-doom-infused offerings that, in that wretched year, felt just right for the moment being lived. And so I’m not just parroting PR wire info at you that you can read for yourself in blue below, Ascension Beyond Kokytus is a horror narrative lyrically, though to be perfectly honest, these songs could be about sunshine and puppies and rainbows and if they sounded like this, that’d probably still be true.

And with that bit of context out of the way, let us now consume rot. Don’t be fooled by the bit of brighter progressive flourish in the opening riff of “From Gods to Morsels (Destruction)” as the album rounds out, VoidOath are here for death. De Haan‘s vocals are either gut-born growls or far back shouts, and they occur in such a mire of low-wash tone that even when the band are playing fast — which they do from time to time across the five-song/49-minute offering — it’s hard to tell just how much the song is actually moving. Maybe that’s an exaggeration as the 15-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Orion-Cygnus Descent (Arrival)” launches into blasts and stretches of abyssal churning, but Ascension Beyond Kokytus is nothing if not exaggerated, pulling elements of sludge, atmospheres of filth-coated slow death metal and just an edge of post-metallic drone to coincide into their particular sphere of cohesive extremity. There is purpose to the music beyond backing the story being told lyrically, and as “Festered Sepsis Lacerations (Assimilation)” (premiering below) crushes as the most straight-ahead death metal inclusion — shades of un-Egyptified Nile, Incantation, etc. — the overarching groove would be a lifeline were it not the very undercurrent pulling you continually downward.

The last, let’s say dying, distortion of “Festered Sepsis Lacerations (Assimilation)” leads to a brief centerpiece interlude in “A Flare in Emptiness” — it could easily have been the start of the subsequent “Alabaster Ruminations (Isolation)” and I suspect from its placement and title that its use as a bridge from one half of the tracklist to the other is a momentary, almost subconscious, break from the onslaught — and the inhale before VoidOath dive back in is welcome. Vague speech, either sampled or not, tops the initial rollout of “Alabaster Ruminations (Isolation),” and what emerges after is noisier and less generally hinged, but ultimately settles after about the eight-minute mark into a steadier push, soon topped with high-blood-pressure leads and an interplay of higher throatrippers and low growls — the harmony of decay — before giving way suddenly to the aforementioned riff to “From Gods to Morsels (Destruction)” and its reassertion of marching bludgeonry. Some gallop, some push, but the balance is decisive and the judgment is harsh as VoidOath work toward setting up the all-out force of the last five or so minutes, moving from crash-cymbal-driven lumbering to start-stop hits, to squibbly gallop, a build of intensity (ha!) and a last fade of residual noise, like the threat moving away at last.

Imagine being picked up by some very, very large hand and squeezed until your ribs break and entrails come spewing out of your various orifices like so much chunky juice from a piece of fruit. So it is that VoidOath execute their debut album.

Kokytus, in Greek mythology, is one of the five rivers surrounding Hades. It is safe to assume that in ascending beyond it, one is well and truly fucked.

“Festered Sepsis Lacerations (Assimilation)” premieres below. Enjoy if you can:

Pre-Order:
NORTH AMERICA: https://cognitivediscordancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-beyond-kokytus (Jewel Case CD w/ Exclusive O-Card, Poster, Stickers and Download Card)

UK/EUROPE: https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-beyond-kokytus (digipak CD)

DIGITAL: https://voidoath.bandcamp.com/album/ascension-beyond-kokytus

PRE-SAVE: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/voidoath/ascension-beyond-kokytus

Cognitive Discordance Records, in conspiracy with Cursed Monk Records, is proud to announce the debut full-length of Costa Rica’s abysmal sludge conjurers VoidOath. Titled Ascension Beyond Kokytus, the horror-themed conceptual album will be out on 30 September 2022. For the American release, Cognitive Discordance Records (Costa Rica) is issuing a limited run of Jewel Case CDs; for the UK/European release, Cursed Monk Records (Ireland) is releasing a limited edition of digipak CDs.

The dark, heavy and melt-inducing sound of VoidOath is the outcome of their approach to illustrate diverse horror works in a disturbing, frantic and distorted way. Their first EP, Illumination Through Necromancy, released in May 2020, was well received. The San José doom monstrosity VoidOath is now poised to reveal Ascension Beyond Kokytus, their first full-length release, deep within the cold, frost and blood in the farthest and isolated regions on the planet. Ascension Beyond Kokytus is based on John W. Campbell Jr’s Who Goes There? (Frozen Hell) and its adaptation of John Carpenter’s film The Thing (1982). Dwelling on deep feelings of fear, despair, loneliness and horror, the album drowns its listener in seamlessly endless waves of crushing violence and noise.

Track Listing:
01. Orion-Cygnus Descent (Arrival) (15:45)
02. Festered Sepsis Lacerations (Assimilation) (6:31)
03. A Flare in Emptiness (0:31)
04. Alabaster Ruminations (Isolation) (13:23)
05. From Gods to Morsels (Destruction) (12:52)

Produced, mixed and mastered by A Cabin in the Woods Recordings (Crypt Monarch, Engraved).
Artwork by Nataly Nikitina.
Layout by Cerrabuz.

—BAND LINEUP—
Christopher De Haan – Guitars, Vocals
Gabriel Ortiz – Drums
Jose Rodríguez – Guitars, Synths
Allan Salas – Bass

VoidOath on Facebook

VoidOath on Instagram

VoidOath on Bandcamp

Cognitive Discordance Records on Facebook

Cognitive Discordance Records on Instagram

Cognitive Discordance Records on Bandcamp

Cursed Monk Records website

Cursed Monk Records on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records on Instagram

Cursed Monk Records on Twitter

Cursed Monk Records on YouTube

It’s a well-established science-fact that Cursed Monk Records signs some way out there, extreme of the extreme shit. That goes for bands that are all-in aggro and others who, like Tattered the Wall are perhaps less outwardly about pummel but inflected with rampant and cacophonous noise. The debut album from Tattered the Wall is titled Shedding Season and it will be released on Sept. 3 as the band’s first outing through Cursed Monk — preorders tomorrow, if you’d like to set an alarm; I’m not joking, by the way, I set alarms for that kind of shit — and the follow-up to their 2021 three-songer-and-that’s-probably-plenty-for-an-introductory-statement EP, which was self-titled.

That’s streaming below, should you wish to be inundated in anti-genre-but-still-heavy, sometimes-tinged-with-electronica fuckery. And if you don’t, congrats on probably being something close to normal. But if you’re the sort of oddball who gets down on this kind of noise, you’re gonna have a blast here.

This was posted in the Obelisk group on the ol’ Facebook. Thanks to label head Rodger Mortis for that.

Dig:

Tattered The Wall Sign To Cursed Monk Records

We are thrilled to announce that Tattered The Wall have signed to Cursed Monk Records.

Tattered The Wall are a three-piece, guitarless, instrumental, sludge/industrial/junk band with bass, drums, and noise, based in Tokyo.

The band started in 2017 when UV and YSK started playing together in the studio.

Then Marie joined the band as drummer and started full-fledged activities in 2019.

They released their first demo sounds on Bandcamp in 2020.

They released a self-titled EP independently in August 2021.

Then released it on CD-R and cassette via German label Econore Records, and Ukrainian label Depressive Illusions Records respectively.

Tattered The Wall’s tracks are influenced by breakcore, doom, sludge, and noise. It is extreme music with electric sounds sprinkled throughout.

Their debut album Shedding Season will be out on CD and Digital Download, September 3rd, via Cursed Monk Records, and preorders will begin this Friday, July 22nd.

https://linktr.ee/tatteredthewall
https://www.instagram.com/tatteredthewall/
https://twitter.com/tatteredthewall
https://tatteredthewall.bandcamp.com/

https://www.cursedmonk.com/
https://cursedmonk.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/cursedmonk/
https://www.instagram.com/cursedmonkrecords/

Tattered the Wall, Tattered the Wall (2021)

Here we are in the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review. I have to hope and believe you know what this means by now. It’s been like eight years. To reiterate, 10 reviews a day for this week. I’ve also added next Monday to the mix because there’s just so, so, so much out there right now, so this Quarterly Review will total 60 albums covered. It could easily be more. And more. And more. You get the point.

So while we’re on the edge of this particular volcano, looking down into the molten center of the Quarterly Review itself, I’ll say thanks for reading if you do at any point, and I hope you find something to make doing so worth the effort.

Here we go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Spidergawd, VI

Like clockwork, Spidergawd released V (review here), in 2019, and amid the chaos of 2020, they announced they’d have a new record out in 2021 — already the longest pause between LPs of their career — for which they’d be touring. The Norwegian outfit — who aren’t so much saviors of rock as a reminder of why it doesn’t need saving in the first place — at last offer the nine songs and 41 minute straight-ahead drive of VI with their usual aplomb, energizing a classic heavy rock sound and reveling in the glorious hooks of “Prototype Design” and “Running Man” at the outset, throwing shoulders with the sheer swag of “Black Moon Rising,” and keeping the rush going all the way until “Morning Star” hints toward some of their prior psych-prog impulses. They’ve stripped those back here, and on the strength of their songwriting and the shining lights that seem to accompany their performance even on a studio recording, they remain incomparable in working to the high standard of their own setting.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin

The first Eight Bells full-length for Prophecy Productions, Legacy of Ruin comes six years after their second LP, Landless (review here), and finds founding guitarist/vocalist Melynda Marie Jackson, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Brian Burke, a host of guests and producer Billy Anderson complicating perceptions of Pacific Northwestern US black metal. Across the six songs and in extended cuts like “The Well” and closer “Premonition,” Eight Bells remind of their readiness to put melodies where others fear tread, and to execute individualized cross-genre breadth that even in the shorter “Torpid Dreamer” remains extreme, whatever else one might call it in terms of style. “The Crone” and other moments remind of Enslaved, but seem to be writing a folklore all their own in that.

Eight Bells on Facebook

Prophecy Productions on Bandcamp

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Blue Rumble, Blue Rumble

Swiss four-piece Blue Rumble bring organically-produced, not-quite-vintage-but-retro-informed heavy psych blues boogie on their self-titled debut full-length, impressing with the sharp edges around which the grooves curve, the channel-spanning, shred-ready solo of the guitars, and the organ that add so much to where vocals might otherwise be. The five-minute stretch alone of second cut “Cosmopolitan Landscape,” which follows the garage urgency of opener “God Knows I Shoulda Been Gone,” runs from a mellow-blues exploration into a psych hypnosis and at last into a classic-prog freakout before, miraculously, returning, and that is by no means the total scope of the album, whether it’s the winding progressions in “Cup o’ Rosie (Just Another Groovy Thing),” the laid back midsection of “Sunset Fire Opal” or the hey-is-that-flute on the shorter pastoral interlude “Linda,” as if naming the song before that “Think for Yourself” wasn’t enough of a Beatles invocation. The strut continues unabated in “The Snake” and the grittier “Hangman,” and closer “Occhio e Croce” (‘eye and cross,” in Italian) shimmers with Mellotron fluidity atop its central build, leaving the raw vitality of the drums to lead into a big rock finish well earned. Heads up, heavy rock and rollers. This is hot shit.

Blue Rumble on Instagram

Blue Rumble on Bandcamp

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The Mountain King, WolloW

It’s palindrome time on Mainz, Germany’s The Mountain King‘s WolloW. Once the solo-project of guitarist/vocalist/programmer Eric McQueen, the experimentalist band here includes guitarist Frank Grimbarth and guest bassist Jack Cradock — you can really hear that bass on “II In Grium Imus Noctem Aram et Consumimur Igni” (hope you practiced your conjugations) and through five songs, they cross genres from the atmospheric heavygaze-meets-Warning of “I Bongnob” through the blackened crunch of the above-noted second cut to a gloriously dreamy and still morose title-track, and the driving expanse of “V DNA Sand.” Then they do it backwards, as “V DNA Sand” seems to flip halfway through. But they’re also doing it backwards at the same time as forward, so as The Mountain King work back toward album finale “bongnoB I,” what was reversed and what wasn’t has switched and the listener isn’t really sure what’s up or down, where they are or why. This, of course, is exactly the point. Take that, form and structure! Open your mind and let doom in!

The Mountain King on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records website

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Sheev, Mind Conductor

Berlin trio Sheev prove adept at skirting the line of outright aggression, and in fact crossing it, while maintaining control over their direction and execution. Mind Conductor is their debut album, and it works well to send signals of its complexity, samples and obscure sounds on “The Workshop” giving over the riffs of immediate impact on “Well Whined.” The channel-spanning guitar pulls on “Saltshifter,” the harmonies in the midsection of “All I Can,” the going-for-it-Danny–Carey-style drums on the penultimate “Baby Huey” (and bonus points for that reference) — all of these and so much more in the nine-song/53-minute span come together fluidly to create a portrait of the band’s depth of approach and the obvious consideration they put into what they do. Closer “Snakegosh” may offer assurance they don’t take themselves too seriously, but even that song’s initial rolling progression can’t help but wind its way through later angularities. It will be interesting to hear the direction they ultimately take over the course of multiple albums, but don’t let that draw focus from what they accomplish on this first one.

Sheev on Facebook

Sheev on Bandcamp

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Elk Witch, Beyond the Mountain

Dudes got riffs. From Medford, Oregon, Elk Witch draw more from the sphere of modern heavy rockers like earlier The Sword or Freedom Hawk than the uptempo post-Red Fang party jams for which much of the Pacific Northwest is known, but the groove is a good time just the same. The six tracks of Beyond the Mountain are born out of the trio’s 2021 debut EP — wait for it — The Mountain, but the four songs shared between the two offerings have been re-recorded here, repositioned and sandwiched between opener “Cape Foulweather” and closer “The Plight of Valus,” so the reworking feels consistent from front to back. And anyway, it’s only been a year, so ease up. Some light burl throughout, but the vocals on “Coyote and the Wind’s Daughters” remind me of Chritus in Goatess, so there’s some outright doom at work too, though “Greybeard Arsenal” might take the prize for its shimmering back-half slowdown either way, and “The Plight of Valus” starts out with a seeming wink at Kyuss‘ “El Rodeo,” so nothing is quite so simply traced. Raw, but they’ll continue to figure out where they’re headed, and the converted will nod knowingly. For what it’s worth, I dig it.

Elk Witch on Facebook

StoneFly Records store

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KYOTY, Isolation

If “evocative” is what New Hampshire post-metallic mostly-instrumentalists KYOTY were going for with their third full-length, could they possibly have picked something better to call it than Isolation? It’d be a challenge. And with opener “Quarantine,” songs like “Ventilate,” “Languish,” “Faith,” and “Rift,” “Respite” and closer “A Fog, A Future Like a Place Imagined,” the richly progressive unit working as the two-piece of Nick Filth and Nathaniel Parker Raymond weave poetic aural tapestries crushing and spacious in kind with the existential dread and vague flashes of hope in pandemic reality of the 2020s thus far. Still, they work in impressionist fashion, so that the rumbling crackle of “Onus” and the near-industrial slog of “Respite” represent place and idea while also standing apart as a not-quite-objective observer, the lighter float of the guitar in “Faith” becoming a wash before its resonant drone draws it to a close. At 70 minutes, there’s a lot to say for a band who doesn’t have lyrics, but spoken lines further the sense of verse, and remind of the humanity behind the programming of “Holter” or the especially pummeling “Rift.” An album deep enough you could listen to it for years and hear something new.

KYOTY on Facebook

Deafening Assembly on Bandcamp

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Red Eye, The Cycle

Andalusian storytellers Red Eye make it plain from the outset that their ambitions are significant, and the seven songs of their third full-length play out those ambitions across ultra-flowing shifts between serenity and heft, working as more than just volume trades and bringing an atmospheric sprawl that is intended to convey time as well as place. In 46 minutes, they do for doom and various other microgenres — post-metal, some more extreme moments in “Beorg” and the morse-code-inclusive closer “Æsce” — what earlier Opeth did for death metal, adding shifts into unbridled folk melody and sometimes minimalist reach. Clearly meant to be taken in its entirety, The Cycle functions beautifully across its stretch, and the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos (also lyrics), guitarist/vocalist Pablo Terol, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas, bear weight of tone and history in kind, self-aware that the chants in “Tempel” brim with purpose, but expressive in the before and after such that they wherever they will and make it a joy to follow.

Red Eye on Facebook

Alone Records store

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Stoned Horses, Stoned Horses

Originally recorded to come out in 2013, what would’ve been/is the Stoned Horses‘ self-titled debut full-length runs 12 tracks and swaps methodologies between instrumentalism and more verse/chorus-minded sludge rock. Riffs lead, in either case, and there’s a sense of worship that goes beyond Black Sabbath as the later “Scorpions Vitus” handily confirms. The semi-eponymous “A Stoned Horse” is memorable for its readiness to shout the hook at you repeatedly, and lest a band called Stoned Horses ever be accused of taking themselves too seriously, “My Horse is Faster Than Your Bike” is a sub-two-minute riffer that recalls late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock fuckery, before everyone started getting progressive. Not short on charm, there’s plenty of substance behind it in “Le Calumet” like a northern Alabama Thunderpussy or the last cut, “The Legend of the Blue Pig,” which dares a bit more metal. Not groundbreaking, not trying to be, it’s a celebration of the tropes of genre given its own personality. I have nothing more to ask of it except what happened that it sat for nearly a decade without being released.

Stoned Horses on Facebook

From the Urn on Bandcamp

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Gnome, King

Antwerpen’s Gnome make it a hell of a lot of fun to trace their path across King, their second full-length, bringing in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi early for “Your Empire” and finding a line between energetic, on-the-beat delivery and outright aggression, letting “Ambrosius” set the tone for what follows as they careen though cuts like the instrumental “Antibeast,” the swinging and catchy “Wencelas” and the crunching “Bulls of Bravik.” How do they do it? With the magic of shenanigans! As King (which “Wencelas” was) plays out, the suitably hatted trio get up to high grade nonsense on “Kraken Wanker” before “Stinth Thy Clep” and the 11-minute we-can-do-whatever-we-want-so-let’s-do-that-yes closer “Platypus Platoon” buries its later march amid a stream of ideas that, frankly, kind of sounds like it could just keep going. They are adventurous throughout the eight songs and 42 minutes, but have a solid foundation nonetheless of tone and consciousness, which are what save King from being a mess. It’s a hard balance to strike that they make sound easy.

Gnome on Facebook

Polderrecords website

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

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

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Eric McQueen of The Mountain King

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

For me it’s the best hobby in the world, thinking about and writing on songs and albums, not knowing if more than yourself will like it in the end, the great uncertainty of art. I started with flute and piano when I was a little kid but cancelled all classes after a few years, I clearly had already an authority problem back then. Then with a used Ibanez GSA 60 and a little peavey amp when I was 15 and it was the only thing my family could afford.

Describe your first musical memory.

There are two: Sitting in front of my parents’ vinyls in the early ’90s, mostly Woodstock stuff like CCR, Simon & Garfunkel, Mamas and Papas and looking at the covers while thinking about how they could have done such cool music, super amazing for a kid of six years of age.

The second memory was a church organ, I don’t really know where, but it just scared and amazed the shit out of me and that feeling of awe is still present today when I write music.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Every time I get on stage, the fear and the excitement just rushing my head. The bigger the better. But apart from that, meeting and talking to my favourite musicians and getting to know each other and even cooperating musically to a certain degree, that’s just wonderful.

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

Not only tested. I was raised quite religiously, and let faith fall completely when I was about 17 but also over time. You think you failed the test, because people will tell you so. The truth is it was a relief and still feels like the right thing to believe in yourself instead of the power of a big bearded fairy.

It’s good to adjust your beliefs as you discover the whole world for yourself.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression leads to another plane of existence, especially creating atmospheric music in your own way, imagine you are carrying a torch and need to light a path, that you’re the first to ever walk.

How do you define success?

Only my own feeling of satisfaction. A released album after two or six years of work, that is success. To plan for longer than the next day.

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

People burying their children.

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

A multimedia album. Or a soundtrack for a bigger movie.

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

I think art is one of the great coping functions for many people in this world. A door to join the artist on that plane mentioned earlier, far away from everyday struggle.

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

Autumn, every year again.

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The Mountain King, WolloW (2022)