“Christchurch 281” is taken from Deathbird Earth‘s earlier 2026 celebration of arthouse weirdo heavy, Objective Consciousness, also their debut album, released concurrent to two collaborative full-lengths. Clearly working against convention is part of the idea. Next month, starting Nov. 6 at a show in Baltimore that’s such a banger it’s got me looking at lodging options in that fair city, the Philadelphia-based duo will take to the road alongside doom jazz masters Stinking Lizaveta for what I assume will be further tutelage in the bizarre arts, and to herald that as well as support the record, today they’re premiering a video for the track “Christchurch 281.”
You’ll see the CRT television, VCR, Tank Girl soundtrack on vinyl and other ’90s detritus, and if it puts you in a Melvinsian mindset, that’s a factor for sure, but Deathbird Earth are no more beholden to that than any other single influence, and with the roll and stomp of the brief “Christchurch 281,” they efficiently carve a place for themselves in largesse and shout-topped roll. Heavy noise is part of it, but there’s also a fitting sense of post-modernism to it; a chaotic world internalized and fed back to itself as a weighted, willful slog of a riff.
Unsurprisingly — or what shouldn’t be surprising, anyhow — the rest of Objective Consciousness does not necessarily follow the same methodology, but the spaciousness you hear in “Christchurch 281” is a thread that runs throughout in various forms. It’s a demonstration that, even though it’s Deathbird Earth‘s first long-player, there is indeed a plan at work and their experimentalism is in pursuit of a specific ideal, even if that ideal ends up being a moving target over time. That’s the ideal anyhow. In the meantime, if you’d like to dig into the record, it’s streaming in full near the links at the bottom of this post, and the video for “Christchurch 281” premieres below, followed by credits and the dates for the November tour.
Dig it:
Deathbird Earth, “Christchurch 281” video premiere
“Christchurch 281” by Deathbird Earth from “Objective Consciousness” on SRA Records. Available on LP, CD, cassette and all digital formats. The quote at the beginning is from Kenneth Johnston’s “V” (1983).
Video by Justin Roman.
Written by BJ, Dave & Eleni
NOVEMBER 2026 TOUR DATES WITH STINKING LIZAVETA: Friday 6 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar W/ Arbouretum & Darsombra Sol Saturday 7 – Richmond, VA – Northside Grille Sunday 8 – Knoxville, TN – Pilot Light Monday 9 – Raleigh, NC – Kings W/ the Magpie & Archaos Tuesday 10 – Charlotte, NC – the Milestone Wednesday 11 – Birmingham, AL – the Firehouse W/ Nazghul & Hexxus Thursday 12 – Lafayette, LA – the Freetown Boom Boom Room W/ Spickle Friday 13 – New Orleans, LA – Poor Boys W/ Spickle Saturday 14 – Austin, TX – the Lost Well W/ Sabbath Crow & Queen Cobra Sunday 15 – San Antonio, TX – the Lonesome Rose (matinee) W/ Syr Monday 16 – Memphis, TN – Havenhaus W/$un Rah$sco P! Coltrane Tuesday 17 – Cincinnati, OH – Northside Tavern W/ Hammer Down Wednesday 18 – Millersville, PA – Phantom Power W/ Oven
Deathbird Earth: BJ – Bass, synthesizers Dave – Drums, synthesizers
Here’s the deal as best as I understand it. Philadelphia two-piece Deathbird Earth are releasing their debut album, Objective Consciousness, on April 3 through SRA Records. Pretty straightforward, right? Yeah, until you get to the fact that before they put out that record, they’ve got two separate collaborative LPs coming out this Friday, March 12, working with guitarist Nick Millevoi and Planet Y, which is the two-piece of Pete Wilder and Yanni Papadopoulos (the latter of instrumentalist legends Stinking Lizaveta). Got all that? Good. Because then you get into the music, and the picture isn’t going to get any less complex or willfully weird from there.
The two collaborative albums are self-titled, so it’s Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi and Deathbird Earth + Planet Y both out this week ahead of Deathbird Earth‘s standalone debut next month. The first of the collabs, alphabetically, Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi is comprised of six songs and runs 39 minutes, opening with the longest track (immediate points) with “Four” checking in at 11:42 of big nod, keyboard flourish, hypnotic guitar and rolling drums. It’s definitely psychedelic, and it’s definitely heavy, but it’s more Xiu Xiu than Earthless in terms of the feeling that anything might happen at any given point. The improv gets a little angular in the second half, but it may be that the beginning had a plan and they departed from it — the ‘main riff’ comes back with more synthy texture to close in “Five” — and the spontaneity becomes part of the persona, extending to the willingness of the band to think beyond their own configuration.
Which I think is how we got here, and just to be clear, by “weird” I mean deeply creative, forward-thinking, and well enough outside even the heavy underground’s genre-worshiping mainstream to wear its oddball presentation on the sleeve of its aural wizard robe. Even down to presenting the songs as numbers out of order — which they do on both releases — feels purposeful to disorient or knock the listener out of some comfort zone and thus put them in better position to appreciate the John–Carpenter-meets-Twin–Peaks drumless drone and wandering guitar of “One” or the subsequent wash that permeates “Three,” all the more satisfying because the synth and drum beat kind of make it sound like the music over a montage in an ’80s action movie. Like you’re watching Over the Top and here comes the psychblast you didn’t know you needed but very much did. Also one hundred percent willing to believe they made it up on the spot.
Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi‘s side B starts with the likewise extended “Two,” which brings lower distortion to its 9:40 run for a more melancholy mood, and just like on side A — see there is a plan, even if happens after the fact — the following cut, “Six,” holds back on drums (there are still cymbals) in order to let the guitar and synth texture out for five minutes before “Five” caps with the already-noted, somewhat-sneaky bit of semi-recognizable symmetry. Glitchier in its keyboardery but also pushing more toward an organic cosmic techno than the partially-guitar-based Millevoi collaboration (yes there’s guitar here too, it’s a question of balance between the elements), Deathbird Earth + Planet Y is shorter at four tracks (two per side) and 38 minutes, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s the more ‘out there’ of the two. Bookended by “One” (12:04) and “Four” (15:00), the latter of which closes with perhaps the most straightforward riff on either of the two outings, like its companion, it is not an undertaking for the square of heart.
Maybe it’s the keyboardier-sounding layers, or the drum-machine peeking through to enhance the repetition later in “Four,” or the way “Three” explores itself into a jam, but Deathbird Earth + Planet Y feels distinct in its spaciousness, and is its own kind of entrancing. “Two,” preceding “Four” at the start of side B, brings a harpsichordy central figure and builds up around that, indicative somewhat of process in its jump-in-and-go mentality but also unfolding as a thought-out arrangement might, one synthesizer establishing the line, another joining, the drums coming in a little while later as the the first notes on guitar arrive and the keyboard sweeps back into the forward position of the mix. Maybe a bit of Grails influence? There’s a cinematic aspect, but soon enough “Four” takes hold with its two-movement grandeur, spending its first seven-plus minutes subtly building around its initial keyboard line (there’s theremin in there around the halfway point; it’s real) before the fuzz takes over, a shaking tambourine joins the fray, and they finish minded for movement before it devolves into residual noise.
And the fact that they kept that noise, that they let it go and finish with a wisp-out instead of just fading when the riff was done, is further indicative of the purpose here, extending to Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi as well as Deathbird Earth + Planet Y in its drive toward presenting the material as it happened. That’s not to say there’s no editing being done — these processions have been carved out of longer explorations, but there isn’t so much cut and paste as to take away from the improvisational vibe — but musical ideology comes through more than post-production, and the commonalities and divergences between the two albums speak to each other without feeling like a series or a schtick. As Deathbird Earth make ready to unfurl Objective Consciousness, they’ve already found a way to be inspiring in their experimentation and far-out-of-the-box approach.
Let’s say — hypothetically — you’ve read all of the above and you’re like, “you know, I feel prepared to take on one or maybe even both of these records.” Great. Here’s what to know before you go. Keep your mind active and open. Take bliss as it comes because it won’t always be there. Know that even if there isn’t intended direction, procession happens from one place to another in each piece, so don’t be surprise if and when you end up someplace other than where you started. All of this applies to life in general as much as listening to weirdo experimental psych, so if you want to write any of that down or whatnot, feel free.
That said, there’s copious info and preorder links under the players for both records below. And if you do dive into one or both of these LPs, happy trails, I hope you enjoy:
Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi, Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi album premiere
Deathbird Earth + Planet Y, Deathbird Earth + Planet Y album premiere
Deathbird Earth – Collaborations w/ Planet-Y & Nick Millevoi
Collaboration LPs out March 12th: “Deathbird Earth + Planet-Y” & “Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi”
Says BJ, “I have known Nick for a long time. Our old bands played together often and whenever we needed someone to fill in at a show or on tour Nick was always there. He’s a phenomenal guitarist known for his ability to improvise. I saw him play a set last year at PhilaMOCA with Steve Montenegro and a glitchy drum machine where he built up this big sound from a very small thing and it was impressive. I wanted to take some of that idea and bring it to our album. Of course once we got going we kept going with parts flowing out of us quickly. The closest we got to planning something out was saying “let’s do that again but shorter” (ONE vs SIX) and “we should do something like Hawkwind” (THREE). I had a great time working with Nick and was very happy that we had so much extra material that we could make a full album out of it on its own.”
Dave adds, “Unlike BJ, I had never met Nick before the session where we recorded these tracks. Similarly, improvising an entire album’s worth of material and having it be good enough to release it into the world was a new experience for me. I’m always excited to do something different than things I have done in a past life and as a result this album was a very rewarding personal experience.”
Nick Millevoi – Guitar BJ – Bass, drone flute, synthesizers Dave – Drums, synthesizers
Deathbird Earth + Planet-Y:
On the collaboration with Planet-Y, Pete Wilder (EDO) explains, “When Planet Y agreed to collaborate with Deathbird Earth, I was not sure how it would go. It was all going to be improv, with no net and no advance directive. As soon as the session began, it was clear that Deathbird Earth’s driving, heavy grooves and vintage keyboards were going to mesh with Planet-Y’s vintage deep space, sonic exploration.
“But as the session progressed, and the mutual musical footing took hold, some gold began to form. Dave’s heavy anchor of drums combined with Bruce’s pile-driving, overdriven bass was like witnessing an asteroid bursting through the Earth’s atmosphere, unleashing volcanic eruptions and thunder. With Deathbird Earth bringing the ground-shaking rumbling of a cataclysm, and Planet-Y bearing witness from deep space, it somehow all works – creating some fascinating surprises, and a great deep listening experience.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 17th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
I was fortunate enough to catch wind of Philly duo Deathbird Earth‘s Mission demo (review here) last year, and was glad I did for the weirdoblast anti-genre take on offer. The band’s debut album, Objective Consciousness, feels likely to be a brainmelter, and the first single from it, “Take My Blood,” bears that out with post-yourface wash and a powerful sprawl.
What’s in store for the rest, I don’t know, but even the whole album is just part of the story as in a truly avant garde decision as regards running the business end of your band, the two-piece’s first LP is just part of the story of their releases coming out this Spring. Detailed below are also two collaborative session offerings, one of which includes Yanni Papadopoulos of Philly instrumentalist legends (yes, this is the second time in the last weekd I’m calling them legends; will do every time from here on out; this is actually a decision I made a while back) Stinking Lizaveta in the mix, and that surely will be a thing to look out for. And if it seems like they’re running a risk of undercutting themselves — which they are — I don’t think ‘maximizing audience share’ is the top priority here. More creativity, less internalized capitalistic mindset in expectations. I dig that.
Shows are lined up and listed below, and if you get turned around in all the PR wire info, confusion is part of the intent. Go safely:
Philadelphia heavy space & noise rock duo Deathbird Earth announce debut album “Objective Consciousness” on SRA Records; lead single “Take My Blood” out now!
Debut album “Objective Consciousness” out April 3rd on SRA Records; Lead single “Take My Blood” released February 12th
Collaboration session LPs out March 12th: “Deathbird Earth + Planet-Y” “Deathbird Earth + Nick Millevoi”
“Objective Consciousness” is the debut album from Deathbird Earth, a 2 piece band based in the city of Philadelphia on the planet of Earth, consisting of BJ (Hulk Smash, Dialer, Dangerbird) and Dave (Psychic Teens, Gholas, Exmaid). Deathbird Earth’s sound tends to eschew typical genre classification but is made from a mix of heavy drums and distorted bass layered with keyboard sounds that may or may not be lifted from your favorite classic science fiction films. The album is available from SRA Records (Soul Glo, Stinking Lizaveta, HIRS) on translucent “black ice” vinyl, CD and tape.
The album was recorded at Red Planet and features more collaborators than actual band members. On Side A, two tracks were born out of full-blown collaborative sessions. “Mission: Planet-Y” was recorded with experimental duo Planet-Y which features Yanni Papadopoulos (Stinking Lizaveta) & Pete Wilder (EDO), and “Mission: Nick Millevoi” was laid down with guitar virtuoso extraordinaire Nick Millevoi (Basic, Many Arms, Desertion Trio). Both sessions yielded a full 40 minutes worth of improved music and will each be released on limited LPs and cassettes (available via SRA Records!) March 12th.
In the band’s own words:
BJ: “It was important to us that this record be raw and represent what we do live. To that end we didn’t use a click track, drum replacements or auto tuning. But we decided to take it a step farther and also did no drum edits at all, instead opting for doing multiple takes until we got it ‘close enough’. We are firmly against the use of AI in art and used none of it in our creative process.
Dave: “The group of songs that make up ‘Objective Consciousness’ feels very immediate to me. BJ and I wrote them together in our practice space in just one year from first practice to the start of recording. I think it allows them to still feel fresh and not ‘overworked’ which is important in keeping the energy and original intent behind the songs intact.”
Upcoming releases:
Armed with an abundance of material born out of album recording sessions and late night collaborations, Deathbird Earth lead their descent upon Terra with:
Deathbird Earth Winter 2026 shows:
3/12: Two longform collaborations, with Nick Millevoi and Planet-Y
4/3: Album “Objective Consciousness”
More music video and single dates coming soon!
Fri Feb 13 @ 1901 House, Huntington WV
Sat Feb 14 @ UCRP, 2 Piece Fest Chiacgo IL
Sun Feb 15 @ Harmony Gym, Bloomington IN
Fri Feb 20 @ Flemington DIY, Flemington NJ
Sat Feb 21 @ Ukie Club, 2 Piece Fest Philadelphia PA
Sat Feb 28 @ Mobtown Ballroom, 2 Piece Fest Baltimore MD
All songs written by Deathbird Earth except Christchurch 281 written by Deathbird Earth and Eleni Kostiopoulos. Mission: Planet-Y improvised by Deathbird Earth and Planet-Y. Mission: Nick Millevoi improvised by Deathbird Earth and Nick Millevoi
Deathbird Earth is: BJ – Bass, Synthesizers, Vocals Dave – Drums, Percussion, Synthesizer
Posted in Reviews on April 15th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.
No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Daevar, Sub Rosa
While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.
The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.
The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.
By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.
Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.
Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.
Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.
With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.
It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.
Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirecting contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.
