Posted in Whathaveyou on January 13th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
You can hear heavy getting heavier in the first single from Abrams‘ new album, Loon. Dropped today along with preorders and the album announcement you’ll find below in the blue text (does anybody read this or do you just skip to the music/links? it’s okay to tell me), “Glass House” is also the opener of the record, and so its barnburning sensibilities serve double-duty, heralding what’s being positioned as Abrams‘ most aggressive work to-date — certainly the sound of the track bears that out — and being the first smack in the face when you actually get to put the thing on.
Abrams have been a good band for what feels like a long time, and it’s not a secret. I feel like especially with 2024’s Blue City (review here) and the touring around it, they’ve started to get recognized for songwriting and performance in a way that fits them, but if part of what they’re looking to do with Loon is differentiate, both from their past work and from the underground at large, then they’re no less on the right track than they’ve ever been. I’ll say further, they seem to hint toward discussion of the political in the record, and that is a voice that heavy music has sorely lacked, both in current nightmaretimes and in past eras and decades as well.
If you told me a new Abrams record was coming this year I’d say, “Well hey, cool.” Having now heard “Glass House,” I’m more excited. Take a listen/look and see if you might agree.
From the PR wire:
US heavy rock powerhouse ABRAMS to issue new album “Loon” on Blues Funeral Recordings this spring; first single “Glass House” streaming!
Denver-based heavy rock and post-hardcore goldsmiths ABRAMS blast the blistering debut single and visualizer taken from their upcoming new full-length “Loon”, to be issued on April 17th through Blues Funeral Recordings.
With American idealism and societal unity in flames, ABRAMS’ ethereal ambiance has been permeated by vibrating, hair-trigger fury. 2024’s soaring and driving Blue City was a record full of arresting, nostalgic textures. This is no longer the world of that album.
The grinding hopelessness and chaos of these times have infused ABRAMS with the shattering intensity of Converge. Urgent and abrasive, Loon is acerbic, fed up, and riddled with pulverizing fury. Wistful melodies warp into dissonance and aggression. Crystalline beauty is inhabited by bitterness and rage. The band’s instinctive hooks aren’t gone, and hopeful moments do shine intermittently through. But it’s clear that ABRAMS, like a lot of us, are pissed off. Desperate and seething, Loon is an irresistible, frenzied purge from a band refusing to give in.
⚡️ Watch new Abrams video Glass House ⚡️ + listen to the single on all streaming services:https://lnkfi.re/glasshouse
On the album, guitarist and vocalist Zach Amster comments: “With each album, our goal is to evolve and not write the same record over and over again. There is no doubt in my mind our album “Loon” is the most unique Abrams record to date. It features some of the most aggressive and heavy Abrams tunes while also sharing some of our most poppy and melodic moments. Vocally, this is the most confident I have felt performance-wise, which sets the mood for the rather dark lyrical content, fitting for the daily bullshit and volatility we are forced to endure. The lead single and opening track, Glass House is a good precursor of what to expect with “Loon”. We hope you enjoy!”
TRACKLIST: 1. Glass House 2. White Walls 3. Last Nail 4. Said & Done 5. Waves 6. How Did I Lose My Mind? 7. A State of Mind 8. Home 9. Remains 10. Sirens
ABRAMS is: Zachary Amster – guitar, vocals Taylor Iversen – bass, vocals Ryan DeWitt – drums Graham Zander – guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 16th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Wow. First of all, I know these shows start in May, but I find the absence of Roadburn on this list of tour dates somewhat egregious. A festival that did nothing but support Wovenhand and the work of David Eugene Edwards should be hosting the first European reunion show for 16 Horsepower, the outfit that launched Edwards‘ career, and the only reason I can think of in my head that it’s not working exactly that way is money, which makes it twice as unfortunate. The band’s lone US appearance — surely tour dates will follow after whatever exclusivity period has expired — is at Fire in the Mountains, which I thought was in Wyoming but is in Montana in 2026. Fair enough. No doubt Edwards‘ voice was made to resonate off a mountainside.
I’m jealous of everyone who will get to see this, and surely if there’s a chip on my shoulder about it, that’s why. You’ll recall Edwards released his solo album, Hyacinth (review here), in 2023. and if you go back over the last couple Wovenhand releases, what was a pretty adventurous take on heavy folk arrangements shifted into a more settled palette, and the songs were always there because Edwards is a flat-out genius songwriter, let alone vocalist and instrumentalist, but there was a searching in early Wovenhand that had stopped over time. I doubt that band is done, but I can’t say I’m completely surprised to see them put on the backburner for the time being while 16 Horsepower steps up to collect on decades of in absentia plaudits and a new generation of fans.
These shows are going to be amazing. Watch even just the first song of the clip below. The quiet power of these songs.
Dig it:
Just announced. Sixteen Horsepower will be reuniting. David Eugene Edwards, Jean Yves Tola, Pascal Humbert and Charles French (from Wovenhand) will be the lineup.
14-May Rennes, FR – Le MEM 15-May Rouen, FR – Le 106 16-May Liege, BE – Reflektor – SOLD OUT 18-May Hamburg, DE – Fabrik 19-May Copenhagen, DK – Amager Bio 20-May Stockholm, SE – Fållan 22-May Halden, NO – Kaktus Festival @ Brygga Kultursal 23-May Höganäs, SE – Garage 25-May Berlin, DE – Festsaal Kreuzberg 27-May Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso – SOLD OUT 28-May Nijmegen, NL – Doornroosje – SOLD OUT 29-May Groningen, NL – De Oosterpoort 31-May Antwerp, BE – De Roma – SOLD OUT 01-June Antwerp, BE – De Roma – 2nd show added 02-June Köln, DE – Kulturkirche 04-June Lausanne , CH – Les Docks 06-June La Rochelle, FR – La Sirène 07-June Paris, FR – Élysée Montmartre
USA July 23-26 – Fire In The Mountains Festival / Red Eagle Campground, East Glacier, MT
Posted in Reviews on November 19th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I was gonna do this whole week, happy Monday, happy Tuesday, happy Wednesday, but I happen to feel like an asshole typing the words “happy Wednesday,” so I’m going to refrain. Hope your week isn’t awful, in any case.
Or if it is, I hope music can help make it better. This Quarterly Review has been a breeze thus far and looking at the lineup for today I expect the trend to continue. Thanks for hanging in with it. We pass the halfway mark today and will wrap up on Friday, with 50 releases covered throughout the week.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Amorphis, Borderland
Yeah, okay, you can go ahead and cancel the rest of the review. Yup, I know. I’d love to sit here and talk about how Finland’s Amorphis, some 35 years and upwards of 16 full-lengths later, are still refining their processes, conjuring melodic intricacy, and celebrating death metal in kind. I’d love to talk about the progressive strains in Borderland, or about how as recognizable as Amorphis are, they’re still able to find new ways to balance the keys and guitar, or to switch up the vocals, or even just to chug proggier on “Light and Shadow” and “Fog to Fod,” whatever it might be. I’d love to talk about all of that, but you see, the thing is… “Bones.” Specifically, the riff thereof, swept into with crushing majesty and rolled forth with knows-what-it-has certainty of the type one would expect from a long-established pro-shop genre-innovating band like Amorphis. I could go on about all the other stuff, but that riff is gonna be all you need to know ahead of time. I’ll hope to have it in my head for the next year or so.
One could spend the rest of this space recounting Joe Hasselvander‘s pedigree, from Death Row to Pentagram to Raven to The Hounds of Haseelvander, with stints in countless others including Blue Cheer besides, but that doesn’t tell you much about the doom of Fire on the Mountain. Hasselvander‘s third solo outing under his name and first in 25 years follows a traditional pattern of Doom Capitol blue-collar riffing that, it has to be acknowledged, Hasselvander had a part in establishing, while the man himself plays all instruments and handles vocals, at time with a bit of a lounge-singer edge with spoken lines, but when he reaches for the higher note in third cut “Holy Water,” a big moment in the song, it’s there for him. “Prodigal Sun” is one of several images taken from the bible and would seem to be autobiographical, and he ends with a fitting apex of nod and shred in “Darkest Before the Dawn.” He’s said he has plans for more, and indeed, Fire on the Mountain sounds more like a beginning than an end.
A current of crackling, tube-heating distortion begins in “Spine,” which introduces Kariti‘s third album, Still Life, and indeed even amid the The Keening-esque piano of “Nothing” and the title-track a short time later, that hard-toned drone becomes a backbone for the material. It’s not always there — arrangements are fluid around the central guitar/keys/voice — but for an artist working in a style so intentionally mindful of aesthetic, the My Bloody Valentine-esque noise swell of “Suicide by a Thousand Cuts,” the emergence of the static in “Naiznanku” and the rumble behind the closing prayer “Baptism” bring dark avant garde experimentalism to traditionalist melodies. This is what Kariti has been developing since 2020’s Covered Mirrors (review here), working with guitarist Marco Matta on a deepening collaboration. While retaining folkish intimacy thanks to the quiet stretches around this distorted crunch (looking at you, “Purge”), Kariti has never sounded farther-reaching.
They don’t make ’em like Burning Sister anymore, and listening to Ghosts, I’m less sure they ever did. Because as much as the Colorado now-twosome of bassist/vocalist/synthesist Steve Miller and drummer Alison Salutz continue to foster a druggy ’90s-type slackerism amid all the crash in opener “Brokedick Icarus” and the drawling march of “No Space or Time,” they’ve also never quite sounded as much themselves. There’s psychedelic shimmer in the noise swirling in the later reaches of “Stellar Ghost,” and “Lethe//Oblivion” (premiered here) is made all the more a ceremony with the thread of synth and/or amplifier hum. Meanwhile, “Swerve (Dead Stars)” would work as a new wave arrangement, I can feel it, and the longest-song-by-a-second “Dead Love” (7:20) closes with a thrilling roll and languid procession, reinforcing the downerism that’s been essential to Burning Sister since their outset. Whatever comes in the future, being a duo suits these songs.
A quick turnaround third full-length from London’s The Lunar Effect will be nothing to complain about for those who (like me) got on board with the London heavy rock outfit via last year’s Sounds of Green and Blue (review here). Also on Svart, the follow-up brims with cohesion in its songwriting and purpose in its twists, with the opener “Feed the Hand” establishing the command that proves unwavering through “Watchful Eye,” the brash speed-shuffler “Five and Two” and the lonely sway of “My Blue Veins” before “Stay With Me” modernizes Graveyardian soul en route to the grunge-riffed centerpiece “Settle Down.” The dynamic continues to expand with the piano-led “I Disappear” speaking to a burgeoning reach in songwriting, while “A New Moon Rises” regrounds and “Scotoma” smoothly finds a niche in desert rock that probably hundreds of bands wish they could make their own, and “Nailed to the Sky” rounds out by going big on tone and emotionality alike. So far, these guys are a better band than people know. They inject a little drama to these proceedings, and it sounds like there’s more to come.
While the closing title-track has a thread of prog metal that reminds of mid-period Devin Townsend, Auckland, New Zealand’s King Cruel back their 2023 Creeper three-song EP with a marked sense of atmosphere, the melodies of careening lead track “Haunting Time” calling to mind Boston’s Worshipper in their metallic underpinnings, shred and thoughtful melody. Sky Eater is my first exposure to the band, whose style balances mood and impact smoothly, and whose hooks are inviting without being cloying, as in “Diamond Darya,” which digs in and rides its central riff with a stoner rocker’s dedication and a poise that comes from knowing why they’re doing it. The aforementioned capper is the catchiest of the bunch, but King Cruel, goal-wise, have more in their sights than catchiness, and given the sprawl they lay out here, one can’t help but wonder if a debut album won’t be next.
I won’t claim to know how it was made, between what’s improvised, layered in, overdubbed, conjured from ethereal planes beyond the limits of understanding, and so on, but Angad Berar‘s eight-track/50-minute Sundae is indeed a sweet dish of psychedelic immersion. The Berlin-based solo artist made it in collaboration with guitarist/synthesist/bassist Kartik Pillai, while drummer Siddharth Kaushik sits in on the 10-minute penultimate cut and vocalist Chrisrah guests on the only song that isn’t a numbered jam, the moody mellow liquefier “Driving With You” before “Jam #3” and the horn sounds of “Jam #4” re-immerse the listener in slow-churning fluidity. “Jam #6,” with the live drums and extended runtime, is pointedly hypnotic in its first half, but has some Endless Boogie-type rock angularity later that makes it fun, while the closing “Jam #7” offers a seven-minute drone meditation before handing the listener back over to reality. Serenity abounds if you know where to find it.
Trevor’s Head, Fall Toward the Sun // Majesty and Harmony
Admirably celebrating their 15th anniversary in 2025 with touring and new music, UK melodic heavy rockers Trevor’s Head bring the Abbey Road-recorded “Fall Toward the Sun” and “Majesty and Harmony” together, not quite to encapsulate their sound or everything they’ve accomplished in their time, but to typify the ethic of marking the occasion by doing the thing itself; that is, they’re writing music because it’s what they love to do. “Fall Toward the Sun” and “Majesty and Harmony” both have an edge of aired-out ’90s-type noise rock — nothing new for Trevor’s Head in terms of style — but where they hit you with it up front in the first song, the latter holds its payoff in reserve for when they depart the titular harmonies and get to the surge of crunch in the midsection. Running seven minutes total, you wouldn’t accuse Trevor’s Head of overindulging, but instead, they give their fans and followers something new to dig into that in ethic and realization can only serve as a reminder of their appeal in the first place.
Burl, crunch, lumber, crush, groove and sprawl — the Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain)-recorded debut full-length from Portland, Oregon, riffchucking five-piece Ravine knows from whence it hails. There are some flashes of cosmic intention, but sludgier, earthbound nods pervade the five-track/47-minute outing, which holds its ambition not in a performative stylistic overreach — that is to say, Ravine are who they are musically; there’s no pretense here as they hit you with it straight forward — but in the course each of these tracks takes. Their heaviest onslaught might be in the willfully, almost gleefully grueling “Ennui,” of course the centerpiece, but even there Ravine aren’t content just to doom, or rock, or sludge out, etc., instead working to create a sense of momentum within the songs as each follows its own path, marking out its own place while adding to the whole. They’re not done growing, and I don’t think the balance of their approach is settled, but given what they already lay out, that’s a strength in their favor. This is the kind of debut that makes friends.
Sweden’s Malgomaj aren’t through the opening title-track (a bookending two-parter) of Valfiskens Buk before they’ve put forth primo hard boogie and inventive Sabbathry, classic in influence, modern in production/execution, and continuing to brim with movement as “Rembrants Skugga” and the softshow-ready “Hej Hej Malgomaj” back it. I suppose the elephant in the room here is Graveyard, but “Värddjur” has more Motörheaded foundations, and the instrumental “Itera Mot Solnedgången” hints toward Westernism before the seven-minute “Cyklopisk Betong” flattens with its early riff only to redirect to ’60s-ish garage jangle, so one wouldn’t accuse Malgomaj on this apparent debut of being singleminded, but neither are they lacking cohesion or flow between songs. “Stöttingfjället Rämnar” answers the heft of the track prior and “Det Är Nåt Fel På Solen” sets a languid march before “Valfiskens Buk Del 2” reprises the opener to make the album sound all the more complete, whether you speak the language or not.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Looks like a banger of a way to lose time for an entire weekend. Inhale the mountain air till you pass out, wheel yourself into Denver’s Bar 404 and set up shop for three days of curated heavy local and farflung (though not the band Farflung), find your bliss and if you’re lucky you might even remember it afterward. The first-ever HUFR Fest — gonna be more like a HUGR Fest by the time everybody’s done giving hugs — will launch with a bang. Looking for something without the same headliners you’ve seen a hundred times? Here’s an event digging into the underground for real and finding something to offer apart from the did-you-know-High-on-Fire-won-a-Grammy norm. I don’t even know Vashon Seed, but I’m keen to find out.
Okay I took two seconds and googled. Roots in Sub Pop pre-grunge Seattle noise, heavy punker approach, one record out in Sept. 2020 (hell of a time for a debut), find it below. See how easy and fun it can be to learn new things?
Six bands Friday, six bands Saturday, five on Sunday. Deer Creek seem to have dropped off, which is unfortunate, but there’s still nary a clunker to be found. If you go to this one, I hope it’s as much of a blast as it looks:
HUFR FEST: Mile High Riffs
April 24–26, 2026 | Bar 404, Denver, CO
The Heavy Underground Farm Report proudly presents HUFR FEST: Mile High Riffs, a three-day celebration of Colorado’s heaviest underground sounds. From stoner rock and doom to psychedelic and desert grooves, this festival unites local legends and national rising acts for a weekend of riffs, community, and fuzz-soaked vibes.
LINEUP Friday, April 24 Vashon Seed Hibernaut Violet Rising Lord Velvet Sonolith Lost Relics
Saturday, April 25 Psalm Momovudu Godzillionaire Luna Sol Blue Heron Cobranoid
Sunday, April 26 Nomestomper Black Sunrise Messiahvore Shadow of Jupiter Peach Street Revival
Posted in Reviews on October 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Last day o’ the QR, and that’s always fun, but looking at the calendar and looking at my desktop, I might try to knuckle down for a follow-up edition next month. I know I traditionally do one in December, which is so, so, so stupid, even with the relative dearth of press releases around the holidays, because there’s so much else going on. But maybe in November, before the Thanksgiving holiday. I only have one thing maybe-slated for November now, so now would be the time to slate it. Check back Nov. 10? Roll it out on my sister’s birthday? Maybe.
For now though, one more batch of 10 to round out the 70 total releases covered here, and as ever, I’ve basically packed the final day with stuff I already know I like. That’s nothing against anything on any of the other days, but if you’re a regular around here, you probably already know that I load up the finish to make it easier on myself. Not that any day here was really hard to get through, but for everything else in life that isn’t sitting in front of the laptop and writing about music.
Thanks as always for reading. I hope you found something you dig in this QR. Back to normal tomorrow.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return
Progressive heavy rock spearheads Elder surprise-dropped Liminality/Dream State Return, their first two-songer EP since 2012’s Spires Burn/Release (review here), a couple weeks ago. It’s their first studio outing since 2022’s Innate Passage (review here), and while one might be tempted to read into the melodic wash of “Liminality” (13:10) and the way its vocals become part of the song’s atmosphere, balanced for nuance and texture in the mix, and the keyboardier take on “Dream State Return,” the material was reportedly sourced from pieces of material left over from their last couple albums, rather than written new. Nonetheless, the way these parts are fleshed out underscores just how special a band Elder is, since basically they can take a progression they’ve had laying around for however long and turn into something so majestic. This, in combination with their work ethic, has made them the best band of their generation. They remain such.
Following 2023’s Ingress (review here), brash Salt Lake City four-piece Hibernaut — guitarist/vocalist Dave Jones (Oxcross, Dwellers, ex-SubRosa), lead guitarist Matt Miller, bassist Josh Dupree and drummer Zach Hatsis (Dwellers, ex-SubRosa) — begin to step further out from their influences with their second album, the six-track/47-minute Obsidian Eye. High on Fire remain a central point of inspiration, but you know how that band really kind of announced who they were with Blessed Black Wings and set themselves on their own path? There’s some of that happening in the grooves of “Pestiferous,” “Revenants” and others here, and while the galloping double-kick and dirt-coated declarations might ring familiar, Hibernaut are beginning to put their own stamp on their craft, and one remains curious how that will continue to manifest their persona in their sound. High on Fire never had a song like “Beset,” and that wah on “Engorge Behemoth” has just an edge of Sabbath-via-Electric Wizard, so there’s more here than marauding if you want to hear it.
Titled as though they intended to preempt criticism of their own self-indulgence — a kinder-self-talk version might have been called ‘Expansive’ — the second album from L.A.’s The Oil Barons, Grandiose, is working with an expanded definition of heavy either way. Part desert rock, it’s also Western Americana enough to open with a take on Morricone and while they’re for sure laying it on thick with the gang-chanted version of “John Brown’s Body” worked in between the organ sway of “Gloria” and the nine-minute lap-steel-inclusive expanse of “Shinola.” The later heavy instrumental reacher “Quetzalacatenango” (16:39) and their beefing up of the Grateful Dead regular “Morning Dew” as “Morning Doom” (13:49) are longer, but there’s more going on here than track length, as the melodic twang-pop of “Vivienne” and the light-barroom-swing-into-harmonies-into-riffs of the subsequent “Death Hangs” demonstrate. Top it all off with a purported narrative and Grandiose lives up to its name, but also to its intention.
The first Temple of Love full-length, Songs of Love and Despair, feels very much like a willful callout to classic goth rock. The core, partnered founding duo of vocalist Suzy Bravo (Witchcryer) and guitarist/vocalist Steve Colca (ex-Destroyer of Light), as well as the rhythm section of bassist Joseph Maniscalco and drummer Patrick Pascucci (Duel) begin with a string of catchy, uptempo numbers dark in atmosphere with an unmistakable sheen on the guitar tone and by the time the centerpiece instrumental “Paradise Lost” takes hold with a heavier shift leading into the second half of the album, with “Devil” as an obvious focal point, you’re hooked. The vocal trades on “Save Yourself” and the rocker “Joke’s on You,” with Colca growling a bit, distinguish them as modern, but they’re firm in their purpose unto the string sounds that cap “If We Could Fly,” and clearly aesthetic is part of the mission. They didn’t name themselves after a Sisters of Mercy LP by mistake.
From garage-style heavy and psychedelic jamming, modern space boogie to denser, doomier roll and a stylistically-offbeat quirk that feels ever more intentional, Montana-based trio The Gray Goo are dug into this mini-gamut of style on their third album, Cabin Fever Dreams, with guitarist/vocalist Max Gargasz (who also recorded/produced) giving space in the mix (by Robert Parker) for the melody in Matt Carper‘s bass to come through on 10-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Intrepid Traveler,” beginning a thread of nuance that emphasizes just how flexible the band’s sound is. Even amid the fuzz and chugging resolution of “Isolation” and the jammed-but-with-a-plan “Floodgates,” there’s a sense of looking beyond genre to internalized individualism, the latter carrying into the marching semi-nerd-rapped title-track, which breaks to let the weirdness persist before coming back around with a shuffle to close, while “Manic” (with Colton Sea on guest vocals) roughs up proto-punk until it hits a midsection of Sabbath blues and gets a little more shove from there. “Manic” brings this to a culmination and some chanting gives over the minimal psych experiment “Someone’s at the Door,” which closes. They’ve let go of some — not all, but some — of their earlier funk, but The Gray Goo remain delightfully on their own wavelength. Someone in this band likes Ween, and they’re better for it.
A decade after his first solo release, the declarative 1974 (review here), former Los Natas guitarist/vocalist Sergio Ch. (né Chotsourian, also of Ararat, Soldati, numerous other projects and collaborations) has only broadened his palette around a central approach to avant folk and intimate experimentalism. “Las Riendas” has been around for a while, unless I’m wrong (always possible) and “Tufi Meme 94” is an unearthed four-track demo of the Los Natas song of the same name, but it’s in the repetitions and slow, fuzz-infused evolution of “Tear Drop,” the vocally-focused “Stairway” and the somehow-ceremonial “Centinelas Bajo el Sol” that Shiva Shakti Dramalays out its most ethereal reaches. The album was reportedly put together following an injury to Chotsourian‘s ear, during a recovery period after his “left ear blew up during a Soldati rehearsal.” So there’s healing to be had in “Little Hands” and the buzzing lead of “Violet,” as well as exploration.
Spectral Fields is the duo of Jason Simon (Dead Meadow) and and Caleb Dravier (Jungle Gym Records), and with IV they present a two-part title-piece “IV A” (20:04) and “IV B” (23:12), with each extended track taking on its own atmosphere. The hand percussion behind “IV A” is evocative of quiet desert Americana, like clopping horseshoes, while “IV B” runs more sci-fi in its keyboard and synthy beat behind the central, malleable-and-less-still-than-it-seems overarching drone. The guitar on “IV A” works with a similar river’s-surface-style deceptive stillness. Immersion isn’t inevitable, and the challenge here is to dwell alongside the band in the material if you can, with the reward for doing so being carried across the gradually-shifting expanse that Simon and Dravier lay out. It’s not a project for everybody, but Spectral Fields shine with meditative purpose and ethereal presence alike.
The second full-length, Resolution, from Denver-based harmony-prone heavy rockers Pink Fuzz owes much of its impact to tempo and melody — which I think makes it music. The brother/sister duo of John Demitro (guitar) and bassist LuLu Demitro bass share vocal duties and trade lead spots to add variety across the taut, no-time-for-bullshit 10 songs as drummer Forrest Raup lends shove to the buzzing desert riffage of “Coming for Me,” while the title-track shreds into a ’90s-style ticky-ticky-tock of a groove and “Am I Happy?” moves from its standalone-voice beginning to a gorgeously executed build and roll, bolstered by the Alain Johannes mix bringing up the lead guitar alongside LuLu’s voice, but rooted in the performance captured rather than the after-the-fact balancing of elements. “No Sympathy” and “Worst Enemy” stick closer to a Queens of the Stone Age influence, but the desert is a starting point, not the end of their reach. It’d be fair to call them songwriting-based if they didn’t also kick so much ass as players.
Having the tone is one thing and making it move is another, but Dorset, UK, two-piece The Dukes of Hades bring forth their debut EP, Oracle of the Dead with a pointed sense of push, more so once they’re on the other side of rolling-into-the-slowdown opener “Seeds of Oblivion,” in “Last Rites,” “Pigs” and “Constant Grief,” where the tempo is higher and the bruises are delivered by the measure. Even Gareth Brunsdon‘s snare on “Constant Grief” comes across thick, never mind the buzzing riffs of Steve Lynch, whose guttural vocals top the procession. They save their most fervent shove for the two-minute finale “Death Defying Heights,” but the eight-minute penultimate “Tomahawk” sees them work in more of a middle-paced range while executing trades in volume and even letting go to silence as they hit minute six soon to burst back to life, so they’re already messing with the formula a bit even as they write out what that formula might be. That’s just one of the hopeful portents on this gritty and impressive first outing.
A noise-infused trio from Vancouver — or maybe it’s just that their logo reminds me of Whores. — the three-piece Worse issued their latest single “Misandrist” in memory of Ozzy, following on from the also-one-songer “Mackinaw” from earlier in the year. The newer cut is more lumbering and establishes a larger tonal presence by virtue of its instrumentalist take, while drummer Matt Wood brought party-time shouts to “Mackinaw,” which of course emphasized and complemented the central riff in a different way. Out front of the stage, guitarist Shane Clark and bassist Frank Dingle offer rumble and spacious distortion, the effect seeming to build up with each new, lurching round as they dirge to the fading ringout. Sludgy in form, the affect presents itself like a half-speed High on Fire, which if you’ve got to end up somewhere, is a more than decent place for “Misandrist” to be. If you’re still reading this, yes, I’m talking about myself as well as the band. They’ve got one LP out. I’d take another anytime they’ve got it ready.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Mind you, I don’t know that the upcoming first-ever HUFR Fest in Denver is pronouncing itself as “huffer,” but I’m certainly happy to pretend they are either way. In any case, it stands for Heavy Underground Farm Report, which is helmed by Sean Patrick Brooks, and has been put together with the express purpose of showcasing the Mile High City’s homegrown fare alongside the regionally-imported strains of Blue Heron, Luna Sol, Psalm, Sonolith, Godzillionaire and others. It’s a classic-enough formula, and as missions go, there are few more honorable than pulling a crowd into a room and showing them a piece of the scene they’re standing in, whether a given attendee is from there or not.
However you want to say it, HUFR Fest in running three days is showing itself to be not at all without ambition this first time out. They’re calling it, somewhat inevitably, ‘Mile High Riffs,’ and given the largesse of some of these bands — I just heard Blue Heron‘s take on “Head Like a Hole” for the first time; good fun — that would seem to be the standard they’re applying. Looks like fun.
From social media:
HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs
Denver, Colorado is about to get heavier. Created by Sean Brooks, Andrea Thomas-Brooks, and Zeth Pedulla, HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs is a three-day celebration of stoner, doom, and riff-driven rock, happening April 24–26, 2026 at Bar 404 in the heart of Denver.
With 17 bands across the weekend, HUFR FEST brings the crushing weight of doom, the fuzzed-out haze of stoner rock, and the psychedelic grooves of heavy underground music to the Mile High City. More than just a festival, it’s a gathering for the heavy music community—fans, bands, artists, and riff worshippers alike.
Prepare for walls of sound, swirling smoke, and the kind of communal energy that only heavy music can create. Welcome to HUFR FEST – Mile High Riffs.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Take what you can get from Cloud Catcher at this point. The Denver boogiebashers dropped Return From the Cauldron (review here) in 2023 after breaking up in 2019, and in light of the fact that they’ve already un-bandified themselves once, I’m not inclined to take them for granted again. Mile High Live is a new self-released live outing recorded last year. Unsurprisingly, it scorches.
The lineup on Mile High Live is the same as Return From the Cauldron, with founding guitarist/vocalist Rory Rummings joined by bassist Matt Ross and drummer Will Trafas. Somewhat curiously, none of the material on Mile High Live comes from the latest album, but instead from 2017’s Trails of Kozmic Dust (review here) and their 2015 debut, Enlightened Beyond Existence (discussed here). The tunes are killer, so you’re not gonna hear me complain, and as I was fortunate enough to see a different incarnation of Cloud Catcher live some nine years ago, this is a chance to hear the new(er) lineup in action. Again, no shocker here, but the band kill it.
Thus has been the story of Cloud Catcher since their inception. They kicked off with a special energy in their delivery driven by Rummings‘ riffs, and that foundation continues to serve them here. They remain a better band than people know.
From socials and Bandcamp and wherever:
CLOUD CATCHER – Mile High Live
Recorded live on 06/21/2024 at Cervantes’ Otherside
In order to present a true historical documentation of this group, no overdubs of any nature have been performed. Everything you are hearing is CLOUD CATCHER in its purest form, raw… loud… and LIVE.
Thank YOU for listening!
Released May 30, 2025
Tracklisting: 1. Astral Warlord 06:04 2. Trails Of Kozmic Dust 10:51 3. Super Acid Magick 03:38 4. Righteous Ruler 06:47 5. Shores Ablaze 06:28 6. Forgiving Flame 03:51 7. Electric Ritual 05:57 8. Behind The Wall Of Sleep 04:09
Mixed and mastered by Rory Rummings at Cauldron Audio Works, and Hawkwind Ranch Album artwork by Jake Yergs “Cloud Catcher” logo by Christina Hunt
Cloud Catcher are: Rory Rummings – Vocals/Guitar Matt Ross – Bass Will Trafas – Drums
Last heard from with the 2023 EP Get Your Head Right (review here), Denver, Colorado, now-two-piece Burning Sister are getting ready to unveil the band’s second full-length, Ghosts. The follow-up to 2022’s Mile High Downer Rock (review here) answers some of the ‘gazier aspects of Oct. 2023’s Get Your Head Right EP (review here) while invariably presenting a shift in dynamic as a result of the change to their construction. At some point between Fall ’23 and now, bassist/synthesist/vocalist Steve Miller and drummer Alison Salutz parted ways with guitarist Nathan Rorabaugh (Alamo Black), and instead of an immediate replacement, they’ve opted to continue on as a bass/drum heavy psych rocking duo.
Not the least-bold decision they could make, considering the historical reliance of psychedelia on guitar and the gluttonous amount of wankery one can pull off with it when so inclined/talented. Burning Sister‘s approach in the face of this brings in synth from Miller and highlights the tonal reach of the bass, not just conjuring a meditative feel, but fuzzing it out a bit and giving a hint of something otherworldly from an instrument one tends to think of as being pointedly grounded. Floaty bass? Yeah, a bit, but it’s part of a whole molten thing throughout “Lethe//Oblivion” that retains the post-grunge spirit of Burning Sister‘s first LP in such a way as to make me think the album has more tricks up its sleeve than low-end dynamics. And as I’m curious to find out what that might be, as well as to find out whether the band are looking for another guitar player, the single has apparently done its job, so there you go.
Ghosts is coming soon — I don’t have an exact date; keep eyes on socials — and I’ll hope to have more on it as we get there. Enjoy the video in the meantime:
Burning Sister, “Lethe//Oblivion” video premiere
“Lethe//Oblivion” is the debut single from Burning Sister’s sophomore full-length, “Ghosts.”
Steve Miller – bass/synth/vox Alison Salutz – drums
Tracked and mixed by Jamie Hillyer at Module Overload Mastered by Tad Doyle at Witch Ape Studio – Skyway Audio
