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Duel Announce European Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

duel

More than five years after their initial incursion, and with plenty of others along the way, Austin, Texas, riffy miscreants Duel will be overseas once more come this June. They’ve still got a couple dates open — I note specifically that June 15 is the first day of Freak Valley 2022 and they’ve got that listed as a TBA show in Germany — but with stops already confirmed at two Heavy Psych Sounds festivals in Switzerland and Austria, and a spot booked on Hellfest in Clisson, France — that big tent always seems to be a career highlight for bands, at least if the resultant from-the-side-of-the-stage pics are anything to judge by — it’s a significant run just the same, with club shows besides.

One curious to know with whom they’ll be headed out, whether it’s someone else on the Heavy Psych Sounds roster or just a slew of locals, but one way or the other, Duel play kick-your-ass classic-style heavy rock and roll, exclusively, and with last year’s In Carne Persona (review here) as the record they’re supporting, it’s all the more worth showing up to experience that in person.

I’ve said it before: all Duel do is be a killer band. That Hellfest show is gonna rule, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Freak Valley as well, in terms of both them and I being there.

From the PR wire:

duel tour poster

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce DUEL EUROPEAN TOUR 2022 !!!

Austin, Texas occult rockers DUEL are super heavy, tripped out 4 piece old school stoner metal. Steeped in the more sinister sounds of dungeon-esque early 80’s heavy metal, Proto metal of the 70’s and late 60s psych. Their tunes spin dark tales of ritual horror, occult sex and Apocalyptic doom. Exploring alternate realms, and the depth of infinite space with a head full of mushroom tea. Dueling Thin Lizzy esque guitars with the aggression of Motorhead meets the MC5. Dealing their own brand of dark boogie

They have earned a reputation with their beer soaked high energy live performances, relentless touring, writing and recording schedule. Since 2016 the band have released 4 albums with a 5th LP “In Carne Persona” released on Heavy Psych Sounds Records in 2021. DUEL is about to embark on their sixth extensive European tour once again hitting many of the major festivals and venues that they have in the past.

*** DUEL EUROPEAN TOUR 2022 ***
01.06.2022 CH DAVOS – CHALET VELO
02.06.2022 DE KEMPTEN – 13TH FLOOR
03.06.2022 CH OBERENTFELDEN – BÖRÖM
04.06.2022 CH WINTERTHUR – GASWERK HPS FEST
05.06.2022 AT SALZBURG – ROCKHOUSE HPS FEST
06.06.2022 AT GRAZ – EXPLOSIV
07.06.2022 CZ BRNO – BAJKAZIL
08.06.2022 PL WROCLAW – KLUB AKADEMIA
09.06.2022 DE LEIPZIG – BLACK LABEL
10.06.2022 DE **OPEN SLOT**
11.06.2022 DE DRESDEN – GOCKELSCREAM
12.06.2022 DE **OPEN SLOT**
13.06.2022 DE TÜBINGEN – HAUSBAR
14.06.2022 CH ZÜRICH – DYNAMO
15.06.2022 DE TBA
16.06.2022 FR **OPEN SLOT**
17.06.2022 FR NANTES – SCENE MICHELET
18.06.2022 FR CLISSON – HELLFEST
19.06.2022 FR **OPEN SLOT**
20.06.2022 ES BARCELONA – SIDECAR

DUEL is:​
Tom Frank – Guitars / Vocals
Shaun Avants – Bass / Vocals
Justin Collins – Drums
Jeff Henson – Guitars / Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/DUELTEXAS/
https://www.instagram.com/dueltexas/
https://duel3.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Duel, In Carne Persona (2021)

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Quarterly Review: Duel, Mastiff, Wolftooth, Illudium, Ascia, Stone From the Sky, The Brackish, Wolfnaut, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Closet Disco Queen

Posted in Reviews on December 15th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Okay. Day Three. The halfway point. Or the quarter point if you count the week to come in January. Which I don’t. Feeling dug in. Ready to roll. Today’s a busy day, stylistically speaking, and there’s two wolf bands in there too. Better get moving.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Duel, In Carne Persona

duel in carne persona

Duel seem to be on a mission with In Carne Persona to remind all in their path that rock and roll is supposed to be dangerous. Their fourth album and the follow-up to 2019’s Valley of Shadows (review here) finds the Austin four-piece in a between place on songs like “Children of the Fire” (premiered here) and “Anchor” and the especially charged gang-shout-chorus “Bite Back,” proffering memorable songwriting while edging from boogie to shove, rock to metal. They’ve never sounded more dynamic than on the organ-inclusive “Behind the Sound” or the tense finale “Blood on the Claw,” and cuts like “The Veil” and the particularly gritty “Dead Eyes” affirm their in-a-dark-place songwriting prowess. They’re not uneven in their approach. They’re sure of it. They turn songs on either side of four minutes long into anthems, and they seem to be completely at home in their sound. They’re not as ‘big’ as they should be by rights of their work, but Duel serve their reminder well and pack nine killer tunes into 38 minutes. Only a fool would ask more.

Duel on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

Mastiff, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth

mastiff leave me the ashes of the earth

Fading in like the advent of something wicked this way coming until “The Hiss” explodes into “Fail,” Hull exports Mastiff tap chug from early ’00s metalcore en route to various forms of extreme bludgeonry, whether that’s blackened push in “Beige Sabbath,” grind in “Midnight Creeper” or the slow skin-crawling riffage that follows in “Futile.” This blender runs at multiple speeds, slices, dices, pummels and purees, reminding here of Blood Has Been Shed, there of Napalm Death, on “Endless” of Aborted. Any way you go, it is a bleak cacophony to be discovered, purposefully tectonic in its weight and intense in its conveyed violence. Barely topping half an hour, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth knows precisely the fury it manifests, and the scariest thing about it is the thought that the band are in even the vaguest amount of control of all this chaos, as even the devolution-to-blowout in “Lung Rust” seems to have intent behind it. They should play this in art galleries.

Mastiff on Facebook

MNRK Heavy website

 

Wolftooth, Blood & Iron

Wolftooth Blood and Iron

Melody and a flair for the grandeur of classic NWOBHM-style metal take prominence on Wolftooth‘s Blood & Iron, the follow-up to the Indiana-based four-piece’s 2020 outing, Valhalla (review here), third album overall and first for Napalm Records. As regards trajectory, one is reminded of the manner in which Sweden’s Grand Magus donned the mantle of epic metal, but Wolftooth aren’t completely to that point yet. Riffs still very much lead the battle’s charge — pointedly so, as regards the album’s far-back-drums mix — with consuming solos as complement to the vocals’ tales of fantastical journeys, kings, swords and so on. The test of this kind of metal should ALWAYS be whether or not you’d scribble their logo on the front of your notebook after listening to the record on your shitty Walkman headphones, and yes, Wolftooth earn that honor among their other spoils of the fight, and Blood & Iron winds up the kind of tape you’d feel cool telling your friends about in that certain bygone age.

Wolftooth on Facebook

Napalm Records on Bandcamp

 

Illudium, Ash of the Womb

Illudium Ash of the Womb

Another argument to chase down every release Prophecy Productions puts out arrives in the form of Illudium‘s second long-player, Ash of the Womb, the NorCal project spearheaded by Shantel Amundson vibing with emotional and tonal heft in kind on an immersive mourning-for-everything six tracks/47 minutes. Gorgeous, sad and heavy in kind “Aster” opens and unfolds into the fingers-sliding-on-strings of “Sempervirens,” which gallops furiously for a moment in its second half like a fever dream before passing to wistfully strummed minimalism, which is a pattern that holds in “Soma Sema” and “Atopa” as well, as Amundson brings volatility without notice, songs exploding and receding, madness and fury and then gone again in a sort of purposeful bipolar onslaught. Following “Madrigal,” the closing “Where Death and Dreams Do Manifest” finds an evenness of tempo and approach, not quite veering into heavygaze, but gloriously pulling together the various strands laid out across the songs prior, providing a fitting end to the story told in sound and lyric.

Illudium on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

 

Ascia, Volume 1

Ascia Volume 1

Ascia takes its name from the Italian word for ‘axe,’ and as a solo-project from Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, the 20-minute demo Volume 1 lives up to its implied threat. Launched with the instrumental riff-workout “At the Gates of Ishtar,” the five-tracker introduces Monni‘s vocals on the subsequent “Blood Axes,” and is all the more reminiscent of earliest High on Fire for the approach he takes, drums marauding behind a galloping verse that nonetheless finds an overarching groove. “Duhl Qarnayn” follows in straight-ahead fashion while “The Great Iskandar” settles some in tempo and opens up melodically in its second half, the vocals taking on an almost chanting quality, before switching back to finish with more thud and plunder ahead of the finale “Up the Irons,” which brings two-plus minutes of cathartic speed and demo-blast that I’d like to think was the first song Monni put together for the band if only for its metal-loving-metal charm. I don’t know that it is or isn’t, but it’s a welcome cap to this deceptively varied initial public offering.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Black Capricorn on Facebook

 

Stone From the Sky, Songs From the Deepwater

Stone From the Sky Songs From the Deepwater

France’s Stone From the Sky, as a band named after a Neurosis singularized song might, dig into heavy post-rock aplenty on Songs From the Deepwater, their fourth full-length, and they meet floating tones with stretches of more densely-hefted groove like the Pelican-style nod of “Karoshi.” Still, however satisfying the ensuing back and forth is, some of their most effective moments are in the ambient stretches, as on “The Annapurna Healer” or even the patient opening of “Godspeed” at the record’s outset, which draws the listener in across its first three minutes before unveiling its full breadth. Likewise, “City/Angst” surges and recedes and surges again, but it’s in the contemplative moments that it’s most immersive, though I won’t take away from the appeal of the impact either. The winding “49.3 Nuances de Fuzz” precedes the subdued/vocalized closer “Talweg,” which departs in form while staying consistent in atmosphere, which proves paramount to the proceedings as a whole.

Stone From the Sky on Facebook

More Fuzz Records on Bandcamp

 

The Brackish, Atlas Day

The Brackish Atlas Day

Whenever you’re ready to get weird, The Brackish will meet you there. The Bristol troupe’s fourth album, Atlas Day brings six songs and 38 minutes of ungrandiose artsy exploration, veering into dreamtone noodling on “Dust Off Reaper” only after hinting in that direction on the jazzier “Pretty Ugly” previous. Sure, there’s moments of crunch, like the garage-grunge in the second half of “Pam’s Chalice” or the almost-motorik thrust that tops opener “Deliverance,” but The Brackish aren’t looking to pay homage to genre or post-thisorthat so much as to seemingly shut down their brains and see where the songs lead them. That’s a quiet but not still pastoralia on “Leftbank” and a more skronky shuffle-jazz on “Mr. Universe,” and one suspects that, if there were more songs on Atlas Day, they too would go just about wherever the hell they wanted. Not without its self-indulgent aspects by its very nature, Atlas Day succeeds by inviting the audience along its intentionally meandering course. Something something “not all who wander” something something.

The Brackish on Facebook

Halfmeltedbrain Records on Bandcamp

 

Wolfnaut, III

Wolfnaut III

Formerly known as Wolfgang, Elverum, Norway’s Wolfnaut offer sharp, crisp modern heavy rock with the Karl Daniel Lidén mixed/mastered III, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Kjetil Sæter (also percussion), bassist Tor Erik Hagen and drummer Ronny “Ronster” Kristiansen readily tapping Motörhead swagger in “Raise the Dead” after establishing a clarity of structure and a penchant for chorus largesse that reminds of Norse countrymen Spidergawd on “Swing Ride” and the Scorpions-tinged “Feed Your Dragon.” They are weighted in tone but emerge clean through the slower “Race to the Bottom” and “Gesell Kid.” I’m going to presume that “Taste My Brew” is about making one’s own beer — please don’t tell me otherwise — and with the push of “Catching Thunder” ahead of the eight-minute, willfully spacious “Wolfnaut” at the end, the trio’s heavy rock traditionalism is given an edge of reach to coincide with its vitality and electrified delivery of the songs.

Wolfnaut on Facebook

Wolfnaut on Bandcamp

 

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Rosalee EP

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships Rosalee EP

Having released their debut full-length, TTBS, earlier in 2021 as their first outing, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lincoln, Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships still seem to be getting their feet under them in terms of sound and who they are as a band, but as the 34-minute-long Rosalee EP demonstrates, in terms of tone and general approach, they know what they’re looking for. After the thud and “whoa-oh” of “Core Fragment,” “Destroyer Heart” pushes a little more into aggression in its back end riffs and drumming, and the chugging, lurching motion of “URTH Anachoic” brings a fullness of distortion that the two prior songs seemed just to be hinting toward. It’s worth noting that the 16-minute title-track, which closes, is instrumental, and it may be that the band are more comfortable operating in that manner for the time being, but if there’s a confidence issue, no doubt it can be worked out on stage (circumstances permitting) or in further studio work. That is, it’s not actually a problem, even at this formative stage of the project. Quick turnaround for this second collection, but definitely welcome.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

 

Closet Disco Queen, Stadium Rock for Punk Bums

Closet Disco Queen Stadium Rock for Punk Bums

Their persistently irreverent spirit notwithstanding, Closet Disco Queen — at some point in the process, ever — take their work pretty seriously. That is to say, they’re not nearly as much of a goof as they’d have you believe, and on the quickie 16-minute Stadium Rock for Punk Bums, the Swiss two-piece-plus, their open creative sensibility results in surprisingly filled-out tracks that aren’t quite stadium, aren’t quite punk, definitely rock, and would probably alienate the bum crowd not willing to put the effort into actively engaging them. So the title (which, I know, is a reference to another release; calm down) may or may not fit, but from “Michel-Jacques Sonne” onward, bring switched-on heavy that’s not so much experimentalist in the fuck-around-and-find-out definition as ready to follow its own ideas to fruition, whether that’s the rush of “Pascal à la Plage” or the barely-there drone of “Lalalalala Reverb,” which immediately follows and gives way to the building-despite-itself finisher “Le Soucieux Toucan.” If these guys aren’t careful they’re gonna have to start taking themselves seriously. …Nah.

Closet Disco Queen on Facebook

Hummus Records website

 

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Duel Premiere “Children of the Fire”; In Carne Persona Preorder Available

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on June 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

duel

Austin, Texas, heavy rockers Duel are ready to roll out their fourth album, In Carne Persona. The Lone Star purveyors have done precious little since debuting with 2016’s Fears of the Dead (review here) beyond kick ass and take names, in the studio and on the road, and of course as there was that whole thing about the plague last year, In Carne Persona arrives following their longest time off tour in the last five years. They had Europe booked for Feb. and March last year, and, well, yeah.

But go ahead and get you some of “Children of the Fire” — an appropriate-enough title for a burner — with its dual-guitar classicism and unbridled shove-that-swings and tell me they’re not ready to party. Four records deep, they sound like they know who they are and what they want to do, and from the melody of the hook into the take-no-nonsense solo-plus-final-chorus, it’s four and a half minutes of organic efficiency that speaks only to the follow-up to 2019’s Valley of Shadows (review here) as one worth marking the calendar for.

Or preordering — and hey, wouldn’t you know, preorders are up as of right now. This very second.

Dig in. PR wire info follows the song:

Duel, “Children of the Fire” track premiere

duel in carne persona

Duel – In Carne Persona – Oct. 1

CHILDREN OF THE FIRE is the first single taken from the DUEL upcoming brand new album In Carne Persona. The release will see the light October 1st via Heavy Psych Sounds.

“In Carne Persona”, the upcoming fourth full length album from Texas heavy rockers DUEL, is more of what you have come to expect from the band. Nine new heavy riff soaked tracks from a dungeon in the desert. Written and recorded during plague lockdown, In Carne Persona has the feel of an album that takes its time and full attention to detail. Several upbeat classic guitar rockers in the vain of Thin Lizzy, early UFO, and the beginnings of KISS. A handful of old school NWOBHM anthems channeling early Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, tripped out stoner and proto metal soundscapes. Always pushing the barriers of their sound and offering up something new with the soul of the classic DUEL evil boogie.

SAYS THE BAND:
“Children of the fire is the opening track from our new album. A sun scorched upbeat rocker with a killer dual guitar solo section. The vibe of this one we felt was reminiscent of the earliest DUEL songs like Fears of the Dead.”

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

Austin, Texas occult rockers DUEL are super heavy, tripped out 4 piece old school stoner metal. Steeped in the more sinister sounds of dungeon-esque early 80’s heavy metal, Proto metal of the 70’s and late 60s psych. Their tunes spin dark tales of ritual horror, occult sex and Apocalyptic doom. Exploring alternate realms, and the depth of infinite space with a head full of mushroom tea. Dueling Thin Lizzy esque guitars with the aggression of Motorhead meets the MC5. Dealing their own brand of dark boogie

DUEL is
Tom Frank – Guitars / Vocals
Shaun Avants – Bass / Vocals
Justin Collins – Drums
Jeff Henson – Guitars / Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/DUELTEXAS/
https://www.instagram.com/dueltexas/
https://duel3.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Duel, Valley of Shadows (2019)

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