Posted in Whathaveyou on February 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Pick your poison here, it’s all killer. Makes sense when you think about it, too. If you’ve been waiting to have a party for two years, don’t you want to do it up? Thus it is that Sound of Liberation‘s plague-delayed 15th anniversary celebrations have become 17th anniversary celebrations — and frankly, having survived those extra two years is no mean feat either for a booking concern, or, you know, anyone — and the parties will be held June 10-11 in Munich and June 24-25 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Simply put, the lineups aren’t fucking around. Colour Haze, Fu Manchu, High on Fire, 1000mods, Elder, Ufomammut, My Sleeping Karma, Yawning Man, Monkey3, The Well, Toundra, Villagers of Ionnina City, DVNE, Slomosa, Stoned Jesus, Lucid Void, and more to be announced. That pushes beyond “killer party” and into “this is actually a festival” territory, and after so much delay, I seriously doubt any of the concerned parties have a problem with that.
These will be significant evenings. If you’re going, drink it in.
As posted on socials:
17 YEARS SOUND OF LIBERATION FESTIVALS 2022
*** New Bands *** Day Splits *** Warm-Up Show ***
Dear friends and fans, we are excited to share a bunch of amazing news for our SOL Birthday Bashes in Munich and Wiesbaden with you.
We added some more outstanding acts to our line-ups and there’s an additional warm-up evening happening in Wiesbaden!
17 years Sound of Liberation • Backstage Munich
We’re stoked to finally share the day-splits with you!
Friday, 10th June 2022 Backstage, Munich (GER) Line-Up: Colour Haze, High On Fire, Elder, UFOMAMMUT, Villagers of Ioannina City, Toundra, DVNE + more TBA Tickets: http://www.sol-tickets.com
Saturday, 11th June 2022 Backstage, Munich (GER) Line-Up: Fu Manchu, 1000mods, MY SLEEPING KARMA – OFFICIAL, Yawning Man (Official), monkey3, The Well + more TBA Tickets: http://www.sol-tickets.com
Single-Day Tickets & Weekend Tickets are available.
17 years Sound of Liberation • Wiesbaden
Our party does now start a day earlier!
We’re proud to welcome no other than mighty UFOMAMMUT (ITA) and rising stars Slomosa (NOR) (+ one more band TBA) to rip down the Kesselhaus at Schlachthof Wiesbaden on June 24th and warm-up our neck muscles for the following full festival day!
Friday 24th June 2022 Official Festival Warm-Up Schlachthof, Wiesbaden (GER) Line-Up: UFOMAMMUT, Slomosa + 1 more band TBA Tickets: http://www.sol-tickets.com
Saturday 25th June 2022 Schlachthof, Wiesbaden (GER) Line-Up: 1000mods, Elder, MY SLEEPING KARMA – OFFICIAL, Stoned Jesus, The Well, Lucid Void + more TBA Tickets: http://www.sol-tickets.com
We can’t wait for June, this is happening for real! Grab your tickets and join us in Munich and / or Wiesbaden
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Europe’s Spring festival season would seem to be on the rebound this year, and a delayed Sonic Whip fest in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is set for May 6 and 7 as a part of that process. With poster art by the esteemed Maarten Donders, the festival has announced that Elder, Elephant Tree, Kal-El, Kryptograf, Hey Colossus and Supersonic Blues are going to play, which is some pretty killer adds alongside the already confirmed likes of Motorpsycho, Earthless, Slomosa, and so on.
Among the things to dig about the bill’s international reach is the presence of more Norwegian acts than one might’ve seen even just a couple years ago. Motorpsycho‘s place among headliners is, of course, well earned, but you can see too in Kryptograf and Slomosa an up and coming generation of rockers, and in Kal-El the kind of act they might want to grow up to be. It’s cool to see Norway’s underground become immersed in the broader sphere of European heavy. They’ll do well here alongside other groups from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the US, UK and so on.
There are apparently more announcements to come. Fine, but if Sonic Whip was like, “Nah this is it,” it’d still be good fest.
Here’s the info:
NEW ADDITIONS SONIC WHIP 2022
We are pretty stoked to announce that Elder, Elephant Tree, Hey Colossus, Kal-El, Kryptograf and Supersonic Blues will be part of Sonic Whip 2022 – Official!
Already confirmed for 6 & 7 May are Motorpsycho, Earthless, Stöner, Rotor, SACRI MONTI, MaidaVale, Mythic Sunship, a/lpaca, POLYMOON, Slomosa and KALEIDOBOLT. This is going to be wild! And that is not all, there is still more to follow…
Saturday daytickets are sold out, only Friday and a few weekend tickets remaining. Tickets are available here:https://bit.ly/SonicWhip-2022
The beautiful artwork created by the talented Maarten Donders.
Friday 6 May 2022 Elder, Sacri Monti, Mythic Sunship, Kal-El, Kryptograf, Kaleidobolt, Supersonic Blues and more to be confirmed.
Saturday 7 May 2022 Motorpsycho, Earthless, Stöner, Elephant Tree, Rotor, Hey Colossus, Maidavale, Slomosa, Polymoon, A/lpaca and more to be confirmed.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
This just makes me expect an announcement about a release date for Elder‘s new album any week now. Given the wide breadth of tour dates announced here beginning at Desertfest London in April but continuing through May and June 2022, an early May arrival for the next record from the mostly-Berlin-based progressive heavy stalwarts doesn’t sound unreasonable. Not that they got to do much road work to support 2020’s Omens (review here), mind you, but they’ve said on multiple occasions a new LP would be out this year and, well, even if it’s June, it’ll be in time for Freak Valley, so yeah.
Note that in addition to those fests, highlights of the newly-announced batch include stops at Desertfest Berlin, Sonic Whip in the Netherlands, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Switzerland, and the all-consuming Hellfest in France. I haven’t seen the poster for the latter event, but it’s hard to imagine Elder aren’t close to headlining that big ol’ tent stage I keep seeing pictures from every year.
And of course when news of said next-LP arrives, I’ll post it and probably get all nerdy about it and whatever, like I do. I’m rooting for Elder, as ever.
From social media:
ELDER – 2022 EUROPEAN SPRING / SUMMER TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED
It’s been almost three years since our last tour, and these are our first dates back. In the meantime three albums were released and we’ve recorded another one. Needless to say we have plenty of material new and old which we’re looking very much forward to finally performing for you.
North America – keep your eyes peeled for an announcement soon.
Elder Spring/Summer tour dates: 30.04. UK – London, Desertfest London 04.05. DE – Bremen, Tower 06.05. NL – Nijmegen, Sonic Whip Festival 07.05. DE – Essen, Cafe Nova 08.05. DE – Osnabrück, Bastard Club 10.05. PL – Poznan, Klub Pod Minoga 11.05. PL – Gdansk, Drizzly Grizzly 12.05. LV – Riga , Melnā Piektdiena 13.05. EE – Tallinn, Sveta Baar 14.05. RU – St. Petersburg, MOD Club 15.05. RU – Moscow, Aglomerat Club 17.05. UA – Kyiv, Volume Club 18.05. BY – Minsk, Brugge Club 19.05. LT – Vilnius, Narauti 21.05. PL – Wroclaw, Akademia 22.05. PL – Krakow, Klub Zascianek 29.05. DE – Berlin, Desertfest Berlin 31.05. DE – Dresden, Chemiefabrik 01.06. DE – Nuremberg, Z-Bau 02.06. FR – Guebwiller, Le Caveau des Dominicains 03.06. CH – Martigny, Les Caves du Manoir 04.06. CH – Winterthur, Heavy Psych Sounds Festival 05.06. AT – Salzburg, Rockhaus 07.06. AT – Linz, Stadtwerkstatt 08.06. AT – Graz, Orpheum 09.06. AT – Innsbruck, PMK 10.06. DE – Munich, Backstage Werk 11.06. IT – Galzignano, Antiteatro del Venda 12.06. IT – Turin, Spazio 211 13.06. IT – Bologna, Freakout Club 15.06. FR – Clermont-Ferrand, La Coopérative de Mai 16.06. FR – Chalon-sur-Saône, LaPéniche 17.06. FR – Clisson, Hellfest 18.06. DE – Netphen, Freak Valley Fest 19.06. DE – Karlsruhe, Jubez
Elder & Pallbearer Fall 2022 European tour (previously announced): 22.09.2022 – DE – Berlin, SO36 23.09.2022 – DE – Leipzig, UT Connewitz 24.09.2022 – CZ – Prague, Futurum Music Bar 25.09.2022 – PL – Warsaw, Proxima 26.09.2022 – AT – Vienna, Arena 27.09.2022 – HU – Budapest, Dürer Kert 28.09.2022 – SI – Ljubljana, Orto Bar 30.09.2022 – DE – Munich, Feierwerk 01.10.2022 – CH – Pratteln, Up In Smoke Festival 02.10.2022 – IT – Milan, Circolo Magnolia 03.10.2022 – FR – Grenoble, L’Amperage 06.10.2022 – ESP – Barcelona, AMFest 08.10.2022 – PT – Porto, Amplifest 09.10.2022 – ESP – Madrid, Okkult Session 3 11.10.2022 – FR – Toulouse, Le Rex 12.10.2022 – FR – Montpellier, Rockstore 13.10.2022 – FR – Nantes, Le Ferrailleur 14.10.2022 – FR – Paris, Petit Bain 15.10.2022 – TBA 16.10.2022 – NL – Tilburg, 013 18.10.2022 – DK – Aarhus, VoxHall 19.10.2022 – NO – Oslo, Parkteatret 20.10.2022 – NO – Drammen, Union Scene 21.10.2022 – NO – Stavanger, Folken 22.10.2022 – NO – Bergen, Kulturhuset 25.10.2022 – SE – Stockholm, Slaktkyrkan 26.10.2022 – SE – Gothenburg, Pustervik 28.10.2022 – DK – Copenhagen, Pumpehuset 29.10.2022 – DE – Hamburg, Grünspan 30.10.2022 – TBA 31.10.2022 – DE – Dortmund, Junkyard 02.11.2022 – UK – Brighton, Chalk 03.11.2022 – UK – Bristol, The Fleece 04.11.2022 – UK – London, Earth 05.11.2022 – UK – Manchester, Damnation Festival
Elder is Nick DiSalvo (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Jack Donvan (bass), Michael Risberg (guitars, keyboards) and Georg Edert (drums).
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I’m not asking for much here, just let me go. I just want to go. It’s only a few days, and it’ll be June so whatever wave of whatever variant we’ll be in of this endless fucking pandemic shouldn’t be too terrible. But come on. Pelican and Supersonic Blues and Slomatics and Temple Fang and Elder and Geezer and IAH and Fu Manchu and The Midnight Ghost Train and Green Lung and Revvnant and Monster Magnet headlining and, and did I mention Slomatics yet because increasingly it’s starting to feel like Freak Valley Festival 2022 is being put together as a favor to me and it seems like the very least I can do is go. I just want to go.
That’s all I’ve got. I wrote this announcement for the fest. It’s a good batch of bands and that’s about the depth of insight I have on the matter just now:
Happy New Year, Freaks!
We know things are crazy right now just about everywhere, but we’re still doing our best to bring you the biggest celebration of Freak Valley Festival ever. How could we do otherwise?
Today’s announcement is huge and includes another headliner! Let’s welcome RED FANG to Freak Valley!
This will be the first time in Siegen for America’s overlords of Pacific Northwest rock and roll, and they come supporting their new album ‘Arrows,’ which reminds that nobody out there throws a party quite like they do. Their shows are the stuff of legend, the record rules, and the time is right. We can’t wait to see what they bring to our stage!
BLACK MOUNTAIN will also play on the Wednesday of the festival. If you’ve bought three-day tickets, we’re making more tickets available for the Wednesday show, so don’t miss out! It will sell out again!
Progressive heavy rock mainstays ELDER will also return, along with Chicago’s instrumental innovators PELICAN and even more!
Behold!
NEW ADDITIONS TO FREAK VALLEY 2022: Red Fang (headliner) Black Mountain (playing Wednesday) Pelican Elder Reignwolf Mondo Generator Daily Thompson Leech Green Lung Temple Fang Swedish Death Candy IAH The Re-Stoned Les Big Byrd Slomatics Supersonic Blues Revvnant
Still more announcements to come!
Freak Valley Festival // No Fillers – Just Killers
Posted in Features on December 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]
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Maybe 2021 was your breakout, or your hunker-down. Your recovery from trauma or more of the same. Maybe you got six shots, maybe you didn’t get any. Maybe you got sick or lost somebody. I don’t know. Whatever else this year was, though, and whatever else it continues to be, it was busy.
In terms of the heavy underground, the ‘aftermath’ of the covid-19 pandemic resulted in a creative movement that will continue to pan out for years to come. Bands, locked down in 2020, found new directions, new sounds, sometimes new projects or collaborators. Some dug deep into their root influences, others explored new ground entirely.
One way or the other, the result across this year was a lot of really, really good music, and in uncertain times, the comfort it provided and provides shouldn’t be understated. The Obelisk Questionnaire asks what is the primary function of art. I think we learned in 2021 that art is home when you need it.
I say this every year, but please, if you leave a comment on this post — if there’s something you want to suggest I left out (as I’m sure there is; always) or you’re responding to someone else’s comment — please, please be respectful. Please be kind. To me, because I’ve worked hard on this and I don’t mind saying that, and to anyone else offering their picks or suggestions or just words of response. Let’s not fight, or do that “unthinking internet meanness” thing. I’m a human being and so are you. That’s reason enough to make an effort toward kindness. Thank you for that effort and for reading, as always.
Here we go:
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The Top 60 Albums of 2021? Really? 60?
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Yeah, really 60. I was gonna do 30 and then 50 and I was having trouble narrowing it down and it was my sister who very concisely said, “Who cares? Do what you want,” and it turned out that was precisely what I needed to hear. So if there are complaints about doing a top 60, to them I might just point out that more music is not a hardship. Maybe instead look at the swath of amazing music being made and be glad to have been born? And I’m doing what feels right, if also a little over-the-top. Maybe next year it’ll be 100, or 1,000. To quote my sister, “Who cares?”
The more the merrier.
Alors:
#31-60
31. 3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience
32. Slowshine, Living Light
33. LLNN, Unmaker
34. Low Orbit, Crater Creator
35. Somnuri, Nefarious Wave
36. Delving, Hirschbrunnen
37. Kal-El, Dark Majesty
38. Hippie Death Cult, Circle of Days
39. Plaindrifter, Echo Therapy
40. Motorpsycho, Kingdom of Oblivion
41. IAH, Omines
42. Here Lies Man, Ritual Divination
43. The Kings of Frog Island, VII
44. Old Man Wizard, Kill Your Servants Quietly
45. Weedpecker, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts
46. High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon
47. Kadabra, Ultra
48. Sleep Moscow, Of the Sun
49. Terry Gross, Soft Opening
50. Cavern Deep, Cavern Deep
51. 10,000 Years, II
52. Rebreather, The Line, its Width and the War Drone
53. Spiral Grave, Legacy of the Anointed
54. LáGoon, Skullactic Visions
55. Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows, The Magnetic Ridge
56. Boss Keloid, Family the Smiling Thrush
57. Shun, Shun
58. Black Willows, Shemurah
59. Expo Seventy, Evolution
60. Year of Taurus, Topsoils
Notes:
The best advice I can give you is DON’T IGNORE THIS LIST. From 3rd Ear Experience’s righteous jams to Kadabra’s and Slowshine’s debuts and 10,000 Years’ hard riffing and Old Man Wizard’s melo-prog swansong and Jack Harlon’s otherworldly West, and Cavern Deep’s conceptual darkness, and Black Willows’ consuming tones and Sleep Moscow’s emotive downerism and Weedpecker progging out and Here Lies Man still being in an league entirely their own, and that Plaindrifter record and Shun and Spiral Grave and Rebreather and The Kings of Frog Island. That Terry Gross’ sheer West Coastness and Somnuri’s Northeastern intensity. Kal-El’s pulp riffage bigger than ever. Motorpsycho being Motorpsycho. IAH collaborating with Spaceslug. Boss Keloid’s prog-metal shenanigans. Hippie Death Cult’s mellow heavy. LLNN utterly killing everything. Damn this is good.
If this was a year-end top 30 in itself, I’d be like, yeah that’s a solid list, and I don’t mean that as a platitude. So please don’t ignore it. If there’s something here you haven’t heard, I can only advise you chase it down. Any one of these could be higher or lower in your own consideration, but I dug all of them, and yeah, by the time you get up to 40 or so the numbering gets pretty arbitrary, but whatever. It’s a list of stuff I think you should check out. Releases that made the year better, all of them one way or the other.
New Jersey stalwarts Monster Magnet taking on obscure and semi-obscure covers out of the heavy ’70s is pretty high on the list of ‘ultimate no-brainers.’ One might’ve preferred an album of originals, but even in a stopgap, Dave Wyndorf and company found ways to be creative with the material, and this belongs here for their take on Dust‘s “Learning to Die” (video here) alone.
Domkraft‘s third album arrived in so-you-think-you-know-what-we’re-about fashion, building out the heavy noise rock of 2018’s Flood (review here) and 2016’s The End of Electricity (review here), leaning into more textured material executed with a burgeoning patience of approach, while still keeping impact central. They’ve come into their own and one expects they’ll continue to reshape what that means over time.
Consuming and shamanic. A record that really took the time to construct its own world for the listener to inhabit in its songs. Sunnata‘s fourth full-length, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth brought together six tracks that resonated with purposeful depth and a cold-psych ambience that allowed space for minimalism and movements of blistering heavy in kind. Not for everyone, maybe, but each piece truly added to the flowing progression of the whole, showing the conceptual, ritualized strengths of the band.
Five years after their debut, Sins of the Elders (review here), Massachusetts sludge-of-death metallers Conclave — now with a second guitarist — brought forth epic punishment and bleakness befitting our age. A willful, harsh slog, Dawn of Days had few comforts to offer in “Death Blows Cold” or “Haggard,” and the mourning finale “Suicide Funeral,” while allowed to be flourish in its way, found a means to express its grief while staying honest to underpinnings of extreme metal. Not an easy listen, not supposed to be.
Some records you just can’t fight. And why would you? Quick turnaround for North Carolina’s Crystal Spiders after their Sept. 2020 debut, Molt (review here), but the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Brenna Leath (also Lightning Born and The Hell-No), drummer/vocalist Tradd Yancey (also Doomsday Profit) and guitarist/producer Mike Dean (also of C.O.C.) demonstrated a range the first record only hinted at, touching on earthy psych, dirty punk, classic heavy and more with evident ease and a marked sense of craft.
Hungarian collective River Flows Reverse brought lysergic healing as part of the Psychedelic Source Records milieu, with a particularly folkish and exploratory vibe branching out across pieces like the serene “At the Gates of the Perennial” or the acoustic-led “Rain it Rages,” creating gorgeous atmospheres from existential dread and a sheer need for outlet. Spontaneous in its spirit but with a thoughtful undercurrent, it’s by no means the highest-profile release on this list, but it also offered something nothing else did in quite the same way. Pastoralia for another world.
A decade on from their debut and five years after their last album, Washington D.C. roll-prone trio Borracho came back not only with terrifying cover art, but also an unabashed look at the world around them, socially conscious lyrics topping their hallmark heavy riffage in a way that their prior work had yet to engage. Pound of Flesh was an organic step forward for the band in sound and songwriting, and their perspective of wondering what the hell happened to pretty much everything was relatable, to say the least, but the nuances of arrangement and vibe went a long way too in changing things up around their classic-style sound.
Larson‘s gonna Larson. As to what that might mean on a given release, that’s harder to say. Drawing from a decades-long background in punk and hardcore, heavy Southern and acoustic songwriting, as well as a pedigree long enough to take up the rest of this post, Favorite Iron was one of three outings issued on the same day in September in a creative splurge and found him playing all instruments himself (horns on opener “Backpage” notwithstanding) and imbuing each piece with its own purpose in feeding the richness of the entire work. And somehow, was humble in it, putting it out on Bandcamp, no PR, no fanfare. Just wasn’t there, then was. Very Larson.
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22. Spaceslug, Memorial
Self-released. Review pending.
Issued just on Dec. 10, Memorial arrives from Poland’s Spaceslug in suitably mournful fashion and with it, the trio seem to dive into more personal, human issues than ever before. Loss, uncertainty. It’s certainly a record for the time in which it’s made, but neither do the band neglect their own growth as they continue to incorporate blackened screams along with their more grunge-derived clean vocals, a blend of mellow heavy psych and harsher presence coinciding. After a productive few years with the 2020 Leftovers EP (review here) and 2019’s Reign of the Orion (review here), Spaceslug have managed to push even deeper into their sound. They do so with an increasing sense of mastery.
Unexpected and appreciated in kind. I wouldn’t have bet that Poughkeepsie, New York, glitch-grind innovators Genghis Tron would return with a new record after 13 years, and I wouldn’t have guessed either that Dream Weapon would bring both the revamped lineup and the refined focus on melody that it did. Live drums gave new heart to the songs, and thoughtfully layered washes of keys and guitar brought a sense of worldbuilding that, while in contrast to the freneticism of the band’s past work, was refreshing in its honesty and refusal to be anything other than what they wanted it to be. Caught a bunch of hype early and then disappeared, but the songs will hold up long after this year is over. If you get it, you get it.
The story of Sweden’s Vokonis isn’t too dissimilar from that of Spaceslug above in that the band set its foundation in a certain kind of heavy worship and have moved outward from there over time. For the Borås trio, their latest outing expanded on their progressive ideology, taking the heavy riffs of their earliest work and setting them to a winding course while also incorporating a rawer vocal along with the cleaner shouting. In addition to being topped off by the best album cover I saw all year, Odyssey proved to be a journey of mind for those ready to take it, and showed that Vokonis‘ maturity, their finding themselves, is likely to be an ongoing process. And if they want to keep bringing Per Wiberg in on keys, that’ll be fine too.
What a blast this record is. Warm tones, classic vibes, ’90s alt weirdness given a little extra push into heavy. I didn’t even care that half of the thing had been released as an EP prior, putting on Lammping‘s Flashjacks was and very much still is a joy. No pretense, no bullshit, just songs, songs, songs. Give me “Intercessor” and “Jaws of Life” and “Lammping” any day of the week as the Toronto outfit hold down both attitude and humor while inviting you in on their good time. 10 tracks/33 minutes — they weren’t even trying to take up too much of your day. Just a short and sweet set on an LP and then they roll out until the next one. May it arrive sooner rather than later. I’m not a party guy, but this is my kind of party.
The opening duo “Mission From God” and “Nothing Left for You” gave Fractal Altar an initial thrust that the heavy grunge of “Not Two” complemented with darker edge before the swinging “Hold On” tipped back toward forward momentum. “The False Lack,” a highlight, found some middle ground en route to a back half of the LP that culminated with the sub-nine-minute title-track, psychedelic ritualization coming to a head with spaced-out vocals over a black hole of low end. The weirder Snail get, the better they get in my mind, and more than half a decade after Feral (review here), they were ready to get plenty weird here. Wouldn’t trade that for the world.
Aggro-edged Philly heavy rock and roll, pulling influence not only from its own backdrop but from heavy modern and old, perhaps the best thing one can say about Resolute was that it lived up to the lofty declaration in the title The Age of Truth gave it. Whether they were playing to more atmospheric ideas on “Palace of Rain” and “Return to Ships” or digging into classic heavy blues on “Salome” or finding new levels of intensity on “Horsewhip,” it was clear The Age of Truth consciously set a high standard for themselves and put the effort in to meet it every step of the way. Clear and sharp in its production, it’s still a record you can put on and be blown away by each individual performance, as well as how they come together. Dudes only put the bar higher.
It was not an easy task for Norway’s Jointhugger to follow either their 2021 single-song EP Reaper Season (review here) or 2020’s debut, I Am No One (review here), but even amid a still-solidifying lineup, the band conjured listenability and weight in post-Monolordian fashion without either aping that band’s methodology or ignoring their own nascent sonic identity. There’s more growing to do, and one hopes that as they go they’ll hold at least somewhat to the pace of releases thus far established, but there was no getting past the accomplishments of Surrounded by Vultures, not the least because of the 700-foot ice wall of tone the band built along the path. Potential and achievement stomping hand-in-hand into an unknown heavy future.
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15. Temple Fang, Fang Temple
Released by Right on Mountain & Electric Spark. Reviewed Nov. 23.
I’ll be honest, I was a little bummed when Fang Temple got released and I didn’t even know it was coming. I got over the ego bruise quick with the help of the record itself, however, the Amsterdam-based psychedelic spiritualists taking the live-album method from 2020’s Live at Merleyn (review here) and using an on-stage performance as the basic tracks around which the rest of Fang Temple was constructed. The result was a resonant joy in heavy psych; a record as satisfying to lose yourself in as to consciously follow along its charted but spontaneous-feeling path. They’ve had some lineup shifts too, but gosh I hope there’s more to come, whether I get an early heads up or not.
Would you have bet there’d be a second Yawning Sons album, more than 10 years after 2009’s Ceremony to the Sunset (review here; reissue review here)? I might not have, but the collaboration between UK instrumentalists Sons of Alpha Centauri and Yawning Man guitarist and desert rock figurehead Gary Arce brought a slew of memorable moments, including guest spots from Fatso Jetson/Yawning Man‘s Mario Lalli and Hermano‘s Dandy Brown, and return appearances from Scott Reeder and Wendy Rae Fowler. It’s still impossible to know if Yawning Sons will be a band or a once-every-decade happening, but Sky Island proved they were more than a cult one-off. A third outing would only be welcome.
Careening back and forth between its space rock and more drifting psychedelic impulses, Comet Control‘s Inside the Sun brought varied pleasures of craft and melody, saving its more contemplative stretches for the peaceful immersion of “The Afterlife” or “Heavy Moments” and “The Deserter” later on after the duly cosmic launch of “Keep on Spinnin'” and the buzzing “Secret Life” established the pattern of movement under the drift. Whichever way a given track went — and it was by no means limited to one or the other with “Good Day to Say Goodbye” and “Inside the Sun” in the album’s midsection — the Toronto-based outfit worked mostly as a two-piece in putting it together, but the lushness of the ensuing work took what the band had accomplished on 2016’s Center of the Maze (review here) and added even more dimension.
They should’ve called it “endless repeat.” The mellow heft of Swedish unit Maha Sohona‘s sophomore full-length is one that I just kept going back to, time and time again, and the appeal of doing so only grew with more listening. Melodically capable but not overblown, songs like “Luftslott” and “Orbit X” brought to mind Sungrazer and earlier Spaceslug with a bittersweet nostalgia (in the case of the former, certainly) even as Maha Sohona used them to chart their own stylistic course. It was seven years between their first and second records, so I’m not going to predict when/if a follow-up will come, but Endless Searcher made my 2021 better to the point that I just put on “Leaves” and can feel the serotonin being released. It feels only right to honor that by having them here.
With a permanent-seeming dissolution as context for its arrival, End of Forever wrapped a run for Samsara Blues Experiment that could only really be called successful in terms of what they accomplished during their time, but moreover, it underscored what made them such a special group to start with, its progressive psychedelia still developing in persona as the band was coming to a close. Guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters, having spent the prior few years in various solo explorations, brought increased use of keys and synth, and in combination with the organic fluidity of the rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Hans Eiselt and drummer Thomas Vedder, that let Samsara Blues Experiment say something new even as they were also saying goodbye. If they’re truly done for good, they’ll be missed.
An awaited debut from this Philadelphia trio, Lupi Amoris confronted high expectations and surpassed them with a complexity of atmosphere that was surprising even after seeing them live multiple times, taking the oft-psychedelic fuzz of Heavy Temple‘s previous output and setting it to a more rigid focus and a daring sense of intent. This was a record that came about after years of lineup changes and tumult, but made cohesion from chaos, and there was not one second of its stretch that didn’t serve the album as a whole. Even more than 2016’s Chassit EP (review here), which I’d previously counted as their first long-player, Lupi Amoris showed toward what Heavy Temple‘s potential had been driving all along, and its realization was stunning. Whatever they do next, whenever they do it, will also be confronting high expectations.
At this point, I feel ready to posit Indianapolis four-piece Apostle of Solitude as the best doom band in America. I know that’s a loaded statement because there are as many kinds of doom as there are of heavy metal itself, but if you look at a group bringing new ideas to the established traditions and tenets of the style Apostle of Solitude have put themselves in the uppermost of the upper echelon. At just 36 minutes, Until the Darkness Goes feels likewise concise and engaging, its songs holding the emotive thread that has always typified the band’s work, but engaging more vocal harmonies between guitarists Chuck Brown and Steve Janiak (now both also in The Gates of Slumber) atop the densely weighted impact from bassist Mike Naish (also Shroud of Vulture) and drummer Corey Webb. Don’t think they’re the best US doom band right now? Find me someone better.
With a wholesale invite to either take the heat or remove your ass from the kitchen, Greenleaf tossed out Echoes From a Mass as their eighth LP some 20 years after their first, 2001’s Revolution Rock (discussed here), and reminded their listenership of the songwriting chemistry that’s emerged over the better part of the last decade between founding guitarist Tommi Holappa — and yes, I’ve heard rumors he’s got new Dozer in progress as well; we’ll see in 2022 — and vocalist Arvid Hällagård, whose work here outshone even 2018’s Hear the Rivers (review here), establishing the conversation between instruments and voice as the crucial element in Greenleaf circa 2021. A heavy blues shuffle from bassist Hans Frölich and drummer Sebastian Olsson and production by Karl Daniel Lidén only up the asset count working in the band’s favor, and on any given day I might still be walking around with “Bury Me My Son” on repeat in my brain. No complaints.
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7. Blackwater Holylight, Silence/Motion
Released by RidingEasy Records. Reviewed Oct. 18.
At a pivotal moment, Blackwater Holylight pivoted. The Portland-based outfit’s third full-length found them pressing outward from their heavy psychedelic and dream-pop foundations into bleaker atmospheres, using Silence/Motion as a means for processing trauma and perhaps to revamp their audience’s expectations of the kind of band they want to be. 2019’s Veils of Winter (review here) and 2018’s self-titled debut (review here) brought marked progress from one to the next, but bassist/vocalist/guitarist Allison “Sunny” Faris, guitarist/bassist Mikayla Mayhew, synthesist Sarah McKenna, and drummer Eliese Dorsay (Erika Osterhout now plays guitar but isn’t on the record) brought on board producer A.L.N. of Mizmor, and the record’s guest vocals from Thou‘s Bryan Funck and Mike Paparo of Inter Arma brought flourish of more extreme metals than anything the band had done before. As a result, their next outing could go pretty much anywhere, so mission likely accomplished for this one.
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6. Kadavar & Elder, Eldovar – A Story in Darkness and Light
Answering the call of being unable to tour and presumably tired of sitting on their hands as a result, Berlin-based outfits Kadavar and Elder (minus the latter’s bassist Jack Donovan, who lives in the US and was under travel restriction) hit the studio together earlier this year to piece together jams and, reportedly, take a “see what happens” approach. What happened was a sound that belonged solely to neither band and drew enough from both to legitimately earn the title Eldovar. Rife with melody brought to bear amid a threat of the breakout that arrived in “Blood Moon Night” — which, while the most uptempo, was not necessarily the highlight of the record — it was an album perhaps carved from experiments, but one that seemed to brim with a sense of underlying direction, even after the fact. Its shimmer felt like a light being cast through a dark year, defiant and peaceful. That two of the current generation’s leaders in heavy rock could come together in such brazen fashion was a noteworthy novelty, but it was the way that Eldovar stood on its own that made it so special.
Gonna get this off my chest while I can. After this one came out, I saw on the vast sphere of social media some disappointed response, like what was up with Stöner being so stripped down and just rocking riffs and all that? Okay. The hell did you expect? That’s the point of the band! It’s Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri — and Ryan Güt, also of Bjork‘s solo band — purposefully digging back to their roots, playing the simplest form possible of the low desert punk they helped create together in Kyuss. It wasn’t about “let’s innovate,” it was about “I dig the Ramones and Fatso Jetson so let’s have a good time.” You got the ultra-grooves of “Own Yer Blues” and “Tribe/Fly Girl,” the Oliveri-fronted punk of “Evel Never Dies,” and the bluesman’s telling-it-like-it-is of “The Older Kids” and “Rad Stays Rad,” “Nothin'” and “Stand Down.” They were in, done, and out. I chalked some of the “meh” up to the studio album arriving so soon after their Live in the Mojave Desert stream (review here) and live album (review here), but even so, damn, be thankful these songs got made in the first place. With yer spoiled ass.
Word to anyone who’s managed to read this far: I hear King Buffalo might have an Xmas surprise in store as relates to this album, so heads up. Acheron — filmed as well as audio-recorded — was the second in an intended series of three yet to be completed of albums Rochester, NY, trio King Buffalo composed during the pandemic lockdown. Like so many, their inability to tour resulted in a need for another outlet. Following The Burden of Restlessness (review here) would be a challenge, but the band shifted focus in sound toward four extended pieces of heavy psychedelia — not completely escapist from the reality surrounding them, but attempting for sure to shift the mindset through which they (and the listener) were experiencing it. Traveling to record in the remote location of Howe Caverns, guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Sean McVay, bassist/keyboardist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson found a way to immediately differentiate their second album of 2021 from the first while offering a shift in sound that leaned less into darkness — ironic, maybe considering it was tracked underground — than its predecessor while retaining the band’s ever-forward progression of sound.
One would be hard-pressed to find a more suitable Halloween release. London-based heavy rockers Green Lung brought together a collection of songs that, yes, were duly autumnal in their spirit, but also refreshing in their sound, unashamed in their readiness to engage their audience, and in cuts like “Old Gods,” “Reaper’s Scythe,” “You Bear the Mark” and “Graveyard Sun” tapped into a cross-genre appeal that was brought together with impeccable quality of craft and production. Classic and new at the same time. Thoughtful in arrangement, Black Harvest nonetheless skirted pretense and kept to a basic verse/chorus appeal that felt easy to get into, and the complexity held in the material only revealed itself more with time. It is an album in which something new will be heard for years, and it not only answered the call to step up after 2019’s Woodland Rites (review here), but put Green Lung in a different echelon of bands entirely. They are an act whose influence will be felt, and not that the world needs another reason to hope for a “return” for live music, but Black Harvest is one for sure. Its songs deserve to be heard by however many ears they can reach.
Monolord are the most essential band in heavy music. Whatever qualifier you want to put on that in terms of style, go ahead, it’s still true. The Gothenburg trio’s fifth album doubled as an anticipated follow-up to No Comfort (review here), which was 2019’s album of the year, and brought no dip in the quality of their craft, the breadth of their style or the force of their execution. In addition to having already ignited a generation’s worth of riffers in their wake, Monolord have steadily progressed in their own approach, and Your Time to Shine skillfully mirrored the structure of No Comfort before it while pushing ahead of where the band were two years ago. Someone needs to build a statue in honor of Mika Häkki‘s bass tone, let alone the riffs of guitarist/vocalist Thomas V. Jäger and the stomp/production of drummer Esben Willems, but with cuts like “The Weary,” “Your Time to Shine,” “I’ll Be Damned,” “To Each Their Own” and “The Sirens of Yersinia” — oh wait, that’s all of them — it was the entire band shining, a plural “your” that was realized in the work. The superficial bleakness of the cover art spoke to the death perhaps of an entire world, but also the new growth and life to inevitably emerge therefrom. The songs did no less.
A record for the times. The record for the times. There are a few reasons King Buffalo‘s third full-length and first in the pandemic-born series, The Burden of Restlessness, deserves to be the album of the year. There’s no reasonably denying the level of songwriting or the move into hard-edged progressive rock and metal of its songs, or the boldness of the manner in which the Rochester trio — again, Sean McVay, Dan Reynolds and Scott Donaldson — made that move, or the resonance of the finished product. It’s a very, very, very good album. Fine. What stands out to me though in thinking of The Burden of Restlessness in context of the addled period between 2020 and 2021 is the fact that it is completely unflinching. From the striking depiction of decay in the front visuals by Zdzisław Beksiński to the personal-seeming nature of songs like “The Knocks,” “Burning” — the opening lyric, “I turn my head from the stars” a direct contrast to “Orion can you hear me?” from the band’s 2016 debut, Orion (review here) — “Silverfish” and “Hebetation” and the speaking to the outside world of “Locusts,” “Grifter” and the maybe-daring-t0-hope-for-something-better conclusion in “Loam,” The Burden of Restlessness gave comfort to its listenership through shared experience rather than platitude. It didn’t tell you it was going to get better. It shared the space you were in, and acknowledged all the unknown corners of that space. This spirit, coupled with the outright sonic achievement on the part of the band, made the album a statement poised to ring out as a document of its weighted era and a standard for the expressive depth of its creativity.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2021: Honorable Mention
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Sit tight, we’ve got a ways to go here.
Acid Magus, Wyrd Syster
Acid Mammoth, Caravan
Age Total, Age Total
Alastor, Onwards and Downwards
Amenra, De Doorn
The Angelus, Why We Never Die
The Answer Lies in the Black Void, Forlorn
Apollo80, Beautiful, Beautiful Desolation
Arlekin, The Secret Garden
Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke
Book of Wyrms, Occult New Age
Bongzilla, Weedsconsin
Canyyn, Canyyn
Craneium, Unknown Heights
Delco Detention, It Came From the Basement
Demon Head, Viscera
Doctor Smoke, Dreamers and the Dead
Dread Sovereign, Alchemical Warfare
Dream Unending, Tide Turns Eternal
Duel, In Carne Persona
Dunbarrow, III
DVNE, Etemen Ænka
Eyehategod, A History of Nomadic Behavior
Bill Fisher, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth
Funeral, Praesentalis in Aeternum
Fuzzy Lights, Burials
Holy Death Trio, Introducing…
Iceburn, Asclepius
Jakethehawk, Hinterlands
Kanaan, Earthbound
Khemmis, Deceiver
King Woman, Celestial Blues
Kvasir, 4
Lingua Ignota, Sinner Get Ready
Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel, Polaris
Low Flying Hawks, Fuyu
Low Orbit, Crater Creator
Malady, Ainavahantaa
Mastiff, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth
Mythic Sunship, Wildfire
Zack Oakley, Badlands
Octopus Ride, II
Øresund Space Collective, Universal Travels
Red Beard Wall, 3
Robots of the Ancient World, Mystic Goddess
Emma Ruth Rundle, Engine of Hell
Saturnia, Stranded in the Green
Savanah, Olympus Mons
Sergio Ch., La Danza de los Toxicos
Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others
Smote, Bodkin
Snake Mountain Revival, Everything in Sight
Snowy Dunes, Sastrugi
Sonic Demon, Vendetta
The Spacelords, False Dawn
Spelljammer, Abyssal Trip
Spidergawd, VI
Swallow the Sun, Moonflowers
Thunderchief, Synanthrope
Thunder Horse, Chosen One
Ultra Void, Ultra Void
Vouna, Atropos
WEEED, Do You Fall?
When the Deadbolt Breaks, As Hope Valley Burns
Witchcryer, When Their Gods Come for You
Witchrot, Hollow
Wolftooth, Blood & Iron
Wowod, Yarost’ I Proshchenie
Notes:
I feel immediately defensive here, and that kind of sucks, to be honest. Here’s the basic truth: I know people like different things. I know people think different things are important, that everybody works hard making records, that lists are bullshit and that people go back to listen to different things more over time.
What I’d ask is that after 60 records in the list proper and another 60-plus here, you please give me a break. I’ve reviewed well over 250 releases this year, so neither is this everything, nor is it nothing. I’ve done my best. And if one of these records is your album of the year? Awesome! I’m so, so glad for that. I can’t and won’t argue. I’m sure this list is incomplete and I’m sure I’ll add more to it over the next couple days — always do — but if you didn’t hear anything this year and you take this list and you take the other 60 records, listen to one per week, you’ll have enough new music to carry you into 2023, and I feel pretty good about that.
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Debut Album of the Year 2021
Heavy Temple, Lupi Amoris
Other notable debuts (alphabetically):
Acid’s Trip, Strings of Soul
Age Total, Age Total
Bala, Maleza
Bog Wizard, Miasmic Purple Smoke
Bottomless, Bottomless
Cancervo, 1
Cave of Swimmers, Aurora
Cavern Deep, Cavern Deep
Chamán, Maleza
Cosmic Reaper, Cosmic Reaper
DayGlo Mourning, Dead Star
Delving, Hirschbrunnen
Den Der Hale, Harsyra
Dome Runner, Conflict State Design
Draken, Draken
Gangrened, Deadly Algorithm
Gristmill, Heavy Everything
High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon
Holy Death Trio, Introducing…
The Judas Knife, Death is the Thing With Feathers
Kadabra, Ultra
Kadavar & Elder, Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light
Kvasir, 4
Plaindrifter, Echo Therapy
Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others
Slowshine, Living Light
Smote, Bodkin
Snake Mountain Revival, Everything in Sight
Sonic Demon, Vendetta
Sow Discord, Quiet Earth
Stöner, Stoners Rule
Suncraft, Flat Earth Rider
Terry Gross, Soft Opening
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, TTBS
Vestamaran, Bungalow Rex
White Void, Anti
Witchrot, Hollow
Wooden Fields, Wooden Fields
Wytch, Exordium
Year of Taurus, Topsoils
Notes:
Yes, technically the Stöner record was higher than Heavy Temple on the top 60. I took into account the fact that Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri have worked together on and off for 30-plus years in my final assessment and decided Lupi Amoris, as a debut album, deserved the top spot. I actually had a numbered list going — Stöner were two, Delving was three — but decided to just let the Heavy Temple stand on its own instead, which it certainly earned.
One could see the pandemic shuffle of creativity peaking out though. Kadavar & Elder’s collaboration was a debut as well, but it was just one of the new projects or collaborations to surface this year. Note Slowshine is Earthship by another name (and purpose) and so are Dome Runner. There was a wash of diggable debuts, loaded with potential, and again, I don’t think this list is exhaustive so much as it’s a primer for some of the best stuff out there as I see/hear it. I’ll spare you wax poetry about the forward movement of genre overall, but suffice to say that in acts like Plaindrifter, Shiva the Destructor, Witchrot, Age Total and High Desert Queen, among others here, such things were readily apparent.
Your time would not be wasted with any of these, I just thought that Heavy Temple, as a first album, was a special achievement and deserved its place as debut of the year.
Short Release of the Year 2021
Jointhugger, Reaper Season
Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, etc.:
Aiwass & ASTRAL CONstruct, Solis in Stellis
All Are to Return, II
Birth, Birth
Blackwolfgoat, (In) Control / Tired of Dying
Bog Wizard/Dust Lord, Split
Boozewa, First Contact
Carlton Melton, Night Pillers
Cerbère, Cerbère
Cortége, Chasing Daylight
The Crooked Whispers, Dead Moon Night
Doomsday Profit, In Idle Orbit
Dopelord, Reality Dagger
EMBR, 1021
Enslaved, Caravans to the Outer Worlds
Fuzz Sagrado, Fuzz Sagrado
Guhts, Blood Feather
Howling Giant, Alteration
Ikitan, Darvaza y Brinicle
Insect Ark, Future Fossils
Erik Larson, Measwe
Lurcher, Coma
Merlock, You Cannot Be Saved
Moonstone, 1904
Morningstar Delirium, Morningstar Delirium
Mos Generator, The Lantern
Nineteen Thirteen, MCMXIII
Old Horn Tooth, True Death
Planet of the 8s, Lagrange Point Vol.1
Psychonaut/SÂVER, Emerald
Solemn Lament, Solemn Lament
Sorcia, Death by Design
Spaceslug, The Event Horizon
Spawn, Live at Moonah Arts Collective
Stonus, Séance
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Rosalee
Ultra Void, Ultra Void
Ungraven/Slomatics, Split
Wall, II
Weedevil, The Death is Coming
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Share the Sun
Per Wiberg, All is Well in the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out
Notes:
Again, look at the amazing swath of new creativity happening. Guhts, Boozewa, Aiwass & ASTRAL CONstruct — even Wall with their second EP — Morningstar Delirium, Fuzz Sagrado, Doomsday Profit, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships: these are new bands and projects coming together, some from established artists and some not, but the shuffling of sound and priorities is a hallmark of the last year-plus’ output, and it can be seen here for sure. Yeah, bands like Enslaved and Dopelord put out killer EPs, but it’s acts like Moonstone — with just one prior release behind them — or Howling Giant working instrumentally for the first time, that struck me even harder.
As regards Jointhugger in the top pick, I took into account the “oh shit this band isn’t fucking around” factor. Coming off their first record and headed into their second in quick succession, the single-song “Reaper Season” served due notice that the debut was no fluke and that the Norwegian outfit had no interest in resting on riffy laurels. This section is always tough since it encompasses different kinds of releases — singles, EPs, whatnot — but in terms of serving the band’s overarching progression, Jointhugger made a difficult choice markedly easier for me.
I won’t take away from the accomplishments of anyone on the list above — or the inevitable ones I forgot, either. Enslaved’s ever-outbound growth is worth a significant mention, and arrivals like Lurcher and Old Horn Tooth kept were undeniable. I’ll nod here too to Psychonaut/SÂVER and Ungraven/Slomatics’ split releases and that The Whims of the Great Magnet. And, and, and…
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Late Releases
Partially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic — like everybody’s everything — vinyl pressing delays meant that many albums have come out in the last month or two that were intended to be earlier. I tried to account for these in the lists above, but thinking about November and December specifically, records by Low Orbit, Spidergawd, Weedpecker, King Buffalo, Spaceslug, Bog Wizard, Raibard, Funeral, Temple Fang, Kadavar & Elder, and Wolftooth can’t be left out as part of the larger narrative of 2021 in music.
I can’t say I’ve listened to, as an example, Spidergawd, as much as to Greenleaf or any number of things that were released in the beginning of the year, but neither do I feel like the lack relative passage of time since something came out should be held against it, especially given the circumstances. As much as the ‘music industry’ shuts down at the end of any given year, 2021 seems to have plowed straight through to the finish.
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Live in the Mojave Desert
While we’re marking the highlights of 2021, it’s impossible not to note the continued proliferation of livestreaming as a (woefully inadequate but take what you can get) substitute experience for show-going and touring. In the case of director Ryan Jones’ Live in the Mojave Desert series, it was an opportunity to turn lemons into concert films of true measure, as well as live albums for Earthless, Stöner, Nebula, Spirit Mother and Mountain Tamer that held their own merit.
There have been a few noteworthy streams over the last year-plus issued in pay-per-view fashion, but in terms of the scale of the presentation, few have held a candle to what Live in the Mojave Desert accomplished — only Enslaved’s ‘Cinematic Tour’ comes close in my mind, and that’s a different animal entirely, ditto Roadburn Redux — or have managed to capture an atmosphere in the same way that not only gives a setting for the music, but adds to the experience of the viewer. It’s not just a show that otherwise would happen in a venue; it’s a show that would happen once in a lifetime.
Whatever context brings that about, it is something to celebrate.
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Looking Ahead to 2022
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I love looking forward to new music. I love it. In a spirit of anticipation and friendship and righteous tunes to come, here’s a list of bands who’ve either confirmed new stuff in the works or are recording or have preorders up or are subject to rampant speculation. In no order whatsoever:
Elder, Toad Venom, Torche, King Buffalo, High on Fire, El Perro, Yatra, Bevar Sea, Birth, Pia Isa, Colour Haze, JIRM, Samavayo, Tortuga, El Supremo, Ruby the Hatchet, MNRVA, Buss, White Ward, Dreadnought, Merlock, Gozu, Westing, Eric Wagner, Stöner, Blue Heron, All Souls, Arekin, 40 Watt Sun, Caustic Casanova, Deathwhite, Freedom Hawk, Hazemaze, Stoned Jesus, Mothership, Desert Storm, Poseidótica, Sasquatch, Conan, Seremonia, Långfinger, Wo Fat, Earthless, Dozer, Red Sun Atacama, REZN, No Man’s Valley, Ufomammut, Geezer, Messa, Clutch, Abronia, Somali Yacht Club, Sun Voyager, Atavismo, Some Pills for Ayala, Eight Bells, Stinking Lizaveta, Borracho, The Crooked Whispers, Naxatras, Rotor, Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Righteous Fool, High Priest, High Priestess, Loop, Elliott’s Keep, Fostermother, Valley of the Sun, Boris, Deathbell, Siena Root, My Sleeping Karma, Firebreather, Matt Pike, Mythosphere, Crowbar, JIRM, Mount Saturn, Supersonic Blues, Wizzerd, 10,000 Years…
If any names are repeated there, consider it a sign that I’m looking forward to that record twice. And if you’ve got a name to add to that list, I’m all for it. As I said, I love looking forward to new music.
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Thank You
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Well, I guess that’s it. I’m not anymore done with 2021 than it’s done with itself — some of the releases featured above have yet to be reviewed; looking at you, Spaceslug — and there’s always catching up to do. No coincidence January will feature the second part of the Quarterly Review that began this month.
But while I’ve got you, if I still do, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you as always for your continued support of The Obelisk, this site, in the various ways it is shown, whether that’s liking a post, sharing a link, leaving a (hopefully kind) comment or buying some sweatpants. More than a decade after the fact, I cannot hope to tell you how much it means to me sitting here in front of my laptop to have that support and encouragement, day in and year out. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart and with ever fiber of my wretched being. Thank you.
Posted in Reviews on December 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Like many over the last 20-plus months, this Kadavar and Elder collaboration was born of plague-era restlessness — two bands who’d generally be quite active on one or another touring circuit forced to sit out and wait for live music to ‘happen’ again, coming together with reportedly little thought given to what the result might be, but just to jam and try something out. When one is sitting at home for a year-plus, there’s plenty of time to think of these things, and as the majority of the once-Massachusetts-based lineup of Elder reside in Berlin, Germany, where Kadavar also make their home, there was less concern for travel restrictions — Elder bassist Jack Donovan still resides in the US and could not travel for the sessions — as they got together at the latter’s studio to begin crafting what ultimately became Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light (on Robotor Records), a seven-song, 44-minute long-player. And, for all the professed “we didn’t know what would happen” narrative — indeed the first lyric on the first track is “We don’t know how it began” — it sure feels like someone in the six-player lineup had an idea that a record would come out of it, or at very least decided there was enough in their jamming worth building into one.
Of course, it’s an immediately notable release, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying the project includes two of the current generation of heavy music’s most accomplished songwriters in Kadavar‘s Lupus Lindemann and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo, each guitarist/vocalist for their respective outfit. From the nine-minute opener “From Deep Within,” both of their presences are felt readily across the album’s span. With Kadavar‘s Tiger Bartelt (drums) and Simon Bouteloup (bass) as well as Elder‘s Michael Risberg (guitar/keys) and Georg Edert (drums) working together as a rhythm section and then some, “From Deep Within” sets a patient and ethereal tone from its own mellow beginning guitar line through the keys-and-residual-effects finish of the closing track “Cherry Trees.” Eldovar is not without its moments of impact, and “From Deep Within” shows that as well as its quiet unfolding leads to a more driving section of riffing, but melody is central and the overarching feel is less about how heavy it can be in any given stretch than what spaces it can use its time to explore. Ultimately, they leave little doubt it was the exploration that led the project to manifest as Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light, the album, in the first place.
Experienced listeners will pick out given parts as recognizably Elder or Kadavar — second cut “In the Way” embarks with what feels like a Lindemann-led homage to ’70s-era singer-songwriterism, semi-acoustic, before gradually shifting into a winding progressive rock that comes across very much in the vein of DiSalvo‘s style, whether it actually is or not — but doing so is the wrong approach. As demonstrated by “El Matador”‘s Pink–Floyd-in-the-sunshine ambience and the subsequent instrumentals “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” Eldovar is more about how the two component acts’ styles mesh than how they can be set next to each other.
It is an amalgam, not just a parallel presentation. That middle stretch of three songs — “El Matador” into “Rebirth of the Twins” into “Raspletin” — is fluid enough to become a hypnotic movement unto itself, entrancing in a way the more structured movements of “From Deep Within” and “In the Way” aren’t trying to be, and with the penultimate “Blood Moon Night” taking up a quarter of the total runtime at 11 minutes before “Cherry Trees” rounds out, the arc finds the darker turn alluded to in the title and fulfills a dynamic entirety all the more complete for it.
Even for arriving amid high expectations due to the personnel involved, these songs succeed in being something that is neither definitively Elder or Kadavar while adventuring into a place of sound that draws from both. “Blood Moon Night” alone boasts a full-length’s worth of motion, taking place along delineated stretches, first of lead guitar giving way to a chugging verse, then shifting into a mellow, King Crimson-y chorus and minimalist setup for the big turn toward Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light‘s heaviest stint. There’s a break with the dual drums highlighted — something that, should these two bands align again, one hopes they explore further — and the full-toned sweep begins again, consuming as a payoff perhaps for the relative pastoralism of “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” let alone its own early moments. The last two minutes hold over a keyboard line that maintains some tension, but are more about drawing down that surge of energy and giving an organic (if native to another world) transition into the piano line of “Cherry Trees.” Drumless, it puts the album’s last emphasis on a wash of melody, and drifts off not so much as an epilogue as a last fleeting stroke to complete the picture.
I won’t claim to know either act’s plans, whether or not Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light is a one-off or will be an ongoing or periodic endeavor. I doubt they know at this point, but it’s fascinating that the collaboration arrives as both bands involved have engaged their own work that might be regarded as departures. Kadavar‘s The Isolation Tapes (review here) was perhaps a more radical shift in approach than Elder‘s Omens (review here), but neither group has ever been content to do the same thing twice, even going back to their respective beginnings. Should there ever be a second Eldovar installment, its making would invariably be informed by what the six-piece have done already, branching off from their individual progressions and starting this new one.
That alone makes Eldovar – A Story of Darkness and Light singular, in that no matter what happens from this point onward — if anything, and maybe nothing — the moment they’ve captured in this initial joint effort can never be duplicated. Expanded on, yes — and if they want to grow this as a project, they have left themselves plenty of room to do so — but never repeated. For as humble as their stated goal might’ve been going into the studio together, their accomplishments here set a high standard for any who’d try to reach it. This is two of the most pivotal acts of their generation working as one unit, and the result of their labor surpasses even the novelty of that fact.
Kadavar and Elder, “From Deep Within” official video
Posted in Radio on November 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
I’ve been trying to do a best-of-2020-a-year-later episode since like June, but maybe it’s all the more appropriate since we’re coming up on that most wretched of years is actually nearly a full year buried. As much as it’s buried at all — don’t you kind of feel like 2020 lives on in our hearts, minds and residual traumas? I kind of do.
As I say in the voice breaks for this episode, I have very little conception of when 2020 ended and 2021 began as regards albums. I would’ve told you that the Grayceon record, the Enslaved record and Slift were 2021 releases. Yeah, I know Lowrider and Elephant Tree were last year, and Colour Haze and All Them Witches, but Polymoon? That could’ve been 2019.
So in addition to being a collection of what I think are killer tunes — always the goal, right? — this playlist is also a way for me to recall when things were ahead of digging into the best of 2021 over the course of the next month-plus. I’ve got a Black Friday episode, then two December episodes left this year. The December ones will both be best-of-the-year stuff. Let this be my precursor to that.
Thanks for listening if you do and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 11.12.21
Grayceon
Diablo Wind
MOTHERS WEAVERS VULTURES
Deathwhite
A Servant
Grave Image
My Dying Bride
To Outlive the Gods
The Ghost of Orion
VT
Lowrider
Red River
Refractions
Elephant Tree
Exit the Soul
Habits
Forming the Void
Ancient Satellite
Reverie
Colour Haze
Material Drive
We Are
Enslaved
Flight of Thought and Memory
Utgard
VT
Kind
Helms
Mental Nudge
All Them Witches
41
Nothing as the Ideal
Sons of Otis
Hopeless
Isolation
Cinder Well
No Summer
No Summer
Slift
Thousand Helmets of Gold
Ummon
Polymoon
Lazaward
Caterpillars of Creation
VT
Elder
Halcyon
Omens
King Buffalo
Dead Star Pt. 1 & 2
Dead Star
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 26 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The first Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Salzburg, Austria, will take place June 4 and 5, 2022 with Elder, Mondo Generator, Black Rainbows, Duel, Ecstatic Vision, Giobia, Acid Mammoth, Geezer, 1782, Hazemaze, Sleepwulf, Tons, Deadsmoke, Ryte and Oreyeon playing. Because shit, I guess if you’re gonna do a thing, make it count.
This tells us a few things about the European touring circuit for next summer, some of which we knew, some not so much. That Geezer would head abroad again was unveiled with their last Heavy Psych Sounds Fest announcement, but to see others pulled not only from the US — Duel, Ecstatic Vision, Mondo Generator — but with a meet-in-the-middle vibe from north and south in Europe as well — Sleepwulf and Acid Mammoth, Tons and Black Rainbows, etc. — is enough to make me think that the Rockhouse Bar in Salzburg that’s set to host the two-dayer will be a significant centerpoint for the label’s summertime activities. Maybe not all of these bands will be doing full European tours, but some of them definitely will. Mix and match your favorite combination. See how many killer shows you can make out of this single, also killer festival.
I don’t even remember what I was gonna post before this came down the PR wire, but I guess whatever it was can wait.
Because here:
*** HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST SALZBURG ***
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Salzburg with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!
In cooperation with Rockhouse Bar, today Heavy Psych Sounds has announced the dates and full bands line-up of the first HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – SALZBURG.
The HPS Fest Salzburg will be taking place 4th and 5th of June, 2022 at the Rockhouse Bar in Salzburg !!!
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – SALZBURG @ Rockhouse Bar, Salzburg June 4th and 5th 2022
feat. ELDER MONDO GENERATOR BLACK RAINBOWS DUEL ECSTATIC VISION GIÖBIA ACID MAMMOTH 1782 GEEZER HAZEMAZE SLEEPWULF TONS DEADSMOKE RYTE OREYEON
We’ll have 50 early bird tickets online and 50 more early bird that will be sold at the Dome of Rock festival at the Rockhouse from 2nd to 4th December 2021.
