Sydney, Australia, sludge rock bruisers Amammoth will release their second album, Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies, on March 21, in continued cooperation with Electric Valley Records. Guess what? They’re heavy.
I know, with a name like Amammoth, somehow that’s not at all shocking even though with the ‘a’- prefix, there’s a suggestion of anti-mammoth. Like, in protest of the mammoth. Fuck this mammoth! I shall be the opposite! An amammoth!, and so on. (And yeah, I know I said as much when I reviewed The Fire Above in 2021.) But no, in fact Amammoth have way more in common in terms of sonic largesse with a mammoth than an amammoth, which isn’t a thing that ever existed so far as I know but if it did would surely cower beneath the grunt, roll and flourish of “Among Us” (video premiering below), the nine-minute post-intro opener and longest track on Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies. Drawing its expanse from sludge and doom and maybe even a little death metal in there somewhere of the European strain, pushing into psychedelia with organ and keys later on so that while Scott Fisher is gutting out vocals Kirk Windstein-style, what accompanies is trippier riffing (plus a bit of triangle, I think? maybe keyboard-triangle?) than one might necessarily expect. But that’s what one gets for having expectations in the first place. Gotta let that go. Zen and crushing riffs.
So there they are, Fisher, bassist Warwick Poulton (making his first appearance) and drummer Scott Wilson, hammering away at your cortex after setting an atmos-sludge course in the aptly-titled “Intro” like someone put an organ behind Souls at Zero, but “Among Us” isn’t post-metallic in its lumber necessarily, and its riffing leans more to Sleep than Neurosis, if we want to keep the comparisons to Jason Roeder bands. There’s something oldschool about the largely unipolar vocals — it’s gruff shouts and such, as noted, not screams for the most part, but not entirely “clean” singing either — like in the early ’90s when you could just get away with barking for an entire record; for what it’s worth, in the 40 minutes and eight songs of Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies, there’s enough variation in what Amammoth do around their central purpose in largesse that nothing feels like it’s missing.
“Among Us” caps with repetitions of “Walk among us” and a few homeward slams to make the point before they rumble to the finish, “Chosen” picking up almost immediately with its own muted crashes on the way to reveling in its combination of swinging drums and slogging riffs; the shift from what would be the closer on a lot of records (and is here the opener but for “Intro”) into the more-than-three-minutes-shorter track that follows letting Amammoth cast an open impression and then strip it down for a more direct attack.
To wit, “Chosen,” “So High So Numb” and the pointedly primordial “Sink or Swim” are positioned to feel comparatively immediate regardless of their actual tempos, and Amammoth bask in the lumbering reaches their tonal worship lets them conjure. And “Sink or Swim” coming through as so much of an epitome in this regard means “Satellite,” which follows, is a well-timed change.
Amid more Crowbar-esque seething and declarative steamrolling, the organ returns — joining the fray in a brazenly classic-heavy-rock manner that I can’t help but feel like would make Oppu from Amorphis/Octoploid smile in this context — and deftly calls back to “Among Us” before hitting its culmination and giving over to the penultimate “Ashes Remain,” which might be the rawest and angriest of the eight inclusions, and which serves as the whole-album crescendo accordingly before the thud-backed drone and noisemaking of “Interstitial” reinforce the atmospheric depth for three minutes on the band’s way out.
For a record that’s so much about throwing elbows, some of them at your larynx (heads up on that), the movement across Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies is remarkably easy. I guess the degree of that will be somewhat subject to one’s own tolerance for harder-edged fare, rough vocals, and so on, but Amammoth are perhaps not as monolithic in their approach as they would have you believe. In that case, “Among Us” represents the totality of Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies well, summarizing a lot of what the tracks that follow have on offer without giving away everything at the album’s outset.
The video has a flashing lights warning, and it comes up more later in the clip but they’re not kidding. More info follows from the PR wire below.
Please enjoy:
Amammoth, “Among Us” video premiere
Amammoth on “Among Us”:
Our second single “Among Us” is a B-grade psychedelic, sci-fi adventure, kind of like ET on acid.
Sydney’s sludgiest stoner outfit Amammoth’s trippy sonic sensibilities and intellectually vitriolic lyrical approach blur the boundaries between sedation and stimulation, simultaneously submerging listeners into the distorted depths of the human experience while lifting them up with a distinctly groovy vibe and clean vocal style that shines through both in the studio and on stage. Following the release of their debut EP and their first full-length album, as well as a host of electrically frenzied live shows, Amammoth’s momentum is at an all-time high as they prepare for their biggest year yet, with a second full-length album set for release with Electric Valley Records, to be officially announced in due time, much to the delight of their diverse and growing global fanbase.
Tracklisting: 1. Intro 2. Among Us 3. Chosen 4. So High So Numb 5. Sink or Swim 6. Satellite 7. Ashes Remain 8. Interstitial
Amammoth are: Scott Fisher : vocals/guitar Warwick Poulton : bass Scott Wilson : drums
Amammoth, Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies (2025)
German four-piece Deaf Lizard release their second album, The Last Odyssey, this Friday through Electric Valley Records (Glory or Death has US copies), and whether or not it’s the last one the desert-meets-psych outfit will undertake, the 35-minute sprawl of the outing lives up to its billing as a journey. Beginning instrumental with the tight-and-sandy-hued opener “Nuclear,” where a fuzzy lead guitar patterns out what might’ve otherwise been vocal lines, and moving into the grit-riffed bassy lumber of “The Devil’s Show,” which unveils the deep-mixed blown-out voice of guitarist Patrick Brödje — if it isn’t swapping channels, it feels like it could — amid a non-aggro groove that’s nonetheless darker for the prominence of Lars Wikström, the album counts on the audience’s ability to keep up as it shifts intentions on a per-song basis, letting Brödje and fellow guitarist Steffen Blancke‘s strum come back to the fore as the lyrics drop Doors references in “City of Life” and the tone sounds like Kyuss on an especially sun-baked afternoon, not the least for the momentum the band — which is completed by Marc Mattschenz on drums and synth, holding together the changes — amass as a fuller charge takes hold in “Independent Terror,” the centerpiece.
“Independent Terror” brings a desert boogie and holds back the vocals for the second half, setting an instrumental course and bringing revealing a punkish undertone in the up-to-the-mic not-quite-barks that send home the message of realization. Just on the other side of the last of the five shorter pieces awaits the closing pair of “Ape’s Odyssey” (8:37) and “The Veil” (7:03), but “Lady in Black” is more than a preface, hinting at the psychedelic lean to come in a more open guitar figure and purposefully repetitive vocal pattern. A couple times Mattschenz ups the intensity of the crash, and that’s all the band needs in terms of a fluid transition between the parts of the four-minute song, which gives over directly to “Ape’s Odyssey,” immediately jazzy in Wikström‘s bassline and still holding a bit of residual push in the drums as the guitars seem in succession to show off more shimmering lead work. It’s a change, but when they launch into the verse shortly before the three-minute mark, the crunch that takes hold — “This is the age of the mountain,” the lyrics inform — makes an effective offset for the float on either side of it, and the mellower turn that follows the verse is admirably smooth, done with confidence and poise and refusing to come apart at a moment that for many records would seem disjointed and pointedly doesn’t here.
They jam a bit from there, and manage to gradually bring the song all the way full circle back to the verse, which is a voyage in itself, and that fuzzy push opens to an improv-feeling ending topped with soloing and a display of character that suits the proceedings well. It’s something that, if the band are new to you as they are to me, you might not expect while listening to “The Devil’s Show” or “City of Life,” really any of the shorter five tracks that make up the album’s first 20 minutes or so, but that is a strength of The Last Odyssey for the increase in scope of what the band’s sound can encompass. That “Ape’s Odyssey” isn’t just about expanse, that there’s a structure before that ending departure, is all the more telling about who Deaf Lizard are as songwriters, able to know when it’s time to give up control for a bit and see where it goes. The results on that penultimate cut are worth it, and as they undercut expectation for “The Veil” in capping the record, so much the better. Watery, languid riffing introduces the finale, soon joined by the rhythm section, likewise fluid, and once more the lead guitar sings. That solo might be made up on the spot — it has an exploratory aspect, to say the least — but the bass and drums and rhythm hold it together as an unforced nod and when after four minutes in they shift to a clearly plotted declining line on repeat, the change sets up the next stage of the jam unfolding.
A solo and a short build to the conclusion, including a reprise of that central line, follow, and Deaf Lizard end mellow and big on vibe, bookending the instrumentalism of the leadoff while working unmistakably toward different ends. The band’s sound ends up deceptively rich while never quite beating the listener over the head with riffs or effects washes, etc. They know their genre, to be sure, and harness an individual sensibility within it that will ring familiar to heads while offering depth both in The Last Odyssey‘s more straightforward early fare and its later jams. They never really freakout, and they never really rage, and that’s not what the material wants, so it works, and the outward ease with which they move from one place to another within and between the songs gives an impression of whole-album consideration on the part of the band. That is to say, while the abiding spirit of The Last Odyssey is unpretentious in speaking to genre styles and a genre audience, this material is not unconsidered or haphazard. Well, maybe a little haphazard as “Ape’s Odyssey” comes apart, but that too is what it’s supposed to be. Desert rockers and psych worshipers will find the reaches here welcoming, and whether or not this actually is the band’s ‘last odyssey’ — I always raise an eyebrow when a group puts a notion of an ending in the title; can’t help it — it is a satisfying trip to take all the more because Deaf Lizard so clearly know where they’re coming from and what they’re about.
The album streams in its entirety below, followed by more from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
German fuzzy psychedelic hard rockers Deaf Lizard’s second full-length, The Last Odyssey, is scheduled for November 01st physically (on four vinyl variants) and digitally via Electric Valley Records.
The Last Odyssey Track Listing: 1. Nuclear 2. The Devil’s Show 3. City of Life 4. Independent Terror 5. Lady in Black 6. Ape’s Odyssey 7. The Veil
Stoner rock group Deaf Lizard was formed in 2012 when Paddy, Steffen, and Lars joined French singer Jordan to jam for an as-yet-unnamed project. Jordan accompanied their heavy jams with artistic French vocals. After some early shows in 2014, the Oldenburg quartet’s musical endeavors soon developed into songs, which shaped their debut studio effort, The Firefly EP, recorded in 2016 but only released in 2023.
Line-up changes followed, especially after Jordan’s departure in 2018, and Marc joined as the new drummer. This reshuffle saw original drummer Paddy transition to second guitar and vocals. With this formation, the band self-released two singles, “El Tako” and “Tartaros,” in 2019. Riding a creative high, they continued to produce more music, culminating in their debut album, No Man’s Sky, in early 2020. To their surprise, No Man’s Sky garnered acclaim within the global stoner rock scene. However, the pandemic halted their live performances, limiting them to a brief 2021 tour through Northern Germany. Disappointed but undeterred, the band continued to write and record, setting the stage for their next release.
In 2023, they began recording The Last Odyssey in their own garage studio/rehearsal space. Entirely self-produced, this album represents the years of experience and the utmost worship of the forefathers of heavy rock. Across seven tracks, Deaf Lizard delivers a rough orgy of heavy fuzz rock paired with psychedelic and doomy elements. Channeling no less energy than their live performances, the band maintains an intense, gritty edge, blending slow, crushing riffs with more straightforward hard rock moments. With renewed vitality, the album explores a vast range of soundscapes—from slow, brooding doom to expansive, psychedelic improvisations—highlighting Deaf Lizard’s relentless quest for stoner galore.
Lyrically, the album loosely follows humanity’s self-inflicted downfall and its aftermath, providing a doomy context to its title, The Last Odyssey. Despite the weight of the doomy title, the band has no plans to slow down after the challenges brought by the pandemic.
Deaf Lizard will celebrate The Last Odyssey with a special record release show at MTS Record in their hometown of Oldenburg on 09 November.
Album Credits: —Lineup— Patrick Brödje – Vocals/Guitar Steffen Blancke – Guitar Lars Wikström – Bass Marc Mattschenz – Drums/Synths
—Others— Recorded at the Lizard’s Den. Mixed and Mastered by Matt Sounds Productions. Artwork by Marc Mattschenz.
Posted in Reviews on October 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ll be honest, I don’t even want to talk about how well this Quarterly Review is going because I worry about screwing it up. It’s always a lot of work to round up 10 records per day, even if there’s a single or and EP snuck in there, but it’s been a long time now that I’ve been doing things this way — sometimes as a means of keeping up, sometimes to herald things to come, usually just a way to write about things I want to write about regardless of timeliness — and it’s always worth it. I’ve had a couple genuinely easy days here. Easier than expected. Obviously that’s a win.
So while I wait for the other shoe to drop, let’s keep the momentum going.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
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Massive Hassle, Unreal Damage
Brotherly two-piece Massive Hassle, comprised of brothers Bill Fisher and Marty Fisher — who played together in Mammothwing and now both feature in Church of the Cosmic Skull — get down with another incredibly complex set of harmonized ’70s-style soul-groovers, nailing it as regards tone and tempo from the big riff that eats “Lost in the Changes” to the strums and croons early in the penultimate “Tenspot,” hitting a high note together in that song that gives over to stark and wistful standalone guitar meander that with barely a minute ago gorgeously becomes a bittersweet triumph of nostalgic fuzz reminiscent of Colour Haze‘s “Fire” and having the sheer unmitigated gall to tell the world around them it’s no big deal by naming the band Massive Hassle and stating that as the thing they most want to avoid. When they did Number One (review here) in 2023, it felt like they were proving the concept. With Unreal Damage, they’re quietly pushing limits.
Iress are the Los Angeles-based four-piece of Michelle Malley (vocals), Michael Maldonado (bass), Glenn Chu (drums) and Graham Walker (guitar). Sleep Now, In Reverse is their fourth full-length in nearly 15 years of existence. As a record, it accomplishes a lot of things, but what you need to understand is that where it most succeeds and stands itself out is in bringing together a heavy post-rock sound — heavygaze, as the kids don’t say because they don’t know what it is — with emotive expression on vocals, a blending of ethereal and the most human and affecting, and when Malley lets loose in the payoff of “Mercy,” it’s an early highlight with plenty more to follow. It’s not that Iress are reinventing genre — evolving, maybe? — but what they’re doing with it is an ideal unto itself, taking those aspects from across an aesthetic range and incorporating them into a whole, at times defiantly cohesive sound, lush but clearheaded front to back.
When the band put the shimmying “Apocalypse Babes” up as a standalone single last year, it was some five years after their debut full-length, 2018’s Mindtripper (review here) — though there was a split between — so not an insignificant amount of time for Norway’s Magmakammer to expand on their methods and dig into the songs. To be sure, “Doom Jive” and “Zimbardo” still have that big-hook, Uncle Acid-style dirty garage buzz that lends itself so well to cultish themes but thankfully here is about more than murder. And indeed, the band seems to have branched out a bit, and the eight-song/43-minute Before I Burn is well served by divergences like the closing “I Will Guide Your Hand” or the way “Cult of Misanthropy” sounds like a studio outtake on a bootleg from 1969 until they kick it open around a build of marching guitar, even as it stays loyal to Magmakammer‘s core stylistic purposes. A welcome return.
The kind of sludge rock Ohio’s Evel play, informed by Mondo Generator‘s druggy, volatile heavy punk and C.O.C.‘s Southern metal nod, maybe a bit of High on Fire in “Alaska,” with a particularly Midwestern disappointment-in-everything that would’ve gone over well at Emissions From the Monolith circa 2003, isn’t what’s trendy. It’s not the cool thing. It doesn’t care about that, or about this review, or about providing social media content to maximize its algorithmic exposure. I’m not knocking any of that — especially the review, which is going swimmingly; I promise a point is coming — but if Evel‘s six-songer debut EP, Omen, is a foretell of things to come, the intention behind it is more about the catharsis of the writing/performance than trying to play to ‘scene’-type expectations. It is a pissed-off fuckall around which the band — which features guitarist/vocalist Alex Perekrest, also of Red Giant — will continue to build as “Dust Angel” and the swinging “Dawn Patrol” already find them doing. The going will likely be noisy, and that’s just fine.
Some six years and one reunion after their fourth album, 2018’s The Lucky Ones (review here), Virginia-born classic heavy barnburners Satan’s Satyrs are back with a fifth collection beating around riffs from Sabbath and the primordial ooze of heavy that birthed them, duly brash and infectious in their energy. Founding bassist/vocalist Clayton Burgess and guitarist Jarrett Nettnin are joined in the new incarnation of the band by guitarist Morgan McDaniel (also Mirror Queen) and drummer Russ Yusuf — though Sean Saley has been with them for recent live shows — and as they strut and swing through “Saltair Burns” like Pentagram if they’d known how to play jazz but were still doom, or the buzzy demo-style experimentation of “Genuine Turquoise,” which I’m just going to guess came together differently than was first expected. So much the better. They’ve never been hugely innovative, but Satan’s Satyrs have consistently delivered at this point across a span of more than a decade and they have their own spin on the style. They may always be a live band, but at least in my mind, there’s not much more one would ask that After Dark doesn’t deliver.
Delivered through Kozmik Artifactz, Weight in Gold is the second long-player from Melbourne, Australia’s Whoopie Cat, and it meets the listener at the intersection of classic, ’70s-style heavy blues rock and prog. Making dynamic use of a dual-vocal approach in “Pretty Baby” after establishing tone, presence and craft as assets with the seven-minute opening title-track, the band are unflinchingly modern in production even as they lean toward vintage-style song construction, and that meld of intention results in an organic sound that’s not restricted by the recording. Plus it’s louder, which doesn’t hurt most of the time. In any case, as Whoopie Cat follow-up their 2018 debut, Illusion of Choice, they do so with distinction and the ability to convey a firm grasp on their songwriting and convey a depth of intention from the what-if-Queen-but-blues “Icarus” or the consuming Hammondery of closer “Oh My Love.” Listening, I can’t help but wonder how far into prog they might ultimately go, but they’ve found a sweetspot in these songs that’s between styles, and they fit right in it.
Cheeky, heavy garage punk surely will not be enough to save the immortal souls of Earth Tongue from all their devil worship and intricate vocal patterning. And honestly the New Zealand two-piece — I could’ve sworn I saw something about them moving to Germany, but maybe they just had a really good Berlin show? — sound fine with that. Guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons benefit from the straightforward outward nature of their songs. That is, “Out of This Hell,” “The Mirror,” “Bodies Dissolve Tonight!” and any of the other nine inclusions on the record that either were or could’ve been singles, are catchy and tightly written. They’re not overplayed or underplayed, and they have enough tonal force in Larkin‘s guitar that the harder churn of closer “The Reluctant Host” can leave its own impression and still feel fluid alongside some of Great Haunting‘s sweeter psych-punk. Wherever they live, the two-piece make toys out of pop and praise music so that even “Miraculous Death” sounds like, and is, fun.
The collection House of Pain (Demos) takes its title from the place where guitarist/vocalist Tomas Iramain recorded them alongside bassist Matias Maltratador and drummer Jorge Iramain, though whether it’s a studio, rehearsal space, or an actual house, I won’t profess to know. Tomas is the lone remaining member carried over from the band’s 2020 self-titled LP, and the other part of what you need to know about House of Pain (Demos) can also be found in the title: it’s demos. Do not expect a studio sound full of flourish and nuance. Reportedly most of the songs were tracked with two Shure SM57s (the standard vocal mic), save for “Nomad” and “The Way I Am,” I guess because one broke? The point is, as raw as they are — and they are raw — these demos want nothing for appeal. The bounce in the bonus-track-type “Mountain (Take 1)” feels like a Dead Meadowy saunter, and for all of its one-mic-ness, “Nomad” gives a twist on ’50s and early ’60s guitar instrumentals that’s only bolstered by the recording. I’m not saying Las Historias should press up 10,000 LPs immediately or anything, but if this was the record, or maybe an EP and positioned as more substantial than the demos, aside from a couple repeated tracks, you could do far worse. “Hell Bird” howls, man. Twice over.
Certainly “Come With Me” and others on Aquanaut‘s self-titled debut have their desert rocking aspects, but there’s at least as much The Sword as Kyuss in what the Trondheim, Norway, newcomers unfurl on their self-titled, self-released debut, and when you can careen like in “Gamma Rays,” maybe sometimes you don’t need anything else. The seven-track/35-minute outing gets off to a bluesy, boozy start with “Lenéa,” and from there, Aquanaut are able to hone an approach that has its sludgier side in some of the Eyehategod bark of “Morality” but that comes to push increasingly far out as it plays through, so that “Living Memories” soars as the finale after the mid-tempo fuzzmaking of “Ivory,” and so Aquanaut seem to have a nascent breadth working for them in addition to the vigor of a young band shaping a collective persona. The generational turnover in Norway is prevalent right now with a number of promising debuts and breakouts in the last couple years. Aquanaut have a traditionalism at their core but feel like they want to break it as much as celebrate it, and if you’re the type to look for ‘bands to watch,’ that’s a reason to watch. Or even listen, if you’re feeling especially risk-friendly.
While I would be glad to be writing about Ghost Frog‘s quirky heavy-Weezerism and psychedelic chicanery even if their third album, Galactic Mini Golf didn’t have a song called “Deep Space Nine Iron” on it, I can’t lie and say that doesn’t make the prospect a little sweeter. It’s an interlude and I don’t even care — they made it and it’s real. The Portland, Oregon, four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Quinn Schwartz, guitarist/synthesist Karl Beheim, bassist Archie Heald and drummer Vincent LiRocchi (the latter making his first appearance) keep somewhat to a golfy theme, find another layer’s worth of heavy on “Shadow Club,” declare themselves weird before you even press play and reinforce the claim in both righteous post-grunge roll of “Burden of Proof” and the new wave rock of “Bubble Guns” before the big ol’ stompy riff in “Black Hole in One’ leads to a purposeful whole-album finish. Some things don’t have to make the regular kind of sense, because they make their own kind. Absurd as the revelry gets, Ghost Frog make their own kind of sense. Maybe you’ll find it’s also your kind of sense and that’s how we learn things about ourselves from art. Have a great rest of your day.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
German heavy rockers Deaf Lizard will issue their sophomore LP, The Last Odyssey, on Nov. 1 through Electric Valley Records (Glory or Death will have it in the US). The first single “City of Life” has been up for a little bit now and it’s more about the vibe than intensity, but definitely grooves regardless, a little raw and punk-born in the self-recorded atmosphere, but no pretense or trying to change the universe around it, which honestly is refreshing. I’ll be streaming the whole album on Oct. 30, so keep an eye for that if you’re the type to keep an eye for such things, which since you’re already here I’m pretty comfortable assuming you are.
There’s a fair amount of info below — blessings and peace on the narrative — but if you’re out Bandcamp Fridaying tomorrow or it’s payday and you wanna dig into a preorder, all those links are in there too.
Have at it:
Deaf Lizard: German psychedelic doom/hard rockers announce new LP ‘The Last Odyssey’ via Electric Valley Records + stream 1st single “City of Life”
German fuzzy psychedelic hard rockers Deaf Lizard’s second full-length, The Last Odyssey, is scheduled for November 01st physically (on four vinyl variants) and digitally via Electric Valley Records. The album’s first single, “City of Life,” is available on streaming/digital platforms.
Of “City of Life,” Deaf Lizard states: “With its upbeat tempo and funky riffs, this song breathes fresh air into Deaf Lizard’s arsenal of slow-grinding doom and heavy rock tracks, without stepping out of line stylistically. Its lyrics paint an ambivalent picture of city life, where a person can find both bliss and trouble.”
The Last Odyssey Track Listing: 1. Nuclear 2. The Devil’s Show 3. City of Life 4. Independent Terror 5. Lady in Black 6. Ape’s Odyssey 7. The Veil
Stoner rock group Deaf Lizard was formed in 2012 when Paddy, Steffen, and Lars joined French singer Jordan to jam for an as-yet-unnamed project. Jordan accompanied their heavy jams with artistic French vocals. After some early shows in 2014, the Oldenburg quartet’s musical endeavors soon developed into songs, which shaped their debut studio effort, The Firefly EP, recorded in 2016 but only released in 2023.
Line-up changes followed, especially after Jordan’s departure in 2018, and Marc joined as the new drummer. This reshuffle saw original drummer Paddy transition to second guitar and vocals. With this formation, the band self-released two singles, “El Tako” and “Tartaros,” in 2019. Riding a creative high, they continued to produce more music, culminating in their debut album, No Man’s Sky, in early 2020. To their surprise, No Man’s Sky garnered acclaim within the global stoner rock scene. However, the pandemic halted their live performances, limiting them to a brief 2021 tour through Northern Germany. Disappointed but undeterred, the band continued to write and record, setting the stage for their next release.
In 2023, they began recording The Last Odyssey in their own garage studio/rehearsal space. Entirely self-produced, this album represents the years of experience and the utmost worship of the forefathers of heavy rock. Across seven tracks, Deaf Lizard delivers a rough orgy of heavy fuzz rock paired with psychedelic and doomy elements. Channeling no less energy than their live performances, the band maintains an intense, gritty edge, blending slow, crushing riffs with more straightforward hard rock moments. With renewed vitality, the album explores a vast range of soundscapes—from slow, brooding doom to expansive, psychedelic improvisations—highlighting Deaf Lizard’s relentless quest for stoner galore.
Lyrically, the album loosely follows humanity’s self-inflicted downfall and its aftermath, providing a doomy context to its title, The Last Odyssey. Despite the weight of the doomy title, the band has no plans to slow down after the challenges brought by the pandemic.
Deaf Lizard will celebrate The Last Odyssey with a special record release show at MTS Record in their hometown of Oldenburg on 09 November.
Album Credits: —Lineup— Patrick Brödje – Vocals/Guitar Steffen Blancke – Guitar Lars Wikström – Bass Marc Mattschenz – Drums/Synths
—Others— Recorded at the Lizard’s Den. Mixed and Mastered by Matt Sounds Productions. Artwork by Marc Mattschenz.
Posted in Reviews on August 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Stoned East Coast heavy blues and doom pervade the second full-length, Revival, from Tennesseean four-piece WyndRider, who know of what they riff. Fronted by the foreboding but soulful melodies of Chloe Gould, with Robbie Willis on guitar, Joshuwah Herald on bass and Josh Brock on drums — the latter making his first appearance with the band in an all-Josh rhythm section — the band make a turnaround from their 2023 self-titled debut (review here) that feels almost deceptively quick considering the crawling tempo of “Remember the Sabbath” at the start of side B or the finale “The Wheel” just one song later, but there is growth and self-awareness underlying their sound as they present it on this seven-song/43-minute collection, which was recorded, mixed and mastered by Danielle Fehr of The Wizard Productions, even as it continues the first album’s thread of stoner-doom-speaking-to-stoner-doom and revels in various genre tropes around horror cinema, “Motorcycle Witches,” and religious dogma, and so on.
With four tracks on its first half and three on its second, one might be tempted to think of Revival as a mullet structure — business up front and party in the back — but really it’s just all the party, and the party is doom. The blend of jangly strum and wholly-fuzzed riffing with Gould‘s voice showcased overtop in opener “Forked Tongue Revival” sets a Southern Baptist-style procession forward, but even among “Judas” and “Devil’s Den,” the lead cut is actually something of an outlier in terms of structure, and so smartly placed such that its psych-leaning midpoint solo and lurching gospelism, instead of being mismatched to the subsequent “Motorcycle Witches,” marks out a broader stylistic swath for everything that follows while remaining consistent in tone and the band’s general dynamic.
There and throughout Revival, the sense of a band knowing what works in their sound is palpable, whether it’s the ritualized atmospherics giving over to the riff laid out at the beginning of “Motorcycle Witches” or the steady nod that follows in that first-of-three trilogy of five-minute cuts; “Motorcycle Witches,” “Judas” and “Devil’s Den” each bring something of their own to the record’s front-to-back, but feel grouped together following the six-minute “Forked Tongue Revival” on side A, even if the time differentials aren’t drastic between longer (seven-plus minutes) and shorter (five-plus minutes) songs and the nod is a constant presence regardless.
That grouping, the way Revival is actually set up as “Judas” picks up from “Motorcycle Witches” with a Maryland doom traditionalism in its verse — putting riffs and disaffected vibes where less capable hands might otherwise place bullshit — and leaning into a rawer sound for Willis‘ soloing ahead of the cowbell’s somehow-inevitable arrival, is further evidence of the focus on delivery and the album’s structure. “Judas” meanders a bit into dark-trippiness without losing its way in its second half, coming mostly to a stop before the resurgent solo-topped roll brings them to the last verse and comedown, but it and the centerpiece “Devil’s Den” make fitting companions. The latter brings new testimonial from Gould with elephantine backing from the riff, a sleek groove that’s consistent in its lead flourish and bluesy but perfectly-paced verse stops, hinting toward Clutch-y funk, but ultimately working toward more sinister aesthetic ends. Brock‘s drums join the bass and guitar in a punctuated chug offsetting the central riff later, but it’s Willis who caps side A with a pull of lead guitar that, in a linear format — i.e. CD or digital — moves with grace into Herald‘s bass at the outset of “Remember the Sabbath.”
And they’re not kidding when they say ‘Sabbath’ either. As in, “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath. Hard to get more ‘Sabbath’ than that without actual religious observation. Much to WyndRider‘s credit, they neither play coy with the influence nor neglect to bring something of their own to it, the spaces left open in the verse and tumble-down-the-stairs transitions giving them a chance to push into moodier cavernousness before Willis highlights the point with a late classic-style solo following the crescendo of riff, the bass that gently caps shifting to kick drum as “Under the Influence” takes hold — it’s almost enough to make you wonder if they’re doing “War Pigs” next, and that also feels intentional — soon rejoined by decidedly nastier low end fuzz. That thudding intro opens to what feels like a triumphant breakout but is still decisively doomed, some twist alongside the abiding nod of the verse, almost an Uncle Acid-y strut but grounded in doom rather than the swing itself, and heavy, heavy, heavy in plod even as “Under the Influence” comes across as placed in part to give “Remember the Sabbath” and aforementioned closer “The Wheel” breathing room on either side of it.
This isn’t a detriment to the song or the LP more broadly — if anything, it underscores the focus on fluidity throughout, which is successful and a strength that bolsters the impression of Revival as a whole work — as “The Wheel” lumbers forth through early verses en route to a Iommi-style bi-channel guitar solo that drops in the midsection to spoken word (and maybe organ or manipulated feedback; maybe both?) as part of the build into the next stage of the finale, suitably doomed. The willful slog gives over to more intense drumming at around five minutes in, and the swing of “Under the Influence” is echoed in the last movement of “The Wheel” as the pace gets a kick for the last two minutes or so before the cold stop ends it with no less clarity of purpose than anything that’s come before.
Indeed, that clarity is the most resounding point WyndRider make on their second full-length, the album firmly declaring that, after a debut well received in the US underground — the “scene,” as it exists in social media word of mouth, etc. — the band have taken the lessons of their first album and used them as a means of progressing their craft. Revival is quick in affirming the potential of its predecessor, but more encouraging for the development it portrays in WyndRider stylistically while landing in close enough succession to keep momentum on the band’s side. They now have two strong LP offerings under their collective belt. If the pattern holds, their next one may tell the ultimate tale of their fruition.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Timing is everything. Mere minutes after I took the dog out the other day and got the mail that happened to have the t-shirt I preordered from Tennessee heavy rollers WyndRider a while back in it, I sat back down in front of the laptop and lo, the algorithm saw fit to put the announcement of the band’s signing to Electric Valley Records in front of my eyeballs. I’m not saying it’s anything more than a fun coincidence — I don’t think social media tracking cookies can get in your actual, physical mailbox… yet — but it most certainly was that, and I look forward to hearing how the four-piece will follow-up their well received 2023 self-titled debut (review here), which they subsequently announced they’ll do with Revival on June 7.
To advance and coincide with the release, WyndRider are keeping busy this spring and summer with live shows, headed to Texas in May for Gravitoyd Doom Fest, to Maryland in June for the esteemed Maryland Doom Fest, and to Kentucky in July for the Holler of Doom, all with shows around them sharing the stage with names familiar and righteous. They’ve also posted the single “Motorcycle Witches” as an initial public offering from Revival, readily affirming the clarion-for-the-converted riffery and swing from the debut are well intact. Makes it even less of a challenge to look forward to the album.
The announcement from socials and live dates follow:
We are over the moon that we will be releasing our new album with Electric Valley Records ! More info coming real soon. Don’t blink or ya just might miss it.
From EVR: “Electric Valley Records is proud to announce that heavy riffers WyndRider have just signed for their brand new album🔥”
Pre-order for REVIVAL goes live with Electric Valley Records on 4/24 or on the WyndRider Bandcamp page on 4/25.
Stay Doomed💀”
WyndRider live: 5/2 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone 5/3 – Arlington, TX – GROWL 5/4 – Houston, TX – Gravitoyd Doomfest 5/5 – New Orleans, LA – Siberia 5/24 – Knoxville, TN – BrickYard Bar & Grill 5/26 – Charlotte, NC – TBA 6/8 – Johnson City, TN – The Hideaway 6/20 – Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle 6/21 – Akron, OH – Buzzbin 6/22 – Frederick, MD – The †maryland DOOM† Fest 6/23 – New York, NY – The Bowery Electric 7/5 – Asheville, NC – The Odd 7/11 – Nashville, TN – Springwater Supper Club and Lounge 7/12 – London, KY – Holler of Doom 7/13 – Cincinnati, OH – THE COMET
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
London-based groove-conjurors Stonus will return to Cyprus, where they originally formed in 2015, to support Sweden’s Truckfighters in the coastal city of Larnaca. Don’t be surprised if they end up putting some new material in the set, since as of at least a few weeks ago, they were planning to record this summer and make a follow-up to their debut LP, Aphasia, which was released in 2020 and followed the next year by their Séance EP (review here). In the presumed interim time between now and the arrival of that yet-unrecorded full-length, Stonus will offer Live in Zen, for which you can see a brief teaser below.
Zen Production Studios is also located in Cyprus, and honestly I don’t know how much of the band lives there versus in the UK, etc., but you can see in the clip it looks like a classy establishment to showcase Stonus‘ riffery. Details are short at this point as regards things like a tracklisting — possible there could be new material on Live in Zen too, depending on when it was recorded and apparently filmed — and a release date, artwork, and so on, but if the repeating undulations of heavy rock and doom have taught anything in the last five decades-plus, it’s patience. So be patient.
And yes, I’m talking to myself there.
The following was cobbled together from social media:
Stonus – Live in Zen (TEASER)
“We have been waiting for a while for this one and we are super-excited to finally start sharing it with you all!”
Out soon on youtube and on vinyl via Electric Valley Records and Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug!!
We are currently working on our sophomore album which we are aiming to record this summer!
Couldn’t be more excited and we are eager to share with you some of our new material but till then we got work to do.
Recorded at Zen Production Studios in Nicosia, Cyprus Filmed by SevenSouled Photography Recorded & Engineered by Alexis Yiangoullis Mastered by Billy Anderson Lights by Nikolas Karatzas Artwork by Seven souled Photography & Rafael Marquetto
Cancervo will release their new album, III, this Friday, March 29, through Electric Valley Records (US distro through Glory or Death Records). And it’s by far the darkest, bleakest affair the first-names-only Lombardy, Italy, three-piece of bassist/vocalist Luka, guitarist Francesco and drummer Sam have yet manifest, as an ongoing incremental evolution of their take on cult doom over the last three years has seen them grow from the instrumentalist beginnings of 2021’s I (review here) and Luka‘s emergent metal-of-eld declarations across most of early-2023’s II (review here) to the 32 minutes and five tracks — four plus the sans-vocals church organ mood-setter “Intro” — of III, each numerical outing presenting a deeper plunge into their lurching and abyssal nod.
And III goes fairly deep into its own inky atmosphere, even before “Burn Your Child” wraps side A with its repetitions of “Burn your child/Burn your child,” with the band having already underscored their malevolence as the organ “Intro” gave over to the riff-forward march of “Sacrilegious Mass,” which in its sub-six minutes quickly establishes the vocals not only as an element of the band’s sound of increasing prominence, but as a defining feature. Luka, working in a low register not-quite-monotone that speaks to influences far and wide while carrying a distinctly Celtic Frostian poise, follows the pattern of the riff in the song’s midsection hook, letting the listener know “You’re gonna suffer” as a central line that feels by the time it comes around again like he’s as much in the trance as he is a part of making it. Meanwhile, Sam‘s drums keep a steady swing beneath a noisy ripper of a solo from Francesco, filled out in the bottom end by Luka‘s bass. The difference is confidence.
I wouldn’t call II or even I tentative in their approach, but what the band has wanted to accomplish has grown along with their sound, and in “Burn Your Child,” “St. Barnabas” and “Red Pig” — two near-eight-minute tracks bookending the nine-minute “St. Barnabas” — their ambitions resonate in kind with the drear, reaching into more extreme fare for a d-beat stretch in “Burn Your Child” that admirably holds to the same riff that led into it before going back to the second of three choruses, the last of which swaps “wife” for “child” in the lyrics and leads to another furious solo and speedy drum breakout to finish. Momentum on their side, the trio feel willful in the contrasting quiet open to “St. Barnabas,” which builds up around the guitar over its first minute before ultimately slamming into its grueling procession. As noted below, Cancervo take their lyrical inspiration from regional folklore, and while the connection between a saint who lived in Cyprus isn’t immediate, in nearby Milan, there’s a sect called the Barnabites that was founded in the 1500s, so yeah, it fits, and yeah, I had to look all that up. You’re welcome.
“St. Barnabas” lumbers to its close and brings about the final immersion of “Red Pig,” with a looser-feeling chant and a resumption of the overarching nod that has been at the core all along and remains even as the finale shifts after three-plus minutes into more ambient sounds, either actual bells or evocations thereof soon enough transitioning back into the riff as Cancervo drop hints as to where their continued explorations of style and craft might lead without giving up the for-the-converted worship of slow-delivered distortion until the solo builds on “Sacrilegious Mass” and “Burn Your Child” and “St. Barnabas” with a more brazen overall freakout. But that they know who they are is never in doubt across III, and sure enough, “Red Pig” turns back to a few measures of riff to end, the message of structural priority consistent and welcome.
Because of the thread of progression across their work thus far, I’m not at all willing to say Cancervo are done growing or that they’ve realized everything they could ever hope to do musically here. They follow patterns well, and that helps give III a defined shape where much cult-leaning doom feels content to disappear in its own murk, and it’s easy to imagine that intention as a way for them to keep pushing themselves as songwriters and performers. As it stands, III comes across as sure of what it wants to be and casts Cancervo as increasingly individual within their genre, finding their niche and taking it as far into the depths as they can go, candles lit for thanatos behind them. Until they next arise, then.
PR wire background follows the full stream of III on the player below.
Please enjoy:
Cancervo, III album premiere
Cancervo derive their name from an iconic mountain near Bergamo, Italy, nestled in a valley steeped in rich traditions and folklore. Charmed by the tale of a mythical creature, part dog and part deer, that roamed on Cancervo, three local heavy riff enthusiasts from San Giovanni Bianco formed the band as a homage to their cherished valley and its mystical legends.
Their 2021 debut, simply titled I, represents local places and myths. A complete instrumental outing, the album dabbles in sedating psych, deserted stoner/doom, and preternatural prog.
II, the sophomore album, released in 2023, continues Cancervo’s occult narratives of their land. In search of doom roots, the album takes more and more motivating forces from the early ’70s and passably abandons the psych moments of the first album. Unlike the first full-length, I, which was entirely instrumental, this record incorporates vocals on most tracks.
The forthcoming full-length, III, heralds a darker and more introspective phase for the band. Each track on the last album evolved from concert to concert, paving the way for this transformative phase. A distinct vocal presence emerges as the guiding force, alongside the inevitable and recognizable doomy riffs that have always been the trio’s trademark. This tale promises to immerse listeners in the timeless struggle between the sacred and the profane — a theme deeply ingrained in the folklore of the valley beneath the shadow of Mount Cancervo.
Track Listing: 1. Intro (1:52) 2. Sacrilegious Mass (5:50) 3. Burn Your Child (7:52) 4. St. Barnabas (9:02) 5. The Red Pig (7:55)
Album Credits: All songs written and played by Cancervo. (“Intro” written and played by Fido) Recorded, mixed and mastered by Alessandro “Otto” Galli at the Otto Engineering Mobile Studio 2029. Band Photo by Christian Riva. Graphics by EVR Studio.
Band Lineup: Luka – Bass & Vocals Francesco – Guitars Sam – Drums
crashes on the way to reveling in its combination of swinging drums and slogging riffs; the shift from what would be the closer on a lot of records (and is here the opener but for “Intro”) into the more-than-three-minutes-shorter track that follows letting Amammoth cast an open impression and then strip it down for a more direct attack.
