Got to the hotel and slept. Slept on the plane as much as I could, but I was pretty much collapsing by the time I made it to my room. No problem checking in, and the flight was fine; a week’s worth of anxieties dissipating like water vapor only to condense again soon. The nervous cycle. Evaporation, condensation.
I watched a bit of Graveyard’s soundcheck from the balcony of the Rockefeller, which along with John Dee, Revolver Bar and the back garden outside the latter are the locales of the four stages. They’re kind of around the block from each other, but they have it set so you can walk through, all kind of in a Desertfest nook, not entirely dissimilar from how The Black Heart and The Underworld become a pocket for the Desertfest in London. At least that seemed to be the idea to me. Oslo, of course, is its own kind of party.
Restlessness takes hold. No photo pits means get there early. You start to get the lay of the land. You meet Ole Helsted, also in SÂVER and who also is part of running Høstsabbat, in the lounge after Graveyard are done. He’s apparently been living your secret dream of being a goat farmer. You say a quick hi to Elephant Tree and get a Bear Bones tape off Pete before they clear out and DVNE soundcheck on the John Dee stage, club-size, and come to think of it the smallest stage you’ve seen them on. Cool. There’s a bit to go before that, though.
I was reading a review earlier, on the train from the airport. Mistake. The dude who wrote it was talking about how this scene is old, uncool, like a bunch of weird uncles trying to break away from their dayjobs or somesuch. Seems pretty needless to pick on grayhairs who’ve probably been going to shows for decades, or even if not, just unnecessary. The gatekeeping of the insecure. Fact is, I wouldn’t trade the community spirit of the heavy underground for all the arthouse cred in the world, and I’m somebody who very much enjoys being well thought of on the occasion I might come to anyone’s mind other than my own.
There’s a longer discussion to have there about genre, audience aging and the need for fresh generational blood, and the heavy underground for sure has its issues — diversity most glaring — but I was more interested in checking out the merch and getting a sense of the vibe taking shape here, now. It was nice out. Yeah, maybe nobody’s getting any younger. Still here though. That seems worth seeing in a more positive light, is all I’m saying. In a world actively putting itself to shit on multiple fronts, some of them existential, I’m gonna take the next two days and check in with the deep value this music and the community around it has in my life. It’s not just restorative, because the fact is I’ll go home Sunday more tired than I am now — believe it — but it’s more like an equilibrium unto itself.
I popped up the alley to see Håndgemeng at the Revolver Backyard, but no dice — ‘too many humans,’ as Buzzard might say — so I scooted back to John Dee well in time for the start of DVNE. I met the guys from King Potenaz, who seemed very nice and came here from Italy, and ran into a couple other familiar faces, but by the time DVNE actually went on, I was good and ready.
The UK-based five-piece are out celebrating their 2024 LP, Voidkind (review here), and they recently underscored the point with the follow-up Live at Biscuit Factory. I knew what was coming but that didn’t stop it from being rad, and DVNE continue to impress in bringing the fullness of their studio sound to the stage. Of course there’s more direct attack and energy as one would expect, but they still build textures well around those big, strides-the-behemoth grooves, and as hard as they hit, the melody is right there.
Extra glad to have seen their soundcheck since I didn’t get to stay all that long before I was pulled away to Revolver — a smaller, basement-type club you enter from out by the backyard stage; I tried going in the front door, and there may be a way downstairs, but I didn’t know it. I’d never seen Gjenferd before and knew I wanted to, so I made my way down and in front of the stage. It was humid and packed and there was a technical problem with the camera that I needed to work out, so I was kind of in and out of there too, and not wanting to do basically the same thing for Pallbearer, the ol’ in-out, I decided to socialize a bit and say hi to folks en route to disappointing them. A bit of stress about the camera — if it breaks for real, I’m basically stuck — but I figured out the issue and to no surprise it was human error.
Gjenferd, however, do rock, and it was nice to confirm that for myself in-person. Their self-titled debut (review here) came out last year and in my mind they’re very much a part of the generational turnover happening in Norway right now. Slomosa are the elephant in the room there, I suppose, but there are new and new-ish bands all over this country and it seems like more all the time. I don’t know if it’s a movement, but it’s definitely a fresh perspective, and even for just a few minutes until the crowd press got to be too much, I appreciated the chance to see them for the first and hopefully not last time.
Back at John Dee, DVNE were loading out as Lowrider were setting up for their set, plenty of time. This would be my first time seeing them live since they put out both 2020’s Refractions (review here) and last year’s split LP with Elephant Tree, The Long Forever (review here), so I was excited to see what would be in the set, even though I could probably look that up on the internet by now. Still, I’d only seen the band once before, at Desertfest London 2013 (review here), and I can only speak from my own limited experience, but a Lowrider set is a thing to catch while you can because you don’t know when or if the chance will come again. For example, given my druthers, it wouldn’t have been 12 years between Lowrider sets for me.
So how were they? You’d have to tell me, because I kind of lost time there, to be honest. All of a sudden they were into “Ode to Ganymede,” and the set was like half over which I think means it wasn’t long enough. But was it really going to be? Lowrider were not at all the only reason I came to Desertfest Oslo — but for sure they’re high on the list. They did their three tracks from The Long Forever, opening with “Caldera” and pushing into “And the Horse You Rode in On,” which was a blast, and “Into the Grey” later on. That would have been the likely point of onstage collaboration if it was going to happen with Jack or Pete from Elephant Tree, who’d close the room later, but no dice.
“Lameneshma” is Lowrider’s “Gardenia” and even though they played “Caravan” that’s a hill I’m willing to die on. But how were they? Look. They’re one of the bands who made it okay for desert rock not to be from the desert — do you understand how good you have to be to do that shit? And they were like 20 at the time. That’s insane. I was looking forward to the newer material — nothing against the classic 2000 debut/then-swansong Ode to Io (reissue review here), mind you — and between “Through the Rift,” “Ode to Ganymede,” “Pipe Rider,” which could only close, and the songs from the split, they 100 percent delivered the set I was hoping for. And they did it as one of the best bands ever to do the thing.
True, there were sets going on when they finished — did I mention they were a five-piece? the organ was splendid throughout — but also true, about 10 hours before, I was stepping off an overnight flight. I needed a break and took one, if only to go back to the room, sort photos, have a bite of the peanut butter I brought (homemade, dry roasted, no salt, medium grind) and drink three bottles of water. I did that and then all of a sudden I was sitting up with the pillows behind me against the wall. Then I was kind of leaning over. Then my eyes started to close and I realized I needed to get the hell out of there because there was still more show to see. After an undeniable peak in Lowrider’s set, my night would wind through Truckfighters, Elephant Tree and Graveyard to close out. Tired I might’ve been, but I had places to be.
Swedish fuzzlords Truckfighters had a new song, but as guitarist Niklas Källgren said from the stage, it’s been around a while. I’d take a record happily and a couple more new songs to throw in the mix, but that new one was mellow early and picked up with a roller of a riff — my point is I firmly believe Truckfighters have more to say as a band and I hope at some point they say it. In the meantime, I very much appreciated the run (mostly, but entirely) through their albums to-date. Källgren and bassist/vocalist Oskar Cedermalm have a drummer with them who absolutely pounds when they need him to, but they have a varied enough catalog and they’re mature enough at this point that they come across as a more dynamic band than they used to be, while still making it the blast on stage that it’s always been.
Granted, Truckfighters have been pro-shop since before they actually were, but they’ve become among the most reliable heavy rock bands on the planet. They’re gonna show up and give people a good time. They did exactly that. It wasn’t a surprise — though I don’t think I’ve seen them play the same show twice, except maybe 15 years ago on successive nights — but it was satisfying. Reassuring, even. They’ll get to a record whenever. I’d rather have them take their time.
I heard Magmakammer were good — can’t see everything, but I’m looking forward to hearing their new single when I get a minute — and went downstairs to catch the start of Elephant Tree, sitting on the floor, forgetting to refresh my water bottle, not really caring. It’s been since before the pandemic that I saw them last, and that was long enough ago for people to have forgotten a vaccine fixed it. The London four-piece announced a few weeks ago that John Slattery, who had been playing keys and second guitar, was out of the band and had been replaced by Charlie, with no last name given. Thanks to the deep investigative reporting you’ve come to rely on The Obelisk for, you can now know it’s Charlie Davis on guitar and synth with Elephant Tree. He’s also in Beggar and Wasted Death. Don’t you feel better now?
The UK contingent in my otherwise too played material from the split, with Peder Bergstrand watching from the side of the stage, but they reveled in older songs as well. Bassist Peter Holland, who I’ve said on multiple occasions is one of the most charming human beings I’ve ever met — charm as a defining feature; we get to hang out sometimes at Freak Valley — got genuinely excited when they were about to play “Dawn” from their 2016 self-titled (review here, discussed here), and even “Wasted” from Habits (review here) had an older-school kick to it. I’ve written a bunch about Elephant Tree the last few years and guitarist/vocalist Jack Townley’s life-threatening accident a couple years ago, coming back from that, and I think part of what they’re most enjoying about being in a band right now is being able to hit it. There’s a lot of fun, some catharsis, and there’s a new dynamic taking shape with the new lineup.
Charlie was a groover on stage, and it seemed like Holland and Townley — that’s not to exclude drummer Sam Hart, but it was kind of hard to see back there where I was standing by the side of the stage out front — fed off that energy a bit, and they were clearly having fun as they let loose a bit through “Bird” from Habits and realized they were running out of time still with plenty left for “Aphotic Blues” to close. The build into the big riff finish brought Townley down from the stage and into the crowd, which lifted him up and surfed him back up to finish the set. Got up there, adjusted the monitor in his pocket, and hit it on the next measure. It was emotional to see them after so long. I hope I get to do it more often.
Graveyard were the close to my night, just as the first non-jet-engine volume push I’d heard in the afternoon had been their soundcheck. They were ripping it up, as they will, but I grabbed my photos and got out, in no small part to wipe off the beer that someone had spilled on my camera bag when I was taking pictures. Glad it’s hard plastic on the front, but the smell of the sides made me want to bury it. Plus I was more than willing to both admit and give in to exhaustion by then. Made some vague and tentative breakfast plans and hoofed it back up to the room to finish sorting the photos and try to catch whatever minimal quotient of typos I could by reading through what I’d written all day. I’ll reserve comment on how that went.
Tomorrow picks up in the afternoon with day two of Desertfest Oslo. It’s awesome here. I might need a new backpack though.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Following a first announcement that featured Monolord, Splinter, the Parker Griggs-led El Perro, Brant Bjork Trio and Stonerhead, the by-now-legendary Stoned From the Underground festival in Germany has made four more confirmations. And I know that might not seem like a ton, but frankly, they’re four killer-enough bands that I don’t think you need names to add. Persuasive enough is the argument of San Diego boogie-prog stalwarts Sacri Monti, Finnish out-there-bound jammers Skyjoggers, Elephant Tree making a return to the stage after years of (reasonably) limited activity, and Rochester psych-prog/prog-psych rockers King Buffalo, whose prior confirmation for Bear Stone Festival in Croatia (held July 3-6) begins to give some shape to their European tour plans for the summer.
Stoned From the Underground celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025 — which I guess has made counting easy enough? — and if you don’t think that’s a big deal, I dunno, do anything let alone run a pioneering underground heavy music festival for a quarter-century of your life and see where you wind up. I’ve done my best in years past to keep up with the festival, which among all of them seems to be brought the least to my eyes by the algorithm — to wit, I missed the first announcement — and will do the same for the coming edition. By the time they get there it’s always a daydream, and with these four bands alone, this already would be.
Onward to what I snagged from socials and that snazzy new King Buffalo single:
⚡️STONED FROM THE UNDERGROUND 2025⚡️
July 10, 11, 12
We’re thrilled to announce fresh bands for the 25th Stoned from the Underground Festival:
Posted in Features on December 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]
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Hi, and welcome to The Obelisk’s year in review for 2024. This is a thing that’s kind of developed over the 15-plus years the site’s been in operation, and it’s something that people sometimes tell me has been a help when it comes to finding new music. I know for myself as well, I’ve referred back to these lists a lot in subsequent years, to see where bands were and where my head was, and so on. Are best-of lists meaningful, at all, in any way? Probably to the person making them, and that’s me, so I’ll proceed.
I thought the format last year worked pretty well, so I’ve hijacked it for use here. Not something I expect anyone to notice, but I did want to mention it on the off-chance. I don’t have a best live album of the year, but there are a few worth talking about, surely.
It’s been a busy, fast year. The barrage of music is overwhelming — and as problems go, that’s among the best ones to have — but I do think we’re seeing some tapering off. Generational turnover is, in fact, a constant, but the 2020s are taking shape now with bands who started making their name around the mid-2010s shifting into headliner status, new bands coming up beneath, more diverse in sound and construction, and with new ideas. This isn’t universal, but it is the ideal vision of the thing. Circle of life and such.
But it’s a lot. Including the 50-releases-strong Quarterly Review last week, I’m well north of having reviewed 400 total different mostly-full-lengths since January. That’s insane. The math is obvious, but I’ll point out anyhow that you could buy an album for every day of the year and have enough for an extra month-plus afterward. An astonishing amount of music, and I’m by no means reviewing everything.
Which brings me to the inevitable last point. I haven’t reviewed everything. If you’re here wondering where Opeth and Blood Incantation are landing on my list, they aren’t. Nothing against either of them, I just haven’t dug into the records since I knew I wouldn’t be reviewing them. The regular standard of doing as much as I can, when I can, about as much as I can, applies.
Please if you disagree with some pick below or other — and if you do, that’s healthy — I kindly ask you to keep things civil in the comments. I’m not here to call people out on enjoying things I don’t — fascism aside — and I know it makes me sad when I break my ass for days to put this together and the first comment is, “NO [WHOEVER]. LIST SUCKS. NEVER READING THIS FILTH AGAIN,” etc. Before you comment, please take a second to read what you put back to yourself for kindness. That’s good for spelling too, not that I’d know.
That’s all the stalling I can do. Time to dive in. Happy holidays.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2024
**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.
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60-31
60. Psychlona, Warped Vision
59. Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, The Mind Like Fire Unbound
58. Massive Hassle, Unreal Damage
57. Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Apotheosis
56. Space Shepherds, Cycler
55. Abrams, Blue City
54. Castle Rat, Into the Realm
53. Heath, Isaak’s Marble
52. Weite, Oase
51. Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows
50. Troy the Band, Cataclysm
49. Sunnata, Chasing Shadows
48. Skraeckoedlan, Vermillion Sky
47. Acid Mammoth, Supersonic Megafauna Collision
46. Deer Creek, The Hiraeth Pit
45. Big Scenic Nowhere, The Waydown
44. Grin, Hush
43. The Swell Fellas, Residuum Unknown
42. The Gates of Slumber, The Gates of Slumber
41. Coltaine, Forgotten Ways
40. Mountain of Misery, The Land
39. Mammoth Volume, Raised Up by Witches
38. Delving, All Paths Diverge
37. High on Fire, Cometh the Storm
36. Thou, Umbilical
35. The Giraffes, Cigarette
34. Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow
33. Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
32. Daevar, Amber Eyes
31. Causa Sui, From the Source
Notes:
Just in case you’re the type of person who’d say, “Oh how could you have a top 60? after a certain number it’s all the same,” I’ll admit that’s true, but 60 is apparently nowhere near the ‘certain number’ in question for me this year. I agonized over this part of the list. More than the top 30, and more than picking a best short release, best debut, or anything else. I wanted basically a second top 30, and I feel like if I saw this as that, as 30-1, I’d congratulate whoever submitted it on their taste. But maybe that’s just me agreeing with myself.
I like the mix of up and comers and established acts here. Sunnata and Skraeckoedlan, The Giraffes, of course High on Fire, Deer Creek and so on, mixing with up and comers like Full Earth, Daevar, Acid Mammoth, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Heath, Troy the Band and Weite. I feel somewhat compelled to justify my High on Fire placement, especially looking at the results so far of the year-end poll. They’re amazing, they’re devastating, they’re a singular live act, but I just didn’t listen to the record that much. There. A big part of me feels like it should be top 10 just by virtue of who the band are, but if I did that for everybody who deserved it, I wouldn’t have room for anything new. All I can do is be honest to my own listening habits and opinions. I know High on Fire are really, really good. I know this album is really, really good. That’s why it’s on this list. Should it be higher? Probably. I’m doing my best.
Thank you for your kind attention in this matter. Also, listen to The Giraffes.
You won’t hear me say a downer word about An Earlier Time‘s quieter stretches, but it’s the sweeping moments like “Limitless” that find Boston’s Sundrifter making the most resonant impression. Their third full-length and the follow-up to 2018’s Visitations (review here), it was a strong declaration of who Sundrifter want to be as they continue to grow, and deserved more love than I saw that it got.
Oh, look out for Mr. Blogosphere. He’s out here taking a real risk putting Tranquonauts on the year-end list, like the combining of forces between Melbourne, Australia, heavy psych blues rockers Seedy Jeezus and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell wasn’t gonna work the second time around? Wow, Mitchell‘s and Lex Waterreus‘ guitars sure do sound awesome together. Oh — it’s a hot-take! Better get your react videos ready. The internet is terrible. This album offers escape from it.
At the risk of having to give back my Music-Journalism-Level membership to the Sycophant Society, I’ll dare to point out that Chat Pile are way, way hyped. That happens sometimes. It’s not like they’re out there being like, “Hey we’re the noise rock white dudes shifting paradigms for noise rock white dudes, best in a generation.” It’s people like me with all the hyperbole and comma splicing. I get that too. It’s a sound geared toward inciting a strong reaction, from the sneering sarcasm of the title down. By the way, am I the only one who looks at the title Cool World and thinks of the 1992 semi-animated film of the same name? I kind of hope so. See? Big feelings all around.
Rest assured, I don’t, but if I had any friends, I’d be like, “Hey, you should check out this band Gnome from Belgium. They’ve got fun riffs and they beat you over the head with them until you remember them by heart.” And these ‘friends’ would be all, “Wow man, that sounds definitely like something I would ever want to introduce to the scope of my life experiences! Thank you! I’m so glad to be your friend and the world is definitely a better place with you in it.” And then everybody’s day is better, all because of sharing and the shenanigans-laced riff metal proffered by these three behatted miscreants from Antwerpen.
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26. Brant Bjork Trio, Once Upon a Time in the Desert
Brant Bjork‘s solo band begat Stöner, and Stöner begat Brant Bjork Trio as Bjork, drummer Ryan Güt and bassist Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, Yawning Man, etc.). I’ll cop to being a nerd for Brant Bjork‘s output generally — it’s a kind of cool so definitively Californian, my NJ-ass self can’t help but admire it — but the chemistry in Once Upon a Time in the Desert is on point to an undeniable degree, and the songs are a reminder of how the back catalog got so strong in the first place. What else could you want?
Five albums in, a post-arrival Sergeant Thunderhoof stand ready. They know who they are, what they want their songs to do, why and how to make it happen. The Ghost of Badon Hill gives a conceptual focus to unite material intentionally sprawling, and lets listeners immerse in a narrative all the more easily for the quality of its songcraft. Self-recorded, it is masterful in performance and assured of its execution, pored over but not overworked; the happy accidents might have been left in on purpose, but they still sound like accidents. And Sergeant Thunderhoof still sound like a band driving themselves toward the unknown.
Doom metal is lucky to have Early Moods laying out a template for the next generation to hopefully follow. The Los Angeles five-piece’s second full-length, A Sinner’s Past, refined the lurch of their 2022 self-titled (review here), and the combination of hard touring and progressive craft continues to bode well as they look toward their next offering. They’ve put in their work, however swift their ascent to this point might feel, and they’re about one great record away from standing among the best doom of the 21st century. You could easily argue they’re already there. Every reason is accounted for on A Sinner’s Past.
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23. Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics
Iceland’s Morpholith enter the conversation with Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics, which has cosmic-doom breadth and bong-metal crush to spare in the first four minutes of “Psychophere” alone, never mind anything that surrounds. The band’s debut is a bombastic plodder, beating out the march to a futuristic — and cold — vision of the riff-filled land that may or may not be Reykjavik in the wintertime while simultaneously being both very much of weed and not outwardly about it, seeming to have much more than addled, Mid Atlantic Ridge-heavy riff worship because — look out! — they do. If cosmic doom is ever going to be more than a loose thread connecting YOB and Ufomammut, bands like Morpholith need to keep pushing it forward like this. “Dismalium.” I dare you.
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22. Lamp of the Universe Meets Dr. Space, Enters Your Somas
Lamp of the Universe is multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and vocalist Craig Williamson, based in New Zealand. Dr. Space is synthesist, keyboardist, producer, bootlegger and bandleader Scott Heller. The ‘meeting’ of these two expanded minds takes place over two extended tracks, one vinyl side per, of lush psychedelic and multi-tiered drones, absolutely perfect for the zone-out hypnosis you’ve been trying to put yourself in all day but for that pesky consciousness. I wish I could come up with some kind of ritual awesome enough for the keyboard textures in “Enters Your Somas” or the propulsive space rock thuddenchug of “Infiltrates Your Mind,” but some sounds are just too cool for the planet. Come see how the freaks get down.
I spent some significant time with Dool‘s The Shape of Fluidity this Spring, before and after seeing them at Roadburn (review here), which was another highlight of the year. The album’s triumph, in songwriting, in transcending genre bounds and in conveying its theme of breaking loose from the gender binary, gave my parent-of-a-trans-kid self a hopeful vision of a future beyond dark, hateful rhetoric or implied/real violence. It showed me a possible path to victory on what will be and already is a hard road. It was there when I needed it, which is a specific ideal of art providing care. I’ll never forget that.
Granted the Western soundscaping at the outset of the eponymous “Buzzard” lays it on thick, but it’s supposed to! We’re talking fire-and-brimstone earthbound Americana folk with a doomly rhythmic cast, given the self-aware title of Doom Folk by the solo artist Buzzard, aka Christopher Thomas Elliott, laying it on thick is the point. Elliott has a follow-up out soon already. Thinking of Doom Folk as the beginning of a creative progression makes its nuance and individualist drive even more exciting, but the rawness of this debut, the straightforwardness of its structures and the resulting memorability are part of the appeal for sure.
Seven bangers. Not a dud in the bunch. Two nine-minute songs and you still couldn’t say a moment of High Desert Queen‘s rightly anticipated sophomore LP is wasted. Not when you’re building up to the roll of “Head Honcho,” certainly. The Texas outfit built on the good-time largesse and party-but-not-a-party-so-cool-you-don’t-feel-welcome vibing of 2021’s Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) and set themselves vociferously to the task of being the change in heavy rock that they wanted to hear. Palm Reader‘s infectiousness is a strength, both in terms of a catchy piece like “Ancient Aliens” or “Time Waster,” and also in the overarching positive-framed mood and heart so clearly put into the material.
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18. Ufomammut, Hidden
Released by Supernatural Cat and Neurot Recordings. Reviewed May 21.
Now a quarter-century on from their start, Italian trio Ufomammut have yet to put out a record that didn’t sound like a forward step from the one before it. And Hidden is their 10th album. The band are progenitors and refiners of a cosmic doom sound that is unto itself, and cuts like “Kismet” and “Leeched” manage to be both lumbering in their massive-tone grooves and sprawling with a synthy ambience that, though certainly influential, is immediately recognizable as Ufomammut. Hidden is part of a creative trajectory, to be sure, and the arc is ongoing, but there’s more than enough substance here to leave a crater behind in the listener’s brain.
In its arrangement as five separate dreams taking place over its component tracks, the only thing Pentasomnia doesn’t take into account is that another Iota LP was a dream all on its own even before music actually happened. A full 16 years after shaking the galaxy’s core with their 2008 debut, Tales (discussed here, and here), the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (Dwellers, Hibernaut), drummer/producer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa, etc.) and bassist Oz Yasri (ex-Bird Eater) making a comeback — let alone it actually being good — was nigh on unthinkable. Then you heard “The Intruder” and reality shifted just a bit. Pretty sweet.
Few albums in 2024 were as entrancing as Langt, Langt Vekk, the hopefully-not-a-one-off collaboration between Norwegian progressive heavy instrumentalists Kanaan and neofolk contemporaries Ævestaden. Both adventurous outfits in their own right, the combination of elements, from live drums and synth to traditional plucked strings and Norwegian-language vocal choruses, works stunningly well. That little bit of fuzz in “Habbor og Signe,” or the cymbal wash behind “Dalebu Jonsson” — the songs are full of these little nuances or flourishes waiting to be found, but even with the most superficial of listens, the achievement resounds, whether one approaches from a viewpoint of heavy rock, prog, folk or psychedelia.
You know, I’ve kind of dug DVNE records all along, and I can’t really call Voidkind a surprise after 2021’s Etemen Ænka (review here), but these songs — “Eleonora,” “Sarmatae,” “Abode of the Perfect Soul,” among others — hit me much harder than I had expected, and the more I listened to try to twist my head around “Reliquary,” the more the album as a whole revealed of its character and detail. I review a lot of stuff, and I hear more than I review, so I don’t always get pulled back by every record, but Voidkind kept calling for return visits.
Look. If you’re reading this, I know I don’t have to tell you about Orange Goblin. Even if you don’t already have a soft spot for the long-running UK doom rockers, they’re perfectly happy to pummel one into you with Science, Not Fiction, their first album since 2018 and a realignment toward a harder-edged heavy rock sound, where the last, say, two records had leaned more metal. I heard some griping about the production not helping, but I heard absolutely nothing to complain about here. The band are on fire and the recording shows it, the songs aren’t necessarily any great progressive leap but for sure they’re Orange Goblin songs, and for a band who owes nobody proof of anything, they set a high standard and deliver accordingly, like god damned professionals should.
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13. Spaceslug, Out of Water
Released by Electric Witch Mountain Recordings. Reviewed May 14.
What I didn’t get about Spaceslug until I finally saw them live at Desertfest New York (review here) was just how metal the impact of their songs can get. It’s not necessarily that they’ve grown more aggressive, unless you want to incorporate harsh vocals or shouting — “Tears of Antimatter” also has gently-delivered barely-there spoken word, so it depends on the story you want to tell — but the blend of melancholic doom, heavy psychedelia and melodic fluidity that has become Spaceslug‘s stylistic wheelhouse is not to be missed. Out of Water finds them at their broadest and least concerned with genre, and brings into relief how special a band they’ve become. Also it rocks.
No secret how Craneium are doing it on Point of No Return; it’s right there in the songs. All of them. “One Thousand Sighs,” “The Sun,” “A Distant Shore,” “…Of Laughter and Cries,” “Things Have Changed” and “Search Eternal.” Texture and hooks, heft and scope and melody and crash and shove, classy progressive execution and swaggering conjurations. Most of all, songs that stay with you. Chances are, if you heard this record and gave it its due attention at some point in your time with it, you didn’t have to do much more than read the titles to have the tracks playing in your head. That’s not a coincidence. It’s craft. It’s a willful outreach on the part of the band and material. It’s what makes you want to sing along. And why would you not?
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11. Guhts, Regeneration
Released by Seeing Red Records and New Heavy Sounds. Reviewed Feb. 5.
More on it below, but for the moment, suffice it to say that the bludgeoning and/or scathe of Regeneration at its most intense and the depths its mix seemed to find, the debut full-length from New York post-metallers Guhts dared visceral emotionality in a way few records so heavy could or would hope to. The willing-to-break-her-voice-if-necessary performance of Amber Gardner and the weighted undulations surrounding from guitarist Scott Prater, bassist Daniel Martinez and drummer Brian Clemens, the open sway, unfettered crush, and quiet spaces offsetting all that bombast result in both a chaotic feel and an applicable world. Therefore it must be modern. Fine. It sounds like the future.
As to how Philadelphia’s Heavy Temple managed to fit so much swagger onto a single platter, you’d have to ask them, but their second album, Garden of Heathens, landed hard in tone and attitude alike. Songs like “Extreme Indifference to Life,” “House of Warship” and the galloping payoff of “Jesus Wept” ahead of the thrashy finale “Psychomanteum” affirmed what was set out in 2021’s Lupi Amoris (review here) and their earlier short releases while marking out and conquering decisively new territory in their sound. I know it was recorded two years ago or something like that, but it’s still a band beginning to realize their potential in craft and performance, and if a third LP happens sooner than later, so much the better.
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9. 1000mods, Cheat Death
Released by Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug and Ripple Music. Reviewed Nov. 11.
Whether one embraces Cheat Death because the songs kick ass or because 1000mods are so vivid and uncompromising in pushing themselves forward from release to release, I don’t think you’re wrong. The forerunners of their generation in Greek heavy rock remain among the finest Europe’s heavy underground have to offer, and the atmosphere they’re able to conjure alongside the straight-ahead Matt Bayles-produced punk-metal hooks of these songs is emblematic of why. Without ever giving up their foundation in heavy rock, 1000mods have consistently refined their processes and grown as songwriters. The joke of Cheat Death is how alive the material feels.
Faced with the considerable task of following up the to-date album of their career, Elektrik Ram (review here), just one year later, South African heavy rockers Ruff Majik did not flinch. Instead, Moth Eater takes the outright charge and sharpness-minded efficiency of its predecessor in a stated trilogy that began with 2020’s The Devil’s Cattle (review here) and sets it as the foundation for a confident, creative growth and sustainable expansion of sound. They’re a little more willing to dwell in parts, and they’re well aware of how catchy they can be, but also, they know the power of momentum and they’re fully in control of the narratives they’re telling. As Moth Eater readily demonstrates, it’s hard to know which of that it is that makes them most dangerous.
It’s hard to overstate the accomplishment of Nell’ Ora Blu, and I’m well aware that the critical sphere is full of plenty who’ve spent the better part of 2024 trying. Reasonable. The completeness of the world Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats built in the work based around the concept of soundtracking a giallo film that didn’t exist was singularly evocative. With original dialogue recorded (in Italian) specifically for ‘movie’ ambience, Uncle Acid took what had always been an influence on the band’s sound within genre-cinema and its methods of storytelling, and flipped the process on its head by creating its own story. Their influence is already well spread throughout the heavy underground, for sure, but in bringing a vision to life, this might be the album Uncle Acid have been working toward all along.
A forward-thinking masterwork from even before “Deadname” sneaks a layer of acoustic guitar under the mountain of distortion in the verse lines and “Arrival” and “Transitions” give evocative chronicle to the album’s trans-experiential theme — it is the band’s first since guitarist/vocalist Simona Ohlsson transitioned, and admirable for both its projected triumph and vulnerability around that — the fifth full-length from Vokonis continues the progressive path they have walked for the last decade-plus. A lineup change has brought some shift in dynamic, but a new strength of voice behind the material that makes “Phantom Carriage,” “Chrysalis,” and, suitably enough, “Arrival,” feel like a declarative pinnacle, and having something to say makes the raw impact of its heaviest moments all the more powerful.
There’s little funnier to me about heavy rock as it exists in 2024 than the idea that Greenleaf would be a band people take for granted. “Oh, Tommi Holappa and Company putting out another collection of classic-heavy and blues-rocking bangers? Business as usual, I guess.” Until you listen to the album, maybe. Then you get the tumble of “Avalanche,” the hooks in “Breathe, Breathe Out,” and “A Wolf in My Mind,” the subdued-bluesy pair “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” to remind how you much this band has been able to grow since Arvid Hällagård made his first appearance with them a decade ago, the way they’re able to move through a jam and land in a groove as solid as “Oh Dandelion,” reminiscent of Clutch in its start-stop funk but defined by its own persona. Every Greenleaf record is a gift. If feeling that way means I’m not impartial, good. We understand each other.
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4. Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs
Promises made, promises kept. Austin-based crunch purveyors Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol stripped any and all excess out of their approach on Big Dumb Riffs, resulting in a quick-feeling collection of memorable, heavy tracks that, whether fast like “1800EATSHIT” or slow like “In a Jar,” are united in the album’s central stated purpose. Already an established brand of heavy revelry, the three-piece didn’t change anything radically in aesthetic terms, but the songs found their target one after the other, front to back, and were clever and well composed, however willfully lunkheaded the central riffery might have been. They’re headed to Europe in Spring, and I’m already hearing rumors of a next record, so keep an eye out in 2025.
Slomosa‘s released-in-2020 self-titled debut (review here) was a salve to many in troubled times, representing a next-generation hope for underground heavy in energetically-delivered, classic-feeling songs. Tundra Rock, which gives a name to the band’s style seemingly in direct answer to anyone who might class them as ‘desert,’ confirms the Norwegian four-piece at the forefront of an up and coming cohort of younger acts beginning to find their expressive modus and step beyond their root influences. Tundra Rock finds Slomosa doing this while giving their dual-vocal live dynamic vibrant studio representation and growing their material in character and melody alike. Heavy rock and roll is Slomosa‘s for the taking.
A record that didn’t need to be loud to be heavy, Brume‘s Marten is without question my most-listened-to album of 2024. That needs no qualifying. I had high expectations going into it after seeing the San Francisco band at Desertfest New York 2022 (review here), and Marten surpassed every hope I might’ve been able to harness for it and then some. The collective voice of the band incorporating multiple viewpoints from bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Susie McMullan, guitarist/vocalist Jamie McCathie, drummer Jordan Perkins Lewis, and in her first appearance as a full-on member of the band, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Amber Asylum, etc.), resulted in a fluid but deeply divergent collection, comprised of songs that went where they wanted to go — or didn’t, thank you very much — according to their own whims and purposes. It is a landmark for Brume and, if any number of subgenres are lucky, a blueprint from which others will hopefully learn.
I acknowledge breaking my own rules here — splits are always, until and including this year, categorized as short releases in these lists — but when it came to it, the thought of putting Elephant Tree and Lowrider‘s The Long Forever anywhere else, considering it as anything else, seemed ridiculous. Especially if you count writing the liner notes for it, I’ve gone on at length about the release as an intersection of crucial moments for the respective bands, with Lowrider following their first album in 20 years, Refractions (review here), and Elephant Tree answering the progressive statement of their own second LP, Habits (review here), both released in 2020. The storyline gets deeper as Elephant Tree also look to reestablish themselves following a near-fatal accident suffered by guitarist/vocalist Jack Townley, melding rawness of tone with lush vocal harmonies, and Lowrider drag fuzz-rock traditionalism kicking and screaming into a reality of being both fun and intelligent. There ultimately was nothing else to call The Long Forever than the album of the year. If that comes with an asterisk because it’s a split, it doesn’t lessen the effect of hearing it at all. So yeah, I’m breaking the rules of the game. I’m inconsistent. Unprofessional. Biased. I don’t know what to tell you except love makes you do crazy things. In these songs themselves — do I even need to talk about the collaboration — and in the drive behind them, that’s what most resonates here.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2024: Honorable Mention
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If the 60 above wasn’t enough, here are more leads to chase down, alphabetical but in kind of a hyper-specific, ass-backwards-seeming way:
Acid Rooster, Alber Jupiter, Altareth, Alunah, Astrometer, Bismarck, Black Capricorn, Blasting Rod, BleakHeart, Blue Heron, Bongripper, Boozewa, Caffeine, Carpet, Castle, Cleen, Clouds Taste Satanic, Codex Serafini, Cold in Berlin, Cortez, The Cosmic Dead, Crypt Sermon, Daily Thompson, Deadpeach, Deaf Wolf, Demon Head, Destroyer of Light, Dopethrone, Duel, Earth Ship, Elephant Tree, Emu, Familiars, Bill Fisher, 40 Watt Sun, Ghost Frog, Goat Major, Guenna, Heath, High Reeper, Hijss, Horseburner, Ian Blurton’s Future Now, Insect Ark, Inter Arma, Kelley Juett, Juke Cove, Kalgon, Kandodo, Kant, Kariti, Kungens Män (x2), Kurokuma, Leather Lung, Legions of Doom, Lord Buffalo, Magic Fig, Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, Magick Potion, Magmakammer, Mammoth Caravan, Massive Hassle, MC MYASNOI, Merlin, Methadone Skies, Monkey3, Morag Tong, The Mountain King, Mount Hush, MR.BISON, My Dying Bride, Myriad’s Veil, No Man’s Valley, Norna, The Obsessed, Oryx, Pallbearer, Patriarchs in Black, Pia Isa, Planet of Zeus, Red Mesa, Rezn, Rifflord, Sacri Monti, Sandveiss, Satan’s Satyrs, Saturnalia Temple, Scorched Oak, Sheepfucker & Kraut, Slift, Slower, Slow Green Thing, SoftSun, The Sonic Dawn, SONS OF ZÖKU, Spacedrifter, Spiral Grave, Spirit Mother, Stonebride, Sun Blood Stories, Sunface, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Swallow the Sun, The Swell Fellas, Swell O, Temple Fang, 10,000 Years, Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans, Thunderbird Divine, Tigers on Opium, Traum, 24/7 Diva Heaven, Valley of the Sun, Vlimmer, Void Commander, Weather Systems, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whispering Void, White Hills, Per Wiberg, Esben Willems, Worshipper, WyndRider…
Notes:
With the eternal caveat that I’ll be adding to the honorable mentions for the next few days as people drop names they remembered and I forgot, I’ll say I can live with the list as it is now. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m happy with it, but I’ll live. I felt like there was just too much good stuff in the 60-30, stuff that deserved a better look, and god damn, look at the honorable mentions. You’re gonna tell me Rezn wasn’t top 30 material? Or Inter Arma, or 10,000 Years (who I still need to review), or Kandodo or Cortez, or Bongripper, Blue Heron, Merlin, Slower? Mount Hush, Vlimmer, Destroyer of Light — I could do this all day. That Carpet record. That MR.BISON record. Valley of the Sun. I see these names and want to punch myself. Then I see the names in the top 30 and I go, “Well…” and kind of have to hold off. I guess that means it turned out to be a pretty fantastic year.
I know for a fact I didn’t hear everything that came out, and I’m willing to bet that any number of people who see this will have their own opinions on the best albums of 2024 from top to bottom. I celebrate this difference and look forward to being exposed to new sounds because of it. Let comments fly, please. Once again, my only ask is that you keep it kind as relates to my own list(s) and any other picks someone might offer. If I’ve got facts wrong, something was a Dec. 2023 release instead of Jan. 2024, whatever, by all means, let me know. But we’re all friends here and being a jerk about it solves nothing.
And yes, I’ll admit to projecting some self-criticism in the Elephant Tree/Lowrider selection for album of the year. All I can tell you is I stand by that pick. It’s that because when I was putting together the list, it couldn’t have been anywhere else. I don’t love breaking my own arbitrary rules nearly as much as I love imposing those arbitrary rules in the first place, but sometimes apparently one is forced from one’s comfort zone to their own general betterment. Who knew?
Of course we’re not done yet.
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Debut Album of the Year 2024
Guhts, Regeneration
Other notable debuts (alphabetical):
Azutmaga, Offering
Buzzard, Doom Folk
Castle Rat, Into the Realm
Cleen, Excursion
Coltaine, Forgotten Ways
Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
Goat Generator, Goat Generator
Goat Major, Ritual
Grave Speaker, Grave Speaker
Guenna, Peak of Jin’Arrah
Hashtronaut, No Return
Heath, Isaak’s Marble
Hijss, Stuck on Common Ground
Kalgon, Kalgon
Kant, Paranoia Pilgrimage
Kitsa, Dead by Dawn
Leather Lung, Graveside Grin
Legions of Doom, The Skull 3
Magic Fig, Magic Fig
Magick Potion, Magick Potion
Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics
Myriad’s Veil, Pendant
Neon Nightmare, Faded Dream
Plant, Cosmic Phytophthora
Rabid Children, Does the Heartbeat
Saltpig, Saltpig
Semuta, Glacial Erratic
SoftSun, Daylight in the Dark
Spacedrifter, When the Colors Fade
Sun Moon Holy Cult, Sun Moon Holy Cult
Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor
Tet, Tet
Tigers on Opium, Psychodrama
Tommy and the Teleboys, Gods Used in Great Condition
Troy the Band, Cataclysm
Weather Systems, Ocean Without a Shore
Esben Willems, Glowing Darkness
Young Acid, Murder at Maple Mountain
Notes:
First about Guhts: From the Andy Patterson recording and parts of the songs themselves, Guhts weren’t hiding influence from the likes of SubRosa or Julie Christmas, Made Out of Babies, etc., but what Regeneration did so well — and what I was trying to convey above — was take those recognizable elements and redirect them toward an expressive individuality. That album could be punishingly heavy or sweet and soothing and the fact that you never quite knew which was coming next was a major asset working in the band’s favor. There are a lot of killer debuts on this list, and plenty I’m sure that I’ve left off because, well, I’m inept, but Regeneration was so sure of what it was about and so crisp in making that real through sound that it’s still stunning.
A lot to celebrate on this list. Full Earth at the outset of a hopefully long-term progression. Tigers on Opium with attitude and craft. Castle Rat giving stage drama studio life. Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left off. Promising starts for Pontiac, Hashtronaut, Neon Nightmare, Cleen, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Buzzard, Magic Fig, Legions of Doom, and Heath, among others. If you’re worried about the state of underground heavy music, you don’t need to be. Granted the future of anything is unknowable even before you apply “uncertain times” caveats and all the rest, but bands are stepping up to carry the torch of established sounds and pushing themselves to realize new ideas — whether that’s Guhts and Magic Fig or Tigers on Opium, or Legions of Doom, Ten Ton Slug, Weather Systems and Monolord’s Esben Willems, new players or ones who’ve been around for decades.
If you want a top ten — and who doesn’t? — in addition to Guhts, make your way through Full Earth, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Morpholith, Guenna, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Young Acid, Emu, Buzzard and Kant to start, and you can dig deeper from there. That’s actually 11, but I don’t care. More new music won’t hurt you.
We press on.
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Short Release of the Year 2024
Moura, Fume Santo de Loureiro
Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc.
Aktopasa, Ultrawest
Alreckque, 6PM
Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands
Conan, DIY Series Issue 1
Cortége, Under the Endless Sky
Cult of Dom Keller, Extinction EP
Michael Rudolph Cummings, Money EP
Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 2
Eagle Twin & The Otolith, Legends of the Desert Vol. 4
Fuzznaut, Wind Doula
Fuzzter, Pandemonium EP
Geezer & Isaak, Interstellar Cosmic Blues and the Riffalicious Stoner Dudes
Harvestman, Triptych EP(s)
Hermano, When the Moon Was High
Hollow Leg, Dust & Echoes
Holy Fingers, Endless Light Infinite Presence
King Buffalo, Balrog
Lurcher, Breathe EP
Okkoto, All is Light
Ord Cannon, Foreshots EP
Orme, No Serpents No Saviours
Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers
Pontiac, Hard Knox EP
Rope Trick, Red Tide EP
Sacred Buzz, Radio Radiation
Smoke & Doomsday Profit, Split
Spiral Guru, Silenced Voices EP
Toad Venom, Jag har inga problen osv...
Trigona & IO Audio Recordings, Split
Various Artists, International Space Station Vol. 2
Notes:
This category includes so much and can range so vastly between an EP that’s about 30 seconds short of being a full album to a standalone single released just for the hell of it to a band’s first rehearsal room demo. “Short releases” encompasses a lot, and as noted above, I’ve already broken my rules about where splits go. What about The Otolith and Eagle Twin? Geezer and Isaak? Smoke and Doomsday Profit? Trigona and IO Audio Recordings? The International Space Station four-wayer? If I’m crossing lines, don’t these also need to be considered as full-lengths?
You know what really sucks about it? This is an argument I’m going to have with myself for probably the next year. An existential crisis playing out in the back of my mind. More important? The Moura EP. The soundtracky textures the Spanish folk-informed progressive psychedelic rockers brought to the follow-up for their second album were both otherworldly and ground-born, and the material put emphasis on how much care and craft goes into their work while retaining the organic core against the threat of pretense. It was my most listened to short release of 2024, followed by Pelican, Holy Fingers, Pontiac, Toad Venom, Hollow Leg (x2), and Sacred Buzz. A new King Buffalo single was a late-year boon, that Hermano was worth it for the previously-unreleased studio track alone, and strong showings from Michael Rudolph Cummings, Deer Lord, Conan and Cortége, along with the aforementioned splits, assured that through the entire year, attention spans would receive consistent challenge in the movement from one thing to the next.
By way of a familiar confession, my list of short releases is nowhere near complete. It never is, and it never really could be. I’m sure there will be some I left out that I’ll add in for honorable mentions, etc., but I stand by the Moura pick for best short outing. They brought a soul to it that put the lie to the notion of EPs as between-album gap-fillers, and in a year that didn’t lack substance among its brevity-focused options, Fume Santo de Loureiro stood out in character, aesthetic and songwriting. Nobody else is making music quite like Moura.
If you have more to add here, by all means, please and thank you. Comments are below.
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Live Albums
Live Album of the Year 2024
Temple Fang, Live at Krach Am Bach
Castle, One Knight Stands: Live in NY
Danava, Live
Elder, Live at Maida Vale
Snail, Thou Art There
Stöner, Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch
Sula Bassana & Skyjoggers, Split
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Live at Bankastudios Maastricht 22-12-2023
Notes:
Fewer releases listed here than last year, but some killer ones for that. I put Temple Fang out there as live album of the year, and since we’re late in the post I’ll tell you honestly that it probably could be any of these on a given day. Danava’s live record crossed decades in badassery, the Sula/Skyjoggers split captured the vibe of a club night in Germany, the Whims of the Great Magnet’s live release made an excellent predecessor to their out-this-month studio album, Snail recorded theirs at a show I put on, Stöner capture the end of their two-album cycle with an awesome set, and Elder are Elder. The Maida Vale recording is short, and their songs are long, or you probably would’ve heard a lot more about that this year. If/when they do a proper live album, it will be a no-brainer.
But the Temple Fang has it all in molten progressivism, heavy tones, immersive psychedelia and outright soul, and of the bands I’ve managed to list here — if you want to add to the list, please do — there’s nobody who so much defines what they do by its live incarnation. Temple Fang’s music changes every night. They follow where it leads in a different way, and the ritualization of their performance comes through in Live at Krach Am Bach resoundingly. I’m not saying a bad word about their studio work to this point, but their heart manifests in a different way and at a different level onstage. They’re a great band and this shows a big part of why.
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Looking Ahead to 2025
Names, right? This one’s all about the names? Get to the names, jack? Okay, calm down.
With eternal appreciation to the folks of fine, upstanding moral character in the ‘The Obelisk Collective’ group on Facebook for the assistance, here’s a smattering of what one might look forward to in 2025:
Aawks, After Nations, All Them Witches, Amber Asylum, Author & Punisher, Bandshee, Black Spirit Crown, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Borracho, Bronco, Buzzard, Dee Calhoun, Causa Sui, The Cimmerian, Clutch, Conan, Corrosion of Conformity, Daevar, Dead Meadow, Dead Shrine, Demons My Friends, Dream Unending, DUNDDW, Dunes, Flummox, Fuzz Sagrado, FVZZ POPVLI, Gaytheist, Gin Lady, Gnarled, Gnod & White Hills, Gods and Punks, Godzillionaire, Haze Mage, Kaiser, Kal-El, King Buffalo, Lamassu, Lo-Pan, Madmess, Mantar, Masters of Reality, Messa, Seán Mulrooney, Mouth., New Dawn Fades, Nightstalker, Øresund Space Collective, Pentagram, Pesta, Pothamus, Dax Riggs, Seedy Jeezus, Slomatics, Slow Wake, Stoned Jesus, Stone Machine Electric, Temple Fang, 3rd Ear Experience, Triptykon, Trouble, Turtle Skull, Warlung, Weedpecker, Yawning Balch, Year of the Cobra, YOB… and because it still hasn’t happened and someone invariably calls me out if they’re not listed: Om.
If you have names to add, “smash that comment button,” in the parlance of our times. Only don’t really smash it because you might hurt your hand or break your phone with your awesome strength.
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THANK YOU
It was among my primary goals for this post that it should be shorter than last year’s, and it looks like I’ll achieve that with room to spare, so I’m glad. Sometimes I get carried away, I think I probably don’t need to tell you.
Before I let go of 2024 — actually I still want to review that The Whims of the Great Magnet studio release and I’ve got a Darsombra video premiere set before the end of the year, news to catch up on from like the last two weeks and a whole lot more to cover — I’d like to take a moment to thank you one more time for reading and for being part of this project this year and each year it’s been ongoing. Your support is absolutely what keeps this site going and it means more to me than I can ever hope to comprehend.
Thank you to The Patient Mrs., who in the course of a given week let alone year puts up with more of my bullshit than any human being should ever have to. “Yes, love, the world’s ending and we have no money and the house is falling down around us and the dog needs to pee, but I just need two or three hours to go sit and write about riffs — is that cool?” Or better, when I’m pissy about it. The “my wife is a saint” routine is pretty played out as far as dudely excuses for being selfish, lazy and/or dumb go, but well, I am all of those things on the extreme regular and she hasn’t booted my ass to the curb yet. I find this to be a reason to celebrate and a thing to appreciate. I am loved and cared for in ways I could never hope to earn.
Thank you to my family for their support, year in and year out. They’ve all got Obelisk shirts and they all wear them, and while I’m not sure they understand the true depths of egoistic depravity involved in this project, they’ve been on board with it since the start, and this includes my wife’s side of the family as well. I am incredibly lucky to have the life I have.
I’m going to keep listening to music, keep writing about it as much as I can. I’m not quite as generally panicked about it as I used to be — older, busier in different ways, over the FOMO, maybe a little more discerning in terms of taste? — and I’m significantly less likely to break my brain answering email, but I’m doing my best.
The Obelisk presses on into what will be a busy 2025. I’ve got trips slated to Planet Desert Rock Weekend in Las Vegas this January, Desertfest Oslo in May, Freak Valley in Germany in June, Bear Stone in Croatia in July, and Desertfest New York in September, with more hopefully to come. I look forward to these adventures and to doing the writing that will happen as part of them, and one more time, I thank you for your time and attention in reading, in the past, now, and in the future. I’m taking tomorrow off. All the way off. Back on Monday for more.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m with Hoflärm on this one. After 24 years of writing out the full year all the time — it was worst in the aughts, admittedly, but I’m still more inclined to type 2024 instead of just ’24 — it’s time to admit that we’re probably talking about this century rather than the previous one when it comes to a festival announcing a lineup for, say, months in the future. So, as you can see on the poster below, Hoflärm ’25 is not only doing this, but doing it with a banger of a lineup to support its argument. Plus, my understanding is the fest has a pretty casual vibe anyhow — I’ve never heard a bad word about it from either anyone who has attended or played — so the ’25 fits. Wait until the ’40s.
Graveyard and Monolord at the top of the bill is a winning opening salvo from the German three-dayer, but that’s really just the tip of the riffberg, with Rezn and Elephant Tree, MaidaVale, The Warlocks and Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi taking part, Khan coming from Australia, Annie Taylor and her band from Switzerland, Spirit Mother making a return to Europe, Coltaine supporting their new album, plus Vug, Piece and Lurch and more to come. Nothing to complain about as they put tickets on sale for those who might be fortunate enough to make the trip from wherever. I expect a few of these will have tours around them — Khan, Spirit Mother, Rezn, Vinnum Sabbathi — so that will be worth keeping an eye on, but whatever shakes out in that regard, Hoflärm looks sweet as hell.
From social media, which was a thing back in the ’20s:
⚡️ Hoflärm 2025 – Satan‘s Finest ⚡️
The goat cult continues – First Bands + Presale Start 🪦
We thrilled to announce that we are back – 14. – 16.08.2025 – Tickets are now an sale. Link in Bio 🐐
Please welcome the first bands for 2025:
@graveyardmusic and @monolordofficial will headline Friday and Saturday of @hoflaerm 2025!
We are more than happy to welcome Monolord again after their cancellation in 2022!
We are proud to announce Graveyard as festival headliner! This band has been an elementary companion since the first idea for this festival.
@rezzzn , @elephant_tree_band and @pieceismetal are going to open the fields of doom!
@thewarlocks , @maidavaleband @khanbandofficial and @lurch.band are here to trip with you through the cosmic clouds above!
Shake your knees to @annietaylorband , @vug.band and @spiritmotherband while you walk through the dark woods around Hoflärm with @vinnumsabbathiband and @coltaine !
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Now we’re talking. If you weren’t expecting Desertfest London to drop a fresh batch of 20 names for its 2025 lineup, well, happy holidays. There’s a ton to unpack here, from Pallbearer and Conan — who’ll tour together in Australia before — to Kind making the trip to Boston, Elephant Tree signing on for what will surely be a celebration, Earth joining the ranks of the thus-far headliners Zeal & Ardor and Elder, Hippie Death Cult, The Hazytones (who rule, look them up), and a new Isaiah Mitchell collab called Chöd (I guess Brü couldn’t make it?) — it’s a ton of stuff and you can see on the poster below it’s just the tip of the Desertfest iceberg.
As a flagship of the Desertfest brand alongside Berlin, the London lineup should be stunning, and it is. Whether you’re going for Stoned Jesus, Amenra or 10,000 Years and the slew of others making their first appearances, 2025 promises to be a landmark for those lucky enough to be there to see it.
Could be you if you’re up for it. Here’s the latest:
DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCES 20 NEW ARTISTS FOR 2025
The time has come for our next artist announcement! We are over the moon to welcome Seattle veterans of drone n doom EARTH as our third 2025 headliner, joining Zeal & Ardor and Elder. This appearance marks the band’s first UK show in 5 years as well as their first time on the DF London stage.
Arkansas doom quartet Pallbearer will join our stacked Saturday line up at Roundhouse, while homegrown local heroes Conan will make their long awaited return to Desertfest London.
We will also welcome the UK debut of Chöd, an audio-visual collaboration between Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), artist Arik Roper, and Doc Kelley (Psychedelic Sangha) that is sure to take you on a psychedelic meditative journey for the ages.
Please welcome our latest additions to Desertfest London 2025:
↠ Earth headlining Sunday at Electric Ballroom ↠ Pallbearer ↠ Conan ↠ Elephant Tree ↠ Chöd ↠ Hippie Death Cult ↠ Castle Rat ↠ Avon ↠ Green Milk from the Planet Orange ↠ Servo ↠ Mr Bison ↠ Kind ↠ El Moono ↠ The Hazytones ↠ King Botfly ↠ Lust Ritual ↠ Slump ↠ Witchorious ↠ The Summit Fever ↠ Dresden Wolves
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 11th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
After unveiling an initial lineup featuring Chat Pile, Oranssi Pazuzu, Hippie Death Cult, Elder, Whores., Help, Agriculture, Magmakammer and others, the 2025 edition of Desertfest Oslo — just the second one behind the first earlier this year — has brought four more acts on board to entice those thinking about digging into the next bunch of early-bird tickets, also just released to follow, as I understand it, a more-than-handful that already sold out. Good for them, making a thing work.
Elephant Tree and Truckfighters might be the marquee names here, Truckfighters because they’re Truckfighters and they’re going to make an impression every time they touch a stage, and Elephant Tree owing to the recently-issued split with Lowrider that’s being roundly hailed as album of the year despite kind of being two mini-albums, but don’t neglect DVNE or Håndgemeng here. Thus far, Håndgemeng are the first repeat act of Desertfest Oslo‘s relatively brief history — house band? — and DVNE are still at just a few months’ remove from their Voidkind LP, likewise soaring and stunning. It’s just four bands, but it’s quality over quantity here, is what I’m saying.
The fest is set for May 9 and 10 in Oslo at Revolver, John Dee and Rockefeller, and of course there will be more to come probably ahead of as well as in the New Year, so keep an eye out. We saw this year already Desertfest Oslo became an anchor for many Spring tours in Europe. I would expect that trend to continue unabated, and reasonably so.
From the PR wire, or socials, or somewhere on the internet:
Desert Cruisers and Scandi Stoners, Heavy Rockers and Angry Loners!
Buckle up hard, we have a new batch of bands dropping for you, followed by a new batch of early bird tickets! Secure your entrance, you DO NOT want to miss out on Desertfest Oslo 2025🔥
🪐 Elephant Tree 🪐 Masterful Londoners who somehow mix a retro psychedelic sound with the more modern stonerrock vibe. They are effortlessly creating one of the most unique and uplifting sounds out there, with their stellar harmonies as a bulletproof signature, easily separating them from most of their peers. Elephant Tree manage to refine some of the best elements coming out from Seattle in the nineties, owning it, and creating their own legacy around it. What a bunch of lads.
Their sound sweeps you of your feet, throws you in a sonic vortex, and spits you out on to a solitary astral plane of dreamy soundwaves.
🪐 Truckfighters 🪐 Few other bands can boast this level of energy and tightness along a library of absolute banging hits. Sweden is ripe with stonerrock, but Truckfighters may just be the beefiest wrestler in the ring. They have been around for what seems like forever, but never resting of old endevours. Always a must-see live! Truckfighters are in it with their hearts and souls, and we cant wait to welcome them to Oslo in May.
🪐 DVNE 🪐 The Scottish highlanders creates a supernova of sludge and progressive metal, with doomy post metal aesthetics. With complete darkness as their canvas, they paint a surreal, dreamy, cosmic landscape as a backdrop for their harsh vocals. Their ebb&flow and ever evolving sound will keep you on your toes at all time. Andy yes, you should pay attention!
🪐 Håndgemeng 🪐
The local heroes with flared jeans, cowboy boots and more fuzz than rubber slippers on a wall-to-wall carpet are returning! It is the perfect opener. The ideal palate cleanser. The ultimate in-your-face desert rock blast off for Desertfest Oslo 2025.
Posted in Reviews on October 25th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
[Full disclosure up front: this split was released as part of Blues Funeral Recordings’ PostWax subscription vinyl series. I wrote the liner notes accompanying that and the regular edition and was compensated for it. Rest assured I’d be writing about it regardless, but it needs to be said, so it’s said.]
Being a fan of both bands, it’s hard not to be swept up in the sense of Elephant Tree and Lowrider‘s The Long Forever as an event. Issued first through Blues Funeral Recordings‘ vinyl subscription series PostWax, the LP runs a relatively tidy seven songs and 44 minutes from Lowrider‘s antifascist treatise “And the Horse You Rode in On” and closer “Long Forever” on Elephant Tree‘s side, and between the two, each band offers a distinctive glimpse at their sound. Lowrider are growing more progressive, lush and melodic as portrayed by “Caldera” and “Into the Grey,” while “And the Horse You Rode in On” and the collaborative centerpiece “Through the Rift” should please riffy loyalists, and Elephant Tree find new gnarl to bring to their lush and melodic style. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — will inevitably center largely around Jack Townley of Elephant Tree, whose near-fatal bike accident in 2022 and weeks-long coma that inspired the title, but the fact of the matter is that prior to the advent of this split, both bands were at a crucial point in their respective tenures.
For Lowrider, The Long Forever is the Swedish four-piece’s first release since 2020’s Refractions (review here), which landed as a two-decades-later follow-up to their first album, 2000’s Ode to Io (reissue review here), and was a landmark. My pick for best album of 2020 and the winner of the year-end poll, Refractions felt like a secret being revealed, as though Lowrider had been a band the entire time, working, living, growing in sound, while still retaining essential facets of character from the debut. Already once in their career, the band have done the seemingly impossible in answering back to genre-defining release with something broader, fuller, more realized, and better, while not undercutting their own prior accomplishments.
ElephantTree‘s Habits (review here) was my number-two pick for 2020 for the way it expanded on their 2016 self-titled (review here, discussed here), which without question was among the most standout heavy rock LPs of the 2010s and an immediate source of influence for other acts that continues to resonate. Habits took it all up a level — the songwriting, the atmosphere, the harmonies between the aforementioned Townley and bassist Peter Holland, the progressive scope and passionate poise with which the material was delivered. The band in 2024 celebrate 10 years since the release of their debut, Theia (review here), and one would be remiss to not look at The Long Forever as emblematic of their continued forward progression.
Pressure, then. Two bands under pressure to deliver something substantial, something honest, heavy in sound and forward-looking in point of view. Not about what they’ve done before but about what each still has to say.
To be perfectly honest, it will probably be a few years yet before The Long Forever can be properly appreciated on its own merits of craft and the complementary styles between the two groups being inevitably emphasized, but if taken as an album it is the best one of 2024 without question. In its finished form, it feels complete in a way few releases ever get to, let alone releases with more than one band involved, with the easy immersion of “And the Horse You Rode In On” — almost tragically catchy as you walk through the grocery store singing, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on” — opening wide into “Caldera,” the 10-minute sprawl of which builds on Lowrider‘s longform triumph in “Pipe Rider” from Refractions but is more directed, less of a jam, and which conjures its melody in the vocals of bassist Peder Bergstrand early before departing into a hypnotic midsection, returning around a memorable surge and languid wash.
That wash in “Caldera” proves important in tying the two sides together, so keep it in mind. The subsequent Lowrider cut “Into the Grey” is a riffer, lumbering early on and jamming later (dat solo), but keeping the vocal emotionalism of the song prior, and “Through the Rift,” in bringing together the two bands — Elephant Tree is guitarist/keyboardist John Slattery and drummer Sam Hart in addition to Townley and Holland; Lowrider‘s returning lineup is Bergstrand, lead guitarist/vocalist Ola Hellquist, guitarist Niclas Stålfors and drummer Andreas Eriksson — is a moment unto itself, feeling somewhat short with a sub-four-minute run, but with a resonant hook that carries smoothly into Elephant Tree‘s three-song side B, which begins with “Fucked in the Head.”
After a minute and a half or so of dream noise, “Fucked in the Head” howls guitar over a fluid sleepy roll and Townley‘s first vocals enter, breathy in a way not entirely unlike Bergstrand‘s delivery, backed by a roiling psychedelia. A march emerges after four minutes in, but the shimmer becomes blinding and the slow movement continues about 6:15 into the nine-minute piece, which is patient through the crescendo that reignites the wash of Lowrider‘s “Caldera” before receding back into distant, obscure noise. The message here is one of impressionism bolstered all the more through a stripped-down production sound, as well as of the band being able to put the listener in the coma with them through the layering of different ambient elements.
Neither “4 for 2” or the relatively brief “Long Forever” are as ambitious in construction, but the former makes an effective shift to the semi-terrestrial by setting the band’s familiar fuzzy plod before the vastness of “Fucked in the Head.” Holland takes the lead vocal and the sway holds firm, and as they move into the noisy finish, this rawer but accomplished vision of Elephant Tree brings to mind Theia without trying to be a throwback. They are braver and more solidified than they were a decade ago and the songs bear that out. I never actually saw a lyric sheet for “Long Forever,” but it sounds like they’re repeating “free handbags” (which I don’t think they are, but is kind of fun) after the last buried verse and a harmonized solo, and the last build of which that’s part resolves once again with the wash that first showed up in “Caldera” and which both bands have been working around all along, and just two beeps from the hospital machine that goes “bing” and, apparently, means you’re still alive.
Be glad you are while music like this is being made.
Lowrider, “And the Horse You Rode in On” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Damn, Desertfest Berlin. Two announcements in a week’s time and already among the confirmed are Elder, Lowrider and Elephant Tree. This round also brings encouraging upstarts Kant, who’ll soon make their debut on SOL Records, the label wing of European booking concern Sound of Liberation, which of course has a strong hand in the festival as well, and Canada’s Wine Lips, who also made rounds on heavyfests this year. And who’s left from the first two announcements? Castle Rat, who put on a goddamn show. I’m always curious to see how the historically-two-now-three Spring editions of Desertfest intertwine, between Berlin, London and now Oslo, and ’25 is no different. These festivals have come to shape touring routes for entire seasons, and it’s never really until the full lineups are revealed that we get the full picture of what that looks like. I guess I like seeing how the pieces fit together.
If the quick-staggering of announcements is going to continue, I don’t know, but I’ll do my best to keep up as always. Desertfest Berlin is a landmark for attendees and performers alike. It’s already a banger and I don’t even know how low of a fraction of the bill has been made public. If I’m a nerd because I think that’s exciting, fine.
From social media:
As promised, our next three Bands for 🪐DESERTFEST BERLIN 2025 🪐:
⚡️WINE LIPS ⚡️
Since forming in 2015, Wine Lips has built its name as one of the best Canadian garage punk bands going. This years Super Mega Ultra LP is perhaps the best example of how the band can flex its muscles in tight, anthemic bursts as well as stretch out into psych. Make sure, to not miss out on that!
⚡️ELEPHANT TREE⚡️
Elephant Tree is a London-based band known for their captivating blend of stoner rock, doom, and psychedelic sounds. Formed in 2014, they’ve released acclaimed albums like Elephant Tree* and *Habits*, showcasing heavy riffs and introspective lyrics. Known for their electrifying live performances, Elephant Tree delivers an immersive experience that resonates long after the last note fades.
⚡️KANT⚡️
A modern look back at the glory days of heavy psychedelic rock. The interplay between the four Aschaffenburgers of Kant creates the soundtrack to a 70s head cinema. This sound underpins thoughts of sunny drives across the Sunset Strip of the 60s, a Mexican standoff in an abandoned western town or dark rites in a forest shrouded in rain. From 60s surf vibe to 70s heavy rock riffs.
We’ll continue with more band announcements next week! 💫
Black Heart and The Underworld become a pocket for the Desertfest in London. At least that seemed to be the idea to me. Oslo, of course, is its own kind of party.
merch and getting a sense of the vibe taking shape here, now. It was nice out. Yeah, maybe nobody’s getting any younger. Still here though. That seems worth seeing in a more positive light, is all I’m saying. In a world actively putting itself to shit on multiple fronts, some of them existential, I’m gonna take the next two days and check in with the deep value this music and the community around it has in my life. It’s not just restorative, because the fact is I’ll go home Sunday more tired than I am now — believe it — but it’s more like an equilibrium unto itself.
all that long before I was pulled away to Revolver — a smaller, basement-type club you enter from out by the backyard stage; I tried going in the front door, and there may be a way downstairs, but I didn’t know it. I’d never seen Gjenferd before and knew I wanted to, so I made my way down and in front of the stage. It was humid and packed and there was a technical problem with the camera that I needed to work out, so I was kind of in and out of there too, and not wanting to do basically the same thing for Pallbearer, the ol’ in-out, I decided to socialize a bit and say hi to folks en route to disappointing them. A bit of stress about the camera — if it breaks for real, I’m basically stuck — but I figured out the issue and to no surprise it was human error.
with Elephant Tree, The Long Forever (review here), so I was excited to see what would be in the set, even though I could probably look that up on the internet by now. Still, I’d only seen the band once before, at Desertfest London 2013 (review here), and I can only speak from my own limited experience, but a Lowrider set is a thing to catch while you can because you don’t know when or if the chance will come again. For example, given my druthers, it wouldn’t have been 12 years between Lowrider sets for me.
have to be to do that shit? And they were like 20 at the time. That’s insane. I was looking forward to the newer material — nothing against the classic 2000 debut/then-swansong Ode to Io (reissue review here), mind you — and between “Through the Rift,” “Ode to Ganymede,” “Pipe Rider,” which could only close, and the songs from the split, they 100 percent delivered the set I was hoping for. And they did it as one of the best bands ever to do the thing.
Niklas Källgren said from the stage, it’s been around a while. I’d take a record happily and a couple more new songs to throw in the mix, but that new one was mellow early and picked up with a roller of a riff — my point is I firmly believe Truckfighters have more to say as a band and I hope at some point they say it. In the meantime, I very much appreciated the run (mostly, but entirely) through their albums to-date. Källgren and bassist/vocalist Oskar Cedermalm have a drummer with them who absolutely pounds when they need him to, but they have a varied enough catalog and they’re mature enough at this point that they come across as a more dynamic band than they used to be, while still making it the blast on stage that it’s always been.
long enough ago for people to have forgotten a vaccine fixed it. The London four-piece announced a few weeks ago that John Slattery, who had been playing keys and second guitar, was out of the band and had been replaced by Charlie, with no last name given. Thanks to the deep investigative reporting you’ve come to rely on The Obelisk for, you can now know it’s Charlie Davis on guitar and synth with Elephant Tree. He’s also in Beggar and Wasted Death. Don’t you feel better now?
pocket, and hit it on the next measure. It was emotional to see them after so long. I hope I get to do it more often.
