Posted in Whathaveyou on March 7th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
German sludge riffers Obelyskkh — who get an A+ for their moniker and a B- for spelling — will issue their fourth album, The Providence, this Spring via Exile on Mainstream. I haven’t reviewed anything they’ve done since 2012, but I’ve bought all three of their records to date, so I’ll look forward to picking up this fourth one as well. Nothing against writing about them, it just hasn’t happened in half a decade apparently. Not like I’ve been avoiding it. You’d think I’d post every time they cut a fart, just so I could type their name out again in some kind of half-hearted phoenetic self-promotion. Some things I just can’t figure out.
Anyhoo, they’ve got a trailer posted for The Providence that actually seems to give a sense of the vibe of the album as a whole, rather than just teasing one track or a part of a track or something. From what I can tell, it sounds like the cover looks. Dark, electric, heavy, vaguely phallic, and so on. Dig in and see what you think, then prepare your head if you’re in the US to wait until June for it to come out. Europe gets it in April. Europe gets all the good stuff. Especially in April.
The PR wire has it as follows:
OBELYSKKH: German Sludge Act Completes Fourth Album, The Providence; Exile On Mainstream Posts Trailer + Preorders
Three years in the making, Germany’s doom/sludge kingpins OBELYSKKH have completed their fourth full-length, and are preparing The Providence for release through their steady label home of Exile On Mainstream this Spring.
The Providence was again recorded and mixed by Andy Naucke and mastered by Brad Boatright (Sleep, Tragedy, High On Fire, From Ashes Rise, Integrity), and again sees cover art crafted by Sebastian Feld/Marginal Ink. The album will be released on all digital platforms, CD, and 2xLP with three sides of music and a Side D etching.
OBELYSKKH’s The Providence will see release on April 21st in Europe, and on June 2nd through new AISA/Red/Sony stateside distribution in the US. European physical preorders are available now at THIS LOCATION. Stand by for US and digital preorders, new tracks from the album, and more to be released in the weeks ahead.
The Providence Track Listing: 1. The Providence 2. Raving Ones 3. Northern Lights 4. NYX 5. Aeons Of Iconoclasm 6. Marzanna
The title of the new OBELYSKKH excursion might remind one of H. P. Lovecraft’s iconic poem, and you’d not be wrong, as these classic words provided inspiration for lyrical content and the artwork for The Providence. But that’s only one dimension. The other is illustrated almost perfectly by French revolutionist Victor Hugo: “Above all, you can believe in Providence in either of two ways, either as thirst believes in the orange, or as the ass believes in the whip.” The band lived by this message, beating the record out of themselves, fighting an uphill battle.
Following the 2013 release of the band’s groundbreaking third album, Hymn To Pan, which struck less than one year after its predecessor, White Lightnin’, the Franconian doomsters found themselves in a state of turmoil and a line-up change with bass player Dirty Dave being replaced by Seb Duster. These ups and downs, alongside the massive honesty and emotionality in the band’s routines, developed monstrous pressure, which is sonically channeled into this album, The Providence surging with massive weight, groove, and darkness. The album sees OBELYSKKH leaving huge parts of their former approach behind. Less psychedelic, with more groove — not stoner rock, but more on the side of doom than grueling sludge – yet still delivered in a crushing maelstrom.
OBELYSKKH has booked a run of European tour dates in conjunction with the album’s release, with shows in Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria from April 7th through April 20th, with more shows to be announced throughout the months ahead.
OBELYSKKH Tour Dates: 4/07/2017 Ebrietas – Zürich, CH 4/08/2017 Goldgrube – Kassel, DE 4/09/2017 Cafe de Jack – Eindhoven, NL 4/10/2017 Music City – Antwerp, BE 4/11/2017 Nexus – Braunschweig, DE 4/12/2017 Kulturbahnhof – Jena, DE 4/20/2017 Nihilistic Arts Festival – Wilhering, AU
Day Two of The Obelisk’s Summer 2016 Quarterly Review — that’s an awful lot of capital letters. I’m not sure if it’s quite such a formal occasion, but perhaps that’s just an effect of staring at some of the names in this particular batch, who from classic heavy rock to post-black metal to stoner riffs, drone, doom and beyond offer a pretty vast range and more than a small measure of profile throughout. It’s a substantial swath, is what I’m saying. If you can’t find something here to dig on, well, I’d say look again, but of course there’ll also be another 10 reviews tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, and there were 10 yesterday as well, so I’m sure something will turn up if it hasn’t yet. Here we go.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Spiritual Beggars, Sunrise to Sundown
More than 20 years on from their self-titled debut, Sweden’s Spiritual Beggars release their ninth LP, Sunrise to Sundown (on Inside Out Music). They seem to have set themselves to the sole task of making the records that one wishes Deep Purple were making, full of righteous organ-laced classic heavy thrust, driven by top tier songwriting and performance on every level. Founding guitarist Michael Amott (also Carcass) has assembled a lineup of masters, and since 2010’s Return to Zero (review here), frontman Apollo Papathanasio (also Firewind) has provided the soaring voice to add to the keyboard majesty of Per Wiberg (ex-Opeth, Candlemass) on songs like “I Turn to Stone.” The album’s 11 cuts are catchy, universally structured, and varied in their feel enough to carry the listener through fluidly, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo (Mercyful Fate) and drummer Ludwig Witt (ex-Firebird) locking in weighted grooves and underscoring the flow of what comes across like an increasingly collaborative songwriting process. Sunrise to Sundown is the sound of a band knowing what they want to do and how they want to do it and then doing precisely that.
How many records does Ode to a Black Hole make it for Danish improve spacelords Øresund Space Collective? I honestly don’t know. Their Bandcamp lists 52 releases. Granted, not all of them are full-length studio LPs, but they jam whether they’re live or in the studio, so after a point it’s kind of moot. However many in the ultimate tally, Ode to a Black Hole is somewhat unique among them, exploring the darker side of the cosmic reaches in a bleaker, droning psychedelia spread across two instrumental tracks put to tape at the same time as 2015’s triple-LP Different Creatures (review here). Of course, it’s Øresund Space Collective, so there is still plenty of synth and effects swirl to be had, but it’s a slower galaxial movement as “Ode to a Black Hole Part 1” feeds directly into “Ode to a Black Hole Part 2.” Whatever their method of getting there, Øresund Space Collective prove once again how apparently boundless their scope has become with nuance of guitar and key flourish beneath the surface of the mix to let the listener know there’s life out in the expanse.
Phoenix, Arizona’s Goya continue their forward march with The Enemy EP (on STB Records). Still fair to say Electric Wizard are a primary influence, but as shown on their last full-length, 2015’s charmingly-titled Obelisk (review here), the trio are increasingly able to put more of themselves into their sound. In “The Enemy,” “Last” and “Light Years,” that shows in tighter songwriting, some vocal harmonies on “Light Years,” and a harder overall tonal impact than the tenets of post-Witchcult Today doomery might lead one to expect, reminding in parts of the raw in-room feel that Egypt have come to proffer, burly but more about groove than attitude. The EP closes with a nine-minute take on “The Enemy” itself, adding more harmonies, some screams at the end, and a lengthy midsection jam to flesh out its extra four minutes. Goya have been and still are a bright spot (existentially, if not in mood) in up-and-coming US doom, and The Enemy might be a stopgap coming off of Obelisk, but it reminds listeners of their growth very much still in progress.
In a universe full of pretenders to the throne of Eyehategod, German six-piece Black Shape of Nexus prove there’s room for genuine creativity in sludge. Their fourth offering, Carrier (on Exile on Mainstream), finds them past the 10-year mark and lumbering their way through five varied originals, from the cavernous opener “I Can’t Play It” through the droning “Lift Yourself” and the utter spacecrush that ensues in “Facepunch Transport Layer” before the villainous laughter at the end of “Sachsenheim” leads to a 12-minute take on Hellhammer’s “Triumph of Death,” which closes. It feels like no coincidence that of the Black Shape of Nexus-penned inclusions “Sand Mountain” is the centerpiece; the tortured screaming, claustrophobic riff and blend of rawness and lush depth speak to the originality at the core of their approach. There’s a firm sense of fuckall here, and my understanding is making Carrier was something of a trial, but the results are perhaps only more vicious for that, and thus stronger.
Six years and the ascent of an entire movement of similarly-minded acts later, Cough ooze back to activity with Still They Pray (on Relapse), their dirt-caked third full-length. That movement, by the way, includes fellow Richmonders Windhand, with whom Cough now share bassist Parker Chandler and whose Garrett Morris recorded here along with Jus Oborn of Electric Wizard, who remain a major influence in Cough’s grueling, nodding filth, brought to bear over eight tracks and a purposefully unmanageable 67-minute runtime. Stylistically it’s not so far from where Cough were on 2010’s Ritual Abuse (review here), the bleak anarchistic lurch and tonal immersion still very much at the fore of “Possession,” “Dead Among the Roses” and the organ-inclusive “The Wounding Hours,” but though they can play slow enough to make “Masters of Torture” seem positively thrashy by comparison, they never lose their sense of atmosphere, as the acoustic-led closing title-track makes plain in fashion no less heavy than the punishment meted out before it.
It feels factually inaccurate to call something so wilfully charred “vibrant,” but Oranssi Pazuzu’s fourth long-player, Värähtelijä (on Svart and 20 Buck Spin), not only finds light in its overarching darkness, but makes it a pivotal aspect of the album’s 69-minute course. Open structures, an enviable depth of mix between far-off guitar, keys, organ, various layers of screams, etc., songs like 12-minute opener “Saturaatio” and the later 17-minute chaoswirl of “Vasemann Käden Hierarkia” offer stylistic breadth as much prog as they are psychedelia or black metal, perhaps the next phase of the latter’s cosmic wing come to fruition. Relatively speaking, the more straightforward “Havuluu” offers listeners a moment to catch their breadth, but the organ-led experimentalism of 10-minute closer “Valveavaruus” gurgles in an exploration of ambient downward plunge. One of the most adventurous black metal releases of 2016, if you can still even tag a genre to it, which I’m not sure you can. A band doing pivotal and forward-thinking work.
Though they just got off a lengthy US run, the fact that Karma to Burn’s webstore offers their new Mountain Czar EP in euro instead of dollars could easily be taken as a sign of where the band’s general priorities lie. I don’t know if founding guitarist Will Mecum is actually living abroad or remains in West Virginia, but their label, Rodeostar Records, is European, they maintain a close relationship with German artist Alexander Von Wieding, and their tour schedule keeps a definite continental focus. So be it. Mountain Czar brings five new cuts, three by-the-numbers Karma to Burn instrumentals, the highlight of which is patient, jangly-guitar closer “63,” and “Uccidendo un Sogno,” an Italian-language cover of Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ down a Dream” sung by guest vocalist Stefanie Savy and featuring Manuel Bissig of Switzerland’s Sons of Morpheus on guitar. Karma to Burn very much remain Karma to Burn throughout, Mecum joined by drummer Evan Devine and bassist Eric Clutter, but they’re changing what that means in interesting ways.
Comprised solely of guitarist/vocalist Sleaze and drummer Izz, German Southern metallers Black Mood begin their seven-song sophomore outing, Squalid Garden (on Daredevil Records) with a sample of Cornelius from Planet of the Apes quoting the Lawgiver to “shun the beast man,” and so on. By the time they get around to the chugging and warbling “Ohh, save my soul” in second cut “IWNAR,” the Down/Crowbar vibe has been laid on so thick that it’s unmistakable. It’s been seven years since Black Mood made their self-titled debut in 2009 – they had an EP, Toxic Hippies, out in 2012 – but their chestbeating, dudely vibes are easily sourced, even in faster, more Pantera-style moments in “Reflected,” “100 Squalid Garden” or closer “Side,” making the album ultimately a matter of taste for anyone who’d take it on. For me, some aspects ring derivative, others show flashes of individualism, but it’s a very specific vision of Southern metal at work here, and it’s not going to be for everyone.
Newcomers Nebula Drag join the ranks of a crowded heavy psych scene in their native San Diego via their self-titled, self-released debut, but the trio distinguish themselves immediately with a solidified underpinning of punkish intent, so that the airy vocals of “Sano” float over an insistent, noisy crunch. That blend is toyed with in one direction or another throughout the release, the five-minute “So Low” finding some middle-ground in grunge push, but as the subsequent “Up and Down”’s Melvins-style roll and the hardcore-style drive of “Lost Time” play out, Nebula Drag seem far less tied to any single approach. It’s a dynamic that serves them well throughout the album’s 10-track/37-minute run, and they maintain a sense of rawness in the almost thrashy breakdown of “I Can Not Explain” that speaks to a lack of pretense to go along with their potential for development. Will be curious to hear if one side or the other wins out in their sound over the long-term, but in a town where so many bands are geared on being the most laid back, it’s refreshing to hear a group with a more forceful tack.
After a series of numbered full-lengths, Glasgow consciousness-stompers Ommadon offer their self-titled sixth album through Dry Cough Records, Burning World Records and Medusa Crush Recordings. Doubtless the three labels were needed in order simply lift the 41-minute, single-song release, which is so unspeakably and ridiculously heavy as to warrant comparison to Buried at Sea’s Migration. Its retching lumber is superlative, and in giving it their name, Ommadon signal (and say outright) that it’s the work they’ve been driving toward all along. Fair enough. There is no moment of relenting from the abysmal intentions of “Ommadon” itself, and if this is to be the piece that ultimately defines the band, it’s one worthy of consideration for the outright extremity it brings to doom, sludge and drone, as well as the methodical nature in which it unfolds. Whatever its ultimate impact, Ommadon have pushed themselves forward and crafted an excruciating contribution that feels like a monolith bent to their will.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 15th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Though of course he’ll be known to readers as the Conny Ochs half of the Wino & Conny Ochs troubadour duo,the German singer-songwriter now has two solo offerings under his belt, each one emotionally resonant to and beyond the point of catharsis. His third outing is titled Future Fables — the cover art is below — and is set to release Feb. 26 via Exile on Mainstream Records. If the trailer that follows the PR wire announcement is anything to judge from, the melancholy continues unabated.
Art, info, links and video follow, arranged thusly:
CONNY OCHS Completes Third Solo LP, Future Fables, For February Release Through Exile On Mainstream; Trailer Issued
Melancholic German singer/songwriter CONNY OCHS has completed his third full-length album, Future Fables, now confirmed for release this February via Exile On Mainstream records, the label this week unveiling a brief glimpse into the album through an exclusive trailer.
Earlier in 2015, having released Freedom Conspiracy (Exile On Mainstream) with fellow Scott “Wino” Weinrich (St. Vitus, The Obsessed, Shrinebuilder) and completed some touring across Europe, CONNY OCHS returned to the studio at the end of the Summer, once again with producer/engineer/studio owner Thommy Krawallo, with whom his previous album, Black Happy and both collaborative albums with Wino were created in full analog fashion. The Kabumm Studio had just relocated from its historic location in a former East German and Soviet government radio complex in Berlin, to the wilderness of a rural Brandenburg village. OCHS went in with a bag full of sketches and licks, inhaling the raw atmosphere of the surroundings, a yet unfinished house full of instruments and equipment in the middle of nowhere, also trying to find its place. This unstable environment birthed a new start for him, letting in much more than a breeze of fresh air by widening his instrumental repertoire to drums, electric guitars, piano, bass and organ. The lyrics and stories circulate more than ever around people encountered and journeys undertaken over the past years – the album title referring to our tendency to give an unwritten future some kind of tangibility through dreams and visions.
“We find and leave traces for the future. The lives that cross our paths and the lives we lead just as much as the dreams and visions we share – growing to be from what this future will be inspired and made of. This is the journey these songs are about.”
Future Fables will see release through Exile On Mainstream on February 26th, 2016. Stand by for additional audio samples, preorder links and more album specifics in the weeks ahead.
Future Fables Track Listing: 1. Hole 2. Piece Of Heaven 3. Killer 4. Spin 5. Wake Up 6. Empire 7. Golden Future 8. Slide 9. No Easy Way 10. Fools 11. Strange Alchemy 12. Make Some Room
CONNY OCHS and labelmate Friedemann will celebrate a series of record release shows together surrounding the release of both of their new LPs, with shows across Germany in Leipzig, Quedlinburg, Herzberg and Dresden February 18th through 21st. Stand by for additional live performances to be announced shortly.
CONNY OCHS Double Record Release Shows w/ Friedemann: 2/18/2016 UT Connewitz – Leipzig, DE 2/19/2016 Reichstrasse – Quedlinburg, DE 2/20/2016 P-Party – Herzberg, DE 2/21/2016 Chemiefabrik – Dresden, DE
Posted in audiObelisk on January 20th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
“Terracide” feels somewhat tucked away in the tracklist of German noise rockers Treedeon‘s debut album, Lowest Level Reincarnations. The closer, it arrives after the lumbering 12 minutes of the title-track, a monstrous and thick, dual-vocalized barrage, and it feels decidedly more barebones, more in line with earlier cuts like “Wendigo” or “Satan’s Need.” Both of those are also shorter bursts of aggression that speaks to the noise pedigree of guitarist/vocalist Arne Heesch in Ulme and bassist/vocalist Yvonne Ducksworth in Jingo de Lunch.
Treedeon got together — initially as an acoustic project; something they got over as you’ll hear — when Heesch and Ducksworth‘s bands went belly-up, and on their Exile on Mainstream debut, they’re joined by drummer Christian “Boomer” Böhm, who underscores the lumber and the plunder with suitable thud, as a live-sounding track like “Blankapitation” demonstrates,Ducksworth taking the lead vocal early on after Heesch helmed the eight-minute opener “Love Turns Liquid.” They trade back and forth between and within songs effectively, with particularly nasty results on “Venus with Teeth,” but on “Terracide,” it’s Ducksworth at the fore, backed by Heesch‘s screams and the densely-toned, insistent rhythm, still somehow punkishly mean.
Lowest Level Reincarnations releases on April 7 in North America (earlier in Europe, it looks like), and in wanting some background about the band, it seemed only fair to turn to Exile on Mainstream head honcho Andreas Kohl, whose deeply admirable tastes have led to celebrated signings for Beehoover, Wino, Darsombra and Black Shape of Nexus, among many others. Kohl offers some perspective on what stood out to him about Treedeon in the quote which you can find after “Terracide” itself, which is streamable on the player below.
Please enjoy:
Andreas Kohl on Treedeon:
In what has become an over 15 years history of Exile On Mainstream I have seen a lot happening when it comes to bands becoming a part of the family and history of this label this – from the somehow traditional way of listening to a demo, seeing the band playing live, being a longtime fan to establishing a friendship first and later getting hooked on what their musical approach and output is.
The signing of Treedeon now marks walking this path full circle and simultaneously adds a new, almost holistic way of incorporating a band in the Exile On Mainstream roster as I had the fortune of watching a band finding themselves, trying out different ways and approaches to finding their sound and observing their progressions. It was stunning to see how the three-piece became what they are now: one of Europe’s most staggering outfits to lay pure emotional heaviness in sound and attitude over your maltreated souls. Get stunned as I am. NOW.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
I’m not sure I can match Exile on Mainstream head Andreas Kohl‘s description of what German avant noise rockers Beehoover do — in fact, I’m sure I can’t — so it’s probably best I leave it to him. Beehoover, who released their fourth album, The Devil and His Footmen(discussed here), on Kohl‘s label last fall, will begin a run of shows in the UK this weekend, playing alongside a host of that country’s up and coming heavy luminaries, including Undersmile, BongCauldron, Monolith Cult, Lords of Bastard and others.
It’s a heavy bunch of nights, and with Kohl‘s evident passion, the PR wire makes it something of an easy sell:
The gnarly riff-wrenching stoner rock duo Beehoover are back in a big way – whilst the world regains composure following the clout delivered on their recently released, and fourth full-length album The Devil And His Footmen (which you can stream in full here), the German drum and bass commanders have been preparing for their UK tour. Across nine days, Beehoover will travel far and wide, showcasing their hybrid, barking sludge – quite unlike anything you will have experienced before.
Who better to describe Beehoover’s musical creations than their label manager, Andreas Kohl? – “One of my most loved descriptions in music history for a tonal impact is Southern Lord’s comparison for Warhorse’s sound with the feeling of being beaten with a wet mattress. For Beehoover I could pack a gargantuan pile of descriptions on the table, ultimately I would describe my listening experience like being wrapped in plastic foil, unable to move but struck in awe facing an enormous T34, while a Stalin organ is shooting roses across the tundra, explosives that draw a dreamy coloured fireworks on the night sky.”
Kohl continues, “In the crowd, what you see is hair, just hair behind the drums and contrails from swirling drumsticks. Centred is one barefoot Urviech covering the room with noises you can’t escape from, breathing, drinking, eating and farting riffs in a quantity and variety that 15 bands could live and ride off for the next one hundred years. Rhythms, riffs, beats, songs, sounds – so emotional, glowing in urgency, blasting on your senses so that you get an overdose of endorphins just from watching this monstrous mother of all concerts, exploding like an earthquake that rips continents apart. Yes, this is what it sounds like: I love this band. Every single time I see them. I pity you if you’ve never had the chance – make your life complete and take the chance now. If there’s one band you’ve really got to see EVER – it’s these guys!”
TOUR DATES: Fri 21 March 2014 London – Black Heart (Ghoud, Henry Blacker & Bloody Mammals) Sat 22 March 2014 Cardiff – Moon Club (Thorun, We Are Romans and Haast’s Eagled) Sun 23 March 2014 Bristol – Mothers Ruin Mon 24 March 2014 Plymouth – Tiki Bar (Death Parish and Monolithian) Tue 25 March 2014 Oxford – The Wheatsheaf (Undersmile and Caravan Of Whores) Wed 26 March 2014 Salford – The Eagle Inn (Mask Of Bees and The Senton Bombs) Thu 27 March 2014 Edinburgh – Banshee Labyrinth (Lords Of Bastard and [[ Wall ]]) Fri 28 March 2014 Glasgow – 13th Note (Lords Of Bastard and Skeleton Gong) Sat 29 March 2014 Birmingham – Scruffy’s (Burden Of The Noose, Monolith Cult, Goat Leaf, Grey Widow, Wolfs Head, Bong Cauldron and Sealclubber)
Beehoover’s latest album, The Devil and His Footmen, is a swirl of raw, sultry tones and rumbling octaves that strike chords with braggadocio 70’s hard rock as much as it does the thunderous rumble of Black Cobra and the jutting angles of Unsane. Beehoover are at their most rocking here, tangling the long hair of the headbangers with all the genres of beard in one matted toupee of oddball rhythms and histrionic vocals. Beehoover buzz with eccentric electric – come along, grit your teeth and enjoy the sting.
