Filthy Hippies released their new single “Wilt” this past Friday on the usual internetty smattering of streaming services. Lots of big names and no paychecks, you know the type. The South African heavygazer outfit say farewell to their now-former drummer, Mark Van Zyl, with their upcoming full-length, A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy — a title to which the music absolutely does live up — which lands April 4 with the backing of Mongrel Records. The new LP is coming on a quick turnaround from 2024’s Share the Pill (review here), but perhaps the fact that their drummer was moving to New Zealand — not gonna say I don’t get it — lit a fire under the process; I honestly don’t know. In any case, there are far worse things for a band to be than prolific.

The album is keyed for immediate immersion as “Get Out of My Way” begins. The vocals of guitarist/keyboardist Andrew Paine sit mellow and breathy deep within the fliud mix, the guitars of Ca’lee Tucker and Tim Ball create an engrossing backdrop of effects and noise, bassist Mandy Backstrom (also vocals) locked in on bass while what may or may not be a drum machine holds a subtle intensity beneath all the slow swirl. “Wilt” follows immediately and brings a clearer acoustic strum, but hey, big shocker, the album they decided to call A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy has a pretty vital focus on mood. Further to that, the sound isn’t monolithic. As with Share the Pill, Filthy Hippies dare to lean into indie and pop-psych — the latter in the second-half lead guitar of “Miserable,” for example — but the megafuzz blowout “Sad Things Write Themselves,” the psychedelic trip-hop of “Mind Pollution” and the comparatively minimalist guitar contemplation “Flashbacks” are also accounted for in their scope, so in addition to a world being made, it’s one that is full of life.

But of course, evolution is slow and so for the most part are Filthy Hippies. A transcendental hum in “Throw Away” feeding into “Flashbacks” gives the middle of the record a particularly entrancing bent, but “Smells Like Rehab” grounds with a straightforward folkish acoustic guitar and leaves it to the vocals and backing keys to get weird with just a hint of twang, subsequently shoved cosmic by “Sad Things Write Themselves.” The story of the back half of A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy gets more complex with the combined vocals and ambient layering of “Colours Fade Away,” which creates a space and threatens to fill it but recedes calmly into an ethereal drift. All of this is headed toward the druggy ’90s experimentalism of “Stargazer” (more fun with pop malleability here) and “Absolution,” but before the closing duo, “Into a Dream” gives one last space-rocking push, tambourine included for extra movement. That divergence into the relatively straightforward does a lot to realign the listener before side B wraps up as weirdo-celebrant as it does. They say in space no one can hear you scream. I’m pretty sure that means no one can hear you chill the fuck out either.

Considering the ephemeral nature of the band’s lineup as presented here, the adieu being bid to the five-piece they were presumably in the name of being able to get on stage and do the thing, A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy covers a lot of ground and finds the band getting more expansive in terms of style. I don’t know the actual circumstances under which it was made — that is, if it was recorded at the same time as the last album, or if the fact that they do it all themselves lets them jam and explore and they like to get the stuff on tape while it’s fresh, or whatever else in this universe of infinite possibility — but it feels less about impact than its predecessor and that comes across like an organic progression of craft in this material. Quick turnaround or not, it’s a dynamic worth preserving.

Enjoy the premiere of “Wilt” below, followed by more from the PR wire:

Filthy Hippies, “Wilt” video premiere

ADD ➤ https://orcd.co/-wilt

Cape Town-based alternative-psychedelic band Filthy Hippies have made a name for themselves in the South African music scene with their signature shoegaze-infused sound. Since their formation in 2018, they have cemented their reputation as a standout act in the country’s thriving psych scene, sharing stages with notable bands such as Dangerfield and delivering an unforgettable performance at the 2019 Endless Daze Festival.

After a period of evolution and lineup changes, Filthy Hippies are thrilled to announce their latest album, ‘A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy’. This release marks a significant chapter for the band as they bid farewell to longtime collaborator Mark Van Zyl, who was instrumental in shaping the record before his upcoming move to New Zealand.

“His intense creativity will be sorely missed,” shares frontman Andrew Paine. “But it was awesome to get to go down the rabbit hole one last time with him before he goes.”

‘A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy’ is exactly that—a vibrant yet introspective journey through the highs and lows of life. “It’s just reflections on everyday experiences and emotions,” Paine explains. “A
journey through a slightly jaded mind.” The album embraces a message of presence and acceptance, reminding listeners to cherish fleeting moments. “Enjoy every moment as it happens,” says Paine. “Things fade away far too quickly, and life moves in very definite cycles.”

The recording process was an immersive and intensive experience, with the band diving deep into latenight brainstorming sessions and extended tracking marathons. “Everything was recorded at our home
studio, The Sanctuary. Lots of late-night brainstorming and intensely long sessions—it was a lot of fun.”

With a Phil Spector-esque wall of sound blending rich textures, layered harmonies, and deep-rooted pop sensibilities, ‘A Colourful Trip Through Melancholy’ stands as a defining statement from Filthy Hippies.

Track Listing:
1. Get Out Of My Way
2. Wilt
3. Miserable
4. Fuzzbox
5. Mind Pollution
6. Throw Away
7. Flashbacks
8. Smells Like Rehab
9. Sad Things Write Themselves
10. Colours Fade Away
11. Into A Dream
12. Stargazer
13. Absolution

Video filmed by Meg Davidson
Edited by Filthy Hippies with Mark Van Zyl.
2025 Mongrel Records

Line Up:
Andrew Paine – Vox/Guitars/Keys
Mandy Backstrom – Bass/Vox
Tim Ball – Guitars
Ca’lee Tucker – Guitars
with Mark Van Zyl

Filthy Hippies on Instagram

Filthy Hippies on Facebook

Mongrel Records website

Mongrel Records on Facebook

Mongrel Records on Instagram

Welcome back to the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review, which started yesterday and will continue through next Friday. This week and next week, my life is pretty much cutting up pizza for the kid, Hungarian homework, and this. I could do worse.

There’s good stuff in this one though, and a lot of it, today and really throughout. I hope you find something you think is cool, tomorrow or the next day if not today.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

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Pia Isa, Dissolve

Pia Isaksen, also of Superlynx, offers a follow-up to 2022’s solo debut as Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (review here), and with songs like “Into the Fire” and “Dissolve,” a heavy-meditative take on grunge is imagined, with Isaksen‘s lumbering bass leading the way with a low rumble behind often quietly delivered vocals, and Ole Teigen‘s drums placed deep in a three-dimensional mix, and spaciousness added to the bulk of the proceedings through Gary Arce‘s signature floating guitar tone; the Yawning Man founder guests on guitar for six of the eight tracks, and is a not insignificant presence in complement and contrast to some of the more morose elements and rhythmic churning, as in “New Light.” But Isaksen is no stranger to crafting material heavy in ambience and mood as much as tone, and Dissolve feels like a deep-dive into experimentalism that pays off in the songs themselves. As Isaksen and Arce get ready to unveil their new collaborative project SoftSun, nothing here makes me look forward to that less.

Pia Isa on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Sun and Sail Club, Shipwrecked

I don’t know where the lines between genres are supposed to be anymore and I’m done pretending to care. If Sun and Sail Club had Barney from Napalm Death singing lead, you’d call them grindcore. It’s Tony Adolescents, making his second appearance with Sun and Sail Club after 2015’s The Great White Dope (review here), alongside founding guitarist Bob Balch (also Fu Manchu, Big Scenic Nowhere, etc.), bassist Scott Reeder (ex-Kyuss, Goatsnake, The Obsessed, etc.) and drummer Scott Reeder (Fu Manchu) for another mostly-blistering round of heavy punk, full in its charge and crossover punk-metal defiance, in “The Color of War” and the early-C.O.C.-esque “Drag the River,” which follows. Oh, and Balch gets a little surf in there too in “Tastes Like Blood” and the wistful bookending intro and outro. Borders on goth for a moment there, but it works. In the Balchian oeuvre — somewhere on the opposite side of the spectrum from where Slower now reside — Sun and Sail Club found itself as a project with The Great White Dope. Shipwrecked is correspondingly more aware of what the band wants their music to do as a result, and so able to hit more directly.

Sun and Sail Club on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Vitskär Süden, Vessel

The third album from Los Angeles-based heavy progressive rockers Vitskär Süden, Vessel is quick to establish ambition as a central element. That is to say, in the depth of their arrangements vocally and instrumentally, in their ability to set and vary a mood, and in being able to convey a sense of experimentalism in a four-minute track with a hook like “R’lyeh,” Vitskär Süden come across as cognizant of trying new ideas in their material and bringing these to fruition in the finished products of the songs. The material feels built around specific parts, some rhythmic, some melodic, in “Through Tunnels They Move” it might be Inxs, maybe the piano and strings in “Hidden by the Day,” and so on, and that it isn’t always the same thing adds to the character brought by guitarist/synthesist Julian Goldberger, bassist/vocalist Martin Garner, guitarist TJ Webber and drummer Christopher Martin as the songs coalesce and challenge the band’s own conceptions of their work as much as the listener’s. It is cinematic in both its sprawl and dramatic intent, and I won’t spoil the ending but yes of course it goes gospel.

Vitskär Süden on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Daevar, Amber Eyes

German murk-doomers Daevar keep affairs dark on their second long-player, Amber Eyes, as the trio of bassist/vocalist Pardis Latifi, guitarist Caspar Orfgren and drummer Moritz Ermen Bausch explore nodding patience and grim atmospherics across the six included cuts, and Windhand are still an influence, but “Pay to Pray” has a rolling, Acid King-style fluidity and the guitar takes to someplace more decisively evil, and Electric Wizardly, so you figure it out, because what it sounds like to me is Daevar beginning to step out from any single influence and to more comfortably find their own, often hypnotic niche, meeting the post-metallic feel of “Caliban and the Witch” with layered vocal harmonies before the megaplod finish. The title-track is faster and represents the grungier intentions, and if that’s the start of side B, then “Lizards” and “Grey in Grey” could only be called a plunge from there. The finale in particular is consuming in a way that reminds of Undersmile, which isn’t a complement I would lightly give.

Daevar on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Endless Floods, Rites Futurs

Have you ever heard Endless Floods and not wanted more? Me neither. The French art-doom four-piece made a single out of the eight-minute “Décennie” from their fourth full-length, Rites Futurs, and as that song works its way into a minimalist drone progression worthy of Earth before offering stark reassurance in intertwining human voices before exploding, gloriously, into a guitar solo the size of any number of partially undersea volcanoes, there is little that feels beyond the band’s creative reach. Volume is a part of what makes the material so affecting, with a progressive metal-style fullness of tone and voices treated to become part of what’s creating the sense of space. In its quiet reaches and surges of worshipful sounds — the choir on “Forge,” for example — Rites Futurs is somehow dystopian, but it’s not an empty world “after” humans. There’s life in these songs, in the way the title-track builds into its post-punk shove and then just into this undulation of noise is twice as universe-devouring for the acoustic guitar that emerges by itself on the other side. Underrated band.

Endless Floods on Facebook

Breathe Plastic store

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Black on High, Echoes Through Time

Dark heavy rock with a metallic underpinning that seems to come forward in “She Was a Witch” more than, say, opener “Alleyway Ecstasy,” from Black on High‘s debut, Echoes Through Time, notably brings elements from the likes of Mastodon and Alice in Chains together with songs that don’t just retain their immediacy but build upward from the leadoff, so that “Take These Pills” in the penultimate spot of the tracklisting becomes a punk rock apex for a trajectory the Dallas-based four-piece with members of Gypsy Sun Revival and Turbid North set forth on “I Feel Lethal,” and the drop into lower gears for the closing title-track seems to hit that much harder as a return. It’s like the meme where the riff comes back but heavier and Vince McMahon or whoever is laser-eye stoked, except it’s set up across the whole album and not actually so simple as that, and Echoes Through Time ends up being more about the journey than the destination. Fine. It’s a high level of craft for being a first record, and it feels like the beginning of an evolution for a longer term.

Black on High on Facebook

Black on High on Bandcamp

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Anomalos Kosmos, Live at 102 FM

Greek experimentalist two-piece Anomalos Kosmos may or may not evoke a Grails-y impression with their ’70s-prog-informed soundtrack-style instrumentals, but the thing is, with Live at 102 FM, they seem at least to be making it up as they go along. Sure, looping this or that layer to fill out the sound helps, as “Flow + Improv 1” proves readily in its first half, then again in its second, but what makes it jazz is that the exploration is happening for the creator and the consumer at the same time. It gets weird, and weirder, and “The + Improv 2” throws down a swinging groove for a bit after that vocal sample in the last couple minutes, but even if part of “Me Orizeis” is plotted as opposed to being 100 percent made up like they just walked into the room and that noise happened, it represents a vibrant and encompassing process that can’t help but feel organic as it’s recorded live. The band’s 2022 debut, Mornin Loopaz (review here) was both more restless and more concept-based. I like that I have no idea how Anomalos Kosmos might follow this.

Anomalos Kosmos on Facebook

Anomalos Kosmos on Bandcamp

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Mountainwolf, Dust on a New Moon

Maybe it won’t come as a shocker that a live record with takes on the band’s songs that are upwards of 14, 17, 19, 23 minutes long is expansive? Maryland’s Mountainwolf offer seven tracks across Dust on a New Moon, which were recorded live at some point, somewhere, ever, maybe at New Year’s? I don’t want to speculate. In any case, what happens over the course of the ‘evening with’ is Mountainwolf plunge into an Appalachian vision of Earthless-style instrumental epicness. East Coast groove set to a more Pacific ideology; I guess at a certain point jams is jams. Mountainwolf have plenty of those, and while it’s not at all their first live release, Dust on a New Moon unfolds the sludgy crash of “Edging” and the bassy jabs of “Heroin x 1991” with purpose in each twist of turn captured. I assume the show is a little different every night as a given song might go here or there, but it sounds like a show worth seeing, to say the very least of it.

Mountainwolf on Facebook

Mountainwolf on Bandcamp

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The Giraffes, Cigarette

The Giraffes don’t have to be out there burnin’ barns, but Cigarette is indeed incendiary in “Pipes” and “Limping Horse,” and that’s barely a fraction of the business the long-running New York outfit get done in short order across their eighth album’s 34 minutes. NYC has had its share of underheralded heavy rock bands and so fair enough for The Giraffes being part of a longstanding tradition, but the moody vibe in “Lazarus,” the eerie modernity cast in “Baby Pictures,” and the citified twang in “Dead Bird” — which is fair enough to consider Americana since it’s about drug addiction — or the way “The Shot” has a kind of punctuated strut that is so much the band’s own, it’s worth reiterating that The Giraffes have earned far more plaudits than they’ve ever received for their recorded work, and as “Pipes” and “Million Year Old Song” bring a bluesy tinge to the madcap groove, I don’t know Cigarette will change that or if the band would even want it to if it did, but they’re an institution in New York’s underground and LPs like this are why.

The Giraffes on Facebook

The Giraffes on Bandcamp

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Filthy Hippies, Share the Pill

While the drift of psychedelia ranges further back, there’s something about even the most shimmering of moments on Filthy Hippies‘ Share the Pill that’s much more ’97 than ’67, more Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine adding a current of noise to the mellow-heavy groove, maybe. That’s all well and good but doesn’t account for the universe-tearing “Good Time” or the spacey post-punk of “Catatonic” (though maybe it does, in the case of the latter) or the dub-psych roll “Stolen From Heaven” that bridges the two halves of the record, so take it for what it is. The stylistic truth of Filthy Hippies is more complex than the superficial trappings of drug rock might lead one to believe, and it’s not without its challenging aspects, even though the material in pieces like “Candy Floss” or the tambourine-insistent “Dreaming of Water” veers readily into poppish frequencies. There doesn’t seem to be a ton that’s off limits, but it feels rooted in heavy groove just the same and that sits well next to the flashes of the brighter contrast.

Filthy Hippies on Facebook

Mongrel Records website

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If you’re paying attention at all — and fair enough if you’re not — you had to see this one coming, right? No way I wasn’t going to follow up that massive Quarterly Review with a playlist for The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal. Had to happen. Honestly, I covered enough stuff in that 110-record span that I might do two shows out of it. Have to see what I can pull together for next time.

To answer your next imginary question, yes, it is somewhat bittersweet after two all-Neurosis episodes to be playing anything else. It was bound to happen eventually, some return to normalcy. Such as it is. Fortunately the selections here are killer if I do say so myself, and if you think it’s a coincidence that I reviewed so many albums and this playlist is starting with a cut from the Maha Sohona record, I promise you it is not. That one might’ve been my pick of the whole thing. Also took the excuse to play the Spaceslug track here again, just because it rules and fits that vibe too.

Thanks for listening and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 07.23.21

Maha Sohona	Leaves	Endless Searcher
The Crooked Whispers	Hail Darkness	Dead Moon Night
Filthy Hippies	I’m Bugging Out	Departures
Paralyzed	Golden Days	Paralyzed
VT
Alastor	The Killer in My Skull	Onwards and Downwards
Spelljammer	Bellwether	Abyssal Trip
Spaceslug	The Event Horizon	The Event Horizon
Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel	Horizon	Polaris
VT
Hellish Form	Shadows with Teeth	Remains
Vouna	Grey Sky	Atropos
Rose City Band	World is Turning	Earth Trip
Moanhand	The Boomerang of Serpents	Present Serpent
VT
Methadone Skies	Retrofuture Caveman	Retrofuture Caveman

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Aug. 6 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

Day Three. The kinds of material covered have varied, but it’s been pretty good so far, which as you can probably imagine makes this whole process much, much easier. Today would traditionally be hump day, where we hit and surpass the halfway mark, but since this is a double-size Quarterly Review, we’re only a quarter of the way there. Still a long way to go, but I’ve got decent momentum in my head at this point and I’ve taken steps not to make the workload crushing on any given day (this mostly involved working last weekend, thanks to The Patient Mrs. for the extra time), so I’m not feeling overly rushed either. Which is welcome.

In that spirit, let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

The Vintage Caravan, Monuments

To every sorrowful head who bemoans the state of rock and roll as being dead, who misses big songs, bands unafraid to groove, to engage their audience, to change things up and stay anchored to a vital spirit of the live experience, the answer is The Vintage Caravan. Monuments is the Icelandic trio’s follow-up to 2018’s Gateways (review here) and it opens with a righteous four-song mission-statement salvo from “Whispers” to “Dark Times” before mellowing out in “This One’s for You” and diving into the eight-minute centerpiece “Forgotten” — later answered by the more subdued but likewise proggy closer “Clarity” — before the hard-hitting shuffle renews on side B with “Sharp Teeth,” “Hell” and “Torn in Two” try to outdo each other in has-the-most-swagger and “Said & Done” sneaks in ahead of the finale to walk away with that particular title. Suitably enough. Momentum is almost a detriment to the proceedings, since the songs are worth individual attention, but among the classic tenets here is leave-’em-wanting-more, and The Vintage Caravan do, no question.

The Vintage Caravan on Facebook

Napalm Records website

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Oslo Tapes, ØR

First thing to note? Oslo Tapes are not from Oslo. Or Trondheim, for that matter. Founded by Marco Campitelli in Italy, the band is a work of homage and exploration of ideas born out of a trip to Oslo — blessings and peace upon the narrative — and ØR, which is Norwegian for “confusing,” is their third album. It arrives loaded with textures from electro-krautrock and ’70s space modernized through to-day’s post-heavy, a breathy delivery from Campitelli giving a song like “Kosmik Feels” an almost goth-wave presence while the harder-landing “Bodø Dakar,” which follows, shifts with pointed rhythm into a textured percussion jam in its second half, with ethereal keys still behind. The shimmering psychedelia of “Norwegian Dream” comes paired with “Exotic Dreams” late in the record’s eight-track procession, and while the latter emphasizes Oslo Tapes‘ can-go-anywhere sensibility with horn sounds and vague, drumless motion, the hard dance in closer “Obsession is the Mother of All” really seems to be the moment of summary here. That must’ve been some trip.

Oslo Tapes on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Filthy Hippies, Departures

Clocking in at 15 tracks and 77 minutes of deeply varied cosmic fuckery, from the motorik push of “Your Are the Sun” to the ’90s Britgaze stylizations of “Mystified” to the twanging central guitar figure of “The Air is Poison” and onward into the blowout kosmiche echo “Sweet Dreams and Nicotine” and chic the-underground-is-actually-made-of-velvet “Like a Halo” ahead of the Hawkwind-on-ludes “I’m Buggin’ Out,” Filthy Hippies‘ Departures at very least gets points for having the right title. Departs from everything. Reality, itself, you. The whole nine. The good news is the places it goes have a unifying element of grunge laziness woven throughout them, like Filthy Hippies just rolled out of bed and this material just happened — and maybe that’s how it went — and the journey they make, whistling as they go on “Among the Wire” and ending up in the wistful wash of “Empty Spaces” is a joy to follow. Heady. More purposeful than it’s letting on. Not a minor investment, but not a minor reward either.

Filthy Hippies on Facebook

Mongrel Records website

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Dunbarrow, III

Long since in command of their aesthetic, Norway’s Dunbarrow embark on III, their third long-player, with a full realization of their purpose. Recorded by the five-piece in Spring 2020 and left to gestate for a year’s time, it’s having been unearthed is suitable to the classic doom vibe wrought throughout the eight tracks, but Dunbarrow‘s sound is more vintage in structure than production at this point, and the shifting balance between ‘then’ and ‘now’ in what they do imagines what might’ve been if self-titled era Witchcraft had retained its loyalty to the tenets of Sabbath/Pentagram while continuing to grow its songcraft, such that “Worms of Winter” both is and is decidedly not “Snowblind,” while “Lost Forever” embarks on its own roll and “Turn in Your Grave” makes for an organ-laced folkish highlight, fitting in its cult atmosphere and setting up the rawer finish in “Turns to Dust.” This is who Dunbarrow are, and what they do, they do exceedingly well.

Dunbarrow on Facebook

Blues for the Red Sun Records on Facebook

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Djinn, Transmission

The year is 2076. The world’s first Whole Earth parliament has come together to bask in the document Transmission, originating in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the behest of an entity known only as Djinn and respected purveyor Rocket Recordings. It is believed that in fact Transmission and its eight component freak jazz psychedelia tracks were not written at the time of their first release some 55 years earlier, but, as scholars have come to theorize after more than a half-century of rigorous, consistent study, it is a relic of another dimension. Someplace out of place, some time out of time as humanity knows it. So it is that “Creators of Creation” views all from an outsider’s eagle eye, and “Urm the Mad” squees its urgency as if to herald the serenity of “Love Divine” to come, voices echoing up through the surcosmic rift through which Djinn sent along this Transmission. What was their purpose? Why make contact? And what is time for such creatures? Are they us? Are we them? Are we alone? Are we “Orpheus?” Wars have been fought over easier questions.

Djinn on Bandcamp

Rocket Recordings website

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Shevils, Miracle of the Sun

Their third album, Shevils‘ Miracle of the Sun renews the band’s collaboration with producer Marcus Forsgren, which obviously given the sound of the record, was not broken. With a tidy 10 songs in 32 minutes, the Oslo-based four-piece deliver a loyal reading of heavy hardcore riffing minus much of the chestbeating or dudely pretense that one might otherwise encounter. They’ve got it nailed, and the break as “Monsters on TV” squibblies out is a forceful but pleasant turn, especially backed by the pure noise rock of “Scandinavian Death Star.” The band plays back and forth between heft and motion throughout, offering plenty of both in “Wet Soaking Wet” and “Ride the Flashes,” hitting hard but doing more than just hitting at the same time. Topped with fervent shouts, Shevils feels urgent in manner that to my ears recalls West Coast US fare like Akimbo, but is nonetheless the band’s own, ranging into broader soundscapes on “No More You” and anti-shred on “It Never Ends,” the only two cuts here over four minutes long. No time to screw around.

Shevils on Facebook

Shevils on Bandcamp

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Paralyzed, Paralyzed

If they haven’t been yet — and they may have — it’s entirely likely that by the time I’m done writing this sentence some record label or other will have picked up Paralyzed to release their self-titled debut album on vinyl. The Bamberg, Germany-based four-piece bring classic heavy metal thunder to still-Sabbathian doom rock, casting their lot in with the devil early on “Lucifer’s Road (My Baby and Me),” which feels like as much a statement of aesthetic purpose as it does a righteous biker riff. It’s by no means the sum-total of what’s on offer in a more extended piece like “Prophets” or side B’s rumble-and-roll-plus-wah-equals-doom “Mother’s Only Son,” but the brash fare they bring to light on “Green Eyes” and the post-lizard king-turns-Purple spirit of “Golden Days” tie in well with the toss-your-hair-in-the-wind, how’d-that-hole-get-in-my-jeans spirit of the release on the whole. They start instrumental with the eponymous “Paralyzed,” but vocals are a focus point, and as they round out with the rawer “Parallel,” their command of ’70s heavy is all the more evident. They signed yet? Give it another minute, if not.

Paralyzed on Facebook

Paralyzed on Bandcamp

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Black Spirit Crown, Gravity

Admittedly, I’m late to the party on Black Spirit Crown‘s 2020 debut full-length, Gravity, but as one will when in orbit, it’s easy to be pulled in by the record. The Ohio-based two-piece of Dan Simone (vocals, guitar, theremin, dulcimer) and Chris Martin (vocals, keys & programming, bass) — plus guitar spots from Joe Fortunato (Doomstress, ex-Venomin James) — flourish over longform progressive heavy rock pieces like “Doomstar” and “Orb,” both over eight minutes, and the 21:10 closing title-track, which well earns having the album named after it for its consuming balance between aural weight, darkness of atmosphere and tone, and breadth. Before the last several minutes give way to droning noise, “Gravity” counterbalances the metallic underpinning of “Saga” and the rush of the penultimate “Teutates,” its patience singular even among the other longer cuts, balanced in alternating fashion with the shorter. Peppered-in growls make the proceedings less predictable on the whole, and feel like one more strength working in favor of these complex compositions.

Black Spirit Crown on Facebook

Black Spirit Crown on Bandcamp

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Intraveineuse, Chronicles of an Inevitable Outcome

Parisian instrumentalists Intraveineuse make a strong statement with their 32-minute/single-song debut EP, Chronicles of an Inevitable Outcome, the feeling of aftermath — regret? — permeating the goth-doom atmosphere coming through in tectonically-dense riffs as well as the piano that offsets them. France would seem to have a post-Type O Negative standard-bearer in Hangman’s Chair, but to discount Intraveineuse on that basis is to miss out on the flowing, immersive progression the band emit on this already-sold-out tape, working in three distinct movements to find their own place within the style, building momentum gradually until the last payoff cuts itself short, as if to emphasize there’s more to come. Hopefully, anyhow. EP or LP, debuts with this kind of scope are rare and not to be overlooked, and though there are stretches where one can hear where vocals might go, Intraveineuse ably steer “Chronicles of an Inevitable Outcome” through its various parts with natural-sounding fluidity.

Intraveineuse website

Intraveineuse on Bandcamp

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Void Tripper, Dopefiend

Grim, gritty and ghastly, Void Tripper is the debut full-length from Brazil’s Void Tripper, comprised of five tracks marked by the shared/alternating vocals of guitarists Mário Fonteles and Anastácio Júnior. The former gurlges on opener “Devil’s Reject” while the latter complements with a cleaner take on the subsequent “Burning Woods,” setting up the back and forth that plays out in the remaining three tracks, “Hollow,” “Satan & Drugs” and “Comatose.” With the lumbering bass and drums of Jonatas Monte and Gabriel Mota, respectively, as the thickened foundation beneath the riffs, there are shades throughout of Electric Wizard and other acts to be heard, but it’s Sabbath-worshiping sludge one way or the other, and Void Tripper willingly head into that void with a dense fog preceding them and a bleak mood that does nothing if it doesn’t feel suited to our times. Riffy disaffection writ large. You wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but you’d nod the fuck out.

Void Tripper on Facebook

Abraxas on Facebook

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Shoegazer vibes set to psychedelic expanse with flourishes of freakout heft and fuzz to spare, there’s plenty of room for Cape Town’s Filthy Hippies to sprawl out on their fourth long-player in four years — the upcoming Departures clocking in at a willfully unmanageable 15 tracks and 77 minutes — but one could hardly say they don’t make the most of it. Departures is out April 23 on Mongrel Records, and as it’s my first exposure to the three-piece, who formed in 2018, it makes for an immersive introduction. Howl resonate from the hills and anti-genre distinctions like “Sweet Dreams and Nicotine” tap cooler-than-cool sunglasses-all-the-time cynicism even as it blends with classic pop sensibilities. If this was the ’90s — and who says it isn’t? — Filthy Hippies would be the band who told you ’80s Madonna was cool, and they’d probably be right.

Video for “Buggin’ Out” at the bottom of the post. Album info follows here courtesy of the PR wire. Just one to keep watch for if you’re feeling like you’ve heard everything:

FILTHY HIPPIES – DEPARTURES – RELEASE DATE 23rd APRIL 2021

Established in 2018 Filthy Hippies is a South African Alternative trio with a strong undercurrent of Shoegaze influences. The band quickly established themselves as solid contenders in the explosive, burgeoning South African psych scene and list supporting Post-punk band Dangerfield’s album launch, and 2019’s Endless Daze Festival as current highlights.

Filthy Hippies create a sound that is best described as a Phil Spector’esque wall of sound hitched to deep routed pop inflections.

With four albums and three EP’s under their belt, Filthy Hippies feel that the imminent release of the new album ‘Departures showcases some of their best work.

Track Listing:
1. Spirit
2. Mystified
3. You Are The Sun
4. The Recipe
5. The Air Is Poison
6. Otherside
7. Among The Wire
8. Dumb
9. Sweet Dreams and Nicotine
10. Never Without You
11. Dethroned
12. Like A Halo
13. Promise
14. I’m Bugging Out
15. Empty Spaces

Line Up:
Mark Van Zyl – Guitar / Vocals
Andrew Paine – Vocals / Bass
Mandy Backstrom – Drums / Vocals

https://www.facebook.com/trashcanmusic
https://www.instagram.com/filthyhippies_band/
http://mongrelrecords.com
http://www.facebook.com/mongrelrecords
http://www.instagram.com/mongrel_records

Filthy Hippies, “Buggin’ Out” official video