Emerging from Austin with a pointed harshness and heft to spare, Texan sludge metal four-piece Forebode released the four-song/29-minute The Pit of Suffering (review here) in 2021. It is not shy about establishing aural dominance. Lordly half-time riffing punctuated by pinch harmonics in lead cut “Metal Slug” (5:41) sets the stage as guitarist Eddie Konopasek lays out the nod that drummer Zach Donnelly and bassist Guillermo Madrigal take up with due lumbering, a defining element in the rasp and growl of TJ Lewis held back for the verse because good slaughter takes time. The nasty-ass chug and death growls, slowdown and bassy pummel that have hit in “Metal Slug” by the time the song is a minute and a half deep into its plunge are telling.

Forebode have some root in the post-hardcore raw-mean formative sludge of Eyehategod, but in following-up their self-titled 2019 debut EP (review here), it’s a fullness of sound and a creation of atmosphere that’s consistent. The band recorded with Kevin Butler at Test Tube Audio, who also mastered, for two days in Feb. ’21, and sent to Alec Rodriguez at New Alliance Audio in Massachusetts to mix. Was the same with the first EP. I don’t know if there’s a connection between the band and New England, Rodriguez specifically — he’s more associated in my mind with heavy rock than sludge; admittedly, after a certain point, riffs is riffs — but listening, I can’t help if his touch doesn’t account for some of the frigid feel in the chug and brash-crash of “Devil’s Due” (7:20) or the wall of distortion it brings to bear in its second half, Lewis accordingly switching to a growl to suit the bludgeon. I don’t know if that’s real, but you can read it into the music if you want and even accounting for the notion sonically makes it true, so whatever as regards intention.

Actually, on that subject, the priorities throughout The Pit of Suffering — anybody remember the pit of despair from The Princess Bride? yeah, this is different — seem at first mostly to be purely violent. Nothing against that. The cathartic aspects across the relatively short amount of your day Forebode are asking aren’t to be discounted. At even moderate volume, The Pit of Suffering is a mood-altering experience and a powerful sound. Its darker atmospheric cast feels as much emotional as tonal, which is no minor achievement considering that at no point does Lewis sing clean, and there is a sneaky patience in Konopasek‘s riffing that helps create the sense of space throughout. Even having the vocals coated in reverb adds to it, letting the most throatripping of screams feel like a tie to black metal as Forebode commune with the extreme. I don’t necessarily think the band sat down and said that was what they were going to do — “okay guys, time to work in a little black metal so four years from now some dingus can talk about it on the internet — but it’s what the album sessions and their songwriting process resulted in, and it speaks to a will to blur genre lines while still remaining essentially a genre work rooted in the less-kind end of sludge.

They are not without respite. The penultimate title-track (7:46) begins with an acoustic reprieve, momentary, before unfolding the markedly vicious crux of the song, a slow, open riff and doomed plod met with throatrippers from some mountaintop or other, a kind of self-directed physical punishment being shared with the listener. In terms of lead guitar, “The Pit of Suffering” is the epic. It offsets its central lumber with airier lines, and as the key change hits and the vocals turn to death growls, the setup is there for the next plotted lead line as contrast. This isn’t anything revolutionary in sludge or metal more broadly, go low go high crush all, but Forebode execute with particular fervor and “The Pit of Suffering” hits into a series of stops as it moves into its second half that is outright excruciating, amplifier rumble and sustained growl dropping back out to acoustic like the intro for just a moment before slamming back with full tonality and piercing scream. It’s the acoustic that wins the day in the end, though.

There, anyhow. That doesn’t account for “Bane of Hammers” (8:53), which revives a bit of Southern-style swing in its initial riffing, daring some bounce after the more emotive title cut. The finale is consistent with everything before it in being heavier than a son of a bitch, but it moves fluidly in such a way as to highlight how cohesive the release as a whole has been. On that note, I don’t know whether the band call it an EP or an LP. It was the former in my mind when I reviewed it. Now I’m less certain. The interplay between the tracks, the glee with which “Bane of Hammers” enacts its extreme-sludge-meets-stoner-riffing chicanery and the ease with which it falls into the gallop and even a bit of blast-ish duggery speak to The Pit of Suffering as a debut LP — and a good one, if short — but if the band were to decide in a year that they’ve got 40-50 minutes of music and that’s their first album, I’m not about to fight anybody over it. It’s not like it’s how they pronounce their name or anything. Ha.

Like the review link above would tell you, this isn’t my first time hearing this record, but I had occasion to dig into it again last weekend as I was hanging around Las Vegas for Planet Desert Rock Weekend — Adam Sage, who was kind enough to let me stay for the fest (he’s also in Sonolith, if you need a band connection for a name), and I had it on a couple times driving here and there and whatnot — and it resonated again. I don’t know what the band’s plans are for 2025 beyond a couple Spring shows and an appearance at Stoner Jam in Austin at SXSW, which is next month and looks killer as ever with Duel, Bridge Farmers, Switchblade Jesus, Tia Carrera, Amplified Heat and many other righteous parties either of or not of Texan affiliation, including Sonolith, Lord Velvet and Demons My Friends.

Always badass, that bill. I’d be happy to wax nostalgic about SXSWs of yore — did some of that last weekend too, dropping names like Tia Carrera and Amplified Heat — but the point here is Forebode are getting out a bit in the early part of this year and hopefully that momentum continues to serve them well as they move on from here.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

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Oh man, the comedown was real this week. After that fest last weekend was so, so, so good, I spent most of Tuesday out of my head trying to clean the house ahead of my family coming to celebrate my nephew’s 17th birthday — happy birthday, duder — and taking like three hours to get 40 minutes’ worth of writing done. That sucked. Yesterday also kind of sucked. Was Wednesday easier? It seemed it at the time and that’s as good as gold. Today I’ve already dropped the kid off at school, taken the dog to the groomer, gone to Costco, had breakfast, picked the dog up and so on all in the company of The Patient Mrs., so if I’m later than usual posting this (I am), that’s why. I’ve been having out picking up provisions, running errands and otherwise having a lovely morning/early afternoon. In a little bit we’ll go pick up the kid and hopefully the thread will continue.

But that fest was something special. The people. The fact that just about everybody knew or at least by the end of the weekend was up for saying hi to everyone else. The music was great, of course, and the chance to see European or UK bands like Samavayo, Green Desert Water, JIRM or Sergeant Thunderhoof on US soil isn’t something I take lightly. There aren’t a lot of people who can or will bring these acts over, and if you can do it, you can change lives, band and fan alike. People were falling over for Sergeant Thunderhoof. It was rad to witness. I was lucky to be there.

For what it’s worth, it was an easy flight home. Four hours with a good tail wind and I had the entire row to myself. Can’t get better than that. I played Zelda the whole time and it was a last bit of chill before I got back home and back into the thing.

Thanks if you kept up with that coverage. I have more trips coming up this year:

April – Roadburn

May – Desertfest Oslo (I hope)

June – Freak Valley (need to confirm flight)

July – Bear Stone (just about confirmed)

And then September is Desertfest New York, which barring disaster I’ll look to attend. I know, Ripplefest Texas is there, but that’s a flight I can’t afford. Flying to Vegas is cheap and the airfare was gifted to me. Four or five days in Austin is like $1,000 minimum flights and hotel and I don’t have it. We’ll see, but I know that’s there. I hear it calling to me.

However any of the above plays out over the coming months, thanks for following along with this site. The response to the 16th anniversary post was extremely heartening, here and on socials, and I thank you for that. I was in the car with The Patient Mrs. before talking about how blown away I was by it, which is definitely a conversation we’ve had before. She’s very tolerant. “The Tolerant Mrs.” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I’m gonna leave it there, I think. Icarus Burns album premiere on Monday, Tuesday a Lorquin’s Admiral video premiere, Wednesday something new from Voidward, Thursday a Passing Bell video premiere, and Friday either a Möuth review or a video interview I’m going to do with Matte from Sound of Liberation on Monday for their 20th anniversary and My Sleeping Karma’s return (he’s also the band’s bassist). We’ll see how it shakes out.

Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, stay warm if it’s cold, cool if it’s hot. Don’t sled into any fenceposts. I’ll be here writing if you need me for anything.

FRM. Oh, and new merch coming soon, I think. Been asked a couple times about that lately.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

Crazy productive day on my end. You know how I know? It’s a week ago for me right now. That’s right. You’re reading this — or you’re not, in which case, meh — on Friday, Oct. 1, which is the air date for Ep. 69 of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal. For me though it’s Sept. 24. I just turned in the playlist and the voice tracks for this show, then set up the back ends for nearly this entire week’s worth of posts, including the complete Quarterly Review and the other premieres slated between its beginning and the day after it ends. That’s next art, links, quotes, embed, tags, etc. placed for a post not going live for another week and a half for me. Feeling pretty good about that.

So while I am and before the site invariably implodes as happens almost every time I feel good about anything, here’s the playlist for this show. And it just so happens I feel really good about this too. Rocks at the start, gets super-heavy, then trips out in the second hour. It’s my kind of jam. Weird, in other words. I very, very much hope you find something in here to dig. If you’ve been keeping up with the Quarterly Review, you’ll recognize some of this for sure. And again, if not, meh. Happy October. Fall is my favorite season.

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.01.21

Erik Larson	The Heavies	Favorite Iron
Aiwass	Man as God	Wayward Gods
Temple Witch	Chaos and Order	Hand in Hand with Chaos
Cult Burial	Paralysed	Oblivion EP
The Answer Lies in the Black Void	Become Undone	Forlorn
VT
Forebode	Bane of Hammers	The Pit of Suffering
Enslaved	Caravans to the Outer Worlds	Caravans to the Outer Worlds
Jointhugger	Midnight	Surrounded by Vultures
Starless	Forest	Hope is Leaving You
Ivory Primarch	Aetherbeast	As All Life Burns
VT
Funeral for Two	La Muerte	II
Snake Mountain Revival	Satellite Ritual	Everything in Sight
Dark Bird	Undone	Out of Line
VT
3rd Ear Experience	What Are Their Names	Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 15 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

Not really much to say about it, is there? You know the deal. I know the deal. This time we go to 70. 10 records every day between today and next Tuesday. It seems insurmountable as usual right now, but as history has shown throughout the last seven or however many years I’ve been doing this kind of thing, it’ll work out. Time is utterly irrelevant when there’s distortion to be had. Wavelengths intersecting, dissolution of hours. You make an extra cup of coffee, I’ll burn from the inside out.

The Fall 2021 Quarterly Review begins today. Let’s boogie.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Delco Detention, From the Basement

The essential bit of narrative here is that Tyler Pomerantz, founding guitarist of Delco Detention, is about 10 years old. Kid can fuzz. With his father, Adam, on drums, the ambitious young man has put together a wholly professional heavy rock record with a who’s who of collaborators, including Clutch‘s Neil Fallon on “The Joy of Home Schooling” (a video for which went viral last year), Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell, Bob Balch of Fu Manchu on the instrumental “The Action is Delco,” Erik Caplan of Thunderbird Divine on the highlight “Gods Surround,” as well as members of Hippie Death Cult, Kingsnake, The Age of Truth and others across the 15 tracks. The result is inherently diverse given the swath of personnel, tones, etc., but From the Basement plays thematically at points around the experience of being a young rocker — “All Ages Show,” “Digital Animal,” the title-track and “The Joy of Home Schooling” — but isn’t limited to that, and though there are some moodier stretches as there inevitably would be, Tyler holds his own among this esteemed company and the record’s an unabashed good time.

Delco Detention on YouTube

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

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Fuzzy Lights, Burials

A fourth album arriving some eight years after the third, Fuzzy Lights‘ Burials doesn’t necessarily surprise with its patience, but its sense of world-building is immaculate and immersive. The Cambridge, UK, five-piece of violinist/vocalist Rachel Watkins, guitarist/electronicist Xavier Watkins, guitarist Chris Rogers, bassist Daniel Carney and drummer Mark Blay offer classic Britfolk melody tinged with heavy post-rock atmospherics and foreboding rhythmic push on the 10-minute “Songbird,” with the snare drum building tension for the payoff to come. Elsewhere, opener “Maiden’s Call” and “Haraldskær Woman” drift into darker vibes, while “Under the Waves” dares more uptempo psychedelic rock ahead of the highlight “Sirens” and closer “The Gathering Storm,” which offers bombast so smoothly executed one is surrounded by it almost before noticing. “Songbird,” “Maiden’s Call” and “The Graveyard Song” have their roots in a 2019 solo outing from Rachel Watkins called Collectanea, but however long this material may or may not have been around, it sounds refreshingly individual, natural, full, warm and still boldly forward thinking.

Fuzzy Lights on Facebook

Meadows Records on Bandcamp

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Blackwolfgoat, (In) Control / Tired of Dying

One with greater knowledge of such things than I might be able to sit and analyze and tell you what loops and effects guitarist Darryl Shepard (Kind, Hackman, Milligram, etc.) is using to make these noises, but that ain’t me. I’m happy to accept the mystery of his new two-songer/23-minute EP, (In) Control / Tired of Dying, which slowly unfolds the psych-drone of its 14-minute leadoff cut over its first several minutes before evening out into a mellow, drifting one-man guitar jam, replete with a solo that subtly builds in energy before entering its minute-long fadeout, as if Shepard were to say he wouldn’t want things to get too out of hand. “Tired of Dying” follows with immediately more threatening tone, deep, distorted, lumbering, sludgy, with space for drums behind that never come. That’s not Blackwolfgoat‘s thing. As much as “(In) Control” hypnotized with its sweeter, unassuming rollout, “Tired of Dying” is consumption on a headphone-destroyer level, nine and a half minutes of low wash that’s exploratory just the same. These pieces were recorded live, and it hasn’t been that long since Shepard‘s 2020 Blackwolfgoat full-length, Giving Up Feels So Good (review here), but each cut digs in in its own way and the isolated feel is nothing if not relevant.

Blackwolfgoat on Facebook

Blackwolfgoat on Bandcamp

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Carcaňo, By Order of the Green Goddess

From the outset with the stomps later in “Day 1 – The Beginning,” Italian fuzzers Carcaňo reveal some of the rawness in the production of their second full-length, By Order of the Green Goddess, but that doesn’t stop either their tones or the melodies floating over them from being lush across the album’s eight-song/40-minute run, whether that’s happening in the massive “Day 2 – Riding Space Elephants” (aren’t we all?) or the howling leadwork that tops the languid Sabbath/earlier-Mars Red Sky-gone-dark lumber of “Day 6 – I Don’t Belong Here.” They make it move on the cosmic chaos shuffle-and-push of “Day 4 – The Birth” and tap blatant Queens of the Stone Age up-strum riffing and wood block on “Day 5 – The Son of the Sun,” but it’s in spacious freakouts like “Day 3 – Green Grace” and the righteously drawn out “Day 7 – Wasted Land” that By Order of the Green Goddess most seems to set its course, with room for the acoustic experimentalism of “Day 8 – Running Back Home” at the end, familiar in concept but delightfully weird and ethereal in its execution.

Carcaňo on Facebook

Clostridium Records website

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Planet of the 8s, Lagrange Point Vol. 1

Paeans to space and the desert, riffs on riffs on riffs, grit hither and yon — Melbourne’s Planet of the 8s are preaching to the converted on Lagrange Point Vol. 1, and they go so far in the opening “Lagrange Point” to explain in a Twilight Zone-esque monologue what the phenomenon actually is before “Holy Fire” unfurls its procession with the first of four included guest vocalists. King Carrot of Death by Carrot would seem to know of which he speaks there, while Diesel Doleman (Duneater) tops “Exit Planet” for an effect wholly akin to Astrosoniq at max thrust, while Georgie Cosson of Kitchen Witch joins Planet of the 8s‘ own bassist Michael “Sullo” Sullivan on “X-Ray,” and Jimi Coelli (Sheriff) takes on the early QOTSA-style riffing of “The Unofficial History of Babe Wolf,” which would also seem to be the subject of the cover art. They wrap all these comings and going with “The Three Body Problem,” a jazzy minute-long instrumental that’s there and gone before you’ve even caught your breath from the preceding songs. 21 minutes, huh? That 21 minutes is packed.

Planet of the 8s on Facebook

Planet of the 8s on Bandcamp

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High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon

Debut albums with their stylistic ducks so much in a row are rare, but with the declaration “I am the mountain/You are the quake,” the chugging boogie in the post-Trouble “Did She?,” the opening hook of “Heads Will Roll,” the duly-open, semi-progressive tinge of “Skyscraper,” and the we-saved-extra-heavy-just-for-this finish of “Bury the Queen,” Austin’s High Desert Queen indeed show themselves as schooled with Secrets of the Black Moon. It is an encapsulation of modern stoner heavy idolatry, riff-led but not necessarily riff-dependent in its entirety, and both the good-vibes fuzz of “As We Roam” and the aptly-titled penultimate roller “The Wheel” manage to boast soaring vocal melodies that put the band in another league. They’re not necessarily starting a revolution in terms of style, but they bring together lush and crush effectively and when a band has so much of a clear idea of what they’re going for and the songwriting to back them up, first record or not, they rule the day. Don’t lose them among the swaths either of three-word-moniker heavy newcomers or the flood of Texan acts out there.

High Desert Queen on Facebook

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

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Megalith Levitation, Void Psalms

Heavy and ritualized enough to earn its release on 50 neon green tapes — CDs too — the second full-length from Russia’s Megalith Levitation, Void Psalms tops 53 minutes of beastly lurch, with opener “Phantasmagoric Journey” (13:08) playing like half-speed Celtic Frost while the back-to-back two-parters “Datura Revelations/Lysergic Phantoms” (12:47) and “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation” (19:45) bridge cult-heavy worship with experimental fuckall, never quite dipping entirely into dark psychedelia, but certainly refusing lucidity outright. I don’t know what’s up with the punch of bass in the back end of “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation,” but that froggy sound is gloriously weirdo in its affect, and makes the whole jam for me. They cap with “Last Vision,” an admirably massive riffer that only spans seven and a half minutes but in that time still finds a way to drone the shit out of its nod. Cheers to Chelyabinsk as Megalith Levitation (who are not to be confused with Megaton Leviathan) offer intentionally putrid fruit on which to feast.

Megalith Levitation on Facebook

Pestis Insaniae Records website

Aesthetic Death website

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Forebode, The Pit of Suffering

There is death, and there is sludge. Do doomers mosh in Texas? “Devil’s Due” might provide an occasion to find out, as the second EP, The Pit of Suffering, from Austin extremist slingers Forebode follows 2019’s self-titled short release (review here) with plenty of slow-motion plunder, “Metal Slug” opening in grim praise of weed before the rest of what follows moves from shortest to longest in an onslaught that grows correspondingly more vicious. Rest your head on that bit of twang at the start of “Pit of Suffering” if you want, that’s only going to make it easier for the band to crush your skull in the stretch before it returns at the end. And oh, “Bane of Hammers.” You build in speed and get so brutal, and then you do, you do, you do slam on the brakes and finish out as heavy as possible, an ultimate eat-all-in-its-path tonality that would be off-putting were it not so outright gleeful in its disgusting nature. What fun they’re having making these terrible sounds. Love it.

Forebode on Facebook

Forebode on Bandcamp

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Codex Serafini, Invisible Landscape

Yeah, you think you can hang. You’re like, “Whatever, I like weird psych stuff.” Then Codex Serafini start in with the cave echo wails and the drones and the artsy experimentalism and you’re like, “Well, maybe I’m just gonna go back to Squaresville after all. Work in the morning, you know.” The Brighton, UK, fivesome have four tracks on Invisible Landscape, and I promise you no one of them is more real than the other. In fact, the entire thing is pretend. It doesn’t exist. Neither do you. You thought you did, then the sax started blowing and you realized you were just some kind of semi-sentient wisp swirling around in reverb and what the hell were we talking about okay yeah planets and stuff whatever it doesn’t matter just quick, put this on and be ready for the splatter when “Time, Change & Become” starts. You’re not gonna want to miss it, but there’s no way that stain is ever coming out of that shirt. Kablooie is how the cosmos dies.

Codex Serafini on Facebook

Codex Serafini on Bandcamp

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Stone Deaf, Killers

Killers is the third full-length from Colorado fuzz rockers Stone Deaf, and they continue to have a chorus for every occasion, in this case going so far as to import “Gone Daddy Gone” from your teenage remembrance of Violent Femmes and actually talk about burning witches in the “Burn the Witch”-esque “Tightrope.” Queens of the Stone Age has been and continues to be a defining influence here, but from the electronics in “Cloven Hoof” to the harder edges of closing duo “Silverking” and “San Pedro Winter,” the band refuse to be identified by anything so much as their songcraft, which is tight and sharply produced across the 44 minutes of Killers, their punk rock having grown up but not having dulled so much as found a direction in which to point its angst. A collection of individual tracks, there’s nonetheless a build of momentum that starts early and carries through the entirety of the outing. I’ll leave to you to make the clever remark about there being “no fillers.” Enjoy that.

Stone Deaf on Facebook

Golden Robot Records website

Coffin and Bolt Records website

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Punishment abounds on the self-titled debut EP from Austin, Texas, four-piece Forebode, whose sludgy extremity comes laced with aggression and a tonal heft that only seems to make each landing thud all the more a physical presence. Oh, they’re brutal alright, and especially on their first release, they’re not looking to rewrite the script on what that entails, but fucking hell do they know how to make it happen. Rumbling low end, down-down-down growls over lumbering grooves, a buzz of distortion that’s absolutely consuming — and an atmosphere that’s cavernous and bleak in like proportion. It’s a wide space, and all of it is dead.

“Firebrand” and “Soul Trip” start off with all the gurgle and grim(e) you could hope for, then they turn in a bit of Sabbath-boogie on “Forebode Pt. I” before the second part of the title-track fleshes out a more rock-based groove still in the ultra-weighted methodology of the opening duo. Lead guitar careens through as the throaty screams carry an anti-melody overhead, and as they approach the midpoint, you start to see where it’s all going. Sure enough, after about three minutes, they lock into a mega-nod and thereby set up the beginning of closer “The Primitive Realm” as the punch in the face that it is, all blackened this and blastbeat that.

They transition back to fairly — or unfairly — doomed vibes, but the manifestation of that threat of extremity is not to be understated, and in the context of the rest of the EP, it’s a moment of payoff that one expects will provide them something to learn from as they move forward. That level of all-outness doesn’t return, but in the swinging, Austin Terror Fest-ready pummel that ensues, they find a place between heavy styles that should satisfy claw-hungry zealots and dayjob-having riffheads alike. That’s not always such an easy bridge to cross.

And “Soul Trip,” with its manipulated live and nature footage, doesn’t really show that interest in crossing it. You know that old earthquake footage of the suspension bridge wobbling like a ribbon in breeze? It’s more like that, and sure enough, as crushing as concrete.

So enjoy:

Forebode, “Soul Trip” video premiere

Forebode, formed in 2017, is a heavy metal band taking influence from many genres including, Doom, Sludge, Black Metal, Groove Metal, Stoner Rock, and Hardcore. After numerous line up changes, Forebode is set to release their debut EP in June 2019.

Forebode tracklisting:
1. Firebrand
2. Soul Trip
3. Forebode Pt. I
4. Forebode Pt. II
5. The Primitive Realm

Recorded on December 8th – 23rd, 2018

Forebode is:
TJ Lewis – Vocals
Guillermo Madrigal – Bass
Eddie Konopasek – Guitar
Zach Donnelly – Drums

Forebode on Thee Facebooks

Forebode on Instagram

Forebode on Bandcamp