Posted in Uncategorized on March 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Mars Red Sky aren’t strangers to collaborating with other artists and even full bands. Their 2023 album, Dawn of the Dusk (review here), followed through on a collab with Queen of the Meadow that began on the aptly-named Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow EP (review here), and of course they paired for an EP with Year of No Light (discussed here) way back in 2012, so joining forces isn’t unprecedented. Doing so with an outfit like long-running progressive heavy instrumentalists Monkey3, however, is.
Thus Monkeys on Mars. Think of the textures! Think of the keyboards communing with vocal melodies. Think of two bands who both know so well what they’re about bringing together ideas and seeing what sticks. Think of them doing it live.
I’ve heard none of this at this point, but yeah, sign me up for that EP out Oct. 17. Will hope to have more to come on this one before then. For now, this came from socials:
Hey there,
Stoked and proud to introduce you to special project MONKEYS ON MARS, a sonic journey with our long time friends monkey3 ! It fuses our two universes. This project will perform gigs and festivals thanks to Doomstar Bookings and 3C. We will also release a fully collaborative EP on October 17th 2025 via Mrs Red Sound with support from Napalm Records. We are working on the songs together, not each one their side. It’s an exciting stuff that we are dying to reveal!!
The best The Doom Dad wrote this to describe MONKEYS ON MARS:
“Imagine a uchony in which January 31st 1961 space mission didn’t quite go according to the plan. Ham, the chimpanzee, drifted through Space and found shelter on Mars – soon joined by other monkeys. The homonids colony thus created, developed its own civilisation, freeing itself from the very rules of gravity. The music created by Monkeys on Mars sounds like the soundtrack to this strange story.”
Photo credit Cedric Mathias.
MONKEY3 is: Walter – Drums Jalil – Bass Boris – Guitars dB – Keys and Sounds
MARS RED SKY are: Julien Pras : guitar, vocals Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I didn’t even know Citizen Kane had entered the public domain, but that’s probably to the general benefit of humanity, what with the cautionary tale of oligarchical excess and capitalistic exploitation. True its culture-shifting impact is more about the filmmaking itself than the sociopolitical commentary — funny how that happens — but it’s a classic either way. If you’ve never watched it, it’s like doom: long, slow, rhythmic, repetitive in parts. You’ll love it. Watch out for that screaming bird.
To the matter at hand, France’s Yojimbo have an April 25 release date set for their debut album, Cycles. Today, in addition to the cover art below, the band are unveiling the first single in the driving groove of “Rosebud,” which of course takes its title from the ending of Orson Welles’ ultra-classic. Footage from the movie is spliced in among live shots of the band, and a good time is had by all, despite Welles’ own stern countenance.
From the PR wire:
Carried by a cosmic energy, fuzz tones with progressive hues and powerful vocal flights, the ship YOJIMBO sails through massive and catchy stoner grooves, abyssal depths of doom and explores the ethereal landscapes of post-rock.
After releasing their first EP in 2022, which allowed the quartet to share the stage with bands like IAH, GEEZER, and Villagers Of Ioannina City, YOJIMBO continues its interstellar journey and is determined to conquer new universes with the release of their debut album on 04/25/2025.
In its quest for power and wealth, capitalism breeds monsters willing to do anything. But in the face of death, what remains when regret replaces glory?
Inspired by Citizen Kane (1941), Orson Welles’ masterpiece, Rosebud is the lead single from the debut album, “CYCLES”, set to be released on April 25, 2025. A raw sonic journey where power and fragility collide.
Music by YOJIMBO Recorded @Kawati Studio by Florent Herrbach Mixed by Clément Adolff & Théo Seemann @Studio La Turbine Direction & Video recording by Dom Pichard / P-MOD Movie’s content from CITIZEN KANE (Orson Welles – 1941- public domain) Live footage filmed by Résigraphies’crew (Clélia Wang, Christine Fey, Fred Ergenschaeffter, Stéphanie Dillmann, Greg D’Haillecourt), trained and supervised by Marc Linnhoff as part of Yojimbo’s residency at Espace Django. www.resigraphies.fr
Snowball created by AnneK Lejeal – Atelier M33 Live lighting scenography: William Roussel Video editing by Dom Pichard & Marc Linnhoff
Posted in Reviews on December 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Day four of five for this snuck-in-before-the-end-of-the-year Quarterly Review, and I’m left wondering if maybe it won’t be worth booking another week for January or early February, and if that happens, is it still “quarterly” at that point if you do it like six times a year? ‘Bimonthly Quality Control Assessments’ coming soon! Alert your HR supervisors to tell your servers of any allergies.
No, not really.
I’ll figure out a way to sandwich more music into this site if it kills me. Which I guess it might. Whatever, let’s do this thing.
Quarterly Review #31-40
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Sergeant Thunderhoof, The Ghost of Badon Hill
A marked accomplishment in progressive heavy rock, The Ghost of Badon Hill is the fifth full-length from UK five-piece Sergeant Thunderhoof, who even without the element of surprise on their side — which is to say one is right to approach the 45-minute six-tracker with high expectations based on the band’s past work; their last LP was 2022’s This Sceptred Veil(review here) — rally around a folklore-born concept and deliver the to-date album of their career. From the first emergence of heft in “Badon” topped with Daniel Flitcroft soar-prone vocals, Sergeant Thunderhoof — guitarists Mark Sayer and Josh Gallop, bassist Jim Camp and drummer Darren Ashman, and the aforementioned Flitcroft — confidently execute their vision of a melodic riffprog scope. The songs have nuance and character, the narrative feels like it moves through the material, there are memorable hooks and grand atmospheric passages. It is by its very nature not without some indulgent aspects, but also a near-perfect incarnation of what one might ask it to be.
The stated objective of Swallow the Sun‘s Shining was for less misery, and fair enough as the Finnish death-doomers have been at it for about a quarter of a century now and that’s a long time to feel so resoundingly wretched, however relatably one does it. What does less-misery sound like? First of all, still kinda miserable. If you know Swallow the Sun, they are still definitely recognizable in pieces like “Innocence Was Long Forgotten,” “What I Have Become” and “MelancHoly,” but even the frontloading of these singles — don’t worry, from “Kold” and the ultra Type O Negative-style “November Dust” (get it?), to the combination of floating, dancing keyboard lines and drawn out guitars in the final reaches of the title-track, they’re not short on highlights — conveys the modernity brought into focus. Produced by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, A Day to Remember, Muse), the songs are in conversation with the current sphere of metal in a way that Swallow the Sun have never been, broadening the definition of what they do while retaining a focus on craft. They’re professionals.
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, The Mind Like Fire Unbound
Where’s the intermittently-crushing sci-fi-concept death-stoner, you ask? Well, friend, Lincoln, Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships would like to have a word, and on The Mind Like Fire Unbound, there’s a non-zero chance that word will come in the form of layered death metal growls and rasping throatripper screams representing an insectoid species about to tear more-melodically-voiced human colonizers to pieces. The 45-minute LP’s 14-minute opener “BUGS” that lays out this warning is followed by the harsh, cosmic-paranoia conjuration of “Dark Forest” before a pivot in 8:42 centerpiece “Infinite Inertia” — and yes, the structure of the tracks is purposeful; longest at the open and close with shorter pieces on either side of “Infinite Inertia” — takes the emotive cast of Pallbearer to an extrapolated psychedelic metalgaze, huge and broad and lumbering. Of course the contrast is swift in the two-minute “I Hate Space,” but where one expects more bludgeonry, the shortest inclusion stays clean vocally amid its uptempo, Torche-but-not-really push. Organ joins the march in the closing title-track (14:57), which gallops following its extended intro, doom-crashes to a crawl and returns to double-kick behind the encompassing last solo, rounding out with suitable showcase of breadth and intention.
Planet of Zeus make a striking return with their sixth album, Afterlife, basing their theme around mythologies current and past and accompanying that with a sound that’s both less brash than they were a few years back on 2019’s Faith in Physics (review here) and refined in the sharpness and efficiency of its songwriting. It’s a rocker, which is what one has come to expect from these Athens-based veterans. Afterlife builds momentum through desert-style rockers like “Baptized in His Death” and the hooky “No Ordinary Life” and “The Song You Misunderstand,” getting poppish in the stomp of “Bad Milk” only after the bluesy “Let’s Call it Even” and before the punkier “Letter to a Newborn,” going where it wants and leaving no mystery as to how it’s getting there because it doesn’t need to. One of the foremost Greek outfits of their generation, Planet of Zeus show up, tell you what they’re going to do, then do it and get out, still managing to leave behind some atmospheric resonance in “State of Non-Existence.” There’s audible, continued forward growth and kickass tunes. If that sounds pretty ideal, it is.
Cinematic in its portrayal, Le Premier Soleil de Jan Calet positions itself as cosmically minded, and manifests that in sometimes-minimal — effectively so, since it’s hypnotic — aural spaciousness, but Paris’ Human Teorema veer into Eastern-influenced scales amid their exploratory, otherworldly-on-purpose landscaping, and each planet on which they touch down, from “Onirico” (7:43) to “Studiis” (15:54) and “Spedizione” (23:20) is weirder than the last, shifting between these vast passages and jammier stretches still laced with synth. Each piece has its own procession and dynamic, and perhaps the shifts in intent are most prevalent within “Studiis,” but the closer is, on the balance, a banger as well, and there’s no interruption in flow once you’ve made the initial choice to go with Le Premier Soleil de Jan Calet. An instrumental approach allows Human Teorema to embody descriptive impressions that words couldn’t create, and when they decide to hit it hard, they’re heavy enough for the scale they’ve set. Won’t resonate universally (what does?), but worth meeting on its level.
There are two epics north of the 10-minute mark on Caged Wolves‘ maybe-debut LP, A Deserts Tale: “Lost in the Desert” (11:26) right after the intro “Dusk” and “Chaac” (10:46) right before the hopeful outro “Dawn.” The album runs a densely-packed 48 minutes through eight tracks total, and pieces like the distortion-drone-backed “Call of the Void,” the alt-prog rocking “Eleutheromania,” “Laguna,” which is like earlier Radiohead in that it goes somewhere on a linear build, and the spoken-word-over-noise interlude “The Lost Tale” aren’t exactly wanting for proportion, regardless of runtime. The bassline that opens “Call of the Void” alone would be enough to scatter orcs, but that still pales next to “Chaac,” which pushes further and deeper, topping with atmospheric screams and managing nonetheless to come out of the other side of that harsh payoff of some of the album’s most weighted slog in order to bookend and give the song the finish it deserves, completing it where many wouldn’t have been so thoughtful. This impression is writ large throughout and stands among the clearest cases for A Deserts Tale as the beginning of a longer-term development.
I find myself wanting to talk about how big Liminal Escapism sounds, but I don’t mean in terms of tonal proportion so much as the distances that seem to be encompassed by Greek progressive instrumentalists Anomalos Kosmos. With an influence from Grails and, let’s say, 50 years’ worth of prog rock composition (but definitely honoring the earlier end of that timeline), Anomalos Kosmos offer emotional evocation in pieces that feel compact on either side of six or seven minutes, taking the root jams and building them into structures that still come across as a journey. The classy soloing in “Me Orizeis” and synthy shimmer of “Parapatao,” the rumble beneath the crescendo of “Kitonas” and all of that gosh darn flow in “Flow” speak to a songwriting process that is aware of its audience but feels no need to talk down, musically speaking, to feed notions of accessibility. Instead, the immersion and energetic drumming of “Teledos” and the way closer “Cigu” rallies around pastoral fuzz invite the listener to come along on this apparently lightspeed voyage — thankfully not tempo-wise — and allow room for the person hearing these sounds to cast their own interpretations thereof.
One could not hope to fully encapsulate an impression here of nearly three and a half hours of sometimes-improv psych-drone, and I refuse to feel bad for not trying. Instead, I’ll tell you that Grand Fractal Orchestra — the Psychedelic Source Records 3CD edition of which has already sold out — finds Budapest-based guitarist Ákos Karancz deeply engaged in the unfolding sounds here. Layering effects, collaborating with others from the informal PSR collective like zitherist Márton Havlik or singer Krisztina Benus, and so on, Karancz constructs each piece in a way that feels both steered in a direction and organic to where the music wants to go. “Ore Genesis” gets a little frantic around the middle but finds its chill, “Human Habitat” is duly foreboding, and the two-part, 49-minute-total capper “Transforming Time to Space” is beautiful and meditative, like staring at a fountain with your ears. It goes without saying not everybody has the time or the attention span to sit with a release like this, but if you take it one track at a time for the next four years or so, there’s worlds enough in these songs that they’ll probably just keep sinking in. And if Karancz puts outs like five new albums in that time too, so much the better.
It probably goes without saying — at least it should — that while the classic folk fingerplucking of “Whispering Waters” and the Americana-busy “Laurel Creek Blues” give a sweet introduction to Blake Hornsby‘s A Village of Many Springs, inevitably it’s the 23-minute experimentalist spread of the finale, “Bury My Soul in the Linville River,” that’s going to be a focal point for many listeners, and fair enough. The earthbound-cosmic feel of that piece, its devolution into Lennon-circa-1968 tape noise and concluding drone, aren’t at all without preface. A Village of Many Springs gets weirder as it goes, with the eight-minute “Cathedral Falls” building over its time into a payoff of seemingly on-guitar violence, and the subsequent “O How the Water Flows” nestling into a sweet spot between Appalachian nostalgia and foreboding twang. There’s percussion and manipulation of noise later, too, but even in its repetition, “O How the Water Flows” continues Hornsby‘s trajectory. For what’s apparently an ode to water in the region surrounding Hornsby‘s home in Asheville, North Carolina, that it feels fluid should be no surprise, but by no means does one need to have visited Laurel Creek to appreciate the blues Hornsby conjures for them.
With a sensibility in some of the synth of “Hacamat” born of space rock, Congulus have no trouble moving from that to the 1990s-style alt-rock saunter of “Diri Bir Nefes,” furthering the momentum already on the Istanbul-based instrumentalist trio’s side after opener “İskeletin Düğün Halayı” before “Senin Sırlarının Yenilmez Gücünü Gördüm” spaces out its solo over scales out of Turkish folk and “Park” marries together the divergent chugs of Judas Priest and Meshuggah, there’s plenty of adventure to be had on Göçebe. It’s the band’s second full-length behind 2019’s Bozkır — they’ve had short releases between — and it moves from “Park” into the push of “Zarzaram” and “Vordonisi” with efficiency that’s only deceptive because there’s so much stylistic range, letting “Ulak” have its open sway and still bash away for a moment or two before “Sonunda Ah Çekeriz Derinden” closes by tying space rock, Mediterranean traditionalism and modern boogie together in one last jam before consigning the listener back to the harsher, decidedly less utopian vibes of reality.
This Friday, French progressive heavy rockers Wizard Must Die will release their second album, L’Or des Fous, through respected countryman imprint Klonosphere Records. Building on some of the stylizations of their debut, 2018’s In the Land of the Dead Turtles, the Lyon trio introduce drummer Robin Aillaud to the fold with guitarist/vocalist Florent Michaud and bassist Robin Aillaud (relation assumed) and take a marked step forward in terms of refining their songwriting. Comprised of six tracks running a still-vinyl applicable 48 minutes total — three songs per side, but it breaks down to a longer side A than B, I think, unless there’s some shenanigans in the running order for the LP edition — the album is defined as much by the scope of its reach and dynamic as by the methodical and purposeful nature of how its songs are laid out.
It’s been six years since the debut, but Wizard Must Die answer that with a progressive point of view that proves its patience from the comparatively languid, jazzy opening of “The Breach” as the lead cut makes its way toward the takeoff about a minute in, part of a build that will take place over the song’s six-plus minutes and resolves in a crush of riff executed with no less intent and that maintains the intricacy of the parts before it. By the end it’s practically a boogie. Wizard Must Die aren’t heavy-progging out for five minutes and tacking on a big riff, in other words, but the 12-minute “The Disappearance of Camille Saint Saens” is ultimately headed to a similar place.
As one might suspect, the route it takes to get there is different. Along the way, Michaud channels an inner Thom Yorke for quieter moments while the more emotive crescendos feel born of a Cave In spirit while also taking influence from post-metal and heavy psychedelia. If you heard the first record, it probably won’t come as a surprise that L’Or des Fous is multifaceted — it’s not new in terms of their sound — but the poise and confidence that brings them through the married parts of “The Disappearance of Camille Saint Saens” is crucial to understanding the album as a whole.
Because really, the crux of it is that Wizard Must Die are in control here from the outset. “Flight 19” underscores the point the first two tracks readily make, not only diverging in sound, but shifting intent in terms of the linear structure to allow for an almost deserty sway in the midsection recalled but not emulated by the final march at the end. Each half of L’Or des Fous feels like a course unto itself — though there’s a front-to-back flow as well; but in terms of how it seems to want to be heard, it’s three and three — and considering that, the procession between “The Breach,” “The Disappearance of Camille Saint Saens” and “Flight 19” are all the more impressive for the clear sense of direction and the vision-in-sound manifest in their individual sprawls.
Whether a given stretch is minimalist or full-volume assault, L’Or des Fousdoes not neglect to set the mood, but it does challenge the listener to keep up. “Flight 19” moves from its dreamy middle into a gallop metered by snare taps, and there is respite within those first three songs of the album’s first and longer half (talking about runtimes for sides A and B; awkward phrasing acknowledged), and “Close to the Edge,” which is the presumptive leadoff for side B, turns from an airy strum to a rolling current of distortion, led by the riff but open vocally around the repeating title line, so mirrors “The Breach” somewhat in how it leads off its respective side.
“L’Or des Fous,” the penultimate title-track, picks up from the fluidity with which Wizard Must Die cap “Close to the Edge” and works with no less efficiency into its verse, offers a touch of psychedelic shimmer in the guitar and vocal melody of its chorus, and works through two crescendos, the second one culminating a looser-feeling sway with rumble and crash alike. Like “The Disappearance of Camille Saint Saens” and several others included, closer “Clouds are Not Spheres” has a heft in reserve that by the time it’s done will see the band wield their final hook-groove like it’s a sledgehammer, and so makes a fitting point of conclusion.
The band are still somewhere intangibly dug into post-Porcupine Tree prog while basking in the off-kilter paranoia of the titular lyric and, after it all gets very, very heavy, a raw guitar-and-voice-only epilogue rounds out, as if to highlight one last time that Wizard Must Die have intention behind everything this record does and that even at its most chaotic seeming, their control is unflinching. This is impressive enough in concept before one even gets to the stylistic nuance writ throughout the material here or the ways in which L’Or des Fous shows the band as having learned so much about their persona as a group in the years since In the Land of the Dead Turtles.
It is ambitious, and justifies that ambition in the complexity of the songs while still giving the listener space to exist within the movement between parts, tracks, sides, and so on. It might take a couple listens to sink in, but approach the premiere below with the idea in mind that every measure — even that bit that’s just about establishing a riff before the vocals kick back in; even that sudden stop and twist — has been considered, and see where it takes you.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
PR wire info follows the L’Or des Fous full stream on the player here:
Wizard Must Die on L’Or des Fous:
“‘L’Or des fous’ marks an important evolution in the history of Wizard Must Die. Firstly, because it’s our first album with Robin, our drummer for 5 years now, and he has brought an incredible rhythmic richness and rigor to our tracks. Secondly, because it increasingly asserts our identity, our doubts, our anxieties and our desires for the future. We’re very proud of this new record. We’ve put into it our love for the sound of the ’90s, our passion for stoner and prog and our unhealthy fascination for doom. It’s dense, it’s rich, and you’ve got to put a lot of effort into listening to it! We hope people will like it as much as we do. Now it’s time to bring it to life, to tour as much as possible and get people to listen to it and say: “Yeah, this is a FUCKING album!”
Since 2013, the French trio Wizard Must Die has been riding the waves of the stoner rock scene. Led by singer and guitarist Florent Michaud, alongside bassist Enguerand Dumas and drummer Robin Aillaud, this Lyon-based band blends complex yet direct rock with a progressive and psychedelic twist, drawing comparisons to bands like Baroness, Mars Red Sky, and Motorpsycho. Their debut album In the Land of the Dead Turtles (2018) gained recognition for its exploration of stoner and desert rock genres.
Now, Wizard Must Die is preparing to release their second full-length album, L’Or des Fous, via Klonosphere Records. Recorded and mixed by Christophe Hogommat (Mad Foxes, 20’s Falling Man) and mastered by Thibault Chaumont (Carpenter Brut, Igorrr), this album delves deeper into the band’s identity, offering a more personal and introspective sound.
L’Or des Fous is a blend of powerful riffs, intricate rhythms, and rich atmospheres. The six tracks explore themes of personal evolution, change, and inner growth. To underscore this transformation, Wizard Must Die introduces new instruments like the saxophone and mellotron, expanding their sound beyond stoner rock into progressive and melodic territory. Influenced by 90s rock, the album features subdued vocals and impactful choruses, with the French-language title track, “The Fool’s Gold” capturing the band’s evolving identity.
Tracklisting: 1. The Breach (6:38) 2. The Disappearance of Camille Saint Saens (12:21) 3. Flight 19 (8:44) 4. Close to the Edge (4:21) 5. L’Or des Fous (6:40) 6. Clouds are Not Spheres (9:46)
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Videomaking has been a part of the Mars Red Sky story since the Bordeaux-based band first started rolling out self-made clips for “Strong Reflection” and “Marble Sky” some 14 years ago. The trio’s ongoing collaboration with director Seb Antoine (also drums in Starmonger) is a narrative thread unto itself in the growth of the band over the last 15 years, and the clip out today for “Slow Attack” from the band’s late-2023 album, Dawn of the Dusk (review here), is among the most cinematic clips the two entities have worked together to produce.
In the spirit of 2016’s ambitious clip “Alien Grounds” (posted here) that included “Apex III” and “Sapphire Vessel” from the band’s third album, Apex III (Praise for the Burning Soul) (review here), “Slow Attack” uses more than one piece from Dawn of the Dusk to soundtrack the tale being told. “Heavenly Bodies” from the same record also features in the bookending quiet moments of guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras soft-strumming while bassist/vocalist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau clean up the place, at the start making way for the eyepatch-clad leader of a biker gang who’s about to forced-marry the protagonist of the video.
I won’t spoil how it ends, or the twist of plot that becomes so crucial to understanding it, but there’s a chase and a big bad that feel reminiscent in concept of a sans-pyro Mad Max: Fury Road, and with intermittent shots of the band playing the nearby saloon in this apparent Western ghost town, the song “Slow Attack,” which precedes “Heavenly Bodies” at the end of Dawn of the Dusk, makes a resounding backdrop for a tale of bitter triumph over the trauma that’s held one back. The metaphor is there, but also the visceral visual — you’ll see what I mean when you watch the clip.
Which is what I recommend you do next. In the blue text, there are the credits — I bet this was a good day of filming — and also the December tour dates that Mars Red Sky will pick up with to follow on the Fall US touring they’ve already done in the company of Nashville’s Howling Giant. That Dec. 5 show in Brooklyn is among the things I’m most looking forward to for the rest of 2024, and that list also includes Thanksgiving with family, just to give you some idea of the scale of anticipation. If you’ve never seen either band, you’re in luck as it’s a crucial moment to see both, and if you’re in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston or Philly, you get Black Lung for a bonus.
Clip and all info follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
Mars Red Sky, “Slow Attack” official video
Bordeaux-based doom-psych/heavy-progressives MARS RED SKY launch a video featuring three tracks off their new album ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’ – released back in December on Mrs Red Sound and Vicious Circle Records. MARS RED SKY’s new video “Slow Attack” focuses on a biker gang roaming through a retro-futuristic setting. It’s reminiscent of Mad Max or Easy Rider, but the video is more modern, with a female character at the centre of the action. The short film includes the songs “Trap Door”, “Slow Attack” and “Heavenly Bodies” from the band’s latest album, ‘Dawn Of The Dusk’.
It was directed by Seb Antoine at Fort Rainbow, Cestas (France), with the help of Ronan Boudier and Hugo Vandekerckhove.
Video credits: Directed by Seb Antoine Starring: Anne-Sophie Picard, Gregory Dreyfus Cinematography by Ronan Boudier Motorcycle and stunt double: Dominique Kinast, Floriane Fontaine Camera assistant: Hugo Vandekerckhove Accessoiries and costumes: Frozen Joke Creation, Ouicube Design Photo creation: Pierre-Gérard David Catering: Germain Kpakou Set photographer: Jessica Calvo
Posted in Reviews on October 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Futursis 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Starmonger will release their new album, Occultation, Nov. 29 through Interstellar Smoke Records. Technically speaking, “Black Lodge” — video premiering below — is the second single from it, following behind a standalone release last year for “Page of Swords” (premiered here) that established the new configuration of the trio, with guitarist Arthur Desbois taking over the frontman role and bassist Mathias Friedman joining the rhythm section with drummer Seb Antoine, both of them also adding backing vocals to Desbois‘ leads.
“Page of Swords” came out as the band were setting themselves to the task of recording the rest of Occultation to follow-up 2020’s debut long-player, Revelations (review here), and “Black Lodge” opens the second album with a vibrant chug and a vocal reach that that might make one wonder why Desbois wasn’t singing in the first place. Among the hints Starmonger are willing to drop as to where the album is headed is in the classic doom aspect of the main riff around which “Black Lodge” is built.
As Desbois‘ vocal has a medieval tinge and a tendency toward epic stylizations that plays out in the subsequent, more angularly-rhtyhmic “Conjunction” and the generally quieter “Serpent” that finds itself in two larger swells of volume and dimmer-sun roll, Occultation resounds with doomly undertones, and the scream, riff and thud at the start of centerpiece “Mothra” aren’t exactly fighting the impression, but if it’s doom — and I’m not 100 percent it is; at least not exclusively — it is a deceptively individualized take, as Starmonger are just as comfortable in psychedelic expanse as in “Serpent” as they are crushing grandiose tales.
I’m well aware “psychedelic doom” isn’t a new idea, and if you want to put “progressive” somewhere in there too because the songs and arrangements are thought out and the band know what they’re doing even as “Page of Swords” takes classic mid-OzzySabbathian blues groove as its foundation and expands from there, fine. I honestly doubt Starmonger do much quibbling about genre one way or the other, and given the fluidity with which Occultation plays out, leaning into desert idolatry in he penultimate “Phobos” after dropping hints in that regard across “Page of Swords” along with everything else going on, their time is well spent.
“Phobos” is the longest track at just over seven minutes, and from its mellower-vibing outset, it unfurls with characteristic presence and isn’t necessarily in a rush, but like a lot of what surrounds, finds itself in a pocket of groove that feels right to let the melodies breathe and the distortion hit simultaneously. That the band are unwilling to be contained in a single microgenre is a thing to respect, and where in many hands, a blend like theirs might come off as disjointed in the listening experience, from “Black Lodge” through the memorable finale “Supernova,” with proggy shimmer-drift in its start and an intricate bounce en route to the cosmic declarations with which it caps, Starmonger bring cohesion of purpose and craft such that the material never gets away from them. It’s not chaos, or even controlled chaos, but it is their own, and it wouldn’t work coming from a lot of bands.
The video for “Black Lodge” premiering below finds Starmonger on a cave adventure. Directed by Antoine, the group find some paintings on the walls, a creepy contortionist, and hooded figures riffing out — as one will. Needless to say, a chase through the woods ensues, and everybody faces up to the horrible threat of… malevolent… bloody… bellydancing? Good luck getting out of that one, gentlemen. I won’t spoil who the hooded figures are, but either way, the clip is a good time and no less composed than the song it bears.
Album info follows the video below in the blue text. Please enjoy:
“One of our most ‘heavy rock’ tracks, built like an exquisite corpse alternating frenetic riffs, ghostly vocals, epic chorus and electric spins. The song went through a thousand versions and ideas before crystallising around a common energy. Evoking a pulp story with obvious Lynchian and Lovecraftian references, Black Lodge is the story of a character lured into a trap set by occult powers. Replaced by an evil doppelganger, he becomes a prisoner of his own conscience, condemned to be a powerless spectator for the rest of his life. The song symbolises the possibility of the worst in all of us, capable of profoundly transforming us with no turning back.”
Video directed & edited by Seb Antoine. Starring : Neko Hecate as the Explorer / the Priestres Cinematography and grading : Pierre-Emmanuel Leydet Band photo by Cécile Corbois
Space rock, doom, desert, classic rock.. STARMONGER’s new album ‘Occultation’ draws on the classics to compose their intergalactic epic soundtrack. This heroic stoner record with its charismatic vocals, embarks its audience on an occult sonic journey. Built like tales, the seven tracks illustrate a limitless imagination where strange shamanic hallucinations rub shoulders with an interplanetary class struggle.
“Each of the tracks on Occultation evokes a literal or inner struggle, and has a temporal and spatial progression. These themes are reflected throughout the album’s artwork, which we designed and created ourselves. The album cover is an abstraction of wisps of smoke, an unknown planet and an imperfect alignment. The tracks are linked together by a raw symbolism evoking mysticism and forgotten stories” comment the band.
TRACK LISTING ‘Occultation’ 1. Black Lodge 2. Conjunction 8. Serpent 4. Mothra 5. Page Of Swords 6. Phobos 7. Supernova
Recorded by Jéröme Richelme and Stoneriver Audio at DGD Studio, Pantin (France), except “Page of Swords”, recorded by Vincent Liard. Mixed and mastered by Jéröme Richelme. Artwork and layout: Starmonger.
STARMONGER: Arthur Desbois: lead vocals, guitar Mathias Friedman: bass, backing vocals Seb Antoine: drums, backing vocals
Hey, here’s a tour I haven’t posted about in… days? But, you know, sometimes shows get added to a thing, then sometimes more shows get added to that same thing, and here we are. When last we left US jaunt from Bordeaux’s Mars Red Sky in the company of Nashville’s Howling Giant, the groups had added a stretch of Dec. 5-15 to the in-progress September stint. The span of dates is the same as of now, but the shows taking place over that time have begun to fill in. Asheville, Toronto and Youngstown are new here at least, so hey, if you live in one of those places, good for you. I see an open date where a New Jersey show could be handily slotted, but more likely they’ll split that drive from Philadelphia to North Carolina, because that’s a hike.
Also notable, Baltimore’s Black Lung will jump on board for the first four nights, in their hometown as well as Brooklyn, Boston and Philly. Mars Red Sky, Howling Giant, Black Lung is a pretty sick show. I can’t and won’t tell you how to live your life, but that doesn’t seem to me to be a terrible way to do it, again, if that’s where in the world you happen to be at the time.
Crucialfest tomorrow, though, and a bunch more to go — also Ripplefest, because it’s also been like three minutes since I talked about that, on the 21st — before they get there, as the post from Mars Red Sky‘s socials reminds:
USA TOUR / NEW DATES
A quick update on the US tour with all the confirmed dates in December! Still with our dear Howling Giant and also with BLACK LUNG for a few gigs. Cheers!
FALL (remaining) 09.13 SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Crucialfest 09.14 LAS VEGAS, NV – Sinwave Vegas 09.15 SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Bottom of the Hill 09.16 SACRAMENTO, CA – Cafe Colonial 09.17 LOS ANGELES, CA – El Cid on Sunset 09.19 ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Launchpad 09.20 EL PASO, TX – Rosewood 09.21 AUSTIN, TX – RippleFest Texas
WINTER 12.05 BALTIMORE, MD – Metro Baltimore * 12.06 BROOKLYN, NY – TV Eye NYC * 12.07 CAMBRIDGE/BOSTON, MA – Middle East * 12.08 PHILADELPHIA, PA – MilkBoy * 12.10 ASHEVILLE, NC – Eulogy 12.11 LOUISVILLE, KY – Portal Louisville 12.12 DETROIT, MI – Sanctuary Detroit 12.13 YOUNGSTOWN, OH – Westside Bowl 12.14 TORONTO, ON 🇨🇦 Monarch Tavern 12.15 MONTREAL, QC 🇨🇦 Foufounes Electriques * with BLACK LUNG
MARS RED SKY are: Julien Pras : guitar, vocals Jimmy Kinast : bass, vocals Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau : drums, vocals
