Posted in Whathaveyou on January 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Not so terribly far removed from the Sept. 2023 release of their latest full-length, New Blood (review here), Sierra Vista, Arizona’s Fuzz Evil would seem to have answered the call for some themselves. Founded by brothers Joey Rudell and Wayne Rudell, the band have welcomed Cajun Adam, who is at least their fourth drummer, and multi-instrumentalist/guitarist Preston Jenning, who’ll make their debut with the now-a-four-piece band on the new EP, Smear Merchants. When’s that out? I don’t know, but they covered The Cars‘ “Just What I Needed” — and I’m sorry for getting the song stuck in your head just by mentioning the title, Ric Ocasek‘s magnum opus of catchy is infectious — and that’s a fun nugget to go on for today.
Looking at the below, I’m not actually sure “Just What I Needed” will show up on the EP, either, but I guess we’ll find out sometime in the coming months. Until then, the cover tune and the stream of New Blood are down at the bottom there and you can read more from the PR wire in the blue text.
Enjoy:
Fuzz Evil Expands Sonic Horizon as a Four-Piece Band with New Single and EP Release
Fuzz Evil, the powerhouse three-piece known for their infectious blend of doom and stoner rock, is set to kick off 2024 with a bang. On January 5, the band will drop their latest single, a cover of The Cars’ classic hit “Just What I Needed,” available on all major streaming platforms. This marks a thrilling departure from their signature sound and showcases the band’s versatility.
Following the single release, Fuzz Evil will treat fans to a brand new EP titled “Smear Merchants,” an eagerly anticipated follow-up to their 2023 ,”New Blood ” album. “Smear Merchants” is poised to captivate listeners with its immersive sonic experience, delving deeper into the realms of doom and stoner rock. Serving as a sister record to their self-titled release in 2016, this EP promises to deliver a fresh perspective on Fuzz Evil’s evolving musical journey.
In 2023, Fuzz Evil expanded their sonic horizons by adding two new talented members to their lineup, further enriching their musical tapestry. Preston Jenning, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, joined the band to lend his skills on guitar, baritone, and synth duties. His musical prowess is expected to add new dimensions to Fuzz Evil’s evolving sound. Cajun Adam, the newest addition on drums, brings a rhythmic intensity that complements the band’s dynamic energy.
Fuzz Evil has built a solid reputation in the rock scene, and “Smear Merchants” is poised to be a milestone in their discography. Fans can look forward to a sonic journey that transcends boundaries, blending the familiar with the unexpected.
To stay updated on Fuzz Evil’s latest releases and upcoming shows, follow them on handles here:https://linktr.ee/fuzzevil
Posted in Reviews on November 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Don’t ask me if the ‘quarter’ in question is Fall or Winter, and I’m still planning another QR probably in early January or even December if I can sneak it, but I was able to sneak this week in while no one was looking at the calendar — mostly, that is, while I wasn’t filling said calendar with other stuff — and I decided to make it happen. I even used the ol’ Bing AI to make a header image for it. I was tired of all the no-color etchings. It’s been a decade of that at this point. I’ll try this for a bit and see how I feel about it. The kind of thing that matters pretty much only to me.
This might go to 70, but for right now it’s 50 releases Monday to Friday starting today, 10 per day. I know the drill. You know the drill. Let’s get it going.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Negative Reaction, Zero Minus Infinity
Holy fucking shit this rips. You want sludge? Call the masters. There are two generations of bands out there right now trying to tap into the kind of slow and ultra-heavy disaffection — not to mention the guitar tone — of Negative Reaction, and yet, no hype whatsoever. This record didn’t come to me from some high-level public relations concern. It came from Kenny Bones, who founded Negative Reaction over 30 years ago in Long Island (he and thus the band are based in West Virginia now) and whose perpetual themes between crushing depression and the odd bit of Star Wars-franchised space opera have rarely sounded more intentionally grueling. Across six songs and a mood-altering 46 minutes, Bones, bassist KJ and drummer Brian Alien bludgeon with rawness and volume-worship weight that, frankly, is the kind of thing riff-dudes on social media should be tripping over themselves to be first to sing its praises, the lurch in “Back From the Sands” feeling sincere in its unconscious rifference (that’s a reference you make with a riff) to Saint Vitus‘ “Born Too Late,” and maybe Negative Reaction were, or maybe they were born too early, or whatever, but it’s not like they’ve been a fit at any point in the last 30-plus years — cheeky horror riff chugging in “Space Hunter,” all-out fuckall-punker blast in “I’ll Have Another” before the 13-minute flute-laced (yes, Bones is on it) cosmic doom finish of “Welcome to Infinity,” etc., reaffirming square-peg status — because while there’s an awful lot of sludge out there, there’s only ever been one Negative Reaction. Bones‘ and company’s angry adventures, righteous and dense in sound, continue unabated.
Arizona brothers Wayne and Joey Rudell return with New Blood, the first Fuzz Evil full-length since High on You (review here) in 2018, and make up for lost time with 53 minutes of new material across 13 songs from the post-Queens of the Stone Age rock at the outset in “Suit Coffin” to the slow, almost Peter Gabriel-style progressivism of “Littlest Nemo,” the nighttime balladry of “Gullible’s Travel” or the disco groove of “Keep on Living.” Those three are tucked at the end, but Fuzz Evil telegraph new ideas and departures early in “My Own Blood” and even the speedier “Run Away,” with its hints of metal, pulls to the side from “Souveneers,” the hooky “G.U.M.O.C.O.,” a cut like “Heavy Glow” (premiered here) finding some middle ground between attitude-laced desert rock and the expansions thereupon of some New Blood‘s tracks. Shout to “We’ve Seen it All” as the hidden gem. All Fuzz Evil have ever wanted is to write songs and maybe make someone — perhaps even you — dance at a show. With the obvious sweat and soul put into New Blood, a little boogieing doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
A second full-length from Serbia’s Cardinal Point, Man or Island asks its central question — are you a man or an island — in the leadoff title-track. I’m not sure what being one or the other delineates, but masculinity would seem to be preferred judging by the Down-style riffing of “Stray Dog” or the heavy-like-1991 “Right ‘n’ Ready,” which feels like it was written for the stage, whether or not it actually was. “Sunrise” borders on hard country with its uber-dudeliness, but closer “This Chest” offers tighter-twisting, Lo-Pan-style riffing to cap. The tracks are pointedly straightforward, making no pretense about where the band is coming from or what they want to be doing as players. The grooves swing big and the choruses are delivered with force. You wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but the Vranje-based four-piece aren’t trying to revolutionize heavy so much as to speak to various among those traditions that birthed it. They succeed in that here, and in making the results their own.
Voices far more expert than mine have given pinpointed analyses of Vlimmer‘s goth-as-emotive-vehicle, semi-electronic, sometimes-heavy post-punk, New Dark Wave, etc., stylistic reach as relates to the Berlin-based solo artist’s latest full-length, Zerschöpfung, but hearing The Cure in “Makks” and “Fatalideal” taken to a place of progressive extrapolation on “Platzwort” and to hear the Author & Punisher-informed slow industrial churn of the penultimate “Todesangst” become the backdrop for a dreamy vocal like Tears for Fears if they stayed up all night scribbling in their notebook because they had so much to say. Vlimmer (né Alexander Leonard Donat) has had a productive run since the first numbered EPs started showing up circa 2015, and Zerschöpfung feels like a summation of the style he’s established as his own, able to speak to various sides of underground and outsider musics without either losing itself in the emotionalism of the songs or sublimating identity to genre.
Dutch sludge metallers No Gods No Masters may seem monolithic at first on their second full-length, the self-released Torment, but the post-metallic dynamics in the atmospheric guitar on lead cut “Into Exile” puts the lie to the supposition. Not that there isn’t plenty of extreme crush to go around in “Into Exile” and the four songs that follow — second track “Towering Waves” and closer “End” on either side of the 10-minute mark, “Such Vim and Vigor” and “A God Among the Waste” shorter like “Into Exile” in a five-to-six-minute range — as the band move from crawling ambience to consuming, scream-topped ultra-doom, leave bruises with elbows thrown before the big slowdown in “Such Vim and Vigor” and tear ass regardless of tempo through the finale, and while they never quite let go of the extremity of their purpose, neither do they forget that their purpose is more than extremity. Torment sounds punishing superficially — certainly the title gives a hint that all is not sunshine and puppies — but a deeper listen is met by the richness of No Gods No Masters‘ approach.
Italian psych rockers Ananda Mida are joined by a host of guests throughout their third full-length, Reconciler, including a return appearance from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs on the extended heavy psych blueser “Swamp Thing” (14:52) and the four-part finale “Doom and the Medicine Man (Pt. V-VIII)” (22:09), which draws a thread through the history of prog and acid rocks, kraut and space applying no less to the 12-minute “Lucifer’s Wind” as to the surf-riffing “Reconciling” after — the latter gets a reprise on platter two of the 83-minute 2LP — as Ananda Mida dig deep into the shining thrust in the early verses of “Never Surrender” that give over to thoughtful jamming in the song’s second half, finding proto-metallic resolve in “Following the Light” before reconciling “Reconciling (Reprise)” and unfurling “Doom and the Medicine Man” like the lost ’70s coke-rock epic it may well be in some other universe, complete with the acoustic postscript. It’s two records’ worth of ambitious, and it’s two records’ worth of record. This is exploratory on a stylistic level. Searching.
Lumbering out of El Paso, Texas (where folks know what salsa should taste like), with seven tracks across a 23-minute debut EP, Ojo Malo follow a Sabbathian course of harder-edged doom, thick in its groove through “Crow Man” after the “Intro” and speedier with an almost nu-metal crunch in “Charon the Ferryman.” There’s Clutch and C.O.C. influences in the riffing, but there are tougher elements too, a tension that wouldn’t have been out of place 28 years ago on a Prong record, and the swing in “Black Trip Lord” has an undercurrent of aggression that comes forward in its chugging second half. The penultimate “Grim Greefo Rising” offers more in terms of melody after its riffy buildup, and “Executioner” reveals the Judas Priest that’s been in the band’s collective heart all the while. Bookended with manipulated sounds from the recordings in “Intro” and “Outro,” Black Light Fever Tripping sounds exactly like it doesn’t have time for your bullshit so get your gear off stage now and don’t break down your cymbals up there or it’s fucking on.
Druid Fluids — aka Adelaide, Australia’s Jamie Andrew, plus a few friends on drums, piano, and so on — inhabits a few different personae out of psychedelic historalia throughout Then, Now, Again & Again, finding favorites in The Beatles in “Flutter By,” “Into Me I See” (both with sitar), and “Layers” while peopling other songs specifically with elements drawn from David Bowie and the solo work of Lennon and McCartney, all of which feels like fair game for the meticulously-arranged 11-song collection. “Sour’s Happy Fantasy” offers sci-fi fuzz grandeur, while “Timeline” is otherworldly in all but the central strum holding it to the ground — a singularly satisfying melody — and “Out of Phase” swaggers in like Andrew knows he was born in the wrong time. He might’ve been, but he seems to have past, present and future covered either way in this material, some of which was reportedly written when he was a teenager but which has no doubt grown more expansive in the intervening years.
The years between their 2017 self-titled three-songer EP and the forthcoming 11-track debut full-length, Saturn V, would seem to have found Philly heavy rockers Gibbous Moon refining their approach in terms of craft and process. “Blue Shelby” has a turn on guitar like Dire Straits as vocalist Noelle Felipe (also bass) drops references to Scarface in “Blue Shelby” and brings due classicism to Mauro Felipe‘s guitar on “Ayadda.” That song, as well as “Everything” and closer “Peacemaker,” tie the EP to the LP, but Noelle, Mauro and drummer Michael Mosley are unquestionably more confident in their delivery, whether it’s the bass in the open reaches of “Sine Wave” or the of-course-it’s-speed-rock “Follow that Car” and its punker counterpart “Armadillo.” Space rock is a factor in “Indivisible,” and “Inflamed” is almost rockabilly in its tense verse, but wherever Gibbous Moon go, their steps are as sure as the material itself is solid. I’m not sure when this is actually out, if it’s 2023 or 2024, but heads up on it.
Arranged shortest to longest between the ah-oo-oo-ah-ah hookiness of “Sucker’s Disease” (3:03), the nodder rollout of “Daughters of the Sun” (5:47) and the reach into psych-blues jamming in “Goddess Land” (7:03), Mother Magnetic‘s self-titled three-song EP is the first public offering from the Brisbane four-piece of vocalist Rox, guitarist James, bassist Tim and drummer Danny, and right into the later reaches of the last of those tracks, the band’s intentions feel strongly declarative in establishing their melodic reach, an Iommi-circa-’81 take on riffmaking, and a classic boozy swagger to the vocals to match. There was a time, 15-20 years ago, when demos like this ruled the land and were handed to you, burned onto archaic CD-Rs, in the vain hope you might play them in your car on the way home from the show. To not do so in this case would be inadvisable. There’s potential in the songwriting, yes, but also on a performance level, for growth as individuals and as a group, and considering where Mother Magnetic are starting in terms of chemistry, that’s all the more an exciting prospect.
Posted in Questionnaire on July 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Wayne & Joey Rudell of Fuzz Evil
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Wayne: Well, we’re two brothers that make some of the dirtiest fuzz rock this side of the San Pedro River.
Joey: Wayne and I have been playing music together since we were little kids. Our parents were ungodly religious, so we ended up starting out playing in Church. At one point we were playing 7 days a week if you include the practices for church and our own band including all the shows/services.
Wayne: Of course, that ended when they found out we listened to Marilyn Manson and Tool.
Joey: Yeah, we’ll the church started turning to a Cult anyway.
Wayne: Hell, but at least we got to learn how to play gospel out of it.
Joey: Right lol. So, our first band was called 12tone. It’s cool to have a recording from when you were just a kid. Some of those songs are a Jam. We were totally a Prog Rock band. Probably because we were so into Tool at the time.
Wayne: We have a bandcamp for 12tone still out there. https://12tone.bandcamp.com/album/vertigo
Joey: Man, the song Vertigo is still a jam. We played a bunch of local shows as 12tone and then we just kind of morphed into Powered Wig Machine. All the same band members. Really nothing changed except the style of music.
Wayne: The song Seven Four kinda got us into the whole stoner rock movement. It’s wild because our mom was an acute paranoid schizophrenic and the bridge section of Seven Four has a recording of a phone call I got from her.
Joey: I’d say that our very first Powered Wig Machine album still had some 12tone feel to it. Like the song Death by Suplex. That still was very progressive. We played a ton of shows as Powered Wig Machine and really went on some great Journeys. I guess Fuzz Evil happened because Daniel (Drums) and Dusty (Guitar) were both having kids and couldn’t commit as much time to playing anymore.
Wayne: Joey and I wanted to do something different, and it quickly became our main project.
Joey: I really like Fuzz Evil, it’s something that is more akin to Wayne and I playing when we were kids. Just the two of us writing riffs. We play off each other well.
Describe your first musical memory.
Joey: We’ve been playing music together for as long as we can remember.
Wayne: I have distinct memory of Joey and I jamming. We were probably 16 and 12, maybe younger. We were recording on one of those old tape recorders where you had to press down the play and record button at the same time. We had our little amps cranked up to 10 rocking out something fierce.
Joey: Right in the middle of the recording our Mom burst into the room and screams at us “Turn it down” “Turn ..it..DOWN” “THINGS ARE FALLING”.
Wayne: hahaha. The moment she walked away we started jamming again.
Joey: I remember listening to that recording like a 1000 times. It was hilarious to hear the few second pause after the door closes and then us starting to play again.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Wayne: Probably playing with Eagles of Death Metal at the Rialto Theatre in Tucson.
Joey: That was a rad show. That show was pretty much sold out.
Wayne: After the show we were hanging out with Jesse, Danger Ehren (from Jackass) who was working as their camera man, and the guys from Black Magic Flower Power showed up for a real rager in the Rialto green room. What a fun night.
Joey: I know this is not like a single memory, but honestly, I’d say that the first time we went on tour up the coast with Orgo will always hold a special place in my heart. We had a blast. Shenanigans every night.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Wayne: I’d say, my views on how to put out music and the music scene in general. I guess I had this old guard view of how things had to be done. Because that was the way they were always done. Truth is, there is no right or wrong way to do it. Nowadays it’s even easier for us with platforms like TikTok, Wix, Bandcamp, etc.. You can build a whole career, with a huge demand, without even leaving your house. Within the last year I’ve seen so many people in the entertainment industry gain notoriety on Tiktok without ever touring. Then the moment they do tour they are playing major venues. It’s changing the whole way I’m looking at what we are doing with Fuzz Evil.
Joey: So was this question supposed to be about music or are you trying to take us down the rabbit hole. Honestly, I can’t really think of any belief I firmly hold. Beliefs are perspectives based on assumptions. Most things in life are gray, not black and white. If you go down any path long enough you’ll realize that believing anything too much is probably steeped in logical fallacies. Haha, this perspective probably stems from the emotional trauma of having a schizophrenic mother, and being punished for illogical things as a child.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Wayne: I think artistic progression is a double-edged sword. It can lead you to some real genre inspiring music, similar to what King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard do on every record, or it can lead you down a path where it’s almost like an inside joke, musically. I love Mars Volta, but their last couple albums were so progressive that they lost us. Still an amazing band, but it’s a double-edged sword.
Joey: I’m with you on that. I’d also say that artistic progression has a lot to do with why you want to progress artistically. Some people write music for themselves, and some people write music for others. Which one takes precedence will drive the progression. I think there should be a balance between the two. I love playing music because I like to make something I can look back on with pride and for others to appreciate. For us, even though it was the same members between 12tone and Powered Wig Machine we changed band names and genres. Now we are on to Fuzz Evil, still Wayne and I. I don’t think there is any right or wrong way to go about it.
How do you define success?
Joey: I believe that our lives are our legacy. To me creating something that others appreciate, whether it be art, music, or just memories is success to me. I always joke that you can spend your entire life staying at home doing what you always do and years will go by and you’ll have no distinct memories, or you can go out and do something wild and have a great story to tell.
Wayne: I’d define success as when people look back on your whole body of work and it holds some weight to it. Maybe, we’ll never be arena famous, but I love making music and that’s the true inspiration. When people look back at Fuzz Evil or Powered Wig Machine, it might not hold as much weight as Led Zepplin or Black Sabbath, but it may hold its own like Rare Earth. I’m ok with being the Rare Earth of stoner rock.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Wayne: Uh, Two Girls one Cup?
Joey: That’s a good one. I still wish I never say that Youtube video of those two dogs humping and then the one dies mid banging. In all honesty, I’ve been pretty lucky in life, and haven’t had to experience anything extremely traumatic that keeps me up at night.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Wayne: We are currently making shorts of an animated series called “Fuzz Off”. It’s an animated series that personifies guitar pedals. Kinda like South Park meets Beavis and Butthead. I’m really hoping we can get a deal with someone like adult Swim to make these full-time.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Wayne: I believe it’s the tangible expression of who you are as a person. When a song is heavy or beautiful you are experiencing that artist’s interpretations of those emotions through their life experiences.
Joey: To get laid or help others get laid. Haha, I mean think about it. What IS the purpose of art. At a fundamental level it’s peacocking. Seriously though, as an artist I’d say the most essential function of art is to express myself and communicate my emotions. As an appreciator I’d say the most essential function is escapism. Something that helps you forget about everything for just a moment.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Wayne: Season 18 of APEX. I’m a huge gamer. They really messed up the ranking in Season 17. Everyone hit the highest rank you can hit. Something like 20% of the player base. I hit Masters, haha. Looking forward to something a little more challenging in Season 18. Hit me up, I’m Wolf_Blitzinator on PS5 if you want to get down.
Joey: Uh, I don’t know. Retirement? Actually, I’m a huge gamer too, but I haven’t touch Diablo 4 or the Zelda yet because I’ve been too busy working on music/art stuff. Looking forward to playing these. I mean, if we are dropping gamertags I’m Shakalo on everything.
Posted in audiObelisk on July 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Tomorrow, July 7, Sierra Vista, Arizona’s Fuzz Evil will release their first new music in five years. The band propelled by the brotherly duo of Wayne and Joey Rudell have been proffering outsider desert rock since they showed up on a 2014 split with Chiefs as they evolved out of Powered Wig Machine, and their new single “Heavy Glow” and upcoming fourth album, New Blood, help get the point across that the band are back and looking to catch as many ears as possible. Last heard from with 2018’s High on You(review here) — they also had the of-era quarantine video “Better off Alone (Redux)” in 2020 — the Rudells look to issue New Blood and claim their place in the desert-heavy pantheon in the coming months, and “Heavy Glow” provides an enticing glimpse at some of what might be on offer.
Which means that, no, I haven’t heard the whole record yet, and no, I don’t have an exact release date yet. Fuzz Evil have never been ones for working without a plan — their songs are well structured and the band seems to function similarly — and in listening to “Heavy Glow,” at least part of the objective seems to have been an expansion of their sound. In under three minutes, Fuzz Evil remove themselves from baseline desert rock and can be heard using the production of the song itself as an instrument. Even before the layered vocals of its chorus, the buildup of the riff around which the song works — insistent but not overbearing, actively working to engage the audience from the first second onward — and the shift into the first verse, the layering there and the shift to the bridge and back; these smooth changes and the shifts in vocal effects and the extra voices in the chorus demonstrate the band’s branching out in terms of sound. Clearly a professional presentation was somewhere among their goals for their latest batch of material, and at least with “Heavy Glow,” they hit that mark easily.
And yes, there was a band called Heavy Glow. They broke up in 2017 and so far as I know, the song is not about them. If I’m wrong about that, fine. Either way, it’s not a diss track or anything. Would be awesome though if bands started writing songs about how cool other bands are. Maybe some day we’ll get there. Same team and all that.
With the caveat of more to come, here’s “Heavy Glow” a day early. The pre-save link and more info follow, courtesy of the band via the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Fuzz Evil Unleashes the Dirtiest Glow Up from the Deserts of Arizona with New Single “Heavy Glow”
Prepare to be engulfed in the relentless, scorching waves of desert fuzz rock as Fuzz Evil, the formidable band from the Borderlands of Arizona, returns with their long-awaited single “Heavy Glow.” Brothers Wayne and Joey Rudell, the dynamic duo behind Fuzz Evil, are back with a vengeance, ready to ignite the music scene once again. This powerful track is the first glimpse of their upcoming third release titled “New Blood,” marking the band’s triumphant return after a three-year hiatus.
Fuzz Evil has long been known for their signature brand of gritty, unapologetic fuzz rock that transports listeners straight to the arid heart of the Arizona desert. Since their inception, the band has been celebrated for their electrifying live performances and ear-rattling studio recordings, building a dedicated fan base both locally and globally.
“Heavy Glow” stands as a testament to the Rudell brothers’ musical prowess, delivering a auditory assault of colossal riffs and thunderous rhythms that will leave fans craving for more. The song showcases Fuzz Evil’s growth and evolution while staying true to their desert rock roots. Wayne’s hauntingly raw vocals intertwine seamlessly with The layers of bass and guitar work, creating an entrancing synergy that echoes through every note.
The single “Heavy Glow” will be released on all major digital platforms on [7.7.23], setting the stage for the arrival of “New Blood.” Fuzz Evil invites all fans, both new and old, to join them on this exhilarating musical odyssey.
Tracklist: 1. Suit Coffin 2. My Own Blood 3. Run Away 4. Perfect Slut 5. Heavy Glow 6. The Silver Bells 7. G.U.M.O.C.O 8. We’ve Seen it All 9. New Blood 10. Souveneers 11. Littlest Nemo 12. Gullible’s Travel 13. Keep on Livin’
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 21st, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know how much cash a name-your-price comp is bringing in ultimately, but the not-cynical part of me wants to think supporting bands is still something humans are interested in doing, so here’s another way to do that. And if you name your price and your price is nothing, that’s not me trying to guilt you. Over 800,000 people filed for first-time unemployment insurance last month in the US. England has super-covid. Shit is tough everywhere and for everyone. There’s a reason it’s name-your-price and not $35.
As for critical observation, here’s one: John Gist does good work, Ripple Music does good work and these bands do good work. Stay tuned for more heavy hitting insights on the next episode. Make sure you like and subscribe.
All of the following comes from Bandcamp:
The Revolution Lives ***A Benefit for the Bands!***
In this day of the coronavirus-enforced shutdown of live shows, Ripple and Vegas Rock Revolution wanted to join forces to rejoice about all the great live music we’ve experienced. Based in Vegas, John Gist, running VRR has created a heavy underground scene where none existed! From his infamous Planet Desert Rock weekends to his numerous shows at Danny Koker’s Count’s Vamp’d, the Beauty Bar, and Bunkhouse Saloon among others, VRR has brought tons of Ripple bands to Vegas to rock the hell outta the desert.
So, now let’s celebrate. Think of this compilation as a virtual show… holding space until the real ones can resume.
Dig into this free comp, made just for you, summarizing all the Ripple family that has journeyed to the desert to play for VRR. Gist himself chose this tracklist and the incomparable Kyrre Bjurling provided the stellar art.
Although the album is “pay what you want” any proceeds raised for the purchase of this compilation will go to help out all the bands that have missed out on being able to perform live shows.
Dig in, and let’s unite when this is over to rock the hell out once again!
Tracklisting: 1. Brutal Winds – Freedom Hawk 04:54 2. Oklahoma Black Magic – The Watchers 04:29 3. Nothing to Lose – Void Vator 03:43 4. Chopper Wired – War Cloud 03:34 5. City Nights – Mothership 05:22 6. Lonely One Kenobi – Mos Generator 05:06 7. Into the Shredder – Ape Machine 03:56 8. Ain’t Trying to Go Down Slow – Shotgun Sawyer 03:16 9. Sun and Mist – Salem’s Bend 05:16 10. Hour Glass – High Priestess 06:46 11. Isolation – Wino 04:12 12. Three Minutes to Midnight – Wo Fat 06:20 13. Fathoms – Horseburner 08:12 14. Sunshine of Your Love – Blackwulf 03:38 15. The Grace of Time – Mr Bison 07:22 16. Light of Day – The Hazytones 03:56 17. Hypnotized – Red Desert 04:17 18. Fog of Whores – Cortez 04:55 19. Cactus Highways – Red Mesa 03:09 20. Better Off Alone – Fuzz Evil 04:42 21. Low Tide – Chiefs 03:48
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 17th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
There’s a certain art to quarantine-style videomaking at this point. As the last 10 months or thereabouts have demonstrated, while live show opportunities may evaporate, there are still avenues — most of them digital — through which a band might harness a bit of forward momentum. Quite often, that’s resulted in boxed-off dudes putting together video clips either of songs performed live or prior-recorded, and in the case of Fuzz Evil, they’ve reworked one of their many, many quality hooks in the form of “Better Off Alone (Redux),” taking the track of the same name — minus the “redux” part, duh — from 2017’s The Second Coming of Heavy: Chapter Seven (review here) split with Switchblade Jesus and perhaps giving it the winking new interpretation as a timely reminder about the need to stay socially distant.
Certainly, as the US moves toward the Thanksgiving holiday, virology experts would seem to endorse this message, and if you’re on the same page as Dr. Anthony “The Fauch” Fauci, you’re probably doing something right.
Will Fuzz Evil‘s “Better Off Alone (Redux)” be adopted as a public service reminder to stay at home and be extra thankful you neither have COVID-19 nor have to participate in awkward around-the-table political discussions? Shit I hope so. Wouldn’t that be great? All of a sudden you start seeing Fuzz Evil in commercials and stuff of people wearing masks and behaving like responsible adults instead of petulant-ass, gotta-have-muh-freedom-to-make-yer-mom-sick dickweeds? I’d be so into it. Someone call the branding officer at the Centers for Disease Control. That’s definitely a position that exists, right? Because the CDC needs marketing? Should I send a resumé?
May you live in interesting times.
Okay.
Fuzz Evil released their High on You (review here) sophomore LP in 2018, which makes them about due for a third outing since their self-titled debut (review here) was 2016, but you know, scheduling and all that.
Enjoy the clip. It’s a good one:
Fuzz Evil, “Better Off Alone (Redux)” official video premiere
Published on 13 November 2020 – restricted by the outbreak of the COVID 19 virus, and isolated from one another, we thought we’d record our own separate video parts of ‘Better off Alone.’
‘Better Off Alone – redux”, taken from the Second Coming of Heavy Chapter 7 split by Ripple Featuring Switchblade Jesus and Fuzz evil, released 08 December 2017.
Posted in Features on December 20th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Please note: This post is not culled in any way from the Year-End Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2018 to that, please do.
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It just wouldn’t be a year if it wasn’t completely overwhelming, right?
2018 has certainly met that standard and then some. The swath of output, whether it’s a new generation adopting and adapting established methods or out and out reinventing the stylistic wheel and then pushing it uphill on a seemingly endless barrage of tours, has been staggering, and it’s still happening. There’s a little more than a week to go in the year. You think a band isn’t putting something out today? Of course they are. It’s every day. It’s all the time.
But this year wasn’t just about quantity either. I think one of my biggest struggles in writing about albums in 2018 — and with the last Quarterly Review and various premieres and video posts that were basically album reviews in disguise, let’s estimate we’re somewhere past 300 records reviewed one way or another — was in conveying just how killer so much of the stuff coming through was. How many times can you say the word “awesome?” Well, I’m sure we’ll see it a few more times before this list is over, so there you go.
I say something like this every time I do a list, but please keep in mind these are my picks and I’m one person. But I am a person. I know there’s the whole internet-anonymity thing, but I assure you, I’m a human being (more of a cave troll, really) typing these words. I’m all for everyone sharing their own picks in the comments, and all for passionate advocating, but please, let’s keep it civil and respectful. These things can spiral out of control quickly, but let’s remember that we’re all human beings and worth of basic courtesy, even if some of us are dead wrong about a good many things. You should definitely punch nazis, though.
Thanks in advance for reading. Here we go:
[UPDATE: You’ll notice the inclusion of an ’18a.’ I had Stoned Jesus in my notes as number 18 initially and they got dropped as I was adjusting things along the way. I’ve added them back in, but it didn’t seem fair to bump everyone else down after the post had already been published. That was the best I could come up with for a solution. If you’re pissed about one more killer record being added, please feel free to email me and tell me all about it.]
Chicago’s The Skull had no small task before them in following up their 2014 debut, For Those Which are Asleep (review here) — let alone living up to their pedigree — but their second album demonstrated a creative growth that sacrificed nothing of memorability when it came to songs like “Breathing Underwater” and “All that Remains (Is True).” They got down to work and got the job done, which is what a working band does. 2018 was by any measure a fantastic year for doom, and The Skull were a big part of why.
The Dec. 2017 murder of Rev. Jim Forrester was tragic. No other way to say it. Foghound, who were in the midst of making Awaken to Destroy at the time, put together an album that not only features Forrester‘s last recorded performance, but pays respect to his memory while the wound is still raw and manages to kick ass all the while. It’s a record that can’t ever be divorced from its circumstances — just can’t — and so it can be a heavy listen in more than just its tones, but it’s basically Foghound proving they’re unstoppable. And so they are.
Who among us here today is not a sucker for Orange Goblin? Come forward an be judged. I mean, really. Nine records deep, the London sceneforgers are nothing less than an institution, beloved by boozehounds, riffhounds, doomhounds, and really, a wide variety of hounds the world over. Also dudes. With its essential title-track hook and highlight cuts in “Ghosts of the Primitives” and “Burn the Ships” — or, you know, any of them — they added to one of heavy’s most unshakable legacies with an album as furious as it is welcoming to its generations-spanning fanbase.
There are two kinds of people in this world, and they’re both Fu Manchu fans. Clone of the Universe turned heads with a guest appearance from Rush‘s Alex Lifeson on the 18-minute side-B-consuming “Il Mostro Atomico,” but really to focus on that instead of “Intelligent Worship,” “(I’ve Been) Hexed,” “Don’t Panic,” “Slower than Light,” etc., is only seeing half the point of the album in the first place. The long-running lords of fuzz hit a new stride with 2014’s Gigantoid (review here), and Clone of the Universewas in every way a worthy successor.
It was an unenviable task before Witch Mountain in replacing vocalist Uta Plotkin, but founding guitarist Rob Wrong and drummer Nathan Carson found the right voice in Kayla Dixon and solidified the lineup with her and bassist Justin Brown enough to make a declarative statement in Witch Mountain‘s self-titled LP. That’s the story of it. They pulled it off. Met with what was unquestionably a bummer circumstance, they pushed through and moved their sound forward through a new beginning — and not their first one. Watch out when their next record hits.
Richmond, Virginia, doomers Windhand‘s second collaboration with producer Jack Endino produced a marked and purposeful expansion of their sound, encompassing classic grunge influences and a heavy psychedelic swirl that added color their previously-greyscale sonic haze. Resonant in tone and emotionalism, Eternal Return readjusted Windhand‘s trajectory in such a manner that, where one might’ve thought they knew where the band were headed in terms of their progression, they’ve made themselves a less predictable outfit on the whole. For that alone, it’s a triumph. Then you have the songs.
I don’t even want to admit how long I was waiting for Sun Voyager‘s first long-player to show up, but when it finally did, the New York trio did not disappoint. Catchy, energetic, fuzzed-out tunes with driving rhythms and a heavy psych flourish, they tapped into shoegaze and desert vibes without losing any sense of themselves in the process, and if the extra wait was so they could be so remarkably coherent in their expression on their full-length, then I wouldn’t want it to have shown up any sooner. An easy pick to stand among 2018’s best debut albums. Now to wait for the next one.
It should tell you something that after working quickly to produce three albums, Louisiana’s Forming the Void are still defined by their potential. If I had my druthers, I’d put the recent Ripple signees on tour for the bulk of 2019, across the US and in Europe for festivals and support-slot club shows, really give them an opportunity to hammer out who they are as a band and then hit the studio for LP four. I don’t know if that’ll happen, but they’d only be doing the universe a favor by kicking into that gear. As it stands, their progression is palpable in their material and they stand absolutely ready for whatever the next level might be for them.
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22. Spaceslug, Eye the Tide
Released by BSFD Records and Oak Island Records. Reviewed June 29.
Aside from the speed at which Spaceslug have turned around offerings — with Eye the Tide following 2017’s Mountains and Reminiscence EP (review here) and Time Travel Dilemma (review here) full-length and their 2016 debut, Lemanis (review here) — the Polish outfit have undertaken significant progression in their sound, moving from pure heavy psychedelic warmth to incorporating elements out of extreme metal as they did on Eye the Tide. Adding to the latest record’s accomplishment is the smoothness with which they brought seemingly opposing sides together, only adding depth to an approach already worthy of oceanic comparison.
Conan‘s reign of terror has been unfolding for more than a decade now, and each of their albums has become a kind of step along a path of incremental growth. Consider the melody creeping into the shouts of founding guitarist Jon Davis, or the emergence of bassist Chris Fielding as a vocal presence alongside, the two sharing a frontman role more than ever before while welcoming drummer Johnny King to the fold of destructive tonality and doomly extremism. Existential Void Guardian may end up just being another stomp-print on their way to the next thing, but it affirmed the fact that as much as Conan grow each time out, their central violence continues to hold sway.
Look. A new Pale Divine record doesn’t come along every day, so yeah, their self-titled was probably going to be on my list one way or the other, but it definitely helps that not only was it their first outing in six years since 2012’s Painted Windows Black (review here), but it had the songs to live up to a half-decade-plus of anticipation. It marked the first studio appearance from bassist/backing vocalist Ron “Fezz” McGinnis alongside guitarist Greg Diener and drummer Darin McCloskey — now both of Beelzefuzz as well — and made a strong argument for how much Pale Divine deserve more than 20 years on from their initial demo to be considered classic American doom.
The return and rise to prominence of Washington pure heavy rockers Mos Generator might be the underground’s feelgood story of the decade, but it hasn’t by any means been easily won. In addition to rebuilding the band however many albums ago, guitarist/vocalist Tony Reed has put in innumerable hours on tour and worked to actually develop the group creatively in addition to in terms of stage presence. This is shown throughout some of the classic prog elements making their way onto Shadowlands, and perhaps some of the collection’s moodier aspects are born of the aforementioned road time as well. Hard for that kind of thing not to be a slog after a while, but at least they have killer tunes to play.
The only safe bet about Stoned Jesus‘ fourth long-player, Pilgrims, was that it was going to sound different than the third. That 2015 outing, The Harvest (review here), preceded the band touring to celebrate the fifth anniversary and after-the-fact success of 2012’s Seven Thunders Roar (review here), but Pilgrims defied narrative in that instead of incorporating elements from the second record in more of a heavy psych or jam sound, Stoned Jesus instead showcased a tighter, more sureheaded sense of craft than they’ve ever displayed before, and arrived on Napalm Records with a collection of songs that demonstrated the growth and sense of creative will that drives them. While one can take a look at their moniker and think immediately they know what’s coming, Stoned Jesus have made themselves one of the least predictable bands in heavy rock.
“Pirate Smile.” “Lines.” “Whatever.” “It Ain’t Right.” “Threes.” “Cinderella.” “Generals.” “Big Enough.” “Alone.” “Lucky. Mike Cummings, Jessica Baker, Erik Larson. Every player, every song, every minute. If you want to know what heart-on-sleeve sounds like, it fucking sounds like Backwoods Payback. In their line from hardcore punk to grunge to heavy rock, they encompass experiences and emotionalism that are both shown in raw form throughout Future Slum, and build all the while on the chemistry they set out in developing with 2016’s Fire Not Reason (review here), when they welcomed Larson to the lineup on drums and revitalized their mission. Also worth noting, they were the best live band I saw this year. Anywhere.
No question the excitement of C.O.C. putting out their first record with frontman Pepper Keenan involved since 2005’s In the Arms of God was one of this year’s top stories in heavy. And No Cross No Crown tapped directly into the spirit of 1994’s Deliverance (discussed here) and 1996’s Wiseblood (discussed here) in terms of direction, while updating the band’s style with a four-part 2LP in mind. In some ways, it’ll be their next album that really gives listeners a sense of where they’re at and where they might be headed, but as welcome returns go, having Keenan alongside Mike Dean, Woody Weatherman and Reed Mullin is in no way to be understated, and neither is the quality of their output together, then and now.
It is no simple feat to hypnotize an audience and convey serenity while at the same time holding attention with songcraft, so that the listener isn’t actually so much unconscious as malleable of mood and spirit in such a direction as the band suggests. Greek trio Naxatras have worked quickly to become experts at this, and their third full-length fosters tonal warmth and jammy progressions with an overarching naturalism that finds them so committed to analog recording that one can buy direct transfers of the tape master of III. Some acts take classic-style practices as an aesthetic choice. With Naxatras, it seems to be the stuff of life, yet their sound is only vibrant and human in a way that, at least one hopes, is even more representative of the future than the past.
It was time for Clutch to make a change in producers, and the Maryland overlords of groove seemed to know it. Known as a live band, they went with Vance Powell, who’s known a live band producer. The results on Book of Bad Decisions might not have been so earth-shatteringly different from 2015’s Psychic Warfare (review here), which was the too-soon follow-up to 2013’s Earth Rocker (review here) — both helmed by Machine — but the inimitable four-piece indeed succeeded in capturing the electricity of their stage performance and, as ever, treated fans to a collection of songs bearing Clutch‘s unmistakable hallmarks of quirky lyrics, funky rhythms and heavy roll. They may always be a live band, but Clutch‘s studio work is in no way to be discounted, ever, as this record reaffirmed. Plus, crab cakes.
After 2012’s In Dreams and Time (review here), I wasn’t sure Ancestors were going to put out another record. They kicked around word of one for a while, but it wasn’t until the end of last year that it really seemed to congeal into a possibility. And by then, who the hell knew what they might get up to on a full-length? With Suspended in Reflections, in some says, they picked up where they left off in terms of finding a niche for themselves in progressive and melodic heavy, but I think the time showed in the poise of their execution and the control of the material. Suspended in Reflections can’t help but be six years more mature than its predecessor, and that suits its contemplative feel. In tracks like “Gone,” and “The Warm Glow,” they tempered their expansive sound with an efficiency that can only be had with time.
The narrative here was hard to beat. Matt Pike spending an album cycle talking about Lemmy Kilmister and paying homage to his dirt-rock forebear and the gods of old? It doesn’t get much more perfect than that. Electric Messiah was the third collaboration between High on Fire and producer Kurt Ballou behind 2015’s Luminiferous (review here) and 2012’s De Vermiis Mysteriis (review here), and while it seemed after the last record that the formula might be getting stale, the band only sounded more and more lethal throughout the latest offering. Even putting aside their contributions to underground heavy, they’ve become one of the most essential metal bands of their generation. Metal, period. Doesn’t matter what subgenre you’re talking about it. If you’re listening to High on Fire, you know it. Usually because you’ve just been decapitated.
You know, if you take the time to separate Yawning Man from their 30-plus-year history and their legacy as one of the foundational acts of what later became desert rock, and you listen to The Revolt Against Tired Noises, you’re still left with basically a dream of an album. Mostly instrumental, as is their wont, they nonetheless had bassist Mario Lalli (also Fatso Jetson) sing this time around on a version of the previously-unreleased “Catamaran,” which Kyuss covered once upon a whenever although Yawning Man had never officially put it to tape. But really, that and all other novelty aside, guitarist Gary Arce, Lalli and drummer Bill Stinson are a chemistry unto themselves. I don’t know if they’ll ever be as huge as they should be, but every bit of acclaim they get, they’ve earned, and if The Revolt Against Tired Noises helps them get it, all the more so.
Swedish heavy rock mavens Greenleaf have become an entirely different band than they once were. No longer a Dozer side-project from guitarist Tommi Holappa with a rotating cast of players, they’re a solidified, road-tested, powerhouse unit, and Hear the Rivers bleeds soul as a result. Holappa, frontman Arvid Hällagård, bassist Hans Fröhlich and drummer Sebastian Olsson sound like they’re absolutely on fire in the album’s tracks, and far from being staid or formulaic as one might expect a sixth long-player to be, Hear the Rivers built on what the band accomplished with 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here) and came across as all the more vital and nearly frenetic in their energy. I won’t say Greenleaf has seen their last lineup change, because one never knows, but the band as they are today is the realization of potential I don’t think even Greenleaf knew was there.
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10. Gozu, Equilibrium
Released by Blacklight Media / Metal Blade Records. Reviewed April 4.
Five records deep into a career into its second decade, Gozu haven’t had a miss yet. Admittedly, some of their early work can seem formative considering where they are now, but still. And after the 2016 rager, Revival (review here), to have the band return to the same studio — Wild Arctic in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where strides producer Dean Baltulonis — for the follow-up allows for the four-piece to directly show how their sound has grown more encompassing in the last couple years. And it has. Equilibrium is a rich and varied listen that holds true to Gozu‘s well-established penchant for soulful vibes and crunching, hard-hitting riffs and groove, but while it shares the directness of approach with Revival, it makes moves that a band could only make moving from one record to the next. I expect nothing less their next time out as well, because a decade later, that’s Gozu‘s proven track record.
The battle for the best album title of 2018 ended early when New Jersey everything-rockers Monster Magnet announced the release of Mindfucker. And what else to call a Monster Magnet LP at this point? They’ve stopped writing to genre. They’re driven by the creative mania of frontman/founder Dave Wyndorf, and they’ve seen psychedelic expanses and commercial success the likes of which would serve the tenure of four lesser bands. What’s left to do but whatever the hell you want? So that’s what Monster Magnet are doing. It just so happens that while they’re doing it, they’re still basically outclassing the entirety of the former planet earth as songwriters. As Monster Magnet fan in 2018, there was nothing more I could’ve asked than what Mindfucker delivered. And if you’re still trying to get your brain around it however many months later, you’re not alone. I think that’s the idea.
Best doom album of 2018. The combination of craft and passion behind the delivery. The way the dark tones fed into the emotions so clearly on display and sheer presence of it in listening to songs like “Keeping the Lighthouse,” “Ruination by Thy Name” and “My Heart is Leaving Here.” Apostle of Solitude never seem to be the highest profile band out there, but their work seems never to be anything less than outstanding, and I refuse to accept them as anything less than among the most pivotal American acts out there making traditional doom. And not just making it, but making it their own, with a sense of new pursuits and individualism that extends to playing style as well as atmosphere. I know doom isn’t exactly in short supply these days — figuratively or literally — but if you miss out on what Apostle of Solitude are doing with it, you’ll only regret it later. I’ll say it one more time: Best doom album of 2018.
Every now and again, anticipating the crap of an album really pays off, and such was the case with Holy Grove II, the Ripple Music debut from the Portland outfit whose 2016 self-titled (review here) seemed like such a herald of excellence to come while also, you know, being killer. Holy Grove II brought the four-piece of vocalist Andrea Vidal, guitarist Trent Jacobs, bassist Gregg Emley and drummer Eben Travis to entirely new levels of composition and execution. In songs like “Blade Born,” the shorter, sharper “Aurora,” the patiently rolling “Valley of the Mystics,” “Solaris” and closer “Cosmos,” which boasted a not-really-necessary-but-definitely-welcome guest vocal appearance from YOB‘s Mike Scheidt, — and oh wait, that’s all of the tracks — Holy Grove entered a different echelon. Anticipation will likewise be high for Holy Grove III, but it’ll be hard to complain with this record to keep company in the meantime.
Over five All Them Witches albums, the Nashville four-piece have gone from a nascent heavy Americana jam band to one of the most distinct acts in the US underground. Their development in sound is chemistry-driven, so it was a risk when the founding trio of bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod (who also produced) and drummer Robby Staebler welcomed new keyboardist Jonathan Draper into the lineup to take the place of Allan van Cleave. Amid a more naturalist production than that of 2017’s Sleeping Through the War (review here), the revamped four-piece flourished in terms of songwriting and conveying their stage-born sonic personae. From the gleeful fuckery of opener “Fishbelly 86 Onions” to the memorable moodiness of “Diamond” and the back-end jam “Harvest Feast” en route to the stretched-out end of “Rob’s Dream,” All Them Witches essentially confirmed they could do whatever they wanted and make it work.
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5. YOB, Our Raw Heart
Released by Relapse Records. Reviewed June 7.
Actually, if you want a sample of YOB‘s raw heart, the place to go is probably 2014’s Clearing the Path to Ascend (review here), but whatever the Eugene, Oregon, shapers of cosmic doom might’ve lacked in titular accuracy on their eighth long-player, they made up for in a new, statesman-like posture. Their approach was mature, hammered out to a professionalism working completely on its own terms, and they never sounded so sure of who they are as a band or as confident of their direction. In extended cuts “Beauty in Falling Leaves” and “Our Raw Heart,” they explored new and progressive textures and melodies, and managed to reaffirm their core aspects while finding room for conveying emotion that came across as nothing but ultimately sincere. They have been and still are one of a kind, and as they continue to move forward, they remain a band that makes one feel lucky to be alive to witness their work. Our Raw Heart was perhaps more refined than it let on, but the heart was there for sure, as always.
I’m not going to say I wasn’t a fan of the (relatively) harder-hitting approach Brant Bjork and his Low Desert Punk Band took on 2014’s Black Power Flower (review here) and 2016’s Tao of the Devil (review here), but Mankind Woman brought in some more of his soul influences, and whether it was the subtly subversive funk of “Chocolatize” and “Brand New Old Times” or the callout “1968” and laid back vibes of the title-track and “Swagger and Sway,” Bjork — working with guitarist Bubba DuPree on songwriting and production — offered a definitive look at what has made his 20-year solo career so special and demonstrates not only his longevity and his legacy, but his will to continue to progress as an artist honing his craft. His discography is well populated by now to be sure, but Mankind Woman represents a turn from the last couple records, and if it’s in any way portentous of things to come, it bodes well. Bjork is right at home nestled into classic-style grooves, and his legacy as one of the principal architects of desert rock is continually reaffirmed.
They’ve been great, not just good, for a long time now, and as forerunners of the San Diego heavy scene, they’re godfathers to an up and coming generation of bands taking their influence — let alone acts from the rest of the world — but Black Heaven is a special moment for them because of its departure. No, it wasn’t not the first time guitarist Isaiah Mitchell sang on an Earthless recording, but it did represent a tip of the balance in that direction for the band on a studio full-length, and that resulted in a special moment. Album opener “Gifted by the Wind” was one of the best songs I heard this year, and while “End to End” and the all-thrust “Volt Rush” affirmed that more traditional songwriting was well within the grasp of Mitchell, bassist Mike Eginton and drummer Mario Rubalcaba, they still found space for a sprawling jam or two, keeping their claim on the instrumentalism that’s (largely) fueled their tenure to date. Earthless don’t want for acclaim, but every bit of it is earned, and while their primary impact has always been live, Black Heaven saw them construct a traditional-style LP that still bore the hallmarks of their collective personality. It was the best of all worlds.
In the dark early hours of 2018, the Rochester, New York, trio of guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds and drummer Scott Donaldson issued the Repeater EP (review here) as a follow-up to their 2016 debut, Orion (review here), so Longing to Be the Mountain didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but even with Repeater preceding its arrival, I don’t think anyone necessary expected King Buffalo‘s second album to have such a scope or to be so engrossing with it. In its melody, patience, atmosphere and heft, it was an absolute joy to behold. Its songs were memorable at the same time they were far-reaching, and while Orion was already my pick for the best debut of 2016, Longing to Be the Mountain realized even more potential than that record had hinted toward. It could be intimate or majestic at its whim, and its dynamic set an individual characterization of heavy psychedelia and blues-style sprawl that the band wholly owned. With production by Ben McLeod of All Them Witches behind them, they worked to serve notice of a progression undertaken the results of which are already staggering and still seem to be looking ahead to the next stage, literally and figuratively. One of the principal standards I use in constructing this list every year is what I listen to most. That’s this record.
Obviously, right? To some extent, when Sleep surprise-announced on April 19 they’d release their first album in 15 years the next day, and then did, they took ownership of 2018. Even with records still to come at that point from YOB and Sleep guitarist Matt Pike‘s own High on Fire, there was no way that when the end of the year came around, it wasn’t going to be defined by the advent of a new Sleep record. And even if it sucked, it would probably still be Album of the Year, but fortunately, as Pike, bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros (also Om) and drummer Jason Roeder (also Neurosis) took their long-running stage reunion to the studio, they brought material that highlighted the best elements from all players. Pike‘s wild soloing, Cisneros‘ meditative vocals and Roeder‘s intricate but smooth style of roll all came together in older pieces like “Antarcticans Thawed” and “Sonic Titan” and newer highlights “Giza Butler” and “Marijuanaut’s Theme,” and aside from the excitement at their existence, they showed the mastery of form that Sleep had been demonstrating live since 2009 and which they hinted toward in the 2014 single, The Clarity (review here). A new Sleep full-length was something long-discussed, long-rumored and long-considered, but when it finally happened, I think the results vaporized expectation in a way no one could’ve anticipated. There’s a reason Sleep are Sleep. Having The Sciences as a reminder of that brought about the defining moment of 2018.
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The Next 20
Indeed, it wouldn’t be much of a Top 30 at all if it didn’t go to 50. Don’t try to make sense of it, just look at the records.
31. Atavismo, Valdeinfierno
32. Grayceon, IV
33. Clamfight, III
34. Seedy Jeezus, Polaris Oblique
35. Megaton Leviathan, Mage
36. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Wasteland
37. Arcadian Child, Superfonica
38. Freedom Hawk, Beast Remains
39. The Machine, Faceshift
40. Messa, Feast for Water
41. Black Rainbows, Pandaemonium
42. Church of the Cosmic Skull, Science Fiction
43. Domkraft, Flood
44. Träden, Träden
45. Mythic Sunship, Another Shape of Psychedelic Music
46. Samavayo, Vatan
47. Foehammer, Second Sight
48. Bongripper, Terminal
49. Mansion, First Death of the Lutheran
50. Sunnata, Outlands
51. Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters, Come and Chutney
Believe me when I tell you, I sweated over this section more than I did the actual top 30. Mansion should be higher. So should Chubby Thunderous, though something in me thought they might like being #50 on a list of 30. Church of the Cosmic Skull, Clamfight, Black Rainbows, Foehammer, Seedy Jeezus, Messa, Domkraft. All of these were fucking awesome. And there are more (we’ll get there). Eventually numbers add up. I won’t say a bad word about any of these. That’s it.
Honorable Mention
This section always winds up expanded as other people point out things I missed and so on, but here’s what I’ve got in the immediate, alphabetically:
Alms, Act One
Ape Machine, Darker Seas
Belzebong, Light the Dankness
Black Moon Circle, Psychedelic Spacelord
Blackwater Holylight, Blackwater Holylight
Bong, Thought and Existence
Carpet, About Rooms and Elephants
Churchburn, None Shall Live… The Hymns of Misery
Deadbird, III: The Forest Within the Tree
Dead Meadow, The Nothing They Need
Death Alley, Superbia
Drug Cult, Drug Cult
Dunbarrow, II
Electric Citizen, Helltown
Eagle Twin, The Thundering Heard: Songs of Hoof and Horn
Evoken, Hypnagogia
Funeral Horse, Psalms for the Mourning
Fuzz Evil, High on You
Graven, Heirs of Discord
Graveyard, Peace
Green Dragon, Green Dragon
Green Druid, Ashen Blood
Here Lies Man, You Will Know Nothing
High Priestess, High Priestess
Horehound, Holocene
IAH, II
JIRM, Surge ex Monumentis
Killer Boogie, Acid Cream
Lonely Kamel, Death’s Head Hawkmoth
MaidaVale, Madness is Too Pure
Moab, Trough
Mountain Dust, Seven Storms
Mouth, Floating
Mr. Plow, Maintain Radio Silence
T.G. Olson, Earthen Pyramid
Onségen Ensemble, Duel
Orango, Evergreen
Owl, Nights in Distortion
Pushy, Hard Wish
Rifflord, 7 Cremation Ground/Meditation
River Cult, Halcyon Daze
Rotor, Sechs
Somali Yacht Club, The Sea
Sumac, Love in Shadow
Sundrifter, Visitations
Svvamp, Svvamp II
Thou, Magus
Thunder Horse, Thunder Horse
Weedpecker, III
Special Note
Somehow it didn’t seem appropriate to include these in the list proper because they’re not really underground releases, but there were two more records I especially wanted to highlight for their quality:
Alice in Chains, Rainier Fog
Judas Priest, Firepower
Best Short Release of the Year
Normally I’d do this as a separate post, but as a result of being robbed earlier this year, I feel like my list is woefully incomplete. If you have any demos, EPs, splits, singles, etc., to add to it, please feel free to do so in the comments below. Still, the top pick was clear:
Rarely do two bands work in such coherent tandem to their mutual benefit. Here are a few other essential short releases for 2018, alphabetically:
All Them Witches, Lost and Found
Alunah, Amber & Gold
Canyon, Mk II
Demon Head, The Resistence
Destroyer of Light, Hopeless
Ecstatic Vision, Under the Influence
Godmaker & Somnuri, Split
Holy Mushroom, Blood and Soul
King Buffalo, Repeater
Minsk & Zatokrev, Split
Sleep, Leagues Beneath
Stonus, Lunar Eclipse
Sundecay, Gale
Looking Forward
A good many albums have already been announced or hinted at for 2019. I in no way claim this to be a complete roundup of what’s coming, but here’s what I have in my notes so far, in absolutely no order:
Kings Destroy, Lo-Pan, Cities of Mars, Heavy Temple, Mr. Peter Hayden, Curse the Son, High Fighter, Destroyer of Light, Year of the Cobra, Buffalo Fuzz, Zaum, The Sonic Dawn, Alunah, Candlemass, Elepharmers, Grandier, Dorre, Abrahma, Mars Red Sky, Eternal Black, Elephant Tree, Atala, No Man’s Valley, Sun Blood Stories, Crypt Sermon, The Riven, Hibrido, Snail, Red Beard Wall, 11Paranoias, Dead Witches, Monte Luna, Captain Caravan (LP), Swallow the Sun, Oreyeon, Motorpsycho, Vokonis, Hexvessel, Saint Vitus, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Kind, Mastiff, Shadow Witch, Om.
Okay, That’s It
Yeah, no, I’m serious. List is done. Everybody go back to your lives. Your families miss you.
Really though, while this is by no means my last post of 2018, I can’t let it pass without saying thank you so much to everyone for checking out the site this year, or for just digging into this, or for sending me music, or hitting me up on social media, sharing a link, anything. Thank you. Thank you. I could never have imagined when it started out where it would be now. Or that I’d still be doing it. Your support means more to me than I can say, and I thank you so much for being a part of this with me.
So thanks.
If you have something to add to the list, please do so by leaving a comment below, but keep in mind as well the above note requesting civility. Please don’t make me feel stupid because I forgot your favorite record. I forgot a lot of people’s favorite records. I’m one dude. I’m doing my best.
And please keep in mind if you’ve got a list together that the Year-End Poll is open and results will be out Jan. 1.
[Click play above to stream ‘High on You’ from Fuzz Evil’s new album of the same name. It’s out Sept. 14 and Fuzz Evil begin a West Coast tour that night. Click here for the poster with dates.]
Not every underground band can make a professional, commercial-style production work, but Fuzz Evil do. The Sierra Vista, Arizona, three-piece recorded their second album, High on You, with Paul Fig (Alice in Chains, Deftones, Fireball Ministry, and many others) at Studio 606, which is owned by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, and the material accordingly sounds not only ironed out in its sound, crisp and clear, but still weighted in tone and groove, but like someone was actively pushing the band to outdo themselves on each take. To wit, the self-aware start-stops and melodic turns of “The Strut” late in the record are air-tight, as drummer Orgo Martinez swaps toms out for crash-cymbal timekeeping in the verses and chorus, which is among several standout hooks on the ultra-manageable seven-song/34-minute release.
That runtime further speaks to an element of professionalism on the part of the band — Martinez as well as brothers Wayne Rudell (guitar/vocals) and Joey Rudell (bass/vocals) — who’ve made the decision to leave their audience wanting more rather than overwhelm with a glut of material, though recording time may have also had something to do with it as they had two days at Studio 606 to bust through all the songs and nail at least the basic tracks before doing overdubs back with Fig, but if that crunch shows itself at all in the songs, it’s in a sense of urgency in the material, whether it’s the speedy second cut “You Can Take Her Away,” which seems to reference Clutch‘s “Spleen Merchant” at the outset before unfolding another memorable hook, this one multi-tiered with Joey backing Wayne‘s lead vocals and an effective guitar solo in the second half of a purposeful three-and-a-half-minute run.
But that’s only after “Get it Together” hints at harmonies between the Rudells in an initial audience-engagement of funk-tinged swing drums, and a building verse that shifts easily into the soaring chorus. The impression that Fuzz Evil are stepping up their game even from what it was on their 2016 self-titled debut (review here) is immediate and resonant, and with fuzz-drenched riffs and leads, a thick and steady groove and an energetic delivery, the three-piece use “Get it Together” to set the tone for everything that follows. Tempos are fluid but by and large not too slow or fast — they kick into a couple speedy parts now and then, mostly to make a point, but maintain fervent control over the rush — and the overarching feel remains welcoming as “You Can Take Her Away” transitions smoothly into the slowdown of “Ribbons and Kills.”
Spacious with a somewhat darker feel, “Ribbons and Kills” flows with the bass at its foundation and the creeping vocal line overtop. In some ways it’s a direct contrast to “You Can Take Her Away” before it, but that’s the point, and the two do sit well next to each other ahead of the centerpiece “If You Know,” which sets forth its riff at the start and picks up patiently from there. Finding a middle pace between Fuzz Evil‘s faster and slower speeds, its nod is a central factor in its success, and it helps keep the momentum going that the band has thus far built, giving High on You all the more of a full-album feel that, as they move deeper into the second half of the record, nothing diminishes. Further, it emphasizes the point of Fuzz Evil‘s songwriting, which is what serves as the heart of High on You. That’s not to diminish any aspect of their performance or the energy with which they play, but that energy is clearly directed in service to the songs themselves, which given the quality of their output here is probably how it should be anyhow.
“If You Know” caps with more soloing and a return to the chorus for good measure and gives way to “The Strut,” which may or may not be about the same fancy-walking individual as the KISS song — it’s easy to see the Fuzz Evil as potential fans, with their shared penchant for hooks and classic-style structures — and is one of the shorter pieces at just 3:33. It’s noteworthy for that since they pair it with the 6:31 title-track immediately following, which is the longest piece and uses its time wisely in a slower doomly crawl and open vocal with Wayne‘s voice over open space between drum thuds and far-back low end. The chorus of “High on You” is worth naming the record after, and while one might think they’d make up the difference in runtime with a jam or something like that, they don’t really. There’s a noisy solo in the second half, but by and large, “High on You” is longer because it’s that much slower than what surrounds.
It gives the album a somewhat moodier feel, and thereby all the more breadth of expression, and turns to the closer “Are You in or Out” with an introduction from the drums before the swaying guitar line enters and gives the listener the center around which the finale will work. Sure enough, “Are You in or Out” brings one last vital surge from the band, with the title line repeated in such a way as to seem to ask the audience if it’s gotten on board with what Fuzz Evil put together in the tracks prior. They have, of course, made a solid argument for themselves, and while listeners will ultimately have to decide on their own whether they are in or out, there’s no denying Fuzz Evil lay it on the line in asking. Just as likely, though, the question is directed inward. It is no minor commitment in time, finance or effort to put together an album like High on You, so it could well be that “Are You in or Out” is the band talking itself into pushing forward with what they thought would lead them to make the best album possible. Whether that’s the case or not, their choice was correct. They’re in.
