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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 100

Posted in Radio on December 23rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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I wish I could say I planned it out ahead of time that the 100th episode of The Obelisk Show would coincide with both the final one of 2022 and the third of the three roundups of some of the year’s best in heavy, but I’m nowhere near that coordinated. Fortunate happenstance, then, and a killer show either way.

You might note the minor departure from the general format I use in that this one doesn’t end with an extended track. Fact is there was just more I wanted to include than there was room for, so I opted to pack in three or four shorter songs where there might otherwise be one. Nothing here tops 10 minutes long — CB3 is just over eight and that’s the longest — and I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Before I turn you over to the playlist itself, I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to Gimme Metal for allowing me to continue to do this show. Seems obvious to say, considering, you know, this site in general, but sharing music I dig is among my favorite things to do, and I value the opportunity to engage with Gimme’s audience as a part of that. Thank you to Tyler, Brian, Dean and the entire crew for having me and making this thing happen.

Thanks for listening if you do, thanks for reading if you are.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 12.23.22 (VT = voice track)

Church of the Cosmic Skull Now’s the Time There is No Time
All Souls I Dream Ghosts Among Us
Sasquatch Live Snakes Fever Fantasy
Sky Pig Larva It Thrives in Darkness
VT
Abronia Night Hoarders Map of Dawn
Ealdor Bealu Way of the Sudden Storm Psychic Forms
Valley of the Sun Images The Chariot
Nebula Highwired Transmission From Mothership Earth
Supersonic Blues They See Me Comin’ It’s Heavy
Les Nadie Del Pombero Destierro y Siembra
Sun Voyager Rip the Sky Sun Voyager
Besvärjelsen House of the Burning Light Atlas
VT
Dreadnought Midnight Moon The Endless
Author & Punisher Misery Krüller
Messa Dark Horse Close
Somali Yacht Club Silver The Space
Lamp of the Universe Emerald Sands The Akashic Field
Toad Venom Swirling Hands EAT!
CB3 To Space and Away Exploration
VT
Ecstatic Vision The Kenzo Shake Elusive Mojo

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

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 99

Posted in Radio on December 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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Picking up from last time, and leading into next time, this episode continues the Some of the Best of 2022 coverage for ‘The Obelisk Show,’ and I feel reasonably comfortable assuming that would come through clearly even if I didn’t say it outright.

You’ll note this one starts pretty heavy and aggro with 16. That’s on purpose. My timeslot on Gimme Metal follows artist-guest specials, and I’ve felt at times in the past like it’s a really abrupt shift from most of those — sometimes death metal, grind, and otherwise extreme — and what I do, which is different. I know that’s the point, but I wanted to see if I could make that transition smoother than it otherwise can be. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.

From there, there’s a good amount of branching out, and while this is by no means all of the killer stuff that 2022 has wrought, my hope is that at least some of the sprawl comes through, some of the combination of new and old bands, and so forth. Next episode, which will be #100 and the last one of the year — bit of an event in the life of the show — will continue the thread.

Thanks for listening if you do, thanks for reading if you are.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 12.09.22 (VT = voice track)

-(16)- The Floor Wins Into Dust
Telekinetic Yeti Rogue Planet Primordial
Cities of Mars Towering Graves Cities of Mars
Colour Haze See the Fools Sacred
VT
Moura Lúa vermella Axexan, Espreitan
Ufomammut Pyramind Fenice
MWWB Logic Bomb The Harvest
King Buffalo Avalon Regenerator
Geezer Stoned Blues Machine Stoned Blues Machine
Charley No Face Big Sleep Eleven Thousand Volts
My Sleeping Karma Prema Atma
Kadavermarch The Eschaton Into Oblivion
Ruby the Hatchet Soothsayer Fear is a Cruel Master
UWUW Landlord UWUW
Caustic Casanova A Bailar con Cuarentena Glass Enclosed Nerve Center
Hazemaze Ceremonial Aspersion Blinded by the Wicked
VT
E-L-R Forêt Vexier
Temple Fang Jerusalem Jerusalem/The Bridge

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 23 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 98

Posted in Radio on November 25th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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A rare congruence of themes here. Last episode, which was all-Greek and started with a 13-minute track, an all-long-songs show idea was bandied about the Gimme chat. I’ve done this kind of thing before, and in more extreme fashion — there was the ep where I played “Dopesmoker” that time — so I set myself to the task of finding what for me passes as some kind of balance: a full show with songs having a minimum length of 10 minutes.

Easy, right? Too easy, as it turns out. So, since we’re coming on end o’ the year anyhow, I also decided to limit the playlist to songs that came out this year and use it as a beginning for the Some of the Best of 2022 coverage, which I was gonna start next episode anyhow. I’ve never done a year-end wrap that’s felt vaguely comprehensive, so if adding a third in the series this time gets me closer to that, I’ll take it.

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t — it’s been a pretty decent year for music, as most are when it comes to it — but I’m willing to roll the dice since I was headed in that direction anyway. I’ve made it 98 episodes without running out of shit to play. Somehow I don’t imagine I will now either.

Okay, that’ll do. Thanks for listening if you do, thanks for reading if you are.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.25.22 (VT = voice track)

Artist Song Album
The Otolith Sing No Coda Folium Limina
Elder Catastasis Innate Passage
VT
River Flows Reverse Birds The Homing Bird’s Trace
SAPNA Oracle SAPNA
Forlesen Harrowed Earth Black Terrain
Eight Bells The Well Legacy of Ruin
Onségen Ensemble Naked Sky Realms
Conan A Cleaved Head Never Plots Evidence of Immortality
Wo Fat Orphans of the Singe The Singularity
VT
Okkoto Where the Meadows Dream Beside the Sea Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 25 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 97

Posted in Radio on November 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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Doing an all-Greek episode was so blindingly obvious that I actually had to check to make sure I hadn’t already done one somewhere in the last four years or so that I’ve been doing The Obelisk Show for Gimme Metal. Like, duh. And the playlist? One of the easiest times I’ve ever had putting one together. So many bands, so many vibes, so much to choose from.

Lotus Emperor’s new record, which was reviewed yesterday, was the impetus for the entire thing, so it seemed only fair to start with that, but I wanted to make sure to include a fair bit of landmark acts — 1000mods, Villagers of Ioannina City, Planet of Zeus, Naxatras, Nightstalker, Puta Volcano — alongside up and comers like Bus, Supermoon, Lotus Emperor, Acid Mammoth, Honeybadger, Half Gramme of Soma, and so on, in order to give some sense of the scope of the Greek underground, which for my money is one of the strongest in the world and an ecosystem of bands and fans unlike any other happening right now in Europe (if you want to expand to the rest of the world, Australia would rival).

Before I turn you over to the playlist, I’ll give the inevitable disclaimer that this represents but a fraction of Greece’s vibrant heavy creative community, and that there’s basically a planet’s worth of bands in Athens alone, never mind anywhere else in the country. I say in one or another of the breaks that I consider Greece at least as strong a scene as Sweden and Germany in terms of everything but broader recognition, and I stand by that. If you hear this show and want to dig further into any of these acts or find others, that’s the ideal.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.11.22 (VT = voice track)

Lotus Emperor Petra Syneidesis (2022)
Villagers of Ioannina City Dance of Night Age of Aquarius (2019)
Acid Mammoth Black Dust Caravan (2021)
VT
1000mods Navy in Alice Super Van Vacation (2011)
Half Gramme of Soma Muck & Cheese Slip Through the Cracks (2022)
People of the Black Circle Alchemy of Sorrow People of the Black Circle (2022)
Seer of the Void Lysergus Mons Revenant (2020)
The Same River Weight of the World Weight of the World (2022)
Church of the Sea No One Deserves Odalisque (2022)
Supermoon Mantra Supermoon (2020)
VT
Planet of Zeus All These Happy People Faith in Physics (2019)
Burn the Sun A Fist for Crows Le Roi Soleil (2022)
Naxatras The Battle of Crystal Fields IV (2022)
Honeybadger Laura Palmer Pleasure Delayer (2020)
Nightstalker Sad Side of the City Great Hallucinations (2019)
Bus Moonchild Never Decide (2020)
VT
Puta Volcano Black Box AMMA (2020)
Last Rizla Dive Mount Machine (2018)

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 25 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 96

Posted in Radio on October 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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Good show. Gets heavy. I started thinking about how my knee hurt and that reminded me of Høstsabbat (where I hurt it) earlier this month and I decided to dedicate the second hour-ish of the program to celebrating that lineup. And, well, that lineup was really god damned heavy — though, I say in the voice tracks too, it was way more sonically diverse a proceeding than it appears on the playlist below. So it goes. I’ll plead guilty on that.

Before that though, each one of the first three tracks is something I genuinely hope people will check out. Brant Bjork because he’s Brant Bjork and 14 records in he’s still trying new stuff. UWUW because Ian Blurton is a master and psychedelic heavy soul rock needed to happen. Dead Shrine because it’s new stuff from Craig Williamson (also of Lamp of the Universe) in a heavy style like Arc of Ascent, but with some different kinds of spaces thrown in. Dude just riffs and riffs and riffs. Yes.

Not saying the rest isn’t worth checking out in Ruby the Hatchet, Love Gang, or The Otolith, which is really the rest of the new stuff. The Otolith I’ve been listening to all week to review it and it’s bludgeoningly beautiful and has me wondering how to add a sixth inclusion to my top five for the year. Ruby the Hatchet are like if 1971 happened in 1981, and Love Gang are like if Motörhead were from Southern California or, in other words, from Denver. I certainly thought that song was killer when I premiered it. And a couple classics, some recent Enslaved, Orange Goblin, then the turn up to Norway for the fest-homage. As I said at the top, good show.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.28.22 (VT = voice track)

Brant Bjork Bread for Butter Bougainvillea Suite
UWUW Staircase to the End of the Night UWUW
Dead Shrine The Formless Soul The Eightfold Path
VT
Ruby the Hatchet Deceiver Fear is a Cruel Master
Love Gang Meanstreak Meanstreak
The Otolith Ekpyrotic Folium Limina
Saint Vitus The Psychopath Saint Vitus
Enslaved Kingdom Kingdom
Orange Goblin Cozmo Bozo The Big Black
VT
Norna The Perfect Dark Star is Way Way is Eye
Bismarck The Seer Oneiromancer
The Moth Gatherer The Drone Kingdom Esoteric Oppression
Dopelord Your Blood Reality Dagger`
Graveyard Please Don’t Peace
Indian Directional From All Purity
VT
Slomatics Buried Axes on Regulus Minor Ascend/Descend
Kanaan Return to the Tundrasphere Earthbound

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 11 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 95

Posted in Radio on October 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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This is me feeling like I can’t keep up, I suppose. Even in like the week, two weeks?, since the Quarterly Review ended, I’ve basically got another one full, and I’ve been feeling suitably overwhelmed as we move into Fall. The releases keep coming, keep being announced, and it’s just so much. I’m doing my best, and a lot of this stuff will be covered hopefully before December comes around, but I can’t promise that at this point. It would matter way less if records like Sky Pig, Smokes of Krakatau, Teverts, Deadly Vipers, Tons and Witchfinder, Grin, Grandier, Giant Mammoth weren’t as cool as they are.

I should’ve called the show ‘Punk Rock Guilt,’ but no one would get it anyway. I’m not sure anyone gets it now. I’m not sure why Gimme Metal continues to let me do this, but I’m happy they do. Anyway, for me personally this one’s all about the moment when it hits into Caustic Casanova’s “Bull Moose Against the Sky” from their just-released Glass Enclosed Nerve Center (review here) album, but I’m also reminding myself how much I dug that Ufomammut album and how just because Scott Kelly turned out to be a phony and a shit it doesn’t mean everything Neurot Recordings ever put out should be shunned like a mouthy Amish person. Also threw in some Kyuss, to remind myself I like them. Like, oh yeah, Kyuss. That’s a thing the internet and I agree on.

Bottom line is it’s a show with music I think will help your day, from All Souls and Sasquatch to Faith in Jane and the new Papir/Causa Sui collaboration Edena Gardens. If I’m going to take up two hours of Gimme Metal’s precious airtime — space on the internet may be unlimited and ever expanding, but time is still time — the least I can do is play good shit. So that’s what I’m doing.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.14.22 (VT = voice track)

Deadly Vipers Welli Welloo Low City Drone
Smokes of Krakatau Septic Smokes of Krakatau
Sky Pig Motionless It Thrives in Darkness
VT
Sasquatch Live Snakes Fever Fantasy
Ufomammut Psychostasia Fenice
Giant Mammoth Circle Holy Sounds
Teverts Road to Awareness The Lifeblood
Kyuss 100 Degrees Welcome to Sky Valley
Grin Transcendence Phantom Knocks
Tons A Hash Day’s Night Hashension
Grandier Viper Soul The Scorn and Grace of Crows
All Souls Roam Ghosts Among Us
Witchfinder Ghosts Happen to Fade Forgotten Mansion
Edena Gardens Hidebound Edena Gardens
Faith in Jane The Seeker Axe to Oak
VT
Caustic Casanova Bull Moose Against the Sky Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 28 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 94

Posted in Radio on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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As will happen during a Quarterly Review, I’ve sort of found myself thinking there’s a ton of stuff that I don’t want to see get lost in the shuffle, and I’ve decided to focus this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal on making sure that doesn’t happen.

‘Selections from the QR’ may be the theme here, but what it rounds out to is a cool mix of mostly new music either way. Goes without saying that with 100 releases covered, there was plenty to choose from, and indeed I might end up doing a second of these — it was a two-week Quarterly Review after all, ending today — but if you’ve kept up with that or not, this is a summary of some of what was included. Like the Quarterly Review itself, it’s pretty heavy on vibe and atmosphere, but there are a couple bangers in there too that, along with the rest, I most certainly hope you enjoy.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 09.30.22 (VT = voice track)

Mezzoa Moya Dunes of Mars
Lightrain Hyd AER
Spirit Adrift Mass Formation Psychosis 20 Centuries Gone
VT
Cachemira Ambos Mundos Ambos Mundos
Goatriders The Garden Traveler
Garden of Worm In the Absence of Memory Endless Garden
Church of the Cosmic Skull Now’s the Time There is No Time
Voidward Chemicals Voidward
Early Moods Curse the Light Early Moods
Maunra Lightbreather Monarch
Obiat Ulysses Indian Ocean
Reverend Mother Locomotive Damned Blessing
Deer Creek A Dark, Heartless Machine Menticide
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships Mystical Consumer Consensus Trance
Blacklab Abyss Woods In a Bizarre Dream
VT
The Gray Goo Bicycle Day 1943
Les Lekin Ascent Limbus

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 14 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal Playlist: Episode 93

Posted in Radio on September 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

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I don’t know how many of these posts I’ve done by now. Fewer than actual episodes, the number of which I do keep track. But it always feels a little weird. Yeah, guess what? I think it’s a cool show. Of course I fucking do. I made it. What, I’m going to try to suck?

So hey, this is a pretty good show. You should listen.

In all seriousness, I want to express my thanks to Gimme Metal for allowing me to continue to do this. Their platform has gotten huge in the last few years and they need my ass taking up two hours of precious air time like they need a reminder of traditional radio’s downfall, so it really means something to me that I get to weird out and share music for a new show every two weeks. I can’t even turn my playlists in on time. My voice tracks weren’t submitted until Tuesday! Terrible.

Bottom line though is Gimme doesn’t at all have to let me keep doing a show. In my embarrassing number of years, I’ve seen outside-the-genre interest in heavy rock, psych, doom, sludge, and so on wax and wane, and my experience is that if you’re not all the way in it, you’re eventually going to move on to something else that speaks to you. Nothing wrong with that, of course; it’s how life works. It’s why I’m not catholic. But for a company with their hands in so much other shit to allow someone like me to do my thing in my own way and my own time is pretty god damned rare and viscerally appreciated.

That’s all I’ve got to say about it, except that, again, this show is pretty good.

Thanks if you listen and thanks for reading.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 09.16.22 (VT = voice track)

King Buffalo Mammoth Regenerator
DRÖÖG Stormhatt DRÖÖG
Slomosa There is Nothing New Under the Sun Slomosa
VT
Fu Manchu Mongoose California Crossing
Stöner Space Dude & The Burn Totally…
Monolord The Siren of Yirsinia Your Time to Shine
Corrosion of Conformity The Door Wiseblood
Colour Haze Goldmine Sacred
Mythic Sunship Equinox Light/Flux
Blue Rumble Brasas Blue Lightning/Brasas
Solanhum Basti (Falling into the Natural Realm) Rostratum
Fogteeth Delirium Man Headspace
Electric Wizard The Chosen Few Witchcult Today
Alain Johannes If Morning Comes Hum
Red Sky Blues Glowing Red Sky Blues
VT
Kungens Män Keeper of the One Key VA – International Space Station Vol. 1

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Sept. 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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