Still playing catchup with some of the best stuff from 2021, and considering it’s been 2022 for all of a week, that’s not actually that bad. To say I vouch for this playlist is moot. You’ve seen my best of 2021 post — or if you haven’t, here it is — and when it comes to the Gimme Metal show generally, my position is I’m not going to play it if I don’t think it’s cool, so yeah, I’m on board with what’s happening here.

I’ll spare you grand reflections on the year that was, musically or otherwise, and just note that there’s some good variety of stuff going on here, between the likes of Lammping, Apostle of Solitude, Black Willows and Comet Control. I dig that. I hope you do too. Pretty simple, right?

If you didn’t hear the Kadabra record — yeah, I know their name is similar to Kadavar; they’re a different band — check that track out. Ditto, uh, everything, but I know not everyone has or is willing to make the time. Life is what it is. I feel lucky Gimme still lets me do this.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.07.22

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Jan. 21 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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Some extenuating circumstances here leading to a repeat posting of this playlist. What does that mean? Fair question!

This show was originally supposed to air on Dec. 10, but there were some last-minute technical difficulties — the nature of which I don’t even know, so it’s not like I’m keeping secrets — and it didn’t happen. Hey, I’ve done (apparently) 74 episodes of this show and that’s never happened before, so I consider that a pretty impressive run.

And obviously the world has continued along its chaotic, dizzying spin, so no real harm done. In the voice breaks here I talk about the next episode being on Xmas Eve and this being part one of two before the end of the year — which obviously won’t happen — but to be honest with you, I’ll be fucking astounded if anyone even notices, let alone calls it out. It is what it is. I’m lucky Gimme lets my weird, often-doesn’t-play-metal ass do a show at all.

So hey, thanks for listening if you do. And Happy Xmas if that’s your thing.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 12.24.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 24 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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Last episode was looking ahead to 2022. The one before that was looking back at 2020. That really just leaves 2021, huh? Well, here we are.

This I think is the third year I’ve done a ‘Some of the Best of the Year’ spacial on Gimme Metal, and at least the second year it’s been a two-parter. What can I say? I like a lot of music. And I think if you take the time to check out any of this stuff on the playlist, whether that’s by actually listening to the show (I hope) or just glancing through the playlist (I hope less), you might like it too.

This is only half, yes, but it’s still two hours of some of the best heavy stuff that came out this year. Should be plenty for one sitting, and the next episode — already turned in because of the impending holiday — should round this one out nicely. More to come. Then a whole new year.

Thanks for listening if you do.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 12.10.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 24 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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I had two ideas in my head for this episode. The first was to do a stuff-to-look-forward-to-next-year playlist, which I did, and the second was to do a me-spending-your-money-on-Black-Friday-Bandcamp-recommendations edition, which I did not do.

Was it the right choice? I don’t know, but it kind of feels like a victory for the good guys every time I get to play All Souls, or King Buffalo, or Sasquatch — or Gozu, or Conan, Stöner, Colour Haze, etc. — and there’s some small chance anybody will hear it, so I won’t exactly say I regret going the way I did. There will be other Bandcamp Fridays, I think.

And to be perfectly honest, I like thinking about this stuff, about new records coming out. I like to wonder what bands will come up with, song-wise, sound-wise, how things will have changed since their last record, how the identity of a group can shift over time. Think of High on Fire. Think of Dozer! A new Dozer album after 14 years. Who the hell knows what that’s going to sound like?

So yeah, that’s what I went with. And since preorder is up for some of this stuff — 40 Watt Sun, the PostWax series of which Dozer are a part, Naxatras, Messa, Earthless — I guess maybe you could spend some money anyway here. Plus there’s always older records to buy. It’s a big planet. There are a lot of albums on it.

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.26.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 10 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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I’ve been trying to do a best-of-2020-a-year-later episode since like June, but maybe it’s all the more appropriate since we’re coming up on that most wretched of years is actually nearly a full year buried. As much as it’s buried at all — don’t you kind of feel like 2020 lives on in our hearts, minds and residual traumas? I kind of do.

As I say in the voice breaks for this episode, I have very little conception of when 2020 ended and 2021 began as regards albums. I would’ve told you that the Grayceon record, the Enslaved record and Slift were 2021 releases. Yeah, I know Lowrider and Elephant Tree were last year, and Colour Haze and All Them Witches, but Polymoon? That could’ve been 2019.

So in addition to being a collection of what I think are killer tunes — always the goal, right? — this playlist is also a way for me to recall when things were ahead of digging into the best of 2021 over the course of the next month-plus. I’ve got a Black Friday episode, then two December episodes left this year. The December ones will both be best-of-the-year stuff. Let this be my precursor to that.

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 11.12.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 26 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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Let’s be clear: if I did this in the middle of July, I still wouldn’t need to justify it, but Halloween week, I need to justify it even less. And though I’ve done deep-dive shows before, gone in career order for YOB or Neurosis to look at the arc of their career, this isn’t anything so ambitious. In short, it’s a mixtape. A Type O Negative mixtape.

I’ve listened to this band since I was 10 years old, and their stuff still holds up 30 years later and more than a decade after the death of frontman Peter Steele. But you don’t need me to tell you that. It’s Halloween, so I’m playing Type O Negative on my show. That’s as simple as it gets. If you don’t like them, don’t listen. You’re wrong anyway. This time around it’s your loss.

Thanks if you do listen. I hope you enjoy.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.29.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Nov. 12 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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An honest moment: In my head, nobody listens to this show. Three people max, and I’m usually one of them. I don’t even think my mom listens anymore, which really is fair enough.

I expect more or less after every episode that the hammer is going to come down and Gimme — which regularly hosts metal luminaries for guest spots and even among its regular DJ roster has people relevant enough to make me scratch my head and wonder what I’m doing there — is going to shitcan my ass. Too weird, not enough metal, general you-suck as the cause. Or maybe I’m not even worth firing, I don’t know.

All I can do is put together what I think are cool playlists that offer something different and new. I love new music. I love the next album, the potential of new bands, the way sounds grow over time. And I don’t always like talking, but I do love sharing music and doing this show lets me do that, even if you’re only reading this and seeing the playlist as one of the countless lists of bands on the internet with new stuff out. That’s fine. Hopefully you check something out and dig it.

There.

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.15.21

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 29 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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

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

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

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.01.21

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

Gimme Metal website

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