Posted in Whathaveyou on July 11th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
This very weekend, Ananda Mida play the esteemed Stoned from the Underground fest in Erfurt, Germany, heralding the arrival earlier this year of their new album, Cathodnatius. Though the Italian outfit are somewhat amorphous of lineup, their commitment to progressive sounds remains unflinching, and they were out in the first half of 2019 as well, but the new batch of dates run from this month through October in Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Austria over a series of weekenders and long-weekenders followed by more of a straight-run tour. One way or the other, it’ll be enough to keep them busy as Cathodnatius continues to sink in, and though I’m not sure if they’ll have more shows filled in on some of the off days or not, it’s obviously worth keeping an eye out should you happen to be in that part of the world.
“Cool band playing shows,” is the bottom line, I guess. Pretty simple story, but as you can hear in the album stream at the bottom of this post, it’s a story worth telling.
If you’re going to Stoned from the Underground, enjoy.
Dates:
Ananda Mida – Fall Tour Dates
After the first tour in January of the presentation of the second album Cathodnatius, our Ananda Mida return with new dates in Italy and Germany (at the prestigious Stoned from the Underground festival) and for an European tour in September and October.
TOUR: SAT 13.07 DE – Erfurt – @stonedfromtheunderground SAT 20.07 IT – Bologna – Fondazione Villa Ghigi SUN 21.07 IT – Aviano – Bar al Contrario MON 22.07 SLO – Lubiana – @galahalametelkova TUE 23.07 IT – Mirano – @miranosummerfestival SAT 07.09 – IT – Treviso – In Veneto there is no law 5 SUN 08.09 – IT – Carmignano – Karmin Fest FRI 27.09 – CH – Olten – @coqdor_olten SUN 29.09 – AT – Salzburg – @rockhouse_bar_salzburg MON 30.09 – DE – Wiesbaden – @kupawiesbaden TUE 01.10 – DE – Rosenheim – @asta_rosenheim THU 03.10 – DE – Berlin – Dunckerclub SAT 05.10 – DE – Passau – @zauberbergpassau SUN 06.10 – IT – @punkyreggaepub
Ananda Mida is stoner rock and psychedelia collective, leaded by Max Ear, former drummer of OJM and co-founder of Go Down Records, and Matteo Pablo Scolaro, underground guitarist and curator of Go Down Bands on Tour, with the help of Eeviac artworks.
Since 2015, they have been playing, with different line-ups, from three up to six members, both instrumental or with singers, a seventies sound mixed with desert and psychedelia grooves.
Ananda Mida are: Davide Bressan: bass guitar Max Ear: drums Matteo Pablo Scolaro: electric guitar Alessandro Tedesco: electric guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 31st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Go Down Records has begun a series of split releases by teaming up fuzz rockers Mongoose and thick-toned riff rollers Jahbulong for a cooperative LP. At any point along the way, there are any number of things that can get screwed up with one band involved in a release, let alone two (or more), and let alone an entire series of releases, so saying something is the beginning of a series as the Italian label is here carries with it no small amount of risk that at some point some band along the way will give them the “oh it’ll be done in two weeks” treatment. Even getting a first edition is out, and I’m pretty sure the second one is already available for preorder (more on that to come).
The label has all the tracks streaming on its Bandcamp, because the future is convenient, and you can hear them at the bottom of this post because even though I haven’t updated the theme of this site since 2009, I still try to make things convenient too. LPs are on sale now.
To the release info:
Split Series #1 put together 2 young and powerful bands.
MONGOOSE have been playing together since 2013. Everything has started with a jam session during a lazy Sunday afternoon. 5 years later the band didn’t change the attitude. They keep jamming and laughing together in a small room lost in the countryside around Verona, Italy.
JAHBULONG is a trio from Verona, Italy. These stoner doom metal lovers have been playing together since 2015. Their sound is a mix of rough and oppressive grooves with obscure and wistful mantras.
The idea of Go Down Split Series started in February 2018. Max from Go Down Records was talking with these 2 bands about the good vibes they could create together so the idea to put them in one album came naturally. Split Series #1 was recorded on tape, like the good old times, at Mal de Testa Studio by Daniel Grego in Tombolo, Padua, Italy.
Artists: MONGOOSE | JAHBULONG Title: Split Series #1 Format: yellow vinyl LP Label: GO DOWN RECORDS
SIDE A – MONGOOSE 1. Berserker 2. Inertial Absorber 3. The Fall 4. Final Exodus 5. Knowledge Is Not The Solution
SIDE B – JAHBULONG 1. Black Horses Run 2. Green Walls 3. River Of Fall
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 28th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Italian heavy rockers Ananda Mida will start out 2019 strong with the release of their second album, Cathodnatius, on Go Down Records and Vincebus Eruptum Recordings. The album is clearly intended to be a complement to the band’s 2016 debut, Anodnatius (review here), which not only shared a similar title but artwork on which the striking new cover builds, facing an arm the opposite way and turning from organic to inorganic components thereof. The approach to the tracks themselves seems to have shifted as we go from songs like “Aktavas” to “Blank Stare,” but I’ve yet to dig into the record to hear if there’s a corresponding shift in sound. The teaser at the bottom of this post seems to be culled from opener “The Pilot” though, and that’s pretty right on, either way.
Preorders are up now if that’s your thing, and the album features some collaboration with singer-songwriter Conny Ochs, known for his solo work as well as his duo with Wino of The Obsessed et al.
Info from the PR wire:
Ananda Mida – Cathodnatius
Go Down Records / Vincebus Eruptum Records out on 2019.01.12 LP, CD, digital
CATHODNATIUS is the second chapter of the psychedelic undertaking of Ananda Mida through our cosmos, trying to investigate the soul of the tricerebral beings of our planet, this time examining in particular all the negative forces and the relative subtle vibrations lying outside and inside everything.
Recorded at the Teatro delle Voci Studios in Treviso, it sees the collaboration of singer Conny Ochs, a valid explorer of the mythological cosmos created by the band. Cover by eeviac artworks.
“The pilot turns his head and checks on the controls, lights turn through green and red, ignition, there he goes.”
TRACKLIST: 1. The Pilot 2. Blank Stare 3. Pupo Cupo 4. Out Of The Blue 5. Doom And The Medicine Man [part I – IV]: I- Towers And Holes II- Opening Hours III- Rude Awakening IV- The Medicine Man Is Looking For A Cure
Posted in Reviews on March 27th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Here we are, on the precipice looking out over a spread that will include 50 reviews by the week’s end. Somehow when it comes around to a Quarterly Review Monday I always end up taking a moment to ask myself if I’ve truly lost my mind, if I really expect to be able to do this and not fall completely flat on my face, and just where the hell this terrible idea came from in the first place. But you know what? I haven’t flubbed one yet. We get through it. There’s a lot to go through, for me and you both, but sometimes it’s fun to be completely overwhelmed by music. I hope you agree, and I hope you find something this week that hits you in that oh-yeah-that’s-why-I-love-this kind of way. Time’s wasting. Let’s get started.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Pallbearer, Heartless
Three albums and nearly a decade into their tenure, Pallbearer stand at the forefront of American doom, and their third outing, Heartless (on Profound Lore), only reinforces this position while at the same time expanding beyond genre lines in ways that even their 2014 sophomore effort, Foundations of Burden, simply couldn’t have done. A seven-song/hour-long sprawl is marked out by resonant melodies, soulful melancholy conveyed by guitarist/vocalist Brett Campbell – the returning lineup completed by guitarist Devin Holt, bassist Joseph D. Rowland and drummer Mark Lierly – and tonal weight set to a mix by Joe Barresi, who from opener “I Saw the End” onward arranges layers gorgeously so that extended pieces like “Dancing in Madness” (11:48) and closer “A Plea for Understanding” (12:40) become even more consuming. What comes through most resolute on Heartless, though, is that it’s time to stop thinking of Pallbearer as belonging to some established notion of doom or any other subgenre. With these songs, they make it clear they’ve arrived at their own wavelength and are ready to stand up to the influence they’ve already begun to have on other acts. A significant achievement.
With the considerable frontman presence of Primordial’s Alan Averill on vocals and bass, the considerable riffing of guitarist Bones (also of Wizards of Firetop Mountain) and the considerable lumber in the drumming of Johnny King (ex-Altar of Plagues), Dread Sovereign make some considerable fucking doom indeed. Their second album, For Doom the Bell Tolls (on Ván Records), follows three years behind their debut, 2014’s All Hell’s Martyrs (review here), and wastes no time giving the devil his due – or his doom, if you prefer – in the span of its six tracks and 37 minutes. Atmospheric and seemingly on an endless downward plod, the 13-minute “Twelve Bells Toll in Salem” is a defining moment, but the trad metallurgy of “This World is Doomed” rounds out side A with some welcome thrust, and after the intro “Draped in Sepulchral Fog,” “The Spines of Saturn” and the thrashing “Live Like and Angel, Die Like a Devil” play dramatic and furious intensities off each other in a manner that would seem to truly represent the fine art of not giving a shit what anyone thinks about what you do or what box you’re supposed to fit into. Righteous. Considerably so.
Noise, largesse of riffs and shouted vocals that distinctly remind of Souls at Zero-era Neurosis pervade the near-hour-long run of Lizzard Wizzard’s Total War Power Bastard, but as much as the Brisbane four-piece willfully give themselves over to fuckall – to wit, the title “Medusa but She Gets You Stoned Instead of Turning You to Stone, Instead of Snakes She has Vaporizers on His Head… Drugs” – songs like “Shithead Nihilism,” “Pizza” and the droning “Snake Arrow” brim with purpose and prove affecting in their atmosphere and heft alike. Yes, they have a song called “Nerd Smasher,” and they deserve all credit for that as they follow-up their 2013 self-titled (review here), but by the time they get down to the roll-happy “Crystal Balls” and the feedback-caked “Megaflora” at the record’s end, guitarists Michael Clarke and Nick McKeon, bassist Stef Roselli and drummer Luke Osborne end up having done something original with a Sleep influence, and that’s even more commendable.
Should mention two things outright about Oulu Space Jam Collective’s EP1. First and foremost, its three songs run over 95 minutes long, so if it’s an EP, one can only imagine what qualifies as a “full-length.” Second, the Finnish outfit releasing EP1 on limited tape through Eggs in Aspic isn’t to be confused with Denmark’s Øresund Space Collective. Oulu is someplace else entirely, and likewise, Oulu Space Jam Collective have their own intentions as they show in the 57-minute opener “Renegade Spaceman,” recorded live in the studio in 2014 (they’ve since made two sequels) and presented in six movements including samples, drones, enough swirl for, well, 57 minutes, and a hypnotism that’s nigh on inescapable. I won’t take away from the space rock thrust of 14-minute closer “Artistic Supplies for Moon Paint Mafia” (also tracked in 2014), but the smooth progressive edge of three-part 24-minute centerpiece “Approaching Beast Moon of Baxool” is where it’s at for me – though if you want a whole galaxy to explore, hit up their Bandcamp.
They freak out a bit toward the end of 12-minute opener “Ascendant” and in the second half of the subsequent “Supersaturation,” but for the most part, Aussie three-piece Frozen Planet…. 1969 play it weirdo-cool on their fourth full-length, the excellently-titled Electric Smokehouse (on Pepper Shaker Records). From those jams to the dreamy beachside drift of “Shores of Oblivion” to the funky-fuzz bass of “Sonic Egg Factory” to the quick noise finish of “Pretty Blown Fuse” – which may or may not be the sound of malfunctioning equipment run through an oscillator or some other effects-whatnot, the instrumentalist Sydney/Canberra trio seem to improv a healthy percentage of their fare, if not all of it, and that spirit of spontaneity feeds into the easygoing atmosphere only enhanced by the cover art. On a superficial level, you know you’re getting psych jams going into it, but once you put on Electric Smokehouse, the urge to get lost in the tracks is nigh on overwhelming, and that proves greatly to their credit. Wake up someplace else.
Ananda Mida make their debut on Go Down Records with Anodnatius, fluidly working their way around heavy psychedelic and more driving rock influences propelled by drummer Massimo “Max Ear” Recchia, also of underrated Italian forebears OJM. Here, Recchia anchors a seven-piece lineup including two vocalists in Oscar de Bertoldi and Filippo Leonardi, two guitarists in Matteo Scolaro and Alessandro Tedesco, as well as bassist Davide Bressan and organist Stefano Pasqualetto, so suffice it to say songs like the subtly grungy “Passvas,” the dreamy highlight “Heropas” or the vaguely progressive “Askokinn” want nothing for fullness, but there seem to be moments throughout Anodnatius as on “Lunia” and the shuffling “Kondur” early into the proceedings where the band wants to break out and push toward something heavier. Their restraint is to be commended since it serves the interests of songcraft, but part of me can’t help but wonder what might happen if these guys really let loose on some boogie jams. Keep an ear open to find out, as I have a feeling they might be headed in just that direction.
The heart of Séance – The Satanic Sounds of Strange Broue might come in the 11-minute sample dump that is “Cults and Crimes,” late into the second half of the 52-minute album. Capturing meticulously compiled news and talk-show clips from the late ‘80s, some of which talk about the Satanic roots of heavy metal, it gets to the ritualism that Quebec four-piece Strange Broue proliferate elsewhere on the record in the lo-fi post-Electric Wizard doom of “Satan’s Slaves,” “Kill What’s Inside of You” and the rolling opener “Ritualize” (video here). These pieces offset by other interludes of noise and drone and samples like “Satanic Panic,” “In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanis, Luciferi Excelsis,” the acoustic-until-it-gets-shot-in-the-woods “Las Bas,” the John Carpenter-esque “Séance IV – L’Invocation” and the extended penultimate drone of “Séance V – The Mystifying Oracle with Bells” ahead of the countrified pop gospel of “Satan is Real,” which finishes in subversive fashion, interrupted by more news reports and a finishing assault of noise. Like an arts project in the dark arts, Séance crosses some familiar terrain but finds Strange Broue on their own trip through cultish immersion, as psychological as it is psychedelic.
Not much to argue with in the sixth long-player from Helge Kanck, Trond Slåke and Hallvard Gaardløs, collectively known as Orango. As they make their way onto Stickman Records (which also handled Euro distro for their last album, 2014’s Battles) with The Mules of Nana, the Norwegian trio deep-dive into harmony-topped ‘70s-style vibing that, well, leaves the bulk of “retro” bands in their V8-crafted dust. Mind you they do so by not being a retro band. True, the fuzz on “The Honeymoon Song” and “Head on Down” is as organic as if you happened on it in some forest where all the trees were wearing bellbottoms, but if you told me it was true, I’d believe Orango recorded The Mules of Nana onto – gasp! – a computer. I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but “Heirs,” the sweetly acoustic “Give Me a Hundred” and motoring “Hazy Chain of Mountains” find Orango making no attempt to cloak a lack of songwriting or performance chops in a production aesthetic. Rather, in the tradition of hi-fi greats, they sound as full and rich as possible and utterly live up to the high standard they set for themselves. Pure win in classic, dynamic fashion.
There’s an undercurrent of metal that’s quick to show itself on Set and Setting’s Reflectionless. The instrumentalist Floridian five-piece delve plenty deep into heavy post-rock on cuts like the shoegazing “Incandescent Gleam” and subsequent “Specular Wavefront Of…” but they’re not through opener “Saudade” before harder-edged chug emerges, and “…The Idyllic Realm”’s blastbeating nods at black metal while the churning endgame build of closer “Ephemerality” holds tight to a progressive execution. While its textural foundation will likely ring familiar to followers of Russian Circles ultimately, Reflectionless finds distinction in aligning the various paths it walks as it goes, creating an overarching flow that draws strength from its diversity of approach rather than sounding choppy, confused or in conflict with itself. Not revolutionary by any means, but engaging throughout and with a residual warmth to complement what might seem at first to be a purely cerebral approach. It offers more on repeat listens, so let it sink in.
Primo short offering of pure, fistpump-ready, violin-infused doom traditionalism. I don’t know what Norrköping, Sweden’s Dautha – the five-piece of vocalist Lars Palmqvist, guitarists Erik Öquist and Ola Blomkvist, bassist Emil Åström and drummer Micael Zetterberg – are planning to do for a follow-up, but this Den Foerste (or Den Förste) two-tracker recalls glory-era Candlemass and willfully soars with no sense of irony on “Benandanti” and “In Between Two Floods” after the intro “Horkarlar Skall Slås Ihjäl,” and having already sold out a self-released pressing leaves little to wonder what would’ve caught the esteemed tastes of Ván Records. And by that I mean it’s fucking awesome. I’m ready for a full-length whenever they are, and from the poise with which Palmqvist carries the melodies of these tracks, the quality of the riffing and the depth of arrangement the violin adds to the overarching mournfulness, they definitely sound ready. So get on it. 15 minutes of dirge-making this gorgeous simply isn’t enough.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 24th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
After issuing their third album through Go Down Records earlier last year on CD/DL, Italian cosmic grungers Pater Nembrot oversaw in December a vinyl release through Vincebus Eruptum Recordings for Nusun (review here). It was their first record in five years since 2011’s Sequoia Seeds (review here), and a welcome, warm-toned arrival to be sure. The track “Architeuthis,” at a whopping 10 minutes and boasting a guest appearance from Christian Peters of Samsara Blues Experiment on synth, was the longest cut on Nusun and a definite highlight, capturing the vibe of the whole album and giving the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Philip Leonardi, guitarist Ramona March, bassist Jack Pasghin and drummer Clarence Casoni room to flesh out their sound.
They, of course, took fluid advantage of the opportunity. You don’t get the full 10-minute sprawl in the video version of “Architeuthis,” but as you’ll see and hear below, that’s still plenty enough time for the song’s resonant hook to embed itself in your brain. Like the track itself, the clip — directed by Pietro Bondi — blends the real and the unreal, and trips out performance footage and a narrative from Leonardi as music, visuals and storyline all meet. It’s molten, it’s immersive, it’s psychedelic, but the underlying structure proves effective as well — hence that part about the hook — and it’s in setting the two sides forth together that Pater Nembrot make their impact, here as well as on Nusun in its entirety.
The LP is pressed in limited numbers and available through Vincebus Eruptum now, and Pater Nembrot are looking to book Spring/Summer festival dates — they note they’re available — so look for more to come throughout 2017, but if you haven’t yet been introduced to Nusun, this is a good way to go and I’m glad to be able to host the premiere.
Check out Pater Nembrot‘s “Architeuthis” below, followed by more info on its making, and please enjoy:
Pater Nembrot, “Architeuthis” official video
Architeuthis is a song written by PATER NEMBROT featured in NUSUN, the 3rd official album of the band, released in cd/mp3 by Go Down Records on February 2016 and recently reissued on vinyl on December 2016 by Vincebus Eruptum Records. Architeuthis is the most representative track of the album “NUSUN” and it’s been chosen to be the soundtrack of the videoclip filmed and directed by Pietro Bondi, a young Italian videomaker and photographer, on a story by Philip Leonardi.
THE STORY As long as the song is about Nimrod, the architect of the Babel Tower, the video tells a weird story that unravel itself around one of the most popular communication form of our time: photography. A 70’s head has some bad sleeping and after his tired awakening, he picks his cam-era up and drives fast to his dark chamber, where something wicked this way comes.
THE OCCASION This video has been published to celebrate and promote the release of the Vinyl version of NUSUN, strongly suported by Vincebus Eruptum Records: “Pater Nembrot are a great band and great friends of mine since 2009… I always work with friends for my label – says Davidew, owner at VER – and to publish Nusun is a way to enforce our friendship”. The LP printed in 300 limited copies (200 purple, 100 transparent blue) features all the electric songs of the album digital version plus a download code that allows the full download of the whole tracklist and it’s available online on the official VER shop here:http://vincebuseruptum.bigcartel.com/product/pater-nembrot-nusun-in-cludes-association-fee-donation
We continue today to make our way through The Obelisk’s Summer 2016 Quarterly Review. Yesterday we passed the halfway point, always pivotal, and today brings another batch of 10 albums from the realms of doom, heavy rock, heavy psych, boogie rock, and beyond that I’m looking forward to digging into. I’ve been waking up early mornings all week to put these together — in bed circa 10PM, out of bed at 6AM — but it’s been worth it to see the response the posts have gotten so far and, I’ll say it once again, I hope you’ve found something you dig in what’s already out there, or if not, that by the time we wrap tomorrow something piques your interest. Let’s do it.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
The Order of Israfel, Red Robes
Swedish double-guitar four-piece The Order of Israfel make their second offering in Red Robes. Issued, like its 2014 predecessor, Wisdom, by Napalm Records, the new collection tops out at 59 minute/eight tracks of classically rolling doom. Guitarist/vocalist Tom Sutton (also Horisont, ex-Church of Misery) leads the charge for the Gothenburg-based unit, and along with guitarist Staffan Björck, bassist Patrik Andersson Winberg and drummer Hans Lilja, he brings to light a trad doom not so far removed in some of its impulses from some others throughout Northern Europe in the post-Reverend Bizarre sphere, but showing a personality of its own in the layered vocals of “Von Sturmer” and the acoustic “Fallen Children,” which follows, the choral arrangement in the earlier “The Red Robes” and the speedier “A Shadow in the Hills,” which precedes the crawling 16-minute closer “The Thirst,” its slow-nodding finish underscoring what The Order of Israfel bring of themselves to the classic form in songwriting and overall cohesion of purpose.
It’s a little bit of everything. Landskap’s aptly-titled third album, III, brings out ‘70s vibe with the organ and underlying shuffle of opener “Wayfarer’s Sacrifice,” but offers a doomier feel in the vocals and guitar, and the band go on to execute Doors-gone-prog moodiness on centerpiece “The Trick to Letting Go” and more psychedelic fuzz on the subsequent “The Hand that Takes Away.” So yeah, the London five-piece of vocalist Jake Harding, guitarist George Pan, bassist Christopher West (ex-Trippy Wicked, Groan), drummer Paul Westwood and keyboardist Kostas Panagiotou cover a good bit if ground in just five tracks, tying it all together via Harding’s vocals and a comfortable pace across the board, even on the more insistent “Awakening the Divide,” though that consistency gets toyed with some as nine-minute closer “Mask of Apathy” moves from its dreamy, spacious initial stretch into more uptempo push as payoff for the album as a whole. All the better to have Landskap shift their own methods as fluidly as they meld different styles across III’s engaging span.
If I have a speed at this point, Pooty Owldom is pretty much it. The Virginia-based duo of Matt “Big Jim” Shively and Walter Barry – also two-thirds of the trio Olson/Shively/Barry, which released their debut, Teirra del Fuego Blues (review here), in 2014 – cross the lines between psychedelia, krautrock, folk, weirdo prog and funk with the carefree fluidity of pre-jam-band Ween on their self-titled first outing under their new moniker, and hopefully it’s not the last one, because whether it’s the soap-opera daydream keys of “The Owlet” or any number of the other owl-themed cuts here – “Fuzzy Pellet” is a personal favorite, but who could argue with the bassline/piano tap of “Owls with Big Donuts?” – there’s a considerable creative breadth at work in kind with what sounds like a really good time in progress. Not one for everybody, but for me, I’d love to hear Shively and Barry flesh these ideas out further over longer pieces – “Torus Landing” goes furthest here at 4:53 – and bring the jazzy rhythmic sunbathing of “Target: Mouse” to even greater experimental realization. However it comes, more please.
A guitar/drum duo based in Cherkasy, Ukraine, Celophys issued their third album, Ammonite, last year through Robust Fellow Records. The CD arrives as yet another example of the Ukraine’s burgeoning heavy scene, along with Kiev acts like Stoned Jesus, Bomg, Soom, Mozergush, Ethereal Riffian and others, and brings a noteworthy sense of lumbering across its mostly-extended seven tracks, beginning with 12-minute opener and longest cut (immediate points) “Baron,” which melds slow-grind sludge riffing with deathly growls and rasp, which the charmingly-named “Spaceburger” and the later drumless drone-feast “Caveman Ritual” continue to build out in atmosphere and snail’s-pace intensity. Feedback, massive tonality, plodding groove – these are hardly unfamiliar elements, but drummer/vocalist Alexander Beregovoy and guitarist Miroslav Kopeyka bring about a fervent bludgeoning across Ammonite that should have even the jaded among those who approach it nodding approval. Also noteworthy is the limited-to-53 “Nautilus Pack” which comes in a hand-carved, custom-designed oversized wood case with special graffiti art, a sticker and a pin, as well as the digipak version of the album.
Dunbarrow’s self-titled debut hits at a curious moment. They might be a few years ahead of their time in returning to the roots of vintage-style heavy rock, but in so doing, they basically take up the mantle that groups like Witchcraft, Graveyard, Kadavar and Blues Pills have left behind in favor of more modern production styles. Specifically, the Norwegian four-piece, who had a handful of shorter digital releases out before, come across in direct conversation with the self-titled Witchcraft debut from 2004. Strange to think that a record with an aesthetic so bent on looking backward could actually be forward-thinking — portrait of what goes around, coming around — but Dunbarrow offer persuasive argument in favor of retro orthodoxy in the swaying “You Knew I was a Snake” and the subdued brooding of “Guillotine.” Whether their bet pays off will be something to find out over the next couple years and as their sound continues to develop, but for their first full-length, they show clever songcraft, a clear idea of what they want to do, and the potential to move that forward in intriguing ways.
I’ll rarely hone in on one instrument throughout an album, but the bass tone on Brutus’ third LP, Wandering Blind (on Svart), has to be heard to be believed. With a goodtime take on ‘70s shuffle, there’s plenty of room for the low end to wind its way around the guitar, and it does. Of course, that’s not all the Swedish/Norwegian five-piece have going for them in these nine live-sounding tracks, as shown in the swaying solo section of “Whirwind of Madness” or the stomp of “Blind Village.” They’re not through the opening title-track before multiple Sabbath references are dropped in the lyrics, and indeed they’re a touchstone, but the more upbeat feel of “The Killer” and the back and forth of closer “Living in a Daze” play to deeper influences from classic heavy rock and its modern incarnations, culminating in a multi-layer guitar solo backed by tambourine, bass, and drums that really seems to sum up the friendly and unpretentious vibe Brutus elicit.
Finnish trio Vallihauta make their self-titled debut on Future Lunch with eight raw tracks that span between the hardcore punk/death ‘n’ roll of “Puoliverinen” and the doomed churn in the early going of “Reviiri.” One can basically tell looking at the runtimes of the cuts where Vallihauta are headed with each song, and they adjust their songwriting capably to coincide with the given tempo shifts, resulting in a back and forth as playful as it is aggressive in its sound and harsh low-end buzz, but to their credit, they bring the two approaches together effectively on closer “Ote,” shifting from the record’s most gurgling rumble and tortured plod to increasingly intense punkishness that hits headfirst into a final slowdown to end the album. A multi-faceted approach is rarely something to complain about, and it certainly isn’t here, but the challenge going forward for Vallihauta will be to build on that bridging of gaps in “Ote” without losing either the ferocity of their faster material or the weight of the slower.
The third Pater Nembrot album, Nusun (on Go Down Records), follows five years behind 2011’s Sequoia Seeds (review here), and for Italian heavy rock, it’s been a hell of a half-decade. Now recognized as one of the strongest scenes in Europe, Italy has become a hotbed and Pater Nembrot’s return couldn’t be better timed. The nine-track outing brings some genuinely expansive moments, as with the 10-minute “Architeuthis” for which Christian Peters (Samsara Blues Experiment) guests on synth, or the wah-soaked second half of “The Rich Kids of Teheran,” but even shorter pieces like “Young Rite” effectively bring together grunge and heavy psych influences. The piano-laced opener “Lostman” and acoustic-strummed closer “Dead Polygon” seem to be speaking right to each other and are somewhat at remove with the rest of the record, perhaps the minute-long bass interlude “Uknap” aside (perhaps not), but the four-piece know their game by this point and just when a song like “Overwhelmed” seems like it’s going to lose its course, they bring it around to Nusun’s most satisfying instrumental build.
Almost immediately upon the band starting “Device,” the sense of ambition in Floodlore’s debut album, When it was Written, is palpable. A psych-infused trio from Northern Virginia, they range freely between the classic-minded “Justice” and fuzzy push of “Bars” before heading back to jammier fare for “Release,” which calls to mind All Them Witches for its meandering blues, and into harder-edged winding riffs for “Evening.” Both “Peace” and “Glow” continue to flesh out one side or the other, but an obvious focal point is the three-part/28-minute closer “Sun/When the Floodlore was Written/In Praise of Alan Watts,” which starts out nodding at surf rock before space-progging out for about 20 minutes, working into an out of extended solos and culminating in swirl and thrust that lives up to the band’s clear will for exploration. Some smoothing out to do in terms of balancing the mix (vocals came through high, though I’ll allow that could be my speakers), but When it was Written impresses in concept and execution and as Floodlore’s first full-length, it’s remarkably encouraging.
When it starts to feel like maybe you’ve got a given track figured out, that seems to be the moment when Eugene, Oregon, five-piece Red Cloud turn something around on their full-length debut, Ursa Minor, and though their foundation is still very much in heavy rock, they build on that shifting into and out of desert stylizations and psychedelic swirl. The band – here guitarist/vocalist/bassist Aaron Williams, guitarist Dennis Medina, drummer/engineer Lauren Roberts and bassist/guitarist Sean Loos, though Loos seems to have left the band and bassist Mike Nemeth and keyboardist Garrett Davis come aboard – keep the material consistent by going back to that heavy rock foundation and through a clear focus on songwriting. Even in the somewhat lumbering starts and stops of “Smoke Screen,” these tracks feel worked on and carefully arranged, and though they go different places – “Ghost Dance” with its manic shuffle, closer “Sick Eagle” with its Songs for the Deaf-style drive – they universally take an efficient route to get there.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 19th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
OJM, Heavy (2002)
We continue this afternoon with a next installment in the kind of informal series that’s been going on for the last few weeks in these Friday Full-Length posts with another underrated, pre-social media European heavy rocker. Originally released in 2002 through Beard of Stars, the aptly-titled Heavy (also discussed here) is the debut album from Treviso, Italy’s OJM, a band who, at least to someone outside of Europe like me, seem criminally underlooked when it comes to their country’s scene. Today, Italy is booming, with bands like Ufomammut and Black Rainbows and Isaak leading a charge of hundreds of outfits — seriously, if I’ve got email, it’s a one in three shot the band is Italian — but go back to the early aughts and that was much less so the case. OJM formed in 1997, and so were right on the cusp of a wave of post-Kyuss stoner. Granted, by the time Heavy came out, Queens of the Stone Age would have two records under its belt, but in songs like opener “The Sleeper,” the doom-rolling “You Come” and ultra-fuzzed “As I Know,” OJM laid out a stoner rock blueprint that stands toe to toe with what scenes in Germany, Sweden or the Netherlands were producing at the time in both the quality of its songcraft and its affinity for pushing the boundaries of what came before it.
I honestly don’t know how OJM are thought of in Italy. The band celebrated their 18th anniversary last year with a compilation of previously unreleased tracks, and Heavy itself was reissued on vinyl by Go Down Records in 2014, but their last proper full-length was 2010’s Volcano (review here) and I think it’s safe to say that in the last six years the scope of heavy rock’s reach — everywhere — has shifted massively, with a new generation of bands and a new generation of fans discovering the power of riffs and fuzz put to the right use. OJM have played shows steadily these last years, but an album like Heavy, with its noise rocking “Strange Dreams,” its centerpiece Stooges cover “T.V. Eye” and the weirdo experiments of “Mix Up!” — not to mention the spacious desert psychedelia of eight-minute closer “Theorem” — seems to be lost in the shuffle of what’s come since. Maybe it’s hard to get excited about a record that’s 14 years old like one that’s out next month. I accept that. But there’s also a matter of giving respect where it’s due, and the way I see it, OJM are overdue for theirs.
When they released that anniversary comp last year, they said they were taking a “long break.” What that means for their future remains uncertain, but if they’re calling it quits or just not taking the stage for however long, it seems like all the more of an opportunity to appreciate what they’ve done before. Heavy, as one of the best heavy rock records to come from Italy in its era, feels like a great place to start.
As always, I hope you enjoy.
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I had Monday off from work, and even without driving to the office that one day, it seems like this week was eternal. The good news is we got two more bands announced for the first-ever The Obelisk All-Dayer and the response was positive. I’m very excited about this thing. It’s been kind of a rough year since I went back to work full-time, and I’ve been trying very hard to find time to listen, write about and otherwise experience music as much as I can, and I feel like something like this takes that effort to a new place. I hope you can make it, and stay tuned, because the rest of the lineup is sick as well.
Next week… Uh… Well, a lot of videos, for one thing. Everybody and their cousin decided this week was when they wanted to put out their video, and call me crazy but I’d rather not post like five per day, so there are videos slated through next Thursday already for Bretus, Queen Crescent, Hypnos and Forming the Void. So long as nobody else makes a video, should be fine. Yeah right.
As for premieres, look out Monday for a full stream of the Banquet album, Tuesday for an exclusive track from Blizaro, and next Friday for a track premiere from Dream Death. In between, I’ll be reviewing the new Mars Red Sky album and maybe Church of Misery if I can make it happen before I leave to go to the Borderland Fuzz Fiesta on Friday morning. We’ll see how much I can get done, but you know that whatever I can, I will.
R.I.P. Harper Lee. Literature > death.
I’ve got a good friend in from out of town this weekend, so looking forward to a classic chillout and copious consumption of smoked meat and cheese products. It’ll be a time. Whatever you’re up to, please have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and radio stream.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 16th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Italian outfits Void of Sleep and Three Eyes Left have paired up and will tour together early in March. The two acts are both supporting 2015 releases — for Three Eyes Left, their second album, Asmodeus, on Go Down Records; for Void of Sleep, their own sophomore LP, New World Order (review here), on Aural Music — and the four-night run is sponsored by both labels. With Void of Sleep‘s take on progressive metal and Three Eyes Left‘s doomy brew, it should make for a heavy pairing as they make their way through Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland, heralding both records and covering a good bit of ground as they go.
Dates and other info follow here, as seen on the social medias:
Lords of the Occult Vol.I – Void of Sleep – Three Eyes Left
Aural Music and Go Down Records proudly present: LORDS OF THE OCCULT VOL.I
Void of Sleep and Three Eyes Left will play four exclusive gigs in Europe the first week of March, four cities, four contry. Void Of Sleep presents their new opus “New World Order”, an album of progressive occul metal that was included in many 2015’s best albums charts. Three Eyes Left will show you the power of “Asmodeus”, their last album, a great example of occult-inspired doom. You will enter in the deep and obscure doom without a way out. Don’t lose you chance to see you facing a real wall of sound.
THREE EYES LEFT are an Heavy psych doom band from Italy under GODOWN RECORDS, hailing from Bologna (IT). Started in 2004, becoming fastly a breath of fresh air in the heavy psich-doom genre. After a demo and two Ep releases, TEL were reached by GO DOWN RECORDS, on of the most valued heavy-rock label in Italy. Now releasing their second full length ASMODEUS.
These are the places: -2/3 Viper Room Vienna (Wien, Austria) -3/3 Sb?rné suroviny (Prague, Czech Republic) -4/3 Devils Place Rockclub Saarbrücken (Saarbrucken, Germany) -5/3 Das O (Spiez, Switzerland)
