Posted in Whathaveyou on December 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Man, you ever feel like you’re crawling to the finish line? I’m doing news catchup the next couple days, and this announcement from SonicBlast Fest came out like last weekend or some such with a first round of lineup adds for the Aug. 2024 edition of the Portuguese heavy festival — it’s the 12th one — and as I sit here with my e’er expanding ass sinking e’er deeper into the couch I feel about as far removed as I could from, let’s say, the glorious nighttime walk across the beach in Âncora that I was lucky enough to be born to eventually undertake after a night at SonicBlast earlier this year.
Not only was it my first time in Portugal and Iberia, period, but I met people I never thought I’d get to meet, saw old friends and made new ones, and for a few days pretty much lived the festival ideal. You get there, see sets, go back, write, drink all the coffee, take pictures, write more, write more, eventually collapse from fatigue, then go home with a rejuvenated spirit. You know, fest life.
Submitted for your daydreams is the initial billing for SonicBlast Fest 2024, with the heavy, stoner, psych and punk and hardcore sides of the festival represented and a solid punch of names with Graveyard, Brant Bjork Trio, 1000mods and Truckfighters. Think this means Deathchant and Sacri Monti will tour Europe together? I do. Think it means Sacri Monti‘s album will be out by then? I hope so. Deathchant, who also played this year, are awesome, by the way.
Here’s news. Tickets are on sale already:
SONICBLAST FEST ’24 – Aug. 8-10
It’s getting hard to breathe… We’re so proud to announce the first bands for SonicBlast Fest’s 12th edition!! Viagra Boys, Graveyard, Wine Lips, Brant Bjork Trio, Sunami, Colour Haze, Home Front, Truckfighters, Poison Ruin, 1000mods, Sacri Monti, Maruja, Deathchant and Máquina will join us at the craziest heavy psychedelic weekend by the ocean ⚡🌊☀️
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue
Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.
Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.
The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.
Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.
Ambition abounds on Sleep Maps‘ Reclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.
A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.
A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.
At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.
Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.
Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
So at this point two tracks have been made public from the forthcoming Graveyard full-length, 6. The first one, “Twice,” arrived in a video with the album announcement, and was a burner. Released just today, “Breathe In, Breathe Out” — a handy reminder if e’er there was one — is the second, and its melancholy will be recognizable to those who’ve followed the progression of the Swedish band through their more recent output. Granted, their still-latest-as-of-today album is 2018’s Peace (review here), so perhaps ‘recent’ with some context, but “Breathe In, Breathe Out” still tracks with the duality that has emerged in their approach.
Two ends of their style, hmm? One is the uptempo boogie, all-go shove topped with high-register howls from guitarist Joakim Nilsson, and the other is the downer soulful blues represented by “Breathe In, Breathe Out” as the four-piece begin to reveal some of the scope of 6. Much of the record works to find a middle-ground, or at least a fluid balance between these two poles, and while Graveyard are a popular enough act that there are people who prefer one side or the other — the “old stuff” vs. the “new stuff,” as opposed I guess to bands who aren’t so big and can do whatever they want without catching shit for it on the internet?; the world is weird — but as they have done since 2011’s landmark Hisingen Blues (review here), they remain true to all aspects of their expression, and on an apparently pretty windy day so covered with clouds that it turned the picture black and white, they took to the shoreline to make their new video.
No, Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson don’t show up, but there are some hints of Bergman just the same. And I assume the bearded, pipe-smoking fisherman was just hanging out by the docks when they got there. Check out the video below, you can’t miss him.
From the PR wire:
Graveyard, “Breathe In Breathe Out” official video
Swedish blues rock institution GRAVEYARD have released a new single titled ‘Breathe In, Breathe Out’, the second single from their upcoming album 6, that’s set to be released on September 29th via Nuclear Blast Records.
The band comments “Our 2nd single from the upcoming album 6 is rolling in like a fresh breeze from the west coast for all of you to enjoy. We are happy and thrilled about it, hope you will feel the same”
Directed by Emil Klinta Director of photography – Johan Forsberg Colorist – Oskar Larsson / Tint Site Manager Göteborg – Adam Gårdsmed Make-Up – Rebecca Nilsson Sea captain – Stig Karlsson Chief engineer – Jesper Strandberg Master gunner – Martin Mörck Location Grötö – Familjen Kleiner-Sedin Location Vinga – Bea Bengtsson Thank you’s – Vinga vänner & Amir Chamdin Produced by Our Man Klint Productions
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Swedish classic heavy rockers Graveyard will release their new album, called simply 6, on Sept. 29 in continued cooperation with Nuclear Blast. The staple outfit are half a decade removed from 2018’s Peace (review here), and hopefully found a bit of that in the interim, elusive though it may have been for the rest of the planet. They herald 6 with a video for the first single “Twice,” which is the catchiest thing I’ve heard from them since probably their third record and would have its feet firmly planted in boogie if boogieing didn’t require moving your feet. In any case, if you’ve been wondering when Graveyard were going to hit it with their particular past-into-present interpretation of classic heavy blues, well, you’re going to want to check out that song. Now.
I was fortunate enough to see Graveyard at last year’s Høstsabbat (review here), and after touring with Kadavar earlier this year, the band played Kristonfest in Spain and are confirmed for Up in Smoke in Switzerland in October. It would be not in the least a surprise if this word of the album that just came in like right now is followed shortly by a tour announcement. Nice to see them getting back into it, all the more since the song rules. Can’t wait to hear the record it comes from.
Newly off the PR wire:
GRAVEYARD Announce New Album “6”
Release Video For First single “Twice”
Swedish hard rock band GRAVEYARD have revealed details of their new album “6,” that’s set to be released on September 29th via Nuclear Blast Records. Alongside the announcement, the band have also released the video for first single “Twice,” their first new music in five years. “6” is easily identifiable as the most striking, original album of GRAVEYARD’s story so far. A gently lysergic blend of desolate guitars, simmering Hammond and lithe, nimble bass and drums, the Swedes demonstrate a lightness of touch that they have only hinted at in the past.
The band comments, “Finally it’s here, ready to be harvested and enjoyed like the forbidden fruit in your backyard. We are very, very happy being able to share album number 6 with you all very soon. Peace out.”
GRAVEYARD – “6” Tracklist 1. Godnatt 2. Twice 3. I Follow You 4. Breathe In Breathe Out 5. Sad Song 6. Just A Drop 7. Bright Lights 8. No Way Out 9. Rampant Fields
The album was recorded at Silence Studios and Don Pierre Studios and was produced byDon Ahlsterberg, who previously worked with the band on “Graveyard” (2007), “Hisingen Blues” (2011) and “Lights Out” (2012).
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Some pretty good inferences one might make looking at the first lineup announcement for Up in Smoke 2023, the annual Sound of Liberation festival held each year in Pratteln, Switzerland. It says The Obsessed will be on tour in Europe this Fall, which I’m pretty sure they’ve said anyway, but it might also be a clue as to the release of their next album. On the other hand, they might just be fucking touring because they’re The Obsessed and that’s what they do. Also it’s further expansion of Alabama Thunderpussy‘s reunion and since this festival is Sep. 29 to Oct. 1 and their prior confirmation was Keep it Low from Oct. 6 to 7, they’ll likely be on the road in Europe for the better part of at least two weeks. That’s not nothing.
Consider also Yawning Man heading abroad in Fall for their new album, announced yesterday. And did you hear that Dirty Sound Magnet record? I didn’t until now but it’s a ripper. New school oldschool blues heavy. Rad. And Eyehategod getting back at it too. It’s a cool bill, mix of newer acts and recognizable with Zeal & Ardor on top nothing to complain about.
Of course, there’s more to come here, but hell, I’d go to this. You? Festival in Switzerland in October? Why on earth would you say no to that?
Also note there’s a new Facebook page for the fest. From the PR wire:
UP IN SMOKE 2023 – ZEAL & ARDOR, GRAVEYARD, THE OBSESSED & MANY MORE ANNOUNCED
Hey Smokers, the long awaited day has come. We’re stoked to finally reveal the first names for our 2023 edition. We hope you like it as much as we do!
Get ready for three days of finest heavy rock music… this is just the beginning.
Artwork: Brookesia Estudio
Festival info: Up In Smoke Festival 29. Sep – 01. Oct 2023 @ Konzertfabrik Z7 // Pratteln (CH)
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 13th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
When asked if I wanted a logo for The Obelisk to appear on the poster for Kristonfest 2023 — to be held next May 27 in Madrid, Spain — I knew the answer was yes even before I was aware of who’d be playing. The festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the coming year, and with Graveyard, The Obsessed, Inter Arma and Mars Red Sky in the first lineup announcement, they’re wanting for nothing in terms of reach or scope. This does make me think maybe Inter Arma will be on tour with The Obsessed, but I don’t know that so don’t go spreading it or anything, but regardless, from the heavy blues and classic doom at the top of the bill through the sheer visceral extremity and ever-proggier melodic songcraft that follows here, they’re four-for-four in my mind. And now that I’ve seen the announcement, maybe instead of congratulating myself in “I called it” fashion, I’ll say that I’m humbled they asked about that silly logo in the first place.
Also, that’s the first I’m hearing of a new Graveyard album. So that’s a thing ot watch for.
Expect more to come probably in the New Year, but for now here’s the poster and what Kristonfest has to say about it:
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COMPLETE POSTER FOR THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KRISTONFEST
This new edition will take place on Saturday, May 27, 2023 in the central La Paqui room (Former BUT room) in Madrid and tickets are now available at www.kristonfest.com
After many turbulent months and full of uncertainty, the Kristonfest is back with a bang and presents itself with a lineup full of quality, variety and that picks up the gauntlet thrown by the fans who, year after year, show their support and encouragement for a self-managed event and focused on rock in its most extensive color palette. Maintaining the philosophy of giving space to different styles and prominence to the participating bands, the 2023 line-up is made up of four bands that perfectly represent what Kristonfest is and wants to be:
The titanic GRAVEYARD will visit the festival for the first time, a double joy since they will be presenting their new studio album, the sixth in their career since their formation in 2005. Entangled in an amalgamation of blues-rock, psychedelia and mesmerizing compositions, accompanied by a voice and lyrics loaded with feeling, make this Swedish quartet a benchmark. They will be accompanied by the historic THE OBSESSED, formed at the end of the ’70s and led by the charismatic Scott “WINO” Weinrich, for many one of the fathers of doom-metal and who treasures an endless career (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan , The Hidden Hand, Wino, Probot, etc…) and that has served as a reference for hundreds of bands that have emerged in recent decades! For this occasion, the band adds a second guitarist to its classic trio format, which will give more strength and power to the show of those from Maryland-USA!.
The INTER ARMA quintet has carved out a well-deserved reputation as a live band, largely due to such majestic songs that act as a facilitating element to offer a brutal and uncompromising set list in which they leave no puppet with a head. Richmond’s quintet outdoes itself on each album it publishes, mixing sludge with black and even post-metal with majestic and apparent ease. We don’t usually see such wild bands at Kristonfest, don’t miss them! To close this vicious circle, some old acquaintances from the underground circuit, the French MARS RED SKY, who have had hundreds of concerts around the world behind them and appearances as significant as those they offered at important festivals such as Hellfest, Motocultor or the homeland Resurrection Fest. Leaders of rock psychedelia in Europe together with contemporaries such as Colour Haze, Causa Sui or Siena Root, the Bordeaux trio is loaded with fuzz, groove and stoner-rock, pure dynamite to round off a night that seems special and worth remembering. THIS IS KRISTONFEST!
Posted in Radio on October 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Take two headlining bands — both arguably at the forefront of their generation of heavy rock and rollers in Europe, now veterans both but by no means out of date or ‘old,’ however they might feel after a given gig — and slap ’em out on tour together. It’s a long-proven winning formula and next April Örebro, Sweden’s Graveyard and Berlin, Germany’s Kadavar will head out together to demonstrate its functionality again. Legit.
Both groups were recently announced as part of Desertfest London 2023’s lineup (info here), but I hardly put together from that that they’d be on tour together — oh me of small mind, narrow view — but I happened to catch Graveyard earlier this month at the second night of Høstsabbat 2022 (review here) in Norway, and it’s been a minute since I saw Kadavar that one time, but I’ve got no doubt they’re similarly up to the task of heading out on a co-headlining bill like this. This kind of tour makes everyone play better.
I guess some tickets are on sale now and more will open up next week? That’s how I read the below, anyhow, which is what Graveyard posted on the ol’ socials:
Glad to announce that we’re hitting the european spring roads together with Kadavar. Get your tickets and hope to see you out there.
Tickets go on sale today, Friday 28th and Monday 31st of October – check your local dealer for more info.
19.04 Hamburg DE Grosse Freiheit 36 21.04 Stuttgart DE LKA Longhorn 22.04 Frankfurt DE Zoom 24.04 Munich DE Backstage Werk 25.04 Vienna AT Arena 28.04 Nijmegen NL Doornrosje 29.04 Amsterdam NL Melkweg 30.04 Paris FR Trabendo 01.05 Lessines FR Roots & Roses 03.05 Bristol UK SWX 04.05 Manchester UK Academy 3 05.05 London UK Desertfest 06.05 Luxembourg LUX Den A
