The message here is clear: Desertfest is all-in on New York. Begun in 2019 and resurfacing in 2022 at a new venue, The Knockdown Center, somewhere in the nebulous border region between Brooklyn and Queens, and a corresponding pre-show at the Saint Vitus Bar, which one hopes will reopen well in advance of this September, Desertfest New York 2024 is vivid in taking it to the next level.

It’s nothing less than a generational event to bring Dozer from Sweden to NYC (they toured the US circa 2000, I’m pretty sure), and for that alone, Desertfest earns your weekend ticket price today. Never mind that at the same time they’re celebrating legends like Dozer and Acid King, they’re also extending their reach to up and coming bands. Green Lung will play — gotta be the main stage, right? isn’t their sound too big for anything else? maybe outside at night? — coming over from the UK to do so, and West Coast outfits Kadabra, Abrams, Deathchant (who at this point I count as a secret being a little too well kept) and Hippie Death Cult complement well Acid King near the top of the bill, where you’ll also find instrumentalists Russian Circles, presumably a headliner, and fair enough. Oh yeah, and Truckfighters just in case anyone gets tired and needs a bit of a cardio pick-me-up.

Guhts from New York, Domkraft from Sweden, Belzebong from Poland and an awaited appearance from Boston’s Gozu round out this initial announcement, with more to come. It’s on my calendar. You might think about putting it on yours as well:

Desertfest NYC announces Russian Circles, Acid King, Green Lung, Truckfighters, Dozer & more for its 2024 lineup.

For their return to the Knockdown Center this September, Desertfest NYC has unveiled its first artists set to take the stage for their fourth edition, announcing post-metal giants RUSSIAN CIRCLES as their first headliner. Joining them will be California stoner metal legends ACID KING and London occult metal sensations GREEN LUNG, making their US debut. After they were unable to perform at DF 2022, the festival is thrilled to finally be hosting them stateside.

Swedish rockers and long-time Desertfest friends TRUCKFIGHTERS will return for their first New York performance in four years, along with fellow countrymen and stoner devotees DOZER.

Joining the party will be Poland’s instrumental ‘dudes’ BELZEBONG, Swedish psychedelic hypnotizers DOMKRAFT, and a healthy dose of rock n roll arrives courtesy of Los Angeles quartet, DEATHCHANT and Boston mainstays GOZU.

Elsewhere we’ll be treated to some psychedelic swagger from Pacific Northwesterners KADABRA and HIPPE DEATH CULT, and some heavy gazin’ with Denver’s ABRAMS and NY locals GUHTS.

Desertfest New York 2024 will take place September 12th – 14th. 3-Day Festival Passes (incl. pre-party access) and 2-Day Festival passes are available now via https://www.desertfestnewyork.com & https://link.dice.fm/desertfest2024

https://facebook.com/Desertfestnyc/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_nyc/
http://www.desertfestnewyork.com

Dozer, “Big Sky Theory” live in Adelaide, Australia, Nov. 2023

Following on from the late-January release of their debut album, Regeneration (review here), New-York-and-then-some-based post-metallic earthscorchers Guhts today announce a round of Spring touring to support the record. The East Coast run takes begins in Philadelphia April 15 and concludes on a back-northbound swing April 24 after a drive from Richmond (not nothing; hope you like I-95), hitting Arlene’s Grocery the final night. There’s one TBA, and I’m honestly not sure if they have a show for it or not, but if you’re somewhere between Birmingham and Richmond — Charlotte, NC, maybe? Knoxville, TN? — and you’ve got a stage and can put the band up for an evening, you could tick your I-did-a-good-thing-today box early by at least asking if you can help out. I’ve talked to Scott Prater and Amber Burns before. They’re pretty friendly.

The record, on the other hand, tends the other way. Channeling its emotive crux in the latter’s vocals as well as the sometimes willfully caustic, weighted-even-in-its-quiet-parts sprawl behind her, Regeneration gets furious but isn’t reliant on anger or aggression at its core. And where 2021’s debut Blood Feather EP (review here) felt like the beginning of an exploration because it very definitely was, the sense of command throughout Regeneration — even unto those parts where they seem to be letting the songs go where the songs want instead of where they want them to go, maybe especially in those parts — is striking. Guhts know what they want to do sound-wise, likewise raw and mindful. They did it in the studio (with Andy Frickin’ Patterson, no less). Now they’ll do it at shows in cities most of which they haven’t hit before. If still reading and you’re the type to show up, it would be advisable.

Dates follow:

GUHTS – Regeneration Spring Tour 2024
April 15 Century Philadelphia, PA
April 16 The Crown Baltimore, MD
April 17 Monstercade Winston Salem, NC
April 18 The Odd Asheville, NC
April 19 Atlanta Utility Works Atlanta, GA
April 20 Muddy River Madness Vicksburg, MS
April 21 True Story Brewing Birmingham, AL
April 22 TBA
April 23 Banditos Richmond, VA
April 24 Arlene’s Grocery New York, NY

GUHTS are:
Amber Burns – Vocals
Scott Prater – Guitar & Synth
Daniel Martinez – Bass
Brian Clemens – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/guhtsband
https://www.instagram.com/guhtsband/
https://guhts.bandcamp.com/
https://guhts.com/

https://instagram.com/seeing_red_records
https://www.facebook.com/seeingredrecords/
https://seeingredrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.seeingredrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/newheavysounds
https://www.instagram.com/newheavysounds
https://newheavysounds.bandcamp.com/
https://www.newheavysounds.com/
https://linktr.ee/NewHeavySounds

Guhts, Regeneration (2024)

After a well-received 2021 EP, Blood Feather (review here), announced their arrival, New York’s Guhts offer post-metallic cohesion and emotive visceralia throughout their debut album at a level such that they might need to add another ‘g’ to their name: “Gughts.” At 46 minutes and seven songs, with “White Noise” (8:24) and “The Wounded Healer” (10:13) bookending the ambitious collection, Regeneration arrives scorching the ground behind and/or in front of it, a willful kitchensinkery of piano, strings and synth from guitarist Scott Prater finding a balance between conveying overwhelm and actually being overwhelming. The album immediately puts vocalist Amber Burns in a class of singer able to be emotive, harsh or gentle in her delivery, the gnashing and screaming of one measure often giving over a melodic croon or some semi-spoken poetry recited with marked force and presence. With Brian Clemens on drums and Daniel Martinez on bass, Regeneration casts Guhts as all-in.

There’s very little that feels like it’s being held back throughout, and that too is on purpose, but it’s not to say Guhts want for dynamic. The fact that the band traveled to Salt Lake City to work with producer Andy Paterson (The Otolith, Iota, ex-SubRosa, and so many others but those would be enough) feels emblematic generally of their commitment to the sonic progression being set forth in “White Noise” as Guhts position themselves in aesthetic conversation specifically with the Julie Christmas-fronted Battle of Mice, who put out one of post-metal’s best records ever in 2006’s A Day of Nights (discussed here) before dissolving, and SubRosa, whose final two albums found a balance between heft and float, beauty and darkness, that seems to inform Regeneration all the more with Paterson helming. Not so much in the airy guitar and half-whispers of “Til Death,” which feels more Honor Found in Decay-era Neurosis in its not-languid gradualism. Through “White Noise” and “Til Death,” which is about half as long, as well as the subsequent “The Mirror,” which like “Handless Maiden” and “Eyes Open” still to come is a redux from the EP.

Fewer experiments could be more revealing as regards the jump Guhts have made from Blood Feather to Regeneration than to listen to “Eyes Open” from the former and the latter back to back. What the band now calls a demo was made with the lineup of Burns, Prater and guitarist/synthesist Dan Shaneyfelt before the live incarnation of Guhts existed is cast as primitive by the fully realized churn of Regeneration‘s “Eyes Open,” keyboard bringing melodic punctuation to a progression that reveals itself as born out of Panopticon-style Isis but full in its arrangement in a way that band could never have been thanks in no small part to the all-over-it performance throughout from Burns. If the aforementioned Julie Christmas and Rebecca Vernon (now of The Keening, ex-SubRosa) are stylistic progenitors here, Burns takes up that physically-exhausting-sounding mantle — I mean that literally; her vocals come across like the kind of full body delivery that would make you tired after; need to go sit somewhere quiet when the set’s done and that kind of thing — with due passion and what Sourvein once called a ‘will to mangle.’

It is a stunning effort specifically for Burns, but her voice is just a part of the world being made throughout these songs, and even as “White Noise” shifts into its sweeter hook line about something keeping you from yourself (I took the ‘white’ in “White Noise” to be a kind of antifascist stance, and right on, but I realize in saying that I haven’t seen a lyric sheet to conform that or not), or the three-and-a-half-minute string-laced centerpiece “Handless Maiden” brings Guhts to perhaps their most weighted, impact-rumbling churn in the dug-in intensity of its first minute-plus, only to reveal at that point a backed-off-whatever-ribbon-mic-was-used-probably-so-it-didn’t-break, blown-out vocal from Burns that helps move the track from what might’ve been another part of a longer piece like “The Wounded Healer” into a standout in its own right that offers something distinct from the rest of the album at whose core it rests. It becomes crucial to the proceedings and an important part of the atmosphere on the whole, its structural shift serving notice of Guhts‘ expanded and hopefully still expanding creative reach while staying consistent in tone and general volatility of mood in volume.

The tremolo in “Handless Maiden” is well suited to the harsher spirit of the song, and “Eyes Open” brings another change with a more open feel en route to “Generate,” the semi-title-track, which feels willing to be hypnotic, to reside in its component sections, in a way that feels like growth. Textures of guitar and a more straightforward melodic vocal give the listener a sense of peace, however momentary in the song’s seven-minute run, maybe with Prater backing on vocals (?) as it moves into the shouts and intensity of the build across its second half, the noisy finish fading to silence ahead of chimes (or synth, etc.) to note the arrival at “The Wounded Healer.” A mellower verse reveals the transitional nature of “Generate,” though the tension holds firm throughout the first minute and a half before the explosion hits at 1:52, the band smoothly shifting to more consuming volume and crash — the cymbals on Regeneration want to eat you — before the march through the middle around the melancholy lead guitar and midtempo lumber take over, vocals restrained and brooding for now, waiting to lash out as they inevitably do.

“The Wounded Healer,” like “Generate” before it, splits at the halfway point and finishes with memorable repetitions of the phrase “Silence my heart” that build up, are complemented by percussion/strings making them feel that much rawer by comparison, caustic and insular, an implosion collapse. It’s a grand, final letting-loose, Burns‘ vocals owning the foreground with willfully unbridled layering adding to chaotic feel of culmination, the crashing behind almost cinematic. Peaking around 6:30, they finish in a sustained wash with a return to melody (ultimately partial), the message coming through that they haven’t revealed totality of their sound yet and that, ambitious as Regeneration is, their creative drive is growing no less than their sound. I won’t hazard to predict Guhts‘ future or how their personality and individualism might continue to manifest in their output — where they’re headed, in other words — but Regeneration is noteworthy for the clarity of its vision and the abiding sense of purpose brought to its expression and urgency. which are particularly resonant from a debut but would be impressive in any context.

Guhts, Regeneration (2024)

Guhts on Facebook

Guhts on Instagram

Guhts on Bandcamp

Guhts website

Seeing Red Records on Bandamp

Seeing Red Records on Instagram

Seeing Red Records on Facebook

Seeing Red Records website

New Heavy Sounds on Facebook

New Heavy Sounds on Instagram

New Heavy Sounds on Bandcamp

New Heavy Sounds website

The coming of a debut album by partially-New York-based outfit Guhts has been long foretold by, well, the band, for one. Begun as a pandemic-born offshoot of Witchkiss, the 2021 EP Blood Feather (review here) provided an introduction to the new project’s heavier-than-you-usually-think-of-heavygaze and industrial-informed nod, and as they’ve undertaken a couple tours in the time since, they’re only more ready in my mind for the task ahead of them. Regeneration is out Jan. 26 through New Heavy Sounds and a US CD issue on Seeing Red Records.

You can — and if you’re still reading, you probably should — stream the first single, “Til Death,” at the bottom of this post. If nothing else, it’s a reminder of why you (by which I mean I) have been looking forward to this album for the last two-plus years. The cover art and the song are below, along with the tracklisting and preorder links, because that’s how we do on a Monday. We do thoroughly.

From the PR wire, or socials, or somewhere:

New York-based GUHTS (pronounced ‘guts’) declare themselves to be an ‘avant-garde post-metal project, delivering larger than life sounds through, deeply emotional music’. For sure those aspirations are amply delivered in the form of their debut album ‘Regeneration’

Musically ‘Regeneration’ is a powerful and intense series of songs, topped off by some seriously powerhouse and expressive vocal performances.

It’s slow-moving chords, moving like sheets through sludge.

High guitar lines above, ranging from piercing and shimmering to nasty. Drums pound but not without groove.

There are strings, pianos and synths widening the palette.

Atmospheric sludge, Metalgaze, maybe, but there’s also that link to the New York Noise lineage from The Velvets and Sonic Youth, becoming a type of post-hardcore in the process, while gaining a connection to metal partly due to the sheer heaviness. A raft of creative experimentation that pushes beyond the realm of post-metal.

And then of course, the very first thing that hits you is Amber Gardner’s unbelievable, hypnotising vocals – as scary as a banshee while also intimate and persuasive.

Of the album, vocalist Amber says, ‘Regeneration symbolizes the power of self-renewal. Through regeneration, change becomes empowering, allowing new facets to emerge. It’s a courageous, transformative process, inspiring others to overcome fear.’

In short ‘Regeneration’ is a bold and startling debut, that will reward and enthral listeners the deeper they delve into its many layers.

Preorder link:
guhts.bandcamp.com/album/regeneration

For “Regeneration” on CD in USA & Canada
shop.seeingredrecords.com

Tracklisting:
1. White Noise
2. Til Death
3. The Mirror
4. Handless Maiden
5. Eyes Open
6. Generate
7. The Wounded Healer

GUHTS are:
Amber Burns – Vocals
Scott Prater – Guitar & Synth
Daniel Martinez – Bass
Brian Clemens – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/guhtsband
https://www.instagram.com/guhtsband/
https://guhts.bandcamp.com/
https://guhts.com/

Guhts, Regeneration (2024)

It’s a big ‘un. And if you’re like me, there are a couple names that stick out from the poster below, particularly Earthride and The Skull. Both are tribute sets, of course. The Skull frontman Eric Wagner passed away in 2021 after complications from a covid-19 infection and the loss of Earthride‘s Dave Sherman just a couple months ago continues to be keenly felt in and beyond the confines of the scene he called home. Karl Agell (ex-C.O.C.) will step in for The Skull, while Scott Angelacos of Hollow Leg is set to front a rotating cast of players for Earthride. You would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting occasion for honoring one’s own, except perhaps this gig in a couple weeks.

Plenty of familiar, returning acts as well as newcomers. Hippie Death Cult and will travel from the Pacific Northwest, Switchblade Jesus and Doomstress make an appearance (not the first for either) from Texas, and Red Mesa come straight out of the capital-‘desert’ Desert. Meanwhile, Faith in Jane, Black Lung, Bloodshot, Mangog, Mythosphere, Thonian Horde, Spiral Grave and plenty of others represent the Maryland home team, High Leaf and Thunderbird Divine trip down from Philly, Curse the Son (CT) and Guhts (NY) come from farther north, Hollow Leg make the trip out from Florida, and Lo-Pan, Doctor Smoke and Brimstone Coven head over from the Midwest. That’s just off the top of my head. I’m not sure there’s ever been a MDDF pulling so many bands from different parts of the country, though of course international bands have featured in the past as well.

There are always some shakeup between the first announcement and the final lineup, but so far so good here. Any way it works out, Maryland Doom Fest has nothing to prove at this point. Guaranteed banger.

Here’s the poster (oy) and the lineup, the latter in alphabetical order:

Maryland Doom Fest 2023

June 22-25 – Frederick, MD

We are proud to present to you The Maryland DooM Fest 2023 lineup roster and 2023 promotional art!!!!

We showcase over 50 kickass bands bringing you heavy riffs over these #4daysofdoom!!

The centerpiece art was created by Joshua Adam Hart (Earthride, Unorthodox, Revelation, Chowder, Stout, to name a few).

Josh is a career tattoo artist and is currently scheduling appointments at Triple Crown Towson Tattoo. Schedule to get ink from him at info@triplecrowntowson.com

The incredible flyer layout, coloring, and design is by our very talented Bill Kole (make sure to check out his band Ol’ Time Moonshine)!!

Above the Treachery, Akris, Black Lung, Bloodshot, Bonded by Darkness, Borracho, Brimstone Coven, Cobra Whip, Conclave, Crowhunter, Curse the Son, DeathCAVE, Doctor Smoke, Doomstress, Double Planet, Dust Prophet, Earthride, Faith in Jane, False Gods, Flummox, Fox 45, Future Projektor, Gallowglas, Grim Reefer, Guhts, Helgamite, High Leaf, Hippie Death Cult, Hog, Hollow Leg, Hot Ram, Las Cruces, Leather Lung, Lo-Pan, Mangog, Mythosphere, Orodruin, Red Mesa, Severed Satellites, Shadow Witch, Smoke the Light, Spiral Grave, Switchblade Jesus, The Skull, Thonian Horde, Thousand Vision Mist, Thunderbird Divine, Unity Reggae, VRSA, Weed Coughin, Wizzerd

https://www.facebook.com/MdDoomFest/
www.marylanddoomfest.com

Lo-Pan, “Ascension Day” live at Maryland Doom Fest 2019

I don’t remember the last time I did three voice breaks on a show, and while I’m of the general opinion that the less the universe hears my voice the better off said universe will likely be for not having heard me invariably say something stupid, I did turn in three VTs for this episode. Truth is I’ve been pretty dug in as regards this show — music, music, music — and I think that’s a winning philosophy for life in general, if one that doesn’t necessarily take advantage of the full potentialities of radio as a format. Gimme Metal have been kind enough to let me do 90 episodes (so far!) of this show. Making some effort to meet that audience halfway seems like the least my contrarian ass can do.

Maybe that’s just me getting old. Whatever. I sucked at being young anyway.

Further to that “making an effort thing,” I’ve tried last episode and this one specifically to include a few staples of stoner/heavy/doom/psych/whatever that even if people don’t know hopefully they can latch onto. Last ep started with Acid King, this one leads with Goatsnake. There’s Black Sabbath, Stoned Jesus, Sungrazer along the way before the playlist really digs into new stuff. And even some of that — My Sleeping Karma, Abrams, Elephant Tree — is from known parties. I don’t know. I’m trying my best here. I was happy to include the Guhts song that premiered, and CB3 finally putting out “To Space and Away” from their new record is a gift. This won’t be the last time I play that song, I’m sure.

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 – 08.05.22 (VT = voice track)

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Aug. 19 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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New York (and then some) atmospheric post-sludge explorers Guhts will be appearing Aug. 26 at Crucial Fest 11 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Now a five-piece, the band premiere their new single “Burn My Body” (below) ahead of their excursion west, and announce that they’ll record the instrumental portion of their first full-length while they’re out there with the esteemed Andy Patterson (The Otolith, SubRosa, Insect Ark, Iota, etc.) at his The Boar’s Nest studio. Which, if you’re going to do it, is a good way to go, especially since you’re already making the trip.

The group, who were a trio that began to come together on the side from Scott Prater and Amber Burns‘ main outfit, Witchkiss, during 2020’s lockdown, issued their debut EP, Blood Feather (review here), in Aug. 2021 to a resounding reception. At the time, Burns and Prater were joined by North Carolina’s Dan Shaneyfelt on guitar, synth and vocals, and drums were programmed. Now, after a run of shows with as a five-piece with Daniel Martinez on bass and Brian Clemens on drums that led them to Maryland Doom Fest last month, they unveil “Burn My Body” as a demonstration of proven-concept post-metal and an intention to move forward with more.

One might discern shades of Amenra‘s lurching flow in “Burn My Body,” some of the severity of the rhythm, maybe some Isis specifically in the guitar, but as the repeated title line seems almost to arrive begging for the release implied in cremation, the synthesizer responds with open ambience, as thought to manifest the air with which one’s form joins as smoke. “Burn My Body” is more aware of what it wants to be than was Blood Feather, and more assured in its execution of that, from the soft but tense intertwined guitars of the intro to the grandiose keyboard lines that ensue once the procession kicks in, a horn sound calling to mind Imperial Triumphant without, you know, all that pesky death metal.

Resonance is key, as well as the subtle and not-subtle layering happening in the vocals. I don’t know if all five members of the band were involved in the recording — if you told me the drums were programmed again, I’d believe it — but there is a poise in the new single that speaks to Guhts having begun to ‘figure it out,’ which only makes me look forward more to the record they’ll begin to make with Patterson before returning to New York to finish with the also-esteemed Andrew Schneider (Pelican, Unsane, Cave In, Lo-Pan, so many more). It’s a five-and-a-half-minute track that announces Guhts‘ EP as not a fluke of lockdown restlessness, but the beginning point from which they’ll continue to build out their sound and style.

Therefore, in short, fucking a.

With an eye toward the future, enjoy this in the present:

Guhts, “Burn My Body” premiere

We are playing Crucial Fest in SLC on August 26th with Marissa Nadler, Mizmor, The Otolith and many more. While were out there we will be recording the music for our full length with Andy Patterson (Subrosa) at The Boars Nest in SLC. Sometime in September/October Amber will be recording Vocals with Andrew Schneider in NY.

Plans for releasing the album are still in the works and there is no set release date yet.

This song will be released on 8/2 via all the streaming services and 7/28 via Bandcamp.

GUHTS are:
Amber Burns – Vocals
Scott Prater – Guitar & Synth
Dan Shaneyfelt – Guitar & Synth
Daniel Martinez – Bass
Brian Clemens – Drums

Guhts, Blood Feather (2021)

Guhts on Bandcamp

Guhts on Facebook

Guhts on Instagram

Guhts on Twitter

Guhts website

This year’s Maryland Doom Fest has already begun. It started last night and will continue through Sunday, packing as much volume as possible between the first switched on amplifier and the final, inevitable broom swept across the floor afterward at Cafe 611 in Frederick, MD, where the fest is held. These shows are jammed. They start early. They go late. There’s nothing else quite like Maryland Doom Fest out there, and when you go, you’re made welcome whether you’re a regular or not. It’s too intimate a space and too cool a crowd for bullshit attitudes to survive. Relax and enjoy the tunes.

I’m sad to say I’m not there this year — let’s call it “family stuff” and leave it there — but the lineup is incredible and I wanted to do at least some tiny measure of tribute to that, so here we are. Some of these bands are MDDF veterans — Apostle of Solitude, Zed, Foghound, Faith in Jane, Caustic Casanova, etc. — but some are new to the event as well — Coven, Great Electric Quest, Formula 400, and others — so it’s a good mix, and you know I’m a sucker for ending epic, so The Age of Truth seemed perfect for that. They’re gonna kill it this weekend playing songs from Resolute and everyone there will know it long before they go on and they’ll still kill it. That’s just how it goes down there. You’re gonna have a good time.

Thanks if you listen, thanks if you’re reading. Thanks in general. And if you’re at the fest this weekend, enjoy it.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 06.24.22 (VT = voice track)

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is July 8 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

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