Quarterly Review: Abrams, Buzzard, Masheena, Sergio Ch., Vestjysk Ørken, Liminal Sky, The Quill, Greenthrone, Dave Heumann, A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
Posted in Reviews on May 18th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to the Quarterly Review. I’m not sure which quarter it is, and actually it’s been less than two full months since the last time we did this, but I had this crazy idea to NOT fall 50 records even further behind in covering stuff, so I decided to run one now. Maybe I’ll do another in July. Maybe a piano will fall on my head.
You know the drill by now. 10 releases per day covered. I think I’m going to keep this to 50 total, but I might tack on another day or two if I get through it and still have a bunch more on the docket. We’ll see. But time’s a crunch, so we gotta move.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Abrams, Loon
When the postmortem is done on this generation of heavy rock and roll, Abrams might be among its most underrated bands in terms of songwriting. The Denver unit led by guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster offer the taut 10-song/37-minute run of Loon as further argument in their favor, basking in a heavy and post-hardcore blend and working with Godcity Studio and Kurt Ballou (Converge, High on Fire, etc.) to foster a more aggressive sound in pieces like “Glass House,” “While Walls,” “Said and Done,” and so on, bordering on noise rock while bringing grunge melody to “A State of Mind” and blasting double-kick drumming to closer “Remains.” At this point, I’m wondering if they’re too good. Are they too polished, is Amster too capable a singer? Is the songwriting too tight? In the immortal words of Will Ferrell, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Once again, Abrams do nothing wrong. One hopes the added charge wakes up more ears to what they’re doing. Or even better, instead of snagging jaded oldheads, put this shit on TikTok and let the 17 year olds learn about melody from it. That’s how it works now, right?
Blues Funeral Recordings website
—
Buzzard, Take the Tyrant Down (Acoustic) b/w Hunchback, Vicar & Wizard
Two cuts from Massachusetts solo artist Buzzard, aka Christopher Thomas Elliott, whose voice and point of view for me personally has been salve in terrible times and for that a marker of the era. Late last year, Elliott released the EP Everything is Not Going to Be Alright (review here) with a plugged version of “Take the Tyrant Down,” which is stripped down here of its later chug and “Down down down/Sic semper tyrannis” vocal bridge. Perhaps too heavyhanded? It becomes a quiter contemplation of overcoming oppression, and its ultimate victory is no less sweet. The (digital) B-side is “Hunchback, Vicar and Wizard,” which wraps itself in an acoustic central line like “Doom Folk Fury” from the EP (which has also been expanded to an LP this year, heads up) but is less of a chorus surge, letting the Mellotron bring atmospheric backing to the lyrical tale of cathartic justice for the abuse victims of clergy. Yes, I’m talking about killing priests who rape children. Or Elliott is anyhow, in his increasingly solidified and yet malleable doom-folk aesthetic, with craft likewise prolific and purposeful.
—
Masheena, Let the Spiders In
As I understand it, Masheena have traded out half their lineup since recording Let the Spiders In with producer Machine (Clutch, etc.) in early 2024, but either way, the Bergen, Norway, heavy rocking four-piece bring expansive melodies to sharp structures in hooky cuts like “Going to the Mountain” and “One Good Eye,” taking bluesy energy in pieces like “Been Waiting” and “Don’t Tell Her” and the chug of the penultimate “Riffy” and fostering a sound that’s straightforward and accessible while not lacking at all in variety. It’s their second LP, and though on “Sara Lost Her Way,” they edge close to the big-stage energy of countrymen Spidergawd, the thickness in “Riffy” and the subsequent, nonetheless shuffling closer “You Owe Me,” as well as the generally bluesier foundations, aid in distinction. The album is paced comfortably at 34 minutes but never in any danger of overstaying its welcome. Can’t help but be curious how the dynamic has changed with the new lineup. It’s certainly solid in this material.
Majestic Mountain Records store
—
Sergio Ch., Last Dance of a Dying Man
As Buenos Aires-based singer-songwriter Sergio Chotsourian (aka Sergio Ch., of Los Natas, Ararat, Soldati, etc.) has developed his solo approach, it’s satisfying to hear him working with a drum machine on “Last Dance,” the first cut on this two-song EP, paired with the 12-minute “The Journey.” It highlights a modernized bedroom-folk intimacy that’s always been in his experimentalist craft, and lets the guitar become the source of tension in the piece, which it does righteously. “The Journey” is more synth-based and is instrumental for most of its stretch, but there are late-arriving vocals. He also seems to be trying something new with his voice, though that might just be a result of returning to English-language lyrics after however long it’s been since last time. Note the guitar figure consistent beneath the keys of “The Journey” as well. Last Dance of a Dying Man is Sergio being Sergio, but part of that is pushing his own boundaries, and that can clearly be heard in these songs.
South American Sludge Records on Bandcamp
—
Vestjysk Ørken, LSDREI
LSDREI, a combination of LSD and ‘drei,’ as in ‘three,’ is indeed the third LP from Danish jammers Vestjysk Ørken, and it begins with a long monologue over foreboding backing drone spoken by the drug itself, maybe from an old propaganda film? In any case, this first eight minutes set the mood before a burst-in of heavy fuzz after the eight-minute mark starts what’s presumed to be ‘Violets and Yellow’ in the six-parts-presented-as-a-single-36-minute-track of the LP. The full course is listed as “The Traveler / Violets & Yellow / Drei / Running My Head / (Backwards) Like A Mirror / Lovely Colours Shimmering,” and though immersion has always been a top priority for the Esbjerg outfit — theirs and yours both — they’ve never sounded quite so intentional in their exploration. The lumber gives way to shimmering lead guitar, more speech and a light but bassy boogie as they pass the halfway point, and plays back and forth from there between airy verses, ebbs and flows, more samples and, in the last few minutes, both shove and a massive concluding roll finishing with vague but angry shouts of a populace. It gets weird, kids. Actually, starts weird and gets weirder. For best results, recommend you do likewise.
—
Liminal Sky, All Tomorrow’s Darkness
Liminal Sky is presented as an extension of the work drummer, guitarist and keyboardist Jaime Gomez Arellano (also a noted producer in London) and guitarist, bassist, keyboardist Daniel Knight did together in the band Messenger, but the debut album All Tomorrow’s Darkness takes on an identity of its own, thanks in no small part to vocal collaborations with Mat McNerny (Hexvessel, Grave Pleasures), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and Karin Park (Årabrot), as well as a slew of instrumental contributors too many to list in this space. This amalgam results in an emotionally resonant, post-genre melancholia, kin to the beauty in darkness in pieces like “Algebra of Unknowing,” “Penance” and “Forget Me Not,” the latter of which hits into a satisfying crescendo without giving up its core expressive purpose. It is not a minor undertaking in the substance of its songs, but Arellano and Knight create an entire world for this material, and the listener, to dwell in.
—
The Quill, Master of the Skies
Professional-grade delivery from a professional band. Master of the Skies is the 11th album in the 35-plus-year tenure of Sweden’s The Quill, and if they’re exploring themes of mastery, you could hardly find a better theme to coincide with their sound. With expert hand and worldly care, they gracefully guide the listener through a diverse 45-minute collection, with rockers and ballads and acoustic numbers and the nine-minute volume-trade sprawl of the penultimate “Mastodon,” part Sabbath as they go, but more of a decades-meld of heavy rock ideologies so that “You Can Not Kill My Soul” hits with triumphant melody and side B opener “If Tomorrow Never Comes” wraps itself up in chugging largesse. The band — vocalist Magnus Ekwall, guitarist Christian Carlsson, bassist Roger Nilsson and drummer Jolle Atlagic — are unflinching in the refinement of their approach, but even when they reprise lead cut “Master of the Skies” to finish, there’s no pretense, just some of the most solid craft a band could hope to stand on.
—
Greenthrone, The Greenthrone EP
Unearthed from the depths of Columbus, Ohio’s underground, Greenthrone‘s The Greenthrone EP was put to tape in 2010 and 2011 as a series of demos from what was then the bombastic duo of Danny Bays (guitar/vocals) and Lisa Bella Donna (drums/production), the latter also of much-missed progressive heavy explorers EYE. A five-song collection, it is brash and raw and finds Bays‘ vocal delivery somewhere between Matt Pike and Chuck Schuldiner on “The Sentinel” and “Beyond the Veil,” and that’s before they get into the sludgy push/roll of centerpiece “Hidden in Plain Sight” or the righteously-tin-can “Brujo,” and “Feather Crown” to close. There’s an audible shift in sound there ahead of the last two tracks, but there was point of view in the band even 15 years ago. Bays got a new lineup going at some point, a trio, and hopefully there’s more to follow sooner or later.
—
Dave Heumann, Chimes of Freedom // Further Adventures of Big Ten
Two at least semi-covers; one straight up take on Bob Dylan, the latter transmogrified reportedly from The Grateful Dead and David Crosby, and either make a fitting place for Arbouretum frontman Dave Heumann to dwell in for a while. The fragility of his voice in Dylan‘s lyrics on “Chimes of Freedom” makes that song feel all the more like a song for the people — in both the folk music and political senses, because they’re linked — while “Further Adventures of Big Ten” feels more like an exploration, being instrumental and set atop a drone and backed with hand-percussion as it is. “Chimes of Freedom” is the more straightforward, I guess, but its organ line and way-back-there gentle drums feel emblematic of the 1964 original, captured at the precipice of the birth of the psychedelic era. You could say a lot about the choices one way or the other, but from where I sit it’s five more minutes of Heumann singing and about 11 of him playing and I’ll take what I can get, thanks. He’s like if you gave the National Park System a voice.
—
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, Towers of Silence
Most of all, Towers of Silence sounds like the beginning of a rich and creative plunge into sound. Netherlands-based four-piece A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers take a sludgy angle on post-metallic lurch on this three-songer, and as “The Massacre of Flour” unfolds, it seems like it’s going to be all-onslaught until they hang a louie into a psychedelic midsection framed on the other side by a punishing return. “I Fuck People” follows and is noisier and more chaotic, but still manages to find room for saxophone in its second half, while the nine-minute title-track wraps by flipping the script into volume trades between meditative melodic contemplation and heavier bashing-away. The message that comes through is A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers aren’t restrained by genre ideology. Breaking out of it on three songs, they’re at the starting point in developing the individual creative expression one hears in this material. The prospects for where their journey might take them are exciting.
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Bandcamp
—
