Posted in Whathaveyou on May 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Insert forehead slap here. I mean, of course Hamburg’s The Moth would end up on Exile on Mainstream. Their outsider sludge rock is a perfect fit for the long-established imprint, whose general taste and will to bend the rules of genre are defining aspects. It’s like a dodecahedron peg in a dodecahedron hole. Bordering on the obvious.
Been a minute, but The Moth‘s last album, Hysteria (review here), was released through This Charming Man Records in 2017. Their next one is coming in September, so maybe we’ll get more info in the next month or so, but for now the news is good and a new record from them is something to look forward to. They’ll be out on the road for it in Germany with Thronehammer in Sept./Oct., also making a stop to rile up Keep it Low in Munich.
Right on:
THE MOTH: German Doom/Sludge Metal Trio Signs To Exile On Mainstream; LP Due This Fall
Exile On Mainstream welcomes fellow Germans THE MOTH and their groove-heavy brew of doom/sludge metal to the label for their impending LP.
Label owner Andreas Kohl states, “Just as a good friend recently put it: ‘This band, with this lineup and this sound – it was just a question of time until they land at your shores. They just belong to Exile On Mainstream.” The friend, Germany’s renowned Metal radio icon Jakob Kranz, envisioned what we kinda felt but didn’t know. So did we finally achieve becoming a label that defines through a certain sound? Have we become so predictable? Not at all. I mean come on, THE MOTH might be a power trio with their sound deeply rooted in sludge, a woman on bass creating the most thundering base a lover of the heavy could wish for, and they might share a certain approach to music and loving what they do with the likes of Treedeon and Might, but it’s not the sound. The Hamburg-based act got here based on the binding element in our universe: friendship.
“I have said it before: we either are friends, or we become it by working together. So, welcome to the tribe, THE MOTH! With three albums under their belt, all released by the fantastic brethren at This Charming Man, the members are no newbies and have honed their no-nonsense approach to sludge/metal/doom on numerous tours and gigs. Their songs are virtually void of frills, instead opting to turn out hammer heavy drums and riff ready rock ’n’ roll. As brutal as it is bewitching. With a fourth album in the making, we are thrilled to welcome THE MOTH.”
The new album by THE MOTH is under construction now. Expect a release in September 2023, with more details to post over the Summer.
Before the new album is even finished, THE MOTH has already confirmed a string of release dates including shows with Thronehammer and labelmates Treedeon with more to be posted shortly.
THE MOTH RECORD RELEASE TOUR 2023 22/09/23 D Hamburg, Störtebecker (w/ Treedeon) 03/10/23 D Kiel, Alte Meierei (w/ Thronehammer) 04/10/23 D Hamburg, Fundbureau (w/ Thronehammer) 05/10/23 D Cologne, MTC (w/ Thronehammer) 06/10/23 D Wuerzburg, Immerhin 07/10/23 D Munich, Keep it Low Festival
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Last year was the first Lazy Bones Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Put on by Sound of Liberation — which also maintains Keep it Low in Munich and Up in Smoke in Switzerland while featuring artists on their booking roster prominently at Desertfest Belgium — it’s set for Oct. 28 and if the first eight names were the entire lineup, it would be an all-dayer well worth traveling to see. Elder and King Buffalo, Greenleaf and The Atomic Bitchwax, Slomosa, Daily Thompson, and Gnome. Any one of those bands, on their own, is a good night.
Together, they make up what is referred to below as a “first batch,” so I guess there’s more coming. I’ll keep an eye out for a second one, to be sure, because in looking at this I’m not entirely certain what else you might need. Shit, this lineup should just tour. Package touring fests have to be due for a comeback, don’t they? Put these acts on the road for a couple weeks in the summer hitting major markets and I bet the shows sell out. You could do five dates in Germany alone.
As of now, however, it’s Hamburg-only. Info follows as per the PR wire:
LAZY BONES FEST in Hamburg Announces ELDER, KING BUFFALO, GREENLEAF, SLOMOSA & many more!
2023 will see the LAZY BONES FEST return to Hamburg, Germany, with an eclectic line-up that doubles down all expectations within the heavy stoner, psych, doom and fuzz rock scene! While the first edition of the indoor festival, presented by SOUND OF LIBERATION, was taking place in the summer of 2022 at Grünspan, LAZY BONES FEST has moved to iconic venue Markthalle in Hamburg.
A first batch of bands has just been announced, and October 28th will see the following, high class line-up rocking the stage of LAZY BONES FEST 2023:
Elder King Buffalo Greenleaf The Atomic Bitchwax Slomosa Daily Thompson Gnome
Hamburg, Germany’s Entropy follow their 2020 debut album, Liminal, with the new three-song Death Spell EP on July 29 through Crazysane Records. With the arrival of “Unrelenting,” premiering below, all three of the cuts featured on the 13-minute outing have been revealed, operating as they do in coursing fashion as “Death Spell” and “Cthulhucene” bring grown-up-and-sonically-filled-out riffs to a vibe born out of post-hardcore and emo that wholly embraces a brightness of sound and melodic richness.
For songwriter Hans Frese they may be a ‘creative bridge’ from 2020’s Liminal to a second full-length as the PR wire informs below — it has no reason to lie, but that’s happened before — but the wistful lines of lead guitar that run alongside the thickened progression of “Unrelenting” offer the depth from which the rampant vocal harmonies seem to soar.
On a personal level, I am wary of nostalgia. It is a trap of the human brain that first pulls you out of the moment you’re in and then holds you in a place that has only turned perfect or better through the hindsight of your flawed memory. Be grateful for remembering it with less bullshit than there inevitably was happening at the time and move on. I’m not saying don’t miss good days; just that those days don’t need to be totems to be appreciated.
And I’m sure there are nostalgic elements at play in Entropy‘s work — even the name of the band speaks to the idea of moving from order (more ideal) to chaos (presumably less ideal) — as there are in almost everything to one degree or another, but the sonic blend in which that’s taking place is refreshing in adapting weighted tonality to its own stylistic and melodic ends. So if we’re looking back as we careen through “Death Spell” and “Cthulhucene” into the landing point of “Unrelenting” — the three cuts going from shortest to longest in the process — we’re also looking forward. One assumes to the next album.
What that upcoming release might hold in terms of aural shifts from the first record — already in Death Spell, the songs are tighter generally and have less open space in their sound, but also have rounded off tonal and percussive edges to lessen the noise and up the rock — the sense here is that Entropy have found their path, their bridge, etc. Whatever they’re walking on — could be the sidewalk by the 7-Eleven for all I know; not to get too nostalgic — they seem to know where they’re going, and if the purpose of the EP is to represent their craft and general creative direction, Death Spell duly enchants with its momentum, hooks, performance, wash and vitality.
A fun bit of temporal irony that a release that in some way purports to be looking back should make you look forward to something that hasn’t yet happened, but welcome to life, which has already long since made that whole chao ab ordine shift.
Off we go. Preorder Bandcamp link and the aforementioned PR wire info follows the video below. “Death Spell” and “Cthulhucene” are streaming near the bottom of the post. You know how this works.
German noisy indie-rockers Entropy return with a freshly written EP consisting of three skillfully crafted noise rock anthems inspired by Swervedriver, Nothing and Torche. “Cthulucene” is a skatepark-banger that effortlessly accelerates the angst of adolescence to an adult existential crisis at breakneck speed, before resolving in a shimmering breakdown that sees the fragments of a perfect life floating around in slow motion.
A masterful evocation of 80s, 90s and 00s alternative rock nostalgia.
German noisy indie rockers Entropy return with an electrifying new EP consisting of three freshly written alternative rock anthems that further perfect the image of youthful nostalgia as captured by the band’s first LP. Golden hour at the skatepark, long road trips to the beach, falling in love with the feeling of being in love — Death Spell combines influences from 80s alternative punk, 90s noise rock and early 00s emo to create a convincing soundtrack that makes you fall in love with your adolescence.
A testament to the undeniable artistry of Hamburg’s Hans Frese, Death Spell was written as a creative bridge between the band’s blazing debut album and a yet-to-be released sophomore album that he already finished writing. As Frese explains: “I had written an entire album before writing these tracks, but I felt there needed to be some sort of transition between Liminal and the new stuff.” Indeed, Death Spell takes all the good vibes from the band’s debut album and pours them into a format that makes distorted guitars and fast-paced rhythms almost seem accessible.
The tempo feels effortless on high speed bangers ‘Cthulhucene’ and the album-opening title track, while the big vocal harmonies and shimmering open chord progressions of ‘Unrelenting’ form a perfect finale for this short but sweet exercise in writing summer soundtracks with noisy guitars. With great melodies and sweet harmonies that tug right at your heart, Entropy have created a perfect soundtrack for the summer.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
First I was like, ‘Oh damn, that day one lineup rules!’ and then I was all, ‘Oh damn, but look at day two!’ and that’s how I know this festival will be a good time. Lazy Bones, in the spirit of Up in Smoke or Keep it Cool — both in the autumn season — is a new festival helmed by the obviously-capable hands of Sound of Liberation, set to take place July 29-30 in Hamburg, Germany. And yeah, the lineup rules so far. There’s apparently more to come — I’m not sure how much more because I’m not sure how many stages there will be; figure one or two for a first-time-out kind of fest — but anytime Sound of Liberation plants a flag on a weekend and says they’re doing a festival, it’s worth paying attention.
The end of July puts Lazy Bones a respectful two weeks apart from Stoned From the Underground in Erfurt, and Hamburg is over three and a half hours by train anyhow, so not much stepping on toes there. Where it is, Lazy Bones is in a good position to catch some tours just ending and others just beginning, and I continue to look forward to a day when Europe has a different festival to offer — at least one — somewhere on the continent every weekend of the year. Think it can’t happen? I mean, it most likely won’t, but stranger crap certainly has.
Some day I will see My Sleeping Karma. This’d be a cool way to do it.
From social media:
Lazy Bones Festival: WITCH, Colour Haze, My Sleeping Karma, King Buffalo & many more
29. & 30. JULY 2022: LAZY BONES
Friends, today we’re super excited to present you what we’ve been working on in secret lately…
Please welcome a brand new SOL Festival in the beautiful city of Hamburg: Lazy Bones!
Two days of finest stoner & psychedelic rock in the legendary „Gruenspan“ club in one of the most beautiful maritime cities.
LINE UP Friday 29.07.2022 Witch King Buffalo Valley of the Sun & more to be announced
Saturday 30.07.2022 Colour Haze MY SLEEPING KARMA – OFFICIAL monkey3 Wo Fat Lucid Void & more to be announced
Posted in Questionnaire on January 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Cécile Ash of The Moth
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I try to realize everything that is important to me. Some projects though will never see life, because of fate, because of circumstances that were beyond my power.
Describe your first musical memory.
I think it was the French melody of a wind-up music toy my brothers and I had as toddlers. My mother sang us the lyrics that belonged to it: „Combien coûte ce chien dans la vitrine, combien coûte ce chien noir et blanc?“ ‘How much costs this dog in the shop window? How much costs this dog black and white?’
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Concerning my own musical story that definitely was in 1999 when I met Freden (the guitarist of our band THE MOTH) and Steffen on the sidewalk of Hamburg’s red light-district, St. Pauli. I was going out on my own, not knowing anybody and feeling quite alone and lost when I met them in front of a bar. I had known Freden a little bit from his band SISSIES and Steffen was a friend of his, that I had never met before. Somehow we immediately started deep-talking about music and how we considered it should be. Right the next evening we met in a rehearsal room… Our band BANGKOK CASH was born. I had been in bands before, but this immediately felt right, like something I had been looking for, for a long time.
I had found my home – music- and also people-wise. Suddenly I had friends, a band and found the most important constant of my life: making that kind of music. BANGKOK CASH split 10 years later, but Freden and I continued rehearsing together and founded THE MOTH in 2012. We have been writing songs for 22 years now. I am so thankful that back then, when it all started, Freden, and also Steffen, didn’t care I was a woman, but just saw me as another musician. We were in our early 20s where that attitude wasn’t understood for all, and for some still isn’t.
Concerning my best musical memory with another band, this was when we toured with CONAN for a week. They are one of my very few favourite bands and having the huge luck to tour with them and listen and party to their crushing sets every night, standing next to my bandmates, was an awesome experience, just bliss.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
There have been two or three times in my life when convictions I had had about someone where suddenly and massively disappointed. This happened with the people I felt closest to or loved most at that time. So, of course the cut then was brutal.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I’m not sure if art gets better, the better you get at it. Some of the best or most brutal songs are very simple. If the power is there, it’s there. And often the rawer it is, the better. At least, this is my taste.
How do you define success?
It is when you overcome fears and self-doubts to do something that is very important to you and that you have wished for, for a long time. And keep on doing it. This will lead to a life that I would call successful, because you have nothing to regret, at least nothing that you have had power over. If everything that you want to do or be, is a part of your life, then you are successful at it. Even if these things aren’t your job or don’t bring you lots of money. Though it would be great if they did!
On a more superficial level of course you feel successful if what you do is acknowledged and liked by (many) others. This is very satisfying, too. Especially if it took you courage and lots of work to get there.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I’m gonna keep this my secret.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I would like to write a book some day. But I don’t know what about yet.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To be a home for our soul, our wounds and emotions that define who we are in our very core. That core that isn’t perceptible from the outside, made of rage, grief, but also of a special powerful energy at life, a will of life, that is innate to oneself. Music can then feel like meeting a friend, a soul-mate, that has been through the same things. Actually, when I think of it, in my case that makes quite sense: I have only very little bands that really touch me. Because they resonate with the feelings that define me most. Just like I only have a very few very good friends. Then there are some other bands I like to listen to, like friends I really enjoy but that maybe aren’t that close to me.
Concerning making art oneself, I guess it’s similar: Having the urge and opportunity to express your core emotions, your core energy.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Always looking forward to the next summer and a stay at the beach.
Posted in Reviews on December 17th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Behold, the last day of the Quarterly Review. For a couple weeks, anyhow. I gotta admit, even with the prospect of doing it all again next month looming over my head, this QR has been strikingly easy to put together. Yeah, some of that is because of back-end conveniences in compiling links, images and embeds, prep work done ahead of time, and so on, but more than that it’s because the music is good. And if you know anything about a QR, you know I like to treat myself on the last day. Today is not at all an exception in that regard. Accordingly, I won’t delay, except to say thanks again for reading and following along if you have been. I know my own year-end list won’t be the same for having done this, and I hope the same for you.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Kanaan, Earthbound
F-U-Z-Z! Putting the jazzy drive they showcased on 2020’s Odense Sessions on hold, Oslo trio Kanaan — guitarist/percussionist Ask Vatn Strøm (guitar, percussion, noise), Ingvald André Vassbø (drums, percussion, Farfisa) and Eskild Myrvoll (bass, synth, Mellotron, some guitar) — get down to the business of riffs and shred on the clearly-purposefully-titled Earthbound, still touching on heavy psychedelic impulses — “Bourdon” is a positive freakout, man — but underscoring that with a thickness of groove and distorted tonality that more than lives up to the name. See also the cruncher “Mudbound,” which, yeah, gets a little airy in its back half but still holds that thud steady all the while. Simultaneously calling back to European instrumental heavy of two decades ago while maintaining their progressive edge, Kanaan strike a rare — which is to stop just shy of saying “unique” — balance that’s so much richer than the common Earthless idol-worship, and yet somehow miraculously free of pretense at the same time. 46 minutes of heavy joy.
Not to be confused with Germany’s The Spacelords, Buffalo, New York’s heavy blues purveyors offer a melody-minded eight songs across the 44 minutes of their third self-released long-player, with the vocals of Ed Grabianowski (also guitar) a distinct focal point backed by Rich Root‘s guitar, bass, drums and production. The two-piece deftly weave between acoustic and electric guitar foundations on songs like “How the Devil Got Into You” and “Breakers,” with a distinctly Led Zeppelin-style flair throughout, the Page/Plant dynamic echoed in the guitar strum as well as the vocals. “Broken Teeth Ritual” pushes through heavier riffing early on, and “All Night Drive” nears eight minutes with a right-on swinging solo jam to follow on the largely unplugged “Crypt Ghost,” and “M-60” nears prog metal in its chug, but the layering of “Starswan” brings a sweet conclusion to the proceedings, which despite the band’s duo configuration sound vibrant in a live sense and organic in their making.
The opening title-track of Altareth‘s debut album, Blood, seems to be positioned as a direct clarion call to fellow Sabbathians — to my East Coast US ears, it reminds of Curse the Son, which should be taken as a compliment to tone and melody — but the Gothenburg five-piece aren’t through “Satan Hole” before offering some samples and weirdo garage-sounding ’60s keyboard/horn surges, and the swirling lead that consumes the finish of “Downward Mobile,” which follows, continues to hint at their developing complexity of approach. Still, their core sound is slow, thick, dark and lumbering, and whether that’s coming through in centerpiece “Eternal Sleep” or the willful drudgery that surrounds the quiet, melodic break in “Moon,” they’re not shy about making the point. Neither should they be. The penultimate “High Priest” offers mournful soloing and the nine-minute closer “Empty” veers into post-Cathedral prog-doom in its volume trades before a solo crescendo finishes out, and the swallowed-by-sentient-molasses vibe is sealed. They’ll continue to grow into themselves, and Blood would seem to indicate that will be fun to hear.
The closing piece of a trilogy and reportedly the final offering from Romanian folk-laced progressive black metallers Negură Bunget following the 2017 death of founding drummer Gabriel “Negru” Mafa, Zău begins with the patient unfolding and resultant sweep of its longest track (immediate points) in “Brad” before the foresty gorgeousness of “Iarba Fiarelor” finds a place between agonized doom and charred bark. Constructed parabolically with its longer songs bookending around the seven-minute centerpiece “Obrazar,” Zău is perhaps best understood in the full context in which it arrives, as the band’s swansong after tragic loss, etc., but it’s also complex and engrossing enough to stand on its own separate from that, and in paying homage to their fallen comrade by completing his last work, Negură Bunget have underscored what made them such a standout in the first place. After the wash of “Tinerețe Fără Bătrânețe,” closer “Toacă Din Cer” rounds out by moving from its shimmering guitar into a muted ceremony of horn and tree-creaking percussion that can only be called an appropriate finish, if in fact it is that for the band.
High Fighter — with guitars howling, screams wailing and growls guttural, drums pounding, bass thick and guitars leading the charge — recorded their Live at WDR Rockpalast set during lockdown, sans audience, at the industrial complex Landschaftspark Duisburg- Nord depicted on the cover of the LP/DL release. It’s a fittingly brutal-looking setting for the Hamburg-based melodic sludge metal aggressors, and in their rawest moments, tracks like “When We Suffer” and “Before I Disappear” throw down with a nastiness that should raise eyebrows for any who’d worship the crustiest of wares. Of course, that’s not the limit of what High Fighter do, and a big part of the band’s aesthetic draws on the offset of melody and extremity, but to listen to the 34-minute set wrap with the outright, dug-in, At the Gates-comparison-worthy rendition of “Shine Equal Dark,” it’s hard not to appreciate just how vicious they can be as a group. This was their last show with founding guitarist Christian “Shi” Pappas, and whatever the future holds, they gave him a fitting sendoff.
This is fucking rad. Long-running Welsh trio Spider Kitten probably don’t give a shit if you check it out or not, but I do. Major Label Debut runs less than half an hour and in that time they remind that there’s more expressive potential to heavy rock than playing to genre, and as cuts like “Maladjusted” reinvent grunge impact and the brooding “Hearts and Mindworms” blend Melvins-born weirdo impulses and naturalize Nine Inch Nailsian lyrical threat, there’s a good sense of doing-whatever-the-hell-they-want that comes through alongside deceptively thoughtful arrangements and melodies. The weight and post-Dirt sneer of “Sandbagged (Whoa, Yeah)” may or may not be parody, but hell if it doesn’t work, and the same applies to the earlier blast-punk of “Self-Care (Makes Me Wanna Die),” both songs in and out in under three minutes. Give it up for a band dwelling on their own wavelength, who’ve been hither and yon and are clearly comfortable following where their impulses lead. This kind of creativity is its own endgame. You either appreciate that or it’s your loss.
Even discounting the global pandemic, it feels like an exceptionally long four years since Stockholm’s Snowy Dunes issued their sophomore album, 2017’s Atlantis (review here). “Let’s Save Dreams,” which is the second cut on Sastrugi, was released as a single in 2019 (posted here), so there’s no question the record’s been in the works for a while, but its purposefully split two sides showcase a sound that’s been worth the wait, from the straightforward classic craft of the leadoff title-track to the dug-in semi-psychedelic swing of 11-minute capper “Helios,” the four-piece jamming on modernized retro impulses after dropping hints of prog and space-psych in “Medicinmannen” (9:14) and pushing melancholy heavy blues into shuffle-shove insistence on side A’s organ-laced closer “Great Divide” with duly Sverige soul. Pushes further out as it goes, takes you with it, reminds you why you liked this band so much in the first place, and sounds completely casual in doing all of it.
A threat of tonal weight and a certain rhythmic intensity coincide with dreamy prog melodies in “The Core as a Whole” and “The Calling,” which together lead the way into the self-titled debut from Barcelona, Spain’s Maragda, and an edge of the technical persists despite the wash of “Hermit,” a current perhaps of grunge and metal that’s given something of a rest in the brightness of “Crystal Passage” still to come — more than an interlude at three minutes, but instrumental just the same — after the sharply solo’ed “Orb of Delusion.” Payoff for the burgeoning intensity of the early going arrives in “Beyond the Ruins,” though closer “The Blue Ceiling” enacts some shred to back its Mellotron-y midsection. There’s a balance that will be found or otherwise resisted as Maragda explore the varied nature of their influences — growth to be undertaken, then — but their progressive structures, storytelling mindset and attention to detail here are more than enough to pique interest and make Maragda a welcome addition to the crowded Spanish underground.
Extra super bonus points for Los Angeles heavy noise rockers Killer Hill on naming a song “Bullshit Mountain,” and more extra for leaving the incidental-sounding feedback in too. Frozen Head follows behind 2019’s About a Goat two-songer with six tracks and 22 minutes that pummels on opener “Trash” and its title-track in a niche thick-toned, hardcore-punk born — the band is members of Helmet and Guzzard, so tick your ‘pedigree’ box — and raw, churning metal raised, “Frozen Head” veering into Slayery thrash and deathly churn before evening out in its chorus, such as it does. Sadly, “Laser Head Removal” is instrumental, but the longer trio that follow in “Bent,” the aforementioned “Bullshit Mountain” and the all-go-until-it-isn’t-then-is-again-then-isn’t-again “Re Entry” bask in further intentional cross-genre fuckery with due irreverence and deceptive precision. It sounds like a show you’d go to thinking you were gonna get your ass beat, but nah, everyone’s cool as it turns out.
Distinguished through the gotta-hear-it bass tone of Frik Et that provides grounding presence alongside Luca “Nash” Nasciuti float-ready guitar and the cymbal wash of Enrico Meloni‘s drums, the Genoa, Italy, instrumental three-piece Ikitan make their first offering through Taxi Driver Records with the two-track cassingle Darvaza y Brincle. The outing’s component inclusions run on either side of seven minutes, and the resultant entirety is under 14, but that’s enough to give an impression of where they’re headed after their initial single-song EP, Twenty-Twenty (review here), showed up late last year, with crunch and heavier post-rock drift meeting in particularly cohesive fashion on “Brincle” even as that B-side feels more exploratory than “Darvaza” prior. With some nascent prog stretch in the soloing, the complete narrative of the band’s style has yet to be told, but the quick, encouraging check-in is appreciated. Until next time.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Available now to stream in its entirety, Placenta is the debut album from Hamburg, Germany, post-sludge troupe No God Only Teeth. The five-piece released the album digitally on Oct. 10 and they’ll follow-up on Dec. 1 with a physical edition through Narshardaa Records, CD and LP both. What was the 10th, Sunday? Fine. So I have no problem admitting I hadn’t heard it before this announcement. Mostly, on first listen, it seems to be an opportunity to guess wrong.
That is, going into it, you think, “Okay, yeah, put on the first track, heavy post-metal.” Then they kind of up the atmospherics. So you think you’re getting into the pretentious Amenra lurch school. But “Safer” resounds with a chug. “Stockholm” is pure sludge. “15.37.12” works its way into blastbeats, and so does “Bethune.” You might see the slowdown of “Raffer” coming, but that ambient midsection is hardly expected, and neither is the subtle triumph of riff at the end. And “Matters” has first-song-we-wrote punk vibes written all over it. So yeah, guess wrong. Then guess wrong again. Then keep going like that as you make your way through. It’s kind of fun.
The PR wire has tales to tell:
Sludgy Post-Metal Quintet NO GOD ONLY TEETH Announces Debut Album “Placenta”!
No God Only Teeth are a post-metal/sludge quintet from Hamburg, Germany and Placenta is their full-length debut album on Vinyl and CD, released via Narshardaa Records on December 1
With their roots in different types of extreme and emotional music, they combine all their sounds to compose their distinctive voice. Between heavy guitar riffs, some gentle sounds accompany their quick-tempered melodies. Reflection of loss in uneasy and unsettling songs.
What would you expect from a band that consists of people who actually all come different corners, from the same punk or metal scene? A cooperation, or working against each other, or perhaps in the best case a few conflicts of interest that lead to exciting results. Here you have the luck to get the latter.
The path that the band has already hinted at with the first demo only gets stronger with the new album. Quite angry and desperate sound the female vocals, reminiscent of the good old Japanese emo scene. The German-language lyrics emphasize this very well. Around the vocals revolve the two guitars, bass and drums in a pseudo-ritual like dance. Sometimes fast, almost crossing over into the dirty more modern crust. But then suddenly, following the best post-rock motifs, it unfolds into something heartbreakingly beautiful and dramatic. And yet the mix remains balanced in the sludgy middle, reminiscent of the Neurosis Times of Grace album in terms of variety and atmosphere.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 12th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
No brainer. I’ve never had the chance to see High Fighter, and in this era of live outings helping acts keep momentum otherwise lost to not being able to tour, who’s gonna argue? The Hamburg sludgecore aggressors are two years out from 2019’s Champain (review here), and of course their normally packed dance card of gigs has been empty, so yeah, they did the Rockpalast stream thing, filmed amid industry (science and technology!), and have the audio coming out now through Argonauata as a live LP. Yes, totally. This makes absolute sense to me. This is what you do.
Of note is the departure of Chris “Shi” Pappas, which I didn’t realize had happened and leaves High Fighter moving forward as a four-piece. One doubts they’ll be wanting when it comes to heaviness when all is said and done, but for a band who have a pretty established dynamic, it’ll be a change to listen for on their next album.
Found this on the ol’ social medias, I did:
HIGH FIGHTER – “Live at WDR Rockpalast” – ALBUM RELEASE!
Friends & Vinyl rockers, we’re happy to finally announce, we are going to release our first live album Nov. 26!
“Live at WDR Rockpalast” was recorded as a part of last year’s WDR “Offstage” concert- series which aired on TV and is available to stream online; filmed at the incredible, industrial setting of the Landschaftspark Duisburg- Nord. The album will be released as a strictly limited Vinyl edition + Digital formats on November 26th through Argonauta Records, with a pre-sale to follow soon!
Featuring a heavy set and collection of songs taken from our first 3 records, the album was recorded by Dominik Schenke with a pre- mix by Christoph Scheidel at 79 SOUND. Jan Oberg (Earth Ship / Grin) added the final mix and mastering at Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin.
With many thanks to the whole WDR-Rockpalast- crew, it was also a very special gig for us as it’s been the last show we have played with our former guitarist and dear friend, Shi, who decided to leave the band a few months later. This album is kind of dedicated to him and us as a five- piece band, from now on you won’t get to see High Fighter in this line- up again. We will continue as the four of us, and we are heavily working on many new songs and sound for our third album, but meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this little live affair!
“Live at WDR” Tracklist: Side A: 01. Darkest Days 02. When We Suffer 03. Dead Gift 04. Black Waters Side B: 05. A Silver Heart 06. Down To The Sky 07. Before I Disappear 08. Shine Equal Dark
HIGH FIGHTER is: Mona Miluski – vocals Christian “Shi” Pappas – guitar Ingwer Boysen – guitar Constantin Wüst – bass Thomas Wildelau – drums & backing vocals
