Quarterly Review: -(16)-, Belzebong, Haze Mage, Fir Cone Children, White Canyon and the 5th Dimension, Onionfuzz, Glisten Trick, Stonebride, Aidan Baker, Tesa
Posted in Reviews on May 20th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Today we hit the halfway mark on this relative quickie Quarterly Review on the way to 50 releases covered by the end of the week. We’ll get there if past is prologue, and I’m having a good time so far digging in. Some of these are thrown together, some are more intentional. This just kind of came about as there was so much out there and so much more piling on. I’m glad it’s not a drag, is what I’m saying. Sometimes they’re fun but more of a challenge to get through. Shockingly, kickass records are a help.
Enjoy your day. I’m about to enjoy mine.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
-(16)-, Forgeries Vol. 1 1972-1984
True, 16, or, if you prefer their full name, -(16)-, are in a better position to take on covers than they’ve ever been in their career. They’re self-contained in terms of production with Al Shuster recording, and founding guitarist/now-vocalist Bobby Ferry has introduced more flexibility in their approach to sludge and punk and metal than they’ve had in their 35-year history. No, that’s not going to make Scorpions‘ “Can’t Get Enough,” which opens here, recognizable, but it is going to make it heavy. The key information on Forgeries Vol. 1 1972-1984 is of course the span of years, which means you get X, Rudimentary Peni, Fear, Agent Orange and Black Flag alongside Blue Öyster Cult, Black Sabbath, Bee Gees, KISS and UFO. And guess what? I think that’s pretty much how the band happened too. Also note this is Vol. 1. If it’s the ’80s next time, I hope they do Duran Duran, but if they went for a new LP of originals instead, I wouldn’t complain.
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Belzebong, The End is High
The four-song/34-minute The End is High from Polish instrumentalist bong-worship pioneers Belzebong opens with its longest track (immediate points) in the 10:54 “Bong and Chain,” which rolls straight-ahead enough until spacing out for a while and realigning around its chug. Riffs are the priority, always. This is the first studio outing from Belzebong since 2018’s Light the Dankness (review here), and “420 Horseman” lands heavy enough to make up for lost time, shortest of the bunch but heavy straight through. “Hempnotized” starts with a sample like the song before it, something about getting high, before unfurling its solo-topped lumber, and “Reefer Mortis” caps side B (the sample’s at the end this time) in riffversation with the opener. This isn’t the record you put on when you’re just getting stoned. It’s the one you put on when you’re already very, very high. It sounds like it was made with a similar mindset.
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Haze Mage, High Fantasy
Born out of Blood Mist‘s debut EP (review here) in 2017, Baltimorean five-piece Haze Mage went on to develop a sound likewise ritualistic, heavy metal, and fun on their 2019 debut, Chronicles (review here), and seven years later, their second full-length, High Fantasy refines this sound while putting a cap on the band’s tenure. That’s right. They might not sound like it on the catchy “Evil Candle” or the Southern-style “Bat Brain” or the vocals-forward-till-it’s-time-to-rip “Ogre,” and so on, but Haze Mage are done as of the last sway into the crashout of “Sleepers,” and while that’s unfortunate since their songwriting had perspective and brought a needed lack of pretense to cultism, the good news is High Fantasy itself, which comes across like Ouija shenanigans across the nine included songs, and if it’s all we’re ever gonna get from them, I’m glad Haze Mage are going out on their own terms. Nothing else could be so appropriate.
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Fir Cone Children, Vs. the Real World
Adventurous and sometimes genre-defiant punk is the root from which Fir Cone Children branches, and Alexander Leonard Donat (also Vlimmer, Blackjack Illuminist Records, etc.) revels in the shove of “Enhype!” as much as the post-everything gaze of “Severe Weather Warning” and the Sonic–Youth-but-make-it-sweet guitar-based noise of “(Hang in There) My Moon,” resolving ultimately in the sprint of “Beating the Real World” and the acoustic/electric blend of “Forever,” gleefully breaking its own rules as fast as it can make them as only a project about one’s kids could. Momentum stays on Donat‘s side through the more ethereal moments, and the playful bounce of “Vampire Queen” and the noisier “Time to Ask” convey movement while feeling dug into the process of their own creation, the album’s 32-minute course managing to be atmospheric despite the fact that it never stays in one place all that long. Aesthetic malleability is nothing new for Donat or Fir Cone Children, and it’s nice to be reminded that just because a song is 71 seconds long doesn’t mean it can’t have reach.
Fir Cone Children on Instagram
Blackjack Illuminist Records on Bandcamp
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White Canyon and the 5th Dimension, IV
I’m not sure how many full-length releases Brazilian duo White Canyon and the 5th Dimension have to their name, but I think it’s more than might be indicated by the title IV. Nonetheless, if this eight-song/40-minute collection is their fourth proper studio LP, fair enough for the cohesion the band find in moody psychedelic melodymaking and, tonal and vocal warmth. “Silver Womb” at the outset tells the listener a lot of what they need to know about where the two-piece are headed — into a misty nighttime sprawl, it seems — and feels restrained even in its later breakout. This proves to foreshadow “Gravestone Lips” and pieces like the sax-laced “Alumia Part II,” which have a headphone-ready dynamic that encourages deeper, active hearing and draws one across the album’s span — effectively broken into two sides for vinyl, if that’s your preference — with a sense of overarching flow. The penultimate “River Song” and wobbly-guitar closer “Wicked Eyes” assure that in the final stretch, there’s no loss of ground covered from where the wailing lead of “Where the Dreamers Go” winds up. Immersion is key. So, immerse.
White Canyon and the 5th Dimension Linktr.ee
White Canyon and the 5th Dimension on Bandcamp
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Onionfuzz, Meeplek Naar Nemen
Presumably Belgium’s Onionfuzz are called what they are because the fuzz is like an onion: layered, as per Shrek. Fair enough for the intertwining of guitars and bass on their new live-captured seven-song collection Meeplek Naar Nemen (‘take a seat’), but if that would imply the band get up to some studio wizardry, however many waveforms lined up with guitars on every frequency from here to 35Hz. Not the case, even in the fuzz of “Ongebluste Kalk.” Onionfuzz are much more in-the-moment on these gathered improvisations, recorded at various shows throughout 2025 and immediately distinguished among the improv-based wing of the Euro heavy underground by the use of (I think also improvised) vocal lines underscoring the point that you, the audience, don’t know what’s coming next, whether it’s in the jazzy title-track or the more minimal meander “Answers to Question,” which for most of its 7:42 lets you hear the crowd chattering. That’s not the case as the subdued “The Bees Partout” answers back to the opener “The Bees Don’t Laugh When I Mow the Grass,” so I guess it depends on which night you catch their mellow fluidity. In any case, Meeplek Naar Nemen argues convincingly for doing so.
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Glisten Trick, Death Cult Rainbows
I’ve heard vaguely similar moody, heavy post-rock positioned as night-desert before, but Glisten Trick aren’t playing to genre so much as they’re serving the songs with their six-track Death Cult Rainbows EP, with airy guitar, subdued, breathy vocals, deceptively weighted low end textures and straightforward but not boring rhythm. “Dirge From Above” dares toward psychedelic fuzz, but the title-cut’s electronic beat feels indie-fed, and though “Deep Cut” is clever for the sonar sounds included and manipulated within its five-minute span, the lightly meandering guitar, emotive delivery and subtly building procession is more a highlight precisely for how to-style it isn’t. I’m not sure where Glisten Trick are in terms of landscape metaphor — the mostly-solo-project of Glasán Ghost, geographically, is from the UK — but in the swing of “No Comedown” and “Black Acid” they’re barely terrestrial to begin with, so maybe such concerns are all pretend anyway and don’t matter.
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Stonebride, No Chances Given
Zagreb’s Stonebride — the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Siniša Krneta, guitarist Tješimir Mendaš, bassist Matija Ljevar and drummer Stjepan Kolobarić — are reportedly (i.e. it’s what they said on Bandcamp) thinking of the two-song No Chances Given EP as indicative of where they might want to be direction-wise coming off of 2024’s Smiles Revolutionary (review here), and listening back to that album, neither “111” (4:12) nor “Barren Slope” (7:13) are a radical departure, but the former eases up on thrust somewhat and the latter feels more patient with specific attention to the vocal arrangement and the feeling of space as it builds toward its culmination, so the balance has been apparently mindfully adjusted. I won’t predict how that’ll play out among their more charge-minded impulses as shown on that LP, but an intention to grow and try new things has served them thus far into their tenure and I see no reason why it would stop now. If they’re indeed headed into more open sounds, as “Barren Slope” might hint, they have a real opportunity to play back and forth and develop their dynamic. That they’re even interested in doing so after 20 years is both deeply admirable and indicative of why you should listen.
http://www.instagram.com/stonebrideofficial
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Aidan Baker, Songs of Waking and Weather
Sounds of Waking and Weather is the soundtrack to a forthcoming novel, and while I’m not sure if that’s also by Aidan Baker (of Nadja and numerous other collaborations) or not, the acoustic guitar threaded through the included 12 songs on the 79-minute offering resonates thematically as something in literature might, even running backward as it does in “Dream Song I.” Such manipulations are prevalent throughout this solo effort, and Baker brings field recordings into “Dream Song II,” which at 10:58 is one of three extended pieces alongside “Weather I (Tule)” and the 18-minute finale “The Black Swan.” Sometimes minimal, with piano in the lead on “Weather III (Advection),” the songs might be peopled by drones, sharp hi-hat, a dulcimer in there somewhere, Baker feels purposeful in the choices of arrangement and texture, and I’m curious about the story being told in the music. If you want the spoiler from the album, it ends in the open, at night, with the sounds of insects and no humans after the bassy avant-doom nod has given way. I’m not sure what that means for plot or character, but Baker‘s ability to put you in a place and time is palpable as ever.
Broken Spine Productions on Bandcamp
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Tesa, Interval
Latvian post-metal instrumentalists Tesa released Interval in June 2025 through My Proud Mountain, and with it offer four engrossing tracks, each with its own feeling of the journey being undertaken, each adding to the scope of the entirety. The harsher noise that makes its way into the back half of “Interval I,” or the tension held in the drums after coming back from the drone in “Interval II” which also ends the song, the time-to-riff moment of arrival at the start of “Interval III” and the fuller push over the edge of its crescendo and the 11-minute sprawl of “Interval IIII” — which does include voice if not lyrics — provide landmarks along the way, but it’s the overarching feeling of going deeper with each one until finally “Interval IIII” caps with a shimmering megawash that’s most resonant. I don’t know if it was written as one whole work or as distinct, separately-processed songs, but between the titling and the listening experience, cohesion was obviously a priority. It comes through manifest in the music itself, for which I’d recommend a healthy dose of whatever volume you can give it.
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