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: Tuomas Talka of Orbiter

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I am a songwriter and bass guitarist in Helsinki-based doom metal band, Orbiter. The story of how I became a bass guitarist goes back to 2013. By then I have had just played electric guitar since I was 16 (from 2006 on), mostly for my own fun and sometimes some covers of known metal bands with a friend of mine who played drums.

Then I moved to Helsinki for university in 2009 and I met Alexander Meaney around 2010 for the first time. It was a slowly developing friendship and during the first university years I had not even any play-for-fun type of music projects going on, but we started to talk more and more about music and the bands that we like, and I started to go to gigs of his alternative rock band of that time called Saturnalia. I was even sort of a roadie on one gig. Then one winter day of early 2013 Alexander called me and asked if I know how to play bass guitar, as the former bass guitarist had decided to leave the band. I said that I haven’t really played the bass guitar but I can learn. I started practising the songs several hours a day for the first weeks, and three months later we recorded an EP. By that time I did not even have my own bass guitar, yet.

The story of Saturnalia did not last long as in early 2014 the band broke up for good. Even though I was in Saturnalia only a year, it was really good school of band life in general. I learned about how studio recording sessions in professional studio happen, we had almost 10 gigs, and I composed my very first song to be played live. That re-ignited the sparkle for songwriting, which I had been doing in my teens but just for the songs to be buried in the drawer… well to be honest the quality was mainly on a level that it was still better that way. Anyway, Saturnalia died and we had for a few months some fierce and fast experiments on thrash and other aggressive and fast metal subgenres without any additional singer, but soon the drummer also left as he had another band which was taking more and more of his time. Then I and Alexander started to gather a new band around us which then became Orbiter.

The naturally increased artistic responsibility as a co-founding member gave me courage to write more and more material, so now I am in a situation of a main songwriter in the band alongside with Alexander.

During the pandemic my interest in making electronic and synthesizer-driven music has also increased, and I was very pleased when a friend of mine took me to do the soundtrack for his horror short movie. I hope this is also something I get to do more in the future.

Summarizing all this above, my songwriter identity is maybe stronger than that of a player of any instrument in particular. I compose at home with electric guitar mostly, play bass guitar in my band and recently experiment with synthesizers. It’s all about the passion for creating sounds that you enjoy.

Describe your first musical memory.

I don’t think I can reliably distinguish my very first musical memories from false memories. We listened to a lot of children’s music in my childhood while we were going somewhere by my family’s car. And I guess I and my sister mostly, at least sort of, selected that music which was put on. but I do remember clearly one of my very first memories of me choosing the music that I really liked and listened on repeat and felt the first feelings of true fascination towards music.

My family is not particularly musical as nobody played any instrument or sang. We had a some kind of CD collection home, which consisted mostly of easy listening compilation albums and some schlager albums. My dad, though, clearly had some kind of rock phase during his youth as there were some CDs that got my attention when I was at the stage of migrating away from children’s music. I remember that he had some compilation albums of C.C.R., Scorpions, Michael Jackson’s HIStory, and Queen’s Greatest Hits II. I remember that especially the last one was on constant repeat for me for quite some time and it had the kind of magic in it that was my true first love towards rock music.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

As the ball has got rolling really well with Orbiter recently, despite the pandemic and the challenges it has brought, my best musical memory is also quite recent. In 2020 we had the privilege to play our first ever summer festival gig on the very same day that the larger public events were again allowed in Finland after the first covid lockdown. This was on 1st of August at Jokelan Närkästysjuhlat (what a tongue-twister for non-Finns!). There were lots of big local names and also Skraeckoedlaen from Sweden as one of the headliners. The weather was nice, which is not something to take for granted in Finland even in summer! The gig went very well, we had a really good audience already for our afternoon slot, and the general atmosphere was just super great. I got lots of casual compliments about the gig from strangers when walking through the festival area. The whole experience left a big thirst for more!

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I can’t recall any firmly held beliefs being tested at all recently regarding music. I guess many people have had their phases of being quite absolute on the kind of music they SHOULD listen to and how music SHOULD sound like and how songs SHOULD be made. I had also had this phase during my teens, luckily for a short time.

When really thinking of a firmly held belief, that has had a huge effect on me as a person, the biggest thing coming to my mind is that avoiding conflicts in relationships at all costs would be healthy. This thought was something I most likely somehow adopted from my childhood. It was last time tested a few years ago when I finally started to understand the importance of giving a chance for conflicts to happen as part of human interaction, also and especially with the ones you love. All the uneasy, yet crucial conversations are not happening if one is afraid of disagreement. The realization of this took me some time but I am happy it dawned to me in the end.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

The best thing with the artistic progression in general, for Orbiter and for what I do outside of the band, is that I don’t really have any clear idea to which direction it is going. My songwriting and riff-writing process is not at all in control and is in that way chaotic that I just play the guitar without any ideas in my head and see if something comes up. If not, then I try it again the next day. Some people hear riff ideas in their head while they are taking a shower or so, but I am not that kind of a person. I just seem to create whatever flows through me so it’s always at least a bit of a mystery. The only somewhat controlled way is that if we are for example finalizing an album and we miss a song or two and start thinking of what kind of moods this album is still missing, then I try to push the songwriting to certain direction and see what comes out. Most of the time it is quite freely flowing, though.

Not to leave this answer to a boring ending I can of course start guessing what is the artistic progression of Orbiter. I know what the upcoming debut album is going to be like, and many old Orbiter fans might be a tiny bit surprised of it. But going beyond that, I feel that contrast of various light and heavy dynamics is going to play even larger role in the music. Orbiter is going to be very doomy but most likely quite far from stoner, in the sense of what stoner rock and stoner metal mean to me. Our music might also migrate to direction where it is very difficult to say if it is metal or rock or something else. What I can also sense is that the visual part of our presence and especially live shows is going even more to a direction of some kind of a holistic experience in addition to musical experience. This starts to be already quite a hazy vision in my head that I can’t fully verbalize, but something to this direction for sure.

When thinking of music I make outside of Orbiter, I need to see how I feel after the horror movie soundtrack once the movie gets its premiering night. I will be experimenting with synthesizers for sure in the future but time will show if it goes more to soundtrack direction after this one or to some dark electronic/ambient or something like that. The persisting issue is that I am such a popular music multi-enthusiast with my interests and there are only the few hours for each day to use, having a day job and all other things in life, as well.

How do you define success?

This question sounds like from some project planning meeting, defining the targets of the project that I sometimes face at work. Well, if I take this project aspect then, and let’s stay in music, as would make sense.

I can’t talk with everyone’s mouth in the band but we have had some discussions about goals for Orbiter and based on that I dare to say something. These are mainly something that I’d guess most bands have, so touring greatly abroad in the most important festivals of our scene, and touring abroad playing club gigs with some great bands. These would be definitely a dream come true. Oh! And then we have this one very tongue in cheek goal that we have set. As we intentionally play also with the sex appeal in our visual side, which to me is obvious and one of the core elements in rock music in general, we have set this target of being ”the sexiest doom metal band in the world”. So I guess that if some day some music media refers to Orbiter with these words, we have succeeded! :D

When defining success for me personally in music, I don’t have that specific or concrete thoughts on it. I think I have succeeded in music when it gives me rewarding feelings and meaningfulness to life. Being able to keep this throughout my life would be great and definitely a clear sign of success. I don’t dare to wish for more, as time will show then what shapes these hopefully rewarding and meaningful moments will take.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Even though, the war in Ukraine has been going on already since 2014, I really wish that nobody would have had to see the start of it, not to talk about the latest, shamelessly unjustified full-scale war and genocide commanded by Putin. Wars are always horrible but witnessing such monstrosities in Europe still these days, relatively near, makes it understandably extra overwhelming to deal with. All I can wish, is that this bloodshed ends as soon as possible. At the same time the brighter future for Europe and the whole world needs the collapse of Russia as we know it, the Russia which hasn’t dealt with their totalitarian past. Without that, It will always end up totalitarian and imperialistic, time after time, after some turmoil periods between dictatorships. This cycle needs to end.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I will keep this on a personal level and leave Orbiter out of it. So now that I have passed the threshold of thinking do I dare to publish some of my electronic/synthesizer music because of the upcoming movie and its soundtrack, I’d really take some elements of that further. During the last years I have got really fond of industrial electronic music taking the sound to extremes but still having strong songs. The best example and one of my favorite artists in this is Author & Punisher who is absolutely brilliant. Also modern darkwave has been something I enjoy listening to lately, especially Gost. It would be really interesting to take some influences from both darker corners of synthwave and some rhythms made of plain industrial noise and adding some of my own twist there. Let’s see how this idea develops, but for sure I cannot see any tracks to be published any time soon!

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

The most essential function of art is that it exists and is available for people. Art is one of the core elements of culture, which is one of the few distinguishing factors between humans and other animals. If we ever encounter another species or form of life which has culture and ability to communicate with us, our art is definitely one of the very first things, if not the first, to be introduced to them. Art holds absolute value as it provides meaningfulness to people and its importance cannot, or at least shouldn’t, be valued by money. In my opinion, art reflects us as individuals and as society, telling the story of who we are, where we come from, and where are we going to. Art is also in interaction with our ways of thinking and seeing the world so it has a very complex and large importance.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I was first about to say to this that I am looking for seeing this short film on big screen that I was working with but that is, of course, a musical thing as I worked on the soundtrack. There are lots of musical things that I am looking forward to but I guess the biggest non-musical thing would definitely be my upcoming summer vacation. Seeing some friends I haven’t had time to see in a while, going to a summer cottage and just chilling in general after the hectic spring and early summer. I try to maintain my good practise, that I do not plan the vacation too much. I try to leave half of it empty to keep it interesting, yet actually relaxing. There is a busy fall ahead, so charging the batteries at this point is absolutely needed.

[photo by Johannes Latva]

https://www.facebook.com/orbiterconnection
https://www.instagram.com/orbiterband/
https://orbiterconnection.bandcamp.com/

Orbiter, “Bone to Earth”

Welcome to Day Four of the Jan. 2022 Quarterly Review. Or maybe it’s the other half of the Dec. 2021 Quarterly Review. Or maybe I overthink these things. The latter feels most likely. Inanycase, welcome. If you’ve been keeping up with the records as they’ve been coming in 10-per-day batches over the course of this week, thanks. If not, well, if you’re interested, it’s not like the posts disappeared. Just keep scrolling, then I think click through. One of these days I’ll get an infinite scroll plug-in. Those are for the cool kids.

Also, ‘Infinite Scroll’ is, as of right now, the name of my ’90s-style pixel-art role playing game. Ask me about the plot when these reviews are done.

For now…

Quarterly Review #31-40:

SOM, The Shape of Everything

Working from a foundation in heavy post-rock, Connecticut’s SOM soar and float like so many shoreline seagulls over the Long Island Sound on the eight-song/34-minute The Shape of Everything, which would call to mind the melancholy of Katatoniia were its sadness not even more shimmering. Early pieces “Moment” and “Animals” build a depth of modern progressive metal riffing beneath only the airiest of guitar leads, a wash of distortion meeting a wash of melody, and with guitarist/vocalist/producer Will Benoit helming, his voice rings through clear in melody and still somewhat ethereal, calling to mind a more organically-constructed Jesu in poppier as well as some heavier stretches. The penultimate “Heart Attack” tips into heavier fare with a steady bassline and bursts of crunching guitar, and the finale “Son of Winter” answers back with a (snow)blinding spaciousness and an entrancing last buildup. There’s enough room here to really get lost, and SOM are too mindful of their craft to let it happen.

SOM website

Pelagic Records webstore

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Dr. Space, Muzik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn

Alright, I admit it. I went to “Icy Flatulence” first. Even before “Cyborgian Burger Hut” or “Euphoric Nostril.” Scott Heller, otherwise known as Dr. Space of Øresund Space Collective and any number of other outfits on a given day, is as-ever exploring on Muzik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn, and the results are hypnotic enough that they might leave you using the kind of spelling on the album’s title, but even in the relatively serene “Garden of Rainbow Unicorns” there’s a forward keyline — and actually, in that song, an undercurrent of horror soundtracking that makes me think the unicorn is about to eat me; could happen — and the extended pair of “T-E-T” and “Ribbons in Time” are marked by ’80s sci-fi beeps and boops and a kind of electronic shuffle, respectively, though the latter is probably as close as the 54-minute six-songer comes to soundscaping. Which is like landscaping only, in this case, happening in another galaxy somewhere. And there they call it jazz as they should and all is well. In all seriousness, I keep a running list in my brain of bands who should ask Dr. Space to guest on their records. Your band is probably on it. It’s pretty much everybody.

Dr. Space on Bandcamp

Space Rock Productions website

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Beastwars, Cold Wind / When I’m King

Here’s some context you probably don’t need: “Cold Wind” and “When I’m King” were written around the time of Wellington, New Zealand’s Beastwars‘ 2011 self-titled debut (review here). They may even have been recorded — I could’ve sworn “When I’m King” popped up somewhere at some point — but they’ve now been redone from the ground up and they’re pressed to a limited 7″ as part of the 10th anniversary celebration that also saw the self-titled get a new vinyl issue. Now, is it helpful knowing that? Yeah, sure. If I came at you instead and said, “Hey, new Beastwars!” though, it’d probably be more of a draw, and whatever gets Beastwars in as many ears as possible is what should invariably be done. “When I’m King” is a banger (bonus points for gang shouts), “Cold Wind” a little more seething, but both tracks harness that peculiarly sludged tonality that the band has owned for more than a decade now, and the guttural delivery of Matthew Hyde is only more resonant for the years between the writing and the execution of these songs. That execution is beheading by riffs, by the way.

Beastwars on Facebook

Beastwars on Bandcamp

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Deathbell, A Nocturnal Crossing

A Nocturnal Crossing, the second album from Toulouse, France’s Deathbell and their first for Svart Records, can come at you from any number of angles seemingly at any point. Which thread are you following? Is it the soaring, classic-feeling occult rock melodies of Lauren Gaynor, or her organ work that, at the same time, adds gothic drama to so much of the material on the six-songer? Is it the lumbering groove of “Shifting Sands” and the doomed fuzz of “Devoured on the Peak” earlier, speaking to entirely different traditions? Or maybe the atmosphere in “Silent She Comes,” which is almost post-metallic in its shining lead guitar? Or perhaps, and hopefully I think, it’s all of these things as skillfully woven together as they are in these tracks. Opener “The Stronghold and the Archer” and the closing title-track mirror each other in their underlying metallic influence, but that too becomes one more texture at Deathbell‘s disposal, brought forward in such a way as to emphasize the unity of the whole work as much as the individual progressions.

Deathbell on Facebook

Svart Records website

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Malady, Ainavihantaa

After debuting on Svart with 2018’s Toinen Toista (review here), sax-laced Helskini classic prog pastoralists Malady offer Ainavihantaa (‘all the time’) across a lush and welcoming six tracks and 37 minutes. The flow is immediate and paramount on opener “Alava Vaara” and through the flute/sax tradeoff in “Vapaa Ja Autio,” which follows, and though it’s heady fare, somehow the “Foxy-Lady”-if-King–Crimson-wrote-it strut-into-meander of “Sisävesien Rannat” skirts a line of indulgence without fully toppling over. Side B is jazzy and winding across “Dyadi” and “Haavan Väri” ahead of the title-track, but the human presence of vocals, even in a language I don’t speak, does wonders in keeping the proceedings grounded, right up to the Beatlesian finish of “Ainavihantaa” itself. This was on a lot of best-of-2021 lists and it’s not a challenge to see why.

Malady on Facebook

Svart Records website

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Wormsand, Shapeless Mass

The Earth, ecologically devastated by industrialization and the wastefulness of humans — capitalism, in other words — becomes a wasteland. A few billionaires, who’ve been playing around with laughably-phallic rockets anyway, decide they’re going to escape out into space and leave the rest of the species, which they’ve destroyed, to suffer. It would be — and used to be — the stuff of decent science fiction were it not basically what homo sapiens are living through right now. A mass extinction owing to climate change the roots of which are in anthropocene action and inaction alike. French outfit Wormsand tell this utterly-plausible story in cascading doom riffs that reminds at once of Pallbearer and Forming the Void, keeping an edge of modern heavy prog to their plodding and accompanying with clean vocals and some more gutty shouts. As one might expect, things get pretty grim by the time they’re down to “Carrions,” “Collapsing” and “Shapeless Mass” near the album’s end, but the trio get big, big points for not trying to offer some placating “you can avoid this future” message of hope at the end, instead highlighting the final message, “The oracles warned us long ago/That a huge mass would swallow us all.” Ambitious in narrative concept, expertly conveyed.

Wormsand on Facebook

Stellar Frequencies on Bandcamp

Saka Čost on Bandcamp

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Thunderchief, Synanthrope

I hate to call out a falsehood, but Virginia duo Thunderchief‘s claim that, “No fucks were used, or given, on this recording,” just isn’t the case. I’m sorry. You don’t rip the fuck out of your throat like Rik Surly does on “Aiboh/Phobia” without a clear intent. That intent might be — and would seem to be — fuckall, but fuckall’s way different from ‘no fucks.’ If they didn’t give a fuck, Synanthrope could hardly come across as furious as it does in these seven tracks, totaling a consuming, gruff, sludged 39 minutes, marked out by centerpiece “King of the Pleistocene” fucking with your conception of desert rock, the second part of “Aiboh/Phobia” — the part named after a grind band, oddly enough — and “Toss Me a Crumb” fucking around with some grind, and closer “Paw” trodding out its feedback-laden course with Erik Larson‘s drums marching in crash with Surly‘s riffs. Hell, you got Mike Dean to record the thing. That’s giving a fuck all by itself. This kind of heavy and righteous, purposeful aural cruelty doesn’t happen by mistake. It’s too good to be fuckless. Sorry.

Thunderchief on Facebook

Thunderchief on Bandcamp

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Turkey Vulture, Twist the Knife

No lyric sheet necessary to get that the longest song on Turkey Vulture‘s Twist the Knife EP, the three-minute “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” is based lyrically on the ever-relevant film They Live. The married Connecticut duo of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Jessie May and drummer Jim Clegg (also in charge of visuals), find thrashy release on the four-song release, which totals about eight minutes and in opener “Fiji,” “Where the Truth Dwells,” as well as “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” they rip with surprising metallic thrust. The closing “She’s Married (But Not to Me)” is something of a further shift, and had me searching for an original version out there somewhere thinking it was a cover either of Buddy Holly or some wistful punk band, but no, seems to be an original. So be it. Clearly, at this point, May and Clegg are finding new modes of sonic catharsis that even a couple years ago they likely wouldn’t have dared. They’re a stronger band for their readiness to follow such whims.

Turkey Vulture on Facebook

Turkey Vultre on Bandcamp

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Stargo, Dammbruch

In Stargo‘s Dammbruch, I hear a signal back to European heavy rock’s prior instrumentalist generation, the Dortmunder three-piece not completely divorced from the riffy progressions that drove the warmth creating heavy psychedelia in the first place, even as the four-part, 14-minute title-track of the EP shifts between those impulses and more progressive, weighted, extreme or airy movements before its eerily peaceful conclusion. “Copter,” which could be titled after its wub-wub-wub effect early and the guitar chug that takes hold of it, and the closer “Bathysphere,” with its outward reach of guitar telegraphed in the first half but still resonant at the end, bring likeminded breadth in shorter bursts, but the abiding story of the EP is what the band — who made their full-length debut with 2020’s Parasight — might continue to offer as their style continues to develop. 35007, My Sleeping Karma, The Ocean, Pelican and Russian Circles — Stargo‘s sound is a melting pot of ideas. They only need to keep exploring.

Stargo on Facebook

Stargo on Bandcamp

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Ascia, Volume II

Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, issues a second EP from the solo-project Ascia following up on Sept. 2021’s Volume I (review here) with the marauding lumber of Dec. 2021’s Volume II, bringing his axe down across five tracks in a sub-20-minute run that’s been compiled onto a limited CD with the first release. Makes sense. The two outings share an affinity for the running megafuzz of earliest High on Fire and showcase the emerging personality of the new outfit in the melodies of “The Will of Gods” and the untempered doom of the later slowdown in “Thousands of Ghosts.” The instrumental “A Night with Shahrazad” closes, and feels a bit like a piece of a song — it crashes out just when you think the vocals might kick in — but if Monni‘s leaving his audience wanting more, well, he also seems quick enough to provide. “Eternal Glory” and “Ruins of War” will remind you what you liked about the first EP, and the rest will remind you why you’re looking forward to the next one. Mark it a win.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Black Capricorn on Facebook

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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: Sami Mustonen of Velvets

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Velvets is an individual take on classic rock. We mixed together a lot of elements from blues, schlager, pop, funk and many different styles of rock’n’roll to get the sound right. The band started in January ’21 when me (Sami) and Sakke had some spare time on our hands while our other band Rokets couldn’t rehearse since our drummer got injured. The first idea for Velvets was to do love songs and along the way we added a bit more ingredients to it.

Describe your first musical memory.

As a kid I didn’t really listen to music that much. My parents didn’t listen to records, so everything I heard was on the radio, TV and movies. My first significant musical memory was when my older brother had just returned from a holiday in the US. I was 10 years old and he brought me a CD as a gift. The album was Cypress Hill’s “Black Sunday”. He had a CD player and we started listening to it. I was hooked. From then on I started exploring music and have been on that journey ever since. I never played any instruments, I just loved to sing, but it wasn’t something I was planning on doing in a band. It just happened when my best friends started a heavy metal band called United Seafood and needed a singer, so they asked me to try it out. Happy that they did!

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I don’t think I have a single best musical memory, but the best ones are from any packed shows we played with Rokets or Seafood. Doesn’t get much better than that. Looking forward to getting on stage with Velvets too, we have a boogie woogie band we really want you to hear and see!

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I grew up in a suburb that was a relatively safe place. As a kid the world didn’t seem that big and scary when it feels like your surroundings are constantly giving you hugs and kisses. When I started skateboarding and exploring other cities, it really showed me the world for what it could actually be like. People, places, music, culture, food – of all of these I learned through skateboarding while making a lot of friends doing it. It really opened up the world to me and I couldn’t be more grateful for it!

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Towards better outcomes. Starting off with an idea of how you should do something and then learning different approaches, new ideas and techniques along the way to get the best out of you.

How do you define success?

Being happy with yourself and what you do. Feeling proud of and standing behind something that you have created. Sharing your life with someone you love and appreciate.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

David Cronenberg’s The Fly at age nine. Couple of nightmares was had after that. Learned to appreciate the film a bit older though. Gotta love the genius of Cronenberg!

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’m studying cultural management and have a dream of running my own venue here in Helsinki. Would love to offer a space for up-and-coming bands as well as bigger names and to create an atmosphere for everyone to enjoy.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

For me it’s the freedom to create. It also works as a therapy of some sort. For the explorers of art, I think its purpose is to bring joy and understanding to people’s lives.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Getting married in a couple of weeks! Love you Siri!

https://www.facebook.com/velvetshelsinki
https://www.instagram.com/velvetshelsinki/
https://velvetshelsinki.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/thesignrecords/
http://www.thesignrecords.com

Velvets, Velvets (2021)

I’m begging you, just listen to this record. Please. For me. For you. Just listen.

Am Universum, the fifth album by Finland’s Amorphis, turns 20 this year. It was released through Relapse Records on April 3, 2001, so the date’s already passed. As the follow-up to 1999’s Tuonela (discussed here), it found the band progressing further into traditional rock melodies tinged with Finnish folk elements and drives inherited from their journey through death metal. Vocalist Pasi Koskinen still throws in a couple growls if you listen for them, but from Santeri Kallio‘s keys to the guitar nuance from Eso Holopainen and Tomi Koivusaari that unfurls in opener “Alone,” there’s no question that by this point Amorphis had largely left such extremity behind.

They did so organically, but boldly, over the course of their prior outings — 1992’s The Karelian Isthmus, coupled with the 1993 Privilege of Evil EP, 1994’s pivotal Tales From the Thousand Lakes, 1996’s even-more-pivotal Elegy, ’97’s My Kantele EP and the aforementioned Tuonela — their sense of progression never faltered, and it by no means stopped with Am Universum either. But, 10 years out from their first demo, Am Universum‘s 10-song/50-minute run marked a special moment in what was becoming the band’s signature blend of elements, and I don’t know that they’ve to-date ever written a stronger collection of tracks. Some songs are memorable. Once you get these into your head, they’re unforgettable.

Am Universum is a riding-a-bike album. Once you put it on, it’s like you never left. Multi-stage choruses in run rampant throughout, and as “Alone” introduces tones, melodies, the richness in Niclas Etelävuori‘s bass (he had replaced Olli-Pekka Laine, who’d soon come back) and the push of Pekka Kasari‘s drums (again, Jan Rechberger would return to the band in short order), the spectrum of colors offered only grows across cuts like “Goddess (of the Sad Man),” “The Night is Over” and “Shatters Within,” the band bringing structural variety along with a range of expression and an overarching flow that continues as the record progresses through the hard-riffed/well-organed “Crimson Wave,” “Drifting Memories” — one of several tracks to feature echo-laced saxophone, but one on which it’s particularly well used — into the victory lap of “Forever More,” the gorgeous, melancholic semi-acoustic standout of “Veil of Sin,” and the closing duo, “Captured State,” which returns to some of the heavier hookmaking of the early cuts, and “Grieve Stricken Heart,” which is the first song since “Alone” to top six minutes and a beyond effective summation of the record’s many strengths in craft and aesthetic.

It’s hard with Amorphis — even harder than spelling “isthmus” — because especially up to this point in their career, every album really was an era. They had gone from raw death metal to the innovative use of instrumentation and themes from Finnish folk music, basing songs on the Kalevala, and so on, and they did so largely at a time before the internet really spread into people’s lives. So listeners lived with these albums in a different way. Even Relapse wasn’t the metal-major, whatever that means, it is now circa 1994 — indeed records like those Amorphis produced helped make them one. But the point is there are loyalists to each of those offerings listed above, and in that regard, Am Universum doesn’t get nearly enough credit for what the band managed to accomplish across its span.

Please. Just listen to it. I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think it was something you should hear.

On its face, it’s kind of unassuming. Two six-minute tracks bookending a bunch of others around four and five minutes long, pretty consistent, and the art? 20 years later and I’m still not sure what’s going on there, but I can tell you that its muted colors don’t come close to representing either the vast soundscape or the emotional breadth that comes across in the listening experience. In context it makes sense. This was, ostensibly, a metal band putting out a melodic heavy prog rock record. There had to be a certain amount of, “what the hell do we do with this?” going on, because especially coming out of death metal, and especially walking the sonic path that Amorphis were across genres, almost defining them as they went — folk metal is still a thing — it had never happened before. Am Universum pushed across boundaries and challenged the band to become something almost entirely different than they were when they started, and even crazier, pulled it off. I never have, but I’d love to talk to Matt Jacobson from Relapse about this album, if only to say thanks for taking the chance on putting it out.

Amorphis, true to their name, would continue to change. In 2003/2004, they offered Far From the Sun, as their first outing for Nuclear Blast, which stripped their songwriting down further into melodic heavy rock and would prove to be Koskinen‘s last album with the band; he has gone on to contribute to a number of outfits, among them Mannhai, Shape of Despair, Ajattara and so on. His replacement, Tomi Joutsen (also Hallatar and a bunch of others), made a distinguished first impression on 2006’s Eclipse (I saw them at BB King’s in Manhattan on that tour; it was the day I got back from SXSW that year; I was tired, they were great) and has gone on to be a reliable frontman presence for the group across the better part of two decades’ worth of releases, the band ultimately finding a line between melody and harder hitting fare that is no less their own for the influence it’s had over European metal in general.

In 2021, the band released Live at Helsinki Ice Hall, and Holopainen has a solo-ish album out under the moniker Silver Lake by Esa Holopainen on which he collaborates with different singers, so there’s plenty more to dig into after this. Amorphis‘ latest studio outing was 2018’s Queen of Time (review here), which demonstrated just how much the band’s sound has come to encompass over their now 30 years, and how distinctive their work is across the greater sphere of heavy music, metal or otherwise.

Please, just listen.

Thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.

—

Man, nobody’s gonna give a shit. I know it. Amorphis is one of those bands I write about because I love them and no one cares. Amorphis, Anathema, Swallow the Sun, etc. I’ve got a whole list. Let the record show I did it for me anyway, despite the begging aspect. That’s mostly me trying to convince Mike H. and a few others it’ll make their day better.

Lot going on this weekend, but somewhere in there I’m going to find time to review the Fatso Jetson/All Souls stream. I think that might be the last livestream review I do, at least of pandemic-era stuff. Shows are starting up again this Fall, it’s looking like, and barring disaster, it’ll be possible to see bands in-person rather than onscreen. I don’t think livestreams are going to completely disappear, so I’m not gonna say I’ll never do another one, period, but for now, unless something really amazing comes up — more ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ etc. — I feel like maybe this is a good one to go out on.

Weird week. The Pecan is out of the boot post-legbreak, and that’s good. He’s still favoring the leg a bit, but it’s only been a few weeks. He’s running again, so that’s good, and I took him to the playground down the way yesterday and he played hard like a three year old who hasn’t been to the playground in the better part of a month, so that was good to see. He saw the moon while he was on the swings and got all excited: “It’s a crescent moon!” If I could live a thousand years, I’d hope never to forget it.

But the week is over, which is good, I think. No school next week, which is going to be a crunch. Summer break, huh? Okay. Camp starts after the July 4 holiday, so that’s about two and a half weeks he’s home. There you go. If you’re wondering, that’s why I didn’t answer your email. I’ll be lucky if I have time to shower twice.

I made Facebook group for The Obelisk this week. It’s here if you want to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/groups/theobeliskcollective/

So far it’s a lot of people introducing themselves and their projects, but that’s to be expected, I think. And the whole point of the thing is to share music, so that’s reasonable. You could argue I did the same thing by starting it in the first place.

So yes, needless to say I’ll be phasing out this blog in the next couple weeks to focus on The Obelisk as a purely social media-based entity.

No. Of course not. Not that I’m so attached to WordPress — though apparently I am — but I’ve yet to find a social media interface that holds a candle to AOL 3.0. Or maybe I’m just nostalgic. I can still hear my 28k baud modem screeching in my head, about to get knocked offline when someone picks up the phone. Charged by the minute. Madness.

What a time to be alive.

But that’s enough whatnot. I plug along. I did some good reading this week, nothing too challenging, but it feels good for the brain. I hope you’re well and stay that way. Have fun, be safe, watch your head, hydrate. Gotta hydrate. So important.

No Gimme show today, but next week’s is the first part of a two-parter Neurosis deep-dive. It’s gonna be awesome.

FRM.

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Finland’s Caskets Open have signed to Wise Blood Records and Seeing Red Records for new physical pressings of their fourth album, 2020’s Concrete Realms of Pain (review here). Seeing Red will do vinyl for US and Canada and Wise Blood has the tape, after Nine Records did the CD version last year. If you didn’t hear the record at that point, you get a pass — it came out in March 2020, everyone gets a pass for everything except not wearing a mask — but short of referring you to the review, which I already did, I’ll just say that it’s worth the second look it’s getting as it checks off LP and cassette formats.

There are references to acts below like Carnivore and In Solitude and I heard shades of Misfits when I made my way through as well, but these guys are four records deep as they’re starting to hit home, so don’t be surprised when it comes through with an identity of its own either.

The announcement follows here as well as the severe artwork, with moniker and title also somewhat reminiscent of Type O Negative, now that I think about it. Go figure.

PR wire has it like this:

Caskets Open – Concrete Realms of Pain – Wise Blood & Seeing Red

For 14 years, Finnish doom trio Caskets Open have written songs rife with strife and dark-souled riffs. Their fourth LP “Concrete Realms of Pain” emerged from the wasteland of a pandemic summer as the band’s brooding masterwork. Caskets Open’s evocative compositions conjure the frailty of the crestfallen ballads of Type O Negative and Danzig. Meanwhile, there’s also a simmering snarl of hardcore punk that raises a chalice to Peter Steele’s Carnivore. Throughout the years, Caskets Open has warmed up the stage for bands as awesomely diverse as Church of Misery, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Primitive Man. Bonded by a mutual love for this album, Seeing Red Records and Wise Blood Records have brought the songs stateside to celebrate this stunning doom achievement.

Originally released in March 2020 when COVID struck worldwide, Finnish misfits CASKETS OPEN released the album Concrete Realms of Pain quietly on Nine Records (Poland) via CD/Digital. When listening to this record you may recall the dirge of Type O Negative, the vibe & aesthetic of early Danzig, and the melancholic emptiness of country-mates In Solitude. There is probably a bunch more you will pick out as they seem to flirt with post punk and there are certainly moments that lean heavy into the hardcore punk realm, but with that said, it’s along the same lines as Type O’s harder moments or even Peter’s previous work in Carnivore. CASKETS OPEN not only blend all of these influences brilliantly, but in such authentic fashion I’d swear these songs were written between ’89-’91!

Recorded and mixed 2019 at Tonehaven Recording Studio by Tom Brooke. Mastered 2019 by James Plotkin. Front cover and band photo by Perttu Salo.

PREORDER Vinyl / Cassette:
Seeing Red Records (U.S. & Canada): https://casketsopen-fi.bandcamp.com/album/concrete-realms-of-pain
OR shop.seeingredrecords.com
Wise Blood Records (Cassette): https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/

Track Listing:
1. Four Shrines
2. Riding on a Rotting Horse
3. Homecoming
4. Tunnel Guard
5. White Animal
6. Tadens Tolthe
7. Blossom
8. Soul Stained Glass
9. Pale Hunter

Line-up
Timo Ketola – bass, vocals
Antti Ronkainen – guitars
Pyry Ojala – drums

Caskets Open, “Tunnel Guard” official video

Look carefully at that discography — or at least kind of carefully — and you’ll note that it’s been six years since Finnish doom rockers Desert Lord released their full-length debut, To the Unknown. The forthcoming Symbols, which will be issued through Under a Serpent Sun Records as a vinyl/DL-only offering (shout to my fellow CD fan Jose Humberto; we’re a dying breed you and I), is preceded by a video for the title-track that you can see below. It’s noteworthy that with a sub-five-minute runtime, “Symbols” is shorter than anything that appeared on the first record, but as to how that might play out across the record as a whole, I couldn’t say, as I haven’t heard it.

Nevertheless, would you be surprised if I told you the “Symbols” video comes loaded with visual metaphor? I certainly hope not. Blending cinematic and band-performance elements, it’s a fitting presentation to the thick-toned, roll-riffed cut, with just an underlying touch of more extreme metal. You’ll hear it.

Announcement and video follow here, from the PR wire:

Desert Lord – Symbols

Desert Lord releases a music video of a new song from the forthcoming record

Finnish Doom/Stoner/Heavy metal band Desert Lord will release a new album ’Symbols’ in autumn from which the self titled opening track is taken from.

The album is a follower to the debut album ’To the Unknown’ released in 2014, which attracted a lot of positive reception from both the media and listeners. The band has been preparing the upcoming album for a long time in the depths of the rehearsal room and the recordings have taken place at the Animalhouse studio. The album will be released on LP, digitally and on streaming services by Under a Serpent Sun Records.

The music video is directed by Henri Tondi.

Runner: Antti Askolin
Actor: Asko Laine
Set assistants: Antti Jouhten, Jesse Bollström
Set artist: Konsta Ojala
Set designer: Samuli Juopperi
Art designer: Kaamanen
Director and Camera operator: Henri Tondi
Editor: Samuli Juopperi

Special thanks to Kalasataman seripaja, Valofirma & co.

Desert Lord Discography:
2020 – Symbols LP (Under a Serpent Sun Records, julkaistaan syyskuussa 2020)
2014 – To the Unknown CD (Under a Serpent Sun Records)
2011 – Salvation 7″ (Under a Serpent Sun Records)

Desert Lord are:
Janne – Guitar
Mika – Drums
Sampo – Vox
Roni – Bass

https://facebook.com/desertlorddoom
https://desertlorddoom.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/desertlord_band

Desert Lord, “Symbols” official video

Alright, so the teaser got me. I guess I didn’t read the whole press release before I clicked on the link to check out the video and I thought it was going to be a whole song, then when it faded out just as it seemed like everything was about to kick in, I kind of got annoyed at it. Because I couldn’t hear more. The teaser totally worked. It doesn’t always, but yeah, pretty much nailed me this time.

Finland’s Mercury Circle, Aug. 14, first EP, The Dawn of Vitriol, on Noble Demon and The Vinyl Division. Members of Swallow the Sun, the way, way, way underrated Hallatar and a host of others. Preorders/pre-saves are up now. And yeah, the teaser sounds pretty cool.

You’ll find that below. Just don’t expect the whole song.

From the PR wire:

MERCURY CIRCLE (feat. members of SWALLOW THE SUN) sign worldwide record deal with Noble Demon and announce first EP!

Noble Demon is proud to announce the newest signing to their eclectic artist roster: MERCURY CIRCLE, the brand new project by ICONCRASH’s and SWALLOW THE SUN’s Jaani Peuhu, has signed a worldwide deal with the German record company! Dark metal infused with powerful synth/electro waves and doom – Helsinki, Finland based MERCURY CIRCLE is creating a diverse offering of atmospheric and darkly music where the songs differ wildly in expression and sonic aesthetics. Truly a genre of its own, grabbing the listener’s attention while establishing their very own kind of “New Doom”.

Says Jaani Peuhu about the signing:

“We are so excited about these news! I was on a North American tour with Swallow the Sun supporting Children of Bodom and we shared a bus with Wolfheart. One day I was chatting with Tuomas Saukkonen about our future plans and he told me about this new label who will release the Dawn of Solace album. I have known Tuomas since he started with Before the Dawn because I produced their first two albums and I know that he knows what he is doing. Always. I’d already forgotten the conversation we had, but a few months later I was talking about the Mercury Circle album with an A&R of one of my fav labels and he said that Noble Demon would be a perfect label for us because I want to do something fresh and fearless with this band. No rules and 100% artistic freedom. Our agent then contacted Patrick and he instantly understood my vision and we have been a team since.”

Furthermore he comments: “Noble Demon does not care about social media numbers or how many gigs we have played. They were willing and excited to start an adventure with a band who were still working with their first demos. That is rare these days when nothing is certain in the music industry. All that matters to me and Noble Demon is the quality of the art.”

Already preparing for their first full length record for late 2020, today MERCURY CIRCLE announced the release of “The Dawn Of Vitriol”, the band’s first EP and a fantastic preview of what to follow. To be released on August 14th on Noble Demon (Digital) and The Vinyl Division (Vinyl + Digipack CD), make sure to check out the official trailer and a first appetizer for “The Dawn Of Vitriol”, streaming here:

Two times Finnish grammy award nominated producer, songwriter and musician Jaani Peuhu, who joined SWALLOW THE SUN in the year of 2019 and has also worked with various multiplatinum-selling Finnish pop artists and metal acts like Before The Dawn, Lord of the Lost, Thunderstone and Hallatar, continues to stir up the scene with his brand new and unique sounding project, MERCURY CIRCLE.

On the official landing-page you can already NOW give permission to have a release saved to your streaming library or added to your playlist as soon as it is out. So no need to mark your calendar anymore! You will also find the videos streaming and links to physical pre-orders at THIS LOCATION

Tracklist:
01. Oil Of Vitriol
02. The Beauty Of Agony
03. Black Flags
04. The Last Fall
05. New Dawn

MERCURY CIRCLE are:
Jaani Peuhu – Vocals, Guitars, Synths (Iconcrash, Swallow the Sun, Hallatar)
Jussi Hämäläinen – Guitars, Synths, Backing vocals (Hanging Garden, The Chant)
Juppe Sutela. – Guitars (To/Die/For)
Ande Kiiski – Bass (Sleep of Monsters, Rytmihäiriö)
Juuso Raatikainen- Drums (Swallow the Sun)

https://www.facebook.com/mercurycircleofficial
https://www.instagram.com/mercurycircleband
http://nobledemon.com
https://fb.me/nobledemonrecords
https://www.youtube.com/c/NobleDemon
https://www.instagram.com/nobledemonrecords/
https://snd.click/nobledemon
https://nobledemon.bandcamp.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@nobledemonrecords
https://sptfy.com/4Oow
http://facebook.com/TheVinylDivision/

Mercury Circle, The Dawn of Vitriol teaser

Am I the only one who looks at live albums with a kind of wistfulness now? Like, “Oh yeah, I remember when concerts were a thing.” It’s not like it’s been years or anything. Certainly in my life I’ve got a few months without going to a show before, but I guess there’s something about the shows not even happening that makes the difference. Finland’s Superfjord, who released the stellar All Will Be Golden (review here) through Svart in 2018, are beginning a new live series they’re calling For the Moment, focusing as they apparently do when onstage on improv and exploration. For the Moment Vol. 1 is streaming at the bottom of this post and is on Bandcamp, Spotify and I assume all the rest.

It makes for quite a moment:

New live release series from Superfjord

Improvisation in live performance has always been at the heart of Finnish cosmic psych-rockers Superfjord. Following the release of the band’s well-received second album (All Will Be Golden / Svart Records 2018), in concert the band found themselves gradually tipping the balance between composed and freeform music, evermore in favour of the latter.

For The Moment, vol. 1 is the first release in a digital series of live recordings that aims to capture Superfjord at their purest, in a way no studio recordings are able to. Volume 1 features excerpts – or captured Moments – from the band’s January 2020 concert at Helsinki’s G Livelab. The venue’s state-of-the-art audio fidelity and cozy atmosphere allowed the band an ideal opportunity to chase after that chakra-opening critical mass, where band and audience travel together through no one knows what exactly.

As its name implies, the new release series is all about what happens in the Moment. Enjoy.

For The Moment, vol. 1 is available on all major streaming platforms and as a digital download on Bandcamp.

1. Moment 1 10:09
2. Moment 2 11:00
3. Rainbow 08:03
4. Moment 3 11:22

Superfjord – For The Moment, vol. 1:
Sampo Fagerlund: drums, percussion
Mikko Kapanen: vocals, guitars
Juho Ojala: vocals, keyboards, synthesizers
Jussi Ristikaarto: vocals, guitars, electronics, percussion
Teemu Soininen: bass
Olavi Töyli: tenor saxophone, percussion
Jukka Hyvärinen: recording, mixing, mastering
Rami Mursula: cover art

https://open.spotify.com/album/6gcpzxaxaUfZxKfwEULTIp
http://superfjord.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/superfjord
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords

Superfjord, For the Moment, Vol. 1 (2020)