The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen & Lick of My Spoon Productions

Posted in Questionnaire on March 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen & Lick of My Spoon Promotions

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: Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen & Lick of My Spoon Productions

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

I have the privilege of fronting a band with three absolute beasts behind me. They push me to be better every day and there is nothing better in this world than getting in the studio and creating with Rusty, Morgan and Phil.

Describe your first musical memory.

For me it was when my dad showed me James Brown. I was probably six years old and there was a live performance on TV. I immediately started trying to dance like him much to the delight of my family watching me. To this day I use some of his songs as a vocal warmup and try to bring as much energy at a live show as I can because he brought it every time.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

This is hard to narrow down. As a fan it’s probably watching Mark Lanegan perform at Psycho Las Vegas while standing knee-deep in the wave pool with my wife and my brother.

As a musician I’ve been so lucky to have the opportunity to play with and meet legends I’ve looked up to for years like Mario Lalli, Nick Oliveri, Tommi Holappa, and countless others. But the highlight so far for me was when High Desert Queen got invited to play a Desert Generator Party out in the California desert with Fatso Jetson and others. I’ve always wanted to go to one of those parties and never dreamed I’d actually get to perform at one. Incredible moment for me.

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

I would say this happens pretty much daily. There will always be people the doubt what I’m doing in my life trying to make High Desert Queen excel. Those people are starting to realize I don’t listen very well and that HDQ is much more than just a hobby in my life.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads to absolute bliss. There is nothing greater than expressing yourself artistically. It rarely ever comes out like you intend but there’s beauty in that. Because of that the thirst can never be quenched and I continue to want to create more and more, pushing myself further each time. If that ever stops, it’s time to do something else.

How do you define success?

To me success is if what I have done has made a positive impact on at least one person, myself included, and has allowed them to feel more love than they had previously, then it was successful.

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

Avatar: The Way of Water. Worst movie ever made and I can never have those three hours of my life back.

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

A concept record. I would love to make a concept into the studio with no previously rehearsed material and write a record. This is something that HDQ has talked about doing in the future and I can’t wait.

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

The most essential function of art is to give someone an emotional response. Even if it’s not the one you intended. That doesn’t matter because everyone rects differently, but if it causes no reaction, then it ins’t art in my opinion.

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

I’m looking forward to traveling and seeing the world more. I know I’ll be doing that because of my music, but I look forward to meeting new people from different cultures and learning how they live, eat, and drink. Speaking of drinking, I look forward to trying the beer in all of these places!

https://www.facebook.com/highdesertqueen/
http://www.instagram.com/highdesertqueen
http://highdesertqueen.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon

High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon (2021)

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High Desert Queen Announce UK and European Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

high desert queen

This band has done nothing since they started but make things happen for themselves. Releasing a killer debut album in 2021’s Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) through Ripple certainly helped, but whether it’s touring the West Coast with Sasquatch, hitting Europe and the UK last summer and then going back in December, when I was lucky enough to catch them at Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #3 (review here), or vocalist Ryan Garney — who was kind enough to provide the quote below about heading abroad for the third time in not quite 12 months — organizing the massive RippleFest Texas lineups and contributing directly to the flourishing community of which the band are part, High Desert Queen put their money where their riffs are, and if you’ve never seen them play, they bring it on stage in all-in fashion.

This tour, which hits both Spring Desertfests and Esbjerg Fuzztival and has room for more besides (help with TBAs if you can), finds High Desert Queen teamed with Fatso Jetson and then Mario Lalli‘s improv desert-art-rock outfit The Rubber Snake Charmers, and I’m pretty sure at over a month it’s the longest stint they’ve done to-date. Much respect, wishes for safe travel, and all that kind of stuff. This is the kind of thing most acts dream about. High Desert Queen, once again, making things happen for themselves. Seems to just be how they do.

From the PR wire:

high desert queen tour

High Desert Queen – “Smoke and Dust Tour”

Texan heavy rock powerhouse HIGH DESERT QUEEN returns to Europe this spring with an extensive tour alongside desert rock veterans Fatso Jetson, including festival appearances across the continent.

After two successful trips to Europe so far, High Desert Queen embarks on their largest tour to date. Their “Smoke and Dust Tour” is highlighted by several large festivals like Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin and Esbjerg Fuzztival, and will see them travel throughout the UK and all across Europe this spring.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be heading across the pond to several places we’ve been to before and experiencing several more places for the first time,” says singer Ryan Garney. “We are also humbled to announce we will be touring with the legendary Fatso Jetson for the first half of the tour, and the improvisational project the Rubber Snake Charmers for the last half. We have a pretty good feeling some of us will be all playing together and creating something original and new every night.”

6.5.23 London, UK Desertfest London*
8.5.23 Bournemouth, UK The Anvil*
9.5.23 Tunbridge Wells, UK The Forum*
10.5.23 Winchester, UK Railway Inn*
11.5.23 Hastings, UK The Crypt*
12.5.23 Rotherham, UK The Hive*
13.5.23 Bradford, UK The Underground*
14.5.23 Leeds, UK Boom*
15.5.23 Newcastle, UK Trillian’s*
17.5.23 Utrecht, NE dB’s*
18.5.23 Munster, DE Rare Guitar*
19.5.23 TBA
20.5.23 Berlin, DE Desertfest Berlin*
21.5.23 TBA
23.5.23 Cologne, DE Club Volta*
24.5.23 Hannover, DE Lux*
25.5.23 Leuven, BE JH SOJO*
26.5.23 Hamburg, DE Molotow*
27.5.23 Esbjerg, DK Esbjerg Fuzztival*
28.5.23 Asendorf, DE Kulturhaus +
29.5.23 TBA
30.5.23 TBA
31.5.23 Lucerne, CH Sedel +
1.6.23 TBA
2.6.23 Verona, IT Anteprima +
3.6.23 TBA
4.6.23 Pisa, IT Pontile 102 +
5.6.23 Zero Branco, IT Altroquando +
6.6.23 Ljubljana, SL Channel Zero +
7.6.23 Ulm, DE Hexenhaus +
8.6.23 TBA
9.6.23 TBA
10.6.23 TBA

*w/ Fatso Jetson
+w/ Rubber Snake Charmers

https://www.facebook.com/highdesertqueen/
http://www.instagram.com/highdesertqueen
http://highdesertqueen.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon (2021)

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High Desert Queen Announce UK & European Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 21st, 2022 by JJ Koczan

High Desert Queen

A lot of bands pay lip-service to the idea of hitting the road — now perhaps more than ever with a specific sense of post-pandemic longing — but far fewer are those who put tires to street and actually go. Kudos, then, to Austin, Texas’ High Desert Queen, who not only just wrapped a run of the Southwestern US with Sasquatch but have now announced their intent to travel abroad for the first time, playing shows in the UK and Europe. Their debut album, Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) — the vinyl release of which they’ll celebrate before absconding — is a highlight among the first-records of the year so far, and if one wants to extrapolate from the vigor with which they’re supporting it thus far, it doesn’t seem unlikely they’ll have another regional run or two in the US before 2022 is out. That’s in addition to performing at Ripplefest Texas, which High Desert Queen vocalist Ryan Garney also helms via his Lick of My Spoon Productions booking company.

But whatever intent this initial incursion on foreign soil might herald for them, the sheer fact of their going — and going on the back of their first record, still barely released– puts High Desert Queen in a different echelon of bands. Much respect for having a plan and putting it into action.

From socials:

High Desert Queen tour

HIGH DESERT QUEEN – UK & EU

UNITED KINGDOM, SCOTLAND, BELGIUM, & GERMANY: we are coming to you!

We are thrilled to announce our first ever tour overseas. We have a few send off show in Texas but then we head across the pond!

We can’t wait to meet new people and grow our extended family even more! Which show will you make it to???

May 20th @valhallatavern – Austin, TX USA
May 21st @lastconcertcafe – Houston, TX USA
May 27th @theundergroundbradford – Bradford UK
May 28th – Red Crust Music Fest – Edinburg GB
May 30th @torquebar – Sunderland UK
June 2nd @ourblackheart – London UK
June 3rd @jh_asgaard – Ghent BE
June 5th @kulturhaus_b.o – Asendorf – DE
June 7th Unter Deck – Münich – DE
June 10th @rare_guitar – Münster – DE

More dates to come…

Poster by @blairsayer

Booking by @eastsidedelta and @lomsproductions

https://www.facebook.com/highdesertqueen/
http://www.instagram.com/highdesertqueen
http://highdesertqueen.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen

Posted in Questionnaire on March 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen

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: Ryan Garney of High Desert Queen & Journey to Ixtlan

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

I’m a teacher by day and musician by night. Teaching is not what I set out to do in life but in a way it found me and I realized I absolutely love it. I teach high school level English as well as audio and video production.

As far as music, I started singing in a band right out of high school. Wasn’t even the best singer in the band but I was the only one brave enough to do it. I sang for a few bands here and there but had a long period where life just got in the way. Was lucky enough to connect with the people in High Desert Queen and was able to get back into it.

Describe your first musical memory.

Whenever I think back to the first time I realized music was essential in my life was when my dad gave me a James Brown cassette. I remember playing it full blast in the kitchen. I’d take my shoes off so that I could dance around in my socks on our linoleum floors trying to emulate James Brown on stage. I never even got close.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

There are so many to choose from, but seeing Tom Waits live for the first time with my brother was magical. We flew to Vancouver to see him and I’ve still to this day not seen a performer just have total control of the audience. We were all basically on marionettes and watched his every move. He along with James Brown are why on stage I feel like I better give it my all no matter if there’s two people or 2,000 people.

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

I think we’ve all experienced that during the past few years with the pandemic. I still have the faith and belief that there are a lot more good people than bad that want harmony in this world. Luckily through it all, myself and my loved ones have come out even stronger than when we started.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

This leads to a higher consciousness as well as a euphoria that cannot be matched. Playing live and performing is great, but there is no greater feeling than creating something with people you love. That’s why the writing process is by far my favorite part of being in a band.

How do you define success?

If it’s something I’m proud of, then it was a complete success. I don’t let other people dictate or tell me if it was successful or not.

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

Matchbox 20 live. It was my first concert ever and it pains me to say so.

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

I’d finally like to get around to writing the scripts and stories I’ve been saying for years I would but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Then turning that into short and feature length films.

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

Anything that causes an emotional response is art, but for me the most essential function is to bring people together and spread love. That is perfect art.

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

Traveling to places I’ve never been and meeting more and more good people as I get older. I truly feel you can never meet enough good people in your life.

https://www.facebook.com/highdesertqueen/
http://www.instagram.com/highdesertqueen
http://highdesertqueen.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

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High Desert Queen Premiere Secrets of the Black Moon in Full

Posted in audiObelisk on October 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

high desert queen

Texas heavy rockers High Desert Queen release their debut full-length, Secrets of the Black Moon (review here), this Friday through Ripple Music. The union between band and label arose earlier this year as part of the curated series helmed by Rob “Blasko” Nicholson, and in that, High Desert Queen join the ranks of The Crooked WhispersHoly Death TrioHail the Void and Mother Iron Horse, and as the series — I don’t know how long it is going/will go, but it’s going — begins to pay dividends in actual records, the coherence of form takes shape as a defining feature. That is to say, High Desert Queen sound like a band who knows what they want to sound like, and then they sound like they sound like that thing.

You with me?

Good.

Because from the rolling of heads at Secrets of the Black Moon‘s subtlyHigh Desert Queen Secrets of the Black Moon doomed outset to the breadth of its lumbering and spacious witch-burying finale, the four-piece of vocalist Ryan Garney, guitarist Rusty Miller, bassist Matt Metzger and drummer Phil Hook offer heavy fare for and by the converted. Ain’t nobody here pretending they never heard Black Sabbath, or Kyuss for that matter, and the obvious goal isn’t as much to reshape aesthetic as to add a stamp of their own to it and set themselves up for future growth. Delighting in the tropes of genre, not avoiding them, but not ignoring the drive to bring themselves into it on a level of personal expression. Aided in the cause by production from Duel‘s Jeff Henson and reaching out in a fascinating way toward European shores by enlisting Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Lowrider, Katatonia, many others) to mix and master, High Desert Queen showcase ambition, a foundation of songcraft, and crisp but not overwrought performance. What the hell else would you actually want?

If your answer to that question is, “to stream the entire album before it’s out on Friday,” then you’re covered here.

I’m happy to host the record for streaming below, followed by a few words from Garney about its making.

Please enjoy:

Ryan Garney on Secrets of the Black Moon:

We couldn’t be happier with this as our debut record. Knowing we went into the studio after only five or six practices as a band and then having countless setbacks due to the state of the world, we couldn’t be more thrilled to get it out and let the world discover who we are. Thanks to Blasko and Ripple that is finally a possibility.

This record was really us getting comfortable with each other and learning each other musically. As this album is released we are already set to record the next album taking what we’ve learned from the writing experience of our debut. We hope everyone enjoys the ride as we just hope to write music that we would listen to ourselves and helps spread musical love to everyone.

Preorders: https://music.ripple-music.com/hdq

Fresh off their formation in 2019, High Desert Queen are on their way to establishing themselves as one of the hardest working rock bands on the Austin music scene. With their awe-inspiring display of sincerity and sonic maturity, the band caught the attention of Ozzy Osbourne bassist Blasko, who signed them to Ripple Music as part of his collaboration with the Californian label. Their upcoming debut ‘Secrets of the Black Moon’ finds the right balance between earth-rumbling grooves, irresistible heaviness and sun-drenched riffage, and the emotional power of Ryan Garney on vocals. It was recorded by Jeff Henson (Duel) at Red Nova Ranch studios in Austin, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén (Lowrider, Crippled Black Phoenix, Greenleaf) at Studio Gröndahl in Stockholm.

High Desert Queen is:
Ryan Garney- Vocals
Rusty Miller- Guitar
Matt Metzger- Bass
Phil Hook- Drums

High Desert Queen on Facebook

High Desert Queen on Instagram

High Desert Queen on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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Quarterly Review: Delco Detention, Fuzzy Lights, Blackwolfgoat, Carcano, Planet of the 8s, High Desert Queen, Megalith Levitation, Forebode, Codex Serafini, Stone Deaf

Posted in Reviews on September 27th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

Not really much to say about it, is there? You know the deal. I know the deal. This time we go to 70. 10 records every day between today and next Tuesday. It seems insurmountable as usual right now, but as history has shown throughout the last seven or however many years I’ve been doing this kind of thing, it’ll work out. Time is utterly irrelevant when there’s distortion to be had. Wavelengths intersecting, dissolution of hours. You make an extra cup of coffee, I’ll burn from the inside out.

The Fall 2021 Quarterly Review begins today. Let’s boogie.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Delco Detention, From the Basement

Delco Detention From the Basement

The essential bit of narrative here is that Tyler Pomerantz, founding guitarist of Delco Detention, is about 10 years old. Kid can fuzz. With his father, Adam, on drums, the ambitious young man has put together a wholly professional heavy rock record with a who’s who of collaborators, including Clutch‘s Neil Fallon on “The Joy of Home Schooling” (a video for which went viral last year), Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones, EarthlessIsaiah Mitchell, Bob Balch of Fu Manchu on the instrumental “The Action is Delco,” Erik Caplan of Thunderbird Divine on the highlight “Gods Surround,” as well as members of Hippie Death Cult, Kingsnake, The Age of Truth and others across the 15 tracks. The result is inherently diverse given the swath of personnel, tones, etc., but From the Basement plays thematically at points around the experience of being a young rocker — “All Ages Show,” “Digital Animal,” the title-track and “The Joy of Home Schooling” — but isn’t limited to that, and though there are some moodier stretches as there inevitably would be, Tyler holds his own among this esteemed company and the record’s an unabashed good time.

Delco Detention on YouTube

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

 

Fuzzy Lights, Burials

Fuzzy Lights Burials

A fourth album arriving some eight years after the third, Fuzzy LightsBurials doesn’t necessarily surprise with its patience, but its sense of world-building is immaculate and immersive. The Cambridge, UK, five-piece of violinist/vocalist Rachel Watkins, guitarist/electronicist Xavier Watkins, guitarist Chris Rogers, bassist Daniel Carney and drummer Mark Blay offer classic Britfolk melody tinged with heavy post-rock atmospherics and foreboding rhythmic push on the 10-minute “Songbird,” with the snare drum building tension for the payoff to come. Elsewhere, opener “Maiden’s Call” and “Haraldskær Woman” drift into darker vibes, while “Under the Waves” dares more uptempo psychedelic rock ahead of the highlight “Sirens” and closer “The Gathering Storm,” which offers bombast so smoothly executed one is surrounded by it almost before noticing. “Songbird,” “Maiden’s Call” and “The Graveyard Song” have their roots in a 2019 solo outing from Rachel Watkins called Collectanea, but however long this material may or may not have been around, it sounds refreshingly individual, natural, full, warm and still boldly forward thinking.

Fuzzy Lights on Facebook

Meadows Records on Bandcamp

 

Blackwolfgoat, (In) Control / Tired of Dying

Blackwolfgoat In Control Tired of Dying

One with greater knowledge of such things than I might be able to sit and analyze and tell you what loops and effects guitarist Darryl Shepard (Kind, Hackman, Milligram, etc.) is using to make these noises, but that ain’t me. I’m happy to accept the mystery of his new two-songer/23-minute EP, (In) Control / Tired of Dying, which slowly unfolds the psych-drone of its 14-minute leadoff cut over its first several minutes before evening out into a mellow, drifting one-man guitar jam, replete with a solo that subtly builds in energy before entering its minute-long fadeout, as if Shepard were to say he wouldn’t want things to get too out of hand. “Tired of Dying” follows with immediately more threatening tone, deep, distorted, lumbering, sludgy, with space for drums behind that never come. That’s not Blackwolfgoat‘s thing. As much as “(In) Control” hypnotized with its sweeter, unassuming rollout, “Tired of Dying” is consumption on a headphone-destroyer level, nine and a half minutes of low wash that’s exploratory just the same. These pieces were recorded live, and it hasn’t been that long since Shepard‘s 2020 Blackwolfgoat full-length, Giving Up Feels So Good (review here), but each cut digs in in its own way and the isolated feel is nothing if not relevant.

Blackwolfgoat on Facebook

Blackwolfgoat on Bandcamp

 

Carcaňo, By Order of the Green Goddess

carcano by order of the green goddess

From the outset with the stomps later in “Day 1 – The Beginning,” Italian fuzzers Carcaňo reveal some of the rawness in the production of their second full-length, By Order of the Green Goddess, but that doesn’t stop either their tones or the melodies floating over them from being lush across the album’s eight-song/40-minute run, whether that’s happening in the massive “Day 2 – Riding Space Elephants” (aren’t we all?) or the howling leadwork that tops the languid Sabbath/earlier-Mars Red Sky-gone-dark lumber of “Day 6 – I Don’t Belong Here.” They make it move on the cosmic chaos shuffle-and-push of “Day 4 – The Birth” and tap blatant Queens of the Stone Age up-strum riffing and wood block on “Day 5 – The Son of the Sun,” but it’s in spacious freakouts like “Day 3 – Green Grace” and the righteously drawn out “Day 7 – Wasted Land” that By Order of the Green Goddess most seems to set its course, with room for the acoustic experimentalism of “Day 8 – Running Back Home” at the end, familiar in concept but delightfully weird and ethereal in its execution.

Carcaňo on Facebook

Clostridium Records website

 

Planet of the 8s, Lagrange Point Vol. 1

Planet of the 8s Lagrange Point Vol 1

Paeans to space and the desert, riffs on riffs on riffs, grit hither and yon — Melbourne’s Planet of the 8s are preaching to the converted on Lagrange Point Vol. 1, and they go so far in the opening “Lagrange Point” to explain in a Twilight Zone-esque monologue what the phenomenon actually is before “Holy Fire” unfurls its procession with the first of four included guest vocalists. King Carrot of Death by Carrot would seem to know of which he speaks there, while Diesel Doleman (Duneater) tops “Exit Planet” for an effect wholly akin to Astrosoniq at max thrust, while Georgie Cosson of Kitchen Witch joins Planet of the 8s‘ own bassist Michael “Sullo” Sullivan on “X-Ray,” and Jimi Coelli (Sheriff) takes on the early QOTSA-style riffing of “The Unofficial History of Babe Wolf,” which would also seem to be the subject of the cover art. They wrap all these comings and going with “The Three Body Problem,” a jazzy minute-long instrumental that’s there and gone before you’ve even caught your breath from the preceding songs. 21 minutes, huh? That 21 minutes is packed.

Planet of the 8s on Facebook

Planet of the 8s on Bandcamp

 

High Desert Queen, Secrets of the Black Moon

High Desert Queen Secrets of the Black Moon

Debut albums with their stylistic ducks so much in a row are rare, but with the declaration “I am the mountain/You are the quake,” the chugging boogie in the post-Trouble “Did She?,” the opening hook of “Heads Will Roll,” the duly-open, semi-progressive tinge of “Skyscraper,” and the we-saved-extra-heavy-just-for-this finish of “Bury the Queen,” Austin’s High Desert Queen indeed show themselves as schooled with Secrets of the Black Moon. It is an encapsulation of modern stoner heavy idolatry, riff-led but not necessarily riff-dependent in its entirety, and both the good-vibes fuzz of “As We Roam” and the aptly-titled penultimate roller “The Wheel” manage to boast soaring vocal melodies that put the band in another league. They’re not necessarily starting a revolution in terms of style, but they bring together lush and crush effectively and when a band has so much of a clear idea of what they’re going for and the songwriting to back them up, first record or not, they rule the day. Don’t lose them among the swaths either of three-word-moniker heavy newcomers or the flood of Texan acts out there.

High Desert Queen on Facebook

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

 

Megalith Levitation, Void Psalms

Void Psalms by Megalith Levitation

Heavy and ritualized enough to earn its release on 50 neon green tapes — CDs too — the second full-length from Russia’s Megalith Levitation, Void Psalms tops 53 minutes of beastly lurch, with opener “Phantasmagoric Journey” (13:08) playing like half-speed Celtic Frost while the back-to-back two-parters “Datura Revelations/Lysergic Phantoms” (12:47) and “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation” (19:45) bridge cult-heavy worship with experimental fuckall, never quite dipping entirely into dark psychedelia, but certainly refusing lucidity outright. I don’t know what’s up with the punch of bass in the back end of “Temple of Silence/Pillars of Creation,” but that froggy sound is gloriously weirdo in its affect, and makes the whole jam for me. They cap with “Last Vision,” an admirably massive riffer that only spans seven and a half minutes but in that time still finds a way to drone the shit out of its nod. Cheers to Chelyabinsk as Megalith Levitation (who are not to be confused with Megaton Leviathan) offer intentionally putrid fruit on which to feast.

Megalith Levitation on Facebook

Pestis Insaniae Records website

Aesthetic Death website

 

Forebode, The Pit of Suffering

Forebode The Pit of Suffering

There is death, and there is sludge. Do doomers mosh in Texas? “Devil’s Due” might provide an occasion to find out, as the second EP, The Pit of Suffering, from Austin extremist slingers Forebode follows 2019’s self-titled short release (review here) with plenty of slow-motion plunder, “Metal Slug” opening in grim praise of weed before the rest of what follows moves from shortest to longest in an onslaught that grows correspondingly more vicious. Rest your head on that bit of twang at the start of “Pit of Suffering” if you want, that’s only going to make it easier for the band to crush your skull in the stretch before it returns at the end. And oh, “Bane of Hammers.” You build in speed and get so brutal, and then you do, you do, you do slam on the brakes and finish out as heavy as possible, an ultimate eat-all-in-its-path tonality that would be off-putting were it not so outright gleeful in its disgusting nature. What fun they’re having making these terrible sounds. Love it.

Forebode on Facebook

Forebode on Bandcamp

 

Codex Serafini, Invisible Landscape

codex serafini invisible landscape

Yeah, you think you can hang. You’re like, “Whatever, I like weird psych stuff.” Then Codex Serafini start in with the cave echo wails and the drones and the artsy experimentalism and you’re like, “Well, maybe I’m just gonna go back to Squaresville after all. Work in the morning, you know.” The Brighton, UK, fivesome have four tracks on Invisible Landscape, and I promise you no one of them is more real than the other. In fact, the entire thing is pretend. It doesn’t exist. Neither do you. You thought you did, then the sax started blowing and you realized you were just some kind of semi-sentient wisp swirling around in reverb and what the hell were we talking about okay yeah planets and stuff whatever it doesn’t matter just quick, put this on and be ready for the splatter when “Time, Change & Become” starts. You’re not gonna want to miss it, but there’s no way that stain is ever coming out of that shirt. Kablooie is how the cosmos dies.

Codex Serafini on Facebook

Codex Serafini on Bandcamp

 

Stone Deaf, Killers

stone deaf killers

Killers is the third full-length from Colorado fuzz rockers Stone Deaf, and they continue to have a chorus for every occasion, in this case going so far as to import “Gone Daddy Gone” from your teenage remembrance of Violent Femmes and actually talk about burning witches in the “Burn the Witch”-esque “Tightrope.” Queens of the Stone Age has been and continues to be a defining influence here, but from the electronics in “Cloven Hoof” to the harder edges of closing duo “Silverking” and “San Pedro Winter,” the band refuse to be identified by anything so much as their songcraft, which is tight and sharply produced across the 44 minutes of Killers, their punk rock having grown up but not having dulled so much as found a direction in which to point its angst. A collection of individual tracks, there’s nonetheless a build of momentum that starts early and carries through the entirety of the outing. I’ll leave to you to make the clever remark about there being “no fillers.” Enjoy that.

Stone Deaf on Facebook

Golden Robot Records website

Coffin and Bolt Records website

 

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