Posted in Whathaveyou on May 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This past weekend, Houston’s Stone Nomads took part in the third Gravitoyd Doomfest in their hometown, and they’ve got a weekender in Louisiana coming up, which sounds pleasant whether you’re doing shows or not, frankly. All well and good, but it’s the Southeast that the band will be focused on in July as they make their way to and through the Asheville Doomed & Stoned Fest with a string of club shows subsequent to their July 12 appearance at the festival in North Carolina.
The band promise more shows to be announced, and with a slot already confirmed at Ripplefest Texas in September and Tampa Doom and Gloom later this Fall, they’ll for sure have other opportunities for get-outs. Their next album may or may not be out by then as well, as they’re recording and dropping hints of a release plan to unfold in the coming months for what will be their third long-player.
Poster and dates off the PR wire:
Texas powerhouse sludge metal trio STONE NOMADS announce the first leg of their 2025 US Tour, with 11 dates spanning the southern US in May and June. The trek features 2 festival appearances – DOOMED & STONED fest in Asheville NC and GRAVITOYD DOOM fest in Houston TX. The band is also scheduled to appear later in the year at RIPPLEFEST TX (Sept) and TAMPA DOOM & GLOOM (Nov). More dates and a full second leg to be announced in the summer.
May 16th – Midcity Ballroom – Baton Rouge, LA May 17th – Santos Bar – New Orleans, LA July 11th – Al’s Bar – Lexington, KY July 12th – Doomed & Stoned fest – Asheville, NC July 13th – The Den – Winston Salem, NC July 15th – The Cobra Lounge – Nashville, TN July 16th – Sweetwater – Atlanta, GA July 17th – Jack Rabbits – Jacksonville, FL July 18th – Deviant Libation – Tampa, FL July 19th – Poor House – Ft Lauderdale, FL
The band is currently in the studio with legendary producer RANDY BURNS (Megadeth, Death, Possessed) putting the finishing touches on their 3rd album, scheduled to be released in the fall of 2025.
Here’s a quote from the band:
“We have been hard at work in the studio the past few months putting together a banger of an album (our first on a yet-to-be-announced label…more info coming soon…), can’t wait for the world to hear it later this fall! In the meantime we are super stoked to get back out on the road this summer and do what we do best with in front of all of our rowdy friends across the southern US.”
Today is Wednesday, the day we hit and pass the halfway mark for this week, which is a quarter of the way through the entirety of this 100-release Quarterly Review. Do you need to know that? Not really, but it’s useful for me to keep track of how much I’m doing sometimes, which is why I count in the first place. 100 records isn’t nothing, you know. Or 10 for that matter. Or one. I don’t know.
A little more variety here, which is always good, but I’ve got momentum behind me after yesterday and I don’t want to delay diving in, so off we go.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
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Saturnalia Temple, Paradigm Call
For the band’s fourth album, Paradigm Call, founding Saturnalia Temple guitarist/vocalist Tommie Eriksson leads the newcomer rhythm section of drummer Pelle Åhman and bassist Gottfrid Åhman through eight abyss-plundering tracks across 48 minutes of roiling tonal mud distinguished by its aural stickiness and Eriksson‘s readily identifiable vocal gurgle. The methodology hasn’t changed much since 2020’s Gravity (review here) in terms of downward pull, but the title-track’s solo is sharp enough to cut through the mire, and while it’s no less harsh for doing so, “Among the Ruins” explores a faster tempo while staying in line with the all-brown psychedelic swirl around it, brought to fruition in the backwards-sounding loops of closer “Kaivalya” after the declarative thud of side B standout “Empty Chalice.” They just keep finding new depths. It’s impressive. Also a little horrifying.
It’s easy to respect a band so unwilling to be boxed by genre, and Rotterdam’s Dool put the righteous aural outsiderness that’s typified their sound since 2017’s Here Now There Then (review here) to meta-level use on their third long-player for Prophecy Productions, The Shape of Fluidity. Darkly progressive, rich in atmosphere, broad in range and mix, heavy-but-not-beholden-to-tone in presentation, encompassing but sneaky-catchy in pieces like opener “Venus in Flames,” the flowing title-track, and the in-fact-quite-heavy “Hermagorgon,” the record harnesses declarations and triumphs around guitarist/vocalist Raven van Dorst‘s stated lyrical thematic around gender-nonbinaryism, turning struggle and confusion into clarity of expressive purpose in the breakout “Self-Dissect” and resolving with furious culmination in “The Hand of Creation” with due boldness. Given some of the hateful, violent rhetoric around gender-everything in the modern age, the bravery of Dool — Van Dorst alongside guitarists Nick Polak and Omar Iskandr, bassist JB van der Wal and drummer Vincent Kreyder — in confronting that head-on with these narratives is admirable, but it’s still the songs themselves that make The Shape of Fluidity one of 2024’s best albums.
After releasing 2022’s In the Dark (review here) on Small Stone, Denver heavy rockers Abrams align to Blues Funeral Recordings for their fifth album in a productive, also-touring nine years, the 10-track/42-minute Blue City. Production by Kurt Ballou (High on Fire, Converge, etc.) at GodCity Studio assures no lack of impact as “Fire Waltz” reaffirms the tonal density of the riffs that the Zach Amster-led four-piece nonetheless made dance in opener “Tomorrow,” while the rolling “Death Om” and the momentary skyward ascent in “Etherol” — a shimmering preface to the chug-underscored mellowness of “Narc” later — lay out some of the dynamic that’s emerged in their sound along with the rampant post-hardcore melodies that come through in Amster and Graham Zander‘s guitars, capable either of meting out hard-landing riffs to coincide with the bass of Taylor Iversen (also vocals) and Ryan DeWitt‘s drumming, or unfurling sections of float like those noted above en route to tying it all together with the closing “Blue City.” Relatively short runtimes and straightforward-feeling structures mask the stylistic nuance of the actual material — nothing new there for Abrams; they’re largely undervalued — and the band continue to reside in between-microgenre spaces as they await the coming of history which will inevitably prove they were right all along.
Superlynx bassist/vocalist Pia Isaksen made her solo debut under the Pia Isa moniker with 2022’s Distorted Chants (review here), and in addition to announcing the SoftSun collaboration she’ll undertake alongside Yawning Man‘s Gary Arce (who also appeared on her record), in 2024, she offers the three-song Burning Time EP, with a cover of Radiohead‘s “Burn the Witch” backed by two originals, “Treasure” and “Nothing Can Turn it Back.” With drumming by her Superlynx bandmate Ole Teigen (who also recorded), “Burn the Witch” becomes a lumbering forward march, ethereal in melody but not necessarily cultish, while “Treasure” digs into repetitive plod led by the low end and “Nothing Can Turn it Black” brings the guitar forward but is most striking in the break that brings the dual-layered vocals forward near the midpoint. The songs are leftovers from the LP, but if you liked the LP, that shouldn’t be a problem.
A late-2023 initial public offering from Houston’s Wretched Kingdom, their self-titled EP presents a somewhat less outwardly joyous take on the notion of “Texas desert rock” than that offered by, as an example, Austin’s High Desert Queen, but the metallic riffing that underscores “Dreamcrusher” goes farther back in its foundations than whatever similarity to Kyuss one might find in the vocals or speedier riffy shove of “Smoke and Mirrors.” Sharp-cornered in tone, opener “Torn and Frayed” gets underway with metered purpose as well, and while the more open-feeling “Too Close to the Sun” begins similar to “You Can’t Save Me” — the strut that ensues in the latter distinguishes — the push in its second half comes after riding a steady groove into a duly bluesy solo. There’s nothing in the material to take you out of the flow between the six component cuts, and even closer “Deviation” tells you it’s about to do something different as it works from its mellower outset into a rigorous payoff. With the understanding that most first-EPs of this nature are demos by another name and (as here) more professional sound, Wretched Kingdom‘s Wretched Kingdom asks little in terms of indulgence and rewards generously when encountered at higher volumes. Asking more would be ridiculous.
Like earlier Clutch born out of shenanigans-prone punk, Youngstown, Ohio’s Lake Lake are tight within the swinging context of a song like “The Boy Who Bit Me,” which is the second of the self-released Proxy Joy‘s six inclusions. Brash in tone and the gutted-out shouty vocals, offsetting its harder shoving moments with groovy back-throttles in songs that could still largely be called straightforward, the quirk and throaty delivery of “Blue Jerk” and the bluesier-minded “Viking Vietnam” paying off the tension in the verses of “Comfort Keepers” and the build toward that leadoff’s chorus want nothing for personality or chemistry, and as casual as the style is on paper, the arrangements are coordinated and as “Heavy Lord” finds a more melodic vocal and “Coyote” — the longest song here at 5:01 — leaves on a brash highlight note, the party they’re having is by no means unconsidered. But it is a party, and those who have dancing shoes would be well advised to keep them on hand, just in case.
Modern in the angularity of its riffing, spacious in the echoes of its tones and vocals, and encompassing enough in sound to be called progressive within a heavy context, Altered States follows Canadian four-piece Gnarwhal‘s 2023 self-titled debut full-length with four songs that effectively bring together atmosphere and impact in the six-minute “The War Nothing More” — big build in the second half leading to more immediate, on-beat finish serving as a ready instance of same — with twists that feel derived of the MastoBaroness school rhythmically and up-front vocal melodies that give cohesion to the darker vibe of “From Her Hands” after displaying a grungier blowout in “Tides.” The terrain through which they ebb and flow, amass and release tension, soar and crash, etc., is familiar if somewhat intangible, and that becomes an asset as the concluding “Altered States” channels the energy coursing through its verses in the first half into the airy payoff solo that ends. I didn’t hear the full-length last year. Listening to what Gnarwhal are doing in these tracks in terms of breadth and crunch, I feel like I missed out. You might also consider being prepared to want to hear more upon engaging.
Help the humans? No. Help! The Humans…, and here as in so many of life’s contexts, punctuation matters. Digging into a heavy, character-filled and charging punkish sound they call “Appalachian thrash,” Boone, North Carolina, three-piece Bongfoot are suitably over-the-top as they explore what it means to be American in the current age, couching discussions of wealth inequality, climate crisis, corporatocracy, capitalist exploitation, the insecurity at root in toxic masculinity and more besides. With clever, hooky lyrics that are a total blast despite being tragic in the subject matter and a pace of execution well outside what one might think is bong metal going in because of the band’s name, Bongfoot vigorously kick ass from opener “End Times” through the galloping end of “Amazon Death Factory/Spacefoot” and the untitled mountain ramble that follows as an outro. Along the way, they intermittently toy with country twang, doom, and hardcore punk, and offer a prayer to the titular volcano of “Krakatoa” to save at least the rest of the world if not humanity. It’s quite a time to be alive. Listening, that is. As for the real-world version of the real world, it’s less fun and more existentially and financially draining, which makes Help! The Humans… all the more a win for its defiance and charm. Even with the bonus tracks, I’ll take more of this anytime they’re ready with it.
It’s interesting, because you can’t really say that Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans‘ second LP, Ateşisn’t neo-psychedelia, but the eight tracks and 38 minutes of the record itself warrant enunciating what that means. Where much of 2020s-era neo-psych is actually space rock with thicker tones (shh! it’s a secret!), what Greenwood — AKA Thomas Mascheroni, also of Bergamo, Italy’s Humulus) brings to sounds like the swaying, organ-laced “Sleepwalker” and the resonant spaciousness in the soloing of “Mystic Sunday Morning” is more kin to the neo-psych movement that began in the 1990s, which itself was a reinterpretation of the genre’s pop-rock origins in the 1960s. Is this nitpicking? Not when you hear the title-track infusing its Middle Eastern-leaning groove with a heroic dose of wah or the friendly shimmer of “I Do Not” that feels extrapolated from garage rock but is most definitely not that thing and the post-Beatles bop of “Sunhouse.” It’s an individual (if inherently familiar) take that unifies the varied arrangements of the acidic “When We Die” and the cosmic vibe of “All the Lines” (okay, so there’s a little bit of space boogie too), resolving in the Doors-y lumber of “Crack” to broaden the scope even further and blur past timelines into an optimistic future.
As direct as some of its push is and as immediate as “Fish” is opening the album right into the first verse, the course that harp-laced French heavy progressive rockers Djiin take on their third album, Mirrors, ultimately more varied, winding and satisfying as its five-track run gives over to the nine-minute “Mirrors” and uses its time to explore more pointedly atmospheric reaches before a weighted crescendo that precedes the somehow-fluidity in the off-time early stretch of centerpiece “In the Aura of My Own Sadness,” its verses topped with spoken word and offset by note-for-note melodic conversation between the vocals and guitar. Rest assured, they build “In the Aura of My Own Sadness” to its own crushing end, while taking a more decisively psychedelic approach to get there, and thereby set up “Blind” with its trades from open-spaces held to pattern by the drums and a pair of nigh-on-caustic noise rock onslaughts before 13-minute capstone “Iron Monsters” unfolds a full instrumental linear movement before getting even heavier, as if to underscore the notion that Djiin can go wherever the hell they want and make it work as a song. Point taken.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 28th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A couple noteworthy collaborations here, with Kyle Thomas (Trouble, Exhorder, Alabama Thunderpussy) sitting in on vocals with Houston’s Stone Nomads for their cover of Trouble‘s foundational doom metal classic “The Tempter” and Esben Willems taking on drumming duties either on that song or the whole release, I’m not really sure, and I’d be remiss not to point out that the tour the trio will undertake in June alongside Red Beard Wall will be stopping through Maryland Doom Fest 2024 in Frederick, MD. Lots going on as the band make ready to release their Beyond the Gates four-songer through Gravitoyd Heavy Music — whose fest in Houston they’ll also play May 4 — but it was the stream of “The Tempter” and the darker, rougher edge they brought to the original that ultimately got me on board here, and you may find the same to be true, whatever other thrills are abounding as you listen.
The impending short release is a complement to 2023’s second full-length, …At the Gates of Solitude, which I flat out whiffed on after digging 2022’s debut, Fields of Doom (review here), but whether you heard that album or not, the charge they bring to “The Tempter” stands well on its own, and if you end up feeling like maybe you’ve got some homework to do in catching up with their doings, I promise you you’re not alone.
Time marches to the beat of the PR wire:
STONE NOMADS: New EP, Kyle Thomas Collab, Tour Announcement
Sludge-Doom power trio STONE NOMADS. The Texas outfit will release the EP “Beyond the Gates”, a follow-up and exclamation point to book-end last year’s full-length LP “…At the Gates of Solitude”. The release features 2 new songs, a remixed bonus track from the LP, and a new version of the classic “Trouble” doom track “The Tempter” featuring collaboration with metal vocalist extraordinaire Kyle Thomas (Exhorder, Trouble) along with the return lineup of guitarist/vocalist Jon Cosky, drummer Esben Willems (Monolord, Slower), and bassist/vocalist Jude Sisk. The EP was mastered by grammy award winning engineer Alan Douches (High On Fire, Cannibal Corpse) at the famed West West side in upstate NY.
“Beyond the Gates” will be released on Vinyl and digital on June 10th through Gravitoyd Heavy Music.
TRACKLIST 1. Witch 2. The Tempter (featuring Kyle Thomas) 3. Sorrow 4. Overlords (2024 re-mixed version – digital only)
STONE NOMADS is an American doom-sludge metal power trio based in Houston TX. The band, formed by Jon Cosky (Guitar/Vocals) and Jude Sisk (Bass/Vocals) in 2021, incorporates the sounds of early Doom Metal, modern Sludge Metal and all things heavy. Conceptually, the band explores the journey of life and death through the heavier and darker side of things, delivered via sludged-out, powerful riff-based sonics.
The band has released 2 full length LP’s (2022’s”Fields of Doom” and 2023’s “…At the Gates of Solitude”) and 1 EP (“Fiery Sabbath”) via Texas based label Gravitoyd Heavy Music. The band has enlisted drummer Ben Wozniak to take over percussion duties and is embarking on a US Tour to support the release of “Beyond the Gates” with festival appearances at both MARYLAND DOOM FEST and GRAVITOYD DOOM FEST.
STONE NOMADS 2024 US TOUR 5/4 – GRAVITOYD DOOM FEST (HOUSTON) @ Black Magic Social Club 5/24 – SAN ANTONIO, TX @ Venue tbd 5/25 – HOUSTON, TX @ White Oak Music Hall 6/18 – ASHEVILLE, NC @ Fleetwoods * 6/20 – MARYLAND DOOM FEST (FREDERICK) @ Cafe 611 * 6/21 – WINSTON SALEM, NC @ Reboot Arcade (Fri) 6/22 – KNOXVILLE, TN @ Brickyard Bar * (Sat) 6/23 – CHATTANOOGA, TN @ The Dark Roast * (Sun) 6/24 – MEMPHIS, TN @ Venue tbd * (Mon) 6/25 – LITTLE ROCK, AR @ Venue tbd * (Tues) 6/29 – HOUSTON, TX @ The End (Sat) *w/RED BEARD WALL
STONE NOMADS is: Jon Cosky – Guitar/Vocals Jude Sisk – Bass/Vocals Ben Wozniak – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is part of why hosting festivals is a good idea — because bands need to get there. And no, it’s not declining cognition (this week), I do remember that it was only yesterday I posted the Red Mesa version of this tour announcement, but you know, Houston’s Doomstress have some dates that aren’t with Red Mesa on here — both play Maryland Doom Fest, which is the occasion for their being on the road, hence the point in the first sentence; fests make things happen in the ecosystem, not just in themselves — and Red Mesa had some dates that weren’t with Doomstress, and both acts have other stuff going on too. To wit, Doomstress are booked two days to record while they’re in Ohio. So I didn’t think anyone would complain about six shows, including MDDF, being listed twice. In fact, I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t mentioning it right now, no one would even blink.
So yeah, maybe it’s business as usual, but right on to these bands getting out and even more right on to Doomstress doing some recording. I asked guitarist/vocalist Doomstress Alexis what they had planned for the studio — two days isn’t much if they’re making a whole album, but it’s not impossible to at least do live-recorded basic tracks to take home and work on; get those drums down in a big room and you can do anything; all depends on process — like five minutes ago, so no, I haven’t heard back yet, but when/if I do I’ll update the below with that info as well. Maybe it’s a secret. Those are fun too sometimes.
Poster and dates follow:
Doomstress & Red Mesa will be touring together in June to play Maryland Doom Fest.
Doomstress will also be spending 2 days recording some new material at Supernatural Sound while in Ohio.
Looking forward to getting back to it after a lengthy break from the road.
Doomstress live: FRIDAY JUNE 16 SAN ANTONIO, TX LIGHTHOUSE LOUNGE w/ Cortege, Red Beard Wall, Red Mesa SATURDAY JUNE 17 HOUSTON, TX BLACK MAGIC SOCIAL CLUB w/ Red Mesa SUNDAY JUNE 18 ARLINGTON, TX DIVISION BREWING w/ Red Mesa, Stone Machine Electric, Pathos and Logos MONDAY JUNE 19 MEMPHIS, TN THE HI TONE w/ Red Mesa, Deaf Revival WEDNESDAY JUNE 21 ASHEVILLES, NC THE ODD BAR w/ Red Mesa, Bonedozer THURSDAY JUNE 22 FREDERICK, MD MARYLAND DOOM FEST FRIDAY JUNE 23 CLEVELAND,OH FIVE O’CLOCK LOUNGE MONDAY JUNE 26 LOUISVILLE KY HIGHLANDS TAP ROOM
Doomstress is: Doomstress Alexis (bass&vox) Brandon Johnson & Matt Taylor (lead/rhythm gtrs).
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
A note to anyone who’s perhaps gone numb with the glut of tour announcements — not to mention Heavy Psych Sounds news — these last couple weeks as the year has begun to unfurl: This tour is happening sooner than most. A lot of what’s come down the PR wire of late has been stuff for Spring, or at least March. One struggles to keep up. This is for February, and it starts this week because — holy shit — so does February. There are still a couple dates TBA, which, hey, happens, and I’ve no doubt Kadabra and WarLung can happen into a gig somewhere between Germany and France over the course of those three days, but if you’ve got access to a show and can help, of course you’re encouraged to do so.
Kadabra will also play Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in California this March (WarLung played last year), and they head abroad supporting their a-little-under-the-radar-but-so-damn-good 2021 debut album, Ultra (review here), a follow-up to which would likely be impending sooner or later because if the band didn’t have any interest in continuing they probably wouldn’t bother going to Europe in the first place. WarLung in 2022 released Vulture’s Paradise (review here), their fourth album and a marked step forward in their blend of immersive breadth and structured, forward-delivered heavy. The two acts will complement each other well on stage. Safe travels to all.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is proud to announce *** KADABRA + WARLUNG European Tour ***
– a massive heavy fuzz experience –
03.02.2023 IT Torino-Blah Blah 04.02.2023 IT Trieste-Kulturni Doom Prosek 05.02.2023 IT Bologna-Freakout 06.02.2023 HR Pula-Monte Paradiso 07.02.2023 TBA 08.02.2023 SL Ilirska Bistrica-MKNŽ 09.02.2023 AT Wien-Arena Beisl 10.02.2023 AT Ebensee-Kino 11.02.2023 DE Jena-KuBa 12.02.2023 TBA 13.02.2023 TBA 14.02.2023 TBA 15.02.2023 FR La Clusaz-Namass Pamouss x Le Lion d’Or 16.02.2023 FR Montpellier-Secret Place 17.02.2023 IT Parma-Splinter Club 18.02.2023 TBA 19.02.2023 IT Pescara-Scumm
KADABRA is Garrett Zanol (Vocals/Guitar) Ian Nelson (Bass) Chase Howard (Drums)
WARLUNG is George Baba: Guitar/Vocals Philip Bennett: Guitar/Vocals Chris Tamez: Bass Ethan Tamez: Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
After celebrating five decades of Pentagram with a short stint of shows earlier in 2022, the band’s founding frontman, Bobby Liebling, will head to Texas in January to join forces with members of Sanctus Bellum, Blues Funeral, Doomstress — and a ton of other bands those dudes are in; Haserot in the case of bassist Ben Yaker and guitarist Maurice Eggenschwiler, James Rivera’s Metalwave in the case of Eggenschwiler and fellow guitarist Jan Kimmel, The Scourge in the case of drummer Alex Erhardt, etc. — under the banner of Bobby Liebling and The Rivetheads, playing rare Pentagram and Bedemon tunes and who even knows what else.
Liebling is an ever-divisive figure at this point, but someone without whose influence American doom wouldn’t be what it is. Interestingly he seems to have taken more of a reputation-tarnishing from punching his mom than the allegations of sexual harassment on tour, but any way you look at it, the story isn’t pretty. Nonetheless, dude’s lived at least eight lifetimes in his one, and with the likes of Fostermother, Stone Nomads, Mr. Plow and Bridge Farmers in opening slots for these two shows, it seems like good times will be had one way or the other. I’m not justifying anybody’s behavior or saying I support it in any way, but 50 years in doom later, Bobby Liebling is still relevant to the genre and there aren’t a lot of people you can say that about.
Announcement comes courtesy of the PR wire:
Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling to Play Solo Shows Highlighting Rare Material
Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling announces two solo shows in Texas this January. Playing under the name Bobby Liebling and the Rivetheads, the singer will play a set of deep cuts and rare gems from throughout his storied career, including songs from both the Pentagram and Bedemon catalogs. Most of these songs have rarely, if ever, been played live previously. Joining Liebling for these shows will be a Houston-based backing band featuring members of Doomstress, Sanctus Bellum, and Blues Funeral. These shows promise to be an event that fans in attendance will not soon forget.
Bobby Liebling and the Rivetheads
Fri. Jan 27, 2023 – Houston, TX, Black Magic Social Club Feat. Fostermother, Mr. Plow, Stone Nomads Event page:https://fb.me/e/4bTU3bF9i
Sat. Jan 28, 2023 – Austin, TX, The Lost Well Feat. Bridgefarmers, 1 more TBA Event page:https://fb.me/e/30dxuJhyZ
Bobby Liebling and The Rivetheads: Bobby Liebling – Vocals Jan Kimmel – Guitar Maurice Eggenschwiler – Guitar Ben Yaker – Bass Alex Erhardt – Drums
Posted in Questionnaire on December 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Paul Chavez of Stockhausen & The Amplified Riot
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
It’s entertainment, really. For me and for you. Whether it’s in private or I’m performing on stage – my goal is to entertain and provide for the soundtrack to a moment in your life.
Describe your first musical memory.
My most significant memory was seeing KISS in concert in 1979. After that experience, I knew I wanted to be an entertainer and a musician.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I have a lot of fond music-related memories so it would be tough to pick one as the best. Touring and performing in Mexico was quite an experience, performing in a meth house (not on purpose!) was also a bizarre and interesting experience… but also, seeing the Grateful Dead in 1989 was like nothing else I had experienced before in terms of the audience and the band’s culture. Outside of contemporary music – I stumbled upon a Holi ceremony at a Hindu temple when I first moved to Houston and that first-hand experience opened by eyes to an amazing world of music, film, culture, and incredible food!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
When I was in 9th grade, we moved to a small town in the rural southern United States and I was regularly bullied for being a Jew. It didn’t take long until I seriously doubted everything about my culture, religion, as well as whether there were any good people in the world. Thankfully, we moved away to Washington, D.C. right after the school year ended… but it would be years before I got back in touch with my culture.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully to something positive for the artist and for people who enjoy the art.
How do you define success?
With my band – I define success as: when a publication completely outside of my circle writes about me. For example: Vogue has nothing to do with music, but if they write about what I’m doing, then I know I’ve reached an entirely different level of success.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Can’t really think of anything. All experiences (good and bad) help shape who you are and your outlook.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Book publishing. My next endeavor will involve publishing books – chapbook style initially. I’ve been an avid book reader / collector for decades. I dipped my toe in the self-publishing world about 15 years ago with my book on spam poetry and I’ve produced zines on and off for years, but I want to move back in the direction of publishing books.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To evoke an emotion. If it doesn’t make you feel anything, then the art has failed you.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I love riding my bike and (lately) I have been plotting tours with extra time padded around gigs so I can get out and ride on the trails and paths wherever I am.
Posted in Reviews on September 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Guess this is it, huh? Always bittersweet, the end of a Quarterly Review. Bitter, because there’s still a ton of albums waiting on my desktop to be reviewed, and certainly more that have come along over the course of the last two weeks looking for coverage. Sweet because when I finish here I’ll have written about 100 albums, added a bunch of stuff to my year-end lists, and managed to keep the remaining vestiges of my sanity. If you’ve kept up, I hope you’ve enjoyed doing so. And if you haven’t, all 10 of the posts are here.
Thanks for reading.
Quarterly Review #91-100:
Hazemaze, Blinded by the Wicked
This is one of 2022’s best records cast in dark-riffed, heavy garage-style doom rock. I admit I’m late to the party for Hazemaze‘s third album and Heavy Psych Sounds label debut, Blinded by the Wicked, but what a party it is. The Swedish three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ludvig Andersson, bassist Estefan Carrillo and drummer Nils Eineus position themselves as a lumbering forerunner of modern cultist heavy, presenting the post-“In-a-Gadda-da-Vida” lumber of “In the Night of the Light, for the Dark” and “Ethereal Disillusion” (bassline in the latter) with a clarity of purpose and sureness that builds even on what the trio accomplished with 2019’s Hymns for the Damned (review here), opening with the longest track (immediate points) “Malevolent Inveigler” and setting up a devil-as-metaphor-for-now lyrical bent alongside the roll of “In the Night of the Light, for the Dark” and the chugging-through-mud “Devil’s Spawn.” Separated by the “Planet Caravan”-y instrumental “Sectatores et Principes,” the final three tracks are relatively shorter than the first four, but there’s still space for a bass-backed organ solo in “Ceremonial Aspersion,” and the particularly Electric Wizardian “Divine Harlotry” leads effectively into the closer “Lucifierian Rite,” which caps with surprising bounce in its apex and underscores the level of songwriting throughout. Just a band nailing their sound, that’s all. Seems like maybe the kind of party you’d want to be on time for.
Released as a name-your-price benefit EP in July to help raise funds for the Ukrainian war effort, Track by Track is two songs London’s Elephant Tree recorded at the Netherlands’ Sonic Whip Festival in May of this year, “Sails” and “The Fall Chorus” — here just “Fall Chorus” — from 2020’s Habits (review here), on which the four-piece is joined by cellist Joe Butler and violinst Charlie Davis, fleshing out especially the quieter “Fall Chorus,” but definitely making their presence felt on “Sails” as well in accompanying what was one of Habits‘ strongest hooks. And the strings are all well and good, but the live harmonies on “Sails” between guitarist Jack Townley, bassist Peter Holland and guitarist/keyboardist John Slattery — arriving atop the e’er-reliable fluidity of Sam Hart‘s drumming — are perhaps even more of a highlight. Was the whole set recorded? If so, where’s that? “Fall Chorus” is more subdued and atmospheric, but likewise gorgeous, the cello and violin lending an almost Americana feel to the now-lush second-half bridge of the acoustic track. Special band, moment worth capturing, cause worth supporting. The classic no-brainer purchase.
Between Telekinetic Yeti, Mythic Sunship and Limousine Beach (not to mention Comet Control last year), Tee Pee Records has continued to offer distinct and righteous incarnations of heavy rock, and Mirror Queen‘s classic-prog-influenced strutter riffs on Inviolate fit right in. The long-running project led by guitarist/vocalist Kenny Kreisor (also the head of Tee Pee) and drummer Jeremy O’Brien is bolstered through the lead guitar work of Morgan McDaniel (ex-The Golden Grass) and the smooth low end of bassist James Corallo, and five years after 2017’s Verdigris (review here), their flowing heavy progressive rock nudges into the occult on “The Devil Seeks Control” while maintaining its ’70s-rock-meets-’80s-metal gallop, and hard-boogies in the duly shredded “A Rider on the Rain,” where experiments both in vocal effects and Mellotron sounds work well next to proto-thrash urgency. Proggers like “Inside an Icy Light,” “Sea of Tranquility” and the penultimate “Coming Round with Second Sight” show the band in top form, comfortable in tempo but still exploring, and they finish with the title-track’s highlight chorus and a well-layered, deceptively immersive wash of melody. Can’t and wouldn’t ask for more than they give here; Inviolate is a tour de force for Mirror Queen, demonstrating plainly what NYC club shows have known since the days when Aytobach Kreisor roamed the earth two decades ago.
Los Angeles-based four-piece Faetooth — guitarist/vocalist Ashla Chavez Razzano, bassist/vocalist Jenna Garcia, guitarist/vocalist Ari May, drummer Rah Kanan — make their full-length debut through Dune Altar with the atmospheric sludge doom of Remnants of the Vessel, meeting post-apocalyptic vibes as intro “(i) Naissance” leads into initial single “Echolalia,” the more spaced-out “La Sorcie|Cre” (or something like that; I think my filename got messed up) and the yet-harsher doom of “She Cast a Shadow” before the feedback-soaked interlude “(ii) Limbo” unfurls its tortured course. Blending clean croons and more biting screams assures a lack of predictability as they roll through “Remains,” the black metal-style cave echo there adding to the extremity in a way that the subsequent “Discarnate” pushes even further ahead of the nodding, you’re-still-doomed heavy-gaze of “Strange Ways.” They save the epic for last, however, with “(iii) Moribund” a minute-long organ piece leading directly into “Saturn Devouring His Son,” a nine-and-a-half-minute willful lurch toward an apex that has the majesty of death-doom and a crux of melody that doesn’t just shout out Faetooth‘s forward potential but also points to what they’ve already accomplished on Remnants of the Vessel. If this band tours, look out.
Ferocious and weighted in kind, Behold! The Monolith‘s fourth full-length and first for Ripple Music, From the Fathomless Deep finds the Los Angeles trio taking cues from progressive death metal and riff-based sludge in with a modern severity of purpose that is unmistakably heavy. Bookended by opener “Crown/The Immeasurable Void” (9:31) and closer “Stormbreaker Suite” (11:35), the six-track/45-minute offering — the band’s first since 2015’s Architects of the Void (review here) — brims with extremity and is no less intense in the crawling “Psychlopean Dread” than on the subsequent ripper “Spirit Taker” or its deathsludge-rocking companion “This Wailing Blade,” calling to mind some of what Yatra have been pushing on the opposite coast until the solo hits. The trades between onslaughts and acoustic parts are there but neither overdone nor overly telegraphed, and “The Seams of Pangea” (8:56) pairs evocative ambience with crushing volume and comes out sounding neither hackneyed nor overly poised. Extreme times call for extreme riffs? Maybe, but the bludgeoning on offer in From the Fathomless Deep speaks to a push into darkness that’s been going on over a longer term. Consuming.
The second album from Nashville’s The Swell Fellas — who I’m sure are great guys — the five-song/32-minute Novaturia encapsulates an otherworldly atmosphere laced with patient effects soundscapes, echo and moody presence, but is undeniably heavy, the opener “Something’s There…” drawing the listener deeper into “High Lightsolate,” the eight-plus minutes of which roll out with technical intricacy bent toward an outward impression of depth, a solo in the midsection carrying enough scorch for the LP as a whole but still just part of the song’s greater procession, which ends with percussive nuance and vocal melody before giving way to the acoustic interlude “Caesura,” a direct lead-in for the noisy arrival of the okay-now-we-riff “Wet Cement.” The single-ready penultimate cut is a purposeful banger, going big at its finish only after topping its immediate rhythmic momentum with ethereal vocals for a progressive effect, and as elliptically-bookending finisher “…Another Realm” nears 11 minutes, its course is its own in manifesting prior shadows of progressive and atmospheric heavy rock into concrete, crafted realizations. There’s even some more shred for good measure, brought to bear with due spaciousness through Mikey Allred‘s production. It’s a quick offering, but offers substance and reach beyond its actual runtime. They’re onto something, and I think they know it, too.
Stockhausen & the Amplified Riot, Era of the Inauthentic
For years, it has seemed Houston-based guitarist/songwriter Paul Chavez (Funeral Horse, Cactus Flowers, Baby Birds, Art Institute) has searched for a project able to contain his weirdo impulses. Stockhausen & the Amplified Riot — begun with Era of the Inauthentic as a solo-project plus — is the latest incarnation of this effort, and its krautrock-meets-hooky-proto-punk vibe indeed wants nothing for weird. “Adolescent Lightning” and “Hunky Punk” are a catchy opening salvo, and “What if it Never Ends” provokes a smile by garage-rock riffing over a ’90s dance beat to a howling finish, while the 11-minute “Tilde Mae” turns early-aughts indie jangle into a maddeningly repetitive mindfuck for its first nine minutes, mercifully shifting into a less stomach-clenching groove for the remainder before closer “Intubation Blues” melds more dance beats with harmonica and last sweep. Will the band, such as it is, at last be a home for Chavez over the longer term, or is it merely another stop on the way? I don’t know. But there’s no one else doing what he does here, and since the goal seems to be individualism and experimentalism, both those ideals are upheld to an oddly charming degree. Approach without expectations.
Nothing is Real stand ready to turn mundane miseries into darkly ethereal noise, drawing from sludge and an indefinable litany of extreme metals. The End is Near is both the Los Angeles unit’s most cohesive work to-date and its most accomplished, building on the ambient mire of earlier offerings with a down-into-the-ground churn on lead single “THE (Pt. 2).” All of the songs, incidentally, comprise the title of the album, with four of “THE” followed by two “END” pieces, two “IS”es and three “NEAR”s to close. An maybe-unhealthy dose of sample-laced interlude-type works — each section has an intro, and so on — assure that Nothing is Real‘s penchant for atmospheric crush isn’t misplaced, and the band’s uptick in production value means that the vastness and blackened psychedelia of 10-minute centerpiece “END” shows the abyssal depths being plunged in their starkest light. Capping with “NEAR (Pt. 1),” jazzy metal into freneticism, back to jazzy metal, and “NEAR (Pt. 2),” epic shred emerging from hypnotic ambience, like Jeff Hanneman ripping open YOB, The End is Near resonates with a sickened intensity that, again, it shares in common with the band’s past work, but is operating at a new level of complexity across its intentionally unmanageable 63 minutes. Nothing is Real is on their own wavelength and it is a place of horror.
Copenhagen heavy psych collective Red Lama — and I’m sorry, but if you’ve got more than five people in your band, you’re a collective — brim with pastoral escapism throughout Memory Terrain, their third album and the follow-up to 2018’s Motions (discussed here) and its companion EP, Dogma (review here). Progressive in texture but with an open sensibility at their core, pieces like the title-track unfold long-song breadth in accessible spans, the earlier “Airborne” moving from the jazzy beginning of “Gentleman” into a more tripped-out All Them Witches vein. Elsewhere, “Someone” explores krautrock intricacies before synthing toward its last lines, and “Paint a Picture” exudes pop urgency before washing it away on a repeating, sweeping tide. Range and dynamic aren’t new for Red Lama, but I’m hard-pressed to think of as dramatic a one-two turn as the psych-wash-into-electro-informed-dance-brood that takes place between “Shaking My Bones” and “Chaos is the Plan” — lest one neglect the urbane shuffle of “Justified” prior — though by that point Red Lama have made it apparent they’re ready to lead the listener wherever whims may dictate. That’s a significant amount of ground to cover, but they do it.
Existing in multiple avenues of progressive heavy rock and extreme metal, Echolot‘s Curatio only has four tracks, but each of those tracks has more range than the career arcs of most bands. Beginning with two 10-minute tracks in “Burden of Sorrows” (video premiered here) and “Countess of Ice,” they set a pattern of moving between melancholic heavy prog and black metal, the latter piece clearer in telegraphing its intentions after the opener, and introducing its “heavy part” to come with clean vocals overtop in the middle of the song, dramatic and fiery as it is. “Resilience of Floating Forms” (a mere 8:55) begins quiet and works into a post-black metal wash of melody before the double-kick and screams take hold, announcing a coming attack that — wait for it — doesn’t actually come, the band instead moving into falsetto and a more weighted but still clean verse before peeling back the curtain on the death growls and throatrippers, cymbals threatening to engulf all but still letting everything else cut through. Also eight minutes, “Wildfire” closes by flipping the structure of the opening salvo, putting the nastiness at the fore while progging out later, in this case closing Curatio with a winding movement of keys and an overarching groove that is only punishing for the fact that it’s the end. If you ever read a Quarterly Review around here, you know I like to do myself favors on the last day in choosing what to cover. It is no coincidence that Curatio is included. Not every record could be #100 and still make you excited to hear it.
