Okay. Day Three. The halfway point. Or the quarter point if you count the week to come in January. Which I don’t. Feeling dug in. Ready to roll. Today’s a busy day, stylistically speaking, and there’s two wolf bands in there too. Better get moving.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Duel, In Carne Persona

Duel seem to be on a mission with In Carne Persona to remind all in their path that rock and roll is supposed to be dangerous. Their fourth album and the follow-up to 2019’s Valley of Shadows (review here) finds the Austin four-piece in a between place on songs like “Children of the Fire” (premiered here) and “Anchor” and the especially charged gang-shout-chorus “Bite Back,” proffering memorable songwriting while edging from boogie to shove, rock to metal. They’ve never sounded more dynamic than on the organ-inclusive “Behind the Sound” or the tense finale “Blood on the Claw,” and cuts like “The Veil” and the particularly gritty “Dead Eyes” affirm their in-a-dark-place songwriting prowess. They’re not uneven in their approach. They’re sure of it. They turn songs on either side of four minutes long into anthems, and they seem to be completely at home in their sound. They’re not as ‘big’ as they should be by rights of their work, but Duel serve their reminder well and pack nine killer tunes into 38 minutes. Only a fool would ask more.

Duel on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Mastiff, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth

Fading in like the advent of something wicked this way coming until “The Hiss” explodes into “Fail,” Hull exports Mastiff tap chug from early ’00s metalcore en route to various forms of extreme bludgeonry, whether that’s blackened push in “Beige Sabbath,” grind in “Midnight Creeper” or the slow skin-crawling riffage that follows in “Futile.” This blender runs at multiple speeds, slices, dices, pummels and purees, reminding here of Blood Has Been Shed, there of Napalm Death, on “Endless” of Aborted. Any way you go, it is a bleak cacophony to be discovered, purposefully tectonic in its weight and intense in its conveyed violence. Barely topping half an hour, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth knows precisely the fury it manifests, and the scariest thing about it is the thought that the band are in even the vaguest amount of control of all this chaos, as even the devolution-to-blowout in “Lung Rust” seems to have intent behind it. They should play this in art galleries.

Mastiff on Facebook

MNRK Heavy website

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Wolftooth, Blood & Iron

Melody and a flair for the grandeur of classic NWOBHM-style metal take prominence on Wolftooth‘s Blood & Iron, the follow-up to the Indiana-based four-piece’s 2020 outing, Valhalla (review here), third album overall and first for Napalm Records. As regards trajectory, one is reminded of the manner in which Sweden’s Grand Magus donned the mantle of epic metal, but Wolftooth aren’t completely to that point yet. Riffs still very much lead the battle’s charge — pointedly so, as regards the album’s far-back-drums mix — with consuming solos as complement to the vocals’ tales of fantastical journeys, kings, swords and so on. The test of this kind of metal should ALWAYS be whether or not you’d scribble their logo on the front of your notebook after listening to the record on your shitty Walkman headphones, and yes, Wolftooth earn that honor among their other spoils of the fight, and Blood & Iron winds up the kind of tape you’d feel cool telling your friends about in that certain bygone age.

Wolftooth on Facebook

Napalm Records on Bandcamp

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Illudium, Ash of the Womb

Another argument to chase down every release Prophecy Productions puts out arrives in the form of Illudium‘s second long-player, Ash of the Womb, the NorCal project spearheaded by Shantel Amundson vibing with emotional and tonal heft in kind on an immersive mourning-for-everything six tracks/47 minutes. Gorgeous, sad and heavy in kind “Aster” opens and unfolds into the fingers-sliding-on-strings of “Sempervirens,” which gallops furiously for a moment in its second half like a fever dream before passing to wistfully strummed minimalism, which is a pattern that holds in “Soma Sema” and “Atopa” as well, as Amundson brings volatility without notice, songs exploding and receding, madness and fury and then gone again in a sort of purposeful bipolar onslaught. Following “Madrigal,” the closing “Where Death and Dreams Do Manifest” finds an evenness of tempo and approach, not quite veering into heavygaze, but gloriously pulling together the various strands laid out across the songs prior, providing a fitting end to the story told in sound and lyric.

Illudium on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

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Ascia, Volume 1

Ascia takes its name from the Italian word for ‘axe,’ and as a solo-project from Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, the 20-minute demo Volume 1 lives up to its implied threat. Launched with the instrumental riff-workout “At the Gates of Ishtar,” the five-tracker introduces Monni‘s vocals on the subsequent “Blood Axes,” and is all the more reminiscent of earliest High on Fire for the approach he takes, drums marauding behind a galloping verse that nonetheless finds an overarching groove. “Duhl Qarnayn” follows in straight-ahead fashion while “The Great Iskandar” settles some in tempo and opens up melodically in its second half, the vocals taking on an almost chanting quality, before switching back to finish with more thud and plunder ahead of the finale “Up the Irons,” which brings two-plus minutes of cathartic speed and demo-blast that I’d like to think was the first song Monni put together for the band if only for its metal-loving-metal charm. I don’t know that it is or isn’t, but it’s a welcome cap to this deceptively varied initial public offering.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Black Capricorn on Facebook

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Stone From the Sky, Songs From the Deepwater

France’s Stone From the Sky, as a band named after a Neurosis singularized song might, dig into heavy post-rock aplenty on Songs From the Deepwater, their fourth full-length, and they meet floating tones with stretches of more densely-hefted groove like the Pelican-style nod of “Karoshi.” Still, however satisfying the ensuing back and forth is, some of their most effective moments are in the ambient stretches, as on “The Annapurna Healer” or even the patient opening of “Godspeed” at the record’s outset, which draws the listener in across its first three minutes before unveiling its full breadth. Likewise, “City/Angst” surges and recedes and surges again, but it’s in the contemplative moments that it’s most immersive, though I won’t take away from the appeal of the impact either. The winding “49.3 Nuances de Fuzz” precedes the subdued/vocalized closer “Talweg,” which departs in form while staying consistent in atmosphere, which proves paramount to the proceedings as a whole.

Stone From the Sky on Facebook

More Fuzz Records on Bandcamp

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The Brackish, Atlas Day

Whenever you’re ready to get weird, The Brackish will meet you there. The Bristol troupe’s fourth album, Atlas Day brings six songs and 38 minutes of ungrandiose artsy exploration, veering into dreamtone noodling on “Dust Off Reaper” only after hinting in that direction on the jazzier “Pretty Ugly” previous. Sure, there’s moments of crunch, like the garage-grunge in the second half of “Pam’s Chalice” or the almost-motorik thrust that tops opener “Deliverance,” but The Brackish aren’t looking to pay homage to genre or post-thisorthat so much as to seemingly shut down their brains and see where the songs lead them. That’s a quiet but not still pastoralia on “Leftbank” and a more skronky shuffle-jazz on “Mr. Universe,” and one suspects that, if there were more songs on Atlas Day, they too would go just about wherever the hell they wanted. Not without its self-indulgent aspects by its very nature, Atlas Day succeeds by inviting the audience along its intentionally meandering course. Something something “not all who wander” something something.

The Brackish on Facebook

Halfmeltedbrain Records on Bandcamp

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Wolfnaut, III

Formerly known as Wolfgang, Elverum, Norway’s Wolfnaut offer sharp, crisp modern heavy rock with the Karl Daniel Lidén mixed/mastered III, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Kjetil Sæter (also percussion), bassist Tor Erik Hagen and drummer Ronny “Ronster” Kristiansen readily tapping Motörhead swagger in “Raise the Dead” after establishing a clarity of structure and a penchant for chorus largesse that reminds of Norse countrymen Spidergawd on “Swing Ride” and the Scorpions-tinged “Feed Your Dragon.” They are weighted in tone but emerge clean through the slower “Race to the Bottom” and “Gesell Kid.” I’m going to presume that “Taste My Brew” is about making one’s own beer — please don’t tell me otherwise — and with the push of “Catching Thunder” ahead of the eight-minute, willfully spacious “Wolfnaut” at the end, the trio’s heavy rock traditionalism is given an edge of reach to coincide with its vitality and electrified delivery of the songs.

Wolfnaut on Facebook

Wolfnaut on Bandcamp

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Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Rosalee EP

Having released their debut full-length, TTBS, earlier in 2021 as their first outing, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Lincoln, Nebraska’s Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships still seem to be getting their feet under them in terms of sound and who they are as a band, but as the 34-minute-long Rosalee EP demonstrates, in terms of tone and general approach, they know what they’re looking for. After the thud and “whoa-oh” of “Core Fragment,” “Destroyer Heart” pushes a little more into aggression in its back end riffs and drumming, and the chugging, lurching motion of “URTH Anachoic” brings a fullness of distortion that the two prior songs seemed just to be hinting toward. It’s worth noting that the 16-minute title-track, which closes, is instrumental, and it may be that the band are more comfortable operating in that manner for the time being, but if there’s a confidence issue, no doubt it can be worked out on stage (circumstances permitting) or in further studio work. That is, it’s not actually a problem, even at this formative stage of the project. Quick turnaround for this second collection, but definitely welcome.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

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Closet Disco Queen, Stadium Rock for Punk Bums

Their persistently irreverent spirit notwithstanding, Closet Disco Queen — at some point in the process, ever — take their work pretty seriously. That is to say, they’re not nearly as much of a goof as they’d have you believe, and on the quickie 16-minute Stadium Rock for Punk Bums, the Swiss two-piece-plus, their open creative sensibility results in surprisingly filled-out tracks that aren’t quite stadium, aren’t quite punk, definitely rock, and would probably alienate the bum crowd not willing to put the effort into actively engaging them. So the title (which, I know, is a reference to another release; calm down) may or may not fit, but from “Michel-Jacques Sonne” onward, bring switched-on heavy that’s not so much experimentalist in the fuck-around-and-find-out definition as ready to follow its own ideas to fruition, whether that’s the rush of “Pascal à la Plage” or the barely-there drone of “Lalalalala Reverb,” which immediately follows and gives way to the building-despite-itself finisher “Le Soucieux Toucan.” If these guys aren’t careful they’re gonna have to start taking themselves seriously. …Nah.

Closet Disco Queen on Facebook

Hummus Records website

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Heartfelt congratulations to UK sludge extremists Mastiff, whose third album is due out in September as their debut release for eOne. Now labelmates to the likes of High on Fire and Crowbar, the band enters their new situation bolstered by a rare echelon of aggression and tonal heft following 2019’s Plague and 2017’s Bork (review here), both of which were offered through APF Records — quite a feather in that label’s cap as well — to bludgeoning, part-grinding effect. The trend would seem to continue, as one can hear through “Endless,” the first single from the forthcoming Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, for which preorders are up now.

They’ve also got tour dates, which is nothing if not pleasant to see.

Cover art and info follows from the PR wire:

MASTIFF: UK Blackened Sludge Unit To Release Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth Full-Length September 10th Via Entertainment One; Preorders Available

UK five-piece and recent Entertainment One (eOne) signees MASTIFF will release their Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth full-length September 10th!

Forged in 2014, MASTIFF’s unique combination of blackened sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence creates a bleak and chaotic atmosphere, sounding as if the spawn of Crowbar, This Is Hell, and Napalm Death composed an album inside the Lake Of Fire. The unrelenting, brutish curmudgeon aura of MASTIFF can be deceptive however, as bright sparks of nuance and jarring adventurousness lurk behind every riff, rumble, and anguished, painstaking bellow stitching together a soundtrack suitable for betrayal, depression, self-loathing, and total despair, with winking, devilish glee. The bulldozing din of MASTIFF is akin to the catharsis in setting something aflame just to watch it burn.

Crafted in just five days at No Studio with producer Joe Clayton (Pijn, Wren, Leeched), the band’s third full-length, Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, is a misanthropic masterpiece. The sorrow-filled souls of every miserable cretin it reaches will stir in basements, hovels, pubs, and darkened alleyways. Conceived during a pandemic-enforced longest stretch between MASTIFF records, the record paints on the band’s familiar canvass, but with a far larger palette than ever before.

In advance of the record’s release, MASTIFF offers up the record’s first single and video, “Endless,” now playing.

Comments the band on the union with eOne and video premiere, “It still feels like some kind of fever-dream that we’re working with eOne on our new record. Collectively, some of our favorite bands of all time have been part of this label, so it’s absolutely mind-blowing that we might be spoken of in the same breath as them. Since conversations first began with the team, they’ve been so supportive and enthusiastic about our grotty little band and the album we’ve made. We felt pretty sure that we’d made something quite special this time around and knowing that people with long and illustrious histories in the metal industry felt the same way – not to mention people who’ve worked with some of the genre’s biggest and best – it’s a pretty spectacular vote of confidence for five miserable miscreants from Hull.

“‘Endless’ is one of the earlier songs we wrote for the new record. It feels in a way like a microcosm of the whole album, in that it’s all over the place sonically yet somehow hangs together coherently. It goes from this shockingly anthemic — if not quite melodic — blackened opening, through a sinister chuggy bridge, and then ends in a chaotic, ‘90s-Converge-breakdown. Lyrically, it’s a bit of a meditation on the helplessness that comes when a human being becomes an emotional bargaining chip in a broken-down relationship. Typical jolly MASTIFF fare, really. We’re so disgustingly happy with how the video turned out too. Our old mate and Hull native Stew Baxter helped us put together a grimy, raw promo that feels in part a direct homage to some of the early-‘00s metalcore videos that inspired us so much back in the day, and part like a CCTV feed catching a crime against music on tape.”

Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preordering options at THIS LOCATION: https://mastiff.lnk.to/leavemetheashesoftheearth

Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth Track Listing:
1. The Hiss
2. Fail
3. Repulse
4. Midnight Creeper
5. Beige Sabbath
6. Futile
7. Endless
8. Scalped And Salted
9. Lung Rust

MASTIFF will bring their odes of antipathy to stages this Fall on a short UK run with Calligram. See all confirmed dates below:

MASTIFF w/ Calligram:
10/26/2021 The Anvil – Bournemouth, UK
10/27/2021 Black Heart – London, UK
10/28/2021 Satan’s Hollow – Manchester, UK
10/29/2021 Opium – Edinburgh, UK
10/30/2021 SOAR – Nottingham, UK
10/31/2021 Record Junkee – Sheffield, UK

MASTIFF:
Jim Hodge – vocals
James Andrew Lee – guitar
Phil Johnson – guitar
Dan Dolby – bass
Michael Shepherd – drums

http://www.mastiff-hchc.com
http://www.facebook.com/mastiffhchc
http://twitter.com/mastiffhchc
http://www.instagram.com/mastiffhchc
http://eoneheavy.com
http://www.facebook.com/eOneHeavy
http://twitter.com/eOneHeavy
http://www.instagram.com/eone_heavy

Mastiff, “Endless” official video

Alright, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’ve watched the complete five-and-a-half-hour, two-part span of the Mutants of the Monster 2020 Virtual Festival. That’s just not where my life is at. It was the Hull reunion that brought me to the Arkansas-based fest’s digital incarnation, and even conducted in separate spaces via Zoom, it was great to see that band again — guitarist/vocalist Nick Palmirotto splurged for the green-screen-style Zoom backgrounds and made the most of it in the clip of “Viking Funeral,” but the whole five-piece ripped in a way that only made me wish all the more they had done a third record before calling it quits in 2015.

But though Hull were the hook, once I was in, it was easy to stay that way. Two nights’ worth of viewing, with L.A. aggro-sludgemasters -(16)- headlining one evening and The Body unleashing their apocalyptic destruction the next, sets from Windhand‘s Dorthia Cottrell (joined by bandmate Parker Chandler), Philly’s Heavy Temple, as well as the likes of Memphis’ Dirty Streets — who played in someone’s very nice living room (I noted the Edison turntable, with speaker horn, behind bassist Thomas Storz), the joy-to-behold Little Rock hometown team Deadbird, hardcore pushers SixKillsNine, the noise crush of Eye Flys — who advocated at the outset for dismantling and defunding the police — as well as ex-Kylesa guitarist Phillip Cope‘s new project Oakskin, who were an atmospheric sludge highlight, spoken introductions, between-band videos, and a ton more. Put together by Christopher Farris Terry — of Rwake, Iron Tongue, Deadbird and the Slow Southern Steel documentary — it not only raised funds for worthy causes, but celebrated a diverse range of sounds and styles and creativity that, while it could never be the same as being in a place and witnessing it all in-person for two nights, utilized the visual medium in an intelligent and exciting way that a lot of live streams simply haven’t been able to do. It had a flow, and for all the geography it drew upon — aesthetically and literally — it was not clumsy in its shifts or nonsensical in its progressions from one set to the next.

Some performed with masks on, some didn’t — even in the same band, as seen with Wvrm — and Heavy Temple played en rouge. I don’t think any of it happened live as it was airing, but the sense of it as a premiere and a presented-live event came through fine. While we’re talking about things I don’t know — there’s so much — I also don’t know how long these streams are going to stay up, and it’s entirely possible that by the time this is posted they’ll be taken down in order to emphasize the ephemeral, it’s-over-now nature of the virtual festival. I hope that’s not the case, and not just because I’d feel dumb posting empty YouTube embeds. Wouldn’t be the first time.

But the bottom line is that while you can you should check out what you can. I’m not gonna try and claim five and a half hours outright from your busy day and your busy life, but, well, maybe I am. Even if it takes you more than two days to get through as you peruse one brief set into the next, the reward is easy justification for the effort.

And maybe next year, in person.

Enjoy:

Mutants of the Monster 2020 Part I

Mutants of the Monster, a Central Arkansas festival helmed by Chris Terry (Rwake, Deadbird, Iron Tongue) that has championed heavy sounds for years, is going virtual in 2020.

We are also raising funds and awareness for two local organizations that support transgender rights and immigrants here in Arkansas. Please take some time to learn about their stories and support the good cause,

Intransitive’s Brayla Stone microgrants
https://www.intransitive.org/brayla-stone-microgrants

El Zocalo Immigrant Resource Center
http://www.zocalocenter.com/

Lineup for Part I:
Dorthia Cottrell
Heavy Temple
Barishi
Redbait
Rebelmatic
Hull
Wvrm
– (16) –

Speakers:
Laina Dawes (Music Journalist/ “What Are You Doing Here?”), Michael Alago (Music Producer/ “Who The F**k Is That Guy”), Chris Terry (Rwake, Deadbird, Iron Tongue).

Mutants of the Monster 2020 Part II

Lineup for Part II:
Dirty Streets
SixKillsNine
Oakskin
Eye Flys
Deadbird
Terminal Nation
The Body

Speakers:
Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys), Madeline/Rebecca (Redbait), Nate Garrett (Spirit Adrift), Matt Besser (Actor/Comedian), Elliott Fullam (Little Punk People), Ashlie Atkinson (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Mr. Robot”).

Mutants of the Monster 2020 Event Page

Christopher Farris Terry on Thee Facebooks

Scathing. UK sludgesters Battalions don’t waste any time getting down to screamy business on the title-track of their upcoming third full-length, Forever Marching Backwards, for which they’ve got a new video now. Appropriately enough, the clip features a decent amount of walking, but it’s all forward. It leads a protagonist-type dude to hook up with a druid and holding hands en route to what turns out to be a basement where the band is playing. And they’re way mad. And then the song ends and the druid takes off the druid-robe and in a shocking twist it’s a lady? I’m not sure what the significance of the druid being a lady is, but I guess the point is the song being very, very pissed off, and fair enough. APF Records has the album out Nov. 30, which makes it the perfect stocking stuffer for the ultra-furious sludger in your secret Santa office pool.

Info and the video came down the PR wire:

Sludge Titans BATTALIONS Announce New Album; Drop New Video/Single

Forever Marching Backwards to be released via APF Records 30th November

Video and Single ‘Forever Marching Backwards’ is out NOW

BATTALIONS, belligerent champions of the UK DIY underground scene, revered by fans worldwide, lauded by the press and hairier than a bucket of black bears have announced their third album Forever Marching Backwards will be released via APF Records on November 30th 2018.

The band have also released their first video and single ‘Forever Marching Backwards’ from the album, check it out here.

Stream and purchase ‘Forever Marching Backwards’ (single) HERE or via Spotify.

Recorded and mixed by Chris Fielding at Skyhammer Studios in the UK, the resulting album is a danger-fuelled 30 minutes of Battalions own brand of bleak, swaggering, riff-infused groove metal-meets-harsh-punk sound. To quote the band, this is ‘pure Humber sludge’.

Comments vocalist Phil Wilkinson: “If you’ve followed Battalions for the last few albums you can expect tighter production, bigger riffs, more of a focus on structure and song writing along with the usual self-depreciating humour peppered throughout. The album itself is based around lead single ‘Forever Marching Backwards’ from which the album takes its name, essentially an allegory about how society seems to be hardwired to follow blindly without the majority questioning motives. The blind leading the blind.”

Pre-orders are now available via APF Records here.

Forever Marching Backwards Tracklisting
1: Forever Marching Backwards
2: Cities of Ruin
3: Goat Feeder
4: Vaseline (G)Love
5: Tyskie Vampire
6: Infinite Void
7: Brick Hole
8: Devil’s Footsteps

Battalions is:
Phil Wilkinson – Vocals
Peter Cross – Guitars
Matthew Dennett – Bass
Matt Walker – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/BattalionsSludge
https://twitter.com/BattalionsDirt
https://www.instagram.com/battalions/
https://open.spotify.com/album/2YlhOfnx6QVjKsTyi5bzqq
https://battalionsdirt.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/apfrecords
https://twitter.com/apf_records
https://www.instagram.com/apfrecords
https://apfrecords.bigcartel.com/
http://www.apfrecords.co.uk/

Battalions, “Forever Marching Backwards” official video

Emergent UK imprint APF Records continues to gobble up countrymen sludge outfits with the signing of Battalions to its growing roster. The Hull natives released their second long-player, Moonburn, this past summer, and will reportedly follow-up with a third sometime in 2018, touring as well alongside Pist and no doubt others in the crowded sphere of resurgent English sludge metal. Their next record will be their first as a four-piece after parting ways with guitarist Mark Wood following Moonburn, which was produced by Conan‘s Chris Fielding and which you can hear in its entirety streaming below.

In signing with APF, Battalions join the ranks of Desert Storm, the aforementioned Pist, Mastiff, BongCauldron, Diesel King, Tronald and Ba’al, among others as the imprint quickly moves into setting the standard for sludge mayhem coming out of the British Isles.

From the PR wire:

BATTALIONS SIGN TO APF RECORDS

APF RECORDS is delighted to announce that it has signed Hullensian sludge-metal titans BATTALIONS to the label. We will be issuing their third, as yet untitled, album worldwide during mid-2018.

Battalions was formed in early 2010 in the coastal city of Hull, UK. Their fanbase and support has steadily grown through incendiary live shows throughout the UK including high-profile support slots with Conan, Church Of Misery, Sworn Enemy, Ohhms, Slabdragger, Samothrace, Dopethrone and Vinnum Sabbathi. In 2017 they played on the Hobgoblin Stage at Bloodstock Open Air Festival, and headlined the Motorhead Roadcrew Stage at the 30,000-capacity Humber Street Sesh.

The band’s first two albums, 2016’s “Nothing To Lose” and this year’s Chris Fielding-produced “Moonburn” received universal critical praise. Since the writing of the latter the band has slimmed down from a quintet to a 4-piece, and since its release has continued to play live across the UK, and in the first half of 2018 will do the same – including on a full countrywide tour with label-mates Pist in April.

A warm welcome to Battalions from all at APF.

Battalions is:
Phil Wilkinson – Vocals
Peter Cross – Guitars
Matthew Dennett – Bass
Matt Walker – Drums

facebook.com/BattalionsSludge
twitter.com/BattalionsDirt
instagram.com/battalions
battalionsdirt.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/apfrecords
https://twitter.com/apf_records
https://www.instagram.com/apfrecords/
https://apfrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://apfrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.apfrecords.co.uk/

Battalions, Moonburn (2017)

The final round of the Fall 2017 Quarterly Review starts now. 60 reviews done. I think if this particular QR session proves anything it’s that come hell or high water, once it’s set, there’s no stopping this train. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the site was down for half of last week and we’re still getting to 60 reviews from Monday to Monday. That’s not not impressive from where I sit, especially since I spent that downtime going out of my mind trying to get things up and running again while also trying to write posts that I didn’t even know if they were going to happen. But they happened — thanks again, Slevin and Behrang — and here we are. All is well and we can get back to normal hopefully for the rest of this week. Thanks for reading any of this if you did. Let’s get to it.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

Primitive Man, Caustic

Primitive Man’s Caustic is the concept of “heavy” taken to the superlative. It is a 12-track/77-minute onslaught for which no less than absolute hyperbole will suffice. In following-up their 2013 Relapse Records debut, Scorn (review here), a series of splits and 2015’s Home is Where the Hatred Is EP (review here), the Denver trio reign in terror as they make Caustic live up to its name in the crushing tones, feedback of and slow churn of “My Will,” “Commerce” “Tepid,” and “Sugar Hole,” the consuming wave of “Victim,” the blastbeating death assault of “Sterility,” and the biting atmospherics of harsh interludes “Caustic,” “Ash” and “The Weight,” which preface the nine minutes of vague noise that close on “Absolutes,” following the grueling slaughter of “Disfigured” and the rightfully-named 12-minute “Inevitable,” which seems even slower and more weighted somehow than everything before it. On the sheer level of heft for that song alone, it’s time to start thinking about Primitive Man among the heaviest bands in the world. I’m serious. Caustic is an overwhelming masterwork of unbridled extremity, and with it, Primitive Man set a new standard both for themselves and for anyone else who’d dare to try to live up to it in their wake.

Primitive Man on Thee Facebooks

Relapse Records webstore

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Black Lung & Nap, Split

A heavy blues trio from Baltimore and a progressive boogie outfit from Oldenburg, Germany, might seem like an odd pairing, but by the time the 25 minutes of Black Lung and Nap’s split 12” platter (on Noisolution) are up, the release has come to make its own peculiar kind of sense. In following 2016’s See the Enemy (review here), Black Lung present two new songs in “Strange Seeds” and “Use this Stone” as well we the prior-issued Marvin Gaye cover “Inner City Blues” done in collaboration with rapper Eze Jackson, where Nap answer their debut album, Villa (review here), with the shuffle-into-psychedelia of “Djinn,” the spacious, patient rollout of the airy guitars in “Vorlaut” and the final thrust of “Teer.” Each of the two acts establishes a context for itself quickly – Black Lung brazenly defying theirs in the shift from “Use this Stone” to “Inner City Blues”; Nap expanding between “Djinn” and “Vorlaut” – and though one wouldn’t be likely to mistake one group for the other, their disparate sounds don’t at all hinder the ability of either group to make an impression during their brief time.

Nap on Thee Facebooks

Black Lung on Thee Facebooks

Noisolution webstore

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Zone Six, Zone Six

Originally issued in 1998 via Early Birds Records with the lineup of bassist/synthesis/Mellotronist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt, guitarist Hans-Peter Ringholz, drummer/keyboardist Claus Bühler and vocalist Jodi Barry, the self-titled debut from German space/krautrock explorationists Zone Six sees something of a redux via Sulatron Records to mark the 20th anniversary of the band’s founding. Eight minutes shorter than the original edition at 51 minutes, the new version whittles down the original 13-track presentation to two vinyl sides – titles: “Side A” (27:04) and “Side B” (24:39) – and drops the vocal tracks entirely to make it a completely instrumental release. That’s a not-insignificant change, of course, but let there be no doubt that it works in terms of highlighting the flow, which as it transitions between what used to be one song and another loses not one step and instead simply becomes an engrossing and multifaceted jam. This is truer perhaps to the band Zone Six have become – if you missed their 2015 full-length Love Monster (review here), it was glorious and it’s not too late to catch up – than the band they started out as, but Zone Six have found a way to make an old release new again, and new Zone Six is never anything to complain about, whatever the occasion.

Zone Six on Thee Facebooks

Sulatron Records? webstore

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Spectral Haze, Turning Electric

Space rock warriors Spectral Haze return after three years in the Gamma Quadrant with Turning Electric via Totem Cat Records, a six-song sophomore outing behind 2014’s I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains (review here) that quickly enters a wormhole of Hawkwindian thrust on opener “The Dawn of the Falcon” – perhaps that’s what’s represented on the glorious Adam Burke cover art – and takes a winding but directed course deeper and deeper into interstellar realms for its duration of what on earth is only six songs and 33 minutes. Each of the intended two vinyl sides boasts a longer track, be it “Cathexis/Mask of Transformation” on side A or “They Live” on side B, but whether it’s in those or shorter rocket boosters like the title-track, “Ajaghandi” or the aforementioned leadoff, the Oslo-based four-piece keep it dreamy and kosmiche even unto the doomlier roll of closer “Master Sorcerer,” a collection of final psychedelic proclamations that cuts off quickly at the end as though breaking a transmission from the heart of the galaxy itself. Heck of a destination, and getting there’s a blast, too.

Spectral Haze on Thee Facebooks

Totem Cat Records webstore

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Cosmic Fall, Jams for Free

Kind of a bummer how Jams for Free came about, but for the reassurance that Berlin heavy psych improvisationalists Cosmic Fall will keep going after what seems to have been an unceremonious split with now-ex-guitarist/vocalist Mathias, I’ll take it. With two new explorations, bassist Klaus and drummer Daniel introduce new guitarist Martin, and those worried they might lose the funk of their original incarnation should have their fears duly allayed by “A Calmer Sphere” (12:19) and “The Great Comet” (8:10), which begin a new era of Cosmic Fall after the remaining founders were forced to stop selling their prior works. If there’s anger or catharsis being channeled in Jams for Free, though, it comes through as fluidity and serene heavy psych, and with the resonant live-in-studio vibe, Cosmic Fall essentially seem to be picking up where they left off. With Martin making a distinguishing impression in the soloing of “A Calmer Sphere”’s second half particularly, the future continues to look bright for the German asteroid riders. Right on, guys. Keep jamming.

Cosmic Fall on Thee Facebooks

Cosmic Fall on Bandcamp

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Epitaph, Claws

Doomers of Verona Epitaph trace their origins back some 30 years, but Claws (on High Roller Records) is just their second long-player behind 2014’s Crawling out of the Crypt. Matters not. Theirs is the doom of ages one way or the other, presented in this collection of five songs in traditional fashion with an edge of the Italian bizarrist movement (think early Death SS) and, from the “Neon Knights”-style riff of “Gossamer Claws” to the “After All (The Dead)”/”Falling off the Edge of the World”-style dramaturge of “Wicked Lady,” the nods to ‘80s and early-‘90s Black Sabbath are manifold and executed with what sounds like a genuine love for that era of the band and classic metal in general. Hard to fault Epitaph that influence, particularly as they bring it to bear in the guttural riffly chug of centerpiece “Sizigia,” tonally as much as in the form of what’s actually being played. As a mission, the homage is perhaps a bit single-minded, but as they continue to build their own legacy in these classic sounds, it’s impossible to say Epitaph’s collective heart isn’t in the right place.

Epitaph on Thee Facebooks

High Roller Records webstore

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Disastroid, Screen

The nine songs of Disastroid’s fourth self-released LP, Screen, are drawn together by a songwriting prowess that’s better heard than described and by a heft of tone that, especially on stompers like “Dinosaur” early and “Coyote” later on, proves likewise. Is the point of this review, then, that you should listen to the album? Yuppers. At a crisp 35 minutes, Screen finds the Bay Area trio willfully nestled someplace between heavy rock riffing, noise crunch, punk and metal, and they fly this refusal to commit to one style over another no less proudly than they do the hook of “Getting in the Way” or “I Didn’t Kill Myself,” which along with the push of “Choke the Falcon” and the Melvinsian “Clinical Perfection” make up a series of short burst impressions contrasted by the longer “Screen” and “New Day” at the outset and the six-minute finale “Gunslinger,” though wherever Disastroid seem to go, they bring a current of memorable craft with them, making an otherwise purposefully bumpy ride smooth and a chaos-fueled joy to undertake.

Disastroid website

Disastroid on Bandcamp

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Mastiff, Bork

Ultimately, bludgeon-ready UK five-piece Mastiff might owe as much to grind as they do to doom or sludge – at least if “Nil by Mouth” has anything to say about it – but more than loyalty to any subgenre or other, the Hull unit’s 25-minute Bork full-length (released on CD by APF Records) is interested in presenting an extreme vision of sonic heft. Brutal pummel infects the rolling chorus of “Everything Equals Death” and the initial chug of “Tumour” alike, and where opener “Agony” was content to blast out its cacophony in fury of tempo as much as weight, as they settle in for the mosh-ready six minutes of closer “Eternal Regret,” Mastiff seem to have dug out a position between lumbering doom and early ‘00s deathcore, a telltale breakdown capping Bork in grooving and familiar fashion. Their intensity might prove a distinguishing factor over the longer term, though, and they certainly have plenty enough of it to go around.

Mastiff on Thee Facebooks

APF Records website

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Demons from the Dungeon Dimension, An Organic Mythology

The righteously-monikered Demons from the Dungeon Dimension made a striking and individualized – and bizarre – impression in 2016 with the There was Ogres EP (discussed here), a follow-up to the debut full-length, As the Crow Flies, released just weeks earlier. With the new single An Organic Mythology and the five-minute, raw-recorded track of the same name, the Durban, South Africa-based project is laid to rest. A burly opening and thickened distortion lead to a pushing verse with dry vocals over top – sounding very much like a home-recorded demo outright and not trying to be anything else – and soon enough the track shifts into a spoken-word-dissertation over an instrumental build that carries it into its final minute, at which point the verse kicks back in to end. As with the prior EP, which topped 25 minutes, the vibe is willfully strange throughout “An Organic Mythology,” and if this is indeed the last we’ll hear from Demons from the Dungeon Dimension (doesn’t it just sound like something TOR Books would put out?), somehow it seems right we live in an age where the material can reside in the digital ether, waiting to be stumbled on by curious parties soon to be blindsided by what they hear.

Demons from the Dungeon Dimension on Bandcamp

Demons from the Dungeon Dimension on YouTube

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Liblikas, Unholy Moly

From the initial semi-gothic vibes from vocalist Oliver Aunver to the progressive fuzz rock that ensues on opener “Holy Underground,” Estonian five-piece Liblikas seem to specialize in the unexpected on their second full-length, Unholy Moly. Aunver, guitarists Temo Saarna (also vocals) and Henrik Harak, bassist Joosep Käsper and drummer/backing vocalist Mihkel Rebane, oversee a brisk 45-minute run across eight tracks of genre-spanning grooves, from the chugging almost-doom of “Highest Hound” to the semi-folk experimentalist interlude “Fugue Yeah! (Diary Pt. II),” which follows “Dear Diary, Yeah!” a track that starts out with what might be a Japanese-language sample and psychedelic unfolding to more cohesive, harmony-topped prog rock bounce before the fuzz emerges and meets with forward vocals and effective interplay of acoustics in the chorus. Why yes, there is a six-minute song called “Pornolord” – funny you should ask. It appears before the oud-laced “Ol’ Slime” and nine-minute closer “Keezo,” which embraces the difficult task of summing up the weirdo intensity that’s been on display throughout Liblikas’ songwriting all along, and with wispy guitar leading to a big, noisy finish, succeeds outright in doing so.

Liblikas on Thee Facebooks

Liblikas on Bandcamp

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Just five years after its release and about 18 months since the Brooklyn outfit called it a day, it’s probably early yet to start enshrining Hull‘s second album, 2011’s Beyond the Lightless Sky (review here), but I think it was safe to say even when they were still together that Hull was among the most underrated metal bands New York ever produced. I mean that, and especially if you listen to this record it holds up. Their 2009 debut, Sole Lord, felt insular in its production and dense narrative, but by the time they got around to this consuming 57-minute offering it was clear they’d learned valuable lessons in the two-year interim.

Released through The End Records, Beyond the Lightless Sky was stunning in its complexity and reach and structure, bringing together ambience and intense, fierce drive in a way that few bands could or would dare to try, sounding aggressive but not necessarily angry, desperate for knowledge in that way Neurosis sometimes seems to be, but only using post-metal as one among many stylistic influences — that is to say, Beyond the Lightless Sky was no more post-metal than it was thrash or doom or sludge.

In the end, it was one of those records you just kind of had to tag as “progressive” and leave it at that, both because it was a legitimate progression from where they’d been before and because nothing else quite captured the scope of what they accomplished even in 11-minute opener and longest track “Earth from Water,” let alone in songs like “Fire Vein,” “False Priest” or the title cut.

And when it came to the response, I think maybe it was the broadness of Hull‘s songwriting that held some listeners back from fully appreciating the entirety of the record. As I recall, Beyond the Lightless Sky was well reviewed and the response generally positive, but I never thought it got quite as huge as it should’ve.

I mean, here comes a band who basically offer up the next stage of what Mastodon should have become. They toured to support it multiple times on multiple continents, but maybe were too aggro for bigger labels — though where Relapse was on picking them up, I couldn’t say — and always resided somewhere between a heavy rock/sludge scene that embraced them initially and the wider spectrum of metal, which had too easy a time casting them in the light of being a stoner act, which I really don’t think they ever were, on Sole Lord or the Viking Funeral demo that preceded.

I kind of keep my fingers crossed that they will just announce one day they have a new record done and mastered and ready to launch, but I think even in the best case scenario, we have a ways to go before we get there, and the further we move in time from Beyond the Lightless Sky — which I still feel like I get something new from every time I hear it — the clearer it becomes just how special a document Hull left behind before they went their separate ways.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

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Had this one on my mind after reviewing the Phantom Glue record earlier this week and being reminded of how awesome the drums sounded on it. Figured all the better to close out with it since between that and High Fighter‘s Scars and Crosses (review here), it was pretty metal around here this week, though the Nathanael Larochette on Tuesday and King Buffalo record today provided some counterbalance, which I like. A little of this, a little of that. In any case, thanks for reading.

Have you gotten your tickets yet for The Obelisk All-Dayer, Aug. 20 at Saint Vitus Bar??? They’re going. Get them here.

No, really. Do it.

I don’t mind telling you that last week was one of the worst I’ve ever had. I might write about it at some point, I might not, but yeah. Truly abysmal on a life-altering scale. It’s been a tough time, particularly for the last month — though starting a new job has been a largely positive experience — but I’m feeling better this week than I was last week and I’ll get through whatever I need to get through. I feel fortunate to have things like this site and The Obelisk All-Dayer in my life, both to provide distraction and to provide support when I need one or the other. And of course thank you to my wife, The Patient Mrs., for her boundless wisdom and love.

Next week? Let me check the notes…

Okay, gonna review the Bonehawk/King Nomad split from Ripple and hopefully Beelzefuzz if no other streams come through (there are a couple that might), but I’ve got a track stream and review planned for Church of the Cosmic Skull, who are kind of a new band who do a very lush classic prog, super-harmonized in the vocals with organ to match. Very cool sound. That’ll be up next Thursday, so look out for it. Also videos from Howling Giant and Lava Moth, which features former members of 500 ft. of Pipe, all the news that’s fit to cut, paste and put in blue typeface, and anything else I can think of along the way.

Headed to the beach this weekend, and though it’s raining today, I’m looking forward to watching the drops fall on the water and don’t at all mind a lack of pre-August overwhelming sun-assault. The Patient Mrs. and I have some friends coming north from Maryland, and I expect great times and great vibes to abound. I hope whatever you’ve got planned, you have a great and safe weekend.

Please check out the All-Dayer, the forum and the radio stream.

The Obelisk All-Dayer

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

 

Though they’ll end their career as a four-piece with the lineup of Nicholas Palmirotto, Seanbryant Dunn, Carmine Laietta and Jeff Stieber, when it came time to find a picture of the band to go with this post, I had to roll with the fivesome that included Drew Mack. Not that Brooklyn’s Hull couldn’t knock you on your ass with four members on stage, but it was the five-piece who in 2011 released the should-have-been-a-landmark full-length Beyond the Lightless Sky (review here), their second album for The End Records following their 2009 debut, Sole Lord, and 2007’s Viking Funeral demo, which the band later self-released on vinyl.

That album solidified what seemed a nebulous debut into one of the most innovative takes on post-metal to come from the East Coast — and yes, that counts Isis as a Boston band. Beyond the Lightless Sky was dynamic, ambitious and gorgeous even at its most brutal moments. Hull were in utter command of their sound and their songwriting. Peaks rose out of deep valleys, ambient stretches led to wave after crushing wave of furious riffing. They crossed genres the way most people step on slabs of sidewalk, and were perhaps underappreciated in a native borough drawn to sonically friendlier forms of psychedelia, heavy rock and doom, but when they got on stage and launched into “False Priest” or “Fire Vein,” there was no fucking with the world they created in their volume. They’re the kind of band who, people who saw them, will talk about having seen them.

Hull‘s final release was last year’s Legend of the Swamp Goat 7″ (review here), a reworked and expanded early recording issued to coincide with a European tour alongside Elder that included a stop at Roadburn in Tilburg, the Netherlands. I did not imagine last April as I showed up early to watch them soundcheck that would be the last time I’d get to see them play, but the earplug-melting heaviness they brought to bear was only further evidence of their broad reach, and it was no less lethal coming from Stage01 than it might’ve been at the Saint Vitus Bar. I always kind of felt like I took Hull for granted when I lived in the New York area. Beyond the Lightless Sky showed me the jackassery of that position, and at least I can say that the last time I watched them, I appreciated the hell out of being able to do so.

A follow-up to that record had been discussed for some time, and it’s unfortunate we won’t get to hear the next stage of Hull‘s development. On Saturday, Feb. 21, they will play their last show — never say never, of course, but one approaches a disbanding with some finality — with Wizard Rifle, their former tourmates in Elder and Cleanteeth, in whose lineup Mack currently resides, at CoCo 66.

Palmirotto announced the gig and thanked those who’ve supported the band over the years:

So, after 11 years with my brothers, Seanbryant, Carmine, Jeff, and Drew, It is with bittersweet sentiment to announce the “final” (what does final mean anyway?) HULL show on February, 21 at Coco SixtySix. This is the longest relationship I’ve ever been in, and although we all love each other like family, there are so many other things going on in our lives now that we decided it was best to throw a rager in celebration of the blood, sweat, tears, hardships, good times, etc. spent over the last decade, and go out with dignity.

A huge shout out to The Acheron and Bill, Denis, Carmen, Adrienne and Saint Vitus Bar and David, George, Arthur and Justin for the constant support and inimitable dedication to the scene. We figured that there was no way to choose between the two venues, so we decided to have the show elsewhere. Immense love to our manager, Luis with Necromono Mgmt for dealing with our bullshit over the years, our label, The End Records and Andreas Katsambas for putting up with our demands. Never ending love to Liz Ciavarella-Brenner and Dave from Earsplit Compound for the great PR, Kim Kelly for being the fucking awesome human she is, Atsuhiro Saisho for our logo and dear friendship, Jorden Haley, Tamara Waite-Santibanez, Nathan Overstrom, Josh Graham, Seldon Hunt, John Cook and David Cook for believing in us enough to grace us with your superb artwork, Brett Romnes for being our first drummer and brother in arms from the beginning and the I Am the Avalanche crew, Vinnie Carijuana, Mike Ireland, Kellen Thomas, Brandon Swanson for always being bros. caltrop and Sam, Adam, Murat and John for being the best tour buddies a band could ever ask for.

Mike , Travis, and Aaron from Yob for always being awesome to us. Billy Anderson for the skillz and the good times. Walter and Jurgen from Roadburn Festival for believing in us. Cameron Whitman for the amazing photographs and shoulder to lean on. David Jacobs for his lawful consulting and smiles and Ben Ritter for your images and laughs. Jason Flanell for the stupid tattoos and weird conversations. Tuck Pendelton for shredding the bass in the beginning. Markus Shaffer from Old Scratch Fabrications for his unbelievable craftsmanship and friendship. Joshua Lozano for always being there. Fade Kainer for always helping out. Of course my family, Gary, Carla, Lindsay and Stuart for always loving and never giving up on me. This list could go on forever. If I forgot anyone, I’m truly sorry. Please join us. XO

February 21st
HULL (The final show)
Elder
Wizard Rifle
Cleanteeth

At Coco SixtySix
66 Greenpoint Ave
Brooklyn, NY

Doors at 8
$13 adv / $15 day of
21+

https://www.facebook.com/events/314229055439458/
https://www.facebook.com/HULLsounds
https://soundcloud.com/hull666