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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tom Denney of I Klatus & Tom Denney Art

Posted in Questionnaire on April 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Tom Denney of I Klatus

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: Tom Denney of I Klatus & Tom Denney Art

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

The attempt is to create the heaviest expression. The desire to experience the heaviest expression has not been achieved. The frustration is in the continued attempts to capture the heaviest expression. It started before consciousness started. More of a destiny, or a magnetic tethering. The first expression was pre toddler smashing different cooking pots together to make the noises bend to the will. Then Tuba in grade school. The largest and most primal brass instrument. The amount of air your lungs could produce could generate tones, primal chaotic tones. When the air passed through the various curvatures of the brass pipe system, you could stagger the breath in combination with certain vocalizations to generate the alternating tones which would sound closer to animal. Like an elephant or large cetacean. Also the volume and vibration that would be caused in the room always fascinated.

From the age of 8-18 I was able to grow my lung power to the point that I could yield the tuba as a sonic weapon, creating sharp whipping noises that would create great amusement by the consternation of and within a football field radius. Which was often fun because we would actually perform at football fields, like the Orange Bowl in Florida. I would have to work with an assault line of other tuba players in order to project our internal lung capacity through the winding of the brass tubes over the combined voices of sixty thousand stadium goers.

Soon after that I traded in the tuba for bass guitar. Continuing to search for the sound until I finally got myself a Gibson six-string and proper mesa boogie full stack. Originally it was just noise that would clear out basement shows. Then it evolved. It continues, the search for the heaviest continues.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Playing on a big stage next to your best friends while every one is in sync. Playing music with other people, there have been so many times where it crosses over into the mystical. To attempt to point out one experience isn’t really viable. To say that there is something very metaphysical to playing live music with other talented musicians, it is as close to eucharistic transcendental experience that you could hope for as a human. Outside of jumping out of a plane, jamming live and really getting into sync with people musically is as close as you can get to the thrill of the void. It taps into a deeper part of my being. It’s proof of the resonance of sound and psychic abilities. They call it “Intuitive Playing”.

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

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Poverty.

How do you define success?

The ability to transmit a message and have it received by another participant.

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

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

I would like to create an animated series. Lots of colors and moving elements all set to music.

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

To capture the imagination, hold it in place. It is to make permanent the flowing of ideas which pass through the mind. Like taking a snapshot into the imagination, which is in itself with the flow of the nature of the universe. Where do ideas come from? Where every thing else in nature comes from. The Void. Pondering the void can lead to existential breakdown for most workers. However the artist stands at the edge of this void, tethered by a single rope, leaning into the void to report back to the rest of the culture the changing tides and torrents of the void. A seed springs forth from the shadowy mud as a stalk of receiving, searching for the light. Most people only want to hear about the light, see pictures of it in advertisements, listen to other people conduct their opinions about the mater. Yet only the artist are compelled to explore it in person. The experience of which can either destroy you or make you whole. For it is the true spirit of man which feeds of art. It holds immense value.

It will be the only way we have to tell our story to future generations. Art is our only document of how our souls are currently surviving, impacted by the flow of creation, and living in the warm embrace of a central star that will eventually go supernova and destroy us in every sense. We look to the art to show us lifetimes beyond our own, possibilities of our seed passing on through the darkness of space into a never dying new form of awareness. Art is the life raft of our culture through the deafening sour void that is existence. Destruction and cosmic survival intertwined. Like coiled serpents flowing in unison into each other for all eternity. Art is the promise of a cosmic rebirth. Through sound, and vision and storytelling in all its forms and conjurations. The art and its creator is our truest form of magick. As everything emanates from the void of the mind firstly and then through skill and control, is transcribed onto paper or computer. Then the engineers set to crafting it and it is made real.

Every technological miracle mankind has achieved from the wheel to the space vehicles, it all started with the artist, transcribing the vision for others to follow. On the cave wall with charcoal or the corporate hi rises with light pens and holographic interface. It will always be the artist at the forefront of these unfoldments. A visionary artist is your best friend when it comes to conjuring and manifesting the unseen or impossible. The artist will find the way, the artist will build the path that leads to kingdoms built of knowing. Like the temple of prayer which all emperors are crowned upon was envisioned by an artist, hanging over the edge of the void. The realms of chaos and noise. From which he conjures something pure. Something that we all can interpret differently, and subscribe to and follow. Art is not a religion, it is THE RELIGION, which is called by many names. Its unfoldment will continue to astound us and lead us into the future. Through fashion and technology, and interpersonal relationships, art will continue to be the life raft that carries all the consciousness of humanity forward. Into the void of unknowing, and the retainment of the past.
Art is our only promise of immortality.

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

The Apocalypse

https://www.tomdenney.com/
https://instagram.com/tomdenney_art

https://iklatus.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/iklatus
https://twitter.com/i_klatus

https://deadsage.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/dead_sage_records
https://www.facebook.com/Deadsagerecords

I Klatus, Targeted (2022)

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I Klatus Premiere Targeted in Full; Give Track-by-Track Breakdown

Posted in audiObelisk, Features on March 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

i klatus

Chicago purveyors of avant darkness, harsh metal, noise and sludge disaffection I Klatus are set to release their new album, Targeted, this Friday, April 1, through their own Dead Sage Records label. As with 2017’s Nagual Sun (review here) and 2013’s Kether (featured here), their volatility is their own on this fifth full-length. Their tribalism their own. As it has throughout their 20-plus years of existence, phasing into and out of our reality like a flash from some manipulated subdimensional core, their underlying chaos of mind feels sincere. The three-piece of founding guitarist/vocalist Tom Denney (also visuals here and for a wide slew of others), bassist/vocalist John E. Bomher (Bury the Machines, Indian, Yakuza), who also mixed and mastered at Berwyn Recording, and drummer/vocalist Chris Wozniak (Lair of the Minotaur and that’s all you need) conjure a visceral, inward-born darkness. It is not accessible, or friendly, or kind. Targeted mangles with a grief born of addiction, mental illness, violence. While it’s nowhere near the most thrashing of sounds, to call it anything less than extreme is underselling it.

In just five tracks and 28 minutes, I Klatus portray this grim fascia of right now, utilizing a deceptive depth of arrangement and the inclusion of guest spots from Allison Chesley (aka Helen Money) on cello and Valentina Levchenko on vocalsi klatus targeted for opener “Solstice of Wind,” violin/cello from Joseph Starita on the subsequent “Shitback and Halfway Damned,” lyrics from Michael McEvoy on the especially gruesome “Dance With the Skulls in the Church,” and gongs and more from Patrick Hamilton on grinding centerpiece “Opium Cyborg” and the more extended closing title-track, which moves from its quiet beginning to cast its own post-sludgy vision of paranoia, conspiracy, and malevolence. If there is a soul, it is a thing to be mourned. Gone.

One could write a dissertation on the sociopolitical statement being inherently made. If this is some version of how a piece of the post-Rust Belt white working class views itself and its experience, then that is one more level on which I Klatus sound well and truly fucked. I’ll spare you the blah-blah-blah (this much, anyhow) and leave you instead to the morose back half of “Shitback and Halfway Damned,” the bleak krautrock of “Dance With the Skulls in the Church” and the anti-genre strive for understanding of “Targeted” itself. There’s performance happening here, of course — I Klatus didn’t just hit record and Targeted magically came out; these songs were built carefully and fleshed out even beyond the bounds of the trio themselves — but it’s rare to hear something raw enough at its heart to feel as authentic as this does in what it’s trying to convey.

You can stream the full album below, followed by a track-by-track generously put together by the band.

I’m not sure if “enjoy” is the right word, but maybe “appreciate” would work.

Either way, good luck:

PREORDER: https://iklatus.bandcamp.com/album/targeted

I Klatus on Targeted:

I Klatus started off as a college basement noise project just after the twin towers fell. Like the blob, the project consumed other artists, digesting their talent. It slowly grew in scope, embellishing the fundamentals of musicianship rooted in sonic exploration with downtuned guitars. The subtle frequencies, hums and grinding synthesizers have always reminded us of the sounds of madness, the type of white noise that comes to mind through transcendental meditation. It is at the core of our beliefs that Sonics are the Foundation of the Universe and by exploring the sounds of noise, we further delve into the expanse that is universal creation and we challenge the listener to join us on the journey and find the songs within the sounds. This is the fundamental groundwork by which all our songs take root and find expansion; like a tree growing through the floorboards of an abandoned society. Noise in a very real sense is a type of deity in itself. One that we take a knee to and worship wholeheartedly.

Immediately on the heels of “Nagual Sun,” the band went into seclusion in the cold mountain town of Snoqualmie, WA, to write and record a follow-up. 14 sunless days went by and in stark contrast to the summer sun filled experience of Los Angeles which inspired “Nagual Sun,” we forced ourselves to write without any distractions from jobs or family, without any sunshine or warmth. Just cold rain and troll spirits.

The entire concept of the album is about fear, addict ion, and psychosis. Confronting the self-obsessed fears often faced by those with mental health challenges such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder. Often times, these unfortunate victims of their own minds are terrorized by unseen entities which cause them to turn to drugs and other strange behavior to cope with the daily horrors which plague them. An irrational fear of being followed, tracked, and hunted. Fear of being implanted with microchips while unconscious; injecting shadow entities their nightmares, nightmares which bleed into daytime realities. The psychosis is infectious, affecting who you’re able to trust. Here we confront the harsh reality that we’re face to face with when these kinds of struggles affect our loved ones, and we find ourselves in a position of needing to protect ourselves from these unseen forces which are very real to the victims of such maladies.

Solstice of Wind

Air as an element is often associated with breath, life, communication, and the holy spirit connection. The solstice is when a star reaches its solar maximum. As far as we are concerned here on Earth, the Sun is our Lord, governing agriculture and survival. We revere and celebrate the abundance of life it brings. The tribal drums and ancient sonic tools (such as the bullroar) used to make the rhythmic patterns of this song symbolizes the breath of life, a petition to the Lord.

The lyrics channel the chaos energy of the dragon, a war cry. A vow to conquer the unknown and to meet the challenges of daily survival through the breath and the beat; petitioning the light to awaken the dawn of actualization. We beat the drums in hopes to open a portal to a place of reverence. An altar where the sonic ritual brings us to timelessness, which may end our suffering.

Shitback and Halfway Damned

A song that deals with having to take measures to protect yourself from people who were formerly very close to you. Friends and family members who become infected with this black ooze of fear and mind control. No matter if it comes from addiction to a foreign substance or a malfunction in the frontal cortex of the brain. The tension in the song reflects this notion that you must constantly be gripping some sort of weapon, metaphorically or physically. To constantly be on edge like you need to protect yourself from someone who you are required to allow entrance to your house, or your personal space, both fists clenched.

It features Joseph Starita (Hunt Hunt Hunt Camp, Unique Sheik) on the violins and cellos conjuring the feeling of being on sinking ship in a violent storm, water ripping you to shreds before sending you down into the briny depths to be lost forever in darkness.

Opium Cyborg

This song is about losing your humanity and your soul to the opiates. Injecting the flesh with some sort of synthetic that replaces the viability of human consciousness, thus overriding any sense of humanity and replacing it with a cybernetic high of mind. No longer capable of independent thought. No longer viewing the abilities of human empathy or emotion. It is about literally being transformed into a robot while trying to find God, through substances.

As if to say this attempt to find solace transforms you physically, mentally, and spiritually into a cybernetic automaton, going through the motions of being human but vacant of those sacred aspects which make up your “soul.” As I sit here writing this, I’m looking over my brother’s ravaged and mangled body, destroyed by years of abuse, wires and tubes coming out of everywhere, limbs lost… a casualty of this opioid crisis.

Dance With the Skulls in the Church

Inspired by the real-life case of the Hampstead Children, it tiptoes upon the precipice of the “eyes wide shut” realm of conspiracy and satanic ritual abuse. The unbelievable accusations of the children who said that the church leaders would practice dark rituals when the church doors were closed amongst a secret few elite in which they would actually dance in the church nude with the bleached skulls of murdered babies; by decree of archbishops and parents who would partake in the macabre dance ritual hidden beyond the gaze of decency, beyond the influence of the righteous.

This piece features the noisy textures of our label mate Patrick Hamilton (Viaverso) a Chicago mainstay with a strange ear for psychedelia and a first-hand knowledge of the horrors of which we speak. We were so pleased with his contributions to this one that we invited him to add his “gongs and robots” to the album’s title track.

Targeted

Targeted is centered around the odd phenomenon of feeling subjugated and harassed by unseen forces of influence on a daily basis. People who believe they are targeted are somehow born into it because of their genetics. They are marked by unseen adversaries, be it elite government agencies or something higher, the end result being the consistent and unending harassment via an array of attack modules all of which share in common a specific undeniable scientific reality.

The deeper you delve into the targeted-individual psychosis the more you find out that it is a type of spiritual warfare where demons or entities from other dimensions not too dissimilar from aliens at Roswell, are shifting in and out of reality to cajole or attempt to belittle and over time harass into Insanity the victims. The purpose of this is unclear but victims describe something more akin to the poltergeist experience. In fact, seeing shadow beings in mirrors and having objects disappear or reappear, a spiritual warfare.

The battleground is the soul, and the war is fought for sanity. The victims of this psychosis seem to have no control over their reality and this to me is the most horrifying prospect imaginable. To wake up and have zero control over your substance, over your surroundings. Nothing could be more terrifying than this thought that there are overseeing demigods which have only mischief and chaos in mind for your life.

This strips you of autonomy. It strips you of your voice of creation because nothing you can do or say can extricate yourself from this environment of constant surveillance and individualized attacks. The worst and most terrifying aspect of this is that you are doomed to have no one believe you. What would you do if you woke up in this type of situation? What would any of us do?

Mixed and mastered by John E. Bomher at Berwyn Recording, with layout/artwork by Tom Denney, Targeted also features guest performances by Alison Chesley aka Helen Money (cello on “Solstice Of Wind), Valentina Levchenko (vocals on “Solstice Of Wind”), Joseph Starita (violin, cello on “Shitback And Halfway Damned”), Patrick Hamilton (gongs, robots on “Opium Cyborg” and “Targeted”), and guest lyricist Michael McEvoy on “Dance With The Skulls In The Church.”

I KLATUS:
Tom Denney – guitar, voice, noise
John E Bomher – bass, voice, noise
Chris Wozniak – drums, voice

I Klatus on Bandcamp

I Klatus on Facebook

I Klatus on Twitter

Dead Sage Records on Bandcamp

Dead Sage Records on Instagram

Dead Sage Records on Facebook

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I, Klatus Anounce Targeted Due April 1

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 4th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

i klatus

In their own festering way, I, Klatus have been active for over 20 years, working at the behest largely of guitarist/vocalist Tom Denney — also a visual artist one might call when looking for something equal measures of fucked up and cool looking and/or mud-brown psychedelia — and the impending Targeted that’s to be released April 1 through the band’s own Dead Sage Records imprint will be their fifth album in that time, following behind 2017’s Nagual Sun (review here). Which, yes, was fucked up, mud-brown psychedelia and topped by cool looking cover art to match.

I haven’t heard any of Targeted as yet, but I’ll have ears open, as I, Klatus have long since found their niche between Chicago’s atmospheric-everything ethic and rawer, Midwestern Rust Belt sludge, post-industrial in the economic sense rather than the aesthetic, disaffected and ultimately its own kind of extreme, ultra-dug-in heavy.

If you think you can hang, maybe you can, maybe you can’t. Nothing’s up from the record as yet, but you can check out a video for “Moment of Devastation” below from the prior album, and yeah, that should get the point across nicely. This band never has been and never will be for everyone. That is completely intentional.

From the PR wire:

i klatus targeted

I KLATUS: Chicago Sludge/Doom Metal Trio To Release Targeted Full-Length Through Dead Sage In April

Chicago, Illinois-based esoteric sludge/doom metal trio I KLATUS presents their fourth full-length, Targeted, confirming the album for release through their own Dead Sage label in April.

I KLATUS is embodied by drummer Chris Wozniak (Lair Of The Minotaur, Earthen Grave), bassist John Bomher (Yakuza, Indian), and guitarist/vocalist/visual artist Tom Denney (renowned artist for Soilent Green, Kylesa, Weedeater, Black Cobra, Rwake, Samothrace, among countless others).

The entire concept of I KLATUS’ new album, Targeted, is about fear, addiction, and psychosis, confronting the self-obsessed fears often faced by those with mental health challenges such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Often, these unfortunate victims of their own minds are terrorized by unseen entities which cause them to turn to drugs and other strange behavior to cope with the daily horrors which plague them. An irrational fear of being followed, tracked, and hunted. Fear of being implanted with microchips while unconscious; injecting shadow entities into their nightmares; nightmares which bleed into daytime realities. The psychosis is infectious, affecting who you’re able to trust. Here, the band confronts the harsh reality that we’re face-to-face with when these kinds of struggles affect our loved ones, and we find ourselves in a position of needing to protect ourselves from these unseen forces which are very real to the victims of such maladies.

Mixed and mastered by John E. Bomher at Berwyn Recording, with layout/artwork by Tom Denney, Targeted also features guest performances by Alison Chesley aka Helen Money (cello on “Solstice Of Wind), Valentina Levchenko (vocals on “Solstice Of Wind”), Joseph Starita (violin, cello on “Shitback And Halfway Damned”), Patrick Hamilton (gongs, robots on “Opium Cyborg” and “Targeted”), and guest lyricist Michael McEvoy on “Dance With The Skulls In The Church.”

I KLATUS will release Targeted through the band’s own Dead Sage imprint on April 1st, digitally and in a limited run of cassettes. Stand by for preorders, audio previews, and more to be issued over the weeks ahead preceding its release.

Targeted Track Listing:
1. Solstice Of Wind
2. Shitback And Halfway Damned
3. Opium Cyborg
4. Dance With The Skulls In The Church
5. Targeted

I KLATUS:
Tom Denney – guitar, voice, noise
John E Bomher – bass, voice, noise
Chris Wozniak – drums, voice

https://iklatus.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/iklatus
https://twitter.com/i_klatus
https://deadsage.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/dead_sage_records
https://www.facebook.com/Deadsagerecords

I, Klatus, “Moment of Devastation” official video

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I Klatus Post Visual Freakout for “Moment of Devastation”

Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 15th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

i klatus

The more time I spend in the company of I Klatus‘ fourth album, Nagual Sun (review here), the less certain I am it’s intended for human consumption. Issued by the Chicago-based band themselves, it resides on a wavelength between the teeth-churning grit of sludge and a resonant, drug-cult psychedelia, running in deep-toned colorful hues through eight component tracks in a consuming 57 minute sprawl of misanthropic vibing and unbridled heft. What drives me to make the human consumption remark isn’t so much that it isn’t accessible — though, for sure, it’s not and it isn’t trying to be — so much as its exploration feels driven by something insular; a journey more likely to turn within than without. I just don’t think the band made it for anyone other than themselves.

That kind of honesty of expression is rare, and somewhat perhaps tempered by the visual aspect of what I Klatus do. With noted artist Tom Denney in the guitarist/vocalist role alongside bassist/vocalist/producer John E. Bomher, Jr. and drummer Chris Wozniak, I Klatus have thus far produced four videos for songs from Nagual Sun. All are made by Denney. The latest, for “Moment of Devastation,” can be viewed below and follows behind clips for “Final Communion” and “Beneath the Waves” (both posted here) and “Sorcerer’s Gaze” (posted here). Again, there are eight tracks total on the album.

I can’t help but wonder if they’re not en route to providing a video for each song on the record, and whether they ultimately do that or not, it shows how closely knit the relationship between the visual and the aural is for the band. If you’re prone to headaches from flashing lights, seizures or anything like that, you might want to watch out before digging into “Moment of Devastation,” but one way or another, the lysergic gruel conjured definitely makes a fitting complement to the song itself. You’ll also find the full album streaming at the bottom of this post, if you haven’t heard it yet. Just remember it’s not about you. You’re a bystander. Keep that in your open mind and you should be good to go.

Enjoy:

I, Klatus, “Moment of Devastation” official video

Chicago Doom/Sludge eclectics I KLATUS have released the official video for “Moment of Devastation,” a track from new album Nagual Sun. Go forth and devastate below.

Nagual Sun is available on digital and analog (cassette) formats. Stream and/or purchase at: https://iklatus.bandcamp.com/album/nagual-sun

The highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s Kether is the band’s third full-length album (and fifth release overall).

I Klatus is:
Tom Denney – guitar/vocals/art
John E. Bomher, Jr. – bass/vocals/production
Chris Wozniak – drums

I Klatus, Nagual Sun (2017)

I Klatus on Bandcamp

I Klatus on Thee Facebooks

I Klatus on Twitter

I Klatus on Instagram

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I Klatus Post “Final Communion” Video; Nagual Sun out Now

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 19th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

i klatus

Guitarist/vocalist Tom Denney of I Klatus has a visual style that’s no less warped than the bleak, all-brown-and-grey psychedelia conjured by his band. In his graphics work, one finds ritualistic vibes and elements cast sometimes into an oblivion of richly-hued colors or sometimes turned monstrous by forces unknown, and listening to the churn brought to bear in “Final Communion,” the closing track from I Klatus‘ fourth and latest full-length, Nagual Sun (review here), the impression is little different. There’s a firm sense of the sound being born as a rite of space-creation, the making of a world in which to dwell, and it’s a place that Denney, bassist John E. Bomher, Jr., and drummer Chris Wozniak craft unmistakably as their own.

Perhaps most of all, I Klatus‘ music is a space in which the band itself can get lost in transcendentalist fashion. To wit, the last interaction of chants in “Final Communion” seem to be as much about trying to grasp the ethereal at the very ending minute as much as creating some outward engagement of atmosphere. It’s the band reaching inward. Audience becomes almost a secondary or tertiary consideration to the process of the ritual itself. I don’t think they mind witnesses — if they did, why record at all? — but there’s something so personal about “Final Communion” that makes it the perfect summary of Nagual Sun‘s remarkably bizarre but deeply nuanced proceedings, righteously heavy in their tone and in the underlying animalism of their methods.

Though I won’t take anything away from the animation or how well the smoky colorations and symbols represent the song, the highlight of the “Final Communion” video is the track itself. The band posted it as the third visual representation of Nagual Sun behind clips for “Sorcerer’s Gaze” (posted here) and “Beneath the Waves,” the latter of which you can also see at the bottom of this post, where you’ll also find the full stream of the record from I Klatus‘ Bandcamp, just because I think it’s worth your time. Hopefully you agree.

Please enjoy:

I Klatus, “Final Communion” official video

Coinciding with the release of new album Nagual Sun, Chicago Doom/Sludge eclectics I KLATUS have released the official video for album cut “Final Communion.”

Nagual Sun is available on digital and analog (cassette) formats. Stream and/or purchase at: https://iklatus.bandcamp.com/album/nagual-sun

The overall sound of Nagual Sun maintains the gritty roots for which I KLATUS is known, while at the same time launches the group into new and more fully fleshed-out dimensions of weirdness. Tom Denney is the primary soothsayer behind I KLATUS. Denney trades growling vocals with bass player, John E. Bomher, Jr. (BURY THE MACHINES, YAKUZA), who doubles as the band’s producer with his extensive experience in the studio; his work on the album sets this release head and shoulders above their previous efforts in terms of production quality.

The drums are championed by Chris Wozniak (LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, EARTHEN GRAVE, SERPENT CROWN) who metes out doom in guttural timing. Some noises and textures by former member, Robert Bauwens, are also tucked into the nooks and crannies of these tracks.

I Klatus is:
Tom Denney – guitar/vocals/art
John E. Bomher, Jr. – bass/vocals/production
Chris Wozniak – drums

I Klatus, Nagual Sun (2017)

I Klatus, “Beneath the Waves” official video

I Klatus on Bandcamp

I Klatus on Thee Facebooks

I Klatus on Twitter

I Klatus on Instagram

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Here are 40+ New Releases to Look for in the Next Three Weeks

Posted in Features on September 21st, 2017 by JJ Koczan

Starting tomorrow, the next three weeks are absolutely stupid with new albums. Over-the-top, ridiculous. An immediately-go-broke amount of music. Nothing less than an onslaught. We’re under attack.

Far be it from me to tell you how to spend your money — also far be it from me not to — but there’s some really killer stuff in here. As to why it’s all landing now? Some of it of course has to do with the timing of when it was recorded, bands hitting the studio in Spring before heading out on the road over the summer, but Fall releases also line up nicely for tours in October and November, heading into the holiday season, when the music industry basically shuts down. This is the last chance for releases to come out in 2017 and be considered for best-of-year lists.

I doubt the likes of Chelsea Wolfe or Godspeed You! Black Emperor or even Kadavar would cop to that as a motivating factor, instead pointing to the timing of Fall touring and so on, but these things are rarely coincidental. You know how there aren’t any blockbusters in January but every movie feels like it’s trying to win an Oscar? Same kind of deal.

Nonetheless, 2017 is laying it on particularly thick these next couple weeks, and as you can see in the lists below, if you’ve got cash to spend, you can pretty much choose your rock and roll adventure. I’ll add to this as need be as well, so keep an eye for changes:

Sept. 22:

Alcest, Souveinirs d’un Autre Monde (10th Anniversary Edition)
Brant Bjork, Europe ’16
Chelsea Wolfe, Hiss Spunthe-flying-eyes-burning-of-the-season
Epitaph, Claws
Faces of the Bog, Ego Death
The Flying Eyes, Burning of the Season
Fvzz Popvli, Fvzz Dei
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Luciferian Towers
Jarboe & Father Murphy, Jarboe & Father Murphy
Monarch, Never Forever
Nibiru, Qaal Babalon
Process of Guilt, Black Earth
Satyricon, Deep Calleth Upon Deep
Spelljammer, Inches from the Sun (Reissue)
Thonian Horde, Inconnu
Trash Titan, Welcome to the Banana Party
Ufomammut, 8
With the Dead, Love from With the Dead
Wolves in the Throne Room, Thrice Woven

Sept. 29:

monolord rust
Cities of Mars, Temporal Rifts
Deadsmoke, Mountain Legacy
A Devil’s Din, One Hallucination Under God
Disastroid, Missiles
Jim Healey, Just a Minute More (Sept. 26)
Idylls, The Barn
Kadavar, Rough Times
Lucifer’s Chalice, The Pact
Monolord, Rust
Outsideinside, Sniff a Hot Rock
Radio Moscow, New Beginnings
Scream of the Butterfly, Ignition
Tronald, Tronald (Sept. 30)
Unsane, Sterilize
Wucan, Reap the Storm

Oct. 6:

fireball-ministry-remember-the-storyElder Druid, Carmina Satanae
Fireball Ministry, Remember the Story
Frank Sabbath, Are You Waiting? (Oct. 2)
Himmellegeme, Myth of Earth
House of Broken Promises, Twisted EP
O.R.B., Naturality
Primitive Man, Caustic
Spirit Adrift, Curse of Conception
Spotlights, Seismic
Sumokem, The Guardian of Yosemite
Torso, Limbs
White Manna, Bleeding Eyes

Also:

Oct. 13: Enslaved, Firebreather, I Klatus, R.I.P., Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats (reissue), Weird Owl, etc.

Oct. 20: Iron Monkey, Spectral Haze, Bell Witch, The Spacelords, etc.

Something I forgot?

Invariably, right? If you know of something not seen above that should be, then by all means, please leave a comment letting me know. My only ask is that you keep it civil and not call me a fucking idiot or anything like that. I write these posts very early in the day, and if something has been neglected, I assure you it’s not on purpose and I’m happy to correct any and all oversights.

Thanks for reading and happy shopping. Support local record stores.

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Review & Track Premiere: I Klatus, Nagual Sun

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 11th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

i-klatus-nagual-sun

[Click play above to stream the premiere of ‘The Alivist’ from I Klatus’ new album, Nagual Sun, out Oct. 13.]

There are any number of stylistic impressions one might get throughout the 57 minutes of Nagual Sun, the fourth long-player from Chicago’s I Klatus (also written as I, Klatus). Most of them are thoroughly fucked. It is a potent brew of atmospheric sludge extremity the four-piece bring to their material for their first outing since 2013’s Kether (discussed here), and while one might hear shades of YOB or Zoroaster in opener “Beneath the Waves” or the later lumbering of “Jaws of the Shark,” there are deathly undertones through which I Klatus distinguish themselves and turn any colorful psychedelia into shades of brown and gray, their wash of noise by texturist Robert Bauwens part more of an assault than a landscape, despite being hypnotic in its own, bleak manner.

Led by guitarist/vocalist Tom Denney — also a noted illustrator/graphic designer — I Klatus dealt their last time out with the suicide of former bassist Tariq Ali, but here with drummer Chris Wozniak (also Lair of the Minotaur and Earthen Grave, among others) and bassist/clean-vocalist/producer John E. Bomher, Jr. (Yakuza), they might as well be mourning the passing of society as a whole with their postmodern screwall that pervades tracks like the blackened-leaning-but-still-early-Crowbar-catchy “Sorcerer’s Gaze” (video posted here) or the terrifyingly rolling “The Alivist,” which is the longest inclusion at 9:43 and plunges to depths all its own while also leaving space for stoner churn and post-High on Fire gallop. Though based in the Windy City, their sound has roots aesthetically in the same strikingly Midwestern, pill-popping Rust Belt disaffection that gave the world the likes of Fistula, Ultralord, Morbid Wizard and Sollubi, but none of those acts seem to be chasing or conjuring the same kinds of demons as I Klatus are and do on Nagual Sun, and so while aspects may be familiar, the ultimate downward course of the album belongs to Denney and company alone.

And make no mistake, they own it. From the feedback coating in which the launch of “Beneath the Waves” arrives to the deceptively intricate layering in the vocals and the vaguest touch of melody — which is, it’s worth noting outright, no less out of place here — that pervades closer “Final Communion,” I Klatus establish themselves as a litmus for how far sludge can be pushed in substance before it simply oozes down into its component pieces. To wit, even as Nagual Sun seems to revel in defeat after defeat, there’s something defiant about a song like “Moment of Devastation,” which explodes in death metal growls over spacious cosmic doom and shifts with surprising ease back and forth between that and almost minimalist stretches of nonetheless-tense drift. With its robot-effects clean vocals, blasts and so on, “Beneath the Waves” sets up a pretty broad context for the rest of the album to take place within, so as I Klatus bring what seems like experimental fruit to bear in “Serpent Cults,” “Sorcerer’s Gaze” and “Moment of Devastation,” they’ve allowed themselves the room to explore as they will.

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Part of that is a palpable sense of not giving a shit about sticking to genre, from which the songs also benefit, but while Nagual Sun willfully borders on unmanageably long, there are enough shifts throughout to hold the listener’s attention or at very least give them enough of a consciousness-pummeling to render them immobile for the duration. But it is a slog, and clearly intended to be one as “The Alivist,” “Jaws of the Shark” and “Final Communion” — even with the two-minute “Father John Thomas (The Penitent)” set as a penultimate interlude — all top eight minutes long and give a sense that as it plods through, the drudgery of I Klatus‘ work only becomes more infused with the stench of death. This is, again, how the record casts its accomplishment. The feeling of something rotting in the midsection of “Sorcerer’s Gaze” or the sudden rise of swirling wah in “The Alivist” circa the five-minute mark — these are purposefully arranged elements used to convey an atmosphere. There’s nothing haphazard about Nagual Sun; nothing that isn’t where and what the band wants it to be.

So even as its vibe is down almost in the exclusive, Nagual Sun succeeds by building the world in which “Jaws of the Shark” and “Final Communion” take place. It is about the realization of these grim, rueful ideas, rather than about offering their audience a lifeline. That’s not to say I Klatus don’t cast a broad set in terms of sound, but as Celtic Frost once did to thrash metal and as acts like Ramesses did to doom, they seem to push into terrain that’s just that extra bit filthy, just that extra bit darker, more extreme in its perspective. The plunder in “Jaws of the Shark?” Terrifying. The noise that coats the apex of “Final Communion?” It absconds into the far-out until it seems to finally pull itself apart and end the record more or less through dissipation — as fitting a last turn as one could ask for a release the intensity of which has been so obliterating, even in its quietest, most brooding stretches.

Each track on Nagual Sun adds something to the whole of the album’s impression, and while I Klatus set those who would engage with their work up for a grueling journey, there’s little question their fourth LP is meant to be taken in its entirety. Because of the growling, the bitter severity in some of its tones and the sheer force in its rawness, it will be too much for some, and that’s fine. Music like this isn’t meant to be universal. Rather, it’s a personal expression of time, place and thought, and I Klatus carve out a nuanced space for themselves amid the bludgeoning and the drear that ensues, making their doom not necessarily miserable in the emotion it conveys à la European-style drama-staging (or, if we want to keep it to Chicago, the also-deathly Novembers Doom), but a tangible result of that downtroddenness itself. Like Marcel Duchamp’s urinal a century ago, Nagual Sun challenges our conceptions of form and structure, asks what is and what can be art in a world so empty, and offers its answers in the fact of its existence as the result of a creative process and the brutality taking place within its scope.

I Klatus, “Sorcerer’s Gaze” official video

I Klatus on Bandcamp

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I Klatus Post “Sorcerer’s Gaze” Video; Nagual Sun out Oct. 13

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 28th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

I think maybe more than ever it might be fair to think of Chicago’s I Klatus as a North American answer to the dug-in sludge cultism of UK outfits Ramesses and/or 11Paranoias. From the extremity they show on their new album, Nagual Sun, in the blackened genre-spanning reaches of “Sorcerer’s Gaze,” for which you can see a new video below, to the dirt-caked early-Crowbarism of a song like “Serpent Cults,” I Klatus seem to have found a similar wavelength to the UK troupe. Neither band pokes their head up all that often — I Klatus‘ last outing was 2013’s Kether (discussed here) — but you can rest assured that when they do, there’s some seriously disaffected, post-industrial-collapse doom about to play out that, apart perhaps from itself, shares its sonic space with just about nobody.

My hope is to have more on this one before Oct. 13 gets here, but we’ll see how that goes. Either way, keep an eye out for it if you’re looking for a litmus test for how much punishment you can take:

i klatus nagual sun

Chicago Doom/Sludge Eclectics I KLATUS to Release ‘Nagual Sun’ on October 13

Chicago Doom/Sludge eclectics I KLATUS will release Nagual Sun October 13 on digital and analog (cassette) formats. The highly anticipated follow-up to 2012’s Kether is the band’s third full-length album (and fifth release overall). An official video for album track “Sorcerer’s Gaze” is available at this location.

The overall sound of Nagual Sun maintains the gritty roots for which I KLATUS is known, while at the same time launches the group into new and more fully fleshed-out dimensions of weirdness. Tom Denney is the primary soothsayer behind I KLATUS. Denney, whose background is steeped in the visual arts, has provided artwork and monsters for a laundry list of signed metal acts in the community (KYLESA, BLACK COBRA, SAMOTHRACE, CANNIBAL CORPSE, CEPHALIC CARNAGE and RWAKE just to name a few). His guitar squalls hard against the shores of this stoner metal effort, but also manages to rise above the storm in melodic hymns. Denney trades growling vocals with bass player, John E. Bomher, Jr. (BURY THE MACHINES, YAKUZA), who keeps things grinding nicely, while also providing some sweeter tones when they let songs open up and sweep across more ethereal planes.

Bomher doubles as the band’s producer with his extensive experience in the studio; his work on the album sets this release head and shoulders above their previous efforts in terms of production quality. The drums are championed by Chris Wozniak (LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR, EARTHEN GRAVE, SERPENT CROWN) who metes out doom in guttural timing. Wozniak just pounds and pounds, hitting that sonic-pocket, which gives the stoner/doom genre its feeling of lift and expansiveness. Some noises and textures by former member, Robert Bauwens, are also tucked into the nooks and crannies of these tracks. Last by not least, special thanks goes to author Ryan Sean O’Reilly for his contributions to the press release.

Track Listing:

Side A
Beneath the Waves
Serpent Cults
Sorcerer’s Gaze
Moment of Devastation

Side B
The Alivist
Jaws of the Shark
Father John Thomas (The Penitent)
Final Communion

https://iklatus.bandcamp.com/releases
www.facebook.com/iklatus
www.twitter.com/i_klatus
www.instagram.com/iklatus

I Klatus, “Sorcerer’s Gaze” official video

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