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Ealdor Bealu Announce New Album Psychic Forms

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Ealdor Bealu

Brazen in its forward reach, the upcoming third album, Psychic Forms, by Boise, Idaho, four-piece Ealdor Bealu, is set to release April 22 through Metal Assault Records. And oh my goodness. Its five tracks run a particularly gorgeous and progressive 40-minute stretch, and with preorders coming Feb. 18, I know word’s out early here, but wow this record right on. With vocal contributions from guitarists Carson Russell (also Ghorot) and Travis X. Abbott (also Sawtooth Monk) as well as bassist Rylie Collingwood — I never realized how many double-letters there were in this band; I wonder if drummer Michael Mulcock feels left out, though at least he’s got some alliteration — their earthen psychedelic procession has never sounded more vital or patient in its flow and you’ll pardon me if I just cut to the chase, save the review for the review, and tell you that it’s already on my best of 2022 list.

So think of this as a heads up, or a keep-your-eyes-peeled or just a more-to-come if you want. Whatever gets you there. There’s no audio from Psychic Forms yet to share, much to my chagrin — opener “Be Ye Gone” makes the point beautifully and will serve as the lead single next month — but 2019’s Spirit of the Lonely Places (review here), which was also one of that year’s favorite offerings, is streaming below to give you a base to work from as it seems they’ve also done.

Go ahead:

Ealdor Bealu Psychic Forms

EALDOR BEALU – Psychic Forms – April 22

New Full-Length Album(3rd): Psychic Forms
Release Date: Friday April, 22nd 2022
First Single/Vinyl Pre-Order: Friday February, 18th 2022

Record Label: Metal Assault Records (LA)
Medium: 200 Multi-Color Vinyl, 200 CD, Digital
Recorded and Mixed by: Z.V. House @ Rabbit Brush Audio (Boise, ID)
Mastered by: James Plotkin
Album Artwork: Leoncio Harmr

We’re thrilled to finally announce that our new album Psychic Forms will be released into the world on Friday, April 22nd on Vinyl/CD/Digital via Metal Assault Records!! Recorded in Boise, ID by Z.V. House of Rabbit Brush Audio and mastered by the legend himself James Plotkin, Psychic Forms is the strongest album Ealdor Bealu has ever achieved in all aspects of song craft, performance, and production. It is also our first offering with new drummer Michael Mulcock steering the rhythm section to prolific and uncharted territory, as well as our first to be fully supported by a record label. Metal Assault Records has an incredibly creative and formidable roster, and we’re honored to be able to work with this rapidly growing label on our new album.

The majestic, sprawling gate-fold artwork for the record was created by Italy’s Leoncio Harmr, and lends itself perfectly to the diverse and unpredictable album it bears. Always with a mind toward the natural world around us, but steeped in the intricacies of our own human existence and struggles, Psychic Forms delves deep into the path Ealdor Bealu has carved out over these past 7 years all the while pushing toward bold and surprising new realms.

The first single from Psychic Forms, Be Ye Gone, arrives on Friday, February 18th as well as the Vinyl Pre-Order kickoff via Metal Assault Records. Follow us on all platforms for tons of new content over the coming weeks and months as our album release draws closer!!

Track Listing:

Be Ye Gone 9:28
Fade into Nothing 8:15

Way of the Sudden Storm 7:05
Laid on Display 7:04
Mirror Reflecting Mirror 8:07

Ealdor Bealu is:
Carson Russell: Guitar, Vocals
Rylie Collingwood: Bass, Vocals
Travis Abbott: Guitar, Vocals
Michael Mulcock: Drums

https://www.facebook.com/ealdorbealu/
https://www.instagram.com/ealdorbealu/
https://ealdorbealu.bandcamp.com/
http://facebook.com/metalassaultla
http://instagram.com/metalassault
https://metalassault.bandcamp.com/

Ealdor Bealu, Spirit of the Lonely Places (2019)

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Sawtooth Monk to Release Goddess Empress Sept. 10

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Boise-based mostly-solo outfit Sawtooth Monk — aka Travis X. Abbott, also of Ealdor Bealu — released the full-length Peregrination earlier this year and has set Sept. 10 as the release date for an instrumental companion-piece titled Goddess Empress derived of material from the same recording period. It is led off by “Goddess” and closes with “Empress,” so not much mystery perhaps as to from whence the title derives, but having dug Peregrination, I saw the Bandcamp update about the new offering, checked out the track that’s streaming — that would be “Goddess,” find it below, right on top of Peregrination in its entirety — and, well, dug that too. Sharing the release info seemed like a pretty straightforward proposition in my mind, and so here we are.

Interesting to see Abbott draw together different projects under the Sawtooth Monk moniker. I can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking of doing more in this kind of instrumental mode from here, or already has a backlog to work from. Either way, really, bringing it all together makes a lot of sense. We live in the age of branding, after all. Also plague. But even that has a brand name.

Release info follows:

sawtooth monk goddess empress

Sawtooth Monk – Goddess Empress – Sept. 10

GODDESS EMPRESS is a collection of additional/leftover instrumental tracks from the Peregrination Sessions recorded between April 2020 & July 2021.

Originally, I had the idea of releasing this music under the name of an old, mostly-instrumental project called ‘Obscured By The Sun’ (obscuredbythesun.bandcamp.com). But after much consideration, I determined that it was best to leave this project in the past, regardless of how much I wanted to shed light on the music (along with the help I received on a few albums from the incredibly talented bassist Jacob Fredrickson). I did not think that these songs would fit in with what Sawtooth Monk is supposed to be at first, but I now realize that’s it’s all just part of the same game. Sawtooth Monk is just the name I have for the music I create mostly by myself.

– t

Releases September 10, 2021.

All instruments & music written, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by Travis X. Abbott at The Hawk’s Nest, Boise, ID

Tracklisting:
1. Goddess
2. Ormr
3. Sacred Ecology
4. Multiplicity
5. Miles
6. Signs of Ragnarok
7. Empress

https://www.facebook.com/sawtoothmonk
https://www.instagram.com/sawtooth_monk/
https://sawtoothmonk.bandcamp.com/

Sawtooth Monk, Goddess Empress (2021)

Sawtooth Monk, Peregrination (2021)

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Ghorot Announce Fall West Coast Tour Supporting Loss of Light

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 17th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

ghorot

Optimists in spite of their sound, it would seem, Boise, Idaho’s Ghorot announce today a stretch of tour dates to take place in October supporting their recently-issued debut album, Loss of Light (review here), meeting up with the likes of Brume and Old Blood along their nine-day course. I mean, hey, could happen, right? I think when you scorch earth as hard as these dudes do, you’ve pretty much disinfected everything anyhow.

Wouldn’t that be fun? If you could cure plague with riffs? Alas.

We head into an unknowable Fall coming out of an unknowable Summer, living in an uncertain present born of fake past looking ahead to a disastrous future. You want me to tell you this tour will happen? Fine, I will. I certainly hope it does, for the band’s sake as well as anyone who might show up — I’ve never seen any of these bands, and I’d like to — but I admit that every time I post a stretch of tour dates at this point there’s that little voice-o’-trauma in my head going, “Yeah, really? You think?”

So I don’t know. I’m not a fucking epidemiologist. How about you check before you go and let’s leave it at that?

From the PR wire:

ghorot western us tour

Ghorot – Fall 2021 Western US Tour Announcement

“We’re thrilled to announce Ghorot will be bringing the blackened-doom punishment to the Western US this October! Joining us for select dates will be San Francisco’s internationally-recognized doom trio BRUME (Magnetic Eye Records) and Los Angeles’ occult rock/acid doom quintet OLD BLOOD (Metal Assault Records). Our debut album Loss of Light (Transylvanian Recordings/Inverse Records) has been receiving killer press around the globe, and we can’t wait to share this filth live and in person with you all!”

Fall 2021 Western US Tour Dates

10.21 THURS Sparks, NV The Elbow Room with Brume
10.22 FRI Sacramento, CA Cafe Colonial with Brume
10.23 SAT Oakland, CA Elbo Room Jack London with Brume
10.24 SUN Eugene, OR Old Nick’s Pub with Old Blood
10.25 MON Portland, OR High Water Mark
10.26 TUES Olympia, WA Cryptatropa Bar with Old Blood
10.27 WED Seattle, WA Substation with Old Blood
10.28 THURS Bellingham, WA Karate Church
10.29 FRI Spokane, ID The Viking
10.30 SAT Moscow, ID Revolver

Ghorot are:
Carson Russell: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Brandon Walker: Drums, Vocals
Chad Remains: Guitars, Amplifiers, Vocals

https://facebook.com/ghorot
https://instagram.com/ghorotdoom
https://ghorot.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/channel/UCyyMi4his1tCFb-uwG4QGhA
https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/
https://inverserecords.bandcamp.com/

Ghorot, Loss of Light (2021)

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Ealdor Bealu Sign to Metal Assault Records; Spirit of the Lonely Places CD out in Sept.

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Some two years after its original issue in July 2019, Ealdor Bealu‘s Spirit of the Lonely Places (review here) will see release through Metal Assault Records in time for the band to bring the CDs on their newly announced West Coast tour this Fall. The reissue/first-to-my-knowledge-CD-pressing will be the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between the band and the label, and sees the Boise four-piece become labelmates to the likes of Solar HazeCircle of SighsOld Blood, and a varied slew of others. It is a suitable home for a group who just about every time I hear them I think of a different genre tag, most of them rounding out to “a band I think is good.”

The signing announcement and tour dates follow here. They look pleased about all of it, which is understandable:

ealdor bealu metal assault records

Ealdor Bealu Sign to Metal Assault Records

Ealdor Bealu are thrilled to announce the signing of a multi-album deal with Metal Assault Records from Los Angeles, CA!! We are honored to be joining the massively diverse, dynamic MA roster including Old Blood, Through the Occulus, Solar Haze, Beekeeper, and many more. Our first order of business together will be a limited run of 4-panel DigiPak CDs of our sophomore album Spirit of the Lonely Places, available this September. We are also very pleased to announce our Fall West Coast Tour today!! We are returning to a lot of our favorite cities on the coast as well as new stops in Sacramento, Los Osos, and Olympia. SEE YOU ON THE ROAD

Ealdor Bealu is a progressive stoner rock quartet from the high desert of Boise, ID. With a focus on shifting dynamics from the ambient to the massive and back again, their sound expands beyond the boundaries of genre to create a mosaic of sonic praise.

The band’s first full-length offering DARK WATER AT THE FOOT OF THE MOUNTAIN (Independent 2017) drew local, regional, and even international praise as a standout debut offering. With the release of Ealdor Bealu’s sophomore full-length album SPIRIT OF THE LONELY PLACES on July 20th 2019 on vinyl/digital the band has seen new levels of success around the globe.

TOUR
9.30 THURS Sacramento, CA Cafe Colonial
10.1 FRI Santa Cruz, CA The Blue Lagoon
10.2 SAT Los, Angeles, CA Old Towne Pub
10.3 SUN San Diego, CA Til Two Club
10.4 MON Los Osos, CA Sweet Spring’s Saloon
10.5 TUES Oakland, CA Elbo Room Jack London
10.6 WED Chico, CA The Maltese Bar
10.7 THURS Portland, OR High Water Mark
10.8 FRI Olympia, WA Cryptatropa Bar
10.9 SAT Seattle, WA Victory Lounge

Ealdor Bealu is:
Carson Russell: Guitar, Vocals
Rylie Collingwood: Bass, Vocals
Travis Abbott: Guitar, Vocals
Alex Wargo: Drums

https://www.facebook.com/ealdorbealu/
https://www.instagram.com/ealdorbealu/
https://ealdorbealu.bandcamp.com/
http://facebook.com/metalassaultla
http://instagram.com/metalassault
https://metalassault.bandcamp.com/

Ealdor Bealu, Spirit of the Lonely Places (2019)

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Quarterly Review: Per Wiberg, Body Void, Ghorot, Methadone Skies, Witchrot, Rat King, Taras Bulba, Opium Owl, Kvasir, Lurcher

Posted in Reviews on July 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

In my hubris of adding an 11th day to this Summer 2021 Quarterly Review — why not just do the whole month of July, bro? what’s the matter? don’t like riffs? — I’ve rendered today somewhat less of a landmark, but I guess there’s still some accomplishment to be felt in completing two full weeks of writing about 10 records a day, hitting triple digits and all that. Not that I doubted I’d get here — it’s rare but it’s happened before — and not that I doubt I’ll have the last 10 done for Monday, but yeah. It’s been a trip so far.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

Per Wiberg, All Is Well In the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out

per wiberg all is well in the land of the living but for the rest of us lights out

The cumbersome-seeming title of Per Wiberg‘s new solo EP derives from its four component tracks, “All is Well,” “In the Land of the Living,” “But for the Rest of Us…” and “Lights Out.” The flow between them is largely seamless, and when Wiberg (whose pedigree as an organist/keyboardist includes Opeth, Candlemass, Big Scenic Nowhere and more others than I can count) pauses between tracks two and three, it feels likewise purposeful. It’s a dark mood inflected through the melodies of the opener and the atmospheric piano lines of “But for the Rest of Us…,” but Wiberg offers a driving take on progressive heavy rock with “In the Land of the Living” and the build in the subsequent “Lights Out” is encompassing with the lead-in it’s given. Wiberg sounds more comfortable layering his voice than even on 2019’s Head Without Eyes, and his arrangements are likewise expressive and fluid. Dude is a professional. I think maybe that’s part of the reason everybody wants to work with him.

Per Wiberg on Facebook

Despotz Records website

 

Body Void, Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth

Body Void Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth

Massive, droning lurch, harsh, biting screams and lumbering, pummeling weight, Body Void‘s third album and first for Prosthetic, Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth, boasts feelgood hits like “Wound” and “Laying Down in a Forest Fire,” bringing cacophonous, Khanate-style extremity of atmosphere to willfully, punishingly brutal sludge. It is not friendly. It is devastating, and it is the kind of record that sounds loud even when you play it quietly — and that’s before you get to “Pale Man”‘s added layers of caustic noise. Front to back in the four songs — all of which top 12 minutes — there’s no letup, no moment at which the duo relent in order to let the listener breathe. This is intentional. A conjuring of aural concrete in the lungs coinciding with striking lines like “Your compromises are hollow monuments to your cowardice” and other bleak, throatripping poetry of dead things and our complicity in making them. Righteous and painful.

Body Void on Facebook

Prosthetic Records website

 

Ghorot, Loss of Light

ghorot loss of light

Ghorot is the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker and guitarist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala), and Loss of Light is a debut album no less gripping for its push into darkness, whether it’s the almost-toying-with-you Sabbath-style riff of “Harbinger” or the tortured atmospherics in the back end of “Charioteer of Fire,” which follows. Competing impulses result in a sense of grueling even through the barks and faster progression of “Woven Furnace,” while “Dead Gods” offers precious little mourning in its charred deathsludge, saving more ambience for the 12-minute closer “In Endless Grief,” which not only veers into acoustics, but nods toward post-metal later on, despite holding firm to cavernous growls and wails. Obscure? Opaque? There isn’t a way in which Loss of Light isn’t heavy. Everywhere they go, Ghorot carry that weight with them. It is existential.

Ghorot on Facebook

Transylvanian Recordings on Bandcamp

Inverse Records on Bandcamp

 

Methadone Skies, Retrofuture Caveman

methadone skies retrofuture caveman

Lush from the outset and growing richer in aural substance as it plays out, the 17:56 longest/opening (immediate points) title-track of Methadone Skies‘ latest work, Retrofuture Caveman, is an obviously intended focal point, and a worthy one at that. Last heard from with 2019’s Different Layers of Fear (review here), the Romanian four-piece break down walls across the bulk of this fifth full-length, with “Retrofuture Caveman” itself setting the standard early in moving instrumentally between warm heavy psychedelia, prog, drone, doom and darker black metal. It’s prog heavy that ultimately wins the day on the subsequent linear build of “Infected by Friendship” and centerpiece “The Enabler,” but there’s room for more lumber in the 11-mminute “Western Luv ’67” and closer “When the Sleeper Awakens” offers playful shove riffing in its midsection before a final stretch of quiet guitar leads to a last-minute volume burst, no less consuming or sprawling than anything before, even if it feels like it finishes too soon.

Methadone Skies on Facebook

Methadone Skies on Bandcamp

 

Witchrot, Hollow

witchrot hollow

Stood out by the gotta-hear bass tone of Cam Alford, the ethereal-or-shouting-and-sometimes-both vocals of Lea Reto, the crash of Nick Kervin‘s drums and the encompassing wah of Peter Turik‘s guitar, Toronto’s Witchrot offer a striking debut with their awaited first full-length, Hollow, oozing out through opener/longest track (immediate points) “Million Shattered Swords” before the stomping wash of “Colder Hands” sacrifices itself on an altar of noise, leading to the more directly-riffed “Spiral of Sorrow,” which nonetheless maintains the atmosphere. Things get noisier and harsher in the second half of Hollow, which is presaged in the plod of “Fog,” but as things grow more restless and angrier after “Devil in My Eyes” and move into the pair “Burn Me Down” and “I Know My Enemy,” both faster, like blown-out Year of the Cobra toying with punk rock and grunge, Witchrot grow stronger for the shift by becoming less predictable, setting up the atmospheric plunge of the closing title-track that finishes one of 2021’s most satisfying debut albums.

Witchrot on Facebook

Fuzzed and Buzzed Records website

DHU Records store

 

Rat King, Omen

Rat King Omen

Omen is the first long-player from Evansville, Indiana, four-piece Rat King, who use rawness to their advantage throughout the nine included tracks, at least one of which — “Supernova” — dates back to being released as a single in 2017. With manipulated horror samples and interludes like the acoustic “Queen Anne’s Revenge” and “Shackleton” and the concluding “Matryoshka” spliced throughout the otherwise deep-toned and weighted fare of “Capsizer” and the chugging, pushing, scream-laced “Druid Crusher,” Omen never quite settles on a single approach and is more enticing for that, though the eight-minute “Vagrant” could well be a sign of things to come in its melodic reach, but the band revel in the grittier elements at work here as well — the thunderplod of “Glacier,” the willful drag of “Nepenta Divinorum,” and so on — and the ambience they create is dreary and obscure in a way that comes across as purposeful. Is Omen a foreshadow or just the name of a movie they dig? I don’t know, but I hope it’s not too long before we find out.

Rat King on Facebook

Rat King store

 

Taras Bulba, Sometimes the Night

Taras Bulba Sometimes the Night

What was Earthling Society continues to evolve into Taras Bulba at the behest of Fleetwood, UK’s Fred Laird. Sometimes the Night (on Riot Season) is a mostly solo affair, and truth be told, Laird doesn’t need much more than his own impulses to conjure a full-sounding record, as he quickly shows on the acid lounge opener “The Green Eyes of Dragon,” but the guest vocals from Daisy Atkinson bring echoing presence to the subsequent “Orphee” and Mike Blatchford‘s late-arriving sax on “The Sound of Waves,” “The Big Duvall” and “House in the Snow” highlight the jazzy underpinnings of the organ-laced “Night Train to Drug Town” and the avant, anti-anything guitar strum and piano strikes of “One More Lonely Angel.” No harm done, in any case, unless we’re talking about the common conception of what a song is, and hey, if it didn’t need to happen, it wouldn’t have. An experiment in vibe, perhaps, in psychedelic brooding, but evocative for that. Laird‘s no stranger to following whims. Here they lead to moodier space.

Taras Bulba on Facebook

Riot Season Records website

 

Opium Owl, Live at Hodila Records

Opium Owl Live at Hodila Records

I’ll admit, there’s a part of me that, when “Intro” hits its sudden forward surge, kind of wishes Opium Owl had kept it mellow. Nonetheless, the Riga, Latvia-based double-guitar (mostly) instrumental heavy psych four-piece offer plenty of serenity throughout the four-song live set Live at Hodila Records, and the back and forth patterning of the subsequent “Echo Slam” is all the more effective at winning conversion, so fair enough. “Stone Gaze” dips into even bigger riffage, while “Tempest Double” dares vocals over its quieter noodling, dispensing with them as it pushes louder toward the finish. For a live recording, the sound is rich enough to convey what would seem to be the full warmth of Opium Owl‘s tonality, and in its breadth and its impact, there’s no lack of studio-fullness for the session-style presentation. Live at Hodila Records may be formative in terms of establishing the methods with which the band — who formed in 2019 — will continue to work, but showcases significant promise in that.

Opium Owl on Facebook

Hodila Records on Facebook

 

Kvasir, 4

kvasir 4

Doled out with chops to spare and the swagger to show them off, Kvasir‘s eight-song debut LP, 4, puts modern heavy rock riffing in blender and sets it on high. Classic, epic heavy in “Where Gods to to Pray” and a more nodding groove in “Authenticity & the Illusion of Enough” meet with the funkier starts-stops of “Slow Death of Life” and the languid Sabbathism of “Earthly Algorithms.” “Chill for a Church” opens side B with trashier urgency and suitable rhythmic twist, and “The Brink” sets its depressive lyric to a ’70s boogie swing, not quite masking it, but working as a flowing companion piece for “The Black Mailbox,” which follows in like-minded fashion, letting closer “Alchemy of Identity” underscore the point with a rawer take on what once made The Sword so undeniable in their groove. There’s growing to do, patience to learn, etc., but Kvasir make it easy to get on board with 4 and their arguments for doing so brook little contradiction. Onto the list of 2021’s best debut albums it goes.

Kvasir on Facebook

Glory or Death Records on Bandcamp

 

Lurcher, Coma

lurcher coma

Lurcher might go full-prog before they’re done, but they’re not their yet on their four-song debut EP, Coma, and the songs only benefit from the band’s focus on impact and lack of self-indulgence. The leadoff title-track has an immediate hook that brings to mind an updated, tonally-heavier version of what Cave In innovated for melodic post-hardcore, and the subsequent “Remove the Myth From the Mountain” follows with a broader-sounding reach in its later solo that builds on the heavy rock foundation the first half of the song put forth. Vocalist/guitarist Joe Harvatt — backed by the rhythm section of bassist Tom Shortt and drummer Simon Bonwick — is prone, then, to a bit of shred. No argument as that’s answered with the Hendrix fuzz at the outset of “All Now is Here,” which both gets way-loud and drones way-out in its seven minutes, in turn setting up the lush-and-still-hard-hitting capper “Cross to Bear,” which rounds off the 26-minute release with all the more encouraging shifts in tempo, flowing melody, and mellotron sounds to add to the sweeping drama. I know the UK underground is hyper-crowded at this point, but consider notice served. These cats are onto something.

Lurcher on Instagram

Trepanation Recordings on Bandcamp

 

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Quarterly Review: Papir, Kosmodemonic, Steve Von Till, Sex Blender, Déhà, Thunder Horse, Rebreather, Melmak, Astral Magic, Crypt Monarch

Posted in Reviews on July 6th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

Day two already, huh? It’s a holiday week here in the States, which means people are on vacation or have at least enjoyed a long weekend hopefully without blowing any body parts off with fireworks or whatnot. For me, I prefer the day on rather than the day off, so we proceeded as normal yesterday in beginning the Quarterly Review. “We now return to our regularly scheduled,” and so on.

There’s a lot of good stuff here, as one would hope, and since we’re still basically at the start of this doublewide edition of the Quarterly Review — 10 down, 90 to go — I won’t delay further. Thanks for reading.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Papir, Jams

papir jams

Two sessions, three days apart, three pieces from each, resulting in six tracks running just about 80 minutes that Papir are only within their rights to have titled simply as Jams. With this outing, the Copenhagen-based psychedelic trio present their process at its most nakedly exploratory. I don’t know if they had any parts pre-planned when they went into the studio, but the record brims with spontaneity, drums jazzing out behind shimmering guitar and steadily grooving basslines. Effects are prevalent and add to the spaciousness, and the sessions from whence these songs came, whether it’s the key-led four-minute “20.01.2020 #2” or the 20-minute opener “17.01.2020 #1” — all tracks sharing the same date-and-number format as regards titles — feel vibrant and fluid in a way that goes beyond even the hazy hypnotics of “20.01.2020 #3.” Papir‘s instrumental dynamic is of course a huge part of what they do anyway, but to hear their chemistry come through in freer fashion as it does here can only be refreshing. I hope they do more like this.

Papir on Facebook

Stickman Records website

 

Kosmodemonic, Liminal Light

Kosmodemonic Liminal Light

Brooklyn outfit Kosmodemonic exist almost exclusively within genre border regions. Their second album, Liminal Light, fosters an approach that’s too considered not to be called progressive, but that owes as much to the cosmic doom of YOB as to black metal as to noise rock as to Voivod as to any number of other various ores in the metallic sphere. In their sprinting moments or in the consuming dark grandeur of centerpiece “Ipomoea,” they are pointedly individual, and cuts like “Drown in Drone” and the later slammer “Brown Crown” owe much to sheer impact as to the cerebral underpinnings of their angularity. Liminal Light is vicious but methodical, and feels executed with a firm desire to catch the audience sleeping and then blindside them with a change, be it in moving from one song to another or within one song itself, like when the penultimate “Chains of Goddess Grove” rears back from its lurching movement and spews thrashier fire in its final minute. Put these moments together and you get a record that challenges on multiple levels and is unflinchingly worth the effort of close engagement.

Kosmodemonic on Facebook

Transylvanian Tapes on Bandcamp

 

Steve Von Till, A Deep Voiceless Wilderness

Steve Von Till A Deep Voiceless Wilderness

The sixth solo offering from Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till is a first for being completely instrumental. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — goes that Von Till wrote the music for 2020’s No Wilderness Deep Enough (review here) late during jetlagged nights alone on his wife’s family’s property in Germany, where her family has lived for 500 years, only to later be convinced by producer Randall Dunn to write lyrics and record vocals for the songs. A Deep Voiceless Wilderness, as the title hints, pulls those vocals back out of these re-named pieces, allowing elements like the quiet textures of keyboard and piano, horns and mellotrons to shine through in atmospheric fashion, layers of drone intertwining in mostly peaceful fashion. It is the least guitar-based record Von Till has ever done, and allows for a new kind of minimalism to surface along with an immersive melodic hum. Subdued, meditative, exploratory, kind of wonderful.

Steve Von Till website

Neurot Recordings store

 

Sex Blender, Studio Session I

Sex Blender Studio Session I

Based in Lviv, Ukraine, instrumentalist krautrock bizarros Sex Blender have two full-lengths behind them, and Studio Session I takes the consumingly fuzzed “Diver” from 2018’s Hormonizer and three cuts from 2020’s The Second Coming and turns them into a stirring 44-minute set captured on video for a livestream. Reportedly some of the arrangements are different, as will certainly happen, but as someone being introduced to the band through this material, it’s easy to be struck by the palpable sense of glee with which Sex Blender present their songs. “Crimson Master” is the shortest of the bunch at just over six minutes — it’s the only one under 11 — but even there, the manipulated keyboard sounds, drum fluidity and undercurrent of rumbling distortion push Sex Blender into a place that’s neither doom nor prog but draws from both, crawling where the subsequent “Rave Spritz” can’t help but bounce with its motorik drums and intertwined synth lines. May just be a live session, but they shine all the same.

Sex Blender on Facebook

Drone Rock Records website

 

Déhà, Cruel Words

Déhà Cruel Words

Déhà‘s third long-player Cruel Words was originally issued in 2019 and is seeing a first vinyl pressing on Burning World Records. The Brussels solo outfit has released no fewer than 17 other full-length outings — possibly more, depending on what counts as what — in the two years since these songs initially surfaced, but, well, one has to start someplace. The 2LP runs 75 minutes and includes bonus tracks — an acoustic version of opener “I Am Mine to Break,” a cover of The Gathering‘s “Saturnine” and the piano-into-post-metal “Comfort Me II” — but the highlights are on the album itself, such as the make-Amenra-blush 12-minute crux of “Dead Butterflies,” wherein a lung-crushing weight is given patient drama through its prominent keyboard layers, or the goth early going of “Pain is a Wasteland,” which seems to brood until it finally can’t take it anymore and bashes its head (and yours) into the wall. Surprisingly methodical for the manic pace at which Déhà (né Olmo Lipani) works, it makes artistry of its arrangement as well as performance and is willfully overwhelming, but engaging in that.

Déhà on Facebook

Burning World Records website

 

Thunder Horse, Chosen One

Thunder Horse Chosen One

Big riffs, big grooves, big hooks, Thunder Horse‘s second long-player, Chosen One, sees the San Antonio, Texas, outfit inherit some aspects from the members’ past outfits, whether it’s the semi-industrial vocal style of Stephen Bishop on “Among the Dead” or the classically shredding solo work of Todd Connally. With Dave Crow on bass and Jason “Shakes” West on drums, Thunder Horse elbow their way into a nod quickly on Chosen One and hold their ground decisively, with Dehumanizer-esque tones and flourish of keys throughout that closes in lead position on the outro “Remembrance” in complement to the strumming, whistling “Texas” a short while earlier. Even when they shuffle, as on the second half of “Song for the Ferryman,” Thunder Horse do it heavy, and as they did with their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), they make it hard to argue, either with the atmosphere or the sheer lumber of their output. An easy record to dig for the converted.

Thunder Horse on Facebook

Ripple Music website

 

Rebreather, Pets / Orange Crush

Rebreather Pets Orange Crush

Heads up children of — or children of children of — the 1990s, as Youngstown, Ohio’s Rebreather effectively reinterpret and heavy up two of that decade’s catchiest hooks in Porno for Pyros‘ “Pets” and R.E.M.‘s “Orange Crush.” Taking songs that, if they ever left your head from rock radio, will certainly be right back in there now, and trying to put their own spin on them is ambitious, but Rebreather have no trouble slowing down the already kinda languid “Pets” or emphasizing the repetitive urgency of “Orange Crush,” and the tonal weight they bring to both honors the original versions as well as who Rebreather are as a band, while showcasing the band’s heretofore undervalued melodies, with call and response vocal lines in both cuts nodding to their sludge/noise rock roots while moving forward from there. They chose the songs well, if nothing else, and though it’s only about 10 minutes between the two cuts, as the first new Rebeather material since their 2018 self-titled EP (discussed here), I’ll take the two covers happily.

Rebreather on Facebook

Aqualamb Records website

 

Melmak, Down the Underground

Melmak Down the Underground

Spanish duo Melmak — guitarist/vocalist Jonan Etxebarria and drummer/vocalist Igor Etxebarria — offer an awaited follow-up to their 2016 long-player Prehistorical (review here) and demonstrate immediately that five years has not dulled their aggressive tendencies. Opener “Black Room” is a minute-long grindfest, and though “Scum” finds its way into a sludgy groove, it’s not far behind. “Poser” starts out as a piano ballad but turns to its own crushing roll, while “The Scene” rumbles out its lurch, “You Really Don’t Care” samples a crying baby over a sad piano line and “Ass Kisser” offers knee-to-the-face bruiser riffing topped with echoing gutturalism that carries the intensity into the seven-minute, more spacious “Jaundiced,” which gives itself over to extremity in its second half as well, and the closing noise wash of “The Crew.” What we learn from all this is it would seem Melmak find the heavy underground wanting in violent terms. They answer that call in bludgeoning fashion.

Melmak on Facebook

Melmak on Bandcamp

 

Astral Magic, Visions of Infinity

Astral Magic Visions of Infinity

Ostensibly a solo-project from Dark Sun bassist Santtu Laakso, Astral Magic‘s debut LP, Visions of Infinity, features contributions from guitarist Martin Weaver (Wicked Lady, Doctors of Space) and Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Doctors of Space, Øresund Space Collective), as well as Samuli Sailo on ukulele, and has been mixed and mastered and released by Heller, so perhaps the plot thickens as regards just how much of band it is. Nonetheless, Astral Magic have all the cosmos to work with, so there’s plenty of room for everybody, as Visions of Infinity harnesses classic Hawkwindian space rock and is unafraid to add droning mysticism to the ever-outward procession on “Ancient Mysteries” or “Onboard the Spaceship,” to grow playful on “I Was Abducted” or bask in cosmic serenity on “Winds of Time” and “Wizards.” Off we go, into the greater reaches of “out there.” It’s a fun ride.

Astral Magic on Facebook

Space Rock Productions website

 

Crypt Monarch, The Necronaut

Crypt Monarch The Necronaut

Costa Rican trio Crypt Monarch offer their debut full-length in the form of the three-song/36-minute The Necronaut, the sound of which makes the claim on the part of the band — bassist/vocalist Christopher De Haan, guitarist Jose Rodriguez, drummer/vocalist J.C. Zuñiga — that it was made live in a cabin in the woods easy enough to believe. Though mixed and mastered, the 15-minute opener “Morning Star Through Skull” (15:41) and ensuing rollers “Rex Meridionalis” (10:12) and “Aglaphotis” (10:08) maintain a vigilant rawness, laced with noise even as De Haan and Zuñiga come together vocally on the latter, clean singing and gurgles alike. It is stoner metal taken to a logical and not entirely unfamiliar extreme, but the murk in which Crypt Monarch revel is dense and easy to get lost within. This, more than any single riff or lumbering groove, speaks to the success of the band’s intention in crafting the record. There is no clearly marked exit.

Crypt Monarch on Facebook

Electric Valley Records website

 

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Ghorot Announce Debut Album Loss of Light out July 23

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Boise, Idaho, conjurers-of-beasts Ghorot will present their debut full-length, Loss of Light, like so much poison injected into the veins of summer’s scorch. The five-track outing brings the trio of bassist/vocalist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker and guitarist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala) to places blackened, deathly and sludged, but loud or quiet, the atmosphere surrounds and fills the lungs with a rawness of purpose that’s as rich as it is harsh. In following up 2019’s The Pit: Eternal EP, the duo-turned-trio unfurl a metallic take that only acknowledges the lines between subgenres en route to setting them on fire.

Good fun? Oh most certainly it is, whether it’s the burn marks left by “Woven Furnace” or the 12-minute mournful extremity of closer “In Endless Grief.” It’s the super-fun-time slaughter your summer is begging for.

Ghorot sent the cover art and following announcement along the PR wire:

ghorot loss of light

GHOROT – Loss of Light

Today is the day!! We here at Ghorot are thrilled to announce our crushing debut full-length album Loss of Light will be released on Friday, July 23rd, and we will be working with Oakland underground legends Transylvanian Recordings as well as Finland’s Inverse Records to bring our creation to life across the planet on several physical formats! Cassettes, CDs, and 2 variations of vinyl are being created as we speak. Two weeks from today, Tuesday, May 25th, we will launch the music video for our first single off the new record “Dead Gods”, as well as kick off the album pre-order campaign. Keep your eyes peeled to be the first to get your limited edition copies of Loss of Light and immediate digital download of the first single.

This album has been nearly 2 years in the making, and we are so truly honored to have worked with such excellent, talented friends in the creation of Loss of Light. Z.V. House of Rabbitbrush Audio conducted the recording and mixing of the record as well as helped produce the bludgeoning onslaught of sound you will soon bear witness to. Mastering was handled by legendary engineer James Plotkin (Electric Wizard, Conan, Sunn). The brooding, beautiful artwork for the record was created by Stephen Wilson aka Unknown Relic.

Already confirmed for Treefort Music Fest 2021, Ghorot will soon be announcing a second festival appearance this fall as well as tour dates for the early winter in support of the new record. Pre-Orders, Singles, Music Videos, and so much more is coming your way soon…

PREPARE THYSELF

https://facebook.com/ghorot
https://instagram.com/ghorotdoom
https://ghorot.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/channel/UCyyMi4his1tCFb-uwG4QGhA

Ghorot, The Pit: Eternal (2019)

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Friday Full-Length: Uzala, Tales of Blood and Fire

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

The second and final Uzala album, Tales of Blood and Fire, was released in 2013 through King of the Monsters Records on CD/LP and Gypsyblood Records on tape, with a dissatisfied and up-to-no-good looking Pan by Tony Roberts on the cover who seemed like he was about to lead us all into the river. Comprised just of five tracks running 43 minutes, it was recorded by the esteemed Tad Doyle (TAD, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, etc.) and not at all shy about the doomed intent of the Boise, Idaho-based band. “Seven Veils” and “Dark Days,” the opening salvo, cast out morose atmospheres and weighted buzz in the guitars of Darcy Nutt and Chad Remains, while Chuck Watkins — an import from Portland, Oregon, who was also in Graves at Sea at the time and has featured in enough other bands to earn the title “journeyman” — filled the drummer role with a suitably massive, slow-swinging style that only emphasized the soul at the core of their melodies.

Tales of Blood and Fire — my East Coast head always associates the title with Type O Negative‘s “Blood and Fire” from Bloody Kisses, but whether that’s a reference they were shooting for, I’ve no idea; Uzala‘s style was less outwardly goth than Peter Steele and company were working toward being some 20 years earlier, but that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate a thing — followed behind their 2012 self-titled debut (review here), a 12″ two-songer and a quick-turnaround split with Mala Suerte (review here) that boasted the track “Burned,” which also would go on to be the centerpiece of the second LP. “Burned” is the shortest cut on Tales of Blood and Fire by a decent margin, but its roll seems to breathe life into the proceedings at just the right moment, rounding out side A with a more forward progression after the murk in which “Seven Veils” and “Dark Days” take place. It’s a righteous turn, and still consistent in tone and the overarching ambience. One recalls the band’s promo pictures at the time often featured Chad Remains giving a firm thumbs-down, and that was as efficient a summaryUZALA TALES OF BLOOD AND FIRE of their perspective as one might ask, if perhaps a simplification in terms of what they had to offer in terms of the character in Nutt‘s vocals or Remains‘ solos. Tales of Blood and Fire was a grower in the genuine sense, to my mind Uzala were underrated for as long as they were around.

You can go around in circles forever with the layered verse lines of “Countess,” the penultimate track on the record, which is the first of two to top the 11-minute mark. Its slow nod and resolute crash is the stuff of backpatchy dreams, and might be the moment where Uzala most realize the balance between lush melody and raw, crusty tone that was at the heart of their approach. But every time I hit up Tales of Blood and Fire, I can’t help but go for the last cut, “Tenement of the Lost.” It’s the longest song on the album at 12:10, but it picks up from the feedback-caked ending of “Countess” with faded-in rumble and noise, and it spends nearly half its total runtime in precisely that mire. It’s nearly five and a half minutes of absolute tonal wash before the subdued central guitar figure emerges, and even then the noise holds sway for a longer on a gradual fade into a position deeper in the mix. Maybe the irony of it is that Uzala‘s last recorded statement is both their grossest onslaught of distortion and most minimalist, with Nutt‘s vocals topping that quiet guitar, no drums to speak of and no fuller-volume push coming. Almost a hidden track because how much they buried it, it’s a moment that nonetheless defines the atmosphere of the record, at least for me, in listening.

And as much as I relish in the revisit to Tales of Blood and Fire as a whole, I’ll confess my primary impression of “Tenement of the Lost” was live. I was fortunate enough to see Uzala twice during their time, and the first was Oct. 23, 2013 (review here), in Providence, Rhode Island. They closed the set with “Tenement of the Lost,” and it was late. The venue was called Dusk, and it had been hours since Mike Scheidt of YOB opened the show with a solo set. Crappy lights, cramped stage, but loud, and again, late. Late enough that as Uzala played “Tenement of the Lost,” the house lights came up in a classic wrap-it-up message from the bar to the band. Uzala kept playing. I guess Boise to Providence was enough of a trip they figured screw it, and standing in front of the trio while they played that quiet, mournful track, they could’ve kept going for as long as they wanted as far I was concerned. It was a thing of beauty, not just because the lights were up, but that feeling of a time already being passed gave the track’s emotionalism a sense of urgency that, when I listen to it now, it retains.

The second time I saw Uzala was at Roadburn 2015 (review here), and their set was likewise captivating. It would end up being released as Live at Roadburn MMXV (review here) through Burning World Records and my photos were used on the cover, which is always validating. They didn’t play “Tenement of the Lost,” but I stuck around for the entirety of their time just the same, and was all the more glad I did when they announced their disbanding early in 2017Remains resurfaced in 2019 with the gleefully extreme Ghorot, which also features Carson Russell of Ealdor Bealu, and they finished a recording together late in Summer 2020 to be released through Transylvanian Tapes. I have no idea when, but it’ll be worth looking out for.

Maybe I’m feeling sentimental here, but whatever. It’s been eight years and this record holds up, so whatever your own association with it might be or if you don’t have one, hearing it isn’t gonna hurt any more than it’s intended to. This was a better band than people seemed to know.

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

Kind of a rough week in the ol’ noggin, but so it goes. Yesterday I spent most of whatever time I could in bed. A bunch of writing to do, of course, but just couldn’t put my head in it, and the pace at which I’ve worked on the above this morning tells me maybe I should go put the pillow over my face again. I don’t know that I will. I could stand to shower. It’s been a couple days and I fairly well reek. Whatever.

I watched a little bit of the Roadburn Redux stuff yesterday, and I expect I’ll watch more at some point today, tomorrow, etc. They platform they’ve built is beautiful. Even just as a blog back-end, the design is amazing. Makes me want a new WordPress theme, if nothing else. 13 years later, maybe it’s time, but I figure if I hold out long enough, the look of this site will be retro and thus cool again. Much as it ever was. I don’t know.

Anyway. I’m not gonna review that or anything, because ultimately it just makes me sad, and I’m sad enough.

Next week is full. I don’t even know of what yet, but videos and reviews and such. I wanted to write more than I did this week. Exhausted. So it goes.

I don’t know.

Gimme Metal show today, 5PM Eastern. Standard or Daylight time, whichever one it is now. Daylight? I don’t know that either.

Great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate, all that good stuff. Maybe I’ll go drink some water too. Yeah, alright.

FRM.

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