Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Another day, another Ripple Music pickup, and this time it’s Shadow of Jupiter from Chicago and Indiana. The four-piece will play the inaugural HUFR Fest this April, and it seems fair to expect that set to be something of a preview for their second full-length and Ripple debut, Bones, which is set to release this summer.
I’m kidding a bit about the ‘another day, blah blah,’ but it is striking just how much of an assemblage Ripple has going at this point. And growing, as the Flinstones vitamins commercials used to say. I’ll be honest and tell you I don’t know much about Shadow of Jupiter — their 2023 debut, Porta Coeli, was well received (obviously) and streams below; they played Ripplefest Texas in 2024, etc. — but summer seems as good a time to learn as any. Here’s to hearing new music. Always.
The PR wire has it like this:
Chicago heavy doom rockers SHADOW OF JUPITER sign to Ripple Music!
Midwest-based stoner and doom foursome SHADOW OF JUPITER have joined the Ripple Music roster for the release of their sophomore album in the summer of 2026.
Shadow of Jupiter is a Chicago/NW Indiana-based outfit whose roots run deep in the heavy underground. From proto-doom to the heavy, stoner sounds of the 70’s, their unique combination of soulful vocals complements their heavy, riff-driven scores. Author of Sonic Seducer and heavy underground music critic Sunil Singh dubbed their music “Fury Blues”, perfectly acknowledging their blend of Robin Trower’s tasty tones mated with the bleak melancholy of Sabbath and the anger of Corrosion of Conformity.
Their 2023 self-released album, Porta Coeli, propelled Shadow of Jupiter into the sonic jetstream with incredible shows as the supporting act for many highly acclaimed national and international heavy underground bands touring through Chicago. Shadow of Jupiter also performed at Ripplefest Texas, Rhune Mountain Festival, Grand Rapids Doomfest and HUFR Fest.
Their upcoming sophomore album “Bones” is slated for release in the summer of 2026 on Ripple Music. As for now, the band is set to take the stage at Reggie’s in Chicago on 4/12 and HUFR Fest: Mile High Riffs in Denver on 4/26.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I’ll gladly go on record to say that I could be perfect happy to never hear Geoff Rickley from Thursday sing anything again, ever. Though they and I hail from the same Garden State, I was never a Thursday fan and remain true to that inclination. Pelican don’t feel the same way, and fair enough. The Chicagoan outfit — traditionally but by no means at this point exclusively instrumentalist — have Rickley singing on “Cascading Crescent” on this new EP complementing earlier 2025’s Flickering Resonance LP (review here), as well as two songs that I bought on the Adrift tape last year as they were getting money together to record the album, as well as an off-album track that isn’t streaming or I’d probably be telling you how long it is.
Oh and there’s a European tour with Russian Circles newly announced, tying together previous fest confirmations at Desertfest Oslo, Sonic Whip, Desertfest Berlin, Sonic Rites, and others. It all came down the PR wire thusly:
PELICAN – Ascending EP
Excited to share that our new EP Ascending is coming January 23 from Run For Cover – click the link in our bio to hear the previously un-streamable vocal version of “Cascading Crescent” feat. Geoff Rickly from Thursday. Originally recorded for the “Cascading Crescent” vinyl-only 7” (limited to 500 copies and very sold out), we had the chance to perform this version live in Cleveland when our tours intersected this past July, as documented in the music video out today. The experience made us eager for more folks to hear how Geoff’s melodies re-contextualize the song.
The EP is rounded out by “Ascending,” a hypnotic epic recorded at the Flickering Resonance sessions, and the vinyl debut of “Adrift” and “Tending The Embers,” recorded and self-released in 2024 just as we’d begun piecing the album together.
In honor of the EP, Laurent teamed with Will Killingsworth of Dead Air Studios to create Resonance, a custom reverb pedal that interacts with users’ playing and resonates in unique ways, varying from light echo to lush soundscapes to self-oscillating frenzy. The pedal and a new shirt design are available from the RFC site via the link in our bio.
We’ve also added some headline dates to our upcoming EU tour with Russian Circles. Hope to see you out there
Feb 1 – Something In The Way – Boston, MA Feb 28 – Doom City Festival – Mexico City, MX May 5 – Kollektivet Livet – Stockholm, SE May 6 – Monument – Gothenburg, SE May 7 – Skraen – Aalburg, SE May 8 – Desertfest – Oslo, NO * May 9 – A Colossal Weekend – Copenhagen, DK * May 11 – Gruenspan – Hamburg, DE * May 12 – Live Music Hall – Köln, DE * May 13 – P8 – Karlsruhe, DE * May 14 – dunk!festival – Zottegem, BE * May 15 – Sonic Whip – Nijmegen, NL * May 16 – Desertfest – Berlin, DE * May 18 – Arena – Vienna, AT * May 19 – Durer Kert – Budapest, HUN May 20 – MeetFactory – Prague, CZ * May 21 – Technikum – Munich, DE * May 23 – Sonic Rites – Helsinki, FI * * w/ Russian Circles
Posted in Reviews on November 21st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Thus ends my favorite Quarterly Review since the last one. Yeah, some of my motivation was in bookkeeping, in wanting to cover this stuff before the year’s done, but trying to keep up is always part of the thing, so that’s nothing new. I am grateful to have spent so much time this listening to music. I get asked a lot to listen to stuff and I’m not sure I’ve ever had less time for hearing new music than I presently have. So take a week and do nothing but that has been fulfilling.
As always, I hope you’ve found something cool to check out, and I hope you tune in for the next one, maybe in December, maybe in January, maybe this is low-key evolving into a monthly thing and eventually I’m going to have to rename the feature — and so on.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Brant Bjork and the Bros., Live in the High Desert
The difference between Brant Bjork and the Bros. and prior Brant Bjork solo incarnations was that it was the first time the desert rock figurehead had stepped into the role of being a genuine live bandleader. He’d of course toured with solo bands, as he’s continued to, but The Bros. as a backing band gave him the space to shine in a different way onstage, and that comes through in classics like “Too Many Chiefs” and the medleys near the finish of the 78-minute set from 2009 captured on Live in the High Desert, recorded at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA. I saw this band, and they were hot shit. If you don’t believe me, “Low Desert Punk” here makes the point better than I could, while a piece from the era like “Freaks of Nature” emphasizes the chemistry Bjork and his Bros. fostered during their time. As a follow-up to recent studio LP reissues, as an archival fan-piece, and as nearly 80-minutes of blowout heavy dezzy grooves, this should be an absolute no-brainer for Bjork followers or aficionados.
Mexico City heavy rocking two-piece Dresden Wolves named their six-song EP Vol. IV presumably because by some count it’s their fourth release, but that’s not the same as being their fourth full-length album, if that’s what you were thinking. Here they offer 25 minutes of brash, cymbal-and-low-end-heavy crunch. “Tiempo” has some debut to psychedelia, but mostly in the echo, and the density of the prior “ECO” feels more representative, though with the movement of bassfuzz in “Wherter” I’m not sure one is more weighted than the other. They’re in the element stoner punking in “Robin,” and “Pesadilla” rounds out answering the Sabbathism of “Ketamina” with raw shouts and a swirling current of noise laced around a central shove. They’re not reinventing riffery, but they execute with both personality and a sense of craft while simultaneously bashing away in a manner that my silly lizard brain finds utterly delightful. They’ve been around a decade now. Album?
The obscuring-all-else drones of the nine-minute title-, opening and longest track (immediate points) are the major draw to Alignment, as “Alignment” is the only one of the seven inclusions not previously released in some form. Thus can it be said that Italian experimental psych post-rockers Sherpa remained experimental right up to the very end, as Alignment sees issue as a farewell release, comprised most of demos from Matteo Dossena of what would become Sherpa songs featured on their albums, which is fair enough. There’s sun reflecting on “River Nora” and “The Mother of Language,” from 2018’s second LP Tigris and Euphrates (review here), remains hypnotic even in this raw take, samples and/or field recordings seemingly a part of its skeleton. If you didn’t know Sherpa during their time, Alignment probably isn’t the place to start, since the material isn’t finished, but whatever if it gets you to hear the band.
Crushing. Far From is the third full-length from Chicagoan post-sludge tonebearers Barren Heir, and when “Patient” ends and you feel like you can finally breathe after that four-minute assault, know you’re not alone. Uniformly harsh in vocals, intense in impact and aggression alike, and weighed down by copious amounts of distorted concrete, one piece bleeds into the next as Far From builds momentum through the megariffed “Medicine” and the subsequent, slightly more angular “No Roses,” which seems to get eaten by its own chug before it’s done. The remnants fade into the more peaceful beginning of “Abcesstral,” which serves as a quiet interlude creating tension ahead of the start of “Way In,” which scorches. I guess, if you don’t know the band, what you need to take away is they’re very, very heavy, and they know just where on the upside of your head to hit you with it. There’s a thread of noise rock, but I think maybe it’s just the trio being pissed off, and the blasting away, successive slowdowns and residual noise in closer “Inside a Burning Vehicle” are as punishing an end as Far From justifies. You know I never mention Swarm of the Lotus lightly. Well, here we are.
There’s a moment about five minutes in, before the solo starts, where opening cut “Little Fingers” sort of settles into its groove, and the effect is an immediate chill on the listener. Néstor Ayala Cortés, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and the sole denizen of the project, has long specialized in the heavy and languid, and without lacking either activity or swing — lookin’ at you, “Black Rains” — as the melodies touch on a heavy psychedelia only bolstered by the abiding tonal warmth. Three tracks top eight minutes — “Little Fingers,” “Above and Below” and “Falling Down” — and while these are obvious focal points, both for how they dwell in parts and how they differentiate from the shorter pieces that space them out, a song like “Rise to the Surface” or experiments like “Regrets” and “Flying to Nowhere” use their relative brevity as a strength, and while one might as well hang a big old ‘you are here’ sign on Dystopia, the closing title-track, a subdued instrumental flesh-out into a quick fade and the only song under three minutes long, is arguably the most hopeful sounding of the bunch. Go figure. Cortés, like South American heavy as a whole, remains underappreciated, but his songwriting remains vibrant and forward-looking.
Cerebral French post-metallers Stonebirds offer their first new music in five years with Perpetual Wasteland, their fifth full-length. The album is comprised of six tracks that range from minimalist guitar standing alone to an explosive, big-the-way-modern-pop-is-big chorus like that of “Sea of Sorrow” (not a cover). Stonebirds might be aggressive, as on “Circles” at the outset, or they might even delve into a bit of post-black metal in “Croak,” but there’s never a point at which Perpetual Wasteland lacks purpose. Each side is three songs, two between five and six minutes and a closer circa eight; I’m telling you the symmetry is multi-tiered. And as destructive as “So Far Away” feels at its start, “The Last Time” mirrors with a more open-sounding approach, lush in melody in a way they’ve been before by then, and still tense in chug, but pulled back in the delivery. They’re dynamic, they have range, and they craft their material with clear consideration of how every second is going to unfold.
VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other is indeed the sixth LP from Irish space rockers Yurt, as I remind myself that just because I’d never heard the band before doesn’t mean they haven’t been around over 16 years. So it goes. The keyboard-prone three-piece — Andrew Bushe and drums and then some, Steven Anderson on guitar/vocals and sax, and Boz Mugabe on bass, vocals, keys (plus visuals) — find a way to make a classic-style motorik push feel mellow on “From the Maggot’s Perspective,” where “Shop of the Most Auspicious Frog” is more of a freakout and “Seventh is the Skut” is more about the jazzprog instrumental chase. Those three songs are shorter, but the album has three more extended pieces as well in opener “The Cormorant Tree” (15:33), “Pagpag Variations” (16:28) and “Sun Roasted Rodent” (13:30), which unfurl across multiple movements, bringing heavy doomjazz skronk and more experimentalist space rock together in a way that makes me bummed to be late to the party, but also kind of feel like I’m right on time.
As the band are now past the 30-year mark, it is an honor to once again be drenched in Evoken‘s pouring, grey, cold, wretched visions. Mendacium brings eight songs themed, because obviously, around the slow decline and death of a 14th century Benedictine monk, running 62 dug-in minutes of beauty-in-darkness extremity. It is not universally crawling, as “Lauds” and “Sext” move with a poise that feels kin to modern Paradise Lost, but for sure is defined by and uses that sense of slow, grueling churn to bolster its atmosphere, which is duly wood-churchy for its subject matter. They’re not all-pummel, of course, and never were. The penultimate “Vesper” is a brief organ interlude before closer “Compline” lowers you down into the pit to face whatever it is that takes place in the song after the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and there is a morose peace to be found in the quiet moments throughout, as with what might be their only album this decade, Evoken land that much harder for the emotional weight the songs carry, whatever metaphor might be applied to them.
Oh that’s nasty. You might think you’re ready for what Mourners and Yanomamo are bringing in gutter-dwelling death-doom and gnashing, crush-prone sludge roll, but that isn’t likely to save you as the two Sydney-based acts align for a three-song/20-minute split EP that wastes not a second in terms of efficiency of infliction. Mourners present “It Only Gets Worse,” with a raw punch in its bass chug, low-deathly growls and a sound that’s so down and dense across 11 minutes that it sounds slower than it actually is. It dies loud in a wash of noise to let Yanomamo‘s feedback-and-sample start “Lifefucker,” pointedly miserable in its unfolding. It and the growl-into-a-void-but-the-void-is-you diagnosing of mankind’s miseries in “Self-Inflicted” are shorter together than “It Only Gets Worse,” but more outwardly aggressive, as if to make sure you got spit out after being so thoroughly chewed up. I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s pretty heavy in that the-world-is-dying-and-nobody’s-coming-to-stop-it kind of way.
The craggy dark-wizard-giving-soon-to-be-unheeded-warnings vocals of Muttering Bog‘s first release, the sludgy Sword Axe Wizard Cult, become a defining aspect. The Winchester, Virginia, band’s lone member, credited only as Ben, hones a raw-throated rasp that, where parts of the album might otherwise be stoner metal, keep a tether to extremity that feels as much born of black metal as Bongzilla. It is a challenging but not unrewarding listen; a just-out-of-the-dirt basement doom that isn’t afraid of being caustic or harsh in its riffy, weedian homage. And yeah, it comes across as pretty rough. Some of the changes are choppy on the drums and such, but hell’s bells, it’s a fully DIY make-and-release-a-thing from one person that pushes limits, is certain to evoke an emotional response, and is absolutely uncompromising in the identity being carved. None of that makes it listenable, if you’re looking for listenability, but it does make it art.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 28th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I was fortunate enough to be approached by Todd Severin of Ripple Music (also an award-winning author whose novel, Deadly Vision, came out earlier this year) about this posthumous Eric Wagner 7″ a couple months ago, and wound up writing some short liner notes for the release. The main draw here is “Nothing But Blue Skies,” which is the last recording leftover from Wagner‘s solo album, In the Lonely Light of Mourning(review here), which came out through Cruz Del Sur in March 2022, following the Trouble and The Skull vocalist’s passing from covid-19 in Aug. 2021, and the yet-unreleased song is complemented by a cover of Trouble‘s “The Misery Shoes (Act II)” with Butch Balich (Penance, Argus, etc.) joining Wagner‘s solo band to pay homage.
For collectors, fans, and anyone who realizes the impact Wagner had across the decades of his tenure in the US doom underground, that is likely to be enough, and I’m not inclined to argue here. I don’t know if the liner notes are included with the 7″ or not, ultimately, but Severin put the following out abut the release yesterday and I wanted to give anyone who knows what they’re in for a heads up. Here you go:
Last year, I was approached by the members of Eric Wagner’s solo band, entrusting me to release the last song Eric recorded, at the time of his solo album, but left off that record. The band really wanted the song to be heard, and recorded a cover of the Trouble song “The Misery Shows (Act II) to be the B side in honor of his memory. I spoke to some of Eric’s closest friends, and all were on board.
So, now I’m thrilled to present to you, “Eulogy” in honor of Eric Wagner.
“Nothing but Blue Skies,” the final song recorded by Eric Wagner for his solo album, before his untimely passing. The legendary singer, and leader of Trouble cut a path through doom unrivaled by others.
Available on very limited 7″ vinyl. Release date December 12, 2025
Victor Arduini on Eulogy:
I finally can announce this release that I am honored to be a part of.
I was asked (actually I asked them 🙏..lol) to contribute the solo section for a mostly acoustic demo that was considered for Eric’s last album but was the odd song out and never completed. Then I had a recording of The Misery Shows (Act II) that was never fully finished so I got Dave Snyder to record the drums, Chuck Robinson to record bass & acoustics and my dear friend Kelly L’Heureux to add harmony vocals. But it was the vocals of my partner in doom Brian “Butch” Balich who sang his heart out and brought it all together.
Both these songs are very spiritual in nature and has deep meaning to me. Eric spent his life not afraid to speak his faith in God and I always connected with his insight and spiritual awareness. I’m blessed to be able to play a small part in this release and with all the musicians who took part. Shout out to Nick Bellmore for helping me produce it and making it shine. RIP Eric…This is for you🙏❤🙏❤
Posted in Reviews on October 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Sneaking it in on a Friday? What is this madness? Fair question. The wretched truth is that in slating this Quarterly Review — welcome, by the way — I ran into a scheduling conflict with a stream I booked for Oct. 14. I wasn’t sure how to resolve the logistics there, and 10 reviews plus a full-album stream is more than I have brainpower to write in a day, even if I do nothing else, so think of this as like the soft-launch grand opening of the Fall 2025 Quarterly Review. I’ll go all through next week and then wrap up on Monday the 15th. 70 total releases covered, 10 per day, during that time.
It’s gonna be a lot, and I’m sure as always happens there will be other things I’ll fall behind on, but to be perfectly honest with you, I could really, really stand to force myself to sit down and engage the hardcore escapism of getting lost in 70 records one after the next, so I think I might actually enjoy this this time through. Famous last words, but last time was one of my favorite QRs ever, so I’ve got momentum on my side. I’ll keep you posted as we go, and while I’m here, have a great weekend. We’ll pick up with more on Monday.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Faetooth, Labyrinthine
While being terrible for most everything else, 2025 is a good year to go dark. Faetooth do so — darker, anyhow — with their sophomore album, Labyrinthine, and find a place where doomgaze and sludgier, scream-topped distortion can meet without seeming any more incongruous than the Los Angeles trio want it them to be. The record runs a substantial 10 songs/55 minutes, and songs like “Iron Gate,” “Hole,” “White Noise,” and “Eviscerate” derive as much of their atmosphere from the band scorching the ground beneath them as from the more subdued, murky and melodic stretches. With these elements put together in a cohesive whole sound, Labyrinthine is less an aesthetic revolution than a (welcome) generational refresh to doom and sludge, with the band set on a path of progression toward an increasingly individualized stylistic take. Idiot dudes will talk shit because they’re women. Don’t listen to idiot dudes. Listen to riffs. Faetooth have plenty to get you started.
The mighty Kiel, Germany, trio — oops, they just became a four-piece; heads up — recorded Bring Your Lungs this past April while on their first-ever tour of Australia. It’s a three-song, about-35-minute live-in-studio collection, and they’ll reportedly press it to vinyl in no small part so they have copies to take with them when they return down under in 2027. I guess it went well. Bring Your Lungs leaves little question as to why as the band put themselves in line among the heaviest sons of Sleep in the suitably-half-formed oeuvre of bong metal. Even the shortest of the three, the middle cut “Wax” (7:38) lays tonal waste(d), while “Fathead” (11:17) and “Goddamn High” (15:59) bark and crush and caveman plod, hitting into a slowdown and a speedup, respectively, that convey both the plan underlying the mire and the willfully, gleefully insurmountable nature of that mire itself. They’d like to teach the world to stone. Can’t help but think it’d be better for it.
We may not have circa-2005 Genghis Tron to manifest the in-brain chaos of modern overwhelm, but Jon Weisnewski (Sandrider, Akimbo) stands ready with the extremist shenanigans industrial grind of Nuclear Dudes to pick up the slack. Following the punishing radness of 2023’s Boss Blades (review here), Weisnewski, his keyboards, a buttload of samples and guitar here collaborate with vocalist Brandon Nakamura to manifest a cacophonous stew that almost gets away with tapping into “Welcome to the Jungle” on album opener “Napalm Life” (get it?) by making it almost completely unrecognizable. Further punishment is dealt with semiautomatic fervor on “Concussion Protocol” and “Juggalos for Congress,” but the 11-track/23-minute entirety of Nuclear Dudes‘ second full-length comes across like an intentional brainema, so approach with caution and know that, if it feels right, you’re not alone.
A quick glance at the social media for Italian stoner-droner heretofore solo-project Void Sinker, and one finds that sole denizen Guglielmo Allegro is currently searching for a bassist and a drummer to fill out the lineup. Unquestionably this would be a significant change to the proceedings on the five-song/69-minute Echoes From the Deep, which plunges frontal-lobe-first into undulating waveforms and its own distorted expanse. A clear progression of notes can be heard later in closer “Andromeda” (16:21) and “Hollow” is minimalist to the point of being barely there for most of its nine minutes, but obviously a certain kind of meditative monolith is constructed from lead cut “Cetus” onward. There are no shallow dives here, and one can’t help but wonder what Allegro might have in mind for filling out these arrangements with a rhythm section. Will Void Sinker adopt more straightforward stoner-doom riffing, or is the intention to try to make this kind of drone actually convey a sense of movement? Your guess is as good as mine, but for now, the trance induced is noteworthy.
Raw oldschool doom with a punker edge permeates Hebi Katana‘s first album for Ripple Music and fourth overall, Imperfection. And the title becomes somewhat ironic, because while the implication is they’re talking about a warts-‘n’-all sound perhaps in reference to the production rawness of the seven-track/35-minute outing highlighted by cuts like “Dead Horse Requiem” and “Blood Spirit Rising,” which shuffle-pushes into and out of a pastoral midsection, as well as the finale “Yume wa Kareno,” it just about perfectly suits the material itself, and the band bring vigor to the deceptively catchy “Praise the Shadows” that, while dark in atmosphere, speaks to a dynamic that’s developed in their sound over time. That is to say, they might be a ‘new band’ to listeners outside the band’s native Japan, but Imperfection conveys their experience in craft and in its chemistry. If it wasn’t recorded live, close enough. They’re not reshaping genre, but there is perspective at work, to be sure.
That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust, a two-songer full-length with each consuming about 23 minutes of a vinyl side, sure feels like a landmark, but that seems to happen when Melbourne trio Khan are involved. Here they set a sprawl matched by few in heavy progressive psychedelia as the three-piece of Josh Bills (vocals, guitar, keyboard, recording, mixing, mastering), Will Homan (bass) and Beau Heffernan (drums) enact a linear build across the massive soundscape of “That Fair and Warlike Form,” as sure in their purpose as they are defiant of the expectation that these extended pieces might just be jams. Rather, that opener and “Return to Dust” are structured pieces, and resonate emotionally as well as immerse the listener in their clear-eyed breadth. “Return to Dust” is a level of triumph not every act achieves, and “That Fair and Warlike Form” is no less impactful throughout its procession. One of the best of 2025, but less about the fleeting moment than providing a place to dwell long-term. That is to say, it’s a record that has the potential for its own cult, never mind the wider following amassed by the band.
The first Sarkh LP, Helios (review here), arrived through Worst Bassist Records in 2023 and was a purposeful adventure across genre lines, taking elements of post-rock, heavy riffing, and even aspects of black metal and more extreme ideas into a context that became its own. The shimmer at the outset of “Helios” that starts their second full-length, Heretical Bastard, speaks immediately of communion, and as the German instrumentalists have set about refining and coalescing their sound, ambience remains central to what they do regardless of how outwardly heavy a given part gets, which, in tracks like “Kanagawa” and “Glazial,” is pretty gosh darn heavy, never mind the chug that pays off “Zyklon” or the wash that culminates 11-minute capper “Cape Wrath,” though admittedly, the latter is more about push that heft. It’s movement either way, and Heretical Bastard‘s greatest heresy might just be how convincingly invisible it makes the (yes, imaginary) lines that divide one style from another. A band on their own path, forging their own sound. If you can’t respect that, it’s your loss.
Eight years on from their well-received 2017 debut, Take Me to the Gallows, Chicagoan classic doom metallers Professor Emeritus reach pointedly into the epic with A Land Long Gone, their second record. The band’s traditionalism of form means there’s something inherently familiar about the proceedings, and certainly they’re not the only ones with an affinity for ’80s metal of various stripes these days, but in addition to being distinguished by the forward-mixed vocals of Esteban Julian Pena, the sheer weight of “Pragmatic Occlusion” and “Defeater” and the crescendo of “Kalopsia Caves” sets well alongside the graceful flow of “Zosimos” or the later, partly-acoustic “Hubris,” portraying the dynamic and sense of character brought into the material. Like Philly’s Crypt Sermon, they’re not pretending the intervening decades didn’t happen — you wouldn’t call A Land Long Gone retro, I mean — but their collective heart clearly bleeds for the classics just the same; Trouble, Candlemass, Iron Maiden. If that’s your speed, their blend of chug and soar should hit just right.
Florist know what they’re here for, and as they push through the let’s-start-with-the-universe’s-frequency “432Hz” into the modern, cavernous, riffage and nod of “Another Moon,” my brain sings a hearty fuck yes. They pack 29 minutes of rad into Adrift, their sophomore, six-songer LP, and while they’re not shy about lumber in “Grow” and the closer “Adrift (Part B),” that’s only one end of a style that’s able to move with marked fluidity across a range of tempos that, with a vibrant production, fullness of tone and hard-hit drums shoving it all, make for a refreshing take on what are unrepentantly familiar ideas. That is to say, there’s no pretense in Florist. Volume worship, riff worship, whatever you want to call it, it matters so little when the band are bashing away at “Out of Space” and hell’s bells it’s actually fun. Like, real life fun. The kind you might have with friends in a crowded room with the band on stage killing it through a set likewise heavy and intense but unashamed of the good time it’s having. Also giving, as one might a gift.
Ohio’s Paul Williams has released three ‘audio travelogues’ of the Blue Ridge Highway, with the Moog-only Under Blue Ridge Skies preceded directly by A Blue Ridge Spaceway and Our Grandfather the Mountain earlier this year. Maybe you have, and if so, that’s awesome, but to my knowledge I’ve never been on the Blue Ridge Highway, so I can’t necessarily speak to how the droney “Ghost Over a Pointed Top” or the kraut-style blips and bloops of “See Mount Mitchell” correlate to the experience of driving it. I’ll soak my ignorance in the keyboardy melancholia of “A Carolina Elegy,” which closes with evocations of past storms and forebodes of those still to come. Likewise, I’m not sure what the title “Abbott’s Fantasia” is a reference to, if anything at all, but you don’t get much more dug in than entire compositions played out on various layered, hyper-specific, probably-vintage-and-expensive-to-repair synthesizers, and it’s a kind of nerdery for which I’m very much on board.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Stylistically, the ‘doom’ in question here is more like that kind that came around in the aughts when the dudes who had been heretofore bashing elbows into skulls at hardcore shows thickened in tone on the long march toward middle age and still basically played hardcore because they weren’t actually that old yet. That said, I don’t think Motherless‘ first single “Weaponized Goodwill,” is necessarily representing the whole of Do You Feel Safe?, the album from whence it comes. With members of The Atlas Moth and Without Waves in the four-piece lineup, they’ll be no strangers to aural reach.
Prosthetic Records, which also stood behind the last album from The Atlas Moth after releases on Candlelight and Profound Lore, will have the record out Sept. 12. “Weaponized Goodwill” is at the bottom of the post. Enjoy if you like scathe.
From the PR wire:
MOTHERLESS: Chicago Riff Bringers Featuring Members Of The Atlas Moth And Without Waves To Release Do You Feel Safe? Full-Length On September 12th Via Prosthetic Records; New Track Streaming
Chicago’s MOTHERLESS will release their Do You Feel Safe? full-length on September 12th on Prosthetic Records. Featuring eight punishing tracks – including the searing singles “Weaponized Goodwill,” “Reptile Dysfunction,” and “Insect Politics” – this record doesn’t ask questions. It kicks the door in.
MOTHERLESS is rooted deep in the city’s longstanding tradition of doom and riff-driven metal. Formed by veterans of the local heavy scene – Stavros Giannopoulos and Alex Klein of The Atlas Moth and Gary Naples and Anthony Cwan of Without Waves – MOTHERLESS brings a raw, unfiltered sound that prioritizes weight and atmosphere over theatrics. Their live ethos says it all: “No fog, no light show, just riffs.”
The band has quickly become a fixture within Chicago’s metal circuit, appearing on stages at LiveWire Lounge, Reggie’s, and major events like the Forever Deaf Fest VI Pre-Party and Heavy Chicago. MOTHERLESS consistently delivers crushing sets that resonate with fans of heavy, dynamic music grounded in authenticity.
Their sound combines elements of punk and hardcore with a bleak, driving intensity that reflects both personal darkness and industrial urban weight. There’s no gimmick here – just thick tones, sharp songwriting, and a commitment to keeping heavy music honest.
In advance of the release of Do You Feel Safe?, today MOTHERLESS unveils their first single, “Weaponized Goodwill.”
Comments Giannopoulos, “Not to take anything away from anyone’s personal experience, but the last 5-6 years have been particularly challenging for me, and for the entire world. This song, and record as a whole, is a musical roadmap of making it through that for me.”
Do You Feel Safe?, which features artwork by Rosario Scimeca, was produced by Sanford Parker with vocals produced by Stavros Giannopoulos, mixed by Sanford Parker, and mastered by Brad Boatright.
The record will be available across all streaming services.
As they continue to carve out their place in Chicago’s storied metal landscape, MOTHERLESS stands as a reminder that in a city built on grit, the heaviest voices often rise from the underground. Fans of Intronaut, The Ocean, Kylesa, ISIS, High On Fire, and the like, pay heed.
Do You Feel Safe? Track Listing: 1. Reptile Dysfunction 2. Abrupt Violence 3. You Seem So Damn Sure 4. Darling, You Don’t Look Well 5. Weaponized Goodwill 6. Christian Math 7. Insect Politics 8. The New Romance
MOTHERLESS Live: 8/12/2025 Kite String Cantina – Chicago, IL **Do You Feel Safe? Listening Party** 8/29/2025 Burlington Bar – Chicago, IL Record Release Show w/ Death Pose, Something Is Waiting, Barren Heir
MOTHERLESS: Anthony Cwan – lead guitar, vocals Alex Klein – bass Gary Naples – drums Stavros Giannopoulos – vocals, rhythm guitar
Whatever else its eight component songs might be ‘about’ in terms of subject matter, Pelican‘s Flickering Resonance is about love. The long-running Chicago instrumentalists’ first album in six years since 2019’s Nighttime Stories (review here) is something of a reset, or return-to-form, and as they feature returned guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, who came back to the band three years ago and was in Tusk with drummer Larry Herweg and guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw before Pelican were even founded, let alone being a founding member — the band is completed by bassist Bryan Herweg, who joined in 2001 — some of the material here represents the most straightforward Pelican have sounded in two decades.
The record breaks in half with a shorter piece introducing each side in “Gulch” on side A and “Cascading Crescent” leading the way into side B, but each side is also arranged from shortest to longest, so the tracks feel more immersive as they play out. Pelican are no strangers to bringing a range of influences to their approach. They’ve been celebrated for over 20 years for the central innovation of their sound, which in its infancy dared to mix shades of post-hardcore and emo in with crunch-tone-but-pastoral and largely-undeniable riffing, finding escape in the nod and richness of melody in the guitars. Flickering Resonance shimmers brighter than its title would lead one to believe, and across its span, it reminds the listener who Pelican were without sounding like a ‘gritty 2025 reboot’ of the band circa the Champions of Sound tour or a hackneyed attempt to lead the songs somewhere they don’t want to go.
But the secret ingredient here, in the ebbs and flows of “Evergreen” as it rolls out from the wistful leads of “Gulch” near the start of the record and the mellower drift of the finale “Wandering Mind,” is love. To listen to a song like “Indelible,” well, that’s what’s indelible about it. That’s what’s evergreen in “Evergreen.” It’s there in the takeoff after the quieter stretch in “Pining for Ever,” certainly, and it’s in the early shove of “Specific Resonance,” the quiet stretch and the later chugging ride to the finish. The album bleeds it. It’s the band’s love for each other, their love for the music, for making these songs both in the writing and recording sense, and the kind of chemistry that could only result from knowing each other as deeply as these players do.
Look. I’m not purporting Flickering Resonance as a sequel to their 2003 landmark debut, Australasia (discussed here), or anything like that — and I mean it. As much as “Cascading Crescent” and “Evergreen” and even the swayingly post-punk divergence of the penultimate “Flickering Stillness,” which comes to an engrossing crescendo that’s like being hugged by an old friend, are Pelican being themselves, they’re not Pelican trying to be themselves in their 20s. There’s no attempt to pretend that the years between then and now haven’t happened, and the maturity of the band underscoring is what makes the manifestation of their emotional expression so vivid.
This is a band who’ve been around the world I don’t know how many times, and no matter what hyperbole I could muster up to toss out about Flickering Resonance would pale in the face of that which they’ve received from far cooler sources over the course of their career. They don’t need to be putting out records at all if they don’t want to — it’s not the kind of thing where they’re locked into a label’s album cycle — and no doubt every individual member has their own life outside the band. That’s what happens when bands get older. Families, jobs, lives. And for every second of Flickering Resonance, whether it’s loud, quiet, riffing or exploring, they all just sound so happy to be there. I don’t know the recording circumstances, if they were all in the same room tracking with the esteemed Sanford Parker (Buried at Sea, Corrections House, Minsk, etc.) or in their respective living rooms playing to a laptop, but if you have found yourself in need of solace living on planet Earth in 2025 — whatever that might mean to you — Pelican‘s exuded joy for playing these songs together can be something to hold onto.
It’s a celebration of creativity, sure, but it’s really more human than that, more primal, and the lead guitar singing phrases no words could in “Indelible” tells a lot of the story. Love as a radical act. There’s no flinching away from what the last years have wrought, and while escapism and hypnotics have always been part of what Pelican do, the urgency here is to come together rather than to flee. Flickering Resonance is nothing if not a reminder to tell your friends you love them. It’s never going to be an answer to everything, but in the comings and goings of making their way into middle age, Pelican have landed in a place where they realize and understand how special this band is and most of all how special they are to each other. No part — really, none of it — sounds obligatory.
I’ve been a Pelican fan for a long time, and it would contradict the honesty of Flickering Resonance — oh, that last solo reaching out of “Wandering Mind” — to pretend otherwise. So if you want to say I’m impartial or I’m hearing things in the riffs that aren’t there, fine. I respectfully disagree, and I don’t think hearing the band valuing each other as they twist through the surge of “Pining for Ever” cheapens the listening experience at all. Rather, a great resource Flickering Resonance has working for it is its sense of openness and letting the parts of songs breathe; a hard-won patience on the band’s part that goes beyond the payoff of this or that individual track. Pelican step up, declare themselves across 51 minutes, and are gone again. In that time, they reinforce the boundary-pushing aspects of their early work without feeling any need to ‘go back’ in the songs themselves, acknowledging the past and moving inevitably forward, driven by the love, friendship and creativity that’s held them together all the while.
Chicago-based post-metallic conceptualist outfit Beware of Gods will release their second full-length, Upon Whom the Last Light Descends II : Amnesia Island, on May 2, taking the title in part from the fictional setting — at least I’m pretty sure it’s fictional, can’t quite remember — where the songs take place. Spearheaded by Jason O’Donnell, who also uses the weighty nomThe Archetype, the sophomore LP continues the vocalist/multi-instrumentalist’s collaboration with drummer Kellii Scott (Failure) and brings in two new parties in sound designer Feederwire and guest guitarist Eric Plonka, but the prevailing vision remains in line with what Beware of Gods laid out across their likewise-cumbersomely-named 2022 debut, Upon Whom the Last Light Descends Pt. I : I Am Named After Death, wherein lie the roots both of the new album’s aversion to putting the colon in its title next to the Roman numeral and its prog-metal-encompassing scope.
Which is to say that Upon Whom the Last Light Descends II : Amnesia Island pushes further from where the debut left off, deepening the arrangements — oddly enough, bringing in a sound designer has upped the level of sound design; stay tuned for more useful lifehacks — and generally broadening the reach of the material. O’Donnell himself is a big presence in the material. His vocals come in admirably Devin Townsend-esque swaps between extreme metal screams and soaring prog melodies, and in steering the arrangements across these eight tracks from the atmospheric/shouted intro “Concussion Dream” through the spoken part in closer “Temple of Thieves,” there is an auteurial sensibility that comes through the 49-minute span. This continues the evolutionary thread from the previous LP even as the narrative those songs laid out — the whole Pt. I/Pt. II thing; there are reportedly two more chapters to come — likewise finds its next chapter.
Shades of mid-to-late 1990s influences abound, perhaps most vividly Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, by whom both the vocal patterning in the penultimate “The Science of Slow Moving Monsters” (premiering below) and the distorted piano line in “The End of the Wide Awake Nightmare” seem to be informed, as well as O’Donnell‘s musings about the “man I was before” in “Temple of Thieves.” One could argue that shows up in “Lysergic Liturgies of a Schizo Messiah” as well, but the manner in which that song ups the thrust and punch factors after the crunch and churn of “The Doomsday Zealot of Amnesia Island” leads to a galloping finish lets Beware of Gods burn through a more aggressive catharsis, a harder metallic bite, where the lead guitar in “D.I.E. Sect” feels more specifically in conversation with “Grind” from the self-titled Alice in Chains LP. The Faith No More meets Author and Punisher outset vibe in “The End of the Wide Awake Nightmare” before it diverges into the aforementioned piano and ends-screaming spoken word sends a hidden message about the methodical nature of how all of these influences have come together, and further, highlights the consciousness behind all of it.
“D.I.E. Sect” gets noisy like electronica and obviously, “Submerged by the Ghost of a White Whale” — which on its own consumes more than 15 minutes of the total runtime — is going to be a focal point, but it’s also emblematic of just how manifested Upon Whom the Last Light Descends II : Amnesia Island feels. No one song is just one thing. Whether it’s a buried-deep screaming layer in O’Donnell‘s vocals later on or the Meshuggah-chug that follows the vocals in getting more chaotic and theatrical as the album’s most extended piece builds, offset but not undone in impact by a melodic chorus and a highlight of depth. Like much of what surrounds, “Submerged by the Ghost of a White Whale” digs in, feels conceived and seen through, worked on, hammered out, however you might want to say it. Coinciding with the basic tracks of Scott‘s drums and the guitar, bass and keys is a range of atmospheric and ambient elements, such that Beware of Gods prove no less capable of setting a mood either in “Submerged by the Ghost of a White Whale” or anything that surrounds as of bashing that same mood to itty-bitty pieces with their heaviest stretches.
That meld itself is something individual, but more crucial to the persona of the album and the band as a whole is the deep-running feeling of intention that runs from front to back. Whether a given part is spacing out or brooding, reciting narrative in an effects-manipulated spoken word or crushing a riff en route to the next thing, Upon Whom the Last Light Descends II : Amnesia Island is aware of the choices being made, aware of the direction of its craft, of the influences and inspirations with which it’s in conversation. Maybe this shouldn’t be such a shocker from a project that’s set itself to the task of releasing a four-part narrative concept album cycle, but it’s a prevalent if not directly stated factor in the listening experience that informs everything the band — and it does sound like a band more than a solo-project, wherever the line might lie between the one and the other — does. Even the most unhinged moments here have been sculpted.
It’s a little bit before it’s actually out, but hopefully the closing duo — because “Temple of Thieves” is already streaming, find it near the bottom of this post — gives some sense of where Beware of Gods are coming from at this apparent halfway point in their larger polyptic.
PR wire info follows the player below. As always, I hope you enjoy:
Jason O’Donnell on “The Science of Slow Moving Monsters”:
“The Science Of Slow Moving Monsters” was initially inspired by the YouTube video featuring a slow, long track tornado that hit Fargo, ND in the mid sixties. My fascination with tornadoes, especially wedge tornadoes, knows no end. I feel like I’m trying to capture that power in my guitar riffs. That said, TSSMM is inevitably an amalgam of influences from Prong & Helmet to Alice In Chains & COC. The subject matter is part of an ongoing narrative regarding the protagonist I Nomad & his journey from Terror to Transcendence.”
Tracking with Pete Grossmann at Bricktop is a highlight of my career & life. His work with Huntsmen, Frail Body, Gates To Hell, Warforged & his own band High Priest is prime, top of the peak, best out there imo… Eric Plonka (Scientist, Yakuza, DRÖV, PLNKA) laid down additional heavy blankets of creepy, other worldly guitars in just the right sections, that seem to be crawling of a formless void. Kellii Scott of Failure is of course beyond monumental to the deep ditch digging groove factor on drums, laying a foundation for Feederwire (REKT, Unterm Rad) to construct a digi-doom encrusted network of futuristic soundscapes & Sci Fi audio architecture.
‘Upon Whom The Last Light Descends’ by Beware Of Gods is a IV Part, Epic, Psychoperatic Cathartic Concept inspired by ‘The Blind Idiot God’ from the HP Lovecraft mythos known as Azathoth, a malevolently indifferent Infinite Creator of Chaos re imagined as the Looming Dread treading all of Us which can only be overcome by turning to face it. Other literary & film inspirations include : Dune, The Matrix, Dracula, Demian, Mad Max, Blade Runner, Jonah & The Whale & Foundation.
From melancholy to pure menace, the vocals of B. O. G. lone wolf Jason O’Donnell aka The Archetype soar across UWTLLD and hover like a cloud of locusts within the angular atonal trudging combat between his doom laden guitars & calderaesque fuzzed out bass pummeling. The droning trudging of dissonant riffage is backed by the solid, just ‘behind the beat’ groove of guest drummer Kellii Scott of Alt Space Rock Giants Failure. Beware Of Gods is a Warning and a Blessing. An Honoring Of The Gift of Despair from which Clarity takes Flight and We find the Courage to face the Monster, to Reconcile It to Become and Overcome It…
In terms of ambient soundscapes, there are also stellar initial stabs at sound design work on PT I that bring to mind Skinny Puppy or even NIN. From here, my journey into the B. O. G. gets really interesting because after for PT II & III, the addition of Sound Design veteran Feederwire & Engineer/Producer Pete Grossmann (Gates To Hell, Warforged, Weekend Nachos, Frail Body, Scientist, Huntsmen) of Bricktop Recording is already bringing the concept into even more focus & catapulting it into what The Archetype references in the intro ‘Concussion Dream’ as ‘Amnesia Island’ :
“A post apocalyptic glitchy outpost floating in a bio mechanical ocean that is appearing to lead us along, with it’s protagonist/hero I Nomad, into an even deeper hybrid of analog & digital sounds that provide the landscape for a cast of broken antagonists trapped in a narrative of Self Worship & self determined demise.”
Tracklisting: 1. Concussion Dream 2. The End Of The Wide Awake Nightmare 3. Submerged By The Ghost Of A White Whale 4. The Doomsday Zealot Of Amnesia Island 5. Lysergic Liturgies Of A Schizo Messiah 6. D. I. E. Sect 7. The Science Of Slow Moving Monsters 8. Temple Of Thieves
Co Produced, Engineered & Mixed – Pete Grossmann Mastered – Brad Boatright Recorded at : Bricktop Recording Executive Producer – Christopher Dyer Artwork – Unexpected Specter
Jason O’Donnell – Vocals, Guitar, Bass & Synth Feederwire – Sound Design & Additional Guitars on Submerged… Eric Plonka – Additional Guitars on Temple Of Thieves and D. I. E. Sect Kellii Scott – Drums
Beware of Gods, Upon Whom the Last Light Descends II: Amnesia Island
