Limerick’s TOOMS release their new album, Karst, tomorrow, May 29, though Cursed Monk Records, Road to Masochist and Fiadh Productions. And while punishment isn’t the entirety of what they’re dealing out, for sure it’s a big part of it. The trio of guitarist/vocalist Alex Hölzinger, bassist Anto Donnellan and drummer/vocalist Kieran Grace readily cross the line between sludge and death metal — the later “Whitethorn” has a genuine 21st Century chugga-chugga breakdown; it’s very metal — to find an angle from which they might make brutality their own. This all is leading to the 11-minute culmination of “Physics Beyond the Standard Model” — one assumes that’s quantum, or maybe just a Blood Incantation acknowledgement — but it’s not like blast-prone opener “Blood Rust/Of Cudgel and Quill” or the gnashing angularity of the subsequent “Lowlander” are taking it easy. Maybe you caught wind of TOOMS‘ explain-the-acronym debut, The Orb Offers Massive Signals (review here), during the plague summer of 2020. The ensuing years have only seen them grow nastier.
So be it as “Tower of Silence” rises from its quieter start to meet lumbering distortion with gutturalisms. A somewhat cleaner vocal arises in the chorus — and that may be interplay between Hölzinger and Grace, I honestly don’t know — and words in trade with the verse, but they’re death-stench regardless of the surrounding mud. A layered lead prefaces the cymbal crash finish and the first of three interludes, “Blue Angel” strums quietly ahead of the centerpiece “Drinkvlt,” which begins with a sample that says, “People say alcohol is a drug. It’s not a drug, it’s a drink” (from Brass Eye, the ‘Drugs’ episode) right into the riff, proceeding to manifest the dankest sludge delve of the record. Rightfully backed with respite, “Two Silver Pieces” is another instrumental strum interlude, loosely Western as the title clues with piano and a bridge into “Whitethorn,” which blasts early onto to slam later, as noted. The last divergence, the synthier “A Release of Tension” — please know it does not actually release the tension — before the finale comes in scorching on feedback for one last chug-riff kill.
“Physics Beyond the Standard Model” is something of an album unto itself, or at least it seems to be operating from a place between the various sides of TOOMS‘ sound, deathsludge and thrash and doom and even a bit of (bruised and beaten) progressive construction as it moves through its second half, layering guitars and such. But the band are never far removed from the rawness that draws the material on Karsttogether, and that thread running through the songs helps define what they’re doing each time out, fast or slow, pummeling or providing a moment’s shelter before, well, more pummeling, probably. Especially as the shape of side B is different than that of side A, with the two longer tracks each preceded by an interlude, where the first half of the album whallops you with the opening three cuts before letting you come up for air, Karst can’t really be summarized by any single track, but for sure the shape of the whole is lethal regardless of flow. Maybe all the more for it.
Karst streams in its entirety below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Hailing from Limerick in the west of Ireland, Tooms’ progressive sludge metal has been evolving into ever more astounding forms since 2017. Bassist Anto Donnellan, drummer Kieran Grace and guitarist/vocalist Alex Hölzinger had been working together for four years prior to that, under the name of Gaia, but it was with the first Tooms single, ‘Simon Ferocious’, that their creative endeavours really began to gather momentum. Debut album, The Orb Offers Massive Signals, was released in the summer of 2020 on Cursed Monk Records and was warmly received by critics. Now the band are ready to reveal their second full length album – and while the weight and gloom remain prevalent, Karst shows Tooms spreading their wings and letting their collective imagination take flight…
Having recorded Karst with long-time collaborator Chris Quigley at The Meadow Studios, Tooms handed the task of mixing to Matt Bayles (Isis, Mastodon, The Sword etc) and mastering to Chris Fielding (Conan, Darkest Era, Hooded Menace etc) and the results are superb – nothing smoothed, no edges lost and everything possessing clarity, heft, emotion and atmospheric texture. Karst will be released on May 29th, on CD by Road To Masochist, vinyl by Cursed Monk Records, cassette by Fiadh Productions and on all major digital platforms. This is unmissable.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
There’s a narrative of progression here, of creative pursuit, that goes back well further than Tau and the Drones of Praise‘s 2022 album, Misneach (review here), but that being the last outing from the Irish world-folk outfit with multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Seán Mulrooney at its center, it seems like a fair enough place to start. Following that record, Mulrooney ventured last year to make a solo album, This is My Prayer (review here), under his own name.
The new single “Raven Song” that magically appeared yesterday would seem to bring a new era and revitalization of Tau and the Drones of Praise. First of all, while there is some drone aspects of the track, you’ll notice that the moniker on the cover and everywhere else is just Tau. Fair enough. And with vocalist Laura O’Neill taking the lead position, shifting between English and Irish lyrics as the sub-four-minute runtime plays out, “Raven Song” fleshes out the avant-folk roots of Tau in combination with the maturity of purpose and craft that Mulrooney brought to his solo work. It sounds like, and may indeed be, a new era for the band.
There’s no word below of an album, but I have to think something is in the works here. That chase goes on, unabated.
From the Bandcamp page:
Tau are back with their first much anticapted release since 2022. This latest evolution is part bardic incantation, part summoning of a great primordial nature force represented here by the Irish Goddess, The Morrigan. “Raven Song” is bilingual drone folk with a devotional sensibility.
The track features the extraordinary production of Earl Harvin (Tindersticks) & Julia Borelli.
Tau tells ancient stories in modern soundscapes, and speaks to universal themes and slogans that transcends borders & cultural identities. The unique chemistry between Sean and Laura is what makes this track stand out, an alluring danceable dirge that transports us into another world, while still keeping us firmly rooted in the soil of Ireland, weaving in mythology and the Irish language in a way that’s seamlessly relevant to the times that we’re in.
Tau’s sound defies genre, but it defines the animist-based music that’s currently emerging from the Irish underground scene. And “Raven Song” is simply a banger: and it doesn’t drop, it flies.
released April 27, 2026 Written by Sean Mulrooney & Laura Oneill Produced by Earl Harvin & Julia Borelli Engineered by Sam Waks Single cover Sean Fitzgerald
Vocals – Piano, Synths – Seán Mulrooney Vocals – Laura Oneill Synths & programming Sam Waks Drones & Tsymbaly – Thomas Hugh Additional electronics & programming – Julia Borelli Synth – Earl Harvin BVs – Vetra
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 20th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
You know I love an eight-minute single. Limerick, Ireland’s TOOMS unveil “Whitehorn” as the first audio from their upcoming full-length, Karst, which will release through Cursed Monk Records on May 29. Yes, the busiest release day of the year so far. Always room for one more, and anyway, you can think of it as a trade of space. You’re trading the room the money takes up in your wallet — not such a huge cost — with the space the record will take up on your shelf. The latter, in my experience, is far less fleeting than the former.
“Whitehorn” streams in sludgy splendour below, and you’ll note Matt Bayles mixing and the Chris Fielding master coinciding with the Chris Quigley recording. I only mention it so when it feels like the song has gutpunched you, you have some sense as to why and how that’s come to be.
The following came from social media:
It’s finally here!! TOOMS new album Karst is officially available for preorder! And on a gorgeous 3 sided double vinyl no less!!
Drawing inspiration from ignorant caveman riffs, doom’s thick tones, the raw attack of hardcore and death metals cold aggression, TOOMS offer a unique cocktail of filthy, pummeling heft that is comfortable exploring more progressive and experimental territories.
After opening for titans Crowbar & Weedeater, and playing a handful of Irish festivals, in 2024 & 2025, TOOMS went under the radar and recorded a second full length with long time collaborator, Chris Quigley, in The Meadow Studios.
The culmination of this resulted in their extraordinary sophomore album, KARST, which has been mixed by the legendary Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Pelican, Russian Circles) and Mastered by equally legendary Chris Fielding (Electric Wizard, Conan, Primordial)
Tracklisting: 1. Blood Rust of Cudgel and Quill 2. Lowlander 3. Tower of Silence 4. Blue Angel 5. Drinkvlt 6. Two Silver Pieces 7. Whitehorn 8. A Release of Tension 9. Physics Beyond The Standard Model
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 25th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Galway, Ireland, crushsludge purveyors Ten Ton Slug will follow-up on their trip to Botswana last year — where the playthrough video below for “Mallacht an tSloda” was recorded — by this Fall heading to Japan to tour in a cohort with Diggeth (the Netherlands), Scotland’s Dog Tired and Japanese psych rockers Hylko. The tour as I understand it will feature all four acts each night, and finishes in Tokyo where it seems to be more of a festival happening, or at very least a seven-band night, which might as well be a festival if it isn’t.
Never mind the shows, the life experience of touring Japan with your friends and making new ones is its own excuse here, but yeah, the gigs are likely to be killer as well. Ten Ton Slug obviously have an adventurous spirit, and as they continue to support 2024’s pummeling Colossal Oppressor (review here), they’re finding new ways and new places to explore. It’s also how you know they don’t hate each other, because if there wasn’t ample love there, no way would they want to do this kind of traveling as a group. So that’s a nice thought, too.
Dates from the PR wire:
TEN TON SLUG – ‘KASHIKOMI’ Japan Tour 2026
Ireland’s leading purveyors of riff-filled sludge Ten Ton Slug are teaming up with Scottish riffmasters Dog Tired and Netherlands heavyweights Diggeth for a 5-date run of shows in Japan this November. Japan’s doom three-piece HYLKO round out the bill supporting the bands at every stop.
The tour (titled ‘Kashikomi’ – a Japanese term which expresses both profound awe and trembling fear) begins in Osaka on November 25th and culminates in an all-dayer featuring additional local Japanese bands (TBA) in WILD SIDE in Shinjuku Tokyo on November 29th.
Full list of dates:
Nov 25th – Osaka @ HOLY MOUNTAIN Nov 26th – Nagoya @ HUCK FINN Nov 27th – Shizuoka @ SOUGEN Nov 28th – Tokyo (Machida) @ CLASSIX Nov 29th – Tokyo (Shinjuku) @ WILD SIDE* *(+3 additional bands TBA.)
Ticket and final lineup details follow on socials in the coming months.
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 Reviews on November 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Tell your normie friends you have a doctor’s appointment or something, because the Quarterly Review is back with day two of five, bringing another round of 10 releases to bear in succession rapid enough to be modern without, you know, actually being written by a computer. Unless you consider the entire universe a hologram, in which case, technically, everything is done by a computer. Processor sucks though. That’s why you get lags. And fascism.
But enough of that. More of this.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Primordial, Live in New York City
A Primordial live album? Fine. Recorded in New York? Fine. Whatever. Just hook it to my veins and be done with it. The stalwart Dublin post-black-metallers have long since established their mastery of form, and frankly, the more examples there are of them doing the thing, so much the better for future generations to learn from. That’s only funny if you think I’m kidding. The 99 minutes of Live in New York City are a document of Primordial not at their most furious or unhinged, or at their most atmospheric, graceful or doomed, but they are stately in “The Golden Spiral,” “As Rome Burns” and the ever-epic “Bloodied Yet Unbowed.” I remain a sucker for “Empire Falls” and “No Grave Deep Enough,” that era, but newer material like “How it Ends” and “Victory Has 1,000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan” resonate well alongside what to my mind are classics, emphasizing the vitality and stage presence that remain in Primordial. If it’s a victory lap, or contractually obligated, or whatever, I don’t care. It’s Primordial. There’s no stronger endorsement you could give it than to say that.
Cattlemass have a live lineup, but the studio debut from the band was written, played and tracked by Chris Price, and the eight songs of Alpha 1128 (shades of THX 1138 in the title) would seem to be harnessing his vision of a mostly mid-tempo doom metal that’s not afraid to break out and rock a bit or dig into a creeper procession like “Infecticide.” Starting with its longest track in “Chant of Cthulhu,” Price enacts a thickly toned nod that holds even as “Eternal Beast” tosses psych flourish into its midsection. Some of the production reveals a background in metal — the muted stops in “Replicant,” complementing a robotic theme, bring the wavform all the way down; stoner recordings leave the amp hum — but there’s attention to atmosphere around that, both in “Intermission” and the instrumental finale “Exit Oblivion” and in the later reaches of “The Wizard” and the largesse that swells as “Nachthexen” rolls through its midsection. I’ll be curious to discover where Price goes from here, and if Cattlemass‘ next LP might be a full-band affair.
Though the intro guitar on “Before the Crash” seems to call out to original-era Mediterranean psychedelic rock, Athenian four-piece Honeybadger are nothing if not terrestrial. Specifically, grounded in desert-heavy and catchy songwriting, with their second album, Let There Be Light coming five years after their debut, Pleasure Delayer (review here), which they spent years supporting. Queens of the Stone Age remain a primary influence, though “Before the Crash” pushes outside this in its melody and “Filth and Disorder” hits harder and “Empty-Handed” is more fuzzed, and as with the first album, there are personality aspects that shine through as “The Green” answers in its riff the call of the opener and the horn arrangement in the closing title-track plays a dirge. It’s been a minute, and the LP feels short at 32 minutes, but the tradeoff is the songs are tight and sharply delivered and I’ll take that every time. Honeybadger took their time to make it, but what they’ve made is a step forward.
Not gonna feign impartiality here, as I consider Blue Heron frontman Jadd Shickler a friend and he’s someone I’ve worked with for over 20 years, but what I will say is that I very much dug 2024’s Everything Fades (review here), and Emulations builds on that with included live versions of “Everything Fades” and “Swansong” (as well as two cuts from the first LP) recorded at KUNM in the band’s native Albuquerque, while pushing ahead with a new original track “Marigold” that’s a highlight, and three covers — Fudge Tunnel‘s “Grey,” Clutch‘s “The House That Peterbilt” and Floor‘s “Find Away” — that emphasize the flexibility of the band around their heavy desert core. “Grey” is vicious at its heaviest, “Find Away” is admirably loyal to the original in its weighted blowout, and the Clutch tune gets a gruff treatment, but the melodies in “Marigold” and the energy in the live takes give a full album’s worth of satisfaction while packaged as an EP to take on tour. Mark it a win.
Stoned Spirit offer big hooks, thoughtful songcraft, progressive arrangements and a sense of the material as an outreach to the listener. It’s my first experience with the band, who also had an album out in 2016, but from the voicing of all “Mankind” in the opener through the uptick in tonal density as the built-into title-track unfurls its lumber, there doesn’t seem to be a moment on Inside Me that one would call ‘unconsidered.’ This is a strength to the listening experience because the four-piece — vocalist Tony, guitarist Marios (also backing vocals), bassist Titos and drummer Chris — kind of sound like they’ve been hammering out this material for nine years. Or if not all nine, certainly some statistically significant portion of that span. That’s a complement to how dug-in Stoned Spirit are to their approach, satisfying in its atmosphere and movement alike, but mature as the songs feel they remain expressive in the stories they’re telling.
The two-song opening salvo of “Red Eyes in the Hollow” and “Oath of the Stream” doesn’t necessarily set you up for the full scope of Ravenswood‘s six-track debut album, Rites of the Let Down, which from those shorter and punchier pieces unfurls four longer, significantly-more-likely-to-be-called-“slabs” of doom leaning into psychedelia. The pairing of those two isn’t new, obviously, but Ravenswood make it feel dramatic as they reroute “Where You Won’t Be” or the willfully choppy title-track from darker processions into tripped-out jams — stark changes that are executed with remarkable fluidity and, in the case of the title-track, patience. “Holler Knows” might be where they find the middle-ground, but it’ll be another record or two before we know if that’s actually something they’re pursuing, and the post-grunge vocal melody and meme-ready last slowdown in closer “Solid Psychonaut” also bode well if we’re looking for things to bode. There’s room to grow and the production is raw, but Rites of the Let Down operates with individuality as part of its intention.
Maybe it’s somewhat counterintuitive, but in the pushing-out extremity of “Solace,” in the slow cinematic drones of “Cold Signtures,” in the synthy expanse of “Null” and the guitarrier (yeah I said that) reaches of “The Solution,” but what might be Sum of R‘s seventh album can be as stark, grim and desolate as it wants in “Agglomeration” with G. Stuart Dahlquist sitting in, and the penultimate “Violate” can hit a crescendo like what if post-black-metal-and-screamo-but-not-awful and it still to me just sounds like a celebration. There’s no getting away from it. Spectral is dark, and it often feels unremitting across its 49 punishment-prone minutes, but all of it is a celebration nonetheless — of creativity, of outsiderism, otherism, of searching for ideals beyond the mainstream and finding depth in places others would fear to go. It almost can’t help but be beautiful, otherwise consuming as the darkness is.
Gritty stoner-doom nod pervades the debut release Saman The Doom from Shanghai-based trio Atomic Saman. Opener “Fuzzonaut” is instrumental, but after the Jeff Goldblum sample, “F.L.Y.” has vocals in its rolling, raw-tracked miasma. The grooves are loose as “F.L.Y.” plods into the bassy opening of nine-minute centerpiece “Torture Machine” (sample from A Clockwork Orange there) and the low-mixed stoner-chant is part of what unfolds, but Atomic Saman run deep in the addled ethereal, and “Torture Machine” and the subsequent, tops-10-minutes “Brain COP” keep immersion central, so it works. Closer “Weedsky (Live in CAVE)” is lumbering enough to make you think they actually went to a cave to capture it, and reveals something of an Electric Wizard influence underlying, but Atomic Saman are less horror and more red-eyed paranoia and that suits the exhausted-with-the-world disaffection as well as the trance factor here just fine.
By the time they’re most of the way through sub-three-minute opener “A New Dawn” and the command is issued to, “Bow to mycelium cown,” I’m ready. With some rolling fluidity inherited perhaps from their countrymen in Dopelord and mellow vocals over purple-hued doomly fuzz, the lumber is strong with Kraków four-piece, who bring ambience alongside crush with the open spaces (gradually filled via tone) of “Glorious Decay,” the brash shove of “Primordial,” the daring toward ethereality of “This Barren Place,” and so on. “Disco Inferno” moves, but “Primordial” sprints, making for an interesting pair late, where back at the outset “Crooked One” and “Glorious Decay” bring moodier engrossing. It resolves, perhaps inevitably, with a 13-minute title-track that is a journey unto itself with multi-tiered solos, progressive expanse and a little flourish of goth in its verses. “Age of Mycology” fits as a summary for the LP that carries its name, with a speedier crescendo waiting after a murky slog to get there, righteously bleak but not hopeless. Dooming on their own wavelength, they are.
A sampling experiment like “Alpine Pop” and the tuning-in-a-radio on “A Nutty and a Texan Bar Please,” the veering from “Saturday Morning” from serene meditation to harsher drone — these are just examples of the many ways in which Wooden Tape‘s Wool basks in the details. Songs like “The Moroccan House” and “Croxteth Hall,” the five-minute “Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree,” etc., have a foundation in blending often-acoustic guitar and electronics/synth, so there’s basically an infinity of room for UK-based solo artist Tim Maycox to explore whatever reaches he might choose. On “Kirby Market,” he imagines a kind of pastoralia with Mellotron and chimes, a thud behind for percussion, whereas it’s raining on “Laundrette Sunday” and the arrangement becomes a jangle of cascading elements, departing the strum of “Crescent Town” and seeming to cap the weekend conveyed through the tracks’ procession by packing a full day in the final 1:42. Some Sundays are like that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
For all you folks who play in bands in, let’s say, a third-rate nation like the US, check out the situation here. Ten Ton Slug will travel from Galway, Ireland, to Maun, Botswana in November to tke part in the Vulture Thrust Anger Management Fest, the cumbersome title of which is no doubt encompassing a range of styles or else I’ve misread the logos on the poster. They go supporting their colossal and oppressive 2024 album, Colossal Oppressor (review here), and the sentence below I’d like to draw your attention toward is the one that says, “This endeavor by Ten Ton Slug to play in Botswana has been made possible thanks to funding from Culture Ireland.”
Culture Ireland. A governmental organization geared toward supporting arts domestically and internationally. Sending a metal band to Africa because nobody’s ever played a song in the Irish language in Botswana. That’s all the excuse they needed. To an American, this is unfathomable, and if you’re reading this in the US, and you’re in a band, this is exactly how you’ve been ripped off. This could be all of us. It isn’t. Mostly because racism.
Kudos and safe travels to Ten Ton Slug as they head to Africa for the first time. A killer trip and obviously something they’re doing for the life experience, which makes it even cooler. They sent info down the PR wire:
Ten Ton Slug to bring the riffs to the Kalahari Desert
This November Ten Ton Slug head south of the equator to perform at ‘Vulture Thrust: Anger Management Fest 2025’ in Maun, Botswana on November 1st and at a warm-up show in Ghanzi, Botswana on Oct 31st.
The event is organised by Tshomarelo Mosaka aka Vulture Thrust, member of the band Overthrust and prominent event organizer in the region. It runs from 6pm to 6am in Ko Sedibeng bar in The Power Plant complex in Maun and features metal bands from around the region alongside appearances from international bands. This year’s event (which bears a different name than previous editions) features the following lineup:
Overthrust (Ghanzi, BW) Ten Ton Slug (Ireland) Skin Flint (Gaborone, BW) Dreamslot (Maun, BW) Remuda (Maun, BW) Hilliker (South Africa) Samehunduans (Maun, BW) Ras Jesus (Ghanzi, BW)
The warm-up show takes place on Oct 31st in HillTalk Night Club in Ghanzi and runs from 10pm to 6am, featuring Overthrust, Ten Ton Slug, Obligado & Original Stars, and Ras Jesus.
This endeavor by Ten Ton Slug to play in Botswana has been made possible thanks to funding from Culture Ireland. The band’s performance at the events will most likely mark the first ever performance of a metal song in the Irish language in the country as the song Mallacht an tSloda from 2024’s ‘Colossal Oppressor’ LP is entirely in Irish.
Ten Ton Slug will warm up for the November African shows with two Irish gigs in the coming months – Dali in Cork on September 20th and the Roisin Dubh in Galway on October 11th:
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 1st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As heavy as Ten Ton Slug‘s 2024 debut LP Colossal Oppressor (review here) sounds, it’s a testament to the vinyl format that the platter can hold the music at all. The Galway-based punishers o’ sludge metal are taking their show on the road this June, heading forth with Diggeth from the Netherlands on a round of dates that includes, wait for it, not one festival.
That’s right, not one. A tour happening in Europe this June, and instead of every third stop being a fest in some other country, they’re slogging it out like it’s the ’90s and the whole thing is still way more punk rock. It’s not the easy way, but it’s a worthy cause, to be sure. And as for all the fests they’re not playing, well, I’m sure intimidation is a factor there, but the album did well enough that they’re embarking on a new pressing, so Ten Ton Slug are very clearly doing something right.
From the PR wire. Note that all those event-page links by the tour dates should work:
Ten Ton Slug announce ‘Colossal Oppressor’ Vinyl 2nd pressing + European co-headline summer tour with Diggeth
Ten Ton Slug release the second vinyl pressing of their acclaimed ‘Colossal Oppressor’ LP on May 1st 2025, one year to the day from the album’s initial release. The initial pressing sold out early this year, with the limited Ooze green variant selling out within the first week of release.
‘Colossal Oppressor’ features guest vocals from Memoriam/Bolt Thrower frontman Karl Willetts on the track ‘Brutus’ and features original artwork from Adam Burke at Nightjar Illustration.
The second pressing comes in two variant colours:
– limited edition 180gm marble red (limited to 150 units) – 180gm black vinyl
The vinyl is available to order now through their bandcamp page (shipping from May 4th) at tentonslug.bandcamp.com, or at the merch stand on their European tour this summer.
Diggeth and Ten Ton Slug – “Slimin’ and Diggin’ Summer Tour 2025”
Ten Ton Slug have teamed up with Netherland’s finest purveyors of rock/metal/blues Diggeth for a summer European tour, embarking on a run of co-headline shows spanning 9 countries. They bring the energetic and powerful live performances that both bands have become known for to new territories in a mutual European riff assault.
The ‘Slimin and Diggin Europe 2025’ tour begins in the Netherlands at the end of May and finishes with a show in Paris on June 11th. Shows will feature local support, with the exception of Ljubljana where the bands are supporting Bewitcher, and Wiesbaden where Ten Ton Slug support Eyehategod.
The poster and merch artwork is a collaboration between longtime Slug artist and former bassist Eoghain Wynne (at Screwtape Designs) and Gert-Jan Aaltink (Cult Art Shop Nijverdal/Zwolle)
Ten Ton Slug play riff-laden sludge from the west of Ireland and have shared stages with Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, Jinjer and many more, while Diggeth play a mix of metal, blues and rock from the Netherlands and have supported bands such as Soulfly, Black Label Society, Megadeth and Slayer to name but a few.
Ten Ton Slug: Rónán Ó hArrachtáin – Vocals Pavol Rosa – Bass Sean Sullivan – Guitars/Vocals Kelvin Doran – Drums* *All drums written and arranged by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
the first of three interludes, “Blue Angel” strums quietly ahead of the centerpiece “Drinkvlt,” which begins with a sample that says, “People say alcohol is a drug. It’s not a drug, it’s a drink” (from Brass Eye, the ‘Drugs’ episode) right into the riff, proceeding to manifest the dankest sludge delve of the record. Rightfully backed with respite, “Two Silver Pieces” is another instrumental strum interlude, loosely Western as the title clues with piano and a bridge into “Whitethorn,” which blasts early onto to slam later, as noted. The last divergence, the synthier “A Release of Tension” — please know it does not actually release the tension — before the finale comes in scorching on feedback for one last chug-riff kill.
