Italian heavy prog-psych rockers MR.BISON release their sixth full-length, The Garden of Forgotten Dreams, through Heavy Psych Sounds on Sept. 25. That’s right, six albums, released over the last 14 years, and I can’t help but wonder if even founding guitarist/producer Matteo Barsacchi knew where they were headed when they released their 2012 debut, We’ll Be Brief. The band has taken on an increasingly progressive trajectory — not entirely dissimilar to their Polish labelmates in Weedpecker, but with their own melodic and conceptual clearheadedness — and the eight tracks/39 minutes of The Garden of Forgotten Dreams represent the latest forward step in their hopefully ongoing progression, not so far removed in intention from 2024’s Echoes From the Universe(review here), but refined and puposefully heavier in tone.
Though I wouldn’t call it direct at the risk of underselling the textures in pieces like the seven-minute “Bright Shadow” or the subsequent (premiering below) “Astray,” which like the title-track pushes up against progressive metal in its later blend of expanse, chug and ethereality, the album comes across like it was written for the stage, with on-average shorter songs than the preceding LP emphasized across the side B succession of “Turn to Stone,” “The Sunrise,” “River Moan” and “Old Hue,” each of which is between four and a half and five minutes long. It feels grown subtly sharper in execution, but not without a sense of balance in its atmospheric sprawl or dynamic in terms of performance.
Guitarist/vocalist Matteo Sciocchetto has a reach to suit that of the corresponding instrumentals, as shown in “The Sunrise,” the opener “Cosmic Tide” and others across the album’s more-expansive-than-its-manageable-runtime-would-make-you-think stretch, and while Lorenzo Salvadori‘s drums feel no less exploratory during the title-cut’s Tool-meets-Elder climax or the initial buildup of “Bright Shadow” that follows, he also serves as the anchor with Davide Salvadori‘s bass, keeping the material on task and more accessible to the listener as regards groove. Davide‘s work on synthesizer and Hammond organ isn’t to be discounted in terms of the arrangements, adding variety and class to the proceedings as it does, whether that’s in the midsection verse soundscaping of “River Moan” or manifesting the title’s intention in the later moments of “Bright Shadow,” which sets out with his acoustic guitar, gorgeously mixed by the esteemed Richard Behrens in Berlin.
But The Garden of Forgotten Dreams is a whole-band effort. I don’t know what drives their progression beyond generalities like creative hunger and perhaps the realization that their lineup can accommodate this kind of longer-term evolution, but MR.BISON craft their own take on modern cosmic/space rock in “Turn to Stone,” not by any means letting go of their riffy underpinnings, but broadening the scope of their songwriting to an encompassing degree. The hints of aggression toward the end of “Astray” are part of this, but one of the things MR.BISON do most effectively at the start of the record with “Cosmic Tide” is establish an open-ended expectation on the part of their audience with a strong fludity overarching the transitions within and between the songs. Obviously the tracks that make up the album were written individually, but they are laced together well enough to convey the garden thematic that is one aspect uniting them along with the tone, melody, and so on.
The sense of this material as the up-to-now pinnacle achievement for the band is inescapable, and that’s somewhat fortunate, as once immersed, the listener isn’t likely to be thinking of escaping it anyway. As “Old Hue” wraps with a celebratory twist of lead fuzz, a strum and final, pushing outreach, The Garden of Forgotten Dreams hits a crescendo that’s suitably poised to summarize the album before it, while still offering something different from same. Grounded, perhaps, in that garden itself.
“Astray” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire and social media. Tour dates forthcoming, reportedly.
Enjoy:
MR.BISON, “Astray” track premiere
The Garden of Forgotten Dreams was produced and recorded by guitarist Matteo Barsacchi, mixed by Richard Behrens (Elder, Kadavar) at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin, and mastered by Carl Saff in Chicago and Adam Ayan (Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam) in Portland.
Concept Theme:
“The garden is the image that recurs most frequently throughout the album. We chose it as a metaphor for a refuge, a place where we can nurture our natural inclinations, let them grow and blossom, and where we can also keep our shadows and lights hidden. Where our secrets, our most authentic truths, our aspirations and our dreams, can therefore remain guarded until we are ready to reveal them to those who can contain and appreciate them.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 28th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Italian psych boundarypushers Giöbia will begin their next round of European touring on Sept. 5 at the Obelisk-co-presented Jam in the Psych Castle in Pusztazámor, Hungary, where they’ll perform along the likes of Yuri Gagarin and Magyarország’s own Psychedelic Source Records collective, among slews of others. More info on that is here. Sadly, I won’t be there, but I’m stoked for it regardless. Giöbia are out in support of their 2025 album, X-ÆON (review here), which came out in continued collaboration with Heavy Psych Sounds, and which found them blending old and new impulses in space and cosmic rock, honing an identity of their own drawing from decades of influence. A better record and a better band than I’ve seen them get credit for being. So it goes.
The dates came down the PR wire:
We are stoked to announce that our Italian space rock wizards GIÖBIA will tour Europe in September 2026.
The mystical day 60s rock met neopsychedelic rock mixing up to the point of losing consciousness of their own essence, that’s when Giöbia’s acid psychedelic rock was born, in an overwhelming and incessant soundtrack with an unmistakable Italian taste. In a vortex that leaves no way out, the unique melodies of this quartet take the listener into a world where the boundaries of reality are no longer defined and anything can ever happen.
After their debut in 2009 with ‘Hard Stories’, Giöbia firmly established themselves in 2013 with ‘Introducing Night Sounds’, which suddenly brought them to the most important stages of Europe, until in 2016 the milestone ‘The Magnifier’ assigned them a place among the most influential bands of the scene. Giöbia went on astonishing their audience by forging ‘Plasmatic Idol’, which saw the light in 2020 via Heavy Psych Sounds and reconfirmed them as the forefathers of a genre that fascinates and amazes anyone who dare to leave themselves behind without fear of never returning. In 2021 Giöbia released their split album with The Cosmic Dead “The Intergalactic Connection – Exploring The Sideral Remote Hyperspace”, a must-have for every space traveler.
Unable to stop in front of any challenge, the quartet released ‘Acid Disorder’ in 2023 on Heavy Psych Sounds, which expertly refines the band’s psychedelic rock attitude alongside a wide spectrum of intriguing sounds and textures.
Their latest album X-ÆON was released in October 2025 via Heavy Psych Sounds !!
!! DON’T MISS THEM !!
*** GIÖBIA – Euro Tour 2026 *** 05.09.26 HU Pusztazámor, Budapest – Jam In The Psych Castle 06.09.26 CZ Prague – Cross Club 07.09.26 DE Berlin – B.L.O. Kantine 08.09.26 DK Copenhagen – Lygsten Kro 09.09.26 DE Halle – Hühnermanhattan 10.09.26 DE Kronach – Tiger Lounge 11.09.26 DE Chemnitz – AJZ Talschock 12.09.26 DE Bremen – ZfK Bunker 13.09.26 DE Tubingen – Lu15 19.09.26 IT Bozen – Platza Open 21.11.26 IT Lonate Ceppino (VI) – Black Inside
GIÖBIA is: Stefano ‘Bazu’ Basurto – guitar, vocals Paolo ‘Detrji’ Basurto – bass Melissa Crema – organs, synthesizers Pietro D’Ambrosio – drums
Posted in Reviews on August 14th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Well, I have just about a full week’s worth of news to catch up on, so we must be coming down to the end of the Quarterly Review. “Planets align. A king is born. Dodge Swinger.” Etc.
It’s been real, though. Again, I didn’t go one day without putting something in my notes for end-of-year list time, and that includes today as well. If you’ve come along for the ride on these 50 release, thank you. I hope you’ve found something new to listen to, or at least had your opinions of what you’ve already heard confirmed, which always feels good on some level. I will say it’s been a pleasure to dig into this stuff, and I don’t know who slates these things — that’s a joke, I do; there’s nobody else here; sometimes I feel like I need to say that even after 17 years because I’m both insecure and irrelevant — but they did alright on this one because at no point in this process was I like, “omg what is mah life,” and it’s always a relief to not get there.
Bottom line, as always, thanks for reading. I’ll be back with another of these in October, probably.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, The Disappearing Man
Word on the street — by that I mean their Linktree — is that Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol release their new single “Ca$h Grab” Aug. 18. That’s also the title-track of their next full-length, reportedly, but the low-string charmer Austin trio have been eeking out singles since Spring, and the resultant three-songer, The Disappearing Man, is a welcome keep-momentum interim outing for those who’ve been chasing the dragon of 2024’s Big Dumb Riffs (review here) and need something new for their reels-addled attention spans. All three tracks — “The Disappearing Man,” “Bough Down” and “Peaches” — are two minutes long but each gives a different look between the sneer of “Peaches,” the post-grunge heavy rock of “Bough Down” and the harder-hitting pummeling fuckery of the title cut. Is it a holdover? Yeah, probably. Will it even exist when the album comes out and likely features the same tracks? I don’t know. But it’s here now and the songs rule, so maybe get it while it’s there to get got and worry about the rest later, hmm?
The rock is by no means gone from Tidal Wave‘s sound on Volume Tree, but a shift has taken place as well since 2023’s The Lord Knows (review here) such that the first half of the new record seems to draw more from classic heavy metal than desert rock. On “The Orb,” “Hangman,” “Earth” and “Temple of Humanity,” that finds the Swedish foursome more in league with Dio-era Sabbath or Johan Langquist-fronted Candlemass, which is a compliment to vocalist Alexander “Sunkan” Sundqvist. The back half of the album, with “Sideburns,” “Shapeshifter,” “Manuscript 512” and “Skitliv,” complicates the narrative in the yachty experiment of the closer and the penultimate cut drawing the two sides together, but “Sideburns” and “Shapeshifter” have desert-style push, and the latter reminds particularly of late-1900s outfits like The Awesome Machine in its crunch and buzz. Either way they go, the songs hit their marks, so mark it a win for the complexity.
With six songs likewise furious and welcome, Richmond, Virginia’s Thunderchief are only right to name their latest EP after ways they might possibly kill you. The charred heavy thrash-doom of from the two-piece of guitarist/screamer Rik Surly and drum-pummeler Erik Larson does not shy away from the caustic, and whether it’s a roll like “Entrance of the Devil” or the gallop-over-your-head “Chintzy,” or the concluding noisefest in “Slurpee,” to which nine of the EP’s 23 minutes are dedicated, their penchant for aural slaughter shows itself in Surly‘s unflinching rasp, in Larson‘s corresponding pounding — looking at you, “Malaise” — and in the disaffected shove of “Lie Nation,” the band packing a full album’s worth of aggression into the abbreviated runtime. This is Thunderchief‘s wheelhouse, and hardly their first excursion into listener-abuse, but as impressive as the raw sustained ferocity is — not that the world doesn’t provide constant reasons to stay angry — it’s the fact that the material holds together and bears the weight they put to it that makes their approach so lethal. That’s on full and punishing display here.
A multinational collaboration between Peruvian psychheads Chino Burga and Pepe Abad (both veterans of La Ira de Dios) and Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Øresund Space Collective and adjacent projects), Umma resonate psychedelic meditation across their four-song debut, Kosmovisionen, with layers of intersecting guitar drones, percussion, and synth. “Monts” sets the stage for the unfolding free/freak jazz of “Procesio,” and while “Aeparatio” feels grounded by comparison, its float of guitar remains transcendant ahead of the finale “Ogon,” which is a dream of experimentalist tone and cymbal wash. I don’t know how much of a band Umma are going to be, sending files back and forth between Peru and Portugal, but they tap into something spiritual here in just 35 minutes, and Kosmovisionen sounds more like the beginning of a broader exploration rather than a one-off collab. They create so much space, it’d be a shame if they didn’t grow and flesh out their arrangements accordingly.
Intended as a 7″ complement to the DHU Records vinyl pressing of Rifle‘s 2025 album, Beyond Paranoia, this two-songer plays out for 11 minutes across “Incarnation” and “Twisted Death,” vibing like rote jams with mellow vocals overtop like Endless Boogie or something like that, with an unpredictable edge and underlying tension. Apparently there were lineup issues? I’m not sure on the story, but the resultant vibe is off-kilter in a fascinating way — it’s not necessarily holding back the songs, I mean — and the low-key chaos they capture in the recordings, with mad swirls of guitar behind the mostly-whisper vocals, builds on what the album was doing in pieces like “Beyond Paranoia” and “Gipsy Spell” while feeling less tethered to a classic-heavy/vintage songwriting methodology. That may be indicative of a future direction, or these may just be leftovers from the album sessions, I don’t know, but it’s weird and dug in and sounds like it doesn’t care in the slightest how you classify it.
This year has brought new productivity from Boston experimentalists Brass Hearse, who’ve released three singles in 2026 in addition to this 17-track/51-minute ambient film soundtrack; their first new offerings in six years. The penultimate “Destroyer of the Breach” runs nearly nine minutes, but most of Can’t Get No — titled after the movie — is made up of shorter pieces one to three minutes long, with drones and guitar, keys and various washes of tone, some cogent progressions, some purposefully not, evoking a feeling of loneliness and foreboding. Presumably the title is a Rolling Stones reference — “Drifting Through the Void” might build on the song in question as well, though I might be imagining it — and I haven’t seen the movie, but from what I read it’s shorter than the soundtrack, so yes, that would be emblematic of the new creative delve on the part of the Boston band. On its own, the album makes for a meditative, atmospheric listen but don’t take that to mean Brass Hearse lack dynamic or are doing the same thing all the time. They just happen to be really effective in conjuring a world.
Tucked away in the northeast of Sweden, the Umeå-based three-piece Svindel strike an immediately classic impression on their Ripple-issued debut album, Drömfeber, channeling boogie rock’s sense of motion and, in the title-track and elsewhere, calling to mind psychedelic reach without actually veering too far from the underlying structures of their material. Somebody’s playing organ on opener “Jupiterbarn,” and I’d swear I hear keyboards elsewhere too, but none among guitarist/vocalist Jan Lindblad, bassist Daniel Forsberg and drummer/backing vocalist Johannes Braf is credited with the contribution, so maybe I’m the one in a fever dream. In any case, as “Tunga Ögon” hints toward blues and “Ta Mig Tillbaka Till Världen Nu” embarks in the direction of pastoralia, the stylistic book hardly seems closed in terms of how Svindel might progress, but the fact that they are able to cover this swath without sacrificing cohesive songwriting makes their debut impressive even for someone like me who speaks not a lick of Swedish.
The abrasive sludge excoriation of Dirtmother Live makes a fitting companion-piece for the Fayetteville, Arkansas, local-legend/cryptid outfit’s 19-years-later 2025 self-titled debut (review here), presenting five songs across a rasping, willfully confrontational half-hour set captured from the board at the American Legion Hall in their hometown in true punker fashion, and let’s say probably mixed thereafter. In this material — most of which comes from the record; “Reversal” seems to be “Reverse Cowgirl” under a different name and “Cult of Suzie Everett” does not appear on the studio LP — the nodding fuzz and the impact-density of their low end comes though in full-punch glory, stage banter is preserved, and “Trucker” is even nastier in its bite than it already was, which should be read as a high compliment to the achievement. If you don’t come out of this wanting to start a sludge band, consult a physician.
Italy’s Hijss return after 2024’s Stuck on Common Ground (review here) with a self-titled eight-song/39-minute LP that’s an even deeper dive into krautisms and cosmic heavy rock, volatile in “Vicious Cycle” and “Parasite,” daring to soothe before they walk into the wash of “S.W.A.N.” and getting full-on electro-dance-mode in the penultimate “Fatal Attraction” before the moody distortion swell of “Outro” rounds out. Opener and longest track (immediate points) “Drain of Thoughts” establishes precedent in the motorik-roll-turned-heavy-shove progression, but the ultimate product of the album is that Hijss have gotten weirder and more individualized in the last two years, they’re ready to tour with labelmates Giöbia like yesterday, and the experimentalism in bringing together acoustics and synthesized textures of “Underwater” and the throb/fuzz banger “Dopamine” present a fresher take than I’ve yet seen the band credited for honing.
Deley Sound System is the techno alter-ego of Budapesti psychedelic improvisationalist Deley, and if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, their earlier-2026 live recording Unsync 001 captures them bringing their spontaneity-fueled creative process to a style of music that, considering it’s programmed, is often classified as more staid. Psychedelia persists across genre here as the band weave together samples and different layers to carve an affect that’s all the more immersive and hypnotic not in spite of the steady beat that might underpin a track like “Sun 001” or the 18-minute “BBM 001” but rather because of it. The dub techno and synthesizer aspects, playing off influences from jams and generally more guitar-led (or -inclusive at all, for that matter) fare, are fascinating academically, but it’s satisfying as well to hear a band so willing to step beyond their comfort zone and a crucial reminder that the boundaries of creativity are far more imaginary than the sitar sounds on “Sun 002” and that the most dangerous thing to any status quo is a mind brave enough to look beyond it as these minds do here.
Posted in Reviews on August 12th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Today is the traditional passing-the-midpoint of the Quarterly Review — hump day, if you need it on humping terms — and indeed, this 50-release QR keeps with that tradition. It’s been almost absurdly easy so far to get through, as the best of them are, and not one day — including this one — has passed without me adding at least two releases from each batch of 10 to my notes for year-end list time. That’s a pretty impressive rate, even for an old softy like me, but the bottom line always is that I hope you find something you enjoy even as I do the same. I think maybe I needed this kind of dig-in more than I realized when I started slating what I was going to be writing about. I guess that happens sometimes.
Let’s keep the thing going.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Warning, Rituals of Shame
Some 20 years after releasing their landmark second album, Watching From a Distance, Patrick Walker-led emotive doom metal pioneers Warning return with a potentially landmark third, Rituals of Shame. The band’s first outing in that long — though Walker has divided his time with 40 Watt Sun and issued solo material as well — is no less grueling of tempo or willfully emotionally laborious for that, and Walker‘s voice remains singularly wrenching such that the 12-minute opening title-track (also the longest; immediate points) feels like it’s pulling you down into the melancholic world that the rest of the 45-minute LP goes on to make, from the plodding “Stations” to, well, the also-plodding “Teacher,” never veering from its purpose or lifting the tonal or melodically-depressive weight once applied. Rituals of Shame is an odd fit for being tagged as ‘brutal,’ but it is its own kind of extremity-of-form nonetheless, and a challenge that sets its terms early and (quietly) dares you to follow the path its songs lay out.
Cambodia-via-UK outfit Mike Bee & The Acid Fuzz Trio follows the psychedelic leaning adventures of its namesake songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Mike Bee (also Last Bee on Earth, Deep Sky Revival, etc.) across White Noise Sound from the blinding garage tone-bite of its leadoff title-cut through mellowstoner and dub of “Goodbye Mary Jane” and “Beyond the Wheel,” riffing bluesier on “Hey Bong!” and getting fuzzy and Bowie-gone-desert-contemplative in “Johnny The Living Star” to set up the fierce groove of “Rise Like a Phoenix” at the end, the seven-song/26-minute album — it’s short, but feels like an LP more than an EP, so I’m making the call myself — has hooks a-plenty and gets playful on “Lion, Sword and Sun” without sounding like a ’60s put-on or something like that, each inclusion establishing its own atmosphere while adding to the admittedly understated breadth of the whole. It’s a weird one, to be sure, but for those who can make their way to its wavelength, the songs will stick to whatever membranes you got.
Teké Collective would seem to be one of several projects under the operating umbrella of Milan, Italy, producer Marino-Angelo Scordilis, and on the new single “Remember and Hope” (7:18), the Collective features no fewer than seven other contributors, including True Canyon‘s spoken word in the second half and a variety of synth and percussion. It is exploratory but aware of the influences from which it draws, and winds up as a kind of world-prog rock. There are psychedelic aspects but it’s too clearheaded to be lysergic, and with all the tight funk in the first half of the song, reminds a bit of earlier P-Funk‘s ability to go anywhere it wants, though the stylistic context here is different. Texture in the two guitars and synth take hold early, but it’s the bass that carries it through the midsection into the slowdown, and the story — a narrative about the power of memory to overcome oppression — is fluidly told with a sense of joy rather than mourning something lost, even though it is that too. There’s a lot packed into one seven-minute single, but it works.
This record came out almost a year ago, so what am I doing reviewing it now? Well, here’s a friendly reminder that music doesn’t have an expiration date, and that I’m only one person and I’m a human being, some stuff is gonna slip by. But with Carson bringing enough hooks and fuzz for the whole class, it seemed like engaging with the eight songs of their confident, strident third full-length, When Gods Know Why, was its own excuse for doing, so there you go. Following 2022’s The Willful Pursuit of Ignorance (review here) with memorable burners like “Engine Down” and the melody-forward grungier twist of “Snow White,” the careening desert rocker “Marion Morrison,” the post-Truckfighters shove of “Drip,” and so on, the Lucerne, Switzerland, three-piece are a reminder of the moving power of heavy rock and roll, and I mean that both physically and in the energetic atmosphere wrought throughout the album all the way up to the blowout at the end of “Only for the Scorned.” Increasingly, they’re a name you can trust. Sorry to have missed this last September. Not sorry to be caught up now.
Polling social media to effect a vox populi, Massachusetts doom folker Buzzard asks the query of our times — “what the fuck?” — over and over again in “Hillbilly Fuckery,” presented in the original and extra-crispy extended versions on this three-songer two-songer, joined with the narrative “Appalachian Blood Bourbon” as the heavy fuzz flows with Christopher Elliott in call and response verses carrying the energy of the song prior (and after), more than filler as complements go, but shorter and somewhat overtaken by all the voices surrounding. The banjo — a regular feature in Buzzard‘s work as the project has taken shape over the last couple years — carries the rhythm along with slide guitar and lumbering, weighted tone, and “Appalachian Blood Bourbon” pairs well for that, its lyrics calling out Hungarian vampires moving to Kentucky and founding an LLC. Buzzard has already announced a Fall LP release, Hush Now, and this as well as other recent singles will feature as CD bonus tracks, which is reasonable considering how much obviously went into their making, answering as well as asking that central question.
Beginning with the 10-minute atmospheric doom clarion “Crimson Skies,” The Unfolding at the End of Light is the debut album from Peruvian four-piece Illwind, which features current and former members of Reino Ermitaño, Arcada, Argul and Death Invoker, and it arrives with a sense of self accordant to the storied pedigree of its component players. Heavy as buildings and modernly grim of mood, the six-song/47-minute paean finds a balance with (relatively) uptempo fare like the shorter, daring-toward-swing “Portal” before digging back in for “God of Sleep” — note the dreamy part in the second half — and 13-minute finale “Lucifer’s Mule,” which shifts from its acoustic guitar/sample intro to a lumbering procession that’s as spacious as it is consuming. But the inclusion of a bonus cover of The Stooges ultra-classic “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” — inarguably one of the greatest riffs of all riffy time — bringing it into their established-by-then stylistic context, blowing it out, and capping with an assault of feedback and noise. Lifesblood, this is.
Forgive me speaking personally for a bit, but there are some records that I just feel lucky to have heard. I don’t think you get to be a blogger for 17-plus years without making some seriously questionable life decisions, but I feel validated in the slacker-stoner/domestic-boheme lifepath I’ve apparently chosen hearing II from Chicago terracosmos explorers Spiral Galaxy, whose bridge between effects drone and organic elements reminds of pocket highlights like Montibus Communitas while singing praise to nature with otherworldly sounds. Wholly immersive, welcoming and warm, even with the building thud of “Wir Fur Sea,” II comes across as ceremonial for more than just the rampant flute, and unflinching in the beauty it captures, with “Future Fauna” taking place across its own bed of psych drone and the brief conclusion “Umbra” as a goodbye that feels all too soon. I missed this band’s 2020 debut. Clearly I need to go back and rectify that, but first I’ll just go ahead and put II on my list of this year’s best albums, with the acknowledgement that any kind of temporal placement is selling short its reaches.
If you’ve ever wondered what Gurt‘s pummeling party sludge might sound like adopting grooves from Powerman 5000 and collaborating with a rapper — and if you have, kudos on your hyperspecific curiosity — the three-and-a-half-minute “No Limit” on the London outfit’s three-song Survival of the Shittest has your answer. The purposeful-in-their-yuck troupe have been at this at least 15 years now and they know with what they’re fucking. EP opener “Live Nation, Dead Scene” (2:49) feels rooted in extreme metal but still finishes with a massive, rolling riff, and the centerpiece title-track — you know they’re English because “shit” is a relative noun, as in “a bit shit”; in US English that’s “Shittiest,” which is clearer but doesn’t sound as fun — takes the violence-of-impact up another notch ahead of the playful-if-you-know-they’re-goofballs nu-metal delve. Gurt don’t owe anyone anything at this point musically — no doubt they’re racked with actual-debt like everyone else — but they’re pretty obviously still having fun crushing and gnashing as they are. Does that make them survivors? Are they the shittest? I don’t know, but they go upside your head hard enough to make you forget to ask.
As to what’s stopping Four — the first release in a decade from UK five-piece Crumbling Ghost — from being neofolk, the answer I think is mostly down to the lack of pretense and the heavier tones surrounding the rootsy vocal melodies. The seven-track offering finds itself embracing shades, hues, spirits, whatever-you-want-to-call-them from post-heavy and the ambience is crucial as “Bows of London” and “Bill Norrie” set the 36-minute LP forth, the latter bringing in the max-heft end of their dynamic range that the later “The Unquiet Grave” will use as a whole-album crescendo, but while “Wassail” is noisier and “Lovely Joan” is like a medieval heavy strut, the key is in their ability to change their approach from one piece to the next without letting go of the folkish vocals overarching. Thus they can get as heavy as they want — and do — and “Last of All Sleep” doesn’t have to feel discordant in its move from acoustics to a grunge wash and “Valtz Efter Tor Lohne” resonates as cohesive even as an instrumental. I don’t know their history or where they’ve been for 10 years, but the combination of atmospheric heavy and folk they harness here is markedly their own.
Danceable and violent in kind, Los Angeles industrial metal trio Purest Form present the six-song/15-minute Resistance EP ahead of appearing at Chicago’s Cold Waves Festival next month. “Beyond Terror” hints in its “Reptile”-y procession toward some underlying Nine Inch Nails influence, but there’s some aspect of retroism about the band’s aggressive take, vocalist Story providing the bite corresponding to the chug of “Animal” and the otherwise drum’n’bass-ish shove of “Bass Resistance” a short time later. This ’90s-informed take finds its ultimate fruition in the concluding cover of The Prodigy‘s “Breathe,” which from what I read is a staple of live sets. Fair enough, but its in the frenetic charge of “Move” that Purest Form demonstrate more what they’re bringing of themselves to push beyond their influences, and as brash as their sound is, one hopes that continues to evolve as they move forward. Intensity and immediacy are assets working in their favor, though, here and on their past EPs.
Posted in Reviews on August 10th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Hi and welcome to the Summer 2026 Quarterly Review. Every day this week I’ll be posting a round of 10 reviews to total 50 by Friday, rounding up recent releases, stuff I’ve missed, etc. There are a few things in the mix that aren’t out yet that I’m going to sneak in (shh…), but it’s entirely possible I’ll be doing this again next month or in October, so, you know, sit tight. My hope is that you find something to hear you haven’t heard before, or at very least have your opinions validated on whatever it might be.
Without further ado, we roll.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Goddess, Ritual of the Cloven Hoof
Based in Sweden and signed to Majestic Mountain Records, Goddess are an offshoot of 2010s-era doomers Goatess and feature guitarist/vocalist Karl-Martin Buhre and drummer Kenta Karlbom from that band alongside guitarist Anders Martinsgård (Black Solstice) and bassist John Jansson in the revamped, renamed four-piece on their six-track/37-minute doom-chugging debut album, Ritual of the Cloven Hoof. Sort-of-debut album? I don’t know how you want to classify it, but either way the point is doom, and Goddess inherit a penchant for massive riffs and forlorn spaces as songs like “To Be King” and the eight-and-a-half-minute “Born Again Heathen” begin to define a character that is their own within the genre, the latter leaning a bit into doomedelic jamming ahead of the closer “Devil’s Reef,” which returns to ground in reliable fashion with deceptive vitality in its push. It’s no coincidence they sound like they know what they’re doing, because they do, but their Ritual is also the beginning of a new exploration, and holds all the more potential for that.
A new Irata album isn’t something that happens all the time, and fair enough. Some bands need to live before they write songs about it, and that’s not sarcasm or criticism for how much heart the North Carolinian trio put into their music. Human, while only their fourth LP since 2007, comes seven years after 2019’s Tower (review here) and starts out duly moody to suit the times in “Altar” and the bassy “Confessions,” but the swaying highlight “Seeds” finds a way to inject more energy into the delivery without sacrificing atmosphere, and though they hit into speedier fare in “Mirrors” or the penultimate “Goodside,” they do so while maintaining a patient progressivism, which leads to the masterful unfolding of capper “Daystar” across two linear builds, the latter of which ends the Human on a fading rumble. While maintaining a current of raw expression, Irata are able to conjure expanses in their sound. A J. Robbins mix doesn’t hurt in that effort, but it wouldn’t work if the songs didn’t run as deep as they do.
Oh hell yes. Indonesian stoner doomers Gutward bring about a lumber that’s a sure reminder of what dragged me onto this wretched lifepath to start with. Huge, immersive grooves, airy but discernible vocals — that actually have something to say about the world around them; bonus — and a sense of space and outreach that is at once free and encompassing. I is their first release following the 2024 single “Mauna Vedanā,” and its five-track/35-minute course is less about innovation than celebration, reveling in the largesse of march at the end of “What’s With the Rush?” or the addled vastness in “Mass Delusion” and hopefully-foretelling-of-things-to-come melodic showcase “Rot Alone” ahead of 12-minute capper “The Messages,” which is heavy enough for whatever you need flattened but holds firm to its tempo gruel and the melody established by the song prior. My only problem with the record is I can’t figure out which label I want them to sign to most, but either way, I is easily among the best debut albums I’ve heard this year. I look forward to hearing where they go from here.
A six-years-later follow-up for the potential wrought in their 2020 self-titled debut (review here), Smokemaster‘s In the Temple is in coversation with the breadth of modern psychedelia and the friendly melodies of ’60s pop-psych alike, and the Cologne outfit manage to make even a mover like “Do it Again” feel like a quiet, intimate moment, while pieces like the title-track and “Electromagnetic” feel less concerned with heft than float, and “Down in the Salt Mines” hones a wash that turns the extended solo in its back half to an utter triumph brought to heel in favor of a quiet last verse. Acoustic guitar, organ, effects, breathy vocals, clever layering — all of these elements serve the needs of the songs, and the songs have more range for them, but the underlying structures are a strength as the harmonies in “Citrus Leaves” demonstrate before they bring the album to an effectively stirring resolution. It’s the kind of record that might make your day better.
At the core of Bantoriak is Izio Orsini from Rancho Bizzarro, who in 2015 debuted the project with Weedoism (review here) and all its attendant weirdness. Vol. II follows suit 11 years later — what is time? — but finds Orsini working with a range of guests, from Sergio Chotsourian (ex-Los Natas, etc.) on the lumbering post-intro plunge “Blu Bus,” to members of Vesta, Supernaughty and Zen Circus, resulting in a could-go-anywhere vision of meditative heavy psychedelia. There’s throat singing on “La Muerte del Sitar,” while “Ritualism” finds the sitar very much alive and droning, “Kairot” lets the guitar scorch a bit, and “Liquid Brain” feels like a lost jam from The Heads. The last four minutes are dedicated to the ethereal noise of “Karpura,” with the later reaches lost to distant shouts and a consuming sound that might be running water. A lesson in how to be in-genre and still totally on your own wavelength.
While I don’t envy any band the task of distinguishing themselves in London’s underground scene, which is arguably the most packed-with-riffs of anywhere the world over and has been at this point for some time, the manner in which Troy the Band meet the challenge head on with their second album (Des), following on from 2024’s debut, Cataclysm (review here), with a collection that finds the trio of guitarist Sean Burn, bassist Sean Durbin and drummer Jack Revans answering the departure of vocalist Craig Newman by including a breadth of guest appearances. The penultimate “Adoration of Ill Luck” features Ana-Maria Terr Bordei, whom they’ve since welcomed as their new permanent singer, and her command over the massive groove there honed is enough reason why, but only one among a slew of highlights that include the immediately preceding “Memory Glowing,” with Peter Holland (Elephant Tree, etc.) and Kay Elizabeth (Black Orchids), and the screaming volatility of “Nothing” or “Choke.” There’s a lot happening in any individual cut, but the root instrumentals tie it all together and make (Des) an engrossing journey of a listen.
I know the focus on the new Burning Sister two-songer, Plunge b/w Fadeout (Live), is supposed to be the A-side, the new studio track and the ‘gaze vibes therefrom, the steady roll brought to bear for just under six minutes, hypnotic and full in its unrolling, hinting toward psych but staying true to the band’s stated intention of being ‘Mile High Downer Rock,’ bassist/vocalist Steve Miller and drummer Alison Salutz exploring and finding a plane between atmosphere and impact, but don’t sleep on the B-side either. This live interpretation of “Fadeout,” which opened the band’s 2023 Get Your Head Right EP (review here) when they were a trio but here becomes a showcase of fuzz density, nod and ’90s druggery. I suppose there’s no wrong answer between the two cuts, but “Fadeout (Live)” makes an easy comparison point for the Denver two-piece’s continuing excursion into the outer bounds of heavy weirdness, and even better, I suspect that’s why it’s included in the first place. For more, see their 2025 LP Ghosts (review here), and yeah, I really mean that you should.
Focus is an aptly-titled six-years-later return and fifth album overall from Memphis heavy rockers The Heavy Eyes. Issued through Magnetic Eye and Kozmik Artifactz — the latter of long association — the 11-song collection swings and reaches out and puts its focus on the songs themselves, which are taut, well composed, and able to make a four-minute slab like “It’s All Simone” feel like an epic reach even as it takes its place in the overarching flow of the material. That might be experience or maturity coming through — they hit 15 years since their debut in 2026 — but with shades of All Them Witches in the vocals, a gleeful tonal swamp in “Corporal Upham” ahead of the fuzz-bluesy “That Cold Goliath (Might Return),” and hooks to spare throughout, The Heavy Eyes remind that so much of the appeal in the first place was their ability to cohesively take on a range of elements and fuse them into a single stylistic statement. The self-awareness with which Focus would seem to have been made hinders this not in the slightest. Heads up, rockers.
Atmospheric heavy psychedelia presented across five duly broad tracks comprises this impressive debut full-length from Vienna-based trio For Eons, and Collide both has intricacy in the now and speaks promises of things to come in its sprawling sound, patient in centerpiece “Depths of Time,” excitingly prog-fuzzed in opener “Old Friend,” and righteous in the payoff of the eight-and-half-minute “Echoes of the Past,” the vocal melody in the latter putting the band in league with the likes of The Machine or the still-missed Sungrazer while the clearheaded tones in the start-stops of “Million Voices” and the will to drift in closer “From the Jungles to the Cities” (which has its own start-stops toward the finish) harness a sense of progressivism without feeling overly indulgent so much as engaging the listener on more than one level. The title speaks of smashing things together, and maybe that’s how the band experiences their music, I don’t know, but from the listener’s standpoint their songs are more fluid than they might at first seem.
Classic Swedish hard/heavy rock from the second Rödtjut full-length, Framtiden var bättre förr, with a songwriting that pushes toward the proto-metallic in “Rödögd blåtira” (and elsewhere) but balances that out with, say, the flute in “Vår tid” or the organ-inclusive mellowprog fluidity of eight-minute instrumental closer “Efter stormen.” It’s in Swedish, obviously, and I’m ignorant of the language, but the chug of “VMA” transcends gerunds, and as they demonstrate with the leadoff title-track, a hook is a hook regardless of what the syllables actually mean. The lead guitar in “En plats som vi inte förstår” has a bit of fuzzy stank on it, but by and large the intention is toward straight-up hard rock of the later-’70s variety, though somebody in this band likes Judas Priest, and that’s reasonable. This is my first exposure to Rödtjut, who have apparently been through some lineup changes since their debut in 2023, but the straightforward approach suits them and the songs hit a stylistic sweetspot, so you won’t hear me complain.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 30th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Roman trio Fvzz Popvli will head out this November on a round of touring in celebration of their 10th anniversary as a band, and they’ve also got room on a weekender in September, prefacing that celebration and following their appearance at the Roma Stone Fest Sept. 8 where they’ll take part alongside Fu Manchu, Stoned Jesus, L’Ira del Baccano and others. The band’s most recent album, Melting Pop (review here), was released in early 2025 and was their fourth full-length, so for marking a decade they’ve been pretty productive during their time, all while maintaining a punkish laissez-faire attitude.
They spent much of last year on the road and did at least three legs of touring to support the album, and though to my knowledge 2026 has been less busy, clearly they’re still heralding the newest offering as they take the time this Fall to look back on how far they’ve come. Nothing like celebrating work by doing more work.
Heavy Psych Sounds sent the dates (including open slots; always help if you can) down the PR wire:
*** FVZZ POPVLI – X Anniversary Tour ***
– the Italian fuzz riffers will tour Europe in September and November 2026 –
We are very stoked to announce that our Italian fuzz wizards FVZZ POPVLI will rock Europe soon !!
FVZZ POPVLI – X Anniversary Tour 08.08.2026 – I – Roma – Roma Stone Fest w/Fu Manchu 18.09.2026 – I – OPEN SLOT 19.09.2026 – I – Bozen – Platza Open 20.09.2026 – I – Porto San Giorgio – CSA Officina Trenino 05.11.2026 – I – Verona – TBA 06.11.2026 – CH – Baden – Werkstatt 07.11.2026 – CH – St Gallen – Rümpeltum 08.11.2026 – CH – St Iimier – Espace Noir 09.11.2026 – F – Barberaz – Brin De Zinc 10.11.2026 – F – Clermont-Ferrand – Le Fotomat 12.11.2026 – F – Strasbourg – La Peniche Mecanique 13.11.2026 – B – Namur – Creed 14.11.2026 – NL – Heerlen – T’ Duuvelke 15.11.2026 – B – Herent – Loft 17.11.2026 – B/F/D – OPEN SLOT 18.11.2026 – F – Lyon – La Pente 19.11.2026 – D – Stuttgart – Schlampazius 20.11.2026 – L – Luxembourg – Bonne Nouvelle 21.11.2026 – CH – Zurich – Safari Bar 22.11.2026 – I – Conegliano – LZO
Founded in Rome by Pootchie and Datio in A.D. MMXVI, the idea was to build a powertrio with a direct and rough way to deliver heavy fuzzy riffs. Their sound melts Black Sabbath-style heavy riffs with the roughest garagepunk bands attitude -like The Stooges-, adding the psychedelia from the 70’s to create their own style!
In November 2024 the band signed a new agreement with Heavy Psych Sounds and released a brand new album called Melting Pop in early 2025.
Fvzz Popvli: Pootchie – Gvitar and Voice Alex – Bass George – Drvms
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 24th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Italian rockers Godzilla Was Too Drunk to Destroy Tokyo earlier this month wrapped up a run of festivals and club shows that accounted for their summer touring, and in September, they’ll be out again as they come up on one year since the release of their 2025 LP, Sideral Voivod (review here), on Argonauta Records. The three-piece played Bear Stone Festival and others on the recent tour, and at least going by everything I saw posted about it after the fact, killed. No real surprise there, but good to know, I guess.
Of course, the band are slated to travel to the US for the first time to play HUFR Fest II in Denver, Colorado, next May. They’ll take part in that burgeoning revelry alongside Gypsy Wizard Queen, Mothertomb, and others, and call me crazy, but I have to think they’ll have at least a few other dates around the festival, if not a full tour. In the meantime, they’ve got open slots for Leipzig and Berlin on this upcoming Sept. stint, and if you can help out, I bet they’ll make it a party worth having. Just saying.
From social media:
🚨 TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨
The “AMP CRANKERS & FACE MELTERS TOUR” is coming this September!
France, Germany, and Switzerland — prepare your ears.
04/09 – Annecy (FR) @la_coloc_annecy 05/09 – Wachenroth (DE) @koppelnofrock 06/09 – Dresden (DE) @chemiefabrik_dresden 07/09 – Leipzig (DE) [NEED HELP / BOOK US] 08/09 – Berlin (DE) [NEED HELP / BOOK US] 09/09 – St. Gallen (CH) @lukasbarsg 10/09 – Nürnberg (DE) @blackboxkultur w/ @capacopter 11/09 – Immeldorf (DE) @weissesross.immeldorf 12/09 – Stuttgart (DE) @esszwei711 w/ Capacopter
📩 Hit us up in the DMs if you can help us close Leipzig or Berlin!
Shoutout to our bookings @pillboxtouring & @tobstarbooking 🖤
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 17th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
I get big Lowrider vibes off the new Humulus single, the way the crash cymbal feels pulled out as a backdrop behind the guitar, and the momentum punctuated by the kick, that blend of movement with breathy vocals overtop. Not a thing you’re going to hear me complain about, probably ever. “Rise and Fall” is the first song streaming from Humulus‘ new album, Smuggler’s Cave, and to be perfectly honest, I immediately thought of the movie The Goonies when I first saw the title, but I think mostly that’s just me revealing my age. Also the internet decided ‘goon’ means masturbate now, and it definitely didn’t when that film came out.
Humulus‘ last album was 2023’s Flowers of Death (review here), and the Italian outfit — I’m pretty sure they’re still a trio; drummer Massimiliano Boventi is the last remaining founder, guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni debuted on the most recent record, and Fabio Giacomini debuts here; they’re way less beery/burly than they were when they picked the moniker, and that’s not a complaint either — will travel to the United States for what I believe will be the first time to take part in next January’s Planet Desert Rock Weekend VII in Las Vegas. Maybe the country will even still exist by the time they get here. You never know.
No, I haven’t requested to premiere the record yet. Yes, I will send that email. I’m behind on everything this week. It’s a very distracting apocalypse.
From the PR wire:
Italian stoner psych trio HUMULUS to issue new album “Smuggler’s Cave” on Ripple Music this fall; first track streaming now!
Ripple Music welcomes Italian psychedelic stoner rockers HUMULUS to their roster for the release of their new album “Smuggler’s Cave” this October 9th!
Smuggler’s Cave marks HUMULUS’ fifth LP and their second outing with vocalist/guitarist Thomas Mascheroni. Following 2023’s Flowers Of Death, the band spent two years traversing Europe’s stages, and it was in the cracks between tours that the improvisations for this record took root. True to form, the band returned to the rehearsal room for marathon sessions, capturing hours of raw interplay, isolating the sparks and forging new songs from the embers.
On this album, those riffs hit harder and land with greater certainty than before, yet HUMULUS’s sonic hallmark remains intact: a deft pivot from rhythmic, classic stoner crunch into more psychedelic and introspective depths. As always, lyrics arrived after the music, with the title track served as a thread for the rest of the record, leading the listener through mysterious settings, tales of wizards, cemetery dreams, damned souls and the shade of dark forests. A record that’s heavy, haunted and more than ever unapologetically HUMULUS. It will be released on October 9th on LP, CD and digital, with preorders available now from Ripple Music.
New album “Smuggler’s Cave” Out October 9th on Ripple Music (LP/CD/digital)
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Humulus is an Italian psych-stoner power trio formed in Brescia, Italy in 2009. Born from the heavy lineage of Kyuss, Karma to Burn and Orange Goblin, they quickly built a reputation across southern Europe with their crushing debut on Go Down Records.
A lineup shift in 2015 flipped the script. New frontman Andrea Bellicini pushed the band into trippier, more dynamic territory through longer songs, richer atmospheres and a sound that outgrew stoner orthodoxy. The years that followed saw Humulus touring non-stop with European festival runs (Freak Valley, Desertfest Belgium, Up In Smoke), and a string of acclaimed LPs that veered from doom-laced riffage to sprawling psychedelic meditation. Another mutation came in late 2022 with the arrival of Thomas Mascheroni, reigniting the band’s chemistry and leading to a fresh creative burst. They hit the road again, sharing stages with heavyweights like Colour Haze and Monkey3, while steadily forging new material.
When founder Giorgio Bonacorsi stepped back in 2026, the remaining core members enlisted Fabio Giacomini to complete the lineup and write their most ambitious work yet, to be released in the fall 2026 on Ripple Music.
Humulus: Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice Massimiliano Boventi – Drums Fabio Giacomini – Bass
groove. Davide‘s work on synthesizer and Hammond organ isn’t to be discounted in terms of the arrangements, adding variety and class to the proceedings as it does, whether that’s in the midsection verse soundscaping of “River Moan” or manifesting the title’s intention in the later moments of “Bright Shadow,” which sets out with his acoustic guitar, gorgeously mixed by the esteemed Richard Behrens in Berlin.
