Roman instrumentalist trio The Black Flamingo will release An-nûr through Subsound Records on Feb. 2, which, if you’re playing along at home, is this Friday. The six-song collection follows behind 2018’s Mictlan EP and shows an early penchant for atmosphere at the start of opener “Selk’nam,” which soon unfurls its central motion in a running bassline and corresponding drum pattern, the guitar stepping into the forward position as the piece begins to take shape. Over the course of the full-length, guitarist/synthesist Mattia Lolli, drummer Tiziano Giammichele and bassist Matteo Nuccetelli build and expand on the palette they set forth in the leadoff, but at about three minutes in when “Selk’nam” locks into that payoff groove, that’s most of what you actually need to know right there.

Samples at the outset of “An-nûr” places the record in the current Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people — sorry to call it what it is; genocide happened to Jews too and security is important, but that doesn’t make it right — and the three-piece allow for some meditative moments after to digest the obviously-clueless/obviously-white interviewer talking to some representative of Palestine and asking horrible, racist questions like, “Why don’t you just stop fighting?” I assume as a tank rolls over the guy’s grandmother in the background or some shit and the world pretends to care in only the most tsk-tsk’ing of fashions. The title-track moves in its second half to a breakout of noisier crashing, as it should, and thereby hints at some of the prog-metal aspects of songs like “Tredici” still to come, the samples there leading into a linear build resolved by Tool-circa-’98-ish start-stops.

Between those, “Due” lets loose with a more ruffled-sounding distortion — it’s not so much fuzzier as hairier — and shifts into its own purposeful ending as a payoff for what came before. Ambient transitions, the samples, etc., build character around “Tredici,” but it’s the percussion at the start of the penultimate “Solaris” that fades in to set the mood. Synth, or keyboard, lend a science-fiction drone to coincide melodically with the rhythmic pattern being laid out, but the jump to dreamier guitar brings a different spirit, something more serene if still otherworldly. It’s not the last rug pull, as The Black Flamingo turn shortly after three minutes into the song’s total six to a fuzzier riff that’s both twisting and more grounded than the place from which the band just came, and that sets “Solaris” on its own building course, hints of post-metal in the intensity of the wash still not giving up their heavy rock foundations.

The culmination of “Solaris” leaves only 13-minute closer “Ayahuasca,” which offers another multi-tiered build and takes the time to work from the ground up in making it. Samples throughout unite “Ayahuasca” with “Tredici” or “Selk’nam” at the outset, but The Black Flamingo are also clearly playing to the ‘big finish’ as an element of genre as well and listening to the actual unfolding of “Ayahuasca” — which, golly, I’d love to try, though I hear it very definitely makes you puke before it melts your brain — which gets heavier so that you go, “okay that’s the payoff” like three times before they’re actually there, it makes sense on the album where it is as an encapsulation of what’s been accomplished across the preceding span, which is to establish the tones, atmospheres and methods along whose lines The Black Flamingo will likely look to develop their sound going forward (some more drastic revamp notwithstanding; one never knows), speaking to something essential in groove now and informing any and all among the converted who’d take them on of their potential for more. This is, as regards hearing them, only good news.

Album stream for An-nûr follows here with more info underneath from the PR wire.

Tell two friends:

‘An-nûr’, ‘light’ in arabic language, is The Black Flamingo’s first LP. Six tracks that go across obsessive rithms, lysergic journey and stoner blows. ‘An-nûr’ is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The LP has been recorded in Rome, in the ‘Cinque Quarti’ studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo Amato (Max Carnage), that took care of mixing and mastering. The vinyl mastering has been done by Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento).

Subsound Records will release ‘An-nûr’ on LP and digital on February 2nd, 2024.

TRACKLIST
1. Selk’nam
2. An-nûr
3. Due
4. Tredici
5. Solaris
6. Ayahuasca

BIOGRAPHY

The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, which vibes among space and desert, with a rotten attitude. The band is formed in Rome, literally in the spaces of 30 Formiche club, by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive) and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings). Erio soon leaves for a nomad life and his bass is taken by Matteo Nuccetelli (Mad Roller).

The Black Flamingo are:
Tiziano Giammichele – Drums
Matteo Nuccetelli – Bass
Mattia Lolli – Guitar, Synth

The Black Flamingo on Facebook

The Black Flamingo on Instagram

The Black Flamingo on Bandcamp

This Friday, Jan. 12, marks the release of Turned to Stone Ch. 9, the latest installment of the ongoing split series from Ripple Music highlighting deep-underground talent in heavy rock, doom, psych, and related styles. Bringing together Ritual Earth from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Italian duo Kazak, the seven-song offering follows behind the Southwesterly-focused Turned to Stone Ch. 8 (review here), which arrived in May 2023 with new material from Blue Heron and High Desert Queen, and in prior editions the series has highlighted works from Howling Giant, Saturna, Planet of the 8s, Merlin, Wizzerd, and of course plenty of others.

Ritual Earth aren’t without influence from desert-style heavy, but they can’t escape that Northeastern urbane tonal crunch either, and it stays resonant even as they depart the roll in “Through the Interstellar Medium” for a first-half exploratory jaunt. To be sure, the nod returns. Vocalist George Chamberlin carries rock melodies informed by grunge and traditionalist heavy, and in Steve Mensick‘s guitar, Chris Scott‘s bass, Chris Turek‘s drumming and maybe organ from Mark Boyce, there is expansive complement. Offering three songs to Kazak‘s four, Ritual Earth first present the organ-laced blues nod of “In the Wake,” which weaves into and around its central riff through moody, open verses that seem to make the ensuing chorus take off all the more.

“Through the Interstellar Medium” brings psychedelic flourish to this riffy ideology, and in the eight-minute “Ominous Aurorae,” they take their time getting there and offer an impact in the drums that’s well worth the trip as they embrace a more linear structure rising from a contemplative, atmospheric start into more terrestrial chorus-making, not quite as over-the-top as Green Lung, but not far off, and underscore the triumph with a guitar solo before capping with a last chorus. Kazak — the two-piece configuration of guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Daniele Picchi and drummer Matteo Gherardi branched off of the decidedly more raucous unit Fish Taco — arrive at Turned to Stone with four cuts, shorter on average than Ritual Earth‘s in terms of runtime, but expansive in their own way, fostering a meditative sound that, like what Ritual Earth brought to side A, is adjacent to desert rock without actually being it.

Instead, the primary touchstone for Kazak, particularly once Picchi‘s vocals start on “Geometrical Alchemy,” is earlier Om, but the difference of impact thought Picchi‘s guitar is apparent even earlier than that, and the flexibility in terms of frequency from the six-stringed instrument gives “Geometrical Alchemy” a sense of reach that “Haze,” which is still plenty rich in terms of low end, but that finds its fluidity in the interplay with Gherardi‘s drumming. At 7:11, “Sunset Symphony” is as far out as Kazak go, its groove is melodic and resonant thanks to vocal layering as it approaches the middle, though by that point, Kazak have immersed the listener in the fog they’ve conjured through the first two songs, so it’s not such a leap when they take that next step.

And suitably enough, it’s the guitar riffing away in the nod of closer “The 25th Hour” that lets Kazak ride to its more percussive ending with such flow, hypnotic repetition easing the way as Picchi and Ghererdi find ground beneath the ether. Their sound and Ritual Earth‘s are varied, but each belongs to the band in question, and while they might not at first seem like the most intuitive pairing — as opposed to bands who sound the same, that is — they make each other’s material stronger through their shared elements and are all the more divergent for the individual takes they present. Once again, the Turned to Stone series delivers a quality sampling of wares from two acts who will only have earned whatever recognition they garner from taking part in it. You’d think eventually the label would run out of bands to spotlight, but I’m certainly glad it hasn’t happened yet.

The split LP streams in full below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Preorder link: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/turned-to-stone-chapter-9

“Turned To Stone Chapter 9” will be available on January 12th, 2024 in various vinyl formats as well as digitally, with preorders available now on Ripple Music.

RITUAL EARTH & KAZAK “Turned To Stone Chapter 9” split album Out January 12th on Ripple Music – PREORDER: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/turned-to-stone-chapter-9

TRACKLIST:
1. Ritual Earth – In The Wake
2. Ritual Earth – Through Interstellar Medium
3. Ritual Earth – Ominous Aurorae
4. Kazak – Geometrical Alchemy
5. Kazak – Haze
6. Kazak – Sunset Symphony
7. Kazak – The 25th Hour

Ritual Earth are:
George Chamberlin – Vocals
Steve Mensick – Guitars
Chris Scott – Bass
Chris Turek – Drums
Keys & Synths by Mark Boyce

Kazak are:
Matteo Gherardi – drums, pads
Daniele Picchi – guitar, voice, synth

Ritual Earth on Facebook

Ritual Earth on Instagram

Ritual Earth on Bandcamp

Kazak on Facebook

Kazak on Instagram

Kazak on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Instagram

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

Native English speakers might look at the moniker of Italian cosmic rockers Traum and associate it with the word ‘trauma,’ but ‘traum’ is German for ‘dream’ — ‘weltraum’ is ‘space’; think Weltraumstaunen or other jammers in that sphere — and the sound is correspondingly more outreach than inner-exploration, though admittedly that’s a question of how it’s interpreted. Nonetheless, Traum, which as the PR wire emphasizes boasts members in its ranks of Zu, Lento, Fuzz Orchestra, and a whole bunch of others in Subsound Records head Lorenzo Stecconi alone, never mind what bands anyone else has been in aside from those listed here.

The sound is improv or at least experimental in its root, but the dogwhistle to krautrock and classic prog heads is in the name itself, and considering the swath of styles these guys have covered in other bands, that they’d come together with a distinct purpose in mind doesn’t seem like an over-the-top expectation. “Inner Space” is down there where the streaming stuff goes (should I move that up? new year new theme? what are you thinking here?), and the blue text follows here with more info from the PR wire:

Italian avant-garde collective TRAUM (w/ members of ZU, Fuzz Orchestra) release debut single off self-titled album, out March 1st on Subsound Records

Italian avant-garde collective TRAUM (with members of Zu, Fuzz Orchestra, Lento, Zeus!) present their kaleidoscopic psych-laden first single “Inner Space”, taken from their self-titled debut album to be released on March 1st via Subsound Records.

Italian avant-garde collective TRAUM feature members of ZU, Fuzz Orchestra, Lento and Zeus! They masterfully blend psychedelia, krautrock and dark ambient sprinkled with sax and smooth layers of synth that feels like an invitation to a pre-apocalypse seance of meditation resulting in the sharing of the same horizon of interpretation of existence and music by four musicians.

Debut album “Traum”
Out March 1st on Subsound Records
Preorder on Bandcamp: https://traumofficial.bandcamp.com/album/traum
and Subsound Records: https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/products?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=traum

TRAUM creates and shapes its music starting from the dream dimension. Whether it is an illusory, lucid, interdimensional or induced dream, the music bears witness to it and describes its various aspects, keeping the rudder to starboard like a new Ulysses returning home.

Their first album is the result of almost a month of living together in an old farmhouse playing, improvising and sharing their lives and their musical and cultural passions. Through a state of presence and mutual listening, the eight tracks that made up this multifaceted album were born: the music takes different shapes, conducting the listener on a journey within himself. The record is the spontaneous fruit of an urge to communicate and musically explore today’s reality, both internally and externally.

1. Kali Yuga
2. Vimana
3. Katabasis
4. Inner Space
5. Antartic Down
6. Infraterrestrial Dub
7. Erwachen
8. Eterno Ritorno

TRAUM is
Luca Ciffo – Guitar, Bass
Lorenzo Stecconi – Guitar
Luca T. Mai – Synths/Sax
Paolo Mongardi – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/traumspace
https://instagram.com/traum_musik/
https://traumofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/traum_musik

https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.subsoundrecords.it/

Traum, “Inner Space”

In a week that’s pretty light on announcements, be it for tours or new releases or whathaveyou, Italy’s Humulus shine through with live plans for the early part of this New Year, with one TBA still saddled in a stretch of 10 days and more listed as being in the offing. The occasion of the trio’s going is 2023’s Flowers of Death (review here), which was the first outing from the band to feature guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni after a lineup shift that saw him step in after 2020’s The Deep (review here).

Their fourth full-length overall, it also featured a collaboration with Colour Haze guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, whose presence and influence certainly doesn’t hurt, and in part with that laid out a progressive and psychedelic course for their work to follow going forward. If you didn’t hear it — and if you didn’t, it’s okay, I don’t hear everything either — it’s at the bottom of this post and since it came out in September and 2024 is only two days old, it’s still a new release, so have at it. The dates were posted on social media as follows:

Flowers of Death Tour 2024 💥 here’s the first part of the tour dates confirmed for the next year…Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and for the first time Denmark 🔥 We wish you all the best for the new year and we hope to see you in front of the stage…and don’t forget to drink good beers 🍺 cheeeers

07.03 Gerwerk Winterthur CH
08.03 Freiburg Im Breisgau DE
09.03 Sas Delemont CH
10.03 Rockhaus Salzburg AT
11.03 Kopi Keller Berlin DE
12.03 TBA
13.03 Lygtens Kro Copenhagen DK
14.03 Pogo Retroquitaten Telgte DE
15.03 Vortex Siegen DE
16.03 Bandhaus Erfurt DE
17.03 Live Bar Sölden AT
more TBA

Humulus:
Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass

https://www.facebook.com/humulusband
https://www.instagram.com/humulus.band/
http://www.humulus.bandcamp.com

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz
https://www.instagram.com/kozmikartifactz/
https://kozmik-artifactz.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/taxidriverrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/taxidriverworld/
https://taxidriverstore.bandcamp.com/
http://taxidriverstore.com

Humulus, Flowers of Death (2023)

Long-running Italian heavy psychedelic rockers Deadpeach have set a Feb. 6 release for their new full-length, The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race, with preorders up now through their Bandcamp. The band, who have been kicking around since the mid-’90s and released their debut album, Psycle, in 2006 on Nasoni (could stand a reissue), were last heard from new music-wise with 2019’s acoustic Waiting for Federico session (review here), but if you’re looking for their last full-length, you have to go back even further, to 2013’s Aurum (review here), though they had a live record out as well and singles and other odds and ends in there.

Point is it’s been a minute, but the timing of The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race — which sounds as a title like a scholarly article taken from some obscure academic journal of theoretical physics, ‘The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race: Toward an Understanding of Our Place in the Interstellar Framework’ by Prof. Giovanni Giovannini of Deadpeach — could hardly be better. Deadpeach mark their beginnings in Jan. 1994. A Feb. 2024 release arrives right on stoner time to celebrate their 30th anniversary as a band.

Congratulations to them and on getting a new album together after 10 years. I didn’t want to hope too much when they said they were recording earlier this year, but I’m glad this one is on its way:

DEADPEACH – The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race

***NEW ALBUM ANNOUNCEMENT***

We’re thrilled to unveil our upcoming album, “The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race.” Get an early taste with the release of our single, “Madras.”

ALBUM RELEASE DATE: February 6th, 2024

Single ‘Madras’ Release Date: January 15th, 2024

Our new album is now available for pre-order on Bandcamp at a special price! on Bandcamp you can also listen to the new single. Secure your copy for an immersive psychedelic rock experience.

Embark on a sonic odyssey with “The Cosmic Haze and the Human Race,” our latest seven-track masterpiece. We’ve seamlessly blended heavy rock and psychedelia for a captivating journey.

Tracklist:

1. Madras
2. Motor Peach
3. Man on the Hill
4. Ouroboros
5. Monday
6. Rust
7. Set the Controls to Mother Earth

Recorded and mixed by: Andrea Scardovi at Duna Studio di Russi.
Artwork crafted by: Grazia La Padula.

This project represents a unique sonic experience, merging influences from stoner to heavy and European psychedelia, creating an exhilarating and unconventional journey. Our aim is to transcend the limits of the traditional “one riff album” and immerse listeners in a diverse range of musical emotions.

We extend our gratitude to everyone who contributed to making this project a reality and eagerly anticipate sharing this new musical adventure with you.

https://www.facebook.com/Deadpeachrock
https://deadpeach-rock.bandcamp.com/
http://www.deadpeach.com/

Deadpeach, Live at Sidro Club (2022)

Italy’s Hijss — which I’ve also seen stylized as both all-caps and no-caps, so I think maybe they’re flexible — will make their full-length debut on March 8 through Heavy Psych Sounds with Stuck on Common Ground. To mark the launch of preorders and in keeping with the label’s general modus, the first single has been unveiled as “1234me,” which you’ll find in the video embed at the bottom of this post. Playing to some skate competition or other in the clip suits the crunchy riff and spacey groove well, a style the PR wire calls ‘cosmic grunge,’ which isn’t quite entirely representative of “1234me,” but if you remember grunge as born out of punk and noise and take the space, psychedelia and atmospherics from ‘cosmic,’ you’re at least on your way.

“1234me” first showed up on Hijss‘ Bandcamp in late 2021 alongside the moodier “Narcolepsy” (just a bit of Clutch‘s blues in the vocals and mellow vibe there before it picks up in the second half) which will open side B when it appears on Stuck on Common Ground. The two tracks together show some measure of range between them and I wouldn’t be surprised if the record went a few weirder places considering the open-feeling approach to craft it takes, but of course we have a while before we get there. Everything’s a process. The PR wire began this one thusly:

HIJSS – Stuck On Common Ground

RELEASE DATE: MARCH 8th

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the upcoming HIJSS debut album STUCK ON COMMON GROUND !!!

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS294

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

RELEASED IN
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD TRANSP. BACK. SPLATTER BLUE/ORANGE VINYL
350 LTD MAGENTA VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Stuck on common ground is the debut album of the Italian Power Trio hijss.

With a mixture of heavy blues influenced riffs and synthesized Krautrock parts hijss tries to create a high dynamic range that will keep your attention at all time. On top of gritty basslines and ferocious drums lie cosmic guitars, tantalizing vocals and arpeggiated electronic drones. All three band members come from a vast musical background. Their common denominator is with out a doubt a punkish attitude.

The album was produced by Toni Quiroga and hijss, drums were recorded at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives by “holy barbarian” Fabio Sforza. Engineered, mixed and mastered at accept productions by Toni Quiroga, album cover by Luca Guarino.

TRACKLIST

SIDE A
INGRAVED – 02:48
1234 ME – 04:37
HEADLESS BLUES – 03:12
INTERLUDE #1 – 02:30
TRAIN TRACKS – 04:08

SIDE B
NARCOLEPSY – 04:19
BLACK DISEASE – 04:14
INTERLUDE #2 – 00:56
BLOW OUT – 03:43
TILT MODE – 06:12

CREDITS
Composer Name: Alexander Ebner, Heinrich Pan, Maurice Bellotti
Songwriter: Alexander Ebner
Producer: accept productions, Toni Quiroga & hijss
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds Records
Recorded: drums at Nologo Recording Studio, Laives (BZ) by “holy barbarian” Fabio Sforza
Engineer: accept productions, Toni Quiroga
Mixed: accept productions, Toni Quiroga
Mastered: accept productions, Toni Quiroga
Cover Artwork: Luca Guarino

BIOGRAPHY

From northern Italy’s summits, through clouds and airplanes, a wall of sound spirals downhill as hijss marks its birth. Stimulated by the musical instinct of the band’s mastermind Lois Lane (guitar & vocals), Maurice’s (drums) ferocious hits and Pan’s (bass & synth) catchy scales the music does not only scratch the surface but goes deep under your skin. The band puts genres in the background zapping from punk over blues to space and psychedelic rock. The outcome is a melting pot called: cosmic grunge. That means whatever you want it to mean …

HIJSS is
Lois Lane – guitar/vocals
Maurice – drums
Pan – bass/synth

https://www.facebook.com/hijssband/
https://www.instagram.com/hijss__._.____/
https://hijss.bandcamp.com/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Hijss, “1234me” official video

Hijss, “Narcolepsy” (2021)

Okeydokey, what do we learn here? Bongzilla will be in Europe this Spring, and Mondo Generator will be out to follow up on Nick Oliveri‘s winter solo tour, and Kadabra will go supporting their most excellent 2023 outing, Umbra (review here), though that was already apparent from the first Desertfest London announce. Along with MR.BISON, the esteemed Ufomammut — who’ll have a new LP out sometime in 2024, allegedly — Greek mainstays Nightstalker and upstarts 1782, speedrockers Tankzilla and punkers The Clamps, that’s the bill as it stands that will swap acts back and forth across two nights in Bologna and Trieste next May for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Italy 2024.

This is not the end of the announcements, of course, but it’s a rousing start as the Italian label and booking agency continues to branch out to new places. You’ll note Trieste is home for Rocket Panda Management, who are involved here and also behind the StonerKras Fest that’s taken place the last couple of years later in the summer. I assume that’s still happening too, and will do so until I hear or see otherwise.

I don’t have numbers on the site’s readership in Bologna or Trieste, but I think these things are relevant anyway exactly because of the above: they show you who’s going to be where when. And it gives me an excuse to post the Kadabra record again. Double-win.

From the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2024 Bologna & Trieste – TICKETS PRESALE + FIRST BANDS !!!

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Bologna and for the first time Trieste with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!

In cooperation with Freakout Club and Rocket Panda Management, today Heavy Psych Sounds has announced the first confirmed bands + TICKETS PRESALE for the upcoming HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2024 !!!

The HPS Fest Italy will be taking place 3rd and 4th of May at the Teatro Miela in Trieste and 4th and 5th of May at the TPO Club in Bologna !!!

HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ITALY 2024 – BOLOGNA & TRIESTE

@ TPO, Bologna // 4th and 5th May 2024

@ Teatro Miela, Trieste // 3rd and 4th May 2024

feat.
BONGZILLA
MONDO GENERATOR
UFOMAMMUT
NIGHTSTALKER
1782
KADABRA
MR. BISON
TANKZILLA
THE CLAMPS
+ more TBA

BOLOGNA WEEKEND TICKETS:
https://www.freakoutbologna.com/hps

TRIESTE WEEKEND TICKETS:
https://www.miela.it/spettacoli/heavy-psych-sounds-fest-italy-2024/

heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com
www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/

Mondo Generator, We Stand Against You (2023)

Kadabra, Umbra (2023)

This Friday, Dec. 15, Italian trio Warcoe will release their second full-length, A Place for Demons, through Regain Records imprint Helter Skelter Productions, with tapes on Morbid and Miserable Records. As with their likewise willfully barebones 2022 debut, The Giant’s Dream (review here), the new eight-songer brings a grim and metallic spirit, but it’s more metal-of-eld than anything modern, and they grow more doomed as they progress through the album’s second half, but there’s punk, classic heavy rock, and even some more extreme elements at play, though admittedly that’s mostly in the atmosphere.

But even a hooky post-grunge rocker like “Ishkur,” which opens side B, the heft of their tonality comes through, as well as the space for lead guitar near the halfway point there, and a production that’s clear but not clean across the span bolsters the underground feel. Obscurity becomes a character in the material.

The album opens with its tone-setting title-track, a clarion of guitar going out soon joined by drums, then bass as Warcoe rise toward the snare snap into the first verse. Vocalist Stefano Fiorelli makes his presence felt in double-tracked layers with instrumental stomp to complement, and they shift into and through a nodding change before a quick guitar lead signals the return to the verse.

As with many of the lyrics on A Place for Demons, the title-track tells a story, and by the time its four minutes are done, Warcoe have pushed the thickened procession to a point of genuine momentum, and feedback leads into the Sabbath galloper “Pyramid of Despair” (premiered here), which follows and unfolds quicker into its riff-fueled counterpoint, Fiorelli, bassist Carlo and drummer Francesco seeming to enjoy the bounce as they course through the second chorus around the three-minute mark ahead of a raucous finish and a stretch of silence before the start of “Rune Dweller.”

At just over three minutes long, the acoustic guitar instrumental piece “Rune Dweller” is more than an interlude while still departed from the band’s ‘regular’ methodology as demonstrated across the first two tracks, but its finger-plucked movement is easy to follow and rhythmically, it holds onto the tension the band amassed through “A Place for Demons” and “Pyramid of Despair.” One is reminded of something that might’ve been found on one of earlier Metallica‘s outings, pulling back from the pummel — or in this case, the riffery — to give listeners a breather and demonstrate a more classical influence.

When side A closer “Leaves” crashes in directly after, it seems to hit that much harder, but nestles into a verse made anxious by the tremolo lead guitar running alongside the central swing, which holds for the duration and is a rocker’s rocker, where side B’s first impression is doomier with “Ishkur,” which takes a darker tonal turn while staying comfortably uptempo. But the march has begun and the trajectory is set. If you believe in fatalism, then we’re all doomed.

Shades of Saint Vitus show up in “Boys Become Kings” but more at the outset of the penultimate “Wounds Too Deep to Heal,” and while each is thicker than it is slow — call it “doom rock” while emphasizing both words — the mood dims in “Ishkur” and “Boys Become Kings” as the trio set up the second half of A Place for Demons as a movement growing more and more doomed with each plod. “Wounds Too Deep to Heal” is so deep into the Vitus aspect that it’s punk rock — that’s fandom — and it also boasts perhaps the hookiest impression of the record with Fiorelli‘s delivery of the title lyric in the chorus. But at 3:44, “Wounds Too Deep to Heal” is the shortest song on A Place for Demons–, and it leaves a spot for the only natural place it could go to end and keep its acceleration into doom: Black Sabbath.

It’s not a cover, but it doesn’t feel out of line to cite Black Sabbath‘s “Black Sabbath” as a primary influence on Warcoe‘s “Buio,” which brings the slowdown that seems to have been held in reserve all along as the band has played back and forth in pacing. It doesn’t drop out in the verse, and if you’re waiting for an Ozzy-ish “What is this…,” well, I have no doubt that Fiorelli would nail it, but the nine-minute closer is instrumental, so really, they’re plunging to the heart of the thing in the riff itself. Considering the ethic they’ve proffered throughout of sticking to their roots, “Buio” makes an organic landing spot for A Place for Demons, and says a lot about who Warcoe are and where they’re coming from in a way that another cut — even one with vocals — might not have been able to do.

There is something intangible about this band. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I like that. I don’t know if it’s a dirtied-up NWOBHM influence, or black metal, or crust punk, but they’ve got this blend of styles that is its own cohesive thing — see “doom rock,” above — but that is malleable in speed and its mix, and able to shift moods fluidly. I feel a strong compulsion to repeat the word “obscure” that I’m not going to ignore. Maybe they play “obscure doom rock.” And on the off chance someone in the band likes Emperor, I’ll add “exclusively” to that.

But, although when taken as a whole, A Place for Demons isn’t overly aggressive, it sounds like it thinks of itself as metal, and maybe that’s the difference. Whatever tag you might apply — I’ve been through a few — they have become more themselves in this material, and that only makes Warcoe a stronger band, now and moving forward.

You’ll find A Place for Demons streaming in its entirety on the player below, followed by more info from the PR wire.

Listen actively, and please enjoy:

HELTER SKELTER PRODUCTIONS (distributed & marketed by REGAIN RECORDS) is proud to present WARCOE’s highly anticipated second album, A Place for Demons, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

WARCO are a power-trio hailing from Italy, that land rich in doomed materials. Naturally, WARCOE honor their national identity with a ’70s-entrenched vision of pure DOOM METAL as first laid out by Ozzy-era Black Sabbath. In fact, in vocalist/guitarist Stefano Fiorelli, you will not find a more uncanny Ozzy doppelganger.

WARCOE began their journey in 2021, first with a couple digital singles and then an EP, all of which coalesced into their debut album, The Giant’s Dream. Likewise released digitally, The Giant’s Dream was also self-released on CDR and tape in true DIY fashion. So smitten with these authentically vintage vibes, HELTER SKELTER released The Giant’s Dream on CD and vinyl right before the summer, with hopes of spreading the WARCOE name far and wide.

Wasting no time – and, indeed, sure to spread that name further and wider – WARCOE return with their second full-length, A Place for Demons. Aptly titled, A Place for Demons is prime olde-world DOOM, steeped in Sabbathian tones and proto-metal vibes. Much like they did on its full-length predecessor, the power-trio manage to massage new sensations from that eternal archetype whilst staying reverent; if anything, there’s a pronounced swagger to A Place for Demons that suggests star-power in the making.

So, take WARCOE’s hand and enter A Place for Demons: your “new” old-doom trip continues here!

Music and lyrics by Stefano
Warcoe logo by Federico Pazzi Andreoli
Cover art by Shane Horror
Recorded at Avangarage Recording Studio in 2023
Mastered by Craig Thomas (Preyer, UK)

Lineup:
Stefano Fiorelli – guitars and vocals
Carlo – bass
Francesco – drums

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Helter Skelter Productions on Instagram

Helter Skelter Productions website

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Morbid and Miserable Records on Bandcamp