Posted in Whathaveyou on October 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It is not lost on me that the last time I posted about long-running Japanese heavy rockers Eternal Elysium, band founder Yukito Okazaki was welcoming a new lineup to the group. Bassist Tim Togawa joined at that point — it was July 2024, if you don’t feel like clicking the link — which makes drummer You Nakashima the latest addition to Eternal Elysium, who will reportedly be part of a four-way split release on Things From Beyond sometime presumably in the New Year. Live shows are in the works, too.
If you like good news, that should resonate. Eternal Elysium‘s last studio outing was Resonance of Shadows (review here), in 2016, which they followed with the 2019 live album, 末世の葬礼 贰 现场 . Reissues through Robustfellow also came out earlier this decade. I will not speculate on the likelihood of a new LP at any point, but would be glad to hear one when and if it should happen, as Okazaki has always had his heart in Sabbathian groove and brought a sense of homage to the band’s work while retaining a bluesy individualism. Fingers crossed some recording leads to more.
The following comes from social media:
***ANNOUNCING THE NEW ETERNAL ELYSIUM LINEUP! ***
You Nakashima (ex. Bloodshot) joins as the new drummer, adding fresh resonance to the band.
We started rehearsals last month, and two tracks have already been recorded.
His energy generated new vibes and waves, and EE resumed our journey into a new dimension.
The two recorded tracks will be included on a 4 bands split LP released by the US label THINGS FROM BEYOND.
More details later.
Live performance will happen around next spring.
Thank you all for your interest and support for EE.
Cheers, ETERNAL ELYSIUM
Yukito Okazaki ＊ Vocals, Guitar Tim Togawa ＊ Bass You Nakashima ＊ Drums
Posted in Reviews on October 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Sneaking it in on a Friday? What is this madness? Fair question. The wretched truth is that in slating this Quarterly Review — welcome, by the way — I ran into a scheduling conflict with a stream I booked for Oct. 14. I wasn’t sure how to resolve the logistics there, and 10 reviews plus a full-album stream is more than I have brainpower to write in a day, even if I do nothing else, so think of this as like the soft-launch grand opening of the Fall 2025 Quarterly Review. I’ll go all through next week and then wrap up on Monday the 15th. 70 total releases covered, 10 per day, during that time.
It’s gonna be a lot, and I’m sure as always happens there will be other things I’ll fall behind on, but to be perfectly honest with you, I could really, really stand to force myself to sit down and engage the hardcore escapism of getting lost in 70 records one after the next, so I think I might actually enjoy this this time through. Famous last words, but last time was one of my favorite QRs ever, so I’ve got momentum on my side. I’ll keep you posted as we go, and while I’m here, have a great weekend. We’ll pick up with more on Monday.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Faetooth, Labyrinthine
While being terrible for most everything else, 2025 is a good year to go dark. Faetooth do so — darker, anyhow — with their sophomore album, Labyrinthine, and find a place where doomgaze and sludgier, scream-topped distortion can meet without seeming any more incongruous than the Los Angeles trio want it them to be. The record runs a substantial 10 songs/55 minutes, and songs like “Iron Gate,” “Hole,” “White Noise,” and “Eviscerate” derive as much of their atmosphere from the band scorching the ground beneath them as from the more subdued, murky and melodic stretches. With these elements put together in a cohesive whole sound, Labyrinthine is less an aesthetic revolution than a (welcome) generational refresh to doom and sludge, with the band set on a path of progression toward an increasingly individualized stylistic take. Idiot dudes will talk shit because they’re women. Don’t listen to idiot dudes. Listen to riffs. Faetooth have plenty to get you started.
The mighty Kiel, Germany, trio — oops, they just became a four-piece; heads up — recorded Bring Your Lungs this past April while on their first-ever tour of Australia. It’s a three-song, about-35-minute live-in-studio collection, and they’ll reportedly press it to vinyl in no small part so they have copies to take with them when they return down under in 2027. I guess it went well. Bring Your Lungs leaves little question as to why as the band put themselves in line among the heaviest sons of Sleep in the suitably-half-formed oeuvre of bong metal. Even the shortest of the three, the middle cut “Wax” (7:38) lays tonal waste(d), while “Fathead” (11:17) and “Goddamn High” (15:59) bark and crush and caveman plod, hitting into a slowdown and a speedup, respectively, that convey both the plan underlying the mire and the willfully, gleefully insurmountable nature of that mire itself. They’d like to teach the world to stone. Can’t help but think it’d be better for it.
We may not have circa-2005 Genghis Tron to manifest the in-brain chaos of modern overwhelm, but Jon Weisnewski (Sandrider, Akimbo) stands ready with the extremist shenanigans industrial grind of Nuclear Dudes to pick up the slack. Following the punishing radness of 2023’s Boss Blades (review here), Weisnewski, his keyboards, a buttload of samples and guitar here collaborate with vocalist Brandon Nakamura to manifest a cacophonous stew that almost gets away with tapping into “Welcome to the Jungle” on album opener “Napalm Life” (get it?) by making it almost completely unrecognizable. Further punishment is dealt with semiautomatic fervor on “Concussion Protocol” and “Juggalos for Congress,” but the 11-track/23-minute entirety of Nuclear Dudes‘ second full-length comes across like an intentional brainema, so approach with caution and know that, if it feels right, you’re not alone.
A quick glance at the social media for Italian stoner-droner heretofore solo-project Void Sinker, and one finds that sole denizen Guglielmo Allegro is currently searching for a bassist and a drummer to fill out the lineup. Unquestionably this would be a significant change to the proceedings on the five-song/69-minute Echoes From the Deep, which plunges frontal-lobe-first into undulating waveforms and its own distorted expanse. A clear progression of notes can be heard later in closer “Andromeda” (16:21) and “Hollow” is minimalist to the point of being barely there for most of its nine minutes, but obviously a certain kind of meditative monolith is constructed from lead cut “Cetus” onward. There are no shallow dives here, and one can’t help but wonder what Allegro might have in mind for filling out these arrangements with a rhythm section. Will Void Sinker adopt more straightforward stoner-doom riffing, or is the intention to try to make this kind of drone actually convey a sense of movement? Your guess is as good as mine, but for now, the trance induced is noteworthy.
Raw oldschool doom with a punker edge permeates Hebi Katana‘s first album for Ripple Music and fourth overall, Imperfection. And the title becomes somewhat ironic, because while the implication is they’re talking about a warts-‘n’-all sound perhaps in reference to the production rawness of the seven-track/35-minute outing highlighted by cuts like “Dead Horse Requiem” and “Blood Spirit Rising,” which shuffle-pushes into and out of a pastoral midsection, as well as the finale “Yume wa Kareno,” it just about perfectly suits the material itself, and the band bring vigor to the deceptively catchy “Praise the Shadows” that, while dark in atmosphere, speaks to a dynamic that’s developed in their sound over time. That is to say, they might be a ‘new band’ to listeners outside the band’s native Japan, but Imperfection conveys their experience in craft and in its chemistry. If it wasn’t recorded live, close enough. They’re not reshaping genre, but there is perspective at work, to be sure.
That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust, a two-songer full-length with each consuming about 23 minutes of a vinyl side, sure feels like a landmark, but that seems to happen when Melbourne trio Khan are involved. Here they set a sprawl matched by few in heavy progressive psychedelia as the three-piece of Josh Bills (vocals, guitar, keyboard, recording, mixing, mastering), Will Homan (bass) and Beau Heffernan (drums) enact a linear build across the massive soundscape of “That Fair and Warlike Form,” as sure in their purpose as they are defiant of the expectation that these extended pieces might just be jams. Rather, that opener and “Return to Dust” are structured pieces, and resonate emotionally as well as immerse the listener in their clear-eyed breadth. “Return to Dust” is a level of triumph not every act achieves, and “That Fair and Warlike Form” is no less impactful throughout its procession. One of the best of 2025, but less about the fleeting moment than providing a place to dwell long-term. That is to say, it’s a record that has the potential for its own cult, never mind the wider following amassed by the band.
The first Sarkh LP, Helios (review here), arrived through Worst Bassist Records in 2023 and was a purposeful adventure across genre lines, taking elements of post-rock, heavy riffing, and even aspects of black metal and more extreme ideas into a context that became its own. The shimmer at the outset of “Helios” that starts their second full-length, Heretical Bastard, speaks immediately of communion, and as the German instrumentalists have set about refining and coalescing their sound, ambience remains central to what they do regardless of how outwardly heavy a given part gets, which, in tracks like “Kanagawa” and “Glazial,” is pretty gosh darn heavy, never mind the chug that pays off “Zyklon” or the wash that culminates 11-minute capper “Cape Wrath,” though admittedly, the latter is more about push that heft. It’s movement either way, and Heretical Bastard‘s greatest heresy might just be how convincingly invisible it makes the (yes, imaginary) lines that divide one style from another. A band on their own path, forging their own sound. If you can’t respect that, it’s your loss.
Eight years on from their well-received 2017 debut, Take Me to the Gallows, Chicagoan classic doom metallers Professor Emeritus reach pointedly into the epic with A Land Long Gone, their second record. The band’s traditionalism of form means there’s something inherently familiar about the proceedings, and certainly they’re not the only ones with an affinity for ’80s metal of various stripes these days, but in addition to being distinguished by the forward-mixed vocals of Esteban Julian Pena, the sheer weight of “Pragmatic Occlusion” and “Defeater” and the crescendo of “Kalopsia Caves” sets well alongside the graceful flow of “Zosimos” or the later, partly-acoustic “Hubris,” portraying the dynamic and sense of character brought into the material. Like Philly’s Crypt Sermon, they’re not pretending the intervening decades didn’t happen — you wouldn’t call A Land Long Gone retro, I mean — but their collective heart clearly bleeds for the classics just the same; Trouble, Candlemass, Iron Maiden. If that’s your speed, their blend of chug and soar should hit just right.
Florist know what they’re here for, and as they push through the let’s-start-with-the-universe’s-frequency “432Hz” into the modern, cavernous, riffage and nod of “Another Moon,” my brain sings a hearty fuck yes. They pack 29 minutes of rad into Adrift, their sophomore, six-songer LP, and while they’re not shy about lumber in “Grow” and the closer “Adrift (Part B),” that’s only one end of a style that’s able to move with marked fluidity across a range of tempos that, with a vibrant production, fullness of tone and hard-hit drums shoving it all, make for a refreshing take on what are unrepentantly familiar ideas. That is to say, there’s no pretense in Florist. Volume worship, riff worship, whatever you want to call it, it matters so little when the band are bashing away at “Out of Space” and hell’s bells it’s actually fun. Like, real life fun. The kind you might have with friends in a crowded room with the band on stage killing it through a set likewise heavy and intense but unashamed of the good time it’s having. Also giving, as one might a gift.
Ohio’s Paul Williams has released three ‘audio travelogues’ of the Blue Ridge Highway, with the Moog-only Under Blue Ridge Skies preceded directly by A Blue Ridge Spaceway and Our Grandfather the Mountain earlier this year. Maybe you have, and if so, that’s awesome, but to my knowledge I’ve never been on the Blue Ridge Highway, so I can’t necessarily speak to how the droney “Ghost Over a Pointed Top” or the kraut-style blips and bloops of “See Mount Mitchell” correlate to the experience of driving it. I’ll soak my ignorance in the keyboardy melancholia of “A Carolina Elegy,” which closes with evocations of past storms and forebodes of those still to come. Likewise, I’m not sure what the title “Abbott’s Fantasia” is a reference to, if anything at all, but you don’t get much more dug in than entire compositions played out on various layered, hyper-specific, probably-vintage-and-expensive-to-repair synthesizers, and it’s a kind of nerdery for which I’m very much on board.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Obviously, it’s Boris, so these aren’t just straightforward reissues. Pink is a three-sided 2LP with a box set of six more 12″s of unreleased whathaveyou, and Dronevil, the complement, has a new mix, is on vinyl for the first time, and has been retitled dronevil – example –. If you’re a collector or a fanatic — and I’m not sure Boris has casual fans — no doubt Oct. 17 will be marked on your calendar.
The underlying message I take away from this is Boris have been a big deal for a long time. Pink was part of an untouchable succession of Boris albums when it came out and is a piece of defining their legacy. If you’d asked me if that was 20 years ago, I would’ve said no way. Because I’m old.
There’s tour dates below as well. Don’t miss those. From the PR wire:
BORIS: Announce 20th Anniversary Reissues of Pink + dronevil -example-
See BORIS on tour throughout North America in October + November
Japanese experimental rock legends Boris are celebrating the 20 Year Anniversary of landmark albums Pink and dronevil with special editions of each release, incoming October 17 from Relapse.
The iconic album Pink will be available for the first time in a decade as a 20th Anniversary Reissue featuring the original CD sequence as a 2XLP for the first time ever, with an exclusive D side etching on the vinyl. Additionally, Pink will see a deluxe reissue box set with a limited edition 6XLP collection including 3 LP’s worth of unreleased music. The deluxe box set features the original vinyl version of Pink, expanded “Forbidden Tracks” from the Pink sessions, live material never before released on vinyl and previously unreleased rough mixes.
Boris’ classic album dronevil will be available for the first time since its original release; two different albums of soaring ambient space and frenetic headbanging rock n’ roll meant to be played at the same time. This new edition is a joint 2XLP mix available for the very first time on vinyl and is titled dronevil – example -.
Pre-orders are available from Relapse direct and on Bandcamp (Pink, dronevil). Stream Boris performing Pink in its entirety— Live at Shindata Fever 20160924 (from the deluxe reissue box set) here and dronevil – example – here.
Additionally, Boris will embark on a 20th Anniversary Tour this October and November in North America where Pink will be performed by the three-piece lineup from that era. The tour will feature the very setlist that once boldly repainted the map of heavy rock with its vivid sonic colors.
Watch / share “Do You Remember Pink Days?” tour teaser video
Boris, “Do You Remember Pink Days?” tour dates: Oct. 23 Solana Beach, CA — Belly Up # Oct. 24 Phoenix, AZ — Crescent Ballroom # Oct. 25 Tucson, AZ — La Rosa # Oct. 27 San Antonio, TX — Paper Tiger $ Oct. 28 Austin, TX — Mohawk $ Oct. 30 Atlanta, GA — Masquerade $ Oct. 31 Saxapahaw, NC — Haw River Ballroom $ Nov. 01 Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore $ Nov. 02 Philadelphia, PA — Union Transfer $ Nov. 04 Brooklyn, NY — Brooklyn Steel % Nov. 05 Boston, MA — Paradise Rock Club % Nov. 06 Montreal, QC — Le National % Nov. 07 Toronto, ON — Phoenix Concert Theatre % Nov. 08 Detroit, MI — St. Andrew’s Hall ^ Nov. 09 Chicago, IL — Metro ^ Nov. 11 Minneapolis, MN — Fine Line ^ Nov. 13 Englewood, CO — Gothic Theatre & Nov. 14 Salt Lake City, UT — Urban Lounge & Nov. 16 Portland, OR — Revolution Hall & Nov. 17 Seattle, WA — The Crocodile & Nov. 20 San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall Nov. 21 San Jose, CA — The Ritz Nov. 22 Los Angeles, CA — Belasco ~ Nov. 27 Santiago, CL — Club Chocolate Nov. 28 Buenos Aires, AR — El Teatrito Nov. 29 Cordoba, AR — Club Paraguay Nov. 30 Sao Paulo, BR — Fabrique Club
# with Suppression $ with Agriculture % with Uniform ^ with Bongzilla & with Cloakroom + with special guests ~ with Lack of Interest
Boris is: Takeshi: Vocals, Guitar & Bass Wata: Vocals, Guitar & Echo Atsuo: Vocals, Percussion & Electronics
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 15th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This is sooner than I thought it would be. I guess I thought I was all clever last week when the band’s signing announcement came through and I did the 30 seconds of looking into Japanese doomsters’ Hebi Katana‘s website, where it said they would release their new album, in September. Yeah, fine. July works too, though, don’t you worry.
What will be their first LP through Ripple Music, Imperfection will indeed be out in the horrendous thick of the coming climate crisis summer, and the first video from it is up now. Or down, if you’re thinking in terms of where you’re scrolling in this post to see it.
When you hear that and want more, the band’s 2023 album, III, is underneath the video. Between the two, you should have enough to go on for pre-saving or pre-ordering or pre-whatever-it-is-you-do-when-you-think-something-coming-out-is-going-to-be-cool. I can’t keep up. Also I don’t want to.
The PR wire has it like this:
Tokyo samurai doom unit HEBI KATANA share first track off upcoming new album “Imperfection”; out July 25th on Ripple Music!
Japanese doom and heavy rock powerhouse HEBI KATANA announces the release of their fourth studio album “Imperfection” this July 25th on Ripple Music and presents the haunting debut single “Dead Horse Requiem” today.
HEBI KATANA are purveyors of a one-of-a-kind fusion of wabi-sabi (Japanese traditional acceptance of transience and imperfection) and heavy doom sounds! Their 2023 album “III” was widely acclaimed in Japan and overseas.
Their upcoming fourth full-length “Imperfection” — written and recorded in parallel of a tour with the same lineup as “III” — features lyrics inspired by Matsuo Basho and Tanizaki Junichiro’s “wabi sabi” “beauty of imperfection” and “enso” based on the unique Japanese spiritual world. This new album refines their signature doom and proto-hard rock sound, merging loud roaring riffs with beaming melodies. Pulsing with sheer intensity and channeling the spirit of the 70s, their dynamics interweave doom metal weight and psychedelic expansiveness while staying true to their dark, shadowy and introspective worldview.
The trio’s chemistry shines as they balance brute force with intricate subtleties, creating a sound that feels both primal and meticulously crafted. “Imperfection” marks a bold evolution for HEBI KATANA. Every riff, groove, and vocal line reinforces their identity — a band unafraid to explore darkness while delivering pure, riff-driven power in their own right. Don’t wait to join the cult.
Formed in Tokyo in 2020, HEBI KATANA released their self-titled debut album at the end of the same year. With their authentic doom/stoner sound and dark and mellow heavy rock sound, they quickly became a cornerstone of the Japanese scene amongst enthusiasts in overseas media, establishing their sound as “Tokyo Samurai Doom”. In 2022, they released their second album “Impermanence”, welcoming Yukito Okazaki of Eternal Elysium/Studio Zen fame as the producer. A year later, they issued their third album “III”, which was distributed in Japan, as well as in Germany, Poland and the UK. The band performed relentlessly in Tokyo and major cities in Japan, appeared at the Tokyo Doom Fest, and toured in Italy, France and South America.
Hebi Katana live: May 24 SUNRIZE Tokyo, Japan May 30 20000V Tokyo, Japan May 31 Huck Finn (ハックフィン) Nagoya, Japan Jun 1 Hokage 火影 Osaka, Japan July 5 Tokyo TBA July 21 Tokyo TBA Aug 24 Tokyo TBA Sep 14 Tokyo Koiwa Bush Bash – Farewell To The Heroes Vol.5 〜HEBI KATANA 4th album ”Imperfection” Release & 35th Birthday Anniversary Party〜 Oct 18 Sapporo TBA Nov 16 TBA
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 9th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Japanese heavy rockers Hebi Katana sign to Ripple Music. The band’s next album would seem to be called Imperfection if the live dates posted on their website are anything to go by, and it will be released in September (presumably; that’s when the release show is) as the Tokyo trio’s first outing for the label.
The post also mentions Tokyo Doom Fest, which Hebi Katana will play as part of a lineup that includes Sun Moon Holy Cult, the legends Eternal Elysium, Demon and Eleven Children from China and Texas’ own Thunder Horse among many others later this month. They also have other shows to be announced for this summer in Japan.
Imperfection, if indeed the album is still called that when it gets announced through PR channels, will be the follow-up to 2023’s III, which you can stream below in its raw charge. The band were signed to Argonauta Records prior to the Ripple pickup, and with this signing announcement going out on socials yesterday, I’d expect the promo cycle to start next month in earnest; album art and details, video maybe or song premieres, leading up to the release. You might hear more about this band this summer, is what I’m saying.
So think of this as a beginning, maybe:
With Tokyo DoomFest on the near horizon (featuring our very own lads of Thunder Horse) it seems a perfect time to drop this nugget, as Ripple expands into Asia! More to come.
Please welcome the heavy riffs of Japan’s leading stoner purveyors, Hebi Katana!
Says the band: “We are so stoked to announce that we signed with Ripple Music! More updates coming soon!!”
Hebi Katana live: May 24 SUNRIZE Tokyo, Japan May 30 20000V Tokyo, Japan May 31 Huck Finn (ハックフィン) Nagoya, Japan Jun 1 Hokage 火影 Osaka, Japan July 5 Tokyo TBA July 21 Tokyo TBA Aug 24 Tokyo TBA Sep 14 Tokyo Koiwa Bush Bash – Farewell To The Heroes Vol.5 〜HEBI KATANA 4th album ”Imperfection” Release & 35th Birthday Anniversary Party〜 Oct 18 Sapporo TBA Nov 16 TBA
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Founding guitarist/vocalist Yukito Okazaki of Nagoya, Japan’s Eternal Elysium has announced a new rhythm section for the long-running doom rocker outfit. Drummer Ume and bassist Togawa comprise the refreshed incarnation of the classic-heavy-influenced trio, whose most recent offering was the 2019 live album, 末世の葬礼 贰 现场 (The Last Days of the Funeral 2: Live), released through Dying Art Productions. Eternal Elysium had been working with Ukrainian imprint Robustfellow on a couple of catalog reissues as well, and the band’s most recent studio LP is Resonance of Shadows (review here), which first saw release in 2016 on Cornucopia Records before Headspin Records pressed it as a 2LP the next year.
Okazaki talks about working on new (and old) material for gigs in Japan later this year, and of course the prospect of the next Eternal Elysium LP — it’d be their seventh; how nobody has reissued 2000’s Spiritualized D is a mystery in my head — is an exciting one, whenever, if ever, such a thing might surface. Either way, a check-in from the band is an excuse to put on the live record, and I’ll take it happily.
Here’s the announcement from socials. Pretty straightforward:
ETERNAL ELYSIUM Relaunched with new members.
Drummer is a friend Ume.
Carrying the groove of Eternal again after great experience and practice.
The bassist is Togawa from Azarak.
FROM BOTTOM TO COLOR WE CREATE WITH A CERTAIN TOUCH.
And me Okazaki.
This dependable rhythm section helped me out again the sound of Eternal Elysium.
Now I’m rehearsing for my first live show in a while. Getting some fun with some new and old intertwined songs, getting them done little by little.
Two live shows have been decided for the year: Tokyo in October and Nagoya in December.
I’m grateful for the performance.
This will be your chance to experience the new EE sound. Details to follow.
Welcome back to the Quarterly Review. Good weekend? Restful? Did you get out and see some stuff? Did you loaf and hang out on the couch? There are advantages to either, to be sure. Friday night I watched my daughter (and a literal 40 other performers, no fewer than four of whom sang and/or danced to the same Taylor Swift song) do stand-up comedy telling math jokes at her elementary school variety show. She’s in kindergarten, she likes math, and she killed. Nice little moment for her, if one that came as part of a long evening generally.
The idea this week is the same as last week: 50 releases covered across five days. Put the two weeks together and the Spring 2024 Quarterly Review — which I’m pretty sure is what I called the one in March as well; who cares? — runs 100 strong. I’ll be traveling, some with family, some on my own, for a bit in the coming months, so this is a little bit my way of clearing my slate before that all happens, but it’s always satisfying to dig into so much and get a feel for what different acts are doing, try and convey some of that as directly as I can. If you’re reading, thanks. If this is the first you’re seeing of it and you want to see more, you can either scroll down or click here.
Either way, off we go.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
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Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers
Chicago (mostly-)instrumentalist stalwarts Pelican haven’t necessarily been silent since 2019’s Nighttime Stories (review here), with a digital live release in Spring 2020, catalog reissues on Thrill Jockey, a couple in-the-know covers posted and shows hither and yon, but the stated reason for the two-songer EP Adrift/Tending the Embers is to raise funds ahead of recording what will be their seventh album in a career now spanning more than 20 years. In addition to that being a cause worth supporting — they’re on the second pressing; 200 blue tapes — the two new original tracks “Adrift” (5:48) and “Tending the Embers” (4:26) reintroduce guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec as a studio presence alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg. Recorded by the esteemed Sanford Parker, neither cut ranges too far conceptually from the band’s central modus bringing together heavy groove with lighter/brighter reach of guitar, but come across like a tight, more concise encapsulation of earlier accomplishments. There’s a certain amount of comfort in that as they surf the crunching, somehow-noise-rock-inspired riff of “Adrift,” sounding refreshed in their purpose in a way that one hopes they can carry into making the intended LP.
Something of a harsher take on A Mortal Binding, which is the 15th full-length from UK death-doom forebears My Dying Bride, as well as their second for Nuclear Blast behind 2020’s lush The Ghost of Orion (review here. The seven-song/55-minute offering from the masters of misery derives its character in no small part from the front-mixed vocals of Aaron Stainthorpe, who from opener “Her Dominion” onward, switches between his morose semi-spoken approach, woeful as ever, and dry-throated harsher barks. And that the leadoff is all-screams feels like a purposeful choice as that rasp returns in the second half of “The 2nd of Three Bells,” the 11-minute “The Apocalyptist,” “A Starving Heart” and the ending section of closer “Crushed Embers.” I don’t know when the last time a My Dying Bride LP sounded so roiling, but it’s been a minute. The duly morose riffing of founding guitarist Andrew Craighan unites this outwardly nastier aspect with the more melodic “Thornwyck Hymn,” “Unthroned Creed” and the rest that isn’t throatripper-topped, but with returning producer Mark Mynett, the band has clearly honed in on a more stripped-down, still-room-for-violin approach, and it works in just about everything but the drums, which sound triggered/programmed in the way of modern metal. It remains easy to get caught in the band’s wretched sweep, and I’ll note that it’s a rare act who can surprise you 15 records later.
Masonic Wave‘s self-titled debut is the first public offering from the Chicago-based five-piece with Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Corrections House, Led Zeppelin II, etc.) on vocals, and though “Justify the Cling” has a kind of darker intensity in its brooding first-half ambience, what that build and much besides throughout the eight-song offering leads to is a weighted take on post-hardcore that earlier pieces “Bully” and “Tent City” present in duly confrontational style before “Idle Hands” (the longest inclusion at just under eight minutes) digs into a similar explore-till-we-find-the-payoff ideology and “Julia” gnashes through noise-rock teethkicking. Some of the edge-of-the-next-outburst restlessness cast by Lamont, guitarists Scott Spidale and Sean Hulet, bassist Fritz Doreza and drummer Clayton DeMuth reminds of Chat Pile‘s arthouse disillusion, but “Nuzzle Up” has a cyclical crunch given breadth through the vocal melody and the sax amid the multiple angles and sharp corners of the penultimate “Mountains of Labor” are a clue to further weirdness to come before “Bamboozler” closes with heads-down urgency before subtly branching into a more spacious if still pointedly unrelaxed culmination. No clue where it might all be headed, but that’s part of the appeal as Masonic Wave‘s Sanford Parker-produced 39 minutes play out, the songs engaging almost in spite of themselves.
There are shades of latter-day Conan (whose producer/former bassist Chris Fielding mixed here) in the vocal trades and mega-toned gallop of opening track “Sky Father,” which Bismarck expand upon with the more pointedly post-metallic “Echoes,” shifting from the lurching ultracrush into a mellower midsection before the blastbeaten crescendo gives over to rumble and the hand-percussion-backed whispers of the intro to “Kigal.” Their first for Dark Essence, the six-song/35-minute Vourukasha follows 2020’s Oneiromancer (review here) and feels poised in its various transitions between consuming aural heft and leaving that same space in the mix open for comparatively minimal exploration. “Kigal” takes on a Middle Eastern lean and stays unshouted/growled for its five-plus minutes — a choice that both works and feels purposeful — but the foreboding drone of interlude “The Tree of All Seeds” comes to a noisy head as if to warn of the drop about to take place in the title-track, which flows through its initial movement with an emergent float of guitar that leads into its own ambient middle ahead of an engrossing, duly massive slowdown/payoff worthy of as much volume as it can be given. Wrapping with the nine-minute “Ocean Dweller,” they summarize what precedes on Vourukasha while shifting the structure as an extended, vocal-inclusive-at-the-front soundscape bookends around one more huge, slow-marching, consciousness-flattening procession. Extremity refined.
That fact that Sun Moon Holy Cult exist on paper as a band based in Tokyo playing a Sabbath-boogie-worshiping, riff-led take on heavy rock with a song like “I Cut Your Throat” leading off their self-titled debut makes a Church of Misery comparison somewhat inevitable, but the psych jamming around the wah-bass shuffle of “Out of the Dark,” longer-form structures, the vocal melodies and the Sleep-style march of “Savoordoom” that grows trippier as it delves further into its 13 minutes distinguish the newcomer four-piece of vocalist Hakuka, guitarist Ryu, bassist Ame and drummer Bato across the four-song LP’s 40 minutes. Issued through Captured Records and SloomWeep Productions, Sun Moon Holy Cult brings due bombast amid the roll of “Mystic River” as well, hitting its marks stylistically while showcasing the promise of a band with a clear idea of what they want their songs to do and perhaps how they want to grow over time. If this is to be the foundation of that growth, watch out.
Dortmund, Germany’s Daily Thompson made their way to Port Orchard, Washington, to record Chuparosa with Mos Generator‘s Tony Reed at the helm, and the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Danny Zaremba, bassist/vocalist Mercedes Lalakakis and drummer/vocalist Thorsten Stratmann bring a duly West Coast spirit to “I’m Free Tonight” and the grunge-informed roll of “Diamond Waves” and the verses of “Raindancer.” The former launches the 36-minute outing with a pointedly Fu Manchuian vibe, but the start-stops, fluid roll and interplay of vocals from Zaremba and Lalakakis lets “Pizza Boy” move in its own direction, and the brooding acoustic start of “Diamond Waves” and more languid wash of riff in the chorus look elsewhere in ’90s alternativism for their basis. The penultimate “Ghost Bird” brings in cigar-box guitar and dares some twang amid all the fuzz, but as “Raindancer” has already branched out with its quieter bassy midsection build and final desert-hued thrust, the album can accommodate such a shift without any trouble. The title-track trades between wistful grunge verses and a fuller-nodding hook, from which the three-piece take off for the bridge, thankfully returning to the chorus in Chuparosa‘s big finish. The manner in which the whole thing brims with purpose makes it seem like Daily Thompson knew exactly what they were going for in terms of sound, so I guess you could say it was probably worth the trip.
Kicking off with the markedly Graveyardian “Hangtime,” Mooch ultimately aren’t content to dwell solely in a heavy-blues-boogie sphere on Visions, their third LP and quick follow-up to 2023’s Hounds. Bluesy as the vibe is from which the Montreal trio set out, the subsequent “Morning Prayer” meanders through wah-strum open spaces early onto to delve into jangly classic-prog strum later, while “Intention” backs its drawling vocal melody with nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and hand percussion. Divergence continues to be the order of the day throughout the 41-minute eight-songer, with “New Door” shifting from its sleepy initial movement into an even quieter stretch of Doors-meets-Stones-y melody before the bass leads into its livelier solo section with just a tinge of Latin rhythm and “Together” giving more push behind a feel harkening back to the opener but that grows quiet and melodically expansive in its second half. This sets up the moodier vibe of “Vision” and gives the roll of “You Wouldn’t Know” an effective backdrop for its acoustic/electric blend and harmonized vocals, delivered patiently enough to let the lap steel slide into the arrangement easily before the brighter-toned “Reflections” caps with a tinge of modern heavy post-rock. What’s tying it together? Something intangible. Momentum. Flow. Maybe just the confidence to do it? I don’t know, but as subdued as they get, they never lose their momentum, and as much movement as there is, they never seem to lose their balance. Visions might not reveal its full scope the first time through, but subsequent listens bring due reward.
The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that guitarist/vocalist Bobby Spender recruited bassist Loz Fancourt and drummer Harry Flowers after The Pleasure Dome‘s prior rhythm section left, ahead of putting together the varied 16 minutes of the Liminal Space EP. For what it’s worth, the revamped Bristol, UK, trio don’t sound any more haphazard than they want to in the loose-swinging sections of “Shoulder to Cry On” that offset the fuller shove of the chorus, or the punk-rooted alt-rock brashness of “The Duke Part II (Friends & Enemies),” and the blastbeat-inclusive tension of “Your Fucking Smile” that precedes the folk-blues finger-plucking of “Sugar.” Disjointed? Kind of, but that also feels like the point. Closer “Suicide” works around acoustic guitar and feels sincere in the lines, “Suicide, suicide/I’ve been there before/I’ve been there before/On your own/So hold on,” and the profession of love that resolves it, and while that’s at some remove from the bitter spirit of the first two post-intro tracks, Liminal Space makes its own kind of sense with the sans-effects voice of Spender at its core.
A solid four-songer from Birmingham’s Slump, who are fronted by guitarist Matt Noble (also Alunah), with drummer David Kabbouri Lara and bassist Ben Myles backing the riff-led material with punch in “Buried” after the careening hook of “Dust” opens with classic scorch in its solo and before the slower and more sludged “Kneel” gets down to its own screamier business and “Vultures” rounds out with a midtempo stomp early but nods to what seems like it’s going to be a more morose finish until the drum solo takes off toward the big-crash finish. As was the case on Slump‘s 2023 split with At War With the Sun, the feel across Dust is that of a nascent band — Slump got together in 2018, but this is their most substantial standalone release to-date — figuring out what they want to do. The ideas are there, and the volatility at which “Kneel” hints will hopefully continue to serve them well as they explore spaces between metal and heavy rock, classic and modern styles. A progression underway toward any number of potential avenues.
What dwells in Green Hog Band‘s Fuzz Realm? If you said “fuzz,” go ahead and get yourself a cookie (the judges also would’ve accepted “riffs” and “heavy vibes, dude”), but for those unfamiliar with the New Yorker trio’s methodology, there’s more to it than tone as guitarist/producer Mike Vivisector, bassist/vocalist Ivan Antipov and drummer Ronan Berry continue to carve out their niche of lo-fi stoner buzz marked by harsh, gurgly vocals in the vein of Attila Csihar, various samples, organ sounds and dug-in fuckall. “Escape on the Wheels” swings and chugs instrumentally, and “In the Mist of the Bong” has lyrics in English, so there’s no lack of variety despite the overarching pervasiveness of misanthropy. That mood is further cast in the closing salvo of the low-slung “Morning Dew” and left-open “Phantom,” both of which are instrumental save for some spoken lines in the latter, as the prevailing sense is that they were going to maybe put some verses on there but decided screw it and went back to their cave (presumably somewhere in Queens) instead, because up yours anyhow. 46 minutes of crust-stoned “up yours anyhow,” then.
The earliest hours of 2024 found Japanese heavy psych heads Blasting Rod traveling from their hometown of Nagoya to make their North American live debut on Jan. 6 in Los Angeles. I don’t know how long the trip ultimately was, but I’m assuming that the recordings for their new album — the forthcoming Mojave Green out June 21 on Low&Slow.Disk — were done as part of the same flyover, with Dan Joeright (Yawning Man, Big Scenic Nowhere, the Live in the Mojave Desertseries, etc.) at the helm in Gatos Trail Studio. At very least, if that were the case it would save the cost/hassle of traveling back.
Blasting Rod will celebrate and feature the release at Tokyo Doom Fest on May 11, playing alongside Hebi Katana, a solo set by Okazaki Yukito of the esteemed Eternal Elysium and others, and Mojave Green follows 2022’s Of Wild Hazel (review here) with suitably desert-hued vibing, its almost-10-minute title-track (edited for the video at the bottom of this post) veering between loose, hypnotic jamming and fuzzier, riffier push, as opener “YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash)” resolves with Sabbathian groove before the cymbal-wash finish, “Bowl of Shala” brings a more meditative aspect and “Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG Version)” closes with a funky groove led by the guitar that feels specifically in conversation with Brant Bjork.
Is it then desert rock homage made in the desert? There’s definitely that side to it, but Blasting Rod dig further into experimental noisemaking in the extended “Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing)” and are not so single-minded and are more immersive than such a supposition might imply. Perhaps homage in the sense of taking past ideas and reshaping them to suit their own exploratory purposes.
Info follows, video’s at the bottom. Deep breath before you dive in:
BLASTING ROD – ‘Mojave Green’
Releases June 21, 2024, on Low&Slow.Disk cassette tape, CD, and a limited edition of 100 on black Japanese audiophile vinyl at fine independent record dealers near you in Europe, from Dutch-based Shiny Beast mail-order, via the Blasting Rod Bandcamp site from Japan and the US, and streaming worldwide on every digital platform known to man. Some editions will include hand-printed blacklight artwork.
Recorded by Daniel Joeright at Gatos Trail Studio, Yucca Valley, California Assisted by Aaron Farinelli Mixed and Mastered by S. Shah at The Nest, Nagoya, Japan Vinyl and other editions mastered by Dave Polster at Well Made Music
‘Mojave Green’ tracklisting 1. YEA 24M (Cosmic Bash) 05:13 2. Yao Tsu (Infinity Landing) 16:24 3. Mojave Green 09:54 4. Bowl of Shala 06:05 5. Grandon the Stone Cutter (OG ver.) 07:33
S. Shah also played guitar, made other funny noises, visual art and additional recordings, conjured riffs, and scribbled words and voiced them.
Chihiro played drums and other percussion, and generally called the shots as executive producer.
Yoshihiro Yasui played whatever he wanted on bass guitar, and inspired with cause for pause.
Special thanks to Yukito Okazaki at Studio Zen, Japan・Zoe Joeright・Buddy Donner・Tom Frankot・and most importantly to our intrepid road manager, Nancy Bukowski
Video Director: Chihiro Second Unit: Yohei Yamamoto
