At the end of last month when the lineups were announced for Ripplefest Germany in Berlin and Köln, we found out that North Carolina’s Crystal Spiders would be making the trip abroad, and since they were going forth on their first performances in Europe, it didn’t seem unreasonable to think they’d at least make a short stint of it.

Indeed they’ll do precisely that, co-headlining on a run alongside Spanish heavy cult rockers Kabbalah, who’ll do 10 shows while Crystal Spiders accompany for seven of them, including the two nights at Ripplefest. Kabbalah reissued their 2017 debut, Spectral Ascent, through Ripple earlier this year, and in 2022 took part in Spinda Records‘ mega-compilation Grados. Minutos. Segundos. (review here), following on from their 2021 second album, The Omen (review here), which came out through Ripple imprint Rebel Waves.

As of last month, Crystal Spiders had six songs written for the follow-up to 2021’s Morieris (review here), and when that’s done, it will be their third record overall, and one assumes it’ll show up sometime in 2024. But new material on the road could certainly happen, and that’s always fun.

The PR wire sent the dates as part of an ongoing glut of Ripple-based news this week:

Occult doom rock trio KABBALAH announces co-headlining European tour with US heavy rockers CRYSTAL SPIDERS this fall!

Spanish occult doom rockers KABBALAH and US heavy rockers CRYSTAL SPIDERS are set to embark on their co-headlining European tour this fall, including appearances at Ripplefest in Berlin and Cologne.

After a remarked performance at Motocultor Festival this summer and opening slots for The Obsessed and Lucifer in Spain, all-female trio Kabbalah are back on the European roads to grace heavy and occult rock fans with their dark and magnetic spells. On this special occasion, they will be joined by their Ripple Music labelmates and fast-rising heavy rockers Crystal Spiders and will both appear at Ripplefest in Berlin and Cologne.

KABBALAH & CRYSTAL SPIDERS European tour 2023
23.11.23 FR – Paris – L’International*
24.11.23 DE – Mannheim – 7er Club*
25.11.23 DE – Berlin – Ripplefest
27.11.23 AT – Linz – Kapu
29.11.23 DE – Jena – Rosenkeller
30.11.23 DE – Gottingen – Vinyl-Reservat
01.12.23 BE – Diest – Hell
02.12.23 DE – Cologne – Ripplefest
04.12.23 FR – Chambery – Brin de Zinc*
05.12.23 FR – Toulouse – Mécanique des Fluides*
*Kabbalah only

https://www.facebook.com/Kabbalahrock
https://www.instagram.com/kabbalahband/
https://kabbalahrock.bandcamp.com/

facebook.com/crystalspidersinmymind
https://www.instagram.com/crystalspiders_/
crystalspiders.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Kabbalah, “Night Comes Near” official video

Crystal Spiders, “Septix” official video

Life takes you strange places. I’m reporting live from a bench at what I grew up calling Hershey Park — it’s now known as “Hersheypark,” if current signage is to be believed — in not-much-else-here Hershey, Pennsylvania. My wife and kid are and have been for long enough for me to set up the entire back end of this post, maybe 25 minutes or so, waiting on line for a rollercoaster called The Comet. Park opened at 11 and is slammed.

We’re here, my little family unit, because it’s the end of summer. The Patient Mrs. starts a new semester teaching this week, The Pecan goes to school for full-day kindergarten Sept. 5, so this is pretty much it for summer. Why we’re here instead of something not two and a half hours from where we live is because about 25 minutes from here, at 2PM, we’re meeting with a dog breeder to see about maybe buying a three-month-old puppy. It’s a shichon, small, doesn’t shed much or make a lot of noise. A non-dog, by some standards. Fine. If it doesn’t immediately bite my kid, we’ll probably get it. This has emotional baggage for me — shocking, I know — but it’s time to get this kid a dog, so even if it’s not this one, we’ll keep looking.

What does any of this have to do with Ripplefest Germany 2023 announcing lineups for Cologne — Köln in German — and Berlin?

Just about nothing, actually, but it’s why I’m distracted from giving you the usual spiel: “here’s a cool fest I’ll never get to see but maybe you will and we can both daydream so here you go,” so at least that’s a connection. And please don’t take my inability to focus as somehow detracting from the work Max Röbel has done in assembling lineups both representative and forward thinking from Ripple and -adjacent acts. If you need more proof of his noble mission to shake heavy rock genre norms, go check out the new Plainride. Also, good for Crystal Spiders doing a bit of travel.

These reportedly are not the only acts that will be announced for these events, but it’s a start. Here’s what the PR wire has to say about it:

RIPPLEFEST GERMANY announces first names for 2023 edition in Berlin and Cologne this fall; tickets on sale now!

The international RIPPLEFEST festival series, organized by renowned California independent label Ripple Music, returns to Germany this fall with two unmissable events! Ripplefest Berlin and Ripplefest Cologne promise a musical experience of the highest caliber for fans of Stoner, Doom, and Heavy Psychedelic Rock.

Ripple Music, a label known for its specialization in heavy rock sounds, aims to promote emerging talents from the international heavy rock underground and bring together fans and bands from all over the globe. Dubbing their own festival series “Ripplefest”, the record label has been organizing showcase events for years, in cities such as Austin, San Francisco, London, Nantes, Stockholm, Cologne and Berlin.

The organizer of both Ripplefests is Max Röbel, frontman of Cologne’s heavy rock band Plainride and Head of A&R Europe for Ripple Music. About curating the festival, he says: “Creating a platform for music beyond the mainstream and being able to showcase it with such international lineups is a matter dear to my heart. These festivals are meant to be both a meeting place and a stepping stone for our acts, which is why I am particularly excited that with Kabbalah, Crystal Spiders, and Daevar, we once more have three bands with exceptionally strong frontwomen, on this year’s lineup.”

RIPPLEFEST BERLIN 2023
November 25th at Roadrunner’s Paradise
Buy tickets (20€): https://ripplefest.de/berlin.html
Facebook event: https://facebook.com/events/s/ripplefest-berlin-2023/987568972444269/

❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock
❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock
❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock
❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock

RIPPLEFEST COLOGNE 2023
December 2nd at Club Volta
Buy tickets (20€): https://ripplefest.de/berlin.html
Facebook event: https://facebook.com/events/s/ripplefest-cologne-2023/1301970177360757/

❱ MOTHER’S CAKE (DE) Stoner rock
❱ KABBALAH (SP) Occult rock
❱ FIRE DOWN BELOW (BE) Stoner rock
❱ CRYSTAL SPIDERS (USA) Doom rock
❱ APPALOOZA (FR) Heavy tribal rock
❱ CANNABINEROS (DE) Stoner rock
❱ DAEVAR (DE) Stoner doom

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Mother’s Cake, Studio Live Session (2022)

With this, the track-by-track series for Spinda Records‘ massive, 24-bands-on-12-split-7-inches box set Grados. Minutos. Segundos., comes to an end. The fourth and final shipment has gone out, carrying three more splits, and while one wouldn’t want to accuse the label of playing favorites, there’s no doubt that the idea of “finishing strong” was a factor here, as Kabbalah, Arenna, Battosai, Pyramidal, Híbrido and Here the Captain Speaking, the Captain is Dead come together for the last installment.

It’s been an honor — and yes, I mean that — to host this series. I’ve said on three prior occasions now the incredible amount of respect I have for the project. It’s not just a compilation of bands, though it’s certainly that too, and an expansive one at that. It’s a celebration with exclusive material of a generation of the Spanish underground happening at a, at the, perfect moment for that underground itself, which has proven its vitality and creative individuality across the entire collection. It is not the kind of thing that happens every lifetime, and while I don’t know the plans of Spinda Records and honcho Berto Cáceres in this regard, he’s said no re-pressing will happen, so it might actually be once in that lifetime. If you got one, consider yourself lucky.

Past installments in this series are here and here and here. Thanks to Cáceres for facilitating on all, here’s the track-by-track for part four and the stream of the whole thing:

Purchase here: https://spindarecords.com/grados-minutos-segundos

After 18 stops, his trip to the deepest underground scenes in Spain called ‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’ comes to an end with another 6 bands such as Battosai, Pyramidal, Híbrido, Kabbalah, Arenna and Here the Captain Speaking, the Captain Is Dead.

‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’ is a no-return trip around the four cardinal points of the deepest underground music scenes in Spain. Thanks to a boxset full of previously unreleased tracks of 24 indie Spanish bands you’ll have the chance to understand how’s the sound of this new generation of independent musicians. You don’t want to be told about it, you want to be part of it.

Grados. Minutos. Segundos. Track-by-Track Pt. 4

BATTOSAI – “Auténtico”:

We don’t usually have many songs with a mid-tempo beat. That’s why when we were writing, the tempo itself was the key and everything was built around it. On the other hand, we wanted to play around an ambiguous chord progression, typical of that sound coming from Seattle in the ’90s. When it comes to lyrics, it’s all about the idea of “no one is authentic enough”. It talks about how hard it is to follow your own path and stick to your convictions with so many things influencing you on a daily basis, such as society, family, friends, traditions, religion… It’s easy to feel some kind of pressure, start even feeling fear of being alone or in some way different, and becoming somebody you don’t want to be.

BATTOSAI – “Entiéndeme”:

It was one of the first songs of the band and it ended up in this project. It collects the essence of Battosai, being the type of music that comes very naturally when rehearsing. It’s a fast song, with vocal dynamics between verse and chorus. As for the lyrics, it talks about those folks who want to convince you of something you don’t want for their own benefit.

PYRAMIDAL – “Cosmic Song”:

This is our journey back. After a few years traveling aimlessly through inhospitable landscapes, we finally found the ship that will take us back home. But before embarking on our journey we will have to face all kind of demons and evil creatures from outer space. Despite everything, we managed to escape from there alive and get our spacecraft off the ground. We don’t know where it will take us and what new galaxies we will encounter along the way, we only know for sure that it will keep the cosmic sound alive.

HÍBRIDO – “Lale”:

This track is a tribute to the mother of one of our guitarists, that’s why the track is called “Lale”, just her name. It’s part of our original track-list, but not part of our first full album. This song emerges from the darkest and most beautiful ideas of his son, bringing subtle guitar harmonies, flowing with smooth beats and increasing the strength and rage, all according to her path in life and way of living. A precious ode, full of influences.

KABBALAH – “Dead Eyes”:

This song guides the listener through the dimly illuminated world of a passing soul. Close to the moment of death and at the gates of the underworld, dead eyes can only assume an approaching darkness and sense what may lie afterwards. Even if we don’t know for sure the fate of the song’s particular soul, the ominous bridge before the last chorus points towards a gloomy afterlife where there’s no possible “requiescat in pace”.

ARENNA – “Οιδίπους 70º30´S (cuidaos del enigma)”:

This song is the first one we’ve written after the release of our last album ‘Given to Emptiness’. It was recorded specifically for this compilation in 2021. When it comes to lyrics, we do prefer to leave it to your own interpretation. There are also a couple of new features as we sing in Spanish for the first time and we felt in love (after a 15-year break) with our old fuzz pedals.

HERE THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING, THE CAPTAIN IS DEAD – “Asymmetric Sequence”:

This is a track that we recorded live, without overdubs or post-editing. It’s a jam that flows like a river and develops with smooth transitions that vary in cadence and dynamics, an invitation to dance relaxed, do not forget to look at the stars while you do…”

Spinda Records on Facebook

Spinda Records on Instagram

Spinda Records on Bandcamp

Spinda Records website

Pamplona harvesters of cultish melody Kabbalah release their new single ‘Dead Eyes’ as part of Spinda Records‘ comprehensive celebration of the Spanish heavy underground, Grados. Minutos. Segundos., which for the past year now has been pairing acts from the label’s home country/scene across a series of 7″ releases offered in installment batches of three and building toward a box set ultimately featuring 24 bands. Kabbalah join together with Híbrido on their split, which is a not insignificant pairing whether we’re talking on terms of common geography or not.

“Dead Eyes” is a sub-three-and-a-half-minute, hook-laden riffer following the philosophy that anything worth saying is worth saying in harmony. Its verses speak with mystic urgency and its chugging chorus effectively burrows hole in your brain as a place to dwell. There’s some atmosphere thrown in, clearly Kabbalah are keeping the texture in line structurally, and doing so in a manner consistent with early-2021’s The Omen (review here), which came out through Ripple Music offshoot Rebel Waves Records while also all the more suitable for the format that Grados. Minutos. Segundos. puts it on. It’s a single, after all. It should make an impression.

It speaks as well to the classic-heavy ideology on which Kabbalah build their aesthetic foundation, though even in their most ’70s-ish moments, their sound remains wholly modern. If you didn’t hear the last record, “Dead Eyes” — paired in the lyric video below with a still from John Carpenter’s ultra-classic They Live — gives a sampling as only a standalone track could. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself clicking play again when it’s over.

I have been doing my darnedest to keep up with Grados. Minutos. Segundos. as each chapter of the box set has been unveiled, with premieres like this one as well as track-by-tracks from the bands involved, and I’ve professed before that my reason for doing so is I believe deeply in Spinda‘s obvious passion, as well as the sheer scope and ambition in making it happen — never mind coordinating and releasing across 2020-2022. This is — and I’m sure I’ll say again before the series is done — something special to behold.

Enjoy “Dead Eyes”:

Kabbalah, “Dead Eyes” track premiere

Kabbalah on “Dead Eyes”:

The song ‘Dead eyes’ guides the listener through the dimly illuminated world of a passing soul.

Close to the moment of death and at the gates of the underworld, dead eyes can only assume an approaching darkness and sense what may lie afterwards.

Even if we don’t know for sure the fate of the song’s particular soul, the ominous bridge before the last chorus points towards a gloomy afterlife where there’s no possible Requiescat In Pace.

BOXSET FOR SALE AT:
https://spindarecords.bandcamp.com/album/grados-minutos-segundos

“Dead Eyes”, track extracted from ‘Grados. Minutos. Segundos.’, a compilation boxset by Spinda Records.

This track is part of a split vinyl record together with Spanish band Híbrido.

Music & Lyrics by Kabbalah
Recorded and mixed by Guillermo Fernández Mutiloa at MOTU Estudios (Spain)
Mastered at Vacuum Mastering (Spain)

Artwork by The Braves Church.

Various Artists, Grados. Minutos. Segundos. (2022)

Kabbalah on Facebook

Kabbalah on Instagram

Kabbalah on Bandcamp

Spinda Records on Facebook

Spinda Records on Instagram

Spinda Records on Bandcamp

Spinda Records website

This is a good show. It’s telling that Ripple Music can pick out a spot in a country like France, Germany or Sweden — not to mention any number of US locales — and say, yeah, let’s do a festival there, and have enough bands in the area to fill out a lineup. And I guess what it tells you is the label has a lot of bands associated with it, but also that Cali-based Ripple‘s international reach has continued to grow, and as much as it seems like they got a package deal at Costco on bands from Texas, they can still piece together a two-dayer like this and have it be a killer and diverse-sounding group of acts playing.

Incidentally, the Costco Texas-band unit pricing is sick. Just kidding, Texas. But they do breed ’em riffy down there.

Also in France, it seems. Also pretty much everywhere. Whatever else you might say about this time — plenty — never doubt you’re living in a golden age of heavy rock. Ripple Music has become a big part of why.

From the PR wire:

First edition of stoner and doom festival RIPPLEFEST FRANCE announced on March 18-19th in Nantes; tickets available now!

Ripple Music presents the first edition of RippleFest France, the stoner and doom festival to take place on March 18-19th at Le Michelet in Nantes, with Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel, The Necromancers, Stonebirds, Kabbalah, Appalooza, Tremor Ama, Fire Down Below, Electric Jaguar Baby and Birds Of Nazca.

After California, England, Germany and Sweden, US stoner and doom powerhouse Ripple Music is treating French heavy rock aficionados with the first edition of RippleFest France. This celebration of the genre will feature bands from the Ripple roster, as well as a fine selection of French and European acts. On site, festival-goers will be able to enjoy local artists, homemade catering as well as merchandising throughout the weekend. The stunning artwork designed by Wild Horse Artwork will also be available for purchase!

RippleFest France
18-19th March 2022 at Le Michelet
1 boulevard Henry Orrion, Nantes (FR)
Day pass: 15€ // Weekend pass: 28€

Join the official event: https://www.facebook.com/events/5041887175830741
Tickets: https://yurplan.com/event/RIPPLE-FEST-FRANCE-2022-Le-Michelet-Nantes/79489#/

FRIDAY 18th MARCH
Los Disidentes Del Sucio Motel – (post-rock/prog rock – Strasbourg)
Appalooza (heavy rock – Brest)
Tremor Ama (stoner rock – Paris)
Electric Jaguar Baby (fuzz duo – Paris)

SATURDAY 19th MARCH
The Necromancers (heavy rock – Poitiers)
Fire Down Below (stoner rock – Ghent)
Kabbalah (doom rock – Pampelune)
Stonebirds (sludge/post-metal – Brest)
Birds Of Nazca (heavy psych rock – Nantes)

https://www.facebook.com/events/5041887175830741
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://www.instagram.com/ripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Los Disidentes del Sucio Motel, Polaris (2021)

I was pretty late turning in the playlist for this episode. Not as late as I could’ve been, mind you, but late enough. It kind of got away from me, as will happen from time to time with… everything, I guess. But I got it done and decided against doing a voice track to go with it because I didn’t want to take the extra time from the engineer, a nice guy named Henry who puts up with my late ass on the regular, when he has other stuff to work on. Plus, there’s some good flow to these tracks and I don’t need to screw that up sounding like a doofus, so yeah.

A couple of tracks from the upcoming Heavy Psych Sounds stuff — Cosmic Reaper and Acid Mammoth. You’ll note too the new Monolord single “I’m Staying Home” opens the thing. Kudos to those guys on being topical, even if the track was recorded in 2019. And then we do some long songs in the middle and get heavy and aggro at the end, just to change it up a little bit. Keep things lively some 51 episodes in. Still can’t tell you how flabbergasted I am Gimme has let this go on so long. I’m just gonna ride it out and see where it goes, like I do.

Thanks for listening and/or reading. Hope you dig the show if you check in.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.22.20

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 5 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

[Click play above to stream Kabbalah’s The Omen in its entirety. Album is out Jan. 15 on Rebel Waves Records.]

Though they’ve been brewing potent etherealities in the Kingdom of Navarre for the better part of a decade, it was not until 2017 that Spanish trio Kabbalah made their full-length debut with Spectral Ascent. That album, released through Twin Earth Records, solidified the first-name-only — Alba on vocals and guitar, Marga on bass, Carmen on drums — three-piece’s approach around classic proto-heavy and cult rock, not quite bent as closely to pop as Ghost, but ready and able with a waiting supply of hooks for those willing to be indoctrinated. The Omen is the follow-up. Its eight tracks arrive through Ripple imprint Rebel Waves Records without pretense — which is no small feat considering the inherent theatricality of the witchy, be-robbed aesthetic — and run a tight-knit 29 minutes, showcasing growth in melody and construction generally while digging further into a classic-minded near-doom style of heavy rock, most typified by the ’70s tapes of Pentagram but by no means exclusive to that or strictly vintage in sound.

Unlike the first LP, there is no intro on The Omen, which begins with the creeper riff of your fuzzy Halloween daydreams, set to an immediately accessible pace that tells you plenty but still only a piece of what you need to know about the record that ensues. At 3:57, lead cut “Stigmatized” is second in length only to closer “Liturgy,” which is the only song here over four minutes long. Kabbalah are traditionalists in structure, and though their cultish take draws on the heavy ’70s as it almost invariably would, their tones are not purely vintage and particularly the manner in which vocal melodies/harmonies are layered is a giveaway of their modernity. Not that they’re trying to hide it. Rather, these melodies, beginning in “Stigmatized” but perhaps even more so in the catchier second track “Ceibas,” become a crucial aspect of the band’s approach. I don’t know if it’s only Alba singing or if Marga or Carmen add their voices, but as The Omen begins to unfold, the vocals help set the atmosphere no less than any of the other instruments being played, even the church organ that takes hold as the first track fades out ahead of the grungy-strummed start of the second.

So if the first song establishes the mood and the second reaffirms the trio’s penchant for hookmaking, its chanting final chorus likewise peppered with organ lines and vocal bounce, then the subsequent “Night Comes Near” brings a greater sense of complexity in progression and arrangement, vocal parts woven over each other in a pace that’s deceptive only for how unhurried it actually is while sounding more intense and busier than the previous two songs. As side A finishes with “The Ritual,” the fuzz thickens, the bell ride tolls your march, and the flow resimplifies without giving up the impression of a proggy undertone. The guitar solo is short but effective and sets a bed for the vocals to rejoin the apex of the song in a chorus return, bringing to light the sheer efficiency of Kabbalah‘s work here. It’s not that they’re restrained in some way, just that they’ve come to a place of knowing what they want these songs to do — or sounding that way, anyhow — and making them do that. Lessons understood from prior experience; this is why it can take a band five years to put out a debut album and several more for a follow-up. Because there’s genuine growth taking place.

“Lamentations” begins side B with the bulk of its first minute dedicated to a gradually unfolding riff, but when the drums kick in, they’re double-timed on the hi-hat to bring some feeling of urgency, even if the following first verse oozes out smoothly in dynamic, harmonized fashion. A play on structure, “Lamentations” doesn’t have a chorus as such, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do in leading off the second half of the record with a purpose that mirrors that of “Stigmatized” at the outset. It’s not quite Kabbalah looking to knock their listener off balance — which they never really do — but hinting that the whole story of The Omen hasn’t yet been told. Distant echoes in the verses “Labyrinth” and a more forward chorus would seem to confirm this, making the track a highlight in the process as it willfully marches into highlight bass tone at its pulled-apart finish. Feedback. Darker atmospherics. Still, Kabbalah aren’t offering any drama that feels unearned by the music itself, and in traditional LP form, the penultimate “Duna” returns the album to ground ahead of the aforementioned finale in “Liturgy.”

In another context one might call “Duna” a kind of heavy post-rock, but after its first minute, a weightier riff serves as a kind of instrumental chorus and offsets the garage doom of the verse before they make the interesting turn of finishing the track without a final return to that same verse. It’s too short to really be a jam, but Alba‘s guitar is tasked with leading the outward movement of “Duna,” which it does ably, bringing the song to a close ahead of the actual march rhythm that begins “Liturgy” and the guitar, bass and drums soon join. More spacious in the guitar and vocals initially, “Liturgy” does have a kind of chanting verse, but it never quite gives up that beginning rhythm, which of course doubles as an ending for the record after the closing solo finishes. Even there, Kabbalah‘s melodic intent holds firm and is the essential component.

It’s not, however, the only one to which due attention has been paid, and the recording — the production style — of The Omen helps too in bringing a vitality that underscores the songwriting shown throughout. Kabbalah emerge somewhat out of place and out of time, but no more than they would seem to want to be, and there is no point at which their devotionalism overwhelms their craft. A burgeoning individuality holds further promise for growth, but one would be remiss not to note the confidence and righteous poise with which this material is — still organically — delivered.

Kabbalah, “Ceibas” official video

Kabbalah on Facebook

Kabbalah on Instagram

Kabbalah on Bandcamp

Rebel Waves Records on Facebook

Rebel Waves Records BigCartel store

Rebel Waves Records on Bandcamp

Because of general cultural ignorance on my part, I had to look up what a ‘ceiba’ is. If you’re curious, it’s a species of tree considered sacred by some in Mayan culture — a kind of tree of life, but one connected to the underworld. If you’re thinking Yggdrasil from Norse mythology, you’re not too far off-base, but ceiba-as-world-tree is older by a couple millennia. That’s what I learned on the internet today. Well that and some stuff about Star Trek, anyhow. Alright.

Kabbalah‘s new record runs as a taut 29-minute/eight-song cultish mass, thoroughly modern in melody and tonal presence, but given an edge of folkanalia just the same. Its longest song is closer “Liturgy” at 4:14 and at no point does The Omen waste the band’s time or the listener’s. If you can’t appreciate that, surely the uptempo push of “Ceibas” or the animated day-in-the-life-of-Death video that accompanies its unveiling will hook you. If not, well, thanks for reading anyhow.

For everyone else, album preorders are up for The Omen ahead of a Jan. 15 release.

Plant a tree:

Occult rock trio KABBALAH to release new album ‘The Omen’ on January 15th via Rebel Waves Records; watch spooky animated video “Ceibas” now!

Pamplona-based occult rockers KABBALAH unveil all details about their sophomore album ‘The Omen’, to be released on January 15th, 2021 through Rebel Waves Records. On this occasion, the trio debuts their ritualistic and colorful “Ceibas” video.

“Ceibas is about how evil and destructive human behavior is to the Earth, and the video walks you through the song and the lyrics wonderfully” describes the band.

Hailing from Pamplona in the north of Spain, KABBALAH was formed on the ashes of local outfit Las Culebras, looming in the dark, esoteric realms of witchcraft and closed door arts. The trio started a prolific cycle of music by self-releasing three EPs (‘Kabbalah’, ‘Primitive Stone’ and ‘Revelations’) between 2013 and 2016, progressing to their 2017 debut album ‘Spectral Ascent’. With their garage-sounding, 70s-style hard rock and Coven–inspired occult atmospheres draped over the bones of Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult, the Spanish power trio has been well received among followers of the darkest sounds.

On new album ‘The Omen’, KABBALAH affirm this unique way of theirs to turn their 70s rock influences into a craft of their own: while the guitar and bass twirl around like on a haunted carousel, the trio sprinkles all eight tracks with a subtle Spanish folk and western vibe while keeping the heaviness intact. An unwaveringly creative, enigmatic and spellbinding album that has chances to quickly enter your 2021 favorites list!

‘The Omen’ is out on January 15th, 2021 on Rebel Waves Records and available to preorder as:
– LTD edition vinyl pressed on bone colored vinyl with gold and black splatter
– Black vinyl
– LTD edition digipack
– Digital

KABBALAH New album “The Omen”
Out January 15th, 2021 on Rebel Waves Records
PREORDER NOW

TRACK LISTING:
1. Stigmatized
2. Ceibas
3. Night Comes Near
4. The Ritual
5. Lamentations
6. Labyrinth
7. Duna
8. Liturgy

In the winter of 2021, KABBALAH are coming back to life with their sophomore full-length ‘The Omen’, an occult rock grimoire where sticky melodies, funerary riffs and liturgy vocals come together as an impressive and infectious breed of 70s heavy, doom and psych. It will be released through US independent label REBEL WAVES RECORDS, Ripple Music’s imprint for all things psychedelic, alt-rock, pop, post-punk and garage. Keep your eyes peeled for more info about ‘The Omen’ will come your way soon!

KABBALAH is:
Carmen Espejo — Drums/vocals
Marga Malaria — Bass/vocals
Alba DDU — guitar/vocals

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https://www.instagram.com/kabbalahband/
https://kabbalahrock.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Rebelwavesrecords/
http://www.rebelwavesrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://rebelwavesrecords.bandcamp.com/

Kabbalah, “Ceibas” official video