Three years ago, Spanish trio Kabbalah made their full-length debut with Spectral Ascent (discussed here) through Twin Earth Records (also Hellas Records on tape), and as that kind of thing will, it piqued my interest because I’m well aware of the label’s particular affinity for melody and tone. As it turned out, the three-piece offered plenty of both in a cultish aesthetic they’ll now port over to Ripple Music imprint Rebel Waves Records with their second long-player, The Omen, due out next year.

If you’re the type who notices such things, you might key in on the point that the garage/psych-focused Rebel Waves was formerly known as Rogue Wave. I’m not sure what prompted the rebrand — too close to Rogue One? — but either way the label brings Kabbalah into the company of Las Robertas, Sacred Shrines and Arcadian Child as the imprint builds its stable of acts. As you might guess, Kabbalah are the darkest of the bunch to-date.

The announcement came down the PR wire:

Spanish occult rock trio KABBALAH signs to Rebel Waves Records for new album release in early 2021.

Rebel Waves Records announce the signing of Pamplona-based occult 70s and garage rockers KABBALAH to their roster. The trio will release their new album ‘The Omen’ in early 2021, with more details to be revealed soon!

Hailing from 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.

In early 2021, KABBALAH will come 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 (drums)
Marga (bass)
Alba (guitar)

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

Kabbalah, “Abomination”

As an old friend used to say — SCENE UNITY! As someone who lives in fear of corralling even one label’s worth of bands onto a sampler, the notion of the logistics involved with Skull Mountain feels like the stuff of anxiety dreams on the part of those making it happen. And yet, the bold souls at Ripple Music, Kozmik Artifactz, Twin Earth Records and DHU Records have come together across continents to make it happen, and a 500-copies-pressed 2LP four-way label sampler split featuring all previously unreleased tracks and versions is the result. I shouldn’t have to tell you this is something special, something that doesn’t happen every day, and something that might not happen again.

And yet, it’s so emblematic of the moment in which the heavy rock underground finds itself today. Time was when labels like Ripple and Kozmik Artifactz would be too busy competing and trying to poach each other’s bands to team up on a joint multi-artist venture, and to have DHU and Twin Earth on board as well only affirms the passion and the taste at heart in what these people are doing. It’s not about who can be the biggest, or who can make the most money. It’s about love of the music and about wanting to support those who make it and, in this case, teaming up to reach as broad an audience as possible so that everyone benefits.

16 bands, four sides of two platters and one deeply, deeply admirable project, Skull Mountain releases on June 16 with preorders beginning today at the times listed in the flyer below.

Beneath that, you can see the official announcement of the release and the complete tracklisting. Kudos to everyone involved on every level in making this one happen.

From the PR wire:

Over a year in the making! Perhaps the world’s first Four-Label collaborative effort to bring together some of the best heavy psych, stoner, doom from both sides of the Atlantic. Two US-based labels, Ripple Music and Twin Earth Records, join forces with two European-based labels, DHU Records and Kozmik Artifactz to bring forth a double album of epic proportions, something so massive it could only have its own monolith, Skull Mountain.

Each Label showcases one full album side of its signature sound, each song previously unreleased or unreleased mix. The entire album mastered to perfection by Tony Reed at HeavyHead.

Inside the gatefold, Tarot cards display the four element theme of Skull Mountain with each Label represented by its own signature element, Ripple-Water; Twin Earth-Earth, DHU- Fire, and Kozmik- Air. Accordingly, each label has a limited amount of vinyl available in its own signature elemental color, Ripple-Blue, Twin Earth – Green, DHU-Red, and Kozmik- Clear

That’s right! Only 500 of these stunning 2xLP albums were pressed, with each label only having 125 in its signature color. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

An epic introduction into the worlds of North American and European heavy music. A monumental journey to Skull Mountain

Track Listing:

Side Ripple
The Watchers – Starfire (Cosmic Nebula mix)
Kingnomad – Dewer’s Hollow
Blackwulf – The Tempest (Black Tide mix)
Vokonis – Celestial Embrace

Side Twin Earth
Alastor – Blood on Satan’s Claw
Kabbalah – Abomination
Starts that Move – Give It All Away
Haunted – Crossmoth

Side D.H.U.
Disenchanter – More Evil Than Thou
Dawn – Day of the Lord
Witch Ritual – Drawing Down the Moon
Youngblood Supercult – Sticky Fingers

Side Kozmik
The Heavy Eyes – Home
Devil Electric – Devil’s Bells
Red Spektor – Devil’s Keeper
Hair of the Dog – My Only Home

Each label has 125 copies in its own color available on its own site.

www.ripplemusic.bigcartel.com/products
darkhedonisticunionrecords.bigcartel.com
http://twinearthrecords.storenvy.com
http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/

The Watchers, “Starfire” (original version) official video

Click Here to Download

It’s easy when you’re putting one of these things together to get locked into a headspace and all of a sudden everything you’re putting next to each other kind of sounds the same, kind of blurs together. I’m immensely pleased to say that’s not at all what happened this time around. The sounds throughout vary from heavy psych to rock to proggy jams to Blaak Heat who are on their own wavelength entirely to doom and space rock and so on. It flows though. I’m really happy with how it flows.

That includes the second hour, which has a couple different vibes as opposed to just the usual all-psych head-trip. Also, as you make your way through, keep in mind that a lot of this stuff is coming from debut albums. Moon Rats, Kabbalah, Eternal Black, Mindkult, The Raynbow, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree. Hell, Steak’s track is their second album, and Youngblood Supercult too, so yeah, there’s a lot of fresh stuff included from newer bands. I didn’t come into it with a plan at all. This is just how it worked out, which of course is more fun anyway.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Track details follow:

First Hour:

0:00:00 Moon Rats, “Highway Lord” from Highway Lord
0:03:36 Youngblood Supercult, “The Hot Breath of God” from The Great American Death Rattle
0:07:31 Kabbalah, “Phantasmal Planetoid” from Spectral Ascent
0:12:11 Wretch, “The Wretch” from Bastards Born
0:20:25 Steak, “Creeper” from No God to Save
0:24:28 Eternal Black, “Stained Eyes on a Setting Sun” from Bleed the Days
0:31:44 Mindkult, “Howling Witch” from Lucifer’s Dream
0:36:51 Shooting Guns, “Flavour Country” from Flavour Country
0:45:04 Endless Boogie, “Vibe Killer” from Vibe Killer
0:53:22 Blaak Heat, “Marr El Kallam” from The Arabian Fuzz 7”
0:57:55 The Grand Astoria, “The Sleeper Awakes” from The Fuzz of Destiny

Second Hour:

1:02:45 Eggnogg, “Overture / Wild Goose Chase” from Rituals in Transfigured Time – Prologue
1:16:06 Elara, “Harmonia” from Deli Bal
1:31:41 Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, “Sail Away I” from Medicine
1:45:50 The Raynbow, “Changes” from The Cosmic Adventure

Total running time: 2:01:51

Thank you for listening.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 062

Spanish garage cultists Kabbalah have newly issued their full-length debut, Spectral Ascent, via respected tone-worshiping purveyor Twin Earth Records. If you want to look at the release via a telling statistic, it’s worth noting that three of the nine component tracks contain some version of the word “dark.” Those songs, “The Darkest End,” “The Darkness of Time” and “Dark Revelation” — one might but won’t count the penultimate “The Shadow” in with the bunch as well — only serve to emphasize the thematic point that the album as a whole is making in its organic semi-psych-but-still-clearly-structured atmosphere, given to flashes of post-Uncle Acid/Ghost horror-infused melody (looking at you, “The Darkest End”) but carrying a formative identity from its titular intro through the shuffling finale “Presence.”

“The Reverend,” for which Kabbalah have a new video posted below, is the centerpiece of Spectral Ascent, and it rightly earns its place on the altar with ringing guitar from Alba, a steady and tense low end courtesy of bassist Marga and the crisp punctuation of drummer Carmen‘s snare. Like much of the record that surrounds, its hook does a lot of the work in carrying over the desired vibe, but a little double-kick from Carmen and added flourish of theremin (or a synthesized approximation thereof) lends even more classic-style weirdness to the proceedings as the Pamplona trio move through the sharply executed three-minute push en route to the boogie of the subsequent “The Darkness of Time” and continue Spectral Ascent‘s cohesive, catchy and modern take on raw heavy rock.

The clip is basically an amalgam of garnered footage from horror movies, but it gets the point of the song across one way or the other. Spectral Ascent can be streamed now in its entirety (I’ve included the Bandcamp player at the bottom of this post) and Twin Earth has vinyl available to preorder ahead of an Oct. 1 ship date. Those details follow, courtesy of the PR wire, but of course, first comes the video.

Enjoy:

Kabbalah, “The Reverend” official video

Spanish occult doom metal band KABBALAH are pleased to announce that their new album Spectral Ascent is now available via Twin Earth Records. The album is a blend of occult rock, doom and psychedelic.

Buy the album here: https://kabbalahrock.bandcamp.com/album/spectral-ascent

Pre-order the vinyl edition here: http://twinearthrecords.storenvy.com/products/20518964-kabbalah-spectral-ascent-limited-edition-clear-transparent-vinyl-lp-pre-o

Kabbalah is:
Carmen (drums)
Marga (bass)
Alba (guitar)

Kabbalah, Spectral Ascent (2017)

Kabbalah on Thee Facebooks

Kabbalah on Bandcamp

Twin Earth Records on Thee Facebooks

Twin Earth Records website