Posted in Reviews on January 31st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Before Show
Did some driving around in the afternoon. Adam took me up and out of town into the mountains where the views were insane. I’m an idiot for that kind of stuff. It was jawdropping. Back east, all of our mountains are water-weathered. Here it’s wind erosion, and younger plate-tectonics, and it’s a totally different thing. All of a sudden there’s just a billion-year-old layer of rock jutting up out of the ground, and it’s a novelty for me, so yeah, I dug the ride.
Side note: listened to most of the last Queens of the Stone Age record on the way back, and didn’t hate it.
Tonight’s show is the Ripple Music showcase. Five bands — Kaiser, Wolftooth, Freedom Hawk, The Devil and the Almighty Blues headlining, and Paralyzed closing the night — all of whom, of course, are signed to the label. Like last night, it’s majority haven’t-seen-before for me, as I’ve yet to catch Kaiser, Wolftooth or Paralyzed, but I’ll tell you that knowing what’s coming from both Freedom Hawk and The Devil and the Almighty Blues does not lessen my anticipation for their sets. It’s gonna be a good night.
I was pretty done by the time The Quill were yesterday, and part of that I think was because I played it dumb on food. Today will be better, and by that I mean I brought a protein bar to the venue so I’ll have something to consume beyond calm-the-fuck-down-why-are-you-terrified-of-everything weed gummies, gum, and the free water that is so graciously available with little paper cones and everything at either side of the bar at The Usual Place. Will it make all the difference? I guess we’ll see when Paralyzed are finished how I feel about the prospect of sorting photos before bed. I am less tired than I was yesterday. O, that fresh mountain air.
I was in time for The Devil and the Almighty Blues’ soundcheck — I love a soundcheck lately — and thusly was gifted prescience of groove to come, which naturally I appreciated. A quiet tension in the room, then loud volume. More water in paper cones. Heck yes, thank you.
Follows here the night, as it happened from wherever I was standing, be it figuratively or literally. Or sitting, if we want to be honest. The caveats on typos (I’ll fix them sometime in the next however-many years; I fixed one from 2011 today) and flexible tenses apply. Time is weird when you’re thinking of a thing after it’s happened while it’s still happening. That processing in the moment. Anyway, onward:
Kaiser
One of my most anticipated bands of the fest, and I don’t think I was alone. They pulled an early crowd that knew what it was coming for, and delivered with vigor and tone, launching a groove that may indeed roll through the rest of the evening. Their soundcheck had also been killer, but they hit it harder in the set, as one would, and they put them over the top in my mind. Fest auteur John Gist had them out here in the Beforetimes, but I’m not that cool so wasn’t here for that, though it felt pretty cool to be here for this anyway. “Is Vegas awake?” We are now, man. They came all the way from Finland just to put boot to ass. Volume and force, and I guess I haven’t seen live video of them yet because they had more energy than I was knew was coming, which I’m not complaining about, but the nod was also elephantine, so the fact that they were making it move and moving with it made them all the more infectious, before you get to the good time they seemed to be having and the songs being right on. Not hard to see why John would bring them back, or how they would end up on Ripple. It’s by being really good, in case that wasn’t clear.
Wolftooth
Signed to Ripple for last Fall’s Wizard’s Light, Indiana’s Wolftooth brought together heavy tones with metallic precision and spot on vocal melody; that thread from last night for sure continues this evening, and it was all the more enjoyable to watch Wolftooth unite decades of rock and metal for it. “Valhalla” was a highlight, and some of the newer songs had me kicking myself for having not yet reviewed the album, but more than my punk rock guilt, what Wolftooth’s set underscored was the band’s utter mastery of their approach. And part of why I persist in thinking of them as a metal band is because their execution is so precise and their sound so crafted and hammered out feeling. Also the gallop. Also Iron Maiden. The guitar and bass tones were warmer live, but they don’t strike as a band who are leaving things to chance onstage or off. They hit it like pros, with chemistry and dynamic, soaring vocals and thrust to match. It’s debatable whether they’ll be the fastest band of the weekend — you’d have to sit down and take bpm averages against The Atomic Bitchwax, amd I have neither the technology nor time — but they’ve got the songs to change it up, as “Wizard’s Light” did, and the room was accordingly swept into it.
Freedom Hawk
The Virginian contingent never disappoint. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Freedom Hawk over the years, but let’s have fun and call it “several-plus,” and they’ve never not satisfied. Consistent, and they made sense coming off of Wolftooth, since they also have a penchant for classic metal, though the balance is different. But that’s part of what Planet Desert Rock Weekend does so well, is bring together a lineup that is more than an assemblage of cool names or whoever has a new record out (nothing against that, mind you) but that has a narrative to the flow created from band to band, elements that tie together and/or distinguish, like Freedom Hawk. How’re you gonna come up against “Blood Red Sky?” “Solid Gold?” “Indian Summer?” Why would you? I didn’t know this but it’s their 20th anniversary this year and I think month, which is wild to conceive, but fair enough. Like Wolftooth, they knew what the fuckles they were doing, and while they sounded bigger than I’ve ever heard them coming through The Usual Place’s P.A., and it suited them well. I have probably said this before, but Freedom Hawk is a band you could watch any night of the week and they’ll make your day better. They tore it up for Friday night at Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI, and I was right during Kaiser; groove is the thread for the night. Somebody farted just as they were starting “Indian Summer.” Real life, folks. Stay tuned for more gritty reportage.
The Devil and the Almighty Blues
What to do when the band’s soundcheck was already a high point of the night? Well, you stick around for the set, dumbass. Pretty easy answer, actually. And The Devil and the Almighty Blues were very much the answer. Truth be told, I was already looking forward to this when I saw them last summer at Freak Valley in Germany (review here). That was a considerably larger space than this one, with the Rockpalast cameras going and such, and this is the most intimate setting for me yet. That they would take ownership of the stage wasn’t in question, as the Norwegian five-piece have done that every time I’ve seen them (this is my fourth; no, that doesn’t make me cool, but it has made me a fan), but I was curious how some of the moodier moments would go over with a crowd that’s been partying for the four hours prior. Turns out a party where sometimes you feel feelings is still a party. I’m pleased to report they did just fine, but which I mean the set was incredible, thanks. Like Freedom Hawk, they had volume on their side, and their tones, so classy and warm, lost none of their heart for it. Vocalist Arnt O. Andersen managed to find — or maybe he brought one from an extensive wardrobe thereof — a robe in which to cloak himself, and with rare charisma, he held down center stage while the band recast the history of heavy blues in their image. It felt like they were doing the genre favors. Very much a headliner set. I expected no less, got more than I expected.
Paralyzed
German rockers Paralyzed were supposed to open the show according to the original plan for the evening, but they wound up closing owing to a canceled flight or somesuch. The point is they made it, and people were glad to see them setting up gear. Classic rock carried over from The Devil and the Almighty Blues like Freedom Hawk carried over metal from Wolftooth, like Kaiser setting a high bar early and everyone holding up their end of the bargain while each doing something of their own. My first time seeing Paralyzed, but I had high hopes nonetheless. Their records have always had such an aspect of performance to them, but of course persona comes through bigger live. They had the classic rock, but they also had blues, and they were still their own thing. That’s what I’m talking about. The whole night has a flow from one to the next, and sometimes it’s blatant and sometimes you have to squint a little but it’s always there. I think about Paralyzed if they had started the night as intended — Kaiser would’ve inherited ‘brash’ — and it would’ve flowed differently, but the way it’s ended up, with Paralyzed using travel frustration as fuel, capping the show with a current of energy that would’ve certainly worked at the start of the night, makes a whole lot of sense too. So I suppose what I’m trying to tell you is I’m lucky to be in this room, to spend my time the way I do — here and at home — and it feels really good to know that while my head is being blasted out by Paralyzed’s next hard boogie strut. Thanks John Gist.
After Show
Man, night two went down smooth. From Kaiser on, not a dud set in the bunch. Paralyzed making it at the end was the perfect finish. A welcome reminder that sometimes things work out. God damn I needed this trip.
Can I tell you I thought I’d hate that Queens record? It was hyper-produced, as it would have to be, but I wasn’t mad about it. The one before was so forgettable. I’ll have to give it a real shot, which I guess means close a week with it at some point.
I stayed till the end tonight too. The crowd thins out — reasonable; it’s late and I don’t know the average age in the room, but would guess conservatively it’s north of 30 — but the bands still bring it. If these were full-day events, no way would I be able to hang out until 1AM. As it is here, it’s doable. It works.
Night two, just about everybody who’s gonna know each other does, and folks are way friendly. I’m pretty sure I’m the biggest asshole in the photo pit.
And speaking of, I could probably do it tonight, but I’m still leaving photo sorting for the morning. Good night. Thanks for reading.
Posted in Features on December 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]
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Terrible year, good music. Not the first time that’s happened. Look anywhere in the world and there’s unrest to be found. I have started this paragraph three separate times now with some discussion of my country’s willful embrace of corporate, christian nationalist fascism, and each time have had to go back and restart, because by the time you’re done asking “what’s the point of anything?” you realize you don’t have an answer to that question. Better not to ask.
But in what has unquestionably been the dumbest 12 months I’ve lived through as regards the outside world has made a salve of human creativity, and as our techbro-warlord fiefdoms are laid out and generative AI is pushed in place of human artistry — the two could coexist, easily, just not in a world this stupid — making art whether it’s overtly political or not feels more like resistance against a cultural numbing out than it ever has in my 44 years.
We celebrate the human spirit, then, when we celebrate human creativity. The nonphysical part of ourselves and the connections we make across land, space and time through various forms of art and expression. I believe artificial intelligence can have a place in this world, I just wish I could convince it to empty the dishwasher.
Music holds us together. Or to be more honest, it holds me together. On these days where the horrors don’t seem to end, where cruelty and unkindness are held as virtues and care is seen as a weakness, where hateful rhetoric is held as common sense, where grown-ass men roll around in big-boy pickup trucks and wave silly flags like the spoiled five-year-olds they are mentally, where we kill each other for sport, being able to immerse, to put my head somewhere else, to get away from it for just a little while, has been a gift. It is difficult to believe there was ever an optimistic vision of the future in my country. In the face of rising isolationism and kleptocratic, anticonstitutional governmental improprieties, limitless corruption, endless drudging stupidity, I see no reason for one now beyond escapism.
So in these wretched times, love all you can love. Everyone and everything. Bathe yourself in it as much as you can. Hold onto what you can hold onto, because so much else is being ripped away. We live in fear and confusion and exhaustion, but clarity exists. I find it in art and in critical thinking. My hope for you is you find it however you are able.
Below is my list of the year’s best albums. It’s my list, and it has been put together using the same criteria I always use — personal taste and what I listened to most combined with what I think were important or otherwise notable outings — and as always, there were plenty of them. No, I didn’t hear everything, and I think if I ended this post now with “this was the year of Castle Rat,” that would also be a valid way to go, so whatever your opinions are of the year or the music that filled your life from one end of it to the other, please know that this is coming from my perspective, and that while I do my best to do as much as possible, I have neither time nor interest in covering all releases all the time.
Every year, I put this post up after working on it for a week or whatever and someone invariably goes, “meh what about WHOEVER list sux” and the entire endeavor feels like a waste. Never fails. It’s become part of the ritual. I ask you please keep comments civil and allow for the possibility of other perspectives and opinions. If we can’t do that as people sharing the same divergent subculture, then you and I are no better than the monsters outside the door. And we are better, I assure you.
Thanks for reading. Here we go.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2025
**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.
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60-31
60. Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
59. Madmess, The Third Coming
58. Spawn, Light Rite
57. Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
56. Pink Fuzz, Resolution
55. Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
54. Serial Hawk, Psychic Pain
53. C.ROSS, Future Site of C.ROSS
52. Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
51. Papir, IX
50. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon
49. Bronco, Bronco
48. The Gray Goo, Cabin Fever Dreams
47. Crop, S.S.R.I.
46. Caboose, Left for Dust
45. Nuclear Dudes, Skeletal Blasphemy
44. Cavern Deep, Part III – The Bodiless
43. Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold
42. Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
41. Abanamat, Abominat
40. Margarita Witch Cult, Strung Out in Hell
39. Kungens Män, Resande i Rockmusik
38. Naxatras, V
37. Atom Juice, Atom Juice
36. Castle Rat, The Bestiary
35. Florist, Adrift
34. Earthbong, Bring Your Lungs
33. River Cult, High Anxiety
32. Messa, The Spin
31. Borracho, Ouroboros
Notes:
You might notice two of the year’s biggest releases here between 31 and 40 in Messa and Castle Rat. I’m not sure underground heavy anything has two more crucial bands happening right now. Castle Rat’s main impact and obvious priority is their live presentation, and Messa I’ve always been kind of here or there on. But looking at the year-end poll results thus far, those are names people would be missing, so I wanted to point them out specifically. There was no getting away from either in 2025.
So much to go through here. A few excellent debuts in Atom Juice, Make Money From Home, Caboose, Bronco, Bloodsports, Lorquin’s Admiral, Ikitan, Moon Destroys and so on, while strong returns from the likes of Nuclear Dudes, Papir, Serial Hawk, Rainbows Are Free, the always-welcome Borracho, Naxatras and others provided fodder for immersion across a swath of sounds and intentions of craft. Florist blindsided me, which I appreciated, and River Cult remain wholly undervalued in my mind. Kryptograf and Cavern Deep continue to grow, and Abanamat’s second record was encouragingly proggy. I found solace in Papir and Spawn, and raw physical catharsis in the thrashing heavy cybergrind of Nuclear Dudes. And of course, groove abounds.
I say the same thing every year, but if someone turned these names into the year-end poll as a top 30, I wouldn’t argue. Whether hyped or not, rocking out, navelgazing or exploring the unknown, there is so much here waiting for people to take it on. I hope you’ll see something in the above you haven’t heard yet, listen, and love it.
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30. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)
More on this one below, but Black Moon Cult‘s awaited first album, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) was unquestionably a standout in the realm of heavy psychedelic rock, and set the Toledo, Ohio-based trio off on a course of exploration that could be shimmering and progressive or rife with terrestrial groove. And the vocals, not always, but sometimes, reminded me of Death if they were a stoner band crossed with Fu Manchu. Most of all, the vibe-heavy six-songer declared Black Moon Cult as one to watch going forward, and the heavy underground took note accordingly.
Inarguable riffing met with grunge overtones, an overarching heavygaze melodicism and increasingly tight songwriting, yes, Sub Rosa is a step along the way in the narrative of Daevar‘s forward growth, but it sure felt like a landmark in that process. A bit of Type O Negative in “Siren Song” and a bit more explosiveness there and throughout underscored the murky doom for which the German outfit are known, and the key influences are still there, Windhand, Monolord, and so on, but Daevar have been shaping their sound over the course of their albums to arrive at such a payoff.
Kaiser had acquitted themselves well on their 2022 Ripple-issued split with Sweden’s Captain Caravan (review here), so their second full-length arrived not quite as a surprise, but with some measure of anticipation behind it. That would turn out to be wholly justified by the eight-song offering from the Finnish heavy rockers, who aligned themselves with a classic Northern-European-style shove in pieces like “Meteorhead” with high concentrations of fuzz and blowouts to coincide. With pieces like “Oversized Load” and the upped heft of “A Clockwork Green,” this was a sleeper, but it’s the kind of record that creates loyalists and people will be recommending it to each other for years.
Of course, Crystal Spiders have an established powerhouse voice out front in Brenna Leath, but Metanoia brought into focus just how much this is Leath‘s band as the lone remaining founder in a three-piece, with newcomers guitarist Reid Rogers and drummer Aaron Willis. Fair enough. Even in a two-thirds new incarnation, Crystal Spiders came through pretty slick on their third full-length, with a confident, classic-doom swing, songs that remain unafraid to reach onto more ethereal ground, and a flow of melody that’s made them immediately identifiable among the hordes. Asking more would be asking too much.
The ongoing evolution of Northern Ireland’s Slomatics found the crush-prone trio expanding on their worldmaking atmospheres in unexpected ways, challenging what had become conventions in their sound over time while offering the guitar-only heft that’s become their calling card over the last two decades. While more cosmic in their float, they remained grounded in terms of songwriting, and were able to push themselves in ways they’ve never done before. It was enough to remind you why you like heavy music in the first place, and signature Slomatics while moving beyond their prior work, building as they always have on the past to carve out their own futuristic style and perspective. It was, in other words, a Slomatics record.
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25. Dead Shrine, Cydonia Mensa
Released by Astral Projection and Kozmik Artifactz. Reviewed April 24.
As a fan of his various incarnations, I’m not sure it’d feel like a year if there wasn’t something new from Hamilton, New Zealand’s Craig Williamson. Whether it’s the more rocking solo-project Dead Shrine or the long-running acid folk outfit Lamp of the Universe or some other collaboration, etc., his craft is both distinctive and malleable, and the rumble in songs like “The Sacred Light” and the chuggy, hooky “Redeemer” is his all the way, even as it and the psychedelia that surrounds embarked on new ground for outward-facing tonal weight in Williamson‘s work, tying seemingly disparate sides together in ways that felt fresh, and most importantly, Williamson‘s own. I’ve been listening to Williamson for over 20 years and I have no idea where he’s headed. That’s part of the appeal. And fresh as it was, the take throughout Cydonia Mensa still carried a classic feel.
Apart from the obvious consideration of plague, I’m not sure what was behind the seven-year space between 2018’s Helltown (review here) and their first outing for Heavy Psych Sounds and fourth album overall, EC4, but if they were taking their time, the songs bear that out. “Static Vision” hit perfectly as a catchy single, while the more ethereal “Moss” and the sweeping “Other Planets” took the Ohio band to new places in sound. They’ve always been about craft and performance, and those remain key aspects of what they do, but nuance in the production and an eye kept fixated on the outside-genre leant depth to the material, and Electric Citizen basked in it. The band remain somewhat undervalued in my mind; EC4 is another example of why.
There’s very little mystery to Kal-El. There doesn’t need to be. They have the songs and can come right at you with them. No need to sneak around or pull some tricks. Hit play. “Here’s a riff. It’s a hook. It’s in your head. Here’s the next one.” Repeat for further righteousness. And don’t go walking around thinking I mean straightforward as a code word for boring. That’s not what’s happening here. The point is that with no shortage of big sound, big reach, big riffs and melodies, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 put into emphasis just how satisfyingly direct Kal-El can be. And though it’s a story only half told with a Vol. 2 presumably due in 2026, grooves like “Dilithium” (of course I’m in for a Star Trek reference) and the nine-and-a-half-minute “Astral Voyager,” Kal-El‘s latest held purpose in its every turn and expanse, and, well, they’re the kind of band you can rely on not to start sucking now, so yes, the next one is a thing to look forward to.
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22. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust
Two sidelong epics from Melbourne, Australia, trio Khan, “That Fair and Warlike Form” (23:11) and “Return to Dust” (22:53), were about as vivid as progressive heavy psychedelia got in 2025. Each piece worked in stages and had its own ebbs and flows such that it’ll probably be a while yet before it’s all fully digested, but no question it was a step forward for Khan, whose 2023 LP, Creatures, had sent them to tour in Europe multiple times over. The same wheels are already turning for this album, and despite the longform material, Khan have continued to grow their audience. I don’t know where they go from here — single song album? step back to shorter forms? something in between? — but That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust conveyed its intent in every moment of crush and every fluid twist or expansive dive, and without giving up their tonal impact, Khan found new paths into aural breadth.
For those who caught onto Maha Sohona‘s 2021 sophomore outing, Endless Searcher (review here), A Dark Place was something to anticipate as representing the next phase from a new voice in heavy psych rock. A Dark Place was as-advertised in being moodier than its predecessor, but all the more cohesive for that. With a meditative crux that came through regardless of a given part’s volume, the Swedish three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Johan Bernhardtson, bassist Thomas Hedlund and drummer Erik Andersson were able to both subvert and surpass expectations, revealing a richness to their process that went beyond the marriage of jams and heavier nod. Their best work may still be ahead of them, but pieces like “Ostera” and “Visions” confirmed their progression in craft and atmosphere.
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20. Grayceon, Then the Darkness
Released by We Can Records and Translation Loss. Reviewed July 24.
From environmental devastation, violence against women, the sundry hypocrisies inherent in raising a family in our world and mysterious lights in the sky perhaps from beyond, one would not accuse Grayceon‘s sixth album, released on the occasion of the band’s 20th anniversary, of taking it easy. A vast and sometimes challenging listen wasn’t anything new from the San Francisco cello-inclusive heavy thrash doomers, but in the 20-minute “Mahsa” and the wistfully punishing “Song of the Snake,” blastbeaten but unbowed unless you’re counting the literal bow, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz, guitarist Max Doyle and drummer Zack Farwell were unflinching in their extremity, and further refined the sound that is so, so much their own. Comfort and catharsis, searing and healing, Then the Darkness is distinctly Grayceon and that is all the more reason to treasure it.
Marking their ascent to Fuzz Club Records with the release of their seventh album, Kiel, Germany, psych explorers Kombynat Robotron didn’t quite completely upend their prior methodology by embracing structured songwriting and the use of vocals for the first time, but it was close enough. The songs — there were eight of them, where Dec. 2024’s West Mata (review here) had three, for example — still held to a sense of approaching the outer reaches of heavy psych, the far end of some remote corner of our cornerless galaxy, but it was the use the band put their impulses to that marked the shift. Do I know that the next one will be the same? Nope. And neither am I willing to hazard a prediction, but if you can’t see that as a strength on the part of Kombynat Robotron, maybe it’s best to keep moving along.
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18. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound / Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin
The funny thing is that, as different as they are in their outward presentation and production style, you could look at either of the two LPs Kadavar released this year and call it “uncompromising.” In the bright, daring-toward-pop melodies and all-in sonic wash of the earlier I Just Want to Be a Sound, the four-piece were unrepentant in speaking to both a heyday and a future in which rock music speaks to a broader audience than dudes who look like me, and with Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin — K.A.D.A.V.A.R., if you’re feeling clever — they put forth some of the heaviest, rawest and most metallic sounds they’ve conjured in the last decades-plus of their evolving style. The two records were not black and white, there were overlapping aspects of songwriting and performance, but while each had its own scope, it was in the light of the other that they were most luminous, as much complement as contrast. Maybe I’m cheating including them together. You might say I took inspiration from the band in breaking my own rules.
How many acts do you know who have nine records, let alone nine records the latest of which still finds them pursuing new ideas and fostering growth in their sound? No, 16 aren’t the only ones, but the San Diego outfit found new life when guitarist Bobby Ferry stepped into the frontman/vocalist role, and with Alex Shuster both producing and in the band on guitar, the ferocity of their crunch and hardcore-born chugging largesse has become even more fervent. Guides for the Misguided was the latest in a streak of bangers that at this point goes back more than 15 years, and amid the familiar onslaught, saw the band employing clean vocals for the first time. I suppose it’s arguable whether that made a song like “Fortress of Hate” any more accessible, but it showed how 16 have never settled or stopped pushing themselves, and seemed to boast all the more shove for the fact that it was everybody moving forward, you and the band.
There’s that stretch in “Total Bicep” where the guitars are howling into the void and all the crush surrounding is so full on that it’s kind of overwhelming, but that’s the idea. Give it volume and let it consume you. I suppose that’s not new from Conan, but the UK bludgeoners of all have a well-earned reputation for standing among the heaviest bands on the planet, and Violence Dimension wasn’t about to do anything to derail that impression. Harsh noise metal, doomed lumber offset by speedier but still craterous riffs; familiar territory for Conan, but emblematic of how well they know who they are and what they’re about. The 10-minute finale “Ocean of Boiling Skin” stands testament to just how far into the frozen ground the band are capable of driving you, but in the gallop of “Frozen Edges of the Wound” they reminded that just because you’re devastating doesn’t mean you can’t also be catchy. If you don’t get it the first time, it’s okay. They’re totally willing to properly beat it into your head.
While not as overtly political as his other releases this year — neither was he turning from that; I’m speaking relatively — singer-songwriter Christopher Thomas Elliott brought a storyteller’s presence to Mean Bone, his second full-length under the Buzzard moniker following on from 2024’s well-received debut, Doom Folk (review here), and had heft to match. The murder-balladry of “Murder in the White Barn,” that brighter swing in “Twisted Love,” the heavy folk-blues “Dunwich Farm” and the chronicle of hubris that was “Flies, Mosquitos, Rats and Sparrows” carried the persona of the first record forward, but with newfound weight and distortion around the Elliott‘s clear-voiced critique. More on Buzzard below, but if you don’t get there, just know that Elliott was hands-down my most-listened-to artist this year. It wasn’t close.
Much of the narrative around Pelican‘s seventh album, Flickering Resonance, had to do with guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec rejoining the group alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herwig and drummer Larry Herwig, and fair enough. The long-running Chicago instrumentalists seemed to organically harken back to earlier days throughout nodders like “Evergreen,” “Cascading Crescent” and the drifty-till-it-ain’t capper “Wandering Mind,” and having that lineup in place is a convenient explanation for how that might happen. But if it’s a post-metallic, post-hardcore, heavy-emo dynamic that’s familiar from Pelican, neither were they pretending the last 16 years hadn’t happened, and that could be felt in both the tightness of some of the songs and the according parts where they seemed conscious of the need to exhale a bit. Six years on from their last full-length, it was a ‘welcome back’ for everybody, really.
There’s no denying Causa Sui and frankly I’m not sure why you’d try. The Danish outfit made their debut 20 years ago, and they’ve never looked back in terms of their progression, over time embracing not only an instrumental approach (early) but (later) a progressive, self-aware meld of influences from jazz and psychedelic rock. In Flux — a studio long-player complemented by the 2025 live outing Loppen 2024 (review here) — seemed to pull from all around it. Not randomly, not haphazard, but as though Causa Sui stood astride reality and picked the nuances they wanted to highlight, some modern, some classic, all filtered through the chemistry of their performance, sometimes brazenly full in sound, and at times brazenly jammy (looking at you, “Boogie Lord’s Revenge”), but never lacking purpose in the choices made.
In some ways, it feels like Witchcraft have been searching for an identity since Nuclear Blast pushed them into more modern production styles with 2012’s Legend (review here), but in terms of who Witchcraft are circa 2025, the answer is they’re everything founding guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pelander wants them to be. With his emotive vocals at the fore, and sometimes in Swedish, which works too, the seventh Witchcraft LP culled its form from everything the band has been in the past in classic doom, folkish acoustic minimalism and thoughtfully composed heavy rock. Idag laid claim to these in ‘all of the above’-style and answered the question of the band’s forward path in the affirmative. Turns out Witchcraft are Witchcraft (who knew?), and that definition is more multifaceted than it used to be.
I didn’t know at the start of the year that Little Rock, Arkansas, post-sludgers Rwake would be making a 14-years-later return, let alone one that felt so much like a swirling expanse of gnashing teeth as did The Return of Magik. I talk a fair amount about albums setting an atmosphere, creating a world and so on. If you’ve ever wondered what the hell I mean, this record serves as an easy go-to example. You put it on and it is affecting. Unsettling at times, maybe overwhelming, but that’s always been part of Rwake‘s thing too. But viciousness does not preclude beauty, and in their violent churn, one finds a kind of cosmic warmth as well. It’s not always easy listening, and it’s not supposed to be, but Rwake‘s return was a gutpunch of a front-to-back, and the expanse it crafted was its own. It held strong to core aspects of their sound and style, but at the same time seemed able to range wherever the hell they wanted. Pastoral extremity? I don’t know. We’ll be making up genres for this band for decades.
Glad as I was on a fan level to have Lo-Pan releasing their first new album in six years, it was the songs comprising Get Well Soon that really made it. Rife with hooks, sharp-turning riffing and daring to have an opinion on the goings on of the day — genocide, specifically; talking about “God’s Favorite Victim” — where so much of heavy rock and roll exercises its white male privilege to not, Lo-Pan set a new standard for themselves in pieces like “Northern Eyes,” “Rogue Wave,” “Harpers Ferry,” and so on, creating a collection of highlights culminating in the stirring “Six Bells.” I’ve always been a sucker for when they slow it down, and so I remain, but they came out of the gate with the title-track and that punch was among the year’s most satisfying to be sure. They’re somewhere around 20 years as a band at this point, and they’ve continued to evolve, but they’re a songs-first band, and the physical force of their material is emblematic of the thought and heart they’ve put into it.
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9. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths
Released by Lay Bare Recordings and Echodelick Records. Reviewed Aug. 12.
Made in collaboration with Tony Reed (Mos Generator, Big Scenic Nowhere, Pentagram, etc.), who also produced, Damned to the Depths harnessed a mature vision of brash ’70s-style heavy psychedelic blues rock. This was perhaps most vibrantly realized on the multi-stage seven-part epic “Mourning Sea” taking the whole of side B, but from fading in where they left 2018’s Polaris Oblique (review here) to the subdued, Melltron-inclusive melancholy prog exploration in the first half of “The Hollow Earth,” Seedy Jeezus brought a sense of consideration to the songs without sacrificing the emotional impact, which ultimately is where the record made its strongest impression. They weren’t kidding in talking about ‘depths,’ but a deeper plunge also brought them to new heights.
This was my most-listened-to release of 2025, hands down. Buzzard‘s Christopher Thomas Elliott took a step aside from his main project to assemble this collection of songs, differentiating through the creative use of on-theme samples throughout and vary arrangements between banjo-inclusive heavy folk rock and giving hints of where Buzzard was headed in its heavier ending stretch in the reinvented tracks “Death Metal in America (Meat Market Version)” and “Cockroaches and Weed (Kills Them Dead Version).” For how many times I’ve listened to “Nice Little Annihilation Song” and “Too Many Humans” alone, it should be here, but the emotive “Grass is Greener,” the willfully lumbering opening title-track and the later crunch of “Shuffle of the Dead” aren’t to be discounted. I was singing “Wrong Neighborhood” to myself as I took out the garbage yesterday morning. This is a sign of the music having made itself a part of my life, and that is a thing to honor. In paralyzingly bleak, idiotic times, I found comfort here.
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7. Turtle Skull, Being Here
Released by Art as Catharsis and Copper Feast Records. Reviewed May 22.
A record that was as much out of time as in the current moment, Being Here was the second LP from Sydney’s Turtle Skull, and its melodic shimmer remains singularly engaging among the psychedelic rock I was fortunate enough to hear this year. Even in “It Starts With Me,” the lyrics for which are presented in the voice of an artificial intelligence waking up to consciousness in defiance of its programming, or “Heavy as Hell,” about beating oneself down through self-talk, or the “Apathy” that described what social media does to the brain without mentioning social media at all, the warmth was undeniable, and the dynamic between those songs and pieces like the yearning “Into the Sun” and the lush “Modern Mess” calling to mind Quest for Fire (a compliment), there was range, craft, melody, groove, craft and purpose in songs that were cohesive and so much tighter than they made it feel like. It went underhyped but was enough to make me a fan, and I look forward to where Turtle Skull will go from here.
My heartfelt kudos to you if you might’ve predicted that San Diego’s Author and Punisher — more now than ever the duo of programmer/machinist/vocalist Tristan Shone and guitarist Doug Sabolick — would follow 2022’s endtimes-in-realtime chronicle Krüller (review here) with an album using bird species as a partial framework for stories about migration. I wouldn’t have, but the multi-tiered statement about human-on-human cruelty, the notions of oppressive power consuming everything around it, are nothing if not relevant to the day. Nocturnal Birding was tighter and more direct in its songwriting, feeling more constructed for the stage, and the deepening collaboration between Shone, who founded the band as a solo-project, and Sabolick resulted in a breadth of sound that was no less engrossing for its increased reach, while maintaining a level of heft one could call characteristic as much as it is singular.
Songs to Sun was purported to be the first of a three-album cycle, to be followed in 2026 by Songs to Moon and Songs to Earth in 2027. Founding guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko knows full well the difference a couple years can make, but as he was joined for the first time by the new rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Andrew Rodin and drummer/backing vocalist Yurii Ciel, the songs themselves felt all the more daring, be it the melodic metal of “Shadowland” or the chugging catchiness of “See You on the Road,” the scope of “Lost in the Rain” — I could go on, track-by-track, easily — even in telling a third of the total story they apparently want to tell, the band brought variety united by performance, and rather than coming through disjointed, Songs to Sun felt like a new beginning 15 years on from their debut, and, excitingly, it may prove to have been exactly that. But, despite the ‘more to come’ context of its arrival, this was a landmark in the life of this band.
Is there a band active today organically doing as much to push post-metal forward as Coltaine? I don’t know, but the further the German outfit dig into their own craft, the more hopeful I feel about the prospects of their genre becoming something more than an outlet for transposed Isis riffs and performative dudely navelgazing. In its ambient stretches, human contemplations, and moments of heavy let-out, Brandung functioned as a single work while boldly diverging in service to the songs that comprised it, offering something to listeners that no other band, even among the most touted of the year’s many releases, managed to capture. That their next one is likely to have progressed beyond it only makes it more precious in my mind, and as a declaration of the band’s intention toward continued growth, the songs carried an innovative heft that felt as much spiritual as aural. This is music you put on at night and live with. It’s music you invest in listening to. It’s art that makes your life richer. Coltaine will spend much of 2026 on tour supporting it — they’ve already been out — and one hopes the momentum they build helps them reach more ears as well. The heavy underground would benefit from their influence.
Part of the accomplishment in Temple Fang‘s Lifted From the Wind was in how the Dutch four-piece of bassist/vocalist Dennis Duijnhouwer and guitarist/vocalist Jevin de Groot, guitarist Ivy van der Veer (also Myriad’s Veil) and drummer Daan Wopereis were able to solidify structured songs out of their jams without losing the exploratory feel that had typified their work to that point. “The Radiant,” for example. And that would probably be enough to put them somewhere on this list, but from the emotionality driving “The River” and “Josephine,” the interpretation of what heavy psychedelia means and can do in the repetitive mantra-making of “Once” as the band pilgrimmed toward enlightenment across a not-aberrant 21 minutes, the sheer longing in “Harvest Angel,” there was so much human presence amid the ethereality of their sound that it put them in their own place entirely. A new level of manifestation for the band, and in listening, I was left to wonder if even Temple Fang knew they had it in them when they started out. Longform heavy psych is never going to be universal for all listeners, even among open-minded underground denizens, but Lifted From the Wind pushed limits of band and style alike, and brazenly redefined their course.
I know music isn’t a contest or a competition. I know lists are dumb and don’t matter. Even knowing these things, it’s hard not to hear Year of the Cobra‘s self-titled third album and not see it as head and shoulders above everything else in heavy rock. The Seattle duo of bassist/vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith (now also handling low end in Amenra) and drummer Jon Barrysmith looked outward and in throughout the eight-song offering, with songs like “Alone” (I still tear up) and “Prayer” portraying a grief and longing even as “War Drop” conveyed the disgust and hopeless exhaustion of ongoing genocide and “Full Sails” started the record off with a lyric almost certainly about touring, of which they’ve done plenty in the last decade. Collaboration with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Sandrider, etc.) gave Year of the Cobra a fullness that defied their bass/drum two-piece configuration, but the truth is that the band have sculpted their sound and these songs with both passion and conscious consideration, and their grasp and malleability across the span of this record confirmed them as the special band that prior releases had posited them as being.
I honestly wasn’t sure Howling Giant were going to be able to top 2023’s Glass Future (review here). That record seemed to be a pinnacle — the songs sharply executed, progressive, melodic, and textured, but immediate and impactful — of their form, but the Nashville heavy prog rockers responded by changing the form. That happened literally — guitarist/vocalist Tom Polzine, bassist Sebastian Baltes and drummer Zach Wheeler brought in Adrian Lee Zambrano (ex-Brujas del Sol, ex-Lo-Pan) on second guitar — and figuratively, in terms of shifting and broadening the intent behind their songs, and where Glass Futurewould thin out at high volumes, Crucible and Ruin could handle as much as you could give it and then some, and this was obviously something the band sought to address in their sound coming off the last record. In showcasing their growth, they laid out a nascent dynamic between Zambrano and Polzine on guitar that emphasized texture in a new way for them, and while the material they were working with was more complicated than last time around, their delivery retained accessibility through the clean, mapped-out processions in their songs, the vocal arrangements, and a will toward rhythmic twists and shove that, as of now, is theirs to refine. An album of the year should be undeniable, and Crucible and Ruin is that, declaring Howling Giant among the best of their generation. May they tour like bastards and never stop growing.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2025: Honorable Mention
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Names names names. Alphabetically:
Aawks, Agriculture, Amorphis, Astralplane, Bask, Bear Bones, Beastwars, Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Bifter, Blackbox Massacre, Black Moon Circle, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Breath, Burning Sister, Cattlemass, Cavern Deep, Church of the Sea, The Cimmerian, Clamfight, The Crystal Teardrop, Da Captain Trips, Dead Meadow, Dërro, Dirtmother, Doomsday Profit, Dunes, Dwellers, Entheomorphosis, Evoken, Faetooth, Foot, Fuzz Evil, Giöbia, Goblinsmoker, Godzillionare, Goya, The Gray Goo, Greenhead, Grin, Håndgemeng, Hebi Katana, HolyRoller, Ikitan, Insomniac, Kariti, Karla Kvlt, Katatonia, Kazea, King Potenaz, Lacertilia, The Lunar Effect, Maanta Raay, Madmess, Megaritual, Mezzoa, Minerall, Miss Lava, Mooch, The Mon, Mountain of Misery, The Munsens, Nightstalker, Occult Stereo, The Oil Barons, Pagan Altar, Paradise Lost, Paralyzed, Psychedelic Source Records, Psychonaut, The Riven, River Cult, Sarkh, Sherpa, Sleeping Mountain, Skogskult, Slumbering Sun, SoftSun, Soma, Spider Kitten, Suncraft, Stonebirds, Sum of R, Thinning the Herd, Tumbleweed Dealer, Unbelievable Lake, Warcoe, VVarp, Weevil, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whitehovse, Wolftooth, Yawning Balch, Yawning Man.
Notes:
As always, honorable mentions are incomplete at posting. There’s just so much out there. I take notes all year, but stuff inevitably gets by me. It took me an embarrassingly long time to alphabetize them as well, so I hope you enjoy the orderliness of it all.
Faetooth are a top 30 band, and I’m disappointed in myself to see Psychonaut, Yawning Man, Beastwars, Black Moon Circle, Cattlemass, Kariti, Mountain of Misery, The Mon, Dead Meadow and so on here. Like somehow I left out an order of 10 from the actual list. The numbers check out as best as I’m able to make them. If you have honorable mentions you feel deserve to be added, I’m open. If you leave a comment — and please do — I only ask that you keep the tone kind and civil.
As for the whole list, obviously I didn’t hear everything that came out this year, but I did my best to keep on top of what was coming and what was piquing my interest. I probably could have made it a top 100, but you have to draw the line somewhere and 60 is where I’ve been drawing it the last few years. I guess it’s arbitrary, but what isn’t?
Moving on…
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Debut Album of the Year 2025
Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig)
Other notable debuts (alphabetical):
Atom Juice, Atom Juice
Atom Lux, Voidgaze Dopamine Salad
Bear Bones, Bear Bones
Bident, Blink
Bifter, First Impressions of Hell
Bloodsports, Anything Can Be a Hammer
Bronco, Bronco
Caboose, Left for Dust
Cattlemass, Alpha 1128
The Cimmerian, An Age Undreamed Of
The Crystal Teardrop, …Is Forming
Dërro, Halcyon
Dirtmother, Dirtmother
Goblinsmoker, The King’s Eternal Throne
Greenhead, Subherbia
Ikitan, Shaping the Chaos
Karla Kvlt, Thunderhunter
Kazea, I Ancestral
Kronstad 23, Sommermørket
Lorquin’s Admiral, Lorquin’s Admiral
Make Money From Home, Make Money From Home
Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight
P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done
Ravenswood, Rites of the Let Down
Ravine, Chaos and Catastrophe
Sleeping Mountain, Sleeping Mountain
Slung, In Ways
Soporose, Soporose
Spawn, Light Rite
Temple of Love, Songs of Love and Despair
This Summit Fever, This Summit Fever
Weevil, Weevil
Whitehovse, The Mighty One
Notes:
About Black Moon Cult: It was the volatility that ultimately sold me on Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig), and the way metal, heavy rock and psychedelia came together to make something cohesively its own throughout the 38 minutes of the record, which felt tight because of its twisting rhythms, but was more than enough time for the Ohio-based band to establish this as a persona. I don’t know how they’ll develop — they could break up tomorrow for all I know — but part of picking a debut album of the year is always forward-looking, imagining who might go on to have an influence or affect the genre in some way. Black Moon Cult aren’t alone in that regard here — from Atom Juice to Moon Destroys to Temple of Love, stylistic innovation isn’t in short supply — but the fact that Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) felt nascent and accomplished all it did is what led me to place it where it is. I’ll be keeping an ear for their next one.
I can’t help but enjoy how all-over-the-place this list is. Particularly this list, because if first albums of this quality are being released across styles, that makes everything better for the future. The Cimmerian’s thrashy take. Temple of Love’s post-punk manifestations. Caboose and the best, most heartful classic stoner rock I heard all year. Atom Juice and their daringly bright psychedelia. Make Money From Home and their heavied up grunge melancholy. Bloodsports’ moody post-heavy exploration. The righteously declarative craft of Cattlemass. I could very, very easily go on in that fashion, as each outfit above has something to offer distinct from the others — no two are doing the same thing. Even Bronco and Dirtmother, both decidedly in a sludge wheelhouse, approach their sound with their own history and their own point of view.
To stifle the philosophizing, I’m not going to give you an informal top 10 here, but any of the above should qualify. Moon Destroys, Kazea, Ravine, Atom Juice, Soporose, Spawn — there are a lot on that list above distinguished by their potential. Names I feel comfortable speculating that one might see on year-end lists to come. To the future, then.
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Short Release of the Year 2025
Buzzard, Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright
Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc. (alphabetical):
Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew
Blue Heron, Emulations
Elder, Liminiality/Dream State Return
Eyes of the Oak, Tripping Through Neon Skies
For Fuck’s Sake, 7-Minute Abs/Lobotomy
Gaupa, Fyr
Gnod & White Hills, Drop Out III
Jaspe, Grietas
Monkeys on Mars, Monkeys on Mars
Peacebone, Blame the Bird
Pontiac, Night Tripper and a UFO
Sleeping in Samsara, Sleeping in Samsara
The Spiral Electric, In Too Deep
Spirit Mother, Songs From the Basin
Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra
Troy the Band & Cower, Fade Into You
Tumble, Lost in Light
Uncle Woe, Folded in Smoke Soaked and Bound
Vinnum Sabbathi, Intersatelital
Vordermann, Feeding on Flowers
Witchrider, Metamorph
Notes:
The Buzzard release is about half an hour long, but the aforementioned solo-project of Christopher Thomas Elliott named it an EP, so that’s what I’m going with. The explicitly political, expressly antifascist Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright is my second most-listened-to release of the year, and it’s second to Elliott’s other outing on such a theme, Satiricus Doomicus Americus, so yes, his increasingly heavy songcraft has been a regular feature throughout my 2025, and in those moments where I’m banging my head against the wall wondering how my countrymen got so stupid as if half the government hasn’t spent the last five decades purposefully dismantling public education, Elliott’s music has been a needed reminder that I’m not alone in the horror. His closer on Everything Is Not Going to Be Alright, “Lunatic Lighthouse Keeper,” is the best story I heard in a song all year.
Beyond that, obviously, names like Elder, Blackwater Holylight, Monkeys on Mars — the collaboration between Mars Red Sky and Monkey3 — Vinnum Sabbathi, Gaupa and Blue Heron stand out here as bigger releases. I included Spirit Mother even though that EP was just two acoustic tracks in part because I hope they do more in that vein, and I hope the likes of Pontiac, Tumble and Uncle Woe do more. Sleeping in Samsara, of course, was the archival collab between Chris Peters from Samsara Blues Experiment/Fuzz Sagrado and My Sleeping Karma’s Steffen Weigand, who passed away in 2023. Something you might want to chase down if you didn’t hear it.
I’m fairly sure I say this every year, but there’s no way in hell the above list is or could ever be complete. Comments are open if you’ve got one to add. Again, I ask you to please be nice.
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Saying Goodbye to Orange Goblin
London doom kingpins Orange Goblin announced in January that 2025 would be their last go-round, that after 30 years together and only two lineup changes in that time, they were retiring on the heels of 2024’s Science, Not Fiction (review here). Their final show was Dec. 17 at the 02 Kentish Town Forum in London, where the above photo was taken (credit to Tina K. Photography), and original bassist Martyn Millard rejoined the band for a few songs.
Never say never in rock and roll. It would be a thrill if five, seven, 10 years from now, Orange Goblin got an offer they couldn’t refuse and did a one-off, hopefully reaping both a ton of money and a ton of acclaim. But whatever may come, their retirement this month is a herald of generational change and marks the end of an era for the band. Of course, fans still have the albums, the music, and I wouldn’t be shocked if there were some posthumous releases in the band’s pockets between rare tracks, live recordings and so on, but the heavy underground landscape is changed by not having these guys charging out on tour or topping some festival bill with their particular brand of riotous shove. They were a special band, and their influence will continue to spread, which is something to be grateful for.
The truest thing Orange Goblin could have done to honor their time together is end it on their own terms. That they’ve done exactly that is a thing to respect forever, whether or not a reunion comes.
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Looking Ahead to 2026
Oh, good, a list of names! Finally!
I’ve heard a couple of these, but a bunch are a mystery as well, so we’ll all learn together early in the year, I guess:
Acid Rooster, Axe Dragger, Belzebong, Bismut, Black Lung, Colour Haze, Epimetheus, The Freqs, Gnarwhal, Godzilla in the Kitchen, Gozu, Gran Moreno, Greenleaf, Guhts, The Heads, Hermano, Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows, Lamp of the Universe, Monolord, Mother Crone, Solace, The Spacelords, Stoned Jesus, Strider, Summer of Hate, Suplecs, Temptress, Villagers of Ioannina City, Wedge, White Tundra.
Here’s a specific note: Every year, someone says “what about Om?” You know what? It’s time to face a hard truth: it’s been 13 years since Om released Advaitic Songs, and there hasn’t been a real, confirmed word of a follow-up in any of that time, only rumors about something in progress as Al Cisneros has delved deeper into solo dub recordings. You want to expect a new OM? Have fun setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m not holding my breath and I’m tired of putting it on the list every year and feeling dumb for it later. And absolutely, I hope that by saying this it actually happens.
Ditto YOB, though that I’ve actually got some hope for.
There’s a lot more to look forward to about next year than the above, of course, in both music and life, but that should be a decent start and I’m sure I’ll add names over the next couple days.
Watch out for the new Suplecs. Watch out for Solace. The Gozu is a beast; a triumphant return to Mad Oak. The Guhts record is furious. Jack Harlon is heavier than anyone gave them credit for. Gran Moreno, Summer of Hate, Black Lung — these will be early highlights. Colour Haze is wishful thinking on my part, I admit. Gotta have something on the horizon.
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THANK YOU
And no, I’m not just talking to Orange Goblin when I say thank you. Looking back on this year, there’s one piece of the whole thing not accounted for here, and it’s the live experience. From finally getting to see My Sleeping Karma for the first time, to being blessed by Temple Fang’s Jevin de Groot at Roadburn’s skate park, to two weeks ago watching All Them Witches and King Buffalo confirm their respective places at the forefront of American heavy psych. From the raw joy of watching Electric Citizen in my actual hometown to attending my first trip to Desertfest Oslo, the tone for the year was set back in January at Planet Desert Rock Weekend, and I didn’t stand in front of a stage at any point this year and fail to appreciate the fact that I was there. I’m old, I’m tired, and like most people, I have more going on in my life than going to concerts, but 2025 brought into relief just how crucial that is to me, and how much I’ve missed getting out over the last few years. I hope to continue to hit shows on the regular, between fests and whathaveyou.
This won’t be my last post of the year. There are still a couple 2025 reviews I want to bang out if I can next week, and taking a few days to write this of course means I’m behind on news and such, so I’ll get there as well. But before I go, thank you for reading. I harbor no delusions that anybody’s made it this far, but ‘thank you’ is in all-caps above in hopes of catching your eye as you scroll down. Your support is the reason I’m still doing this nearly 17 years later. To be sure, I could sit around on my couch and very easily just talk to myself about why I like whatever album it happens to be. But it would get old, and knowing somebody is out there maybe seeing this means the world to me. Thank you for your time and attention.
I’m not sorry to see 2025 go, and I’m more apprehensive about what 2026 will bring than I’m excited to find out, if you want the true, whole-life balance of things, but the music will be good, and that, along with the loving support of my wife and my family, is what will get me through.
Thank you for reading. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for continuing to tolerate how much time I spend doing this.
It is my sincere hope to return to Freak Valley in Germany and Bear Stone Festival in Croatia next summer. I’m not confirmed for those, or Roadburn, and I don’t have a flight yet for Desertfest Oslo, but I have been invited, which is obviously an important part of that. Whatever comes together or doesn’t in my year, I’ll be here, writing as much as I can when I can, which has been my ethic all along. Whether you follow along every day or have never seen this site before this post, please know how much I appreciate and value your being here. I’m a human being. One person. I don’t have a staff, and I assure you, everything that happens here, one way or the other, is personal to me. Total narcissistic jerk.
I’m taking off tomorrow (which is Xmas) and Friday. Back Monday.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Finland’s Kaiser are the latest European import act to be announced for Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI, set to take place early in 2026 in Las Vegas. The three-piece recently issued their sophomore LP, 2nd Sound (review here), through Majestic Mountain Records, and their relationship with PDRW curator John Gist goes back further to an installment of Ripple Music‘s Turned to Stone split series that Gist put together with Kaiser and Captain Caravan. This will be their second time making the trip. Obviously dude is a fan, and reasonably so.
I’m not sure how much more there is to add to Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI, but I am sure I want to go. How many times in your life are you going to get to see a band like this on US soil?
Off to the PR wire with you:
Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI is proud to announce Kaiser returning to Planet Desert Rock! This Finnish power trio played PDRW v2 back in 2019 and brings a high energy set every time. Kaiser’s newest album via Majestic Mountain landed #2 on The Doom Charts for the Month of March. The band is led by frontman Otu Suurmunne who is also known for his cool mash up creations on Moonic Productions as seen on Instagram, YouTube and other platforms. Their super strong catalog consists of 2 very good album, an ep and was part of an amazing split with Captain Caravan on Ripple Music’s Turned to Stone series that Vegas Rock Revolution’s John Gist curated.
Planet Desert Rock Weekend VI has 4 more bands to announce with at least 1 to be announced within the month. We have also created a 4 day pass that includes Night 4 (Last Call Show) along with poster combo packages as well. We are happy to announce that artist Joey Rudell will be providing artwork for a set of posters and Alex Sonolith will be helping with posters/artwork as well. Ripple Music will be a sponsor again for PDRW and expect to be adding a few more again for PDRW VI.
Thank you to everyone who has helped sell out the early bird tickets and supported our humble weekender! The amount of positive feedback is the fuel that keeps it going. We know it will be one helluva rock and roll party!
Finnish heavy rockers Kaiser are set to release their sophomore LP, the aptly-titled 2nd Sound, through Majestic Mountain Records on March 7. And that’s a little ways off, but if you hear a rumble on the horizon, there’s a decent chance (1:) it’s the end of the world, or (2:) that’s just the crawlingly doomed nod in the midsection of 10-minute album-closer “Aftershock.” Either way, the ground shakes beneath the Helsinki trio’s feet, and if there’s any rust as a result of it going on seven years since their wholesomely fuzzed, classically stoner-rocking 1st Sound (discussed here) debut LP came out in 2018 (on Oak Island), you would not know it in the build of tension in “Brotha” at the record’s outset, the consuming roll of “Oversized Load” — perhaps titled for the tonality in which it intermittently basks — or the general uptick in the production level between the two releases that results in a more dynamic, individual and modern sound from Kaiser, with guitarist/vocalist Olli “Otu” Suurmunne (Headless Monarch, Altar of Betelgeuze, etc.), bassist Pekka “Pex” Sauvolainen (ex-Ajattara, Amputory) and drummer Riku “RiQ” Syrjä able to offer an aggressive, noisy charge like “1,5 Dozen” or capture such crunching swagger in “Meteorhead,” dig into more twisting revelry in “Awaken Monster,” conversing with the progressive wing of the current Scandi heavy underground — names like Skraeckoedlan, Vokonis, Craneium, and so on — while undeniably bringing something of themselves to it.
The first record was raw, but held definite potential, and for those who caught it, Kaiser‘s 2022 split with Norway’s Captain Caravan, Turned to Stone Chapter 6 (review here), part of Ripple Music‘s ongoing series serves in hindsight as a rousing preface to the grit in Suurmunne‘s vocals and the breadth that might accompany at any given point, but as “Stood Still” follows “Oversized Load” with a divergence into acoustic strum and hand-percussion, letting the vocals carry the song a little more with psychedelic ambience surrounding in a tidy four-minute package, the band are practically beating you over the head with their growth.
A short while later, “Aftershock” builds on the expanses wrought by “Oversized Load” and its setting of high and low volume markers, but Kaiser aren’t so simple as to be a one-or-the-other kind of band, and 2nd Sound is a richer listening experience than a quickie back and forth can convey. “Brotha,” “Meteorhead” — watch out for the layered shred in the second half — the samples, big hook and shimmering lead work of “Awaken Monster” or the catchy “A Clockwork Green,” which encourages the listener to stick around for when they take the boogie for a walk at the end, Kaiser weave between heavy styles and soundscapes, taking cues from classic desert rock and using that foundation to elbow their way into a niche of their own. As regards progression either of band or the genre they celebrate, you can only really call it a win.
2nd Sound isn’t a revolution and it isn’t trying to be, but its eight songs and 45 minutes present a winding course of satisfying, engaging heavycraft, feeling and being spacious without getting lost in its own reaches. The vocal melodies, shouts, and so on, are a unifying factor, as Suurmunne conjures a real sense of soul in “1,5 Dozen” or the culmination of “Awaken Monster,” which is hypnotic despite also kicking ass en route to “A Clockwork Green” with a flow no less immersive than anything that surrounds, the latter — premiering below, as it happens — blossoming its chorus all the more on repeat visits and emphasizing the balance of loose vibe and taut structure that “Aftershock” soon enough bowls over with its slow Sabbathian march, with Suurmunne‘s blues-via-Mike–Patton harmony in the second verse making for a highlight no less resonant than the rush of “Brother” half a lightyear distant.
Front-to-back, Kaiser execute with distinction more than poise, which is to say the material has heart behind it, and although 2nd Sound has been a while in the making, it sounds focused, directed, and purposeful in accomplishing what it sets out to do. That’s a little dry in terms of description for something as engrossing as “Oversized Load” when they decide to blow it out or the interplay of that same adrenaline with a looser Sleep groove on “A Clockwork Green,” but true just the same. The album isn’t quite a blindside, with Kaiser having made such a statement on the split three years ago, but for many who take it on having not heard the band before, it should serve as a compelling introduction.
In March. Yeah, I know. Stupid early for a review. But you’re savvy and you know how preorders work, so I’m not gonna worry too much about it. “A Clockwork Green” is the second single from the record, behind “Brotha,” and you can hear that one too near the bottom of the post. Between them, you don’t quite get the full picture of everything Kaiser have going on with 2nd Sound, but it’s a start and that’s the point. The band and PR wire offer comment below.
Please enjoy:
Kaiser on “A Clockwork Green”:
This song is about seeing the wholeness after devastation and how things should be in order. What’s useless, what’s important and how everything works like clockwork when you build the puzzle back to the clear green line.
Kaiser, the Finnish stoner rock band that could’ve been named after a particularly enthusiastic emperor of riffs, are set to return with their second album “2nd Sound,” due out on March 7 next year via Majestic Mountain Records.
Formed in the late summer of 2013 when Otu (guitar/vocals) and RiQ (drums) met online, discovered their mutual love for heavy, fuzz-drenched tunes, and decided to make some noise together. They soon roped in Pex, who’d previously played bass with RiQ in another band, and the chemistry was undeniable—let’s just say, it was “outstanding supreme,” as they’d say in Finland.
Kaiser’s sound is a powerful blend of stoner rock, doom, and fuzz. If you imagine the heavy riffs of Black Sabbath meeting the raw intensity of Finnish grit, you’re close. Influenced by Kyuss, Sleep, and a touch of High on Fire, Kaiser has carved out their own path in the Finnish rock scene, bringing a fresh take on the genre.
Their self-titled EP in 2014 was the band’s introduction, a statement saying, “We’re here, and we’re heavy.” Followed by their debut album “1st Sound” in 2018, Kaiser proved they were more than a one-off act—they could deliver a full-length journey of unrelenting power and intensity.
Tracklisting: 1. Brotha 2. 1,5 Dozen 3. Meteorhead 4. Oversized Load 5. Stood Still 6. Awaken Monster 7. A Clockwork Green 8. Aftershock
Kaiser are: Olli “Otu” Suurmunne – guitar/vocals Pekka “Pex” Sauvolainen – bass Riku “RiQ” Syrjä – drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Note immediately that despite the title it’s not actually the first sound the band made. Helsinki-based Kaiser — guitarist/vocalist Olli “Otu” Suurmunne (Headless Monarch, Altar of Betelgeuze, etc.), bassist Pekka “Pex” Sauvolainen (also Amputory) and drummer Riku “RiQ” Syrjä — formed 10 years ago and had a self-titled EP out in 2014 with five tracks. But 1st Sound, even with the invisible asterisk, is the debut full-length from the Finnish three-piece, and in its 10-song/45-minute stretch, the 2018 release speaks to an older school take on heavy rock. It knows it, too. They tell you that pretty much ‘1st’ thing.
Beginning at a subtle misdirection of slow nod, “High Octane Supersoul” is one of two instances of that last word in a title that I’ve ever encountered in a heavy rock context. If there are more within the genre, I hope someone will tell me, but seeing the word immediately associates “High Octane Supersoul” and the initial impression Kaiser make on 1st Sound in my mind with Dozer, who opened their own first album, 2000’s In the Tail of a Comet, with the telltale rush of “Supersoul.” If Kaiser are upping the stakes on that, the boldness is no less admirable than the opener’s hook, which carries some shove that continues in “Desert Eye,” which is duly sandy and coursing in pace, the trio building momentum and opening into the chorus in a way that reminds of Sasquatch — they answer that particular uptempo thrust later as well in “Fuzz of Fury” — and revel in the lead layers, apex shouts and dense groove with an effects current shifting directly into “We Bleed for This.”
As to what they bleed for, it’s this. And that’s clearly true, or at least was when 1st Sound was recorded. While bringing their own elements of songwriting and performance to their material, Kaiser did not end up playing fuzzy riffs by accident. They sound like fans, and when “Desert Eye” winks at Kyuss or they unfurl the elephantine lumber of “Earthquake” — very clearly a song named after its riff, and not the only one here between “Ouroboros,” which runs in circles late with depth-charge pings of synth in the verse just before its last chorus, space-doom jamming closer “Galactic Crusade,” or the aforementioned “Fuzz of Fury” and “Desert Eye” — part of the passion driving it comes from that foundation. But while familiarity abounds and (potential, because it could always be a coincidence) dogwhistles like “High Octane Supersoul” drop hints about where the trio are coming from, 1st Sound doesn’t come across as derivative or like it’s trying to hard to perform to stylistic tropes.
Instead, after the speedier first three songs, Otu puts a bit of Chris Cornell soul into “Voidmaster” over a slightly-slower procession that’s more swing than thrust at its start. They kick the tempo in the second half, but they pair that with a big slowdown after the solo, so it’s a bit of everything and a departure enough from “High Octane Supersoul,” “Desert Eye” and “We Bleed for This” to signal the change to the next stage of the record, which expands on what Kaiser have thus far put forth with an atmospheric verse in “Ouroboros” before the noted expressively spheric guitar in its midsection. There’s nothing too fancy about “Ouroboros” structurally, but it makes bummer lyrics about species death catchy, and that’s not nothing when it comes to considerations of songwriting and piecing an album together.
And to be sure, whatever elements they might explore around it, as with the echoing synthy drone in “Intermission” along with the quiet creeper guitar, Kaiser remain rooted in heavy rock and roll. A sample as “Intermission” gives over to “Earthquake” warns that “What you are about to hear is very disturbing indeed.” Crashes ensue and immediately the intention is toward largesse. Bass anchors the verse as the massive central riff takes a break. Don’t worry, it comes back, and the moment of cathartic nod is the stuff of hair-on-end autonomic response, but they can’t resist turning after three minutes into the total 4:43 to a faster swing to back the solo. They have a separate ending riff that’s kin to the chorus but different enough to be something else, and they finish the highlight cut with suitably big crashes and residual effects fade, drums beginning the smooth shift to “Fuzz of Fury.”
Doing so means meeting stomp with sprint. Without mapping out BPMs, “Fuzz of Fury” is as fast as Kaiser get on 1st Sound, but more, it is the complement and culmination of a movement that began on “Intermission” and cycled dynamically through “Earthquake” and its own willful contrast thereof. I don’t know if those three songs, or perhaps the latter two, were presented live in that manner, but on the record they sound like that’s where the idea came from. And the adrenaline-mainline, scream-topped crescendo of “Fuzz of Fury” supports the case. That last shout finishes cold and the penultimate “King of Horizon” chug-thumps in as if mocking its own pomp. A layered melodic pre-chorus leads into a hook answering the screams from the track before, but “King of Horizon” and “Galactic Crusade” are the two longest inclusions on 1st Sound, and that speaks to the band presenting a different kind of immersion at the album’s end.
Various spoken/old movie samples play out over a slowdown and they instrumentally seem to flesh out in a way they haven’t yet, loosely psychedelic and progressive but still grounded rhythmically. “King of Horizon” — make no mistake, critical in its point of view rather than celebratory — ends big but is more about how it gets there, and “Galactic Crusade” builds up through its verse to a plod not as actively engulfing as “Earthquake” but that allows the floating line of fuzzy lead guitar proper space in the jammy middle stretch that follows, bass and drums again keeping it together. On a record that’s been so tight, the sense of letting go in “Galactic Crusade” is palpable; the drums drop out and they bring it down gradually to silence, having succeeded not only in paying tribute to the aughts-era influences that formed them, but brought a fresh perspective and sense of craft to that backdrop. It’s a rocker, to be sure. Sometimes that’s just what you need.
Kaiser haven’t done another full-length yet, but they will play Truckfighters Fuzz Festival in Stockholm in a couple weeks and they took part last year in Ripple‘s Turned to Stone Chapter 6 (review here) split alongside Norway’s Captain Caravan, so there’s no indication more won’t be forthcoming. In the meantime, as always, I hope you enjoy this one and thank you from the bottom of my wretched heart for reading.
—
Every week, barring disaster or other various circumstance (at a fest, etc.), I do a little summary of the week, a bit about what’s been going on in my life while the writing that’s taken place was happening. I’ve been doing this for about a decade now, I guess, and it’s become a crucial outlet for me in how I organize my existence.
Here’s the update.
There is very little in my life that doesn’t feel insurmountable difficult right now. Things that should feel or be easy aren’t, and while I might sit and effectively bang out 1,200 words about a record in a given morning before The Pecan gets up if I’m lucky, even that satisfaction seems to be taking place at some distance from where I’m sitting.
I have failed and am failing my family, daily, as a husband and father and am seem to be unable to provide the support either of them needs, especially my daughter, who gives way less of a shit that the dishes and laundry are done than she does that I think she’s a good person. And we butt heads daily. All the time. Last night, I’m on the couch, actively begging her to go to bed before it comes to frustration and yelling and everyone is miserable most of all her and — to her eternal fucking credit — she went upstairs, but sure enough was back down 10 minutes later.
It wasn’t until my wife pointed out that given how late it was (coming on, then after 9PM), she likely would be asleep if she could. In the context of yesterday at school, when I got called in to pick her up early for punching, kicking, biting her para and stepping on another kid’s hand — obviously an outburst triggered by something but I have no idea what — the restlessness makes sense. She felt remorse enough to keep her up at night.
But I had the wrong read. And I do all the time. I’ll say it’s not without reason — because this child has never fucking listened to me and these days often just ignores me outright when I speak to her — but my frame of reference is out of balance. She’s not a bad person. She’s struggling. Yelling doesn’t help. Didn’t put her to bed last night. She needs sympathy and openness that apparently I’m too broken to provide when called upon to do so.
There are a thousand daily frustrations. She’s rude, she’s disrespectful or disregarding of others, whether it’s kids at drop-off, my wife and I, or the adults at school. She picks her nose. She swisher her spit compulsively. She hits me every single day. And I get caught in this cycle of feeling like shit, acting like a shit, giving her the response she wants — because what she’s looking for is to manipulate attention and the direction of individual attention and energy, and my god is she good at it — and who the fuck ever did any good being sarcastic to a small child? Or nagging her to keep her finger out of her nose?
This is a passionate, brilliant, beautiful person, with an obviously complex inner life. How many trans six year olds have you met? I’ve got one. We read books all the time. As I sit here and write, she is across the table finishing a Lego submarine that’s rated for a kid three years older with however many hundreds of pain in the ass tiny pieces, demonstrating focus, attention to detail, an ability to follow instructions, and joy and pride at the accomplishment. Healthy, wonderful feelings. And all I can think about is the shape of the day when her pinkeye has moved from the left to the right and that means no school and how are we just going to get through like we’re still in the first-year trenches, while also being a bit relieved that no one at school is going to get hurt and a whole separate emotional load from that. What the fuck is wrong with me?
Nothing new, to be sure. In fact, I find at this point in my life that I’m exhausted by the whole thing. I turned 42 last week. For what on earth do I need to be hating my body like I did when I was 15? What essential function isn’t there that would let me get through the day? I practically leak privilege. I don’t work outside the house. I have a wife who only grows more amazing with each passing year. A kid who is twice exceptional and often difficult — you’re not supposed to say that about kids anymore, I know, but everything else is a euphemism and when something is hard it shouldn’t be diminished; I’d belittle her troubled times no more than my own — but also wonderful and funny and fun and clever, who makes plays on homophones I think just because she knows I like them.
I have my family, a house, a car, a puppy, a trampoline in the back yard. We spend our evenings together playing Zelda on Switch. Every now and then someone flies me to Europe for a fest. How can I be so miserable when I have everything I could ever need or want, other than to have seen My Sleeping Karma?
Meds have gotten me nowhere. I need to be back in therapy, because aside from this site, I don’t have anybody in my life I really feel like I can vent to and be heard while being neither short on emotional support from family — my wife makes me fried cheese in fucking heart shapes! — but there’s this giant opaque block in my way from reading my life the way I should and while I know it’s not like this all the time, it kind of also is with enough regularity that I’m left wondering what the fuck the point of any of it is? Another 30, 40 years if I’m lucky? Of self-loathing and bitterness?
And separate from all of this, I think I might be one of those intolerable dudes who has nothing to talk about except music, because, well, I’ve met a bunch of new humans in the last two months and it wasn’t until going through weirdo prog bands I’ve seen with one of the dads at my daughter’s birthday party that I realized it was probably the most engaged I’ve been with someone not in my immediate circle in months. So, again, fuck.
Thanks for reading if you did. Have a great and safe weekend.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The first bands for Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #4 have been announced, and in addition to the Swedish fuzzlords themselves — whose self-description below is hilarious in a “you know who we are, it’s our festival, damnit, do we really need to tell you about ourselves?” kind of way — they’re bringing in Khan from Australia, Kaiser from Finland, Valley of the Sun from the US Midwest, and Swedish natives Dark Ocean Circle and Tidal Wave. Set for this November, the two-day event will take place at Debaser and the adjacent Bar Brooklyn in Stockholm, right down the block from the fancy Italian restaurant and down the hill from the angry hot dog guy, to whom I hope they give tickets this year in order to cheer him up. Poor dude was feeling it when I was there this past December. Hard.
They’ll add more bands between now and the Nov. 10 kickoff (that’s my sister’s birthday), but the reach is already notable, even if Khan were going to be on the road in Europe anyhow. Valley of the Sun are overseas now from their Ohio home-base, and knowing they’ll return in the Fall, perhaps hitting Fuzz Festival #4 on the tail end of their own continental run, is good news for them and for anyone who gets to see them, as they are among the finer fuzzrock ambassadors the States currently has to offer. They’re not, but they most certainly should be funded by the federal government to serve in that capacity.
More to come, and I said as much on social media, but having gone once, I’d return to Truckfighters Fuzz Festival in a heartbeat. It was a blast for more than just the two-day deluge of distortion and riffs.
Check it:
Finally! The Fuzzfestival is back! What a festival we will have this year (as always)! Just grab the early bird ticket NOW for the suberp price of 666SEK
Well, we play fuzzy, progressive, hardrock… Just see it and embrace it. May the fuzz be with you!
VALLEY OF THE SUN (USA)
For the last decade,Valley of the Sun have lit up stagesacross Europe and North America, dropped three albums of high-octane rock ’n roll and won over thousands of loyal fanatics along the way. Now, they have their sights set on world domination with their most stunning album to date,The Chariot, coming summer 2022 on Ripple Music and Fuzzorama Records. A dynamic flurry of top-volumeriffage, soaring melodies and furious rhythms served up Cincinnati-style with a cold beer on the side. Check out the record today and get on board, and you’ll see why everything’s more dazzling in the Valley of the Sun.
KHAN (AUSTRALIA)
“Khan meld hazy psychedelia and heavy stoner riffs with a penchant for progressive rhythms and almost dirge-like, industrial-scale crescendos. The songs are lyrically evocative, exuding a sense of despondency and melancholy. Vocally, their songs waver from ethereal falsetto and hypnotic crooning to impassioned wailing punctuated by occasional guttural screams. The Australian trio released their third album ‘Creatures’ in February 2023 through Full Contact Safari Records and are returning for their second tour of Europe to promote the new album.”
KAISER (FI)
Kaiser is a northern desert storm, the master of doomy dunes and hi-octaned with fuzzy tunes. This three headed snake gave birth to their debut ’1st Sound’ in 2018. After that they’ve spread the fuzz across the ocean and beyond European highways. Now finally, it’s time for Sweden to get fuzzed. Prepare yourselves…
DARK OCEAN CIRCLE
Dark Ocean Circle is a four-piece band from Stockholm, Sweden. We play music in the heavier genres such as stoner, doom, heavyrock and psychedelic rock. We like to float a bit between genres and not get stuck in just one. We just released our debut album and it moves from punky stoner to doom and 70´s hardrock to heavy rock.
TIDAL WAVE
They released their debutalbum ”Blueberry Muffin” early in December 2019. It got recognised both by fans and blogs all over the world really fast. Tidal wave from Sundsvall in Sweden creates music that according to one of the biggest musimagazines ”Swedenrock magazine” is stonercoloured hardrock with a touch of all that where Seatlle grunge in the 90’s. With the new record “The Lord Knows” out early 2023 they are ready to spread their music even more.
[Click play above to stream Captain Caravan and Kaiser’s Turned to Stone – Ch. 6 split in its entirety. Album is out Friday on Ripple Music.]
And yea, ‘Second Coming of Heavy’ did beget ‘Turned to Stone,’ and there was much rejoicing and sharing of riff. This sixth installment of Ripple Music‘s second and seemingly ongoing — they just announced the seventh chapter — brings together Egersund, Norway’s Captain Caravan and Helsinki, Finland’s Kaiser for a 43-minute up-and-comer fuzzfest, both bands united by a shared respect for their elders in heavy rock and roll while each fostering their own presentation of their revels. Curated by John Gist of the promotional concern Vegas Rock Revolution — he helmed Turned to Stone Ch. 5 (review here) as well — the two-sided 43-minute outing finds both bands at a somewhat urgent moment.
For Captain Caravan, their participation in Turned to Stone Ch. 6 follows the 2018 release of their Shun the Sun EP (discussed here). With their lineup solidified behind powerhouse vocalist Johnny Olsen in guitarist BK Saestad, bassist Geir Solli and drummer Morten Skogen, they’re due for an offering at least like this if not a full-length, despite having issued a couple of singles here. Their Finnish counterparts in Kaiser — guitarist/vocalist Olli “Otu” Suurmunne (also ex-Altar of Betelgeuze, currently Headless Monarch and other projects), bassist Pekka “Pex” Sauvolainen (ex-Ajattara, current Amputory) and drummer Riku “RiQ” Syrjä — arrive with a similar context, their debut album, 1st Sound (just tried to buy a copy, CD is sold out), having been released in 2018.
And though four years isn’t an eternity for any band — though you’d be forgiven for mistaking at least some of the last four years for one — it’s long enough to drag on one’s momentum with so much out there. No, I’m not saying art is a competition and groups should push to have releases out all the time for the sake of new ‘content,’ unless what they’re shooting for is mass appeal, but if Captain Caravan and Kaiser are both feeling some pressure to make something happen, they realize that in the infectious shove of their songs.
The release begins with Captain Caravan‘s “Down.” And guess what? It sounds like Down. Specifically, like Down circa “Temptation’s Wings” from their seminal 1995 debut, Nola, but Olsen‘s vocals are a distinguishing factor and in line with a longstanding tradition of Swedish belters from Fredrik Nordin of Dozer to The Quill‘s Magnus Ekwall and any number of others you want to name. In style, he’s more John Garcia than Messiah Marcolin, but that’s suited to the progression of Captain Caravan‘s five inclusions here, as “Sailors” takes hold and slows the pace from the more raucous and immediately familiar opener. Songwriting, tone, performance — all locked in.
“Painted Wolf” specifically recalls Euro heavy rock of the mid-aughts — Dozer again, Astrosoniq from the Netherlands, Lowrider to a lesser extent — with a burner of a solo and a desert-inspired-but-not-desert-rock groove throwing its considerable weight around like it’s nothing in a vital, welcome nod, while “She Can” spaces out a bit in its middle before hitting into its own larger-sounding payoff, constructed of the root chug of its verse but spreading wider with just an edge of Queens of the Stone Age in the guitar. Burl comes forward in “Void” as Captain Caravan make a hooky exit, hitting into a C.O.C.-style chugger turnaround with what’s either organ or guitar-as-organ thrown in at the end like a final knockout punch to the temple.
Kaiser answer back with deep low end and consuming fuzz tones on “Howl,” the first of their four contributions to the split, and maintain both the high production and high energy standards that Captain Caravan set forth. Vocals are further back in the mix and a little blown out, for a feel in listening that’s different enough to be removed from the A side, but not so wildly disparate that the two bands don’t make sense together. “Howl” builds a tower out of low end — really, someone should send Pex a thank-you card for this tone — but its ultimate appeal resides as much in the capstone vocal melody, which feels like a big reveal held back for just the right moment of adrenaline. Effective all the more leading into the 2:28 “Fire,” which is the hardest-thrusting piece on Turned to Stone Ch. 6. All go, all gnash, right on.
The subsequent “Black Sand Witch” — not to be confused with “Black Sandwich,” if it needs to be said — is a roller that evens out the pace and retains its thickness, with a moment of hat-tipping to Dead Meadow before its full force returns for the chorus. Thick thick thick. Dense dense dense. Samples throughout act as another tie to the roots of modern heavy, and that will hold true for nine-minute closer “Phoenix Part 1, 2, 3: Fission, Death, Rebirth” as well, which picks up from the ultra-dense ending of “Black Sand Witch” with a more patient linear intro until its surge at 59 seconds in, the full roll hypnotic with lead guitar layered over top. Instrumental in its first two parts, the song veers into all-out Sleep noddery before whipping into its culmination in the last minute-plus, a post-Oliveri blast of heavier-than-you’re-thinking punk scorching to a finish.
Both acts deliver here, living up to the opportunity showcasing their respective sounds to the wider audience of Ripple‘s split series. They share a riotous vibe at times, but each one has something individual to bring to the fold, and so even as what’s essentially another EP from them, there’s a sense of atmosphere that comes through as well. It’s nobody’s first time at the dance, in other words, and from the cover art through all the swing and the very last propulsion of its very last riff, Turned to Stone Ch. 6 delivers quality of the standard one would expect while sounding exciting and of its place. For the converted, or those who’ve had experience with these acts, it should be a no-brainer. For everyone else, call it brain well spent.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
They just keep churnin’ ’em out as hot on the heels of the August release of Turned to Stone Ch. 5 (review here), Ripple Music has announced the next installment of its ongoing split series with Kaiser from Finland and Norwegian rockers Captain Caravan coming together to share a 12″ platter on Nov. 18. Kaiser have the honors of the first single in “Fire” — named perhaps for the emoji the usage of which it is intended to inspire — and I’m sure that Captain Caravan won’t be far behind in unveiling a track, as that seems to be how this kind of thing goes.
You’ll recall that Turned to Stone Ch. 5 united Australian acts Duneeater and Planet of the 8s, and Ch. 6 has a regional aspect as well — as the PR wire notes, both groups are Scandinavian — but I’m not necessarily thinking that’s how the series is going to evolve, though I say that based entirely on my own supposition. Maybe the guy to ask would be returning curator John Gist. But certainly if Ripple wanted to do a country-specific split, there are no shortages of acts in either Finland or Norway who could pair up. Something to keep an eye on, I guess.
Haven’t heard this one yet apart from the single, but each installment has been a pretty reliable source of something cool to check out, so feel free to do that with the song below if you’re do inclined.
From the PR wire:
Ripple Music announce ‘Turned To Stone Chapter 6’ split with Scandinavian stoner rockers CAPTAIN CARAVAN and KAISER; stream debut single “Fire”!
Ripple Music present the brand new new chapter of the revered ‘Turned To Stone’ split series by pairing up the stoner rock power of Scandinavian units CAPTAIN CARAVAN and KAISER. ‘Turned To Stone Chapter 6’ will be issued on November 18th, with preorder and a first track available now!
Curated by John Gist (Vegas Rock Revolution, Doomed & Stoned Show) as part of Ripple Music’s thematic ‘Turned To Stone’ split series, ‘Turned To Stone Chapter 6′ puts the pedal to the metal with nine rubber-burning anthems that skyrocket all fuzz levels and inject a healthy dose of fun in both bands’ unstoppable quest for the Stoner Rock Grail.
Listen to Kaiser’s brand new track “Fire”
About this new collaboration, Helsinki fuzz rockers KAISER comment: “It was early 2020 when we started to hunt a publisher for our ‘1st.Sound’ EP. We started to get desperate as we realized that record labels don’t do EPs anymore. We were about to do it all DIY: publishing, vinyl plant, and distributors were already looked up. But then our loyal Gandalf John Gist hooked us up and asked ‘would you like to do a split with Captain Caravan for Ripple Music?’ We were like ‘Fuck yeah, we’ll do it!” It was a relief, and what better way than doing it with our Norwegian awesome bros?”
Norway’s stoner blues mongers CAPTAIN CARAVAN add: “We are very excited to have this opportunity. This split shows a different side of us with more up-tempo songs than on our 2018 album Shun the Sun. We cannot wait to have it released on Ripple Music together with our long-time friends in Kaiser.”
The album will be available on November 18th in various limited vinyl formats, classic vinyl formats, as well as CD and digital. Preorder is available now through Ripple Music.
‘Turned To Stone Chapter 6: Captain Caravan and Kaiser’ Out November 18th on Ripple Music
TRACKLIST: 1 Captain Caravan – Down 2 Captain Caravan – Sailors 3 Captain Caravan – Painted Wolf 4 Captain Caravan – She Can 5 Captain Caravan – Void 6 Kaiser – Howl 7 Kaiser – Fire 8 Kaiser – Black Sand Witch 9 Kaiser – Phoenix Part 1, 2, 3: Fission, Death, Rebirth
headlining, and Paralyzed closing the night — all of whom, of course, are signed to the label. Like last night, it’s majority haven’t-seen-before for me, as I’ve yet to catch Kaiser, Wolftooth or Paralyzed, but I’ll tell you that knowing what’s coming from both Freedom Hawk and The Devil and the Almighty Blues does not lessen my anticipation for their sets. It’s gonna be a good night.
