Tempo-blasting Finnish boogie rockers Kaleidobolt will release their second album, The Zenith Cracks (review here), July 1 via Pink Tank Records. Now veterans of Desertfest Berlin, the still-just-about-two-years-old band put a considerable performance sensibility into the new record, pushing well into a live feel and capturing an energy that feels stage-ready if not actually taken from the stage. I haven’t seen them live to compare one to the other, but as it maniacally careens from one winding riff into the next, an overarching groove floating atop all the whole, it’s clear that what Kaleidobolt are aiming for is to put boots to ass and get everything and everyone in their vicinity in motion. In terms of movement, their material is not what you would call lacking.
The trio is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Sampo Kääriäinen, bassist/vocalist Marco Menestrina and drummer Valtteri Lindholm. Menestrina directed their new video for “Steal My Thunder” from The Zenith Cracks, and the jerky jumps of the images in the clip really only emphasize the similar movement in the song itself, which sounds like it could come flying apart at any moment but of course never does. “Steal My Thunder” not only holds together, but offers one of The Zenith Cracks‘ strongest hooks, and while it doesn’t necessarily speak for some of the heavy psychedelic ground the band covers on the B-side of the album, it does make a fervent introduction to the record for anyone who hasn’t yet had the chance to get their limited-vinyl preorders in.
I continue to dig these cats. If you’re sensitive to quick-jumps in images (sometimes I get headaches), you might want to take the clip in stages, but even if you hit play and click off to let the song play out, I think you’ll find it’s worth the time.
Please enjoy:
Kaleidobolt, “Steal My Thunder” official video
+++ STEAL MY THUNDER BY KALEIDOBOLT +++
Brand new music video for Steal My Thunder, from The Zenith Cracks. Enjoy!
Shot and edited by Marco, except for the cabin footage, which was shot by Jutta Menestrina.
Kaleidobolt – Steal My Thunder. From the album The Zenith Cracks. Shot and edited by Marco Menestrina. Additional filming by Jutta Menestrina. All rights reserved. 2016 Pink Tank Records.
Posted in audiObelisk on May 17th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Helsinki trio Kaleidobolt will release their second album, The Zenith Cracks, on July 1 via Pink Tank Records, and as any follow-up worthy of the name should, it builds off its predecessor in noteworthy and exciting ways. That prior debut was last year’s self-titled (review here), which showcased a band barely a year old making strides suited to acts of much longer tenure. With The Zenith Cracks — topped off by Adam Burke cover art — guitarist/vocalist Sampo Kääriäinen, bassist/vocalist Marco Menestrina and drummer Valtteri Lindholm highlight creative breadth and nuance across eight tracks of boogie-laced heavy psychedelia, executing winding riffs with crispness worthy of The Atomic Bitchwax on the intro “Off the Cuff,” reveling in fuzz nod on “Inbred” and freaking out across a jam-heavy closing duo of “City of the Sun” and “Spoil.”
This is accomplished all while brandishing instrumental chemistry and toss-off vocals that seem to leave a trail of hooks behind them as they race or lumber past, songs like “Murderous Ways,” “The Crux” and “City of the Sun” landmarking memorable impressions on both of The Zenith Cracks‘ gatefold-earning sides while “Steal My Thunder” proffers madman Sabbathian blues with frantic piano deep in the mix and the prior “Helle” opens side B with, if you’ll pardon, a bit of finger to coincide.
Lindholm takes a drum solo on “City of the Sun,” and Kääriäinen‘s guitar is a guiding presence throughout, steering through the shuffle of “Murderous Ways” and the twists of “The Crux,” but Menestrina brings the true standout performance across the album’s span, his choice basslines complementing and enhancing the guitar without losing sight of their place as the rhythmic foundation of the band. To have Kääriäinen depart in “The Crux” for a winding lead and find Menestrina not just keeping pace, but building off what his bandmate is doing is a thrill often lost on the classic heavy rock set, and the power of the trio is all the more prevalent for it.
It’s something immediately apparent as “Off the Cuff” — it may well have been — takes quick flight into a dizzying array, and remains true as “Murderous Ways” spaces out in its midsection, as organ takes hold late in “The Crux,” and as “Inbred” departs its initial push and subsequent jazzy dreaminess to a more fully-fuzzed groove. I won’t take away from what Lindholm brings to the drums — his crash is the anchor as “Inbred” winds down — or what Kääriäinen is doing on guitar throughout, but Menestrina basically puts on a how-to-be-a-kickass-heavy-rock-bassist clinic without sounding like he’s putting on a clinic, and the result is one of the most resonant impressions Kaleidobolt offer with the whole of The Zenith Cracks.
A key to the debut was the flow Kaleidobolt established between the tracks, and it’s to the benefit of The Zenith Cracks that that penchant hasn’t been lost. “Helle” eases into a more broad-reaching second half of the album, its still-complex blend of acoustic and electric strum opening to the crazed forward motion of “Steal My Thunder.” Kääriäinen, Menestrina and Lindholm trade back and forth in tension and release before shifting in the midsection to a stretch of minimal guitar leading to a surf-type line from which they build back up in layers of vocals around the lines, “Spiraling, spiraling, spiraling further/We are spiraling further from home,” in intertwined late-’60s psychedelic chants.
The cowbell arrives — finally! — after the slower-rolling intro of “City of the Sun,” and does so with Mountain-esque abandon, the band shifting into high-gear for a Kääriäinen lead only to turn back to the aforementioned drum solo in the second half, from which they miraculously return to the slower tempo fuzz of the song’s open. It’s an exhausting stretch, but Kaleidobolt back it with the 10-minute finale, “Spoil,” which bides its time through a multi-stage intro thrust and spaced-out verses in order to setup the freakout to come as they take off instrumentally into the sunset and pull apart in an extended closing raucous enough to answer for what came before it.
Between the sonic character the band portrays here and the command they’ve taken of their sound, Kaleidobolt‘s The Zenith Cracks provides a play-it-louder response to the potential Kaleidobolt exhibited their first time out. Perhaps most telling is that even as the band’s ambition has grown in terms of aesthetic, they’ve drawn closer together as players as well, and so their material is all the more assured as it works quickly to take these forward steps. One wouldn’t begrudge Kaleidobolt taking their time after The Zenith Cracks, but we’d be lucky to get another installment from them in 2017.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 20th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
It’s been fun particularly over the last two years or so to really watch the two springtime Desertfests distinguish themselves as more bands are added to each lineup. Desertfest London and Desertfest Berlin 2016 will still share many bands between them, no doubt, but in seeing acts like Kaleidobolt and Desert Storm (who played London in 2015) join the roster for Berlin in 2016, alongside the newly announced Crowbar, Truckfighters and Egypt — each of whom will also play London — gradually the shape of the German fest itself becomes apparent, and likewise for its European counterpart.
To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t mind ending up at either or, but there are some considerable arguments to be made in those steely owl eyes.
Here are the latest announcements:
Desertfest Berlin 2016 – TRUCKFIGHTERS, CROWBAR, EGYPT, DESERT STORM, KALEIDOBOLT added to the line-up!
We all love heavy music and rock concert. Needless to say that we were as shocked as everybody else about the horrible things which happened in Paris last Friday. Our thoughts and hearts are with all the people who lost family members and friends in that senseless attempt…
After such a terrible event , it´s not easy to switch back to “normal”… nevertheless we would like to announce a few more bands today for DESERTFEST BERLIN 2016. We are pleased to welcome Sweden’s phenomenal, bone-rattling godfathers of fuzz Truckfighters, New Orlean’s sludge titans Crowbar, North Dakota based doom/psychedelic/stoner Rock Pharaohs Egypt, Oxford based heavy stoner / blues metal riff hounds Desert Storm and Helsinki’s groovy 1970’s Classic/Hard Rockers Kaleidobolt.
These 5 acts join the first 8 bands previously announced Electric Wizard, Elder, Wo Fat, Monolord, Death Alley, Monomyth, Mothership and Somali Yacht Club. Happening from APRIL 28th to 30th, DESERTFEST BERLIN 2016 might be the trippiest experience of your life, so join us… take the ride and buy your ticket now! (tickets’ links below).
See you all in 162 days!
Regular HARD TICKETS or E-TICKETS can be purchased on our WEBSITE! Our ticketprices remain the same, that’s 85 Euros for all you newbies! But remember that we were sold out last time about 7 weeks ahead, and we think we may top that this year!
Posted in audiObelisk on July 22nd, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Because their transitions are so fluid, it’s almost easy to miss the parts on the self-titled Pink Tank Records debut (out Aug. 14) from Helsinki trio Kaleidobolt where the band shifts from weighted stoner nod into a kind of classic shuffling prog-jazz fusion, Sampo, Marco and Valtteri careening as they make their way through album opener “Rocket to the Moon,” which, if we’re to judge by the noisy finish they give the song, does not result in an according-to-plan landing. For an outfit who got their start in 2014, Kaleidobolt‘s first offering bypasses the “getting our feet wet” vibe of many acts’ early work and while three albums from now they might go on to make it sound primitive, as it stands, songs like the aforementioned opener, the subsequent “Momentum” and “Liskodisko” impress not only with how smoothly their make turns between them, but within them as well, the three-piece showcasing jammers’ chemistry and a progressive sense of drive as “Momentum” moves from its initial insistent rhythm to a more open, airy section of guitar that lets the bass and drums hold the tension. Not a new method, but presented freshly and devoid of pretense in a manner that makes Kaleidobolt an even more engaging listen.
The fluidity becomes the defining theme, musically. “Into the Crevice” starts off at a quiet run and winds its way around echoing vocal lines and trades back and forth with more full-on fuzz until an unexpected slowdown in the second half brings a doomier vibe that, gracefully, gets quick again toward the finish. This eases the transition to “Liskodisko,” which opens side B with call-and-response noodling between the lead guitar and drums, verses emerging and receding behind instrumental passages that, to call them a jam would be to rob them of their complexity. Kaleidobolt obviously thrive on catching listeners off guard, which is something a band can usually do once on a record, maybe twice, but the chops they showcase between them as “Liskodisko” moves toward its prog-grunge head hold much potential for further songwriting adventurousness. A band who can play the way these guys play sound like they’re going to be conscious of not getting bored or bogged down in a songwriting routine. Their debut certainly doesn’t, as the quiet, fading closing passage of “Liskodisko” gives way to the headswimming low-end fuzz of “Mountain Man.”
It’s the shortest track on Kaleidobolt‘s Kaleidobolt at 4:54, and perhaps also the most straightforward — or at least as close as they get. A riffy nod is met by fervent shouting as Kaleidobolt leave the proggy aspirations to the side for the time being and instead concentrate on tension and tonal push, the track making its way toward a fast but still weighted finish that hints at some underlying punker mischief and blinds with its leadwork and bizarro swirl in the meantime, the three-piece emerging at the end unscathed to shift into 9:52 closer, which has as many psychedelic underpinnings as it does those of heavy blues boogie rock, and in refusing to commit to either, it winds up distinguished from both while also hearkening back to the earlier progressive edge in its central bassline. As they have at several points, Kaleidobolt round out the instrumental finale with a touch of speedy chaos, but by the time you get there listening, it’s apparent just how in-control of their approach these cats are. Their debut might take a couple passes to sink in, but it’s a deceptively rich stylistic base from which Kaleidobolt operate, and they only seem interested in becoming more forward-thinking. Consider notice served.
Today I have the pleasure of hosting “Mountain Man” for streaming ahead of the Aug. 14 Pink Tank Records release. Please find it on the player below, followed by more about the band, album and accompanying tour, and enjoy:
Kaleidobolt is a power trio that came together in early 2014 in Helsinki. In the short time they’ve been together, they’ve gained the reputation of being one of the most exciting live bands in Finland. Their music is a dizzying maelstrom of progressive song structures, crushing riffs and loose psychedelic soundscapes, delivered with joy and ferociousness. Their first album was recorded in 2014 with an effort on delivering a production as truthful as possible to the live experience and it’s scheduled for release in summer 2015 by Pink Tank Records.
VINYL FACTZ: – 300 copies total – 100 copies opaque purple incl. poster and download code (exclusive Pink Tank edition) – 100 copies black incl. poster and download code (exclusive band edition) – 100 copies white standard edition (wholesale) – all on high quality vinyl made in Germany
CD FACTZ: – CD comes in a jewel case – first 50 go out with an extra Kaleidobolt sticker
TRACKS: 1. ROCKET TO THE MOON 06:38 2. MOMENTUM 07:34 3. INTO THE CREVASSE 05:23 4. LISKODISKO 07:41 5. MOUNTAIN MAN 04:54 6. SHOWDOWN 09:51
