Posted in Whathaveyou on June 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Good times. As it happened I was thinking about Wizzerd‘s hometown in Kalispell, Montana, earlier today. Sorcia were playing there, I think it was. An eternity distant in my mind, but that EP was good.
Speaking of imminent things with good EPs, Wizzerd head out this weekend on a healthy stretch of live dates that had me checking my email for an album announcement I might’ve missed — no there wasn’t one. Last I heard from them was when they signed to Fuzzorama. At the time the record, titled Space: Issue No. 001, was slated for Fall.
HOWEVER, in between me starting to write this post and actually putting it up, the band released the new video for “Supernova” and with that comes the confirmation that their album will be out Sept. 30. So if you’ve been keeping up, yes, Fall.
The following comes from social media, which unless you’re totally averse to such things, you already know because band names appear as tags. I’ve basically decided to stop changing that kind of thing, which I’ve done for a while now. That’s reasonable, right? If something is ever unclear, you can always drop me a line direct.
Anyway, on with it:
UPDATE: Denver! We have added a killer show at @hqdenver with our old buds @thedirtystreets and our soon to be buds @elperrotheband. Stoked on this one!!
Tour is closing in soon, less than a couple weeks before we get to do this again! Where will we see you?
6/11 – Bozeman, MT – Labor Temple 6/12 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High 6/13 – Denver, CO – HQ 6/14 – Lawrence, KS – Replay Lounge 6/15 – Oklahoma City, OK – Blue Note 6/16 – Dallas, TX – Double Wide 6/17 – Austin, TX – High Noon 6/18 – San Antonio, TX – Lonesome Rose 6/19 – Lafayette, LA – Freetown Boom Boom Room 6/21 – Johnson City, TN – The Hideaway 6/22 – Asheville, NC – Odditorium 6/23 – Morgantown, WV – 123 Pleasant St 6/24 – Youngstown, OH – Westside Bowl 6/25 – Canton, OH – Buzzbin 6/26 – Frederick, MD – Maryland Doom Fest 6/27 – Louisville, KY – Highlands Tap 6/28 – Detroit, MI – PJ’s Lager House 6/29 – Chicago, IL – Reggies 7/1 – Madison, WI – The Wisco 7/2 – Mankato, MN – NaKato Bar 7/3 – Rapid City, SD – Labor Temple
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A two-stage all-dayer with a killer pre-party the night before, Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2022 looks like a gem. I know nothing about the Flathead Valley in Montana, or historic downtown Kalispell, where the event will take place, but they’ve put together a cool lineup with the likes of Mountain Tamer and Kadabra on board, and while I might not know all that much about Ncroflchr (from parts unknown) or Schticky, homegrown Montana acts like Swamp Ritual, Spliffripper and Wizzerd, along with Witch Bitch, ThroneStower and The Gray Goo, who’ll also play, speak to a burgeoning scene, and with LáGoon coming east from Oregon and Merlock doing the same from Washington, cutting across Idaho while Throne of Iron head north from Indiana, the fest is using its geography smartly to pull from the different regions surrounding. There’s a lot to dig here, and I bet the show(s) will be a good time.
I bet you go to this, you leave with new friends. If you’re traveling for it, I mean. This seems like the kind of thing where there’s going to be a bunch of people who already know each other, but I bet if you were to show up and be like, “Hi, I think your bands are cool,” you’d probably end up feeling like family by the end of the day. Sounds pretty nice, if you ask me. Also heavy. It’s a 37-hour drive for me, so I don’t think I’ll get there, but they make the prospect enticing.
Here’s the lineup, as per social media:
Rocky Mountain Riff Fest 2022
Rocky Mountain Riff Fest Returns!!
Our 2022 lineup! Stoked to have so many friends joining us this year. The party goes down April 22 and 23 – see everybody there!
LINEUP: Main day 4/23: Mountain Tamer (CA) Throne of Iron (IN) LáGoon (OR) Merlock (WA) Wizzerd (MT) Witch Bitch (MT) ThroneStower (MT) The Gray Goo (MT) Schticky (MT) Ncroflchr (???)
Eagles 234 and Old School Records – $20 for all day
Posted in Questionnaire on January 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jamie Yeats of Wizzerd
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
What I do is express myself through music with my best friends, bring it to as many people as I can, and have as much fun as I can with it along the way. I don’t think I came to it so much as it came to me. It feels as much a necessity as it does a desire.
Describe your first musical memory.
I don’t have a specific first musical memory, but I do have a few songs that stand out as being the first songs that I remember hearing. Those would be: “Reelin’ in the Years” – Steely Dan, “Free Ride” – Edgar Winter Group, “In the Mood” – Glenn Miller. I also remember as a small child I would enjoy singing “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC in the backseat much to my mother’s dismay.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I think it would have to be Wizzerd’s first show in Berlin. We played in the basement area of a venue called Zukunft, which looked and felt almost exactly like the DIY space in our hometown that we have played so many times, Old School Records. I had met the promoter about a month before while driving for Year of the Cobra, so I knew he was going to put on a good show. What happened was beyond expectations — a totally packed house! And in the middle of the tour, our playing was about as on fire as it can get. To top it all off we had friends from all over the world there. Good friends from Northern Ireland, a newer friend from Australia, a relative of a bandmate who moved to Berlin, and of course our brothers and tourmates Kal-El were all there sharing drinks and stories. All these things together made for a very special night. We made a primitive recording of the whole show and released a few songs from it on our Bandcamp page if anyone is that interested!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I’ve always felt like when things get shaky, everything will sort of work itself out in one way or another. This was tested at the end of our aforementioned European tour. The tour was an expensive outing — lots of days off and touring with 10 people was not exactly profitable. By the end of the run we had eaten through all our funds. We were on our way to be dropped off in Amsterdam, where we were flying home from. The catch was that we had two more nights there before our flight with nowhere to stay and no money.
We had foreseen this for a few days and when the time finally came things seemed pretty bleak. We started planning sleeping shifts at the train station when I remembered that many years ago someone had messaged us on Facebook saying that if we were ever in Amsterdam we should meet up for a beer. I found the message and responded stating our situation. It turned out that the guy puts bands up all the time and just had a band cancel, so he offered to put us up for those two nights, and he even was able to get us a paying gig in place of the band who was going to stay with him! Everything worked out excellently and we owe Kees a massive thanks for life. I guess this was a time when the belief was tested — and it passed.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Honesty.
How do you define success?
Happiness.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I don’t know if there is anything. I don’t really wish anything was different in regards to what I have seen. It kind of seems fleeting to reach into the past and wish for something to change.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A music video. Wizzerd has always stayed fairly self produced, recording all of our own material so far, mixing our first two records, doing some of our own photoshoots, stuff like that. We have gear to make a music video but have never really carved out the time to focus our efforts there for whatever reason. For the next album I think it’s a necessity! It would be fun to do it on our own or to collaborate. Music video makers get at me‽
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To invoke feeling. Any feeling in anyone. Whether it be the artist themselves feeling proud of their work, or disappointed in it while throwing it in the garbage. And on the flip side of the coin that goes for anyone consuming the art. I think someone confusedly saying “what the fuck is the point of that? I don’t get it.” is just as valid of a response as someone being moved to cry, for example. Any of these are some form of feeling invoked, and if any of them occur it means that the art has done its job.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The next Dune movie. I’m a fan of the book and the first part which was just released was awesome!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 23rd, 2021 by JJ Koczan
This year, in addition to releasing a four-part digital chronicle of live and studio recordings from their five-plus years together, Kalispell, Montana’s Wizzerd issued their split with Merlin (review here) on Ripple Music and put up for preorder a seven-inch due out next June called Space: Issue No. 000 that can also be streamed now in its two-song entirety. Keeping busy, you say? Why yes, that seems to be the case.
They’ll continue to do so, as well, as 2022 will also mark their debut on Fuzzorama Records with their next full-length, the follow-up to their 2019 self-titled (review here) and their third album overall, set to be titled Space: Issue No. 001. Obviously we’re a long way out from Fall 2022, so it’s that much harder to say when the record will actually show up or how much touring the band will be able to do to support it, but in a universe of infinite possibility, maybe it’s worth looking forward to some cool tunes to come.
And if it needs to be said at this point, yes, FuzzoramaRecords is the label helmed by Sweden’s Truckfighters, which as endorsements go is a damn good one to have for an act like Wizzerd.
More to come:
Transmission:
Wizzerd is pleased to announce our signing with Fuzzorama Records! Being longtime fans of the label’s work, we feel that our sound will be a natural fit with their catalog and we cannot wait to wait to get our new music out there in such a big way. To finally follow up our first two albums in a big way, expect a new full length album in fall 2022, with singles on the way in the meantime. In addition, expect to see us on the road as much as possible as we unleash the next chapter of Wizzerd unto the universe!
End Transmission
Wizzerd is: Guitar/Vocals – Jhalen Salazar Guitar – Jamie Yeats Drums – Sam Moore Bass – Layne Matkovich
We proceed onward, into this ever-growing swath of typos, lineup corrections made after posting, and riffs — more riffs! — that is the Quarterly Review. Today is Day Four and I’m feeling good. Not to say there isn’t some manner of exhaustion, but the music has been killer — today is particularly awesome — and that makes life much, much, much better as I’ve already said. I hope you’ve found one or two or 10 records so far that you’ve really dug. I know I’ve added a few to my best of 2021 list, including stuff right here. So yeah, we roll on.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Spelljammer, Abyssal Trip
To envision an expanse, and to crush it. Stockholm three-piece Spelljammer return five years after Ancient of Days (review here), with an all-the-more-massive second long-player through RidingEasy, turning their front-cover astronaut around to face the audience head on and offering 43 minutes/six tracks of encompassing largesse, topping 10 minutes in the title-track and “Silent Rift,” both on side B with the interlude “Peregrine” between them, after the three side A rollers, “Bellwether,” “Lake” and “Among the Holy” have tripped out outward and downward into an atmospheric plunge that is a joy to take feeling specifically geared as an invite to the converted. We are here, come worship with us. Also get crushed. Spelljammer records may not happen all the time, but you won’t be through “Bellwether” before you’re saying it was worth the wait.
A deceptively graceful second LP from Melbourne’s The Black Heart Death Cult, Sonic Mantras pulls together an eight-song/45-minute run that unfolds bookended by “Goodbye Gatwick Blues” (8:59) and “Sonic Dhoom” (9:47) and in between ebbs and flows across shorter pieces that maximize their flow in whether shoegazing, heavygazing, blissing out, or whatever we’re calling it this week on “The Sun Inside” and “One Way Through,” or finding their way to a particularly deadened meadow on “Trees,” or tripping the light hypnotic on “Dark Waves” just ahead of the closer. “Cold Fields” churns urgently in its 2:28 but remains spacious, and everywhere The Black Heart Death Cult go, they remain liquefied in their sound, like a seemingly amorphous thing that nonetheless manages to hold its shape despite outside conditions. Whatever form they take, then, they are themselves, and Sonic Mantras emphasizes how yet-underappreciated they are in emerging from the ever-busy Aussie underground.
Tetra is the third long-player from Milwaukee’s Shogun, and in addition to the 10-minute “Delta,” which marries blues gargle with YOB slow-gallop before jamming out across its 10-minute span, it brings straight-shooter fuzz rockers like “Gravitas,” the someone-in-this-band-listened-to-Megadeth-in-the-’90s-and-that’s-okay beginnings of “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary” and likewise crunch of “Axiom” later, but also the quiet classic progressive rock of “Gone Forever,” and the more patient coming together of psychedelia and harder-hitting movement on closer “Maximum Ray.” Somewhat undercut by a not-raw-but-not-bursting-with-life production, pieces like “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary,” which gives over to a sweeter stretch of guitar in its second movement, and “Vertex/Universal Pain Center,” which in its back end brings around that YOB influence again and puts it to good use, are outwardly complex enough to put the lie to the evenhandedness of the recording. There’s more going on in Tetra than it first seems, and the more you listen, the more you find.
Keeping up with Nadja has proven nigh on impossible over the better part of the last two decades, as the Berlin-by-way-of-Toronto duo have issued over 25 albums in 19 years, plus splits and live offerings and digital singles and oh my goodness I do believe I have the vapors that’s a lot of Nadja. For those of us who flit in and out like the dilletantes we ultimately are, Luminous Rot‘s aligning Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff with Southern Lord makes it an easy landmark, but really most of what the six-cut/48-minute long-player does is offer a reminder of the vital experimentalism the lazy are missing in the first place. The consuming, swelling drone of “Cuts on Your Hands,” blown-out sub-industrialism of “Starres,” hook of the title-track and careful-what-you-wish-for anchor riff of “Fruiting Bodies” — these and the noisily churning closer “Dark Inclusions” are a fervent argument in Nadja‘s favor as being more than a sometimes-check-in kind of band, and for immediately digging into the 43-minute single-song album Seemannsgarn, which they released earlier this year. So much space and nothing to lose.
Welcome to punishment as a primary consideration. Indianapolis death-doom four-piece hold back the truly crawling fare until “Perverted Reflection,” which is track three of the total seven on their debut full-length, Upon a Throne of Jackals, but by then the extremity has already shown its unrepentant face across the buried-alive “Final Spasms of the Drowned” and the oldschool death metal of “The Altar.” Centerpiece “Invert Every Throne” calls to mind Conan in its nod, but Shroud of Vulture are more about rawness than sheer largesse in tone, and their prone-to-blasting style gives them an edge there and in “Halo of Tarnished Light,” which follows. The closing pair of “Concealing Rabid Laughter” and “Stone Coffin of Existence” both top seven minutes and offset grueling tension with grueling release, but it’s the stench of decay that so much defines Upon a Throne of Jackals, as though somebody rebuilt Sunlight Studio brick for brick in Hoosier Country. Compelling and filthy in kind.
Towards Atlantis Lights, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun
Ultra-grueling, dramatic death-doom tragedies permeate the second full-length, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun, from UK-based four-piece Towards Atlantis Lights, with vocalist/keyboardist Kostas Panagiotou and guitarist Ivan Zara at the heart of the compositions while bassist Riccardo Veronese and drummer Ivano Olivieri assure the impact that coincides with the cavernous procession matches in scope. The follow-up to 2018’s Dust of Aeons (review here), this six-track collection fosters classicism and modern apocalyptic vibes alike, and whether raging or morose, its dirge atmosphere remains firm and uncompromised. Heavy lumber for heavy hearts. The kind of doom that doesn’t look up. That doesn’t mean it’s not massive in scope — it is, even more than the first record — just that nearly everything it sees is downward. If there’s hope, it is a vague thing, lost to periphery. So be it.
It has been said on multiple occasions that “space is the place.” The curiously-capitalized Colorado outfit ASTRAL CONstruct would seem to live by this ethic on their debut album, Tales of Cosmic Journeys, unfurling as they do eight flowing progressions of instrumental slow-CGI-of-the-planets pieces that are more plotted in their course than jams, but feel built from jams just the same. Raw in its production and mix, and mastered by Kent Stump of Wo Fat, there’s enough atmosphere to let the lead guitar breathe, certainly, and to sustain life in general even on “Jettisoned Adrift in the Space Debris,” and the image evoked by “Hand Against the Solar Winds” feels particularly inspired given that song’s languid roll. The record starts and ends in cryogenic sleep, and if upon waking we’re transported to another place and another time, who knows what wonders we might see along the way. ASTRAL CONstruct‘s exploration would seem to be just beginning here, but their “Cosmos Perspective” is engaging just the same.
Vienna-based sludgedrivers TarLung were last heard from with 2017’s Beyond the Black Pyramid (discussed here), and Architect continues the progression laid out there in melding vocal extremity and heavy-but-not-too-heavy-to-move riffing. It might seem like a fine line to draw, and it is, and that only makes songs like “Widow’s Bane” and “Horses of Plague” all the more nuanced as their deathly growls and severe atmospheres mesh with what in another context might just be stoner rock groove. Carcass circa the criminally undervalued Swansong, Six Feet Under. TarLung manage to find a place in stoner sludge that isn’t just Bongzilla worship, or Bongripper worship, or Bong worship. I’m not sure it’s worship at all, frankly, and I like that about it as the closing title-track slow-moshes my brain into goo.
Somewhere in the great mystical expanse between Kalispell, Montana, and Kansas City, Missouri, two practicioners of the riffly dark arts meet on a field of battle. Wizzerd come packing the 19-minute acoustic-into-heavy-prog-into-sitar-laced-jam-out “We Are,” as if to encompass that declaration in all its scope, while Merlin answer back with the organ-led “Merlin’s Bizarre Adventure” (21:51), all chug and lumber until it’s time for weirdo progressive fusion reggae and an ensuing Purple-tinged psych expansion. Who wins? I don’t know. Ripple Music in releasing it in the first place, I guess. Continuing the label’s influential split series(es), Turned to Stone Chapter III pushes well over the top in the purposes of both acts involved, and in that, it’s maybe less of a battle than two purveyors joining forces to weave some kind of Meteo down on the heads of all who might take them on. If you’ve think you’ve got the gift, they seem only too ready to test that out.
“Life Grinder” begins with a sample: “I don’t know if you need all that bass,” and the answer, “Oh, you need all that bass.” That’s already after “Sea Sick Six” has revealed the Montreal-based trio’s sans-guitar extremist sludge roll, and the three-piece seem only too happy to keep up the theme. Vocals are harsh, biting, grating, purposeful in their fuckall, and the whole 28-minute affair of Winterized is cathartic aural violence, except perhaps the interlude “666,” which is a quiet moment between “Broken Bones” and “Black Snail Volcano,” which finally seems to just explode in its outright aggression, nod notwithstanding. A slowed down Ramones cover — reinventing “Pet Sematary” as “Red Sematary” — has a layer of spoken chanting vocals layered in and closes out, but the skin has been peeled so far back by then and Seum have doused so much salt onto the wounds that even Bongzilla might cringe. The low-end-only approach only makes it more punishing and more punk rock at the same time. Fucking mean.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 14th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Merlin track sampled below is a righteous indictment of the tropes of stoner doom, ultimately making its way into the chorus of “I see why/Stoner doom must die.” It’s a good hook, and I don’t know about you, but I want to hear where the rest of that goes over the ensuing 15 minutes, let alone what Wizzerd might try to do to combat it. Indeed, the third installment of Ripple‘s Turned to Stone split series is tagged as Wizzerd vs. Merlin, so as the two mystical-minded riffers come together to release the LP this July, one can only imagine the horrors and wonders that await. It’ll be fun. You like fun, right? I’ve never tried it myself, but I hear good things.
And I guess by that I mean I hear this Merlin snippet. Listen to the lyrics.
Whatever. Here’s the PR wire info you’re here for anyway:
RIPPLE MUSIC: ‘Turned To Stone Chapter III’ details and first track unveiled!
Ripple Music is proud to unveil details for the third chapter of their ‘Turned To Stone’ split series, with yet another riffalicious collaboration! To meet expectations that followed an intense meme war on social media, US heavy psych and doom units WIZZERD and MERLIN will issue a 40-minute split LP entitled ‘Turned To Stone Chapter III: Wizzerd vs Merlin’ this July 16th on Ripple Music. Stream a snippet of Merlin’s mind-bending song right now!
In Chapter III of Ripple Music’s ambitious ‘Turned to Stone’ series, a mythic musical battle unfolds between two wielders of the magical arts: WIZZERD and MERLIN. With each band contributing a full LP side, taking the form of one massive and masterful track, which band will triumph and take the mantle of Master Mage? It is now time to lift a part of the veil, and lend your eager ears to Kansas City doom slingers MERLIN’s own acid-drenched and shapeshifting sound with an appalling snippet of their 20-minute masterpiece “Merlin’s Bizarre Adventure”.
MERLIN about this epic contribution: “Merlin’s Bizarre Adventure was made while the pandemic raged on; band members came and went and all of our jobs became wildly unpredictable. Writing this song in the spring/summer of 2020 was the only thing preventing us from going on a hiatus. It gave our new lineup the challenge and jump-start we needed to embrace the future sound of the band. Plus we needed to write a song that Wizzerd couldn’t top even if they tried.”
WIZZERD outbid: “Fans across the globe have been asking, ‘Who will win the great meme war?’, ‘Why does Merlin think they have anything on Wizzerd?’ and ‘Will this ever end?’, and thanks to the fine folks at Ripple Music, we can finally settle this heated debate once and for all. Merlin think that they’re hot stuff, but really it’s all just a meme game. When it comes to the music, can they make it where it really counts? Grab yourself a chili dog and listen to find out who the real winner is. (Hint: it’s Wizzerd).”
The ‘Turned to Stone Chapter III: Wizzerd vs Merlin’ album will be issued on July 16th via Ripple Music, and available to preorder now on: – Magma Edition Galaxy Vinyl LP (gleaming yellow vinyl w/ deep purple and black splatter) – Bedrock Edition Splatter Vinyl LP (magic-ale colored) – Digital
Side A – Wizzerd “We Are” (18:55) Side B – Merlin “Merlin’s Bizzare Adventure” (21:51)
You wanna know how much of a stoner I’m not? I tried to look up what a ‘bing’ is without realizing that the band is just screwing around and using ‘bing’ as opposed to ‘bong.’ No bings, just bongs. Get it?
Desert Records has signed on to enable Spliffripper, these Montana-based, reefer-minded miscreants, whose sludgy “Left is Law” you can stream premiering at the bottom of this post. The three-piece will issue their basement-recorded (one assumes if the basement wasn’t dank when they got there it was by the time they left) self-titled full-length debut through the noted imprint on March 26. Their mission is shouty sludge with due crust and no pretense about the various influences sonic and otherwise under which they’re working. You’ll note in the tracklisting below that the album closes with “Jazz Cabbage,” and that happens to be my particular favorite euphemism for weed.
Wonder how these dudes feel about edibles.
Either way, their anti-marijuana “weed kills” stance is a riot, and brings a very specific kind of charm. I haven’t heard it yet, but I’m sure “Funeral Bong” is a good time.
The PR wire has this:
Spliffripper – Desert Records
!!ATTENTION ALL POT-SMOKING, DRUG-ADDLED, HIPPY-TRIPPING DEGENERATES!!!
The anti-stoner reefer-enforcement squadron has arrived: SPLIFFRIPPER!!!
Assault your earholes with our message of the true dangers of the illegal narcotic: MARIJUANA!!!
Prepare your feeble, hazed-out minds for a sonic assault of sludgy death, cultic tone worship, and cannabis-fueled rage, with riffs so nasty, you’ll drink the bongwater!
Songs of overdose, addiction, loss, and insanity that are a direct result of this dangerous chemical substance!
Your skull will cave in from the sheer power of our propaganda, and you will immediately relinquish all hazardous or unlawful substances, which shall be placed in our possession henceforth!
!!!WE ARE COMING FOR YOUR WEED. YOUR GRASS SHALL BE OURS!!!
“Spliffripper is the living embodiment of propaganda, spewing forth the inane truths of the dangers of cannabis. Rage-fueled, hate-inducing riffs are bound to turn you into a murderous reefer fiend.”
“No bings No bubblers No bullshit BONGS ONLY *spliffs and jays are A-okay*”
Tracklisting: 1. Bongbreaker 2. Left is Law 3. Vietbong 4. Chief Kief 5. Maui Waui 6. Funeral Bong 7. Jazz Cabbage
Got my laptop back. Turned out the guy had to give me a new hard drive entirely, clone all my data on it, and scrap the other drive. I’m sure if I took it to another technician they’d have said something completely different, either for better or worse, but it was $165 and I got my computer back, working, in a day, so I can’t really complain. Worth the money, obviously, even though it was $40 more than the estimate. I assume that was a mix of “new hard drive” and “this is the last thing I’m doing before a four-day weekend.” Either way, totally legit. Bit of stress on my part, but what’s a Quarterly Review without it?
This ends the week, but there’s still one more batch of 10 reviews to go on Monday, so I won’t delay further, except to say more to come.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Nocebo
A rare level of triumph for a first album, Elizabeth Colour Wheel‘s aesthetic scope and patience of craft on Nocebo result in a genre-spanning post-noise rock that maintains an atmospheric heft whether loud or quiet at any given moment, and a sense of unpredictability that feels born out of a genuinely forward-thinking songwriting process. It is dark, emotionally resonant, beautiful and crushing across its eight songs and 47 minutes, as the Philadelphia five-piece ebb and flow instrumentally behind a standout vocal performance that reminds of Julie Christmas circa Battle of Mice on “Life of a Flower” but is ultimately more controlled and all the more lethal for that. Bouts of extremity pop up at unexpected times and the songs flow into each other so as to make all of Nocebo feel like a single, multi-hued work, which it just might be as it moves into ambience between “Hide Behind (Emmett’s Song)” and “Bedrest” before exploding to life again in “34th” and transitioning directly into the cacophonous apex that comes with closer “Head Home.” One of the best debuts of 2019, if not the best.
Ancients is the third full-length from Baltimore’s Black Lung, whose heavy blues rock takes a moodier approach from the outset of “Mother of the Sun” onward, following an organ-led roll in that opener that calls to mind All Them Witches circa Lightning at the Door and following 2016’s See the Enemy (review here) with an even firmer grasp on their overarching intent. The title-track is shorter at 3:10 and offers some post-rock flourish in the guitar amid its otherwise straight-ahead push, but there’s a tonal depth to add atmosphere to whatever moves they’re making at the time, “The Seeker” and “Voices” rounding out side A with relatively grounded swing and traditionalist shuffle but still catching attention through pace and presentation alike. That holds true as “Gone” drifts into psychedelic jamming at the start of side B, and the chunkier “Badlands,” the dramatic “Vultures” and the controlled wash of “Dead Man Blues” take the listener into some unnamed desert without a map or exit strategy. It’s a pleasure to get lost as Ancients plays through, and Black Lung remain a well-kept secret of the East Coast underground.
This just fucking rules, and I feel no need to couch my critique in any more flowery language than that. Driving, fuzzy heavy rock topped with post-Homme melodies that doesn’t sacrifice impact for attitude, the self-released, self-titled debut from Perth, Australia’s Giant Dwarf is a sans-pretense 35 minutes of groove done right. They may be playing to genre, fine, but from the cover art on down, they’re doing so with a sense of personality and a readiness to bring an individual sensibility to their sound. I dig it. Summery tones, rampant vocal melodies in layers, solid rhythmic foundation beneath. The fact that it’s the five-piece’s first album makes me look less for some kind of stylistic nuance, but it’s there to be heard anyway in “Disco Void” and the bouncing end of “High Tide Blues,” and in surrounding cuts like “Repeat After Defeat” and “Strange Wool,” Giant Dwarf set to the task before them with due vitality, imagining Songs for the Deaf with Fu Manchu tonality in “Kepler.” No big surprise, but yeah, it definitely works. Someone should be beating down the door to sign this band.
Land Mammal‘s debut outing is a 14-minute, proof-of-concept four-songer EP with clarity of presentation and telegraphed intent. Marked out by the Robert Plant-style vocal heroics of Kinsley August, the band makes the most of a bluesy atmosphere behind him, with Will Weise on wah-ready guitar, Phillip PJ Soapsmith on bass, Stephen Smith on drums and True Turner on keys. On opener “Dark with Rain” and closer “Better Days,” they find a pastoral vibe that draws from ’90s alternative, thinking Blind Melon particularly in the finale, but “Earth Made Free” takes a bluesier angle and “Drippin’ Slow” is not shy about nor ashamed of its danceability, as its lyrics demonstrate. For all the crispness of the production, Land Mammal still manage to sound relatively natural, which is all the more encouraging in terms of moving forward, but it’ll be interesting to hear how they flesh out their sound over the course of a full-length, since even as an EP, this self-titled is short. They have songwriting, performance and production on their side, however, so something tells me they’ll be just fine.
Even before they get to the ultra-“N.I.B.” patterning of second track “Stand in the Sun,” Skunk‘s Sabbathian loyalties are well established, and they continue on that line, through the “War Pigs”-ness of “Goblin Orgy” (though I’ll give them bonus points for that title), and the slower “A National Acrobat” roll of “The Black Crown,” and while that’s not the only influence under which Skunk are working — clearly — it’s arguably the most forward. They’ve been on a traditional path since 2015’s mission-statement EP, Heavy Rock from Elder Times (review here), and as Strange Vibration is their second album behind 2017’s Doubleblind (review here), they’ve only come more into focus in terms of what they’re doing overall. They throw a bit of swagger into “Evil Eye Gone Blind” and “Star Power” toward the end of the record — more Blackmore or Leslie West than Iommi — but keep the hooks center through it all, and cap with a welcome bit of layered melody on “The Cobra’s Kiss.” Based in Oakland, they don’t quite fit in with the Californian boogie scene to the south, but standing out only seems to suit Strange Vibration all the more.
Like countrymen outfits in Vokonis or to a somewhat lesser degree Cities of Mars, Gävle-based riffers Silver Devil tap into Sleep as a core influence and work outward from there. In the case of their second album, Paralyzed (on Ozium Records), they work far out indeed, bringing a sonic largesse to bear through plus-sized tonality and distorted vocals casting echoes across a wide chasm of the mix. “Rivers” or the later, slower-rolling “Octopus” rightfully present this as an individual take, and it ends up being that one way or the other, with the atmosphere becoming essential to the character of the material. There are some driving moments that call to mind later Dozer — or newer Greenleaf, if you prefer — such as the centerpiece “No Man Traveller,” but the periodic bouts of post-rock bring complexity to that assessment as well, though in the face of the galloping crescendo of “The Grand Trick,” complexity is a secondary concern to the outright righteousness with which Silver Devil take familiar elements and reshape them into something that sounds fresh and engaging. That’s basically the story of the whole record, come to think of it.
Comprised of guitarist/vocalist/engineer Vessel 2 and drummer/vocalist Vessel 1 (also ex-Mühr), Sky Burial release their debut EP, Sokushinbutsu, through Break Free Records, and with it issue two songs of densely-weighted riff and crash, captured raw and live-sounding with an edge of visceral sludge thanks to the harsh vocals laid overtop. The prevailing spirit is as much doom as it is crust throughout “Return to Sender” (8:53) and the 10:38 title-track — the word translating from Japanese to “instant Buddha” — and as “Sokushinbutsu” kicks the tempo of the leadoff into higher gear, the release becomes a wash of blown-out tone with shouts cutting through that’s very obviously meant to be as brutal as it absolutely is. They slow down eventually, then slow down more, then slow down more — you see where this is going — until eventually the feedback seems to consume them and everything else, and the low rumble of guitar gives way to noise and biting vocalizations. As beginnings go, Sokushinbutsu is willfully wretched and animalistic, a manifested sonic nihilism that immediately stinks of death.
One finds Montana’s Wizzerd born of a similar Upper Midwestern next-gen take on classic heavy as that of acts like Bison Machine and Midas. Their Cursed Tongue Records-delivered self-titled debut album gives a strong showing of this foundation, less boogie-based than some, with just an edge of heavy metal to the riffing and vocals that seems to derive not directly from doom, but definitely from some ’80s metal stylizations. Coupled with ’70s and ’90s heavy rocks, it’s a readily accessible blend throughout the nine-song/51-minute LP, but a will toward the epic comes through in theme as well as the general mood of the riffs, and even in the drift of “Wizard” that’s apparent. Taken in kind with the fuzzblaster “Wraith,” the winding motion of the eponymous closer and with the lumbering crash of “Warrior” earlier, the five-piece’s sound shows potential to distinguish itself further in the future through taking on fantasy subject matter lyrically as well as playing to wall-sized grooves across the board, even in the speedy first half of “Phoenix,” with its surprising crash into the wall of its own momentum.
The core of Ian Blurton‘s Signals Through the Flames is in tight, sharply-executed heavy rockers like “Seven Bells” and “Days Will Remain,” classic in their root but not overly derivative, smartly and efficiently composed and performed. The Toronto-based Blurton has been making and producing music for over three decades in various guises and incarnations, and with these nine songs, he brings into focus a songcraft that is more than enough to carry song like “Nothing Left to Lose” and opener “Eye of the Needle,” which bookends with the 6:55 “Into Dust,” the closer arriving after a final salvo with the Scorpionic strut of “Kick out the Lights” and the forward-thrust-into-ether of “Night of the Black Goat.” If this was what Ghost had ended up sounding like, I’d have been cool with that. Blurton‘s years of experience surely come into play in this work, a kind of debut under his own name and/or that of Ian Blurton’s Future Now, but the songs come through as fresh regardless and “The March of Mars” grabs attention not with pedigree, but simply by virtue of its own riff, which is exactly how it should be. It’s subtle in its variety, but those willing to give it a repeat listen or two will find even more reward for doing so.
“Lackland” is the first new material Berlin three-piece Cosmic Fall have produced since last year’s In Search of Space (review here) album, which is only surprising given the frequency with which they once jammed out a record every couple of months. The lone 8:32 track is a fitting reminder of the potency in the lineup of guitarist Marcin Morawski, bassist Klaus Friedrich and drummer Daniel Sax, and listening to the Earthless-style shred in Morawski‘s guitar, one hopes it won’t be another year before they come around again. As it stands, they make the eight minutes speed by with volcanic fervor and an improvised sensibility that feels natural despite the song’s ultimately linear trajectory. Could be a one-off, could be a precursor to a new album. I’d prefer the latter, obviously, but I’ll take what I can get, and if that’s “Lackland,” then so be it.
