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: Horned Wolf

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Don Bailey: We play metal. It’s been a lifelong passion. I think any metalhead will say that is a way of life and not just music.

Sav MangelsDorf: we’re a group of musicians who get together and build a wall of sound intended to evoke emotion.

Describe your first musical memory.

Don: My first musical memory is probably listening to Weird Al and Michael Jackson on my cassette walkman. I Have no idea how I got them but from that moment on I was hooked.

Sav: sitting in my papa’s truck listening to Mr. Breeze by Skynyrd. My pops was a hell of a guitarist himself, and loved that song. I watched him air guitar it in the car in awe. And I was hooked.

Dan Hocklander: Yeah honestly my love for “Bad Hair Day” by Weird Al. But it really took grip when I was moving with my family as a kid, we spent multiple trips driving hours to shop for a new house. That was right after I got my first “Discman” or whatever. I fell in love with music but was going back and forth with cds like “What’s the Story Morning Glory” by Oasis and “Backstreet’s Back” by Backstreet Boys. Sprinkle in some Offspring, Beastie Boys, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Hanson’s first album. I’ve always been a little all over the place.

Justin Mullin: My Dad is an old metal head and music nerd so I was inundated with fantastic music from day 1. I remember going through his CD collection at an early age and being fascinated with the album artwork. Specifically Iron Maiden’s Powerslave. The artwork for that album always caught my attention. The music is pretty damn good too.

David Zey: probably watching Sesame Street as a tiny kiddo.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Don: That’s tough because there have been so many! As a fan Seeing In Flames in a small venue when they were touring for “Reroute to Remain” is one of my favorite moments. The place was so packed you had to decide before they started playing if your arms were gonna be up or down because everyone was smashed in so tight. As a band it was a show we did in October 2021. It was Sav’s first show with us and our first in two years due to covid. For a Thursday night the place was packed and there are so many amazing photos from that show.

Sav: There are so many, so I’ll pick my favorites. Seeing Motorhead play briefly before Lemmy’s death was a cross off the ol’ bucket list, as well as seeing Slayer and Slipknot the same day. Seeing System of a Down on their reunion tour also rocked my shit. Any of the times I saw Deftones really got me as well. As Don mentioned, filling the venue in 2021 with the boys. Hadn’t played live in so long, and it was exhilarating.

Dan: Yeah, there are a lot. I think my number one would be seeing Between the Buried and Me play “Colors” in its entirety during the anniversary tour of that album.

David: first time I saw Coalesce in the late 90’s.

Justin: I got to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden. That was pretty awesome.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Don: I mean with the internet it feels like almost everyday. People are so quick to give their thoughts and fast to dismiss anything they don’t believe in themselves. Kind of a bummer really. Like were all aliens from different planets trying to convince the others our truths are the only truths. Just don’t be a dick and let people exist how they want.

Sav: all the time. I’ve been clean for over a year, and it’s very important to me. Alas, temptation can rear it’s ugly head. The band helps keep me in check, we’re a big family.

Dan: When I realized being pissed off all the time at the world was just zapping my spirit and my will to live. It took years to really change my mindset completely and I still have to fight it sometimes. But I have found being a patient and compassionate person is way more fun than resenting the fact that you were forced to be alive without your consent haha.

David: the word belief insinuates an acceptance of something as factual without evidence or based on faith. I try not to do that shit these days. Something either is factual or it is not, belief is not required.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Don: Either total bliss or absolute madness.

Sav: You really can’t say, can you? Entirely situational.

Dan: Wherever IT wants to lead you.

David: to either finished or unfinished art projects.

Justin: For me personally it leads to killer riffs, that then get filtered through Don and he makes them even more killer.

How do you define success?

Don: For me success is having thousands of people get joy from your art. Being able to play a venue in your city and knowing people will come out to support you. That’s what I think of as success. Anything beyond that is just a bonus.

Sav: For me, it’s happiness and security. The idea of being happy and financially stable enough to make music and not have to work on the side is everything. To be able to make a positive impact on others.

Dan: Success is incremental in my opinion. It used to be simply booking a show. Now I see strangers wearing my band’s merchandise in public places and I feel like that’s a level of “success.”

David: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Justin: I picked my daughter up from school and her teacher said she watched our music video. That defines success for me.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Don: The 1999 movie Wing Commander. In Retrospect I don’t think I needed to see that.

Sav: I could answer this in all seriousness, but nobody cares about that body I found. How about the movie cannibal Holocaust as a teenager. It still occasionally inches its way into my nightmares.

Dan: The movie “Arachnophobia” when I was like, 6. Scarred me for life, I am TERRIFIED of spiders to this day. That and basically EVERYTHING that’s happened in the world in the last 10 years.

David: the last few seasons of Game of Thrones.

Justin: I watched children of the corn at a sleepover when I was 8. That scene in the cafe when all the kids start killing the adults messed me up.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Don: It doesn’t have pointy bits but it’s also not round. Like a Hooloovoo it does resemble a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue. it’s really only going to be useful 1 time. That’s all I can say right now.

Sav: Maybe an award winning dance routine, or maybe an entire album that can’t be put into a genre.

Dan: A doom-metal cover of the song “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem.

David: the next Horned Wolf album.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Don: The creativity it inspires in all of us. Either by looking at it, or listening to it, or just thinking about it. Otep said it best “Art Saves”.

Sav: Don already said it, down to Sevas Tra (art saves) said best by Otep Shamaya. Its been the biggest outlet for me.

Dan: Using your own experiences and giving words or meaning to someone who couldn’t find it themselves.

David: It depends on the piece and the context. It could be physical (serves a physical purpose), social (addresses aspects of a collective experience rather than an individual’s experience), personal (highly subjective forms of self-expression), or any combination of the above. In other words, this is an impossible question to answer in any general way.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Don: I am about to start reading Jurassic Park for the first time. I am pretty stoked about that. I am also looking forward to more of the current F1 season and the start of the Kansas City Chiefs Football season.

Sav: the Bob’s Burgers movie. I am just SO excited for the Bob’s Burgers movie.

Dan: I have a pizza out for delivery, pretty excited about that.

David: I recently read that Netflix is doing a series of Neil Gaiman’s “the Sandman”. I am looking forward to watching that.

Justin: I’m looking forward to this video game coming out in June. It’s called “The Quarry”. It’s got David Arquette in it.

https://www.facebook.com/hornedwolf
https://www.instagram.com/hornedwolf/
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https://hornedwolf.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/HornedWolfDoom

Horned Wolf, Become Like They Are (2022)

Welcome back to the Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s not quite the same as the Mountain of Madness, but there are definitely days where it feels like they’re pretty closely related. Just the same, we, you and I, persist through like digging a tunnel sans dynamite, and I hope you had a great and safe weekend (also sans dynamite) and that you find something in this batch of releases that you truly enjoy. Not really much point to the thing otherwise, I guess, though it does tend to clear some folders off the desktop. Like, 100 of them in this case. That in itself isn’t nothing.

Time’s a wastin’. Let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

Boris, Heavy Rocks

One can’t help but wonder if Boris aren’t making some kind of comment on the franchise-ification of what sometimes feels like every damn thing by releasing a third Heavy Rocks album, as though perhaps it’s become their brand label for this particular kind of raucousness, much as their logo in capital letters or lowercase used to let you know what kind of noise you were getting. Either way, in 10 tracks and 41 minutes that mostly leave scorch marks when they’re done — they space out a bit on “Question 1” but elsewhere in the song pull from black metal and layer in lead guitar triumph — and along the way give plenty more thick toned, sometimes-sax-inclusive on-brand chicanery to dive into. “She is Burning,” “Cramper” and “My Name is Blank” are rippers before the willfully noisy relative slowdown “Blah Blah Blah,” and Japanese heavy institution are at their most Melvinsian with the experiment “Nosferatou,” ahead of the party metal “Ruins” and semi-industrial blowout “Ghostly Imagination,” the would-be-airy-were-it-not-crushing “Chained” and the concluding “(Not) Last Song,” which feeds the central query above in asking if there’s another sequel coming, piano, feedback, and finally, vocals ending what’s been colloquially dubbed Heavy Rocks (2022) with an end-credits scene like something truly Marvelized. Could be worse if that’s the way it’s going. People tend to treat each Boris album as a landmark. I’m not sure this one is, but sometimes that’s part of what happens with sequels too.

Boris on Facebook

Relapse Records store

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Mother Bear, Zamonian Occultism

Along with the depth of tone and general breadth of the mix, one of the aspects most enjoyable about Mother Bear‘s debut album, Zamonian Occultism, is how it seems to refuse to commit to one side or the other. They call themselves doom and maybe they are in movements here like the title-track, but the mostly-instrumental six-track/41-minute long-player — which opens and closes with lyrics and has “Sultan Abu” in the middle for a kind of human-voice trailmarker along the way — draws more from heavy psychedelia and languid groove on “Anagrom Ataf,” and if “Blue Bears and Silver Spliffs” isn’t stoner riffed, nothing ever has been. At the same time, the penultimate title-track slows way down, pulls the curtains closed, and offers a more massive nod, and the 10-minute closer “The Wizaaard” (just when you thought there were no more ways to spell it) answers that sense of foreboding in its own declining groove and echo-laced verses, but puts the fuzz at the forefront of the mix, letting the listener decide ultimately where they’re at. Tell you where I am at least: On board. Guitarist/vocalist Jonas Wenz, bassist Kevin Krenczer and drummer Florian Grass lock in hypnotic groove early and use it to tie together almost everything they do here, and while they’re obviously schooled in the styles they’re touching on, they present with an individual intent and leave room to grow. Will look forward to more.

Mother Bear on Facebook

Mother Bear on Bandcamp

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Sonja, Loud Arriver

After being kicked out of black metallers Absu for coming out as trans, Melissa Moore founded Sonja in Philadelphia with Grzesiek Czapla on drums and Ben Brand on bass, digging into a ‘true metal’ aesthetic with ferocity enough that Loud Arriver is probably the best thing they could’ve called their first record. Issued through Cruz Del Sur — so you know their ’80s-ism is class — the 37-minute eight-tracker vibes nighttime and draws on Moore‘s experience thematically, or so the narrative has it (I haven’t seen a lyric sheet), with energetic shove in “Nylon Nights” and “Daughter of the Morning Star,” growing duly melancholy in “Wanting Me Dead” before finding its victorious moment in the closing title-track. Cuts like “Pink Fog,” “Fuck, Then Die” and opener “When the Candle Burns Low…” feel specifically born of a blend of 1979-ish NWOBHM, but there’s a current of rock and roll here as well in the penultimate “Moans From the Chapel,” a sub-three-minute shove that’s classic in theme as much as riff and the most concise but by no means the only epic here. Hard not to read in catharsis on the part of Moore given how the band reportedly came about, but Loud Arriver serves notice one way or the other of a significant presence in the underground’s new heavy metal surge. Sonja have no time to waste. There are asses to kick.

Sonja on Facebook

Cruz Del Sur Music store

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Reverend Mother, Damned Blessing

Seven-minute opener ends in a War of the Worlds-style radio announcement of an alien invasion underway after the initial fuzzed rollout of the song fades, and between that and the subsequent interlude “Funeral March,” Reverend Mother‘s intent on Damned Blessing seems to be to throw off expectation. The Brooklynite outfit led by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Jackie Green (also violin) find even footing on rockers like “Locomotive” or the driving-until-it-hits-that-slowdown-wall-and-hey-cool-layering “Reverend Mother,” and the strings on the instrumental “L.V.B.,” which boasts a cello guest spot by High Priestess Nighthawk of Heavy Temple, who also returns on the closing Britney Spears cover “Toxic,” a riffed-up bent that demonstrates once again the universal applicability of pop as Reverend Mother tuck it away after the eight-minute “The Masochist Tie,” a sneering roll and chugger that finds the trio of Green, bassist Matt Cincotta and drummer Gabe Katz wholly dug into heavy rock tropes while nonetheless sounding refreshing in their craft. That song and “Shame” before it encapsulate the veer-into-doom-ness of Reverend Mother‘s hard-deliver’d fuzz, but Damned Blessing comes across like the beginning of a new exploration of style as only a next-generation-up take can and heralds change to come. I would not expect their second record to sound the same, but it will be one to watch for. So is this.

Reverend Mother on Instagram

Seeing Red Records store

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Umbilicus, Path of 1000 Suns

The pedigree here is notable as Umbilicus features founding Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz and guitarist/engineer Taylor Nordberg (also visuals), who’s played with Deicide, The Absence and a host of others, but with the soar-prone vocals of Brian Stephenson out front and the warm tonality of bassist Vernon Blake, Umbilicus‘ 10-song/45-minute first full-length, Path of 1000 Suns is a willful deep-dive into modernly-produced-and-presented ’70s-style heavy rock. Largely straightforward in structure, there’s room for proto-metallurgy on “Gates of Neptune” after the swinging “Umbilicus,” and the later melodic highlight “My Own Tide” throws a pure stoner riff into its second half, while the concluding “Gathering at the Kuiper Belt” hints at more progressive underpinnings, it still struts and the swing there is no less defining than in the solo section of “Stump Sponge” back on side A. Hooks abound, and I suppose in some of the drum fills, if you know what you’re listening for, you can hear shades of more extreme aural ideologies, but the prevailing spirit is born of an obvious love of classic heavy rock and roll, and Umbilicus play it with due heart and swagger. Not revolutionary, and actively not trying to be, but definitely the good time it promises.

Umbilicus on Facebook

Listenable Insanity Records on Facebook

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After Nations, The Endless Mountain

Not as frenetic as some out there of a similar technically-proficient ilk, Lawrence, Kansas, double-guitar instrumental four-piece After Nations feel as much jazz on “Féin” or “Cae” as they do progressive metal, djent, experimental, or any other tag with which one might want to saddle the resoundingly complex Buddhism-based concept album, The Endless Mountain — the Bandcamp page for which features something of a recommended reading list as well as background on the themes reportedly being explored in the material — which is fluid in composition and finds each of its seven more substantial inclusions accompanied by a transitional interlude that might be a drone, near-silence, a foreboding line of keys, whathaveyou. The later “Širdis” — penultimate to the suitably enlightened “Jūra,” if one doesn’t count the interlude between (not saying you shouldn’t) — is more of a direct linear build, but the 40-minute entirety of The Endless Mountain feels like a steep cerebral climb. Not everyone is going to be up for making it, frankly, but in “}}}” and its punctuationally-named companions there’s some respite from the head-spinning turns that surround, and that furthers both the dynamic at play overall and the accessibility of the songs. Whatever else it might be, it’s immaculately produced and every single second, from “Mons” and “Aon” to “))” and “(),” feels purposeful.

After Nations on Facebook

After Nations on Bandcamp

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Holy Dragon, Mordjylland

With the over-the-top Danzig-ian vocals coming through high in the mix, the drums sounding intentionally blown out and the fuzz of bass and guitar arriving in tidal riffs, Denmark’s Holy Dragon for sure seem to be shooting for memorability on their second album, Mordjylland. “Hell and Gold” pulls back somewhat from the in-your-face immediacy of opener “Bong” — and yet it’s faster; go figure — and the especially brash “War” is likewise timely and dug in. Centerpiece “Nightwatch” feels especially yarling with its more open riff and far-back echoing drums — those drums are heavy in tone in a way most are not, and it is appreciated — and gives over to the Judas Priestly riff of “Dunder,” which sounds like it’s being swallowed by the bass even as the concluding solo slices through. They cap with “Egypt” in classic-metal, minor-key-sounds-Middle-Eastern fashion, but they’re never far from the burly heft with which they started, and even the mellower finish of “Travel to Kill” feels drawn from it. The album’s title is a play on ‘Nordjylland’ — the region of Denmark where they’re from — and if they’re saying it’s dead, then their efforts to shake it back to life are palpable in these seven songs, even if the end front-to-back result of the album is going to be hit or miss with most listeners. Still, they are markedly individual, and the fact that you could pick them out of the crowd of Europe’s e’er-packed heavy underground is admirable in itself.

Holy Dragon on Instagram

Holy Dragon on Bandcamp

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Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Consensus Trance

Lincoln, Nebraska, trio Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships are right there. Right on the edge. You can hear it in the way “Beg Your Pardon” unfolds its lumbering tonality, riff-riding vocals and fervency of groove at the outset of their second album, Consensus Trance. They’re figuring it out. And they’re working quickly. Their first record, 2021’s TTBS, and the subsequent Rosalee EP (review here) were strong signals of intention on the part of guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Warner, bassist Karlin Warner and drummer Justin Kamal, and there is realization to be had throughout Consensus Trance in the noisy lead of “Mystical Consumer,” the quiet instrumental “Distalgia for Infinity” and the mostly-huge-chugged 11-minute highlight “Weeping Beast” to which it leads. But they’re also still developing their craft, as opener “Beg Your Pardon” demonstrates amid one of the record’s most vibrant hooks, and exploring spaciousness like that in the back half of the penultimate “Silo,” and the sense that emerges from that kind of reach and the YOB-ish ending of capper “I.H.” is that there’s more story to be told as to what Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships have to offer in style and substance. So much the better since Consensus Trance has such superlative heft at its foundation.

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Facebook

Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships on Bandcamp

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Deer Creek, Menticide

Kind of funny to think of Menticide as a debut LP from Deer Creek, who’ve been around for 20 years — one fondly recalls their mid-aughts splits with Church of Misery and Raw Radar War — but one might consider that emblematic of the punk underpinning the sludgy heavy roll of “(It Had Neither Fins Nor Wings) Nor Did it Writhe,” along with the attitude of fuckall that joins hands with resoundingly dense tonality to create the atmosphere of the five originals and the cover medley closer “The Working Man is a Dead Pig,” which draws on Rush, Bauhaus and Black Sabbath classics as a sort of partially explanatory appendix to the tracks preceding. Of those, the impression left is duly craterous, and Deer Creek, with Paul Vismara‘s mostly-clean vocals riding a succession of his own monolithic riffs, a bit of march thrown into “The Utter Absence of Hope” amid the breath of tone from his and Conan Hultgren‘s guitars and Stephanie Hopper‘s bass atop the drumming of Marc Brooks. One is somewhat curious as to what drives a band after two full-length-less decades to make a definitive first album — at least beyond “hey a lot of things have changed in the last couple years” anyhow — but the results here are inarguable in their weight and the spaces they create and fill, with disaffection and onward and outward-looking angst as much as volume. That is to say, as much as Menticide nods, it’s more unsettling the more attention you actually pay to what’s going on. But if you wanted to space out instead, I doubt they’d hold it any more against you than was going to happen anyway. Band who owes nothing to anyone overdelivers. There.

Deer Creek on Facebook

Deer Creek on Bandcamp

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Riffcoven, Never Sleep at Night

Following the mid-’90s C.O.C. tone and semi-Electric Wizard shouts of “Black Lotus Trance,” “Detroit Demons” calls out Stooges references while burl-riffing around Pantera‘s “I’m Broken,” and “Loose” manifests sleaze to coincide with the exploitation of the Never Sleep at Night EP’s cover art. All of this results in zero-doubt assurance that the Brazilian trio have their bona fides in place when it comes to dudely riffs and an at least partially metal approach; stylistically-speaking, it’s like metal dudes got too drunk to remember what they were angry at and decided to have a party instead. I don’t have much encouraging to say at this juncture about the use of vintage porn as a likely cheap cover option, but no one seems to give a shit about moving past that kind of misogyny, and I guess as regards gender-based discrimination and playing to the male gaze and so on, it’s small stakes. I bet they get signed off the EP anyway, so what’s the point? The point I guess is that the broad universe of those who’d build altars to riffs, Riffcoven are at very least up front with what they’re about and who their target audience is.

Riffcoven on Facebook

Riffcoven on Bandcamp

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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: Bailey Smith of Youngblood Supercult

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I’m a creator. I love to experiment with melodies and harmonies, and put them together in a fashion that is both familiar and different. I sometimes feel more like my credits should read “conductor/composer” rather than “guitarist.” That’s not to say that others didn’t play very important roles in Youngblood Supercult. I guess I was just more of a mother figure or the composer. That’s not an easy role, because of the fact that you have to exert a certain level of control. I suppose some of the guys came to resent that, haha. I really just always wanted to make music, for as long as I can remember. I have always wanted to write fiction or prose – I went to college for it. And I’ve always had a passion for cinematography. I guess in a weird way, all these things come together in my mind, and a song or concept or storyline or album comes out of it.

Describe your first musical memory.

My parents singing and playing records for me – styles ranging from Wynonna Judd to the Beatles to CSNY to Mozart.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

When David joined Youngblood Supercult and we debuted most of the material for High Plains at a small show in KC. People lost their minds. It was very surreal. Getting pressed on vinyl for the first time was a huge deal, especially as a 2LP. I will always be grateful for DHU’s Robert Black for doing that for us. Also hanging out with Steve Moss (The Midnight Ghost Train – Topeka) and listening to the debut of Buffalo before it was released and just bullshitting. He was a great mentor to me and I tried to soak up everything he said to me.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Don’t work with friends. Creative criticism is something that many folks don’t have the the stomach for anymore. I think many of our fans ate up The Great American Death Rattle when it was produced and mixed so poorly. The friend we had who recorded it and mixed it initially wanted to master it. This was not a guinea pig project, and when I brought up the fact that it sounded too over-produced and not, well, “right” — that friend pouted and claimed to not be able to remove any of the mastering/mixing plugins, essentially sabotaging the mix.

Compare High Plains and TGADR — same person at the mixing booth. I was berated as a megalomaniac and control freak for protesting the sound. The resulting remixes and masters sounded so muddy and horrible, and we just had to roll with it. We were so disappointed with the resulting sound and had Joel Nanos try to clean it up for us, to not much avail. We were so disappointed as a group on how that album sounded and I caught the flack for it for “ruffling feathers.” But I guess people appreciated the content enough to ignore the sound quality. That was very much a catalyst for the end of the group. Some of us started drinking more because of it, and fighting. It was depressing and an accomplishment at the same time. Which is a hard thing to reconcile.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To new but familiar spaces. You have to explore sound but I think fans come to expect a certain vibe from a group’s sound. To stay within a certain confine of what people expect your band to sound like, but exploring new and different musical territories can be a very difficult task. Even leading to the breakup of a group.

How do you define success?

When people connect with the music. When you have someone pop up in your DMs and say, “Thank you for this music, it really helped me get through a difficult time.” That’s my definition of success.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The cancel culture and personal destruction of individuals that is currently en vogue and permeating our society, and the underground musical scene in particular. We have become so enamored with spinning tales against each other; whether for personal gain, scene clout, victimized treatment, etc., that we have become the very thing we write most of our songs about.

And nobody ever questions it, and that’s the sad and disgusting part of it. There is so much vitriol in our world as it is – do things within this scene have to be that way as well? Not saying I’m perfect. I have definitely done my share of badmouthing when things would’ve really been best left unsaid.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

More music. I’m not done by any means.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Let it breathe. Explore space. Don’t be afraid to do something weird. Because you’re inspiring young people and young musicians. It’s a teaching moment, for sure. That’s the goal – to inspire and encourage.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Every new day is something I look forward to, whether it’s musical or not. I’m looking forward to seeing what my son is going to be like as the years progress. His passions, personality, and of course, how he feels about art and music.

https://www.facebook.com/youngbloodsupercult/
https://youngbloodsupercult.bandcamp.com/

Youngblood Supercult, The Great American Death Rattle (2017)

I’m glad The Midnight Ghost Train are even somewhat back together. Will it lead to anything more? I don’t know. You don’t know. But why be greedy? After disbanding in 2018, the band have decided to come back together for a few shows in Europe — one still TBA — with a stop at Freak Valley Festival where so help me robot jeebus I will see them, and other headlining shows thereafter. Whether you’re going to catch them every night or you’re not going to see them at all, isn’t it just worth being happy they’re doing anything? Do we need a new record right now? If it’s gonna happen, let it happen the right way.

That’s my rant on The Midnight Ghost Train‘s reunion, I guess. Didn’t even know I had one until I started typing. Really though, be patient. Majestic Mountain Records has vinyl reissues coming of their first two records and sent the following down the PR wire.

Preorders are, of course, up now:

THE MIDNIGHT GHOST TRAIN Keeps Rollin’ with Reunion Tour and Official Reissues on MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN RECORDS

Majestic Mountain Records – Sweden’s leading purveyors of underground rock, metal, prog, and psychedelia – is thrilled to announce the official rerelease of The Midnight Ghost Train’s self-titled debut, and their 2012 follow-up, Buffalo.

Formed in 2007, somewhere along the interstate between Topeka and New York, the southern rock power trio were an unstoppable force, propelled by big riffs, a wanton wanderlust, and life on the open road.

Over their ten-year reign, The Midnight Ghost Train performed countless shows across the USA and Europe, produced four studio albums, one live album (Live at Roadburn, 2013) and developed a signature sound that drew heavily on gospel, delta blues and stoner rock.

Established by guitarist Steve Moss in tribute to his friend, John Goff, who’d passed away that summer, a recruitment drive landed on the band’s initial line-up in time for their first release, The Johnny Boy EP, which was recorded in early 2008. Experimenting with various genres from heavy rock to psychedelia, it wasn’t until 2009 – following several line-up changes – that the band came into their own with the release of their self-titled debut album. Relocating to Kanas, the trio recorded The Midnight Ghost Train in their home studio and released it themselves. However, criminally, it has never received an official vinyl release. Until now.

‘It’s a real honour for Majestic Mountain Records to be able to reissue both these landmark albums,” says MMR founder, Marco Berg. “The band has always had a tremendous following and their recorded output is untouchable. But to be able to go back and give those first two releases an MMR overhaul will be a treat for everyone. Fans especially.”

Signed to Karate Body Records in 2012 for their follow-up album, Buffalo, the band further showcased their love of delta-blues with a critically successful record that included a rousing a capella take of Leadbelly’s ‘Cotton Fields’. Playing a huge part in their eventual signing to Napalm Records in 2013, Buffalo, much like its predecessor is an indispensable album and a crucial entry into the archives of underground stoner rock.

The band eventually called it quits in 2018 following a decade’s worth of touring alongside the likes of Truckfighters and Karma to Burn and performing at festivals such as HellFest, Roadburn and The Maryland Doom Fest. But next year the ’Train will start rollin’ once again following the band’s recent announcement of a reunion tour across Europe. (See dates below.)

You can pre-order the official rerelease of The Midnight Ghost Train’s self-titled debut album and their 2012 follow-up, Buffalo from Friday 12th November 2022 at majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com / themidnightghosttrain.bandcamp.com

2022 REUNION TOUR:
18/6 – Freak Valley Festival – Netphen, Germany
19/6 – Pitcher – Düsseldorf, Germany
20/6 – Akk – Karlsruhe, Germany
21/6 – La Scène Michelet – Nantes, France
22/6 – Sonic Ballroom – Cologne, Germany
23/6 – Café Little Devil – Tilburg, Netherlands
24/6 – Kulturbahnhof (KuBa) – Jena, Germany
25/6 – dB’s Studio – Utrecht, Netherlands
26/6 – TBA
27/6 – Antwerp Music City – Antwerp, Belgium

www.facebook.com/themidnightghosttrain
https://www.instagram.com/themidnightghosttrain
https://themidnightghosttrain.bandcamp.com/
www.themidnightghosttrain.com
http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

The Midnight Ghost Train, The Midnight Ghost Train (2009)

The Midnight Ghost Train, Buffalo (2012)

Let’s first dispense the disclaimers: We know from this that The Midnight Ghost Train are intending to play reunion shows in 2022 in Europe. We don’t know if they’re actually back together, or if they’ll tour the US or anywhere else, or if they’ll write another record or do anything else beyond whatever has been confirmed and has yet to be announced. Further, not only do we not know, but we don’t know if they know.

The Topeka, Kansas, heavy blues rock mavens announced they were disbanding in 2018, following the release of 2017’s Cypress Ave. (review here) through Napalm Records. Their final show was at Maryland Doom Fest 2018 (review here), just over three years ago. Now, a lot has changed in those three years. For everyone, as we all know. It could well be that circumstances have changed for the trio or that they’ve simply had a shift in perspective and decided to bring back the group for a few live dates. Again, it might be a full-on reunion, it might not. We don’t know.

But the prospect of The Midnight Ghost Train making any kind of return whatever the level on which it might be happening, is welcome news. They were a good band and there’s always room on the planet for another good band. Summer of 2022 puts them in festival season, so events like Hellfest or Freak Valley don’t seem unreasonable suspicions — I have no inside details to offer, sorry — and the band has worked with Sound of Liberation in the past, so that company’s 17th anniversary (aka the 15th anniversary delayed by two years) is a possibility as well. I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.

Welcome back, in any case.

Their announcement was short, sweet, and all-caps. It follows here:

EUROPE WE’RE COMING BACK FOR YOU. REUNION SHOWS, SUMMER OF 2022. TRUE LINEUP. LOOK OUT! ANY TAKERS.

www.facebook.com/themidnightghosttrain
www.themidnightghosttrain.com
www.napalmrecords.com
www.facebook.com/napalmrecords

The Midnight Ghost Train, Cypress Ave. (2017)

Bands come and go — it’s the nature of things — but it’s always a little bit sadder to see a band call it a day who both had potential and had yet to fully realize it in their work. Such is the case with Topeka, Kansas, four-piece Youngblood Supercult, and while I believe guitarist Bailey Smith when she says “see you in the future,” it’s not at all clear what shape that future will take.

Youngblood Supercult released three albums in their time in the form of 2017’s The Great American Death Rattle (review here), 2016’s High Plains (review here) and their 2014 debut, Season of the Witch, all of which were remarkably well received and which put forth a marked sonic progression one into the next. To what or where that might lead Smith and the other members of the band — drummer Weston Alford, bassist Brad Morris and vocalist David Merrill — I wouldn’t be able to guess, but Youngblood Supercult as a whole seemed to have more to say after the last record.

So it goes.

As noted, Smith made the announcement over Thee Facebooks, in two posts I’ve combined here:

First thing’s first: I’ve been having some issues with Bandcamp (again) on the merch side of things. ALL orders made between March and today should be shipped in a couple days whether or not you already received your order or got money back from something that wasn’t received. Thank goodness I have some backstock, and I apologized tremendously for the problems that have arisen from this. Thank you for your patience, everyone.

Secondly (and I wanted to post this as a separate announcement, because of the weight of it)….Youngblood Supercult, in its current existence, is no more. I will not be elaborating on the grimy details of what went wrong here, but unfortunately, this incarnation of the band has come to an end. I want to extend my deepest thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years, especially Robert Black, who gave us our first vinyl release and believed in us before anyone else did. To writers and reviewers who praised our musicianship. To everyone who came out to a show or told a friend about our music. To Joshua M. Wilkinson for collaborating with RB and DHU Records on our last release. You all are fantastic and special to me.

When I started this group in 2013, I had NO idea the impact our music would make on people all across the globe. My gratitude is endless. However, I WILL continue this group. I don’t know when, where, or with who. But it is the musical extension of my soul, and I have no intentions of letting it die. It might be a while. But you will see Youngblood Supercult in the future. In the meantime, I have a closet full of vinyl, including some first editions of High Plains and The Great American Death Rattle represses that recently arrived at my door. Once I get the merch from the previous post out, I’ll be posting links for those of you who are interested. You all kick ass, and I will see you in the future.

–Bailey

https://www.facebook.com/youngbloodsupercult/
https://youngbloodsupercult.bandcamp.com/

Youngblood Supercult, The Great American Death Rattle (2017)

This was a special band. If you ever saw them live, you know what I’m talking about. The first time I saw them, I was drunk as a skunk in a Bayonne, New Jersey, firemen’s hall or VFW or whatever it was. They were playing with a buddy’s band called L.O.M.F., and they took the stage, did “John the Revelator,” and blew my addled mind. This had to be around 2008, because I’m pretty sure that’s where I picked up their The Johnny Boy EP (review here). Over the next several years, I’d come to find out that the raucous kicking of such ass was just kind of how it went for The Midnight Ghost Train. Standard procedure.

Fronted by the gravely-voiced Steve Moss, The Midnight Ghost Train would go on to tour the world and release four full-lengths: a 2009 self-titled debut (review here), 2012’s Buffalo (review here), 2015’s Cold was the Ground (review here) and 2017’s Cypress Ave. (review here). With Moss and drummer Brandon Burghart joined by a succession of bassists — Mike Boyne was the last of them and an excellent fit in the band — each record was a step forward from the last, and they never put out the same album twice. As much as their reputation rested on their live delivery, and rightly so for the madness that ensued on stage and the electrifying nature of Moss’ player-persona, they could always be counted on to showcase thoughtful creative progression in their songwriting as well.

I could go on, but the point is I’ve covered The Midnight Ghost Train for a decade. Saw them open for Truckfighters in Philly and stood close enough to the stage to get hit by Moss’ hair as he headbanged. Watched them through the door at Roadburn Festival because the room was too packed to get in. I never saw them give less than their everything on stage. Never. And while I’m glad they drop the hint that they might return at some point in the future, and while I wish them luck in whatever endeavors they might undertake, I hope they do take a few years’ break and come back stronger than ever, I’m even gladder I’ll get to see what seems to be their final performance at Maryland Doom Fest 2018 this June.

As they’d also been confirmed for Electric Funeral Fest III in Denver on June 29, I’m not entirely sure what’s happening there, but in the band’s farewell message, they list three shows, and MDDF is the last one. Here’s that note from the band, who will be missed:

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL FANS:
It is with a heavy heart that we announce to you that The Midnight Ghost Train is hanging it up and saying goodbye. Our personal family lives have become more important to us than being on the road. We feel content and successful in what we have built in the past ten years, our amazing dedicated fan base being our greatest achievement. We respect our fans and our music, so we’ve decided it is time to say goodbye.

We will be finishing our career as The Midnight Ghost Train with three final shows. So if you want to see us perform one last time giving you every piece of our soul that’s left, here are your chances:

June 22-Topeka, KS @ J&Js Gallery
June 23- Newport, KY @ SGHR
With our final show being
June 24- @ The Maryland Doom Festival

Maybe we will come back some day down the road, and storm back to the stage better than ever, but at this time that plan is not in place for the distant future. Right now we want to focus on our family lives, and continue on with our other dreams and aspirations.

Once again, thank you to all of our devoted fans for helping us achieve our dreams. Every one of you holds a special place in our hearts. We hope that we have given you the same love that you have given us.

www.facebook.com/themidnightghosttrain
www.themidnightghosttrain.com
www.napalmrecords.com
www.facebook.com/napalmrecords

The Midnight Ghost Train, “Tonight” official video

With three albums to their credit in the four-year span since they got together in 2013, Topeka, Kansas, heavy garage rockers Youngblood Supercult are establishing themselves as working at a fairly prolific clip. Their debut was 2014’s Season of the Witch, which they followed with High Plains (review here) in 2016, and the four-piece’s third album is the rather severely-titled The Great American Death Rattle, which finds them aligned to The Company and DHU Records for US and EU distribution. Across this run, the band has kept a consistency to their aesthetic purposes, basking in an earthbound psychedelia and distorted grit, touching on the languid sleek of post-Uncle Acid buzzsaw tonality in the guitar of Bailey Smith, but not shy either about veering into fuller-on psychedelic wash, even if only for a quick lead on a song like “Master of None” from the new album.

Tone, in Smith‘s guitar and Brad Morris‘ bass, is essential to setting the vibe, and to-date, Youngblood Supercult have yet to not deliver on that level, but as it should, The Great American Death Rattle finds this aspect of their approach at its most realized. Songs are spacious enough to allow for echoes in David Merrill‘s vocals on the early cuts “Draugr” and the motor-shuffling hook-fest “Wormwood” that follows, but not strictly adherent to one methodology, so that when the semi-twang of “Mr. Gallows” unfolds in folkish layers of harmonized Zeppelin-ism, the proceedings remain fluid and the listener doesn’t feel blindsided by what’s a not-insignificant sonic turn. Youngblood Supercult, in other words, are in control, and in keeping with the strong pocket-dwelling swing provided by drummer Weston Alford — whose “tone” is no less essential here than either that of Smith or Morris and might be even more directly heavy-’70s — it’s the songwriting that allows them to keep that level of command at their foundation.

Craft. Sound. Performance. It’s an interesting circumstance around The Great American Death Rattle because there’s so much about Youngblood Supercult‘s style that’s been previously established. That is, they seem to have come into being knowing what they wanted to do, and they’ve set about working hard to do it over the last four years. Four years is less time than it takes some acts to put out their first record, let alone their third. And while there are elements that have been carried from one offering to the next, Youngblood Supercult also still come across very much as a growing band.

The Great American Death Rattle is their most refined presentation yet, but its nine tracks and 40 minutes — from the wah-soaked, languid, flowing roll and post-Alice in Chains vocal melody of the opening title-track onward — refuse to sound settled. There’s progression at work, a willful moving forward on the band’s part in how their material has come together, and it’s audible in the patience they show at the record’s outset and through the nod of “Burning Messiah,” which finds Merrill pushing his own limits effectively in delivering bluesy poetic metaphor as he will throughout the bulk of the subsequent tracks, malleable to the mood of what Smith, Morris and Alford are doing behind him but having clearly honed a frontman presence that bolsters rather than competes with that instrumental chemistry while still speaking to the audience.

I don’t think a band would title a full-length something like The Great American Death Rattle if on some level they weren’t looking to engage a social theme, and certainly there’s plenty to talk about these days in the current US sociopolitical sphere if one wants to talk decline or regression, but even in “The Great American Death Rattle” and the penultimate “Liberty or Death,” the lyrics take a more general tack, couching any specific commentary in images of biblical destruction on “Burning Messiah” (though tanks do show up there) and four-minute centerpiece “The Hot Breath of God,” which tells a story of post-industrial economic disaffection leading to suicide even as its central riff reshapes the groove of Scorpions‘ classic “The Zoo” to back it, making for one of The Great American Death Rattle‘s most memorable overall impressions.

The mournful vibe there is countered immediately by the punch of “Master of None,” which further emphasizes the sense of dynamic and flow Youngblood Supercult bring to bear in these tracks. Particularly as they move through the headed-to-the-highway “Wormwood” after the shuffle that emerges in the Fuzzorama-worthy second half of “Draugr,” The Great American Death Rattle expands its range in execution and feel. “Master of None” draws on a cycling repetitions of a Sabbath-meets-NWOBHM riff before closing with a highlight solo from Smith, and the aforementioned “Mr. Gallows” taps even deeper into poise and pastoralia, showcasing a depth of arrangement that’s new from Youngblood Supercult and that one hopes gives them the confidence to work again along similar lines and build on what they accomplish in it.

An uptempo turn in “Liberty or Death” splits “Mr. Gallows” and the thicker chug that begins the finale “Sticky Fingers” before that song — the longest here at 5:30 — shifts into a rare and thoroughly earned indulgence of noise wash and the guitar lead that tops its last march outward, and the play back and forth sees the foursome’s collective guiding hand at its steadiest, leading their audience through easily-paced twists with a maturity that belies their we’ve-been-around-for-less-than-half-a-decade status. One is tempted to call that process graceful, though in truth there’s a good amount of dirt under the fingernails of Youngblood Supercult — left there on purpose; why bother getting rid of it when there’s still so much digging to be done? — and that’s not to be discounted as an aspect of what works so well about their third outing.

Perhaps most crucially, they bask in their heavily stylized take while refusing to be defined on the basis of their influences alone. If The Great American Death Rattle is anything in relation to its predecessors, it’s the moment at which Youngblood Supercult are the most their own, and the manifold achievements that album makes are all the more satisfying for that. May they continue to evolve, reshape and cultivate as they move forward from here.

Youngblood Supercult, The Great American Death Rattle (2017)

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