https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Stoned Jesus Announce Spring 2024 Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Who wants to fly my grumpy, middle-aged ass to Paris in April to catch a show? No one? Maybe Bordeaux? Porto? Lisbon? Madrid? Barcelona? I’ll go pretty much anywhere that has an airport for this one. Stoned Jesus have had a particularly fucked couple of years, as their home in Kyiv, Ukraine, has been subject to invasion from neighboring Russia and the ensuing proxy war between Ukrainian forces with NATO backing and the monolith that is Russian imperialism. I’ve been saying for the last two years I don’t know how that war’s gonna end, and could go on and on about it, but it’s war. It would be a welcome change if humans stopped slaughtering each other, and at no point in the history of the species from voles hiding in the ground when the asteroid offed the dinosaurs to right this fucking moment has that not been true.

That’s not to make light of modern warfare’s particular horrors or the struggle undertaken by Ukrainians on behalf of their home/the Western liberal democratic ideology, mind you. Stoned Jesus in early 2023 nonetheless issued one of the year’s best albums in their Season of Mist debut, Father Light (review here), and were set to tour Europe this past Spring when Ukraine imposed travel restrictions, undercutting the band’s ability to promote their work as intended. I guess that’s ended or some special dispensation has been made — White Ward also seem to be getting out, so it seems less likely to be wishful booking — because in April 2024, Stoned Jesus are set to head west to France, Germany, Portugal and Spain.

They’ll be keeping company with Bordeaux’s Mars Red Sky — speaking of 2023’s best albums, they had one too — and I don’t know anything about anything about the paperwork involved, but for the sake of all involved, including the heads who’ll actually get to see these shows unlike my daydream-jetsetter self, I hope they happen.

From the PR wire:

stoned jesus tour

Stoned Jesus are celebrating 15 years of doomy, heavy-hitting progressive rock this April with fellow stoners Mars Red Sky.

Get tickets for their European tour: https://www.season-of-mist.com/news/stoned-jesus-2023-12-22/

Order their new album ‘Father Light’: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/STJ-FL

16 April: Strasbourg FR @ La Laiterie
17 April: Karlsruhe DE @ Alte Hackerei
18 April: Paris FR @ Le Trabendo
19 April: Bordeaux FR @ Le Royal
20 April: Hondarribia ES @ Psylocibenea*
21 April: Porto PT @ Hard Club*
22 April: Lisbon PT @ Lisboa ao Vivo*
23 April: Madrid ES @ Nazca*
24 April: Barcelona ES @ Razzmatazz 3*
25 April: Touluse FR @ Le Rex*
26 April: Toulon FR @ Omega Live*
27 April: Lyon FR @ Le Transbordeur
*w/ Mars Red Sky

Stoned Jesus are:
Igor Sydorenko – guitar, lead vocals
Dmytro Zinchenko – drums and percussion, backing vocals
Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

Tags: , , , , ,

Risin Sabotage Premiere ‘Carpet Sessions’ Live Session Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Risin Sabotage

Ukrainian heavy rockers Risin Sabotage swung through Odessa earlier this year on tour and recorded the below video as part of what’s called ‘Carpet Sessions’ for reasons that will become apparent enough in the area ruggery of the clip when you see it. Included in the video that the trio was kind enough to let me premiere below are two songs from their 2023 Interstellar Smoke Records album, Macabre (discussed here), first is “Macabre” itself, followed by “Silence Queen,” which the band — guitarist/vocalist Vitya Panchishko, bassist Valerii Skorzhenko and drummer/vocalist Igor Nedyuzhiy — performed in tight quarters as captured by someone known to me only as sAn, who offered some comment on the process below.

All told, the clip is eight minutes long and it’s a ride that’s easy to take from the first hard guitar strum forward. In “Macabre,” Nedyuzhiy and Panchishko trade vocals during the verses as the camera twists and turns around them and Skorzhenko, the former in a kind of semi-spoken but clean delivery, the guitarist a bit grittier, in the vein of Mastodon‘s Brent Hinds. The pair took over lead vocals after Risin Sabotage parted ways with frontman Kirill Chepilko, who appeared on 2017’s Nasoni Records-issued Planet Dies LP (discussed here) and it’s encouraging to see them working purposefully to make the vocal arrangement, the patterning, etc., a big part of the song as presented here. No doubt whatever they do next to follow Macabre will take progressive steps forward in that regard.

But the point here isn’t progression, it’s a band in a box rocking out a couple tunes live being taped by a friend who apparently has it in for Skorzhenko‘s work on bass. Fair enough. The break between the two songs is short and right around four and a half minutes into the video, and some of their punker undertones come across in “Silence Queen” as transmuted onto heavier boogie, but you should know going into this that it’s the band in the raw and that’s the intention behind it. It’s not a fancy studio thing, or some multi-camera shoot. Dudes in a room, hitting it. It’s about as organic as you could possibly ask it to be and still be powered by electricity.

Of course, the war in Ukraine drags on. For over 650 days as my country waffles on support because we’re only set to spend 880-something billion dollars on the military next year and apparently we need all of it. I don’t have anything positive to say about it. It’s a fucking tragedy and humans don’t deserve to live on a planet so beautiful, but at least there’s rock and roll, and at least as their home is battered in ways from which it will take generations to recover, these guys can still get out and play shows domestically and do something like this, which looks like it was a great time. You find your solace where and when you can.

Please enjoy:

Risin Sabotage, Carpet Sessions premiere

sAn on Risin Sabotage, ‘Carpet Sessions:

I’ve known the Risin Sabotage crew for a long time, but I really got to know the guys in the winter of 22-23, and during their summer visit to Odessa we recorded a large-scale live on the picturesque expanses of the Kuyalnitsky estuary. You can easily find it on our channel. So the next stage of rapprochement was the mixing of this live, during which I was penetrated by every song of their new album, listening to it again and again, time after time. Now, God forbid I hear their song – then I go and hum it for a few days, and at their concerts I’m blown to pieces and yell in my voice some kind of their lyrics, some gibberish, but on time and in the notes. What does it matter, because nobody can hear me (but they can see me, and let them!).

Our friendship grows stronger with each visit, in direct proportion to my desire to steal their bassist Valera. Because I fell in love with his playing style and the whole range of grimaces during his playing. Valera, sooner or later I will steal you!

Let’s move on. Before their last visit by invitation to a special concert on the occasion of Generic Doom Band Name’s return in a new line-up, it was suggested to shoot a special acoustic live, but gods decided differently and having arranged all the equipment beautifully in my small but homey and cozy studio we recorded four songs. Please rate two of them in this video! Enjoy!

Finishing 2023 with a tour in Ukraine, after a gig in Odessa we made a live video for sAn live channel. We play some tracks from or new album Macabre during this Carpet Session. If you like it don’t forget to like and comment this vid.

A little bit about the channel: sAn live prod is a production studio, they make live videos for UA underground scene bands such as GDBN, White Ward, Heavenphetamine

So check them videos:

https://youtube.com/@sanliveproduction

https://www.instagram.com/san_live_prod

Listen to Macabre here: https://songwhip.com/risinsabotage/macabre2023

interstellar smoke records: https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Don’t forget to support Ukraine and spread the word about russian aggression on our country.

Risin Sabotage:
Igor Nedyuzhiy – drums/vocals
Vitya Panchishko – guitar/vocals
Valerii Skorzhenko – bass

Risin Sabotage, Macabre (2023)

Risin Sabotage on Facebook

Risin Sabotage on Instagram

Risin Sabotage on Bandcamp

Risin Sabotage Linktr.ee

Interstellar Smoke Records on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

Interstellar Smoke Records on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records on Instagram

Tags: , , ,

Review & Full Album Premiere: Stoned Jesus, Father Light

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on March 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan

stoned jesus father light

Stoned Jesus, Father Light album premiere

[Click play above to stream Father Light by Stoned Jesus in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow, March 3, through Season of Mist.]

Igor Sydorenko on Father Light:

“Written in 2019, recorded in 2021, released in 2023 — behold Father Light! Serving as the first half of our ambitious five-years-in-the-making song cycle project, Father Light is heavy, intense and progressive — while its sister album, Mother Dark, is expected to be more laid-back, hypnotic and introverted. You know how every artist ever says their new work is their best? Well, we actually believe this to be true with this one!”

In March 2020, Ukrainian heavy rock forerunners Stoned Jesus were forced to call off what would’ve been the tour to mark their first decade as a band owing to the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Then signed to Napalm, they had released Pilgrims (review here) in 2018 as their fourth full-length and most progressive statement up to that point. In April 2022, they were slated for a long European run celebrating the 10th anniversary of 2012’s Seven Thunders Roar (review here), which has in the years since its release become a genuine landmark for Ukrainian and greater Euro heavy rock thanks in no small part to the continued viral success of its epic track “I’m the Mountain” on streaming services — slow burner, but a burner — but Russia’s invasion of their home country caused that to be canceled as well.

The Kyiv trio’s fifth full-length, Father Light, arrives as their first outing through Season of Mist, and though as guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko says above it was written before the pandemic and recorded before the invasion — a topic about which Sydorenko has been vocal in a series of social media videos he calls ‘#ukrsplaining’ — both are bound have an effect on how the songs are going to be interpreted, whether that’s the added context to “Thoughts and Prayers” describing the desensitized responses to violence and tragedy around the world, or the way one might read lyrics in 11-minute second cut “Season of the Witch” like, “The stakes are high so light the torch/And throw it at your neighbor’s porch,” and “Nobody cares who’s right who’s wrong/The hunting season’s always on.”

And even the climate change thematic of nine-minute closer “Get What You Deserve” feels perhaps more relevant as we see the breaking apart of the Thwaites ice shelf in Antarctica happening in real-time. From any angle of approach, be it the skepticism in the point of view of “CON,” or the commentary on fame amid the lumber of  side B leadoff “Porcelain,” or even the feeling of pleading in the acoustic album-opening title-track “Father Light” — the three minutes of which seem to set up the larger procession between this album and a forthcoming companion-piece, Mother Dark — the 43 minutes of Father Light are prone as much to emotional weight as they are to aural heft the tones of Sydorenko and bassist/backing vocalist Sergii Sliusar or the crash and plod in Dmytro Zinchenko‘s drums where applicable.

But heavy in theme though it is, Father Light is on solid footing structurally, its six tracks alternating between shorter cuts like “Father Light,” the willfully Graveyardian boogie of “Thoughts and Prayers” and the progressive garage punk (yup) of “CON,” the all-words-that-start-with-“con” phrasing in the verses of which also offers some intangible reminder of Rubber Soul, or the purposeful riffy contrast in the largesse of the rolling “Season of the Witch,” the creeper builds and crescendos of “Porcelain” — the subtle vocal layering in the chorus a highlight — amid a lurch that recalls early Tool, or the way in which the open-feeling tonality of “Get What You Deserve” closes in like rising ocean levels as the post-midsection march becomes a noisy solo-topped plod worthy of Electric Wizard while managing to not actually sound like them. Yet, in the totality of scope and even in the admirably stubborn refusal to capitulate to being just one thing sonically, Stoned Jesus are as much in conversation with themselves as with anyone else, and maybe more so as one considers the sustained roar of the words “down below” near the finish of “Porcelain,” reminiscent of landmark declarations past.

Stoned Jesus (Photo by Mateusz Kluba)

Their ability to pivot from one style to the next and to tie their songs together through performance, be it the angular jangle and bursts of “CON” in its verses or the brooding pre-crash blues guitar solo that ends the first half of “Get What You Deserve,” is a defining feature of both this record and their work more generally across all (now) five of their albums. But there’s no question they’re speaking to their own oeuvre on “Season of the Witch,” which bookends with an intentionally slogging nod, the most outright heavy of the record’s heaviest movements, while turning suddenly at 4:23 to a proggy chase that’s an energized departure from the encircling density, some deceptively-free-flowing strumming and vocals over the build of bass and drums leading the way back, layer by layer, to the return of the verse at nine minutes in, Sydorenko almost audibly winking at the audience as he intones, “So here we are once again.”

And he’s right, they’ve been there before, whether it was earlier in the song, in the righteous grandiosity of “I’m the Mountain” or the oh-fine-here’s-your-heavy-riff of “Rituals of the Sun” from 2015’s creative breakout The Harvest (review here), but the difference between “Season of the Witch” or “Get What You Deserve” and prior Stoned Jesus heavy deep-dives is that as a band, they feel reconciled to this part of their persona. In true veteran fashion, they know what they’re doing every step of the way. And as much as they might range outward from it, in the shuffling catchiness of “Thoughts and Prayers” — no less a defining moment for Father Light than anything on either side of it — or the quirky bounce that straightens into a forward run in the peak of “CON,” or even in the patience of the tempo in the perpetually-ab0ut-to-burst “Porcelain,” an unabashed heaviness continues to suit Stoned Jesus and is a crucial facet of their work. Across this album more than anything they’ve put out in the last decade — and Pilgrims had some basher stretches as well — Stoned Jesus openly embrace that part of who they are.

Given the surrounding context, and the fact that the story being told isn’t finished with the complementary Mother Dark still to follow, it isn’t proper to think of Father Light just a celebration of that heaviness. On the most basic level, there’s more going on than just that. However, the key shift in perspective within these tracks seems to be in not fighting against those big riffs when they’re called for, but acknowledging them as a foundation, bringing them into the broader sphere of expression throughout, and creating a new stylistic totality for what Stoned Jesus do. They are ambassadors of heavy rock — a band who bring new listeners into the genre — and they know it and are aware of the responsibility inherent in that. Father Light is a mature, crafted and thoughtful collection that, as it remains organic in production value, welcomes heads new and old and offers immersion while asking little in return. It accounts for the narrative of how Stoned Jesus became the band they are, and in that retelling, inevtiably changes and evolves that same definition.

Stoned Jesus, “Get What You Deserve” lyric video

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

Stoned Jesus on Facebook

Stoned Jesus on Instagram

Stoned Jesus on Bandcamp

Stoned Jesus store

Season of Mist website

Season of Mist on Facebook

Season of Mist on Instagram

Tags: , , , , ,

Risin Sabotage Announce New Album Macabre Out June 2; Premiere “Silence Queen”

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on March 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Risin Sabotage

Veterans of Nasoni Records and Robustfellow Productions and now signed to Interstellar Smoke Records, the Kyiv-based heavy rock/psych trio Risin Sabotage announce the release of their new album, Macabre. Set to arrive on June 2, the album emerges as the band’s first following 2017’s prescient Planet Dies (discussed here) and features material dating back at least to 2018, when the included-on-the-record “Serpent” was issued as a standalone single. Fair enough.

Macabre, as a title, is a decent way to describe how it’s felt to — while at a far off geographic remove — watch for the last year as Russia has scaled up its invasion of Ukraine into an actual war rather than the casually cruel annexation of territory it had been since circa 2014. The album remains colorful in its psychedelic purpose, and fascinates with a blend of garage rock, shimmering, floating leads over solidified grooves, and a density of tone that underpins a song like “Mentor” or the payoff of the spacious “Hum” with resonance that adds depth to the mix and results in a fascinating, engrossing blend across the 40 minutes of the album as a whole.

In addition to war returning to Europe and the global pandemic that I’ll go out on a limb and assume you heard something about, the years since their last offering have seen Risin Sabotage part ways with singer Kirill Chepilko, with guitarist Vitya Panchishko and drummer Igor Nedyuzhiy taking over vocal duties and the band pressing on as a trio. Doesn’t seem to have slowed them down any, if the single “Silence Queen” — premiering at the bottom of this post — is anything to go by. The meld of lysergic breadth and rhythmic force is deceptively immersive, and though none of the tracks are especially lengthy, there’s still a sense of world-creation to coincide with the raw push of their more intense moments.

They talk about it as nine songs below and the version I got has 10, but there’s plenty of time between now and June to sort these things out. Initial info follows, from the PR wire:

RISIN SABOTAGE – Macabre – Interstellar Smoke Records

Says the band: “The album was written during the time of the global pandemic and mastered during the currently ongoing war in our country, Ukraine. These events have definitely affected the sound and, as a result, the title of this album. The release features nine songs that tell nine stories. Some of them put you in the atmosphere of today’s horrors, and others help you escape them.”

About “Silence Queen”: “It’s broken, it’s not alive, it fades away, but it’s beautiful, unique, and it drags you in.”

Kyiv based Risin Sabotage slams with heavy psych and desert rock since 2015. In the quest for a new sound the music is giving the best of desert rock, heavy psych, stoner and doom. Risin Sabotage’s fuzzy riffs and grooves inspired by the sounds of 70’s astound with the incredible energetic performance.

Tracklisting:
01. Abundance
02. Serpent
03. Silence Queen
04. Circus
05. Mentor
06. Loom (Forswear Intro)
07. Forswear
08. Hum
09. Macabre
10. Thawing

Risin Sabotage:
Igor Nedyuzhiy – drums/vocals
Vitya Panchishko – guitar/vocals
Valerii Skorzhenko – bass

https://www.facebook.com/risin.sabotage/
https://www.instagram.com/risin_sabotage/
https://risinsabotage.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://www.instagram.com/interstellar.smoke.label/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/

Risin Sabotage, “Silence Queen” track premiere

Tags: , , , , ,

Stoned Jesus Announce Tour Dates Supporting Father Light

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 25th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

To be sure, this is information that would’ve been handy to have yesterday, when I posted Stoned Jesusnew single “Thoughts and Prayers”, but, well, I was already days late on that news and so this coming in on what seems like such a quick turnaround isn’t actually that quick a turnaround at all. I’m just trying not to be behind, which I’ve been already since last week (or like four years ago?) and so posting this now rather than letting it sit. If you could see the Google Doc that I use to keep my notes in where I organize my days, weeks, months, it would make probably only a little more sense, but still a little more.

Check out Stoned Jesus though, keeping good company with Elephant Tree, Psychlona, Samavayo, and fellow Ukrainians and Season of Mist labelmates Somali Yacht Club, as they head out on the beginning of their tour cycle supporting the upcoming album, Father Light, which, as noted yesterday, is out March 3. They’ll do Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Italy — Torino and Bologna — and hit Sonic Whip in the Netherlands, which I hope is recorded this year as well as it was last year, resulting in live releases from Elephant Tree, among others.

These won’t be the last shows Stoned Jesus announce supporting Father Light, but this’ll be their first tour following the album’s arrival, so here are the dates as seen on the social medias. You’ll find the three album singles streaming at the bottom of this post:

Stoned Jesus Father Light tour

Behold the first cities of #FatherLightTour – with more dates and territories to be added along the way! Looking forward to share the stage with Somali Yacht Club, Elephant Tree and Samavayo and to play the new and the old songs for y’all :)

28.04.23 (AT) Innsbruck, pmk (w/Elephant Tree)
29.04.23 (IT) Bologne, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023
30.04.23 (IT) Turin, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023
01.05.23 (CH) Aarau, KIFF (w/Elephant Tree)
02.05.23 -TBA-
03.05.23 (DE) Stuttgart, Goldmark’s
04.05.23 (DE) Fulda, Kulturkeller (w/Samavayo)
05.05.23 (DE) Cologne, Club Volta (w/Somali Yacht Club & Psychlona)
06.05.23 (NL) Nijmegen, Sonic Whip
07.05.23 (DE) Hannover, Faust (w/Samavayo)
08.05.23 (DE) Dresden, Beatpol (w/Samavayo)
09.05.23 (CZ) Brno, Kabinet MUZ

Recording line-up
Igor Sydorenko (Arlekin, Voida, Krobak, Snakerider) – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, organ on track 3
Dmytro Zinchenko (Doomed City, Orkectr Che, Sekunda Kota, Smeyushiysa Tigr, Small Depo) – drums and percussion, backing vocals
Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

Tags: , , , , ,

Stoned Jesus Post “Thoughts and Prayers” Video; Father Light Out March 3

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 24th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Stoned Jesus (Photo by Mateusz Kluba)

There’s a fair amount of important info included in the blue PR wire text below. I mean, important if you’re looking forward to the new Stoned Jesus album, Father Light, anyhow. If not, I might ask why you’re reading this, or maybe you just kind of stumbled on this site out of the blue researching ancient phallic monuments? If so, hi. This site isn’t so much about monuments as heavy rock and roll, and Stoned Jesus are a band from Kyiv, Ukraine, about to put out their fifth album, called Father Light, through Season of Mist, which is a long-running and well-respected underground record label specializing mostly but not exclusively in metal, on March 3. I think you’re pretty much caught up.

Anyway, among the prudent details — that release date, the preorder links, recording info and so on, is the fact that the new single “Thoughts and Prayers” was written in 2019. That means before the plague, and more specifically to Stoned Jesus‘ situation, before Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine. With a pointedly Graveyardian sway — Graveyard are a band from Sweden who play a very blues-informed kind of heavy rock specifically derived from bands of the early ’70s — “Thoughts and Prayers” examines our experience of the tragedies of others, the numbing effect of social media and life behind a screen. The lyrics of the chorus, “In gardens of stone/We die alone/Waiting for someone to guide us back home/But nobody’s there/And nobody cares/Our only answer is still thoughts and prayers,” should tell you a lot about where they’re coming from.

That the song has become more relevant since the time it was written is testament to its relevance in the first place. It is one of six tracks on Father Light and the third single to be released ahead of the album’s arrival behind “CON” and “Porcelain,” both of the videos for which are also streaming below. If you listen through those and think to yourself, “Hey, each of these songs sounds kind of like it’s doing something different,” that’s on purpose and the disparity is no less a running theme throughout Father Light than the band’s engagement with their proggier tendencies and the straight-up heavy riffing on which they made their rather weighty name. Wait until you spend 11 minutes with “Season of the Witch.”

From the PR wire:

stoned jesus father light

STONED JESUS Premieres Music Video for New Song, Reveals New Album Details

Pre-save: https://orcd.co/stoned-light
Pre-order: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/STJ-FL

Ukrainian psychedelic rock trio STONED JESUS will release its new album, ‘Father Light,’ on March 3, 2023 via Season of Mist, making it the band’s debut to the label! The band is now sharing a music video for its brand new song, “Thoughts and Prayers.” The song and video can be found at THIS LOCATION while album art and other details can be found below!

Lead vocalist and guitarist Igor Sydorenko comments: “I wrote these songs mostly in 2019, we worked on them through 2020, recorded them in 2021 and were ready to release them in 2022…and finally the first batch of them is coming out as ‘Father Light’ in 2023! So this is neither our ‘pandemic’ nor our ‘war’ record, this is something I was really obsessed about many months ago – climate change, media numbness, corporations’ impact, social divisions…

“But revisiting these issues years later shows that they’re still important and this is still something that resonates with us – and hopefully will resonate with many other people, too. Musically, I think this is our most diverse and mature record to date, but there’s a good dose of old school Stoned Jesus there too!

“Anyway, enjoy this one and fingers crossed for 2024’s release of ‘Mother Dark’ – the moodier, more personal, more experimental sister album to ‘Father Light.'”

Recording studio – Spivaki Records, Ukraine
Producer / sound engineer – Artem Altunin and Dmytro Zinchenko
Mastering: Metropolis Studio, London, UK – Andy “Hippy” Baldwin

Shot at the club Hydrozagadka (Warsaw, PL) hours before actual Stoned Jesus concert there.
Camera work by true fans and filmmakers from Poland Aleksander Kwapień and Stasiek Nietrzebka.
“Thoughts and Prayers” video edited by Sergii Sliusar (who also happens to play bass for Stoned Jesus since late 2010).
“Thoughts and Prayers” track recorded and mixed in 2021 by Dmytro Zinchenko (who actually plays drums in Stoned Jesus since mid-2017).
“Thoughts and Prayers” song written in 2019 by Igor Sydorenko (who sings and plays guitar for Stoned Jesus, which he started back in 2009 as a solo bedroom project).

Tracklist “Father Light”
1. Father Light 03:35
2. Season of the Witch 11:34
3. Thought and Prayers 06:22
4. Porcelain 08:09
5. CON 04:10
6. Get What You Deserve 09:08

Total: 43:00

STONED JESUS recently announced their appearance on the mighty Hellfest of 2023! More information on tours/festival for 2023 will be announced on a later stage.

Recording line-up
Igor Sydorenko (Arlekin, Voida, Krobak, Snakerider) – lead and backing vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, organ on track 3
Dmytro Zinchenko (Doomed City, Orkectr Che, Sekunda Kota, Smeyushiysa Tigr, Small Depo) – drums and percussion, backing vocals
Sergii Sliusar – bass, backing vocals

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “Thoughts and Prayers” official video

Stoned Jesus, “CON” official video

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain” official video

Tags: , , , , ,

Quarterly Review: James Romig & Mike Scheidt, Mythic Sunship, Deville, Superdeluxe, Esel, Blue Tree Monitor, Astrometer, Oldest Sea, Weddings, The Heavy Crawls

Posted in Reviews on September 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

I’m in it. The only reason I even know what day it is is because I keep notes and I set up the back end of these posts ahead of time. They tell me what number I’m on. As for the rest, it’s blinders and music, all all all. Go. Go. Go. I honestly don’t even know why I still write these intro paragraphs. I just do. You know the deal, right? 10 records yesterday, 10 today, 10 more tomorrow. At some point it ends. At some point it begins again. Presumably before then I’ll figure out what day it is.

Quarterly Review #71-80:

James Romig & Mike Scheidt, The Complexity of Distance

James Romig Mike Scheidt The Complexity of Distance

James Romig is a Pulitzer-finalist composer, and Mike Scheidt is the founding guitarist/vocalist of YOB. I refuse to cut-and-paste-pretend at understanding all the theory put into the purported ’13:14:15′ ratio of beat cycles throughout The Complexity of Distance — or, say, just about any of it — but the resulting piece is about 57 minutes of Scheidt‘s guitar work, as recorded by Billy Barnett (YOB‘s regular producer). It is presented as a single track, and with the (obviously intentional) chord progressions in Romig‘s piece, “The Complexity of Distance” is a huge drone. If you ever wanted to hear Scheidt do earlier-style Earth guitar work — yes, duh — then this might satisfy that curiosity. There’s high-culture intersecting with low here in a way that takes Scheidt out of it creatively — that is to say, Romig did the composing — but I won’t take away from the work in concept or performance, or even the result. Hell, I’ll listen to Mike Scheidt riff around for 57 minutes. It’ll be the best 57 minutes of my god damned day. Perhaps that’s not universal, but I don’t think Romig‘s looking for radio hits. Whether you approach it on that theory level or as a sonic meditation, the depths welcome you. I’d take another Scheidt solo record someday too, though. Just saying.

James Romig website

Mike Scheidt on Facebook

New World Records store

 

Mythic Sunship, Light/Flux

mythic sunship light flux

Copenhagen’s Mythic Sunship turned Light/Flux around so quick after 2021’s Wildfire (review here) they didn’t even have time to take a new promo photo. There is no question the Danish five-piece have been on a tear for a few years now, and their ascent into the psych-jazz fusion ether continues with Light/Flux, marrying its gotta-happen-right-this-second urgency to a patience in the actual unfolding of songs like the sax’ed out “Aurora” and the more guitar-led “Blood Moon” at the outset — light — with the cosmic triumphalist horn and crashes of “Decomposition” leading off side B and moving into the hey-where’d-you-come-from boogie of “Tempest,” presumably flux. Each half of the record ends with a standout, as “Equinox” follows “Blood Moon” with a more space rock-feeling takeoff pulse, right up to the synth sweep that starts at about 2:50, and “First Frost” gives high and low float gracefully over steady toms like different dreams happening at the same time and then merging in purpose as the not-overblown crescendo locks in. May their momentum carry them ever forward if they’re going to produce at this level.

Mythic Sunship on Facebook

Tee Pee Records store

 

Deville, Heavy Lies the Crown

Deville Heavy Lies the Crown

What a fascinating direction the progression of Sweden’s Deville has taken these 15 years after Come Heavy Sleep. Heavy Lies the Crown finds the Swedish journeymen aligned to Sixteentimes Music for the follow-up to 2018’s Pigs With Gods (review here), and is through its eight tracks in a dense-toned, impact-minded 33 minutes with nary a second to spare in cuts like “Killing Time” and “Unlike You” and “A Devil Around Your Neck.” Their push and aggressive edge reminds of turn-of-the-century Swedish heavy rockers like Mustasch or Mother Misery, and even in “Hands Tied” and “Serpent Days” — the two longest cuts on Heavy Lies the Crown, appearing in succession on side A — they maintain an energy level fostered by propulsive drums and a rampant drive toward immediacy rather than flourish, but neither does the material feel rushed or unconsidered right up to the final surprising bit of spaciousness in “Pray for More,” which loosens up the throttle a bit while still holding onto an underlying chug, some last progressive angularity perhaps to hint at another stage to come. One way or the other, in craft and delivery, Deville remain reliable without necessarily being predictable, which is a rare balance to strike, particularly for a band who’ve never made the same record twice.

Deville on Facebook

Sixteentimes Music store

 

Superdeluxe, Superdeluxe

Superdeluxe Superdeluxe

Guitarist/vocalist Bill Jenkins and bassist Matthew Kahn hail from Kingsnake (begat by Sugar Daddie in days of yore), drummer Michael Scarpone played in Wizard Eye, and guitarist Christopher Wojcik made a splash a few years back in King Bison, so yes, dudes have been around. Accordingly, Superdeluxe know off the bat where their grooves are headed on this five-song self-titled EP, with centerpiece “Earth” nodding toward a somewhat inevitable Clutch influence — thinking “Red Horse Rainbow” specifically — and seeming to acknowledge lyrically this as the project’s beginning point in “Popular Mechanix,” driving somewhat in the vein of Freedom Hawk but comfortably paced as “Destructo Facto” and “Severed Hand” are at the outset of the 19-minute run. “Ride” finishes out with a lead line coursing over its central figure before a stop brings the chorus, swing and swagger and a classic take on that riff — Sabbath‘s “Hole in the Sky,” Goatsnake‘s “Trower”; everybody deserves a crack at it at least once — familiar and weighted, but raw enough in the production to still essentially be a demo. Nonetheless, veteran players, new venture, fun to be had and hopefully more to come.

Superdeluxe on Instagram

Superdeluxe website

 

Esel, Asinus

Esel Asinus

Based in Berlin and featuring bassist Cozza, formerly of Melbourne, Australia’s Riff Fist, alongside guitarist Moseph and drummer 666tin, Esel are an instrumentalist three-piece making their full-length debut with the live-recorded and self-produced Asinus. An eight-tracker spanning 38 minutes, it’s rough around the edges in terms of sound, but that only seems to suit the fuzz in both the guitar and bass, adding a current of noise alongside the low end being pushed through both as well as the thud of 666tin‘s toms and kick. They play fast, they play slow, they roll the wheel rather than reinvent it, but there’s charm here amid the doomier “Donkey Business” — they’ve got a lot of ‘ass’ stuff going on, including the opener “Ass” and the fact that their moniker translates from German as “donkey” — and the sprawling into maddening crashes “A Biss” later on, which precedes the minute-long finale “The Esel Way Out.” Want to guess what it is? Did you guess noise and feedback? If you did, your prize is to go back to the start and hear the crow-call letters of the band’s name and the initial slow nod of “Ass” all over again. I’m going to do my best not to make a pun about getting into it, but, well, I’ve already failed.

Esel on Facebook

Esel on Bandcamp

 

Blue Tree Monitor, Cryptids

Blue Tree Monitor Cryptids

With riffs to spare and spacious vibes besides, London instrumentalists Blue Tree Monitor offer Cryptids, working in a vein that feels specifically born out of their hometown’s current sphere of heavy. Across the sprawl of “Siberian Sand” at the beginning of the five-song/38-minute debut album, one can hear shades of some of the Desertscene-style riffing for which Steak has been an ambassador, and certainly there’s no shortage of psych and noise around to draw from either, as the cacophonous finish manifests. But big is the idea as much as broad, and sample-topped centerpiece “Sasquatch” (also the longest cut at 8:41) is a fine example of how to do both, complete with fuzzy largesse and a succession of duly plodding-through-the-woods riffs. “Antlion” feels laid back in the guitar but contrasts with the drums, and the closer “Seven” is more straight-ahead heavy rock riffing until its second half gets a little more into noise rock before its final hits, so maybe the book isn’t entirely closed on where they’ll go sound-wise, but so much the better for listening to something with multifaceted potential in the present. To put it another way, they sound like a new band feeling their way forward through their songs, and that’s precisely what one would hope for as they move forward from here.

Blue Tree Monitor on Facebook

Blue Tree Monitor on Bandcamp

 

Astrometer, Incubation

Astrometer Incubation

Vigilant in conveying the Brooklynite unit’s progressive intentions, from the synthy-sounding freakout at the end of “Wavelength Synchronizer” to the angular beginning of “Conglobulations,” Incubation is the first two-songer offering from Astrometer, who boast in their ranks members of Hull, Meek is Murder and Bangladeafy. The marriage of sometimes manically tense riffing and a more open keyboard line overhead works well on the latter track, but one would at no point accuse Astrometer of not getting their point across, and with ready-for-a-7″ efficiency, since the whole thing takes just about seven and a half minutes out of your busy day. I’m fairly sure they’ve had some lineup jumbling since this was recorded — there may be up to three former members of Hull there now, and that’s a hoot also audible in the guitars — but notice is served in any case, and the way the ascending frenetic chug of the guitar gives way to the keyboard solo in “Wavelength Synchronizer” is almost enough on its own to let you know that there’s a plan at work. See also the melodic, almost post-rock-ish floating notes above the fray at the start of “Conglobulations.” I bought the download. I’d buy a tape. You guys got tapes? Shirts?

Astrometer on Facebook

Astrometer on Bandcamp

 

Oldest Sea, Strange and Eternal

Oldest Sea Strange and Eternal

Somewhere between a solo-project and an actual band is Oldest Sea. Led by songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Sam Marandola — joined throughout the four tracks of debut EP Strange and Eternal by lead guitarist/drummer Andrew Marandola and on 10-minute closer “The Whales” by bassist Jay Mazzillo — the endeavor is atmospherically weighted and given a death-doom-ish severity through the echoing snare on “Consecration,” only after opener “Final Girl” swells in distortion and melody alike until receding for string-style ambience, which might be keyboard, might be guitar, might be cello, I don’t know. Marandola also performs as a solo folk artist and one can hear that in her approach to the penultimate “I’ll Take What’s Mine,” but in the focus on atmosphere here, as well as the patience of craft across differing methodologies in what’s still essentially an initial release — if nothing before it proves the argument, certainly “The Whales” does — one hears shades of the power SubRosa once wielded in bringing together mournful melody and doomed tradition to suit purposes drawing from American folk and post-metallic weight. At 25 minutes, I’m tempted to call it an album for its sheer substance. Instead I’ll hang back and just wait and get my hopes up for when that moment actually comes.

Oldest Sea on Facebook

Oldest Sea on Bandcamp

 

Weddings, Book of Spells

Weddings Book of Spells

Based in Austria with roots in Canada, Spain and Sweden, Weddings are vocalist/guitarist Jay Brown, vocalist/drummer Elena Rodriguez and bassist Phil Nordling, and whether it’s the grunge turnaround on second cut “Hunter” or the later threatening-to-be-goth-rock of “Running Away” — paired well with “Talk is Cheap” — the trio are defined in no small part by the duet-style singing of Brown and Rodriguez. The truly fortunate part of listening to their sophomore LP, Book of Spells, is that they can also write a song. Opener “Hexenhaus” signals a willful depth of atmosphere that comes through on “Sleep” and the acoustic-led gorgeousness of “Tundra,” and so on, but they’re not shy about a hook either, as in “Greek Fire,” “Hunter,” “Running Away” and closer “Into the Night” demonstrate. Mood and texture are huge throughout Book of Spells, but the effect of the whole is duly entrancing, and the prevailing sense from their individual parts is that either Brown or Rodriguez could probably front the band on their own, but Weddings are a more powerful and entrancing listen for the work they do together throughout. Take a deep breath before you jump in here.

Weddings on Facebook

StoneFree Records store

 

The Heavy Crawls, Searching for the Sun

The Heavy Crawls Searching for the Sun

A classic rock spirit persists across the nine songs of The Heavy Crawls‘ sophomore full-length, Searching for the Sun, as the Kyiv-based trio of guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Max Tovstyi, bassist/backing vocalist Serj Manernyi and drummer/backing vocalist Tobi Samuel offer nods to the likes of the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, among others, with a healthy dose of their own fuzz to coincide. The organ-laced title-track sounds like it was recorded on a stage, if it wasn’t, and no matter where the trio end up — looking at you, Sabbath-riffed “Stoner Song” — the material is tied together through the unflinchingly organic nature of their presentation. They’re not hiding anything here. No tricks. No BS. They’re writing their own songs, to be sure, but whether it’s the funky “I Don’t Know” or the languid psych rollout of “Take Me Higher” (it picks up in the second half) that immediately follows, they put everything they’ve got right up front for the listener to take in, make of it what they will, and rock out accordingly, be it to the mellow “Out of My Head” or the stomping “Evil Side (Of Rock ‘n’ Roll) or the sweet, sweet guitar-solo-plus-organ culmination of “1,000 Problems.” Take your pick, really. You’re in good hands no matter what.

The Heavy Crawls on Facebook

Clostridium Records store

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Stoned Jesus Announce November Touring

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 15th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

A little curious that even though Ukrainian heavy rock forerunners Stoned Jesus have issued two singles/videos from their upcoming Season of Mist label debut, Father Light, in “Porcelain” and “CON” — both streaming below — no actual release date for the album has been announced. Of course, I say this even as the Kyiv trio announce a new stretch of November touring, and I’m writing before the daily glut of 10AM East Coast US press releases come in, so it could well be that word of such a thing will come through after this is posted — that kind of thing happens from time to time; I see something on a band’s socials and jump the gun with what later turns out to be half the news and need to adjust — probably about five minutes after, if past is prologue. I hear going on tour around an album launch is a thing that happens, so it would make sense.

And you’ll no doubt note that they’ll do cuts from the largely inescapable Seven Thunders Roar even as they play new songs — I very much enjoy how stubbornly not-stoner everything they’ve done since has been — and one assumes they’ll find welcome either way. They’re Ukraine’s biggest export in heavy rock, and even the fact that they’re calling the run with countrymen VOVK the ‘Heavy Resistance’ tour speaks to the fact that they know it. Guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko has been outspoken on social media in providing historical and cultural context to the Russian war of aggression in his home nation that’s been going on for the last seven months, up to and including launching the Jams for Victory series, a third installment of which has been released.

Tour announcement follows, and again, if and when word shows up about the record, I’ll let you know.

Here you go:

Stoned Jesus tour

Your favourite psych/grunge/doom/prog trio is back on the road! STONED JESUS are going on Heavy Resistance tour in November, playing live shows in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania. Apart from playing the now-legendary Seven Thunders Roar (2012) material, we will premiere new tracks from our upcoming fifth LP (including recently released “Porcelain” and “CON”).

Joining us are fellow Ukrainians VOVK (post-metal/progstoner), who are currently working on the follow-up to their debut album Lair (2019). By visiting the show you can not only enjoy the music but also support Ukraine and help us win on the cultural front as well!

10.11 Kablys – Vilnius, LT
11.11 Sveta Baar – Tallinn, EE
12.11 Vagonu Haal – Riga, LV
13.11 Lemmy – Kaunas, LT
14.11 Drizzly Grizzly – Gdansk, PL
15.11 Pod Minoga – Poznan, PL
16.11 Hybrydy – Warsaw, PL
17.11 Fuga – Bratislava, SK
18.11 Form Space – Cluj-Napoca, RO
19.11 Mixtape 5 – Sofia, BG
20.11 Expirat – Bucharest, RO

Poster by Soares Artwork

Line-up:
Lead-Vocals and Guitar: Igor Sydorenko
Bass and backing vocals: Sergii Sliusar
Drums and backing vocals: Dmytro Zinchenko

https://www.facebook.com/stonedjesusband
https://www.instagram.com/stonedjesusband/
http://stonedjesus.bandcamp.com/
https://stonedjesus.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Stoned Jesus, “CON”

Stoned Jesus, “Porcelain”

Tags: , , , , ,