Portuguese heavy rock duo Her Name Was Fire release their new EP, the five-song Obsidian Light, this Friday, May 8. The 20-minute outing is the first new release from João Campos and Tiago Lopes since their second full-length, Decadent Movement, arrived in 2020, and seems to have come after one or the other of the two relocated to Finland? The geography isn’t exactly clear, but listening to the songs, the intention is.
From “Electrify” onward, Her Name is Fire offer crisp songwriting and, while not void of emotional expression by any means, the songs feel specifically geared to capture an audience. For being a duo, their sound is full and vocal arrangments border on lush with layering and harmony parts, and so on, and are a clear focal point as songs like “Better Days” and the centerpiece “Head on the Wall” reveal more about the fuzzy, Cave In-via-Valley of the Sun crux, the shove of “Facekicker” enacting a sweeping careen in the tradition of desert rock, but veering into a bridge with “Sticks and stones may break my bones…” repeated poppishly joined by low-mixed, layered-in screams, making a delightful contrast of impulses.
Queens of the Stone Age are relevant as an influence, but no more than Museas the dug-in shuffle of “Better Days” reaffirms, going to ground from some of the more soaring aspects of “Electrify” or the megahook of “Facekicker,” but there remains swagger in bulk in the bassy second half. Her Name Was Fire keep hold of their momentum and guide it masterfully, and their material resonates a band-on-stage energy without giving up their depth of arrangement. This isn’t sitting-in-your-room-writing-poetry-to-yourself. It’s songs written to be performed for an audience, meant to commune with and engage that audience. Obsidian Light isn’t stylistically revolutionary, but neither is it easily pigeonholed, and the shove it fosters is its own.
If in your head you can’t hear the outreach of “Head on a Wall,” I’m not sure what to tell you, and “Electrify” lives up to the billing at the start of the EP, while still being complex enough to route the listener through a succession of changes. Of course, those being heavy bounces from one part to the next topped with rich melody and fuzz makes that process somewhat easier as well. They sound ready for whatever festival slot you’ve got, and they neither get bogged down in formulaic craft nor get caught up in forcing their own accessibility. The songs sound natural as they are for what they are, in other words, and Campos and Lopes unite the material across divergent moods through performance, which even in layers comes through with a sense of to-stage authenticity.
No idea what the band’s plans are, but they sound ready to tour and not look back, however it might actually turn out. Today it’s my pleasure to host the full stream of Obsidian Light, which you’ll find in its entirety on the player below, followed by some comment from the band and more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Her Name Was Fire on Obsidian Light:
Obsidian Light feels like us cutting through all the noise and getting back to what matters: heavy grooves, big low-end, melody, and doing this thing on our own terms. No apologies, no trying to please everyone, just making the songs hit as hard as they can. After years of distance, silence and trying to keep the fire alive across countries, this EP feels like the moment where it all locks back in.
HER NAME WAS FIRE are a heavy rock duo from Lisbon, built around baritone guitar, drums and a massive low-end sound.
Obsidian Light is the latest EP from Lisbon heavy rock duo Her Name Was Fire. Built between Lisbon and Helsinki, the record distills ten years of working as a two-piece into five songs driven by heavy grooves, massive low-end and direct, melodic hooks. Moving between slow-burning heaviness, more physical, almost dance-driven moments and occasional strange left turns, the EP captures a band coming back sharper, louder and fully on their own terms.
Tracklisting: 1. Electrify 2. Facekicker 3. Head on a Wall 4. Better Days 5. Steamed
Lisbon-based instrumentalist heavy psychedelic explorers Desert’Smoke will release their self-titled four-songer LP on March 28 through Raging Planet. It is the second full-length from the doubly-guitarred four-piece behind late-2019’s Karakum (review here), continuing a penchant for oil-painted cover art while broadening the material’s reach as the returning lineup of guitarists André Rocha and João Romão, bassist João Nogueira and drummer Cláudio Aurélio priotitize listener immersion from the outset with opener “Fuzzy Txitxu” (7:54) seeming to set itself adrift initially around standalone effects guitar, a patient beginning that soothes as the second guitar enters with drums and bass, subtly building up to a meditative jam over the first two minutes. Then cut. Feedback. A muted crash. Gnarlier guitar twists out a faster, immediately more solidified riff, and mere seconds later they’re chugging along like a two-axe Karma to Burn like nothing ever happened.
The old switcheroo? Pulling the rug out? Shenanigans???
Nothing quite so trickery-laced when you hear it, but that moment is telling. The intro lures you into the blindside, and a more straightforward procession takes hold for the duration. The subsequent “Gravity Absence” (8:59) adds another level of heavy to the end, answering the noisy grunge of the song’s solo-laced midsection with a decisive low-end flattening as they push to the finish. Side B, with “Blind Watcher” (11:42) and the premiering-below “49th Steam Box” (6:46), continues to flesh out from where “Fuzzy Txitxu” began, with the album’s longest track as an obvious standout, both for the runtime and how it expands on the mellower fluidity of earlier intros and, rather than a stark change, how it builds gradually into its crescendo, thoughtful in the construction and organic in the actual sound. The jam ebbs and flows and there’s time enough to accommodate that as well as some post-rock-minded float in the guitar, shades of Red Sparowes or Russian Circles maybe making their way in among influences, but it’s a hypnotic course one way or the other, and its apex solo is executed with particular clarity and class.
At last to the matter at hand, “49th Steam Box” (on the player below) serves to tie all of this together on the record. It’s the place where the weight of “Gravity Absence” and the breadth of “Blind Watcher” coexist, and it calls back to the sharp divide of “Fuzzy Txitxu” with a willful contrast, not lacking dynamic in itself as the guitar peppers light lead notes over a crunching intro and the band find themselves in a kind of instru-prog shove headed toward the midpoint, almost metallic in tone but still locked in a heavy groove rhythmically. They carry through the closer’s middle movement with due force, then reset to make their last go, guitar soaring and scorching all the while as the drums and bass cycle through and build into a dense last-minute chug and an efficient crashing finish before they give over to the heavy silence that follows.
Taken as a whole, Desert’Smoke feels remarkably complete by the time “49th Steam Box” is done; the band have told their story through sound in a way that legitimately feels narrative as various elements tie together throughout, the songs speaking to each other as they refine Desert’Smoke‘s meld, highlighting individuality of purpose by pulling from multiple styles as they go and being willing to take chances in their songwriting.
You can hear “49th Steam Box” on the player here, followed by more from the PR wire.
I invite you to please enjoy:
Desert’Smoke, “49th Steam Box” track premiere
Desert’Smoke on “49th Steam Box”:
Our upcoming self-titled album is a four-track journey spanning 35 minutes, blending heavy stoner rock with immersive psychedelia. The cover artwork is a segment of an oil painting by Catarina Felix Machado, titled ‘Gravity Absence,’ which also inspired the name of the second track. Our first single, “49th Steam Box”, is the shortest and most explosive track on the record, named after our Studio Box, where everything came to life.
Born in the underground scene of Lisbon, Desert’Smoke emerged with a mission: to craft an instrumental blend of heavy stoner rock, hypnotic psychedelia, and raw energy fit for the biggest Stoner/Rock/Metal festivals. Inspired by the likes of Elder, The Obsessed, and 40 Watt Sun, the band quickly carved out a space in Portugal’s heavy music landscape.
Their debut EP, Hidden Mirage, introduced their expansive sound and opened doors to major festivals, including SonicBlast. Riding the momentum, they released their first full-length album, Karakum, through Raging Planet Records, receiving praise from fans and critics worldwide.
Despite pandemic setbacks delaying their European ambitions, Desert’Smoke kept the fire burning, playing key festivals in Portugal and sharing the stage with major acts. When the time was right, they joined forces with Bulletseed, a European booking agency, to hit the road across Spain, France, Switzerland, and Italy, marking their first international tour with resounding success.
Reinvigorated by their journey, the band returned to the studio to craft their most ambitious work yet—Desert’Smoke, their upcoming self-titled album, set for release on March 28. With another European tour already in the works for May-August 2025, the band is poised to take their cosmic desert voyage to even greater heights.
From the depths of rehearsal studios to international stages, Desert’Smoke continues to push the boundaries of stoner and psychedelic rock, forging an experience as immersive as it is powerful.
Desert’Smoke: André ROCHA on guitar João ROMÃO on guitar João NOGUEIRA on bass CLÁUDIO Aurélio on drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Putting this here in part as a note to myself. Asimov and the Hidden Circus released their album Flowers in June 2020, and while the fact that it’s three years later invariably makes the Saturn Eye Records cassette (K7) edition out now a reissue, it’s also the first physical pressing the full-length has received, so again we see old paradigms and definitions not really fitting what’s happening now. But the songs are interesting, and I hear a sonic point of view in the material that has depth as well as space in atmospheric terms, so while I’ve skimmed through, this is basically me making a note to myself to dig in further. Will that happen this week, month, year? I would say part of what makes life exciting is not knowing, but really it just makes life overwhelming, frenetic and depressing.
Still, the music’s good, and one hangs a hat on that when possible. Also, I like tapes. They’re never gonna be as cool as LPs, even ironically, but they continue to fill a gap between CDs and vinyl and if you’re wondering why they’re still pressed, the answer is that sometimes somebody will see something about a tape release and think, hey gee, maybe I should check that out, and then share that with a friend or two of their own, which is exactly what has happened here if you’re reading this sentence.
New Release SE-008: May has finally brought us ‘Flowers’ on tape from Asimov And The Hidden Circus. This is a very special reissue for Saturn Eye Records and has been in the making for several months now.
Asimov’s unique blend of hypnotic, far out sounds have a way of breaking through barriers of negativity and bringing one to head-nodding peace. You will groove – you will smile. It’s therapeutic psychedelic music in its heaviest form, and we are absolutely thrilled to share it with you on this new format.
These tapes are in a limited edition of 100 copies (an undisclosed amount will be available direct from @asimovstenarmusik in August). Available now from shop.saturneyerecords.com.
Recorded at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic. Original vinyl release was June 1st, 2020. New tape released May 12th, 2023.
Tracklisting: 1. People Of The Mountain Sermon 07:40 2. The Seeker 04:45 3. Until The Morning Comes 05:43 4. Shaman Sacrifice 05:44 5. Shadows Of Summer 04:20 6. The Merchant 08:06 7. The Healer 13:07
Posted in Reviews on January 9th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to the second week of the Quarterly Review. Last week there were 50 records covered between Monday and Friday, and barring disaster, the same thing will happen this week too. I wish I could say I was caught up after this, but yeah, no. As always, I’m hearing stuff right and left that I wish I’d had the chance to dig into sooner, but as the platitude says, you can only be in so many places at one time. I’m doing my best. If you’ve already heard all this stuff, sorry. Maybe if you keep reading you’ll find a mistake to correct. I’m sure there’s one in there somewhere.
Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #51-60:
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Doom Wop
Powered by eight-string-guitar and bass chug, Austin heavy party rockers Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol offer markedly heavy, Steve Brooks-style weight on “Doom Wop,” the title-track of their second album, and prove themselves catchy through a swath of hooks, be it opener “Heel,” “Chew” or “I’m the Fucking Man,” which, if the finale “Jesus Was an Alien” — perhaps the best, also the only, ‘Jesus doing stuff’ song I’ve heard since Ministry‘s “Jesus Built My Hotrod”; extra kudos to the band for making it about screwing — didn’t let you know the band didn’t take themselves too seriously, and their moniker didn’t even before you hit play, then there you go. Comprised of guitarist Leo Lydon, bassist Aaron Metzdorf and drummer Sean St. Germain, they’re able to tap into that extra-dense tone at will, but their songs build momentum and keep it, not really even being slowed by their own massive feel, as heard on “Chew” or “The Bog” once it kicks in, and the vocals remind a bit of South Africa’s Ruff Majik without quite going that far over the top; I’d also believe it’s pop-punk influence. Since making their debut in 2020 with Burger Babes… From Outer Space!, they’ve stripped down their songwriting approach somewhat, and that tightness works well in emphasizing the ’90s alt rock vibe of “The Room” or the chug-fuzzer “Fly Super Glide.” They had a good amount of hype leading up to the Sept. 2022 release. I’m not without questions, but I can’t argue on the level of craft or the energy of their delivery.
French heavy rock traditionalists DoctoR DooM return following a seven-year drought with A Shadow Called Danger, their late 2022/early 2023 follow-up to 2015’s debut, This Seed We Have Sown (review here). After unveiling the single “What They Are Trying to Sell” (premiered here) as proof-of-life in 2021, the three-piece ’70s-swing their way through eight tracks and 45 minutes of vintage-mindset stylizations, touching on moody Graveyardian blues in “Ride On” and the more uptempo rocker “The Rich and the Poor” while going more directly proto-metallic on galloping opener “Come Back to Yourself and the later “Connected by the Worst.” Organ enhances the sway of the penultimate “In This Town” as part of a side B expansion that starts with tense rhythmic underlayer before the stride of “Hollow” and, because obviously, an epilogue take on Händel‘s “Sarabande” that closes. That’ll happen? In any case, DoctoR DooM — guitarist/vocalist Jean-Laurent Pasquet, guitarist Bertrand Legrand, bassist Sébastien Boutin Blomfield and drummer Michel Marcq — don’t stray too far from their central purpose, even there, and their ability to guide the listener through winding progressions is bolstered by the warmth of their tones and Pasquet‘s sometimes gruff but still melodic vocals, allowing some of the longer tracks like “Come Back to Yourself,” “Hollow” and “In This Town” to explore that entirely imaginary border where ’70s-style heavy rock and classic metal meet and intertwine.
Clearly when you start out with a direct invocation of epic tales like “Gilgamesh (…and Enkidu’s Demise),” you’re going big. Portugal’s Stones of Babylon answer 2019’s Hanging Gardens (review here) with Ishtar Gate, still staying in Babylon as “Annunaki,” “Pazuzu,” the title-track, “The Fall of Ur,” and “Tigris and Euphrates” roll out instrumental embodiment of these historical places, ideas, and myths. There is some Middle Eastern flourish in quieter stretches of guitar in “Anunnaki,” “Pazuzu,” “The Fall of Ur,” etc., but it’s the general largesse of tone, the big riffs that the trio of guitarist Alexandre Mendes, bassist João Medeiros and drummer Pedro Branco foster and roll out one after the other, that give the sense of scale coinciding with their apparent themes. And loud or quiet, big and rolling or softer and more winding, they touch on some of My Sleeping Karma‘s meditative aspects without giving up a harder-hitting edge, so that when Ur falls, the ground seems to be given a due shake, and “Tigris and Euphrates,” as one of the cradles of civilization, caps the record with a fervency that seems reserved specifically for that crescendo. A few samples, including one at the very end, add to the atmosphere, but the band’s heart is in the heavy and that comes through regardless of a given moment’s volume.
Released on Halloween 2022, Alconaut‘s “Slugs” is a six-minute roller single following-up their 2019 debut album, Sand Turns to Tide, and it finds the Corsican trio fuzz-grooving their way through a moderate tempo, easy-to-dig procession that’s not nearly as slime-trail-leaving as its title implies. A stretch building up the start-stop central riff has a subtle edge of funk, but then the pedal clicks on and a fuller tone is revealed, drums still holding the same snare punctuation behind. They ride that stretch out for a reasonably unreasonable amount of measures before shifting toward the verse shortly before two minutes in — classic stoner rock — backing the first vocals with either organ or guitar effects that sound like one (nobody is credited for keys; accept the mystery) and a quick flash of angularity between lines of the chorus are likewise bolstered. They make their way back through the verse and then shift into tense chugging that’s more straight-ahead push than swinging, but still friendly in terms of pace, and after five minutes in, they stop, the guitar pans channels in re-establishing the riff, and they finish it big before just a flash of feedback cuts to silence. Way more rock and way less sludge than either their moniker or the song’s title implies, their style nonetheless hints toward emergent dynamic in its tonal changes even as the guitar sets forth its own hooks.
Instrumental save for the liberally distributed samples from Planet of the Apes, including Charlton Heston’s naming of Nova in “Nova” presented as a kind of semi-organic alt-techno with winding psychedelic guitar over a programmed beat, Maybe Human‘s Ape Law is the second long-player from the Los Angeles-based probably-solo outfit, and it arrives as part of a glut of releases — singles, EPs, one prior album — issued over the last two years or so. The 47-minute 10-songer makes its point in the opening title-track, and uses dialogue from the Apes franchise — nothing from the reboots, and fair enough — to fill out pieces that vary in their overarching impression from the heavy prog of “Bright Eyes” and the closing “The Killer Ape Theory” to the experimentalist psych of “Heresy.” If you’re looking to be damned to hell by the aforementioned Heston, check out “The Forbidden Zone,” but Ape Law seems to be on its most solid footing — not always where it wants to be, mind you — in a more metal-leaning guitar-led stretch like that in the second half of “Infinite Regression” where the guitar solo takes the forward role over a bed that seems to have been made just for it. The intent here is more to explore and the sound is rawer than Maybe Human‘s self-applied post-rock or pop tags might necessarily imply, but the deeper you go there more there is to hear. Unless you hate those movies, in which case you might want to try something else.
Beginning with its longest track (immediate points) in the nine-minute “Rust and Rot,” the third full-length from Vancouver’s Heron, Empires of Ash, offers significant abrasive sludge heft from its lurching outset, and continues to sound slow even in the comparatively furious “Hungry Ghosts,” vocalist/noisemaker Jamie having a rasp to his screams that calls to mind Yatra over the dense-if-spacious riffing of Ross and Scott and Bina‘s fluid drumming. Ambient sections and buildups like that in centerpiece “Hauntology” allow some measure of respite from all the gnashing elsewhere, assuring there’s more to the four-piece than apparently-sans-bass-but-still-plenty-heavy caustic sludge metal, but in their nastiest moments they readily veer into territory commonly considered extreme, and the pairing of screams and backing growls over the brooding but mellower progression on closer “With Dead Eyes” is almost post-hardcore in its melding aggression with atmosphere. Still, it is inevitably the bite that defines it, and Heron‘s collective teeth are razor-sharp whether put to speedier or more methodical use, and the contrast in their sound, the either/or nature, is blurred somewhat by their willingness to do more than slaughter. This being their third album and my first exposure to them, I’m late to the party, but fine. Empires of Ash is perfectly willing to brutalize newcomers too, and the only barrier to entry is your own threshold for pain.
A reissue of their 2020 second LP, My Octopus Mind‘s Faulty at Source (Bonus Edition) adds two tracks — “Here My Rawr,” also released as a single, and “No Way Outta Here Alive” — for a CD release. Whichever edition one chooses to take on, the range of the Bristol-based psych trio of guitarist/vocalist/pianist Liam O’Connell, bassist Isaac Ellis and drummer Oliver Cocup (the latter two also credited with “rawrs,” which one assumes means backing vocals) is presented with all due absurdity but a strongly progressive presence, so that while “The Greatest Escape” works in its violin and viola guest appearances from Rebecca Shelley and Rowan Elliot as one of several tracks to do the same, the feeling isn’t superfluous where it otherwise might be. Traditional notions of aural heft come and go — the riffier and delightfully bass-fuzzed “No Way Outta Here Alive” has plenty — while “Buy My Book” and the later “Hindenburg” envision psychedelic noise rock and “Wandering Eye” (with Shelley on duet vocals as well) adds mathy quirk to the proceedings, making them that march harder to classify, that much more on-point as regards the apparent mission of the band, and that much more satisfying a listen. If you’re willing to get weird, My Octopus Mind are already there. For at least over two years now, it would seem.
Having become a duo since their debut, 2019’s Lux in Morte (review here), was released, Et Mors are no less dirgey or misery-laden across Lifeless Grey for halving their lineup. Wretched, sometimes melodic and almost universally deathly doom gruels out across the three extended originals following the shorter intro “Drastic Side Effects” — that’s the near-goth plod of “The Coffin of Regrets” (9:45), “Tritsch” (16:13), which surprises by growing into an atmosludge take on The Doors at their most minimalist and spacious before its own consumption resumes, and “Old Wizard of Odd” (10:29), which revels in extremity before its noisy finish and is the ‘heaviest’ inclusion for that — and a concluding cover of Bonnie “Prince” Billy‘s “I See a Darkness,” the title embodied in the open space within the sound of the song itself while showcasing a soulful clean vocal style that feels like an emerging distinguishing factor in the band’s sound. That is, a point of growth that will continue to grow and make them a stronger, more diverse band as it already does in their material here. I’d be interested to hear guitarist/vocalist Zakir Suleri and drummer/vocalist Albert Alisaug with an expansive production able to lean more into the emotive aspects of their songwriting, but as it is on Lifeless Grey, their sound is contrastingly vital despite the mostly crawling tempos and the unifying rawness of the aural setting in which these songs take place.
Future Mirror is The Atomic Bomb Audition‘s first release since 2014 and their first studio album since 2011’s Roots into the See (review here), the returning Oakland-based four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Alee Karin, bassist/vocalist Jason Hoopes, drummer Brian Gleeson and synthesist/engineer The Norman Conquest reigniting their take on pop-informed heavy, sometimes leaning toward post-rock float, sometimes offering a driving hook like in “Night Vision,” sometimes alternating between spacious and crushing as on “Haunted Houses,” which is as much Type O Negative and Katatonia darkness as the opener “Render” was blinding with its sweet falsetto melodies and crashing grandeur. Two interludes, “WNGTIROTSCHDB” and “…Spells” surround “Golden States, Pt. 1” — note there is no second part here — a brief-at-three-minutes-but-multi-movement instrumental, and the linear effect in hearing the album as whole is to create an ambient space between the three earlier shorter tracks and the two longer ones at the finish, and where “Dream Flood” might otherwise be a bridge between the two, the listening experience is only enhanced for the flourish. Future Mirror won’t be for everybody, as its nuance makes it harder to categorize and they wouldn’t be the first to suffer perils of the ‘band in-between,’ but by the time they get the payoff of closer “More Light,” tying the heft and melody together, The Atomic Bomb Audition have provided enough context to make their own kind of sense. Thus, a win.
Maharaja‘s new EP, Aviarium (on Seeing Red), might be post-metal if one were to distill that microgenre away from its ultra-cerebral self-indulgence and keep only the parts of it most crushing. The downer perspective of the Ohio trio — guitarist Angus Burkhart, bassist Eric Bluebaum, drummer Zack Mangold, all of whom add vocals, as demonstrated in the shouty-then-noisy-then-both second track — is confirmed in the use of the suffix ‘-less’ in each of the four songs on the 24-minute outing, from opener “Hopeless” through “Soulless,” into the shorter, faster and more percussively intense “Lifeless” and at last arriving in the open with the engrossing roll of 10-minute finisher “Ballad of the Flightless Bird,” which makes a home for itself in more stoner-metal riffing and cleaner vocals but maintains the poise of execution that even the many and righteous drum fills of “Hopeless” couldn’t shake loose. It is not an easy or a smooth listen, but neither is it meant to be, and the ambience that comes out of the raw weight of Maharaja‘s tones as well as their subtle variation in style should be enough to bring on board those who’d dare take it on in the first place. Can be mean, but isn’t universally one thing or the other, and as a sampler of Maharaja‘s work it’s got me wanting to dig back to their 2017 Kali Yuga and find out what I missed.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 24th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I think a lot about the distant future, if humans have another few thousand years living in organized societies such as we do, and what that time will know about this one. That’s not just me saying I think we’re all savage idiots and the future will look upon us with condescension as primitives, but yeah, I do basically believe that. Stones of Babylon, obviously, look to the past from a distant future as well, but there’s a bit of respect in the largesse of tone from the Lisbon-based outfit, who released their debut, Hanging Gardens (review here), in 2019. That is, when I listen to “Pazuzu,” I don’t get the sense that the three-piece are infantilizing or dehumanizing the past in their slow-wah riffy rollout. I’m not sure what the Exorcist movies have to do with any of it, but sometimes a thing fits and you use it anyway.
The PR wire brings album info and the stream of “Pazuzu,” which is the first single. Dig in below:
Stones Of Babylon – Ishtar Gate
Release: 21 November 2022
Somewhere in Babylon, in a space almost lost in time, the eighth gate of the city was erected. Like any door, the Ishtar Gate symbolizes access to coded worlds, the closing of crossroads, or simply the thunderous force of power.
Traveling back in time to the ancient history and myths of Mesopotamia and the fertile crescent, Stones of Babylon continue where they left off with their 2019 debut album “Hanging Gardens”: they start from song titles with the aim that the listener can embark on a journey and, somehow, be taken to the places of an always mysterious past that fills the lines of history.
With the entry of Alexandre Mendes on the guitar, there is an evolution in continuity, where, without losing the thread of the path followed previously, they intend not only to cement the concept of the project but also to expand it either through the composition or through the loudness.
In this way, the six thick tracks that make up “Ishtar Gate”, intend to take the listener to feel an approach to the sounds of the Middle East in fusion with the densest and most massive riffs of the West, something like sonic mantras alternating between weight and subtlety and culminating in a psychedelic and travel atmosphere.
Recorded by Paulo Vieira at Brugo Studio, Lisbon, Portugal in August and September 2021 Mixed and Mastered by Paulo Vieira, October 2021 Artwork “Ishtar Gate” by Soares Artwork Thanks to Pawel Nowak, Pedro Lima and Rui Belchior, previous band members, for participation in the creation of “Anunnaki” (only available on CD and Digital versions)., “The Gate of Ishtar” and “Gilgamesh (…and Enkidu´s Demise)” tracks. All intros by Stones of Babylon, except Pazuzu´s intro taken from “Exorcist II: The Heretic”.
Tracklisting: 1. Gilgamesh (…and Enkidu’s demise) 2. Anunnaki 3. Pazuzu 4. The Gate of Ishtar 5. The Fall of Ur 6. Tigris & Euphrates
Stones Of Babylon are: Guitar – Alexandre Mendes Bass – João Medeiros Drums – Pedro Branco
Posted in Questionnaire on February 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Rui Inácio of The Crazy Left Experience
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Being part of TCLE is having freedom to explore all the music textures, from poetry to painting from playing to dreaming.
Describe your first musical memory.
Listening to Bruce Springsteen in my godfather’s room when I was 3, and the drum solo part was so thundering and so powerful that it made me exhilarate.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
First Pearl Jam concert I attended in 1998 in Lisbon one of the best days of my life.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Music wise when I saw that I was alone listening to ABBA.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
To freedom and to juggle with multiple knowledge in different arts form.
How do you define success?
It’s a personal voyage, for me having TCLE reaching its full potential and to have some people around the world recognizing it is enough.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Violence.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
An album and book that describes both process and creation within TCLE.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To spread Love.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
To see my two children to grow into beautiful human beings.
Posted in Questionnaire on March 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Johnny Lee of Miss Lava
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
My first art expression and my first roots were drawing. Since forever, I remember drawing and trying to replicate everything all the time. The more realistic or the closest to the original the best.
But as I grew up, I became a huge music fan and music turns out to be my favorite type of art, especially metal and rock music. I’ve learned most of my English by reading metal bands’ lyrics. I developed my drawing skills by drawing, countless times, all of Iron Maiden’s album covers, and by drawing every band logo I could.
Since a very early age, I sang along with all of my favorite metal bands of the ’80s and I started to sing and write lyrics on top of instrumental songs as well.
That was the starting point of everything, but in one-way or another, I’ve always wanted to become a singer and wanted to do something art related. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
Nowadays, I work as a Creative Director in an advertising agency and I’m the singer of a Stoner Rock Band. I guess I could say “Mission accomplished”.
Describe your first musical memory.
When I was four or five years old, around 1980/81, I remember grabbing one of my mother’s tapes and playing it over and over. Side A – Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” and side B – Supertramp “Crime of The Century”. I guess that first impact of reproducing some music made me feel very powerful, like I had a superpower or something. In a way I think that feeling still lasts as I have become a music collector. I own more than 1,000 records and almost 1,500 CDs.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
In 1995 Megadeth and Corrosion of Conformity played in my hometown, Cascais in Lisbon, Portugal.
I was a big C.O.C. fan, I am still, and me and K. Rafaah (Miss Lava’s Guitarist) found Pepper Keenan and Woody Weatherman drinking some wine in a terrace in Cascais the night before the show. We invited them to a pool house bar where we used to hang.
Turns out we spent that night partying with Corrosion’s Pepper, Woody and Reed Mullin and Megadeth’s late Nick Menza. We drank, played some pool, talked about music all night and by the time we were so drunk, me and Pepper sang together, in the middle of the street, the song “Shelter” from the album Deliverance that they were promoting at the time.
On the next day, during the show, Reed pulled me from the crowd onto the stage to sing with them “Rather See You Dead” (Legionaire’s Disease Band cover) and before playing “Vote with a Bullet,” Pepper dedicated the song to us, me and Raffah.
I was 19 years old at the time, and I think nothing will ever top that for as long as I live. Epic!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
That is a tough one. I guess all the time. I try to be as straightforward, true and honest as I can, but honesty and truth most of the times are too hard to handle by others. Certainly, I compromise more than I should or want. I guess it’s a learning process.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully will lead to better places, better times, freedom and deeper emotions.
For me, Art is a constant, shifting universe that stimulates my very own space and time.
It’s the way that I chose to live my life, to challenge my boundaries and I hope that I’ll continue to make something meaningful and different each time.
How do you define success?
I guess success is: to look back and being able to understand and appreciate how far we’ve come. Have no regrets. Feel good with the choices we’ve made and to be proud of our achievements. Success should put us in a good place and make us feel happy about the journey. But the most important thing about success is being able to share it with your friends, family and keep them all around you.
We can’t be successful all alone.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Back in 1996 I went to a soccer match in Lisbon, Portugal. It was the Cup Final between my team, Sporting Portugal and our main rivals Benfica. During Benfica’s first goal celebration, one of Benfica’s supporters fired a rocket flare towards Sporting fans. I saw the rocket speeding my way, crossing from one point of the stadium to another, only a few meters above the players’ heads, when suddenly it changed direction and hits a peaceful man, next to me, in the throat and kills him on the spot (he was the father of two small children). I was just a few meters away. I remember seeing all the blood splashing from the man’s throat as the rocket was still burning inside him and I remember thinking that could have happened to me. Very sad memory.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I would like to direct a music video for our band.
And I’ve never tried doing a sculpture. I think I would like to make a realistic one someday. Maybe an Ozzy or a Lemmy bust or even a Cristiano Ronaldo’s, to see if I can top the ridiculous one hahaha.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Establishing communication with our emotions.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Like I said before, I like do draw as realistic as I can. In the near future, I want to make a full detailed gigantic realistic painting of a foot plant, hahaha. Don’t know why? Probably it’s going to be the unfinished work at the end of my life.
Portuguese heavy rockers Miss Lava release their new album, Doom Machine, Jan. 15 on Small Stone and Kozmik Artifactz. The band’s fourth long-player and second through Small Stone behind 2016’s Sonic Debris (review here), it is an explosion of well-crafted, professional-sounding material that feels built for European heavy-fest stages. Your Desertfests, certainly SonicBlast, they’re already booked for a festival in Spain this March (which seems ambitious), and so on. It was, appropriately enough, recorded live, with Miguel “Veg” Marques at the helm of Generator Music Studios in Sintra. The energy with which the songs are delivered is only part of the album’s personality though, because the CD version comes with a whopping 15 tracks running a total of 56 minutes, as the returning four-piece of vocalist Johnny Lee, guitarist K. Raffah, bassist Ricardo Ferreira and drummer J. Garcia tear into one hook after the other, careening with desert-inspired purpose through “Fourth Dimension” and “In the Mire” at the outset like an all-grown-up Kyuss with the rest of the album that follows working in different stages set off by interludes, groups of one or two songs complemented by short pieces of varied atmosphere that lend breadth to the proceedings as a whole.
Most of those spacers are quick instrumentals. Guitar, bass, drums. “Magma,” the first of them, and “Karma” follow that pattern, while “Alpha” adopts a more mellow spirit and the last, “Terra” captures wave sounds and guitar noise ahead of the closing title-track, which is also the longest song on the outing at 6:58. The interludes bolster Doom Machine‘s flow and make it all the more immersive despite being largely based around straightforward craft of high grade verses and choruses, though certainly longer stretches like “Brotherhood of Eternal Love” (5;46), the Alice in Chains-style harmonized “The Fall” (6:31) and “Doom Machine” itself want nothing for atmosphere. “The Fall” is a highlight in that regard, but it contends with single-worthy cuts like the maddeningly catchy “Sleepy Warm” and the slower, more spacious “The Great Divide” nearby for that title, with the latter as the assumed end of the vinyl’s side A and, indeed, the split between the first half of the album and the second — not counting the bonus tracks. That’s not to mention a cut like “The Oracle,” later on, which singlehandedly shows how Miss Lava take cues from classic desert rock and turn them into something of their own all across Doom Machine as a whole. Maybe it’s safer not to talk about highlights.
Amid the many hooks, interludes and spot-on moves made throughout Doom Machine is the narrative of K. Raffah having lost a child after only a month and a half from birth. That brutal context underpins even the most uptempo of Miss Lava‘s songs here, and adds weight to already impactful pieces like “The Fall” and “In the Mire” earlier on, the melodies and momentum betraying little of what’s actually going on but remaining expressive nonetheless. One doesn’t want to call it a disconnect, but Doom Machine hardly sounds dragged down by grief or anything else as Miss Lava courses through. Even the bonus tracks, “God Feeds the Swine,” ‘Feel Surrea” and “Red Atlantis,” boast quality hooks — the last one of them especially so — so there is a balance of elements and themes at play throughout, and the band aren’t necessarily beholden to one or the other of them, as impossible as that might seem.
To wit, the video premiering below for “The Great Divide” takes a post-apocalyptic environmentalist stance, looking out at the world and seeing it being used and torn down by humanity as a whole. The clip was directly by José Dinis, who offers some comment on it below, along with that of Johnny Lee.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
Miss Lava, “The Great Divide” official video premiere
According to singer Johnny Lee, “‘The Great Divide’ is a euphemism for death, an apocalyptic vision for mankind. We keep destroying our planet and forgetting that when this ends, it ends for everyone.”
Director José Dinis reflects that this is “A concept story about an apocalyptic world, where an unhopeful man just tries to survive. As in real life, there is always a way out, a solution, a chance to live a more colourful life, no matter what.”
“The Great Divide” was filmed at Mina de São Domingos, a deserted open-pit mine in Alentejo, Portugal. The site is one of the volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, which extends from the southern Portugal into Spain. It was the first place in Portugal to have electric lighting.
as the dug-in shuffle of “Better Days” reaffirms, going to ground from some of the more soaring aspects of “Electrify” or the megahook of “Facekicker,” but there remains swagger in bulk in the bassy second half. Her Name Was Fire keep hold of their momentum and guide it masterfully, and their material resonates a band-on-stage energy without giving up their depth of arrangement. This isn’t sitting-in-your-room-writing-poetry-to-yourself. It’s songs written to be performed for an audience, meant to commune with and engage that audience. Obsidian Light isn’t stylistically revolutionary, but neither is it easily pigeonholed, and the shove it fosters is its own.
