Swedish conceptualist atmospheric doomers Cavern Deep push deeper with their third full-length, Part III – The Bodiless, out this week through Majestic Mountain Records and their own Bonebag Records. The plot thread is somewhat obscure, which will happen when you get into cave-goth ambience and start weaving storylines and themes across successive releases. To wit, 2023’s Part II – Breach (review here) took the listener to depths only hinted at by the band’s 2021 self-titled debut (review here), so of course they begin by soaring with “The Bodiless” to draw the audience into the procession of these six tracks of slow-churning, consuming, claustrophobic darkness.

Marty Harvey, drummer/vocalist of Northern Irish crushers Slomatics, cuts through the low tonality of Cavern Deep‘s slog to guest on lead voice early in “The Bodiless,” thereby introducing the central character of the album, who seems to undergo a sort of transformative obliteration that, well, sounds pretty lovely if fraught in the making. Monsters of Lovecraftian proportion and purpose are met and overcome — “Queen Womb,” “Putrid Sentry” — but rebirth means death first. Intended as the final installment of what at some point in the last four years became a trilogy, Part III – The Bodiless feels every bit like the culmination it’s supposed to be, while at the same time demonstrating just how much Cavern Deep have carved an identity for themselves in its 38-minute span, whether that’s guitarist Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg and bassist Max Malmer (I think he’s a bass vocally as well) — I think maybe drummer Dennis Sjödin gets in on the action too — creating character and drama through the vocal arrangement of “Queen Womb,” or the solo topping the plodding culmination of the penultimate “Galaxies Collide.”

The keyboard of Johannes Behndig (Sarcophagus Now), who was a guest player on Part II and is now a member of the band, plays an accordingly larger role in setting the scope, as the backdrop for the Martin Ludl saxophone solo in “Mosktraumen” showcases, but if all the plunge and bleakness and slow-big-metal-gears-grinding of Part III – The Bodiless is leading to something — and, good news, it is — it’s to closer “Full Circle.” This not only represents the moment of rebirth for the record’s sans-body protagonist, but is a densely-weighted outbound march that underscores the grim psychedelic cast of Cavern Deep‘s brand of doom; ethereal like swirling smoke but poisonous to breathe. Granted they’ve been writing songs about monsters hiding in dark underground spaces for circa half a decade at this point, but Part III – The Bodiless does not overplay its hand in horror. It doesn’t need to.

Being able to tell a story in impressions is something else Cavern Deep have been working toward all along, but it’s been a strength from the first album on, and the then-trio-now-four-piece have always had a willful-seeming push toward individualism. They’re not just heavy, they’re their kind of heavy, and the difference is one of playing to genre or using elements thereof to shape something more your own. Cavern Deep continue to refine their songwriting processes in the latter methodology, and they’ve grown accordingly more spacious and broader in their reach for that. And no, I don’t just mean in terms of adding keys. The vocal arrangements are bolder and more confident here than they’ve ever been, and with two prior LP’s (plus other short releases, videos, etc.), Cavern Deep sound more sure of the plan they’re following than they ever have, and aspects of their sound that felt exploratory before feel internalized in this material. They’ve learned from what they’ve done up to now, in other words.

All of this ideal in terms of Cavern Deep realizing their project — the stated trilogy — even if it leaves one curious as to what whims they might follow next. Suitably enough, “Full Circle” ends the tale back where it started, with one archeologist and 49 miners headed below the surface to begin the whole cycle, as at the start of the self-titled. Literally and figuratively, Cavern Deep are a different band than they were when they made that first album, and if they are in fact leaving this storyline behind — plans can and do change — they do so with purpose and a sense of continued growth and artistic progression. This is why, whatever horrors might unfold from here, their trilogy as manifest is such a triumph.

Part III – The Bodiless streams in full below. Please enjoy:

Swedish doom/psych explorers Cavern Deep return with the final chapter of their epic concept album trilogy. Titled “Part III – The Bodiless”, the album is set for release on May 9, 2025 via Bonebag Records and Majestic Mountain Records, marking the conclusion of a story that has taken listeners on a dark and otherworldly journey since the band’s self-titled debut in 2021.

Formed in 2019 by members of Zonaria and Gudars Skymning, Cavern Deep has built a reputation for crafting captivating, atmospheric doom soundscapes, blending crushing heaviness with eerie psychedelia. Their debut album, released via Interstellar Smoke Records, introduced a unique storytelling approach that continued with “Part II – Breach”, a critically acclaimed release on their own Bonebag Records.

Now, with “Part III – The Bodiless”, Cavern Deep brings the saga to a dramatic and haunting close, pushing their sonic boundaries further into the abyss. The album is expected to deliver the band’s signature slow, hypnotic riffs and cavernous atmospheres, while weaving a final chapter that explores themes of transcendence, transformation, and the unknown. It features Marty Harvey from Slomatics as the vocalist of the title-track “The Bodiless”, and Martin Ludl on saxophone playing on the track “Moskstraumen.”

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The concept synopsis is as follows:

1. The Bodiless

The transformation is complete. It enters the ungodly realm through the pulse, now without physical form. A shimmering image of nerves, energy, and vibrant rage moves through starless space. The bodiless is greeted by the never-ending hordes of shapeless beings, awoken for the sole purpose of ending its journey. They will all perish.

2. Queen Womb

Traveling between nodes of passage, covering the vast distances of void, the queen rises. Its children disintegrated, now itself decaying. Facing the bodiless with the desperation of a grieving mother, it unleashes a spewing tidal wave of pure hatred. It is futile. The struggle is short. All that remains is an empty husk. A floating dead mass.

3. Putrid Sentry

Enter the looming watcher of the outer rims, the putrid one. Bestower of unfathomable grief. The commander of a million shapeless minions now gone. It spreads its dark, suffocating energy across the vastness, like a mighty bellow. It wants to consume all. The bodiless seeps into its veins like a lethal promise, soon rendering its deadly cloak pierced and useless, shattered throughout dead space.

4. Moskstraumen

The bodiless slowly drifts into the maw of the maelstrom. Almost depleted. Nearly spent. Soon its purpose is fulfilled. This is the cradle of prime evil. As the ancient swirling mass begins to gnaw away at every ethereal nerve ending of the bodiless, its final offering is released in its full glory: the last light. Burning. Consuming. The grip on the entire realm withers away as the great whirlpool bellows in dying agony.

5. Galaxies Collide

As oozing wounds of ungodly matter bleed out and fade, space itself starts to crumble. Violently colliding with itself, tearing rifts in the very fabric of existence. The bodiless is pulled towards the dead black center of it all. The eye of the storm. Drifting to sleep. In peace. Flickering like a dying lantern.

6. Full Circle

The fail-safe. The curse. The testament. The bodiless is sucked into the deep at the center of the chaotic collapsing reality surrounding it. It is trying to draw breath. It is becoming. Images are rushing back like an unstoppable flood. There is flesh… One archaeologist and 49 brave men stand at the gates, staring down into the bowels of the mountain. It is time to begin the descent.

Line-up:
Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg – Guitars & Vocals
Max Malmer – Bass & Vocals
Dennis Sjödin – Drums & Backup Vocals
Johannes Behndig – Keys

Cavern Deep on Facebook

Cavern Deep on Instagram

Cavern Deep on Bandcamp

Cavern Deep website

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Bonebag Records on Facebook

Bonebag Records on Instagram

Bonebag Records website

Astroqueen‘s Rufus Rising EP will be the band’s first new release in over two decades. That in itself makes its May 2 arrival an event — but the manner of its making is also notable. The new song premiering in the video below, “Turbin Turbine” (sic) is their first single in just as long. This isn’t the most impartial, critic-y thing of me to say, but I’m honored to host it.

Rufus Rising is comprised of four new songs, and “Turbin Turbine” is the leadoff. The track is rooted in a 2003 session the band undertook to demo out songs for their next outing, the follow-up to 2001’s Into Submission, which Majestic Mountain also reissued in 2022 to at last give it some modicum of the presentation it had long deserved. That second full-length didn’t happen at the time and it hasn’t happened yet — the band said they were writing as of last September — but as Astroqueen have taken to the stage again over the last few years, playing festivals like Truckfighters Fuzz Fest (review here) and Freak Valley (review here), and more besides, the discussion of more recording has been there all the while.

So recording has been done. They’re meeting the original demos halfway, which means that the guitars have been redubbed by founding guitarist/vocalist Daniel Änghede, and the whole affair has been remixed and remastered by Andy La Rocque, who helmed the original tracking of the first three of the four songs on Rufus Rising. The 2003 demo, in other words, with new guitars worked in from Änghede. The fourth cut on the EP — the title-track — would seem to be a follow-up or a revisit on some level to Astroqueen‘s 1999 single “Rufus the Space Agent,” which came out on Monster Zero Records (which also released the first Colour Haze album in ’95). “Rufus Rising,” the song, was recorded in 2024 by Änghede.

The way it’s phrased below, I’m not sure if it was just him doing all the tracking solo or with the full band, and I haven’t heard it yet or I’d surely have some comment one way or the other in that regard, but for now, dig into the “Turbin Turbine” video below, get stoked on new Astroqueen in just a couple weeks (one of the vinyl editions is already sold out on preorder), and bask in the fuzz because it’s there just for you.

Enjoy:

Astroqueen, “Turbin Turbine” video premiere

Astroqueen is back with fresh material! This time, they’ve dusted off unreleased tracks from their debut album, Into Submission. New guitars have been recorded, but fans will still recognize the old, fuzzy Astroqueen sound we all love!

“Back in 2003, fresh off the release of Into Submission, Astroqueen hit the studio with Andy La Rocque to record a 3-track demo. Two of those tracks made it onto indie compilations, but the follow-up album never happened. – Life took us in different directions, and the recorded tracks were left to collect dust,” says drummer Johan Borgede.

Now, 20 years later, Astroqueen is back, picking up right where they left off. – When we started working on new material, we realized those demo tracks were too good to stay forgotten says guitarist and singer Daniel Änghede. The riffs still had the fire, but the tone needed an upgrade. – So, we re-recorded the guitars and returned back to Andy. This time at his new studio Sonic Train Studios, to give them the mix they deserved.

The result is Rufus Rising – Astroqueen at its rawest and fuzziest. This EP is both a time capsule and a rocket into the future: an echo from the past and a promise of what’s to come. Rufus Rising is just the beginning.

Pre-order your copy now 👉 https://www.majesticmountainrecords.com/products/astroqueen-rufus-rising-ep-pre-order

Artwork by @k_a_p_a_t_konto
Released on Majestic Mountain Records
Recorded at Andy La Rocque’s Sonic Train Studios

Tracklisting
1. Turbin Turbine
2. Other Side of Nothing
3. Tidal Wave
4. Rufus Rising

Track 1-3 recorded & mixed at Los Angered Records, April 4-6, 2003. Engineered by Andy La Rocque. Produced by Andy La Rocque & Astroqueen.
Guitars recorded by Daniel Änghede at Astroblast Studios, January 2024.

Track 4 written and recorded by Daniel Änghede at Observatoriet Studios, January 2024. Mixed and mastered at Sonic Train Studios, March 22-23, 2024, by Andy La Rocque.

Astroqueen on this EP
Daniel Änghede – Lead guitar & vocals
Daniel Tolergård – Guitar
Johan Borgede – Drums & Percussion
Mattias Vester – Bass

Astroqueen on Bandcamp

Astroqueen on Instagram

Astroqueen on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.

No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Daevar, Sub Rosa

While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.

Daevar on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold

The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.

Rainbows Are Free website

Ripple Music website

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Minerall, Strömung

The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.

Minerall on Bandcamp

Sulatron Records website

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Deathbird Earth, Mission

By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.

Deathbird Earth on Bandcamp

Deathbird Earth at SRA Records

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Thinning the Herd, Cull

Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.

Thinning the Herd website

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

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Phantom Druid, The Edge of Oblivion

Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.

Phantom Druid on Bandcamp

Off the Record Label store

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The Grey, Kodok

Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.

The Grey on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra

With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.

Sun Below on Bandcamp

Sun Below’s Linktr.ee

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Tumbleweed Dealer, Dark Green

It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.

Tumbleweed Dealer on Bandcamp

Tumbleweed Dealer on Instagram

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NYTE VYPR, Plutonic

Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirected contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.

NYTE VYPR on Bandcamp

Owlripper Recordings on Bandcamp

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Good first day yesterday. Good second day today. I’ve been doing Quarterly Reviews for over a decade now, and I’ve kind of learned over time the kind of thing I should be writing about. It might be a record that has a ton of hype or one that has none, and it might be any number of styles — I also like to sneak some stuff in here that doesn’t ‘fit’ once in a while — but in my mind the standard is, “is this something I’ll want to have heard and/or written about later?”

For all the terrors of our age, the glut of good music coming out means there’s more than ever I want to write about, and in a weird way, I look forward to Quarterly Reviews as a way for me to dig in and get caught up a bit. I’ve already been blindsided this QR and it’s the second day. I call that a win.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1

There are few acts the world over who so succintly summarize so much of the appeal of modern heavy rock. Norway’s Kal-El offer big riffs, big hooks, big melodies, songwriting, and still manage heavy-mellow vibes thanks to an ongoing cosmic thematic that brings desert rock methods to more ethereal places. Is “Cloud Walker” the best song they’ve yet written? It’s on the list for sure, but don’t discount nine-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Astral Voyager” or the hey-that’s-a-Star-Trek-reference “Dilithium” with its dug-in low-distortion verses and the Captain‘s vocal outreach. All along, it’s never quite felt like Kal-El were reshaping heavy, but as time passes and they unveil Astral Voyager Vol. 1 with immediate promise of a follow-up, it’s curious how much Kal-El and notions of ‘peak genre’ align. Those of you who proselytize for riffs: even before you get to riding that groove in “Cosmic Sailor,” Kal-El are primed for ambassadorship.

Kal-El website

Majestic Mountain Records store

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Bronco, Bronco

North Carolinian sludgethrowers Bronco take their name from their bassist/vocalist, who also goes by Bronco, and who in the 2010s cut a tone-worshiping generational swath through the Southern wing of the style as a member of Toke, proffering heavy riffs, harsh-throat vocals, and a disaffection that can only be called classic. With eight songs rolling out over 45 minutes, Bronco‘s Bronco picks up the thread where Toke left off with pieces like “Ride Eternal,” which crawls, or the declarative riffing of “Legion” (eerie guest vocals included amid all the pummel), or the closer “TONS,” which I’m going to assume isn’t titled after the Italian sludge-band, though if those guys wanted to put out a song called “Bronco” on their next record, they’d be well within their rights. A remarkably cohesive debut for something that’s so loudly telling you to fuck yourself. These guys’ll be opening for High on Fire in no time.

Bronco on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records store

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Ocultum, Buena Muerte

Although one wouldn’t listen to Santiago, Chile’s Ocultum and be likely to have “refined” top the list of impressions given by the raw, rot-coated sludge of their third album and Heavy Psych Sounds debut, Buena Muerte, the grim-leaning atmosphere, charge later in the title-track, cultish presentation and the atmosphere emergent both from guitar-wail and yelling interlude “Fortunato’s Fortune” and from the material that surrounds, whether that’s the title-track or the just-under-12-minute “Last Weed on Earth.” The record finds the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Sebastián Bruna, bassist Pablo Cataldo and drummer Ricardo Robles dug in, stoned and malevolent. They’re not as over-the-top as many in cult rock, but one does get a sense of ceremony from “Last Weed on Earth” and subsequent capper “Emki’s Return” — the latter galloping in its first half and willfully devolved from there into avant noise — even if that’s more about the making of the songs than the performance of genre tropes.

Ocultum on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Fidel A Go Go, Diss Engaged

The grunge crunch of “Running With Secrets” and the Cantrell-y acoustics of “Push” are barely the beginning of the story as regards Fidel A Go Go‘s meld of sounds, which ranges from the willfully desert rocking “Sandstorm” to the proggy “Lil Shit,” the transposed blues of “Rainy Days” and the penultimate “Psychedelicexistentialcrisisalidocious,” which is serene in its melody and troubling in the words, as one would hope, and while the moniker and the punny album title speak to shenanigans, the Brisbane four-piece offer a point of view both instrumentally and lyrically that is engaging and draws together the stylistic range. There’s little doubt left to whom “A Stench of Musk” and “Barely an Adversary” are about, but even that’s not the extent of the perspective resonant in these 11 songs. There’s enough fuzz here for desert heads, but Fidel A Go Go are broader in attitude and craft, and Diss Engaged makes a point of its artistic freedom.

Fidel A Go Go website

Fidel A Go Go on Bandcamp

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Tumble, Lost in Light

Like their 2023 debut EP, Lady Cadaver, Tumble‘s second short offering, Lost in Light sees the trio of guitarist/vocalist Liam Deak, bassist Tarun Dawar and drummer Will Adams working with producer/engineer Ian Blurton (Ian Blurton’s Future Now, etc.) to hone and sharpen a classic, proto-metallic sound without seeing a dip in recording quality. As such, the five songs/20 minutes of Lost in Light are duly brash — looking at you, “Dead by Rumour” and the Radio Moscow-esque “The Less I Know” — but crisp in tone and execution. The mid-tempo “Sullen Slaves” picks up in its solo section later for a bit of boogie, and the slightly-slower metallic lurch of “Laid by Fear” sets up a contrast with the swinging closer “Wings of Gold” that makes the ending of the EP an absolute strut. They aren’t even asking a half-hour of your time, and the rewards are more than commensurate for getting down. They continue to be one to watch as they position themselves for a full-length debut in the next couple years.

Tumble’s Linktr.ee

Stickman Records website

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

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Putan Club, Filles d’Octobre

Normally I might consider it a hindrance to have no clue what’s going on, but if you’ve never before encountered Italy/France semi-industrial duo Putan Club you might just find yourself in better position going into Filles d’Octobre as the avant garde radfem troupe unfurl a live set recorded at Portugal’s Amplifest, presumably in 2022. But if you don’t know it’s a live record, what’s coming musically, or that Filles d’Octobre is derived from their 2017 debut album, Filles de Mai, there’s a decent change your contextless self will be scrathing your head in wonder of just what’s going on with the bouncy lurch and maybe xylophone of “Filippino,” and that seems to suit Putan Club just fine. If you have to break something to remake it, Putan Club are set to the task of manifesting a rock and roll that is dangerous, new, unrepentantly socially critical, and ready to dance when you are. That they meet these significant ambitions head on shouldn’t be discounted. Not for everybody, but definitely for everybody who thinks they’ve heard it all.

Putan Club website

Toten Schwan Records on Bandcamp

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IAH, En Vivo en Cabezas de Tormenta

The first live offering from Argentinian prog-heavy instrumentalists IAH follows behind the band’s most expansive studio LP to-date, 2023’s V (review here), and brings into emphasis the group’s dynamic. It’s not just about being able to make a part sound floaty or to make the part next to it crush, but the character of a piece like the 24-minute “Noboj pri Uaset” (which might be new) is as much about the journey undertaken in their builds and the smoothness of the shifts between parts. They dip back to their earlier going for “Sheut” at the start of the set and “Ourboros” and “Eclipsum” the latter of which closes, and the bass in “Sentado en el Borde de una Pregunta” is worth the price of admission alone, never mind as a complement to the extended progression of “Noboj pri Uaset,” which is something of the buried lede here. So be it. On stage or on record, IAH offer immersion unto themselves. A little more tonal edge as a result of the live recording doesn’t hurt that one bit.

IAH website

IAH on Bandcamp

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Gin Lady, Before the Dawn of Time

Before the Dawn of Time is upwards of the seventh full-length from Swedish vintage-style heavy rockers Gin Lady, and in addition to seeing them make the jump from Kozmik Artifactz to Ripple Music, the sans-pretense 11-songer invents its own moment. It’s like the comedown era (from 1968-1974, roughly) happened, but happened differently. It’s another path to a heavy rock future. There’s ’70s vibes in “Tingens Sanna Natur” a-plenty, and if it’s boogie or push or hooky melodic wash you want, “Mulberry Bend” has you covered for that and then some, never mind the down-home strum of “Bliss on the Line” or the pastoral contemplation of “The Long Now,” as Gin Lady put a classy stamp of their own on classic aural ideologies, as what are no doubt hyperspecific keyboards make the production smooth and let “Ways to Cross the Sky” commune with Morricone while capper “You’re a Big Star” drops a melody that can really only be called “arena ready.” As it stands, it’ll probably go over killer at festivals across Europe.

Gin Lady on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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Adrift, Dry Soil

Duly apocalyptic for being the band’s first full-length release since 2019, Adrift‘s fourth album, Dry Soil, elicits an overarching doom that makes its tonal claustrophobia all the more affecting. The long-running Madrid outfit offer six songs that veer between the contemplative and the caustic as throatrippers worthy of Enslaved add an element of the extreme to the post-metallic intensity of “Edge” and “Restart” in the record’s middle. There are heavy rock underpinnings — that is, somebody here still likes Sabbath — but Adrift are well at home in all the bludgeonry, and “Bonfire” finishes by tying black metal, sludge, noise and darkly thrashing metal together with a suitably severe ambience. Are they torching it at the end? Kind of, but just replace “it” with “everything” and you’ll have a better idea perhaps of where they’re coming from on the whole. But for regionalist discrimination, Adrift would’ve conquered Europe a long time ago.

Adrift on Facebook

Adrift on Bandcamp

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Black Sadhu, Ashes of Aether

Berlin trio Black Sadhu — guitarist/vocalist Max Lowry (also synth, effects), bassist Alex Glimm and drummer Martin Cederlund — employ atmosphere to a point of cinematics on their second full-length, Ashes of Aether, following up the post-doom wash of 2021 standalone single “Mindless Masses” with plays back and forth between full-heft nod and take-a-breather meanderings. This cuts momentum less than one might think as the keyboard and drone and sample of “Tumors of Light” lend experimentalist verve to “Descent,” the next of the nine-track outing’s more-complete-song songs, as the latter unfolds with a shine on the crash that continues to cut through the surrounding rumble as the procession unfurls. Patience, then. So long as you know the payoff is coming — and it is; looking at you, “Electric Death” — and don’t mind being stretched and contorted on a molecular level between here and there, you should be good to go.

Black Sadhu on Bandcamp

Black Sadhu on Instagram

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The fuzz runs strong in This Summit Fever‘s self-titled debut full-length, released this week through Majestic Mountain Records. The UK-based duo of guitarist/vocalist Andy Blackburn and drummer Jim McSorley make it a party on their first long-player, with eight songs and 29 minutes of crash ‘n’ bash raucous heft, tempered a bit by some mellower stretches, but rich in tone in a way that calls to mind marauder two-pieces like Big Business or Telekinetic Yeti, while remanining distinct in how they manifest their ideas. But for closer “It Haunts Us,” every song on the record is under four minutes long — the finale is a sprawling 4:45 — and with worship-hued fuzz worthy of Valley of the Sun, “Breathe You In” welcomes listeners to the procession with due force and energy, letting “Currents” pick up with an even hairier roll.

Clearly momentum is a factor on a record that’s purposefully comprised of such short, tight cuts, but tempo and modus are both malleable throughout This Summit Fever, and so they make it a ride in addition to being a collection of songs. “Currents” airs out the melody in its fluid verse and “Hooks” introduces a bit more stomp in McSorley‘s drums as the guitar shifts between twist and roll before the wah hits in the solo en route to the big-nod ending and the more immediate into-the-verse beginning of “Superfluous,” the slower presumed capper for side A. Answered back to by “It Haunts Us” later on, which likewise takes it a bit easier on the volume and/or throttle but veers closer to psychedelics, “Superfluous” is perhaps titled in honor of the crescendo following its mellower outset, but don’t take that to imply it’s too much. Overload is the whole idea.

Far back drums lead the way into “Voices” like the old metalcore kids used to do, and what unfolds is a highlight riff and steady movement into the watery verse. There’s a bit of drama in the solo later on, and the vocals take a moodier cast, but it’s still cohesive and any perceived divergences are mitigated by the fact that the songs are so short. It’s one thing into the next into the next; they keep moving, even if sometimes that motion is molasses-paced. “Voices” is hookier than “Hooks,” and it leads into the tempo-kick of “Party to Blame,” which takes a classic-style stoner rock shuffle and turns it atmospheric with spacey vocal reverb, slows down in the chorus, and sets up the mid-tempo immersion of the penultimate “Only Quiteness” with consistent fluidity. The stops in “Only Quiteness” are a distinguishing feature, but again, well in play as they move into “It Haunts Us” with hand percussion and softer electric guitar ambience and a breathy vocal to match.

To their credit, “It Haunts Us” doesn’t at any point burst into full-toned riffing in some grand finale. While it might be rad if they did, of course, the reason it works as-is is that it reaffirms This Summit Fever are in the process of growing and realizing different intentions through their sound. There’s little in their self-titled debut that’s revolutionizing genre conventions, but that’s not the priority here. They’re laying out what they do in terms of songwriting and giving themselves a strong foundation thereof from which to continue to move forward. That momentum? It breaks the fourth wall, because as the band have spent the last five years meting out singles and a couple EPs, they’ve been making their way here, and now that they’ve arrived at the debut LP — a critical moment in the life of any band or artist, obviously — they meet the moment head-on while still keeping one eye on what’s coming next. By the time the record’s done, I can’t help but be curious in that regard too.

The album streams in full below, followed by more info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Andy Blackburn on This Summit Fever:

“Our self titled debut album represents who we are as a band and who I am as a songwriter in 2025. I have no interest in trying to be the next.. whichever band. I want to make our own path and embrace influences from different genres. For me, creating music has to come from the heart. There HAS to be emotion, be that anger, sadness, regret, fear or happiness. It’s a way to express difficult feelings about life’s challenges in a positive way. If someone else can relate, then that’s a huge bonus.”

This Summit Fever, the riff-worshipping fuzz rock duo, is set to unleash their self-titled debut album on April 4, 2025, via Majestic Mountain Records. With a sound that sits comfortably between Fu Manchu, The Melvins, and Queens of the Stone Age, the UK-based duo delivers a raw, high-energy mix of fuzz-drenched riffs and thunderous grooves, proving that two people can make a mountain-sized sound.

Originally formed as a lockdown project by guitarist/vocalist Andy Blackburn, the band quickly gained momentum when longtime friend and drummer Jim McSorley joined. What started as home-recorded demos soon evolved into a fully realized, high-impact fuzz rock machine, fueled by the duo’s love for massive riffs and powerful rhythms.

Recorded with a self-imposed limitation mantra, This Summit Fever strips away excess production, focusing instead on authentic, hard-hitting songwriting.

“As a songwriter, I’ve come to embrace our limitations as a duo. It forces us to be more creative with riffs, melodies, and arrangements. We decluttered the production, focusing only on what the songs truly needed.” – Andy Blackburn

The album dives into the complexities of the human condition, exploring personal struggles, resilience, and emotional turmoil, all wrapped in thick walls of fuzz, pounding drums, and hypnotic grooves.

This Summit Fever has built a reputation for their ferocious live performances, proving that what they lack in numbers, they make up for in sheer sonic force.

THIS SUMMIT FEVER – 2025 TOUR DATES
Friday, April 11 – Wolverhampton, Dive (Album Launch)
Saturday, April 12 – Bournemouth, Dorset Doomsday
Wednesday, April 16 – Manchester, Night and Day (Headline Show)
May 2-4 – Shrewsbury, Loopfest
Sunday, May 18 – London, Desertfest
Friday, June 20 – London, The Dev (Headline Show)
Saturday, September 13 – London, The Black Heart

This Summit Fever’s Linktr.ee

This Summit Fever on Instagram

This Summit Fever on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Tomorrow, March 21, marks the release of the debut album, Left for Dust, by Swedish heavy rockers Caboose. Issued through Majestic Mountain, it is a fervent argument in favor of the generational turnover happening in Scandinavia right now — bands like Slomosa and Gjenferd, arguably MaidaVale and others, offering a fresh take on classic heavy rock ideologies, not just of the 1970s, where the sound has much of its foundations, but of the turn of the century era as well. Obviously, this applies differently to different bands, and as Caboose — the four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Dante Lindström, guitarist/backing vocalist Olle Leppäniemi, bassist Herman Serning and drummer Oskar Bergman — emerge with a sharp batch of nine hooky, riffy, fuzzy, groovy, fun-as-hell rockers pulled off with youthful verve in 29 minutes, their songwriting comes through with a corresponding sincerity of purpose in the manner they’re speaking to their influences.

One help can’t be reminded of Lowrider‘s Ode to Io as the hooky shuffle of “High on You” at the outset gives over to “Shiner,” with its more distinctly Fu Manchu-ian desert stomp. The fact that they’re young is part of the appeal, and something of a standout in an underground of ’90s holdovers, but becomes a boon to the directness of the songwriting. They’re not necessarily punk, but even closer “Spacerod,” which dares to edge near the five-minute mark (everything else is between about two and a half and three and a half minutes long), is pointed in its inclusion of a hook, taking some unconscious cue perhaps from what Slomosa brought to a style derived from early Queens of the Stone Age and applying it to the fuzzier shove of the aforementioned Fu Manchu. Certainly “Cement Surfer” supports this, and the twisting structure of the riff and vocal cadence of “Crimson Haze” too. Not at all a thing to complain about. Caboose establish their own dynamic between Leppäniemi and Lindström‘s guitars and the grunge tinge of “Fuzzed Out Mind” gives some hint of stylistic elements that might work their way into the sound over the longer term, and Left for Dust at no point comes across like it’s trying to reinvent stoner rock so much as celebrate it, which in turn makes it feel more heartfelt.

By the time they’ve casually cruised through centerpiece “Sophie’s Sushi Wok” — two verses each with a semi-chorus, a quick boogie jam, done in 2:34 — and through the shove ‘n’ shred of “Cement Surfer,” the die is long since cast. Somebody send apology cards to Caboose‘s parents; your children have been claimed by heavy rock and roll and are thusly condemned to a lifetime of riffing out in square-shaped buildings of various size and locale. In all seriousness, given the level of craft throughout Left for Dust and the fullness of the production through which the album is presented — that is, that they sound way more like a young, hungry band ready to tour and make records than they do like a novelty act — it’s difficult to divorce the high quality of Caboose‘s first LP from the potential it heralds for their future growth in the genre.

There are a lot of young bands out there right now and it can take a lot to break through and grab listeners’ attention, whether it’s on social media or standing on stage. Caboose have the songs behind them here and especially for being their debut, that’s plenty. What their future might hold is anyone’s best guess and will ultimately be a part of the story of how they grow up as people. Lowrider could probably tell you about that, or Elder at this point. Caboose set themselves on a path here that likely will resonate with older heads, sure, and has the potential to bring new listeners on board in a way most new bands can’t, and no, that’s not just about their likely ability to effectively use TikTok to spread awareness of their existence. Though that might help too.

The point is that most of all, Caboose‘s potential is in the songs themselves and the effectiveness with which they convey their realization; the sense of purpose behind the aura of cool that pervades the desert-style spread of “For So Long” early on and the engaging nod of “Feedback City” later. Though straight-ahead, they are not lazy as songwriters — even as stripped down as “Sophie’s Sushi Wok” is, the verse progression makes a brief return at the end — and the malleability of the fuzz throughout speaks to a willingness to try new things in search of what best serves the material and an attention to detail that gives a different framing to the short, snappy vibes of “High on You,” “Shiner,” and so on. Part of the reason one can imagine Caboose doing this for the next 25 years so vividly is no doubt because they already sound so much like they know what they’re doing.

Left for Dust streams in its entirety below. PR wire info follows. Have at it and if the joy doesn’t come through, come back when you’re in a better mood, because trust me, it’s there.

Enjoy:

Formed during the frigid winter of 2022 by four high school friends, Caboose started as a school project aimed at crafting high-tempo stoner rock. What began in a makeshift garage studio quickly evolved into something much bigger, as the band honed their fuzz-driven sound, blending classic rock grit with the modern stoner rock spirit.

Now, nearly two years into their journey, Caboose has become a staple of Stockholm’s rock scene, delivering high-volume, riff-heavy performances from underground venues to festival stages. With fuzz-drenched riffs, thick grooves, and raw energy, Left For Dust cements Caboose as a band to watch in the Swedish rock underground.

Tracklisting:
1. High On You
2. Shiner
3. For So Long
4. Crimson Haze
5. Sophie’s Sushi Wok
6. Fuzzed Out Mind
7. Cement Surfer
8. Feedback City
9. Spacerod

Composer and lyrics: Dante Lindström.
Mixers and engineers:
Alexander Kelam, Martin Sweet and Oskar Bergman.

CABOOSE are:
Dante Lindström: Guitar & lead vocals
Olle Leppäniemi: Guitar & backup vocals
Herman Serning: Bass
Oskar Bergman: Drums

Caboose on Instagram

Caboose on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Truth be told, I was very much hoping to see Vokonis at some point this year after their 2024 album, Transitions (review here), proffered such aural and existential triumph, not sugarcoating the experience of founding guitarist/vocalist Simona Ohlsson‘s coming out as trans, but giving progressive heavy metal and rock a voice it very much needs and offering yet another collection of killer tunes besides. They were scheduled to support Rezn later this summer in their native Sweden, but the band’s breakup — announced just yesterday — obviously precludes such a thing.

Some of the sting is taken out of the band’s what-feels-like-suddenly calling it a day by the admission, “We might come back in the future, we might not. We’re gonna keep creative music in a different shape and under a different name.” This is good news, whatever it might actually portend in terms of sound. I followed Vokonis from their tone-worshiping demo days as a stoner band a decade ago to the realizations of their last LP, and given the journey in sound that that was, I’m curious what Ohlsson and company might have in store for the future. I may never get to say I saw Vokonis, but at least the door is open to other possibilities.

In my stoner rock head-canon Ohlsson has been tapped to permamently replace Brent Hinds in Mastodon. She can sing and you’d have a hard time finding a better fit. She’d make them a better band. Just saying.

The band and their label, Majestic Mountain Records, offered the following on social media:

Says Vokonis:

Vokonis, 2015-2025.

Vokonis have come to an end. We’d like to thank everyone who’s listened to our music, come to our shows and supported us in any way possible. We might come back in the future, we might not.

We’re gonna keep creating music in a different shape and under a different name. Again, thank you all who’s taken part in our journey.

Says Majestic Mountain Records:

It is with heavy hearts that we at Majestic Mountain mark this somber day. We’ve been ardent supporters of Vokonis’ music since their inception in 2015, closely following their profound influence on the heavy music scene and their remarkable evolution from stoner doom roots to the expansive realms of progressive metal that is the album ‘Transitions’.

So it goes without saying that releasing VOKONIS latest album, Transitions, has been a true privilege for us at Majestic Mountain. A true milestone for us as a label.

We’ll all miss Vokonis, but we’re also already looking forward to hear where their new musical journey takes us.

Vokonis, Thank you for the music. 🩷

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialVokonis/
https://www.instagram.com/vokonisofficial/
https://vokonis.bandcamp.com/

Vokonis, Transitions (2024)

Atmospheric narrative conceptualist doomers Cavern Deep have set a May 9n release for their third album, Part III – The Bodiless, which will be issued through their associated imprint Bonebag Records as well as Majestic Mountain Records. Initially a trio and now a four-piece, the band are following the thread from their last offering, 2023’s Part II – Breach (review here), and they give a first glimpse of the depths to which they’ll plunge in the new single “Queen Womb.” Spoiler alert: it’s dark.

There’s a video for the just-about-six-minute track now, and I’ve got the audio below in case you want a different sensory experience. One thing I’ve found interesting about Cavern Deep to this point is that they’ve grown, progressed in a sound and even now changed configuration, and they’re consistent in the story they’re telling, even as the number of ways they have to tell it is growing. The development of the band, then, becomes a secondary plot to everything they do, expanding their reach musically, lyrically, and in the case of “Queen Womb,” building in the dual-vocal approach and making that part of the ambience throughout.

Did I mention it’s dark? Good. The rest of the info came in a Bandcamp email, which I’d rather get 1,000 of per day than spend five minutes finding this shit on Facebook. Have at it:

linktr.ee/caverndeep

We are very happy to announce that our Bonebag Records is joining forces with Majestic Mountain to release our next concept album “Part III – The Bodiless” the 9th of May. The Bodiless will be the final album to complete the trilogy of the archeologist, which we first meet in our debut album.

This is the first single “Queen Womb”. It is one of our favourites of the album, and it comes with a very murky music video which we hope you all will enjoy. The synopsis of the song is as follows:

Traveling between nodes of passage, covering the vast distances of void, the queen rises. Its children disintegrated, now itself decaying. Facing the bodiless with the desperation of a grieving mother, it unleashes a spewing tidal wave of pure hatred. It is futile. The struggle is short. All that remains is an empty husk. A floating dead mass.

Cavern Deep is:
Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg – Guitars and Vocals
Max Malmer – Bass and Vocals
Dennis Sjödin – Drums, Backup Vocals and Keys
Johannes Behndig – Synth

https://www.instagram.com/caverndeep/
https://www.facebook.com/caverndeep
https://caverndeep.com/
https://caverndeep.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bonebagrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/bonebagrecords/
https://bonebagrecords.com/

http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Cavern Deep, “Queen Womb” official video

Cavern Deep, “Queen Womb”