This week, Majestic Mountain Records, like Atlas holding up the world, will oversee the release of Four Altars of Sin, a two-sided four-way split between Doomherre, Ordos, Hexjakt and Kaiser. The four bands, appearing in that order, each present one track, and the breakdown is one shorter and one longer piece per side, with Doomherre and Hexjakt around six and a half/seven minutes and Ordos and Kaiser on either side of 11. Any way you go, doom is had.

Doomherre (Stockholm), Ordos (Uppsala) and Hexjakt (Westmanland) are all Swedish, while Kaiser hail from Helsinki, Finland, and that’s not the only way in which the bombastic riffers stand out here, being something of a shift away from the brooding of the prior three bands as they are. The procession begins with a slow bassline as “Blood Relics of Old” harkens to an underlying Type O Negative influence in Doomherre‘s sound, evident in the later call-and-response vocals as well as the tone of the guitar throughout. It’s a downer, it’s supposed to be a downer, and for a sentence that uses the word ‘down’ now three times, it sets a deceptively high bar in terms of quality and purposeful songcraft.

In the side B mirror position, Hexjakt are more aggressive and post-metallic, but their later instrumental etherealism doesn’t feel so far removed as to be out of place — neither does anything else, for that matter. Before reaching that particular altar (of sin), Ordos‘ “Inferno” unfurls a build across the first half of its 10:50 runtime and spends the rest of it dwelling magisterialy over its tempered, full-toned nod. By the time they’re four minutes in and the pace picks up a bit, they’ve unveiled most of the tricks up their sleeve, but the reverby reach in the crescendo of “Inferno” is a satisfying moment that doubles as a fitting bridge into Hexjakt‘s “Svartkonst,” simultaneously shoutier and more morose in its atmosphere.

That combination of mood and roll seems to be the heart of what Four Altars of Sin has to offer — as Crowbar once put it: ‘lifesblood for the downtrodden’ — but Kaiser complicate that narrative while at the same time their 11:14 “Sonic Satan” offers the blowout the release didn’t know it needed. A sample and feedback build tension — something something Satan something something — over the first couple minutes, but when they hit into the riff at about 2:20, the sweep is undeniable. They slow it down to be sure, and there’s a bonus-radness stop in the comedown after the solo where the drums bring it back (see 7:42) for a noisy and distorted finish. Death comes for us all, so why not make it a party before you go?

And if that’s the central question being proposed by “Sonic Satan” and the still-manageable-at-35-minutes LP overall, I don’t have a counterargument. Each of these four acts is dug into a niche within the niche under the umbrella of doom, even with Kaiser taking more of a rocker’s angle to get there. The complexities and the diversity of influence will resonate with the converted — everybody brings something nuanced to the table, in other words — while those who don’t or can’t get their heads to it simply won’t. Sometimes as a thought experiment I pretend I’ve never heard anything like this before and what does someone like that think? Inevitably this just leads to me exercising my disdain for normal humans as unthinking philistines. But this is doom celebrating doom, you understand. If it was for everybody, it wouldn’t be what it is.

Such is the nature of extremity, of daring to take a position, of refusing milquetoast generalities in favor of the individual. I could go on here, but I don’t actually want the review to be longer than it takes to listen to the release. If you’d worship, Majestic Mountain‘s got the altars built and ready. You’ll find the LP streaming in its entirety below, followed by more from the PR wire.

As always, I genuinely hope you enjoy:

Doomherre, Ordos, Hexjakt & Kaiser, Four Altars of Sin Split LP premiere

Pre-Order Link: https://www.majesticmountainrecords.com/products/four-altars-of-sin-4-way-split-with-kaiser-doomherre-hexjakt-and-ordos

Majestic Mountain Records will release Four Altars of Sin, a special split release bringing together four of the most exciting names in the contemporary Scandinavian doom, stoner, and heavy underground. Featuring previously unreleased tracks from Doomherre, Ordos, Hexjakt, and Kaiser, the release showcases four distinct voices united by a shared devotion to volume, atmosphere, and the transformative power of heavy music.

Across four exclusive songs, the participating bands explore different corners of the heavy spectrum, from classic doom and psychedelic stoner rock to blackened atmospheres and crushing fuzz-laden riffs. The result is a release united by a shared sense of power, atmosphere, and authenticity.

Released on vinyl and digital formats, Four Altars of Sin serves as both a celebration of friendship and a showcase for a new generation of Scandinavian heavy music. While each band brings its own distinct identity, together they create a cohesive journey through the darker, heavier, and more atmospheric corners of the underground.

Four Altars of Sin will be released on June 26 via Majestic Mountain Records.

Doomherre on Bandcamp

Doomherre on Instagram

Doomherre on Facebook

Ordos on Bandcamp

Ordos on Instagram

Ordos on Facebook

Hexjakt on Bandcamp

Hexjakt on Instagram

Hexjakt on Facebook

Kaiser on Bandcamp

Kaiser on Instagram

Kaiser on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

This tour, which will see Kal-El hitting Ripplefest Texas after a warm-up gig and then heading north up the Pacific Coastline and ending in the mountains, is a week longer than that which brought the Norwegians to the East Coast last year (review here). It follows the March release of Astral Voyager Vol. 2 (review here), which came in hot as the sequel behind 2025’s Astral Voyager Vol. 1 (review here), and is parcel to the momentum that Kal-El have fostered over the last four years since the end of the pandemic. They’ve been hitting it hard. They continue to hit it hard.

Joining them on the stint will be Goya and Volume, picking up the former in their native Arizona and traveling as a package from there on out with Kal-El in a well-earned headline position. The tour runs into October and hits into Canada for a stop in Vancouver, should you happen to be on that part of the continent. I give kudos to anyody traveling to the US for any reason at this point, let alone tour. They’ll also do UK/EU dates in August before this trip happens.

From social media:

USA and Canada – it’s time to crack this open: We are coming back for a 3 weeks run this fall with Goya and VOLUME

Go get your tickets today, spread the word, and we’ll see y’all very soon.

9/18 Haltom City, TX – Haltom Theatre
9/19 Austin, TX – RippleFest Texas (Far Out Lounge)
9/20 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
9/22 Santa Fe, NM – Desert Dogs
9/23 Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live
9/24 Las Vegas, NV – Dive Bar
9/25 Landers, CA – The Annex
9/26 Palmdale, CA – Transplants Brewing
9/27 Los Angeles, CA – Redwood Bar & Grill
9/29 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
9/30 Sacramento, CA – Café Colonial
10/1 Eugene, OR – John Henry’s
10/2 Portland, OR – High Water Mark
10/3 Seattle, WA – The Funhouse
10/4 Vancouver, BC – Astoria
10/6 Spokane, WA – The Cameleon
10/7 Boise, ID – The Olympic
10/8 Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High
10/9 Denver, CO – Black Sky Brewing
10/10 Colorado Springs, CO – What’s Left Records

http://kal-el.no
http://kal-el.bandcamp.com
http://instagram.com/kalelband
http://facebook.com/kalelproject

bluesfuneral.com
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/

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

Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 2 (2026)

Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 (2025)

Progressive Swedish solo-rooted outfit Mirror of My Soul offers its full-length debut, October is Rising, tomorrow, June 12, on Majestic Mountain Records. And to be sure, there’s a lot going on here for what’s ostensibly a solo album.

Mirror of My Soul, at its root, is a project helmed and guided by Patrik Andersson Winberg, known for his work on bass in covered-here bands like Dun Ringill, The Order of Israfel and Doomdogs. And those three are pretty doomy, at least in terms of underlying influences, but October is Rising and Mirror of My Soul shows another side.

This is a familiar-enough story by now, right? Guy in bands makes record not in bands and it’s different? No, maybe you shouldn’t be shocked, but Winberg‘s got more going on here than sitting in front of a microphone with an acoustic guitar and strumming away on songs this or that band didn’t want. The ‘October’ in the title should clue you in to goth — think October Rust, even if there isn’t much Type O Negative influence; Winberg cites Field of the Nephilim, and fair enough — but there isn’t much actually morose in the 13-track/55-minute offering. Indeed the scope of the material is too broad to be so singly incapsulated.

Part of that is that Winberg collaborates with no fewer than 15 players throughout the release. Vocalists swap between moody, hooky post-punk opener “The One Who Sings the Songs” and the piano-ballad (with Per Wiberg on keys, naturally) title-track, while “Carry Your Soul” brings an almost psychedelic edge to its slower roll and prescient folkishness ahead of the Nick Cave-goes-West “A Good Day to Die” — Worf agrees it is one — with a fluid current of acoustic fleshed out by drums and a plugged-in solo. The subsequent “Mina Fotavtryck” brings flute, folk-fuzz and Swedish lyrics. This is how the album functions.

It never occupies the same place twice, even as instruments, performers and performances are in conversation with each other. And at nearly an hour’s 2LP-ready runtime with the swath of personnel, I won’t call October is Rising a minor undertaking, but it does justify its scope through the strength of underlying craft. “Lost in the Red Wine” is brash and regretful in kind, sort of a hungover punker’s litany, while the centerpiece “Grandpa” marks the only time a woman’s voice is heard, leading into “Coyote,” which seems to push toward heavy rock in its structure and groove while purposefully leaving open some of the space that, in other circumstances, band’s can’t resist filling.

With exceptions for “The One Who Sings the Songs,” “Lost in the Red Wine” and the closing “The Painter,” songs are generally in the four-to-five-minute range, and each in its turn establishes its own basis as regards atmosphere, and even as singers are brought in (or back in, in some cases), the shifts aren’t disruptive to the overarching flow of the material. Some of this is a result of generally mid-range tempos being employed, but there are thoughtful interactions in the material as well, like the Westernism of “A Good Day to Die” finding different expression in “Coyote,” and so on. “Tree on That Hill” brings a ’90s-alternative aspect and pairs it with a more pastoral instrumental cast, but “The Letter” is a classic hard-rocking slide-guitar roller; the most outwardly, traditionally heavy moment on October is Rising.

The emphasis there should be on ‘traditionally,’ because there’s plenty of weight to go around, but it’s not about how thick a guitar sounds so much as the density of ambience, the emotional crux of the material, and the presence the rhythm section brings to the songs. “Dancing Slowly on the Porch” highlights this with an otherwise gentle arrangement of string sounds and acoustic guitar given its vibrance via bass and drums pushing it all forward, and while the banjo-inclusive “The Owl” brings a more subtle swing, the same applies to its engagement with Americana; it still moves.

Closer “The Painter” feels specifically Nick Cave in the way of “A Good Day to Die,” and I think they share a singer as well as a general intent. If that’s Winberg tying it all together as a songwriter, he finds nuance to distinguish the piece so it doesn’t just sound like a place October is Rising has gone before. As with much of the record surrounding, it might take a few listens — at least twice through, so you can get the pattern of changes among singers and arrangements — to let this ending section dig in, but clearly Mirror of My Soul isn’t intended to be a passive listening experience. Indeed, the deeper you go with it, the more there is for you to find.

There’s little one would call inaccessible throughout October is Rising — it never gets harsh in terms of sound — but neither is it simple. One expects the same might be said of Winberg‘s soul being mirrored. I don’t know how sustainable a logistical model working with so many artists is, so won’t predict what Winberg might do with the project over the longer term, but this is an impressive, expansive debut that’s strikingly clear in where it wants to put the listener while encouraging that same listener to follow of their own will. And if you let them, the songs will stay with you.

October is Rising streams in full below, followed by copious PR wire background. If you’ll recall, I told you at the outset there was a lot going on.

Please enjoy:

There are records that feel constructed, and then there are records that feel uncovered as if they had always existed, waiting for the right moment to surface. October is Rising, the debut album from Mirror of My Soul, belongs firmly to the latter.

The solo project of Patrik Andersson Winberg (Dun Ringill, ex-The Order of Israfel, Doomdogs), Mirror of My Soul steps away from the constraints of band dynamics and into something far more personal and fluid. Built on the foundations of singer-songwriter storytelling, the album carries the emotional power of gothic and hard rock, not through imitation, but through atmosphere, intensity, and a deep sense of introspection.

What began five years ago as a need to express something more intimate gradually evolved into a fully realized work shaped by patience, instinct, and collaboration. Letting go of limited structures and expectations, Winberg allowed the songs to unfold organically, guided by emotion rather than genre. The result is an album that moves freely between light and shadow, strength and vulnerability, never settling into one space for too long.

“There was a point where I just had to trust the idea and follow it wherever it led,” Winberg reflects. “These songs come from a very personal place, they carry both joy and darkness, and everything in between.”

Sonically, October is Rising draws from a rich palette of influences, echoing the stark storytelling of Nick Cave, the timeless gravitas of Johnny Cash, and the haunting atmospheres of Fields of the Nephilim. Yet it never feels derivative. Instead, it inhabits its own space, sparse, evocative, and often cinematic, with moments that feel as intimate as a whispered confession and others that expand into something far more expansive and spectral.

While the project is deeply personal, it is far from solitary. A wide range of collaborators helped bring these songs to life, each adding their own distinct touch. Among them are drummers Pete Campbell (Axe Dragger, ex-Pentagram), Tobbe Strandvik (ex-Kamchatka), guitarist Patric Grammann (Dun Ringill), and keyboardist Per Wiberg (Spiritual Beggars, ex-Opeth, Tiamat), whose contribution to the title track adds a subtle but powerful layer of depth.

The album also features an extensive and carefully curated cast of vocalists, each bringing a distinct character to the songs. From the commanding presence of Terry Slesser (Beckett, Backstreet Crawler, Geordie) on the title track, to performances by Richard Reynolds (Lunar Tantrum), Andy Campbell (Rust Bucket), Damon Collum (ex-Don Darlings), Philip Lindgren (ex-Hypnos), and Niklas Sjöberg (Graviators), the record unfolds as a series of shifting perspectives rather than a single fixed voice.

Additional contributions from Lovisa, Songdog, Tobias Jansson (Saffire, Gathering of Kings), Niklas Börjesson (ex-Lotus), Tony Jelenchovich (Transport League, ex-M.A.N), and others further expand the album’s emotional and tonal range. Despite this diversity, the record never loses its coherence, with each guest performance serving the song rather than overpowering it.

Anchoring it all is Patrik Andersson Winberg himself, who handles bass, keyboards, and a wide range of instrumentation throughout, ensuring a consistent sonic identity across the album’s many moving parts.

Now, with its release set for June 12 via Majestic Mountain Records, the album is ready to find its audience, freely, openly, and without compromise.

Mirror of My Soul on Bandcamp

Mirror of My Soul on Instagram

Mirror of My Soul on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Day two, feeling good after coming in hot yesterday after the weekend of writing. Have I ever told you about my fantasy QR? No? I write reviews of stuff all along, every day, then when it’s QR time I just roll it all out and take an actual week off. Wouldn’t it enhance your enjoyment knowing that somewhere, sometime, I’m sitting on ass and not frantically trying to finish the next day’s reviews?

I haven’t ever been able to manifest that reality, so here I am, yesterday, maybe two days before, trying to put it together. Same as every other QR I’ve done in the past 12 or 13 years, however long I’ve been doing these. Long enough to know when one feels good. Yesterday was cool. I have high hopes accordingly for today’s batch. I try to do myself favors in putting these together as best I can.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Spirit Adrift, Infinite Illumination

Led for the last decade by Nate Garrett initially as a solo-project and then as a full, touring and working band, Spirit Adrift come to a reported close with Infinite Illumination, the Austin outfit’s sixth album. Melancholia and metal intertwine on songs like “Window Within,” the chuggy ’90s groover “Born in a Bad Way,” and “White Death,” which resolves with a massive nod. The band have always tipped the balance of metal and doom, so these are fitting sounds on which to go out, if in fact Garrett (also Neon Nightmare) is done with it. “Where Once There Was an Ocean” unfolds slowly at the end of the album, and stately in its intro and very much in that place between, what with the shredding solo and chugging center riff progression, but it’s all part of the identity the band carved during their time, keeping ’90s Hellhound Records-style doom alive and carried forward for the next generation. Excited for what Garrett does next, but Spirit Adrift earned this farewell in the interim.

Spirit Adrift website

20 Buck Spin website

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The Mon, Songs of Embrace

‘Embrace’ doesn’t necessarily mean accessibility as Ufomammut‘s Urlo puts the finishing stamp on the two-LP ‘Embrace the Abandon’ cycle with his solo-project The Mon‘s Songs of Embrace. What he calls ’embrace,’ I would generally consider immersion. Drone is a big part of it through this 10-track answer to 2025’s Songs of Abandon (review here), textures of synth and guitar, some jangling keys before the static push in “Ritual of Night Violence.” There’s beauty to be had, whether it’s in the more direct guitar of “Incantation” or “Embers of Calendula,” but neither is “Ritual of Night Violence” the only foray into abrasion, with the penultimate “Echoes of the Drowned” and opener “Invocation of the Abyss” also harnessing these textures. “Embrace the Abandon,” a title-track for two records, closes with shimmery synth, noise, a machine that goes ‘bing!’ and other echoing noises. Texture, in other words. You knew it was going to be out there. Hoping Urlo keeps developing this project as an outlet for such weirdness.

The Mon website

Supernatural Cat Records website

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Hällas, Panorama

The fourth album from Sweden’s dramatic progressive kraut rockers Hällas — also their first self-release through Äventyr Records — Panorama opens with its longest track (immediate points) in the 21-minute, side-A-consuming “Above the Continuum,” and as a single track, it indeed goes down like the half an album it is. Packed with twists, vocal and tonal changes, shifts in arrangement, that spoken piece in the second half and each new part seeming like a different stage in the dynamic procession leading toward a somehow-not-overblown finish, it’s a triumph of their craft, to say the least of it. Side B brings four cuts starting with “Face of an Angel,” which might be yacht prog but for the Nazgûl wails, while “The Emissary” is more sweeping in its scope and works into a headspinning tizzy before it’s done, giving over to the penultimate “Bestiaus,” which in itself is voice and keyboard but also has a waveform static intro to closer “At the Summit,” begun with classical guitar as they make ready to blow-out a six-minute finish that feels duly epic in its reach. This is a band who’ve made their own place by fitting nowhere else. Panorama feels earned.

Hällas website

Hällas on Bandcamp

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Okay You Win, End of Days

London heavy rockers Okay You Win give a couple different looks on their debut album, End of Days, on Blues Funeral. Underlying it all across the eight-song/52-minute offering is a sense of songwriting and intention in how each track unfolds, but to that, there is a longform modus and what feels like a complementary immediacy to offset some of the digging in of songs like “Beat Me Down” or “The Greatest Lie.” End of Days somewhat turns expectation on its head by putting the more expansive material up front, and cuts like “This Damned Place,” closer “Own It” and the abovementioned — all of which top seven minutes in length — present a scope informed by desert heavy and dual-guitar metal, feeling a bit like a complement to labelmates Solace in that regard. The shorter (sub-five minutes) title-track and “Red Flag” land with a more direct take, and what comes across most of all is a nascent malleability between the two sides that feels like it will eventually be bridged in their sound. Taken as a whole, the album is elemental, which is to say, this is a strong and ambitious initial showing, and how they grow from here will be the ultimate story of the band.

Okay You Win on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Bong Voyage, Hedonistic Hard Rock

You would not call Bong Voyage subtle in opening cut “Saturday Rite Special” (get it?) as they quickly toss out “Hail Satan and Iron Maiden!” among the fervent declarations of self and purpose. That’s not the last time they’ll make that rhyme. The Oslo heavy party rockers, true to form, have plenty of metal in their foundations and the namedrops to prove it, but are here for a good time, and even a comparative letup like “UFOria” or the ’80s-tastic take on Billy Idol in “Enabler” ahead of the big-roller “Wizard of Ozlo” stand testament to the point, never mind the shouty shenanigans of “Large and In Charge,” “Outer Space Freebase” or “In Possession” at the finish. If you’re at the show, they’ve already spilled (poured?) beer on you, but that’s to be expected for material of such physicality, songs written with movement and audience engagement central to their ideology. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but they’re bending the frames to make it roll like it’s drunk and never hungover.

Bong Voyage on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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King Potenaz, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 2

Unflinching in their exploration of the darker side of heavy rock and roll and dungeon-style metal, Fasano, Italy’s King Potenaz follow 2025’s Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 1 (review here) as the core trio of guitarist/vocalist Giuseppe Guarini, bassist Francesco Pensato and drummer Piero Schiavone mirror that album’s structure in a likewise adventurous complement. Whether it’s the grim desert expanse of “Sumerian Nights” or the lumbering psychedoomic jam “A Crack in the Void (The Empty Hand Pt. 2),” King Potenaz remain unto themselves in intention, fostering a fuzzy but still post-punk shove in “Lord of the Rust” — think stonergoth — while “The Nothingness” feels as much like a ritual as a song, the band putting the listener into the proceedings as much as itself. Not redundant of the prior album, but pushing farther from it, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 2 reaffirms the individual nature of what King Potenaz do. They aren’t quite like anything else out there, and more, they seem to know it.

King Potenaz on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

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Cowboys & Aliens, Finis Temporum

Celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2026, Cowboys & Aliens unveil Finis Temporum, a front-to-back six-song/32-minute banger that’s as righteous an argument in favor of classic-style, turn-of-the-century European heavy rock as one could ask from a band who was there and part of making it. Closer “Asteroid Blast” reminds of that, remade as it was from 2000’s A Trip to the Stonehenge Colony, but I’ll be damned if the opening salvo of “Life Tree” and “Rabbit Hole” doesn’t kick ass out of the gate, backed by the reachout in “Vengeance of the Weird” and the big hook in “Ordinary Bliss” ahead of the fuzzstrutter “Icy Grip.” I suppose that’s to say momentum gets on their side early and the shove that ensues is rad. Melodies soar over tonally and rhythmically vibrant riffing, and though they’re never far removed from the root verse/chorus trades of the material, the excitement level runs high across the span without sounding redundant at any point. If you’re not on board by the end of “Life Tree,” consult your primary care physician.

Cowboys & Aliens on Bandcamp

Polderrecords website

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Endless Floods, Passages

Endless Floods retain an experimentalist feel despite the outward solidity of their post-metallic take on Passages. With resonant vocals from Louise Dehaye (also sax), the largesse and sway of the full-band sound behind conjured by Stéphane Miollan (bass, guitar, vocals, synth) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, guitars, vocals, percussion) feels expansive and puporseful in a way that ‘experimental’ rarely captures. What’s happening across the four mostly-extended inclusions on the 37-minute outing, however, is a construction of form that is Endless Floods‘ own, able to slide or lumber or crunch through a piece like “Visions” or the lead single “Dieuxième Monde,” which are lush and gorgeous and still feel like a setup for the glory reached in the 10-minute linear build of “Liminal” and the synthy bleed toward closer “Primordial,” wherein the onslaught one might expect is subverted in favor of heavy post-rock ambience, contemplative melody and expansive soundscaping. If you never believed heavy metal could be beautiful, first of all, what are you doing here, and second, Passages serves as a convincing argument. It is engrossing.

Endless Floods on Bandcamp

Endless Floods on Instagram

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Duncan Park, Prana

Wooden clackychimes mark the beginning of Duncan Park‘s “Chöd” at the outset of the four-song Prana EP, soon complemented by resonant hand-drumming that gradually comes forward as the clacky-clacky recedes. This subdued moment is not misspent, but rather essential to the procession, shifting to standalone guitar on “BEBEBe” in the flavor of something Ben Chasny might elicit from the instrument in serene pastoralism, exploratory but grounded and accessible. Voice is an instrument in “Surfing the Bardo,” and that presence isn’t to be underestimated, but it’s still the guitar in focus, and the way the movement comes apart (before realigning) in the second half reminds of Beatles Esher demos and is correspondingly organic. Same could be said of the tape hiss behind the guitar of the title-track, which noodles around its central figure and sounds joyful in the doing, without getting lost even as it seems to rewind itself back for another listen. A quiet embrace from the Johannesburg-based Park, whose work remains evocative and escapist.

LINK

LINK

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Luxury Weapons, The Light in a Low Place

Richmind, Virginia’s Luxury Weapons is the trio of Trevor Thomas (Human Thurma, etc.), Bill Badgley (Federation X, etc.) and Erik Josephson (Hex Machine, etc.), and you can just take all that ‘etc.’ as meant to convey lifetimes’ worth of experience making music and playing in bands. The songwriting here is noise rock-sharp, but where the aggression to coincide with the chug might otherwise be is a rousing melodic sensibility, bolstered by the Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) recording job and present in the spacious “Surrender” and the precision turns of “Been Gone” or “All We Knew.” This record came out over a year ago — yeah, it’s damn near June and I’m still sneaking in 2025 releases; wait until you hear about the decades of recorded music that existed before last month — so if you want to take this is me making a note to myself on something cool, I’m fine with that. There’s enough character in Luxury Weapons‘ sound to stand them out regardless of the last 13 months, and I certainly don’t hear anything on their debut that sounds like it’s about to expire now. If you haven’t heard it — and I know you have because you’re cooler than me — perhaps a word to the wise.

Luxury Weapons on Bandcamp

Luxury Weapons on Soundcloud

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Welcome to the Quarterly Review. I’m not sure which quarter it is, and actually it’s been less than two full months since the last time we did this, but I had this crazy idea to NOT fall 50 records even further behind in covering stuff, so I decided to run one now. Maybe I’ll do another in July. Maybe a piano will fall on my head.

You know the drill by now. 10 releases per day covered. I think I’m going to keep this to 50 total, but I might tack on another day or two if I get through it and still have a bunch more on the docket. We’ll see. But time’s a crunch, so we gotta move.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Abrams, Loon

When the postmortem is done on this generation of heavy rock and roll, Abrams might be among its most underrated bands in terms of songwriting. The Denver unit led by guitarist/vocalist Zachary Amster offer the taut 10-song/37-minute run of Loon as further argument in their favor, basking in a heavy and post-hardcore blend and working with Godcity Studio and Kurt Ballou (Converge, High on Fire, etc.) to foster a more aggressive sound in pieces like “Glass House,” “While Walls,” “Said and Done,” and so on, bordering on noise rock while bringing grunge melody to “A State of Mind” and blasting double-kick drumming to closer “Remains.” At this point, I’m wondering if they’re too good. Are they too polished, is Amster too capable a singer? Is the songwriting too tight? In the immortal words of Will Ferrell, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Once again, Abrams do nothing wrong. One hopes the added charge wakes up more ears to what they’re doing. Or even better, instead of snagging jaded oldheads, put this shit on TikTok and let the 17 year olds learn about melody from it. That’s how it works now, right?

Abrams on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Buzzard, Take the Tyrant Down (Acoustic) b/w Hunchback, Vicar & Wizard

Two cuts from Massachusetts solo artist Buzzard, aka Christopher Thomas Elliott, whose voice and point of view for me personally has been salve in terrible times and for that a marker of the era. Late last year, Elliott released the EP Everything is Not Going to Be Alright (review here) with a plugged version of “Take the Tyrant Down,” which is stripped down here of its later chug and “Down down down/Sic semper tyrannis” vocal bridge. Perhaps too heavyhanded? It becomes a quiter contemplation of overcoming oppression, and its ultimate victory is no less sweet. The (digital) B-side is “Hunchback, Vicar and Wizard,” which wraps itself in an acoustic central line like “Doom Folk Fury” from the EP (which has also been expanded to an LP this year, heads up) but is less of a chorus surge, letting the Mellotron bring atmospheric backing to the lyrical tale of cathartic justice for the abuse victims of clergy. Yes, I’m talking about killing priests who rape children. Or Elliott is anyhow, in his increasingly solidified and yet malleable doom-folk aesthetic, with craft likewise prolific and purposeful.

Buzzard on Bandcamp

Buzzard on Instagram

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Masheena, Let the Spiders In

As I understand it, Masheena have traded out half their lineup since recording Let the Spiders In with producer Machine (Clutch, etc.) in early 2024, but either way, the Bergen, Norway, heavy rocking four-piece bring expansive melodies to sharp structures in hooky cuts like “Going to the Mountain” and “One Good Eye,” taking bluesy energy in pieces like “Been Waiting” and “Don’t Tell Her” and the chug of the penultimate “Riffy” and fostering a sound that’s straightforward and accessible while not lacking at all in variety. It’s their second LP, and though on “Sara Lost Her Way,” they edge close to the big-stage energy of countrymen Spidergawd, the thickness in “Riffy” and the subsequent, nonetheless shuffling closer “You Owe Me,” as well as the generally bluesier foundations, aid in distinction. The album is paced comfortably at 34 minutes but never in any danger of overstaying its welcome. Can’t help but be curious how the dynamic has changed with the new lineup. It’s certainly solid in this material.

Masheena website

Majestic Mountain Records store

Ripple Music website

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Sergio Ch., Last Dance of a Dying Man

As Buenos Aires-based singer-songwriter Sergio Chotsourian (aka Sergio Ch., of Los Natas, Ararat, Soldati, etc.) has developed his solo approach, it’s satisfying to hear him working with a drum machine on “Last Dance,” the first cut on this two-song EP, paired with the 12-minute “The Journey.” It highlights a modernized bedroom-folk intimacy that’s always been in his experimentalist craft, and lets the guitar become the source of tension in the piece, which it does righteously. “The Journey” is more synth-based and is instrumental for most of its stretch, but there are late-arriving vocals. He also seems to be trying something new with his voice, though that might just be a result of returning to English-language lyrics after however long it’s been since last time. Note the guitar figure consistent beneath the keys of “The Journey” as well. Last Dance of a Dying Man is Sergio being Sergio, but part of that is pushing his own boundaries, and that can clearly be heard in these songs.

Sergio Ch. on Instagram

South American Sludge Records on Bandcamp

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Vestjysk Ørken, LSDREI

LSDREI, a combination of LSD and ‘drei,’ as in ‘three,’ is indeed the third LP from Danish jammers Vestjysk Ørken, and it begins with a long monologue over foreboding backing drone spoken by the drug itself, maybe from an old propaganda film? In any case, this first eight minutes set the mood before a burst-in of heavy fuzz after the eight-minute mark starts what’s presumed to be ‘Violets and Yellow’ in the six-parts-presented-as-a-single-36-minute-track of the LP. The full course is listed as “The Traveler / Violets & Yellow / Drei / Running My Head / (Backwards) Like A Mirror / Lovely Colours Shimmering,” and though immersion has always been a top priority for the Esbjerg outfit — theirs and yours both — they’ve never sounded quite so intentional in their exploration. The lumber gives way to shimmering lead guitar, more speech and a light but bassy boogie as they pass the halfway point, and plays back and forth from there between airy verses, ebbs and flows, more samples and, in the last few minutes, both shove and a massive concluding roll finishing with vague but angry shouts of a populace. It gets weird, kids. Actually, starts weird and gets weirder. For best results, recommend you do likewise.

Vestjysk Ørken Linktr.ee

Vestjysk Ørken on Bandcamp

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Liminal Sky, All Tomorrow’s Darkness

Liminal Sky is presented as an extension of the work drummer, guitarist and keyboardist Jaime Gomez Arellano (also a noted producer in London) and guitarist, bassist, keyboardist Daniel Knight did together in the band Messenger, but the debut album All Tomorrow’s Darkness takes on an identity of its own, thanks in no small part to vocal collaborations with Mat McNerny (Hexvessel, Grave Pleasures), Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver) and Karin Park (Årabrot), as well as a slew of instrumental contributors too many to list in this space. This amalgam results in an emotionally resonant, post-genre melancholia, kin to the beauty in darkness in pieces like “Algebra of Unknowing,” “Penance” and “Forget Me Not,” the latter of which hits into a satisfying crescendo without giving up its core expressive purpose. It is not a minor undertaking in the substance of its songs, but Arellano and Knight create an entire world for this material, and the listener, to dwell in.

Liminal Sky on Bandcamp

Karisma Records website

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The Quill, Master of the Skies

Professional-grade delivery from a professional band. Master of the Skies is the 11th album in the 35-plus-year tenure of Sweden’s The Quill, and if they’re exploring themes of mastery, you could hardly find a better theme to coincide with their sound. With expert hand and worldly care, they gracefully guide the listener through a diverse 45-minute collection, with rockers and ballads and acoustic numbers and the nine-minute volume-trade sprawl of the penultimate “Mastodon,” part Sabbath as they go, but more of a decades-meld of heavy rock ideologies so that “You Can Not Kill My Soul” hits with triumphant melody and side B opener “If Tomorrow Never Comes” wraps itself up in chugging largesse. The band — vocalist Magnus Ekwall, guitarist Christian Carlsson, bassist Roger Nilsson and drummer Jolle Atlagic — are unflinching in the refinement of their approach, but even when they reprise lead cut “Master of the Skies” to finish, there’s no pretense, just some of the most solid craft a band could hope to stand on.

The Quill website

Metalville Records website

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Greenthrone, The Greenthrone EP

Unearthed from the depths of Columbus, Ohio’s underground, Greenthrone‘s The Greenthrone EP was put to tape in 2010 and 2011 as a series of demos from what was then the bombastic duo of Danny Bays (guitar/vocals) and Lisa Bella Donna (drums/production), the latter also of much-missed progressive heavy explorers EYE. A five-song collection, it is brash and raw and finds Bays‘ vocal delivery somewhere between Matt Pike and Chuck Schuldiner on “The Sentinel” and “Beyond the Veil,” and that’s before they get into the sludgy push/roll of centerpiece “Hidden in Plain Sight” or the righteously-tin-can “Brujo,” and “Feather Crown” to close. There’s an audible shift in sound there ahead of the last two tracks, but there was point of view in the band even 15 years ago. Bays got a new lineup going at some point, a trio, and hopefully there’s more to follow sooner or later.

Greenthrone Linktr.ee

Greenthrone on Bandcamp

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Dave Heumann, Chimes of Freedom // Further Adventures of Big Ten

Two at least semi-covers; one straight up take on Bob Dylan, the latter transmogrified reportedly from The Grateful Dead and David Crosby, and either make a fitting place for Arbouretum frontman Dave Heumann to dwell in for a while. The fragility of his voice in Dylan‘s lyrics on “Chimes of Freedom” makes that song feel all the more like a song for the people — in both the folk music and political senses, because they’re linked — while “Further Adventures of Big Ten” feels more like an exploration, being instrumental and set atop a drone and backed with hand-percussion as it is. “Chimes of Freedom” is the more straightforward, I guess, but its organ line and way-back-there gentle drums feel emblematic of the 1964 original, captured at the precipice of the birth of the psychedelic era. You could say a lot about the choices one way or the other, but from where I sit it’s five more minutes of Heumann singing and about 11 of him playing and I’ll take what I can get, thanks. He’s like if you gave the National Park System a voice.

Dave Heumann website

Dave Heumann on Bandcamp

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A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, Towers of Silence

Most of all, Towers of Silence sounds like the beginning of a rich and creative plunge into sound. Netherlands-based four-piece A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers take a sludgy angle on post-metallic lurch on this three-songer, and as “The Massacre of Flour” unfolds, it seems like it’s going to be all-onslaught until they hang a louie into a psychedelic midsection framed on the other side by a punishing return. “I Fuck People” follows and is noisier and more chaotic, but still manages to find room for saxophone in its second half, while the nine-minute title-track wraps by flipping the script into volume trades between meditative melodic contemplation and heavier bashing-away. The message that comes through is A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers aren’t restrained by genre ideology. Breaking out of it on three songs, they’re at the starting point in developing the individual creative expression one hears in this material. The prospects for where their journey might take them are exciting.

A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Bandcamp

Lay Bare Recordings website

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If you go back to last January — that’s Jan. 2025 — there was a signing announcement from Swedish doomers Goddess signing to Majestic Mountain Records, and until this album reveal, I think that’s been it, so if you’re thinking it’s been a while or you’re not caught up to the fact that Goddess is the now-incarnation of ’10s-era doom rockers Goatess, with a new name reflecting a new lineup, you’re not late, you’re right on time considering that now there’s new music streaming so you can hear what they’re all about.

As to that: heavy, traditionally-skewed doom riffage, duly reverent of Sabbath and classic lumber-prone metal. The first single from the impending Ritual of the Coven Hoof, “Blood Fever” — which I’m just going to assume is a pon farr reference — is streaming at the bottom of this post, and I’m curious to hear where Goddess come down on the balance between what the band they used to be was and what the band they are now wants to be.

The PR wire had the following on the subject:

Goddess – Swedish Doom Merchants (Formerly Goatess) Announce New Album Ritual of the Cloven Hoof

Reveal Lead Single “Blood Fever”

Rising from the ashes of Goatess, Swedish doom merchants reborn as Goddess will release their debut album on May 22 via Majestic Mountain Records, and today offer a first glimpse with the release of lead single “Blood Fever.”

Listen to “Blood Fever” now: https://song.link/s/1JBHeuCgladJ31fZRTCfza

Emerging from the ashes of Goatess, Goddess usher in a new chapter for the Stockholm-based band following the departure of founding guitarist Niklas. While the name has changed, the essence remains intact, a towering blend of crushing, riff-driven doom, thick stoner grooves, soaring vocals, and a dark, psychedelic edge.

Drawing from the legacy of Goatess’s acclaimed releases, Goatess (2013), II: Purgatory Under New Management (2016), and Blood and Wine (2019), Goddess push that unmistakable Swedish doom sound forward, tighter, sharper, and more driven than ever.

The new single “Blood Fever” offers the first glimpse into this next phase: slow-burning, monolithic, and steeped in atmosphere, channeling the spirit of Electric Wizard, Sleep, Saint Vitus, Count Raven, and classic Black Sabbath, while carving its own path forward.

Now signed to Majestic Mountain Records, Goddess are set to deliver a record that captures both the legacy of their past and the vision of what comes next, heavy, hypnotic, and uncompromising.

Members
Vocals & guitar: Karl-Martin Buhre
Drums: Kenta Karlbom
Guitar: Anders Martinsgård
Bass: John Jansson

https://www.instagram.com/goddessbandofficial
https://www.facebook.com/baldersounds

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

Goddess, “Blood Fever”

You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the video, which features guitarist/vocalist Andreas Kaján strumming and singing in solo-fashion, but Craneium‘s first-ever recorded cover features an expanded lineup of the band. To take on Roky Erickson‘s “Stand for the Fire Demon,” the Finnish four-piece brought in guitarist Andreas Österlund and synthesist Lari Oksala, expanding to a six-person crew to conjure a duly lush sound. This isn’t the first time Craneium have worked with outside players in the last couple years, and one wonders if they aren’t moving toward a permanent expansion.

Fair enough for how much their sound has grown over time. I don’t know what the future holds, but it seems like 15 years on, Craneium are both still growing and still having a good time trying new things. There’s little that could bode better going into the rest of this year and beyond.

The info came from the video page, I’m pretty sure:

CRANEIUM – NEW MUSIC ALERT

“For our first ever cover, we wanted to make it count. And what could be more fitting than Roky Erickson, the duke of underground psychedelic rock. To us ‘Stand For The Fire Demon’ feels like a cornerstone of dark psychelia, like a gospel of strange tales and we set out to channel it in our own way. We Craneium-ized the arrangements and instantly felt at home in it. To push it further we brought in Andreas Österlund from I, Captain on guitar, and Lari Oksala from Malamute to add Hammond organ and synthesizers to the mix.” — Joel Kronqvist

“15 years in and not a single cover song. What better way to celebrate our anniversary than treating people to something new and unusual from the band. The hardest part was not finding our own spin on it, but selecting which Roky song to play. The Evil One is definitely a desert island record for me.” — Andreas Kaján

Credits:
Recorded by Jussi Vuola at V.R. Studio, Turku, Finland October 2025
Mixed and mastered by Kalle Lilja, Welfare Sounds
Artwork by Bike on Buss productions
Music and lyrics written by Roky Erickson

Additional instruments by:
Andreas Österlund – guitar
Lari Oksala – synthesizers

Arranged and performed by Craneium:
Martin Ahlö – guitar
Andreas Kaján – vocals & guitar
Joel Kronqvist – drums and percussion
Jonas Holmström – bass

[Band photo by Emil Lindqvist.]

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

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

Craneium, “Stand for the Fire Demon” official video

As regards modern heavy rock, there are not a lot of boxes Kal-El leave unticked. The Stavanger, Norway, hard-riffing five-piece have been plugging away at their version of cosmic heavy rock for nearly 15 years, with a steady forward trajectory all the while. If you want to be honest, they’re a difficult band to write about because their sound is so solidified and so much their own despite using familiar elements that once you get past “hey this exists,” the rest feels like it speaks best for itself. But in terms of what they’re putting to use throughout an offering like Astral Voyager Vol. II — the here’s-more follow-up to 2025’s well-received Astral Voyager Vol. I (review here), which itself built on the breakthrough-type success of 2021’s Dark Majesty (review here), beginning to move past the pulp cleavage-in-space stoner idolatry of their early work and seeing their songcraft reach new degrees of refinement.

But even as they came into their own, Kal-El have remained remarkably consistent. Big melodies, big, spacious tones, weighted groove and less concern for the desert in their sound (or the tundra, as another Norwegian band frames it these days) than the feeling the music produces. And listening to “Juno” at the head of Astral Voyager Vol. II, one suspects that feeling is as much internal as external, and that while many bands talk a good game about making the songs they want to hear, Kal-El exist by this ethic and the passion that drives the according realization. Of course, like its predecessor, Astral Voyager Vol. II was recorded with co-producer/engineer Ørjan Kristoffersen Lund at Bridge Burner Recording and mixed/mastered by Ruben Willem, and as one would expect who’s had any prior experience with Kal-El whatsoever, the six-track/42-minute outing is full and rich enough to be atmospheric even as the songs retain a structured, grounded sensibility. Kal-El might be able to sound like they’re floating through space, in other words, but there’s very little about either of the two LPs in this apparent duology that one would call drifting.

Rather, Kal-El belong to a class of bands who can evoke a subtle sense of dynamic even across material that’s broadly heavy and consistent in mood. There is no radical departure from form, even as Vol. I laid it out, and there doesn’t need to be. This sequel is their seventh album overall, and it finds them duly assured. “Juno” is the nod at the beginning, and flows gracefully with not too much shove, but enough movement to be more than just massively toned, especially with the defining hooky chorus vocals cutting through. It is followed by the 10-minute “The Nine,” which would close a lot of records but sits well next to the opener in unfurling its patient largesse of chug. “Astral Voyager,” which opened Vol. I, was the longest cut on that record a nine minutes, so it wouldn’t be shocking if “The Nine” was held in reserve for Vol. II in part to let it complement the steady roll and listener immersion of “Juno,” offering something distinct near the front of the record for listeners who took on the last one.

Because it can be a tricky thing, releasing albums in a series. If your audience is used to hearing growth on every LP that comes out, one into the next into the next and so on, then having two albums that were recorded at the same time released a year apart — especially if the first one was as well-regarded as Astral Voyager Vol. I — can be a challenge because there really shouldn’t be too much different between the volumes. It’s not like one was going to be unplugged and the other full-on. The way Astral Voyager Vol. II works through this issue is with space. I don’t have statistics to back up this assertion, and if you sat down with both records on balance and mapped it all out and found otherwise, please, let me know in the comments, but to my ears and in my hearing of it, what keeps Astral Voyager Vol. II from being redundant — a trap many bands, from Earth to Ufomammut, have fallen into — as the second of a two-parter, is down to how it’s organized and the level of fluidity as pieces like “Juno” and “The Nine” give over to “The Prophecy” — oh that midsection breakdown; mollasses tone engulfs — to round out side A and the concordant rockers on side B, “Juggernaut,” “Pan” and “Asteroid.”

The latter, as the finale, hits eight minutes, but doesn’t really need to be a whole-LP payoff since Kal-El basically are the payoff from the start. I’m not saying they don’t build and release tension or whathaveyou, but even in the momentary letup of “Juggernaut” — a highlight mirroring “Juno,” perhaps even bassier — they are clear-eyed in direction and intent. “Pan” is faster and so distinguished from the more languid flow of most of “The Prophecy” — there’s a cosmo-Kyuss shove in the second half — or the patience in “The Nine,” but hardly out of place in reorienting the procession ahead of “Asteroid,” which remains equal parts vast and lumbering.

Most of all, throughout Astral Voyager Vol. II, as well as Vol. I before it, Kal-El retain one of their most key strengths, which is recognizability. They’re a band who started out playing to genre who’ve been able to turn that around, step out in front of their influences and declare their niche in the heavy underground. These songs are unmistakably theirs in concept and execution, and are not likely to wear out their welcome anytime soon, not the least for the heart that continues to drive their making. Kal-El‘s music bleeds a love of the sound, the riffs, the fuzz, the way it can lock into your brain if you’re lucky enough to have what for most of your life is probably the exact wrong kind of brain but is nonetheless just right for this. Across all their work, the we’re-fans-too passion and the enjoyment of collective creativity thread as ongoing parts of the story, but do not mistake this for a lack of mastery of their sound or craft, because if Astral Voyager Vol. II affirms anything, it is surely that.

Kal-El , Astral Voyager Vol. II (2026)

Kal-El website

Kal-El on Bandcamp

Kal-El on Instagram

Kal-El on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook