Norwegian heavy rockers Masheena released their debut album, West Coast Hard Rock, this past Friday, Sept. 1, through Majestic Mountain Records. From the heavy hotbed of Bergen — home to, among others, Enslaved, Slomosa, Strange Horizon, Green Sky Accident, Bismarck, Kryptograf, Melt Motif, on and on across a range of genres — the four-piece of Luis-Alberto Salomon, Tarjei A. Heggernes (formerly Lost at Last), drummer Gerhard “Armagedda” Herfindal (ex-Immortal, I, etc.) and Ole Andre “El Mago” Farstad (Abbath) offer eight tracks in a 35-minute salvo of immediately-pro-shop performance and production.

The latter was helmed by producer Iver Sandøy (also drums/vocals in Enslaved), and when you add in a mix/master by thrice-over Clutch producer Machine, the output sounds as clear, sharp and full as any larger-scale, commercially relevant offering, without necessarily being that thing. In terms of general sound, one might recognize elements of latter-day Alice in Chains in Masheena tracks like “Under the Same Sun,” the semi-acoustic harmonies in “Looks Like a Man” (video premiere below) and the more-acoustic-but-still-not-completely-unplugged “Sun Remains” on side B, where the early vocals lug a Jerry Cantrell-esque burden.

That is only part of the conversation Masheena are having, however. Being on Norway’s west coast, they’re positioning themselves in terms of place and giving name to the varied style they show throughout these songs, richly melodic, able to be huge or intimate, deep-toned but accessible in its structure and presentation. From the hooky launch of opener “1979” — not a Smashing Pumpkins cover, thankfully; the PR wire tagged it as KISS-meets-Sabbath and I ain’t arguing — they’re also speaking to a sense of Gen-X nostalgia in rock and roll and communing with various aspects of American West Coast rock, from desert heavy and grunge to the sitar-laced psych flourish of “Where Are You Now,” engaging modernity in the lyrics of “Five Seconds of Fame” while at the same time tapping into a rocker strut of a lead line that becomes an increasingly spacious solo as the band gallops through the “Okay/It’s okay” reassurance in the back half, double-kick drum providing extra push and maybe showing some of the band’s metallic roots in making that choice, but not interrupting the flow or putting aggressive elements where the songs don’t want them.

Side A’s got hooks. Side B’s got hooks. Rest assured, here be hooks. West Coast Hard Rock isn’t trying to challenge its audience so much as carry it, and as broad as the layered chorus of “Under the Same Sun” is, Masheena never come remotely close to losing themselves or meandering from their purpose in craft. True, starting off with “1979” carries some risk in alienating post-Millennial heads, but (1:) that’ll last about as long as it takes to press play on the record and (2:) it’s likely honest to the band’s experience and what drove them to start this project in the first place, so I’m not about to knock it. And there’s a bit of burl in the repeated delivery of the title-line in “Looks Like a Man,” but rather than some chestbeating hyper-masculine trumpeting, the lyrics unfold a story about blacking out, maybe-murder, and the police investigation through its three verses as the electric/acoustic guitar blend gives a lush feel as they creep into the building chorus.

There, as well as in “Sun Remains” before and after the fuzz kicks in, in the breadth of the finale’s later reaches and in the relative thrust of the three-and-a-half-minute “Remember the Rain” just before, Masheena‘s songs are extroverted in their intention to affect the listener and loaded with aural details, little things here and there — the held bass note under the shuffle in “Five Seconds of Fame,” or the vocal arrangements in “Under the Same Sun” and “Looks Like a Man,” for example — to be found on repeat visits, which honestly seem to be the whole goal for the LP. To keep you coming back.

Masheena would seem to have built the material accordingly. From Sahg noted below to Grand Magus to any number of other examples, they exist as part of a decades-long history of Scandinavian heavy rock acts comprised of dudes from extreme metal outfits, but that’s only part of the story here. In concept, Masheena have more in common with their Motorpsycho-adacent countrymen Spidergawd, in that the material is straightforward on its face, still has an atmosphere — sun’s out, if you couldn’t tell — and rocks in such a way as to remind one that that’s all it needs to do when done well enough, which it is.

That’s probably more than one would reasonably ask of a newer band, even considering the context of pedigree/production, and they still get there in impressive and inviting fashion, with a batch of songs that are dynamic up to the last moments of “Where Are You Now,” with a heavy-prog roll and consuming, weighted, spacious and crashing outreach. It’ll probably be a few years before they follow it up, and when they do, it will be exciting to see how they grow their approach since four of these tracks — I’m going with side A — were from their initial demo, but West Coast Hard Rock sets its standard for longevity, and might just have delivered it. I’ll let you know in half a decade. Ha.

Video for “Looks Like a Man” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire. Please enjoy:

Masheena, “Looks Like a Man” video premiere

Masheena on “Looks Like a Man”:

This video was shot over three hectic days on location in the North Coast of the Dominican Republic. Shot, directed and edited by New York -based director Lex Lukas, and video features members from Bergen’s Lovebugs and local rapper El Tampa.

In this video we follow the misadventures of former Austrian police detective Franz Hölzer (@derkommisarfranz) trying to solve a case and keep himself together in a tropical paradise. In between pristine beaches, lush tropical vegetation and pool parties we witness his failed interactions with locals, tourists and expats alike.

Video for the track “Looks Like A Man” from the album “West Coast Hard Rock” out on @majesticmountainrecords (vinyl) @TalonRecordsUSA (CD and cassette) Evil Noise Recordings (cassette) and on all digital platforms. Filmed and Edited by @LexLukas1 / @OutDuhBoxMedia. Story by Masheena and Lex Lukas. Featuring performances by @eltampa7133 and @norwegianlovebugs. Filmed on location in The Dominican Republic.

In 2021, Luis-Alberto Salomon started sharing demos with his longtime friend Tarjei A. Heggernes. Before Masheena, Luis had been a vocal and instrumental cornerstone in Royal Rooster, while Tarjei played bass and drove the rhythm for Lost at Last. Seeing the potential in the demos, Tarjei jumped on board, and also roped in Gerhard Herfindal, better known as Armagedda; A legendary drummer, who has played with formidable acts such as Immortal, I, and Demonaz. The ensemble was completed with the inclusion of Luis’s friend, multi-instrumentalist Ole Andre Farstad aka “El Mago”, current lead guitarist for Abbath.

The group soon decided to form a band, and the raw mixes of their initial four songs, originally slated to form an EP, piqued the interest of the revered label Majestic Mountain Records. Impressed with the sound, the label urged the band to develop a full-length album.

The recording sessions took place at Solslottet Studio in the band’s hometown of Bergen, Norway, with the assistance of another long-time friend, the award-winning producer and Enslaved drummer, Iver Sandøy. For the crucial process of mixing and mastering, they turned to the industry titan known as Machine. As a Clutch fan, Tarjei relished the opportunity to collaborate with the wizard who had shaped the sound of legendary albums like Blast Tyrant and Earth Rocker.

Regarding the album’s title and artwork, Tarjei aka “El Profesor” provides an insight: “Bergen is renowned for its diverse musical genres, from Black Metal to Tropical House. However, the west coast of Norway has always nurtured a vibrant hard rock scene, boasting bands like Kvelertak, Audrey Horne, Sahg, Kal-El, and more. We also draw inspiration from the (US) west coast rock of the ‘70s, the ‘80s LA scene, and the Seattle-based hard rock of the ‘90s. West Coast Hard Rock! For the artwork, we commissioned LA tattoo artist Chon Hernandez, known for his work on Clutch’s Blast Tyrant cover. We requested coastal elements and a potential robot. The resulting hand-drawn masterpiece was nothing short of astonishing, exceeding our wildest dreams!”

Masheena on Facebook

Masheena on Instagram

Masheena on Tiktok

Masheena on Bandcamp

Masheena Linktr.ee

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Evil Noise Recordings store

Evil Noise Recordings on Facebook

Evil Noise Recordings on Instagram

Electric Talon Records store

Electric Talon Records on Facebook

Electric Talon Records on Instagram

If I’ve got my days right — and I might not — then tomorrow, Friday, July 28, marks the launch of preorders for the second Morag Tong full-length, called simply Grieve as we all inevitably must at some point or other, and set to arrive Oct. 6 through Majestic Mountain Records. The London-based heavy psych four-piece released a video last week for the first single from the record, “At First Light,” which is a slow nidding journey through seven minutes of vibes meditative and lush, some lead guitar seeming to work under an influence perhaps from King Buffalo‘s “Orion” as the band make ready to dig into a rougher-edged midsection, still expansive as it is.

Those who got on board with Morag Tong‘s 2018 debut, Last Knell of Om (review here) should be well enough at home in “At First Light,” the title of which also recalls Ancestors for me, and find the new song strongly built on lessons from that five-years-ago-now release. No clue as to what the rest of the four-song release holds, but the fact that they’ve dedicated the entirety of the vinyl’s side B to “No Sun, No Moon” should probably be a clue as to the level at which they’re digging in. ‘Deep’ is the likely answer.

The following came from Majestic Mountain‘s newsletter:

MORAG TONG – GRIEVE

Album releases October 6th; Vinyl ships at the same time

London based Progressive Psych Doomsters Morag Tong have a video out for the first single to be released from upcoming sophomore album “Grieve” due out on October 06, 2023 via Majestic Mountain Records.

“Grieve” is the band’s long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s acclaimed full-length debut “Last Knell of Om” and marks their first release on Majestic Mountain Records. Regarding the album Vocalist/Drummer Adam Asquith states “We wanted to create something huge and heavy, but also gorgeous, textured and atmospheric. Incorporating both massive, aggressive wall of sound sections and more pensive, stripped back ambient instrumentals I think we have hit that sweet spot – something anguished and anxious, crumbling and dangerous, yet eerily beautiful and oozing with a love for life itself.“

GRIEVE comes in
180-gram heavyweight vinyl
Color-in-color: Yellow and black marbled with red center
Single sleeve with 3mm spine
Full color insert
Black poly-lined inner sleeve
Protective plastic sleeve
33 rpm heaviness
STRICTLY LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES
NO WHOLESALE, EXCLUSIVE TO MAJESTIC MAILORDER

Tracklisting
Side A
At First Light
Passages
A Stem’s Embrace
Side B
No Sun, No Moon

Recorded and mixed by Mike Bew at Foel Studio
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege
Artwork by Kuba Sokólski

MORAG TONG:
Adam Asquith – Vocals / Drums
Alex Clarke – Guitar
Lewis Crane – Guitar
James Atha – Bass

moragtong.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/moragtongband
instagram.com/morag.tong

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

Morag Tong, “At First Light” official video

Morag Tong, Grieve (2023)

Swedish jammers CB3 have lined up a string of dates outside their home country for later this summer and early Fall. Starting Aug. 5 at Krach am Bach, they’ll play mostly in Germany — which I hear is how it goes — but will also support Earthless in Copenhagen, so that’s a bonus as the band supports their stellar-in-theme-and-realization 2022 release, Exploration (review here), and begins to hint at new music to come.

In April, CB3 — Charlotta’s Burning Trio, led by guitarist/vocalist Charlotta Andersson — announced bassist Pelle Lindsjö had left the band. They added Simon, either on bass and synth or just synth alongside Andersson‘s guitar and Natanael Solmonsson‘s drums, and these will be the group’s first shows in this incarnation. Hopefully someone gets good video.

The dates follow as posted on social media:

CB3 – European Tour 2023

This year we celebrate 10 years as a band/project. 10 years of experiments and exploration of music, soundscapes, improvisation and the riff.

To celebrate 10 years we will go on tour in Europe. We’re excited bring our new line-up with our incredible synth-player, bringing a big sound as we continue our space adventure for more years to come!

For 5 years of adventure we say thank you to Pelle, who has decided to move in another direction. We’ve been blessed to have you with us and wish you all the best moving forward. With that we say Welcome aboard to Simon! (#128512#) Looking forward towards Exploration part.2 and sharing some new sounds with you all!

Tourdates:
05.08 Krach am Bach Beleen DE
20.08 Spillestedet Stenegade Copenhagen DK w/ Earthless
19.09 C-Keller Weimar DE
20.09 Club VEB Hildesheim DE
21.09 TBA
22.09 Studentenclub Eberswalde DE
23.09 Schaubude Kiel DE

Thomas Moe Ellefsrud of hypnotistdesign has made this fantastic tourposter.

Shows mainly booked by Friedemann Jackalope – Artist Needs Management . Grateful for this collaboration.

We thank Kulturrådet in Sweden for making this tour possible.

www.charlottasburningtrio.com
https://www.facebook.com/charlottasburningtrio/
https://www.instagram.com/cb3jams/
https://cb3jams.bandcamp.com/

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

CB3, Exploration (2022)

Rotterdam heavy psych fuzz rockers The Machine will release their seventh album, Wave Cannon (review here), tomorrow, May 12, as their first offering through Sweden’s Majestic Mountain Records. The record, which you can stream in its entirety below if you’d like to skip the blah blah — I’m not offended, go on — offers a couple crucial lessons to be observed.

For me personally, one of those lessons is that mid-Feb. is too early to review a release that’s not coming out until May. Not the only time I’ve been taught this. For everyone else, primarily, Wave Cannon presents The Machine as a veteran outfit, and fair enough for guitarist, vocalist and remaining founder David Eering starting the band in 2007 and this being their first LP without the original lineup — new-ish bassist Chris Both appears for the first time, now-former drummer Davy Boogaard for the last — and it also demonstrates how a band can move back toward their core sound after progressing in other directions without sounding like they’re doing an impression of themselves.

That’s not a minor line to walk, but the highlight of Wave Cannon is the songs as the band hones a matured vision of the organic jamming and structured craft they’ve harnessed all along, including in 2018’s Faceshift (review here), where the balance tipped toward more noise rocking fare and even the desert rocker felt more intense. Five years later, Wave Cannon hasn’t forgotten and doesn’t neglect the pivot that record accomplished, but it does orient The Machine toward flow rather than thrust, though to be perfectly honest with you, this narrative — that they were jammers who went noise rock and now they’re jamming again — is flawed at best.

Not only does it ignore the ongoing forward progression at work in the material, but it’s not like the band stopped being themselves at any point. At most, it was a shift in balance, and it’s a less radical one in hindsight and in the context of Wave Cannon than it seemed at the time.

As regards the band in general and their standing in the European heavy underground, I prefer to think of Wave Cannon as The Machine claiming their place as having spearheaded the post-Colour Haze generation of heavy psych. And most of all, I take it as a signal that The Machine know who they are and who they want to be as a band, and Wave Cannon feels sustainable in the sense that one can hear signature elements that they can continue to evolve for however long they want to keep going. The band’s already hit the 15-year mark. They’re damn-near statesmen at this point, and I don’t think you could objectively call them old. Listening to these tracks, it’s still more about the future than the past.

Since the review happened dumbass-early, Eering was kind enough to give some track-by-track perspective on the material for your perusal while you listen. Once again, the record is out tomorrow on Majestic Mountain.

Please enjoy.

David Eering – ‘Wave Cannon’ Track-by-Track

Reversion

noisreveR. This is a good example of the overall approach on Wave Cannon. It has thick riffs, a nice melody and a more mellow (positive?) vibe without losing an edge. We more or less abandoned (unintentionally) that with the majority of the previous record Faceshift. The last part of the song probably has the most mellow minutes of the entire album. Ha I said (typed) mellow twice now. Wollem. Anyway, not saying we can even come close to the level of brilliance of The Beatles, but I was inspired by some of their melodies while writing the vocal lines for Reversion. I added a 12-string Danelectro, playing along to the verse melody but a bit low in the mix. This gives it a bit of an eastern feel without being overly out there. Didn’t feel like getting my sitar out of its case.

Genau or Never

The instrumental piece on Wave Cannon. It starts with me picking the strings behind the bridge on my Jazzmaster, with a couple of delay pedals engaged and some other guitar technicalities. The push of the rhythm section is something we’d never really done before; the driving bassline offers me the chance to opt for a more minimalistic approach. This will most likely become a regular in our future live sets. Oh and you can dance to it.

Glider

Chords gliding over the guitar neck! Also slightly referencing the guitar technique of Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) here, called glide guitar. The lyrics are very personal and tell a story of the impact of the pandemic; we were in the middle of yet another lockdown while working on this. Our usual rehearsal space had to close because of COVID-regulations, but we found another shared place where we could temporarily do our thing. The lyrics describe our different routine at the time for making coffee. I decided to sing “Grinder” instead of Glider just for the hell of it.

Ride On Crash Kick

I think this is the last song we finished. We’ve been struggling with it for a while, it just wouldn’t work somehow. Changing the tuning eventually proved to be the solution. I started to incorporate another alternate tuning on this record and applying that same open tuning to R.O.C.K. made it click.

Return to Sphere (Kneiter II)

By far the longest track on this one. I’m looking forward to play it live every once in a while. Although obviously different, in my head the vibe and structure of the track has a similarity to Sphere (… or Kneiter) of 2012’s Calmer Than You Are. The ambient middle section is me putting a ballpoint pen underneath my strings, plucking strings and basically engage the majority of the pedals I have on my board. Chris comes in at one point with some ambient rumbling bass swells. There’s definitely some Thurston Moore inspired playing later in this track. Getting the vocals right and fitting was a bit of challenge and I went through like 6 different options but I guess I more or less got it to work eventually.

Wave Cannon

My personal favorite on the album, at least to play. Same alternate tuning as Reversion and R.O.C.K. which instantly gives it an uplifting feel, at least to my ears. You can really lean into this groove and its “hang” as we like to call it. I like the vocal melody in conjunction with the guitar part, they go very well together and are quite complementary while doing different things at the same time. The noisey mayhem at the end is just plain fun. Which should be the main reason for this band thing right?

—

Produced, mixed & engineered by David Eering
Digital & vinyl mastering by Pieter Kloos
Written & performed by David Eering, Chris Both and Davy Boogaard

The Machine on ‘Wave Cannon’:
David Eering – guitar/vocals
Chris Both – bass
Davy Boogaard – drums

The Machine:
David Eering – guitar/vocals
Chris Both – bass
Klaas Dijkstra – drums

The Machine, “Wave Cannon” official video

The Machine, “Reversion” official video

The Machine on Facebook

The Machine on Twitter

The Machine on Instagram

The Machine on Bandcamp

The Machine website

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

So here we are. A fascinating and varied trip this has been, and while I’m tempted to find some greater meaning in it as regards the ongoing evolution of genre(s) in heavy underground music, the truth is that the overarching message is really that it’s impossible to keep up with that complexity as it unfolds. Hitting 70 releases on this last day with another 50 to come in a couple weeks, I feel like there’s just so much out there right now, and that that is the primary signifier of the current era.

Whether it’s pandemic-born projects or redirects, or long-established artists making welcome returns, or who knows what from who knows where, the world is brimming with creativity and is pushing the bounds of heavy with like-proportioned force and intent. This hasn’t always been easy to write, but as I look at the lineup below of the final-for-now installment of the QR, I’m just happy to be alive. Thanks for reading. I hope you have also found something that resonates.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Dommengang, Wished Eye

A fourth full-length from Dommengang — are they in L.A. now? Portland, Oregon? does it matter? — neatly encapsulates the heavy psychedelic scope and the organic-vibing reach that stands them out from the pack, as somehow throughout the nine songs of Wished Eye, the Thrill Jockey denizen trio are able to inhabit a style that’s the Americana pastoral wakeup of “Runaway,” the hill-howling “Society Blues,” the drift-fuzz of over solid drums of “Last Card,” the dense tube-burning Hendrixism of “Myth Time,” and the minimalist guitar of “Little Beirut.” And oh, it keeps going; each track contributing something to the lush-but-natural spirit of the whole work. “Blue & Peaceful” brings acoustics to its midsection jam, while “Petrichor” is the West Coast freedom rock you’ve been waiting for, the title-track goes inland for nighttime desertscaping that finishes in hypnotic loops on a likewise hypnotic fade, and “Flower” proves to be more vine, winding its way around the lead guitar line as the vocals leave off with a highlight performance prior a fire-blues solo that finishes the record as the amps continue to scream. Undervalued? Why yes, Dommengang are, and Wished Eye makes the argument in plain language. With a sonic persona able to draw from country, blues, psych, indie, doom, fuzz, on and on, they’ve never sounded so untethered to genre, and it wasn’t exactly holding them back in the first place.

Dommengang on Facebook

Thrill Jockey website

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Ryan Kent, Dying Comes With Age

Formerly the frontman of Richmond, Virginia, sludgers Gritter, Ryan Kent — who already has several books of poetry on his CV — casts himself through Dying Comes With Age as a kind of spoken word ringmaster, and he’s brought plenty of friends along to help the cause. The readings in the title-track, “Son of a Bitch” and the title-track and “Couch Time” are semi-spoken, semi-sung, and the likes of Laura Pleasants (The Discussion, ex-Kylesa) lends backing vocals to the former while Jimmy Bower (Down, EyeHateGod) complements with a low-key fuzzy bounce. I’ll admit to hoping the version of “My Blue Heaven” featuring Windhand‘s Dorthia Cottrell was a take on the standard, but it’s plenty sad regardless and her voice stands alone as though Kent realized it was best to just give her the space and let it be its own thing on the record. Mike IX Williams of EyeHateGod is also on his own (without music behind) to close out with the brief “Cigarettes Roll Away the Time,” and Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow/Buñuel recounting an homage apparently to Kent‘s grandfather highlights the numb feeling of so many during the pandemic era. Some light misogyny there and in “Message From Someone Going Somewhere With Someone Else Who is Going Somewhere” feels almost performative, pursuing some literary concept of edge, but the aural collage and per-song atmosphere assure Dying Comes With Age never lingers anywhere too long, and you can smell the cigarettes just by listening, so be ready with the Febreze.

Ryan Kent on Bandcamp

Rare Bird Books website

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1782, Clamor Luciferi

The first hook on Clamor Luciferi, in post-intro leadoff “Succubus,” informs that “Your god is poison” amid a gravitationally significant wall of low-end buzzfuzz, so one would call it business as usual for Sardinian lurch-doomers 1782, who answer 2021’s From the Graveyard (review here) with another potent collection of horror-infused live resin audibles. Running eight songs and 39-minutes, one would still say the trio are in the post-Monolord camp in terms of riffs and grooves, but they’ve grown more obscure in sound over time, and the murk in so much of Clamor Luciferi is all the more palpable for the way in which the guitar solo late in “Devil’s Blood” cuts through it with such clarity. Immediacy suits them on “River of Sins” just before, but one would hardly fault “Black Rites” or the buried-the-vocals-even-deeper closer “Death Ceremony” for taking their time considering that’s kind of the point. Well, that and the tones and grit of “Demons,” anyhow. Three records in, 1782 continue and odd-year release pattern and showcase the individual take on familiar cultism and lumber that’s made their work to-date a joy to follow despite its sundry outward miseries. Clamor Luciferi keeps the thread going, which is a compliment in their case.

1782 on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Seum, Double Double

What Seum might be seen to lack in guitar, they more than make up in disgust. The Montreal trio — vocalist Gaspard, bassist Piotr, drummer Fred — offer a mostly-hateful 32-minute low-end mudslide on their second album, Double Double, the disaffection leaking like an oily discharge from the speakers in “Torpedo” and “Snow Bird” even before “Dog Days” lyrically takes on the heavy underground and “Dollarama” sees the emptiness in being surrounded by bullshit. For as caustic as it largely is, “Torpedo” dares a bit of dirt-caked melody in the vocals — also a backing layer in the somehow-catchy “Razorblade Rainbow” and the closing title-track has a cleaner shout — and the bass veers into funkier grooves at will, as on “Dog Days,” the winding second half of “Snow Bird,” where the bassline bookending the six-minute “Seum Noir” reminds a bit of Suplecs‘ “White Devil” in its fuzz and feels appropriate in that. Shades of Bongzilla persist, as they will with a scream like that, but like their impressive 2021 debut, Winterized (review here), Seum are able to make the big tones move when they need to, to the point that “Dollarama” brings to memory the glory days of Dopefight‘s over-the-top assault. Righteous and filthy.

Seum on Facebook

Electric Spark Records website

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Old Mine Universe, This Vast Array

Clearheaded desert-style heavy rock is the thread running through Old Mine Universe‘s debut album, This Vast Array, but with a bit of blues in “No Man’s Mesa” after the proggy flourish of guitar in “Gates of the Red Planet” and the grander, keyboardy unfolding of “My Shadow Devours” and the eight-minute, multi-movement, ends-with-cello finale “Cold Stream Guards,” it becomes clear the Canadian/Brazilian/Chilean five-piece aren’t necessarily looking to limit themselves on their first release. Marked by a strong performance from vocalist Chris Pew — whom others have likened to Ian Astbury and Glenn Danzig; I might add a likeness to some of Jim Healey‘s belting-it-out there as well, if not necessarily an influence — the songs are traditionally structured but move into a jammier feel on the loose “The Duster” and add studio details like the piano line in the second half of “Sixes and Sirens” that showcase depth as well as a solid foundation. At 10 songs/47 minutes, it’s not a minor undertaking for a band’s first record, but if you’re willing to be led the tracks are willing to lead, and with Pew‘s voice to the guitar and bass of David E. and Todd McDaniel in Toronto, the solos from Erickson Silva in Brazil and Sol Batera‘s drums in Chile, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the tracks take you different places.

Old Mine Universe on Facebook

Witch City Music on Facebook

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Saint Karloff, Paleolithic War Crimes

Although Olso-based riffers Saint Karloff have tasked Nico Munkvold (also Jointhugger) for gigs, the band’s third album, Paleolithic War Crimes, was recorded with just the duo of guitarist/vocalist Mads Melvold (also keys and bass here) and drummer Adam Suleiman, and made in homage to original bassist Ole Sletner, who passed away in 2021. It is duly dug-in, from the lumbering Sabbath-worship repetitions of “Psychedelic Man” through the deeper purple organ boogieprog of “Blood Meridian” and quiet guitar/percussion interlude “Among Stone Columns” into “Bone Cave Escape” tilting the balance from doom to rock with a steady snare giving way to an Iommi-circa-’75 acoustic-and-keys finish to side A, leaving side B to split the longer “Nothing to Come” (7:01), which ties together elements of “Bone Cave Escape” and “Blood Meridian,” and closer “Supralux Voyager” (8:26) with the brash, uptempo “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” which — I almost hate to say it — is a highlight, though the finale in “Supralux Voyager” isn’t to be ignored for what it adds to the band’s aesthetic in its patience and more progressive style, the steadiness of the build and a payoff that could’ve been a blowout but doesn’t need to be and so isn’t all the more resonant for that restraint. If Munkvold actually joins the band or they find someone else to complete the trio, whatever comes after this will inherently be different, but Saint Karloff go beyond 2019’s Interstellar Voodoo (review here) in ambition and realization with these seven tracks — yes, the interlude too; that’s important — and one hopes they continue to bring these lessons forward.

Saint Karloff on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Astral Sleep, We Are Already Living in the End of Times

Feels like a gimme to say that a record called We Are Already Living in the End of Times is bleak, but if I note the despair laced into the extremity of songs like “The Legacies” or “Torment in Existence,” it’s in no small part to convey the fluidity with which Finland’s Astral Sleep offset their guttural death-doom, be it with melancholic folk-doom melody as on the opening title-track, or the sweetly weaving guitar lines leading into the bright-hued finish of “Invisible Flesh.” Across its 46 minutes, Astral Sleep‘s fourth LP picks up from 2020’s Astral Doom Musick (review here) and makes otherwise disparate sounds transition organically, soaring and crashing down with emotive and tonal impact on the penultimate “Time Is” before “Status of the Soul” answers back to the leadoff with nine-plus minutes of breadth and churn. These aren’t contradictions coming from Astral Sleep, and while yes, the abiding spirit of the release is doomed, that isn’t a constraint on Astral Sleep in needing to be overly performative or ‘dark’ for its own sake. There’s a dynamic at work here as the band seem to make each song an altar and the delivery itself an act of reverence.

Astral Sleep on Facebook

Astral Sleep on Bandcamp

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Devoidov, Amputation

The second single in two months from New Jersey sludge slayers Devoidov, “Amputation” backs the also-knife-themed “Stab” and brings four minutes of heavy cacophonous intensity that’s as much death metal as post-hardcore early on, and refuses to give up its doomed procession despite all the harshness surrounding. It’s not chaotic. It’s not without purpose. That mute right around 2:40, the way the bass picks up from there and the guitar comes back in, the hi-hat, that build-up into the tremolo sprint and kick-drum jabs that back the crescendo stretch stand as analogue for the structure underlying, and then like out of nowhere they toss in a ripper thrash solo at the end, in the last 15 seconds, as if to emphasize the ‘fuck everything’ they’ve layered over top. There’s punk at its root, but “Amputation” derives atmosphere from its rage as well as the spaciousness of its sound, and the violence of losing a part of oneself is not ignored. They’re making no secret of turning burn-it-all-down into a stylistic statement, and that’s part of the statement too, leaving one to wonder whether the sludge or grind will win in their songwriting over the longer term and if it needs to be a choice between one or the other at all.

Devoidov on Instagram

Devoidov on Bandcamp

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Wolfnaut, Return of the Asteroid

Norwegian fuzz rollers Wolfnaut claim a lineage that goes back to 1997 (their debut was released in 2013 under their old moniker Wolfgang; it happens), so seems reasonable that their fourth full-length, Return of the Asteroid, should be so imbued with the characteristics of turn-of-the-century Scandinavian heavy. They might be at their most Dozerian on “Crash Yer Asteroid” or “Something More Than Night” as they meet careening riffs with vital, energetic groove, but the mellower opening with “Brother of the Badlands” gives a modern edge and as they unfurl the longer closing pair “Crates of Doom” (7:14) and “Wolfnaut’s Lament” (10:13) — the latter a full linear build that completes the record with reach and crunch alike, they are strident in their execution so as to bring individual presence amid all that thick tone crashing around early and the takeoff-and-run that happens around six minutes in. Hooky in “My Orbit is Mine” and willfully subdued in “Arrows” with the raucous “G.T.R.” following directly, Wolfnaut know what they’re doing and Return of the Asteroid benefits from that expertise in its craft, confidence, and the variety they work into the material. Not life-changing, but quality songwriting is always welcome.

Wolfnaut on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Fuzz Voyage, Heavy Compass Demo

If you’re gonna go, take a compass. And if your compass can be made of primo fuzz riffing, isn’t it that much more useful? If not as an actual compass? Each of the four cuts on Washington D.C. instrumentalists Fuzz Voyage‘s Heavy Compass Demo coincides with a cardinal direction, so you get “South Side Moss,” “North Star,” “East Wind” and “West Ice Mountain.” These same four tracks featured across two separate ‘sessions’-type demos in 2020, so they’ve been fairly worked on, but one can’t discount the presentation here that lets “East Wind” breathe a bit in its early going after the crunching stop of “North Star,” just an edge of heavy psychedelia having featured in the northerly piece getting fleshed out as it heads east. I might extend the perception of self-awareness on the part of the band to speculating “South Side Moss” was named for its hairy guitar and bass tone — if not, it could’ve been — and after “East Wind” stretches near seven minutes, “West Ice Mountain” closes out with a rush and instrumental hook that’s a more uptempo look than they’ve given to that point in the proceedings. Nothing to argue with unless you’re morally opposed to bands who don’t have singers — in which case, your loss — but one doesn’t get a lot of outright fuzz from the Doom Capitol, and Fuzz Voyage offer some of the densest distortion I’ve heard out of the Potomac since Borracho got their start. Even before you get to the concept or the art or whatever else, that makes them worth keeping an eye out for what they do next.

Fuzz Voyage on Instagram

Fuzz Voyage on Bandcamp

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Holy crap, this record’s not out yet? Serves me right for reviewing it in February. Look, sometimes you get excited about a thing, and The Machine‘s Wave Cannon is legitimately an exciting offering from the Netherlands-based trio, captured in the midst of a lineup transition while reaffirming their foundation in heavy psychedelic rock after years of tipping the balance into noisier fare. The three-piece now comprised of founding guitarist/vocalist David Eering, bassist Chris Both and drummer Klaas Dijkstra have a new video up for the title-track of Wave Cannon, and with the better part of a month to go before the record’s out, if you want an example of what it’s all about, “Wave Cannon” delivers without question.

The clip itself is also a fitting representation, sort of low-key tongue-in-cheek in sending up performance videos of bands in their rehearsal space surrounded by massive amps by not having any, putting a bit of silly dancing in there after three-someodd minutes (and again a couple minutes after that), a thoroughly Dutch dry humor complemented by the black and white presentation as faces are seen mostly in silhouette and the band finish — how else? — with their arms folded in what for heavy rock and roll is somehow a sign of approval. Right on.

Lightly delving into the absurd is nothing new for The Machine, even if it’s new personnel doing so, and whether you’ve followed the band or not, it’s worth keeping in mind that they’re speaking to themselves in terms of influence more than any other act, which isn’t something a band can do without a certain amount of maturity, let alone the actual years and releases behind them. The languid groove, resonant vocal melody, interplay of bass and guitar on “Wave Cannon” all come together to demonstrate strengths that the band has always had in ways that seem as much about their appreciating them as the listener’s, and in that way, the entire album is something of a celebration on both sides. At very least, the video is very likely eight of the best minutes you’ll spend today.

It’s been up since last week, so I’m not claiming timeliness — does my being late with this balance with being so early on the album review? does anyone else ever think of this shit besides me? — but the video follows here and you’ll find the preorder link for Wave Cannon beneath that. It’s out May 14 on Majestic Mountain Records.

Enjoy:

The Machine, “Wave Cannon” official video

“Wave Cannon” by The Machine from their album Wave Cannon (Release date: May 12, 2023)

Pre-order your copy at THE MACHINE here:
https://themachinemerch.bigcartel.com/product/the-machine-lp-wave-cannon-preorder
Pre-order your copy at Majestic Mountain Records here:
https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/product/the-machine-wave-cannon-pre-order

[PLAY LOUD]

VIDEO CREDITS
Shot, directed & edited by David Eering
Featuring Chris Both, Klaas Dijkstra and David Eering

MUSIC CREDITS
Produced, mixed & engineered by David Eering
Digital & vinyl mastering by Pieter Kloos
Written & performed by David Eering, Chris Both and Davy Boogaard

The Machine on ‘Wave Cannon’:
David Eering – guitar/vocals
Chris Both – bass
Davy Boogaard – drums

The Machine:
David Eering – guitar/vocals
Chris Both – bass
Klaas Dijkstra – drums

The Machine on Facebook

The Machine on Twitter

The Machine on Instagram

The Machine on Bandcamp

The Machine website

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Welcome to day three of the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review. Traditionally, this is where the halfway point is hit, like that spot on the wall in the Lincoln Tunnel where it says New York on the one side and New Jersey on the other. That’s not the case today — though it still applies as far as this week goes — since this particular QR runs seven days, but one way or the other, I’m glad you’re here. There’s been an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff so far and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon, so don’t let me keep you, except maybe to say that if you’re actually reading as well as browsing Bandcamp (or whoever) players, it is appreciated. Thanks for reading, to put it another way.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Signo Rojo, There Was a Hole Here

As lead/longest track — yes, immediate points — “Enough Rope” shifts between modern semi-melodic heavy burl post-Baroness to acoustic-tinged flourish to rolling shout-topped post-hardcore on the way back to its soaring chorus, yes, it’s fair to say Sweden’s Signo Rojo establish a broad swath of sounds on their third full-length, There Was a Hole Here. Later they grow more massive and twisting on “What Love is There,” while “Also-Ran” finds the bass managing to punch through the wall of guitar around it (not complaining) and the concluding “BotFly” lets its lead guitar soar over a crescendo that’s almost post-metal, so they want nothing for variety, but whether it’s “The World Inside” with its progressive chug or the more swaying title-track, the songs are united by tone in the guitars of Elias Mellberg and Ola Bäckström, the shouty vocals of bassist Jonas Nilsson adding aggressive edge, and the drums of Pontus Svensson reinforcing the underlying structures and movements. Self-recorded, mixed by Johan Blomström and mastered by Jack Endino for name-brand recognition, There Was a Hole Here is angles and thrown-elbows, but not disjointed. Tumultuous, they power through and find themselves unbruised while having left a few behind them.

Signo Rojo on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Tribunal, The Weight of Remembrance

Stunning first album. Vancouver’s Tribunal — the core duo of cellist/bassist/vocalist Soren Mourne and guitarist/vocalist Etienne Flinn, working on their first record, The Weight of Remembrance, with Julia Geaman on drums on the seven-song/47-minute sprawl of bleak, goth-informed death-doom — resound with purpose between the atmosphere and the dramaturge of their material. “Apathy’s Keep” (Magdalena Wienski on additional drums) alone would tell you they’re a band with a keen sense of what they want to accomplish stylistically, but the patience in execution necessary from the My Dying Bride-esque back and forth shifts between harsh and clean vocals on opener “Initiation” to the grim, full-toned breadth of the 12-minute finale “The Path,” on which Mourne‘s severity reminds of Finland’s Mansion, and yes that’s a compliment, while Flinn finds new depths from which to gurgle out his harsh screaming. The semi-titular piano interlude “Remembrance” is well-placed at the end of side A to make one nostalgic for some lost romance that never happened, and the stop-chug of “A World Beyond Shadow” seem to speak to SubRosa‘s declarative majesty as well as the more extreme spirit of Paradise Lost circa ’91-’92, Tribunal crossing eras and intentions with an organic meld that hints there and in “Without Answer” or the airy cello of “Of Creeping Moss and Crumbled Stone” earlier at even grander and perhaps more orchestral things to come while serving as one of 2023’s best debuts in the interim. Like finding your great grandmother’s wedding dress, picking it up out of the box and having the dried-out fabric and lace crumble in your hands. Sad and necessary.

Tribunal on Facebook

20 Buck Spin website

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Bong Corleone, Bong Corleone

From whence came Finland’s Bong Corleone? Well, from Finland, I guess, but that hardly answers the question on planetary terms. Information is sparse and social media presence is nil from the psychedelic-stoner-doom explorers, who string synth lines through four mostly-extended pieces on this self-titled, self-released, seemingly self-actualized argument for dropping out of life and you know the rest. Second cut “Gathering” (8:34) sees lead guitar step in for where vocals might otherwise be, but there and in the prior leadoff “Chemical Messenger” (9:15), synthesizer plays a prominent role that’s been compared rightly to Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, though “Gathering” departs in for a midsection meander-jam that lets itself have and be more fun before crashing back around to the roll. As it invariably would, “Astrovan” (6:18) shoves faster, but the synth stays overtop along with some floating guitar, and the sense of control remains strong even in the second half’s splurge and slowdown, shifting with ambient drone and residual amp hum into 11-minute closer “Offering,” which rounds out with a sample, what might be a bong rip, and a density of fuzz that apparently Bong Corleone have been keeping in their collective pocket all the while, crushing and stomping before turning to more progressive exploration later. It’s a substantial enough release at 35 minutes that the band might — like MWWB before them — regret the silly name, but even if they never follow it with anything, the immersion factor in these four songs shouldn’t be discounted. May they (if in fact it’s more than one person) never reveal a lineup.

Bong Corleone on Bandcamp

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Old Spirit, Burning in Heaven

This second full-length from Wisconsin-based solo-project Old Spirit — formed and executed at the behest of Jason Hartman (Vanishing Kids, sometimes Jex Thoth) — Burning in Heaven feels at home in contradictions, whether it’s the image provoked by the title or in the songs themselves, be it the Celtic–Frost-on-Monster–Magnet‘s-pills “Dim Aura” or the electro Queens of the Stone Age shuffle in “Ash,” or the Candlemass-meets-Chrome succession of “Fallacy,” or the keyboard and guitar interlude “When the Spirit Slips Away.” The title-track opens and has an oldschool ripper solo late, but there’s so much going on at any given moment that it’s one more element thrown in the mix as much as a precursor to the later reaches of “Angel Blood” — a Slayer nod, or two, perhaps? — which precedes the emergent wash of “Bleak Chapel” and the devolution undertaken from song to drone that gives over to closer “In Dismay,” which seems all set in its garage-goth doom rollout until the tempo kick brings it and the record to a place of duly dug-in progressive psych-metal oddness. Fitting end to a record clearly meant to go wherever the hell it wants and on which the rawness of the production becomes a uniting factor across otherwise willfully disparate material, skirting the danger that it all might collapse on itself while proselytizing individualist fuckall; Luciferian without being outright Satanic.

Old Spirit on Bandcamp

Bright as Night Records on Facebook

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Los Acidos, Stereolalo

Argentina’s Los Acidos return after reissuing 2016’s self-titled debut (review here) in 2020 through Necio Records with Stereolalo, putting emphasis on welcoming listeners from the outset with the opening title-track and “Ascensor,” which are the two longest cuts on the record (double points) and function as world-builders in terms of establishing the acoustic/electric blend and melodic flourish with which much of the 50-minute outing functions. Like everything, the blend is molten and malleable, as shorter pieces like “Atardecer” or side B’s build-to-boogie “Madre” and the keyboard-backed psych-funk verses of “Atenas” show, and they resist the temptation to really blow it out as they otherwise might even in those first two tracks; the church organ seeming to keep the penultimate “Interior” in line before “Buscando el Mar” calls out ’60s psych on guitar with a slow-careening progression from whatever kind of keyboard that is, ending almost folkish, having said what they want to say in the way they want to say it. Light in atmosphere, there nonetheless are deceptive depths from which the songs seem to swim upward.

Los Acidos on Facebook

Los Acidos on Bandcamp

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JAGGU, Rites for the Damned

Rites for the Damned offers the kind of aesthetic sprawl that can only be summarized in vague catchall tags like ‘progressive,’ with the adventurous and ambitious Norwegian outfit JAGGU threatening extremity on “Carnage” at the beginning of the eight-song/40-minute LP while instead taking the angularity and thrust and through “Earth Murder” fostering an element of noise rock that feeds its aggression into “Mindgap” before the six-minutes-each pair of “Electric Blood” and “Lenina Ave.” further reveal the breadth, hooks permeating the amalgam of heavy styles being bent and reshaped to suit the band’s expressive will, the latter building from acoustic-inclusive post-metallic balladry into a solo that seems to spread far and wide as it draws the listener deeper into side B’s reaches, the dizzying start of “Enthralled,” post-black-metal-but-still-metal “Marching Stride” — more of a run, actually — and the prog-thrash finale “God to be Through” that caps not to bring it all together, but to celebrate the variations encountered along the course and highlight the skill with which JAGGU have been guiding the proceedings all along, unsettled in their approach on this second record in such a way as to speak to perpetual growth rather than their being the kind of band who’ll find a niche and stagnate.

JAGGU on Facebook

Evil Noise Recordings store

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Falling Floors, Falling Floors

Escapist and jam-based-but-not-just-jamming psychedelia pervades the self-titled debut from UK trio Falling Floors, who add variety amid the already-varied krautrock in the later reaches of opener “Infinite Switch,” the lockdown slog of “Flawed Theme,” the tambourine-infused hard strums of “Ridiculous Man” and the 18-minute side-B-consuming “Elusive and Unstable Nature of Truth,” which is organ-inclusive bombast early and drone later, with three numbered interludes, furthering the notion of these works being carved out of experiments. A malleable songwriting process and a raw, seemingly live recording make Falling Floors‘ seven-song run come across as formative, but the rougher edges are part of the aesthetic, and ultimately bolster the overarching impression that the band — guitarist/vocalist Rob Herian, bassist/organist Harry Wheeler and drummer/percussionist Colin Greenwood — can and just might go wherever the hell they want. And they do, in that extended finisher and elsewhere throughout, capturing an exploratory moment of creation in willfully unrefined fashion, loose but not unhinged and seemingly as curious in the making as in the result. I don’t know that a band can do this kind of adventuring twice — invariably any second album is informed by the experience of making the first — but Falling Floors make a resounding argument for wanting to find out in these shared discoveries.

Falling Floors on Instagram

Riot Season Records store

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

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Warp, Bound by Gravity

Spacing out from a fuzzy foundation like Earthless taking on The Sword — with a bit of Tool in the second-half leads of eight-minute second track “The Hunger” — Israeli trio Warp make their Nasoni Records label debut with their sophomore full-length, Bound by Gravity, putting due languid slog into “Your Fascist Pigs are Back” while finding stonerized salvation in “Dirigibles” ahead of the more melodic and more doomed title-track, which Sabbath-blues-boogies right into its shout-topped sludge slowdown before the bounce and swing of “Impeachment Abdication” readily counteracts. “The Present” unfolds with hints of Melvins while “Head of the Eye” rides a linear groove into a winding midsection that resolves in a standout chorus and capper “I Don’t Want to Be Remembered” is a vocal highlight — guitarist Itai Alzaradel, bassist Sefi Akrish and drummer Mor Harpazi all contribute in that regard at some juncture or another — and a reaffirmation of the gonna-roll-until-we-don’t mindset on the part of the band, ending cold after shifting into a faster chug like the song’s about to take off again. That’d be a hell of a way to start their next record and we’ll see if they get there. Pointedly of-genre, Warp bring exploratory craft to a foundation of tonal heft and ask few indulgences on the listener’s part. Big fuzz gonna make some friends among the converted.

Warp on Facebook

Nasoni Records store

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Halo Noose, Magical Flight

Leading off with its spacebound title-track, Halo Noose‘s debut album, Magical Flight, finds the Scottish solo-outfit plumbing the outer reaches of fuzz-drenched acid rock, coming through like an actually-produced version of Monster Magnet‘s demo era in its roughed-up Hawkwind-via-Stooges pastiche, “Cinnamon Garden” edging toward Eastern idolatry without going full-sitar while “Fire” engages with a stretched-out feel over its slow, maybe-programmed drums and centerpiece “When You Feel it Babe” tops near-motorik push with watery vocals like a less punk Nebula or some of what Black Rainbows might conjure. “Kaliedoscopica” is based largely around a single riff and it’s a masterclass in wah at its 4:20 runtime, leading into the last outward leaps of “Rollercoasting Your Mind” and the forward-and-backwards “Slow Motion” which isn’t actually much slower than anything else here and thus reminds that time is a construct easily subverted by lysergics, fading out with surprising gentleness to return the listener to a crueler reality after a consuming half-hour’s escape. Right on.

Halo Noose on Facebook

Ramble Records store

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

The Acid Test Recordings store

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Dope Skum, Gutter South

If you’d look at the name and the fact that the trio hail from Tennessee and think you’re probably in for some caustic Southern sludge, you’re part right. Dope Skum on their second EP, the 17-minute Gutter South, embrace the tonal heft and chugging approach of the harder end of sludge riffing, but rather than weedian throatrippers, a cleaner vocal style pervades from guitarist Cody Landress-Gibson across opener “Folk Magic,” the banjo-laced “Interlude,” “Feast of Snakes,” “Belly Lint” and the punkier-until-its-slowdown finish of “The Cycle,” and the difference between a shout and a scream is considerable in the impressions made throughout. Bassist Todd Garrett and drummer Scott Keil complete the three-piece and together they harness a feel that’s true to that nasty aural history while branching into something different therefrom, genuinely sounding like a new generation’s interpretation of what Southern heavy was 15-20 years ago. More over, they would seem to be conscious of doing it. Their first EP, 2021’s Tanasi, was more barebones in its production, and there’s still development to be done, but it will be interesting to hear how they manifest across a first long-player when the time comes, as Gutter South underscores potential in its songwriting and persona as well as defiance of aesthetic expectation.

Dope Skum on Facebook

Dope Skum on Bandcamp

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The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Jonas Nilsson from Signo Rojo

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

I try to do the best I can with what I’ve got. Noisy music and weirdo art. I was a quiet guy for such a long time so that when it was time to get loud, it just came naturally to me.

Describe your first musical memory.

Probably singing along to my dad’s Beatles records or hammering my fists on one of those toy pianos that it seems like we all had at some point in our childhoods.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I got to see Roger Waters perform the Wall two times when he toured that album again a couple of years back. The Wall has been one of my favorite albums since I was a kid so that was huge for me.

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

Constantly, I’m a pretty stubborn person which leads to firmly holding onto beliefs that turn out to be pretty stupid. It’s good to get checked every now and then especially if you’re pig-headed by nature. Change is good, it’s tough to deal with but always worth it in the end.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I think the fact that you can’t really know where it leads is the exciting part, if you end up surprising yourself you’re doing it right and that is a whole lot easier when you work with other people.

It’s easy to get stuck on writing songs in “your” style if you do it alone and then it just feels repetitive and stale. To me at least.

But when it’s a collaborative effort the result will end up being greater than the sum of its parts and that’s when the really great stuff comes out.

So I guess you can say that artistic progression leads to more social interactions, which is nice for an aging introvert like myself.

How do you define success?

I would define it as something to aspire to but not something one should achieve. There’s a finality to that term that makes it kind of weird.

In pretty much all biographies or documentaries of famous people, the stage where the subject “makes it” is always the point where things start to go south in one way or another. True success , in my opinion, is to have the stamina and passion to keep improving and always have another branch to reach for.

Set small attainable goals and celebrate milestones, not some mythical endpoint that’s difficult to reach and potentially soul crushing if you do.

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

I wish I had never seen “Rocky horror picture show” so I could see it for the first time again! Don’t know if it’d hit the same way when you’re pushing 40 though.

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

I recently got back into traditional hand drawn 2D-animation on our two latest videos and I would love to do a short film or something in that style. Just for fun. I’ve been playing around with a few ideas but it’s a time consuming process and there’s only so many hours in the day.

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

To express things that can’t really be expressed any other way, I guess it is hiding behind abstraction to some degree but for me at least it’s about expressing ideas and feelings that I can’t express in a more direct way.

That’s why I feel the best art is spontaneous, if you’re trying to convey a fleeting idea and it goes through 200 iterations something will inevitably be lost in the process. The first couple of stabs at a song/artpiece is often the best even if it is a bit rough around the edges. I am also aware of the irony of that statement coming from a dude in a band that takes over three years to release an album.

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

In the spirit of setting attainable goals I’m looking forward to getting off work and goofing around with my dog.

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Signo Rojo, There Was a Hole Here (2023)