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Queen Marsa Premiere Video for Title-Track of Debut LP I Am the Land; Album Out Sept. 15

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

queen marsa

Mallorca-based heavy rockers Queen Marsa are set to release their debut album, I Am the Land, on Sept. 15 through Spain’s own Discos Macarras and also-Mallorca imprint Metalway Records. The video premiering below for the title-track presents the first single taken from the record, which follows the double-guitar/standalone-vocal five-piece’s 2020 self-titled EP with eight songs across a tight but groovy 33 minutes that pull from a swath of influences within the heavy sphere. Crisply produced, I Am the Land necessarily gives up some of the warmth of the EP, but in trade, the record brings a largesse of sound and clarity of intention beyond what one might generally expect from a first full-length, opener “Gaugamela” — a shorter piece at 2:51 that bookends with the finale “Outlaw on the Run” (3:30) as the only two cuts not between four and five minutes long — setting a heavy ’90s backdrop against which much of the proceedings take place. It’s got big tone from guitarists Xavi Cárceles and Jaume Rado, big swing and push from bassist Toni Coronado and drummer Juan Bonet, and the first of, well, about eight big choruses that show off the malleable and melodic but nonetheless belted-out vocals of Manuel Pintos.

It is not a style you would call humble, but it certainly is righteous, and Queen Marsa wield it fluidly and build palpable momentum as they course through “Gaugamela” and “Made for Lovers,” the latter expanding a bit on the metallic undercurrent of the leadoff while also hinting toward C.O.C. in its later chug and Dozer in the way it seems to burst, clean and vibrant, into its riffier instrumental hook. Between the two guitars and Pintos‘ ’70s-via-’90s vocal style, a Trouble comparison feels inevitable, and the chorus of “The Trick is You Don’t Mind” sees that manifest and complements with a fittingly shred-intensive solo to get the point across. The penultimate “The Truth (You Don’t Want to Know)” soon enough echoes that trad-metal/semi-doomed vibe with a darker mood to go with the inherent threat of the title, but stops for a second ahead of a particularly fervent solo finish in a way that touches on psychedelic without losing the firm sense of structure found across the album’s entire span.

With “I Am the Land” bringing together shades of Soundgarden as well as the Queen Marsa I Am the Landaforementioned C.O.C. and Trouble — I also can’t help but feel like Pintos going topless in the video is an Iggy Pop reference — and even a little Blind Melon in its chorus, the title-track offers more than fair representation of the LP whose name it shares, and emphasizes Queen Marsa‘s ability as presented here to shift from one aspect of their sound to another. A hard and heavy rock band putting a bluesier spin on a song as Queen Marsa do with side B’s “Treat Me Like You Do,” or that momentary psych divergence in “The Truth (You Don’t Want to Know),” isn’t unheard of, and the fivesome don’t sound like they’re trying to claim they invented anything so much as to explore the process of craft, develop along their own path, and reach out to as many ears as they might catch with their mostly uptempo, deeply energetic take. The ultra-’90s “Stop Dry,” which picks up after “I Am the Land” careens to its finish, is a declarative stomper. This is who this band wants to be.

And so it’s who they are. When they get down to “Outlaw on the Run,” they’re accordingly ready to go. The verse arrives soon enough to focus the immediate tension of the motor riff of the intro, layered-in note-pulls and all on the guitar, and rolls into the chorus with no need for pretense or aural trickery. Some peppered-in doubling of vocals adds to the atmosphere, and they end it sharp and purposeful after a tempo-kick under the solo. Queen Marsa don’t need nearly the entire half-hour-plus to announce themselves as songwriters, but their argument is stronger for the variety that side B brings to the all-go foundation on which I Am the Land is constructed. It’s a rocker, by rockers, for rockers. Yeah, as a debut it’s a sign of the potential in what Queen Marsa are doing, avenues to grow, all that, but to think only of the future is missing the present, and the fact is the band have everything they need right in this material. Whatever they do next (or don’t), this is a strong opening statement.

Phew, right? Yeah, it’s a burner, but you’re up for it. I believe in you and I believe in the power of good rock and roll. The video for “I Am the Land” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire. Queen Marsa play release shows Sept. 17 at the Fira Del Disc Mallorca and Oct. 6 at Es Gremi. More info, of course, can be chased down on socials, which are linked at the bottom.

Please enjoy:

Queen Marsa, “I Am the Land” video premiere

QUEEN MARSA – I am the land (Official video) First single from our album “I am the land”, out on September 15, 2023.

VIDEO CREDITS
– Direction: Andres Quintana
– Direction of photography: Andrés Quintana.
– Camera operator: Pilar Alcalde
– Assistant director: Marta Lladó
– Editing: Mad Hernández
– Production: Patricia De La Mata
– Drone images: Eduardo Dengra

2023 – LP – “I am the land”.

RECORDED, MIXED & MASTERED by Miguel Ángel Riutort (MEGA) at Psychosomatic Studios. Edited and released by Discos Macarras Records and Metalway. Artwork by Toni Coronado. Released at September with the videoclips “I am the land” (Andrés Quintana) and “Outlaw on the run” (Sara Álvarez).

RELEASED BY:

– Discos Macarras Records
www.discosmacarras.com

– Runaway Records “Metalway”
www.runawaymusica.com

Track list:
1. Gaugamela
2. Made for lovers
3. The trick is you don´t mind
4. I am the land
5. Stop dry
6. Treat me like you do
7. The truth you don´t want to know
8. Outlaw on the run

THE BAND:
Manuel Pintos: Vocals
Jaume Rado: Guitar
Xavi Cárceles: Guitar
Toni Coronado: Bass
Juan Bonet: Drums

Queen Marsa on Facebook

Queen Marsa on Instagram

Queen Marsa on YouTube

Metalway Records on Instagram

Metalway Records on Bandcamp

Discos Macarras on Instagram

Discos Macarras on Facebook

Discos Macarras on Bandcamp

Discos Macarras website

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Quarterly Review: HIGH LEAF, JAAW, The Bridesmaid, Milana, New Mexican Doom Cult, Gentle Beast, Bloodsports, Night Fishing, Wizard Tattoo, Nerver & Chat Pile

Posted in Reviews on May 8th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-qr-summer-2020

Didn’t we just do this? Yeah, kind of. It’s been a weird season, but I knew last month when I launched the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review that it needed to be more than two full weeks and given the timing of everything else slated around then and now, this is what worked to make it happen. For what it’s worth, I have QRs scheduled for July and early October, subject to change, of course.

The bottom line either way is it’s another batch of 50 reviews this week and then that’s a wrap for Spring. It’s a constant barrage of music these days anyhow, and I’m forever behind on everything, but I hope at least you can find something here you dig, whether previously familiar or not. We go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

HIGH LEAF, Vision Quest

High Leaf Vision Quest

An awaited debut from this Philadelphia heavy rock scene outfit, HIGH LEAF‘s Vision Quest makes its home among heavy tropes (also some minute cultural appropriation in the title) with unabashed glee and deceptively sharp songwriting. Certainly opener “Green Rider” is perfectly willing to beat you over the head with its chorus — and rightly so, you have it coming — but the spacious title-track that follows stretches over eight minutes and seamlessly works through drift and heavy psych impulses to get to the post-grunge roll that makes its increasingly aggro presence known past six minutes in, and that’s by no means the final bit of sludge to be had as the later “Hard to Find” leans toward nastiness only to be offset by the funky outset of “Painted Desert,” having pushed deeper from the Kyussery of “Dead Eye” and a swagger in “Subversive” worthy of comparison to Earthride. This lineup of the band has already split (there’s a new one, no worries), and how that reboot will affect HIGH LEAF going forward obviously remains to be seen, but this is a ‘serving notice’-type debut, doubling down on that in closing duo “March to the Grave” and “The Rot,” and the eight songs and 38 minutes commune with groove and riffs like they’ve been speaking the language the whole time. There’s definitely a vision at work. Let’s see where the quest takes them.

HIGH LEAF on Facebook

HIGH LEAF on Bandcamp

 

JAAW, Supercluster

jaaw supercluster

Fucking hell I wish this was what the future sounded like. It rocks. It’s interesting. It’s driven to be its own thing despite traceable roots. It’s got edge but it’s not hackneyed. It’s the tomorrow we were promised when industrial rock and metal became a thing in the 1990s and that corporate alt-everything and pop-punk usurped. I knew I wanted to write about it now, because it’s coming out now, but I’ll tell you honestly, I’ve barely scratched the surface of JAAW‘s Svart-issued debut, Supercluster — recorded at Bear Bites Horse in London by Wayne Adams, who’s also in the band alongside Andy Cairns of Therapy?, Mugstar‘s Jason Stoll and Adam Betts (of Squarepusher and others) — and this is the kind of album that’s going to be years in revealing itself. How about this? Sometime in 2028, if this site is still here, I’ll follow-up and let you know what I’ve found digging into the sinister groove of “Rot” or the shout-kraut rumble and noise of “Bring Home the Motherlode, Barry,” “The Dead Drop” going from minimalism to full heavy New Wave wash in five minutes’ time, and so on, but for right now, let it serve as the cannonball to be lobbed at anyone who says there aren’t any acts out there doing new things or pushing different styles forward, because hell’s bells, that’s the only place this goes even as it also seems to go everywhere at the same time, unto closing out with a Björk cover “Army of Me” as imagined by Ministry doing ’90s drum ‘n’ bass. Some things are just bigger than the year of their release, and I look forward to living with this record.

JAAW on Facebook

Svart Records website

 

The Bridesmaid, Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother

The Bridesmaid Come on People Now Smile on Your Brother

From the opening drone-and-toy-chime-forward over industrial black metal of “Leytonstone: Eat Your Landlord” through the sample-fed machine sludge-turned-psych experimentalism that gives way to a shimmering haze of jazz metal in “Cleveland: And the Rain Came Down” and the can’t-fool-me-by-now acoustic strum at the start of “Summerland: A Long, Maintenance-Free Life” that runs a current of cello under its aural collage and low-end lumber early only to bask in news-and-drone departure with percussion later on the way to what post-hardcore could still someday be, the name of the EP is Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother and The Bridesmaid deliver the proceedings in a manner more suited to Kurt Cobain‘s fuckall rasp of that line rather than the Youngbloods original. So it’s probably the latter. In any case, the UK solo-plus-friends outfit helmed and steered by JJ Saddington are an aural barrage, and while the temptation is to think of the three-song/21-minute offering as a blender on liquefy, the truth is the material is more thought out, more considerately mixed, and more engaging, than that kind of spastic randomness implies. If you can keep up with the changes, the adventure of listening is well worth the ankles sprained in its twists, but you should go into it knowing that the challenge is part of the appeal.

The Bridesmaid on Facebook

The Bridesmaid on Bandcamp

 

Milana, Milvus

milana milvus

If the hard push and tonal burl of comparatively straight-ahead opener “The Last Witch” aren’t convincing, stick around through “Celestial Bird Spirit” and “Impermanence” on the rest of side A before you resolve one way or the other as regards Milana‘s debut album, Milvus. The Mallorca-based four-piece are for sure in conversation with fest-ready modern European heavy rock, and that’s the thread that weaves throughout the album, but in the 11-minute “Impermanance,” they build on the more temperate rollout of “Celestial Bird Spirit” and find an intriguing blend of atmosphere and dense fuzz, more moody than psychedelic, but smart to hold back its weightiest tonality for the rolling end. Appropriately enough, “Lucid Reality” brings them back to ground at the start of side B, but still has an atmospheric effect in its verse, with vocal layering over open-spaced guitar and an alt-rock pickup as they move toward the chorus, and Howling Wolf gives a class-conscious definition of the blues, in the long intro of “Gray City Lights,” setting a difficult standard for the rest of the song to match, but the organ helps. And all seems well and fine for “Whispering Wind” to wrap up mirroring the rocker “The Last Witch” at the start until the song breaks, the harmony starts, and then the growls and massive fuzz start in the last minute and it turns out they were metal all along. Go figure. There’s growing to do, but there’s more happening on Milvus than one listen will tell you, and that in itself is a good sign.

Milana on Instagram

Milana on Spotify

 

New Mexican Doom Cult, Necropolis

New Mexican Doom Cult Necropolis

Swedish upstart four-piece New Mexican Doom Cult offer a distinctly Monolordian weep of lead guitar on “Seven Spirits,” but even that is filtered through the band’s own take, and that’s true of their first full-length, Necropolis more generally, as the Gävle outfit now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/principal songwriter Nils Ahnland, guitarist Johan Klyven Kvastegård, bassist Emil Alstermark and drummer Jonathan Ekvall present seven songs and 48 minutes of dug-in rockers, distortion keyed to its fuzziest degree as Ahnland hints vocally on “Underground” toward a root in darker and more metallic fare ahead of the chugging build that rounds out the eight-minute centerpiece title-track and the make-doom-swing ethic being followed in closer “Worship the Sun.” “Vortex” is a highlight for the melody as much as the double-dose of nodfuzz guitar work, and opener “Architect” sets an atmospheric course but assures that the sense of movement is never really gone, something that’s a benefit even to the righteous Sabbath blowout verse in the penultimate “Archangel.” Much of what they’re doing will be familiar to experienced heads, but not unwelcome for that.

New Mexican Doom Cult on Facebook

Ozium Records on Bandcamp

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

 

Gentle Beast, Gentle Beast

Gentle Beast Gentle Beast

Capable double-guitar heavy rock pervades the 43-minute Gentle Beast by the Swiss five-piece of the same name. Mixed by Jeff Henson of Duel and issued through Sixteentimes Music, the eight-song run is defined by knowing itself as stoner rock, and that remains true as “Super Sapiens” departs into its post-midsection jam, eventually returning to the chorus, which is almost unfortunately hooky. “Greedy Man” is almost purely Kyuss in its constructed pairing of protest and riff, but the “Caterpillar” shows a different side of the band’s character in its smooth volume shifts, winding leads and understated finish, leading into the sharper-edged outset of closer “Toxic Times.” In the forward thrust of “Joint Venture,” the opener “Asteroid Miner” with its gruff presentation, and the speedier swing of “Headcage” reinforcing the vocal reference to Samsara Blues Experiment in the leadoff, Gentle Beast tick all the boxes they need to tick for this debut long-player some four years after the band’s initial 7″ single, setting up multiple avenues of possible and hopeful progression while proving dexterous songwriters in the now. Won’t change your life, but isn’t trying to convince you it will, either.

Gentle Beast on Facebook

Sixteentimes Music store

 

Bloodsports, Bloodsports

bloodsports bloodsports

Denver four-piece Bloodsports — also stylized all-lowercase: bloodsports — give a heavygaze impression with “Sky Mall” at the launch of their self-titled debut EP that the subsequent “Crimp” gleefully pulls the rug right from under with a solo section like All Them Witches grew up listening to The Cure after its Weezery verse, and the proceedings only gets grungier from there with the low-key Nirvana brooding of “Sustain” (also issued in 2022 as a standalone single) and its larger-scale, scorch-topped distorted finish and the shaker-inclusive indie ritual that is “Carnival” until it explodes into a blowout ending like the release of tension everyone always wanted but never actually got from Violent Femmes. Some noisy skronk guitar finishes over the hungover fuzz, which is emblematic of the way the entire release — only 11 minutes long, mind you — derives its character from the negative space, from its smaller moments of nuance, as well as from its fuller-sounding stretches. They’re young and they sound it, but there’s a sonic ideal being chased through the material and Bloodsports may yet carve their aural persona from that chase. As it is, the emotive aspects on display in “Sustain” and the volatility shown in the roll of “Sky Mall” make in plain that this project has places it wants to go and areas to explore, and one hopes Bloodsports continue to bring their ideas together with such fluidity.

Bloodsports on Instagram

Candlepin Records on Bandcamp

 

Night Fishing, Live Bait

Night Fishing Live Bait

Recorded seemingly almost entirely live on audio and video, vibrancy would seem to be the underpinning that draws Night Fishing‘s Live Bait together, if fishing isn’t. The Denver four-piece are a relatively new formation, with guitarists Graham Zander (also Green Druid) and Zach Amster (Abrams), bassist Justin Sanderson (Muscle Beach) and drummer Gordon Koch (Call of the Void) all coming together from their sundry other projects to explore a space between the kosmiche, heavy rock and semi-improv jamming. The turns and fills and crashes that round out the second of three cuts, “No Services,” for example, feel off-the-cuff, but throughout most of “Alone With My Thoughts” and at least in the initial Slift-like shuffle at the start of “Slapback Twister,” there’s a plan at work. At 25 minutes, they’re only about a song shy of making Live Bait a full-length — though another track might mess up the shortest-to-longest and alphabetical ordering Live Bait has now, which are fun — but the instrumentalist exploration is suited to the nascent feel of the outfit, and while I don’t think Night Fishing is anybody’s only band here, if they can build on the sense of purpose they give to the jangly rhythm and airy solo of “Slapback Twister” and the right-on push of “Alone With My Thoughts,” they can make their records as long or as short as they want and they’re still bound to catch ears.

Night Fishing on Instagram

Brutal Panda Records website

 

Wizard Tattoo, Fables of the Damned

Wizard Tattoo Fables of the Damned

Following last year’s self-titled debut EP, Indianapolis solo-project Wizard Tattoo cuts itself open and bleeds DIY on the seven songs and 40 minutes of the self-recorded, self-released Fables of the Damned, beginning with distinct moments of departure in opener “Wizard Van” and “The Black Mountain Pass,” the latter of which returns to its gutted-out chorus with maestro Bram the Bard (who also did the cover) cutting through the tonescape of his own creation to underscore the structure at work. There are stories to be told in “The Vengeful Thulsa Dan” and the folkish “Any Which Way but Tuned,” which brings together acoustics and chanting like a gamer version of Wovenhand, deep-mixed tom thud peppered throughout while the chimes are more forward, while the seven-minute “The Ghost of Doctor Beast” picks up with the slowest and most doomed of the included rollouts, “God Damn This Wizard Tattoo” ups the tempo with a catchy chorus, a little bit of mania in the hi-hat under the guitar solo, and hints dropped in the bassline of the grunge aspects soon to be highlighted in instrumental closer “Abendrote.” The sense of character is bigger than the production, and that balance is something that will need to be ironed out over time, but the dug-in curio aspects of Fables of the Damned make it engaging, whatever it may or may not lead toward.

Wizard Tattoo on Facebook

Wizard Tattoo on Bandcamp

 

Nerver & Chat Pile, Brothers in Christ Split

NERVER CHAT PILE BROTHERS IN CHRIST

I’ll never claim to be anything more than a dilettante when it comes to noise rock, and I’ll tell you outright that Kansas City’s Nerver are new to me as of this Brothers in Christ split with Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile, but both acts are coming from a strong Midwestern tradition of post-industrial (talking economy not genre) disaffection and building on momentum from strong 2022 releases, those being Nerver‘s even-the-CD-sold-out (aha! but not from the label! got it!) sophomore full-length CASH and Chat Pile‘s much-lauded debut, God’s Country (review here), and the scream-topped bombast of the one and volatile emotive antipoetry of the other make fitting companions across the included four songs, as Nerver‘s “Kicks in the Sky” underscores its jabs with deep low rumble as a bed for the harshly delivered verse and “The Nerve” shoves itself faceward in faster and less angular fashion, consuming like Chicago post-metal but pissed off like Midwestern hardcore while Chat Pile build through “King” en route to the panicked slaughter of “Cut,” which is sure enough to trigger fight-or-flight in your brain before its sub-five-minute run is up. Neither arrives at this point without hype behind them, both would seem to have earned it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go put on that Nerver album and play a bit of catchup.

Chat Pile on Instagram

Nerver on Facebook

Reptilian Records website

The Ghost is Clear Records website

 

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Quarterly Review: Enslaved, Milana & Bisonte, Leeds Point, Ocultum, Cruel Curses, Green Hog, Adliga, Buffalo Tombs, BroodMother, King Bastard

Posted in Reviews on December 13th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Doing things a little differently this time. Yes, it’s still 10 records per day for a total of 50 between today and Friday, but with the utter glut — glutter! — of releases coming out and recently released, I’m doubling up on the Winter Quarterly Review and will be putting together another week of 50 records for January, after the holidays and all the year-end hullabaloo. So it’s 50 now and 50 later. I’ve never done it that way before, and I reserve the right to completely change my mind after this week, but as of right this second, that’s where I’m at. Talk to me again on Friday.

I guess we’d better get started, either way.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Enslaved, Caravans to the Outer Worlds

enslaved caravans to the outer worlds

With a relatively brief 18-minute excursion that pushes yet-deeper into their particular brand of progressive extreme metal, Norway’s Enslaved continue to walk the increasingly melodic and decreasingly genre-dependent path in following-up 2020’s Utgard (review here). Their affinity for krautrock experimentalism is well established but has never been so forwardly presented as on “Intermezzo I – Lönnlig. Gudlig.,” and the thrust of the opening title-track sets Caravan to the Outer Worlds off with a due sense of motion later complemented by the keyboard-heavy “Ruun II – The Epitaph,” an apparent 15-years-later sequel to the title-cut from 2006’s Ruun (discussed here). Rounding out with “Intermezzo II – The Navigator,” with its almost-motorik space-but-still-somehow-Norwegian-space rock vibe, Enslaved‘s short offering for 2021 demonstrates plainly that they can be whatever and do whatever the hell they want. 30 years from their beginning, they keep growing. Such bands are likewise rare and precious.

Enslaved on Facebook

Nuclear Blast website

 

Bisonte & Milana, Mallorca Stoner Vol. 1 Split

bisonte milana mallorca stoner vol 1

It’s not quite what-you-see-is-what-you-get, but the Discos Macarras split Mallorca Stoner Vol. 1 that brings together two tracks each from Spanish outfits Bisonte — also written Bis·nte — and Milana certainly lays out its mission in representing the Mediterranean island’s heavy underground, and Bisonte aren’t through the nine-minute doomer “Unbalanced” before I’m curious just how many volumes the label might be able to put together from Mallorcan acts. Nonetheless, Bisonte‘s wizardly march on “Involuntary Act” flows organically around its downtrodden vibe, and in the more psychedelic “White Buffalo” and burl-lumbering “Forest Tale,” Milana work even quicker to acquit themselves well with an underlying current of noise. However much of a scene there may or may not be in Mallorca, Mallorca Stoner Vol. 1 is a welcome means through which to begin exploring both these acts more and others with whom they might share local stages. One will await Vol. 2 with interest.

Bisonte on Facebook

Milana on Instagram

Discos Macarras website

 

Leeds Point, Mother of Eternity

Leeds Point Mother of Eternity

New York’s Leeds Point seem on a doomed course with their Mother of Eternity EP on the opener “High Strangeness,” but they shake it up late with some cowbell boogie, and “The Summoning” further deepens the plot with layered in acoustics and a more lush melody as the trio builds out from their basic guitar-bass-drums configuration. Likewise, the shorter “Long Way Down” is a more straight-ahead ’70s rocker, and the closing title-track meets its initial prog rock melody first with driving riffs and later with more angularity and harsher barking vocals… before bringing it all back around at the end. With Eternal Black out of commission, NYC needs someone to champion traditional doom, but that’s not who these Long Islanders are. Their sound — set forth on their debut full-length some seven years ago; their most recent prior outing was 2019’s Equinox Blues (review here) — is more purposefully diverse. If they’re championing anything here, it’s their individuality. And that suits them.

Leeds Point on Facebook

Leeds Point on Bandcamp

 

Ocultum, Residue

ocultum residue

The second full-length from Santiago, Chile’s Ocultum, Residue, was first issued by the band independently in 2019. Picked up for a vinyl release through Interstellar Smoke Records, the four-song/49-minute long-player (bong)rips into filthy-fuzz doom and scabbed-over sludge, the lumbering coming in one longform nod after another in “The Acid Road” and “Residue” itself — which might be the most densely-toned inclusion of the bunch, but it hardly matters when the 16-minute “Ascending With the Fumes of the Dead” and the 12-minute “Reflections on Repulsiveness” and you’re either on board with Ocultum‘s periodically-deathly-always-fucked style by then or you’ve probably been so grossed out that you’ve gone and gotten yourself a job, decided you were never really so misanthropic to start with, and that what you thought was the inner scum of your existential makeup was just you needing to have lunch or take a shower or some shit. Meanwhile, Ocultum are over here shrooming up and worshiping decay. Different league entirely. Even the quietest moments of Residue are heavy. There’s just no escape from it.

Ocultum on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

 

Cruel Curses, Fables, Folklore & Other Assorted Fever Dreams

Cruel Curses Fables Folklore and Other Assorted Fever Dreams

If Tampa, Florida, heavy progressive rockers Cruel Curses decided to approach their third full-length, Fables, Folklore & Other Assorted Fever Dreams, with the goal of writing the entire album as a single-song, well, they did that. Though cumbersome in its title, “Fables, Folklore & Other Assorted Fever Dreams” is 36 minutes of linear-charted fare, twisting through parts both hard-hitting and airy, acoustic and electric and probably what could’ve been different songs if otherwise broken up in some places. Does it really matter? Nah. The finished piece, which is a departure from the four-piece and an impressive achievement in itself, makes its point with prog’s affection for funk propelling as many of its parts as metal’s more aggressive shred. Yet, Fables, Folklore & Other Assorted Fever Dreams does not merely trade between quiet and loud parts so much as fluidly bring the listener along its ebbs and flows, and though not without its element of self-indulgence, the album earns its swagger.

Cruel Curses on Facebook

Cruel Curses on Bandcamp

 

Green Hog Band, Devil’s Luck

green hog devils luck

Give me the raw swing, echoing gurgles and unabashed fuzz of Green Hog‘s “Luck of the Devil” any day of the week. The Brooklynite trio released their Dogs From Hell full-length last year and follow it with the also-sung-entirely-in-Russian sophomore outing, not without its sense of ambience in “Dark Territory” and “Desert King,” the biker-in-space instrumental capper “Ric Moto,” but perhaps even more about the impact of its crashes than the spaces being created. Whatever definition of the word you might want to apply, Devil’s Luck is fucking heavy. And grim, to boot. Still, one could only call “Long Smoke” some kind of stoner rock, even if it is an especially crusty take thereupon, and the novelty of gurgled-out vocals sung in another language, complemented by samples in classic sludgy fashion, isn’t to be understated. If my man’s voice can hold out for a whole set, these guys must put on a killer show.

Green Hog on Facebook

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

 

Adliga, Vobrazy

Adliga Vobrazy

There are a few different plot threads one might follow along as Vobrazy weaves through its six component tracks, but the debut full-length from Belarusian five-piece bring their varied fare together around a central idea of progressive, metallic doom. Sometimes that manifests as a post-metallic chug as one hears in “Apošni raz,” which leads off, or it can be the growls and black-metal-squibblies-gone-airy of the early going in “Žyvy.” Such shifting arrangements in vocals (in Belarusian) between guitarist Uladzimir Burylau and singer Kate Sidelova add to the unpredictable nature of the band, but there’s no question that melody wins the day, and given how Vobrazy plays out across its 41 minutes, one gets the feeling that the extremity of “Naščadkam” and the more-patient-before-they-hit-the-payoff closer “Bol na sercy” do not coexist by happenstance. The band — completed by guitarist Ignat Pomazkov, bassist Roman Petrashkevich and drummer Artem Voronko — are not light on ambition, aesthetically-speaking, but I like the fact that I have zero guess what their next record will sound like.

Adliga on Facebook

Adliga on Bandcamp

 

Buffalo Tombs, Two

Buffalo Tombs Two

While not barebones by any means, with solos aplenty and variety in their tempos readily established between the first two cuts “Slow Wisdom Coming” and “Hot Girl Summer,” there’s still something about Buffalo Tombs‘ aptly-titled second long-player, Two, that comes across as wholly unpretentious, not trying to overstate its own argument or draw the audience away from the riffs and grooves central to its purpose. Wholesome, if not always humble. The six-songer is done in under half an hour, so if you wanted to call it an EP, you could, but even as Eric Stuart brings in a bit of synth for “Dream Breather” and “The Beheading of John the Baptist” in its later percussion-meet-drift-out finish, the Denver instrumentalists maintain a straightforward underpinning, with Stuart‘s guitar/keys/bass met with Joshua Lafferty‘s basslines and Patrick Haga‘s drumming in easily-digested-but-not-earth-shattering fashion, the low end hitting a particular note of righteousness in rolling out “Al Khidr” without being too showy in doing so. I’d be interested to hear them explore their psychedelic side further, but there’s plenty of vibe here in the meantime.

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Buffalo Tombs on Bandcamp

 

BroodMother, The Third Eye

BroodMother The Third Eye

Though understated in the fullness of its production, BroodMother‘s The Third Eye EP leaves little doubt as to where the Worcester, UK, five-piece are coming from after having issued their first album, Sin, Myth, Power, in 2019. Jay Clark, who produced that outing, drums on and mixed this one, and its four songs readily serve as a sampler for an audience to be introduced to the band’s take on heavy rock and roll. “Spiritual Shakedown” and “Killing for Company” are midtempo riffers, with the latter touching slightly on Acrimony-style hookmaking and chug, while “(The Ballad of) Anti-Matter Man” gets trippy in its intro and shuffles into an apex in its second half before finishing mellow, and closer “The Trick of the Journey” hints toward ’90s crunch but marries it to a bluesier stretch of lead solo guitar. Still, it’s rock and roll, however you want to cut it — straight-up but not lifeless — and BroodMother proudly carry its banner.

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BroodMother on Bandcamp

 

King Bastard, It Came From the Void

King Bastard - It Came From The Void art HD

From the almost-if-not-entirely-instrumental unfolding of “From Hell to Horizon” and “Kelper-452B” to the black metal vocals on “Psychosis (In a Vacuum),” the harsh sax of “Black Hole Viscera” and the drone-laden 10-minute finisher “Succumb to the Void,” the debut full-length from Stony Brook, New York’s King Bastard, It Came From the Void, seems wilfully bent toward disorienting those who’d dare to take it on. The breadth and spaciousness of its “From Hell to Horizon” isn’t to be understated — neither the percussion chill in its midsection — but the weight that corresponds there and in “Kelper-452B” and through “Bury the Survivors/Ashes to Ashes,” with its Aliens samples and dug-in-its-own-head proggy chaos is no less a factor in making the album as striking a first impression as it is. Jammy, heavy psych, black metal, doom, sludge — you could call King Bastard any of these and not be wrong, but it’s in how fluidly they unite them that their potential shines through.

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King Bastard links

 

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Abstracción Premiere “Asinergia” Video from Self-Titled Debut out May 29

Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

asinergia_abstraccion_promo

With their seven members spread throughout three different cities in Spain, flute-laden progressive psych rockers Abstracción seem to be out to prove that something doesn’t necessarily have to be still or staid to be peaceful. Their self-titled debut was originally set to issue on April 3 but has been pushed to May 29 owing to the inevitable manufacturing delays, and it’s only understandable that, however serene a song like “Asinergia” — the visualizer/video for which is premiering below — might come across, they’re getting somewhat restless. There’s only so much sitting-on-hands one can do while waiting for something to happen.

I don’t mind admitting “Asinergia” is my first exposure to Abstracción, who put the vocals of Catalina Requena at the forefront of their melodicism, carrying across a human presence amid what would feel like willfully nature-minded surroundings, accordingly organic in their production style. Casual swirls of guitar and keys, the abstraccion self-titledflute and backing percussion all add to the fluidity of the track as a whole, while Requena‘s voice brings a folkish element that calls to mind the early interplay between folk and prog stylistically, as, say, British folk grew more complex at the same time heavy rock was looking to express something more mature as well. Abstracción are in an in-between place when it comes to style, but they skillfully draw from one side or another as need be in “Asinergia,” and — in a fashion that has me very much wanting to hear the rest of their self-titled — they turn an otherwise unassuming four-and-a-half-minute track into a mood-altering journey that finds cohesion from what could just as easily be opposing elements.

Such unity of purpose is especially noteworthy given that Abstracción is their first offering, but crazier things have certainly happened than a band coming out of the gate knowing what they want to sound like. Still, “Asinergia”‘s effect on mood is no less striking than the colors of the Tumulus Design cover art for the record, once again calling to mind the natural world, the world beyond and maybe even the eyes that we as human beings use to see both of them inside and outside of ourselves. For a band who thus far eschew the tradition of promotional photography — there are a couple in-studio shots on their social medias, but nothing of the lot of them; what even is a band that doesn’t cross their arms in front of a brick wall, I ask you (sarcastically)? — they have no trouble putting an image in the mind’s eye.

Preorder info for Abstracción and more follows, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Abstracción, “Asinergia” official video premiere

We continue to fight the elements that stand in the way to make the release of our debut a memorable event. And we’re getting closer to getting it!

Next week we will dive back into the abstract maelstrom to continue knowing its intricacies. This will be a raid that can be perceived through the sense of ear, and sight.

Official video of Asinergia, song belonging to the debut of Abstracción. Release Date: May 29, 2020.
Pre-order on Bandcamp: https://abstraccion.bandcamp.com

Music by Luis Monge, lyrics Catalina Requena and arrangement by Abstracción.
Recorded, produced and mixed by Pablo Bermejo at the studio 20.000 Leguas de Montilla (Córdoba).
Mastered by Ernesto Santana.

Video directed and designed by Tumulus Design: https://www.instagram.com/tumulusdesign

Abstracción are:
Catalina Requena: vocals
Luis Monge: electric guitar
José Gálvez: sitar, acoustic guitar and percussion
Pablo Bermejo: Hammond, Farfisa and Fender Rhodes
Pablo Abarca: concert flute
Rafa “Chico Jr.” Paredes: bass
Paco García: drums and percussion

Abstracción on Thee Facebooks

Abstracción on Instagram

Abstracción on Bandcamp

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