Posted in Whathaveyou on March 6th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Over the last several weeks, the inaugural Desertfest Oslo has piece-by-piece announced the remainder of the lineup for May 10 and 11, and the list is substantial. Wolves in the Throne Room, Weedpecker, Kadabra, Steak, Crippled Black Phoenix, Earth Tongue, Apostle of Solitude, Orsak:Oslo, Margarita Witch Cult, REZN, Bongzilla and Slomosa joined the bill one at a time, broadening the scope exponentially in terms of style from searing black metal thrust to sad post-goth to stoner rock of progressive and willfully unprogressive strains and outright ambience, older and newer bands, and geographical range. It’s kind of stunning how commonplace this standard has become for the Desertfest brand over the last decade-plus.
Tickets for each day are also on sale now — in case, what you want to see Acid King and not REZN? it’s okay, I’m not judging; I know people have lives and things to do — but it’s pretty clear looking at the full roster of who’ll play that Desertfest Oslo 2024 is all-in on the thing. And with Kadavar, Monolord, Crippled Black Phoenix and Eyehategod headlining, they’ll rely on a multifaceted draw from the top down through the entire lineup. This feels both like a festival brand reaching into new territory and new collaborations — which it is, absolutely — and a righteous start to what could become a staple of the Spring touring circuit. Do I really need to go on about Norway’s underground boom? Probably not when a hand-picked selection of those responsible are present below to remind you.
Bottom line here is I look forward to seeing how this unfolds even from a distance, but whatever Desertfest Oslo does in the longer term, this is a monster. Behold:
Finally the day splits are here!
As well as day splits we’ve also made single day tickets available from february 29th.
Friday: KADAVAR Monolord Wolves In The Throne Room Acid King Slomosa Weedpecker Håndgemeng Orsak:Oslo Kadabra Earth Tongue Bismarck Karavan Superlynx
Saturday: CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX Brant Bjork EYEHATEGOD REZN The Devil And The Almighty Blues Bongzilla Full Earth Margarita Witch Cult Steak Agabas Saint Karloff Apostle of Solitude Suncraft
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Last year, at what was my first time attending SonicBlast Fest in Âncora, Portugal, where it’s been held the last several years since moving from Moledo, I had a great, great time. Really. When I think every single day in multiple contexts about how I never seem to let myself enjoy anything — a perspective to which this blog stands as ready testament against, what with all the salivating and hyperbole — my time at SonicBlast is among the first counterpoints that comes to mind. I met new friends, I met old friends, I hung out with Dr. Space for like three days, and that dude’s the best. I stood on stage and watched Dozer, singing along and rocking out alongside friendly, welcoming faces. A rare moment overcoming insecurity. The place, the weather, the beach, the people are beautiful. And the music is very loud. For the rest of my life, I get to say I saw Ruff Majik supporting Elektrik Ram. For this I am deeply lucky.
The shape of my 2024 is such that when SonicBlast happens this year –Aug. 8-10, with the pre-show Aug. 7 set to feature Saint Karloff from Norway among others still TBA — I’ll be traveling with family elsewhere. That’s kind of a result of there only being so much summer between school years and my wife’s teaching semesters, so I’m rolling with it. I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to assume I’d be invited back to SonicBlast anyhow, but if the weekend comes and you don’t see me covering the likes of High on Fire, Margarita Witch Cult (who I think I might need to see), The Obsessed, Tons, Slift, and so on, it’s not because I didn’t have a good time there last year or wouldn’t be interested in watching Brant Bjork, Graveyard, Colour Haze and/or 1000mods (who ruled at Desertfest NYC and are maybe recording?), Truckfighters and probably four or five surprisingly hardcore-influenced acts on that huge stage, when in fact I very much would. Last year’s edition was unrealistically good. The photo pit was big enough to dance in. They even had chairs. I’d be back there in a second if I could. Maybe 2025 if I’m lucky and the world doesn’t end (again).
Poster by Branca — to whom I wasn’t brave enough to say hi last year, sorry — and the announcement from the festival’s socials follow in blue, as well as links and the High on Fire single in case you don’t want to just scroll down the site to find it in its own post:
We’re so proud to announce 13 more bands that’ll burn down SonicBlast Fest’s 12th edition!
Welcome the great @highonfireband, who will release the first single from their upcoming album today, @gayesuakyol @sliftrock @thenightbeats @theobsessedofficial @coffin_aus @jjuujjuu @margaritawitchcult @skemer_official @tonsofweed666 @cobrafuma and @silvershark_boogie 🔥🔥🔥
We’re also so glad to announce the first name to our warm-up party, at the 7th august, @saintkarloff ⚡️
Unfortunately Sunami won’t be able to make it to SonicBlast Fest 2024.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Pretty rad bill out of the gate for Rock Im Wald, which tops its thus-far bill with Danko Jones, who should be made an ambassador for Canada by now, as well as Sweden’s Graveyard, might-have-a-new-record-out-by-July UK stompers Orange Goblin, and the Brant Bjork Trio with its namesake on guitar and Mario Lalli on bass. Then you get into Planet of Zeus coming from Greece — maybe touring with Godsleep? — an appearance from The Devil and the Almighty Blues, which doesn’t happen all the time and you want to be there when it does, and the implied confirmation of summer European activity for High Desert Queen out of Texas, and it’s a win even before you get down to The Great Machine‘s madcap performance penchant, the upstarts Margarita Witch Cult, El Caco who released their first album in seven years in 2023, a partially-revamped Asomvel and Psychonaut‘s post-metallic texturing. It’s 13 bands. They’ve all got something going on.
The fest is set for July 25-27. Both SonicBlast and Hoflärm (in Portugal and Germany, respectively) are two weeks later, Aug. 8-10. Among the shared confirmations there are Brant Bjork Trio (who also announced a Spring run around the Desertfests and Sonic Whip) and Graveyard (for SonicBlast), so fair enough to expect tour announcements to come from them, and I’ll add Planet of Zeus and Margarita Witch Cult to that with an asterisk for ‘likely’ since of course I never actually know anything about anything.
There will be more to come, of course — it’s a three-dayer — and I’ll do my best to keep an eye out, but already there’s a lot to dig here. From socials:
We are delighted to present the first 13 bands for our Rock im Wald Festival 2024, taking place from July 25th to 27th. As always, we have once again given our best to offer you Rock’n Roll in its most beautiful facets. And there is more to come soon, of course. Finally, we aim to provide you with three festival days filled with musical surprises and highlights this year.
For those of you who are already convinced, you can now secure your tickets in our ticket shop, which can be found at the following link. https://rockimwald.de/ticket-shop/ Cheers & Peace Eure #RIW Crew
Line-Up so far: DANKO JONES | GRAVEYARD | ORANGE GOBLIN | BRANT BJORK TRIO | PLANET OF ZEUS | THE DEVIL & THE ALMIGHTY BLUES | THE GREAT MACHINE | PSYCHONAUT | EL CACO | ASOMVEL | GODSLEEP | HIGH DESERT QUEEN | MARGARITA WITCH CULT
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This is a good bill, and it just got better with these 11 acts added, but I’ll note I’m particularly glad to see Elephant Tree playing, never mind headlining, after the London-based melodic heavy rockers had to cancel their show plans for this Fall owing to frontman Jack Townley‘s ongoing medical complications from an accident earlier this year. Warms the heart and makes me hope they can keep momentum on their side; they’re about due for a new record and I get a little sad thinking it might be 2025 before one arrives, though certainly extenuating circumstances apply.
Gurt, always mad. Dunes, making a new record. Dead Witches, nasty. Margarita Witch Cult, put out a strong record this year, seem to be turning heads. Dystopian Future Movies, no, I’m still not over War of the Ether (review here) from late last year, and if the worst thing that happens is you see this list of bands and check any of them or any of the others below out — Hang the Bastard, Bodach, Black Orchids, Godless Suns — then that’s a win in my mind. A rigorous and often applied standard, that.
Info for the three-dayer follows here. I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it or not, but if you wanted a hard-immersion in the UK underground, well, here’s the poster:
Masters of the Riff festival is back for its third year, running from Friday 1st March to Sunday 3rd March.
Taking place at Oslo, Hackney, Masters of the Riff III is a celebration of some of the finest riff merchants from the Doom, Stoner and Sludge scene.
This year’s event is set to be even more exciting than ever as we welcome the magnificent ELEPHANT TREE as one of the three headline acts set to grace the Oslo stage. With a supporting cast featuring DEAD WITCHES, HANG THE BASTARD, GRAVE LINES, DYSTOPIAN FUTURE MOVIES, GURT, DUNES, MARGARITA WITCH CULT, BODACH, BLACK ORCHIDS and GODLESS SUNS, plus more to be announced across the weekend.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 16th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
UK three-piece Margarita Witch Cult — who issued their self-titled debut (review here) in April through Heavy Psych Sounds and who rightly stress that they hail from Birmingham — are set to head out on their first round of European touring in support of that album next month. They’ll make stops at StonerKras in Italy and Stick and Stone in Austria, hitting points between in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria. It’s an eight-day run and they give themselves one day off, so yeah, you could say they’re making the most of it.
And fair enough. That record was a garden of vintage delights, raw punk and ’70s groove managing to come across neither as hackneyed nor underthought. It’s on my best debuts of 2023 list (yes I already have one, it’s just not in order yet and hopefully still growing), and I expect it will remain there when the year’s over.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking to announce MARGARITA WITCH CULT European Summer Tour 2023!!!
We are stoked to announce the MARGARITA WITCH CULT Euro Summer Tour 2023 !!
Our Birmingham doom-riffers MARGARITA WITCH CULT will smash Europe this Summer including the mighties Stick & Stone Fest and StonerKras Fest + many other shows !!
*** MARGARITA WITCH CULT *** EUROPEAN SUMMER TOUR 2023 FR 14/07/2023 IT VILLAFRANCA DI VERONA-FINE DI MONDO SA 15/07/2023 IT TRIESTE-STONERKRAS FEST SU 16/07/2023 SLO LJUBLJANA-CHANNEL ZERO MO 17/07/2023 IT ZERO BRANCO-ALTROQUANDO WE 19/07/2023 SK BRATISLAVA-KONCERTY NA GARAŽACH TH 20/07/2023 HU BUDAPEST-RIFF KLUB FR 21/07/2023 AT SALZBURG-ROCKHOUSE SA 22/07/2023 AT NIKOLSDORF-STICK & STONE FESTIVAL
BIOGRAPHY
Hailing from the home of metal, Birmingham UK, Margarita Witch Cult are the Sabbath City’s newest heirs to the throne of darkness- serving a merciless concoction of stoned sludge, demented thrash, and proto-metal weirdness. Having released their lo-fi cassette demo ‘Witchfinder’ in early 2022 to international acclaim- being booked for Desertfest London and signing with HPS- the self-proclaimed “disciples of the riff” having been tearing up venues across the UK and leaving audiences aghast in their wake-sinking their claws into all who dare offer up their ears and eyes to their unholy din.
MARGARITA WITCH CULT self-titled debut album was released April 2023 via Heavy Psych Sounds !!!
MARGARITA WITCH CULT is: Scott Vincent (vocals & guitar) George Casual (drums) Jim Thing (bass)
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s a pretty distractible morning apparently, but I’m going to try to finish this post before my head meanders to one of the other three I’ve currently got going at the same time. So it goes when you’ve spent the week not answering emails while doing a Quarterly Review; always a bit of catchup. I’m happy to note, though, that this news only came in yesterday, so I’m not nearly as behind on it as, well, whatever will probably go up on Monday, for example.
StonerKras Fest 2023 has announced its complete lineup for this July in Trieste, Italy. The final bands added are Heavy Psych Sounds upstarts Margarita Witch Cult from the UK — their self-titled debut came out in April — as well as the evidently prolific and weird Long Hours and Mystic Majesty, whose first record was released in March. They join the ranks of 1000mods and Mondo Generator, who will headline the all-dayer set for July 15, and cap a bill that’s already grown more diverse from the first edition’s lineup last year. ‘Plant a seed and work your ass off to watch it grow,’ I think is the saying about music festivals.
As much fun as it is to pretend one might be able to abscond to the Italian northeast and catch this gig, it doesn’t seem likely I’ll make it out, but it’s been cool to keep up here and I’ll look forward to how StonerKras continues to develop in 2024. In the meantime, if you are in a position geographically or financially to get there, tickets are on sale now.
StonerKras is a psychedelic music gathering based on stoner, doom and heavy psych music. The festival has an international footprint but with the aim of enhancing the local heavy scene (both Slovenian and Italian) while attracting spectators from the region but also from neighboring countries. Youth aggregation and cultural exchange accompanied by good music.
!!! TICKETS PRESALE STARTS TODAY !!! FIRST 100 EARLY BIRD TICKETS ONLY 20€ (+presale tax)
*** MARGARITA WITCH CULT *** – new proto metal-doom UK sensation –
Hailing from the home of metal, Birmingham UK, Margarita Witch Cult are the Sabbath City’s newest heirs to the throne of darkness serving a merciless concoction of stoned sludge, demented thrash, and proto-metal weirdness.
Their self-titled debut album was released via Heavy Psych Sounds in April 2023.
*** LONG HOURS *** – Elvis performing on acid.. –
Long hours has been coined as being lofi, nowave, synth punk croon-core, gothdoowop with a relentless live show inspired by frontmen such as David Yow (the Jesus lizard) JG Thirlwell (Foetus) Alan Vega (suicide). Long hours has performed up & down the east coast of Australia countless times and has toured Japan twice. He has also released 27 albums in the space of 3 years.
Imagine an Elvis performance… on acid!
*** MYSTIC MAJESTY *** – hard robot rock from Italy –
Born in 2018 from the ashes of different projects, inspired by the stoner scene with psychedelic influences and without forgetting their roots, Mystic Majesty is an explosive and powerful mix of sound and lyrics defined Hard Robot Rock. Their will is to bring the listener out of space/time to make us feel one with the universe.
1000MODS (stoner rock, GR – exclusive show for north-east Italy/Slovenia/Croatia in summer 2023) MONDO GENERATOR (stoner punk, USA) MARGARITA WITCH CULT (proto metal/doom, UK) TSO (alternative rock, ITA) JEGULJA (instrumental stoner metal, SLO) LONG HOURS (lo-fi/punk/acid folk, AUS) MYSTIC MAJESTY (hard robot rock, ITA)
Today is the last Quarterly Review day until July. I don’t know yet what shape that QR will take, whether 50 records, 100 records, 700 records or somewhere between. Depends on how the ongoing deluge of releases ebbs and flows as we head into summer. But if you count this and the other part of this Spring’s Quarterly Review, you get a total as of today of 120 releases covered, and considering the prior QR was just in January, and that one was another 100 records that’s a pretty insane amount of stuff for it being May 12.
And that’s basically the moral of the story, again. It’s a ton of stuff to encounter, hear, maybe live with if you’re lucky. I won’t make it a grand thing (I still have too much writing to do), but I hope you’ve found something cool in all this, and if not yet among the 210 albums thus far QR’ed in 2023, then maybe today’s your day as we hit the end of this round.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Spotlights, Alchemy for the Dead
There are not many boxes that Spotlights‘ fourth album and third for Ipecac, Alchemy for the Dead, leaves unticked. Thematic, musically expansive, finely crafted in its melody and with particular attention to mood as when the bassline joins then leaves behind the acoustic guitar as a preface to the big finish in the closing title-track, it is a consuming, ultra-modern take on heavy rock from the trio of bassist/guitarist/vocalist Sarah Quintero, guitarist/synthesist/vocalist Mario Quintero and drummer Chris Enriquez, substantial even before you get to the fact that its 47 minutes push LP format limits, it speaks emotionally in rhythm as much as the thoughtful vocal interplay on “Sunset Burial,” growing intense around a central chug of guitar for one of the album’s more brazenly metal stretches. Elsewhere, standout moments abound, whether it’s the channel-panned snare buried in the second verse of “Algorithmic,” the proggy moodshifting in “Repeat the Silence,” Spotlights becoming what Deftones wanted to be in the heavygaze of “The Alchemist,” drift meeting head-on crash in “Ballad in the Mirror,” which also rolls out a fuzz-tone riff of statistically significant proportion then finds room for a swell of airy guitar before dissipating into the next mellow verse circa 2:30, more crashes to come. With the synth/sax/big-riff-and-shout interplay at the center in “False Gods,” Alchemy for the Dead would seem to mark the arrival at where Spotlights have been heading all along: their own version of a heavy of everything.
The mellotron in the title-track, surrounded by dense bass, fleet runs of scorch-prone guitar and resoundingly jazzy drumming, emphasizes the point: Kanaan are a band elevating heavy rock to their level. The Norwegian trio aren’t shy when it comes to riffing out, as they demonstrate in the Hedwig Mollestad collaboration on “Amazon” and intermittently throughout Downpour‘s closing pair of “Solaris Pt. 1” and “Solaris Pt. 2,” each topping seven minutes. But neither are they limited to a singular nodding expression. While still sounding young and energetic in a way that just can’t be imitated, Downpour boogies almost immediately on opener “Black Time Fuzz,” and is often heavy and grooving like a straightforward heavy rock record, but as that tambourine in “Orbit” shows, Kanaan are ready at a moment’s notice with a flourish of guitar, some key or synth element, or something else to distinguish their pieces and in the soundscaping of “Psunspot” (sic) and the scope they claim throughout side B, they remain one of Europe’s brightest hopes for a future in progressive heavy, sounding freer in their atmospheres and in the build of “Solaris Pt. 1” than they did even on 2021’s Earthbound (review here). There’s a reason just about every festival in Europe wants them to play. The proverbial band-on-fire.
Zen and the Art of Tone, perhaps unsurprisingly, sets itself to the task in its title as Anchorage, Alaska-based Doom Lab mastermind Leo Scheben guides the listener through mostly short-ish instrumental pieces based around guitar, sometimes ultra-fuzzed with a programmed beat behind as on “Whole-Tones on Tail” or the extra-raw 1:24 of “Motörvamp” or the subsequent “Sabotaging the Sabocracy,” a bit clearer at the outset with “X’d Out,” but the drive toward meditation is clear and allows for both the slower, more doomed reaches of closer “Traveling Through the Cosmos at Beyond the Speed of Light” and the playful elder-funk of “The Plot-Twist” or the bounce of “Lydia Ann.” All told, the 12 songs and 36 minutes of experimentation on offer will resonate with some more than others, but Scheben sounds like he’s starting a conversation here with “Mondays Suck it Big-Time” and “Psychic Vampires” and the real question is whether anyone will answer. Sometimes a project comes along that’s just on its own wavelength, finding its own place in the pastiche, and that’s where Doom Lab have been at since the outset, prolific as well as dedicated to exploration. I don’t know toward what it’s all leading, but not knowing is part of enjoying hearing it, and maybe that’s the zen of the whole thing to start with.
Barely a year after making their full-length debut on Apollon with Beyond the Strange Horizon (review here), Bergen, Norway, traditionalists dig deeper into the proto-style roots of doom on their four-song second LP, Skur 14. Named after a rehearsal space complex (presumably where they rehearse) in their hometown, the album runs shortest-to-longest in bringing together Scandi-folk-rooted classic prog and heavy styles, but by the time they get to “Tusser Og Troll,” the 14:47 finale, one is less thinking about the past than the future in terms of sound. Acoustic guitar begins “The Road” ahead of the straight-ahead riff and post-punk vocals, while “Cursed and Cast Out” is both speedier in the verse and more open in the hook before shifting into rolls on the snare and more theatrical shove that, much to the band’s credit, they handle fluidly without sounding either ironically over the top or like goobers in any way other than how they want. With the seven-minute “Candles,” the procession is slower and more vintage in form, reminding a bit of Demon Head but following its own anthemic chorus into an extended solo section before side B is dedicated solely to the spread of “Tusser Og Troll,” which ends with an organic-feeling jam laced with effects. A strong second outing on a quick turnaround that shows clear progression — there’s nothing more to be asked of Skur 14.
Sure, the third album from Stuttgart drone-psych-jammers Shem — titled III, lest there be any doubt — starts off with its 16-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Paragate,” but given the context, it’s the second cut on side A, “Lamentum” (2:50), that most piqued my interest. It’s a fading in snippet of a progression, the drums steady, volume swells behind a strumming guitar, some vocal chanting as it moves through. Given the entrancing spaciousness of “Restlicht” (7:34) and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” (11:55), I didn’t expect much more than an interlude, and maybe it’s not intended to be, but that shorter piece does a lot in separating the long cut on III‘s first half from the two on the second, so serves a vital purpose. And in that, it represents III well, since even in “Restlicht,” there seems to be a plan unfolding, even if improvisation is a part of that. Bookending, “Paragate” is mellow when it isn’t congealing nebular gasses to make new stars, and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” finds itself in a wormhole wash of guitar while the ride cymbal tries to hold structural integrity together, the whole engine ending up kissing itself goodbye as it shifts from this dimension to one that, let’s be honest, is probably more exciting.
You ever hear a band’s album and think maybe it worked out better than the band thought it would when they started making it? Like maybe they surprised even themselves? That was Melt Motif‘s 2022 debut, A White Horse Will Take You Home (review here). The heavy industrial outfit founded by Kenneth Rasmus Greve and legit-doesn’t-need-a-last-name vocalist Rakel are joined by Brazilian producer Joe Irente for the curiously punctuated 10-track follow-up, Particles. Death Objective, and though they don’t have the element of surprise on their side this time out (for themselves or listeners), Melt Motif as a trio do expand on what the first album accomplished, bringing ideas from electronic dance music, sultry post-rock and hard-landing beats — plus some particularly striking moments of weighted guitar — to bear such that “Warrior” and “I’m Gone” are assured in not needing to explode with aggression and even with all its ticks and pops, the penultimate “Abyss” is more about atmosphere than impact. “Fever” creates a wash and lurches slow and heavy following on from “Broken Floor” at the beginning, but in “Full Moon” it’s a techno party and “Never_Again” feels like experimentalist hip-hop, so if you thought the book was closed aesthetically on the project, the sophomore outing assures it very much is not. So much the better.
As it begins with the telltale strut and maddening catchiness of “Diabolical Influence,” one might be tempted to think Birmingham’s Margarita Witch Cult are playing in Uncle Acid‘s sinister sandbox, but the two-minute fuzz-chug-punker burst of “Death Lurks at Every Turn” corrects this notion, and the rest of the UK trio’s nine-song/31-minute self-titled Heavy Psych Sounds affirms there’s more going on. “The Witchfinder Comes” is a classic Sabbath-worship roller with multi-tracked vocals — guitarist Scott Vincent is the only one listed on vocals, so might just be layering; Jim Thing is on bass and George Casual on drums — and “Be My Witch” is a lesson in how to make thickened fuzz move, but it’s the pointedly Motörheaded “Annihilation” (1:42) that most stands out, even with the likewise speedy shuffle of “Theme From Cyclops” (1:34) right behind it, the faster takeoff welcome to offset the midtempo home-base of the trio’s grooves. As to that, “Lord of the Flies” nestles itself into a comfortable tempo and resolves in a nod that it seems to have spent much of its five minutes building toward, a last run through the main riff more celebration than repetition ahead of the instrumental “Aradia,” which like “The Witchfinder Comes” featured on the band’s 2022 Witchfinder EP (review here), and the previously-issued single “Sacrifice,” which closes. Bottom line is they’ve got a righteous sound and their first album shows they know how to wield it. The smoke-filled sky is the limit from here. Hail next-gen stoner rock.
Trading between charred rasps and cleaner declarative singing, Indianapolis-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Chris Latta (The Skyspeakers, Lavaborne, ex-Spirit Division) guides the mostly-solo-project — Tucker Thomasson drums and plays lead guitar; not minimizing anyone’s contributions — Cloud of Souls through a tumultuous journey along the line between ancient-of-days doom and black metal, strident at times like Bathory, sometimes all-out ripping as on the earlier-Enslaved-style “Hiding from Human Eyes,” and growing deathlier on “Where Failure Dies” ahead of the closing title-track, which threatens to break out the razors at any moment but stays civilized in its doomly roll for the duration. Whatever else Latta accomplishes in this or any of his other outfits from here on out, he’ll always be able to say he put out a record with a centerpiece called “Time for Slaughter,” which isn’t nothing as regards artist achievements — the song taps pre-NWOBHM doom until it turns infernal in the middle — and while there’s clearly an aspect of self-awareness in what he’s doing, the exploration and the songwriting are put first such that A Fate Decided resounds with a love for the metal that birthed it while finding its own path to hopefully keep walking across future releases.
When I tell you Hibernaut has three former members of Salt Lake City psych-blues rockers Dwellers in the lineup, just go ahead and put that expectation to the side for a minute. With guitarist Dave Jones stepping to the front as vocalist, Joey Toscano (also ex-Iota) moving from guitar/vocals to lead guitar, Zach Hatsis (also ex-SubRosa) on drums and Josh Dupree on bass, their full-length debut/first release of any sort, Ingress — recorded of course by Andy Patterson — has more in common with High on Fire and dirt-coated raw thrash than anything so lush, and at 11 songs and 74 minutes long, that will toward the unrestrained is multifaceted as well. There’s rock swagger to be had in “Magog” or the spinning riff of “Summoner,” but “Mines” has more Celtic Frost than Kyuss to it, and that isn’t a complaint. The material varies — at over an hour long, it fucking better — but whether it’s the double-kick rampage of “Kaleidoscope” or the furious takedown of “Lantern Eyed,” Hibernaut revel in an overarching nastiness of riff such that you might just end up scrunching your face without thinking about it. There’s room for a couple nods, in “Projection,” or “Aeons Entombed,” but the prevailing impression is meaner while remaining atmospheric. I like that I have no guess what they’ll do after this. I don’t like having to check autocorrect every time it replaces their name with ‘Hibernate.’ If only I had some gnasher heavy metal to help me vent that frustration. Oh wait.
For their Black Nothingness EP, Berlin-based DIY aficionados Grin — bassist Sabine Oberg and drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg — stripped their sound back to its most essential parts. Unlike 2022’s Phantom Knocks (review here) long-player, there’s no soundscaping, no guitar, no Hammond. There is low end. There are drums. There are growls and shouts and there are six tracks and none of them reaches three minutes in length. This ferocious display of efficiency counterintuitively underscores the breadth of Grin‘s approach, since as one band they feel unrestricted in terms of arrangements, and Black Nothingness — on their own The Lasting Dose Records imprint and recorded by Jan — benefits from the barebones construction in terms of sheer impact as heard on the rolling “Gatekeeper” before each ending measure of “Midnight Blue Sorrow” seems to leave a bruise, or even the opening semi-title-track “Nothingness” staking a claim on hardcore gangshout backing vocals for use pretty much anytime. “Talons” is less in-your-face with its violence, but the threat remains fervent and subsequent closer “Deathbringer” perfectly conveys that sense of exhaustion you have from when you’ve been so angry for so long that actually you’re just kind of sad about it. All this and more in about 12 minutes out of your busy and intensely frustrating life makes Black Nothingness one of 2023’s best short releases. Now rage, damnit.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Some expected names in this first announcement from Desertfest Belgium 2023 in Antwerp — Yawning Man, King Buffalo, Truckfighters who seem to be making the rounds all year, etc. — but plenty of unexpected too, with aCarlton Melton returning to Europe, Philadelphia’s Heavy Temple apparently traveling abroad for the first time (new album?), Sourvein returning to road work, REZN heading over to support their killer new record, BlackWater HolyLight, Howling Giant — maybe also their first time in Europe? — Duel getting back over and so on.
As ever, I’m curious to see which of these acts will be on tour, and which with each other, but for now Desertfest Antwerp 2023 looks like a banger in the making. Early-bird tickets sold out in like hours when they were put on sale in February — two months before this first unveiling of band names, mind you — and one expects the sale on weekend tickets to follow suit. I’m not much for the big name on the poster personally, but I recognize I’m in a minority pretty much of myself in that, and from there on I don’t see a clunker in the bunch. Call it a win.
Of course, Desertfest Belgium also helms the Ghent edition. I’m not sure if that will be earlier or later — my guess would be earlier, but maybe the Fall fests spill over to November this year; could happen, wouldn’t be terrible if it did — but for today there’s plenty to dig here as posted by the festival:
The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived! We’re beyond stoked to announce the first round of names for Desertfest Antwerp!
Confirmed for Desertfest Antwerp 2023 are Cult of Luna, Truckfighters, MANTAR, King Buffalo, The Vintage Caravan, Year of no light, Nebula, Yawning Man, Dopelord, The Atomic Bitchwax, DUEL, Siena Root, Blackwater Holylight, Howling Giant, SOURVEIN, Carlton Melton, Heavy Temple, REZN, Margarita Witch Cult.
No doubt, it is going to be another epic version of Desertfest Anywerp!
