Posted in Whathaveyou on February 13th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I suppose Clutch touring isn’t much of a surprise — it’s what they do — but it is still news. The long-tenured Maryland lords o’ the thing will be out out starting June 6 running down the Eastern Seaboard and hitting into the Midwest along the way. It’s probably not the longest stretch of touring Clutch will undertake throughout 2025, but the fact is you never really know and maybe it is. Either way, it’s been a minute and a half since the last time I saw the band, so yes, I’ve got my maps app on and I’m checking how far away Bensalem, PA, is from my house. Totally doable, as it turns out.
Not that one would expect Clutch to make it a challenge to see them. Short of stopping by your house as they pass by, they’ve done just about everything in their power to draw an audience, and they have the loyal fanbase to prove it. I didn’t know site-specific ticket preorders were a thing, but all of the dates listed below have passed now, so I think if you want tickets you can probably just get them from the band’s page. I wouldn’t want to accidentally give Spotify a cut or whatever.
I bet these shows’ll be good. You know why? Clutch are playing.
Here’s particulars:
We are announcing Canadian and US dates for the Full Ahead Flank Tour in June of 2025 with special guests Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown and Nate Bergman.
Tickets are on sale Friday, Feb. 7th at 10 AM local time.
Check the tour tab atclutchmerch.comfor local pre-sales or try any of these:
Spotify Pre Sale: Wednesday Feb 5 @ 2pm ET Password: FULLAHEAD25
Knotfest.com Pre Sale: Wednesday Feb 5 @ 2pm ET Password: KFCLUTCH2025
Blabbermouth- Wednesday Feb 5 @ 2pm ET Password: BBMCLUTCH2025
All pre sales end 10pm local time on Thursday Feb 6 Come and join us on any of these dates!
6-Jun Montreal, QC MTELUS 7-Jun Pickering, ON The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort 8-Jun Ottawa, ON Bronson Centre Theatre 10-Jun Moncton, NB Molson Canadian Centre at Casino New Brunswick 12-Jun Lynn, MA Lynn Memorial Auditorium 13-Jun Portland, ME State Theatre 14-Jun Bensalem, PA Parx Casino 15-Jun Albany, NY Empire Live 17-Jun Morgantown, WV Ruby Amphitheater 19-Jun Sault Ste Marie, MI Kewadin Casino Indoor Concert 20-Jun Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater 21-Jun Elizabeth, IN Caesars Event Center at Caesars Southern Indiana 22-Jun Pelham, TN The Caverns 24-Jun Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall 25-Jun Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues 27-Jun Columbus, OH KEMBA Live! 28-Jun Greensboro, NC Piedmont Hall
CLUTCH: Neil Fallon – Vocals/Guitar Tim Sult – Guitar Dan Maines – Bass Jean-Paul Gaster – Drums/Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Set to take place at The Ottobar in Baltimore once again at the tail end of April — 4/20 season, if you’re not the type who gets stoned to do the dishes — the all-dayer Grim Reefer Fest has unveiled its 2025 billing, with Chicago psychedelic texturalists Rezn and D.C. industrialized post-punkers Vosh at the top of the bill, with Temple of the Fuzz Witch coming from Michigan as they continue to spread the word of their own well-received 2024 outing, Apotheosis (review here), Dallas rockers Temptress and the house band Haze Mage taking part, as well as heavy noise rockers Consumer Culture, and Sorge, who are well due for a follow-up to their impressive 2020 debut EP (review here).
Rounding out are Richmond duo Thunderchief, Pennsylvania melo-cult classicists SpellBook and Baltimore’s own Knub, who I’ve never heard of before now but who are killer, opening. Their logo is noise and their sound is too, but throw in some poppier melody and turns out I have some homework to do. I put Knub‘s tracks from their 2023 split with Brain Cave below, in case you also want to dig in. There’s a Black Lung set there too from 2024’s Grim Reefer Fest just for the hell of it — as the fest notes, there’s more on the YouTube Channel — and while I’m dropping dates and links, I’ll note that I was fortunate enough to attend Grim Reefer Fest in 2023 (review here), and if you’re on the fence, I’ll confirm it’s a blast and well run. Maybe that helps? There’s food and such and it’s low-key; an easygoing vibe in which to be variably pummeled by volume.
The announcement from the fest follows here. Keep an eye as some things may change, but it looks like a good time to me as it is. And the poster, as you can see, continues a years-long streak of righteousness from Grim Reefer Fest as well. From socials:
Grim Reefer Fest 2025
We are excited to announce the return of Grim Reefer Fest! Join us once again at the legendary Ottobar in Baltimore, MD for a full day of heavy music, dank vibes, and high spirits! Join us on Saturday April 19th, 2025 as we celebrate the High Holidays with a stacked lineup from start to finish with some of the best bands the scene has to offer! Featuring the heavy psych sounds of Rezn, the mesmerizing Vosh, the heavy hitting Temple of the Fuzz Witch and many more (10 bands total)!
This is the 6th year of Grim Reefer Fest and one of our most ambitious lineups yet! Weâre proud of what weâre accomplishing as a DIY grassroots festival. The genres and sounds for this yearâs bands range from heavy psych to stoner doom to industrial darkwave to noise rock with so much more in between! Thereâs so many interpretations of what heavy music is, and to us, they all fit in a proper 4/20 celebration! We strive to grow our event more and more each year and to become a premiere heavy music regional event on the east coast!
The full list of performers at this yearâs fest includes:
This was the era that really got me hooked on Clutch. Pure Rock Fury. At the same time, it’s never been my favorite record from the Maryland kings of heavy groove, and though I might reach for it now more than I did around 2001 when it was released — I like to think I’m open-minded, but it’s just distractibility — I don’t think it’ll ever in my mind top the likes of 2004’s Blast Tyrant (discussed here), 2005’s Robot Hive/Exodus (reissue review here), 1995’s landmark self-titled (discussed here) or 2013’s charged realignment in Earth Rocker (review here). In the pantheon of Clutch records — hallowed halls and all that; marble statues in wall alcoves of bassist Dan Maines looking basically the same over the last 30 years; soft lighting — it occupies a difficult place, between the smoother production captured in part at Electric Lady Studios in New York for 1998’s The Elephant Riders and featuring the beginnings in “Careful With that Mic” and “Drink to the Dead” of the production collaboration with Machine — who recorded those songs while the bulk of the album was helmed by Larry “Uncle Punchy” Packer, by then a familiar presence behind the board for Clutch, as well as Jason Corsaro — that would come to fruition with such stunning results just a couple years later.
Such a convenient narrative leaves out the 1999 self-release Jam Room (also produced by Packer, with the band), which is like a spiritual prequel to Pure Rock Fury in its performance-in-studio focus, the sidestep the band made between The Elephant Riders and Pure Rock Fury from Columbia to Atlantic — they’d end up on DRT Records before starting their own label, Weathermaker Music, late in the aughts — and the hard touring Clutch were doing at the time, having already amassed the reputation as a live act they continue to reinforce to this day. But it’s a narrative, and the progression in the sound of guitarist Tim Sult, the aforementioned Dan Maines on bass, drummer Jean-Paul Gaster and vocalist/sometimes-guitarist Neil Fallon can be heard across four full-lengths before Pure Rock Fury, including Jam Room, bringing the band to a point of attack the likes of which they hadn’t before known and wouldn’t again.
It’s a rawer sound, and no, I’m not just saying that for the scorched-earth feedback that starts “American Sleep” at the album’s outset, though for sure that’s part of it. The tinny snare sound on the title-track, and the throaty voice telling the story of “Red Horse Rainbow” — one of two on which Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, etc.) guests, the other being the funky extravaganza “Brazenhead” — or indeed, the way “Brazenhead” starts with 9:30 Club crowd noise and Fallon talking about how they’re recording before the studio version of the track launches. It’s a stark, rug-pull of a moment and it’s supposed to be, but you wouldn’t say “Brazenhead” as it exists on the record wants for vitality, so in addition to standing out, it also works. “Immortal,” “The Great Outdoors!,” “Open Up the Border,” and “Smoke Banshee” are just a few of the hooks littered about the proceedings, and around those one finds the impressive rhythmic turns and semi-rapped spoken delivery of “Careful With That Mic,” the hook and jam in “Frankenstein,’ and the quintessential summary that is “Drink to the Dead,” not only for this record but accounting for aspects of the self-titled and The Elephant Riders as well — Clutch exploring new ideas and old in their songwriting, having clearly figured out more than a few somethings about their sound over the course of their first decade.
In addition to Weinrich, Leslie West of Mountain sits in for “Immortal” and Dan Kerzwyck and Joe Selby of Sixty Watt Shaman, take part in “Sinkemlow” and “Frankenstein,” respectively, and as it was recorded in three separate studios between Silver Spring, Maryland, and Weehawken and Dover, New Jersey — plus what was grabbed from the stage — it isn’t shocking that Pure Rock Fury bounces between the different ideas and moods being presented, stories being told, and so on. This is something Clutch would hammer out in their next collaboration with Machine, which resulted in Blast Tyrant — arguably as close as they’ve come to a concept record; at very least it’s the most characterful — but for catching that moment of stylistic evolution as it was happening, as Clutch figured out they didn’t need to be metal to be heavy, and that being heavy could also mean being metal, punk, funk or blues, Pure Rock Fury feigns simplicity and offers depth. Even next to Jam Room, it has a sound of its own, and while Clutch have stayed loyal to many of the core aspects of what they do — not a backhanded critique, but a cause to celebrate — they’ve also never put out the same record twice. That those two things could be true at the same time, over a period of 30-plus years, puts simple math to how rare a band Clutch are.
And for that alone, Pure Rock Fury is worth engaging, and I’ll note again that this was the era when I became a fan of the band, even if that happened via their onstage performance and persona more than the record — not their fault they’re impossibly good live and not dicks in interviews — but where some Clutch records hit immediately, “book, saddle and go” as the fellow says, Pure Rock Fury demanded more time to sink in, and in the years since it finally did, I’ve come to appreciate it all the more. In the arc of Clutch‘s evolution, it harnesses the impression of a moment that could never come again, prefaces the righteousness that would soon manifest in their maturity, and still carries over some of the stripped-down, hardcore-born push of their youngest days.
I don’t usually like to close out a week with the same band twice within the span of a year — I did the self-titled back in September; just a couple months but technically a different year, in my defense — but some things just force their way in and this is the most honest to what I’ve had on this week that I could possibly be, so here we are. If you’d complain about more Clutch, I suspect you’ve probably stopped reading already anyhow.
The rest of everyone, thanks as always. I hope you enjoy what’s considered a classic in my home. I even have it on tape somewhere around here…
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Man, I gotta answer some email. Fuck it, maybe tomorrow. Again.
Email’s hard. I don’t like disappointing people. I don’t like being like, “Hey yeah your stuff sounds pretty cool but chances are I’m never gonna write about it or if I do it’s not gonna be like 10,000 words and you’re gonna be bummed out.” I’m glad ANYONE gives enough of a shit about what I do to reach out and send music. I am GRATEFUL for people who do, and some of the best stuff I’ve ever heard in my life has come to me in exactly that way, but I just can’t keep up. I have the autorespond, and that lessens the brunt, but people still follow-up, and then I’m like a cave troll hiding from my own inbox, which feels weird and shitty. Like, why would answering email be too much labor since it involves very little actual labor? Why is it easier for me to come here and spend 15 minutes writing a very long paragraph about how email is hard than it is to dedicate that same time to actually answering the email in question? I don’t know. Because I’m a bad person? Pretty sure that’s it.
I’m doing my best, paltry as that is. The Pecan was home from school until yesterday, so that I managed three reviews on a holiday week is pretty solid. Next Monday I’m ending the year-end poll, so if you haven’t gotten that done yet, get on it. I’ve also got streams for Noisepicker and Kaiser slated, and I wanna review either Dunes or Heavy Trip, depending on my mood, but I may or may not get there. There will be a pickup in news too as people get back to work. I’ve been doing three posts a day, not trying to dig out filler. It’s been less quantity but I do feel like especially the reviews got more of a look this week than they otherwise might when there’s a glut of news or videos or premieres or whatever, so that’s a tradeoff that’s not terrible, however satisfying it sometimes is to bang out four or five posts in a day.
I’ve also written a couple bios in the last few weeks. I took on two projects for Relapse, both of which were for records that haven’t yet been announced, so I’m waiting on those to come back around — actually I’m waiting on approval for the second of those bios, come to think of it — which I assume will happen over the first half of this month. Which means, among other things, even more email. Which means I should bang out what I can now so that when I inevitably fall behind, I won’t already be behind falling further.
On the other hand…
It’s been like five days since I last played Tears of the Kingdom and I hope you’ll understand when I say I’m having a low-key existential crisis about it. Who even am I if I’m not using a rocket-shield to take out elemental gleeok heads in the sky above Eventide Island? I’ve been playing Final Fantasy VIII instead, so I guess the answer to that is I’m me in high school. Maybe I should’ve closed the week with Primus.
So, I just pasted the Forum/Radio/Merch links — the FRM links, in my mind — below, as I do every week. I know the Radio stream only works like half the time. I know the FB group isn’t crazy super-active — I actually like that about it — and I know there isn’t any Obelisk merch at the Made in Brooklyn store right now.
All of that being the case, please know that I appreciate your support for The Obelisk and its strange, ongoing existence. I probably should’ve stopped doing this years ago, but I’m in it now and I kind of want to see where it all ends up, where I end up. Thanks for coming along. If you haven’t joined the FB group, it’s nice, you should. And when the Radio works, it’s rad. And I’m glad to support Dave MIBK regardless. So yeah, the links still apply. Have a great and safe weekend, and thanks again for reading.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 30th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Should it strike you as an ambitious undertaking for Darsombra to assemble a full visual album around their pandemic-themed, finding-freedom-in-lockdown 2LP, Dumesday Book (review here), well, it is. But the truth is that the Baltimorean experimentalist two-piece of guitarist/noisemaker Brian Daniloski and keyboardist/sparse-vocalist/video-artist Ann Everton are already well on their way. “Everything is Canceled,” which is premiering below, is the fifth clip they’ve unveiled around the 10-track record, even if “Call the Doctor” (premiered here) and “Nightgarden” predate the release itself and were for those songs as singles.
They DIY it with Everton directing, always manage to come up with something fun and/or visually interesting, and by now seem pretty comfortable applying their abstract approach in a multimedia context. Plus they did one in 2020 for their last album, Transmission (review here), so they’ve got practice at it as well. It’s Darsombra, folks. They may sound as weird as the day is long, but you can trust that whatever shenanigans they’re getting up to has genuine heart behind it because they pour everything they have into everything they do and they never fail to express a feeling, mood, or atmosphere or evoke a thought, even if it’s by putting Daniloski in a lizard mask and running the footage of him noodle-shredding backwards in one of the various domestic and foreign castles that serve as a visual backdrop.
“Everything is Canceled” (the filming wasn’t) was mostly captured on July 13, which was about a month after Darsombra‘s 2024 European tour ended — the 2025 dates with Stinking Lizaveta are below, with TBDs; help if you can. The casting call for it read in-part as follows:
“…all you need to do is to pretend to be a scholar who is driven to temporary hysterics/distraction/mania/religious fervor/anger/annoyance/strong-emotion-that-is-unpleasant by looking at/through a book on a lectern in a great hall setting. Dress is âscholarlyâ, especially medieval scholarly, whatever that means. Bonus points if you have your own graduation/scholar’s robe! Think many-sheets-of-paper-flying-through-the-air pandemonium. (Double bonus points if you have many sheets of paper with writing on them to throw around and recycle afterwards.)…”
You can see in the video, they did manage to get folks out for it, paper and robes and all, and they’d have had a good deal of recycling to do. Fair enough. In addition to that motif, Daniloski‘s delightfully over-the-top solo and the chants of vocals less often featured in Darsombra‘s work up to now, watch out near the end as there’s a quote that appears on screen. It reads like Chaucer, but I couldn’t trace it directly. In any case, it becomes one more part of the absurdity overarching and whatever the source, the fact that you don’t get to know feels like part of the artistic statement.
Darsombra have a southbound January run along the Atlantic Seaboard coming up in addition to the aforementioned European stint in Spring with Stinking Lizaveta — again, help out if you can; no, it’s not surprising they’d have two tours announced and the year hasn’t started yet — and all of those dates follow the “Everything is Canceled” premiere below and some words from the band that includes the reveal of the visual-album plan they’ll work on over the course of this year. Keep an eye out for casting calls.
And please enjoy:
Darsombra, “Everything is Canceled” video premiere
Darsombra on “Everything is Canceled”:
“Everything Is Canceled” is a more unusual offering for us, both in sound and vision — but also in how it came together. As part of our 2023 album, Dumesday Book, the song’s sound is enveloped in the energy of the pandemic. Ann wrote the lyrics and their melody while turning the compost in mid-March 2020, shortly after quarantine was announced, and Brian poured out the guitar solo in an inspired moment after days of having nothing to do but jam — the raw recording is featured on the track, digital glitches, a sneeze, and all. You’d think these were pretty ideal conditions for songwriting, but as we all remember, any superficial gift of time in 2020 was accompanied by a profound sense of grief for a lost reality and longing for the “before times”. Everything was canceled.
The storyboard to the video came to Ann in a dream in 2023 — one of those really vivid dreams that keeps you living in its world even after you wake up. She realized her subconscious vision by shooting on location in castles both near (in Baltimore) and far (in the EU and UK). The video also serves as a scene from a larger work, which is a feature film to our 75-minute album “Dumesday Book”. The film is about 60% finished; we expect to have it out in 2025 or 2026.
DARSOMBRA WINTOUR 2025 JAN 4 – Philadelphia PA @ Johnny Brendaâs w/ Stinking Lizaveta, Eye Flys JAN 8 – Durham NC @ Rubies w/ Dazzling Durham Dancers Burlesque, Berry Bueno Brigade JAN 9 – Wilmington NC @ Reggieâs w/ Street Clones, ARKN JAN 10 – Jacksonville FL @ The Walrus w/ Severed+Said, Ian Chase, Ducats JAN 11 – Miami FL @ The Club w/ Erratix, Dania Sixto, Robert King, DJ Nuke Em All JAN 16 – Orlando FL @ Lil Indies w/ Bryan Raymond, Dougie Flesh and the Slashers JAN 17 – Savannah GA @ Wormhole w/ Bathsh3ba JAN 18 – Greenville NC @ Alley Cat Records w/ Paper Skulls, Bitter Inc., Faith Kelly, Caswyn Moon, HYPER-VCR
DARSOMBRA / STINKING LIZAVETA EUROPE TOUR May 25 – Berlin GERMANY @ Desertfest Berlin May 29 – Wroclaw POLAND @ Kalambur May 30 – Krakow POLAND May 31 – Kosice SLOVAKIA @ Collosseum June 3 – Vienna AUSTRIA @ Arena June 5 – Nuremberg GERMANY @ Kunstverein Hintere Cramergasse e.V. June 6 – Potsdam GERMANY @ Archive June 7 – Dresden GERMANY @ VerĂ€nderbar June 11 – Brno CZECH REPUBLIC @ Kabinet Muz June 12 – Berlin GERMANY @ Schokoladen June 13 – Brandenburg GERMANY June 20 – Herzberg GERMANY
More dates TBA – Please get in touch if you can help.
Posted in Reviews on December 11th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Wow. This is a pretty good day. I mean, I knew that coming into it — I’m the one slating the reviews — but looking up there at the names in the header, that’s a pretty killer assemblage. Maybe I’m making it easy for myself and loading up the QR with stuff I like and want to write about. Fine. Sometimes I need to remind myself that’s the point of this project in the first place.
Hope you’re having an awesome week. I am.
Quarterly Review #21-30
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Thou, Umbilical
Even knowing that the creation of a sense of overwhelm is on purpose and is part of the artistry of what Thou do, Thou are overwhelming. The stated purpose behind Umbilical is an embrace of their collective inner hardcore kid. Fine. Slow down hardcore and you pretty much get sludge metal one way or the other and Thou‘s take on it is undeniably vicious and has a character that is its own. Songs like “I Feel Nothing When You Cry” and “The Promise” envision dark futures from a bleak present, and the poetry from which the lyrics get their shape is as despondent and cynical as one could ever ask, waiting to be dug into and interpreted by the listener. Let’s be honest. I have always had a hard time buying into the hype on Thou. I’ve seen them live and enjoyed it and you can’t hear them on record and say they aren’t good at what they do, but their kind of extremity isn’t what I’m reaching for most days when I’m trying to not be in the exact hopeless mindset the band are aiming for. Umbilical isn’t the record to change my mind and it doesn’t need to be. It’s precisely what it’s going for. Caustic.
The fourth full-length from Boston’s Cortez sets a tone with opener “Gimme Danger (On My Stereo)” (premiered here) for straight-ahead, tightly-composed, uptempo heavy rock, and sure enough that would put Thieves and Charlatans — recorded by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios — in line with Cortez‘s work to-date. What unfolds from the seven-minute “Leaders of Nobody” onward is a statement of expanded boundaries in what Cortez‘s sound can encompass. The organ-laced jamitude of “Levels” or the doom rock largesse of “Liminal Spaces” that doesn’t clash with the prior swing of “Stove Up” mostly because the band know how to write songs; across eight songs and 51 minutes, the five-piece of vocalist Matt Harrington, guitarists Scott O’Dowd and Alasdair Swan, bassist Jay Furlo and sitting-in drummer Alexei Rodriguez (plus a couple other guests from Boston’s heavy underground) reaffirm their level of craft, unite disparate material through performance and present a more varied and progressive take than they’ve ever had. They’re past 25 years at this point and still growing in sound. They may be underrated forever, but that’s a special band.
Writing a catchy song is not easy. Writing a song so catchy it’s still catchy even though you don’t speak the language is the provenance of the likes of Uffe Lorenzen. The founding frontman of in-the-ether-for-now Copenhagen heavy/garage psych pioneers Baby Woodrose digs into more straightforward fare on the second full-length from his new trio Lydsyn, putting a long-established Stooges influence to good use in “Hejremanden” after establishing at the outset that “Musik Er Nummer 1” (‘music is number one’) and before the subsequent slowdown into harmony blues with “UFO.” “NĂžrrebro” has what would seem to be intentional cool-neighborhood strut, and those seeking more of a garage-type energy might find it in “Du Vil Have Mere” or “OprĂ„b” earlier on, and closer “Den DĂžde By” has a scorch that feels loyal to Baby Woodrose‘s style of psych, but whatever ties there are to Lorenzen‘s contributions over the last 20-plus years, Lydsyn stand out for the resultant quality of songwriting and for having their own dynamic building on Lorenzen‘s solo work and post-Baby Woodrose arc.
The popular wisdom has had it for a few years now that retroism is out. Hearing Baltimorean power trio Magick Potion vibe their way into swaying ’70s-style heavy blues on “Empress,” smoothly avoiding the trap of sounding like Graveyard and spacing out more over the dramatic first two minutes of “Wizard” and the proto-doomly rhythmic jabs that follow. Guitarist/vocalist/organist Dresden Boulden, bassist/vocalist Triston Grove and drummer Jason Geezus Kendall capture a sound that’s as fresh as it is familiar, and while there’s no question that the aesthetic behind the big-swing “Never Change” and the drawling, sunshine-stoned “Pagan” is rooted in the ’68-’74 “comedown era” — as their label, RidingEasy Records has put it in the past — classic heavy rock has become a genre unto itself over the last 25-plus years, and Magick Potion present a strong, next-generation take on the style that’s brash without being willfully ridiculous and that has the chops to back up its sonic callouts. The potential for growth is significant, as it would be with any band starting out with as much chemistry as they have, but don’t take that as a backhanded way of saying the self-titled is somehow lacking. To be sure, they nail it.
Oase is the second full-length from Berlin’s Weite behind 2023’s Assemblage (review here), also on Stickman, and it’s their first with keyboardist Fabien deMenou in the lineup with bassist Ingwer Boysen (Delving), guitarists Michael Risberg (Delving, Elder) and Ben Lubin (Lawns), and drummer Nick DiSalvo (Delving, Elder), and it unfurls across as pointedly atmospheric 53 minutes, honed from classic progressive rock but by the time they get to “(einschlafphase)” expanded into a cosmic, almost new age drone. Longer pieces like “Roter Traum” (10:55), “Eigengrau” (12:41) or even the opening “Versteinert” (9:36) offer impact as well as mood, maybe even a little boogie, “Woodbury Hollow” is more pastoral but no less affecting. The same goes for “Time Will Paint Another Picture,” which seems to emphasize modernity in the clarity of its production even amid vintage influences. Capping with the journey-to-freakout “The Slow Wave,” Oase pushes the scope of Weite‘s sound farther out while hitting harder than their first record, adding to the arrangements, and embracing new ideas. Unless you have a moral aversion to prog for some reason, there’s no angle from which this one doesn’t make itself a must-hear.
Big on tone and melody in a way that feels inspired by the modern sphere of heavy — thinking that Hum record, Elephant Tree, Magnetic Eye-type stuff — Florida’s Orbiter set forth across vast reaches in Distorted Folklore, a song like “Lightning Miles” growing more expansive even as it follows a stoner-bouncing drum pattern. Layering is a big factor, but it doesn’t feel like trickery or the band trying to sound like anything or anyone in particular so much as they’re trying to serve their songs — Jonathan Nunez (ex-Torche, etc.) produced; plenty of room in the mix for however big Orbiter want to get — as they shift from the rush that typified stretches of their 2019 debut, Southern Failures, to a generally more lumbering approach. The slowdown suits them here, though fast or slow, the procession of their work is as much about breadth as impact. Whatever direction they take as they move into their second decade, that foundation is crucial.
As regards genre: “dark arts?” Taking into account the 44 minutes of Vlimmer‘s fourth LP, which is post-industrial as much as it’s post-punk, with plenty of goth, some metal, some doom, some dance music, and so on factored in, there’s not a lot else that might encompass the divergent intentions of “Endpuzzle” or “Ăberrennen” as the Berlin solo-project of Alexander Donat harnesses ethereal urbanity in the brooding-till-it-bursts “Sinkopf” or the manic pulses under the vocal longing of closer “Fadenverlust.” To Donat‘s credit, from the depth of the setup given by longest/opening track (immediate points) “2025” to the goth-coated keyboard throb in “MondlĂ€ufer,” Bodenhex never goes anywhere it isn’t meant to go, and unto the finest details of its mix and arrangements, Vlimmer‘s work exudes expressive purpose. It is a record that has been hammered out over a period of time to be what it is, and that has lost none of the immediacy that likely birthed it in that process.
Indianapolis four-piece Moon Goons cut an immediately individual impression on their third album, Lady of Many Faces. The album, which often presents itself as a chaotic mash of ideas, is in fact not that thing. The band is well in control, just able and/or wanting to do more with their sound than most. They are also mindfully, pointedly weird. If you ever believed space rock could have been invented in an alternate reality 1990s and run through filters of lysergism and Devin Townsend-style progressive metal, you might take the time now to book the tattoo of the cover of Lady of Many Faces you’re about to want. Shenanigans abound in the eight songs, if I haven’t made that clear, and even the nod of “Doom Tomb Giant” feels like a freakout given the treatment put on by Moon Goons, but the thing about the album is that as frenetic as the four-piece of lead vocalist/guitarist Corey Standifer, keyboardist/vocalist Brooke Rice, bassist Devin Kearns and drummer Jacob Kozlowski get on their way to the doped epic finisher title-track, the danger of it coming apart is a well constructed, skillfully executed illusion. And what a show it is.
Although it opens up with some element of foreboding by transposing the progression of AC/DC‘s “Hells Bells” onto its own purposes in heavy Canadiana rock, and it gets a bit shouty/sludgy in the lyrical crescendo of “What a Dummy,” which seems to be about getting pulled over on a DUI, or the later “The Castle of White Lake,” much of Familiars‘ Easy Does It lives up to its name. Far from inactive, the band are never in any particular rush, and while a piece like “Golden Season,” with its singer-songwriter vocal, acoustic guitar and backing string sounds, carries a sense of melancholy — certainly more than the mellow groover swing and highlight bass lumber of “Gustin Grove,” say — the band never lay it on so thick as to disrupt their own momentum more than they want to. Working as a five-piece with pedal steel, piano and other keys alongside the core guitar, bass and drums, Easy Does It finds a balance of accessibility and deeper-engaging fare combined with twists of the unexpected.
Progressive stoner psych rockers The FĂ«rtility CĂŒlt unveil their fifth album, A Song of Anger, awash in otherworldly soul music vibes, sax and fuzz and roll in conjunction with carefully arranged harmonies and melodic and rhythmic turns. There’s a lot of heavy prog around — I don’t even know how many times I’ve used the word today and frankly I’m scared to check — and admittedly part of that is how open that designation can feel, but The FĂ«rtility CĂŒlt seem to take an especially fervent delight in their slow, molten, flowing chicanery on “The Duel” and elsewhere, and the abiding sense is that part of it is a joke, but part of everything is a joke and also the universe is out there and we should go are you ready? A Song of Anger is billed as a prequel, and perhaps “The Curse of the Atreides” gives some thematic hint as well, but whether you’ve been with them all along or this is the first you’ve heard, the 12-minute closing title-track is its own world. If you think you’re ready — and good on you for that — the dive is waiting for your immersion.
Posted in Reviews on December 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to the Quarterly Review. Oh, you were here last time? Me too. All door prizes will be mailed to winning parties upon completion of, uh, everything, I guess?
Anywhazzle, the good news is this week is gonna have 50 releases covered between now — the 10 below — and the final batch of 10 this Friday. I’m trying to sneak in a bunch of stuff ahead of year-end coverage, yes, but let the urgency of my doing so stand as testament to the quality of the music contained in this particular Quarterly Review. If I didn’t feel strongly about it, surely I’d find some other way to spend my time.
That said, let’s not waste time. You know the drill, I know the drill. Just don’t be surprised when some of the stuff you see here, today, tomorrow, and throughout the week, ends up in the Best of 2024 when the time comes. I have no idea what just yet, but for sure some of it.
We go.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome
Some bands write songs for emotional catharsis. Some do it to make a political statement. Gnome‘s songs feel specifically — and expertly — crafted to engage an audience, and their third full-length, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, underscores the point. Hooks like “Old Soul” and “Duke of Disgrace” offer a self-effacing charm, where elsewhere the Antwerp trio burn through hot-shit riffing and impact-minded slam metal with a quirk that, if you’ve caught wind of the likes of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol or Howling Giant in recent years, should fit nicely among them while finding its own sonic niche in being able to, say, throw a long sax solo on second cut “The Ogre” or veer into death growls for the title line of “Rotten Tongue” and others. They make ‘party riff metal’ sound much easier to manifest than it probably is, and the reason their reputation precedes them at this point goes right back to the songwriting. They hit hard, they get in, get out, it’s efficient when it wants to be but can still throw a curve with the stop and pivot in “Rotten Tongue,” running a line between punk and stoner, rock and metal, your face and the floor. It might actually be too enjoyable for some, but the funk they bring here is infectious. They make the riffs dance, and everything goes from there.
The lone studio track “Breathe” serves as the reasoning behind Hermano‘s first new release since 2007’s …Into the Exam Room (discussed here), and actually predates that still-latest long-player by some years. Does it matter? Yeah, sort of. As regards John Garcia‘s post-Kyuss career, Hermano both got fleshed out more than most (thinking bands like Unida and Slo Burn, even Vista Chino, that didn’t get to release three full-lengths in their time), and still seemed to fade out when there was so much potential ahead of them. If “Breathe” doesn’t argue in favor of this band giving it the proverbial “one more go,” perhaps the live version of “Brother Bjork” (maybe the same one featured on 2005’s Live at W2?) and a trio of cuts captured at Hellfest in 2016 should do the trick nicely. They’re on fire through “Senor Moreno’s Plan,” “Love” and “Manager’s Special,” with Garcia, Dandy Brown, David Angstrom, Chris Leathers and Mike Callahan treating Clisson to a reminder of why they’re the kind of band who might get to build an entire EP around a leftover studio track — because that studio track, and the band more broadly, righteously kick their own kind of ass. What would a new album be like?
Almost on a per-song basis, Stahv — the mostly-solo brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Solomon Arye Rosenschein, here collaborating on production with John Getze of Ako-Lite Records — skewers and melds genres to create something new from their gooey remnants. On the opening title-track, maybe that’s a post-industrial Phil Collins set to dreamtime keyboard and backed by fuzzy drone. On “Lunar Haze,” it’s all goth ’80s keyboard handclaps until the chorus melody shines through the fog machine like The Beatles circa ’64. Yeah that’s right. And on “Bossa Supernova,” you bet your ass it’s bossa nova. “The Calling” reveals a rocker’s soul, where “Plainview” earlier on has a swing that might draw from The Birthday Party at its root (it also might not) but has its own sleek vibe just the same with a far-back, lo-fi buzz that somehow makes the melody sound better. “Aaskew” (sic) takes a hard-funkier stance musically but its outsider perspective in the lyrics is similar. The 1960s come back around in the later for “Circuit Crash” — it would have to be a song about the future — and “Leaving Light” seems to make fun of/celebrate (it can be both) that moment in the ’80s when everything became tropical. There’s worlds here waiting for ears adventurous enough to hear them.
I mean, look. The central question you really have to ask yourself is how mellow do you want to get? Do you think you can handle 12 minutes of “Transmigration?” Do you think you can be present in yourself through that cool-as-fuck, ultra-smooth psychedelic twist Space Shepherds pull off, barely three minutes into the the beginning of this seven-track, 71-minute pacifier to quiet the bad voices in your (definitely not my) brain. What’s up with that keyboard shuffle in “Celestial Rose” later on? I don’t know, but it rules. And when they blow it out in “Got Caught Dreaming?” Yeah, hell yeah, wake up! “Free Return” is a 15-minute drifter jam that gets funky in the back half (a phrase I’d like on a shirt) and you don’t wanna miss it! At the risk of spoiling it, I’ll tell you that the title-track, which closes, is absolutely the payoff it’s all asking for. If you’ve got the time to sit with it, and you can just sort of go where it’s going, Cycler is a trip begging to be taken.
It is all very big. All very grand, sweeping and poised musically, very modern and progressive and such — and immediately it has something if that’s what you’re looking for, which is super-doper, thanks — but if you dig into King Botfly‘s vocals, there’s a vulnerability there as well that adds an intimacy to all that sweep and plunges down the depths of the spacious mix’s low end. And I’m not knocking that part of it either. The Portsmouth, UK-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist George Bell, bassist Luke Andrew and drummer Darren Draper, take on a monumental task in terms of largesse, and they hit hard when they want to, but there’s dynamic in it too, and both has an edge and doesn’t seem to go anywhere it does without a reason, which is a hard balance to strike. They sound like a band who will and maybe already have learned from this and will use that knowledge to move forward in an ongoing creative pursuit. So yes, progressive. Also tectonically heavy. And with heart. I think you got it. They’ll be at Desertfest London next May, and they sound ready for it.
Are Last Band a band? They sure sound like one. Founded by guitarists Pat Paul and Matt LeGrow (the latter also of Admiral Browning) upwards of 15 years ago, when they were less of an actual band, the Maryland-based outfit offer 13 songs of heavy alternative rock on The Sacrament in Accidents, with some classic metal roots shining through amid the harmonies of “Saffire Alice” and a denser thrust in “Season of Outrage,” a rush in the penultimate “Forty-Four to the Floor,” and so on, where the title-track is more of an open sway and “Lidocaine” is duly placid, and while the production is by no means expansive, the band convey their songs with intent. Most cuts are in the three-to-four-minute range, but “Blown Out” dips into psychedelic-gaze wash as the longest at 5:32 offset by comparatively grounded, far-off Queens of the Stone Age-style vocalizing in the last minute, which is an effective culmination. The material has range and feels worked on, and while The Sacrament in Accidents sounds raw, it hones a reach that feels true to a songwriting methodology evolved over time.
Debuting earlier this decade as a solo-project of Andrew Cox, Seattle’s Dream Circuit have built out to a four-piece for with Pennies for Your Life, which throughout its six-track/36-minute run sets a contemplative emotionalist landscape. Now completed by Anthony Timm, Cody Albers and Ian Etheridge, the band are able to move from atmospheric stretches of classically-inspired-but-modern-sounding verses into heavier tonality on a song like “Rosy” with fluidity that seems to save its sweep for when it counts. The title-track dares some shouts, giving some hint of a metallic underpinning, but that still rests well in context next to the sitar sounds of “Let Go,” which opens at 4:10 into its own organ-laced crush, emotionally satisfying. Imagine a post-heavy rock that’s still pretty heavy, and a dynamic that stretches across microgenres, and maybe that will give some starting idea. The last two tracks argue for efficiency in craft, but wherever Dream Circuit go on this sophomore release, they take their own route to get there.
“All is Light” is the first single from New Paltz bliss-drone meditationalist solo outfit Okkoto since 2022’s stellar and affirming Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars (review here), and its seven minutes carry a similar scope to what one found on that album. To be clear, that’s a compliment. Interwoven threads of synth over methodical timekeeping drum sounds, wisps of airy guitar drawn together with other lead lines, keys or strings, create a flowing world around the vocals added by Michael Lutomski, also (formerly?) of heavy psych rockers It’s Not Night: It’s Space, the sole proprietor of the expanse. A lot of a given listener’s experience of Okkoto experience will depend on their own headspace, but if you have the time and attention — seven-plus minutes of active-but-not-too-active hearing recommended — but “All is Light” showcases the rare restorative aspects of Okkoto in a way that, if you can get to it, can make you believe, or at least escape for a little while.
Trappist Afterland, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden
Underscored with a earth-rooted folkish fragility in the voice of Adam Geoffrey Cole (also guitar, cittern, tanpura, oud, synth, xylophone and something called a ‘dulcitar’), Melbourne’s Trappist Afterland are comfortably adventurous on this 10th full-length, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden, which digs deeper into psych-drone on longest track “Cruciform/The Reincarnation of Kelly-Anne (Parts 1-3)” (7:55) while elsewhere digs into fare more Eastern-influenced-Western-traditional, largely based around guitar composition. With an assortment of collaborators coming and going, even this is enough for Cole and his seemingly itinerant company to create a sense of variety — the violin in centerpiece “Barefoot in Thistles” does a lot of work in that regard; ditto the squeezebox of opener “The Squall” — and while the arrangements don’t lack for flourish, the human expression is paramount, and the nine songs are serene unto the group vocal that caps in “You Are Evergreen,” which would seem to be placed to highlight its resonance, and reasonably so. As it’s Trappist Afterland‘s 10th album by their own count, it’s hardly a surprise they know what they’re about, but they do anyway.
For a band who went so far as to name themselves after a fuzz pedal, Spain’s Big Muff Brigade have more in common with traditional desert rock than the kind of tonal worship one might expect them to deliver. That landscape doesn’t account for their naming a song “Terre Haute,” seemingly after the town in Indiana — I’ve been there; not a desert — but fair enough for the shove of that track, which on Pi arrives just ahead of closer “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” which builds to a nonetheless-mellow payoff before its fadeout. Elsewhere, the seven-minute “Pierced by the Spear” drops Sleepy (and thus Sabbathian) references in the guitar ahead of creating a duly stonerly lumber before they even unfurl the first verse — a little more in keeping with the kind of riff celebration one might expect going in — but even there, the band maintain a thread of purposeful songcraft that can only continue to serve them as they move past this Argonauta-delivered debut and continued to grow. There is a notable sense of outreach here, though, and in writing to genre, Big Muff Brigade show both their love of what they do and a will to connect with likeminded audiences.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
When you think about, how could Darsombranot announce January touring? Wouldn’t it kind of be counter to the exploratory ethic of the band in the first place? They go everywhere, and the experience of going is part of the thing. It becomes part of their music, not just on the next record when Brian Daniloski and Ann Everton transpose their nomadic and freaked-out adventures onto expansive slabs of synth-soaked psych-drone. And at heart is always a willful experimentalism, so yeah, Darsombra heading out on Jan. 4 (my mother’s birthday) for a round of shows spread out across the Southeast, at a time when most people are home tucked under their snuggies or whathaveyou, makes a very particular kind of sense. If you let it. You should let it.
Of course, Everton and Daniloski are never too far from the road either way. A couple weeks ago, they wrapped a Fall tour that started at the end of August and covered both US coasts, points between and stops in Mexico. Earlier this year, they were in Europe, where I was fortunate enough to see them spreading joy in the Netherlands at Roadburn Festival (review here). They don’t really ever come off touring for more than a month or two, so don’t be surprised when more is announced for their 2025.
For now, though here’s where they’ll be. Note Stinking Lizaveta and Eye Flys on the Philly date. Nice one:
Now announcing Darsombra’s next tour! We’re heading south for the winter!
DARSOMBRA WINTOUR 2025 DATES
JAN 4 – Philadelphia PA @ Johnny Brendaâs w/ Stinking Lizaveta, Eye Flys JAN 8 – Durham NC @ Rubies JAN 9 – Wilmington NC @ Reggieâs JAN 10 – Jacksonville FL @ The Walrus w/ Severed+Said, Ian Chase, Ducats JAN 11 – Miami FL @ Miami Music Archive JAN 16 – Orlando FL @ Lil Indies w/ Bryan Raymond JAN 17 – Savannah GA @ Wormhole JAN 18 – Greenville NC @ Alley Cat Records
Along with all of the show announcements this week, I also want to let you know that we are booking a European tour for Darsombra and Stinking Lizaveta for May/June 2025 around several confirmed festival appearances (more details of that TBA). We are looking for contacts in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. Please get in touch if you can help! ROCK ON!!!
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
As per Halloween tradition, the venerable Maryland Doom Fest has posted its as-of-now-complete lineup for next year’s edition, and MDDF 2025 looks like a rager. Set to unfold its massive billing across June 19-22 in the riffy epicenter of Frederick, Maryland, the fest will highlight newcomers and established acts alike, as veteran outfits like The Skull and Apostle of Solitude, Hollow Leg, Curse the Son, and others make returning appearances and new incarnations like Legions of Doom, Ages and High Noon Kahuna feature familiar players in new contexts. Always cool to see bands like Thunderbird Divine and Spiral Grave doing the thing, and I’ll admit that my eyebrows went up when I saw Virginia’s Lord would be playing, as I’d yet to encounter word of a reunion from that most chaotic of sludge metal outfits. Sonolith and Demons My Friends and Sons of Arrakis and plenty of others will be traveling for it — Ogre! — so I would expect some tours to be forthcoming, and Sun Years, whose Nov. tour begins — wait for it — tomorrow, will feature.
It’s a family reunion you probably already have on your calendar, so don’t let me keep you from perusing the poster and getting stoked on what you find. From Crystal Spiders to B&O Railroad, there’s both a lot here and a lot here to like, and always more waiting to be discovered by those bold enough to show up to Cafe 611 early in the day. Check it out:
MARYLAND DOOM FEST 2025 – June 19-22, Frederick, MD
WE JOURNEY FROM THE HEAVY UNDERGROUND AND STAGES ACROSS THE WORLD TO ASSEMBLE IN FREDERICK, MARYLAND, FOR A JOYOUS CELEBRATION OF DOOM, GROOVE, AND THE ALMIGHTY RIFF.
JOIN US.
After such a magnificent 10th anniversary celebration of #4daysofdoom in 2024, which involved reorganizing and coordinating two stages in one venue (Cafe 611), we are beyond stoked to share The Maryland Doom Fest 2025 roster and marvelous promotional artwork.
The art design was created by one of our Maryland natives in the local music sceneâBen Proudman, the Frederick, MD-based master artist at Key City Tattoo (IG: @tattoosbyprdmn). Ben is also the drummer for the powerful bands Thonian Horde and Foehammer. Our very own Bill Kole (IG: @BillyDiablo) handled the color design and layouts again this year. He majestically brought this piece to life!
Explore the heavy musical talent of these bands and performers and be prepared for the nonstop riffage party in June! Talent beyond words!!! We canât wait for our doom community to congregate next summer!!!
Time slots, ticket sales, stage rosters, sponsors, and vendors will be presented by yearâs end. â đDooMđ
THE SKULL + PSYCHOTIC REACTION + APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE + LEGIONS OF DOOM + COMPRESSION + CRYSTAL SPIDERS + HIGH NOON KAHUNA + RED BEARD WALL + WITCHPIT + STRANGE HIGHWAYS + AGES + SUNYEARS + HOLLOW LEG
FUTURE PROJEKTOR + ALL YOUR SINS + SONOLITH + SPIRAL GRAVE + LORD + SABBATH WARLOCK + GALLOWGLAS + SONS OF ARRAKIS + CROP + HOVEL + OGRE + DREADSTAR + THUNDERBIRD DIVINE + WYNDRIDER + SUN MANTRA + KULVERA + STYGIAN CROWN + CURSE THE SON + BENTHIC REALM + HOLY ROLLER
BLOODSHOT + DUST PROPHET + VANISHING KIDS + BLOOD AND EARTH + FIGHT THE FOLD + DAYTRIPPER + B&O RAILROAD + BAILJACK + COKUS + NEW DAWNS FADE + COMA HOLE + FLORIST + ABEL BLOOD + SEASICK GLADIATOR + ENTIERRO + HEX ENGINE + DEMONS MY FRIENDS + ABOMINOG + VRSA + HIGH HORSE CALVARY
