Posted in Whathaveyou on April 24th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Fresh off their month-long stint in March and April supporting The Obsessed, Boston heavy soul pushers Gozu last week unveiled the thus-far confirmed European dates leading up to their appearance at Hellfest in France this June, and wouldn’t you know, before I even managed to get that posted here, they followed up this week by announcing they’ll join Baroness and Poison Ruin for the East Coast and Midwestern portion of their own summer tour before they go abroad. Hot damn, is the bottom line.
Gozu are no strangers to time on the road — they were last in Europe in 2022 by my count, but don’t quote me on that — but they do seem to have hit it with marked purpose since releasing their stunner of a fifth long-player, Remedy (review here) last Spring, and with no shortage of cause to do so in the intensity of that collection. So much the better for them to head over again, and of course, if you’re in a position to help them with the open slots listed below, I encourage you do do so both as part of a general ethic of supporting underground bands on the tour, and because it’s the kind of gig you’ll be proud to have been a part of afterward.
And as a word to the wise, they’re very likely not done. They’ve already been confirmed for Desertfest New York (Sept. 12-14) and Ripplefest Texas (Sept. 19-22), Louder Than Life in Kentucky (Sept. 26-29) and Aftershock in Sacramento, CA (Oct. 10-13). Don’t be surprised if and when a tour comes to cover at least part of the travel in that stretch. Did I already mention “hot damn?”
I may not get to a ton of shows these days, and I had pangs missing the NYC date that capped the tour they just ended, but it warms my heart to see these guys getting out and putting their music in people’s faces where it belongs.
The below is cobbled together from Heavy Psych Sounds (their Euro booker) on the PR wire, Gozu‘s social media, and Baroness‘ website:
Hey all, we are stoked to announce that our US heavy rockers GOZU will tour Europe this Summer !!!
STILL FEW OPEN SLOTS
BOOK YOUR SHOW – WRITE TO: info@heavypsychsounds.com
GOZU Euro Tour 2024 TU. 18.06.24 IT BOLOGNA FREAKOUT WE. 19.06.24 IT VERONA FINE DI MONDO TH. 20.06.24 AT KUFSTEIN KULTURFABRIK FR. 21.06.24 DE MÜNSTER RARE GUITAR SA. 22.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** SU. 23.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** MO. 24.06.24 ***OPEN SLOT*** TU. 25.06.24 FR CHAMBERY BRIN DE ZINC WE. 26.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** TH. 27.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT*** FR. 28.06.24 FR CLISSON HELLFEST
Something wicked this way comes!!
GOZU w/ BARONESS & POISON RUIN: May 31 | Portland, ME | State Theatre Jun 01 | Norwalk, CT | District Music Hall Jun 02 | Rochester, NY | Essex Jun 04 | Grand Rapids, MI | Pyramid Scheme Jun 05 | Indianapolis, IN | The Vogue Jun 07 | Madison, WI | Majestic Theatre Jun 08 | Palatine, IL | Durty Nellie’s Jun 09 | Chicago, IL | House of Blues Jun 10 | Des Moines, IA | Wooly’s
GOZU is: Marc Gaffney – guitar and vocals Joe Grotto – bass Doug Sherman – lead guitar Seth Botos – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 12th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
DVNE‘s Bandcamp updated overnight (or at least I saw the email this morning) to account for the new release, and the PR wire made it official just a bit ago that Voidkind, the third LP from the Edinburgh-based progressive/post-metallers, will be out April 19 on Metal Blade. Am I crazy or does that seem like a time crunch? Singles are starting to roll out for records that aren’t coming until June, and April 19 is just five weeks away.
Maybe they’re in a hurry, and with the coinciding tour also coming up quickly, fair enough. Keeping good company as they go, DVNE will embark on their Spring tour of the UK and Europe on April 23, just on the other side of Voidkind‘s release weekend. So perhaps that’s where some of the urgency comes from, or maybe that’s just me feeling the after-effects of listening to the new single “Plerõma,” with its winding riff and striking melodic turn. As with DVNE‘s 2021 long-player, Etemen Ænka (review here), the new album will be out on Metal Blade.
I’ll also note this isn’t the first time a band has cited the game Dark Souls (released 2011 for PS3/Xbox, remastered in 2018, with sequels in 2012 and 2016) as inspiration. I only mention it in case you, like me, just got out of an 835-hour relationship with Tears of the Kingdom and are looking for something on the rebound.
Meanwhile, preorders are up, the video’s at the bottom of the post and the album info and tour dates came from the PR wire.
Have at it:
DVNE: Scottish Progressive Post-Metal Collective To Release Voidkind April 19th On Metal Blade Records; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available
Scottish progressive post-metal act DVNE will release their new full-length, Voidkind, on April 19th via Metal Blade Records.
Formed in Edinburgh in 2013 by Frenchman Victor Vicart and native Scot Dudley Tait, progressive post-metal/sludge artisans DVNE have been building a powerful head of steam since their second album, 2021’s kaleidoscopically mesmerizing Etemen Ænka. Their first release for the legendary Metal Blade Records label, the LP was a concerted hike up the greasy pole for this enigmatic outfit, enabling DVNE to embark on UK and European headline tours and win spots at such discerning festivals as Hellfest, ArcTanGent, Desertfest, Damnation, and Resurrection. A live EP of reimagined album tunes, 2022’s Cycles Of Asphodel, kept up their profile while satiating demand from a rapidly mushrooming fanbase, and now in 2024, stunning third album Voidkind looks set to propel this expanded five-piece line-up (welcoming Maxime Keller on keyboards) to the top of their game.
Voidkind succeeds in finding new modes of expression for DVNE. The songs are more pointed, direct, and memorable, but the soundscape still has a radiant, evolving, hypnotic flow, the effect achieved with fewer layers of sonic ornamentation, consciously urging closer to DVNE’s incendiary live sound. And despite the addition of a full-time keyboardist, Vicart has no doubt about the album’s defining feature, “We wanted very distinct left and right guitars, and punchier drums and bass, which would transcribe better live. And the synths needed to be clearer; it’s very easy to put five guitars on each side, loads of different vocals and keys, but then you end up watching a band with an album you really like, and the songs sound nothing like the record. That’s what we wanted to avoid. As soon as the song starts, we want people to immediately recognise the riff.”
Conceptually, the lyrics continue the band’s overarching narrative – “following a religious group through the generation line from the beginning to its end” – while Voidkind’s extraordinary sleeve art depicts the main theme of this chapter, namely, “a godlike entity seducing and luring followers through their dreams and these followers’ multigenerational journey to reach their god dimension.”
One book that has been particularly impactful on the band’s thought process: 1989 novel Hyperion by Dan Simmonds. Notes Vicart, “It’s a very dark Sci-Fi book with loads of interesting parts, so you can go really prog with it, but you can also go more violent and animalistic.” Further inspirational touchstones include FromSoftware video game Dark Souls, and the Japanese manga series that inspired it, Berserk, “It’s a very cool, violent, psychedelic, medieval dark fantasy,” explains Vicart. “We wanted to have these kinds of visuals and aesthetics on this album, in this mix-up of things. Even without the vocals we wanted to evoke something, different places and spaces, and take the listener on a journey.”
Vicart further elaborates on the themes driving “Plerõma,” the first single from Voidkind, and its accompanying video, which was directed by Vicart, “Plerõma is a concept that has appeared in Gnosticism, Greek Philosophy, and Judeo-Christian religions. In Gnosticism, it is the spiritual universe as the abode of God and of the totality of the divine powers and emanations. It is also the ultimate source of transformation. ‘Plerõma’ is a key moment of the album narrative where religious followers are consuming the essence of their deity and reach a new sense of awakened existence. It is the first step in their transformation. Musically, it also represents something similar to us, as it is a song that is bringing new elements that we didn’t explore musically until that point.”
Voidkind was recorded between September and November 2023 in Edinburgh at Craigiehall Temple and Byres Farm in Scotland and features the stunning artwork of Felix Abel Klae.
The record will be released on CD and digital formats as well as 2xLP in the following color variants:
Burnt Skin Marble (US) White Black Marble (US) Dark Crimson Marbled (EU) 180g Black (EU) Grey Brown w/ Black Smoke (EU – ltd. 500) Crystal Clear (EU – ltd. 300) White/Black Dust (EU – ltd. 300) Clear w/ Black Smoke (EU – ltd. 666) Clear w/ Black, Red + Gold Splatter (EU – ltd.200) Clear w/ Black Smoke (Band Exclusive – ltd. 666 availableHERE) Clear w/ Black, Red + Gold Splatter (Band Exclusive – ltd. 200 availableHERE)
Voidkind Track Listing: 1. Summa Blasphemia 2. Eleonor 3. Reaching for Telo 4. Reliquar 5. Path of Dust 6. Sarmatae 7. Path of Ether 8. Abode of the Perfect Soul 9. Plerõma 10. Cobalt Sun Necropoli
Following the release of Voidkind, DVNE will embark on a European Spring tour which includes shows with Sleemo, Conjurer, and My Diligence on select dates. See all confirmed dates below.
DVNE Live: 4/23/2024 The Cluny – Newcastle, UK w/ Sleemo 4/24/2024 Brudenell — Leeds, UK w/ Sleemo 4/25/2024 Voodoo Daddies – Norwich, UK w/ Sleemo 4/26/2024 Green Door Store – Brighton, UK w/ Sleemo 4/27/2024 The Exchange – Bristol, UK w/ Sleemo 4/28/2024 Devils Dog – Birmingham, UK w/ Sleemo 5/04/2024 Headbangers – Ball Izegem, BE w/ Conjurer 5/05/2024 P8 – Karlsruhe, DE w/ Conjurer 5/07/2024 Casseopia – Berlin, DE w/ Conjurer 5/08/2024 Rosenkeller – Jena, DE w/ Conjurer 5/09/2024 Schon Schön – Mainz, DE w/ Conjurer 5/10/2024 Dunk Festival – Ghent, BE 5/11/2024 Hall Of Fame – Tilburg, NL w/ Conjurer 5/16/2024 La Belle Angele – Edinburgh, UK 5/19/2024 Desertfest, – London, UK 5/22/2024 Le Ferrailleur – Nantes, FR w/ My Diligence 5/23/2024 Le Confort Moderne – Poitiers, FR w/ My Diligence 5/24/2024 Le Rex – Toulouse, FR w/ My Diligence 5/26/2024 L’Antirouille – Montpellier, FR w/ My Diligence 5/28/2024 Les Caves du Manoir – Martigny, CH w/ My Diligence 5/29/2024 Amperage – Grenoble, FR w/ My Diligence 5/30/2024 La Laiterie – Strasbourg, FR w/ My Diligence 5/31/2024 Black Lab – Lille, FR w/ My Diligence 6/01/2024 Le Petit Bain – Paris, FR w/ My Diligence 6/02/2024 Club Zentral – Stuttgart, DE 6/04/2024 Rockhouse – Salzburg, AT 6/05/2024 Dürer Kert – Budapest, HU 6/06/2024 Escape – Vienna, AT 6/08/2024 Mystic Festival – Gdansk, PL 6/09/2024 Into The Grave Festival – Leeuwarden, NL 6/11/2024 Le Botanique – Brussels, BE w/ My Diligence 6/19/2024 Copenhell – Copenhagen, DK
DVNE Album Lineup: Allan Paterson – guitars, bass Daniel Barter – vocals Dudley Tait – drums Maxime Keller – keys, vocals Victor Vicart – guitars, keys, vocals
DVNE Live Lineup: Allan Paterson – bass Daniel Barter – guitar, vocals Dudley Tait – drums Maxime Keller – keys, vocals Victor Vicart – guitar, vocals Occasional Live Member: Alexandros Keros – bass
Posted in Reviews on December 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Well, this is it. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do Monday and Tuesday, or just Monday, or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or the whole week next week or what. I don’t know. But while I figure it out — and not having this planned is kind of a novelty for me; something against my nature that I’m kind of forcing I think just to make myself uncomfortable — there are 10 more records to dig through today and it’s been a killer week. Yeah, that’s the other thing. Maybe it’s better to quit while I’m ahead.
I’ll kick it back and forth while writing today and getting the last of what I’d originally slated covered, then see how much I still have waiting to be covered. You can’t ever get everything. I keep learning that every year. But if I don’t do it Monday and Tuesday, it’ll either be last week of December or maybe second week of January, so it’s not long until the next one. Never is, I guess.
If this is it for now or not, thanks for reading. I hope you found music that has touched your life and/or made your day better.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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David Eugene Edwards, Hyacinth
There are not a ton of surprises to behold in what’s positioned as a first solo studio offering from David Eugene Edwards, whose pedigree would be impressive enough if it only included either 16 Horsepower or Wovenhand but of course is singular in including both. But you don’t need surprises. Titled Hyacinth and issued through Sargent House, the voice, the presence, the sense of intimacy and grandiosity both accounted for as Edwards taps acoustic simplicity in “Bright Boy,” though even that is accompanied by the programmed electronics that provides backing through much of the included 11 tracks. Atop and within these expanses, Edwards broods poetic and explores atmospheres that are heavy in a different way from what Wovenhand has become, chasing tone or intensity. On Hyacinth, it’s more about the impact of the slow-rolling beat in “Celeste” and the blend of organic/inorganic than just how loud a part is or isn’t. Whether a solo career under his name will take the place of Wovenhand or coincide, I don’t know.
Whatever led Beastwars to decide it was time to do a covers EP, fine. No, really, it’s fine. It’s fine that it’s 32 minutes long. It’s fine that I’ve never heard The Gordons, or Julia Deans, or Superette, or The 3Ds or any of the other New Zealand-based artists the Wellington bashers are covering. It’s fine. It’s fine that it sounds different than 2019’s IV (review here). It should. It’s been nearly five years and Beastwars didn’t write these eight songs, though it seems safe to assume they did a fair bit of rearranging since it all sounds so much like Beastwars. But the reason it’s all fine is that when it’s over, whether I know the original version of “Waves” or the blues-turns-crushing “High and Lonely” originally by Nadia Reid, or not, when it’s all over, I’ve got over half an hour more recorded Beastwars music than I had before Tyranny of Distance showed up, and if you don’t consider that a win, you probably already stopped reading. That’s fine too. A sidestep for them in not being an epic landmark LP, and a chance for new ideas to flourish.
Because Messages From the Mothership stacks its longer songs (six-seven minutes) in the back half of its tracklisting, one might be tempted to say Sun Dial push further out as they go, but the truth is that ’60s pop-inflected three-minute opener “Echoes All Around” is pretty out there, and the penultimate “Saucer Noise” — the longest inclusion at 7:47 — is no less melodically present than the more structure-forward leadoff. The difference, principally, is a long stretch of keyboard, but that’s well within the UK outfit’s vintage-synth wheelhouse, and anyway, “Demagnitized” is essentially seven minutes of wobbly drone at the end of the record, so they get weirder, as prefaced in the early going by, well, the early going itself, but also “New Day,” which is more exploratory than the radio-friendly-but-won’t-be-on-the-radio harmonies of “Living for Today” and the duly shimmering strum of “Burning Bright.” This is familiar terrain for Sun Dial, but they approach it with a perspective that’s fresh and, in the title-track, a little bit funky to boot.
With rampant heavy blues and a Mk II Deep Purple boogie bent, Toulouse, France’s Fuzzy Grass present The Revenge of the Blue Nut, and there’s a story there but to be honest I’m not sure I want to know. The heavy ’70s persist as an influence — no surprise for a group who named their 2018 debut 1971 — and pieces like “I’m Alright” and “The Dreamer” feel at least in part informed by Graveyard‘s slow-soul-to-boogie-blowout methodology. Raw fuzz rolls out in 11-minute capper “Moonlight Shades” with a swinging nod that’s a highlight even after “Why You Stop Me” just before, and grows noisy, expansive, eventually furious as it approaches the end, coherent in the verse and cacophonous in just about everything else. But the rawness bolsters the character of the album in ways beyond enhancing the vintage-ist impression, and Fuzzy Grass unite decades of influences with vibrant shred and groove that’s welcoming even at its bluest.
If you go by the current of sizzling electronic pops deeper in the mix, even the outwardly quiet intro to Morne‘s Engraved with Pain is intense. The Boston-based crush-metallers have examined the world around them thoroughly ahead of this fifth full-length, and their disappointment is brutally brought to realization across four songs — “Engraved with Pain” (10:42), “Memories Like Stone” (10:48), “Wretched Empire” (7:45) and “Fire and Dust” (11:40) — written and executed with a dark mastery that goes beyond the weight of the guitar and bass and drums and gutturally shouted vocals to the aura around the music itself. Engraved with Pain makes the air around it feel heavier, basking in an individualized vision of metal that’s part Ministry, part Gojira, lots of Celtic Frost, progressive and bleak in kind — the kind of superlative and consuming listening experience that makes you wonder why you ever listen to anything else except that you’re also exhausted from it because Morne just gave you an existential flaying the likes of which you’ve not had in some time. Artistry. Don’t be shocked when it’s on my ‘best of the year’ list in a couple weeks. I might just go to a store and buy the CD.
Don’t tell the swingin’-dick Western swag of “Wounded,” but Appalooza are a metal band. To wit, The Shining Son, their very-dudely follow-up to 2021’s The Holy of Holies (review here) and second outing for Ripple Music. Opener “Pelican” has more in common with Sepultura than Kyuss, or Pelican for that matter. “Unbreakable” and “Wasted Land” both boast screams worthy of Devin Townsend, while the acoustic/electric urgency in “Wasted Land” and the tumultuous scope of the seven-plus-minute track recall some of Primordial‘s battle-aftermath mourning. “Groundhog Days” has an airy melody and is more decisively heavy rock, and the hypnotic post-doom apparent-murder-balladry of “Killing Maria” answers that at the album’s close, and “Framed” hits heavy blues à la a missed outfit like Dwellers, but even in “Sunburn” there’s an immediacy to the rhythm between the guitar and percussion, and though they’re not necessarily always aggressive in their delivery, nor do they want to be. Metal they are, if only under the surface, and that, coupled with the care they put into their songwriting, makes The Shining Son stand out all the more in an ever-crowded Euro underground.
An invitation to chill the beans delivered to your ears courtesy of Irish cosmic jammers Space Shepherds as two longform jams. “Wading Through the Infinite Sea” nestles into a funky groove and spends who-even-cares-how-much-time of its total 27 minutes vibing out with noodling guitar and a steady, languid, periodically funk-leaning flow. I don’t know if it was made up on the spot, but it sure sounds like it was, and though the drums get a little restless as keys and guitar keep dreaming, the elements gradually align and push toward and through denser clouds of dust and gas on their way to being suns, a returning lick at the end looking slightly in the direction of Elder but after nearly half an hour it belongs to no one so much as Space Shepherds themselves. ‘Side B,’ as it were, is “Void Hurler” (18:41), which is more active early around circles being drawn on the snare, and it has a crescendo and a synthy finish, but is ultimately more about the exploration and little moments along the way like the drums decided to add a bit of push to what might’ve otherwise been the comedown, or the fuzz buzzing amid the drone circa 10 minutes in. You can sit and listen and follow each waveform on its journey or you can relax and let the whole thing carry you. No wrong answer for jams this engaging.
Young Chilean four-piece Rey Mosca — the lineup of Josué Campos, Valentín Pérez, Damián Arros and Rafael Álvarez — hold a spaciousness in reserve for the midsection of teh seven-minute “Sol del Tiempo,” which is the third of the three songs included in their live-recorded Volumen! Sesion AMB EP. A ready hint is dropped of a switch in methodology since both “Psychodoom” and ” Perdiendo el Control” are under two minutes long. Crust around the edge of the riff greets the listener with “Psychodoom,” which spends about a third of its 90 seconds on its intro and so is barely started by the time it’s over. Awesome. “Perdiendo el Control” is quicker into its verse and quicker generally and gets brasher in its second half with some hardcore shout-alongs, but it too is there and gone, where “Sol del Tiempo” is more patient from the outset, flirting with ’90s noise crunch in its finish but finding a path through a developing interpretation of psychedelic doom en route. I don’t know if “Sol del Tiempo” would fit on a 7″, but it might be worth a shot as Rey Mosca serve notice of their potential hopefully to flourish.
Principally engaged in the consumption and expulsion of expectations, Fawn Limbs and Nadja — experimentalists from Finland and Germany-via-Canada, respectively — drone as one might think in opener “Isomerich,” and in the subsequent “Black Body Radiation” and “Cascading Entropy,” they give Primitive Man, The Body or any other extremely violent, doom-derived bludgeoners you want to name a run for their money in terms of sheer noisy assault. Somebody’s been reading about exoplanets, as the drone/harsh noise pairing “Redshifted” and “Blueshifted” (look it up, it’s super cool) reset the aural trebuchet for its next launch, the latter growing caustic on the way, ahead of “Distilled in Observance” renewing the punishment in earnest. And it is earnest. They mean every second of it as Fawn Limbs and Nadja grind souls to powder with all-or-nothing fury, dropping overwhelming drive to round out “Distilled in Observance” before the 11-minute “Metastable Ion Decay” bursts out from the chest of its intro drone to devour everybody on the ship except Sigourney Weaver. I’m not lying to you — this is ferocious. You might think you’re up for it. One sure way to find out, but you should know you’re being tested.
Do they pilot, a-pilot, do they the dune? Probably. Regardless, German heavy rockers Dune Pilot offer their third full-length and first for Argonauta Records in the 11-song Magnetic, taking cues from modern fuzz in the vein of Truckfighters for “Visions” after the opening title-track sets the mood and establishes the mostly-dry sound of the vocals as they cut through the guitar and bass tones. A push of voice becomes a defining feature of Magnetic, which isn’t such a departure from 2018’s Lucy, though the rush of “Next to the Liquor Store” and the breadth in the fuzz of “Highest Bid” and the largesse of the nod in “Let You Down” assure that Dune Pilot don’t come close to wearing down their welcome in the 46 minutes, cuts like the bluesy “So Mad” and the big-chorus ideology of “Heap of Shards” coexisting drawn together by the vitality of the performances behind them as well as the surety of their craft. It is heavy rock that feels specifically geared toward the lovers thereof.
Posted in Reviews on November 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Day two and no looking back. Yesterday was Monday and it was pretty tripped out. There’s some psych stuff here too, but we start out by digging deep into metal-rooted doom and it doesn’t get any less dudely through the first three records, let’s put it that way. But there’s more here than one style, microgengre, or gender expression can contain, and I invite you as you make your way through to approach not from a place of redundant chestbeating, but of celebrating a moment captured. In the cases of some of these releases, it’s a pretty special moment we’re talking about.
Places to go, things to hear. We march.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
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Primordial, How it Ends
Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have 66 minutes to talk about the end of the world? No? Nobody does? Well that’s kind of sad.
At 28 years’ remove from their first record, 1995’s Imrama, and now on their 10th full-length, Dublin’s Primordial are duly mournful across the 10 songs of How it Ends, which boasts the staring-at-a-bloodied-hillside-full-of-bodies after-battle mourning and oppression-defying lyricism and a style rooted in black metal and grown beyond it informed by Irish folk progressions but open enough to make a highlight of the build in “Death Holy Death” here. A more aggressive lean shows itself in “All Against All” just prior while “Pilgrimage to the World’s End” is brought to a wash of an apex with a high reach from vocalist Alan “A.A. Nemtheanga” Averill, who should be counted among metal’s all-time frontmen, ahead of the tension chugging in the beginning of “Nothing New Under the Sun.” And you know, for the most part, there isn’t. Most of what Primordial do on How it Ends, they’ve done before, and their central innovation in bridging extreme metal with folk traditionalism, is long behind them. How it Ends seems to dwell in some parts and be roiling in its immediacy elsewhere, and its grandiosities inherently will put some off just as they will bring some on, but Primordial continue to find clever ways to develop around their core approach, and How it Ends — if it is the end or it isn’t, for them or the world — harnesses that while also serving as a reminder of how much they own their sound.
With a partner in drummer Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Danzig, etc.), guitarist/songwriter Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Vessel of Light, Cassius King, etc.) has found an outlet open to various ideas within the sphere of doom metal/rock in Patriarchs in Black, whose second LP, My Veneration, brings a cohort of guests on vocals and bass alongside the band’s core duo. Some, like Karl Agell (C.O.C. Blind) and bassist Dave Neabore (Dog Eat Dog), are returning parties from the project’s 2022 debut, Reach for the Scars, while Unida vocalist Mark Sunshine makes a highlight of “Show Them Your Power” early on. Sunshine appears on “Veneration” as well alongside DMC from Run DMC, which, if you’re going to do a rap-rock crossover, it probably makes sense to get a guy who was there the first time it happened. Elsewhere, “Non Defectum” toys with layering with Kelly Abe of Sicks Deep adding screams, and Paul Stanley impersonator Bob Jensen steps in for the KISS cover “I Stole Your Love” and the originals “Dead and Gone” and “Hallowed Be Her Name” so indeed, no shortage of variety. Tying it together? The riffs, of course. Lorenzo has shown an as-yet inexhaustible supply thereof. Here, they seem to power multiple bands all on one album.
Just because it wasn’t a surprise doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best debut albums of 2023. Bringing together known parties from Boston’s heavy underground Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die, etc.), Doug Sherman (Gozu), Bob Maloney (Worshipper) and J.R. Roach (Sam Black Church), Blood Lightning want nothing for pedigree, and their Ripple-issued self-titled debut meets high expectations with vigor and thrash-born purpose. Sherman‘s style of riffing and Healey‘s soulful, belted-out vocals are both identifiable factors in cuts like “The Dying Starts” and the charging “Face Eater,” which works to find a bridge between heavy rock and classic, soaring metal. Their cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Disturbing the Priest,” included here as the last of the six songs on the 27-minute album, I seem to recall being at least part of the impetus for the band, but frankly, however they got there, I’m glad the project has been preserved. I don’t know if they will or won’t do anything else, but there’s potential in their metal/rock blend, which positions itself as oldschool but is more forward thinking than either genre can be on its own.
Based in Oakland and making their debut with the significant endorsement of Small Stone Records and Kozmik Artifactz behind them, atmospheric post-heavy rock five-piece Haurun tap into ethereal ambience and weighted fuzz in such a way as to raise memories of the time Black Math Horseman got picked up by Tee Pee. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. With notions of Acid King in the nodding, undulating riffs of “Abyss” and the later reaches of “Lost and Found,” but two guitars are a distinguishing factor, and Haurun come across as primarily concerned with mood, although the post-grunge ’90s alt hooks of “Flying Low” and “Lunar” ahead of 11-minute closer “Soil,” which uses its longform breadth to cast as vivid a soundscape as possible. Fast, slow, minimalist or at a full wash of noise, Haurun‘s Wilting Within has its foundation in heavy rock groove and riffy repetition, but does something with that that goes beyond microniche confines. Very much looking forward to more from this band.
Its point of view long established by the time they get around to the filthy lurch of “Hesher” — track three of seven — Cabin Fever is the first full-length from cultish doomers Wicked Trip. The Tennessee outfit revel in Electric Wizard-style fuckall on “Cabin Fever” after the warning in the spoken “Intro,” and the 11-minute sample-topped “Night of Pan” is a psych-doom jam that’s hypnotic right unto its keyboard-drone finish giving over to the sampled smooth sounds of the ’70s at the start of “Black Valentine,” which feels all the more dirt-coated when it actually kicks in, though “Evils of the Night” is no less threatening of purpose in its garage-doom swing, crash-out and cacophonous payoff, and I’m pretty sure if you played “No Longer Human” at double the speed, well, it might be human again. All of these grim, bleak, scorching, nodding, gnashing pieces come together to craft Cabin Fever as one consuming, lo-fi entirety, raw both because the recording sounds harsh and because the band itself eschew any frills not in service to their disillusioned atmosphere.
There’s an awful lot of sex going on in Splinter‘s Role Models, as the Amsterdam glam-minded heavy rockers follow their 2021 debut, Filthy Pleasures (review here), with cuts like “Soviet Schoolgirl,” “Bottom,” “Opposite Sex” and the poppy post-punk “Velvet Scam” early on. It’s not all sleaze — though even “The Carpet Makes Me Sad” is trying to get you in bed — and the piano and boozy harmonies of “Computer Screen” are a fun departure ahead of the also-acoustic finish in closer “It Should Have Been Over,” while “Every Circus Needs a Clown” feels hell-bent on remaking Queen‘s “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Medicine Man” and “Forbidden Kicks” find a place where garage rock meets heavier riffing, while “Children” gets its complaints registered efficiently in just over two boogie-push minutes. A touch of Sabbath here, some Queens of the Stone Age chic disco there, and Splinter are happy to find a place for themselves adjacent to both without aping either. One would not accuse them of subtlety as regards theme, but there’s something to be said for saying what you want up front.
Beginning with its longest component track (immediate points) in “Asteroid,” Terra Black‘s All Descend is a downward-directed slab of doomed nod, so doubled-down on its own slog that “Black Flames of Funeral Fire” doesn’t even start its first verse until the song is more than half over. Languid tempos play up the largesse of “Ashes and Dust,” and “Divinest Sin” borders on Eurometal, but if you need to know what’s in Terra Black‘s heart, look no further than the guitar, bass, drum and vocal lumber — all-lumber — of “Spawn of Lyssa” and find that it’s doom pumping blood around the band’s collective body. While avoiding sounding like Electric Wizard, the Gothenburg, Sweden, unit crawl through that penultimate duet track with all ready despondency, and resolve “Slumber Grove” with agonized final lub-dub heartbeats of kick drum and guitar drawl after a vivid and especially doomed wash drops out to vocals before rearing back and plodding forward once more, doomed, gorgeous, immersive, and so, so heavy. They’re not finished growing yet — nor should they be on this first album — but they’re on the path.
Sometimes the name of a thing can tell you about the thing. So enters Musing, a contemplative solo outfit from Devin “Darty” Purdy, also known for his work in Calgary-based bands Gone Cosmic and Chron Goblin, with the eight-song/42-minute Somewhen and a flowing instrumental narrative that borders on heavy post-rock and psychedelia, but is clearheaded ultimately in its course and not slapdash enough to be purely experimental. That is, though intended to be instrumental works outside the norm of his songcraft, tracks like “Flight to Forever” and the delightfully bassy “Frontal Robotomy” are songs, have been carved out of inspired and improvised parts to be what they are. “Hurry Wait” revamps post-metal standalone guitar to be the basis of a fuzzy exploration, while “Reality Merchants” hones a sense of space that will be welcome in ears that embrace the likes of Yawning Sons or Big Scenic Nowhere. Somewhen has a story behind it — there’s narrative; blessings and peace upon it — but the actual music is open enough to translate to any number of personal interpretations. A ‘see where it takes you’ attitude is called for, then. Maybe on Purdy‘s part as well.
A heavy and Sabbathian rock forms the underlying foundation of Spiral Shades‘ sound, and the returning two-piece of vocalist Khushal R. Bhadra and guitarist/bassist/drummer Filip Petersen have obviously spent the nine years since 2014’s debut, Hypnosis Sessions (review here), enrolled in post-doctoral Iommic studies. Revival, after so long, is not unwelcome in the least. Doom happens in its own time, and with seven songs and 38 minutes of new material, plus bonus tracks, they make up for lost time with classic groove and tone loyal to the blueprint once put forth while reserving a place for itself in itself. That is, there’s more to Spiral Shades and to Revival than Sabbath worship, even if that’s a lot of the point. I won’t take away from the metal-leaning chug of “Witchy Eyes” near the end of the album, but “Foggy Mist” reminds of The Obsessed‘s particular crunch and “Chapter Zero” rolls like Spirit Caravan, find a foothold between rock and doom, and it turns out riffs are welcome on both sides.
The closing “Sex on a Grave” reminds of the slurring bluesy lasciviousness of Nick Cave‘s Grinderman, and that should in part be taken as a compliment to the setup through “Black Cat” — which toys with 12-bar structure and is somewhere between urbane cool and cabaret nerdery — and the centerpiece “Bad Day,” which follows a classic downer chord progression through its apex with the rawness of Backwoods Payback at their most emotive and a greater melodic reach only after swaying through its willful bummer of an intro. Last-minute psych flourish in the guitar threatens to make “Bad Day” a party, but the Louisville outfit find their way around to their own kind of fun, which since the release is only three songs long just happens to be “Sex on a Grave.” Fair enough. Rife with attitude and an emergent dynamic that’s complementary to the persona of the vocals rather than trying to keep up with them, the counterintuitively-titled second short release (yes, I know the cover is a Zeppelin reference; settle down) from Bandshee lays out an individual approach to heavy songwriting and a swing that goes back further in time than most.
Posted in Questionnaire on October 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Milosz Gassan from Morne
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Well, I’d say that I let out my passion for creating something, music or writing lyrics or doing anything around that territory. I let something that is inside out. Guess how I grew up and how my parents raised me and sparked all those interests led me to where I am and what I do.
Describe your first musical memory.
Can’t really remember exactly. There was always music in our house. My parents always listened to something. I’d say bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd come to mind. I wasn’t necessarily aware of it but it’s still somewhere in my head. Generally music is something that was always part of my day as a kid.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
My first distortion pedal. My dad bought me an electric guitar when I was 9 or 10 after seeing me rocking out around our house with an acoustic guitar for a couple of years. I had no idea how to make my electric guitar to make “that” sound until my neighbor gave me this piece of shit handmade distortion pedal. I could then figure out how to make my own noise. It pretty much changed my life.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
I try to move forward as fast as I can so I don’t have to look back and remember any of that.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
To a lot of frustration that sometimes leads to satisfaction. Always a bumpy road with a lot of twists and turns but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
How do you define success?
Happiness. No matter how high or how low in your life you are, being happy is a success.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
My friends passing away at young age. It’s devastating.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
More Morne albums.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Uncompromised education. Nothing more nothing less. It lets you think and it lets you learn.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Sharing more quality time with my family and my friends. Also getting a little bit more sleep would be good.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 11th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
About a month ago, maybe two, I was fortunate to get an email from Metal Blade asking if I was interested in writing a bio for the new album from Boston atmospheric doomers, titled Engraved With Pain, and it was an easy yes. Heralded critically for their individualism and merging of different styles, I’d count them as undervalued considering their sound is malleable enough to fit on bills with a metal band like Gojira (a random name with precious little to do with Morne stylistically — any range of bleak proggers bubbled up from the heavy underground, sludge, death metal, industrial, on and on. And the record is four tracks long, utterly consuming, which is shown even in the small sample offered by the first single “Wretched Empire,” streaming below.
So I wrote the thing, duh. And it’s here though I’m posting it mostly to be archived here — it’s nice to keep things in a place — and if you want to skip it and go right to the song, no offense taken.
Here’s the art and info, including the bio I wrote (paragraphs two to four), and the single. Expect multi-tiered crush. Bask in it.
Off you go:
Morne: Boston Post-Metal Practitioners to Release “Engraved with Pain” Full-Length November 3rd via Metal Blade Records
“Wretched Empire” Video / Single Now Playing + Pre-orders Available
Boston-based post-metal practitioners and recent Metal Blade Records signees MORNE will unleash their devastating Engraved With Pain full-length on November 3rd, today unveiling the record’s first single, artwork, and pre-orders.
The stylistic pyroclasm of MORNE’s bleak, extreme but reachable metal did not happen overnight. Since their 2009 debut album, Untold Wait, the quartet has made simple categorizations like “doom” or even “metal” laughable, and their latest and fifth full-length, fittingly titled Engraved With Pain, refines their attack to a level toward which even 2018’s To The Night Unknown could only hint.
Engraved With Pain is a moment of grim triumph, as rooted in Celtic Frost as in Ministry, still somehow extrapolated from the gods Black Sabbath and characteristic of no one so much as themselves. Spacious, crushing, darkly thoughtful enough to be progressive but never so indulgent as to lose sight of its core message, the offering was recorded with legendary producer Kurt Ballou at GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts.
Playing out across four chapters in forty-minutes, the album sees the veteran outfit crafting rhythmic tension and lung-squeezing atmospheres as Polish-born guitarist/vocalist Miłosz Gassan emits layered guttural shouts that speak to inner and outer crises. Engraved With Pain makes its title believable, and from its eponymous opener through “Memories Like Stone,” “Wretched Empire,” and “Fire And Dust,” it carries humanity individually and collectively through the realities of its decline.
“‘Wretched Empire’ is the first song off of our new album to be published bringing the wait to its end,” Gassan notes of the band’s first single, as well as their first ever video. “Barebone, stripped down riffs and a cold look at today’s reality, lyrically it’s my take on the current situation in the world: How divided everything is and how people are prone to being misled. How we forget our history; history that happened not that long ago. I never comment on my lyrics but maybe in this case it’s needed. I call humanity a ‘wretched empire.’ It’s not an optimistic song. I hope people will enjoy it and find something for themselves in this single and the whole album as well.”
Engraved With Pain will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find pre-orders at: metalblade.com/morne
Photo by Hillarie Jason
MORNE: Milosz Gassan – Guitar, Vocals Paul Rajpal – Guitar Morgan Coe – Bass Billy Knockenhauer – Drums
Posted in Questionnaire on September 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Rob Garven of Cirith Ungol
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
“It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.” Quote from the movie Batman Begins.
Describe your first musical memory.
When I as a small child my parents bought me a drum to play with.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
When I look back on the recent years, the memories I have, are burned indelibly into my consciousness. They are filled with endless flights to distant destinations, meeting new friends, and playing at venues that once were only a dream back when we started. One moment however is seared into my mind. We played the “Chaos Descends Festival” out in the forest near Crispendorf, Germany. The festival is named after one of our songs, and set in a scenic rural location that was surreal. A beautiful yet haunting valley, set between two small mountains with a lonely river snaking between them, and small narrow gauge train circling the area. I remember looking out from behind the drums, while pounding out our song “Chaos Descends”, seeing the trees and stars, and hearing the huddled masses humming out the refrain, louder than our amps. I could feel a direct connection to the earth elementals, and all those fevered souls in attendance, rhythmic swaying in frenzied unison, with the pulsing of the molten metal we were laying out before them! The feeling I experienced was beyond description, and will remain as long as I draw breath!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
The cowbell.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Artistic progression leads to the “Dark Parade”.
How do you define success?
“A Churning Maelstrom of Metal Chaos Descending!”
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The first hair metal band…The horror…..
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A perfect “Cirith Ungol” shirt.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
The most essential function of art is its reflection of reality.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Hard not to take long-running Irish metallers Primordial at their word when they say that the new album sounds like Primordial. That’s basically their specialty. Fronted by Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill, who might seriously consider a foray into national politics if he hasn’t, the band will issue their 10th full-length — hot damn — which has been given the foreboding title How it Ends, on Sept. 29 through Metal Blade. This is the band’s first outing since 2018’s Exile Amongst the Ruins (review here), and while I get the distinct feeling they’re talking about bigger endings, they are giving away the ending of the record itself in having the closing track as the first single.
The song is called “Victory Has 1,000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan,” and the post-black metal style of Primordial, informed as ever by Celtic folk progressions and melodies, is rampant throughout its six-plus minutes, which are presented with an accompanying video, duly moody and cinematic. It’s the first clip I’ve seen in a while where a band wears armor and doesn’t immediately look ridiculous, so kudos to Primordial on that. Experts on tough balances, they are.
The PR wire has album details. Can’t wait. I want the 2CD digipak with the six bonus tracks:
PRIMORDIAL To Release How It Ends September 29th Via Metal Blade Records; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available
Long-running, Dublin, Ireland-based Pagan metallers PRIMORDIAL will release their tenth full-length, How It Ends, on September 29th via Metal Blade Records.
PRIMORDIAL has nothing to prove. Having lasted thirty-two years and now returning with their devastating new studio offering, the Irish band has made it clear they are a primal force who consistently lay it all on the line. The follow-up to 2018’s critically lauded Exile Amongst The Ruins, How It Ends sees them delivering more of their seminal blend of Celtic and black metal, with an extra added urgency, and staring down the apocalypse.
“The title is a question – is this how it ends? How it all goes down: culture, language, history, society – humanity – who knows?,” says vocalist A. A. Nemtheanga. “Regardless of who you are or were, you get one chance at all of this, and it’s asking is this the end of your town, state, nation? Myths, traditions, relationships, and I suppose it asks the question, who reacts, who rebels – how does it end now for them?”
Working alongside founding members Pól MacAmlaigh (bass) and Ciáran MacUilliam (guitar) and longtime drummer Simon O’Laoghaire, the band started writing in earnest in the Fall of 2022, having lit a fire under themselves to work hastily and productively. PRIMORDIAL never plans out a record beforehand, letting them come together naturally, though Nemtheanga knew he wanted something with a bigger, more open sound, and something more aggressive, which is exactly what they achieved. “How It Ends is a very angry, defiant, visceral, and rebellious album, and as we worked it all began to take more shape and form itself. It may be the note we go out on but it will be a note of resistance, in musical terms. I think it’s also more metal! And more epic!”
It only takes one listen for these claims to be proven true, whether it’s the surging, gruff, dark “Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust,” the moody, desperate “Pilgrimage To The World’s End,” or the sprawling “All Against All,” which is drenched in a sinister air and driven by pounding rhythms, wielding a towering climax. “It certainly sounds like PRIMORDIAL, there is no doubt about that, we have our own style and this is a new chapter of the same book. If we have done anything new it’s really to work with more conviction than ever, and trust more than ever our instincts.”
Drawing lyrical influence both from modern and historical ideas, Nemtheanga always gives the listener something to think about. How It Ends is no exception. “If, for example, To The Nameless Dead (2007) was about the movement of borders, building of nations and those sent to war who gave their lives forming them, then this is the album more about resisting those empires, the freedom fighters, the outlaws, the people who made suicidal stands for freedom of speech, or independence – or for the most important word in the English language: liberty. It’s not hard to see why the album is inspired by this considering where we are right now in the world.”
In advance of the record’s release, today the band unleashes first single and album closer, “Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan,“ and its accompanying video.
How It Ends was tracked at Hellfire Studios on the outskirts of Dublin, produced by the band, and engineered by previous collaborator Chris Fielding. The record will be released in the following formats:
(Worldwide) – Digital (US) – Jewel Case CD (Worldwide) 2xLP in Gatefold, with insert and downloadcard (EU) – 2xDigipak CD (6-panel digi w/ 12-page booklet) w/ 6-bonus tracks (EU) 2xLP Special Edition in Gatefold, with insert and downloadcard in slipcase with tote bag, slipmat, double-sided poster (ltd. to 1000 copies)
How It Ends Track Listing: 1. How It Ends 2. Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust 3. We Shall Not Serve 4. Traidisiúnta 5. Pilgrimage To The World’s End 6. Nothing New Under The Sun 7. Call To Cernunnos 8. All Against All 9. Death Holy Death 10. Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan
Coinciding with the release of How It Ends, PRIMORDIAL will serve as direct support to Paradise Lost on the Ultima Ratio Fest European Tour. Additional support will be provided by Omnium Gatherum and Harakiri For The Sky. Find tickets at THIS LOCATION.
PRIMORDIAL w/ Paradise Lost, Omnium Gatherum, Harakiri For The Sky: 9/28/2023 Substage – Karlsruhe, DE 9/29/2023 Komplex – Zurich, CZ 9/30/2023 Kaminwerk – Memmingen, DE 10/01/2023 Schlachthof – Wiesbaden, DE 10/02/2023 Löwensaal – Nuremberg,DE 10/04/2023 Trix – Antwerp, BE 10/05/2023 Garage – Saarbrücken, DE 10/06/2023 MeetFactory – Prague, CZ 10/07/2023 Vienna Metal Meeting – Vienna, AT 10/08/2023 Barba Negra – Budapest, HU 10/10/2023 A2 – Wroclaw, PL 10/11/2023 Capitol – Hanover, DE 10/12/2023 Kronensaal – Hamburg, DE 10/13/2023 Hellraiser – Leipzig, DE 10/14/2023 Turbinenhalle 2 – Oberhausen, DE 10/15/2023 Roanda – Utrecht, NL
