[Click play above to stream Shadow Witch’s Eschaton (The End of All Things) in its entirety. Album is out Friday on Argonauta Records and the band play their release show at Maryland Doom Fest 2024 this weekend.]

All things end, and Shadow Witch‘s songwriting is suited to endtimes, with a gospel feel and theme amid the doom rock groove and an intermittent metallic severity. Eschaton (The End of All Things) is the fourth full-length from the Kingston, New York-based four-piece fronted by Earl Walker Lundy with Jeremy Hall (since replaced by Jesse Cunningham) on guitar/keys, bassist David Pannullo and drummer Justin Zipperle (also piano/Hammond) making his first recorded appearance since coming aboard following the tracking of 2020’s Under the Shadow of a Witch (review here), which until now was their most realized outing to-date. Clocking in at an easily manageable 36 minutes, the eight self-recorded pieces of Eschaton (The End of All Things) ask little — not nothing — in terms of indulgence and reward the listener in the diversity of their approach, starting with the quick 80-second motor-riff of “Speedy Goes to Sludgetown” that is deceptively complex as it builds to the finish with synth and vocals worked in around the centralized forward push. It’s not nearly as atmospheric as “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” which leads off side B with its hard-hitting cycles of drumming and layered vocal chanting, references to The Exorcist on guitar and so forth, but that song is six minutes long and it probably wouldn’t work as an album intro. No time to waste. Shadow Witch have places to be and the songs to get them there.

Eschaton (The End of All Things) of course begs the question whether the ending being discussed in its title is that of the band itself. Best I can do in terms of an answer after listening is: “maybe?” One never knows generally and I won’t make any definite predictions, but between the departure of Hall, the plague that happened between the third album’s recording/release and this one, and the creative progression undertaken since Lundy, Hall and Pannullo set forth in 2016 with their debut, Sun Killer (discussed here), if this was to be the final Shadow Witch release, they certainly don’t owe anyone anything, and they sound like they’ve put everything they have into this record. From “Speedy Goes to Sludgetown” into the melancholic starts and stops of “Satellites” touching later on Southern rock as it brings acoustic and electric guitars together with keys and the first of several standout performances from Lundy, whose lyrics recast manmade spacetrash as falling angels and/or stars, namedropping a burning bush and serpent along the way to emphasize the being-raised-baptist-is-a-trauma religious undertones that have been a part of Shadow Witch all along but that also find a fresh point of view throughout Eschaton (The End of All Things). A melodic soulful dig in “Tell Me,” which follows, is burly but almost desert rocking in its tone, shifting from the sweeping crescendo of “Satellites” with organ and backing vocals to a more rigid stomp that grows fervent in its later gallop without any real threat of derailment to the momentum the band have already built.

The subsequent “Nobody” leans into insistent punk-metal with a hook that reminds me (and this is a ‘me’ thing rather than a likely influence) of Midwestern pushers Bloodcow as Lundy takes on the voice of some of masculinity’s more toxic gaslighting in the unfortunately-not-post-Trump era: “Nobody knows more about you than me/Nobody does more for you than me… I’m the man/And you all must do as I command,” and so on. Discussions of power and the abuse thereof aren’t necessarily new for Shadow Witch — the third album had “Wolf Among the Sheep,” and a cut like “Cruel” from 2017’s Disciples of the Crow (review here) saw its subject through a social justice lens — but the craft on Eschaton (The End of All Things), the subtle turns in the instrumental arrangements and the heart poured into the belted-out delivery of the vocals over top, frame the conversation and exploration of ideas in an accessible, heavy rock and roll that has never been both so broad in reach or so outwardly sure of its path.

Recorded on their own, as noted above, with a mix and master by Paul Orofino, the material feels divergent but is structurally sound and aware of its audience, with “Nobody” giving over to the big-nodding side A finale “Let it Out” giving willful contrast to “Tell Me” earlier — directly: the repeated line of the backing vocals is “Don’t tell me…” which Lundy answers in call and response — in a tight three-and-a-half-minute course, moderately placed like if KISS had ever given a damn what their songs were actually about. They’ve got some according swagger there, but Shadow Witch have never been just darkness stylistically. In terms of aesthetic, there’s as much light as black under their blacklights.

With a hook that’s downright vibrant and swing to spare, “Let it Out” is for sure present-tense in its frustrations, and it ends with Zipperle‘s drums on a fade before giving over to the immediate riff introducing “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” which is based around a chorus that becomes a kind of thanatos/destruction-worshiping chant and a lead-in for the apocalyptic narrative fleshed out across “The Lion and the Lamb” and closer “The Fallen.” The last three cuts, all over six minutes long (nothing on side A touched five), retain the intentionality of, say, “Satellites” and “Tell Me,” but are focused on a distinct procession. “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” then, is both the moment where that turn happens and the beginning of the story perceived, told in fire-and-brimstone preach and sharp streaks of guitar soloing, a manifestation of the Judgment Day being referenced in the album’s title. They still make it move and have a quieter break in the second half to offset the song’s cyclical pattern before they restart for one more hypnotic, willfully grandiose time through, finishing riffier and edgier before the cold stop brings standalone guitar at the start of “The Lion and the Lamb.” Marked by its inclusion of organ and evocative lead guitar, the penultimate cut on Eschaton (The End of All Things) is both a lead-in for “The Fallen” and a landmark in itself for the band, reminiscent of some of Dio-era Black Sabbath‘s more sprawling fare, whether that’s “Heaven and Hell” or “Falling Off the Edge of the World,” neither of which it’s actively emulating.

A synthy wash of noise eases the transition to the urgent opening build of “The Fallen,” and if there is some autobiographical aspect to Eschaton (The End of All Things) — that is, if part of what’s ending is the band itself — no one will be able to say they didn’t go out on top. A career performance from Lundy around a get-in-punk-we’re-taking-Heaven lyric and the corresponding manner in which the song unfolds instrumentally is stately in a way that both accounts for “The Lion and the Lamb” and the detail and arrangement flourish Shadow Witch have basked in throughout. But the closer is singular in its character and caps with a vision of doom that is bluesy, classic, gospel-informed and progressive without pushing so far as to lose the plot of which it is still only one piece set forth in the two songs prior, culminating with layered vocals and organ in complement to the final lines as the song resolves: “Fold your wings around me/We’re going home.” Those wings are leather, and “home” is a march of the fallen on capital-‘p’ Paradise, but the emotion behind the delivery is sincere and palpable, and as Shadow Witch do on their fourth album front-to-back, they depart with the sense of purpose that Eschaton (The End of All Things) has so roundly highlighted. Like I said at the start, all things end. Not all things are fortunate enough to do so with such resonance. I don’t know that this will be the last Shadow Witch record or not — and for what it’s worth, I hope not — but what they bring to fruition in these songs should be considered nothing less than a definitive work today, and today is what matters.

Shadow Witch, “The Lion and the Lamb” official video

Shadow Witch on Facebook

Shadow Witch on Instagram

Shadow Witch on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Argonauta Records on Instagram

Thinning the Herd in a social media post not so long ago referred to their style as “lawnmower metal.” It was a joke, but clearly the New York band is enjoying the upstate life and all the richness not-the-city has to offer as they inch toward the release of their new album, Cull, sometime this year. “Sarcophagus Dust” is the follow-up single to “Trampled by Deer” (video posted here), which was posted in February, and if it’s a case of the band putting out songs as they’re finished, building the full-length as they go, well, they’d hardly be the first. It’s 2024. What the hell even is an album, anyway?

They’ve teased a few other songs from Cull to come as well — the third single is apparently called “Harley Davidson”; I haven’t heard it yet — but the snarl and swagger of “Sarcophagus Dust” speak for themselves, with a professed lack of sleep and the roll of Gavin Spielman‘s riff punctuated by Rob Sefcik‘s crash, lo fi in the production but clear enough to get their point across to be sure. It doesn’t sound like a lawnmower, but it does layer in a noisy lead to coincide with the downer bounce of its finish before fading out. There’s no pretense, no proggy indulgences to be made, nothing overly showy about it except maybe in the soloing where it should be, and its attitude is less about itself than the song but still heavy in mood. It’ll make sense when you hear it, and “Sarcophagus Dust” makes a solid teaser for the record as well since it’s under four minutes long.

I haven’t seen an exact release date for Cull yet, but that’s life, and I honestly don’t think Thinning the Herd need to or even really should be working to anyone’s schedule other than their own. Whenever it arrives, Cull will be the band’s first album in more than a decade, in addition to the first with the Spielman/Sefcik configuration, and as both of the to-date songs they’ve dropped from it hint, it’s gonna be a rocker. So much the better.

Enjoy:

Thinning the Herd, “Sarcophagus Dust” video premiere

“Sarcophagus Dust is the second single off the upcoming album “Cull” by New York’s own Thinning the Herd. TTH’s brand of heavy blues is often described as Doom, Sludge or Grunge and are often compared to Black Sabbath. TTH’s style incorporates elements of early NY/HC, traditional Blues and Stoner Rock.

Stay tuned for the next single entitles “Harley-Davidson” out at the end of June, marking the third single off of the antic aped album “Cull.

Video by Bert Crosby

Thinning the Herd are:
Gavin Spielman on Guitar and Vocals.
Rob Sefcik – Drums

Thinning the Herd, “Trampled by Deer” official video

Thinning the Herd on Facebook

Thinning the Herd on Instagram

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

Thinning the Herd website

A righteous dose of lineup additions to Desertfest NYC 2024 today puts High on Fire and Amenra at the top of the bill thus far along with the previously announced Russian Circles, and unveils the bands who’ll play the pre-party as The Skull-offshoot Legions of Doom, Tee Pee Records‘ house classic heavy proggers Mirror Queen, the revamped Satan’s Satyrs, and Mustafina.

All well and good, don’t get me wrong. Killer, all the way through. For me though, the personal highlight here is Spaceslug coming from Poland to play, hopefully on the main stage at the Knockdown Center. Not only is their new album the latest in a string of immersive heavy psych semi-metal explorations, but right around the end of last year, I was angling trying to get myself out to Vegas to see them at Planet Desert Rock Weekend, where they featured this past January. The thought of seeing them in Brooklyn takes some of the sting out of missing their first US appearance, and as that will occur among the likes of Primitive Man, Blackwater Holylight and Spirit Mother, so much the better.

If you’re not from New York and have ever thought about traveling there, take a gander at the following:

DESERTFEST NEW YORK ANNOUNCES HIGH ON FIRE, AMENRA, PRIMITIVE MAN, BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT, SPACESLUG + MORE FOR 2024 EDITION

🎟️ https://link.dice.fm/desertfest2024 🎟️

Performing at the Knockdown Center please welcome…
↠ High On Fire
↠ Amenra
↠ PRIMITIVE MAN
↠ Blackwater Holylight
↠ Spaceslug
↠ Spirit Mother

Who will all be joining the likes of Russian Circles, Acid King, GREEN LUNG, Truckfighters, Dozer, BelzebonG for the 4th edition of our independent East Coast venture, celebrating the best in underground heavy music! With more still to announce, including day splits – which will be released in July.

We are extremely proud of this line-up and the amount of EU bands we are able to bring over to you!
Plus we are thrilled to welcome doom metal super-group Legions of Doom (ft. members of Trouble, Saint Vitus, The Skull & COC) to headline our SOLD OUT pre-party, hosted by TeePee Records alongside the return of Satan’s Satyrs, plus local heroes Mirror Queen & Mustafina!

Will we see you there?? Check out more info at www.desertfestnewyork.com

Desertfest New York 2024 will take place September 12th – 14th. 3-Day Festival Passes (incl. pre-party access) and 2-Day Festival passes are available now via https://www.desertfestnewyork.com & https://link.dice.fm/desertfest2024

https://facebook.com/Desertfestnyc/
https://www.instagram.com/desertfest_nyc/
http://www.desertfestnewyork.com

Spaceslug, Out of Water (2024)

Check out that stomp in White Hills‘ new single “Killing Crimson,” and the weirdo-skronk guitar lead that bleep-bloops over the lower tone that follows the verse like you put proto-punk in a cosmic taffy pull. The long-running-but-what-is-time-anyway New York two-piece are set to issue Beyond This Fiction on Aug. 23 as the first all-new studio release through their own label, Heads on Fire Records behind 2022’s The Revenge of Heads on Fire (review here) semi-redux, and “Killing Crimson” finds Dave W. and Ego Sensation with vocals at the fore, catchy but still very much in their own place sonically as they reliably are.

Of course, Beyond This Fiction doesn’t just do one thing in terms of sound, and “Killing Crimson” is probably the most direct and forward beat they’ve got in the seven tracks, but if you’d expect White Hills to be sonically monochromatic, you’ve got the wrong band. We’ve got a bit before the album is out, but the announcement and single stream are below. Dig in and drop out:

White Hills Blast Open Reality Altering Vortex With New Album Beyond This Fiction

Hear “Killing Crimson”: https://linktr.ee/WHITEHILLS

NYC’s notorious shapeshifting duo White Hills will unleash their philosophy influenced album Beyond This Fiction this summer on Heads On Fire Records. Inspired by the ideas of Joseph Campbell, the writer/philosopher known for The Power of Myth, the album explores the idea of “riding between opposites”- forging one’s own path unrestrained by the collective “fiction” that the masses subscribe to. It’s a cry to all the seers among us- call us outsiders or rebels- who feel smothered by convention and see nonconformity as the gateway into divine mystery.

Recorded with longtime collaborator Martin Bisi, known for his iconic NYC sound developed through his work with no-wave titans Sonic Youth, Swans and Lydia Lunch, Beyond This Fiction sees Dave W (guitar/vocals/synths) and Ego Sensation (drums/bass/vocals) orchestrating their distinct guitar heavy meditations into songs with a stronger focus on vocals than previous albums. Neo-psychedelia, indie, post-punk, shoegaze and experimental elements synthesize leading the listener through the doors of perception. Harnessing the seductive accessibility of 2015’s Walks For Motorists while evoking the tempestuous soul of the band’s trailblazing 2011 H-p1, White Hills make Beyond This Fiction a familiar surprise.

For nearly two decades, White Hills have been blowing minds with their sonic alchemy: a unique mix at once original and recognizable. Their cult reputation emblazoned in celluloid following their performance in Jim Jarmusch’s sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, the duo has toured vigorously since their inception. With a vast catalogue that astounds and a relentless punk ethos, time seems to energize the duo, making them increasingly daring and prolific.

Artist: White Hills
Album Title: Beyond This Fiction
Label: Heads on Fire Records
Release Date: August 23, 2024

Beyond This Fiction (Track Listing)
1) Throw It Up in The Air
2) Clear As Day
3) Killing Crimson
4) Fiend
5) Closer
6) The Awakening
7) Beyond This Fiction

WHITE HILLS:
Dave W. – guitar, vocals, synth
Ego Sensation – drums, bass, vocals

http://www.whitehillsband.com
http://www.facebook.com/WHITEHILLSBand
http://www.instagram.com/whitehillsmusic
http://whitehills.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.youtube.com/whitehillsband
http://www.tiktok.com/@whitehillsband
http://www.patreon.com/whitehills

White Hills, “Killing Crimson”

This is the next-to-last day of this Quarterly Review, and while it’s been a lot, it’s been encouraging to dig into so much stuff in such intense fashion. I’ve added a few releases to my notes for year-end lists, but more importantly, I’ve gotten to hear and cover stuff that otherwise I might not, and that’s the value at a QR has for me at its core, so while we’re not through yet, I’ll just say thanks again for reading and that I hope you’ve also found something that speaks to you in these many blocks of text and embedded streaming players. If not, there’s still 20 records to go, so take comfort in that as needed.

Quarterly Review #81-90:

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Harvestman, Triptych: Part One

The weirdo-psych experimental project of Steve Von Till (now ex-Neurosis, which is still sad on a couple levels) begins a released-according-to-lunar-orbit trilogy of albums in Triptych: Part One, which is headlined by opening track “Psilosynth,” boasting a guest appearance from Al Cisneros (Sleep, Om) on bass. If those two want to start an outsider-art dub-drone band together, my middle-aged burnout self is here for it — “Psilosynth (Harvest Dub),” a title that could hardly be more Von Till and Cisneros, appears a little later, which suggests they might also be on board — but that’s only part of the world being created in Triptych: Part One as “Mare and Foal” manipulates bagpipes into ghostly melodies, “Give Your Heart to the Hawk” echoes poetry over ambient strum, “Coma” and “How to Purify Mercury” layer synthesized drone and/or effects-guitar to sci-fi affect and “Nocturnal Field Song” finds YOB‘s Dave French banging away on something metal in the background while the crickets chirp. The abiding spirit is subdued, exploratory as Von Till‘s solo works perpetually are, and even as the story is only a third told, the immersion on Triptych: Part One goes as deep as the listener is willing to let it. I look forward to being a couple moons late reviewing the next installment.

Harvestman on Facebook

Neurot Recordings website

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Kalgon, Kalgon

As they make their self-titled full-length debut, Asheville, North Carolina’s Kalgon lay claim to a deceptive wide swath of territory even separate from the thrashier departure “Apocalyptic Meiosis” as they lumber through “The Isolate” and the more melodic “Grade of the Slope,” stoner-doom leaning into psych and more cosmic vibing, with the mournful “Windigo” leading into “Eye of the Needle”‘s slo-mo-stoner-swing and gutted out vocals turning to Beatlesy melody — guitarist Brandon Davis and bassist Berten Lee Tanner share those duties while Marc Russo rounds out the trio on drums — in its still-marching second half and the post-Pallbearer reaches and acoustic finish of “Setting Sun.” An interlude serves as centerpiece between “Apocalyptic Meiosis” and “Windigo,” and that two-plus-minute excursion into wavy drone and amplifier hum works well to keep a sense of flow as the next track crashes in, but more, it speaks to longer term possibilities for how the band might grow, both in terms of what they do sonically and in their already-clear penchant for seeing their first LP as a whole, single work with its own progression and story to tell.

Kalgon on Facebook

Kalgon on Bandcamp

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Agriculture, Living is Easy

Surely there’s some element in Agriculture‘s self-applied aesthetic frame of “ecstatic black metal” in the power of suggestion, but as they follow-up their 2022 self-titled debut with the four-song Living is Easy EP and move from the major-key lightburst of the title-track into the endearingly, organically, folkishly strained harmonies of “Being Eaten by a Tiger,” renew the overwhelming blasts of tremolo and seared screams on “In the House of Angel Flesh” and round out with a minute of spoken word recitation in “When You Were Born,” guitarists Richard Chowenhill (also credited with co-engineering, mixing and mastering) and Dan Meyer (also vocals), bassist/vocalist Leah B. Levinson and drummer/percussionist Kern Haug present an innovative perspective on the genre that reminds of nothing so much as the manner in which earliest Wolves in the Throne Room showed that black metal could do something more than it had done previously. That’s not a sonic comparison, necessarily — though there are basic stylistic aspects shared between the two — but more about the way Agriculture are using black metal toward purposefully new expressive ends. I’m not Mr. Char by any means, but it’s been probably that long since the last time I heard something that was so definitively black metal and worked as much to refresh what that means.

Agriculture on Facebook

The Flenser website

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Saltpig, Saltpig

Apparently self-released by the intercontinental duo last Fall and picked up for issue through Heavy Psych Sounds, Saltpig‘s self-titled debut modernizes classic charge and swing in increasingly doomed fashion across the first four songs of its A-side, laces “Burn the Witch” with samples themed around the titular subject, and dedicates all of side B to the blown out mostly-instrumental roll of “1950,” which is in fact 19 minutes and 50 seconds long. The band, comprised of guitarist/vocalist/noisemaker Mitch Davis (also producer for a swath of more commercially viable fare) and drummer Fabio Alessandrini (ex-Annihilator), are based in New York and Italy, respectively, and whatever on earth might’ve brought them together, in both the heavy-garage strut of “Demon” and the willfully harsh manner in which they represent themselves in the record’s back half, they bask in the rougher edges of their tones and approach more generally. “When You Were Dead” is something of a preface in its thicker distortion to “1950,” but its cavernous shouted vocals retain a psychedelic presence amid the ensuing grit, whereas once the closer gets underway from its feedback-soaked first two minutes, they make it plain there’s no coming back.

Saltpig on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Druidess, Hermits and Mandrakes

Newcomer UK doomers Druidess nod forth on their debut EP, Hermits and Mandrakes, with a buzzing tonality in “Witches’ Sabbath” that’s distinctly more Monolord than Electric Wizard, and while that’s fascinating academically and in terms of the generational shift happening in the heavy underground over the last few years, the fuzz that accompanies the hook of “Mandragora,” which follows, brings a tempo boost that situates the two-piece of vocalist Shonagh Brown and multi-instrumentalist/producer Daniel Downing (guitar, bass, keys, drum programming; he even had a hand in the artwork, apparently) in a more rocking vein. It’s heavy either way you go, and “Knightingales” brings Green Lung-style organ into the mix along with another standout hook before “The Hermit of Druid’s Temple” signs over its soul to faster Sabbath worship and closer “The Forest Witches’ Daughter” underscores the commitment to same in combination with a more occult thematic. It’s familiar-enough terrain, ultimately, but the heft they conjure early on and the movement they bring to it later should be plenty to catch ears among the similarly converted, and in song and performance they display a self-awareness of craft that is no less a source of their potential.

Druidess on Facebook

Druidess on Bandcamp

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Astral Construct, Traveling a Higher Consciousness

One-man sans-vocals psych outfit Astral Construct — aka Denver-based multi-instrumentalist Drew Patricks — released Traveling a Higher Consciousness last year, and well, I guess I got lost in a temporal wormhole or some such because it’s not last year anymore. The record’s five-track journey is encompassing in its metal-rooted take on heavy psychedelia, however, and that’s fortunate as “Accessing the Mind’s Eye” solidifies from its languid first-half unfolding into more stately progressive riffage. Bookended by the dreamy manifestation of “Heart of the Nebula” (8:12) and “Interstellar” (9:26), which moves between marching declaration and expansive helium-guitar float, the album touches ground in centerpiece “The Traveler,” but even there could hardly be called terrestrial once the drums drop out and the keys sweep in near the quick-fade finish that brings about the more angular “Long View of Astral Consciousness,” that penultimate track daring a bit of double-kick in the drums heading toward its own culmination. Now, then or future, whether it’s looking inward or out, Traveling a Higher Consciousness is a revelry for the cosmos waiting to be engaged. You might just end up in a different year upon hearing it.

Astral Construct on Facebook

Astral Construct on Bandcamp

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Ainu, Ainu

Although their moniker comes from an indigenous group who lived on Hokkaido before that island became part of modern Japan, Ainu are based in Genoa, Italy, and their self-titled debut has little to do sound-wise with the people or their culture. Fair enough. Ainu‘s Ainu, which starts out in “Il Faro” with sparse atmospheric guitar and someone yelling at you in Italian presumably about the sea (around which the record is themed), uses speech and samples to hold most positions vocals would otherwise occupy, though the two-minute “D.E.V.S.” is almost entirely voice-based, so the rules aren’t so strictly applied one way or the other. Similarly, as the three-piece course between grounded sludgier progressions and drifting post-heavy, touching on more aggressive moods in the late reaches of “Aiutami A. Ricordare” and the nodding culmination of “Khrono” but letting the breadth of “Call of the Sea” unfold across divergent movements of crunchier riffs and operatic prog grandiosity. You would not call it predictable, however tidal the flow from one piece to the next might be.

Ainu on Facebook

Subsound Records website

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Grid, The World Before Us

Progressive sludge set to a backdrop of science-fiction and extrasolar range, The World Before Us marks a turn from heretofore instrumental New York trio Grid, who not only feature vocals throughout their 38-minute six-tracker third LP, but vary their approach in that regard such that as “Our History Hidden” takes hold following the keyboardy intro “Singularity” (in we go!), the first three of the song’s 12 minutes find them shifting from sub-soaring melodicism to hard-growled metallic crunch with the comfort of an act who’ve been pulling off such things for much longer. The subsequent “Traversing the Interstellar Gateway” (9:31) works toward similar ends, only with guitar instead of singing, and the standout galloping kickdrum of “Architects of Our World” leads to a deeper dig into the back and forth between melody and dissonance, led into by the threatening effects manipulations of the interlude “Contact” and eventually giving over to the capstone outro “Duality” that, if it needs to be said, mirrors “Singularity” at the start. There’s nuance and texture in this interplay between styles — POV: you dig Opeth and Hawkwind — and my suspicion is that if Grid keep to this methodology going forward, the vocal arrangements will continue to evolve along with the rest of the band’s expanding-in-all-directions stylizations.

Grid on Facebook

Grid on Bandcamp

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Dätcha Mandala, Koda

The stated intentions of Bordeaux, France’s Dätcha Mandala in bringing elements of ’90s British alternative rock into their heavier context with their Koda LP are audible in opener “She Said” and the title-track that follows it, but it’s the underlying thread of heavy rock that wins the day across the 11-song outing, however danceable “Wild Fire” makes it or however attitude-signaling the belly-belch that starts “Thousand Pieces” is in itself. That’s not to say Koda doesn’t succeed at what it’s doing, just that there’s more to the proceedings than playing toward that particular vision of cool. “It’s Not Only Rock and Roll (And We Don’t Like It)” has fuzzy charm and a hook to boot, while “Om Namah Shivaya” ignites with an energy that is proggy and urgent in kind — the kind of song that makes you a fan at the show even if you’ve never heard the band before — and closer “Homeland” dares some burl amid its harmonized chorus and flowing final guitar solo, answering back to the post-burp chug in “Thousand Pieces” and underscoring the multifaceted nature of the album as a whole. I suppose if you have prior experience with Dätcha Mandala, you know they’re not just about one thing, but for newcomers, expect happy surprises.

Dätcha Mandala on Facebook

Discos Macarras Records website

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Dr. Space Meets Mr. Mekon, The Bubbles Scopes

Given the principals involved — Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, et al, and Chris Purdon of Hawklords and Nik Turner’s Space Ritual — it should come as no surprise that The Bubbles Scopes complements its grammatical counterintuitiveness with alien soundscape concoctions of synth-based potency; the adventure into the unknown-until-it’s-recorded palpable across two extended tracks suitably titled “Trip 1” (22:56) and “Trip 2” (15:45). Longform waveforms, both. The collaboration — one of at least two Heller has slated for release this Spring; stay tuned tomorrow — makes it clear from the very beginning that the far-out course The Bubbles Scopes follows is for those who dwell in rooms with melting walls, but in the various pulsations and throbs of “Trip 1,’ the transition from organ to more electronic-feeling keyboard, and so on, human presence is no more absent than they want it to be, and while the loops are dizzying and “Trip 2” seems to reach into different dimensions with its depth of mix, when the scope is so wide, the sounds almost can’t help but feel free. And so they do. They put 30 copies on tape, because even in space all things digitalia are ephemeral. If you want one, engage your FOMO and make it happen because the chance may or may not come again.

Dr. Space on Facebook

Dr. Space on Bandcamp

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Welcome back to the Quarterly Review. Good weekend? Restful? Did you get out and see some stuff? Did you loaf and hang out on the couch? There are advantages to either, to be sure. Friday night I watched my daughter (and a literal 40 other performers, no fewer than four of whom sang and/or danced to the same Taylor Swift song) do stand-up comedy telling math jokes at her elementary school variety show. She’s in kindergarten, she likes math, and she killed. Nice little moment for her, if one that came as part of a long evening generally.

The idea this week is the same as last week: 50 releases covered across five days. Put the two weeks together and the Spring 2024 Quarterly Review — which I’m pretty sure is what I called the one in March as well; who cares? — runs 100 strong. I’ll be traveling, some with family, some on my own, for a bit in the coming months, so this is a little bit my way of clearing my slate before that all happens, but it’s always satisfying to dig into so much and get a feel for what different acts are doing, try and convey some of that as directly as I can. If you’re reading, thanks. If this is the first you’re seeing of it and you want to see more, you can either scroll down or click here.

Either way, off we go.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

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Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers

Chicago (mostly-)instrumentalist stalwarts Pelican haven’t necessarily been silent since 2019’s Nighttime Stories (review here), with a digital live release in Spring 2020, catalog reissues on Thrill Jockey, a couple in-the-know covers posted and shows hither and yon, but the stated reason for the two-songer EP Adrift/Tending the Embers is to raise funds ahead of recording what will be their seventh album in a career now spanning more than 20 years. In addition to that being a cause worth supporting — they’re on the second pressing; 200 blue tapes — the two new original tracks “Adrift” (5:48) and “Tending the Embers” (4:26) reintroduce guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec as a studio presence alongside guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry Herweg. Recorded by the esteemed Sanford Parker, neither cut ranges too far conceptually from the band’s central modus bringing together heavy groove with lighter/brighter reach of guitar, but come across like a tight, more concise encapsulation of earlier accomplishments. There’s a certain amount of comfort in that as they surf the crunching, somehow-noise-rock-inspired riff of “Adrift,” sounding refreshed in their purpose in a way that one hopes they can carry into making the intended LP.

Pelican website

Pelican on Bandcamp

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My Dying Bride, A Mortal Binding

Something of a harsher take on A Mortal Binding, which is the 15th full-length from UK death-doom forebears My Dying Bride, as well as their second for Nuclear Blast behind 2020’s lush The Ghost of Orion (review here. The seven-song/55-minute offering from the masters of misery derives its character in no small part from the front-mixed vocals of Aaron Stainthorpe, who from opener “Her Dominion” onward, switches between his morose semi-spoken approach, woeful as ever, and dry-throated harsher barks. And that the leadoff is all-screams feels like a purposeful choice as that rasp returns in the second half of “The 2nd of Three Bells,” the 11-minute “The Apocalyptist,” “A Starving Heart” and the ending section of closer “Crushed Embers.” I don’t know when the last time a My Dying Bride LP sounded so roiling, but it’s been a minute. The duly morose riffing of founding guitarist Andrew Craighan unites this outwardly nastier aspect with the more melodic “Thornwyck Hymn,” “Unthroned Creed” and the rest that isn’t throatripper-topped, but with returning producer Mark Mynett, the band has clearly honed in on a more stripped-down, still-room-for-violin approach, and it works in just about everything but the drums, which sound triggered/programmed in the way of modern metal. It remains easy to get caught in the band’s wretched sweep, and I’ll note that it’s a rare act who can surprise you 15 records later.

My Dying Bride website

Nuclear Blast webstore

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Masonic Wave, Masonic Wave

Masonic Wave‘s self-titled debut is the first public offering from the Chicago-based five-piece with Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Corrections House, Led Zeppelin II, etc.) on vocals, and though “Justify the Cling” has a kind of darker intensity in its brooding first-half ambience, what that build and much besides throughout the eight-song offering leads to is a weighted take on post-hardcore that earlier pieces “Bully” and “Tent City” present in duly confrontational style before “Idle Hands” (the longest inclusion at just under eight minutes) digs into a similar explore-till-we-find-the-payoff ideology and “Julia” gnashes through noise-rock teethkicking. Some of the edge-of-the-next-outburst restlessness cast by Lamont, guitarists Scott Spidale and Sean Hulet, bassist Fritz Doreza and drummer Clayton DeMuth reminds of Chat Pile‘s arthouse disillusion, but “Nuzzle Up” has a cyclical crunch given breadth through the vocal melody and the sax amid the multiple angles and sharp corners of the penultimate “Mountains of Labor” are a clue to further weirdness to come before “Bamboozler” closes with heads-down urgency before subtly branching into a more spacious if still pointedly unrelaxed culmination. No clue where it might all be headed, but that’s part of the appeal as Masonic Wave‘s Sanford Parker-produced 39 minutes play out, the songs engaging almost in spite of themselves.

Masonic Wave on Bandcamp

Masonic Wave on Bandcamp

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Bismarck, Vourukasha

There are shades of latter-day Conan (whose producer/former bassist Chris Fielding mixed here) in the vocal trades and mega-toned gallop of opening track “Sky Father,” which Bismarck expand upon with the more pointedly post-metallic “Echoes,” shifting from the lurching ultracrush into a mellower midsection before the blastbeaten crescendo gives over to rumble and the hand-percussion-backed whispers of the intro to “Kigal.” Their first for Dark Essence, the six-song/35-minute Vourukasha follows 2020’s Oneiromancer (review here) and feels poised in its various transitions between consuming aural heft and leaving that same space in the mix open for comparatively minimal exploration. “Kigal” takes on a Middle Eastern lean and stays unshouted/growled for its five-plus minutes — a choice that both works and feels purposeful — but the foreboding drone of interlude “The Tree of All Seeds” comes to a noisy head as if to warn of the drop about to take place in the title-track, which flows through its initial movement with an emergent float of guitar that leads into its own ambient middle ahead of an engrossing, duly massive slowdown/payoff worthy of as much volume as it can be given. Wrapping with the nine-minute “Ocean Dweller,” they summarize what precedes on Vourukasha while shifting the structure as an extended, vocal-inclusive-at-the-front soundscape bookends around one more huge, slow-marching, consciousness-flattening procession. Extremity refined.

Bismarck on Facebook

Dark Essence Records website

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Sun Moon Holy Cult, Sun Moon Holy Cult

That fact that Sun Moon Holy Cult exist on paper as a band based in Tokyo playing a Sabbath-boogie-worshiping, riff-led take on heavy rock with a song like “I Cut Your Throat” leading off their self-titled debut makes a Church of Misery comparison somewhat inevitable, but the psych jamming around the wah-bass shuffle of “Out of the Dark,” longer-form structures, the vocal melodies and the Sleep-style march of “Savoordoom” that grows trippier as it delves further into its 13 minutes distinguish the newcomer four-piece of vocalist Hakuka, guitarist Ryu, bassist Ame and drummer Bato across the four-song LP’s 40 minutes. Issued through Captured Records and SloomWeep Productions, Sun Moon Holy Cult brings due bombast amid the roll of “Mystic River” as well, hitting its marks stylistically while showcasing the promise of a band with a clear idea of what they want their songs to do and perhaps how they want to grow over time. If this is to be the foundation of that growth, watch out.

Sun Moon Holy Cult on Instagram

Captured Records website

SloomWeep Productions on Bandcamp

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Daily Thompson, Chuparosa

Dortmund, Germany’s Daily Thompson made their way to Port Orchard, Washington, to record Chuparosa with Mos Generator‘s Tony Reed at the helm, and the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Danny Zaremba, bassist/vocalist Mercedes Lalakakis and drummer/vocalist Thorsten Stratmann bring a duly West Coast spirit to “I’m Free Tonight” and the grunge-informed roll of “Diamond Waves” and the verses of “Raindancer.” The former launches the 36-minute outing with a pointedly Fu Manchuian vibe, but the start-stops, fluid roll and interplay of vocals from Zaremba and Lalakakis lets “Pizza Boy” move in its own direction, and the brooding acoustic start of “Diamond Waves” and more languid wash of riff in the chorus look elsewhere in ’90s alternativism for their basis. The penultimate “Ghost Bird” brings in cigar-box guitar and dares some twang amid all the fuzz, but as “Raindancer” has already branched out with its quieter bassy midsection build and final desert-hued thrust, the album can accommodate such a shift without any trouble. The title-track trades between wistful grunge verses and a fuller-nodding hook, from which the three-piece take off for the bridge, thankfully returning to the chorus in Chuparosa‘s big finish. The manner in which the whole thing brims with purpose makes it seem like Daily Thompson knew exactly what they were going for in terms of sound, so I guess you could say it was probably worth the trip.

Daily Thompson on Facebook

Noisolution website

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Mooch, Visions

Kicking off with the markedly Graveyardian “Hangtime,” Mooch ultimately aren’t content to dwell solely in a heavy-blues-boogie sphere on Visions, their third LP and quick follow-up to 2023’s Hounds. Bluesy as the vibe is from which the Montreal trio set out, the subsequent “Morning Prayer” meanders through wah-strum open spaces early onto to delve into jangly classic-prog strum later, while “Intention” backs its drawling vocal melody with nylon-stringed acoustic guitar and hand percussion. Divergence continues to be the order of the day throughout the 41-minute eight-songer, with “New Door” shifting from its sleepy initial movement into an even quieter stretch of Doors-meets-Stones-y melody before the bass leads into its livelier solo section with just a tinge of Latin rhythm and “Together” giving more push behind a feel harkening back to the opener but that grows quiet and melodically expansive in its second half. This sets up the moodier vibe of “Vision” and gives the roll of “You Wouldn’t Know” an effective backdrop for its acoustic/electric blend and harmonized vocals, delivered patiently enough to let the lap steel slide into the arrangement easily before the brighter-toned “Reflections” caps with a tinge of modern heavy post-rock. What’s tying it together? Something intangible. Momentum. Flow. Maybe just the confidence to do it? I don’t know, but as subdued as they get, they never lose their momentum, and as much movement as their is, they never seem to lose their balance. Visions might not reveal its full scope the first time through, but subsequent listens bring due reward.

Mooch on Facebook

Mooch on Bandcamp

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The Pleasure Dome, Liminal Space

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that guitarist/vocalist Bobby Spender recruited bassist Loz Fancourt and drummer Harry Flowers after The Pleasure Dome‘s prior rhythm section left, ahead of putting together the varied 16 minutes of the Liminal Space EP. For what it’s worth, the revamped Bristol, UK, trio don’t sound any more haphazard than they want to in the loose-swinging sections of “Shoulder to Cry On” that offset the fuller shove of the chorus, or the punk-rooted alt-rock brashness of “The Duke Part II (Friends & Enemies),” and the blastbeat-inclusive tension of “Your Fucking Smile” that precedes the folk-blues finger-plucking of “Sugar.” Disjointed? Kind of, but that also feels like the point. Closer “Suicide” works around acoustic guitar and feels sincere in the lines, “Suicide, suicide/I’ve been there before/I’ve been there before/On your own/So hold on,” and the profession of love that resolves it, and while that’s at some remove from the bitter spirit of the first two post-intro tracks, Liminal Space makes its own kind of sense with the sans-effects voice of Spender at its core.

The Pleasure Dome on Facebook

Hound Gawd! Records website

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Slump, Dust

A solid four-songer from Birmingham’s Slump, who are fronted by guitarist Matt Noble (also Alunah), with drummer David Kabbouri Lara and bassist Ben Myles backing the riff-led material with punch in “Buried” after the careening hook of “Dust” opens with classic scorch in its solo and before the slower and more sludged “Kneel” gets down to its own screamier business and “Vultures” rounds out with a midtempo stomp early but nods to what seems like it’s going to be a more morose finish until the drum solo takes off toward the big-crash finish. As was the case on Slump‘s 2023 split with At War With the Sun, the feel across Dust is that of a nascent band — Slump got together in 2018, but this is their most substantial standalone release to-date — figuring out what they want to do. The ideas are there, and the volatility at which “Kneel” hints will hopefully continue to serve them well as they explore spaces between metal and heavy rock, classic and modern styles. A progression underway toward any number of potential avenues.

Slump on Facebook

Slump on Bandcamp

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Green Hog Band, Fuzz Realm

What dwells in Green Hog Band‘s Fuzz Realm? If you said “fuzz,” go ahead and get yourself a cookie (the judges also would’ve accepted “riffs” and “heavy vibes, dude”), but for those unfamiliar with the New Yorker trio’s methodology, there’s more to it than tone as guitarist/producer Mike Vivisector, bassist/vocalist Ivan Antipov and drummer Ronan Berry continue to carve out their niche of lo-fi stoner buzz marked by harsh, gurgly vocals in the vein of Attila Csihar, various samples, organ sounds and dug-in fuckall. “Escape on the Wheels” swings and chugs instrumentally, and “In the Mist of the Bong” has lyrics in English, so there’s no lack of variety despite the overarching pervasiveness of misanthropy. That mood is further cast in the closing salvo of the low-slung “Morning Dew” and left-open “Phantom,” both of which are instrumental save for some spoken lines in the latter, as the prevailing sense is that they were going to maybe put some verses on there but decided screw it and went back to their cave (presumably somewhere in Queens) instead, because up yours anyhow. 46 minutes of crust-stoned “up yours anyhow,” then.

Green Hog Band on Facebook

The Swamp Records on Bandcamp

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To my knowledge, “Simulacrum” is the first single that New York’s Ken Wohlrob — known for his work in defunct doomers Eternal Black as well as the hardcore-minded End of Hope, the pandemic-era remote project Swarm of Flies and the nascent riffery of Northern Heretic‘s two-to-date singles (posted here and here) — has issued under his own name.

Released today through Bandcamp and probably a bunch of other scattered digital outlets, “Simulacrum” swells from its initial fade-in to a six-plus-minute procession of melodic guitar drone, neither minimal in construction or dispassionate as that kind of thing sometimes can be. And while the release info I’ve cut and pasted below is somewhat abstract, so is the song, and that I assume is part of the (friggin’) point. More aural sculpture than soundscape, it howls around synthesizer complement and leaves no shortage of room for the listener to get lost in its contemplative spaces, but has a defined course and forward progression in addition to offering something different from anything any of Wohlrob‘s bands have done before. I take the fact that “Simulacrum” makes me curious about both it — how many layers of guitar/keys are there, which layer was built on first, how long did it take for it to be recorded, when did it feel done and why, on and on — and about what’s to come from Wohlrob as good signs.

Maybe you’ll feel the same, but there’s only one way to find out. Take a pause to open your mind and focus your attention, then hit play and enjoy:

KEN WOHLROB – “Simulacrum”

A song can be a slippery thing.
It can have no structure while still being bound to consistency.
It can be sinister, but also beautiful.
It can allow you space to think, moving into the background, but it can still enforce its presence.
It can feel immovable, while it can feel as if it’s slithering away, unable to be held.
Its components can be distinct, while its layers can melt into one another.
It can sound familiar, yet unlike anything you’ve ever heard.
It can have roots, but be unmoored from the past.
It can borrow, cheat, and steal, while being pure and unique.
It is a sum of its parts, but the parts don’t define it.
It can engage the brain, but defy understanding.
It can be one thing one minute, another thing the next
But it should infect you…

Otherwise, what’s the friggin’ point?

There are guitars. They are synthesizers. They are effects. Slivers of old songs and styles that have been lurking in my brain, sitting in the unconscious, waiting to be deployed. Some influences overt, others indistinguishable. This was where my brain was at during the moments the song was recorded. It was not planned. Nor written. It was cobbled together from rapid impulses and dredged old thoughts.

Hope you dig it.

releases May 3, 2024
Written, performed and produced by Ken Wohlrob
Recorded at Quatre Cagne, Mohegan Lake, NY
February 2024
Obsidian Sky Records #009

https://www.instagram.com/kenwohlrob/
https://soundcloud.com/kwohlrob/
linktr.ee/kwohlrob

New York’s Geezer and Genoa, Italy’s Isaak are set to issue their split LP, Interstellar Cosmic Blues & The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes, on May 17. As labelmates on Heavy Psych Sounds, they are united in dedication to groove and weighted tones, and they’re certainly both acts you’d call ‘heavy,’ but from one side of the platter to the other, there’s no question they each stand on their own as well.

Geezer open side A with “Acid Veins” (lyric video premiering below) as one the first of four characteristically grooving inclusions. It and the capping “Oneirophrenia” were recorded with David Andersen at The Artfarm, while the middle two, “Little Voices” and “Mercury Rising,” were tracked during the sessions for the band’s most recent album, 2022’s Stoned Blues Machine (review here), which were helmed by Chris Bittner at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY, near the band’s hometown of Kingston. I’m not sure when “Acid Veins” and “Oneirophrenia” were tracked, but they fit well in bookending the Interstellar Cosmic Blues portion of this split, with “Acid Veins” sweeping in on a quick rush of noise and digging almost immediately into its verse riff in an easy nod and swing from guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota that holds for the duration through the first of their four choice hooks and into the fuzz-drenched twister solo section that carries them out in classic stoner rock style.

Perhaps in comparison to Isaak, whose stated purpose here is to branch out in sound and personnel alike (give me a minute, we’ll get there), Geezer‘s four cuts might not come off as outwardly pushing boundaries in the same way, but in “Acid Veins,” “Little Voices,” which might be about depression or might be about having kids — take your pick; either way, “sometimes it gets dark” — and “Mercury Rising” they bring to emphasis the more straight-ahead songwriting that on their albums has done so much to complement and sometimes ground their jammier and more psychedelic material.

“Mercury Rising” is a little longer and starts out with a mellow jam for its first minute-plus, but picks up from there around a rolling riff and verse/chorus trades. It’s a hook I remembered instantly from being in the studio when Stoned Blues Machine‘s basic tracks were put down, and it’s a highlight here as well. Rounding out, “Oneirophrenia” — the title in reference to the semi-hallucinatory dream-state between being awake and asleep; you know, brain stuff — grows insistent in its shove as it moves through its halfway point, but closes Geezer‘s stretch with a condensed exploration of low-key spacey vibing, giving some representation to the reach that might show up near the end of an LP. Hypnotic by the end of its six minutes, it’s the proverbial ‘big finish’ perfectly scaled-down to suit the context in which it arrives. Sometimes a song just finds its place. That happens four times on the first half of Interstellar Cosmic Blues & The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes.

The plot thickens with the start of Isaak‘s “The Whale,” as the core four-piece of the band — vocalist Giacomo Boeddu, guitarist Francesco Raimondi, bassist Gabriele Carta and drummer Davide Foccis — waste not a second of their circa-15-minutes and transfigure the crunch of a song like “OBG” from last year’s Hey (review here) long-player onto a careening gallop that, particularly with the bellow that tops it, feels more born of the Baroness school of riffing. Welcoming the first of three guests in Fabio Cuomo (Gotho, Liquido di Morte), they calm it down somewhat momentarily in the bridge before building up to a charged finish, but are very obviously working to expand the perception of the band as The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes, and both “Crisis” and “Flat Earth” follow suit in methodology and the shirking of expectation.

As to how recent Isaak‘s tracks are, I don’t know that either, but as vocalist Fabio Palombi (Burn the Ocean, Nerve) joins in for “Crisis” and Ufomammut drummer Alessandro “Levre” Levrero guests on “Flat Earth,” they both help the cause. “Crisis” sets out on an initially angular course of riffing before settling into the verse with Foccis on the bell of the ride, Mastodonic in thickness of tone in a way that feels not so far removed from what Hey wrought and daring a bit of shuffle in its chorus. The twist comes with the departure first into acoustic-inclusive heavy, almost-folkish push before they surge forward with the post-hardcore shouts of Palombi overtop, which give an intensity that Isaak answer by shifting back to the verse and chorus to round out. The sense of their trying new ideas, branching out in terms of sound, is palpable, but they’ve neither dropped their lead-with-riffs modus or the momentum of “The Whale” just before, and as Boeddu‘s own vocals have always had a bit of burl to them and certainly do here as well, it’s not too much of a leap to Palombi‘s part that it derails the song. It works, in other words.

They crash into the start of “Flat Earth” and set out across the split’s final track with a marked tension in the guitar. The pace isn’t quite as thrust-minded as “The Whale,” but the first of Isaak‘s three songs still affects the momentum of the last, and while they’re a bit more in line with what they’ve done before, when the chorus hits, what in many contexts would be a desert rock riff takes on a new persona and energy. It is both a blast and wall-‘o-tone heavy; the snare punctuating turns in the guitar and bass at the end of bellowing measures. Right at three minutes in, the guitar solo starts and the rhythmic pattern follows, but they’re back in the chorus soon enough and build from there into the ending section — which I’m pretty sure is where Levrero joins Boeddu — which both answers back to Geezer‘s ceremonious closeout and underscores the vibrancy behind the surprises from The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes, who just might need to add a ‘+’ to their side B descriptor.

The bottom line for Interstellar Cosmic Blues & The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes as a whole is quality work from established acts each with their own chemistry and intent for the release. They are nowhere near close enough in style to be competing with each other, but if you put one on loud, certainly the next will benefit from that same volume. Kind of a no-brainer for those who know the bands, maybe, and for those who don’t — that’s not a judgment on my part, ever; I’m not talking down to anyone — in Geezer‘s display of craft and Isaak‘s willful progression of style, they both play to strengths in an engaging summary of what they do. Yeah, the split’s got a long title, but hell, it also covers a lot of ground.

Enjoy “Acid Veins” below, followed by more info from the PR wire:

Geezer, “Acid Veins” lyric video premiere

ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS306

USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

ACID VEINS is the third GEEZER single taken from the split album Interstellar Cosmic Blues & The Riffalicious Stoner Dudes. The release features Geezer and Isaak and will see the light on May 17th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

SAYS THE BAND:
“Acid Veins is about life on the road. The good, the bad and the ugly side of touring in an underground rock band. While it is (in many ways) the best experience in the world, it ain’t for the faint of heart and it sure as hell ain’t always fun and games. We love what we do and we don’t take anything for granted. This one’s for the road dogs, for the lifers. Much love and safe travels!”

TRACKLIST
SIDE A
Acid Veins (Geezer)
Little Voices (Geezer)
Mercury Rising (Geezer)
Oneirophrenia (Geezer)

SIDE B
The Whale (Isaak feat Fabio Cuomo from Gotho & Liquido di Morte)
Crisis (Isaak feat. Fabio Palombi from Nerve & Burn the Ocean)
Flat Earth (Isaak feat. Levre from Ufomammut)

GEEZER are:
Pat Harrington – vocals/guitar
Richie Touseull – bass
Steve Markota – drums

ISAAK is
Giacomo Boeddu – vocals
Francesco Raimondi – guitars
Gabriele Carta – bass
Davide Foccis – drums

Geezer on Instagram

Geezer on Facebook

Geezer on Bandcamp

Isaak on Instagram

Isaak on Facebook

Isaak on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram