Posted in Whathaveyou on October 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd have announced the addition of Rob Sefcik (also Kings Destroy, Northern Heretic, Begotten, etc.) on drums. In 2021, the long-running outfit led by guitarist, vocalist, songwriter Gavin Spielman presented the single “Wolves Close In” (premiered here) as the preface to what would then have been their first album in eight years. It’s now been a full decade since they released 2013’s Freedom From the Known, and the post from the band below doesn’t mention recording one way or the other, but it’s easy enough to imagine Speilman plugging away at it behind the scenes. No doubt having a drummer helps.
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Sefcik play live, with Kings Destroy mostly but also Begotten, but he’s both a monster behind the kit and a classy player mindful of the songs in which he’s working. You might recall Thinning the Herd drummer Rick Cimato passed away in 2012 ahead of the 2013 album release, and Spielman has seen a few others come and go since. I don’t know what their plans are if there are any other than local shows, or even if bassist Wes Edmonds is still in the band, but here’s what they had to say:
Thinning the Herd would like to give a big horns up Welcome to Rob S. on the drums! Filling the shoes of previous drummers ain’t an easy task but he’s a bad ass – and up for it!
Rob’s played in many bands that rocked, and we are super excited to have a solid guy and heavy drum smasher in the band for the long haul. We look forward to bringing y’all new music and performing old tunes as well as the new heaters.
If interested in an interview or to book our band hit the DM.
Since 2006 TTH has y’all groovin’ on the sludgy New York Metal, and look how far it’s come!
Posted in Reviews on October 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I broke my wife’s phone yesterday. What a mess. I was cleaning the counter or doing some shit and our spare butter dish — as opposed to the regular one, which was already out — was sitting near the edge of the top of the microwave, from where I bumped it so that the ceramic corner apparently went right through the screen hard enough that in addition to shattering it there’s a big black spot and yes a new phone has been ordered. In the meantime, she can’t type the letter ‘e’ and, well, I have to hand it to Le Creuset on the sturdy construction of their butter dishes. Technology succumbing to the brute force of a harder blunt object and gravity.
Certainly do wish that hadn’t happened. What does it have to do with riffs, or music at all, or really anything? Who cares. I’m about to review 10 records today. I can talk about whatever the hell I want.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
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Samsara Blues Experiment, Rock Hard in Concert
10 years after releasing 2013’s Live at Rockpalast (review here), and nearly three after they put out their 2021 swansong studio LP, End of Forever (review here), German heavy psych rockers Samsara Blues Experiment offer the 80-minute live 2LP Rock Hard in Concert, and while it’s not their first live album, it gives a broader overview of the band from front to (apparent) back during their time together, as songs opening salvo of “Center of the Sun,” “Singata Mystic Queen” and “For the Lost Souls” from 2010’s debut, Long-Distance Trip (review here), melds in the set with “One With the Universe” and “Vipassana” from 2017’s One With the Universe (review here), End of Forever‘s own title-track and “Massive Passive,” and “Hangin’ on a Wire” from 2013’s Waiting for the Flood (review here) to become a fan-piece that nonetheless engages in sound and presentation. If you were there, it’s likely must-own. For the rest of us, who maybe did or didn’t see the band during their time — glad to say I did — it’s a reminder of how immersive they could be, especially in longer-form material, and how much influence they had on the last decade-plus of jam-based heavy psych in Europe. Recorded in 2018 at a special gig for Germany’s Rock Hard magazine, Rock Hard in Concert follows behind 2022’s Demos & Rarities (review here) in the band’s posthumous catalog, and it may or may not be Samsara Blues Experiment‘s final non-reissue release. Whether it is or not, it summarizes their run gorgeously and puts a light on the chemistry of the trio that led them through so many winding aural paths.
Sounding modern and full and in opening cut “Marrow” almost like the fuzz is about to swallow the rest of the song, Restless Spirit step forward with their third long-player, Afterimage, and establish a new level of craft for themselves. In 2021, the Long Island heavy/doom rock trio offered Blood of the Old Gods (review here), and their guitar-led energetic surges continue here in Afterimage riffers like the chug-nod “Shadow Command” and “Of Spirit and Form,” which seems to account for the underlying metallic edge of the band’s execution with its sharper turns. Their first album for Magnetic Eye Records, its eight tracks fit smoothly into the label’s roster, which at its baseline might be said to foster modern heavy styles with a particular ear for songwriting and melody, and Restless Spirit dig into “All Furies” like High on Fire galloping into a wall of Slayer records, only to follow with the 1:45 instrumental reset “Brutalized,” which is somehow weightier. They touch on the ethereal with the guitar in “The Fatalist,” but the vocals are more post-hardcore and have a grounding effect, and after starting with outright crush, “Hell’s Grasp” offers respite in progressive flourish and midtempo meandering before resuming the double-plus-huge roll and pointed riff and noodly offsets, the huge hook coming back in a way that makes me miss doing a radio show. “Hell’s Grasp” is the longest piece on the collection at 6:25, but “From the Dust Returned” closes, mindful of the atmospherics that have been at work all along and no less huge, but clearly saving a last push for, well, last. I’ll be interested in how it holds up over the long term, but Magnetic Eye has become one of the US’ most essential labels in heavy music and releases like this are exactly why.
When did Graham Clise from WitchLecherous Gaze, etc. — dude used to be in Uphill Battle; I remember that band — move to Australia? Doesn’t matter. It happened and Stepmother is the raw, garage-ish fuzz rock outfit the now-Melbourne-residing Clise has established, with Rob Muinos on bass and vocals and Sam Rains on drums. With Clise on guitar/vocals peppering hard-strummed riffs with bouts of shred and various dirtier coatings, the 12-tracker goes north of four minutes one time for “Do You Believe,” already by then having found its proto-Misfits bent in the catchy “Scream for Death.” But whether they’re buzz-overdosing “Waiting for the Axe” or digging into the comedown in “Signed DC” ahead of the surf-informed rager of a finale “Gusano,” Planet Brutalicon is a debut that presents fresh ideas taking on known stylistic elements. And it’s not a showcase for Clise‘s instrumental prowess on a technical level or anything — he’s not trying to put on a clinic — but from the sound of his guitar to the noises he gets from it in “The Game” (that middle part, ultra-fuzz) and at the end of “Stalingrad,” it is very much a guitar-centered offering. No complaints there whatsoever.
Pilot Voyager, The Structure is Still Under Construction
WARNING: Users who take even a small dose of Pilot Voyager‘s The Structure is Still Under Construction may find themselves experiencing euphoria, or adrift, as though on some serene ocean under the warm green sky of impossibly refracted light. The ethereal drones and melodic textures of the 46-minute single-song LP may cause side effects like: momentary flashes of inner peace, the quieting of your brain that you’ve been seeking your whole life without knowing it, calm. Also nausea, but that’s probably just something you ate. Talk to your doctor about whether this extended work from the Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records (szia!) is right for you, and if it is, make sure to consume responsibly. Headphones required (not included or covered by insurance). Do not be afraid as “The Structure is Still Under Construction” leaves the water behind to float upward in its midsection, finally resolving in intertwining drones, vague sampled speech echoing far off somewhere — ugh, the real world — and birdsong someplace in the mix. Go with it. This is why you got the prescription in the first place. Decades of aural research and artistic movement and progression have led you and the Budapesti outfit to this moment. Do not operate heavy machinery. Ever. In fact, find an empty field, take off your pants and run around for a while until you get out of breath. Then drink cool water and giggle. This could be you. Your life.
Philadelphia has become the East Coast US’ hotbed for heavy psychedelia, which must be interesting for Northern Liberties, who started out more than two decades ago. The trio’s self-released, 10-song/41-minute Self-Dissolving Abandoned Universe — maybe their eighth album, if my count is right — with venerated producer Steve Albini, so one might count ‘instant-Gen-X-cred’ and ‘recognizably-muddy-toms’ among their goals. I wasn’t completely sold on the offering until “Infusorian Hymnal” started to dig a little further into the genuinely weird after opener “The Plot Thickens” and the subsequent “Drowned Out” laid forth the crunch of the tones and gave hints of the structures beneath the noise. “Crucible” follows up the raw shove of “Star Spangled Corpse” by expanding the palette toward space rock and an unhinged psych-noise shove that the somehow-still-Hawkwindian volatility of “The Awaited” moves away from while the finale “Song of the Sole Survivor” calls back to the folkish vocal melody in “Ghosts of Ghosts,” if in echoing and particularly addled fashion. Momentum serves the three-piece well throughout, though they seem to have no trouble interrupting themselves (can relate), and turning to follow a disparate impulse. Distractable heavy? Yeah, except bands like that usually don’t last two decades. Let’s say maybe their own kind of oddball, semi-spaced band who aren’t afraid to screw around in the studio, find what they like, and keep it. And whatever else you want to say about Albini-tracked drums, “Hold on to the Darkness” has a heavier tone to its snare than most guitars do to whole LPs. Whatever works, and it does.
“Good Night, Ophelia” is the first single from the forthcoming debut full-length from semi-goth Portland, Oregon, heavy rock four-piece Nyxora. There are worse opening shots to fire than a Hamlet reference, I suppose, and if one regards Ophelia’s character as an innocent driven to suicide by gender-based oppression, then her lack of agency is nothing if not continually relevant. Nonetheless, for Nyxora — Vox on, well, vox, guitarist E.Wrath, bassist Luke and drummer Weatherman — she pairs with dark-boogie riff recorded for edge with Witch Mountain‘s Rob Wrong at his Wrong Way Studio. There are some similarities between Nyxora and Wrong‘s own outfit — I double-checked it wasn’t Uta Plotkin singing some of the higher-reaching lines of “Good Night, Ophelia,” which is a definite compliment — but I get the sense that fuller atmosphere of Nyxora‘s first LP isn’t necessarily encapsulated in this one three-and-a-half-minute song. That is, I’m thinking at some point on the album, Nyxora will get more morose than they are here. Or maybe not. Either way, “Good Night, Ophelia” is an enticing teaser from a group who seem ready to dig their niche when the album is released, I’ll assume in 2024 though one never knows.
I hate to do it, but I’m calling bullshit right now on Sydney, Australia’s Old Goat Smoke. Sorry gents. To be sure, your Bongzilla-crusty, ultra-stoned, Church of Misery-esque-in-its-madcap-vocal-wails, goat weed metal is only a pleasure to behold. But that’s the problem. How’re you gonna write a song called “Old Goat Smoke” and not post the lyrics? I shudder to think of the weed puns I’m missing. Fortunately, it’s not too late for the newcomer band to correct the mistake before the entire project is derailed. In that eponymous one of three total tracks included, Old Goat Smoke cast themselves in the mold of the despondent and disaffected. “Return to Dirt” shifts fluidly in and out of screams and harsher fare while radioactive-dirt tonality infects the guitar and bass that have already challenged the drums to cut through their morass. So that there’s no risk of the point not being made, they cap this initial public offering with “The Great Hate,” and eight-and-a-half-minute treatise on feedback and raw scathe that’s likewise a show of future nastiness to manifest. Quit your job, do all the drugs you can find, engage the permanent fuck-off. Old Goat Smoke may not have ‘bong’ in their moniker, but that’s about all they’re missing. And those lyrics, I guess, though by the time the 20 minutes of Demo have expired, they’ve made their caustic point regardless.
German transport-themed heavy rock and rollers Van Groover — as in, one who grooves in or with vans — made a charming debut with 2021’s Honk if Parts Fall Off (review here), and the follow-up five-song EP, Back From the Shop, makes no attempt to fix what isn’t broken. That would seem to put it at odds with the mechanic speaking in the intro “Hill Willy’s Chop Shop,” who runs through a litany of issues fixed, goes on long enough to hypnotize and then swaps in body parts and so on. From there, the motor works, and Van Groover hit the gas through 21 minutes of smells-like-octane riffing and storytelling. In “A-38″ — the reference being to the size of a sheet of paper in Europe; equivalent but not the same as the US’ 8.5″ x 11” — they either get arrested, which would seem to be the ending of “The Bandit” just before,” or are at the DMV, I can’t quite tell, but it doesn’t matter one you meet “The Grizz.” The closer has an urgency to its push that doesn’t quite sound like I’d imagine being torn apart by a bear to feel, but the Lebowski-paraphrased penultimate line, “Some days you get eaten by the bear, some days the bear eats you,” underscores Van Groover‘s for-the-converted approach, speaking to the subculture from within. Possibly while driving. Does look like a nice van, though. The kind you might write a song or two about.
Facts-wise, there’s not much more I can tell you about Hotel Lucifer than you might glean from looking at the New York four-piece’s Bandcamp page. Their self-released and self-titled debut runs 43 minutes and eight tracks, and its somewhat bleak, not-obligated-to-heavy-tonalism course takes several violent thematic turns, including (I think.) in opener “Room 222,” where Katie‘s vocals seem to talk about raping god. This, “Murderer,” “Torquemada,” “The Ultimate Price,” “Picking Your Eyes Out” and 12-minute horror noisefest closer “Beheaded” — only the classic metaller “Training the Beast” and the three-minute acoustic-backed psychedelic voice showcase “Echidna” seem to restrain the brutaller impulses, and I’m not sure about that either. With Jimmy on guitar, Muriel playing bass and Ed on drums, Hotel Lucifer are defined in no small part by the whispers, rasps and croons that mark their verses and choruses, but that becomes an effective means to convey character and mood along with the instrumental ambience behind, and so Hotel Lucifer find this strange, almost willfully off-putting cultish individualism, and it’s not hooks keeping your attention so much as the desire to figure it out, to learn more about just what the hell is going on on this record. I’ll wish you good luck with that as I continue my efforts along similar lines.
Its five songs broken into two sections along lines of “Obscure Fire” pairing with “Of Silence” and “Descending” leading to “Into the Depths” with “Of Eternal Doom” answering the question that didn’t even really need to be asked about which depths the Russian stoner sludge rollers were talking about. The Sleep-worshiping three-piece of guitarist/vocalist SAA, bassist KKV and drummer PAN — whose credits are worth reading in the band’s own words — lumber with purpose as they make that final statement, each side of Obscure Fire working shortest to longest beginning with the howling guitar and drum thud of the title-track at nine minutes as opposed to the 10 of “Of Silence.” At two minutes, “Descending” is barely more than feedback and tortured gurgles, so yes, very much a fit with the concrete-toned plod of the subsequent “Into the Depths” as the band skirt the line between ultra-stoner metal and cavernous atmospheric sludge without necessarily committing to one or the other. That position favors them, but after a certain point of being bludgeoned with huge riffs and slow-nodding, deeply-weighted churn, your skull is going to be goo either way. The route Megalith Levitation take to get you there is where the weed is, aurally speaking.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Starting tomorrow night at the Up in Smoke Festival in Switzerland, King Buffalo return to Europe for their second tour abroad of 2023, following up on a stint this past Spring that took them back to Freak Valley (review here) and elsewhere. In addition to Up in Smoke, the current run also boasts stops at Into the Void, Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium and Lazy Bones Fests, which isn’t quite all of ’em — there are always more sneaking around — but it’s a lot.
And King Buffalo have been touring. A lot. Time for a new record? You know it. No, I don’t honestly think the Rochester, New York, trio — who emerged from the pandemic as one of the US’ brightest hopes in heavy psychedelia and have only furthered their case since — haven’t written a song in the last three years. Doesn’t seem feasible. But it makes sense that they might want to knuckle down and get everything ready to record. They’re following up an entire trilogy of albums, remember. Want to make sure your ducks are in a row.
And you’ll note they say there’s nothing else planned now. Plans change. Still, if you want to catch King Buffalo on this weird album-cycle-times-three — and I’ll gladly argue that you do — these shows might be your last chance. Fair warning.
These are our last planned shows for 2023 & 2024. If you want to see us before we hunker down to write a new record, THIS IS IT!
12/6 Portland, ME @ House of Music 12/7 Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace 12/8 Fairfield, CT @ The Warehouse 12/9 Providence, RI @ FETE Lounge 12/30 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom 1/12 Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird 1/13 Detroit, MI @ El Club 1/14 Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme 1/16 Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel 1/17 Bloomington, IN @ Bishop Bar 1/18 Louisville, KY @ Whirling Tiger 1/19 Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theatre 1/20 Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
EUROPEAN TOUR DATES LAST SHOWS UNTIL 2025
29.9. (CH) Pratteln @ Up in Smoke Festival 30.9. (NL) Leeuwarden @ Into the Void 1.10. (DE) Lubeck @ Riders Café 3.10. (SWE) Gothenburg @ Musikens Hus 4.10. (DK) Copenhagen @ Loppen 5.10. (DE) Berlin @ Lido* 6.10. (DE) Munich @ Keep It Low* 7.10. (AT) Dornbirn @ Conrad Sohm* 8.10. (CH) Dudingen @ Bad Bonn 10.10. (ESP) Barcelona @ Razzmatazz3 11.10. (ESP) Madrid @ Nazca 12.10. (POR) Lisbon @ RCA Club 13.10. (POR) Porto @ Hard Club 14.10. (ESP) Hondarribia @ Psilocybenea 15.10. (FR) Toulouse @ Connexion Live 17.10. (UK) London @ The Dome 18.10. (UK) Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club 19.10. (UK) Nottingham @ Bodega 20.10. (UK) Brighton @ The Arch 21.10. (BE) Antwerp @ Desertfest 22.10. (NL) Deventer @ Burgerweeshuis 24.10. (DE) Cologne @ Club Volta 25.10. (NL) Amsterdam @ Melkweg 26.10. (NL) Eindhoven @ Effenaar 27.10. (DE) Frankfurt @ Zoom 28.10. (DE) Hamburg @ Lazy Bones Festival
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
NSFW, obviously.
It’s not dismemberment, it’s memberment! Newburgh, New York, sans-guitar atmospheric doom rockers Mama Doom will release their new album, Blood Salt Sacrifice, through Interstellar Smoke Records in the coming months. You might recall their 2021 debut, Ash Bone Skin & Stone (discussed here), was released through Majestic Mountain Records, and the band has been around in various incarnations, haunting the two-lane-highway woods of Orange County for well over a decade. I don’t have a release date yet on the new album, but they sure have a single ready to go.
The video premiering below for “Man Parts” is sub-two-and-a-half-minutes of pure horror kitsch. A gory short film in which the three-piece — vocalist D.Lolli, bassist Chuckie Rumbles and drummer Anne Terror — piece together Rumbles à la Mary Shelly. It’s a fun twist on the classic, and the song is a quick sample from Blood Salt Sacrifice that bodes well in its melody, atmosphere and hook. It looks like it was probably a good time to put together, and I’m not sure if James Cromwell (Star Trek‘s own Zefram Cochrane) actually saw it, but according to the below it did feature at a film fest that he hosted. Also fun.
As regards the record, it’s not the most substantial sampling; a short video and shorter song. But it’s an early glimpse, a guts-on-the-table teaser. More info on Blood Salt Sacrifice when I get it, for now, enjoy the clip responsibly and expect more heavy, languid groove to come.
Dig:
Mama Doom, “Man Parts” video premiere
Interstellar Smoke Label will be putting out our third album “Blood Salt Sacrifice”, preorder information coming soon.
Gratuitous Productions created a fun-filled bloody Frankenstein-esque video, Man Parts serving as our first single. Gratuitous Productions is a production company run by Anne Terror and Grave Dave. The video for Man Parts was showcased at the Hudson Valley Film Festival hosted by James Cromwell.
It started with a little light and was burning and burning. Mama Doom was summoned from the fire like a phoenix resurrecting itself yet keeping its old bones. Mutating into three because there is power and strength in the number 3. We’ve kept things simple yet complex with only the booming presence of bass guitar, haunting keyboards, and complex drumming. Vocally we take you on a journey of dark humor with an undertone of satanic references. Hailing from Newburgh NY, Mama Doom has been together since 2016 and finally discovered the perfect combination of sounds.
Track listing: 1. Love ‘n Dead 2. Ring the Bell 3. Devil in the Sky 4. Lovely Home 5. Bleeding Garden 6. Bury Your Bones 7. Man Parts 8. Nosferatu (Witches Worm) 9. Burned into Nothing
Band Members: D.Lolli – Vocals Chuckie Rumbles – Bass Anne Terror – Drums
Well here we are, at last. A couple weeks ago I looked at my calendar and ended up pushing this Quarterly Review to mid-July instead of the end of June, and it’s been hanging over my head in the interim to such a degree that I added two days to it to cover another 20 records. I’m sure it could be more. The amount of music is infinite. It just keeps going.
I’ll assume you know the deal, but here it is anyhow: 10 records per day, for seven days — Monday through Friday, plus Monday and Tuesday in this case — for a total of 70 reviews. Links and audio provided to the extent possible, and hopefully we all find some killer new music we didn’t know about before, or if we did know about it, just to enjoy. That doesn’t seem so crazy, right?
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Bongzilla, Dab City
None higher. Following extensive touring before and (to the extent possible) after the release of their 2021 album, Weedsconsin (review here), Madison, WI, canna-worship crust sludge-launchers Bongzilla return with Dab City, proffering the harsh and the mellow as only they seem to be able to do, even among their ’90s-born original-era sludge brethren. As second track “King of Weed” demonstrates, Bongzilla are aurally dank unto themselves, both in the scathing vocals of bassist Mike “Muleboy” Makela and the layered guitar of Jeff “Spanky” Schultz and the slow-swinging groove shoving all that weighted tone forward in Mike “Magma” Henry‘s drums. Through the seven tracks and 56 minutes of dense jams like those in the opening title-cut or the 13-minute “Cannonbong (The Ballad of Burnt Reynolds as Lamented by Dixie Dave Collins” (yes, from Weedeater) or the gloriously languid finale “American Pot,” the shorter instrumental “C.A.R.T.S.,” or in the relatively uptempo nodders “Hippie Stick” and “Diamonds and Flower,” Bongzilla underscore the if-you-get-it-then-you-get-it nature of their work, at once extreme in its bite and soothing in atmosphere, uncompromising in purpose. I’m not going to tell you to get bombed out of your gourd and listen, but they almost certainly did while making it, and Dab City is nothing if not an invitation to that party.
Adventures await as Redhill, UK, three-piece Trevor’s Head — guitarist/vocalist Roger Atkins, bassist/vocalist/synthesist Aaron Strachan (also kalimba), drummer/flutist/vocalist/synthesist Matt Ainsworth (also Mellotron) — signal a willfully open and progressive creativity through the heavy psych and grunge melodies of lead track “Call of the Deep” before the Primus-gone-fuzz-prog chug of “Under My Skin” and the somehow-English-pastoral “Grape Fang” balances on its multi-part harmonies and loose-feeling movement, side A trading between shorter and longer songs to end with the seven-minute, violin-inclusive folk-then-fuzz-folk highlight “Elio” before “Rumspringa” brings the proceedings to ground as only cowbell might. As relatively straight-ahead as the trio get there or in the more pointedly aggressive shover “A True Gentleman” on the other side of the Tool-ish noodling and eat-this-riff of “What Got Stuck” (answer: the thrashy gallop before the final widdly-widdly solo, in my head), they never want for complexity, and as much as it encapsulates in its depth of arrangement and linear course, closer “Don’t Make Me Ask” represents the band perhaps even more in looking forward rather than back on what was just accomplished, building on what 2018’s Soma Holiday (review here) hinted at stylistically and mindfully evolving their sound.
Born in the ’90s as Amend, turned more extreme as V and now perhaps beginning a new era as Vorder — pronounced “vee-order” — the Dalarna, Sweden, unit return with a new rhythm section behind founding guitarists Jonas Gryth (also Unhealer) and Andreas Baier (also Besvärjelsen, Afgrund, and so on) featuring bassist Marcus Mackä Lindqvist (Blodskam, Lýsis) and drummer Daniel Liljekvist (ex-Katatonia, In Mourning, Grand Cadaver, etc.) on drums, the invigorated four-piece greet a dark dawn with due presence on False Haven, bringing Baier‘s Besvärjelsen bandmate Lea Amling Alazam for guest vocals on “The Few Remaining Lights,” which seems to be consumed after its melodic opening into a lurching and organ-laced midsection like Entombed after the Isis-esque ambience of post-apocalyptic mourning in “Introspective” and “Beyond the Horizon of Life.” Beauty and darkness are not new themes for Vorder, even if False Haven is their first release under the name, and even in the bleak ‘n’ roll of the title-track there’s still room for hope if you define hope as tambourine. Which you probably should. The penultimate “Judgement Awaits” interrupts floating post-doom with vital shove and 10:32 finale “Come Undone” provides a resonant melodic answer to “The Few Remaining Lights” while paying off the album as a whole in patience, heft and fullness. Vorder use microgenres like a polyglot might switch languages, but what’s expressed from the entirety of the work is utterly their own, whatever name they use.
Multi-instrumentalist Beth Gladding (also of Forlesen, Botanist, Lotus Thief, etc.) shares vocal duties in New York’s Inherus with bassist Anthony DiBlasi (ex-Witchkiss) and fellow guitarist/synthesist Brian Harrigan (Grid, Swallow the Ocean), and the harsh/clean dynamic puts emphasis on the various textures presented throughout the band’s debut album. Completed by drummer Andrew Vogt (Lotus Thief, Swallow the Ocean), Inherus reach toward SubRosan melancholy on “Forgotten Kingdom,” which begins the hour-flat/six-track 2LP, and they follow with harmonies and grandeur to spare on “One More Fire” (something in that melody reminds me of Indigo Girls and I’m noting it because I can’t get my head away from it; not complaining) and “The Dagger,” which resolves in Amenra-style squibble and lurch without giving up its emotional depth. “Oh Brother” crushes enough to make one wonder where the line truly is between metal and post-metal, and the setup for closer “Lie to the Angels” in the drone-plus piece “Obliterated in the Face of the Gods” telegraphs the intensity to follow if not the progginess of that particular chug or the scope of what follows. Vogt signals the arrival at the album’s crescendo with stately but fast double-kick, and if you’re wondering who gets the last word, it’s feedback. Beholden may prove formative as Inherus move forward, but what their first full-length lays out as their stylistic range is at least as impressive as it is ambitious. Hope for more to come.
Even in the second half of “Tying Up the Noose” as it leads into “Give it Time” — which is about as speedy as Sonic Moon get on their Olde Magick Records-delivered first LP, Return Without Any Memory — they’re in no particular hurry. The overarching languid pace across the Aarhus five-piece’s 41-minute/seven-tracker — which reuses only the title-track from 2019’s Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers EP — makes it hypnotic even in its most active moments, but whether it’s the Denmarkana acoustic moodiness of centerpiece “Through the Snow,” the steady nod of “Head Under the River” later or the post-All Them Witches psych-blues conveyed in opener “The Waters,” Sonic Moon are able to conjure landscapes from fuzzed tonality that could just as easily have been put to use for traditional doom as psych-leaning heavy rock, uniting the songs through that same fuzz and the melody of the vocals as “Head Under the River” spaces out ahead of its slowdown or “Hear Me Now” eschews the huge finish in favor of a more unassuming, gentler letting go, indicative of the thoughtfulness behind their craft and their presentation of the material. Familiar enough on paper and admirably, unpretentiously itself, the self-recorded Return Without Any Memory discovers its niche and comes across as being right at home in it. A welcome debut.
With cosmic doom via YOB meeting with progressive heavy rock à la Elder or Louisiana rollers Forming the Void and an undercurrent of metal besides in the chug and double-kick of “Controlled Burn,” Cleveland’s Slow Wake make their full-length debut culling together songs their 2022 Falling Fathoms EP and adding the prior-standalone “Black Stars” for 12 minutes’ worth of good measure at the end. The dense and jangly tones at the start of the title-track (where it’s specifically “Marrow”-y) or “In Waves” earlier on seem to draw more directly from Mike Scheidt‘s style of play, but “Relief” builds from its post-rocking outset to grow furious over its first few minutes headed toward a payoff that’s melody as much as crunch. “Black Stars” indulges a bit more psychedelic repetition, which could be a sign of things to come or just how it worked out on that longer track, but Slow Wake lay claim to significant breadth regardless, and have the structural complexity to work in longer forms without losing themselves either in jams or filler. With a strong sense of its goals, Falling Fathoms puts Slow Wake on a self-aware trajectory of growth in modern prog-heavy style. That is, they know what they’re doing and they know why. To show that alone on a first record makes it a win. Their going further lets you know to keep an eye out for next time as well.
The Fierce and the Dead, News From the Invisible World
Unearthing a bit of earlier-Queens of the Stone Age compression fuzz in the start-stop riff of “Shake the Jar” is not even scratching the surface as regards textures put to use by British progressive heavies The Fierce and the Dead on their fourth album, News From the Invisible World. Comprised of eight songs varied in mood and textures around a central ethic clearly intent on not sounding any more like anyone else than it has to, the collection is the first release from the band to feature vocals. Those are handled ably by bassist Kev Feazey, but it’s telling as to the all-in nature of the band that, in using singing for the first time, they employ no fewer than six guest vocalists, mostly but not exclusively on opener/intro “The Start.” From there, it’s a wild course through keyboard/synth-fed atmospheres on pieces like the Phil Collins-gone-heavy “Photogenic Love” and its side-B-capping counterpart “Nostalgia Now,” which ends like friendlier Godflesh, astrojazz experimentalism on “Non-Player,” and plenty of fuzz in “Golden Thread,” “Wonderful,” “What a Time to Be Alive,” and so on, though where a song starts is not necessarily where it’s going to end up. Given Feazey‘s apparent comfort with the task before him, it’s a wonder they didn’t make this shift earlier, but they do well in making up for lost time.
Kliwon is the second offering from Indonesia-based meditative psych exploration unit Mud Spencer to be released through Argonauta Records after 2022’s Fuzz Soup (review here), and its four component songs find France-born multi-instrumentalist Rodolphe Bellugue (also Proots, Bedhunter, etc.) constructing material of marked presence and fluidity. Opener “Suzzanna” is halfway through its nine minutes before the drums start. “Ratu Kidul” is 16 minutes of mindful breathing (musically speaking) as shimmering guitar melody pokes out from underneath the surrounding ethereal wash, darker in tone but more than just bleak. Of course “Dead on the Heavy Funk” reminds of Mr. Bungle as it metal-chugs and energetically weirds out. And the just under 16-minute “Jasmin Eater” closes out with organ and righteous fuzz bass peppered with flourish details on guitar and languid drumming, becoming heavier and consuming as it moves toward the tempo kick that’s the apex of the album. Through these diverse tracks, an intimate psychedelic persona emerges, even without vocals, and Mud Spencer continues to look inward for expanses to be conveyed before doing precisely that.
It would seem that in the interim between 2021’s Ocean of Acid EP and this five-song/41-minute debut full-length, Tyhjiö, Finnish psychedelic death-doomers Kita traded English lyrics for those in their native Finnish. No, I don’t speak it, but that hardly matters in the chant-like chorus of the title-track or the swirling pummel that surrounds as the band invent their own microgenre, metal-rooted and metal in affect, but laced with synth and able to veer into lysergic guitar atmospherics in the 10-minute opener “Kivi Puhuu” or the acoustic-led (actually it’s bass-led, but still) midsection leading to the triumphant chorus of bookending closer “Ataraksia,” uniting disparate ideas through strength of craft, tonal and structural coherence, and, apparently, sheer will. The title-track, “Torajyvä” and “Kärpässilmät,” with the centerpiece cut as the shortest, make for a pyramid-style presentation (broader around its base), but Kita are defined by what they do, drawing extremity from countrymen like Swallow the Sun or Amorphis, among others, and turning it into something of their own. Striking in the true sense of: it feels like being punched. But punched while you hang out on the astral plane.
Greek fuzz alert! Heavy rocking three-piece Embargo hail from Thessaloniki with their first long-player, High Seas, using winding aspects of progressive metal to create tension in the starts and stops of “Billow,” “EAT” and “Candy” as spoken verses in the latter and “Alanna Finch” draw a line between the moody noise rock of Helmet, the grunge it informed, and the heavy rock that emerged (in part) from that. Running 10 tracks and 44 minutes, High Seas is quick in marking out the smoothness of its low tonality, and it veers into and out of what one might consider aggression in terms of style, “with 22 22” thoughtfully composed and sharply pointed in kind, one of several instrumentals to offset some of the gruffer stretches or a more patient melodic highlight like “Draupner,” which does little to hide its affinity for Soundgarden and is only correct to showcase it. They also finish sans-vocals in the title-track, and there’s almost a letting-loose sense to “High Seas” itself, shaking out some shuffle in the first half before peaking in the second. Greece is among Europe’s most packed and vibrant undergrounds, and with High Seas, Embargo begin to carve their place within it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Long Island doom rockers Restless Spirit signed to Magnetic Eye Recordsearlier this year, and their first new release for the label — which also reissued their 2021 album, Blood of the Old Gods (review here) — will be their third full-length, Afterimage. Set for release on Oct. 6, Afterimage opens with its lead single in “Marrow,” and no, it’s not a YOB cover. Instead, the five-plus-minute original — video’s at the bottom of the post; have at it — reminds that part of the appeal of Restless Spirit is how solidified their approach seems while residing in between different styles.
They’re part doom, part metal, part rock, atmospherically rich, melodically engaging, and at the same time hard to pin down as any single microniche. They are, in other words, complex. But not just that either, because as “Marrow” demonstrates, they are confident, strong in their stylistic position, and they write songs like they know what they want them to be. Restless Spirit have been confirmed for Ripplefest Texas in September, and will tour the West Coast thereafter to herald the album’s coming. Dates for that run and other shows can be found below, along with the album info, preorder link and so on.
From the PR wire:
RESTLESS SPIRIT unleash first video single and details of new album
Long Island sludge metal trio RESTLESS SPIRIT have released the video single ‘Marrow’ as the first outtake from their forthcoming third album “Afterimage”. The new full-length is scheduled for release on October 6, 2023.
RESTLESS SPIRIT comment: “The opening track ‘Marrow’ truly comes from the heart and sets the theme for the entire album”, guitarist and singer Paul Aloisio writes. “This song is about watching someone that you love at the end of their life. It’s about the bargaining, the pleading, the denial… all those stages of grief. Although the song deals with desperation, it is also an acknowledgement of a bitter truth. We think everyone can relate to this song, because while maybe you haven’t had to experience these feelings yet, reality is, eventually you will. I’ve never had the courage to be so open through my music before, and I won’t lie and say that it wasn’t terrifying to do so. Yet our hope is that it can resonate with anyone struggling through an experience like this.”
In the case of RESTLESS SPIRIT, the band name says it all, and in more than just one way. Their third album, “Afterimage”, embodies the East Coast trio’s aim of never wanting to sound exactly like before. Long Island deep-fried guitars meet pounding rhythms and emotionally raw vocals. Where the predecessor “Blood of the Old Gods” (2021) sometimes ushered the listener into twisted complexity, “Afterimage” delivers short, sharp shocks that hit straight home.
Lyrically, “Afterimage” is also born out of a restless spirit. Driven by tragedy and personal loss, singer and guitarist Paul Aloisio has put his heart and soul into the album. Confronted with a choice to deal with his pain in a healthy way or go down a destructive path, the singer and guitarist opted for the former but months later found his words to be prophetic for doing the latter. Deciding that artistry requires honesty, Alosio wanted to share his experience as a message to others in similar situations that they’re not alone in their despair. “Afterimage” might well be read as a cautionary tale.
Embarking on their musical journey very early in life, the band’s core of Aloisio and bassist Marc Morello met the summer before Kindergarten and grew up discovering music side by side. Channeling influences like BLACK SABBATH, TYPE O NEGATIVE, and THE SWORD and incorporating aggressive modern metal, unabashed stoner-doom pummeling, energetic changes, and stirring, earnest vocals, their band was finally christened RESTLESS SPIRIT in 2019. Their debut full-length “Lord of the New Depression” (2019) fit equally well into the stoner, doom, and sludge molds, while on “Blood of the Old Gods”, the three-piece developed a more varied, melodic approach with added complexity.
Discontent at being sometimes labelled ‘progressive’, RESTLESS SPIRIT, true contrarians that they are, avoided overly-long songs and excessive ornamentation on “Afterimage”, intentionally eliminating anything that might distract from the new album’s direct, crushing immediacy.
On the live front, the Long Island band has undertaken several tours in support of “Blood of the Old Gods” and shared stages with the likes of CROWBAR, THE OBSESSED and CANNIBAL CORPSE. They will return to the road in winter 2023/24 to present “Afterimage”.
With “Afterimage”, RESTLESS SPIRIT deliver a massive punch to the gut that actually feels damn great once the initial pain subsides.
Tracklist 1. Marrow 2. Shadow Command 3. Of Spirit and Form 4. All Furies 1. Brutalized 2. The Fatalist 3. Hell’s Grasp 4. From the Dust Returned
Guest musicians Scott “Wino” Weinrich – guitars on ‘The Fatalist’ Mike Hill – vocals on ‘Shadow Command’
Recording by John Forrestal at The Animal Farm, Flemington, NJ USA Mix & mastering by Jonathan Nuñez at Sound Artillery Studios, Miami, FL, USA Cover Art by Luca “Solomacello” Martinelli Layout by Marc Christoforidis
Live 25 AUG 2023 Masapequa, NY (US) VFW Hall 30 AUG 2023 Brooklyn, NY (US) St Vitus 01 SEP 2023 Montague, MA (US) RPM Fest 19 SEP 2023 Memphis, TN (US) Hi-Tone Cafe 21 SEP 2023 Austin TX (US) RippleFest Texas 25 SEP 2023 Mesa, AZ (US) Nile Underground 26 SEP 2023 Los Angeles, CA (US) Knuckleheads 27 SEP 2023 Sacramento, CA (US) Cafe Colonial 28 SEP 2023 Springfield, OR (US) The Spot 29 SEP 2023 Portland, OR (US) Highwatermark 30 SEP 2023 Seattle, WA (US) Funhouse 01 OCT 2023 Bellingham, WA (US) The Shakedown 29 OCT 2023 Amityville, NY (US) Amityville Music Hall
Line-up Paul Aloisio – guitar, vocals Jon Gusman – drums Marc Morello – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 29th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Rochester heavy psych rockers King Buffalo will return to Europe for the second time in 2023 this Fall. They were last there, oh, earlier this month for a stint that wrapped on June 17 at Hellfest in France, but they state in the quick announcement below that their October tour will be their last time in Europe until 2025. That’s kind of surprising considering we’re only halfway through 2023 and King Buffalo has been going hard before and after the pandemic, but no doubt they’ve got plans, whether that’s touring in other places — Australia/New Zealand comes to mind — or recording, or both, or neither. We’ll see.
The band recently put their 2013 Demo (review here) up for a 10th anniversary edition vinyl preorder (info here), and they’ll be supported for most of this tour by Bergen, Norway-based labelmate upstarts Slomosa. Their announcement of the tour draws together prior confirmations for Keep it Low, Desertfest Belgium and Lazy Bones Festival, each weekend but one of the tour anchored by a fest date, which is not a thing to be taken for granted. We live in a golden age. King Buffalo are a part of what makes it so very shiny.
Also, anyone notice how King Buffalo, Slomosa, Elder and Iron Jinn have all had announcements this week? It’s like the entire Stickman Records roster all decided it was time to get out. Good fun.
Thee dates:
KING BUFFALO – OCTOBER EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCE!
These will be our last European Tour Dates until 2025. If you want to see us, this is your last chance!
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I was on social media the other day, scrolling for band news which is pretty much what I do on there at this point, when I saw something or other about King Buffalo — they’ve been on tour in Europe ahead of returning to Freak Valley next week, it might’ve been that, it might not — but I was skimming the comments and there were people ragging on the band.
It was a little surprising, but it’s actually a sign that all the work they’ve put in, whether it’s on tour, or the pandemic trilogy, or even just their own online presence, is starting to pay off. People who don’t even like them know them and feel strongly enough about their work to have an opinion either way, and to express that opinion. That doesn’t happen for bands who don’t matter. Most bands nobody talks about at all. So I took it as a positive, even though it was someone basically being like, “grr here’s a thing on the internet I don’t like so I’m saying I don’t like it.” So it goes.
The Rochester trio have Copenhell and Hellfest to look forward to in addition to Freak Valley in June, more UK/EU shows this Fall, and US festival stops between as they continue to support last year’s Regenerator (review here). They’ve just sent word along the PR wire that their 2013 Demo (review here) will see a one-time limited vinyl pressing and that preorders go up on Friday. I remember when that came out, they were a four-piece and I was stoked because I’d been into Velvet Elvis, in which drummer Scott Donaldson and then-guitarist/vocalist Randall Coon had featured, while guitarist/vocalist Sean McVay and bassist Dan Reynolds had played in Abandoned Buildings Club.
I knew at the time they were a cool band. I’m not sure I knew they’d put themselves at the forefront of American heavy psych rock, or be the kind of act people feel compelled to express opinions about on socials, but when I think (or listen) back to that demo, you can definitely hear the roots of what they would and have become in the decade since it came out. Maybe a fan-piece or a curio, but I’m a fan. I guess I felt like saying so on the internet.
From the band:
KING BUFFALO – Demo LP
DEMO Preorders start THIS FRIDAY 6/2/23 at 12pm EST.
For the first time available on vinyl, our “Demo”! These were the first 3 songs we ever wrote and finally decided to give it a proper pressing on the 10 year anniversary.
THIS IS A ONE TIME PRESSING! After the Test Presses, Deluxe and Standard Editions are sold out, that will be it. THESE SONGS WILL NEVER BE PRESSED ON VINYL AGAIN… EVER!
These songs have been remastered for vinyl with new artwork by Ryan T. Hancock.
Tracklisting: 1. Pocket Full Of Knife 05:22 2. In Dim Light 06:08 3. Providence Eye 11:15
October 17.10. (UK) London @ The Dome 18.10. (UK) Leeds @ Brudenell Social 19.10. (UK) Nottingham @ Bodega 20.10. (UK) Brighton @ The Arch 21.10. (BE) Antwerp @ Desertfest 28.10. (DE) Hamburg @ Lazy Bones Festival
North America Tour
6/28 Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s 6/29 Quincy, CA @ High Sierra Festival 8/25 Cleveland, OH @ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 8/26 Lexington, KY @ Expansion Fest 9/23 Austin, TX @ Ripplefest Texas
King Buffalo is: Sean McVay – Guitar, Vocals, & Synth Dan Reynolds – Bass & Synth Scott Donaldson – Drums
