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Album Review: Lamp of the Universe, The Cosmic Union (2LP Reissue)

Posted in Reviews on December 29th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

lamp of the universe the cosmic union

This is not a new album, but it is a new release. Based in Hamilton, New Zealand, the solo-project Lamp of the Universe debuted in the long-ago memory fog of 2001, issuing The Cosmic Union (discussed here) through Cranium Records. The lone figure behind the outing, who has kept the project to himself ever since, was and remains Craig Williamson, who at the time was only two years out from the breakup of his prior band, the more directly riff-rocking and still-prime-for-reissue Datura, and though he might not have guessed it at the time, The Cosmic Union would become the starting point for one of the most engaging progressions in psychedelic music of any stripe.

Through the years since, that’s been true be it the Eastern-informed acid folk represented in this first offering or subsequent adventures in tantric drone, krautrock-style synth and keyboard work, or even more band-style heavy psych rock, all taking place under the umbrella of Lamp of the Universe and the auteurship of Williamson. Also reissued in 2011 through Williamson‘s Astral Projection imprint and through Krauted Mind in 2018, The Cosmic Union finds a ‘definitive’ vinyl incarnation through Greece’s Sound Effect Records, and I won’t even pretend to pretend I’m not happy to have the excuse for a revisit.

From the first strums of acoustic guitar and sitar on “Born in the Rays of the Third Eye” across the vast distance to the tabla-percussed pre-Om meditative sprawl folk of “Tantra Asana” and the subsequent chime-peppered stretch of sitar, chimes, and keyboard-string sounds that cap the record, The Cosmic Union has a patience and a presence unto itself. In its full eight-song/53-minute run — the digital version also includes the bonus track “By the Grace of Love,” not on the vinyl — it does not feel like a minor undertaking, because it isn’t. This was the CD era, and Williamson‘s experimentalist crux in the lysergic, vaguely-Britfolk “Give Yourself to Love,” here the closer of side B on the first LP, and the relative minimalism in the echoing, purposefully-left-open spaces of “Her Cosmic Light” require a conscious engagement.

While it’s never overbearing even in its lushest arrangements, the trade for that is that following Williamson along the album’s complex, universally molten and slowly shifting course can be a challenge for short attention spans. Different listeners will have different experiences; duh. In mine, The Cosmic Union is singular in its beauty and effect on the listener. I’ve chased down records upon records, styles upon styles trying to get some semblance of what comes together so fluidly and naturally in these songs — even some albums recommended by Williamson himself — and I’ve never found one that delivers its vibe with such grace. It is an album that, when heard properly, slows time.

“Born in the Rays of the Third Eye” and “Lotus of a Thousand Petals” brought together and isolated, just the two of them, on side A feels like a landmark, even 21 years after the fact. Those two songs, in almost unassuming fashion, would become touchstones for Lamp of the Universe, and as Williamson moved forward quickly with 2002’s Echo in Light, 2005’s single-song-broken-into-parts long-player, Heru (discussed here), and 2006’s assemblage of mostly longform pieces From the Mystical Rays of Astrological Light, they would remain definitive — there’s that word again — in terms of serving as a primer for the heart of Lamp of the Universe‘s aesthetic project.

lamp of the universe

Hearing them coupled with side B’s “In the Mystic Light” with its scorching solo work, hand-drumming and one-man jam, and the aforementioned keys-forward twist of “Give Yourself to Love” only emphasizes the point, as well as the breadth that was in Lamp of the Universe from its very beginnings. I’ve tended in recent years to think of Williamson as growing more inclusive of synth and keys with time, and maybe that’s true in terms of adjusting a balance from one element to the next in his composing methods or arrangements, but so much of what Lamp of the Universe has become in the years since is laid out here, or at very least hinted toward, even the bluesy lead rollout and on-a-kit-toms and snare of “Freedom in Your Mind” are prescient, let alone the flowing organ and tambourine that are added later, to fold together on side C with “Her Cosmic Light,” about half as long at 4:12, but resonant just the same in its melodic seeking.

There is not one among the eight songs on The Cosmic Union that doesn’t include the word “love” somewhere in its lyrics. And that’s what the album is. Just as side A sets the foundation for the rest of what unfolds (here and beyond), maybe the strumming circa-1965 George Harrison singer-songwriterism of “What Love Can Bring” and the pushed-farther-out moment when sitar and keys align after the 3:30 mark in “Tantra Asana” on side D are a foundation of their own, if one built in ether. They are united, certainly, as all the material on The Cosmic Union is, by Williamson‘s voice, by their light-touch, inclusive but never overwrought arrangements — that’s a high compliment for an album that has this much sitar and flute and keys, etc. — and by the feeling of love that pervades as the central thematic. As the cover more than hints, The Cosmic Union has a very terrestrial, sometimes downright dirty if you’re lucky, interpretation, but it’s the sharing and proliferation of love that comes through most of all, and if this edition of the album is definitive, it is that love that defines it.

Williamson‘s early-2022 offering, The Akashic Field (review here) — maybe his 13th under the Lamp of the Universe banner — provided hints of what’s to come in 2023 as he moves forward with the heavier as-yet-still-solo band Dead Shrine, whose debut album is impending, but even it was in conversation in some ways with The Cosmic Union, in songs like “Minds of Love” or “Mystic Circle.” This shouldn’t surprise, necessarily, anyone who has charted Williamson‘s progression lo these last two decades, but it does emphasize just how expansive, how inclusive and how crucial The Cosmic Union is. I’ve said before and I’ll say here that on a personal level, this is a record I love. Hearing it again in this new form — new to me, anyhow, since I didn’t have it on vinyl before — it is all the more special for the conversation the material has with itself as well as the surrounding spectra. If you seek healing, this is music that heals.

Lamp of the Universe, The Cosmic Union (2001)

Lamp of the Universe on Facebook

Lamp of the Universe on Instagram

Lamp of the Universe on Bandcamp

Sound Effect Records on Facebook

Sound Effect Records website

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Dead Shrine Post “The Formless Soul”; The Eightfold Path Coming Feb. 24

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Don’t get me wrong, there’s precious little in this world for which I’d trade the acid-drenched psych and cosmic explorations of Lamp of the Universe, but damn, when Craig Williamson hits into a riff, fuzz on, amp loud, drums behind, bass under, you gotta just let that groove ride. Dead Shrine — a solo-project for the Hamilton, New Zealand, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer — is an extension of impulses previously shown in Arc of Ascent and Datura in the long-long-ago, and “The Formless Soul,” which you can and should hear at the bottom of this post, is the opening track and one of the eight appearing on The Eightfold Path, the debut full-length that’s due out next year through Kozmik Artifactz.

If you’ve hung around here a while, chances are you’ve heard me at some point or other going on about how fucking righteous this dude’s work is. And not to toot my own horn there, but I’m only correct in doing so. The Eightfold Path plays out like a heavy rock and psychedelic bonfire, rolling through two sides of epic nod on the way to the absolute blowout that is “Incantations Call” at the back end. I hate to be all “if you know you know,” because the truth is you know way more than I do about basically everything, but god damn, what a record this is. No bullshit, it’s the first name on my best-of-2023 list, which, yes, I’ve started.

From YouTube and Williamson direct:

Dead Shrine the eightfold path

DEAD SHRINE – The Eightfold Path

Release date: Late February 2023 on Kozmik Artifactz and Astral Projection (Vinyl/CD/Digital)

The new album, and “band” as I like to call it has been a long running idea I’ve had since the Datura days, and that was to continue to play in a heavier 70s acid rock way on my own… in Datura and especially in Arc of Ascent I’d write the songs, produce them, record parts … even extra guitars, percussion and keyboards on the albums… so really, its been a natural progression to starting the Dead Shrine thing. I guess mostly it’s a return to a more rock thing as I used to do 20 plus years ago in Datura, still heavier, still with the Psych overtones…

https://instagram.com/dead.shrine
https://www.facebook.com/deadshrinenz
https://deadshrinenz.bandcamp.com/

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz

Dead Shrine, “The Formless Soul”

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Craig Williamson of Lamp of the Universe

Posted in Questionnaire on October 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Craig Williamson of Lamp of the Universe

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Craig Williamson of Lamp of the Universe

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Music, so I guess artistic expression, is part of what and who I am. I define Lamp of the Universe as a catharsis, a deeper expression of what is going on in my subconscious.

I came to do this through necessity, through not having like minded individuals, mostly, to create what I heard in my head, and by needing to move forward creatively, to not have limits, and to satisfy the curiosity i have musically.

Describe your first musical memory.

Being very excited seeing a lot of vinyl records laying on the floor, wondering what they all sounded like.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Getting the first Lamp of the Universe album released. Being locked away for two years working on songs by myself, alone, no band, and then having it come out was an absolute revelation for me.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Many times actually, too numerous to list them all. When you ask yourself “is this really worth all of this shit?” Unfortunately all centered around bands I’ve been in, or the people that have things to do with them, but I guess that’s the business.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

To personal and collective fulfillment, growth, understanding. It leads to doors being opened in a metaphysical sense.

How do you define success?

For me it’s being able to continue, to be creative, and have no limits on what I may want to do – what paths I can go down. That’s both successful and exciting

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Obviously, war….and how it affects innocent people. Also the disregard for animals really gets to me… the world is a horrible place at times.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

A full blown concept album, one track, maybe over 90 minutes… one day.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To bring enjoyment, to the creator and the listener, on as many levels as you can understand. And I’m not just talking about cliché uplifting music… but an experience that can stimulate anyone wishing to engage.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Catching up with friends I haven’t seen for awhile mainly, getting new tattoos, looking at classic cars, watching sport.

https://www.facebook.com/lampoftheuniverse/
https://lampoftheuniverse.bandcamp.com/
https://projectionrecords.bandcamp.com/

Lamp of the Universe, The Akashic Field (2022)

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Quarterly Review: Pike vs. The Automaton, End Boss, Artifacts & Uranium, Night City, Friends of Hell, Delco Detention, Room 101, Hydra, E-L-R, Buffalo Tombs

Posted in Reviews on April 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

You have your coffee yet? I’ve got mine. Today’s Friday, which means day five of this six-day Spring 2022 Quarterly Review, and it’s been a hell of a week. Yesterday was particularly insane, and today offers not much letup in that regard. If you’d have it another way, I’m sorry, but there’s too much cool shit out there to write about stuff that all sounds the same, so I don’t. I’ve had a good time over this stretch and I hope you have too if you’ve been keeping up. We’ll have one more on Monday and that’s it until late June or early July, so please enjoy.

And thanks as always for reading.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Pike vs. the Automaton, Pike vs. The Automaton

matt pike vs the automaton

Matt Pike acoustic? It happened, and YOU were there! Truth is, the strumming foundation on which “Land” is built is just one example of Pike vs. The Automaton‘s singular get-weirdness, and followers of his career arc through Sleep and High on Fire from playing basements to winning a Grammy will recognize pieces of cuts like “Abusive” and “Trapped in a Midcave,” the all-out rager “Alien Slut Mom” (which of course was the lead single), the bombastic expanse of “Apollyon,” the even-more-all-out-rager “Acid Test Zone” and the dug-in get-weirdness of “Latin American Geological Formation” as one of heavy music’s most influential auteurs welcomes (?) listeners into a world of swirling chaos, monsters, conspiracies and, of course, riffs. The album saves its greatest accomplishment for last in the 11-minute “Leaving the Wars of Woe,” but if you’re old enough to remember when Rob Zombie did those off-the-wall cartoons for White Zombie videos and the Beavis and Butt-Head movie, listening to Pike vs. the Automaton is kind of like living in that for a while. So yeah, awesome.

Pike vs. The Automaton website

MNRK Heavy website

 

End Boss, They Seek My Head

End Boss They Seek My Head

Maybe the heaviest sans-bass low end since Floor? That’s not a minor claim, but at very least Wellington, New Zealand’s End Boss put themselves in the running with They Seek My Head, their debut album. The guitars of Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce are the crushing foundation on which the band is built, and with Beastwars‘ own Nathan Hickey on drums, there’s a reliable base of groove to coincide as all that weight becomes the backdrop for E.J. Thorpe‘s vocals to soar over top on cuts like “Heart of the Sickle” and “Punished.” It’s a wide breadth throughout the eight songs and 33 minutes, allowing “Becomes the Gold” to show some emotive urgency while “Nail and Tooth” seems only to be sharpening knives at the outset of side B, while “The Crawl” just about has to be named after its riff and fair enough. “Lorded Over” hints at an atmospheric focus that may or may not further manifest in the future, but the closing title-track is what it’s all about, and it’s big nod, big melody, big hooks. You can’t lose. Onto the ‘best debuts of 2022’ it goes.

End Boss on Facebook

Rough Peel Records website

 

Artifacts & Uranium, Pancosmology

Artifacts and Uranium Pancosmology

Fred Laird (Earthling Society, Taras Bulba) and Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, etc.) released their self-titled debut as Artifacts & Uranium in 2021 as a collection of three massive dronescapes. Their follow-up, Pancosmology, telegraphs being more compositionally-focused even before you put it on, running eight songs instead of three, and indeed, that’s how it turns out. There are still massive waves of exploratory drones, guitar, electric piano, drums programmed and real — Nick Raybould plays on half the tracks, so a potential third in the duo — synth, bass, whatever a Gakken Generator is, it all comes together with an understated splendor and a sense of reaching into the unknown. Witness the guitar and synth lines of “Silent Plains,” and are those vocals buried so deep in that mix? I can’t even tell. It doesn’t matter. The point is that for 37 minutes, Laird and Vest (and Raybould) take you on a psych-as-spirituality trip into, around and through the universe, and by the time they get to “The Inmost Light” noisewashing at the finish, the feeling is like being baptised in a cold river of acid. If this is the birth of the gods, I’m in.

Taras Bulba on Facebook

Echodelick Records website

Weird Beard Records webstore

 

Night City, Kuang Xi

Night City Kuang XI

After the slower rolling opener “Broken Dick,” Night City‘s debut cassette EP, Kuang Xi, works at a pretty intense clip, taking the Godflesh vibe of that lead track, keeping the abiding tonal thickness, and imbuing it with an also-’90s-era Ministry-ish sense of chaos and push. The four-song outing works from its longest track to shortest and effectively melds heavy industrial with brutal chug and extreme metal, and one should expect no less from Collyn McCoy, whose plumbing of the dark recesses of the mind in Circle of Sighs is a bit more purely experimentalist. That said, if “Encryptor/Decryptor” showed up as a Circle of Sighs track, I wouldn’t have argued, but the use of samples here throughout and the explicitly sociopolitical lyrics make for coherent themes separate from McCoy‘s other project. “Steppin’ Razor” uses its guitar solo like a skronky bagpipe while calling out Proud Boy bullshit, and in fewer than three minutes, “Molly Million$” finds another gear of thrust before devolving into so much caustic noise. The version I got also featured the dancier “Tomorrow’s World,” but I’m not sure if that’s on the tape. Either way, a brutalist beginning.

Night City on Facebook

Dune Altar website

 

Friends of Hell, Friends of Hell

friends of hell friends of hell

Rise Above Records signing a band that might even loosely be called doom is immediately noteworthy because it means the band in question has impressed label owner Lee Dorrian, formerly of Cathedral, who — let’s be honest — has some of the best taste in music the world over. Thus Friends of Hell unleash 40 minutes of dirt-coated earliest-NWOBHM-meets-CelticFrost chugging groove, with former Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou (currently Mirror) on drums and Sami “Albert Witchfinder” Hynninen (Spiritus MortisReverend BizarreOpium Warlords) on vocals, biting through catchy classic-sounding cuts like “Into My Coffin” and side B’s “Gateless Gate” and “Orion’s Beast.” Unremittingly dark, the nine-song collection ends with “Wallachia,” a somewhat grander take that still keeps its rawness of tone and general purpose with a more spacious vibe. It is not a coincidence Friends of Hell take their name from a Witchfinder General record; their sound seems like prime fodder for patch-on-denim worship.

Friends of Hell on Instagram

Rise Above Records website

 

Delco Detention, What Lies Beneath

Delco Detention What Lies Beneath

The second full-length keeping on a literally-underground theme from 2021’s From the Basement (review here), the 10-song/35-minute What Lies Beneath finds founding Delco Detention guitarist Tyler Pomerantz once again getting by with a little help from his friends, up to and including members of Hippie Death CultEddie Brnabic shreds over instrumental closer “FUMOFO” — The Age of Truth, Kingsnake and others. Angelique Zuppo makes a highlight of early cut “Rock Paper Scissors,” and Dave Wessell of Ickarus Gin brings a performance that well suits the strut-fuzz of “War is Mine,” while instrumentals “What Lies Beneath” and “Velcro Shoes” find Tyler (on bass and guitar) and drummer Adam Pomerantz digging into grooves just fine on their own. The shifts between singers give a compilation-style feel continued on from the first record, but a unifying current of songwriting brings it all together fluidly, and as “A Slow Burn” and “Study Hall Blues” readily demonstrate, Delco Detention know how to take a riff out for a walk. Right on (again).

Delco Detention on YouTube

Delco Detention on Bandcamp

 

Room 101, Sightless

Room 101 Sightless

Put Lansing, Michigan’s Room 101 up there with Primitive Man, Indian and any other extreme-sludge touchstone you want and their debut long-player, Sightless, will hold its own in terms of sheer, concrete-tone crushing force. In answering the potential of 2019’s The Burden EP (review here), the album offsets its sheer bludgeoning with stretches of quiet-tense atmospherics, “Boarded Window” offering a momentary respite before the onslaught begins anew. This balance is further fleshed out on longer tracks like “Dead End,” with a more extended break and the title-cut with its ending guitar lead, but neither the sub-five-minute “Windowlicker” nor “Boarded Window” earlier want for mood, and even the finale “The Innocent, the Ignorant and the Insecure” brings a feeling of cohesion to its violence. This shit is lethal, to be sure, but it’s also immersive. Watch out you don’t drown in it.

Room 101 on Facebook

Room 101 on Bandcamp

 

Hydra, Beyond Life and Death

Hydra Beyond Life and Death

Heralded by the prior single “With the Devil Hand in Hand” (posted here), which is positioned as the closer of the 41-minute five-tracker, Hydra‘s second full-length, Beyond Life and Death, finds the Polish four-piece pushing deeper into doomed traditionalism. Where their 2020 debut, From Light to the Abyss (review here), had a garage-ist edge, and if you work hard, you can still hear some of that just before the organ kicks in near the end of “On the Edge of Time” (if that’s a “Children of the Sea” reference we can be friends), but after the more gallop-prone opener “Prophetic Dreams” and the penultimate “Path of the Dark”‘s whoa-oh backing vocals, the crux of what they’re doing is more NWOBHM-influenced, and blending with the cult horror lyrical themes of centerpiece “The Unholy Ceremony” or the aforementioned closer, it gives Hydra a more confident sound and a more poised approach to doom than they had just two years ago. The adjusted balance of elements in their sound suits them, and they seem quickly to be carving out a place for themselves in Poland’s crowded scene.

Hydra on Facebook

Piranha Music on Bandcamp

 

E-L-R, Vexier

e-l-r vexier

The two 12-minute tracks “Opiate the Sun” and “Foret” bookend Swiss trio E-L-R‘s second LP for Prophecy Productions, Vexier, and the intention would seem to be plain in hooking and immersing the listener in the experience and flow of the album. Like their wildly impressive 2019 debut, Mænad (review here), this collection has plenty of post-metallic elements, and there’s specifically a post-black metal bent to “Three Winds” in its earliest going — by the midsection it’s come apart into broad, open spaces, but the rush comes back — and the centerpiece and shortest track, “Seeds,” which seems to shine even brighter in its melody than the opener, as the vocals are once more presented on a level plane with the rest of the atmospheric elements, far back in the mix but not at all lacking resonance for being vague. “Seeds” is a fitting summary, but “Fleurs of Decay” leans into the expectation of something harsher and “Foret” boasts a more complex linear build, stretches of drone and a broader vocal arrangement before bringing the record to its gentle finish. I liked the first record a lot. I like this one more. E-L-R are doing something with sound that no one else quite has the same kind of handle on, however familiar the elements making it up might be. They are a better band than people yet know.

E-L-R on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

 

Buffalo Tombs, III

Buffalo Tombs III

Titled Three or III, depending where you look, the third long-player from Denver instrumental heavy rockers Buffalo Tombs follows relatively hot on the heels of the second, Two (review here), which came out last October. Spearheaded by guitarist/bassist Eric Stuart, who also recorded the instrumentation sans Patrick Haga‘s own self-recorded drums (lockdown? depends on when it was) and mixed and mastered — Joshua Lafferty also adds bass to “Ancestors” and “Monument,” which are just two of the six contemplations here as Buffalo Tombs explores an inward-looking vision of heavy sounds and styles, not afraid to shove or chug a bit on “Swarm” or “Gnostics/Haint,” but more consistently mellow in mood and dug into its own procession. “Familiars” hints at aspects of heavy Americana, but the root expression on III comes across as more personal and that feeling of intimacy suits well the mood of the songs.

Buffalo Tombs on Facebook

Buffalo Tombs on Bandcamp

 

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End Boss Announce Debut Album They Seek My Head; “Punished” Video Posted

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan

end boss

Welcome to me telling you I told you so. When Wellington, New Zealand’s End Boss — not to be confused with the defunct End of Level Boss, from London — released their debut EP, Heart of the Sky (review here), I actually said the words “watch out.” Now, here they come with a debut full-length called They Seek My Head on Rough Peel Records and a first single that’s got all the stomp and reach that you were duly warned about. You’ll note the participation of Beastwars drummer Nathan “Nato” Hickey, but he’s just part of the story of what’s going on here as the band manage to bring dense low-end despite having no bassist and vocalist E.J. Thorpe adds soar and soul alike to complement the earth-moving chug.

The song, suitably enough, is called “Punished,” but that too is only part of the tale. There’s healing here too.

It’s not too late to make friends with it, which I think you’re going to want to do ahead of the album.

From the PR wire:

End Boss They Seek My Head

END BOSS (Beastwars, Ghidoragh) to Release Debut Album | Video for ‘PUNISHED’

Pre-order HERE: https://end-boss.bandcamp.com/album/they-seek-my-head

This April will see the arrival of the debut album by Wellington, New Zealand’s exciting and utterly spellbinding heavy powerhouse, End Boss.

Featuring the electrically ethereal talents of lead singer E.J. Thorpe, venerable Ghidoragh guitarists Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce, and Beastwars’ percussive colossus Nathan Hickey, They Seek My Head is a tempest. A debut album which, from the first wailing guitar siren to final triumphant crescendo, heralds End Boss as a new authority in heavy music.

For the Kiwi four-piece, their debut has been a long-time coming. Having completed the album in-between lockdowns over a 10-month period, their lead single ‘Punished’ heralds everything you need to know about the band.

“The lyrics heavily deal with the struggles of the mind,” explains Thorpe. “I’m really interested in the psychological theory of the ‘shadow’ and how it influences us as individuals and a collective. The human brain is pretty messed up and the things we do to each other, and the planet reflects that. I guess you could say the ‘shadow’ is the End Boss and if we want to get off this trajectory of destruction, we have to heal ourselves.”

With Thorpe’s beautifully delivered vocals offering up intense lyrical pathos, and tectonic rhythms articulating the shaky isles of their homeland, listeners will be left astounded by the sludge and sorcery. It’s a monstrous offering from a newly spawned leviathan.

They Seek My Head will be released 8th April 2022 on Rough Peel Records.

Tracklisting:
1. Heart of the Sickle
2. Punished
3. Becomes the Gold
4. Covet
5. Nail & Tooth
6. The Crawl
7. Lorded Over
8. They Seek My Head

Produced by James Goldsmith and End Boss
Recorded and Mixed by James Goldsmith
Mastered by Will Borza

END BOSS:
E.J. Thorpe – Vocals
Greg Broadmore – Guitar
Christian Pearce – Guitar
Nathan Hickey – Drums

facebook.com/EndBossBand
end-boss.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/endboss.band
facebook.com/roughpeelrecords
roughpeel.co.nz/rough-peel-records

End Boss, “Punished” official video

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Quarterly Review: SOM, Dr. Space, Beastwars, Deathbell, Malady, Wormsand, Thunderchief, Turkey Vulture, Stargo, Ascia

Posted in Reviews on January 20th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

THE-OBELISK-FALL-2020-QUARTERLY-REVIEW

Welcome to Day Four of the Jan. 2022 Quarterly Review. Or maybe it’s the other half of the Dec. 2021 Quarterly Review. Or maybe I overthink these things. The latter feels most likely. Inanycase, welcome. If you’ve been keeping up with the records as they’ve been coming in 10-per-day batches over the course of this week, thanks. If not, well, if you’re interested, it’s not like the posts disappeared. Just keep scrolling, then I think click through. One of these days I’ll get an infinite scroll plug-in. Those are for the cool kids.

Also, ‘Infinite Scroll’ is, as of right now, the name of my ’90s-style pixel-art role playing game. Ask me about the plot when these reviews are done.

For now…

Quarterly Review #31-40:

SOM, The Shape of Everything

SOM The Shape Of Everything

Working from a foundation in heavy post-rock, Connecticut’s SOM soar and float like so many shoreline seagulls over the Long Island Sound on the eight-song/34-minute The Shape of Everything, which would call to mind the melancholy of Katatoniia were its sadness not even more shimmering. Early pieces “Moment” and “Animals” build a depth of modern progressive metal riffing beneath only the airiest of guitar leads, a wash of distortion meeting a wash of melody, and with guitarist/vocalist/producer Will Benoit helming, his voice rings through clear in melody and still somewhat ethereal, calling to mind a more organically-constructed Jesu in poppier as well as some heavier stretches. The penultimate “Heart Attack” tips into heavier fare with a steady bassline and bursts of crunching guitar, and the finale “Son of Winter” answers back with a (snow)blinding spaciousness and an entrancing last buildup. There’s enough room here to really get lost, and SOM are too mindful of their craft to let it happen.

SOM website

Pelagic Records webstore

 

Dr. Space, Muzik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn

Dr. Space Musik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn

Alright, I admit it. I went to “Icy Flatulence” first. Even before “Cyborgian Burger Hut” or “Euphoric Nostril.” Scott Heller, otherwise known as Dr. Space of Øresund Space Collective and any number of other outfits on a given day, is as-ever exploring on Muzik 2 Loze Yr Mynd Inn, and the results are hypnotic enough that they might leave you using the kind of spelling on the album’s title, but even in the relatively serene “Garden of Rainbow Unicorns” there’s a forward keyline — and actually, in that song, an undercurrent of horror soundtracking that makes me think the unicorn is about to eat me; could happen — and the extended pair of “T-E-T” and “Ribbons in Time” are marked by ’80s sci-fi beeps and boops and a kind of electronic shuffle, respectively, though the latter is probably as close as the 54-minute six-songer comes to soundscaping. Which is like landscaping only, in this case, happening in another galaxy somewhere. And there they call it jazz as they should and all is well. In all seriousness, I keep a running list in my brain of bands who should ask Dr. Space to guest on their records. Your band is probably on it. It’s pretty much everybody.

Dr. Space on Bandcamp

Space Rock Productions website

 

Beastwars, Cold Wind / When I’m King

beastwars cold wind when im king

Here’s some context you probably don’t need: “Cold Wind” and “When I’m King” were written around the time of Wellington, New Zealand’s Beastwars‘ 2011 self-titled debut (review here). They may even have been recorded — I could’ve sworn “When I’m King” popped up somewhere at some point — but they’ve now been redone from the ground up and they’re pressed to a limited 7″ as part of the 10th anniversary celebration that also saw the self-titled get a new vinyl issue. Now, is it helpful knowing that? Yeah, sure. If I came at you instead and said, “Hey, new Beastwars!” though, it’d probably be more of a draw, and whatever gets Beastwars in as many ears as possible is what should invariably be done. “When I’m King” is a banger (bonus points for gang shouts), “Cold Wind” a little more seething, but both tracks harness that peculiarly sludged tonality that the band has owned for more than a decade now, and the guttural delivery of Matthew Hyde is only more resonant for the years between the writing and the execution of these songs. That execution is beheading by riffs, by the way.

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Beastwars on Bandcamp

 

Deathbell, A Nocturnal Crossing

deathbell a nocturnal crossing

A Nocturnal Crossing, the second album from Toulouse, France’s Deathbell and their first for Svart Records, can come at you from any number of angles seemingly at any point. Which thread are you following? Is it the soaring, classic-feeling occult rock melodies of Lauren Gaynor, or her organ work that, at the same time, adds gothic drama to so much of the material on the six-songer? Is it the lumbering groove of “Shifting Sands” and the doomed fuzz of “Devoured on the Peak” earlier, speaking to entirely different traditions? Or maybe the atmosphere in “Silent She Comes,” which is almost post-metallic in its shining lead guitar? Or perhaps, and hopefully I think, it’s all of these things as skillfully woven together as they are in these tracks. Opener “The Stronghold and the Archer” and the closing title-track mirror each other in their underlying metallic influence, but that too becomes one more texture at Deathbell‘s disposal, brought forward in such a way as to emphasize the unity of the whole work as much as the individual progressions.

Deathbell on Facebook

Svart Records website

 

Malady, Ainavihantaa

Malady Ainavihantaa

After debuting on Svart with 2018’s Toinen Toista (review here), sax-laced Helskini classic prog pastoralists Malady offer Ainavihantaa (‘all the time’) across a lush and welcoming six tracks and 37 minutes. The flow is immediate and paramount on opener “Alava Vaara” and through the flute/sax tradeoff in “Vapaa Ja Autio,” which follows, and though it’s heady fare, somehow the “Foxy-Lady”-if-KingCrimson-wrote-it strut-into-meander of “Sisävesien Rannat” skirts a line of indulgence without fully toppling over. Side B is jazzy and winding across “Dyadi” and “Haavan Väri” ahead of the title-track, but the human presence of vocals, even in a language I don’t speak, does wonders in keeping the proceedings grounded, right up to the Beatlesian finish of “Ainavihantaa” itself. This was on a lot of best-of-2021 lists and it’s not a challenge to see why.

Malady on Facebook

Svart Records website

 

Wormsand, Shapeless Mass

Wormsand Shapeless Mass

The Earth, ecologically devastated by industrialization and the wastefulness of humans — capitalism, in other words — becomes a wasteland. A few billionaires, who’ve been playing around with laughably-phallic rockets anyway, decide they’re going to escape out into space and leave the rest of the species, which they’ve destroyed, to suffer. It would be — and used to be — the stuff of decent science fiction were it not basically what homo sapiens are living through right now. A mass extinction owing to climate change the roots of which are in anthropocene action and inaction alike. French outfit Wormsand tell this utterly-plausible story in cascading doom riffs that reminds at once of Pallbearer and Forming the Void, keeping an edge of modern heavy prog to their plodding and accompanying with clean vocals and some more gutty shouts. As one might expect, things get pretty grim by the time they’re down to “Carrions,” “Collapsing” and “Shapeless Mass” near the album’s end, but the trio get big, big points for not trying to offer some placating “you can avoid this future” message of hope at the end, instead highlighting the final message, “The oracles warned us long ago/That a huge mass would swallow us all.” Ambitious in narrative concept, expertly conveyed.

Wormsand on Facebook

Stellar Frequencies on Bandcamp

Saka Čost on Bandcamp

 

Thunderchief, Synanthrope

Thunderchief Synanthrope

I hate to call out a falsehood, but Virginia duo Thunderchief‘s claim that, “No fucks were used, or given, on this recording,” just isn’t the case. I’m sorry. You don’t rip the fuck out of your throat like Rik Surly does on “Aiboh/Phobia” without a clear intent. That intent might be — and would seem to be — fuckall, but fuckall’s way different from ‘no fucks.’ If they didn’t give a fuck, Synanthrope could hardly come across as furious as it does in these seven tracks, totaling a consuming, gruff, sludged 39 minutes, marked out by centerpiece “King of the Pleistocene” fucking with your conception of desert rock, the second part of “Aiboh/Phobia” — the part named after a grind band, oddly enough — and “Toss Me a Crumb” fucking around with some grind, and closer “Paw” trodding out its feedback-laden course with Erik Larson‘s drums marching in crash with Surly‘s riffs. Hell, you got Mike Dean to record the thing. That’s giving a fuck all by itself. This kind of heavy and righteous, purposeful aural cruelty doesn’t happen by mistake. It’s too good to be fuckless. Sorry.

Thunderchief on Facebook

Thunderchief on Bandcamp

 

Turkey Vulture, Twist the Knife

turkey vulture twist the knife

No lyric sheet necessary to get that the longest song on Turkey Vulture‘s Twist the Knife EP, the three-minute “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” is based lyrically on the ever-relevant film They Live. The married Connecticut duo of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Jessie May and drummer Jim Clegg (also in charge of visuals), find thrashy release on the four-song release, which totals about eight minutes and in opener “Fiji,” “Where the Truth Dwells,” as well as “Livestock on Our Way to Slaughter,” they rip with surprising metallic thrust. The closing “She’s Married (But Not to Me)” is something of a further shift, and had me searching for an original version out there somewhere thinking it was a cover either of Buddy Holly or some wistful punk band, but no, seems to be an original. So be it. Clearly, at this point, May and Clegg are finding new modes of sonic catharsis that even a couple years ago they likely wouldn’t have dared. They’re a stronger band for their readiness to follow such whims.

Turkey Vulture on Facebook

Turkey Vultre on Bandcamp

 

Stargo, Dammbruch

Stargo Dammbruch

In Stargo‘s Dammbruch, I hear a signal back to European heavy rock’s prior instrumentalist generation, the Dortmunder three-piece not completely divorced from the riffy progressions that drove the warmth creating heavy psychedelia in the first place, even as the four-part, 14-minute title-track of the EP shifts between those impulses and more progressive, weighted, extreme or airy movements before its eerily peaceful conclusion. “Copter,” which could be titled after its wub-wub-wub effect early and the guitar chug that takes hold of it, and the closer “Bathysphere,” with its outward reach of guitar telegraphed in the first half but still resonant at the end, bring likeminded breadth in shorter bursts, but the abiding story of the EP is what the band — who made their full-length debut with 2020’s Parasight — might continue to offer as their style continues to develop. 35007, My Sleeping Karma, The Ocean, Pelican and Russian CirclesStargo‘s sound is a melting pot of ideas. They only need to keep exploring.

Stargo on Facebook

Stargo on Bandcamp

 

Ascia, Volume II

Ascia Volume II

Fabrizio Monni, also of Black Capricorn, issues a second EP from the solo-project Ascia following up on Sept. 2021’s Volume I (review here) with the marauding lumber of Dec. 2021’s Volume II, bringing his axe down across five tracks in a sub-20-minute run that’s been compiled onto a limited CD with the first release. Makes sense. The two outings share an affinity for the running megafuzz of earliest High on Fire and showcase the emerging personality of the new outfit in the melodies of “The Will of Gods” and the untempered doom of the later slowdown in “Thousands of Ghosts.” The instrumental “A Night with Shahrazad” closes, and feels a bit like a piece of a song — it crashes out just when you think the vocals might kick in — but if Monni‘s leaving his audience wanting more, well, he also seems quick enough to provide. “Eternal Glory” and “Ruins of War” will remind you what you liked about the first EP, and the rest will remind you why you’re looking forward to the next one. Mark it a win.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Black Capricorn on Facebook

 

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Album Review & Track Premiere: Lamp of the Universe, The Akashic Field

Posted in Reviews on January 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Lamp of the Universe The Akashic Field

[Click play above to steam the premiere of ‘Minds of Love’ by Lamp of the Universe. The Akashic Field is out Jan. 11 on HeadSpin Records.]

The most reliable trajectory to think of when it comes to Lamp of the Universe is outward. Far outward. The long-running solo-project of Hamilton, New Zealand’s Craig Williamson, begun during his late-’90s run with Datura and continued through his founding and releasing three albums with the heavier-psych trio Arc of Ascent, has consistently held to an exploratory standard, and with a foundation in acid folk and a unifying depth of arrangement, Williamson has shone his Lamp on an entire cosmic spectrum, from sitar-laced meditations to the pulses of atmosphere-breaching space rock and beyond.

The Akashic Field is the follow-up to 2020’s Dead Shrine (review here) and something of a spiritual successor to Arc of Ascent‘s 2017 third and final-at-least-for-now LP, Realms of the Metaphysical (review here), finding Williamson enacting full-band sounds on his own in the recording for the eight included tracks, emphasizing the backing of a drum kit, which is something that’s been intermittent throughout the Lamp of the Universe catalog.

It’s no small shift. Album opener “Return as Light” (premiered here) finds its momentum quickly by swirling backward melodies and various keys around a central drum pattern with tambourine added for extra movement, given complement by layers of Williamson‘s laid back, gently-styled vocals. The subsequent “Emerald Sands” adds a fuzzed out electric guitar to its own acoustic baseline procession, and pushes the group-all-together further while holding to the lysergic spirit that pervades here much as throughout the Lamp of the Universe discography. This blend of an established approach and a corresponding will to find new expressions for it is the core of what Williamson does with Lamp of the Universe.

For anyone unfamiliar with the outfit’s past work, the aesthetic shifts of The Akashic Field will of course be less palpable, but suffice it to say there’s a linearity to the progressive sound realized across this record’s 42-minute span. Even if it seems stark in comparison to some of Lamp of the Universe‘s other output, a song like “Return as Light” or its side-B-opening counterpart, the grit-fuzz-distorted riffer “Descendants” (premiered here), isn’t coming out of nowhere, as ethereal as it might ultimately seem to be.

As narrative goes, that’s the story of The Akashic Field. It is Williamson putting himself to work across a broader scope of rock arrangements, working as producer as well as performer as he does and has for over 20 years. And it should be noted that, even as The Akashic Field seems to brim with this purpose, the album does not merely stick to one idea or the other. “Minds of Love,” with its ’60s harpsichord-esque midsection, Mellotron drone and watery lead vocal over more drums and tambourine, finds its own balance between elements, coming down somewhat from “Return as Light” and “Emerald Sands” even as it crafts a multi-tiered hook of its chorus and keys.

lamp of the universe

This leads into “Seventh Seal,” which ends side A, and is the first of two songs over six minutes long — the other is the side B finale, “The Messianic Rule,” so there’s an intentional play for a vinyl structure evident as well as a general tightening of the songwriting throughout — which is a mellow roll marked by guitar-as-sitar-or-maybe-that’s-just-sitar-oh-who-the-hell-knows and a breadth of vocal echo over the hypnotic but not overly repetitive rhythm, executing a linear build that finds payoff in melody as well as its overarching fullness.

That in itself is something Lamp of the Universe has never done quite to the degree as on The Akashic Field, and in answering with “Descendants” — even after a platter flip — Williamson leaves nothing to question as to the aim toward incorporating a heavy rock feel. “Descendants” could be the work of a revived Datura or Arc of Ascent, but it says much that Williamson has chosen to present it on his own under the guise of Lamp of the Universe.

It is new territory being actively claimed by the project — “now I can do this like this” — and though it’s done thanks in part to the practicalities of Williamson expanding his production setup as discussed in a recent interview here, that does nothing to lessen the accomplishment that either “Descendants” or “Minds of Love” before or the ensuing shimmer of “Re-Ascension” represent. It may (or may not) be backward flute-Mellotron making its impression in “Re-Ascension,” but that comes after an initial guitar line that, by Lamp of the Universe standards, is relatively busy, and a break to open-space for contrast. Immediately the message is reinforced that The Akashic Field, and thus Lamp of the Universe itself, can be all of these things.

Which leaves the closing duo of “Mystic Circle” and “The Messianic Rule” to round out, and it should say something that the former, which is a mellow, sitar-led and minimally-percussed stretch most reminiscent of ‘traditional’ Lamp of the Universe fare, is by virtue of being so a sonic outlier among these surroundings, which also highlighting the effect of Williamson‘s voice in pulling and holding the entire release together.

Calling the sole presence of a solo-project pivotal is redundant — without him there’s no band — but as “Mystic Circle” feeds into the revitalized nod of “The Messianic Rule” and The Akashic Field hits its moment of last summation on a meld of buzzsaw lead guitar and molten, languid rhythmic backing, the underlying sense of creative design is even more apparent. In whatever manner or order the album was pieced together, however the songs happened as they did, the final result is that The Akashic Field has a classic LP-style flow, brought to bear with the confidence of one who’s been making records alone for as long as Williamson has even as one can note increased confidence in vocals, drums and keyboard arrangements.

Lamp of the Universe has not stopped and seemingly will not stop growing, and whatever path Williamson takes with the project after The Akashic Field, the ground he treads is only richer for his having done this work. A great place to start for new listeners willing to be drawn in, and an especially bold statement in context.

Lamp of the Universe, “Return as Light” official video

Lamp of the Universe, “Descendants” official video

Lamp of the Universe on Facebook

Lamp of the Universe on Bandcamp

Projection Records on Bandcamp

HeadSpin Records website

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Beastwars Release Limited Cold Wind / When I’m King 7″

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Remember that time Beastwars put out their self-titled debut (review here) in 2011? I do. It was awesome. That record dominated nearly everything in its path, and it set the New Zealand band’s destructive course in motion in a way for which one can only feel grateful these 10 years later. The Wellington-based four-piece embarked earlier this year on a round of tour dates playing their first album in its entirety, and in reissuing it, they included a 7″ with two songs initially left off the LP, re-recorded by the band as they are now.

“Cold Wind” and “When I’m King” can both be streamed now, and the band have made a few limited copies of the 7″ available in standalone fashion. Shipping ain’t cheap, I’ll tall you right now, but I’ve been watching the numbers available tick down over the last few days, and I’ll confess to feeling an increasing sense of urgency as they do. My inclination is to treasure pretty much anything Beastwars do at this point as a bonus, what with the band having broken up before eventually coming back together for 2019’s IV (review here).

I don’t know how long they’ll last but the songs, unsurprisingly, are killer, so it’s one you might want to snag while the snagging’s good and the numbers tick down to zero.

Art/info/links/audio follow:

beastwars cold wind when im king

Don’t let the disheveled looks deceive you. This 7″ is fresh out of the vault. 2 tracks that we love that didn’t make it on to our debut album have been re-recorded and pressed to fresh black vinyl by Holiday Records in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Hand numbered and limited to 300 copies worldwide. This will never be repressed.

Tracklisting:
1. Cold Wind 04:44
2. When I’m King 02:57

BEASTWARS:
Clayton Anderson – Guitar
Nathan Hickey – Drums
Matt Hyde – Vocals
James Woods – Bass

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Beastwars, Cold Wind/When I’m King (2021)

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