Posted in Whathaveyou on December 5th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Fucking hell, I hope I get to go to Desertfest Oslo. Conan and Dopelord and 16 on top of the likes of Dozer, King Buffalo and Pelican. Even down to Astralplane — their new record is badass, I have it pending for a review — and White Tundra (please don’t put them in the tiny room!), there’s no real letup. Howling Giant, Bottenhavet, Moonstone, Daevar, High Desert Queen. It’s just killer.
I write about a lot of festivals. Feels like especially in the last couple weeks, the Spring season in Europe has really taken shape. Desertfest Oslo 2026 has an essential role in that, as it feeds into the subsequent Desertfest Berlin and Desertfest London, as well as other festivals happening throughout May and into June. And that’s always cool, and I’ll look forward to those tour announcements as well, but my principal insight here is what I said in the first sentence. I was lucky enough to get to Oslo for Desertfest this year, and I very, very much want to go again in ’26.
The now-complete lineup, of course, is a significant part of why. From socials:
DESERTFEST OSLO 2026 – FINAL LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT
Oh hey, here we are already!
Things have been cooking intensely over the last couple of weeks, and we are finally ready to announce the complete lineup for Desertfest Oslo.
No matter how grey, moist and rainy it feels these days, the sun will soon be turning, and its beams set on Oslo, to light this city of Satan completely on fire May 8th and 9th, 2026.
The lineup is hotter than hell, and we hope it will add some sparkle to your holiday preparations.
Consider it a RIFFmas gift 🔥
A glimpse of light and fuzz. A state of mind to look forward to. Beyond the X-mas buzz. From all of us, to all of you.
Lots of love from your Desertfest Oslo crew!
Please welcome:
🏜️ UK´s doom lords CONAN.
🏜️ Norwegian stoner rock legends THULSA DOOM.
🏜️ Polish fuzz maestros DOPELORD.
🏜️ American sludge beast -16-,
🏜️ Italian stallions MR.BISON.
🏜️ Norwegian cosmonauts ASTRALPLANE.
🏜️ The new HEAVY from Sweden HEXJAKT
🏜️ Rising Italian psych masters GIOBIA.
🏜️ Local Norwegian powerhouses WHITE TUNDRA and BIG RIP.
Posted in Reviews on November 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
It’s all over now, I’ve got momentum on my side. This is day four of the Quarterly Review. The first three days have been nothing but a pleasure on my end, putting them together, and with just today and tomorrow left, I’m feeling pretty good about the entire endeavor. I’m not sure yet if this will be the end of the year as regards QRs, but if it is, it’s a good one to go out on.
And basically to make that determination, I need to look at next month’s schedule and see what’s coming when, when I’ll do things like the year-end poll and my own big end-of-year post. No idea on any of that yet, but I’ll get there. Getting this done in relatively smooth fashion is a help. Thanks for reading and I hope it’s been a good one for you as well.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Psychedelic Source Records, The Initiation Outlaws
Set to release through Echodelick in the US and Weird Beard Records in the UK, in addition to Psychedelic Source Records‘ own distribution, The Initiation Outlaws brings eight pieces and a full 98-minute double-LP’s worth of cosmic improvised jamming, with a cast of regulars from the Hungarian collective — Bence Ambrus, Máté Varga, Róbert Kránitz, Krisztina Benus, Gergely Szabó — taking part in collaborative exploration with Go Kurosawa of Kikagaku Moyo, who goes from drums to bass to guitar as the release progresses, sliding right into the amorphous methodology of Psychedelic Source Records while distinguishing the heavier push in “Three Golds Reward II” or the snare work on “The King of Magic Colts and Wands I” earlier. Trance-inducing as ever, these captured moments are gorgeously fluid and immersive, active enough in parts like “The King of Magic Colts and Wands II” to defy mellowpsych-improv expectation, but abiding just the same. If you’re not there yet, it’s time to start thinking of Psychedelic Source among Europe’s finest purveyors of heavy psychedelia.
The forlorn folkishness in the midsection of “Waves Become the Sky” bring to mind an extrapolation of emotive doom from the likes of Warning, but that’s understandable with Aerial Ruin and Bell Witch renewing their collaboration for Stygian Bough Vol. II, following on from a first volume (review here) in 2020. The album takes place over four extended tracks from the rolling density of the aforementioned opener through the minimalist-till-it-isn’t “King of the Wood” and the longform folk-death-doom of “From Dominion Let Them Bleed” and the melancholy triumph of heft wrought in 19-minute finale “The Told and the Leadened,” which dwells in spaces empty and full and remains conscious enough to end with tense noise and drumming. This is artistry on its own wavelength, working in its own time, and patient to a point of extremity. But they do it to offer comfort, make no mistake. There’s consolation in these songs, in addition to all the mourning.
Unrepentantly cosmic Italian outfit Giöbia are like a fresh coat of antimatter for space rock. The four-piece obviously hunkered down in their secret lab after 2023’s Acid Disorder (review here) and worked hard to refine their chemical compositions, such that “Voodoo Experience” nods grounded even as its synth and guitars surge beyond the thermosphere. The results show everywhere throughout X-ÆON in their outsider cohesion of classic and neo-space rocks, heavy psychedelia and oddball synthscaping, whether you’re doing the sensory thing with the dream-jam “1976” or embroiled in the four-part side B concept piece, “La Mort de la Terre,” which draws a cinematic curtain for life as we know it in “Dans la Nuit Éternelle,” a wordless epilogue that feels half a world removed from the stomp-and-verse of “The Death of the Crows,” but of course, that’s the whole idea.
The included acoustic guitar, organ and FM-radio classic rock vibes in the eight-and-a-half-minute closing title-track aren’t a coincidence. They’re part of a stated intention the band had in taking on more of a traditional sound, coming down from some of the harder-hitting doom of 2020’s Acid Communion and working in more of a ’70s-inspired style. That manifests to varying degrees throughout, as leadoff “Electric Execution” feels like it’s working in the vein of “Neon Knights” or “Turn Up the Night” in Dio Sabbathian raucousness (I know that was 1980-81, don’t @ me), and while “Lucifer Rising” has a weighted march, it’s more Scorpions than Sleep, and “Goin’ to Texas” brings in the organ to emphasize the Southern geography of the album’s centerpiece. It’s a striking turn but they pull it off for sure. “Muchachos Muchachin'” has mid-’70s charm to spare, and “Bone Boys Ride Out” seems to bridge the more modern attack of Bone Church-prior with who they are today. Not every progression plays out like you think it will, and if this is the band Bone Church have wanted to be all along, they sound accordingly right to have made the redirect.
The ‘soft scream’ vocals give Js Donny‘s Death Folk an immediate sense of extremity, but it’s a quiet extremity. The French solo artist — who also plays bass in adventurous Marseilles sludgers Donna Candy — released an EP with a full lineup in 2023, but this six-song/33-minute offering is more intimate. Js Donny dwells in the quiet, creepy spaces the songs create, the vocal gurgle giving shades of otherworldliness and malevolence alike. It’s called Death Folk, but especially with the electrified/distorted wash that takes hold in “Not Like That” and again at the outset of closer “Black Heart” — a biting tone, like harsher blackgaze — I can’t help but wonder if Js Donny isn’t working in a kind of post-death-metallic framing. There are no drums, which is a fair trade for what’s gained in grim ambience, but even without, the album is clear in manifesting both sides of its title, and while Js Donny isn’t the only one laying claim to death-folk as a style, how it happens here sure feels like an act of genre creation.
In some distant future, when the history is written of our idiotic, persistently awful time, no one will ever say, “and the right-thinking people of the day had no choice but to seek refuge in avant garde cybergrind,” and that’s why history is bullshit. Skeletal Blasphemy is the third album from Nuclear Dudes and second of 2025 behind September’s Truth Paste (review here) — keep ’em coming — and is the solo-project’s most vicious and realized offering to-date. Spearhead Jon Weisnewski (Sandrider, ex-Akimbo) brings powerviolent catharsis on “Victory Pants,” the title-track and assorted others, working in collaboration with guest drummer Coady Willis (High on Fire, Big Business, Melvins), and whether it’s the punker push in “Bad Body” or the slow, undulations of the closing “The Octopus” and the burgeoning thread of progressive melody throughout these songs, it’s exactly the sort of self-bludgeoning that being alive right now requires. Album of the year? Fuck you, fuck the year, and fuck capitalism.
With an instrumentalist foot in progressive, horn-inclusive jazz, heavy psychedelic fluidity and a resonant warmth of tone alongside a will to meander, Kronstad 23 feel tailor-made for El Paraiso Records, run by members of Denmark’s Causa Sui. Sommermørket is the Norwegian outfit’s debut album and without sounding consumed by its own ambition to do so, it organically nestles the band in a stylistic niche that allows for the explorations in “Caesar” and “Astralreiser,” the latter of which will seem barely there in its early going at low volumes, to exist along the daring-toward-dancey opener “Dølgsmål” and building a kind of dreamy tension between the guitar and drums on “Trosten,” with none of it feeling out of place. They’ll invariably get comparisons to Kanaan, but the foundation is different and the delivery gentler, with “Helgen” finding its way on drum rolls and key/guitar drift into a classic-prog horn section in a payoff that’s somewhat understated until you look back across the five and a half minutes and see how far you’ve come. I can’t wait to hear how they grow.
“Love of Driving” is the debut single from newcomer New Jersey-based krautrock-minded two-piece Rolls the River. The band brings together Dan Kirwan of Pyre Fyre on bass, guitar and vocals, and Victor Marinelli on guitar, synth, drums and vocals for a sub-five-minute cosmic reachout, obviously schooled in where it’s coming from — that is to say, one doesn’t krautrock by accident; it is a form to adopt and refine — but still feeling like an initial exploration of both style and composition. Fading in on an initial keyboardy drone, the guitar and drums come in together and the neospace shuffle is mellow as layers are added, guitar, keys, but the sense of movement brought to “Love of Driving” is enough to explain the title, whatever you might think of the Garden State’s highway system. Rather than get caught up in jughandles, though, Rolls the River harness tonal presence and linear development and still find room to include voice as part of the atmosphere. Formative, and an encouraging start.
Belgium’s Psychonaut may yet teach progressive metal a lesson or two. The post-metal three-piece reach what sure feels in “Endless Currents” like a new level of expression and craft, and while at 11 songs and 60 minutes, World Maker isn’t a minor undertaking — one could easily argue making a world takes time — the utter consumption achieved in “All in Time,” which I won’t spoil any further, the blissful wash of “…Everything Else is Just the Weather” are not to be missed, and worth whatever minor investment of attention span might be required. Exciting as the intermittent metallic surges are, “Endless Erosion” caps in a quiet place, and the atmospherics across the first two and a half minutes of “Origins,” just as one example, help to bring a feeling of place (of ‘world’) to the procession. It is a vivid place Psychonaut have made, and there are listeners for whom the melodies of World Maker will be transcendental.
Following an apparent 2024 EP called Anachronist that is below because this debut album isn’t streaming yet that I can find, The Sea Between Stars — a suitably romantic framing of what you might otherwise call ‘the void’ — brings a progressive take to classic-style doom rock. The Oregonian five-piece roll out a genuine feeling of dynamic across the album’s 10 tracks, from the proto-metal shove of “Knightrider” at the outset to the later rush and wail of “Sky Sized Heart,” to the doom-epic ballad reach of “Bridge of Irreconcilable Sorrow” to the acoustic turn in the last movement of “The Words We Don’t Speak” and variable but unifyingly soulful vocal arrangements throughout, up to the minimal voice-and-piano closer “Ghost Notes” or the duet in the crescendo of “Still Breathing.” Ambition set in balance with organic production and songwriting. I don’t know when The Sea Between Stars is coming out, if it’s now-ish, early 2026 or what, but if you want to take this as an early heads up, do.
If a city could have a sound, Suncraft could hardly be more Oslo in my mind. The five-piece next week (Nov. 21) release their second album, Welcome to the Coven, through All Good Clean Records, and it is identifiably Norwegian in its meld of punk, heavy metal, heavy rock, black metal, and so on. There are moments that are a party — plenty of them, actually, between “Love’s Underrated” early and the one-two punch later of “Charlatan Killer” and “High on Silence” — and places where a desert-riffed charge gives over to angrier moods, but the fluidity with which Suncraft are able to inhabit these musical spaces is so prevalent that in listening by the time you get to “Forgotten Goddess,” it’s almost something you take for granted.
In the lyrical framing, pickslides, verse shouts and thrashy thrust, “Ragebait” starts the record with a modern, genre-aware feel and quickly becomes a blast. Of course there are gang vocals. Of course there are blastbeats. But it’s the way Suncraft bring “Ragebait” back down to mid-level intensity afterward that tells you they’re really in control, and as a herald for what’s to follow on the eight songs/39 minutes of the album, “Ragebait” shows them as all the more dangerous front-to-back. Their 2021 debut, Flat Earth Rider (review here), dug into a similar stylistic nuance, finding the places between where one imaginary genre line ends and the next begins, but Welcome to the Coven doesn’t feel coincidental in directly addressing its audience with the title. The message is that Suncraft learned from the first record and are applying those lessons here.
What follows the cymbal-roll intro of “Ragebait” bears that out, whether it’s the friendlier shove of “Love’s Underrated” winking at Queens of the Stone Age — it’s not the last time that happens, with “Charlatan Killer” later and some desert vibes in “Forgotten Goddess” at the finish — or the barking punk of “Greed Battalion” that turns to black metal and back, making the last turn the most satisfying. Suncraft make flexibility a strength, and without pretense — I mean that; the Ruben Willem (Villjuvet) recording sounds brings rare balance of energy and clarity — the band cast their style not as progressive navelgazing, but as a natural outcome of throwing everyone together in a room and seeing how it goes. The songs, in reality, are more complex than this, but it’s the casual air with which Suncraft obliterate genred ideologies that makes Welcome to the Coven so much gosh darn fun.
It would fall flat if the band didn’t have the confidence, performance or sense of craft behind what they do, but the pointedly-metal-as-frick ending of “Welcome to the Coven” — an apex of charge, at least until “High on Silence” a couple songs later — gives over to “Wizards of the Anger Magic,” and I swear I hear Bad Religion in that riff. It’s incongruous, you understand. On paper, that transition shouldn’t work. The reason it does in this instance is that Suncraft at no point set up an expectation of stylistic rigidity. The more they go wherever they want, in other words, the easier it becomes for the listener to follow them as they go. With this in mind, the momentum of Welcome to the Coven becomes all the more prevalent on repeat playthroughs. It’s even better when you know where the twists are going, and worth the effort of an attentive hearing.
As noted, “Charlatan Killer” and “High on Silence” are highlights, and that has both to do with the way their hooks toy with heavy rock, the former elevated by the standout vocal melody — there’s some processing/effects there, used well — and a major-key revelry that dares toward Torche while keeping early-Mastodon heft and the aforementioned QOTSA in the mix as well. They bring the forward drive of “Charlatan Killer” to a roiling culmination and return to the hook to push it over the top, thereby demanding as much volume as you can give, and clearly had keeping the movement going in mind in placing “High on Silence” immediately after. There’s a falsetto-topped rush in the second half, with another divergence into black metal (not out of place) and double-kick meeting a big-rock solo and a last run through of its chorus; Suncraft have a direction, a plan. They seem perfectly happy to make bludgeoning the crap out of you part of it.
They cap with the longest song in “Forgotten Goddess” (6:30), which ignites with a careen that feels notably ‘for the deaf’ while at the same time tonally thicker and more driven in its charge. A short time later, Suncraft will — while sounding like they’re having such a good time it should probably be illegal — be piling on layers until the real last push starts circa 5:40. They drop out and come back loud to bring the closer to a head and drop out, letting a roll on the ride cymbal be the last thing to go, as if in warning that they might crash back in at any second, or perhaps more, to call back to how “Ragebait” started off and give a warning for next time too.
Do not discount their songwriting prowess because they use it to sound like drunken marauders. In fact, that’s part of the plan too.
Enjoy “Charlatan Killer” on the player below, followed by some words from the band and more from the PR wire:
Suncraft on “Charlatan Killer”:
‘Charlatan Killer’ is perhaps the most unusual song on our sophomore album, Welcome to the Coven, featuring falsetto vocals and plenty of unexpected twists and turns. We wrote it as an antidote to imposter syndrome — something our singer, Rasmus, has struggled with in the past. The song playfully imagines a mystical killer of charlatans who’s out to get you and finally expose your deeply fraudulent, true self.
Sonically, ‘Charlatan Killer’ is a fast-paced, eerie, and droning track where we venture further into strange new territory than our usual blend of stoner and Scandi rock. It was recorded, mixed, and mastered by the eminent Ruben Willem, known for his work with Norwegian rock royalty like Kvelertak and The Good the Bad and the Zugly.
Oslo’s loudest troublemakers Suncraft are back with their new album Welcome to the Coven, due out November 21 via All Good Clean Records.
It’s a fast-paced genre party where stoner rock crashes headfirst into garage rock, black metal, and even a bit of pop punk, all wrapped up in fuzz, sarcasm, and serious rock ’n’ roll nonsense.
Produced by Ruben Willem (Kvelertak, The Good The Bad and The Zugly), this one’s heavy, weird, and wildly fun.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
King Buffalo, Dozer, Pelican, High Desert Queen, Blackwater Holylight, Howling Giant, Daevar, Bottenhavet, Moonstone, The Sword, Russian Circles — I mean, do I really need to say more here than the list of names. Desertfest Oslo 2026 will be the third edition of the Norwegian Desertfest installation, and one might accuse them of coming out of the gate swinging. Some of these — The Sword, Earthless, High Desert Queen, etc. — are being shared with Desertfest Berlin and Desertfest London, setting up the possibility of three weeks of touring at least for a few acts here. Then there’s King Buffalo, who I think are just spending their entire summer abroad next year. Not gonna complain about it if there’s a chance I can see them.
To that end, I was lucky enough to be invited to cover Desertfest Oslo last year and, unsurprisingly, I had a blast. Should I be so fortunate as to be invited again, I’ll go, but I’m not about to presume. Whether I’m there to see it or not has no bearing on the sickness of the lineup-thus-far, as you know, but still makes for a nice daydream.
They’ve got tickets on sale now, as per socials:
Let’s get this train running! 🔥
We’ve been so excited to share the first batch of bands coming to Oslo the 8th and 9th of May 2026.
From great geniuses of the genre, to guitar-wielding warlocks of the wasteland. From divine drop-d decibels, to new necromancers of nostalgic noise.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
You know, it’s been six years since Norway’s The Devil and the Almighty Blues put out their third record, Tre (review here), and between the length of that span of time and the fact of their signing to Ripple Musicthis July after a spring and early summer of fests — I got to see them at Freak Valley (review here) and be reminded of their formidable stage presence; note that this tour finishes in Siegen, Germany, near where that festival is held — I don’t think you’d be out of line asking if the advent of a Spring 2026 European tour like the below ‘Tour of the Season’ might coincide with the release of their awaited next LP. Actually, by the time they get there, the next album is supposed to have been out already.
When word of the Ripple pickup came through, it was stated that their previously-announced appearance for Planet Desert Rock Weekend next January would be the album’s far-from-home release show. That’s about three months out from now, end of January, and so one would expect word pretty much any day with some concrete information about the offering to come. I haven’t seen anything, and not to toot my own horn, but I probably would between the PR wire and the social media algorithm that put these tour dates in front of my eyes, but there’s still time for the promo cycle to rev up. Until then, some things are worth being impatient over.
To the tour dates:
The Devil and the Almighty Blues – Tour of the Season 2026
This will be a wild one! Poster artwork by Subterranean Prints
Norway’s Kal-El begin their tour of the US East Coast and Midwest tomorrow, Oct. 16. Today, they’re premiering their video for the new track “Juggernaut,” which heralds the coming in 2026 of their next full-length, Astral Voyager Vol. 2. If you’re not auto-stoked on that prospect by seeing the words alone, just hit up the video. Really. The best argument that anyone has ever made in favor of Kal-El has always been Kal-El songs. I could sit here for the next three hours trying to capture some aspect of the intangible righteousness of what the band does, and on a decent day, I might say something that someone hearing the song could relate to. Hypothetical cookie for me.
But even if that were to happen, there’s nothing I could say that’s going to convey the largesse of the roll that starts “Juggernaut,” or the way the five-piece seem to ‘go-big’ just as much on melody as impact. There is no revolution happening in Kal-El‘s music, and there never has been, and it’s never been about that. “Juggernaut,” in being the first audio from the follow-up to this year’s correspondingly banger Astral Voyager Vol. 1 (review here), is exciting regardless. It’s a celebration of heavy rock itself, of riffs, of volume, of the power of music to move you. I didn’t understand this about the band at first. But they’re songwriters, as they’ve proven over and again, and they prove once more with “Juggernaut.” I look forward to the next record and the many more steamroller grooves to follow.
Astral Voyager Vol. 2 will be out next year on Blues Funeral Recordings and Majestic Mountain Records. Some words on the single and the tour dates follow here, courtesy of the PR wire:
Kal-El, “Juggernaut” video premiere
Kal-El on “Juggernaut”:
“We are thrilled to finally unleash our next album “Astral Voyager Vol. 2” upon the world. “Vol. 2” is perhaps somewhat darker than Vol. 1, but everything is wrapped up in our style of playing and sound: expect heavy riffs, melodic vocals, and thunderous drums. “Juggernaut” is the first single, and it’s just that: a merciless juggernaut pounding every inch of your body with heavy, oh so heavy drums and riffs wrapped up in a wall of sound with the typical melodic KAL-EL vocals.”
Juggernaut is the lead single from the upcoming album ‘Astral Voyager Vol 2,’ set for release in February 2026. ‘Astral Voyager Vol 2 is a co-release by Majestic Mountain Records and Blues Funeral Recordings!
Kal-el will tour the US in October. Catch them on these dates October 16: The Odditorium – Asheville, NC October 17: The Pour House Music Hall – Raleigh, NC October 18: TV Eye – Queens, NY October 19: Sonia – Cambridge, MA October 21: MilkBoy Philly – Philadelphia, PA October 22: The Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD October 23: Westside Bowl – Youngstown, OH October 24: The Sanctuary Detroit – Hamtramck, MI October 25: Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, IL October 26: X-Ray Arcade – Cudahy, WI October 28: Bottleneck – Lawrence, KS October 29: The Vanguard – Tulsa, OK October 30: The Lost Well – Austin, TX
Enjoy, and may the fuzz be with you!
Credits Video by Drain Hope ( / drainhope ) Written and performed by Kal-El Recorded at Bridge Burner Recording Engineered by Ørjan Kristoffersen Lund Produced by Kal-El Co-produced by Ørjan Kristoffersen Lund Mixed and mastered by Ruben Willem Copyright to Darkspace Music
Posted in Reviews on October 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This isn’t the end of the Quarterly Review — it wraps up on Monday — but it is the end of the week, and I’m ready for it. The music’s been good though and that’s something of a salvation for times where it seems like the strange and terrifying are in competition with each other to make life more awful. That doesn’t end on the weekend, of course, but at least I’ll have two days to put together the last post of this QR, and when you’ve been writing 10 reviews a day all week, half that counts as respite. Something like it, anyhow.
So before we wrap up the week with whatever on earth I’ll actually pick to close it out (any requests?), here’s one more batch, with my thanks for your valuable time and attention. Hope you find something cool.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
P+A+G+E+S, No More Can Be Done
No More Can Be Done is the debut album from South Africa’s P+A+G+E+S, but the Cape Town trio spent five years in the 2010s together as Morning Pages, so that their first record would hold so much intention behind it shouldn’t necessarily be a shocker. The reason behind the name change? An apparent change in their project, which is to say the band got way, way darker, way, way heavier and nasty in that sharp-toothed-thing-you-can’t-see-but-you-know-is-there-also-there-are-no-lights kind of way. The 15-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “The Passage” leads the way down into the bleak, extreme sludge that follows, but as the careful linear build of “Shine On” later demonstrates, P+A+G+E+S are more methodical than the noise and outwardly chaotic feel would seem to indicate. Atmosphere plays a central role in what they do, and that’s consistent from their run as Morning Pages, but No More Can Be Done is about what’s lurking and lurching in the bleakness.
Following the intro “Chasm,” Bask launch their fourth album, The Turning, with minor-key mystique and subsequent crush via “In the Heat of the Dying Sun” and “The Traveler,” piling triumph upon triumph in a way that is indicative of the progressive songwriting at work. “The Cloth” is slower, but neither less weighted nor less gorgeous for that, and as “Dig My Heels” works in some of the Southern/Americana pastoralism the Asheville, North Carolina, outfit have always been known for, the melody proves a standout, setting up another life-affirming payoff in the seven-minute “Unwound,” the mellower turn for the build of “Long Lost Light” and the somewhat wistfully twanging undertones of the title-track, which closes with grace and poise rare enough in heavy anything. Clearly a band who have worked to and been successful in transcending their root influences, and an identity that’s been hard-forged over their decade-plus. The Turning sees them actively bring their approach to another level.
A 15-minute two-songer from Lima, Peru’s Matus, as the psychedelic weirdo sometimes-cultists of long standing offer “El Aullido” (8:45) and “Planetario” (6:55) as their first outing since 2021’s Espejismos II (review here). Both processions — and they are that — feel built out from jams, but the recordings have guitarist Manolo Garfias and keyboardist Richard Nossar (both also alternate bass duties) at their core, along with Roberto Soto‘s drumming, Veronik‘s theremin in the deep-freakout section of “Planetario,” Úrsula Inga‘s vocals on “El Aullido,” and so on with other guests (including Camilo Uriarte, who co-produced and mixed, along solo artist Chino Burga on guitar, and Cristóbal Pérez on sax for “Planetario”) adding to the movement. “El Aullido” pairs shoegaze with a roll informed by South American folk, perfect for Inga‘s vocals, while “Planetario” carries more of its melody in the keyboards and surrounding ambience. It’s a welcome check-in from Matus as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band.
Where New England bizarropsych rockers November’s Fire‘s 2024 album, Through a Mournful Song, took an approach to its material like some of earliest Monster Magnet‘s underproduced kitchen-sink quirk, the two-song EP 2025 presents two different faces, and that turns out to be because the songs included are over 30 years old. “2025” and “Somnia” — the latter which brings in original guitarist Greg Brosseau for a guest spot that includes clean lead vocals — were allegedly written in the early 1990s, and if you told me the root of the title-track was a teenaged thrash riff, they make that easy enough to believe in the modernized, thickened chug of the song as it stands now. That is to say, they’ve brought it into the sludgy experimentalist context of the work now, but it remains dark. As it inevitably would. “Somnia” is shorter, has some backing chants, and feels meditative even as the guitar holds to its restlessness. Weird band staying weird, screwing around with their old stuff and getting something out of it. Sometimes an experiment works.
Bergen, Norway, four-piece Goatmilker don’t really leave you with much choice other than to call them progressive, though that hardly says boo about the reach of their self-titled debut, which is as much psychedelic punk as it is black metal in its rhythms, but remains a work of heavy rock and roll nonetheless, grooving, catchy on “Devils on My Tail,” aggro-weird on “Time… Tearing Apart,” all-in on tonal overwhelm for “Mountains” and cheekily grandiose in the finale “Storm” only after they’ve seen fit to take on Journey‘s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” which given the goes-where-it-wants succession leading up to it hardly feels out of place at all. While at no risk of overstaying its welcome at eight songs and 34 minutes, Goatmilker does make for a challenging listen at times, but the rewards for actually paying attention to what they’re doing are worth whatever effort is required. That is to say, engage actively for best results.
If Grin sound a little different on Incantation, a two-track 7″ with a digital bonus cut in the flatteningly heavy “Echoes in the Static,” that might be because the duo of drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg and bassist Sabine Oberg didn’t record themselves as usual, but instead tracked live at Wave Akademie in their native Berlin with Anton Urban (Jan Oberg co-produced, mixed and mastered, so still had a hand for sure). So, rather than the studio leftovers one might expect mere months after the band’s last full-length, Acid Gods (review here), the songs may have their origins as such but arise from different circumstances. There’s some more of a wash to “Incantation” and “The Color of Ghosts,” and “Echoes in the Static” is consumed by its titular noise toward its finish, but “The Color of Ghosts” dares some melodic vocals amid all that bombast, and as usual, Grin forge their own take on metal, sludge and intense atmospheric heavy.
A collection of bangers on the second LP through Glory or Death Records from San Diego rockers Mezzoa, TON 618 plays out over the course of a taut 13 songs and 39 minutes, careening desert style in “Hard to Hear,” punking up the groove in “Chump” before basking in Sabbath worship for “Wasted Universe” (think “Symptom” thereof), building crunching tension in “Uncle Cho” only to release it in the second half of the song with a grunge melody, carrying that melody into “Smiles for Everyone,” and then slamming all that momentum into the fuzzed radness of the lead tone and Alice in Chainsy vocal of “How You Been.” That’s not the end, I’m just less efficient than the band and so I’m running out of space. “Blessing” attains inner Nirvana while “Desert Snakes” sounds like it’s ready for a John Garcia guest spot, “Chachi Liberachi” echoes the sharper corners of “Wasted Universe,” “Goin’ Down” has that riff that every New York hardcore song ever (yes, all of them. don’t @ me.) has but goes somewhere completely different with it, and closer “How Are We” highlights the craft that’s let them do it all in the first place. Hey kid, you like rock music? Well get a load of this.
Beginning with its longest track in the nine-minute “Biting In,” Orsak:Oslo‘s Silt and Static finds the Norwegian/Swedish outfit somewhat outgrown from their dronier foundations, harnessing a psychedelia that moves with krautrocking purposes, while retaining the band’s previously-established ambient instrumentalist approach. “Days Adrift” is an even thicker roll, with ebbs and flows that give precedent to the shove that results in “Salt Stains,” which follows, while “Petals” dips momentarily into minimalism. But the story here is the fullness of sound, with pieces like the subdued-but-building “Resonance in Ash” or “Petals” in conversation with Pelican/Russian Circles-style heavy, while “The Onward Stride” and “Time Leak” bring prog more to the forefront and “Bread and Sink” lets the rumble bring it all together. In these ways, Silt and Static rewrites the story of Orsak:Oslo as a band, and their reach has never seemed so broad.
Modder, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun
The hypnotic drone finish of “Type 27” that ends side A of Modder‘s second album, Destroying Ourselves for a Place in the Sun, is just one way the band incorporate ambience as a key element in their trades between loud and quiet, tense and open, and crushing and spacious. These different sides come together in various combinations across the six cuts on the Belgian instrumentalist five-piece’s 41-minute run, which sets out in oppressive and blasting fashion with “Stone Eternal,” as heavy as whatever doom you want to put it next to and still able to hit with the precision of Gojira. The shorter “Mather” is more angular, glitchy and mirrored by “Chaoism” on the album’s second half, and though they lead off with their longest track (immediate points) in “Stone Eternal,” the heavy djenty chug that comes to fruition on “In the Sun” is unmistakable as anything but the closer, building, receding, tossing in what sure sounds like a human voice chanting and surging in intensity to round out with a keyboard-overlaid bludgeoning. By then you’re pretty much pulp anyway.
Past Warnings of Present Futures tells you a lot about its point of view in the title, but electronic experimentalists Futuredrugs push the meaning deeper still, opening with a barely recognizable take on “What a Wonderful World” with “Skies of Blue” and revamping Tom Waits‘ “Dirt in the Ground” on “…And the Gallows Groaned.” The cinematic, dark synth/programmed backdrop of these and the sampled “No Home” blur the line between originality and reinterpretation/manipulation, and I won’t claim to know whether pieces like “Ice Age Coming” or “When the Last Tree Falls” are similarly sourced, but maybe. In any case, in a time when remembering things like “nothing matters anyway” is a comfort, there is space for the open-minded listener to dwell among these seven tracks, which when taken as a whole succeed in embodying the apocalyptic hellscape of recent years. I don’t know if they’re offering sanctuary so much as a snapshot, but as that, it sure feels like an accurate depiction.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I hear nothing so much as a fresh take in the self-titled debut from Bergen, Norway’s Goatmilker. Not to be confused with the Dutch death metallers of the same name, the newcomer four-piece will issue their first long-player Sept. 16 (hey that’s what the headline said!), and their Bandcamp has four songs from it up already, if you’d like to get some semblance of an idea as to a “fresh take” on what. My answer to that question is doom rock. You can hear cultistry in their riffing, and that might honestly be a black-metal-via-osmosis influence — so far as I know, they haven’t worked with Iver Sandøy yet, but I wouldn’t rule it out — running coincidental to an intermittent punker push (that’s you, “Time… Tearing Apart”) as guitarist Vegard Lindtveit and bassist Mathias Lieberknecht share vocals to make an early cut like “Devils on My Tail” a dangerously-purposeful-sounding melodic highlight.
And yes, as you get down past the immersively churning progressive thrashrock of “Mountains,” that indeed is a cover of Journey‘s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” that greets you, and much to the band’s credit, they balance loyalty to the original with shifting the tones and atmosphere of the song so that it’s consistent en route to the all-in drama and charge of the closer, “Storm.” I’m just getting to know the album and its songs, but their untraditional traditionalism stands them out immediately, and so far as I’ve yet heard, there’s a definite focus on craft that speaks to me of intention toward growth.
I’ve held a slot in my next Quarterly Review for the album, but think of this as an early heads up. Opening track “Mission Log 1601” is streaming at the bottom of this post along with the latest single “Time… Tearing Apart.” If you dig what you hear there, I would advise you to hit their Bandcamp for further complexity.
And enjoy:
GOATMILKER – Goatmilker – Sept. 16
After two years of brewing in rain-soaked Bergen, Norway, GOATMILKER is finally ready to unleash their self-titled debut album – a raw and heavy mix of crushing riffs, layered vocals, and soaring atmospheres. Drawing inspiration from Mastodon, Black Sabbath and Voivod, this is no glossy take on modern prog-metal. Instead, it’s a collision of cosmic chaos, dystopian moods, and primal energy – packaged in a surprisingly accessible form.
From the cold endless space of Mission Log 1601, through the epic storm of riffs in Mountains, to the hook-driven force of Black Grass – every track lands like a punch to the face.
The final single, Time… Tearing Apart, arrives September 2. It’s the most intense outing from GOATMILKER yet – lyrically exploring helplessness as life’s hourglass runs dry, musically hammering down with riff after riff in the spirit of Slayer, Kvelertak, and Megadeth. This one guarantees a MOSHPIT at every GOATMILKER show.
The debut album GOATMILKER drops worldwide on September 16, 2025!
Tracklisting: 1. Mission Log 1601 2. Devils on My Tail 3. Time… Drawing Near 4. Time… Tearing Apart 5. Black Grass 6. Mountains 7. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) 8. Storm
