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.

Bongzilla on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Trevor’s Head, A View From Below

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.

Trevor’s Head on Facebook

APF Records website

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Vorder, False Haven

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.

Vorder on Facebook

Suicide Records website

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Inherus, Beholden

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.

Inherus on Facebook

Hypnotic Dirge Records store

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Sonic Moon, Return Without Any Memory

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.

Sonic Moon on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Slow Wake, Falling Fathoms

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.

Slow Wake on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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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.

The Fierce and the Dead on Facebook

Spencer Park Music on Facebook

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Mud Spencer, Kliwon

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.

Mud Spencer on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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Kita, Tyhjiö

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.

Kita on Facebook

Kita on Bandcamp

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Embargo, High Seas

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.

Embargo on Facebook

Embargo on Bandcamp

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Austin’s Bridge Farmers have climbed the mountain of madness. They’ve ridden the road to oblivion. They’ve eaten the proverbial brown acid, with Cthulhu, in the eye of a hurricane. And, presumably a few days later, the psych-sludge rockers from the Lone Star State decided to document their experiences in the form of their second full-length, Cosmic Trigger, released through Olde Magick Records. It’s been some five years since their 2018 self-titled (discussed here), and some of the shifts in approach that the six songs/44 minutes of this follow-up long-player presents can be accounted for in adding guitarist Pete Brown to the band alongside guitarist/vocalist Tyler Hautala, bassist Garrett Carr and drummer Kyle Rice — I’m not certain how permanent that addition is, but what is permanence anyway when you’re melting the universe to so much transdimensional goo? — but not all of them.

The churning and psychedelic boogie of the nonetheless-noise-drenched, maybe-theremin-inclusive “Temple of Eris I” and the scorching and expansive space rock jam that ensues on “Temple of Eris II” can’t really be written off as just the difference having two guitars makes. Given the sound, it’s more likely the stratospheric drive came first and then the advent of Brown on guitar, but whatever did it, Bridge Farmers are a weirder band than they were half a decade ago — for what it’s worth, it was eight years from their 2010 debut, Din of Celestial Birds, to Bridge Farmers, so five years isn’t their longest divide, and they had other offerings in between — and that weirdness suits them delightfully.

The way Cosmic Trigger is structured is important to the fluidity within and between the six inclusions, which are set up in a pattern of three pairs of shorter and longer songs. To wit, the tracklisting, with runtimes:

1. Frater Achad (5:16)
2. Street Needles (10:06)
3. Temple of Eris I (4:28)
4. Temple of Eris II (8:10)
5. Dark Star (3:20)
6. Lynx (12:40)

From this we can see that Bridge Farmers — who produced Cosmic Trigger themselves with Daniel McNeill engineering and Tad Doyle (TAD, Hog Molly, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth) mastering at Witch Ape Studios — approach their third album with a marked sense of purpose, and neither the pairings nor their succession one to the next feels haphazard. Blowing itself quickly out the airlock, the album launches with what might be its oldest song, as “Frater Achad” bass-lumbers into its noisy, vocal-echo-stretching procession, atmospherically vast and unrepentantly stoned in tone. That the song moves at all feels like a collective feat of strength for an early Festivus, but as gravitationally dense as it is, Hautala‘s shouts are loose, almost bluesy in their more melodic moments, and feel born out of some of the same impulse as earliest Monster Magnet, or a less-manic Ecstatic Vision, if you’d like a more modern example, and underneath part of the solo in the second half of “Frater Achad” there seems to be a layer of guitar that’s (maybe) just a pick hitting a string.

I don’t know if that’s actually part of the lead track or a complementary noise — there’s a drone like a mouth harp as well for a while and cacophony is the general idea so it’s hard to tell exactly — but it’s emblematic of the will to experiment, the manner in which the songs have been built up, and the open-mindedness/expanded-consciousness of the band generally. It’s like sludge rock macrodosing ketamine, numbing thought with an onslaught of swing ‘n’ swirl, and that’s before “Street Needles” takes hold to spend 10 minutes pondering what might’ve been if Electric Wizard and Unsane were the same band and they dropped a gallon of acid and rewrote Black Sabbath‘s “Black Sabbath” after jamming out its ultra-recognizable central riff for, I don’t know, six hours?

An almost-Looney Tunes wakeup guitar stretch starts “Temple of Eris I,” and the only direct two-parter on Cosmic Trigger proceeds to build itself up from there until at 1:45 into its 4:28 it can’t take it anymore and begins its outbound launch. Wah guitar, howls of something or other, a steady, righteous air push of bass, and a whole lot of acid wash takes hold and that is the course of the song right into its fade out, which is a surprise until “Temple of Eris II” walks that fade back up slowly, false ending-style. I think it’s guitar, but if you told me it was keys or actual sax, I’d believe you, but either way, it’s a lead where Hawkwind would’ve put the saxophone and it serves just as well in the early going, eventually becoming part of the overarching push, which turns past three and a half minutes in into comedown tom thud and circular trails of guitar.

But wait! As they head toward minute five, they start to give the impression they’re not done and with crash cymbal counting in, they start the thrusters anew and are off to interstellar glory once again, pushing past spiral galaxies left spinning like so many pinwheels in their wonderfully make-believe wake. “Dark Star” follows and regrounds immediately with thick but punkish bass, echoing shouts that could just as easily have been on a Ministry record in the ’90s and an entirely different kind of shove that slams into a wall before its first minute is done, staggers for a moment, then surges again, staggers again, and surges again, a last few lyrics arriving to check if you’re dizzy enough.

That leaves “Lynx” at the finish; the longest track and maybe also the farthest reaching, cosmic and mellow at first, with calmed vocals and an eventual tsunami wall of fuzz that swallows everything. From there the pace picks up to a dense-in-the-low-end, echo-shout-topped boogie, evens out to a desert rock riff with what sounds like a siren blaring from one channel to another, and a where-did-that-come-from revitalization of the space rock tap-tap-tap behind the riff. They resolve it in heavy psychedelic fashion, daring a bit of melody in the layering of guitar and maybe keys while remaining superficially furious until the tape runs out and they’re done for real.

They’ve reportedly got a fourth full-length currently at some stage of progress or other, so it may or may not be another five years before Bridge Farmers are next heard from. I won’t claim to know anything there or to have a guess at where they’re going sound-wise after sitting Cosmic Trigger next to Bridge Farmers and experiencing the acid noise of these tracks, but whether another long-player manifests this year, next year, or in 2028, or never, that does nothing to undercut either the redirect Bridge Farmers have undertaken stylistically or the multifaceted take that’s resulted from it.

In being sort of all-over-the-place while making sense in its own context, “Lynx” is a fitting capper for the album as a whole; it may not encapsulate the full range of ground they trod, but it’s got a goodly portion of it, and in the sure-footed manner of its going it is analogous to the record itself. Even if you emerge from Cosmic Trigger wondering what the hell just happened, rest assured, you’re doing it right. So are they. Just go back, listen again, and let the math work itself out.

Bridge Farmers, Cosmic Trigger (2023)

BANDCAMP PLAYER

Bridge Farmers, “Frater Achad” official video

Bridge Farmers on Facebook

Bridge Farmers on Instagram

Bridge Farmers on Bandcamp

Olde Magick Records on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Instagram

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

Danish heavy rockers Sonic Moon will release their debut album, Return Without Any Memory, on Aug. 4 through Olde Magick Records. Well, that’s the headline repeated, so I guess that about covers it, right?

Before you click off to something else, take a second to check out the video for the first single “Give it Time.” It’s a tonally-telling glimpse at where the album — self-recorded after working with a variety of producer/engineers on prior short offerings — is at least in part coming from, and the brooding atmosphere talked about in the announcement below is resonant aurally and visually, but the song still rocks, which is a tougher balancing act than it might seem at first.

If you dig what you hear/see, you’ll also find 2019’s Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers EP below as well at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Sonic Moon‘s Bandcamp, and if you find yourself thinking ‘wasn’t there a Sonic-something-in-the-sky band from Denmark?’ the answer is yes. That’s The Sonic Dawn. Different band. Plenty of room for everybody.

From the PR wire:

Sonic Moon announce debut album on Olde Magick Records

First single “Give It Time” out May 12

After spending the better part of two years unfolding their contrasting and riff-based take on psychedelic stoner rock, Sonic Moon announce their 7-track self-recorded debut album Return Without Any Memory to be released in august 2023 on Olde Magick Records.

The first single Give It Time is out May 12 on all major streaming services. Give It Time introduces the band’s shared feeling of encapsulated loneliness, anger and frustration, all contained within the refined sound produced by the intensive care, effort
and soul that the band fueled the album with.

The single will be released alongside a music video. The video depicts thematics of cold, melancholy, time and decay through a variety of tableaus recorded by the members of the band and assembled by Emil Gam Klinkby. The dark and heavy groove of the first track from the album will be the foundation of what’s to come.

The album is recorded by Sonic Moon, mixed and mastered by Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio, and the artwork is designed by Mirkow Gastow.

Tracklisting:
1. The Waters
2. Tying Up The Noose
3. Give It Time
4. Through The Snow
5. Head Under The River
6. Distant
7. Hear Me Now

Releases August 4, 2023.

Sonic Moon is Oliver, Emil, Niclas, Jeppe and Emil

https://sonicmoondenmark.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/sonic.moon/
https://www.facebook.com/SonicMoonDenmark

https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Sonic Moon, “Give it Time” official video

Sonic Moon, Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers (2019)

Didn’t we just do this? Yeah, kind of. It’s been a weird season, but I knew last month when I launched the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review that it needed to be more than two full weeks and given the timing of everything else slated around then and now, this is what worked to make it happen. For what it’s worth, I have QRs scheduled for July and early October, subject to change, of course.

The bottom line either way is it’s another batch of 50 reviews this week and then that’s a wrap for Spring. It’s a constant barrage of music these days anyhow, and I’m forever behind on everything, but I hope at least you can find something here you dig, whether previously familiar or not. We go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

HIGH LEAF, Vision Quest

An awaited debut from this Philadelphia heavy rock scene outfit, HIGH LEAF‘s Vision Quest makes its home among heavy tropes (also some minute cultural appropriation in the title) with unabashed glee and deceptively sharp songwriting. Certainly opener “Green Rider” is perfectly willing to beat you over the head with its chorus — and rightly so, you have it coming — but the spacious title-track that follows stretches over eight minutes and seamlessly works through drift and heavy psych impulses to get to the post-grunge roll that makes its increasingly aggro presence known past six minutes in, and that’s by no means the final bit of sludge to be had as the later “Hard to Find” leans toward nastiness only to be offset by the funky outset of “Painted Desert,” having pushed deeper from the Kyussery of “Dead Eye” and a swagger in “Subversive” worthy of comparison to Earthride. This lineup of the band has already split (there’s a new one, no worries), and how that reboot will affect HIGH LEAF going forward obviously remains to be seen, but this is a ‘serving notice’-type debut, doubling down on that in closing duo “March to the Grave” and “The Rot,” and the eight songs and 38 minutes commune with groove and riffs like they’ve been speaking the language the whole time. There’s definitely a vision at work. Let’s see where the quest takes them.

HIGH LEAF on Facebook

HIGH LEAF on Bandcamp

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JAAW, Supercluster

Fucking hell I wish this was what the future sounded like. It rocks. It’s interesting. It’s driven to be its own thing despite traceable roots. It’s got edge but it’s not hackneyed. It’s the tomorrow we were promised when industrial rock and metal became a thing in the 1990s and that corporate alt-everything and pop-punk usurped. I knew I wanted to write about it now, because it’s coming out now, but I’ll tell you honestly, I’ve barely scratched the surface of JAAW‘s Svart-issued debut, Supercluster — recorded at Bear Bites Horse in London by Wayne Adams, who’s also in the band alongside Andy Cairns of Therapy?, Mugstar‘s Jason Stoll and Adam Betts (of Squarepusher and others) — and this is the kind of album that’s going to be years in revealing itself. How about this? Sometime in 2028, if this site is still here, I’ll follow-up and let you know what I’ve found digging into the sinister groove of “Rot” or the shout-kraut rumble and noise of “Bring Home the Motherlode, Barry,” “The Dead Drop” going from minimalism to full heavy New Wave wash in five minutes’ time, and so on, but for right now, let it serve as the cannonball to be lobbed at anyone who says there aren’t any acts out there doing new things or pushing different styles forward, because hell’s bells, that’s the only place this goes even as it also seems to go everywhere at the same time, unto closing out with a Björk cover “Army of Me” as imagined by Ministry doing ’90s drum ‘n’ bass. Some things are just bigger than the year of their release, and I look forward to living with this record.

JAAW on Facebook

Svart Records website

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The Bridesmaid, Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother

From the opening drone-and-toy-chime-forward over industrial black metal of “Leytonstone: Eat Your Landlord” through the sample-fed machine sludge-turned-psych experimentalism that gives way to a shimmering haze of jazz metal in “Cleveland: And the Rain Came Down” and the can’t-fool-me-by-now acoustic strum at the start of “Summerland: A Long, Maintenance-Free Life” that runs a current of cello under its aural collage and low-end lumber early only to bask in news-and-drone departure with percussion later on the way to what post-hardcore could still someday be, the name of the EP is Come on People Now, Smile on Your Brother and The Bridesmaid deliver the proceedings in a manner more suited to Kurt Cobain‘s fuckall rasp of that line rather than the Youngbloods original. So it’s probably the latter. In any case, the UK solo-plus-friends outfit helmed and steered by JJ Saddington are an aural barrage, and while the temptation is to think of the three-song/21-minute offering as a blender on liquefy, the truth is the material is more thought out, more considerately mixed, and more engaging, than that kind of spastic randomness implies. If you can keep up with the changes, the adventure of listening is well worth the ankles sprained in its twists, but you should go into it knowing that the challenge is part of the appeal.

The Bridesmaid on Facebook

The Bridesmaid on Bandcamp

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Milana, Milvus

If the hard push and tonal burl of comparatively straight-ahead opener “The Last Witch” aren’t convincing, stick around through “Celestial Bird Spirit” and “Impermanence” on the rest of side A before you resolve one way or the other as regards Milana‘s debut album, Milvus. The Mallorca-based four-piece are for sure in conversation with fest-ready modern European heavy rock, and that’s the thread that weaves throughout the album, but in the 11-minute “Impermanance,” they build on the more temperate rollout of “Celestial Bird Spirit” and find an intriguing blend of atmosphere and dense fuzz, more moody than psychedelic, but smart to hold back its weightiest tonality for the rolling end. Appropriately enough, “Lucid Reality” brings them back to ground at the start of side B, but still has an atmospheric effect in its verse, with vocal layering over open-spaced guitar and an alt-rock pickup as they move toward the chorus, and Howling Wolf gives a class-conscious definition of the blues, in the long intro of “Gray City Lights,” setting a difficult standard for the rest of the song to match, but the organ helps. And all seems well and fine for “Whispering Wind” to wrap up mirroring the rocker “The Last Witch” at the start until the song breaks, the harmony starts, and then the growls and massive fuzz start in the last minute and it turns out they were metal all along. Go figure. There’s growing to do, but there’s more happening on Milvus than one listen will tell you, and that in itself is a good sign.

Milana on Instagram

Milana on Spotify

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New Mexican Doom Cult, Necropolis

Swedish upstart four-piece New Mexican Doom Cult offer a distinctly Monolordian weep of lead guitar on “Seven Spirits,” but even that is filtered through the band’s own take, and that’s true of their first full-length, Necropolis more generally, as the Gävle outfit now comprised of guitarist/vocalist/principal songwriter Nils Ahnland, guitarist Johan Klyven Kvastegård, bassist Emil Alstermark and drummer Jonathan Ekvall present seven songs and 48 minutes of dug-in rockers, distortion keyed to its fuzziest degree as Ahnland hints vocally on “Underground” toward a root in darker and more metallic fare ahead of the chugging build that rounds out the eight-minute centerpiece title-track and the make-doom-swing ethic being followed in closer “Worship the Sun.” “Vortex” is a highlight for the melody as much as the double-dose of nodfuzz guitar work, and opener “Architect” sets an atmospheric course but assures that the sense of movement is never really gone, something that’s a benefit even to the righteous Sabbath blowout verse in the penultimate “Archangel.” Much of what they’re doing will be familiar to experienced heads, but not unwelcome for that.

New Mexican Doom Cult on Facebook

Ozium Records on Bandcamp

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Gentle Beast, Gentle Beast

Capable double-guitar heavy rock pervades the 43-minute Gentle Beast by the Swiss five-piece of the same name. Mixed by Jeff Henson of Duel and issued through Sixteentimes Music, the eight-song run is defined by knowing itself as stoner rock, and that remains true as “Super Sapiens” departs into its post-midsection jam, eventually returning to the chorus, which is almost unfortunately hooky. “Greedy Man” is almost purely Kyuss in its constructed pairing of protest and riff, but the “Caterpillar” shows a different side of the band’s character in its smooth volume shifts, winding leads and understated finish, leading into the sharper-edged outset of closer “Toxic Times.” In the forward thrust of “Joint Venture,” the opener “Asteroid Miner” with its gruff presentation, and the speedier swing of “Headcage” reinforcing the vocal reference to Samsara Blues Experiment in the leadoff, Gentle Beast tick all the boxes they need to tick for this debut long-player some four years after the band’s initial 7″ single, setting up multiple avenues of possible and hopeful progression while proving dexterous songwriters in the now. Won’t change your life, but isn’t trying to convince you it will, either.

Gentle Beast on Facebook

Sixteentimes Music store

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Bloodsports, Bloodsports

Denver four-piece Bloodsports — also stylized all-lowercase: bloodsports — give a heavygaze impression with “Sky Mall” at the launch of their self-titled debut EP that the subsequent “Crimp” gleefully pulls the rug right from under with a solo section like All Them Witches grew up listening to The Cure after its Weezery verse, and the proceedings only gets grungier from there with the low-key Nirvana brooding of “Sustain” (also issued in 2022 as a standalone single) and its larger-scale, scorch-topped distorted finish and the shaker-inclusive indie ritual that is “Carnival” until it explodes into a blowout ending like the release of tension everyone always wanted but never actually got from Violent Femmes. Some noisy skronk guitar finishes over the hungover fuzz, which is emblematic of the way the entire release — only 11 minutes long, mind you — derives its character from the negative space, from its smaller moments of nuance, as well as from its fuller-sounding stretches. They’re young and they sound it, but there’s a sonic ideal being chased through the material and Bloodsports may yet carve their aural persona from that chase. As it is, the emotive aspects on display in “Sustain” and the volatility shown in the roll of “Sky Mall” make in plain that this project has places it wants to go and areas to explore, and one hopes Bloodsports continue to bring their ideas together with such fluidity.

Bloodsports on Instagram

Candlepin Records on Bandcamp

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Night Fishing, Live Bait

Recorded seemingly almost entirely live on audio and video, vibrancy would seem to be the underpinning that draws Night Fishing‘s Live Bait together, if fishing isn’t. The Denver four-piece are a relatively new formation, with guitarists Graham Zander (also Green Druid) and Zach Amster (Abrams), bassist Justin Sanderson (Muscle Beach) and drummer Gordon Koch (Call of the Void) all coming together from their sundry other projects to explore a space between the kosmiche, heavy rock and semi-improv jamming. The turns and fills and crashes that round out the second of three cuts, “No Services,” for example, feel off-the-cuff, but throughout most of “Alone With My Thoughts” and at least in the initial Slift-like shuffle at the start of “Slapback Twister,” there’s a plan at work. At 25 minutes, they’re only about a song shy of making Live Bait a full-length — though another track might mess up the shortest-to-longest and alphabetical ordering Live Bait has now, which are fun — but the instrumentalist exploration is suited to the nascent feel of the outfit, and while I don’t think Night Fishing is anybody’s only band here, if they can build on the sense of purpose they give to the jangly rhythm and airy solo of “Slapback Twister” and the right-on push of “Alone With My Thoughts,” they can make their records as long or as short as they want and they’re still bound to catch ears.

Night Fishing on Instagram

Brutal Panda Records website

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Wizard Tattoo, Fables of the Damned

Following last year’s self-titled debut EP, Indianapolis solo-project Wizard Tattoo cuts itself open and bleeds DIY on the seven songs and 40 minutes of the self-recorded, self-released Fables of the Damned, beginning with distinct moments of departure in opener “Wizard Van” and “The Black Mountain Pass,” the latter of which returns to its gutted-out chorus with maestro Bram the Bard (who also did the cover) cutting through the tonescape of his own creation to underscore the structure at work. There are stories to be told in “The Vengeful Thulsa Dan” and the folkish “Any Which Way but Tuned,” which brings together acoustics and chanting like a gamer version of Wovenhand, deep-mixed tom thud peppered throughout while the chimes are more forward, while the seven-minute “The Ghost of Doctor Beast” picks up with the slowest and most doomed of the included rollouts, “God Damn This Wizard Tattoo” ups the tempo with a catchy chorus, a little bit of mania in the hi-hat under the guitar solo, and hints dropped in the bassline of the grunge aspects soon to be highlighted in instrumental closer “Abendrote.” The sense of character is bigger than the production, and that balance is something that will need to be ironed out over time, but the dug-in curio aspects of Fables of the Damned make it engaging, whatever it may or may not lead toward.

Wizard Tattoo on Facebook

Wizard Tattoo on Bandcamp

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Nerver & Chat Pile, Brothers in Christ Split

I’ll never claim to be anything more than a dilettante when it comes to noise rock, and I’ll tell you outright that Kansas City’s Nerver are new to me as of this Brothers in Christ split with Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile, but both acts are coming from a strong Midwestern tradition of post-industrial (talking economy not genre) disaffection and building on momentum from strong 2022 releases, those being Nerver‘s even-the-CD-sold-out (aha! but not from the label! got it!) sophomore full-length CASH and Chat Pile‘s much-lauded debut, God’s Country (review here), and the scream-topped bombast of the one and volatile emotive antipoetry of the other make fitting companions across the included four songs, as Nerver‘s “Kicks in the Sky” underscores its jabs with deep low rumble as a bed for the harshly delivered verse and “The Nerve” shoves itself faceward in faster and less angular fashion, consuming like Chicago post-metal but pissed off like Midwestern hardcore while Chat Pile build through “King” en route to the panicked slaughter of “Cut,” which is sure enough to trigger fight-or-flight in your brain before its sub-five-minute run is up. Neither arrives at this point without hype behind them, both would seem to have earned it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go put on that Nerver album and play a bit of catchup.

Chat Pile on Instagram

Nerver on Facebook

Reptilian Records website

The Ghost is Clear Records website

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Austin, Texas, heavy psych rockers Bridge Farmers release their second album, Cosmic Trigger, May 19 on Olde Magick Records. The three-piece signed to the label early in February and have been dropping hints for a while on a follow-up to their 2018 self-titled debut (discussed here), which was brought to my attention last December in righteous check-this-out-you-dope fashion. Thankfully, I’ll add. But the unveiling of a solid release date is new, and one assumes that at some point between now and then, either they or Olde Magick or both will have preorders up and maybe even a song or two — should I ask to do a stream? probably — and so on with all that putting-out-a-record stuff.

But they posted the photo below of the record in-hand — an exciting mail day in the life of any band — and noted that although it’s been half a decade since their first full-length, they’re currently working on a third in the studio. Presumably that will be released sometime before 2028, but if you’d seek hints at what’s to come with Cosmic Trigger, look no further than 2020’s Live at the Electric Church (recall Duel also did a live record from the same venue), which captures their sound in raw but expansive fashion. That live outing was also recorded in 2018, so I don’t think any of the songs will be on the new record — all but “Frater Achad” appeared on Bridge Farmers, and that was released as part of a two-songer in 2016 — but it’s still an opportunity to dig deeper should you wish to do so ahead of Cosmic Trigger‘s arrival next month.

Here’s that post, dutifully hoisted from social media:

Whilst recording our 3rd album at the Cornpound in San Antone we got our grubby little fingers on our 2nd album ‘Cosmic Trigger,’ to be released on May 19th.

Release show details coming soon!

@oldemagickrecordsofficial
@worshipercabinets
@worshiperdrums

Bridge Farmers are:
Tyler Hautala – Guitar/Vocals
Garett Carr – Bass
Kyle Rice – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/BridgeFarmers/
https://www.instagram.com/bridgefarmersatx/
https://bridgefarmers.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Bridge Farmers, Live at the Electric Church (2020)

We press on, until the end, though tired and long since out of adjectival alternatives to ‘heavy.’ The only way out is through, or so I’m told. Therefore, we go through.

Morale? Low. Brain, exhausted. The shit? Hit the fan like three days ago. The walls, existentially speaking, are a mess. Still, we go through.

Two more days to go. Thanks for reading.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #81-90:

Farflung, Like Drones in Honey

No question Farflung are space rock. It’s not up for debate. They are who they are and on their 10th full-length, Like Drones in Honey (on Sulatron, which suits both them and label), they remain Farflung. But whether it’s the sweet ending of the “Baile an Doire” or the fuzz riffing beneath the sneer of “King Fright” and the careening garage strum of “Earthmen Look Alike to Me,” the album offers a slew of reminders that as far out as Farflung get — and oh my goodness, they go — the long-running Los Angeles outfit were also there in the mid and late ’90s as heavy rock and, in California particularly, desert rock took shape. Of course, opener “Acid Drain” weaves itself into the fabric of the universe via effects blowout and impulse-engine chug, and after that finish in “Baile an Doire,” they keep the experimentalism going on the backwards/forwards piano/violin of “Touch of the Lemmings Kiss” and the whispers and underwater rhythm of closer “A Year in Japan,” but even in the middle of the pastoral “Tiny Cities Made of Broken Teeth” or in the second half of the drifting “Dludgemasterpoede,” they’re space and rock, and it’s worth not forgetting about the latter even as you blast off with weirdo rocket fuel. Like their genre overall, like Sulatron, Farflung are underrated. It is lucky that doesn’t slow their outbound trip in the slightest.

Farflung on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Neptunian Maximalism, Finis Gloriae Mundi

Whether you want to namedrop one or another Coltrane or the likes of Amon Düül or Magma or whoever else, the point is the same: Neptunian Maximalism are not making conventional music. Yeah, there’s rhythm, meter, even some melody, but the 66-minute run of the recorded-on-stage Finis Gloriae Mundi isn’t defined by songs so much as the pieces that make up its consuming entirety. As a group, the Belgians’ project isn’t to write songs to much as to manifest an expression of an idea; in this case, apparently, the end of the world. A given stretch might drone or shred, meditate in avant-jazz or move-move-move-baby in heavy kosmiche push, but as they make their way to the two-part culmination “The Conference of the Stars,” the sense of bringing-it-all-down is palpable, and so fair enough for their staying on theme and offering “Neptunian’s Raga Marwa” as a hint toward the cycle of ending and new beginnings, bright sitar rising out of low, droning, presented-as-empty space. For most, their extreme take on prog and psych will simply be too dug in, too far from the norm, and that’s okay. Neptunian Maximalism aren’t so much trying to be universal as to try to commune with the universe itself, wherever that might exist if it does at all. End of the world? Fine. Let it go. Another one will come along eventually.

Neptunian Maximalism on Facebook

I, Voidhanger Records on Bandcamp

Utech Records store

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Near Dusk, Through the Cosmic Fog

Four years after their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), Denver heavy rock and rollers Near Dusk gather eight songs across and smooth-rolling, vinyl-minded 37 minutes for Through the Cosmic Fog, which takes its title from the seven-and-a-half-minute penultimate instrumental “Cosmic Fog,” a languid but not inactive jam that feels especially vital for the character it adds among the more straightforward songs earlier in the record — the rockers, as it were — that comprise side A: “The Way it Goes,” “Spliff ’em All,” and so on. “Cosmic Fog” isn’t side B’s only moment of departure, as the drumless guitar-exploration-into-acoustic “Roses of Durban” and the slower rolling finisher “Slab City” fill out the expansion set forth with the bluesy solo in the back end of “EMFD,” but the strength of craft they show on the first four songs isn’t to be discounted either for the fullness or the competence of their approach. The three-piece of Matthew Orloff, Jon Orloff and Kellen McInerney know where they’re coming from in West Coast-style heavy, not-quite-party, rock, and it’s the strength of the foundation they build early in the opening duo and “The Damned” and “Blood for Money,” that lets them reach outward late, allowing Through the Cosmic Fog to claim its space as a classically structured, immediately welcome heavy rock LP.

Near Dusk on Facebook

Near Dusk on Bandcamp

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Simple Forms, Simple Forms EP

The 2023 self-titled debut EP from Portland, Oregon’s Simple Forms collects four prior singles issued over the course of 2021 and 2022 into one convenient package, and even if you’ve been keeping up with the trickle of material from the band that boasts members of YOB, (now) Hot Victory, Dark Castle and Norska, hearing the tracks right next to each other does change the context somewhat, as with the darker turn of “From Weathered Hand” after “Reaching for the Shadow” or the way that leadoff and “Together We Will Rest” seem to complement each other in the brightness of the forward guitar, a kind of Euro-style proggy noodling that reminds of The Devil’s Blood or something more goth, transposed onto a forward-pushing Pacific Northwestern crunch. The hints of black metal in the riffing of “The Void Beneath” highlight the point that this is just the start for guitarists Rob Shaffer and Dustin Rieseberg, bassist Aaron Rieseberg and grunge-informed frontman Jason Oswald (who also played drums and synth here), but already their sprawl is nuanced and directed toward individualism. I don’t know what their plans might be moving forward, but if the single releases didn’t highlight their potential, certainly the four songs all together does. A 19-minute sampler of what might be, if it will be.

Simple Forms on Facebook

Simple Forms on Bandcamp

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Lybica, Lybica

Probably safe to call Lybica a side-project for Justin Foley, since it seems unlikely to start taking priority over his position as drummer in metalcore mainstays Killswitch Engage anytime soon, but the band’s self-titled debut offers a glimpse of some other influences at work. Instrumental in its entirety, it comes together with Foley leading on guitar joined by bassist Doug French and guitarist Joey Johnson (both of Gravel Kings) and drummer Chris Lane (A Brilliant Lie), and sure, there’s some pretty flourish of guitar, and some heavier, more direct chugging crunch — “Palatial” in another context might have a breakdown riff, and the subsequent “Oktavist” is more directly instru-metal — but even in the weighted stretch at the culmination of “Ferment,” and in the tense impression at the beginning of seven-minute closer “Charyou,” the vibe is more in line with Russian Circles than Foley‘s main outfit, and clearly that’s the point. “Ascend” and “Resonance” open the album with pointedly non-metallic atmospheres, and they, along with the harder-hitting cuts and “Manifest,” “Voltaic” and “Charyou,” which bring the two sides together, set up a dynamic that, while familiar in this initial stage, is both satisfying in impact and more aggressive moments while immersive in scope.

Lybica on Facebook

Lybica on Bandcamp

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Bird, Walpurgis

Just as their moniker might belong to some lost-classic heavy band from 1972 one happens upon in a record store, buys for the cover, and subsequently loves, so too does Naples four-piece Bird tap into proto-metal vibes on their latest single Walpurgis. And that’s not happenstance. While their production isn’t quite tipped over into pure vintage-ism, it’s definitely organic, and they’ve covered the likes of Rainbow, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, so while “Walpurgis” itself leans toward doom in its catchy and utterly reasonable three-plus minutes, there’s no doubt Bird know where their nest is, stylistically speaking. Given a boost through release by Olde Magick Records, the single-songer follows 2021’s The Great Beast From the Sea EP, which proffered a bit more burl and modern style in its overarching sound, so it could be that as they continue to grow they’re learning a bit more patience in their approach, as “Walpurgis” is nestled right into a tempo that, while active enough to still swing, is languid just the same in its flow, with maybe a bit more rawness in the separation of the guitar, bass, drums and organ. Most importantly, it suits the song, and piques curiosity as to where Bird go next, as any decent single should.

Bird on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Pseudo Mind Hive, Eclectica

Without getting into which of them does what where — because they switch, and it’s complicated, and there’s only so much room — the core of the sound for Melbourne-based four-piece Pseudo Mind Hive is in has-chops boogie rock, but that’s a beginning descriptor, not an end. It doesn’t account for the psych-surf-fuzz in two-minute instrumental opener “Hot Tooth” on their Eclectica EP, for example, or the what-if-Queens–of–the–Stone–Age-kept-going-like-the-self-titled “Moon Boots” that follows on the five-song offering. “You Can Run” has a fuzzy shuffle and up-strummed chug that earns the accompanying handclaps like Joan Jett, while “This Old Tree” dares past the four-minute mark with its scorching jive, born out of a smoother start-stop fuzz verse with its own sort of guitar antics, and “Coming Down,” well, doesn’t at first, but does give way soon enough to a dreamier psychedelic cast and some highlight vocal melody before it finds itself awake again and already running, tense in its builds and overlaid high-register noises, which stand out even in the long fade. Blink and you’ll miss it as it dashes by, all momentum and high-grade songcraft, but that’s alright. It does fine on repeat listens as well, which obviously is no coincidence.

Pseudo Mind Hive on Facebook

Copper Feast Records website

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Oktas, The Finite and the Infinite

On. Slaught. Call it atmospheric sludge, call it post-metal; I sincerely doubt Philadelphia’s Oktas give a shit. Across the four songs and 36 minutes of the two-bass-no-guitar band’s utterly bludgeoning debut album, The Finite and the Infinite, the band — bassist/vocalist Bob Stokes, cellist Agnes Kline, bassist Carl Whitlock and drummer Ron Macauley — capture a severity of tone and a range that goes beyond loud/quiet tradeoffs into the making of songs that are memorable while not necessarily delivering hooks in the traditional verse/chorus manner. It’s the cello that stands out as opener “Collateral Damage” plods to its finish — though Macauley‘s drum fills deserve special mention — and even as “Epicyon” introduces the first of the record’s softer breaks, it is contrasted in doing so by a section of outright death metal onslaught so that the two play back and forth before eventually joining forces in another dynamic and crushing finish. Tempo kick is what’s missing thus far and “Light in the Suffering” hits that mark immediately, finding blackened tremolo on the other side of its own extended cello-led subdued stretch, coming to a head just before the ending so that finale “A Long, Dreamless Sleep” can start with its Carl Sagan sample about how horrible humans are (correct), and build gracefully over the next few minutes before saying screw it and diving headfirst into cyclical chug and sprinting extremity. Somebody sign this band and press this shit up already.

Oktas on Facebook

Oktas on Bandcamp

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Scream of the Butterfly, The Grand Stadium

This is a rock and roll band, make no mistake. Berlin’s Scream of the Butterfly draw across decades of influence, from ’60s pop and ’70s heavy to ’90s grunge, ’00s garage and whatever the hell’s been going on the last 10-plus years to craft an amalgamated sound that is cohesive thanks largely to the tightness of their performances — energetic, sure, but they make it sound easy — the overarching gotta-get-up urgency of their push and groove, and the current of craft that draws it all together. They’ve got 10 songs on The Grand Stadium, which is their third album, and they all seem to be trying to outdo each other in terms of hooks, electricity, vibe, and so on. Even the acoustic-led atmosphere-piece “Now, Then and Nowhere” leaves a mark, to say nothing of the much, much heavier “Sweet Adeleine” or the sunshine in “Dead End Land” or the bluesy shove of “Ain’t No Living.” Imagine time as a malleable thing and some understanding of how the two-minute “Say Your Name to Me” can exist in different styles simultaneously, be classic and forward thinking, spare and spacious. And I don’t know what’s going on with all the people talking in “Hallway of a Thousand Eyes,” but Scream of the Butterfly make it easy to dig anyway and remind throughout of the power that can be realized when a band is both genuinely multifaceted and talented songwriters. Scary stuff, that.

Scream of the Butterfly on Facebook

Scream of the Butterfly on Bandcamp

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Holz, Holz

Based in Kassel with lyrics in their native German, Holz are vocalist/guitarist Leonard Riegel, bassist Maik Blümke and drummer Martin Nickel, and on their self-titled debut (released by Tonzonen), they tear with vigor into a style that’s somewhere between noise rock, stoner heavy and rawer punk, finding a niche for themselves that feels barebones with the dry — that is, little to no effects — vocal treatment and a drum sound that cuts through the fuzz that surrounds on early highlight “Bitte” and the later, more noisily swaying “Nichts.” The eight-minute “Garten” is a departure from its surroundings with a lengthy fuzz jam in its midsection — not as mellow as you’re thinking; the drums remain restless and hint toward the resurgence to come — while “Zerstören” reignites desert rock riffing to its own in-the-rehearsal-room-feeling purposes. Intensity is an asset there and at various other points throughout, but there’s more to Holz than ‘go’ as the rolling “50 Meilen Geradeaus” and the swing-happy, bit-o’-melody-and-all “Dämon” showcase, but when they want to, they’re ready and willing to stomp into heavier tones, impatient thrust, or as in the penultimate “Warten,” a little bit of both. Not everybody goes on a rampage their first time out, but it definitely suits Holz to wreck shit in such a fashion.

Holz on Facebook

Tonzonen Records store

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The email came in via Bandcamp and was simple enough, advising in no uncertain terms I take a peak at the new Void Commander video for the track “Shroom Bloody Shroom” from the band’s 2021 sophomore LP, River Lord. Well, alright. I do what I’m told.

It was a note from Olde Magick Records, which released the tape version of River Lord, while the LP was on Majestic Mountain and Ozium Records, with the latter also handling the CD edition. I missed the seven-songer when it came out, so took the serendipitously-timed video as a cue that I should dig in.

No regrets upon doing so — I even bought the tape from Olde Magick, so I guess email marketing still works sometimes — and finding the band’s pastoralist Sabbathian heavy blues rock stretched across the 37 minutes of River Lord. Each piece of the entirety offers something to differentiate it from the others, be it the bluesed-out solo in opening title-track, the tempo kick amid the Kings of Frog Island-esque lazy-day swing in “Stoner Eyes,” more harmonica in the shorter roller “Worship Midnight,” the more open psychedelic drift solidifying around the call and response chorus of “AGN,” sludgy screams and shouts showing up in the second half of “Fucked Up,” the stoner-is-as-stoner-does-so-get-stoned mentality and All Them Witches-style blues melody at the start of “I’m Drowning,” a flourish of Asteroid-style vocals later as the song sweetly rounds out, or just some cowbell in “Shroom Bloody Shroom” to set the swing, post-“Snowblind” lyrics, returning harmonica, and slumber-lumber groove.

These varied aspects are tied together through a feeling of live performance and the abiding undercurrent drawn from earliest Black Sabbath. Those are the centers around which the trio rally and from out of which they expand their sound and cast their identity on this second full-length to come across as unassuming and unpretentious but forming an individualized approach within the frame of modern stoner-style idolatry. That is, I do believe they’re worshiping the riffs they’re following, and I even more sincerely believe they’re having a lot of fun doing so.

The clip accompanying “Shroom Bloody Shroom” is more of a visualizer, but it’s got plenty o’ mushrooms and you wouldn’t accuse it of not getting its point across. The full stream of River Lord is down near the links, via Bandcamp.

Please enjoy:

Void Commander, “Shroom Bloody Shroom” official video

Check out the new video for Void Commander – Shroom Bloody Shroom

Premiering Now on YouTube!

Void Commander, River Lord (2021)

Void Commander on Instagram

Void Commander on Facebook

Void Commander on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Olde Magick Records on Instagram

Olde Magick Records on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

Ozium Records on Instagram

Ozium Records on Facebook

Ozium Records on Bandcamp

Ozium Records store

I said on Monday (was that yesterday?) when I put up the Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree tour dates that I’d be doing a separate post for Toronto heavy rockers Low Orbit, and here we are. Those two tours — two of the many, many, many runs happening in Europe next month; everybody had the same idea for when the post-pandemic tourscape would align, and so it would seem to — will lock step for a few shows, Low Orbit also have shows alongside White Noise Generator and Sun of Sorrow, plus the Pink Tank Records Festival, so as the tone-hoisting Canadian now-four-piece make ready to cross the Atlantic and spread the good cheer and dense riffage of their 2021 album, Crater Creator (review here), it’s an occasion worth marking. Twice if necessary.

I haven’t had the fortune to see Low Orbit live — I’ve never been to Toronto and I don’t know if they’ve ever been to NJ, but I know a spot that could likely host them if they wanted to come through — but Crater Creator is a heavy crusher of riff and nod in the rawer Monolordian tradition of a big-lumbering-thing-coming-from-space-and-sitting-on-you, and I both own and regularly wear a Low Orbit t-shirt. That is not even close to being something I do for every band.

Dates follow, as per socials:

Greetings Earthlings….we will be embarking on an interstellar voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in the fall to perform a constellation of shows, including multiple dates with Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree and White Noise Generator. We will also be performing at the annual Pink Tank Records Festival for three dates….awesome poster designed in house by our very own Dave Adams.

20.10 Esslingen DE Komma *
21.10 Passau DE Tabakfabrik **
22.10 Burghausen DE Juz **
24.10 Prague CZ Balada Bar ***
25.10 Weimar DE C-Kellar *
26.10 Bielefeld DE Potemkin *
27.10 Hamburg DE Fundbuero ^
28.10 Lubeck DE Treibsand ^
29.10 Kiel DE Die Pumpe ^
30.10 Nijmegen NL Onderbroek *

* w/ Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree
** w/ White Noise Generator
*** w/ Sun of Sorrow
^ w/ Pink Tank Festival

Low Orbit are:
Angelo Catenaro – Guitars, Vocals
Joe Grgic – Bass, Synth
Emilio Mammone – Drums
Dave Adams – Guitars

https://www.facebook.com/LOWORBIT3
https://www.instagram.com/LOW_ORBIT_band/
https://twitter.com/Low_Orbit_band
https://loworbit3.bandcamp.com/
http://www.loworbitband.com/

http://www.pink-tank-records.de/
https://www.facebook.com/pinktankrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/pinktankrecords/

https://www.facebook.com/oldemagickrecords
https://www.instagram.com/oldemagickrecordsofficial/
https://oldemagickrecords.bandcamp.com/

Low Orbit, Crater Creator (2021)