The seven-song Future Site of C.Ross, distinguished by its use of keys and lush, languid psychedelic melody that seems to come so naturally from its maker, is the second solo full-length from Chad Ross under the C.Ross moniker. Offered through Echodelick Records, Future Site of C.Ross — which becomes an evocative question when one factors in the Ken Reaume cover art as a potential answer to just where it is we’re talking about — follows behind 2022’s Skull Creator (review here), though solo releases aren’t a new idea for Ross, as he’s previously done two records under the banner of Nordic Nomadic between his time with Quest for Fire and Comet Control. But, as the Ontario-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist — he also did some self-recording, while we’re dropping credits — returned to Chicago to work with producer Josh Wells (who also contributes keys, drums and other percussion), it doesn’t seem wrong to think of Future Site of C.Ross specifically in the context of its predecessor, and in that, it represents an intriguing progression of craft.

Sounds thrilling, right? Ooh, nothing says ‘this is gonna be a high-seller’ more than evident songwriter growth manifest across arrangement balances in a well-structured flow of tracks. Okay, fine. It’s not action-packed, punch-you-in-the-face-with-riffs-and-call-you-bro-after. Nor is it trying to be. C.Ross takes the mellowfuzz folkishness of Quest for Fire and the quieter moments of ethereal reach in Comet Control and brings them into a central position. And while one might hear “Faster Than the Light” with its full serving of acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and layered vocals and think that maybe Ross a little bit can’t help but work into a ‘band mode,’ I’ll offer contrast through “LU,” immediately preceding, which is arguably the least terrestrial of all the cuts on the 37-minute LP, with a forward current of mellotron and the only sans-drums arrangement (though I’m pretty sure I heard a percussive chime in there) of the bunch. That Wells and Ross function so much as a duo here feels like it’s representing a side of Ross‘ approach that’s more centered around collaboration, about writing for and being in a band, and all the more honest for enjoying it as much as they clearly do.

The harmonica on opener “Love Until You’re Free” feels like a precursor to the sweet hum of the pedal steel in “Hash Cash Ash (No One Rides for Free),” the latter provided by Aaron Goldstein alongside guest vocals in the later wash from Eiyn Sof, but if it’s a landscape it’s a wistful one, and maybe that’s true of Canadiana generally, I don’t know, but it’s a part of Ross‘ craft, to acknowledge a time before country music was quite so outwardly toxic. Both “Hash Cash Ash (No One Rides for Free)” and “Plant Your Eyes” just before it find their way into a wash, but it’s a question of how they get there. “Plant Your Eyes” has more of a direct volume trade and relies on its midsection fuzzy surge and ambient keyboard melody behind the forward light-shuffle of the chorus. It moves, where “Hash Cash Ash (No One Rides for Free)” answers back with texture. It is more languid, more tripped out, and joyous in a more serene way as it gives over to the vocal/instrumental wash that finishes. Different songs taking on or exploring different ideas; each becomes a kind of backdrop to its own exploration, but they’re not incomplete as presented to the listener. That is, Ross and Wells aren’t half-writing songs, even if it sounds so calm and laid back at times.

A convenient but by no means exclusive example of this is the centerpiece, “Rider/Destroyer,” which doubles as the longest track at 6:53. It begins with a developing figure on acoustic guitar before Ross‘ echoing vocals, Floydian, but, you know, not, enter overtop. The verse beginning there continues to grow as the keys enter with string sounds and synth in counterpoint. I don’t know how many layers are at work as they pass the three-minute mark, but the flow ebbs and the keys step back for the vocals and guitar while staying in the background, offering hints of where the song is going to go in counterpoint to Ross‘ melody speaking to the song’s title-character. A cymbal wash about four and a half minutes in begins the slow march complemented by a low keyboard rumble setting a space soon filled by the guitar solo. The string drone is the last thing to go, with some acoustic guitar, and that makes the transition to “LU” that much easier since the guitar/keys hypnotic blend that finished “Rider/Destroyer” is taken further in “LU” before the punctuating snare of “Faster Than the Light” snaps the listener back to some notion of reality. I guess the shape of that depends on your reality.

“Faster Than the Light” is a rocker, and it needs no excuse for being one. Like “Plant Your Eyes,” it’s closer to some of what Ross has offered in Comet Control or Quest for Fire, but that doesn’t make it out of place on Future Site of C.Ross since, of course, it’s all presented as part of the broader context of Ross as a songwriter. Further, “Faster Than the Light” not only regrounds after “Rider/Destroyer” and “LU,” playing an essential role in the overarching momentum of the album, but it gives over to the all-in, keyboardy weirdness of “Unnatural Light” at the finish. With toms and synth noises far back behind an echoing vocal and some stark guitar, it becomes more cinematic with the entry of a low-frequency drone beneath the reverb-floating guitar. There’s some machine noise there — you’re not crazy — that loops through and becomes part of the world, but the point is clearly the world itself.

And that, rather than the expressive priority of a track like “Hash Cash Ash (No One Rides for Free)” or even “LU,” is one more departure Future Site of C.Ross is willing to make. I’m curious what the discussion of ‘future’ in the album’s title means, if it’s a play on escapism in relation to the cover, something morbid, or more about the music itself, like Ross acknowledging C.Ross as the site where the artistic progression that’s taken him from band to band over the last 15-plus years has found a new outlet. From a listener standpoint, as a fan, I count that as a ‘should be so lucky’ scenario, since it means more material to come, but whatever is or isn’t realized by C.Ross over this project’s time, however long that might be, Future Site of C.Ross speaks to an evolution unto itself as well as the thread of which it’s now part.

C.Ross, Future Site of C.Ross (2025)

C.Ross on Bandcamp

C.Ross on Instagram

C.Ross on YouTube

Echodelick Records website

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records on Instagram

Echodelick Records on Facebook

I didn’t know a new C.Ross record was coming, but I am sure glad to have found out. The solo-project of Chad Ross, known for his guitar, vocal and songwriting work in Comet Control, Quest for Fire and others, was born as Nordic Nomadic, and under that moniker, Ross released two solo full-lengths basking in a more minimal take on some of the ultra-fluid psychedelia of Quest for Fire, but folk melody has always been part of the pastiche, and it remains so on The Future Site of C.Ross, which is his second album under (most of) his own name.

And like 2022’s late-pandemic-solacebringer Skull Creator (review here), the impending The Future Site of C.Ross finds Ross working with Chicago-based producer Josh Wells to flesh out his acoustic-based arrangements. I know Oct. 22 is very pointedly not three months from now, so by no means is this the earliest album announcement I’ll have put up this month, but the spaces Ross offers in his songs are unto themselves and I guess the bottom line is I’ve heard this one and think you should too. I’ll do my best to have a more in-depth review in the next couple weeks.

Echodelick has the release. Here’s word from the PR wire:

C.ROSS Returns with Future Site of C.ROSS, Out October 22 on Echodelick Records

Canadian singer and guitarist C.ROSS (Chad Ross) has announced his new solo record Future Site of C.ROSS, out October 22nd, 2025 on Atlanta’s Echodelick Records.

Ross has long been a fixture in Canada’s psych and indie-rock underground. Known as the singer/guitarist for heavy psych rockers Quest for Fire (Tee Pee Records), space rock explorers Comet Control (Tee Pee), and as a member of the legendary garage rock band The Deadly Snakes (In The Red), Ross has also toured internationally with Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops and released acoustic-driven solo work as Nordic Nomadic (Blue Fog, Tee Pee).

On Future Site of C.ROSS, Ross leans deeper into his unique blend of fuzzy psych-folk and cosmic rock, pairing raw songwriting with expansive production. The 7-song album was recorded, produced, and mixed by Joshua Wells (Destroyer, Lightning Dust, Black Mountain) at The Mango Pit in Chicago, with Wells also contributing drums and keys. Additional recording and production were handled by Ross in Muskoka, Ontario. Guest musicians include Aaron Goldstein (pedal steel) and Eiyn Sof (backing vocals).

“I started working on the songs for this record right after Skull Creator was released in 2022,” says Ross. “The tail end of the pandemic was on the horizon and I was still in hermit mode with my acoustic guitar, living in the woods in Ontario with my family. This is the second record I’ve done with Josh Wells. I flew down to Chicago with a handful of acoustic songs and we managed to put everything together rather quickly at his studio. We worked at it over a year, sending ideas back and forth from Chicago to my studio in Ontario. What transpired was a really nice extension of the first record.”

With echoes of Judee Sill, Duke Garwood, Syd Barrett, and Dead Meadow, Future Site of C.ROSS is both grounded and cosmic – balancing fuzzed-out riffs, pedal steel textures, and delicate acoustics.

The lead single “Plant Your Eyes” is described by Ross as:

“…about the things your eyes can’t see. The constant vibration of the unknown. It’s kind of this absurd idea that your eyes can be thought of as seeds, that grow colourful light. I tried to channel some deep Crazy Horse fuzzed-out riffage and some delicate acoustics – all the ingredients for a healthy garden.”

Album Artwork: Ken Reaume
Photo: Nicole Ross

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Ross has long been a fixture in the Canadian underground music scene. He co-founded the heavy psych rock band Quest for Fire in 2007 with Andrew Moszynski, releasing two albums on Tee Pee Records before the group disbanded in 2013.

After Quest for Fire, Ross formed Comet Control in 2013, where he continues to serve as guitarist and vocalist. Comet Control has released multiple records via Tee Pee Records, carrying forward Ross’s vision of psychedelic rock with both atmospheric and melodic leanings.

Earlier in his career, Ross was a member of The Deadly Snakes, a Toronto garage-rock band known for their energetic live shows and releases on In the Red Records.

Ross has also explored more acoustic, introspective territory under the solo name Nordic Nomadic, releasing albums through Blue Fog and Tee Pee Records.

In addition to his own projects, he has toured as a member of Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops, contributing to their live performances and further expanding his presence in Canada’s psych and indie rock scenes.

https://nxnx.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cxrossx
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmmYibPZPqsM6tp6c5gVTpg

https://www.echodelickrecords.com/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL

C.Ross, Skull Creator (2022)

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

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

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Pete Kasper of Doll

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

We are Doll, an alternative rock band from Ottawa, Canada. What do we do? I would define what we do as making music for ourselves. We like to dabble in a lot of different styles and sounds, but at the same time, mending that into a distinct sound, this is Doll.

Describe your first musical memory.

This is a great question. I would say my first real musical memory was the very first show that I went to with my dad in 1990, he took us to go see Aerosmith at the Ottawa Civic Centre, with Skid Row. I remember how insane it was to see Sebastian Bach at the time, and his stage presence, something I will never forget.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

My best musical memory would have to be when Rammstein played Montreal in 1999 at the Metropolis. It was surreal seeing them and all the fire antics and showmanship of that show. It really brought attention to a show being more than just a musical performance, and the importance of leaving your fans with something more than just a play-through of your songs, but providing a visual experience as well, and telling another layer of the story through the live show.

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

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Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I feel that at first bands try really hard at imitating or trying to replicate the sound of all the other bands that they are huge fans of, and over time, you start developing your own sound and style.

How do you define success?

I would say the definition of success is your own happiness. If you put all your best effort into making something that you enjoy, then you’ve succeeded. It doesn’t matter if you are getting tons of views or no views, but that you are proud of your work and you can stand by it.

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

When we organized a show for a Norwegian Black Metal band. The singer after the gig got butt naked and put a sock on his weiner in the green room. I had to settle up and pay him in this very awkward attire…

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

Being huge fans of Nine Inch Nails, I’d really love to one day create a song with electronics and keyboards, keeping with that sad but hard rock riffing.

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

I would say painting a picture of a point in time of how you felt, whether that be a painting or through music, at that specific day, that is how you felt about something, and it was important enough for you to want to bundle it and package it into some form and share it with the world.

Say something positive about yourself.

I would say we are very nice people. Haha.

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

I think that would have to be attending more football games! And one day, I saw the Daytona 500 with the family.

https://doll.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/dollbandmusic
https://www.facebook.com/dollband

Doll, Better Days, Different Times (2025)

Doll, “Smoke on the Water” official video

Alright, y’all. This is where it ends. The Quarterly Review has been an absolute blast, an easy, fun, good time to have, but inevitably it must come to close and that’s where we’re at. Last day. Last 10 releases. Thanks if you’ve kept up. I’ll be back I think in September with another one of these, probably longer.

Hope you’ve found something killer this week. I did.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Katatonia, Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State

Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State is the first long-player in the 34-year history of Katatonia — upwards of their 13th album, depending on what you count — to not feature guitarist Anders Nyström. That leaves frontman Jonas Renkse as the remaining founder of the band, with two new guitarists in Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland, bassist Niklas Sandin and drummer Daniel Moilanen, steering one of heavy music’s most identifiable sounds in new ways. “Wind of No Change” is duly subversive, and “Departure Trails” basks in texture in a way Katatonia have periodically throughout the last 20 years, but the Opethian severity of they keys in “The Light Which I Bleed” and the declarative chug at the end of opener “Thrice” speak to the band’s awareness of the need to occasionally be very, very heavy, even as “Efter Solen” shifts into dark, emotive electronics ahead of the sweeping finale “In the Event Of…” Renkse has never wanted for expression as a singer. If he’s to be the driving force behind Katatonia, fair enough for how that manifests here.

Katatonia website

Napalm Records website

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Black Moon Circle, A Million Leagues Beyond: Moskus Sessions Vol. I

Trondheim, Norway’s Black Moon Circle recorded the four-song set of A Million Leagues Beyond: Moskus Sessions Vol. 1 at the hometown venue of Moskus, a small bar that, to hear them tell it, mostly hosts jazz. Fair enough for cosmic heavy psychedelic grunge rock to join the fray, I should think. It was late in 2023, so earlier that year’s Leave the Ghost Behind (review here) full-length features readily, with “Snake Oil” following the opener “Drifting Across the Plains” — which is jazzy enough, certainly — ahead of the chunkier-riffed “Serpent” and a 20-minute take on “Psychedelic Spacelord (Lighter Than Air),” which has become a signature piece for the three-piece, suitably expansive. If you know Black Moon Circle‘s studio albums, you know they do as much as they can live. Honestly, A Million Leagues Beyond: Moskus Sessions Vol. I isn’t all that different, but it’s definitely a performance worth enjoying.

Black Moon Circle on Bandcamp

Crispin Glover Records website

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Bloodhorse, A Malign Star

Kudos if you had ‘new Bloodhorse‘ on your 2025 Stoner Rock Bingo card or caught it when they launched an Instagram page last year. I certainly didn’t. The Massachusetts aughts-type prog-leaning riffmakers were last heard from with their 2009 debut album, Horizoner (review here), and the six-song/28-minute A Malign Star serves as a vital return, if not one brimming with good vibes as “The Somnambulist” dream-crushes its four-minute course, the band not so much dwelling in atmospheres like the relatively careening “Shallowness,” but getting into a song, making their point, and getting out. This works to their advantage in opener “Saboteur” and the chuggier title-track that follows, but even six-minute closer “Illumination” retains a sense of immediacy amid the dirty fuzz and comparatively laid back roll. This band was once the shape of sludge to come. 16 years later, the future has taken a different course and everybody’s a little more middle-aged, but Bloodhorse still kind of feel like they’re waiting for the world to catch up.

Bloodhorse on Instagram

Iodine Recordings website

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Aawks, On Through the Sky Maze

Should you find yourself thinking you didn’t remember Canadian riffers Aawks — also stylized all-caps: AAWKS — having quite such a nasty streak, you’re not alone. Their 2022 debut, Heavy on the Cosmic (review here), had a take that seems like fuzzy dream-pop in comparison to “Celestial Magick” and the screamy sludge that populates On Through the Sky Maze, their second LP. The nine-song 48-minute full-length is the first to feature bassist/vocalist Ryan “Grime Pup” Mailman alongside guitarist/vocalist Kris Dzierzbicki, guitarist Roberto Paraíso, and drummer Randylin Babic, and songs like “Lost Dwellers” or the mellow-spacier “Drifting Upward,” with no harsh vocals, seem to hit more directly, in addition to arriving in a different context with the “blegh”s of “Wandering Supergiants” and “Caerdoia,” and so on. In the end, Mailman‘s rasp becomes one more tool in Aawks‘ songwriting shed, and the band have more breadth and are less predictable for it. Call that a win, even before you get to the record being good.

Aawks website

Black Throne Productions website

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Moon Destroys, She Walks by Moonlight

The shimmering, floating guitar in “Echoes (The Empress)” tells part of the story in the deep-running The Cure influence, and the somewhat moody vocals of Charlie Suárez echo that emotional foundation, which is coupled in that song and throughout Moon Destroys‘ debut album, She Walks by Moonlight, with a willful progressivism in the songwriting, attention to detail in the arrangements, melodies, even the mix. Comprised of Suárez, guitarist Juan Montoya (ex-Torche), bassist Arnold Nese and drummer/producer Evan Diprima (Royal Thunder), the band are able to set a wash in place that’s not deceptively heavy in “The Nearness of June” (an earlier demo track) because it’s beating you over the head with tone, but still has more to offer than just its own heft. “Only” sounds like heavied-up proto-emo, while the roll of “Set Them Free” is massive in terms of both its riff and its big feelings. If you’re willing to let it grow on you, She Walks by Moonlight can be a space to occupy.

Moon Destroys website

Limited Fanfare website

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Astral Magic, In Space We Trust

In Space We Trust is one of four-so-far full-lengths that Santtu Laakso — multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and producer — has out between Astral Magic and related collaborations and projects. It’s not a pace of releasing one can keep up with, but if you need a check-in from the generation ship that is Astral Magic, chances are Laakso is out there on some voyage or other between classic space rock and clearheaded prog, spanning galaxies. The eight-song/42-minute In Space We Trust pairs him with lead guitarist Jonathan Segel (Øresund Space Collective, etc.), and one should not be surprised at the cosmic nature of the resulting music. The pair get into some sci-fi atmospherics in “Ancient Pilots” and “Alien Emperor,” but the synth and guitar are leading the way across the galaxy and the vibe across the board is more Voyager and less Nostromo, so yes, smooth solar-sailing the whole way through.

Astral Magic on Bandcamp

Astral Magic on Facebook

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Lammping x Bloodshot Bill, Never Never

IMG

The dreamy guitar, semi-rapped vocal, and dub backbeat give the opening title-track of Never Never a decidedly ’90s cast, but it’s not the summary of what Toronto’s Lammping have to offer in their collaboration with weirdo-rockabilly solo artist Bloodshot Bill, bringing together their urbane, grounded psych and studiocraft, samples, etc., with the singer/guitarist’s low, sometimes bluesy delivery across seven songs totaling 15 minutes, peppering the vibe-on-vibes of “Never Never,” “One and Own” and “Won’t Back Down” — the longest inclusion at 3:23 — with ramble and flow alike, with experimental jawns like “Coconut,” “0 and 1” or “Anything is Possible” and the closer “Nitey Nite,” all under two minutes long and each going their own way with the casual cool one has come to expect from Lammping, quietly staking out their own wavelength while still sounding like something from a half-remembered soundtrack to a radder version of your life. This is one of four releases Lammping will reportedly have over the next year or so. Way on board for whatever’s coming next.

Lammping on Instagram

We Are Busy Bodies on Bandcamp

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Fuzz Sagrado, Strange Daze

After the disbanding of Samsara Blues Experiment in 2021, guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters — who had already by then moved from Germany to Brazil — unveiled Fuzz Sagrado with EPs in July and October of that year. Fuzz Sagrado‘s 2021 self-titled (review here) and Vida Pura EPs are included on Strange Daze, a new compilation of tracks unified through a remaster by John McBain, showcasing the early outreach of keyboard and guitar that served as the foundation for the project. As Peters readies a live band for an eventual return to the stage, Strange Daze demonstrates how multifaceted the growth has been in terms of songwriting and still feels exploratory in hindsight as it did when the material was first released. Also included is the jammy “Arapongas,” which wasn’t on either EP but was recorded around the same time. Something of a curio or a fan-piece, but I ain’t arguing.

Fuzz Sagrado website

Electric Magic Records website

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When the Deadbolt Breaks, In the Glow of the Vatican Fire

A couple different modes on When the Deadbolt Breaks‘ In the Glow of the Vatican Fire, which is the long-running Connecticut malevolent doomers’ umpteenth album, running 63 minutes and eight songs. Some of those are longer pieces, like opener “The Scythe Will Come” (12:24), “The Chaos of Water” (14:02), “The Deep Well” (10:42) and “Red Sparrow” (10:57), but interspersed with these are a succession of shorter tracks, and the breakdown between them isn’t just that the short songs are fast and the long songs are slow. Certainly the ripping early portions (and the later, more minimalist spaciousness) of “The Chaos of Water” argue against this, and the dynamic turns out to be correspondingly complex to suit the abiding murk of mood, as founding guitarist/vocalist Aaron Lewis and co-singer Cherilynne provide foreboding croon to suit the lo-fi, creeping, distorted terrors of the music surrounding. This is When the Deadbolt Breaks absolutely in their element; bleak, churn-chaotic, expressive, immersive. They’re able to put you where they want you whether you want to go or not.

When the Deadbolt Breaks on Bandcamp

When the Deadbolt Breaks on Instagram

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A/lpaca, Laughter

It may have sat on the shelf for two years since recording finished in 2023, but don’t worry, it’s still from the future. Laughter is the second-on-Sulatron full-length from Italian experimentalists A/lpaca, and it sees them push deeper into electronic elements and ambiences, keeping some of the krautrock elements of their 2021’s Make it Better, but with songs that are shorter on average and that stand ready to convey a sense of quirk in the keyboard elements or the Devo verses of the title-track, which isn’t without its aspect of shove. Does it get weird? You bet your ass it does. “Bianca’s Videotape,” “Who’s in Love Daddy?,” the post-punk synthery meeting doomed fuzz on “Empty Chairs,” the list goes on. Actually, it’s just the tracklisting and it’s all pretty freaked out, so as long as you know going in that the band are working from their own standard of weirdoism, making the jump into the keyboardy gorge of “Kyrie” or the new wave-y “Don’t Talk” should be no problem. If you heard the last record, yeah, this is different. Seems like the next one will probably be different again too. Not everyone wants to do the same thing all the time.

A/lpaca on Bandcamp

Sulatron Records store

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With the premiere of the video for “Burden” below, Niagara Falls progressive sludge trio Ivy Gardens announce their second full-length, Death of Don Valley, will be out Aug. 29 through Paper Cut Recordings. The follow-up to the sans-bass three-piece’s well-received 2024 debut, Goon, is introduced with the lead single “Burden,” which you can find the band playing live in the video premiering below.

This ethic would seem to be the crux of Death of Don Valley itself, hence “live off the floor sophomore album” in the headline below. “Burden” benefits from the lack of trickery behind it, from the visually-evidenced capacity on the part of guitarist/vocalist Andrew Blackborow, key-specialist/synthesist Sebastian Hogg and drummer/vocalist Joe Zandwyk, the latter two of whom are also responsible for samples on the record, and while one can hear a bit of Melvinsian do-rock-and-make-it-weird ethos underlying, “Burden” brings charge to coincide with its telltale rhythmic intricacy — not quite doing ‘math’ in the musical sense, but not far off. They say the album’s more complex than the last one, and even if it was tracked entirely live with no overdubs, “Burden” bears that out.

The video follows here, with more from the PR wire about the album after.

Please enjoy:

Ivy Gardens, “Burden (Live in Room 208)” video premiere

IVY GARDENS’ Video “Burden” From New Live Off The Floor Sophomore Album “Death of Don Valley” Out August 2025

New Album “Death of Don Valley” Out August 29th, 2025

Preorder: https://ivygardens.bandcamp.com/

Ivy Gardens, the experimental sludge metal band from Niagara Falls, Canada, has announced the release of their highly anticipated new music video for the single “Burden” and their sophomore album, “Death of Don Valley”, set to drop on August 29th, 2025, via Paper Cut Recordings. The record marks a bold new chapter in the band’s sound, with more complex compositions, darker themes, and a shift into a more experimental and atmospheric direction.

Formed in the parking lot of Princess Auto, Ivy Gardens’ journey began with a mutual love for covering Rush instrumentals and an obsession with heavy, sludge-infused sound. From those humble beginnings, the band’s unique chemistry and vision have led to the creation of their most ambitious and thematically focused album yet.

“Burden”, the first single from “Death of Don Valley”, showcases a satirical take on nihilism, with dark and comical undertones. The track was one of the first songs written for the album and features a fast-paced, relentless tempo that gradually picks up speed in the studio. Lyrically, it’s a satirical take on the archetypal nihilist, with a dose of doom and gloom that veers into a comical extreme. The band describes it as “quick and succinct” — a track that encapsulates the essence of their new sonic direction.

Spotify pre-save – https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/ivygardens/burden

“Death of Don Valley” is a concept album, exploring the themes of death, decay, and the unstoppable erosion of life and environment. The concept is rooted in the history of the Don Valley River, a once-thriving waterway now plagued by pollution and degradation. The album’s artwork reflects this with the haunting image of a corpse between the banks of the flooded river, anthropomorphizing the water itself as it becomes a symbol of death and decay.

The material on “Death of Don Valley” was designed to be heard live, with massive stacks of amplifiers and a commitment to delivering the music in all its raw, unfiltered glory. It marks a bold new direction for Ivy Gardens; the band has no plans of slowing down. Their dedication to the project is evident in every note they play and every lyric they write. As they continue to push musical boundaries and explore new sonic territories. Lyrically, the record draws from a mix of historical events, such as the tragic story of Canadian bush pilot Martin Hartwell, and fictional narratives, creating a dark and gripping atmosphere. The songs explore everything from violence, death, and survival to environmental destruction and existential dread.

As the band explains: “Death of Don Valley is the natural progression of our sound, with more complexity and a deliberate thematic structure. Musically, it marks a shift in Ivy Gardens’ approach. This album is darker, more experimental, and more intricate than our previous work on 2024’s Goon. While Goon carried a more positive, energetic vibe, this LP is more about confronting the darker aspects of life, and it reflects a deeper exploration into musical and thematic complexity.”

Ivy Gardens’ influences are vast, ranging from progressive icons like Rush, Yes, and King Crimson to sludge pioneers like EYEHATEGOD and Iron Monkey. Their sound blends elements of stoner metal, sludge, math rock, and progressive rock, creating an unpredictable listening experience that takes the listener through a series of emotional and sonic landscapes.

Fans of Ivy Gardens can expect an intense live performance soon, as the band does plan to tour in support of the new album this coming September. Stay tuned for dates to be announced, and Ivy Gardens are bringing their thunderous sound to stages nationwide. Expect a live show that will test the limits of your ears and your emotions.

“Death of Don Valley” (out August 29th) is available for pre-order at https://ivygardens.bandcamp.com/

Track Listing:
1. Burn For Murder – 2:02
2. Eye Witness – 2:50
3. Burden – 3:08
4. Guiding Hand – 6:18
5. Frozen Limbs – 5:15
6. Gearth – 2:29
7. Astray – 4:56
8. Bliss – 8:59
9. Golden – 7:07
Album Length: 43:08

Album Credits:
All songs written and performed by Ivy Gardens
Produced by Ivy Gardens
Recorded and mixed by Frank Ditillio
Mastered by Cameron Lee
Album Artwork by Ivy Gardens
Death of Don Valley is Canadian Content (MAPL)

Ivy Gardens – Live or Die Tour:
​Aug 29 – St. Catharines, ON – Warehouse Concert Hall
Aug 30 – Toronto, ON – Monarch Tavern
Sept 5 – Kitchener, ON – The Golden Apple
Sept 11 – London, ON – TBA
Sept 12 – Windsor, ON – Phog Lounge
Sept 13 – Sarnia, ON – AJs Bar
Sept 18 – Halifax, NS – Radstorm
Sept 19 – Sydney, NS – Daniels Ale House
Sept 20 – Charlottetown, PEI – Babas Lounge
Sept 21 – Moncton, NB – TBA
Sept 25 – Woodstock, NB – Montieth Manor
Sept 26 – Quebec City, QC – Scanner Bistro
Sept 27 – Montreal, QC – Blue Dog
Oct 9 – Barrie, ON – CW Coops
Oct 10 – Sudbury, ON – Townhouse Tavern
Oct 11 – Thunder Bay, ON – Nortenos Cantina
Oct 12 – Winnipeg, MB – Bulldog Event Center
Oct 16 – Regina, SK – The Cure Kitchen and Bar
Oct 17 – Saskatoon, SK – The Black Cat
Oct 18 – Calgary, AB – Palomino
Oct 19 – Edmonton, AB – Blak Bar
Oct 23 – Kelowna, BC – TBA
Oct 24 – Vancouver, BC – TBA
Oct 25 – Victoria, BC – TBA

Recording and Live Lineup:
Joe Zandwyk: Drums, Vocals, Samples
Sebastian Hogg: Organ, Piano, Synth, Samples
Andrew Blackborow: Guitar, Vocals

Photo by Luka Kartveli.

Ivy Gardens’ Linktr.ee

Ivy Gardens on Bandcamp

Ivy Gardens on Instagram

Ivy Gardens on Facebook

Toronto’s Lammping are setting forth on a four-album cycle of releases to come in the next, I don’t know, year and a half?, with Never Never, a collaboration with Montreal rockabilly solo artist Bloodshot Bill. It’s not Lammping‘s first outside-genre collaboration and it’s not the last of the cycle. They’ve got a hip-hop record coming too, plus a regular ol’ Lammping record presumably to assuage the listener contingent less down with all that dub, though really, if that’s the case, you probably didn’t get on board with Lammping in the first place.

Dub comes in here too, duh, as well as classic hip-hop, psych guitar and nuanced hypercool, an urbane sound but not placeable to anything other than sound collage or Lammping‘s own expanding vibe. They know (and I know) this isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s 15 solid minutes of potentially stepping partway out of your comfort zone as a listener, and it’s cool besides. I feel like maybe you can handle it. If you need me to be your dad and tell you it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.

From the PR wire:

LAMMPING Announces Never Never – First of a Four-Album Sonic Voyage

New Album Never Never Releases June 27, 2025

Pre-Order Link: https://lammping.bandcamp.com/album/never-never

Toronto’s shape-shifting psych project LAMMPING will release Never Never – the first in a four-part album series – on June 27 via We Are Busy Bodies. Lammping started as a heavy psych band, but things shifted when producer Mikhail Galkin returned to the kind of hip-hop production he was doing in his teens. Remixing records for Badge Époque Ensemble and Uh Huh under the Lammping name cracked the project wide open-what began as a one-off stylistic swerve became a long-term permission to make anything, in any genre. Now, whether it’s boom-bap, fuzzed-out folk, beat tape interludes, or full psych freakouts, it all fits. This upcoming cycle is their most ambitious yet: four LPs released over 12-18 months, each one exploring a different corner of their increasingly unpredictable universe.

The series kicks off with Never Never, a collaborative LP with rockabilly wildman Bloodshot Bill. The record blends psych-rock textures with ‘90s-style boom-bap, turning lo-fi samples and breakbeat drumming into cinematic, genre-dissolving cuts. “Never Never” (the lead single) and the follow-up “Won’t Back Down” showcase Lammping’s ability to reshape a voice like Bill’s into something strange and mesmerizing. Think LL Cool J meets Spacemen 3 – if they were trapped in a twilight zone rerun.

“I always loved Bill’s voice—it’s harsh, elastic, and super expressive,” says Lammping’s Mikhail Galkin. “We just hit the studio one day and one song turned into three. From there, the album built itself around those sessions.”

The second album, currently in production, brings together longtime Toronto collaborators Drew Smith (Dr. Ew, The Bicycles) and Chris Cummings (Marker Starling). The result is something Galkin describes as “CSNY harmonies over early-’90s hip-hop drums, fuzzed-out guitars, and synth textures.” What began as a pretty, melodic record soon took a heavier turn: “It’s like a heavy-psyched out yacht rock album – if the yacht was slowly sinking.”

The third LP will be a return to the full Lammping band-a stylistic microcosm that threads together acoustic folk, beat interludes, blown-out psych riffs, and off-kilter bops. Tracks range from soul-sampled boom-bap in the style of Madlib to poppier moments reminiscent of Real Estate or QOTSA. “I’ve always loved albums like Paul’s Boutique or Prince Paul’s De La stuff-where you throw everything at the wall but it still somehow works.”

The fourth and final album will land as a full hip-hop collaboration with rapper Theo 3, a Toronto underground legend and longtime collaborator of Galkin’s from his DJ Alibi days. It features Lammping flipping their own recordings, alongside obscure Soviet records from Galkin’s production roots. The goal? A surrealist homage to golden era Toronto hip-hop—filtered through Lammping’s psychedelic lens.

Together, the series represents a full-circle moment for Lammping, who began as a heavy psych band before veering boldly into sample-based production and remix culture. Their 2022 and 2023 remix projects (for Badge Époque Ensemble and Uh Huh) confused early fans but in hindsight, those left turns became permission to go anywhere.

“Once people got hip, they stopped being surprised—we could do anything and it still felt like us,” Galkin says. “Now people expect the left turns.”

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.

Pre-Order Link: https://lammping.bandcamp.com/album/never-never

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Lammping is a Toronto-based psych project led by composer/producer Mikhail Galkin and drummer Jay Anderson. Galkin has a diverse background, having produced for hip-hop legends like J-Live, Boldy James, and People Under The Stairs, as well as releasing a critically acclaimed solo album as DJ Alibi and working as a film/tv composer. Anderson is a seasoned figure in the Toronto indie scene, playing in bands such as Badge Epoque Ensemble, Biblical, ROY and many others.

The two first connected after seeing each other perform in different projects and bonding over their shared love for ’90s New York hip-hop, skate videos, DIY culture, Beach Boy harmonies and everything in between. The project was born from their desire to create music without limitations – driven by a spirit of exploration, embracing all kinds of genres, sounds, and influences under the Lammping umbrella. The result is a uniquely eclectic project where anything goes, as long as it feels true to their creative instincts. The live version of the band is a 5-piece, with Toronto musicians Colm Hinds, Scott Hannigan and Matt Aldred lending their talents on vocals, guitar and bass.

https://www.instagram.com/lammping
https://lammping.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZrzRmbuxvCeFSpEbFpbXZ

Lammping, Never Never (2025)

I won’t keep you long here. Today is the last day of this Quarterly Review. It’ll return in July, if all goes according to my plans. I hope in the last seven days of posts you’ve been able to find a release, a band, a song, that’s hit you hard and made your day better. Ultimately that’s why we’re here.

No grand reflections — this is business-as-usual by now for me — but I’ll say that most of this QR was a pleasure to mine through and I’ve added a few releases to my notes for the Best of 2025 come December. If you have too, awesome. If not, there’s still one more chance.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Daevar, Sub Rosa

While Sub Rosa still basks in the murky sound with which Köln-based doomers Daevar set forth not actually all that long ago — they’re barely an earth-year removed from their second LP, Amber Eyes (review here), and just two from their debut, 2023’s Delirious Rites (review here) — there’s an unquestionable sense of refinement to its procession. “Wishing Well” moves but isn’t rushed. Opener “Catcher in the Rye” feels expansive but is four minutes long. It goes like this. Through most of the 31-minute seven-songer, including the “Hey Bacchus” strum at the start of “Siren Song,” Daevar seem to be working to strip their approach to its most crucial elements, and when they arrive at the seven-minute finale “FDSMD,” there’s a purposeful shift to a more patient roll. But the flow within and between tracks is still very much an asset for Daevar as they take full ownership of their sound. This is not a minor moment for this band, and feels indicative of future direction. Something tells me it won’t be that long before we find out if it is.

Daevar on Bandcamp

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Rainbows Are Free, Silver and Gold

The follow-up to Rainbows Are Free‘s impressive 2023 outing, Heavy Petal Music (review here), Silver and Gold is the Norman, Oklahoma, six-piece’s fifth album since 2010 and second through Ripple Music. With nine songs that foster psychedelic breadth and tonal largesse alike, the album still has room for frontman Brandon Kistler to lend due persona, and in pairing sharp-cornered progressive lead work on guitar with lower-frequency grooves, Rainbows Are Free feel ‘classic’ in a very modern way. They remain capable of being very, very heavy, as crescendos like “Sleep” and “Hide” reaffirm near the record’s middle, but emphasize aural diversity whether it’s the garage march of “Fadeaway,” the barer thrust of “Dirty” or “Runnin’ With a Friend of the Devil” earlier on, of which the reference is only part of the charm being displayed. Rarely does a band so obviously mature in their craft still sound so hungry to find new ideas in their music.

Rainbows Are Free website

Ripple Music website

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Minerall, Strömung

The pedigreed spacefaring trio Minerall — guitarist Marcel Cultrera (Speck), bassist/synthesist Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Sula Bassana, Zone Six, etc.), and drummer Tommy Handschick (Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) — return with two more side-long jams on Strömung, captured at the same two-day 2023 session that produced their early-2024 debut, Bügeln (review here). If you find yourself clenching your stomach in the first half of “Strömung” (19:35) on side A, don’t forget to breathe, and don’t worry, opportunity to do so is coming as the three-piece deconstruct and rebuild the jam toward a fuzzy payoff, only to raise “Welle” (20:24) from its minimalist outset to what seems like the apex at the midpoint only to blow it out the airlock in the song’s back half. That must have been one hell of a 48 hours.

Minerall on Bandcamp

Sulatron Records website

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Deathbird Earth, Mission

By the time its five minutes are up, “Resources 2.0” has taken its title word and turned it into an insistent, chunky, noise-rocking sneer, still adjacent to the chicanery-laced psych of the song’s earlier going, but a definite fuck-you to modernity, evoking ideas of exploitation of people, places and everything. Philadelphia duo Deathbird Earth — first names only: BJ (Dangerbird, Hulk Smash) and Dave (Psychic Teens, etc.) — offer three songs on Mission, which has the honesty to bill itself as a demo, and from “Resources 2.0” they move into the sub-two-minute “Mission 1.0,” more ambient and laced with samples. The only song without a version number in its title, “Dead Hands” finds the duo likewise indebted to Chrome and Nirvana for a burst-prone, keyboardier vision of gritty spacepunk, vocal bite and all, but honestly, Mission feels like the tip of an experimentalism only beginning to reveal its destructive tendencies. Looking forward to more.

Deathbird Earth on Bandcamp

Deathbird Earth at SRA Records

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Thinning the Herd, Cull

Approaching the 20th anniversary of the band next year, now-more-upstate New York heavy rockers Thinning the Herd return after 12 years with Cull, their third album. Guitarist/vocalist Gavin Spielman in 2023 recruited drummer Rob Sefcik (Begotten, Kings Destroy, Electric Frankenstein, etc.), and as a trio-sounding duo with Spielman adding bass, they dig into 11 raw, DIY rockers that, as one makes their way through the opening title-track, “Monopolist” and “Heady Yeti” and “Burn Ban” — themes from not-in-the-city-anymore prevalent throughout, alongside weed, beer, life, getting screwed over, and so on — play out in fuzzbuzz-grooving succession. Two late instrumentals, “Electric Lizard of Gloom” and the lush, unplugged “Acustank,” provide a breather from the riffs and gruff vibes, the latter with a pickin’-on-doom kind of feel, but across the whole it’s striking how atmospheric Cull is while presenting itself as straightforward as possible.

Thinning the Herd website

Thinning the Herd on Bandcamp

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Phantom Druid, The Edge of Oblivion

Let The Edge of Oblivion stand for the righteousness of anti-trend doom. You know what I’m talking about. Not the friendly doom that’s out there weed-worshiping and making friends, but the crunching doom metal proffered by the likes of Cathedral and Saint Vitus. Doom that wore is Sabbathianism as a badge of honor all the more for the fact that, at the time they were doing it, it was so much against the status quo of cool. Phantom Druid‘s fourth album is similarly strident and sure of its approach, and yeah, if you want to say some of the chug in “The 5th Mystical Assignment” sounds like Sleep, I won’t argue. Sleep liked Sabbath too. But the crawl in “Realms of the Unreal” and the dirge in instrumental “The Silent Observer” tell it. This is doom that knows and believes in this form, and is strident and reverential in its making. That “Admiration of the Abyss” caps could hardly be more appropriate. Hail the new truth.

Phantom Druid on Bandcamp

Off the Record Label store

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The Grey, Kodok

Some context may apply. Kodok is the third long-player from adventurous Cambridge, UK, heavy post-rock/metallers The Grey, as well as their first outing through Majestic Mountain Records, and though much of what the band has done to this point is instrumental and that’s still a big part of who they are as 11:45 opener/longest track (immediate points) “Painted Lady” readily demonstrates, there’s a clear-eyed partial divergence from the norm as guitarist Charlie Gration, bassist Andy Price and drummer Steve Moore welcome guests throughout like Grady Avenell, who adds post-hardcore scathe to “Sharpen the Knife” ahead of the crushing “CHVRCH,” also released as a single, or fattybassman and Ace Skunk Anasie, who appear on the duly textural “AFG,” which also rounds out with a dARKMODE remix. Not a typical release, maybe, but not not either as the band do more than haphazardly insert these guests into their songs; there is a full-length album flow from front to back here, and while they purposefully push limits, the underlying three-piece serve as the unifying factor for the material as perhaps they inevitably would.

The Grey on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Sun Below, Mammoth’s Tundra

With a forward lumber marked by rigorous crash and suitably dense tone, Sun Below‘s apparently-standalone 12-minute single Mammoth’s Tundra tells the story of a wooly mammoth being reborn — I think not through techbro genetic dickery, unlike that dire-wolf story that was going around last week — and laying waste to the ecosystem of the tundra, remaking the food change in its aggro image. Fair enough. The Toronto trio likely recorded “Mammoth’s Tundra” at the same Jan. 2023 sessions that produced their Sept. 2023 split, Inter Terra Solis (review here), and whether you’re here for the immersive groove that rises from the gradual outset, the shred emerging in the second half, or that last meme-ready return of the riff at the end, complete with final slowdown — what? you thought they’d leave you hanging? — they leave the Gods of Stone and Riff smiling. Worship via volume, distortion, and nod.

Sun Below on Bandcamp

Sun Below’s Linktr.ee

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Tumbleweed Dealer, Dark Green

It’s been nine years since Montreal’s Tumbleweed Dealer released their third album, but as the fourth, Dark Green offers instrumentalist narrative and a range of outside contributions to expand the sound and maybe make up for lost time. Across 10 tracks and 39 minutes, bassist/guitarist Seb Painchaud, synthesist/producer Jean-Baptiste Joubaud and drummer Angelo Fata broaden their arrangements to include Mellotron, Hammond, Wurlitzer, Rhodes and other keys as well as what basically amounts to a horn section on several tracks, the first blares in “Becoming One with the Bayou” somewhat jarring but coming to make their own kind of sense there and in the subsequent “Dragged Across the Wetlands,” the sax in “Body of the Bog,” and so on. These elements seem to be built around the core performances of the trio, but the going is remarkably fluid despite the range, and though it seems counterintuitive to think of a band who might end a record with a song called “A Soul Made of Sludge” as being progressive and considered in their craft, that’s very clearly what’s happening here.

Tumbleweed Dealer on Bandcamp

Tumbleweed Dealer on Instagram

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NYTE VYPR, Plutonic

Electronic dub, pop, death metal, glitchy electronics, krautrock synth, malevolent distortion, some far-off falsetto and some throatgurgling crust — it can only be the always-busy anti-genre activist Collyn McCoy (Unida, High Priestess, Circle of Sighs, etc.) mashing together ideas and making it work. To wit, “Alkahest” (17:36) and “Witchchrist” (16:03) both engage in sound design and worldmaking, take on pop, industrial and metallic aspects, and are an album unto themselves, hypnotic and experimental, the latter marked by a darker underlying drone that lasts until the whole song dissipates. “Necrotic Prayer” (7:28) feels more like collage by the time it gets to its surprise-here’s-a-ripper-guitar-solo-over-that-circa-’92-industrial-beat, but it still has a groove, and “Plutonic” (8:30) moves through static drone and seen-on-TV sampling through death-techno (god I love death techno) to croon, churn out with a sci-fi overlord, and finish with piano and voice; a misdirecting contemplative turn worthy of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. McCoy is a genius and the world will never be ready for these sounds. That’s as plain as I can say it.

NYTE VYPR on Bandcamp

Owlripper Recordings on Bandcamp

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Welcome back to the Quarterly Review. Just because it’s a new week, I’ll say again the idea here is to review 10 releases — albums, EPs, the odd single if I feel like there’s enough to say about it — per day across some span of days. In this case, the Quarterly Review goes to 70. Across Monday to Friday last week, 50 new, older and upcoming offerings were written up and today and tomorrow it’s time to wrap it up. I fly out to Roadburn on Wednesday.

Accordingly, you’ll pardon if I spare the “how was your weekend?”-type filler and jump right in instead. Let’s. Go.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

Megaritual, Recursion

Last heard from in 2017, exploratory Australian psychedelic solo outfit Megaritual — most often styled all-lowercase: megaritual — returns with the aptly-titled Recursion, as multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Dale Paul Walker taps expansive kosmiche progressivisim across nine songs and 42 minutes. If you told me these tracks, which feel streamlined compared to the longer-form work Walker was doing circa 2017, had been coming together since that time, the depth of the arrangements and the way each cut comes across as its own microcosm within the greater whole bears that out, be it the winding wisps of “Tres Son Multitud” or the swaying echoey bliss of later highlight “The Jantar Mantar.” I don’t know if that’s the case or it isn’t, but the color in this music alone makes it one of the best records I’ve heard in 2025, and I can’t get away from thinking some of the melody and progressive aspects comes from metal like Opeth, so yeah. Basically, it’s all over the place and wonderful. Thanks for reading.

Megaritual on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records website

Psychedelic Salad Records store

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Red Eye, III

Slab-heavy riffage from Andalusian three-piece Red Eye‘s III spreads itself across a densely-weighted but not monolithic — or at least not un-dynamic or unipolar — eight songs, as a switch between shouted and more melodic vocals early on between the Ufomammut-esque “Sagittarius A*” (named for the black hole at the Milky Way’s center; it follows the subdued intro “Ad Infinitum”) and the subsequent, doomier in a Pallbearer kind of way “See Yourself” gives listeners an almost-immediate sense of variety around the wall-o’-tone lumbering fuzz that unites those two and so much else throughout as guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos del Pino, bassist/synthesist Antonio Pérez Muriel and drummer/synthesist/vocalist Pablo Terol Rosado veer between more and less aggressive takes. “No Morning After” renews the bash, “Beyond” makes it a party, “Stardust” uses that momentum to push the tempo faster and “Nebula” makes it swing into the Great Far Out before “The Nine Billion Names of God” builds to a flattening crescendo. Intricate in terms of style and crushingly heavy. Easy win.

Red Eye’s Linktr.ee

Discos Macarras Records website

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Temple of the Fuzz Witch & Seum, Conjuring

Even by the respective standards of the bands involved — and considering the output of Detroit grit-doomers Temple of the Fuzz Witch and Montreal sans-guitar scathemakers Seum to this point, it’s a significant standard — Conjuring is some nasty, nasty shit. Presented through Black Throne Productions with manic hand-drawn cover art that reminds of Midwestern pillsludge circa 2008, the 27-minute split outing brings three songs from each outfit, and maybe it’s the complementary way Seum‘s low-end picks up from the grueling, chugging, and finally rolling fare Temple of the Fuzz Witch provide, but both acts come through as resoundingly, willfully, righteously bleak. You know how at the dentist they let you pick your flavor of toothpaste? This is like that except surprise you just had all your teeth pulled. It only took half-an-hour, but now you need to figure out what to do with your dazed, gummy self. Good luck.

Seum on Bandcamp

Temple of the Fuzz Witch on Bandcamp

Black Throne Productions website

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Uncle Woe, Folded in Smoke, Soaked and Bound

Uncle Woe offer two eight-minutes-each tracks on the new EP, Folded in Smoke, Soaked and Bound, as project founder/spearhead Rain Fice (in Canada) and collaborator Marc Whitworth (in Australia) bring atmosphere and grace to underlying plod. It’s something of a surprise when “One is Obliged” relatively-speaking solidifies at about five minutes in around vocal soar, which is an effective, emotional moment in a song that seems to be mourning even as it grows broader moving toward the finish. “Of Symptoms and Waves” impresses vocally as well, deep in the mix as the vocals are, but feels more about the darker prog metal-type stretch that unfolds from about the halfway point on. But what’s important to note is these plays on genre are filtered through Uncle Woe‘s own aesthetic vision, and so this short outing becomes both lush and raw for the obvious attention to its sonic details and the overarching melancholy that belongs so much to the band. A well-appreciated check-in.

Uncle Woe on Bandcamp

Uncle Woe’s Linktr.ee

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Negative Reaction, Salvaged From the Kuiper Belt

I would not attempt to nor belittle the band’s accomplishments by trying to summarize 35 years of Negative Reaction in this space, but as the West-Virginia-by-way-of-Long-Island unit led by its inimitable principal/guitarist/vocalist Ken-E Bones mark this significant occasion, the collection Salvaged From the Kuiper Belt provides 16 decades-spanning tracks covering sundry eras of the band. I haven’t seen a liner, so I don’t even know the number of players involved here, but Bones has been through several incarnations of Negative Reaction at this point, so when “NOD” steamrollers and later pieces like “Mercy Killing” and the four-second highlight “Stick o’ Gum” are more barebones in their punksludge, it makes sense in context. Punk, psych, sludge, raw vocals — these have always been key ingredients to Negative Reaction‘s often-harsh take, and it’s a blend that’s let them endure beyond trend, reason, or human kindness. Congrats to Bones, whom I consider a friend of long-standing, and many more.

Negative Reaction on Bandcamp

Negative Reaction on Facebook

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Fomies, Liminality

Given how many different looks Fomies present on Liminality, and how movement-based so much of it is between the uptempo proto-punk, krauty shuffle and general sense of push — not out of line with the psych of the modern age, but too weird not to be its own spin — it feels like mellower opener “The Onion Man” is its own thing at the front of the album; a mellower lead-in to put the listener in a more preferred mindset (on the band’s part) to enjoy what follows. This is artfully done, as is the aforementioned “what follows,” as the band thoughtfully boogie through the three-part “Colossus,” find a moment for frenetic fuzz via Gary Numan in “Neon Gloom,” make even the two-and-a-half-minute “Happiness Relay” a show of chemistry, finish in a like-minded tonal fullness with “Upheaval,” and engage with decades of motorik worship without losing themselves more than they want to in the going. At 51 minutes, Liminality is somewhat heady, but that’s inherent to the style as well, and the band’s penchant for adventure comes through smoothly alongside all that super-dug-in vibing.

Fomies on Bandcamp

Taxi Gauche Records website

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The Long Wait, The Long Wait

Classic Boston DGAF heavy riff rock, and if you hear a good dose of hardcore in amid the swing and shove, The Long Wait‘s self-titled debut comes by it honestly. The five-piece of vocalist Glen Dudley (Wrecking Crew), guitarist Darryl Shepard (Kind, Milligram, Slapshot, etc.) and Steven Risteen (Slapshot), bassist Jaime Sciarappa (SSD, Slapshot) and drummer Mark McKay (Slapshot) plunder through nine cuts. Certainly elbows are out, but considering where they’re coming from, it’s not an overly aggressive sound. Hardcore dudes have been veering into heavier riffing à la “Uncharted Greed” or “FWM” for the last 35 years, so The Long Wait feels well in line with a tradition that some of these guys helped set in the first place as it revisits songs from 2023’s demo and expands outward from there, searching for and beginning to find its own interpretation of what “bullshit-free” means in terms of the band’s craft.

The Long Wait on Bandcamp

The Long Wait’s Facebook group

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Babona, Az Utolsó Választás Kora

Since 2020, Miskolc, Hungary-based solo-band Babona have released three EPs, a couple singles and now two full-lengths, with Az Utolsó Választás Kora (‘the age of the last choice’) as the second album from multi-instrumentalist and producer Tamás Rózsa. Those with an appreciation for the particular kind of crunch Eastern Europe brings to heavy rock will find the eight-tracker a delight in the start-stops of “2/3” and the vocals-are-sampled-crying-and-laughing “A Rendszer Rothadása,” which digs into its central riff with suitable verve. The later “Kormányalakítás” hints at psych — something Rózsa has fostered going back to 2020 with Ottlakán, from whom Babona seems to have sprung — and the album isn’t without humor as a crowing rooster snaps the listener out of that song’s trance in the transition to the ambient post-rocker “Frakció,” but when it’s time to get to business, Rózsa caps with “Pártatlan” as a grim, sludgy lumber that holds its foreboding mood even into its own comedown. That’s not the first time Az Utolsó Választás Kora proves deceptively immersive.

Babona on Bandcamp

Babona on Facebook

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Sutras, The Crisis of Existence

Sit tight, because it’s about to get pretty genre-nerdy. Sutras, the Washington D.C.-based two-piece of Tristan Welch (vocals/guitar) and Frederick Ashworth (drums/bass) play music that is psychedelic and heavy, but with a strong foundation specifically in post-hardcore. Their term for it is ‘Dharma punk,’ which is enough to make me wonder if there’s a krishna-core root here, but either way, The Crisis of Existence feels both emotive and ethereal as the duo bring together airy guitar and rhythmic urgency, raw, sometimes gang-shouted vocals, and arrangements that feel fluid whether it’s the rushing post-punk (yeah, I know: so much ‘post-‘; I told you to sit tight) of “Racing Sundown” or the denser push of “Bloom Watch” or the swing brought to that march in “Working Class Devotion.” They cap the 19-minute EP with posi-vibes in “Being Nobody, Going Nowhere,” which provides one last chance for their head-scratching-on-paper sound to absolutely, totally work, as it does. The real triumph here, fists in the air and all that, is that it sounds organic.

Sutras on Bandcamp

Sutras on Instagram

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Sleeping in Samsara, Sleeping in Samsara

The story of Sleeping in Samsara‘s self-titled two-songer as per Christian Peters (formerly Samsara Blues Experiment, currently Fuzz Sagrado, etc.) is that in 2023, My Sleeping Karma drummer Steffen Weigand reached out with an interest in collaborating as part of a solo-project Weigand was developing. Weigand passed away in June 2023, and “Twilight Again” and “Downtime,” with underlying basic tracks from Weigand in drums, keys/synth, and rhythm guitar, and Peters adding lead guitar, vocals, bass in the latter, the songs are unsurprising in their cohesion only when one considers the fluidity wrought by both parties in their respective outfits, and though the loss of Weigand of course lends a bittersweet cast, that this material has seen the light of day at all feels like a tribute to his life and cretive drive.

Fuzz Sagrado website

Electric Magic Records on Bandcamp

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