Posted in Whathaveyou on June 25th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The fuzz kings of Örebro, Truckfighters, will return to the troubled shores of the United States this August for an East Coast tour taking them from Boston to wind up in Tennessee for the end of the month’s Muddy Roots fest. They’ll dip into the Midwest as they fill in ground not covered on the corresponding West Coast run they did this Spring. They say in the announcement below that this tour will be the last on their current visa, and the part about ‘who knows when we will be back’ is because of the prohibitive costs involved in obtaining travel documents for foreign acts to come tour the US. Thousands of dollars, on top of travel expenses.
There are myriad reasons the US has enacted those price hikes, all of them shitty. Ultimately, if you narrow the marketplace of ideas, your population becomes easier to control. We wouldn’t want strangers coming in from countries that have things like healthcare and decent public infrastructure and asking questions, now would we? Better to just make it cost $15k to get through the door and say it’s because America is so wonderful it should cost that much to sell t-shirts here.
No gods, no masters, no borders, just fuzz.
RestlessSpirit were on the West Coast run as well, so this is a bit of a reunion too. And having just seen Truckfighters in May at Desertfest Oslo (review here), I’ll happily confirm they’re up to their own high standard of performance. Best advice I have is the same they have. See them while you can.
Dates from socials:
U.S.A. we return in August for the last bunch of shows on this VISA, who knows when we will be back next time so don’t miss out. Come out and get your doze of Swedish Fuzz!!!
8.20 Cambridge MA Sonia 8.21 New York NY The Meadows 8.22 Baltimore MD Metro Gallery 8.23 Cleveland OH The Foundry 8.24 Grand Rapids MI Pyramid Scheme 8.25 Detroit MI The Magic Bag 8.27 Greenville SC Radio Room 8.28 Charleston SC Music Farm 8.29 Orlando FL Conduit 8.30 Atlanta GA Masquerade (Purgatory) 8.31 Nashville TN Muddy Roots Festival
The Swedish word idag is ‘today’ in English, and that’s exactly where Witchcraft meet you. It’s not to be confused with yesterday or tomorrow.
Since their founding in 2000 by guitarist/vocalist Magnus Pelander, Witchcraft have spearheaded a genre, revamped their sound, and made a name for themselves as one of the most important bands of their generation. By now, they’re bordering on ‘classic’ themselves. Their first two albums, 2004’s Witchcraft (discussed here) and 2005’s Firewood, helped establish ’70s vintageism in heavy rock and roll in a way few bands have.
Pelander, who was in Norrsken prior with members of Graveyard and Dead Man for three pivotal demos and a 7″ that desperately need to be on a complete-works compilation, is the lone remaining founder, and has for most of the band’s tenure been the figurehead, auteur, however you want to say it. By the time they got to their third LP, 2007’s The Alchemist (discussed here), they were moving on in sound.
Idag (for which I wrote the bio here) reckons with Witchcraft‘s stylistic origins in a way the band has not done before. Pelander is joined for the outing by Philip Pilossian (Lowest Creature) on bass and Pär Hjulström (Mowgli, etc.) on drums, and when it’s a full band, the sound can be thick and resoundingly doomed like the eight-minute opening title-track “Idag,” which is also the longest cut on the record (immediate points for starting with it), with Björn Ekholm Eriksson sitting in on synth. Clearly Witchcrafttoday have learned from Witchcraft yesterday.
The later “Burning Cross” (5:00) has a raw, garage-y sway and slowed-down heavy blues riff, and it’s probably as close as they’ve come in 20 years to the approach that set them forth. “Spirit” (6:31), which caps before an epilogue, is a fuzzed oblivion topped with accordingly sorrowful and soulful vocals. If you’re the kind of Witchcraft fan who since they signed to Nuclear Blast and put out Legend (review here) in 2012 has been pining away for the organic primitivism of their first releases, you are not left out of Idag.
But this in itself is a redirect. Witchcraft‘s last album was 2020’s Black Metal (review here), which was transgressive in its interpretation to say the least, with Pelander on acoustic guitar and vocals and nothing else. A spiritual successor to Pelander‘s 2016 solo album, Time (review here) and an earlier four-track CD EP, Black Metal pulled the rug out from under the heavy rock grandstanding and slicker production of 2016’s Nucleus (review here) and hard-left-turned Witchcraft into a different kind of band. I don’t know the circumstances behind that release, but it was a stark change.
Now aligned to Heavy Psych Sounds with a new manager in Sean “Pellet” Pelletier — who circa-2008 masterminded a comeback for Pentagram that resulted in the 2011 documentary Last Days Here; one enjoys the consideration that Pentagram‘s early days were a defining influence for young Witchcraft — the trio led by Pelander can be full and forceful on “Burning Cross” and then boogie out on the Leaf Hound-esque “Irreligious Flamboyant Flame” (3:55) but that’s still only half of Idag‘s project. Recorded across what seem to have been different sessions with a variety of tones and approaches, the album manifests much of what Witchcraft are and have been to this point and looks ahead to what they still may become.
Because, make no mistake, ‘today’ is where past and future meet. A fair portion of Idag is in Swedish. “Drömmar av is” (2:56) follows the title-track and is a slow-moving distorted nod complemented by the even-rawer “Drömmen om död och förruttnelse” (3:24) the latter sounding like it was recorded live, and that deconstruction of the brunt offered by “Idag” continues as “Om du vill” (2:37) drops drums and bass in favor of strummed electric guitar and vocals — something Pelander is a more than capable enough singer to pull off, in his native language or English — and the brief side-A-ending “Gläntan” goes further into minimalism with just over a minute of wistfully folkish standalone acoustic guitar before “Burning Cross” brings a heavy reset for side B.
The second half of Idag, and thus the album as a whole, also ends acoustic, with the 44-second “Om du vill (Slight Return),” but the course that gets there isn’t so linear. One might think of “Burning Cross” and the rawer “Irreligious Flamboyant Flame” as complements, and the same applies to the acoustic narrative “Christmas” (6:08) — which seems to recount a familial falling out marked by the devastating realization, “I’m not so sure/That you miss me at all/I was never sure/That you love me at all,” delivered in English in the fragile space between the strums of a verse — and “Spirit,” which follows directly. There is a flow from one to the next, from the fuller, heavier sound into more of the organic, in-the-room classic-heavy, into acoustic balladeering and back toward the resonant march of downerist riffing.
“Spirit” establishes its riff over the first minute and is intentionally grueling for its six and a half minutes, the tempo holding for the duration, and that Idag would make its ending in “Om du vill (Slight Return)” highlights how much of the album’s impact is emotional. That’s not to say its heavier moments are somehow lacking tonal presence or don’t hit hard or whatever — Idag is the heaviest Witchcraft have ever sounded, and that includes those shiny modernized outings for Nuclear Blast — and for the first time in their 25 years, they fully account for each aspect of the development Pelander has undertaken over that span. It’s all here, and at 40 minutes, one can only call it efficiently encapsulated.
So if the question going into Idag was what Witchcraft were going to be this time around, the answer is a bit of everything they’ve ever been. This in itself, the breaking down of barriers between various modes of operating and constructions, full-band or solo, and so on, is a forward-thinking representation of Witchcraft, but there’s no question that the story of Idag is that of Pelander bringing classic heavy back into their sound in a way it hasn’t been in 20 years. That he does it as part of a broader scope tells you that Witchcraft circa ’25 aren’t looking to be defined as any one single thing other than themselves, and perhaps that is what they’ve been working toward all along.
One never knows what the future will bring, if Witchcraft (who also made a rare US appearance at this year’s Maryland Death Fest, where the photo above was taken; credit to @dcmetalchris) are beginning a new surge to engage a new generation of listeners or not, but it sure sounds like they’re making an effort in that regard, and Idagleaves one with high hopes and expectations alike going forward. Fingers crossed, anyhow.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’re going to pay for a US work visa at this point, you might as well use it. Thus will Sweden’s Truckfighters be following up the Fall 2024 East Coast tour that brought the celebrated fuzz mavens to Desertfest New York (review here) with a West Coast run starting in late April and rolling into May. Neither the past tour nor the one upcoming were the hugest the band has undertaken, but it’s enough to say they’ve covered the ground this time through as they hover somewhere near 25 years since their inception.
Their most recent studio album, V (review here), came out in 2016, and is ready for a follow-up if there’s ever going to be one, but far be it from me to rush anybody, and if there’s a chance to see Truckfighters in the meantime — there usually is; in addition to this tour they’ve already also been confirmed for Desertfest Oslo 2025 and StonerKras 2025, and they’ve revealed part of the lineup for their own Fuzz Festival in Stockholm this coming November; they’ll play, as well as Brant Bjork Trio, Gnome, Domkraft, Craneium, Carson, Stonus and Hellroom Projectors and more to come Nov. 14-15 — doing so should generally be considered the prudent course. Here’s where they’ll be, as per social media:
The time has come to return the the western parts of the USA. See you soon. Spread the word, come enjoy the fuzz!
Support from The Well and Restless Spirit *** TICKET links at our website (if a ticket link is not there now it will be very soon) ***
4/24 Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit Live 4/25 San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick 4/26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Moroccan 4/27 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent 4/29 Portland, OR @ Star Theater 4/30 Seattle, WA @ Substation 5/01 Boise, ID @ Neurolux 5/02 Salt Lake City, UT @ Ace High Saloon 5/03 Denver, CO @ HQ Denver
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Concurrent to opening preorders for reissues of 2020’s Black Metal (review here) and 2016’s Nucleus (review here) both backed by the band’s new label, Heavy Psych Sounds, Sweden’s Witchcraft today unveil the first audio from their new full-length, Idag, out May 23. You can see below I wrote the bio, so I’m not going to pretend not to have heard it or that what’s happening sound-wise on it isn’t a big deal. In a song like “Burning Cross,” which is a swinging and classically dark first single, it’s the most in-conversation with doom Witchcraft have been in 20 years. That’s not minor in my mind.
I’ll have more to come — I hope — before May 23 gets here, but you can hear the song at the bottom of this post (Decibel had the premiere; I’ll never be that cool and I’ll always be insecure about it) and see what you think. If you want more of my take on the thing at this point, read ‘Album Description & Bio’ below.
Here’s how it came down the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce WITCHCRAFT new album IDAG – presale starts TODAY !!!
Today we are stoked to start the presale of the WITCHCRAFT upcoming brand new album IDAG !!
TRACKLIST SIDE A Idag – 8:07 Drömmar av is – 2:55 Drömmen om död och förruttnelse – 3:24 Om du vill – 2:36 Gläntan – 1:02
SIDE B Burning Cross – 4:59 Irreligious Flamboyant Flame – 3:54 Christmas – 6:07 Spirit – 6:30 Om du vill (Slight Return) – 0:44
ALBUM DESCRIPTION & BIO
More than 20 years after their debut, Witchcraft’s seventh album, ‘IDAG,’ is an awaited full accounting of who they are as a band. Those who have clamored for the return to an earlier sound rooted in ’70s classic progressive and heavy rock will delight to the strut of “Irreligious Flamboyant Flame” while the eight-minute opening title-track is the heaviest the band have ever sounded, and a succession of interspersed acoustic-based pieces helps create a vision of a new, soulfully folkish doom taking shape as they continue to move inexorably forward.
Founding guitarist/vocalist, Magnus Pelander, says of ‘IDAG’: “This album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones.”
These enigmatic few words from the Swedish band’s main songwriter give clues as to the songs’ intentions; a reference dropped to Coven’s 1969 album, ‘Witchcraft Destroys Minds and Reaps Souls.’ Coven also had a folkish, proto-doomed take at that point in their history, and that multifaceted nature has been a part of Witchcraft all along. On one level, Magnus is winkingly telling you it’s a Witchcraft record. The actual meaning of that becomes clear when you hear the album and find out just how much ‘a Witchcraft record’ can encompass.
The storyline of Witchcraft’s growth, from Pelander’s starting the band in Örebro in 2000 in the wake of his prior outfit Norrsken’s disbanding. A generational landmark of a 2004 self-titled debut helped spark a retroist movement that has become its own subgenre, but Witchcraft never stopped growing. 2005’s ‘Firewood’ and 2007’s ‘The Alchemist’ introduced more progressive sounds, and five years later, the pointedly modern ‘Legend’ established in 2012 that they had moved beyond the analog worship they had been a part of pioneering within the contemporary heavy rock and doom scene.
In 2016, the 2LP ‘Nucleus’ introduced fuller-toned doom, and 2020’s ‘Black Metal’ diverged into moody acoustic minimalism familiar to some fans from Pelander’s early solo work, but different from anything Witchcraft had done prior. ‘IDAG,’ then, is the tie that draws all of this – more than two decades of exploring and growth – together. Whatever they’ve done in the past and whatever they’ll do in the future, ‘IDAG’ feels like a nexus for defining who and what Witchcraft are. Even crazier, that might be the point of the thing. — JJ Koczan
CREDITS
Recorded and engineered by Johan Elander, Philip Saxin and David Storm. Mixed and mastered by David Storm. Produced by Magnus Pelander. All music and lyrics and guitars and vocals by Magnus Pelander. Drums: Pär Hjulström. Bass: Philip Pilossian. Synth on track 1 by Björn Ekholm Eriksson.
Thanks to: Oscar Johansson for the pigtail and Pär and Philip for dedication and help. Anton Sundell for professional worship of audio files. Very special extra thanks to: Sean Pelletier for driving the Wheels Of Confusion overboard then back starboards again. For making this LP happen. With peace in his mind. Forever in debt to your priceless advice. Artwork: John Bauer. Gatefold photo: Magnus Pelander. Design: David Bååth.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
New Witchcraft music coming next week, apparently. As announcements go, that’s a fun one, and word that the Swedish vintage-style heavy rock innovators will release a new album and a new EP through Heavy Psych Sounds comes with further announcements of two catalog reissues for the band’s two most recent full-lengths, 2020’s Black Metal (review here) and 2016’s Nucleus (review here), both of which were issued via Nuclear Blast. Fair enough.
It was 2012’s Legend (review here) that began the band’s Nuclear Blast era, now apparently over, and saw them take the forward steps to modernize their production style after the pioneering analog worship of their first two, sorta-three records. They’ve done more out of that style than in it at this point, but “Witchcraft take one…” still looms. I have no clue what new Witchcraft music will sound like, and I haven’t heard any of it to give you a hint. I guess we’ll find out next week.
It’s a good get for Heavy Psych Sounds though, and Witchcraft join the likes of Conan, Dead Meadow, Nebula and of course scores of others on the roster, so everybody wins. Witchcraft are slated to appear at this year’s Maryland Deathfest, which would be their first US appearance since I don’t know when. They were supposed to play Psycho Las Vegas in 2018; I don’t recall if they actually made the trip.
Anyway, placeholder announcement came from the PR wire. More next week:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records to announce the signing of the doom metal legends WITCHCRAFT !!!
We’re really stoked to announce that the doom metal legends WITCHCRAFT are now part of the HEAV PSYCH SOUNDS Family !!!
The band has signed a deal for a brand new album, a new EP and the repress of the releases Nucleus and Black Metal.
NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST SINGLE PREMIERE – FEBRUARY 18th
SAYS MAGNUS PELANDER “This new album will reap souls and destroy wicked minds. And perhaps mend a couple of broken ones.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Reliably certain you’re in for a good time when Truckfighters take the stage. Doesn’t matter where you might run into them, and they seem to have an endless supply of drummers to accompany bassist/vocalist Oskar Cedermalm and guitarist Niklas Källgren, which is certainly useful. But I’ve been fortunate enough to see them on multiple occasions and in multiple contexts over the last decade-plus since they first came to the States, and have never, not once, walked away disappointed.
Anchored around previously confirmed slots at Desertfest New York and Ripplefest Texas — not taking away from the gig they’re doing with Acid King on Philly, mind you — this tour is by no means the most expansive the Swedish fuzzlords have undertaken in the 20-plus years since their first split EP came out in 2003, but anytime they hit US shores it’s going to be worth showing up for the show they’re going to deliver.
Truckfighters took a hiatus from Feb. 2018 to March 2019, and since touring became possible again post-pandemic in 2022, their focus has continued to be on live activity such that their most recent studio album, V (review here), is now eight years old, having been issued in 2016. Last I saw them was at the tail end of 2022 in Stockholm at their own Fuzz Festival#3 (review here) and in addition to building up that event — the initial lineup for this year was announced last week; Truckfighters will play, as well as 1000mods, Siena Root, Slomosa, Witchrider, Domkraft, Steak, 10,000 Years, Bottenhavet, Daevar, High Desert Queen (returning), Håndgemeng and Grand Atomic — and touring, they also keep plenty busy releasing bands through their label, Fuzzorama Records. Not by any means inactive, is what I’m saying, even if it’s been a minute since they pressed up an LP.
Dates follow, as per socials:
🔥USA tour🔥 This September we’ll do a bunch of shows from previously announced Desertfest NY to Ripplefest Texas. It’s been a good wile since last time in North America, we are stoked to the max and sure hope you are too! Spread the word, enjoy the fuzz!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 14th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
This past January, when posting a round of late-Winter/early-Spring touring to be undertaken by Sweden’s Truckfighters, I noted they’re due for a new album. The last 11 months haven’t made them any less so, to be sure. But if Truckfighters, who spent the earlier portion of their career establishing themselves as a barnburning live act, want to keep their focus on that part of what they do now, who the hell can blame them? That’s where the fun is, where the audience is, and where the merch sales happen most. The studio will still be there (hopefully anyhow) when they get back to it.
There are fests here and club shows around them. You’ll note Into the Void in the Netherlands, Desert Hel in Finland and Belgium’s Alcatraz Fest as one of probably more to come this summer, in addition to Interstellar Solar Festival and These Go to Eleven as part of this run. It’s probably not the only run they’ll do in 2024, and they’ve announced the dates for their next Fuzz Festival in Stockholm as well, which will be held Nov. 22-23. No bands confirmed yet, but there’s a pretty gosh darn solid chance Truckfighters will play as they do every year, in addition to hosting the event at Debaser Strand and Bar Brooklyn.
They say there’s more to come and I take them at their word. For now, this was the latest from the newsletter of the band-helmed label, Fuzzorama Records:
TRUCKFIGHTERS announce Euro shows
Germany, Netherlands, UK, Finland, Belgium and more to come.
TRUCKFIGHTERS 21.2 BIELEFELD, D – Forum 22.2 DRESDEN, D – Chemiefabrik 23.2 ERFURT, D – Bandhaus 24.2 EINDHOVEN, NL- Into the void festival 25.2 FRANKFURT, D – Zoom 10.3 LONDON, UK – Garage 30.3 LEIDEN, NL – Interstellar solar festival 31.3 ZWOLLE, NL – These go to eleven festival 18.4 TURKU, F – Utopia 19.4 TAMPERE, F – Tullikamari Klubi 20.4 HELSINKI, F – Desert Hel festival Aug 9-11 Alcatraz Festival, Belgium
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue
Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.
Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.
The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.
Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.
Ambition abounds on Sleep Maps‘ Reclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.
A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.
A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.
At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.
Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.
Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.
