Posted in Whathaveyou on November 3rd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
King Buffalo, Dozer, Pelican, High Desert Queen, Blackwater Holylight, Howling Giant, Daevar, Bottenhavet, Moonstone, The Sword, Russian Circles — I mean, do I really need to say more here than the list of names. Desertfest Oslo 2026 will be the third edition of the Norwegian Desertfest installation, and one might accuse them of coming out of the gate swinging. Some of these — The Sword, Earthless, High Desert Queen, etc. — are being shared with Desertfest Berlin and Desertfest London, setting up the possibility of three weeks of touring at least for a few acts here. Then there’s King Buffalo, who I think are just spending their entire summer abroad next year. Not gonna complain about it if there’s a chance I can see them.
To that end, I was lucky enough to be invited to cover Desertfest Oslo last year and, unsurprisingly, I had a blast. Should I be so fortunate as to be invited again, I’ll go, but I’m not about to presume. Whether I’m there to see it or not has no bearing on the sickness of the lineup-thus-far, as you know, but still makes for a nice daydream.
They’ve got tickets on sale now, as per socials:
Let’s get this train running! 🔥
We’ve been so excited to share the first batch of bands coming to Oslo the 8th and 9th of May 2026.
From great geniuses of the genre, to guitar-wielding warlocks of the wasteland. From divine drop-d decibels, to new necromancers of nostalgic noise.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 1st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Below you’ll find the final announcement from this year’s Høstsabbat in Oslo. The full lineup isn’t below, which includes the likes of YOB, Gnome, Ahab, Domkraft and Hippotraktor, among others on a cross-genre bill that’s only bolstered by LLNN, Kanaan og Ævestaden, Redwood Temple and the others listed here. It’s funny because when they say below that, watching LLNN, “your spine and your knees will have trouble standing upright through this set,” they mean it because the band are so oppressively heavy — fair enough; they are that — but I first read and just thought they were saying you’re old. And again, fair enough; I am that.
This festival has a life and a persona of its own at this point and I’m lucky to have been a handful of times and attended its Springtime sister fest — Desertfest Oslo — earlier this year. If you get to attend Høstsabbat in October and you’ve never been, just know you’re in for something special.
From socials:
⛪️LAST BAND ANNOUNCEMENT⛪️
Autumn is growing near and the church bells will soon ring for the sabbath to commence! We’re super stoked and proud to announce the last batch of bands for this year’s festival.
🪦 𝕷𝕷𝕹𝕹 If you mix an 80s space-horror movie soundtrack, with crushing hardcore vocals, and a thundering omnipresent bass, rumbling through your very human core, you get something close to LLNN. Your spine and knees will have trouble standing upright through this set.
🪦 𝕯𝖆𝖚𝖋ø𝖉𝖙 Experimental noise and punk outfit, with extra weight on mental. Daufødt always delivers extraordinary live shows, with frontwoman Annika never holding back.
🪦 𝕶𝖆𝖓𝖆𝖆𝖓 𝖔𝖌 𝕬𝕰𝖛𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖓 When psych-rock and jazz collides with wooly sweaters, fiddles and Norwegian cultural historic aesthetics, you get something like this. A cozy, soulful, one-of-a-kind musical phenomenon.
🪦 𝕾:𝖙 𝕰𝖗𝖎𝖐 The angst driven psychedelic doom outfit from Uppsala has risen from the permafrost to perform their swan songs echoing from the brink of outer space!
🪦 𝕭𝖑𝖔𝖉𝖐𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖙 Raw, primal and loud. Blodkvalt mixes all things extreme, from the shrill piercing vocals, to the tenacious and intense wall of musical prowess.
🪦 𝕽𝖊𝖉𝖜𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝕿𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖑𝖊 Dynamic, raw, and sludgy. Having re-invented their sound, and come out harder, faster and punchier, the Temple is now filled with relentless, in-your-face metal!
🪦 𝖄𝖛𝖗𝖎𝖘 New outfit Yvris, brings their chugging, dark and melancholic take on humanity’s decay. Expect harsh vocals tied together by a gnarly band with sludge flair.
🪦 𝕹𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖗č𝖆𝖑𝖒𝖒𝖎𝖎𝖉 An exceptionally hard duo, delving into the Sámi religious and shamanistic themes, dragging us down to the abyss that is Rohttuáibmu, Rohttu’s kingdom of death and sickness.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 9th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Once upon a long, long seven years ago, in autumn, I found myself in the basement of Kulturkirken Jakob to see Taiga Woods launch the second day of Høstsabbat 2018 (review here), which they did in rousing fashion. By then, their 2017 self-titled debut, which ran between desert-style riffing and excursions into more complex melody and heavy psychedelic divergences, was already out and processed by those fortunate enough to have taken it on, and I kind of lost track of the band on any level more than something cool I was lucky to see that one time I was.
Fans of Spidergawd, Truckfighters, Kyuss, who might be interested in hearing some ELO vocal harmonies that presage pretty much all of 2020’s heavy rock (I’m exaggerating, but not a ton), should probably stop reading now and check out the stream of the 2017 album at the bottom of this post. The news here is that Taiga Woods have linked up with Evil Noise Recordings to the end of releasing not a second full-length, but the collection Demos and Rarities Limited Edition that will go in-part toward funding the recording of their next album, though I admit I don’t know the status of that recording, i.e., whether or not such a thing exists in a tangible, off-to-mastering kind of way.
Given the span of time since the debut, I’m not holding my breath for Taiga Woods‘ second LP to be out this year. Not to say it couldn’t happen, but 2026 seems more likely, if they’re actually knuckling down and working on it. But forward motion still counts, and for those who dug the self-titled, Demos and Rarities Limited Edition should be a reminder of why.
From Evil Noise on socials:
EVIL NOISE RECORDINGS – 🌲TAIGA WOODS🌲
Super stoked to present Taiga Woods !
Taiga Woods have been working hard on their sophomore album, set to be released soon.
But first an exclusive release: Out August 29th, “Demos & Rarities Limited Edition” , is a collection of demos and rarities that will never be released elsewhere.
All income from this limited cassette will go to mixing and mastering Taiga Woods second album. This release will only be available through the band.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 8th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Always cool to see the Oslo-based Høstsabbat fest building its lineup over the months leading up to October. I have had the pleasure in years past of being there and, especially now having been to the city in Springtime for Desertfest this year, there’s a special vibe to Fall. Maybe it’s hanging around the Kulturkirken Jakob for a couple days, or the black-silver crows and ominous cloud clover, but you feel the encroaching darkness of the Norwegian winter without it actually being bitterly cold, and even in the city, at least by the church, there are dry leaves blowing in the wind.
The latest round of adds brings two Belgian, Gnome and Hippotraktor, and three Norwegian acts in Nadir, Ruun and Kambodsja, who join the previously-announced YOB, Ahab, Domkraft and New Money as the long-running Høstsabbat continues to meld styles and geographies for a gorgeously dark two-dayer experience. I’ll miss it this year, literally and figuratively, but as noted at the outset, it’s fun to keep up.
From socials:
🔥 Behold 🔥 – band announcement!
The sharp-eyed have maybe already caught a glimpse from a flyer or poster in Oslo, but we’re off to the races for real now!
🪦 GNOME (BE) – Three Belgian stoned gnomes with pointy hats and armed to the teeth with killer riffs and coordinated dances. What’s not to love?
🪦 HIPPOTRAKTOR (BE) – Sticking with the Belgian theme, this post-metal quintet finds the most intricate melodies and patterns in Space-Time continuum.
🪦 NADIR (NO) – Rooted in Black Metal, Nadir delivers charred, fast-paced, aggressive and relentless walls of existential dread.
🪦 RUUN (NO) – Promising brutality and slaughter, their corrosive death metal perfectly accompanies the dystopian human existence.
🪦 KAMBODSJA (NO) – Progressive indie punk rock, spiced with enough attitude and spunk to rip your face off.
05.08.25 – 3:55PM – Newark Airport Terminal B security line
This is a tight trip. The plan as stated is to fly into Oslo overnight, get in at 8:40AM, hop on the train to the central station and either walk or cab it to the hotel, but at that point, it will be just a few hours before the start of Desertfest Oslo. Will I sleep? Inevitably at some point. Friday and Saturday are the fest, and then Sunday my flight leaves at 11AM, so I’m up and out. Like, might be finishing the review at the airport. It wouldn’t be the first time, but a mellow pace it is not. Rock and roll and such.
Newark Airport, which I’ll call that until I die because I grew up here in the ’90s, has been in the local (and national) news the last few days for things like computer systems crapping out and air traffic control shortages. One tries not to feed one’s own anxieties with such things. I’m here, I’m going. It’s not like if the airport is operating at peak efficiency I’ll enjoy the process of flying anyhow — I am wrong in proportion and economic demographic for such things — but I’d prefer not a roiling shitshow, generally. Clearly I’m living in the wrong age.
Traffic on the way here begat traffic in the security line. Compared to airports in every country I’ve been to except the UK, Americans are the worst at that. At the gate now, or close to it. Terminal B bunches gates into a cul de sac of walkways like spokes out to planes. Two hours till the flight takes off. I’m glad I bought water. I could probably find some food, but I don’t really trust any of it. And I’m not sad the coughing guy sitting next to me got up and left.
Sandwiched snugly between the flight today and the flight Sunday is Desertfest Oslo 2025. The inaugural edition was in 2024. This will be my first time here, but I’ve been to Oslo a handful of times over the years for Høstsabbat in October and enjoyed that very much. Some of the Høstsabbat team are involved in Desertfest as well, so right on. It will be a good couple of days, as the schedule shows:
I’ll spare you the I’m-in-my-40s litany of discomforts and pains and just say I’m very fortunate to be making this trip. It honestly wasn’t an invite I was expecting, and being just a couple weeks after Roadburn — there were two years there where I went from Roadburn direct to Desertfest London a couple days later; I was younger and not a parent — wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it happen. Thank you, as always, to The Patient Mrs. for my life and its many, many indulgences.
The day at home was typical for a leaving day in that I was out of my head distracted thinking about packing, that last bit of laundry I wanted to do, scholl dropoff, shopping, back to school for meds bump, finish packing, pickup, etc. I did a little writing for a couple news posts I’ll put up tomorrow, but my head was all over the place, mostly on its way to the airport. I thought about eating a gummy before I left the house to come here, but I’m glad I didn’t. Time drags enough at the gate without being stoned slow. Instead, I’m woefully lucid. Maybe I’ll sleep on the plane.
Looking forward to getting in, duh, getting settled, and putting myself in front of the stage for the start of the first band. Where my baggage will be, whether I’ve checked into the hotel room, slept or eaten, it won’t matter. I hope to have done all those things by then, but if not, this isn’t my first dance, even if it’s my first Desertfest Oslo. I’ll survive.
I’ll be writing as much as possible, as often as possible, and will be back and forth to stages to catch the start of shows and so on. If you keep up over the next couple days, thanks. Not to say the quiet part loud, but the only reason I get to do any of the travel I do is because of the support this site gets. Thank you, in other words. Thanks for reading. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that once or twice along the way.
There are people lined up to get on the plane, maybe my plane, maybe not, but I’ve got time, and maybe an empty seat next to me if no one else checks in in the next 45 minutes. Fingers crossed. Gonna try to relax for a bit, bumble around, get a bottle of water, etc. I’ll have those other posts up before the fest starts if all goes to plan, but otherwise, next you hear from me will be from Oslo. I look forward to it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 16th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Is it Høstsabbat announcement season already? Awesome. The rightly-lauded Oslo festival takes place every October, and I’ve been lucky enough to go a handful or so of times. This year, like last, they’ve nestled themselves into the weekend of Oct. 25, which is my daughter’s birthday, so that pretty much settles the issue for me.
That said, it’s still fun to keep up with who will be able to make the trip to Norway this Fall, and Høstsabbat is opening strong. The yet-unannouced YOB European tour that I’m hoping against hope coincides with a new album release either this summer or September (mind you, I know nothing) will make a stop through, and Swedish psych-noise riff masters Domkraft, as well as the nautically-themed death-doom extremists Ahab and, in keeping with the festival’s continued affinity, some hardcore-tinged whathaveyou from Denmark’s New Money.
That’s the first four and you get a decent sense of variety, which will of course increase as more acts are added. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen YOB, and it’s been seven years since they put out a record, so with the increase in fest activity for the Fall, it makes me think maybe they’re doing it up for an occasion. They don’t need the excuse, and if they did, it’s 25 years since the demo — they have a tape of it out for that — but still, playing a bunch of Eurofests seems like a long way to go for a tape reissue of your demo. Fingers crossed.
Hopefully by the time Høstsabbat takes place, we’ll know more about that, and obviously the rest of the lineup. You keep an eye and I’ll do the same. Here’s how it starts:
Sabbathians! ⛪️🔥
Easter is upon us, and we have a special easter egg to share with you all.
We are beyond excited to share the first four bands for Høstsabbat 2025!
Please welcome the doom-legends from Eugene, Oregon, the magic powertrio that is Yob!
Also, the hard hitting, whale-hunting trailblazers from the coral tombs, AHAB comes to rattle the Church!
Danish dynamite from the underground Copenhagen scene, mixing Hardcore and Noise Rock, 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘!
And lastly, the hashtronauts from outer space, the sonic jackhammer that is Domkraft!
Posted in Reviews on April 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
A friendly reminder that the end of the week is not, in fact, the end of the Quarterly Review, which will continue through Monday and Tuesday. That brings the number of releases covered to 70 total, which feels like plenty, and should hopefully carry us through a busy Spring release season. I’m thinking June for the next QR now but don’t be surprised if that turns into July as we get closer. All I know is I wanna do it before it’s two full weeks again.
As always, I hope you’ve found something that speaks to you in all this 10-per-day nonsense. If not, first, wow, really? Second, it ain’t over yet. Maybe today’s your day. One way to know.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager
You may be mellow-vibes, but unless you’re “Not the Season,” Dead Meadow have one up on you forever. While Voyager to Voyager, which is the L.A. band’s eighth or ninth LP depending on what you count, comes with the tragic real-world context of bassist Steve Kille‘s 2024 passing, he does feature on the long-running trio’s first offering through Heavy Psych Sounds, and whether it’s “The Space Between” or the shuffle-stepping “The Unhounded Now” or the pastoral “A Question of Will” and the jangly strum of “Small Acts of Kindness” later on, guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon, Kille and drummer Mark Laughlin celebrate the ultra-languid take on heavy, psychedelic and shoegazing rock that’s made Dead Meadow a household name for weirdos. Not that they’re not prone to a certain wistfulness, but Voyager to Voyager is vibrant rather than mournful, and the title-track is an album flow unto itself in just eight minutes. If you can slow your manic-ass brain long enough to sit and hear it front-to-back, you’re in for a treat.
There is a sense of stepping out as Irish troubadour Seán Mulrooney makes his full-length solo debut with This is My Prayer on Ómós Records. Mulrooney is best known for residing at the core of Tau and the Drones of Praise, and for sure, pieces of This is My Prayer are coming from a similar place, but where there was psychedelic meander for the band, under his own moniker, Mulrooney brings a clarity of tone and presence to lyrics ranging from spiritual seeking to what seems to have been an unceremonious breakup. With character and emotion in his voice and range in his craft, Mulrooney sees a better world on “Ag Múscliaghacht” and posits a new masculinity — totally needed; trainwreck gender — in “Walking With the Wind,” meets indie simplicity with lap steel in “Jaguar Dreams” and, in closer “The Pufferfish,” pens a fun McCartney-style bouncer about tripping sea life. These are slivers of the adventures undertaken in singer-songwriter style as Mulrooney hones this solo identity. Very curious to see where the adventure might take him.
Issued in 2024, Sun Dog is the third MaidaVale long-player, and with it, the Swedish heavy psychedelic rockers showcase six years’ worth of growth from their second album. Melancholic of mood in “Fools” and “Control” and the folkish “Alla Dagar” and “Vultures,” Sun Dog starts uptempo with the Afrobeat-influenced “Faces,” drifts, shreds, then drifts again in “Give Me Your Attention,” dares toward pop in “Daybreak” and fosters a sense of the ironic in “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Pretty Places,” the latter of which, with a keyboardier arrangement, could’ve been the kind of New Wave hit that would still be in your head 40 years later. The nine-songer (10 if you get “Perplexity,” which was previously only on the vinyl) doesn’t dwell in any single space for too long — only “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Vultures” are over four minutes, though others are close — and that lets them balance the downer aspects with forward momentum. MaidaVale are no strangers to that kind of movement, of course, but Sun Dog‘s mature realization of their sound feels so much more vast in range.
Here come Causa Sui with another live album. And I’m not saying the only reason the thankfully-prolific Danish psychedelic treasures, heavyjazz innovators and El Paraiso label honchos are only releasing a complement to 2023’s Loppen 2021 (review here) to rub in the fact that I’ve never been lucky enough to catch them on a stage — any stage — but I am starting to take it personally. Call me sensitive. In any case, despite feeling existentially mocked by their chemistry and the fluidity of “Sorcerer’s Disciple” or the 22-minute “Visions of a New Horizon,” the hour-long set is glorious as one would expect, and though Loppen 2024 is a blip on the way to Causa Sui‘s forthcoming studio album, In Flux, especially when set alongside their previous outing from the same Christiania-based venue, it highlights the variable persona of the band and the reach of their material. Someday I’ll see this goddamn band.
Underlying the grit and stoner drawl of “El Rey del Mundo de los Muertos” is the lurching progression of Black Sabbath‘s “Sweet Leaf,” and that reinterprative ethic comes to the strutting Pentagrammery of “La Verdad es Tu Ataud” as well, but in the tonal density and the way their groove snails its way into your ear canal, the vibe Fulanno bring to Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo is in line with stoner doom traditionalism, and the revelry is palbale in the slow nod of the title-track or the horror samples sprinkled throughout or the earlier Electric Wizard-style languidity of “El Nacimiento de la Muerte.” They save an acoustic stretch in reserve to wrap “Desde las Tinieblas,” but if you think that’s going to clean your soul by that point then you haven’t been paying attention. Unrepentantly dark, stoned and laced with devil-, death-and riff-worship, Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo further distinguishes Fulanno in an always crowded Argentinian underground, and dooms like a bastard besides.
Because the age we live in permits such a thing and it tells you something about the music, I’m going to cut and paste the credits for Israeli duo Ze Stoner‘s debut EP/demo, Desert Buddhist. Dor Sarussi is credited with “bass guitar, spaceships, vocals,” while Alexander Krivinski handles “didgeridoo, spaceships, drums, and percussion.” How tripped out does a band need to be to have two members credited with “spaceships,” you ask? Quite tripped out indeed. Across the 12:09 “Part I – The Awakness” (sic) and the 11:41 “Part II – The Trip,” and the much-shorter 1:41 finale “Part III – The Enlightenment,” Ze Stoner take the meditative doom of Om or an outfit like Zaum and extrapolate from it a drone-based approach that retains a meditative character. It is extreme in its capacity to induce a trance, and as Desert Buddhist unfolds, it plays as longer movements tied together as a single work. There is massive potential here. One hopes Sarussi, Krivinski, their spaceships and didgeridoo are just beginning their adventures in the cosmos.
Oslo-based newcomers Arv aren’t shy about what their sound is trying to do. Their debut album, Curse & Courage, arrives via the wheelhouse of Vinter Records and brings together noise-laced and at-times-caustic hardcore with the atmospherics, echoing tremolo and churning intensity of post-metal. They lean to one side or the other throughout, and “Wrath” seems to get a bit of everything, but it’s a harder line to draw than one might think because hardcore as a style is all urgency and post-metal very often brings a more patient take. Being able to find a place in songwriting between the two, well, Arv aren’t the first to do it, but they are impressively cohesive for Curse & Courage being their first record, and the likes of “Victim,” the overwhelming rush of “Forsaken” earlier on and the more-ambient-but-still-vocally-harsh closing title-track set up multiple avenues for future evolution of the ideas they present here. Too aggressive to be universal in its appeal, but makes undeniable use of its scathe.
I’m not sure what’s going on in “Erotik Fvel P.I.M.P.,” but there’s chicanery a-plenty throughout Fvzz Popvli‘s fourth full-length, Melting Pop, which is released in renewed cooperation with Heavy Psych Sounds. Hooks, fuzz, and the notion that anything else would be superfluous pervade the Indiana Jones-referencing “Temple of Doom” and “Telephone” at the outset, the latter with some choice backing vocals, and they kick the fuzz into overdrive on “Salty Biscvits” with room besides for a jangly verse. Running an ultra-manageable 30 minutes, the album breaks in half with four songs on each side. “Kommando” leads off the second half with dirtier low end tone ahead of the slower-rolling “Ovija,” which shouts and howls and is all kinds of righteously unruly, where “Cop Sacher” punks at the start and has both gang vocals and a saxophone, which I can say with confidence nothing else among the 70 records in this Quarterly Review even tried let alone pulled off, and they close with due swagger and surprising class in “The Knight.” Part of Fvzz Popvli‘s persona to this point has been based in rawness, so it’s interesting to hear them fleshing out more complex arrangments, but at heart they remain very much stoner rock for the glory of stoner rock.
The tone worship is there, the working-class-dude stoner swing is there, and the humor that might result in a song like “Hypertension” — for which no less than Bob Balch of Fu Manchu sits in — so when I compare Rust Bucket to Maryland’s lost sons Earthride, please know that I’m not talking out of my ass. The Minnesota-based double-guitar five-piece revel in low end buzz-tone, and with no-pretense groove, throaty vocals and big personality, that spirit is there. Doesn’t account for the boogie of “Keep Us Down,” but everybody’s gotta throw down now and then. They shift into a sludgier mood by the time they get around to “The Darkness” and “Watch Your Back,” but the idea behind this first Rust Bucket feels much more like a bunch of guys getting together to hammer out some cool songs, maybe play some shows, do a record and see how it goes. On paper, that makes Rust Bucket an unassuming start, but its anti-bullshit stance, steady roll and addled swing make it a gem of the oldschool variety. Much to their credit, they call the style, “fuzzy caveman dad rock.” They forgot ‘bearded,’ but otherwise that about sums it up. Maybe the beard is implied?
It is appropriate that Mountain Dust named their third LP after themselves, since it finds them transcending their influences and honing a cross-genre approach that’s never sounded more their own than it does in these nine songs. From the densely-weighted misdirect of “Reap” with its Earth-sounding drone riff through the boogieing en route to the mellower and more open soul-showcase “Waiting for Days to End” — backing vocals included, see also “It’s Already Done” on side B — and the organ in “Vengeance,” the dynamic between the Graveyard-style ballad “This is It” and the keyboard/synth-fueled instrumental outro “All Eyes But Two,” Mountain Dust gracefullly subverts retroist expectations with individualized songwriting, performance and production, and this material solidifies the Montreal four-piece among the more flexible acts doing anything in the sphere of 1970s-style heavy rock. That’s still there, understand, but like the genre itself, Mountain Dust have very clearly grown outward from their foundations.
Welcome to the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review. If you’re unfamiliar with the format or how this goes, the quick version is each day brings 10 new releases — albums, EPs, even a single every now and again — that are reviewed at at the end of it everybody has a ton of new music to listen to and I’m a little closer to being caught up to what’s coming out after spending about a season falling behind on coverage. Everybody wins, mostly.
It’s a seven-day QR. As always, some of what will be covered is older and some is new. There are a couple 2024 releases. The 10,000 Years record, for example, I should’ve reviewed five times over by now, but life happens. There’s also stuff that isn’t released yet, so it all averages out to some approximation of relevance. Hopefully.
In any case, we proceed. Thanks if you keep up this week and into next.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Pagan Altar, Never Quite Dead
Classic metal par excellence pervades the first Pagan Altar album since 2017 and the first to feature vocalist Brendan Radigan (Magic Circle) in place of founding singer Terry Jones, who passed away in 2015 and whose son, guitarist Alan Jones, is the sole remaining founding member of the band, which started in 1978. Never Quite Dead collects eight varied tracks, some further evidence for the line of NWOBHM extending out of the dual-guitar pioneering of Thin Lizzy, plenty of overarching melancholy, and it honors the idea of the band having a classic sound without sacrificing modern impact in the recording. The subdued “Liston Church,” the later doomly sprawl of “The Dead’s Last March” and the willful grandiosity of the nine-minute finale “Kismet” assure that Never Quite Dead indeed resonates vibrant with a heart made of denim.
Somewhere between proto-punk and 1990s alt-rock come Designer with the three-song demo Weekend at Brian’s. Based in Asheville, the band have an edge of danger to their tones, but the outward face is catchy and quirky, a little Blondie but with deceptively heavy riffing in “Magic Memory” and extra-satisfyingly farty bass in “Midnight Waltz” as the band engage Blue Öyster Cult in a conversation of fears, the band wind up somewhere between heavy modern indie and retro-minded fare. “Ugly in the Streets” moves like a Ramones song and I’ve got no problem with that. However they go, the songs are pointedly straightforward, and they kind of need to be for the stripped-down style to work. Nothing’s over three minutes long, the songs are tight, and it’s got style without overloading on the pretense, which especially for a new outfit is an excellent place to start.
The hopeful keyboard of album intro “Orbital Decay” gradually devolves into noise, and from there, Swedish crash-and-bash specialists 10,000 Years show you what it’s all about — gutted-out heavy riffing, ace swing in “The Experiment” and a whole lot of head-down forward shove. The Västerås-based trio have yet to put out a record that wasn’t a step forward from the one before it, and this late-2024 third full-length feels duly realized in how it incorporates the psychedelic aspects of “Ablaze in the Now” with the physical intensity of “The Weight of a Feather” or closer “Down the Heavy Path.” But they’re more dynamic on the whole, as “Death Valley Ritual” dares a bit of spoken drama, and “High Noon in Sword City” reminds that there’s a good dose of noise rock underpinning what 10,000 Years do, and that cacophony still suits them even as they’ve expanded around that foundation over the last five years.
Amber Asylum are a San Francisco arthouse institution, and from its outset with the five-minute instrumental “Secrets,” the band’s 10th album, Ruby Red, counsels patience in mournful, often softspoken chamber doom. The use of space as the title-track unfolds with founding violinist/vocalist Kris Force‘s voice over minimalist bass, encompassing and sad as the song plays out with an emergent dirge of strings and percussion, where the subsequent “Demagogue” is more actively drummed, the band having already drawn the listener deeper into the record’s seven-song cycle. The cello of Jackie Perez-Gratz (also Grayceon, Brume) gives centerpiece “The Morrigan” extra character later on, and it’s there in “Azure” as well, though the context shifts with foreboding drones of various wavelengths behind the vocals. Ambience plus bite. “Weaver” rolls through its first half instrumentally, realigning around the strings and steady movement; its back half is reverently sung without lyrics. And when they get to closer “A Call on the Wind,” the sense of unease in the violin is met with banging-on-a-spring-style experimentalist noise, just to underscore the sense of things being wrong as far as realities go. It’s not a minor undertaking as regards atmospheric or emotional weight, but empathy resounds.
With Fu Manchu as a defining influence, Greek heavy rockers Weevil set forth with Easy Way, their 10-song/42-minute self-released debut album. They pay homage to Lemmy with the cleverly-titled “Rickenbästard” — you know I’m a sucker for charm — and diverge from the straight-ahead heavy thrust on the mellower, longer “The Old Man Lied” and “Insomnia,” but by and large, the five-piece are here to throw down riffy groove and have a good time, and they do just that. The title-track, “Wake the Dead” and “Headache” provide a charged beginning, and even by the time the crunch of “Gonna Fall” slides casually into the nodder hook of closer “Last Night a Zombie” (“…ate my brain” is the rest of the line), they’ve still got enough energy to make it feel like the party could easily continue. It just might. There’s perspective in this material that feels like it might take shape over time, and in my mind, Weevil get immediate credit for being upfront in their homage and wearing their own heavy fandom on their sleeves. You can hear their love for it.
Adventurous and forward-thinking post-metal pervades Swedish trio Kazea‘s debut album, and the sound is flexible enough in their craft to let “Whispering Hand” careen like neo-psych after the screams and lurch of “Trenches” provide one of the record’s most extreme moments, bolstered by guest vocals. Indeed, “Whispering Hand” is a rocker and something of an outlier for that, as Pale City Skin draws a downerist line between Crippled Black Phoenix and circa-’04 Neurosis, “Wailing Blood” finds a way to meld driving rhythm and atmospheric heft, and the seven-minute “Seamlessly Woven” caps with suitable depth of wash, following the lushness of the penultimate “The North Passage” in its howling, growl-topped chorus with another expression of the ethereal. I haven’t heard a ton of hype about I, Ancestral, but regardless, this is one of the best debut albums I’ve heard so far this year for sure. Post-metal needs bands willing to push its limits.
Hard not to think of the 14-minute weirdo-psych jam “Mycelium” as the highlight of Dyp Tid, but one shouldn’t discount the lead-you-in warmth and serenity of opener “Pendelen Svinger,” or the bit of dub in the drumming of “Clock of the Long Now,” and so on as Norway’s Electric Eye — which is a pretty straightforward name, considering the sound — vibe blissful for the duration. The drone “Den Første Lysstråle” is hypnotic, and though the vocals in “Mycelium” are a sample, the human presence periodically sprinkled throughout the album feels like it’s adding comfort amid what might be an anxious plunge into the cosmos. They finish with “Hvit Lotus,” which marries together various kinds of synth over a deceptively casual beat, capping light with vocals or synth-vocals in a bright chorus over chime sounds and drifting guitar. You made it to the island. You’re safe. Gentle fade out.
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Guglielmo Allegro is the sole denizen behind Void Sinker, and while I know full well we live in an age of technological wonders/horrors, that one person could conjure up such encompassing heavy sounds — the way 14-minute opener “Satellite” just swallows you whole — is impressive. Oxygen is the Salerno, Italy, DIY project’s fourth full-length in two years, and its intent to crush is plain from the outset. “Satellite” has its own summary progression of what the rest of the album does, and then “Oxygen” (9:45), “Collision” (15:23) and “Abyss” (13:32) play through increasingly noisy slab-riff distribution. This is done methodically, at mostly slow tempos, with tonal depth and an obvious awareness of where it’s coming from. Presumably that, and a lack of argument from anyone else when he wants to ride a groove for 15 minutes, is why Void Sinker is a solo outfit. One of distinctive bludgeon, it turns out. Like big riffs pushing the air out of your lungs? Here you go.
Draken drummer André Drage leads the group that shares his name from behind the kit, it would seem, but even if only one name gets to be in the moniker, make no mistake, the entire band is present and accounted for. Challenging each other in jazz-prog fashion, Wolves is the second album from the Group in as many months. It leads off with its longest track (immediate points) “Brainsoup,” and by the time they’re through with it, it is. We’re talking ace prog boogie, funky like El Perro might do it, but looser and more improv feeling in the solo of “Potent Elixirs,” giving a spontaneous impression even in the studio, ebbing and flowing in the runs of “Tigerboy” while “Wind in Their Sails” is both more King Crimson and more shuffling-Rhodes-jam, which is the kind of party you want to be at whether you know it or not. The penultimate “Fire” gets lit by the guitar, and they round out with “Nesodden,” a sweet comedown from some of Wolves‘ more frenetic movements. Like a supernova, but not uncontained. This is a band ready to drop jaws.
The Sept. 2024 third album from NYC-based vintage rockers The Mystery Lights skillfully weaves together garage rock and ’60s pop theatrics, giving the bounce and sway of the title-track an immediately nostalgic impression that the jangly “In the Streets” is probably about a ahead from in terms of influence, but the blend is the thing. Regardless of how developed the punk is or isn’t in a given track — I dig the shaker in “Trouble” and it manages a sense of ‘island’ without being racist, so bonus points for that — or how “Cerebral Crack” brings flute in with its extra-fuzzed guitar later on or “Memories” and “Automatic Response” feel more soul than rock in both intent and manifestation, The Mystery Lights benefit from pairing stylistic complexity with structural simplicity, and the 12 songs of Purgatory find a niche outside genre norms and time all the more for the fact that the band don’t seem concerned with anything so much as writing songs that sound like home the first time you hear them.
