Posted in Whathaveyou on June 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You might recognize the members of Oslo instrumentalists Kanaan in the lineup of Full Earth. That band released their Downpour (review here) full-length on May 5 and have been out playing shows for it, with more to come this summer, but in the meantime, Full Earth have been announced as the latest addition to the roster of Germany’s Stickman Records, and confirmed they’ll release their debut album as a 2LP sometime early in 2024. I don’t have a lot of names on my list keeping track of next year yet, but I just added this one.
The video below, with Full Earth performing “Weltgeist” as the on-keys duo of Ingvald Vassbø and Øystein Aadland, is why. Meditative and exploratory, the sound conjured there is hypnotic, and while I don’t expect it to fully account for what their first release will offer when the time comes — there are three other players involved, remember — as a teaser it shows them reaching out in terms of style and I dig that. Also didn’t realize Vassbø had joined Motorpsycho, but as regards Norwegian prog-anything, that’s a pretty significant feather in the cap.
From Stickman‘s newsletter:
NEW SIGNING – FULL EARTH – DEBUT ALBUM COMING 2024
We are elated to announce our partnership with an exciting new band from Oslo, Full Earth!
Headed by and centered around composer and drummer Ingvald Vassbø (best known for his stellar drumming in Kanaan, now also playing with Motorpsycho), the group is rounded out by the other two members of Kanaan as well as two new associates. Full Earth creates entrancing organ and synth-laden soundscapes anchored by tight rhythmic grooves. As arpeggiated keys pass and interlock with one another, a compelling and hypnotic picture reveals itself to the listener gradually. Full Earth is truly a unique band and we were hooked from the first listen, which is why we’re so much more excited to be releasing their first record.
Says the band: “Grand announcement! Full Earth has now officially signed a record deal with the legendary Stickman Records and our double-debut album will be out early next year! We´re so happy about this and are looking forward to this partnership. More updates are around the corner!”
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 22nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
So, permit me to play a bit of catchup. I actually saw the Iron Bra announcement from Høstsabbat 2023 on Friday, when it was posted on their socials, but that was at like 10AM and I know it sounds funny but at that point I was pretty much done for the day. Mentally. It was kind of a rough morning, rough afternoon, weird week, tortured existence, and so on. So I tried that thing athletes do sometimes where instead of forcing myself to do the thing and feeling miserable about it, I didn’t instead.
Strange times, I know, but here we are. I’m fairly certain Høstsabbat will have another lineup addition this Friday to follow-up Iron Bra and Beaten to Death — because of course I was already a week behind when I decided to wellness-flake on Friday and keep the laptop closed, so we’ve got two bands stuck together here — and I’m curious to see both who it is and whether or not I can have the wherewithal to post it on time. It’s a hard-maybe at this point. Fortunately, I don’t think the festival is holding its breath waiting for my takes on the bands it books, let alone anyone else.
Thus, one shouts into the void of the internet:
HØSTSABBAT 2023 – IRON BRA
Friday is upon us, spring is battling with summer, and the birds are singing like angels. Constantly.
What a huge contrast to our next announcement.
As some of us are longing for darker nights, and the return to church for the annual Sabbat, we have been lurking around the Oslo venues to find the essence of primal, heavy and filthy doom. In its purest form.
IRON BRA plays filthy doom. Primal and heavy, in its purest form.
Lucky for us, they are making appearance at our coming anniversary, and it will be HEAVY.
This three piece has been grinding, riffing and gigging uncontrollably since their very beginning, and their notorious presence in the Oslo underground can hardly pass unseen.
We look forward to being pummeled by the nihilist noise of their greasy grooves.
Please welcome IRON BRA to Høstsabbat 2023.
HØSTSABBAT 2023 – BEATEN TO DEATH
Today’s announcement is not for the faint-hearted, neither is it for the daunted:
Driven by harshness, aggression and growls gnarlier than death itself, Beaten to Death is coming to pummel our senses, with their ultra-chaotic, all-encompassing style of grindcore. The skill is unreal. Beaten to Death is a band you need to see to get. We can’t guarantee you will get it, but we can guarantee you will not regret it. It’s like the freak show of metal music.
In the blink of an eye Beaten to Death touches base with more sub-genres than you can even mention, making it almost impossible to keep track of what the F?! actually happened? What an intense experience it will be see this bunch of maniacs let their energy flow freely in our Church of Riffs.
Please welcome Beaten To Death to Høstsabbat 2023.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
As they make ready to play Desertfest London this weekend, UK duo Tuskar give something (else) to look forward to in being the latest addition to the lineup for the 10th anniversary of Høstsabbat in Oslo this October. I’m already thinking of this as a set of a kin to Slabdragger or Slomatics in terms of the something-very-heavy-from-the-British-Isles-in-the-church-basement ideal, and that should be just ducky, thanks. The band last year released their Matriarch LP as the follow-up to 2018’s The Tide, Beneath, The Wall (review here), and as noted below, this will be their second excursion to Norway, and I very much hope to be there to see it.
I’m late on this today so there’s no time to waste. Here’s word from the fest:
HØSTSABBAT 2023 – TUSKAR (UK)
This week we are bringing you guys one of the most promising, prolific and uprising two-pieces our entire community has on offer.
Tuskar is pounding their sludge with a self esteem, ease and punchy heaviness rarely seen, and the riffs just keep pulling you further down their rocky abyss. The way they combine melodic and atmospheric passages with primal and absolute destruction is nothing but masterly done.
Tuskar has proven themselves to be the next generation’s sludge duo, picking up the heritage from Eagle Twin, Black Cobra and all the other gold that came out of Georgia and the States earlier in this decade.
Their recent album «MATRIARCH» is a pure bliss from start to finish, and the sense of future success shines through like (the?) Aurora Borealis(?). This band is going somewhere, and we believe it’s somewhere big.
Rumors say they laid completely waste at Brewgata on their first Norwegian visit this winter, and we are thrilled to bring them back and see what their chugg will do to the Church.
Please welcome TUSKAR to Høstsabbat 2023 (#128165#)
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 3rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Last heard from with late-2021’s Solstice EP (review here), Oslo-based heavy melodic downer rockers Superlynx have signed on to release their next — also their fourth, somehow; where does the time go? — full-length through Italian imprint Argonauta Records as part of that label’s ever-expanding lineup. Solstice, 2021’s Electric Temple (review here) and 2019’s New Moon (review here) came out via Dark Essence Records (their 2016 debut LP, LVX, was self-released), so this marks the beginning of a new era for the three-piece, whose vocalist Pia Isaksen preceded the band in working with Argonauta for her 2022 solo album under the moniker Pia Isa, Distorted Chants (review here).
I guess that went well enough, or Superlynx probably wouldn’t be making the announcement below, which the algorithm — no blessings and peace upon it; tear down the algorithm — happened to put before me on social media amid the generally much less useful social slop of people’s pets dying, random cleavage and tour dates I’ve already posted. Think of it as a modern equivalent to being in the right place at the right time without actually going anywhere or doing anything. In fact, let’s not talk about social media consumption. This is a happy post.
Instead, let’s talk about Superlynx, whose new record will probably also be depressing. Isaksen brought that overarching melancholy to Distorted Chants as well, and I’ll be interested to hear on the new Superlynx if and how doing that album plays into either the vocals or songwriting here. Plus they’re just a cool, immersive listen anyway, and that’s definitely going to be welcome as Fall comes around with its shorter days and the looming winter ahead. September? November? I don’t know the status of the album — the photo of them with the contract below looks like it was taken in the studio — but I’ll be glad to hear it whenever it surfaces.
They posted about it on socials yesterday and I had a post with that all set to go up, but then the PR wire lit up with the below press release this morning, so here goes:
Norway-based Psychedelic Doom Specialists SUPERLYNX Sign To ARGONAUTA Records
Superlynx is a three piece band from Oslo, Norway formed in 2013. The band exceeds genres with their distinct sound and melts heavy psychedelic rock, doom, meditative atmospheres and droning riffs together. After releasing their third album Electric Temple and Solstice EP and playing some great gigs and festivals in 2021, the band went back in the studio and are now ready with their fourth full length album.
This coming release also sees Superlynx moving on from the Norwegian label Dark Essence to Italian label Argonauta Records. All of Superlynx ́s releases have received wonderful reviews and ended up on many best of the year lists. They have been known to write songs that are dealing with heavy personal emotions but always turned towards light, love, nature and the magic joy of music itself.
Superlynx loves playing live and have developed a reputation as a great live band delivering powerful and atmospheric shows. Through their gigs around Norway and abroad the band has made their mark as a heavy and hypnotic live band with sincere, intense and explosive expressions. Superlynx have played festivals like Høstsabbat, Hellbotn, Inferno Festival, Midgardsblot, Pstereo, Musikkfest Oslo, 360 Festival, Oslo Beikmørke etc. The trio have also shared stages with bands like Weedeater, Sabbath Assembly, Gold, Chrch, Fister, The Wounded Kings, Grave Pleasures, Virus, Sâver, Order, The Moth, Funeral, Narcosatanicos and many more.
In 2023 Superlynx will celebrate their 10th anniversary as a band with releasing new music, a new additional live member and returning to the stage.
Says the band: “We are so excited to start our 10th year as a band with signing to Argonauta Records. We look so much forward to sharing new music this year and feel that Argonauta will be a very fitting home and launch station for the new album. Since Pia has already released her solo album on this label we also know how hard working and dedicated these people are. We really look forward to starting a new chapter together”.
SUPERLYNX are: PIA ISAKSEN (BASS/VOCALS) OLE TEIGEN (DRUMS) DANIEL BAKKEN (GUITAR)
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
One fondly recalls seeing avant garde Japanese black metallers Sigh at the Roadburn 2013 Afterburner (review here), their showing up a decade later at the Høstsabbat 10th anniversary edition makes a kind of sense in light of the Oslo-based festival’s ongoing sonic progression outside genre confines of doom, sludge, etc. I’ll admit to not keeping up with their studio work — they had a record out last year called Shiki and have a 2023 live release to follow it up, so still very much active — but they were an impressive and atmospheric live act and I well look forward to seeing them at the church, which will be a fitting backdrop for their outsider weirdo worship.
The Høstsabbat lineup continues to grow more eclectic each week, and in addition to the extended geographic reach in having Sigh be the first band from Japan to play the fest, they’re an even better pick for that honor owing to their deeply individualized sound. Makes sense on its own level entirely.
Here we go:
HØSTSABBAT 2023 – SIGH (JPN)
For the first time in Høstsabbat history we are able to welcome a Japanese band to our Church of Riffs. And Oh My, what a band it is.
Formed back in 1989, SIGH found themselves leaning towards our northern black metal scene, and their first album was released on Norwegian kvlt label Deathlike Silence Records. From then and onwards the band has shifted into more experimental territory, adding patterns, twists and atmosphere to an already manic output.
SIGH knows their heavy, mark our words, and will act as the perfect counterpart to the more doomy and droney side of the lineup, with their combination of progressive metal and Japanese instrumentation.
We are beyond psyched to announce the return of SIGH to Norway.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 21st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, okay, so I didn’t get to post last Friday’s Høstsabbat announcement. I don’t really have an excuse, I just didn’t see it until after I’d closed the week — which I definitely did early, because fuck it — and then it was Monday, Tuesday with the Quarterly Review still and then it was Wednesday and on Wednesday you might as well wait till Friday since you know another announcement’s coming anyway. If that seems like a long and arduous choice, the reality happened much faster. It was like 20 seconds on Friday of thinking about it and here we are.
That’s no slight against industrialized LLNN offshoot John Cxnnor — who have played Roadburn in between last week’s Høstsabbat announcement and the top portion of what’s below, which is from today — whose set I have zero doubt will blow my mind. Reminder too that LLNN will also be playing, so hey, while you’re in Oslo, might as well unleash another round of devastation.
And for a fun bit of other-side-of-the-spectrum-ness, today’s add is Villagers of Ioannina City, whose contemplative, Mediterranean folk-informed heavy rock I was fortunate enough to catch last year at Freak Valley Festival (review here). They might be the most ritualized rock act to take the Høstsabbat stage since Sunnata in 2019, but they’re less likely to wear robes and actually have a kind of poppish charisma and are more forward musically. But they’re cool either way, so bonus.
Høstsabbat posted the following:
VILLAGERS OF IOANNINA CITY
The sun shines beautifully on this very Friday, and so does our next announcement.
In massive contrast to the industrial, hard-hitting heaviness of last week’s announcement, Danish duo John Cxnnor, who by the way crushed the main stage at Roadburn yesterday, today’s addition brings a different kind of depth and light to our anniversary lineup.
Villagers of Ioannina City has swept over the underground like a mild, mediterranean breeze.
The brilliant use of bagpipes, kaval and clarinets highlights their bombastic, yet meditative sound in a warm and folky manner, pawing way for heavy, psychedelic fuzz outbursts coming straight from the Greek mountains.
Their explosive live appearances at numerous festivals over the last years have had them on everyone’s lips, and it’s with massive pride we can announce their first ever visit to Norway.
Please welcome Villagers of Ioannina City to Høstsabbat 2023!
JOHN CXNNOR (DK)
Oh yes, for the first time in Høstsabbat history, we are welcoming a band strictly based on electronics. Please do not fear. Heaviness is what we´re all about, heaviness always wins, and todays announcement is no exception. The band of the day is an act we have been buzzing to announce, as they will showcase a brand new kind of heavy for all of you Sabbathians.
The praise in the wake of their appearances at Roskilde and Roadburn last year was just beyond, and breathtaking to witness, just as the shows themselves. All this leading to a return to the infamous Roadburn Festival next week, for another commissioned project. Go see them if you have the chance, you will not regret. Adding to their quality, JOHN CXNNOR is a loose cannon in the live environment. They always bring vocalists, but you never know who.
JOHN CXNNOR is made up of the Danish Sejersen brothers, also known for forming half of the brilliant sci-fi sludge pioneers in LLNN.
The level of detail and finesse in their industrial soundscaping is unreal in both their outfits, but in particular, those lower frequencies bursting out from the JOHN CXNNOR experience will cuttle your tummy to the extreme. JOHN CXNNOR will terminate the Crypt, mark our words.
Posted in Reviews on April 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
So here we are. A fascinating and varied trip this has been, and while I’m tempted to find some greater meaning in it as regards the ongoing evolution of genre(s) in heavy underground music, the truth is that the overarching message is really that it’s impossible to keep up with that complexity as it unfolds. Hitting 70 releases on this last day with another 50 to come in a couple weeks, I feel like there’s just so much out there right now, and that that is the primary signifier of the current era.
Whether it’s pandemic-born projects or redirects, or long-established artists making welcome returns, or who knows what from who knows where, the world is brimming with creativity and is pushing the bounds of heavy with like-proportioned force and intent. This hasn’t always been easy to write, but as I look at the lineup below of the final-for-now installment of the QR, I’m just happy to be alive. Thanks for reading. I hope you have also found something that resonates.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Dommengang, Wished Eye
A fourth full-length from Dommengang — are they in L.A. now? Portland, Oregon? does it matter? — neatly encapsulates the heavy psychedelic scope and the organic-vibing reach that stands them out from the pack, as somehow throughout the nine songs of Wished Eye, the Thrill Jockey denizen trio are able to inhabit a style that’s the Americana pastoral wakeup of “Runaway,” the hill-howling “Society Blues,” the drift-fuzz of over solid drums of “Last Card,” the dense tube-burning Hendrixism of “Myth Time,” and the minimalist guitar of “Little Beirut.” And oh, it keeps going; each track contributing something to the lush-but-natural spirit of the whole work. “Blue & Peaceful” brings acoustics to its midsection jam, while “Petrichor” is the West Coast freedom rock you’ve been waiting for, the title-track goes inland for nighttime desertscaping that finishes in hypnotic loops on a likewise hypnotic fade, and “Flower” proves to be more vine, winding its way around the lead guitar line as the vocals leave off with a highlight performance prior a fire-blues solo that finishes the record as the amps continue to scream. Undervalued? Why yes, Dommengang are, and Wished Eye makes the argument in plain language. With a sonic persona able to draw from country, blues, psych, indie, doom, fuzz, on and on, they’ve never sounded so untethered to genre, and it wasn’t exactly holding them back in the first place.
Formerly the frontman of Richmond, Virginia, sludgers Gritter, Ryan Kent — who already has several books of poetry on his CV — casts himself through Dying Comes With Age as a kind of spoken word ringmaster, and he’s brought plenty of friends along to help the cause. The readings in the title-track, “Son of a Bitch” and the title-track and “Couch Time” are semi-spoken, semi-sung, and the likes of Laura Pleasants (The Discussion, ex-Kylesa) lends backing vocals to the former while Jimmy Bower (Down, EyeHateGod) complements with a low-key fuzzy bounce. I’ll admit to hoping the version of “My Blue Heaven” featuring Windhand‘s Dorthia Cottrell was a take on the standard, but it’s plenty sad regardless and her voice stands alone as though Kent realized it was best to just give her the space and let it be its own thing on the record. Mike IX Williams of EyeHateGod is also on his own (without music behind) to close out with the brief “Cigarettes Roll Away the Time,” and Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow/Buñuel recounting an homage apparently to Kent‘s grandfather highlights the numb feeling of so many during the pandemic era. Some light misogyny there and in “Message From Someone Going Somewhere With Someone Else Who is Going Somewhere” feels almost performative, pursuing some literary concept of edge, but the aural collage and per-song atmosphere assure Dying Comes With Age never lingers anywhere too long, and you can smell the cigarettes just by listening, so be ready with the Febreze.
The first hook on Clamor Luciferi, in post-intro leadoff “Succubus,” informs that “Your god is poison” amid a gravitationally significant wall of low-end buzzfuzz, so one would call it business as usual for Sardinian lurch-doomers 1782, who answer 2021’s From the Graveyard (review here) with another potent collection of horror-infused live resin audibles. Running eight songs and 39-minutes, one would still say the trio are in the post-Monolord camp in terms of riffs and grooves, but they’ve grown more obscure in sound over time, and the murk in so much of Clamor Luciferi is all the more palpable for the way in which the guitar solo late in “Devil’s Blood” cuts through it with such clarity. Immediacy suits them on “River of Sins” just before, but one would hardly fault “Black Rites” or the buried-the-vocals-even-deeper closer “Death Ceremony” for taking their time considering that’s kind of the point. Well, that and the tones and grit of “Demons,” anyhow. Three records in, 1782 continue and odd-year release pattern and showcase the individual take on familiar cultism and lumber that’s made their work to-date a joy to follow despite its sundry outward miseries. Clamor Luciferi keeps the thread going, which is a compliment in their case.
What Seum might be seen to lack in guitar, they more than make up in disgust. The Montreal trio — vocalist Gaspard, bassist Piotr, drummer Fred — offer a mostly-hateful 32-minute low-end mudslide on their second album, Double Double, the disaffection leaking like an oily discharge from the speakers in “Torpedo” and “Snow Bird” even before “Dog Days” lyrically takes on the heavy underground and “Dollarama” sees the emptiness in being surrounded by bullshit. For as caustic as it largely is, “Torpedo” dares a bit of dirt-caked melody in the vocals — also a backing layer in the somehow-catchy “Razorblade Rainbow” and the closing title-track has a cleaner shout — and the bass veers into funkier grooves at will, as on “Dog Days,” the winding second half of “Snow Bird,” where the bassline bookending the six-minute “Seum Noir” reminds a bit of Suplecs‘ “White Devil” in its fuzz and feels appropriate in that. Shades of Bongzilla persist, as they will with a scream like that, but like their impressive 2021 debut, Winterized (review here), Seum are able to make the big tones move when they need to, to the point that “Dollarama” brings to memory the glory days of Dopefight‘s over-the-top assault. Righteous and filthy.
Clearheaded desert-style heavy rock is the thread running through Old Mine Universe‘s debut album, This Vast Array, but with a bit of blues in “No Man’s Mesa” after the proggy flourish of guitar in “Gates of the Red Planet” and the grander, keyboardy unfolding of “My Shadow Devours” and the eight-minute, multi-movement, ends-with-cello finale “Cold Stream Guards,” it becomes clear the Canadian/Brazilian/Chilean five-piece aren’t necessarily looking to limit themselves on their first release. Marked by a strong performance from vocalist Chris Pew — whom others have likened to Ian Astbury and Glenn Danzig; I might add a likeness to some of Jim Healey‘s belting-it-out there as well, if not necessarily an influence — the songs are traditionally structured but move into a jammier feel on the loose “The Duster” and add studio details like the piano line in the second half of “Sixes and Sirens” that showcase depth as well as a solid foundation. At 10 songs/47 minutes, it’s not a minor undertaking for a band’s first record, but if you’re willing to be led the tracks are willing to lead, and with Pew‘s voice to the guitar and bass of David E. and Todd McDaniel in Toronto, the solos from Erickson Silva in Brazil and Sol Batera‘s drums in Chile, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the tracks take you different places.
Although Olso-based riffers Saint Karloff have tasked Nico Munkvold (also Jointhugger) for gigs, the band’s third album, Paleolithic War Crimes, was recorded with just the duo of guitarist/vocalist Mads Melvold (also keys and bass here) and drummer Adam Suleiman, and made in homage to original bassist Ole Sletner, who passed away in 2021. It is duly dug-in, from the lumbering Sabbath-worship repetitions of “Psychedelic Man” through the deeper purple organ boogieprog of “Blood Meridian” and quiet guitar/percussion interlude “Among Stone Columns” into “Bone Cave Escape” tilting the balance from doom to rock with a steady snare giving way to an Iommi-circa-’75 acoustic-and-keys finish to side A, leaving side B to split the longer “Nothing to Come” (7:01), which ties together elements of “Bone Cave Escape” and “Blood Meridian,” and closer “Supralux Voyager” (8:26) with the brash, uptempo “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” which — I almost hate to say it — is a highlight, though the finale in “Supralux Voyager” isn’t to be ignored for what it adds to the band’s aesthetic in its patience and more progressive style, the steadiness of the build and a payoff that could’ve been a blowout but doesn’t need to be and so isn’t all the more resonant for that restraint. If Munkvold actually joins the band or they find someone else to complete the trio, whatever comes after this will inherently be different, but Saint Karloff go beyond 2019’s Interstellar Voodoo (review here) in ambition and realization with these seven tracks — yes, the interlude too; that’s important — and one hopes they continue to bring these lessons forward.
Astral Sleep, We Are Already Living in the End of Times
Feels like a gimme to say that a record called We Are Already Living in the End of Times is bleak, but if I note the despair laced into the extremity of songs like “The Legacies” or “Torment in Existence,” it’s in no small part to convey the fluidity with which Finland’s Astral Sleep offset their guttural death-doom, be it with melancholic folk-doom melody as on the opening title-track, or the sweetly weaving guitar lines leading into the bright-hued finish of “Invisible Flesh.” Across its 46 minutes, Astral Sleep‘s fourth LP picks up from 2020’s Astral Doom Musick (review here) and makes otherwise disparate sounds transition organically, soaring and crashing down with emotive and tonal impact on the penultimate “Time Is” before “Status of the Soul” answers back to the leadoff with nine-plus minutes of breadth and churn. These aren’t contradictions coming from Astral Sleep, and while yes, the abiding spirit of the release is doomed, that isn’t a constraint on Astral Sleep in needing to be overly performative or ‘dark’ for its own sake. There’s a dynamic at work here as the band seem to make each song an altar and the delivery itself an act of reverence.
The second single in two months from New Jersey sludge slayers Devoidov, “Amputation” backs the also-knife-themed “Stab” and brings four minutes of heavy cacophonous intensity that’s as much death metal as post-hardcore early on, and refuses to give up its doomed procession despite all the harshness surrounding. It’s not chaotic. It’s not without purpose. That mute right around 2:40, the way the bass picks up from there and the guitar comes back in, the hi-hat, that build-up into the tremolo sprint and kick-drum jabs that back the crescendo stretch stand as analogue for the structure underlying, and then like out of nowhere they toss in a ripper thrash solo at the end, in the last 15 seconds, as if to emphasize the ‘fuck everything’ they’ve layered over top. There’s punk at its root, but “Amputation” derives atmosphere from its rage as well as the spaciousness of its sound, and the violence of losing a part of oneself is not ignored. They’re making no secret of turning burn-it-all-down into a stylistic statement, and that’s part of the statement too, leaving one to wonder whether the sludge or grind will win in their songwriting over the longer term and if it needs to be a choice between one or the other at all.
Norwegian fuzz rollers Wolfnaut claim a lineage that goes back to 1997 (their debut was released in 2013 under their old moniker Wolfgang; it happens), so seems reasonable that their fourth full-length, Return of the Asteroid, should be so imbued with the characteristics of turn-of-the-century Scandinavian heavy. They might be at their most Dozerian on “Crash Yer Asteroid” or “Something More Than Night” as they meet careening riffs with vital, energetic groove, but the mellower opening with “Brother of the Badlands” gives a modern edge and as they unfurl the longer closing pair “Crates of Doom” (7:14) and “Wolfnaut’s Lament” (10:13) — the latter a full linear build that completes the record with reach and crunch alike, they are strident in their execution so as to bring individual presence amid all that thick tone crashing around early and the takeoff-and-run that happens around six minutes in. Hooky in “My Orbit is Mine” and willfully subdued in “Arrows” with the raucous “G.T.R.” following directly, Wolfnaut know what they’re doing and Return of the Asteroid benefits from that expertise in its craft, confidence, and the variety they work into the material. Not life-changing, but quality songwriting is always welcome.
If you’re gonna go, take a compass. And if your compass can be made of primo fuzz riffing, isn’t it that much more useful? If not as an actual compass? Each of the four cuts on Washington D.C. instrumentalists Fuzz Voyage‘s Heavy Compass Demo coincides with a cardinal direction, so you get “South Side Moss,” “North Star,” “East Wind” and “West Ice Mountain.” These same four tracks featured across two separate ‘sessions’-type demos in 2020, so they’ve been fairly worked on, but one can’t discount the presentation here that lets “East Wind” breathe a bit in its early going after the crunching stop of “North Star,” just an edge of heavy psychedelia having featured in the northerly piece getting fleshed out as it heads east. I might extend the perception of self-awareness on the part of the band to speculating “South Side Moss” was named for its hairy guitar and bass tone — if not, it could’ve been — and after “East Wind” stretches near seven minutes, “West Ice Mountain” closes out with a rush and instrumental hook that’s a more uptempo look than they’ve given to that point in the proceedings. Nothing to argue with unless you’re morally opposed to bands who don’t have singers — in which case, your loss — but one doesn’t get a lot of outright fuzz from the Doom Capitol, and Fuzz Voyage offer some of the densest distortion I’ve heard out of the Potomac since Borracho got their start. Even before you get to the concept or the art or whatever else, that makes them worth keeping an eye out for what they do next.
Posted in Reviews on April 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Welcome to day three of the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review. Traditionally, this is where the halfway point is hit, like that spot on the wall in the Lincoln Tunnel where it says New York on the one side and New Jersey on the other. That’s not the case today — though it still applies as far as this week goes — since this particular QR runs seven days, but one way or the other, I’m glad you’re here. There’s been an absolutely overwhelming amount of stuff so far and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon, so don’t let me keep you, except maybe to say that if you’re actually reading as well as browsing Bandcamp (or whoever) players, it is appreciated. Thanks for reading, to put it another way.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Signo Rojo, There Was a Hole Here
As lead/longest track — yes, immediate points — “Enough Rope” shifts between modern semi-melodic heavy burl post-Baroness to acoustic-tinged flourish to rolling shout-topped post-hardcore on the way back to its soaring chorus, yes, it’s fair to say Sweden’s Signo Rojo establish a broad swath of sounds on their third full-length, There Was a Hole Here. Later they grow more massive and twisting on “What Love is There,” while “Also-Ran” finds the bass managing to punch through the wall of guitar around it (not complaining) and the concluding “BotFly” lets its lead guitar soar over a crescendo that’s almost post-metal, so they want nothing for variety, but whether it’s “The World Inside” with its progressive chug or the more swaying title-track, the songs are united by tone in the guitars of Elias Mellberg and Ola Bäckström, the shouty vocals of bassist Jonas Nilsson adding aggressive edge, and the drums of Pontus Svensson reinforcing the underlying structures and movements. Self-recorded, mixed by Johan Blomström and mastered by Jack Endino for name-brand recognition, There Was a Hole Here is angles and thrown-elbows, but not disjointed. Tumultuous, they power through and find themselves unbruised while having left a few behind them.
Stunning first album. Vancouver’s Tribunal — the core duo of cellist/bassist/vocalist Soren Mourne and guitarist/vocalist Etienne Flinn, working on their first record, The Weight of Remembrance, with Julia Geaman on drums on the seven-song/47-minute sprawl of bleak, goth-informed death-doom — resound with purpose between the atmosphere and the dramaturge of their material. “Apathy’s Keep” (Magdalena Wienski on additional drums) alone would tell you they’re a band with a keen sense of what they want to accomplish stylistically, but the patience in execution necessary from the My Dying Bride-esque back and forth shifts between harsh and clean vocals on opener “Initiation” to the grim, full-toned breadth of the 12-minute finale “The Path,” on which Mourne‘s severity reminds of Finland’s Mansion, and yes that’s a compliment, while Flinn finds new depths from which to gurgle out his harsh screaming. The semi-titular piano interlude “Remembrance” is well-placed at the end of side A to make one nostalgic for some lost romance that never happened, and the stop-chug of “A World Beyond Shadow” seem to speak to SubRosa‘s declarative majesty as well as the more extreme spirit of Paradise Lost circa ’91-’92, Tribunal crossing eras and intentions with an organic meld that hints there and in “Without Answer” or the airy cello of “Of Creeping Moss and Crumbled Stone” earlier at even grander and perhaps more orchestral things to come while serving as one of 2023’s best debuts in the interim. Like finding your great grandmother’s wedding dress, picking it up out of the box and having the dried-out fabric and lace crumble in your hands. Sad and necessary.
From whence came Finland’s Bong Corleone? Well, from Finland, I guess, but that hardly answers the question on planetary terms. Information is sparse and social media presence is nil from the psychedelic-stoner-doom explorers, who string synth lines through four mostly-extended pieces on this self-titled, self-released, seemingly self-actualized argument for dropping out of life and you know the rest. Second cut “Gathering” (8:34) sees lead guitar step in for where vocals might otherwise be, but there and in the prior leadoff “Chemical Messenger” (9:15), synthesizer plays a prominent role that’s been compared rightly to Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, though “Gathering” departs in for a midsection meander-jam that lets itself have and be more fun before crashing back around to the roll. As it invariably would, “Astrovan” (6:18) shoves faster, but the synth stays overtop along with some floating guitar, and the sense of control remains strong even in the second half’s splurge and slowdown, shifting with ambient drone and residual amp hum into 11-minute closer “Offering,” which rounds out with a sample, what might be a bong rip, and a density of fuzz that apparently Bong Corleone have been keeping in their collective pocket all the while, crushing and stomping before turning to more progressive exploration later. It’s a substantial enough release at 35 minutes that the band might — like MWWB before them — regret the silly name, but even if they never follow it with anything, the immersion factor in these four songs shouldn’t be discounted. May they (if in fact it’s more than one person) never reveal a lineup.
This second full-length from Wisconsin-based solo-project Old Spirit — formed and executed at the behest of Jason Hartman (Vanishing Kids, sometimes Jex Thoth) — Burning in Heaven feels at home in contradictions, whether it’s the image provoked by the title or in the songs themselves, be it the Celtic–Frost-on-Monster–Magnet‘s-pills “Dim Aura” or the electro Queens of the Stone Age shuffle in “Ash,” or the Candlemass-meets-Chrome succession of “Fallacy,” or the keyboard and guitar interlude “When the Spirit Slips Away.” The title-track opens and has an oldschool ripper solo late, but there’s so much going on at any given moment that it’s one more element thrown in the mix as much as a precursor to the later reaches of “Angel Blood” — a Slayer nod, or two, perhaps? — which precedes the emergent wash of “Bleak Chapel” and the devolution undertaken from song to drone that gives over to closer “In Dismay,” which seems all set in its garage-goth doom rollout until the tempo kick brings it and the record to a place of duly dug-in progressive psych-metal oddness. Fitting end to a record clearly meant to go wherever the hell it wants and on which the rawness of the production becomes a uniting factor across otherwise willfully disparate material, skirting the danger that it all might collapse on itself while proselytizing individualist fuckall; Luciferian without being outright Satanic.
Argentina’s Los Acidos return after reissuing 2016’s self-titled debut (review here) in 2020 through Necio Records with Stereolalo, putting emphasis on welcoming listeners from the outset with the opening title-track and “Ascensor,” which are the two longest cuts on the record (double points) and function as world-builders in terms of establishing the acoustic/electric blend and melodic flourish with which much of the 50-minute outing functions. Like everything, the blend is molten and malleable, as shorter pieces like “Atardecer” or side B’s build-to-boogie “Madre” and the keyboard-backed psych-funk verses of “Atenas” show, and they resist the temptation to really blow it out as they otherwise might even in those first two tracks; the church organ seeming to keep the penultimate “Interior” in line before “Buscando el Mar” calls out ’60s psych on guitar with a slow-careening progression from whatever kind of keyboard that is, ending almost folkish, having said what they want to say in the way they want to say it. Light in atmosphere, there nonetheless are deceptive depths from which the songs seem to swim upward.
Rites for the Damned offers the kind of aesthetic sprawl that can only be summarized in vague catchall tags like ‘progressive,’ with the adventurous and ambitious Norwegian outfit JAGGU threatening extremity on “Carnage” at the beginning of the eight-song/40-minute LP while instead taking the angularity and thrust and through “Earth Murder” fostering an element of noise rock that feeds its aggression into “Mindgap” before the six-minutes-each pair of “Electric Blood” and “Lenina Ave.” further reveal the breadth, hooks permeating the amalgam of heavy styles being bent and reshaped to suit the band’s expressive will, the latter building from acoustic-inclusive post-metallic balladry into a solo that seems to spread far and wide as it draws the listener deeper into side B’s reaches, the dizzying start of “Enthralled,” post-black-metal-but-still-metal “Marching Stride” — more of a run, actually — and the prog-thrash finale “God to be Through” that caps not to bring it all together, but to celebrate the variations encountered along the course and highlight the skill with which JAGGU have been guiding the proceedings all along, unsettled in their approach on this second record in such a way as to speak to perpetual growth rather than their being the kind of band who’ll find a niche and stagnate.
Escapist and jam-based-but-not-just-jamming psychedelia pervades the self-titled debut from UK trio Falling Floors, who add variety amid the already-varied krautrock in the later reaches of opener “Infinite Switch,” the lockdown slog of “Flawed Theme,” the tambourine-infused hard strums of “Ridiculous Man” and the 18-minute side-B-consuming “Elusive and Unstable Nature of Truth,” which is organ-inclusive bombast early and drone later, with three numbered interludes, furthering the notion of these works being carved out of experiments. A malleable songwriting process and a raw, seemingly live recording make Falling Floors‘ seven-song run come across as formative, but the rougher edges are part of the aesthetic, and ultimately bolster the overarching impression that the band — guitarist/vocalist Rob Herian, bassist/organist Harry Wheeler and drummer/percussionist Colin Greenwood — can and just might go wherever the hell they want. And they do, in that extended finisher and elsewhere throughout, capturing an exploratory moment of creation in willfully unrefined fashion, loose but not unhinged and seemingly as curious in the making as in the result. I don’t know that a band can do this kind of adventuring twice — invariably any second album is informed by the experience of making the first — but Falling Floors make a resounding argument for wanting to find out in these shared discoveries.
Spacing out from a fuzzy foundation like Earthless taking on The Sword — with a bit of Tool in the second-half leads of eight-minute second track “The Hunger” — Israeli trio Warp make their Nasoni Records label debut with their sophomore full-length, Bound by Gravity, putting due languid slog into “Your Fascist Pigs are Back” while finding stonerized salvation in “Dirigibles” ahead of the more melodic and more doomed title-track, which Sabbath-blues-boogies right into its shout-topped sludge slowdown before the bounce and swing of “Impeachment Abdication” readily counteracts. “The Present” unfolds with hints of Melvins while “Head of the Eye” rides a linear groove into a winding midsection that resolves in a standout chorus and capper “I Don’t Want to Be Remembered” is a vocal highlight — guitarist Itai Alzaradel, bassist Sefi Akrish and drummer Mor Harpazi all contribute in that regard at some juncture or another — and a reaffirmation of the gonna-roll-until-we-don’t mindset on the part of the band, ending cold after shifting into a faster chug like the song’s about to take off again. That’d be a hell of a way to start their next record and we’ll see if they get there. Pointedly of-genre, Warp bring exploratory craft to a foundation of tonal heft and ask few indulgences on the listener’s part. Big fuzz gonna make some friends among the converted.
Leading off with its spacebound title-track, Halo Noose‘s debut album, Magical Flight, finds the Scottish solo-outfit plumbing the outer reaches of fuzz-drenched acid rock, coming through like an actually-produced version of Monster Magnet‘s demo era in its roughed-up Hawkwind-via-Stooges pastiche, “Cinnamon Garden” edging toward Eastern idolatry without going full-sitar while “Fire” engages with a stretched-out feel over its slow, maybe-programmed drums and centerpiece “When You Feel it Babe” tops near-motorik push with watery vocals like a less punk Nebula or some of what Black Rainbows might conjure. “Kaliedoscopica” is based largely around a single riff and it’s a masterclass in wah at its 4:20 runtime, leading into the last outward leaps of “Rollercoasting Your Mind” and the forward-and-backwards “Slow Motion” which isn’t actually much slower than anything else here and thus reminds that time is a construct easily subverted by lysergics, fading out with surprising gentleness to return the listener to a crueler reality after a consuming half-hour’s escape. Right on.
If you’d look at the name and the fact that the trio hail from Tennessee and think you’re probably in for some caustic Southern sludge, you’re part right. Dope Skum on their second EP, the 17-minute Gutter South, embrace the tonal heft and chugging approach of the harder end of sludge riffing, but rather than weedian throatrippers, a cleaner vocal style pervades from guitarist Cody Landress-Gibson across opener “Folk Magic,” the banjo-laced “Interlude,” “Feast of Snakes,” “Belly Lint” and the punkier-until-its-slowdown finish of “The Cycle,” and the difference between a shout and a scream is considerable in the impressions made throughout. Bassist Todd Garrett and drummer Scott Keil complete the three-piece and together they harness a feel that’s true to that nasty aural history while branching into something different therefrom, genuinely sounding like a new generation’s interpretation of what Southern heavy was 15-20 years ago. More over, they would seem to be conscious of doing it. Their first EP, 2021’s Tanasi, was more barebones in its production, and there’s still development to be done, but it will be interesting to hear how they manifest across a first long-player when the time comes, as Gutter South underscores potential in its songwriting and persona as well as defiance of aesthetic expectation.
