Posted in Whathaveyou on December 10th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This is the second of two-so-far updates that Desertfest Oslo has posted over the weekend for its 2025 edition. Last week brought Graveyard, Eagle Twin, Cult Member and Slor to the bill, and this past weekend, it was Pallbearer, Messa, Barren Womb and Grand Atomic. These are not minor considerations on a lineup that already included Elder, Oranssi Pazuzu, Elephant Tree, Truckfighters, DVNE and others, and if I have my understanding of the advent calendar right, there should be two more such announcements still to come. Whether the lineup is complete at that point or not, I have no idea, but the poster’s starting to look pretty packed, for whatever that’s worth.
The announcement this time around is pretty minimal — just the names — which is fair enough. I’ve written a fair amount of festival-announcement text in my time, and for sure have wondered on more than one occasion if anyone ever bothered to read any of it while presuming the negative. Sometimes I actually do read it, because you usually get a pretty tight encapsulation of what a band you don’t know might sound like, but I have to acknowledge that that habit is based on the writing, which isn’t going to be everybody’s experience. The names were linked to social media pages when the fest posted them, so it wasn’t like they were giving you nothing to go on, in any case. Leads were provided. It’s more than you get from me. I just ramble on.
Here’s this week looking forward to next week. See how this works? Weekly. It’s called “weekly.” Here we go:
Second Sunday of advent is here. 🎄
BOOM! 💥☄️
Pallbearer (US) MESSA (IT) Barren Womb (NO) Grand Atomic (NO)
Make sure to get your tickets – you don’t wanna miss Desertfest Oslo 2025!
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Now we’re talking. If you weren’t expecting Desertfest London to drop a fresh batch of 20 names for its 2025 lineup, well, happy holidays. There’s a ton to unpack here, from Pallbearer and Conan — who’ll tour together in Australia before — to Kind making the trip to Boston, Elephant Tree signing on for what will surely be a celebration, Earth joining the ranks of the thus-far headliners Zeal & Ardor and Elder, Hippie Death Cult, The Hazytones (who rule, look them up), and a new Isaiah Mitchell collab called Chöd (I guess Brü couldn’t make it?) — it’s a ton of stuff and you can see on the poster below it’s just the tip of the Desertfest iceberg.
As a flagship of the Desertfest brand alongside Berlin, the London lineup should be stunning, and it is. Whether you’re going for Stoned Jesus, Amenra or 10,000 Years and the slew of others making their first appearances, 2025 promises to be a landmark for those lucky enough to be there to see it.
Could be you if you’re up for it. Here’s the latest:
DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCES 20 NEW ARTISTS FOR 2025
The time has come for our next artist announcement! We are over the moon to welcome Seattle veterans of drone n doom EARTH as our third 2025 headliner, joining Zeal & Ardor and Elder. This appearance marks the band’s first UK show in 5 years as well as their first time on the DF London stage.
Arkansas doom quartet Pallbearer will join our stacked Saturday line up at Roundhouse, while homegrown local heroes Conan will make their long awaited return to Desertfest London.
We will also welcome the UK debut of Chöd, an audio-visual collaboration between Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), artist Arik Roper, and Doc Kelley (Psychedelic Sangha) that is sure to take you on a psychedelic meditative journey for the ages.
Please welcome our latest additions to Desertfest London 2025:
↠ Earth headlining Sunday at Electric Ballroom ↠ Pallbearer ↠ Conan ↠ Elephant Tree ↠ Chöd ↠ Hippie Death Cult ↠ Castle Rat ↠ Avon ↠ Green Milk from the Planet Orange ↠ Servo ↠ Mr Bison ↠ Kind ↠ El Moono ↠ The Hazytones ↠ King Botfly ↠ Lust Ritual ↠ Slump ↠ Witchorious ↠ The Summit Fever ↠ Dresden Wolves
By the time today is through — come hell or high water! — we will be at the halfway point of this two-week Quarterly Review. It hasn’t been difficult so far, though there are ups and downs always and I don’t think I’m giving away secrets when I tell you that in listening to 50 records some are going to be better than others.
Truth is that even outside the 100 LPs, EPs, etc., I have slated, there’s still a ton more. Even in something so massive, there’s an element of picking and choosing what goes in. Curation is the nice word for it, though it’s not quite that creatif in my head. Either way, I hope you’ve found something that connects this week. If not yet, then today. If not today, then maybe next week. As I’m prone to say on Fridays, we’re back at it on Monday.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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Pallbearer, Mind Burns Alive
While I won’t take away from the rawer energy and longing put into their earlier work, maturity suits Pallbearer. The Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell, guitarist/backing vocalist Devin Holt, bassist/synthesist/backing vocalist Joseph D. Rowland and drummer Mark Lierly have passed their 15th anniversary between 2020’s Forgotten Days (review here) and the self-recorded six tracks of Mind Burns Alive, and they sound poised harnessing new breadth and melodic clarity. They’ve talked about the album being stripped down, and maybe that’s true to some degree in the engrossing-anyhow opener “When the Light Fades,” but there’s still room for sax on the 10-minute “Endless Place,” and the quieter stretches of the penultimate “Daybreak” highlight harmonized vocals before the bass-weighted riff sweeps in after the three-minute mark. Campbell has never sounded stronger or more confident as a singer, and he’s able to carry the likewise subdued intro to “Signals” with apparent sincerity and style alike. The title-track flashes brighter hopes in its later guitar solo leads, but they hold both their most wistful drift and their most crushing plod for closer “With Disease,” because five records and countless tours (with more to come) later, Pallbearer very clearly know what the fuck they’re doing. I hope having their own studio leads to further exploration from here.
With its six pieces arranged so that side A works from its longest track to its shortest and side B mirrors by going shortest to longest, Denver‘s BleakHeart seem to prioritize immersion on their second full-length, Silver Pulse, as “All Hearts Desire” unfolds fluidly across nearly eight minutes, swelling to an initial lumbering roll that evaporates as they move into the more spacious verse and build back up around the vocals of Kiki GaNun (also synth) and Kelly Schilling (also bass, keys and more synth). Emotional resonance plays at least as much of a role throughout as the tonal weight intermittently wrought by JP Damron and Mark Chronister‘s guitars, and with Joshua Quinones on drums giving structure and movement to the meditations of “Where I’m Disease” before leaving the subsequent “Let Go” to its progression through piano, drone and a sit-in from a string quartet that leads directly into “Weeping Willow,” the spaces feel big and open but never let the listener get any more lost in them than is intended. This is the first LP from the five-piece incarnation of BleakHeart, which came together in 2022, and the balance of lushness and intensity as “Weeping Willow” hits its culmination and recedes into the subdued outset of “Falling Softly” and the doomed payoff that follows bodes well, but don’t take that as undercutting what’s already being accomplished here.
Austria’s Pryne — also stylized all-caps: PRYNE — threaten to derail their first album before it’s even really started with the angular midsection breakdown of “Can-‘Ka No Rey,” but that the opener holds its course and even brings that mosher riff back at the end is indicative of the boldness with which they bring together the progressive ends of metal and heavy rock throughout the 10-song/46-minute offering, soaring in the solo ahead of the slowdown in “Ramification,” giving the audience 49 seconds to catch its breath after that initial salvo with “Hollow Sea” before “Abordan” resumes the varied onslaught with due punch, shove and twist, building tension in the verse and releasing in the melodic chorus in a way that feels informed by turn-of-the-century metal but seeming to nod at Type O Negative in the first half bridge of “Cymboshia” and refusing flat-out to do any one thing for too long. Plotted and complex even as “The Terrible End of the Yogi” slams out its crescendo before the Baronessy verse of “Plaguebearer” moves toward a stately gang shout and squibbly guitar tremolo, they roll out “Enola” as a more straight-ahead realignment before the drone interlude “Shapeless Forms” bursts into the double-kick-underscored thrash of closer “Elder Things,” riding its massive groove to an expectedly driving end. You never quite know what’s coming next within the songs, but the overarching sense of movement becomes a uniting factor that serves the material well regardless of the aggression level in any given stretch.
Backed by looped percussive ticks and pops and the cello-esque melody of the gudok, Toronto experimental singer-songwriter Avi C. Engel is poised as they ask in the lyrics of “Breadcrumb Dance,” “How many gods used to run this place/Threw up their hands, went into real estate” near the center of the seven-song Too Many Souls LP. Never let it be said there wasn’t room for humor in melancholy. Engel isn’t new to exploring folkish intimacy in various contexts, and Too Many Souls feels all the more personal even in “Wooly Mammoth” or second cut “Ladybird, What’s Wrong?” which gets underway on its casual semi-ramble with the line, “One by one I watch them piss into the sun,” for the grounded perspective at root. An ongoing thread of introspection and Engel‘s voice at the center draw the songs together as these stories are told in metaphor — birds return in the album’s second half with “The Oven Bird’s Song” but there’s enough heart poured in that it doesn’t need to be leaned into as a theme — and before it moves into its dreamstate drone still with the acoustic guitar beneath, “Without Any Eyes” brings through its own kind of apex in Engel‘s layered delivery. Topped with a part-backmasked take on the traditional “Wayfaring Stranger” that’s unfortunately left as an instrumental, Too Many Souls finds Engel continuing their journey of craft with its own songs as companions for each other and the artist behind them.
The 13-minute single “Ultrawest” follows behind Aktopasa‘s late-2022 Argonauta Records debut, Journey to the Pink Planet (review here), and was reportedly composed to feature in a documentary of the same name about the reshaping of post-industrial towns in Colorado. It is duly spacious in its slow, linear, instrumentalist progression. The Venice, Italy, three-piece of guitarist Lorenzo Barutta, bassist Silvio Tozzato and drummer Marco Sebastiano Alessi are fluid as they maintain the spirit of the jam that likely birthed the song’s floating atmospherics, but there’s a plan at work as well as they bring the piece to fruition, with Alessi subtly growing more urgent around 10 minutes in to mark the shift into an ending that never quite bursts out and isn’t trying to, but feels like resolution just the same. A quick, hypnotic showcase of the heavy psychedelic promise the debut held, “Ultrawest” makes it easy to look forward to whatever might come next for them.
Right onto the list of 2024’s best debuts goes Guenna‘s Peak of Jin’Arrah, specifically for the nuance and range the young Swedish foursome bring to their center in heavy progressive fuzz riffing. One might look at a title like “Bongsai” or “Weedwacker” (video premiered here) and imagine played-to-genre stoner fare, but Guenna‘s take is more ambitious, as emphasized in the flute brought to “Bongsai” at the outset and the proclivity toward three-part harmonies that’s unveiled more in the nine-minute “Dimension X,” which follows. The folk influence toward which that flute hints comes forward on the mostly-acoustic closer “Guenna’s Lullaby,” which takes hold after the skronk-accompanied, full-bore push that caps “Wizery,” but by that point the context for such shifts has been smoothly laid out as being part of an encompassing and thoughtful songwriting process that in less capable hands would leave “Ordric Major” disjointed and likely overly aggressive. Even as they make room for the guest lead vocals of Elin Pålsson on “Dark Descent,” Guenna walk these balances smoothly and confidently, and if you don’t believe there’s a generational shift happening right now — at this very moment — in Scandinavia, Peak of Jin’Arrah stands ready to convince you otherwise. There’s a lot of work between here and there, but Guenna hold the potential to be a significant voice in that next-gen emergence.
The interplay of stoner-metal tonal density and languid vocal melody in “I Thought I Would Not” sets an atmospheric mood for Slow Green Thing on their fourth LP, Wetterwarte / Waltherstrasse, which the Dresden-based four-piece seem to have recorded in two sessions between 2020 and 2022. That span of time might account for some of the scope between the songs as “Thousand Deaths” holds out a hand into the void staring back at it and the subsequent “Whispering Voices” answers the proggy wash and fuzzed soloing of “Tombstones in My Eyes” with roll and meditative float alike, but I honestly don’t know what was recorded when and there’s no real lack of cohesion within the aural mists being conjured or the heft residing within it, so take that as you will. It’s perhaps less of a challenge to put temporal considerations aside since Slow Green Thing seem so at home in the flow that plays out across Wetterwarte / Waltherstrasse‘s six songs and 44 minutes, remaining in control despite veering into more aggressive passages and basing so much of what they do on entrancing and otherworldly vibe. And while the general superficialities of thickened tones and soundscaping, ‘gaze-type singing and nod will be familiar, the use made of them by Slow Green Thing offers a richer and deeper experience revealed and affirmed on repeat listens.
Don’t expect a lot of trickery in Ten Ton Slug‘s awaited first full-length record, Colossal Oppressor, which delivers its metallic sludge pummel with due transparency of purpose. That is to say, the Galway, Ireland, trio aren’t fucking around. Enough so that Bolt Thrower‘s Karl Willetts shows up on a couple of songs. Varied but largely growled or screamed vocals answer the furious chug and thud of “Balor,” and while “Ghosts of the Ooze” later on answers back to the brief acoustic parts bookending opener “The Ooze” ahead of “Mallacht an tSloda” arriving like a sledgehammer only to unfold its darkened thrash and nine-plus-minute closer “Mogore the Unkind” making good on its initial threat with the mosh-ready riffing in its second half, there’s no pretense in those or any of the other turns Colossal Oppressor makes, and there doesn’t need to be when the songs are so refreshingly crushing. These guys have been around for over a decade already, so it’s not a surprise necessarily to find them so committed to this punishing mission, but the cathartic bloodletting resonates regardless. Not for everyone, very much for some on the more extreme end of heavy.
Don’t let the outward Beatles-bouncing pop-psych friendly-acid traditionalism of “Goodbye Suzy” lull you into thinking San Francisco psych rockers Magic Fig‘s self-titled debut is solely concerned with vintage aesthetics. While accessible even in the organ-and-synth prog flourish of “PS1” — the keyboards alone seeming to span generations — and the more foreboding current of low end under the shuffle and soft vocals of “Obliteration,” the six-song/28-minute LP is no less effective in the rising cosmic expanse that builds into “Labyrinth” than the circa-’67 orange-sun lysergic folk-rock that rolls out from there — that darker edge comes back around, briefly, in a stop around the two-minute mark; it’s hard to know which side is imagining the other, but “Labyrinth” is no less fun for that — and “Distant Dream,” which follows, is duly transcendent and fluid. Given additional character via the Mellotron and birdsong-inclusive meditation that ends it and the album as a whole, “Departure” nonetheless feels intentional in its subtly synthy acoustic-and-voice folkish strum, and its intricacy highlights a reach one hopes Magic Fig will continue to nurture.
If you followed along with Dortmund, Germany’s Scorched Oak on their 2020 debut, Withering Earth (review here), as that album dug into classic heavy rock as a means of longer-form explorations, some of what they present in the 39 minutes of Perception might make more sense. There was plenty of dynamic then too in terms of shifts in rhythm and atmosphere, and certainly second-LP pieces like “Mirrors” and “Relief” come at least in part from a similar foundation — I’d say the same of the crescendo verse of “Oracle” near the finish — but the reportedly-recorded-live newer offering finds the band making a striking delve into harder and more metallic impacts on the whole. An interplay of gruff — gurgling, almost — and soulful melodic vocals is laid out as opener/longest track (immediate points) “Delusion” resolves the brooding toms of its verse with post-metal surges. Perhaps it’s obvious enough that it doesn’t need to be said, but Scorched Oak aren’t residing in a single feel or progression throughout, and the intensity and urgency of “Reflection” land with a directness that the closing “Oracle” complements in its outward spread. The element of surprise makes Perception feel somewhat like a second debut, but that they pull off such an impression is in itself a noteworthy achievement, never mind how much less predictable it makes them or the significant magnitude of these songs.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 20th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
No real getting around Pallbearer‘s fifth LP, Mind Burns Alive — announced today with a May 17 release date as their second album for Nuclear Blast behind 2020’s Forgotten Days (review here) — as one of the biggest doom releases of the year. The Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece now in their 16th year have done more to modernize the emotive doom melancholia fostered by the likes of Anathema, Moonspell, maybe even on some level their now-labelmates My Dying Bride — for whose new album Mind Burns Alive should make a fitting complement — for the subsequent generation, and as the first single and lead track “Where the Light Fades” shows, their own maturity as a group has only brought more poise and soul to their approach. Plus they tour. Hard. Regularly.
They’ll do so again for Mind Burns Alive, of course, and after co-headlining a Euro run with Elder in 2022, Pallbearer have lined up support from REZN, The Keening, Rwake and Inter Arma — not everybody all at once; calm down — for back-t0-back stints on the East and West Coasts. Dates, preorders, more about the record, the cover art, the tour poster, the ticket link for when they go on sale and of course the “Where the Light Fades” video all follow here, and I celebrate the PR wire for doing so much heavy lifting. If and when you start the clip, give it some time to build up. They get there, and the melodic path being explored is part of the point. Not the first time in Pallbearer‘s arc that they’ve rewarded the patience of their audience, by any means.
Have at it:
PALLBEARER’S ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL NEW ALBUM, MIND BURNS ALIVE, ARRIVES MAY 17 VIA NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS
EXTENSIVE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED; TICKETS ON-SALE THIS FRIDAY
Pallbearer, indisputable masters of emotionally insightful and stirring heavy music, return with their most raw and heartfelt album to date: Mind Burns Alive (May 17, Nuclear Blast Records).
“These songs are a deeper exploration of dynamics and sonic color than anything we have done up to this point,” vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell explains, shedding light on the band’s decision to strip everything back on the forthcoming nearly hour-long album. “I’m of the belief that true heaviness comes from emotional weight, and sometimes sheer bludgeoning isn’t the right approach to getting a feeling across.”
A preview of Mind Burns Alive arrives today with the release of “Where The Light Fades” and its Dan Almasy-directed video. Lyrically, the song eludes to what are the overall themes on the six-song album, as Campbell describes the tracks as “vignettes that tell the stories of people who deal with myriad sicknesses of the spirit… illnesses communicated by the world we live in, and the subjects are the symptoms of the disease.”
Five years in the making, with recording initially slated for 2020, and thwarted yet again in 2022, it was 2023 that saw the band members living locally to one another in Little Rock for the first time in nine years. As a group, they self-produced the album in their own, newly constructed studio (Idlewild Audio) and at Fellowship Hall Sound. Reflecting on this, bassist/vocalist Joseph D. Rowland remarked, “It’s ironic given that the album is largely centered around isolation, but it felt like it summoned us into being back together again in one town, after so long apart.”
The band has simultaneously announced their most extensive North American tour since 2018, dubbed the “Temporary Spaces North American Tour,” the six-week trek launches on June 6. Tickets are on-sale this Friday at 10 am local time. Openers include Rwake (June 6 to 9; 29), REZN (June 11 to 29), Inter Arma (July 11 to August 3), with The Keening opening on all dates. Visit Pallbearerdoom.com for ticket links.
Pallbearer headlines the opening night of Stumpfest X on April 11 at Mississippi Studios in Portland, Ore.. The band has also confirmed two special European performances: The Copenhell Metal Cruise (Copenhagen to Oslo) from Oct. 25 to 27, and Nov. 16 at Helldorado in Eindhoven (The Netherlands). More European dates will be announced soon.
Mind Burns Alive tracklist: 1. Where The Light Fades 2. Mind Burns Alive 3. Signals 4. Endless Place 5. Daybreak 6. With Disease
“Temporary Spaces North American Tour”: June 6 Memphis, TN Growlers * June 7 Murfreesboro, TN Hop Springs * June 8 Birmingham, AL Zydeco * June 9 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade * June 11 Durham, NC The Fruit # June 12 Asheville, NC Euology at Burial Beer Co. # June 14 Baltimore, MD Metro Gallery # June 15 Lancaster, PA Tellus360 # June 16 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts # June 18 Hamden, CT Space Ballroom # June 20 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg # June 21 Boston, MA The Sinclair # June 22 Montreal, QC Theatre Fairmount # June 23 Toronto, ON Velvet Underground # June 25 Milwaukee, WI Vivarium # June 26 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall # June 27 St. Paul, MN Turf Club # June 28 Lawrence, KS The Bottleneck # June 29 Little Rock, AR The Hall & July 11 St. Louis, MO Off Broadway ^ July 13 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre ^ July 15 Calgary, AB Dickens ^ July 16 Edmonton, AB The Starlite Room ^ July 18 Vancouver, BC Rickshaw Theatre ^ July 19 Seattle, WA Substation ^ July 23 Sacramento, CA The Starlet Room ^ July 24 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall ^ July 26 Santa Cruz, CA The Catalyst ^ July 27 San Diego, CA Brick By Brick ^ July 28 Los Angeles, CA Teragram Ballroom ^ July 29 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom ^ July 30 Albuquerque, NM Sister Bar ^ August 1 Dallas, TX Trees ^ August 2 Austin, TX Parish ^ August 3 Houston, TX White Oak Music Hall ^ *-w/Rwake & The Keening # – w/REZN & The Keening & – w/Rwake, REZN & The Keening ^ – w/Inter Arma & The Keening
Pallbearer is Brett Campbell (vocals/electric guitar/synthesizer), Devin Holt (electric and acoustic guitar/vocals), Mark Lierly (drums/percussion) and Joseph D. Rowland (vocals/bass guitar/synthesizer).
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 26th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
A few different tours coming together here, right? Stoned Jesus, Greenleaf and Somali Yacht Club on the road together. Elder, Pallbearer and Irist. Hippie Death Cult out there on their own now that their would’ve-been-tourmates High Reeper dropped off. Naxatras making the rounds. Sasquatch doing like they do on a stretch with Orange Goblin before continuing a longer European run (you should always stretch first; ain’t nobody getting younger). Electric Citizen out with Fu Manchu. All of this is organized, mapped out ahead of time, and a lot of it is starting this weekend at Up in Smoke 2022 in Pratteln, Switzerland, as though to save you the time, money and effort necessary to hit up all these individual tours, which may or may not be routed everywhere to start with.
You can see the final lineup below with Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin and Elder getting top billing, and as the first of Sound of Liberation‘s Fall festivals in Europe — Keep it Low in Munich and Desertfest Belgium will follow in the coming weeks, and there’s a bunch of others besides — Up in Smoke is distinguished by vibe even more than timing. I’ve always been curious what it would feel like to sleep in the venue after a show. Indoor camping. Are there showers? Could be a pretty smelly affair by the third day; Up in Stink Lines, if you will. But more about the mindset. Are you so locked into the experience at that point that you wake up, find breakfast and are ready to roll as a part of the thing? I’m not sure I’d ever actually be brave enough to do it — not exactly the camping type in any context — but it could be interesting. Sound of Liberation has also posted the time-table, if you’d like to know more about what time to wake up.
The lineup below is final final final, and the day splits make it look like one hell of a festival. If you’re going to be there, I hope it’s a blast. I’d love to hear about it:
UP IN SMOKE 2022 – DAY SPLIT & DAY TICKETS – UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL Z7 Pratteln 2022
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
True, most of the lineup for Up in Smoke 2022 — set for Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in, as ever, Pratteln, Switzerland — was previously announced, and some of it goes back to what the fest would’ve been in 2020, but I’ve got two reasons for posting it now. First, it’s a new announcement and the festival’s social media has fallen into some kind of digital chasm I don’t and couldn’t hope to understand, and second, that lineup is perfect.
Seriously, they say there are more bands coming. Don’t on my account. This’ll be just fine. There was one band on this poster with whom I was not immediately familiar by name, and that was Midnight Deadbeats, who released their debut album, Moonshine Carnival, in late 2020 on Sixteentimes Music. You can stream it below. To me it sounds like earliest Dozer and if you think I’m about to complain about that you’re out of your mind. And everybody that surrounds on this bill is someone I’d like to see, whether I’ve seen them before or not. Fu Manchu and Slomosa. Irist and Orange Goblin. Naxatras and Echolot. Stoned Jesus and Sasquatch and Mars Red Sky and The Heavy Eyes. Greenleaf. Somali Yacht Club, High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult. Fucking a.
I won’t get there — these Fall fests are perennially out of my reach — but god damn what a show this weekend will be. Sound of Liberation is handling the promotion and that’s where to go for social media at this point. They just made the announcement that follows:
UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL: LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT
Hey friends,
Today we’re absolutely stoked to present you the majority of bands for our beloved Up In Smoke Festival!
Get ready for three days of heavy psychedelic, stoner rock and doom at the Z7 Fabrik in Pratteln, Switzerland!
Already (re-)confirmed for 2022:
FU MANCHU – ORANGE GOBLIN – ELDER – STONED JESUS – PALLBEARER – GREENLEAF – SASQUATCH – NAXATRAS – MARS RED SKY – SOMALI YACHT CLUB – ELECTRIC CITIZEN – SLOMOSA – MOTHER ENGINE – IRIST – HIPPIE DEATH CULT – HIGH REEPER – THE HEAVY EYES – CARSON – ECHOLOT – MIDNIGHT DEADBEATS
More bands to be announced!
Tickets: https://www.sol-tickets.com
Tickets + 3 Day Sleepover Ticket: http://www.z-7.ch
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 10th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
October feels like a long time away, but so does four o’clock this afternoon, so fair enough for Desertfest Belgium 2022 to make its first lineup announcements for Antwerp (Oct. 14-16) and Ghent (Oct. 30). Am I crazy or should they not add a third one? Maybe Brussels or Liège? Imagine the entire month of October weekends in Belgium, each with its own Desertfest? Not everyone can spend a month touring in a loop around Belgium, but hell, it’s not like they’re short on bands. Do a third, maybe a fourth edition and make it like some kind of October… fest. I bet that’d work. Octoberfest. A totally original idea specifically for this circumstance that I just had right now. You’re welcome.
Looks like the Elder and Pallbearer tour will swing through, and I’ll be interested to see if Gozu are doing any broader touring or are just hitting Antwerp and out — also how that might be timed to their new record currently being tracked — and certainly the Belgium edition of Desertfest is established enough that it’ll probably sell out both these editions without the full lineup announced. Hey guys, if you want me to book DF Liège, just let me know. I’m around.
Meantime, PR wire:
DF 2022 ANTWERP & GHENT: FIRST NAMES! CAVE IN, ELDER, PALLBEARER & MORE
Now that you’ve secured your Early Bird, of course you are dying to find out what’s in store. Or maybe you wanted to wait out this first announcement before shelling over your hard-earned cash?
Whatever may be the case, the wait is over. We are excited to share our first names with you, for both the Antwerp and Ghent edition. A couple of scene stalwarts, as well as some more out-there choices. Here we go!
Confirmed for ANTWERP & GHENT: ELDER and PALLBEARER are two legendary tastes that go very well together. To drive that point home, they will be appearing together at both Desertfest Belgium editions this fall. That’s it, that’s the message – don’t tell us you need to know any more to get your engines revving! But just in case, we’ll throw in IRIST and their unholy mix of metalcore and doom. All of these will be appearing in both Antwerp and Ghent.
Confirmed for ANTWERP ONLY are the illustrious don’t-call-it-post outfit CAVE-IN, and balls-to-the-wall rock band GOZU.
Confirmed for GHENT ONLY we have the Japanese post-screamo legends ENVY, and French apocalyptic doomsayers REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER.
Only one more thing left to say: go get your tickets! Reduced Combi formulas are now available, for the separate events as well as one super-duper joint combi-to-rule-them-all:
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 3rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Well, we knew Elder and Pallbearer were going to be on tour this Fall, and we knew the same of Truckfighters and Greenleaf. Doesn’t seem unreasonable Fu Manchu and Electric Citizen might keep company on the road in Europe, but of course I don’t know that. Either way, the former was slated to play in 2020 for their 30th anniversary, so it’s nice to think that delayed party will go ahead, and having Naxatras, Irist and Echolot rounding out the first lineup announcement certainly does nothing to hurt Up in Smoke.
There will be more adds, of course. With Keep it Low in Munich and the now-two Desertfest Belgiums in Antwerp and Ghent, Into the Void 2022 in the Netherlands a week after this, and sundry other festivals taking place this Fall, it will be packed (hopefully) and those bands on tour — listed here and otherwise, like Hippie Death Cult, High Reeper, Mothership, and Sasquatch from the US, who’ll all be in Europe for at least part of the season — will have plenty of stops to anchor their runs. It’s a good system. Nice to see it back.
Up inSmoke‘s Spring counterpart, A Day in Smoke, took place in Pratteln this past weekend, and the fest-proper — helmed by Sound of Liberation — had this to say:
UP IN SMOKE 2022 // ARTWORK & FIRST BANDS
Right in time for our single day event ~ A Day In Smoke Festival ~ in Pratteln TOMORROW, we are super happy to share with you the artwork and first bands for its big sibling end of this year:
UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL 30. September – 02. October 2022 @ Konzertfabrik Z7 – Pratteln
ALREADY CONFIRMED Fu Manchu, Truckfighters, Elder, Pallbearer, Greenleaf, Naxatras, Electric Citizen, Irist, ECHOLOT
TICKETS Available on side at our A Day In Smoke Festival tomorrow E-Tickets available at www-sol-tickets.com
Killer artwork by Brookesia Estudio
Mark your calendars, get your tickets and hopefully see you all tomorrow already!
