Posted in Whathaveyou on November 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As they make ready to set out on their ‘The Pot and the Pendulum’ tour next week, the Polish worshippers of stone will also be announcing their first new studio LP since 2018, set to release presumably early in 2026 through Heavy Psych Sounds. The Kielce megaweedians and the Italian imprint have a history going back to HPS reissuing the band’s 2011 debut, Sonic Scapes and Weedy Groves (discussed here), in 2022 and following that with their second album, 2015’s Greenferno, just last month.
Belzebong‘s third full-length, 2018’s Light the Dankness (review here) has set the addled crust riffers on a years-long round of touring, and even with a global pandemic break in between, cementing their reputation among the superlatives of sludge. They’ve toured here, there and wheverever to proselytize a dogma that can only properly be measured in milligrams, and if you’re not immediately looking forward to their next record, take an extra couple minutes and really let the news sink into your poor addled brain.
Tour dates (prior posted, so double-check the shows for accuracy before you head out), and the PR wire’s initial announcement follow, to be followed by the first track stream and more details next week:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records to announce Polish bong metal riffers BELZEBONG signing for a brand NEW ALBUM !!
We’re really stoked to announce that the Polish bong metal band BELZEBONG is coming back with a brand new album !!
NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE: NOVEMBER 19th
BELZEBONG – 💨 THE POT AND THE PENDULUM TOUR 2025 💨 21.11 / GER / Radebeul / barnyard_club 22.11 / GER / Jena / @kuba_jena 23.11 TBA 25.11 / CZ / Brno / @kabinet_muz 26.11 / SK / Bratislava / @zalar666 27.11 / AT / Vienna / @arenawien 28.11 TBA 29.11 / AT / Salzburg / @dome_of_rock_festival_salzburg 30.11 / GER / Munich / @backstagemunich 02.12 / GER / Frankfurt / @ponyhof.club 03.12 / FRA / Paris / @backstagebtm 04.12 / FRA / Nantes / @leferrailleur 05.12 / FRA / Lille / @labullecafe 06.12 / NL / Utrecht / @dbs_utrecht 07.12 / NL / Eindhoven / @effenaar 08.12 / GER / Düsseldorf / @pitcherrocknrollhq 10.12 / GER / Münster / @rare_guitar 11.12 / GER / Hamburg / @hafenklanghamburg 12.12 / GER / Oldenburg / @mts_records 13.12 / GER / Berlin / @wildatheartberlin
BIOGRAPHY
Poland’s loudest riff dealers, Belzebong have been spreading their fuzz-drenched gospel of bong metal since 2008. With no vocals and no compromises, they summon crushing instrumentals soaked in doom, sludge, and psychedelic haze. Their hypnotic live shows and cult-like following have turned them into underground legends, delivering slow, sinister grooves straight from the green abyss. With acclaimed albums like Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves, Greenferno, and Light the Dankness, Belzebong have toured extensively across Europe and the U.S., leaving trails of blown minds and smoke-filled venues in their wake. Belzebong is not just a band—it’s a ritual of riff worship for those who live by the fuzz and die by the bong.
Posted in Reviews on October 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With the double-guitar attack of classic doom metal and their sights set on more spacious heavy rocking fare, Wrocław, Poland’s Octotanker make their full-length debut with Voidhopper. The five-piece have their roots in the band Prąd, who released two albums, an EP and a split between 2016-2021. Prąd‘s apparent last outing was 2021’s Octotanker LP, which came out through Galactic Smokehouse, and I don’t know if there was a lineup change or if it’s just a moniker refresh, but if Voidhopper comes across sounding like the work of a band who’ve been together for a decade, that’s probably why.
And with the clarity of intention touching on a range of styles from grunge to spacey stoner pseudo-meander and psychedelia to post-punk, the nine-song/49-minute collection is both poised and expressive, with an approach based on craft that in cuts like “Aghori” puts the vocals of Marcin Gałkowski (who also mixed/mastered) in a forward position alongside the guitars of Rafał Bielski and Wojciech Szelwicki, Tomasz Krymski‘s bass and Piotr Krawczyk‘s drums, complementing the tonal grit of the opening title-track and adding melody to the crunch of the later “The Source and the River Are One.” Those familiar with bands like Iota or earlier Dwellers will find the post-grunge aspects recognizable, but while Octotanker don’t shy from the ethereality in a song like “Starships,” the material throughout Voidhopper remains firmly grounded in terms of structure.
Doing so lets Octotanker hold onto an impression based on their songwriting as a whole while the tracks showcase different facets of their already-complex stylistic persona. It’s not quite ‘no-two-songs-sound-alike’ because tones are consistent and the mellower groove in the first half of “All Suffer” feels like a preface to the midsection break of “The Source and the River Are One,” however heavy the surroundings of the latter get, and as the band demonstrates quickly in “Voidhopper,” part of their intent across the span here is to bring a sense of doom to underscore the proceedings.
The slowdown in the title-track is part of that, but by no means the only example, as even “Starships” finds its way into a lumbering movement eventually within its five-minute run. “All Suffer” sounds grim from the name but isn’t actually darker than either of the two songs before it, but instead weaves through open and, in the middle third, quieter verses to let its final burst carry over with a pointed sense of depth. Almost sneakily, at the same time, Octotanker have already established the flow that lets “All Suffer” shift so easily into “Aghori,” which is the longest inclusion at 7:03 and the presumed capper for side A. Reinforcing some of the dark-metal atmospherics, “Aghori” manifests fluidity in its procession as well, with an effective false ending of guitar before the whole band comes back around to smack you in the face with the song’s actual finish.
A bassy intro to “I Am Sun” begins (again, assuming) side B, soon joined by a jabby riff and echoing vocals. It and “Decomposed and Rotten” are the two shortest pieces on Voidhopper, but certainly Octotanker don’t sound any less dug-into “I Am Sun” than “Aghori” or the title-track, and “Decomposed and Rotten” highlights a post-punk sway that’s just as likely to be taken at this point as coming from black metal, but is individual in its execution either way, and less aggressive in its roll than, say, the ending of “Starships” or some of what’s to come. The point, I suppose, is there’s dynamic unfolding across Voidhopper, and while they sound like they know what they’re doing and these songs have clearly been ironed out, worked on — however you want to say it — over some period of time, they are not at all set in terms of aesthetic.
In any of these nine songs, there seems to be more than one thing happening in a given measure, yet they don’t derail and don’t lose sight of their overarching goals, which, again, vary according to which song you’re hearing but are brought together well through the two-sided structure of the whole album. Gałkowski brings a croon to top off “Decomposed and Rotten,” which drops to silence ahead of the all-go metalogrunge riff that commences with “The Source and the River Are One.” And that seems to be the course of it until it’s dropped about halfway in and they rebuild to the finish, as noted, echoing the resonance of the quieter moments in “All Suffer,” a clever misdirect that could easily have taken momentum away but doesn’t, instead making for a highlight.
Dramatic chug typifies the payoff of “Burning Bodies,” but the penultimate track is no less about keeping the lighter-floating tonality intact, emphasizing the dynamic they’ve laid out all the while and lending it an engaging summary, capping with a crash and residual amp hum on the way to the grounded drum-and-guitar start of “Space Outlaw,” which feels less about mood than some of the material before it but inherently carries that as part of its purpose as well. As to what earned it the closer spot — since it’s not like Octotanker are short on payoffs besides — my guess is the shove and adrenaline-charged solo that begins circa 3:35. Some of the nuance of the lead is lost due to effects on first blush, but repeat listens reveal a richer character in that moment, and the alignment around a more straightforward heavy rock push is satisfying after the band have spent so much time balancing one aspect of their aesthetic off another.
It is not without ambition, and it is not a minor undertaking with a runtime that pushes the limits of what a 12″ vinyl platter will hold, but Voidhopper feels declarative on the part of Octotanker, whose redirect from their days as Prąd would seem to have resulted in the adoption of this sound so divergently evocative and yet based around ultimately familiar genre elements. It’s a hard one to pin down, and given how much intention there is behind that, the potential for growth becomes a central part of the album’s appeal to the listener.
Posted in Reviews on October 8th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you’ve been keeping up, you already know this Quarterly Review goes through next Monday (because screw weekends anyhow) and will top out at 70 releases covered. Today, then, is when we hit the halfway mark en route to that number. Does it matter? Probably not unless you’re the guy on the other side of the laptop writing it, but maybe you just enjoy having the division done for you.
More of a range of styles today than yesterday, which I need to keep this going, so you’ll pardon me while I dig in in the hope that you do the same. Thanks for reading.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Mountain of Misery, Shades of the Ashes
Somewhat impressively, Mountain of Misery remains the solo-project of Kamil Ziółkowski, who perhaps if he wasn’t also the drummer/vocalist in Spaceslug might’ve put together a full band by now, but seems committed to keeping the band in-house. But it is a band, to be sure. Shades of the Ashes is Ziółkowski‘s third LP under the moniker, and it pushes deeper into a progression distinct from Spaceslug however familiar some of the vocals are, and offers depth of its own, whether that’s tonally in the thickened fuzz of “Follow the Sun” or the way he makes it boogie in “Speed King” (not a cover) while at the same time setting up the lush nod of “From Fall to Rise.” Between “Thornado” at the outset and the eight-minute finale “Blow,” Ziółkowski refines Mountain of Misery‘s sound with a freshness that is metal, grunge, heavy rock and psychedelic all at once, and stronger for that cohesion with his signature mellow vocals over top. It’s kind of surprising at this point he hasn’t been tempted to do it live, but clearly this is working, so I wouldn’t necessarily encourage messing with the process either.
A fresh take on the notion of Southern heavy from Asheville, North Carolina’s Dërro, who put a bit of twang into the post-Alice in Chains harmonies of “Brain Worm” (surely a song for our times) and a bit of emotive soar into “Echo Mountain” in complement to a guitar tone that feels kin to earlier Tool, all while retaining a ‘doing its own thing’ vibe. That is to say, the six-song Halcyon — which is the band’s first outing so far as I know — feels like the credited-as-composers duo of Neal Brewer and Corey Tossas, working with Pat Gerasia on drums, would seem to have come into this debut offering with a firm idea of what they wanted the band to be sound-wise, and unless they’ve secretly been working on it for a decade, the results of that shimmer with intention and feeling alike in the chuggy “Alone” and the drawl-into-power-nod opening title-track. One to watch? Maybe, but way more of a thing to hear now.
The guitar/drum duo of Marco Bianciardi (The Somnambulist, ex-Arte, etc.) and Sara Neidorf (Mellowdeath, Sarattma, ex-Aptera, etc.) apparently recorded their six-track/36-minutes self-titled debut in a day. That implies much of it was done live, though it doesn’t account for the keyboards that show up in “Spectral Swell” and “Countershading,” or the lead layering in “Talking Moonshine,” but it’s not unlikely that after showing up and banging it out they had a little time for overdubs. Fair enough. The pieces are varied and prone to getting weirder toward their respective ends, rooted in doomjazz but groove-conscious just the same, and the garage-y strum in “Gruttling From Outer Space” bends and twists as it goes in a way that surely defines what ‘gruttling’ might be, while “Edge of Forthcoming Rain” hints at more peaceful ideas without giving up its restlessness and “The Cosmonaut’s Secret” turns out to be the shove into its own finish. They close with a saunter in “Talking Moonshine” and that feels as right as anything for a collection that’s so casually eclectic while minimizing the actual elements involved in its making.
Melbourne three-piece VVarp — also stylized all-caps: VVARP — seem to imagine a universe wherein the thickened tones and keyboard flourish of Slomatics meets with more traditionalist doom riffing, but that’s still just half the story as bassist Claudia Sullivan and guitarist/keyboardist John Bollen share lead vocals in harmonized style over the voluminous roll of “Druid Warfare,” the cavernous and lumbering “A Path Through the Veil,” assuring there’s beauty to coincide with all the crush that surrounds. Running 34 minutes and five tracks, Power Held in Stone follows 2020’s First Levitations and is accordingly their second full-length, given ethereal, almost-chanting presence through the vocals on centerpiece “Equinox Portal” where “Iron Cloak” is more resolved to its own heads-down-all-go bombast fueled by drummer Scott McLatchie as the song shoves into the residual keys that carry to the rumble at the outset of 10-minute capper “Stone Silhouette,” likewise gorgeous, immersive and encompassing.
Easily among the best debut albums I’ve heard in 2025 comes this modernized-classic psychedelia outreach from Poland’s Atom Juice, who would seem to have some relation to meloproggers Weedpecker through guitarist/vocalist Bartek Dobry, but who take a different path to get to bright and melodic fruition. The five-piece outfit’s self-titled debut (on Heavy Psych Sounds) runs shortest to longest on each of its component sides, with copious Beatles influence in “Gooboo” (circa ’70) and delves elsewhere into modern space rock (“Dead Hookers”), the most engaging funk-psych I’ve heard since Wight on “Sexi Frogs,” and an identity in the doing conjured through a blend of influences older and new. As closer “Honey” gives a bit of push in its first half, there’s nowhere Atom Juice wind up on the record that they don’t make themselves welcome, and with rare warmth, they give hopeful hints at the shape of heavy psychedelia to come. I haven’t seen a lot of hype for this one. If you’re reading this, don’t skip it.
The 15 tracks of Hooveriii‘s Manhunter have a foundation in garage rock and an according off-the-cuff feel, but at the same time, interludes and exploratory instrumentals like “In the Rain,” “Night Walks in Montreaux,” the spacey title-track and the penultimate organ soundscaper “Awful Planet” assure that nothing actually comes across as haphazard in a way that undercuts the dynamic. “Melody” and “Tin Lips” open in rocking style, while the fuzz grows more fervent in “Westside Pavilion of Dreams” and “Heaven at the Gates” before “Cul-de-Sac” marks the transition to the next phase with the forceful shuffle of “The Fly,” answered a short while later by the heft of “Question.” It goes like this, flowing except where it doesn’t want to, and with the jazzy “Me King” and the aforementioned mellow-vocalized “Awful Planet” for setup, “Stage” reroutes into pastoralism and feels pointedly kind in so doing. Clearly a band for whom genre takes a secondary role to their own craft, and one whose appeal is broader for that.
Fluidity is part of the nature of what Sweden’s Gaupa do, as the Falun-based troupe have established over their two-to-date LPs and other sundry outings. The five-song/35-minute Fyr finds them working with producer Karl Daniel Lidén — which was a very good idea that somebody had — and is billed as a mini-album, which I think is to account for its being only one minute shorter than their most recent LP, 2022’s Myriad (review here). Vocalist Emma Näslund remains a focal point in the songs, but the balance of the mix is malleable as “Heavy Lord” demonstrates, and “Elastic Sheep” finds the entire band aligned around a fullness that one only hopes is emblematic of their third to come. Plus a big ol’ slowdown, and while we’re talking bonuses, the 11-minute live take on “Febersvan” from their first EP is a welcome glimpse at how far they’ve progressed to this point to complement the potential still so obvious in their sound. They’re the kind of band you hope never stop growing.
With multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Paul Holden still at the center of the project — Mathias Dowle is also credited with playing on and co-engineering the album with Holden and Ryan Fallis — Melbourne psych-grunge rockers Foot seem to pick up where they left off with 2022’s You Are Weightless, tapping into a style that’s grounded in terms of structure and committedly straightforward but that still lends a feeling of scope and space to the nine cuts on the 45-minute Copper Feast-issued LP. The fuzz is prevalent, perhaps nowhere more so than “Walking Into Walls All Week,” where “Intensify” is more of a vocal showcase until its later heavy sweep. Holden does a cover of Marcy Playground‘s “Sex and Candy”… for… some reason… and but for that, as one would both expect and hope for the band at this point, they remain a songwriting-based unit, able to present a diversity of ideas and moods without ever making it feel like a departure at all.
Enter Diagram with a ready definition for ‘dug in’ on their second album, Short Circuit Control. The Berlin duo of founder Hákon Aðalsteinsson and Fred Sunesen offer heady listeners a heady listen with nine inclusions that commune with the history of electronics in krautrock while still keeping both a modern and a psychedelic affect. Is that neo-kraut? I honestly don’t know, but cuts like “This is How We Lead Our Lives” transcend their outward poppiness through repetition and exploration, and the abiding lesson seems to be that just because something is dancey doesn’t also mean it can’t be purposefully building an atmosphere — “Close Your Eyes” walks by and waves (not that you can see it with your eyes closed). The single “Dub Boy” answers the New Wave aspects of opener “Breath in Your Fire,” and a ’90s electro finale awaits in “Through the Wall of Sound” for anybody adventurous enough to take it on.
Brookynite heavy progressive rockers The Phantom Eye offer blend across Cymatic Waves‘ four tracks that feels metallic at its root but has grown and redirected to more complex fare. Between the volume trades of “Circuit Rider,” the noise baked into the finish of “Palindrome,” the synth adding drama to “Black Hotel” and the intricate balancing of guitar layers in “Silent Symphony,” the focus is never purely on just being heavy, but ‘heavy,’ as a musical ideal, is a piece of the puzzle here, framing a broad melodic reach and giving shape to the structures underlying. I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what they might sound like in five years, but as they’re following 2021’s Chromesthesia EP (review here) with this second short release, it’s even more difficult to pin them down as any one thing. This could hardly feel more intentional than it does in the songs. There’s a plan at work here. It’s just starting to pan out.
Posted in Reviews on September 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
As Will Smith said once upon 30 years ago, “Welcome to ERF.” Thankfully, Polish weirdo-specialist psychedelic trio The Howling Eye offer a friendlier context for the welcome than punching an alien in the face, but their four-song/47-minute full-length has its own otherworldly aspects and moments. Issued through Interstellar Smoke, it is the band’s follow-up to 2023’s List Do Borykan (review here), and its 17-minute leadoff title/longest-track (immediate points) has been around longer than that, since it featured on the band’s 2024 live album, Riffields, which was recorded in 2022.
Temporal displacement? Think of it as a multidimensional theme for the record. Comprised of drummer/vocalist Hubert Cebula Lewandowski (also recording), bassist Miłosz Wojciechowski (also guitar) and guitarist/keyboardist Jan Chojnowski (also bouzouki, synth, recording), the latter of whom is listed as producer alongside Jacek Stasiak (who also adds alto sax and guest guitar throughout), the three-piece sound almost from the get-go like they’re working in their own time. A mix of birdsong and synth blips opens backing a pastoralist, King Buffalo-circa-“Orion”-style flow and resonance of guitar. “ERF” will ultimately parse into distinct movements, but as the far-back mellotron enters the mix and the likewise-dreamy first vocals arrive, the procession makes it absolutely clear that the band are in no hurry to go anywhere and, as melodic, drifting and welcoming as the opening few minutes of “ERF” are, that becomes the root of the challenge they issue their audience.
It’s not just about the songs being slow, but about the way The Howling Eye dwell in parts and execute their songs not just as jams or structured pieces, but as manifestations of place and time. As the initial build of “ERF” recedes to set up the next one (with sax) en route to the back-end stretch of speedier boogie-swirl and a return to the subdued to draw it down, the movement is hypnotic, sure, and as immersive as one would expect for a piece that leaves so much open room for the listener to put themselves. But if you come into it restless, or expecting something less molten in the flow that defines it, the gradual nature of their craft is going to test patience. Heavy psychedelia as meditation goal? Maybe. What ultimately makes it work is the inviting sound of “ERF” as the suitably-enough worldmaking lead-in for what follows in the likewise-all-caps “WEED,” “FIRE” and “MOC WIELKIEGO BUCHA,” the latter of which bookends at just under 14 minutes; the fact that as far out as The Howling Eye go, they adjust the context of normalcy to suit their craft.
They make their own kind of sense, in other words. Even the succession of “ERF,” “WEED,” “FIRE” — as opposed to, say Earth, Wind and Fire — plays a part in conveying the personality of the band, obviously not taking themselves too seriously, but at the same time telling a story as well. The stated theme for ERF reportedly derives from the life of Chris McCandless.
Known as the inspiration for the novel/film Into the Wild, McCandless was a ’90s-era offgridder, who left behind what probably would’ve been a mediocre suburban life in order to venture into the wilds of Alaska, where he died of apparent starvation due to a lack of actual survival skills. His story has been romanticized by naturalists, and not without reason. On some level, even if you feel like it’s a question of your own survival, it takes courage to leave behind the life you’ve been told you want for, well, your entire life. That it ended with McCandless dead alone on an abandoned bus in the middle of nowhere is secondary; he went out on his own terms and that’s not nothing.
The lesson The Howling Eye seem to take from this is accordingly working toward their own goals from their own point of view. Rather than sublimate their experience of time or the impulses that drive their songwriting, they portray an honest, unpretentious weirdoism as “ERF” gives over to the acoustic-but-grows-shouty-and-loud-later “WEED,” which leans willfully, rightly, into its guest-harmonica-laced hook in a ’90s-type singalong that’s part MTV Unplugged but that they let get entrancing and psychedelic before they turn it around and click on the clarion distortion, well doomed as it reveals an Electric Wizard lumber that it turns out was in the song the entire time. With this, they flatten and scorch — still distorted in time as well as tone — but as it will also at another, non-human timescale, “FIRE” is a reset, balancing drift and low-end heft across its six and a half minutes such that the restlessness that emerges in the guitar gets smacked with the return of the alto sax and a clear silence precedes the arrival of “MOC WIELKIEGO BUCHA.”
With its title translated to English as ‘The Power of the Big Bang,’ “MOC WIELKIEGO BUCHA” might just be the source of the rest of what’s happening throughout ERF, or at very least, its roomy exploration and heavy repetitions give an appropriate summary of a lot of what has worked best in the other material while enacting a more dramatic build that, as it would, takes time to reside in its minimalist reaches before they arrive at a more traditional payoff toward the conclusion. The returning vocals after “FIRE” have a grounding effect, and lend emotion to that last volume swell and nod as the band make their way toward and into the finish. They let it go all the way to silence and there’s a clip of some laughter echoing, but that’s it.
Imagine being able to have a conversation with trees. The record’s kind of like that. It happens on a wavelength of time that, for many brains, will be pointedly incongruous with modern life. And this, we see, becomes how the band’s theme manifests in the material itself. It is about stepping outside of norms or expectations, maybe even putting your (my) phone down for a minute or 47 in order to have a lived experience, yes, but more to be transposed from one place to another by art. The Howling Eye aren’t without their indulgent aspects — I’m sorry, but that’s the nature of a 17-minute-long song; I don’t make the rules — but the potential rewards for those who can follow where they lead far outstrip the effort required to actually hear what they’re doing.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 4th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If this initial announcement of Weedpecker signing to Heavy Psych Sounds is beginning the label’s usual promo cycle, it should be next week that we begin to get details — maybe even audio, although usually there’s a date dropped in the first announcement for when the next announcement will be — from the Polish heavy psych-prog forerunners’ awaited fifth album, which last I heard was just called V. ‘Stoked’ would be putting it mildly. Four years after 2021’s IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (review here), the band would seem to have taken the time to allow themselves to grow and to let their songs flourish and breathe, or at very least that’s my hope since their records have become such worlds unto themselves.
The Italy-based label will also reissue the band’s second album, II (review here), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and will have them on the road in 2016 in Europe. Having gotten to see them that one time at SonicBlast in 2023 (review here), I’ll tell you sincerely that if the opportunity presents itself, that’s the way you want to go.
More to come, but for today, good news and a start to the process from the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records to announce Polish psychedelic stoner rock band WEEDPECKER signing for a BRAND NEW RECORD!!!
We’re really stoked to announce that the Polish psychedelic stoner rock riffers WEEDPECKER are now part of the Heavy Psych Sounds Family.
HPS will release their 5th brand new album very soon + repress their sophomore release “II” and book an European tour in 2026 !!
SAYS THE BAND:
„We’re excited to announce that Weedpecker is joining the Heavy Psych Sounds family. It feels great to team up with a label that shares our vision, and we can’t wait to share the next chapter of our journey with you all.“
BIOGRAPHY One of Poland’s pioneering bands in the realm of psychedelic stoner rock, they’ve already released four albums and are now entering their fifth transformation to unveil a brand new creation. Constantly in search of new sensations and flavors, the band relentlessly chases the green dragon, never looking back.
WEEDPECKER is: Piotr Dobry Piotr Sadza Piotr Kuks Zbigniew Promiński Tomasz Walczak
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 14th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Ahead of the Aug. 25 release of their Interstellar Smoke Records-backed debut album, We Are Social Creatures — speak for yourself; I’m more the stare-at-laptop-and-not-talk-to-anybody type — winning-at-names Polish psych rockers CTRL+Z have posted “Warling” as the second single from the LP. The first track set for publish streaming was “Cockroach,” and that had a similar jammy foundation, but worked itself into a mathier tizzy than does “Warling,” which gives hints of an underlying heavy psychedelic influence while remaining thoroughly, delightfully restless.
In case, like me, you have no idea what the date is, Aug. 25 is in like a week and a half. In the parlance of Mystery Science Theater 3000: “the not-too-distant future.” Just something worth pointing out when album announcements sometimes are months in advance.
Info and both singles follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
CTRL+Z – The psychedelic-stoner quartet from Łódź (Poland) presents their second single ‘Warling’
The single announces the release of the debut album “We Are Social Creatures” Release date: 25th August 2025 Interstellar Smoke Records
CTRL+Z is a psychedelic stoner rock band rising not from the California sands, but from the cobblestones of Łódź—post-industrial grayness, chaos, and city dust instead of a desert horizon. Their roots lie in jam sessions—psychedelic, unbridled improvisations that give rise to the first sketches of songs. Compositions take shape intuitively before reaching the studio for mixing and mastering.
‘Warling’ is the second single from CTRL+Z. It’s an expressive portrayal of an internal struggle with unhealthy idealism. It’s a story about grappling with the quiet, merciless voice of the inner critic, who is never fully satisfied, no matter how much effort we put into our work, always picking out the cracks and imperfections.
‘The creative process can be marked by a wave of doubts about the value of one’s work. Even if it ends with a moment of satisfaction, the next stage awaits just around the corner – new challenges and another attempt.’ – that’s who CTRL+Z describes their single ‘Warling’.
The single ‘Warling’ announces the band’s first album, “We Are Social Creatures,” which is scheduled for release thanks to Interstellar Smoke Records on September 25, 2025.
CTRL+Z’s music is a journey. We travel with the band through the cobblestone dunes of the urban landscape, where stoner sounds meet influences of hard rock, heavy psych, and even thrash metal. It draws inspiration from bands like Kyuss and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, from which CTRL+Z draw inspiration to forge their own paths.
CTRL+Z formed in Łódź (Poland) in 2021. To date, they have only released the EP “Live At CPXZ” in 2024, which recorded their performance at the Cyrk Pod Zielonym Xiężycem club.
CTRL+Z: Paweł Leszczyński – drums Mateusz Ulański – guitar Karol Bukowski – guitar Martyn Gill – bass
Day three marks the halfway point of this Quarterly Review, unless I decide to sneak in an extra day next Monday. We’ll see on that, but things are moving pretty well so far, so I might just be content to take the win and start slating the next one. Always a choice to be made there.
I hope you’ve found something that hits you thus far, and if not, check the below, because there’s a pretty wide variety of styles under the ‘heavy underground’ umbrella here. Hope one or a few or everything clicks.
We proceed.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Randall Huth, Torched and Coasting
Though he’s probably best known at this point for playing bass in Pissed Jeans for the last 17 years, Pennsylvania’s Randall Huth once-upon-the-aughts played guitar and handled vocals in still-missed pastoral heavy rockers Pearls and Brass, and the new solo EP under his own name will likely be more than enough to trigger nostalgia in remembering that. Torched and Coasting is somewhere between an EP and a follow-up to Huth‘s 2007 solo album as Randall of Nazareth on Drag City, and the self-released tape is clear in its intention, conveying sketches like the finger-plucked movements of “Emptied/Rarified” and “Bursting Smile” and 15-minute closer plunge “Torched and Coasting,” which tube-screams late so stick with it, alongside the drone-meets-zither “The Blind Whale,” and more terrestrial, guitar-and-vocals pieces like opener “Lost in Your Eyes” and the penultimate “Beats Dying,” which — you guessed it — is about getting old. Huth‘s echoing and soft delivery, wit in the lyrics and humble acoustic presentation make that a highlight, but this years-in-the-making offering walks more than a single expressive path. More songs, whatever ‘songs’ means, please. Thanks.
North Carolinian four-piece HolyRoller make their label-debut on Ripple Music with the eight-song Rat King, which puts modern heavy in a blender such that an early piece like “Crunch Riff Supreme” finds its place in sludge rock and heralds screamy things to come but by the time they’ve gotten to “Buried Alone” at the presumed outset of side B, the flow has more in common with Pallbearer than Weedeater or Sleep, who are another key underlying influence. But the emphasis there should be on ‘underlying’ as HolyRoller step beyond the bands that inspired them in fostering progressive songwriting throughout these 35 minutes, with a richly flexible sound — “Heave Ho” sounds like slower Howling Giant, “Forbidden Things” like Spaceslug — and a push into the ether in “Radiating Sacred Light” before they round out with the Clutch-y bounce of “Drift Into the Sun” to highlight the individuality in where they take their approach. The organic production helps it feel like they’re really digging in, but also they are.
Worried ‘Bout Madame is the third long-player from Polish heavy post-rock/psych-gaze outfit Black Mynah, and it would seem to be the first since founding vocalist, bassist and baritone guitarist Joanna Kucharska assembled a full-band lineup around herself and drummer Paweł Rucki, who also appeared on 2020’s II. Vocalist/synthesist Aleksandra Joryn and guitarist Marcin Lawendowski join the stylistically subversive proceedings here, with the garage jangle of “Colleen” at the outset pushed into the frenetic shuffle and hard distortion of “Damaged Goods” ahead of the sweet post-punk verse of “Float,” which has its own grungey volatility. The tonal weight thrown around in closer “Looking at You, Kid,” — not to mention the vocal layering — isn’t unprecedented on the album that comes before it, but “Blue Moon” is more about catching up with the insistence of its snare drum and “The Rite” has its own thing going too with the quieter creeper swing and satisfying wash that pays it off. It won’t be for everybody, but who the hell ever wanted to be?
Last heard from with their before-times 2019 split LP with Un, English death-doom churners Coltsblood make a welcome return with the four-song Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk, their third album overall, first for Translation Loss Records and first in eight years. The years have not been wasted in the sound of bassist/vocalist John McNulty (also keys), guitarist Jemma McNulty and drummer Jay Plested, who foster a ‘beauty in darkness’ sensibility on opener/longest track (immediate points) “Until the Eidolon Falls” before the outright slaughter of “Waning of the Wolf Moon” pushes death metal tempo off a cliff of feedback and raw scathe. “Transcending the Immortal Gateway” makes its presence felt with the mournful lead line topping its later reaches, and “Obscured into Nebulous Dusk” bids farewell in a not-dissimilar fashion, but the particularly agonized vocals prior are a distinguishing feature. Time would seem to have done little to dull the band’s overarching extremity, and so much the better for that.
The two-years-later follow-up to Indianapolis doom rockers Void King‘s 2023 long-player, The Hidden Hymnal (review here), the seven-song The Hidden Hymnal: Chapter II indeed seems to dig into its own kind of storytelling. The proceedings make for a rousing flow, with the two longest tracks, “The Birth of All Things” (8:49) and “A Union of Expired Souls” (9:34) paired at the outset for a duly epic opening statement. I don’t know if they’re a vinyl side on their own or not, but their separation from the rest of the LP is underscored by the remaining three tracks being sandwiched by a “Prologue” and “Epilogue,” so that the burly progressive metal and heavy rock of “Attrition,” “Convalescence” and “Expiration” feel like their own mini-album on the second side. If this wraps up the The Hidden Hymnal cycle for Void King, then the structural nuance here is fair enough, but the real story of the record is the progression of the band itself, which is ongoing.
Harnessing stoner metal largesse, doomed thematics and an aggro posture for the delivery that adds to the gnashing feel of the material overall, Bifter‘s debut album, First Impressions of Hell, is a torrential, ferocious offering that hits you on multiple levels before you even realize what’s happened. Interludes, the album intro “Enter Hell” and “Lover’s Quarrel,” the sample in “Mercy” and the post-script “Time to Kill” after “Ball of Burning Snakes” and the seven-minute “Belly of the Beast” give an atmospheric feel, but part of what makes “Doom Shroom” and “March of the Imp” so effective is their directness, so First Impressions of Hell, among the impressions made, can count face-punch in its number. The foundation is metal, but the affect is a party, and however weighted the material gets throughout the 36 minutes of its 12 tracks, Bifter are consistently able to convey a feeling of movement and forward momentum along with all their destructive intent.
Write off Poland’s Fish Basket at your own peril. Yeah, they’ve got the cartoonish art and the silly vibe and the sense of rampant chicanery of sound and nonsense, but check out the proggy push of “Robots” on Fish Basket and His Second Album and the way they suddenly pull the plug on the whole thing and drop to deep-breathing, or the shouts worked into opener “NA-HU-HA-NE” and the birdsong in the psych-drifting “Farewells and Returns,” gorgeous as it is before it looses a bit of crush and winds up in classic heavy psych to end. These and myriad other moments throughout — the folkish strum of “Imaginarium” from some unknown tradition, maybe the band’s own, brought to the head of a linear build with a comedown to finish — work on the Frank Zappa model of progressive rock, which is to say that while shenanigans abound, the trio have the technical chops to back up everything they’re doing, and whether it’s the fuzzblaster of “Cardboard Racer” or the sub-nine-minute meander of “Stray in Chill,” Fish Basket carry the listener from one end of the album to another with deceptive ease. Warning: it might be genius.
Calgary-based trio Woodhawk — guitarist/vocalist Turner Midzain, bassist/vocalist Mike Badmington and drummer Kevin Nelson — offer a sharply-constructed, professional-grade nine songs across the 53 minutes of their third full-length, the encouragingly-titled Love Finds a Way. The organ adds a classic feel to “Strangers Ever After” early in the going, and the fullness and clarity of the surrounding production only increases the trust in the band’s songwriting, which isn’t without aesthetic ambitions despite the straightforward tack, cuts like “Truth Be Told,” “White Crosses” and the dares-to-shimmy-in-the-middle title-track have as solid an underpinning of groove as one could ever reasonably ask. The melody over top in the vocals and guitar shines through accordingly. They’re plenty dug-in, of course, and any record that’s going to push past the 50-minute mark in 2025 better have some perspective to offer, but Woodhawk do. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to save the world, but at least somebody out there is putting love out front with their riffage, duly engaging as that is.
Pathways is a single-song, just-under-14-minute EP from Milwaukee’s Liminal Spirit, the darkly progressive apparent-solo-project of Jerry Hauppa, who embodies a number of characters in the narrative throughout. Presented on a quick turnaround from the band’s late-2024 self-titled debut LP, the one-tracker nonetheless reaffirms the ambitions of the album before it, while also reinforcing the idea of Liminal Spirit as a still-growing, still-discovering-its-sound outfit. The vocals here, intended to embody multiple archetypal characters like The Patriarch, The Child, The Artisan, The Elder and The Apprentice, come through a vocoder-type treatment, and so where multiple points of view might otherwise be fleshed out and conveyed, the voice remains singular. This is the tradeoff for the intimacy of solo creativity, but one gets the sense from “Pathways” and the self-titled that Liminal Spirit is just beginning to explore the stylistic territory the band will ultimately cover.
To follow their 2023 self-titled debut EP (on Addicted Label), Moscow-based doom rocker four-piece Clarity Vision present “Deep Ocean” (or, in Cyrillic:
“Глубокий океан”), a six-minute standalone single that soon makes its way via cymbal-wash from its beginning waves and quiet guitar into a procession of stately classic doom metal, big on swing and bigger on impact. The kind of riff that would make Leif Edling smile. Galina Shpakovskaya‘s voice is suited to the movement of the riffs, floating over with melodic echo but keeping a mystique that reminds of mid-period The Wounded Kings, when all was dark and mystery. Guitarist Alexey Roslyakov, bassist Alexey Roslyakov and drummer Mikhail Markelov hold the march steady for the duration, and although I’ve never come close to knowing even the slightest bit of Russian, Clarity Vision remind that we all speak the same language when it comes to being completely and utterly doomed.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Knowing all of diddly squat about them beforehand, just what I’d read in the lineup announcement, I had the pleasure last summer of seeing Kraków, Poland-based heavy psych rockers AcidSitter in Croatia at Bear Stone Festival (review here). Playing on the small pavilion stage under a hot early July sun, they were a freaked out pleasure to witness. The kind of band you’d want to remember next time they were issuing an album, and well, here we are.
Due this Fall, AcidSitter will release the yet-untitled follow-up to their 2023 debut, Make Acid Great Again — which came out in Interstellar Smoke and I’m assuming I didn’t review because of the existential fatigue from all the ‘again-made-great’ going on in my home country and the resoundingly negative association therewith, but they were killer live, and I’ll allow that the context of the gag was probably much different in Poland than New Jersey. I got sidetracked. That’s how the bastards get you, but that’s not what’s happening here.
Whatever AcidSitter‘s second will be called, the duly bright “Look at the Sun” is the third single from it behind “Doomscroller’s Blues” and “Psychopomp.” Both of those are streaming below too, just for the hell of it. Each one gives kind of a different look around the lysergic foundation, and with all three, it seems like the record will have some scope to coincide with all its far-out thrust.
Dig:
AcidSitter – Polish-Japanese psychonats with a hippie summer anthem produced by Maciek Cieślak (Ścianka) ‘Look At The Sun’
AcidSitter are Polish-Japanese neo-psychonauts who explore the broad trend of psychedelia with rock’n’roll passion and stoner punk energy. They play a mixture of psych rock and garage rock with a modern twist.
‘Look At The Sun’ is a strange sequel to ‘When the Music’s Over’ by The Doors, but instead of falling silent, the music explodes anew. The song balances between soulful expression and the classic Motown sound, drawing on the energy of late 60s and 70s musicals – from Hair to Jesus Christ Superstar. The whole thing is bathed in psychedelic aesthetics, full of references and flashbacks to hits of the era.
“It’s a musical journey through the end of the world – full of light, memories and undying hope.” – AcidSitter says about their single ‘Look At The Sun’.
The new single is another announcement of AcidSitter’s new album after ‘Doomscroller’s Blues’ and ‘PSYCHOPOMP’ (both produced by Maciek Cieślak from the legendary polish band Ścianka). The premiere is planned for autumn this year.
The cover of the single was once again prepared by Croatian artist Lord Čardak (Čardak Studios).
AcidSitter debuted with the single ‘Sweat Dreams’, which was released by the Irish label Fuzzed Up & Astromoon Records. In 2023, they released their first album ‘Make Acid Great Again’ released by Interstellar Smoke Records. The album received rave reviews, and their concerts attracted crowds of fans. They played in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. They could be heard at the Bear Stone Festival (Croatia), Helsinki Psych Fest, Red Smoke Festival and Soulstone Gathering in Poland, as well as at concerts with King Buffalo and Karkara.
