Generally I think of Thursday as the penultimate day of a given Quarterly Review. This one I was thinking of adding more days to get more stuff in ahead of year-end coverage coming up in December. I don’t know what that would do to my weekend — actually, yes I do — but sometimes it’s worth it. I’m yet undecided. Will let you know tomorrow, or perhaps not. Dork of mystery, I am.

Today is PACKED with cool sounds. If you haven’t found something yet that’s really hit you, it might be your day.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

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Tortuga, Iterations

From traditionalist proto-doom and keyboard-inflected prog to psychedelic jamming and the Mountain-style start-stop riff on “Lilith,” Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga follow 2020’s Deities (discussed here) with seven tracks and 45 minutes that come across as simple and barebones in the distortion of the guitar and the light reverb on the vocals, but the doom rock doesn’t carry from “Lilith” into “Laspes,” which has more of a ’60s psych crux, a mellow but not unjoyful meander in its first half turning to a massive lumber in the second, all the more elephantine with a solo overtop. They continue throughout to cross the lines between niches — “Quaus” has some dungeon growls, “Epitaph” slogs emotive like Pallbearer, etc. — and offer finely detailed performances in a sound malleable to suit the purposes of their songs. Polish heavy doesn’t screw around. Well, at least not any more than it wants to. Tortuga‘s creative reach becomes part of the character of the album.

Tortuga on Facebook

Napalm Records website

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Spidergawd, VII

I’m sorry, I gotta ask: What’s the point of anything when Spidergawd can put out a record like VII and it’s business as usual? Like, the world doesn’t stop for a collective “holy shit” moment. Even in the heavy underground, never mind general population. These are the kinds of songs that could save lives if properly employed to do so, and for the Norwegian outfit, it’s just what they do. The careening hooks of “Sands of Time” and “The Tower” at the start, the melodies across the span. The energy. I guess this is dad rock? Shit man, I’m a dad. I’m not this cool. Spidergawd have seven records out and I feel like Metallica should’ve been opening for them at stadiums this past summer, but they remain criminally underrated and perhaps use that as flexibility around their pop-heavy foundation to explore new ideas. The last three songs on VII — “Afterburner,” “Your Heritage” and “…And Nothing But the Truth” — are among the strongest and broadest Spidergawd have ever done, and “Dinosaur” and the classic-metal ripper “Bored to Death” give them due preface. One of the best active heavy rock bands, living up to and surpassing their own high standards.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Morag Tong, Grieve

Rumbling low end and spacious guitar, slow flowing drums and contemplative vocals, and some charred sludge for good measure, mark out the procession of “At First Light” on Morag Tong‘s third album and first for Majestic Mountain Records, the four-song Grieve. Moving from that initial encapsulation through the raw-throat sludge thud of most of “Passages,” they crash out and give over to quiet guitar at about four minutes in and set up the transition to the low-end groove-cool of “A Stem’s Embrace,” a sleepy fluidity hitting its full voluminous crux after three minutes in, crushing from there en route to its noisy finish at just over nine minutes long. That would be the epic finisher of most records, but Morag Tong‘s grievances extend to the 20-minute “No Sun, No Moon,” which at 20 minutes is a full-length’s progression on its own. At very least the entirety of side B, but more than the actual runtime is the theoretical amount of space covered as the four-piece shift from ambient drone through huge plod and resolve the skyless closer with a crushing delve into post-sludge atmospherics. That’s as fitting an end as one could ask for an offering that so brazenly refuses to follow impulses other than its own.

Morag Tong on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Conny Ochs, Wahn Und Sinn

The nine-song Wahn Und Sinn carries the distinction of being the first full-length from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs — also known for his work in Ananda Mida and his collaboration with Wino — to be sung in his own language. As a non-German speaker, I won’t pretend that doesn’t change the listening experience, but that’s the idea. Words and melodies in different languages take on corresponding differences in character, and so in addition to appreciating the strings, pianos, acoustic and electric guitars, and, in the case of “Welle,” a bit of static noise in a relatively brief electronic soundscape, hearing Ochs‘ delivery no less emotive for switching languages on the cinematic “Grimassen,” or the lounge drama of “Ding” earlier on, it’s a new side from a veteran figure whose “experimentalism” — and no, I’m not talking about singing in your own language as experimental, I’m talking about Trialogos there — is backburnered in favor of more traditional, still rampantly melancholy pop arrangements. It sounds like someone who’s decided they can do whatever the hell they feel like their songs should making that a reality. Only an asshole would hold not speaking the language against that.

Conny Ochs on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream website/a>

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Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror

I’m going to write this review as though I’m speaking directly to Ritual King because, well, I am. Hey guys. Congrats on the record. I can hear a ton going on with it. Some of Elder‘s bright atmospherics and rhythmic twists, some more familiar stoner riffage repurposed to suit a song like “Worlds Divide” after “Flow State” calls Truckfighters to mind, the songs progressive and melodic. The way you keep that nod in reserve for “Landmass?” That’s what I’m talking about. Here’s some advice you didn’t ask for: Keep going. I’m sure you have big plans for next year, and that’s great, and one thing leads to the next. You’re gonna have people for the next however long telling you what you need to do. Do what feels right to you, and keep in mind the decisions that led you to where you are, because you’re right there, headed to the heart of this thing you’re discovering. Two records deep there’s still a lot of potential in your sound, but I think you know a track like “Tethered” is a victory on its own, and that as big as “The Infinite Mirror” gets at the end, the real chance it takes is in the earlier vocal melody. You’re a better band than people know. Just keep going. Thanks.

Ritual King on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost

Inhabiting the sort of alternately engulfing and minimal spaces generally occupied by the likes of Bell Witch, New Jersey’s Oldest Sea make their full-length debut with A Birdsong, A Ghost and realize a bleakness of mood that is affecting even in its tempo, seeming to slow the world around it to its own crawl. The duo of Samantha Marandola and Andrew Marandola, who brought forth their Strange and Eternal EP (review here) in 2022, find emotive resonance in a death-doom build through the later reaches of “Untracing,” but the subsequent three-minute-piece-for-chorus-and-distorted-drone “Astronomical Twilight” and the similarly barely-there-until-it-very-much-is closer “Metamorphose” mark out either end of the extremes while “The Machines That Made Us Old” echoes Godflesh in its later riffing as Samantha‘s voice works through screams en route to a daringly hopeful drone. Volatile but controlled, it is a debut of note for its patience and vulnerability as well as its deep-impact crash and consuming tone.

Oldest Sea on Facebook

Darkest Records on Bandcamp

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Dim Electrics, Dim Electrics

Each track on Dim Electrics‘ self-titled five-songer LP becomes a place to rest for a while. No individual piece is lacking activity, but each cut has room for the listener to get inside and either follow the interweaving aural patterns or zone out as they will. Founded by Mahk Rumbae, the Vienna-based project is meditative in the sense of basking in repetition, but flashes like the organ in the middle of “Saint” or the shimmy that takes hold in 18-minute closer “Dream Reaction” assure it doesn’t reside in one place for too much actual realtime, of which it’s easy to lose track when so much krautgazey flow is at hand. Beginning with ambience, “Ways of Seeing” leads the listener deeper into the aural chasm it seems to have opened, and the swirling echoes around take on a life of their own in the ecosystem of some vision of space rock that’s also happening under the ground — past and future merging as in the mellotron techno of “Memory Cage” — which any fool can tell you is where the good mushrooms grow. Dug-in, immersive, engaging if you let it be; Dim Electrics feels somewhat insular in its mind-expansion, but there’s plenty to go around if you can put yourself in the direction it’s headed.

Dim Electrics on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Mountain of Misery, In Roundness

A newcomer project from Kamil Ziółkowski, also known for his contributions as part of Polish heavy forerunners Spaceslug, the tone-forward approach of Mountain of Misery might be said to be informed by Ziółkowski‘s other project in opener “Not Away” or the penultimate “Climb by the Sundown,” with their languid vocals and slow-rolling tsunami fuzz in the spirit of heavy psych purveyors Colour Haze and even more to the point Sungrazer, but the howling guitar in the crescendo of closer “The Misery” and the all-out assault of “Hang So Low” distinguish the band all around. “The Rain is My Love” sways in the album’s middle, but it’s in “Circle in Roundness” that the 36-minute LP has its most subdued stretch, letting the spaces filled with fuzz elsewhere remain open as the verse builds atop the for-now-drumless expanse. Whatever familiar aspects persist, Mountain of Misery is its own band, and In Roundness is the exciting beginning of a new creative evolution.

Mountain of Misery on Facebook

Electric Witch Mountain Recordings on Facebook

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Aawks, Luna

The featured new single, “The Figure,” finds Barrie, Ontario’s Aawks somewhere between Canadian tonal lords Sons of Otis and the dense heavy psych riffing and melodic vocals of an act like Snail, and if you think I’m about to complain about that, you’ve very clearly never been to this site before. So hi, and welcome. The four-song Luna EP is Aawks‘ second short release of 2023 behind a split with Aiwass (review here), and the trio take on Flock of Seagulls and Pink Floyd for covers of the new wave radio hit “I Ran” and the psychedelic ur-classic “Julia Dream” before a live track, “All is Fine,” rounds out. As someone who’s never seen the band live, the additional crunch falls organic, and brings into relief the diversity Aawks show in and between these four songs, each of which inhabits a place in the emerging whole of the band’s persona. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but sign me up for the Canadian heavy revolution if this is the form it’s going to take.

Aawks on Facebook

Black Throne Productions website

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Kaliyuga Express, Warriors & Masters

The collaborative oeuvre of UK doomsperimental guitarist Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, Ozo, 11Paranoias, etc.) grows richer as he joins forces with Finnish trio Nolla to produce Kaliyuga Express‘ Warriors & Masters, which results in three tracks across two sides of far-out cosmic fuzz, shades of classic kraut and space rocks are wrought with jammy intention; the goal seeming to be the going more than the being gone as Vest and company burn through “Nightmare Dimensions” and the shoegazing “Behind the Veil” — the presence of vocals throughout is a distinguishing feature — hums in high and low frequencies in a repetitive inhale of stellar gases on side A while the 18:58 side B showdown “Endless Black Space” misdirects with a minute of cosmic background noise before unfurling itself across an exoplanet’s vision of cool and returning, wait for it, back to the drone from whence it came. Did you know stars are recycled all the time? Did you know that if you drop acid and peel your face off there’s another face underneath? Your third eye is googly. You can hear voices in the drones. Let me know what they tell you.

Kaliyuga Express on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

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Swirling around the thickened fuzz at its center are vibes out of both vintage heavy rock and cavern-dwelling proto-metal, but Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga aren’t really either of those things on their new single “Lilith.” The song runs six minutes and comes from the band’s inbound Napalm Records label-debut, Iterations. They liken some of it to a Type O Negative influence, and you can hear some of that in the wisps strung through the second half the song, the added spooky ambience and a quick count-in like they’re about to start playing “Kill All the White People” or some such, as well as the later solo’s soaring tone.

As one would have to expect, I was late to the party on their 2020 debut, Deities (discussed here), but it was cool, and from what I’ve heard of Iterations thus far — listening for the first time now; I’m at the pretty psych and quiet melancholy guitar that opens the nine-minute “Laspes” — forward progression is evident top to bottom in the mix, which by the way is a not insignificant range.

The video for “Lilith” is at the bottom of this post, as well as the stream of Deities from Tortuga‘s Bandcamp. The info comes from the PR wire:

Polish Psych Doom/Progressive Stoner Act TORTUGA Reveals Album Details & Music Video for First Single “Lilith”!

New Album, ‘Iterations’ – a Haunting Trip Through Time and Space – Out October 27, 2023 via Napalm Records

Pre-Order HERE! https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/tortuga

With their 2017 self-titled debut, TORTUGA took the heavy stoner and psychedelic doom metal scene by storm. Following their sophomore offering, ‘Deities’ (2020), and a worldwide record deal with rock and metal empire Napalm Records, October 27, 2023 will see the Polish four-piece unleash their third studio album, ‘Iterations’!

A music video for their first single, “Lilith”, is now premiering below.

TORTUGA comments:

“‘Lilith’ is a song full of emotions, an evocative journey through love and hate for humanity, a tale that embodies its own time paradox. While crafting this song, we aimed to vividly convey the interplay of these contrasting emotions, not just through lyrics, but also through the very essence of the music.

“The song takes our familiar stoner/doom sound and gives it a fresh twist. You’ll catch hints of Type O Negative in there; we’re just big fans! We’ve always been drawn to the raw emotion in their music—the delicate balance between happiness and sadness. With ‘Lilith’, we aimed to capture and reflect that same emotional depth without losing our own style.

“We can’t wait to share it with you live!”

Compared to its predecessors, TORTUGA’s forthcoming album ‘Iterations’ moves from monolithic stoner-doom to progressive and experimental facettes, enriching its listeners’ auditory experience while managing to mature the band’s epic doom and stoner trademarks. Anyone who may have previously mistook TORTUGA as a Lovecraftian themed band should make no mistake – they are storytellers, and ‘Iterations’ proves the Poznan-based outfit puts as much effort into said storytelling as their songwriting.

This time, the band digs deep and delivers a concept album about the whole history of the universe (from beginning to the end), which is also applicable, metaphorically, to the history of a person’s lifetime. Each of the seven new tracks are related in context to the theme of the entire record, but every one of them is a standalone story.

Songs such as today’s premiering first single, “Lilith”, showcase the authentic sound and unconventional songwriting of TORTUGA. In a world of over-polished studio productions, it’s even more exhilarating to discover ‘Iterations’. It’s a haunting trip through time and space, full of light and shadow. With ‘Iterations’, TORTUGA has passed the challenge of album number three with a grade A: The album is a thrilling, free-spirited, deep and enthralling ride, and one that will ultimately establish the band at the top of the current stoner doom and progressive psych rock Olympus!

‘Iterations’ Track List:
1. Init
2. Lilith
3. Laspes
4. Interlude
5. MALACA
6. Quaus
7. Epitaph

TORTUGA are:
Pablo- Guitar, Vocals, Sampler
Krzysiu – Guitar, Synth, Vocoder
Heszu – Bass
Marcin – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/tortugapl
https://www.instagram.com/tortuga_band/
https://tortugapl.bandcamp.com/

www.facebook.com/napalmrecords
https://www.instagram.com/napalmrecordsofficial/
www.napalmrecords.com

Tortuga, “Lilith” official video

Tortuga, Deities (2020)

Well, now I know that Bydgoszcz is the eighth largest city in Poland. Never stop learning, kids.

Gdańsk-based jammy psych mischief makers The Howling Eye are going on tour in their native Poland and making stops as well in Germany and the Czech Republic. The band offered their third album earlier this year in the loose-grooving List Do Borykan (review here), and I’d have to imagine their live show doesn’t go too far from the album at least in terms of general approach. That is, I don’t think The Howling Eye are releasing a record of exploratory psych and then getting on stage and reciting the material note for note. Too adventurous a band, and for a bonus, they don’t take themselves too seriously. Warning: Actual fun may occur.

I didn’t need the excuse to post the dates, but you’ll note The Howling Eye sharing the stage with the likes of Tet, Mythic Sunship, Abanamat, The Device, Taxi Caveman, Mares of Thrace and TarLung, among others. I don’t see anything listed outright as a festival — and most of the Fall tours in Europe I’ve posted about have been fest runs — but I’m not 100 percent on that since, as noted, I’m still just learning about different cities in The Howling Eye‘s home country, which I know for sure I wouldn’t mind visiting one of these years.

From social media:

THE HOWLING EYE – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT

We’re going on tour! Space Dwellers Tour will bring our riff-transmitted mystic visions to 15 cities in 3 countries. Many thanks to Interstellar Smoke Records and Galactic SmokeHouse for helping us pull this off, and to Maciek Szukała for the artwork. Facebook events coming soon…

Meanwhile:
6.10 – Toruń – KoŃcÓwa + Tet, Lovecraft
7.10 – Bydgoszcz – Estrada stagebar + Lovecraft, The Device
8.10 – Gdańsk – Wydział Remontowy + Mythic Sunship, Tet
10.10 – Hamburg – Bar 227 + Verstärker
12.10 – Kiel – Siebeneck & Triangel + TBA
13.10 – Szczecin – Krzywy Gryf + aleph א, Power Plant
14.10 – Elbląg – Mjazzga + ELBONG
15.10 – Warszawa – Hydrozagadka + Atom Juice
19.10 – Berlin – RESET + Abanamat
20.10 – Poznań – PAN GAR + Abanamat, Szacunek
22.10 – Wrocław – Liverpool + Abanamat, Noise River
26.10 – Kraków – Warsztat + Taxi Caveman, Niewyspani
27.10 – Tarnowskie Góry – Beczka + Taxi Caveman, Astral Nomad
28.10 – Ostrava – Rock Hill + TBA
29.10 – Praha – Modrá Vopice + MARES OF THRACE, TarLung

https://www.facebook.com/thehowlingeye
https://www.instagram.com/thehowlingeye/
https://thehowlingeye.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/TheHowlingEye

https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://www.instagram.com/interstellar.smoke.label/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/ISR666

https://www.facebook.com/GalacticSmokeHouse
https://www.instagram.com/galacticsmokehouse/
https://galacticsmokehouse.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/GalacticSmokeHouse

The Howling Eye, List Do Borykan (2023)

The subscribers to the PostWax series from Blues Funeral Recordings got their Bandcamp download codes over the weekend — I know because I got mine; I’m not just the dork doing the liner notes, I’m also a client! — and I expect by now most if not all who’ve received them have dug into the new Dopelord album, Songs for Satan. Doing so will, perhaps, be revelatory for some.

As the first single, “Night of the Witch,” heralds, Songs for Satan is the broadest range of melody the Warsaw stoner-doom outfit have harnessed to-date in their decade-plus tenure, and if the single doesn’t get stuck in your head, listen again and pay closer attention. That hook is a defining feature of the record from which it comes, and along with the spaciousness of the vocals and the band’s characteristic weight of tone, it’s a can’t-miss for those who’d follow where a rolling riff might lead. Lumbering but not slow-for-show or staid in any way, “Night of the Witch” and Songs for Satan as a whole are landmarks the Polish heavy forerunners, who’ll support the Oct. 6 release on an extensive, previously announced tour.

Despite having, as alluded above, written the liner notes for this release, I’ll probably still try to review this one if I can. There’s a lot to say about what’s happening here, conceptually as well as with sound. We’ll get there.

From the PR wire:

Polish doom metal giants DOPELORD to release new album “Songs for Satan” on Blues Funeral Recordings; first single and preorder available!

Warsaw doom metal heavyweights DOPELORD have announced the release of their fifth studio album “Songs for Satan” to be issued on October 6th as part of Blues Funeral Recordings’ deluxe PostWax series. Dive into this gigantic new album with the debut single “Night Of The Witch” streaming on all platforms now!

“Hear you laughing from the dark/As they pray to their god/Now their time has finally come/To reap what they’ve sown.” – Dopelord, 2023

Stream Dopelord’s new single “Night of the Witch” at this location: https://lnkfi.re/dopelordnotw

Having paved the way for Polish doom metal for over a decade by sticking to their strictly DIY ethos and hard work, mighty foursome DOPELORD is about to open a new chapter of its history by joining the coveted ranks of US label Blues Funeral Recordings (Acid King, Dozer, Lowrider, Dead Meadow).

Their fifth full-length “Songs for Satan” is a moment of critical mass for Dopelord. A blast of devil worship in the riffing realms is nothing new, and while they aren’t the first band to openly embrace the motif, their amplified heresy is uniquely triumphant, their fuzz-drenched apostasy genuine and glorious.

Not only does “Songs for Satan” showcase the band’s equal mastery of lumbering plod and silvery hooks, but it also more importantly mines Polish Catholicism’s decades of oppression for lyrical fuel. Tracks like “Satan’s Call,” “The Chosen One,” “One Billion Skulls” and “Worms” are pointed in their defiance of the church’s cultural dominance, even while managing to be contagiously singable at the same time. Maybe the extremity of their position will lead a few listeners to question their own beliefs and examine the church’s role, religion’s role (whether in Polish society or elsewhere) like a strong push to open a door. The voice of rebellion is crucial, and Dopelord’s shout is unmistakable.

Calling to mind Electric Wizard, Windhand, Belzebong and Acid King, “Songs for Satan” is Dopelord’s apex, an iconoclastic milestone for stoner doom that rumbles the earth and shakes our figurative foundations. It will be available on October 6th in various vinyl editions, limited digipack CD and digital. The ultra-limited deluxe vinyl edition will be shipped a few weeks prior to PostWax subscribers.

New album “Songs for Satan”
Out October 6th on Blues Funeral Recordings
Preorder:

Blues Funeral website: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/search?q=dopelord

Bandcamp:https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-satan

EU store: https://en.bluesfuneral.spkr.media/

TRACKLIST:
1. Intro
2. Night Of The Witch
3. The Chosen One
4. One Billion Skulls
5. Evil Spell
7. Worms
8. Return To The Night Of The Witch

Derailed from their aggressive live schedule for two years, DOPELORD blasted out the “Reality Dagger” EP in 2021 before setting to work on their boldest statement yet. On October 6th, 2023, their fifth album “Songs for Satan” will induct the mighty foursome as one of Europe’s heaviest and most faithful doom purveyors of the new era, crushing everything on their path under the Blues Funeral Recordings banner.

Dopelord on tour:
Oct 12 Prague Modra Vopice
Oct 13 Cottbus Muggefug
Oct 14 Jena KuBa
Oct 15 Braunschweig B58
Oct 16 Hamburg Hafenklang
Oct 17 Malmö Plan B
Oct 18 Copenhagen Loppen
Oct 19 Kiel Schaubude
Oct 20 Groningen Café de Walrus
Oct 21 Nijmegen Doornroosje
Oct 22 Antwerpen Trix DesertFest Belgium
Oct 23 Lille La Bulle Café
Oct 24 Osnabrück Bastard Club
Oct 25 Düdingen Bad Bonn
Oct 26 Düsseldorf Pitcher
Oct 27 Berlin Lido Heavy Psych Sounds Fest
Oct 28 Dresden Chemiefabrik Heavy Psych Sounds Fest

DOPELORD is
Paweł Mioduchowski – Guitars and Vocals
Piotr Ochociński – Drums
Grzegorz Pawłowski – Guitars
Piotr Zin – Bass, Vocals and Mellotron

https://www.facebook.com/Dopelord666
https://www.instagram.com/dopelord_666/
https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Dopelord, Songs for Satan (2023)

Been a trip so far, has this Quarterly Review. It’s been fun to bounce from one thing to the next, drawing imaginary lines between releases that have nothing more to do with each other than being written up on the same day, and seeing the way the mind reels in adjusting from talking about one thing to the next. It’s a different kind of challenge to write 150-200 words (and often more than that; these reviews are getting too long) about a record than 1,000 words.

Less room to make your argument means you need to say what you want to say how you want to say it and punch out. If you’ve read this site with any regularity over the last however many years, or perhaps if you’re reading this very sentence right now, right here, you might guess that such efficiency isn’t a strong suit. This assessment would be correct. Fact is I suck at any number of things. A growing list.

But we’ve made it to Thursday anyhow and today this 70-record Quarterly Review passes its halfway point, and that’s always a fun thing to mark. If you’ve been digging it, I hope you continue to do so. If nothing’s hit, maybe today. If this is the first you’re seeing of any of it, well, that’s fine too. We’re all friends here. You can go back and dig in or not, as you prefer. I’ll keep going either way. Speaking of…

Quarterly Review #31-40:

The Howling Eye, List Do Borykan

I don’t often say things like this, but List Do Borykan is worth it for the opening jam of “Space Dwellers, Episode 1.” That does not mean that song’s languid flow, silly stoned space-adventure spoken word narrative, and flashes of dub and psych and so on, are all that Poland’s The Howling Eye have to offer on their third full-length. It’s not. The prior single “Medival” (sic) has a thoughtful arrangement led by post-Claypool funky bass and surf-style guitar, which are swapped out for hard-riff cacophony metal in the second half of the song’s 3:35 run. That pairing sets up a back and forth between longer jams and more structured material, but it’s all pretty out there when you hear the seven song/44 minutes of the entire record, as the 10-minute “Brothers” builds from silence to organ-laced classic rock testimony and then draws itself down to let the funkier/rolling (depending on which part you’re talking about) “Space Dwellers, Episode 2” provide a swaying melodic highlight, and “Caverns” drones into jazz minimalism for nine minutes before “Space Dwellers, Episode 3” goes full-on over-the-top 92-second dance party. Finally. That leaves the closer, “Johnny,” as the landing spot where the back and forth jams/songs trades end, and they’re due a jam and provide one, but “Johnny” also follows on theme from “Space Dwellers, Episode 3” and the start of “Medival” and other funk-psych stretches, so summarizes List Do Borykan well. Again, worth it for the first song, but is much more than just that as a listening experience.

The Howling Eye on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Galactic Smokehouse store

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Avi C. Engel, Sanguinaria

Toronto-based folk experimentalist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Avi C. Engel starts off the 10-song Sanguinaria with the first of its headphone-ready arrangements “Sing in Our Chains” assessing modernity and realizing, “We were better off in the trees.” In addition to Engel‘s actual voice, which is well capable of carrying records on its own, with a distinctive character, part soft and breathy in delivery but resilient with a kind of bruised grace and, as time goes on, grown more adventurous. In “Poisonous Fruit” and “The Snake in the Mirror,” folk, soul and organically-cast sprawl unfold, and where “A Silver Thread” brings in electric guitar and lap steel, “Deathless” — the longest cut at 6:33, arriving paired with the subsequent, textural “I Died Again” — is sparse at first but builds around whatever stringed instrument Engel (slow talharpa?) is playing and Paul Kolinski‘s banjo, standout vocal harmonies and a subdued keeping of rhythm. Along with Kolinski, Brad Deschamps adds lap steel to the opener and the more-forward-in-percussion “Extasis Boogie,” which is listed as an interlude but nearly five minutes long, and Lys Guillorn contributes lap steel to “A Silver Thread,” with all due landscape manifestation. Sad, complex, and beautiful, the 52-minute long-player isn’t a minor undertaking on any level, and “Personne” and the penultimate “Bridge Behind the Sun” emphasize the point of intricacy before the looping “Larvae” masterfully crafts its resonance across the last six minutes of the album.

Avi C. Engel on Facebook

Avi C. Engel on Bandcamp

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Suns of the Tundra, The Only Equation

Begun in 1993 as Peach, London heavy prog rockers Suns of the Tundra celebrate 30 years with the encompassing hour-long The Only Equation, their fifth album, which brings back past members of the band, has a few songs with two drummers, and is wildly sprawling across 10 still-accessible tracks that shimmer with purpose and melody. The title-track seems to harken to a ’90s push, but the twisting and volume-surging back half stave redundancy ahead of the patient drama in the 10-minute “The Rot,” which follows. On the other side of the metal-leaning “Run Boy Run,” with its big, open, floating, thudding finish representing something Suns of the Tundra do very well throughout, the three-part cycle of “Reach for the Inbetween” could probably just as easily have been one 15-minute cut, but is more palatable as three, and loses nothing of its fluidity for it, the build in the third piece giving due payoff before “The Window is Wide” caps in deceptively hooky style. Whether one approaches it with the context of their decades or not, The Only Equation is deeply welcoming. And no, its proggy prog progness won’t resonate universally, but nothing does, and that doesn’t matter anyhow. Without giving up who they are creatively, Suns of the Tundra have made it as easy as they can for one to get on board. The rest is on the listener.

Suns of the Tundra on Facebook

Bad Elephant Music on Bandcamp

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Natskygge, Eskapisme

Natskygge sneak a little “Paranoid” into “Delir,” the instrumental opener/longest track (immediate points) of their second album, Eskapisme, and that’s just fine as dogwhistles go. The Danish classic psych rockers made a well-received self-titled debut in 2020 and look to expand on that outing’s classic vibe with this 34-minute eight-tracker, which is rife with creative ambition in the slower “Lys på vej” and the piano-laced “Fjern planet,” which follows, as well as in a mover/shaker like “Titusind år,” the compact three-minute strutter “Frit fald” or what might be the side B leadoff “Feberdrøm” with its circa-1999 Brant Bjork casual groove and warm fuzz, purposefully veering into psychedelia in a way that feels like a preface for the closing duo “Livet brænder,” an organ/keyboard flourish, grounded verse and airy swirls over top leading smoothly into the likewise-peppered but acoustically-based “Den der sidst gik ud,” which conveys patience without giving up the momentum the band has amassed up to that point. I’ll note that my ignorance of the Danish language doesn’t feel like it’s holding me back as “Fjern planet” holds forth its lush melancholy or “Titusind år” signals the band’s affinity for krautrock. Not quite vintage in production, but not too far off, Eskapisme feels like it was made to be lived with, the songs engaged over a period of years, and I look forward to revisiting accordingly.

Natskygge on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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Last Giant, Monuments

Portland’s Last Giant reportedly had a bit of a time recording their fourth long-player, Monuments, in a months-long process involving multiple studios and a handful of producers, among them Adam Pike (Holy Grove, Young Hunter, Red Fang, Mammoth Salmon, etc.) recording basic tracks, Paul Malinowski (Shiner, Open Hand) mixing and three different rounds of mastering. Complicated. Working as the three-piece of founder, principal songwriter, guitarist and vocalist RFK Heise (ex-System and Station), bassist Palmer Cloud and drummer Matt Wiles — it was just Heise and Wiles on 2020’s Let the End Begin (review here) — the band effectively fill in whatever cracks may have been apparent to them in the finished product, and the 10-track/39-minute offering is pop-informed as all their output to-date has been and loaded with heart. Also a bit of trumpet on “Saviors.” There’s swagger in “Blue” and “Hell on Burnside,” and “Feels Like Water” is about as weighted and brash as I’ve heard Last Giant get — a fun contrast to the acoustic “Lost and Losing,” which closes — but wherever a given track ends up, it is deftly guided there by Heise‘s sure hand. Sounds like it was much easier to make than apparently it was.

Last Giant on Facebook

Last Giant on Bandcamp

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Moonstone, Growth

Growth is either the second or third full-length from Polish heavy psych doomers Moonstone depending on what you count, but by the time you’re about three minutes into the 7:47 of second cut “Bloom” after the gets-loud-at-the-end-anyway atmospheric intro “Harvest” — which establishes an undercurrent of metal that the rest of the six-song/36-minute LP holds even in its quietest parts — ordinal numbering won’t matter anyway. “Bloom” and “Sun” (8:02), which follows, are the longest pieces on Growth, and that in itself speaks to the band stripping back some of their jammier impulses as compared to, say, late 2021’s two-song 12″ 1904 (discussed here), but while the individual tracks may be shorter, they give up nothing as regards largesse of tone or the spaces the band inhabit in the material. Flowing and doomed, “Sun” ends side A and gives over to the extra-bass-punch meditativeness of “Night,” the guitar building in the second half to solo for the payoff, while the six-minutes-each “Lust” and “Emerald” filter Electric Wizard haze and the proggy volume trades of countrymen like Spaceslug, respectively, close with due affirmation of purpose in big tone, big groove, and a noteworthy dark streak that may yet come to the fore of their approach.

Moonstone on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

Galactic Smokehouse store

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Sonic Demon, Veterans of the Psychic War

It’s not quite the centerpiece, but in terms of the general perspective on the world of the record from which it comes, there’s little arguing with Sonic Demon‘s “F.O.A.D.” as the declarative statement on Veterans of the Psychic War. As with Norway’s Darkthrone, who released an LP titled F.O.A.D. in 2007, Sonic Demon‘s “F.O.A.D.” stands for ‘fuck off and die,’ and that seems to be the central ethic they’re working from. Like most of what surrounds on the Italian duo’s follow-up to 2021’s Vendetta (review here), “F.O.A.D.” is coated in tonal dirt, a nastiness of buzz in line with the stated mentality making songs like swinging opener “Electric Demon” and “Lucifer’s the Light,” which follows, raw even by post-Uncle Acid garage doom standards. There are moments of letup, as in the wah-swirling second half of “The Black Pill,” a bit of psych bookending in “Wolfblood,” or the penultimate (probably thankfully) instrumental “Sexmagick Nights,” but the forward drive in “The Gates” highlights the point of Sonic Demon hand-drilling their riffs into the listener’s skull, and the actually-stoned-sounding groove of closer “To Hell and Back” seems pleased to bask in the filth the album has wrought.

Sonic Demon on Facebook

Sonic Demon on Bandcamp

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From the Ages, II

If you’re taking on From the Ages‘ deceptively-titled first full-length, II — the trio of guitarist Paul Dudziak, bassist Sean Fredrich and drummer David Tucker issued their I EP in 2021, so this is their second release overall — it is perhaps useful to know that the only inclusion with vocals is opener/longest track (immediate points) “Harbinger.” An automatic focal point for that, for its transposed Sleep influence, and for being about four minutes longer than anything else on the album, it draws well together with the five sans-vox cuts that follow, with an exploratory sensibility in its jam that feels like it may be from whence a clearly-plotted song like “Maelstrom” or the lumbering volume trades of “Tenebrous” originate. Full in tone and present in the noisy slog and pre-midpoint drift of “Epoch” as well as Dudziak‘s verses in “Harbinger,” From the Ages seem willful in their intention to try out different ideas, whether that’s the winding woe of “Obsolescence” or the acoustilectric standalone guitar of closer “Providence,” and while that can make the listener less sure of where their development might take them in stylistic terms, that only results in their being more exciting to hear in the now.

From the Ages on Facebook

From the Ages on Bandcamp

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Astral Magic, Cosmic Energy Flow

Not only is Astral Magic‘s Cosmic Energy Flow — released in May of this year — not the first outing from the Finnish space rock outfit led by project founder and spearhead Santtu Laakso in 2023, it’s the eighth. And that doesn’t include the demo short release with a live band. It’s also not the latest Astral Magic about two months after the fact, as Laakso and company have put out two full-lengths since. Unrealistic as this level of productivity is — surely the work of dimensional timeporting — and already-out-of-date as the eight-song/42-minute LP might be, it also brings Laakso into collaboration with the late Nik Turner of Hawkwind, who plays sax on the opening title-track, as well as guitarists Ilya Lipkin of Russia’s The Re-Stoned and Stefan Olesinski (Nuns on Napalm), and vocalists Christina Poupoutsi (The Higher Craft, The Meads of Asphodel, etc.) and Kev Ellis (Dubbal, Heliotrope, etc.), and where one might think so many personnel shifts around Laakso‘s synth-forward basic tracks would result in a disjointed offering, well, anything can happen in space and when you throw open doors in such a way, expectations broaden accordingly. Maybe it’s just one thing on the way to the next, maybe it’s the record with Nik Turner. Either way, Astral Magic move inextricably deeper into the known and unknown cosmos.

Astral Magic on Facebook

Astral Magic on Bandcamp

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Green Inferno, Trace the Veins

Until the solo hits in the second half of “The Barrens,” you almost don’t realize how much space there is in the mix on Green Inferno‘s Trace the Veins. The New Jersey trio like it dank and deathly as they answer the rawness of their 2019 demo with the six Esben Willems-mastered tracks of their first album, porting over “Spellcaster” and “Unearth the Tombs” to rest in the same mud as malevolent plodders like “Carried to the Pit” and the penultimate “Vultures,” which adds higher-register screaming to the already-established low growls — I doubt it’s actually an influence, but I’m reminded of Amorphis circa Elegy — that give the whole outing such an extreme persona if the guitar and bass tones weren’t already taking care of it. The tortured feel there carries into closer “Crown the Virgin” as the three-piece attempt to stomp their own riffs into oblivion along with everything else, and one can only hope they get there. New songs or the two older tracks, doesn’t matter. At any angle you might choose, Green Inferno are slow-churned extreme sludge, death-sludge if you want, fully stoned, drenched in murk, disillusioned, misanthropic. It’s the sound of looking at the world around you and deciding it’s not worth saving. Did I mention stoned? Good.

Green Inferno on Facebook

Green Inferno on Bandcamp

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Once they were announced for Burque Rock City Fest in March, The only real question was how long weed-worshiping Polish sludge metallers Belzebong would be on the road in the US, and now we know. That festival in Albuquerque will be the final stop on a string of dates that covers just about a month’s worth of touring — there’s a four-day break in there and some other days off, but it’s a good run — and they’ll set off from the Eastern Seaboard on July 7 for what they’re calling ‘Weedsommar,’ because, well, weed, and midsummer, and that movie, and subculture speaking to itself. You get the idea.

This is the part where I point out Belzebong‘s last record came out five years ago. Whatever. Good edibles take a while sometimes. Keeping company with Greenbeard — who play both rock and roll — Belzebong were in the US last year for a stop through Psycho Las Vegas (review here) where the two bands also featured on the same day, though whether that’s where they met or not I have no idea. But it’s a European act coming to the US, so maybe everybody stop shooting each other for five minutes so we can make a decent impression, hmm? A lot to ask these days, I know.

Dates follow, and if you’ve never seen Belzebong before, I’ll tell you outright they’re a blast. Fun fun fun, and fun. From social media:

BELZEBONG – Weedsommar

North American Tour 2023 with Greenbeard.
Tickets go on sale this Friday.

7/7 Cambridge, MA Sonia
7/8 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
7/9 Brooklyn, NY Saint Vitus Bar
7/11 Cleveland, OH No Class
7/12 Detroit, MI Sanctuary Detroit
7/13 Indianapolis, IN Black Circle
7/14 Chicago, IL Cobra Lounge
7/18 Dallas, TX Club Dada
7/19 Austin, TX The Lost Well
7/20 El Paso, TX Rockhouse Dive Bar Kitchen Venue
7/21 Tempe, AZ Yucca Tap Room
7/22 Los Angeles, CA Resident
7/25 Sacramento, CA Cafe Colonial
7/26 San Francisco, CA DNA Lounge
7/28 Eugene, OR John Henry’s
7/29 Vancouver, BC The Wise Hall & Lounge
7/30 Seattle, WA Funhouse Seattle
8/1 Portland, OR High Water Mark Lounge
8/3 Salt Lake City, UT Aces High Saloon
8/4 Denver, CO Hi-Dive Denver
8/5 Albuquerque, NM Burque Rock City Fest
(#128168#)(#128168#)(#128168#)
poster: Rafał Łagowski
(#128168#)(#128168#)(#128168#)

https://www.facebook.com/belzebong420/
https://www.instagram.com/belzebong420/
https://belzebong.bandcamp.com/

Belzebong, De Mysteriis Dope Sathanas – Live in Oslo (2019)

Belzebong, Light the Dankness (2018)

Coming at you live and direct from the Wegmans pharmacy counter where I’m waiting to pick up some pinkeye drops for my kid, who stayed home from half-day pre-k on Monday because the Quarterly Review isn’t complicated enough on its own. It was my diagnosis that called off the bus, later confirmed over telehealth, so at least I wasn’t wrong and shot my own day. I know this shit doesn’t matter to anyone — it’ll barely matter to me in half an hour — but, well, I don’t think I’ve ever written while waiting for a prescription before and I’m just stoned enough to think it might be fun to do so now.

Of course, by the time I’m writing the reviews below — tomorrow morning, as it happens — this scrip will have long since been ready and retrieved. But a moment to live through, just the same.

We hit halfway today. Hope your week’s been good so far. Mine’s kind of a mixed bag apart from the music, which has been pretty cool.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Yakuza, Sutra

Since it would be impossible anyway to encapsulate the scope of Yakuza‘s Sutra — the Chicago-based progressive psych-metal outfit led by vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont, with Matt McClelland on guitar/backing vocals, Jerome Marshall on bass and James Staffel on drums/percussion — from the transcendental churn of “2is1” to the deadpan tension build in and noise rock payoff in “Embers,” the sax-scorch bass-punch metallurgical crunch of “Into Forever” and the deceptively bright finish of “Never the Less,” and so on, let’s do a Q&A. They still might grind at any moment? Yup, see “Burn Before Reading.” They still on a wavelength of their own? Oh most definitely; see “Echoes From the Sky,” “Capricorn Rising,” etc. Still underrated? Yup. It’s been 11 years since they released Beyul (review here). Still ahead of their time? Yes. Like anti-genre pioneers John Zorn or Peter Brötzmann turned heavy and metal, or like Virus or Voivod with their specific kind of if-you-know-you-know, cult-following-worthy individualist creativity, Yakuza weave through the consuming 53-minute procession of Sutra with a sensibility that isn’t otherworldly because it’s psychedelic or drenched in effects (though it might also be those things at any given moment), but because they sound like they come from another planet. A welcome return from an outfit genuinely driven toward the unique and a meld of styles beyond metal and/or jazz. And they’ve got a fitting home on Svart. I know it’s been over a decade, but I hope these dudes get old in this band.

Yakuza on Facebook

Svart Records website

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Lotus Thrones, The Heretic Souvenir

The second offering from Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Heath Rave (Altars of the Moon, former drums in Wolvhammer, etc.) under the banner of Lotus Thrones, the seven-song/38-minute The Heretic Souvenir (on Disorder and Seeing Red) draws its individual pieces across an aural divide by means of a stark atmosphere, the post-plague-and-the-plague-is-capitalism skulking groove of “B0T0XDR0NE$” emblematic both of perspective and of willingness to throw a saxophone overtop if the mood’s right (by Yakuza‘s Bruce Lamont, no less), which it is. At the outset, “Gore Orphanage” is more of an onslaught, and “Alpha Centauri” has room for both a mathy chug and goth-rocking shove, the latter enhanced by Rave‘s low-register vocals. Following the Genghis Tron-esque glitch-grind of 1:16 centerpiece “Glassed,” the three-and-a-half-minute “Roses” ups the goth factor significantly, delving into twisted Type O Negative-style pulls and punk-rooted forward thrust in a highlight reportedly about Rave‘s kid, which is nice (not sarcastic), before making the jump into “Autumn of the Heretic Souvenir,” which melds Americana and low-key dub at the start of its 11-minute run before shifting into concrete sludge chug and encompassing trades between atmospheric melody and outright crush until a shift eight minutes in brings stand(mostly)alone keys backed by channel-swapping electronic noise as a setup for the final surge’s particularly declarative riff. That makes the alt-jazz instrumental “Nautilus” something of an afterthought, but not out of place in terms of its noir ambience that’s also somehow indebted to Nine Inch Nails. There’s a cough near the end. See if you can hear it.

Lotus Thrones on Facebook

Seeing Red Records store

Disorder Recordings website

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Endtime & Cosmic Reaper, Doom Sessions Vol. 7

Realized at the formidable behest of Heavy Psych Sounds, the seventh installment of the Doom Sessions series (Vol. 8 is already out) brings together Sweden’s strongly cinematic sludge-doomers Endtime with fire-crackling North Carolinian woods-doomers Cosmic Reaper. With two songs from the former and three from the latter, the balance winds up with more of an EP feel from Cosmic Reaper and like a single with an intro from Endtime, who dedicate the first couple of minutes of “Tunnel of Life” to a keyboard intro that’s very likely a soundtrack reference I just don’t know because I’m horror-ignorant before getting down to riff-rumble-roll business on the righteously slow-raging seven minutes of “Beyond the Black Void.” Cosmic Reaper, meanwhile, have three cuts, with harmonized guitars entering “Sundowner” en route to a languid and melodic nod verse, a solo later answering the VHS atmosphere of Endtime before “Dead and Loving It” and “King of Kings” cult-doom their way into oblivion, the latter picking up a bit of momentum as it pushes near the eight-minute mark. It’s a little uneven, considering, but Doom Sessions Vol. 7 provides a showcase for two of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ up-and-coming acts, and that’s pretty clearly the point. If it leads to listeners checking out their albums after hearing it, mission accomplished.

Endtime on Facebook

Cosmic Reaper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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High Priest, Invocation

Don’t skip this because of High Priest‘s generic-stoner-rock name. The Chicago four-piece of bassist/vocalist Justin Valentino, guitarists Pete Grossmann and John Regan and drummer Dan Polak make an awaited full-length debut with Invocation on Magnetic Eye Records, and if the label’s endorsement isn’t enough, I’ll tell you the eight-song/44-minute long-player is rife with thoughtful construction, melody and heft. Through the opening title-track and into the lumber, sweep and boogie of “Divinity,” they incorporate metal with the two guitars and some of the vocal patterning, but aren’t beholden to that anymore than to heavy rock, and far from unipolar, “Ceremony” gives a professional fullness of sound that “Cosmic Key” ups immediately to round out side A before “Down in the Park” hints toward heavygaze without actually tipping over, “Universe” finds the swing buried under that monolithic fuzz, “Conjure” offers a bluesier but still huge-sounding take and 7:40 closer “Heaven” layers a chorus of self-harmonizing Valentinos to underscore the point of how much the vocals add to the band. Which is a lot. What’s lost in pointing that out is just how densely weighted their backdrop is, and the nuance High Priest bring to their arrangements throughout, but whether you want to dig into that or just learn the words and sing along, you can’t lose.

High Priest on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

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MiR, Season Unknown

Its catharsis laced in every stretch of the skin-peeling tremolo and echoing screams of “Altar of Liar,” Season Unknown arrives as the first release from Poland’s MiR, a directly-blackened spinoff of heavy psych rockers Spaceslug, whose guitarist/vocalist Bartosz Janik and bassist/vocalist Jan Rutka feature along with guitarist Michał Zieleniewski (71tonman) and drummer Krzystof Kamisiński (Burning Hands). The relationship to Janik and Rutka‘s other (main?) band is sonically tenuous, though Spaceslug‘s Kamil Ziółkowski also guests on vocals, making it all the more appropriate that MiR stands as a different project. Ripping and progressive in kind, cuts like “Lost in Vision” and the blastbeaten severity of “Ashen” are an in-genre rampage, and while “Sum of All Mourn” is singularly engrossing in its groove, the penultimate “Yesterday Rotten” comes through as willfully stripped to its essential components until its drifting finish, which is fair enough ahead of the more expansive closer “Illusive Loss of Inner Frame,” which incorporates trades between all-out gnash and atmospheric contemplations. I won’t profess to be an expert on black metal, but as a sidestep, Season Unknown is both respectfully bold and clearly schooled in what it wants to be.

MiR on Facebook

MiR on Bandcamp

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Hiram-Maxim, Colder

Recorded by esteemed producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Unsane, etc.) in 2021-’22, Colder is Hiram-Maxim‘s third full-length, with hints of Angels of Light amid the sneering heaviness of “Bathed in Blood” after opener/longest track (immediate points) “Alpha” lays out the bleak atmosphere in which what follows will reside. “Undone” gets pretty close to laying on the floor, while “It Feels Good” very pointedly doesn’t for its three minutes of dug-in cafe woe, from out of which “Hive Mind” emerges with keys and drums forward in a moody verse before the post-punk urgency takes more complete hold en route to a finish of manipulated noise. As one would have to expect, “Shock Cock” is a rocker at heart, and the lead-in from the drone/experimental spoken word of “Time Lost Time” holds as a backdrop so that its Stooges-style comedown heavy is duly weirded out. Is that a theremin? Possibly. They cap by building a wall of malevolence and contempt with “Sick to Death” in under three minutes, resolving in a furious assault of kitchen-sink volume, that, yes, recedes, but is resonant enough to leave scratches on your arm. Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t extreme music just because some dude isn’t singing about killing some lady or quoting a medical dictionary. Colder could just as easily have been called ‘Volcanic.’

Hiram-Maxim on Facebook

Wax Mage Records on Facebook

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The Heavy Co., Brain Dead

Seeming always to be ready with a friendly, easy nod, Lafayette/Indianapolis, Indiana’s The Heavy Co. return with “Brain Dead” as a follow-up single to late-2022’s “God Damn, Jimmy.” The current four-piece incarnation of the band — guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, guitarist Jeff Kaleth, bassist Eric Bruce and drummer TR McCully — seem to be refocused from some of the group’s late-’10s departures, elements of outlaw country set aside in favor of a rolling riff with shades of familiar boogie in the start-stops beneath its solo section, a catchy but largely unassuming chorus, and a theme that, indeed, is about getting high. In one form or another, The Heavy Co. have been at it for most of the last 15 years, and in a little over four minutes they demonstrate where they want their emphasis to be — a loose, jammy feel held over from the riffout that probably birthed the song in the first place coinciding with the structure of the verses and chorus and a lack of pretense that is no less a defining aspect than the aforementioned riff. They know what they’re doing, so let ’em roll on. I don’t know if the singles are ahead of an album release or not, but whatever shows up whenever it does, The Heavy Co. are reliable in my mind and this is right in their current wheelhouse.

The Heavy Co. on Facebook

The Heavy Co. on Bandcamp

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The Cimmerian, Sword & Sorcery Vol. I

The intervening year since L.A.’s The Cimmerian made their debut with Thrice Majestic (review here) seems to have made the trio even more pummeling, as their Sword & Sorcery Vol. I two-songer finds them incorporating death and extreme metal for a feel like a combined-era Entombed on leadoff “Suffer No Guilt” which is a credit to bassist Nicolas Rocha‘s vocal burl as well as the intensity of riff from David Gein (ex-The Scimitar) and corresponding thrash gallop in David Morales‘ drumming. The subsequent “Inanna Rising” is slower, with a more open nod in its rhythm, but no less threatening, with fluid rolls of double-kick pushing the verse forward amid the growls and an effective scream, a sample of something (everything?) burning, and a kick in pace before the solo about halfway into the track’s 7:53. If The Cimmerian are growing more metal, and it seems they are, then the aggression suits them as the finish of “Inanna Rising” attests, and the thickness of sludge carried over in their tonality assures that the force of their impact is more than superficial.

The Cimmerian on Facebook

The Cimmerian on Bandcamp

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Nepaal, Protoaeolianism

Released as an offering from the amorphous Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records, the three-song Protoaeolianism arrives under the moniker of Nepaal — also stylized as :nepaal, with the colon — finding mainstay Bence Ambrus on guitar with Krisztina Benus on keys, Dávid Strausz on bass, Krisztián Megyeri on drums and Marci Bíró on effects/synth for captured-in-the-moment improvisations of increasing reach as space and psych and krautrocks comingle with hypnotic pulsations on “Innoxial Talent Parade” (9:54), the centerpiece “Brahman Sleeps 432 Billion Years” (19:14) and “Ineffable Minor States” (13:44), each of which has its arc of departure, journey and arrival, forming a multi-stage narrative voyage that’s as lush as the liquefied tones and sundry whatever-that-was noises. “Ineffable Minor States” is so serene in its just-guitar start that the first time I heard it I thought the song had cut off, but no. They’re just taking their time, and why shouldn’t they? And why shouldn’t we all take some time to pause, engage mindfully with our surroundings, experience or senses one at a time, the things we see, hear, touch, taste, smell? Maybe Protoaeolianism — instrumental for the duration — is a call to that. Maybe it’s just some jams from jammers and I shouldn’t read anything else into it. Here then, as in all things, you choose your own adventure. I’m glad to be the one to tell you this is an adventure worth taking.

Psychedelic Source Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

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Hope Hole, Beautiful Doom

There is much to dig into on the second full-length from Toledo, Ohio, duo Hope Hole — the returning parties of Matt Snyder and Mike Mulholland — who offer eight originals and a centerpiece cover of The Cure‘s “Sinking” that’s not even close to being the saddest thing on the record, titled Beautiful Doom presumably in honor of the music itself. Leadoff “Spirits on the Radio” makes me nostalgic for a keyboard-laced goth glory day that never happened while also tapping some of mid-period Anathema‘s abiding downer soul, seeming to speak to itself as much as the audience with repetitions of “You reap what you sew.” Some Godflesh surfaces in “600 Years,” and they’re resolute in the melancholy of “Common Sense” until the chugging starts, like a dirtier, underproduced Crippled Black Phoenix. Rolling with deceptive momentum, the title-track could be acoustic until it starts with the solo and electronic beats later before shifting into the piano, beats, drift guitar, and so on of “Sinking.” “Chopping Me” could be an entire band’s sound but it’s barely a quarter of what Hope Hole have to say in terms of aesthetic two records deep. “Mutant Dynamo” duly punks its arthouse sludge and shreds a self-aware over-the-top solo in the vein of Brendan Small, while “Pyrokinetic” revives earlier goth swing with a gruff biker exterior (I’d watch that movie) and a moment of spinning weirdo triumph at the end, almost happy to be burned, where the seven-minute finale “Cities of Gold” returns to beats over its gradual guitar start, emerging with chanting vocals to become its own declaration of progressive intent. Beautiful Doom ends with a steady march rather than the expected blowout, having built its gorgeous decay out of the same rotten Midwestern ground as the debut — 2021’s Death Can Change (review here) — but moved unquestionably forward from it.

Hope Hole on Facebook

Hope Hole on Bandcamp

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A couple things here. First and foremost, the name of Dopelord’s upcoming Fall tour — the ‘Tour for Satan’ — will make more sense generally in the context of the title of their next full-length, which I don’t think has yet been made public so I’m not going to say. But if you’re scratching your head on why it would be a tour with the devil as its purpose, that’s why. It’s a fitting name in light of that, and I’m sure the album announcement will be along the PR wire sooner or later. Probably five minutes after this post goes live, making me automatically behind as I perpetually seem to be. No, I don’t think that’s about me, and I don’t take it personally. This is doom. Leave your ego in the car.

Second and somehow-also-foremost, the album rules. The Warsaw-based outfit — who’ll hit Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp and Heavy Psych Sounds Festival in Germany (x2) on this run — have outdone themselves in melody and riffcraft and purpose in the impending batch of songs, and I say that as I’m in progress on liner notes for the PostWax edition of the release. Gotta get on that. Behind, as ever.

They mention below that the record will be out before they hit the road, which in addition to meaning I need to get on my shit as regards those liner notes, is also the closest thing to an official announcement I’ve seen of the release (since they got added to PostWax in 2021, anyhow), and apparently that’s well close enough for me to talk about it. The bottom line is whether or not you catch them on these dates, keep an eye for more about the record. Including, eventually, the name of it.

For now, the shows from Doomstar Bookings and the hint of the album’s coming dropped by the band on socials:

DOPELORD – Tour for Satan

Doomstar Bookings present Dopelord’s ‘Tour For Satan’ 2023 across Europe in October! See the confirmed dates below and the bandmark your calendar!

Says the band: “(#128481#)(#128128#)(#128481#) Attention! Tour For Satan will take place this October, shortly after the release of our next full album, thanks to Doomstar Bookings. FB events and tickets are live. (#128481#)(#128128#)(#128481#)”

Confimed dates:
12.10.23 – Prague (CZ) – Modra Vopice
13.10.23 – Cottbus (DE) – Muggefug
14.10.23 – Jena (DE) – KuBa
15.10.23 – Braunschweig (DE) – B58
16.10.23 – Hamburg (DE) – Hafenklang
17.10.23 – Malmö (SE) – Plan B
18.10.23 – Copenhagen (DK) – Loppen
19.10.23 – Kiel (DE) – Schaubude
20.10.23 – Groningen (NL) – Café de Walrus
21.10.23 – Nijmegen (NL) – Doornroosje w/ Bismut & Acid Rooster
22.10.23 – Antwerpen (BE) – Desertfest
23.10.23 – Lille (FR) – La Bulle Café
24.10.23 – Osnabrück (DE) – Bastard Club
25.10.23 – Düdingen (CH) – Bad Bonn
26.10.23 – Düsseldorf (DE) – Pitcher
27.10.23 – Berlin (DE) – Heavy Psych Sounds Festival
28.10.23 – Dresden (DE) – Heavy Psych Sounds Festival

https://www.facebook.com/Dopelord666
https://www.instagram.com/dopelord_666/
https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

Dopelord, Reality Dagger (2021)