Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga released their second album, Deities, early in 2020 on vinyl through Greece’s Made of Stone Recordings. The follow-up to their 2017 self-titled debut, it runs seven songs and 53 minutes — one assumes the vinyl is edited, or otherwise that the grooves are packed very, very tightly together — and is a pure example of what I mean when I employ the oft-used phrase ‘dug in.’ With production, guitars and vocals from Bablo (who softened his first consonant; it was previously Pablo), guitar, synth and vocals from Kłosu (who also mixed and recorded, with Achim), bass from Heszu and the steady rolling drums of Marmur, Tortuga languidly lumber through the culmination of “Esoteric Order” like they just invented wah, and it’s precisely that sense of the band being right there with the listener at the moment of righteousness, that kind of feeling that one might share in-person at a show, when they know it’s going good and you know it’s going good and that feeling of electricity and communion circles through the crowd. They’re into it as much as you are. You can feel them in the rehearsal space thinking, ‘Yeah, this is gonna be great,’ when they were writing, imagine the same conversation in the studio and then hear it in how they actually play the song.

That kind of feeling is writ large across Deities. It is a major unifying factor of the songs, which take a loosely Lovecraftian lyrical thematic and basically just play with it. The source of so much ultra-serious heavy metal, things dark, grim and tentacled, is on Deities boiled down to a kind of stoned brain-meander in which Yig, H.P. Lovecraft’s the lord of the Lizards, a god, is jealous of all the attention Godzilla gets in movies and so on. “Black Pharaoh II” is also Lovecraft-based and in complement to “Esoteric Order,” which puts the audience in this land of monsters following the instrumental intro “Shining Sphere” — which makes plenty of declarations of its own as regards the tonality with which Tortuga will convey their plod — the penultimate “Trip” is a lyrical moment of clarity in which the character making their way through this hellscape realizes that it’s all the result of having dropped too much acid. The lyrics, by Bablo and Anakolut — last names need not apply; they keep it casual — are a particular point of charm, but it’s really that ‘dug in’ sensibility that most comes through the listening experience. The distinct feeling that they’re having a good time too, that they know their music taps into a very specific kind of fun — a very specific kind of humor, though I wouldn’t call their material a joke on any level, even on “For Elizard” where the chorus is, “Yig hates Godzilla/Fuck you Godzilla” — and that not everybody is going to understand. They’re dug in. They’re riding the grooves of their own making. They’ve worked to craft their tones, their riffs, their songs, into either these hugely weighted slumps or the kind of rocking pushes one finds in the early going of the instrumental “Defective Mind Transfer” or the more atmospheric beginning of “Shining Sphere” from whence the full breadth of their distortion emerges like a tentacled god-beast from the more ethereal waters. It’s at 1:12 in the intro. You can’t miss it.

And if you’re listening at all, you won’t miss it, which is even more important. Because part of the communication that’s coming through Deities, and part of its being so dug in, stems from the fact that Tortuga clearly know who their audience is, because they’re it. Even as closer “Galeón de Manila” swaps out English lyrics for Spanish and moves with deceptive smoothness between elden doom and bell-of-ride, heads-down, forward-surge black metal before dissolving to nearly eight minutes of feedback, residual coming-apart and drone — this is in the digital version, not necessarily the LP — finishing the record with an unexpected twist, that change isn’t out of line for the kind of heavy that Tortuga play, and so it doesn’t feel out of place. If they started singing in Polish, I don’t think it would hurt the experience either. By the time they get there, you’ve already been up, down and around the mountains of madness, past the fields of wah in “Esoteric Order,” into the explosive, revelry-plod of “For Elizard,” through the semi-psych sample-topped musings of “Defective Mind Transfer,” the slam-that-fuzz-home midsection of “Black Pharaoh II” — you want to hear ‘dug in’ made manifest; cue up “Black Pharaoh II” at 2:30 into its total 6:10 and let it ride until the vocals come back at the very end, which is exactly what they do — the jaunty bounce that starts “Trip,” and far back at the start, the little flourish of synth that maybe marked the transfer from one world to another, so that they decide to turn all that dense fuzz to more ripper purposes for a stretch, well, you’ve already been steamrolled so why not?

No, Deities isn’t revolutionary. It’s not shaping genre in its own image either in the stoned or other heavy styles. It has a presence and a personality of its own, to be sure, but that comes well within the borders of genre, and the sense one gets from Tortuga is that they know it, they celebrate it, they want to celebrate it with their audience, as if to say, ‘Come check out this very, very large sound we have made.’ Or perhaps alternately, ‘Come dig in with us.’ Thus Deities, like religious dogma, offers an inherent feeling of community for those who listen and ‘get it.’ It’s not going to be everybody, but if you can hear the fun in “Esoteric Order” and “For Elizard,” then that invite to dig in should be a simple enough RSVP. Tortuga are the converted, holding a mass for the converted, and as much as their theme on Deities is hyper-specific, that ethic is mirrored in their instrumental bent. They know what they want to sound like because they know what they like. They are well and truly dug in, and unto its last drone, Deities is that much stronger an offering because of it. I don’t know if the Great Old Ones dig riffs or not, but if not, they’re missing out here.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

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Already this morning, the kid’s up. 5:06AM he came downstairs the first time. I was about two and a half paragraphs into the above. I put him back to bed — because, well, that’s too fucking early for him to be up — told him I’d set a timer for an hour and to go back to sleep. It’s 5:35AM right now and he’s come out of his room twice since, so really I’m just delaying the inevitable trying to get him some more rest which he’ll need so that at 2PM he doesn’t collapse into being a complete bastard because he’s too tired, and allow myself some time to work. I expect and know this effort will fail.

He just opened the bedroom door and said he has to pee; his ultimate not-going-back-to-bed weapon. Like a limit break in Final Fantasy VIII. I am defeated. It would really be something to be able to finish one of these posts on my laptop instead of my phone for a change one of these weeks. Feels like it’s been a very long time. I also wouldn’t mind going a day without having to mop up piss from all over the bathroom floor because, while gender is a complex issue in our house — I actually had another aside here explaining that but it was too long; bottom line is maybe trans? which presents all kinds of dangers in this hateful-ass country — he still wants to pee standing up and also holds it in for too long and then sprays the bathroom like he’s fucking powerwashing it. But these are apparently pretty big asks of life right now. And I work to remind myself that things will not always be as they are right now. Daily. Also I get high. Mostly in the afternoons and evenings. It is a wellness thing for me. I’ve been swimming every other morning at the gym near the house. The Patient Mrs. and I have been doing yoga videos. All of these things connect in my mind.

This weekend is family time. My oldest nephew turns 15 on Monday, so we’re having that whole crew over for dinner tomorrow, then brunch with Slevin and his fiancée on Sunday. Somewhere in there I’m supposed to do a sticker-quote for a Blood Lightning album and liner notes for PostWax. It’ll be a fucking miracle if I can get to the one-or-two-sentence thing there, let alone dig into the REZN/Vinnum Sabbathi collaboration and give it its descriptive due for a sheet that will be included with the release. I feel stupid and useless, even sitting here giving a shit about that stuff while my kid counts the seconds on the timer I set until we can turn on Sesame Street. He got a little music player this week that plays the theme. He sings along to it. It’s the kind of future-memory I should treasure for the rest of my life an example of what a sweet, wonderful person he is. But because I’m a narcissistic ogre, all I can think about is getting ‘work’ done for which I’m neither compensated nor ever truly able to finish.

So there you have it. Next week is a premiere from the new Stöner EP, a review of Strider, a premiere for Blackwülf, a full stream for Soothsayer Orchestra, and a review for Mathew’s Hidden Museum. That’s where the week is at now. Looking at it, it seems kind of ambitious. If I still have it in me by next Thursday to review that Mathew’s Hidden Museum and give it its due, I will. Otherwise I’ll push it back. I doubt Mr. Bethancourt is holding his breath for that, in any case. Really, I’m just ready to check out now and maybe spend the rest of the day just listening to music instead of thinking about it. Probably not going to happen.

A little discouraged, maybe, but persistent. Put it on my tombstone.

Have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate. I’m punching out to go do domestic whathaveyou, which probably means dishes, laundry or both.

FRM.

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Weedpecker‘s page on Facebook got hacked. First of all, that that happens to anyone in 2023 is emblematic of how much the tech model of “continuous improvement” — executed most often in a situation where something done mostly right the first time is gradually made worse over a period of however long until eventually it’s so awful everyone moves onto something else — is bullshit. The band issued their righteously proggy IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (review here) album through Stickman Records in late 2021 and are not letting the social media woes get in their way as they announce a Spring 2023 tour to support the album that will include slots at Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Bologna, Italy, a stop at Echoes of Erebus in Wien, and a swing through the UK that’s got them dropping by Desertfest London 2023 on May 7, adding to the already epic lineup there.

I honestly don’t know if giving them a follow on Facebook helps their cause or not — I’m waiting for my turn to be hacked; everybody seems to get there — but the band asked people to share the dates and doing so seems reasonable enough. There are a couple shows open — unless that’s another fest already confirmed but not yet announced — and of course, if you happen to have a venue handy for them to play, can provide a meal and so on, I’m sure they’d love to hear from you, whichever platform you might use to get in touch.

Tour looks like this:

“Hello everyone, we are happy to announce Weedpecker’s spring tour. We can’t wait to see you all! As some of you may know, our FB page was hacked 2 weeks ago and we still have no access to it. Every share, likes and comments would help us a lot to spread the message. Thank you all for your help and support.”

28.04 Brno Kabinet Muz CZ
29.04 Vienna Echoes of Erebus Fest AT
30.04 Bologna Heavy Psych Sounds Fest IT
01.05 Basel Hirscheneck CH
02.05 TBC
03.05 TBC
04.05 Manchester Rebellion UK
05.05 Glasgow Ivory Blacks UK
07.05 Desertfest London UK
08.05 Nantes Decadanse FR
09.05 Gent Trefpunt BE
10.05 Tilburg Little Devil NL
11.05 Rotterdam Baroeg NL
12.05 Cologne MTC DE
13.05 Jena Klub Kuba DE
14.05 Dresden Club Novitas DE

Weedpecker is:
Walczak (Tankograd, ex-Dopelord) – drums
Wyro – guitar/vox
Seru (BelzebonG) – keyboards
Piotr Kuks – bass

https://www.facebook.com/Weedpecker-349871488424872/
https://weedpecker.bandcamp.com/
http://weedpecker.bigcartel.com/
http://weedpecker.8merch.com/

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

Weedpecker, IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (2021)

In many ways, this is my favorite kind of Quarterly Review day. I always place things more or less as I get them, and let the days fill up randomly, but there are different types that come out of that. Some are heavier on riffs, some (looking at you, Monday) are more about atmosphere, and some are all over the place. That’s this. There’s no getting in a word rut — “what’s another way to say ‘loud and fuzzy?'” — when the releases in question don’t sound like each other.

As we move past the halfway point of the first week of this double-wide Quarterly Review, 100 total acts/offerings to be covered, that kind of thing is much appreciated on my end. Keeps the mind limber, as it were. Let’s roll.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #21-30:

White Hills, The Revenge of Heads on Fire

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — goes that White Hills stumbled on an old hard drive with 2007’s Heads on Fire‘s recording files on it, recovered them, and decided it was time to flesh out the original album some 15 years after the fact, releasing The Revenge of Heads on Fire through their own Heads on Fire Records imprint in fashion truer to the record’s original concept. Who would argue? Long-established freaks as they are, can’t White Hills basically do whatever the hell they want and it’ll be at the very least interesting? Sure enough, the 11-song starburster they’ve summoned out of the ether of memory is lysergic and druggy and sprawling through Dave W. and Ego Sensation‘s particular corner of heavy psychedelia and space rocks, “Visions of the Past, Present and Future” sounding no less vital for the passing of years as they’re still on a high temporal shift, riding a cosmic ribbon that puts “Speed Toilet” where “Revenge of Speed Toilet” once was in reverse sequeling and is satisfyingly head-spinning whether or not you ever heard the original. That is to say, context is nifty, but having your brain melted is better, and White Hills might screw around an awful lot, but they’re definitely not screwing around. You heard me.

White Hills on Facebook

White Hills on Bandcamp

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Dystopian Future Movies, War of the Ether

Weaving into and out of spoken word storytelling and lumbering riffy largesse, nine-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “She Up From the Drombán Hill” has a richly atmospheric impact on what follows throughout Dystopian Future Movies‘ self-issued third album, War of the Ether, the residual feedback cutting to silence ahead of a soft beginning for “Critical Mass” as guitarist/vocalist Caroline Cawley pairs foreboding ambience with noise rocking payoffs, joined by her Church of the Cosmic Skull bandmate Bill Fisher on bass/drums and Rafe Dunn on guitar for eight songs that owe some of their root to ’90s-era alt heavy but have grown into something of their own, as demonstrated in the willfully overwhelming apex of “The Walls of Filth and Toil” or the dare-a-hook ending of the probably-about-social-media “The Veneer” just prior. The LP runs deeper as it unfurls, each song setting forth on its own quiet start save for the more direct “License of Their Lies” and offering grim but thoughtful craft for a vision of dark heavy rock true both to the band’s mission and the album’s troubled spirit. Closer “A Decent Class of Girl” rolls through volume swells in what feels like a complement to “She Up From the Drombán Hill,” but its bookending wash only highlights the distance the audience has traveled alongside Cawley and company. Engrossing.

Dystopian Future Movies on Facebook

Dystopian Future Movies store

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Basalt Shrine, From Fiery Tongues

Though in part defined by the tectonic megasludge of “In the Dirt’s Embrace,” Filipino four-piece Basalt Shrine are no more beholden to that on From Fiery Tongues than they are the prior opening drone “Thawed Slag Blood,” the post-metallic soundscaping of the title-track, the open-spaced minimalism of closer “The Barren Aftermath” or the angular chug at the finish of centerpiece “Adorned for Loathing Pigs.” Through these five songs, the Manila-based outfit plunge into the darker, denser and more extreme regions of sludgy stylizations, and as they’ve apparently drawn the notice of US-based Electric Talon Records and sundry Euro imprints, safe to say the secret is out. Fair enough. The band guide “From Fiery Tongues,” song and album, with an entrancing churn that is as much about expression as impact, and the care they take in doing so — even at their heaviest and nastiest — isn’t to be understated, and especially as their debut, their ambition manifests itself in varied ways nearly all of which bode well for coming together as the crux of an innovative style. Not predicting anything, but while From Fiery Tongues doesn’t necessarily ring out with a hopeful viewpoint for the world at large, one can only listen to it and be optimistic about the prospects for the band themselves.

Basalt Shrine on Facebook

Electric Talon Records store

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Psychonaut, Violate Consensus Reality

Post-metallic in its atmosphere, there’s no discounting the intensity Belgium trio Psychonaut radiate on their second album, Violate Consensus Reality (on Pelagic). The prog-metal noodling of “All Your Gods Have Gone” and the singing-turns-to-screaming methodology on the prior opener “A Storm Approaching” begin the 52-minute eight-tracker with a fervency that affects everything that comes after, and as “Age of Separation” builds into its full push ahead of the title-track, which holds tension in its first half and shows why in its second, a halfway-there culmination before the ambient and melodic “Hope” turns momentarily from some of the harsher insistence before it, a summary/epilogue for the first platter of the 2LP release. The subsequent “Interbeing” is black metal reimagined as modern prog — flashes of Enslaved or Amorphis more than The Ocean or Mastodon, and no complaints — and the procession from “Hope” through “Interbeing” means that the onslaught of “A Pacifist’s Guide to Violence,” all slam and controlled plunder, is an apex of its own before the more sprawling, 12-minute capper “Towards the Edge,” which brings guest appearances from Brutus‘ Stefanie Mannaerts and the most esteemed frontman in European post-metal, Colin H. van Eeckhout of Amenra, whose band Psychonaut admirably avoid sounding just like. That’s not often the case these days.

Psychonaut on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Robot God, Worlds Collide

If you’re making your way through this post, skimming for something that looks interesting, don’t discount Sydney, Australia’s Robot God on account of their kinda-generic moniker. After solidifying — moltenifying? — their approach to longform-fuzz on their 2020 debut, Silver Buddha Dreaming, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Raff Iacurto, bassist/vocalist Matt Allen and drummer Tim Pritchard offer the four tracks of their sophomore LP, Worlds Collide, through Kozmik Artifactz in an apparent spirit of resonance, drawing familiar aspects of desert-style heavy rock out over songs that feel exploratory even as they’re born of recognizable elements. “Sleepwalking” (11:25) sets a broad landscape and the melody over the chugger riff in the second half of “Ready to Launch” (the shortest inclusion at 7:03) floats above it smoothly, while “Boogie Man” (11:24) pushes over the edge of the world and proceeds to (purposefully) tumble loosely downward in tempo from there, and the closing title-track (11:00) departs from its early verses along a jammier course, still plotted, but clearly open to the odd bit of happy-accidentalism. It’s a niche that seems difficult to occupy, and a difficult balance to strike between hooking the listener with a riff and spacing out, but Robot God mostly avoid the one-or-the-other trap and create something of their own from both sides; reminiscent of… wait for it… worlds colliding. Don’t skip it.

Robot God on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

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AAWKS, Heavy on the Cosmic

Released in June 2022 and given a late-in-the-year vinyl issue seemingly on the strength of popular demand alone, AAWKS‘ debut full-length, Heavy on the Cosmic sets itself forth with the immersive, densely-fuzzed nodder riff and stoned vocal of longest track (immediate points) “Beyond the Sun,” which finds start-with-longest-song complement on side B’s “Electric Traveller” (rare double points). Indeed there’s plenty to dig about the eight-song outing, from the boogie in “Sunshine Apparitions,” the abiding vibe of languid grunge and effects-laced chicanery that pervade the crashouts of “The Woods” to the memorable, slow hook-craft of “All is Fine.” Over on side B, the momentum early in “Electric Traveller” rams headfirst into its own slowdown, while “Space City” reinforces the no-joke tonality and Elephant Tree-style heavy/melodic blend before the penultimate mostly-instrumental “Star Collider” resolves itself like Floor at half-speed and closer “Peeling Away” lives up to its title with a departure of psychedelic soloing and final off-we-go loops. The word-of-mouth hype around AAWKS was and is significant, and the Ontario-based four-piece tender three-dimensional sound to justify it, the record too brief at 39 minutes to actually let the listener get lost while providing multiple opportunities for headphone escapism. A significant first LP.

AAWKS on Facebook

AAWKS on Bandcamp

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Smokes of Krakatau, Smokes of Krakatau

The core methodology of Polish trio Smokes of Krakatau across their self-titled debut seems to be to entrance their audience and then blindside them with a riffy punch upside the head. Can’t argue if it works, which it does, right from the gradual unfurling of 10-minute instrumental opener “Absence of Light” before the chunky-style riff of “GrassHopper” lumbers into the album’s first vocals, delivered with a burl that reminds of earlier Clutch. There are two more extended tracks tucked away at the end — “Septic” (10:07) and “Kombajn Bizon” (11:37) — but before they get there, “GrassHopper” begins a movement across four songs that brings the band to arguably their most straightforward piece of all, the four-minute “Carousel,” as though the ambient side of their persona was being drained out only to return amid the monolithic lumber that pays off the build in “Septic.” It’s a fascinating whole-album progression, but it works and it flows right unto the bluesy reach of “Kombajn Bizon,” which coalesces around a duly massive lurch in its last minutes. It’s a simplification to call them ‘stoner doom,’ but that’s what they are nonetheless, though the manner in which they present their material is as distinguishing a factor as that material itself in the listening experience. The band are not done growing, but if you let their songs carry you, you won’t regret going where they lead.

Smokes of Krakatau on Facebook

Smokes of Krakatau on Bandcamp

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Carrier Wave, Carrier Wave

Is it the riff-filled land that awaits, or the outer arms of the galaxy itself? Maybe a bit of both on Bellingham, Washington-based trio Carrier Wave‘s four-song self-titled debut, which operates with a reverence for the heft of its own making that reminds of early YOB without trying to ape either Mike Scheidt‘s vocal or riffing style. That works greatly to the benefit of three-piece — guitarist/vocalist James Myers, bassist/vocalist Taber Wilmot, drummer Joe Rude — who allow some raucousness to transfuse in “Skyhammer” (shortest song at 6:53) while surrounding that still-consuming breadth with opener “Cosmic Man” (14:01), “Monolithic Memories” (11:19) and the subsequent finale “Evening Star” (10:38), a quiet guitar start to the lead-and-longest track (immediate points) barely hinting at the deep tonal dive about to take place. Tempo? Mostly slow. Space? Mostly dark and vast. Ritual? Vital, loud and awaiting your attendance. There’s crush and presence and open space, surges, ebbs, flows and ties between earth and ether that not every band can or would be willing to make, and much to Carrier Wave‘s credit, at 42 minutes, they engage a kind of worldmaking through sound that’s psychedelic even as it builds solid walls of repetitive riffing. Not nasty. Welcoming, and welcome in itself accordingly.

Carrier Wave on Facebook

Carrier Wave on Bandcamp

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Stash, Through Rose Coloured Glasses

With mixing/mastering by Chris Fielding (Conan, etc.), the self-released first full-length from Tel Aviv’s Stash wants nothing for a hard-landing thud of a sound across its nine songs/45 minutes. Through Rose Coloured Glasses has a kind of inherent cynicism about it, thanks to the title and corresponding David Paul Seymour cover art, and its burl — which goes over the top in centerpiece “No Real” — is palpable to a defining degree. There’s a sense of what might’ve happened if C.O.C. had come from metal instead of punk rock, but one way or the other, Stash‘s grooves remain mostly throttled save for the early going of the penultimate “Rebirth.” The shove is marked and physical, and the tonal purpose isn’t so much to engulf the listener with weight as to act as the force pushing through from one song to the next, each one — “Suits and Ties,” “Lie” and certainly the opener “Invite the Devil for a Drink” — inciting a sense of movement, speaking to American Southern heavy without becoming entirely adherent to it, finding its own expression through roiling, chugging brashness. But there’s little happenstance in it — another byproduct of a metallic foundation — and Stash stay almost wholly clearheaded while they crash through your wall and proceed to break all the shit in your house, sonically speaking.

Stash on Facebook

Stash on Bandcamp

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Lightsucker, Stonemoon

Though it opens serene enough with birdsong and acoustic guitar on “Intro(vert,” the bulk of Lightsucker‘s second LP, Stonemoon is more given to a tumult of heavy motion, drawing together elements of atmospheric sludge and doom with shifts between heavy rock groove and harder-landing heft. And in “Pick Your God,” a little bit of death metal. An amalgam, then. So be it. The current that unites the Finnish four-piece’s material across Stonemoon is unhinged sludge rock that, in “Lie,” “Land of the Dead” and the swinging “Mob Psychosis” reminds of some of Church of Misery‘s shotgun-blues chaos, but as the careening “Guayota” and the deceptively steady push of “Justify” behind the madman vocals demonstrate, Lightsucker‘s ambitions aren’t so simply encapsulated. So much the better for the listening experience of the 35-minute/eight-song entirety, as from “Intro(vert)” through the suitably pointy snare hits of instrumental closer “Stalagmites,” Lightsucker remain notably unpredictable as they throw elbows and wreak havoc from one song to the next, the ruined debris of genre strewn about behind as if to leave a trail for you to follow after, which, if you can actually keep up with their changes, you might just do.

Lightsucker on Facebook

Lightsucker on Bandcamp

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Polish instrumentalist psych/prog trio Fish Basket released their new single “Imaginarium” last month and have a video to coincide that uses AI almost like a filter to give it an otherworldly look. I’ve been fascinated by the emergence of a creative culture around artificial intelligence, and I like weirdo heavy psych post-rock, so yeah, it seemed like a fit. I’m not sure it is, but I’m not sure it’s not, and to be honest with you I kind of like that about it.

The three-piece — Piotr Wicher on guitar, Oskar Osa Gross on bass, Rafał Weinert on drums — made their self-titled debut in 2019 (dig that cover art) and “Imaginarium” is their first offering since. The clip has a steady plot thread and certainly more going on in it than just the AI thing, but that’s definitely a novelty and this is the first time I’ve seen a band put it to use in this way to enhance the sci-fi look and feel of what they’re doing. I assume they’re not actually the first, and the much safer bet is that they won’t be the last either.

In the meantime, the song takes a suitably movement-based approach to its structure, finding its way toward a wash of melodic shimmer with a strong undercurrent of groove beneath, the drums lightly jazzy in line with the cyclical bass but not so busy that they’re disrupting the overarching flow, and at two minutes in, they break to a soundscaping drone as the bed for their next build. One thing into the next, smoothly executed with a sense of the musical conversation that birthed the track as well as the inevitable refinement of ideas that went into it before the piece was cast in its finished form.

I’m not sure whether “Imaginarium” is intended to herald a new album or EP or something like that, but the song has a hypnotic effect that makes it stand well on its own and the clip that you’ll find below showcases that well in addition to being visually intriguing. You probably won’t hear or see something else like it today, which should be considered a triumph on the part of Fish Basket, who very clearly are striving toward individualism.

Enjoy:

Fish Basket, “Imaginarium” official video

IMAGINARIUM is out now!
fanlink.to/Imaginarium

The recipe for the Imaginarium is locked behind the ancient doors. Three brave hunters are sent on a mission to get the three mysterious scrolls needed to open them… but somebody doesn’t like it at all.

Official Music Video for “Imaginarium” by Fish Basket.

This video was classically shot and modified using artificial intelligence.

Shot and edited by Kamil Arbuz (Arbuz Hyper Film) – https://www.facebook.com/arbuzhyperfilm @ARBUZ HYPER FILM
Directed by: Fish Basket and Kamil Arbuz
Produced by Kamil Arbuz and Piotr Wicher
Ai FX: Piotr Wicher
Sound FX: Kamil Arbuz
Screenplay: Fish Basket
Additional editing: Piotr Wicher
Costumes: Fish Basket
Music recorded in Rombalnia by Adam Gajewski and Piotr Wicher
Music Production: Piotr Wicher
Mix and mastering: Nebula Studio

Cast:
Fish: Rafał Weinert, Damian Chojnacki, Maciej Wiewiór
RW91: Rafał Weinert
OG17: Oskar Gross
PW27: Piotr Wicher
Bad Guy: Igor Pomidor, Rafał Weinert, Oskar Gross, Piotr Wicher, Volodymyr Lyashenko
Bob Flower: Robert Kwiatek

Special Thanks to Tichauer and everyone who made this possible.

Support Fish Basket by buying music and merch on bandcamp: https://fishbasket.bandcamp.com/

Fish Basket:
Piotr Wicher (guitar)
Oskar Osa Gross (bass)
Rafał Weinert (drums)

Fish Basket, Fish Basket (2019)

Fish Basket on Instagram

Fish Basket on Bandcamp

Fish Basket on Facebook

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Piotr Rutkowski of Taxi Caveman

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

The first time I picked up a guitar was at the age of twelve. I was visited by a neighbor in the apartment above excited to learn how to play the “Funeral March” on the guitar. It was only three notes, but I caught the bug and was eager to return the favor. My father showed me some simple blues tune and so it began.

Describe your first musical memory.

At the age of about five playing a tape of The Rolling Stones on my father’s stereo not knowing it was turned full blast. I fell off my chair and recovered for the entire song. What song was it? Unfortunately I don’t remember, but I do remember “Black Sabbath”, which I wanted to listen to on autumn evenings as the rain fell and get scared haha.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

There was a lot of that. I often imagined what it would be like to meet my idols. So I did my best to make it happen. In my high school days I was most into the scene of NOLA with Pantera at the forefront. I started organizing concerts and managed to bring Eyehategod to Poland for the first time. Then a second time. Then Crowbar. The moment when Kirk Windsten praises your guitar skills is a moment worth remembering. The year 2014 brought a meeting with The Kid himself – Philip Anselmo. Suddenly the dreams were over. :) My wish is to meet Tom Waits in my lifetime. :)

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

For a long time I had the mistaken impression that ‘the music will defend itself’. That you don’t need an idea for a band, for an image, for songwriting themes. I did my homework and try to approach my bands much more conceptually from all sides. It’s finally bringing results.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

For peace of mind. For conveying exactly the emotions one wants to convey.

How do you define success?

I used to think that success equaled ticking off accomplishments. More and more. Years of working at it have shown me that’s not true haha. Achieving success is very vague and often eludes us. These days, success for me is playing music that I like and that someone wants to listen to, on the basis of a self-perpetuating hobby. It gives me a basis to reach higher. :)

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

That dozens of speakers on big rock stages are fake haha.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I always wanted to finish “The Fall” project that I had with drummer from Behemoth – Inferno. We’ve recorded only two songs. Playing with this man has been the greatest pleasure in my musical life so far, so I feel very unsatisfied by this small results. :)

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Art can turn hours into minutes and minutes into seconds. It can help you find the emotions you are experiencing within yourself. It can finally allow you to unstick yourself and the world from your problems. That’s a lot of functions, how useful these days :)

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

It is about time to read Dostoevsky’s books again. :)

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Taxi Caveman, Taxi Caveman (2021)

Here we go again as we get closer to 100 records covered in this expanded Fall 2022 Quarterly Review. It’s been a pretty interesting ride so far, and as I’ve dug in I know for sure I’ve added a few names (and titles) to my year-end lists for albums, debuts, and so on. Today keeps the thread going with a good spread of styles and some very, very heavy stuff. If you haven’t found anything in the bunch yet — first I’d tell you to go back and check again, because, really? nothing in 60 records? — but after that, hey, maybe today’s your day.

Here’s hoping.

Quarterly Review #61-70:

Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone

The second short release in two years from trad metal forerunners Spirit Adrift, 20 Centuries Gone pairs two new originals in “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” — songs for our times written as fantasy narrative — with six covers, of Type O Negative‘s “Everything Dies,” Pantera‘s “Hollow,” Metallica‘s “Escape,” Thin Lizzy‘s “Waiting for an Alibi,” ZZ Top‘s “Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings” and Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Poison Whiskey.” The covers find them demonstrating a bit of malleability — founding guitarist/vocalist does well with Phil Lynott‘s and Peter Steele‘s inflections while still sounding like himself — and it’s always a novelty to hear a band purposefully showcase their influences like this, but “Sorcerer’s Fate” and “Mass Formation Psychosis” are the real draw. The former nods atop a Candlemassian chug and sweeping chorus before spending much of its second half instrumental, and “Mass Formation Psychosis” resolves in burly riffing, but only after a poised rollout of classic doom, slower, sleeker in its groove, with acoustic strum layered in amid the distortion and keyboard. Two quick reaffirmations of the band’s metallic flourishing and, indeed, a greater movement happening partially in their wake. And then the covers, which are admirably more than filler in terms of arrangement. Something of a holdover, maybe, but by no means lacking substance.

Spirit Adrift on Facebook

Century Media store

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Northless, A Path Beyond Grief

Just because it’s so bludgeoning doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all it is. The melodic stretch of “Forbidden World of Light” and delve into progressive black metal after the nakedly Crowbarian sludge of “A Path Beyond Grief,” the clean vocal-topped atmospheric heft of “What Must Be Done” and the choral feel of centerpiece “Carried,” even the way “Of Shadow and Sanguine” seems to purposefully thrash (also some more black metal there) amid its bouts of deathcore and sludge lumbering — all of these come together to make Northless‘ fourth long-player, A Path Beyond Grief, an experience that’s still perhaps defined by its intensity and concrete tonality, its aggression, but that is not necessarily beholden to those. Even the quiet intro “Nihil Sanctum Vitae” — a seeming complement to the nine-minute bring-it-all-together closer “Nothing That Lives Will Last” — seems intended to tell the listener there’s more happening here than it might at first seem. As someone who still misses Swarm of the Lotus, some of the culmination in that finale is enough to move the blood in my wretched body, but while born in part of hardcore, Northless are deep into their own style throughout these seven songs, and the resultant smashy smashy is able to adjust its own elemental balance while remaining ferociously executed. Except, you know, when it’s not. Because it’s not just one thing.

Northless on Facebook

Translation Loss Records store

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Lightrain, AER

Comprised of five songs running a tidy 20 minutes, each brought together through ambience as well as the fact that their titles are all three letters long — “Aer,” “Hyd,” “Orb,” “Wiz,” “Rue” — AER is the debut EP from German instrumentalists Lightrain, who would seek entry into the contemplative and evocative sphere of acts like Toundra or We Lost the Sea as they offer headed-out post-rock float and heavy psychedelic vibe. “Hyd” is a focal point, both for its eight-minute runtime (nothing else is half that long) and the general spaciousness, plus a bit of riffy shove in the middle, with which it fills that, but the ultra-mellow “Aer” and drumless wash of “Wiz” feed into an overarching flow that speaks to greater intentions on the part of the band vis a vis a first album. “Rue” is progressive without being overthought, and “Orb” feels born of a jam without necessarily being that jam, finding sure footing on ground that for many would be uncertain. If this is the beginning point of a longer-term evolution on the part of the band, so much the better, but even taken as a standalone, without consideration for the potential of what it might lead to, the LP-style fluidity that takes hold across AER puts the lie to its 20 minutes being somehow minor.

Lightrain on Facebook

Lightrain on Bandcamp

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1965, Panther

Cleanly produced and leaning toward sleaze at times in a way that feels purposefully drawn from ’80s glam metal, the second offering from Poland’s 1965 — they might as well have called themselves 1542 for as much as they have to do sound-wise with what was going on that year — is the 12-song/52-minute Panther, which wants your nuclear love on “Nuclear Love,” wants to rock on “Let’s Rock,” and would be more than happy to do whatever it wants on “Anything We Want.” Okay, so maybe guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter Michał Rogalski isn’t going to take home gold at the Subtlety Olympics, but the Warsaw-based outfit — him plus Marco Caponi on bass/backing vocals and Tomasz Rudnicki on drums/backing vocals, as well as an array of lead guitarists guesting — know the rock they want to make, and they make it. Songs are tight and well performed, heavy enough in tone to have a presence but fleet-footed in their turns from verse to chorus and the many trad-metal-derived leads. Given the lyrics of the title-track, I’m not sure positioning oneself as an actual predatory creature as a metaphor for seduction has been fully thought through, but you don’t see me out here writing lyrics in Polish either, so take it with that grain of salt if you feel the need or it helps. For my money I’ll take the still-over-the-top “So Many Times” and the sharp start-stops of “All My Heroes Are Dead,” but there’s certainly no lack of others to choose from.

1965 on Facebook

1965 on Bandcamp

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Blacklab, In a Bizarre Dream

Blacklab — also stylized BlackLab — are the Osaka, Japan-based duo of guitarist/vocalist Yuko Morino and drummer Chia Shiraishi, but if you’d enter into their second full-length, In a Bizarre Dream, expecting some rawness or lacking heft on account of their sans-bass configuration, you’re more likely to be bowled over by the sludgy tonality on display. “Cold Rain” — opener and longest track (immediate points) at 6:13 — and “Abyss Woods” are largely screamers, righteously harsh with riffs no less biting, and “Dark Clouds” does the job in half the time with a punkier onslaught leading to “Evil 1,” but “Evil 2” mellows out a bit, adjusts the balance toward clean singing and brooding in a way that the oh-hi-there guest vocal contribution from Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab (after whom Blacklab are partially named) on “Crows, Sparrows and Cats” shifts into a grungier modus. “Lost” and “In a Bizarre Dream,” the latter more of an interlude, keep the momentum going on the rock side, but somehow you just know they’re going to turn it around again, and they absolutely do, easing their way in with the largesse of “Monochrome Rainbow” before “Collapse” caps with a full-on onslaught that brings into full emphasis how much reach they have as a two-piece and just how successfully they make it all heavy.

Blacklab on Facebook

New Heavy Sounds at Cargo Records store

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Sun King Ba, Writhing Mass

I guess the only problem that might arise from recording your first two-songer with Steve Albini is that you’ve set an awfully high standard for, well, every subsequent offering your band ever makes in terms of production. There are traces of Karma to Burn-style chug on “Ectotherm,” the A-side accompanied by “Writhing Mass” on the two-songer that shares the same name, but Chicago imstrumental trio Sun King Ba are digging into more progressively-minded, less-stripped-down fare on both of these initial tracks. Still, impact and the vitality of the end result are loosely reminiscent, but the life on that guitar, bass and drums speaks volumes, and not just in favor of the recording itself. “Writhing Mass” crashes into tempo changes and resolves itself in being both big and loud, and the space in the cymbals alone as it comes to its noisy finish hints at future incursions to be made. Lest we forget that Chicago birthed Pelican and Bongripper, among others, for the benefit of instrumental heavy worldwide. Sun King Ba have a ways to go before they’re added to that list, but there is intention being signaled here for those with ears to hear it.

Sun King Ba on Instagram

Sun King Ba on Bandcamp

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Kenodromia, Kenodromia

Despite the somewhat grim imagery on the cover art for Kenodromia‘s self-titled debut EP — a three-cut outing that marks a return to the band of vocalist Hilde Chruicshank after some stretch of absence during which they were known as Hideout — the Oslo, Norway, four-piece play heavy rock through and through on “Slandered,” “Corrupted” and “Bound,” with the bluesy fuzzer riffs and subtle psych flourishes of Eigil Nicolaisen‘s guitar backing Chruicshank‘s lyrics as bassist Michael Sindhu and drummer Trond Buvik underscore the “break free” moment in “Corrupted,” which feels well within its rights in terms of sociopolitical commentary ahead of the airier start of “Bound” after the relatively straightforward beginning that was “Slandered.” With the songs arranged shortest to longest, “Bound” is also the darkest in terms of atmosphere and features a more open verse, but the nod that defines the second half is huge, welcome and consuming even as it veers into a swaggering kind of guitar solo before coming back to finish. These players have been together one way or another for over 10 years, and knowing that, Kenodromia‘s overarching cohesion makes sense. Hopefully it’s not long before they turn attentions toward a first LP. They’re clearly ready.

Kenodromia on Facebook

Kenodromia on Bandcamp

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Mezzoa, Dunes of Mars

Mezzoa are the San Diego three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ignacio “El Falcone” Maldonado, bassist Q “Dust Devil” Pena (who according to their bio was created in the ‘Cholo Goth Universe,’ so yes, charm is a factor), and drummer Roy “Bam Bam” Belarmino, and the 13-track/45-minute Dunes of Mars is their second album behind 2017’s Astral Travel. They sound like a band who’ve been around for a bit, and indeed they have, playing in other bands and so on, but they’ve got their approach on lockdown and I don’t mean for the plague. The material here, whether it’s the Helmet-plus-melody riffing of “Tattoos and Halos” or the more languid roll of the seven-minute “Dunes of Mars” earlier on, is crisp and mature without sounding flat or staid creatively, and though they’re likened most to desert rock and one can hear that in the penultimate “Seized Up” a bit, there’s more density in the guitar and bass, and the immediacy of “Hyde” speaks of more urgent influences at work. That said, the nodding chill-and-chug of “Moya” is heavy whatever landscape you want to say birthed it, and with the movement into and out of psychedelic vibes, the land is something you’re just as likely to leave behind anyway. Hit me as a surprise. Don’t be shocked if you end up going back to check out the first record after.

Mezzoa on Facebook

Iron Head Records website

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Stone Nomads, Fields of Doom

Released through emergent Texas-based imprint Gravitoyd Heavy Music, Stone Nomads‘ Fields of Doom comprises six songs, five originals, and is accordingly somewhere between a debut full-length and an EP at half an hour long. The cover is a take on Saint Vitus‘ “Dragon Time,” and it rests well here as the closer behind the prior-released single “Soul Stealer,” as bassist Jude Sisk and guitarist Jon Cosky trade lead vocal duties while Dwayne Crosby furthers the underlying metallic impression on drums, pushing some double-kick gallop under the solo of “Fiery Sabbath” early on after the leadoff title-track lumbers and chugs and bell-tolls to its ending, heavy enough for heavy heads, aggro enough to suit your sneer, with maybe a bit of Type O Negative influence in the vocal. Huffing oldschool gasoline, Fields of Doom might prove too burled-out for some listeners, but the interlude “Winds of Barren Lands” and the vocal swaps mean that you’re never quite sure where they’re going to hit you next, even if you know the hit is coming, and even as “Soul Stealer” goes grandiose before giving way to the already-noted Vitus cover. And if you’re wondering, they nail the noise of the solo in that song, leaving no doubt that they know what they’re doing, with their own material or otherwise.

Stone Nomads on Facebook

Gravitoyd Heavy Music on Bandcamp

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Blind Mess, After the Storm

Drawing from various corners of punk, noise rock and heavy rock’s accessibility, Munich trio Blind Mess offer their third full-length in After the Storm, which is aptly-enough titled, considering. “Fight Fire with Fire” isn’t a cover, but the closing “What’s the Matter Man?” is, of Rollins Band, no less, and they arrive there after careening though a swath of tunes like “Twilight Zone,” “At the Gates” and “Save a Bullet,” which are as likely to be hardcore-born shove or desert-riffed melody, and in the last of those listed there, a little bit of both. To make matters more complicated, “Killing My Idols” leans into classic metal in its underlying riff as the vocals bark and its swing is heavy ’70s through and through. This aesthetic amalgam holds together in the toughguy march of “Sirens” as much as the garage-QOTSA rush of “Left to Do” and the dares-to-thrash finish of “Fight Fire with Fire” since the songs themselves are well composed and at 38 minutes they’re in no danger of overstaying their welcome. And when they get there, “What’s the Matter Man?” makes a friendly-ish-but-still-confrontational complemement to “Left to Do” back at the outset, as though to remind us that wherever they’ve gone over the course of the album between, it’s all been about rock and roll the whole time. So be it.

Blind Mess on Facebook

Deadclockwork Records website

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Day three, passing the quarter mark of the Quarterly Review, halfway through the week. This is usually the point where my brain locks itself into this mode and I find that even in any other posts where I’m doing actual writing I need to think about I default to this kind of trying-to-encapsulate-a-thing-in-not-a-million-words mindset, for better or worse. Usually a bit of both, I guess. Today’s also all over the place, so if you’re feeling brave, today’s the day to really dig in. As always, I hope you enjoy. If not, more coming tomorrow. And the day after. And then again on Monday. And so on.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Nadja, Labyrinthine

The second full-length of 2022 from the now-Berlin-based experimental two-piece Nadja — as ever, Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker — is a four-song collaborative work on which each piece features a different vocalist. In guesting roles are Alan Dubin, formerly of Khantate/currently of Gnaw, Esben and the Witch‘s Rachel Davies, Lane Shi Otayonii of Elizabeth Colour Wheel and Full of Hell‘s Dylan Walker. Given these players and their respective pedigrees, it should not be hard to guess that Labyrinthine begins and ends ferocious, but Nadja by no means reserve the harshness of noise solely for the dudely contingent. The 17-minute “Blurred,” with Otayonii crooning overtop, unfurls a consuming wash of noise that, true, eventually fades toward a more definitive droner of a riff, but sure enough returns as a crescendo later on. Dubin is unmistakable on the opening title-track, and while Davies‘ “Rue” runs only 12 minutes and is the most conventionally listenable of the inclusions on the whole, even its ending section is a voluminous blowout of abrasive speaker destruction. Hey, you get what you get. As for Nadja, they should get one of those genius grants I keep hearing so much about.

Nadja website

Nadja on Bandcamp

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London Odense Ensemble, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1

El Paraiso Records alert! London Odense Ensemble features Jonas Munk (guitar, production), Jakob Skøtt (drums, art) and Martin Rude (sometimes bass) of Danish psych masters Causa Sui — they’re the Odense part — and London-based saxophonist/flutist Tamar Osborn and keyboardist/synthesist Al MacSween, and if they ever do a follow-up to Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1, humanity will have to mark itself lucky, because the psych-jazz explorations here are something truly special. On side A they present the two-part “Jaiyede Suite” with lush krautrock rising to the level of improv-sounding astro-freakout before the ambient-but-still-active “Sojourner” swells and recedes gracefully, and side B brings the 15-minute “Enter Momentum,” which is as locked in as the title might lead one to believe and then some and twice as free, guitar and sax conversing fluidly throughout the second half, and the concluding “Celestial Navigation,” opening like a sunrise and unfolding with a playful balance of sax and guitar and synth over the drums, the players trusting each other to ultimately hold it all together as of course they do. Not for everybody, but peaceful even in its most active moments, Jaiyede Sessions Vol. 1 is yet another instrumental triumph for the El Paraiso camp. Thankfully, they haven’t gotten bored of them yet.

El Paraiso Records on Facebook

El Paraiso Records store

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Omen Stones, Omen Stones

True, most of these songs have been around for a few years. All eight of the tracks on Omen Stones‘ 33-minute self-titled full-length save for “Skin” featured on the band’s 2019 untitled outing (an incomplete version of which was reviewed here in 2018), but they’re freshly recorded, and the message of Omen Stones being intended as a debut album comes through clearly in the production and the presentation of the material generally, and from ragers like “Fertile Blight” and the aforementioned “Skin,” which is particularly High on Fire-esque, to the brash distorted punk (until it isn’t) of “Fresh Hell” and the culminating nod and melody dare of “Black Cloud,” the key is movement. The three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Tommy Hamilton (Druglord), bassist Ed Fierro (Tel) and drummer Erik Larson (Avail, Alabama Thunderpussy, etc. ad infinitum) are somewhere between riff-based rock and metal, but carry more than an edge of sludge-nasty in their tones and Hamilton‘s sometimes sneering vocals such that Omen Stones ends up like the hardest-hitting, stoner-metal-informed grunge record that ever got lost from 1994. Then you get into “Secrete,” and have to throw the word ‘Southern’ into the mix because of that guitar lick, and, well, maybe it’s better to put stylistic designations to the side for the time being. A ripper with pedigree is a ripper nonetheless.

Omen Stones on Facebook

Omen Stones on Bandcamp

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Jalayan, Floating Islands

Proggy, synth-driven instrumentalist space rock is the core of what Italy’s Jalayan bring forward on the 45-minute Floating Islands, with guitar periodically veering into metallic-style riffing but ultimately pushed down in the mix to let the keyboard work of band founder Alessio Malatesta (who also recorded) breathe as it does. That balance is malleable throughout, as the band shows early between “Tilmun” and “Nemesis,” and if you’re still on board the ship by the time you get to the outer reaches of “Stars Stair” — still side A, mind you — then the second full-length from the Lesmo outfit will continue to offer thrills as “Fire of Lanka” twists and runs ambience and intensity side by side and “Colliding Orbits” dabbles in space-jazz with New Age’d keyboards, answering some of what featured earlier on “Edination.” The penultimate “Narayanastra” has a steadier rock beat behind it and so feels more straightforward, but don’t be fooled, and at just under seven minutes, “Shem Temple” closes the proceedings with a clear underscoring the dug-in prog vibe, similar spacey meeting with keys-as-sitar in the intro as the band finds a middle ground between spirit and space. There are worlds being made here, as Malatesta leads the band through these composed, considered-feeling pieces united by an overarching cosmic impulse.

Jalayan on Facebook

Sound Effect Records store

Adansonia Records store

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Las Cruces, Cosmic Tears

Following 12 years on the heels and hells of 2010’s Dusk (review here), San Antonio, Texas, doomers Las Cruces return with the classic-style doom metal of Cosmic Tears, and if you think a hour-long album is unmanageable in the day and age of 35-minute-range vinyl attention spans, you’re right, but that’s not the vibe Las Cruces are playing to, and it’s been over a decade, so calm down. Founding guitarist George Trevino marks the final recorded performance of drummer Paul DeLeon, who passed away last year, and welcomes vocalist Jason Kane to the fold with a showcase worthy of comparison to Tony Martin on songs like “Stay” and the lumbering “Holy Hell,” with Mando Tovar‘s guitar and Jimmy Bell‘s bass resulting in riffs that much thicker. Peer to acts like Penance and others working in the post-Hellhound Records sphere, Las Cruces are more grounded than Candlemass but reach similar heights on “Relentless” and “Egyptian Winter,” with classic metal as the thread that runs throughout the whole offering. A welcome return.

Las Cruces on Facebook

Ripple Music store

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The Freeks, Miles of Blues

Kind of a sneaky album. Like, shh, don’t tell anybody. As I understand it, the bulk of The Freeks‘ nine-tracker Miles of Blues is collected odds and ends — the first four songs reportedly going to be used for a split at some point — and the two-minute riff-and-synth funk-jam “Maybe It’s Time” bears that out in feeling somewhat like half a song, but with the barroom-brawler-gone-to-space “Jaqueline,” the willfully kosmiche “Wag the Fuzz,” which does what “Maybe It’s Time” does, but feels more complete in it, and the 11-minute interstellar grandiosity of “Star Stream,” the 41-minute release sure sounds like a full-length to me. Ruben Romano (formerly Nebula and Fu Manchu) and Ed Mundell (ex-Monster Magnet) are headlining names, but at this point The Freeks have established a particular brand of bluesy desert psych weirdness, and that’s all over “Real Gone” — which, yes, goes — and the rougher garage push of “Played for Keeps,” which should offer thrills to anyone who got down with Josiah‘s latest. Self-released, pressed to CD, probably not a ton made, Miles of Blues is there waiting for you now so that you don’t regret missing it later. So don’t miss it, whether it’s an album or not.

The Freeks on Facebook

The Freeks website

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Duncan Park, In the Floodplain of Dreams

South Africa-based self-recording folk guitarist Duncan Park answers his earlier-2022 release, Invoking the Flood (review here), with the four pieces of In the Floodplain of Dreams, bringing together textures of experimentalist guitar with a foundation of hillside acoustic on opener and longest track (immediate points) “In the Mountains of Sour Grass,” calling to mind some of Six Organs of Admittance‘s exploratory layering, while “Howling at the Moon” boasts more discernable vocals (thankfully not howls) and “Ballad for the Soft Green Moss” highlights the self-awareness of the evocations throughout — it is green, organic, understated, flowing — and the closing title-track reminisces about that time Alice in Chains put out “Don’t Follow” and runs a current of drone behind its central guitar figure to effectively flesh out the this-world-as-otherworld vibe, devolving into (first) shred and (then) noise as the titular dream seems to give way to a harsher reality. So be it. Honestly, if Park wants to go ahead and put out a collection like this every six months or so into perpetuity, that’d be just fine. The vocals here are a natural development from the prior release, and an element that one hopes continue to manifest on the next one.

Duncan Park on Facebook

Ramble Records store

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MuN, Presomnia

Crushing and atmospheric in kind, Poland’s MuN released Presomnia through Piranha Music in 2020 as their third full-length. I’m not entirely sure why it’s here, but it’s in my notes and the album’s heavy like Eastern European sadness, so screw it. Comprised of seven songs running 43 minutes, it centers around that place between waking and sleep, where all the fun lucid dreaming happens and you can fly and screw and do whatever else you want in your own brain, all expressed through post-metallic lumber and volume trades, shifting and building in tension as it goes, vocals trading between cleaner sung stretches and gut-punch growls. The layered guitar solo on “Arthur” sounds straight out of the Tool playbook, but near everything else around is otherwise directed and decidedly more pummeling. At least when it wants to be. Not a complaint, either way. The heft of chug in “Deceit” is of a rare caliber, and the culmination in the 13-minute “Decree” seems to use every bit of space the record has made prior in order to flesh out its melancholic, contemplative course. Much to their credit, after destroying in the midsection of that extended piece, MuN make you think they’re bringing it back around again at the end, and then don’t. Because up yours for expecting things. Still the “Stones From the Sky” riff as they come out of that midsection, though. Guess you could do that two years ago.

MuN on Facebook

Piranha Music on Bandcamp

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Elliott’s Keep, Vulnerant Omnes

I’ve never had the fortune of seeing long-running Dallas trio Elliott’s Keep live, but if ever I did and if at least one of the members of the band — bassist/vocalist Kenneth Greene, guitarist Jonathan Bates, drummer Joel Bates — wasn’t wearing a studded armband, I think I might be a little disappointed. They know their metal and they play their metal, exclusively. Comprised of seven songs, Vulnerant Omnes is purposefully dark, able to shift smoothly between doom and straight-up classic heavy metal, and continuing a number of ongoing themes for the band: it’s produced by J.T. Longoria, titled in Latin (true now of all five of their LPs), and made in homage to Glenn Riley Elliott, who passed away in 2004 but features here on the closer “White Wolf,” a cover of the members’ former outfit, Marauder, that thrashes righteously before dooming out as though they knew someday they’d need it to tie together an entire album for a future band. Elsewhere, “Laughter of the Gods” and the Candlemassian “Every Hour” bleed their doom like they’ve cut their hand to swear an oath of fealty, and the pre-closer two-parter “Omnis Pretium (Fortress I)” and “Et Sanguinum (Fortress II)” speaks to an age when heavy metal was for fantasy-obsessed miscreants and perceived devil worshipers. May we all live long enough to see that particular sun rise again. Until then, an eternal “fucking a” to Elliott’s Keep.

Elliott’s Keep on Facebook

NoSlip Records store

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Cachemira, Ambos Mundos

Sometime between their 2017 debut, Jungla (review here), and the all-fire-even-the-slow-parts boogie and comprises the eight-song/35-minute follow-up Ambos Mundos, Barcelona trio Cachemira parted ways with bassist Pol Ventura and brought in Claudia González Díaz of The Mothercrow to handle low end and lead vocals alongside guitarist/now-backing vocalist Gaston Lainé (Brain Pyramid) and drummer Alejandro Carmona Blanco (Prisma Circus), reaffirming the band’s status as a legit powerhouse while also being something of a reinvention. Joined by guest organist Camille Goellaen on a bunch of the songs and others on guitar, Spanish guitar and congas, Ambos Mundos scorches softshoe and ’70s vibes with a modern confidence and thickness of tone that put to use amid the melodies of “Dirty Roads” are sweeping and pulse-raising all at once. The name of the record translates to ‘both worlds,’ and the closing title-track indeed brings together heavy fuzz shuffle and handclap-laced Spanish folk (and guitar) that is like pulling back the curtain on what’s been making you dance this whole time. It soars and spins heads until everybody falls down dizzy. If they were faking, it’d fall flat. It doesn’t. At all. More please.

Cachemira on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds store

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Boogie fuzz, heavy doom, meet the road. Poland’s Tortuga, for not the first time ever but for the first time in a while, are headed out on a tour of Eastern Europe. They’ll leave home in Poland ahead of an Oct. 13 start and head into Slovakia, Hungary (I recently saw pictures of the village outside Budapest where my family emigrated from; some green grass on those hills), Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece, and so on.

When it comes to this kind of thing, an ‘Obelisk Presents’ situation, I always feel like I need to justify presenting the shows even though I won’t be there to see any of them. You know what? Screw that. I support, wholeheartedly, good bands getting out and bringing their wares to the masses, and with this stupid, increasingly-awful timeline we live in, all the more so. Tortuga‘s 2020 album, Deities, rules. I missed it when it came out — see “2020” and “awful timeline” earlier in this sentence — but will close out a week with it eventually, and it was on the strength of that album and the band’s touring that the band signed to Napalm Records last year.

What that means is, hopefully, this won’t be the last you hear from them and this won’t be the last time they get out. Awesome. New release in 2023? Maybe. They hint at new material in the tour announcement below, and if that’s a thing that happens, I’ll do all I can not to miss out. If you’re in an area where these shows are happening, or within a reasonable or unreasonable traveling distance, I hope you’ll do the same.

Dig:

TORTUGA – EASTERN EUROPEAN TOUR 2022

Dear occult doom worshipers, Mammoth supporters and heavy rock enthusiasts, the time have come to finally take Tortuga on the road!

It is with great pleasure that we are embarking along our favorite Polish doom lords on a tour, crossing all of Eastern Europe, for a series of killer shows.

Tortuga will present a mix of older and new material, celebrating the success of “Deities” and getting ready for their upcoming album.

Pick your closest stop out of the dates below and witness history in the making.

TORTUGA live:
13.10 Kulturak Klub Bratislava SK
14.10 Szabadkikoto Pecs HU
15.10 Channel Zero Ljubljana SL
16.10 Vintage Bar Zagreb HR
18.10 Singles Bar Sofia BG
19.10 Rover Bar Thessaloniki GR
20.10 Death Disco Athens GR
21.10 Mandrakoukos Ptolemaida GR
22.10 Nostos Live Xanthi, GR
23.10 Download Bar Plovdic BG
25.10 Expirat Bucharest RO
26.10 Flying Circus Cluj Napoca RO
27.10 Aurora Budapest HU
28.10 Colloseum Club Kosice SK

TORTUGA are:
Marmur – Drums
Heszu – Bass
Pablo – Guitars, Vocals
Kłosu – Guitars, Synths, Vocals

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

https://www.facebook.com/napalmrecords
http://label.napalmrecords.com/

Tortuga, Deities (2020)