Day two, feeling good after coming in hot yesterday after the weekend of writing. Have I ever told you about my fantasy QR? No? I write reviews of stuff all along, every day, then when it’s QR time I just roll it all out and take an actual week off. Wouldn’t it enhance your enjoyment knowing that somewhere, sometime, I’m sitting on ass and not frantically trying to finish the next day’s reviews?

I haven’t ever been able to manifest that reality, so here I am, yesterday, maybe two days before, trying to put it together. Same as every other QR I’ve done in the past 12 or 13 years, however long I’ve been doing these. Long enough to know when one feels good. Yesterday was cool. I have high hopes accordingly for today’s batch. I try to do myself favors in putting these together as best I can.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Spirit Adrift, Infinite Illumination

Led for the last decade by Nate Garrett initially as a solo-project and then as a full, touring and working band, Spirit Adrift come to a reported close with Infinite Illumination, the Austin outfit’s sixth album. Melancholia and metal intertwine on songs like “Window Within,” the chuggy ’90s groover “Born in a Bad Way,” and “White Death,” which resolves with a massive nod. The band have always tipped the balance of metal and doom, so these are fitting sounds on which to go out, if in fact Garrett (also Neon Nightmare) is done with it. “Where Once There Was an Ocean” unfolds slowly at the end of the album, and stately in its intro and very much in that place between, what with the shredding solo and chugging center riff progression, but it’s all part of the identity the band carved during their time, keeping ’90s Hellhound Records-style doom alive and carried forward for the next generation. Excited for what Garrett does next, but Spirit Adrift earned this farewell in the interim.

Spirit Adrift website

20 Buck Spin website

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The Mon, Songs of Embrace

‘Embrace’ doesn’t necessarily mean accessibility as Ufomammut‘s Urlo puts the finishing stamp on the two-LP ‘Embrace the Abandon’ cycle with his solo-project The Mon‘s Songs of Embrace. What he calls ’embrace,’ I would generally consider immersion. Drone is a big part of it through this 10-track answer to 2025’s Songs of Abandon (review here), textures of synth and guitar, some jangling keys before the static push in “Ritual of Night Violence.” There’s beauty to be had, whether it’s in the more direct guitar of “Incantation” or “Embers of Calendula,” but neither is “Ritual of Night Violence” the only foray into abrasion, with the penultimate “Echoes of the Drowned” and opener “Invocation of the Abyss” also harnessing these textures. “Embrace the Abandon,” a title-track for two records, closes with shimmery synth, noise, a machine that goes ‘bing!’ and other echoing noises. Texture, in other words. You knew it was going to be out there. Hoping Urlo keeps developing this project as an outlet for such weirdness.

The Mon website

Supernatural Cat Records website

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Hällas, Panorama

The fourth album from Sweden’s dramatic progressive kraut rockers Hällas — also their first self-release through Äventyr Records — Panorama opens with its longest track (immediate points) in the 21-minute, side-A-consuming “Above the Continuum,” and as a single track, it indeed goes down like the half an album it is. Packed with twists, vocal and tonal changes, shifts in arrangement, that spoken piece in the second half and each new part seeming like a different stage in the dynamic procession leading toward a somehow-not-overblown finish, it’s a triumph of their craft, to say the least of it. Side B brings four cuts starting with “Face of an Angel,” which might be yacht prog but for the Nazgûl wails, while “The Emissary” is more sweeping in its scope and works into a headspinning tizzy before it’s done, giving over to the penultimate “Bestiaus,” which in itself is voice and keyboard but also has a waveform static intro to closer “At the Summit,” begun with classical guitar as they make ready to blow-out a six-minute finish that feels duly epic in its reach. This is a band who’ve made their own place by fitting nowhere else. Panorama feels earned.

Hällas website

Hällas on Bandcamp

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Okay You Win, End of Days

London heavy rockers Okay You Win give a couple different looks on their debut album, End of Days, on Blues Funeral. Underlying it all across the eight-song/52-minute offering is a sense of songwriting and intention in how each track unfolds, but to that, there is a longform modus and what feels like a complementary immediacy to offset some of the digging in of songs like “Beat Me Down” or “The Greatest Lie.” End of Days somewhat turns expectation on its head by putting the more expansive material up front, and cuts like “This Damned Place,” closer “Own It” and the abovementioned — all of which top seven minutes in length — present a scope informed by desert heavy and dual-guitar metal, feeling a bit like a complement to labelmates Solace in that regard. The shorter (sub-five minutes) title-track and “Red Flag” land with a more direct take, and what comes across most of all is a nascent malleability between the two sides that feels like it will eventually be bridged in their sound. Taken as a whole, the album is elemental, which is to say, this is a strong and ambitious initial showing, and how they grow from here will be the ultimate story of the band.

Okay You Win on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Bong Voyage, Hedonistic Hard Rock

You would not call Bong Voyage subtle in opening cut “Saturday Rite Special” (get it?) as they quickly toss out “Hail Satan and Iron Maiden!” among the fervent declarations of self and purpose. That’s not the last time they’ll make that rhyme. The Oslo heavy party rockers, true to form, have plenty of metal in their foundations and the namedrops to prove it, but are here for a good time, and even a comparative letup like “UFOria” or the ’80s-tastic take on Billy Idol in “Enabler” ahead of the big-roller “Wizard of Ozlo” stand testament to the point, never mind the shouty shenanigans of “Large and In Charge,” “Outer Space Freebase” or “In Possession” at the finish. If you’re at the show, they’ve already spilled (poured?) beer on you, but that’s to be expected for material of such physicality, songs written with movement and audience engagement central to their ideology. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but they’re bending the frames to make it roll like it’s drunk and never hungover.

Bong Voyage on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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King Potenaz, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 2

Unflinching in their exploration of the darker side of heavy rock and roll and dungeon-style metal, Fasano, Italy’s King Potenaz follow 2025’s Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 1 (review here) as the core trio of guitarist/vocalist Giuseppe Guarini, bassist Francesco Pensato and drummer Piero Schiavone mirror that album’s structure in a likewise adventurous complement. Whether it’s the grim desert expanse of “Sumerian Nights” or the lumbering psychedoomic jam “A Crack in the Void (The Empty Hand Pt. 2),” King Potenaz remain unto themselves in intention, fostering a fuzzy but still post-punk shove in “Lord of the Rust” — think stonergoth — while “The Nothingness” feels as much like a ritual as a song, the band putting the listener into the proceedings as much as itself. Not redundant of the prior album, but pushing farther from it, Arcane Desert Rituals Vol. 2 reaffirms the individual nature of what King Potenaz do. They aren’t quite like anything else out there, and more, they seem to know it.

King Potenaz on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

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Cowboys & Aliens, Finis Temporum

Celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2026, Cowboys & Aliens unveil Finis Temporum, a front-to-back six-song/32-minute banger that’s as righteous an argument in favor of classic-style, turn-of-the-century European heavy rock as one could ask from a band who was there and part of making it. Closer “Asteroid Blast” reminds of that, remade as it was from 2000’s A Trip to the Stonehenge Colony, but I’ll be damned if the opening salvo of “Life Tree” and “Rabbit Hole” doesn’t kick ass out of the gate, backed by the reachout in “Vengeance of the Weird” and the big hook in “Ordinary Bliss” ahead of the fuzzstrutter “Icy Grip.” I suppose that’s to say momentum gets on their side early and the shove that ensues is rad. Melodies soar over tonally and rhythmically vibrant riffing, and though they’re never far removed from the root verse/chorus trades of the material, the excitement level runs high across the span without sounding redundant at any point. If you’re not on board by the end of “Life Tree,” consult your primary care physician.

Cowboys & Aliens on Bandcamp

Polderrecords website

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Endless Floods, Passages

Endless Floods retain an experimentalist feel despite the outward solidity of their post-metallic take on Passages. With resonant vocals from Louise Dehaye (also sax), the largesse and sway of the full-band sound behind conjured by Stéphane Miollan (bass, guitar, vocals, synth) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, guitars, vocals, percussion) feels expansive and puporseful in a way that ‘experimental’ rarely captures. What’s happening across the four mostly-extended inclusions on the 37-minute outing, however, is a construction of form that is Endless Floods‘ own, able to slide or lumber or crunch through a piece like “Visions” or the lead single “Dieuxième Monde,” which are lush and gorgeous and still feel like a setup for the glory reached in the 10-minute linear build of “Liminal” and the synthy bleed toward closer “Primordial,” wherein the onslaught one might expect is subverted in favor of heavy post-rock ambience, contemplative melody and expansive soundscaping. If you never believed heavy metal could be beautiful, first of all, what are you doing here, and second, Passages serves as a convincing argument. It is engrossing.

Endless Floods on Bandcamp

Endless Floods on Instagram

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Duncan Park, Prana

Wooden clackychimes mark the beginning of Duncan Park‘s “Chöd” at the outset of the four-song Prana EP, soon complemented by resonant hand-drumming that gradually comes forward as the clacky-clacky recedes. This subdued moment is not misspent, but rather essential to the procession, shifting to standalone guitar on “BEBEBe” in the flavor of something Ben Chasny might elicit from the instrument in serene pastoralism, exploratory but grounded and accessible. Voice is an instrument in “Surfing the Bardo,” and that presence isn’t to be underestimated, but it’s still the guitar in focus, and the way the movement comes apart (before realigning) in the second half reminds of Beatles Esher demos and is correspondingly organic. Same could be said of the tape hiss behind the guitar of the title-track, which noodles around its central figure and sounds joyful in the doing, without getting lost even as it seems to rewind itself back for another listen. A quiet embrace from the Johannesburg-based Park, whose work remains evocative and escapist.

LINK

LINK

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Luxury Weapons, The Light in a Low Place

Richmind, Virginia’s Luxury Weapons is the trio of Trevor Thomas (Human Thurma, etc.), Bill Badgley (Federation X, etc.) and Erik Josephson (Hex Machine, etc.), and you can just take all that ‘etc.’ as meant to convey lifetimes’ worth of experience making music and playing in bands. The songwriting here is noise rock-sharp, but where the aggression to coincide with the chug might otherwise be is a rousing melodic sensibility, bolstered by the Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk) recording job and present in the spacious “Surrender” and the precision turns of “Been Gone” or “All We Knew.” This record came out over a year ago — yeah, it’s damn near June and I’m still sneaking in 2025 releases; wait until you hear about the decades of recorded music that existed before last month — so if you want to take this is me making a note to myself on something cool, I’m fine with that. There’s enough character in Luxury Weapons‘ sound to stand them out regardless of the last 13 months, and I certainly don’t hear anything on their debut that sounds like it’s about to expire now. If you haven’t heard it — and I know you have because you’re cooler than me — perhaps a word to the wise.

Luxury Weapons on Bandcamp

Luxury Weapons on Soundcloud

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Day one down, time for day two of this Spring 2026 Quarterly Review. If you missed me saying so yesterday, this QR will run 70 releases total, so it finishes a week from today. If you didn’t find anything you got down with yesterday, I hope today’s your day. If not, maybe tomorrow. That’s kind of how this works.

You should note that some of this is 2025 releases. I’ll try to note that in the reviews when I can, but today leads off with Spidergawd’s latest and that’s six months old at this point. The older I get, the less of a shit I give for release dates. That’s a somewhat aspirational statement, I admit. I’ve always sucked at keeping up.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Spidergawd, From Eight to Infinity

Reconfirming their place among top tier songwriters in heavy rock, Norway’s Spidergawd offer their eighth album with Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest and way more energy behind the delivery than ‘eighth album’ could ever hope to imply. From Eight to Eternity indeed is an eighth album running eight tracks (40 minutes; that’s eight times five, anyhow), and while charge is part of what they do, they’ve always been able to hone a sense of dynamic across a record and the latest is no different. As the world outside crumbles, Spidergawd offer escape to a better place and unshakable solidity of approach. Even the extra-vehemence of chug in “Confirmation” and the proto-thrashy twists in “200 Miles High” are brought into the fold rather than left to hang as anomalous, and there’s a gallop in “The Hunter” that’s pure NWOBHM, but Spidergawd remain a rock band even when they’re playing metal, which “The Ghost of Eirik Raude” says better than I could, and in “The Grand Slam,” the grander outreach of “Winter Song” and the shove of “One in a Million” they once more underscore how special the thing they do is. Do you understand what a gift Spidergawd are to heavy rock and roll? You might if you listen.

Spidergawd website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Aunt Cynthia’s Cabin, Misty Woman

Originally issued through Nasoni Records in 2020, Aunt Cynthia’s Cabin‘s Misty Woman arrives via a Dec. 2025 Black Throne Productions reissue, and reasonably so. In the parlance of our times, it’s a vibe. The title-track is spacious and ’60s psych, with choice vocals and easy swing, and by then they’ve already been through the volatility of the jam in “Which One is the Jellyfish” and the plus-sized roll in “Kennel and the Dog,” so they’re well underway, with rawness and atmosphere both as part of their crux. That doesn’t abate in the two-part “Rider in the Desert Sun” or the hypnotic diversion “In the Valley,” willfully repetitive across its five minutes ahead of the longest track “There’s No Saving Cass,” which uses the negative space of the mix for a live feel before hitting into a classic-style fadeout into the interlude “Grains of Sand.” The closer “Black and Blue” is fuller in sound, but still echoing out, and the bonus track “Magic Touch” brings extra brightness to the crash and a satisfying swell of rawer distortion to its finish. Sleeper, maybe, because it’s already six years old, but with scope, and well earns the second look.

Aunt Cynthia’s Cabin on Bandcamp

Black Throne Productions website

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Hawk vs. Dove, The Weight of All Matters

The Dallas outfit have said that “The Weight of All Matters” is a herald of their third record, but as it’s been more than 10 years since the band released their second album, 2015’s Divided States (review here), it seemed reasonable to approach the six-minute newcomer as a standalone, at least for the time being. The new song is perhaps more patient for the years between — though I wouldn’t presume to imply that to an entire album; they’ve always been able to change it up amid various 1990s influences, here grunge, there noise, filtered through their own tonal heft and melodic sensibility, the latter of which is a crucial factor in “The Weight of All Matters” as well, lending a progressive feel to the chorus and the brash swell in the second half. More likely than not, the single doesn’t speak for the entirety of the full-length to come, but it’s good to hear from Hawk vs. Dove again at all. They make it easy to look forward to more.

Hawk vs. Dove on Bandcamp

Hawk vs. Dove on Instagram

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Silver Orbs, Silver Orbs

There are six dudes in Brisbane fuzz-psych rockers Silver Orbs and four of them sing, so yes, part of the impression the band’s late-’25 three-songer self-titled debut EP makes is in the vocals, particularly in opener “Manganangas,” but “Gannets” brings a more serene start with intertwining keyboard and guitar, though the rumble of bass and steady kick drum herald the volume kick that arrives soon enough, and “Gannets” is instrumental, so clearly sending a message that they’re not one-sided in their approach. “Kanto Katso” affirms this with a strikingly heavy intro of crashes and guitar attack, but its verses are more like psychedelic chants and the drums shift to the toms there, so they’re having fun making it weird, and that’s as it should be. I don’t know if “Kanto Katso” doesn’t return to that same directness of impact from its start or if one just acclimates to it, but a band setting such a vivid context for their own sound across the first three songs they’ve ever released isn’t something that happens every day, and Silver Orbs come across as ready to continue exploring. A thing to hope for.

Silver Orbs on Bandcamp

Silver Orbs on Instagram

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Xain, Xaraba

Azerbaijani duo Xain unfurl a bit over six minutes of heavy post-grind extremity on Xaraba, the three included tracks pummeling one after another in succession, with perhaps the most brutal crush of all coming in centerpiece “Günahkar” where the overarching rush groove opens to a breakdown start-stop nod that speaks to their noted The Dilligner Escape Plan influence, but the shove and the context are all their own. I’m not sure if it’s live drums or not, as vocalist Toghrul Manafov and guitarist Elkhan Alshin (both founding members of death metallers Fatal Nation), but the toy piano offset in “Çürüyən ruhun ət qəfəsi” speaks to outside-genre impulses that can only continue to serve them well as they do here, and as unforgiving and unbridled as they are, the catharsis comes through strongly despite the language barrier. They should probably get a government grant to make more of this.

Xain on Bandcamp

Xain on Instagram

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Iron Void & Orodruin, Altar of Worship

The ‘altar’ in question for Altar of Worship is Pagan Altar, and two of doom metal’s most doomed — Wakefield, UK’s Iron Void and NY’s Orodruin — give due homage to Terry Jones (R.I.P. 2015) and the classic sound he had a hand in developing as part of the band (who are still going, mind you). Each band offers one studio-tracked original — Iron Void lead off side A with “The Tolling Bell” (also the longest track; immediate points) and Orodruin answer back with “In This Place” at the start of side B — as well as a Pagan Altar cover and two live songs. Orodruin‘s take on “In the Wake of Armadeus” is a highlight, but so is Iron Void‘s “Highway Cavalier,” and it quickly becomes fortunate that the two bands aren’t so much in competition with each other — lest you had to pick one over the other — as they are working together remotely toward a common goal in celebrating one of doom’s many underheralded legends. It’s a tribute that wears its (dark, grim, sorrowful) heart on its sleeve.

Iron Void on Bandcamp

Orodruin on Bandcamp

Nameless Grave Records website

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Epimetheus, Perseus 9

Lead cut “Earthbound” gets pretty chunky toward its finish, but as Epimetheus roll on to pursue Conan-esque levels of heavy in “Coalesce” and bring “Drift Beyond” to a rumblenoise apex that the likes of Cities of Mars or Domkraft might proffer, the UK-based outfit know there’s more than one way to crush a skull. They are atmospheric without overproduction, and’90s rooted without sounding like either grunge, stoner rock, doom and meditative psychedelia directly while having aspects of all of them, and are dug into their own processes enough that the promo for the seven-song/48-minute Perseus 9 came with a document detailing the building and modding of their instruments, pedals and recording apparatus. If you think I’m complaining about that, you’re wrong. The care they put into crafting their sound can be heard in the centerpiece “Held No More,” which effectively summarizes the scope across nearly 10 minutes before the eight-minute title-track follows up with more cosmic chug and nod. “Calling” is duly feedback-coated for the shouts that complement its riff, and they close with the uptempo “Terraform” presumably so they can begin to repair the damage they caused all along their way. Perseus 9 is their debut, and there are things to be sorted in terms of their approach, but the potential here is no less broad than their creative reach. Heads up, this one’s a journey.

Epimetheus on Bandcamp

Epimetheus on Instagram

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Wolftooth, Wizard’s Light

A well established penchant for the epic serves Indiana capital-‘h’ Heavy metal rockers Wolftooth on their fourth album and first for Ripple Music, Wizard’s Light, as they bring a strident NWOBHM feel to “Darkened Path,” “Sands of Redemption,” “Armor of Steel,” “Bloodline” and others throughout the 45-minute 10-track collection, but as sweeping and grand as even a rocker like “Wizard’s Light” ends up being, Wolftooth are never actually overblown. The longest inclusion here is the penultimate “Bloodline,” and it’s a ripper very much on-brand for the record and the band making it, but it’s also only five and a half minutes long. So while Wolftooth come on in grand fashion with the intro “Hymn of Belgarath” carrying into the hard snare and galloping chug of “Sightless Archer,” they never rest in one place long enough to lose the urgency of what they’re doing in sacrifice either to precision or class, though they offer no shortage of either of those. It’s not my thing, necessarily, but I’m just one person and the appeal here might as well be scored into the side of a mountain.

Wolftooth on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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Babona, Az Átkozott

Translated as ‘the cursed’ from the original Hungarian, Babona‘s Az Átkozott is the short third full-length from the Miskolc-based solo-project of multi-instrumentalist Tamás Rózsa, and the prolific craftsman adds percussive nuance to “Soha” and goes out to the car in “Mahnurk,” seeming to tell a story complete with giggles and a big inhalation before “Csapágy” kicks in with a mellower intro ahead of the record’s most active pummel. From opener “Álomra hajtom a fejemet” onward, the mood is prevailingly dark, and the cawing crows of “ÍmeaT átka” (a second interlude) only reinforce the feeling. Still, even the start-stop ’90s crunch riffing of “Visszatérés” and the back and forth mellow/shove trades in “A szigetmonostori búcsú” harness a feeling of movement, and at maybe 25 minutes, Az Átkozott is a long way from the danger of overstaying its welcome. This is an exploration worth following if you’re not yet.

Babona on Bandcamp

Babona on Facebook

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Motsus, Atlas

Belgian instrumentalists Motsus lean into riffy post-metal in a way that’s invariably going to lead to Pelican or Russian Circles comparisons on Atlas, but the push in “Driver,” which hits subsequent to “Intro (El Toro de Fuego)” at the album’s outset, isn’t shy about its underlying stonerism, and both “Duna” and “Exploder Pt. II” back this idea with plotted longform processions, the former rising from its Middle Eastern-style intro into a massive lumber while the latter climbs the cliff just to jump off and enjoy the downward tumble. They thrash for a bit in the two-minute “Short Notice,” but it’s in closer “Turboslak” that they pull all the sides together and find their very-loud-no-matter-what-volume-you’re-listening-at niche in the sphere, setting a low barrier to entry for the genre converted without playing so much to style as to lose sight of the ideals they’re chasing as they execute for such marked weight.

Motsus on Instagram

Polderrecords on Bandcamp

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Welcome to the Quarterly Review. Oh, you were here last time? Me too. All door prizes will be mailed to winning parties upon completion of, uh, everything, I guess?

Anywhazzle, the good news is this week is gonna have 50 releases covered between now — the 10 below — and the final batch of 10 this Friday. I’m trying to sneak in a bunch of stuff ahead of year-end coverage, yes, but let the urgency of my doing so stand as testament to the quality of the music contained in this particular Quarterly Review. If I didn’t feel strongly about it, surely I’d find some other way to spend my time.

That said, let’s not waste time. You know the drill, I know the drill. Just don’t be surprised when some of the stuff you see here, today, tomorrow, and throughout the week, ends up in the Best of 2024 when the time comes. I have no idea what just yet, but for sure some of it.

We go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

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Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Some bands write songs for emotional catharsis. Some do it to make a political statement. Gnome‘s songs feel specifically — and expertly — crafted to engage an audience, and their third full-length, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, underscores the point. Hooks like “Old Soul” and “Duke of Disgrace” offer a self-effacing charm, where elsewhere the Antwerp trio burn through hot-shit riffing and impact-minded slam metal with a quirk that, if you’ve caught wind of the likes of Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol or Howling Giant in recent years, should fit nicely among them while finding its own sonic niche in being able to, say, throw a long sax solo on second cut “The Ogre” or veer into death growls for the title line of “Rotten Tongue” and others. They make ‘party riff metal’ sound much easier to manifest than it probably is, and the reason their reputation precedes them at this point goes right back to the songwriting. They hit hard, they get in, get out, it’s efficient when it wants to be but can still throw a curve with the stop and pivot in “Rotten Tongue,” running a line between punk and stoner, rock and metal, your face and the floor. It might actually be too enjoyable for some, but the funk they bring here is infectious. They make the riffs dance, and everything goes from there.

Gnome on Instagram

Polder Records website

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Hermano, When the Moon Was High…

The lone studio track “Breathe” serves as the reasoning behind Hermano‘s first new release since 2007’s …Into the Exam Room (discussed here), and actually predates that still-latest long-player by some years. Does it matter? Yeah, sort of. As regards John Garcia‘s post-Kyuss career, Hermano both got fleshed out more than most (thinking bands like Unida and Slo Burn, even Vista Chino, that didn’t get to release three full-lengths in their time), and still seemed to fade out when there was so much potential ahead of them. If “Breathe” doesn’t argue in favor of this band giving it the proverbial “one more go,” perhaps the live version of “Brother Bjork” (maybe the same one featured on 2005’s Live at W2?) and a trio of cuts captured at Hellfest in 2016 should do the trick nicely. They’re on fire through “Senor Moreno’s Plan,” “Love” and “Manager’s Special,” with Garcia, Dandy Brown, David Angstrom, Chris Leathers and Mike Callahan treating Clisson to a reminder of why they’re the kind of band who might get to build an entire EP around a leftover studio track — because that studio track, and the band more broadly, righteously kick their own kind of ass. What would a new album be like?

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Stahv, Sentiens Eklektikos

Almost on a per-song basis, Stahv — the mostly-solo brainchild of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Solomon Arye Rosenschein, here collaborating on production with John Getze of Ako-Lite Records — skewers and melds genres to create something new from their gooey remnants. On the opening title-track, maybe that’s a post-industrial Phil Collins set to dreamtime keyboard and backed by fuzzy drone. On “Lunar Haze,” it’s all goth ’80s keyboard handclaps until the chorus melody shines through the fog machine like The Beatles circa ’64. Yeah that’s right. And on “Bossa Supernova,” you bet your ass it’s bossa nova. “The Calling” reveals a rocker’s soul, where “Plainview” earlier on has a swing that might draw from The Birthday Party at its root (it also might not) but has its own sleek vibe just the same with a far-back, lo-fi buzz that somehow makes the melody sound better. “Aaskew” (sic) takes a hard-funkier stance musically but its outsider perspective in the lyrics is similar. The 1960s come back around in the later for “Circuit Crash” — it would have to be a song about the future — and “Leaving Light” seems to make fun of/celebrate (it can be both) that moment in the ’80s when everything became tropical. There’s worlds here waiting for ears adventurous enough to hear them.

Stahv on Facebook

Ako-Lite Records on Bandcamp

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Space Shepherds, Cycler

I mean, look. The central question you really have to ask yourself is how mellow do you want to get? Do you think you can handle 12 minutes of “Transmigration?” Do you think you can be present in yourself through that cool-as-fuck, ultra-smooth psychedelic twist Space Shepherds pull off, barely three minutes into the the beginning of this seven-track, 71-minute pacifier to quiet the bad voices in your (definitely not my) brain. What’s up with that keyboard shuffle in “Celestial Rose” later on? I don’t know, but it rules. And when they blow it out in “Got Caught Dreaming?” Yeah, hell yeah, wake up! “Free Return” is a 15-minute drifter jam that gets funky in the back half (a phrase I’d like on a shirt) and you don’t wanna miss it! At the risk of spoiling it, I’ll tell you that the title-track, which closes, is absolutely the payoff it’s all asking for. If you’ve got the time to sit with it, and you can just sort of go where it’s going, Cycler is a trip begging to be taken.

Space Shepherds on Facebook

Space Shepherds on Bandcamp

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King Botfly, All Hail

It is all very big. All very grand, sweeping and poised musically, very modern and progressive and such — and immediately it has something if that’s what you’re looking for, which is super-doper, thanks — but if you dig into King Botfly‘s vocals, there’s a vulnerability there as well that adds an intimacy to all that sweep and plunges down the depths of the spacious mix’s low end. And I’m not knocking that part of it either. The Portsmouth, UK-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist George Bell, bassist Luke Andrew and drummer Darren Draper, take on a monumental task in terms of largesse, and they hit hard when they want to, but there’s dynamic in it too, and both has an edge and doesn’t seem to go anywhere it does without a reason, which is a hard balance to strike. They sound like a band who will and maybe already have learned from this and will use that knowledge to move forward in an ongoing creative pursuit. So yes, progressive. Also tectonically heavy. And with heart. I think you got it. They’ll be at Desertfest London next May, and they sound ready for it.

King Botfly on Facebook

King Botfly on Bandcamp

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Last Band, The Sacrament in Accidents

Are Last Band a band? They sure sound like one. Founded by guitarists Pat Paul and Matt LeGrow (the latter also of Admiral Browning) upwards of 15 years ago, when they were less of an actual band, the Maryland-based outfit offer 13 songs of heavy alternative rock on The Sacrament in Accidents, with some classic metal roots shining through amid the harmonies of “Saffire Alice” and a denser thrust in “Season of Outrage,” a rush in the penultimate “Forty-Four to the Floor,” and so on, where the title-track is more of an open sway and “Lidocaine” is duly placid, and while the production is by no means expansive, the band convey their songs with intent. Most cuts are in the three-to-four-minute range, but “Blown Out” dips into psychedelic-gaze wash as the longest at 5:32 offset by comparatively grounded, far-off Queens of the Stone Age-style vocalizing in the last minute, which is an effective culmination. The material has range and feels worked on, and while The Sacrament in Accidents sounds raw, it hones a reach that feels true to a songwriting methodology evolved over time.

Last Band on Bandcamp

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Dream Circuit, Pennies for Your Life

Debuting earlier this decade as a solo-project of Andrew Cox, Seattle’s Dream Circuit have built out to a four-piece for with Pennies for Your Life, which throughout its six-track/36-minute run sets a contemplative emotionalist landscape. Now completed by Anthony Timm, Cody Albers and Ian Etheridge, the band are able to move from atmospheric stretches of classically-inspired-but-modern-sounding verses into heavier tonality on a song like “Rosy” with fluidity that seems to save its sweep for when it counts. The title-track dares some shouts, giving some hint of a metallic underpinning, but that still rests well in context next to the sitar sounds of “Let Go,” which opens at 4:10 into its own organ-laced crush, emotionally satisfying. Imagine a post-heavy rock that’s still pretty heavy, and a dynamic that stretches across microgenres, and maybe that will give some starting idea. The last two tracks argue for efficiency in craft, but wherever Dream Circuit go on this sophomore release, they take their own route to get there.

Dream Circuit on Facebook

Dream Circuit on Bandcamp

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Okkoto, All is Light

“All is Light” is the first single from New Paltz bliss-drone meditationalist solo outfit Okkoto since 2022’s stellar and affirming Climb the Antlers and Reach the Stars (review here), and its seven minutes carry a similar scope to what one found on that album. To be clear, that’s a compliment. Interwoven threads of synth over methodical timekeeping drum sounds, wisps of airy guitar drawn together with other lead lines, keys or strings, create a flowing world around the vocals added by Michael Lutomski, also (formerly?) of heavy psych rockers It’s Not Night: It’s Space, the sole proprietor of the expanse. A lot of a given listener’s experience of Okkoto experience will depend on their own headspace, but if you have the time and attention — seven-plus minutes of active-but-not-too-active hearing recommended — but “All is Light” showcases the rare restorative aspects of Okkoto in a way that, if you can get to it, can make you believe, or at least escape for a little while.

Okkoto on Instagram

Okkoto on Bandcamp

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Trappist Afterland, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden

Underscored with a earth-rooted folkish fragility in the voice of Adam Geoffrey Cole (also guitar, cittern, tanpura, oud, synth, xylophone and something called a ‘dulcitar’), Melbourne’s Trappist Afterland are comfortably adventurous on this 10th full-length, Evergreen: Walk to Paradise Garden, which digs deeper into psych-drone on longest track “Cruciform/The Reincarnation of Kelly-Anne (Parts 1-3)” (7:55) while elsewhere digs into fare more Eastern-influenced-Western-traditional, largely based around guitar composition. With an assortment of collaborators coming and going, even this is enough for Cole and his seemingly itinerant company to create a sense of variety — the violin in centerpiece “Barefoot in Thistles” does a lot of work in that regard; ditto the squeezebox of opener “The Squall” — and while the arrangements don’t lack for flourish, the human expression is paramount, and the nine songs are serene unto the group vocal that caps in “You Are Evergreen,” which would seem to be placed to highlight its resonance, and reasonably so. As it’s Trappist Afterland‘s 10th album by their own count, it’s hardly a surprise they know what they’re about, but they do anyway.

Trappist Afterland on Facebook

Trappist Afterland on Bandcamp

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Big Muff Brigade, Pi

For a band who went so far as to name themselves after a fuzz pedal, Spain’s Big Muff Brigade have more in common with traditional desert rock than the kind of tonal worship one might expect them to deliver. That landscape doesn’t account for their naming a song “Terre Haute,” seemingly after the town in Indiana — I’ve been there; not a desert — but fair enough for the shove of that track, which on Pi arrives just ahead of closer “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” which builds to a nonetheless-mellow payoff before its fadeout. Elsewhere, the seven-minute “Pierced by the Spear” drops Sleepy (and thus Sabbathian) references in the guitar ahead of creating a duly stonerly lumber before they even unfurl the first verse — a little more in keeping with the kind of riff celebration one might expect going in — but even there, the band maintain a thread of purposeful songcraft that can only continue to serve them as they move past this Argonauta-delivered debut and continued to grow. There is a notable sense of outreach here, though, and in writing to genre, Big Muff Brigade show both their love of what they do and a will to connect with likeminded audiences.

Big Muff Brigade on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Chapeaux-clad Belgian troublemakers Gnome are set to release their new album, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, in less than two weeks. Polderrecords has preorders up now. I haven’t heard the record yet, but I hope I get to, especially after seeing the band play live at the second day of this summer’s Bear Stone Festival (review here) in Croatia. They were, in short, a hoot, and I’m pretty sure “Golden Fool” — the latest single from their third LP to come — was in the setlist. I had been hesitant in approaching the trio’s second album, 2022’s King (review here), because some of the hype around it turned me off, but after taking that on it was easy to be won over.

“Golden Fool” was preceded by the first streaming track “Old Soul” that was posted in June. Both cuts from Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome, and King for good measure, are streaming below. If you haven’t caught onto these cats yet, it might be a good time. Info from socials:

Pre-order Gnome – Vestiges Of Verumex Visidrome online now

Preorder link: https://polderrecords.be/product-category/gnome/

The Antwerp powertrio Gnome piles riff upon riff on their third release Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome. These normal sized Belgians rip, bang and rumble through a landscape of stoner, prog and heavy metal, inhabited by mythical creatures and full of unexpected twists.

Recorded and mixed at Bear Bites Horse studio in London by the brilliant Wayne Adams, and seasoned to perfection by Larsson Mastering, this album showcases Gnome sounding larger and greasier than ever, all while dripping in a unique blend of silliness and tongue-in-cheek vibes.

Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome is a must for anyone who loves their rock with a sense of humor, but mostly with heroic passion in the quest for the golden riff. Set to drop on Friday, September 13th, 2024, via Polderrecords!

Release show: September 19th at De Studio, Antwerp (BE)

Tickets: https://www.destudio.com/nl/project/gnome

http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
https://www.instagram.com/gnomeverse/
https://gnome.bandcamp.com/
https://fanlink.to/PR033-Gnome

https://www.facebook.com/polderrecords
https://www.instagram.com/polderrecords/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Gnome, “Golden Fool”

Gnome, “Old Soul”

Gnome, King (2022)

Antwerp, Belgium’s Gnome made a convincing enough argument with their 2022 album, King (review here), that the year-plus since its release has seen them snatched up by a broad swath of European festivals, among them Desertfest in London and Berlin, Stoned From the Underground in Germany, Down the Hill, Masters of the Riff, and the impending Lazy Bones in Hamburg after this first US tour that continues their forward momentum. Yes, my fellow Americans, it’s like your “Come to [insert town here]!” reaction comments were heard, processed as visa applications and put to the best use, as Gnome will bring their blend of sick riffs and silly hats to the West Coast starting on Sept. 22.

Bookended by festivals, the tour puts Gnome on the road through the Midwest before hitting Oregon and Sacramento, CA, to finish out. There are a couple shows in here that might be rougher — I don’t know how Omaha rocks on a Tuesday night — but with Louder Than Life on one end and AfterShock Music Festival on the other, this initial incursion is both careful in not taking on too much expense and still positioning the band to do well on the whole. Safe travels to Gnome. Hope to see them along the way somewhere, if not this tour (and not, since it’s on the other side of the country from me), then maybe the next one.

From social media:

With great pleasure doth we announce our 2023 US BLASPHEMY TOUR!!! (#127482#)(#127480#) See you there, little gnomies from the other side! We’ll be sharing some of these stages with the lovely BoneHawk !

Much love and kudos to Bradley Raffenaud at Madison House for making this tour possible!!! (#129395#)

Cheerios muchachos

GNOME 2023 US Blasphemy Tour

09.22 Louder Than Life Fest Louisville KY
09.24 Revival Music Hall Peoria IL
09.25 The Bottleneck Lawrence KS
09.26 Reverb Lounge Omaha NE
09.29 Nortons Brewing Co. Wichita KS
09.30 Vultures Colorado Springs CO
10.01 Globe Hall Denver CO
10.04 Volcanic Theatre Pub Bend OR
10.05 Dante’s Portland OR
10.08 AfterShock Music Festival Sacramento CA

http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
https://www.instagram.com/gnomeverse/
https://gnome.bandcamp.com/
https://fanlink.to/PR033-Gnome

https://www.facebook.com/polderrecords
https://www.instagram.com/polderrecords/
http://www.polderrecords.be

Gnome, King (2022)

Here we are in the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review. I have to hope and believe you know what this means by now. It’s been like eight years. To reiterate, 10 reviews a day for this week. I’ve also added next Monday to the mix because there’s just so, so, so much out there right now, so this Quarterly Review will total 60 albums covered. It could easily be more. And more. And more. You get the point.

So while we’re on the edge of this particular volcano, looking down into the molten center of the Quarterly Review itself, I’ll say thanks for reading if you do at any point, and I hope you find something to make doing so worth the effort.

Here we go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Spidergawd, VI

Like clockwork, Spidergawd released V (review here), in 2019, and amid the chaos of 2020, they announced they’d have a new record out in 2021 — already the longest pause between LPs of their career — for which they’d be touring. The Norwegian outfit — who aren’t so much saviors of rock as a reminder of why it doesn’t need saving in the first place — at last offer the nine songs and 41 minute straight-ahead drive of VI with their usual aplomb, energizing a classic heavy rock sound and reveling in the glorious hooks of “Prototype Design” and “Running Man” at the outset, throwing shoulders with the sheer swag of “Black Moon Rising,” and keeping the rush going all the way until “Morning Star” hints toward some of their prior psych-prog impulses. They’ve stripped those back here, and on the strength of their songwriting and the shining lights that seem to accompany their performance even on a studio recording, they remain incomparable in working to the high standard of their own setting.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin

The first Eight Bells full-length for Prophecy Productions, Legacy of Ruin comes six years after their second LP, Landless (review here), and finds founding guitarist/vocalist Melynda Marie Jackson, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Brian Burke, a host of guests and producer Billy Anderson complicating perceptions of Pacific Northwestern US black metal. Across the six songs and in extended cuts like “The Well” and closer “Premonition,” Eight Bells remind of their readiness to put melodies where others fear tread, and to execute individualized cross-genre breadth that even in the shorter “Torpid Dreamer” remains extreme, whatever else one might call it in terms of style. “The Crone” and other moments remind of Enslaved, but seem to be writing a folklore all their own in that.

Eight Bells on Facebook

Prophecy Productions on Bandcamp

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Blue Rumble, Blue Rumble

Swiss four-piece Blue Rumble bring organically-produced, not-quite-vintage-but-retro-informed heavy psych blues boogie on their self-titled debut full-length, impressing with the sharp edges around which the grooves curve, the channel-spanning, shred-ready solo of the guitars, and the organ that add so much to where vocals might otherwise be. The five-minute stretch alone of second cut “Cosmopolitan Landscape,” which follows the garage urgency of opener “God Knows I Shoulda Been Gone,” runs from a mellow-blues exploration into a psych hypnosis and at last into a classic-prog freakout before, miraculously, returning, and that is by no means the total scope of the album, whether it’s the winding progressions in “Cup o’ Rosie (Just Another Groovy Thing),” the laid back midsection of “Sunset Fire Opal” or the hey-is-that-flute on the shorter pastoral interlude “Linda,” as if naming the song before that “Think for Yourself” wasn’t enough of a Beatles invocation. The strut continues unabated in “The Snake” and the grittier “Hangman,” and closer “Occhio e Croce” (‘eye and cross,” in Italian) shimmers with Mellotron fluidity atop its central build, leaving the raw vitality of the drums to lead into a big rock finish well earned. Heads up, heavy rock and rollers. This is hot shit.

Blue Rumble on Instagram

Blue Rumble on Bandcamp

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The Mountain King, WolloW

It’s palindrome time on Mainz, Germany’s The Mountain King‘s WolloW. Once the solo-project of guitarist/vocalist/programmer Eric McQueen, the experimentalist band here includes guitarist Frank Grimbarth and guest bassist Jack Cradock — you can really hear that bass on “II In Grium Imus Noctem Aram et Consumimur Igni” (hope you practiced your conjugations) and through five songs, they cross genres from the atmospheric heavygaze-meets-Warning of “I Bongnob” through the blackened crunch of the above-noted second cut to a gloriously dreamy and still morose title-track, and the driving expanse of “V DNA Sand.” Then they do it backwards, as “V DNA Sand” seems to flip halfway through. But they’re also doing it backwards at the same time as forward, so as The Mountain King work back toward album finale “bongnoB I,” what was reversed and what wasn’t has switched and the listener isn’t really sure what’s up or down, where they are or why. This, of course, is exactly the point. Take that, form and structure! Open your mind and let doom in!

The Mountain King on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records website

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Sheev, Mind Conductor

Berlin trio Sheev prove adept at skirting the line of outright aggression, and in fact crossing it, while maintaining control over their direction and execution. Mind Conductor is their debut album, and it works well to send signals of its complexity, samples and obscure sounds on “The Workshop” giving over the riffs of immediate impact on “Well Whined.” The channel-spanning guitar pulls on “Saltshifter,” the harmonies in the midsection of “All I Can,” the going-for-it-Danny–Carey-style drums on the penultimate “Baby Huey” (and bonus points for that reference) — all of these and so much more in the nine-song/53-minute span come together fluidly to create a portrait of the band’s depth of approach and the obvious consideration they put into what they do. Closer “Snakegosh” may offer assurance they don’t take themselves too seriously, but even that song’s initial rolling progression can’t help but wind its way through later angularities. It will be interesting to hear the direction they ultimately take over the course of multiple albums, but don’t let that draw focus from what they accomplish on this first one.

Sheev on Facebook

Sheev on Bandcamp

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Elk Witch, Beyond the Mountain

Dudes got riffs. From Medford, Oregon, Elk Witch draw more from the sphere of modern heavy rockers like earlier The Sword or Freedom Hawk than the uptempo post-Red Fang party jams for which much of the Pacific Northwest is known, but the groove is a good time just the same. The six tracks of Beyond the Mountain are born out of the trio’s 2021 debut EP — wait for it — The Mountain, but the four songs shared between the two offerings have been re-recorded here, repositioned and sandwiched between opener “Cape Foulweather” and closer “The Plight of Valus,” so the reworking feels consistent from front to back. And anyway, it’s only been a year, so ease up. Some light burl throughout, but the vocals on “Coyote and the Wind’s Daughters” remind me of Chritus in Goatess, so there’s some outright doom at work too, though “Greybeard Arsenal” might take the prize for its shimmering back-half slowdown either way, and “The Plight of Valus” starts out with a seeming wink at Kyuss‘ “El Rodeo,” so nothing is quite so simply traced. Raw, but they’ll continue to figure out where they’re headed, and the converted will nod knowingly. For what it’s worth, I dig it.

Elk Witch on Facebook

StoneFly Records store

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KYOTY, Isolation

If “evocative” is what New Hampshire post-metallic mostly-instrumentalists KYOTY were going for with their third full-length, could they possibly have picked something better to call it than Isolation? It’d be a challenge. And with opener “Quarantine,” songs like “Ventilate,” “Languish,” “Faith,” and “Rift,” “Respite” and closer “A Fog, A Future Like a Place Imagined,” the richly progressive unit working as the two-piece of Nick Filth and Nathaniel Parker Raymond weave poetic aural tapestries crushing and spacious in kind with the existential dread and vague flashes of hope in pandemic reality of the 2020s thus far. Still, they work in impressionist fashion, so that the rumbling crackle of “Onus” and the near-industrial slog of “Respite” represent place and idea while also standing apart as a not-quite-objective observer, the lighter float of the guitar in “Faith” becoming a wash before its resonant drone draws it to a close. At 70 minutes, there’s a lot to say for a band who doesn’t have lyrics, but spoken lines further the sense of verse, and remind of the humanity behind the programming of “Holter” or the especially pummeling “Rift.” An album deep enough you could listen to it for years and hear something new.

KYOTY on Facebook

Deafening Assembly on Bandcamp

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Red Eye, The Cycle

Andalusian storytellers Red Eye make it plain from the outset that their ambitions are significant, and the seven songs of their third full-length play out those ambitions across ultra-flowing shifts between serenity and heft, working as more than just volume trades and bringing an atmospheric sprawl that is intended to convey time as well as place. In 46 minutes, they do for doom and various other microgenres — post-metal, some more extreme moments in “Beorg” and the morse-code-inclusive closer “Æsce” — what earlier Opeth did for death metal, adding shifts into unbridled folk melody and sometimes minimalist reach. Clearly meant to be taken in its entirety, The Cycle functions beautifully across its stretch, and the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos (also lyrics), guitarist/vocalist Pablo Terol, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas, bear weight of tone and history in kind, self-aware that the chants in “Tempel” brim with purpose, but expressive in the before and after such that they wherever they will and make it a joy to follow.

Red Eye on Facebook

Alone Records store

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Stoned Horses, Stoned Horses

Originally recorded to come out in 2013, what would’ve been/is the Stoned Horses‘ self-titled debut full-length runs 12 tracks and swaps methodologies between instrumentalism and more verse/chorus-minded sludge rock. Riffs lead, in either case, and there’s a sense of worship that goes beyond Black Sabbath as the later “Scorpions Vitus” handily confirms. The semi-eponymous “A Stoned Horse” is memorable for its readiness to shout the hook at you repeatedly, and lest a band called Stoned Horses ever be accused of taking themselves too seriously, “My Horse is Faster Than Your Bike” is a sub-two-minute riffer that recalls late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock fuckery, before everyone started getting progressive. Not short on charm, there’s plenty of substance behind it in “Le Calumet” like a northern Alabama Thunderpussy or the last cut, “The Legend of the Blue Pig,” which dares a bit more metal. Not groundbreaking, not trying to be, it’s a celebration of the tropes of genre given its own personality. I have nothing more to ask of it except what happened that it sat for nearly a decade without being released.

Stoned Horses on Facebook

From the Urn on Bandcamp

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Gnome, King

Antwerpen’s Gnome make it a hell of a lot of fun to trace their path across King, their second full-length, bringing in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi early for “Your Empire” and finding a line between energetic, on-the-beat delivery and outright aggression, letting “Ambrosius” set the tone for what follows as they careen though cuts like the instrumental “Antibeast,” the swinging and catchy “Wencelas” and the crunching “Bulls of Bravik.” How do they do it? With the magic of shenanigans! As King (which “Wencelas” was) plays out, the suitably hatted trio get up to high grade nonsense on “Kraken Wanker” before “Stinth Thy Clep” and the 11-minute we-can-do-whatever-we-want-so-let’s-do-that-yes closer “Platypus Platoon” buries its later march amid a stream of ideas that, frankly, kind of sounds like it could just keep going. They are adventurous throughout the eight songs and 42 minutes, but have a solid foundation nonetheless of tone and consciousness, which are what save King from being a mess. It’s a hard balance to strike that they make sound easy.

Gnome on Facebook

Polderrecords website

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A while ago, I was fortunate enough to be asked to sit in for an episode of the Blynd Submyshynz podcast with Jeff Wilson (Kook, etc.) and JD Norton, both very nice guys. It was fun, and true to the name of the show, part of the thing was they played bands I’d never heard before and asked what I thought of them. Fun game. One of the bands they played was Antwerp, Belgium’s Gnome, and I recall digging it pretty well. At very least, I don’t remember talking crap about it, which, listening to a couple of the tracks from the band’s new album, King, is all the more fortunate because it saves me the trouble of having to eat my words. Nothing like efficiency.

“Ambrosius” — which grammatically speaking is the masculine singular form of “ambrosia” if I recall my Latin — is the first audio (or video) to be made public from King, which is set to release on May 6 through esteemed Belgian noise purveyor Polderrecords, and the heavy rock quotient is high compared to some of the label’s noisier fare, but certainly still hits hard enough to get the point across. In following up 2018’s instrumental Father of Time — which was what I heard — the band not only bring in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi for a guest spot on the hooky “Your Empire,” but find a balance on “Ambrosius” between largesse of groove and a corresponding initial tension in the guitar, making a spot for themselves and their silly hats that allows them to move fluidly between tempos and some harder-hitting moments, as with the growls later on in the track.

Again, I haven’t heard the full record as yet — the other song I got to sample, “Kraken Bastard,” is instrumental but emphasizes the above-noted shifts just the same — but the video that follows here for “Ambrosius” should be enough to pique interest if your interest is up for piquing. Looks like they’re in a greenhouse or some such, which is fun.

More info on the album follows.

Enjoy:

Gnome, “Ambrosius” official video

“Ambrosius”, the first track taken from Gnome’s upcoming album “King”. Out May 6th, 2022 on Polderrecords.

Music by Gnome – http://www.facebook.com/officialgnomeband/
Recorded & Mixed at Rockstar Recordings by Frank Rotthier – Mastered by Larsson Mastering
Video by Rutger Verbist

Gnome packs a bigger punch than their name suggests: combining irresistible hooks and thundering guitars, drums and bass with adventurous twists, they brew their unique and ultimately satisfying potion of stoner, prog and hardrock.

After the success of 2018 debut ‘Father of Time’, which demonstrates their knack for stacking riffs like lego bricks, and having conquered stages across Europe with their shin-kicking live sets, the power trio from Antwerp raise the bar with their majestic second outing ‘King’.

They sound bigger and heavier with more vocals (including special guest Oskar Logi from The Vintage Caravan) but never losing sight of the quest for the golden riff.

‘King’ was recorded with Frank Rotthier at Rockstar Recordings in between lockdowns in the fall of 2020 and will be released by POLDERRECORDS digital, on cd and on vinyl May 6th, 2022.

Gnome on Facebook

Gnome on Bandcamp

Polderrecords website

Polderrecords on Facebook

Hey, how was your weekend? You won’t be surprised to learn mine was full of tunes, which I mark as a win. While we’re marking wins, let’s put one down for wrapping up the longest Quarterly Review to-date in a full 11 days today. 110 releases. I started on July 5 — a lifetime ago. It’s now July 19, and I’ve encountered a sick kid and wife, busted laptop, oral surgery, and more riffs than I could ever hope to count along the way. Ups, downs, all-arounds. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride.

This day was added kind of on an impulse, and the point I’m looking to emphasize is that you can spend two full weeks reviewing 10 albums a day and still there’s more to be had. I’ve learned over time you’re never going to hear everything — not even close — and that no matter how deep you dig, there’s more to find. I’m sure if I didn’t have other stuff scheduled I could fill out the entirety of this week and then some with 10 records a day. As it stands, let’s not have this Quarterly Review run into the next one at the end of September/beginning of October. Time to get my life back a little bit, such as it is.

Quarterly Review #101-110:

King Woman, Celestial Blues

After the (earned) fanfare surrounding King Woman‘s 2017 debut, Created in the Image of Suffering, expectations for the sophomore outing, Celestial Blues, are significant. Songwriter/vocalist Kris Esfandiari meets these head-on in heavy and atmospheric fashion on tracks like the opening title-cut and “Morning Star,” the more cacophonous “Coil” and duly punishing “Psychic Wound.” Blues? Yes, in places. Celestial? In theme, in its confrontation with dogma, sure. Even more than these, though, Celestial Blues taps into an affecting weight of ambience, such that even the broad string sounds of “Golgotha” feel heavy, and whether a given stretch is loud or quiet, subdued like the first half of “Entwined” or raging like the second, right into the minimalist “Paradise Lost” that finishes, the sense of burden being purposefully conveyed is palpable in the listening experience. No doubt the plaudits will be or are already manifold and superlative, but the work stands up.

King Woman on Facebook

Relapse Records website

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Mythic Sunship, Wildfire

Mythic Sunship are a hopeful vision for the future of progressive psychedelic music. Their fifth album and first for Tee Pee Records, Wildfire offers five tracks/45 minutes that alternates between ripping holes in the fabric of spacetime via emitted subspace wavelengths of shredding guitar, sax-led freakouts, shimmer to the point of blindness, peaceful drift and who the hell knows what else is going on en route from one to the other. Because as much as the Copenhagen outfit might jump from one stretch to the next, their fluidity is huge all along the course of Wildfire, which is fortunate because that’s probably the only thing stopping the record from actually melting. Instrumental as ever, I’m not sure if there’s a narrative arc playing out — certainly one can read one between “Maelstrom,” “Olympia,” “Landfall,” “Redwood Grove” and “Going Up” — and if that’s the intention, it maybe pulls back from that “hopeful vision” idea somewhat, at least in theme, if not aesthetic. In any case, the gorgeousness, the electrified vitality in what Mythic Sunship do, continues to distinguish them from their peers, which is a list that is only growing shorter with each passing LP.

Mythic Sunship on Facebook

Tee Pee Records website

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Morningstar Delirium, Morningstar Delirium

I said I was going to preorder this tape and I’m glad I did. Morningstar Delirium‘s half-hour/four-song debut offering is somewhere between an EP and an album — immersive enough to be the latter certainly in its soothing, brooding exploration of sonic textures, not at all tethered to a sonic weight in the dark industrial “Blood on the Fixture” and even less so in the initial minutes of “Silent Travelers,” but not entirely avoiding one either, as in the second half of that latter track some more sinister beats surface for a time. Comprised of multi-instrumentalists/vocalist Kelly Schilling (Dreadnought, BleakHeart) and Clayton Cushman (The Flight of Sleipnir), the isolation-era project feeds into that lockdown atmosphere in moments droning and surging, “Where Are You Going” giving an experimentalist edge with its early loops and later stretch of ethereal slide guitar (or what sounds like it), while closer “A Plea for the Stars” fulfills the promise of its vocalists with a doomed melody in its midsection that’s answered back late, topping an instrumental progression like the isolated weepy guitar of classic goth metal over patiently built layers of dark-tinted wash. Alternating between shorter and longer tracks, the promise in Morningstar Delirium resides in the hope they’ll continue to push farther and farther along these lines of emotional and aural resonance.

Morningstar Delirium on Instagram

Morningstar Delirium on Bandcamp

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Lunar Funeral, Road to Siberia

Somewhere between spacious goth and garage doom, Russia’s Lunar Funeral find their own stylistic ground to inhabit on their second album, Road to Siberia. The two-piece offer grim lysergics to start the affair on “Introduce” before plunging into “The Thrill,” which bookends with the also-11-minute closer “Don’t Send Me to Rehab” and gracefully avoids going full-freakout enough to bring back the verse progression near the end. Right on. Between the two extended pieces, the swinging progression of “25th Hour” trades brooding for strut — or at least brooding strut — with the snare doing its damnedest by the midsection to emulate handclaps could be there if they could find a way not to be fun. “25th Hour” hits into a wash late and “Black Bones” answers with dark boogie and a genuine nod later, finishing with noise en route to the spacious eight-minute “Silence,” which finds roll eventually, but holds to its engaging sense of depth in so doing, the abiding weirdness of the proceedings enhanced by the subtle masterplan behind it. Airy guitar work winding atop the bassline makes the penultimate “Your Fear is Giving Me Fear” a highlight, but the willful trudge of “Don’t Send Me to Rehab” is an all-too-suitable finish in style and atmosphere, not quite drawing it all together, but pushing it off a cliff instead.

Lunar Funeral on Facebook

Helter Skelter Productions / Regain Records on Bandcamp

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Satánico Pandemonium, Espectrofilia

Sludge and narcosadistic doom infest the six-track Espectrofilia from Mexico City four-piece Satánico Pandemonium, who call it an EP despite its topping 40 minutes in length. I don’t know, guys. Electric Wizard are a touchstone to the rollout of “Parábola del Juez Perverso,” which lumbers out behind opener “El Que Reside Dentro” and seems to come apart about two minutes in, only to pick up and keep going. Fucking a. Horror, exploitation, nodding riffs, raw vibes — Satánico Pandemonium have it all and then some, and if there’s any doubt Espectrofilia is worthy of pressing to a 12″ platter, like 2020’s Culto Suicida before it, whether they call it a full-length or not, the downward plunge of the title-track into the grim boogie of “Panteonera” and the consuming, bass-led closer “La Muerte del Sol” should put them to rest with due prejudice. The spirit of execution here is even meaner than the sound, and that malevolence of intent comes through front-to-back.

Satánico Pandemonium on Facebook

Satánico Pandemonium on Bandcamp

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Van Groover, Honk if Parts Fall Off

Kudos to Van Groover on their know-thyself tagline: “We’re not reinventing the wheel, but we let it roll.” The German trio’s 10-track/51-minute debut, Honk if Parts Fall Off, hits its marks in the post-Truckfighters sphere of uptempo heavy fuzz/stoner rock, injecting a heaping dose of smoke-scented burl from the outset with “Not Guilty” and keeping the push going through “Bison Blues” and “Streetfood” and “Jetstream” before “Godeater” takes a darker point of view and “Roadrunner” takes a moment to catch its breath before reigniting the forward motion. Sandwiched between that and the seven-minute “Bad Monkey” is an interlude of quieter bluesy strum called “Big Sucker” that ends with a rickity-sounding vehicle — something tells me it’s a van — starts and “Bad Monkey” kicks into its verse immediately, rolling stoned all the while even in its quiet middle stretch before “HeXXXenhammer” and the lull-you-into-a-false-sense-of-security-then-the-riff-hits “Quietness” finish out. Given the stated ambitions, it’s hard not to take Honk if Parts Fall Off as it comes. Van Groover aren’t hurting anybody except apparently one or two people in the opener and maybe elsewhere in the lyrics. Stoner rock for stoner rockers.

Van Groover on Facebook

Van Groover on Bandcamp

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Sergio Ch., Koi

There is not much to which Buenos Aires-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sergio Chotsourian, aka Sergio Ch., is a stranger at this point. In a career that has spanned more than a quarter-century, he’s dipped hands in experimentalist folk and drone, rock, metal, punk, goth and more in varying prolific combinations of them. Koi, his latest full-length, still finds new ground to explore, however, in bringing not only the use of programmed drum beats behind some of the material, but collaborations with his own children, Isabel Ch., who contributes vocals on the closing Nine Inch Nails cover, “Hurt,” which was also previously released as a single, and Rafael “Raffa” Ch., who provides a brief but standout moment just before with a swirling, effects-laced rap tucked away at the end of the 11-minute “El Gran Chaparral.” If these are sentimental inclusions on Chotsourian‘s part, they’re a minor indulgence to make, and along with the English-language “NY City Blues,” the partial-translation of “Hurt” into Spanish is a welcome twist among others like “Tic Tac,” which blend electronic beats and spacious guitar in a way that feels like a foreshadow of burgeoning interests and things to come.

Sergio Ch. on Facebook

South American Sludge Records on Bandcamp

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Achachak, High Mountain

Less than a year removed from their debut full-length, At the Bottom of the Sea, Croatian five-piece Achachak return with the geological-opposite follow-up, High Mountain. With cuts like “Bong Goddess,” “Maui Waui,” they leave little to doubt as to where they’re coming from, but the stoner-for-stoners’-sake attitude doesn’t necessarily account either for the drifty psych of “Biggest Wave” or the earlier nod-out in “Lonewolf,” the screams in the opening title-track or the follow-that-riff iron-manliness of “”Mr. SM,” let alone the social bent to the lyrics in the QOTSA-style “Lesson” once it takes off — interesting to find them delving into the political given the somewhat regrettable inner-sleeve art — but the overarching vibe is still of a band not taking itself too seriously, and the songwriting is structured enough to support the shifts in style and mood. The fuzz is strong with them, and closer “Cozy Night” builds on the languid turn in “Biggest Wave” with an apparently self-aware moody turn. For having reportedly been at it since 1999, two full-lengths and a few others EPs isn’t a ton as regards discography, but maybe now they’re looking to make up for lost time.

Achachak on Facebook

Achachak on Bandcamp

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Rise Up, Dead Man, Rise Up, Dead Man

It’s almost counterintuitive to think so, but what you see is what you get with mostly-instrumentalist South African western/psych folk duo Rise Up, Dead Man‘s self-titled debut. To wit, the “Bells of Awakening” at the outset, indeed, are bells. “The Summoning,” which follows, hypnotizes with guitar and various other elements, and then, yes, the eponymous “Rise Up, Dead Man,” is a call to raise the departed. I don’t know if “Stolen Song” is stolen, but it sure is familiar. Things get more ethereal as multi-instrumentalists Duncan Park (guitar, vocals, pennywhistle, obraphone, bells, singing bowl) and William Randles (guitar, vocals, melodica, harmonium, violin, bells, singing bowl) through the serenity of “The Wind in the Well” and the summertime trip to Hobbiton that the pennywhistle in “Everything that Rises Must Converge” offers, which is complemented in suitably wistful fashion on closer “Sickly Meadow.” There’s some sorting out of aesthetic to be done here, but as the follow-up just to an improv demo released earlier this year, the drive and attention to detail in the arrangements makes their potential feel all the more significant, even before you get to the expressive nature of the songs or the nuanced style in which they so organically reside.

Rise Up, Dead Man on Facebook

Rise Up, Dead Man on Bandcamp

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Atomic Vulture , Moving Through Silence

Yeah, that whole “silence” thing doesn’t last too long on Moving Through Silence. The 51-minute debut long-player from Brugge, Belgium, instrumentalists Atomic Vulture isn’t through opener “Eclipse” before owing a significant sonic debt to Kyuss‘ “Thumb,” but given the way the record proceeds into “Mashika Deathride” and “Coaxium,” one suspects Karma to Burn are even more of an influence for guitarist Pascal David, bassist Kris Hoornaert and drummer Jens Van Hollebeke, and though they move through some slower, more atmospheric stretch on “Cosmic Dance” and later more extended pieces like “Spinning the Titans” (9:02) and closer “Astral Dream,” touching on prog particularly in the second half of the latter, they’re never completely removed from that abiding feel of get-down-to-business, as demonstrated on the roll of “Intergalactic Takeoff” and the willful landing on earth that the penultimate “Space Rat” brings in between “Spinning the Titans” and “Astral Dream,” emphasizing the sense of their being a mission underway, even if the mission is Atomic Vulture‘s discovery of place within genre.

Atomic Vulture on Facebook

Polderrecords on Bandcamp

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