Posted in Radio on December 23rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I was kicking around the idea of not doing a year-end list for 2020. Honestly, between this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal and the last one, that pretty much covers my picks, and who the hell cares about what order they’re in? It’s December and everyone and their brother has a list out. Do we really need another one? I’m doing a Quarterly Review right now, covering more music. To me, that seems like a more righteous cause.
Of course, I’ll probably end up doing a list anyway next week, but in the meantime, if you’re looking for a soundtrack to your in-quarantine holiday experience, the second half of the ‘Some of the Best of 2020’ spectacular should do well in getting you through the evening. I’m to understand we’ll be breaking travel protocols myself, so if I get the plague that is even as we speak ravaging my homeland, at least I will have deserved it. Firelung and whatnot.
Thanks for listening and reading. New art coming soon.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 12.25.20
Elephant Tree
Bird
Habits
Pallbearer
Vengeance & Ruination
Forgotten Days
Tony Reed
Might Just
Funeral Suit
Grayceon
This Bed
MOTHERS WEAVERS VULTURES
All Them Witches
41
Nothing as the Ideal
VT
Brant Bjork
Cleaning out the Ashtray
Brant Bjork
Soldati
From Skulls
Doom Nacional
Backwoods Payback
God Smack
VA – Alice in Chains Dirt: Redux
High Priestess
The Hourglass
Casting the Circle
Curse the Son
Black Box Warning
Excruciation
Elder
Halcyon
Omens
Black Rainbows
Master Rocket Power Blast
Cosmic Ritual Supertrip
Dirt Woman
Fades to Greed
The Glass Cliff
Polymoon
Silver Moon
Caterpillars of Creation
Enslaved
Distant Seasons
Utgard
Cinder Well
Fallen
No Summer
Geezer
Drowning on Empty
Groovy
Ruff Majik
Lead Pills and Thrills
The Devil’s Cattle
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Jan. 8 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Radio on October 16th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
If you read any of the Quarterly Review that wrapped up earlier this week, some of the names in the playlist below might be familiar. These aren’t all the highlights from the 60 records that were covered in that somehow-still-too-short barrage of writeups, but a two-hour sampling seemed like enough time to ask out of your busy day and I recognize that if you check any of it out at my say-so, it is an honor and a humbling thing for me to be a part of. So yeah. Thanks.
My hope is that it flows. I’m interested to hear the finished product — and I do intend to listen and be in the chat on the Gimme Metal app — but I put it together with the idea that the songs would interact well with each other and even where something brought a departure, it seemed a reasonable shift. Did it work? I don’t know. If you listen, you can tell me. But I’m looking forward to finding out, especially since the playlist was built out of such a massive swath of stuff covered recently.
In any case, thanks for listening if you do. I hope you enjoy the show.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 10.16.20
Hymn
Exit Through Fire
Breach Us*
Polymoon
Sliver Mountain
Caterpillars of Creation*
The Pilgrim
Secrets in the Kingdom
…From the Earth to the Sky and Back*
Shroom Eater
God Isn’t One Eyed
AD.INVENTUM*
VT1
Turtle Skull
Heartless Machine
Monoliths*
The White Swan
Purple
Nocturnal Transmissions*
Slow Green Thing
All I Want
Amygdala*
Mos Eisley Spaceport
Further When I’m Far
The Best of Their Early Year*
Brimstone Coven
Live with a Ghost
The Woes of a Mortal Earth*
White Dog
The Lantern
White Dog*
Mábura
Bong of God
Heni*
Cracked Machine
Cold Iron Light
Gates of Keras*
Kairon; IRSE!
Altaïr Descends
Polysomn*
Thomas V. Jäger
Creatures of the Deep
A Solitary Plan*
Hum
The Summoning
Inlet*
VT2
Atramentus
Stygian I – From Tumultuous Heavens (Descended Forth the Ceaseless Darkness)
Stygian*
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 30 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Reviews on October 12th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Well, the weekend’s over and it’s time to wrap up the Quarterly Review. Rest assured, I wrote the following during my copious weekend leisure time, resting on the side of a heated Olympic-size pool with a beverage nearby. It definitely wasn’t four in the morning on a Sunday or anything. If I haven’t gotten the point across yet, I hope you’ve found something amid this massive swath of records that has resonated with you. By way of a cheap plug, I’ll be featuring audio from a lot of these bands on the Gimme Metal show this Friday, 5PM Eastern, if you’re up for tuning in.
Either way, thanks for reading and for being a part of the whole thing. Let’s wrap it up.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
The Pilgrim, …From the Earth to the Sky and Back
Lest he be accused of laziness, Gabriele Fiori — also of Black Rainbows, Killer Boogie and the head of the Heavy Psych Sounds label, booking agency and festival series — made his solo debut as The Pilgrim with Spring 2019’s Walking into the Forest (review here). Joined by Black Rainbows drummer Filippo Ragazzoni, Fiori ups the scale of the journey with the second The Pilgrim LP, …From the Earth to the Sky and Back. Richer in arrangement, bolder in craft and more confident in performance, the album runs 14 songs and 50 minutes still largely based around an acoustic acid rock foundation, but with a song like “Riding the Horse” tapping ’70s singer-songwriter vibes while “Cuba” touches on Latin percussion and guitar and “Space and Time” journeying out near the record’s end with waves of synthesizer, it seems The Pilgrim isn’t so willing to be pigeonholed. So much the better.
There is an undercurrent of extremity to the debut release from Polymoon, who hail from the psychedelic hotbed that is Tampere, Finland. The six-song/42-minute Caterpillars of Creation turns in opener “Silver Mt.” to fervent guitar push or from freaked-out cosmic prog into drifting post-universe exploration, setting the stage for the dynamic that unfolds throughout. The wash early in the second half of “Lazaward” is glorious, and it’s not the first or the last time Polymoon go to that adrenaline-pumping well, but the serenity that caps that song and seems to continue into “Malamalama” in closing side A is no less effective. “Helicaling” mounts tension in its early drumming but finally releases it later, and “Neitherworld” gives Caterpillars of Creation‘s most fervent thrust while closer “Metempsychosis” rounds out with a fitting sense of dissipation. As a first album/first release, it is particularly stunning, and to make it as plain as possible, I will think less of any list of 2020’s best debut albums that leaves out Polymoon.
The two-piece comprised of Martin Weaver (ex-Wicked Lady) and synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, etc.) position First Treatment as their proper studio debut, and it certainly hits its marks in galaxial adventuring well enough to qualify as such, but the duo have been on a creative splurge throughout this year — even in lockdown — and so the six songs here are also born out of the work they’ve been doing since releasing their debut single “Ghouls ‘n’ Shit” (video premiere here) late last year. The album launches with “Journey to Enceladus,” which boasts drum programming by Weaver and though one of the movements in the 21-minute “Into the Oort Cloud” is based around beats, the bulk of First Treatment is purely a work of guitar and synth, and it basks in the freedom that being so untethered inherently brings. Running an hour long, it’s improvisational nature isn’t going to be for everyone, but Heller and Weaver make a strong argument that maybe it should be.
Who’s ready for a New Wave of PNW Fuckery? That’s right folks, the NWOPNWF has arrived and it’s Spokane, Washington’s Merlock leading the sometimes-awfully-punk-sometimes-awfully-metal-but-somehow-also-always-sludge charge. Aggressive and damning in lyrics, swapping between raw screams, grows, shouts and cleaner vocals and unhinged in terms of its genre loyalties, That Which Speaks seems to find the “melt faces” setting wherever it goes, and though there’s a sense of the four-piece feeling out what works best for them stylistically, the sometimes frantic, sometimes willfully awkward transitions — as in second cut “Prolapse” — serve the overall purpose of undercutting predictability. Eight-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Idolon” stomps and shoves and gnashes and nasties its way through, and that’s the modus across what follows, though the scream-along headbanger “Vessel” somehow seems even rawer, and though it ends by floating into oblivion, the start of “Condemnation” is heavy fuckin’ metal to me. You never know quite where Merlock are going to hit next, and that’s the joy of the thing. May they remain so cacophonous.
Long-running UK psychedelic rockers Sun Dial — led by founding guitarist/vocalist Gary Ramon — released Mind Control in 2012. Sulatron Records picked it up in 2015, and now, five years after that, the same label presents Mind Control: The Ultimate Edition, a 2CD version of the original LP-plus-bonus-tracks reissue that brings the total runtime of the release to a well-beyond-manageable 98 minutes of lysergic experimentation. A full 20 tracks are included in the comprehensive-feeling offering, and from early mixes to alternative takes and lost tracks, and if this isn’t the ‘ultimate’ version of Mind Control, I’m not sure what could be, notwithstanding a complete-studio-sessions box set. Perhaps as a step toward that, Mind Control: The Ultimate Edition gives an in-depth look at a vastly underappreciated outfit and is obviously put together as much for the label as by it. That is to say, you don’t put out a reissue like this unless you really love the original record, and if Sulatron loving a record isn’t enough endorsement for you, please turn in your mushrooms on your way out the door.
Immersion is the goal of Saturn’s Husk‘s third long-player, The Conduit, and the Riga, Latvia, instrumentalist trio accomplish it quickly with the fluid riffs that emerge from the drone-based intro “Death of Imaginary Lights” and the subsequent 10-minute opener “Black Nebula.” At nine songs and 63 minutes, the album is consuming through the welcome nodder “The Heavenly Ape,” the especially-doomed “The Ritual” and the more mellow-float centerpiece “Spectral Haze,” while “Mycelium Messiah” brings more straight-ahead fuzz (for a time) and drones on either side surround the 10:35 “Sand Barrows,” the latter serving as the finale “A Shattered Visage” quoting Percy Bysshe Shelley and the former “City of the Djinn” running just a minute-plus but still doing enough to reset the brain from where “Mycelium Messiah” left it. Almost functioning as two albums side-by-side with “Spectral Haze” as the dividing point, The Conduit indeed seems to join various sides together, with a depth to coincide that invites the listener to explore along with it.
Landing a punch of classic metal to go along with its heavy-bottomed groove, Diggeth‘s Gringos Galacticos — one supposes the title ‘Spacecrackers’ was taken — was released by the Dutch trio in 2019 and receives a US limited vinyl edition thanks to Qumran Records. One finds some similar guitar heroics to those of Astrosoniq‘s more straightforward moments, but Diggeth‘s focus remains on hookmaking for the duration, offering hints of twang and acoustics in “In the Wake of Giants” and tipping a hat southwestward in “Three Gringos,” but “Straight-Shooter” is willfully breaks out its inner Hetfield and even as the penultimate “Unshackled” departs for a quieter break, it makes its way back in time for the big finish chorus, adding just a touch of Candlemass grandiosity for good measure before the harmonica-laced closing title-track rounds out with its dynamic spacey weirdness, the name of the album repeating itself in an answer to the Stephen Hawking sample that started the voyage on its way.
Cursed Tongue Records has the vinyl here, and Three Moons the tape, and the CD will arrive through Aladeriva Records, La Rubia Producciones, Aneurisma Records, Surnia Records and Violence in the Veins — so yes, Horizon‘s third album, The White Planet Patrol is well backed. Fair enough for the Kyuss-via-Black–Rainbows vibes of “End of Utopia” or the initial charge and flow of “The Backyard” that sets the Alicante, Spain, trio on their way. “King Serpent” and “Death & Teddies” bring well-crafted fuzz to bear, and “Blind World” effectively layers vocals in its chorus to coincide, but the more laid back roll of the title-cut is an unmistakable highlight. Shades of mid-paced Nebula surface in “Meet the Forest” later on, but Horizon are part of a tradition of heavy bands in Alicante and they know it. The smoothness of their tone and delivery speaks volumes on its own in that regard, never mind the actual songwriting, which also leaves nothing to be desired.
Debut EP from Limousine Beach out of Pittsburgh, and if the three guitars involved don’t push it over the top, certainly the vocal harmonies get that particular job done. You got six minutes for three songs? Yeah, obviously. They scorch through “Tiny Hunter” to close out, but it’s in the leadoff title-track that Stealin’ Wine + 2 sees the Dave Wheeler-fronted outfit land its most outrageous chorus, just before they go on to find a middle-ground between KISS and Thin Lizzy on “Hear You Calling.” The harmonies open and are striking from the outset, but it’s in how they’re arranged around the standalone parts from Wheeler (also Outsideinside, ex-Carousel) that the outfit’s truest potential is shown. Issued through Tee Pee Records, Stealin’ Wine + 2 is the kind of thing you’d pick up at a show in a normal year and then feel way ahead of everyone else when the LP finally hits. Not a normal year, obviously, but Limousine Beach are serving due notice just the same. In six minutes, no less.
I’m sure a lot of records show up at Satan’s door with notes, like, “Dear sir, please find the enclosed submitted for your approval,” but it’s not hard to imagine Beelzebub himself getting down with the filth-coated sludge and rolling doom unfurled across The Crooked Whispers‘ debut offering, Satanic Melodies, marked by hateful, near-blackened screams from Anthony Gaglia and the plodding riffs of Chad Davis (Hour of 13, et al). The title-track is longest at 8:23 and in addition to featuring Ignacio De Tommaso‘s right-on bass tone in its midsection, it plays out early like Weedeater sold their collective soul, and drifts out where earlier pieces “Sacrifice” and “Evil Tribute” and “Profane Pleasure” held their roll for the duration. Stretches of clean-vocal cultistry add to the doomier aspects, but The Crooked Whispers seem to care way less about genre than they do about worshiping the devil, and that unshakable faith behind them, the rest seems to fall into place in accordingly biting fashion.
This record doesn’t come out until September, so I’m going to stop myself from heaping ecstatic praise upon its gloriously honed wash of fuzz- and noise-drenched progressive heavy psychedelia, but keep in mind, the impulse is definitely there. Caterpillars of Creation, out Sept. 4 through Svart Records, is the debut offering from Tampere, Finland’s Polymoon, and by “debut offering,” I mean it’s the first thing they’ve ever done. As of this post, I don’t think they’ve even played a live show. They had something booked for March, but I’m pretty sure it got canceled because of the ensuing lockdown. There are some dates booked for around the release, so I guess they’ll get there sooner or later.
Finland has long served as a salon of weirdo visionaries, and it’s not really much of a surprise to find that Polymoon have some connection to the Waste of Space collective, whose Jun-His — vocalist for Oranssi Pazuzu and indeed a member of the Waste of Space Orchestra — helmed the production. There are flashes of extremity in some of the later guitar work and noise on Caterpillars of Creation, but ultimately, Polymoon show little interest in adhering to the tenets of one genre or another and instead bring their own perspective to such established ideals. The record is preceded by the single “Malamalama,” for which you’ll find a visualizer premiering at the bottom of this post (I’m delighted to host it given how much I’m enjoying the album from whence it comes), and which will be released this Friday on all the usual-suspect sources.
More to come? I certainly hope so. Easily one of the most impressive debuts I’ve heard this year.
Here’s info, and live dates, which it feels exceptionally good to post:
Svart Records to release POLYMOON’s first single Malamalama this week, music video out now
Somewhere between cosmic space rock and progressive psychedelia are POLYMOON, a new band from Tampere, Finland. The basic elements of POLYMOON are endless sonic reflections in the night sky, crushing fuzz guitars and undulating synthesizers. The backbone of the entity is a symbiosis of complex drum sequences and pulsating bass guitar.
Malamalama is the first single off the POLYMOON debut album Caterpillars of Creation, out this Friday via all digital outlets. Caterpillars of Creation will be released by Svart Records on the 4th of September, 2020.
Malamalama (lit. the light of knowledge) is the crimson heart pounding in the chest of POLYMOON. Malamalama is the lifeblood of POLYMOON: it combines an ethereal, otherworldly atmosphere with heavy-prog soundscapes. Together these elements form the progressive-psychedelic nectar flowing in the orchestra’s heart. Malamalama is like a deep feverish dream from which one does not want to wake up. In its essence, Malamalama is nostalgy for the times past: a longing for something long gone.
“Polymoon are the new open-minded young mages of the explosive psychedelia rock scene that Finland and Tampere area has been producing over the recent years. The rich and colorful sound of the band delivers really fresh and beautiful ideas to the table. And they are being served with such a passion that it makes you think of the days when music was standing out for a revolution. And not in that nostalgic manner, but in a way that makes you experience something important is happening right here and now”, comments the album’s co-producer Jun-His, also known as the voice of Oranssi Pazuzu.
In the music of POLYMOON, euphoria and melancholia converge to guide the listener to another level of being to embrace the monolith of psychedelia. POLYMOON is an ensemble of the end times, a formless entity behind the clandestine curtain.
Upcoming POLYMOON gigs: Sep 4th. Bar 15, Seinäjoki Sep 5th. Ääniwalli, Helsinki (w/ Hidria Spacefolk + Superfjord) Sep 11th. Manse Psych Fest pre-party: Telakka, Tampere (w/ Kaleidobolt + Radio Supernova) Sep 18th. Freetime, Jyväskylä (w/ Ghost World) Dec 4th. Korjaamo, Helsinki (w/ Kairon; IRSE!) Dec 5th. Olympia, Tampere (w/ Kairon; IRSE! + Radio Supernova)
POLYMOON is: Tuomas Heikura / Drums Jesse Jaksola / Guitar Otto Kontio / Guitar Kalle-Erik Kosonen / Vocals, Synthesizer Juuso Valli / Bass
