Posted in Whathaveyou on May 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
There’s no audio from this yet and I don’t even know if Portland-based semi-psych experimentalists Sun Blood Stories are ‘working’ this release in terms of press, but whatever. Cool band does a thing is always relevant news where I come from, and while 2024’s Shadow Loud (review here) was plenty out there, A Different Kind of Future would seem to promise not only a couple songs that were left off that record, but a few remixes as well, reminding of the malleability of music and the band’s willingness to reside outside genre norms.
The title invokes either the hopelessness of our current age or the notion of perhaps a better tomorrow, I still can’t decide which (if it’s not both), but it’s probably safe to call it timely in any case, and it wouldn’t be the first time Sun Blood Stories engaged with social commentary. It’s the US. Everything here is politics. Usually also racism.
Apparently the band have new material in the works as well, as they discuss some of that below too. This comes from socials (note that the credits here are inherited from the album):
On 5/23 we’re releasing our ep “A Different Kind of Future*” and this is the album art!
This ep is a companion piece to our 2024 release, Shadow Loud. A Different Kind of Future features three Shadow Loud remixes and three tracks that ultimately got cut to help Shadow Loud reach its final form.
Amber “remixed” Kirsten Furlong’s gorgeous artwork that is Shadow Loud’s back cover to create the album artwork for Future (just testing this nickname out to see if it works so I don’t have to type “A Different Kind of Future” every time I want you to remember that we’re releasing an ep on 5/23. I don’t think the shortened name Future works though and I should probably continue referring to the ep with its full government name: A Different Kind of Future).
Tracklisting: 1. In Your Skin 2. Metal On Metal 3. A Different Kind of Future 4. New Ghost Cathedral (Endless Atlas Remix) 5. Falling in Feelings (B|_ank Remix) 6. No One’s Blessed (Odd Relics Remix) 7. No One’s Blessed (Odd Relics Remix) Radio Edit
We’re celebrating the release of A Different Kind of Future with a dope show on 5/23 at The High Water Mark where we won’t be performing a single song from the release that we’ll be celebrating. Hell yeah! We’ll be playing an entirely new set of songs that we’re writing right now plus a song so old it feels brand new. Here’s the set list – which song sounds most interesting to you (we’ll let you know if you’re right)
– Nothing Looks Back – Ghost in the Gun – Screen Door – Desert4Days – Say No to Us – In the Wildflowers – Mistakes – An Otherwise Dark Scene
*(alt titles considered: “A Future in which we all survive” “Metal on Metal”)
Sun Blood Stories: Vocals, Slide Guitar – Amber Pollard Vocals, Guitar, Slide Guitar, Bass, Keys, Percussion – Ben Kirby Bass, Guitar – Nik Kososik Drums, Percussion – Wade Ronsse Tape Effects – Matt Stone Vocal Sample – Anna Wiley
Posted in Reviews on April 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This stretch of touring Hippie Death Cult undertook throughout 2023-2024 supporting their late-’23 full-length, Helichrysum (review here), may end up as formative for the band, and if that seems counterintuitive to you as they’ve been around for six-plus years, it is. It makes sense, however, if you think of Helichrysum as a born-late debut album for the trio configuration of the band, comprised of vocalist/bassist Laura Phillips, guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers. Hippie Death Cult‘s third album overall, it was the first with Phillips handling the role of vocalist, the first with Styles, and the first without the organ sound that had been a staple of their work to that point.
It was a significant moment in the life of the band thus far, and Phillips, Brnabic and Silvers greeted it with an adapted vision of what Hippie Death Cult do. They were sludgier and rawer, with Phillips‘ propensity for shifting into a scream and shoutier delivery generally, songs like “Arise” and “Toxic Annihilator” account for that because, unlike the material from their first two records, it was written to do so. Live at Star Theater makes a whole lot of sense to release in the way live albums make sense broadly — good for fans, look good on the merch table, etc. — but for Hippie Death Cult, they’re still letting people know (or they’re letting them know again) what they’re about as a group. Whether it’s new songs or old, Live at Star Theater is a chance for listeners who haven’t seen three-piece Hippie Death Cult to find out some of what they’ve been missing. So it makes specific sense as well.
The show was recorded Nov. 9, of course at Star Theater in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, It was reportedly the last gig of the year and wrapped the already-noted busy stint that may ultimately have an impact on the development of Hippie Death Cult‘s sound — playing live a whole bunch will do that, I’m told — and they captured the full audio/video experience for posterity; one show, as it happened. It’s not this song pulled from this night and that one from that one. It’s the show, or at least part of it.
Their full set was longer, with “Squid,” “Nice to Know You,” “Better Days,” “Tomorrow’s Sky” and the Nirvana cover “Aneurysm” (posted here) closing out, but on the live album, “Arise,” “Toxic Annihilator,” “Shadows” and “Red Giant” feature from Helichrysum and they cap with a reinterpretation of the title-track to 2021’s Circle of Days (review here) that takes up 16 minutes of Live at Star Theater‘s 42-minute runtime. That ethic of fleshing the material out is there in the other songs as well, with each one longer than its studio counterpart by some measure or other. This is the way of songs with some bands — they become living things that change over time rather than setting the studio take as definitive and playing directly to that — and Hippie Death Cult‘s remaining allegiance to psychedelia resides in no small part in that flexibility.
Fret not, though, they also shred. Brnabic — who also mixed and mastered; Richard “Will” Fenton and Jeremy Romagna engineered — is no stranger to tearing up a solo or 10, and across Live at Star Theater, part of what Hippie Death Cult are showing off is the chemistry of its lineup in this form. This comes through even in the abbreviated, mostly-new set as appears on the LP, as the gallop of “Toxic Annihilator” comes in on precise stops picking up from the noisy nod that has people cheering before “Arise” is actually even done, Phillips between songs advising those who don’t want to be part of the mosh to stand aside. Fair enough.
But “Toxic Annihilator,” as taut as it is in comparison to a song like “Circle of Days,” opens up as well, during its later solo section, and alongside everything else Hippie Death Cult are doing with Live at Star Theater, they’re changing the character of their material — or at least showing how that change took shape over the course of 2024 leading to these songs, on this night, during this set — as part of their ongoing evolution. “Shadows” wasn’t as much of a standout from Helichrysum as either “Arise” or “Toxic Annihilator,” but it makes a rousing centerpiece for the live record, with a bassier push bringing Phillips‘ role at the forefront of the trio into focus as Brnabic offsets with bluesy shred and Silvers sets it to the swing with which he would seem to have been born.
“Shadows” brings a different mood than the opening duo, and the cymbal wash build into “Red Giant,” with its stops and twists, feels no less purposeful for the obvious edit before it starts. Live at Star Theater isn’t a complete live picture of Hippie Death Cult circa late last year, but in addition to the archival appeal of capturing this band at this moment in their collective history, it’s a thrilling showcase for the nastier side that has emerged in their sound, “Red Giant” playing host to a particularly vicious scream from Phillips, who then leads the band through the smoother nod that makes up most of “Circle of Days,” though I’ll note that when they get to the gallop there as well, everybody sounds relieved.
Sometimes a band ends up in a different place than they started, and with Hippie Death Cult reveling in the sludged and abrasive aspects of their sound as they do across Live at Star Theater, they have a charge to them that one wouldn’t have predicted would come to focus from their earliest work. At the same time, the subversion of expectations continues to suit the trio, and the end result of all the touring they put in for Helichrysum, as one might hear it on this live offering, is in the dynamic manner in which they bring their songs to life. I don’t know where Hippie Death Cult are going to end up sound-wise three records from now, but the path they’re on is exciting and Live at Star Theater showcases part of the reason why.
Hippie Death Cult, “Red Giant” live at Star Theater
Day three. Yesterday had its challenges as regards timing, but ultimately I wound up where I wanted to be, which is finished with the writing. Fingers crossed I’m so lucky today. Last time around I hit into a groove pretty early and the days kind of flew, so I’m due a Quarterly Review where it’s a little more pulling teeth to make sentences happen. I’m doing my best either way. That’s it. That’s the update. Let’s go Wednesday.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
Godzillionaire, Diminishing Returns
Tell you what. Instead of pretending I knew Godzillionaire at all before this record came along or that I had any prior familiarity with frontman Mark Hennessy‘s ’90s-era outfit Paw — unlike everything else I’ve seen written about the band — I’ll admit to going into Diminishing Returns relatively blind. And somehow it’s still nostalgic? With its heart on its sleeve and one foot in we’re-all-definitely-over-all-that-shit-from-our-20s-by-now-right-guys poetic moodiness, the Lawrence, Kansas, four-piece veer between the atmospherics of “Spin Up Spin Down” and more grounded grooves like that of “Boogie Johnson” or “3rd Street Shuffle.” “Unsustainable” dares post-rock textures and an electronic beat, “Astrogarden” has a chug imported from 1994 and the seven-minutes-each capstone pair “Common Board, Magic Nail,” which does a bit of living in its own head, and “Shadow of a Mountain,” which has a build but isn’t a blowout, reward patient listens. I guess if you were there in the ’90s, it’s god-tier heavy underground hype. From where I sit, it’s pretty solid anyhow.
In Flight is the second full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Time Rift, and it brings the revamped trio lineup of vocalist Domino Monet, founding guitarist Justin Kaye and drummer Terrica Catwood to a place between classic heavy rock and classic metal, colliding ’70s groove and declarative ’80s NWOBHM riffing — advance single “The Hunter” strikes with a particularly Mob Rulesian tone, but it’s relatable to a swath of non-sucky metal of the age — such that “Follow Tomorrow” finds a niche that sounds familiar in its obscurity. They’re not ultimately rewriting any playbooks stylistically, but the balance of the production highlights the organic foundation without coming across like a put-on, and the performances thrive in that. Sometimes you want some rock and roll. Time Rift brought plenty for everyone.
Canadian instrumentalist trio Heavy Trip released their sophomore LP, Liquid Planet, in Nov. 2024, following on from 2020’s Burning World-issued self-titled debut (review here). A 13-minute title-track serves as opener and longest inclusion (immediate points), setting a high standrad for scorch that the pulls and shred of “Silversun,” the rush and roll of “Astrononaut” (sic) and capper “Mudd Red Moon” with its maybe-just-wah-all-the-time push and noisy comedown ending, righteously answer. It’s easy enough on its face to cite Earthless as an influence — instrumental band with ace guitarist throwing down a gauntlet for 40 minutes; they’re also touring Europe together — but Heavy Trip follow a trajectory of their own within the four songs and are less likely to dwell in a part, as the movement within “Astrononaut” shows plainly. I won’t be surprised when their next one comes with label backing.
An impressive debut from UK four-piece Slung, whose provenance I don’t know but who sound like they’ve been at it for a while and have come into their first album, In Ways, with clarity of what they want in terms of sound and songwriting. “Laughter” opens raucous, and “Class A Cherry” follows with a sleeker slower roll, while “Come Apart” pushes even further into loud/quiet trades for a soaring chorus and “Collider” pays off its early low-end tension with a melodic hook that feels so much bigger than what one might find in a three-minute song. It goes like that: one cut after another, for 11 songs and 37 minutes, with Slung skillfully guiding the listener from the front of the record to the back. The going can be intense, like “Matador” or the crashing “Thinking About It,” more contemplative like “Limassol” and “Heavy Duty,” and there’s even room for a title-track interlude before the somewhat melancholic “Nothing Left” and “Falling Down” close, though that might only be because Slung use their time so well.
Madrid-based progressive heavy rockers Greengoat return on a quick turnaround from 2024’s A.I. (review here) to Aloft, which over 33 minutes plays through seven songs each of which has been given a proper name: the album intro is “Zohar,” it moves into the grey-toned tension of “Betty,” “Jim” is moody, “Barney” takes it for a walk, and so on. The big-riffed centerpiece “Travis” is a highlight slog, and “Ariel,” which follows, is thoughtful in its melody and deceptively nuanced in the underlying rhythm. That’s kind of how Greengoat do. They’ve taken their influences — and in the case of closer “Charles,” that includes black metal — and internalized them toward their own methodologies, and as such, Aloft feels all the more individually constructed. Hail Iberia as Western Europe’s most undervalued heavy hotspot.
If it seems a little on the nose for Author & Punisher, modern industrial music’s most doom-tinged purveyor, to cover Godflesh, who helped set the style in motion in the first place, yeah, it definitely is. That accounts for the reverence with which Tristan Shone treats the track that originally appeared on 1994’s Selfless LP, and maybe is part of why the song’s apparently been sitting for 11 years since it was recorded in 2014. Accordingly, if some of the sounds remind of 2015’s Melk en Honig (discussed here), the era might account for that. In Shone‘s interpretation, though, the defeated vocal of Justin K. Broadrick becomes a more aggressive rasp and the guitar is transposed to synth. One advantage to living in the age of content-creation is stuff like this gets released at all, let alone posted so you can stream or download as you will. Get it now so when it shows up on the off-album-tracks compilation later you can roll your eyes and be extra cool.
Children of the Sün, Leaving Ground, Greet the End
It’s gotta be a trap, right? The third full-length from Arvika, Sweden, heavy-hippie folk-informed psychedelic rockers Children of the Sün can’t really be this sweet, right? The soaring “Lilium?” The mellow, lap-steel-included motion in “Come With Us?” The fact that they stonerfy “Whole Lotta Love?” Yeah, no way. I know how this goes. You show up and the band are like, “Hey everything’s cool, check out this better universe we just made” and then the next thing you know the floor drops out and you’re doing manual labor on some Swedish farm to align yourself with some purported oneness. I hear you, “Starlighter.” You’re gorgeous and one of many vivid temptations on Leaving Ground, Greet the End, but you’ll not take my soul on your outbound journey through the melodic cosmos. I’m just gonna stay here and be miserable and there’s nothing you or that shiver-down-the-spine backing vocal in “Lovely Eyes” can do about it. So there.
While the core math at work in Pothamus‘ craft in terms of bringing together crushing, claustrophobic tonality, aggressive purposes and expansive atmospherics isn’t necessarily new for a post-metallic playbook, but the melodies that the Belgian trio keep in their pocket for an occasion like “De-Varium” or the drone-folk “Ykavus” before they find another layer of breadth in the 15-minute closing title-track are no less engrossing across the subdued stretches within the six songs of Abur than the band are consuming at their heaviest, and the percussion in the early build of the finale says it better than I could, calling back to the ritualism of opener “Zhikarta” and the way it seems to unfold another layer of payoff with each measure as it crosses the halfway point, only to end up squeezing itself through a tiny tube of low end and finding freedom on the other side in a flood of drone, the entire album playing out its 46 minutes not like parts of a single song, but vivid in the intention of creating a wholeness that is very much manifest in its catharsis.
Gentle Beast, Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space)
Gentle Beast are making stoner rock for stoner rockers, if the cumbersome title Vampire Witch Reptilian Super Soldier (…From Outer Space) of the Swiss five-piece’s sophomore LP didn’t already let you know, and from the desert-careening of “Planet Drifter” through the Om-style meditation of “Riding Waves of Karma” (bonus points for digeridoo) ahead of the janga-janga verse and killer chorus of “Revenge of the Buffalo,” they’re not shy about highlighting the point. There’s a spoken part in the early going of “Voodoo Hoodoo Space Machine” that seems to be setting up a narrative, and the organ-laced ending of “Witch of the Mountain” certainly could be seen as a chapter of that unfolding story, but I can’t help but feel like I’m thinking too hard. Go with the riffs, because for sure the riffs are going. Gentle Beast hit pretty hard, counter to the name, and that gives Vampire Witch etc. etc. an outwardly aggressive face, but nobody’s actually getting punched here, they’re just loud having a good time. You can too.
Metal and psychedelia rarely interact with such fluidity, but South Africa’s Acid Magus have found a sweet spot where they can lead a record off with a seven-minute onslaught like “War” and still prog out four minutes later on “Incantations” just because both sound so much in their wheelhouse. In addition, the fullness of their tones and modern production style, the way post-hardcore underlines both the nod later in “Wytch” and the shoving apex of “Emperor” is a unifying factor, while the bright-guitar interludes “Ascendancy” and “Absolution” broaden the palette further and contrast the darker exploration of “Citadel” and the finale “Haven,” which provides a fittingly huge and ceremonious culmination to Scatterling Empire‘s sense of space. It’s almost too perfect in terms of the mix and the balance of the arrangements, but when it hits into a more aggressive moment, they sound organic in holding it together. Acid Magus have actively worked to develop their approach. It’s hard to see the quality of these songs as anything other than reward for that effort.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Well, the headline tells you what you need to know. Congrats to Portland, Oregon’s Breath on signing to Argonauta Records for a presumed full-length to come. Formerly a duo, the now-four-piece were last heard from with the semi-redux of their debut LP, Primeval Transmissions (Remixed and Remastered) (review here), in 2023. That second look at a first record broadened the scope in a way the band have obviously been chasing as they’ve added members in the last couple years around the core bass-and-drums configuration. The willingness to think beyond themselves shows in the audio as well, as you can hear at the bottom of this post.
More on the album if and when there is an album on which to have more. The signing announcement came down the PR wire:
Portland’s Meditative Doom Seekers BREATH Sign with Argonauta Records
Portland, Oregon’s meditative doom seekers BREATH have found a new home with Italy’s Argonauta Records! Their sound is a cultivated vehicle of stillness, riding the churning white water of doom metal flow. Beginning with a solid foundation of bass and drums, the duo is joined by keys and guitar, with collaborator Rob Wrong of Witch Mountain engineering the project, ushering in a new dawn of verdant growth.
Known for their immersive and transcendent take on doom metal, BREATH crafts a sound that merges meditative stillness with crushing sonic waves. They draw inspiration from bands like Earth, OM, Grails, as well as the timeless influence of Black Sabbath and Ravi Shankar.
Founded by childhood friends Steven O’Kelly and Ian Caton, BREATH evolved from years of collaboration as an inseparable rhythm section. This bond led them to explore their own unique voice. Their debut album, Primeval Transmissions, was originally released in 2021 via Desert Records, featuring the masterful engineering of Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) and mastering by the legendary Tad Doyle. Wrong also contributed guitar work to key tracks, including Halls of Amenti, which was re-released in a remixed and remastered edition in 2023.
With an expansive musical vision that blends high-decibel doom, hypnotic Eastern influences, and dynamic rhythmic textures, BREATH has continued to evolve, incorporating Lauren Hatch on keys in 2023 and Justin Acevedo on guitar in 2024.
Now, as they embark on the next chapter of their journey with Argonauta Records, BREATH is ready to bring their unique sonic meditations to a global audience. Stay tuned for more details on their upcoming releases!
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 7th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The closest estimate I can give you as to what Ravine sound like comes from their 2019 self-titled demo/EP/not-album, so don’t think I’m strutting around the internet calling myself an expert on this band. I’m not. I didn’t even include their lineup here because I don’t know if it’s the same folks who made the EP six years ago.
I’ll tell you though, six years ago, they sure sounded like a Ripple band. Imagine if Cortez had been birthed in the Pacific Northwest instead of Boston’s cruel climate, and maybe you’ll have some sense of where they seem(ed) to be coming from. I missed the EP at the time — shocking, I know; it only happens hourly — but it’s heavy riffs with a doom lean, well paced for nod but not overblown either way in tempo. The songs feel straightforward but are long enough to give a sense of space. I put the player below and I think if you put it on, there won’t be much mystery as to the appeal.
My assumption is that Ravine have an album in the can that they recorded with Rob Wrong (also Witch Mountain, ex-The Skull, etc.) and that release news will follow this signing announcement from earlier this week in short order. But in addition to the litany of known-unknowns above, I have no idea if that’s the case. At least it’s easy to be humble when basking in your own ignorance. When I see something, I’ll say something.
From socials:
Been a huge Ripple news day, so let’s keep it going. From the damp and rainy expanse of the Pacific Northwest, please welcome to the Ripple family the heavy bludgeoned doom sludge of RAVINE.
Brought to me by the heavy ears of Witch Mountain’s Rob Wrong who worked and recorded the band. Get ready.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 24th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
With their weighty name added to festivals like Heavy Psych Sounds, Desertfest Oslo, Desertfest Berlin, Desertfest London, Worship Fest in Iceland and Sideral in France, a tour announcement from Hippie Death Cult covering Spring in Europe isn’t a huge surprise, but they’re a touring band — they tour — so I’m not sure how shocked you’re supposed to be in the first place. Have you seen them as a trio? If not, do. All three on stage, killer, and Laura‘s scream intimidates mountains. It’s fucking rad.
Obviously then the prospect of a live album, Live at Star Theatre, recorded in the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, is a postive. It’s not out until May 9 and everything they play on it comes from 2023’s Helichrysum (review here) save for a 16-minute take on the title-track from 2021’s Circle of Days (review here), which should be plenty. I assume side B is that and “Red Giant.” Once again, right on.
The PR wire brought details
US heavy rockers HIPPIE DEATH CULT to release “Live at the Star Theater” album on Heavy Psych Sounds; spring European tour announced!
US heavy rock champions HIPPIE DEATH CULT announce the release of their “Live at the Star Theater” album on May 9th through Heavy Psych Sounds. The electric trio will be touring Europe for an extensive month-long run, including appearances at Desertfest London and Oslo and Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Italy.
The band says: “We’ve been toying around with the idea of doing a live album for a while now, considering our music has a whole different energy and vibrance to it in any given live situation, so it’s cool to have a well-recorded document of a little snapshot in time from this era of the band’s history. It’s also something we plan on doing more regularly in the future as we progress along our path and evolve. We toured a whole hell of a lot in 2024, both across the United States and Europe as well as Canada and this was our final show of the year, which took place in our hometown of Portland, Oregon. We figured it would be a special place to try and capture an audio and video document of a full concert, 1) because Portland has always been our rock, a very supportive hometown with whom we’ve always shared a genuine connection with and 2) it’s a place where we have the resources to have friends help to make it happen on little to no budget. Some things went right that night, some things went wrong. It’s raw. It’s live. It’s us.”
Hippie Death Cult on tour: 01.05 IT Genova – Trinità Live Club 02.05 IT Bologna – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 03.05 IT Venezia – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 04.05 SLO Izola – Hangar Bar 05.05 HR Pula – Klub Kotač 06.05 HR Zagreb – AKC Attack 07.05 AT Vienna – Arena 08.05 DE Ravensburg – Slainte Irish Pub 09.05 AT Ebensee – Kino 10.05 NO Oslo – Desertfest Oslo 11.05 DK Copenhagen – Stengade 13.05 DE Göppingen – Gaststätte Zille 14.05 DE Wiesbaden – Kreativfabrik 15.05 NL Oss – Groene Engel 16.05 UK London – Desertfest London 17.05 IS Reykjavík – Worship Fest 18.05 UK Huddersfield – Northern Quarter 20.05 UK Nottingham – Ye Olde Salutation Inn 22.05 FR Paris – Le Klub 24.05 FR Capbreton – Sideral Festival 28.05 IT Torino – Blah Blah 29.05 IT Sezzadio – Cascina Bellaria 31.05 CH Geneve – L’Usine
Posted in Reviews on November 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This past summer, Portland, Oregon-based atmospheric heavy rockers Young Hunter released their first single in seven years, “Loudness Wars” (posted here), while at the same time marking the 10th anniversary of the current inception of the band. Bundled on a self-released cassette with art by vocalist/synthesist/percussionist Sara Pinnell, “Loudness Wars” was accompanied by “The Greatest Hits” (premiered here), and those two tracks were a sign of life from a band who, after issuing the distinct and progressive Dayhiker (review here), seemed not to have made it to the other side of the pandemic.
Comprised of five tracks running a short-LP’s 32 minutes, Bleeding Gold upends that narrative on a couple levels. Foremost by existing, admittedly, but as “Bone Cutter’s Anthem” executes a subtle build across six minutes to arrive at its instrumental crescendo with about one still to go, the fluidity of Young Hunter‘s craft and the production of Tim Green (Louder Studios, Grass Valley, CA), who also mixed, highlights the growth the band have consistently offered from release to release, as if, say, it hasn’t been seven years.
And in part that’s because the band — Pinnell, guitarist/vocalist Benjamin Ford-Sala, guitarist Erik Wells, source-of-the-sway bassist Sam Dean, and drummer Grant Pierce — recorded it four years ago. The sleek swing that emerged from 2016’s self-titled (review here) and set the stage for expansion in Dayhiker is pushed another step forward here, and as has been the case since the band’s pre-Portland days when they were based in Arizona, proffering the rawness of 2013’s EP Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain (review here) or the 2012 full-length, Stone Tools (discussed here), before it, the band ride that underlying groove with an attention to detail in the melody and arrangements.
Having two vocalists, either of whom is able to carry a song on their own, is an asset that shouldn’t be understated, for Young Hunter generally and particularly on Bleeding Gold. The course of the album as a whole — and this is something that I think it probably helped by it being relatively brief as a collection compared to 40- or 45-minute LPs — is linear, and it expands outward from “Bone Cutter’s Anthem” into the subsequent title-track with standalone guitar howling out in dark Americana style across a mostly empty landscape that bursts to life without actually bursting; the guitar telegraphs the change and the drums, bass and keys embark on the verse with ease that feels organic in keeping with the ambience of the intro.
Mood as paramount, but still in service to the song itself. The verse rests on the bass and drums as the guitars step back to give Pinnell space for layering and become a kind of instrumental hook in offsetting the vocals, and a mellow-heavy vibe is cast without giving up the evocation of land in the guitar, which is a central stylistic element of the band that goes as far back as they do.
The difference between Bleeding Gold, which, again, represents where they were in terms of songwriting probably five years ago or more — it nonetheless remains the most recent full-length they’ve got, and after taking four years to get this one out, I’m not thinking they’ll do a follow-up in six months — and everything that came before it is the purposefulness of what they’re constructing in the songs. It’s not just that “Bone Cutter’s Anthem” has a linear build into a payoff or that “Bleeding Gold” itself settles into a mid-tempo swing like it’s-been-here-the-whole-time-and-oh-you-just-showed-up-that’s-nice.
It’s the varied intent between the two, and the sidestep that arrives with the keyboardy intro to centerpiece “Skulls of Our Leaders,” which follows. Joined by Pinnell, Ford-Sala makes his first vocal appearance on the third of the five inclusions, and the shift is played well for adding to the scope of the song, the standout starting line, “I’ve come for the skulls of our leaders,” and the album broadly. Like everything here, it feels like a purposeful choice, and maybe not one that Young Hunter would have been able to make seven years ago.
Resolved in a lush melody with a characteristically straightforward groove beneath, “Skulls of Our Leaders” prefaces the duet of closer “Theater of War” in a way that is further emblematic of the arc being drawn across Bleeding Gold from beginning to end, and before the band digs into the finale which is also the longest inclusion at 7:30 — not by a ton, but still — the penultimate “Darkest Vine” regrounds in the spirit of “Bleeding Gold” or “Bone Cutter’s Anthem.” An opening drone resonates like string sounds before a groove that ’70s-era Scorpions would’ve been proud to produce backs Pinnell, who seems to take patterning cues from Madonna‘s “Into the Groove” while the lead guitar stretches out like the later portion of The Beatles‘ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and manages thereby to be both languid and headpinning. They bring “Darkest Vine” to a push later with Pierce‘s crash driving the charge and intertwining guitars over top, ambient vocals, etc., but don’t go so far out that they can’t bring the song back to a final verse to end, stopping cold ahead of “Theater of War.”
As one might expect for a record that seems to have been put together with such cohesion and direction behind it, “Theater of War” is not haphazard in drawing Bleeding Gold to a close. In both its dually-voiced first half and the somewhat strutting instrumental takeoff of its second, it encapsulates and summarizes well a lot of what has worked about the record all along, without letting the sense of consideration in the material slip. Listening, it doesn’t seem like it was written specifically to cap the album, but in all likelihood, if Young Hunter didn’t know it was the finish by the time it was recorded, it couldn’t have been long after they sampled the first mixdown. It’s an ending you know is coming but that remains satisfying, and another example of what Young Hunter have to offer in bringing together a not-overdone feeling of drama and exploration with solid structuring and proggier textures of melody and rhythm in layering.
If Bleeding Gold had shown up four years ago, or three, I’d have said something like, “Wow, this is a sharp statement from Young Hunter about who they are as a band. Seven years on from their last record, I feel precisely the same way. That is so say, time is an illusion and the best art exists outside of it. As regards this one, I’ll just be happy it got released at all, regardless of how long it was in making that happen.
Posted in Reviews on October 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’ll be honest, I don’t even want to talk about how well this Quarterly Review is going because I worry about screwing it up. It’s always a lot of work to round up 10 records per day, even if there’s a single or and EP snuck in there, but it’s been a long time now that I’ve been doing things this way — sometimes as a means of keeping up, sometimes to herald things to come, usually just a way to write about things I want to write about regardless of timeliness — and it’s always worth it. I’ve had a couple genuinely easy days here. Easier than expected. Obviously that’s a win.
So while I wait for the other shoe to drop, let’s keep the momentum going.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
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Massive Hassle, Unreal Damage
Brotherly two-piece Massive Hassle, comprised of brothers Bill Fisher and Marty Fisher — who played together in Mammothwing and now both feature in Church of the Cosmic Skull — get down with another incredibly complex set of harmonized ’70s-style soul-groovers, nailing it as regards tone and tempo from the big riff that eats “Lost in the Changes” to the strums and croons early in the penultimate “Tenspot,” hitting a high note together in that song that gives over to stark and wistful standalone guitar meander that with barely a minute ago gorgeously becomes a bittersweet triumph of nostalgic fuzz reminiscent of Colour Haze‘s “Fire” and having the sheer unmitigated gall to tell the world around them it’s no big deal by naming the band Massive Hassle and stating that as the thing they most want to avoid. When they did Number One (review here) in 2023, it felt like they were proving the concept. With Unreal Damage, they’re quietly pushing limits.
Iress are the Los Angeles-based four-piece of Michelle Malley (vocals), Michael Maldonado (bass), Glenn Chu (drums) and Graham Walker (guitar). Sleep Now, In Reverse is their fourth full-length in nearly 15 years of existence. As a record, it accomplishes a lot of things, but what you need to understand is that where it most succeeds and stands itself out is in bringing together a heavy post-rock sound — heavygaze, as the kids don’t say because they don’t know what it is — with emotive expression on vocals, a blending of ethereal and the most human and affecting, and when Malley lets loose in the payoff of “Mercy,” it’s an early highlight with plenty more to follow. It’s not that Iress are reinventing genre — evolving, maybe? — but what they’re doing with it is an ideal unto itself, taking those aspects from across an aesthetic range and incorporating them into a whole, at times defiantly cohesive sound, lush but clearheaded front to back.
When the band put the shimmying “Apocalypse Babes” up as a standalone single last year, it was some five years after their debut full-length, 2018’s Mindtripper (review here) — though there was a split between — so not an insignificant amount of time for Norway’s Magmakammer to expand on their methods and dig into the songs. To be sure, “Doom Jive” and “Zimbardo” still have that big-hook, Uncle Acid-style dirty garage buzz that lends itself so well to cultish themes but thankfully here is about more than murder. And indeed, the band seems to have branched out a bit, and the eight-song/43-minute Before I Burn is well served by divergences like the closing “I Will Guide Your Hand” or the way “Cult of Misanthropy” sounds like a studio outtake on a bootleg from 1969 until they kick it open around a build of marching guitar, even as it stays loyal to Magmakammer‘s core stylistic purposes. A welcome return.
The kind of sludge rock Ohio’s Evel play, informed by Mondo Generator‘s druggy, volatile heavy punk and C.O.C.‘s Southern metal nod, maybe a bit of High on Fire in “Alaska,” with a particularly Midwestern disappointment-in-everything that would’ve gone over well at Emissions From the Monolith circa 2003, isn’t what’s trendy. It’s not the cool thing. It doesn’t care about that, or about this review, or about providing social media content to maximize its algorithmic exposure. I’m not knocking any of that — especially the review, which is going swimmingly; I promise a point is coming — but if Evel‘s six-songer debut EP, Omen, is a foretell of things to come, the intention behind it is more about the catharsis of the writing/performance than trying to play to ‘scene’-type expectations. It is a pissed-off fuckall around which the band — which features guitarist/vocalist Alex Perekrest, also of Red Giant — will continue to build as “Dust Angel” and the swinging “Dawn Patrol” already find them doing. The going will likely be noisy, and that’s just fine.
Some six years and one reunion after their fourth album, 2018’s The Lucky Ones (review here), Virginia-born classic heavy barnburners Satan’s Satyrs are back with a fifth collection beating around riffs from Sabbath and the primordial ooze of heavy that birthed them, duly brash and infectious in their energy. Founding bassist/vocalist Clayton Burgess and guitarist Jarrett Nettnin are joined in the new incarnation of the band by guitarist Morgan McDaniel (also Mirror Queen) and drummer Russ Yusuf — though Sean Saley has been with them for recent live shows — and as they strut and swing through “Saltair Burns” like Pentagram if they’d known how to play jazz but were still doom, or the buzzy demo-style experimentation of “Genuine Turquoise,” which I’m just going to guess came together differently than was first expected. So much the better. They’ve never been hugely innovative, but Satan’s Satyrs have consistently delivered at this point across a span of more than a decade and they have their own spin on the style. They may always be a live band, but at least in my mind, there’s not much more one would ask that After Dark doesn’t deliver.
Delivered through Kozmik Artifactz, Weight in Gold is the second long-player from Melbourne, Australia’s Whoopie Cat, and it meets the listener at the intersection of classic, ’70s-style heavy blues rock and prog. Making dynamic use of a dual-vocal approach in “Pretty Baby” after establishing tone, presence and craft as assets with the seven-minute opening title-track, the band are unflinchingly modern in production even as they lean toward vintage-style song construction, and that meld of intention results in an organic sound that’s not restricted by the recording. Plus it’s louder, which doesn’t hurt most of the time. In any case, as Whoopie Cat follow-up their 2018 debut, Illusion of Choice, they do so with distinction and the ability to convey a firm grasp on their songwriting and convey a depth of intention from the what-if-Queen-but-blues “Icarus” or the consuming Hammondery of closer “Oh My Love.” Listening, I can’t help but wonder how far into prog they might ultimately go, but they’ve found a sweetspot in these songs that’s between styles, and they fit right in it.
Cheeky, heavy garage punk surely will not be enough to save the immortal souls of Earth Tongue from all their devil worship and intricate vocal patterning. And honestly the New Zealand two-piece — I could’ve sworn I saw something about them moving to Germany, but maybe they just had a really good Berlin show? — sound fine with that. Guitarist Gussie Larkin and drummer Ezra Simons benefit from the straightforward outward nature of their songs. That is, “Out of This Hell,” “The Mirror,” “Bodies Dissolve Tonight!” and any of the other nine inclusions on the record that either were or could’ve been singles, are catchy and tightly written. They’re not overplayed or underplayed, and they have enough tonal force in Larkin‘s guitar that the harder churn of closer “The Reluctant Host” can leave its own impression and still feel fluid alongside some of Great Haunting‘s sweeter psych-punk. Wherever they live, the two-piece make toys out of pop and praise music so that even “Miraculous Death” sounds like, and is, fun.
The collection House of Pain (Demos) takes its title from the place where guitarist/vocalist Tomas Iramain recorded them alongside bassist Matias Maltratador and drummer Jorge Iramain, though whether it’s a studio, rehearsal space, or an actual house, I won’t profess to know. Tomas is the lone remaining member carried over from the band’s 2020 self-titled LP, and the other part of what you need to know about House of Pain (Demos) can also be found in the title: it’s demos. Do not expect a studio sound full of flourish and nuance. Reportedly most of the songs were tracked with two Shure SM57s (the standard vocal mic), save for “Nomad” and “The Way I Am,” I guess because one broke? The point is, as raw as they are — and they are raw — these demos want nothing for appeal. The bounce in the bonus-track-type “Mountain (Take 1)” feels like a Dead Meadowy saunter, and for all of its one-mic-ness, “Nomad” gives a twist on ’50s and early ’60s guitar instrumentals that’s only bolstered by the recording. I’m not saying Las Historias should press up 10,000 LPs immediately or anything, but if this was the record, or maybe an EP and positioned as more substantial than the demos, aside from a couple repeated tracks, you could do far worse. “Hell Bird” howls, man. Twice over.
Certainly “Come With Me” and others on Aquanaut‘s self-titled debut have their desert rocking aspects, but there’s at least as much The Sword as Kyuss in what the Trondheim, Norway, newcomers unfurl on their self-titled, self-released debut, and when you can careen like in “Gamma Rays,” maybe sometimes you don’t need anything else. The seven-track/35-minute outing gets off to a bluesy, boozy start with “Lenéa,” and from there, Aquanaut are able to hone an approach that has its sludgier side in some of the Eyehategod bark of “Morality” but that comes to push increasingly far out as it plays through, so that “Living Memories” soars as the finale after the mid-tempo fuzzmaking of “Ivory,” and so Aquanaut seem to have a nascent breadth working for them in addition to the vigor of a young band shaping a collective persona. The generational turnover in Norway is prevalent right now with a number of promising debuts and breakouts in the last couple years. Aquanaut have a traditionalism at their core but feel like they want to break it as much as celebrate it, and if you’re the type to look for ‘bands to watch,’ that’s a reason to watch. Or even listen, if you’re feeling especially risk-friendly.
While I would be glad to be writing about Ghost Frog‘s quirky heavy-Weezerism and psychedelic chicanery even if their third album, Galactic Mini Golf didn’t have a song called “Deep Space Nine Iron” on it, I can’t lie and say that doesn’t make the prospect a little sweeter. It’s an interlude and I don’t even care — they made it and it’s real. The Portland, Oregon, four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Quinn Schwartz, guitarist/synthesist Karl Beheim, bassist Archie Heald and drummer Vincent LiRocchi (the latter making his first appearance) keep somewhat to a golfy theme, find another layer’s worth of heavy on “Shadow Club,” declare themselves weird before you even press play and reinforce the claim in both righteous post-grunge roll of “Burden of Proof” and the new wave rock of “Bubble Guns” before the big ol’ stompy riff in “Black Hole in One’ leads to a purposeful whole-album finish. Some things don’t have to make the regular kind of sense, because they make their own kind. Absurd as the revelry gets, Ghost Frog make their own kind of sense. Maybe you’ll find it’s also your kind of sense and that’s how we learn things about ourselves from art. Have a great rest of your day.
