Tell your normie friends you have a doctor’s appointment or something, because the Quarterly Review is back with day two of five, bringing another round of 10 releases to bear in succession rapid enough to be modern without, you know, actually being written by a computer. Unless you consider the entire universe a hologram, in which case, technically, everything is done by a computer. Processor sucks though. That’s why you get lags. And fascism.

But enough of that. More of this.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Primordial, Live in New York City

A Primordial live album? Fine. Recorded in New York? Fine. Whatever. Just hook it to my veins and be done with it. The stalwart Dublin post-black-metallers have long since established their mastery of form, and frankly, the more examples there are of them doing the thing, so much the better for future generations to learn from. That’s only funny if you think I’m kidding. The 99 minutes of Live in New York City are a document of Primordial not at their most furious or unhinged, or at their most atmospheric, graceful or doomed, but they are stately in “The Golden Spiral,” “As Rome Burns” and the ever-epic “Bloodied Yet Unbowed.” I remain a sucker for “Empire Falls” and “No Grave Deep Enough,” that era, but newer material like “How it Ends” and “Victory Has 1,000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan” resonate well alongside what to my mind are classics, emphasizing the vitality and stage presence that remain in Primordial. If it’s a victory lap, or contractually obligated, or whatever, I don’t care. It’s Primordial. There’s no stronger endorsement you could give it than to say that.

Primordial website

Metal Blade Records website

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Cattlemass, Alpha 1128

Cattlemass have a live lineup, but the studio debut from the band was written, played and tracked by Chris Price, and the eight songs of Alpha 1128 (shades of THX 1138 in the title) would seem to be harnessing his vision of a mostly mid-tempo doom metal that’s not afraid to break out and rock a bit or dig into a creeper procession like “Infecticide.” Starting with its longest track in “Chant of Cthulhu,” Price enacts a thickly toned nod that holds even as “Eternal Beast” tosses psych flourish into its midsection. Some of the production reveals a background in metal — the muted stops in “Replicant,” complementing a robotic theme, bring the wavform all the way down; stoner recordings leave the amp hum — but there’s attention to atmosphere around that, both in “Intermission” and the instrumental finale “Exit Oblivion” and in the later reaches of “The Wizard” and the largesse that swells as “Nachthexen” rolls through its midsection. I’ll be curious to discover where Price goes from here, and if Cattlemass‘ next LP might be a full-band affair.

Cattlemass on Bandcamp

Cattlemass on Instagram

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Honeybadger, Let There Be Light

Though the intro guitar on “Before the Crash” seems to call out to original-era Mediterranean psychedelic rock, Athenian four-piece Honeybadger are nothing if not terrestrial. Specifically, grounded in desert-heavy and catchy songwriting, with their second album, Let There Be Light coming five years after their debut, Pleasure Delayer (review here), which they spent years supporting. Queens of the Stone Age remain a primary influence, though “Before the Crash” pushes outside this in its melody and “Filth and Disorder” hits harder and “Empty-Handed” is more fuzzed, and as with the first album, there are personality aspects that shine through as “The Green” answers in its riff the call of the opener and the horn arrangement in the closing title-track plays a dirge. It’s been a minute, and the LP feels short at 32 minutes, but the tradeoff is the songs are tight and sharply delivered and I’ll take that every time. Honeybadger took their time to make it, but what they’ve made is a step forward.

Honeybadger website

SODEH Records website

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Blue Heron, Emulations

Not gonna feign impartiality here, as I consider Blue Heron frontman Jadd Shickler a friend and he’s someone I’ve worked with for over 20 years, but what I will say is that I very much dug 2024’s Everything Fades (review here), and Emulations builds on that with included live versions of “Everything Fades” and “Swansong” (as well as two cuts from the first LP) recorded at KUNM in the band’s native Albuquerque, while pushing ahead with a new original track “Marigold” that’s a highlight, and three covers — Fudge Tunnel‘s “Grey,” Clutch‘s “The House That Peterbilt” and Floor‘s “Find Away” — that emphasize the flexibility of the band around their heavy desert core. “Grey” is vicious at its heaviest, “Find Away” is admirably loyal to the original in its weighted blowout, and the Clutch tune gets a gruff treatment, but the melodies in “Marigold” and the energy in the live takes give a full album’s worth of satisfaction while packaged as an EP to take on tour. Mark it a win.

Blue Heron on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

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Stoned Spirit, Inside Me

Stoned Spirit offer big hooks, thoughtful songcraft, progressive arrangements and a sense of the material as an outreach to the listener. It’s my first experience with the band, who also had an album out in 2016, but from the voicing of all “Mankind” in the opener through the uptick in tonal density as the built-into title-track unfurls its lumber, there doesn’t seem to be a moment on Inside Me that one would call ‘unconsidered.’ This is a strength to the listening experience because the four-piece — vocalist Tony, guitarist Marios (also backing vocals), bassist Titos and drummer Chris — kind of sound like they’ve been hammering out this material for nine years. Or if not all nine, certainly some statistically significant portion of that span. That’s a complement to how dug-in Stoned Spirit are to their approach, satisfying in its atmosphere and movement alike, but mature as the songs feel they remain expressive in the stories they’re telling.

Stoned Spirit on Bandcamp

Stoned Spirit on Instagram

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Ravenswood, Rites of the Let Down

The two-song opening salvo of “Red Eyes in the Hollow” and “Oath of the Stream” doesn’t necessarily set you up for the full scope of Ravenswood‘s six-track debut album, Rites of the Let Down, which from those shorter and punchier pieces unfurls four longer, significantly-more-likely-to-be-called-“slabs” of doom leaning into psychedelia. The pairing of those two isn’t new, obviously, but Ravenswood make it feel dramatic as they reroute “Where You Won’t Be” or the willfully choppy title-track from darker processions into tripped-out jams — stark changes that are executed with remarkable fluidity and, in the case of the title-track, patience. “Holler Knows” might be where they find the middle-ground, but it’ll be another record or two before we know if that’s actually something they’re pursuing, and the post-grunge vocal melody and meme-ready last slowdown in closer “Solid Psychonaut” also bode well if we’re looking for things to bode. There’s room to grow and the production is raw, but Rites of the Let Down operates with individuality as part of its intention.

Ravenswood on Bandcamp

LINK

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Sum of R, Spectral

Maybe it’s somewhat counterintuitive, but in the pushing-out extremity of “Solace,” in the slow cinematic drones of “Cold Signtures,” in the synthy expanse of “Null” and the guitarrier (yeah I said that) reaches of “The Solution,” but what might be Sum of R‘s seventh album can be as stark, grim and desolate as it wants in “Agglomeration” with G. Stuart Dahlquist sitting in, and the penultimate “Violate” can hit a crescendo like what if post-black-metal-and-screamo-but-not-awful and it still to me just sounds like a celebration. There’s no getting away from it. Spectral is dark, and it often feels unremitting across its 49 punishment-prone minutes, but all of it is a celebration nonetheless — of creativity, of outsiderism, otherism, of searching for ideals beyond the mainstream and finding depth in places others would fear to go. It almost can’t help but be beautiful, otherwise consuming as the darkness is.

Sum of R website

Sum of R on Bandcamp

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Atomic Saman, Saman The Doom

Gritty stoner-doom nod pervades the debut release Saman The Doom from Shanghai-based trio Atomic Saman. Opener “Fuzzonaut” is instrumental, but after the Jeff Goldblum sample, “F.L.Y.” has vocals in its rolling, raw-tracked miasma. The grooves are loose as “F.L.Y.” plods into the bassy opening of nine-minute centerpiece “Torture Machine” (sample from A Clockwork Orange there) and the low-mixed stoner-chant is part of what unfolds, but Atomic Saman run deep in the addled ethereal, and “Torture Machine” and the subsequent, tops-10-minutes “Brain COP” keep immersion central, so it works. Closer “Weedsky (Live in CAVE)” is lumbering enough to make you think they actually went to a cave to capture it, and reveals something of an Electric Wizard influence underlying, but Atomic Saman are less horror and more red-eyed paranoia and that suits the exhausted-with-the-world disaffection as well as the trance factor here just fine.

Atomic Saman on Bandcamp

SloomWeep Productions on Bandcamp

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Moonstone, Age of Mycology

By the time they’re most of the way through sub-three-minute opener “A New Dawn” and the command is issued to, “Bow to mycelium cown,” I’m ready. With some rolling fluidity inherited perhaps from their countrymen in Dopelord and mellow vocals over purple-hued doomly fuzz, the lumber is strong with Kraków four-piece, who bring ambience alongside crush with the open spaces (gradually filled via tone) of “Glorious Decay,” the brash shove of “Primordial,” the daring toward ethereality of “This Barren Place,” and so on. “Disco Inferno” moves, but “Primordial” sprints, making for an interesting pair late, where back at the outset “Crooked One” and “Glorious Decay” bring moodier engrossing. It resolves, perhaps inevitably, with a 13-minute title-track that is a journey unto itself with multi-tiered solos, progressive expanse and a little flourish of goth in its verses. “Age of Mycology” fits as a summary for the LP that carries its name, with a speedier crescendo waiting after a murky slog to get there, righteously bleak but not hopeless. Dooming on their own wavelength, they are.

Moonstone on Bandcamp

Interstellar Smoke Records store

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Wooden Tape, Wool

A sampling experiment like “Alpine Pop” and the tuning-in-a-radio on “A Nutty and a Texan Bar Please,” the veering from “Saturday Morning” from serene meditation to harsher drone — these are just examples of the many ways in which Wooden Tape‘s Wool basks in the details. Songs like “The Moroccan House” and “Croxteth Hall,” the five-minute “Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree,” etc., have a foundation in blending often-acoustic guitar and electronics/synth, so there’s basically an infinity of room for UK-based solo artist Tim Maycox to explore whatever reaches he might choose. On “Kirby Market,” he imagines a kind of pastoralia with Mellotron and chimes, a thud behind for percussion, whereas it’s raining on “Laundrette Sunday” and the arrangement becomes a jangle of cascading elements, departing the strum of “Crescent Town” and seeming to cap the weekend conveyed through the tracks’ procession by packing a full day in the final 1:42. Some Sundays are like that.

Wooden Tape on Bandcamp

God Unknown Records Linktr.ee

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It had been a little bit, so I took the tour announcement below from Midwestern fuzz crushers Telekinetic Yeti as a cue to put on 2022’s Primordial (review here) and see how it’s held up. The answer is it still rules, which I guess shouldn’t be any kind of surprise if you heard it. The willfully primitive crunch that would seem to be alluded to in the title is the very heart of modern tone and riff worship, but it’s not like that was going to come off as dated two years later, and in slower nods and moments of rounded-edge, thickened gallop, Telekinetic Yeti never lose themselves in their own burl. Considering the quantities involved there, that is something of a miracle.

They toured hard before the record and have continued the pattern after as well. I can’t help but wonder if 2025 won’t bring new material from them, but they’ve done well in terms of keeping momentum on their side and it would be unreasonable to expect otherwise at this point. The current run will take them north into Canada for a few shows before they loop down the Eastern Seaboard to finish in North Carolina. New material or none, they remain a band worth seeing if you haven’t, and that’s about as plain as I can say it.

From social media or wherever:

Come rip some with us and Bonginator as we skim the northern crest and then venture to Ontario and Quebec before hitting the eastern seaboard! Tix: http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti

9.25 Milwaukee WI @ Shank Hall
9.26 Dubuque IA @ The Lift
9.29 Cleveland OH @ Grog Shop
9.30 Detroit MI @ Smalls
10.01 Pittsburgh PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
10.03 Ottawa ON @ Dominion Club
10.05 Toronto ON @ Bovine Sex Club
10.06 Montreal QC @ Pirhana
10.07 Quebec City QC @ L’Anti
10.08 Manchester NH @ Jewel
10.09 Baltimore MD @ Metro Gallery
10.11 Richmond VA @ Cobra Cabana
10.12 Raleigh NC @ Chapel of Bones

Telekinetic Yeti is:
Alex Baumann – Guitar/Vocals
Rockwel Heim – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/telekineticyetiband/
https://www.instagram.com/telekinetic_yeti/
https://telekineticyeti.bandcamp.com/releases
https://telekineticyeti.com/

teepeerecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/
https://teepeerecords.bandcamp.com/

Telekinetic Yeti, Primordial (2022)

Day two and no looking back. Yesterday was Monday and it was pretty tripped out. There’s some psych stuff here too, but we start out by digging deep into metal-rooted doom and it doesn’t get any less dudely through the first three records, let’s put it that way. But there’s more here than one style, microgengre, or gender expression can contain, and I invite you as you make your way through to approach not from a place of redundant chestbeating, but of celebrating a moment captured. In the cases of some of these releases, it’s a pretty special moment we’re talking about.

Places to go, things to hear. We march.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

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Primordial, How it Ends

Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have 66 minutes to talk about the end of the world? No? Nobody does? Well that’s kind of sad.

At 28 years’ remove from their first record, 1995’s Imrama, and now on their 10th full-length, Dublin’s Primordial are duly mournful across the 10 songs of How it Ends, which boasts the staring-at-a-bloodied-hillside-full-of-bodies after-battle mourning and oppression-defying lyricism and a style rooted in black metal and grown beyond it informed by Irish folk progressions but open enough to make a highlight of the build in “Death Holy Death” here. A more aggressive lean shows itself in “All Against All” just prior while “Pilgrimage to the World’s End” is brought to a wash of an apex with a high reach from vocalist Alan “A.A. Nemtheanga” Averill, who should be counted among metal’s all-time frontmen, ahead of the tension chugging in the beginning of “Nothing New Under the Sun.” And you know, for the most part, there isn’t. Most of what Primordial do on How it Ends, they’ve done before, and their central innovation in bridging extreme metal with folk traditionalism, is long behind them. How it Ends seems to dwell in some parts and be roiling in its immediacy elsewhere, and its grandiosities inherently will put some off just as they will bring some on, but Primordial continue to find clever ways to develop around their core approach, and How it Ends — if it is the end or it isn’t, for them or the world — harnesses that while also serving as a reminder of how much they own their sound.

Primordial on Facebook

Metal Blade Records website

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Patriarchs in Black, My Veneration

With a partner in drummer Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative, Danzig, etc.), guitarist/songwriter Dan Lorenzo (Hades, Vessel of Light, Cassius King, etc.) has found an outlet open to various ideas within the sphere of doom metal/rock in Patriarchs in Black, whose second LP, My Veneration, brings a cohort of guests on vocals and bass alongside the band’s core duo. Some, like Karl Agell (C.O.C. Blind) and bassist Dave Neabore (Dog Eat Dog), are returning parties from the project’s 2022 debut, Reach for the Scars, while Unida vocalist Mark Sunshine makes a highlight of “Show Them Your Power” early on. Sunshine appears on “Veneration” as well alongside DMC from Run DMC, which, if you’re going to do a rap-rock crossover, it probably makes sense to get a guy who was there the first time it happened. Elsewhere, “Non Defectum” toys with layering with Kelly Abe of Sicks Deep adding screams, and Paul Stanley impersonator Bob Jensen steps in for the KISS cover “I Stole Your Love” and the originals “Dead and Gone” and “Hallowed Be Her Name” so indeed, no shortage of variety. Tying it together? The riffs, of course. Lorenzo has shown an as-yet inexhaustible supply thereof. Here, they seem to power multiple bands all on one album.

Patriarchs in Black on Instagram

MDD Records website

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Blood Lightning, Blood Lightning

Just because it wasn’t a surprise doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best debut albums of 2023. Bringing together known parties from Boston’s heavy underground Jim Healey (We’re All Gonna Die, etc.), Doug Sherman (Gozu), Bob Maloney (Worshipper) and J.R. Roach (Sam Black Church), Blood Lightning want nothing for pedigree, and their Ripple-issued self-titled debut meets high expectations with vigor and thrash-born purpose. Sherman‘s style of riffing and Healey‘s soulful, belted-out vocals are both identifiable factors in cuts like “The Dying Starts” and the charging “Face Eater,” which works to find a bridge between heavy rock and classic, soaring metal. Their cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Disturbing the Priest,” included here as the last of the six songs on the 27-minute album, I seem to recall being at least part of the impetus for the band, but frankly, however they got there, I’m glad the project has been preserved. I don’t know if they will or won’t do anything else, but there’s potential in their metal/rock blend, which positions itself as oldschool but is more forward thinking than either genre can be on its own.

Blood Lightning on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Haurun, Wilting Within

Based in Oakland and making their debut with the significant endorsement of Small Stone Records and Kozmik Artifactz behind them, atmospheric post-heavy rock five-piece Haurun tap into ethereal ambience and weighted fuzz in such a way as to raise memories of the time Black Math Horseman got picked up by Tee Pee. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. With notions of Acid King in the nodding, undulating riffs of “Abyss” and the later reaches of “Lost and Found,” but two guitars are a distinguishing factor, and Haurun come across as primarily concerned with mood, although the post-grunge ’90s alt hooks of “Flying Low” and “Lunar” ahead of 11-minute closer “Soil,” which uses its longform breadth to cast as vivid a soundscape as possible. Fast, slow, minimalist or at a full wash of noise, Haurun‘s Wilting Within has its foundation in heavy rock groove and riffy repetition, but does something with that that goes beyond microniche confines. Very much looking forward to more from this band.

Haurun on Facebook

Small Stone Records website

Kozmik Artifactz website

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Wicked Trip, Cabin Fever

Its point of view long established by the time they get around to the filthy lurch of “Hesher” — track three of seven — Cabin Fever is the first full-length from cultish doomers Wicked Trip. The Tennessee outfit revel in Electric Wizard-style fuckall on “Cabin Fever” after the warning in the spoken “Intro,” and the 11-minute sample-topped “Night of Pan” is a psych-doom jam that’s hypnotic right unto its keyboard-drone finish giving over to the sampled smooth sounds of the ’70s at the start of “Black Valentine,” which feels all the more dirt-coated when it actually kicks in, though “Evils of the Night” is no less threatening of purpose in its garage-doom swing, crash-out and cacophonous payoff, and I’m pretty sure if you played “No Longer Human” at double the speed, well, it might be human again. All of these grim, bleak, scorching, nodding, gnashing pieces come together to craft Cabin Fever as one consuming, lo-fi entirety, raw both because the recording sounds harsh and because the band itself eschew any frills not in service to their disillusioned atmosphere.

Wicked Trip on Instagram

Wicked Trip on Bandcamp

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Splinter, Role Models

There’s an awful lot of sex going on in Splinter‘s Role Models, as the Amsterdam glam-minded heavy rockers follow their 2021 debut, Filthy Pleasures (review here), with cuts like “Soviet Schoolgirl,” “Bottom,” “Opposite Sex” and the poppy post-punk “Velvet Scam” early on. It’s not all sleaze — though even “The Carpet Makes Me Sad” is trying to get you in bed — and the piano and boozy harmonies of “Computer Screen” are a fun departure ahead of the also-acoustic finish in closer “It Should Have Been Over,” while “Every Circus Needs a Clown” feels hell-bent on remaking Queen‘s “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Medicine Man” and “Forbidden Kicks” find a place where garage rock meets heavier riffing, while “Children” gets its complaints registered efficiently in just over two boogie-push minutes. A touch of Sabbath here, some Queens of the Stone Age chic disco there, and Splinter are happy to find a place for themselves adjacent to both without aping either. One would not accuse them of subtlety as regards theme, but there’s something to be said for saying what you want up front.

Splinter on Facebook

Noisolution website

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Terra Black, All Descend

Beginning with its longest component track (immediate points) in “Asteroid,” Terra Black‘s All Descend is a downward-directed slab of doomed nod, so doubled-down on its own slog that “Black Flames of Funeral Fire” doesn’t even start its first verse until the song is more than half over. Languid tempos play up the largesse of “Ashes and Dust,” and “Divinest Sin” borders on Eurometal, but if you need to know what’s in Terra Black‘s heart, look no further than the guitar, bass, drum and vocal lumber — all-lumber — of “Spawn of Lyssa” and find that it’s doom pumping blood around the band’s collective body. While avoiding sounding like Electric Wizard, the Gothenburg, Sweden, unit crawl through that penultimate duet track with all ready despondency, and resolve “Slumber Grove” with agonized final lub-dub heartbeats of kick drum and guitar drawl after a vivid and especially doomed wash drops out to vocals before rearing back and plodding forward once more, doomed, gorgeous, immersive, and so, so heavy. They’re not finished growing yet — nor should they be on this first album — but they’re on the path.

Terra Black on Facebook

Terra Black on Bandcamp

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Musing, Somewhen

Sometimes the name of a thing can tell you about the thing. So enters Musing, a contemplative solo outfit from Devin “Darty” Purdy, also known for his work in Calgary-based bands Gone Cosmic and Chron Goblin, with the eight-song/42-minute Somewhen and a flowing instrumental narrative that borders on heavy post-rock and psychedelia, but is clearheaded ultimately in its course and not slapdash enough to be purely experimental. That is, though intended to be instrumental works outside the norm of his songcraft, tracks like “Flight to Forever” and the delightfully bassy “Frontal Robotomy” are songs, have been carved out of inspired and improvised parts to be what they are. “Hurry Wait” revamps post-metal standalone guitar to be the basis of a fuzzy exploration, while “Reality Merchants” hones a sense of space that will be welcome in ears that embrace the likes of Yawning Sons or Big Scenic Nowhere. Somewhen has a story behind it — there’s narrative; blessings and peace upon it — but the actual music is open enough to translate to any number of personal interpretations. A ‘see where it takes you’ attitude is called for, then. Maybe on Purdy‘s part as well.

Musing on Facebook

Musing on Bandcamp

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Spiral Shades, Revival

A heavy and Sabbathian rock forms the underlying foundation of Spiral Shades‘ sound, and the returning two-piece of vocalist Khushal R. Bhadra and guitarist/bassist/drummer Filip Petersen have obviously spent the nine years since 2014’s debut, Hypnosis Sessions (review here), enrolled in post-doctoral Iommic studies. Revival, after so long, is not unwelcome in the least. Doom happens in its own time, and with seven songs and 38 minutes of new material, plus bonus tracks, they make up for lost time with classic groove and tone loyal to the blueprint once put forth while reserving a place for itself in itself. That is, there’s more to Spiral Shades and to Revival than Sabbath worship, even if that’s a lot of the point. I won’t take away from the metal-leaning chug of “Witchy Eyes” near the end of the album, but “Foggy Mist” reminds of The Obsessed‘s particular crunch and “Chapter Zero” rolls like Spirit Caravan, find a foothold between rock and doom, and it turns out riffs are welcome on both sides.

Spiral Shades on Facebook

Spiral Shades on Bandcamp

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Bandshee, Bandshee III

The closing “Sex on a Grave” reminds of the slurring bluesy lasciviousness of Nick Cave‘s Grinderman, and that should in part be taken as a compliment to the setup through “Black Cat” — which toys with 12-bar structure and is somewhere between urbane cool and cabaret nerdery — and the centerpiece “Bad Day,” which follows a classic downer chord progression through its apex with the rawness of Backwoods Payback at their most emotive and a greater melodic reach only after swaying through its willful bummer of an intro. Last-minute psych flourish in the guitar threatens to make “Bad Day” a party, but the Louisville outfit find their way around to their own kind of fun, which since the release is only three songs long just happens to be “Sex on a Grave.” Fair enough. Rife with attitude and an emergent dynamic that’s complementary to the persona of the vocals rather than trying to keep up with them, the counterintuitively-titled second short release (yes, I know the cover is a Zeppelin reference; settle down) from Bandshee lays out an individual approach to heavy songwriting and a swing that goes back further in time than most.

Bandshee on Facebook

Bandshee on Bandcamp

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As you and I sit comfortably in our reclining easychairs, gently clinking crystal highballs of actually-old-fashioned old fashioneds and toasting the ease of our lives, Iowa two-piece Telekinetic Yeti are once again out on the road, slogging away and carrying a silly-billy amount of amplifiers and playing louder than is recommended by medical professionals. The yeoman’s work of riffs. They’re out with JD Pinkus, who if you were going to put a bassist in the band would be a good one for the job, and will hit up the Southeast region and a little bit in their native Midwest as they put yet more miles between themselves and last year’s Tee Pee Records label debut, Primordial (review here).

And yes, that album was primordial. Willfully lunkheaded in how it clubbed your unassuming skull with riff after fuzz-coated riff. And I’m glad to have the excuse to revisit it that the video provides. Maybe this is Telekinetic Yeti saying goodbye to Primordial as they round out the tour cycle and begin to think about moving forward again — they don’t strike me as the ‘go home for two years’ types, but one never knows — with new material and, subsequent to that, probably a whole other round of touring. I’m very glad I got to see them play these songs.

If you haven’t, there’s still time. Dates and PR wire info follow the clip below.

Please enjoy:

Telekinetic Yeti, “Beast” official video

TELEKINETIC YETI RELEASE “BEAST” VIDEO

ANIMATED CLIP COMES FROM BAND’S ALBUM, PRIMORDIAL

U.S. TOUR UNDERWAY; J.D. PINKUS SUPPORTS

Directed by Brodie Rush. Featuring Alex Baumann (guitar and vocals) and Rockwel Heim (drums).

The duo share the larger theme behind the track: “’Beast’ is a reflection on societal disillusionment and the inherent desire to escape the cyclical trap of wage slavery. Acknowledging that these empires are built on sand as well as the human need to escape the tentacles that bind us through mindless, obligatory, financially-centered routines facilitated by hypnotic black magic.”

Telekinetic Yeti have spent the past year-plus on the road supporting the well-received, 11-song Primordial, including multiple headlining treks and a stint with Weedeater. The band is in the midst of their final 2023 tour dates, playing tomorrow at Maggie Meyers in Huntsville, Ala. J.D. Pinkus opens on all remaining shows.

Telekinetic Yeti is on tour now! Tickets available at http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti

11/08/2023 Huntsville AL @ Maggie Meyers
11/09/2023 Little Rock AR @ Four Quarter
11/10/2023 Lafayette LA @ Freetown Boom Boom Room
11/11/2023 New Orleans LA @ Poor Boys
11/12/2023 Panama City Beach FL @ Moseys
11/15/2023 Cape Coral FL @ Nice Guys
11/16/2023 Tampa FL @ Brass Mug
11/17/2023 Jacksonville FL @ Kona Skatepark
11/18/2023 Savannah GA @ EL Rocko Lounge
11/19/2023 Charleston SC @ Trolley Pub
11/20/2023 Piedmont SC @ Tribbles
11/21/2023 Raleigh NC @ Pour House
11/22/2023 Atlanta GA @ Star Bar
11/24/2023 Wilmington NC @ Reggies
11/25/2023 Chesapeake Bay VA @ Riffhouse
11/26/2023 Bensalem PA @ Broken Goblet

New album, Primordial, out now via Tee Pee Records Limited-edition Vinyl and CDs available here: https://teepeerecords.com/collections/frontpage/products/telekinetic-yeti-primordial-cd-lp

Telekinetic Yeti Merch:
https://telekineticyeti.bigcartel.com/

Telekinetic Yeti is:
Alex Baumann – Guitar/Vocals
Rockwel Heim – Drums

Telekinetic Yeti, Primordial (2022)

Telekinetic Yeti on Facebook

Telekinetic Yeti on Instagram

Telekinetic Yeti on Bandcamp

Tee Pee Records website

Tee Pee Records on Facebook

Tee Pee Records on Bandcamp

Think we’ll get a new record from these guys in 2024? I wouldn’t mind one showing up. Based in Iowa but spending markedly little time there the past couple years, Telekinetic Yeti seem to treat hard-touring as a defining ethic. This past summer, they undertook their first headlining stint on the US West Coast with the backing of Tone Deaf Touring, with support from Stinking Lizaveta, Somnuri and Rifflord (at various points, though that’d be a mean package tour if those are still a thing) after going to the UK in Spring with Weedeater and Mars Red Sky. At least to-date in the tenure of the band, this is what they do.

And 2022’s Primordial (review here), as the ostensible cause they’re supporting, stands up to the volume and vitality they bring to it on stage. It hasn’t been so long that the record has lost its mud-tinted luster, whatever that might even mean — I guess just that it still sounds good listening to it as I put this together — but for an act with such an intense focus on forward momentum, it might not be unreasonable to think that would extend to recording. Or maybe the full-color shirts do well enough on the road that they can take their time and keep re-pressing sold out LPs. Good work if you can get it. Also hard work. Fair enough.

They’re out this time with JD Pinkus of Butthole Surfers, Melvins, etc., which will certainly not make any given gig less raucous. Telekinetic Yeti put up the poster with a quick blurb on social media, and wouldn’t you know it, here it is:

Get ready! We are joining forces with JD Pinkus this fall for a road trip! Highly excited about this one! Get your tickets now! Where will we see you?

ALL TICKET LINKS: http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti

Telekinetic Yeti is:
Alex Baumann – Guitar/Vocals
Rockwel Heim – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/telekineticyetiband/
https://www.instagram.com/telekinetic_yeti/
https://telekineticyeti.bandcamp.com/releases
https://telekineticyeti.com/

teepeerecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/
https://teepeerecords.bandcamp.com/

Telekinetic Yeti, Primordial (2022)

Hard not to take long-running Irish metallers Primordial at their word when they say that the new album sounds like Primordial. That’s basically their specialty. Fronted by Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill, who might seriously consider a foray into national politics if he hasn’t, the band will issue their 10th full-length — hot damn — which has been given the foreboding title How it Ends, on Sept. 29 through Metal Blade. This is the band’s first outing since 2018’s Exile Amongst the Ruins (review here), and while I get the distinct feeling they’re talking about bigger endings, they are giving away the ending of the record itself in having the closing track as the first single.

The song is called “Victory Has 1,000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan,” and the post-black metal style of Primordial, informed as ever by Celtic folk progressions and melodies, is rampant throughout its six-plus minutes, which are presented with an accompanying video, duly moody and cinematic. It’s the first clip I’ve seen in a while where a band wears armor and doesn’t immediately look ridiculous, so kudos to Primordial on that. Experts on tough balances, they are.

The PR wire has album details. Can’t wait. I want the 2CD digipak with the six bonus tracks:

PRIMORDIAL To Release How It Ends September 29th Via Metal Blade Records; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available

Long-running, Dublin, Ireland-based Pagan metallers PRIMORDIAL will release their tenth full-length, How It Ends, on September 29th via Metal Blade Records.

PRIMORDIAL has nothing to prove. Having lasted thirty-two years and now returning with their devastating new studio offering, the Irish band has made it clear they are a primal force who consistently lay it all on the line. The follow-up to 2018’s critically lauded Exile Amongst The Ruins, How It Ends sees them delivering more of their seminal blend of Celtic and black metal, with an extra added urgency, and staring down the apocalypse.

“The title is a question – is this how it ends? How it all goes down: culture, language, history, society – humanity – who knows?,” says vocalist A. A. Nemtheanga. “Regardless of who you are or were, you get one chance at all of this, and it’s asking is this the end of your town, state, nation? Myths, traditions, relationships, and I suppose it asks the question, who reacts, who rebels – how does it end now for them?”

Working alongside founding members Pól MacAmlaigh (bass) and Ciáran MacUilliam (guitar) and longtime drummer Simon O’Laoghaire, the band started writing in earnest in the Fall of 2022, having lit a fire under themselves to work hastily and productively. PRIMORDIAL never plans out a record beforehand, letting them come together naturally, though Nemtheanga knew he wanted something with a bigger, more open sound, and something more aggressive, which is exactly what they achieved. “How It Ends is a very angry, defiant, visceral, and rebellious album, and as we worked it all began to take more shape and form itself. It may be the note we go out on but it will be a note of resistance, in musical terms. I think it’s also more metal! And more epic!”

It only takes one listen for these claims to be proven true, whether it’s the surging, gruff, dark “Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust,” the moody, desperate “Pilgrimage To The World’s End,” or the sprawling “All Against All,” which is drenched in a sinister air and driven by pounding rhythms, wielding a towering climax. “It certainly sounds like PRIMORDIAL, there is no doubt about that, we have our own style and this is a new chapter of the same book. If we have done anything new it’s really to work with more conviction than ever, and trust more than ever our instincts.”

Drawing lyrical influence both from modern and historical ideas, Nemtheanga always gives the listener something to think about. How It Ends is no exception. “If, for example, To The Nameless Dead (2007) was about the movement of borders, building of nations and those sent to war who gave their lives forming them, then this is the album more about resisting those empires, the freedom fighters, the outlaws, the people who made suicidal stands for freedom of speech, or independence – or for the most important word in the English language: liberty. It’s not hard to see why the album is inspired by this considering where we are right now in the world.”

In advance of the record’s release, today the band unleashes first single and album closer, “Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan,“ and its accompanying video.

How It Ends was tracked at Hellfire Studios on the outskirts of Dublin, produced by the band, and engineered by previous collaborator Chris Fielding. The record will be released in the following formats:

(Worldwide) – Digital
(US) – Jewel Case CD
(Worldwide) 2xLP in Gatefold, with insert and downloadcard
(EU) – 2xDigipak CD (6-panel digi w/ 12-page booklet) w/ 6-bonus tracks
(EU) 2xLP Special Edition in Gatefold, with insert and downloadcard in slipcase with tote bag, slipmat, double-sided poster (ltd. to 1000 copies)

Find preorders at www.metalblade.com/primordial.

How It Ends Track Listing:
1. How It Ends
2. Ploughs To Rust, Swords To Dust
3. We Shall Not Serve
4. Traidisiúnta
5. Pilgrimage To The World’s End
6. Nothing New Under The Sun
7. Call To Cernunnos
8. All Against All
9. Death Holy Death
10. Victory Has 1000 Fathers, Defeat Is An Orphan

Coinciding with the release of How It Ends, PRIMORDIAL will serve as direct support to Paradise Lost on the Ultima Ratio Fest European Tour. Additional support will be provided by Omnium Gatherum and Harakiri For The Sky. Find tickets at THIS LOCATION.

PRIMORDIAL w/ Paradise Lost, Omnium Gatherum, Harakiri For The Sky:
9/28/2023 Substage – Karlsruhe, DE
9/29/2023 Komplex – Zurich, CZ
9/30/2023 Kaminwerk – Memmingen, DE
10/01/2023 Schlachthof – Wiesbaden, DE
10/02/2023 Löwensaal – Nuremberg,DE
10/04/2023 Trix – Antwerp, BE
10/05/2023 Garage – Saarbrücken, DE
10/06/2023 MeetFactory – Prague, CZ
10/07/2023 Vienna Metal Meeting – Vienna, AT
10/08/2023 Barba Negra – Budapest, HU
10/10/2023 A2 – Wroclaw, PL
10/11/2023 Capitol – Hanover, DE
10/12/2023 Kronensaal – Hamburg, DE
10/13/2023 Hellraiser – Leipzig, DE
10/14/2023 Turbinenhalle 2 – Oberhausen, DE
10/15/2023 Roanda – Utrecht, NL

PRIMORDIAL:
A.A. Nemtheanga – vocals
Ciarán MacUilliam – guitar
Michael O’Floinn – guitar
Pól MacAmlaigh – bass
Simon O’Laoghaire – drums

https://www.primordialofficial.com
https://www.facebook.com/primordialofficial
https://www.instagram.com/primordial_official

http://www.metalblade.com
http://www.facebook.com/metalbladerecords
http://www.instagram.com/metalbladerecords

Primordial, “Victory Has 1,000 Fathers, Defeat is an Orphan” official video

Iowa’s Telekinetic Yeti, slotting comfortably into position as headliners. Can’t say they didn’t earn it, no matter what angle you want to see the question from. Their 2022 album, Primordial (review here), was the stuff of stoner doom memes not made by the band, and live the two-piece lay waste, as I was fortunate enough to see them do at Desertfest New York last Spring (review here). Right now they’re out in the UK with Weedeater and Mars Red Sky headed to Desertfest London this weekend, and when they come back from that, they’ve now got this summer stint lined up with support from instrumental prog-heavy legends Stinking Lizaveta — whose new album, Anthems and Phantoms, will have just come out on June 23 — as well as alternate openers Somnuri for most of the shows and Rifflord for the last few.

Incidentally — or more likely, not — Telekinetic Yeti and Stinking Lizaveta both played that day at Desertfest New York — Somnuri the day before — and while I don’t know if they met there or not, they’re both Tone Deaf Touring clients, and the shows are gonna be bangers. It’s not my job to sell you on a thing, but really, even if it was, I feel like this one sells itself. Megafuzz meets ultrajazz with crush and/or nod as a preface. That’s a good night.

Dates follow:

TELEKINETIC YETI Announces U.S. Summer Headlining Tour

BUY TICKETS HERE: http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti

Psychedelic doom duo Telekinetic Yeti will be embarking on a U.S. headlining tour this July with support from Stinking Lizaveta (all dates), Somnuri (July 5-26), and Rifflord (July 27-30). The extensive trek kicks off on July 5 in Des Moines, IA and will conclude on July 30 in Chicago, IL. The full itinerary and ticket links can be found below!

The band will be supporting its 2022 sophomore full-length, ‘Primordial,’ which was released on July 8, 2022 via Tee Pee Records. Stream/order/download HERE.

Telekinetic Yeti U.S. Tour Dates
(w/ Stinking Lizaveta (all dates), Somnuri (July 5-26), and Rifflord (5/27-30):
07/05: Des Moines, IA @ Leftys
07/06: Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
07/07: Salt Lake City, UT@ Aces High Saloon (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT)
07/08: Boise, ID @ Shredder (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT)
07/11: Vancouver, BC @ The Wise
07/12: Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown
07/13: Seattle, WA @ Funhouse @ El Corazon
07/14: Portland, OR @ Dantes
07/15: Eugene, OR @ John Henrys
07/18: San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
07/19: Pacifica, CA @ Winters Tavern
07/20: Palmdale, CA @ Transplants Brewery
07/21: Hollywood, CA @ Knitting Factory
07/22: Mesa, AZ @ Nile Theatre
07/25: Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th St
07/26: Tulsa, OK @ Mercury Lounge
07/27: Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck (On Sale Friday May 5 @ 10:00 A.M. EDT)
07/28: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
07/29: Lincoln, NE @ Cosmic Eye
07/30: Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s Rock Club
ALL TICKET LINKS: http://tonedeaftouring.com/yeti

Telekinetic Yeti is:
Alex Baumann – Guitar/Vocals
Rockwel Heim – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/telekineticyetiband/
https://www.instagram.com/telekinetic_yeti/
https://telekineticyeti.bandcamp.com/releases
https://telekineticyeti.com/

teepeerecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/
https://teepeerecords.bandcamp.com/

Telekinetic Yeti, Primordial (2022)

It’s a god damned riff bonanza, is what it is.

Guitarist/vocalist Alex Baumann and drummer Rockwel Heim comprise Dubuque, Iowa’s Telekinetic Yeti and Primordial is their debut on Tee Pee Records and second album overall. Recorded by Phillip Cope (formerly of Kylesa, producer of Black Tusk, Irata, the original Baroness EPs, etc.), Primordial follows the riff-worshiping Midwesterners’ 2017 debut, Abominable (review here), and years of obviously-interrupted-there-for-a-while touring, as well as a lineup change that brought an ugly split between Baumann and fellow founder Anthony Dreyer, who now plays in Twin Wizard. Restored to a duo, Telekinetic Yeti strike with maximum force and gravity on Primordial, laying claim to the beginnings of a generational shift and making their influences their own through their megatonality and absolute willingness to speak to the ‘stoner’ in stoner rock.

Those who dare the 11 songs and 43 minutes of Primordial will find a more fully realized version of Telekinetic Yeti for their efforts. Granted, Abominable had “Stoned and Feathered,” but with the second record, cuts like “Ancient Nug,” “Stoned Ape Theory,” and “Toke Wizard” outright don the trappings of weedianism, and that’s even more telling since “Stoned Ape Theory” — also the longest song at a still-ready-to-squeeze-into-the-live-set 5:25 — which hypnotizes even as it seems to pummel you further into the ground with each of its many thuds, is instrumental. Theoretically at least, they could’ve called that anything at all, and the title they chose is telling about both the audience they’re speaking to and the self-aware manner in which they’re doing it.

Influences show themselves like YOB in the opening title-track, High on Fire in the call-to-war drums on the closer “Cult of Yeti,” The Sword in the uptempo bouncing shove of “Toke Wizard,” earliest Mastodon in the barks from Baumann late in “Ghost Train,” or how the fuzzed-out guitar solo interlude “Light in a Dying World” speaks both to Earthless and Hendrix with a rumble of its own underneath, Floor in “Ancient Nug” and the melody and movement of centerpiece “Beast,” and maybe some Red Fang in “Tides of Change” a short while later, but that’s the point. Telekinetic Yeti have taken these elements, melted them down with the heat from burning tube amps lit by the central nodder riff in “Rogue Planet” into what I’ll assume is a very dense, very heavy black iron cauldron, and created a sound that can only be defined as their own from it. Sure, Conan put their guitar (and bass in their case) tone at the forefront of their immediate impression as well, but that’s the point. Telekinetic Yeti represent a new generation of heavy that’s learned from what’s come before.

There is not one song on Primordial that isn’t ready to be memed about — from the shut-up-and-take-my-money hook of “Ancient Nug” to the when-the-slowdown-hits slowdown of that song or “Invention of Fire” — and though that sounds like a joke, it’s actually crucial to comprehending how Telekinetic Yeti are engaging with their listeners. Think about meme culture at large. It is a generational advent, distilling elements of popular culture, news, life, anything into a concise, snappy, often impactful statement with an intention to be seen and appreciated even outside of an understanding of the joke if it is one. Telekinetic Yeti likewise have processed the heavy stylings of the aughts — now 20 years ago — and crafted Primordial as a distillation with its own purposes and its own expression. And like with meme culture at first, or like with the wave of bands noted above who were tagged “hipster metal” when they came out and broadly derided, there invariably will be those who call this album derivative instead of understanding that Telekinetic Yeti are a fresh representation of the tenets of genre, and they at very least sound like they know it.

In “Cult of Yeti,” the chorus issues both the challenge and the proclamation, “You will never scale these mountains,” and even the idea of the song, album, band as such a giant rock formation is in conversation with the genre itself, from Sleep to Stoned Jesus. But if you’ve hit those lofty peaks, it’s these mountains we’re talking about now. This tone, this delivery, this vitality that is Telekinetic Yeti‘s own. Even calling the album Primordial — let alone the maybe narrative of bombed-brain evolution between “Stoned Ape Theory” and “Tides of Change,” “Invention of Fire,” and so on — is emblematic of Baumann and Heim‘s deep-running vision of what they want the band to be and to do. This is stoner metal stripped, as Max Cavalera once put it, “back to the primitive.” There is no feigned attempt at sounding progressive or like they’re trying to push the genre forward. Telekinetic Yeti may eventually do that, but one suspects that even if they do it will be on their own terms given the strength of the statement here in the opposite direction.

This is a band willing to be big, lumbering, bringing their riffs down on you like an avalanche or a wrecking ball — take your pick — and while Primordial is atmospheric even at its most intense moments, its purpose is unwavering. If there’s pretense here, I’m not sure where, but at the same time, there’s a sense of stage presence to the music, the push of the duo in the headspinning middle of “Invention of Fire,” the lead notes and sticks-on-the-rim-of-the-drum that begin “Toke Wizard,” and in that nasty feedback and layered-over plod of “Ghost Train” — never mind the actual hooks in cuts like “Primordial,” “Ancient Nug,” “Cult of Yeti,” and so on — that feel purpose-crafted to tour with as much as circumstances might permit.

And maybe that’s where they’ll most shine, in a live setting, but the substance of Primordial is still more than just an advertisement for showing up to the gig and buying a shirt. The declarative aspects of Telekinetic Yeti‘s songs, the attention to detail in the mix, the depth of their sans-bass low end, the head-in-clouds largesse of the riffy monoliths they’re building; it all speaks to a band who are looking to position themselves at the forefront of riff-based heavy, and as they continue to put their work in on tour — perhaps more than ever, with live music “back” and their lineup concerns seemingly settled — it’s entirely possible they’ll get there.

In the spirit of Primordial, I’ll say it simply: This shit fucking crushes. Ace riffs. Killer delivery, killer sound, enough variety, knows what it is and how to do what it wants. Band with a plan. They nailed it. Stone on.

Now shut up and take my money.

Telekinetic Yeti, Primordial (2022)

Telekinetic Yeti on Facebook

Telekinetic Yeti on Instagram

Telekinetic Yeti on Bandcamp

Tee Pee Records website

Tee Pee Records on Facebook

Tee Pee Records on Bandcamp