This is day four of the Summer 2025 Quarterly Review, and though I might pay for it later, say right around late-September when I’m doing the Fall one, I think I’m going to keep it to five days. Mostly that’s about not pressing my luck. This has been an exceedingly easy QR to get through, a breeze compared to some — one downer day is all it takes and I feel like I never have my groove again, but that hasn’t happened here — and I’m content to take the win and move on, as opposed to pushing for an extra day or two next week.

So this is the penultimate day, and we’ll finish tomorrow. I hope you’ve enjoyed the Quarterly Review nearly as much as I have. Not one day has passed without me adding at least one release to my year-end list(s), which is a pretty killer thing to realize as I type it. Let’s see how today goes.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Muto Tapes, Side Effects

One of apparently five singles that Mexico City’s Muto Tapes will release over the course of 2025 — year’s half-over, they’d better hurry up — “Side Effects” runs four riffy minutes of thickened, aggressive chug-metal, calling to mind Sepultura in its spit-out guttural vocals, but creating a denser mass of distortion and leaving in trade the thrashy, sometimes bloody, roots. Past the halfway point in the song, circa 2:30 into the total 4:05, the tempo drops and the guitar/drum duo bask in some of the minimal spaces their configuration lets them occupy, saving a fair round of shove for the finish after setting it up with due foreboding guitar creep. Not sure if Muto Tapes are building toward an EP or LP or what, or just releasing singles because not everything needs to be a package to sell, but they bring a blend of heft and intensity that immediately distinguishes them in the heavy underground, and they look to be developing their sound on their own terms. Guitarist/vocalist/bassist Jorge S. and drummer Roy B. have been meting out punishment in this manner since 2023, so we’re just beginning to see where it’s all headed.

Muto Tapes website

Muto Tapes on Bandcamp

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Turkey Vulture, Dead to Me

It hasn’t been that long since Turkey Vulture released their Oct. 2024 EP, On the List, or maybe I just blinked out for a few months. The Connecticut duo of Jessie May (guitar, bass, vocals) and Jim Clegg (drums, backing vocals) have long-enough since carved their niche in doom and punk rock, and “Dead to Me” and “Jill the Ripper (Heavy Take)” — the two of them running about four and a half minutes, combined — continues the thread. They don’t list the recording info, so I don’t know if these two songs were done at the same time as the EP or not, but “Jill the Ripper (Heavy Take),” as the title describes, is a louder and punkier take on the closing “Jill the Ripper” from that also-short release. “Dead to Me,” meanwhile, seems to be about not going to shows anymore, presumably because you have a kid, and the changing nature of friendships as a result of that. Turkey Vulture have a whole series of songs about these life-stages; just six years on from their debut, they’ve done a lot of growing.

Turkey Vulture on Bandcamp

Turkey Vulture on Instagram

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Polymerase, Mindspace

Philippines heavy psych wanderers Polymerase are back two years after their two-part Dreams and Realities I & II full-length cycle with the mood-altering 78 minutes of Mindspace, seemingly named for the two things on which the material has the greatest effect. Pairing extended, jammier pieces with, well, shorter, jammier pieces, songs like “Divine Reefer” (12:08) can touch on Sleep while “Space Child” (7:10) is anything but grounded in its repetitions and evident outbound plotted trajectory. There’s more to Mindspace than mellow-out stoner idolatry, though, as the bassy rumble underwriting the harsher shouts of “Interplanetary Echoes” (13:08) demonstrates, taking some of the sludgier moments paired with heavygaze in “Crows and Doves” (11:57) and using them to call out to the expanse of the band’s own making. Closer “Downward Spiral” (12:22) functions similarly at the conclusion, calling to mind modern practitioners like Rezn while feeling empowered through their individual processes. I don’t know how much is actually improv, but Mindspace is way open, and that’s how it should be.

Polymerase on Bandcamp

Polymerase on Instagram

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Troy the Band & Cower, Fade Into You

Something of a specialty item, perhaps. Fade Into You is a two-tracker split 12″ with London outfits Troy the Band and Cower taking its name from the Mazzy Star song, which both bands cover. Like, they do the same song. And much to their credit, they do it differently. Troy the Band, who early last year released their debut album, Cataclysm (review here), on Bonebag Records, take a heavygaze viewpoint on the 1993 single, fleshing out the moody atmosphere with echoing effects and hard-landing, immersive roll. Cower, whose second full-length, Celestial Devastation (review here), also came out last year, reimagine it as Nick Cave or latter-day Wovenhand, holding to the emotional crux of the original with ethereal drones and new age-y keyboard. A stopgap? Probably, but an interesting project just the same, and the song, of course, stands up to the manipulation.

Troy the Band on Bandcamp

Cower on Bandcamp

Troy the Band & Cower at ElasticStage

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Jaspe, Grietas

What would seem to be the debut offering from Tijuana-based post-metal four-piece Jaspe, Grietas runs just 23 minutes at three songs, but carries a full-length’s sense of breadth in doing so. Shades of Amenra persist in the quiet/spoken stretch of “Rios de Polvo II” (11:52), where the lumber that begins opener “Litorales” (9:46) crushes as might a modern Isis before departing into the inevitable stretch of pretty guitar, Russian Circles-esque, but with more plunge in the low frequencies, and the arriving guttural growl of vocals is genre-transgressive in a way that satisfies wholly. Separating the larger pieces is the two-minute droner “Rios de Polvo I,” obviously aligned to the second part that follows, which adds to both the tension and atmosphere of this resoundingly impressive post-doom showcase and highlights the potential that’s so prevalent in Jaspe‘s sound. I’ll take an album of this for sure. Just say when.

Jaspe on Bandcamp

Jaspe on Instagram

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Yung Druid, Wooden Lungs

Two songs, 20 minutes. Yung Druid, in continued collaboration with Totem Cat Records, offer Wooden Lungs, comprised of the 11-minute “Wooden Lung” and the nine-minute “Space Cowboy.” Both songs owe some debt in swagger to Led Zeppelin, but “Wooden Lung,” in the vocal arrangement and steady nod, reminds more of Iota‘s 2024 return, Pentasomnia, in its fluid progression and grunge-style harmonies. Not a complaint. Also not complaining about the uptick in fuzz for “Space Cowboy,” which still manages to move despite the primordial pool of tone in which it seems to soak. A riff for riffers, that one. Originally based in London around the time of their 2019 self-titled debut (discussed here), the band have moved between the Spain, Australia and New Zealand. It can be difficult for a band who were all together in the rehearsal space to transition to working remotely, but if Wooden Lungs is their proof of concept, they can make a go of it.

Yung Druid on Bandcamp

Totem Cat Records store

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The Crystal Teardrop, …Is Forming

Issued through Rise Above Records imprint Popclaw (see also Bobbie Dazzle and Scott Hepple and the Sun Band), The Crystal Teardrop‘s debut long-player, …Is Forming, sounds remarkably ‘formed,’ if you want to think of it in those terms, as regards aesthetic. Taking a heaping dose of influence from ’60s garage and daring toward Beatlesism on the sweetly bouncing “Borrowed Time” or the Help-toned “Two Hearts,” the band present a retroist face but hold back from IYKYK-style gatekeeping via pop songwriting and the sweep of the later “Turn You Down,” which is a ruffled-hair rush ahead of the similarly shoving “Stealing Suggestions” and the perhaps inevitable psychedelic delve of the closing pair “Nine Times Nine.” and “…Is Forming,” the latter of which has enough backward guitar to meet whatever your quota might be before it unfurls darker instrumental heavy proto-prog like it’s something the band just invented. Rise Above is ready for the garage rock revolution, ready to foster a new generation of artists, but as ever, the question is whether or not the world at large can keep up. …Is Forming argues fervently in favor of trying.

The Crystal Teardrop links

Rise Above Records website

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Doom Lab, Desert Caravan Doom

The adventures of Alaska’s Leo Scheben and his Doom Lab continue, declaring a genre in Desert Caravan Doom and then immediately setting about defying its parameters with an encompassing, continually on-its-own-wavelength craft, increasingly clear production, and varied intent across the 12-song/43-minute long-player, with creeps like raw East Coast hardcore in “What’s Your Angle?” before the jazzy puns take further hold in “Feeling Minor and Diminished,” pieces like “Fives” and “Desert Hailstorm” tapping into some Stinking Lizaveta-type intensity while the sweetly alt-rocking “At Dusk” and the “Gimmie One Drop (Dub)” and “Desert Caravan Improvisation” — with a new live drummer, reportedly — add to the fabric of Doom Lab‘s ongoing explorations in style and expression. Desert Caravan Doom isn’t as dark, on average, as some of Doom Lab‘s output, and that comparative lightness of mood lets it swing all the more, but Scheben‘s never just been/done one thing, and Desert Caravan Doom holds to this dynamic as well.

Doom Lab on Bandcamp

Doom Lab on YouTube

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Liquid Pennies, Fore

The synth and keyboard elements play a significant role throughout Liquid Pennies‘ Fore, as “Tapered Scape” and “Ready Tide” demonstrate early on, never mind the 11-minute “Echolalia,” which also has plenty of time for its heavy breakout in the middle third and doomier-until-it-thrashes ending. “Sight Skewer” finds the adventurous Floridian unit evoking nostalgia with fuzz and melody, the drum machine patterning working in contrast to the heavier tones, but feeling by that point very much part of the thing. Presumed side B starter “Elliptic Triptych” brings a bit more functional aggression to the mix, while the three-minute droner “Further Ennui” gives transition to the terrestrial acoustic strum in the pastiche of “The Bone,” which grows broader while remaining melodically intricate, and the closing title-track runs the atmospherics backwards for, well, backwards atmospherics. There’s some influence from All Them Witches at work, but four albums in, Liquid Pennies are onto something special in sound, and one hopes the pursuit continues.

Liquid Pennies links

Threat Collection Records website

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Mordbear, Mordbear

A fascinating debut three-song EP from Portland, Oregon’s Mordbear, released by Dipterid Records as a single-sided 12″ vinyl, comic book included. If that seems elaborate for what’s basically a demo, there’s the rub. “Like the Dead,” “A Mirror with a Sea of Flames” and “The Alchemist” are resoundingly cohesive and sure of their construction. The style is modern stoner with nascent hints of prog leaking through — again, modern — and in the seven minutes of “The Alchemist,” the scope feels broader as they methodically unfurl their riffing. Meanwhile, “Like the Dead” leads off with atmospheric semi-desert heavy, catchy and nodding and slow, and “A Mirror with a Sea of Flames” has more of a rhythmic tumble. When Mordbear lock into a bigger groove in the middle cut, there’s some hint of Monolord to their sound, but ‘their sound’ is hardly a settled issue, so the exploration is welcome even as they seem to have so much nailed down in terms of style.

Mordbear on Bandcamp

Dipterid Records on Bandcamp

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Quezon City, Philippines-based stoner rockers Polymerase will release their complete Dreams & Realities I & II collection on June 20 through Sliptrick Records. There’s a fair amount of parsing to be done in order to understand the construction of the 88-minute release, which combines the two eight-song outings, Dreams & Realities I, which was released earlier this year as a standalone EP, and the not-yet-unveiled Dreams & Realities II, a follow-up working under the same modus. If you’re doing the match and figuring out that for each half of the total Dreams & Realities to be circa-44 minutes and an EP doesn’t make sense, that’s where said modus comes into play, since the last four of the eight songs on each part are instrumental versions of the four songs preceding. So, Dreams & Realities I brings opener/longest track (immediate points) “Space Carousel” (7:09), “The Sage” (5:57), “Blade of the Demon God” (3:51) and “Evil Hand” (6:40), and then loops back to a sans-vocal/sans-Apollo-11-launch-sample “Space Carousel” (6:40), and so on. The same goes for Dreams & Realities II, with “Children of Terra” (5:43), “Dreams and Realities” (5:34), “Zodiac Queen” (5:35) and “Riding the Crystals of Heaven” (4:09) coupled with the same songs minus the vocal tracks.

It’s a fascinating experiment on the part of the band — guitarist/vocalist Vincent Jose, bassist Bobby Legaspi and drummer Ziggy Cerda (Fabio Allessandrini plays on “Evil Hand”) — and it is striking to realize just how much the listener is inclined to fill in when the vocals aren’t there to lead through verses and choruses. “Blade of the Demon God” loses its hook, though you can still almost hear it even when it’s not there, but a deep-mixed layer of lead guitar is revealed beneath the main riff, and “Dreams and Realities” seems to answer back by letting that same lead layer float overtop instead of being buried. The personalities of the songs are changed as “The Sage,” which seems to be communing with earlier Devin Townsend in its distorted clarity, gives up the harsher barks from Jose that highlight its metallic underpinnings to become an exploration of soloing later on. And while the opening of “Zodiac Queen” wobbles like Nirvana‘s “Come as You Are,” the harder crashes more prominent in the instrumental version of the chorus, the runs of double-kick drumming, and steady, sharp execution speak also to roots in harder metals on the part of the band.

Because each piece cycles through twice, one in listening will pick up and recognize parts in the instrumentals from their vocalized counterparts, whether it’s the snare runs behind the mellow guitar on “Evil Hand” before it reopens to the double-kick chorus or the weirdo blowout of “Riding the Crystals of Heaven,” which is trad metal and garage stoner in kind and feels somehow also inspired by New Wave in its vocal melody, but that instrumentally centers the relatively earthbound groove on which that melody would otherwise rest. The songs invariably end up in conversation with themselves, each one asking what the vocals add here, what guitar, bass and drums are doing there, and how one derives mood and perceives intention from that. Floating between Dreams & Realities II and I, one finds “Children of Terra” an almost mournful, perhaps suitably apocalyptic procession that takes the distortion of “The Sage” and sets it to a riff that could just as easily be declarative black metal, but holds to rock in its rhythm and stretches out in the concluding solo, echoing a bit the mood of “Evil Hand” as it closes the first part’s A and B sides.

I’ll confess I don’t know the recording circumstance for the full collection. Dreams & Realities I was self-produced at Glasstone Studio and Prince of the Arrow Records, both in Quezon City, and Normand Yu at Glasstone handled mixing and mastering, but whether Dreams & Realities II was done at the same time, I can’t say. The two parts are fairly consistent in sound — you could easily put the four with-voice songs from each together and have a straightforward single-LP — but longer songs surround the relatively brief charge of “Blade of the Demon God,” where on Dreams & Realities II there’s some less disparity in track length as the songs are between four and five-plus minutes. But that also just be how they chose to organize the outcome of a single session as well, and considering how much thought obviously went into the presentation of the entirety of Dreams & Realities I & II, it wouldn’t be out of character for the ordering to be likewise purposeful. But one way or the other, from the warm fuzz of “Space Carousel” and classic-in-the-’90s-sense-feeling solo there to the last howling, galloping wash that’s the culmination as Polymerase indeed ride out the groove of “Riding the Crystals of Heaven,” the broader sense is one of exploring different ideas in heavy songwriting and figuring out how to manifest their influences through their own (figurative) voice. They’re getting there.

In 2021, Polymerase offered the four-song EP Unostentatious (review here) and set themselves on the path that’s thus far brought them here. Their style is still in development and one can hear they’re searching to find that balance between heavy metal and heavy rock, but that’s part of what makes Dreams & Realities I & II exciting, since while they’re doing that they’re also showing a willingness to mess with the form of the material itself, which not every band is ready or brave enough to do. Imagine being a singer and saying, “Okay, now one without the vocals.” Easier when you’re also playing guitar, but still. That evident lack of ego will only serve them well as they continue their progression from here, whether that’s toward a proper full-length or another four-songer or something else, and the desire to put the songs first while also changing the intention behind individual pieces, being able to harness an atmospheric impression in a raw recording, conveying melody and craft with DIY spirit and the fervency of the converted. There are moments where the audio is rough, but it’s a deep passion driving the material and it comes through as duly unabashed. They advise getting stoned and listening. Addled or lucid, Dreams & Realities I & II is a righteous compiling of Polymerase‘s themes, aural and other, and a significant forward step on their hopefully ongoing journey.

The complete Dreams & Realities I & II can be streamed on the player below, followed by more PR wire background on the narrative taking place across the two EPs and more.

Enjoy:

Polymerase, Dreams & Realities I & II album premiere

Dreams And Realities is a two part album project by Philippine stoner rock group Polymerase. The band started recording in 2021 and the idea was to create a story of a traveler in space that was able to experience time differently thus the track Space Carousel. Other tracks such as Blade Of The Demon God, The Sage and Evil Hand are part of the journey where the traveler in space was able to reflect within himself and then becoming a sage using the negative and positive force of the universe through the blade of the demon god. Evil Hand is the representation of the dark emotions of the human nature, even though humanity will strive to be good there will be an ego that will pull him down into himself which will either be for his survival or for selfish reasons.

Part II is about the psychiatric aspect of the project. The beginning is the continuing journey reflecting the society thus the creation of Children Of Terra. It is the process of questioning what has become of humanity itself. It is like asking what have we been doing for the past years that would make our lives significant in all existence. Dreams And Realities is a track where a certain individual gets lost in his own dreams that opens up a new reality for him. The person gets lost in his own reality and he cannot perceive what is real in his waking life, thus becoming schizophrenic. The track, Zodiac Queen is the devotion of a person to someone in his darkest situation. It is where at the point of addiction for a certain person, even the relationship becomes too toxic that he still stays until eventually getting eaten by the darkness that he himself has given. The last track is about experimental drugs that enhances your psychic potential. It is all about traveling within yourself and finding a peace resembling heaven.

All tracks have instrumental counterpart so if one person smokes while listening he/she would be able to reflect more through the vibrations of the music.

Dreams And Realities I Tracklist:
01. Space Carousel
02. The Sage
03. Blade Of The Demon God
04. Evil Hand
05. Space Carousel (Instrumental)
06. The Sage (Instrumental)
07. Blade Of The Demon God (Instrumental)
08. Evil Hand (Instrumental)

Dreams And Realities II Tracklist:
01. Children Of Terra
02. Dreams And Realities
03. Zodiac Queen
04. Riding The Crystals Of Heaven
05. Children Of Terra (Instrumental)
06. Dreams And Realities (Instrumental)
07. Zodiac Queen (Instrumental)
08. Riding The Crystals Of Heaven (Instrumental)

Dreams And Realities [I & II] Released June 20th, 2023 via Sliptrick Records

Polymerase are:
Vincent Jose – Guitars/Vocals
Bobby Legaspi – Bass/Guitars
Eugene Castro – Drums
Allan Paul Galiga – Session Bassist

Fabio Allesandrini – Drums on “Evil Hand”

Polymerase, “Blade of the Demon God” official video

Polymerase on Facebook

Polymerase on YouTube

Polymerase on Bandcamp

Sliptrick Records on Facebook

Sliptrick Records on Instagram

Sliptrick Records website

Considering that Polymerase were seven years between getting together in 2014 and putting out their first EP, Unostentatious (review here), a two-part debut album featuring (at least) three different drummers, while not necessarily ostentatious, certainly smacks of ambition. The Philippines-based outfit were largely instrumental at the time, save for the sludgy barks in the rawer fourth-of-four “Green is the Color of Evil,” and the will toward spaciousness shown in a cut like “Lightbringer//Lightgiver,” with its echoing lead guitar singing out in its midsection surrounded by cliffsides of tonal plod, was already expanded upon as the band collaborated with Misstiq to expand “A Night with a Succubus” with synth and piano as a standalone single.

All of that is to say I have no idea where Polymerase might be headed with Dreams and Realities I & II, the impending two-part long-player to be released through Sliptrick Records sometime in 2023, but the quick turnaround from the EP is encouraging, and if they’re continuing to feel their way through vaporous heavy psych and stonerly methods, so be it. Given what they’ve already put out, some variety seems only reasonable to expect as Polymerase solidify their lineup and approach.

From the PR wire:

Sliptrick Records Welcome Philippine Stoner Rock Group POLYMERASE

Joining the ranks at Sliptrick Records: Polymerase (PH) Stoner Rock | Heavy Psych | Space Rock | Experimental Rock

Polymerase started in 2014 with brothers, Vincent and VN in Quezon City but unfortunately because of a hard drive malfunction their original recorded songs were lost in the abyss. It wasn’t until 2021 that they were able to record their debut EP, Unostentatious, which was released via bandcamp. The EP received a good recognition in the international stoner community. The line at this time was Vincent on Guitars, VN on Vox and Francis on Drums.

The group then started work on tracks for their new 2-part album Dreams and Realities I and II with part 2 recorded earlier this year. All the guitar parts and vocals were done by Vincent with bass parts by Bobby. Drum tracks were recorded separately by different drummers. They were: Fabio Allesandrini of the trash metal act Annihilator, Krzystof Klingbein who does sessions for Vader, and James Koerl, a graduate from Berklee College of Music.

Later in 2022, Polymerase signed a deal to release Dreams and Realities I and II via Sliptrick Records later this year.

Polymerase are:
Vincent Jose – Guitars/Vocals
Bobby Legaspi – Bass/Guitars
Eugene Castro – Drums
Allan Paul Galiga – Session Bassist

https://www.facebook.com/polymerasepilipinas
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Gtyy32USE5ITrpUhT16ng
https://polymerase.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sliptrickrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/sliptrickrecords/
https://sliptrickrecords.com/

Polymerase, Unostentatious (2021)

This will be a two-week Quarterly Review. That means this Monday to Friday and next Monday to Friday, 10 releases per day, totaling 100 by the time it’s done.

Me? I’m taking it one week, one day, one album at a time. It’s the only way to go and not have it seem completely insurmountable. But we’ll get through it all. I started out with the usual five days, and then I went to seven, then eight, and at that point I felt like I had a pretty good idea where things were headed. The last two days I filled up just at the end of last week. Some of it is I think a result of quarantine productivity, but there’s a glut of relevant stuff out now and some of it I’m catching up on, true, but some of it isn’t out yet either, so it’s a balance as ever. I keep telling myself I’m done with 2020 releases, but there’s one in here today. You know how it goes.

And since you do, I won’t delay further. Thanks in advance for reading if you do.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Carlton Melton, Night Pillers

Rangey mellow psych collected together with the natural shimmer of a Phil Manley (Trans Am) recording and a John McBain master, the new mini-LP from Mendocino medicine makers Carlton Melton is a 31-minute, five-song meditative joy. To wit, “Safe Place?” Is. “Morning Warmth?” Is, even with the foreboding march of drums behind it. And “Striatum,” which closes with interplay of keys and fuzzy leads and effects, giving a culminating seven-minute wash that doesn’t feel like it’s pushing far out so much as already gone upon arrival, indeed seems like a reward for any head or brain that’s managed to make it so far. Opener “Resemblance” brings four minutes of gentle drone to set the mood ahead of “Morning Warmth” — it might be sunrise, if we’re thinking of it that way — and centerpiece “High Noon Thirty” bridges krauty electronic beats and organic ceremony that feels both familiar and like the band’s own. They may pill at night, but Carlton Melton have a hell of a day here.

Carlton Melton on Facebook

Agitated Records website

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Crown, The End of All Things

Weaving in and around genres with fluidity that’s tied together through dark industrial foundations, Crown are as much black metal as they are post-heavy, cinematic or danceable. “Gallow” or the earlier “Neverland” call to mind mid-period, electronica-fascinated Katatonia, but “Extinction” pairs this with a more experimental feel, opening in its midsection to more unsettling spaces ahead of the dance-ready finish. There’s nothing cartoonish or vamp about The End of All Things, which is the French outfit’s fourth album in 10 years, and it’s as likely to embrace pop (closer “Utopia”) as extremity (“Firebearer” just before), grim atmospherics (“Nails”) or textured acoustics (“Fleuve”), feeling remarkably unconcerned with genre across its 45 entrancing minutes, and remarkably even in its approach for a sound that’s still so varied. It’s not an easy listen front to back, but the challenge feels intentional and is emotional as much as cerebral in the craft and performance.

Crown on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Noêta, Elm

Swedish duo Noêta offer their second record for Prophecy Productions in Elm, comprising a deceptively efficient eight songs and 38 minutes that work in atmospheres of darker but not grim or cultish folk. Vocalist Êlea is very much a focal point in terms of performance, with Andris‘ instrumentals forming a backdrop that’s mournful on “Above and Below” while shimmering enough to bring affirmation to “As We Are Gone” a short while later ahead of the electrified layering in “Elm” and the particularly haunted-feeling closer “Elm II.” “As I Fall Silent” is a singularly spacious moment, but not the only one, as “Fade” complements with strings and outward-sounding guitar, and some of Elm‘s most affecting moments are its quietest stretches, as “Dawn Falls” proves at the outset and the whispers of “Elm” reaffirm on side B. Subdued but not lacking complexity, Noêta‘s songs make an instrument of mood itself and are pointedly graceful in doing so.

Noêta on Facebook

Prophecy Productions website

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Polymerase, Unostentatious

Unostentatious, which is presumably not to say “humble,” may or may not be Polymerase‘s debut release, but it follows on from several years of inactivity on the part of the Philippines-based mostly-instrumentalist heavy psych trio. The band present four duly engaging and somewhat raw feeling jams, with a jump in volume as “Lightbringer//Lightgiver” picks up from “A Night with a Succubus” and opener “The Traveler” and a final touch of thickened, fuzzy sludge in the rolling “Green is the Color of Evil,” which closes at a lurch that comes across at significant remove from the title-hinted brightness of the song just before it. Uneven? Maybe, but not egregiously so, and if Polymerase are looking to give listeners an impression of their having a multifaceted sound, they most assuredly do. My question is over what span of time these tracks were recorded and what the group will do in moving forward from them, but I take the fact that I’m curious to find out at all as a positive sign of having interest piqued. Will hope for more.

Polymerase on Facebook

Polymerase on Bandcamp

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Lucid Sins, Cursed!

Lucid indeed. The band’s self-applied genre tag of “adult AOR” is more efficient a descriptor of their sound than anything I might come up with. Glasgow’s Lucid Sins released their acclaimed debut, Occultation, in 2014, and Cursed! is the exclamatory seven-years-later follow-up, bringing together classic progressive rock and modern cult heavy sensibilities with a focus on songwriting that’s the undercurrent from “Joker’s Dance” onward and which, as deep as “The Serpentine Path” or the title-track or “The Forest” might go, is never forgotten. To wit, the penultimate “By Your Hand” is a proto-everything highlight, stomping compared to the organ-prog “Sun and the Moon” earlier, but ultimately just as melodic and of enviable tonal warmth. Seven years is a long time between records, and maybe this material just took that long to put together, I don’t know, but I had no idea “cult xylophone” was a possibility until “The Devil’s Sign” came along, and now I’m not sure how I ever lived without it.

Lucid Sins on Facebook

Totem Cat Records store

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Hekate, Sermons to the Black Owl

Australia’s history in heavy rock and roll is as long as that of heavy rock and roll itself and need not be recounted here, except to say that Hekate, from Canberra and Sydney, draw from multiple eras of it with their debut long-player, Sermons to the Black Owl, pushing ’70s boogie over the top with solos on “Carpathian Eagle” only after “Winter Void” and “Child of Black Magick” have seen the double-guitar-and-let’s-use-both four-piece update nascent doom vibes and “Burning Mask” has brought a more severe chug to the increasingly intense procession. A full production sound refuses to let the quick eight-tracker be anything other than modern, and though it’s only 28 minutes long, the aptly-titled “Acoustic Outro” feels earned atmospherically, even down to the early-feeling cold finish of “Cassowary Dreaming.” The balance may be then, then, then, and now, but the sense of shove that Hekate foster in their songs gives fresh urgency to the tenets of genre they seem to have adopted at will.

Hekate on Facebook

Black Farm Records store

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Abel Blood, Keeping Pace with the Elephants

One does not evoke elephantine images on a heavy record, even on a debut release, if aural largesse isn’t a factor. New Hampshire trio Abel Blood — guitarist/vocalist Adam Joslyn, bassist Ben Cook, drummer Jim DeLuca — are raw in sound on their first EP, Keeping Pace with the Elephants, but the impact with which they land “The Day that Moby Died” at the outset is only encouraging, and to be sure, it’s not the thickest of their wares either. “Enemies” already pushes further, and as centerpiece “UnKnown Variant” would seem to date the effort in advance, it also serves the vital function of moving the EP in a different, more jangly, grungier direction, which is a valuable move with the title cut following behind, its massive cymbals and distorted wash building to a head in time for the nine-minute finale “Fire on the Hillside” to draw together both sides of the approach shown throughout into a parabolically structured jam the middle-placed surge of which passes quickly enough to leave the listener unsure whether it ever happened. They’re messing with you. Dig that.

Abel Blood on Facebook

Abel Blood on Bandcamp

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Suffer Yourself, Rip Tide

Begun in 2011 by guitarist/vocalist Stanislav Govorukha and based in Sweden by way of Poland and the Ukraine, death-doom lurchbringers Suffer Yourself are not strangers to longer-form material, but to my knowledge, “Spit in the Chasm” — the opening and longest track (immediate points) on their third record, Rip Tide — is the first time they’ve crossed the 20-minute mark. Time well spent, and by that I mean “brutally spent,” whether its the speedier chug that emerges from the willful slog of the extended piece’s first half or the viciously progressive lead work that tops the precise, cold end of the song that brings final ambience. Side B offers two shorter pieces in “Désir de Trépas Maritime (Au Bord de la Mer Je Veux Mourir),” laced with suitably mournful strings and a fair enough maritime sense of gothic drama emphasized by later spoken word and piano, and the brief, mostly-drone “Submerging,” which one assumes is the end of that plotline playing out. The main consumption though is in “Spit in the Chasm,” and the dimensions of that fissure are significant, figuratively and literally.

Suffer Yourself on Facebook

Aesthetic Death website

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Green Dragon, Dead of the Night

High order Sabbathian doom rock from my own beloved Garden State, there’s very little chance I’m not going to dig Green Dragon‘s Dead of the Night, and true to type, I do. Presented by the band on limited vinyl after digital release late in 2020, the four-song, 24-minute outing brings guitarist/vocalists Zach Kurland and Ryan Lipynsky (the latter also adding keys and known for his work in Unearthly Trance, etc.), bassist Jennifer Klein and drummer Herbert Wiley to a place so dug into its groove it almost feels inappropriate to think of it as a peak in terms of their work to-date. They go high by going low, then. Fair enough. “Altered States” opens with a rollout of fuzz that miraculously avoids the trap sounding like Electric Wizard, while “Burning Bridges” murks out, “The Sad King” pushes speed a bit will still holding firm to nod and echo alike, and “Book of Shadows” plunges into effects-drenched noise like it was one of the two waterslides at the Maplewood community pool in summertime.

Green Dragon on Facebook

Green Dragon on Bandcamp

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ÂGE TOTAL, ÂGE TOTAL

The kind of record that probably won’t be heard by enough people but will inspire visceral loyalty in many of those who encounter it, the self-titled debut from French collaborative outfit Age Total — bringing together members from Endless Floods out of Bordeaux and Rouen’s Greyfell — is a grand and engrossing work that pushes the outer limits of doom and post-metal. Bookending opener “Amure” (14:28) and closer “The Songbird” (16:45) around the experimentalist “Carré” (4:06) and rumbling melodic death-doom of “Metal,” the album harnesses grandiosity and nuance to spare, with each piece feeling independently conceived and enlightening to musician and audience alike. It sounds like the kind of material they didn’t know they were going to come up with until they actually got together — whatever the circumstances of “together” might’ve looked like at the time — and the bridges they build between progressive metal and sheer weight of intention are staggering. However much hype it does or doesn’t have behind it, Age Total‘s Age Total is one of 2021’s best debut albums.

Endless Floods on Facebook

Greyfell on Facebook

Soza Label on Bandcamp

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Raw sludge and rawer doom abounds on the new four-song split from Philippines four-piece Surrogate Prey and Washington D.C.’s Et Mors, who seem to be in a contest not so much to out-heavy as to out-filth each other. I’m not sure who the winner is in that regard — Et Mors are more atmospheric, Surrogate Prey more outright scathing — but either way, it’s 37 minutes of feeling buried alive while the bands taunt you and unleash varying tonal assaults on your person.

Friendly it ain’t, but Surrogate Prey and Et Mors do make a fitting pair as the split progresses from one to the next, giving the feeling of driving deeper into your skull as it goes. To everything, churn churn churn, there is… death.

Here’s mud in yer eye from the PR wire:

Surrogate Prey & Et Mors split due to release on 12/28/20

Surrogate Prey is a Sludge Metal band from the Philippines, formed circa 2004. They’ve been putting out demos and splits since then, with their first full length album “Wisdom to Scramble Your Brains Lysergik” coming out in 2019. They just released their “Aberration” EP in December 2020 as well. They’ve played a key part in the Filipino Metal scene, being the first Sludge band there, & opening for bands such as EyeHateGod. the band features:

Rallye Ibanez – Bass, Vocals
Gani Simpliciano – Drums
Allan Diaz – Guitar, Vocals
Bobby Legaspi – Guitar, Vocals

Et Mors is a Doom Metal band from Washington, DC, formed circa 2017 as a 4 piece with guitar, drums, bass, and keys. Since then, the band has been condensed to a 2 piece, with guitar and drums as the main instruments. After 2 demos and a single, their first full length “Lux in Morte” was released, followed by “Tombswayer” EP in late 2019. Et Mors completed the Tombswayer tour in October 2019, playing with bands such as Tel, DOUR, False Gods, Fistula, Come to Grief, & more. The band features:

Zak Suleri – Guitar, Vocals
Albert Alisuag – Drums, Vocals

This split contains two tracks from each band:
1. Surrogate Prey – Banquet of the Beast (6:37)
2. Surrogate Prey – Shroud (8:03)
3. Et Mors – Damaged Pathways (13:50)
4. Et Mors – Erotic Neuroticism (8:56)

The result is 37 minutes of Doom & Sludge from two vastly different time zones.

https://surrogateprey.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SurrogatePrey

https://etmors.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/EtMors

Surrogate Prey, “Shroud”