Posted in Questionnaire on November 24th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Silvio Dalla Valle of Cripta Blue, Desert Wizards & Fresno Bob
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play drums in Cripta Blue and Desert Wizards, I also play bass and drums in my solo project Fresno Bob. I wouldn’t describe myself a proper musician, I’m definitely not a technical player, but I enjoy myself beating the skins and play some riffs. My brother used to play drums and when he sold the drum kit, I buy another one for me the day after and started to play on the easiest songs I liked at the time, that was my beginning.
Describe your first musical memory.
I really don’t have a good memory generally, but I remember one time probably at the beginning of the ’80s, coming back with my parents from a trip to Venice, sitting in the rearseats of my dad’s car listening to some shitty Italian pop music coming out from the speakers.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
It is quite difficult to choose only one, but I will go with the oldest one. The first concert I saw as a kid with my friends has been Faith No More supported by L7. I will never forget when entered inside this arena the smell of tobacco, weed, sweat, alcohol and Metallica’s And Justice For All played in the background with some metal guys were banging their head. That was a kind of hell, or paradise I guess.
Since then I have seen a lot of concerts, but I have always preferred the performance in the small clubs. I mean, I wasn’t lucky enough to see Black Sabbath Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd at their peak but I’ve seen a lot of amazing bands in small venues in the last 20 years… Sleep, Earth, Saint Vitus, Graveyard, Radio Moscow, Dead Meadow, Earthless, Church of Misery, Danava just to name a few, all of them remembered me the feeling of the first time.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
In 2012 I had severe pancreatitis and I stayed 10 days in the hospital and thinkin’ from my bed that nothing would be the same anymore. Especially play music, sober. Few months after my recovery, I met one of the biggest music collector here in Europe, Giovanni Zollezzi, and I started a friendship that lead me to discover tons of obscure heavy stuff made in the ’60s and ’70s that I didn’t really know existed. As a passionate listener ever since I have never stopped looking for the music I like, be it hard rock, jazz, blues or other… so, yes I think that music helped me again to find myself.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I think art in general is always progressing, the evolution of it can leads to new form of expressions, new musical freedom and new places of creativity.
How do you define success?
Well, it can sound like a cliché but I think of having the freedom of doing what you love, without struggling on how to pay the mortgage can be seen like a kind of success. If it makes you feel happy, for me that’s it. Whatever comes from it are extras and they are not really part of the game.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
The first thing that comes to mind is the tv series House Of Papel. I’ve seen only half of the first episode and it was enough.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I would like to do a movie soundtrack, I love movies since I was a kid and I’ve always appreciate the combination of visuals and music.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Entertaining, feeding your soul and connecting other people together, I guess.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
A trip to the west coast of the United States with my family, there are many things that I would like to see and show to my children, possibly also pairing a Dead & Co concert would not be bad at all.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 5th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
You don’t hear a lot of bands coming out of the gate with a May Blitz comparison. Italy’s Cripta Blue will make their self-titled debut later this year through Argonauta Records, and while they don’t have much up by way of audio, chasing the social media rabbit hole to its conclusion, I managed to find one song called “Mourning Pyre” that was posted back in September 2020, presumably around the time they were shopping for a label. Their sound indeed has a classic edge, but I wouldn’t call it retro necessarily — at least as far as this one song goes. Among the good many mysteries that surround, of course, is whether “Mourning Pyre” was a demo or is an album version, if it’ll be on the record, what’s in store for the rest of the release, looks, sounds, all that stuff. As ever, I don’t know anything but what info the PR wire sees fit to feed me.
In that regard, here’s a keto, low carb snack of meat-based datapoints to tip your glycemic index in the right direction, whichever way that might happen to be:
Heavy Psych Rockers CRIPTA BLUE Sign To Argonauta Records
Debut Album coming in September 2021!
Hailing from Ravenna, Italy, up & coming heavy psych rock trio CRIPTA BLUE has inked a worldwide record deal with Argonauta Records for the release of their debut album in September 2021!
CRIPTA BLUE were formed in 2019 by members of bands like Desert Wizard, Thrash act Rising Dark and Talismanstone. Being no strangers to the heavy music scene and following their noisy musical passion, the trio plays a revitalizing blend of psych rock, brutal heavy blues and old school sounds of the NWOBHM doom rock era between Blue Cheer, May Blitz and Saint Vitus. The baritone voice of bassist and vocalist Andrea Giuliani are shrouded by acid and fuzz rock soundscapes, full of power blues with the soul of doom.
CRIPTA BLUE‘s first and self-titled album is slated for a release in September through Argonauta Records, and one can only sense, this debut may be a strong contender for several Best-Of 2021 lists. Watch out for many more updates and first album singles to follow in the weeks ahead!
CRIPTA BLUE is: Andrea Giuliani – Vocals / Bass Federico Bocchini – Guitar Silvio Dalla Valle – Drums
Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Alarm went off this morning at 3:45. Got up, flicked on the coffee pot, turned the heat on in the house, hit the bathroom and was back in bed in four minutes with an alarm set for 4:15. Didn’t really get back to sleep, but the half-hour of being still was a kind of pre-waking meditation that I appreciated just the same. Was dozing when the alarm went off the second time, but it’s day two of the Quarterly Review, so no time to doze. No time for anything, as is the nature of these blocks of writeups. They tend to be all-consuming while they’re going on. Could be worse. Let’s roll.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Khemmis, Doomed Heavy Metal
Denver four-piece Khemmis have made themselves one of the most distinctive acts in metal, to say nothing of doom. With strong vocal harmonies out front backed by similarly-minded guitars, the band bring a sense of poise to doom that’s rare in the modern sphere, somewhat European in influence, but less outwardly adherent to the genre tenets of melancholy. They refuse to be Paradise Lost, in other words, and are all the more themselves for that. Their Doomed Heavy Metal EP (on 20 Buck Spin and Nuclear Blast) is a stopgap after 2018’s Desolation (review here) full-length, but at 38 minutes and six songs, it’s substantial nonetheless, headlined by the Dio cover “Rainbow in the Dark” — capably done with just a flair of Slough Feg — with a take on Lloyd Chandler‘s “A Conversation with Death” and “Empty Throne,” both rare-enough studio cuts, for backing, as well as three live cuts that cover their three-to-date albums. The growls on “Three Gates” are fun, but I’ll still take the Dio cover as the highlight. For a cobbled-together release, it feels at least like a bit of thoughtful fan-service, and really, a band could do worse than to serve their fans thoughtfully.
There are shades of doom metal’s origins underlying Mutant Flesh‘s first release, the eight-song/33-minute Evil Eye, but the Philly troupe are too gleeful in their weirdness ultimately to be paying full homage to the likes of Witchfinder General, and especially in a faster song like second cut “Meteoric” and the subsequent lead-guitar-flipout-and-vocal-soar title-track, they tap into the defiantly doomed vibe of earliest Saint Vitus. That’s true of the crawling “Euthanasia” as well, which crashes and nods as it approaches the six-minute mark as the longest inclusion here, but even the penultimate “Blight” brings that twisted-Black–Flag-noise-slowed-down spirit that lets you know there’s consciousness behind the chaos, and that while Mutant Flesh might seem to be all-the-way-gone, they’re really just getting started. Maybe their sound will even out over time, maybe it won’t, but for what it’s worth, they do ragged doom well from the opening “Leviathan (Lord of the Labyrinth)” onward, and feel right at home in the unhinged.
Having just shredded their way across Europe, War Cloud took their set into the Earhammer Studio with Greg Wilkinson at the helm in an attempt to capture the band in top form on their home turf. Did it work? The results on Earhammer Sessions (Ripple Music) don’t wait around for you to decide. They’re too busy kicking ass to take names, and if the resulting 29-minute burst is even half of what they brought to the stage on that tour, those must’ve been some goddamn shows. Songs like “White Lightning” and the snare-counted-in “Speed Demon” and “Striker” feel like they’re being given their due in the max-speed-NWOBHM-but-still-too-classy-to-be-thrash presentation, and honestly, this feels like War Cloud have found their method. If they don’t tour their next album and then hit the studio after and lay it down live, or at least as live as Earhammer Sessions is — one never knows as regards overdubs and isolation booths and all that — they’re doing themselves a disservice. War Cloud play metal. So what? So this.
Void of Sleep return after half a decade with the prog-doom stylings of their third album, Metaphora (Aural Music), which stretches dramatically through songs like “Iron Mouth” (11:00), preceded by the intro “The Famine Years” and the shorter “Unfair Judgements,” preceded by the intro “Waves of Discomfort,” and still somehow manage not to sound out of place tapping into their inner Soilwork in the growled verses/clean choruses of “Master Abuser.” They get harsh a bit as well on “Tides of the Mourning,” which uses its 10:30 to summarize the bulk of the proceedings and close out the record after “Modern Man,” but that song has more of a scope and feels looser structurally for that. Still, that shift is only one of several throughout Metaphora, which follows the Italian five-piece’s 2015 LP, New World Order (discussed here), and wherever Void of Sleep are headed at any given moment, they head there with a duly controlled presence. Clearly their last five years have not been wasted.
As yet, Germany’s Pretty Lightning remain a well kept secret of fuzz-psych-blues nuance, digging out their own niche-in-a-niche-in-a-niche microgenre with a natural and inadvertent-feeling sense of just writing the songs they want to write. Jangle Bowls, which puts its catchy, semi-garage title-track early in the proceedings, is the duo’s second offering through Fuzz Club Records behind 2017’s The Rhythm of Ooze (review here), and seem to present a mission statement in opener “Swamp Ritual” before bringing a due sense of excursion to “Boogie at the Shrine” — damn that’s a smooth groove — and reviving the movement in “RaRaRa,” which follows. Closer “Shovel Blues” is a highlight for how it drifts into oblivion, but the underlying tightness of craft in “123 Eternity” and “Hum” is an appeal as well, so it’s a tradeoff. But it’s one I’ll be glad to make across multiple repeat visits to Jangle Bowls while wondering how long this particular secret can actually be kept.
The painted-blood-red cover of Rosy Finch‘s second album, Scarlet (on Lay Bare Recordings), and horror-cinema-esque design isn’t a coincidence in terms of atmosphere, but the Spanish trio bring a more aggressive feel to the nine-track outing overall than they did to their 2016 debut, Witchboro (review here), with additional crunch in the guitar of Mireia Porto (also vocals and bass) and bassist Elena Garcia, and a forward kick drum from Lluís Mas that hammers home the impact of a pressure-on-head squeezer like “Ruby” and even seems to ground the more melodic “Alizarina,” which follows, let alone the crushing opener/longest track (immediate points) “Oxblood” or its headspinning closing companion “Dark Cherry,” after which follows the particularly intense hidden cut “Lady Bug,” also not to be missed. Anger suits Rosy Finch, it seems, and the band bring a physicality to the songs on Scarlet that only reinforces the sonic push.
Brutal, gurgling doom-of-death pervades The Haunting Continuum from Denver one-man-unit Ghost Spawn, and while the guitar late in “Escaping the Mortal Flesh” seems momentarily to offer some hope of salvation, rest assured, it doesn’t last, and the squibbly central riff returns with its extremity to prove once more that only death is real. Multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kevin Berstler is the lone culprit behind the project’s first full-length and second release overall (also second this year, so he would seem to work quickly), and across 43 minutes that only grow more grueling as they proceed through the centerpiece title-track and into “The Terrors that Plague Nightly” and the desolate incantations of “Exiled to the Realm of Eternal Rot,” there are some hints of cleaner grunts that have made their way through — a kind of repeated “hup” vocalization — but this too is swallowed in the miasma of cave-echo guitar, drums-from-out-of-the-abyss, and raw-as-peeled-flesh production. Can’t get behind that? Probably you and 99.9 percent of the rest of humanity. For us slugs, though, it’s just about right.
It’s kosmiche thrust and watery vibes when Agrabatti go Beyond the Sun. What’s there upon arrival? Nothing less than a boogie down with Hawkwind at the helm of a spacey spaced-out space rocking chopper that you shouldn’t even be able to hear the revving engine of in space and yet somehow you can. Also synth, pulsating riffs and psych-as-all-golly-gosh awakenings. Formed in 2009 by Chad Davis — then just out of U.S. Christmas, already at that point known for his work in Hour of 13 and a swath of other projects across multiple genres — and with songs begun to come together at that time only to be shelved ahead of recording this year, Beyond the Sun sat seemingly in some unreachable strata of anomalous subspace, for 11 years before being rediscovered from its time-loop like Kelsey Grammer in that one episode of TNG, and gorgeously spread across the quadrant in its five-cut run, with its cover of the aforementioned Hawkwind‘s “Born to Go” so much at home among its companions it feels like, baby, it’s already gone. Do you need sunglasses in the void? Shit yeah you do.
Four sprawling doom epics comprise the 2019 debut album — and apparently debut release — from Illinois four-piece Dead Sacraments, who themselves are comprised from three former members of atmospheric sludgers Angel Eyes, who finished their run in 2011 but released the posthumous Things Have Learnt to Walk That Ought to Crawl (review here). Those are guitarist Brendan Burchell, bassist Nader Cheboub and drummer Ryan Croson, and together with apparently-self-harmonizing vocalist/guitarist Mark Mazurek, they cast a doom built on largesse in tone and scope alike, given an air of classic-metal grandiosity but filtered through a psych-doom modernity that feels aware of what the likes of Pallbearer and Khemmis have done for the genre. Nonetheless, as a first record, Celestial Throne shines its darkness brightly across its no-song-under-nine-minutes-long lumber, and affirms the righteousness of doom with a genuine sense of reach at its disposal.
The languid and trippy spirit in opener “Solar Flares” is something of a misdirect on the part of organ-laced, Cologne-based heavy rockers Smokemaster, who go on to boogie down through songs like “Trippin’ Blues” before jamming out classic heavy blues-style on “Ear of the Universe.” I’m not saying they don’t have their psychedelic aspects, but there’s plenty of movement behind what they do as well, and the setup they give with the first two cuts is effective in throwing off the first-time listener’s expectation. A pastoral instrumental “Sunrise in the Canyon” leads off side B after, and comes backed by “Astronaut of Love” (yup, a lovestronaut) and “Astral Traveller,” which find an engaging midpoint between the ground and the great beyond, synth and keys pushing outward in the finale even as the bass and drums keep it tethered to a central groove. It’s a formula that’s worked many times over the last half-century, but it works here too, and Smokemaster‘s Smokemaster makes a right-on introduction to the German newcomers.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 13th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Italy’s Postvorta earlier this year unveiled the 11-minute single “Hollow” that was taken from the sessions for their new album, Porrima. If you haven’t listened to it — and I’m sure you have, because you’re way up on Italian post-metal, and kudos to you on that — it’s a crusher in atmosphere and growl alike, and the band, who, yup, there’s six of ’em, complement all that stomp with an atmospheric breadth no less ranging than the impact is weighted. As much as the US foundation of post-metal was set by Neurosis and Isis, in Europe it was bands like Cult of Luna and Amenra who established the patterns, but Postvorta seem to draw influence from all sides and work to bring an emotionalism of their own to the bleak sonic tectonics. Haven’t heard Porrima — their new LP — yet, but neither have I heard a reason not to look forward to it.
That’s right. I went to that rhyme. Bite me. It’s my site. I get to do what I want.
Admittedly, I’m late to the party on posting the release date and the album news, but I figure better that than not at all, so here it is, courtesy of the PR wire. Porrima release is slated for Feb. 20 through 22 Dicembre Records and Sludgelord Records:
POSTVORTA: cinematic post/doom metal outfit reveal details of new album “Porrima”!
Italian post/doom metal stalwarts POSTVORTA release details of their upcoming new album “Porrima” – due out on February 20th, 2020 via Sludgelord Records and 22 Dicembre Records on 2CD and MC (strictly limited to 50 copies) format.
Produced by Riccardo Pasini (The Secret, Nero Di Marte, Ephel Duath), mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult Of Luna) and featuring artwork by Andrea Fioravanti and Nicola Donà, “Porrima” features musical textures and contributions by Francesco Bucci (Ottone Pesante), Francesca Grol and Alberto Casadei (Solaris).
“Porrima” tracklist: 01. Epithelium Copia (feat. Francesco Bucci from Ottone Pesante on trombone) 02. Vasa Praevia Dispassion 03. Decidua Trauma Catharsis (feat. Francesca Grol as female entity) 04. March Dysthymia (feat. Alberto Casadei from Solaris on spoken words) 05. Aldehyde Framework
POSTVORTA have always been hard to classify. Since 2009, they have played music that’s heavy and progressive, cinematic and intimate, dense and sometimes minimal. You could call them “post” metal, as thunderous elements of pure doom often contrast with moments of introspection. Their entire musical trajectory seems like a gradual disclosure of intimate secrets.
The album’s five tracks showcase the band facing life’s pain and wonder with their eyes wide open. The collection’s emotional landscape is one of existential dread, melancholy and loss. Despite these existential conundrums, “Porrima” at times also displays some uplifting, euphoric vibes.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 27th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
The vibe is extra creepy — and kind of messy-looking — in the teaser clip from Chariot of Black Moth for the new single “Black Death” by Italian horror cult rockers Arcana 13. I don’t know who had the honor of playing around in all that slop, but woof, that must’ve been some hosing off afterward. Perhaps more relevant — okay, definitely more relevant — the song itself has a grim atmosphere and a soaring emergent melody that suits its being highlighted as a single, pushing beyond we-like-horror-movies-with-boobs-in-them-blah-blah-Satan and into a genuine ambience and aesthetic mindset. The teaser is just under two minutes long, and the song can’t be much more than, what? five or six, max? in order to fit on a 7″, so from the creeper-style opening guitar to the later nod and harmonized vocals, it should be a decent showing of what it’s all about. And hey, the B-side is a take on Iron Maiden‘s “Wrathchild.” No way that isn’t fun.
Arcana 13‘s Black Death 7″ is out Jan. 17 through Aural Music as the follow-up to the band’s 2017 debut album, Danza Macabra (discussed here). Info and teaser clip follow.
Please enjoy:
Arcana 13 – Black Death
Deep into the darkness a spine chilling scream cuts through the fog. Filthy fuzz sounds start consuming the air. A deep rumble of drums and square waves get the earth shaking. This is the Horror Doom march of Arcana 13… the dead are listening. Hailing from Italy, the birthplace of cult Horror movie masters, Arcana 13 stirs in the cauldron a lethal brew of Heavy Doom with galore of Italian Horror’s legacy. Lucio Fulci living of fuzzy riffs. Mario Bava high on distorted mellotrons. Dario Argento crazy for low end grime.
Sealing the deal classic horror poster artist, master Enzo Sciotti, gave his blessing painting the eye-striking album cover and the unique DANZA MACABRA horror show, featuring mesmerizing horror visuals, has been brought live on a set of Italian shows first, then across Europe with label mates Messa.
In 2018, horror hero Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, struck by the band’s cover version of Dario Argento’s Suspiria included in Danza Macabra”, got in touch to revise another one of his masterpieces: the main theme composed for George Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD. The song is featured as opening track in the Special 40th Anniversary edition, out on Rustblade Records. The last gravestone is the collaboration with director Luca Canale Brucculeri that got in touch with Arcana 13 while working on his new horror tv series “Black Death” based on the same-title comic book. He got captured by the sound of the band and decided to commission the composition of the main theme for the series, that will be released as special edition 7” in January 2020 on Aural Music, along with a doomed up version of Iron Maiden’s classic “Wrathchild” and featuring iconic Artwork by Branca Studio.
Street Date: January 17th, 2019
TRACKLIST: Side A: BLACK DEATH Side B: WRATCHILD (Iron Maiden cover)
Italian four-piece Desert Wizards are gearing up to release their third full-length, Beyond the Gates of the Cosmic Kingdom, this July through long-running nuance-purveyors Black Widow Records, and while the band’s name and album title might both lead one to expect a heavy psychedelic or stoner rock vibe, the graceful keyboard work, slow progressive drift and purposeful clarity of production in “The Man Who Rode Time” would seem to argue otherwise. The song, for which the Ravenna outfit have a brand new video that you can watch below, is the first audio to come from Beyond the Gates of the Cosmic Kingdom, and particularly in light of the clip, it carries a surprisingly melancholic overtone.
Taken in comparison to Desert Wizards‘ second outing, Ravens, which was issued in 2013, and they would seem to have moved away from some of the former psychedelic influence under which they were working, but to listen to a song like “Burn into the Sky,” with its subtly doomed riffing, and then put on “The Man Who Rode Time,” one would almost think it was two different bands. Whether that’s a conscious creative leap or a happenstance of progression, and just how much “The Man Who Rode Time” might represent the entirety of Beyond the Gates of the Cosmic Kingdom, I don’t know, but with the video’s cinematic, drama-fueled feel and clear narrative of depressive frustration, there’s clearly more at work from Desert Wizards than genre conventionalism and a lengthy album name.
Info, and especially info in English, about the forthcoming long-player is pretty sparse, but you can watch the video for “The Man Who Rode Time” below, and everything I’ve seen about Beyond the Gates of the Cosmic Kingdom points to a summer release, should you want to keep an eye out.
Either way, please enjoy:
Desert Wizards, “The Man Who Rode Time” official video
From the album ” Beyond The Gates Of The Cosmic Kingdom” out on Black Widow Records.
Desert Wizards are: Marco Mambelli: Vox/Bass/Synth Marco Goti: Guitars Anna Fabbri: Organ/Vox Silvio Dalla Valle: Drums
