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Rhino Premiere “Agony & Madness” Lyric Video; New Album Human Farm Due in 2024

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Reviews on November 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Rhino (Photo by GIUSEPPE PICCIOTTO)

Sicilian heavy psychedelic rockers Rhino will release their second album, Human Farm, early in 2024 through Argonauta Records. The opening track, “Agony and Madness,” premieres in a lyric video below. If you want to jump over the next paragraph or two and get there immediately, I ain’t holding it against you.

“Agony and Madness” starts the eight-song/47-minute Human Farm with a languid groove and attention to atmospheric detail. Subsequent cuts “Big Cloud Again” and “Fast Radio Burst” offer Fu Manchu-type fuzz rock, while the title-track is more purely Kyuss desert idolatry after the careening “Gentle Sound of the Knife,” but the guest-vocal-inclusive “Magic Water” has prog-stoner edge by its finish, “Padrock” benefits from the grittier vocal inherited from the track before, and “Planet of Dust” unfurls the rolling nod to cap it off. For the converted, it’ll be an easy record to get on board with; solid in its construction, energetic in performance, varied but not inconsistent in tone and mood. “Agony and Madness” doesn’t quite represent the entire scope of the release, but it’s a standout for sure, and the band put no less of themselves into any of the other atmospheres they explore throughout.

Some words from the band and the album announcement follow video premiering here. Please enjoy:

Rhino, “Agony & Madness” lyric video premiere

Rhino on “Agony and Madness”:

We are proud to announce Agony & Madness, the first excerpt from our upcoming album Human Farm, due in early 2024 through Argonauta Records. We are going to take you to a ride through the desert like no other: an oneiric trip in the company of Agony and Madness, driving at breakneck speed to nowhere. Like jackals on a carcass we wait for their arrival. Everyone is looking for their moment of agony and madness. The dawn on the horizon brings the hope to reduce the pain for our mistakes and make us sane again, letting us find our way home. The ride continues, speed does not diminish and Agony and Madness are still with us.

We really want to thank Argonauta Records for welcoming us again and a special thank goes also to Saverio Autellitano, who made this lyric videos. We are eager to share with you all the rest of Human Farm: it’s gonna be an unforgettable ride.

Rhino is a heavy stoner rock band rising from the sulphuric city of Catania, on the slopes of the Etna volcano, where the five members play a mix of stoner/desert rock from the ’90s and 2000 blended with the deep psychedelia of the ’70, resolving in an attitude built around a riff-driven composition, a megalithic wall of fuzz and tons of watts.

Rhino was born in 2012 by an idea of the bassist Frank The Door and the guitarist Red Frank, briefly joined afterward by the drummer Lord J. Frank. Following the guitarist Francesco Cucinotta opting out of the band, the lineup was completed by Frank the Doc on vocal duties and Frank Real Tube on guitar. The lineup stood the same since then. Since their beginning, Rhino stand out for their extensive live activities through Italy, sharing the stage with such bands as Red Fang, El Perro and many relevant Italian acts.

The band debuts in 2013 with their self-titled EP, followed by their first full lenght The Law of Purity (featuring I See the Monsters videoclip), released on 2017 through Argonauta Records. Renewing the collaboration with Argonauta Records, Rhino’s second full length Human Farm will be release on early 2024, showcasing the most mature work of the band, who confirms to be true to riff worshipping and atmospheric psychedelia, still crossing the genre defining boundaries in an album that stands as unique in its segment.

Rhino is:
Red Frank: Guitar
Frank Real Tube: Guitar
Frank The Door.: Bass
Lord J. Frank : Drums
Frank The Doc: Vocals

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Quarterly Review: Grails, Expo Seventy, Coltsblood, Rhino, Cruthu, Spacetrucker, Black Habit, Stone Angels, The Black Willows, Lamagaia

Posted in Reviews on March 31st, 2017 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-Charles-Meryon-Labside-Notre-Dame-1854

Arrival. Welcome to the final day of The Obelisk’s Spring 2017 Quarterly Review. After today, I clean off my desktop and start over with a mind toward the next round, which in my head I’ve already scheduled for late June. You know, at the end of the next quarter. I do try to make these things make sense on some level. Anyway, before we get to the last 10 albums, let me please reiterate my thanks to you for reading and say once again that I hope you’ve found something this week that really speaks to you, as I know I have and continue to today. We finish the Quarterly Review out strong to be sure, so even if you’re thinking you’re done and you’ve had enough, you might be surprised by the time you’re through the below.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Grails, Chalice Hymnal

grails chalice hymnal

Even if one counts the 2013 collection culled from GrailsBlack Tar Prophecies ongoing series of short releases that showed up via Temporary Residence, it’s been a long while since their last proper outing. Deep Politics (review here) was issued in 2011, but it seems the intervening time and members’ participation in other projects – among them Om and Holy Sons in the case of Emil Amos – disappear for Grails on Chalice Hymnal, which speaks directly to its predecessor in sequel pieces like “Deeper Politics,” “Deep Snow II” and “Thorns II,” taking the prog-via-TangerineDream cinematics of Deep Politics to vibrant and continually experimental places on the surprisingly vocalized “Empty Chamber,” the soundscaping “Rebecca” and the imaginative, evocative jazz homage “After the Funeral,” the album’s 10-minute closer. Hearing the John Carpenter keyboard line underpinning “Pelham,” I’m not sure I’d call Chalice Hymnal limitless in its aesthetic – Grails have definitive intentions here, as they always have – but they continue to reside in a space of their own making, and one that has yet to stop expanding its reach.

Grails on Thee Facebooks

Grails at Temporary Residence Ltd.

 

Expo Seventy, America Here and Now Sessions

expo seventy america here and now sessions

Yes. Yes. This. With extended two tracks – “First Movement” (22:17) and “Second Movement” (27:04) – unfolding one massive longform immersion that drones pastoral, delves into hypnotic bliss and fills the soul in that way that only raw exploration can, the America Here and Now Sessions from Kansas City (by way of the moon) outfit Expo Seventy is an utter joy to experience. Purposeful and patient in its execution, graceful in the instrumental chemistry – even with a second drummer sitting in amid the core trio led by guitarist Justin Wright – the album well fits the deep matte tones and nostalgic feel of its accompanying artwork, and is fluid in its movement from drone to push especially on “Second Movement,” which sandwiches a resonant cacophony around soundscapes that spread as far as the mind of the listener is willing to let them. Whether you want to sit and parse the execution over every its every subtle motion and waveform or put it on and go into full-brain-shutdown, America Here and Now Sessions delivers. Flat out. It delivers.

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Essence Music website

 

Coltsblood, Ascending into Shimmering Darkness

coltsblood ascending into shimmering darkness

After surviving the acquisition of Candlelight Records by Spinefarm, UK doom extremists Coltsblood return with their second album, Ascending into Shimmering Darkness, and follow-up 2014’s Into the Unfathomable Abyss (review here) with 54 minutes of concrete-thick atmospheric bleakness spread across five tracks. The headfuckery isn’t quite as unremitting as it was on the debut – a blend of airy and thick guitar in the intro of the opening title-cut (also the longest inclusion; immediate points) reminds of Pallbearer – but the three-piece thrive in this more-cohesive-overall context, and their lumbering miseries remain dark and triumphant in kind. A closing duo of “Ever Decreasing Circles” and “The Final Winter” also both top 12 and 13 minutes, respectively, but the shorter second track “Mortal Wound” brings blackened tendencies to the fore and centerpiece “The Legend of Abhartach” effectively leads the way from one side to the other. Still, the most complete victory here for bassist/vocalist John McNulty, guitarist Jemma McNulty and drummer Jay Plested might be “The Final Winter,” which melds its grueling, excruciatingly slow crash to overarching keyboard drama and becomes a work of cinematic depth as well as skull-crushing wretchedness. Such ambient growth fascinates and shows marked progression from their first offering, and even if the primary impression remains one from which no light escapes, don’t be fooled: Coltsblood are growing and are all the more dangerous for that.

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Candlelight Records website

 

Rhino, The Law of Purity

rhino the law of purity

Once they get past the aptly-titled minute-long “Intro,” Rhino keep their foot heavy on the gas for the vast majority of The Law of Purity, their Argonauta Records debut album. The 10 included tracks veer into and out of pure desert rock loyalism – “Eat My Dust” comes across as particularly post-Kyuss, perhaps melded with some of the burl of C.O.C.’s “Shake Like You” – and the throttle of “Nuclear Space,” “Nine Months,” “A. & B. Brown” and “Cock of Dog” later on come to define the impression of straightforward push that puts the riffs forward even more than earlier inclusions like the post-“Intro” title-track or the more mid-paced “Bursting Out,” which hints at psychedelia without really ever fully diving into it. Capping with the roll of “I See the Monsters,” The Law of Purity reminds at times of earlier Astrosoniq – particularly in the vocals – but finds the Sicilian five-piece crafting solid heavy rock tunes that seem more concerned with having a couple beers and a good time than changing the world or remaking the genre. Nothing wrong with that.

Rhino on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records website

 

Cruthu, The Angle of Eternity

cruthu the angle of eternity

As it happens, I wrote the bio and release announcement for Cruthu’s debut album, The Angle of Eternity (posted here), and I count guitarist “Postman Dan” McCormick as a personal friend, so if you’re looking for impartiality as regards the self-released six-tracker, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for primo trad doom and classic metal vibes, the Michigan-based four-piece offer touches of progressive flourish amid the shuffle of opener “Bog of Kildare,” a grueling post-“Crystal Ball” nod in “From the Sea” and a bit of ‘70s proto-metallurgy in the closing title-track, which finds vocalist Ryan Evans at his most commanding while McCormick, bassist Erik Hemingsen (Scott Lehman appears as well) and drummer Matt Fry hold together the fluid and patient groove of weighted downer metal. The sense of Cruthu as an outfit schooled in the style is palpable through the creep of “Lady in the Lake” and the post-Trouble chug of “Séance,” but they’re beginning to cast their own identity from their influences – even the penultimate interlude “Separated from the Herd” is part of it – and the dividends of that process are immediate in these tracks.

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Cruthu on Bandcamp

 

Spacetrucker, Launch Sequence

spacetrucker launch sequence

From the Kozik-style artwork of their cover to the blown-out vocals on opener “New Pubes” of guitarist Matt Owen, St. Louis three-piece Spacetrucker – how was there not already a band with this name? – make no bones about their intentions on their late-2016, 26-minute Launch Sequence seven-track EP. Owen, bassist Patrick Mulvaney and drummer Del Toro push into a realm of noise-infused stoner grunge loyal to the ‘90s execution of “Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop” in the stops of the instrumental “Giza” even as they thicken and dirty up their tonality beyond what Kyuss laid forth. The cowbell-inclusive “Science of Us” rests easily on Mulvaney’s tone and nods toward burl without going over the top, and cuts like “Old Flower,” the penultimate roller “Trenchfoot” and the closing post-Nirvana punker blast of “Ain’t Gonna be Me” reimagine a past in which the language of heavy rock was there to explain where grunge was coming from all along. Not looking to reinvent stylistic parameters in their image at this point, Spacetrucker is nonetheless the kind of band one might’ve run into at SXSW a decade and a half ago and been made a fan for life. As it stands, the charm is not at all lost.

Spacetrucker on Thee Facebooks

Spacetrucker on Bandcamp

 

Black Habit, Black Habit

black habit self titled

Clocking in at half an hour, the self-titled debut release from viola-infused Arizona two-piece Black Habit could probably qualify as an EP or an LP. I’m inclined to consider it the latter considering the depths vocalist/guitarist/bassist Trey Edwin and violist/drummer Emily Jean plunge in the five included tracks, starting with the longest of the bunch (immediate points) in the slow-moving “Escape into Infinity” before shifting the tempo upward for “Suffer and Succumb” and digging into deep-toned sludge marked out by consistently harsh vocals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Black Habit became more melodic or at least moved into cleaner shots over time, as the doomly centerpiece “South Beach” and more fuzz-rocking “Travel Across the Ocean” seem to want to head in that direction, but it’s hard to argue with the echoing rasp that accompanies the rumble and hairy tones of finale “Lust in the Dust,” as Black Habit’s Black Habit rounds out with an especially righteous nod. An intriguing, disaffected, and raw but potential-loaded opening salvo from a two-piece discovering where their sound might take them.

Black Habit on Thee Facebooks

Black Habit on Bandcamp

 

Stone Angels, Patterns in the Ashes

stone angels patterns in the ashes

Massive. Patterns in the Ashes is a malevolent, tectonic three-song EP following up on New Zealand trio Stone Angels’ 2011 debut, Within the Witch, as well as a few shorter live/demo offerings between, and it’s an absolute beast. Launching with the seven-minute instrumental “White Light, White Noise II” – indeed the sequel to a cut from the first album – it conjures a vicious nod and bleeds one song into the next to let “Signed in Blood” further unfold the grim atmospherics underscoring and enriching all that tonal heft. Sludge is the core style, but the Christchurch three-piece’s broader intentions come through with due volume on the grueling “Signed in Blood” and when “For the Glory of None” kicks in after its sample intro, the blasts and growls that it brings push the release to new levels of extremity entirely. As a bonus, the digital edition includes all three tracks put together as one longer, 21-minute piece, so the consuming flow between them can be experienced without any interruption, as it was seemingly meant to be.

Stone Angels on Thee Facebooks

Stone Angels on Bandcamp

 

Black Willows, Samsara

the black willows samsara

If Switzerland-based resonance rockers Black Willows had only released the final two tracks, “Jewel in the Lotus” and “Morning Star,” of their late-2016 second full-length, Samsara, one would still have to call it a complete album – and not just because those songs run 15 and 25 minutes long, respectively. Throughout those extended pieces and the four shorter cuts that appear before them, a palpable meditative sensibility emerges, and Black Willows follow-up the promise of 2013’s Haze (review here) by casting an even more immersive, deeper-toned vibe in the post-Om nod of “Sin” (8:08) and the more percussive complement, “Rise” (9:28), keeping a ritualized feel prevailing but not defining. From the lead-in title-track and the spacious psych trip-out of “Mountain” that gives way to the aforementioned extended closing duo, Black Willows find their key purpose in encompassing tonality and languid grooving. Nothing is overdone, nothing loses its patience, and when they get to the linear trajectory of “Morning Star,” the sense is they’re pushing as far out as far out will go. It’s a joy to follow them on that path.

Black Willows on Thee Facebooks

Black Willows on Bandcamp

 

Lamagaia, Lamagaia

lamagaia lamagaia

Anytime you’re at all ready to quit your job and explore the recesses of your mind via the ingestion of psychedelics, rituals and meditation, Sweden’s Lamagaia would seem to stand prepared to accompany. The Gothenburg four-piece offer two extended tracks of encouragement in that direction on their self-titled 12” (released through Cardinal Fuzz and Sunrise Ocean Bender), and both “Aurora” and “Paronama Vju” carry a heady spirit of kosmiche improvisation and classically progressive willfulness. They go, go, go. Far, far, far. Vocals echo out obscure but definitely there in post-The Heads fashion, but there’s Hawkwindian thrust in the fuzzed bass and drums driving the rhythm behind the howling guitar in “Aurora,” and that only sets up the peaceful stretch that the drones and expansive spaciousness of “Paronama Vju” finds across its 18:55 as all the more of an arrival. Immersive, hypnotic, all that stuff that means gloriously psychedelic, Lamagaia’s Lamagaia offers instrumental chemistry and range for anyone willing to follow along its resonant and ultra-flowing path. Count me in. I never liked working anyway.

Lamagaia website

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

 

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Rhino Post “Grey” Video; New Album The Law of Purity out Now

Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 14th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

rhino

Yesterday marked the official release date of the first Rhino album, The Law of Purity. Issued via Argonauta Records, it finds the Italian five-piece — who are not to be confused with the Spanish sludge-crushers who operated for a time under the same name before switching to Horn of the Rhino and ultimately disbanding — marching head-on into the sandy sounds of desert rock accompanied by just a bit of grunge’s thicker dirt-cake.

Listening to “Grey,” for which the band took to their rehearsal space to craft the video you can see below, one hears the still-laid-back push of Kyuss and/or Unida and undertones of more aggressive fare. Following up their 2013 self-titled EP, it’s from this foundation that Rhino seem to be staking their sonic claim.

Fair enough. They had some lineup shifts after the EP came out, as noted below, so The Law of Purity — let’s just assume they’re talking about beer — is a debut in more than one respect, but there’s nothing in what I’ve heard of it might be called flailing. With a fervent rhythmic drive and straightforward port of their influences, they set themselves on a path toward future growth and belt out a couple kickass chorus in the meantime. Nothing wrong with that from where I sit.

And true to the abiding lack of frills, the video for “Grey” is pretty straightforward as well. It’s the band in what seems to be their jam room playing through the song. There’s some other footage spliced in, and various parts are run through effects one way or another — watery here, made to look like a security camera there — but the star of the thing is the song itself, which is probably how it should be for something like this, where, you know, the song stands up.

More background follows the clip below, courtesy of Argonauta.

Please enjoy:

Rhino, “Grey” official video

The official music video for RHINO’s song “Grey”, taken from the studio album “The Law Of Purity” out on February 13th 2017 via Argonauta Records.

Rhino is a combo from Catania, that mixes elements of 70s and 80s hard rock, filtered by a common fascination for 90s desert stoner rock and the sulfurous influence of the Etna volcano.

The band was formed in 2012 by bassist Frank ‘The Door’ and Guitarist ‘Red Frank’. They were immediately joined by the drummer ‘Lord J. Frank’. After a couple of lineup changes, and the departure of guitarist ‘Frank Sinutre’ at the beginning of 2015, the band found its balance with the inclusion of two new members: singer Frank ‘The Doc’ and guitarist Frank ‘Real Tube’.

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Heaven and Hell: Knowing the Devil

Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2009 by JJ Koczan

It's like Pan's Labyrinth meets Legend! Bad ass!Let’s get this out of the way first: anyone who goes into this record expecting the team of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio to come out with a new Heaven and Hell or Mob Rules is out Objects in image may not be to proper scale. (Photo by Chapman Baehler)of their minds. 1980 was 29 years ago. It’s like asking Al Pacino to be Michael Corleone from the first Godfather movie again, or doing a sequel to Dr. Strangelove. The first two albums Black Sabbath released with Dio on vocals captured a special moment in time, one that couldn’t even be revisited on 1992’s reunion album, Dehumanizer. To think they’d pull it off 17 years after that is just ridiculous. They’re simply not those people anymore.

To their credit, they know it, and rather than try to recreate something from their past as Black Sabbath, the band Heaven and Hell are moving forward. The Devil You Know (Rhino) meets every reasonable expectation that could possibly be placed on it. It’s never going to be as influential or top albums that have already had 30 years of deifying, but it sounds modern, heavy and like the four legendary players in the band are enjoying making music together. We all know Iommi‘s been itching to do another Sabbath record for years. This is his opportunity, and he makes the most of it.

The band has hinted that The Devil You Know has the most in common with Dehumanizer, and to a certain extent, it’s true, but thankfully, the early ’90s production that now makes that album sound so dated where its two Dio-fronted predecessors are timeless is nowhere to be found. This is a modern album with classic players, and though that can be an awkward fit, Dio, Iommi, Butler and even Appice pull it off sounding fresh and not overly overproduced.

After the jump is the track-by-track breakdown…

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Punch for Punch with Rhino

Posted in Reviews on March 13th, 2009 by JJ Koczan

rhino-dead_throne_monarch1Reading about Spanish trio Rhino before I ever heard them, their sound was described, more or less, as? “thrash-meets-doom.” I sat for a second and speculated, “So it sounds like High on Fire.”

It’s true, parts of Dead Throne MonarchRhino‘s second album in as many years, released in the US via Arctic Music Group — show a resemblance to or influence from the increasingly seminal San Francisco speedlords, but there’s more to their sound than mere Pikeries. Guitarist/vocalist/main songwriter Javier G?lvez has been in sundry thrash and death metal bands for two decades, and he certainly brings that sense of brutality and urgency –if not always the speed — to this project.

The brutal groove that pervades throughout could be measured as a more diverse take on Birds of Prey‘s visceral attack, and though Rhino do change things up with shades of raw doom and sludge, grunge and even acoustics, the jump from one to the other is rarely so outlandish as to interrupt the solid head-nod/bang the previous part spawned. That is, where every time Soilent Green locks in a decent groove they only keep it for two measures before going onto the next thing, Rhino isn’t afraid to ride it out for a while. Chalk it up to the differences between doom and grind.

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