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: Jason Hartley of Black Acid Prophecy & Jason Hartley Art

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

To me, what I do, is a sort of therapy or a type of escape. For both my artwork and music. When drawing or playing, I’m just somewhere else.

For the artwork, I can’t recall ever not doing it. Some of my earliest memories are of me tracing my Mother’s drawings of Disney characters from her high-school sketch pad and receiving art supplies for birthdays and Christmas. But I never really took it too seriously until I was around 19. I got a job as a “desk guy” at a tattoo shop. The owner of the shop was a portrait guy. One day I decided to give it a go(on paper, not skin). My first attempt was Christopher Lee as Dracula. And surprisingly it came out great. So I just kept at it. After a few years of pencil work, I switched to Sharpies. Dabbled with different sorts of brush pens and other “drawing pens”. A few years back I got an iPad and had a whole new world of drawing and creating open up for me. After some pestering, I was finally convinced by friends and family to start up an art page. And that has given the opportunity to do some really fun and cool artwork for a few bands that I really dig.

As for the music, I never had any instruments when I was a kid. But I would mess around with friends’ keyboards from time to time. Maybe one of my Dad’s friends would have an acoustic laying around that they would let me pluck away at. But I could never really play anything. When I was around 16-17, a buddy mentioned something about some kids he knew who were in a band that had just lost their singer. Without any experience, I told him I could do it. I just wanted to be in a band. That lasted a little while. We weren’t great, but I was having a blast. After that fell apart, I met a guy who could kinda-sorta play guitar. I would play an old Yamaha drum machine through house speakers while he played through a tiny Gorilla amp. One day he tells me that someone he knows mentioned that their dad has a cheap kit he was selling for $125. And he would take payments. Figured it couldn’t hurt so I bought it. We jammed together for years and years. Learning off of each other. Just the two of us. In 2005 I went in to the Tattoo shop I used to work at to visit the guys while in town(I had moved away), I spotted someone in the waiting area wearing a High on Fire shirt. Struck up a conversation and discover she played guitar and was looking for a band. We joined up with her and that was the beginning of being in a real band and playing shows.

Describe your first musical memory.

99 percent of my early music memories involve my Dad. He always had music on. Always. Classic rock, of course. He was always saying “Good tune! Listen to this one!” And he would crank it up. I remember specifically Pink Floyd’s “Have A Cigar”. That part at the end where it phases and gets all distant like it’s coming through an old telephone. I thought something happened to his speakers. That’s when he told me about studio tricks and production. He had a cousin who was also his best friend, who was an amazing musician. Played a lot. Recorded a lot. So my Dad knew a lot about the processes but could never actually play anything. My Mother also listened to a lot of music. But it was more R&B, adult contemporary stuff like Whitney Houston and Lionel Ritchie. And I loved all of that music as well. I absorbed it all. But her and I never connected through tunes like I did with the Old Man. He still rocks out and comes to my gigs. He actually met Wino when we played with The Obsessed recently. He was stoked!

Describe your best musical memory to date.

The first time me and my old jamming buddy wrote a full song. When we nailed all the changes perfectly. I didn’t play anything too slow or too fast. We sat there listening to the tape with smiles on our faces. It felt so great.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Like a lot of folks, I’ve always believed that family is family. No matter what. But as I get older, I pick up on more things about family members that I never noticed growing up. And on top of that, I’ve got social media showing me the sides of family members that I never knew existed. Some of them are just toxic, narcissistic shitty people. Not something anyone needs in their life. So I’ve tossed that “no matter what” belief out the window.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression leads wherever you let it lead to. Nothing in art should be forced. Progression should be a natural thing. But not a necessary thing. Sometimes what you have going on is perfect the way it is. If it changes and progresses, then so be it. Let it. Clearly that’s what it’s supposed to do. When you start intentionally holding back or trying too hard to change and progress, then you lose something special.

How do you define success?

Obviously, recognition and some monetary gain always helps. But ultimately, for me, it’s being proud of what I put out there. Standing behind your work. Hell, I still listen to a few tunes I recorded with an old band. I love them. I think I did a great job. But almost no one else even knows we existed. It was a successful run at writing a few good tunes that I’m still enjoying almost 20 years later.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

My Grandmother a few days before she moved on. She hadn’t been doing well for some time. In hospice. Most of the family had been visiting her regularly. But I had a vision of her in my head that I wanted to keep. I didn’t want to see my sick, dying grandmother. But she asked for me. I had no choice but to go. I sat outside of her room for a while. Just listening to other people in there with her. If this was something I was gonna do, I didn’t want to do it with an audience. Room cleared out and I went it. My Grandmother always had her hair permed. She had a round face with a great smile. Big, wide eyes. What I saw laying in that bed what not my grandmother. This is nothing I would ever joke about and I mean this in the most terrifying way. She looked like the Crypt Keeper. Gaunt. Sunken eyes. Extremely thin, stringy white hair. I can only see the other version of her if I look at a picture. I can no longer remember it in my head.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I’d like to write and record a truly full-length album. For one reason or another, every project I’ve been a part of has only done EP’s, demos or a single here and there.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Connection.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Just life, man. Growing up wasn’t fun. After all these years, I’m finally in a place where I’m comfortable. I’m happy. Finally able to do things that I would’ve never done a few years back. Like this questionnaire. I don’t put myself out there. It’s taken a lot of encouragement from my wife and a few folks who truly care to convince me to create my art page. I didn’t want to at all. Attention has always been a strange feeling for me. Especially positive attention. I saw your post and thought it seemed like a good chance to do something a bit uncomfortable and at the same time, positive and therapeutic.

http://www.facebook.com/officialblackacidprophecy
http://instagram.com/blackacidprophecy
https://blackacidprophecy.bandcamp.com/

https://facebook.com/jasonahartleyart
https://www.instagram.com/jasonhartleyart/

Black Acid Prophecy, Void Walker (2022)

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: Eryka Fir from Coma Hole

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I make music as a cathartic and meditative process. What I do now musically compared to what I was even doing three years ago is vastly different and it really is a product of an impulsive decision to switch instruments 10 years into playing guitar.

Describe your first musical memory.

One of my first musical memories that left an impact on me was when I picked up a guitar at 11 years old. I had a younger cousin with one of those crappy Walmart kid’s guitars and I brought it outside to play it on the swing set my aunt and uncle had. My uncle asked me if I liked playing it and if I wanted one for Christmas and I said yes.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

It was a show we played last May. 33 Golden Street is the place we played our first gig in 2019 and then COVID happened and they didn’t have gigs for over a year. We played a bill with our friend’s band Marvelous Liars and it was 33’s first gig since they closed back in 2019. The bar was absolutely flooded; two band bill, each band having an hour long set, it was incredible. I think everyone was itching to finally get back out again and see live music and the energy was crazy. It was the funnest show I’ve ever played, and definitely the most money we’ve ever made.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Growing up I felt I had a lot of doubt surrounding me regarding the musical path I wanted to pursue. People think unless you achieve celebrity status being an artist or musician is not a realistic career path and the lack of support I received from some of my teachers and some of the people very close to me only compounded with the insecurity I had about my own abilities. I’ve always known I’ve wanted to play and create music and that feeling has never changed, and I’m happy I didn’t allow others’ opinions to sway me into abandoning the things I’m truly passionate about.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Investing in yourself continually can only breed more success. I think it can open yourself up to developing more connections with people and the more people you make friends with the more insight you can gain about your artistry and life in general that you can apply to your craft.

How do you define success?

I’ve always felt the definition of success is subjective. Something you may consider successful for yourself may not be what someone considers success for themselves. Everyone has different passions and skill sets, and if you invest in yourself and find fulfillment in the goals you achieve then I consider that successful. It’s whatever makes you happy.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

The movie Tusk.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

Recently I decided to do more research into block printing. I haven’t block printed since middle school art class and I have had so many ideas for band merch and prints and it makes me feel like my artistic flame has been reignited by a new form of art after a long period of creative burnout.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I think there’s two functions; one is it functions as a vessel to channel ideas and emotions through as a cathartic process for yourself. The other part is how others receive it and how it helps them process their emotions. Everyone enjoys art for a different reason, but as someone who listens to and also creates music I can think of numerous times where certain albums or songs spoke to me at a particular time in my life. Whether it’s associated with positive times or negative ones, they’ve left their imprint on me and either aided me through something difficult or inspired me to create music myself. It’s a reciprocal relationship and I like to think maybe the music I make for myself that helps me through my emotions can do the same for others at some point. Maybe something in the music I make will speak to someone the way other people’s music has spoken to me.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

I cannot wait to go up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire this summer. I love camping and being out in nature, and I’m stoked to cook over an open fire, drink tequila, and go off kayaking or hiking.

www.facebook.com/comahole
www.instagram.com/coma_hole
www.comahole.bandcamp.com

Coma Hole, “Old Climb”

Welcome to Friday. I’m glad to have come this far in the Quarterly Review, and even knowing that there are two days left to go — next Monday and Tuesday, bringing us to a total of 70 for the entire thing — I feel some measure of accomplishment at doing this full week, 10 reviews a day, for the total of 50 we’ll hit after this batch. It has mostly been smooth sailing as regards the writing. It’s the rest of existence that seems intent to derail.

But these are stories for another time. For now, there’s 10 more records to dive into, so you’ll pardon me if I do precisely that.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Carcass, Torn Arteries

The original progenitors of goregrind return in gleeful fashion with their first full-length since 2013’s Surgical Steel. They’ve toured steadily over the intervening years, and Torn Arteries would seem to arrive timed to a return to the road, though it also follows the 2020 EP, Despicable, so make of that what you will. One way or the other, the 10-track/50-minute offering is at very least everything one could reasonably ask a Carcass record to be in 2021. That’s the least you can say of it. Point of fact, it’s probably much more. Driven by Bill Steer‘s riffs and solos — which would be worth the price of admission alone — as well as the inimitable rasp of bassist Jeff Walker, Carcass sound likewise vital and brutal, delighting in the force of “Kelly’s Meat Emporium” and the unmitigated thrash of “The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing,” while scalpel-slicing their way through “Eleanor Rigor Mortis” and the 10-minute “Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment Limited,” which, yes, starts out with acoustic guitar. Because of course it does. After serving as pioneers of extreme metal, Carcass need to prove nothing, but they do anyway. And bonus! Per Wiberg shows up for a guest spot.

Carcass on Facebook

Nuclear Blast Records website

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LLNN, Unmaker

Some concerned citizen needs to file assault charges against Copenhagen crushers LLNN for the sheer violence wrought on their third full-length, Unmaker. Comprised of 10 songs all with single-word titles, the Pelagic Records release uses synth and tonal ultra-heft of guitar and bass to retell Blade Runner but starring Godzilla across 39 minutes. Okay so maybe that’s not what the lyrics are about, but you’d never know it from the harsh screams that pervade most of the outing — guitarist Christian Bonnesen has a rare ability to make extreme vocals sound emotional; his performance here puts the record on another level — which renders words largely indecipherable. Still, it is their combination of whiplash-headbang-inducing, bludgeoning-like-machines-hitting-each-other, air-moving weight and keyboard-driven explorations evocative enough that LLNN are releasing them on their own as a companion-piece that makes Unmaker the complete, enveloping work it is.

LLNN on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Smiling, Devour

I’m not sure it’s fair to call something that was apparently recorded five years ago forward thinking, but Smiling‘s melding of post-punk urgency, violin flourish, the odd bit of riot-style aggression, psychedelia and poppy melodic quirk in varying degrees and at various points throughout the debut album, Devour, is that anyway. Fronted by guitarist/songwriter Annie Shaw, Smiling makes a cut like even the two-minute “Other Lives” feel dynamic in its build toward a swelling-rumble finish, immediately shifting into the dreamier psych-buzz of “Forgetful Sam” and the melancholy-in-the-sunshine “Do What You Want.” Yeah, it goes like that. It also goes like the rager title-track though, so watch out. The earlier “Lighthouse” swings like Dandy Warhols, but the closing trilogy of “FPS,” “Take Your Time” and “Duvall Gardens” — also the three longest songs included — showcase a more experimentalist side, adding context and depth to the proceedings. So yeah, forward thinking. Time is all made up anyway.

Smiling website

Rebel Waves Records webstore

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Sail, Flood

The track itself, “Flood,” runs all of three minutes and 18 seconds, and I do mean it runs. The Taunton, UK, four-piece of guitarist/vocalists Charlie Dowzell and Tim Kazer, bassist/harsh-vocalist Kynan Scott and drummer Tom Coles offer it as a standalone piece and the track earns that level of respect with its controlled careening, the shouted verses giving way to a memorable clean-sung chorus with zero sense of trickery or pretense in its intention. That is to say, “Flood” wants to get stuck in your head and it will probably do precisely that. Also included in the two-songer digital outing — that’s Flood, the release, as opposed to “Flood,” the song — is “Flood (Young Bros Remix),” which extends the piece to 4:43 and reimagines it as more sinister, semi-industrial fare, but even in doing so and doing it well, it can’t quite get away from the rhythm of that hook. Some things are just inescapable.

Sail on Facebook

Sail on Bandcamp

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Holy Death Trio, Introducing…

Austin’s Holy Death Trio have the distinction of being the first band signed as part of the collaboration between Ripple Music and Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (bassist for Ozzy Osbourne, etc.), and Introducing…, the three-piece’s debut, is enough of a party to answer any questions why. Gritty, Motörheadular riffs permeate from post-intro leadoff “White Betty” — also some Ram Jam there, I guess — underscored by Sabbathian semi-doomers like “Black Wave” and the near-grim psychedelia of closer “Witch Doctor” while totaling an ultra-manageable 33 minutes primed toward audience engagement in a “wow I bet this is a lot of fun live” kind of way. It would not seem to be a coincidence that the centerpiece of the tracklist is called “Get Down,” as the bulk of what surrounds seems to be a call to do precisely that, and if the bluesy shuffle of that track doesn’t get the job done, something else is almost bound to.

Holy Death Trio on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Fuzz Sagrado, Fuzz Sagrado

Having put Samsara Blues Experiment to rest following the release earlier this year of the swansong End of Forever (review here), relocated-to-Brazil guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters (interview here) debuts the instrumental solo-project Fuzz Sagrado with a three-song self-titled EP, handling all instruments himself including drum programming. “Duck Dharma,” “Two Face” and “Pato’s Blues” take on a style not entirely separate from his former outfit, but feel stripped down in more than just the lack of singing, bringing together a more concise vision of heavy psychedelic rock, further distinguished by the use of Mellotron, Minimoog and Hammond alongside the guitar, bass and drum sounds, complementing the boogie in “Pato’s Blues” even as it surges into its final minute. Where Peters will ultimately take the project remains to be seen, but he’s got his own label to put it out and reportedly a glut of material to work with, so right on.

Fuzz Sagrado on Facebook

Electric Magic Records on Bandcamp

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Wolves in Haze, Chaos Reigns

It’s 10PM, do you know where your head is? Wolves in Haze might. The Gothenburg-based three-piece of vocalist/guitarist Manne Olander, guitarist Olle Hansson and drummer/bassist/co-producer Kalle Lilja set about removing that very thing with their second record, Chaos Reigns, working at Welfare Sounds with Lilja and Per Stålberg at the helm in a seeming homage to Sunlight Studios as reinvented in a heavy rock context. Still, “In Fire” and “The Night Stalker” are plainly sinister in their riffs — the latter turning to a chorus and back into a gallop in a way that reminds pointedly of At the Gates, never mind the vocals that follow — and “Into the Grave” is as much bite as bark. They’re not without letup, as “Mr. Destroyer” explores moodier atmospherics, but even the lumbering finish of the title-track that ends the album is violent in intent. They call it Chaos Reigns, but they know exactly what the fuck they’re doing.

Wolves in Haze on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Tvåtakt Records store

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Shi, Basement Wizard

They work a bit of NWOBHM guitar harmony into the solos on “Rehash” and “At Wit’s End,” and the centerpiece “Interlude” is a willful play toward strum-and-whistle Morricone-ism, but for the most part, Louisville’s Shi are hell-bent on destructive sludge, with the rasp of guitarist Bael — joined in the effort by guitarist Jayce, bassist Zach and drummer Tyler — setting a Weedeater-style impression early on “Best Laid Plans” and letting the rest unfold as it will, with “Lawn Care for Adults” and “We’ll Bang, OK?” and the chugging fuckery of the title-track sticking largely to the course the riffs lay out. They make it mean, which is exactly the way it should be made, and even the sub-two-minute “Trough Guzzler” finds its way into a nasty-as-hell mire. Sludge heads will want to take note. Anyone else will probably wonder what smells like rotting.

Shi on Facebook

Shi on Bandcamp

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Churchburn, Genocidal Rite

Oh, that’s just disgusting. Come on now. Be reasonable, Churchburn. This third LP from the Providence, Rhode Island, extremists brings them into alignment with Translation Loss Records and though it’s just five songs — plus the intro “Toll of Annihilation” — and 33 minutes long, that’s plenty of time for guitarist/vocalist Dave Suzuki and company to pull you down a hole of blistering, vitriolic terrors. Where does the death end and the doom begin? Who gives a shit? Suzuki, bassist/vocalist Derek Muniz, guitarist Timmy St. Amour and drummer Ray McCaffrey take a duly mournful respite with “Unmendable Absence,” but after that, the onslaught of “Scarred” and the finale “Sin of Angels” — with Incantation‘s John McEntee sitting in on vocals — is monstrous and stupefyingly heavy. You’ll be too busy picking up teeth to worry about where the lines of one microgenre ends and another begins.

Churchburn on Facebook

Translation Loss Records webstore

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Sonolith, Voidscapes

Have riffs, will plod. Voidscapes, the three-song second EP from Las Vegas’ Sonolith lets the listener know quickly where it’s coming from, speaking a language (without actually speaking, mind you) that tells tales of amplifier and tonal worship, the act of rolling a massive groove like that central to nine-minute opener “Deep Space Leviathan” as much about the trance induced in the band as the nod resultant for the listener. Close your eyes, follow it out. They complement with the shorter “Pyrrhic Victory,” which moves from a subdued and spacey opening line into post-High on Fire chug and gallop, effectively layering solos over the midsection and final payoff, and “Star Worshipers,” which slows down again and howls out its lead to touch on Electric Wizard without being so overt about it. At about three minutes in, Sonolith kick the tempo a bit, but it’s the more languid groove that wins the day, and the concluding sample about traveling the universe could hardly be more appropriate. Asks nothing, delivers 21 minutes of riffs. If I ever complain about that, I’m done.

Sonolith on Facebook

Sonolith on Bandcamp

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There can be no doubt youth was a factor on Pilgrim‘s side when they made their debut with 2012’s Misery Wizard. Their first long-player was released in January of that year through Metal Blade following a just a demo and a 2011 split with fellow New Englanders Ice Dragon, and from the opening strains of “Astaroth” across the album’s willfully cumbersome 55-minute span, it was pure doom traditionalism with the kind of refresh that only a new generation could provide. Pilgrim — then the trio of guitarist/vocalist Jon “The Wizard” Rossi, bassist Eric “Count Elric the Soothsayer” Dietrich and drummer Nick “Krolg, Slayer of Men” Nosach — were kids and they looked like kids, but with Rossi‘s skullet and mournful voice, the band’s downcast image, depressive tonality, slow-rolling tempos and spacious mix, they tapped into the spirit of earliest The Gates of Slumber in their “true doom” sensibility. Misery Wizard was both the altar of worship and the paean itself when it came to doom for doomers by doomers.

So much of what you need to know is in the slowdown at the end of “Astaroth.” At six and a half minutes, the opener is among the shortest tracks on Misery Wizard — only the brazen, galloping penultimate cut, “Adventurer,” is shorter at 4:29 — and it’s a slog already by the time they’re five minutes in, but as the procession continues toward its inevitable conclusion, the trio bring it slower, slower, and slower until finally it crashes out. It’s not that they were the first doom band ever to stick a slowdown at the finish of a given track, but Pilgrim execute that moment with rare grace from one measure to the next, so that it happens gradually, not in jumps, and lets itself go into the fading feedback ahead of Misery Wizard‘s 10-minute title-track as if it’s opening a gate to the record itself. And, of course, it is.

“Misery Wizard” leads even further down into the D&D-pit-of-despair that Pilgrim craft atmospherically — so much fog and lurk and rolling-of-ones to be had — and arrives as the first of three more extended tracks that comprise the meat of the album, along with “Quest” (9:52) and “Masters of the Sky.” By the time it’s done, “Misery Wizard” is righteously torturous, and “Quest” at first continues the thread, but picks up the tempo shortly before the halfway point, feeling like something of a lifeline thrown to the listener making their way through the dense humidity of the record as a whole, and though it doesn’t last but for a few minutes and the song ends with the album’s loudest ring of feedback, that stretch serves its purpose well. I’ll take “Masters of the Sky” as the highlight of the album, Rossi‘s voice reaching desperately upward through the mix in the early going, layered in the second half and more forward, but still morose and placed well in the raw crash that surrounds ahead of another noisy finish.

Given its speedier shift, there’s really nowhere else to stick “Adventurer” but ahead of 12-minute closer “Forsaken Man.” It never gets quite to High on Fire-level brash, but it’s not far off, and in a different context — and a much smoother production — that main riff wouldn’t have been out of place on a record by The Sword. In Pilgrim‘s hands, the groove is fervent but the tailspin is more dangerous, and the cymbal wash and noise that consumes the better part of the last 40 seconds feels earned in a ringing-out kind of fuckall topped with more feedback.

And speaking of feedback — have I mentioned feedback? — the launch of “Forsaken Man” is like slamming headfirst into a wall of it before the band enact their lurchiest of lurches. The culmination of Misery Wizard hits into another level of grueling, cracking itself open after seven minutes to obscure gurgling, chanting or whatever it is before surging back somewhat to its zombified post-Saint Vitus march, which caps of course in suitably miserable fashion and yet more feedback. Pilgrim having established the method and unfurled their aural punishment at will throughout, it’s only fair they should underscore the point in the album’s final seconds. You wouldn’t call it brutal in the death metal sense, but it’s far from friendly.

I was lucky enough to see Pilgrim three times during this era. The first time was at a show in Brooklyn with Windhand and Magic Circle (review here) and the second time was Stoner Hands of Doom XII in Connecticut (review here), where they were slotted among the headliners and indeed pulled one of the weekend’s best crowds as I recall, and the third time was again in Brooklyn (review here). For such sonically downtrodden fare, the excited vibe around their set at the latter venue was palpable. People were into it. The hype was real and justified. They seemed like a band ready to hit the road, and they were, and they did, touring with Windhand, Heavy Temple, Age of Taurus and Spirit Caravan, among others during their time.

A follow-up to Misery Wizard arrived in March 2014’s II: Void Worship (review here), which found Rossi all the more stepped into his role as frontman as the band tightened their songwriting and explored new reaches of melody that they would seem to have discovered on tour. They’d been to Roadburn 2013 (review here) by then and were no longer kids getting their feet under them as a touring band or playing to genre so much as looking to make their mark on it. One recalls their video for “The Paladin” (posted here) as being particularly emblematic of their aesthetic and putting Rossi at the fore.

His death on Oct. 26, 2017, was the end of the band. By then, Pilgrim was him, Dietrich and Brad “Bradoc the Thunderer” Richardson on drums, and though he was only 26 years old, he’d already had significant impact on the doom underground and an influence on how the up and coming generation of riffers interacted with what had come before them. In my experience with him, he was a shy but friendly enough guy. His loss was deeply felt.

And that’s a sad note to end on, but I can’t help think of the potential Pilgrim had for a longer-term progression that never got to play out. Nine years after their debut, who knows what they might’ve accomplished by this time. Maybe nothing else. Maybe they would’ve broken up — their long tour with Spirit Caravan was a big disillusion moment for them, as well as a fiscal drain — or maybe their third album would’ve been their best yet. We’ll never get to know. What’s important to keep in mind with that is that not knowing doesn’t undercut the value or achievement that was either Misery Wizard or the sophomore outing, and that just because the potential didn’t have the chance to be fulfilled doesn’t mean it wasn’t there in the first place.

This was a good band.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

Another week.

This week I got to live one of my true parenting nightmares: poop in the bathtub. I’ve been in charge of The Pecan’s bathtime since before he could sit up. Three and a half years and counting, bathtime has been my purview. He’s always hated the bath, even though he’s got toys galore that live in the tub, bubblebath, the whole nine. He doesn’t want water in his face and I do my best to see that he doesn’t get it.

Because he’s so miserable going in his diaper at this point and yet terrified of the toilet because he’s not already completely mastered using it — or, in fact, using it at all — he holds in his poop. For, like, two days before he can’t anymore. That moment came yesterday while he was taking a bath. He was duly horrified. I had to dig through bubbles to find poop nuggets, staying calm and saying it was okay, it was an accident, accidents happen, and all that. I’d always dreaded poop in the tub. I guess it says something about the mundane horrors of parenting that by the time it actually happened, all that shit wasn’t shit, as it were.

Our next door neighbors have a newborn. You can see the drawn look in their faces. I think the guy’s a cop? I don’t know. We’re wave-to-each-other cordial. Every now and again The Patient Mrs. has a conversation. We went out when they brought the kid home. He was squidgy as newborns are. I like that age well enough. They just need you and sleep intermittently. I’ve been thinking about that time — end of 2017 — a lot as a result. I was pretty much dying. I found a picture of myself the other day from a month before he was born. I look sick and I was. Full on bulimic. What’re you gonna do. There’s a big part of me that misses that. The feeling of control. Shrug. Xanax to shut the ol’ brain up.

The weekends are hard lately, no break. I don’t remember what’s up for Monday but I know the week is full. Hang on. Yeah. Yo No Se video premiere Monday. Tuesday Mourn the Light. Wednesday Melissa. Thursday Wytch and Bottomless. Friday I’m gonna review something. Maybe Heavy Temple or Stöner, depending on my mood. Shrug again.

Alright, I think we’re all caught up. New Gimme show today, 5PM, and I still don’t know if I’m posting this before or after the Jack Harlon thing. I think before, because technically in Australia that post will be for Saturday morning? I don’t know. I’ll think about it while I dick around at Wegmans and look at food I’m not gonna let myself eat. It goes like that sometimes.

Thanks for reading. Great and safe weekend. Hydrate. Watch your head. Do what you need to do to get through the day. Go buy some Obelisk shorts from David at MIBK. He’s a great guy.

FRM.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

 

 

Oh hi there. It’s Quarterly Review time again, and you know what that means. 50 records between now and Friday — and I may or may not extend it through next Monday as well; I think I have enough of a backlog at this point to do so. It’s really just a question of how destroyed I am by writing about 10 different records every day this week. If past is prologue, that’s fairly well destroyed. But I’ve yet to do a Quarterly Review and regret it when it’s over, and like the last one, this roundup of 50 albums is pretty well curated, so it might even be fun to go through. There’s a thought. In any case, as always, I hope you find something you enjoy, and thank you for reading if you do or as much as you do.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Steve Von Till, No Wilderness Deep Enough

Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till seems to be bringing some of the experimentalism that drives his Harvestman project into the context of his solo work with No Wilderness Deep Enough, his fifth LP and first since 2015’s A Life unto Itself (review here). Drones and melodic synth backs the deceptively-titled “The Old Straight Track,” and where Von Till began his solo career 20 years ago with traditional folk guitar, if slower, on these six tracks, he uses that meditative approach as the foundation for an outward-reaching 37-minute run, incorporating ethereal strings among the swirls of “Shadows on the Run” and finishing with the foreboding hum of “Wild Iron.” Opener “Dreams of Trees” establishes the palette’s breadth with synthesized beats alongside piano and maybe-cello, but it’s Von Till‘s voice itself that ties the material together and provides the crucial human presence and intimacy that most distinguishes the offerings under his own name. Accompanied by Von Till‘s first published book of poetry, No Wilderness Deep Enough is a portrait of the unrelenting creative growth of its maker.

Steve Von Till on Thee Facebooks

Neurot Recordings on Bandcamp

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Cyttorak, Simultaneous Invocation of Apocalyptic Harbingers

Take a breath before you hit play only to have it punched right out from your solar plexus by the brutalist deathsludge Cyttorak cleverly call “slowerviolence.” Dominated by low end and growls, screams, and shouts, the lumbering onslaught is the second standalone EP for the three-piece who hail from scenic Pawtucket, Rhode Island (former home of the PawSox), and throughout its six-track run, the unit conjure an unyieldingly punishing tonal morass set to aggressive purpose. That they take their name from the Marvel Universe character who controls X-Men villain Juggernaut should not be taken as coincidence, since their sound indeed seems intended to put its head down and smash through walls and/or anything else that might be in its path in pursuit of its quarry. With Conan-esque lyrical minimalism, the songs nonetheless give clues to their origins — “Royal Shokan Dismemberment” refers to Goro from Mortal Kombat, and finale “Domination Lord of Coldharbour” to Skyrim (which I still regret not playing) — but if you consider comics or video games to be lighter fare, first off, you’re working with an outdated mentality, and second, Cyttorak would like a bit of your time to smother you with volume and ferocity. They have a new split out as well, both on tape.

Cyttorak on Thee Facebooks

Tor Johnson Records website

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Lambda, Heliopolis

Also signified by the Greek letter from which they take their moniker, Czech four-piece Lambda represent a new age of progressive heavy post-rock. Influences from Russian Circles aren’t necessarily surprising to find coursing through the instrumental debut full-length, Heliopolis, but there are shades of Elder as well behind the more driving riffs and underlying swing of “Space Express,” which also featured on the band’s 2015 EP of the same name. The seven-minute “El Sonido Nuevo” did likewise, but older material or newer, the album’s nine-song procession moves toward its culminating title-track through the grace of “Odysea” and the intertwining psychedelic guitars of “Milkyway Phaseshifter” with an overarching atmosphere of the journey to the city of the sun being undertaken. And when they get there, at the closer, there’s an initial sense of peace that gives way to some of the most directly heavy push Heliopolis has to offer. Payoff, then. So be it. Purposeful and somewhat cerebral in its execution, the DIY debut brings depth and space together to immersive effect.

Lambda on Thee Facebooks

Lambda on Bandcamp

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Dee Calhoun, Godless

Following his 2016 debut, Rotgut (review here) and 2018’s Go to the Devil (review here), Godless is the third full-length from former Iron Man and current Spiral Grave frontman Dee Calhoun, and its considerable 63-minute runtime finds him working in multiple directions while keeping his underlying roots in acoustic-based heavy metal. Certainly “To My Boy” — and Rob Calhoun has appeared on his father’s releases before as well — has its basis in familial expression, but its pairing with “Spite Fuck” is somewhat curious. Meanwhile, “Hornswoggled” cleverly samples George W. Bush with a laugh track, and “Here Under Protest,” “The Greater Evil,” “Ebenezer” and “No Justice” seem to take a worldly view as well. Meanwhile again, “Godless,” “The Day Salvation Went Away” and “Prudes, Puritanicals and Puddles of Piss” make their perspective nothing if not plain for the listener, and the album ends with the two-minute kazoo-laced gag track “Here Comes the Bride: A Tale From Backwater.” So perhaps scattershot, but Godless is nonetheless Calhoun‘s most effective outing yet in terms of arrangements and craft, and shows him digging further into the singer-songwriter form than he has up to now, sounding more comfortable and confident in the process.

Dee Calhoun on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records website

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Turtle Skull, Monoliths

Melodic vocal lines weave together and float over alternately weighted and likewise ethereal guitars on Turtle Skull‘s second album, Monoliths. The percussion-inclusive (tambourine, congas, rain stick, etc.) Sydney-based heavy psychedelic outfit create an immersive wash that makes the eight-song/55-minute long-player consuming for the duration, and while there are moments of clarity to be found throughout — the steady snare taps of “Why Do You Ask?” for example — but the vast bulk of the LP is given to the overarching flow, which finds progressive/space-rock footing in the 11-plus minutes of finale “The Clock Strikes Forever” and is irresistibly consuming on the drifting wash of “Rabbit” or the lysergic grunge blowout of “Who Cares What You Think?,” which gives way to the choral drone of “Halcyon” gorgeously en route through the record’s back half. It’s not the highest profile heavy psych release of 2020, but neither is it to be overlooked for the languid stretch of “Leaves” at the outset or the fuzz-drenched roll in the penultimate “Apple of Your Eye.”

Turtle Skull on Thee Facebooks

Art as Catharsis on Bandcamp

Kozmik Artifactz website

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Diuna, Golem

In some ways, the dichotomy of Diuna‘s 2019 sophomore full-length, Golem, is set by its first two tracks, the 24-second intro “Menu” and the seven-minute “Jarmark Cudów” that follows, each longer song throughout is prefaced by an introduction or interlude, varying in degrees of experimentation. That, however, doesn’t cover the outsider vibes the Polish trio bring to bear in those longer songs themselves, be it “Jarmark Cudów” devolving into a post-Life of Agony noise rock roll, or the thrust in “Frank Herbert” cut into starts and stops and shouting madness. Heavy rock, noise, sludge, post-this-or-that, it doesn’t matter by the end of the 12-track/44-minute release, because Diuna establish such firm control over the proceedings and make so clear the challenge to the listener to keep up that it’s only fun to try. It might take a couple listens to sink in, but the more attention one gives Golem, the more one is going to be rewarded in the end, and I don’t just mean in the off-kilter fuckery of closer “Pan Jezus Idzie Do Wojska.”

Diuna on Thee Facebooks

Diuna on Bandcamp

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Tomorrow’s Rain, Hollow

“Ambitious” doesn’t begin to cover it. With eight songs (plus a bonus track) and 11 listed guest musicians, the debut full-length, Hollow, from Tel Aviv-based death-doomers Tomorrow’s Rain seems to be setting its own standard in that regard. And quite a list it is, with the likes of Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride, Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost, Fernando Ribeiro of Moonspell, Mikko Kotamaki of Swallow the Sun, and so on, it is a who’s-who of melodic/gothic death-doom and the album lives up to the occasion in terms of the instrumental drama it presents. Some appear on one track, some on multiple tracks — Ribeiro and Kotamaki both feature on “Misery Rain” — and despite the constant shifts in personnel with only one of the eight tracks completely without an outside contributor, the core six-piece of Tomorrow’s Rain are still able to make an impression of their own that is bolstered and not necessarily overwhelmed by the extravagant company being kept throughout.

Tomorrow’s Rain on Thee Facebooks

AOP Records website

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Mother Eel, Svalbard

Mother Eel‘s take on sludge isn’t so much crushing as it is caustic. They’re plenty heavy, but their punishment isn’t just meted out through tonal weight being brought down on your head. It’s the noise. It’s the blown-out screams. It’s the harshness of the atmosphere in which the entirety of their debut album, Svalbard, resides. Five tracks, 33 minutes, zero forgiveness. One might be tempted to think of songs like “Erection of Pain” as nihilistic fuckall, but that seems incorrect. Nah, they mean it. Fuckall, yeah. But fuckall as ethos. Fuckall manifest. So it goes through “Alpha Woman” and “Listen to the Elderly for They Have Much to Teach,” which ends in a Primitive Man-ish static assault, and the lumbering finish “Not My Shade,” which assures that what began on “Sucking to Gain” half an hour earlier ends on the same anti-note: a disaffected malevolence writ into sheer sonic unkindness. There is little letup, even in the quiet introductions or transitions, so if you’re looking for mercy, don’t bother.

Mother Eel on Thee Facebooks

Mother Eel on Redbubble

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Umbilichaos, Filled by Empty Spaces

The four-song/39-minute atmospheric sludge long-player Filled by Empty Spaces is listed by Brazilian solo outfit Umbilichaos as being the third part of, “the Tetralogy of Loneliness.” If that’s the emotion being expressed in the noise-metal post-Godflesh chug-and-shout of “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 02,” then it is loneliness viscerally presented by founding principal and multi-instrumentalist Anna C. Chaos. The feel throughout the early going of the release is plodding and agonized in kind, but in “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 01” and “Filled by Empty Spaces Pt. 03” there is some element of grim, crusted-over psychedelia happening alongside the outright dirge-ism, though the latter ultimately wins out in the four-minute instrumental capper “Disintegration.” One way or the other, Chaos makes her point through raw tonality and overarching intensity of purpose, the compositions coming across simultaneously unhinged and dangerously under control. There are many kinds of heavy. Filled by Empty Spaces is a whole assortment of them.

Umbilichaos on Thee Facebooks

Sinewave website

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Radar Men From the Moon, The Bestial Light

Fueled by avant grunge/noise impulsion, Radar Men From the Moon‘s latest foray to Planet Whothefuckknows arrives in the eight-song/41-minute The Bestial Light, a record alternately engrossing and off-putting, that does active harm when the sounds-like-it’s-skipping intro to “Piss Christ” comes on and then subsequently mellows out with psych-sax like they didn’t just decide to call the song “Sacred Cunt of the Universe” or something. Riffs, electronics, the kind of weirdness that’s too self-aware not to be progressive, Radar Men From the Moon take the foundation of experimentation set by Astrosoniq and mutate it via Swans into something unrecognizable by genre and unwilling to compromise its own direction. And no, by the time “Levelling” comes on to round out, there is no peace to be found, though perhaps a twisted kind of joy at the sheer postmodernism. They should score ballets with this stuff. No one would go, but three centuries from now, they’d be worshiped as gods. Chance of that anyway, I suppose.

Radar Men From the Moon on Thee Facebooks

Fuzz Club Records on Bandcamp

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Yesterday was marked by a decisive lack of productivity. I got there, don’t get me wrong, but it took friggin’ forever to make it happen. I’m obviously hoping for a different result today and tomorrow. You would think 10 records is 10 records, but some days it’s easy flowing, bounce from one to the next without any trouble, and some days you’re me sitting there wondering how many times you can get away with using the word “style” in the same post. Punishing. The saving factor was that the music was good. Amazing how often that serves as the saving factor.

Just today and tomorrow left, so let’s dive in. Lots of different kinds of releases today, so keep your ears and mind open.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

We Lost the Sea, Triumph and Disaster

There is plenty of heavy post-rock floating — and I do mean floating — around these days, spreading ethereal and contemplative vibes hither and yon, but none have the emotional weight brought to bear instrumentally by Sydney, Australia’s We Lost the Sea. Across their 65-minute 2LP, Triumph and Disaster (on Translation Loss), the six-piece band recount a wordless narrative of the aftermath of the end of the world through the eyes of a mother and child on their last day. It is a touching and beautiful flow of sentiment, regret and weight that comes through the wash of three guitars and synth, bass and drums, and though 2015’s Departure Songs (review here, discussed here) worked in a similar vein in terms of style if not story, these seven tracks and 65 minutes are wholly distinguished by a willful-seeming progression on the part of the band and a patience and poise of execution as they alternate between longer and shorter pieces that only underscores how special their work truly is. At least the apocalypse is gorgeous.

We Lost the Sea on Thee Facebooks

Translation Loss store

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Nebula Drag, Blud

Nothing against the progenitors of the form, but Nebula Drag seem with Blud to pull off the feat that Helmet never really could, bringing together a noise-rock derived dissonance of riff with a current of melody in the vocals and even moments of patience in the guitar to go along with the crunch of its more aggressive points. This inherently makes the Desert Records offering from the San Diego outfit a less outwardly intense affair than it might otherwise be, but songs like “Always Dying,” “Numb” and the closer “Mental” — as well as the album as a whole — are ultimately richer for it, and there’s still plenty of drive in opener “Dos Lados” and the shorter “Faces” and “What Went Wrong,” which arrive back to back on side B and lend the momentum that carries Nebula Drag through the remainder of the proceedings. It’s easy to hear to Blud superficially and pass it off as noise or heavy rock or this or that, but Nebula Drag earn and reward deeper listens in kind.

Nebula Drag on Thee Facebooks

Desert Records on Bandcamp

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Nothing is Real, Pain is Joy

Los Angeles oppressive and misanthropic noise project Nothing is Real manifested some of the harshest sounds I heard in 2019 on Only the Wicked are Pure (review here), and the just-months-later follow-up, Pain is Joy, reminds of the constant sensory assault under which we all seem to live. Across five extended tracks of increased production value — still raw, just not as raw — the band seems to be forming a coherent philosophical perspective in “Existence is Pain,” the guest-vocalized “Realms of Madness,” “Life is but a Dream,” “Pain is Joy,” and “We Must Break Free,” but if there’s a will to explain the punishment that is living, there’s not much by way of answer forthcoming in the sludgy riffing, grinding onslaught and surprising solo soar of “We Must Break Free,” instrumental as it is. Still, the fact that Pain is Joy allows for the possibility of joy to exist at all, in any form, ever, distinguishes it from its predecessor, and likewise the clearer sound and cogent expressive purpose. A focused attack suits Nothing is Real. I have the feeling it won’t be long before we find out where it takes the band next.

Nothing is Real on Thee Facebooks

Nothing is Real on Bandcamp

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Lotus Thief, Oresteia

If the name Oresteia isn’t immediately familiar, maybe “Agamemnon” will give some hint. San Francisco’s Lotus Thief, with their third full-length and second for Prophecy Productions, not only bring together progressive black metal, post-rock and drama-laced doom, but do so across eight-tracks and 38 minutes summarizing a 5th century Greek tragedy written in three parts. Ambitious? Yes. Successful? I’ll claim zero familiarity with the text itself, but for the eight-minute “Libation Bearers” alone — never mind any of the other immersive, beautiful wash the band emits throughout — I’m sure glad they’re engaging with it. Ambient stretches like “Banishment” and “Woe” and the barely-there “Reverence” add further character to the proceedings, but neither are “The Furies,” “Agamemnon,” “Sister in Silence” or subdued-but-tense closer “The Kindly Ones” lacking for atmosphere. Oresteia is grim, theatrical, stylistically forward-thinking and gorgeous. A perfect, perfect, perfect winter record.

Lotus Thief website

Prophecy Productions on Bandcamp

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Uncle Woe, Our Unworn Limbs

Chugging, sprawling, and most of all reaching, the late-2019 debut LP, Our Unworn Limbs, from Ontario as-yet-solo-outfit Uncle Woe — composed, performed and recorded by Rain Fice — is one of marked promise, taking elements of modern progressive and cosmic doom from the likes of YOB‘s subtly angular riffing style and unfolding them across an emotionally resonant but still manageable 43-minute span. The stomp in “That’s How They Get You” is duly oppressive in following the opener “Son of the Queen,” but with the one-minute experiment “When the Night Fell Pt. 2” and jagged but harmonized “Mania for Breaking” ahead of 15-minute closer “Push the Blood Back In,” the record’s tumult and triumphs are presented with character and a welcome feeling of exploration. I would expect over time that the melodic basis and vocal presence Fice demonstrates in “Mania for Breaking” will continue to grow, but both are already significant factors in the success of that song and the album surrounding it, the first 20-plus minutes of which is spent mired in “Son of the Queen” and “That’s How They Get You,” as early proof of the sure controlling hand at the helm of the project. May it continue to be so.

Uncle Woe on Thee Facebooks

Uncle Woe on Bandcamp

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Cybernetic Witch Cult, Absurdum ad Nauseam

Guitarist/vocalist Alex Wyld, bassist Doug MacKinnon and drummer Lewis May have processed the world around them and translated it into a riffy course of sci-fi and weirdo semi-prog thematics across Absurdum ad Nauseam. What else to call such a thing? At eight songs and 52 minutes, it stands astride the lines between heavy rock and doom and sludge in lengthier pieces like “The Cetacean,” “The Ivory Tower” and the finale “Hypercomputer Part 2,” yet when it comes to picking out discernible influences, one has to result to generalizations like Black Sabbath and Acrimony, the latter in the rolling largesse of “Spice” and “The Myth of Sisyphus” later on in the outing and the vocal effects there particularly, but neither is enough to give a sense of what Cybernetic Witch Cult are actually about in terms of the modernity of their approach and the it’s-okay-we-know-what-we’re-doing-just-trust-us vibe they bring as they rush through “Cromagnonaut” after the intro and “Hypercomputer Part 1.” I’m inclined to just go with it, which should tell you something in itself about the band’s ability to carry their listener through. They earn that trust.

Cybernetic Witch Cult on Thee Facebooks

Cybernetic Witch Cult on Bandcamp

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Your Highness, Your Highness

Heavy blues meets heavy metal on Your Highness‘ self-titled and self-released third album, collecting eight tracks that divide evenly across two sides of an LP, each half ending with a longer piece, whether it’s “Black Fever” (9:00) on side A or “Kin’s Blood” (14:14) on side B. Through these, in full-throttle movements like opener “Devil’s Delight” and “Rope as a Gift” and in nestled-in groovers like “The Flood” and “To Wood and Stone,” Your Highness don’t shy away from bringing a sense of atmosphere to their material, but maintain a focus on burl, gruffness and tonal weight, an aggressive undercurrent in a song like “Born Anew” — the riff to which is nonetheless particularly bluesy — being emblematic of the perspective on display throughout. It moves too fleetly to ever be considered entirely sludge, but Your Highness‘ 51-minute span is prone to confrontation just the same, and its ferocious aspects come to a head in satisfying fashion as the wash of crash pays off “Kin’s Blood,” shouts cutting through en route to a finish of acoustic guitar that lands as a reminder to release the breath you’ve been holding the whole time. Heavy stuff? Why yes, it is.

Your Highness on Thee Facebooks

Your Highness on Bandcamp

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Deep Valley Blues, Demonic Sunset

Italy’s fervor for stoner rock is alive and well as represented in Demonic Sunset, the eight-song/34-minute debut full-length from Catanzaro’s Deep Valley Blues. Their sound works out to be more heavy rock than the desert one might imagine given the album cover, but that influence is still there, if beefed up tonally by guitarists Alessandro Morrone and Umberto Arena (the latter also backing vocals), bassist/vocalist Giando Sestito and drummer Giorgio Faini, whose fluid turns between propulsion and swing enable a song like “Dana Skully” to come together in its verse/chorus transitions. The penultimate nine-minute “Tired to Beg For” is an outlier among more straight-ahead songwriting, but they use the time well and close with the acoustic-led “Empire,” an encouraging showcase of sonic breadth to follow up on the start of “Lust Vegas” and a widening of the melodic range that one hopes Deep Valley Blues push further on subsequent releases. Centered around issues of mental health in terms of its lyrics, if somewhat vaguely, Demonic Sunset is a first LP that extends its focus to multiple levels while still keeping its feet on the ground in a way that will be familiar to experienced genre heads.

Deep Valley Blues on Thee Facebooks

Deep Valley Blues on Bandcamp

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Sky Shadow Obelisk, The Satyr’s Path

You can toss a coin as to whether Sky Shadow Obelisk are death-doom or doom-death, but as you do, just keep an eye on the bludgeoning doled out by the solo-project of Rhode Island-based composer Peter Scartabello on his latest EP, The Satyr’s Path, because it is equal parts thorough and ferocious. Flourish of keys and melody adds a progressive edge to the proceedings across the five-track release, particularly in its two instrumentals, the centerpiece “Ouroboros” and the first half of closer “Shadow of Spring,” but amid the harnessed madness of “Chain of Hephaestus” — which from its lyrics I can only think of as a work song — and the one-two of “The Serpent’s Egg” and the title-track early on, those moments of letup carry a tension of mood that even the grand finish in “Shadow of Spring” seems to acknowledge. It’s been since 2015 that Scartabello last offered up a Sky Shadow Obelisk full-length. He shows enough scope here to cover an album’s worth of ground, but on the most basic level, I’d take more if it was on offer.

Sky Shadow Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

Yuggoth Records on Bandcamp

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Minus Green, Equals Zero

Following up on a 2015 self-titled the material on Minus Green‘s sophomore album, Equals Zero, would seem to have at least in part been kicking around for a couple years, as the closer here, “Durial” (11:22) was released in a single version in 2016. Fair enough. If the other three cuts, opener “Primal” (9:58), “00” (11:51) and the penultimate “Kames” (10:08), have also been developed over that span, the extra rumination wouldn’t seem to have harmed them at all — they neither feel overthought to a point of staleness nor lack anything in terms of the natural vibe that their style of progressive instrumentalist heavy psychedelia warrants. The procession unfolds as a cleanly-structured LP with two songs per side arranged shorter-into-longer, and their sound is duly immersive to give an impression of exploration underway without being entirely jam-based in their structure. That is, listening to “00,” one gets the feeling it’s headed somewhere, which, fortunately it is. Where it and the record surrounding go ultimately isn’t revolutionary in aesthetic terms, but it is well performed and more than suitable for repeat visits. Contrary to the impression they might seek to give, it amounts to more than nothing.

Minus Green on Thee Facebooks

Kerberos Records website

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Oh hi, I didn’t see you there. Earlier this week — Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and yes, even Wednesday — the alarm went off at 4AM as usual and I got up, got coffee going and a protein bar and sat down to write, starting basically around quarter-after with a quick email check and whatnot. In terms of basic timing, this last morning of the Fall 2019 Quarterly Review is no different. I even have the baby monitor streaming on my phone as I would most mornings, so I can keep an eye on when The Pecan gets up. What’s changed is I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in Oslo, Norway, having just arrived on an overnight flight from Newark. Managed to sleep some on the plane and I’m hopeful adrenaline will pick up the rest of the slack as regards getting through the day. That and caffeine, anyhow.

Although, speaking of, my debit card doesn’t work and I’ll need to sort that out.

First thing’s first, and that’s reviews. Last batch of 10 for the week. We made it. Thanks as always for reading and being a part of this thing. Let’s wrap it up in style, and because I like working on a theme, three Irish bands in a row close out. Hey, I went to Ireland this year.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Ufomammut, XX

Five years ago, Roman cosmic doom masters Ufomammut took a reflective look back at their career for its 15th anniversary with the documentary/live-performance DVD XV (review here). And since one might define the arc of their tenure as constantly trying to top themselves, for their 20th anniversary, they’ve issued a 12LP boxed set, titled simply XX, that compiles their nine albums to-date and tops them off with the mostly-subdued-style XX itself, which reimagines past cacophonies like “Mars” and “Plouton” in a quieter context. That part of the mega-offering issued through their own Supernatural Cat imprint comprises six songs recorded live and makes highlights out of the hypnotic strum and incantations of “Satan” as well as the rumbling drone of “Lacrimosa,” which takes on new emotional resonance for the shoegazy treatment it receives. I’ve said on multiple occasions throughout the years that Ufomammut are a band to be treasured, and I stand by that 100 percent. The XX box should be perceived by fans as an opportunity to do likewise.

Ufomammut on Facebook

Supernatural Cat website

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Horehound, Weight

Less than a year after issuing their second long-player in the form of Holocene (review here) through Blackseed and Doom Stew Records, Pittsburgh atmosludgers Horehound align with DHU Records for the two-song 8″ EP Weight, which brings “Unbind” and “The Heavy,” two new cuts that, while I’m not sure they weren’t recorded at the same time as the last album — that is, they may have been — they nonetheless showcase the emergent melodic breadth and instrumental ambience that is developing in their sound. Even as “Unbind” rolls toward its low-end tempo kick, it does so with marked patience and a willingness to stay slow until just the right moment, which is not something every band cane effectively do. “The Heavy,” meanwhile, builds itself around a Crowbar-style dirge riff before Shy Kennedy‘s verse arrives as a standalone element, all the instruments around her dropping out from behind. That moment alone, frankly, is worth the price of admission, as whether it’s through that extra inch in diameter of the platter itself or through the audio of the tracks in question, Horehound continue to distinguish themselves.

Horehound on Facebook

DHU Records BigCartel store

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Lingua Ignota, CALIGULA

I’m not sure I’m qualified to write about Lingua Ignota‘s CALIGULA (on Profound Lore), but I’m not sure anyone else is either. Like a self-harmonizing mega-Jarboe turning existential horror into epic proclamations of “I don’t eat/I don’t sleep” on “DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR?” amid bass throb and terrifying melodic layering before making bedroom black metal sound like the lightweight self-indulgence it’s always been on the subsequent check-out-the-real-shit “BUTCHER OF THE WORLD,” Kristin Hayter‘s work is little short of experimentalist brilliance. She is minimal and yet over-the-top, open in creative terms but unwaveringly dark and rife with melody but severe to the point now and again of true aural abrasion. She weaves a context of her own into “FUCKING DEATHDEALER” as she recalls the lyrics to the aforementioned “BUTCHER OF THE WORLD,” while the outright brutality of “SPITE ALONE HOLDS ME ALOFT” is married to a piano-led meditation that, even without the noise wash from whence it comes, is enough to recast visions of what heavy is and can be in musical terms. I won’t pretend to get all the references like “kyrie eleison” (“lord have mercy”) worked into “IF THE POISON WON’T TAKE YOU MY DOGS WILL” and the violent strains surrounding, but it’s impossible not to realize the power of what you’re hearing when you listen.

Lingua Ignota on Facebook

Profound Lore Records on Bandcamp

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Valborg, Zentrum

With an intensity born out of a history of industrial music and focus on tight rhythms making an impact in even-tighter songwriting, Valborg are neither beholden to death metal nor entirely separate from it, but their style has taken on a life of its own over the course of the last 10 years, and their latest offering, Zentrum (on Prophecy Productions), is the German trio’s most individualized take yet, whether that’s shown in the unbridled melodicism of “Anomalie,” the sludgy riff that drives the barking “Ultragrab” or the seemingly unrelenting snare pops of “Kreuzer” that, even when they finally release that tension, still make it only a temporary reprieve. Valborg‘s sense of control through the epic “Nonnenstern” should not be understated, and though the track is under four minutes long, yes, “epic” very much applies. Suitably enough, they close with “Vakuum” and throw everything at the listener at once before resolving in relatively peaceful atmospherics that could just as easily serve as an introduction to the next round of malice to come, whenever it shows up.

Valborg on Facebook

Prophecy Productions webstore

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Sageness, Akmé

Spanish trio Sageness — also written SageNESS — conjure smooth Electric Moon-style soundscapes on their second album, Akmé, and yes, that is a compliment. The record brings forth six tracks of easy-rolling instrumentalist jam-based heavy psychedelia that offer much and take little in return, the richness of the guitar tone from Dawyz and Michi‘s bass given jazzy fluidity by Fran‘s drumming. “Ephemeral” touches most directly on a Colour Haze, as it would almost have to, but even there, the feeling of spaciousness that Sageness present in the recording is a factor that helps them come across as more individual. Earlier, “The Thought” is a little more directly space rock, but opener “Andromeda” seems to be charting the course with its liquefied effects and somehow-even-more-liquefied groove, and if you can’t get down with that, I’ve got nothing for you and neither does the rest of the universe.

Sageness on Facebook

Spinda Records website

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Glacier, No Light Ever

It’s not exactly true, about their being no light ever on Boston post-metallers Glacier‘s latest full-length, No Light Ever. Sure, it’s plenty dark and heavy and brooding and all that fun stuff, and the riffs get loud and the drums break stuff and all that, but it’s certainly colorful in its way as well, and more than just shades of black on black. Comprised of four tracks cumbersomely titled in keeping with the traditions of the likes of Red Sparowes and the band’s own past work, cuts like “O World! I Remain No Longer Here.” and “The Bugles Blow, Fanned by Hysteria.” stretch themselves out along a scope as massive as the tonality the band emits, and as the wash of “We Glut Our Souls on the Accursed,” — the comma is part of the title there — gives way to feedback and the onset of “And We Are Damned Amid Noble Sound.” the sense of immersion is complete and clear as the priority under which they’re working. It’s about the whole album, or at least the two sides, as a unified work, and about crafting a world through the atmosphere evoked in the material. It works. If they say there’s no light in that world, so be it. It’s whatever they want it to be.

Glacier on Facebook

Wolves and Vibrancy Records webstore

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MNRVA, Black Sky

Not-entirely-bereft-of-vowels South Carolina heavy trio MNRVA make their debut with the three-song EP Black Sky, a beast of a short release led by the riffs of guitarist Byron Hark on a stretch of ’90s-style crunch and sludge, with bassist/vocalist Kevin Jennings and drummer Gina Ercolini adding to the weight and shove of the proceedings, respectively. “Not the One” has the hook, “No Solution” has the impact and the title-track has both, and though I’m by no means saying the issue of their sound is settled 100 percent and they won’t grow or find their way from this — again, their debut — EP, they do prove to be well in charge of where their songs head in terms of mood and the atmosphere that comes through elements like the blown-out vocals and the rumbling bass beneath the lead guitar in the second half of “Black Sky” itself. Indeed, it’s those harsher aspects that help MNRVA immediately establish their individuality, and the vibe across these 18-plus minutes is that the punishment is only getting started.

MNRVA on Facebook

MNRVA on Bandcamp

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Coroza, Chaliceburner

Just because Irish four-piece Coroza — guitarist/vocalists Ciaran Coghlan and Jack O’Neill, bassist/vocalist Jonny Canning and drummer Ollie Cunningham — might write a song that’s 18 minutes long, that doesn’t mean they forgot to actually make it a song as well. Thus it is that extended cuts like “The Plutonian Drug” (18:24) and closer “Iron from the Sky” (19:30) have plenty of room to flesh out their more progressive aspects amid the other three also-kind-of-extended pieces on Chaliceburner, the group’s ambitious hour-plus/five-track debut full-length. Each song essentially becomes a front-to-back movement on its own, with shifts between singers arranged thoughtfully from one part to the next and hooks along the way to serve as landmarks for those traversing, as in the opening “Chaliceburner” or the gruff winding moments of “Mountain Jaw,” which follows the nine-minute sax-inclusive centerpiece “Scaltheen,” because of course there’s a saxophone in there somewhere. All of this is a recipe for a band biting off more than they can chew stylistically, but Coroza manage pretty well the various twists and turns of their own making, particularly considering it’s their first album.

Coroza on Facebook

Coroza on Bandcamp

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Noosed, She of the Woods

Encased front and back by witchy samples and creepy vibes, Sept. 2019’s She of the Woods is the second demo in two months to come from Cork, Ireland’s Noosed. And you know it when they get around to the closing seven-minute title-track because it’s just about the only thing other than “Intro” that isn’t raging with grind intensity, but that stuff can be fun too. I don’t know how much witch-grind-doom is out there, but Noosed‘s first, self-titled demo (released in August) had a sludgy edge that seems to have separated out to some degree here into a multifaceted personality. Can one possibly be certain of the direction the band will ultimately take? Shit no. It’s two demos with basically no time differential between them. But if they can effectively bridge the gap between “Fuck Up,” “Wretch” and “She of the Woods,” or even play directly with the contrast, they could be onto something with all this noise and fuckall.

Noosed on Facebook

Noosed on Bandcamp

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zhOra, Ruthless Bastards

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it such that Irish four-piece zhOra wanted to do something less complicated than was their 2017 album, Ethos, Pathos, Logos (discussed here), so they went ahead and wrote a song that’s five minutes long and purposefully hops between subgenres, going from sludge to doom to a deathcore breakdown, with a snare-pop count-in, to blackened death metal and then back to a lumbering chug to finish out. Okay, zhOra, “Ruthless Bastards” is a an awful lot of metal and an awfully good time, but you missed the mark on “simple” by a considerable margin. If indeed the band had been plotting toward something, say, easier to play or to compose, “Ruthless Bastards” ain’t it. They’ll have to settle for being brutal as fuck instead. Something tells me they’ll survive having made that trade, as much as anything will.

zhOra on Facebook

zhOra on Bandcamp

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Churchburn make an awful lot of sense in a world utterly rife with daily horrors and panic. The deathly Providence, Rhode Island, sludge extremists are rearing back to unleash their second LP, None Shall Live… The Hymns of Misery (review here), via Armageddon Shop this weekend at a show at their hometown venue Dusk alongside Dropdead, Conclave and High Command, and to further herald the record’s arrival, they’ve teamed with Chariot of Black Moth to release a new video for the semi-titled-track “The Misery Hymns.” Appropriately enough, its imagery is dark, full of stark and dense grays and sudden flashing lights, and it seems to begin by dragging the viewer through a black hole. If it sounds severe, it is.

The album, which follows 2014’s The Awaiting Coffins (review here), toys throughout with the balance between death metal and sludge riffing, delighting in the wretchedness it conjures while it obliterates that genre line. In songs like “Lines of Red” and “The Misery Hymns,” it is unbridled in its heft, but there’s a pervasive sense of atmosphere as well, and Churchburn never seem to lose sight of that underlying purpose, as brutal as they might and do get. The result is a record the weight of which stems from more than just its tones. The sound of it is menacing in the moment and haunting after, and its sense of punishment is likewise multi-tiered.

It goes without saying the release show will be completely ridiculous. An absolute onslaught and one that, should you be in the area, you’ll want to hit up even if you don’t know you want to hit it up.

The video follows here. Please enjoy:

Churchburn, “The Misery Hymns” official video

Huge Thanks to Jakub of Chariot Of Black Moth for making this video for us… for the song, “Misery Hymns”. New album out July, Friday the 13th, on Armageddon Shop Label…”None Shall Live…The Hymns of Misery”

Churchburn live:
07.14 Dusk Providence RI – Record Release Show w/ Dropdead, High Command & Conclave
10.05 Geno’s Portland ME – Into the Aether II Festival

Churchburn on Thee Facebooks

Churchburn on Bandcamp

Armageddon Shop website

Armageddon Shop label webstore