Eternal Elysium to Release Share Remaster Feb. 25

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

With the three bonus tracks included in Robustfellow‘s anniversary edition, Eternal Elysium‘s Share tops out at 73 minutes long. What I dig about this second reissue collaboration between the Japanese band and the Ukrainian label is that Robustfellow aren’t just working with the undervalued Nagoya heavy rockers. They’re championing them. Putting them on a (deserved) pedestal. Even the way Share, which originally came out in 2002 — thus 20th anniversary — is noted in the info below as “iconic” speaks to the imprint’s genuine esteem for the work being re-released.

And one can hardly argue. Eternal Elysium, who bridge doom and heavy rock and psychedelia with a fluidity that sounds so much easier from them than it actually is to pull off, have been kicking ass periodically for more than this two decades, and the more people who know about it, the better. Righteous album, killer mission, made with love. If you need an example of what to appreciate about the heavy underground, this is a good one. Passion on every level.

Many bundles available, preoders up, all that, as per the PR wire:

Eternal Elysium share reissue

Anniversary edition of the iconic album “Share” from Japanese legends Eternal Elysium -> https://bit.ly/3rEKXQe

“Share” is the third full-length album in the band’s discography and the second release of Eternal Elysium in the Robust Relics series.

(“Searching Low & High” was released in 2017 – https://bit.ly/3HHtKeN)

Release Date set exactly 20 years after the original edition on February 25, 2022

Anniversary Issue Ingredients:

• remaster from Okazaki
• Three bonus tracks
• new cover of the release from Lviv artist Dmytro Dimorphic (posters for Robustfest 2016: 5R6, Weedpecker, Dekonstruktor | Robust Evening: Somali Yacht Club “The Sea” launch party)

CD [Standard Edition]

2-panel digipak, gloss lamination

CD L [Robust Edition]
• 3-panel digipak, matt lamination
• Completely Remastered Audio +3 Bonus Tracks
• Alternate Cover artwork by “Dimorphic” (Robust Artist)
• Collectable cards:

1/3 Tour 2002 T-shirt art

2/3 Signed band photo card

3/3 original “Share” artwork card
• Digital DL Card for MP3/FLAC/WAV
• Exclusive Laminated Sticker
• OBI Strip

Limited to 50 hand-numbered copies

Limited Edition Cassette
•oldschool plastic box
• thick booklet
• shape DLC for MP3/FLAC/WAV
• transparent orange shell cassette

Edition of 50 hand-numbered copies

Eternal Elysium “Share” T-Shirt (Pre-Order)
• finest textile
• high quality print
• RRS logo on the shoulder
• RBF tag

Pre-Order at this location: https://bit.ly/3rEKXQe

Tracklisting:
1. Schizy
2. Feel The Beat
3. Movements And Vibes
4. Waiting Tor The Sun
5. Machine
6. No Answer
7. Love Is All
8. Dogma
9. Fairies Never Sleep
10. Burning A Sinner (Bonus Track)
11. Just Friends (Empty Love) (Bonus Track)
12. Godzilla (Bonus Track)

Produced by ETERNAL ELYSIUM
Engineered and Mixed by Yukito Okazaki
Recorded & Mixed at Studio Zen Nagoya,Japan
Mastered at Soybean Nagoya, Japan

Remastered at Studio Zen by Yukito Okazaki in 2020

Bonus Tracks:
*Burning A Sinner – previously released only at “I Am Vengeance” soundtrack CD by MeteorCity
*Just Friends (Empty Love) – previously unreleased
*Godzilla – previously unreleased

Musicians:
YUKITO OKAZAKI – Vocals, Guitars, Keys, Percussions
TOSHIAKI UMEMURA – Bass, Voices
RIO OKUYA – Drums

Additional:
Tom Huskinson – Drums on “Movements and Vibes’
Senpo Ito – Fairy on “Fairies Never Sleep” and Chorus on “Dogma”
Makoto Iwakura – Chorus on “Dogma” KengoTashiro – Voice on “Fairies Never Sleep” and Chorus on “Dogma”

www.eternalelysium.com/
http://eternalelysiumshop.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Eternal-Elysium-official-160089987381948/
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://robustfellow.blogspot.com/
robustfellow.bandcamp.com

Eternal Elysium, Share (2022 edition)

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Robustfellow Productions Announces Robust Split Series Tape Box Set

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

robust split series season 1 tapes

If you’ve ever been in a band and tried to put together a split with another band, you probably know that there’s a ton of things that can interrupt any plans that dare to be made. I don’t imagine that’s less the case for a record label trying to coordinate one split offering, let alone an entire series thereof, but people do it. Ripple Music and Spinda Records and Heavy Psych Sounds come most immediately to mind in terms of successful split series, and now Ukrainian imprint Robustfellow Productions is throwing its hat in the ring.

Robust Split Series will pair Ukrainian acts with international, from-elsewhere types, and what’s been called ‘Season 1’ has been partially unveiled as a set of five tapes that, if you subscribe, come complete with a box to hold them. If you know the label’s work, you know they’re no stranger to in-depth packaging or support for the native Ukraine underground. This would seem to combine those elements while continuing as well to spread their international reach.

Beyond whatever logistical challenges may crop up, it is an admirable purpose. More details to come, but for now, this from the PR wire:

robust split series season 1

Robust Split Series (RSS) is a completely new direction created and curated by Robustfellow Prods.

The label will acquire an ampoule of Choloepus Didactilus, a majestic two-toed sloth. As this sloth has only two toes, so the vinyl and tape have only two sides.

Robust Split Series (Season 1) is a box of 5 cassettes, where each tape includes a band from Ukraine on one side and a band from another country on another side.

Season 1 will be dedicated to sludge/doom and all that’s slow and heavy. 10 bands from 3 continents representing 6 countries will share heaviness via “Robust Split Series” cassette BOX.

Analog fetish esthetics at its best.

Tarot inspired artwork by the finest robust artist – Yuri Nagorniy

RSS001 Kasu Weri [UA] / Taser [FI]
RSS002 Celophys [UA] / Radian [US]
RSS003 TBA
RSS004 TBA
RSS005 TBA

Pre-order available at this location: https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/album/robust-split-series-season-1

You’ll be able to purchase a single cassette tape or trust the sloth and subscribe for a collectible BOX.

https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds
https://www.instagram.com/robustfellow_prods
http://www.robustfellow.bandcamp.com

Various Artists, Robust Split Series Season 1 (2021)

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Quarterly Review: DVNE, Wowod, Trace Amount, Fuzzcrafter, Pine Ridge, Watchman, Bomg, White Void, Day of the Jackal, Green Druid

Posted in Reviews on April 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-spring-2019

Oh, hello there. Don’t mind me. I’m just here, reviewing another 10 records today. I did it yesterday too. I’ll do it again tomorrow. No big deal. It’s Quarterly Review time. You know how it goes.

Crazy day yesterday, crazy day today, but I’m in that mode where I kind of feel like I can make this go as long as I want. Next Monday? Why not? Other than the fact that I have something else slated, I can’t think of a reason. Fortunately, having something else slated is enough of one. Ha. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

DVNE, Etemen Ænka

dvne Etemen Ænka

It’s like Scotland’s DVNE threw all of modern heavy metal into a blender and hit “cohesive.” Etemen Ænka‘s lofty ambitions are matched indeed by the cohesion of the band’s craft, the professionalism of their presentation, and the scope of their second album’s 10 component tracks, whether that’s in the use of synth throughout “Towers” or the dreamy post-rock aside in “Omega Severer,” the massive riffing used as a tool not a crutch in “Court of the Matriarch,” closer “Satuya” and elsewhere, and even the interlude-y pieces “Weighing of the Heart,” “Adraeden” and the folkish “Asphodel” that leads into the finale. DVNE have made themselves into the band you wish Isis became. Also the band you wish Mastodon became. And probably six or seven others. And while Etemen Ænka is certainly not without prog-styled indulgence, there is no taking away from the significant accomplishment these songs represent for them as a group putting out their first release on Metal Blade. It’ll be too clean for some ears, but the tradeoff for that is the abiding sense of poise with which DVNE deliver the songs. This will be on my year-end list, and I won’t be the only one.

DVNE on Thee Facebooks

Metal Blade Records website

 

Wowod, Yarost’ I Proshchenie

Wowod Yarost I Proshchenie

Beginning with its longest track (immediate points) in the 11-minute “Rekviem,” Yarost’ I Proshchenie is the third full-length from St. Petersburg’s Wowod, and its sudden surge from ‘unfold’ to ‘onslaught’ is a legitimate blindside. They hypnotize you then push you down a flight of stairs as death growls, echoing guitar lines and steady post-metallic drum and bass hold the line rhythmically. This sense of disconnect, ultimately, leads to a place of soaring melody and wash, but that feeling of moving from one place to another is very much the core of what Wowod do throughout the rest of the album that follows. “Tanec Yarosti” is a sub-three-minute blaster, while “Proshschenie” lumbers and crashes through its first half en route to a lush soundscape in its second, rounding out side A. I don’t care what genre “Zhazhda” is, it rules, and launches side B with rampaging momentum, leading to the slow, semi-industrial drag of “Chornaya Zemlya,” the harsh thrust of “Zov Tysyachi Nozhey” and, finally, dizzyingly, the six-minute closer “Top’,” which echoes cavernous and could just as easily have been called “Bottom.” Beautiful brutality.

Wowod on Thee Facebooks

Church Road Records on Bandcamp

 

Trace Amount, Endless Render

trace amount endless render

The chaos of last year is writ large in the late-2020 Endless Render EP from Brooklyn-based solo industrial outfit Trace Amount. The project headed by Brandon Gallagher (ex-Old Wounds) engages with harsh noise and heavy beatmaking, injecting short pieces like “Pop Up Morgues” with a duly dystopian atmosphere. Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc.) guests on drums for opener “Processed Violence (in 480P)” and the mminute-long “Seance Stimulant,” but it’s in the procession of the final three tracks — the aforementioned “Pop Up Morgues,” as well as “S.U.R.V.I.V.A.L.” and “Easter Sunday” — that Gallagher makes his most vivid portrayals. His work is evocative and resonant in its isolated feel, opaque like staring into an uncertain future but not without some semblance of hope in its resolution. Or maybe that’s the dream and the dance-party decay of “Dreaming in Displacement” is the reality. One way or the other, I’m looking forward to what Trace Amount does when it comes to a debut album.

Trace Amount on Thee Facebooks

Trace Amount on Bandcamp

 

Fuzzcrafter, C-D

Fuzzcrafter C D

French instrumentalists Fuzzcrafter issued C-D in October 2020 as a clear answer/complement to 2016’s A-B, even unto its Jo Riou cover art, which replaces the desert-and-fuzz-pedal of the first offering with a forest-and-pedal here. The six works that make up the 41-minute affair are likewise grown, able to affect a sense of lushness around the leading-the-way riffage in extended cuts “C2” (13:13) and the psychedelic back half of “D2” (13:18), working in funk-via-prog basslines (see also the wah guitar starting “D1” for more funk) over solid drums without getting any more lost than they want to be in any particular movement. In those songs and elsewhere, Fuzzcrafter make no attempt to hide the fact that they’re a riff-based band, but the acoustic side-finales in “C3” (which also features Rhodes piano) and “D3,” though shorter, reinforce both the structural symmetry of the mirrored sides as a whole and a feeling of breadth that is injected elsewhere in likewise organic fashion. They’re not changing the world and they’re not trying to, but there’s a mark being left here sound-wise and it’s enough to wonder what might be in store for the inevitable E-F.

Fuzzcrafter on Thee Facebooks

Fuzzcrafter on Bandcamp

 

Pine Ridge, Can’t Deny

Pine Ridge Can't Deny

Pine Ridge‘s second album, Can’t Deny, finds the Russian four/five-piece working in textures of keys and organ for a bluesier feel to tracks like the post-intro opening title-cut and the classic feeling later “Genesis.” Songwriting is straightforward, vocals gritty but well attended with backing arrangements, and the take on “Wayfaring Stranger” that ends the record’s first half conjures enough of a revivalist spirit to add to the atmosphere overall. The four tracks that follow — “Genesis,” “Runaway,” “Sons of Nothing” and “Those Days” — featured as well on 2019’s Sons of Nothing EP, but are consistent in groove and “Sons of Nothing” proves well placed to serve as an energetic apex of Can’t Deny ahead of “Those Days,” which starts quiet before bursting to life with last-minute electricity. A clear production emphasizes hooks and craft, and though I’ll grant I don’t know much about Siberia’s heavy rock scene, Pine Ridge ably work within the tenets of style while offering marked quality of songwriting and performance. That’s enough to ask from anywhere.

Pine Ridge on Thee Facebooks

Karma Conspiracy website

 

Watchman, Behold a Pale Horse

watchman behold a pale horse

Plain in its love for Sabbath-minded riffing and heavy Americana roll, “Bowls of Wrath” opens the three-song Dec. 2020 debut EP, Behold a Pale Horse, from Indiana-based solo-project Watchman, and the impression is immediate. With well-mixed cascades of organ and steadily nodding guitar, bass, drums and distorted, howling vocals, there is both a lack of pretense and an individualized take on genre happening at once. The EP works longest to shortest, with “Wormwood” building up from sparse guitar to far-back groove using negative space in the sound to bolster “Planet Caravan”-ish watery verses and emphasize the relative largesse of the track preceding as well as “The Second Death,” which follows. That closer is a quick four minutes that’s slow in tempo, but the lead-line cast overtop the mega-fuzzed central riff is effective in creating a current to carry the listener from one bank of the lake of fire to the other. In 15 minutes, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer Roy Waterford serves notice of intention for a forthcoming debut LP to be titled Doom of Babylon, and it is notice worth heeding.

Watchman on Instagram

Watchman on Bandcamp

 

Bomg, Peregrination

bomg peregrination

Bomg‘s Peregrination isn’t necessarily extreme the way one thinks of death or black metal as extreme styles of heavy metal, but is extreme just the same in terms of pushing to the outer limits of the aesthetics involved. The album’s four track, “Electron” (38:12), “Perpetuum” (39:10), “Paradigm” (37:17) and “Emanation” (37:49), could each consume a full 12″ LP on their own, and presented digitally one into the next, they are a tremendous, willfully unmanageable two-and-a-half-hour deep-dive into raw blowout dark psychedelic doom. The harsh rumble and noise in “Perpetuum” some 28 minutes on sounds as though the Ukrainian outfit have climbed the mountains of madness, and there is precious little clarity to be found in “Paradigm” or “Emanation” subsequent as they continue to hammer the spike of their manifestations deeper into the consciousness of the listener. From “Electron” onward, the self-recording Kyiv trio embark on this overwhelming journey into the unknown, and they don’t so much invite you along as unveil the devastating consequences of having made the trip. Righteously off-putting.

Bomg on Thee Facebooks

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

 

White Void, Anti

white void anti

As much as something can fly under the radar and be a Nuclear Blast release, I’m more surprised by the hype I haven’t heard surrounding White Void‘s debut album, Anti. Pulling together influences from progressive European-style heavy rock, classic metal, cult organ, New Wave melodies and a generally against-grain individualism, it is striking in its execution and the clear purpose behind what it’s doing. It’s metal and it’s not. It’s rock and it’s pop and it’s heavy and it’s light and floating. And its songs have substance as well as style. With Borknagar‘s Lars Nedland as the founding principal of the project, the potential in Anti‘s eight component tracks is huge, and if one winds up thinking of this as post-black metal, it’s a staggeringly complex iteration of it to which this and any other description I’ve seen does little justice. It’s going to get called “prog” a lot because of the considered nature of its composition, but that’s barely scratching the surface of what’s happening here.

White Void on Thee Facebooks

Nuclear Blast Records store

 

Day of the Jackal, Day Zero

Day of the Jackal Day Zero

Leeds, UK, four-piece Day of the Jackal bring straight-ahead hard rock songwriting and performance with an edge of classic heavy. There’s a Guns ‘n’ Roses reference in “Belief in a Lie” if you’re up for catching it, and later cuts like “Riskin’ it All” and “‘Til the Devil” have like-minded dudes-just-hit-on-your-girlfriend-and-you’re-standing-right-there vibes. They’re a rock band and they know it, and while I was a little bummed out “Rotten to the Core” wasn’t an Overkill cover, the 10 songs of love and death that pervade this debut long-player are notably hooky from “On Your Own” to “Deadfall” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Deathride,” which casually inhabits biker riffing with no less ease of movement than the band would seem to do anything else. Production by James “Atko” Atkinson of Gentlemans Pistols highlights the clarity of the performance rather than giving a rawer glimpse at who Day of the Jackal might be on stage, but there’s plenty of vitality to go around in any case, and it’s headed your way from the moment you start the record.

Day of the Jackal on Thee Facebooks

Day of the Jackal on Bandcamp

 

Green Druid, At the Maw of Ruin

green druid at the maw of ruin

Following their 2018 debut, Ashen Blood (review here), Denver heavy lifters Green Druid give due breadth to their closing take on Portishead‘s “Threads,” but the truth is that cover is set up by the prior five tracks of huge-sounding riffery, basking in the varying glories of stoner doom throughout opener “The Forest Dark” while keeping an eye toward atmospheric reach all the while. It is not just nod and crush, in other words, in Green Druid‘s arsenal throughout At the Maw of Ruin, and indeed, “End of Men” and “Haunted Memories” bridge sludge and black metal screaming as “A Throne Abandoned” offers surprising emotional urgency over its ready plod, and the long spoken section in “Desert of Fury/Ocean of Despair” eventually gives way not only to the most weighted slamming on offer, but a stretch of noise to lead into the closer. All along the way, Green Druid mark themselves out as a more complex outfit than their first record showed them to be, and their reach shows no sign of stopping here either.

Green Druid on Thee Facebooks

Earache Records website

 

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Quarterly Review: Dopelord, Scorched Oak, Kings of the Fucking Sea, Mantarraya, Häxmästaren, Shiva the Destructor, Amammoth, Nineteen Thirteen, Ikitan, Smote

Posted in Reviews on March 31st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

quarterly-review-spring-2019

Third day, and you know what that means. Today we hit and pass the halfway mark of this Quarterly Review. I won’t say it hasn’t been work, but it seems like every time I do one of these lately I continue to be astounded by how much easier writing about good stuff makes it. I must’ve done a real clunker like two years ago or something. Can’t think of one, but wow, it’s way more fun when the tunes are killer.

To that end we start with Dopelord today, haha. Have fun digging through if you do.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Dopelord, Reality Dagger

Dopelord Reality Dagger

They put it in a 12″, and that’s cool, but in addition to the fact that it’s about 22 minutes long, something about Reality Dagger, the latest EP from Poland’s Dopelord, strikes me as being really 10″ worthy. I know 10″ is the bastard son of vinyl pressings — doesn’t fit with your LPs and doesn’t fit with your 7″s. They’re a nuisance. Do they get their own shelf? Mixed in throughout? Well, however you organize them, I think a limited 10″ of Reality Dagger would be perfect, because from the melodies strewn throughout “Dark Coils” and the wildly catchy “Your Blood” — maybe the most complex vocal arrangement I’ve yet heard from the band — to the ultra-sludge interplay with screams on the 10-minute closing title-track, it sounds to me like standing out from the crowd is exactly what Dopelord want to do. They want to be that band that doesn’t fit your preconceptions of stoner-doom, or sludge, or modern heavy largesse in the post-Monolord vein. Why not match that admirable drive in format? Oh hell, you know what? I’ll just by the CD and have done with it. One of the best EPs I’ve heard this year.

Dopelord on Facebook

Dopelord on Bandcamp

 

Scorched Oak, Withering Earth

Scorched Oak Withering Earth

Don’t be surprised when you see Kozmik Artifactz, Nasoni Records, or some other respected probably-European purveyor of heavy coming through with an announcement they’ve picked up Scorched Oak. The Dortmund, Germany, trio seem to have taken the last few years to figure out where they were headed — they pared down from a five-piece, for example — and their rolling tides of fuzz on late-2020’s debut LP Withering Earth bears the fruit of those efforts. Aesthetically and structurally sound, it’s able to touch on heavy blues, metal and drifting psychedelia all within the span of a seven-minute track like “Swamp,” and in its five-songs running shortest to longest, it effectively draws the listener deeper into the world the band are creating through dual vocals, patient craft and spacious production. If I was a label, I’d sign them for the bass tone on 14-minute closer “Desert” alone, never mind any of the other natural phenomena they portray throughout the record, which is perhaps grim in theme but nonetheless brimming with potential. Some cool riffs on this dying planet.

Scorched Oak on Facebook

Scorched Oak on Bandcamp

 

Kings of the Fucking Sea, In Concert

Kings of the Fucking Sea In Concert

A scorching set culled from two nights of performances in their native Nashville, what’s essentially serving as Kings of the Fucking Sea‘s debut long-player, In Concert, is a paean to raw psychedelic power trio worship. High order ripper groove pervades “Witch Mountain” and the wasn’t-yet-named “Hiding No More” — which was introduced tentatively as “Death Dealer,” which the following track is actually titled. Disorienting? Shit yeah it is. And shove all the poignancy of making a live album in Feb. 2020 ahead of the pandemic blah blah. That’s not what’s happening here. This is all about blow-the-door-so-we-can-escape psychedelic pull and thrust. One gets the sense that Kings of the Fucking Sea are more in control than they let on, but they play it fast and loose and slow and loose throughout In Concert and by the time the mellower jam in “I Walk Alone” opens up to the garage-style wash of crash cymbal ahead of closer “The Nile Song,” the swirling fuckall that ensues is rampant with noise-coated fire. A show that might make you look up from your phone. So cool it might be jazz. I gotta think about it.

Kings of the Fucking Sea on Facebook

Agitated Records on Bandcamp

 

Mantarraya, Mantarraya

mantarraya mantarraya

They bill themselves as ‘Mantarraya – power trío,’ and guitarist/vocalist Herman Robles Montero, drummer/maybe-harmonica-ist Kelvin Sifuentes Pérez and bassist/vocalist Enzo Silva Agurto certainly live up to that standard on their late-2020 self-titled debut full-length. The vibe is classic heavy ’70s through and through, and the Peruvian three-piece roll and boogie through the 11 assembled tracks with fervent bluesy swing on “En el Fondo” and no shortage of shuffle throughout the nine-minute “120 Años (Color),” which comes paired with the trippier “Almendrados” in what seems like a purposeful nod to the more out-there among the out there, bringing things back around to finish swinging and bouncing on the eponymous closer. I’ll take the classic boogie as it comes, and Mantarraya do it well, basking in a natural but not too purposefully so sense of underproduction while getting their point across in encouraging-first-record fashion. At over an hour long, it’s too much for a single LP, but plenty of time for them to get their bearings as they begin their creative journey.

Mantarraya on Facebook

Mantarraya on Bandcamp

 

Häxmästaren, Sol i Exil

Häxmästaren sol i exil

At the risk of repeating myself, someone’s gonna sign Häxmästaren. You can just tell. The Swedish five-piece’s second album, Sol i Exil (“sun in exile,” in English), is a mélange of heavy rock and classic doom influences, blurring the lines between microgenres en route to an individual approach that’s still accessible enough in a riffer like “Millennium Phenomenon” or “Dödskult Ritual” to be immediately familiar and telegraph to the converted where the band are coming from. Vocalist Niklas Ekwall — any relation to Magnus from The Quill? — mixes in some screams and growls to his melodic style, further broadening the palette and adding an edge of extremity to “Children of the Mountain,” while “Growing Horns” and the capper title-track vibe out with with a more classic feel, whatever gutturalisms happen along the way, the latter feeling like a bonus for being in Swedish. In the ever-fertile creative ground that is Gothenburg, it should be no surprise to find a band like this flourishing, but fortunately Sol i Exil doesn’t have to be a surprise to kick ass.

Häxmästaren on Facebook

Häxmästaren on Bandcamp

 

Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others

SHIVA THE DESTRUCTOR FIND THE OTHERS

Launching with the nine-minute instrumental “Benares” is a telling way for Kyiv’s Shiva the Destructor to begin their debut LP, since it immediately sets listener immersion as their priority. The five-track/44-minute album isn’t short on it, either, and with the band’s progressive, meditative psychedelic style, each song unfolds in its own way and in its own time, drawn together through warmth of tone and periods of heft and spaciousness on “Hydronaut” and a bit of playful bounce on “Summer of Love” (someone in this band likes reggae) and a Middle Eastern turn on “Ishtar” before “Nirvana Beach” seems to use the lyrics to describe what’s happening in the music itself before cutting off suddenly at the end. Vocals stand alone or in harmony and the double-guitar four-piece bask in a sunshine-coated sound that’s inviting and hypnotic in kind, offering turns enough to keep their audience following along and undulations that are duly a clarion to the ‘others’ referenced in the title. It’s like a call to prayer for weirdo psych heads. I’ll take that and hope for more to come.

Shiva the Destructor on Facebook

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

 

Amammoth, The Fire Above

amammoth the fire above

The first and only lyric in “Heal” — the opening track of Sydney, Australia, trio Amammoth‘s debut album, The Fire Above — is the word “marijuana.” It doesn’t get any less stoned from there. Riffs come in massive waves, and even as “The Sun” digs into a bit of sludge, the largesse and crash remains thoroughly weedian, with the lumbering “Shadows” closing out the first half of the LP with particularly Sleep-y nod. Rawer shouted vocals also recall earlier Sleep, but something in Amammoth‘s sound hints toward a more metallic background than just pure Sabbath worship, and “Rise” brings that forward even as it pushes into slow-wah psychedelics, letting “Blade Runner” mirror “The Sun” in its sludgy push before closer “Walk Towards What Blinds You (Blood Bong)” introduces some backing vocals that fit surprisingly well even they kind of feel like a goof on the part of the band. Amammoth, as a word, would seem to be something not-mammoth. In sound, Amammoth are the opposite.

Amammoth on Facebook

Electric Valley Records website

 

Nineteen Thirteen, MCMXIII

nineteen thirteen mcmxiii

With emotional stakes sufficiently high throughout, MCMXIII is urgent enough to be post-hardcore, but there’s an underpinning of progressive heavy rock even in the mellower stretch of the eight-minute “Dogfight” that complements the noisier and more angular aspects on display elsewhere. Opener “Post Blue Collar Blues” sets the plotline for the newcomer Dayton, Ohio, four-piece, with thoughtful lyrics and a cerebral-but-not-dead-of-spirit instrumental style made full and spacious through the production. Melodies flesh out in “Cripple John” and “Old Face on the Wall,” brooding and surging in children-of-the-’90s fashion, but I hear a bit of Wovenhand in that finale as well — though maybe the one doesn’t exclude the other — so clearly Nineteen Thirteen are just beginning this obviously-passion-fueled exploration of sound aesthetic with these songs, but the debut EP they comprise cuts a wide swath with marked confidence and deceptive memorability. A new turn on Rust Belt heavy.

Nineteen Thirteen on Facebook

Nineteen Thirteen on Bandcamp

 

Ikitan, Twenty-Twenty

ikitan twenty-twenty

Hey, you process trauma from living through the last year your way and Genova, Italy’s Ikitan will process it theirs. In their case, that means the writing, recording and self-release of their 20-minute single-song EP, Twenty-Twenty, a sprawling work of instrumentalist heavy post-rock rife with spacious, airy lead guitar and a solid rhythmic foundation. Movements occur in waves and layers, but there is a definite thread being woven throughout the outing from one part to the next, held together alternately by the bass or drums or even guitar, though it’s the latter that seems to be leading those changes as well. The shifts are fluid in any case, and Ikitan grow Twenty-Twenty‘s lone, titular piece to a satisfyingly heft as they move through, harnessing atmosphere as well as weight even before they lower volume for stretches in the second half. There’s a quick surge at the end, but “Twenty-Twenty” is more about journey than destination, and Ikitan make the voyage enticing.

Ikitan on Facebook

Ikitan on Bandcamp

 

Smote, Bodkin

smote bodkin

Loops, far-out spaces and a generally experimentalist feel ooze outward like Icelandic lava from Bodkin, the five-song debut LP from UK-based solo-outfit Smote. The gentleman behind the flow is Newcastle upon Tyne’s Daniel Foggin, and this is one of three releases he has out so far in 2021, along with a prior drone collaboration tape with Forest Mourning and a subsequent EP made of two tracks at around 15 minutes each. Clearly a project that can be done indoors during pandemic lockdown, Smote‘s material is wide-ranging just the same, bringing Eastern multi-instrumentalism and traditionalist UK psych together on “Fohrt” and “Moninna,” which would border on folk but for all that buzz in the background. The 11-minute “Motte” is a highlight of acid ritualizing, but the droning title-track that rounds out makes each crash count all the more for the spaces that separate them. I dig this a lot, between you and me. I get vibes like Lamp of the Universe here in terms of sonic ambition and resultant presence. That’s not a comparison I make lightly, and this is a project I will be following.

Smote on Bandcamp

Weird Beard Records store

 

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Shiva the Destructor Post New Single “Hydronaut”; Find the Others Due March 26

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

SHIVA THE DESTRUCTOR

Ukrainian heavy psychedelic rockers Shiva the Destructor are giving a nine-minute preview of their upcoming debut album, Find the Others, in the new single “Hydronaut.” Following on from the prior-unveiled “Nirvana Beach,” it finds the Kyiv four-piece running out of songs to post in advance, so it’s probably a good thing the record’s out on March 26. You’ll find the track at the bottom of the post, and if and when you put it on, be ready to spend the entirety of its run with it. There’s a warm-toned, welcoming vibe that’s a little bit reminiscent of defunct Kyiv troupe Ethereal Riffian, but maybe more born of post-Elder progressive heavy and My Sleeping Karma‘s penchant for getting lost in the groove. But whatever else you take awawy from that meandering-ass last sentence, take the word “vibe,” because that and the melody are what it’s all about.

Haven’t heard the record yet, but it’s easy enough to dig “Hydronaut” and “Nirvana Beach,” so by all means, yes, do that.

The PR wire awaits you:

SHIVA THE DESTRUCTOR FIND THE OTHERS

Rodion Tsirka on “Hydronaut”:

It all started with a dense swampy riff that I came up with on April 20, 2016. I wanted to post a video on my YouTube channel that day, so I washed the dishes thoroughly, picked up a downtuned guitar and started playing. Right off the bat, the main riff came out.

On May 1, using the “range hood” method and having returned to the uptuned Shiva-tuning, I got out of my head almost all other parts of the future track. The method is that I record the main riff using a looper, leave it in the living room to play the loop, go to the kitchen, turn on the range hood fan at a speed at which I can barely hear the riff, and wash the dishes. After these five to ten minutes, melodies “derivative” of the main riff start playing in my head. The next step is to let myself simmer in those for a little, then come back to the living room, quickly turn off the looper and take the guitar just in time to figure out everything still playing in my head. In a way, the range hood fan works like a subway ride after a rehearsal — it has its own sonic range that can be relied on as a support on which something similar to what’s stuck in my head after a rehearsal starts to play.

So, there was this initial dense swampy guitar riff, and then a swampy dense bass riff emerged from it, layered by a light guitar intro. Actually, the whole track is a result of mixing something dense and swampy with something light and airy.

Then, with the guys, the verses were developed where the harmony moved somewhere and not always stayed in one place, as it often happened with my riffs back then, and the lyrics were written.

My initial idea was much thicker and slower, but together we made a song that significantly expanded the range of emotions it initially covered.

Pre-Order of “Find the Others” album at this location:
https://robustfellow.bandcamp.com/album/find-the-others

Progressive heavy psych group Shiva the Destructor plays sprawling, spiraling rock music that is superbly crafted for maximum atmospheric flow. Hailing from Kyiv, Ukraine, the formidable four-piece is a band of true compositional ambition. Shiva the Destructor will release the new full-length LP, ‘Find the Others’, on March 26 via Robustfellow Productions.

1.) Benares
2.) Hydronaut
3.) Summer of Love
4.) Ishtar
5.) Nirvana Beach

Shiva the Destructor features Andrii Pryimak (guitar, vocals, backing vocals, keyboards), Rodion Tsikra (guitar, vocals), Andrew Sernyak (bass, backing vocals) and Kostiantyn Kalachikov (drums), who replaced Marco Sharyi, the band’s original drummer and ideological co-creator who performed and composed lyrics on ‘Find the Others’.

https://www.facebook.com/shivathedestructor/
https://www.instagram.com/shivathedestructor/
https://shivathedestructor.com/
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds
https://www.instagram.com/robustfellow_prods
http://www.robustfellow.bandcamp.com

Shiva the Destructor, “Hydronaut”

Shiva the Destructor, Find the Others (2021)

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Somali Yacht Club Sign to Season of Mist; Reissues & New Album Soon

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 1st, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Hey, that’s awesome. Good for you, Somali Yacht Club. Along with Stoned Jesus being on Napalm, the Lviv trio’s signing to Season of Mist is the biggest heavy-underground inking I can think of — please correct me if I’m wrong. It’s good news in any case, and all the more so since it comes with word of a new album on the horizon. That’ll be fun, especially as it coincides with reissues for 2018’s The Sea (review here) and 2014’s The Sun (discussed here). Sign me up for new stuff for sure.

I’m normally in favor of get-it-all-out-there-as-fast-as-possible-or-at-least-send-it-to-me-early, but in Somali Yacht Club‘s case, if the new record doesn’t show up for a bit, I think that might be okay and give people a chance to get caught up. The Sea and The Sun both resonate on a frequency ill-suited to a quick superficial listen. These are records worth diving into. If a reissue gets an opportunity to do that before being overshadowed by a new album, I think that’d be fine.

On the other hand, new stuff please.

It’s an ongoing debate. With myself. Because I don’t have friends.

Anyhow, congrats to the band and cheers to Season of Mist on the ace pickup:

somali yacht club

SOMALI YACHT CLUB Signs to Season of Mist

Season of Mist are proud to announce the signing of psychedelic stoner rock trio SOMALI YACHT CLUB! The band will be releasing a brand new album as well as their back catalogue via Season of Mist in the near future. Stay tuned!

The band comments: “We’re proud to announce that our new album will be released on the Season of Mist. It’s an honor to be part of their roster, featuring many bands that are significant to us. We’re very excited and hope that this cooperation will be fruitful! “

For a glimpse of what to expect, check out SOMALI YACHT CLUB on Bandcamp!

SOMALI YACHT CLUB is a psychedelic stoner rock trio from Lviv, Ukraine. It started out as a jam session between band members from different Lviv groups, but soon turned into the main act for each of them.

The trio self-released the demo EP called ‘Sandsongs’ in 2011. After this, they played numerous shows in Ukraine and shared the stage with bands like ELDER, KADAVER, RED FANG and others. The first album “The Sun” was released on September 11, 2014 (Robustfellow). After the 2015 release of LP “The Sun” (Bilocation Records) the band went on their first European tour with ETHEREAL RIFFIAN (UA).

In 2018, SOMALI YACHT CLUB released the second album “The Sea” (Robustfellow, Bilocation Records) and toured with STRAYTONES (UA) and STONED JESUS Jesus (UA). The stoner rockers have played at festivals like Void, Swamp, Keep It Low and several Garmonbozia festivals.

Genre: Psychedelic Stoner Rock

Line-up:
Ihor – guitar, vocals, keys
Artur – bass
Oleksa – drums

http://facebook.com/Somaliyachtclub
http://somaliyachtclub.bandcamp.com
http://instagram.com/somaliyachtclub
https://www.facebook.com/seasonofmistofficial
http://www.season-of-mist.com/

Somali Yacht Club, The Sea (2018)

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Greenmachine’s D.A.M.N. Reissue out June 19

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 3rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan

greenmachine

With label representation in Japan, Europe, Taiwan and the US, it seems safe to say there’s a consortium standing behind this June 19 reissue of Greenmanchine‘s 1996 debut album, D.A.M.N., and reasonably so. The Japan-based troupe were raw beyond their years a quarter-century ago and D.A.M.N. still offers enough scathe to well earn its cult following in noise and sludge rock. The band had a new album out last year called Mountains of Madness, and I didn’t get to hear it, but their reunion has been going on for a while now on and off, and both this record and its follow-up, The Earth Beater, which was also issued on Man’s Ruin Records, stand the test of time. Some bite never relents.

So yes, here’s news from Robustfellow ProductionsLong Legs Long ArmsRiff Merchant Records and Bad Moon Rising. The more the merrier, I guess:

greenmachine damn

Greenmachine’s Sludge Classic “D.A.M.N.” To Be Released On Vinyl For The First Time Ever

Robust Relics Series is back with the reissue of the pure sludge masterpiece!

Please welcome Greenmachine from Japan.

Their debut album “D.A.M.N.” was released 24 years ago by local label TASTE Recs. [T/CD-1] in 1996.

Two years later it was released by the US cult label Man’s Ruin [MR103CD], with cover artwork designed by graphic artist/label owner Frank Kozik. That artwork still looks shocking and disturbing even today!

In 2003 Japan’s DIWPHALANX [PX-103] added “+3” to the title and re-released this beast once again. This Japanese re-issue is very difficult to find.

In 2020 Robustfellow invited two fine labels: Riff Merchant and Long Legs Long Arms to cover the globe with analogue sludgecore tunes, starting with “D.A.M.N.”

This is the first release of this album on vinyl in 24 years.

Biography:

Greenmachine named themselves after the Kyuss song “Green Machine,” the second track on Blues for the Red Sun. In 1996 they released their debut album, D.A.M.N. on TASTE Recs., reissued by Man’s Ruin Records. They followed with The Earth Beater two years later, also on Man’s Ruin. They disbanded in 1999 but resurfaced in 2003 with a new bass player and released The Archives of Rotten Blues in 2004 on Diwphalanx Records. Diwphalanx also reissued the two Man’s Ruin albums with bonus tracks in 2003. They played The Wizard’s Convention in 2005 and are featured on the DVD along with fellow Japanese artists Boris, Church of Misery and Eternal Elysium.

The band disbanded again in 2007, with the DVD release, “This is the End”, documenting their final show. The band has since done multiple reunion shows. The first was in 2010, the second in 2013. The line up for that show was MONZAWA on guitar/vocal, HASEGAWA on bass and DATSU on drums. After the 2013 reunion show, the band reunited again with MONZAWA on guitar/vocal, YOSHIKAWA on bass and DATSU on drums. The band recruited a new member, Max, on guitar in 2014 and released “FOR THE NIGHT AND BLOOD EP”(Daymare Recordings) in 2016. New full-length “Mountains of Madness” was released in 2019 via Long Legs Long Arms & Daymare Records.

Greenmachine Links:
https://www.facebook.com/GREENMACHiNE.Hardcorerock/
https://www.instagram.com/_grmc_/

Robustfellow links:
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds
https://www.instagram.com/robustfellow_prods
http://www.robustfellow.bandcamp.com

Long Legs Long Arms links:
https://www.facebook.com/3LAdisc/
https://www.instagram.com/3la_disc/
https://longlegslongarms.bandcamp.com/

Riff Merchant Records links:
https://www.riffmerchant.com/
https://www.instagram.com/riffmerchantrecords/

Bad Moon Rising links:
https://badmoonrisingtaipei.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BadMoonRisingTaipei/
https://www.instagram.com/bad_moon_rising_taipei/D.A.M.N
https://badmoonrising.bandcamp.com/

Greenmachine, D.A.M.N.

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Days of Rona: Tana Haugo Kawahara of Eternal Elysium

Posted in Features on May 5th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

The statistics of COVID-19 change with every news cycle, and with growing numbers, stay-at-home isolation and a near-universal disruption to society on a global scale, it is ever more important to consider the human aspect of this coronavirus. Amid the sad surrealism of living through social distancing, quarantines and bans on gatherings of groups of any size, creative professionals — artists, musicians, promoters, club owners, techs, producers, and more — are seeing an effect like nothing witnessed in the last century, and as humanity as a whole deals with this calamity, some perspective on who, what, where, when and how we’re all getting through is a needed reminder of why we’re doing so in the first place.

Thus, Days of Rona, in some attempt to help document the state of things as they are now, both so help can be asked for and given where needed, and so that when this is over it can be remembered.

Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan

eternal elysium

Days of Rona: Tana Haugo Kawahara of Eternal Elysium (Japan)

How are you dealing with this crisis as a label? Have you had to rework plans at all? How is everyone’s health so far?

All three members live in completely different locations inside Japan. From this year, with the new lineup, we meet once a month for a two-day rehearsal in Nagoya, at Okazaki’s Studio Zen. February’s and April’s rehearsals were both cancelled due to virus concerns regarding travel to and from different parts of Japan. We have a few gigs scheduled during the second half of this year, and so far no cancellations have been made. All of us are in good health.

What are the quarantine/isolation rules where you are?

Japan declared a formal state of emergency for the entire country on April 16, but because of the way the Japanese Constitution is written, the government doesn’t actually have the power to enforce any kind of quarantine or lockdown. It’s “suggested” or “recommended” for people to limit their movement, work from home when possible, etc. I live in a small village deep in the mountains so the situation is completely different from the big cities — lots of space and few people is normal around here. Even still, people are concerned, so more folks are wearing masks than usual, and the local restaurants, including mine, are doing take-out only and/or limiting operation hours. This also reduces the number of tourists coming out to the countryside from the cities.

How have you seen the virus affecting the community around you and in music?

Everyone agrees, it’s a weird time. Difficult and uncertain on so many levels.

Events and gatherings of all kinds have been cancelled, lots of people are either out of work or told to stay home, so there’s financial worry and additional stress for many. And for some other people, they don’t seem to care about it or comprehend the situation at all.

What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything?

Earth has spoken, we need to listen. Looking forward to the day we can gather to make and enjoy music with our brothers and sisters again!

www.eternalelysium.com/
http://eternalelysiumshop.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Eternal-Elysium-official-160089987381948/
https://www.facebook.com/RobustfellowProds/
http://robustfellow.blogspot.com/
robustfellow.bandcamp.com

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