Posted in Whathaveyou on July 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The Mon‘s Demon Box book is also a short-story collection, so I guess take ‘art book’ in the headline with that in mind. Leave it to the cats from Ufomammut/Malleus/Supernatural Cat — all the same people — to defy easy categorization. I’m a little surprised they didn’t come up with a separate name for their publishing company, but they’ve done art books for Ufommamut before and such. In any case, both seem like cool projects — you’re not going to go wrong staring for hours at Malleus art or seeing Urlo go multimedia with art, text and aural tie-ins. This is also the 20th anniversary of Supernatural Cat — and I think the 25th of Ufomammut — so yes, it’s pretty special that they continue to explore uncharted ground.
Kind of a niche thing, which feels odd to say about reading, but chalk it up to the context. If you’ve dug into these guys’ world before, you might have an advantage going in, but if you wanted to immerse, this seems like an opportunity to catch while you can, limited pressings being what they are and all that.
Info came down the PR wire:
Supernatural Cat, The Label Operated By Ufomammut And Malleus Rock Art Lab Members, Becomes A Publishing House; Urlo’s Demon Box Book + Exclusive Track Now Available
Italy-based Supernatural Cat Records, the label operated by members of Ufomammut, Malleus Rock Art Collective, and more, has expanded its artistic vision once again, now also operating as a small independent publishing house.
Over the years, the label has complemented its musical and visual journey with various publications connected to the Malleus collective, from the success of The Hammer Of God (over 1000 copies sold, celebrating the first ten years of Malleus) to exhibition catalogues, and The Art Of Ufomammut, a volume dedicated to the band’s graphic universe from its beginnings up to the album 8. Now, Malleus has decided to give continuity to this path by launching a more structured and independent editorial project in the world of publishing.
The first releases in this new phase include:
Magick – A collection focused on Malleus’ most esoteric and symbolic artwork.
Demon Box – A series of short stories written by Urlo (one of the three Malleus members and co-founder of Ufomammut with Poia), exploring a dark and visionary narrative world.
Demon Box is a 96-page book featuring 10 short stories, presented in both Italian and English, each one accompanied by a unique black and white illustration. The book comes in a 17 × 24 cm clothbound hardcover edition, with sewn binding and 150g paper. It is a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered copies, featuring a numbered screenprint on the inner back cover.
Included inside is a download code for “Demon Box,” an exclusive track by Urlo’s solo project, The Mon. The book is now available on supernaturalcat.com also as a bundle edition, which includes a special Demon Box t-shirt created for the release.
The goal is to create a small editorial universe, aligned with the unique and alternative vision they’ve long been exploring through images and music.
The Malleus collective states, “This is a very special and personal release, dark, visionary, and fully aligned with the aesthetic world we’ve been crafting through our music and visuals. Thanks to the continued support of our followers. We hope this new adventure will lead to more one-of-a-kind and unconventional publications. The journey continues.”
Watch a brief teaser for the new works HERE and place orders for the new books, merch, and more at the Supernatural Cat website/shop HERE: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/store/
Supernatural Cat was born at the end of the year 2005 by an idea of Malleus Rock Art Lab, one of the most original modern European music poster art collectives. Two of its three founding members are also part of the long-running psychedelic sludge metal trio Ufomammut and more. Over the past two decades, Supernatural Cat has released a wide array of albums from acts like Skyjoggers, Morkobot, OvO, Zolle, Incoming Cerebral Overdrive, Gotho, The Mon, and of course, Ufomammut. With Malleus handling the artwork for these records, most of the pressings include limited hand-screened versions, printed on high quality paper and materials, with the utmost care put into the presentation and sound. The collective has also partnered with other labels for some of their releases including Neurosis’ Neurot Recordings.
Earlier this year, the label launched a new US-based webshop through A Thousand Arms, which allows customers from North America and beyond to explore their vast catalog of incredible releases without paying inflated import shipping prices from Europe, joining indie labels such as Pelagic, Crazysane, Dunk!, Golden Antenna, Exile On Mainstream, and more.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 16th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Punk-rooted Italian heavy rockers Fvzz Popvli are set to head out again in Europe this Fall as they continue to support Feb. 2025’s Melting Pop (review here). This is ‘Part III’ of the tour. Part I was in March. Part II was in May.
Part III being in November after a couple Heavy Psych Sounds Fest appearances in Germany and the UK gives the band a bit of a respite before they head out, and the bulk of the shows coming after October puts them beyond the Fall fest season, which more and more bands seem to be doing this year in Europe, or at least I’m noticing it more. In any case, Fvzz Popvli will enter the field on Nov. 13, as you can see on the list of dates below, as taken from the PR wire. Note the Italian date for the 30th is TBA. I don’t know if that’s a fest or an open slot or what, but if you can give the band someplace to play/sleep, you could certainly do worse than to reach out.
Album stream’s at the bottom. Have at it:
*** FVZZ POPVLI – Melting Tour 2025 – part III***
– the Italian fvzz riffers will be back on tour soon –
Today we are stoked to announce that our Italian fvzz rock riffers FVZZ POPVLI will be back on the road this Fall !!!
*** FVZZ POPVLI – Melting Tour 2025 – part III *** 30.08.2025 – B – BILZEN – INFERNUM FEST 24.10.2025 – D – BERLIN – HPS FEST 25.10.2025 – D – DRESDEN – HPS FEST 31.10.2025 – UK – LONDON – HPS FEST 13.11.2025 – I – TURIN – BLAH BLAH 14.11.2025 -F – TOULON – LA BIÈRE DE LA RADE 15.11.2025 – F – NICE – LA ZOMNÈ 16.11.2025 – F – BARBERAZ – BRIN DE ZINC 18.11.2025 – CH – GENÈVE – D’URGENCE DISK 19.10.2025 – CH – INS – SCHÜXENHAUS 20.11.2025 – D – TUBINGEN – SHEDHALLE 21.11.2025 – D – BIELEFELD – EXTRA BLUES BAR 22.11.2025 – NL – NIJMEGEN – DE ONDERBROEK 23.11.2025 – NL – AMSTERDAM – LOVE FOR LOUD 25.11.2025 – D – WEIMAR – C.KELLER 26.11.2025 – D – LEIPZIG – BLACK LABEL 27.11.2025 – CZ – PRAGUE – KLUBOVNA 28.11.2025 – CH – ST GALLEN – RUMPELTUM 29.11.2025 – CH – BASEL – QUARTERDECK 30.11.2025 – I – TBA
Founded in Rome by Pootchie and Datio in A.D. MMXVI, the idea was to build a powertrio with a direct and rough way to deliver heavy fuzzy riffs. Their sound melts Black Sabbath-style heavy riffs with the roughest garagepunk bands attitude -like The Stooges-, adding the psychedelia from the 70’s to create their own style!
In November 2024 the band signed a new agreement with Heavy Psych Sounds and released a brand new album called Melting Pop in early 2025.
Fvzz Popvli: Pootchie – Gvitar and Voice Alex – Bass George – Drvms
Alright, day two. Here we go. I never really know how a given day of the Quarterly Review is going to flow until I get there. The hope is that in slating releases for a given day — which I mostly do randomly over time, though I generally like to lead with something ‘bigger’ — I’ve considered things like not putting too much that sounds the same together, geographic variability, and so on. Sometimes that plan works, and I get a day like yesterday, which was pretty close to ideal. If that was the pattern for this entire QR, I’d be just fine with that, but I know better. One day at a time, as all the inspirational tchotchkes say.
Feeling good though headed into day two, so I’ll take it.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew
The narrative around L.A.-by-way-of-Portland’s Blackwater Holylight at this point is one of growth, and well it should be. At seven years’ remove from their self-titled debut (review here), the four-piece offer the four-song If You Only Knew — three originals and a take on Radiohead‘s “All I Need” — as something of a stopgap four years after their third LP, Silence/Motion (review here). And like that 2021 album, “Wandering Lost,” “Torn Reckless” and “Fate is Forward” see the band working to expand their sound. They’re not upstarts anymore, and the marriage of dream-pop and crush on “Wandering Lost” alone is worth the price of admission, never mind the downward swirl of “Torn Reckless” the melodic burst-through and quiet space of “Fate is Forward” or the explosion in the back half of the Radiohead tune. Pro shop, all the way.
There’s a deep current of Melvinsian quirk in Spider Kitten‘s thickly-riffed slog, and it’s in the creeper-into-noiseburst of “Revelation #1” with its later rawest-Alice in Chains harmonies as much as the false start on “Febrile and Taciturn” and a chugblaster like “Wretched Evergreen” which is just one of the six songs in the 14-song tracklisting under two minutes long. Throughout the 37 minutes, shit gets weird. Then it gets weirder. Then they do folk balladeering in “Sueño” for a minimal-Western divergence prefacing the later soundtrackery of “Woe Betide Me.” Then they’re back to bashing away — but at what? Themselves? Their instruments certainly. Maybe a bit of shaking genre convention if not outright, all-the-time defiance. The key blend is ultimately of the crunch in their guitar and bass tones and the melodies that come to top it — not that all the vocals are melodic, mind you — with a kind of creative restlessness that makes each cut find its own way through, some at a decent clip, to leave a dent right in the middle of your forehead.
Montreal three-piece Mooch align with Black Throne Productions for their fourth album release. The band, comprised of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Ben Cornel, guitarist/vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Julian Iac and drummer/vocalist Alex Segreti, have run a thread of quick, purposeful growth through the last several years, with 2024’s Visions (review here) following 2023’s Wherever it Goes following their 2020 debut, Hounds, and other singles and such besides. At their hookiest, in a piece like “Hang Me Out (False Sun),” they remind some of At Devil Dirt‘s heavy-fuzz poppy plays, but one knows better than to expect Mooch to be singleminded on an LP, and Kin plays out with according complexity, finding a particularly satisfying resolution in “Prominence” before hitting successive, different crescendos in “Lightning Rod,” “Gemini” and the eight-minute “Zenith” to end the record. A band who genuinely seem to follow where the material takes them while refusing to get lost on the way.
I’m not a punker. I was never cool enough to listen to punk rock. Generally when I hear something that’s rooted in punk and it lands with me, I assume that means the band are doing punk wrong. If so, I like the way Snakes & Pyramids do punk wrong on Disappearer. The tonal presence, their willingness to make not-everything be exactly on-the-beat, the liberal doses of wah treatment on the lead guitar to give a psychedelic edge, the effects on the vocals helping that as well, plus the flexibility to roll out a heavy riff. There’s not a whole lot to not like as they push genre limits across 38 minutes and eight songs, finding space for post-punk in “Disappearer” or “All the Same” before they really dig in on the near-eight-minute closer “Seven Gods.” For future reference, the band is the doubly-Brian’ed three-piece of Brian Hammond (ex-The Curses), Brian Connor (ex-Motherboar) and Cavan Bligh. Psychedelic punk, even more than punk-metal or any other way you might want to try to blend it, is incredibly difficult to pull off well. That seems much less the case here.
Unbelievable Lake, I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream
There is only one song on I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream, and it’s the title-track. At 41 minutes long, that’s all you need, and Northern Irish psych-drone experimentalists Unbelievable Lake — think Queen Elephantine, but longer-form, more effects on the guitar, and dramatic in the ebbs and flows — the first 10 minutes are a movement unto themselves, with a linear build into a consuming payoff; due comedown provided. Those comparatively still stretches can be some of the most difficult for a band who’ve just blown it out to dwell in, but Unbelievable Lake use negative-space as much as crush to make their way toward the next culmination, which sort of gradually devolves instrumentally but makes its way along the path of residual noise toward one last round of pummel. You bet your ass they make it count. This is a significant accomplishment, and enough on its own wavelength that most ears will glaze over to hear it. But there’s just the right kind of brain out there for it, as well. Maybe that’s you.
Krautfuzz scorch the ground on the 23-minute “Live at the Church A” to such a degree that I’m surprised there was anything left to plug in for when they bring out J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Witch to take part in “Live at the Church B,” let alone a full album-unto-itself 39 minutes’ worth of go. Rest assured, there’s plenty of noiseshove in “Live at the Church B” as well, and it arrives quicker than in the preceding slab, guitar running forward and back in loops even before the swirl cuts through the fuller distortion surrounding at about seven minutes in, howls and wails and wormholes and spacetime bend inward, flex outward, breathe like the cosmic microwave background, and the exploration continues after the rumble (mostly) subsides, getting ready to sneak in one more mini-freakout before they’re done. Damn, Krautfuzz. Save some lysergic push for the rest of the class. Or better, don’t. Clearly they were rolling out the ‘red carpet’ for Mr. Mascis. It just happened to be red from all the plasma churning thereupon.
Even before they get to the six-and-a-half-minute “The Door” or the dreamy midsection of closer “Medusa,” London’s Sleeping Mountain demonstrate patience in their delivery early on with the instrumental-save-for-the-sample leadoff “Humans” and “Walls of Shadows,” which leads with guest vocals before the full tonal crux of the riff is unveiled, and continues in methodical, doom-leaning fashion. That’s a vibe that doesn’t necessarily persist as the later “Akelarre” puts the cymbals out front and pushes a more uptempo finish ahead of the closer “Medusa,” but the dude-twang “Alibi” and the all-in nod of “Tennessee Walking Horse” underscore the message of dynamic, and while this self-titled may be the first album from Sleeping Mountain, it portrays the three-piece as confident in their approach and sure of their direction, even if they’re not 100 percent on where that direction is going. Nor should they be. They should be writing the songs and letting the rest work itself out over time, which is what you get here. They sound like a band I’ll still be writing about in a decade, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.
Behold the awaited first album from Durham, UK, sludge-doom, put-a-pillow-over-your-face-and-it’s-made-of-riffs betrayers Goblinsmoker. Dubbed The King’s Eternal Throne and indeed capping with the three-minute minimalist homage “Toad King (Forest Synth Offering),” the preceding title-track works its way from its more poised opening into an engrossing meganod of hairy-ass distortion, with the later-arriving throatripper screams ready for whatever Dopethrone comparison you want to make, and no less sharp in the biting. Of course, by the time they get to that third-of-four inclusions, this has already been well proven on side A’s “Shamanic Rites” and “Burn Him,” the leadoff holding to a steady and malevolent lumber while the follow-up takes a faster swing to upending witchy convention as the vocals offer the most vicious devourment I’ve heard from an English band since Dopefight roamed the earth. Down with humans. Up with toads. Familiar enough in its sludgy roots, The King’s Eternal Throne makes its own trouble like dog food makes gravy (with added liquid, in other words), and basks in heaps of shenanigans besides. The songs are like slow-motion razor juggling.
The three-song sophomore full-length, Shrine, from Italian heavy progressives Onioroshi is the band’s first outing since 2019’s debut, Beyond These Mountains (review here), and is duly adventurous for that. Set up across “Pyramid” (18:18), “Laborintus” (15:35) and “Egg” (20:31), the album feels cohesive in refusing to be anything other than one it is. Its psychedelia is met with fervent terrestrial groove, and “Laborintus” spends most of its 15 minutes sounding like it’s about to fall apart, but never does. Duh, should I call it expansive? The truth is at 54 minutes, it’s a significant undertaking, but “Laborintus” ends up thrilling for the element of danger, and though raw in the production, “Egg” builds its own world in atmospherics, pushing further in the ebbs and flows of “Pyramid,” which itself takes loud/quiet trades to a less-predictable place. Some of Shrine feels insular, but that seems to be the point. A creative call to worship, and maybe worshiping the creativity itself.
Whoa. First of all, with Tempus Deorum, you’ve got L’Ira del Baccano. The Roman psychedelic explorers follow 2023’s Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here) with the 19-minute piece “Tempus 25,” an ether-bound reach that hypnotizes well ahead of unveiling its full tonal breadth and even crushes a bit before receding ahead of the next go. With synth cascading through the midsection and a duly expansive build that hits two more climaxes before it’s through, “Tempus 25” sets itself up in contrast to Tilburg, the Netherlands’ Yama, whose 2014 debut, Ananta (review here), is well remembered as they offer three songs “Wish to Go Under,” “The Absolute” and “Naraka,” that feel more solidified in their structure but that offer complement to “Tempus 25” for that. Not short on scope themselves, Yama let the chug patterning and vocal soar of “The Absolute” stand in evidence of their progressivism, and after 11 years, they sound like they have more to say. One only hopes that’s the case all around on this somehow-tidy, 35-minute split LP.
Posted in Reviews on April 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
A friendly reminder that the end of the week is not, in fact, the end of the Quarterly Review, which will continue through Monday and Tuesday. That brings the number of releases covered to 70 total, which feels like plenty, and should hopefully carry us through a busy Spring release season. I’m thinking June for the next QR now but don’t be surprised if that turns into July as we get closer. All I know is I wanna do it before it’s two full weeks again.
As always, I hope you’ve found something that speaks to you in all this 10-per-day nonsense. If not, first, wow, really? Second, it ain’t over yet. Maybe today’s your day. One way to know.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager
You may be mellow-vibes, but unless you’re “Not the Season,” Dead Meadow have one up on you forever. While Voyager to Voyager, which is the L.A. band’s eighth or ninth LP depending on what you count, comes with the tragic real-world context of bassist Steve Kille‘s 2024 passing, he does feature on the long-running trio’s first offering through Heavy Psych Sounds, and whether it’s “The Space Between” or the shuffle-stepping “The Unhounded Now” or the pastoral “A Question of Will” and the jangly strum of “Small Acts of Kindness” later on, guitarist/vocalist Jason Simon, Kille and drummer Mark Laughlin celebrate the ultra-languid take on heavy, psychedelic and shoegazing rock that’s made Dead Meadow a household name for weirdos. Not that they’re not prone to a certain wistfulness, but Voyager to Voyager is vibrant rather than mournful, and the title-track is an album flow unto itself in just eight minutes. If you can slow your manic-ass brain long enough to sit and hear it front-to-back, you’re in for a treat.
There is a sense of stepping out as Irish troubadour Seán Mulrooney makes his full-length solo debut with This is My Prayer on Ómós Records. Mulrooney is best known for residing at the core of Tau and the Drones of Praise, and for sure, pieces of This is My Prayer are coming from a similar place, but where there was psychedelic meander for the band, under his own moniker, Mulrooney brings a clarity of tone and presence to lyrics ranging from spiritual seeking to what seems to have been an unceremonious breakup. With character and emotion in his voice and range in his craft, Mulrooney sees a better world on “Ag Múscliaghacht” and posits a new masculinity — totally needed; trainwreck gender — in “Walking With the Wind,” meets indie simplicity with lap steel in “Jaguar Dreams” and, in closer “The Pufferfish,” pens a fun McCartney-style bouncer about tripping sea life. These are slivers of the adventures undertaken in singer-songwriter style as Mulrooney hones this solo identity. Very curious to see where the adventure might take him.
Issued in 2024, Sun Dog is the third MaidaVale long-player, and with it, the Swedish heavy psychedelic rockers showcase six years’ worth of growth from their second album. Melancholic of mood in “Fools” and “Control” and the folkish “Alla Dagar” and “Vultures,” Sun Dog starts uptempo with the Afrobeat-influenced “Faces,” drifts, shreds, then drifts again in “Give Me Your Attention,” dares toward pop in “Daybreak” and fosters a sense of the ironic in “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Pretty Places,” the latter of which, with a keyboardier arrangement, could’ve been the kind of New Wave hit that would still be in your head 40 years later. The nine-songer (10 if you get “Perplexity,” which was previously only on the vinyl) doesn’t dwell in any single space for too long — only “Wide Smile is Fine” and “Vultures” are over four minutes, though others are close — and that lets them balance the downer aspects with forward momentum. MaidaVale are no strangers to that kind of movement, of course, but Sun Dog‘s mature realization of their sound feels so much more vast in range.
Here come Causa Sui with another live album. And I’m not saying the only reason the thankfully-prolific Danish psychedelic treasures, heavyjazz innovators and El Paraiso label honchos are only releasing a complement to 2023’s Loppen 2021 (review here) to rub in the fact that I’ve never been lucky enough to catch them on a stage — any stage — but I am starting to take it personally. Call me sensitive. In any case, despite feeling existentially mocked by their chemistry and the fluidity of “Sorcerer’s Disciple” or the 22-minute “Visions of a New Horizon,” the hour-long set is glorious as one would expect, and though Loppen 2024 is a blip on the way to Causa Sui‘s forthcoming studio album, In Flux, especially when set alongside their previous outing from the same Christiania-based venue, it highlights the variable persona of the band and the reach of their material. Someday I’ll see this goddamn band.
Underlying the grit and stoner drawl of “El Rey del Mundo de los Muertos” is the lurching progression of Black Sabbath‘s “Sweet Leaf,” and that reinterprative ethic comes to the strutting Pentagrammery of “La Verdad es Tu Ataud” as well, but in the tonal density and the way their groove snails its way into your ear canal, the vibe Fulanno bring to Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo is in line with stoner doom traditionalism, and the revelry is palbale in the slow nod of the title-track or the horror samples sprinkled throughout or the earlier Electric Wizard-style languidity of “El Nacimiento de la Muerte.” They save an acoustic stretch in reserve to wrap “Desde las Tinieblas,” but if you think that’s going to clean your soul by that point then you haven’t been paying attention. Unrepentantly dark, stoned and laced with devil-, death-and riff-worship, Nosotros Somos el Fin del Mundo further distinguishes Fulanno in an always crowded Argentinian underground, and dooms like a bastard besides.
Because the age we live in permits such a thing and it tells you something about the music, I’m going to cut and paste the credits for Israeli duo Ze Stoner‘s debut EP/demo, Desert Buddhist. Dor Sarussi is credited with “bass guitar, spaceships, vocals,” while Alexander Krivinski handles “didgeridoo, spaceships, drums, and percussion.” How tripped out does a band need to be to have two members credited with “spaceships,” you ask? Quite tripped out indeed. Across the 12:09 “Part I – The Awakness” (sic) and the 11:41 “Part II – The Trip,” and the much-shorter 1:41 finale “Part III – The Enlightenment,” Ze Stoner take the meditative doom of Om or an outfit like Zaum and extrapolate from it a drone-based approach that retains a meditative character. It is extreme in its capacity to induce a trance, and as Desert Buddhist unfolds, it plays as longer movements tied together as a single work. There is massive potential here. One hopes Sarussi, Krivinski, their spaceships and didgeridoo are just beginning their adventures in the cosmos.
Oslo-based newcomers Arv aren’t shy about what their sound is trying to do. Their debut album, Curse & Courage, arrives via the wheelhouse of Vinter Records and brings together noise-laced and at-times-caustic hardcore with the atmospherics, echoing tremolo and churning intensity of post-metal. They lean to one side or the other throughout, and “Wrath” seems to get a bit of everything, but it’s a harder line to draw than one might think because hardcore as a style is all urgency and post-metal very often brings a more patient take. Being able to find a place in songwriting between the two, well, Arv aren’t the first to do it, but they are impressively cohesive for Curse & Courage being their first record, and the likes of “Victim,” the overwhelming rush of “Forsaken” earlier on and the more-ambient-but-still-vocally-harsh closing title-track set up multiple avenues for future evolution of the ideas they present here. Too aggressive to be universal in its appeal, but makes undeniable use of its scathe.
I’m not sure what’s going on in “Erotik Fvel P.I.M.P.,” but there’s chicanery a-plenty throughout Fvzz Popvli‘s fourth full-length, Melting Pop, which is released in renewed cooperation with Heavy Psych Sounds. Hooks, fuzz, and the notion that anything else would be superfluous pervade the Indiana Jones-referencing “Temple of Doom” and “Telephone” at the outset, the latter with some choice backing vocals, and they kick the fuzz into overdrive on “Salty Biscvits” with room besides for a jangly verse. Running an ultra-manageable 30 minutes, the album breaks in half with four songs on each side. “Kommando” leads off the second half with dirtier low end tone ahead of the slower-rolling “Ovija,” which shouts and howls and is all kinds of righteously unruly, where “Cop Sacher” punks at the start and has both gang vocals and a saxophone, which I can say with confidence nothing else among the 70 records in this Quarterly Review even tried let alone pulled off, and they close with due swagger and surprising class in “The Knight.” Part of Fvzz Popvli‘s persona to this point has been based in rawness, so it’s interesting to hear them fleshing out more complex arrangments, but at heart they remain very much stoner rock for the glory of stoner rock.
The tone worship is there, the working-class-dude stoner swing is there, and the humor that might result in a song like “Hypertension” — for which no less than Bob Balch of Fu Manchu sits in — so when I compare Rust Bucket to Maryland’s lost sons Earthride, please know that I’m not talking out of my ass. The Minnesota-based double-guitar five-piece revel in low end buzz-tone, and with no-pretense groove, throaty vocals and big personality, that spirit is there. Doesn’t account for the boogie of “Keep Us Down,” but everybody’s gotta throw down now and then. They shift into a sludgier mood by the time they get around to “The Darkness” and “Watch Your Back,” but the idea behind this first Rust Bucket feels much more like a bunch of guys getting together to hammer out some cool songs, maybe play some shows, do a record and see how it goes. On paper, that makes Rust Bucket an unassuming start, but its anti-bullshit stance, steady roll and addled swing make it a gem of the oldschool variety. Much to their credit, they call the style, “fuzzy caveman dad rock.” They forgot ‘bearded,’ but otherwise that about sums it up. Maybe the beard is implied?
It is appropriate that Mountain Dust named their third LP after themselves, since it finds them transcending their influences and honing a cross-genre approach that’s never sounded more their own than it does in these nine songs. From the densely-weighted misdirect of “Reap” with its Earth-sounding drone riff through the boogieing en route to the mellower and more open soul-showcase “Waiting for Days to End” — backing vocals included, see also “It’s Already Done” on side B — and the organ in “Vengeance,” the dynamic between the Graveyard-style ballad “This is It” and the keyboard/synth-fueled instrumental outro “All Eyes But Two,” Mountain Dust gracefullly subverts retroist expectations with individualized songwriting, performance and production, and this material solidifies the Montreal four-piece among the more flexible acts doing anything in the sphere of 1970s-style heavy rock. That’s still there, understand, but like the genre itself, Mountain Dust have very clearly grown outward from their foundations.
Posted in Reviews on April 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
A lot going on today, not the least of which is the Spring 2025 Quarterly Review passing the halfway mark. Normally this would’ve happened yesterday, but half of 70 records is 35 and unless I’ve got the math wrong that’s where we’re at here. It’s a decent time to check and see if there’s anything you’ve missed over the last couple days. You never know how something will hit you the next time.
The adventure continues…
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Messa, The Spin
Now signed to Metal Blade — which is about as weighty as endorsements get for anything heavy these days — Italy’s Messa emerge from the pack as cross-genre songwriters working at a level of mastery across their fourth album, The Spin, elevating riff-led songs with vocal melodicism and aesthetic flexibility. “Fire on the Roof” is a hook ready to tattoo itself to your brain, while “The Dress” dwells in its ambience before getting intense and deceptively technical — just because a band dooms out doesn’t mean they can’t play — ahead of the Iommi-circa-’80 solo’s payoff. It’s all very grand, very sweeping, very encompassing, very talented and expensive-sounding. “At Races” and “Reveal” postulate a single ‘Messa sound’ that someone more important than me will come up with a clever name for, and the band’s ascent of the last nine years will continue unabated as they’re heralded among the foremost stylistic innovators of their generation. You won’t be able to say they didn’t earn it.
Kansas-based heavy djent instrumentalists After Nations offer their fifth full-length, Surface | Essence, with a similar format to 2023’s The Endless Mountain (review here), and, fortunately, a similarly crushing ethic. Where the prior album explored Buddhist concepts, the band seem to have traded that for Hinduist themes, but the core approach remains in a mix of sounds churning and progressive. Meshuggah are a defining influence in the heavier material, but each ‘regular’ song (about four minutes) is offset by a shorter (about a minute) ambient piece of one sort or another, and so while Surface | Essence gives a familiar core impression, what the band add to that — including in short, Between the Buried and Me-ish quiet breaks like in “Yāti” and “Vīrya” — is their own. Not to harp on it, but the last record played out the same way and it worked there too. Eventually, one assumes, the two sides will bleed together and they’ll lay waste with that all their mathy interconnected atmospheric assault. As-is, the gigantism of their heaviest parts serves them well.
Taking its chiaroscuro thematic to a meta level, The Complicate Path to the Multiverse breaks its eight-song procession in half, with four heavy rockers up front followed by four acoustic-based cuts thereafter. It’s not a hard and fast rule — there’s still some funky wah in the penultimate “When it’s All Over,” for example — but it lets the Roman troupe give a sense of build as they make their way to “Cradle of Madness” in drawing the two sides of light and dark together. The lyrics do much of the heavier lifting in terms of the theme — that is, the heavier material isn’t overwhelmingly grim despite being the ‘darker’ side — but they let tonal crunch have its say in that regard as well, and side A brings to mind heavy rockers with a sense of progressivism like Astrosoniq while side B pays that off with a creative turn. If you don’t know what you’re getting going into it, the songwriting carries the day anyhow, and as laid back as the groove gets, there’s an urgency of expression underlying the delivery.
Likely no coincidence that London instrumentalist guitar/drum duo Bident — get it, bi-dent? two teeth? there are two of them in the band? ah forget it — launch their debut album, Blink, with “Psychological Raking.” That opener lives up to its billing in its movement between parts and sets up the overarching quirk and delight-in-throwing-a-twist that the subsequent eight tracks provide, shenanigans abound in “Calorina Leaper,” “Thhinking With a Moshcap On” and “Blink,” which renews the drum gallop at the end. With a noteworthy character of fuzz, Blink can accommodate the push of “Two-Note Pony” — which sure sounds like there’s bass on it — the nod in “Bovine Joni” and the sprint that takes hold in the second half of “That Sad,” and their use of the negative space where other instruments or vocals might be is likewise purposeful, but they don’t sound like they’re lacking in terms of arrangements thanks to the malleability of tone and tempo throughout. They operate in a familiar sphere, but there’s persona here that will come to fruition as they proceed.
Death-sludge and post-metallic lumber ooze forth from the five songs of Harvest of Ash‘s second full-length, Castaway, which keeps its atmospheric impulses in check through grounded riffing and basslines as the whole band takes straightforward nod and extreme metal methodologies and smashes them together in a grueling course like that of “Embracing.” Remember in like 1996 when a band like Skinlab or Pissing Razors could just make you feel like you needed to take a shower? There’s a bit of that happening on Castaway as well in the opening title-track or the nine-minute “Constellation” later on, what with its second-half murk and strident riff, but a turn to quieter contemplations or a flash of brighter tone, whatever it is that offsets the churn in a given song, gives breadth to all that misanthropic plodding and throaty gurgle. Accordingly, Harvest of Ash end up both aggressive and hypnotic. I’m not sure it is, at least entirely, but Castaway positions itself as post-metal, and if it is, it is its own interpretation of the style’s tropes.
Berlin’s Vlimmer — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, label head and producer Alexander Leonard Donat — return on a not-surprising quick turnaround from late-’24’s full-length, Bodenhex (review here) with six new tracks that include a Super Furry Animals cover of “It’s Not the End of the World?” and quickly establish a goth-meets-new-wave electro dance melancholy in “Firmament” that gives over to the German-language “Ungleichgewicht,” residing stylistically somewhere between The Cure and krautrock experimentalism. Guitar comes forward in “Friedhofen,” but Donat keeps the mood consistent on Diskomfort where the album ranged more freely, and even as the title-track moves into its finishing wash, the bumout remains. And I don’t know if that’s an actual harpsichord on “Nachleben,” but it’s a reminder that the open arrangements are part of what keeps me coming back to Vlimmer, along with the fact that they don’t sound like anything else out there that I’ve heard, the music is unpredictable, and they take risks in craft.
When Duskhead posted “Two Heads” in December from their The Messenger four-songer EP, it was the first new music from the Netherlands-based rockers in a decade. Fair enough to call it a return, then, as the band — which features members culled from Tank86 and The Grand Astoria — unfurl a somewhat humble in everything but the music 15 minutes of new material. “My Guitar Will Save the Day” answers the Elder-ish vocal melody with a fervent Brant Bjork-style roll, while “Kill the Messenger” cuts the tempo for a more declarative feel and “Searchlights” takes that stomp and makes it swing to round out, some layering at the end feeling like it’s dropping hints of things to come, though one hesitates to predict momentum for a band who just got back after 11 years of silence. Still, if they’re going for it, there’s life in this material and ground to be explored from here. Concept proven. Back to work.
Plenty to hear in The Watcher‘s Cruz Del Sur-issued late-2024 debut Out of the Dark as the Boston unit — not to be confused with San Fran rockers The Watchers — unfurl the Trouble-and-Pentagram-informed take on traditionalist metal. The title-track opens and makes an energetic push while calling to mind ’80s metal in the hook, where “Strike Back” and the lead-heavy “Burning World” emphasize the metal running alongside the doom in their sound. Time for a big slowdown? You guessed it. They fall off the edge the world with “Exiled,” but rather than delve into epic Sabbathianism right then, they break into to the thrashier “The Revelator,” which only gets grittier as it goes. “Kill or Be Killed” and “The Final Hour” build on this vitality before the capper “Thy Blade, Thy Blood” saves its charge for the expected but still satisfying crescendo. Fans of Crypt Sermon and Early Moods will want to take particular note.
Each of the six inclusions on Weed Demon‘s cleverly-titled third long-player, The Doom Scroll, adds something to the mix, so while one might look at the front cover, the Columbus, Ohio, band’s moniker and general presentation and think they’re only basking in weed-worshipping dirt-riffed sludge, that’s not actually the case. Instead, “Acid Dungeon” starts off with dungeon synth foreboding before the instrumental “Tower of Smoke” lulls you into sludgenosis before “Coma Dose” brings deathlier vibes and, somewhere, a guest appearance from Shy Kennedy (ex-Horehound), “Roasting the Sacred Bones” strips back to Midwestern pummel circa 2002 in its stoned Rustbelt disaffection, “Dead Planet Blues” diverges for acoustics and the vinyl-only secret track “Willy the Pimp,” a Frank Zappa cover, closes. By the end of the record, Weed Demon are revealed as decidedly more complex than they seem to want to let on, but I suppose if you’re numbed out on whichever chemical derivative of THC it is that actually does anything, it’s all riffs one way or the other. You want THC-P, by the way. THC-A, the ‘a’ stands for “ain’t about shit.” I’m gonna guess Weed Demon know the difference.
The one-man solo-project of Jon Weisnewski (also of Sandrider, formerly of Akimbo), Nuclear Dudes released the rampaging full-length Boss Blades (review here) in 2023, glorious in both its extremity-fueled catharsis and its anti-genre fuckery. Weisnewski described the seven-song EP Compression Crimes 1 as “a synthwave album, probably,” and he might be right about that, but it’s definitely not just that. “Death at Burning Man” brings unruly techno until it lands in Mindless Self Indulgence pulsations, where “Tomb Crawler” surges near its end with metallic lashing. “Skyship” is so good at being electro-prog it’s almost obnoxious, and that too feels like the point as Weisnewski sees through creative impulses that are so much his own. Sleeper outfit, maybe. Never gonna be huge. But if you can find someone else making this kind of noise, you’re better at the internet than I am.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Certainly L’Ira del Baccano have been kicking around this whole time — their maybe-fourth full-length, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), came out in 2023 — but it’s something of a surprise to see Tilburg, the Netherlands, classic desert rockers Yama. The Dutch outfit released their debut album, Ananta (review here), in 2014, and one assumes after doing a show together or some such, the two bands became friends.
A decade later, here comes Tempus Deorum, a new split with L’Ira del Baccano‘s first new material since the last record (not that long) and Yama‘s first new material in 11 years. Curious to hear what both bands have come up with for it, but definitely some added intrigue in the assertion of psychedelic experimentation in doom and so on. There’s no audio from the LP posted yet that I’ve found, but keep an eye out.
I don’t remember if this was from socials or the PR wire, but I’m not sure it matters. Info and preorder links follow, from the internet:
L’IRA DEL BACCANO and Yama team up for a special split album entitled “Tempus Deorum”, to be released on March 28th !
We are super stoked to start the presale of this this incredible split !
In the summer of 2015, in the Italian Dolomites, a friendship between two European heavy underground bands was struck. About a decade later, Roman psych-doom quartet L’Ira Del Baccano and Tilburgian doom rock outfit Yama join forces in a musical collaboration: their split album ‘Tempus Deorum’, to be released on March 28th through Subsound Records (Italy).
L’Ira Del Baccano’s contribution comprises a drawn-out 19-minute instrumental psych doom jam, in which they fully expand the concept of an ever-evolving song, taking a theme and leading it on a dynamic roller-coaster journey, reshaping it through the heaviness of doom, the psychedelia of improvisation and the precision of progressive rock.
Yama bring some of their doomiest tracks to the table and experiment with psychedelic drone elements, in collaboration with producer David Luiten (Autarkh).
‘Tempus Deorum’ (‘Time Of The Gods’) is not only an allegorical congregation of deities, it is also the blossoming of psychedelic heaviness.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 6th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I’m honestly not sure how to classify the upcoming Fvzz Popvli album, whether Melting Pop will be the Roman trio’s first for Heavy Psych Sounds proper or if 2023’s III (review here) was through the label as well as RetroVox or has been reissued or the band just worked with HPS for booking or what. When they signed, there was a sense they were re-signing, that’s all. In any case, they’re on the label now and the record’s coming out.
Imagine heavy garage and proto-punk meeting with loose-groove fuzz, shades of Ramones getting their feet under them, but grown up on Fu Manchu and desert riffing. They’ve never been nor have they ever tried to be perfect — perfect would ruin the songs — but the rawness that’s been part of their collective character to this point comes up against an inevitable awareness of self in the sound. That is, Fvzz Popvli have been around for a bit at this point and, almost in spite of themselves, know what they’re doing. In this case, they’re melting pop.
Also, they’re going on tour.
The dates are in the poster below, and beneath that, I’ve included the album info as well, because I hadn’t had the chance to post it and for my own future reference.
So, from socials and the PR wire, then. A rare collaboration between the two in one post:
Europe!!! fvzzpopvli will be hitting the road in March to celebrate their new LP Melting Pop!!! Be sure to catch them!!!
Say Fvzz Popvli: “Happy new year folks! Let’s start with an awesome announcement: The 1st leg for the MELTING TOUR, the tour will support our upcoming release “MELTING POP” across Europe! We gonna perform in Italy,Switzerland,Germany,Holland,Belgium,Austria and for the very 1st time GREECE!”
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Founded in Rome by Pootchie and Datio in A.D. MMXVI, FVZZ POPVLI is a power trio that delivers heavy fuzzy riffs in a straightforward and no-frills fashion. They play a wild blend of Black Sabbath-style heaviness, a rough garage punk band attitude à la The Stooges, and 70s psychedelia.
The band released their debut EP in May 2017 with a promotional tour in Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In June, they signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for the release of their debut album “Fvzz Dei”, which has brought the band to more than 70 European stages in eight countries including the revered indie festival Duna Jam. In 2018, FVZZ POPVLI released their second album “Magna Fuzz” followed by 75 European shows with appearances at festivals such as HPS Fest, Le Grand Incendie, Berlin Swamp Fest and Tabernas Desert Rock Festival. In 2019, the band signed with indie label Retrovox and released their third studio album “Fvzz Popvli III” in March 2023, supported by four European tours.
FVZZ POPVLI have shared the stage with White Hills, Black Rainbows, Ufomammut, Karma To Burn, Mars Red Sky, Rotor, Naxatras, Lili Refrain, El Perro, Giöbia, Zodiac, DYSE, Powder for Pigeons, Hypnos, The Tazers, Mother Engine, The Midnight Ghost Train and much more.
About their upcoming new album, the band says: “As always, we decided to do our own thing. We’re just so over the same old tired riffs and worn-out stoner vibes, like a pair of Birkenstocks at an indie concert, and let’s not even start on those interesting lyrics about how to smoke weed (seriously, tell us more!). So here we are at a crossroads: should we just follow the crowd and do what everyone else is doing, or put in the hard work to create something that makes us happy while we play it? Well, here’s Melting Pop! It’s not stoner, it’s not garage, it’s not punk, it’s not psych, it’s not even a traditional album. It’s melting, a blend of Fvzz Popvli saying “screw the labels” and just going with the flow, all-natural, like grown-ups with no preservatives.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 6th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Coming off the release of last year’s III (review here) through RetroVox Records, Italian riffchuckers Fvzz Popvli have signed to Heavy Psych Sounds for the release of their fourth album, which will be up for preorder next week. The details of the release are held back from this announcement, as is the wont of Heavy Psych Sounds — and when you’re the planet’s foremost heavy imprint, you can do that kind of thing — but those and the first streaming track will be out next Thursday too. All that’s happening here is the signing, which itself is plenty, and word of the new record existing.
So good for Fvzz Popvli. They’ve very much felt like a HPS band without actually releasing through the label — their management is closely associated, too — and while I wouldn’t say this is a surprise, it will surely help the band’s raw, punkish distortion reach new ears, and that’s probably a good thing for all involved. Surely the band will have European tour dates as well. I’ll do my best to keep up.
But ahead of all of that, this from the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Records to announce the Italian garage rock wizards FVZZ POPVLI coming back with a brand new album !!!
NEW ALBUM PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE – NOVEMBER 14th
SAYS THE BAND
“We are stoked to announce that we just signed an agreement for our fourth upcoming studio album, and the third release with Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Is good to be back!”
BIOGRAPHY
Founded in Rome by Pootchie and Datio in A.D. MMXVI, the idea was to build a powertrio with a direct and rough way to deliver heavy fuzzy riffs. Their sound melts Black Sabbath-style heavy riffs with the roughest garagepunk bands attitude -like The Stooges-, adding the psychedelia from the 70’s to create their own style!
The band released and promoted an “EP” in May 2017, with a promotional tour in Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In June 2017 they became a part of Heavy Psych Sounds Records (Bongzilla, Pentagram, Brant Bjork, Nick Olivieri, Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, Nebula, Giöbia, Duel, Black Rainbows.) roster to promote their 1st album “FVZZ DEI”. Released in September 2017, the album has brought the band on more than 70 european stages in 8 countries, giving them the chance to play in the mysterious DUNA JAM. In June 2018 the band recorded their 2nd album “MAGNA FVZZ”, which has been released in October 2018 followed by a 75 gigs european tour, with highlights in festivals like HPS Fest, Le Grand Incendie, Gouha, Berlin Swamp Fest and Tabernas Desert Rock Festival. In 2019 the band signed with the indie r’n’r label RETROVOX to release their 3rd studio album named FVZZ POPVLI III in March the 3rd 2023, then Datio left the the band, III was supported by 4 long tour legs across Europe in the name of Punk Rock.
Fvzz Popvli, among others, shared the stage with: White Hills, Black Rainbows, Naxatras, Giöbia, Ufomammut, Karma To Burn, Rotor, Zodiac, DYSE, Powder for Pigeons, Lili Refrain, El Perro, Hypnos, The Tazers, Mars Red Sky, Mother Engine, The Midnight Ghost Train and much more. In November 2024 the band signed again an agreement with Heavy Psych Sounds, to release a new album on Q1 2025.
FVZZ POPVLI is Pootchie – Guitar and Voice Alex – Bass George – Drums
