If you missed yesterday, be advised, it’s not too late. If you miss today, be advised as well that tomorrow’s not too late. One of the things I enjoy most about the Quarterly Review is that it puts the lie to the idea that everything on the internet has to be so fucking immediate. Like if you didn’t hear some release two days before it actually came out, somehow a week, a month, a year later, you’ve irreparably missed it.

That isn’t true in the slightest, and if you want proof, I’m behind on shit ALL. THE. TIME. and nine times out of 10, it just doesn’t matter. I’ll grant that plenty of music is urgent and being in that moment when something really cool is released can be super-exciting — not taking away from that — but hell’s bells, you can sit for the rest of your life and still find cool shit you’ve never heard that was released half a century ago, let alone in January. My advice is calm down and enjoy the tunes; and yes, I’m absolutely speaking to myself as much as to you.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Siena Root, Revelation

What might be their eighth LP, depending on what counts as what, Revelation is the second from Siena Root to feature vocalist/organist Zubaida Solid up front alongside seemingly-now-lone guitarist Johan Borgström (also vocals) and the consistent foundation provided by the rhythm section of bassist Sam Riffer (also some vocals) and drummer Love “Billy” Forsberg. Speaking a bit to their own history, the long-running Swedish classic heavy rockers inject a bit of sitar (by Stian Grimstad) and hand-percussion into “Leaving the City,” but the 11-song/46-minute offering is defined in no small part by a bluesy feel, and Solid‘s vocal performance brings that aspect to “Leaving the City” as well, even if the sonic focus for Siena Root is more about classic prog and blues rock of hooky inclusions like the organ-and-guitar grooving opener “Coincidence and Fate” and the gently funky “Fighting Gravity,” or even the touch of folkish jazz in “Winter Solstice,” though the sitar does return on side B’s “Madukhauns” ahead of the organ/vocal showcase closer “Keeper of the Flame,” which calls back to the earlier “Dalecarlia Stroll” with a melancholy Deep Purple could never quite master and a swinging payoff that serves as just one final way in which Siena Root once more demonstrate they are pure class in terms of execution.

Siena Root on Facebook

Atomic Fire Records website

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Los Mundos, Eco del Universo

The latest and (again) maybe-eighth full-length to arrive within the last 10 years from Monterrey, Mexico’s Los Mundos, Eco del Universo is an immersive dreamboat of mellow psychedelia, with just enough rock to not be pure drift on a song like “Hanna,” but still an element of shoegaze to bring the cool kids on board. Effects gracefully channel-swap alongside languid vocals (in Spanish, duh) with a melodicism that feels casual but is not unconsidered either in that song or the later “Rocas,” which meets Western-tinged fuzz with a combination of voices from bassist/keyboardist Luis Ángel Martínez, guitarist/synthesist/sitarist Alejandro Elizondo and/or drummer Ricardo Antúnez as the band is completed by guitarist/keyboardist/sitarist Raúl González. Yes, they have two sitarists; they need both, as well as all the keyboards, and the modular synth, and the rest of it. All of it. Because no matter what arrangement elements are put to use in the material, the songs on Eco del Universo just seem to absorb it all into one fluid approach, and if by the time the hum-drone and maybe-gong in the first minute of opener “Las Venas del Cielo” unfolds into the gently moody and gorgeous ’60s-psych pop that follows you don’t agree, go back and try again. Space temples, music engines in the quirky pop bounce of “Gente del Espacio,” the shape of air defined amid semi-krautrock experimentalism in “La Forma del Aire”; esta es la música para los lugares más allá. Vamos todos.

Los Mundos on Facebook

The Acid Test Recordings store

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Minnesota Pete Campbell, Me, Myself & I

Well, you see, sometimes there’s a global pandemic and even the most thoroughly-banded of artists starts thinking about a solo record. Not to make light of either the plague or the decision or the result experience from “Minnesota” Pete Campbell (drummer of Pentagram, Place of Skulls, In~Graved, Vulgarri, Gygax, Sixty Watt Shaman for a hot minute, guitarist of The Mighty Nimbus, etc.), but he kind of left himself open to it with putting “Lockdown Blues” and the generally personal nature of the songs on, Me, Myself and I, his first solo album in a career of more than two decades. The nine-song/46-minute riffy splurge is filled with love songs seemingly directed at family in pieces like “Lightbringer,” “You’re My Angel,” the eight-minute “Swimming in Layla’s Hair,” the two-minute “Uryah vs. Elmo,” so humanity and humility are part of the general vibe along with the semi-Southern grooves, easy-rolling heavy blues swing, acoustic/electric blend in the four-minute purposeful sans-singing meander of “Midnight Dreamin’,” and so on. Five of the nine inclusions feature Campbell on vocals, and are mixed for atmosphere in such a way as to make me believe he doesn’t think much of himself as a singer — there’s some yarl, but he’s better than he gives himself credit for on both the more uptempo and brash “Starlight” and the mellow-Dimebag-style “Whispers of Autumn,” which closes — but there’s a feeling-it-out sensibility to the tracks that only makes the gratitude being expressed (either lyrically or not) come through as more sincere. Heck man, do another.

Minnesota Pete Campbell on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz website

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North Sea Noise Collective, Roudons

Based in the Netherlands, North Sea Noise Collective — sometimes also written as Northsea Noise Collective — includes vocals for the first time amid the experimental ambient drones of the four pieces on the self-released Roudons, which are reinterpretations of Frisian rockers Reboelje, weirdo-everythingist Arnold de Boer and doom legends Saint Vitus. The latter, a take on the signature piece “Born Too Late” re-titled “Dit Doarp” (‘this village’ in English), is loosely recognizable in its progression, but North Sea Noise Collective deep-dives into the elasticity of music, stretching limits of where a song begins and ends conceptually. Modular synth hums, ebbs and flows throughout “Wat moatte wy dwaan as wy gjin jild hawwe,” which follows opener “Skepper fan de skepper” and immerses further in open spaces crafted through minimalist sonic architecture, the vocals chanting like paeans to the songs themselves. It should probably go without saying that Roudons isn’t going to resonate with all listeners in the same way, but universal accessibility is pretty clearly low on the album’s priority list, and for as dug-in as Roudons is, that’s right where it should be.

North Sea Noise Collective on Facebook

North Sea Noise Collective on Bandcamp

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Sins of Magnus, Secrets of the Cosmos

Philly merchants Sins of Magnus offer their fourth album in the 12 songs/48 minutes of Secrets of the Cosmos, and while said secrets may or may not actually be included in the record’s not-insignificant span, I’ll say that I’ve yet to find the level of volume that’s too loud for the record to take. And maybe that’s the big secret after all. In any case, the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Eric Early, guitarist/vocalist Rich Sutcliffe and drummer Sean Young tap classic heavy rock vibes and aim them on a straight-line road to riffy push. There’s room for some atmosphere and guest vocal spots on the punkier closing pair “Mother Knows Best” and “Is Anybody There?” but the grooves up front are more laid back and chunkier-style, where “Not as Advertised,” “Workhorse,” “Let’s Play a Game” and “No Sanctuary” likewise get punkier, contrasting that metal stretch in “Stoking the Flames” earlier on In any case, they’re more unpretentious than they are anything else, and that suits just fine since there’s more than enough ‘changing it up’ happening around the core heavy riffs and mean-muggin’ vibes. It’s not the most elaborate production ever put to tape, but the punker back half of the record is more effective for that, and they get their point across anyhow.

Sins of Magnus on Instagram

Sins of Magnus on Bandcamp

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Nine Altars, The Eternal Penance

Steeped in the arcane traditions of classic doom metal, Nine Altars emerge from the UK with their three-song/33-minute debut full-length, The Eternal Penance, leading with the title-track’s 13-minute metal-of-eld rollout as drummer/vocalist Kat Gillham (also Thronehammer, Lucifer’s Chalice, Enshroudment, etc.), guitarists Charlie Wesley (also also Enshroudment, Lucifer’s Chalice) and Nicolete Burbach and bassist Jamie Thomas roll with distinction into “The Fragility of Existence” (11:58), which starts reasonably slow and then makes that seem fast by comparison before picking up the pace again in the final third ahead of the more trad-NWOBHM idolatry of “Salvation Lost” (8:27). Any way they go, they’re speaking to metal born no later than 1984, and somehow for a band on their first record with two songs north of 11 minutes, they don’t come across as overly indulgent, instead borrowing what elements they want from what came before them and applying them to their longform works with fluidity of purpose and confident melodicism, Gillham‘s vocal command vital to the execution despite largely following the guitar, which of course is also straight out of the classic metal playbook. Horns, fists, whatever. Raise ’em high in the name of howling all-doom.

Nine Altars on Facebook

Good Mourning Records website

Journey’s End Records website

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The Freqs, Poachers

Fuzzblasting their way out of Salem, Massachusetts, with an initial public offering of six cuts that one might legitimately call “high octane” and not feel like a complete tool, The Freqs are a relatively new presence in the Boston/adjacent heavy underground, but they keep kicking ass like this and someone’s gonna notice. Hell, I’m sure someone has. They’re in and out in 27 minutes, so Poachers is an EP, but if it was a debut album, it’d be one of the best I’ve heard in this busy first half of 2023. Fine. So it goes on a different list. The get-off-your-ass-and-move effect of “Powetrippin'” remains the same, and even in the quiet outset of the subsequent “Asphalt Rivers,” it’s plain the breakout is coming, which, satisfyingly, it does. “Sludge Rats” decelerates some, certainly compared to opener “Poacher Gets the Tusk,” but is proportionately huge-sounding in making that tradeoff, especially near the end, and “Chase Fire, Caught Smoke” rips itself open ahead of the more aggressive punches thrown in the finale “Witch,” all swagger and impact and frenetic energy as it is. Fucking a. They end noisy and crowd-chanting, leaving one wanting both a first-LP and to see this band live, which as far as debut EPs go is most likely mission accomplished. It’s a burner. Don’t skip out on it because they didn’t name the band something more generic-stoner.

The Freqs on Facebook

The Freqs on Bandcamp

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Lord Mountain, The Oath

Doomer nod, proto-metallic duggery and post-NWOBHM flourish come together with heavy rock tonality and groove throughout Lord Mountain‘s bullshit-free recorded-in-2020/2021 debut album, issued through King Volume as the follow-up to a likewise-righteous-but-there-was-less-of-it 2016 self-titled EP (review here) and other odds and ends. Like a West Coast Magic Circle, they’ve got their pagan altars built and their generals out witchfinding, but the production is bright in Pat Moore‘s snare cutting through the guitars of Jesse Swanson (also vocals and primary songwriting) and Sean Serrano, and Andy Chism‘s bass, working against trad-metal cliché, is very much in the mix figuratively, literally, and thankfully. The chugs and winding of “The Last Crossing” flow smoothly into the mourning solo in the song’s second half, and the doom they proffer in “Serpent Temple” and the ultra-Dio Sabbath concluding title-track just might make you a believer if you weren’t one. It’s a record you probably didn’t know you were waiting for, and all the more so when you realize “The Oath” is “Four Horsemen”/”Mechanix” played slower. Awesome.

Lord Mountain on Facebook

King Volume Records store

Kozmik Artifactz store

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Black Air, Impending Bloom

Opener “The Air at Night Smells Different” digs into HEX-era Earth‘s melancholic Americana instrumentalism and threat-underscored grayscale, but “Fog Works,” which follows, turns that around as guitarist Florian Karg moves to keys and dares to add both progressivism and melody to coincide with that existential downtrodding. Fellow guitarist Philipp Seiler, standup-bassist Stephan Leeb and drummer Marian Waibl complete the four-piece, and Impending Bloom is their first long-player as Black Air. They ultimately keep that post-Earth spirit in the seven-minute title-track, but sneak in a more active stretch after four minutes in, not so much paying off a build — that’s still to come in “A New-Found Calm” — = as reminding there’s life in the wide spaces being conjured. The penultimate “The Language of Rocks and Roots” emphasizes soul in the guitar’s swelling and receding volume, while closer “Array of Lights,” even in its heaviest part, seems to rest more comfortably on its bassline. In establishing a style, the Vienna-based outfit come through as familiar at least on a superficial listen, but there’s budding individuality in these songs, and so their debut might just be a herald of blossoming to come.

Black Air on Instagram

Black Air on Bandcamp

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Bong Coffin, The End Beyond Doubt

Oh yeah, you over it? You tired of the bongslaught of six or seven dozen megasludge bands out there with ‘bong’ in their name trying to outdo each other in cannabinoid content on Bandcamp every week? Fine. I don’t care. You go be too cool. I’ll pop on “Ganjalf” and follow the smoke to oh wait what was I saying again? Fuck it. With some Dune worked in for good measure, Adelaide, Australia’s Bong Coffin build a sludge for the blacklands on “Worthy of Mordor” and shy away not a bit from the more caustic end their genre to slash through their largesse of riff like the raw blade of an uruk-hai shredding some unsuspecting villager who doesn’t even realize the evil overtaking the land. They move a bit on “Messiah” and “Shaitan” and threaten a similar shove in “Nightmare,” but it’s the gonna-read-Lovecraft-when-done-with-Tolkien screams and crow-call rasp of “Träskkungen” that gets the prize on Bong Coffin‘s debut for me, so radly wretched and sunless as it is. Extreme stoner? Caustic sludge? The doom of mellows harshed? You call it whatever fucking genre you want — or better, don’t, with your too-cool ass — and I’ll march to the obsidian temple (that riff is about my pace these days) to break my skull open and bleed out the remnants of my brain on that ancient stone.

Bong Coffin on Facebook

Bong Coffin on Bandcamp

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You’re about to get hit with a lot of information, so buckle up. The Fizz Fuzz will release their second full-length, Deserts, Mountains, Oceans, on March 14 through Taxi Driver Records and Slush Fund Recordings. Last heard from not so terribly long ago with 2020’s debut album, Palmyra (review here), the Santa Rosa, California, outfit centers around the core duo of guitarist/vocalist Dawn Brown and vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dandy Brown, the latter of whom, in addition to solo work under his own name, is a veteran of desert heavy outfits like the John Garcia-led Hermano, as well as Orquesta del Desierto — as much a dug-in weirdo myth as they ever were a band — Yawning Sons, and others.

Across the utterly manageable eight songs and 36 minutes of Deserts, Mountains, Oceans — recorded between Italy and Georgia, as one does — and in collaboration with drummer Steve Earle of Afghan Whigs (who wrote one song and co-wrote another as well), Isaak bassist Gabriele Carta, and with guest spots from Mike Reeder, Keith Murphy, and Mark Engel (also Orquesta del Desierto), the Browns offer an inviting take on desert blues, sweet punk and self-assured heavy rock, basking in tonal and melodic richness from the opening strums of “Statues” (premiering below) onward as Dawn and Dandy trade and share lead vocal duties. United by a universal lack of pretense, the material is classic in structure and neither playing to genre nor forgetting from whence the band comes in terms of style — and yes, there’s a good bit of fuzz throughout.

Some fizz as well, if by that we mean the vital electric undercurrent that allows “Statues” to begin a build of momentum that continues through the subsequent “Deaf and Dumb,” which feels brief and hooky at 4:06 with Dawn taking the fore vocally; since Dandy fronts “Statues,” that establishes the back and forth that bolsters the material throughout, and sets up the duet in “Disbelief” that’s no less satisfying because one sees it coming. Backed by organ work in a show of eternal cool, “Disbelief” finds Dandy crooning in a way that reminds of softer John Garcia while Dawn answers in the verse lines, moving toward and through a memorable chorus that’s laid back in terms of tempo and understated compared to the semi-angular starts and stops of “Deaf and Dumb,” but all the more resonant melodically and purposeful not to go too far over the top as it crescendos with a guitar solo and keys behind.

Capping side A, “I Suppose” goes back to ground with a fuzzy strum at its outset, continuing to play with the balance between the dual vocals as it builds into a shuffle that would signal a shift in focus toward rhythm were it not for lushness of the vocals overtop. There’s style in the production, the deceptive depth of the mix — even just between lines at 2:11-2:15 into “I Suppose,” there’s more going on for those who’d dig deeper into the flourish — and the mellow vocal delivery, as well as substance in the songwriting and the crafted feel of the verses, the smoothness of their transitions from one part to the next throughout, and the thoughtfulness of the arrangements around Dandy and Dawn, and progression in the performances of both as compared to Palmyra three years ago with an accordingly more solidified idea of what The Fizz Fuzz‘s project is as a group and an idea. It gives more than it takes, stays casual in its accomplishments and is listenable in that way older Masters of Reality always seems to be timeless for being out of its own time.

The mix shifts on “Free for Sorry,” with Dawn forward in the duet, Dandy backing behind, and the introduction of drums is held back for more than a minute of the total 3:50 — not an insignificant amount of real estate, considering — with the effect of emphasizing the flow in the central riff. It’s a highlight performance from Dawn in answer to “Deaf and Dumb” earlier, and sways all the more fluidly with the ‘oooh’s backing her. “Craters,” meanwhile, taps a beefed-up Blind Melon vibe as the repeated line “time rolls on” is complemented by a groove that does much the same, snare drum punching through to punctuate a motion that’s not hurried but not staid, balanced just right for what it wants to be like so much of Deserts, Mountains, Oceans; pro-shop in sound and confident without arrogance, a work of artisans comfortable in their methods while pushing themselves forward. Placed ahead of the closer, “Mad Jimmy” comes across like it would work just as well as a fully unplugged folk song with its shared vocals and wistful guitar, but the full arrangement with drums and bass certainly doesn’t hurt.

It’s the shortest of the cuts at 3:43 (not by a ton) and leads into the longest, which is the 6:30 relative blowout of “Billion.” In genuinely classic fashion, The Fizz Fuzz offer a build into their version of a grand finale, tension mounting in the first two minutes before they reveal the catchy standout chorus and layer guitar lines with more decisively desert-rocking intent as they cycle through again en route to a victory lap reprise and ending around those guitars, residual melody fading as the record is brought to an appropriately classy conclusion, sweaty at the expulsion of energy but unruffled. They sound like they could keep going, like they have more to say, like they could just keep doing this forever, and maybe they will, but the achievement here in songwriting, in the varying arrangements and phrasings, in the richness of the total affect, isn’t to be understated. What Dawn Brown and Dandy Brown have built is an exercise in aural honesty. There’s no put-on happening here, nobody’s pretending to be anything they’re not, and the sincerity of expression throughout Deserts, Mountains, Oceans is palpable, drawing the listener closer to the songs and still, still, still poised and sympathetic in mood.

I’ll bottom line it: You like songs? The Fizz Fuzz‘ve got songs, and on Deserts, Mountains, Oceans they’re playing them just for you whether you hear them or not.

To that end, you’ll find the premiere of “Statues” below. Keep in mind that initial strum of guitar. The tone there is a clarion that extends across what follows on the record, and the groove that coincides likewise is a thread carried through the duration. I dig it. I think you’ll dig it too.

Under the player is copious PR wire info (still buckled?), but again, the release is March 14 digitally, with vinyl preorders opening the same day through Taxi Driver and Slush Fund. Beyond that, what you really need to know is in the audio, so please enjoy:

Dandy Brown on recording Deserts, Mountains, Oceans:

After releasing our first album, Palmyra, in 2020, we were set to embark on a series of tour dates throughout Europe and the United States, but, of course, those plans were interrupted by the pandemic. About a year and a half after we released the first album, we were finally able to do a couple of brief tours in Italy and the United States, but we spent most of the lockdown and ensuing travel restrictions water-shedding in our Northern California home writing the songs that would eventually end up appearing on Deserts, Mountains, Oceans.

While our first album was certainly a collaborative effort, most of the songs that appeared on our first collection were derived from parts and pieces each of us had constructed before we came together as a writing team, before we were husband and wife. Certainly, not many good things can be said about the years the world suffered through the virus, but for us it turned out to be an opportunity to explore our writing with a much more heightened sense of collaboration, which, of course, allowed us to push each other in new and exciting directions. Palmyra was a great achievement for us, but Deserts, Oceans, Mountains represents an evolution in both of our writing styles and a truer representation of the heart of where the Fizz Fuzz currently stands and the future directions we are heading.

We have been truly lucky to have such a great supporting cast with Steve Earle (Afghan Whigs) on drums and Gabriele Carta (ISAAK) on bass. They have not only enhanced the songs we have written for Deserts, Mountains, Oceans, but they contributed to the development of the songs on the album in unique and exciting ways. We were also tremendously excited to have Steve Earle contribute a song to the album and co-write another, adding an exciting dynamic to the material that has broadened the collection in a way that we are immensely grateful to share.

Thematically, Deserts, Mountains, Oceans represents our reflections upon some of the most traumatic episodes of our lives . . . messages of lost or damaged relationships, broken dreams and, unfortunately, the often merciless passage of time. We think, though, that within the representations of those darker themes each song has a way of commenting upon the ability to move past those unfortunate elements of life and to embrace the optimism that we all have the capacity to discover if we are willing to search for it. Essentially, while the title of the album reflects the physical geography where we have resided, the metaphors within those locations stand as testaments of the desolation that has impacted both of us, the climb to the place we are now, and the bliss we have found with and within each other.

THE FIZZ FUZZ – Deserts, Mountains, Oceans

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE AND VINYL PRE-ORDERS BEGIN: MARCH 14, 2023

Coming together for the first time in the high desert of southern California during the fall of 2017, the FIZZ FUZZ are a blues-rock band from Santa Rosa.

Dandy Brown is a producer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with the bands Hermano, Orquesta del Desierto, John Garcia, Alice Tambourine Lover, Yawning Sons, and his solo releases. In addition to covering guitar and vocal duties with the band, Dawn Brown is a multi-media artist currently engaged with photo experiments and commissioned pieces throughout northern California.

Their debut album, Palmyra, was released in the spring of 2020 and features performances by David Angstrom (Hermano/Luna Sol), Steve Earle (Afghan Whigs), Mike Callahan (Hermano/Earshot), Alice Albertazzi and Gianfranco Romanelli (Alice Tambourine Lover), and Mark Engel (Orquesta del Desierto).

The Fizz Fuzz sophomore release, Deserts, Mountains, Oceans, is slated for release on March 14, 2023. Recorded at Oxygen Studios (Verzuolo, IT) and the Slush Fund facilities in Athens, GA, the new collection features Steve Earle and Gabriele Carta, and guest performances by Mike Reeder, Keith Murphy, and Mark Engel. They will be performing in the UK to support the new album in March, 2023.

The Fizz Fuzz live:
March 14: the Victoria, Swindon
March 16: the Glass House, Ashford
March 17: Liquid Light Brew Company, Nottingham
March 18: Percy’s Cafe Bar, Whitchurch

The Fizz Fuzz on Instagram

Dandy Brown / The Fizz Fuzz website

Taxi Driver Records on Facebook

Taxi Driver Records on Bandcamp

Slush Fund Recordings store

Slush Fund Recordings website

There was some pretty good stuff this week, I gotta say. Feels self-congratulatory to be like, ‘hey good job slating reviews, me!’ but there it is. I don’t regret hearing anything I have thus far into the Winter 2023 Quarterly Review, and sometimes that’s not the case by the time we get to Friday.

Of course, there’s another week to go here as well. We’ll pick it back up on Monday with another 10 records and proceed from there. If you’ve been following along, I hope you’ve found something you dig as well.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #41-50:

Astrosaur, Portals

This is what happens when you have virtuoso players writing songs rather than paeans to their own virtuosity. Led by founding guitarist Eirik Kråkenes, with drummer Jonathan Eikum (also Taiga Woods) and bassist Steinar Glas (also Einar Stray Orchestra), Astrosaur are blindingly progressive on their third full-length, Portals (on Pelagic), operating with post-metallic atmospheres as a backdrop for stunning instrumental turns, builds and crashes, willful repetition and the defiant denial of same. There’s more scope in the intro “Opening” than on some entire albums, and what “Black Hole Earth” begins from there is a dizzying array of sometimes cosmic sometimes earthborn riffing, twisting bass and mindfully restless drums. “The Deluge” hitting into that chase after four minutes in, that seemingly chaotic swirling noise suddenly stopping “Reptile Empire” and the false start to the 23-minute epic “Eternal Return” — these details and many besides give the overarching weight of Portals at its heaviest a corresponding depth, and when coupled with the guitar’s ability to coast overhead, they are genuinely three-dimension in their sound. You’d be right to want to hear Portals for “Eternal Return” alone, but there’s so much more to it than that.

Astrosaur on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Kvasir, Sagittarius A* Star

Kvasir‘s Sagittarius A* Star is named for the black hole at the center of the galaxy, and the 21-minute single-song EP is the follow-up to their 2021 debut album, 4 (review here), a dug-in proto-metallic exploration composed in movements that flow together as a whole organic work. The Portland-based four-piece of guitarists Christopher Lee (also vocals) and Gabriel Langston, bassist Greg Traw and Jay Erbe work on either side between traditional metal and heavy rock riffing, inhabiting both here as “Sagittarius A* Star” launches into its initial verses over the first four minutes, a solo emerging after 5:30 to set the pattern that will hold for the remaining three-fourths of the song. A slowdown takes hold about a minute later and grooves until at about nine minutes in when the bass comes forward and things get funkier. The vocals return at about 11:30 to complement a galloping riff that’s fleshed out until just after the 14-minute mark, when a jazzier instrumental movement begins and the band makes it known they’re going out and not coming back, the swaying finish with more insistent guitar, first interjecting then satisfyingly joining that sway, capping with a (still plotted) jammier feel. If that’s the Milky Way succumbing to ultragravity and being torn apart molecule by molecule en route to physics-defying oblivion, then fair enough. Worse ways to go, certainly.

Kvasir on Facebook

Kvasir on Bandcamp

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Bloodshot, Sins of the Father

Though the leadoff Sins of the Father gets reminds of circa-’90s noise metal like Nailbomb, Marylander four-piece Bloodshot lean more into a hardcore-informed take on heavy rock with their aggressively-purposed debut album. Comprised of vocalist Jared Winegardner, guitarist Tom Stacey, bassist Joe Ruthvin (ex-Earthride) and drummer JB Matson (ex-War Injun, organizer of Maryland Doom Fest, etc.), the band push to one side or the other throughout, as on the more rocking “Zero Humility” and the subsequent metallic barker “Uncivil War,” the mid-period Megadeth-style riffer “Beaten Into Rebellion,” the brooding-into-chugging closing title-track and “Fyre,” which I’m pretty sure just wants to kick my ass. The 10-track entirety of the album, in fact, seems to hold to that same mentality, and there’s a sense of trying to recapture something that’s been lost that feels inherently conservative in its theme — “Faded Natives,” “Visions of Yesterday,” the speedier “Worn and Torn,” and so on — but gruff though it is, Sins of the Father offers a pissed-off-for-reasons take on heavy that’s likewise intense and methodical. That is to say, they know what they’re doing as they punch you in the throat.

Bloodshot on Facebook

Half Beast Records on Bandcamp

Nervous Breakdown Records store

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Tons, Hashension

A second release through Heavy Psych Sounds and Tons‘ third full-length overall, Hashension wears its love of all things cannabian on its crusty stoner sludge sleeve throughout its six-track/39-minute run, begun with the riffnotic “Dope Dealer Scum” before “A Hash Day’s Night” introduces the throatripper vocals and backing growls and a more heads-down, speedier tempo that hits into a mosh of a slowdown. “Slowly We Pot” — a play on Obituary‘s Slowly We Rot — to go along with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (and Gummo) titular references — follows in a spirit as angry as one imagines Bongzilla might be if someone un-freed their weed. Yes, “Hempathy for the Devil” and “Ummagummo” precede the sample-topped slamming march of “Hashended,” and lo, the well-baked extreme sludge they’ve wrought rumbles and thuds its way out, not so much gnashing in the way of “A Hash Day’s Night” or the roll after the midpoint in “Ummagummo” — though the lyrics there seem to be pure weed-worship — but lumbering in such a way as to ensure the point gets across anyhow. I’m not going to tell you you should be stoned listening to it, because I don’t know, maybe you’re driving or something, but I doubt Tons would argue if you brought some edibles to the gig. Enough to share, perhaps.

Tons on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds store

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Mothman & the Thunderbirds vs. World Eaters, Split

In the battle of Philly solo-project Mothman and the Thunderbirds vs. Ontario-based duo World Eaters, the numbers may be on the side of the latter, but each act offers something of its own on their shared 18-minute EP. Presenting two tracks from each band, the outing puts Mothman and the Thunderbirds‘ “Rusty Shackleton” and “Nephilim” up front, the latter particularly reinforcing the Devin Townsend influence on the part of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Alex Parkinson, while “Flash of Green” and “The Siege” from World Eaters — drummer Winter Stomp and guitarist/bassist/vocalist/synthesist David Gupta — present an atmospheric death metal, more than raw bludgeoning, but definitely that as well. As a sampler platter for both bands, there’s more time to get to know World Eaters since their songs are markedly longer, but the contrast from one to the other and the progression into the mire of “The Siege” gives the split an overlaid personality, almost a narrative, and the melodies in Parkinson‘s two cuts have a lingering presence over the masterful decay that follows in World Eater‘s material. One way or the other, these are both relatively upstart projects and their will toward progression is clear, as pummeling as its form may be. Right on.

Mothman & The Thunderbirds on Bandcamp

World Eaters on Bandcamp

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Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 1

Preceded by the two-song single Witches Brew/Psychedelic Roadkill, the six-song/24-minute Dark Matter Pt. 1 is short but feels nonetheless like a debut album from Sonoma County, California (try the cabernet), three-piece Deer Lord, who present adventures like getting stoned with witches on a mountaintop, riding free with an out-on-bail “Hippie Girl” in the backseat of presumably some kind of roadster, going down the proverbial highway and, at last, welcoming you to “Planet Earth” after calling out and casting off any and all “Ego” along the way. It is a modern take on stonerized heavy, starting off with “Witches Brew” as the opener/longest track (immediate points) with a languid flow and psychedelic underpinnings that flesh out even amid the apex soloing of “Planet Earth” or the fervent push of the earlier “Ride Away,” that tempo hitting a wall with the intro of “Ego” (don’t worry, it takes off) so as to support the argument in favor of Dark Matter Pt. 1 as an admittedly brief full-length, the component tracks working off each other to enhance the entirety. The elements beneath are familiar enough, but Deer Lord put an encouraging spin of their own on it, and especially as their debut, it’s hard to imagine some label or other won’t get on board, if not for pressing this, then maybe Pt. 2 to come. Perhaps both?

Deer Lord on Facebook

Deer Lord on Bandcamp

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IO Audio Recordings, Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK

Compiling two 2022 EPs into a single LP and releasing through a microcosm of underground imprints in various terrestrial locales, IO Audio Recordings‘ Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK is my first exposure to the Orange, CA, out-there-in-space unit, and from the blower kosmiche rocking “Awaiting the Elliptical Drift” to the sitar meditation “Luminous Suspension,” and the hazy wash of “Sunrise and Overdrive” (that’s side A) to the experimentalist consumption of “VVK” and “Gramanita” rounding out with its heartbeat rhythm giving over to a hardly-flatlined drone after shuffling cool and bassy and fuzzy with jangly jam strum overtop, I tell you in all sincerity it won’t be my last. There’s a broad cross-section stylistically, which suits a compilation mindset, but I get the feeling that if you called it an album instead, the situation would be much the same thanks to an underlying conceptualism and the adventuring purpose beneath the open-structured fluidity. That’s just fine, as IO Audio Recordings‘ sundry transformations only enhance the anything-that-works-goes and shelf-your-expectations listening experience. Not that there’s no tension in their groovy approach, but the abiding sensibility advises an open mind and maybe a couple deep breaths in and out before you take it on. But then definitely take it on. If you need me, I’ll be spending money I don’t have on Bandcamp.

The Weird Beard Records store

Fuzzed Up and Astromoon Records on Bandcamp

We Here & Now on Bandcamp

Ramble Records on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

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Bong Voyage, Feverlung

While “bong” in a band name usually connotes dense sludge in my head, Oslo four-piece Bong Voyage defy that stereotype with their Dec. 2022-released second single, “Feverlung” — the first single was October’s “Buzzed Aldrin” — and no, the song isn’t about the pandemic, it’s about getting high. The six-minute rocker hoists jammy flourish mostly in its second half, in a break that, in turn, shifts into uptempo semi-space rock post-Slift pulsations atop a progression that, while I’ll readily admit it sounds little like the song on the whole still puts me in mind of Kyuss‘ “Odyssey” in its vocal patterning and melody. That ending is a step outward from the solidified early verses, which are more straight ahead heavy rock in the vein of Freedom Hawk or a less-directly-Ozzy take on Sheavy, and while one listening for them to bring it back around to the initial riff will find that they don’t, the band’s time isn’t necessarily misspent in terms of serving the song by letting it push beyond exospheric traps. They won’t catch me by surprise next time aesthetically, and it wouldn’t be a shock to find Bong Voyage in among the subset of up and coming heavy rockers that’s put Norway on the underground radar so much these last couple years. Either way, I’ll look forward to more here.

Bong Voyage on Facebook

Bong Voyage on Bandcamp

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Sun Years, Sun Years (Demo)

IMG

In its early going, Sun Years‘ “Codex” stagger-sludges like Eyehategod with guitarist Dalton Huskin‘s shouty echoing vocals on top, but as it moves into its second half, there’s a pickup in tempo and a bit of swirling lead guitar emerges in the 4:37 song’s closing stretch as Asechiah Bogdan (ex-Windhand, ex-Alabama Thunderpussy) makes his presence felt. Alongside bassist Buddy Bryant and drummer Erik Larson (once-and-again guitarist for Alabama Thunderpussy, drummer of Avail, Omen Stones, ex-Backwoods Payback, the list goes on), Bogdan and Huskin explore mellower and more melodic reaches the subsequent “Teeth Like Stars,” still holding some of their demo’s lead track’s urgency as a weighted riff takes hold in trade with the relatively subdued verse. That’s a back and forth they’ll do again, moving the second time from the more weighted progression into a solo and build into a return of the harsher vocals, some double-kick drumming and a last shove that lasts until everything drops out except one guitar and that riffs for a few seconds before being cut off mid-measure. Well, that’s a band with more dynamic in their first two tracks than some have in their entire careers, so I guess it’s safe to say it’ll be worth following the Richmond, Virginia, foursome to see where they end up next time out.

Sun Years on Bandcamp

Minimum Wage Recording on Facebook

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Daevar, Delirious Rites

Recorded by Jan Oberg (Grin, Slowshine, EarthShip) at Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin, Daevar‘s five-track/32-minute 2023 debut album, Delirious Rites, arrives likewise through Oberg‘s imprint The Lasting Dose Records and finds the man himself sitting in for guest vocals on the 10-minute “Leviathan” alongside the band’s own bassist/vocalist Pardis Latif, who leads the band from the depths of the rhythm section’s lurch on the gradually unfolding Windhand-vibing leadoff “Slowshine,” the particularly Monolordian “Bloody Fingers” with Caspar Orfgen‘s guitar howling over a marching riff, and “Leila” where Moritz Ermen Bausch‘s drums offer a welcoming grounding to Electric Wizardly nod and swirl. Thus, by the time his spot in the aforementioned “Leviathan” rolls (and I do mean rolls) around, just ahead of closer “Yellow Queen,” the layers of growling and screaming he adds to the procession are a standout shift well placed to play off the atmosphere established by the previous tracks. Shortest at 5:10, “Yellow Queen” lumbers through more ethereal doom and hints at a psychedelic current that might continue to develop in a midsection drifting break that builds back into the catchy plod from whence it came. Not necessarily innovative at this point — they’re a new band — but they seem to know what they want in terms of sound and style, and that only ever bodes well.

Daevar on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Oh hi, Lord Mountain. It’s been six years since the Santa Rosa, California, four-piece wrought their impressive self-titled debut EP (review here), and that feels like plenty. In accordance with local statutes and the dictates of commonly-agreed morality, the classic-tinged outfit will offer their first full-length album, The Oath (don’t break it!), on Jan. 20.

The advent of the new release — hard to think of a first record as a comeback, but it has been a while — comes with two streaming songs in album opener “Well of Fates” and the prior-issued single “The Last Crossing.” The latter was released as a standalone in — wait for it — summer 2020 — so as you may have suspected, The Oath has been in the works for some time. Listening to “Well of Fates,” I’m reminded of bands like Hour of 13 who meld classic heavy rock and doomed traditionalism to a new style of cultish, dark metal. I’m not sure Lord Mountain will be so severe ultimately across the board, but for a first listen, the sharper corners on their riffs are duly compelling.

I’ll hope to have more to come on this one either before or sometime in January, but for now, here’s the basic info hoisted from Bandcamp:

LORD MOUNTAIN – The Oath

Lord Mountain’s full length debut THE OATH is set for a January 20th, 2023 release date by King Volume Records and Kozmik Artifactz. The album is eight tracks of top notch heavy metal and doom. Synthesizing traditional metal and fantasy influences from the 70’s and 80’s, Lord Mountain brings a vintage style and perspective to the modern era. With nods to Pagan Altar, Pentagram, and Sabbath, Lord Mountain carries the flame of classic heavy metal forward. Filled with perilous adventure and somber laments, The Oath is a quest-like experience more than collection of songs. Jesse Swanson, the lead singer and songwriter, casts hallucinations of soaring towers and bottomless chasms, all for us to explore with sword in hand.

A professional tattoo artist by trade, Swanson has a comprehensive aesthetic mission for the band. He created original oil paintings and drawings for the album art. Lord Mountain represents the intersection of all his interests and abilities into one artistic vision.

“The Oath is one of the most fully realized pieces of art we have ever put out. Jesse has a vision that transcends his medium. The songs, his voice, his album art, all conspire to take you away on a dark journey of loss and discovery.” – Todd White, Owner of King Volume.

Pre-orders for the full length album will begin in November. With the full length on the horizon, the band is releasing exclusive singles to support the release of THE OATH.

RECEIVE TWO TRACKS NOW

Track Listing
The Last Crossing
Well of Fates
Pressing Information
1. Well of Fates
2. The Gaint
3. Beyond the Frozen Sea
4. The Last Crossing
5. Chasm of Time
6. The Sacrifice
7. Serpent Temple
8. The Oath

36 minutes of rocking old school doom!

Limited to 200 copies worldwide.

Lord Mountain:
Jesse Swanson – guitars and vocals
Sean Serrano – guitars
Andy Chism – bass
Pat Moore – drums

https://www.instagram.com/lordmountainband/
https://www.facebook.com/lordmountaindoom/
https://lordmountain1.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/kingvolumerecords
http://www.kingvolumerecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.kingvolumerecords.limitedrun.com

http://kozmik-artifactz.com/
https://www.facebook.com/kozmikartifactz

Lord Mountain, “The Last Crossing”

Day Three of the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review — commence! As you well know because I’m quite certain you’re the type of person to sit around and think about these things and I’m in no way the only human who gives enough of a crap to notice, today we hit the halfway point of this particular QR, not in the middle, but at the end, as today will culminate with review number 30 of the total 60 to come by the end of the day next Monday. Is it cheating to get a full weekend to do the last installment? Depends entirely on the weekend. In any case, starting tomorrow we go downhill, numerically, not in terms of the quality of what’s covered.

Until then.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Ruby the Hatchet, Live at Earthquaker

While on tour with Kadavar in late-2019, New Jersey heavy psych rockers Ruby the Hatchet swung through Earthquaker Devices in Ohio and put these three songs to tape. In addition to being the band’s first release for Magnetic Eye Records, the EP serves these years after the fact as a still-foreshadowing glimpse at their next full-length, the follow-up to 2017’s Planetary Space Child (review here), which but for plague probably would be on its third pressing by now. At least it would be if the rolling riffs and organ shimmer of “1,000 Years” and the bluesier what-I’ll-just-assume-is-an-homage-to-the-band-of-the-same-name “Primitive Man” are anything to go by. Paired with Ruby the Hatchet‘s take on Uriah Heep‘s “Easy Livin’,” the new songs herald the awaited album in a way that seems to justify their having been kept in-pocket for just the right moment. I’m glad that moment is now, and I also kind of feel like Ruby the Hatchet need to start recording more shows and putting out their own soundboard bootlegs. This is clearly mixed, pro-mastered and all that, but still. They make every second of these 14 minutes count.

Ruby the Hatchet links

Magnetic Eye Records store

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Wyatt E., āl bēlūti dārû

Anonymous Belgian outfit Wyatt E. return five years after their debut with āl bēlūti dārû, comprising two tracks of all-in Mesopotamian-themed drone ritualizing. The robed outfit top 18 minutes with “Mušhuššu” and “Šarru Rabu” both, and their intention toward immersing the audience in a whole-side experience isn’t misplaced as their arrangements branch beyond genre typicality in service of the Middle Easternism around which much of what they do is based. More than cinematically wrought, the two pieces here are striking in moving from the crescendos of their respective builds into richly conjured explorations, the former of saz and other instruments, the latter of percussion and voice. Likewise, with two drumkits, they want nothing for rhythmic urgency, despite the open structures of the actual material. One wonders at the Orientalism on display throughout as potentially a kind of minstrelsy, particularly with the hooded unknown figures casting themselves as decidedly ‘other’ from a European mainstream, but the same anonymity guards against the notion since it’s unclear just who these people are. I’m not sure I’m all the way on board, but they effectively convey spectacle without losing artistic presence. And if you spend the rest of your day reading about the Akkadian Empire, I’m sure worse things have happened.

Wyatt E. on Facebook

Stolen Body Records website

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Famyne, II: The Ground Below

My impression of Canterbury, UK, doomers Famyne‘s 2016 self-titled debut (review here) were of a band burgeoning in atmosphere anchored by strong songwriting and melodic vocals with periodic likeness to Alice in Chains and The Wounded Kings. Arriving through Svart Records, the eight-song/45-minute II: The Ground Below doesn’t do much to detract from that core impression, but the ambient “A Submarine” and the mean chug in the back half of the later “The Ai” take them to new places and demonstrate the individualization of genre tropes underway in their sound. “Once More” taps a more NWOBHM style, while “Babylon” touches on Candlemassian grandiosity, and “Gone” fluidly begins to transition from the crush of opening duo “Defeated” and “Solid Earth” before “A Submarine” takes hold, which is only further evidence they know what they’re doing.

LINK

LINK

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Humanotone, A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand

Evidently a number of years in the making from front-to-back, Humanotone‘s second full-length, A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand, finds the solo-project spearheaded by Jorge Cisternas Monsalves, aka Jorge Cist, working once more completely on his own save for some saxophone on 12-minute closer “Even Though.” Given the lush, progressive, and thoughtful execution of progressive heavy rock the Chile-based Cist manifests throughout cuts like “Light Antilogies” and “Ephemeral” prior — taking lessons from Elder‘s Dead Roots Stirring and applying them well for his own purposes — it wouldn’t have been surprising if he picked up the sax himself, frankly. He proves visionary throughout the proceedings one way or the other, and atop a bed of his own drumming is able to cast deep landscapes of keys and guitar and bass in “A Flourishing Fall” and a build and payoff in “Scrolls for the Blind” before the 3:45 “Beyond the Machine” goes straightforward in a way that feels like a gift ahead of the closer, while still retaining its proggy vibe vocally, melodically and rhythmically. There’s been some word-of-mouth hype around this one. Not unwarranted.

Humanotone on Facebook

Humanotone on Bandcamp

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Madmess, Rebirth

Big on vibe, crunches when it wants, spaces out with broader jams, takes its time, flows as it will but still hits with an impact — yeah, there’s no shortage of things to like about Madmess‘ Hassle Records-issued second full-length, Rebirth. If you, yourself, have been born-again semi-instrumentalist psych-prog, then no doubt you’ll relate to the careening and twisting path that the five mostly-extended tracks take, unfolding with a focus on liquefied echo on “Albatross” before the companioning “Mind Collapse” introduces the vocals that will show up again on closer “Stargazer” (not a Rainbow cover). Between those two, the title-cut and “Shapeshifter” back-to-back build on some of the mellower stretches prior at least before locking into their own heavier parts, but by then you’re long since hypnotized anyway, and the drift that serves to transition into “Stargazer” is only pushing further out as it goes. I’m not sure who in the Portugese trio (if anyone) is the vocalist, but the voice suits the songs well, even if they’re plainly comfortable going without, and reasonably so.

Madmess on Facebook

Hassle Records website

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Eaters of the Soil, EP II

Mostly instrumental, the aptly-titled EP II — the second short release from Utrecht, the Netherlands, trombone-inclusive experimentalist doomers Eaters of the Soil — runs four tracks and 35 minutes and, early on, uses spoken samples from this or that serial killer about putting plastic bags over women’s heads to suffocate them. Through “V – Point of Capture” and even into “VI – Untouched, Unspoken To” (the Roman numeral numbering system continued from their pandemic-minded 2021 first EP), a somewhat slowed down version of whoever it is goes on about killing women and this and that. The second half of the release with “VII – Burrowing, Feasting” and “VIII – Subcurrent,” are both dark enough to be considered affected by the same atmosphere — “VI – Untouched, Unspoken To” has a bit of float to it, so it’s not all grim — churning, meandering and freaking out in at-least-partially improv-jazz style, but Eaters of the Soil cast a grim vision of humanity and that impression stays resonant even as “VIII – Subcurrent” lumbers into its wash of a finish. Is extreme jazz a thing? Turns out maybe.

Eaters of the Soil on Facebook

Forbidden Place Records website

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NYOS, Celebration

With its just-slightly-off-beat drum loop, “Light” seems to build into a wash until even the song can’t take anymore and needs to drop out. It’s not the first take on NYOS‘ second offering for Pelagic Records, Celebration — that would be the improvised opener “First Take” — but it and the serene hum that emerges in the subsequent “Something Good” and even the shimming almost steel-drum sounds of “Tucano” demonstrate the Finland-based instrumentalist duo’s stated intentions toward dance music. The later “Gold Vulcan,” the first single, gets into some noisier fare as if to remind that guitarist Tom Brooke (also recording) and drummer Tuomas Kainulainen are coming from a harder-hitting place, but in the also-improv “Cloudberry” just before and particularly the willfully gorgeous “Rosario” (Dawson?) after, the intentions are gentler and more welcoming, and that continues into the final drone stretch and far, far back drumming that consumes most of closer “Surface” before it ultimately explodes in resonant light, reinforcing the notion of joy inherent in the album’s title, feeling like a grand finale to an aural fireworks display.

NYOS on Facebook

Pelagic Records store

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Endtime, Impending Doom

Making their debut on Heavy Psych Sounds with Impending Doom, Sweden’s Endtime are not shy about their influence from horror cinema. Their sound blends sludge and classic doom together such that opener “Harbinger of Disease” comes through like Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod stepping in to front Cathedral, and his harsh wails echo out a tolling (for thee, make no mistake) bell to foretell the harsh terrors soon to unfold. “ICBM” kills quick and lets its church organ mourn later, and the centerpiece “They Live” (a classic) adjusts the balance such that the cinematic, post-Uncle Acid vibe comes to the front still with the barking vocals overtop; a blend I can’t think of anyone else pulling off as well as Endtime do. The longer “Cities on Fire with the Burning Flesh of Men” follows and is more purely about the crunch at least until the sitar shows up — a nice curve to throw — ahead of its severe closing section, and closer “Living Graves” wraps the 28-minute LP by pushing the organ forward again and dissolving into a wash of noise before the feed seems to cut out like channel 11 just stopped broadcasting in the middle of the night. Hey man, I was watching that. Not quite revolutionary, but onto something. Impending, if you will.

Endtime on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Bloodshot Buffalo, Light EP

By my count, Bloodshot Buffalo — the solo-project of Santa Rosa, California’s Sheafer McOmber — has put out no fewer than four full-lengths since 2019. Accordingly, the two-song Light EP is most likely a stopgap en route to the next one, but “Light” and “Don’t Follow Me” make an enticing sampler of the band’s wares all the same, digging into an energetic heavy progressive rock like a less-low-end-focused Forming the Void in the title-track as McOmber carefully weaves in a multi-layered guitar solo panning channels from one to the other and “Don’t Follow Me” reaffirms the groove on which that happens while sorting out its own languid flow. The shorter of the two, “Don’t Follow Me” doesn’t feature the same kind of midsection break as “Light” itself, and once it heads out, it doesn’t come back, unlike “Light,” which returns to the hook at the finish. Some structural play as enticement to dig further into the Bloodshot Buffalo catalog while waiting for the seemingly inevitable next thing. This being my first exposure to McOmber‘s work, I hope to do exactly that.

Bloodshot Buffalo on Facebook

Bloodshot Buffalo on Bandcamp

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Oh Hiroshima, Myriad

Swedish now-duo Oh Hiroshima present their fourth album, Myriad, as a collection of weighted, spacious and emotive contemplations. Their heavy post-rock is stylized to be patient and broad-reaching, and in pieces like “All Things Pass” and “Veil of Certainty” early on, they find a niche for themselves between harder-hitting atmospheric material marked out by droning horn arrangements and more straight-ahead melodic verses, the ambience open enough to pull the focus away from underlying structures. It’s an immersive-if-somewhat-familiar modern take, but the two-piece of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Jakob Hemström and drummer Oskar Nilsson stem into moodier vibes on “Tundra” and closer “Hidden Chamber” takes a less effects-centered, more organic-sounding approach, emphasizing the strings for its build while staying earthbound in the drums, bass and guitars beneath. Some will pass Myriad up entirely, others will worship its depth. Either way, the pair seem like they’ll keep moving forward in their well-crafted, considered approach.

Oh Hiroshima on Facebook

Napalm Records website

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The roots of The Fizz Fuzz are in the desert in terms of sound, but the collaboration of Dandy Brown and Dawn Brown (née Rich) stems of course from the fact that they’re married. One can hear in the lead single from their debut album, Palmyra, that the two-piece have a musical connection as well as the obvious interpersonal relationship. Dandy Brown is known for his work with John Garcia through various incarnations in Hermano and in the former Kyuss singer’s solo work — the track “Dark Horse II,” which appears on Palmyra, was recorded first by Garcia — but has never shied away from stepping up to the microphone himself, and joined in the endeavor by Dawn, the melodies only become that much richer. Likewise, their two guitars function together to bring a satisfying wash of fuzz to the Slush Fund Recordings/Taxi Driver Records release, lending elements of heavy post-rock to fluid pieces like “Collapse” and the mellower “Shame,” as well as a riffer like “Dear Old” and the penultimate “Loose Lips.”

As regards “Hereby,” it is arguably the most straightforward of the eight tracks on Palmyra, and one could debate how representative it therefore is overall of the larger work. Certainly by the time they get through “Collapse,” “Dark Horse II” and “Shame,” which appear in succession immediately following, the palette has broadened, and as they move toward the acoustic closer “Sunkissed,” The Fizz Fuzz only continue to push into different vibes, whether it’s the unabashed sweetness in the shimmering melody of “Conditional Love” or the more weighted tonal density of “Dear Old.” That said, one can hear Dawn‘s guitar playing off the central riff Dandy brings forth, and the catchiness of the hook is nothing if not a suitable introduction to the record as a whole, however more complex the proceedings might and do ultimately wind up.

The video is kind of a goof, but a fun one. They’re dancing with, of course, the kids as judges while the song plays. Parts of the clip would seem to come from a live performance video of “Hereby” Dandy and Dawn filmed and posted in April of last year. That’s obviously not the album version of the track — no drums, for one thing — but it’s another opportunity to hear how their guitars work together, and though “Hereby” doesn’t bring Dawn‘s vocals in nearly as much as, say, “Conditional Love,” on which she sings lead, there’s still plenty of the fuzz from which the project would seem to take its moniker and the spirit is nothing if not welcoming to the listener. They’re pretty much inviting you into their home. Wipe your feet before you go in, the place looks pretty nice.

Palmyra is out March 1 with preorders up now.

Video and more info follow. Please enjoy:

The Fizz Fuzz, “Hereby” official video premiere

Coming together for the first time in the high desert of southern California during the fall of 2017, the FIZZ FUZZ are a blues-rock band formed by Dandy and Dawn Brown.

Dandy Brown is a producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with the bands Hermano, Orquesta del Desierto, John Garcia, Alice Tambourine Lover, Yawning Sons, and his solo releases. Dawn Brown is a multi-media artist, guitarist and vocalist widely recognized as a member of the new generation of groundbreaking visual artists in the northern California Bay Area.

Relocating to northern California in the winter of 2017, the Browns immediately began to write a new collection of songs that they debuted during their first European tour in the spring of the following year. Recording and performing throughout 2018 and 2019, the FIZZ FUZZ have a new album that is set for release on Taxi Driver Records (Europe) and Slush Fund Records (worldwide) on March 1, 2020.

Titled Palmyra, the FIZZ FUZZ album features performances by David Angstrom (Hermano/Luna Sol), Steve Earle (Afghan Whigs), Mike Callahan (Hermano/Earshot), Alice Albertazzi and Gianfranco Romanelli (Alice Tambourine Lover), and Mark Engel (Orquesta del Desierto).

The Fizz Fuzz, “Hereby” live promo video

Dandy Brown on Thee Facebooks

Dandy Brown website

Slush Fund Recordings website

Taxi Driver Records on Thee Facebooks

Taxi Driver Records website

We continue with day four of the Quarterly Review. This batch is numbers 31-40 of the total 60, not that the numbers really mean anything. I know it’s list season — believe me, I know — but there’s no actual ranking going on. It’s just basically so I can keep track and remember what day it is. That’s not to say this is done off the cuff. Actually, there’s an embarrassing amount of planning behind these things. Months. And when I start actually getting the posts ready and realize I’ve slated the same record on two different days — something that’s happened no fewer than three times so far, needing each time to be corrected — it’s a clear demonstration of the value of my planning. Ha. Anyway, we press on. Together. Into the thick of it. Thanks for reading.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Crowbar, The Serpent Only Lies

More than 25 years and 11 albums into a landmark career that helped prove the existence of the hairy beast known as “sludge metal,” Crowbar don’t owe anyone anything, and since returning to activity with 2011’s Sever the Wicked Hand (review here) and 2014’s Symmetry in Black, they’ve played like it. Their third post-resurgence outing is The Serpent Only Lies (on eOne Heavy), and though it works largely to form – that is, Crowbar are going to sound like Crowbar: low, slow, seeming to lurch even when dug into fits of gallop on “I am the Storm” or the early going of “The Enemy Beside You” – one still finds progression especially in the vocal approach of frontman and founder Kirk Windstein, who self-harmonizes effectively on the title-track’s standout hook as well as the later pair “On Holy Ground” and “Song of the Dunes,” the latter also resoundingly spacious in a way that offsets much of The Serpent Only Lies’ head-down intensity. This might be flourish or a companion to the core Crowbar sound that remains intact throughout, but the truth is it’s not like it needs to be there – Crowbar’s audience would still go to the shows even if the band stopped growing – but it’s entirely to the credit of the New Orleans legends that more than a quarter-century later they continue to progress. I guess that’s how Crowbar gets to be Crowbar.

Crowbar on Thee Facebooks

eOne Heavy on Thee Facebooks

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Katatonia, The Fall of Hearts

Depending on what you count as a full-length, The Fall of Hearts (on Peaceville) is either the 10th or 11th studio record from Sweden’s Katatonia. It follows 2013’s acoustic Dethroned and Uncrowned, which reenvisioned 2012’s Dead End Kings and brings forth over an hour of new material from founding duo Jonas Renkse (vocals/guitar/etc.) and Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström (guitar/backing vocals), as well as Niklas Sandin (bass) and Daniel Moilanen (drums), who, working with engineer Karl Daniel Lidén (ex-Greenleaf, Demon Cleaner), continue to proffer resonant melancholy in abundance. As a band, Katatonia have had a number of different phases over the years, from their deathly beginnings through the later moves into melody, but as it stands on songs like “Decima,” with its acoustic and mellotron arrangement, and the seven-minute “Serac,” which plays back and forth between serene and some of The Fall of Hearts’ most intense thrust, they remain among heavy metal’s most recognizable acts. There is no one else who sounds like them, and they sound not quite like anyone else. This collection might be more about gradual steps forward than radical shifts in approach, but Katatonia have found a way to preach to their converted and keep growing at the same time, and that’s to be commended.

Katatonia on Thee Facebooks

Peaceville Records website

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Ethereal Riffian, I am Deathless

Issued via Robustfellow in a range of physical editions from an oversized CD digipak to cassette bundles, the two-song I. AM. Deathless EP from yet-underrated Ukrainian progressive ritualists Ethereal Riffian warrants the ceremony with which it arrives. Its two tracks, “Drum of the Deathless” (6:19) and “Sword of the Deathless” (9:57) closed and opened, respectively, the prior 2016 live outing, Youniversal Voice (review here), and in their studio form they bring to bear a vision of psychedelic metal given to atmospheric breadth that comes at the expense neither of purpose nor impact. The opener proves the more immediate of the pair, but as “Sword of the Deathless” plays out, it finds prog-metal swirl amid low-end starts and stops intertwined layers of multi-channel spoken word, acoustic and electric guitar and percussive tension, so that as it heads into its payoff and melodic finish, the resolution is both satisfying and something of a relief from the cacophony preceding. Forward-thinking and of marked substance, I. AM. Deathless offers a quick glimpse at the band’s scope and invites listeners to dive deep therein.

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Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

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Dot Legacy, To the Others

There isn’t much that’s off-limits to Parisian heavy rockers Dot Legacy. To wit, the near-rap-rock mania of opener “Horizon” from their second LP, To the Others (on Setalight Records), and the laid-back psych-lounge vibes that follow on “Grey Cardinal,” only to be swept away in crashes and chants later, leading to the driving desert punkery of “211.” Three songs, three distinct feels, and Dot Legacy only get weirder from there as they toy with fuzzed momentum on “5314” and “Dakota” before the dreamy post-rock meandering of “The Twelve,” the prog-pop of “Story of Fame” and piano-laden psych-drama of closer “Pioneer.” In 35 minutes, the four-piece cover more ground than most bands do in their whole careers, but that becomes even more admirable in that they manage not to just be all over the place, but to provide a consistent quality of songwriting to complement all that quirk. Add to that the attention to detail in vocal harmonies and arrangements, and as they follow-up their 2014 self-titled debut (review here), they reveal a clear sense of a master plan at work under all the brashness and genre-hopping.

Dot Legacy on Thee Facebooks

Setalight Records website

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Salem’s Bend, Salem’s Bend

Self-released by the Los Angeles trio in late-2015 and picked up for a vinyl issue through Ripple Music, the self-titled debut from Salem’s Bend leaves little wonder as to why with its classic sensibility and the vibe proliferated by the natural-toned nod of a song like “Silverstruck.” Though still prone to a bit of Hendrix-style shred when it comes to lead guitar, the three-piece of Bobby (guitar/vocals), Kevin (bass) and Zach (drums) depart from some of the post-Radio Moscow all-thrust boogie in favor of more laid back fair and on that cut and the later “Sun and Mist,” which hits into a satisfying apex in its second half without feeling overcooked, as well as the six-minute finale “A Tip of Salem,” which nods through its initial movement before bursting out toward the end. In a crowded SoCal scene, just about anything Salem’s Bend can do to stand apart will serve them, and the fluidity they hone across these seven tracks sets them up to do just that.

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Ripple Music on Bandcamp

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Thonian Horde, Thonian Horde

Given the personnel involved, the black ‘n’ roll extremity of Thonian Horde’s self-titled debut full-length will no doubt come as a surprise to listeners. Formed in Boonsboro, Maryland, by bassist/vocalist Ron “Fezz” McGinnis (Pale Divine, Admiral Browning, etc.), guitarists Darren “Dirty” Waters (Weed is Weed) and Dan “D-Mize” Mize (Faith in Jane), and drummer Tyler “The Beast” Lee (Weed is Weed), one might expect high-order Frederick-style post-The Obsessed doom. Thonian Horde have more in common with Immortal on their centerpiece track “Darkest Nights Shadow,” and even as the closing “Psychonaut” finds a rock groove in its chorus, it does so with the hooky edge of Satyricon more than any of the members’ other outfits. No doubt that’s the point: doing something different. Indeed, the nine-tracker is a refreshing aesthetic reboot for the scene from whence it comes, holding fast to their region’s crucial lack of pretense even as they brazenly walk their own path – left-hand, of course.

Thonian Horde on Thee Facebooks

Thonian Horde on Bandcamp

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Second Sun, Tachyonregenerator

I don’t know about you, but I missed out on Hopp/Förtvivlan, which was the 2015 debut full-length from Swedish rockers Second Sun, so to have Gaphals provide gentle encouragement to check it out by getting behind the two-songer single Tachyonregenerator is most welcome. Both cuts included – “Tachyonregenerator” and “Tror Faktiskt På Dig” – bask in classic vibe without being overly showy when it comes to retroism, and are marked out by the inclusion of organ amid the natural-sounding guitar, drums and bass, the vocals presented in Swedish across both pieces. It’s a quick eight-minutes perfect for the 7” pressing it’s been given, but again, makes enough of an impression that one is inclined toward further investigation, and given that, I can’t call it anything other than a success. I’ll go ahead and chalk up one more quality Swedish act to keep track of, because Second Sun offer tight-knit progressive leanings in a crisp package on Tachyonregenerator, and even if I’m late to the party, I’m glad I got to hear it.

Second Sun on Thee Facebooks

Gaphals Records website

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Ten Ton Slug, Brutal Gluttonous Beast

Some pretty clear self-awareness demonstrated in Ten Ton Slug’s self-released debut EP, Brutal Gluttonous Beast. The Galway, Ireland, five-piece had a prior live-recorded two-tracker, but these four songs mark their first studio outing, and as they draw together massive sludge riffing and more extreme, death metal-style growls, there’s precious little one might say to more accurately describe a track like “Trollhunter” – the opener and longest on the release (immediate points) – than that it lives up to the title, its second-half slowdown lurch prefacing a similar move in “Bloodburns” before the more rampaging “Subterranean” and noise-soaked burl of “Unit” take hold. Intense and vicious, but not necessarily unhinged, Brutal Gluttonous Beast finds Ten Ton Slug sounding remarkably sure in their approach, and one will await the news of their traveling to England to record with Chris Fielding at Skyhammer, since that seems to be the kind of presentation for which the tonal onslaught here is begging.

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Ten Ton Slug on Bandcamp

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Komatsu, Recipe for Murder One

A half-decade after releasing their self-titled EP (review here), Eindhoven heavy/noise rockers Komatsu reemerge on Argonauta Records with the follow-up full-length, Recipe for Murder One. Boasting a guest appearance from Nick Oliveri on the suitably tumultuous “Lockdown,” the album leaves little to wonder what’s in that recipe in the darker-desert vibe of “So How’s About Billy” and “There Must be Something in Your Water,” which teases airy serenity in its first half only to go full-throttle for the second, but as the bass-driven lumber of the title-track and subtle melodic expansion of “The Sea is Calm Today” show, Komatsu haven’t wasted the last five years, instead constructing their own take on sonic density and sludge impulses that seems to hit with formidable impact regardless of tempo or tension level, both of which prove to be fluid elements at the four-piece’s disposal. They get the point across quickly in the stomp of “The Long Way Home,” but find suitable resolution in the nod of closer “Breathe,” rounding out a debut of significant character and depth with one last surprise in ambience it’s only fair to call progressive.

Komatsu on Thee Facebooks

Argonauta Records website

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The Blue Sunshine Family Band, The Blue Sunshine Family Band

A double-guitar instrumental four-piece from Santa Rosa, California, The Blue Sunshine Family Band make their debut with a six-song/51-minute self-titled. Tracks presented as Roman numerals “I” through “VI,” though whether or not they’re actually the first six pieces the band has written, I couldn’t say. Either way, the impression immediately draws from “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” – that great king of nod riffs – and first-name-only guitarists Billy and Kevin, bassist Matt and drummer Quinten build outward from there, dipping below the eight-minute mark only on “V” (7:14) as they unfurl solid grooves and tonal heft, seeming to leave room for vocals either consciously or not. The converted will find engagement and immersion in the crash and swinging turn of “IV,” as well as the David Paul Seymour cover art, and if The Blue Sunshine Family Band is the sound of this foursome getting their feet under them, they manage to accomplish that preliminary feat and then some in these tracks.

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The Blue Sunshine Family Band on Bandcamp

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