The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Daniele Murroni of Gramma Vedetta, Aliceissleeping & Mandrone Records

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

I will define myself as Jack of all trades, master of nothing. I’m a software engineer from 9 to 5 day and a musician, sound engineer and record label owner from 5pm to 9am. (occasionally video editor).

This is because I like to do different things, I get bored quickly, but also because I’m a geek and I’m pretty curious about how things work.

I’ve always been interested in science since I was a kid and I’ve been raised by music-lover parents, so in the ’90s I started playing the guitar with friends in a small town in Sardinia, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and since then everything I wanted to learn was something that could have been applied to music.

I started Computer Science at Uni because I wanted to learn how to develop audio plugins (tried, put together a distortion, sounded like shit).

I develop an interest in sound engineering and music production because I wanted to record my band’s first demo back in 1998. I learned how to edit videos because I wanted to edit video for bands.

Money was scarce, time was in abundance.

I married a bass player, actually, she married me because I’m a guitarist.

We opened Mandrone Records because we wanted to release our stuff and friends’ stuff.

So I do a lot of things and I am a lot of things, I’m not mastering anything but I enjoy life being like this.

Describe your first musical memory.

I have two early musical memories that I remember very well. I was like 4 or something.

“Dad, please put the disc with the thing that spin!” It was me asking my dad to put the Vinyl of Gentle Giant, Octopus, Side B, where the label had the full-size Vertigo logo printed in it.

With the vinyl rotating, the logo generated a 3D Optical illusion. I was hypnotized, I spent hours staring at that drawing.

Second musical memory: “Dad, please, put the music where there are kids singing, an ass with wig and eyes and hammers walking”. (The Wall)

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Guess the best musical memories are related to gigs I’ve seen.

I’ve been an avid music listener in my teens but haven’t seen any big band live because no one came down in Sardinia to play music.

Finally, at the age of 17, a couple of friends ad I organised a trip to Milan to attend the gig of our idols: Dream Theater!

To leave the island we needed of course to take a ship, It was an amazing experience, first time travelling with no adult supervision, seeing new places, watching your heroes playing your fav songs few meters from you, people jumping, moshpit.

Amazing. Sometimes I’d like to revive an experience like this. It was something completely new that I’ve never seen before. Real musicians, wow!

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

This question is not easy. Honestly, I don’t have absolute beliefs, I always question myself, thanks to the experiences I’ve had in my life. Human history itself has shown that certain assumptions, certain beliefs deeply rooted in society for a certain period, have turned out to be incorrect or otherwise limited.

Perhaps the only thing I believe at the moment is that the human being is evil and that in order to justify himself he had to create someone above or there responsible for his behaviour.

But I want to be clear, I don’t think ALL human beings are bad. There are many good people, like me for example, otherwise, we would have been extinct with an atomic war in the ’80s to the sound of Rust in Peace by Megadeth played by Vangelis on the synthesizer.

(I know Rust in Peace was released in 1990 but if I have to imagine the end of the world I imagine it in my own way.)

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

The artistic progression does not happen to everyone. There are many artists who have been repeating themselves for decades. The absence of artistic progression makes you an assembly line product, sterile and rigid made for mass consumption.

The artistic progression, which in my opinion consists of evolving, in developing new skills and therefore new ideas, in breaking out of the mould, takes you to unexplored, inaccessible territories, lands to conquer, where your survival skills are put to the test. In short, it makes you suffer, it makes you feel alive and unique.

How do you define success?

My definition of success is when you look at what you do and who you are and what you see it’s exactly what you wanted to do and be.

It’s not a matter of numbers or money.

It’s having no regrets, it’s being able to say “I wanted to do it so I tried” instead of “I haven’t done it because I don’t know if I’m capable” or “I wish I’d be like this but I can’t.”

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

Racist, ignorant, misogynistic and corrupt people rise to power. It hurts even more when you realize they have been voted on in regular elections.

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

I have an idea for a book/novel. It’s a dream I had once it was weird because the story had a twist towards the end that I wasn’t expecting. My brain played it very well during that dream.

I still remember it.

Also, I’d like to create a fictional universe, like Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek, George Lucas in Star Wars. I’m working on it, but’s not easy when you waste your time doing all the shit I’ve mentioned in question 1.

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

I’m related to this. As I said I like science and math, I work on computers, on machines that follow rules I impose on them. In this field, things have to be done in this way, with this sequence of operation, catch the exception, what If, then else.
Science is something that grows, but laws of physics are that one, you can’t defy them and we are forced to follow them.

Art is exactly what let us deviate from this, Art is something that his not tied to anything, let you build links between phenomena and parallel path. Art is the chaos that makes us non-machine, that scramble the numbers and give us guidance to create something new.

Art is what makes me feel alive after hours spent watching on a screen.

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

To see my family again. To gather together at a table, eat our favourite food and drink the best wine we have, telling each other stories about how we spent the past years.

https://www.facebook.com/grammavedetta
https://www.instagram.com/grammavedetta
https://grammavedetta.bandcamp.com/
www.aliceissleeping.com
https://www.instagram.com/aliceissleeping
https://www.facebook.com/aliceissleeping
https://www.twitter.com/sleepingisalice
https://www.aliceissleeping.bandcamp.com
https://shop.mandronerecords.com/

Aliceissleeping, Completely Fine (2021)

Gramma Vedetta, A.C.I.D. Compliant (2020)

Put headphones on and you can hear the waves. It’s been a while since Tuna de Tierra were last heard from — they made their self-titled debut (review here) on Argonauta in 2017 — but their return could hardly be more fitting or more welcome than to find guitarist/vocalist Alessio De Cicco on a Sardinian hillside strumming away on an unplugged version of “El Paso de la Tortuga.” The track originally comes from the trio’s 2015 debut EPisode 1: Pilot (review here) desert-style three-songer — the same material was also issued as a split with California’s The Bad Light in 2018 — and if you’re gonna find something to complain about in watching the clip of De Cicco playing the song, shove it. This video’s three minutes long, the song’s melody is sweet, and the scenery is about as pure as grey-day escapism gets. If you can’t hang with that, it’s your loss.

The minimalist approach — dude and guitar — reminds of the quieter moments of Nirvana‘s Unplugged in New York, minus the tragic historical context. It’s a mystery at this point whether Tuna de Tierra have anything new in the works. From what I can tell via cursory social media scrollthrough, their last show was in Feb. 2020, which sounds about right, and this video was recorded last summer, so its loneliness is only appropriate. They’re due a follow-up for the self-titled, certainly, and the potential of that record and warmth of it remain resonant these four years after the fact. Hopefully they’ll offer up somewhere down the line, but again, in the meantime, this is three minutes you won’t regret spending.

De Cicco tells the story himself under the player below, and the song’s lyrics (which apparently have never been published before) and video credits follow.

Please enjoy:

Tuna de Tierra, “El Paso de la Tortuga” acoustic video premiere

Alessio De Cicco on “El Paso de la Tortuga”:

July 2020, a random sunrise on Asinara, an island off Sardinia’s north-west shores.

A light breeze comes from the sea, and not that long after it will leave the leading role of the day to the blazing sun.

Time is still, moments are stretched.

And yet on this almost unspoiled island, on which we were more or less 15 guests staying that night, until a few years ago stood a penal colony.

Someone has seen his time being taken away in a paradise on earth which could eventually turn into a nightmare for his own mind. That time will never be returned to anyone, just like the one we choose to lose.

The moment was perfect to take my old Silvertone and play the song that was inspired just from the time I was losing when I wrote that and the loneliness that quite always goes with it.

It was the 2015 when our first EP and first record ever came out, and we could never imagine where we would have been some years after, but right now everyone had his chance to better understand how precious our time is.

We as a band cannot wait to be back together and start playing again and develop the ideas we had during this year, go back in the studio and finally go on a stage to share them with you all!”

EL PASO DE LA TORTUGA lyrics:
Layin’ on your lost time
Believing your thoughts do not lead your life
Holding you there
Crossing your brain
So on and on
And on and on
You wish you never lose control
Leaving you being on your own

Tuna de Tierra is:
Alessio De Cicco: guitar, vocals
Luciano Mirra: bass guitar
Mattia Santangelo: drums

Tuna de Tierra on Facebook

Tuna de Tierra on Instagram

Tuna de Tierra on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Facebook

Sardinian solo unit Sarram — also stylized all-caps with spaces between the letters: S A R R A M, thereby throwing caution to the wind as regards line breaks — will release its fourth full-length, Albero, in less than a month’s time. You can stream the track “Midnight” from it now and it’s easy enough to imagine that Valerio Marras (hey that’s Sarram backwards!), also of Charun, composed the track late some evening, on his own, headphones on, dug into the exploratory moment as it unfolded. The record as a whole is a vibe likewise worthy of titling a song “Diving Deep,” as rich immersion in headphone-ready drones and soundscapes comes across from opener “Heavy Sleep” onward, the evocative nature of Marras‘ work giving rise to any number of narratives for those willing to engage.

Will that be everyone? Nope. Never is, and I’m sure by the time of his fourth record, Marras doesn’t need to be told that. But, those seeking something textural and escapist might find room for themselves within the open spaces of “The Sound of a Needle” or the brief but consuming “Fading Sunlight,” the album’s eight-song course playing out over a still-accessible 39-minutes with a significant weight of atmosphere.

Info and the track stream came down the PR wire:

SARRAM – New album ‘Albero’ Out May 14th on Subsound Records

S A R R A M is the solo project of Sardinian multi-instrumentalist Valerio Marras, combining elements of drone/ambient, post-rock, doom and electronica. Also guitar player of post-rock oriented trio Thank U For Smoking and post-metal foursome Charun, Valerio Marras played extensively in Europe, with appearances at the KME, Schwarzer Herbst in Germany, Whoneedslyrics?! in Slovakia, Johanneskirche in Lobau, The Academy of fine Arts in Munich, Spazio Musica Project and Signal Fest in Cagliari, Dunk!Festival in Belgium and Young Team in France. He also collaborated with MAN and Ciusa Museum in Nuoro, Mua Museum in Sinnai, Nubifilm, Animamundi and naturalistic photographer Bobore Frau.

His fourth album ‘Albero’ presents a balanced and enigmatic mix of drone and ambient soundscapes, walls of guitar and hypnotic loops, while incorporating electronic and warm whispers. It’s a deep and intense journey, a dark ceremony of frequencies. It was recorded and mixed at ACME Studio at Cagliari, Sardinia by Nicola Olla and mastered by James Plotkin. Artwork was designed by Animamundi.

‘Albero’ will be released on May 14th via Subsound Records.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Heavy Sleep
2. The Sound Of A Needle
3. Scraps Of Paper
4. Sinking Shadows
5. Diving Deep
6. Fading Sunlight
7. Midnight
7. The Far Side Of The Moon

S A R R A M is
Valerio Marras — Guitar/fx, synth, glockenspiel, mandolin, kalimba

http://www.facebook.com/sarramproject
https://www.instagram.com/valosarram/
https://sarram.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords
https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
http://www.subsoundrecords.it/

Sarram, Albero (2021)

After appearing on the second installment of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ split series Doom Sessions (discussed here) last September alongside Acid Mammoth, Sardinia’s 1782 have set From the Graveyard as the title of their sophomore full-length and the follow-up to their 2019 self-titled debut (review here). As the first single “Priestess of Death” readily shows, they’re not fixing what isn’t broken when it comes to their riff-led cultish ways, but there’s a definite uptick in the production value as can be heard with the kicks and crashes a little before the three-minute mark, as well as rolling groove that at last ensues after the hypnosis is complete. It would seem what was a duo has only grown stronger as a three-piece.

Art, info, links, audio and all the rest follow, courtesy of the PR wire:

1782 – From The Graveyard

“From The Graveyard” is the second full length of the Occult Doom band “1782”. In this album there is a leap in quality as the production is much better than the previous releases. Eight tracks and 43 minutes of pure dark Doom, with slow and powerful riffs, and heavy and massive drumming. After the recording of “Doom Sessions Vol.2”, the band immediately enters the studio and records the heaviest tracks they have done so far, and they have done it while maintaining that catchy state they have always had. Here too there are featurings, Nico Sechi on organ (Hammond in “1782” and “Celestial Voices” in the debut album) and Alfredo Carboni’s Synth. As in the eponymous debut album, the artwork was done by the mighty SSCVLT.

“From The Graveyard” was recorded, mixed and mastered in November 2020 by Alfredo Carboni at “RKS Studios” in Ossi, Sardinia (Italy).

RELEASE DATE: MARCH 26th

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS159

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

TRACKLIST
SIDE A
A1 Evocationis (Intro) – 1:00
A2 The Chosen one – 4:17
A3 Bloodline – 7:17
A4 Black Void – 8:03

SIDE B
B1 Inferno – 5:37
B2 Priestess of Death – 5:54
B3 Seven Priests – 5:01
B4 In Requiem – 6:19

RELEASED IN :
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS
25 (of 175 pressing) DELUXE BUNDLE “SIDE A SIDE B” GOLD/BLACK VINYL + T-SHIRT + PATCH + POSTER + SHOPPER + CD
25 (of 175 pressing) BUNDLE “SIDE A SIDE B” GOLD/BLACK + T-SHIRT + PATCH + POSTER + SHOPPER + CD + DEBUT ALBUM IN ULTRA LTD EDITION VINYL and CD
125 (of 175) ULTRA LTD “SIDE A SIDE B” GOLD/BLACK VINYL
400 LTD SPLATTER PURPLE TRANSPARENT – BLACK VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

1782 is:
Marco Nieddu – Guitar / Vocals
Gabriele Fancellu – Drums / Backing Vocals
Francesco Pintore – Bass

www.facebook.com/1782doom
https://1782doom.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/1782_doom/
www.heavypsychsounds.com

1782, “Priestess of Death”

Italian cult doomers Black Capricorn released the Solstice EP last November — not quite at the solstice itself, which is in December — but not far off. The version that DHU Records will release contains two previously unreleased tracks to go with the original four, and it’s been given a “late 2020” issue date. Think maybe it’ll be out for the solstice? November would be fitting enough. Really, nobody’s paying attention to anything by Dec. 21. It’s holiday time, everybody’s too busy wondering what to order for each other off Amazon or working late hours to get money to order things off Amazon to be buying records. Even those who get/give records as presents are more likely to go with something already out than new releases.

So if it’s November, on a full-year turnaround from the original EP release, that’d work just fine, and I’m interested to hear those other two tracks of course, but really, I’ll take whatever and whenever when it comes to Black Capricorn, who are weird and underrated in kind. A band who genuinely seem to want to walk their own (left hand) path.

From the PR wire:

New signing to DHU Records: Black Capricorn

DHU Records is proud to welcome back to the fold: Black Capricorn to release their Solstice EP + 2 new unreleased songs!

No introduction is needed when talking about Black Capricorn in the Heavy Underground. Their slow trudging mesmeric Italian Doom is a brand known to many and immediately recognized when immersed into the Discography of the mighty Black Capricorn.

Test press, DHU Exclusive and Band Editions will be available come Autumn/Winter 2020

Side A:
A1. Omen (March of the Arcadians)
A2. Astrodestroyer
A3. Sumerian Summer

Side B:
B1. Three Brides of Satan
B2. Winterlude
B3. Shadows in the Moonlight

Recorded in November 2019 at The Business Consultant Recording Studios by Fabrizio Monni
Tracks A2 and B1 Recorded in October 2018/November 2019 (previously unreleased)
Mastering by Mirko Toro at the Gameboy Studio
New artwork by Fabrizio Monni

Black Capricorn:
Fabrizio – Guitars, Vocals
Virginia – Bass
Rachela – Drums

http://facebook.com/blackcapricorn666
https://blackcapricorn.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DHURecords/
https://www.instagram.com/dhu_records/
https://darkhedonisticunionrecords.bandcamp.com/
darkhedonisticunionrecords.bigcartel.com/

Black Capricorn, Solstice EP (2019)

So let’s assume that Loose Sutures formed with a pretty healthy idea of what they wanted to do as a band. Their self-titled debut full-length, which is out later this month on Electric Valley Records, arrives only months after the group formed in June 2019. And seeing as it’s nine songs, plus five that are listed as interludes and one of which is a cover, that still hardly seems like enough time to even write them all, let alone record them, but I think if you listen to either of the streaming tracks from the record below — one of which is the aforementioned cover — you can kind of get the feel that the Sardinian four-piece are trying to keep things as to-the-point as possible. I haven’t heard the full album yet, but I’ll be interested to hear how the interludes complement the broader tracks.

The PR wire brings the album info:

LOOSE SUTURES: Sardinian fuzzy heavy/garage rockers share new track; self-titled LP sees release this month via Electric Valley Records

Loose Sutures’ self-titled debut album comes on 27th March 2020 via Electric Valley Records. Depicting killer profiles and kinky love stories, this album contains nine tracks (including a cover version of The Laughing Dogs’ “I Need a Million”) and 5 interludes. The track “Lie” features additional guitar contributions from the legendary Trevor Peres (from Obituary).

Artwork: Sscvlt

Formed in June 2019, Loose Sutures is a razor-sharp four-headed machine with lots of evil beats, killer fuzz, and unhealthy lyrics. These 4 Sardinian roughnecks play classic ’70s riffs with a pinch of modern punk attitude, conveying a blend of stoner and garage energy with the spirits of Fuzz, Blue Cheer, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and The Stooges.

The self-titled debut album will be released on Red Vinyl, 50x LTD Marbled Red/Black Vinyl, 25x Ultra LTD “Murder Edition,” and Digital formats via Electric Valley Records.

Recorded: RKS Studios, Sardinia (Italy)
Mixed and Mastered: Alfredo Carboni
Artwork: Sscvlt
Band Photos: Peppe Corronca

Upcoming Shows:
06/19 – Electric Valley Festival in Ossi, Sardinia, Italy
October 2020 – European Tour (TBA)

Pre-order:
http://bit.ly/2vT0YHP (Red Vinyl)
http://bit.ly/32aTImZ (50x LTD Marbled Red/Black Vinyl)
http://bit.ly/329muo2 (25x Ultra LTD “Murder Edition)
http://bit.ly/2SJimbf (Bandcamp)

Loose Sutures are:
Antonio Pilo – Guitar/Vocals
Gianpaolo Cherchi – Guitar/Vocals
Marcello Meridda – Bass
Marco Angius – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/loosesutures
https://www.instagram.com/loose_sutures_band
https://loosesutures.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/electricvalleyrecords
https://www.instagram.com/electricvalleyrecord
http://electricvalleyrecords.com/

Loose Sutures, Loose Sutures (2020)

I’d like to find the jerk who decided that the week I fly to Norway was a good time for the Quarterly Review. That, obviously, was a tactical error on my part. Nonetheless, we press on with day four, which I post from Oslo on CET. Whatever time zone you may find yourself in this Thursday, I hope you have managed to find something so far in this onslaught of whatnot to sink your chompers into. That’s ultimately, why we’re here. Also because there are so many folders with albums in them on my desktop that I can’t stand it anymore. Happens about every three months.

But anyhoozle, we press on with Day Four of the Fall 2019 Quarterly Review, dutiful and diligent and a couple other words that start with ‘d.’ Mixed bag stylistically this time — trying to throw myself off a bit — so should be fun. Let’s dive in.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Total Fucking Destruction, #USA4TFD

Who the hell am I to be writing about a band like Total Fucking Destruction? I don’t know. Who the hell am I to be writing about anything. Fuck you. As the Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth)-led Philly natives grind their way through 23 tracks in a 27-minute barrage of deceptively thoughtful sonic extremity, they efficiently chronicle the confusion, tumult and disaffection of our age both in their maddening energy and in the poetry — yeah, I said it — of their lyrics. To it, from “Is Your Love a Rainbow”: “Are you growing? Is everything okay? Are you growing in the garden of I don’t know?” Lines like this are hardly decipherable without a lyric sheet, of course, but still, they’re there for those ready to look beyond the surface assault of the material, though, frankly, that assault alone would be enough to carry the band — Hoak on drums/vocals, Dan O’Hare on guitar/vocals and Ryan Moll on bass/vocals — along their willfully destructive course. For their fourth LP in 20 years — most of that time given to splits and shorter releases, as one might expect — Total Fucking Destruction make their case for an end of the world that, frankly, can’t get here fast enough.

Total Fucking Destruction on Thee Facebooks

Give Praise Records website

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Hippie Death Cult, 111

Issued first by the band digitally and on CD and then by Cursed Tongue Records on vinyl, 111 is the impressively toned debut full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Hippie Death Cult, who cull together heavy rock and post-grunge riffing with flourish of organ and a densely-weighted groove that serves as an overarching and uniting factor throughout. With the bluesy, classic feeling vocals of Ben Jackson cutting through the wall of fuzz from Eddie Brnabic‘s guitar and Laura Phillips‘ bass set to roll by Ryan Moore‘s drumming, there’s never any doubt as to where Hippie Death Cult are coming from throughout the seven-track/42-minute offering, but longer, side-ending pieces “Unborn” (8:24) and “Black Snake” (9:06) touch respectively on psychedelia and heavy blues in a way that emphasizes the subtle turns that have been happening all along, not just in shifts like the acoustic “Mrtyu,” but in the pastoral bridge and ensuing sweep of “Pigs” as well. “Sanctimonious” and “Breeder’s Curse” provide even ground at the outset, and from there, Hippie Death Cult only grow richer in sound along their way.

Hippie Death Cult on Thee Facebooks

Cursed Tongue Records BigCartel store

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The Cosmic Dead, Scottish Space Race

Heavyweight Glaswegian space jammers The Cosmic Dead present four massive slabs of lysergic intensity with their eighth long-player, Scottish Space Race (on Riot Season Records), working quickly to pull the listener into their gravity well and holding them there for the 2LP’s 75-minute duration. As hypnotic as it is challenging, the initial churn that emerges in the aptly-named 20-minute opener “Portal” clenches the stomach brutally, and it’s not until after about 12 minutes that the band finally lets it loose. “Ursa Major,” somewhat thankfully, is more serene, but still carries a sense of movement and build in its second half, while the 12-minute title-track is noisier and has the surprising inclusion of vocals from the generally instrumental outfit. They cap with the 24-minute kosmiche throb of “The Grizzard,” and there are vocals there too, but they’re too obscured to be really discernible in any meaningful way, and of course the end of the record itself is a huge wash of fuckall noise. Eight records deep, The Cosmic Dead know what they’re doing in this regard, and they do it among the best of anyone out there.

The Cosmic Dead on Thee Facebooks

Riot Season Records website

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Greenthumb, There are More Things

With just three tracks across a 20-minute span, There are More Things (on Acid Cosmonaut) feels like not much more than a sampler of things to come from Italian post-sludgers Greenthumb, who take their name from a Bongzilla track they also covered on their 2018 debut EP, West. The three-songer feels like a decided step forward from that offering, and though they maintain their screamier side well enough, they might be on the verge of needing a new name, as the rawness conveyed by the current moniker hardly does justice to the echoing atmospherics the band in their current incarnation bring. Launching with the two seven-minute cuts “The Field” and “Ogigia’s Tree,” they unfurl a breadth of roll so as to ensnare the listener, and though “The Black Court” is shorter at 5:37 and a bit more straight-ahead in its structure, it still holds to the ambient sensibility of its surroundings well, the band obviously doing likewise in transposing a natural feel into their sound born of landscape real or imagined.

Greenthumb on Thee Facebooks

Acid Cosmonaut Records on Bandcamp

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Elepharmers, Lords of Galaxia

Riffy Sardinians Elepharmers set themselves to roll with “Ancient Astronauts” and do not stop from there on Lords of Galaxia, their third LP and debut through Electric Valley Records. There are some details of arrangement between the guitars of El Chino (also bass, vocals and harmonica) and Andrea “Fox” Cadeddu and the drums of Maurizio Mura, but as Marduk heralds his age on second cut “Ziqqurat,” the central uniting factor is g-r-o-o-v-e, and Elepharmers have it down through “The Flood” and into side B’s classic stoner rocking “Foundation” and the driving “The Mule,” which shifts into laser-effects ahead of the fade that brings in closer “Stars Like Dust” for the last 10 minutes of the 47-minute offering. And yes, there’s some psychedelia there, but Elepharmers stay pretty clearheaded on the whole in such a way as to highlight the sci-fi theme that seems to draw the songs together as much as the riffage. More focus on narrative can only help bring that out more, but I’m not sure I’d want that at the expense of the basic songwriting, which isn’t at all broken and thus requires no fixing.

Elepharmers on Thee Facebooks

Electric Valley Records website

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Nothing is Real, Only the Wicked are Pure

How do you recognize true misanthropy when you come across it? It doesn’t wear a special kind of facepaint, though it can. It doesn’t announce itself as such. It is a frame. Something genuinely antisocial and perhaps even hateful is a worldview. It’s not raise-a-claw-in-the-woods. It’s he-was-a-quiet-loner. And so, coming across the debut album from Los Angeles experimentalist doom outfit, one gets that lurking, creeping feeling of danger even though the music itself isn’t overly abrasive. But across the 2CD debut album, a sprawl of darkened, viciously un-produced fare that seems to be built around programmed drums at the behest of Craig Osbourne — who may or may not be the only person in the band and isn’t willing to say otherwise — plays out over the course of more than two hours like a manifesto found after the fact. Imagine chapters called “Hope is Weakness,” “Fingered by the Hand of God,” and “Uplift the Worthy (Destroy the Weak).” The last of those appears on both discs — as do several of the songs in different incarnations — as the track marries acoustic and eventual harder-edged guitar around murderous themes, sounding something like Godflesh might have if they’d pursued a darker path. Scary.

Nothing is Real on Thee Facebooks

Nothing is Real on Bandcamp

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Warish, Down in Flames

The fact that Warish are blasting hard punk through heavy blowout tones isn’t what everyone wants to talk about when it comes to the band. They want to talk about the fact that it’s Riley Hawk — of royal stock, as regards pro skateboarding — fronting the band. Well, that’s probably good for a built-in social media following — name recognition never hurts, and I don’t see a need to pretend otherwise — but it doesn’t do shit for the album itself. What matters about the album is that bit about the blasting blowout. With Down in Flames (on RidingEasy), the Oceanside three-piece follow-up their earlier-2019 debut EP with 11 tracks that touch on horror punk with “Bones” and imagine grunge-unhinged with “Fight” and “You’ll Abide,” but are essentially a display of tonal fuckall presented not to add to a brand, but to add the soundtrack to somebody’s blackout. It’s a good time and the drunkest, gnarliest, most-possibly-shirtless dude in the room is having it. Also he probably smells. And he just hugged you. Down in Flames gets high with that dude. That matters more than who anyone’s dad is.

Warish on Thee Facebooks

RidingEasy Records website

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Mourn the Light & Oxblood Forge, Split

It’s a double-dose of New England doom as Connecticut’s Mourn the Light and Boston’s Oxblood Forge pair up for a split release. The former bring more material than the latter, particularly when one counts the digital-only bonus cover of Candlemass‘ “Bewitched,” but with both groups, it’s a case of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Both groups share a clear affinity for classic metal — and yes, that absolutely extends to the piano-led drama of Mourn the Light‘s mournful “Carry the Flame” — but Oxblood Forge‘s take thereupon is rougher edged, harder in its tone and meaner in the output. Their “Screams From Silence” feels like something from a dubbed-and-mailed tape circa ’92. Mourn the Light’s “Drags Me Down” is cleaner-sounding, but no less weighted. I don’t think either band is out to change the world, or even to change doom, but they’re doing what they’re doing well and without even an ounce of pretense — well, maybe a little bit in that piano track; but it’s very metal pretense — and clearly from the heart. That might be the most classic-metal aspect of all.

Mourn the Light on Thee Facebooks

Oxblood Forge on Thee Facebooks

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Those Furious Flames, HeartH

Swiss heavy rockers Those Furious Flames push the boundaries of psychedelia, but ultimately remain coherent in their approach. Likewise, they very, very obviously are into some classic heavy rock and roll, but their take on it is nothing if not modern. And more, they thrive in these contradictions and don’t at all sound like their songs are in conflict with themselves. I guess that’s the kind of thing one can pull off after 15 years together on a fifth full-length, which HeartH (on Vincebus Eruptum) is for them. Perhaps it’s the fact that they let the energy of pieces like “VooDoo” and the boogie-laced “HPPD” carry them rather than try to carry it, but either way, it’s clearly about the songs first, and it works. With added flash of organ amid the full-sounding riffs, Those Furious Flames round out with the spacey “Visions” and earn every bit of the drift therein with a still-resonant vocal harmony. You might not get it all the first time, but listening twice won’t be at all painful.

Those Furious Flames on Thee Facebooks

Vincebus Eruptum Recordings BigCartel store

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Mantra Machine, Heliosphere

This is what it’s all about. Four longer-form instrumentalist heavy psych jams that are warm in tone and want nothing so much as to go out wandering and see what they can find. Through “Hydrogen,” “Atmos,” “Delta-V” and “Heliosphere,” Amsterdam-based three-piece Mantra Machine want nothing for gig-style vitality, but their purpose isn’t so much to electrify as to find that perfect moment of chill and let it go, see where it ends up, and they get there to be sure. Warm guitar and bass tones call to mind something that might’ve come out of the Netherlands at the start of this decade, when bands like Sungrazer and The Machine were unfolding such fluidity as seemed to herald a new generation of heavy psychedelia across Europe. That generation took a different shape — several different shapes, in the end — but Mantra Machine‘s Heliosphere makes it easy to remember what was so exciting about that in the first place. Total immersion. Total sense of welcoming. Totally human presence without speaking a word. So much vibe. So much right on.

Mantra Machine on Thee Facebooks

Mantra Machine on Bandcamp

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I usually give bands immediate points for opening a release with the longest song. It’s a continually brave decision, and in my mind, worth highlighting when it happens. Okay, so Black Capricorn‘s new digital outing, Equinox, is an EP. So figure maybe half points. But the song’s also acoustic — an unplugged leadoff on an otherwise-plugged release. That’s gotta be points right there. Plus it’s called “Doom for the Red Sun,” so cleverness points on top of those for the reference. I haven’t done a full tally of the numbers involved, but all told, I think it probably works out to you should take a couple minutes and check out the release, which as fate would have it is streaming at the bottom of this post courtesy of the Sardinian trio’s Bandcamp page.

Equinox follows 2015’s Ira Dei EP (discussed here) and this year’s LP, Cult of Black Friars (review here), and in addition to its doomly red sun blues has tracks that date back even before the band got their start and an uncut version of “The Hound of Harbinger God,” which previously appeared on a single.

The art and info:

Black Capricorn – Equinox EP

This new EP is part of a concept continuing for a second and final chapter later next year.

Equinox is inspired by spring season and the end of the summer time. Consist of an acoustic with an unlikely title song (track 1), an old song written during Cult of Black Friars session (track 2), a very old song written in the mid of the 90s by Fabrizio for his formerly band Wild Duck (track 3) and the uncensored (by the length of the 7″ release) and remastered song (track 4).

tracklist:
1. Doom for the red sun
2. La sella del Diavolo
3. Astroflower
4. The hound of harbinger god (uncutted and remastered)

Recorded 3 days of november at the doomy cottage (Hill de los muertos, Sardinia). Mastered in 666 minutes by the man behind the button: mr. Toro.

https://blackcapricorn.bandcamp.com/album/equinox-ep

http://facebook.com/blackcapricorn666
https://blackcapricorn.bandcamp.com

Black Capricorn, Equinox (2018)