Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
God damn. I’ve been trying to get this post up for like a week. Literally. Seven fucking earth days. And probably longer than that. So what’s up? I don’t feel like writing about Rezn? Just a ton of other shit going on? I don’t know, but the fact that it’s taken me so long to get to this makes me feel like there’s something to be unpacked.
Truth of it is, Rezn‘s 2024 album, Burden (review here), is one of many that I felt like should’ve been higher than it was on my year-end list. That’s no fault of the band’s own. I had a busy summer and missed a lot of it when the record was being hyped up, and I still kind of felt like I was too much getting caught up to 2023’s Solace (review here) to be ready for a quick-turnaround sequel. That’s on my own inability to keep up, not the band, mind you. Rezn, so far as I know, did nothing wrong.
I’m pretty sure I’l be out of town when they hit NYC, but this band at TV Eye will be incredible. If I have any friends in the NY area who are in need of convincing, holy crap, go to that show.
Dates follow, FINALLY, from socials:
[NOTE: Actually, it totally worked out that I was so late because they announced the Euro tour in the meantime and I got to do both together. Go figure.]
NEW TOUR DATES! We are heading east this spring and will be joined by the bludgeoning sonic force of @harshrealmavl. Tickets on sale now at rezn.band/shows
REZN Spring Tour w/ Harsh Realm 4/12: Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups 4/14: Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme 4/15: Toronto, ON – The Garrison 4/16: Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB 4/17: Braintree, MA – Hopsmoker Fest 4/18: Brooklyn, NY – TV Eye 4/19: Baltimore, MD – Grim Reefer Fest § 4/20: Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy 4/22: Richmond, VA – Bandito’s 4/23: Asheville, NC – Eulogy 4/25: Atlanta, GA – Boggs Social & Supply 4/27: Orlando, FL – Conduit 4/29: Nashville, TN – Eastside Bowl 4/30: Louisville, KY – Zanzabar 5/01: Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle § – REZN only
Poster design by @frattalica
EUROPE + UK TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT 🌍
We are going overseas this summer for our first proper headlining tour in the EU/UK. Tickets on sale now, full dates below:
July 31: Hamburg, DE @ Logo August 1: Beelen, DE @ Krach Am Bach Festival August 2: Berlin, DE @ Neue Zukunft August 3: Warsaw, PL @ Voodoo August 5: Dresden, DE @ Chemifabrik August 6: Jena, DE @ Kuba August 8: Salzburg, AT @ Rockhouse August 9: Jaromer, CZ @ Brutal Assault Festival August 10: Munich, DE @ Backstage August 12: London, UK @ The Dome supporting @pelicansong August 13: Birmingham, UK @ The Flapper August 14: Bristol, UK @ ArcTanGent Festival August 15: Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn August 16: Merienthal, DE @ Hoflaerm Festival August 19: Copenhagen, DK @ Stengade August 20: Gothenburg, SE @ Monument August 21: Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret August 22: Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7
REZN: Rob McWilliams: guitar and vocals Phil Cangelosi: bass and rainstick Patrick Dunn: drums and percussion Spencer Ouellette: synths, sax, lapsteel, flute, and piano
One would not accuse Chicago-based atmospheric heavy rockers Rezn of shyness in terms of conveying their intent. To wit, Burden — their fifth full-length and first to be issued through Sargent House — follows behind 2023’s Solace (review here) — and has the stated intention of conveying a feeling of hardship, a darker representation to complement the soothing cosmic fluidity of the previous LP. They are still lush in melody with the soulful mystique in guitarist Rob McWilliams‘ vocals, and given complexity through the synthesizer, saxophone, flute, piano and lap-steel guitar of Spencer Ouellette, but as Phil Cangelosi bass underscores the standout chorus of second cut “Instinct” and Patrick Dunn‘s drums hammer away behind the floating lyric, “Hanging onto the razor’s edge,” the sense of burden in Burden is channeled both through the emotionality and the sheer weight of tone.
The seven-song/34-minute album’s opener, “Indigo” (‘blue’ in a the-blues sense, perhaps) taps into urgency that’s been rare for Rezn to-date — their debut was 2017’s Let it Burn (review here) — with siren wails of guitar or synth pulled against a backdrop of darker swirl, low end distortion a foreboding current brought to a sudden stop for an aftermath of synth drone. It’s not the last, as the arriving-early interlude “Descent of Sinuous Corridors” casts a brief hypnosis in a nonetheless exploratory 70 seconds after “Instinct,” a build of drums in the last few of those seconds giving directly over to “Bleak Patterns,” which serves as a worthy centerpiece and is the longest inclusion on the record at 6:52.
Ouellette‘s lap-steel weeps for some unknown loss as Dunn holds the pattern on drums and McWilliams‘ guitar touches on a folkish melancholia to complement the verse, only to stop short, rear back, and unleash a crush heretofore unheard on Burden; a willful plunge made and repeated throughout the chorus as the vocals carry on with the downward melody. Indeed, there is a pattern, and it is bleak, though it is somewhat the nature of their style that the listener can find room enough in what’s happening at a given moment — whether that’s “Bleak Patterns” being brought down on one’s head or the reaches left empty in “Descent of Sinuous Corridors” just minutes and epochs of distorted spacetime earlier — to inhabit a place.
That is less the purpose here than in Solace, presumably, and one can read that into the material and the flow from one piece into the next, and so on, but as concrete and heavy as they get, Rezn still give their audience the opportunity to dwell in the mix. Not lacking in impact, as the likes of “Instinct” and “Bleak Patterns” and the concluding “Chasm” — toward which Mike Sullivan of Russian Circles contributes a noisy guitar solo — Burden is nonetheless resonant, and one has to acknowledge the power of suggestion in terms of its narrative and impression. That is to say, if you end up finding a comfortable warmth in some of the psychedelic drift and emergent lurch of “Collapse” — which for sure has more than an edge of the depressive in lyrics like, “Can’t unsee spirals tightening/No reprieve suspending disbelief/Immolate, colors turn to gray/Acclimate to a long decay” — and taking ‘solace’ in the emotional presence of McWilliams‘ vocals and the alien expanses the band evoke instrumentally, I wouldn’t tell you you’re doing it wrong, even if it is counterintuitive to the concept.
Or maybe it isn’t, at all. Because how often does it happen that what we experience in art reflects back what we as viewers, listeners, consumers, bring to it of ourselves? And in that regard, if the weepy line of lap-steel before the two-minute mark in the penultimate “Soft Prey” — a precursor to Ouellette‘s saxophone solo, plus later bookend — gives some comfort by simply being relatable, has the art succeeded? Does that undercut the laid-out purpose behind Burden in conveying the darker aspects of Rezn‘s sound, of being the coin’s other side to Solace? I don’t think it does. And if the music makes you question why you feel what you feel at the time you’re experiencing it, I’ll argue your life just got fuller. In this way, and in being heavy the way one thinks of the churning semi-molten rock in Earth’s mantle beneath the cave painted in Adam Burke‘s cover art here, Burden is its own validation. Is it grimmer than Solace? Sure, in some ways; the lyrics are an example to cite. But at times, as in the patient chug that sets “Chasm” forth, it’s also more direct and terrestrial rather than celestial, and so it still broadens Rezn‘s scope as it exudes this gravitational force.
That is to say, the album — which was produced and mixed by Matt Russell in 2021 along with Solace and mastered by Zach Weeks at God City in Salem, Massachusetts — has a story it’s telling about what it does, but the thing about music that runs so deep is that once it’s out there and people start hearing it, they’re inevitably going to create their own stories for and with it too. Including this one, by the way. Taken as a vehicle for that, Burden is perhaps less a contradiction for Solace than a companion, though even that wouldn’t necessarily undercut the intention.
This is the part where I shrug my shoulders, say “I don’t fucking know,” and move on. Frankly, if you hear it and find it relatable on some level, whatever level — if it makes you feel something — I fail to see how that’s not success artistically. As to the noted corridors being descended, they are not entirely without light. It could be the concept emerged after the recording, as Rezn-circa-later-plague were thinking what to do with the glut of material they’d just put to tape and came to realize this natural divide within the songs. Once again, “I don’t fucking know.”
What I do know is that there are few bands in the US or otherwise within the spherical heavy underground who present such a tapestry in their work. And five records deep — even if Burden and Solace were tracked at the same time — there are few as immediately identifiable or as individual in their scope and execution. In seven years, Rezn have made a place utterly their own in heavy psych, cosmic doom, whatever you want to call their ‘genre.’ I’d be interested to know how the time since these sessions has changed them, especially given the touring they’ve undertaken since, but while Burden can do a lot for those who take it on with an open mind, it can’t do that. Instead, it snapshots a conceptualist (or at least thematic) side of Rezn unknown before Solace and showcases continued growth and ambition on the part of the band, hitting harder and digging further down than they have before. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what could be.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Chicago molten-psychbringers Rezn are drawing nearer to the June 14 release date for their new album, Burden, through Sargent House, and you’ll note that by the time it arrives they’ll already be on the road. They’re set to stay that way for some time — a few weeks between tours notwithstanding — as they cover the East and West Coasts of the US and points between, alternately supporting Pallbearer and headlining with company from Mute Duo, each run with a couple Canadian dates for good measure.
The ascendant masters of drift and heady melody will in October embark on a festival-laden European tour in the company of Russian Circles, and that also feels like a big deal as they work from a quick turnaround following 2023’s Solace (review here) and head in working-band fashion to cover the geography. I haven’t heard Burden yet, but it’s a no-brainer to look forward to where the the band’s ongoing journey might lead, however foreboding the title they’ve given it, and certainly the early singles “Chasm” and “Collapse” hold promise for Rezn‘s textured tones and exploratory spaces. It’s an easy bet, if you’re the type to preorder, I guess is what I’m saying.
So maybe I should do that and get myself a CD, because I turned 12 in the ’90s and so am loyal to little plastic discs forever even though every time I buy one at this point all I can think about is how when I’m dead no one will want the collection that I’ve so carefully curated and treasured despite the fact that three quarters of it — the old stuff — is in storage.
What were we talking about? I’m sorry, I seem to have gone on a tangent and made myself sad. Surely won’t be the last time that happens.
You like VIBES? Here be tour dates:
Fresh headlining US tour dates added with support from the mesmerizing @mute_duo. Full dates below:
Supporting @pallbearerdoom June 11: Durham, NC – The Fruit June 12: Asheville, NC – Eulogy June 13: Virginia Beach, VA – The Bunker June 14: Baltimore, MD – Metro June 15: Lancaster, PA – Tellus 360 June 16: Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts June 18: Hamden, CT – Space Ballroom June 20: Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg June 21: Boston, MA – The Sinclair June 22: Montreal, QC – Theatre Fairmount June 23: Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground June 25: Milwaukee, WI – Vivarium June 26: Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall June 27: St Paul, MN – Turf Club June 28: Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck June 29: Little Rock, AR – The Hall
July 26: Indianapolis, IN – Post. Festival (only REZN)
w/ Mute Duo Aug 9: Iowa City, IA – Gabe’s Aug 10: Kansas City, MO – MiniBar Aug 13: Denver, CO – Hi-Dive Aug 14: Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High Saloon Aug 16: Portland, OR – Dante’s Aug 17: Vancouver, BC – Green Auto Aug 18: Seattle, WA – Substation Aug 20: Sacramento, CA – Cafe Colonial Aug 21: Oakland, CA – Stork Club Aug 22: Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room Aug 23: Palmdale, CA – Transplants Brewing Aug 24: Mesa, AZ – The Nile Underground Aug 25: Albuquerque, NM – Sister Bar Aug 27: Fort Worth, TX – Tulips Aug 28: Austin, TX – The Lost Well
With @russiancircles Oct 9 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Oct 10 – Koln, DE @ Kantine Oct 11 – Munich, DE @ Keep It Low Festival Oct 12 – Prague, CZ @ Archa Oct 14 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Oct 15 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon Oct 17 – Metz, FR @ La Bam Oct 18 – Antwerp, BE @ Desertfest Oct 20 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument Oct 21 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret Oct 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan Oct 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Oct 25 – Aalborg, DK @ Lasher Fest Oct 26 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich Oct 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute2 Oct 30 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay Oct 31 – Belfast, N-IRE @ Limelight 2 Nov 1 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory Nov 2 – Manchester, UK @ Damnation Fest Nov 3 – London, UK @ EartH Nov 5 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon Nov 6 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode Nov 7 – Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa Nov 10 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca Nov 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Salamandra
REZN: Rob McWilliams: guitar and vocals Phil Cangelosi: bass and rainstick Patrick Dunn: drums and percussion Spencer Ouellette: synths, sax, lapsteel, flute, and piano
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Shit man. New Rezn coming. That’s really good news. I don’t know how much more of this my heart can take. And guess what? The fucking single rules. A little meaner in the tone on first impression, but not so much as to give up the atmosphere, and I know you know vibe is everything here. The record is called Burden. It’s coming out through Sargent House on June 14. I hope it turns out I’m cool enough to hear it before then. Pretty much anytime after I finish typing this sentence would work.
Anything?
No?
Moving on.
Rezn — who I was lucky enough to see live on stage in Norway that one time, and whose 2023 album, Solace (review here), I still feel like I’m just getting to know, let alone be somehow over — will hit the road alongside Pallbearer and frickin’ The Keening, because if you’re going to do a tour, I guess make it a landmark. That’s a good-ass show. New Pallbearer also smokes, and The Keening is heavy regardless of volume. Killer. Then Europe in Fall with Russian Circles. Gracious me.
Info, links and whatnot headed your way.
Have a great whatever:
REZN – Burden
Our new album ‘Burden’ is out June 14 via Sargent House. The first single “Chasm” is streaming now alongside the official video release. Prepare for the descent. rezn.band/burden
Recorded in August of 2021 at Earth Analog in Tolono, IL Engineered, mixed, produced, and reduced by Matt Russell Mastered by Zach Weeks at God City Studio in Salem, MA
Mike Sullivan: guitar solo on “Chasm”
Album art by Adam Burke / Nightjar Illustration Layout design by Spencer Ouellette and Future Wisdom
In honor of their new album ‘Mind Burns Alive’, we will be joining @pallbearerdoom on select dates of their upcoming US tour.
May 11 – Oslo, NO @ Desertfest Oslo
With @pallbearerdoom Jun 11 – Durham, NC @ The Fruit Jun 12 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy Jun 13 – Virginia Beach, VA @ The Bunker Brewpub Jun 14 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Baltimore Jun 15 – Lancaster, PA @ Tellus360 Jun 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts Jun 18 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom Jun 20 – Brooklyn , NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg Jun 21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair Jun 22 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmount Jun 23 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground Jun 25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium Jun 26 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Jun 27 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club Jun 28 – Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck Jun 29 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall
Jul 26 – Indianapolis, IN @ Post Festival
With @russiancircles Oct 9 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Oct 10 – Koln, DE @ Kantine Oct 11 – Munich, DE @ Keep It Low Festival Oct 12 – Prague, CZ @ Archa Oct 14 – Vienna, AT @ Arena Oct 15 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon Oct 17 – Metz, FR @ La Bam Oct 18 – Antwerp, BE @ Desertfest Oct 20 – Gothenburg, SE @ Monument Oct 21 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret Oct 22 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan Oct 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Oct 25 – Aalborg, DK @ Lasher Fest Oct 26 – Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefaehrlich Oct 29 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute2 Oct 30 – Glasgow, UK @ Slay Oct 31 – Belfast, N-IRE @ Limelight 2 Nov 1 – Dublin, IRE @ Button Factory Nov 2 – Manchester, UK @ Damnation Fest Nov 3 – London, UK @ EartH Nov 5 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon Nov 6 – Rennes, FR @ L’Antipode Nov 7 – Bordeaux, FR @ Krakatoa Nov 10 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca Nov 11 – Barcelona, ES @ Salamandra
REZN: Rob McWilliams: guitar and vocals Phil Cangelosi: bass and rainstick Patrick Dunn: drums and percussion Spencer Ouellette: synths, sax, lapsteel, flute, and piano
Posted in Reviews on December 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Well, this is it. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to do Monday and Tuesday, or just Monday, or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or the whole week next week or what. I don’t know. But while I figure it out — and not having this planned is kind of a novelty for me; something against my nature that I’m kind of forcing I think just to make myself uncomfortable — there are 10 more records to dig through today and it’s been a killer week. Yeah, that’s the other thing. Maybe it’s better to quit while I’m ahead.
I’ll kick it back and forth while writing today and getting the last of what I’d originally slated covered, then see how much I still have waiting to be covered. You can’t ever get everything. I keep learning that every year. But if I don’t do it Monday and Tuesday, it’ll either be last week of December or maybe second week of January, so it’s not long until the next one. Never is, I guess.
If this is it for now or not, thanks for reading. I hope you found music that has touched your life and/or made your day better.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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David Eugene Edwards, Hyacinth
There are not a ton of surprises to behold in what’s positioned as a first solo studio offering from David Eugene Edwards, whose pedigree would be impressive enough if it only included either 16 Horsepower or Wovenhand but of course is singular in including both. But you don’t need surprises. Titled Hyacinth and issued through Sargent House, the voice, the presence, the sense of intimacy and grandiosity both accounted for as Edwards taps acoustic simplicity in “Bright Boy,” though even that is accompanied by the programmed electronics that provides backing through much of the included 11 tracks. Atop and within these expanses, Edwards broods poetic and explores atmospheres that are heavy in a different way from what Wovenhand has become, chasing tone or intensity. On Hyacinth, it’s more about the impact of the slow-rolling beat in “Celeste” and the blend of organic/inorganic than just how loud a part is or isn’t. Whether a solo career under his name will take the place of Wovenhand or coincide, I don’t know.
Whatever led Beastwars to decide it was time to do a covers EP, fine. No, really, it’s fine. It’s fine that it’s 32 minutes long. It’s fine that I’ve never heard The Gordons, or Julia Deans, or Superette, or The 3Ds or any of the other New Zealand-based artists the Wellington bashers are covering. It’s fine. It’s fine that it sounds different than 2019’s IV (review here). It should. It’s been nearly five years and Beastwars didn’t write these eight songs, though it seems safe to assume they did a fair bit of rearranging since it all sounds so much like Beastwars. But the reason it’s all fine is that when it’s over, whether I know the original version of “Waves” or the blues-turns-crushing “High and Lonely” originally by Nadia Reid, or not, when it’s all over, I’ve got over half an hour more recorded Beastwars music than I had before Tyranny of Distance showed up, and if you don’t consider that a win, you probably already stopped reading. That’s fine too. A sidestep for them in not being an epic landmark LP, and a chance for new ideas to flourish.
Because Messages From the Mothership stacks its longer songs (six-seven minutes) in the back half of its tracklisting, one might be tempted to say Sun Dial push further out as they go, but the truth is that ’60s pop-inflected three-minute opener “Echoes All Around” is pretty out there, and the penultimate “Saucer Noise” — the longest inclusion at 7:47 — is no less melodically present than the more structure-forward leadoff. The difference, principally, is a long stretch of keyboard, but that’s well within the UK outfit’s vintage-synth wheelhouse, and anyway, “Demagnitized” is essentially seven minutes of wobbly drone at the end of the record, so they get weirder, as prefaced in the early going by, well, the early going itself, but also “New Day,” which is more exploratory than the radio-friendly-but-won’t-be-on-the-radio harmonies of “Living for Today” and the duly shimmering strum of “Burning Bright.” This is familiar terrain for Sun Dial, but they approach it with a perspective that’s fresh and, in the title-track, a little bit funky to boot.
With rampant heavy blues and a Mk II Deep Purple boogie bent, Toulouse, France’s Fuzzy Grass present The Revenge of the Blue Nut, and there’s a story there but to be honest I’m not sure I want to know. The heavy ’70s persist as an influence — no surprise for a group who named their 2018 debut 1971 — and pieces like “I’m Alright” and “The Dreamer” feel at least in part informed by Graveyard‘s slow-soul-to-boogie-blowout methodology. Raw fuzz rolls out in 11-minute capper “Moonlight Shades” with a swinging nod that’s a highlight even after “Why You Stop Me” just before, and grows noisy, expansive, eventually furious as it approaches the end, coherent in the verse and cacophonous in just about everything else. But the rawness bolsters the character of the album in ways beyond enhancing the vintage-ist impression, and Fuzzy Grass unite decades of influences with vibrant shred and groove that’s welcoming even at its bluest.
If you go by the current of sizzling electronic pops deeper in the mix, even the outwardly quiet intro to Morne‘s Engraved with Pain is intense. The Boston-based crush-metallers have examined the world around them thoroughly ahead of this fifth full-length, and their disappointment is brutally brought to realization across four songs — “Engraved with Pain” (10:42), “Memories Like Stone” (10:48), “Wretched Empire” (7:45) and “Fire and Dust” (11:40) — written and executed with a dark mastery that goes beyond the weight of the guitar and bass and drums and gutturally shouted vocals to the aura around the music itself. Engraved with Pain makes the air around it feel heavier, basking in an individualized vision of metal that’s part Ministry, part Gojira, lots of Celtic Frost, progressive and bleak in kind — the kind of superlative and consuming listening experience that makes you wonder why you ever listen to anything else except that you’re also exhausted from it because Morne just gave you an existential flaying the likes of which you’ve not had in some time. Artistry. Don’t be shocked when it’s on my ‘best of the year’ list in a couple weeks. I might just go to a store and buy the CD.
Don’t tell the swingin’-dick Western swag of “Wounded,” but Appalooza are a metal band. To wit, The Shining Son, their very-dudely follow-up to 2021’s The Holy of Holies (review here) and second outing for Ripple Music. Opener “Pelican” has more in common with Sepultura than Kyuss, or Pelican for that matter. “Unbreakable” and “Wasted Land” both boast screams worthy of Devin Townsend, while the acoustic/electric urgency in “Wasted Land” and the tumultuous scope of the seven-plus-minute track recall some of Primordial‘s battle-aftermath mourning. “Groundhog Days” has an airy melody and is more decisively heavy rock, and the hypnotic post-doom apparent-murder-balladry of “Killing Maria” answers that at the album’s close, and “Framed” hits heavy blues à la a missed outfit like Dwellers, but even in “Sunburn” there’s an immediacy to the rhythm between the guitar and percussion, and though they’re not necessarily always aggressive in their delivery, nor do they want to be. Metal they are, if only under the surface, and that, coupled with the care they put into their songwriting, makes The Shining Son stand out all the more in an ever-crowded Euro underground.
An invitation to chill the beans delivered to your ears courtesy of Irish cosmic jammers Space Shepherds as two longform jams. “Wading Through the Infinite Sea” nestles into a funky groove and spends who-even-cares-how-much-time of its total 27 minutes vibing out with noodling guitar and a steady, languid, periodically funk-leaning flow. I don’t know if it was made up on the spot, but it sure sounds like it was, and though the drums get a little restless as keys and guitar keep dreaming, the elements gradually align and push toward and through denser clouds of dust and gas on their way to being suns, a returning lick at the end looking slightly in the direction of Elder but after nearly half an hour it belongs to no one so much as Space Shepherds themselves. ‘Side B,’ as it were, is “Void Hurler” (18:41), which is more active early around circles being drawn on the snare, and it has a crescendo and a synthy finish, but is ultimately more about the exploration and little moments along the way like the drums decided to add a bit of push to what might’ve otherwise been the comedown, or the fuzz buzzing amid the drone circa 10 minutes in. You can sit and listen and follow each waveform on its journey or you can relax and let the whole thing carry you. No wrong answer for jams this engaging.
Young Chilean four-piece Rey Mosca — the lineup of Josué Campos, Valentín Pérez, Damián Arros and Rafael Álvarez — hold a spaciousness in reserve for the midsection of teh seven-minute “Sol del Tiempo,” which is the third of the three songs included in their live-recorded Volumen! Sesion AMB EP. A ready hint is dropped of a switch in methodology since both “Psychodoom” and ” Perdiendo el Control” are under two minutes long. Crust around the edge of the riff greets the listener with “Psychodoom,” which spends about a third of its 90 seconds on its intro and so is barely started by the time it’s over. Awesome. “Perdiendo el Control” is quicker into its verse and quicker generally and gets brasher in its second half with some hardcore shout-alongs, but it too is there and gone, where “Sol del Tiempo” is more patient from the outset, flirting with ’90s noise crunch in its finish but finding a path through a developing interpretation of psychedelic doom en route. I don’t know if “Sol del Tiempo” would fit on a 7″, but it might be worth a shot as Rey Mosca serve notice of their potential hopefully to flourish.
Principally engaged in the consumption and expulsion of expectations, Fawn Limbs and Nadja — experimentalists from Finland and Germany-via-Canada, respectively — drone as one might think in opener “Isomerich,” and in the subsequent “Black Body Radiation” and “Cascading Entropy,” they give Primitive Man, The Body or any other extremely violent, doom-derived bludgeoners you want to name a run for their money in terms of sheer noisy assault. Somebody’s been reading about exoplanets, as the drone/harsh noise pairing “Redshifted” and “Blueshifted” (look it up, it’s super cool) reset the aural trebuchet for its next launch, the latter growing caustic on the way, ahead of “Distilled in Observance” renewing the punishment in earnest. And it is earnest. They mean every second of it as Fawn Limbs and Nadja grind souls to powder with all-or-nothing fury, dropping overwhelming drive to round out “Distilled in Observance” before the 11-minute “Metastable Ion Decay” bursts out from the chest of its intro drone to devour everybody on the ship except Sigourney Weaver. I’m not lying to you — this is ferocious. You might think you’re up for it. One sure way to find out, but you should know you’re being tested.
Do they pilot, a-pilot, do they the dune? Probably. Regardless, German heavy rockers Dune Pilot offer their third full-length and first for Argonauta Records in the 11-song Magnetic, taking cues from modern fuzz in the vein of Truckfighters for “Visions” after the opening title-track sets the mood and establishes the mostly-dry sound of the vocals as they cut through the guitar and bass tones. A push of voice becomes a defining feature of Magnetic, which isn’t such a departure from 2018’s Lucy, though the rush of “Next to the Liquor Store” and the breadth in the fuzz of “Highest Bid” and the largesse of the nod in “Let You Down” assure that Dune Pilot don’t come close to wearing down their welcome in the 46 minutes, cuts like the bluesy “So Mad” and the big-chorus ideology of “Heap of Shards” coexisting drawn together by the vitality of the performances behind them as well as the surety of their craft. It is heavy rock that feels specifically geared toward the lovers thereof.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 7th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You can hear in the first single from David Eugene Edwards‘ debut studio solo full-length, Hyacinth, where the comparisons to the self-titled debut from Wovenhand (discussed here) and 16 Horsepower‘s Secret South are coming from. “Lionisis” (audio/video streaming below) has a brooding and organic groove not undercut by the various electronic whip cracks and speedy tick-ticks that accompany and mark out the rhythm, and of course it’s Edwards‘ voice and singular delivery tying those two sides together.
I’ll make no predictions about Hyacinth‘s sonic persona, though some clues might be found in the late-2022 live outing, A Riverwood Arts Session (also streaming below), on which the Colorado-based neofolk pioneer digs into songs from across his many-storied discography. Wherever it may go in arrangement or melody, it will mark the beginning of a new trajectory for Edwards, who’s explored various interpretations of aural heaviness in Wovenhand across the last 15 years or so, building on the more folkish beginnings of the band’s earlier work, as well as what Edwards conjured in songwriting and aesthetic with 16 Horsepower.
I’ve got high hopes that I’m actively working to temper. Really, I’d just like a chance to hear it. The PR wire has info, the preorder link, European tour dates, and so on:
David Eugene Edwards announces solo debut, shares video for lead single “Lionisis”
Wovenhand & 16 Horsepower cult icon’s first solo album, produced by Ben Chisholm
David Eugene Edwards announces his first ever solo album under his own name today, sharing the lead single and video from Hyacinth. Watch/share “Lionisis” video (directed by Loic Zimmerman).
David Eugene Edwards has always been larger than life. His atemporal style and powerfully iconoclast presence make him seem a man somehow beyond us.
His music with innovative heavy droning folk band Wovenhand, and before that the haunting revivification of high lonesome sound antique Americana of 16 Horsepower breathed a near apocalyptic sense of urgency and poignance into musical archetypes long abandoned in the latter-20th Century. Anyone who has seen him perform live will attest to his captivating intensity as he sings and coaxes sweeping, dark fury and beauty from his instrument.
Now, on his first-ever solo album under his own name, Edwards delivers a sound uniquely his own, with a vulnerability and introspection unheard from him before. Stripping back the heavy rock of his recent work with Wovenhand, Hyacinth puts the man’s voice, and sparing instrumentation into the main focus. There’s a somber beauty and world-weary tone throughout these songs. The album could been considered a slight return to the more melodic sounds of 16 Horsepower’s Secret South (2000) and the first, self-titled Wovenhand album (2002). But there’s more going on here: a rhythmic, pulsating undercurrent reminiscent of the tape loops and rudimentary rhythms of 80s Industrial post-punk as well as 808 Drill Style beats. The overall effect is often as if we’re hearing the clock ticking away our own mortality.
“Hyacinth was a sort of vision,“ Edwards says. “A dream. I sought out of my old wooden banjo and nylon string guitar a hidden path. Secrets they had kept from me within themselves all these years, and created a new Mythos to myself of philosophical and spiritual ideas or concepts.” From the outset of the pandemic, Edwards spent considerable time in solitary isolation, sick and impacted very hard in every way. Once he’d harnessed the music within, he enlisted multi-instrumentalist and producer Ben Chisholm (The Armed, Chelsea Wolfe, Converge, Genghis Tron) to help him realize the album’s recording and mix.
“Overall, I guess the album is a weaving of narratives ancient and modern, of humankind’s search for understanding of this world we find ourselves in and of each other. In all its simplicity and complexity,” Edwards says. “Hyacinth is a reference to the Greek myth of Apollo. And, the word meaning a precious stone and blue larkspur flower of purple and pall.”
In addition to his work with Wovenhand from 2001 to present, and Sixteen Horsepower between 1992 to 2005, Edwards has collaborated with such artists as Crime & the City Solution, Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten), and Carpenter Brut. He has also contributed to the soundtracks of films such as Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, The Brass Teapot, and Titane.
Hyacinth will be available worldwide on LP, CD and download via Sargent House on September 29th, 2023. Pre-orders / pre-saves are available HERE: https://found.ee/DEE-Hyacinth
Album: Hyacinth Label: Sargent House Release Date: September 29th, 2023
Tracklisting: 01. Seraph 02. Howling Flower 03. Celeste 04. Through The Lattice 05. Apparition 06. Bright Boy 07. Hyacinth 08. Lionisis 09. Weavers Beam 10. Hall of Mirrors 11. The Cuckoo
DAVID EUGENE EDWARDS EUROPEAN TOUR 2023 Sept 24 Amplifest – Porto PT Sept 28 Le 106 Club – Rouen FR Sept 29 Auditorium du Conservatoire de Lille – Lille FR Sept 30 De Roma – Antwerp BE Oct 01 Place La Laiterie – Strasbourg FR Oct 02 L’Usine – Geneva CH Oct 04 BIKO – Milano IT Oct 05 Casa del Popolo Il Progresso – Florence IT Oct 06 Locomotiv – Bologna IT Oct 09 De Spot – Middelburg NL Oct 10 Tolhuistuin – Amsterdam NL Oct 12 Train – Århus DK Oct 13 Amager Bio – Copenhagen DK Oct 14 Mejeriet – Lund SE Oct 15 Nefertiti – Gothenburg SE Oct 17 Kulturkirken Jakob – Oslo NO Oct 18 Kulturhuset – Bergen NO Oct 19 Folken – Stavanger NO Oct 20 Kick Scene – Kristiansand NO Oct 23 OSLO – London UK
Posted in Reviews on January 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
If you, like me, drink coffee, then I hope that you, like me, have it ready to go. We enter day two of the Jan. 2022 Quarterly Review today in a continued effort to at least not start the year at an immediate deficit when it comes to keeping up with stuff. Will it work? I don’t know, to be honest. It seems like I could do one of these for a week every month and that might be enough? Probably not, honestly. The relative democratization of media and method has its ups and downs — social media is a cesspool, privacy is a relic of an erased age, and don’t get me started on self-as-brand fiefdoms (including my own) that permeate the digital sphere in sad, cloying cries for validation — but I’m sure glad recording equipment is cheap and easier to use than it once was. Creativity abounds. Which is good.
Lots to do today and it’s early so I might even have time to get some of it done before my morning goes completely off the rails. Only one way to find out, hmm?
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Emma Ruth Rundle, Engine of Hell
It’s not inconceivable that Emma Ruth Rundle captured a few new ears via her previous LP and EP collaborations with New Orleans art-sludgers Thou, and she answers the tonal wash of those offerings with bedroom folk, can-hear-fingers-moving-on-strings intimacy, some subtle layering of vocals and post-grunge hard-strumming of acoustic guitar, but ultimately a minimal-feeling procession through Engine of Hell, an eight-track collection that, at times, feels like it’s barely there, and in other stretches seems overwhelming in its emotional heft. Rundle‘s songwriting is a long-since-proven commodity among her fans, and the piano-led “In My Afterlife” closes out the record as if to obliterate any lingering doubt of her sincerity. Actually, Engine of Hell makes its challenge in the opposite: it comes across as so genuine that listening to it, the listener almost feels like they’re ogling Rundle‘s trauma, and whatever it’s-sad-so-it-must-be-meaningful cynicism one might want to saddle on Engine of Hell is quickly enough dispatched. Rundle was rude to me once at Roadburn, so screw her, but I won’t take away from the accomplishment here. Not everybody’s brave enough to make a record like this.
Released in November, Lost Horse Returns of its Own Accord isn’t even the latest full-length anymore from the creative ecosystem that is T.G. Olson, but it’s noteworthy just the same for its clarity of songwriting — “Like You Never Left” makes an early standout for its purposeful-feeling hook and the repeated verse of “Flowers of the End in Bloom” does likewise — and a breadth of production that captures the happening-now sense of trad-twang-folk performance one has come to expect and leaves room for layered in harmonica or backing vocals where they might apply. A completely solo endeavor, the 10-track outing finds the Across Tundras founder taking a relatively straightforward approach as opposed to some of his more experimentalist offerings, which makes touches like the layering in closer “Same Ol’ Blue” and the mourning of the redwoods in the prior “The Way it Used to Be” feel all the more vital to the proceedings. More contemplative than rambling, the way “Li’l Sandy” sets the record in motion is laden with melancholy and nostalgia, but somehow unforgiving of self as well, recognizing the rose tint through which one might see the past, unafraid to call it out. If you’ve never heard a T.G. Olson record before, this would be a good place to start.
Formerly known as Haast’s Eagled, Welsh four-piece Haast make a strikingly progressive turn with Made of Light, what’s ostensibly a kind of second debut. And while they’ve carried over the chemistry and some of the tonal weight of their work under the prior moniker, the mission across the seven-track offering is more than divergent enough to justify that new beginning. Cuts like “A Myth to End All Myths” and the from-the-bottom-up-building “The Agulhas Current” might remind some of Forming the Void‘s take on prog-heavy or heavy-prog, but Haast willfully change up their songwriting and the execution of the album, bringing in vocalist Leanne Brookes on the title-track and Jams Thomas on nine-minute closer “Diweddglo,” which crushes as much as it soars. The central question that Made of Light needs to answer is whether Haast are better off having made the change. Hearing them rework the verse melody of Alice in Chains‘ “We Die Young” on “Psychophant,” the answer is yes. They’ve allowed themselves more reach and room to grow and gained far more than whatever they’ve lost.
Have riffs, will groove. So it goes with the debut EP from Stockholm-based unit Dark Ocean Circle, who present four formative but cohesive tracks on Bottom of the Ocean, following the guitar in more of a Sabbathian tradition then one might expect from the current stoner-is-as-stoner-does hesher scene. To wit, the title-track’s starts-stops, bluesy soloing and percussive edge tap a distinctly ’70s vibe, if somewhat updated in the still-raw production value after the straight-ahead fuzz of “Battlesnake” hints toward lumber to come in its thickened tone. “Setting Sun” feels more spacious by the time it’s done, but makes solid use of the just over three minutes to get to that point — a short, but satisfying journey — and the closing “Oceans of Blood” speaks to a NWOBHM influence while pairing that with the underlying boogie-blues that seemed to surface in “Bottom of the Ocean” as well. A pandemic-born project, their sound is nascent here but for sure aware of its inspirations and what it wants to take from them. Sans nonsense heavy rock and roll is of perennial welcome.
Floridian three-piece El Castillo self-tag as “surf Western,” and yeah, that’s about right. Instrumental in its 19-minute entirety, Derecho is the first EP from the trio of guitarist Ben McLeod (also All Them Witches, Westing), bassist Jon Ward and drummer Michael Monahan, and with the participation of McLeod as a draw, the feeling of two sounds united by singularity of tone is palpable. Morricone-meets-slow-motion-Dick–Dale perhaps, though that doesn’t quite account for the subtle current of reggae in “Diddle Datil” or the somehow-fiesta-ready “Summer in Bavaria,” though “Double Tap” is just about ready for you to hang 10, even if closer “Hang 5” keeps to half that, likely in honor of its languid pace, which turns surf into psych as easily as “Wolf Moon” turns it toward the Spaghetti West. An unpretentious exploration, and more intricate than it lets on with “El Norte” bringing various sides together fluidly at the outset and the rest unfolding with similarly apparent ease.
Listening to “Hunted,” the 22:53 leadoff from Tekarra‘s two-song long-player, Kicking Horse, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic for standing in a small room with speaker cabinets stacked to the ceiling and having your bones vibrate from the level of volume assaulting you. I’ve never seen the Edmonton, Alberta, three-piece live, but their rumble and the tension in their pacing is so. fucking. doomed. You just want to throw your head back and shout. Not even words, just primal noises, since that seems to be what’s coming through on their end, so laced with feedback as it is. Coupled with the likewise grueling “Crusade / Kicking Horse” (23:11), there’s some guttural vocals, some samples, but the overarching intention is so clearly in the tune-low-play-slow ethic that that’s what comes across most of all, regardless of what else is happening. I’d be tempted to call it misanthropic if it didn’t have me so much pining for the live experience, and whatever you want to call it there’s no way these dudes give a crap anyway. They’re on another wavelength entirely, sounding dropped out of life and encrusted with cruelty. Fuck you and fuck yes.
It’s been the better part of a year since 1782 released From the Graveyard, and I could detail for you the mundane reason I didn’t review it before now, but there’s only so much room and I’d rather talk about the bass tone on “Bloodline” and the grimly fuzzed lumber of “Priestess of Death.” An uptick in production value from their 2019 self-titled debut (review here), the 43-minute/eight-song LP nonetheless maintains enough rawness to still be in the post-Electric Wizard vein of cultistry, but its blowout distortion is all the more satisfying for the fullness with which it’s presented. “Seven Priests” sounds like Cathedral played at half-speed (not a complaint) and with its stretch of church organ picking up after a drop to nothing but barely-there low end, “Black Void” lives up to its name while feeling experimental in structure. Familiar in scope, for sure, but a filthy and dark delight just the same. Give me the slow nod of “Inferno” anytime. Even months after the fact its righteousness holds true.
Alpha Waves is a sonic twist a few years in the making, as Fever Dog transcend the expectation of their prior classic desert boogie in favor of a glam-informed 10-track double-LP, impeccably arranged and unrepentantly pop-minded. A cut like the title-track or “Star Power” is still unafraid to veer into psychedelics, as Danny Graham and Joshua Adams, but the opener “Freewheelin'” and “Solid Ground” and the later “The Demon” are glam-shuffle ragers, high energy, thoughtfully executed, and clear in their purpose, with “King of the Street” tapping vibes from ELO and Bowie ahead of the shimmering funk-informed jam that is “Mystics of Zanadu” before it fades into a full-on synthesizer deep-dive. Does it come back? You know what, I’m not gonna tell you. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. Definitely you should find out for yourself. Sharp in its craft and wholly realized, Alpha Waves is brought to bear with an individualized vision, and the payoff is right there in its blend of poise and push.
Led by Chris Jude Watson, the dronadelic outfit Black Holes are Cannibals may just be one person, it may be 20, but it doesn’t matter when you’re dealing with a sense of space being manipulated and torn apart molecule by molecule, atom by atom. So it goes throughout the 19-minute “Surfacer,” the 19:07 title-track of the two-songer LP accompanied by “No Title” (20:01). At about eight minutes in, Watson‘s everything-is-throat-singing approach seems to find the event horizon and twists into an elongated freakout with swirls of echoing tones, what seem to be screams, crashing cymbals and a resonant chaotic feel taking hold and then building down instead of up, seeming to disappear into the comparatively minimal beginning of “No Title,” which holds its own payoff back for a broader but more linear progression, ending up in the same with-different-marketing-this-would-be-black-metal aural morass, willfully thrown into the chasm it has made. You ever have an out of body experience? Watson has. Even managed to get it on tape.
What is one supposed to say to paying tribute to Lemmy Kilmister and Cliff Burton? Careers have been made on far less original fare than the two homage tracks that comprise Sonic Wolves‘ It’s All a Game to Me EP, with “CCKL” setting the tempo for a Motörheaded sprint and “Thee Ace of Spades” digging into early-Metallica bombast in its first couple minutes, drifting out for a while after the halfway point, then thrashing its way back to the end. Obviously it’s not the same kind of stuff they were doing with their 2018 self-titled (review here), but neither is it worlds apart. The basic fact of the matter is bands pay tribute to Motörhead and Metallica, to Lemmy and Cliff Burton, all the time. They just don’t tell you they’re doing it. In that way, It’s All a Game to Me almost feels courteous as it elbows you in the gut.
Posted in Reviews on October 9th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Today is what would be the last day of the Fall 2020 Quarterly Review, except, you know, it’s not. Monday is. I know it’s been a messed up time for everybody and everything, but there’s a lot of music coming out, so if you’re craving some sense of normalcy — and hey, fair enough — it’s right there. Today’s an all-over-the-place day but there’s some killer stuff in here right from the start, so jump in and good luck.
And don’t forget — back on Monday with the last 10 records. Thanks for reading.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Mrs. Piss, Self-Surgery
If “Nobody Wants to Party with Us” as the alternately ambient/industrial-punk fuckall of that song posits, most likely that’s because they’re way too intimidated to even drop a text to invite Mrs. Piss over. The duo comprised of vocalist/guitarist Chelsea Wolfe and guitarist/bassist/drummer/programmer Jess Gowrie issue Self-Surgery as an act of sheer confrontation. The screams of “You Took Everything.” The chugging self-loathing largesse of “Knelt.” The fuzzed mania of ‘M.B.O.T.W.O.,” which, yes, stands for “Mega Babes of the Wild Order.” The unmitigated punk of “Downer Surrounded by Uppers” and the twisted careen-and-crash of the title-track. The declaration of purpose in the lines, “In the shit/I’m sacrosanct/I’m Mrs. Piss” in the eponymous closer. Rage against self, rage against other, rage and righteousness. Among the great many injustices this year has wrought, that Wolfe and Gowrie aren’t touring this material, playing 20-something-minute sets and destroying every stage they hit has to be right up there. It’s like rock and roll to disintegrate every tired dude cliché the genre has. Yes. Fuck. Do it.
As progressive/technical death metal enjoys a stylistic renaissance, New Zealand’s Ulcerate put out their sixth full-length, Stare into Death and Be Still and seem right in line with the moment despite having been around for nearly 20 years. So be it. What distinguishes Stare into Death and Be Still amid the speed-demon wizardry of a swath of other death metallers is the sense of atmosphere across the release and the fact that, while every note, every guitar squibbly, every sharpened turn the 58-minute album’s eight tracks make is important and serves a purpose, the band don’t simply rely on dry delivery to make an impression. To hear the cavernous echoes of the title-track or “Inversion” later on, Ulcerate seem willing to let some of the clarity go in favor of establishing a mood beyond extremity. In the penultimate “Drawn into the Next Void,” their doing so results in a triumphant build and consuming fade in a way that much of their genre simply couldn’t accomplish. There’s still plenty of blast to be found, but also a depth that would seem to evoke the central intention of the album. Don’t stare too long.
Nine songs running an utterly digestible 38 minutes of fuzz-riffed groove with samples, smooth tempos and an unabashed love for ’90s-style stoner rock, Shroom Eater‘s debut album, Ad.Inventum feels ripe for pickup by this or that heavy rock label for a physical release. LP, CD and tape. I know it’s tough economic times, but none of this vinyl-only stuff. The Indonesian five-piece not only have their riffs and tones and methods so well in place — that is, they’re schooled in the style they’re creating; the genre-converted preaching to the genre-converted, and nothing wrong with that — but there are flashes of burgeoning cultural point of view in the lead guitar of “God Isn’t One Eyed” or the lyrics of “Arogant” (sic) and the right-on riffed “Traffic Hunter” that fit well right alongside the skateboarding ode “Ride” or flourish of psychedelia in the rolling “Perspective” earlier on. Closing with “Dragon and Tiger” and “Friend in the High Places,” Ad.Inventum feels like the work of a band actively engaged in finding their sound and developing their take on fuzz, and the potential they show alongside their already memorable songwriting is significant.
I’m not usually one to think bands should be aggrandizing their initial releases. It can be a disservice to call a demo a “debut EP” or album if it’s not, since you only get one shot at having an actual first record and sometimes a demo doesn’t represent a band’s sound as much as the actual, subsequent album does, leading to later regret. In the case of Cork, Ireland’s Astralist, it’s the opposite. 2020 (Demo) is no toss-off, recorded-in-the-rehearsal-space-to-put-something-on-Bandcamp outing. Or if it is, it doesn’t sound like it. Comprised of three massive slabs of atmospheric and sometimes-extreme doom, plus an intro, in scope and production value both, the 36-minute release carries the feel and the weight of a full-length album, earning its themes of cosmic destruction and shifting back and forth between melodic progressivism and death-doom or blackened onslaught. In “The Outlier,” “Entheogen” and “Zuhal, Rise” they establish a breadth and an immediate control thereof, and their will to cross genre lines gives their work a fervently individualized feel. Album or demo doesn’t ultimately matter, but what they say about Astralist‘s intentions does.
Lost in the narrative of initial singles released ahead of its actual arrival is the psychedelic reach Dortmund trio Daily Thompson bring to their fourth album, Oumuamua. Yes, “She’s So Cold” turns in its second half to a more straightforward heavy-blues-fuzz push, but the mellow unfurling that takes place at the outset continues to inform the proceedings from there, and even through “Sad Frank” (video posted here) and “On My Mind” (video posted here), and album-centerpiece “Slow Me Down,” the vibe remains affect by it. Side B has its own stretch in the 12-minute “Cosmic Cigar (Oumuamua),” and sandwiched between the three-minute stomper “Half Thompson” and the acoustic, harmonized grunge-blues closer “River of a Ghost,” it seems that what Daily Thompson held back about the LP is no less powerful than what they revealed. It’s still a party, it’s just a party where every room has something different happening.
Following up 2018’s Touch Taste Destroy (review here), Ontario’s The White Swan present their fourth EP in Nocturnal Transmission. That’s four EPs, in a row, from 2016-2020. If the trio — which, yes, includes Kittie‘s Mercedes Lander on vocals, drums, guitar and keys — were waiting to figure out their sound before putting out a first full-length, they were there two years ago, if not before. One is left to assume that the focus on short releases is — at least for now — an aesthetic choice. Like its predecessor, Nocturnal Transmission offers three circa-five-minute big-riffers topped with Lander‘s floating melodic vocals. The highlight here is “Purple,” and unlike any of the other The White Swan EPs, this one includes a fourth track in a cover of Tracy Bonham‘s “Tell it to the Sky,” given likewise heft and largesse. I don’t know what’s stopping this band from putting out an album, but I’ll take another EP in the meantime, sure.
A quarantine project of Dmitri Mavra from Skunk and Slow Phase, Dungeon Weed is dug-in stoner idolatry, pure and simple. Mavra, joined by drummer Chris McGrew and backing vocalist Thia Moonbrook, metes out riff after feedback-soaked, march-ready, nod-ready, dirt-toned riff, and it doesn’t matter if it’s the doomier tolling bell of “Sorcerer with the Skull Face” or the tongue-in-cheek hook of “Beholder Gonna Fuck You Up” or the brash sludge that ensues across the aptly-named “Lumbering Hell,” all layered solos and whatnot, the important thing is that by the time “Mind Palace” comes around, you’re either out or you’re in, and once you make that choice there’s no going back on it. Opener “Orcus Immortalis/Vox Mysterium” tells the tale (or part of it, as regards the overarching narrative), and if ever there was a band that could and would make a song called “Black Pudding” sound heavy, well, there’s Dungeon Weed for you. Dungeon Weed, man. Don’t overthink it.
The challenge of rendering songcraft in the nude can be a daunting one for someone in a heavy band doing a solo/acoustic release, but it’s a challenge Thomas V. Jäger of Monolord meets with ease on the home-recorded A Solitary Plan, his solo debut. Those familiar with his work in Monolord will recognize some of the effects used on his vocals, but in the much, much quieter context of the seven-song/29-minute solo release — Jäger plays everything except the Mellotron on the leadoff title-track — they lend not only a spaciousness but a feeling of acid folk serenity to “Creature of the Deep” and “It’s Alright,” which follows. Mixed/mastered by Kalle Lilja of Långfinger, A Solitary Plan is ultimately an exploration on Jäger‘s part of working in this form, but it succeeds in both its most minimal stretches and in the electric-inclusive “The Drone” and “Goodbye” ahead of the buzzing synth-laced closer “The Bitter End.” It would be a surprise if this is the only solo release Jäger ever does, since so much of what takes place throughout feels like a foundation for future work.
Change has been the modus operandi of Cavern for a while now. They still show some semblance of their post-hardcore roots on their new full-length, Powdered, but having brought in bassist/vocalist Rose Heater in 2018 and sometime between then and now let out of Baltimore for Morgantown, West Virginia, their sonic allegiance to a heavier-ended post-rock comes through more than ever before. Guitarist/synthesist Zach Harkins winds lead lines around Heater‘s bass on “Grey,” and Stephen Schrock‘s drums emphasize tension to coincide, but the fluidity across the 24-minute LP is of a kind that’s genuinely new to the band, and the soul in Heater‘s vocals carries the material to someplace else entirely. A song like “Dove” presents a tonal fullness that the title-track seems just to hint at, but the emphasis here is on dynamic, not on doing one thing only or locking their approach into a single mindset. As Heater‘s debut with them, Powdered finds them refreshed and renewed of purpose.
Droneroom is the solo vehicle of guitarist Blake Edward Conley and with …The Other Doesn’t, experiments of varying length and degree of severity are brought to bear. The abiding feel is spacious, lonely and cinematic as one might expect for such guitar-based soundscaping, but “Casual-Lethal Narcissism” and “The Last Time Someone Speaks Your Name” do have some measure of peace to go with their foreboding and troubling atmospherics. An obvious focal point is the 15-minute dronefest “This Circle of Ribs,” which feels more forward and striking than someone of Droneroom‘s surrounding material, but it’s all on a relative scale, and across the board Conley remains a safe social distance away from structural traditionalist. Recorded during Summer 2020, it is an album that conveys the anxiety and paranoia of this year, and while that can be a daunting thing to face in such a way or to let oneself really engage with as a listener — shit, it’s hard enough just living through — one of the functions of good art is to challenge perceptions of what it can be. Worth keeping in mind for “Home Can Be a Frightening Place.”
